Title: A Place For My Head
Disclaimer: I own neither Harry Potter nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer. To those out there that had the creative juice to do so for our pleasure, thank you sincerely from those who have derived much pleasure from these characters and stories. I am not getting any kind of financial profit from this endeavor.
Timeframe and Spoilers: Through Season 7 for BtVS, OotP for HP. Takes place post-Hogwarts and post-Chosen. Harry will be pretty much the only significant HP character, especially for awhile. Everything else will pretty much be the Scoobies.
Pairings: Harry/Buffy, others undecided (Note: Giles will get some lovin', I just like the ole chap too much to leave him single)
Rating: PG-13 for some potential language and sexual situations. Nothing too much, though.
Chapter 6
Continued from the previous chapter:
Harry suddenly struck out with his boot, catching Malfoy in the stomach and knocking him back. A quick flick of his wand, and Malfoy was sent tumbling head over heals into a pile of garbage. The blonde rolled to his feet, dropping into a dueling stance with his wand thrust forward. "You'll pay for that, Potter!"
Harry just grinned, dropping into his own stance, wand raised over his head and left hand thrust forward. Making a come-hither motion, Harry just calmly replied with, "Bring it."
Curses started flying right and left, both wizards dodging, blocking, and casting effortlessly in an attempt to subdue the other. The curses themselves started out rather mild, mostly those designed to confuse and impede a wizard than do actually harm. Malfoy soon decided to up the ante.
"Reducto!" Malfoy let out with a shout, and Harry threw himself to the right as the alley wall behind him exploded from the curse. Ignoring the debris battering at him, he flicked his wand towards Malfoy.
"Stupefy!" The red light shot out of his wand, but Malfoy's hastily erected shield absorbed the power. But Harry hadn't actually planned for that curse to land, and had immediately sprung to his feet and dashed towards Malfoy.
Striking out with a snap kick towards Malfoy's wand-hand, he instead connected with Malfoy's shoulder as the blonde man instinctively moved away from the blow. Staggering back, Malfoy blasted Harry of his feet with a banishing charm, sending Harry crashing into a dumpster.
"Crucio!" Harry didn't have time to dodge, and grimaced as the Unforgivable hit him. Pain arched through his body, but he refused to give Malfoy the satisfaction of hearing him scream. Grating his teeth, he struggled to his hands and knees as Malfoy cackled at his pain, stalking towards his old rival.
"How's that feel, Potter? Now you know who the better wizard is, you mudblood loving fool." Harry didn't dignify him with trying to respond, just flattened his palm just over the ground and whispered under his breath.
"Serpentsortia." A soft glow appeared under his palm, and Harry hissed out towards the ground. "Distract him." The conjured snake leapt forward, clamping down on Malfoy's calf and breaking the curse. Harry struggled to his feet, reclaiming his wand and looking up just as the snake was kicked off and consumed by a fire ball from Malfoy.
"Kind of sorry you showed that spell to a Parselmouth now, huh, Ferret?" Harry just grinned, stalking towards his left, wand held out towards his enemy. Malfoy just snarled again, then cast his next spell.
"Avada Kedavra!" Harry hastily threw himself backwards, the green light flashing right where his chest would have been. Slamming into the ground, he grunted and lost grip on his wand, which Malfoy quickly kicked away. Bracing a hand behind him, Harry sat up and glared at the sneering wizard. "So, this is it, is it? Potter, savior of the mudbloods and muggles, killed in an alley by the next Dark Lord. This will speed up my rise to power considerably. Any last requests, Scarhead?"
"Yeah, one." There was a flash of metal, and an agonized scream leapt from Malfoy's throat. Stumbling back in shock, the blonde stared at the lump where his hand used to be as Harry sprung to his feet, his sword held before him. "Clap."
Malfoy stepped back defensively, snarling. "You'll pay for this, Potter." And with a sharp crack, he apparated away. Harry picked up his wand, then Malfoy's. Snapping the later in half, he dropped it by the severed hand and set both ablaze. Cleaning the sword, he sheathed it and tucked his wand away as well.
He looked around, trying to figure out what Malfoy had been doing in this alley in the first place. He noticed a door on one of the old buildings was slightly ajar, and moved towards it slowly. Peering around quickly, he slipped into the building, shutting the door behind him.
Faith, Robin, Ash, and Buffy returned to find the house eerily quiet, and Ash scrambled upstairs to see if Harry was asleep. Faith glanced around the library, and sighed. "Harry's sword is gone. Looks like he went looking for whatever caused the disturbance. Flippin' idiot."
Buffy looked at her weird. "Flippin' idiot? Is that the best you can do?"
The dark Slayer shrugged. "Harry doesn't like me swearin' too much around Ash. Cast a silencing spell on me for a whole day once. I quickly got used to not swearing as much as usual."
Buffy grinned, trying to imagine Faith not being able to talk all day. "And you didn't beat the crap out of him?"
"He's one of the few guys who will trade innuendos with me and not assume it's a come on. I actually like having the guy around. He's like a weird cross between Giles, Xander, and Angel."
Buffy blinked, trying to imagine someone that was a mix of those particular people, and then shook her head. "Weird mental image there. Anyway, I guess we need to go look for him?"
Ash returned from upstairs and confirmed that the Watcher-slash-wizard wasn't there, and they quickly formed three hunting parties, supplying Buffy with a picture of Harry. Though she had seen his profile shot before, she wasn't sure she could have picked him out in a crowd.
It was decided that Robin would go with Ash to provide her backup while the more experienced Slayers would go out by themselves. Buffy pulled a duster from her bag, then tucked the scythe into a special holster that was made for it. Throwing the long coat over her shoulders, she disappeared into the night, hoping that this Harry Potter hadn't gone and done something stupid, like get himself dead.
Harry moved out of the shadows into the large room, glancing around as if expecting something to leap out of the shadows at him. Not sensing or seeing anything, he tucked his wand away and moved towards the large pentagram drawn on the floor. His magical senses were started going wild as he approached it, and he knew this was the cause of what he had felt that night. "What have you been up to, you slimy git?"
Harry kneeled, touching the edge of the pentagram and wincing as pain stabbed through his scar at the amount of dark magic in the air. He glanced around, taking in the setup of the entire room, the aching familiarity of it tickling at the back of his brain. Something about the ritual that had performed that night was sending up a flag, and it had "Warning!" on it in big bold letters.
Reaching into the hip bag at his side, he pulled out a camera and started snapping pictures. Early on in his time as a watcher, he had learned to always carry a camera for cases just like this one. Luckily, being a wizard meant that he could charm his hip bag so that no damage would be done to any items inside except from something that would probably kill him at the same time.
Harry tucked his camera away with a sigh. "Bloody hell, what is so familiar about this?"
"You won't live long enough to remember, blood bag."
Harry spun, his wand appearing in his hand to face the dozen vampires that moved into the room and started to surround him. He cursed his luck, now wishing he had waited for the others to get back to the airport. Few wizards or witches had enough power to even cause a vampire to twitch, much less destroy one. He mind briefly flashed back to Moony's lesson on the creatures in third year:
"A vampire is a dead corpse possessed and animated by a demon soul. If you see one, a fire or sunlight charm will distract it enough for you to run. Few magic users can cast spells of sufficient power to damage a vampire."
Hermione's hand shot up in air. "All the texts I read said the same, but the question I have is, Why?"
Professor Lupin smiled briefly, and then his face turned serious again. "Our magic draws from the magical essence within ourselves. Vampires, though, are tied into the currents of dark magic flowing throughout all the earth. The power of a single witch or wizard is rarely sufficient to override that dark power. The only wizard I have heard of that went head to head with a vampire and successfully killed it with magic alone was Headmaster Dumbledore. Any other questions?"
Lupin's words echoed in Harry's head. Deciding discretion was the better part of valor, Harry tried to apparate away only to be pinned inside an anti-apparation field. The vampires just laughed, and the apparent leader spoke up. "Our master knew you couldn't resist investigating, so he sent us here and cast a spell that's supposed to keep you here. You're ours, wizard."
Stepping back a little, Harry pocketed his wand racked his brain for a way out of this. "So the question I have for you is this: Why work for Malfoy? I know he isn't strong enough to destroy you."
The vampires didn't answer, just continued to advance, when Harry noticed the same strange medallions that he had found in the cemetery around their necks. Filing the information away for later, he decided destroying the vampires took priority over figuring out the amulet.
Harry snapped his right hand over his head, palm towards the ceiling. "Lumos Solaris!" A ball of sunlight shot up towards the ceiling, hovering there and blaring down onto the vampires. They all hissed as they started to smoke, but Harry knew it was only having the effect an overcast day would have had on them. Drawing his sword, he swung to his left and decapitated the nearest vampire, then struck out with a stake he had drawn after pocketing his wand. Two of the twelve vamps now dust and the others still recovering from the sunlight spell, Harry darted towards the door only to be grabbed by his arm.
Swinging his elbow out instinctively, he connected with the vampire's face, then spun and sunk his stake into its chest. Spinning towards the other rapidly approaching vampires, he raised his sword and leapt towards them with a loud war cry.
Hacking and slashing, Harry drove through the pack, decapitating two more before coming out on the other side. Their number dwindled by five, the remaining seven circled warily. They weren't expecting their prey to be such a difficult target. Harry ignored the pain from the various cuts and bruises he had got in the skirmish. He usually hurt more than this after a Quidditch match.
Deciding to try and even the odds a little, Harry drew his wand and with a quick shout of "Reducto!" blasted the ground at the feet of three vampires, then kicked backwards into the gut of one approaching from behind. Spinning to his right he decapitated the other vampire. Hearing some struggling behind him, he noticed another vamp leap forward. Dropping towards the ground and releasing his sword, Harry gripped the lapel of the vampire and drove his feet upward, sending them into a head over heels roll. Coming out on top, he pulled a stake and quickly shoved it through its heart.
Reaching out for his sword, he heard shuffling from behind and swung around, the blade slicing through the air only to be intercepted by a blonde wielding something that looked like a fire axe.
"Harry Potter, is it?" The blonde smiled briefly, stepping back and relaxing her stance a little. Harry stiffly rose to his feet, the two prolonged fights catching up with him. Warily holding his sword before him, he took a step back and took in the petite blonde before him.
The identity of the woman hitting him, he smiled and tucked his sword away. "Miss Summers, I presume?" The blonde snorted.
"Oh, don't go all 'Henry Stanley' on me. It's just Buffy."
"Very well, 'just Buffy,'" Harry grinned a little as the slayer scowled at the bad joke. "I appreciate the assist."
She just grinned confidently. "It's this thing I do." She glanced around the warehouse, frowning at the pentagram on the floor. "So, I assume this is where the thing went down?"
Harry nodded, kneeling as he stirred the cauldron at one of the points of the pentagram. "Yes, this whole room is just seeping with dark magic. It's starting to fade, though the urge to vomit is still there." Rising from his crouch, he brushed his slacks as he turned towards where Buffy was inspecting the other items around the room. "Something about this ritual is tickling my memory, but I'll..."
"...have to consult your books." Buffy stated in a mocking tone, then laughed at the look on his face. "God, you really are Giles, Jr. aren't you?"
Harry just snorted. "Hardly." He turned and moved towards the door, pausing before exiting the building. "I've got a much nicer behind."
The blonde wizard sneered from the roof top as he saw his nemesis and companion exit the building. The bloody ponce escaped again, and he lost twelve of his vampire slaves. And to only two people, only one of which was a wizard!
"That's the slayer."
Malfoy turned towards the demon at his side, sneering down at him. "What?"
"That's the slayer that destroyed my former mistress." The minion frowned in anger. "I still can't believe the wonderful..."
"....magnificent, all-knowing, all-seeing, invincible, blah, blah, blah, Glorificus was killed by a mere mortal. Yes, yes, I've heard it all before. Merlin's beard, why do I keep groveling annoyances like you around?"
"Because I know who has want you want."
Malfoy snarled, raising a knife towards the creature. "Than bloody well tell me!"
The minion cowered a bit, pointing towards the blonde disappearing out of the alley. "She has it. She has the Key."
Malfoy smirked. "Thank you, you've finally proven yourself useful." He turned to stare at where the pair had been. "Soon Potter, I'll have power that you can't imagine. Then you and that bitch will be the first to die."
TBC