==Hogwarts Transformed==

By Ayngel

I do not own Transformers or any of the characters and concepts within. Likewise Harry Potter, to everything in connection with belongs to JK Rowling. I make no money from this or any other story which I have written about Transformers or Harry Potter

Warnings – still none, really. Perhaps some mild course language.

Thank you so much for your reviews, and listings, all. Sorry this was such a long time in coming! I have been away TF roleplaying and thinking of many things Transformers :D

Chapter 4

The North Sea Bed.

"Starscream will you for pits sake slow down!" Swindle yelled at the red and blue seeker for about the fifth time as he strode across the seabed. He struggled to keep up, cursing the rocks and seaweed strewn everywhere, not daring to try alt mode again. Even though there had been success in halting the Seeker to pull several fish out of his engine, the yellow jeep had no wish to repeat the experience.

"Don't you think we should at least consider the wisdom of this?" he bawled now, charging up alongside the aerial commander in a flurry of sand and sea creatures.

"I have!" Said Starscream. There was a smug air about him.

"Aww come on Starscream!" Swindle cried. "What about my business? I've got customers you know. I can't afford to stuff around on some hocus pocus frolic whilst my whole enterprise goes down the drain!"

"Swindle," said Starscream without slowing down, " I already explained that is not the attitude to adopt in this mission! If you and I play our cards right, we can both come out of this much better than you ever would in your underwater slug trade, or whatever it is. Now come on. You're a businessmech. Think about it!"

Starscream could not keep his mind off what had just happened. A school for humans. Something Starscream would have had scoffed at and been outraged about under any normal circumstances. Except these were far fromnormal circumstances. The Merpeople had suggested it, he having just watched them relieve Megatron of his fusion canon in a manner more adept than he had ever seen anyone do so in his entire life. And the thing broke into a myriad pieces! It was exquisite!

And although they put it back together again – something about which Starscream was a tad disappointed - they'd made the silver leader grovel and apologize before they did so- something about insulting their queen with his recent undersea target practice and he. Megatron being taken apart if he ever tried it again.

It was magnificent!

Swindle went on, grumbling in a rather more subdued tone. "I don't only deal in undersea slugs, as you put it. I've got a name here! What's Onslaught gonna say? He only let me down here so I could get back the money I loaned Smokescreen in that Quintesson casino. "

But Starscream wasn't listening. The look on Megatron's face had been priceless! And he, Starscream, had had no hesitation in acquiescing to the Merpeople's instructions – especially when it meant getting away from Megatron and especially if it meant you got one of those stick things. Oh the potential power! His enthusiastic acceptance of the proposal, instead of complaining as Megatron had expected, and the fury evident on the leader's face was the final perfect clincher. He was far too happy to be put off by Swindle's whingeing.

"You know how Vortex gets," The yellow mech was saying. "Anything out of the ordinary that could damage the 'team. What in kell is he gonna say about this? And what about Blast Off? I'm supposed to be meeting him in about fourteen clicks with a cargo load of that stuff in the rocks and I'm not gonna front. He gets pissed about that sort of thing, you know!"

Starscream thought again to the lead Merperson, how he'd hissed: 'I need a word with our new students in private!' to Megatron's further ire. Then he'd talked about these special humans, their special abilities. Not like other – what was the word – Muggles? And the Merperson had told him he, Starscream, had been specially chosen to be instructed in the 'magical arts.' He would be a leading light in a new era of intergalactic magical cooperation.

Starscream had glowed, importantly. Then he had had only one question.

"Do we get those stick weapons?"

The Merperson had looked scornful. "Of course," it had scoffed. "That's just a basic tool."

Beside the Seeker, Swindle slowed. "I dunno," he said. " I reckon I'm just gonna comm Blast Off and tell him to come get us. There's a few other places on Earth I hang out. We could go to one of them until this pit blows over."

Starscream drew up sharply in a flurry of sand and fish. Turning, he grabbed hold of the yellow jeep. "You will do nothing of the sort!" he snapped.

Swindle scowled. "Lemme go!" he yelled.

Starscream glared at him. "Listen you little fool!" he said. " If we can just get our hands on some of those stick things the sky's the limit. And you heard what they said. They're just for starters! Can you imagine what other weaponry they've got in there? We'll have the means to destroy the Autobots, take over this planet, and I shall lead the Decepticons into a new era of Cybertronian rule."

"Not all this again!" Swindle grumbled. "How d'you know they're not just gonna dismantle us for spare parts?"

"Just because you do that sort of thing doesn't mean everyone does." Starscream snapped. "Besides, I've got a good feeling about this," he said. "Think, Swindle. You can be rich!"

Swindle was about to recondier the matter, thinking that maybe Starscream did have a point after all. But at that moment, there was a strange roar which sounded like an engine being revved underwater. Both he and Starscream turned in its direction.

And then they gaped. For approaching over the seabed. Was something large. It was purple – about the same hue as Swindle's optics - and seemed to be in the shape of a transport vehicle.

"Primus!" Starscream and Swindle looked at each other.

Autobots, down here? Without a word, they drew weapons. "We've been had!" cried Swindle.

At a Formula One Race meeting, somewhere in the Western US ….

An electric murmur rippled through the crowd in the grandstand, along with cries of: "Hey, here they come!"

There was a roar of high calibre engines as the Formula 1 racing cars began to move towards the start. Hermione Granger put down her copy of "Muggle behaviour in crowd situations," and smiled at her father, trying to show some enthusiasm for the event he'd been going on about for the last two weeks. Aside from providing an impressive 'additional assignment" for the Muggle studies course, Hermione had decided car racing didn't really do it for her. She looked at the teaming numbers of humans in the stands. It was of passing interest that Muggles seemed to like gathering like this for the sake of gathering, almost as much as to watch whatever it was they had come to watch.

Of course, this was not just any race, here today. Some of those 'Transformers' – those robots who were here and there on the planet 'helping' Muggles - were here, and one was racing. Looking down, Hermione could see it now, a blue and white contraption, not lining up with the others but moving along the edge of the spectators. As it passed, a collection of Muggles clamoring at the fence called out: "Hey, Mirage! Hey – here – can I get your Autograph?"

Hermione frowned. A large number were teenage girls. Hermione really did have trouble understanding the logic of Muggle females sometimes! I mean, getting excited about a machine? Although, Hermione conceded, it - he - was quite good looking. In a metallic sort of a way. And he was supposed to be rich. Maybe that was the attraction.

Hermione's father was busy with a set of binoculars. Hermione was about to return to her studies, when there was a small "splat" from beside her and Hermione turned to see small boy , no more than about three years old, looking horrified at a blob of white ice cream on the ground. A stricken look came on to his face as he held the empty cone. Hermione wished she were not prohibited from performing magical acts outside the school grounds. But she did have something else – a bar of Mrs Weasley's special chocolate.

"Here – this will make up for it!" She slipped it to him, thankful that it was simply really nice chocolate and wasn't going to turn the little boy into anything. She'd got it from Mrs Weasley herself. So George and Fred hadn't had a chance to do something unspeakable to it either.

Beside him, the boy's parents – obviously - a dark haired man dressed in a blue pants and a white shirt and a woman with blonde hair – were talking to somebody on the other side of them. Peering along the row, Hermione was surprised to see two other robots, a big green one and a smaller yellow one. The yellow one was quite 'cute' she supposed, if you could call something that size 'cute.' She had been so engrossed in her book that she had not noticed their arrival.

The little boy took the bar of chocolate cautiously. Then he saw Hermione looking and tilted his chin up proudly. "My friends!" He declared.

The man turned to him. "Now come on Daniel, don't give the lady a hard time!" he spotted the ruined ice cream and sighed. "Carly, I said he'd go and do something like this!" From beside them, the robots tutted.

But Daniel waved the chocolate at the blonde woman. Her mouth opened, and then she smiled at Hermione. "Oh my - you didn't have to!" She said.

"It's no problem!" said Hermione, thinking that her voice sounded very cultured and English. She noticed the robots seemed intrigued at the exchange, and were smiling interestedly, and that the yellow one appeared to be 'bouncing' slightly, as though in excitement. "Don't we get an introduction?" It burst out. "I'm Bumblebee, and this is Hound!"

They beamed at her over the top of the Muggles, who now looked a little uncertain. Hermione baled them out. " Pleased to meet you!" she said, although she could not quite bring herself to extend her hand. They nodded keenly, as a load of shrill cheers sounded from down by the fence. " And that's Mirage down there" said the yellow one. "He's our friend too. Bit up himself. And those girls aren't really helping matters. But he's all right when you get to know him!"

Hermione was distracted, then, by the green one taking a greater interested than she would have expected in the book open on the bench. Hurriedly she picked it up and stashed in her bag. Not that these robots would understand the implications, of course. But you could never be too careful.

"Where are you from? She inquired politely.

A roar went up from the crowd, then, as Mirage sauntered over to the start and transformed, preparing to move alongside the Muggle drivers. The two grown up Muggles, the yellow robot and the boy were suddenly wrapped up in the spectacle again, and Hermione felt her father nudge her on the other side. But the green robot kept talking as though nothing had happened.

"Our home's called Cybertron, " he said, "it's a cool place. Trouble is, the Decepticons wrecked it and now we have to stay here and help you humans. Not that we mind!" he said hurriedly, looking apologetic. "This is a wonderful planet! Well some of us think so anyway. It's just …." A sorrowful look came over him, "some of us miss Cybertron."

Decepticons. Hermione turned the word over. Oh yes, she'd heard that word too – they were supposed to be the evil ones. They'd left Earth some time ago. Not that she found out about that in Hogwarts! sometimes it was useful to be a 'Mudblood.'

Yes - because there were lots of interesting questions connected to this! Like – were the Decepticons as evil as Lord V….(she stopped herself) as you know who? She was sure they could not be quite that evil, but even so, Hermione was pleased the Decepticons weren't here. It would be no good if two factions of rotters got together! She wondered also how the Ministry of Magic was coping with having added "Muggle protection" on its doorstep. And were there, she also wondered, any 'wizard and witch' equivalents of the Transformers? Hermione made a mental note to go to the library as soon as she got back to Hogwarts , and check out books on magical robots.

The green one was still talking, oblivious to the mounting excitement around. "Of course – this one will always be special," he chattered, indicating to the blue pant clad man. "You'll never believe how he got to know us! The Autobots rescued him from a burning oil rig! The Decepticons were trying to steal the oil, see, and he and his Dad fell into the sea!"

Spike evidently was not so engrossed as to not hear this account of the introduction. He turned and smiled emphatically. "Yeah! " he beamed. "The whole place caught fire! It was wild! But Ironhide froze the water with nitrogen, and Optimus Prime pulled us out! It was the start of a whole new phase in my life!" Beside him, Carly also smiled widely, and squeezed his hand.

Hermione thought it sounded like a few spells would have fixed the whole situation up without the need for heroic robots and chemical compounds. But she had to admit, the Muggle tale sounded quite interesting. Maybe later on she would ask them to tell some more.

There were more roars from the crowd, but this time she thought she could detect an angry tone not previously there. Hermione glanced back to the track. A driver seemed to have arrived late. Garbed in a silver and black racing suit, blonde hair disappearing under the shiny black helmet he was rapidly putting on, a row seemed to be in progress with a number of angry looking Muggles shouting and gesticulating as he marched over to a car just down the line from Mirage. Another driver got out and the newly helmeted one got in.

Hermione gasped in surprise. She had caught a glimpse of the face attached to the blonde hair, before it vanished under the helmet. And her mind was no longer on the robots.

"Oh my goodness!" she said. "It's Draco Malfoy!"

North Sea bed

Both Decepticons let off a volley of fire at the large purple whatever it was, as it ground slowly on through the sand, a cloud of orange behind it. Yet none of the shots seemed to make contact and the vehicle continued regardless. As it drew closer, they could see it was a bus, a double decker bus, of the sort, Starscream recalled, that they seemed to use in that England place and were there coloured red. He stopped shooting.

Swindle didn't. But the bus lumbered towards them, and Swindle began to panic. He fired some more, but to no avail - if anything, the shots seemed to go straight through it, as though it were not made of solid material.

The crash of gears and high pitched tone as the engine was obviously 'thrashed' somewhat more than was intended for that particular model sounded anything but ethereal, however.

"That's no Autobot!" wailed Swindle.

"I agree. Hold your fire!" said Starscream, placing a hand on the top of the canon. But Swindle had run out of ammo. And he was too shaken to reload.

"Do you think its – them?" he whispered.

But Starscream did not answer. He squinted at the bus, his expression thoughtful. It drew up, grinding to a halt in the sand just in front of them, and the engine stuttered to a halt. The engine sounded ancient, Starscream concluded. But it was definitely an ordinary human made engine. Down here! "I think it could be 'them!'" he whispered to Swindle. "Just let me o the talking! And put that weapon away!"

"Uhuh …!" Swindle said, his optics wide. His hand holding the rifle fell to one side.

There was a hiss then. Doors opened at the side of the bus, and out stepped a skinny human wearing a purple uniform. There was a large bubble around his head, which looked alike a giant alien space helmet. His pimpled face screwed up as he squinted through the water at the two Decepticons.

"It has to be them!" Starscream whispered.

The skinny human was studying them. "Yeah Ern! Right colours n'everything. Wot was their names again?" he yelled.

"Errm - Starscream an' Swindle," a distant voice sounded from within the bus.

The skinny human turned to them again. "That you?" he said.

Starscream and Swindle looked at each other, their mouths open, still holding their weapons. "Don't say a lot do ya?" The human looked a little ticked off. "Stan Shunpike's the name. And that's Ern in there, and this is the Knight Bus. We pick up stranded witches and wizards, see. And that's you two, although Gor Blimey!" he looked them up and down. "I ain't never seen nothin' quite like this!"

"You're lucky!' he went on. "Knight bus don't normally do nothin' underwater. We 'ad to 'ave it specially modified!"

Starscream studied him. Normally, he would have stomped on some human he came across on the ocean floor. Especially a somewhat overconfident and impertinent one such as this! But the stick things – and how much smaller the Merpeople were than Megatron - were much in the Seeker's mind. And this was no ordinary squishie! He marvelled again, remembering the antics of the Merpeople. Yes! and it wasn't as if he didn't want to go to this school, was it?

Swindle still wore an expression of abject horror, his purple optics wide, his mouth open. But Starscream cleared his throat.

"We are Starscream and Swindle of Cybertron!" he said, remembering he spoke in a similar way to a another magical type human once in another dimension , and rather pleased with how he came across. We have some business with a School of – uh - Magic. We were instructed to make our way towards Scotland!"

The human looked impatient. "Well let's get on with it then!" he said. "'aven't got all day 'ave I?'

Swindle spoke up then. "Get on with what?" He asked.

"You gotta get on this 'ere bus of course!" said Stan Shunpike.

Swindle seemed to have found some confidence. He smirked. "And, how, do you suppose, is something the size of us to fit on something the size of that?"

"Umm, yeah! Good question," Stan agreed.

"Reducio spell!" Ern yelled from the bus. "And 'urry up!"

"Yeah!" said Stan, producing a stick thing from inside his uniform. " Now I just gotta psych meeself up for a sec …."

Starscream's face brightened at the appearance of the stick thing. But it had the opposite effect on Swindle. "That's it!" he said, "I'm outta here!" Turning, he started to march away across the sand, his steps quickly turning to a run.

"Swindle! Excuse me a minute!" Starscream said to the skinny human, who rolled his optics. "Swindle! Come back here!" He hurried after the retreating yellow jeep.

"Don't let 'em get away, Stan!" yelled Ern.

"Uh – yeah! Uuhhh - Petrificus Pedus!" There was a flash of bright blue, and both Starscream and Swindle found themselves frozen, stuck to the sea bed, unable to move their feet in the sand.

"Nooooo!" yelled Swindle.

"Shut up!" yelled Starscream, although he wished profoundly that this had not happened.

Stan seemed delighted. "Ere, Ern!" he said. "Oo said I wasn't no good at spells?"

"Night school paid off, Stan!" said Ern. "Now cut 'em down to size. We gotta get goin'! We gotta get through the portal and over the other side of the world an' get that other lot yet. Darned if I'm gonna miss the Quidditch quarter finals 'cos of this!"

Stan drew himself up, raising the wand. "Reducio!" he yelled.

There was another blue flash and a myriad of sea creatures seemed to shoot out from all around, flashing past and circling, streaking through the water as they got bigger, and bigger, and bigger …

"Starscream …" Swindle let out a strangled cry, "Why'd they magic up a load of giant fish?" He glanced wildly around, expecting, any minute, the Merpeople to appear.

"They're not giant fish," Starscream cried, "we're getting smaller!"

And they were. They dwindled down, right down, smaller, smaller until they were the size of Stan Shunpike, who walked around in front of them. He inspected them. "That's better!" he said. Now – just get on, an' off we go!"

Swindle seemed suddenly resigned to his predicament. He glared at him. "We can't!" he said. "We're still stuck to the seabed."

"Oohh yeah …" Stan regarded them with his head on one side. "Ern," he yelled, "'ow do I unstick 'em?"