Author's Note – I was approached not too long ago by the amazing Rogercat about an idea she had. I listened to it, added my thoughts to it and before long, we had a huge wombat on our hands to try to write out and put to rest. It's been fun working with her so far, and it's also amazing just how in synch our thoughts are in regards to the characters and how things should go. I'm so happy she emailed me because it gives me a chance to expand my Tolkien knowledge as well as a chance to work with a talented author.

A serious thanks goes to my mother for beta reading this.

Warnings – This is going to be a massive alternate universe for "Harry Potter" and "the Hobbit." We have a female Harry, massive changes to how things are handled, and an addition to the company of Thorin Oakenshield. Like we said, massive alternate universe so you have been warned!

Disclaimer – We do not own "Harry Potter," "the Silmarillion," and "the Hobbit." We don't make money from this story.

Chapter One – A New Adventure Begins

The sound of the train whistle signaled that it was time for the school train to leave King's Cross Station, and it was the first noise that filled the silent compartment once the teenagers had settled comfortably for their ride to school. It also seemed to alert one particular person that talking was a good idea, and she broke the silence.

"Hari, could you please lower the newspaper for a moment? And Ron, can you wait with the snacks for a moment?" a bushy-haired young girl asked, while the red haired boy beside her took a bite of a piece of chocolate.

On the seat facing them, a newspaper was slowly lowered to reveal a second girl, with black hair bound in a tight braid that was tossed over one shoulder. The eyes behind her old glasses was green, but what stood out was a scar on her forehead, shaped like a lightning bolt.

Hari tilted her head, looking at her best friend curiously.

"What is it, Mione," she asked, folding the paper to set aside so she could focus on the girl.

"You have been reading that muggle newspaper since yesterday; what is going on? It can't be Sirius Black since what you're reading isn't an everyday newspaper."

Hari held up the newspaper again, revealing it to be a monthly muggle newspaper about the supernatural. It was something she'd stumbled on when she'd looked through the newsstand while waiting for time to board the train.

"That's a bit unusual for you to be reading, isn't it," Hermione asked.

"It is, but something's been weird lately. You remember me telling you about the dreams I had occasionally as a kid? Well, I've been getting more flashes of them lately and was hoping I'd find more information on what they could be," she admitted. "It's a bit of a stretch, but no resource goes untapped, right?"

Hermione could see nothing strange in that; she and Ron were used to the fact that Hari had strange dreams at times and really, given that it had been happening to her since childhood, it could mean something. She had to admit she was proud of her friend for taking the initiative to find out what this possibly could be.

"Don't look at me, I don't know anything about this." Ron said.

Hari laughed softly, used to seeing that look on her friend's face. Poor Ron, although he was born in a wizarding family, he could be just as clueless as herself and Hermione. She thought it was because they all were still very young, just starting their third year at Hogwarts.

"Although, speaking of Black, I didn't tell you guys what Mr. Weasley said to me yesterday," she told them. "Apparently, Black has stronger ties to my family than I thought and he said he might be looking for me. Figures, right? I can't seem to have one school year without something going nutty."

All three of them shuddered at the memory of the first two years at Hogwarts. As if the first one had not been bad enough with the philosopher's stone, the second one with the basilisk and Chamber of Secrets had been even worse.

"I'll be honest with you; with all the shite going on, I'm starting to wonder if transferring to another school out of Europe wouldn't be a better option for me. Three years of this is too much; our education is suffering for it, and I'm really sick of fighting for my life every year. How's it possible that we're the only ones figuring out the plots? I mean, we're smart but come on!"

At first, Ron and Hermione was shocked by her words. But as they started to think back, it made sense. Perhaps a different school would be better but on the other hand, it would be pretty expensive for the Weasley family to send Ron to a different school.

"If it's something I can afford, I'll pay for you two," she said. "It's partly my fault your educations got so messed up. The rest is on the teachers for not fixing it and leaving it to students to clean up the mess."

"Hari, you are the one who started the friendship between you and Ron back on our first journey here to Hogwarts and I ended up joining you two later. This friendship is something neither of us want to give up because it means so much to us. Isn't that payment enough?"

"Yeah, I think it is. There are others here at Hogwarts who you also protect without knowing about it. Simply being friends with us makes you a head figure for muggle-borns and pure-bloods who don't act like Malfoy."

Almost on clue as Ron spoke, said heir to the Malfoy family showed up in the door, holding his head high in his classic high-and-mighty way. Hari glared at him, knowing that she couldn't allow a fight to break out since there was the presence of the sleeping teacher in their compartment. Fortunately, Malfoy noticed it too and hurried off.

She sighed, looking to her friends.

"I never asked to be the figure-head or any of this. I just want to be a normal teenager," Hari said. "Who said it was a good idea to drop all this onto the shoulders of a child anyway?"

Neither one of the three spoke, wondering the same thing. Sure, Hari couldn't help that she was caught in a reputation that had been built up over the last twelve years since her mysterious survival of the Killing Curse, but it was still strange in some way. Why had she, a one-year-old toddler, survived a curse which normally killed everything it was sent at? More to the point, why would a dark lord want to kill a child anyway?

Hari sighed, looking out the window. It was raining, which didn't bother her too much, but she noticed something odd. The train was slowing down.

"Wait a moment, we shouldn't be stopping since we're hours away from the school," she pointed out, then blinked when the power went out. "What in Merlin's name?"

Without any logical reason for it, the compartment became unexpectedly cold to the point that the water in Ron's glass froze to ice and their breaths become smoke. All three of them were freezing in their clothes, which were meant for summer. It was never this cold in September considering it was just the start of autumn!

Hedwig, Hari's snowy owl, moved nervously in her cage, and Hermione's new cat, Crookshanks, hissed from his place in her arms.

"Hermione, can you use that fire spell you used on Snape in our first year? We need to get some heat?" Ron asked with his teeth chattering as he sat at the window. Hari nodded, also wanting some warmth.

Before Hermione could do as he asked, the compartment door opened and the temperature plummeted. They could barely make out the figure clad in robes, much like the pictures of the grim reaper, and Hari's breath caught in her throat as it looked at her.

She heard a scream, and something ripping in her mind before it went dark. Her body hit the floor since she was trapped in her mind, unable to break free.

A deep voice spoke, making her ears hurt as it demanded to know where they were. She kept trying to answer, but she felt agony running through her as well as defiance. She had to keep them safe; she had to!

"S-stop...p-please...p-please…!"

Why was her whole body hurting like it was about to be torn apart? Who did the cold voice belong to? And what or who needed to be kept safe?

Mentally, Hari moved her lips but no sound came out other than her gasp of pain. Suddenly, the witch felt as if something was hitting her back, almost like a whip and both of her hands felt like that time in preschool when she had broken several fingers in an accident Dudley and his gang of bullies had caused. She felt herself cry out in pain; her lips were forming a name or a word she did not know. The girl only knew that she wanted someone to make it stop hurting!

"Hari! Hari, wake up!"

The familiar voice pulled her out of the dream, and her eyes opened to focus on the worried expressions on the faces of her friends and the man who had been resting in their compartment.

"Wh..what happened," the girl asked them in a very weak voice. She felt horribly weak, and it was a struggle to simply roll over to sit up. Hari tried to not have her breakfast leave her stomach when a sudden phantom pain in her body nearly overtook her.

"Dementor," the man answered. "They feast on your memories, and it can be very detrimental to anyone around them. Here, eat this chocolate and rest. I need to speak to the driver."

It was obvious he was angry, but he handed the children the bar of Honeydukes' finest chocolate before leaving. Hari did not trust herself to eat anything yet for a couple of moments, fearing that she would throw up for real if she tried. She raised her hands, which were still trembling, and felt some small relief at seeing that they were unharmed with no sign of injury. It had felt so horribly real, a far more stronger pain what the Dursleys ever had caused. While her aunt, uncle and cousin were far from the nicest people in the world, she had a strange feeling that the person in the dream was far, far worse.

"Who was he? For some reason he felt familiar," she murmured to herself, catching Ron and Hermione's attention.

"He? Who, Hari," Ron asked.

"I don't know; it was something that I heard when the dementor thing came in," she admitted, frowning when he broke a chunk off of the chocolate bar the teacher had meant for her and plopped it into her mouth before she could close it.

At the glare, he shook his head and handed the rest to her.

"Standard treatment for anyone who's been near a dementor," he said. "Teacher knows at least one thing. Eat this or you'll be in your usual bed in the infirmary right when you step foot into the school."

Hari made a face at hearing that; she had no wish to enter the infirmary on the very first night back at Hogwarts! She slowly ate the chocolate, feeling warmth return to her body.

"It does work," she murmured between bites. Yet for some reason, the feeling of being in danger did not leave her.

The train ride went on, and it seemed that the usual energy that filled the train due to the excitement of the students had been dulled a great deal thanks to the dementor.

Author's End Note – We thank you so much for taking a chance on this story and hope that you will continue to join us for the adventure. Please let us know what you thought of the tale. See you all next week! ~ Laran and Rogercat.