Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Nightmare Before Hogwarts
The Nightmare Before Hogwarts
By: USA Tiger
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J. K. Rowling. The Nightmare Before Christmas is the property of Touchstone/Disney and Tim Burton. Corpse Bride is also the property of Tim Burton and Warner Bros. Pictures. Beetlejuice is also property of Tim Burton.
Author note: Just to let y’all know, updates are gonna be a little more spread out but I’m still posting little chapters for this fic, just need to make time to work on my other fanfics and my original stuff.
This chapter has been betaed by Werejaguar of Halloween Town
Edit 5-10-18: This chapter betaed a second time by The Patient One.
Chapter 9
A short while later found James moved to the gothic lumpy looking settee with Harry, and he was entertaining his son with more feats of magic. Harry wasn’t the only one enthralled; Jack sat nearby also enchanted by the magic. He had seen magic before, of course, and had seen the witches cast spells; he even had his own brand of magic, nothing like James’s or the witches, but there was a reason he was the Pumpkin King. But he had never seen anything such as what James was showing.
The two females of their group watched on the other side of the room. Sally had been a bit of a shocker when Lily had fully taken her in, her hair a much darker red than Lily’s and her body all stitched together as it was, with her dress being in an identical state. Yet there was a level of deep kindness in the woman’s eyes that made Lily feel that Sally was someone she could easily get along with.
“Thank you,” Lily said, breaking the comfortable silence between them. “Jack said you were the one who suggested he find us.”
“I thought Harry deserved to have his parents,” Sally said with a smile. “But we would have kept him here regardless, after what he said about his aunt.”
“Did… Did Harry tell you much?” Lily asked, glancing over at the men where Harry laughed happily as James created a small light show for him. Jack was also taken in by the light show, his mind already at work thinking up ways they could use this sort of magic for next Halloween.
“No, not much, but enough,” Sally said, her smile fading. “But I suspected something was wrong at the start. He seemed afraid of her, and with how he looks and what he was wearing…”
“What do you mean?” Lily asked. “What was Harry wearing?”
“It’s in the other room, I’ll show you,” Sally motioned for Lily to follow her, and the curious un-dead witch let Sally lead her out of the room and upstairs to Jack’s room. Sally stood by a bookcase and pulled the stitching out from around her wrist, paying no mind to Lily’s gasp as her hand fell off then moved on its own, climbing up the side of the bookcase to the top. “I left it here so Harry wouldn’t accidently find it.”
“Doesn’t… doesn’t that hurt?” Lily asked, looking at Sally’s arm where she could see dead leaves sticking out of the stump.
“No, I don’t feel physical pain,” Sally assured her. The hand reached the top and tugged a clothing bundle to the edge of the bookcase, letting it fall to the floor then jumped down to Sally’s shoulder. “That is what Harry was wearing,” she nodded to the bundle.
Lily took a second to watch as Sally removed a needle hidden in her hair and reached into a patchwork pocket, threading the needle on a spool of thread inside then started stitching her hand back onto the end of her arm.
Lily shook herself then leaned down, picking up the bundle and shaking it out, revealing a large thread-worn shirt that was stained and washed-out looking. A pair of pants fell to the floor, they were also much too big.
“What in the… Harry was wearing these? They look like they could fit a baby elephant!” Lily said in outrage as she held the shirt up in front of her.
“He didn’t say much about them. When I asked, he only said that they used to belong to his cousin,” Sally said, clasping her hands in front of her after she finished sewing herself together.
Lily knew very little about her nephew, Petunia was very little forthcoming about her son other than gloating that she was the first one pregnant between them the last time she spoke with her sister, a time she never told James about. She knew his name was Dudley and that he was a few months older than Harry, but that was the extent of her knowledge.
“Dudley isn’t much older than Harry, how are these his clothing? Did Petunia let her son get this fat?” Lily shook her head and lowered the shirt. “Merlin… I don’t understand her at all.”
“Bad blood?” Sally guessed. Lily sighed and sat down burying her face into her hands.
“She was always jealous of me. Mum and Dad used to introduce me as their ‘pretty daughter’ but we got along mostly when we were children. When I was younger, I used to have bouts of accidental magic, not that I knew that was what it was at the time. I learned how to control it a bit, Tuney use to tell me off for that all the time. When I was nine, a boy from around our neighborhood recognized that I was a witch. We became friends but Severus and Tuney always hated each other,” she explained. “Mum and Dad were always excited that I was a witch and Petunia just drifted away from me while I was at Hogwarts, my school where I learned magic. In our later years, we never got along, she would call me a ‘freak’ where our parents couldn’t hear her.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still loved her, she’s my sister but,” Lily sighed as she looked at the shirt again with a shake of her head. “This is too much. How could she hurt my baby like this? Did she hate me that much to take it out on my son, her own family?”
“I don’t know,” Sally said biting her lip. Lily huffed then stood, grabbing the pants off the floor and taking it over to the fireplace. She tossed both articles of clothing into the hearth and then, with a whispered spell and a raised hand, she set them on fire.
“I don’t either, Merlin knows James isn’t going to stand for this and I don’t feel inclined to stop whatever revenge he’s going to cook up,” Lily said as she watched the clothes burn. “At least Harry is with us now, we’ll make sure our baby knows that he’s loved.” Sally smiled and followed Lily downstairs where they rescued James from a highly curious Jack.
***
“If Paddy and Moony were here, they would be flipping their lids,” James said as he peered out from behind the curtain that hid him and his family from the rest of the town hall. The room was filled to the brim with all sorts of creatures of the night. James saw vampires, a werewolf, several un-dead like Lily and himself but more terrifying looking, and a pair of witches floating above the crowd on brooms looking like something straight out of some muggle idea of a witch. There was even a moving, talking tree in the back of the room with five skeletons hanging from the branches with ropes around their necks!
“Mummy, who’s Paddy and Moony?” Harry asked, sitting in Lily’s lap as she perched on a stool while they waited for Jack to introduce them to the rest of Halloween Town. Her and James had hardly put Harry down, one of them always holding the child since they reunited. Harry hardly minded, soaking up the attention and love they gave him.
“They’re friends of your daddy’s,” Lily explained. “And mine too.”
“Think we would be able to somehow find Moony and get him here?” James asked as he turned to face Lily. “Bust Padfoot out?”
“I don’t know…” Lily said with a frown. She wasn’t thrilled with Sirius in Azkaban any more than James was and she wanted to yell at him to find out why he chased after Pettigrew instead of taking Harry.
“We’re almost ready,” Jack said as he joined them. Lily sighed and stood, Harry on her hip. He was so small and light that it was no trouble at all for her to carry him.
“Alright, show time I guess,” James said as he joined Lily. Jack slipped past the curtain, the Mayor turning the spotlight on him as soon as he appeared.
“Please, everyone, quiet down!” he called into the crowd. The sounds of everyone talking lessened as they focused on their Pumpkin King. “Tonight, I called you all here to introduce and welcome our new residents!” A roar filled the room as everyone applauded and shouted their excitement and approval. Jack held up his hands in a ‘quiet down’ gesture, waiting until it was quiet enough for him to speak again.
“As you all know, a young wizard found his way here to our world on Halloween night. I have already decided that the boy will live here with us and, after some thought, I went to retrieve his parents who had passed away from the Land of the Dead. Tonight, we welcome James and Lily Potter and their son Harry to our town!”
Jack grabbed the rope next to him and pulled open the curtain so everyone could see the Potters. James and Lily looked out at the sea of monsters that clapped, howled and shouted their welcomes, Harry waving happily to his new friends Ethan the corpse boy, the Withered Wing Demon, and the Mummy boy who all called and waved back. Above the roaring crowd Helgamine and Zeldaborne looked at each other then cackled in glee.
“We have the Harry Potter!” Helgamine said.
“The Boy-Who-Lived is our student to be!” Zeldaborne added with equal glee. While they had spent most of their long lives as the official witches of Halloween, the pair kept up to date on what was going on in the Wizarding Worlds and would even interact with the darker sects when need be, most people assuming they were Hags. So they heard about the downfall of the so-called Dark Lord Voldemort and his defeat at the hands of little Harry Potter. To learn the powerful little wizard that had appeared among their numbers was that same child had them nearly vibrating with excitement.
“Well, I think we’re an instant hit, Lils,” James said into Lily’s ear while raising a hand in greeting. Lily snorted softly in laughter, James always did love being the center of attention.
By: USA Tiger
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J. K. Rowling. The Nightmare Before Christmas is the property of Touchstone/Disney and Tim Burton. Corpse Bride is also the property of Tim Burton and Warner Bros. Pictures. Beetlejuice is also property of Tim Burton.
Author note: Just to let y’all know, updates are gonna be a little more spread out but I’m still posting little chapters for this fic, just need to make time to work on my other fanfics and my original stuff.
This chapter has been betaed by Werejaguar of Halloween Town
Edit 5-10-18: This chapter betaed a second time by The Patient One.
Chapter 9
A short while later found James moved to the gothic lumpy looking settee with Harry, and he was entertaining his son with more feats of magic. Harry wasn’t the only one enthralled; Jack sat nearby also enchanted by the magic. He had seen magic before, of course, and had seen the witches cast spells; he even had his own brand of magic, nothing like James’s or the witches, but there was a reason he was the Pumpkin King. But he had never seen anything such as what James was showing.
The two females of their group watched on the other side of the room. Sally had been a bit of a shocker when Lily had fully taken her in, her hair a much darker red than Lily’s and her body all stitched together as it was, with her dress being in an identical state. Yet there was a level of deep kindness in the woman’s eyes that made Lily feel that Sally was someone she could easily get along with.
“Thank you,” Lily said, breaking the comfortable silence between them. “Jack said you were the one who suggested he find us.”
“I thought Harry deserved to have his parents,” Sally said with a smile. “But we would have kept him here regardless, after what he said about his aunt.”
“Did… Did Harry tell you much?” Lily asked, glancing over at the men where Harry laughed happily as James created a small light show for him. Jack was also taken in by the light show, his mind already at work thinking up ways they could use this sort of magic for next Halloween.
“No, not much, but enough,” Sally said, her smile fading. “But I suspected something was wrong at the start. He seemed afraid of her, and with how he looks and what he was wearing…”
“What do you mean?” Lily asked. “What was Harry wearing?”
“It’s in the other room, I’ll show you,” Sally motioned for Lily to follow her, and the curious un-dead witch let Sally lead her out of the room and upstairs to Jack’s room. Sally stood by a bookcase and pulled the stitching out from around her wrist, paying no mind to Lily’s gasp as her hand fell off then moved on its own, climbing up the side of the bookcase to the top. “I left it here so Harry wouldn’t accidently find it.”
“Doesn’t… doesn’t that hurt?” Lily asked, looking at Sally’s arm where she could see dead leaves sticking out of the stump.
“No, I don’t feel physical pain,” Sally assured her. The hand reached the top and tugged a clothing bundle to the edge of the bookcase, letting it fall to the floor then jumped down to Sally’s shoulder. “That is what Harry was wearing,” she nodded to the bundle.
Lily took a second to watch as Sally removed a needle hidden in her hair and reached into a patchwork pocket, threading the needle on a spool of thread inside then started stitching her hand back onto the end of her arm.
Lily shook herself then leaned down, picking up the bundle and shaking it out, revealing a large thread-worn shirt that was stained and washed-out looking. A pair of pants fell to the floor, they were also much too big.
“What in the… Harry was wearing these? They look like they could fit a baby elephant!” Lily said in outrage as she held the shirt up in front of her.
“He didn’t say much about them. When I asked, he only said that they used to belong to his cousin,” Sally said, clasping her hands in front of her after she finished sewing herself together.
Lily knew very little about her nephew, Petunia was very little forthcoming about her son other than gloating that she was the first one pregnant between them the last time she spoke with her sister, a time she never told James about. She knew his name was Dudley and that he was a few months older than Harry, but that was the extent of her knowledge.
“Dudley isn’t much older than Harry, how are these his clothing? Did Petunia let her son get this fat?” Lily shook her head and lowered the shirt. “Merlin… I don’t understand her at all.”
“Bad blood?” Sally guessed. Lily sighed and sat down burying her face into her hands.
“She was always jealous of me. Mum and Dad used to introduce me as their ‘pretty daughter’ but we got along mostly when we were children. When I was younger, I used to have bouts of accidental magic, not that I knew that was what it was at the time. I learned how to control it a bit, Tuney use to tell me off for that all the time. When I was nine, a boy from around our neighborhood recognized that I was a witch. We became friends but Severus and Tuney always hated each other,” she explained. “Mum and Dad were always excited that I was a witch and Petunia just drifted away from me while I was at Hogwarts, my school where I learned magic. In our later years, we never got along, she would call me a ‘freak’ where our parents couldn’t hear her.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still loved her, she’s my sister but,” Lily sighed as she looked at the shirt again with a shake of her head. “This is too much. How could she hurt my baby like this? Did she hate me that much to take it out on my son, her own family?”
“I don’t know,” Sally said biting her lip. Lily huffed then stood, grabbing the pants off the floor and taking it over to the fireplace. She tossed both articles of clothing into the hearth and then, with a whispered spell and a raised hand, she set them on fire.
“I don’t either, Merlin knows James isn’t going to stand for this and I don’t feel inclined to stop whatever revenge he’s going to cook up,” Lily said as she watched the clothes burn. “At least Harry is with us now, we’ll make sure our baby knows that he’s loved.” Sally smiled and followed Lily downstairs where they rescued James from a highly curious Jack.
***
“If Paddy and Moony were here, they would be flipping their lids,” James said as he peered out from behind the curtain that hid him and his family from the rest of the town hall. The room was filled to the brim with all sorts of creatures of the night. James saw vampires, a werewolf, several un-dead like Lily and himself but more terrifying looking, and a pair of witches floating above the crowd on brooms looking like something straight out of some muggle idea of a witch. There was even a moving, talking tree in the back of the room with five skeletons hanging from the branches with ropes around their necks!
“Mummy, who’s Paddy and Moony?” Harry asked, sitting in Lily’s lap as she perched on a stool while they waited for Jack to introduce them to the rest of Halloween Town. Her and James had hardly put Harry down, one of them always holding the child since they reunited. Harry hardly minded, soaking up the attention and love they gave him.
“They’re friends of your daddy’s,” Lily explained. “And mine too.”
“Think we would be able to somehow find Moony and get him here?” James asked as he turned to face Lily. “Bust Padfoot out?”
“I don’t know…” Lily said with a frown. She wasn’t thrilled with Sirius in Azkaban any more than James was and she wanted to yell at him to find out why he chased after Pettigrew instead of taking Harry.
“We’re almost ready,” Jack said as he joined them. Lily sighed and stood, Harry on her hip. He was so small and light that it was no trouble at all for her to carry him.
“Alright, show time I guess,” James said as he joined Lily. Jack slipped past the curtain, the Mayor turning the spotlight on him as soon as he appeared.
“Please, everyone, quiet down!” he called into the crowd. The sounds of everyone talking lessened as they focused on their Pumpkin King. “Tonight, I called you all here to introduce and welcome our new residents!” A roar filled the room as everyone applauded and shouted their excitement and approval. Jack held up his hands in a ‘quiet down’ gesture, waiting until it was quiet enough for him to speak again.
“As you all know, a young wizard found his way here to our world on Halloween night. I have already decided that the boy will live here with us and, after some thought, I went to retrieve his parents who had passed away from the Land of the Dead. Tonight, we welcome James and Lily Potter and their son Harry to our town!”
Jack grabbed the rope next to him and pulled open the curtain so everyone could see the Potters. James and Lily looked out at the sea of monsters that clapped, howled and shouted their welcomes, Harry waving happily to his new friends Ethan the corpse boy, the Withered Wing Demon, and the Mummy boy who all called and waved back. Above the roaring crowd Helgamine and Zeldaborne looked at each other then cackled in glee.
“We have the Harry Potter!” Helgamine said.
“The Boy-Who-Lived is our student to be!” Zeldaborne added with equal glee. While they had spent most of their long lives as the official witches of Halloween, the pair kept up to date on what was going on in the Wizarding Worlds and would even interact with the darker sects when need be, most people assuming they were Hags. So they heard about the downfall of the so-called Dark Lord Voldemort and his defeat at the hands of little Harry Potter. To learn the powerful little wizard that had appeared among their numbers was that same child had them nearly vibrating with excitement.
“Well, I think we’re an instant hit, Lils,” James said into Lily’s ear while raising a hand in greeting. Lily snorted softly in laughter, James always did love being the center of attention.
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