DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. The Oz series was originally created by L. Frank Baum and is now owned by the International Wizard of Oz Club and Walt Disney Pictures Inc. while the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz was produced by Metro Golden Meyer though recently re-released by Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N This fic is essentially divided into two parts. The first part of the fic is where I have our beloved Hogwarts Characters essentially go on a quick tour of Oz meeting various Oz citizens. The latter part is of course where the main plot finally gets underway. Sorry the plot of this fic has been coming slow but I really want spend sometime writing up about the various Oz characters because who knows if I'll ever get the chance to work with them again.
Chapter 7: In the Pumpkin Patch
"What is that?" exclaimed Harry. Their boat had left the blue landscape of the Munchkin Country and was now drifting along the yellow lands of the Winkie country. They were sailing past a vast cornfield that covered the surrounding land in a yellowish gold. But what had caught Harry's attention was the giant corncob standing in the middle of the field quite a distance away: Harry's vantage point, appeared to be larger than even the largest house.
Hermione, Crookshanks, the Scarecrow, and Tiktok glanced over the boat's edge toward the giant corncob. "That would be my corncob mansion," said the Scarecrow. "My home if you will. I would be delighted to give you a grand tour but right now we need to head for our destination for tonight."
"It looks like a giant corn on the cob," said Crookshanks.
"That's precisely what it is," said the Scarecrow. "Hollowed out and furnished for residential purposes of course."
"If we're not stopping there, where are we heading?" asked Hermione.
"Our fin-nal des-ti-na-tion is the Tin Cas-tle," said Tiktok. "But we will spend to-night at Jack Pump-kin-head's house. We will ar-rive at the Tin Cas-tle to-mor-row."
Soon, the yellow of the cornfields turned to large tracks of orange of pumpkins. These pumpkins were generally larger than average, but these weren't necessarily unique as Hagrid's own pumpkin patch back at Hogwarts had many similar sized pumpkins.
The ship soon came to a stop on the shore. At the entrance of the pumpkin patch, they came across several tombstones in front of grave mounds. The first one read, "Here Lies the Mortal Part of JACK PUMPKINHEAD Which Spoiled April 9th". The second one read, "Here Lies the Mortal Part of JACK PUMPKINHEAD Which Spoiled October 2nd". The third read "Here Lies the Mortal Part of JACK PUMPKINHEAD Which Spoiled January 24th" and so on: the rest had similar epitaphs of various dates.
"What's this? Did the same person just die over and over again?" asked Harry.
"No. Jack simply needs to replace his head every time his old one spoils," said the Scarecrow.
The Scarecrow and Tiktok led the party through the pumpkin patch. Soon, they came across the single largest pumpkin in the field. It was a monstrous big, hollow pumpkin, which had a door and windows cut through the rind. There was a stovepipe running through the stem, and six steps had been built leading up to the front door. Next to the door was an old mahogany rocking chair and seated on that chair was a strange man wearing a spotted shirt, a red vest, and faded blue trousers, whose body was merely sticks of wood, jointed clumsily together. On his neck was set a round, yellow pumpkin, with a face carved on it such as one often carves on a jack-o-lantern. He didn't appear to notice his guests until Harry exclaimed, "Holy Cow! What is that?"
"That, my friend, is Jack Pumpkinhead," said the Scarecrow. "Hello Jack, I see you're looking well."
"That would depend on what you mean by 'well'," said Jack Pumpkinhead. "If you mean that my newest head hasn't spoiled yet, then I suppose I am well and will remain so for several months."
"Your cur-rent head a-ppears to be ra-ther in-tel-li-gent. Smart-er than the last one at least," said Tiktok.
"I just had the pumpkin seeds replaced the other day," said Jack, tapping the shell of his pumpkin head. "They're rather fresh."
"He's a very interesting fellow," said Crookshanks.
"Jack, these are Harry, Hermione, and Crookshanks," said the Scarecrow.
"My pleasure to meet all of you," said Jack. He turned to the Scarecrow and Tiktok and said, "By the way, there's someone here waiting for you to come back." Just as Jack said this, someone emerged from his house. It was a young girl of around 12 with a full head of shoulder length blonde hair held in place with a hair band. At her feet was a small dog, apparently some kind of terrier. As soon as she saw the Scarecrow, she shrieked and tackled him in a strong hug. The Scarecrow looked somewhat startled.
"Dorothy? What are you doing here? It's too dangerous. You're supposed to be waiting for us at the Tin Castle," he said.
"I was. But the Wizard said that you would be bringing friends with you and I just had to meet them," said the girl in a distinct mid-western American accent. She turned to Harry and Hermione and curtsied. "Hello, I am Dorothy Gale." She gestured to her dog and said, "And this is Toto."
Hermione returned the greeting but Harry looked stunned and remained speechless. Finally, he managed to exclaim, "You're blonde?!"
Dorothy looked confused. "Yes," she said.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Out of all the questions I expected you to ask upon meeting her from 'I thought you went back to Kansas' to 'when did you come back to Oz?' the one you ask her is about her hair color."
Harry turned to Hermione looking flustered. "But the movie... I thought..."
"Only because Judy Garland didn't suit a blonde wig," said Hermione. "They originally wanted Shirley Temple for the role."
"Well OK," said Harry. He turned to Dorothy and asked, "So why are you back in Oz? I thought you went back to Kansas."
"I traveled back and forth between Kansas and the fairy lands several times," said Dorothy. "Then, Uncle Henry's farm ran into some trouble, they said it was going to be shut down and we were going to be evicted. So, I asked Ozma to bring Uncle Henry and Auntie Em here with me and we've been living in Oz ever since."
Meanwhile, Toto had caught sight of Crookshanks. He started barking at the feline intending to chase him off as soon as Crookshanks bolted. Crookshanks however merely looked annoyed as he puffed up the fur on his back and hissed. Having never encountered a cat considerably bigger than him, Toto backed up behind Dorothy and started whimpering.
"That'll teach any dog to mess with me," snapped Crookshanks.
"Toto," admonished Dorothy as she scooped up her dog. "You know you're not supposed pick on cats."
Toto looked astonished. "Me pick on that cat?" he exclaimed. "Why, that cat is more likely to pick on me!"
"Nah, wouldn't dream of it," said Crookshanks, as he started to lick his paw.
"Toto can talk as well?" asked Harry.
"Yes," said Hermione. "If I remember correctly, he hid the fact that he could talk for quite some time."
Dorothy looked toward Hermione. "You seem to know a lot. Have you read Mr. Baum's books?"
Hermione beamed. "All of them."
"How is Mr. Baum these days?" asked Dorothy with a smile. "I haven't heard from him in years."
Hermione's face dropped. "Um, L. Frank Baum died nearly 80 years ago."
Dorothy looked crestfallen. "He's...dead?" she asked. When Hermione nodded sadly Dorothy continued speaking, "Oh my, I've been living in Oz for so long I had completely forgotten about how much time has passed in the outside world. Nobody ages in Oz so I s'pose I must've forgotten that people outside grow old and die." Dorothy hugged Toto close. "The Shaggy Man used to work the telegram, that's how I sent all of our adventures to Mr. Baum. He was the Royal Historian of Oz. I can't believe I never realized that he was gone."
"Not to bo-ther a-ny thing but it is get-ting dark and we should go in-side," said Tiktok. Dorothy broke off from her rant and looked somewhat sheepish.
"I s'pose you're right Tiktok," she said. "I'm going to take you to the Tin Castle tomorrow. Your friends are waiting for you there."
Harry and Hermione looked surprised. "Ron and the others are here?" exclaimed Harry. "I was under the impression that we left them behind in Scotland."
"We needed the help of as many people we could gain," said the Scarecrow. "Anyway, we should really go inside. I wouldn't want to run into any Nomes or Death Eaters tonight."
"I can cook up a nice dinner for you flesh folks if you like," said Jack. "People say I make the best pumpkin pie in Oz." Harry and Hermione grinned, as they were rather hungry.
* * *
That night, Harry was walking through the pumpkin patch underneath the stars. Like the previous night, his eyes were focused primarily on the star his godfather was named after. He had come along way but the death of Sirius still haunted him during the nights. This particular night however, that was not the only thing troubling him.
The Prophecy weighed heavily on his mind, like it did every night since he learned of it. The thought that he had to either become a murderer or be murdered. Harry didn't know for sure whether or not he would've actually been able to handle it back when he was 11 years old when he first asked Dumbledore that question, but he knew that he had to learn to handle it now.
"Harry? What are you doing out here?" It was only then that Harry noticed that Hermione had joined him in the field. "It's dangerous out here at night," she said.
"I could say the same to you," he said. He sat down on a rather large pumpkin and Hermione joined him on it.
"Have you been thinking about Sirius again?" Hermione asked.
Harry hesitated for a bit before he said, "Sort of... no not really. More like about what I learned the night he died."
Hermione's eyes widened a little. "Do you mean the prophecy? But I thought it was smashed. Did you hear what it said amongst all that chaos?"
"Didn't have to. Dumbledore already knew it. He was the one who originally heard Trelawny make the prophecy."
"Trelawny?" Harry nearly laughed at the look on Hermione's face.
"Yeah, first of only two accurate prophecies she's ever made," said Harry. Then, he recited straight from memory: "THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD APPROACHES... BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED, BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES... AND THE DARK LORD WILL MARK HIM AS HIS EQUAL, BUT HE WILL HAVE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT... AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES... THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD WILL BE BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES..."
Hermione was silent for a moment before she whispered, "That's... that's you."
Harry laughed humorlessly. "Actually, if you think about it in terms of simply a wizard born at the end of July 16 years ago to parents who escaped Voldemort three times, then it would refer to either me or Neville Longbottm. However, this," he pointed at his scar, "proves that the prophecy refers to me. I was the one Voldemort felt more threatened by and I was the one he marked as his equal."
"Oh Harry." Hermione leaned in to give him a hug and winced as some pain shot through her chest.
"Why are you still with me?" asked Harry.
Hermione was clearly surprised by his question. "I beg your pardon?"
"Why are you still here? Why aren't you running away far as you can? You've already been hurt once and that's not the first time you came close to death! You could be killed if you're with me! Didn't you hear? I've got a death sentence hanging over my head and the only way I can escape from it is if I become a murderer myself! I'm a curse to myself, and to those closest to me! So after all this, why do you still insist on being with me?"
Hermione said nothing; it appeared that she was carrying out an internal debate. Finally, she appeared to come to a conclusion and asked, "Tell me Harry, were the contents of the prophecy really that much of a surprise to you?"
Harry was taken aback a little. However, he quickly realized that she was right: he had always known in the back of his mind ever since his first year that in the end, it would come down to him and Voldemort. The prophecy was simply a confirmation of something he had always known. "No," he honestly answered.
"Neither was it to me, Harry," said Hermione. "Remember, I knew who you were before we became friends. I knew that being with you wouldn't be a walk in the park. But really, what friendship is? You have been everything to me Harry," she drew Harry into a hug, ignoring the pain in her chest. "I would live for you. I would die for you. I would do anything for you. Even if I disagree with you, I will try to make you see my point, but I will still be by your side. I have never had any doubts in my mind that I will always, always be by your side, even if you are one day fated to kill Voldemort. I am forever yours, Harry Potter."
"Why?" whispered Harry.
"Because you have that power Voldemort doesn't have," said Hermione. "You have a power so strong that it frightens me but it also draws me: the power that has saved your life from Voldemort so many times. Remember what I told back in our first year? Your power is friendship," she gently kissed Harry on his left cheek, "bravery," she kissed him on his other cheek, "and love." Leaning forward, Hermione gently brought her own lips to Harry's.
Harry froze as Hermione continued to kiss him, the thoughts running through his head ranging from, 'She's kissing me! Why is Hermione kissing me?' to 'Damn, she's one heck of a kisser!' Harry only had one previous experience with kissing with Cho and that had in a word been 'wet'. Kissing Hermione was anything but 'wet': Harry realized that even if Hermione had been crying buckets he still wouldn't have thought kissing her was 'wet'. Kissing Hermione felt so right, so complete, made him think forbidden thoughts, and made him want to do all sorts things with her body (and what a gorgeous body it was) which he shouldn't have been thinking about with his best friend: stuff which Crookshanks had fondly referred to as 'mating'. Before Harry had really comprehended what was going on, he was kissing her back with full abandon. This brought out a moan from Hermione, which drove Harry crazy.
Finally, they pulled apart. Harry's formerly sullen look had been replaced by a confused, yet goofy grin. Hermione giggled at the look on his face.
"I was right!" she exclaimed.
"Right about what?" asked Harry.
"I was right about what I said last December. You really are a great kisser!"
A/N Sorry this chapter took such a long time to arrive but I've been so busy recently. People can read my livejournal for details: www.livejournal.com/users/ecrpotter. Anyway, somebody's been harassing me to write these chapters faster. Please stop this, I have a life you know! I don't spend 24/7 writing Harry Potter fanfics!