Author Note: I've wanted to do a Harry Potter/Buffy crossover for a while. I have several first chapters, but no real story to follow up. This is the best one.
I'm playing a little with the dates, mostly of Buffy. I once figured it out that Harry is about a year older than Buffy. In this story, Buffy's a few years older than Harry. Just to re-iterate: It's intentional. Also, it is expected that you know the Harry Potter universe, as I won't be explaining it in this story.
Chapter 1 The Spell
Into every generation a Slayer is born. One girl, she alone will have the strength and skill to battle the vampires, demons, and evil of the night.
June 24, 1994. 12:15 WDT, (21:15 GMT)
Sunnyvale, California.
"Potentials to the basement. Follow Faith and Spike!" Buffy Summers, Vampire Slayer, ordered the girls who had the mystical potential to succeed her upon her death, as there was only one Chosen One. Since long before recorded history, one Slayer would die and another girl would be called up. That's how it was, and that's how it always had been.
Until Buffy had the temerity to be revived from the dead with mouth to mouth resuscitation, and allowed a second Chosen One to be called. At the moment the second Chosen One was leading the potential Vampire Slayers to face an army of vampires.
"Willow, my office is straight through there," Robin Wood told the red-haired Wiccan. They were in his former school, where he had been principal trying to oversee the teaching of a building full of teenagers as well as keep tabs on the evil that seeped from the basement.
The breaking of the rule of only one Slayer had led to a situation where the First Evil, an incorporeal being that should have been nothing more than a small voice tempting humans (and other things) to evil actions, had accidentally received power at that moment. Over the six years since then, it had hoarded that power, testing it, increasing it, developing it, until now it was going to unleash a vampire army upon the world. Neither the Slayer, her friends, nor even the First Evil, knew that the rules defining the Slayer's powers had been weakened even longer ago than that. Fourteen years ago, in fact, in 1981.
"It's right over the seal," Buffy added.
The seal over the Hellmouth, a gateway to another dimension that would be the conduit for the demon army of the First. The Slayers were leading about thirty teenage girls into a hell in order to save the world from the total annihilation of all life.
"I'll go set up," Willow Rosenberg answered. She was the key to the operation. She would be casting a spell beyond anything that she had ever cast; using more power than what had overwhelmed her the previous year, causing her to almost destroy the earth in her despair. She had given up all magic for a while, and had used it sparingly since then. If her friends hadn't talked her into this . . . . But they had.
"Civilians, if the vampires get upstairs, they have three areas where they can get to another building. . . ."
Rupert Giles, last member of the Watchers, the organization that trained and controlled the Slayers, and Buffy's mentor, and Robin went to one of the attack points. Andrew, a nerd who dabbled in demonology, Dungeons and Dragons, and comic books, and Anya, a former demon, went to another crucial location. Xander Harris, construction worker, and friend of Buffy's since she moved to Sunnyvale, and Dawn Summers, Buffy's pseudo-sister readied themselves in the final battleground.
- - -
October 31, 1981. 12:00 AM, (00:00 GMT)
Godric's Hollow, Wales
The fire crackled in the nursery, burning the notebook filled with arithmagical equations and runic breakdowns.
"Shhhh!" the red headed woman whispered to the toddler. "We don't want to wake daddy up, do we." She put him on the changing table and spread out the blanket she had worked on for the last month in his crib. Arcane symbols were embroidered on it, but the intricate glyphs were nothing compared to the spells woven into the cloth. She placed the sleeping child on the blanket and began chanting and waving her wand in an intricate pattern. Over an hour later she took her wand and lightly touched her sons' forehead with it. He wiggled a little in his sleep, causing the eldritch pattern left behind on his skin to look like a lightning bolt. The shape wasn't important, just the magic. She then traced a line down her own forehead. There was a glow of magic between the two.
"My son, should the worst come to pass, I'll receive your death, and you'll receive my power. I know it's a poor trade for you, but at least you will live on. And I gave you a bit of a surprise for your attacker.
"Know that whatever happens, I will always love you."
She glanced at the fire. The notebook was completely consumed. No one would ever find out what she did; no one would ever be able to work around the enchantments she had put in place to protect her child.
- - -
Bargains, packs, exchanges, balances. All crucial to the safe use of magic. Lily Potter had set up an exchange with her child. His death for her power. It would have been a worthless exchange - a death is usually much more costly than that. That's why it wasn't used all over the place.
Two things made it work in this case, which were detailed in the now destroyed notebook. The first was the mother-child bond. It was a bond that was well used to being part of a sacrifice on the part of the mother, so certain, let's call it magical resistance, wouldn't occur.
The second thing that made it work was a strange power that Lily could detect and measure, but not quantify. She knew she had something, it's just that she had been totally unable to determine what that something was.
- - -
October 31, 1981. 9:42 PM, (17:42 GMT)
Godric's Hollow, Wales
"Move aside, foolish woman!"
"Not Harry! Please don't kill Harry!"
"Avada Kedavra!" The spell flashed past the mother who was foolishly trying to bargain with him! Lord Voldemort had no mercy!
The spell impacted the child and a retaliatory spell flashed back at him from the child. He might have been able to block it, had he not been distracted by the flash of magic from the woman. She was covered in a killing-curse green glow. Further examination of the event was interrupted by his body being destroyed the killing-curse triggered spell from the toddler.
The jagged cut on Harry's forehead where his mother had touched it with her wand would become famous. No one would even notice the straight cut on the forehead of his mother.
- - -
June 24, 1994. 8:30 PM, (11:30 WDT)
Hogwarts, Scotland
"Harry Potter! Go!"
Harry Potter, abused orphan, wizard, unexpected fourth champion in the three participant Triwizard Tournament, ran into the maze made up of eight meter tall hedges, monsters, and magical traps.
- - -
June 24, 1994. 8:50 PM, (11:50 WDT)
Hogwarts, Scotland
"Both of us," Harry said to fellow Hogwarts champion, Cedric Diggory in the middle of the maze.
"What?"
"We'll take the cup at the same time. It's still a Hogwarts victory. We'll tie for it."
They reached out and grabbed it and were pulled away.
- - -
June 24, 1994. 9:20 PM, (12:20 WDT)
Little Hangleton, England
"You see, I think, how foolish it was to suppose that this boy could ever have been stronger than me," said Voldemort. "But I want there to be no mistake in anybody's mind. I am now going to prove my power by killing him, here and now, in front of you all. I will give him his chance. He will be allowed to fight, and you will be left in no doubt which of us is the stronger. Now untie him, Wormtail, and give him back his wand."
Five minutes later, Harry lay panting on the ground, Voldemort having just released him from the pain curse, Cruciatus. Harry knew the killing curse was about to come. He opened his eyes, and felt something strange. It wasn't anything from outside, but from the inside.
- - -
June 24, 1994. 12:25 WDT, (21:25 GMT)
Sunnyvale, California.
In Robin's former office, Willow held the Blade of the Slayer, a magic battle-ax, and invoked her magic.
Kennedy, her girlfriend, looked at the now white haired witch floating in a glow of eldritch power.
"You're a goddess!" she whispered.
"And you're a Slayer," Willow replied.
- - -
June 24, 1994. 3:25 EDT, (21:25 GMT)
Rochester, New York
Kelly Winter, 9, stepped up to the plate in a softball field in the southeast part of town. She had been a fair player, so far. You didn't expect much from any of the nine and ten year olds who made up the team. No one was expecting her to hit it out of the park. Even she was surprised when she did.
June 24, 1994. 2:25 CDT, (21:25 GMT)
Dallas, Texas
Barbara Gosayne looked up from the bed where her so-called husband had just knocked her back. He had caused bleeding once and she had called the cops but he knew better than to leave evidence these days. He would rough her up for a while and then take his relief. As he came over towards her, she kicked out, breaking his leg. As he lay on the floor in pain, she smiled at him.
June 24, 1994. 3:25 EDT, (21:25 GMT)
Baltimore, Maryland
Jayne Cooper turned away from her father, who was spewing invectives at her. She walked to her room, and packed her stuff. She ignored the man's yelling and insults. She felt strong enough to live on her own, no matter what the old man said. She didn't need to put up with him anymore. She pushed his wheelchair out of the way when he physically tried to block her, and left the house.
- - -
October 31, 1981. 9:42 AM, (17:42 GMT)
Godric's Hollow, Wales
Harry Potter exchanged the magic in the killing curse with his mother's power. If he decided to learn runic magic or arithmancy he would excel at it, as he would in charms and potions (if given a chance). What his mother didn't know would go to him, as she didn't know it was part of her, was her potential to become the Slayer.
- - -
June 24, 1994, 21:25 GMT (12:25 WDT)
Little Hangleton, England
Harry Potter put his hands flat on the ground next to his head. Neither his leg - injured in the maze - nor his arm - cut in Voldemort's resurrection ceremony - hurt any more. He brought his legs up and kicked them out while pushing with his arms and ended up standing, empty handed, against Voldemort. He didn't mind the loss of his wand; despite all the spells that he learned this year in preparation for the Tournament, he knew none of them would be useful against Voldemort. He started moving towards his enemy.
The nose-less Dark Lord aimed his wand at the insolent brat and cast the death curse, "Avada Kedavra!"
Harry dodged the the spell, took a quick step forward, and kicked out with all his strength, shattering Voldemort's kneecap. As Voldemort went down with a girlish scream, Harry hit him with his fist under Voldemort's chin. His head snapped back with a sickening crack, and the scream turned into a gurgle. The Dark Lord fell in a heap, his head at an unnatural angle.
Pettigrew yelled as his new silver hand turned into silver liquid and dribbled to the ground mixed with blood, which was once again flowing out of the stump of his arm.
"Get him!" yelled one of the death eaters. Harry thought it sounded like Macnair. Several wands came up, pointing at Harry.
- - -
June 24, 1994. 12:35 WDT, (21:35 GMT)
Sunnyvale, California.
"Something's happening!" Spike yelled as the amulet in his hand started glowing.
"Time to go!" Buffy yelled to Faith, as she used the Slayer's Ax to decapitate another head from another vampire. She moved back towards the stairs where the new Slayers were moving past the glowing Spike and escaping. They had wrecked havoc on the vampire army with their small numbers. But there were too many vampires. The Slayers had lost about half their number.
Buffy said her goodbye to Spike, her enemy who became her friend and lover. She raced out of the school leaping collapsing buildings as Sunnyvale fell into the metaphysical hole that was suddenly a real hole beneath the town, as the magic in Spikes amulet destroyed both the vampire army and the Hellmouth.
- - -
June 24, 1994, 21:35 GMT (12:35 WDT)
Little Hangleton, England
Harry dodged another spell as he closed in on a Death Eater. He wasn't sure where this strength came from nor the martial arts moves he was executing - but where ever it was from, he was grateful. He was about to stab the Death Eater in front of him with a wand when he felt a strange warning, and jumped out of the way. The Death Eater went down, victim of a killing curse cast by one of his compatriots. Harry plucked the now dead Death Eater's wand from his hand and threw it at the frustrated attacker - hitting him in the eye from three meters away.
The Death Eater went down, making about six of eighteen to twenty that he had killed. The others started to panic and apparate away. Harry attacked one last one, crushing his chest with a high kick. Looking around he found no one left alive to fight.
He hunted around the ground and picked up his wand near where he had been Crucioed. He went over to Cedric's body, and laid him out straight on his back. He closed Cedric's eyes with a shudder and folded his hands across his chest. He saw the trophy a little ways away, and levitated it over to Cedric, lowering it carefully to his chest.
Once it touched him, the trophy and body disappeared. Harry mentally kicked himself for not guessing that it would be a two way portkey.
He shrugged, and started walking. He knew, intellectually, that what he had done was impossible. He also knew that it should effect him. But for the life of him, he didn't feel _anything_.
- - -
June 24, 1994, 21:45 GMT (12:45 WDT)
Hogwarts, Scotland
"Killed by the killing curse. This is dark magic," Alastor Moody growled, examining Cedric's body.
"Where's Harry Potter?" Minister of Magic, Fudge wanted to know.
The former auror replied, "My guess, he's dead. Whoever set this up sent one of the bodies back as a message."
Headmaster Dumbledore, who was also scanning the "message" raised an eyebrow. "The portkey was set for one round trip; it is done, and the magic will not take anyone where it took the two champions.
"Alastor, can you check Cedric's body to make sure there isn't a real message? Be quick, his parents are coming."
As the Defense professor bent over, Dumbledore hit him with a red curse from his wand. The one legged man fell over.
"Dumbledore!" Fudge yelled, "What in Merlin's name are you doing?"
"The portkey is of no use as a portkey, but the magical signature of the person who enchanted it was still on it. That signature matches Moody's. Severus! Severus!"
Snape made his way through the growing crowd.
"Severus, go get some Veritaserum. I think Moody has some explaining to do."
"Headmaster, I was summoned about twenty minutes ago. He's back."
"Potter's back?" Fudge asked, excitedly.
"No, Minister," the potions master answered, "the Dark Lord is back."
"NO! He can't be. What are you trying to pull, Dumbledore."
"I am not trying to pull anything, Minister Fudge. The Dark Lord somehow started the process of regaining a body last summer. For some reason, he got Harry Potter into the Triwizard Tournament. Now he has kidnapped him, and at least killed Cedric Diggory. Severus, the Veritaserum, quickly. It may not be too late to save Harry Potter. Cornelius, do something useful and have one of your bodyguard summon Amelia or Rufus, and bring a strike team."
"Here's the Veritaserum, Headmaster."
Dumbledore looked at his potion master with a puzzled expression.
"Do you always carry Veritaserum with you?"
"Doesn't everybody?"
- - -
June 24, 1994, 1:15 PM WDT GMT (22:15 GMT)
On the road between what will become the Sunnyvale Bay and Los Angeles, California.
"I can feel them, Buffy. All over. Slayers are awakening everywhere!"
"We'll have to find them, Willow."
- - -
June 24, 1994, 23:45 GMT
Little Hangleton, England
"Macnair, broken left leg, arm, and crushed windpipe," the forensics auror reported to Amelia Bones.
"That's eight. We have nine wands. There were others here, too."
Dumbledore chaffed at not being allowed to search the area. Until the aurors were done, he was just an observer.
"May I see the wands? I can tell you if any of them are Harry's or Voldemort's."
Amelia shrugged. "We already know that neither of those wands are here."
"Wait a minute, Director," the auror with the case of wands interrupted. "Ten wands. We thought these two went together, but they don't."
Nearly every wand was broken. Only two of the corpses had spell residue - they had been hit by the killing curse. It was as if the Death Eaters had suddenly lost their magic and had been beaten to death. It wasn't a very popular theory, but no one had another.
"Tomorrow we'll bring these to Ollivander. If they're his, he'll know who they belong to."
"But what about Harry?"
"He's not here, Albus. There's no trace of him. For all we know, he was consumed in that potion. The cauldron's large enough.
"Anything you want to add about finding Peter Pettigrew's body?"
"Nothing I didn't tell Cornelius last year."
"You knew that Pettigrew was alive a year ago?"
"And that Sirius Black was probably not the Potter's secret keeper, Pettigrew was. I informed Cornelius of my suspicions."
"And what did he do about your suspicions?"
"Alas, Ameila, he seemed to ignore them."
"And you didn't feel the need to tell anyone else? Like in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?"
"If the Minister won't listen, what chance did I have of getting help from any other part of the government."
"I'd say I'm disappointed that you didn't trust me to conduct an impartial investigation, Dumbledore, but I don't believe that. I think that for some reason you didn't want Sirius Black exonerated. Well, now there's going to be an impartial investigation that will include your role in this."
"I will say I'm disappointed that you don't trust me to work for the greater good, Amelia."
"Sorry, Albus, I have no idea what this "greater good" is. All I know is the Law."
- - -
June 25, 1994, 4:02 GMT
London, England
The truck pulled up to the Police Station. The driver, seeing that his passenger was still asleep, left the truck and entered the building.
"May I help you?" the constable on duty asked.
"I hope so. A few hours ago, I picked up a kid walking along the road outside of Sandbach; pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Says he's left his boarding school and is going home to Surrey. Couldn't get much out of him, he was pretty tired, it being the middle of the night and all. Says there was some sort of tournament at the school and one of the contestants ended up dead, and he almost did. Was real insistent that I not contact the police. Kept saying there was nothing you could do, beggin' yer pardon."
"Did you get any names? The kid? The school? The one who died?"
"He's Harry Evans. The school is one I've never heard of, called Warthogs or something, but maybe that's just the kids' nickname for it. The other contestant was Cedric, he didn't give a last name. Oh, yes, said he was fourteen, though he looked younger, and shouldn't have been in the contest because he was too young. Not much, I'll admit, but he fell asleep fairly quickly. It was after midnight when I picked him, you know. Oh, yeah, he was very polite, too."
"That's unusual. Well, let's go get the tyke in and see if we can't contact his parents."
When they reached the truck the boy wasn't there.
- - - - - - - -
Author Note: And that's as much as I have. I do hope to return to this some day, having Buffy and the Scoobies fighting Death Eaters and the Order of the Phoenix. And a Harry and Dawn romance; and maybe have Willow and Xander get together like Willow used to dream of in the first season of the TV show :-)
Meanwhile, I have an original (non-fan fiction) story in a real, published book:Horror, Humor, and Heroes Volume 2: New Faces of Fantasy Edited by Jim Bernheimer, and filled with stories by some excellent HP fan-fiction authors. Check it out, you won't be disappointed.