Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine…
A/N: This is my first fanfic. Well, the first one anyone's read anyway. So a little constructive criticism could help.
Chapter 1 – how it all started
It was a strange feeling; she felt so much pain as she slowly cut herself and watched the knife slide right through her left wrist. Her blood was slowly dripping down from her soft, white skin to a shining silver goblet below her hand. It felt weird because practically everyday in the past couple of years, she got lots of cuts and bruises and she had gotten used to it. She normally barely even felt the pain. But today, today was different. After a few drops of her blood fell into the goblet, she stared at it for a while then passed on the knife she was holding to the dark-haired girl beside her.
Buffy Anne Summers was never one for that blood-shedding cult thing. In fact, she had been going against it for many years. But then, here she was, doing just that. Even worse she was doing it with people she barely even knew, and yet, she somehow completely trusted, even with her life.
Weeks before…
The big yellow school bus in the middle of nowhere was driving of far, far away from what used to be a little town called Sunnydale. It was filled with teenage girls; all wounded an mostly still in pain. Most of them needed to be rushed to the hospital. Somewhere around the back was a petite blonde girl staring out the window, seemingly oblivious to all those around her. Slowly a white man approached her and sat beside her. He spoke in a very gently voice, almost like a father to his daughter.
"Buffy, we'll be arriving at the hospital soon. Do you want me to take care of the girls for you?"
She just nodded in return, still looking out the window that now had a beautiful view of the pink and purple sky as the sun set and the trees passing by.
"Giles?"
"Yes Buffy?"
"What happens now? It's all over right?"
"Yes Buffy, it's all finally over." There was something about his voice it was so soothing, like it could make all her problems go away. And yet, somehow she wasn't quite sure.
Her watcher was right about the first part though. Just a few minutes later, the bus had stopped in front of the emergency room. She rushed off to the exit and was the first off the bus. As she briskly walked away, Giles emerged from the crowded bus coming after her.
"Buffy! Buffy!" He tried calling, but when the blonde slayer didn't look back, he knew he wouldn't succeed.
Ahh… never mind. I'll just leave her alone. She just probably needs some "me time" or whatever it is that those girls always want. I never really understood them anyway. He thought.
Buffy's walk was getting faster with every stride. She was going farther down a dark, barely lit road. There were just so many things going on in her head. And it was all just too much to process. Buffy needed to be alone, to think. It was a lot to take in. It was all over, all finally over. The war was over, the hellmouth was closed. Everything she'd been fighting for for years was gone. Yes, there were some little vampires here and there, but nothing was ever gonna be that serious. She was going to finally have a somewhat normal life.
She didn't really know there she was, or where she was going. She just followed her feet, still stuck in deep thought. Very soon, she ended up in what must have been one of the darkest streets in the city. The only light was a street lamp by the corner, beside a bench, a bus stop actually. She decided to stay there for a while and only when she sat down did she finally realize how tired she actually was.
Then her thoughts once again drifted back to how much her life has just changed. What probably was the biggest fight of her life was over. Part of her still expected a huge vampire to come out from the shadows, for the First Evil to suddenly appear in front of her. Giles told her there was sill evil around but then right now, that didn't even bother her. Sunnydale was gone, it was just a crater, a big crater, that's it. That's all that's left of her past.
Buffy had been so engulfed in her thoughts that she didn't even notice a large owl passing right in front of her, dropping an envelope on the seat next to her, barely missing her nose along the way. It had begun to peck her shoulder an a few moments later she had finally noticed the big brown and white creature sitting on her shoulder. It flew beside to the envelope it had dropped beside her just a moment ago. The envelope had her name written on it with shiny emerald-green letters. It was sealed with a large letter H with little animals surrounding it. Her curiosity was killing her and she just couldn't resist opening it. She started reading it, not noticing a cat watching her by the alley on the other side of the street.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Ms. Buffy Anne Summers,
We, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, would be honored to have you teach at our prestigious school. Your exceptional knowledge and skill would be a great benefit to our school and of course, to our students. There are also other matters that must be discussed and would be unwise to be done through this letter. I will be there in a little while to personally explain things further.
Professor Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster
"Witchcraft? Teach? Me?" Buffy whispered to herself. Suddenly a cat who was right beside Buffy suddenly… well, what seemed like, turned into a human, a white old lady with square glasses and her hair in a bun so tight she looked like she would dance ballet any second now. Buffy had to force herself to hold her breath to stop herself from chuckling at that thought.
"Hey!" Buffy exclaimed with a sort of a jump. "What the…?"
"Good evening Miss Summers." the woman greeted. Buffy stood up and stepped back. She began to reach for her stake in her back pocket but unfortunately couldn't find it. Shit! I lost my stake in the fight, Buffy thought. "I am Professor Minerva McGonagall, the Deputy headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am sorry to tell you that Professor Dumbledore cannot make it to this meeting today."
"Oh." Buffy said, still in shock. "Why?"
"Professor Dumbledore was caught in a fight and unfortunately injured."
"Oh." Wait, how do I know she's some sort of evil demon or something?
"Now, I believe the former headmaster had mentioned something about discussing with you some other matters." Buffy just nodded. Never mind, I'll just bring her to Giles. "I would much rather that we discuss this elsewhere, others may be listening."
"Sure"
Buffy lead them back to the hospital and saw that many of its employees were still attending to the wounded potentials.
"Buffy!" Willow called out to her. Buffy was thankful that her black hair had returned to her vibrant red shade. For a moment there, she actually thought that Willow might have gone all evil on her again. "Buffy, ummm… I think you might wanna go see Faith for a sec."
"Why? What happened?" There was a hint of panic in her voice.
"I'll be right back." She told Professor McGonagall and left.
"Faith!" She called as she entered her sister Slayer's room
"Hey."
"What's going on?" Buffy saw the large wound Faith had on her back. She had lots of similar ones on her own body but somehow with everything else going on, she managed to ignore them all.
"It's nothing."
"Then why did you call me?"
"Buffy, what do we do with all these Slayers?" This time it was Willow who spoke. Then Buffy noticed that all the Scoobies were in the room. There was Faith, Willow, Dawn, Giles, Xander, all waiting for her answer.
"Yeah, kinda shouldn't have all those mini-Buffys just walking around. That would be torture!" Although it was annoying, Dawn had a point.
"Faith? What do you think?" Buffy asked.
"You're the head Buff. It's your call."
"Oh come on! You're my sister slayer! You should get part of the decision making."
"Thanks." Faith said. She was silent for a while. "Well, I don't know, I don't think it's fair for the rest of them. I mean, we're not dead yet right?"
"Well, yeah. So I guess you still want the weight of the world on your shoulders and crap."
"I actually kinda liked it."
"Alright then. Will?"
"Wait!" This time it was Giles who spoke up. "What if these girls actually WANT to be slayers?"
Buffy thought for a moment then said, "Well, how 'bout this, all the Slayers who didn't fight in Sunnydale would go back to being potentials and all those who did fight, would get a choice."
"Ok." Everyone in the room agreed and nodded a bit.
"Now if you excuse me, there's some old ballerina outside offering me a job."
Buffy left the room and found McGonagall sitting in the waiting room reading Seventeen.
"Professor, I believe you wanted to talk to me." She said.
"Oh, yes. Perhaps we should go into a room."
"Alright." Buffy lead her back to Faith's room where the gang was still trying to mend each others wounds.
"Hey Buff! Who's the old ballerina?" Xander said.
"Excuse me!" the Professor was shocked, even though she didn't even know what a ballerina was.
"We need to talk." Buffy saw the look on the professor's face. "These are my friends, they're all the family I have left, whatever you are telling me, you could tell them as well." She saw that she was unsure. "Don't worry, you could trust them. I trust them with my life." That seemed to convince her.
"Alright then."
The professor somehow managed to create an anti-eavesdropping spell on the room without the muggles noticing. She turned around and was surprised to see a familiar face.
"Mister Giles?"
"Professor?"
"Well, I'm surprised to find you here! I see this is where you've disappeared to all these years."
"What's going on professor?"
"We are once again in need of a new DADA professor."
"Ah, yes… Same curse I see." There was a look among the teenagers as he said this, but he was too caught up in the moment to notice.
"Rupert," She paused for a moment. "The Wizarding World is currently caught up in a war of its own."
"Voldemort."
"Yes."
"How?"
"I see you haven't heard any news from our world recently."
"Unfortunately, I haven't had much contact from your world since I left."
"Hold on." Buffy said. "If I got that right, none of us are from your world and none of us can understand a word you're saying, so I you could please start from… well, the start."
Both the professor and Giles then began to explain about the Wizarding World, Voldemort, Harry and the prophecy.
"Rupert, how do you know about the prophecy?" McGonagall asked
"Professor Dumbledore told me days before I left."
"I wonder why." She said under her breath, but not soft enough for the two Slayers not to hear. She then continued and told the Americans of the recent events in Hogwarts and the rest of the Wizarding world.
"Giles?"
"Yes Buffy?"
"How do you know about all of this?"
"I studied at Hogwarts. Most watchers are wizards or witches."
"Miss Summers," It was the professor who spoke this time. "Would you like to teach at Hogwarts? We have an opening for a professor in Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"Ummm…" Buffy looked around at her friends. Giles gave her an encouraging smile. Willow and Xander both had blank expressions and Wait no… I can't. She just couldn't look at Dawn or Faith in the eyes. "I'm sorry, I can't. I just can't. I mean there are so many things to do. We have to rebuild the Council and… and… What about the hellmouth in Cleveland? And all the other slayers, what about them? 'Cause I can't simply leave them here with all their new powers and stuff! And what about Faith? And… and… What about Dawn?" She was babbling! She was babbling in a way that made Willow proud.
"I'm sorry. Did you just say slayers? As in Vampire Slayers?" McGonagall said.
"Yes." The whole Scooby gang said at the same time.
"So, I guess you didn't know who I was."
"But Slayers are myths."
The next half hour was spent convincing the professor that Slayers indeed were actually real. The Scoobies told her some of the most memorable vampires, demons, and crazy evil things that they had had to face. They all had a hint of sadness on their faces as they recalled all those they've lost in the recent battle. The professor, in return, was shocked the young ladies like them had gone through so much pain at such early stages in their lives. In the end, it was decided that Faith would come with Buffy to Europe to teach, Dawn would stay with Willow to continue her "normal' studies and Giles and Xander would both stay to train any of the Slayer that may decide to stay as Slayers.