Chapter 5: Lost

Disclaimer: Hey look over there, it's the owners of the franchises… now look back over here. Yep that's me, the one who doesn't own anything. On with the show!

They walked mostly in silence, Harry had been blinded momentarily by the sunlight, the bright light of the sun. "The downside of being stuck in the darkness for so long. I think this is the first sunlight I've seen in the past... actually I don't even know how long it's been." He said blinking in discomfort, "kind of lose track of days when you only have access to like two rooms of a building." Harry explained and Buffy looked over at him.

"Do you remember where it was?"

"No, other than an abandoned factory or warehouse, I'm not sure really. They brought me into town in the boot of their car. Spike drives like a maniac." He joked weakly and Buffy looked slightly concerned at first but managed a small smile at the joke. "He drove us into the building so I couldn't even tell you what the rest of the street looked like." Harry looked slightly apologetic.

"What about in the sewers? Do you think you could lead us back to where he dropped you?"

"To be honest, probably not. I can barely see where I'm going at the moment, I've just been good at acting like I can see where I'm going. I lost my glasses in the sewer when I fell in. I staggered along using the wall to guide me but even then, that's more of a blur." He flexed his fingers, his hands ached from the wounds they had done, and his hands felt stiff.

"What happened to your hands?" She asked quietly as they walked past a couple of students who were walking slower than them.

"Drusilla, just before they went to the trap your former friend set, decided that ropes were not needed as a restraint and used knives instead." He flexed his fingers again. "I don't think she's done any proper damage and you guys stitched it up quite well." They arrived at the front of the school, Harry looked up at the large yellowy orange building and smiled, glancing at Buffy. "My school looks better." He teased and she looked at him.

"You haven't even seen the inside; how can you tell."

"Mines a big Medieval Castle." Harry replied and she pouted.

"That's not fair, we can't compete against that." They went through the doors, passing between a couple of students. "Though at the same time... medieval castles, not really known for their modern accessories."

"Buffy." A female voice called and they both looked down the corridor where her name had been called from. To Harry it was a blur, red headed but a blur, nonetheless. He glanced at Buffy who barely looked at him as what he could only assume was her friend. "Is this him? I mean is he the one who? Well you know." She paused, realising the conversation would sound weird in the middle of all the students.

"Yes Willow, this is him, we're on our way to see Giles now." She said as they continued walking down the corridor that the Redhead had come from. "Harry, this is Willow, Willow this is Harry, he's kind of struggling to see at the moment, he lost his glasses... not that he probably wants them back with where he lost them." She explained and the grimace from Harry was all the indication that Willow needed. "Oh, Snyder's looking for you, he went the other way though."

"Oh joy... just what I need another visit from our lovely Principal. Any idea what he wants?" Buffy asked and Willow shook her head.

"Nope, but with how he usually wants to play pin the blame on the Buffy." She stopped with a bit of a laugh as they approached the Library.

"As if I don't have enough problems to deal with, first Spike and Drusilla, then an old friend decides to try and betray me and now Snyder wants to try and cause more grief," She looked to see Giles flicking through a book on the table. "And here we see the Watcher in his natural habitat. Book in hand." Her tone shifted to light-hearted as the man looked up at her.

"Very droll Buffy," Giles commented as they walked over. "This must be Harry Potter?" He asked as he stood up, taking a moment to straighten his jacket.

"This would be indeed." Buffy responded stepping to the side. "He's a bit battered, probably not smelling the best right now and can't see past arms reach but he's here and in one piece."

"Almost." Harry muttered under his breath.

"To be honest we were surprised to find you alive, though from the sounds of its Drusilla saw your path going in a different direction." Giles said as He shook Harry's hand.

"I don't think she could decide whether or not she wanted me as lunch or something else. I'm pretty sure even she doesn't know what she truly wants." Harry said as they moved to sit round the table, Harry stumbling slightly as he reached for the chair. "This is the worst part though." Harry muttered as he gestured to his face. "I can barely see without my glasses."

"What is your prescription? I have a spare set."

"No, I think it's safe to say if he's struggling to get to the chair then yours is not going to be anywhere near as bad." Buffy commented as Harry sat down, the others taking note of the wounds to his hands. at the silence, Harry realised what was probably the cause and took his hands off the table.

"Don't worry about it, I've had a lot worse before. Though this time I don't have the advantage of magic to heal them." Harry said dismissively.

"But you're younger than us! You shouldn't have had worse than that." Willow interrupted getting a slight glare from Harry.

"I've been fighting since I was eleven," he snapped back getting surprised looks from the three. "Sorry," he said quickly, looking down at the table, "I shouldn't snap at you, you're doing just as much if not more than I am." He stopped, studying his hands.

"Hey, I get it, you're a prophecy brat, just like me." Buffy commented, "destined to fight the bad guy while others stand on the sideline and watch."

"At least you're getting training, it's more than anything I've got outside of basic classes and some self-taught stuff... even then a lot of that is restricted." Harry said dejectedly.

"You're destined to fight, and they won't even train you?" Buffy asked in horror, she had picked up before that Harry didn't know much but to see that he wasn't getting any training whatsoever horrified her. "Do they want the bad guy to win?"

"They think that I'm too young." Harry explained and Buffy shook her head.

"When was that Prophecy made?"

"Before I was born." Harry responded.

"Then the moment you were old enough they needed to let you know and guide you. At least Slayers get training, it's not the most ideal training..." She gave a pointed look at Giles who rolled his eyes slightly though he couldn't actually disagree with her. "But you'd still need some kind of a life as well, not saying turn you into a fighting machine, god knows I'd hate to just be all job and no fun."

The bell rung and the Blonde and Redhead looked at each other. "We better get to class." Willow said slowly and Buffy looked like she was going to resist.

"You're right." She said with resignation, "If Snyder is looking for me, I don't want him to find me skipping class." She looked over to Giles. "You'll take care of him?"

"I don't need..." Harry was stopped from saying anything more by a simple hand on his shoulder from Buffy.

"You can't see, you can't fight, you have no ID, no money, you need help." She said sternly and Harry wanted to argue the point so much, but she was already leaving.

He sighed, letting his head drop onto the table, "I hate this. I really hate this." He said more to himself than Giles who was still there.

"For now, it is what it is. It's not just the situations that happen that shape who we are, it is also the actions that we take. Accepting help is not a weakness, knowing your limitations is not a weakness, you learn them, you study them and then you work to surpass them but that takes time."

"Time isn't something I have. There's a crazed wizard who has tried to kill me ever since I turned eleven... minus one year but he was on the other side of the world at that point. But he's back fully now and I'm outclassed. Then I find out that I'm barely a speed bump in the eyes of a vampire and everything else that goes bump in the night as well."

"It is a bit of a culture shock to realise that you're not as high on the food chain as you originally believed. You know of the Slayer correct?"

"Her personally or the nature of her?" Harry asked.

"The nature of the Slayer."

"One girl in all the world given the strength to fight vampires and demons."

"A basic if not succinct explanation. Do you know their average life expectancy?" A shake of his head was the response the question got. "They're lucky to last five years. Their lives are short, violent and normally isolated. Your life is hard, there is no doubt about that. But forgive me when I say that it barely holds a candle to what she is going through." Giles started and Harry felt like he had been punched in the gut.

"I wasn't trying to compete with her." Harry said softly.

"I know that, but I needed you to understand that there are others in a similar circumstance as you, worse in fact. You're not alone in this, but the attention you're asking for, the training that you want, would require me to neglect her training, increasing the risk that she would have." Giles explained as he took a seat opposite Harry.

"I'm not asking for your undivided attention, the magical world itself is wholly inept when it comes to any form of fighting, I just want to know enough to survive. I don't want to fight. All I wanted was to be left alone. I'm famous for people dying, I don't want that, how could anyone want that?"

"And while you're here, what does your enemy do? From the implication of the prophecy, you're the one destined to kill him."

"He doesn't know the full prophecy, all he knows is that someone born at the end of the seventh month will be his undoing,"

"That sounds a bit vague," Giles muttered thoughtfully, "Seventh month of which calendar? The problem with prophecies is their vagueness, there are forty different calendars, and that's just human created ones. How could they even know which one it falls under?"

"That thought did cross my mind, but it was negated with this." Harry said, lifting his fringe to show his scar. "Part of the Prophecy that he didn't get explained that he would mark them as his equal. When I was hit with the curse that should have killed me, it rebounded, destroying his body and leaving me with this scar." He let his fringe fall back down, "At that point, I had beaten him and had been marked, it seems the most logical thing that I had become his equal, he was disembodied and took almost fifteen years to regain his former body through a ritual." Harry paused, unsure of himself in the situation he was in. "I barely escaped then," he added slowly.

"But you escaped, damaging the respect that his followers would have had for him. It is not always about fighting to the bitter end, knowing when to back away can be just as vital if not more so as knowing when to fight." Giles said and Harry felt some small kind of comfort. "We'll sort out getting you knew glasses and work from there. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to fix your current sleeping issues, I'm pretty sure Angel prefers to be left alone."

"he does seem to be the one who likes the whole isolated brooding thing." Harry agreed with a small laugh and then winced at the pain in his neck.

"Do you need anything for the pain? I have some in the first aid kit in the other room." Giles asked and Harry shook his head slightly, wincing again as he did.

"No, it'll be good to be a reminder," he stopped, wondering where that thought had even come from. Was it a reminder of being so severely out matched? or was it...

NO

He banished that thought quicker than it could form. "I know this will be difficult for you, but I need to ask you about Spike and Drusilla."

"I'll answer what I can, though I don't know how much I can help." Harry answered honestly.

"Anything you can do to shed some light on their plan will be helpful, anything at all regardless of how insignificant you believe it to be."

"Spike's not really one for plans." Harry laughed, "nearly everything was done on impulse, at least that's what he's tried to show as his image. But there's only two things he cares about at the moment. The first is killing the Slayer." He paused, seeing the blur of Giles nodding his head in acknowledgment. "The second one scares me even more than that, he's looking for a way to heal Drusilla. Bring her back to what she was before whatever their little incident that broke her took effect. Had this book that one of his henchmen had grabbed, he's spent a lot of time trying to understand it, got himself a translator to work on the text, with little to no luck."

"I know the book he has; he stole it from my collection. The Du Lac Manuscript, there aren't any people who would be able to read it, it's written in an ancient variation of Latin, exclusive to Josephus Du Lac and his religious sect. Unless he has a member of that group working with him, the secrets of it should be kept safe." Giles commented thoughtfully, "the likelihood of him cracking the code is well, virtually impossible."

"Short of dying, I think he'd work to make impossible possible where Drusilla is concerned. And she knows it as well." He thought back to some of the looks she had given; she was in love with him and he would do anything for her.

"Yes, it is a scary thought, it would need looking into... I wonder." Giles trailed off, standing up and walking away into the other room.

"Don't mind me, it's not like I can see anything that's going on." Harry said slightly cheekily and started tapping his fingers on the table. The sound of the door to the library swinging caught his attention but he didn't look up, still tapping away as he heard the sound of heels walking across the floor. His mind went blank, it was a stupid thing to freeze up, but his first thought was of her.

It had been a running joke with Drusilla to torment him, at times she'd glide into the room, completely unheard just to scare him, other times, she'd walk, and he could hear each step, always from a blind spot. A predator stalking defenceless prey.

"Sorry, have you seen Giles anywhere?" The woman's voice asked, and Harry looked in her direction.

"He just went into the back room, had an idea on something." Harry explained, careful not to say much more, not knowing if the woman knew anything about the current situation or even who she was.

"You're not a student here are you?" She asked and Harry nodded his head.

"I'm guessing the accent gave it away?" Harry asked and she nodded her head.

"That and I've never seen you in my class." She added bluntly and Harry had to concede the point.

"Not a student, can't end up in detention." He gave a mock victory cheer, drawing a small laugh from the woman. "Harry Potter, I'd stand up and offer to shake your hand, but I can only see a blurry outline at the moment and would probably fall flat over this chair at the moment."

"Jenny Calendar." She responded in kind. "You're the one Giles mention, kidnapped by Spike and Drusilla, right?" She got a nod of acknowledgement though the look showed his frustration of everyone knowing what had happened to him. "Hey," she started walking over to him. "They're powerful even by vampire standards. it's nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of."

"You seem to know a lot for a teacher." Harry mused thoughtfully, banishing his self-depreciating thoughts.

"I'm also a practicing Witch, though not a good one."

"You're a witch?" Harry asked, his hopes rising, if she was then she'd probably know the magical section nearby, if there was one and he could start getting down to the task of retrieving everything.

"Woah, hold up a second, not that kind of witch. Wiccan magic, afraid I didn't know anything about you and yours until Giles told me when we were starting to search for you." She explained as Giles re-entered the library.

"I knew there had to be something," Giles spoke as he walked in looking at the book he had in his hand. "There's a crypt in Sunnydale where Du Lac was buried, if there's any clue as to a key or something that would help Spike translate the..." He stopped as saw Jenny standing in the room, the two looking at the Librarian with mild amusement. "Oh, Jenny... I didn't hear you come in."

"Lost in your books as always Rupert." She said with a smile and Giles closed the book slowly.

"Yes, well, I was talking with Harry here about what Spike was possibly planning and a thought struck me." He explained as he placed the book down on his desk.

"Well, don't keep us in suspense." Jenny said with a small gesture of her hand, urging him to keep going.

"You remember the vampire who stole my book."

"I'm curious as to what her late fee is going to be, but go on." Jenny joked getting a deadpan look from Giles.

"The book, the Du Lac Manuscript contains rituals, dark in origin. But it's coded, without the proper key, if one even exists it will take a long time to translate it." He stopped as he heard the Bell Ring to signal the end of the current classes. "But Du Lac had to be buried somewhere and I knew I had read something about him recently, trying to work out what he was up to and why he wanted the book. He was buried here, in Sunnydale."

"Of course, he was. And I'm going to guess that there's probably a cipher of some kind in his crypt?" Jenny said and Giles shrugged.

"It's possible, more than likely knowing our luck. I'll have to get Buffy to patrol there this evening." He trailed off thoughtfully. "But, that's enough about that for the moment, what brings you to my corner of the school?" He asked.

"I had a free period, so I thought I'd check up on how the search was going." She explained and then gestured to Harry. "I was a bit surprised to see him here, though he looks like he's seen better days." A slight mocking wave was done by Harry at this point.

"Yes, unfortunately he's in a bit of a conundrum, Spike still has his wand, his focus for casting, he's lost his glasses and so can barely see, and he has no money or any change of clothes." Giles explained.

"And he can also speak for himself in this situation. I'm up a creek with no paddle." Harry added in, giving a glare in the direction of Giles, though with how he was squinting it lost a lot of the impact.

"Yes, very frightening." Giles responded back just as sarcastic, though tinted with amusement.

"I can take care of that." Jenny offered and Giles and Harry both looked at her in surprise. "Willow pretty much knows everything I'm teaching, and she can easily run it during the afternoon. Can't help with the wand but I can get glasses and a couple of sets of clothes sorted out. Living arrangements are a different thing entirely though."

"That can be sorted out, are you sure about this, glasses and clothes aren't exactly cheap."

"And I can't exactly pay you back until I can find one of the magical hot spots, they should have access to a bank of some sort." Harry explained sheepishly; he didn't like the idea of being in debt to someone.

"Pay me back when you can, I think a little kindness wouldn't exactly be remiss at this point." She said kindly. "Besides, another magic user, I need to pick your brain about this whole new branch of spells." She added semi jokingly, and Harry suddenly felt a bit nervous.

"I don't know how much I can tell you, I'm not exactly the best of students." He admitted, it wasn't a complete lie, he could do the work, but he didn't put as much effort in as he probably could. "I'll answer what questions I can, but I'm not meant to speak about it really to anyone not part of the Wizarding World... though this is coming into quite the grey area."

"If it puts your mind at ease, the Watchers Council and the Wizarding World are aware of each other and although they're not on the best of terms, they are part of the exception in the rule."

"And as they work with you, by extension they're in the loop." Harry said following the train of thought with a small smile. "I can work with that." He said and slowly stood up. "Then I'll be happy to answer whatever question I can... within reason of course." Harry added; he didn't want to spill too many secrets.

"Great, I'll go find Willow, get her to take care of my afternoon classes and grab my bag." She said before looking at Giles. "I'll see you later?" She asked and he nodded at her.

HPMOHHPMOH

The rest of the day passed as a blur, literally to some extent with Harry. Their first stop had been to get him glasses. With no medical history to work with it had taken a bit of time but he now had a new pair of glasses that fit him better than his old ones ever did. Jenny had surprised him as well by organising a bunch of Contact Lenses as well. Can't lose those as easy in a fight. After that, clothes shopping. At first, he had been dreading it, he had heard the Horror Stories of going clothes shopping with women, but it hadn't been as painful as he thought it would have been.

Though it could have been because he had been slightly distracted by the conversation they had been having. Well less of a conversation and more of the Spanish Inquisition. If she could think of it, she asked questions about it, ranging from asking about simple spells to the political side of it. His distaste in the latter was abundantly clear. After explaining the situation to her, Jenny had been fully on board with the dislike of the Ministry. After finishing their trip, they returned to the library, surprising Harry because he expected everyone to be getting out of School, when he was there he had nowhere to go as his School was a boarding school and to be honest it felt more like his home than anywhere else.

Here though, it was just a pure school. He assumed it was because of the Library and the work that Giles did that had them stay long after the rest of the students vacated. They walked through the corridors, this time a lot smoother thanks to Harry being able to properly see where he was going. "It just looks so bland; I think I've been spoiled by spending time in a castle." Harry mused aloud as they turned a corner.

"It may not be perfect, but it does have its charm, once you get past the mouth of hell sitting right under our feet."

"What?" Harry asked, coming to a dead stop.

"You didn't know?" She said in surprise. "I just assumed that Spike would have mentioned something, didn't seem like something he'd skip talking about."

"It may have been something that she mentioned but Spike pretty much spoke about three things. Himself, the Slayer and Drusilla." Harry thought back, trying to remember the numerous conversations that he had overheard to or more correctly, been forced to listen to. Nothing jumped out at him though. "So, what is a mouth of Hell in this situation, are we talking literal or descriptive?" Harry asked and Jenny just smiled slightly. "Literal then... oh joy." They entered the library to see Giles, Willow and a dark-haired teen that Harry hadn't met yet sitting at the table looking over books. "This is actually a very familiar sight to see... though our research always ended up without the adult supervision part." Harry said alerting the three to their presence.

"You've also had to do mad cramming of research at last minute to prevent possible disaster?" Willow questioned and Harry nodded.

"Though it's less prevented and more stop it from getting worse." Harry explained as he placed himself into a chair, feeling more tired than he had been in a long time. "I'm more worn out than I thought I'd be after that little shopping trip." Harry commented, rubbing at the bridge of his nose.

"Considering you've spent several months with limited to no mobility, I'm surprised you're even properly moving around for long periods of time let alone carrying shopping around." Jenny commented as she too took a seat at the table. "Is this all related to Du Lac?" She asked and Giles nodded his head.

"We're trying to see if there is any other information relating to him that Spike could find access to, so far it's coming up empty. Buffy went to check the crypt during Lunch and fortunately Spike hasn't had the same idea as us yet, though she'll change her patrol route to keep an eye on it." Giles explained the updated situation to the two

"Alone?" Harry asked dubiously and Giles shook his head.

"While she will be fine on her own as she has been many times before, Angel will be helping her patrol." Giles explained, a slight bit of an offended tone at the implication that he'd willingly put his charge in unnecessary danger.

"I meant no disrespect, I was just concerned, if Spike realises that something is held in that Crypt he's going to throw as much as he can to secure whatever it is there. I don't want to underestimate her abilities but I'm not trying to overestimate herself against all the odds."

"And I have to say, good save, good save." The other teen that he didn't know said with a small clap of his hands. "I couldn't have done better myself." He bragged drawing everyone's attention to him.

"That's Xander, he's another of Buffy's friends." Jenny added, the two having not introduced themselves yet. Xander gave a small wave to him before continuing to speak.

"So, you're the Harry Potter the Slimy guy was talking about?" He asked and Harry nodded his head. "Well you're not dead so that has to be a plus, Not becoming lunch for the Dynamic Duo will probably be on your top ten things to happen in your life."

"Not being caught in the first place would have ranked higher." Harry quipped back but then realised just what had been said. "Slimy guy? what Slimy guy?"

"He said he was one of your professors... Snip? Was that his name? No, wait, Snape... that was it."

"Of course, it was him." Harry said with a groan, slumping forwards, his head resting on his arms. "it's always him that Dumbledore sends to do these tasks, completely ignoring that we absolutely hate each other." Harry said though his voice was muffled by his arms and the table. He lifted his head up looking at the group. "First lesson with him, going through the rota, stops on my name 'Our new class celebrity.'" He did an imitation of the sneer even trying to look down his nose at Willow and failing miserably, causing the red head to giggle as he shook his head. "He started his big introduction about how awesome potions are and how he could teach us how to... what was the line again, oh that was it 'brew fame, bottle glory and even put a stopper in Death!' I was taking notes, literally just writing what he had said, won't lie, he knows how to work a captive audience." He stopped as he chuckled again, "but then he decided that I wasn't paying attention and challenged me to answer a couple of questions. What happens when you combine Asphodel and Wormwood, where would you find a Bezoar." He paused as he looked at the group who had flinched at the name, "I'm missing something here."

"A Bezoar," the pronunciation came out slightly different from Giles, "is the name of a parasitic entity that we had to destroy, it uses it's children to take control of people in order to do what it needs to grow and free itself from where it had been found." Giles explained.

"Oh, well that's just... not what I was referring to, I'm on about the stone that's found in the stomach of most creatures, useful for curing poisons and toxins." Harry explained calmly, though the idea of a creature body jacking him made him feel slightly queasy. "The third question he asked the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane."

"That I know," Jenny spoke up. "They're the same plant. different name, Aconite is another common name for the plant."

"I didn't know the answers, to which I was mocked again with 'clearly, fame isn't everything.' before he started the rest of the lesson. Ever since then, he's just been a complete bas..." He was about to swear but several disapproving looks cut him off. "pain in the butt?" He offered weakly as an alternative as Xander laughed. "Any chance he could use to make my life miserable he took. Where did he go?" He asked, realising the potions professor wasn't here.

"He left on the day we found you, He took the search upon himself, investigating the local demon bar to try and find Spike's hideout. We haven't seen him since that time."

"I can't remember what time I tried to escape, I'm pretty sure it was still night, there was no sign of him then." Harry tried to think back to the time of his escape but a lot of it was fog. Their talk continued for a little while longer, every now and again Xander chiming in with questions about what it had been like stuck with Spike and Drusilla for so long and also asked how they had got him into America when they couldn't exactly smuggle him on in their luggage. That led to an interesting conversation explaining Portkey's and how they worked. From there it led to classes and after that to friends. He had hesitated a little bit at that point, a spike of regret passing through him. "I..." He stopped, thinking about his friends again, the feeling that he was abandoning them pulling at him. "I need to be alone for a moment." He said sharply, standing and walking out of the library despite protests from the rest of the group. He pushed through the double doors walking back along the steps until he was out of the building, the cooler air of the evening hitting him as he took a deep breath, leaning against the railing that ran down the side of the stairs at the entrance. "Is this the right choice?" He asked himself, looking over the pretty much deserted street. "stay here while Voldemort continues his path? How many will die while I'm here? how many have already died?" He pushed away from the bar, walking down the stairs into the street. He walked along the path listening to his footsteps echo in the quiet as he tried to think. "And what good is me staying here? I can't help them without my magic. it's not like I can just flick my hand and say Lumos." He said to himself and flicking his hand out.

He stopped, staring at the hand in question.

Did he just see a flicker of light? He tried it again, another glow, barely visible before fading away. Once more, he took a deep breath, focusing on the magic and what he wanted the spell to do.

"Lumos!"

TBC

Chapter 5 all done and dusted, Surprise, Wandless Magic, the main reasoning I can think of Harry having an easier time learning it here is because the Hellmouth is right there, ambient magic is at an all time high and even though he's using his own, it's having an easier time to focus because of said ambient magic.

I decided to have Harry stay around for now, I've had a couple of ideas on what I want to do for this bit, he won't just be reliving the same things Buffy will experience, he's going to have his own little adventure. After all, someone's about to be healed…