Thanks to the fantastic response from my last few chapters, they really are inspiring me to write faster. At the moment, it seems like most people want this to end up being a Harry/Buffy story, let me know if this is the pairing you want or not.

CHAPTER FOUR: White Rooms and Black Books

When Harry opened his eyes, he was confronted with four white walls. Part of him breathed a sigh of relief as he assumed he was back in the hospital wing. Back at Hogwarts, back home. He laid there with a satisfied grin on his face, waiting for Madam Promfrey to come in and scold him for getting himself hurt again before pouring a vile tasting potion down his throat. He waited for Ron and Ginny to walk in, Ron to congratulate him on defeating Voldemort and for Ginny to hit him for almost getting killed. He waited for Mrs Weasley to walk in and crush him in a tight hug, for Remus to come in and tell him that his parents would be so proud of him. He lay there and waited…and waited. It was then he heard the beeping.

He turned his head and saw a machine with a screen in it. Inside the screen there was a line which went up and down every few seconds. Harry recognised it as a heart monitor. He sighed, it was a muggle machine and no wizard would be caught dead using it. He brought his hands up and rubbed his eyes. His mind was a mess. He remembered cornering Voldemort, defeating him, and everything past that was a bit of a blur. One thing he did know was that he had to get out of here. White walls and hospital rooms were one thing that would always drive Harry crazy.

As Harry attempted to sit up, the door opened and a middle aged, bald man with a clipboard in his hand entered the room. He was wearing a white coat, leading him to believe he was a doctor. "Good to see you finally awake," the doctor commented as he saw Harry sit up, "You had us worried for a while."

"How…" Harry had to cough a little and rub his throat; his throat was hoarse and dry. Wordlessly, the doctor handed him a cup of water that had been on the table beside him, Harry accepted it and took a long sip, "Thanks," Harry muttered, his throat feeling a lot better than it had a few seconds ago, "How long have I been out for?"

"A little over three days," The doctor answered. Harry's eyes widened slightly, he had been unconscious for three days. Sure, the fight with the Death Eaters had been brutal, but he had been through worse and woken up in a quicker amount of time. There had to be something else, the fight with Voldemort had been quick, Voldemort never even got the chance to attack him. So why was he unconscious for three whole days? It didn't make sense.

Then he remembered.

He remembered the big ball of red magic, powerful enough to overpower the device. He remembered waking up chained against a wall and finding out that his magic wasn't working as well as it should. He remembered going in search of who chained him up and remembered finding himself in a fight for his life against a bunch of vampires.

Harry shook his head, he remembered now, all too clearly, "So…can I go?" he asked the Doctor, as he said before; white walls tend to make him crazy.

The Doctor shook his head, "We couldn't figure out what made you unconscious for so long." Of course you couldn't, Harry thought; especially considering the reason was probably magical. "We want to run an MRI scan and a couple of x rays to see if we can find any internal damage. Plus, I really don't like the look of that shoulder." Harry glanced at his shoulder to see that his shoddy bandage had been replaced by a clean white one.

"Whatever," Harry sighed, "Do whatever you need to do." The doctor nodded, smiled, and walked out of the room. Harry waited a good couple of seconds after he left before he jumped out of the bed. He ignored the stiffness in his muscles and quickly located his clothes, which was in one of the drawers in the table, and changed out of his hospital gown and put them on. He sighed in relief when he felt his wand in his pocket. He walked toward the door, checked to make sure there wasn't a doctor I sight, and sneaked out of the room.

Once outside the hospital, Harry stood and let the hot sun beat down on him as he watched people bustling around the busy road. Parents on a school run, adults on their way to work, teenagers, walking and talking with their friends on their way to school. It was all normal and normal was usually good, but Harry knew there was something wrong with this. He looked around, he needed somewhere to clear his head and organize his thoughts. Spotting a park across the street, Harry made his way over there and crossed the road. Finding a bench to sit on, Harry began to try and figure out what was going on.

It wasn't that Harry wasn't happy to see people going on with there ordinary lives, he was ecstatic, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was, in the world he lived, nobody was able to live a normal life. A couple of weeks after the ministry finally accepted the fact that Voldemort had returned, he began attacking. His attacks came out of nowhere and targeted areas where there was a high population of muggles. The ministry could do nothing about it; they were usually over before any aurors could even get there. Eventually the attacks spread to Europe, Voldemort was able to overpower and take over Bulgaria and Albania with unbelievable ease. The statue of secrecy had practically become nonexistent, it was impossible to keep the existence of wizards from muggles after the amount of attacks Voldemort directed at them. Needless to say, the muggles weren't happy. They didn't focus there anger and hate on Voldemort alone, no, they attacked all wizards, so on top of the war, wizards also found themselves having a civil war with muggles themselves. The war spread, even as far as America. The population was decreasing rapidly and everyone was living in fear, everyone was fighting for their lives, all because of one man. That's why Harry was so worried; nobody had time for this perfect life. The streets should have been deserted, people should have been in there homes, protecting there families. Not out buying ice cream and talking about the latest celebrity it couple. He had a really bad feeling about this.

Harry turned his head and saw a phone box about three metres away. During his sixth year, Harry had visited America alongside Dumbledore, as a type of ambassador for the UK. He remembered that they had a unique way for contacting the American Ministry of Magic. As the country was so large, they had hooked up all the phone boxes in the country to the Ministry, meaning that if you called a specific number, it would put you through to someone from the American Ministry. Harry thought it was ingenious, especially during a war. A system like this could only give you more warning of an attack. Britain would never use such a system though, he recalled Fudge saying something about not having to resort to using muggle means. A very Death Eater way of thinking, Harry thought.

Standing up, Harry quickly made his way to the phone box. They had used a number that any wizard would remember. It was the word Merlin, on the keypad. Pressing it quickly, Harry picked up the receiver and waited for an answer, hoped for an answer. After a few seconds, all he got was the dial tone. Letting anger get the better of him, he threw the receiver down and cursed loudly, causing several people to look at him disapprovingly before going on with there business.

Harry could only think of one more thing that he could try. During his sixth year, Dumbledore had given Harry a special portkey. Knowing that Harry had a habit of getting into trouble, he had given him a portkey that would take him directly to gates of Hogwarts, but Dumbledore had warned him that it could only be used once, in an emergency due to the power it took to get through the wards of Hogwarts. Harry ripped of the chain of a phoenix he was wearing, it was the portkey he had been given. He held it in his right hand, closed his fist and gripped it tightly.

"Hogwarts." He whispered.

Nothing happened.

"Hogwarts." He said slightly louder with gritted teeth, again nothing happened, "HOGWARTS!" He shouted out, with a hint of desperation in his voice. Again, several people turned to give him a strange look before continuing with whatever it was they were doing. Harry didn't give up and this time pulled out his wand and muttered a charm to see if there was any magic in an object. Again, he felt a strong pull on his magic making it a lot harder for him to cast the spell, but he ignored, he had other things to worry about now. The magic was there, working correctly. There was nothing wrong with the portkey, but it was like…it was like Hogwarts wasn't there.

Harry's blood ran cold with this thought, if Hogwarts wasn't there, then…where the hell did that red ball of magic take him? Only one possible thought crossed his mind.

He was in a different world.

That thought should have surprised him, but it didn't, if something like this was going to happen, it had to happen to Harry Potter.

Of course, even after defeating Dark Lords and Death Eaters, Basilisks and Dementors, Dragons and Giants, fate still found another way to screw with him. A thought crossed Harry's mind, a thought that made him shiver and had him feeling instantly guilty. Was it really such a bad thing? He had fought the war he was destined to fight, defeated his mortal enemy. Wasn't it his chance to take a break? Even with Voldemort dead, the world would still in chaos. Muggles would still want to kill every Wizard they could find and he was sure the millions of followers Voldemort had were just going to stop fighting for their cause. The world would be a mess and Harry Potter would be expected to lead the fight to fix it. Maybe this was his chance to take a break, to stop fighting, to try and live a normal life. With that thought, Harry scoffed loudly, what did he know about living a normal life?

Another thought crossed Harry's mind. Could he really leave the people he loved in that sort of world on his own? Could he really accept that he would never see them again in his pursuit of a normal life? Ron, Ginny, Neville, Remus, Tonks, all the Weasleys, Luna. Can he live with himself if he just left them there?

Of course he couldn't. These were the people that had fought beside him. Followed him wherever he led them, the people who had never believed the crap the Prophet published about him. The people he leant on when he needed help, support and advice. He knew that he would have to go back, but how? Did this world even have magic? They had vampires so presumably…

Of course they did!

He had forgotten that when he first woke up, chained to the wall in that apartment. There were magic books there! He didn't think that was anything important at the time, but if they knew of magic, maybe they could help him. Would they even help him? Well…there was only one way to find out. But first, he needed a shower and a change of clothes.

***

Giles walked through Sunnydale hospital, hoping to get the chance to speak to the mysterious stranger that had shown up who had called himself, Harry. He had been out cold for three days and showed no signs of waking up. Giles had been there to visit him every day since he brought him here. Patient was one thing he was not. He had many questions for the young man, and those questions just would not wait. The magic the boy had, producing that fireball with such ease; Giles had never seen anything like it. The boy said he was human, and all evidence backed that case up, but he had never seen a human be that fast or that strong before. Giles had to know who he was, he just had to. Once he got to the room, he was surprised to see nobody in there. Maybe the boy had woken up; maybe the Doctors had him and were running some sort of test. He doubted that would release him after he just woke up.

"Excuse me," Giles said as he stopped one of the doctors who were walking past, "The boy who was in this room. Where is he?"

"This room?" The doctor question, Giles nodded, "We don't know. He woke up and disappeared, we didn't even get a name out of him."

Giles sighed, took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "Ok, thanks," he muttered. The doctor nodded and walked past him. So he had done a runner. He hung his head in defeat; his only hope now was if the boy came to find him, and somehow, he seriously doubted that would ever happen.

***

Half an hour later, Harry had found a decent looking motel. He paused before going in; it would look suspicious if he turned up with a suitcase or something. Spotting an alleyway around the corner, Harry turned and made his way into it. Once there, he pulled a small box out of his pocket. After checking once more to make sure no one was looking, he pulled out his wand and muttered a charm under his breath. He put the box on the ground and watched as it grew in size. Fortunately, Harry had taken to carrying around his trunk with him, just in case he ever had to leave Hogwarts quickly. That was just as well as he didn't want to be stuck in a different world without any of his belongings. Perhaps even more fortunately for him, he had taken to carrying large amounts of money in his trunk as well, just in case he had to go into hiding on short notice and had to live in the muggle world. He was sure he had at least a hundred grand in all major forms of currency, including Pounds, Dollars, Euros and Yen.

The spell had taken a lot of energy out of Harry though and he found himself leaning against the wall trying to catch his breath. The problem with his magic was really worrying him. Granted, he had other ways of protecting himself, but still, having the use of magic was a luxury he didn't want to lose. Sighing, he pushed off the wall and opened his trunk. It had been magically enhanced so it didn't take him long to find his money, considering he was in America, Harry pulled out about five hundred dollars and promised himself that he would get the rest of his money changed into dollars. He didn't know how long he was going to be here for after all. Harry stuffed the money into his pocket and closed the trunk. Lifting it up, Harry found himself glad he had previously put charms on the trunk to make it weightless. Trunk in hand, he walked to the motel. Walking inside, Harry was glad to see that it was nothing special. Nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that would be exceedingly expensive, just normal. Harry loved normal. Ten minutes later, Harry had paid one hundred and fifty dollars for a room for a week. Thanking the man, he turned and headed toward his room, number 3. As he expected, the room was plain, consisting of just a bed, a wardrobe, a small TV and two doors leading to a bathroom and kitchen. Dropping his trunk on the floor, Harry immediately began to peel of his clothes and headed toward the direction of the shower.

An hour later, Harry stood by the door to his new room feeling a lot more relaxed. After a long hot shower, Harry had changed into some clean clothes. He was now wearing a fitted white t shirt, black jeans and a light black jacket. He was once again wearing the portkey chain. Not because it would work, but it reminded him of Hogwarts, it reminded him of home. He had a plan to find his way back to the house, all he had to do was ask someone for directions back to Ridgeway cemetery and he was pretty sure he could remember his way back from there. He just hoped they didn't try and kill him on the spot once he got there.

***

Giles sat in his house with books surrounding him, as per usual. What wasn't as usual was the fact that he had five teenagers in his house as well, all seated around his television. Buffy, Willow, Oz, Xander and Cordelia all sat, seemingly mesmerized by the b rate move they were watching. There was a tension that everyone in the room (except maybe Oz) could feel. Willow and Xander still hadn't forgiven Buffy for leaving the way she did at the end of the last semester. They both felt that she had abandoned her mother, friends and her role as a Slayer by leaving Sunnydale for the entire summer, and Giles couldn't help but agree with them. Before summer, the three of them were as close as any friends you could find, but now, both Xander and Willow sat, cuddled up with the respective other halves, leaving Buffy looking rather isolated in the middle of the chair. Nobody wanted to talk about the issue but without talking about it, they remained in an awkward silence and instead chose to watch the film. Giles was brought out from his thoughts as the door bell rang.

"Pizza!" Xander exclaimed. Xander had spent the last ten minutes trying to convince Giles to allow him to order pizza; the teenager's appetite seemed to be unbelievable.

"You only just ordered it," Willow pointed out, "It couldn't possibly get here that quick."

Xander shrugged, "Maybe the pizza delivery guy is a vampire,"

"It's still light out," Buffy replied.

"Well who else would it be," Xander argued, "Were all already here and Giles isn't exactly Mr popularity," Xander seemed to just realize that Giles was in the room and a few seconds later, remembered he was still in his house, "No offense," he muttered, with a sheepish grin toward Giles.

Giles didn't say anything and just stood up, "I'll just go and answer it, shall I?" he walked out of the room and heard Xander make another muttered comment. Ignoring, he walked to the door and pulled it open, his mouth almost dropped open at what he saw.

***

Harry stood outside a house. He was pretty sure it was the right house, not a hundred percent sure, but pretty sure. Deciding to just get it over with, Harry walked forward and pressed the doorbell, and waited. For several moments, all he heard was talking, muffled by the door, until eventually it swung open and revealed the older man he remembered from the graveyard. Harry noticed that he seemed to be quite surprised to see him, and smiled slightly.

"Hey," Harry greeted while rubbing his head, this was going to be slightly awkward, "Giles…right?"

The man nodded but continued to observe him, "You ran away from the hospital." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "You've been checking up on me." Again, it wasn't a question.

"I just wanted to make sure you didn't do anything stupid," Giles said, "Like dying."

Harry smiled slightly, "Well…I'm not dead."

"No, you're not." A silence, an awkward, long, stretching silence.

"I need you're help." Harry blurted out, partly to end the silence, partly because it needed to be said anyway.

"My help?" Giles questioned, that certainly wasn't what he was expecting.

"Well, you know about magic, don't you?" Giles hesitated for a second before nodding, "Then you're the only person I know of that can help me."

Giles just stood there silently, as if he was assessing him, before shaking his head, "I have no reason to trust you and it's an unwritten rule in Sunnydale that you don't invite someone you don't trust into you're home."

Harry sighed, he was expecting this. He reached into his pocket and watched as Giles tensed and seemed to get ready to defend himself; he pulled out his wand and tossed it to him. Giles caught it easily. "That's my wand. It's what I used to create the sunlight to destroy that vampire in the graveyard. It's the only weapon I have on me." Normally, Harry would never give anyone his wand. However, these were special circumstances, he needed help, plus he didn't think the wand would help him very much in a fight at the moment, not the way his magic has been recently.

Giles held the wand in his hand and stared at it. In all honesty, he was going to let him in anyway. He had to admit, he was curious about the boy; more curious now that he came to him for help he was even more curious. Giles nodded and moved aside, allowing Harry to enter his home.

Harry walked into the lounge to find a group of people there. The same group from the graveyard, plus another girl he had never seen before.

"Who was it Giles?" the red head, Harry remembered to be called Willow asked, before she turned around and her face paled slightly, "You're not Giles…"

"What gave me away?" Harry asked sarcastically. The others all turned around to see him standing there and their faces ranged from distrust to curious. Buffy even took it upon herself to get to her feet and fall into a fighting stance, ready to defend herself and her friends if she had too.

"Relax Buffy," Giles said as he re-entered the room, "I do not believe Harry is here for a fight,"

"Then what is he here for?" Buffy asked, but no one answered. Maybe because nobody got a chance as the girl Harry didn't recognise, a dark haired, very pretty girl, stood up and held her hand out for Harry.

"Cordelia Chase." She introduced herself, holding out her hand. Her eyes were wandering around Harry's body, checking him out.

Harry took her hand and raised it to his lips and kissed it softly. Long gone were the days when he would be embarrassed and not know how to act around girls. Know, Harry would consider himself to flirt a little bit too much, not that he minded. "Harry Potter." He replied. The young man, Harry remembered to be called Xander jumped to his feet and pushed himself between Harry and Cordelia.

"Stop checking out my girlfriend," he warned, shielding Cordelia from Harry as if he was about to jump on her.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "She's your girlfriend?"

Xander nodded and straightened himself up and made himself look as intimidating as he could, "Yeah,"

"Wow," Harry muttered before chuckling slightly, "You did well,"

Xander grinned widely, "Thanks," he said before his face changed into a confused expression, "I think…"

"I think Harry came here for help," Giles interrupted, trying to get the subject back on course.

"Help with what?" Cordelia asked before she groaned slightly, "Don't tell me you're into the whole vampire freak show too?"

Xander cleared his throat and muttered, "He's the guy I told you about from the cemetery the other day,"

"Oh," Cordelia muttered, "Hey, so you saved Xander's life!" she exclaimed suddenly,

Harry face scrunched up into confusion, "I did?"

"Glad to see my life meant so much to you…" Xander muttered,

"Why did you do that anyway?" Willow asked, "I mean, Xander was about to die and everything and then you show up and made fire and burnt the vampire, which was really cool bye the way, and then you got all angry about being chained up…" Willow rambled.

Harry thought about the simplest way to answer that question. He didn't want to explain about his whole problem about having to be the hero so instead he just muttered, "I just don't like vampires."

Buffy just scoffed, "Who does?"

"Other vampires," Xander suggested,

"Anyway," Giles said loudly, once again trying to get the conversation back on track, "You wanted help Harry."

"Oh…yeah…right…" Harry stammered, thinking of the best way to start this, "Have you ever heard of Hogwarts?"

"Hogwarts?" Buffy repeated, "Sounds like a disease."

"No, I haven't," Giles answered, ignoring Buffy's comment, "Is that some sort of demon?"

Demon? That's the second time he had heard them use that word and Harry still had no idea what a demon was. "What is a demon?" At that point, everybody in the room stopped whatever it was they were doing and stared at Harry as if he was crazy, "Okay, you guys are looking at me as if I just told you that I eat children," he stated, but the disbelieving looks was still there.

"But you said you hated vampires," Buffy pointed out, "How could you even know what a vampire is if you don't know what a demon is?"

"I've never seen a vampire like the one I fought in the graveyard before," Harry answered, "They're defiantly not where I'm from,"

Giles continued to look at him oddly, "And where do you come from?"

"England, originally," Harry answered, "But I've spent most of my last seven years in Scotland,"

"You're British!" Willow exclaimed before she frowned slightly, "But you don't sound English."

Harry just glanced at her, "I haven't got much of an accent,"

"They have vampire and demons in England and Scotland," Giles assured,

"Ah…you see…I may not have been clear when I said, where I'm from," Harry said, he could see by the looks on their faces that they all were all lost, except Giles who seemed to catch on to what Harry meant.

"Oh…you're not from here, are you?" Giles asked, although he already knew the answer.

"Of course not, he's from England," Cordelia stated before turning around and glaring at Giles, "Don't you ever listen?"

"He's not just from England Cordelia," Giles said with a grave look in his eye, "You're from another world, aren't you?"

Silence echoed through the room. Harry for the most part, just stood there silently, waiting for someone to say something. Buffy seemed to relax a little more and didn't look like she was about to jump him at any moment. Cordelia didn't have any change in her outward demeanour, in fact, she looked bored if anything. Willow was looking at him with amazement, wondering how it was possible to do such a thing. Xander just looked plain surprised while Oz kept a look of indifference on his face.

"How is that even possible?" Buffy asked eventually,

Harry sighed, "Long story short, I was fighting a bad guy, he produced a spell…"

"Magic!" Willow squealed, "You know magic! I can do magic. What sort of stuff can you do? Can you show me?" Willow asked quickly,

Harry smiled, he was beginning to like her, "Maybe later," he replied. Willow deflated a little but smiled brightly at him nonetheless.

"But I've never seen anyone perform magic with this," Giles stated, pulling out Harry's wand,

"Really?" Harry questioned, "I thought you had all those magic books…"

"But none of those need the use of a…stick." Giles interrupted.

"Wand," Harry corrected absentmindedly, "Can I have a look?" Giles nodded and Harry walked across the room and glanced at some of the books. "Wow," he muttered, "They're all so dark. Rituals, blood magic, resurrection…have you people never heard of a cheering charm?" At the blank looks on their faces, he shook his head, "Obviously not."

"You were fighting a bad guy?" Buffy questioned suddenly, "And why would you be doing that? You don't look like much of a fighter."

Harry just glanced at her and grinned, "Neither do you." Both of them shared a look for a second. Harry distinctly remembered being very impressed by the way she fought, you defiantly couldn't tell she was a fighter by looking at her; but she did have the most beautiful eyes…

"And how is it that you ended up falling from the sky in another world?" Giles asked,

Harry shook away his thoughts and answered, "He used some blood magic which could have killed a lot of people but we shared the same blood so I could stop it."

"So you were related?" Oz asked,

"No," Harry shook his head, disgusted at the thought of being related to Voldemort, "He stole some of my blood,"

"How did he steal you're blood?" Xander asked before he shook his head, "No, no, why would he want to steal your blood?"

"It's really not important," Harry said quickly, "All that matters is that he created this red…ball…type…thing…I walked into it and next thing you know, I wake up chained to a wall." Harry paused and ignored the others in the room for a second, "Look, I just want to go home. You're the only people I know here that even know that magic exists, I have no one else I can go to. Can you help me?"

Giles looked sympathetically at Harry and answered as honestly as he could. "We can try Harry, we can try."

***

Please leave me a review and let me know what you think, it will only take a few seconds. Anyway, this chapter was going to be longer but I cut it in half to update quicker. Remember to let me know on what pairing you want. Until next time!