Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince...And others.
Part One, Chapter One
"I love you," she whispered; but he shook his head, that loving light in his eyes.
"No, you don't. But thanks for saying it." He replied softly, and the tear that had threatened to be shed slipped ever so down her cheek as she squeezed his hand slightly.
"Now Go!" And with that Buffy turned and began her quick ascent upwards via the spiraled staircase leading up from the collapsing Hell mouth.
"Safe to say that school's out for the Bloody summer! He bellowed as a golden light began to encompass him before he disappeared, the thought of restfully laying his soul to sleep content in his mind.
"Ah! Oh, Fire! Fire!" Spike bellowed as soon as he realized he wasn't dust – but in fact being stared at by hundreds of kiddies seated at long tables. His hair, he'd realized, was not coping well with the fire burning off peroxide fumes atop his head.
At once, a barrel of water was upturned onto his head, it's sources or the dumper unknown as he stood soaked, looking up into the amused face of an elderly man.
"Spike, I presume?" he asked hoarsely, a crisp black hand holding himself up as he peered down at the stunned vampire, who nodded, dumbfounded. "What…elegant attire you've chosen." Dumbeldore added, peering at the crystal bauble Spike still wore around his neck. Spike, too, looked down at it, shifting a bit before becoming stock-still and allowing a parade of emotions play across his face. First he seemed extremely stunned, fingering the bauble, before becoming angry and lastly confused.
Looking up at the wizened man, then at the stern teachers, then at the buzzing crowd of students, and lastly, back to the headmaster.
"I think I'm injured…something's missing…" he mumbled before collapsing onto the ground.
"Buffy. It's good to see you. Glad to know you're okay." Angel greeted the Vampire Slayer warmly, hugging her close, despite the crusted wounds and puncture through her side. She winced a bit and pulled away. Angel scanned the group behind her.
"Glad to know you all made it," he said, holding her away from him. Buffy became quiet and Angel furrowed his brow and glanced again at Dawn, Willow, Giles and Xander.
"Oh, Spike." He said quietly, feeling awkward. Another second later, Buffy pulled away completely.
"We need rest. We're staying at the motel on fifteenth street, but I'll see you before long, 'kay?" With that the Scoobies left Angel in his office, watching after them with a stern face, determined not to let Buffy find out the consequences of the amulet…
The small group seemed quieter than normal after returning from the feast. Ron and Hermione were restless, and Harry was expressing a concern about genuine likeness of the strange new man and Malfoy. This, of course, led to him ranting on about Malfoy being a Death Eater, which soon ended the conversation due to the First years entering the Common Room and grouping around Harry.
"Let's get outta here, Harry." Ron suggested, already pulling Hermione to her feet.
"B-But Dumbledore said not to be in the corridors after hours! And besides, what about classes tomorrow?" But Harry and Ron had already swung out of the portrait, and Hermione stubbornly joined them.
The three decided to try and sneak to the Hospital wing, wanting to glimpse this strange man who'd been sent there with symptoms of shock and burns on his chest and arms. All together, they crouched under the Invisibility Cloak Harry still had in his inner pocket. Of course, this proved to be a feat – quite literally. Harry, looking down, saw the toes of his tattered trainers scud along the floor as the teenagers rounded the next corner, nearly toppling into Dumbeldore in the process.
They were outside of the Hospital Wing, the lean man in jeans and a slightly burned t-shirt. His Platinum hair was blonde as ever, looking as if it had been magically repaired. Harry ducked his hands around Ron and Hermione's mouths and the three crept quietly (and uncomfortably) back around the corner. If Harry strained just so, he could here the mumbled conversation...
"I've told you mate, no idea what these…Death Eater Blokes are. Don't sound to appetizing any ways…. Now why can't you just magic me the Hell back to good ole SunnyHell? Got a Slayer needs tendin' to."
"I assure you that Miss Summers will be notified of your…undead state here at Hogwarts. Been wanting to have a word with the young woman myself, really." Dumbledore smiled and threw a look over his shoulder to the spot where Harry, Ron and Hermione were crouched.
"Yeah, Mate, but there is still the problem of me being here, at this school…Vampire, remember?"
Hermione, despite Harry's hand over her mouth, gasped audibly. A second of tenseness was followed by the vampire's eyes narrowing as he looked around.
"Wazzat?" he asked the Headmaster, nostrils flaring. The three teens beneath the cloak began to slowly creep away before breaking into a run a few corner turns away.
"Nothing," Dumbledore said amusedly. "I heard nothing at all."
Upstairs in his office, Dumbeldore conducted up a letter in his flourishing handwriting. Labeling it with a seal, he scribbled 'Miss Summers' across the peak of the envelope and firmly tied it with a scarlet ribbon to the scaly leg of Fawkes. With whispered instruction, the bird flew away, neck stretched out to the night sky.
"Spike's alive." Buffy said matter-of-factly, hands on her hips in Angel's office. If he could, he would have paled even more, though he contained himself, remaining calm.
"How could you possibly-" he began, but her smile spread.
"Willow. She did a spell to contact his essence. It's out there, somewhere. England or Scotland, I think." She sat down before Angel, hands in her lap. "We have to find him Angel."
Buffy ducked quickly as the giant red bird circle three times around her head before dropping an envelope in her lap. Angel eyed it for a moment before resting back in his chair, content to brood.
"Open it Buffy. You'll have to hear this sometime." Angel said sullenly as Buffy looked down at the parchment. Sliding it open, she read it through. And through again. Spike was alive, and Albus Dumbeldore knew where.
"You know where this is?" Buffy asked quietly. Angel stood up and ran a hand through his brown hair, mumbling something.
"What?" Buffy prompted, clutching the parchment, her blonde hair tumbling over her shoulder.
Angel looked up remorselessly before his face became grave.
"Of course. I sent him there. At the cost of his soul."
The next morning, the whole Hall's main attraction was the pale man in the corner of the staff table, brooding and drinking a thick liquid from a goblet. Even when Harry was passed into Professor Slugworth's N.E.W.T. potions class, there was no happiness. Only curiosity and dread at a double period of D.A.D.A with the Slytherins and Snape.
"Do you think he'll be appointed to teach a class? No, no, I doubt it." Hermione babbled, examining her schedule. "He's a vampire. Maybe a hostage? Maybe he's good? No, no, shh… Dumbledore's about to speak…" The Hall's attention swiveled to focus upon the Headmaster, standing, arms outstretched.
"Calm yourselves, calm yourselves please." He motioned for silence and it was granted. "Perhaps you have noticed a guest in our presence? Yes, this is Spike…."
"I cannot believe this." Buffy raged at Angel, who had begun to walk away. "No! Don't walk away! I want to talk about this! Why? No, how? The Senior Partners? Is this a favor from them? Sending the man I love, who almost died trying to save the world to a freak magic school in England? And he's without his soul, too? What the hell, Angel?"
"You love him?" Angel twirled around on his heel and stared her down.
"Yes I do. Very much. Now tell me where to find him, now, Angel, or I swear…!"
"Okay…" Buffy realized that he looked very much like a wounded puppy at that point, his face blank and limp. His pretty brown eyes were lost, soulful as they were. But soul didn't give you insight and knowledge. Just a conscience. And with one, Angel couldn't let Buffy suffer by his hand. "I'll take you to him."
Hermione approached Spike after breakfast curious about the news that he would be teaching a new weekends class – physical defense. Harry and Ron had already sped off to their first class, and she still had a while before Ancient Runes started.
"Um, Professor…?" she asked, coming up to him as he drank deeply from his mug. She was slightly frightened at his Vampiric state, but she knew Dumbeldore would never hire someone he didn't trust – or at least knew something about. What with Security being too tight to exit the castle after hours, and all people and owls entering or leaving being checked with Secrecy Sensors, Not even vampires could come through without Dumbledore's consent.
"Uh, yeah. That's me. Spike." He said, a bit off ease at the young woman at his side. Hermione shifted from one foot to the other.
"I wanted to know about those classes. Where do we sign up?" Oddly enough, she found herself deeply attracted to him – the way his duster pooled and flared around his ankles, the cocky way he looked over the Hall at meals, his deep and full throated accent that went deeper than hers or anyone else's she knew.
"I dunno," he shrugged. "What's your name?" Hermione shifted as a pair of Sixth year Hufflepuffs' giggled and whispered as they passed.
"Hermione. Granger, that is." She said a bit breathlessly under his cocked eyebrow stare, Blushing furiously under the intensity of it, she looked away.
"Right, well, Ole' Dumblenook over there'll get it sorted out tomorrow, Bit. Now go on to bed." Spike watched with a slight smirk as the bushy haired girl walked away. Almost a year around the same type of Hormone-jumped girls had shown him a way around them. Call them pet names and look sexy as hell and they'll be jumpin' at anything you say.
Buffy gripped the armrests of the speeding jet, looking a bit sick when there was a loud POP! And a wizened old man with a braided silver beard that was nearly grazing his knees appeared in the seat next to her. She lurched forwards, and the man looked on serenely as Angel jumped, the pool of vomit narrowly missing his shoes.
"Ah, Mr. Angel. Miss Summers too. Wonderful to see you." Buffy wasn't feeling well enough to remark, as it felt as if her insides were laying splattered on the floor."
At the strange looks he was attracting form the both of them, he waved it away and smiled pleasantly.
"Oh don't mind me, really. I just stopped by to tell you that a sullen young woman will be awaiting you when you reach Hogsmead. You should be able to tell her apart from her popping pink hair.
With another loud pop he disappeared and Buffy hurled over the edge of her seat again.
All day, a warm feeling in her gut deprived Hermione of her studies, her thoughts drifting back to the handsome new teacher, the vampire. Her thoughts turned back to him every second, and when she met Harry and Ron for D.A.D.A. a few classes over, she buggered them with questions on who the Slayer was, wondering if he was in love with her. Although, she could notice the way Harry looked slightly relieved that her thoughts had turned from the mysterious Half-Blood Prince, she remembered to nag him every time he would remark about the ingenuity of the Prince, whoever he – or she, as Hermione liked to point out – was.
But even that thought didn't dampen her thoughts of the Vampire. Her and a vampire….How unlikely. And as Dinner approached at an outrageously slow time, she was on the edge of her seat ten minutes before the bell, hoping to be first to glimpse this vampire, about whom word had leaked, sending every other Hormone endorsed girl hurdling to the Hall, excitement and hope coursing through them like the sugary blood they carried in their veins.
It was just past dark fall and hunger had seeped over Buffy as the smallish jet landed in an expanse of field outside of a cast-iron gate that led through a guarded and tense village spread below the castle.
And sure enough, a woman in long ebony robes with pink hair that spiked upwards in a punk-ish way that reminded her of Spike, was waiting. The woman, over the noise of cooling jets, shook their hands.
"Name's Tonks. You're Buffy Summers? And Angel? Muggles, by the looks of yeh, but Dumbeldore says otherwise….Right then, follow me." The woman held out a illuminated wand as she led them through the village. A few shops were open, and Buffy jumped as once open doors slammed as they passed.
"Not very friendly, are they?" Buffy asked quietly. Tonks didn't answer, but Angel nudged her forwards, faster. They followed her in silence, until they almost passed an open shop. Buffy turned at the sound of squalling, croaking and hooting. Walking up to the window, she pressed her nose to it, and she giggled at the sight of something. Angel, and reluctantly Tonks, came up next to her even as the Shopkeeper rushed out, wand aloft and glaring menacingly.
"Who goes there? Muggles?" he questioned as Buffy looked up in a peasant blouse and jeans.
"How much?" she asked. The shopkeeper regarded her with a questioning wonder as he approached the window. Angel was prepared to do anything; he was so desperate to keep her happy. Pulling out a tinkling bag of Wizard currency he had collected from a vault at WR&H, he prepared to pay.
"Oh, er, Miniature hippogriffs. Newly imported from London. Fifty Galleons." The shopkeeper said gleefully expecting a pay. Angel weighed the bag effectively in his hand before tossing it to the shopkeeper.
"Consider it an apology." He told Buffy as the Shopkeeper handed her a silver one with a gold speckled rump and swishy gold tail. It was the size of perhaps a parrot, and it perched onto her shoulder contentedly, and she thanked Angel.
"All's forgiven." And then, as they turned back to the Castle, "I think I'm gonna like it here."
But her feelings soon changed as Tonks led them inside. She explained that the Professor had invited them to dinner, but that it would be best to keep quiet and inconspicuous until after dinner, when Dumbeldore would explain everything properly. It did not, of course, help that Buffy was constantly giggling at the tickling movements that her hippogriff made by brushing its furry tail against her cheek.
They turned into a large entrance way beyond the huge double Oak doors and Tonks led them to one of the sets of doors that led to the Great Hall, where already Buffy could smell the intoxicating smells of food. She smiled pleasantly at the prospect of food after flying on an empty stomach. As Tonks pushed the doors opened, a small group of students fell silent, their eyes traveling over the newcomers. Soon afterwards, a wizened old man at the large staff tables waved his wand, stretching the long table he sat at, and two new chairs popped out of nonexistence. With a nudged from Angel, she began to approach them, but stopped, heart hammering as she saw the cloaked man begin to slip away, which was extremely dumb as he was sitting on the side of Dumbeldore closest to Buffy and Angel, who were Both watching him with wide eyes.
"Oh, Balls." He muttered, much to the amusement of Dumbeldore and other students close enough to hear. Spike approached Buffy, hands pushed down in his pockets, shoulders hunched as he approached her with cautious eyes.
"Buffy…luv." He said softly at the tears brewing in her eyes. She crossed her arms, her bottom lips trembling. He moved his hand to brush the stray tear, but as his fingers neared her cheek, her eyes hardened and the mini hippogriff snapped at his fingers. Buffy backed away from him and approached the empty chair set for her. Smiling at Dumbeldore, biting back tears, she settled down and stabbed a piece of roast chicken with her fork.
"What the hell did I do?" Spike asked Angel indignantly. Looking up at the Slayer stabbing her meat with a vengeance. Angel shrugged, leaning back and observing the Hall of buzzing students. Only a few had noticed the appearance of two new faces, and those who did had thought nearly nothing of it.
"Maybe it's 'cause all you are is a soulless demon now," Angel replied with a tiny trace of a smirk, arms crossed before him. Spike gaped at him before growling in return.
"And you're much better, are you? Working for bloody Wolfram and Hart considered fighting the good fight nowadays? Nothing more than a poor excuse to get your oh so soulful hands on a bit o' dosh." He grumbled something under his breath before sending Angel a venomous glare.
"Not my fault that I lost my bloody soul," he murmured. Angel kept his gaze straightforward for a moment before dropping it back to Spike.
"I'm hungry." He muttered, and followed in Buffy's footsteps to take a seat next to her, leaving Spike to be seated by the greasy, black haired Defense Professor, Snape.
Hermione was one of the few who had marked the appearance of two supposed Muggles enter through the side door. Harry was talking off the top of his head about Quidditch tryouts and such nonsense, occasionally slipping offhand remarks on the Prince. Her eyes, and mind, however, were fixed to the petite blond and the dark haired man – who she felt an instant dislike of. She watched, a new kind of jealousy surging through her as Spike brushed his hand to her face, and smiled triumphantly when what looked like a miniature Hippogriff snapped at his fingers, and he withdrew.
"So, Herms, want to look over my essay Snape set us for me tonight?" Ron asked hopefully, biting into a soft doughy roll before desert was set before them. She was pleased deeply when the blond screeched at the dessert that was replacing her small mound of mashed potatoes and peas and carrots. She craned her neck to see if any one else was surprised at this before blushing lightly and sitting back.
"Hermione?" Ron prompted at the satisfied look on her face. She swished her head back to them, her grin slipping. Ron was so goofy, sometimes. Blueberry pudding was smeared over his top lip as he observed her strangely and carefully.
"Hermione?" he asked again, and her heart skipped a beat as she turned back to her plate. Smiling and spooning a bite of flaky cobbler she swallowed.
"Of course, you nit. Someone's got to make sure you pass this year, right?"
"Are you happy?" Buffy asked Angel quietly as Spike pushed ahead of them in the crowded hallway. They were making their way to the set of room that Dumbeldore was providing for however long they stayed. He shrugged, shouldering his pack a little heavier and pushing through a little harder. She swung her own heavy pack by her side, though being a bit more careful with the students.
"Do you think…maybe, is he happy?" she asked even quieter, her eyes fixed to the back of Spike's head. Angel darkened and shrugged again.
"None of us are especially happy after everything…I heard you got into a fight with the Scoobies before we left." He prodded a bit, and it was her turn to shrug.
"It's complicated. Dawn still hadn't patched things up with him, but she still missed him, and wanted to come, but I thought it too…dangerous. And of course, knowing Giles and Xander…. I guess they all thought I should stick around with them, like it was my job to make sure they had places to go after everything…." She sighed as they followed a silent Spike through a narrow hallway and up a small, carpeted staircase that wound around a thick, stone column engraved with a warrior scene.
"They expect too much of you…. I know what you mean." Angel confided. Buffy looked up to see Spike's head turned shortly towards them, as if he were listening, and Buffy felt a pang of…something. As they came into a cozy room with a couch and a few armchairs before a flickering fire, Buffy dropped her bag wearily.
"Yeah, that's it." She repeated, watching Spike disappear into a room by an open bathroom door. "Everybody just expects so much from me…"