Heir Of Voldemort

Immediately after ch. 16

Notes: egads - I´ve been uber-inspired of late and its not a good thing at all, considering I have three essays to write and can´t seem to do anything but write fic, fic and hey, more fic! I wanna get this one and The Eighth Weasley finished as soon as possible, although - advanced warning - The Eighth Weasley is about to become an epic, so it may take a while.

So, I warned you in the notes of the previous two chapters that things were going to go bad and you don´t get much worse than being arrested then dragged off to the Ministry to face a trial, leaving your son in a full body-bind on a pavement in a different country.

Well, yes, of course you do get worse, but lets not be picky.

It´s time.

Xander is going to learn some hard facts about his family.

And these characters are so lucky that they don´t belong to me! Even Cassie doesn´t but if I did this to all my characters - I would probably have been taken off the air due to an entirely dead set of characters.

_________________________

"Giles! You gotta help me!"

Skidding through the swing doors of Sunnydale High School´s library, Alexander crashed squarely into the desk that blocked off the librarian´s office from the rest of the library.

"GILES!"

Instead of being seated at the massive tables that took up the main non-book area of the bottom floor of the library, or sorting out books up in the stacks, Rupert Giles was apparently taking a well-earned break.

"C´mon, Giles! I need help!"

"Xander?" Peering around the doorframe, seated on the wheeled seat by the desk, the Watcher came to his feet instantly, leaving his cup of tea and newspaper on the surface of the desk. "Wh-wh-what on earth is the matter?"

Panting, clutching a stitch in his side, Alexander struggled to draw breath, one hand on the counter to hold himself upright. "My mom... guys... guys in black dresses... long dress things...and magic sticks...froze me...took mom..."

Giles´ brow creased in confusion. "You...you´ll have to be more specific."

"Got home..." Still panting, Alexander made a frantic gesture with his hand. "They dragged mom out...she was bleeding...told me to tell you...get Ethan...one whammied me...then they were gone..."

"Get Ethan?" The librarian stiffened his back.

"She said...a few times...screaming...she was screaming..." Alexander stared up at Giles´ face, anguish etched in his brown eyes. "I tried, Giles...I couldn´t help her...I couldn´t help her..."

His legs seemed to give way beneath him and, bonelessly, he sank to the linoleum- covered floor, leaning heavily against the side of the counter, his eyes burning with fear, anger and confusion.

Absently, he was aware of Giles tilting his face up, making sure he was conscious, then getting to his feet.

In a daze, he watched as the Watcher get a large, round, brass plate - or something that looked like one - and pull out a thin stick like the one the weird guy-in-a-dress had pointed at him, pointing into a weird bowl on the floor.

A column of flame spewed from the stick, burning brightly on the plate.

The Watcher grabbed something from the counter above Alexander´s head, tossing a handful of what looked like green powder into the flames, which immediately burned a poisonous green colour.

"Ethan! If you´re there, answer me!"

If he hadn´t been having such a surreal day, Alexander knew he would have yelled in fright as a head appeared in the middle of the flames, looking up at Giles, with the face that he recognised as Ethan.

Bending, his expression ugly with anger, Giles bent and grabbed Ethan´s head, jerking him forcefully, the sorcerer´s full body erupting through the flames and crashing to the floor of the library.

"Bloody hell, Ripper!" Pushing himself upright, Ethan turned, only receive an uppercut from Giles, whose face was scarlet and contorted with fury. A vein was throbbing in his temple as he grabbed Ethan´s hair and jerked his head back.

"What the hell have you done?" he demanded furiously.

On his knees, bent over backwards, Ethan raised his hands. "Mate, I haven´t done anything! I swear!"

"What about Mrs Harris?" Giles nodded towards Alexander. Alexander stared back dumbly. Was he meant to wave or something to let them know he was still there, or just sit, while Giles beat up his former friend.

Ethan´s green eyes locked onto Alexander´s face, widening. The colour seemed to wash from his face, leaving it a sickly shade of grey. Shaking his head, his mouth opened and shut, making no sound.

"Explain!" Giles snarled.

"God...no..."

"Ethan..."

Tears were gleaming in Ethan´s eyes. "Let me up and I´ll tell you everything," he said. His voice sounded rasping, choked, as if he were having trouble speaking. "It-its a long story..."

Giles stared at him for a moment, then released his hair. He looked as if he expected Ethan to flee immediately, clearly surprised when the sandy-haired wizard scrambled over to Alexander.

"Alex? Alexander?" Giles made a sound of surprise, apparently unaware that this Ethan guy knew his name. "Listen, listen to me. I need to tell me exactly what happened to your mum, right?"

Blinking, Alexander looked up at Giles, who nodded. "I-I was going home...usually do, y´know...got to the end of our block and saw a cop´s car outside the house...I figured dad and mom were fighting again...then guys...guys in black dresses...they brought mom out of the house...she was bleeding...she saw me...yelled at me to get Giles...to tell him to get you..."

"Shit..."

"One of them had a weird stick..." Alexander´s vision seemed strangely blurry, his mouth dry and fuzzy and, odd, his cheeks felt wet. "I...I was trying to help her...he pointed...it flashed and I fell...I-I don´t know why...one of them said I wasn´t `him´ and then it went quiet...when I got up they were gone..."

He didn´t quite know how it happened.

One moment he was sure he was leaning with his back against the edge of the library counter, the next he was sobbing desperately in the arms of Giles´ ex-friend, Giles staring down at them.

The wiggens didn´t even have a look in today.

"What´s going on Ethan? Who were they?" Giles´ voice spoke from above.

Alexander was still held securely against Ethan´s chest, the sorcerer´s arms around him and - for once - he felt safe. He felt like he often believed he should feel, when he was in the arms of his father.

"They were from the Ministry of Magic, Ripper," Ethan´s voice was hoarse, one hand spread on Alexander´s sweat-dampened hair. "They´ve been looking for her."

"Her? Mrs Harris?"

Ethan shook his head. He seemed exhausted. "She´s one of us, Ripper," he said softly, his voice shaking. "She´s that skinny little Hufflepuff brat I used to pal about with..." As one both men said, "Cassandra Bones."

"But she doesn´t look..."

"A concealment spell, nothing more," Ethan interrupted, still soothingly untangling locks of Alexander´s hair with his right hand, the other grasped between Alexander´s shaking ones.

Giles was silent for a long moment, then he asked what Alexander was wondering to himself, although he felt to secure to ask anything, in case it took this wonderful father-feeling away.

"Why was she concealing herself?"

Ethan seemed to go rigid. "She´s accused of consorting with the Dark Lord prior to his first fall," he muttered, ignoring Giles´ loud curse of surprise.

"But she-she-she´s Xander´s mother."

Alexander felt Ethan´s cheek press against the top of his head. "It´s time," he said, so quietly that only Alexander heard him. His head shifted slightly and he looked up at Giles. "Ripper, you´re looking at the only son and Heir of You-Know-Who."

There was a heartbeat of silence, then the hollow thump of Giles´ head hitting the floor, as he fainted.

***

Walking back and forth outside of Stone´s office, Snape refused to sit down at the long, padded seat that stood along one wall. To be lined up among the rest of the people there made him feel like a prisoner awaiting execution.

Plus, it irritated the impatient secretary to have him pacing back and forth across the horrendously patterned red and green carpet, passing in front of her dark wooden desk with every traverse he made of the room.

Anything to distract him from the thought of what was coming.

Either they had realised that he had been lying about his knowledge of the Heir and his mother, or something more sinister was afoot and he was going to be sent in to make the inquiries.

"Once a two-sider, always a two-sider," he murmured to himself wearily, looking around as the secretary called his name. She motioned him towards the door, which opened of it´s own accord.

Entering the room dimly-lit room, he found Stone gazing at him steadily from his desk, directly opposite the door. The blinds were drawn down, half-closed, moonlight slatting in from outside.

Like everyone else had, since the furore about the `Heir´ had come to light, Snape had been expected to be on constant alert, lest he be called in by Stone, as he had been tonight.

Leaving Ginny in the sanctuary that she had returned to with him - with her mother´s blessing, after she had threatened Snape at wand point that he wouldn´t keep her away so long the next time and he assured her that he would bring her back whenever she wanted to visit - he had apparated straight into the office.

A single desk lamp was switched on, a buttery gold nimbus spread around it, lightly illuminating the dim room. It cast odd shadows on Stone´s horribly scarred face, as the Auror surveyed Snape.

"Sit," he suggested in a way that was more of an order, motioning to the hard-backed wooden chair that faced him across the desk.

Sweeping around the chair, Snape sat down, folding his hands patiently in his lap, his eyes and face revealing nothing, as Stone studied him. The Auror looked down at the papers in front of him, then back at Snape.

"We require you to testify at a trial."

The surprise Snape felt clearly showed itself on his face, his eyes widening slightly, a brow rising.

"If...if I may ask, why did you feel the need to bring me here, out of my bed, at this time of night to tell me so? Isn´t it more commonplace to contact witnesses by owl, then arrange a meeting?"

Stone nodded. "Normally, that is the case, but in this scenario, we have no time for such formalities," he explained, his voice rigid and emotionless. "The trial begins tomorrow and we need you there."

Snape was genuinely puzzled, although he didn´t show it. He hadn´t heard of any arrests in the last few days and there certainly weren´t any Death Eaters that he knew of who were awaiting trial, as far as he knew.

"Who is the accused?" he finally asked.

There was a moment of silence before the Auror looked up from the parchment he was studying. "Cassandra Bones, consort of You-Know-Who, Mother to the Heir of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."

Severus felt like he had received a punch to the gut, the breath rushing from his lungs, colour fleeing his face. "Y-you found her?"

"Indeed. Her disguise was effective, but she couldn´t conceal the Dark Mark. She was brought in a short time ago," The look on Stone´s face was one of weary triumph. Snape felt for the man, he truly did, but when he knew that the Heir was no more than a harmless little boy...

He was one of only four people in the world who knew that fact and his word was hardly reliable, considering his one-time loyalties. The other three...well, they were hardly going to prove any better.

One was the mother, who had the unfortunate background of carrying the Heir, after being manipulated into a copulation with Lord Voldemort.

Another was a demon-worshipping, dark arts-loving exile from their world, who was under threat of death in more magical places than Snape could count with all his fingers and toes.

And the third...

His lover - and if he had any say in the matter, soon-to-be wife - who was already so emotionally fragile that he would rather have returned to cutting himself on a daily basis than risk seeing her shattered by facing a trial jury.

The child didn´t stand a chance.

"What do you require of me?"

Stone studied him. In the buttery light, his eyes seemed to be wreathed in flame. "I don´t need to tell you that the charge of consorting with the Dark Lord is a serious one," he said. "You must give evidence against her. We need her in Azkaban as soon as possible, so the populace can feel safe."

"But if she is harmless?"

"Snape, it makes no difference what you may believe," Stone´s tone grew hard. "The jury will judge her on her evidence and that provided by you and the other witness we have access to."

"And if I refuse?"

Stone´s dark eyes said everything and nothing at once. "You would be concealing evidence that may prevent a rise of another Dark Lord," he said. "I would hate to see you sent to Azkaban, after you have achieved so much."

"You know I would go to Azkaban if the cause was true."

Stone gazed at him. "Yes, but how would your young lover cope?" There was an edge of darkness in Stone´s voice. "After all, we need not remind you that she, too, was a consort of the Dark Lord and by her own free will, which is a crime..."

"Damn you..." Bleak black eyes glared at Stone, his voice a hoarse whisper. "You would threaten to break her, simply to put an innocent witch in Azkaban?" Stone said nothing. "So I have no choice in the matter. I assume that means I will have to partake of veritaserum for the duration of the trial?" Stone nodded the affirmative.

"We will make it as short for you as possible. After all, we still have a lot of work to get done."

The former teacher´s eyes narrowed. "Did you find the Heir?" he asked carefully.

"That will be all, Snape," Stone scrawled something on a sheet of parchment, folded it and held it out to the former Death Eater. "Be at the court for ten o´clock tomorrow morning. We want this cleared up with as little fuss as possible."

Taking the parchment, Snape nodded, unable to form another word.

Stiffly walking out of the office, he disapparated immediately, apparating into his home and wearily hanging up his travel robe beside the fire place, the air warm and comforting, the scent of his lover reassuring.

Withdrawing the folded sheet of parchment from his pocket, he sat down at the chair in front of the fire quietly, unfolding the sheet and studying the dates and times assigned for the trial.

Ethan would know by now, he knew.

He couldn´t quite say how he knew, but he did...

Ethan would know.

Ethan would be plotting something bold, something dramatic and something that Snape fervently hoped wasn´t too stupid.

"Where did you go?"

Hastily folding the sheet of parchment, he looked up with a weary smile, as Ginny rounded the back of the chair. She looked like she had been asleep, her hair sticking out in all directions, her eyes cloudy.

"Stone wished to see me," he answered, his voice low, as she slid down into his lap and nestled against his chest, her head coming down to rest on his shoulder. "It was a matter of great importance."

"Oh?"

"Mmm."

"What?"

His arms loosely around her waist, his chin resting on the top of her head, Snape closed his eyes. "I have to be a standing witness at a trial tomorrow," he replied.

"Whose?"

"Ah...well...I don´t think you would know of them..."

Her face rose and she looked at him. "Severus..."

"Dear one..." He tried to distract her and failed spectacularly.

"Severus, who is it?" Snape´s eyes fell and he knew that she wouldn´t take long to work it out. There was only one person that they knew who would be tried and who he would be called in as a witness for. "Oh God..."

"They captured her only a few hours ago, Ginny...I don´t know how they did it... how they found out where she was..." he sounded desperately unhappy. "I...we should have... the meeting we attended... should not have happened...we could have refused... they would never have found her."

"And her son? Did they get him too?"

Severus shook his head. "No. For that we have to be grateful," He drew her to him, burying his face in her hair. His voice was barely a whisper, but she made out every word. "They want me to stand against her..."

"But..."

"Dear one, I must do it," He turned his face to hers, cradling her cheek. "My life and yours hangs by a thread. Should we refuse, Stone will find some way to cut the thread and we will fall."

"But Cassandra..." Tears were rapidly filling Ginny´s eyes. "Severus...we can´t let her go to Azkaban..."

"Her son will find her. Her son and her lover...they will be the ones to save her," His hand tangled through her hair, their foreheads pressing to one another´s. "For now, all I´m concerned about is keeping you safe, dear one."

Her eyes pressed shut, tears trickled down her cheeks. "I love you, Severus," She whispered hoarsely. "I love you so much, it scares me...don´t let them take you away from me...not now..."

"I won´t leave you, dear one," He brought her brow down and touched a soft kiss to her forehead. "I love you too greatly to let them tear us apart. Not after all the pain it took us to reach this place."

Letting her bury herself in his chest against, he closed his eyes and held her as she cried quietly.

***

"But I can´t be."

Ethan sighed. "I´m afraid you can be and you are, Alexander," he said. He had just spent over an hour revealing the history of the youth´s heritage to him. They were sitting at the large tables in the library and the sun was just starting to set outside the windows, slanting warm gold into the room. "Listen, have you ever done anything, when you were angry or afraid?"

"Like what?"

"I don´t know..." The sandy-haired wizard ran his fingers through his curly matt of hair. "Maybe someone made you angry or scared and then something made them look stupid... or you wished something would happen and it did...or anything..."

Alexander, who had been staring blindly at the surface of the table, where his fingers were moving in circles, lifted his eyes, a combination of incredulity and astonishment on his face. "The curse..." he said in a hushed voice.

"Curse?" Ethan was bemused, but apparently Giles knew what the boy was talking about. "What curse?"

Lowering the ice-pack from his head, where an incredible lump was blossoming on his right temple, the Watcher-librarian looked like everything in the world had suddenly made sense. "Of course...Willow was too weak...unable to-to-to perform it herself... I-I often wondered who had provided th-th-the strength for her to complete the spell..."

"Look, mate, maybe you know what this is all about, but let´s pretend that Ethan, the bearer of bad news, doesn´t have a clue what the Hell is going on in your happy little world," He looked from Giles to Alexander. "What was this curse?"

"Buffy´s demon boyfriend..." Alexander glanced at Giles´, as if checking that he wasn´t saying that he shouldn´t.

"You mean the vampire...Angelus? The one who lost his soul after he got a bit of nooky off blondie?" Dark-haired boy and watcher stared at Ethan, as if he had grown a second head. "Look, I´m your Godfather, Alexander. Your mother and I knew pretty much everything there was to know about your madcap band of friends."

"Well..." Giles seemed a little surprised. "Th-that would certainly make things a lot easier. We-we-we did intend to recurse Angelus, to return his soul."

"Willow was in hospital," Alexander volunteered the information. "I went to help Buffy... when I was pulling Giles out of the mansion, I remember I didn´t think Willow would be strong enough to do the whole spell thing, but I was wishing and hoping for it..."

Giles nodded. "Willow said it felt like something went through her. The two who witnessed her perform the spell st-stated that she looked like she-she-she had connected to something p-p-powerful."

"I never thought it was me," Alexander´s voice lowered to a whisper. His eyes went back down to the table and he shook his head. "I-I can´t be magical...I mean, I can´t do anything...and even if I am...what´s to say I wouldn´t be like my...father?"

Ethan reached over the table and squeezed Alexander´s hand. "Alexander, listen to me. We hid your powers until we knew you would need them. You didn´t need them to be who you are. You´re strong, you´re a brave and loyal friend, you´re the kind of person that Voldemort fought against. From what I´ve seen of you, you fight for good, which is something that Voldemort would never do. "

"So my dad´s an evil psychopath?" He raised his eyes to the ceiling, blinking hard. he looked like he was on the verge of tears, but he managed to laugh. "I just thought of something...me and this Voldemort guy having a reunion...and it turns out like Dr Evil and Scott from Austin Powers..."

"If you want a pop-culture reference that you can work with, Alexander," Ethan´s tone was serious. "I would say it was more like Luke finding out the Emperor, not Vader, was his father."

Brown eyes - so very like Cassandra´s it felt like a skewer had been thrust through his heart - looked bleakly at him. "And I thought the guy that I called dad here was bad," he murmured. "He...he hurt her, didn´t he?"

Nodding sadly, Ethan looked away. "Very much."

The teenager fell silent, returning to tracing circles on the table. The two older men exchanged looks, Giles still looking utterly stunned by the revelation, while Ethan simply felt drained.

He looked it too, haggard and drawn. His eyes were bloodshot and he kept running his hand convulsively through his hair.

"What are we going to do, Ethan? They can´t take my mom away. I-I want to go and get her back. She doesn´t belong in their world anymore..." Alexander finally spoke in a voice barely above a whisper.

Ethan´s eyes closed. "It won´t be easy, Alexander. There´s every chance they could send you to wizard´s prison and that really isn´t a place I would want to send you."

"But it´s where they´re gonna send my mom, isn´t it?" Ethan couldn´t bring himself to reply, even when Alexander´s voice rose. "Isn´t it? They´re going to send my mom to wizard´s prison, because of who I am!"

The two older wizards exchanged looks.

"Alexander," Ethan stood up. "I have an idea about what we can do. I have a friend who saw everything...I can get in touch with him and if we move fast enough, then we might just be able to get your mother out of this. Would...would you be willing to come to England with me? I mean, you could well end up in jail in her place and..."

"I´m coming."

"Xander."

"No, Giles," Alexander said determinedly. "I´m going to get my mom back."

***

"Why are you doing this to me?"

Stone stood at the door of the cell, gazing in at the now-infamous prisoner, who was crouched down against the wall in the corner. "You knew that you were a fugitive, Miss Bones," he said. "You were concealing yourself."

Bloodshot brown eyes gazed up at him. "Didn´t you wonder why I hid? For all those years he was back, didn´t you even think to ask why I didn´t come forward and take my place at his side?" the woman´s voice was hoarse and rasping.

She was clad in loose, plain black robes that hung on her thin body, making her look even smaller than she already was. Her long, gold-coloured hair was magically bound back from her white face.

"That is why you are being taken to trial, Bones."

Large tears that seemed too big for her pale, thin face, rolled silently down her cheeks. "Why won´t you even listen to me?" she pleaded. "I didn´t want to be the one to carry his Heir. He made me..."

"And you and I all know that no witch can be forced to carry a child unless she joins into a union of her own free will."

The witch´s shaking hands clamped on her temples, her eyes fixed on her upraised knees, in front of her chest. "You´re not listening to me..." she said, barely audibly, her voice shaking. "I didn´t want it...he made me..."

"And you, Bones, are not listening to me. Witches can not be forcibly impregnated."

"He BOUGHT me!" she cried out, showing more spirit than he had seen in her when they captured her. "I had no choice...don´t you understand?" Her voice was shrill with anger and despair. "I paid with my body to save my family!"

Stone´s lip curled. "Your family were killed the day you disappeared, Bones. Deny all you like, but we know that you were the cause of their deaths, either by your own hand or by those you sent."

"He told me he would spare them...he told me and I believed him...I was a fool..."

"On that we agree, Bones," Stone´s voice was hard. He stepped out of the doorway and stared at her in disgust. "Your trial will begin in five hours. I suggest you get some sleep."

The huge door slammed, plunging Cassandra into darkness.

Pressing against the wall, tears silently streaming down her face, she buried her face in her knees that were hugged against her chest and wished she could see her little boy, just one more time.

"Just let him be safe," she whispered. "Let him be safe."