The Witches' Secret: Harry Potter and The Land of Stories Crossover

Chapter 1: The Other World

          It seemed like just a normal September day in London as three childhood best friends were on their way to work. They were stubbornly navigating through a crowded sidewalk until they reached a bright red telephone booth that seemed too ordinary. The girl with bushy brown hair looked around the street to make sure that no one was looking at them, but everyone so caught up in their own business that they didn't even notice the iconic trio. Then, a man with black hair, glasses, and a lighting scar swung open the door to the telephone booth, and all three of them stepped inside. For anyone else, it would've been uncomfortable, but they were used to it. This was how they'd been getting to work for over a decade, thanks to heightened security. As a man with bright orange hair started to press some buttons, he had no idea what was to come. In fact, decades ago, the three of them had gone through more excitement than most people would in their lifetime. They thought that their life was finally back to normal, but the magic was far from over.

          Suddenly, a purple swirl appeared in front of them. At first, it was nothing but a dot, but it steadily expanded until they could see a forest through it. It looked too pure to exist in this world anymore, and all they could see was lush green trees and grass. They were all frozen in astonishment for a few seconds, and they only snapped back to the present when it started to suck them into it. The redhead and the man with glasses did nothing but hold onto whatever they could find and panic, but the woman knew exactly how to handle it. She took out her wand and started rapidly firing spells at it to try to make it go away. Honestly, she wasn't too startled by it, as she was used to chaos, but she hadn't dealt with anything that crazy since her teenage years. Despite her efforts, the swirl managed to overcome her, and it ended up sucking all three of them into it.

          Before they knew what was happening, they were back on their feet, but now they were in the forest they saw through the portal. They were a bit dazed, and took a few seconds to adjust to their new surroundings, and by the time they turned around, the portal was gone. For some reason, they felt a strong connection to this place, even though they had never been there before. Again, the two men started to panic, but the girl was trying to think of what spell someone could've possibly used to create the portal. Even this didn't shake her, and she knew that there was probably a reasonable explanation. She'd been living in a world of magic for so long that she honestly wasn't too surprised. She just wished she could focus through the boys' whining.

          "What are we going to do, Hermione? We're going to be stuck in here forever!" the redhead whined. He was being so dramatic that it would've been funny if they were in any other circumstances. "How are we ever going to-"

          "Stop it, Ronald", Hermione said, obviously annoyed. "I'm trying to think." She knew there must be a simple way to get back, but her brain was too clouded to think with everything going on. Maybe if I think of what we did as teens to get out of danger, we can get back she thought. What did we do when we were being attacked by Nagini?

          "Hold on to me", she said suddenly. "I'm going to try to apparate". She felt so stupid for taking so long to think of something so simple. The other two knew by now not to doubt Hermione. They wouldn't have survived without her in so many situations and did exactly what she said. Hermione tried concentrating on the telephone booth that led to the Ministry, where they worked, which wasn't too hard for her because they'd been going there every day for a long time. As she continued to concentrate, she felt like something really strong was sucking her in. It's working. She used the rest of her willpower to try to push them through, but after a few seconds, she felt like she was falling back, and they ended up exactly where they started. All three of them were really confused. Apparating was like second nature to Hermione, and she couldn't believe it didn't work.