Round Robin: Bookbound
Title: Bookbound
Premise: A group of people are sucked into the literary world of Harry Potter and find themselves inhabiting the bodies of some of the characters. Hijinks ensues.
Limitations: Participants may only write for the character selected for them at random.
Allowed Points of View: NOT Harry, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, Snape, or Voldemort.
Note: Please be sure to read our official Round Robin rules before participating. Thank you!
It was unclear how or why the group of people found themselves standing in a white void around an equally white pedestal; none of them remembered anything that would warrant such a situation. No one had died, no one had fallen asleep, and yet here they were, unable to process what was happening until their minds cleared. Upon the pedestal was a note, which read:
Opening this book will transport you into its pages, taking on the role of the characters. With this power, you may rewrite the contents within, but be warned: your choices have consequences.
It was unclear who set the note aside and opened the book underneath, at least at that point in time, but the group soon found themselves drawn into the pages, believing they could choose who to be.
They were wrong.
And so, either by good or bad fortune, our bookbound travelers found themselves aboard a moving Hogwarts Express, inhabiting the bodies of Professor Sybill Trelawney, Dean Thomas, and Daphne Greengrass.
Holy crap, what had just happened? Alina sucked in a deep breath. How had she ended up in the white void, and which one of the strangers had made the foolhardy decision to open the book? People nowadays really have no patience or self-preservation whatsoever. She hadn’t even gotten the chance to have a look at the cover before the white void had started to swirl again.
She couldn’t fathom how she’d landed in this adventure. Maybe she was hallucinating. Alina was just a middle-aged woman from a coastal Scottish small town. She had recently retired from a successful career as a quality manager at a paper mill, far too early, because of health issues.
With all that extra time, she had been reading a lot lately. Was that why she’d suddenly been thrown into this mess? She was far too reasonable to dream up anything like white voids, pedestals, and mystic notes.
Practical as always, she began to analyze her surroundings. She was on a train, that much was certain. The swaying motions and rhythmic clanking gave it away. She lifted her head to study the compartment, only to panic at her blurry vision. She quickly raised her hands to rub her eyes. Her fingers were stopped by an obstacle.
Since when did she need glasses?
What else had the note said? Something about taking on the role of a character? Did that mean she was in someone else’s body? She did feel different, lighter, and had a strange sensation that whatever she was looking for was on the tip of her tongue, almost like a sixth sense.
Alina got up and sneaked into the corridor to look for a mirror. She made her way toward the end of the carriage without encountering anyone and found what she was looking for. Just when she entered the toilet, she heard a door open and voices in the corridor. She pulled the door shut and locked it when hearing someone yelling, “A toad! Has anybody seen a lost toad?”
She turned to the mirror and saw a thin face with enormous glasses and frizzy hair, perched on a lean frame clad in the most horrendous, frivolous gypsy outfit. It wasn’t hard to put the pieces together, she knew that character. And a lost toad on a train could only mean one thing: she had boarded the Hogwarts Express as Professor Trelawney.
He had a really "normal" day: get up, do the job, feel tired, go throw the phone, and lie down. Man, life had gotten so boring. He really needed an adventure, that's what he thought when he entered his room after work. He opened his AlwaysSnape page, posted his daily meme, and saw a Discord discussion about the upcoming Round Robin. It sounded exciting: Isekai in the Potterverse, living the wonder of his childhood in all its glory, exploring a new life, and most importantly, getting an ending he wanted, preferably one where Severus Snape survives. Alas, these were only wistful fantasies with no way to make them come true.
So, when he saw the book with a weird note, he said, "Huh, a prank, very funny," in a deadpan voice. Still, he found himself opening it.
There was a flash of white light, and suddenly, he felt anxious. What the hell is going on? he yelled in his mind. Gradually, his vision returned to find himself sitting in a train compartment by the window. He found the setting bizarre and turned his head to look. Two boys and a girl were sitting in the compartment. They were wearing robes, looking every bit like good Harry Potter cosplayers. He took time to study their body language, finding them fidgeting with excitement. He turned his attention to studying his own form, only to find something horrifying.
"I'm a girl!" she shrieked. Indeed, her form was that of a prepubescent girl wearing black robes. The girl and boys gave her a weird look, and she cringed internally. After talking to them briefly, she assured them she was just having a little nightmare and that she was perfectly sane. She learned that she was now Daphne Greengrass, bound for Hogwarts in 1991, the year the Harry Potter series begins. Damn, she was having her own Tanya Degurechaff Isekai moment.
She heard the train stopping. She stood up straight, getting ready to start a new life as a witch in a world of magic, with both trepidation and excitement.
Jay thumbed the rough black fabric of where the emblem of his House would be, he felt a wave of responsibility wash over him.
Ever since he discovered he was trapped as a side character within the pages of one of his favourite novels, his initial feelings of elation were short-lived. Seeing the shy, uncertain expressions in so many 11-year-olds bothered him. They looked so young and unprepared for the horrors he knew would be waiting for them. He had a suspicion he was brought into this world with all the knowledge he had to make a difference. He briefly wondered, if he succeeded, would he be able to return home?
Jay raised his eyes to meet the dark ones in his reflection. The boy that stared back at him looked very lean and sturdy. If he ignored the fact that he was in the body of a young Dean Thomas, he could see the potential in having this athletic form. With some work, he could see himself being agile and resilient enough to dodge spells and survive the war.
He tried to not to think too much on where Dean was now that he’s taken over his body but the more he tried to ignore it, the more the question pressed more urgently into his mind.
Was changing the fate of the Wizarding World worth sacrificing Dean’s future?
Jay let out a heavy sigh, his pulse slightly accelerating at the irregularity of his breathing.
It all felt so real. He didn’t feel like he was a character in a story. He felt…himself. He was sure that if he cut himself now, Dean would even bleed red.
What if Dean never came back and this body was his to keep? Jay knew he had the mindset to manoeuvre the pitfalls that changing storyline would bring but what about Dean? What if he came back? He would be thrust into the thick of whatever mess Jay would surely leave behind and be blindsided by whatever came his way.
Was there a way to keep Dean alive and help the Wizarding World?
One thing was sure, there was no way an eleven-year-old, with no connections or power could do anything to get the heavy cogs of change to start moving.
He recalled there were others in the white void with him. They must have inhabited bodies from this world as well. But who were they?
The doors to the Hogwarts Express opened as hundreds of students, and a few members of staff, stepped out onto the platform. Most noticeable was a large, nearly 12-foot-tall man with shaggy hair covering his head and face.
"Alright, then!" the man called out. "First-years, follow me!"
The youngest students, all still unsorted, found themselves separated from the others and led to a dock area, where there were a number of row boats. Across the lake stood a castle every witch and wizard in Britain would recognize, and one that almost every witch or wizard in Britain would study magic in: Hogwarts.
Alina stepped off the train, none the wiser. The train ride had been calm, which was good, as she had become certain that Trelawny held no real authority over the students. She’d received more than a few snide looks and hardly any polite greetings when she had explored the corridors.
Exploring was maybe an overstatement, she had simply walked from one end of the train to the other, hoping to spot another adult. The only one she’d found was the Trolley Witch, who had rather rudely pointed out that her cart didn’t carry the kind of beverages she would be looking for.
Come to think of it, there hadn’t been any mention of any teachers aboard the Hogwarts Express in the book either, so she had probably been an odd sight. She couldn’t deduce much from her observations, but if the other people from the white void were here, they must be inhabiting some of the students’ bodies.
Indeed, an odd sensation had tingled across her scalp, making the already frizzy hair feel like it was standing on end, when she had passed a few of them. The first one had been a girl in the midst of some sudden identity crisis, judging by her shrieking. The second had been a fit young boy, surprisingly calm and collected for his age, who seemed to be mulling over something. Alina wasn’t sure if there were any other imposters. There wasn’t even any certainty that those two had come from the void.
She decided to keep a close eye on them as they slid away with the mass of the first years, following the groundskeeper like herd of sheep.
That seemed like an enviable option right now.
She had to face the faculty, as an old colleague, and as the double-fraud that Trelawney had become. If her memory served, at least two on the staff were Legilimens. She resolved to avoid looking at Dumbledore and Snape, for now. She had a lot to learn before starting to influence fate. Best to lay low for a while.
The wand in her pocket poked temptingly into her side when she entered a carriage bound for the castle. She couldn’t wait to get to her private quarters and try some spells. Mission or not, the chance to test magic was too good to resist!
While the present staff (plus a pretender and minus Hagrid) and a majority of the student body boarded the carriages, the first-years boarded their boats, and "Daphne" and "Dean" found themselves sharing the same boat. Although these two had only read the book descriptions and seen the movie depictions of the characters, it felt natural for them to put names to faces (even if the faces weren't exactly as they imagined).
It was also a surprise to both of them that they were each sharing the same boat as each other, as neither was currently aware of the other's nature; "Daphne" had expected she would be in the same boat as Draco and the other Slytherins, and "Dean" in the same boat as Seamus and the other Gryffindors. And somehow, they instead shared a boat with Hagrid, Lavender Brown, and Neville Longbottom.
Jamie was a college student majoring in Philosophy, which meant his opportunities to acquire gainful employment were close to nil. He was aware of this, but didn’t care; he was a devout nihilist. He loved to read and sought knowledge for its sake alone. He had a good life, yet still chose to be a cynical asshole just to rile up bystanders into heated exchanges.
He didn’t expect that his life would change overnight. Standing in a white void with a bunch of strangers wasn’t on his to-do list. However, some idiot opened the book. The sketchy book on the white pedestal, which the note had warned about, and now he was stuck in a nightmare. He had appeared on a train full of children. If there was something he despised, it had to be children. He had no patience for them.
Also, it turned out he was trapped in the Harry Potter books. He knew them pretty well; he had read them and watched the movies. This experience wouldn’t have been too bad if it weren’t for the fact that he was in someone else’s body. Neville Longbottom, of all people. He knew this because when he had appeared on the train, he was walking with Hermione Granger, who was helping him find his toad. He escaped and hid from her in a compartment as soon as he had the chance.
Now, he was sitting in a boat with some kids and Hagrid. He was still questioning what was going on; he thought he might be hallucinating or dreaming everything, but his imagination couldn’t fake the majestic view he had in front of him. And as they approached the castle, Jamie vowed he would make the most out of this opportunity. Maybe it was time to be more optimistic, embrace the adventure, and give Neville a spine. If something was sure, it was that he would not be bullied by a bunch of 11-year-olds.
Her companions on the boat trip were surprising. Hagrid, the jolly fellow that he was, asked everyone to introduce themselves. She was surprised to find she was sharing the ride with Dean, Neville, and Lavender.
Lavender, being a fellow Pureblood girl, tried to engage in some small talk, mentioning a Pureblood neutral meeting over the summer. As Daphne had no idea what she was talking about, she excused herself with some dodgy bullshit to end the conversation. As for her other fellows, they were surprisingly quiet. Neville seemed less timid and nervous than she'd assumed he would be from the books, but perhaps things were different here. Dean was quieter than she had expected; she had assumed he would be talking about his obsession with football.
Suddenly, Dean asked, “You alright there… Greengrass?”
A bit surprised at being directly questioned, Daphne replied, "Um, yeah. Thanks for asking, Thomas. What about you? Seeking Gryffindor?"
“…Maybe not this time…” he muttered.
“I’ve got an odd question to ask,” Dean said. “Do any of these names sound familiar to you? Wormtail, Prongs, and Padfoot?”
Wait, what? Daphne gasped. "Are you talking about the legendary Marauders? How do you know about them?" she said, astonished.
“Legendary? That’s laying it pretty thick,” Dean replied. “You must have been brought here then. Like me. The real Daphne Greengrass wouldn’t have heard of the Marauders.”
"So you're like me! We've been isekai'd here. Does that mean there are others like us?" she said, her excitement growing.
"Yeah, me too," Neville said suddenly.
"You too, Neville?" Daphne exclaimed.
"That’s right… not by choice, of course," Neville said. He followed by whispering, "Do you know if Lavender and Hagrid are like us?"
Daphne whispered back, "Lavender asked me about something I have no idea about. The rest of us have been quiet, so I assume she's not. And Hagrid is talking like usual, so let's exclude him too."
The boat reached the castle at that point. The three of them started walking toward the castle together, keeping up their conversation.
“What are the chances we all found ourselves on the same boat!” Dean said. “There’s probably others still out there who are like us,” added Dean. “Why do you think we were brought here?”
"It's interesting you ask," Daphne said. "I found a strange book with a note and found myself opening it. What about you guys?"
