Chapter 4: August 4, 2014 – Deputy Headmaster

Challenge: for the livejournal 2014 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.

Charmed Timeline: at the end of 'Siren Song' once Cole realizes he can't win Phoebe back (but change the airdate to late November instead)

A/N: This may hinder my ability to bring in the Sisters later on.

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. Charmed characters belong to Constance M. Burge and the WB. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.


Hogwarts

McGonagall's lips pinched into a tight line. "May I ask why you are taking the position of Deputy Headmistress from me? Have you found me lacking in some way?"

"It's a conflict of interest…kind of. My preference is that all employees only have one job they are responsible for. Exceptions could be made if you wanted to sponsor a school club for advanced Transfiguration or something, but can you honestly tell me that your different roles have never conflicted with each other? Especially your Head of House and the Deputy Headmistress positions?" Buffy asked in a reasonable tone of voice.

"What do you mean?" McGonagall demanded, feeling insulted by the implied insult.

"The way I understand it, as Deputy Headmistress, you are mainly in charge of discipline, right? But as Head of House, you are supposed to be an advocate for the students of Gryffindor. Same goes for your role as a teacher; there are times when it conflicts with your other two roles. Not to mention how exhausting it must be to have all three jobs," Buffy added offhandedly.

She paused for a moment, then said, "If you'd prefer, I can give you the choice of which job you want to keep, but I'll tell you right now that if you don't stay a teacher, I'd be shocked. I've watched your classes and you have such a passion for the subject that you keep the students engaged no matter the lesson is for the day."

Resigned to the idea that she would have to give up two of her jobs, McGonagall made a request, "May I think about it and let you know by this weekend?"

"That's fine."


That evening, Minerva called her co-Head of Houses to her quarters to discuss this new, troubling development.

"I, for one, welcome the change," Pomona announced once Minerva repeated what Buffy told her.

"Really?" Minerva asked in surprise.

"But that could be because I have the greenhouses to keep me busy when I don't have classes," Pomona admitted. "Don't get me wrong, I love being Head of Hufflepuff, but it gets rather tiring fairly early in the year. Sometimes I feel like I might be addicted to Pepper-Up potion."

"You, too? I thought it was just me!" Filius squeaked.

Shocked at their attitudes, Minerva asked, "So you don't feel insulted by her splitting up our duties like this?"

Pomona shrugged, then answered, "We have to remember that she is from another country and wasn't raised in the magical world. No doubt she has seen different methods for running a school and like most people, is more comfortable with the methods she knows. And to have to time to sponsor a Herbology club? That would be wonderful!"

Minerva got a thoughtful look on her face when she considered the upside to having more personal time. "It would be nice to be able to leave the Castle once in a while, I suppose. What about you, Severus?" she asked the remaining member of their group who had been silent until this point.

Knowing how precarious his position at the school was, Severus asked, "Has she said anything about dismissing current staff entirely?"

"Not to me," Minerva told him. She also hadn't been told there wouldn't be any dismissals either.

"I fear that without Dumbledore here to fight for me, my feelings on the matter are moot," Severus answered quietly.

"Maybe you should speak to her; convince her that you are the right person for the job. She's young enough that she wouldn't hold your youth against you like some might." His surly personality, on the other hand…was a sentiment that Minerva didn't speak out loud.


San Francisco

Buffy knew from her Slayer dream that she only had a small window to find the guy she could make her Deputy Headmaster. Thank goodness Professor McGonagall agreed to give up the position in favor of staying the Transfiguration teacher…and temporarily stay on as Gryffindor's Head of House until that position could be filled – preferably by a guy/girl team.

Back to her prospective interviewee, though. If she didn't convince him to leave San Francisco right away, he would continue to obsess over his ex-wife until it drove him to use his demonic powers for evil again. At that point, he would be basically unstoppable because the powers would take over completely. But right now, she had a chance to strip the powers away and just leave the guy who wanted to be good.

She and Willow exited the elevator into the living room of a very nice apartment. "Doesn't it seem strange that there isn't a door for us to knock on?" she asked Willow.

Willow shrugged. "Maybe the security guard downstairs got approval to put us on the elevator that leads directly into the apartment?"

"Can I help you, ladies?" a rich baritone voice asked from the next room.

They turned to look at him and gave a little sigh of lust. He was so sexy in that gorgeous suit! He smiled in amusement at their reaction, then repeated his question, "Can I help you, ladies?"

"Uh-huh," Buffy murmured absently before catching herself and shaking the cobwebs loose. "Actually, we have an offer and a proposal for you…a job proposal! We have a job proposal for you."

Still amused, he motioned for them to take a seat, then asked, "What is the offer, first of all?"

Sharing a look between them that contained a conversation, Willow finally explained, "Well, to jump right into things, we know that you have demonic powers that you are having trouble controlling, so our offer is to help get those powers out of you. The catch is that you would basically revert to your original form – which we understand was half-demon/half-human?"

Cole's eyes narrowed in suspicion. The Sisters wouldn't send somebody else to deal with him, so these ladies might be demons in human form. "Who are you?"

"I'm The Slayer – at least one of them – and Willow's one of the witches that is part of my team," Buffy replied.

"The Slayer? And you aren't trying to kill me already?" Cole asked in surprise. As The Source of All Evil, he knew who the Slayer was but since past attempts to control her failed miserably, the underworld had an unspoken rule to leave her alone and for upper-level demons to avoid the areas she was sighted in. "How would you accomplish this task?"

Since it was Willow's area, Buffy let her handle the explanation. "It's a variation on a Soul Restoration Spell that I've done in the past a couple times. Basically we would take all the souls out of your body that don't belong and just leave the one that does: Cole Turner/Belthazor. Then we banish the orbs of the other souls to the demon afterlife place."

"Sounds simple enough. What's in it for you?" Cole asked, not sure it would be as simple as they were making it seem.

Sure enough, the next words out of Willow's mouth were, "It isn't simple. You can't fight it, even though the souls in you will want to, and I'll probably need help from some other witches who are able to cast the spell."

Buffy interjected, "As for what's in it for us, we're able to remove a possible threat without bloodshed and other bad stuff. You might not be our area of responsibility, but I got the dream about you for a reason. As an added bonus, I think you might be a good fit for a job that I need filled at a magic school in Scotland."

"Hogwarts?"

"You've heard about it?" Buffy asked in surprise.

"As the Source, I had really good intel about the supernatural world," Cole explained. "What happened to Albus Dumbledore? I thought he was the Headmaster there."

"He died a couple weeks ago and I inherited the job because I killed the dark lord that killed him," Buffy explained.

"Voldemort," Cole clarified. "That guy was a loser by bad guy standards. Just a bully in a crowd of cowards. So what do you want me to do?"

"I need a Deputy Headmaster. The spell that we used to make a short list of possibles came up with your name, even after we tweaked it again. You're smart enough to hand the work, charming enough – I'm guessing – to handle the parents and teachers, and with your history, you're intimidating enough to scare the hell out of the kids."

Cole thought about Phoebe and trying to make things work with her after they stripped his powers – it didn't sound as if them helping him out was contingent on him accepting the job – but then he remembered the look in her eyes when he saw her after their close call with the Siren. Despite her love for him, she was done trying to make it work. For both their sakes, he needed to move on with his life. Maybe going to Scotland was a good place to start.


A/N: Yeah, only one interview but one is all they needed.

Tomorrow…Minion- er, Secretary (sorry, Executive Administrative Assistant).