The Nightmare Before Hogwarts
is a Crossover Harry Potter / The Nightmare Before Christmas Fan Fic by USA Tiger.
On the routine scare for Halloween, the Creature Under the Stairs accidentally comes across Harry Potter and leaves the door back to Halloween Town open. Harry follows the Halloween monster back, changing his life forever.
This fanfiction contains examples of:
- Afterlife Antechamber: While Halloween Town is implied to double as both a holiday realm and an afterlife, it is established that there are many afterlives, including the Land of the Dead from Corpse Bride.
- All Myths Are True: Since Santa Claus seems to run on Clap Your Hands If You Believe, various multicultural depictions of him seem to be accurate. For example, he usually has reindeer pull his sleigh (and not always the one from the song), he has Dominik the Donkey pull his sleigh in Italy.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Jack Skellington is a jolly and whimsical fellow, but the titles he has as the ruler of Halloween are not just for show. In Chapter 16, he shifts into his Pumpkin King form and uses his Pumpkin Fire to fight and scare off a horde of dementors.
- Broken Bird: While living with a new family that actually care for him helps, he had only been with Jack, Sally, Sirius, and his parents for a month while he had to live with the Dursley's abuse for most of his life, leaving the four-year-old massive reserves of self-doubt and a continuing belief that he is a freak undeserving of goodwill. Even when Santa Claus himself tells Harry that he is a good boy, Harry still has a hard time believing it.
- The Cameo: Apparently Jack Skellington is close friends with The Grim Reaper from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Elder Gutkneckht from Corpse Bride.
- Sally is friends with Edward Scissorhands.
- Sam the Snowman from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer lives in Christmas Town.
- Dark Is Not Evil: For all their creepy appearances and enjoyment of scares, the residents of Halloween Town are quite genial and polite. They're certainly horrified (and not in the good way) to learn how Harry's relatives treated him.
- Didn't Think This Through: While most of the toys created in Halloween Town were made to be scary but harmless, they admit that they did get carried away with the giant snake and killer wreath.
- Down the Rabbit Hole: The story starts when the Creature Under the Stairs manifests in his cupboard to scare him Halloween night. One of Harry's toy soldiers gets lodged in the doorway that the Creature opened, allowing Harry to follow the passage back to Halloween Town.
- Everyone Has Standards: Glenn mentions to James that his brother, who works for Dracula, hates Fenrir Greyback for his wicked deeds
- Sally and Jack are horrified (in a bad way) when Remus explains what Dementors are and how the Ministry of Magic still uses them to guard Azkaban despite their allegiance to Voldemort
- Freudian Excuse: Petunia's hatred of magic was kickstarted when she was assaulted by one of the toys that Jack distributed in his attempt to hijack Christmas.
- Godzilla Threshold: Santa Claus hears Harry detail how his uncle and aunt abused him by calling him a freak and stealing his Christmas presents, then decides they deserve more than coal in their stockings. It's implied that he's contacting The Krampus.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Compare and contrast the Dursleys with Halloween Town, and you will root for the creepy, scary, and weird creatures of the night to raise little Harry instead.
- Killer Teddy Bear: Downplayed. Mr. Bitey was one of the toys that Jack gave to children the night when he took over Christmas. He is a Living Toy characterized by his red eyes fangs, claws, and patchwork body. Like most of the toys created at the time, Mr. Bitey was made to be scary but otherwise harmless, though he does give a menacing look to Padfoot, ready to keep Harry safe.
- Major Injury Underreaction: While Harry rides on Rudolph's back, the reindeer accidentally runs into Jack and knocks his head off. When Harry manages to find Jack's skull, he mentions that it didn't hurt him and is disappointed that it left no marks, remarking that cracks would have made him look "more dashing."
- Named by the Adaptation: Mrs. Claus is named "Jessica," most likely taken from Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town.
- The Wolfman is named Glenn, the same name the Werejaguar called him in the original film
- The Omniscient: Santa Claus being Santa Claus, he knows about Harry Potter and his bratty cousin due to their presence on his Nice and Naughty lists. This seems to be a downplayed example with a case of Clap Your Hands If You Believe, as he only knows about Harry as "The-Boy-Who-Lived" because there are some wizarding families who believe in him, and even then he has to ask Jack why he is now with Harry, nor did he know that Vernon and Petunia were giving all of the gifts he had left Harry to Dudley.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Santa Claus sheds his usual Big Fun demeanor for a short moment when he orders Bernard to contact Krampus. Given what he knows about the abuse the Dursleys heaped onto Harry, he's got a very good reason to call him.
- Poltergeist: The magic of Halloween Town turns James into one, and almost immediately he starts haunting the Dursleys for their treatment of Harry.
- Shout-Out: Many.
- The afterlife shown in Chapters 5 and 6 comes straight from Corpse Bride, and in the latter, they allude to the events of the film, which led to the creation of an organization to monitor interactions between the living and dead.
- In Chapter 13, the witch sisters tell Lily of how Jack saved them from the Salem witch trials, which apparently started thanks to the Sanderson sisters.
- In Chapter 14, the Dursleys had apparently tried two different plumbing companies to fix the leaks they heard. The descriptions of said plumbers are references to the Mario brothers and The Great Gonzo.
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Ugly Cute: James regards boggarts as this after Jack scares one into revealing its true form after it tried to scare the former by pretending to be Harry's dead body - Women Are Wiser:
- When they discover Harry's home-life and the fact that he is a "male-witch", Jack is quick to adopt him. Ever-sensible Sally talks him down by pointing out that he has no idea how to care for a human child...though after getting more details on Harry's home life, even she agrees.
