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.
Edit 5-10-18: This chapter has now been betaed by The Patient One.
Author Note: This chapter we have a cameo from a certain Jamaican accented reaper. Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is my favorite version of the Reaper. So added Disclaimer: The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy belongs to Maxwell Atoms and Cartoon Network.
Chapter 5
Harry gave a little sigh as he slowly woke up the next morning, not opening his eyes just yet. He had the most wonderful—if strangest—dream last night. He wasn’t sure when he fell asleep but he had dreamt that a monster, an honest real monster, had appeared in his cupboard last night and he had followed it back to a place where monsters lived. It had a crooked graveyard and a lot of carved pumpkins and he had met a ghost doggy! And there had been a really pretty stitched up lady and a tall skeleton that said he was going to live with them from now on.
But Harry knew that was silly, monsters weren’t real and he couldn’t just end up in another place like magic. He gave a little huff and wondered when Aunt Petunia was going to get up and let him out of the cupboard… it sure did seem bright inside his cupboard, he must have fallen asleep with his light on. He also wondered why his bed felt more comfortable than usual…
“Ruff?”
A frown marred Harry’s face; Aunt Marge wasn’t visiting with her mean bulldog so why was he hearing a dog? And it sounded so close… Harry opened his eyes, and he saw Zero right next to his face, the bright end of his nose shining into Harry’s eyes. Giving a surprised yelp, Harry pulled back quickly only to fall off the bed onto the floor tangled in the blankets.
Zero leaned over the edge of the bed, looking down at Harry as the tiny boy untangled himself and then looked around, his green eyes wide.
“It was real?” he whispered to himself taking in the room. It was large, bigger than the living room at his relatives’ house, and round-looking. The walls had large windows looking outside where the sunlight streamed in, which Harry thought was a little odd as one would assume a world of monsters would always be nighttime. There were bookshelves with different books and knick-knacks on one wall, a large desk with a tall-backed chair. Harry saw a fireplace behind the bed he had fallen out of, dying embers glowing faintly in the grate. There was also a weird chair with some sort of metal dome on top and a large switch on the other side of the room.
“Harry?” the nice lady from last night’s voice called. Harry turning to see Sally coming up a spiral staircase in the middle of the room. “Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?”
“No, Miss,” Harry said as he finally freed himself from the blankets and stood. “It’s all real… I thought last night was a dream.”
“I see,” Sally smiled and then held out her hand. “I made you breakfast, come down to eat.” Harry’s stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten since… he had to think for a moment then realized he hadn’t eaten since the morning before. Dudley had stolen what little lunch he had and he never got dinner.
“Okay… but… umm…” Harry blushed then wiggled a bit. “Do you have a loo?” he asked in a whisper. Sally assured him that Jack did have one and took him to the bathroom to use the toilet.
Why a skeleton had need of a bathroom in his house was a mystery. But then again, Jack could also eat and sleep, so why not have a bathroom.
When Harry came out a few minutes later, he followed Sally to the kitchen where Jack was already seated, looking over a few plans the Mayor had brought over earlier. Jack looked up as Harry walked in and gave him one of his wide grins.
“Good morning, did you sleep well?”
“Yes, sir,” Harry said shyly, falling back on the manners his aunt pounded into his head.
“You can call me Jack, Harry,” Jack said. Then he patted the chair beside him. “Come on sit, Sally makes the best meals.”
Harry’s eyes widened a bit in surprise, they were going to let him eat at the table? He slowly climbed into the chair, but found he couldn’t really see very well over the edge of the table. Jack quickly solved that for Harry, motioning him off the chair and then setting some of his books on the seat, then lifting Harry himself and setting him on the impromptu booster seat. “There we go!”
“Harry, I wasn’t sure what to make you,” Sally admitted as she brought over a plate and set it in front of Harry. “If you can’t eat this, we’ll find something you can eat.” She cradled her head in her hand as she worried over this, she had tried her best to look into what sort of foods humans could eat and did her best to come up with what she could.
“Y-You don’t have to do that!” Harry said not wanting to be trouble. He looked down at the plate; the food looked… a little odd he admitted. The eggs, what he thought were eggs anyway, looked sorta green but he was starving and he didn’t want to insult Miss Sally after she cooked for him. Plus he had eaten worse by digging out scraps from the garbage. Picking up the fork by his plate, Harry shoveled a mouthful of the strange looking eggs into his mouth. He hummed happily after a moment, odd-looking they may be but they were tasty, and eagerly started eating the rest. Sally smiled then put down a glass of juice on the table by Harry; it was something the witches had recommended, pumpkin juice.
Sally looked pleased as Harry ate, glad she had come with something he could eat. Harry ate as much as his stomach could handle, which sadly wasn’t as much as was healthy for someone his age.
Once he was done, and had assured Sally he really was full, Harry looked up at Jack as the skeleton made a ‘clearing throat’ sound to catch his attention.
“Harry, today I will be going find your parents,” Jack explained.
“My parents? But… they died,” Harry said confused.
“Yes, but I will be going to the Land of the Dead to find them,” Jack explained. “And bring them back here.”
“How?” Harry asked, breaking one of the first rules his aunt and uncle taught him: never ask questions. “Why?”
“We thought that maybe your parents were the best ones to raise you here,” Sally explained.
“The rules of Halloween Town will allow them to live here as the undead, there are other corpses and zombies that live in town,” Jack added. “But I need their names so I can find them.”
“Oh… I… I don’t know their names, sir,” Harry said bowing his head. “Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon never told me what their names were.”
Sally hid a frown behind her hand; she was really starting to wonder what sort of people Harry’s aunt and uncle were!
“Well… do you have a last name? And an idea of when they died?” Jack asked.
“My last name is Potter… I’m not sure when they died, I lived with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon since I was a baby,” Harry said, and then bit his lip. “But… what if you do find them and they don’t like me?”
“Nonsense, I’m sure they’ll love you,” Jack said with confidence, ruffling Harry’s hair as he stood. “I should be off, then, so I can catch Grim before he leaves town.”
******
“You want me to what?” the Grim Reaper asked Jack when the Pumpkin King caught up to the very personification of Death.
“I need you to take me to the Land of the Dead,” Jack repeated.
“And just why do you need to be going there, mon?” Grim asked. “Does this have to be doing with that little mortal that showed up last night?”
“Yes, Sally thought it might be best to bring his parents here to raise him,” Jack explained. “It sounded like a sound idea to me. Maybe you even know who they are! Their last name is Potter.”
“Do you know how common of a last name ‘Potter’ is, mon?” Grim asked then sighed. “Fine, I’ll take you to the Land of the Dead but you’ll be on your own getting back.” He turned and sliced the air with his scythe, a glowing portal appearing. “After you, Jack.”
Jack eagerly stepped through the portal, it had been quite a while since he last visited the Land of the Dead. He thought that he should pay a visit to Elder Gutknecht, perhaps he would have a clue on how to locate Harry’s parents.
******
The land of the dead was a lot like Halloween Town with its dark, gothic architecture, but the differences were easy to point out: close-knit buildings, narrow alleyways, and populated solely by the dead. Not that that depressed its citizens any; the dead were quite a lively bunch, barring the offices that governed how the dead interacted with the mortal plane.
Grim left Jack as soon as the pair of skeletons had arrived, Grim having his own duties to take of guiding those who recently died to their proper places. Jack just waved goodbye to his friend and then navigated the alleyways toward the tall towers that stood in the middle of the Land of the Dead. Up the towers Jack went to the book-filled home of the kind leader of the dead.
“Elder Gutknecht?” Jack called looking around. A soft cough came from atop a large stack of books, then a short, hunched-over skeleton with a cracked skull walked into view.
“Yes?” Gutknecht asked as he looked downward, adjusting the spectacles perched on his skull. “Well well, Jack Skellington, my boy, it’s certainly an honor that the Pumpkin King pays us a visit. How are you, my child?”
“It is good to see you, Elder Gutknecht,” Jack said as he walked up, clasping the elder skeleton’s hand in his own.
“You as well. Tell me, how are things in your holiday?” Gutknecht asked.
“Horrible, simply horrible,” Jack grinned. “Every year we make Halloween scarier. But this year we had quite the surprise; a little human boy appeared in the town, and we’ve decided to keep him.”
“Jack, mortals and the dead do not mix well,” Gutknecht said sternly. “I assume it would only be the same for a human child to be mixed with a holiday world.”
“Oh, it’s not a problem. He’s a tiny male witch, he fits in perfectly!” Jack assured the other. “In fact, he’s why I’m here. He said his parents died when he was just a baby, and Sally and I thought it would be splendid if they could come to live in Halloween Town as well, to be together as a family.”
“Hmm, well…” Gutknecht scratched his head, the piece of cracked skull rocking back and forth as he did so. “I suppose that is possible, it’s not the first time someone has left from here to become part of your holiday. You know the rules of your realm better than I, my child. Give me their names and I will look up to see where they are.”
“Harry doesn’t know what their names are, but I do know their last name is Potter,” Jack admitted. A soft female gasp came from someone hidden on the other side of the mound of books before a female figure quickly came around to the other side. She was blue skinned, like all the undead down there, and had hair as red as his Sally’s. She also had green eyes the same shade of poison like Harry’s did.
“Did you say Harry Potter?!” Lily Potter demanded as she walked up to Jack.
****
Author Note: X3 we’ll revisit the Dursleys in the next chapter.
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.
Edit 5-10-18: This chapter has now been betaed by The Patient One.
Author Note: This chapter we have a cameo from a certain Jamaican accented reaper. Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy is my favorite version of the Reaper. So added Disclaimer: The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy belongs to Maxwell Atoms and Cartoon Network.
Chapter 5
Harry gave a little sigh as he slowly woke up the next morning, not opening his eyes just yet. He had the most wonderful—if strangest—dream last night. He wasn’t sure when he fell asleep but he had dreamt that a monster, an honest real monster, had appeared in his cupboard last night and he had followed it back to a place where monsters lived. It had a crooked graveyard and a lot of carved pumpkins and he had met a ghost doggy! And there had been a really pretty stitched up lady and a tall skeleton that said he was going to live with them from now on.
But Harry knew that was silly, monsters weren’t real and he couldn’t just end up in another place like magic. He gave a little huff and wondered when Aunt Petunia was going to get up and let him out of the cupboard… it sure did seem bright inside his cupboard, he must have fallen asleep with his light on. He also wondered why his bed felt more comfortable than usual…
“Ruff?”
A frown marred Harry’s face; Aunt Marge wasn’t visiting with her mean bulldog so why was he hearing a dog? And it sounded so close… Harry opened his eyes, and he saw Zero right next to his face, the bright end of his nose shining into Harry’s eyes. Giving a surprised yelp, Harry pulled back quickly only to fall off the bed onto the floor tangled in the blankets.
Zero leaned over the edge of the bed, looking down at Harry as the tiny boy untangled himself and then looked around, his green eyes wide.
“It was real?” he whispered to himself taking in the room. It was large, bigger than the living room at his relatives’ house, and round-looking. The walls had large windows looking outside where the sunlight streamed in, which Harry thought was a little odd as one would assume a world of monsters would always be nighttime. There were bookshelves with different books and knick-knacks on one wall, a large desk with a tall-backed chair. Harry saw a fireplace behind the bed he had fallen out of, dying embers glowing faintly in the grate. There was also a weird chair with some sort of metal dome on top and a large switch on the other side of the room.
“Harry?” the nice lady from last night’s voice called. Harry turning to see Sally coming up a spiral staircase in the middle of the room. “Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself?”
“No, Miss,” Harry said as he finally freed himself from the blankets and stood. “It’s all real… I thought last night was a dream.”
“I see,” Sally smiled and then held out her hand. “I made you breakfast, come down to eat.” Harry’s stomach growled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten since… he had to think for a moment then realized he hadn’t eaten since the morning before. Dudley had stolen what little lunch he had and he never got dinner.
“Okay… but… umm…” Harry blushed then wiggled a bit. “Do you have a loo?” he asked in a whisper. Sally assured him that Jack did have one and took him to the bathroom to use the toilet.
Why a skeleton had need of a bathroom in his house was a mystery. But then again, Jack could also eat and sleep, so why not have a bathroom.
When Harry came out a few minutes later, he followed Sally to the kitchen where Jack was already seated, looking over a few plans the Mayor had brought over earlier. Jack looked up as Harry walked in and gave him one of his wide grins.
“Good morning, did you sleep well?”
“Yes, sir,” Harry said shyly, falling back on the manners his aunt pounded into his head.
“You can call me Jack, Harry,” Jack said. Then he patted the chair beside him. “Come on sit, Sally makes the best meals.”
Harry’s eyes widened a bit in surprise, they were going to let him eat at the table? He slowly climbed into the chair, but found he couldn’t really see very well over the edge of the table. Jack quickly solved that for Harry, motioning him off the chair and then setting some of his books on the seat, then lifting Harry himself and setting him on the impromptu booster seat. “There we go!”
“Harry, I wasn’t sure what to make you,” Sally admitted as she brought over a plate and set it in front of Harry. “If you can’t eat this, we’ll find something you can eat.” She cradled her head in her hand as she worried over this, she had tried her best to look into what sort of foods humans could eat and did her best to come up with what she could.
“Y-You don’t have to do that!” Harry said not wanting to be trouble. He looked down at the plate; the food looked… a little odd he admitted. The eggs, what he thought were eggs anyway, looked sorta green but he was starving and he didn’t want to insult Miss Sally after she cooked for him. Plus he had eaten worse by digging out scraps from the garbage. Picking up the fork by his plate, Harry shoveled a mouthful of the strange looking eggs into his mouth. He hummed happily after a moment, odd-looking they may be but they were tasty, and eagerly started eating the rest. Sally smiled then put down a glass of juice on the table by Harry; it was something the witches had recommended, pumpkin juice.
Sally looked pleased as Harry ate, glad she had come with something he could eat. Harry ate as much as his stomach could handle, which sadly wasn’t as much as was healthy for someone his age.
Once he was done, and had assured Sally he really was full, Harry looked up at Jack as the skeleton made a ‘clearing throat’ sound to catch his attention.
“Harry, today I will be going find your parents,” Jack explained.
“My parents? But… they died,” Harry said confused.
“Yes, but I will be going to the Land of the Dead to find them,” Jack explained. “And bring them back here.”
“How?” Harry asked, breaking one of the first rules his aunt and uncle taught him: never ask questions. “Why?”
“We thought that maybe your parents were the best ones to raise you here,” Sally explained.
“The rules of Halloween Town will allow them to live here as the undead, there are other corpses and zombies that live in town,” Jack added. “But I need their names so I can find them.”
“Oh… I… I don’t know their names, sir,” Harry said bowing his head. “Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon never told me what their names were.”
Sally hid a frown behind her hand; she was really starting to wonder what sort of people Harry’s aunt and uncle were!
“Well… do you have a last name? And an idea of when they died?” Jack asked.
“My last name is Potter… I’m not sure when they died, I lived with Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon since I was a baby,” Harry said, and then bit his lip. “But… what if you do find them and they don’t like me?”
“Nonsense, I’m sure they’ll love you,” Jack said with confidence, ruffling Harry’s hair as he stood. “I should be off, then, so I can catch Grim before he leaves town.”
******
“You want me to what?” the Grim Reaper asked Jack when the Pumpkin King caught up to the very personification of Death.
“I need you to take me to the Land of the Dead,” Jack repeated.
“And just why do you need to be going there, mon?” Grim asked. “Does this have to be doing with that little mortal that showed up last night?”
“Yes, Sally thought it might be best to bring his parents here to raise him,” Jack explained. “It sounded like a sound idea to me. Maybe you even know who they are! Their last name is Potter.”
“Do you know how common of a last name ‘Potter’ is, mon?” Grim asked then sighed. “Fine, I’ll take you to the Land of the Dead but you’ll be on your own getting back.” He turned and sliced the air with his scythe, a glowing portal appearing. “After you, Jack.”
Jack eagerly stepped through the portal, it had been quite a while since he last visited the Land of the Dead. He thought that he should pay a visit to Elder Gutknecht, perhaps he would have a clue on how to locate Harry’s parents.
******
The land of the dead was a lot like Halloween Town with its dark, gothic architecture, but the differences were easy to point out: close-knit buildings, narrow alleyways, and populated solely by the dead. Not that that depressed its citizens any; the dead were quite a lively bunch, barring the offices that governed how the dead interacted with the mortal plane.
Grim left Jack as soon as the pair of skeletons had arrived, Grim having his own duties to take of guiding those who recently died to their proper places. Jack just waved goodbye to his friend and then navigated the alleyways toward the tall towers that stood in the middle of the Land of the Dead. Up the towers Jack went to the book-filled home of the kind leader of the dead.
“Elder Gutknecht?” Jack called looking around. A soft cough came from atop a large stack of books, then a short, hunched-over skeleton with a cracked skull walked into view.
“Yes?” Gutknecht asked as he looked downward, adjusting the spectacles perched on his skull. “Well well, Jack Skellington, my boy, it’s certainly an honor that the Pumpkin King pays us a visit. How are you, my child?”
“It is good to see you, Elder Gutknecht,” Jack said as he walked up, clasping the elder skeleton’s hand in his own.
“You as well. Tell me, how are things in your holiday?” Gutknecht asked.
“Horrible, simply horrible,” Jack grinned. “Every year we make Halloween scarier. But this year we had quite the surprise; a little human boy appeared in the town, and we’ve decided to keep him.”
“Jack, mortals and the dead do not mix well,” Gutknecht said sternly. “I assume it would only be the same for a human child to be mixed with a holiday world.”
“Oh, it’s not a problem. He’s a tiny male witch, he fits in perfectly!” Jack assured the other. “In fact, he’s why I’m here. He said his parents died when he was just a baby, and Sally and I thought it would be splendid if they could come to live in Halloween Town as well, to be together as a family.”
“Hmm, well…” Gutknecht scratched his head, the piece of cracked skull rocking back and forth as he did so. “I suppose that is possible, it’s not the first time someone has left from here to become part of your holiday. You know the rules of your realm better than I, my child. Give me their names and I will look up to see where they are.”
“Harry doesn’t know what their names are, but I do know their last name is Potter,” Jack admitted. A soft female gasp came from someone hidden on the other side of the mound of books before a female figure quickly came around to the other side. She was blue skinned, like all the undead down there, and had hair as red as his Sally’s. She also had green eyes the same shade of poison like Harry’s did.
“Did you say Harry Potter?!” Lily Potter demanded as she walked up to Jack.
****
Author Note: X3 we’ll revisit the Dursleys in the next chapter.
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