Title: Look Alikes
Author: LavenderGold
Rating: Varies on Chapter
Summary: Draco and Hermione are aurors and go to Sunnydale to fight the demons their and stop the rumored evil there. They meet up with Scoobies only to make friends with the whole lot.
Canon: Draco and Hermione are aurors, 20 years of age. Season 5 for Buffy and friends except that Riley is gone. Also Spike loves Buffy and she knows it. So I'm thinking right after the episode "Crush". Draco and Mione can fight as good as Buffy and Spike. Just so you know basic auror training in my case is to know how to fight muggle-wise and magic-wise. Have fun.
A/N: I know I know, I haven't updated in a long time but you have to understand I do have a real life, **gasps go around the room**. Is it truly that hard to believe that I have a real life? **nods go around the room** Oh well. . . Anyways, I do have a real life and I need to balance out my real life and my writings out. Unfortunately, my real life demanded more of my time over the past months so I left the writing scene from FF.net for a while, but I didn't stop writing. Do have loads of ideas for other stories and this story. I created a rough draft of this story, which I didn't have back for chapters 1, 2, and 3. So now it will be easier for me to write this out. Well, have fun with the reading and reviewing thing.
Disclaimer: Don't own a bloody thing.
Dedication: To Ariel, she reads everything I write and helps me out. . . Even though she is a spaz, kinda.
Feedback: Thank you so much for the positive reviews you guys! I can't get over the success of this story, but today I am going to target a review from somebody who didn't "settle" with my story that well, especially with my Draco. Sweetie, we only know Draco from Book One to Book Four. Even though it may seem like a lot, the poor boy could have changed within those eight years of growing up. Also, I added "love" and "pet" and some other words to his vocab just to get the effect of him being more like Spike, because in my world I believe Spike and Draco are a lot alike except well, Spike's a vampire and Draco isn't. I have my own mind's eye of Draco, as do you. Thank you for not turning your opinion though into a "This book sux, you can't write worth crap and you should BURN THIS STORY!". I really appreciate it that you did it in the most mature manner..
Ok my serious stuff is officially done. Wheeeee!!!!!!
ENJOY THE SHOW FOLKS!!!!
*~*~*~*~*~*
Sunnydale
8:00 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*
It was a quiet night in Sunnydale, like it has been for the past week. Ever since Hermione and Draco came, there was only an average of a fledging a night and maybe a more experienced vampire at the Bronze. Other than that, there was nothing. The gang was a bit confused on the low amount of demons in the town but they were enjoying their break. It wasn't any day, week in this case, which the Scooby Gang didn't have to worry about vampires.
Even though the vampire and various demon count was low, this meant they had to research up on Glory. They found out that her full name was Glorificus, which helped them, narrow down the research; they also found a tale about her being one of the cruelest gods of her dimension. Everything else was a blank.
Tonight, as the Scooby Gang, including their two new British friends, all decided to take a break from the researching and patrolling. This meant there was nobody outside patrolling the graveyards; keeping any vampires from exiting the graveyard they dug themselves out of. Everybody was inside his or her domains, except for two certain people.
"What makes you think Hermione is here, Harry?" A redheaded man asked his best friend in the driver's seat of the car.
"Because, Ron. The records state that Hermione went to the Hellmouth to investigate the extra energy that is building up there." Harry explained. He settled back into his seat, concentrating on the road. "She most likely doesn't know what we know about what's going to happen. We need to tell her this, so the world doesn't end."
"So why couldn't we use magic to come here?" Ron queried. "I didn't fancy that flight from London. To New York, to LA, and on top of that having to rent a car just to get to the Hellmouth."
"I told you a million times, Ron. We have to keep a low profile on where we are going. If the newspapers or The Ministry of Magic found out that the world was going to end and Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley were going to the Hellmouth to save the world again, it would be complete chaos." Harry retorted, his eyes still on the road. Ron looked at Harry a bit until he turned his head out to the side window and settled back into his seat.
"How much longer until we get there?" Ron asked. He was becoming more and more fidgety by the second. Harry stopped the car abruptly, making Ron go forward and back.
"We're here." Harry said, a feeling of accomplishment surging through him. "We are in Sunnydale."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Next Day
Summer's Home
6:45 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"But I'm 14 years old Buffy, I don't need a babysitter!" Dawn argued as the two sisters went downstairs.
"You do, I don't care if you're 14, you are getting a babysitter, and that's final." Buffy stared her sister down. The doorbell rang. "And there he is now." Buffy ran down the rest of the way down the steps and went to the door. She opened it up to see only Draco and Hermione.
"Draco and Hermione are babysitting me?" Dawn asked, confused.
"We are?" The two Brits queried simultaneously.
"No," Buffy retorted quickly. "Giles is."
"Giles is babysitting me?" Dawn groaned. "Great, my nights going to be full of fun." Dawn rolled her eyes and sat down on the steps.
"Don't mind Dawn. Come in." Buffy offered. Hermione and Draco went into the household. Draco went immediately up the steps and sat next to Dawn and began to talk to her, quietly. Buffy eyed the blonde carefully. Who knew what kind of mischievous ideas Draco was putting into Dawn's mind.
"Dawn still gets babysitters?" Hermione asked the Slayer.
"Yeah," Buffy answered. "I mean I wasn't when I was her age but this is a Hellmouth and I just want her to be safe." Buffy explained. Hermione mouthed out the word 'oh' after that and nodded her head a little. Soon the doorbell rang again. Buffy turned to the door and opened it up to see her ex-watcher.
"Am I late?" Giles asked, looking at Hermione and Draco.
"Nope, right on time." Buffy reassured Giles. Right on cue, Joyce Summers, the mother of Dawn and Buffy, came running down the steps, putting her earring in.
"Is that my date Buffy?" Joyce asked her daughter. She stopped a quarter way down the steps. "Oh, hi Mr. Giles. You're going to be babysitting Dawn tonight?"
"Yes, me and Dawn will have tons of fun, and hopefully my night won't end in a headache." Giles half joked.
"Well thanks for doing this," Joyce stopped her sentence and looked down at Draco and Dawn. "Can you tell me who you're friends are Buffy?"
"Oh, that's Draco," Buffy pointed to the blonde "And this is Hermione." The brunette made a small wave to the woman of the house.
"Has anybody told you that you look a lot like Spike?" Joyce asked Draco.
"All I have been told Mrs. Summers." Draco politely answered. Buffy was shocked to see Draco actually be polite. It was a once in a lifetime act.
"So you're both from England?" Mrs. Summers inquired.
"Yeah," Hermione nodded.
"Oh, so you must be the witch and wizard who have been helping Buffy out for the past week." Joyce assumed. Buffy looked at Dawn, hard, knowing it was Dawn that told their Mom about Hermione and Draco. Dawn just made a childish shrug. Outside, a car beeped twice. "Oh, that's my ride." Draco stood up, allowing Joyce to go down the stairs without struggling to get through. She opened the door but before she left she said, "Have a good time at the dance Buffy." Then she turned to Dawn, "Please be good for Mr. Giles and try not to give him a headache."
"Bye Mom." Buffy waved. With that Joyce went out to the car, greeted by her date with a bouquet of roses. Buffy shut the door and turned to Giles.
"Right um," Giles lowered his voice slightly "You do know you owe me after tonight?"
"I can hear you." Dawn chimed. Giles looked at her and turned his attention back to Buffy.
"Of course I do." Buffy answered. "Let's go guys." Buffy told her two new friends. "And Dawn." The brunette looked up, "Take Mom's advice and please be good for, Giles."
"I will." Dawn smiled.
"Remember what we talked about Dawn." Draco raised his voice enough for Giles, Buffy and Hermione to hear what he said. He lifted himself off the stairs and went down them. He gave a final grin to Dawn before leaving. Giles gave a worried look at Dawn's grinning face and shut the door.
The three of them walked down the sidewalk on their way to the University. Before they exited the neighborhood, Buffy asked the other blonde,
"What did you and Dawn talk about?"
"Stuff." Draco answered nonchalantly.
"What kind of stuff?" Buffy continued.
"Stuff that will make Giles learn the true meaning of 'babysitter'." Draco laughed.
"You are such a bad influence on Dawn." Hermione scolded.
"I'm a bad influence on everybody, love." Draco reminded her.
"How true that is." Hermione agreed.
"Now why did I invite you guys to this Spring Break party?" Buffy questioned, both herself and the two Aurors.
"Because you don't want us to feel lonely and rejected from the group?" Hermione offered.
"Of course not Mione," Draco started, "It's because she's madly in love with me and only invited you to cover up her deep crush for me." Buffy playfully punched the blonde.
"That's the last thing I need, a crush on Spike's twin." The Slayer laughed. "Well at least you're not chaining me up to reveal your deep love for me." Hermione went a bit silent and inquired,
"Did Spike really do that to you?"
"Yeah, he was a real slimeball for doing that." Buffy lowered her head with disapproval towards the act that the vampire did.
"What time is the party supposed to start?" Hermione questioned.
"Oh, it started around 6:00 but I had to help my mom out on her date so we are about an hour and a half late." Buffy answered. "We are going to be fashionably late."
"What's up with 'being fashionably late', what makes being late fashionable?" Hermione asked Buffy.
"What a silly question to ask Mione." Draco got to his friend before Buffy. "It's an excuse for Americans whenever they are late to a social engagement."
"Couldn't say it any better myself." Buffy smiled.
"So I'm guessing we are going to meet Xander, Anya, Wil, and Tara there." Hermione assumed.
"Wow, can't get anything past you." Draco sarcastically commented.
"I take offense to that!" Hermione shouted.
"What are you going to do about it?" Draco taunted.
"This!" Hermione took out her wand and whispered a spell. Draco began to laugh maniacally. Buffy looked at Draco funny, but soon came to the realization it was a spell.
"Not," Draco laughed "Fair!" Hermione and Buffy were cracking up at the sight of Draco trying to breathe through his laughs. Hermione began to take pity upon her partner and took the spell off. Draco muttered some curse words that Buffy didn't know existed.
"If you guys keep on doing this, we're going to be even more fashionably late." Buffy warned the two Brits. The rest of the way, Hermione and Draco looked at each other, in caution, just in case if someone decided to do a sneak attack. Buffy, on the other hand, was wondering how these two even got to become friends.
*~*~*~*~*~*
University Spring Break Party
8:00 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*
Hermione, Draco, and Buffy all reached the party at about 7:15, which was a reasonable time by the fact that they all were walking to the party. The Scooby Gang plus Hermione and Draco, were all hanging out, enjoying their slay-free night. It was nice not to have to worry about any apocalypses or a Big Bad for a night.
"Here ya go." Draco gave Buffy one of the two drinks he was carrying.
"Oh, thanks." Buffy accepted the drink, while leaning on a column, overlooking the dancers.
"What's wrong?" Draco asked.
"Oh nothing, just looking." Buffy answered, taking a sip out of the alcoholic beverage.
"Right, you are looking at the dancers depressed, just for fun." Draco wisecracked. Buffy made a small laugh. "Now come on, why aren't you going out there finding a nice looking guy to dance with?"
"I danced with Xander." Buffy argued.
"I said, a nice looking guy." Draco repeated himself.
"What's wrong with Xander?" Buffy asked.
"Let's think for a second," Draco paused "He's taken?" Buffy looked at Draco in a 'oh' expression.
"I don't do well with relationships. Not well at all." Buffy explained vaguely.
"Like how?" Draco insisted.
"Like hooking up with vampires and military operatives bad."
"They were the ones that left?"
"More like, left town left."
"Oh, well I can't blame you." Draco said. Buffy looked at him. "Well I mean you are the slayer, you can't help it if you have bad taste in men."
"And I really thought that you were going to say something nice and sincere." Buffy smiled. "Come on, what kind of girls have you hooked up with?"
"Well, this one girl, she had a really big nose, but was in my house, so we went out." Draco started. "Then there was another girl, really pretty, but had an attitude that nobody would like." Draco then sighed. "There was one other girl, she was in a different house, Gryffindor."
"Hermione?" Buffy asked. Draco shook his head. "Well then, what was she like?"
"She looked a lot like Willow actually, had more of a curl to her hair though, and length." Draco said.
"What happened?" Buffy inquired.
"We got separated. She was a year younger than me, meaning I graduated from Hogwarts before her. It's hard to continue a relationship when your other half is at a boarding school." Draco pointed out. "I went into auror training, alone. Wrote occasional letters to Gin after the breakup but eventually we just stopped contacting each other. Then I met Hermione again after our first year of auror training. She was training in another country, needed some time away from her homeland after Voldemort."
"Relationships suck." Buffy stated.
"Cheers." Draco agreed. They tapped their cups together just for their own amusement to make the thought official to them. Buffy's eyes went wide suddenly. She looked over Draco's shoulder and saw Ben, an intern to the hospital that her mother was spending time at while she was suffering from a brain tumor.
"Ben!" Buffy shouted. She walked over to Ben, abandoning Draco. The hospital intern gave Buffy a weak smile.
"I didn't know you felt that way about having a boyfriend." Ben whispered, still trying to stay optimistic.
"I don't. What I mean is," Buffy tried to think of an excuse. "I had bad relationships before, not all of them were bad, just some of them and the alcohol makes you say some funky things sometimes."
"Well, I guess that you won't like the idea of us having coffee sometime?" Ben asked Buffy. The slayer smiled and did a small laugh. Ben was asking her out.
"I'd really like that." Buffy accepted the invitation.
"But would your boyfriend like that?" Ben queried, nodding towards Draco.
"Oh! He's not my boyfriend. He's just an exchanged student from Oxford that is staying at my house for a few months." Buffy lied. The blonde slayer looked over towards Draco and noticed he wasn't watching the conversation at all, actually it looked like he was done munching on the chips and was about to leave.
"That's a relief because I thought you guys had something going on." Ben laughed.
"And you also thought that I didn't like the idea of having a boyfriend at the same time." Buffy teased.
"Well I don't know you that well. It could of happened." Ben tried to support his madness. "But I do hope that changes after that cup of coffee."
"Well that's sweet." Buffy said. While Buffy and Ben were chatting, Draco was making his way over to the other side of the room. As he made his way, he saw Tara and Anya. He walked up to them and asked,
"Where's Hermione?" Tara looked at him, extracting herself from the conversation she and Anya were having.
"She left early. She said she was going to take a walk through the city and go home." Tara retorted.
"I think I'm going to take a rain check too." Draco thought aloud. "Meet you at the Magic Box sometime tomorrow." With that the Auror walked off, but before he walked a far distance Anya yelled.
"Bring money to buy stuff!" Draco turned around to see a smiling Anya waving goodbye. Anya then turned to Tara and said, "Are you sure they aren't dating?" Tara just smiled, uncomfortable by the question asked to her. The dirty blonde witch couldn't wait until her girlfriend came back with their drinks.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sunnydale Roads
10:00 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Ron and Harry were walking around Sunnydale, looking for the address they got from Hermione's file. It was a fine night for a walk, but this was no ordinary walk. This was a walk to give Hermione valid and important information that will help her in fighting against this Goddess.
"Harry?" Ron started.
"Yes Ron." Harry replied.
"What if, she changed for the worse?" Harry stared at Ron for a bit, confused by the question.
"Like what kind of worse? She is in the Auror business isn't she?" Harry answered with a question.
"Well, I don't know, I mean the Auror stuff for sure I do know, but what if she's mad at us Harry? We haven't talked to her since we graduated, and we're going to be coming back, seeing her for the first time with information that Glorificus has a plan to destroy the world for her own little selfish reasons." Ron stated.
"Ron," Harry sighed, "We were best friends in Hogwarts, there can be no possible way that she can hate us most defiantly. Maybe at first she would be a tad mad that we haven't kept in touch with her like we do, but she was in Auror school then, let alone out of the country. I'm sure she'll forgive this, and when it's over, we'll make things right this time."
"Well, that'll be nice, but I'm also worried about something else." Ron said.
"And it is?" Harry insisted for Ron to continue,
"That she looks like an ugly hag." Ron confessed. Harry laughed, with his redheaded friend soon joining in, while they were walking.
"Stop it!" A woman shouted, coming out of nowhere. Harry and Ron drove their attention immediately to the mysterious woman.
"Excuse me, miss." Ron started, walking towards her.
"No, don't. Don't hurt me!" She shouted. Ron backed off a bit.
"Ms, I won't hurt you." He tried again.
"Ow! You're hurting me!" She cried, falling down to the ground. She then looked to Harry, "You!"
"Me?" Harry said, a bit confounded on why the woman switched her attention from Ron to himself so quickly.
"You, you're the one who's hurting us! You're stinging, shocking." The woman was obviously insane. Ron finally went up to her and held on to her hand. The insane female soon went calm. "It won't stop." She whispered. "They keep on coming back, and it'll never stop. Not till she gets it. Not till she gets it."
"Do you want to go home?" Harry asked. The woman then looked at the famous black-haired man.
"I can't. I'm lost." She answered, a sad look upon her face. "I can't! I can't! I can't!" Now shouting, Ron let go of the woman, covering his ears, looking at Harry.
"We should take her to the hospital." Ron suggested.
"Good idea." Harry complimented.
"No. Not there. Bad. Bad! Bad! Bad!" The stranger was out of control. Ron quickly took out his wand and said,
"Stupefy." The woman soon was knocked out, looking calmer than before. Harry glanced at Ron then to the woman.
"We go to the hospital, now."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sunnydale General Hospital
10:30 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry and Ron rushed into the hospital, with the woman now up. The intern at the desk looked up, a bit confused. She bit her lip as the two Brits lead the woman over to the front desk.
"Um, hello?" She started.
"Yes, this woman right here was wandering around the streets speaking nonsense." Harry explained.
"He shot me.. Shot me with colors." The woman whispered, frightened of Harry.
"Right, he shot you with colors." The intern repeated, then looking at Harry with a look of suspicion. "Do you know her?"
"No, me and my friend Ron here were taking a walk and this woman came out of the woods. We thought if we brought her here, you could take her in or find her family." Harry answered.
"I'll show you to the psychiatric ward, maybe somebody there could show you if she has a file or not." The intern offered.
"I think that would be very useful." Harry said. The intern nodded, saying,
"It's right down the hall, first right then go down till you see another hall. There should be a doctor or a nurse or some intern there to help you out." Harry and Ron nodded to the blonde intern, in silent thanks, and went down to the psychiatric ward, following the intern's directions. Soon they saw a doctor, talking to a nurse by the ward's entrance.
"Doctor!" Ron shouted, the doctor looked up, seeing Ron, Harry, and the crazy female.
"Miranda?" He whispered.
"You know her?" Harry asked, now closer to the doctor along with the crazy woman and Ron.
"Mrs. Jenkins? She was here just a few days ago, we released her to her family." The doctor answered.
"Why did you release her Dr." Harry looked at the nametag real quick, "Peterson?"
"She was making progress, and had a less severe case than the others that just came in." Dr. Peterson explained.
"Others?" Ron queried.
"Yes, lately we have been getting a lot of cases of people going insane abruptly for the past few months." The doctor replied. Harry and Ron looked at each other, then the doctor. "We can contact her family and keep her here until they come by, but we truly can't help her anymore than we did before."
"Thank you doctor." Harry said.
"No, thank you. You have no idea how dangerous it could be for Mrs. Jenkins to be roaming around town with her condition." The doctor insisted on turning Harry and Ron into micro-heroes.
"No problem sir." Ron answered back. The doctor shook the two Brits' hands and went off with Miranda. Ron and Harry went the other direction, on their way to exit out of the building.
"Nobody becomes crazy suddenly Harry. Both you and I know that, but do you think it's because of Glorificus?" Ron inquired his friend.
"I know Ron, but we can't just put our finger on the hell goddess." Harry answered.
"Why not?"
"Because Ron, we need proof." Harry opened the door that was in front of him and exited the building along with his redheaded friend. "But till then, we need to get a room."
"Cheers." Ron agreed. The two of them were walking down the street to a motel Harry and Ron found over the Internet. As they were walking, a brunette woman in normal street clothes stood right in front of them and smiled.
"Hello." She said. "I'm April, and I'm looking for my boyfriend, Warren. Have you seen him?"
"No, erm, sorry." Harry answered. "Is there something wrong?"
"Oh nothing," She answered, perky as ever. "It's just that Warren lost me and I'm trying to find him so he won't have to worry anymore."
"Did that make any sense to you?" Ron queried his friend.
"Nope." Harry shook his head.
"Oh don't feel bad." April patted Harry's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll find out who he is when I find him. He is the greatest person alive." She then waved and exclaimed "Goodbye!" and left.
"You sure she wasn't another crazy?" Ron inquired.
"God only knows Ron." Harry laughed ad the two friends continued on their way to go to the motel.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The Next Morning
The Magic Box
9:00 AM
*~*~*~*~*~*
"I think I got it!" Hermione exclaimed as she looked at her floating pencil.
"I think you do!" Willow smiled. "Well it's nice to know you're not a quitter." Willow laughed, looking at Hermione accomplishment.
"If I was a quitter, I would have been gone long before me and Draco teamed up." Hermione joked. The two girls laughed while the pencil stayed afloat in the air. Then, a bell rang, which indicated a customer has entered the store. Anya perked up and went over.
"Hello shopper, I am Anya and I am here to see that you buy lots of stuff with your money."
"Sorry, um, we're not buying." Hermione stopped laughing. She recognized that voice. The brunette looked at Willow, then turned around. There he was, Harry Potter. Harry was standing right there next to Anya, and.
"Ron? Harry?" Hermione asked in disbelief.
"Hermione! Miss us?" Ron laughed. Hermione got up from her seat, and walked up to her two old best friends.
"Miss you? Of course I did!" Hermione exclaimed as she hugged the two.
"So they aren't paying?" Anya asked.
"No, they aren't." Hermione replied, with that, a loud noise came from the back of the shop, where a door opened.
"Here's that box of newt eyes you wanted An." Draco said as he went across the room with that box. He went over to the counter and set it down and looked up to see Harry and Ron. "Oh great, just what we need. The wonder boys are reunited with their sidekick wonder girl."
"Malfoy?" Ron gasped.
"Oh great, he remembers me Mione. Isn't that just fan-bloody-tastic?" Draco rolled his eyes and leaned up against the counter.
"Um, Hermione, sorry to be, you know a party pooper and all, but um, who are these guys?" Willow asked.
"Oh! I forgot, this is Ron and Harry!" Hermione introduced the two boys. "This is Willow."
"She looks a hell of a lot like Gin." Harry stated.
"Freaky isn't it?" Hermione inquired.
"Ok, this is the second time I've been mistaken for an alcoholic drink, I think I have a right to know why I am being called gin." Willow demanded.
"Gin, Ginny Weasley. She's Ron's little sister." Hermione explained.
"Oh," Willow said. After a few eerie moments of silence, Buffy and Dawn came through the door. Immediately she noticed the two strangers by the front door. She looked at Willow and asked,
"Will, can you help me out here?"
"This is Harry and Ron, our friends from," Hermione was interrupted by Ron, who barged into the conversation,
"From our book club. We were worried that she would miss this month's book so we came to give it to her."
"These are your friends from Hogwarts?" Anya questioned. "They're pretty pathetic, they can't even lie properly."
"You told them?" Ron gritted through his teeth. "Well it shouldn't surprise me, with him around, he was probably the one that blew your cover, and why is he here anyway?"
"He's my partner Ron, we're both aurors and assigned together as partners and are doing our job." She clarified.
"Right, you working in this thrift shop for magic goods is your job while your giving little love letters to your partner." Ron jumped over to an entirely different topic in the conversation.
"What?" Hermione queried.
"God, no wonder you guys talk to each other." Anya added to the argument.
"Hey, I take offense to that!" Harry argued back.
"Well I mean she is right," Hermione agreed with the ex-vengeance demon.
"Shut up, all of you!" Draco shouted, making the room go silent. "Now, Buffy came in here for a little Scooby meeting, therefore we're going to have the Scooby meeting, so all of you be quiet and shut up, or else I'll make you all wish you never had this argument."
"Thanks Draco," Buffy thanked.
"No problem, a bit dry on the threat part though." The blonde smiled, in a joking way.
"Is Xander and Giles here?" The slayer turned to Willow.
"Yeah, they're in the back room."
"Good, go get them. I found out a bit more on April."
"April?" Hermione inquired.
"Last night at the party, after you and Draco left, some girl through Spike out the window, and we think it's a robot." Buffy explained.
"A robot through Spike out the window." Hermione repeated. "God, I knew I shouldn't have left that party."
"Too bad," Buffy turned to Willow, "We really should have gotten a poloroid of it. "
"It was funny." Willow nodded, after that Giles and Xander came out of the weapon room, over to the rest of the group.
"Great, we're all here." Buffy said.
"Buffster," Xander started pointing to Ron and Harry.
"I know Xander, just, we'll explain later." Buffy said. "Anyways, I went to Warren's place, and he made April to um, fill a hole in his life."
"For sex?" Anya tactfully asked.
"Um, yeah." Buffy folded her arms uncomfortably. "Anyways, he said he wanted her to go away, and his girlfriend found out. April is out there, and if she finds Katrina," Buffy paused. "I don't want to know what could happen."
"Well we should find her, maybe try and shut her down." Xander suggested.
"Well, I'm going to go out and find April, try and take her down easy, but if she doesn't. I'm going to have to fight her." Buffy made the last sentence sound final. The group understood clearly what Buffy was going to do. She looked at Willow and asked, "Can you Will?" while nodding towards Dawn's way.
"Sure." The redheaded witch answered.
"Do you need any help from us?" Hermione questioned her new friend.
"No, I think I'll go solo on this one." Buffy replied.
"Ok, we're going to take Ron and Harry back to our place, and talk this whole thing out." Hermione told the group.
"Speak for yourself." Draco stood up straight and went up to Hermione and whispered, "I'm going to take a walk around, give me a ring when the wonder boys are away or when we could have a bit more of a private talk." He then turned to Harry and Ron and gave them a cold stare. A stare so icy, it could make even a demon weak in the knees.
"Draco," Hermione calmly said. Draco turned back to his partner and gave her one of those looks that just could tell he wanted to be alone. Hermione lowered her head as Draco exited the store.
"Talk about hostility." Xander muttered.
"Xander," Willow said through her teeth.
"Right then, Harry Ron and I are going to go." Hermione said, ignoring Xander's comment. "Come on guys." And with that, the reunited trio left the Magic Box and went on their way to the condo.
"What was that all about?" Hermione asked, furiously.
"Drop it Hermione, Ron had his reasons." Harry explained.
"What kind of reasons?" Hermione questioned.
"Why the hell are you working with Malfoy?" Ron shot out.
"He's my partner Ron, and my best friend." Hermione answered.
"No, we're your best friends, he is a slimy git who can't think straight." Ron argued.
"And you aren't? You guys don't get it, he's my partner, Draco and I do everything together, like you guys did with me." Hermione quarreled.
"Hermione, you know as well as we do that you can request for a new partner." Harry said. "So why didn't you?"
"Because, I listened to Draco, and I learned the truth." Hermione cried.
"He told his father our plan out of his own free will, he killed people Hermione, but now you've probably had a good shag with him every night ever since you guys were assigned to each other." Ron pointed his finger at Hermione.
"Under the influence of his father Ron. He was put under some heavy dark magicks that nobody, not even Dumbledore himself could withstand, and you knew that." Hermione lowered her voice to a harsh tone. "When all of that crap happened, you finally found something to accuse Draco of, and for a few months, I was with you guys, but now. Now, I see what really was going on."
"Mione," Harry softened up his voice.
"Don't Mione me Harry Potter," Hermione commanded, "Our seventh year of Hogwarts wasn't a happy one, people we loved died, people we trusted deceived us. It was full of manipulation and lies, and we couldn't tell who's side they were on. But when that final battle came up," Hermione paused, "did you know what Draco was going to do?"
"Does it matter?" Ron asked.
"He was going to take Dumbledore's place, and do you know how close he was to doing that?" Hermione spaced her finger and thumb out to a centimeter apart. "That close. Dumbledore was against it Harry, but he made it through. He got up to Voldemort and was just about to do the spell." Hermione took another pause for a breath. "He was lucky that he ran into his father and only got a couple nasty scars from him."
"I didn't know." Ron whispered.
"That's right, you didn't know." Hermione snapped. "I suggest that you go and rent a room at a motel or something and stay there until you think you are ready to talk to me again." Hermione looked at Harry and Ron with a final look and walked away, back to the condo. She was in need to talk to Draco now, desperately.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Summers' Home
4:00 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Buffy was on her way home from the park. She had just fought April, and spent her last moments with her on a swing set. This wasn't a regular battle though. First off, it was during the daytime, and second off, it was between a robot. Also, she learned something. Buffy doesn't need a man in her life. If she went out with Ben now, well it would seem more like rebound sex, without the sex.
While her house began to come into her view, Buffy was thinking about everything that has happened in the past week. Hermione and Draco coming, them helping them out with patrolling, now these two friends of Hermione and Draco come and it seems like they had a bad history together.
Buffy then began to smile to herself. This all looked like something that came straight out of a soap opera. With all the mystery and romance and fighting. Buffy now entered her front yard, walking up to it, still grinning. She then walked up the stairs to the porch, and came up to the door.
The Slayer looked through the front window and saw a bouquet of flowers on the table. She opened the door and looked at the card that came from the flowers. They were from Brian, her mother's date from the other night.
"Mom!" Buffy shouted from the front hallway. She walked up the stairs, her head looking up. "Hey flower getting' lady, where are you?" Buffy then saw something out of the corner of her eye. She slowly turned around and saw her mother. There she was, on the couch. Joyce was there, completely still, not moving, not even blinking. Buffy's eyes went wide, while the tears were beginning to form. Before any of that could happen though, Buffy wanted to make sure. She just had to find out if it was just real. She whispered in a very squeaky and panicky voice, "Mommy?"
*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N 2: How was it? Was it good or really good or like "it sucked ass and should have never been updated". Truly I am in the middle of good and "she shoulda spent more time on it". I feel like I skipped on some parts, and the whole Hermione/Harry/Draco/Ron fight and history may have confused a lot of you. Originally I was going to have them all be friends, but I didn't like it that way. So, I decided to make things a lot more, you know, conflict-y. Ok, but truly, I want to know how many people stuck with the story out there, and how this chapter was compared to the other ones and if you got confused a lot. If you did get majorly confused, well I'm sorry, but I do promise to answer all of these questions later on in the story.
Please review! Make an author happy!
Author: LavenderGold
Rating: Varies on Chapter
Summary: Draco and Hermione are aurors and go to Sunnydale to fight the demons their and stop the rumored evil there. They meet up with Scoobies only to make friends with the whole lot.
Canon: Draco and Hermione are aurors, 20 years of age. Season 5 for Buffy and friends except that Riley is gone. Also Spike loves Buffy and she knows it. So I'm thinking right after the episode "Crush". Draco and Mione can fight as good as Buffy and Spike. Just so you know basic auror training in my case is to know how to fight muggle-wise and magic-wise. Have fun.
A/N: I know I know, I haven't updated in a long time but you have to understand I do have a real life, **gasps go around the room**. Is it truly that hard to believe that I have a real life? **nods go around the room** Oh well. . . Anyways, I do have a real life and I need to balance out my real life and my writings out. Unfortunately, my real life demanded more of my time over the past months so I left the writing scene from FF.net for a while, but I didn't stop writing. Do have loads of ideas for other stories and this story. I created a rough draft of this story, which I didn't have back for chapters 1, 2, and 3. So now it will be easier for me to write this out. Well, have fun with the reading and reviewing thing.
Disclaimer: Don't own a bloody thing.
Dedication: To Ariel, she reads everything I write and helps me out. . . Even though she is a spaz, kinda.
Feedback: Thank you so much for the positive reviews you guys! I can't get over the success of this story, but today I am going to target a review from somebody who didn't "settle" with my story that well, especially with my Draco. Sweetie, we only know Draco from Book One to Book Four. Even though it may seem like a lot, the poor boy could have changed within those eight years of growing up. Also, I added "love" and "pet" and some other words to his vocab just to get the effect of him being more like Spike, because in my world I believe Spike and Draco are a lot alike except well, Spike's a vampire and Draco isn't. I have my own mind's eye of Draco, as do you. Thank you for not turning your opinion though into a "This book sux, you can't write worth crap and you should BURN THIS STORY!". I really appreciate it that you did it in the most mature manner..
Ok my serious stuff is officially done. Wheeeee!!!!!!
ENJOY THE SHOW FOLKS!!!!
*~*~*~*~*~*
Sunnydale
8:00 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*
It was a quiet night in Sunnydale, like it has been for the past week. Ever since Hermione and Draco came, there was only an average of a fledging a night and maybe a more experienced vampire at the Bronze. Other than that, there was nothing. The gang was a bit confused on the low amount of demons in the town but they were enjoying their break. It wasn't any day, week in this case, which the Scooby Gang didn't have to worry about vampires.
Even though the vampire and various demon count was low, this meant they had to research up on Glory. They found out that her full name was Glorificus, which helped them, narrow down the research; they also found a tale about her being one of the cruelest gods of her dimension. Everything else was a blank.
Tonight, as the Scooby Gang, including their two new British friends, all decided to take a break from the researching and patrolling. This meant there was nobody outside patrolling the graveyards; keeping any vampires from exiting the graveyard they dug themselves out of. Everybody was inside his or her domains, except for two certain people.
"What makes you think Hermione is here, Harry?" A redheaded man asked his best friend in the driver's seat of the car.
"Because, Ron. The records state that Hermione went to the Hellmouth to investigate the extra energy that is building up there." Harry explained. He settled back into his seat, concentrating on the road. "She most likely doesn't know what we know about what's going to happen. We need to tell her this, so the world doesn't end."
"So why couldn't we use magic to come here?" Ron queried. "I didn't fancy that flight from London. To New York, to LA, and on top of that having to rent a car just to get to the Hellmouth."
"I told you a million times, Ron. We have to keep a low profile on where we are going. If the newspapers or The Ministry of Magic found out that the world was going to end and Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley were going to the Hellmouth to save the world again, it would be complete chaos." Harry retorted, his eyes still on the road. Ron looked at Harry a bit until he turned his head out to the side window and settled back into his seat.
"How much longer until we get there?" Ron asked. He was becoming more and more fidgety by the second. Harry stopped the car abruptly, making Ron go forward and back.
"We're here." Harry said, a feeling of accomplishment surging through him. "We are in Sunnydale."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Next Day
Summer's Home
6:45 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"But I'm 14 years old Buffy, I don't need a babysitter!" Dawn argued as the two sisters went downstairs.
"You do, I don't care if you're 14, you are getting a babysitter, and that's final." Buffy stared her sister down. The doorbell rang. "And there he is now." Buffy ran down the rest of the way down the steps and went to the door. She opened it up to see only Draco and Hermione.
"Draco and Hermione are babysitting me?" Dawn asked, confused.
"We are?" The two Brits queried simultaneously.
"No," Buffy retorted quickly. "Giles is."
"Giles is babysitting me?" Dawn groaned. "Great, my nights going to be full of fun." Dawn rolled her eyes and sat down on the steps.
"Don't mind Dawn. Come in." Buffy offered. Hermione and Draco went into the household. Draco went immediately up the steps and sat next to Dawn and began to talk to her, quietly. Buffy eyed the blonde carefully. Who knew what kind of mischievous ideas Draco was putting into Dawn's mind.
"Dawn still gets babysitters?" Hermione asked the Slayer.
"Yeah," Buffy answered. "I mean I wasn't when I was her age but this is a Hellmouth and I just want her to be safe." Buffy explained. Hermione mouthed out the word 'oh' after that and nodded her head a little. Soon the doorbell rang again. Buffy turned to the door and opened it up to see her ex-watcher.
"Am I late?" Giles asked, looking at Hermione and Draco.
"Nope, right on time." Buffy reassured Giles. Right on cue, Joyce Summers, the mother of Dawn and Buffy, came running down the steps, putting her earring in.
"Is that my date Buffy?" Joyce asked her daughter. She stopped a quarter way down the steps. "Oh, hi Mr. Giles. You're going to be babysitting Dawn tonight?"
"Yes, me and Dawn will have tons of fun, and hopefully my night won't end in a headache." Giles half joked.
"Well thanks for doing this," Joyce stopped her sentence and looked down at Draco and Dawn. "Can you tell me who you're friends are Buffy?"
"Oh, that's Draco," Buffy pointed to the blonde "And this is Hermione." The brunette made a small wave to the woman of the house.
"Has anybody told you that you look a lot like Spike?" Joyce asked Draco.
"All I have been told Mrs. Summers." Draco politely answered. Buffy was shocked to see Draco actually be polite. It was a once in a lifetime act.
"So you're both from England?" Mrs. Summers inquired.
"Yeah," Hermione nodded.
"Oh, so you must be the witch and wizard who have been helping Buffy out for the past week." Joyce assumed. Buffy looked at Dawn, hard, knowing it was Dawn that told their Mom about Hermione and Draco. Dawn just made a childish shrug. Outside, a car beeped twice. "Oh, that's my ride." Draco stood up, allowing Joyce to go down the stairs without struggling to get through. She opened the door but before she left she said, "Have a good time at the dance Buffy." Then she turned to Dawn, "Please be good for Mr. Giles and try not to give him a headache."
"Bye Mom." Buffy waved. With that Joyce went out to the car, greeted by her date with a bouquet of roses. Buffy shut the door and turned to Giles.
"Right um," Giles lowered his voice slightly "You do know you owe me after tonight?"
"I can hear you." Dawn chimed. Giles looked at her and turned his attention back to Buffy.
"Of course I do." Buffy answered. "Let's go guys." Buffy told her two new friends. "And Dawn." The brunette looked up, "Take Mom's advice and please be good for, Giles."
"I will." Dawn smiled.
"Remember what we talked about Dawn." Draco raised his voice enough for Giles, Buffy and Hermione to hear what he said. He lifted himself off the stairs and went down them. He gave a final grin to Dawn before leaving. Giles gave a worried look at Dawn's grinning face and shut the door.
The three of them walked down the sidewalk on their way to the University. Before they exited the neighborhood, Buffy asked the other blonde,
"What did you and Dawn talk about?"
"Stuff." Draco answered nonchalantly.
"What kind of stuff?" Buffy continued.
"Stuff that will make Giles learn the true meaning of 'babysitter'." Draco laughed.
"You are such a bad influence on Dawn." Hermione scolded.
"I'm a bad influence on everybody, love." Draco reminded her.
"How true that is." Hermione agreed.
"Now why did I invite you guys to this Spring Break party?" Buffy questioned, both herself and the two Aurors.
"Because you don't want us to feel lonely and rejected from the group?" Hermione offered.
"Of course not Mione," Draco started, "It's because she's madly in love with me and only invited you to cover up her deep crush for me." Buffy playfully punched the blonde.
"That's the last thing I need, a crush on Spike's twin." The Slayer laughed. "Well at least you're not chaining me up to reveal your deep love for me." Hermione went a bit silent and inquired,
"Did Spike really do that to you?"
"Yeah, he was a real slimeball for doing that." Buffy lowered her head with disapproval towards the act that the vampire did.
"What time is the party supposed to start?" Hermione questioned.
"Oh, it started around 6:00 but I had to help my mom out on her date so we are about an hour and a half late." Buffy answered. "We are going to be fashionably late."
"What's up with 'being fashionably late', what makes being late fashionable?" Hermione asked Buffy.
"What a silly question to ask Mione." Draco got to his friend before Buffy. "It's an excuse for Americans whenever they are late to a social engagement."
"Couldn't say it any better myself." Buffy smiled.
"So I'm guessing we are going to meet Xander, Anya, Wil, and Tara there." Hermione assumed.
"Wow, can't get anything past you." Draco sarcastically commented.
"I take offense to that!" Hermione shouted.
"What are you going to do about it?" Draco taunted.
"This!" Hermione took out her wand and whispered a spell. Draco began to laugh maniacally. Buffy looked at Draco funny, but soon came to the realization it was a spell.
"Not," Draco laughed "Fair!" Hermione and Buffy were cracking up at the sight of Draco trying to breathe through his laughs. Hermione began to take pity upon her partner and took the spell off. Draco muttered some curse words that Buffy didn't know existed.
"If you guys keep on doing this, we're going to be even more fashionably late." Buffy warned the two Brits. The rest of the way, Hermione and Draco looked at each other, in caution, just in case if someone decided to do a sneak attack. Buffy, on the other hand, was wondering how these two even got to become friends.
*~*~*~*~*~*
University Spring Break Party
8:00 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*
Hermione, Draco, and Buffy all reached the party at about 7:15, which was a reasonable time by the fact that they all were walking to the party. The Scooby Gang plus Hermione and Draco, were all hanging out, enjoying their slay-free night. It was nice not to have to worry about any apocalypses or a Big Bad for a night.
"Here ya go." Draco gave Buffy one of the two drinks he was carrying.
"Oh, thanks." Buffy accepted the drink, while leaning on a column, overlooking the dancers.
"What's wrong?" Draco asked.
"Oh nothing, just looking." Buffy answered, taking a sip out of the alcoholic beverage.
"Right, you are looking at the dancers depressed, just for fun." Draco wisecracked. Buffy made a small laugh. "Now come on, why aren't you going out there finding a nice looking guy to dance with?"
"I danced with Xander." Buffy argued.
"I said, a nice looking guy." Draco repeated himself.
"What's wrong with Xander?" Buffy asked.
"Let's think for a second," Draco paused "He's taken?" Buffy looked at Draco in a 'oh' expression.
"I don't do well with relationships. Not well at all." Buffy explained vaguely.
"Like how?" Draco insisted.
"Like hooking up with vampires and military operatives bad."
"They were the ones that left?"
"More like, left town left."
"Oh, well I can't blame you." Draco said. Buffy looked at him. "Well I mean you are the slayer, you can't help it if you have bad taste in men."
"And I really thought that you were going to say something nice and sincere." Buffy smiled. "Come on, what kind of girls have you hooked up with?"
"Well, this one girl, she had a really big nose, but was in my house, so we went out." Draco started. "Then there was another girl, really pretty, but had an attitude that nobody would like." Draco then sighed. "There was one other girl, she was in a different house, Gryffindor."
"Hermione?" Buffy asked. Draco shook his head. "Well then, what was she like?"
"She looked a lot like Willow actually, had more of a curl to her hair though, and length." Draco said.
"What happened?" Buffy inquired.
"We got separated. She was a year younger than me, meaning I graduated from Hogwarts before her. It's hard to continue a relationship when your other half is at a boarding school." Draco pointed out. "I went into auror training, alone. Wrote occasional letters to Gin after the breakup but eventually we just stopped contacting each other. Then I met Hermione again after our first year of auror training. She was training in another country, needed some time away from her homeland after Voldemort."
"Relationships suck." Buffy stated.
"Cheers." Draco agreed. They tapped their cups together just for their own amusement to make the thought official to them. Buffy's eyes went wide suddenly. She looked over Draco's shoulder and saw Ben, an intern to the hospital that her mother was spending time at while she was suffering from a brain tumor.
"Ben!" Buffy shouted. She walked over to Ben, abandoning Draco. The hospital intern gave Buffy a weak smile.
"I didn't know you felt that way about having a boyfriend." Ben whispered, still trying to stay optimistic.
"I don't. What I mean is," Buffy tried to think of an excuse. "I had bad relationships before, not all of them were bad, just some of them and the alcohol makes you say some funky things sometimes."
"Well, I guess that you won't like the idea of us having coffee sometime?" Ben asked Buffy. The slayer smiled and did a small laugh. Ben was asking her out.
"I'd really like that." Buffy accepted the invitation.
"But would your boyfriend like that?" Ben queried, nodding towards Draco.
"Oh! He's not my boyfriend. He's just an exchanged student from Oxford that is staying at my house for a few months." Buffy lied. The blonde slayer looked over towards Draco and noticed he wasn't watching the conversation at all, actually it looked like he was done munching on the chips and was about to leave.
"That's a relief because I thought you guys had something going on." Ben laughed.
"And you also thought that I didn't like the idea of having a boyfriend at the same time." Buffy teased.
"Well I don't know you that well. It could of happened." Ben tried to support his madness. "But I do hope that changes after that cup of coffee."
"Well that's sweet." Buffy said. While Buffy and Ben were chatting, Draco was making his way over to the other side of the room. As he made his way, he saw Tara and Anya. He walked up to them and asked,
"Where's Hermione?" Tara looked at him, extracting herself from the conversation she and Anya were having.
"She left early. She said she was going to take a walk through the city and go home." Tara retorted.
"I think I'm going to take a rain check too." Draco thought aloud. "Meet you at the Magic Box sometime tomorrow." With that the Auror walked off, but before he walked a far distance Anya yelled.
"Bring money to buy stuff!" Draco turned around to see a smiling Anya waving goodbye. Anya then turned to Tara and said, "Are you sure they aren't dating?" Tara just smiled, uncomfortable by the question asked to her. The dirty blonde witch couldn't wait until her girlfriend came back with their drinks.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sunnydale Roads
10:00 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Ron and Harry were walking around Sunnydale, looking for the address they got from Hermione's file. It was a fine night for a walk, but this was no ordinary walk. This was a walk to give Hermione valid and important information that will help her in fighting against this Goddess.
"Harry?" Ron started.
"Yes Ron." Harry replied.
"What if, she changed for the worse?" Harry stared at Ron for a bit, confused by the question.
"Like what kind of worse? She is in the Auror business isn't she?" Harry answered with a question.
"Well, I don't know, I mean the Auror stuff for sure I do know, but what if she's mad at us Harry? We haven't talked to her since we graduated, and we're going to be coming back, seeing her for the first time with information that Glorificus has a plan to destroy the world for her own little selfish reasons." Ron stated.
"Ron," Harry sighed, "We were best friends in Hogwarts, there can be no possible way that she can hate us most defiantly. Maybe at first she would be a tad mad that we haven't kept in touch with her like we do, but she was in Auror school then, let alone out of the country. I'm sure she'll forgive this, and when it's over, we'll make things right this time."
"Well, that'll be nice, but I'm also worried about something else." Ron said.
"And it is?" Harry insisted for Ron to continue,
"That she looks like an ugly hag." Ron confessed. Harry laughed, with his redheaded friend soon joining in, while they were walking.
"Stop it!" A woman shouted, coming out of nowhere. Harry and Ron drove their attention immediately to the mysterious woman.
"Excuse me, miss." Ron started, walking towards her.
"No, don't. Don't hurt me!" She shouted. Ron backed off a bit.
"Ms, I won't hurt you." He tried again.
"Ow! You're hurting me!" She cried, falling down to the ground. She then looked to Harry, "You!"
"Me?" Harry said, a bit confounded on why the woman switched her attention from Ron to himself so quickly.
"You, you're the one who's hurting us! You're stinging, shocking." The woman was obviously insane. Ron finally went up to her and held on to her hand. The insane female soon went calm. "It won't stop." She whispered. "They keep on coming back, and it'll never stop. Not till she gets it. Not till she gets it."
"Do you want to go home?" Harry asked. The woman then looked at the famous black-haired man.
"I can't. I'm lost." She answered, a sad look upon her face. "I can't! I can't! I can't!" Now shouting, Ron let go of the woman, covering his ears, looking at Harry.
"We should take her to the hospital." Ron suggested.
"Good idea." Harry complimented.
"No. Not there. Bad. Bad! Bad! Bad!" The stranger was out of control. Ron quickly took out his wand and said,
"Stupefy." The woman soon was knocked out, looking calmer than before. Harry glanced at Ron then to the woman.
"We go to the hospital, now."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Sunnydale General Hospital
10:30 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Harry and Ron rushed into the hospital, with the woman now up. The intern at the desk looked up, a bit confused. She bit her lip as the two Brits lead the woman over to the front desk.
"Um, hello?" She started.
"Yes, this woman right here was wandering around the streets speaking nonsense." Harry explained.
"He shot me.. Shot me with colors." The woman whispered, frightened of Harry.
"Right, he shot you with colors." The intern repeated, then looking at Harry with a look of suspicion. "Do you know her?"
"No, me and my friend Ron here were taking a walk and this woman came out of the woods. We thought if we brought her here, you could take her in or find her family." Harry answered.
"I'll show you to the psychiatric ward, maybe somebody there could show you if she has a file or not." The intern offered.
"I think that would be very useful." Harry said. The intern nodded, saying,
"It's right down the hall, first right then go down till you see another hall. There should be a doctor or a nurse or some intern there to help you out." Harry and Ron nodded to the blonde intern, in silent thanks, and went down to the psychiatric ward, following the intern's directions. Soon they saw a doctor, talking to a nurse by the ward's entrance.
"Doctor!" Ron shouted, the doctor looked up, seeing Ron, Harry, and the crazy female.
"Miranda?" He whispered.
"You know her?" Harry asked, now closer to the doctor along with the crazy woman and Ron.
"Mrs. Jenkins? She was here just a few days ago, we released her to her family." The doctor answered.
"Why did you release her Dr." Harry looked at the nametag real quick, "Peterson?"
"She was making progress, and had a less severe case than the others that just came in." Dr. Peterson explained.
"Others?" Ron queried.
"Yes, lately we have been getting a lot of cases of people going insane abruptly for the past few months." The doctor replied. Harry and Ron looked at each other, then the doctor. "We can contact her family and keep her here until they come by, but we truly can't help her anymore than we did before."
"Thank you doctor." Harry said.
"No, thank you. You have no idea how dangerous it could be for Mrs. Jenkins to be roaming around town with her condition." The doctor insisted on turning Harry and Ron into micro-heroes.
"No problem sir." Ron answered back. The doctor shook the two Brits' hands and went off with Miranda. Ron and Harry went the other direction, on their way to exit out of the building.
"Nobody becomes crazy suddenly Harry. Both you and I know that, but do you think it's because of Glorificus?" Ron inquired his friend.
"I know Ron, but we can't just put our finger on the hell goddess." Harry answered.
"Why not?"
"Because Ron, we need proof." Harry opened the door that was in front of him and exited the building along with his redheaded friend. "But till then, we need to get a room."
"Cheers." Ron agreed. The two of them were walking down the street to a motel Harry and Ron found over the Internet. As they were walking, a brunette woman in normal street clothes stood right in front of them and smiled.
"Hello." She said. "I'm April, and I'm looking for my boyfriend, Warren. Have you seen him?"
"No, erm, sorry." Harry answered. "Is there something wrong?"
"Oh nothing," She answered, perky as ever. "It's just that Warren lost me and I'm trying to find him so he won't have to worry anymore."
"Did that make any sense to you?" Ron queried his friend.
"Nope." Harry shook his head.
"Oh don't feel bad." April patted Harry's shoulder. "I'm sure you'll find out who he is when I find him. He is the greatest person alive." She then waved and exclaimed "Goodbye!" and left.
"You sure she wasn't another crazy?" Ron inquired.
"God only knows Ron." Harry laughed ad the two friends continued on their way to go to the motel.
*~*~*~*~*~*
The Next Morning
The Magic Box
9:00 AM
*~*~*~*~*~*
"I think I got it!" Hermione exclaimed as she looked at her floating pencil.
"I think you do!" Willow smiled. "Well it's nice to know you're not a quitter." Willow laughed, looking at Hermione accomplishment.
"If I was a quitter, I would have been gone long before me and Draco teamed up." Hermione joked. The two girls laughed while the pencil stayed afloat in the air. Then, a bell rang, which indicated a customer has entered the store. Anya perked up and went over.
"Hello shopper, I am Anya and I am here to see that you buy lots of stuff with your money."
"Sorry, um, we're not buying." Hermione stopped laughing. She recognized that voice. The brunette looked at Willow, then turned around. There he was, Harry Potter. Harry was standing right there next to Anya, and.
"Ron? Harry?" Hermione asked in disbelief.
"Hermione! Miss us?" Ron laughed. Hermione got up from her seat, and walked up to her two old best friends.
"Miss you? Of course I did!" Hermione exclaimed as she hugged the two.
"So they aren't paying?" Anya asked.
"No, they aren't." Hermione replied, with that, a loud noise came from the back of the shop, where a door opened.
"Here's that box of newt eyes you wanted An." Draco said as he went across the room with that box. He went over to the counter and set it down and looked up to see Harry and Ron. "Oh great, just what we need. The wonder boys are reunited with their sidekick wonder girl."
"Malfoy?" Ron gasped.
"Oh great, he remembers me Mione. Isn't that just fan-bloody-tastic?" Draco rolled his eyes and leaned up against the counter.
"Um, Hermione, sorry to be, you know a party pooper and all, but um, who are these guys?" Willow asked.
"Oh! I forgot, this is Ron and Harry!" Hermione introduced the two boys. "This is Willow."
"She looks a hell of a lot like Gin." Harry stated.
"Freaky isn't it?" Hermione inquired.
"Ok, this is the second time I've been mistaken for an alcoholic drink, I think I have a right to know why I am being called gin." Willow demanded.
"Gin, Ginny Weasley. She's Ron's little sister." Hermione explained.
"Oh," Willow said. After a few eerie moments of silence, Buffy and Dawn came through the door. Immediately she noticed the two strangers by the front door. She looked at Willow and asked,
"Will, can you help me out here?"
"This is Harry and Ron, our friends from," Hermione was interrupted by Ron, who barged into the conversation,
"From our book club. We were worried that she would miss this month's book so we came to give it to her."
"These are your friends from Hogwarts?" Anya questioned. "They're pretty pathetic, they can't even lie properly."
"You told them?" Ron gritted through his teeth. "Well it shouldn't surprise me, with him around, he was probably the one that blew your cover, and why is he here anyway?"
"He's my partner Ron, we're both aurors and assigned together as partners and are doing our job." She clarified.
"Right, you working in this thrift shop for magic goods is your job while your giving little love letters to your partner." Ron jumped over to an entirely different topic in the conversation.
"What?" Hermione queried.
"God, no wonder you guys talk to each other." Anya added to the argument.
"Hey, I take offense to that!" Harry argued back.
"Well I mean she is right," Hermione agreed with the ex-vengeance demon.
"Shut up, all of you!" Draco shouted, making the room go silent. "Now, Buffy came in here for a little Scooby meeting, therefore we're going to have the Scooby meeting, so all of you be quiet and shut up, or else I'll make you all wish you never had this argument."
"Thanks Draco," Buffy thanked.
"No problem, a bit dry on the threat part though." The blonde smiled, in a joking way.
"Is Xander and Giles here?" The slayer turned to Willow.
"Yeah, they're in the back room."
"Good, go get them. I found out a bit more on April."
"April?" Hermione inquired.
"Last night at the party, after you and Draco left, some girl through Spike out the window, and we think it's a robot." Buffy explained.
"A robot through Spike out the window." Hermione repeated. "God, I knew I shouldn't have left that party."
"Too bad," Buffy turned to Willow, "We really should have gotten a poloroid of it. "
"It was funny." Willow nodded, after that Giles and Xander came out of the weapon room, over to the rest of the group.
"Great, we're all here." Buffy said.
"Buffster," Xander started pointing to Ron and Harry.
"I know Xander, just, we'll explain later." Buffy said. "Anyways, I went to Warren's place, and he made April to um, fill a hole in his life."
"For sex?" Anya tactfully asked.
"Um, yeah." Buffy folded her arms uncomfortably. "Anyways, he said he wanted her to go away, and his girlfriend found out. April is out there, and if she finds Katrina," Buffy paused. "I don't want to know what could happen."
"Well we should find her, maybe try and shut her down." Xander suggested.
"Well, I'm going to go out and find April, try and take her down easy, but if she doesn't. I'm going to have to fight her." Buffy made the last sentence sound final. The group understood clearly what Buffy was going to do. She looked at Willow and asked, "Can you Will?" while nodding towards Dawn's way.
"Sure." The redheaded witch answered.
"Do you need any help from us?" Hermione questioned her new friend.
"No, I think I'll go solo on this one." Buffy replied.
"Ok, we're going to take Ron and Harry back to our place, and talk this whole thing out." Hermione told the group.
"Speak for yourself." Draco stood up straight and went up to Hermione and whispered, "I'm going to take a walk around, give me a ring when the wonder boys are away or when we could have a bit more of a private talk." He then turned to Harry and Ron and gave them a cold stare. A stare so icy, it could make even a demon weak in the knees.
"Draco," Hermione calmly said. Draco turned back to his partner and gave her one of those looks that just could tell he wanted to be alone. Hermione lowered her head as Draco exited the store.
"Talk about hostility." Xander muttered.
"Xander," Willow said through her teeth.
"Right then, Harry Ron and I are going to go." Hermione said, ignoring Xander's comment. "Come on guys." And with that, the reunited trio left the Magic Box and went on their way to the condo.
"What was that all about?" Hermione asked, furiously.
"Drop it Hermione, Ron had his reasons." Harry explained.
"What kind of reasons?" Hermione questioned.
"Why the hell are you working with Malfoy?" Ron shot out.
"He's my partner Ron, and my best friend." Hermione answered.
"No, we're your best friends, he is a slimy git who can't think straight." Ron argued.
"And you aren't? You guys don't get it, he's my partner, Draco and I do everything together, like you guys did with me." Hermione quarreled.
"Hermione, you know as well as we do that you can request for a new partner." Harry said. "So why didn't you?"
"Because, I listened to Draco, and I learned the truth." Hermione cried.
"He told his father our plan out of his own free will, he killed people Hermione, but now you've probably had a good shag with him every night ever since you guys were assigned to each other." Ron pointed his finger at Hermione.
"Under the influence of his father Ron. He was put under some heavy dark magicks that nobody, not even Dumbledore himself could withstand, and you knew that." Hermione lowered her voice to a harsh tone. "When all of that crap happened, you finally found something to accuse Draco of, and for a few months, I was with you guys, but now. Now, I see what really was going on."
"Mione," Harry softened up his voice.
"Don't Mione me Harry Potter," Hermione commanded, "Our seventh year of Hogwarts wasn't a happy one, people we loved died, people we trusted deceived us. It was full of manipulation and lies, and we couldn't tell who's side they were on. But when that final battle came up," Hermione paused, "did you know what Draco was going to do?"
"Does it matter?" Ron asked.
"He was going to take Dumbledore's place, and do you know how close he was to doing that?" Hermione spaced her finger and thumb out to a centimeter apart. "That close. Dumbledore was against it Harry, but he made it through. He got up to Voldemort and was just about to do the spell." Hermione took another pause for a breath. "He was lucky that he ran into his father and only got a couple nasty scars from him."
"I didn't know." Ron whispered.
"That's right, you didn't know." Hermione snapped. "I suggest that you go and rent a room at a motel or something and stay there until you think you are ready to talk to me again." Hermione looked at Harry and Ron with a final look and walked away, back to the condo. She was in need to talk to Draco now, desperately.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Summers' Home
4:00 PM
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Buffy was on her way home from the park. She had just fought April, and spent her last moments with her on a swing set. This wasn't a regular battle though. First off, it was during the daytime, and second off, it was between a robot. Also, she learned something. Buffy doesn't need a man in her life. If she went out with Ben now, well it would seem more like rebound sex, without the sex.
While her house began to come into her view, Buffy was thinking about everything that has happened in the past week. Hermione and Draco coming, them helping them out with patrolling, now these two friends of Hermione and Draco come and it seems like they had a bad history together.
Buffy then began to smile to herself. This all looked like something that came straight out of a soap opera. With all the mystery and romance and fighting. Buffy now entered her front yard, walking up to it, still grinning. She then walked up the stairs to the porch, and came up to the door.
The Slayer looked through the front window and saw a bouquet of flowers on the table. She opened the door and looked at the card that came from the flowers. They were from Brian, her mother's date from the other night.
"Mom!" Buffy shouted from the front hallway. She walked up the stairs, her head looking up. "Hey flower getting' lady, where are you?" Buffy then saw something out of the corner of her eye. She slowly turned around and saw her mother. There she was, on the couch. Joyce was there, completely still, not moving, not even blinking. Buffy's eyes went wide, while the tears were beginning to form. Before any of that could happen though, Buffy wanted to make sure. She just had to find out if it was just real. She whispered in a very squeaky and panicky voice, "Mommy?"
*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N 2: How was it? Was it good or really good or like "it sucked ass and should have never been updated". Truly I am in the middle of good and "she shoulda spent more time on it". I feel like I skipped on some parts, and the whole Hermione/Harry/Draco/Ron fight and history may have confused a lot of you. Originally I was going to have them all be friends, but I didn't like it that way. So, I decided to make things a lot more, you know, conflict-y. Ok, but truly, I want to know how many people stuck with the story out there, and how this chapter was compared to the other ones and if you got confused a lot. If you did get majorly confused, well I'm sorry, but I do promise to answer all of these questions later on in the story.
Please review! Make an author happy!