A/N: Thank you to everyone who commented. They actually do make me write faster, so, keep 'em coming. There are plans for this people! Big plans. There where a few hints about who Giles will be contacting and more in the next chapter. Anyone who can guess who it is from this earns themselves a giant gold star and a pet baby dragon.

Chapter 7

It had been a very tiring day so far for Rupert Giles. It had taken him nearly all of his free time for the better part of a week to research and find out everything he could about Horcruxes. It was far from easy, but he was accustomed to doing such things but the information had proven itself almost impossible to find. The books where buried, almost hidden if he had such a mind as to suspect such a thing.

He had suspected that Voldemort had created at least one Horcrux after he had obtained all of the information upon his return, but seven? That was insane! Doing such a thing to ones soul would cause untold amount of mental instability. Which, judging by recent events, was probably not far from the truth. Voldemort, while still dangerous as ever, had seemed to grow more...impatient and erratic. Still, this had to have been known to Dumbledore and Harry's reaction had given him just such proof he needed in order to go to Minerva with this.

He had sent Xander down to dinner without him. This meeting would take no small amount of persuasion and possibly some heated arguing on both his and Minerva's part. So, he sat there in her office, waiting for her to return from wherever it was she was before this. It was an impromptu meeting and he didn't expect her to drop everything without being told what it was about at first. Still this information was crucial and his plan to deal with it was dependent on several other factors and it would take him time to get it in motion.

The door opened and Minerva walked in shaking her head, "I swear, those...those dunderheads at the ministry are going to be the end of me. Can you believe that they honestly expect me to allow Draco to start attending classes again? I can make allowances to have him here for his own protection, which is by no means going over well with the students or their parents, but even I draw the line somewhere." she said after sitting down across the desk from him.

"Yes, well, I can't begin to understand what they're thinking when I'm not sure of what's going on," Giles said, not bothering to hid his contempt for being left in the dark about the situation with Draco.

Smiling tiredly, Minerva said, "Rupert, if I could tell you what was going on with Mr. Malfoy's situation, I certainly would. I believe though, that for the moment, it is best if certain information is known only to a small group of people."

Giles chuckled, understanding the meaning of her words, "They arien't telling you anything, are they?"

"No. They are not. Luckily, we still have our own people within the ministry and Aurors. If we didn't we would be completely in the dark! But, that's not the point. What is it that you needed to speak to me that was so urgent, Rupert?"

Taking off his glasses, he cleaned them and replace them, "As I'm sure you know, Albus was working on a very important and secrete project. One that he passed on to Harry."

"Yes, and try for all we might, no one has been able to determine what it was or get the information out of him. We have a few speculations as to what it may be, but nothing concrete," she said, nodding her head.

"Minerva...have you ever heard of a Horcrux?"

Looked at him confused for a moment, her eyes suddenly grew wide with understanding, "No. I mean, of all the things he would do...your not telling me that Albus thinks that Voldemort created such a thing, do you?"

"More then think. I've been doing research on the subject for the past week and in that little time I was able to determine what it was that Voldemort did. But, I'm afraid that the situation is far more troubling. Voldemort did not just create a single Horcrux but seven of them."

Covering her mouth in shock, Minerva shook her head, "No. It's impossible! To create even one of them would take massive power and determination. It rips the caster apart inside. How could he have even created seven of them and have survived!"

Giles leaned back in his chair, the hard part was coming up soon. He dreaded the next part of the conversation but it was necessary. "Minerva, this was the task that Harry was intrusted with. Albus believed that it was up to Harry to find these objects and destroy them."

"Potter is a child! He...he shouldn't have to deal with such a thing and Albus should have known that by now!" she cried. "How could you possibly have figured this out, Rupert? You've been here less then two weeks and have only been near Potter for less then that. You could be wrong, about all of this."

"It wasn't that hard," he sighed. "All of the signs where there, all it took was a little information gathering. Harry is an intelligent, brave and powerful young man. I've known few that surpass him in any of those qualities. I'm sure that Harry could handle the situation, but I'm not sure that it is the only way of going about it."

"He should have said something. It isn't fair, after everything that poor boy has gone through...to have to deal with this on top of it," Minerva seemed to be staring off into the distance, speaking softly now.

Giles tried his hardest not to speak to loudly, fearing he might startle her more then she already was. He knew first hand with Buffy how delicate these situations where. He only wish that there had been someone to break the news to him in a more gentle way then just him finding it out on his own, let alone knowing that it would be she who went off into the night to face the demons of that world.

"Minerva, Albus must have choose Harry for a reason. There is a reason why Voldemort is going after him so strongly, why he went after him at all. I don't believe that he went to the Potters by accident or because they merely stood in his way." He saw the recognition in her eyes but also some of the steal come back into them. Whatever she knew about that particular question, he wasn't going to be finding out from her.

"Rupert, I can't divulge that information to you. I know that you have made this...discovery but, you must understand. Some things must still be kept secrete," Once she believed she had made it clear enough that the issue was not to be pushed, she added, "Now, you said that you thought there might be another way around Potter having to destroy the...the Horcruxes?"

'Now, comes the hard part,' he thought. Taking a deep breath, he started on his proposal. "I'm not going to pretend that I don't have a...past here. But, that also means that I know some people here that Albus did not. That, more then likely, no one here really does aside from a very select few."

"Stop right there. I forbid it, Rupert. You can not honestly believe that I would even consider you bringing that...that...man into this school or near anyone here let alone intrust him with something like this. We will find another way." she said heatedly.

"Minerva, he may be the only that can help. To destroy a Horcrux takes a considerable amount of power in itself. It would take something that was virtually unbreakable. To simple dismiss him as an ally is foolish!"

Before Minerva could respond, the sound of a distant explosion. Both stopped arguing and looked at each other with worry in their eyes. They waited for another sound, something to tell them what was going on but nothing came. Without speaking they took their wands out and headed for the door.

"Filius is on guard tonight as well as a few Aurors," Minerva told Giles as they made their way down the stairs of her office and towards the hallway leading to the main fifth floor stairway. They couldn't tell where the noise had come from and where forced to stand for a moment trying to determine where to go.

"What the bloody hell was that?" Giles hissed looking down the railing trying to see anything below them. It looked as if their was dust settling but from what, he couldn't tell.

"Professor! Professor!" both Giles and McGonagall looked at the stairs on the floor below to find one of the students calling up to them. "Someone's broken into the castle! Professor Harris said you needed to get down there right away!"

Without another look at McGonagall Giles started taking the steps two at a time. Brandishing his wand like a sword, he ran past the student, not bothering to ask for any more information. Xander was here because of him and if he was in danger he would not hesitate to run to his aid.

Could Voldemort have really just decided to attack outright? There must be wards and guards to prevent such a thing. It made no sense. But no matter what was logical, right now, what was fact was that someone or several someone's had broken in and Xander was down there with them as well as the students. It didn't matter what was down there and attacking. But had faced far worse then a group of mad wizards and wasn't about to let them do anymore harm if he could help it.

After what seemed far too long he finally reached the bottom of the steps. He took in everything he could in an instant. Flitwick and two others where on the ground knocked out. The doors had been completely destroyed. Students where screaming and running back along the hall, some stood by the Great Hall trying to see what was causing all the commotion. Finally, his brain caught up to him and allowed him to see what was in the center of the mess. Standing at the foot of the opposite staircase looking up at Xander, Harry, Hermione and Ron was Ethan Rayne.

"Ripper! My God, man is that you?" Ethan turned and gave him a wide grin. "And here I thought my eyes where playing tricks on me with the boy over there," he indicate towards Xander who had his arms spread out in front of the three students.

"Ethan...leave. Right now. I don't care how you got here, I don't care what you want. Leave, this very moment." Giles voice had taken on that calm calculating tone he seemed to get whenever he faced someone he knew from his past. He had to struggle to keep his emotions from getting the better of him or else there was a good possibility that he would kill Ethan right here in front of everyone.

"Come on, now. You can't really mean that. I just got here," Ethan shrugged when Giles merely stared at him. "Well, I can see that this is going to have to get dirty, isn't it."

Before Giles could utter a curse, he heard the growling coming from the now fully exposed doorway. Taking his eyes off Ethan, Giles turned to see six vampires all grinning menacingly and looking from him to the students behind him. This little visit now confirmed what he had suspected before about the vampire attacks. Somehow, someway, vampires as Giles and Xander knew them had crossed the dimensional gap. Now, Ethan Rayne as well. The two where connected, unfortunately, he had no time to figure out how or what it meant.

"Come on, Ripper. Even you know that this is useless. Tell you what, I'll even put in a good word for you," Ethan, still smiling, waited a moment before shaking his head. "Have it your way."

The six vampires rushed into the hallway taking off in different directions with two heading straight for Giles. Without thinking he dropped to the ground in a crouch, flicked his wand at one of the larger pieces of the door on the floor causing it to fly at the vampires, knocking them down for a moment.

"Xander! Get the children out of here!" Giles cried before turning back to his attackers. He didn't have to wait around to see if Xander would listen to him. Instead, he was forced to concentrate entirely on his attackers. Magic wouldn't work on them, that much he knew. Not directly. But, indirect magic would work wonders.

Already the vampires where on their feet but where wary to try rushing Giles for a second time. Instead, they split apart and started to circle, each in full game face and growling, forcing Giles to split his attention.

Getting back to his feet he flicked his wand at the vampire on his right, causing a jet of flame to shoot out, although he knew it wouldn't burn the vampire like he wanted, the force of the blast would still give him the space he needed to deal with the second one.

He spun and was just in time to dodge a left hook from the vampire which he followed up with a knee to Giles stomach. Winded, and stumbling backwards, Giles regained his composer and faced off again, this time more prepared. He may not have Buffy's speed to match the vampire, but damn it, he had trained her and knew exactly what he needed to do. If only he had a sword or a cross.

Rolling his eyes at his own stupidity, he pointed his wand above his opponents head muttering, "Accio sword." A moment latter, a broad sword came from the great hall and clattered to the floor a foot or so by his feet. The vampire saw this as well and with a snarl of frustration he lunged for the weapon at the same time as Giles.

Even though the sword was closer to Giles, he didn't manage to reach it before the vampire. The creature had beaten him to the weapon and now held it at his throat, "You know, I think I'm going to like this world. All you wizards and stuff are real bunch of pansy's you know that? Too afraid to get your hands dirty and fight like a man. Which, hey, suits me just fine. You've never felt a buzz like draining a witch. Although, I hear Slayers are the sweetest. Guess that's the one down side, huh?"

"You should really just kill me if your going to. I honestly never understood why you all always prattle on instead of actually disposing of me before I get the chance," Giles said, already getting his wand into position while he felt the blade of the sword on his neck.

Chuckling, the vampire said, "Oh, yea? And what's that? Going to turn me into a frog or something?"

"No. This!" Giles raised his arm to deflect the blade away, earning himself a gash on his forearm. At the same time as moving the sword away, he raised his wand and, with it pointing downward, plunged it into the vampires eye.

The creature screamed, opting to drop the sword in place of clutching his now empty eye socket. Not waiting this time, Giles scooped the weapon up and swiftly decapitated the vampire, turning him to nothing more then dust. He hadn't even gotten the chance to turn this time when the vampire he had sent sprawling before tackled him to the ground and knocked his sword out of his hand.

Kneeling on Giles chest, he pinned him to the ground and held his hand with the wand in it by the wrist, keeping him from casting any spells.

"Your right. No more talking," he said before gripping Giles throat.

"Oi! Get yer ruddy hands off him!" came a roar from behind the two. Suddenly, the vampire was off of Giles and could be seen flying into one of the walls and landing solidly on the ground where it didn't so much as twitch.

"Bloody hell, Rupert. What's goin' on in 'ere?" Hagrid was standing off of him, red in the face and looking both angry and confused. "I was out in the forest doing a walk 'bout when I heard all the ruckus. Then I see you fightin' that...that...what is that?"

Getting to his feet, Giles rubbed his throat before answering, "A vampire, Hagrid. Don't ask me to explain right now." Ignoring the sword, Giles picked up a jagged piece of broken door and walked over to the fallen and unconscious vampire. He kicked him so his chest was exposed and plunged the stake into through his heart and watched the dust settle.

"Blimey! What the hell did you do?!?" Hagrid exclaimed.

"Hagrid, I assure you, it's what has to be done," breathing heavily, Giles noticed that many students where still there. Which means they had more then likely witnessed the fight between him and the two vampires. They wouldn't fully understand what had happened, not without knowing the truth. To them, all it looked like was that they had been attacked and their new Defense teacher had violently and permanently dealt with the problem. It didn't matter right now. Ethan was still in the castle as well as at least four other vampires.

"Hagrid, I need you to do me a favor. Stay here, watch the door and protect the students. If you see anyone like those two come by, do not hold back. They are extremely dangerous and will not hesitate to kill anyone who gets in their way. Don't use magic and by all means, do not allow the children to engage them," without waiting for Hagrid to respond, knowing he would do as he had asked even if he didn't fully understand, he picked the sword back up and pocketed another makeshift stake he headed back up the stairs where he had seen Xander before.

He only hoped that he would find them before Ethan did.

"Move! Move!" Xander yelled, practically pushing Hermione forward. He didn't know if anyone was even following them anymore, he knew better then to assume that just because they couldn't see anyone it didn't mean that they weren't there. He was letting Hermione lead being that she was the one who knew where they where going.

After Giles had come down and yelled at him to take the students and run, he didn't think, he just acted. He had just shoved the three of them towards the hallways they had just come down when he heard the distinct sound of vampires growling and Ethan saying something to Giles. They had made it halfway down the hall when something had grabbed Xander by the loose robe he had been wearing and threw him to the ground. His head had hit the ground and his eyes glazed for a second. When they finally focused, he saw that it had been a female vampire that had grabbed him and, lucky for him, ignored him after that and was going after the trio that hadn't noticed his being attacked.

"Ron!" Harry screamed out.

The vampire had closed the distance on the three and had hauled Ron off his feet and tossed him into the wall. Growling, the vampire moved toward Harry and Hermione.

"Expelliarmus!" Hermione cried, pointing her wand at his chest only to see the spell have no effect. It didn't even slow the vampire down, except when creature stopped to grin wickedly.

"Come on then girl, you can do better then that," she taunted.

"Stupefy!" Harry pointed his own wand at the vampire and got the same results as Hermione. The red beam merely washed over the vampire, although she did move back a few steps from the force of the spell.

"Come on, enough with the light show kid's. Although, I can't say it doesn't bring back some old memories."

"Alright, come on overbite. No one likes it when you mock your food," Xander said as before wrapped the robe he had been wearing and wrapped it around her head and shoving her to the ground. "Harry, get Ron. You three, get to your dorms, now!"

Harry rushed past Xander and helped Ron to his feet just as the vampire whipped the robe off her face and growled menacingly at Xander. "Come on, blood bag. You don't want to play with your little stick as well? I'm thinking I may get back that nice, healthy tan I've been missing all these years."

"Tell you what, why don't we wait a few hours and you and me can head down to the beach. Soak up some of those all natural UV's. I mean, you'll be pretty much in line with the rest of my girlfriends," Xander said, trying to keep her attention on him. He didn't like the group of them being separated by the demon and wanted to give Harry and Ron the chance to get back on the side of the hallways with him and Hermione.

"Sorry, not my type. Tell you what though, I'll give you one hell of a hickey," she winked and smiled, showing her fangs.

"Hey! I'm the one who makes the bad jokes here missy."

"Alright then. Let's skip right to the part where I tear your throat out," she said, jumping at Xander and driving him into the wall.

Xander struggled to gain some kind of leverage but found that she was holding him off the floor. "You know, I think I liked it better when there was banter," he managed to say while she pressed her arm against his throat.

"They told me that you guys would be easy, but this is ridiculous. I mean this is practically boring," she snipped shoving Xander into the wall again.

Reaching behind him, he fumbled in his back pocket and gripped a cross he had there. Living on the Hellmouth made you very paranoid. Just because he wasn't still there didn't mean he didn't walk around prepared.

"On second thought, you know what. I don't go in for burn victims. I'm shallow that way," he croaked pushing the cross into her face causing her to scream drop him to the floor. He landed on his feet and went after her again with the cross, hitting her across the cheek and kicking her in the stomach. Looking over, he hoped to see that Harry and the rest of them gone, but instead they where right where they had been when he faced off with the vampire to begin with.

"Get the hell out of here, now! You can't do anything. Magic. Not gonna save you," squaring his shoulders he tensed, ready to take on the vampire again.

"Harry! Ron! The ceiling!" Hermione cried out.

A moment latter he saw two separate blueish beams hit the ceiling above the vampires head and one of them, he could only guess missed, and hit above his head. The moment they did, the ceiling exploded and debris rained down on them. Jumping sideways, Xander landed on Hermione and tried to cover her as best he could. After all the noise had died down, he raised his head and say that the hallway was covered halfway to what used to be the ceiling. Not only stone and wood but it looked like it wasn't another hallway above them but a classroom. So, chairs and desk had also fallen and added to the blocked passage.

He stood up, helping Hermione to her feet, "OK, what the hell was that?"

Coughing, Hermione gave him a look, "A blasting curse. How is it you don't know a blasting curse when you see one?"

Ignoring her, Xander called over the mess, "Harry! Ron! You guys alright?"

"Yea, but where closed off on this end! I don't think anyone is coming for us though! I can hear Hagrid down stairs!" Harry shouted back.

"Can you blast through this?" Xander asked Hermione.

"No. If I did it might cause more of the ceiling to cave in. What about you? Surely you must know of someway to move all of it?"

Again, he ignored her, "OK, I want you two to head back down the stairs and go to Hagrid. If Giles is with him, tell him what happened and that where heading for our room, alright? If you see anymore vampires or that guy from before, just run. Get to one of the dorms and stay there, got it?"

"We can help you!" Harry shouted back.

Before he could respond, an area of the rubble by the wall started to shift, "Um...move. Now. Right now, go!"

Grabbing Hermione's wrist he took off down the hall practical dragging her for a few steps before she started to keep up with him. He didn't let go off her wrist though, not wanting to split them up anymore then he already had. Quickly turning, he found he was right and saw the vampire pulling herself from the debris.

"Which way to the defense room?" he asked her while the turned a corner.

"Uh...um...up that way! One floor up then-then to the right," she replied. Shaking her hand free of his.

"We need to get there, right now. We need weapons," he said as they started up the staircase.

"Weapons? You mean...clubs or swords?"

"Yea. Swords, stakes. A crossbow wouldn't hurt either," he stopped and looked at her.

"Um, give me a moment," Hermione looked left and right, trying to orient herself. "This way, to the right."

She took off and that's where they where now, running down another hallway trying to make it the defense class room. Giles had stashed a few weapons there, just in case. There where a lot more in their rooms but he had more luck getting to the classroom being that he at least knew it was in the same vicinity as them.

They made three more turns, Xander was sure they where going in a circle when he saw the familiar paintings in the hallway leading to the classroom. It was also at about that time that he heard the sound of running coming from the same hallway they had been running down. Pulling out all the stops, he pushed Hermione once again, urging the girl forward.

Once they where within jumping range of the door, Hermione pointed her wand at the door and shouted, "Reducto!" The door didn't explode but instead looked as if it had been hit by a battering ram and fly inward.

"Get inside!" he shouted when she started to slow.

"Get the weapons!" she told him at the same time. She spun around and used one arm to move Xander out of her way so he didn't barrel over her while she readied her wand for the oncoming enemy.

Xander stumbled and came to a stop a little bit away from the now open classroom, "That worked so well last time. I didn't think you rode the short broom to school. Get inside, now!"

"I know fully well that I can't cast any spells on her," she retorted.

The vampire rounded the corner and slowed down, facing them, "Now, that's more like it! Sure, the torture is fun and all but nothing works up an appetite like a good hunt."

"Then what? You're going to hope she goes blind by the bright colored lights?" Xander said getting ready to pick her up and drag her inside if he had to.

"Not exactly. Avis!" with the swish of her wand, a flock of robins flew out of her wand and started to fly about. Pointing her wand at the vampire, Hermione flicked it once more while shouting, "Oppugno!" causing the birds to start to attack the demon. Pecking and her face and dive bombing at her head.

"Go! Get something already. There's not many charms that I know of that can distract her long enough!" Hermione hissed. Already, the vampire had taken out half the birds simply by swatting them with her strength and speed.

Without a moment of hesitation, he ran inside. He had been around strong women all his life and knew when to listen to them. Besides, Hermione may be skilled with magic and smart as a whip but she didn't know how to kill this thing. Even if she did, he doubted that she would be able to bring herself to do so. It's one thing to fight someone and accidentally end their life, but it's a completely other story to go in with the intention of destroying something. Even if that thing happened to be a blood sucking monster that would rip them apart is given half the chance.

He quickly ran to the front of the room and through open one of the cabinets. Inside laid one crossbow, already loaded with a full set of wooden bolts, five stakes, two vials of holy water, three crosses and two long silver daggers. After the first few days Giles had owled a few people and they sent a few items that he hadn't thought to bring with him. So, as weapons went, they where fairly well stocked.

Grabbing the holy water and a stake, he ran back out to see that the vampire had dispatched all of the birds and was currently smashing three chairs that appeared to have come alive and where trying to trip her up. It wasn't going so well, being that she merely kicked them causing them to smash against the walls and break apart.

"Thank goodness, I was running out of ideas," Hermione breathed.

Taking his cross, he handed it to Hermione, "If it gets near you, shove it in its face and run."

She looked at him confused, but still accepted the cross. Putting one vial in his pocket and one in his hand, he ran at the vampire just as she destroyed the last chair. Not bothering to open the vial, Xander simply smashed it into her face, eliciting a shriek of pain. As she clutched her face, Xander followed it up with punching her in the back of her head, knowing that he had to push his small advantage while he had it. Grabbing her head, he drove his knee into her face, and pushed her into the wall.

He went to stake her only to have her grab his hand and squeeze, causing pain to shoot up from his arm. Even with the pain, he didn't drop the stake but he couldn't press on anymore. Punching her in the face only caused her to laugh, and he could clearly make out the red blotches and burn marks of the combined force of the holy water and cross, none of which had done enough to deter her.

"So, your one of the ones Ethan told us about, huh? One of the ones that came through first, huh? A hunter, right? I'll be damned. How the hell did you ever survive on the Hellmouth?" the vampire laughed, twisting his wrist and knocking the stake from his hand.

"Oh, you know, mostly I had some pretty powerful girl to watch my back," he said threw clenched teeth as Hermione ran up to them, holding the cross towards the vampire.

Although, she hissed in discomfort, she didn't drop Xander as he had hoped. Instead she swatted the cross from Hermione's hand, sending it sliding down the hall.

"Get out of here!" he yelled at Hermione. He didn't know if was going to be able to make it out of this fight intact and didn't want her ending up dead because of his mistake.

"Stop it! Stop it! What do you want?" Hermione cried out, hoping to plead with the demon. This gave the vampire a slight pause. She stopped twisting Xander's wrist and looked at Hermione as if she had lost her mind.

"Sweetie, you aren't going to be able to talk your way out of this. I've dealt with enough of those kinds of people. 'I'll give you anything you want!', 'Don't hurt me, please!', 'Take her! Not me!', 'Please! Please! Kill me! Kill me already!' After a while, it gets really boring, you know?" she mocked, making her voice screech higher with every plea she said.

"Well, let's make it interesting then," Xander mumbled then grabbed her by the back of her head. With the will that only comes with the desperate when they want to survive, he pulled her head close to his and pressed his lips on hers in a very enthusiastic open mouthed kiss. A second or two passed as Xander kept her lips on his before she shoved off of him and clutched her throat, her lips and mouth where both smoking.

Xander quickly scooped up the stake and rammed it through her chest, piercing her heart. When the dust settled he dropped both the stake and the now empty vial of holy water to the ground.

"Oh, God! How the hell did Buffy do that? She tasted like...like...like something that is walking around should not taste like. Blech!" Xander wiped his mouth over and over again, hoping to somehow rub the taste out of his mouth.

"What the...how did you...what on earth happened?!?" Hermione questioned, shocked by seeing her professor not only kiss something that was trying to kill the both of them but then he stabbed it only to have it evaporate.

"Vampire. You get used to them when you're not caught off guard...usually. Come on, we need to get back with the others, maybe get you in your dorm. You'll be safe there," he spit on the floor after saying it, still trying to get the taste out. He was going to need a whole crate of mouth wash after that stunt. But, it worked and he was alive, so it was a small price to pay.

"That was most certainly not a vampire. Vampires look nothing like that!" Hermione said, following Xander as he went back into he classroom, grabbing the cross bow, two more stakes and the remaining crosses.

Handing Hermione a cross and a stake he said, "Yea, of course not. Just some girl with a real nasty skin problem who hasn't been to the dentist in a while."

"Professor Harris, I have seen a vampire. I would know one if I saw one and that most certainly was not a vampire!"

"Oh boy! You've seen one whole vampire? Lucky you. Now, which way can we go to get to the main door?"

"It'll be faster if we went up one flight then came around," she huffed, clearly still annoyed with him.

They went most of the way in silence until they came upon a door that had been broken down. Exchange a quick glance with each other, Hermione lit the end of her wand, casting light into the room while Xander aimed at anything that might be inside.

Hermione dropped her wand the moment she took in the contents of the room and dropped to her knees, dry heaving.

"Oh God, no," Xander breathed before turning away. Inside where the mangled corpses of two Aurors. Their bodies had been broken and beaten upon and blood was sprayed across all of the walls as well as the ceiling, not to mention the large puddle where both bodies had fallen. It wasn't just that though that made Xander grow pale. In the center of the room was a chair, both arms had been broken as if ripped off. The chair had been used to hold a prisoner. The room, to hold Draco Malfoy.

Two hours had passed since Xander and Hermione had found the room. Several Aurors where still searching the castle, looking for any sign of where Ethan and the remaining three vampires had escaped with Draco. The thing that was hanging in the air, not being said, is that they where also looking in case they came across Draco's body. There was a lot of blood in that room, and it was hard to believe that it had only come from the two guards that where stationed there.

Leaning against a wall, Xander rubbed his eyes to try and relieve the headache that was starting to grow. So far he had been asked the same questions three or four times at least by varies people. McGonagall had been the kindest to him, which was saying something. The Aurors had acted as if he was to be blamed for the fact that Draco had been taken.

"How are you?" Giles said coming up and squeezing his shoulder. Giles had been questioned more times then Xander had although no one seemed to be accusing him of anything. They weren't exactly being kind, but no one seemed to want to set him off.

"Ethan. Ethan Rayne. Jesus, Giles. What the hell? Let me guess? The both of you are really from here and this is where you guys had some wacky fun." Xander smiled slightly, letting Giles know he was joking.

"Oh, dear God no. Ethan would have been kicked out before he stepped foot in the castle," Giles squeezed his shoulder once more then let his hand drop. "You did good tonight, Xander. I want you to know that. You saved those children back there."

"Giles, it was one vamp. I was barely able to hold my own. I've taken on vamps before but...this caught me off guard."

"Yes, and still you managed. If your looking for me to reprimand you because it took you more time then either Buffy or myself to dispatch her your mistaken. Your neither the slayer nor have had my kind of training."

Xander shook his head, still trying to shake off the mix of depression and tiredness. Back with Buffy, he could have handled at least on vampire. Sure, he was still third string, second if he really put his mind to it, but he could at least pull through.

"Xander, there is one thing I wanted to ask you though, about what happened," Giles started, pulling him from his private thoughts. "Did you really kiss a vampire?"

The two stared at each other for a moment before bursting into a mix of controlled laughter and heavy breathing, trying not to draw attention to the fact that they where moments away from falling on the floor with their laughter. Maybe it was how tired they where or the fact that Xander had done something so insane, but it was more then enough to make them lose control.

"It-it seemed like a good idea at the time," Xander said while trying to take in air.

"Well, it certainly seem like you need to work on your technique. I dare say I never heard of anyone having such a violent reaction to being kissed," Giles chuckled, finally gaining composer of himself.

Their laughter died away and their solemn faces returned, "This is going to get bad, isn't Giles? I mean, Hellmouth kind of bad."

Closing his eyes, Giles took a deep breath before answering, "It certainly looks that way. I don't know how he did it, but Ethan being here changes things. But, I have an idea. Something I'm going to follow up on as soon as where done here."

"Going some place? Need some back-up?"

"No. Absolutely not. Classes have been cancelled for tomorrow but I don't feel comfortable with leaving this castle without at least one person who can handle things should Ethan or any vampires return," Giles motioned to the side and they started down the hall.

"That's you being nice and trying not to say that it's going to be dangerous where your going."

"Decidedly so, yes."

"At least you'll make it by morning, that's gotta help."

"Unlikely. I'm fairly certain that I wont," Giles muttered. "If anyone should ask, I don't want you telling them where I went, understood?"

"Giles, I don't even know where your going. So, not a problem."

Giles stopped, and looked up and down the hall, making sure they where out of earshot of anyone. "Xander, if anyone does ask, just tell them..." he stopped, then smiled and finished with a glint in his eyes, "Tell them I had to hop on the tube."