I haven't disclaimed for a while, so here it is. Harry Potter belongs to JKR and Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon. As I am neither of those people I can cheerfully say that I own nothing of value.

Chapter 21.

The Witch-Born Slayer will arrive with the second rising of a Dark Lord greater and more terrible than any before him… She will be but one half of a whole…Her gift will protect her, but the mirror image will fail… She must conquer her gift if she is to save the reflection or all will fall to darkness and despair…The Chosen must unite if the war is to end.

Buffy stared at the figure of a woman standing in the centre of the library. She floated inches above the orb, which housed the prophecy, her large eyes staring vacantly ahead and her long, dark hair blowing in a wind that only she could feel. Behind the figure Giles was rapidly writing down her words, a frown on his face.

Angel was staring at the woman in gob-smacked awe. Buffy scowled irritably.

"So we went to all this trouble to find out that Drusilla of all people gave my prophecy," she exclaimed. "If we'd known that we could have just asked Spike. It would have saved us a whole lot of time."

"I doubt she would remember it," Angel shrugged. His eyes were still fixed to the spot where the figure had stood, even though Tonks had ended the spell that allowed them to see and hear the recording without smashing the orb. "We ran together for a long time and she never mentioned making a prophecy about a Slayer."

"Trelawney forgot the prophecy she made in third year," Harry said quietly. "She thought she'd just dozed off."

"As disquieting as this is," Giles began, but Ron interrupted.

"Do you know who heard the prophecy?"

"It said RW III," Tonks said promptly.

"Richard Wilkins the Third?" Willow said hesitantly.

"Yeah, Will. I'm sure the Mayor of Sunnydale was around over a hundred years ago when this thing was made," Xander said sarcastically. "Hey! Maybe he's a vampire."

"Perhaps we could get back to the task at hand," Giles said exasperatedly. "Whoever heard the prophecy is largely irrelevant. I suspect whoever he is, he is long dead now." He glanced down at the notepad in front of him and read the prophecy aloud.

"The Dark Lord has to be Voldemort right?" Willow queried. "Buffy became the Slayer during the Tournament. That's when he was trying to come back isn't it?"

That's pretty unspecific, though," Ron mused. "There have been two Dark Lord's since the prophecy was made that we know about. It could have meant either one of them."

"Not really," Harry disagreed. "When Trelawney gave that prophecy about Voldemort and Pettigrew she said he would rise, 'greater and more terrible than ever before.'" He peeked over Giles' shoulder at his notes. "That's the exact same wording as this prophecy. That can't be a coincidence."

"Buffy doesn't believe in coincidences," Xander said with a grin. "Or leprechauns. Gotta agree about the coincidences."

Harry and Ron both grinned at each other and turned to Buffy, who was looking a little sheepish. "Did you forget about the World Cup?" Ron asked, laughing. "The little beggars were everywhere, throwing their gold about. Don't you remember?"

"Maybe it's not the leprechauns she was trying to forget, Ron," Ginny suggested. "Maybe it was the star of the game."

"Ok, that's enough," Buffy said desperately. "We don't need to get into a discussion on Quidditch stars."

"You mean they're real?" Xander was wide eyed and Willow wasn't much better.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Yes, they're real. They're kinda cute actually. They're also really generous with their gold, but if you ever come across any spend it quickly. It fades by the next morning."

"Personally, I'm more interested in the Quidditch star aspect of this conversation," Angel said quietly.

Buffy groaned, but before she could answer Ginny cut in. "Viktor Krum was the Bulgarian Seeker for that game and the Durmstrang Champion in the Tournament," she told him. "He was quite smitten with our Hermione. Spent hours in the library staring at her before he worked up the nerve to ask her to the Yule Ball."

Buffy felt like smacking Ginny. Did she really have to say that to her boyfriend who had jealous tendencies? She was relieved to find Angel smiling lightly though.

"It was nothing," she said reassuringly. "We went to the Ball together and he asked me to visit him over the summer, which I never did by the way. By the time summer came I was too busy with Slayer stuff and the Order to even really consider it."

"You're forgetting that you were also the 'thing he'd miss most,' for the second task," Ginny added impishly.

"Ginny, shut up," Buffy said venomously.

"Yes, I think perhaps this discussion has wandered a little off topic," Giles suggested. "Let's get back on track shall we?"

"Yes!" Buffy agreed quickly, wanting to change the subject as quickly as possible.

"What about the 'half of a whole' part?" Angel asked. He too, seemed keen to steer the conversation to safer topics.

"Kendra," Buffy murmured. "Two Slayers, two halves. There should only be one of us, one whole Slayer, but instead there are two."

"Does that mean you each have only half of a Slayer's power?" Willow said worriedly.

Buffy shook her head. "I don't think so. That would mean I was weaker than I was before. If anything, when Xander revived me I felt stronger, more powerful. I think it just means that we are equal."

"That would make sense," Giles said, nodding. "As I assume the references to a mirror image are also about Kendra."

"It's telling me to save her," Buffy said softly. "As if I weren't trying to do that anyway."

"'Or all will fall to darkness and despair,'" Giles quoted. "Yes, that's very clear. We must find a way to rescue her. Willow, how is your research coming?"

"Slowly," Willow said. "I don't know what spell was used last time this happened. I can't find any reference to it at all." She noticed Buffy's downcast face and made an obvious effort to appear more upbeat. "We'll find it though. I expect a major break through any day now."

Buffy tried to smile at her, but found it difficult. There had to be a way to break the spell. There was no way she was leaving her sister Slayer to suffer at Voldemort's hands. If it came to it she would capture Ethan and hit him with all her Slayer strength until he told her how to break the spell.

Tonks' wand glowed yellow suddenly and everyone looked up to see a worried expression on her face. "I'm being called in," she said anxiously.

"Do you think it's about the break in?" Buffy asked.

"I doubt it. I'd better go and check it out though." Tonks nodded to them all and left quickly. Moments later Buffy could hear the telltale sound of her disapparating.

"So what does the part about the chosen mean?" Ginny asked with a cautious glance at Harry. "Who are they?"

"Buffy and Kendra," Xander announced as though it were obvious. "They are the Chosen Ones after all."

Harry appeared startled. "What?"

"The Slayer is also known as the Chosen One," Giles said distractedly. "One girl in all the world, a Chosen One. It stands to reason that the prophecy means the Chosen Two. It's telling Buffy to save Kendra so they can work together to defeat Voldemort."

"But that's Harry's job," Ron objected.

"It might mean Harry, too," Buffy said thoughtfully. "The Daily Prophet has been calling you the Chosen One lately. Maybe it means all three of us need to work together."

"What's the gift though?" asked Willow. "Buffy has a gift, other than being the Slayer or a witch that is going to help her out."

"I don't know," Buffy admitted. "Kendra mentioned a gift to me in one of our shared dreams. She didn't say what it was though."

"What exactly did she say?" Giles asked quickly. "Her exact words if possible."

"She said to find it. That anything was possible. That means that it's something I don't have yet."

"Not necessarily," Giles disagreed. "It may just be something you have yet to acknowledge about yourself. Buffy, I want you to think about this, see if you can come up with any possibilities. And if you have another dream with Kendra ask her about it. She may know more than she's letting on."

Willow was reading through Giles' notes. "The wording implies that whatever this gift is will protect you from the curse that Kendra is under. It might be the means to breaking the spell on her."

Giles took the notepad from her and reread the prophecy again. "Well done, Willow. This gift is clearly something that Kendra does not have. Neither did the first Slayer who fell to this curse."

"There you go, Buff," Xander said jovially. "What do you have that Kendra doesn't?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "We could be here all night. Kendra didn't have a whole lot."

"Love."

Everyone turned abruptly to Angel. He was staring up at Buffy with smiling eyes. "You have our love, Buffy. We all love you and you love us in return. That's something Slayer's generally don't have. Kendra certainly has never had it."

Harry gasped. "Dumbledore keeps telling me that the 'power the Dark Lord knows not' is love. I thought he was being sentimental, but what if he's right? Is there a branch of magic that focuses on love?"

"Nothing that I have ever seen," Giles said slowly.

"But that doesn't mean it's not out there," Willow said positively. "And if it is, we'll find it."

Buffy smiled at her. She had this way of looking at the world that made you think that it couldn't possibly be that bad.

"Right then," Giles said loudly. "I believe that is all. We can discuss this more at a later date."

Everyone started picking up their things and preparing to leave, but Giles called Buffy back.

Angel kissed her quickly and left to find something to eat. Willow and Xander both wished them goodnight and headed off to bed, leaving Buffy alone with Giles and her Hogwarts friends.

"Do you want us to leave?" Ron asked hesitantly.

Buffy shrugged, looking to Giles. He smiled at them. "This is not a private conversation, I just thought everyone was stressed enough and that it was time to call it a night. You are, of course, welcome to stay." He turned to Buffy and put a hand on her shoulder. "I wanted to speak with you about what happened at the Ministry."

"Oh," was all Buffy could say.

"What happened?" Harry asked curiously.

"I'm not really sure," Buffy admitted. "I was heading out when I heard these voices. I followed them and there was this veil. I wanted to step through it. It was so weird." She suddenly noticed the horrified look on Harry's face and asked, "do you know what that was?"

Harry nodded. "You remember I said that Sirius died fighting Bellatrix Lestrange down there? That's how he died. He fell through the arch." There was a hitch in Harry's voice that made her heart ache.

"What is the arch?" Giles asked.

"It was used as a way to execute convicts," Ginny said quietly. "They were forced through and when they didn't come back it was assumed they were dead."

"Assumed?" Giles asked quickly.

"Well, no one can know for certain," Ginny said timidly, watching Harry's face for signs that he was distressed. "Some people think that the voices they can hear belong to the dead."

"I didn't hear anything," Ron said dismissively.

"I didn't either," Ginny admitted. "It made me feel a bit uneasy, but I couldn't hear anything. Harry did though."

"Not what they were saying," Harry agreed slowly. "I could make out individual voices, but not words."

"Who else was with you?" Buffy asked suddenly. "Neville and Luna right? Could they hear voices?"

"Luna definitely did," Harry said at once. "She told me so. I think Neville did too."

"Why did three of you hear the voices and not the other two?" Giles wondered out loud. "Something you three have in common perhaps, that the others don't share."

"All three of them can see Thestrals," Ron blurted. "Ginny and I can't."

"Thestrals," Giles looked very interested at this. "What are those?"

"Winged horses," Buffy said immediately. "Hogwarts has the biggest herd of trained Thestrals in the world. They have an excellent sense of direction and can find pretty much any place they're asked to. They're completely invisible to anyone who hasn't seen someone die."

Giles blinked at her, but the three teenagers just nodded, used to her knowing these things. "It's possible that the connection they have with death is the reason they heard the voices beyond the veil," he said at last. "And why Buffy was effected so strongly."

"It does?" Ginny asked.

Buffy rested her chin on her hand thoughtfully. "At the end of fourth year, when we caught the carriages back to Hogsmeade, I could see the Thestrals," she said. "I was surprised, because at that point I hadn't seen a human die, only demons and vampires and I was pretty sure they didn't count. Merrick thought that maybe it was because as the Slayer I have a strong connection with death. It would make sense."

"Exactly what did you hear?" Giles asked, fetching his notepad once more. Buffy guessed this was an entry for his own Watcher diary.

"Voices," she said diligently, then waited for the frustrated look, knowing that wasn't enough for him. "More than that though. I heard words, sentences actually."

"Did you recognise them?"

"Uh huh. Lothos, the Master and Darla. Not really the three I'd expect to see together, well, maybe Darla and the Master, but Lothos was so much classier," Buffy babbled. "I could feel them, Giles. The Master had this way of making you do what he wanted and Lothos had ways of controlling you. I could hear this really faint music. I think it was really them and they were trying to get me to step through. If Tonks hadn't posed as Angel to get my attention I probably would have done it."

"You didn't hear Sirius?" Harry asked as if fearing the answer.

Buffy shook her head. "These seem to be my ghosts. Maybe you can only hear people you knew. But then, I knew Sirius, so that wouldn't work."

"Perhaps it is only the voices of those you killed, or those for whom you feel responsible," Giles suggested.

"I killed Lothos and the Master, but I don't feel responsible for Darla. And why wasn't Merrick there? I feel responsible for his death."

"Yes, but Angel killed Darla to save your life," Giles pointed out. "I'm sure she would hold you responsible. As to Merrick, I don't know."

"They're not human," Buffy said thoughtfully. "None of them are human spirits they're vampires. We know from Angel that a human soul is sent to the ether when they become a vampire."

"So what you're suggesting is that these aren't the voices of humans beyond the veil, but monsters," Giles summed up. "And somehow witnessing death allows those around the veil to hear them."

"And my closer connection with death let me hear them a whole lot clearer." Buffy frowned, deep in thought. "Can we use this?"

"I'll work on it," Giles promised. "For now, you three had best head on back to school."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Buffy jumped back as lightning struck the path in front of her. Thunder roared overhead. "Kendra?"

The sound of sobbing was muffled by the storm. Buffy looked around desperately. Rain pelted her and the wind whipped her hair back and forth until she could barely see.

"Kendra, where are you?"

Someone barrelled into Buffy's side, sending them both rolling into the trees. Buffy tried to disentangle them, but whoever it was held on to her tightly, crying into her shoulder.

"Kendra! What's wrong?"

The shaking form refused to meet Buffy's eyes. She could not speak through the great tearing gasps she was taking with each breath. With a sigh, Buffy pulled Kendra into an embrace, just holding her as rain fell in torrents around them, until the time came for her to awaken.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It didn't take long for Buffy to figure out what had upset Kendra. The minute she walked into the Great Hall for breakfast she was dragged out again by her friends and led to a nearby classroom.

"We figured out why Tonks got called away last night," Harry said urgently.

Buffy sighed. "What is it?"

"There was an attack on Cardiff's magical district last night," Ginny said. She was biting her lip nervously. "Over fifty late night shoppers were killed by a single person. According to the paper it happened so fast that the attacker was already gone by the time the Aurors arrived. They don't know how one person could have caused so much destruction. We thought…" she allowed her voice to trail off, but Buffy knew exactly what she was alluding to.

"If you were about to suggest that Kendra did this," she started. The other three looked apprehensive. "You would be right." She couldn't decide if they looked relieved or more worried by this. "I had another dream last night. She couldn't even talk to me, she just cried. I didn't know exactly what had happened, but I knew it had been something big." She dropped into a nearby chair. "No wonder she was so upset. This must be tearing her apart."

Harry sat next to her, his gaze fixed on the floor. "I had bad scar pains last night," he said slowly. "He was happy about what happened. Almost giddy. He wasn't there though, so at least I didn't have to watch."

Buffy rested her head on his shoulder. "How's it going with Slughorn?"

Harry sighed. "I still don't have it, but Ron and I had an idea."

Ron nodded eagerly. "Felix Felicitas," he said sagely.

"Luck potion?" Buffy asked, frowning. "That could work, but where will you get it from?"

"I already have some," Harry said with a trace of a smile. "Slughorn gave it to me at the beginning of the year for brewing the potion we were working on so well."

"How did you manage that?" Buffy blurted, before realising what she had said. "Oh, Harry! I didn't mean it like that."

Harry shot her a lop-sided grin. "I know. I do much better in that class without Snape breathing down my neck. I was lucky."

Ginny smiled enthusiastically. "Great. When are you going to do it?"

"Tonight," Harry replied. "I want it out of the way before Easter."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

They met once again in the library. It was the day Willow and Jenny made their weekly visit to the nearest muggle town so that Willow could e-mail her parents and Xander and Joyce had decided to go with them. Buffy knew that her friends and mother were craving a little bit of normalcy and she couldn't blame them for seizing it when the opportunity arose

Angel sat on a couch, trying to look alert. They'd roused him for this meeting only moments before, so it wasn't very surprising that he was failing miserably. Ginny, Harry and Ron sat at the long table. Ginny was calm and Ron was looking bored, but Harry was practically bouncing with energy. He was the one that had requested this meeting, but he had refused to tell anyone until now what it was about, though Buffy had guessed it had something to do with the memory he had retrieved from Professor Slughorn and the mysterious horcruxes.

Giles entered with a pot of tea and seated himself near the two boys. "Now," he said. "Would you care to enlighten us as to the reason for this get together?"

"I know what horcruxes are," Harry burst out excitedly. "They're soul fragments."

"What! Angel exclaimed.

Harry took a deep breath and prepared to explain everything he knew. "Horcruxes are made when a wizard murders someone. He can split off a part of his soul into an object and keep it safe. As long as part of his soul is still out there somewhere he can't die."

"Oh," Buffy's hand flew to her mouth as she put the pieces together. "Voldemort made one didn't he? That's why he didn't die when he tried to kill you as a baby. I mean, he was hit by a rebounded killing curse, he shouldn't have survived it."

Harry nodded. "Actually he made six and he's the seventh one."

Angel looked thunder struck. His mouth worked furiously, but he couldn't seem to find the words.

"Dumbledore said that if we find all the pieces and destroy them it will make Voldemort mortal again," Harry reported. "Then I'll be able to kill him."

"How?" Angel spluttered. "How can someone be so cavalier with their very soul? Doesn't he realise what a precious thing it is?"

Buffy laid a comforting hand on his arm. "His soul means nothing to him," she said gently. "He wasn't using it anyway. It's diseased and rotting. Yours is bright and pure and strong. That's why I love you. He doesn't even know what love is."

Angel pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. "But it's his soul."

"I know," Buffy murmured into his chest. "I know."

Harry seemed shocked at Angel's reaction, but carried on regardless. "Two have already been destroyed."

"The diary," Ginny said abruptly.

Harry stared into her eyes for a long moment before nodding. "And a ring that belonged to Slytherin. Dumbledore destroyed that one. That leaves four and Voldemort himself. Dumbledore's looking for the others right now. He said that when he finds one I could go with him and help destroy it."

Buffy couldn't help notice how that seemed to buoy Harry's confidence. "That's great," she said warmly. It was about time Dumbledore did something to help Harry prepare for this battle.

"I must say, this is most intriguing," Giles said, his eyes straying to the mountainous shelves of books as if one of them would jump out to give him more information on the subject. "I believe I have some tomes on soul magic. I'll see what can be found."

"I never thought I'd advocate destroying someone's soul," Angel said wearily.

"Maybe we don't have to," a new voice said from the door.

Buffy turned to see Jenny standing in the doorway, Xander and Willow flanking her.

"There's something you all need to know," Jenny said, her eyes focused on Giles' face.

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A/N: I know, I know. It's been three weeks since my last update, but I had a bad case of writers block. This chapter just didn't want to be written, but I got there. It's a little shorter than usual, but I liked this as a place to end. Please review and let me know what you think. Hopefully it won't take quite so long to get the next chapter up.

Don't worry it wasn't really the Mayor who heard the prophecy (unless you want to pretend it was.) I randomly chose a character whose initials I could steal and I thought it would be fun to use his, as he would have been alive back then. I won't be making an issue of the person who heard the prophecy though, so don't expect to hear anything more on it in the story.

I've changed chapter 18 so it no longer wrongfully makes Angel a Brit. Better?

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I'm not gonna reply individually this time, but I promise I will do next time.

Dozy.