Fic: The Rules of Play (HP/AtLA crossover) 1/1
Fandoms: Harry Potter and Avatar: The Last Airbender
Pairings: None.
Rating: PG.
Word Count: About 1600.
Summary: The Quidditch final is interrupted by an unexpected guest.
Author's notes: Written for otempora42 as part of my drabble call! Takes place at some undetermined time in A:TLA Book 1 and HP book 2. I.e. Harry and Aang are about the same age. Also, this is the crackiest crack in the entire crackiverse.
“And that’s another ten points to Slytherin,” Lee Jordan glumly announced into the magical megaphone. “They now lead Gryffindor 90 to 0, those bastards...”
“Jordan!” Professor McGonagall cautioned him.
“Just kidding, Professor!” Lee said hastily. “Green’s a great color, really, especially if you like gangrene...”
Harry started to tune out the commentary, his eyes darting all over the field in his desperate search for the Golden Snitch. He needed to catch it quickly if Gryffindor was to have any hope of winning the Quidditch Cup.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spied a glint of gold, and with that his Nimbus 2000 rocketed across the field. Malfoy wasn’t far behind him, his hands grabbing at the back of Harry’s robes, trying to launch himself ahead in order to grab the Snitch first. The two of them were neck and neck, and Harry could hear Malfoy’s cackle in his ear, a couple of inaudible insults, as he tried to elbow his arm out of his way.
But just as Harry’s fingers were about to grab the small gold ball, he heard something else on the wind, a kind of childish giggling. He looked over his shoulder in alarm for a split second, saw a rush of red and dull yellow out of the corner of his eye, and when he looked back in front of him the Snitch had completely disappeared, the laughter still ringing in his ears.
“Bloody hell!” Malfoy yelled, screeching his broom to a halt. “Potter! What have you done? If you’re using magic to tamper with our matches again...”
“It wasn’t me!” Harry said defensively, looking around for the Snitch once more. For a moment, he wondered if maybe Peeves had gotten out of the castle, or if there was a loose Cornish pixie trying to play tricks. But then something swooped low over his head, ruffling his dark hair, and as Harry looked up, he saw an incredible sight: a young boy, not much younger than he was, with a bright blue arrow painted on his bald head, who was soaring around the Quidditch pitch on some sort of red glider.
“Come on, guys!” the boy shouted, looking back at them, waving the Snitch around as he continued to fly back and forth. “Don’t you wanna play anymore?” He grinned widely at them, laughing as he turned a loop-de-loop on his strange glider contraption.
The entire Hogwarts student body simply gaped at the stranger. Dumbledore got to his feet, adjusting his half-moon glasses on his crooked nose in order to get a better look at the intruder. The other members of the staff had their wands pointed at the boy, looking worried.
“You there!” he called to the young boy who was now the only figure flying, as all the other players had landed, frightened of the intruder. “What is the meaning of this?”
The boy landed on the ground, his red shoulder-length cloak billowing gently, looking sad and confused. “I just wanted to have fun,” he shouted at Dumbledore in order to be heard over the murmuring crowd. “I’m sorry, isn’t this how you’re supposed to play?”
Dumbledore’s blue eyes soften as they looked at the wide-eyed stranger. “It’s all right,” he murmured to the other professors. “He’s not a threat.” The teachers sheathed their wands, Snape looking somewhat reluctant to do so.
“Who are you?” Harry asked the boy, his eyes glued to the strange arrow tattoo on his forehead.
“I’m...” But the boy whirled around before he could answer, eyeing the loose Bludger that was about to come barreling down at him. The other players ducked out of the way, but the boy simply raised his staff, swinging it in a wide arc above his head without a word. As he swung, a great gust of wind came from nowhere, sending the Bludger soaring away. It embedded itself into the stands with a sickening crunch and a bunch of surprised shouts from the spectators.
“How did you do that?” Harry asked him, wide-eyed.
“I’m an Airbender!” the boy explained proudly. “My name’s Aang. What’s yours?”
“Um... Harry,” Harry said, still looking nonplussed at what he’d just witnessed. “Sorry, but... what kind of magic was that?”
“Airbending isn’t magic,” the boy called Aang said. “I manipulate the air currents around me so I can fly!” He caught Harry staring at his forehead, the bright blue arrow tattooed onto it, and he pointed a finger at the marking. “It means I’m a master Airbender,” he explained patiently. “What does your lightning bolt mean?”
Harry instantly felt ashamed, tearing his eyes away from Aang’s arrow. He never liked people to stare at his scar, and he hated the thought that he made Aang feel self-conscious about his own appearance. “It means I survived a Dark wizard’s attack when I was a baby,” he mumbled, flattening his bangs down over his scar and looking away. “I sorta... saved the world from him back then. Although I don’t think he’s all that dead, since I had to fight him last year.”
Aang looked thoughtful. “I know what that’s like,” he told Harry quietly. “I’m supposed to save the world someday too. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but... I’m the Avatar.”
Harry looked blank. “Should that mean something to me?”
Aang gaped at him. “Seriously?” he shouted. “Okay, your obsession with magic is one thing, but to not know what the Avatar is...! Have you been frozen in ice for the past century too?”
Harry shook his head, having lost track of this conversation long ago.
“Anyway,” Aang sighed, “I’m traveling to the North Pole to master Waterbending. I have to master all four forms of bending by the end of the summer, so I’m on a pretty tight schedule. So! What kind of benders are you guys?”
“Benders?!” Malfoy yelped from somewhere behind Harry, making him jump. “We’re not benders, you stupid arrowheaded kid! I like a GIRL. See?” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Pansy Parkinson.
“Um...” Aang said hesitantly. “So... Earthbenders?” Malfoy gave an indignant shout before forcibly putting his arm around Pansy’s shoulders. Aang shook his head before refocusing on Harry, taking a step back as he took in the bright red color of his Quidditch robes. “So... uh, Harry. What nation is your family from? The, uh, Fire Nation?”
“I, er, grew up in Surrey?” Harry said, completely losing track of what Aang was talking about, once again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, ‘Fire Nation’.”
“Man, did Sokka ever get us lost this time,” Aang mumbled under his breath.
Harry eyed Aang’s glider, not looking like much more than a tall, slender stick of wood. “How do you fly with that thing?” he asked curiously.
“It’s easy with Airbending,” Aang said dismissively, extending the wings with a snap. “I dunno how you manage with that broom thing, though.” Harry gripped his Nimbus 2000 closer, defensively.
Dumbledore came onto the pitch, his sky blue robes billowing behind him, flanked by Snape and McGonagall. “Hello there, my boy,” he said, squinting down at Aang through his glasses. “Can we help you with something?”
Aang looked up at Dumbledore with surprise. “Roku?” he asked wonderingly.
“I’m... sorry?” Even Dumbledore looked confused, which was something Harry had never seen before.
“He’s been talking nonsense this whole time,” Harry sighed, shaking his head.
“I don’t want to make trouble,” Aang said, extending his hand, which still clenched the Golden Snitch. “Here’s your ball back.” He handed it to Harry.
“GRYFFINDOR WINS!!!” Lee Jordan proclaimed from his place in the stands. “Harry Potter has caught the Golden Snitch!!!!!” The red-clad supporters in the crowd screamed their approval.
“Huh?” Harry and Aang said simultaneously, looking down at the little winged ball in Harry’s fist.
“What?!?” Malfoy roared, rounding on Aang. “Why, you little--!”
Malfoy whipped out his wand, making Aang jump back with a shout of surprise. He looked back and forth between Malfoy and the wand’s tip, as though wondering how on earth Malfoy planned to hurt him with a little stick, but then Harry could see him decide not to stick around to find out.
“Sorry!” Aang yelled as he hopped onto his glider, flying away as fast as he could, dodging assorted curses the Slytherin supporters hurled in his direction.
“Nutter,” Harry mumbled right as his teammates descended on him, chanting his name and raising him onto their shoulders in triumph. “Yeah, Gryffindor!”
Meanwhile, the boy with the arrow on his head flew back to his friends, summoning his flying bison with an anxious “Yip yip!”
“Aang, what’s going on?” Katara asked him as he landed on Appa’s head, catching his glider as he seized the reins. “Sokka swears he saw a unicorn in that forest. And Momo caught a spider the size of my head!”
Momo screeched happily as he munched on a positively enormous dead spider.
“I don’t know,” Aang said as he steered Appa over the mountains, “but we’re better off taking our chances against Zuko than sticking around here much longer. These people have powers I’ve never even seen before!”
“What, are they royalty or something?” Sokka asked, looking curiously at the castle that was now shrinking into the distance.
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter,” Aang said, wiping the sweat from his bald brow. “We need to get to the North Pole. Ooh! But first, we need to visit the hopping llamas! Those are way more fun to ride than the Unagi, let me tell you.”
Sokka groaned and Katara giggled as their enormous bison disappeared into the clouds above Hogwarts.
Pairings: None.
Rating: PG.
Word Count: About 1600.
Summary: The Quidditch final is interrupted by an unexpected guest.
Author's notes: Written for otempora42 as part of my drabble call! Takes place at some undetermined time in A:TLA Book 1 and HP book 2. I.e. Harry and Aang are about the same age. Also, this is the crackiest crack in the entire crackiverse.
“And that’s another ten points to Slytherin,” Lee Jordan glumly announced into the magical megaphone. “They now lead Gryffindor 90 to 0, those bastards...”
“Jordan!” Professor McGonagall cautioned him.
“Just kidding, Professor!” Lee said hastily. “Green’s a great color, really, especially if you like gangrene...”
Harry started to tune out the commentary, his eyes darting all over the field in his desperate search for the Golden Snitch. He needed to catch it quickly if Gryffindor was to have any hope of winning the Quidditch Cup.
Out of the corner of his eye, he spied a glint of gold, and with that his Nimbus 2000 rocketed across the field. Malfoy wasn’t far behind him, his hands grabbing at the back of Harry’s robes, trying to launch himself ahead in order to grab the Snitch first. The two of them were neck and neck, and Harry could hear Malfoy’s cackle in his ear, a couple of inaudible insults, as he tried to elbow his arm out of his way.
But just as Harry’s fingers were about to grab the small gold ball, he heard something else on the wind, a kind of childish giggling. He looked over his shoulder in alarm for a split second, saw a rush of red and dull yellow out of the corner of his eye, and when he looked back in front of him the Snitch had completely disappeared, the laughter still ringing in his ears.
“Bloody hell!” Malfoy yelled, screeching his broom to a halt. “Potter! What have you done? If you’re using magic to tamper with our matches again...”
“It wasn’t me!” Harry said defensively, looking around for the Snitch once more. For a moment, he wondered if maybe Peeves had gotten out of the castle, or if there was a loose Cornish pixie trying to play tricks. But then something swooped low over his head, ruffling his dark hair, and as Harry looked up, he saw an incredible sight: a young boy, not much younger than he was, with a bright blue arrow painted on his bald head, who was soaring around the Quidditch pitch on some sort of red glider.
“Come on, guys!” the boy shouted, looking back at them, waving the Snitch around as he continued to fly back and forth. “Don’t you wanna play anymore?” He grinned widely at them, laughing as he turned a loop-de-loop on his strange glider contraption.
The entire Hogwarts student body simply gaped at the stranger. Dumbledore got to his feet, adjusting his half-moon glasses on his crooked nose in order to get a better look at the intruder. The other members of the staff had their wands pointed at the boy, looking worried.
“You there!” he called to the young boy who was now the only figure flying, as all the other players had landed, frightened of the intruder. “What is the meaning of this?”
The boy landed on the ground, his red shoulder-length cloak billowing gently, looking sad and confused. “I just wanted to have fun,” he shouted at Dumbledore in order to be heard over the murmuring crowd. “I’m sorry, isn’t this how you’re supposed to play?”
Dumbledore’s blue eyes soften as they looked at the wide-eyed stranger. “It’s all right,” he murmured to the other professors. “He’s not a threat.” The teachers sheathed their wands, Snape looking somewhat reluctant to do so.
“Who are you?” Harry asked the boy, his eyes glued to the strange arrow tattoo on his forehead.
“I’m...” But the boy whirled around before he could answer, eyeing the loose Bludger that was about to come barreling down at him. The other players ducked out of the way, but the boy simply raised his staff, swinging it in a wide arc above his head without a word. As he swung, a great gust of wind came from nowhere, sending the Bludger soaring away. It embedded itself into the stands with a sickening crunch and a bunch of surprised shouts from the spectators.
“How did you do that?” Harry asked him, wide-eyed.
“I’m an Airbender!” the boy explained proudly. “My name’s Aang. What’s yours?”
“Um... Harry,” Harry said, still looking nonplussed at what he’d just witnessed. “Sorry, but... what kind of magic was that?”
“Airbending isn’t magic,” the boy called Aang said. “I manipulate the air currents around me so I can fly!” He caught Harry staring at his forehead, the bright blue arrow tattooed onto it, and he pointed a finger at the marking. “It means I’m a master Airbender,” he explained patiently. “What does your lightning bolt mean?”
Harry instantly felt ashamed, tearing his eyes away from Aang’s arrow. He never liked people to stare at his scar, and he hated the thought that he made Aang feel self-conscious about his own appearance. “It means I survived a Dark wizard’s attack when I was a baby,” he mumbled, flattening his bangs down over his scar and looking away. “I sorta... saved the world from him back then. Although I don’t think he’s all that dead, since I had to fight him last year.”
Aang looked thoughtful. “I know what that’s like,” he told Harry quietly. “I’m supposed to save the world someday too. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but... I’m the Avatar.”
Harry looked blank. “Should that mean something to me?”
Aang gaped at him. “Seriously?” he shouted. “Okay, your obsession with magic is one thing, but to not know what the Avatar is...! Have you been frozen in ice for the past century too?”
Harry shook his head, having lost track of this conversation long ago.
“Anyway,” Aang sighed, “I’m traveling to the North Pole to master Waterbending. I have to master all four forms of bending by the end of the summer, so I’m on a pretty tight schedule. So! What kind of benders are you guys?”
“Benders?!” Malfoy yelped from somewhere behind Harry, making him jump. “We’re not benders, you stupid arrowheaded kid! I like a GIRL. See?” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Pansy Parkinson.
“Um...” Aang said hesitantly. “So... Earthbenders?” Malfoy gave an indignant shout before forcibly putting his arm around Pansy’s shoulders. Aang shook his head before refocusing on Harry, taking a step back as he took in the bright red color of his Quidditch robes. “So... uh, Harry. What nation is your family from? The, uh, Fire Nation?”
“I, er, grew up in Surrey?” Harry said, completely losing track of what Aang was talking about, once again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, ‘Fire Nation’.”
“Man, did Sokka ever get us lost this time,” Aang mumbled under his breath.
Harry eyed Aang’s glider, not looking like much more than a tall, slender stick of wood. “How do you fly with that thing?” he asked curiously.
“It’s easy with Airbending,” Aang said dismissively, extending the wings with a snap. “I dunno how you manage with that broom thing, though.” Harry gripped his Nimbus 2000 closer, defensively.
Dumbledore came onto the pitch, his sky blue robes billowing behind him, flanked by Snape and McGonagall. “Hello there, my boy,” he said, squinting down at Aang through his glasses. “Can we help you with something?”
Aang looked up at Dumbledore with surprise. “Roku?” he asked wonderingly.
“I’m... sorry?” Even Dumbledore looked confused, which was something Harry had never seen before.
“He’s been talking nonsense this whole time,” Harry sighed, shaking his head.
“I don’t want to make trouble,” Aang said, extending his hand, which still clenched the Golden Snitch. “Here’s your ball back.” He handed it to Harry.
“GRYFFINDOR WINS!!!” Lee Jordan proclaimed from his place in the stands. “Harry Potter has caught the Golden Snitch!!!!!” The red-clad supporters in the crowd screamed their approval.
“Huh?” Harry and Aang said simultaneously, looking down at the little winged ball in Harry’s fist.
“What?!?” Malfoy roared, rounding on Aang. “Why, you little--!”
Malfoy whipped out his wand, making Aang jump back with a shout of surprise. He looked back and forth between Malfoy and the wand’s tip, as though wondering how on earth Malfoy planned to hurt him with a little stick, but then Harry could see him decide not to stick around to find out.
“Sorry!” Aang yelled as he hopped onto his glider, flying away as fast as he could, dodging assorted curses the Slytherin supporters hurled in his direction.
“Nutter,” Harry mumbled right as his teammates descended on him, chanting his name and raising him onto their shoulders in triumph. “Yeah, Gryffindor!”
Meanwhile, the boy with the arrow on his head flew back to his friends, summoning his flying bison with an anxious “Yip yip!”
“Aang, what’s going on?” Katara asked him as he landed on Appa’s head, catching his glider as he seized the reins. “Sokka swears he saw a unicorn in that forest. And Momo caught a spider the size of my head!”
Momo screeched happily as he munched on a positively enormous dead spider.
“I don’t know,” Aang said as he steered Appa over the mountains, “but we’re better off taking our chances against Zuko than sticking around here much longer. These people have powers I’ve never even seen before!”
“What, are they royalty or something?” Sokka asked, looking curiously at the castle that was now shrinking into the distance.
“I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter,” Aang said, wiping the sweat from his bald brow. “We need to get to the North Pole. Ooh! But first, we need to visit the hopping llamas! Those are way more fun to ride than the Unagi, let me tell you.”
Sokka groaned and Katara giggled as their enormous bison disappeared into the clouds above Hogwarts.