Title: Miss Memory: To Books, A Mini-Spike, and a New, Old Enemy
Summary: Buffy runs into a familiar blonde enemy in a bookstore. But what does this have to do with Spike?
Elizsabeth Anne Potter caught up with them when she left the shop, nearly skipping and hopping in the excitement of being in such a magical environment after so many years; the others stopped and talked about where they would need to go, huddling in a circle for only a moment before making up their minds. It was decided that they would get what they needed in tools and objects before clothes. They all picked their bags off of their backs for a minute to make sure they were charmed and/or enchanted.
First, they went in to the nearest bookstore. Buffy's parents had taken her and James there when they were little, and had told them to go there in the future for best prices and the biggest collections. It wasn't the one the Hogwarts letter sampled, but it was just as good in inventory. Even though it was a magical shopping alley, the smallness of the outside of the shop made it look like a small place. None of them were particularly book-happy, though they all enjoyed a good book, it would take them longer to find the necessities and some titles they wanted. Later, they would go to a muggle books store for fun paperback novels and things.
There were only a couple of other people browsing through the area so it wasn't too difficult to get up an pay. Having nothing outside saying how great its prices were, there were not all too many magical folk eager to dig into to the titles.
Buffy handed the four Hogwarts students-to-be their book list and they retreated into the shop to find them. Lily-Anne and Buffy headed separate ways to look for things that would interest them.
30 minutes later, the adults headed to the front desk, collecting the other four on the way, to pay for the many books. It would cost a small fortune for all they were planning on buying, but it was fine. The Potters were one of the richest families in the world-in the top then at the least. The years had been good for Buffy's personal vault which the family vaults slowly added into. Money from the other dimension also loaded their pockets with quite a comfortable amount of spending money.
When the books were paid for, (including Slayers: Histories and Prophecies by Crea Andrews, A Slayers Dream by Genesee Newton, and Tales of The Slayers Volumes 1 through 5 of 359 currently by Amelia Dubious and The Key to a Dreaming by Michael Strauss, Mental Capabilities, Techniques, and Abilities Kylatreen Anuran, and Weapons, Calming, Dreaming, Learning, Thinking, Sleeping, Magic of Slayers past by Constance Applefence were a few of them.) and all were carefully tucked away in the readers' bags, they prepared to leave the shop.
The fact that Slayers were considered an uncommonly heard of bunch of fairy tales and myths to the wizarding world was something that cheapened the titles.
They left to head up to the more commonly visited book store on the alley to find the last needed title from their school lists only to run into someone that lookedachingly familiar, not the fact that they looked like sore thumbs and were not pulling of 'assured asshole' as well as they thought they were. They burst out laughing at a moment of silence.
"Oh! My. God!" Dawn started wheezing. "It's so cute!"
"It's a mini-Spike!" the Summers sisters said as they leaned against each other to keep from falling over from lack of breath.
The twins saw them, and though they had only seen a few pictures and magical animations of the vampire, they saw it too, and cracked up. Thomas and Lily-Anne joined them in their comedy.
The youngest version of a vampire in Sunnydale scowled, and stood up as the elder, obviously his father, stepped up and walked over too them.
She caught herself before she was totally gone with laughter, and said something more as he stood up to her at full height trying to intimidate her. "You wouldn't so happen to be evil would you?" Buffy asked. She knew that he would be though. He was always heading in the direction of being a Death Eater. It was probably a stupid question to actually voice but she couldn't help it.
Well, she had honestly not meant to say that out loud. She was going to ask him something different, when she remembered who he really was. She cracked up again, the others still in laughing land.
"And you are?" he asked coldly. The boy behind him grinned coolly as his father took precedence over the room; or at least tried to. He almost looked confused when they started laughing harder.
"Oh. Uhm…" Buffy said, trying to catch her breath. "Sorry, just trying not to hyperventilate on you," she replied to herself as she put her hand on her chest, and tried to slow down her heart and even out her breathing. "You just look a lot like an old, Uhm, acquaintance of mine."
"Oh, yes, well, don't be rude. Who am I reminding you of?" he asked.
He tried to smile cruelly, but Buffy bit her lip, failed to hide it from the guy standing taller then her, but managed not to burst back into laughter as the guy did something frighteningly familiar to the vampire that she hadn't seen in a few weeks.
He saw that and asked again. "Well, who am I reminding you of?"
"His name is William, and I haven't seen him in a while."
The evil smile on his face was not wrong as he said something very rude to her next. He saw the kids next to her, and actually assumed right, despite her age. "Oh, yes. Is that the abandoning husband?" Stupid...
That stopped the slayer in her tracks for many reasons:
A. You don't bring up an abandoning husband or wife, no matter what. It's a polite code that is instinctly known by everyone.
B. You don't bring up Angel, him actually being the abandoning husband. Hell, you don't bring up Angel period around Buffy.
C. Spike. For:
1. Him. As a husband.
2. Him as a father.
3. Him as anything like either of those for Buffy.
4. Him as being… Spike.
D. He was doing something like this on purpose. He was offending her in a way that was too personal, whether it was being that he didn't know this, or being that he didn't actually care.
And
E. It just reminded her of something Spike would do.
Instead of bursting out with laughter, again, she screwed up her face, knowing all that had happened to her. It was actually pretty disgusting.
(Buffy is The slayer. She is the original, and closest in the line. Dawn, Faith, Hope, and Jessica are all a just slayers because they are not the oldest descendant if you get me.)
The man in front of her didn't show it, but Buffy was a predator, and she could smell his obvious, sudden fear, and uncertainty as she nearly growled at him. He thought he had known what he was doing, and now he wasn't sure he should have.
"Eeeew!" Dawn, Liam, and Elizabeth said loudly. That really was nasty.
"He's like, my brother!" Dawn said.
"He's like an uncle" Elizabeth
"That we never want to see." Liam
"And if we're lucky," Elizabeth
"Never have to." Liam
The guy just stared cruelly, and Buffy let out a breath that had meant to sound like she was shuddering, but came out more like she was about to puke.
"That was really, really rude. And really, really gross. He's like my, brother-in-law or something."
"Brother-in-law? Who is he exactly?" the man asked, not really caring but not wanting to make a scene in such a public place.
"Well, more like 'or something,' but brother-in-law is the closest thing I can come up with, so yeah. And his name is William Pettibury." She had found it in a book when she had had to go through one or two in high school. (Actually I made one up in short notice.)
"Never heard of him. Is he a muggle?" He said the word like it was an unthinkable idea.
"No," Buffy drawled cryptically while thinking 'not exactly.'
"Mudblood then." He nearly spit it out in disgust. Looking at her from her feet and up her body.
"You would think so, but, no. He isn't wizard, and he isn't muggle." She said, doing her best not to flinch. When she got home, she was showering in blistering water. Inwardly her inner slayer fought for control. Eww.
She turned back to the others, "Ready to move on?" she asked her traveling companions.
At their nods, she turned back around with a large smile plastered on her face. "'Scuze us Mr. Meany-Pants." The others laughed. He scowled and nearly growled. The others laughed harder. "Later Lucius." She said afterwards.
She made a walkway beside him so that they could get through, and she smiled at the boy strangely. "By Mini-Spike!" she said giddily, knowing she would never get the name out of her head,
And as they walked out of the store, she burst out laughing again. She couldn't help it.
TBC. Eww. I feel dirty just for writing it. It wasn't much for Draco but in the scheme of old rivals and enemies, he is just a newby.
