Thanks for the reviews, I know I took forever to update, sorry I'll try and be better. To answer the question of Buffy's age when she was called and got her Hogwarts letter, if you read the explanation before the first chapter I explained I messed with the Buffy time line making the Slayer be called at eleven. As for the institution thing, I may mention it later in the story but, for the now I'm going to go with it happened like in the show, but she hasn't mentioned it to the HP guys. I may change my mind, we'll see.
"So there's a bus station two miles ahead." Buffy said breaking the silence. "Where do we want to go?"
"Huh?" Harry asked tiredly.
"Bus, you know mode of transportation." Buffy replied. "Or we can just walk wherever you want to go."
"I vote for the bus." Ron said with a hint of excitement.
"If we go to LA, it'll be easier to disappear in a big city, you know." Buffy explained. "Plus I know a guy who owns a hotel."
"Sleep would be lovely." Hermione yawned they'd been walking all night.
"Ok." Harry agreed as the station came into view.
"So a bus is like a car right?" Ron asked interested.
"Sort of, a big car." Buffy shrugged. "Why don't I go get us some tickets." She offered.
"I'll go with you." Harry replied as Ron and Hermione flopped tiredly onto the cold metal bench.
"Why don't I buy two and you buy two." Buffy began scanning the small crowd. "I mean if the ministry's looking for you."
"They'll be looking for a British kid buying three tickets." Harry replied.
"Yup, and even if they connect you to here buying four makes them aware you have someone else with you." Buffy replied.
"Clever." Harry smiled.
"Disappearing's my thing." She shrugged. "You go ahead, I'll meet you outside in a few." She said as they parted ways.
"Your not so bad at the disappearing stuff yourself." Buffy said as she casually took a seat next to him as the bus made another stop.
"Yes well, all the planning in the world will never convince anyone those two aren't together." He grinned glancing back at the arguing couple sitting in the rear of the bus.
"We're definitely going to have to work on that." Buffy smiled. "So James, tell me about yourself."
"James?" Harry asked confused.
"Ya know, Bond, James Bond. British super spy." Buffy laughed. "It's a compliment."
"It's my father's name." Harry replied.
"Oh, I'm guessing just the James, because naming a British kid James Bond just seems cruel." She replied.
"From what I know about him, he probably would have loved it." He shrugged. "He would love to be me."
"I don't understand." She said confused.
"The attention, the 'fans', getting to be the hero." He sighed.
"I doubt that." She shrugged.
"You don't know him." He replied.
"Neither do you." She countered. "Sorry. I just mean, some people think they would, I mean from the outside looking in, it's a good gig. But noone who's experienced it wants it, likes it."
"Faith did." Harry shot back.
"Yeah and look how that turned out." Buffy replied sadly. "But she didn't really get the experience. She was never 'the one' you know. I mean Kendra was one extreme, the all business, no fun, it's my duty girl, and faith the other, the party, it all fun type, she liked the idea of playing the hero. But she never really had to take it on, until now. She has to go it alone now and she's terrified."
"Aren't you worried about leaving her I mean what if." He began.
"What if the world ends?" She cut him off with a small smile. "I didn't choose Faith, or Kendra, or even you to take on the role. The universe or whatever destiny crap it is that chooses did. It's up to her to succeed or fail now. She'll be ok, I have a good feeling about her. She's ready for it now, she may not have been before but, she is now."
"Do you think that's why you didn't stay dead?" Harry asked. "I mean why the universe didn't let you die?"
"Maybe." She shrugged. "I mean do I think if I had died that day I faced the master that the world would have ended. Not really, I mean it kept spinning long before I came along and will keep doing so long after I'm gone. I wont say I haven't helped it along but, if it wasn't me it would be another girl in my place. I think that was my biggest problem dealing with the arrival of Kendra and Faith. It was never that I didn't want to share the glory, the spot light, they could have it but, it was the fact that it made me seem so dispensable. It's one thing to know that after you die someone else is going to pick up where you left off but, it's another to have to watch them start doing it before your gone. To be honest I was jealous of them."
"Why?" He asked confused.
"Because I just want to be normal, and no matter what I do, I just can't." She replied.
"Just your average girl next door who saves the world with her super powers, that makes sense." He smirked.
"I'm not just another slayer, I'm special, and part of me resents it." She shrugged.
"I actually can relate." Harry nodded. "I mean I know I'm different I'm a wizard, but I'm not even just another wizard."
"Yup." Buffy replied. "I could never be just another witch because I was a potential. I could never be just another slayer because I was a witch, but I thought maybe, just maybe if I didn't use magic, if noone knew I could pretend to be. Then I had to go and die and not stay dead. I'm the first and only slayer to have ever died and not stayed dead. I just had to go and be special, but the funny thing is it wasn't even me. If Xander hadn't found me, if he hadn't given me CPR I wouldn't be."
"If my mother hadn't sacrificed herself for me I would have never defeated Voldemort the first time." Harry replied softly.
"Being special sucks." Buffy nodded. "Especially when you had little to do with it. But I still doubt your father would have wanted this for himself, or you."
"And why is that?" Harry asked.
"It's to lonely." She replied simply. "You like comic books?" He nodded for her to continue. "Look at any super hero, in the end they wind up alone, wether they lose they're loved ones to a nemesis, or they walk away to keep them safe, they always wind up alone."
"Clark marry's Lois." Harry countered. "Peter Parker get's Mary Jane. Scott Summers' has Jean Grey and."
"Don't get me started on Lois Lane and Mary Jane." Buffy cut him off.
"What's wrong with them?" Harry asked.
"Look at them, they fall for the hero, not for the men." She explained. "Lois loves superman and accepts that Clark is part of him, same with MJ and Spiderman. Jean Grey has this whole little side thing with Wolverine. Don't get me wrong, I love X-men but they flip flop to much, between couples, sides and everything, it's impossible to keep up. Now Gwen Stacy is a girl I can get behind. She Loved Peter, not Spiderman, and she died because of it."
"So from your perspective, no super hero can have a relationship, they'll all wind up alone." Harry asked. "Granted all your arguments are coming from a fictional source."
"True, but even you have to admit the relationships are doomed. They're unrealistic. Would you want to be with a girl who loved you first for being the boy who lived, then learned to love Harry?" She asked.
"I don't know." Harry shrugged. "But I can see your point, if our lives where a comic book we'd be doomed to solitude."
"Not necessarily." Buffy replied.
"Oh, there's a comic book relationship your actually getting behind." Harry asked amused.
"Yup, Batman and Robin." She smirked.
"Robin dies." He countered.
"Not the original." She shrugged. "Dick Grayson went on to be Nightwing. Jason Todd was murdered by the Joker."
"But they still parted ways." Harry pointed out.
"Sort of but, they always replace him." Buffy explained. "There's always a Robin and he ends up being just like Dick. It's a relationship that works, that they always come back to."
"So your going to adopt a child and make them your sidekick." Harry smirked.
"No, Dick found Bruce not the other way around." She laughed. "I wouldn't do that to some poor kid anyways. It's not about the father son type thing it's more two people working together because they understand each other. They make sense. But then again I don't really know if I should get a sidekick, it would detract from my whole mysterious loner vibe."
"That it would." Harry grinned.
"Ok, not to change the subject, but I think They killed each other." Buffy whispered dramatically.
"They have been awfully quiet, but then again they could just be snogging." Harry grinned.
"Oh, a Britsism I know." Buffy smiled. "Making out right?"
"Right." Harry laughed.
"We're both wrong." She said glancing at the back of the bus. "They're Sleeping."
"It has been a long day." Harry yawned.
"Go ahead and sleep, I can entertain myself, I'll wake you before we get there." She said moving back to her seat.
"Are we ever going to stop walking?' Ron grumbled. Since being awoken from their bus ride an hour ago they'd been walking quietly through quiet streets.
"We're almost there." Buffy replied as the building came into view.
"Thank god, I can't wait to crawl into an actual bed." Hermione sighed. The trio watched unsurely as Buffy was embraced by the weird green demon who answered the door.
"How you doing Kido?" Lorne asked.
"Fine." Buffy shrugged. "These are some friends of mine, we need a place to crash."
"You know your always welcome here." Lorne replied ushering them inside. "The boss should be back soon, suns almost up."
"How have things been around here?" Buffy asked.
"Quiet." Lorne replied.
"That's what I was afraid of." Buffy sighed. "I need a favor."
"Anything." Lorne replied.
"Can we kind of keep us being here a secret?" Buffy asked. "Just until we leave, it's important, that the gang not know about them."
"If that's what you want, I wont tell a soul." He replied. "I'll set you up on the fifth floor, noone goes up there."
"It's ok." Buffy said moving from the window and letting the heavy curtain fall back into place. "Go back to sleep." She urged the three teens that had been jolted awake by the firm knocking on the doorway.
"Are you sure it's safe." Hermione began worriedly as Buffy moved to open the door.
"It's fine, we're perfectly safe." Buffy assured them.
"But that Lorne fellow said he wouldn't be up for another few hours." Harry said glancing at his watch.
"It's not Lorne." She replied.
"He told, I knew we shouldn't have trusted him, he's a demon.." Ron said nervously.
"He didn't tell, calm down." Buffy said shaking her head as she opened the door.
"Buffy?" He asked unsurely standing in the doorway. "Is it really you?' He asked hopefully.
"It's really me Angel." She said with a small smile as he swept her into his arms.