Chapter 25: Sunnydale Welcomes Dirty-Hot Aragorn Guy

A/N:

Dearest Readers: Since I have been naughty with the severe lackage of updates, I wanted to give you another update! Especially because I wanted to leave you with a lighter chapter since 24 was definitely not hugs and bunnies. Hope you enjoy the introduction into Sunnydale ;) (*and* this chapter is one of my longest, so hope that pleases you!)

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Tumbling from the portal, Willow landed heavily into the backyard of the Summers' household. Sirius was cradled in her lap and Buckbeak was slowly stirring. The moon was softly fading into the West and Willow realized that with the eight-hour time difference it must be around five in the morning. Judging the darkness of the house, Buffy and Dawn were still sleeping right now.

Her heart lurched as a wisp of hair blew in front of her eyes - black hair. Tears fell freely from her eyes as Willow realized the severity of her relapse. Pressing her palms against the earth she rocked back and forth while repeating the mantra that Amelia had taught her. Hesitantly, she touched her inner magic and found a great deal of anger still there, just waiting for lash out.

Too slowly, she realized how the attack on Sirius had reminded her so much of Tara - an innocent bystander caught in the line of fire. That thought, coupled with her other outrages against the Ministry of Magic, provided easy fodder for her dark side to build upon. She had proven that in a highly emotional state, she still was unable to control herself.

With a pang, Willow realized that she had been weak in a moment where she should have proved her strength. After four months, she still could not control the darker side of her magic.

Her emotions rolled within her like an angry sea and her breath caught in her throat. Was this what she could expect for the rest of her life? Like acid, a drop of bitterness burned through her as she thought of those who she would have disappointed with her actions. Giles, who took her to safety because he believed in her. Amelia, who had patiently trained her to control her darker impulses. Not to mention the kind wizard she had just met, Dumbledore, who immediately had believed that she was inherently good.

Uncalled for, his past words whispered through her mind, striking her heart and soul.

"Willow Rosenberg is not a threat to us, or our community. When I look at you, I see a gray shimmering sea. Waves of black magic and white magic roll within you, each fighting to take hold. But the truth is neither can take full control and the only true control you will have is when those two forces cease being the magical equivalent of oil and water and begin mixing together, for both are a part of you. You are not the Dark One, Willow Rosenberg, unless you wish it to be so and relinquish that control. But I can see from your mind that that is not your true desire - and it is choice that separates the good from the evil."

She held back a sob as she reflected on those words and realized that she had relinquished her control… Yet his words gave her hope as well. Willow could still take matters into her own hand, she could still make the choice to do good.

No, not that she could.

She *would* make the choice to reclaim both sides of her magic and claim control.

With a sigh she opened her eyes, satisfied that she had calmed herself - for now. Now she began to observe Sirius, noting that he was still unconscious. Slowly she passed her hand over him, magically checking out possible internal injuries. With a wince, she saw that the 'Reducto' spell had managed to blast the bones in his left shoulder and arm to pieces.

Seeing the damage, she felt especially thankful for Sirius saving her - alongside with a good helping of guilt, as well, now that she saw what pain he incurred for saving her.

Knowing that there would be too many questions if she took him to a hospital - not to mention Willow had left her passport and everything in her cottage - she realized that the best way to save him would be magic. Although she wasn't as skilled in that area, Amelia had been teaching her a lot over the summer since Willow thought it would prove helpful to Buffy.

While winded, so to speak, from her display of power only moments earlier, Willow knew that she had to proceed quickly before Sirius woke up or his bones began setting wrong.

Concentrating deeply on imagining the bones of Sirius righting themselves - thank the Goddess that Willow got an A in anatomy! - Willow began pushing the flow of earthly energy into Sirius. Throughout her trance she repeated the following in a hushed tone:

"Aceso, Blessed Be

Send forth your healing energy."

Lost in her words, Willow barely noted the Sirius' gasp of pain as the spell began to mend his bones. Instinctively she grasped his hand to comfort him and continued to concentrate on his healing, even giving some of her own energy to the man.

She was unsure how much time had past, but even though her eyes were closed she sensed the sun begin its ascent into the dark sky. Once she felt the spell complete, she was completely drained of energy and Willow allowed herself to finally descend into the comforting arms of sleep.

~*~*~*~*

"Heya Dawnster!" Xander shouted up the stairs after he opened the front door of the Summers' home. "Ready for the ride to school?"

A frustrated scream was his only response.

"Ah, okay then," he commented with a grin as Buffy walked into the living room. "Lemme guess - teenage girl issues?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Dawn is currently having an 'All-My-Clothes-Suck-and-My-Life-Sucks' kind of day."

"Aha! I heard once, from a certain blond-haired friend of mine, that the only cure for those days is a trip to the mall," Xander joked with a knowing smile.

Dawn's head peaked out at the top of the stairs. "Exactly! That's exactly what *I've* been telling her, Xander!"

Buffy smiled sweetly. "Sure, Dawn. We can go once you've made some money of your own. I heard the Doublemeat Palace is hiring."

"Ew!" they heard Dawn yell from her room. "As if I want to smell like you did!" After a momentary pause she added, "Not that *you* smelled or anything. I meant how the other, less cooler people smelled."

"Yeah-huh. Right. Nice try, but still not taking you shopping," Buffy snorted.

"Not to mention, major loss of points for using the '90s phrase 'as if! Geez, Buff, what are you teaching the girl?" he asked her incredulously.

Buffy shrugged. "Hey, she may be made of my blood, but I cannot be held responsible for what comes out of that girl's mouth."

Dawn thudded down the stairs. "Have you seen my Biology book? I can't find my Biology book!" She began throwing couch cushions up and looking behind chairs. "Oh my God, I have a test today and me, and Kit, and Carlos were s'posed to study during lunch, and oh my God my life suuuuucks!"

Xander's eyes widened at her frantic behavior. "Dawnster, no worries! You're going to school. Lots of books there. In fact, I hear they even have a whole room of them and, thanks to my checking out of the building plans, that room is not evil - Besides your standard library book reading' and learnin' evil. Unlike back in *my* day when you couldn't check out a book without some hell demon emerging from a pit of darkness and…" Xander trailed off at seeing Dawn's burning glare.

"Y'know, Buff, I think she's got a bit of that Slayer temper," he said in a stage whisper.

She swatted his arm. "Temper?" she said loudly, but her eyes danced with amusement. "Are you implying that I have a temper?" Hands on hips, she faced him with lips pursed into a frown.

"Um, no?" he said in a mock show of nervousness.

"Guys, so not helping!" Dawn shouted from the kitchen.

"Check the backyard! You were studying out there before dinner yesterday!" Buffy shouted in return, thinking to herself that *surely* she had never been so annoying while in high school.

"Studying? Before dinner? Not for five minutes before bed, while also talking on the phone? You *sure* she's of your blood?" Xander asked in an amazed tone while an impish smile played on his face.

"Xander," Buffy growled. "I haven't even had my mocha yet. No making of the fun. Too early."

A shrill scream interrupted Xander's most likely snarky comeback. "Buffy! Xander!"

The two friends exchanged glances and rushed towards Dawn's voice.

She stood on the back steps, pointing towards a strange creature that was built like a horse, but had wings and a bird's head.

"Whoa!" Xander exclaimed as he skidded to a stop. "That is one big, angry-looking bird." He glanced towards Buffy. "Do we kill it?"

"That is a hippogriff," Dawn calmly informed. "They don't hurt people unless they are provoked. But that isn't what I was pointing at. I think Willow came back."

Dawn and Xander gasped as the saw the still form of their red-haired friend lying with her head resting on top of a man's stomach. All three of them rushed forwards but the hippogriff kicked up its front legs at them.

"Whoa! You think this thing hurt Willow?" Buffy asked in an icy tone. Yes - she still felt weird when she thought about how she was supposed to deal with Willow, but no matter what she was going to protect her best friend.

"No, I don't think so. It looks more like its protecting them," Dawn opined. "I read about these in one of Giles' books on mythological creatures that he gave me. They're a proud breed and you have to earn their trust. Lemme try." Without waiting for Buffy to stop her, Dawn approached the hippogriff and bowed low while retaining eye contact.

The hippogriff cocked its head, as if it was considering her for a moment, and then slowly bowed in return. After some incessant urging, Xander and Buffy followed suit. With the weird political hippogriff business over, Buffy gently rolled Willow off the man and inspected her.

"How is she?" Xander asked.

"I think she might be sleeping. I can't find any wounds or anything."

At hearing Dawn's giggle, Buffy looked up at her. "Is there something amusing about our unconscious friend?"

Dawn bit her lip to cease her outburst. "No! Definitely not. But there *is* something amusing about seeing this long-haired hippie-looking dude wearing that Scooby t-shirt that Xander got you guys."

"Scooby? Huh?" Xander inspected the form-fitting shirt on the slim, older looking man. "Weird. That definitely looks like Willow's shirt. Guess she and this dude must be friends," he added with a shrug.

With a wide grin, Dawn nodded approvingly. "Nice job, Will," she said softly.

"Nice job, what?" Buffy asked with a raised brow.

Dawn laughed giddily. "Turns out she was paying attention during our LOTR marathons. She brought me home a dirty-hot Aragorn guy!"

~*~*~*~*

Sirius felt himself slowly start to awaken - it was like climbing through a pitch black tunnel until only, bit by bit, did a pinprick of light expand to fully showcase the world outside his unconscious thought. Dimly, he heard two female voices speaking.

"It's already after four in the afternoon, when do you think they're going to wake?"

"No idea. After a trip to Major Magics Willow can sleep harder than a zombie on Percoset - she may not wake up until tomorrow."

"I hope she wakes up soon. I want to find out who dirty-hot Aragorn guy is and if I can keep him."

"Ew! Dawn! He's like Giles-ish and probably has a pair of glasses in his pocket and tweed in his closet."

"No way! He's so not that old."

Sirius felt a tingly sensation in his scalp, as though someone had picked up a piece of his hair.

"See! No grays. Totally okay."

"No, George Clooney is the only hottie with an old body. I mean, I guess this guy's okay in that rugged, NYC street person way, but way too old for you."

A snort of laughter sounded, followed by a rather sarcastic voice. "Yeah, okay, Ms. My-Two-Boyfriends-Had-Bicentennials."

"Ow!"

"That's what you get. Besides, Spike never had a bicentennial, so he's not that old. Also, he was never a boyfriend. He was…"

"Okay, now it's my turn to say ew."

A pair of footsteps retreated and after a moment a second pair followed.

Sirius' eyes blinked open, revealing that he was in a dimly lit bedroom. He was so confused. Where was he? Who were those girls? They didn't sound British but their words also made no bloody sense either. He heard something about magic, a zombie, and a spike. Very odd.

Slowly, he sat up and surveyed the area. The first thing he noticed was that his arm felt healed - which was weird because the last thing he remembered was taking that 'Reducto' blast for Willow. Even Madam Pomfrey couldn't heal shattered bone that quickly.

Glancing to his right, he saw that Willow was in a deep sleep next to him on the King-sized bed. She appeared troubled and her lips were pressed into a thin frown. He wondered if she was having a nightmare. Gently, he rolled his thumb over her cheek; feeling an instinctive urge to protect her from whatever plagued her dreams.

Actually, speaking of nightmares - where was he? He would assume that the Aurors had captured the two of them, but he severely doubted that this was the new and improved Azkaban cell, or even a Ministry holding cell. Nor would they have fixed his arm if they planned on feeding him to the bloody dementors.

Sirius shivered at the thought of the foul, gaping mouthed creatures.

No, this place imbued a sense of warmth and coziness. He could only presume that Willow had gotten them out of that bit of trouble. How, he had no idea. But Sirius Black was not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. They were safe, and that was all that mattered.

Gingerly, he rolled to the side of the bed and stood up, suddenly realizing he needed to use the loo. At the same time, he wasn't quite sure if he was prepared to meet his saviors - or captors, or whoever's home he was in. Not to mention, he didn't think it was just his sleepiness that made their speech confusing. No, it would be better to put that off for a moment.

Softly opening the door, Sirius crept out into a brightly lit hallway. Well, there was his second clue they weren't in Britain anymore - this place was too damn sunny.

Noticing a door set ajar, Sirius realized it was the bathroom and snuck in. After taking care of business, he realized that - what with his smell and tangled hair - he could use a shower. With a swish of his wand he muttered, "Silencio", so no one would hear him showering. He figured they wouldn't mind, but until Willow woke up he was happy to have those strange girls think he was still sleeping.

Finding a towel in the linen closet, Sirius hung it up and turned on the water. Ah- hot water! How he had missed this. In fact, he was starting to feel spoiled at having two hot showers in three days. This was definitely some sort of record.

With a frown, Sirius realized this was most certainly a female bathroom since all the toiletries were fruity sounding, but he figured it wouldn't be that bad to have hair that smelled like 'Cucumber Melon'. After all, he could - like Willow mentioned in their first meeting - smell like dog, instead.

So engrossed with his current activity, Sirius Black did not realize that someone opened the bathroom door fully intending to take a shower of her own. Grabbing her towel, she set it on the rack and noticed a new towel was already sitting there.

'That's weird,' she thought. Glancing at the shower, she jumped back when she saw steam rising into the air. Yet oddly, although she could see the water turned on, she could not hear it.

"Hello?" she asked tentatively. With a bemused smile she wondered if maybe the Summers residence had a ghost, like the one that Cordy used to have in L.A. After all, no one else would be showering right now.

'Only one way to find out,' she thought as her hand gripped the edge of the shower curtain.

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A/N:

Likey? Dislikey? Tell-y me!

And do you think it will be Dawn or Buffy that spies Sirius in the buff? ;) haha

*Aceso- .; Goddess of Healing, Grand-daughter of Apollo