Chapter 1: The Wish
Disclaimer: Buffy and co. and Potter and co. don’t belong to me.
~
Harry’s scream of pain was muffled by the gag binding him. Wormtail shuffled away from him, ignoring the blood now streaming down Harry’s jaggedly cut arm. Soon, the huge cauldron was boiling and a one-handed Wormtail fumbled with the robes for his Lord.
Harry suddenly found himself screaming again, thrashing ineffectively against his tightly-knotted bonds, as searing bolts of pain shot through his scar. Trembling and gasping, Harry felt a cold fear fill him as he forced himself to lift his gaze, dreading the visual confirmation of what his scar had fortold.
The Dark Lord had returned.
~
Buffy, Willow, and Giles were nearing the end of their patrol; things had been pretty dull, and Anya and Xander had declined the offer to join patrolling. The others, well aware of exactly what those two would be doing on their own, had immediately let them go.
Rounding the corner ahead of the others, Buffy quickly scanned the last cemetery they would be checking tonight. Waving the others over, she headed over to a newly turned grave.
“Looks like there’s going to be a newbie rising here, but otherwise, I’m not sensing anything else vampy.”
Right on cue, a grimy hand shot out of the grave they’d gathered around, and Buffy quickly pulled the vamp up and staked him.
Dusting her hands off, Buffy declared, “I think we can call it a night. Let’s go.”
All three of them turned to leave.
~
Harry fell to the ground, fumbling for his wand. Getting to his feet, Harry faced Voldemort. At that moment, the absolute hopelessness of his situation hit him. The jeering Death Eaters had formed a circle when Voldemort had announced the duel, and after being forced to bow, Harry realized that this was really it. Nonsense thoughts were now chasing each other around in his brain. God, I wish someone else would come. Someone else who can defeat Voldemort. I can’t do this. I need someone who can handle having the fate of the world on them. It’s impossible. This isn’t fair. No, I need to do this. For my parents. I’ll go down fighting. Damnit. I wish someone would come..
A mere whisper in the wind, Harry didn’t catch the soft response.
“Granted.”
~
Buffy, Willow, and Giles all jumped in surprise as they turned around.
A giant gravestone was blocking their way out.
“Wh-what..?”
“H-how..?”
“Since when..?”
They all stopped talking and looked at each other.
Willow commented nervously, “You know, this kinda reminds me of that thing with Dracula. Remember, it was like, poof!, big castle-y place, middle o’ nowhere.”
Buffy smiled. “Yeah, I remember that.” Then, she glared at the gravestone. “Except I’m kinda thinking that Dracula’s gone for good. And I don’t remember him bothering with the big, grand gravestone.”
Giles nodded. “I rather doubt Dracula would take it upon himself to return to Sunnydale.”
Buffy moved forward, extending a hand toward the gravestone. “There’s something weird about it, like it’s got some kind of buzz or something. Probably something magicky. That’s you guys’s territory.”
Willow and Giles moved forward.
“Maybe, we ought to research it before we do anything further.” Giles suggested.
Buffy put her hand on the gravestone. “You guys, touch the gravestone. It’s like there’s energy coming from it. I can feel it.”
Willow puts her hand on it and her eyes widen in surprise. “Yeah, there’s definitely some serious magic around this thing.”
Giles puts a tentative finger on it. “Are you sure it’s wise to—“
Before he could say anything else, the three of them were jerked off the ground, hands still connected to the gravestone.
A whirlwind second later, all three of them hit the ground, and only Buffy managed to stay on her feet, immediately on the alert. They were in another graveyard, and the huge gravestone was still there. Buffy could sense some movement and voices coming from a spot not too far away.
Willow and Giles helped each other up.
“Oh dear Lord.” Giles said softly.
“It must have some kind of teleportation spell locked in it,” Willow mused, looking carefully at the gravestone, “Something that can be triggered—some really intricate magick. That means..”
Willow’s thoughts were interrupted as a scream erupted from the area Buffy had been watching suspiciously.
Buffy immediately jumped into action, not questioning, just acting on instincts. As she sprinted quietly forward, she could make out a ring of black-robed figures gathered in a circle. They wore half-skull masks, and seeing the cauldron nearby confirmed Buffy’s suspicion that they had been performing some kind of ritual. The Mask-Guys were standing around a tall figure who was pointing some sort of weapon at a boy who was lying on the ground, twitching.
Not needing to see anymore, Buffy sprang forward, knocking down the tall figure. Buffy noticed that the guy had a pale, snake-like face. At the moment, Snake-Guy’s face was a picture of shock. Three seconds later, Snake-Guy was being pummeled into the ground.
Willow and Giles ducked behind a gravestone, watching Buffy fight ‘Snake-Guy.’ Willow suddenly nudged Giles, and pointed to the ‘Mask-Guys.’
“How come they’re just standing around? Oh, wait, they’re taking out weapons. No, not weapons, sticks. Wait, sticks!?”
Giles watched one of them raised the ‘stick’ and yell “Crucio!”. A red bolt of light shot out, narrowly missing Buffy and instead hitting a gravestone and blasting off a chunk of stone.
“Oh!” Willow made the connection. “Magicks! It’s magic, they’ve got—wands? Since when were there real magic wands? How come I never—“
Giles cleared his throat hastily as green and red blasts shot toward Buffy, who had been just been thrown against a grave stone several feet away. “Focus, Willow, we need—“
“Oh, right,” Willow said sheepishly, lifting her arms and closing her eyes, chanting quickly. A bright barrier was thrown up around Buffy, Willow, Giles, and the boy.
Buffy quickly flipped back to her feet, thanking Willow silently. She’d had the upper hand on Snake-Guy until he’d gotten ahold of his stick/wand thingy and blasted her away.
The aftershocks of the Cruciatus Curse left Harry drained and shaky. He had no idea what was happening, but it seemed like help he’d wished for had arrived. Harry looked up, and panicked for a moment as his vision blurred and he saw a flash of white light all around him. Then, he remembered his glasses had fallen off somewhere. Harry felt around blindly and winced as his fingers met broken glass. Picking up the frame of his glasses, he quickly found his wand and tapped his glasses, gasping out weakly, “Reparo.”
Harry put on his sloppily-repaired glasses and shakily got to his feet, blinking at the light surrounding him. Then, almost crying with relief, he realized it was some kind of magical barrier, blocking the spells being shot at him by the group of furious and confused Death Eaters. Harry saw with surprise that Voldemort was far back, his face bruised and bloody, being tended to by Wormtail and Malfoy.
Harry suddenly jerked around, sensing someone approaching. A short, blonde figure approached him rapidly. He held his wand up defensively, just in case. The girl was dressed in Muggle clothes, and wasn’t holding a wand. That in itself was very odd.
As Buffy approached, she saw that the dark-haired boy was actually only a few years younger than herself. To his side was a tattered red and gold jacket, and she could just make out “Potter” spelled across the back of it.
Potter was now facing her, pointing his wand-thing at her. Buffy, deciding immediately that this situation wasn’t quite to her liking, easily disarmed him, quickly reassuring him of her good intentions. “We’re here to help, apparently, so come on, we have to get to Willow, this huge barrier’s wearing her down pretty quickly.” Not waiting for him to respond, Buffy grabbed his uninjured arm and led him over to where Willow and Giles were standing and chanting, holding hands and closing their eyes.
Harry blinked, as his wand suddenly ended up in the girl’s hand, and before he could say a thing, she’d dragged him off to her friends. The other two, a redheaded girl and an older man, seemed to be the ones casting the barrier, but as far as he could tell, neither of them had wands, and they were dressed in Muggle clothes as well. Bewildered, Harry came to the conclusion that these people were neither from the Ministry, nor had Dumbledore sent them. He couldn’t figure it out. Cradling his painfully throbbing arm, Harry paid close attention as the blonde whispered urgently to all three of them, and the barrier shook violently as Voldemort stood and blasted a spell at it.
Willow spared a bit of her concentration to listen to Buffy’s plan. The plan was simple. On Buffy’s signal, she had to let the barrier go, preferably blast it outwards, and they would run back to the gravestone that had brought them here. Apparently, Buffy had come to the same conclusion as her; touching the gravestone might bring them all back to the safety of Sunnydale. Willow gasped as a powerful spell hit the barrier, and she nearly collapsed.
Harry vaguely wondered if the girl was talking about a Portkey, and wondered what or where “Sunnydale” was. He’d never heard of it.
Buffy, seeing Willow falter, gave up waiting, and yelled, “Now, Willow!”
Willow yelled out the last part of her chant and pushed her arms outward. The barrier exploded, knocking the robed figures to the ground. Willow crashed to the ground as her body went limp and the power left her.
Buffy immediately picked Willow up, and Giles, who had fallen but wasn’t affected as strongly, managed to get to his feet quickly. Harry, knowing this was his only chance of staying alive, followed them in a weary sprint. Buffy, even with Willow in her arms, outpaced them and reached the gravestone first, immediately holding out a hand to it, and placing Willow’s hand on it too. Voldemort, who had only been knocked back but hadn’t fallen, sent a stream of curses at the fleeing people. Just as Giles and Harry lunged forward and touched the gravestone, two red jets of light hit Buffy.
The familiar jerk and momentary darkness surrounded them. Buffy found herself silently screaming as the two Crucio curses sent a burning pain lancing through her body.
All four of them hit the ground, back in the Sunnydale cemetery. Giles and Harry were the first to get up. Buffy rolled clear of the gravestone, gasping for breath, shaking slightly from the completely unexpected attack. Willow came to consciousness slowly, groaning as a pounding headache emerged. Eventually, Buffy flipped to her feet and helped Willow up, letting the redhead lean against her for support. Harry watched, stunned that the blonde girl had taken two blasts of the spell and was on her feet already. Harry had hardly been able to get up after one. Giles was looking at Harry, only really seeing him for the first time. He glanced at the boy’s wand, which Buffy was now twirling absently in one hand, the other arm slung around Willow.
Buffy looked at Giles. “So, then, were you able to figure out what crazy, wacked out dimension we found ourselves suddenly rescuing people from?” She indicated Harry with a slight jerk of her head.
Giles took off his glasses and proceeded to clean them, responding uncertainly, “From what I saw, it seemed that we were in, um, England.”
He glanced at Harry, who nodded hesitantly. “Yeah,” (Definite British accent. Buffy noted), why, where is this?”
Buffy, looking with some annoyance at the now unblocked cemetery entrance, responded automatically, “We’re back in good old Sunnydale, California.”
~
Along the way, Harry felt like bombarding his three rescuers with questions. For one thing, he didn’t think it was possible to pass so many cemeteries on one street. What was more puzzling were the three people; the blonde girl and the redhead seemed about the same age, both probably a little older than him, and the guy was much older, and was currently bringing up the rear. The blonde, whose name was apparently ‘Buffy’, seemed to be in command, which was just weird. Someone that tiny who acted like a ditz half the time and a calculating leader the rest of the time…it was baffling. It looked like anything remotely dangerous could knock her down. On the other hand, he’d seen ‘Willow’ making that magic barrier without a wand, and as far as Harry knew, that kind of magic was extremely powerful. It looked like ‘Giles’ was the one the other two turned to for answers though. The three of them had this level of understanding and trust that made Harry feel completely out of the loop.
Harry felt himself tiring, hoping they would get wherever they were headed soon. His arm was numb and he was starting to feel dizzy.
Buffy suddenly stopped walking, sensing a presence hanging around behind the bushes near her house. Taking a few steps forward, Willow and Giles fell back, Giles putting a hand on Harry’s shoulder to stop him as well.
Buffy called out softly, “Is that you, Spike?”
Harry, just barely making out Buffy’s question, had to stop himself from laughing out loud. The names so far-Buffy, Willow, Giles- those were already peculiar. But Spike?
Spike stepped out, throwing a glance at Harry. “Who’s the new bloke?”
Buffy gave a pointed look at Harry.
Harry, catching on after a pause, said, “I’m Harry. Harry Potter.” He looked at Spike curiously. What had the guy been doing, skulking around in the bushes?
“So what is it, new one for the Scoobies? Or,” Spike looked at Harry’s bloody arm, “have you decided harboring your victims now, Slayer?”
Harry switched his attention to Buffy. Slayer? Was that some kind of bizarre nickname?
Buffy let out an exasperated sigh. “I don’t know, Spike. It’s been a crazy night but we’ve got to do some research. And questioning,” she shot a look at Harry. “We’ll get him cleaned up, and I think you should come in too Spike, maybe you can help with something.” Buffy walked into her house, the rest following closely behind. “We suddenly found ourselves in you guys’s homeland,” she waved her hand slightly, indicating Giles, Harry, and Spike. “And then, bang!, beat up some snake dude and his ritual buddies and found myself in blinding pain just as we all jumped back on the gravestone and cruised back here.”
Spike gave her a perplexed look. “Mind vagueing that up for me a little more, pet?”
This time, as they all settled on the various couches in the Summers living room, Giles explained. “There was a gravestone, and it seems that it was connected to a one time inter-dimensional transfer. Except that it wasn’t really traversing different dimensions, because we were still clearly on Earth.”
Willow collapsed into a cushy armchair, and added, “There was some kind of magick, and the people Buffy fought, they were shooting spells. But the gravestone, I still can’t really figure out—“
“Portkey.” Harry interrupted, finally beginning to follow their conversation.
Four blank faces turned towards him.
Feeling uncomfortable at the attention, Harry repeated, “I think that gravestone was a Portkey. The Ministry distributes them for long-distance travel, but they’re pre-set to a location and time. I’m not sure exactly how it works; it’s a complicated spell, and only certain qualified wizards or witches can set up a Portkey.”
Giles blinked. “Ministry?”
Willow followed that up with, “Wait a minute. Wizards and witches? And you guys all have magic wands? Why was I left out?”
Spike had a thoughtful expression. “Interesting…” he said slowly.
Buffy quickly interjected. “What was going on in that graveyard, Harry? What kind of ritual were they doing, with the cauldron? And who were those people?”
Harry didn’t answer for a moment. These people didn’t know anything about the Ministry, but they couldn’t be Muggles because they’d obviously done magic. Or at least, Willow had, and maybe Giles. But spilling the secrets of his whole world to a bunch of strangers, who he desperately wanted to question himself, left him conflicted.
Buffy seemed to sense that he was having doubts, and immediately got up, standing in front of Harry, saying quietly, “Don’t try to lie. We’ve been pretty nice about this, but I still don’t know whether you’re one of the good guys or bad guys. In fact, you should probably be telling us a bit more about yourself. But first, what was that ritual about?”
Harry shrank back a little, surprised by how intimidating Buffy could be without even doing much. Feeling another wave of dizziness hit him, Harry mumbled, “A resurrection,” before fainting.
~
When Harry passed out on the couch, Willow gave Buffy a slightly accusing glare. “Honestly, Buff, do you really think he’s one of the bad guys? And he’s injured, and you completely ignored him. You do remember he’s the victim right?”
Buffy looked guiltily at Harry, and then replied, “Sorry, I’m just—I dunno, all of this stuff, it’s completely crazy. It’s like he’s from a whole different world or something. And you heard what he just said. It was a resurrection. Those guys were doing a resurrection.”
Giles returned from the kitchen holding a first aid kit, and went to fix up Harry’s arm. Cleaning out the wound, Giles asked Buffy, “Are you alright, Buffy? You mentioned something about a blinding pain?”
“Oh yeah,” Buffy examined the wand she held in her hand. “I got hit by two of their spells I think, and next thing I know, there’s blackness and silence and I feel like I’m being burned alive.” Tossing the wand to Willow, she continued, “That wore off pretty quick though, and I’ve got Slayer healing for the rest.” She walked over to a mirror, noting some minor cuts and bruises.
Willow directed her attention to Harry’s wand. So far, she determined that it’s purpose was as a focus point, like a crystal, that could maybe direct small, specific spells.
Spike watched Buffy examining herself in the mirror. Idly, he pointed out, “You know you’ve got to change out of that shirt anyway, pet. The whole back’s bloody and torn up. Looks like your back got cut up a bit.”
Buffy pouted a little, straining to see her back. Grumbling about another ruined shirt, she headed upstairs to change.
Giles, bandaging up Harry’s arm, wondered why that gravestone had appeared in the first place. He intended to question Harry very, very thoroughly once he awoke.
Frowning in thought, Willow suddenly jumped up. “Hey, we should call Xander and Anya. I think this calls for a full Scooby meeting.”
Giles nodded in agreement, and Willow went to make the call.
Spike grumbled under his breath, "Like that soddin' wanker can ever help with anythin'...", then moved towards the kitchen, calling out, "Hey Rupes, d'you know if the Slayer keeps 'round any handy bags o' blood?"
Spike looks around, then exclaimed delightedly, "Oo, Weetabix!"
~
A/N: I've been wanting to try my own HP/BtVS crossover. I'm not sure when I'll be getting this or New Beginnings updated again though; Finals week is coming up at school. Wish me luck. ;-)
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