A Second Chance
Chapter 12 – Reunited and the full prophecy.
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.
Thanks to my beta: Charmed Chick
"Tara?"
"Will...Willow?" Tara stuttered. She could barely see anything because of the blood falling from her head and into her eyes, but the voice belonged to Willow- but it couldn't be. Could it?
"Yes!" Willow exclaimed, tears of relief and joy dripping from her eyes."Tara! Baby, it's me..." Willow sank down on her knees beside her girlfriend. Then she turned to Voldemort with eyes burning with hatred. It was a wonder they didn't turn black.
"What did you do to her?" She asked, her voice trembling with rage. "How could you do this? How did you find her? Why isn't she dead?"
When Willow said the last world, Tara trembled under Willows touch, and she swore over her own insensitiveness.
Voldemort glared at Willow with cold eyes.
"As I said, I want you to join me, Willow. Think about it." He turned around to leave, but at the doorstep he stopped, and looked at Willow over his shoulder.
"Oh, yes. Another thing - Tara's well-being completely depends on you. If you obey, no harm will come to her...if you don't...well, that's another thing." Voldemort smiled cruelly.
"You son of a bitch!" Willow spat, but Voldemort just smiled before he left.
"Think about it."
"Prongs!" Sirius exclaimed, coming jumping around the corner, looking like a child on Christmas.
James, who had been kissing Lily, turned aroundwith an annoyed impression at his face, sighing at his best friend.
"What?"
"Can I have a minute?" Sirius asked, giving James his best puppy-dog eyes.
James sighed.
"Sirius, I would love to catch up on old times, but - "
" - It's important!" Sirius quickly added, before James could finish. He sighed again, giving Sirius an impatient look.
"Fine. Spill."
Sirius raised an eyebrow.
"Talk!" James explained, looking quite mad now, and had crossed his arm across his chest. Plus, his foot was making impatient tapping noises against the floor.
"Oh. Right."Sirius gave Lily an uncertain look out of the corner of his eyes, and Lily raised her hands in surrender.
"Alright, alright. I understand when I'm not wanted," she said and gave James a last kiss before running off.
"What is so important that you had to abrupt a beautiful make-out session?" James growleded, before adding: "Did I just say make-out session?"
Sirius nodded, and smirked.
"If you're not too busy, I have a matter of importance I would like to discuss with you," Sirius said importantly, pushing out his chest."Don't you think this place is in desperate need for cheering up?"
James raised his eyebrows.
"After yesterday and Anya's little speech, don't you think we need a break?" He muttered.
"Oh, that was fun!" Sirius exclaimed, then frowned. " - At first. Then it just got disturbing."
James sighed, but as he sawa mischievous glimt in Sirius' grey eyes, he started to grin.
"Alright, alright. What are you up to?"
Sirius smirked.
"Tara?"
"W-Willow?"
"Tara! It's...it's really you...how..." Willow cradled Tara closer to her, touching her body carefully, as if she wanted to make sure Tara was there for real, and not just a wistful illusion.
"I-I don't know..." Tara stammered, desperately trying to ignore the pain.
"Where were you? I missed you so much...!" Willow exclaimed, with tearfilled eyes.
"Ob-obviously I-I was de-dead." Tara stuttered in an attempt to joke.
"How did you get here?"
"I-I don't kn-know. I-I was at this pl-place and then I was h-here...it hurts," Tara mumbled, moving closer to Willow. Willow would make everything okay.
"I know, baby, I know...just relax." Willow shushed, and gaveTara a kiss on her forehead.
"Before you came here...where were you?" She wondered quietly. "What did it look like?"
Tara closed her eyes, frowning.
"I-it was grey," she finally said, and Willow gave her a questioning look.
"Grey?"
"Th-they said it was a-a place f-for waiting. For people who's time hadn't come..." Tara mumbled, gulping slightly. She just wanted the pain to stop.
"They? Who are they?" Willow muttered affectionately, stroking her lover's hair softly.
"Wat-watchers," Tara gasped out, as a new shockwave of pain hit her.
"Watcher?" Willow wondered."As in Giles? That kind of watcher?"
"N-no. They...watched. The e-earth. And kept the balance be-between the de-dead and the living. T-to show the dead their pl-place when it was their time. They were g-guardians t-to the port o-of Heaven. And the g-gate of Hell."
"Why didn't you go to Heaven?" Willow whispered, using the arm of her sweater to dry away som blood and sweat from Tara's forehead.
"B-because it wasn-wasn't my time to die yet. Th-they didn't have a place for me ready. So I-I had to stay in the shadows...w-waiting." She laughed humorlessly. "I'm always in t-the shadow..."
"No!" Willow exclaimed."Baby, no...you're not. You're in the light. Remember? The song? On the bridge?"
Tara smiled tiredly as she remembered that day. She wished they could go back...make everything better.
"Sing it for me, Willow. P-please...sing it for me..." She whispered, as she slowly started to doze of to Willow's continual strokes over her hair.
Willow smiled, and started to sing in a soft, small voice.
"I lived my life in shadow - never the sun on my face. It didn't seem so sad though. I figured that was my place. Now I'm bathed in light. Something just isn't right. I'm under your spell..."
The next morning, everybody sat in the Great Hall, slowly eating their breakfast, when the door bursted open, and professor Snape came in. He looked furious, but that wasn't what drew their attention. No, it was his appearance.
His hair was curly, and the colour - well, let's just say that the rainbow would appear very lame if you compared.
"WHO DID THIS!" He yelled in rage, as hewalked up to the faculty-table, his robes billowing behind him. It would all have been very scary if they hadn't been a lime-green.
"WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS!"
Nobody could answer him. Everybody had simply fallen over, and started to laugh furiously. Ron had simply spit out his pumpkin-juice, before starting to laugh hysterically, falling of the bench.
Sirius and James were laughing too, and so was Dawn, Faith, Buffy and the other Slayers. Even the teachers seemed to find it highly amusing, and Remus had, like yesterday, run out of the Great Hall to laugh. Xander laughed, and pointed, and laughed again, and Anya started to talk about how much he looked like a clown she had cursed in France, during 1980s.
"YOU! POTTER!" Snape yelled, and walked straight torwards Harry with his wand raised.
"Now, see here, Severus, you can't just assume it is Harry who is responsible for this!" Professor McGonagall spoke up, her mouth twitching dangerously. "Have you tried to remove your new...haircolor, and breaking the spell on your robes?"
"OF COURSE I HAVE!" Snape yelled, his paleface growing even paler."WHAT IS THE POINT OF THIS WHEN I KNOW IT WAS POTTER! I KNOW IT WAS!"
"I have a very big point," McGonagall said calmly, doing her best to keep herself under control, even if she secretly wished she had a camera. However, she suddenly saw a flash from the Gryffindor table, and realised Colin Creevey had already taken several pictures. She promised herself to ask him for copies later. "A student who hasn't even entered his sixth year wouldn't be able to do that to your robes," McGonagall continued. "I would say the colour on them has been put under a permanent sticking charm. Mr. Potter wouldn't be able to do that. And the Potion that is required to change someone's haircolour permanently, that is impossible to make for someone at Harry's level. Don't you always say that young Mr. Potter is hopeless in Potions?"
"MAYBE HE HAD HELP!" Severus turned to Ron and Hermione, and their smiles was wiped out of their faces instantly.
"That is highly unlikely." Professor Dumbledoresuddenly spoke up."And I wouldn't worry to much, Severus. I'm sure it's not permanent, but if it is - well, I have to say your new style suits you." He sounded amused, and Snape couldn't find anything to say in retort, so he simply turned his heel and left. When he was gone, Lily turned to James and Sirius with a suspicious look on her face. Both of the men simply turned their focus back to their food. Lily shook her head.
"I don't know what I was thinking, marrying one of you. You are completely and utterly - "
" - hopeless," James finished for her. "I know. And that's why you love me!" He grinned, and whispered conspiratorially in her ear.
"It's not permanent. It will wear off - in a day or two."
Lily opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but in the end, she just shook her head, and sighed a little. She would never admit it out loud, of course...but it was kind of funny.
"Willow?" Tara mumbled sleepily.
"Yes, baby?" Willow said.
"Y-you're not going t-to...join him, are you?"
Willow was quiet, and Tara suddenly sat up, trying to ignore the pain.
"You can't!"She exclaimed."Willow...you know what will happen...please..." Tara looked close to tears.
"B-but if he hurts you..." Willow said, wringing her hands.
"Then let it be so! You managed fine on your own once - "
" - I can't lose you again!" Willow exclaimed, desperately.
"You won't. I will always be in your heart - you know that," Tara said, smiling a little.
"But it's not the same as having you here! Alive! Beside me!" Willow said, then added quietly as she looked down in her lap:"If I don't agree, he'll kill us both."
"Anything is better than joining him," Tara said, falling back towads Willow, too tired to sit up anymore. "Remember Warren?"
Willow's head turned around and met Tara's eyes so suddenly, that she flinched.
"How do you know about Warren!" Willow asked sharply, fright in her eyes. Tara bit her lip.
"Re-remember how I told you about the Watchers? The guardians of H-Heaven?"
Willow nodded shortly.
"They w-watched. They had a spring with water. It was like a m-mirror were they could watch the pe-people on earth so they would know when it was th-their time to die and were to go; Heaven or Hell. I had n-nothing to do so I w-watched you. I saw what you did. E-everything."
"Oh God..." Willow whispered, pain in her eyes.
"Don't be ashamed," Tara tried to reassure her. "I s-saw what y-you did to him but I saw when you r-redeemed yourself. You're s-sorry, and that's all that matters. You activated all t-the Slayers and if that wasn't redemption, n-nothing is."
Willow just smiled sadly.
Giles was standing in the library and- not surprisingly- looked through some books.He had just come to the last page in a book called 'Prophecies Through the Ages'. He was just about to close it, when somethingcaught his attention.
'...The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ...'
"Huh. That's the prophecy Dumbledore talked about...I had no idea it was written somewhere. He better see this..." Giles muttered, and was just about to leave, when another sentence drew his attention.
He hastily read through it. When he was done, he took of his glasses and polished them against his sweater.
"Oh dear."
Giles stormed into the Scoobies' common-room.
"Buffy!"
Buffy hastily looked up from the spoon she was about to transform as she sawGiles come running through the portraithole.
"Is the castle on fire?" She asked dumbly. Giles looked desperate.
"Have you seen Willow?"
Buffy shook her head.
"Nope. Not since yesterday." She frowned."IsWillow on fire?"
Giles made a strange clucking sound with his toungue, but decided to ignore Buffy's comment. Instead, he continued.
"That's what I was afraid of; can you check her dorm?"
"Sure." Buffy got up, and knocked on Willows door. "Will? Wills? Are you there?"
No one answered.
"Alright, I'm coming in!" Buffy opened the door. The room was empty. Gileshad suddenly gone very pale.
"Gather everyone in Dumbledore's office."
"The new Slayers too?" Buffy wondered, confused as to what this was all about.
"No. But you should take Harry, Ron and Hermione."
Buffy nodded slowlyas shegave Giles a questioning look, which he ignored. "Okay..."
"Hurry."
"So, what's the what?" Faith asked, as she smoked on a cigarette. "New apocalypse?"
"Afraid so," Giles sighed."Voldemort has Willow."
Gasps were heard.
"H-how do you know?" Xander was pale now.
"Iwas researchingHarry's prophecy and found it in this book," Giles exclaimed, and held up 'Prophecies Through the Ages'. "But thereis also another sentence after the part of the prophecy known to you, Dumbledore."
Giles gave the book to Dumbledore to read out loud.
"'...The one with the power to vanquish the- Dark Lord approaches... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not ... and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives ... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies ...' Yes, that's Harry's prophecy," Dumbledore nodded.
"Now look under it," Giles said, and Dumbledore frowned, but continued to read.
"'...When the summer of the sixteenth year begins, those long gone will return to the chosen, and under their guide he will grow stronger. But thechampions for the light will be betrayed by one of their own asthe rat leads her to thy enemy, and she will join forces. The One-with-the-Name-Who-shall-Not-be-Spoken has offered her a gift, to which she cannot say no. The witch falls for the darkness and will be trapped inside. The dark Slayer will join the Dark Lord on Halloween's eve, and she will be tempted, but she shall pass...The witch will switch side, and the light will be lost...'"
"Okay...I think I speak for everyone here when I say 'huh'?" Buffy said, and Xander nodded in agreement.
"Dear Lord..." Professor Dumbledore mumbled.
" - and again with the 'huh'?" Buffy said.
"The prophecy speaks about us, thechampions for the light," Giles explained. "That is us, and the other Slayers. The one is Harry, and The One-with-the-Name-Who-shall-Not-be-Spoken isVoldemort. Those long gone -I would say it talks about James and Lily. People long believed them for dead, and if this prophecy is right, it would also explain why they didn't die, but were brought forward in time."
"What's with the 'the witch falls for the darkness' and crap?" Xander asked.
"It's Willow," Giles sighed."No one has seen her since yesterday?" Everyone shook her head.
"Then the first part of the prophecy has been fulfilled. The rat...I don't know who that is."
"Wormtail," Sirius spat hatefully, and Giles nodded.
"Oh, alright. Wormtail has taken Willow to Voldemort, and he has offered her a gift, to which she cannot say no. She joins him, and will fight for the dark side once again."
"But Willow would never join big V!" Xander protested. "She knows where the darkness takes her, she wouldn't - "
" - Are you sure?" Giles said sharply."It says so right here."
"Prophecies are tricky things!" Xander said. "No matter what gift big V will give her..."
"What is it that Willow wants most of all?" Giles asked, sighing.
"Tara, but...oh..." A light went up for Xander.
"But that's not possible!" Buffy protested."Tara's dead."
"But dead people can be revived. You are a living proof of that, Buffy," Giles said.
"But the urn of Osyrius - "
" - Osiris," Giles corrected. "And I am sure there are other ways. After all, the urn of Osiris was the only way for you, but how do you know there are not other ways in the wizarding word?" Giles said.
"But Tara wouldn't let her!" Xander exclaimed.
"And you think Willow will listen?" Giles said, voice relieved of all emotion. "If it was a matter between joining forces with Voldemort or letting Tara be killed once again?"
No one spoke.
"It also speaks about the dark Slayer..."
"That would be me," Faith said, and Remus gave her a reassuring smile.
"Yes. Faith will go to Voldemort, freely, it seems, on Halloween's eve...it doesn't say which, though, but I guess we should assume it is the Halloween of this year," Giles added.
"And 'she will be tempted but she shall pass'," James quoted. "It makes sense."
"It doesn't say if he will kill her though," Buffy said slowly.
"Hey, I'm standing right here!" Faith said, clearly annoyed.
"Sorry, Faith," Buffy said, even though she didn't look very sorry at all."So, what are we going to do? We have to save Willow - and Tara, if she is the gift."
"But it says right here that she will join him and we will lose," Giles said.
"And again, I go with the 'prophecies are tricky things'." Xander said. "We have to try."
"I agree. I'm not leaving Willow in big V's hands. Not if we can help it," Buffy said.
"So...what's the plan?"
"Alright, me, Faith, Sirius, Remus, James and Lily go in there. James, Sirius, Remus and Lily will be distraction. Faith adn I will go get Willow, hopefully Tara too, and then we leave. Questions? Comments?" Buffy said, her 'leader-side' taking over.
"I have a question, " Faith said. "Where is there?"
Buffy looked dumbfounded for a moment.
"Malfor Manor," Sirius finally said. "It's pretty much the only place Voldemort can be safe - he might be all-powerful and evil, but he is kind of predictable."
"Okay. How do we get there?"
"With portkeys," Professor Dumbeldore said and picked up six different objects and gave one to each.
"They will be activated twenty minutes after you land in Malfoy Manor. It will take you directly back to Hogwarts. Good luck."
The portkeys activated, and they were gone.
They landed outside a huge building.
"Malfoy Manor. Everyone knows the plan?" Buffy asked.
"Um...not to spoil the moment, but we don't have a plan exactly..." Lily said.
"That's the plan. We improvise. It always works for me." She grinned, and started to move towards the entrance, ignoring Lily's worried look.
"Willow?" Tara mumbled.
"Mhm. You won't join him, will you?"
Willow was about to answer, when Voldemort came in.
"Have you made up your mind, my beautiful witch?"
Willow nodded slowly., meeting Voldemort's eyes defiantly.
"I'll never join you," she said, and Tara gave a sigh of relief.
Voldemort gave a sign to one of the deatheaters, who raised his want towards Tara.
"CRUCIO!" Tara screamed in pain.
"I'm asking you again."
"I WON'T!" Willow screamed, but felt her eyes fill with tears. Again Tara was hit by the cruciatus.
"NO! PLEASE STOP IT! DON'T HURT HER!" She cried.
"Then join me. For the last time, what is your answer?"
"Willow, no!" Tara screamed, despite the pain.
Willow swallowed, and looked down on Tara with eyes that said everything she felt in that moment. When she looked up again, her eyes were black.
Voldemort smiled.
A/N: Hi! Hoped you guys liked the chapter, let me know what you think! Now you know how James and Lily survived (they were a part of the prophecy). You will find out how Voldy brough tTara back sooner or later. Leave a little review to let me know what you think.
/Ida