Into the Blue
Book 1: Way of the Warriors
Chapter 2 – A Shade of Grey.
DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon, and Harry Potter to J.K. Rowling. I don't own anything…
TIMELINE: AU. The fifth and final instalment of the OOTB-series. Takes place during the Order of the Phoenix and begins where Come What May (part 4) left off. Includes spoilers for Half-Blood Prince and Deathly Hallows.
SUMMARY: BTVS/HP crossover. With Voldemort's return, and the Ministry's refusal to see it, things are more caotic than usual. Not even Hogwarts is safe anymore, something Harry and the rest of the trio, along with Sarah, who is to start her first year, is about to experience first hand. Remus and Buffy face problems of their own, at the same time as they must try and save Sirius…from himself. United they'll stand, divided they'll fall – but as the Wizarding World descend into chaos, will the light side conquer or crumble?
"I can't believe you yelled at Dumbledore," Sirius said, shaking his head slowly in disbelief.
Buffy shrugged looking down at her hands, laying still in her lap. "I'm not very proud of it," she said quietly. "But someone had to."
Suddenly, they heard yelling.
"Is that...Harry?" Buffy asked in wonder. She had only heard Harry being truly angry, once, when they had taught at Hogwarts - this topped that - Harry was furious.
"Yes. It...seems he is upset," Remus noted dully.
"He has a right to be," Sirius put in. "Cooped up at the Dursley's as he was, with no idea what's going on, and having to face a hearing for using magic in self defence..." He shook his head." Believe me, I know what that's like. Except for the hearing, of course. Personally, I'd love to stand trial." He sighed bitterly. "From one prison to another. I can't leave my own bloody house..."
Remus and Buffy cast each other weary looks. "Sirius - " Remus begun, only to be interrupted by a knock on the door.
"Yes?" Buffy called.
"We're holding a meeting," Molly Weasley's voice, slightly muffled, said. "Come down, quickly."
"Joy," Sirius muttered sarcastically.
The kitchen, where the meeting was to be held, slowly filled up with Order members. As Severus Snape pushed his way inside, robes billowing behind him, Sirius glared at him thought dryly, and then nudged Sirius lightly in the side, in order to distract him from the 'greasy git.'
"Hey," he said, turning his friend's focus away from the bat of the dungeons. "Want to bet? One sickle that Dumbledore will chew us out in front of everyone else?"
"He won't chew you out," Sirius argued, mind taken off of Snape for the moment. He put on a mocking expression and, while pretending to look at them with grave eyes over a pair of glasses, said in a serious voice: "He will play the 'I am so disappointed in you and you should have known better'-card."
"I agree with Sirius," Buffy said, lips twitching at Sirius' rather precise imitation of the Headmaster, as she sat down. "He has already chewed us out once. He won't do it again in public."
"What are you talking about?" Tonks wondered curiously, as she sat down beside them, her hair a bright pink, and a bandage around her wrist.
"Oh, nothing," Buffy smiled at the young Auror, then nodded at the bandage. "The Death Eaters got you too?"
"Oh, this?" Tonks laughed, embarrassed. "No. We'd already taken care of the Death Eaters - this happened when we landed. You know how clumsy I am."
Buffy grinned.
"How you managed to pass the Stealth and Tracking requirement for your Auror Training, I'll never know, Nymphadora," Remus said exasperated, but amused.
Tonks rolled her eyes skywards. "Don't call me Nymphadora!"
"The first matter of importance," Dumbledore said gravely, once the meeting begun, "is the mission to retrieve Harry Potter. What went wrong?"
"We were ambushed," Mad-Eye Moody grunted, his magical eye rolling in its socket. "I thought that was obvious, Albus."
Buffy and Sirius barely managed to hold back their snorts, but somehow, got a hold of themselves at Remus' stern glance, though there was no mistaking the glint of merriment in his eyes.
"Why?" McGonagall spoke up, brow furrowed, glasses low on her nose and hair in a tight bun as usual. "I was under the impression the mission was a secret."
"Well," Buffy said, pretending to be thoughtful, tapping her fingers against her chin. "The first mistake was to be so many. The more who know, the easier is it for the 'secret' - " she made quotation marks with her fingers - "to get out."
"I can't believe I am saying this, but I agree," Snape said dryly, to everybody's surprise.
"Luckily there were no casualties," Dedalus Diggle piped up before Sirius could come with a comment that would no doubt turn the meeting into another shouting match between him and the Potions Master. "Emmeline and Hestia will recover, and Harry Potter is safe. Is that not what matters?"
"No," Dumbledore said, ignoring the confused blanches from the other Order-members. "Remus and Buffy disobeyed a direct order from me when they left the battle to go to Privet Drive, leaving their fellow members to try and fend off the Death Eaters on their own." He gave them a grave look over his half-moon glasses. "I am very disappointed in you," he said seriously. "You should have known better."
Buffy met the Headmaster's eyes calmly, ignoring Sirius snort of laughter, and Remus handing over a sickle to him with a sigh.
"Harry will always be our priority," she said. "The purpose of the mission was to remove him from Privet Drive. We retrieved him safely, so the mission was a success. You should have mentioned the goal was to be ignored in case of an ambush."
"I did not expect - " Dumbledore began, only to be interrupted by Buffy.
" - Not my problem," she said, ignoring the gasps of indignation on Dumbledore's behalf, and the murmuring that followed her 'audacity.' "Frankly, I don't see why we are discussing this. If you see a need to discipline me and Remus for following what we believed was your orders, this is not the place to do it."
Dumbledore sighed, his blue eyes tired. "Very well," he said. "Moving on to other matters, then," he continued. "Alyssa Jones. You and Remus approached her awhile ago with an offer on the behalf of the Order. What did she say?"
"She won't join the Order officially," Remus said slowly, leaning forward in his seat. "But she is willing to work out some kind of deal."
Buffy nodded. "Jones was ready to give us an unbreakable vow so we wouldn't obliviate her after she declined our offer," she said. "She also said that we - the Order - are welcome to hire her, but she doesn't want to be tied to our organization. She said that she refuses to take sides."
"A shade of grey," Remus added, nodding.
Dumbledore stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Very well. I will visit her personally, then, in order to see if we can come to some sort of agreement."
"Is that a wise move, Headmaster?" Moody spoke up. "If she states she is a neutral party in this war - which is bullshit - no one is perfectly neutral - we can never be certain she is truly on our side. CONSTANT VIGILANCE!" He barked.
No one jumped at this outburst; they were far too used to Moody's eccentricities by now. Instead, they simply rolled their eyes at the seasoned Auror.
"I see your point, Alastor," Dumbledore said, nodding at him. "But, nevertheless, I will speak to her. There is no reason not to - as long as we don't reveal anything of much importance, things should be fine."
Remus noted with some amusement Moody muttering to himself in the background: "Too trusting. Always has been. No one has any respect for constant vigilance, nowadays...fools, the lot of them..."
Dumbledore's lips were twitching under his beard, as he too, had noticed, before he turned to Hagrid. The half-giant's chair was creaking under his weight, despite the fact it had been magically enhanced in order to hold him.
"Hagrid."
The current Care of Magical Creatures professor jumped in seat in surprise, almost dropping the tiny (or normal sized, depending from whose perspective you look at it) tea-cup he was holding in the process, tea spilling over the edge and into his lap. Despite the fact it was scalding hot, the large man didn't even notice.
"Yes, Headmaster?" He bellowed out, sitting up a bit straighter in his chair (and almost knocking over several members in the process), which creaked even more ominously than before.
"I have a mission for you," the Headmaster said with a smile, the familiar twinkle back in his eyes.
The half-giant lit up. "Anything yeh want, sir," he said proudly.
"I need you to visit the Giants. Try to figure out what side they are on, and if it isn't a lost case when you get there...if they seem willing...do your best to convince them to join our cause, or at least stay neutral. I have talked to Madame Maxime, of Beauxbatons, and she will join you on this mission." Dumbledore's eyes were now twinkling even brighter, as Hagrid slowly grew a bright, blushing red.
Alyssa regarded Dumbledore sitting in her sofa drinking tea warily. "You are...actually taking my offer into serious consideration?" She sounded doubtful.
"My dear," Dumbledore said. "We understand your hesitation. These are dangerous times, child, and it is understandable you want to try to stay neutral for as long as possible. No one goes safe these days."
Alyssa had no trouble catching the hidden meaning. Dumbledore had not said so outright, but the message was clear: Sooner or later, it would be impossible to keep working in the lands of grey. She wasn't safe, even when declaring herself impartial. Everyone would have to take a side - if Voldemort suddenly showed up on her doorstep with an offer to join him...if she said no, with the justification that she was neutral in this war...well...such a statement would probably not go over too well with the Dark Lord, and would, with no doubt, end with a green light coming towards her in rapid speed, along with a high, foreboding cackle...
If you weren't with him, you were against him. But be damned if she didn't manage to stay clear of this choice for as long as possible. It wasn't that she was afraid, or a coward - but she liked what she did; helping anybody, regardless of their afflictions, unprejudiced, quickly and effectively. Not to mention, she learned a whole lot - uncovered many secrets - in the process. Some, of which, the public should know about...but she hadn't, because she was not hired to present the facts to the general population - only uncover them.
Alyssa inwardly sighed. Sometimes, she felt as though the 'freelancing reporter'-part of her career was horribly neglected, while the 'investigator of crime'-section got way too much screen time.
"Miss Jones?"
Alyssa looked up, startled. "Huh?"
"Are you alright?" Dumbledore asked kindly over his half-moon glasses. "You drifted off for a minute, there."
"Oh, I'm fine, Headmaster. Just...lost in my own thoughts for a moment. I apologize." Alyssa suddenly felt like a student back at Hogwarts again, caught with her hand in the cookie-jar. Or lemon drop-jar, in this case...
"That is quite alright," Dumbledore said, smiling widely. "So we have an agreement, then?
"Yes," Alyssa said, glad that part of the agreement was that she didn't have to take an unbreakable vow. To be honest, pledges and promises that involved magic of any kind unhinged her greatly - too many loopholes. But still, she had offered - she would have carried that disturbance gladly, if it would have made them leave her brain alone. Now, it seemed, that was not necessary. Dumbledore had agreed that it was likely Voldemort already knew more than what she did, through other sources.
Alyssa had not mentioned that, if she was in his shoes, she would have made her take that vow nonetheless. Yes, she was paranoid, perhaps overly so, but it had helped her out of - and avoid - some unpleasant and sticky spots. The bottom line: Dumbledore was too trusting. Not that she was complaining, considering her mind remained unaltered.
"I will contact you with any information I stumble upon, if I think it will benefit your cause - for a small fee, or help in return, of course."
"Of course," Dumbledore agreed, nodding and standing up, Alyssa standing also, wringing her hands slightly. She felt so stupid for asking this...
"Umm...Headmaster," she began. "Do you think it would be possible...to...arrange a meeting between me and...Sirius Black?" She finished, hesitantly, staring up at the tall man, body tense as she waited for his reaction to her request. Buffy and Remus must have forgotten to ask him, or maybe Dumbledore knew, but had waited for her to bring it up, by herself, in order to see how big of an interest she had in meeting the famous escapee. She was probably reading far too much into this, she thought ruefully.
Dumbledore was smiling widely, actually beaming. "I thought you would never ask."
Alyssa blinked.
"Considering how...intrigued, you seemed to be in Sirius Black's case when you...eh...spoke...to Auror Shacklebolt, I was surprised you did not bring it up sooner."
Alyssa blinked, blushing slightly, knowing all too well that her 'talk' with Shacklebolt had been more in the line of threats and blackmail than an actual conversation. "Yeah...well..." She shrugged.
Dumbledore grew serious again. "I am afraid this request is one I will have to deny," he said gravely. "Due to his...predicament, Sirius is unable - and unallowed - to leave the safe house he is staying at, and, for security reasons that should be obvious, I cannot give you access."
Alyssa nodded. So Dumbledore did not trust her fully then. Not that she had expected him to, but he had trusted her with an awful lot up to this point. But then again, Dumbledore was known for being very trusting. Gullible, some would say, but that, Alyssa did not agree with. Nevertheless, Dumbledore had revealed something interesting. That Sirius Black was in a safe house, and it was seemingly under some sort of spell which only a few could pass through - unless Dumbledore had relayed it in a way to keep her off track and away from his true whereabouts - to keep it, and him, protected. The Fidelius charm, probably.
"I understand," she said, following him to the door. "It was very nice talking to you, Headmaster."
"And you as well, miss Jones." His eyes were twinkling. "You were always a very delightful student."
Buffy watched, in tears, as her husband went through the horrible and painful transformation from man to wolf in the basement of Grimmauld place, wishing there was something she could do to annihilate his suffering.
As it was, there was nothing, other than wait for the change to pass, and then settle down for another long night. Inwardly, she cursed Severus Snape with all her might.
When Remus stopped using the wolfsbane, he had been completely unreachable due to the side-effects the Potions master had 'forgotten' to mention. For several months after Remus had stopped taking the addictive and, when removed in order to wean oneself off of it, deadly, potion, she had been unable to be with him, because he was a danger even to her, despite of her status as his mate. For several months, she could do nothing as the wolf slowly killed itself and her husband with it.
The only thing she could do was assist him and help him recover, the mornings after standing ready with first aid kits, and her wand, chanting complicated healing spells. Some had been experimentally made up by herself, as a replacement for healing potions - since he had been dependent on one potion (the reason of this mess) for so long, Buffy had not deemed it wise to introduce a mass of others.
Luckily, things had slowly gotten better with every transformation that passed, and now, Remus - or rather, Moony - was back to the way he had been before that wretched wolfsbane had been thrown into the mix. But still, it was only six months - six moons - since that fateful night outside the Shrieking Schack - that she had been able to rejoin him, but even then, he had been highly unsettled, unable to be still, agitated and pacing back and forth, scratching and hurting himself, and seemingly unaware of her presence, which usually calmed him to the point of being docile as lamb.
Buffy was glad that phase was over, but it did nothing to calm her fears that someday, the transformations themselves would kill him. They were an incredible strain on the body, month after month, moon after moon, and Buffy wondered how much one man - one body - could take, despite amazingly fast regenerating powers.
Moony whined pathetically, scratching his claws against the hard cement floor, and Buffy smiled, kneeling by the wolf and stroking his fur. "It's alright," she mumbled. "I'm here."
Slowly, Moony settled down, resting his head on his front-paws, only to roll over onto his back. Laughing, Buffy proceeded to tickle the soft underside of his stomach gently, enjoying the look of pure bliss on the werewolf's face.
"You're such a dork," she whispered affectionately, as her nimble fingers found a particularly sensitive spot, and, in response, the wolf kicked out with both its back legs repeatedly, the tail thumping against the floor in rhythm, ears twitching,
Moony's tongue lolled out of his mouth and he stared at the Slayer with a look that said, 'who, me?' but there was no mistaking the amusement in those amber depths, and Buffy sighed contentedly.
How ironic, she thought, that the only true peace she had felt in quite some time, came to her in the company of a werewolf, stuck in a basement, the glowing full moon outside rising ever higher on the sky.
A/N: And another chapter is up! I hope you enjoyed it. I don't know how often I will be able to update, since I'm moving away from home, and I have no idea how accessible the Internet will be...I'll do my best to update at least twice - or one, if it's really bad - a month. REVIEWS ARE CANDY!
/Ida
