"Wait, what?!" Spiderman, Peter and Gwen blurted out at the same time. "This guy...you...you're saying he did something to me?!" Spiderman demanded.
"No, I'm saying it's possible that he did something to you," The Ancient One replied as she walked over to the washing machine, she hummed thoughtfully before pressing a button on it, she seemed genuinely disappointed when it did nothing.
"He might have messed with my magic, that's what you're implying?" Spiderman demanded as she continued to fiddle around with the washing machine.
"More or less," She nodded. "Please come here for a moment," She requested, gesturing him over.
"What is this guy's name?" He asked as he walked over. "And what's his problem with me?"
"His name is 'Tibet El Merio'," She began explaining. "He was a lost traveller who one day showed up at my doorstep, looking for a purpose, I tried to find him one but he never seemed to be satisfied with anything that I could offer. Then he went to find you and became even more secretive than he normally was. Touch this washing machine please, there you go,"
"What are you-" He trailed off, watching as the machine shimmered out of existence along with the entire wall behind it, revealing what seemed to be a large cave tunnel. "-How did you-"
"If he is truly using your magic to power his defences like I expect he is then it's quite possible that your magic will recognise you as 'friendly' and not attack you, more or less," She hummed as she walked into the tunnel, a small torch light appeared in the palm of her hand. "Are you coming?" She asked, without looking back at him.
"If my magic is supposedly what's powering everything, then I'm completely safe here, right?" Harry asked, looking around, feeling a chilly wind passing through him as he noted a cave wall appearing right behind him, leaving him trapped in the cave tunnel.
"Your magic should be serving as a battery at this point, it should recognise you but that's no guarantee of safety," She said, walking down the tunnel with him right by her. "If your magic powers a magical trip wire then it won't keep you safe if it's tripped, it is entirely dependent on the defences themselves. If it's a magical ward then you should be alright,"
"Yeah, well...stop!" He said, grabbing her by her robe and stopping her from moving forward.
"What is it?" She asked curiously.
"The floor," He said, pointing downwards. "There's something there, something dangerous."
"How would you know that?" She said, staring down.
"Call it a 'spider sense'," He replied, jumping up and twisting so his feet landed on the ceiling. "Wait a sec," He told her, walking forwards. After several moments he stopped and dropped down to the ground, now several meters away from the ancient one. "Around here is safe," He told her before looking behind himself and seeing nothing but more cave tunnels, he felt a bit of movement behind himself and let out a sigh. "If you're going to make things so easy then I'm going to start questioning the need for my involvement." He said, turning back and seeing the Ancient One right next to him with a smirk on her face.
"You're hardly useless here," She told him. "If not for you, I would have taken ages getting past the first defence and I could have possibly been injured by the second one. You are already more than useful,"
"Why not use your portals to hurry to him?" He asked as they continued walking.
"That's the thing about magic, it's never perfect. Pretty much all methods of magical transport can be prevented in some way or form, I brought us as close as I could with my portals. Brain and might do the rest with a little help from legs, of course."
"Of course," He said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "So, this 'Tibet' guy, what can you tell me about him?"
"He was a hard-working student, rarely ever caused problems. But he was lonely, and never really melded nicely with the others. Except one, a short while ago he became sweet on one of my newer students. Often tutored her, and would spend his every bit of free time with her. He seemed happy, happier than I had ever seen him. And then she during an accident she...watch out!" A large circular, glowing orange shield appeared in front of them, stopping a series of metal spears. "That was close," She sighed, looking to her left, only to blink when she saw Spiderman wasn't there.
"I can do the disappearing thing as well," A voice whispered from the right, she turned and nearly jumped back when she saw Spiderman hanging upside down from the ceiling. "How many defences do you reckon are in this place?"
"We won't know till we stumble upon them," She told him honestly, looking forward. She took in a small breath before she looked back and found that he was no longer there.
"What are you waiting for?" He called, she turned and saw he was suddenly standing two meters in front of her. "Hurry it up, slowpoke."
"Is that really necessary?" She asked, walking over.
"Just saying that if you're going to do the whole 'Batman-disappear and reappear-when-you're-not-looking-trick' then I'm going to do the same," He said as they started walking again. "So, when you find this guy, what happens then? Are you going to hail him? Kill him?" He asked seriously.
"No, I don't believe killing is necessary," She told him, just as seriously. "I intend to capture him alive and make him pay for his crime,"
"That's alright then, I'm not a fan of needless death," He replied. "I think that-" He stopped and pulled her a step backwards as a small pit appeared in front of them. He was about to comment when suddenly a snow-coloured bird flew up and landed on the ground in front of them. "Hedwig!" He gasped recognising the owl easily. "Hedwig, is that you?!"
"Hedwig?" Questioned the ancient one.
"She's an owl, my owl! My best friend! Hedwig, that's you, isn't it?" He said. "It's me, Hedwig, remember?" He asked, the owl tilted its head and chirped before flying up and landing on his shoulder, rubbing her head against his own. "How...how are you here?" He wondered as he reached up and stroked her feathers.
"Is she here?" The Ancient One wondered. "Are we sure that is actually your owl?"
"She is!" He insisted. "She's an owl, my owl! Isn't that right, girl?" He asked happily, staring right at her. She gently butts her head against his before leaping off his shoulder and flying off. "Hey, Hedwig! Wait up!" He called, running after her, easily jumping over the pit.
"Wait!" The Ancient One called, but he barely heard as he saw Hedwig turn a corner, he rushed after her and paused when he felt his spider-sense tingle, his body automatically leapt forward and rolled across the ground just as a wall of fire shot up from where he had been standing.
"That was close," He stood up and saw no sign of his favourite bird in the world, with the exception of a white feather dropped on the ground. "Hedwig!" He called, rushing forward, he turned another corner and skidded to a stop as he found himself in front of a wall made entirely of water. "Eh?" He asked intelligently.
The water wall burst, popping like a balloon, the water charged furiously towards Harry catching him and raising him into the air, spinning him around and around like a shirt in a washing machine.
'Where's Percy Jackson when you need him?' He wondered after what felt like the hundredth spin. Thankfully, he eventually stopped spinning and was able to take a look around, his gaze looked around and he needed a minute to process what was happening. He was wet, cold and deep underwater. No longer was he in the tunnel, he was in what felt like the ocean, all he could see was dark, blue water and what appeared to be a thirty-foot-long squid. By the time his brain had finished processing what was happening, he felt a large tentacle wrap around him and then toss him high up.
He burst out of the water, performed an unintentional triple summersault and landed hard on his face in what appeared to be soft grass. He coughed violently as he got to his hands and knees and lifted his mask high enough for the water to drop out and for the air to be able to come back into his mask. A minute or so later, he felt comfortable enough to lower his mask. He looked up and his heart shot into his mouth, his brain froze and his eyes widened, squinted, closed, opened and then widened once more as he took a look at what was in front of him.
Beautiful, lush grass fields filled with trees led upwards towards a large stone-made castle that stood, towering over all with windows filled with warm, bright lights, the glowing moonlight bounced off the lake behind him and reflected onto the castle, adding to its beauty. Warmth filled Harry's body faster than the water could ever hope to do so. Though that warmth was sucked out at record speed as his brain managed to fully catch up with the situation.
"Hogwarts!" He gaped as he pushed up onto his feet. "How...how the hell am I..."
"Arry, that you?" A voice called, Harry's head snapped to his left and it took a considerable amount of effort to not drop back to his knees. "Arry, what are you doing there?"
"Hagrid!" Harry gasped, hands going up to his mask, he lifted it a bit before pausing and lowering it back down. "Hagrid, is that you?" He asked suspiciously.
"Who else were ya expecting? The Minister of Magic?" Hagrid chuckled.
"Hagrid, how...how the hell am I here?" Harry blurted out. "I...I was with my friends in the other world and..."
"Other world? I didn't know you had friends in the muggle world," Hagrid frowned.
"I...no...I mean...how did I get here?" Harry also wanted to know just how Hagrid knew who he was while he was still wearing his mask, the runes he fitted into his mask should also have altered his voice.
"With your legs, I imagine," Hagrid chuckled as he walked over to Harry, dropping a large, meaty hand on Harry's shoulder. "You alright, Harry?"
"I wish," Harry sighed just before his spider-sense began pummeling his head. "What the-" Harry tried to step back when Hagrid's grip tightened. "-Hagrid? Let go of me!"
"Time to go to school, Arry," Hagrid grunted before spinning, effortlessly lifting Harry off of the ground and tossing him deep into the forest.
"What the f-" One dented tree later, Harry dropped to the ground, wondering for the hundredth time, what exactly was going on? He looked up, Hagrid was no longer there, but something else was.
Standing a small distance away was a spider, but not the regular kind, one that was roughly the size of a horse. All eight of its eyes stared at him, its fangs clicked against each other as its legs moved up and down in an erratic fashion. Harry easily recognised it, an acromantula. More clicks were heard and more spiders appeared, coming out from behind the trees and descending down on webs, climbing out of shadows until a veritable small army of spiders surrounded him.
"Harry Potter, we meet again," An old, raspy voice called from behind.
"Aragog," Harry said knowingly, turning around and seeing the giant spider standing with what felt like hundreds of acromantulas between them. Aragog was roughly the size of a large elephant, with a grey and black hairy body plus a memorable set of milky white eyes, somehow the spider had ended up blind. However, it was likely his eyes were formerly black, like the rest of the Acromantulas that were surrounding him. "It's been a long time,"
"That it has, young Potter, you're not much older than when I met you last, are you?" Aragog breathed out heavily.
"What's going on here? What's happening?" Harry demanded.
"Questions, questions, so many questions," Aragog rasped. "Worry not, young human, you won't need answers."
"And why's that?"
"What's a dead man supposed to do with answers?" Like a battle cry, the spiders all swarmed forward. Harry tried to leap up but was brought short when he felt his feet were unable to get off the ground. Looking down, there were hundreds and hundreds of regular spiders, spiders that had somehow stuck both of his feet to the ground with some really strong webs. The bigger spiders grew nearer, Harry started firing his own webs, managing to slow a few of them down, but ultimately it was hopeless in the face of so many. The spider legs shot out from his back and started piercing and slashing through any spider that got near at a rapid pace while Harry started throwing punch after punch, but it was still not enough.
Harry dropped to the ground, spiders of all sizes climbing up and around him, pushing him into the ground, climbing over his body. He tried valiantly to fight them off as best as he could, but soon he wasn't able to see anything but darkness, only able to make out the wriggling bodies of the spiders above him.
"Get...off...of...me!" Harry yelled. "I said...get...OFF!" A burst of white light shot out of him, covering the whole area. Harry opened his eyes, kipping up to his feet, ready for a fight, only to see he was no longer in the forest. He was in a large, dark room, water everywhere on the floor. Large snake statues flanked his sides and led down the room towards a stone wall, the wall was carved in the shape of a man's face, it was a wall that Harry would always remember. "No, no, not here." Harry groaned. "Please not the basilisk, please not the basilisk, please let it not be the basilisk." He hoped, only to hear a large hissing sound.
"Kill...hungry...rip...kill." The voice hissed just as the mouth of Salazar Slytherin started opening.
"Piss off, Snake!" Harry yelled, webbing the mouth as quickly as he could, stopping it in its tracks. He knew that that wouldn't hold it for long, but hopefully, it would at least slow it down enough. He turned and ran full speed in the opposite direction, and as a spider-enhanced individual, he could run really fast. He charged straight towards the door and slammed his shoulder into it as hard as he could, smashing through it and falling to the ground. He got up and paused as he saw that he was in a tunnel, but not one of the tunnels from the chamber of secrets. "Are you kidding me?" He hissed as he got up and started walking. "I got a feeling I know where this is," He grunted as he started walking, following the tunnel up into what appeared to be a rundown and abandoned building. "Yep, the Shrieking Shack," He nodded as he quickly made his way to the exit, hoping that he didn't stumble across a transformed Professor Moony as Harry was in a bad enough mood that he'd probably punch out a few of the werewolf's teeth.
Thankfully, it didn't take long, to get out of the shack. He found himself out in the grassy fields, once more staring up at Hogwarts, just like the night when he had met Sirius for the first time. He took a moment to catch his breath, to stare up at the place he considered to be his first home, to gather his thoughts. Someone - likely this 'Tibet' guy that the Ancient One mentioned - or something was messing around with and forcing him to relive his greatest hits. Unfortunately, he just went through his second year and was now seemingly in his third year, he didn't see a werewolf around, meaning he had a great idea about what was coming next.
His guess was proven right when a terrifically cold chill shot through his body, the hairs on the back of his neck tingled and he didn't need spider-sense to sense the coming danger. He shot off into a run, heading towards the castle as fast as he could. The raspy calls of the dementors could be heard behind him. Dementors were the most horrible creatures in existence as far as Harry was concerned. Black-cloaked creatures that looked like flying, deformed skeletons that would bring up your every worst memory and try to consume your soul like it was the most tasty bit of ice cream ever made. Needless to say, Harry wanted nothing to do with them.
A bright, white light shone from his left and he saw a patronus - his patronus - running a short distance away. The beautiful stag easily kept pace with him, moving closer and closer to him when suddenly it changed directions and charged.
At him.
For anyone who has never been hit by a charging stag, it hurts. Even a patronus version.
Harry crashed into a tree, for what he believed was the second time today, and bounced off of it, rolling down a hill and landing on a rock bed near a lake. On the opposite side of the lake, dementors were swarming around the fallen body of Sirius and what appeared to be his third-year self, slowly consuming the pair of them.
"No," Harry jumped to his feet, wishing as hard as he could for a wand. The patronus charm was his best spell and he couldn't even perform it, he hadn't even held a wand in years. "Damn it!" He rushed forward and jumped high in the air when his spider sense reintroduced itself with the subtlety of twenty tons of explosives. He twisted in mid-air, avoiding the trio of dementors that tried to tackle him from behind. A fourth dementor charged from the front, it snatched him out of the air before he could move and shot high up into the air. "I'm sick and tired of this!" Harry growled, clocking the dementor in the side of its head with a strong punch, causing it to let go of him.
Gravity took the wheel and pulled him straight back down towards the lake. His back crashed into the water and then he felt himself land on his feet, dry as a bone and noticeably not in water. Not for the first time in the last hour, he noticed that his location had changed. The smell of food hit him before his eyes could process what he was seeing, he recognised this hallway, having been in it hundreds of times. It was the hallway outside of the Great Hall, he could see the large doors closed and on his right.
"One moment," A voice called.
"Oh no, not her," Harry begged. "Please, not her." The doors to the hall opened and out came Professor McGonagall, she stopped and looked at Harry, not showing the slightest bit of surprise at seeing a spider-dressed individual.
"Ah, Mr Potter," She said with a deep sigh. "Where have you been? It's time for the feast, come along now."
"Professor McGonagall, huh?" Harry snorted, shooting a web line at her which she quickly blocked with a magical shield.
"Mr Potter, I..."
"Professor McGonagall doesn't ask, she orders, you're not her." He said with a shrug. "Though to be fair, the other shit I just went through is also a big clue."
"I don't know what you're talking about, but I -" Harry jumped towards her and threw a punch which passed right through her as she turned into smoke.
"Whoever is responsible for this, when I find you, I'm going to break you," Harry called out. "Slowly. If you don't want that to happen then end this, now."
The doors to the hall swung open, looking down the hall, Harry could see Professor Dumbledore sitting at his usual table, dressed exactly as how Harry remembered him. Purple, starry robes combined with a tall wizard hat made an odd look, especially on a man with a broken nose plus a waist-length silver beard and hair that descended down to the back of his legs.
"Ah, Harry," Dumbledore called, suddenly halfway down the hall, staring at him with his usual grandfatherly smile. "How are you, my dear boy?"
"Are you that guy? Tibet?" Harry questioned, slowly walking into the hall.
"You are referring to Tibet El Merio? No, no, I am not him." Dumbledore stroked his beard. "I am Dumbledore, at least as close as I could probably be."
"Is this real? Or is it just happening inside of my head?"
"Of course, it's happening inside of your head, but why should that mean that none of this is real?"
"We've not seen or heard a single thing from him in the last half-hour, I'm starting to get worried," Gwen admitted, pacing around the room.
"I'm working on it," Peter all but snapped, looking equally as stressed as the blonde girl. "I just need a minute or two to activate the tracker in his suit, then I can find him."
"And then what?" Gwen asked, rubbing her hands together.
"Depends on where he is," Peter shrugged, typing away quickly on the keyboard. "If he's on the moon then our options are pretty limited."
"He's not on the moon," She snapped. "I...is he?"
"We've got magic now, everything's up in the air," Peter responded. "I...wait, yes! Got it! Found him."
"Where is he?" Gwen asked quickly.
"Tracker says that he's in the local hospital,"