A Second Chance
Chapter 3 – Awakening.
DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, and Harry Potter to J.K. Rowling. I don't own anything.
TIMELINE: AU. Set ten years before (Around 1988) "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone", during and after Harry Potter book 5, "Order of the Phoenix"(2003). During and after BTVS season 7, "Chosen". Pretend HP book one happened in 1999 during Buffy season three )
SUMMARY: BTVS/HP crossover. After James and Lily reappears, seemingly alive and well, mysterious things start to happen. New allies are made, prophecies revealed...and people keep rising from the dead. What's going on? And what has Voldemort got to do with it? Are the Scoobies and the Potter's second chance at life enough to stop the Dark Lord from spreading darkness across the country? Or is the world in need of more miracles?
PAIRINGS: Too many to count.
They ran, ran from a shadow bigger than anything...Ran for their lives, ran for their son...The roadchanged into a labyrint, with no escape...
Jamesturned past the corner...and there he was. Voldemort.
"How heroic of you, James. Trying to buy your wife and son time!"He cackled evilly and smiled.
"Don't you understand? You don't stand a chance against me...Good-bye, James Potter...AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Lily tried to scream, but not a sound came out.
James' bodywad lyingon the ground, cold as ice.
She looked for an escape, but saw none. His read eyes turned at her, sparkling.
"Harry, not Harry... Please not Harry... Take me instead...!" She begged.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
And then, they woke up.
James sat up with a gasp.
Where was he? What happened?
His ears registered a small wimping, and he turned against the sound, sitting up slowly.
"Lily?" he croaked.
Lilywas lyingin a bed beside his, small whimperings coming from her mouth, as she turned over and over, like she had a nightmare she desperatelytried to escape.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, and she let out a scream.
"HARRY!"
"Lily!"
Lilys' scream stopped.
"J-James?" Sheasked, her voice trembling.
James gave her a reassuring smile.
"It's okay, Lils. I'm here..."
"How?" She gulped."He...he killed you...I remember..."
James shook his head, smiling slightly, doing his best trying to calm his wife down.
"Shh, it was just a dream...just a dream..."
"But I know it wasn't!" Lily exclaimed."Don't you remember?"She asked, hoping he wouldn't, because that would prove the dream was true.
James searched his memory.
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"It's perfect, James! Who would possibly believe Peter's the secret-keeper?"
"I don't know, Padfoot, it's..."
"Prongs, we both know he will come after me – not Peter, what could possbily go wrong?"
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"Peter is the - are you mad? Why would you switch from Sirius?"
"Lily calm down...the reason we switched is kind of obvious, isn't it? Voldemort would never even consider the idea that Peter might be the secret-keeper - how could he possibly believe we would entrust our secret with Wormtail? It's fail-proof!"
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"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off – "
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The front door bursted open, and James stood face to face with the dark, hooded figure of lord Voldemort, who let out a high pitched laughter.
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"Don't you understand? You don't stand a chance against me. Expelliarmu!"
James crashed into the wall from the force of the blast, and watched helplessly as his wand flew out of his hand, landing several feet away.
"Good-bye, James Potter."
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James eyes widened in horried realization. "I remember..."
Lily bit her lower lip, as she always did when she was thinking about something – a habit James never grew tired of watching.
"But...if he ki-killed you...a-and me...why aren't we...dead? Because this doesn't feel like death...and...Oh, God – Harry! Where's Harry!"
Lily sat up wildly, looking desperaltly around the room after a sign of their son. When she couldn't find him, she felt panic rise in her throat. James had gone slightly pale, and was just about to answer, when...
"...Buffy! They're awake!"
James stared at the dark-haired woman in front of them. What's a 'Buffy'?
The dark-haired woman turned around, and was joined by a blonde in the same age.
"Should we call for a doctor? 'Cause I've got no clue."
The blonde shook her head.
"No - not until we know who they are".
"Are they demons?" Another blonde haired woman joined them, followed by a dark-haired man with an eye-patch.
"What?" James asked, confused. Who were these people?
"Anya!" The dark-haired male hissed."What did I tell you? Try to have - "
" - A little tact," the second blonde, who's name seemed to be Anya, finished."I know Xander, but you can't boss me around, 'cause we're not together anymore! Hmm, I wonder why...oh, hey! Could it be because you left me at the altar?"
The two of them started to bicker; loud.
Lily blinked. Okay, those two definitly had some history...
"Umm...not to be rude...but are you muggles?" James asked.
"Mugg-what?" The first blonde asked.
"Forget it," James hastily added, but the blonde narrowed her eyes.
"No, I won't forget it. Were you insulting us?"
Lily hastily stepped in, thinking it best to stop the argument before it even began.
"Could you tell us where we are and how we got here?" She asked kindly, and smiled at the visitors.
"We were hoping you could answer that," the blonde said. "Right, Xander?"
The dark-haired man, who was obviouslycalled Xander, didn't seem to notice, as he kept fighting with the other blonde.
"Xander!" The first blonde snapped.
"Wha...?"
The blonde sighed.
"Could you please stop your gnabbing and turn your attention this way?"
Xander smiled sheepishly.
"Right...sorry, Buff-ster".
"Thank you." She turned backto Lily.
"Do you have any idea how you fell through the portal?"
"What portal?" James asked, feeling incredibly stupid.
"You don't know what a portal is?" Buffy said with a raise of her eyebrows."Okay, we put it this way; did you get sucked up by some kind ofwhite mystical energy"?
This time, it was James turn to blink.
"Not that I'm aware of..."
"Maybe they were unconsious already when they got sucked up?" The dark-haired woman suggested.
"Sucked...up?", Lily asked faintly. Okay...these people did not seem to be very english...
James coughed, and everyone turned to look at him.
"Well, I'm terribly sorry if I seem to be rude, but...where are we?"
The dark-haired woman gave him a curious look.
"Are you english?"
"Um...yes," he said nervously, fiddling with his sheets.
"Oh! They're from the land of Giles!" Xander cried out.
"Do you wear tweed?" Anya asked.
"Um..."
"Okay, that's enough, you two," thefirst blonde said. "Xander; cool it, Anya; stop playing 'thousand questions'. I'm Buffy, that's Xander, she's Anya, and that's Faith."
Buffy pointed at each one of the persons as she said their names.
'Buffy's a name?' James thought, before asking, once again, where they were.
"Oh, I'm sorry. You're in a hospital in LA, or Los Angeles if you english people prefer that name...Giles hasn't mentioned what he prefers... I guess you know it's in America, right?"
"Yes". 'At least this explains why they talk funny', James thought, snorting inwardly. Dying had obviously not gotten rid of his humor...thankfully.
"How did we get here?" Lily asked. "You said something about a portal...?"
Buffy smiled nervously. "Eh...I guess we should let you rest for now...and forget everything we said about portals and stuff: So not important".
"Oh, but we want to know," Lily said. "If we did come through a portal, we could be from an alternate dimension," Lily said. Everyone turned to stare at her.
"You...you know about alternate dimensions?" Faith asked. "But how?"
James and Lily looked at each other.
"We're witches," Lily finallysaid – it was obvious these people knew about supernatural things, and they didn't seem evil.
"...Or at least I am...James is a wizard," she hastily added when she saw James' glare.
She gave him an apologetic look, butdidn't really mean anything as her smile revealed what she really thought.James scowled.
"Really? Willow's a witch too!" Xander exclaimed.
Buffy sighed, drawing her fingers through her hair.
"Well, I guess our mission is that we should try and figure out if you are from an alternate dimension or not."
"Who's the president of the US?" Faith asked.
"We're checking for possible alternate dimensions, not a concussion," Buffy quipped, earning herself a glare from Faith.
Faith glared.
"I have no big contact with the muggle world, and definitly not the American, so I don't know", James said.
"Okay, that's that word again. 'Muggle'. What does it mean?" Buffy asked.
"Non-magical people," Lily explained. "As for the president...well, I'm not sure, but I think it's Ronald Reagan...at least it was last year, but they might have changed it...I have no big contact with the muggle world so much either nowadays."
The Scooby-gang stared at them.
"Okay..." Buffy said... "Somebody get Willow? I think she's checking the other Sla...eh...you know what I mean."
Xander left. They sat in silence untilhe returned, a red-head in tow.
"What is it?"
"What year was Reagan president? " Buffy asked, "I was never much for history, I'm more for the now, and history is much about 'the then'".
"Umm...somewhere during the eighties, I think."
Lily suddenly got a bad feeling in her stomach.
"What...what month is it?" She stammered.
"Um...end of May..." Buffy said nervously, her eyes darting towards the other Scoobies, who looked really worried.
"What...what year?"
"Um...I don't think this is such of a good idea..." Buffy began, but was interrupted by Lily.
"WHAT YEAR?" She screamed.
"2003," Buffy said hastily. "But I'm sure..."
"WHAT!" Lily cried out. "2003...Oh Merlin...we've been gone for almost sixteen years, James! Sixteen years!"
Jamessat like frozen, and was very pale.
"Oh dear..."
"Huh, you sounded just like Giles!" Xander stated.
Everyone in the scooby-gang turned to glare at him.
"And I'll shut up now..." He muttered.
"2003...sixteen years..." Lily mumbled again.
"We've got to get back." James said."Everyone probably thinks we're dead...and we need to know what happened to Harry, and why we didn't die..."
"Um...maybe this is a bad time, but why should you have died in the first place?" Willow asked.
Lily and James looked at eachother.
"Maybe we should talk about this in a place that is a little more private, and a little less hospital?" James suggested. "Because this is a hospital, right?"
"Yeah. I agree, we should get back to Hyperion". Buffy said.
"I'll talk with the doctors," Willow said, looking at James and Lily with something akin to pity, beforetaking off.
"Fascinating. Absolutly fascinating," Giles said, when James and Lily had finished their stories.
"I knew the Council had some contact with the magical world - "
" - Wait! You knew there was a magical school and a whole magical community, but you never told me?" Willow asked. 'That might have helped me control my magic and not going all psycho.'
"Willow, you have to understand that the muggle-world isn't supposed to know. And the magic you use, wicca, is completely different from wand-magic. And I didn't know much, only what I might have overheard and put together." Giles told the upset wiccan.
"You eavesdropped the Council? Bad Giles, bad, bad, Giles!" Buffy said. "Not that I mind," she hastily added.
"Wait, the Council? The watchers' Council?Is someone among you a Vampire Slayer?" James asked.
'That would explain why they know about the supernatural'.
"Well, actually, several of us," Faith said, shrugging.
"But I only thought it could be one at the time?" Lily asked, confused."How is itpossible?"
"Well, when the first one dies and is revived...poof! There's two of them. And if a super-mega-powerful-wicca uses her hocus-pocus to activate all the potentials...poof again! And there are several," Buffy said. She looked hopefully at James and Lilys' faces, searching for a sign that they understood, but they looked just as confused as before, if not worse.
She sighed.
"Well, I guess it's storytime".
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"No, I mean wow! Everything you've done..." Jamesshook his head."Just 'wow'."
"You start to sound American already. And a bit like Willow did in High-Shool."
"I do not!" James protested, clearly offended."Well, at least not American. About Willow, I don't know, since I didn't know her in...eh...High-School."
"Don't worry," Buffy assured him."You'll get used to be all America-ish in a while."
"No!" Lily exclaimed. "I mean, there's nothing wrong with you, but we have to go back."
Buffy nodded.
"Okay, we understand...we were expecting it actually. Is there anything we can do for you, before you leave?"
"Well...we don't have any money right now, and no wands, so we can't apparate..."
"Oh! You want to get air-tickets! Sure, we can handle that. Right?" Buffy asked, worried.
"Yes, Wolfram and Heart has plenty of cash," Angel assured them.
Lily smiled and was quiet for awhile.
"Maybe you could come too, you seem to be interested in the wizarding world," she suggested. "Plus, we have no idea what's waiting...Voldemort might have taken over, or the war could still be going on...either way, you could be needed."
"We would like that, but we need to take care of some things first. We need to find and relocate all the Slayers, make plans for a new watcher's Council...I have no idea were to start," Buffy admitted and sighed.
"May I suggest from the beginning? It's usually easiest," Lily said and smiled, earning a smile back.
"Well, I guess we can jump to the conclusion that it was a time-portal they came through," Angel said.
"Yeah...it feels so weird. You should be like, what? Thirty-five? But you don't look like a day over 20. Creepy," Buffy said and shuddered.
Lily and James laughed.
"What do you think the wizarding-world will be like, James?" Lily asked, nervously, sitting in the airoplane beside her equally nervous husband.
"I have no idea, Lils, but I think it's gonna get a big awakening when we get there," James admitted.
"Yes...it's rather...creepy..."
James chuckled.
"You know, Lils, the American language is very infectious. We haven't even spent an entire day in those American's company, and we have already started to pick up words from them."
"I think that the 'Scooby-Gang' was very American...all those pop-culture references from Xander...I thought I was becoming crazy".
James grinned, and squeezed his wife's hand. They were finally going home...
"Where has Sirius gone? Kreacher, has he gone to the Department of Mysteries?"
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"But – but we needed to tell him something important!""Yes?"
"We...wanted to tell him it's r – ready!"
"What's ready?"
"The...the weapon.
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"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant evening."
Lily and James had managed to get a cab from the airport to muggle London, and then to Diagon Alley. They had no idea how they had managed to get to a fireplace without being seen.
"Do you really think it's a good idea just to walk in there?" Lily asked, slightly worried. I mean, we are supposed to have been dead for sixteen years..."
"Good point. But I don't think we have that much of a choice." James said."We need to get to Dumbledore, he's the only one who might be ableto explain everything to us...without blasting us to pieces first, and ask questions later."
Lily grinned, appreaciating that her husband still was able to joke, even in a serious situation like this.
"Right. Just hope that he's still the Headmaster..."
Lily stepped forward and grabbed some floo-powder they had managed to get their hands on.
"Hogwarts, Dumbledores' office!"
Dumbledorehad just gottenready to grab the portkey, which would take him to the Department of Mysteries, when the fireplace flamed up. Out stepped...
"Lily?" Dumbledore felt his heartmake an extra volt. For the first time in his entire life, he was speachless.
The fire suddenly sparkled once again...
"James?"
"Hello, professor."