Harry found himself sitting at a table that was in the old man's home. The old man's home wasn't small, but it wasn't large either. There was a fire place directly across from the table, the fire crackled as its flames licked the top of the fire place. The old man had brought Hermione into his bedroom so he could take care of her. Harry sighed and thought back to what had happened an hour ago. He still couldn't get the image of the soldiers massacring the men who had tried to protect Narshe out of his head.

'What have we gotten ourselves into?' Harry thought. Suddenly, the door to the old man's bedroom opened and the old man walked out of his room before he gently closed the door behind him.

"Is Hermione going to be okay?" Harry asked.

The old man nodded. "Luckily she didn't have too high of a fever, all she needs now is a bit of rest and she'll be good as new."

Harry sighed in relief. So far there was one worry off his mind, now that Hermione was going to be alright, he felt like he could rest a bit easier. The old man went into his kitchen and came back out with two steaming mugs. The old man handed one of the mugs to Harry, who looked at it with apprehension.

"What's in it?" Harry asked.

"It's tea." The old man said. "You should drink it; it'll help you get warmed up."

Harry took the mug the old man offered him and took a sip, there didn't seem to be anything to be wrong with it, so Harry assumed that the tea was safe.

Harry put the mug down on the table and looked at the old man. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." the old man said. "There's something I wanted to ask you."

"What is it?" Harry asked.

The old man took a sip of tea and put the mug back on the table. "I've never seen you two around these parts before. You two weren't dressed for the weather, you don't seem to be from Figaro Castle, and you clearly aren't soldiers of the Empire."

"The two of you are foreigners, that much is obvious." the old man said. "Where are you from?"

"We were at Hogwarts." Harry said. Upon seeing the old man's confused stare, Harry continued. "It's a school in Scotland, and-"

"Scotland?" the old man asked. "I've never heard of a land called 'Scotland'."

Harry blinked. "How have you never heard of Scotland?" he asked. "It's part of Great Britain."

The old man stared at Harry blankly, and Harry decided to explain a bit further. "You know Great Britain? It's located in Europe. You know what Europe is, right? It's one of the seven continents on Earth?"

No matter what Harry tried, nothing that he said seemed to jog anything in the old man's mind. In fact, Harry's explanation seemed to only confuse the old man further.

"Hang on, I'll be right back." the old man said. He got up from the table and went into his bedroom before he quickly came back out with a rolled piece of parchment in his hand. The old man put the piece of parchment onto the table and rolled it out, revealing that it was a map. Harry looked at the map and saw that there was a large landmass on the northern portion of the map that had thick, mountainous regions, wide grassy plains, a desert near the southern tip of the landmass. Directly south from the landmass was a smaller landmass that wasn't quite as mountainous as the northern landmass, it had a few grassy plains and a small desert.

The old man pointed a spot tucked underneath a northern mountain range. "This is Narshe, that's where we are right now."

The old man turned to look at Harry, who was intently staring at the map.

'I don't understand, this map doesn't look familiar at all!' Harry thought to himself. 'Is it possible that we've been transported to another world!?'

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.

.

Hermione found herself piloting a strange machine that had a draconic appearance into a mine alongside two other men that were dressed in military attire. Hermione found the scene strange; her mind was in a haze and she felt like she was in a dream. Or maybe she was wide awake? It was hard for her to tell at this point. Everything felt so real...

"Hey, why are you dozing off!?" the man to Hermione's right shouted. "Now's not the time for you to be staring off into space!"

"Do you think that the Slave Crown is weakening Biggs?" the man to Hermione's left asked. "I thought that it was supposed to keep her under control for longer than this..."

Biggs shook his head. "I don't think so Wedge, she still seems to be under the Crown's effects."

Wedge frowned. "Are you sure Biggs?"

"Yes, I'm sure." Biggs said. "If I'm wrong, we'll take her back to the empire after we've finished our mission and tell the scientists to make the crown stronger, it's as simple as that."

"I guess you have a point." Wedge said. "I'm just worried that something will go wrong..."

Biggs rolled his eyes. "You're always worried. Anyway, let's move out!"

Hermione, Biggs, and Wedge proceed deeper into the dark, damp mine. Eventually they reached a barricade, which Biggs smashed through with ease. On the other side of the barricade were a few guards and what looked like a giant snail monster.

"We won't hand over the Esper!" one of the guards shouted. "Ymir! Get them!"

The snail monster shrieked and slithered towards Hermione, Biggs, and Wedge.

"Really, do you think a snail is going to stop us!?" Wedge shouted. "Stand back you two, I think I can handle this on my own!"

"Hold it!" Biggs shouted. "Think back to our briefing..."

Wedge frowned. "What about it!?"

"Do you recall about hearing about the monster that eats lightning..." Biggs trailed off.

Wedge's eyes widened. "...And stores the energy in its shell!"

Biggs nodded. "Right. So whatever you do, don't attack the shell!"

Ymir rose its head high into the air and attempted to slam it down on top of Hermione and the others. Hermione manage to dash out of the way at the last moment, and the monster's head crashed into the ground which sent shards of rock flying into the air. A shard of rock cut Hermione's right cheek, causing a tiny amount of blood to drip from her wound.

The front of Biggs's machine opened, and a ball of fire began to form. "Take this!" Biggs shouted as the ball exploded outwards into a beam that struck the monster in the face. Ymir squealed in pain as its face was burned, it pulled its head back into its shell when it saw Wedge rushing towards it. Once Wedge was past Hermione, she grabbed the arm of his machine and held him in place.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" Wedge shouted. "Let me go! I'm going to finish it off!"

"Idiot! Did you already forget what we talked about!?" Biggs shouted. "If you had hit it then you would've been struck down by its lightning attack!"

"Oh, that's right..." Wedge trailed off.

"Listen, once the monster pops its head out, grab it and then the girl will finish it off with missiles." Biggs said. "We don't have time to waste, so don't let it stick its head back into its shell."

Wedge nodded, and the three of them waited until Ymir stuck its head out. Wedge immediately stuck the claws of his machine into Ymir's flesh, causing the monster to shriek as it attempted to escape from Wedge's grasp. Wedge firmly planted the machine's feet against the ground in order to stop himself from letting go of Ymir.

"Hey girl, what are you waiting for!?" Wedge shouted. "Fire the missiles!"

Hermione's body moved on its own accord and pressed a red button that was on top of the control stick for the machine, which caused missiles to fire out from an opening on the front of the machine. The missiles streaked through the air as they crashed into Ymir, which triggered a large explosion that vaporized the monster. The guards who had been watching the battle unfold fled out of the mines as Hermione's group approached what they had been guarding. A strange creature was encased in ice, and even though Hermione knew that she had never seen this creature before she felt an odd connection with it. White light began to illuminate the cave, engulfing Hermione and the others.

"Hey! What's the matter? Do you know something we don't?" Wedge asked as the light grew brighter, "W-where's that light coming from!?"

Wedge let out a loud scream as he was vaporized, and Biggs was vaporized soon after his friend. The light grew even brighter, to the point where it was blinding. And then-

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The light faded once Hermione opened her eyes. She found herself lying in bed in an uncomfortable room. Harry was sitting right next to her, and his eyes widened when he noticed Hermione was awake.

"I'm glad that you're awake." Harry said. "Hermione, there's something you need to know."

"What is it?" Hermione asked.

"I don't think we're on our own Earth anymore..."