Actions

  • Entire Work

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Category:
Fandoms:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of The HP-Marvel-DC Crossover that wouldn't leave my head and refused to pay rent
Collections:
Keeping an eye on these, Bookshelf for Sleepless Nights, Favorite fandom and crossovers that don't include OC, Hpficssssssss, the reason i'm an insomniac, HP G-G-G-Godlike, Spy's Ao3 Archive, R’s reads, DC PEEPS CAUSE THEY HAWT, CROSSOVERS WE KNEW WE NEEDED AT SOME POINTT
Stats:
Published:
2022-08-04
Updated:
2025-06-28
Words:
65,520
Chapters:
29/?
Comments:
2,057
Kudos:
12,746
Bookmarks:
4,467
Hits:
389,471

Harry Potter and The Great Custody Battle

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Wherein books are always the solution

Notes:

For those who received the notification of an update and didn't see Chapter two, I'm so sorry! I did post it but quickly deleted it a few minutes later. I was really unsatisfied with how it came out and wanted to redo it after I made a better plan for where I want this story to go. So now I have chapters 3 to 8 somewhat outlined and have a better direction of where I want to take this very impulsive fic.

Also, a lot of people have actually read this?? And actually like it??? And want to see what happens next???? I honestly did not expect anyone to find this so the comments and kudos were a big shock.

Thank you so much for your support and let's go on this adventure together!

Chapter Text

The rest of the day was spent in a secluded corner of the library. Hermione had somehow gotten her hands on every book that so much as mentioned the Tri-Wizard Tournament and they ended up with piles and piles of them. The trio made quick work of perusing the table of contents and flipping to the necessary pages. There was no clear deadline, but there was an urgency to have a way out as soon as possible. 

 

Ron snuck sandwiches past Madam Pince for lunch. Hermione’s lack of protest at the blatant rule-breaking was proof of her focus. Harry barely ate. They only exited the library to pick up another picnic basket for dinner and ascended to the Astronomy Tower with four borrowed books each.

 

“A lot of the books aren’t even centered on the tournament. They just happen to mention them,” Hermione concluded after each of them recounted what they’ve read. “Oh, I wish we can get our hands on the rulebook itself but there’s no copy of it in the library!”

 

Harry glanced at their pile of twelve books and thought about the rest that they left behind in their little corner. Was it worth it to go through each one for any hint or mention of a rule they could use? Maybe they should just give this up and focus on finding a way to survive the first task. 

 

Noticing Harry’s shoulders deflating, Hermione quickly added, “But we’ll keep searching, of course.”

 

“Course we will,” said Ron, bumping his shoulder against Harry. “We still have some time and a lot more books.”

 

Harry had a sinking feeling that none of it would help at all. 

 

They could no longer ignore the student population the next day. Ron became Harry’s permanent bodyguard and never left his side, deflecting jinxes and overriding insults with his own assurances. It was a personal challenge for Ron not to explode on the other students. 

 

Hermione took charge of taking notes for all of them in classes they happened to share. She went as far as asking for copies from anyone in the ones that she didn’t, citing curiosity as a reason. 

 

It didn’t get better by the third day and the fourth. By the fifth day, Harry was conscious only because of Ron’s strictly enforced naps. Ron persevered through sheer determination and the fear that someone would get to Harry if he dawdled. Hermione fared a bit better, being used to hunting knowledge for days.

 

Ron’s fear manifested on the sixth day. In his haze of exhaustion, he went straight to the library after a bathroom break without returning to the hallway where he left Harry. It took Hermione an embarrassing few minutes to realize his absence.

 

“Ron?”

 

Ron glanced up, annoyed at his perusing being interrupted. “What?”

 

“Where’s Harry?” 

 

They stared at each other for a moment before scrambling to get up. Madam Pince yelled after their sprinting forms, even louder when she heard Ron cursing as he passed.

 

In the hallway near the boys’ bathroom, Draco Malfoy happened upon Harry, head down, leaning against the wall without his two friends.  

 

"Potter," He called, excited to finally get some entertainment. 

 

Harry made no reaction.

 

“Potter!” He called again, annoyance settling in.

 

Still no response.

 

Fed-up, he marched to Harry and roughly pulled his fringes up. With a start, Draco realized that The Harry Potter was asleep. Against the wall. In the hallway. 

 

What in Merlin’s name?  

 

“Oi!” Draco shook him slightly.  

 

In Harry’s sleep-addled state, the sound registered as ‘boy’ .

 

Harry stiffened up, back ramrod straight. “Yes, Uncle Vernon?”

 

Draco watched Harry’s eyes not even meet his, watched them zoom left to right like he was in some kind of trance. Harry, meanwhile, was trying to figure out what Vernon was calling him for this time. Did he oversleep? Is it time for dinner? Has he cooked yet? Oh no. He’s not getting food today, is he?

 

That’s how Ron and Hermione found them both; a panicking Harry and a perplexed Draco.

 

"What did you do?" Ron growled, roughly pushing Draco away from Harry. 

 

Draco stepped back, surprised at the strength, but managed to fixed a sneer on his face. “Nothing, Weasley. He was asleep against the wall like some freak when I found him.”

 

Freak .

 

Harry started to shake. Ron, alarmed, blocked Harry from Draco’s startled gaze. Hermione stepped in front of them both, right hand clenched tightly. 

 

“Leave, Malfoy” Her voice was ice cold. 

 

“Harry, Harry, mate, calm down –”

 

Hermione raised her fist threateningly. “Now.”

 

Draco Malfoy walked away from a perfect opportunity to mess with his rival, confused, intimidated, and immensely curious. He still heard Weasley assuring Potter that he was still in Hogwarts as he rounded a corner. A weirdly familiar tabby cat passes by his legs. In Draco’s hurry to write a letter of the encounter to his father, he gave it no second thought.

 

════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

 

The trio was gathered in the common room way past curfew, Harry wrapped tightly in a blanket. Exhausted but still determined to find something. Hermione, in particular, was debating making a search engine for all wizardry knowledge. Closing a book, she reached for another one and began to open it when she caught sight of the title.

 

Tri-Wizard Tournament Rule Book

 

Wasting no time, she opened the table of contents and scanned it so fast that her finger burned from dragging it. 

 

There!

 

Rules: in relation to entering a potential champion’s name.......  p.394

 

Ron took notice of her quick breathing and too-harsh flicking of the pages. “Hermione? Did you find something?”

 

“Rule book, rules, entering, name,” was her only response, effectively catching Harry’s attention.

 

He and Ron abandoned their respective books and sat on either side of Hermione as she continued to flick so fast that her fingers were just a blur. She abruptly slammed both palms on two pages that Harry and Ron jumped. 

 

“The minimum age requirement… enforced by headmasters…” Hermione muttered, then gasped. “Here!”

 

All three of them leaned forward.

 

“In the occasion that a student’s name is entered outside their control, such as by another individual, and without their explicit consent,” started Hermione excitedly, but her voice grew quieter as her eyes read the next words. “The student may be withdrawn by…” 

 

Cold – freezing – dread washed over Harry like a towering wave. 

 

“... a blood relative of legal age.” 

 

Silence. 

 

A silence so heavy, Harry wondered if they heard his heart drop to the pits of his stomach. 

 

“Well,” said a hesitant Hermione. “Maybe… maybe –”

 

Ron shook his head and mimed zipping his mouth. Hermione shut her mouth with an audible click. Harry, with great effort, smiled shakily at his speechless friends.

 

“Thank you,” he whispered. “For trying.”

 

Harry reached out and squeezed Hermione’s hand with his left and Ron’s with his right. Then he stood up, turned around, and disappeared up the stairs. 

 

Ron bowed his head and put it in his hands. 

 

“But Ron, surely, they’re his relatives –”

 

“They barred his windows in second year,” Ron seethed. “They starve him, Hermione. There’s bruises on Harry that I’m sure aren’t from Quidditch or from our misadventures!”

 

“But –”

 

“Hermione,” Ron begged. “You were there!”

 

She was. 

 

She was there when Ron tried to calm Harry down from a panic attack. She had never seen Harry like that before, Hermione suspected it was due to the lack of proper rest. And so, not knowing what to do, she watched helplessly as Ron slowly convinced Harry that he was in Hogwarts. Not Privet Drive. 

 

“Then…then there has to be – has to be something else – other than this,” Hermione resumed flicking the pages, eyes wide and frantic. 

 

“‘Mione,” said Ron brokenly. “Hermione, stop.”

 

“Has to be, there has to be,” pleaded Hermione, tears falling down her cheeks and her hands nearly tearing the book’s pages. “Please, please –”

 

“Hermione, stop!” Ron her fingers off the pages. 

 

“We can’t give up. We can’t!” 

 

“We aren’t,” agreed Ron. 

 

“We’re not giving up!” Hermione insisted.

 

“We’re not,” repeated Ron, voice softening. “But no amount of books is going to help us now.”

 

Ron breathed deeply. “We have to… have to switch our focus in helping Harry… pass the tasks.”

 

They can’t withdraw him.

 

“There’s nothing else we can do.”

 

Hermione buried her face in the useless, damned book and cried. Cried until she was choking on her sobs in an effort to not wake the entire house. She didn’t care if it soaked the pages. One of her best friends is going to have to compete in a bloody death tournament, a wet book is at the bottom of her priority list. 

 

Ron, knowing that she will care about a wet book later, gently pulled it from her. If there were tears leaking from his eyes too, only the empty fireplace would know.

 

Up in the boys’ dorm, the words boy and freak bounced around a quietly crying Harry’s mind.