The Best Revenge

“The dagger” yelled Joyce. Buffy and Giles stopped, looking at her. “You said it would mask the boy’s identity. Couldn’t we do something with it? I don’t mean kill him, but…”

“It might work.” Mused Buffy.

“The risk…” started Giles.

“It’s better than certain death.” Interrupted Joyce.

“But it’s not that simple… h-h-he would need a new identity, not simply lose the old one.” Stuttered Giles.

“Adopt him.” Ordered Joyce.

“What?”


Chapter 04

“You said you wanted other kids, this one needs a chance and who better to deal with him if he turns out to be a menace than us?” reasoned Joyce in a hurry handing Giles the dagger, “listen, we don’t have the time to argue about this one. I know it’s the right thing to do and it’s his only chance!”

Seeing that Giles was still undecided Buffy made up her mind.

“Do it,” she said walking out of the door, “Mom is right, we are his only chance right now and the only ones who can deal with it if he turns out to be one of the bad guys. You work on the spell and I’ll stall whoever is coming.”

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Down in the Hospital laundry, a small package with Harry’s room number on it sat quietly on a shelf until a young man with raven hair come running in. He had the wild look of someone being chased and the heavy breathing that indicated that he had been running. He looks around frantically and grabs the package, diving inside the janitor closet nearby. A few minutes later the young man leaves, now wearing Harry’s school uniform and trying to rearrange his appearance.

In the shadows, Hallie watches him with her arms crossed and a feral look on her demon face. She could still hear little Jonathan’s sobs as he laid on the dirty floor in the basement where he was being kept by his bully neighbor, Sean Burns. He was cold, scared and hungry. His neighbor, a much older boy, had lured him downstairs saying he had a Playstation 2 and would let him play. That was two days ago.

The older boy had beaten Jonathan and touched him in the swimming suit area, where his teacher, Miss Claire, told him nobody should touch him except his doctor and in front of his mommy.

Jonathan had been living in a nightmare for two days now, when the older boy was not with him making him ache and cry, he was left alone in the dark and damp basement and he was afraid of the dark! But now there was something different, an angel had come to him.

She smiled at him and said that her name was Hallie and that she would make it all better, all he would have to do was to wish really hard, with all his heart, for what he wanted. Jonathan closed his eyes and made fists with his tiny little hands and wished really really hard.

“I wish mommy and daddy would find me so I could go home and I really wish someone would lock the bad guy in the dark where he would be scared and cry for his mommy like I did so he would learn never to do this again.”

Hallie smiled and brushed a few dirty locks of hair out of Jonathan’s face. She kissed his forehead and whispered softly in his ear.

“Wish granted.”

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On the fourth floor of the hospital, Buffy stood in the hallway ready to get physical if anyone tried to enter the room behind her, and right now she could see two men stop in front of every door and check who was inside. They gave a very strong ‘officer of the law’ vibe but they also seemed a bit off, like Willow and Giles off. Magic users. The warlocks. Two of them in a hall full of innocent people.

‘Great!’ thought Buffy ironically, ‘and it keeps getting better.’

Looking around and trying to figure out a way to stall them, Buffy almost cursed under her breath, from the other side of the hallway she could see the social worker coming her way with a manila folder on her hands. By the look of things they would all arrive in front of her at the same time.

“Hello, Miss Summers,” the brunette smiled at her, “I was going over our young friend’s files and there are a few things I’ll need to discuss with Mr. Giles. Is he inside?”

“Uh… yes, but you know what, I’ve been meaning to ask you a few things on my own, if you don’t mind…” said Buffy getting in the woman’s path and effectively blocking the door.

The two men were now standing right across the hall, it would be impossible to open the door without letting them see who was inside.

“Yes, of course, what would you like to know?” The social worker paused in front of Buffy with her back turned to the men. A brief and faint flash of light inside the manila folder caught Buffy’s attention, and she was sure no one else had seen it. Crossing her fingers, Buffy hoped it had all worked well.

“Well… you see, you work helping people and I think that is sooooo cool, I was wondering…” Buffy started, but the door behind her opened cutting her half way what she was saying.

“Oh, hello,” said Joyce smiling to the two of them before turning to Buffy, “Buffy, Rupert wants to talk to you for a second about our plans for tomorrow.”

Joyce moved out of the way to let her daughter pass. This was an important moment for them, if the spell worked as they hoped the two men standing behind the social worker would lose interest in the room and move on, if not, Buffy and Giles were inside ready to fight their way out of the hospital with the kid.

Luckily, the two men only took a cursory glance inside and paid no attention to them anymore, they were now trying to take a look inside the room across the hall. Joyce let out a sigh of relieve, turning to the social worker once more.

“I’m so sorry, but I seem to have forgotten your name.”

“I understand. It’s not the best of circumstances to be introduced to someone. I’m Hallie.” said the brunette, “Actually as I was saying to your daughter just a moment ago, I needed to go over a few details in the young man’s file. I would have come sooner but this young man downstairs nearly knocked me down the stairs while waving a stick at me,” the two men stood a little straighter while listening.

“Oh, my god, are you hurt?” asked Joyce concerned.

“No, I’m fine, thank you. It was the strangest thing; he was wearing one of those fancy private schools uniforms and had this wild look in his eyes, like he was running away or something...” Hallie stopped for a second as if she was thinking about something while discretely making sure she had the aurors attention, “but don’t worry, I already notified security and got in contact with the mental ward. The kid was heading towards the back entrance anyway; they will begin a search inside the hospital and call the police to look around the streets. I’m sure the whole situation will be solved in no time.”

“I’m sure,” agreed Joyce moving out of the way and inviting the other woman in, the two men were hastily making their way to the stairs “and what can we do for you now?”

Inside the room a pale looking Harry was sitting on the bed talking softly to Giles while Buffy was sitting a few feet way from them watching ‘Smallville’ on the hospital TV set.

“Well, it’s the strangest thing, half of his admission form is blank. I’m sure he had more information on him...” Muttered Hallie almost to herself showing an almost empty form inside her file, the other three from Sunnydale exchanged a relieved look between them.

Harry blinked and looked at Giles noticing the exchange between him and the women, he knew that form had been almost full that same morning with all the embarrassing details he wanted to forget about his life. Now, all he could see besides the form was another piece of paper behind it, but he couldn’t read what was written on it.

“Well, we’ll do our best to be of assistance,” offered Giles with a gentle smile, “what do you need to know?”

“Thank you, let’s start from the top, shall we?” said Hallie placing the file on the table and getting a pen out of her pocket, “What is your name?”

They all froze, they didn’t think the spell would work that much… Harry didn’t have a name?

“Lionel” stated Buffy, behind her Harry caught a glimpse of the American show. Didn’t they have a character named Lionel in there? “his name is Lionel.”

“Oh, you are a little lion, I see.” Smiled Hallie and Harry decided that if Lionel really meant lion it was an ok name to have, “and I suppose your last name now will be Giles, since your aunt signed the forms giving up your guardianship?”

“Precisely.” Giles jumped to the opportunity, of course, the doctors earlier at the pub said that his aunt was going to sign the damn thing. It was perfect.

“So your name is Lionel Giles? Correct?” asked Hallie.

“James,” Harry made up his mind real quick, he wanted something to remember his real family by, “my full name is James Lionel Giles now.”

“It’s a lovely name,” smiled Hallie, “and your address?”

“Yes, hmm, James will be living with us in America from now on. Let me write my address down for you.” Giles offered taking the form and filling all the details he could.

“Perfect, thank you so much. I’ll just file this with the hospital and give you the proper forms to request new documents to replace the ones lost in the accident.”

“Thank you,” said Harry and asked before Hallie was out of the room, “excuse, Hallie, do you know what happened to my clothes?”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I thought they had told you already. They were pretty dirty from the accident, so an orderly took them down to the laundry room to get them cleaned before returning them to you, but apparently they were stolen. The hospital will provide you with a replacement.”

“Thank you,” said Harry feeling defeated. Now he was really stuck with these strangers. He had no wand and no clothes on top of everything.

The brunette left and they closed the door behind her. Now that they were alone it was time to get to know the new member of the family.

In the hallway, Hallie smiled to herself as she handed the manila file over to the nurse at the desk. Yes, the spell had done a good job, but they got a lot of help from her without knowing. She had covered the details the spell had left unattended and now Harry not only had a new magical signature but also a new family complete with all the legal documents he would ever need. She WAS good at what she did and Harry did wish for a place where no one knew him and for a misplaced file… well, he had a new one now. His old one was as misplaced as a file could get. She personally had sent it to another dimension where the natives feed on paper.

Her idea to use the demons had been a bit risky though, but it had paid off in the end. The Americans did need the extra push in order to perform the ritual that would concealed Harry’s magical signature from the Wizarding World, not to mention it was the perfect way to deliver the dagger fast enough and without raising too many questions. Now it was all done and Harry was safe to start his new life, just one more small detail for her to take care.

“I” thought Hallie as she disappeared from the hallway, “am extremely good in what I do.”

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Sean Burns was a predator, he knew that. He had known his whole life. He was a wolf in a world full of sheep. His small stature was a drawback, sure, but it could be used to his advantage. He was ‘Sweet Sean’ for the older ladies who always preferred to hire him to do the odd jobs ‘because he was such a good and honest boy’, and if something went missing from their houses… well, old ladies do tend to misplace things right? No that he took that much, they had nothing worth taking.

He kept his nose clean in order to stay unnoticed, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know how to hunt and how to get his prey. He had done twice already, two boys from the streets. They had been… almost satisfying, but not quite. They were dirty and had no manners, never said ‘thank you’ or ‘please’ to him and they could curse like grown-ups. Not good.

He did try to teach them how to behave. The first one lasted almost three weeks before he lost his patience. It took him months to decide to take a new boy. Unfortunately, he knew the second one was a lost case in just five days. They were both still in his basement, carefully buried under the floor. No need to leave evidence just laying around.

He had been so frustrated when he realized he had to let the second one go too like he had done with the first. The boy simple refused to learn! It took him four months to finally understand. The ones from the street were no good, too much of street rats they were. He needed a sweeter boy, one raised properly in a house. Clean and sweet, with good manners and willing to learn.

It was when he decided to take Jonathan. He had seen the kid before, of course, playing around the neighborhood, smiling at everybody, displaying his body, tempting Sean and pretending he didn’t know what he was doing. He had been asking for it!

Well, now Jonathan was his and he would teach the boy how to properly behave around him. Sure, he had to be a little rough at first, but it was for the boy’s own good. Now it was time for the boy’s first reward. Tonight he would make hamburgers for them and then he would make the boy sit on his lap so they could watch a few movies together.

Lost in his plans for the night, Sean almost didn’t see the news cars passing by, but he certainly saw the police ones.

He cursed.

His front lawn was crawling with policemen and reporters. Even from as far away as he was he could see as Jonathan’s parents came out of one of the cars and rushed inside. They were invading his house!

A few moments later the couple came back out with a bundle firmly wrapped in a blanket. They got inside an ambulance and drove away. They took Jonathan away. How dare they take what was his? This demanded a change in his plans. He had some money stashed away so he could make do for some time… and one of his old ladies had mention a cottage she had away from the city. He even had the spare key, taken just in case. Yes, that would work.

All he had to do now was to make a short visit to the hospital to take back what was his and he could be on his way to an idyllic getaway with his little Jonathan.

Everything went fine with his plan until Sean reached the children’s ward at the hospital. A policeman who should be paying more attention to the cleavage on the bubbly headed nurse in front of him than anything else decided to play good officer and was actually watching the halls. He spotted Sean as soon as he was five steps out of the elevator and raised the alarm.

It had taken Sean almost 15 minutes to lose his pursuers in the labyrinth of halls and staircases of the hospital, but he had to think of something fast if he wanted to get out of this one.

That was when he came upon the hospital laundry. There were a few packages among the piles and piles of bed sheets and towels. He grabbed the first one and dove into a closet. He was in luck, inside the package he found a school uniform. Complete with a red and gold tie. It seemed to be from one of those fancy private schools. Perfect. Nobody would suspect a rich kid in a school uniform.

He found out how wrong he was the second he stepped into the street. Two men came running after him, yelling for him to stop. He had no other choice but to start running again.

He ran as fast as he could but the men behind him didn’t seem to be giving up anytime soon. Ducking into an empty alley, Sean made an extra effort to reach the busy street ahead. If he could make it, he would be able to disappear in the crowd and finally get sometime to think on his next move.

The men behind him were still yelling but he was able to put some distance between them. Sean was exhilarated, they would never be able to catch him now. A sudden blow on his back had him almost flying into the middle of the busy street.

‘Did I just got shot?’ Thought Sean still dizzy from the whole thing. He never saw the speeding bus coming his way.

Sean felt was a hard blow on his side, then a feeling of weightless and a sharp pain on his head followed by the sound of breaking glass. After that he felt nothing as his world slowly went dark.

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A.N.: No, as much as I want to, Sean is not dead. The little creep. He still has a minor role to play in the near future. Besides, why should Hallie be the only one getting revenge for little Jonathan? I’m entitle to some too, Am I not?