Well, hi. I'm Soul's Scales, though feel free to call me Scales. ;)

So, first of all, I want to blame this entire story and concept on my irritating, if awesome, older sister. She can't write and doesn't have a fanfiction account, so she prompted me into writing it after getting me hooked on the idea of putting the Guardians of the Galaxy (one of the best movies) into Harry Potter's world. She is also working as my beta (so I can blame grammar mistakes on her, hehe).

NOTE: I am just entering my second semester of college. I don't have a ton of time to update, so UPDATES WILL BE SLOW. SO SLOW. SO VERY VERY SLOW. Or maybe fast. But I really doubt it'll be fast, so don't bet on having chapters every week or something. I honestly have no idea how fast I'll update. I'll do the best I can.

So, without further random speaking, here is the first chapter/introduction of Guardians of Hogwarts! (Title is subject to change…)

*0*0*0*

Guardians of Hogwarts

Book 1: The Letters

The tawny brown owl circled lower over the city, following the elusive pull of the mail-carrier spell. This letter's owner was hard to find. Every time the owl had approached the location, the boy had been moved quickly somewhere else. But this time, the owl was the closest it had ever gotten to the boy.

With a quick dive, the owl entered a dirty alley where several figures lingered, smoking, cracking rude jokes, and generally making themselves look like vagabonds. They were staking out the store across the way and were blending in with the lower levels of London's populace.

The owl ignored them. Its focus was solely on the smallest figure, a boy with bright golden hair perched on his head and a small smile on his face.

The group fell quiet as the owl approached and the owl, with a triumphant, if exhausted, hoot, landed in front of the boy and stuck out its leg. Silence permeated the space as the boy reached out and, fumbling, managed to remove the letter from the bird's leg.

Unfolding it with trembling fingers, the boy read quickly, his lips unthinkingly mouthing the words.

"I… I got into Hogwarts." The boy said quietly, a smile growing on his face. "My mum must've paid before she died, 'cause I'M GOING TO HOGWARTS! My tuition's all paid and everythin'!"

The chief of the men raised an eyebrow at the boy and said, "That's good, boy, but you better make up what you miss out on during the summers, you hear?"

The boy nodded enthusiastically and the other men clapped him on the back cheerfully.

He couldn't shake the smile from his face. It had been years since he had even thought of going to Hogwarts. Since his mother had died and the Ravagers had, er, adopted him. Since then, he had run with the underworld of the wizarding world, learning the tricks to steal, manipulate, and slip away into the night without anyone the wiser.

His Hufflepuff mother had always dreamed of him going to Hogwarts. The boy had curled up against her side in the hospital and she would whisper stories of the castle in her faint, rasping voice, and Peter would cling to every word, storing them deep in his mind.

After her death… The boy had dragged stories of Hogwarts from the older Ravagers, from Yondu's ancient stories to Ravagers who had only just graduated the previous year. He had accepted that he would never have the money or a chance to go to Hogwarts. He had a wand already, though he knew only the most basic of spells and could only use them around the older Ravagers.

But now… Now he could go to Hogwarts. He could go to the world that his mother had described, to see the great forest and the teachers who had helped mold his kind, wonderful mother. The boy smiled as he tied his response to the owl, the Ravagers laughing and joking loudly around him.

The owl flew away, a shakily written acceptance held in its claws, leaving behind the beaming visage of young Peter Quill, sitting in the dark alley with the Ravagers.

*0*0*0*

While Peter Quill chatted with his Ravagers, another owl was finally approaching its target. This huge barn owl glided silently through the sky, aiming towards the tiny village that hid within the hills of Northern England. The girl it was following had just moved there the previous day, and the owl was annoyed at having to backtrack to find the letter's recipient.

But, finally, its long trek was almost over. Soon the owl would be able to return to the castle and take a long nap.

The owl slowed its flight, sensing and seeing its target hiding in some trees near the edge of the tiny village. The owl began a loop to circle around to the green-skinned girl and gave a low hoot as he approached.

The girl whirled, a terrified gasp almost escaping her before being swallowed and she, instinctively, shot her hands forward, shoving raw magic at the bird.

The owl froze midair and crashed to the ground, unable to move beyond breathing.

The girl panted, still frozen in panic before she jerked to attention. She rushed forward to the owl, her hands fluttering around the bird uselessly.

"I'm sorry, I don't know how to control it yet. Thank god Ronan isn't around to see this.."

The girl sat back and pushed her reddish hair back from her face, tucking it behind her slightly pointed ears. She closed her eyes and centered herself, reaching for the hidden well of power inside her that she could just reach. With a gentle breathe, she released the hold she had on her magic, and the owl stood shakily.

The owl shook its feathers and proudly stuck out a leg with the letter on it.

The girl's brow furrowed as she opened the letter carefully, preserving the seal the best she could. She knew that symbol, but that couldn't be real.

But it was.

Somehow, she had been accepted to Hogwarts.

She, the half-elven child of Thanos, could go to Hogwarts.

She carefully refolded the letter and stared into the distance. She could chose to ignore the letter. To perform the assignments given and continue to grow into the living weapon that Thanos and Ronan wanted her to be. She would be deadly and horrible, and every wizard and witch in the world would fear the name of Gamora.

Or she could defy them. She could abandon this assignment, flee Ronan, and escape into the wilderness. It wasn't too far to Scotland from here, and the wards guarding Hogwarts would be easy to trace to find the castle itself.

She could be free. To maybe even have friends.

Ronan would kill her for it. Thanos too.

But she would rather die among friends than continue to fight for her enemies.

The girl's face broke into a smile as it hadn't seen in the years since she was ripped from her forest and her people were decimated. She quickly wrote an acceptance and sent off the owl with a final apology.

The girl looked back at the village, her eyes instinctively finding her target, before smiling faintly.

The man was free, just as she now was.

After all, the girl thought as she disappeared into the forest, who knew if Remus Lupin might be able to do something important someday?

*0*0*0*

The great horned owl flew silently through the night, finally approaching her destination. After a long flight, she was almost at the recipient's home. She had been chosen for the continuous communication specifically because of her… familiarity with the recipient.

Curling in her gigantic wings, she gracefully dove into the opening for the owls and skillfully wove between startled healers who tried to catch her as she approached the small room hidden in a corner of the hospital.

The door opened as the noise following the owl increased and a small, furry body looked out. "Come in and hurry up, ya winged rat." The furry raccoon-boy growled, glancing behind the owl with trepidation.

The owl narrowed her eyes before increasing her speed and swishing through the door just as the raccoon boy slammed it closed and leaped to slam the lock close. The door shook as the aggravated healers pounded and yelled insults at "the bloody bird!"

The raccoon boy turned to smirk at the bird, seemingly unworried about the pounding of the healers. Noticing the owl's stare still fixed on the door, he carelessly shrugged his shoulders and said, far too gruffly for a boy of 10, "No one's gettin' in without my say so. I reinforced the lock with some of my own designs." He smirked with a muzzle full of pointy teeth as his black eyes glistened in the sterile light from above.

The owl turned her head and looked down the few inches that separated the boy from her height. He was tiny for a ten year old, and, to all appearances, was a raccoon, though he acted like a human… a very brash human, but human all the same.

The raccoon boy was staring at the owl's leg now, his long tail bushy with excitement and his ears perked forward. "Is tha'…" As the owl stuck her leg out proudly, the boy considered the possibility that he was dreaming. He was almost afraid to believe that after all his hours of reading and all the tests he had gone through over the years (thanks to being the unique sample of an animal hair polyjuice incident that had gone untreated until far too late) that he would actually get to be free. To go outside of this damned hospital and try to make a place in the world for him as a person and not just an experiment for the healers of St. Mungos.

The boy had realized in his ninth year on Earth and his sixth year as a raccoon-hybrid-thing that the healers had been unknowingly giving him an escape. Ever since he had come, they had plied him with books to keep him obedient and quiet when the hospital was busy. As a result, the boy had read everything from the basics of magic to the concepts of muggle chemistry (coming from a particularly desperate muggle-born intern).

One good thing to come from his transformation was that his memory had massively improved, where he could remember things he had read almost perfectly.

It was during one of his stints with a particularly dry magical history textbook (he had literally read everything else in the room and had screeched for a half hour straight for new material before getting this chucked at his head), that he had been stopped by a certain page. It was describing a particularly exceptional child being admitted into Hogwarts a year early.

Admitted to Hogwarts a year early.

He could escape this hellish room and the stupid hospital which didn't believe him human.

Going to Hogwarts had actually slipped his mind. After years of being treated like an interesting lab rat, of having constant tests, he had started to forget who he was. He had once been pure human, short and blond with an older brother who had tried to protect him. After the… incident, he had been disowned and his nanny, feeling immensely guilty, had sent him (quite literally – he had been put in a crate and given to the head healer with an explanation of what had happened) to St. Mungos.

Not one of the healers had ever thought about him still being able to perform magic. The polyjuice potion with the raccoon hairs had twisted his body and his mind, but had not destroyed his core. The raccoon boy had been able to feel the magic still, hidden deep inside.

But, with that damned "Hogwarts, A History" in his claws – hands – he realized that he had let himself forget about the magic humming in him. He had magic. He could go to Hogwarts.

If he still qualified as human, that is.

So he had 'borrowed' an owl from St. Mungos great store of owls and sent out a letter. He had chosen the singular great horned owl to carry his letter, as he had spoken with the tall owl (who had been a donation to the hospital) before, and who was an anomaly just like he was.

And now, after arguing over letter for over a year, the final decision was tied around the great horned owl who was (damn her) still a bit taller than the boy.

The raccoon boy shakily used his claws to sever the rope tying the letter on and unfolded it, exceedingly careful.

A moment of silence.

"I GOT IN, I GOT IN, I'M GETTING' OUT OF THIS BLOODY HELLHOLE, I GOT IN!"

The raccoon boy practically bounced around the room, his tail waving in mad excitement as he enthusiastically jumped up onto one of his many piles of books and found a very dog eared, chewed on pen (like the muggles had). Quickly, in his best chicken scratch, he wrote a proud 'I accept' on a scrap of a book and, with an afterthought, scribbled on an addition.

The owl stared at him, and said in her deep voice, "Please tell me you're not cursing out your professors already, Rocket."

The raccoon boy snorted. "'Course not. Just gotta make sure they remember my proper name, not that crap I used to be saddled with." He looked over his letter carefully to make sure it was actually legible.

It read:

'I accept.

Remember to fix your books so I'm Rocket Raccoon. I ain't one of them no more.'

The boy nodded in satisfaction and tied the letter around the owl's leg. He eyed the owl calculatingly. "Ya think you can give me a lift out of this joint?"

The owl glared at him. "I'm no pack animal and your vocabulary is deplorable. But fine. Otherwise, we'll never get out of this place."

"We?"

"Yes, we. How else were you planning on getting to school? Going to ride the train from King's Cross Station? You'd get shot on suspicion of being rabid."

The boy growled at the owl in annoyance before frowning in thought. "We're gonna have to stop by Diagon Alley then. Gringotts is there, right? I can get some gold out of my trust fund that even my damn family couldn't touch."

The owl sighed. "We better get going. You are ready?"

Rocket bared his teeth in a grin. "Let's blow this joint."

*0*0*0*

The pygmy owl darted through the thick trees surrounding the large manor house, its speckled wings catching the light of the sun that reached through the woods. Twilight was beginning to fall on the forest, but the owl, who had flown for a most of the day, was determined to reach its destination before night truly fell.

Speeding up, the owl swooped upward, finding, with ease of familiarity, the semi-concealed owl entrance.

The owl emerged over a long mahogany table, which was covered with beautiful dishes, and elaborate paintings hanging from the walls.

With a twitch of its short wings, the owl confidently soared towards a small door that led off the huge dining room. It was almost hidden, but the owl had been there the previous year on the boy's eleventh birthday.

The smaller room was part of the kitchen, and there, motionlessly sitting on a tall stool, was a tall, muscular, twelve year old boy. The boy was staring at the red markings that covered his skin. The curling red runes and designs were embedded into his entire body, curling all along his arms and reaching up, around his eyes.

The boy was unfolding and refolding a very crinkled, slightly ripped sheet of paper. It was a thoughtless action, one born of desperation for one last shred of comfort from the words of the dead.

As the owl entered the kitchen with a quiet flap of its wings, the boy's head jerked, his pale eyes immediately finding the new threat and his body stiffening with its unnatural strength.

Recognizing the owl, he let a low rush of breath escape him, his muscles relaxing slowly. He smiled softly at the owl, reaching out one large hand and allowing the bird to land on it gingerly. With one gentle finger, the boy stroked the owl's feathers before slipping the letter free of its loose bindings to the owl. He was thankful for the lack of ties and small knots, as that would have resulted badly for that letter.

The boy unfolded the letter slowly. It read:

'Mr. Shafiq,

We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

We are pleased to hear that you have recovered from the incident that occurred last summer and are looking forward to seeing you at school.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress'

The boy lowered his head, his hands instinctively closing on the letter.

An incident, an incident.

That was the best word they could use to describe the murder of his muggle-born mother and his sister by Ronan's lackeys, the last of the Death Eaters.

And his own, unnatural survival.

He should've died that night. To any other human, the wounds would've been fatal, but not for him. Not for the boy who had potion-induced superstrength.

The boy blinked back tears before reaching over and quickly writing an acceptance. The only way to ever get revenge for his family, against Ronan, he would have to learn his magic and how to channel it.

Drax wasn't the most patient of boys, but he would give his mother and sister peace and allow his father to finally rest easily again.

No matter what.

*0*0*0*

Several hours later, a figure watched an ancient castle that would soon flood with students once more. In the late of the night, four owls of differing sizes and temperaments soared towards it, gliding over the tree-like creature.

The creature watched them, a soft smile on its wooden face.

There was something in the wind, the creature thought. The trees were whispering more actively than they had in the decades he had lived there.

He saw the largest of the owls dive down into the forest, rising back up a minute or so later, having lost the odd lump on her back, and beating her wings quickly to catch up to the others.

With care, Groot uprooted himself from his favorite patch of soil, and walked through the forest towards where the owl had dropped her… passenger?

It was going to be an interesting year.

*0*0*0*

So, there it is. I would adore any reviews/comments/remarks that you feel like giving. Who was your favorite to hear about? Who's introduction made you the most curious? What Houses do you think they'll be in? (That last one is already decided, though I'm curious to know what you guys'll think.)

And please, help me convince my sister to get a fanfiction account so I can point any complaints about it to her (I blame her for everything, mwhahaha).

See ya next time!

Scales