Chapter 41: Traumatic Events

Thanks for all the reviews.

At one point I stopped dictating and started writing. Can you tell when? I think the style is different. Do you?

HP-BTVS-HP-BTVS

Cedric took off like a bat out of hell, headed towards Hogwarts. He moved at speeds impossible for him before. He had never gone so fast in his life. He was looking for Xander and he found him in the Great Hall talking to Joyce.

"Xander, somebody is just kidnapped Harry!" he yelled as he entered the Great Hall. He was moving so fast that he slammed into the Teachers' Table just to stop.

"What do you mean somebody's just kidnapped Harry?" Xander asked, grabbing his shoulders to look at him in the face. He wasn't mad at the boy, but he wanted to make sure he was hearing what he was saying correctly.

"We were at the Three Broomsticks when Madam Rosmerta handed him a menu and we realized at the end that there are no menus, and Harry disappeared. We think she was under the Imperius," the frantic teenager said, grabbing hold of Xander's arms, trying to get a hold of himself.

Xander reached out with his mind to see if he could find Harry and couldn't find him. "Damn it," he said. He rushed to the phone room and got on the phone to Gringotts. "I need a contingent of goblins here immediately!" he yelled into the phone. "The prince has been kidnapped." Then he started bellowing orders to the ministry officials that had followed him into the phone room. "I need Aurors here immediately. Harry Potter has just been kidnapped," he said to Bagman.

"Here now, you cannot go ordering people around like this," said Dumbledore, with that damnable twinkle in his eye.

"Don't you understand? Harry Potter has just been kidnapped, of course I can," Xander said, rounding on the man as if he had just insulted him, which he basically had.

"And I am the chief warlock. It is my job to handle these things," the old man said wisely.

"Then why aren't you doing anything?" Xander asked incredulously.

"I will handle it in due time," Albus said as he walked away.

"Oh, get out of my way, old man, and let me go find my son," Xanders said, shoving the old man aside as he passed him. And then he started, marched off and went to go meet the goblins at the gate. He was going to go find his son if it was the last thing he did.

Hpbtvshpbtvs

Meanwhile, Harry was waking up in a graveyard tied to a statue. He tried mentally calling out for Xander the first thought that he had. Then he tried Neville, then Joyce, then Hermione. However, he couldn't reach anybody mentally.

He tried winking and he couldn't do that either. He tried phasing through whatever was holding him to the statue, and he couldn't do that either. He was technically helpless. He blurrily looked around and couldn't see anything. It was dark. He must have a head wound or something.

He shook his head and tried to see once again what was going on and could start seeing shapes forming in the darkness. He was gradually becoming aware of what was going on. There was a man, and he was carrying a bundle to a cauldron.

The bundle was crying out, "Hurry, hurry."

"Yes, master," said the man. He was a tall, skinny man with a hooked nose and long, stringy hair, and wide eyes.

"It is time, he is awake," said the bundle.

"Yes, master," said the man. With that, he put the bundle on the ground. The man approached the grave and said, "Bone of the father, unknowingly given, you will renew your son." Bones rose from the grave at Harry's feet. The man took the bones and threw them in the cauldron.

Harry watched this with fascination as the world became clearer and clearer. The caldron spit and bubbled, but then settled down.

Then the man took a knife and cut off his pinkie finger and said, "Flesh of the servant, willingly given, you will revive your master."

Harry threw up in his mouth, but he sat there and watched him with morbid fascination. Then he realized why he was there, and it couldn't be for anything good. Because the man turned to him with a brutal grin on his face and started coming towards him with that wicked knife. And if he was willing to cut flesh off of his own body, he was willing to do worse things to a boy he probably didn't like.

"Please don't do this," Harry said, a pleading tone in his voice. He did not like the look on the man's face.

"Quiet, boy," said the man. As he came closer and closer to him with that wicked knife. He came up to Harry and grabbed his arm and held it close and tight to the statue. And took the knife and started sawing on Harry's wrist.

Harry screamed for all he was worth, and struggled to get free, but the man's grip was tight as anything. The pain was unbearable as the man continued to saw into his wrist. That and the knife was hot, and it was sharp.

It must have been magical too because it cut right through his bones.

"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foe," the man said as he watched the boy's hand fall to the ground.

"You sadistic bastard! You didn't need to take my hand for that!" Harry screamed. He sat and watched his hand fall to the ground and was horrified with the thought that his hand was now not attached to his body. He was mortified.

He didn't pay attention to what the man was doing anymore. He just stood there and watched his hand lay there on the ground. His arm slipped through the shackles and fell to his side, but he didn't pay attention to it as he sat there bleeding. He did pay enough attention to know that he would bleed out if he didn't stop the bleeding. So, he did something in his brain and his bleeding stopped, but he wasn't really paying attention. All he was doing was staring in fascination with his hand laying on the ground.

Then he came to the realization that Voldemort was staring at him. He didn't know how long he'd been staring at his hand, but somehow Voldemort had been revived. He was alive and looking at Harry.

Then Voldemort seemed to think he wasn't a threat, so he called his minions to him. He went on a long dialogue about how disappointed he was and how he was going to kill Harry, and then Harry started paying attention again.

He had to escape, but he was still attached to the statue with his other hand and magic suppressing handcuffs. However, his other arm was free.

Then he noticed that the other man had a pinkie made of metal. Someone, probably Voldemort, must have put it on him. If Voldemort could do that, then he could do it too. Xander always said that if the adults could do it, they could do it too. It was all in their head.

He looked at the stump of his arm and with a great deal of concentration formed a metal hand. He wondered if he could move it. So, he started playing with it. Then he realized now was not the time to experiment.

"Hey, Voldyshorts!" he yelled. "Watch this!" he said and lit up the graveyard like the sun. Blinding everybody there.

The Death Eaters yelled and screamed out their pain. Even Voldemort screamed in pain. He was not used to feeling pain after all. He had been a wraith for many years.

Then Harry did the only thing he could think of doing and turned into his dragon form, breaking the shackles on his wrist.

He contemplated whether or not he should kill those there and decided that it was a good idea and started spewing fire. He got around four of them, but the pain in his wrist was getting too much. Many of them fired spells at him, and many more had left. He was sure that Voldemort was one of them that got away.

It was about that time that Xander and the goblins showed up.

"Harry," Xander called. "Are you okay, my son?" he asked, as he laid a hand on the smallish dragon.

"Dad?" Harry said as he shrunk down into human form.

At this time, the rest of the Death Eaters started to portkey out.

The goblins were so upset that they were getting away that they started chasing them. But the Death Eaters were portkeying out blindly. The goblins only captured three of them. One of them was Severus Snape. He was the only high level one they caught.

"Dad, can we go home now?" asked Harry, all but falling into his father's arms. He was cold, he was tired, he was scared, and he was still in a great deal of pain.

"Of course, we can, son," Xander said. "I'll have the goblins secure this area for the Aurors." He waved one of the goblins over and let him know that he was taking his son home and to secure this spot for the magical police.

"What about Amelia? Why didn't you tell her about it?" asked Harry groggily as he put his head on his father's shoulder, all but falling asleep in the man's arms.

"She wasn't able to come," Xander explained, though he wasn't sure why.

"Oh," said Harry, confused.

"Don't worry son, let me get you to Madam Pomfrey," his father said, very concerned over his son, but very glad that he wasn't bleeding out either. He had seen the metal hand and wondered what had gone on in this graveyard.

"Dad, my hand is over there," said Harry, pointing to where his hand lay on the ground. There were tears running down his face as he remembered his hand being sawed off. He still couldn't get the image of that man's face and the sadistic glee the man had taken in taking his hand.

Xander summoned the hand to his hand and pocketed it. He didn't care that he was tampering with evidence at this point, he might be able to save his son's hand. He didn't know if it would do any good since he saw the metal hand on his son's arm, but he figured it wouldn't do any harm bringing it with him. And with that, he winked away to Madame Pomfrey's domain.

They arrived and he immediately called the mediwitch. She came bustling in to see what the matter was. She saw the metal hand at the end of Harry's arm. "Oh my, what happened here?" she asked, examining the arm. She had never seen anything like it before.

"They cut off my hand, Madam Pomfrey," Harry said distraught. Tears started pouring down his face again.

"And how did you end up with this metal hand?" she asked, her wand going from the flesh and blood arm to the metal hand over and over again to see how they were attached. It was completely fascinating to her.

"I saw Voldemort give whoever cut my hand off a pinkie and decided that instead of bleeding out, I would put this metal hand on the end of mine," Harry said, his tears drying up a bit to explain to her what had happened. Whenever new magic was formed explanations always came first.

"While this did help you from bleeding out, I can't unattach this now," she said, seeing that it was completely integrated into his arm.

"Oh," said Harry.

"Can't you just switch this hand with the metal?" asked Xander, taking his son's old hand from his pocket and putting it on the metal tray next to the bed.

"I can try, but I don't think it'll work," said Poppy, running her wand over the old hand to see if it was viable.

"No, leave the metal hand," said Harry, making the decision on the fly. "I want to do some experiments," he said, flexing the metal hand and turning it from side to side.

"I don't know if I approve of that," said Madam Pomfrey, giving him a disapproving look.

"It's not doing any harm and I can move it just as well as I can my regular hand," said Harry, giving her a weak smile. "That and I can use it as a wand," he added, preening a bit.

"Can you?" said Xander, very interested in that tidbit of information.

"Yeah, I can. That's how I stopped the Death Eaters from hurting me," Harry said, excitedly. Then his face crumbled as he realized what had happened to him this afternoon.

Xander gathered him in his arms and hugged him tightly to his body. It was at that time that Amelia came into the room. She came up to the two men, hugged them and said, "I'm really sorry to do this, but I have to ask you some questions."

"Okay," said Harry, sniffling and putting on his stiff upper lip.

"Tell me what happened, Harry," she said. She took out a pen and notebook and started writing down everything he said. There were times she started crying herself, but she kept herself composed as much as possible and wrote down everything he said. She knew this was going to be a long and hard road for him, because there were things that he was saying that was impossible.

He started from when he went to the Three Broomsticks and finished from when Xander brought him back to the hospital wing. He didn't leave anything out that he could remember, naming names and told her everything, including that Voldemort had come back.

"You are certain of this," she asked when he finished. "You Know Who is back?"

"Yes, I saw him with my own two eyes," said Harry, lifting his chin defiantly.

"You know the minister is not going to believe this," she said, snapping her notebook closed and putting it away.

"I don't really care whether he believes it or not," said Harry, folding his arms mulishly. "I know what I saw," he added, glaring at her.

"This is going to make for a very painful and long day," she said, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"We're going to have to go on war footing here at the castle," said Xander, looking around the room as if he was contemplating doing it right this very minute.

"You're going to have to fight the minister every step of the way," warned Amelia, looking at Xander as if he were crazy.

"I can offer my memories," said Harry, eager to prove that he was correct and that he wasn't making up stories.

"I don't think that will be enough," she said kindly. She didn't think he was telling tales. She was just trying to prepare him for the worst.

"I can offer a vow. I could offer taking Veritaserum," he offered, there was an earnestness in his tone. He really did not want to have to fight the ministry every step of the way. Even if he did find them incompetent.

"I don't think there's anything you can do that will convince the man that You Know Who is back. He is a pacifistic man by nature and will refuse to believe anything that will remotely point to war," she sighed.

"Damn it," said Xander, knowing an uphill battle when he saw one.

"Indeed," she said, putting a commiserative hand on his arm.

"Well, I'll have the goblins, the castle, and the werewolf village go on war footing, and that should hopefully be enough to protect at least the students, the goblins, and the werewolves," Xander stated, counting off all the places they could go and prepare. That would save at least a lot of people that he knew and loved.

"Hopefully that will be enough," she said. "At least we'll have someplace to fall back on when all hell breaks loose," Amelia said, giving them a weak smile.

"There is that," Xander offered, He knew he wouldn't turn away anybody who needed help. Well, maybe Fudge and his sycophants. And possibly Dumbledore and his buddies.

"Well, I'll make my report, but I expect to have some major fallback coming from it," she said getting up and getting ready to head for the door.

"Thank you, Amelia," Xander said, getting up and kissing her on the cheek.

"None of that now, I'm on duty," Amelia said, though she did blush.

"Goodbye, Amelia," said Harry as she walked out the door.

"Goodbye, Harry, and again, I'm really sorry you had to go through this," she called to him from the doorway. Xander and she left.

Harry once again looked at his metal hand and his face crumpled as he again remembered what he had gone through throughout the day. His emotions seemed to be all over the place. One minute he was fine, the next minute he was traumatized.

It was then that Joyce, Hermione, and Luna came through the door. They all came up to his bed and surrounded him with hugs and kisses.

"Oh Harry, I was so worried about you," said Hermione. They didn't know much; they only knew that he was kidnapped. And that was only because Cedric had come to the 'house' and let them know. Spike and Sal had kept them in the 'house' until they knew that he was safe. They only heard that he was in the hospital wing about five minutes ago and Joyce had kept them there until Amelia had left.

Neville was still at the 'house' doing something to prepare for when Harry came home.

"Me too, Harry," said Luna, from Hermione's side. They were on the right side of the bed. Harry could tell they had both been crying.

"We were all very concerned," said Joyce from the other side of the bed. She ran her hand through Harry's hair. It felt very nice.

"I'm fine," said Harry as he looked at his metal hand. He was trying to hold back the tears and put on a brave face in front of the girls.

"You're not fine," said Joyce. "But you'll get there," she said. She remembered all the time she had to say this to her daughter Buffy when she would come home hurt from fighting vampires or the demon of the day. But she would say the same thing. She would say, 'I'm fine, Mom.' Even if her guts were hanging out. It always broke Joyce's heart whenever Buffy said that.

"That's a very fine metal hand there," said Luna, pointing to the hand in question.

"Thank you, I made it myself," he said, trying to be chipper for her. He held the hand up for everybody to see it and turned it from side to side to show them what it looked like. He even flexed it a time or two to show them that it worked like a normal hand.

"Do you think you could do that for somebody like Mad-Eye Moody?" Luna asked, giving him a questioning look.

"Possibly," he said thoughtfully, thinking of the old man who was stomping around the castle at this very moment on a wooden peg leg.

It would take a lot more magic than it did to make a hand, but it was something he might be able to do. And it did take his mind off his pain. He flexed his metal hand over and over again, thinking of what he could possibly do with his magic. Xander always said his magic was limited by his imagination. So, he wondered if he just stopped at metal, if he could make flesh and bone too…

"And we lost him," said Luna, giggling a little bit.

"That was your intent in the first place," said Hermione, tickling her in the ribs unmercifully.

"Of course, it was," she said not the least bit affronted. She batted the other girl's hand away.

"That was very sweet of you, Luna," said Joyce, giving the girl a motherly smile.

"Thank you, Mummy Joyce," said Luna, smiling at her sweetly.

"So, what do we do now that we've lost Harry?" asked Hermione, waving a hand in front of her friend's face and getting nothing.

"Well, we could try and snap him out of it," said Joyce, still running her hands through his hair. "Or we could just leave him alone and go do other things," she said.

And it was just then that Harry snapped out of his thinking process. "Sorry, guys," he said sheepishly. "I just got to thinking," he said, rubbing the back of his head.

"We know," they said altogether.

"Did you come up with anything?" asked Luna, giving him a knowing smile.

"There are a couple of things going on in my brain," he said, smiling right back at her.

"Well, that's good. At least it got your mind off your other problems," she said, patting his hand.

"There is that," he added, then his face crumbled a bit at the reminder. "I might even come up with a way to get my real hand back," he said, trying to distract himself. "But that's further down the road."

"As long as you are no longer melancholy," she said, smiling brightly at him.

"I think it's going to take longer than a day for that, little Luna," he stated as his face crumpled a little bit more.

"I'm sorry," she said, giving him a hug.

"It was very traumatic," he said, mumbling into her shoulder.

"I can imagine," she said, holding him tight.

And with that, the four of them hugged and sat for a long time in silence as Harry cried.

Hpbtvshpbtvs

Xander and the goblins examined the scene, but they didn't find anything useful. The Aurors had come and left but they were as useless as ever. They were under orders to do as little as possible since the boy had been recovered. The minister didn't want to waste resources on something that was over.

"My king," said one of the goblins. "We cannot do anything about the Death Eaters at this time," he said, bowing low. "We do not have proof of who they are."

"I know. I'm going to ask Harry if he can give me the memories. I still have Dumbledore's pensieve. I'll take a look and see if I can recognize any of them. If I can, we'll freeze their vaults," the yellow-eyed man said, absolute hatred in those eyes. They would learn soon enough that messing with his son had been a mistake.

"I'm not sure if we can do that via the treaties," said the goblin, shivering at the hatred he saw there. That or in anticipation of the fight to come from said hatred.

"Screw the treaties The prince was kidnapped and mutilated. I demand recompense," said Xander, twirling around and pacing the graveyard in a predator's tread. "Besides, I learned today that the minister is a pacifist. He doesn't want to go to war with us."

"Ah, but his toadies are not," said the goblin, holding up a hand to stop his king from making a mistake in his thoughts. "That and there is a Death Eater whispering in his ear," he added.

"And do you think we would win if a war broke out?" Xander inquired, thinking of that bitch Umbridge and Malfoy.

"I have no doubt," the goblin stated with a smirk.

"But we don't want a war right now. Not with Voldemort running around. However, we will do our best to get our comeuppance. I don't want Voldemort to win this round. I want his Death Eaters punished to the maximum we can punish them. If I see their faces on Harry's memories, then their vaults will be frozen," the King of the Goblins demanded in a voice that the entire graveyard heard.

"At your command, my king," the goblin said, bowing his head.

And with that Xander winked back to the medical wing and asked Harry for his memories. Joyce and the girls were still there. And Harry was doing a little bit better surrounded by people he loved. Xander took the memory and went up to the head office where the pensieve was and grabbed it. He then went to the 'house' and asked Spike to watch it with him.

"You mean I stick my head in this bowl, and I'll be able to see what Harry went through?" asked Spike, looking very doubtful.

"Yup," said Xander, a bit gleeful that he was freaking the vampire out.

"That's barmy," said Spike, shaking his head at it. "I sodding hate mojo," he added.

"I want you to know every single one of the people in there. They'll be your next targets," said Xander, ignoring his mumblings.

"Don't rightly see how I'll recognize them," said the vampire as he sucked on his blood lolly. He truly did love those things. They were better than the real thing. They were free and they didn't put up a fight. Then again, there was something to be said for the hunt.

"They'll probably be upper elite and run the same circles that Malfoy did. If you stick by Mrs. Malfoy, you'll see them. Or at the very least, she can point them out to you," explained the other man.

"She's a right nice bird. I don't know if I'm gonna get her stuck in the middle of this," Spike said, pointing his lolly at the other man.

"I need you on this Spike, and this is the only way I can get revenge," Xander said, in an almost pleading tone.

"Alright, but you're going to need to give me some dosh."

"As usual," was the victorious reply.

"Let's get on with this, then," Spike sighed.

And with that, the two of them stuck their heads in the bowl to see what had gone down.