Disclaimer- I don't own Buffy or HP, or even the idea for this story, it's Malli's.
If you haven't read The Phoenix Child by Malli (rest in peace), this won't really make sense, so I suggest you read that first : )
CHAPTER 37: UNDERSTANDING
"Faith, duck!" Vi screamed as she hurled a dagger at a grotesque demon sneaking up behind Faith. Faith rolled forward without hesitation, coming up under the guard her axe-wielding foe and stabbing it through the heart. Vi's dagger brought down the second demon.
"Thanks!" Faith yelled, grabbing the axe. Vi grunted in return, blocking yet another demon from advancing. Faith took a moment to glance around to see how the battle was going. Getting the scoobies had been a smart move, though they were still outnumbered. She fought her way over to Willow, and yelled above the din, "Got any spells for this, Red?" Willow bit her lip, racking her brain before her face lit up.
"Got it! I'll need some cover though…" Parrying a strike from an abasax demon, Faith nodded and called over some nearby slayers to form a circle around Willow. Giles saw what was going on and pushed his way inside, twisting sideways to avoid a spear from a polgara. One of the Slayers quickly eradicated it. Willow sat down and crossed her legs in the middle of the circle
"What are you doing?" Giles demanded. Already slipping into trance, Willow waved a hand absently in his direction and said,
"Shhh!" Giles harrumphed and joined the circle of Slayers around her. Within a minute, the room was blanketed by a rose-colored haze. Faith felt her breath leave her, and she clutched at her chest, looking around. All the demons surrounding her keeled over, all Slayers were on their knees and the only ones left standing were Xander, Anya and Giles.
"Jeeze, Will. What the heck did you do?" Faith demanded, staggering toward the Wiccan. Willow opened her eyes and smiled timidly.
"Um…I did a spell to exorcise all demons in a half-mile radius…"
"Willow!" Giles cried. "The essence of a Slayer is a demon! You could have eliminated all the Slayer's in the room! What were you thinking?!"
"…was hard to…differentiate….but I did… it….didn't I…?" Willow was panting, sweating and as she fell back onto the floor, a drop of blood made its way out of her nose.
"Oh, dear Lord, she's overtaxed herself," Giles said, kneeling next to the unconscious red head.
"What should we do, Giles?" Faith asked. Giles looked up.
"Willow has eliminated all the demons in the immediate area. I suggest that we get all non-essentials to Cleveland immediately, and the rest of us should head back to London. Take everything that's here—after Willow is taken care of, I will meet you and Kennedy in Cleveland to regroup…" Faith nodded tersely, walking to give direction to the Slayers. As she walked away, she heard Giles mutter, "Silly girl, could have killed them today, never in my life…" Faith smirked and got the Slayers moving dismantling the entire headquarters. She didn't even see the scoobies leave in flames, clutching the tail feathers of Buffy's remarkable bird.
……………………………..
Alastor Moody had never in his life thought that he would put the well being of his mind into the hands of a werewolf and an ex-con (even if Sirius was innocent). But there were just too many coincidences to ignore, all things pointed to something seriously amiss. He focused both his regular eye and his magical one on the two men before him, one looking desperate and the other just daring to hope.
"Are you sure?" Remus asked, looking at the old auror with a serious expression upon his face. Moody saw Sirius give Remus a look of incredulity and exasperation.
"Aye, laddie. Best get on with it, I don't think Sirius can take much more." Remus nodded, his hand gripping his wand more tightly before aiming it directly at Moody and saying,
"Memento recordatio." The spell that shot forth was an iridescent gray, and it hit Moody square between his eyes. His eyes closed for a minute and Remus felt a little anxiety that he had somehow wounded the wizard. Sirius looked ready to pounce on Moody, so Remus put a hand on his arm to steady him. Presently, Moody opened his eyes, a tear escaping and rolling down his cheek. Sirius would not be held silent any longer.
"Well?" He demanded. Moody was silent a moment, and only Remus' hand on his arm held Sirius back from outright shaking him in sheer frustration.
"You were right, Sirius. She didn't die that night." Sirius let out a whoop and threw his fist in the air. Remus and Moody both shushed him, glancing around nervously for any people in the halls. Remus turned to Moody.
"So what did happen?"
"Minister Fudge ordered me to kill her that night—"
"What?!" Barked Sirius and Remus at the same time.
"—but I couldn't bring myself to kill an innocent girl because of something she may or may not become…there was a prophecy concerning her, see, that had only been discovered that very evening. I don't know what it contained, but Fudge seemed to think that the lass would be the next Voldemort if she was allowed to live."
"Not Buffy!" Remus exclaimed. Sirius was at a loss for words. His girlfriend-James' sweet, innocent (okay, not entirely innocent), brilliant, beautiful sister, the next Voldemort? It was absurd, completely ridiculous. And Fudge had ordered her death, because he feared something that wasn't even possible. Buffy did have power, but she wasn't capable of being corrupted like Tom Riddle had been. Moody and Remus were still talking, and through the haze of his hatred of Fudge, Sirius tried to focus in on their converstation.
"…I brought her to America, found her a family to live with, and obliviated the both of us."
"So she is alive!" Sirius exclaimed. Remus looked from his friend to Moody.
"But you haven't seen her since we have, since that night?" Moody shook his head, then his magical eye swiveled downward.
"Looks like ther's trouble in the great hall: Professor Fox is surrounded by Aurors…" Moody pushed past the two younger men and started toward the excitement. As he rounded the corner, Sirius called after him.
"What did you name her?" Moody paused.
"Buffy. Buffy Summers." Then he was gone. Sirius and Remus stood in the hall together for a long while, each lost in his own hopes and fears.
"She's here, Remus. I know it." Remus looked at his long-time friend.
"How could she be here, Padfoot? Moody said that he took her memory, there's no way she'd remember this world at all!"
"Well then, I say we try to find her!" Sirius said vehemently. Remus arched a brow. As Sirius led the way back to the headmasters office, in his dog form of course, Remus kept on muttering to himself,
"Buffy Summers. Buffy Summers. Now where have I heard that name before?"
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Dolores Umbridge was not one to engage in the frivolities of human nature. She had little patience for those inferior to her, and tolerance to those few beings of a higher rank. Standing in the Great Hall, behind Minister Fudge and his band of merry Aurors, Umbridge heard Sarah Fox (or whoever she may be) scathingly accuse the Minister of Magic of being the cause of her own deception. Fudge was stunned, the idiot, as was the rest of the audience looking on, staff, student, Auror alike.
"Hem hem." Most heads turn their attention to her. Sarah Fox was not one of them, and Dolores frowned. "I fail to see how the Minister is at faul—" Before anyone could blink, Sarah Fox had rushed forward and grabbed the Minister by the front of his robes. The Aurors tried to send harmless spells that would debilitate her (they, after all, did not want to be charged with injuring the Minister of Magic), but hardly anything seem to hit her, and what did had no effect.
"Unhand me, you madwoman!" Fudge spluttered, and Buffy saw, to her satisfaction, that he was genuinely frightened of her. Whether it was because she had so easily manipulated him or because of her appearance from fighting the boggart, it didn't matter.
"Minister, your time has come. You made a decision sixteen years ago that changed the course of destiny, and not for the better. It's time you paid for what you've done." Her voice was soft, but everyone heard her. Dolores frowned. This wasn't going how she'd imagined it at all.
"Arrest that woman for impersonating and Ministry official!" She screamed at the Aurors. Sarah Fox suddenly remembered there were people around her, and she finally took her eyes off the Minister. The Aurors finally sprung into action and started to close in on her, and Umbridge saw a few students (Potter, of course, included), step towards the defense professor. Before she could order them back, Sarah Fox had leapt into the air backwards over the head of one of the Aurors, bringing her to the center of the hall.
"Celsia!" She called moments before not one but two phoenix appeared in the air above her. On the ground, people stared. Most had never seen one phoenix before, and to see two at once was extremely rare. Harry recognized one as Fawkes, but he had never seen the other. Sarah Fox lifted one arm to the sky and Fawkes swooped down toward her. Harry realized that she was going to get away and made a mad dive at the pair, catching his Professor around the ankle as Fawkes spirited them away.
Harry could not possible have heard the panicked screams as the Boy-Who-Lived disappeared from Hogwarts.
a/n: What do you guys think?