I own nothing, Joss and Ms Rowling own everything!
Buffy woke to the smell of bacon frying, greasy and delicious. In the way that only a hungry slayer can, she bounded downstairs in her spongebob squarepants pyjamas before stopping in her tracks as she realised that there were another two hot identical red headed British boys in the kitchen. They laughed when they saw her face and offered her some bacon. Just as she was wishing that a hole in the ground would swallow her up, she took a bite of the bacon and the ground literally did swallow her up. As far as she could observe, she seemed to have been transformed into an ugly carpet. She wouldn't have minded except that the carpet was not only cheap wool, but also a garish orange colour that made her think of the goo that had once come out a demon's eyeball as she stabbed it. She could see the boys above her howling with laughter, until eventually Molly came into the room to see what the racket was about. The speed at which they stopped laughing was impressive, and as Molly was exclaiming over the fact that the carpet had eyes that looked suspiciously like the blonde slayer's there was a loud pop as the boys disappeared, pursued by a frantic Molly who turned only to shout "derifiamus" to the carpet, which promptly turned into Buffy again. Buffy shook her head, went upstairs and pulled on her leather trousers and white top and went down again to try her luck at breakfast for a second time.
Hermione brushed her eyes as she turned over, drowsy from a long nights sleep. As she opened her eyes fully she suddenly realised that she was staring straight at sleeping Willow, who looked beautifully unconscious of the fact that she was being observed. Her duvet cover had fallen to one side, and the gentle curve of her bare spine was revealed. She had a cute mole on the right hand side which Hermione decided looked not dissimilar to a map of Algeria. A shiver went up her as she felt the fizz of an emotion that she did not quite understand. Perplexed, her natural instinct was to resolve herself to go and research whatever she was feeling in the library after lunch. She knew that it was normal and natural for girls to feel like this about each other, but she just wanted to check that it wasn't a hex that Fred and George had put on her.
Giles and Xander were due to leave at midday, so Molly was going her best to try and feed them with fried newt and pumpkin pasties to ensure that they wouldn't starve on the port key trip home. It had been pointed out to her that the trip would only take a quarter of a second, but she liked to do her duty as a hostess properly. Xander had mixed feelings about leaving his 3 closest girl friends, but he knew that his inferiority complex would only get far worse being in a place where he was the only "non magical" person, or squib as he overheard someone calling him. He was unimpressed when Buffy mentioned out that Squib was the nickname that Cordelia had once given a boy she had dated who had had a tiny penis. Especially as Xander had never told Buffy that Cordelia's pet name for him was Squib. As noon drew nearer, Dumbledore arrived wearing a fantastically wacky set of robes that both glowed and sparkled. He carried in his arm an empty tin of Heinz baked beans, which he placed on the middle of the table. Xander looked thoroughly perplexed as Dumbledore told him to put his finger on the tin, but both he and Giles did so, and as the tin began to glow they shouted there final goodbyes as they got whisked away back to Devon. As Giles left, he saw Willow looking longingly at Hermione, Ron making eyes at Dawn and the twins both oogling Buffy in her tight leather. As he disappeared, they could just make out his tiny British voice sighing "the joys of teenage hormones…"
"Well" Buffy said "Now that they've gone, who's up for playing magic wars?!"
Naturally they all were, so they split into teams of Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Hermione and Ginny against Ron, Harry, George and Fred. The boys were extremely confident and cocksure at first, as they knew that the girls supposedly had less experience. However, Willow's first move was to cast an impenetrable protection spell, which mentally drained her but allowed the girls to throw as many hexes at the boys without being hurt in return. The others gasped when they saw her pink protection bubble surround the girls as she had not used a wand, something that felt grotesquely wrong to them. They all remembered the times that the magic had sprung from them when they were young with no wand, and remembered how uncontrollable and deep that magic run. They didn't have time to look on in awe for too long though, as Buffy had left the bubble and had kicked George flat on his back before straddling him and tickling him. His protests fell on empty ears, especially when Fred shouted
"Quit complaining and enjoy being straddled by a hot blonde girl in leather".
George appreciated his point, but Buffy most certainly did not. However she did not have time to retaliate as she got hit straight in the face with a charm from Ron that was making huge rainbow bubbles come out of her mouth, each with a butterfly trapped inside. She was actually quite impressed at how nice it had been, especially considering that Ron had now been hexed by Hermione and was vomiting up frogspawn. This went on until all the boys were down. The girls cheered and hugged, and Buffy gestured to the others not to dehex her as she was enjoying the menagerie of butterflies that were fluttering around her. Eventually, even Buffy got sick of it, and with a wave of her hand Willow dehexed everyone.
Hermione gasped in awe and begged Willow to teach her wandless magic, so they went off to the house together. Ron, Harry and Ginny decided to give Dawn her first flying lesson, and Buffy was intrigued by the promise of a visit to Fred and George's joke shop and had promised to teach them some of the easiest physical ways to disarm someone.
Hermione and Willow were in the room that they shared with Ginny. Hermione was trying not to be too nosy, but was incredibly interested in how Willow had come to be involved in wandless magic
"So you joined a coven, and then you just all of a sudden became one of the worlds most powerful witches?!" she said, in awe of the red haired amazing yet unpretentious girl before her.
"Not exactly. It took a while.. my friends.. my friend.. Tara.." she tailed off and a tear dropped down her cheek. Hermione inwardly kicked herself for being insensitive and put an arm around her. They both shuddered a little and looked away from each other.
Willow continued, not wanting Hermione to think that she had upset her.
"Tara.. the first girl I ever truly loved"
At this Hermione started a little, then moved a little closer to Willow.
"We used to practice magic together. I got addicted. I hurt her, but she forgave me.. she was like that.. forgiving. Anyway, she was shot. There was nothing I could do to stop it, and there was nothing I could do to stop myself from turning into the monster I became. It's like when you are out at sea by yourself, and all around you is this vast abyss of ocean. That's how it felt, I was so isolated and so alone. I couldn't think, I couldn't concentrate on anything but revenge and the only way I could survive was to absorb more and more magic in the hope that I would eventually be able to feel something other than the despair. And then I did something that I have never forgiven myself for, and I never will forgive myself for" At this Willow broke off and started weeping. Hermione pulled her into her shoulder and despite the circumstances; both noticed how they fitted together like two halves of a whole. Eventually curiosity got the better of her, and she couldn't resist asking "What did you do?"
Willows big brown tear-filled eyes looked down as she replied "I killed a man."
Unsure of an appropriate response, Hermione put her finger below Willows chin and drew up her head so it was level with her own. With an instinct that left her no time to process what was happening, she brought her lips to Willows.
Ginny had nudged Ron until even Ron got the hint that maybe they ought to leave Dawn and Harry alone to get to know each other a little more. After all, they didn't have the simplest family situation in the world. Harry kept looking at Dawn's eyes and seeing the eyes that he saw every time he looked in the mirror. Lily's eyes. Yet he knew that she had never been cradled by his parents, never been loved in the same way that he knew that he and Buffy had been. It made him feel desperately sad, and he resolved to do everything possible to be the brother that she didn't have, especially as she was now away from Xander. While Dawn had already been given the brief synopsis of his life story, she was asking questions in her usual bubbly way, trying her best to understand this boy with the big smile but the sad eyes. It reminded her in a way of Buffy since she had been dragged back from heaven.
"so.. a friendly half giant dropped you from the sky onto your unsuspecting muggle aunts front doorstep. Neat. I was implanted into the world by a bunch of crazy monks, so you know, you don't have all the cool stories."
Harry laughed "yeh but at least I've saved the world more times than you"
"nuh-uh Mr, I've definitely stopped more apocalypses than your bony ass could ever have done. So don't go thinking that just because you're Mr Specialpants over here that you're going to be equally worshipped by your sister" As she said the word sister, there was a slight awkward pause and then they both smiled a little shyly at each other.
"God this whole situation is bizarre right?" Harry postulated, before concluding "Well, if you're my sister, then you'd better get used to this" sending a tickling hex in her way. He sat back and laughed as the brunette American tried to appear irate while rolling on the floor laughing. Eventually when Dawn's eyes started to weep with laughter Harry took pity on her and stopped the hex.
"You are so a dead man" she said, running after him
"Dead wizard actually.." he replied as he ran through the kitchen to escape the small but feisty Dawn.