Head's up...actually, two head's ups...

This chapter was not Beta'd, so any and all mistakes I gladly own.

and

This is a long one - nearly 4k words - so take a bathroom break, grab a Coke, get comfy (I suggest sitting luxurioiusly in bed, propped up by at least a dozen pillows) and, of course, enjoy!

Chapter Four

Sitting on a plane and zipping through multiple time zones had done a number on Buffy's equilibrium.

Apparently her slayer stamina couldn't be bothered with international travel.

She also felt weird. The time didn't seem right. Part of her felt like she'd been on a plane for days, but it had really been a single, very long day. The longest day she'd ever experience, in fact.

Plus she was dirty. Being shoved in a compartment with a thousand people and their nasty germs did that to a person. She could only hope that her slayer immune system hadn't stayed behind with her stamina.

As if reading her thoughts, Willow dragged a hand through her red hair. "I want to shower…or at least wash my face."

"And need to find the little-Xander room and get rid of all that soda the airline attendants kept bringing around." It was a standard Xander quip, but with a notable lack of sarcastic energy.

"You didn't have to take one every time they came around. Just say no, Xander." Willow smiled weakly, before grimacing as her fingers worked a knot out of her hair.

"And miss out on free soda?"

The conversation was typical, as were Giles' eye rolls, but there was an obvious air of exhaustion surrounding the whole of the group.

There should have been anticipation, but they had just wondered lazily out of the jet bridge without any of the excitement they'd exhibited when boarding that first flight at Hopkins International.

On top of that, they had no knowledge whatsoever as to who would be meeting them or where they would find them.

Buffy decided that discovering their next move was Giles' job. He was the Watcher...the man with the plan; he could do the stuff with the thinking. She was just about to tell him as much, when a voice sounded from behind her.

"Is that all of yeh then?"

Under normal circumstances, Buffy would have been startled by hearing a voice – especially one with such a deep timbre – so close to the back of her head, but at the moment, she couldn't really be bothered.

And the voice really was close. Deep, Scottish and so close, in fact, that when she turned, she nearly rammed into…a stomach?

Taking a quick step back, she looked up.

And up.

She looked up until she was staring with craned neck into the bearded face of the largest man she'd ever seen. Bigger even than Olaf had been; and he had been a troll god.

Buffy scrunched her nose with that thought, taking another step back.

"That's good, I 'spose. Be easier to get us back to the castle in any case."

Giles moved to stand between Scottish-guy and Buffy; an unconscious, protective action that made her smile. Of the two of them, Buffy was not the one who needed protection.

"You're with the Ord…"

Scottish-guy quickly cut him off by raising a massive, meaty hand. "That's right. But, ah, you ought not say that too loud." He looked from Giles to Buffy and offered her a wink.

Buffy relaxed. The guy may be big, but at least he wasn't trying to smash in her skull with a hammer; a very not Olaf thing to do.

That's right, Buffy; always look on the bright side.

The giant's proportionately small, dark eyes scanned over the group of four, nodding to each in turn though his thick brows narrowed slightly. "Thought there'd be more a yeh."

Giles took that moment to step up and Buffy was grateful not to take the lead on this one. She was pretty sure that her brain had turned to mush somewhere over the Atlantic.

"And…and you are?"

The confusion brought on by their apparently inadequate numbers slid instantly from the giant's face as he extended a hand which threatened to completely envelop her Watcher.

"Right. Sorry 'bout that." He leaned down and dropped his voice. Had Buffy not had enhanced hearing she wouldn't have been able to hear it. "I'm Rubeus Hargrid; was sent by the Order to collect you lot."

"Of course, Mr. Hagrid. Very nice to meet you. I'm Rupert Giles." He twisted at the waist and indicated with everyone else with a wave, introducing them all individually.

"It's nice to meet you as well. But you can just call me Hagrid." He smiled, warm and welcoming, and Buffy couldn't help but smile back. Large he may be, but there was a gentleness behind the set of his face that was unmistakable. Not only was he not attempting to crush her, he might even be pleasant company.

One could only hope.

He turned with a nod of his head, leading them from the gate and through the airport and Buffy noted two things right off. The milling crowds parted, leaving Hagrid, as well as herself and the others, a very wide birth. She supposed this was to be expected; the guy made Paul Sturgess seem positively puny! But something was…off…

The crowed parted, but they didn't, otherwise, seem to notice him.

And he was very noticeable.

Interesting.

"Yeh look different than I expected." He offered suddenly, directing his statement to Giles.

In response he received a raised brow from her Watcher and at her side Xander snickered. "Yea. Giles is the one who looks…different."

Willow turned her stern gaze in his direction, shushing him instantly.

"What? The guy's big!"

That earned him a smack to the shoulder and an exasperated eye roll.

Luckily, Hagrid seemed oblivious, though Buffy was pretty certain by the set of her Watcher's mouth that Giles had heard everything.

Hagrid nodded, still caught in his thought. "I guess I thought you'd be a bit taller and a mite…larger."

Now it was Buffy's turn to snicker, though she hid it well behind a small cough. She was pretty sure she knew were this was going.

She peeked over at her friends thinking to clue them in, but despite the small amount of dialogue they'd just exchanged, they were dead on their feet. Xander was making a half-hearted attempt to take in the foreign airport, but Willow was leaning heavily on him and looked to be half-asleep.

"I imagine most people would seem rather small to you." Giles offered, though his confusion was clear in his tone. "No offense."

"I also thought yeh'd be younger."

At that Giles frowned and Buffy had to bite her lip to suppress another laugh.

"Though I s'pose with age comes experience."

And off came the glasses.

"I…I…I assure you that, as far as Watchers go, I am in my prime."

Buffy's eyes shot back to Hagrid where she saw a series of expected, and amusing, expressions cross his bearded face.

Befuddled confusion.

Thoughtful reflection.

Careful consideration.

And, at long last…

Dawning understanding.

"Oi. You're not the Slayer, then?"

Hagrid's progressive facial exhibition was than mirrored on the face of her Watcher, only at a much faster rate, and Buffy couldn't help but snort loudly.

"No…of course not." He glanced back at Buffy, who did little to hide her delight and the giant's misconception.

Giles appeared nearly as amused – a sure sign of jet-lag - and looked to say something, possibly introduce the other man to the actual Slayer, when his attention was instantly diverted and he pointed towards one of the many large hallways surrounding them.

"Baggage claim for our carrier is this way."

"Your bags are all taken care of." Hagrid replied, looking a little pleased with himself. "Probably already at Hogwarts."

Buffy took the pause in their forward momentum to saddle up next to them, leaving the less chatty of her companions behind. "At where?"

Hagrid swooped over, probably so that she wouldn't pull a muscle trying to look him in the eyes. "Ah…Buffy was it?"

She nodded and again couldn't help a small smile from forming on her lips. There was something so likeable about this man.

Hagrid answered her with a puffed up chest and obvious pride in his voice. "We'll be going to Hogwarts, School of Wwitchcraft and Wizardry."

"Oh. Sounds…sanitary and not at all weird."

Hagrid smiled, though Buffy wasn't sure if it was at her joke or if he mistook her comment for some kind of insight. "Tha's right."

"And am I to assume that's where the Order of the Phoenix is stationed?"

"Shhhhh!" Hagrid rose to his full-height and Buffy's eyes widened at the impressiveness of it. She remained silent as he scanned their surroundings with clear suspicion.

Satisfied with whatever he did, or didn't, see, Hagrid leaned back down. "I'm not really supposed to say too much. You'll have to save yer questions for Professor Dumbledore…."

Okay…

"So this…Hogwarts…" Buffy lowered her voice, earning an appreciative grin. "That's here? London?"

At that the large man laughed, a hearty, rumbling sound that startled Willow out of her near-stupor. "Ach, no. We'll not be staying here. We're going to Scotland."

This gained Xander's attention, and for the first time since being introduced, he spoke. "Scotland?"

He sounded excited; nearly as much so as when they first learned they were making the trip. "As in 'Xander McXander of the McXander clan' Scotland?"

Hagrid brows dipped. "Uh, I think so."

"Scotland is where we Harris' hail from. It'll be cool to see the mother country." His smile was big and goofy, and Hagrid nodded, apparently pleased with the announcement.

"'Tis a magical land. I'm sure you'll love it. Though we will have to do some walking."

"Walking?"

Buffy wasn't exactly keen on her geography - she often got lost trying to track down the nearest Starbucks - but she was pretty certain that Scotland wasn't near London. In fact, if she wasn't mistaken, it was a whole different country.

Maybe walking was Scottish for commuter plane?

"Not too far, mind yeh; just 'round the block a bit. We should be there within twenty minutes or so."

Or maybe Buffy didn't know her geography as well as she thought.

"How, exactly, are we getting to our destination?" Giles sounded as curious as Buffy was perplexed and she turned her attention towards their host, waiting for the reply.

"Well, yeh see…." Hagrid placed one of his hands on his chin, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "We call it 'travel by floo'.

Buffy had never heard of anything like that before, and seeing as that seemed to be all he had to say on the subject, her next question was only logical. "Which is what exactly?"

Too bad the response wasn't.

"Which is…uh…exactly like it sounds."

Buffy chewed on her bottom lip, trying to consider what that meant, before she shrugged. "Really, 'cuz it doesn't really sound like anything of the sense to me." She sighed and rubbed her eyes. "But it was a really long flight…"

She was a little surprised to see that Giles looked as confused as she felt. That meant that whatever "floo" was, it wasn't common British speak.

British speak... Britsih talk? British-ese?

Buffy shook her head, riding it of intruding, tired thoughts.

"Can you explain this 'floo travel'?" Giles asked, pushing open the terminal door. "I'm not familiar with it."

They walked out of the airport and were hit by cool, damp air and the distinctive smell of exhaust.

Buffy attempted to look around, take in a little of the city, but there simply wasn't anything to see this close to the airport. The only big distinction were the accented voices surrounding them and the very disconcerting fact that people in Great Britain really do drive on the wrong side of the road.

"Yeh know…floo's. You go into one, out another. It's kinda like…"

Buffy flinched as two cars passed each other. She'd expected them to collide. This reverse-driving would take a whole lot of getting used to.

"If you could explain what a "floo" is to begin with, perhaps then…

Buffy peeled her eyes away from the confusing traffic patterns and chose to look up and out instead, trying to see if she could see anything worthwhile. London Bridge, Big Ben…

"…well, I s'pose it's like…like… Have yeh ever squeezed toothpaste outta a tube?"

But it was already dark, and though she could tell that there were tons of lights, the air was heavy with fog.

"Are you saying that traveling through a "floo" is akin to…squeezing a tube of toothpaste?"

Buffy sighed, a little put out by the dark and the fog. There'd be no site seeing for her that night.

"Yes." Hagrid stop at a curb, looking right, left and then right again before starting across. "But, not really."

Buffy laid a hand on her frustrated Watcher's arm. He wasn't the type of person to like not knowing something. "We'll see soon enough." She said, and linked her arm through his.

"Floos and Hogwarts and phoenixes…or is it phoenixi?" Buffy shook her head. "Either way, we'll see soon enough. We'll arrive, we'll slay some bad guys and then maybe we can hang for a bit, take in some of the Old World?"

"Phoenixi is not a word, and honestly I do not think that you're taking this situation as seriously as you should. This is not a vacation and we would not have been asked to come if the situation were not dire."

"Psh!" Buffy waved a flippant hand, effectively blowing off her Watcher's warning. "What's to do, Giles? I've handled some über badness in my day and this time I'll have a bunch of wizards to help. Grateful wizards too."

A mischievous smile spread across her face as she glanced sideways at Giles. "Do you think they'll grant me a wish after I wrapped up whatever problem they're calling me in for?"

Giles scoffed and attempted to look offended, but the slight tug at his lip showed his amusement. "They're wizards, Buffy, not genies. And you should know by now that anything that grants wishes has only the worst intentions."

As always, Giles was right. No wishes for Buffy. "Oh well. At least it will be something to add to my résumé, and who knows; maybe I'll get an international pen pal out of the deal. Although, I'm much better with the text than pen. Is there a such thing as 'text-pals?"

"Here we are, then." Hagrid stopped in front of the red door of what looked to be a very old, stone… condo?

Buffy leaned back, looking to the right and left and noted similar doors on either side sandwiched between windows in a specific pattern. Door, window, window, door...

"Wizard's live in condominiums with strict red-door instructions from their HOA. Who knew!"

"There town homes, Buffy." Giles corrected, just as Hagrid pulled an umbrella out from somewhere beneath his coat and used it to knock on the door, tapping in what seemed to Buffy to be a specific cadence.

"This is a secondary home of a wizard known well to the Order." He knocked on the door a second time using the exact same rhythm as before. "But I do not think that most a these…condos, as yeh called it…have wizard residents. This is a primarily muggle part of London."

Buffy frowned wondering at the term 'muggle'.

Hagrid waited another moment, then knocked a third time before replacing the umbrella.

And just as his coat fell back into place, the red door creaked open. He turned, bowing slightly as he extended an arm, biding them entrance.

"Are yeh ready to see Hogwarts?"

"Ready as I'll ever be"

And with that they stepped over the threshold.

Buffy felt a revived sense of anticipation, but almost instantly she found herself frowning again. "Where's the…who…" She turned to look at Hagrid who was staring expectantly back at her. "Who opened the door?"

Hargid seemed a little confused by the question. "I did."

Buffy shook her head, deciding it wasn't worth further questioning. Obviously she was going to have to learn to take some things for granted and she doubted she could formulate the appropriate question at that point anyway. Instead, she stored her self-opening door questionsaway with her previously formed invisible Moses querries.

Satisfied that he'd answered Buffy fully, Hargid turned and motioned for the others to follow him.

The house was surprisingly large on the inside. Even though it was dark, lit only by a few candles, she could see well how spacious it was. They moved through a large entrance hall that reminded her sadly of her home in Sunny Dale. To the left was a kitchen big enough to eat it, and straight ahead a wide staircase.

Hagrid led them through a set of double-doors to the right, and into a fairly standard, if rather bare, living room. Buffy couldn't help but wonder what they were doing there. Sure the house was big, but not big enough to hold Scotland.

Maybe they'd be staying for the evening?

Before she could ask one way or the other, Hagrid led them to a fireplace located on the far side of the room where he turned to face them with his arms held out. "What I tell yeh? Floo travel!"

He was smiling as though something he just did explained away all of their earlier confusion. Buffy's eyes caught Giles' and he shrugged.

Buffy looked from her Watcher and back to Hargid. "Wha..what?"

Hagrid's face fell a bit and he dropped his arms to his side before scratching his head. "Right here." He said, pointing towards the fireplace. " ."

"Great." Buffy said eyeing the fireplace suspicously and not feeling particularly great at all.

"So, how does this work."

Panic.

It was the first thing she felt after taking a small, awkward step over the bottom mantle of the old, stone fireplace and into the large firebox.

When the process of floo travel was explained, Buffy had trouble hiding her disbelief. She may have even expressed this… a little.

"Um, in case you haven't noticed, I'm not Santa Clause and these guys…" She used a hand to indicate her Watcher and friends in turn. "Well, they sure as hell aren't elves."

Buffy had seen and done a lot of remarkable things, so she wasn't about to discredit the possibility of stepping into a fireplace in London and ending up in a school somewhere in the Scottish Highlands.

Not entirely.

And though Buffy knew less about physics than she did geography, she was still pretty sure that something about the mechanics of such travel, couldn't really be possible.

Of course her personal physics shouldnt't be possible either. Yet there she stood.

In front of a fireplace.

About to go all Chris Cringle up in it.

Her companions seemed equally perplexed and, in the case of Willow and Xander, a lot nervous, so she realized pretty quick that it was she who would have to get the ball rolling and make the first attempt at the strange, the new and the hugely disconcerting.

Sometimes being the Slayer sucked.

"Yeh just take a bit o that black powder there. Throw it like tha' and tell the floo were it is you want to go."

With a deep breath Buffy did as her behemoth escort bid, just in the manner he'd told her to. "Albus Dumbledore's office." And without even a slight backwards glance, she stepped inside.

It wasn't painful.

That she could have dealt with.

But there was pressure; pushing, pulling, squeezing, expanding, contracting, and she couldn't see anything but an overwhelming and fully consuming black.

And that was when the anxiety set in.

For Buffy, this was an all too familiar sensation and it brought with it unwelcomed memories; memories that flooded her instantly.

The sky was ripping apart, a black hole in the black night…and the energy… God, she could feel it! Dark, evil, and it was going to keep growing until it swallowed the whole world.

But for Buffy, that was a secondary concern.

Dawn, her baby sister, stood at edge of the precipice of a hastily and ill constructed scaffolding, sobbing. Blood dripped freely down her arm, urging the hole to open fully.

"Buffy…"

Dawn's eyes were wide, frightened. She understood that she was the key. She understood what that meant. It was her blood that opened the portal; her blood would be needed to close it. And that meant…

Buffy caught her sister's eyes and she slowly shook her head. "No!"

"I have to jump. The energy…"

"It'll kill you!"

Dawn tried to stand a little taller, to look brave. It broke Buffy's heart.

"I know, Buffy, I know about the ritual! I have to stop it."

"No!" It seemed to be all Buffy could manage to say, but her mind was running, going through scenario after scenario. She could fix this; it's what she did. It was her job to save the world and she would do it at any cost.

But not this.

"I have to! Look at what's happening!" No sooner do those words leave Dawn's mouth then the rift opened wider and things begin to fly out.

Unimaginable things. Evil things.

"Buffy…"

"I don't care! Dawn, I won't lose you…"

"You have to! You have to let me go! Blood starts it, and until the blood stops flowing it'll never stop. You know what you have to let me…"

Buffy can feel her sister's despair and she knows that she will not let this happen.

"Buffy, it has to have the blood."

She was right. It has to have the blood. The world will end as two realms collide if it doesn't have the…

And then it hits her: realization.

She remembers Spike's words back at the Magic Box. "It's always blood…"

She remembers the vision of her and Dawn's bloody hands entwined as Buffy spoke to her of Summers' blood.

She remembers her own words as she explained what Dawn was. "They made her from me."

She remembers the First Slayer and the single statement that had haunted her since that strange encounter. "Death is you gift."

Blood.

They made her from me.

Death...

"…is my gift."

Buffy's brow furls as those words repeat over and over in her consciousness – blood, death, gift – swirling around with the gathering debris caught in the churning gale.

And then everything is quiet.

The wind is still raging, she can feel it on her skin, blowing tendril's of her sister's long, dark hair about her distressed face; but she doesn't hear it.

At the edge of the scaffolding, just beyond her sister, Buffy see's Angel. She doesn't know why he's there, but it feels right.

Behind him the sun is just starting to rise, but she's not worried for him. Somehow she knows that where she's going, the sun cannot burn him.

And she feels…serene…

Another rumble shakes her from her strange revere; the approaching apocalypse comes rushing back, but she's not afraid.

Not anymore.

She turns back to Dawn and as soon as their eyes meet, she has no doubt that her little sister knows.

"Buffy…no…"

"Dawnie, I have to…"

"No!"

Buffy grabs her, pulling her close. "There's no time, Dawn. Listen to me. I love you. I'll always love you. But this is the work I have to do. Tell Giles I…I figured it out. And I'm okay. Give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now…you have to take care of each other. You have to be strong, Dawn. The hardest thing in this world is to live in it."

Buffy takes a moment to memorize her sister's face, wiping away her tears before kissing her. "Be brave. Live. For me."

And then she turns and runs. She runs towards Angel, towards the rising sun, all the way to the end of the scaffolding and when she reaches it she doesn't hesitate.

She dives.

The sensation of jumping into the floo was eerily similar to what she had felt when she'd dived into that hell hole just before she'd died.

She had known she was going to die; had come to terms with it mere moments before doing it. And truth be told, after her friends had brought her back, she'd spent months longing to be back where ever it had been that death had taken her.

Heaven?

But she had long since decided that living, for now, was a good thing, and on this occasion she was not so prepared for the end.

So when only seconds had passed after she stepped into the first fireplace and out of a second, her panic was quickly replaced by relief.

Immense relief.

And then by burning eyes and a lung full of dust.

Whipping the soot from her eyes, her only thought was how little she cared for her introduction to the wizarding world when a kind yet authoritative voice sounded from right in front of her.

"Ah, Ms. Summers, I presume? Please allow me to be the first to welcome you to wizarding Britain and, of course, to Hogwarts."

A note for those of you not into basketball, Paul Sturgess is one of the (if not the) tallest b-ballers in the world. You know, Tall Paul - from the UK? Plays for non other than the Harlem Globetrotters?

Oh well...

Anyway, he's about 7'7", so he's all about the tall.

Thank all of you who are following or have favorited this story. And thank you all so much for the lovely reviews! I love them so much and look forward to reading them every time I log in. If I haven't responded to you directly, it's because there is not an option to do so. I don't know why. Just know that I have read them all and they work really well as a motivator.

Next chapter we will see the meeting of our two MCs, Buffy and Severus... It should be, interesting :)

I will try to have it up by the end of the week, but there is an aweful lot of fresh powder on the slopes these days...