The Best Revenge

Chapter 8


James Lionel Giles could feel the creature gaining terrain. More than one if the growling was anything to go by, but he couldn’t tell how many.

Not good.

He had been running as fast as he could the whole time and it seemed it was not enough this time, the fact that he could not use his arms was also a problem but he gone through a lot of trouble to get these darn things and he was not going to waste all the time and effort he had put into it. There was no denying the fact, he had been careless and he should know better but the graveyard was the shortest way and he had been in a hurry.

Diving behind a stone mausoleum James placed his precious cargo on the ground and withdrew a wooden stake from his jacket. His only chance was to be quick about it or he would be in a world of trouble and that was something he could not afford right now.

He let the first vampire pass him by and waited a few more seconds before making his move. He had been right, there were three of them. Newbies, judging by the look of their clothes. A quick check made sure there were no more vamps coming their way, one against three, fair enough.

James jumped on the biggest guy’s back and staked him before the vampire knew what was going on and used his momentum to land a flying kick on the next one, throwing him off balance.

The one that looked like the leader of their little pack charged at James, but a side step made him grab only air and receive a stake through the heart for all his trouble. The third one decided that perhaps their intended defenseless victim was not as defenseless as they originally thought and tried to make a run for it. James had no trouble staking him on the back and turning him into dust.

A quick check made sure the problem was taken care of and James hurried to retrieve his cargo and run into the much more illuminated street a few meters away. One minute later he was entering the art gallery where his parents and older sister were waiting for him.

“Ok,” he said putting the cardboard tray on the table, “one extra strong cup of plain tea for dad, a double mochaccino with cream for Buffy, mom wanted a Turkish apple tea, my hot chocolate with almonds and… donuts and butter croissants all around… did I forget something?”

“No, honey. It’s perfect,” smiled Joyce taking her tea and a croissant.

“Just…” said Giles quietly as he stepped up to James and brushed dust from his jacket, “make sure to cover your tracks before your mother sees it.”

“Hey,” Buffy complained, “How come James gets to slay tonight and I get to be Gallery Buffy?”

“Because I got to be the one who was sent into the not so gentle night for coffee… and because I took a short cut through the cemetery on the way back from the Espresso Pump.” Answered James teasingly.

“Not fair!” Buffy pouted and James answered by sticking his tongue out.

“Yes, let’s all be mature about it, shall we?” smirked Giles sipping his beverage almost recognizable as tea. Family life seemed to agree with him, with all of them, really.

Buffy was a bit more ready to share even when it came to feelings, James was more trusting of grown ups (Joyce and Giles mostly, but he didn’t view all adults as hell spawns like he used to at first), Joyce was the figure of motherly bliss and Giles felt like the world was right again, like he once more had a purpose in life.

It all had happen a little over a year ago on their trip to England. They found James, who at the time was called Harry Potter, laying on a hospital bed ready to be slaughtered by two demons and a lot had happened ever since.

Giles allowed himself to get lost in the memories of the past few months.

It had been Buffy’s first year in college and, as expected from a girl who didn’t think she would live to graduate from high school, she had a few problems adjusting. New environment, new rules, access to alcohol – which they were carefully not bringing up around Joyce after the cavemen incident and a new boyfriend, Riley Finn, a soldier this time… well, at least he had a pulse and Joyce did approve of him, so it was alright even if Giles’s brand new parental instincts were telling him to read the huge soldier the riot act.

It had also been James’s first year in the US, not to mention the Hellmouth with all its charms. They had decided that it would be better if James attended a normal high school instead of a magical one to make sure nobody could recognize him as Harry Potter and continue his magical education at home, like most American witches did. Thank heavens he was adapting well to wandless magic, and becoming quite proficient too. He and Willow would spend days working on spells, not that it worked all the time, but they were improving and now they also had Willow’s girlfriend, Tara, who was also a witch and a much more level headed one to keep them from doing anything too foolish… or so everybody hoped.

Tara was a new acquisition to their gang after Willow and Oz’s painful breakup over the after effects of a female werewolf in Oz’s life. He left to find a way to control the wolf inside him and broke Willow’s heart… and of course she did a spell to try to mend it and almost got everybody killed, Joyce with a heart attack over Buffy’s engagement to a vampire, and not any vampire but Spike himself for that matter.

By the time Oz did come back with a cure for his lycanthropy Willow and Tara were together and he got so mad that he turned into a werewolf in broad day light and got himself captured by the Initiative, the military group who was trying to ‘study’ demons. The scoobies barely got him out and he decided to leave for good.

James was devastated, he and the small werewolf had became fast friends as soon as they saw each other, the fact that James did know a werewolf in UK and liked the man created a strong bond between them. James had been unofficially added as a member to Oz’s band and was learning to play the guitar, with Oz gone that became more and more rare. James was still learning to play, now with Giles, but his band days were not was fun as they used to be.

On the plus side, Giles pondered, James now had the cure for lycanthropy. Only he didn’t know how to send it to his wizard friend, Remus something, without announcing to the whole wizarding world where he was. So the cure just sat there written in one of James’s many research notebooks waiting for the day James could be reunited with his friends.

Giles was also teaching James how to fight after a few close encounters with some of the Hellmouth’s finest, even Joyce would join them training every now and again, she was still mad at the Chumash tribe who decided to pay a visit at Thanksgiving and trashed the dining room breaking her family heirloom dinner set. The joys of having a slayer in the family.

His fighting skills were definitely handy in their last major battle, the boy was a natural with a sword in his hands. James insisted on going with them into the Initiative’s secret lab to help fight Adam and was the one responsible for keeping them safe while all the others were defenseless because of the spell they were casting. Thankfully the merge was successful and Buffy was able to destroy Adam just in time. Apocalypse averted once more.

Giles watched his children discuss a painting on the other side of the gallery. His children. He felt his chest swell with pride. He had always secretly thought of Buffy as his child and was very proud of the woman she was becoming. She was still aggravating as only a teenager could be and her logic was... out worldly at best, but he loved her with all his heart.

The gallery door opening snapped him out of his thoughts. The scoobies were here, they were going to The Bronze tonight. Willow bounced towards Buffy with a blinding smile on her face still showing glimpses of the girl he had met four years earlier in the former high school library. Tara followed her in her customary more sedated pace. Right behind them Xander held the door open for his girlfriend, Anya.

Now, there was someone Giles didn’t know how to react to. Anya was an ex-Vengeance Demon who had show up in Sunnydale while the gang was still in high school and lured Willow into performing a spell with her to ‘regain her power center’, as she had put it. Of course it went terribly wrong and a vampire Willow from a parallel dimension got to spend some quality time in town.

They solved that problem and eventually got some information from her that helped them defeat the mayor turned demon before she skipped out of town just before graduation. Eventually she came back and somehow, he really didn’t want to find out how, started dating Xander. They seemed to be getting along just fine until she met James and her part in all of his problems came to light. It took a few days to work everything out between them but the gang was all back together again.

It had happened a few months ago…

--- Flashback ---

ANYA’S POV

Anya paced in the sidewalk in front of the slayer’s house. She didn’t remember being this worried about something in over 975 years, ever since she was supposed to be a bridesmaid in a wedding and ended up in the wrong hell dimension making out with this demon that she later found out to be the groom, that was embarrassing… but then she offered her services as a Vengeance Demon to the bride and they remained good friends afterwards. The groom died in misery and pain, of course.

Anya continued to pace and added twisting her hands for good measure. This was almost ridiculous, she had been a Vengeance Demon for over 1100 years. She had brought pain and horrible death to men on all five continents and at least 37 different dimensions… and right now she was burning the soles of her favorite expensive shoes on a human sidewalk because these stupid human emotions inside her were demanding that she come clean with the wish she had performed just before coming to Sunnydale.

How was she supposed to know that her former victim would end up being Xander’s friend’s little brother?

Taking a deep breath Anya went up to the front door and knocked. Xander opened the door, they had talked about this and he was the one that told her it was important to come clean and how that would make her a better human being and all that. He put an arm around her shoulders and led her into the living room. Everybody was already there.

“Hm… excuse me,” called Xander, “We... err… well, Anya and I… there is something you should know.”

Joyce sat on the couch, where Willow was already browsing through a few new books Giles had ordered. Buffy and James were sitting on the floor polishing their weapons after a long training session that afternoon and Giles sat on the armchair with a hot cup of tea.

“What is it, Xander?” asked Willow frowning and then lighting up with a smile as she noticed their clasped hands, “Oh, Goddess, are you two engaged?”

“What? No…” stammered Xander in a hurry only to be overwhelmed by the hurt look on Anya’s face, “too soon, I mean, we’ve just started to go out and… I mean, that is not it. Go on, An.”

“Oh, yes,” said Anya remembering what they were there to do, “you all remember how I used to be a Vengeance Demon, right?”

Everybody in the room nodded, not knowing where the awkward ex-demon was getting at.

“Well, just before I came to Sunnydale and Giles from the parallel dimension managed to burst my power center, I was summoned to this other job. Which was weird because I didn’t get summoned frequently, I just felt the pain of a scorned woman and went to her aid to do her bidding…”

“Anya,” interrupted Xander, “get to the point.”

“Oh, the point is that I was called to this magic school by a witch and she said: ‘Merlin, I wish Harry Potter would find out what is like to be betrayed and abandoned by those he loves, to lose everything. I wish they would throw him in Azkaban. I wish he was out of my way for good.’ So I did it and I turned every single one of his friends against him and he was sent to prison.”

“Who called you? And why?” asked Buffy shocked, “I mean you came here because of Cordelia and Xander. Who was in… pig’s mole school?”

“Hogwarts,” corrected James

“That one,” agreed Buffy, “who had it in for Jam…Harry bad enough to summon a Vengeance Demon?”

“How much time do you have?” asked James, “In my forth year the whole school turned against me at one point. They were all mad because they believed I was taking Cedric’s rightful position as Hogwarts’s Champion.”

“Oh, no,” Anya hurried to set the matter straight, “She never mentioned any Cedric. The name she said was Draco. You were taking her rightful position with Draco and that is why she wished for you to know what it was like to be betrayed and that was what I delivered.”

“So… my friends don’t hate me?” asked James looking slightly ill.

“No, that would be my doing,” answered Anya with just a bit of professional pride showing on her face. She was still waiting for the moment the yelling would begin.

“All the things they said to me…”

“All me again,” Anya chipped in, “not the actual words, of course, but the general feeling behind it.”

“They didn’t betray me,” James’s face clearly showed how shocked he was, “It was a spell, they didn’t betray me. I can call them…”

“Well, technically you are still wanted for murder,” said Anya helpfully, “I nudged their emotions but the paper work was not me.”

James looked at her like he had just been doused with a bucket of ice water. Giles noticed that and hurried to his aid.

“Well… yes, there is the matter of clearing Jam… I mean, Harry Potter’s name and it may take a while for us to gather all the evidence we’ll need, but at least now we know that your friends will stand by your side in the courtroom. Do you have any idea who this mysterious witch could be?”

“Yes, I do,” James felt like laughing, he would never have guessed that of all people she was the root of this whole mess, “Pansy Parkinson. Draco Malfoy’s wanna-be fiancée . Draco and I… we were… they were not engaged.”

“I know, we figured it out once I went back home and the debt was checked over,” Anya informed, “but now you know. I came clean and helped you. Right?”

“Yes, yes, you’re absolutely right,” concurred James before turning to Anya again and pulling her in a bone crashing hug. “Thank you, thank you. You have no idea what this means for me.”

“Good,” Anya’s smile had gotten brighter when she noticed that she could escape from there without any yelling, “and when you fight that big bad of yours over there you won’t have to worry about going to jail.” The whole room went silent and looked at the ex-demon.

“What are you talking about?” asked Giles.

“His destiny,” said Anya as if the whole thing was obvious not noticing the people in the room growing paler, “he is the one supposed to fight this bad guy who came back from the dead and defend the magic flow of the entire world, there is even a prophesy about it stored somewhere. I talked to D’Hoffryn this morning and he said that is why you were sent here, to train with the best and have a better chance in the fight.”

“I thought he was supposed to go to prison,” said Giles taking his glasses off his face and cleaning them with a handkerchief.

“According to the wish he was,” answered Anya in her usual brighter than it should be attitude, “but when we checked the wish we noticed that this particular witch didn’t have a previous right to place a wish, so we could work around it. D’Hoffryn arranged for Har… well, it’s James now, so… for James to come here and be part of this family.”

“And I’m very glad that you did it,” said Joyce embracing James, “We are very happy to have him here. Thank you.”

“My pleasure,” Anya smiled at him and the rest of the room before turning to Xander, “I did the sharing thing like you said and it did feel good. Can we go back to your place and have more orgasms now?”

“Err…” blushed Xander looking apologetic to the others.

“Just go,” Giles sighed. Anya’s humanity was still a work in progress, he told himself, she would improve with time… he hoped as the ex-demon dragged her blushing boyfriend out of the door.

Giles turned around to see Joyce hugging James, he knew exactly why she was doing it. James was bound to feel like he had been forced upon them and that they only took him in because of the spell. He went up to them and put his arms around his wife and son, holding them close to his heart.

“Oh… group hug” he heard Buffy say before he felt the two girls embrace them too. All he could do was smile as he passed one of his arms around the closest girl shoulder and pulled her into the family embrace.

--- End of Flashback ---

That night, before turning off his lights, James checked once more the notes on the spell they used to defeat Adam. The Combo-Buffy spell as Xander called it. The union of the mannus, sophos, anima and spiritus – hand, mind, heart and soul – strength, intellect, love and magic. A union in perfect love and perfect trust just like magic demanded.

There was something, he could feel it. The sorting hat was always nagging about union. Maybe that was the key to killing Voldemort after all. Maybe they perform the spell someplace near Voldemort and then he would be able to… get arrested because they still thought he was a murder.

Who was he kidding? There was no way he could go back to the wizarding world before his name was cleared and so far a year had passed and nothing had changed. His hands were tied and there was nothing he could do about it except stay in Sunnydale and train for the upcoming battle. He only hoped he had enough time to prepare.

James started to wonder, again, if Xander would be too mad if he accidentally slayed Anya just a little.

-----------

At Hogwarts, one more year was ending but the celebration was greatly subdued. Voldemort had finally made his first move and tried to invade the Ministry of Magic and now the whole wizarding world knew that he was back. Everybody was in panic.

The Minister himself had issued a statement with precautions to increase security, but it didn’t do much to quell the fear spreading amongst the wizards and witches. They were now demanding to know where was Harry Potter, who according to the Ministry had been taken out of Azkaban for health reasons but was still to receive a proper trial.

Snape found it immensely amusing that after a year of not even mentioning the boy’s name, the whole wizarding world was now demanding news of their savior and his so much delayed trial.

Fudge was at his wits ends. There was only so much that he could do with the health treatment excuse. They would have to come up with something else fast. He could hide a criminal’s disappearance, someone nobody wanted to see, for quite sometime but to hide the disappearance of the sole hope of the wizarding world was an entirely different matter, and there was also the problem of what Voldemort would do once he found out that Potter was gone. They had to find Potter, fast.

The muggle boy they had wrongly sent to Azkaban had been discreetly delivered to a muggle mental health facility. A few days later they discovered that the boy was actually a wanted criminal.

It was ironic, really. They had the muggle criminal with them in the wizarding world the whole time, while Potter was probably hiding in the muggle world. Fudge could only hope that when the kid did come back he would be in a better shape than the Burns kid had been when they sent him back.

Fudge sighed and got up from his desk. He was the Minister of Magic. He had a community to run, a war to prepare to and a hero to find. He didn’t have was time to waste.


Author’s Note:
I’m sorry, but I will not linger in the Sunnydale years. This is a Harry Potter fanfic and if I did the Sunnydale part as detailed as I would like this would take waaaaayyy too long. They do have something around 88 episodes, you know and – not all, but – some of them are just begging to make an appearance.

Sorry, but ‘no can do’.

I’ll do one or two chapters on Harry’s adventures in US and bring them back to UK (I know, last time I said something like this about one of my fics I said VIP would be five chapters long at the most… and we all know how that worked out).

ALSO, there are references to almost every episode on Season 4 and one in Season 3 (Beer Bad, Pangs, Wild at Heart, Something Blue, New Moon Rising… just to mention a few - and Doppelganger). Sorry for not pointing them all out.