Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer nor Harry Potter. All of the characters, settings, themes, books, show, titles, worlds, names, demons, witches, slayers, creation, references, and basic gist of the two fantasy worlds all belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Warner Bros., and of course, J.K. Rowling. All rights reserved.
Timeline: Story is set 1 year after Season 7 and five days before Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban. Just for possible future references, the story will be happening during Angel's Season 5.
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews! Up next: We get to see what's happening down at Privet Drive with our Harry. There's a whole lot of cursing over here, so press the mute button if you can't stand it. Read to find out more!
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Chapter Seven, The Life of an Outcast
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"...It all comes down to the blood, you see. If the bitch's blood is tainted, what more could you expect from the pup! Really Petunia, I'm surprised you kept this mutt after all what your whore of a sister has done to you!" Marge exclaimed as she took a sip from her wine, oblivious to the glare she received from Harry. Petunia merely nodded tightly as she kept throwing wary glances at her nephew.
Harry clutched his fork; his hands were trembling from trying to control his growing rage. How dare she! he seethed. Bloody git never even knew my parents! Things have been like this ever since she came for a visit. Aunt Marge insulted his lineage and Harry could do nothing but keep his mouth shut. Anger started to fill him and then he heard a wine glass explode. The sudden sound of the broken glass brought Harry back to his senses.
The form, the form, the form...
Petunia squealed when one of her precious glasses were destroyed. "Are you alright, Marge?" she asked worriedly.
"I'm fine, I'm fine. Got a strong grip is all. Happens every time back at home," she assured her but it didn't stop the Dursleys from glancing at Harry suspiciously. "Anyways, where were we? Ah, yes...you boy," Harry didn't look up for fear of loosing control again.
The five best ways to keep a broom in shape...
"YOU LOOK AT ME WHEN I SPEAK TO YOU, BRAT! It's a bloody wonder why my fine brother here kept you in their house. You're very presence shames them of keeping you, a bastard's son, living in their very own house after your parents died. Why, I wouldn't even BE surprised if they died drunk in that car crash!" Marge spat at him.
"Take that back," Harry growled out as he stood up. Something inside him finally snapped and he neither cared about the form nor the nagging voice in the back of his head about underage magic. All commonsense has left him, and it was raw rage along with injured pride that's controlling him now. He glared coldly at Aunt Marge as he waited for an apology.
"Boy...," a hidden warning was behind Uncle Vernon's voice, but Harry could care less. In truth, Vernon was afraid of Potter. Afraid of the 'horrible' things he can do by saying a small incantation, or just flicking his hands around, waving that wretched wand of his.
"Oh let him be, Vernon. Besides what can the mutt do? Look at him! He's scrawny as a twig," Marge chuckled at her own analogy, which did nothing but infuriate Harry more.
"I said, take that back. You know nothing of my parents; you do NOT have a right to insult them. All you have are accusations, nothing more than petty insults you can come up with!" he snapped. Harry felt the crackling energy of magic in the air surrounding him, but he was too angry to care.
"Don't you take that tone with me, boy! Your parents are nothing more than an insult to the human race! Your mother a whore and father an unemployed ass!"
Harry made a move to lunge at her across the table but Uncle Vernon managed to hold him off. "Let go of me!" Potter screamed. A glint in his eyes frightened the Dursleys and startled Marge. But Vernon's sister only gave out a cold glare at Harry.
"Clearly your nephew is demented, Petunia. Are you-," she was suddenly cut off by something. Marge made a choking sound, but she hadn't even taken a bite for the past ten minutes. The English woman started to inflate; it was truly the only word for it. Her cheeks became rounder, neck disappearing, stomach larger, and arms bigger. Even her eyes looked like they were ready to pop out of their sockets!
"Vernon!" she squealed worriedly as she waved her arms wildly. Marge started to float up in the air while at the same time still get bigger and bigger. "What's happening to me?"
"Don't worry, Marge. I'll get you down!" Vernon assured her in a shaky voice, but snapped his attention at a now maniac-grinning Harry. "I know you did it. Turn her back, boy! Now!"
"Or what?" Harry challenged, and Mr. Dursley took it as his queue to let him go, "she got what she deserved," he added before turning around and fleeing to his room. Harry breathed heavily as he shut the door.
With the adrenaline slowly coming out of him, the reasonable part of Harry told him that the Ministry will be here soon. No doubt they'll expel me from Hogwarts. So he did what he thought he ought to do—live out as an outcast. He quickly packed his clothes and took out his trunk along with his wand. No point on not doing any more magic. Harry ran down the stairs and was met by an angry uncle.
"Turn her back now."
Harry merely gave him a patronizing look before getting out of the house and slamming the door behind him loudly.
Fury was still raging inside of him, so he walked—no, stomped—around the place. He muttered every curse word he can come up with that could've made a drunkard blush until he finally realized that he ended in the playground.
Harry sighed. He fully understood his dilemma. Oh yes. With this being his second penalty, he could never go back to Hogwarts. He would be sent straight to the place where people like him go. It's all Aunt Marge's fault. Anger started to fill him again. I'll never see Hermione, Ron, even Dumbledore. Harry idly wondered what the Ministry does to people like him.
A low growl snapped him out of his thoughts. Harry followed the source of the growl and realized with a twinge of fear it came from a big dog in front of him. Probably a stray. He raised up his arms and muttered, "Lumos."
Before he could examine the huge dog further, a loud honking sound startled him. Suddenly, as if it appeared from no where, a purple triple Decker bus came. Harry tripped over his luggage as he tried to dodge the incoming vehicle. Finally, a man holding a coin changer on his belt came out of the bus.
"Wha' are yeh doing down there?" he asked, puzzled at Harry's position.
"I uh, tripped," Harry replied weakly before he got up.
"Well, come on! Yeh raised yer wand, didn't yeh?" Harry nodded, "go inside the Knight Bus an' me an' Ernie here will take yeh wherever."
Harry reluctantly followed, but what choice did he have? He entered the Knight Bus, not knowing what hit him later on when he got out of it.
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It's been six days since he escaped Azkaban but he finally arrived in Surrey. The journey to north has been tiring, if not aggravating. Sirius mainly traveled at night since many witches and wizards and even muggles are on a look out for him. This literally cut his time in half to reach Hogwarts. It was actually lucky that he was an unregistered Animagus. The Ministry would be trying to find a man while Sirius Black was in fact, in a dog's body.
Finding food was another matter. Sirius mostly received scrapes from muggle restaurants when he comes across them or picking berries when he needed to in the forest. It was a disgusting way to find food by eating leftovers, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. And at this point, he was definitely beyond begging. His journey in the beginning went off in a rocky start. Having starved from Azkaban, Sirius had to maintain his diet into a minimum at first lest he wants to upset his stomach.
The prospect of hunting down small prey crossed his mind more than once but the thought of trying to cook it without any means of magic—having his wand snapped in half by the Ministry—came along with it. In the end, he gave up all means of hunting since it merely tired him out. How good was hunting when you couldn't even come close to 5 feet without the prey bolting off?
Sirius sometimes risked on going in broad daylight, the thought of Peter killing Harry urging him on. The guilt of choosing Peter as James's secret keeper burned in his conscience and saving Harry from the real traitor was the only thing he can think of.
Heck, it was the only thing he could think of ever since he saw his picture in the Daily Prophet. Finding out that it was Peter's fault for all this mess and that he was still alive burned him to the core. He'll have his vengeance at last and finally set things right.
Sirius suddenly caught sight of his godson as the clearing opened. He looks so much like James, but his eyes. His eyes are Lily's. He followed Harry up to the playground and wondered what he was doing out so late at night. It angered him that his guardians had recklessly let him outside, especially when Voldemort was still out there. Sirius growled at the thought and it captured Harry's attention.
The boy drew out his wand to examine him further, but it only brought out the Knight Bus. Sirius almost leaped up to try and push him away, but Harry's own reflexes saved him from bus. Thank Merlin!
Sirius sighed with relief before he turned around and resumed his journey to Hogwarts.
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A week had past since Harry met Fudge personally. The 'talk' he had with him had been surprising but it still relieved him to know that he wasn't expelled from Hogwarts. Harry was even given a room in the Leaky Cauldron so that he wouldn't have to stay with the Dursleys free of charge…well, to him anyways. But to say that it had been totally great was slightly overrated. Sure, there was the 'no-unwanted-relatives' near him, and he can stay up late to catch up on his summer homework, but there were still some quirks.
For one thing, wizards and witches still gawked and pointed at him as they whispered excitedly and a few times, shook hands with him as he passed by. Total anonymity was completely gone. Harry thought that the unwanted publicity would go away, but the days that went by proved him wrong, if fact, it only increased. Apparently having something to do with that fugitive who escaped Azkaban. With his vacation from unwanted publicity gone, Harry realized it was one of things he actually missed during his stay at the Dursleys.
Another was that there were wizards that have kept watch over him. At first, he thought it was only his imagination, but over the days, he realized that they were following him. Subtly, but it was enough to be noticed when there was a nagging sense in the back of his mind that someone was following him for five days straight. Harry figured it was only to make sure that he kept true to his word to Fudge about not going to muggle London, so he tried to ignore the following bodyguards. But it didn't stop it from being annoying. For Christ's sake he wasn't a ten-year-old!
Oh, and that bloody obnoxious mirror in his room that kept on insulting Hedwig was another problem. Ever since he registered in the room, all the mirror did was compare him to its last tenant and rant on and on about why he shouldn't keep his owl any more. It was quite irritating really, especially when he wakes up to the sound of the mirror yelling loudly to get his bum to move.
Some vacation this was.
But the fact that he didn't have to stay with the Durselys for the rest of the summer and that he was still going to Hogwarts made him happier than his first experience of flying. Harry sighed with content as he finished eating his ice cream.
Better get back to that Potions essay.
Harry stood up from his table and walked back towards the Leaky Cauldron, pointedly ignoring the hushed whispers that came along the way. He passed by Madam Malkin's store and a new uniform caught his attention. Potter walked closer to the store to examine the new wardrobe and read the label underneath it: New Physical Defense Robes for Hogwarts Students. Only 20 Sickles a pair!
"Oh yes, the new subject," Harry muttered to himself before going back to his walk towards his room. Wonder why Dumbledore would set up that subject? A sudden epiphany occurred to him, and Harry had to stop the groan that was about to come out. What if it's exactly like gym back in those muggle schools!
He knew that he was never good at this sort of things. Ever since he was in school with Dudley, Harry never really shown talent with gym. Nor did it help that he was always chosen last when it came to group plays. His body built was also another matter.
Whilst there were students in Hogwarts that have the 'athletic body', Harry knew he wasn't one of them; he had the body of a Seeker. He was light and small, not huge or muscular. If things turn out the same as it did for him when he attended muggle schools, he would definitely flunk this class. Hmm, maybe I can get Hermione to create a potion for this kind of stuff...Harry shook his head in dismay, hoping against all hope that all of his assumptions were wrong.
This is going to be one…long year.
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A/N: Okay, so this was more of a filler than an actual chapter, but I needed this chapter as a 'bridge' to get to the next chapter. This chapter is shorter than what the last three was, but I promise it'll be longer next time. Review!
By the way, I was thinking on making this a part of a series, one that will take through Harry's 5th or 6th year. However, I am not completely sure on doing this, so if you'd please send me your thoughts on this and I will now how the future chapters will go.
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Special Thanks To:
Anne-Marie- nope, never explained it to me fully, but since you sound like you were about to explode on the 'butchering of your beloved characters', I'm not gonna even ask. LOL.
buffyfan363- Buffy messing up names is a perk that authors can use to hone their originality. Life, Buffy butchering up Hogwarts, Dumbledore, etc. but yes, I will never overdue it. The Sever-Us thing I did last chapter was something I couldn't resist, but as you will see in the future chapters, she will drop the nickname out. Hmm, the prospect of the gang coming over for a tiny-itty bitty- visit around the holidays tempted me more than ones, but it'll leave too many ties hanging out. I still haven't decided yet, but I was thinking of only bringing a couple of characters in the story.
FallenStar2 -whoohoo! Did I mention that I'm really happy you reviewed? Anyways, I've seen authors tend to put on a timeline during the earlier books but with Buffy being her 11-13 year old self. So I thought, why not change it? And by the sounds of it, it looks like its working. YAY ME! Yes, it is hard, but just like in the show, there wasn't an initial Buffy and Angel spark-age until Season 2. The colors of the room were designed to represent the school house colors. Yellow for Hufflepuff, blue décor for Ravenclaw, silver and green bathroom for Slytherin, and gold and red for Gryffindor. I thought it was appropriate. But yes, yellow is a very happy color, which is why I chose it for her main room. I thought 'Viddlewart' was pretty original 'cause I've never seen it used it before in a story. If there were, there are few of them then.
Marz1-Yes, and probably another yes. Since I've only written up to chapter 10, I am not entirely sure if I'll set up this story somewhat different than the canon. I mean, there might be some tweaks on a couple of scenes, but other than that, I can't say much else. As for the timeline, yes, Buffy did get hired before Sirius managed to get out of Azkaban. The story starts out five days before he did. And for lessons, well I guess you'll just have to see during Chapter 11-12, don't you? grins But lets just say, it'll be different from what most authors tend to use.
sparky24- (grins) why thank you! Anyways, yes Remus will be watching out for Harry in a scene, but it won't be the main reason why he will be there. I thought that McGonagall's reaction to Buffy's 'muggle clothes' was also funny, since I think it's a bit unorthodox for her to see a professor wearing clothes that most people would wear.
And thanks to Whispering Darknessfor the review!
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edited on 8-21-05