Title: Sparks

Author: Flannery

Rating: PG

Fandom: Harry Potter/Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Disclaimer: The characters mentioned? I'm not their creator. I'm only playing with them.

"…the written word; now without humor or lighter emotion, a cold and distant representation of language."

Remus looked up from his parchment and asked, "Too pretentious?"

"You passed pretentious by the side of the road about five minutes ago," Sirius answered.

"I'm not listening to someone that's only written down his name," muttered Remus. He looked at his friend's paper. "And you mis-spelled it."

"I didn't!"

"It says Blaek."

"That's an inkblot!"

"Sloppy work, Blaek."

The two retreated back to their essays – Sirius attempted to remove his inkblot, Remus attempted to remove his head from his arse.

Minutes later, Sirius gave a groan. "Slytherins," he whispered at his friend's inquisitive look.

Bickering Slytherins, at that. "All I'm saying is that you can't swear to god you'll burn Parkinson alive if you don't believe in a god to swear to."

"I don't," asserted the other, crossing his arms over his chest. "Religion, 's all bollocks."

"Maybe, but it's just foolish to turn your back on all divinities, isn't it?"

"Oh, what do you know?"

"More than you, Rupert. When it comes to girls, spells, the ways of the universe and the powers that govern it."

"Speaking of pretentious…" Sirius couldn't stop himself and let out a loud laugh. "Fuckin' hell, Rayne, do you always talk like that?"

He stopped and glared down at Sirius. "Do you take offense at proper use of the English language, Black?"

The other Slytherin tugged on his friend's sleeve. "Let it go, Ethan," he said quietly.

"Yeah, let it go, Ethan," Sirius repeated. "You don't want trouble with us."

Sometime in their four years at Hogwarts, Sirius and his group had become notorious with the Slytherins, particularly the smaller, more bookish sort. It wasn't something Remus encouraged. Tolerated, sure, and was amused by, but he didn't actively participate, and this?

"This is dumb." He just didn't have the patience right now. Remus started rolling up his parchment.

Ethan snorted. "You're the one that's gone out of your way to pester me, Black. If you apologize now, I may consider not hexing you into the nearest extradimensional wormhole."

There was a shocked cry from Ethan's companion. "You've been in the restricted books!"

"Quiet, Rupert."

He looked cross at Ethan. "You said you'd share them with me!" Ethan was deaf to him, lost in the back-and-forth snarling.

"You don't have the sparks to zap me into the, uh – whatever the fuck you said. You're just an idiot kid with a wand and a family name – "

"I damn well shall, you'll see! Another week and I'll be able – "

" —And books full of rubbish gods and spells to – "

" – Ripped apart by the will of unnamable entities and your flesh worn as a trophy!"

" – fucking stupid, like you!"

"Nice," Remus commented. He slung his book bag over his shoulder, hastily packed scrolls and quills poking out the top. He turned to face the boy standing with Ethan. "Giles, isn't it? Want to come to the library and leave these two to their madness?"

Giles cast a red-faced look at Ethan, who was still engaged in arguing with Sirius. "All right," he said quietly, adjusting his glasses.

They walked away in silence.

Giles had always seemed more loud and brash when Remus had seen him before. He didn't know why the boy was so quiet now, walking with hands in pockets and his eyes cast downward.

The peace was welcome.