Disclaimer – First off, I’m just indulging in some creativity and don’t claim the rights to any of these characters – they belong to their respective creators. Secondly, if you haven’t read the HP book or seen the movie, The Prisoner of Azkaban, then you may want to pass on this story – it could be considered a spoiler otherwise.

Rating – PG

Timeframe – A crossover of Star Wars (AOTC) and Harry Potter – Halloween night

Something Wicked This Way Comes Part I

A young woman, her long, dark hair trailing down her back walked leisurely through the park as she had done countless times before. This night was no different than any other and she enjoyed the late night strolls to clear her mind from the day’s events. Overhead, the moon was at its brightest allowing her dark brown eyes to penetrate the shadows as she continued her walk. She mulled over the senate meetings with one bureaucrat after another and felt a pang of guilt that her mistress could not be as blithe as her handmaidens. Still, Sabé was never so far away that should her mistress need her, she would answer the call.

That was one reason she had allowed herself the luxury of her midnight strolls. Her duties had eased since Padmé’s tenure as the Queen of Naboo had come to an end. And now that Padmé’s current role as a Senator of the Republic was also under the protection of the Jedi, Sabé was given small respites.

Sabé smiled and shook her head as the image of Anakin Skywalker entered her mind. He was handsome, courageous, compassionate, and absolutely head over heels in love with her mistress. The handmaiden had observed the two silently and she knew that Padmé had at last found someone who would love her for herself, and not her political position. When Padmé had personally requested the handmaiden from Queen Jamilla to be her bodyguard, Sabé had no idea what intrigues would be set before her.

 

Her reflections were interrupted as an unexpected chill raced up the woman’s back, causing her to abruptly stop and look around, twisting her body in one direction and then another. Yet, everything was silent and for an unknown reason she felt a sense of eeriness. So lost in her musings, she had failed to notice that even the night’s creatures noises had ceased. Nothing around her moved and she couldn’t dismiss the feeling of being watched.

No breeze brushed by her as she sniffed the air and her eyes danced all over the area, hoping her acute senses would pick up something, anything…and yet there was nothing but the blackness already set before her.

Slow, steady movements propelled her forward – her eyes carefully keeping watch, her ears attuned to any hint of sound. Her years of defensive experience came to the forefront keeping her movements sharp and quick.

Still, she felt unease and it frustrated her that she couldn’t explain why.

“Wait,” she exclaimed, talking out loud to herself that sounded like a sense of relief. “This is All Hallows Eve. That explains why I’m so anxious.”

 

Sabé continued her walk, trying to assuage herself by saying, “My imagination – it’s playing tricks on me,” over and over. She wasn’t one to indulge in fantasy encounters; the real world was her reality. Her responsibilities to Senator Amidala were real to her, as well as Coruscant and the rest of the galaxy. No, she didn’t have the time or inclination to give thoughts to such things.

Shaking her head, Sabé’s pace quickened…and so did her heartbeat.

She glanced upward, gazing at the full moon above as if her action would ease the ever-growing anxiety within her. When it didn’t, she looked back down and in front of her again. There appearing ominous before her was a small gathering of trees. Trees she had walked through hundreds of times with no trepidation. However, on this night, she couldn’t make that claim.

“Stop this!” she chastised herself. “I have been over every centimeter of this park. I’ve walked through it too many times – there is nothing to fear!” she angrily stated, as if trying to convince herself.

She took a step…and then another…and nothing happened. No one grabbed her; the trees didn’t try to smother her. Everything was fine.

Or was it?

Sabé took a deep breath, determined to finish her walk and return back to the Senator’s suite at her appointed time. “There, see, nothing to be panicked about,” she said, smiling as she began walking into the trees.

At the same moment, a few dark clouds had begun to gather in front of the moon, sabotaging its light and leaving the young woman to even more darkness.

Determined to keep moving, she remained on her path, completely oblivious to the large, oddly shaped shimmer that was less than a meter directly before her. Within the next few steps she took, Sabé vanished.

___________________________________*****___________________________________

To the handmaiden, nothing felt different as she walked straight and suddenly stopped at the edge of a hill.

“Wha-?” she exclaimed. “Wh-where am I?” she said in a low hush, turning her body slowly around in a circle.

Sabé had emerged into another time, another land – with absolutely nothing familiar around her. Fear began to take hold and she did all she could to quash it.

“Th-this isn’t possible!” she cried out in a low voice, turning in continuous half circles in one direction and back again.

Not able to fathom what had happened or even where she was, the handmaiden didn’t realize how precariously close she was to the edge of her perch and moved her left foot ever so slightly. It was enough and it caused her to slip on the wet grass and lose her footing. Before she could stop her momentum, Sabé was sliding and tumbling down the steep hill.

 

By the time she had rolled to a stop, she could already feel the pain in her side. Wincing, she rolled over onto her back and took a number of deep breaths, trying to relax her body. “Not a good night for a walk after all,” she moaned through closed eyelids.

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself gazing at the full moon hovering over her. “Something tells me you’re not the same one I saw not long ago,” she groaned.

___________________________________*****___________________________________

“Professor Lupin! Stop! Control it!” a young voice shouted.

But the transformation had already completed itself. What was once a man, now a werewolf stood, its tall, lanky lupine form hovering over the three students.

“Run!” Ron shouted even though his legs felt like lead.

Suddenly another form soared into the small clearing, crashing into the werewolf and then both of them tumbled from view as they disappeared into the trees and bushes.

“Go!” Hermione yelled with a quiver in her voice.

“We can’t leave him, he’ll die!” Harry fervently protested.

Hermione tugged on her friend’s sleeve. “Sirius can take care of himself! We can’t stay here!”

Harry glanced over at his friend, Ron, who appeared to be terrified and reluctantly agreed. “Let’s go.”

The three ran down the hill and melted into the trees, the vicious snarling of the combatants resounding in their ears.

___________________________________*****___________________________________

Sabé sat up too quickly once she heard the howling and winced even more than before. Although she couldn’t find any external wounds other than scratches and minor cuts, her ribs hurt horribly and she was fairly certain she had broken at least one of them during her tumble.

“Oh, just great!” she spitefully commented. “There’s some kind of creature out there, I have no idea where I am, and I’m injured.” She threw her arms up in the air and added, “What else can go wrong?”

As she took another deep breath, the howling she had heard sounded as if it were getting closer.

Sabé rolled her eyes. “I had to ask!”

___________________________________*****___________________________________

Ron, Hermione, and Harry ran as if death were on their trail – and it was, in what was once the form of their school professor. Harry couldn’t help wondering if Sirius were still alive or if he had escaped Professor Lupin. The wolf that Sirius could change himself into would lend him speed and agility, but would it be enough to get away?

 

“I hope he’s alright.”

Hermione looked at her friend and the worry all over his face. “He’ll be alright – he has to be!”

Ron peeked out from behind one of the large trees that he had ducked behind. “I-is it safe?” he squeaked.

“For now,” Harry replied from behind another tree. “But we have to find a way to help Professor Lupin. There has to be a spell that can make him normal again!”

“Ssshhh, I hear something,” Hermione quickly said.

 

A woman, her appearance tattered judging by the bright moonlight ventured toward the grove of trees sheltering the three students. She walked hunched over, holding her side and then stumbled to her knees.

Cursing to herself, Sabé thrust back the hood covering her head and struggled to stand. She was surprised when she felt a hand on her arm, helping her to her feet.

“Who are you?” Two voices asked in unison.

Ron and Hermione both came forward, wondering where this woman had come from. She wore a long, burgundy cloak that had random rips and tears, as well as clumps of mud and grass clinging to it. Her long, dark hair appeared in nearly the same disarray as her clothing and she spoke with an accent neither of them could place.

“Are you alright?” Harry politely asked, still holding the woman’s arm.

Sabé looked at each of them in turn, her confusion growing more rapidly. “Yes, I’m fine,” she lied, trying not to let on about her injury. “This…this may…sound…unusual, but where am I?”

The three students glanced at one another, showing their own confusion of her question. Hermione confidently decided to reply, “Near Hogwart’s School of Wizardry and Witchcraft.”

“Hogwart’s?” Sabé repeated. “Where is that? Is it a planet?”

“Uh, no. It’s in England.” Hermione appeared to be bewildered. “Should you be elsewhere?”

Sabé was finding it difficult to understand their dialect, for it was similar, yet different, than her own. She brushed some stray hair out of her eyes and said, “Eng?? I’m sorry, I didn’t quite understand what you said.”

“England?” Hermione said again.

“Maybe she hit her head?” Ron commented with a shrug. “How could she not know where England is?”

“She doesn’t seem delusional,” Hermione commented.

“Well, she doesn’t appear to be from –” Harry was cut short as the howling resumed and it didn’t sound far off.

“Which one?” Hermione nervously inquired.

“I don’t know,” Harry responded. “We better get out of here.”

“What about her?” Ron indicated to Sabé.

“We can’t leave her here,” Hermione replied.

“Professor Lupin would kill her,” Harry replied. “She’ll have to come with us.”

“H-Ha-rry!” Ron swallowed loudly as he pointed to something behind his friend. “I hope you have your wand!”

“Hermione!” Harry shouted as the girl brandished her wand and ran around the backside of her friend. “Ron, help this woman, get yourselves somewhere safe!”

“Wh-at about both of you?” he squeaked.

“Hermione and I will hold him off with our wands and then we’ll join you,” Harry replied as he turned around to face the werewolf that was no more than twenty yards away.

“You hope,” Ron quipped and took hold of Sabé’s hand. “I hope you can run, Miss!”

“You do have an idea don’t you, because I haven’t!” Harry whispered to Hermione and responded with “Bloody Hell” as she shook her head.

 

Hermione ignored her friend’s curse as she searched her mind for something, anything that would slow the werewolf down long enough for them to get away.

And then the words flashed before her. “Get ready,” she said with a sly smile, raising her wand. Harry knew only too well how proficient his friend was with spells and immediately thrust his arm out, his wand pointed at the transformed professor.

There was no more hesitation – the werewolf, his salivating jaws ready to rend them to pieces, lunged forward.

“Petrificus Totalus!” Hermione quickly whispered, feeling her adrenaline course through her like a raging river.

“NOW!” Harry shouted and together they aimed directly at the lupine form and yelled, “PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!”

In the middle of its leap, the werewolf suddenly crashed to the ground snarling and biting at anything it could and yet unable to reach what it had intended.

“That’ll hold him for a while,” Hermione grinned.

“Don’t be too confident. That may bind his arms and legs, but we don’t know how strong that spell really is,” Harry reminded her. “I’m just glad it worked. C’mon, let’s catch up to Ron and that lady – whoever she is.”

***************************************************************************

Something Wicked This Way Comes Part II

“RON!” Harry shouted as they ran through the woods.

“RON!” Hermione joined in.

They hadn’t run far when they heard their friend answer their calls.

“Here! Over here!” Ron tried not to shout too loudly for fear of something else leaping out at them.

Harry saw them first, sitting on the ground – the woman was breathing hard and looked to be in intense pain. He ran over with Hermione right on his heels and knelt down beside the woman.

“How badly are you hurt?” he softly asked.

Sabé knew she had nothing to worry about from these youngsters. In fact, she applauded their bravery, in spite of foolishly placing themselves in harms way of that beast – whatever it was. “When I fell down the hill I believe I broke a rib.”

Hermione sympathetically looked at Sabé. “Only the nurse in Hogwart’s can help her with that.”

“I can’t,” Sabé protested. “I have to get back.”

“Back where, Miss –?”

Sabé smirked. “Oh, I apologize, Harry. I believe that is your name. I am Sabé, bodyguard of Senator Amidala.”

“Nice to meet you, Sabé,” Harry nodded and smiled.

“Where do you have to get back too?” Ron asked, still puzzled over where this person came from.

“And who is Am-ami-dala?” Hermione questioned.

Sabé had to chuckle. These kids were no different than those on Naboo – just as curious as the next one. “I come from a planet called, Coruscant, and Senator Amidala is my charge. I protect her life even at the expense of my own.”

The three youngsters looked at one another, their faces looking mystified and shrugged. And then Hermione glanced down, espying her necklace. She quickly jerked her head back up and looked Sabé in the eye as she said, “You time traveled here!”

Sabé’s eyes widened. “I what?”

“She what?” Harry and Ron said at the same time.

“Think about it! What’s tomorrow night?” she said in her matter of fact tone of voice.

Hermione suddenly made sense and Harry now understood. “All Hallow’s Eve! Of course!”

Ron rolled his eyes. “Well, why didn’t ya just say so?”

The girl folded her arms across her chest and glared defiantly at her red-haired friend.

“Stop!” Harry ordered and then turned toward Sabé. “How did you get here?”

The handmaiden’s eyes danced from one teenager to the others. Finally, she said, “I was walking into a grove of trees, in a park on Coruscant, and then found myself here. I was standing on a hill when I lost my footing and fell. Not long after I came across you three.”

“That must be where the portal is located,” Hermione interjected.

“Duh,” Ron quipped.

The girl glared at back at him, but didn’t offer a retort.

“Can one of you explain…?” Sabé pleaded.

“Certainly,” Hermione answered, tearing herself away from Ron who was irritating her tonight. “All Hallow’s Eve is the one night when the veil between worlds is quite lucent. It’s the night that magic can go either way, depending on the caster. Somehow a portal was opened in your world and transported you here.”

“How that could have happened…I have no answer for,” Sabé remarked. “The only ‘magic’ I know of in my world is the ‘Force’, practiced by the Jedi.”

“The what?” Ron tilted his head and wrinkled his brow.

Hermione pursed her lips together and said, “Never mind.”

“Either way, we need to get her back,” Harry interrupted.

“She has to get back to the same hill.”

“And how will she get up it, Hermione? She can’t walk very far!”

Hermione gave Ron one of her patronizing glances. “We’ll help her with magic.”

Just then the howling reached their ears once more and it sounded quite determined.

___________________________________*****___________________________________

Harry and Ron helped Sabé stand so she could catch her breath and then the four of them headed in the general direction where Sabé remembered where she had fallen. In the low lying areas they were going through trying to bypass the werewolf they ran into another quandary.

“I can hardly see!” Hermione protested, aggravated by the thick fog that surrounded them.

“Me either,” Ron agreed.

“Sabé?” Harry called out. “Sabé?” he said a little louder.

“Here,” she answered. “Judging by your voice and footfalls I would say I’m about fifteen meters in front of you and slightly to the left.”

“I doubt my wand would help in this fog,” Harry gloomily muttered.

“C’mon,” Ron said, beckoning his friends with his hand in spite of the fact they couldn’t see it. “We’ve been here before. Just remember about the –”

There was a splashing sound and a sputter, as if someone were spitting.

“creek,” Ron finished, suppressing his laugh.

“Who’s the unlucky one? I can’t see,” Harry asked only to have his own question answered when he stepped into the water.

“Me,” Hermione glumly answered.

Both of them could hear Ron chuckling not far away and Hermione called out, “Quiet, Ron!”

“Hurry,” Sabé urged them, “that thing is getting closer.”

“How do you know?” Harry queried, stepping through the water and out the other side.

“The foul stench of course! Can’t you smell it?”

Harry found the handmaiden and stopped next to her. “Not really. I don’t know,” he said with a shrug.

Sabé shook her head, remembering that these were kids, not hunters. “It’s got our scent but hopefully the fog will confuse it enough to give us more time.”

Harry’s face became sullen as he thought of someone else out there. “I hope Sirius is alright.”

___________________________________*****___________________________________

The foursome kept going and Sabé was having a hard time keeping up. Worse than that, she could sense that the beast was closing in fast. The fog had helped, but not as much as she had hoped.

They were at the base of the hill Sabé had tumbled down when the werewolf caught up to them. They were trapped. There was nowhere to go but up and each of them knew those sharp claws would catch someone during the attempt.

“Now what?” Ron asked, his voice trembling.

Hermione thrust her wand out in front of her, aiming at the werewolf, and cast the first spell she could think of. “TARANTALLEGRA,” she shouted.

“What?” Ron turned toward his friend and then back to the creature, his jaw dropping at the same time. “Unbelievable,” he muttered.

The werewolf was dancing uncontrollably. Had the four of them not been in such a hurry to climb they would have laughed themselves into a frenzy by the display.

“Climb!” Harry said hurriedly and then added, “Hermione, I don’t know how you came up with that one!”

“Neither do I,” she agreed and began to help Sabé up the hill.

___________________________________*****___________________________________

They were nearly halfway up the hill when the spell wore off and they were once again the prey.

“Hurry!” Ron yelled.

“We’re trying!” Harry shouted back. “I have an idea… Keep going,” he said and then stopped to turn and face his transformed professor.

The werewolf could feel their fear and panic and it fed on it, wanting more. Its jaws were dripping with saliva, leaving small pools on the ground as it approached. It knew the end of its prey was near and the hunger tore at him, wanting to be sated. The creature was wild and wanted nothing more than to devour those that had thwarted it.

Only Harry stood between it and his friends – and he wasn’t about to back down. In spite of the dread that threatened him, he mustered his strength and determination – remembering what Professor Lupin himself had taught him. No, he wasn’t going to give in to fear and he wouldn’t let the others down. His countenance was grim as he raised his wand and aimed it directly at the werewolf and spoke in a voice so powerful it made his friends stop in fascination. “PROTEGO! PROTEGO!”

An enormous bright light spilled forth from his wand and filled the darkness, thrusting it back with sheer will. Harry had never seen such a beautiful sight and reveled in its creation.

“HARRY! C’mon!” He heard Hermione shout from behind.

“Incredible,” Sabé said in awe of the shield Harry had called forth.

Harry turned and looked up at her, they were nearly at the top, and he hesitated for one brief moment when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He quickly spun around and looked into the eyes of Sirius Black.

“Go, I’ll handle it from here,” he quietly said.

Harry instantly hugged the man. “I thought…you might not make it.”

“Have faith, Harry – just as you did a moment ago.”

Harry happily hugged Sirius one more time and then ran up the hill to join the others, his wall of protection still firmly in place.

Sabé stood in the same spot she had when she arrived and could see an irregularly shaped oval shimmer in the darkness – her doorway home.

She turned around to faces her rescuers and smiled. “It seems I warranted protection this night – a role I’m not accustomed to being reversed. Thank you.” She hugged them each one by one.

“Good luck,” Hermione said.

“May the Force be with you,” Sabé said over her shoulder as she took a step into the portal and watched her foot disappear.

“Bye,” Ron waved.

“Good-bye,” Harry wistfully said.

 Sabé turned halfway and waved and then fully stepped into the shimmering portal. A moment later the handmaiden was gone.

Ron wrinkled his forehead. “I wonder what she meant?” he asked after Sabé had disappeared.

Harry shrugged. “Maybe one day we’ll find out.”

“We better get back to Hogwart’s,” Hermione told them and then cast one last glance back at the portal. “Before Snape finds us.”

“What about Sirius?”

Harry smiled, he somehow knew everything would work out. “He’ll be alright.”

___________________________________*****___________________________________

Sabé took only two steps and found herself back in a well-known grove of trees, not far from Senator Amidala’s apartments.

“It’s good to be home,” she said with a smile.

“Glad to hear you say that,” a voice commented, approaching her.

“Looking for someone, Jedi?” she smirked.

“Yes, you! Padmé has been worried. She sent me out to find you when you didn’t answer her call.”

Sabé reached into a hidden pocket of her robe and pulled out a comlink. “I was out of range,” she commented, recalling her incredible journey.

The handmaiden stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight and Anakin gasped at the sight of her.

Unable to fully see her disheveled appearance until now, he exclaimed, “What happened?”

“A long story…” she replied with a warm smile.

 

Finis