Chapter 26: For a Grim Old Place, It Can Still Be a Riot!
At number twelve, Grimmauld Place, the Golden Trio along with most of the Weasley family and Sirius Black were all fixing things up for Christmas when suddenly, there was a sound of the front door opening up. With that, the portrait of Sirius's mother, Walburga Black (who had been silent all this time) began to scream at the top of her voice.
"MONSTERS! MUTATIONS IN THE HOUSE OF MY FAMILY! THE DISGRACE! THE CORRUPTION! OUT! OUT OF MY HOUSE! BLOOD-TRAITORS, MUD-BLOODS, AND NOW MUTATIONS! DEFILEMENT! DEFILEMENT!"
"Well, I've never been yelled at by a painting before," Harry heard Buffy quip, "at least, I think it was insulting us."
Harry then looked up from his work as the door opened and Professor McGonagall, who was holding Mordred by the scruff of his hooded neck, came into the room while Buffy, Faith and Dawn followed behind them with their Firebolts and bags.
"Hi guys," Buffy said, holding onto a bag of stuff, "we're here to help out."
Faith and Dawn were both grinning broadly while McGonagall dropped Mordred, cautioning him to not going bouncing around the place, as it was not as safe as Hogwarts. Harry noticed she had a new Firebolt in her other hand, and was holding it tightly as if not wanting to let it go.
The four students then went over and helped out, cleaning up various parts and setting up decorations along with the others. Mordred went out into the hall and began pestering the portrait of Walburga Black, who screamed at him. He stood in front of it for until Sirius came out and dragged him back into the room, where he went to Buffy and Faith. The three of them chatted a bit, and then they used some Magic on the fire, making it go black as midnight and freezing cold instead of hot.
"Why'd you go and do that?" asked Sirius, "it's freezing now!"
"Just give us a moment." Mordred said as he and the two girls went out into the hallway.
Walburga Black's Portrait began screaming again; only this time it was a wordless wail of acute pain that cut through the air like an ice pick. There was a loud wrenching sound, and the others stared in shock as Buffy and Faith carried the portrait of Mrs. Black screaming all the way to the fire while Mordred had one of his wands jammed into her.
"Any last words, bitch?" Mordred asked; his face contorted in a grimace from the effort.
He then pulled his wand out of her, and the Slayers launched her portrait into the freezing fire, where it burst into black flames that froze and shattered it into pieces that evaporated into dust. Mordred turned to Sirius and grinned.
"Any other items you want us to get rid of?" he asked as the Slayers rubbed their arms from the strain before looking on eagerly.
Sirius grinned and directed them to the Grandfather Clock, which Buffy broke into pieces while collecting bolts from it for future use in weapons. Faith ripped up a purple set of robes that tried to strangle her before feeding the pieces into the cold fire. The Slytherin Triumvirate then hunted down various pests, including the murderous ghoul that lived in the upstairs toilet. Mordred liberated a heavy golden locket that had Slytherin's mark on it for himself while he put some of the creatures they found into cages, which were either kept or killed by the Slayers and thrown into the cold fire for disposal.
"How do you manage to do these things?" Sirius asked them after they had taken down another painting that took to screaming out racist comments and tossed it into the cold fire. "We've tried everything we could to take down some of those paintings, but they were stuck on with a Permanent Sticking Charm," he then looked at them curiously, "you should have never been able to budge those paintings, let alone tear them off the walls."
"We'll explain things later, during one of the meetings with the Order of the Phoenix." Said Buffy as Mordred returned the fire back to normal. Sirius laughed.
"Sorry, but we're rather busy at the moment," he said evasively, "as there's going to be some very special people coming for us to help out against Voldemort."
"Yah, we know," said Faith casually, "we're the people he sent."
"And why should we believe that?" asked Molly Weasley, who'd been listening in on them. The Golden Trio and Ginny tensed, as they knew what Faith and Buffy were talking about. Mrs. Weasley continued. "You're just kids, same age as my own. What do you know that we don't?" Dawn spoke up at this.
"We know that the Order is guarding something," she said vaguely, "a prophecy of some sort." This caused Dawn to have their complete attention on her, as she was talking about stuff that only the Order should know about. She continued.
"I'll bet it has something to deal with Voldemort," she said, causing gasps to be heard from mentioning his name, "and Harry as well. We also know what Dumbledore told you he'd be sending to you today."
"Oh yeah, and what's that?" asked Mrs. Weasley incredulously. Dawn looked her in the eye and spoke loudly enough so everyone could hear her.
"The Slayers," was all she said, as the others looked on in shock. Sirius then gave a start, before speaking up.
"Who are the Slayers?" he asked. Buffy and Faith raised their hands.
"We're the Slayers." Said Buffy, getting everyone's attention. Sirius stared on in shock and comprehension.
"So that's how you did those things," he said in a mumble before Molly tried to hush them up.
"We need an emergency meeting," she said, "now. Kids, back to your rooms . . ."
The others complained, but Dawn merely spoke in a strict voice.
"Whatever you talk about in there," she said, "I'll just tell the others anyways, so they may as well stay here."
That got a very fiery look from Molly, but Dawn held her own against her, so after a moment, they all went into the kitchen where everyone could sit around the table and hear what the Slayers had to say for themselves.
"So, you're the Slayers." Sirius said.
"Yup, that's us." Replied Faith.
"We thought you were a myth," said Molly, "something Dumbledore was only using to inspire us."
"Well, you were myth-taken." Punned Buffy as she waited for the others to settle down. When they were ready Dawn, with her sister and Faith to either side of her and Mordred looking on from behind them, began.
"Have you ever heard of the legend of the Slayer?" She asked everyone in the room. Most of them gave confused stares, but Charlie piped up.
"I heard that it's a Demon who eats Muggles, or that's what it was." He said, sounding not so sure of himself. "Now it's a vegetarian and lives underground."
"Not exactly," Dawn said while the others fought back giggles at the thought of a Buffy or Faith-Demon living off of carrots and sitting in a hole somewhere like Bugs Bunny, "the Slayer is a girl that fights the forces of darkness. Mainly, they stop evil creatures and Apocalypses so that the rest of the world can live in peace. They are technically Holy warriors, fighting the forces of evil. We have something called the Watchers Council back where we come from, which is an organization that is dedicated to helping Slayers survive as long as possible."
"Okay, but if there's only one Chosen One, how could both of them be Slayers?" Bill interrupted, gesturing towards Faith and Buffy.
"I'm just getting to that." Dawn said. "Buffy here's the original Slayer, but she was prophesied to die at the hands of the Master, a very powerful Vampire. She did in fact die, but she was brought back to life when our friend Xander gave her CPR."
"What's that?" Asked one of the people there. Dawn then explained the concept of CPR, which had to be explained to the non-Muggleborns - and most of the half-bloods - in the room, who knew nothing of Muggle medical practices.
"This allowed one other Slayer to be activated," she said, "and when she was murdered Faith here became a Slayer as well." Faith smiled at the others as they looked on in wonder.
"The Slayer is a line of Potentials; something in certain young girls is a trigger that, when an old Slayer dies, be flipped and causes them to become the new Slayer." Buffy added. "We get increased speed, great strength and as I call them 'the irritating dreams of past Slayers and bad things to come.'"
"So, if we wanted an army of Slayers," said Fred cautiously, "we'd have to kill Faith, give her CRP, and then do the same with the others? No offence."
"Not really." Said Buffy, while Faith glared at Fred. "A year or so ago, there was an evil being called The First Evil that tried to wipe us all out."
"Wait a second," interrupted George, "weren't you all wiped out by the Ministry?"
"Not in this world," said Buffy, "you see, we came through a portal into this world from ours. For some reason, we now have Magic and are all younger here than we were back home, and as far as I know we're the only Slayers here, due to the Ministry ethnically cleansing the rest of them."
"How many Slayers are there where you come from?" Asked Bill, while the others looked on in confusion.
"Thousands." Said Buffy, getting their audience to look on in shock. "As I was saying before, when we were fighting the First Evil it came down to the fact that we were going to lose if we played by the rules. If we fought the First's army like heroes we were all going to die with zilch to show for it. So we decided to level the playing field. My idea was to get Willow, who's a red head like one of you Weasley's and also a Wiccan Witch, to activate all the Potentials who had been coming to us from around the world. She did this using a Scythe that I found made specifically for the Slayers."
"What's a 'Wiccan Witch'?" asked McGonagall, who had been quiet up until now as she had known beforehand about the Slayers. "I've never heard of the expression before." Dawn answered this.
"It's a Witch from our world, sort of an Earth-based Magic user." Dawn supplied. "Anyone in our world can become one, although it's easier for ones born into Magic to become them. It's a combination religious philosophy, Magic use thing. Our friend Willow is the strongest one we know of."
"So, that means all the Witches where you come from are good people?" asked Bill, "since they're all religious and all?" Dawn shook her head at this, and looked towards Buffy. She nodded at her, and Dawn continued.
"Not all of them are good, in fact, Magic in our world can become an addictive thing regardless of it being good or bad. The power sometimes ends up controlling the user instead of the other way around, and the Wiccan would - more often than not - end up destroying the people around them, and themselves as well. For example," Dawn took a breath and continued on nervously, "Willow was using a lot of Magic, and using it for everything from small things like opening windows to the big things such as fighting Vampires. We tried to get her to stop using so much Magic but she ended up hurting me before she could stop. But then things went straight to Hell when Willow's lover, Tara, was murdered right in front of her."
"What happened?" asked Hermione, who was unconsciously holding Ron's hand for support. "What killed Tara?"
"Someone named Warren shot her through a window with a gun." Said Dawn, getting odd looks from the others. "It happened when neither of them expected it, so there was no time to put up a barricade or a healing spell or anything. So this sent Willow off the deep end with rage and grief; she began absorbing as much Dark Magic into herself as she could to go track down Warren."
"Did she find him?" asked Sirius, who had a small glint in his eye as he was imagining it. Dawn nodded her head with a grimace. "What did she do to him?"
"She killed him by skinning him alive and burning his body." said Dawn before quickly adding; "I personally still don't blame her as he had by this point killed his own ex-girlfriend before Tara without any remorse. Willow then went after his two friends who had nothing to do with the murder, and when Giles tried to stop her, she adsorbed his power and attempted to end the world."
"Wow." Was all that was said by the others, as they absorbed the information they were told.
"How did she try to end the world?" asked Hermione disbelievingly, "sounds like an awfully complicated process, not to mention very powerful."
"She tried using an ancient alter to a evil Goddess as a power sink to try and use the Earth's very own power to burn itself up." Dawn said. "She would have destroyed the world had it not been for Xander."
"Sounds like Xander saves the day a lot." Said Sirius. "Is he a Wizard or something else your world has a name for?"
"He's a one-eyed carpenter, actually." Dawn said while getting confused looks from the others. "He talked her out of destroying the world by saying that she would have to kill him first all personal like and that there was no place he would rather be than at her side as the world ended and something about a yellow crayon that I still don't understand. But the point is, she stopped and went on to recover from her addiction. This was all before she activated the other Slayers in our world, so I don't know what affect this world will have on her Magic."
The others looked on in wonder, before Hermione spoke up.
"So your world's Magic causes people to go evil?" She asked, while getting the others to look on curiously.
"Only if you allow it to make you go evil," said Dawn, who shook her head before continuing. "Think of Magic from our world the same way you think of alcohol or drugs here, the more a person uses it the more addicted they can become if they don't try to control their use of it first."
"Are there any evil Slayers that you know of?" asked Ron, getting Buffy and Faith to look at one another, "since there's evil Witches there must be evil Slayers as well, right?" Faith spoke up at this.
"Well, I'm not evil anymore," Faith supplied hesitantly, "but I did go psycho for awhile."
"How and why did you do that?" asked Molly, who then moved her body closer to Ginny as if to protect her. "What did you do?"
"I accidentally killed a man," said Faith, "and rather than deal with it I shut myself off and went on a killing spree, teaming up with a soulless Mayor to try and take over the world." Faith then pointed at Buffy with her thumb.
"B there gutted me with a knife, making me go into a coma. When I woke up Angel, who was a friend of ours, then stopped me from killing others, and I turned myself in to the cops." She then paused before continuing. "When I was in jail I was attacked by one of the First's minions, and I broke out to go help Buffy and the gang."
"How did you all get here then?" Asked McGonagall shrewdly. The four of them looked at one another as Dawn spoke up.
"Some Demon opened up a portal in our world, and sent us through it." Dawn said matter-of-factly. "When we came through, we were at Hogwarts, dropped in Dumbledore's lap. He's been kind enough to allow us to stay until we find a way back home."
The others looked on, and Sirius then pointed out Mordred.
"What's your story?" He asked.
"Be damned if I knew," replied Mordred perplexedly. "When I came to I had a nasty case of amnesia. All I know is that I'm from the 'Todash Void', although I don't know where that is, and that my name is Mordred Flaggson."
They then all went to back to work before calling it a night, with Dawn, Buffy and Faith sleeping in the same room as Hermione and Ginny while Harry and Ron got stuck with Mordred, who levitated himself into a floating lotus position over the floor for an hour when they tried to sleep. After that, he pestered them both until they shooed him out of the room, and then went back to sleep. When Harry and Ron both woke up they noticed Ron had some mistletoe floating over his head, and regardless of how much Ron tried to knock it down, nothing worked.
"The least you can do is help," whined Ron as Harry laughed at him. "How am I going to go downstairs without being mauled by the girls?"
"Don't worry," said Mordred laughingly from the doorway, "with a face like yours, you'd need some mistletoe just to get a peck on the cheek, let alone a snog."
"Hey!" cried Ron indignantly, "I don't have to put up with this! I get enough from my brothers as it is."
"Speaking of which, are you sure you're even related?" asked Mordred, "cause I coulda sworn they adopted you from a litter of actual weasels that they found on the road out of sheer pity."
They all continued insulting one another on the way downstairs, where they found that Hermione was in a similar predicament as Ron, as she too had mistletoe floating above her head while the three American girls giggled behind her back. Mordred pulled out his mistletoe hat, and began hitting on Ginny, Hermione, and even Molly, before the others arrived. They all sat down to wait before opening up their presents, while Faith talked to the twins.
"Ok, which one of you two is the evil twin?" Faith asked. The Weasley Twins both raised their hands.
"I am!" They jointly said in proud vocies. Faith then mock-glared at them.
"I Slay evil twins." She said, smiling evilly. The Weasley Twins then pointed at each other.
"He is!" they said, causing the others to laugh. Mordred grinned at Hermione and Ron, who were both trying to ignore the mistletoes above their heads.
"Come one you two lovebirds, smooch already." He mumbled loud enough for the others to hear. The Weasley twins then began chanting "Snog, snog, snog," which was taken up by Ginny, Buffy, Harry, Faith, and Dawn, while Mordred clapped his hands to the beat. Hermione then began Conjuring some birds into the air, and with a shouted command of "Oppugno", she sent them after Mordred.
"Alfred Hitchcock was right!" Yelled Mordred as he dodged out from under the swarm of birds attacking him. "The birds are after us! Run for your lives!" He ran out of the room while Hermione blasted her and Ron's mistletoes with a Reductor Curse before glaring at the others who'd been chanting. The adults came in, along with Bill Weasley, and everyone got to opening up their presents.
Molly had gotten everyone (even the Slytherin Triumvirate, although they were just made the night before-hand) hand-made jumpers with their initials on them, while Hermione had gotten her fellow Hogwarts students' homework planners that talked. Sirius and Lupin had given them all books on Practical Defensive Magic, while Hagrid had gotten them all wallets that bit them anytime they tried to hold them. The Triumvirate and Buffy had gotten a nice dress for Molly, a golden Egyptian Mask for Bill, a small model of Tiamet the Dragon Goddess for Charlie (even though he wasn't there), various modified joke items for the twins, and a polishing kit for Ginny for her Firebolt, as well as a Chessboard Cake for Ron with a Golden Crown with a W on it. Hermione was given several books on fictional Witches (Oz series by L. Frank Baum, Wicked and Son of a Witch by Gregory Maguire, as well as some others) by the Triumvirate and Buffy, while Harry was given a crown made out of Golden Snitches, which tried to fly away with his head when he put it on. Dawn, Buffy, Faith, and Mordred had all gotten broom polishing kits from Harry and Ron. When Sirius opened up his presents he laughed at Mordred's, as Mordred had gotten him a large golden firehydrant (the girls had all gotten him a White Chocolate cake in the form of a dog bone). They were all ready to get up and take their presents to their rooms when all of a sudden loud pop was heard and a package the size of a small cake fell down the chimney and bounced off the fireplace before landing right in front of Mordred.
"Well, wonder what that could be?" Mordred said before he saw his own name on it. 'To Flagg's Son' it read, and when he opened it up he read it aloud.
To Whom It May Concern,
Howdy there, Pardner. In case you don't know who this is, then this is the note for you. Pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name. Well, may as well break this to you quickly: be wary of the book I am giving you. It's one of my personal favourites, as it was bound from Demon flesh and inked in Demon blood many millennia ago by Nyarlathotep himself on one of the stars he was visiting. The name of the book is Defigo Avius Grimoire, which translates into Book of Unfound Spells, and believe me you'll be grateful you have it with you. This is all assuming you've actually survived the process of making your wands, (which I'll admit to freely I doubted the moment I began grabbing up ingredients for them). So, since you've survived that, let me warn you that this book is dangerous. It contains all the best Dark Magic Spells you could ever want, from making potions that turn into plagues that wipe out every type of person you could want, to cutting up your soul for storage in containers (although I doubt you'll need it, since I made you with a shadow for a soul) to even figuring out the exact word a dear friend of mine once used to wipe out her entire planet with (now that's a gal who knows how to party.) Just be sure to remember the code (in case you don't know it I wrote it underneath) and know that while others have conquered and ruled; we alone shall conquer for conquest's sake and Dominate for no other purpose than Domination itself. We and we alone have spoken aloud the Great Secret; that the root function of all things is the production and reproduction of power—and that power is the ability to compel others to do your will against theirs. It is the end, not mearly the means to the end. The purpose of Power is Power.
I bequest this to you, my only heir, in the hopes that you and I may be reunited in the very near future. Until then, feel free to cover the worlds you travel in with your own Shadow. And always remember: You are Magic. You are Change. You are the Catalyst of all Destruction! Keep to our code, and you will become Invincible!
"Order is an Illusion, there is only Chaos.
Through Chaos, there is Strength.
Through Strength, there is Power.
Through Power, there is Victory.
Through Victory, the Boundaries of Reality are Broken.
And I am Free to Dominate the Multiverse
And Remake it in My own Image."
Have a Great Day.
-R.F.
"RF, I wonder what that stands for?" mused Mordred as he tore open the package to reveal a huge book. Mordred picked it up in both arms, and placed it into his bag despite protests from the others. Mundungus, Lupin, Tonks, and Moody all showed up to escort them all to the hospital to visit Arthur. The Scooby's all got out their get-well cards to give to them, but were told to come too, as "the more the merrier, especially on Christmas" said Molly. Mordred sauntered up to Tonks, who was looking amusedly at his mistletoe hat.
"Hello Nymphomaniac." Mordred said to Tonks, getting a really nasty glare from her.
"Nymphomaniac am I?" shouted Tonks at Mordred. Mordred grinned and pointed to Tonks while looking behind himself.
"Hey, she admits it." He said while pointing at her before leering. "Can I have a try?" She lunged at him while he danced out of the way.
"Isn't that your name?" He asked cheekily.
"It's Nymphadora," she said, "and I hate that name too, so just call me Tonks."
"What's a Nymphomaniac?" asks Ron.
"Think your sister Ginny, according to some of the boys in Hogwarts," replied Mordred before Buffy could intervene, "or Hermione with Vicky Krum."
"Don't pay any attention to him," Buffy said, "he's just out to cause trouble, like always."
They all went over to St. Mungos hospital, where they saw Arthur in his bed. When the others gave him some presents and the get-well card, Mordred called for his bird, PaniChaos. He had Arthur drink some of PaniChaos' tears, as well as apply some of them to his wounds, but before applying them to his wounds he took out a syringe and took a sample of the venom from Arthur.
"I heard tell that there are Slayers working for us," he said, after Mordred put the venom-filled syringe away. His face got all bright and cheerful. "It's just - I find the whole idea of extinct Magical beings quite extraordinary!" He said before looking at Harry directly.
"Tell me," he asked Harry enthusiastically, "is it true they're is almost as tall as Giants and have wooden stakes for fingers?"
"Huh?" Dawn said, completely dumbfounded.
Harry shook his head, slightly amused despite all that was going on at the moment. Buffy and Faith were about to interject themselves, but were shushed by Molly.
"We're not supposed to talk about it here!" she whispered venomously. "Wait until you get back to the Headquarters to learn about them." Everyone laughed as Buffy and Faith held their tongues, wry smiles on their faces.
"I've met the Slayers, Mr. Weasley," Harry said to him, "and they've both got two regular hands, same as you and me. And they're kind of short, actually."
"Astounding!" Mr. Weasley said, shaking his head in complete wonderment as the Golden Trio, Ginny, and the Scooby's went to the fourth floor, where they found Lockhart trying to sign autographs for them, and Neville with his grandmother visiting his parents.
"What do you mean?" Neville's grandmother, Agusta Longbottom, said to him as he the others looked at his parents. "You're parents didn't give up their health and sanity just so that you could be ashamed of them, you know!"
Neville made some protesting noises while Dawn went through her bag, grabbing up something.
"Here you go," she said, giving Neville a plant. "It's called a Kleffa Carrot, and it's from the lot of us. It acts as a lock, and it squeals anytime someone tries to break through it, like an alarm run by a Mandrake, so any would-be theives get knocked out by it. You need to water it once a week though."
"Thanks." Neville said, smiling at her while blushing.
He and his grandmother went off after he pocketed some wrapper from his mom, Alice Longbottom. Before he left Dawn grabbed out a picture of Fawkes the Phoenix she took from her bag and gave it to Neville to give to his parents. When they left, the others looked at Harry.
"Dumbledore told me about this," he said glumly, "but I promised I'd never tell anyone. Bellatrix Lestrange and some Death Eaters did this to him using the Cruciatus Curse, that's what she's in Azkaban for." The others thought about what he said, until Mordred broke the silence.
"Discordia's Wastes," swore Mordred, "I didn't think it was physically possible, but that both sucks and blows."
The others agreed, and then they went back to Arthur, where they said their goodbyes and left while he rested up. Mordred only stopped to grab up the plant, which was Devil's Snare, from Bode's table, and went back to Lockhart's bedside, where Mordred gave him the plant before picking his pocket. Lockhart managed to sign a whole bunch of cards for him and the plant, before Mordred left. When he got outside Dawn questioned him.
"Where's the Devil's Snare?" she asked him.
"I got rid of it," Mordred replied evasively as he pocketed something that looked like a key. "It won't hurt anyone useful." When Dawn looked at him curiously he went to the others, cutting off further questions from her.