Timeline Harry Potter - after Order of the Phoenix. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - after Chosen.

Disclaimer None of these characters belong to me. All Harry Potter related characters, settings etc belong to JK Rowling; all BtVS characters etc belong to Joss Whedon.

Author's Note Yet another HPBtVS crossover, I know! But they're fun to write and there are some really good ones out there. Hope you like this!

Harry Potter was dreaming again; dreams like these, which seemed to connect him to Lord Voldemort, sadly happened all too often. In it, he stood in the darkness, absolute darkness, everywhere, choking him. Unconsciously he reached out his hands to the darkness on either side of him and felt two people - his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The darkness immediately around him lessened. Ron's bright red hair was like a silent beacon in the shadows, and Harry's heart constricted painfully with the thought that his two greatest friends were standing by his side to face -

Lord Voldemort. From the midnight shadows directly in front of Harry, a tall, thin, inhuman figure emerged, red snake-eyes glowing like embers. He stared at the three teenagers, then, to Harry's surprise, reached a skeletal, long-fingered hand towards Hermione, till it was almost touching her cheek. Harry could do nothing; he felt utterly paralysed as he watched Hermione's look of horror. And suddenly, Harry felt what the Dark Lord felt as he saw Hermione - a mixture of curiosity, perhaps surprise too, and above all, a desire to possess her power. In his mind Harry started shouting.

"No! Not Hermione! No!"

Even more unfortunately for Harry was where he was having this precise dream -

"Mr Potter. If you feel you are too good for my class and thus can sleep during these lessons and dream of your little - girlfriend - then I highly suggest you get out. Go and see the Headmaster. Now."

Harry gave Snape a dirty look as he walked past him. As he moved through the dungeon he was aware of the blush in Hermione's cheeks and realised he must have spoken the last part of his dream out aloud. Sure enough, the Slytherins were shouting "No, not Hermione!" in high-pitched voices as he walked past them. Harry, however, was only vaguely aware of this. He could think of one thing only - why did Voldemort want Hermione? He only hoped Dumbledore could help.

* * *

Hermione meanwhile was having a bad day. And it had just gotten worse.

"Oh look, it's the little mudblood. Away to see your boyfriend Harry the Hero, are we?"

"Shove off, Malfoy," she replied wearily. "Stop being a prat." His pale face darkened slightly and he removed his wand from his robe pockets. Hermione looked around. Oh, great. There was no-one else about. And bloody Malfoy now had his wand pointed at her.

"Did you just call me a prat, Granger?"

Her own wand out now, Hermione looked at him, her temper worsening by the minute. "Yes, you idiot. Or are you deaf aswell as stupid?" And she lifted her wand. Malfoy clearly had other ideas though. He lunged forward and made a grab for Hermione's wand. She wasn't really sure what happened next - she pushed the Slytherin in the chest to stop him taking her wand, and instead of him stumbling, he went flying halfway down the corridor, where he lay too stunned to move.

Hermione looked around, as if expecting to see the person who had done this. But it was just her and Malfoy in the corridor. Malfoy! She stepped forward to ask if he was hurt, but by this time he had recovered himself and was stalking down the hallway, his pride considerably wounded.

She looked around again: no-one had appeared to see what the commotion was about. Worriedly, she shouldered her book bag and hurried off in the direction of the Gryffindor common room. What was wrong with her?

Albus Dumbledore appeared from behind the statue leading to his office. "Oh dear," he announced to the empty corridor at large. "Oh dear. This does change things."