Chapter 39:

A/N:

Hola! This episode is based off of Buffy episode #10 'Bring on the Night' (and does feature a few lines from that ep, so please do not sure!). Episodes #8 (Sleeper) & #9 (Never Leave Me) happened as they did in the series. Remember, I am avoiding fruitless duplication so unless a Buffy episode or scene changes significantly because of Sirius & other HPers, I will avoid writing it.

Thanks to all the reviewers who enjoyed the shovel speeches & provided feedback on the potential rating change! I'm still editing that chappie so there's no word yet on what it'll look like – you'll find out soon though :) And special thanks to DeepBlueJoy for being such a helpful person to talk to while writing :)

Also, I know this chappie isn't as long as the most recent ones, but I wanted to give you an update as I work out the next couple chapters :)

And now… further madness begins!

Sirius Black clung onto Buckbeak's feathers as they soared over a set of curling grey clouds sitting over Sunnydale. The air was moist as the clouds consumed more and more droplets of water in preparation for a downpour. A shrieking gale of wind passed by them and Sirius fought back a shiver. Then Sirius found himself laughing at the realization that the weather seemed in perfect accordance with his thoughts.

"A storm's a brewing!" he yelled over the wind to his winged companion. Buckbeak made a noise in return and Sirius could have sworn in its translated form it was a very sarcastic "Duh!" Damn hippogriff had always possessed an attitude and time spent with the Summers women seemed to have increased that.

"Let's go higher! See if we can see any lightning!" Sirius suggested recklessly. Buckbeak released a negative sound and began to slowly descend.

"Aw, come on Buckbeak! Live a little! We'll be fine!" he cajoled.

Buckbeak discontinued his descent but he proceeded no higher. However, Sirius was satisfied.

With a grim look, he took in the rolling dark clouds that surrounded them. Sirius felt such an innate desire to feel that he had left his friends and gotten Buckbeak to agree to this insane trip into the skies. With the recent discoveries over the last few days his spirit was bruised and his claustrophobia had increased significantly. He just couldn't be in that house right now. It made everything all too real.

Conflicting emotions roared through Sirius – anger, fear, disappointment, and worry. Sirius was angry at learning last night that it had been the First that had pretended to be his younger brother. How dare that malicious son of a bitch impersonate his dead brother and try to use him! Even after that night, and Willow's attempts at reasoning, a part of Sirius had believed that it really had been Regulus. Perhaps it was because of his inner guilt or maybe because he genuinely missed his kid brother, Sirius had wanted to believe that he had spoken to Reg. To know that it had all been a trick left that small part of his spirit that had felt fulfilled at seeing his brother one last time now feel empty.

Sure, it was maybe good that this First-Reg had not been his Reg. The amount of guilt the First-Reg laid upon Sirius for his death was suffocating. But those statements were just a vocalization of Sirius' deeper thoughts, so no matter what that conversation still felt true.

Besides that, Sirius was becoming seriously worried about Willow and the others. Buffy didn't seem to know a lot but apparently this entity considered itself the 'First Evil', and although the name was less intimidating than 'Lord Voldemort' the story behind the name was not. With such a creature after them who knows what could happen – and who knew what could happen to his Willow.

Already this morning Willow had been attacked by the demonic creature when trying to do a location spell for the First. Seeing her possessed by that evil, seeing that demonic visage spring forth from her body… It tore both anger and worry from Sirius. For the longest time he had held his girlfriend in his arms as she sat shivering from her exposure to the First and Sirius had felt his inner Gryffindor rumble with a protective fury at seeing her in pain. Willow was incredibly strong but she was so fragile at the same time; he hated that the First had the ability to make her so fearful – especially now that she was too afraid to use her magic again.

Even more, Sirius was very worried for Harry's safety. Sometime soon after Halloween Harry's post had arrived and informed Sirius of Harry's entry into the Triwizard Tournament. Luckily, Dumbledore had also mailed him further information. It seemed very clear that someone was after his godson – and someone powerful as well because it is extremely hard to confound the Goblet of Fire. At least Sirius was relieved that Harry had successfully dealt with the dragon in his First Task three weeks ago on the twenty-fourth. He could only hope that the next two tasks would prove as easy for his tenacious and talented godson.

Of course, what Sirius truly hoped was to go back to Hogwarts and help his godson. Yet since he was on the run – with Unspeakables on the trail- he knew it would be hard to work that out… Not to mention he was afraid to leave Willow alone against this First creature. To put it mildly, Sirius was torn trying to decide what to do.

It was raining now and Sirius relished the feeling of the cold spray of water beating upon his body. He sighed and cast away his dark thoughts for a moment as he just allowed himself to feel nothing but the rain soaking through his clothes. After a while thunder rolled a mile away and Buckbeak quaked underneath him. Patting the hippogriff reassuringly, he spoke loudly. "All right, Buckbeak! Time to go home." No sooner where the words out of his mouth than they were plunging downwards, the wind whipping through his loose hair.

Sirius glanced backwards at the dark sky. There was a storm rolling in, alright, but if his instincts were correct, it was going to be a hell of a lot worse than just rain and thunder.

Willow stood in the living room as she absently rubbed her chest; she still felt dirty inside from the First. Xander and Buffy were talking near the door and she was about to join Anya and Dawn on the couch when Sirius walked into the room. It was raining outside but he looked dry – must be nice to be a wizard, able to do magic all the time.

She mentally berated herself for the idle thought. Willow tried not to, but sometimes she couldn't prevent the envy she felt towards Sirius and his powers. He was able to use magic for everything without any negative consequences. No turning into a dark magic user, no being possessed by the First for using a simple location spell – it really wasn't fair!

Taking a deep breath and pushing back those thoughts, she smiled at Sirius. "Good ride?"

Smiling, he nodded and walked behind her; wrapping his arms around her. After her experience earlier, she was still feeling shaky and the feel of his strength surrounding her made everything – even if momentarily – feel better.

"Buckbeak was being a bit of a sissy and wouldn't fly close to the lightning, but it was alright otherwise," he informed her in an amused tone.

Turning her head slightly she stared at him in bewilderment. "What? You wanted to fly into lightning? Are you crazy?"

He smirked. "I'm not mad, love. I didn't say that I wanted to fly into the lightning, just wanted to take a closer look-see."

Willow growled and turned away from him. "Oh, honestly," she muttered in an annoyed tone. Sirius was one of the craziest – sorry, maddening – people that she had ever met…and sometimes he reminded her of her friends. Like Xander, he was full of jokes and sarcasm, like Buffy he was brave and was not in favor of planning before jumping into danger (like she was currently arguing in favor of), and like Dawn he was positively reckless. She was at least happy that he wasn't like Anya in any way she knew yet – it would be embarrassing to date someone that spoke about sex all the time.

Gnawing her lip, suddenly her mind drifted at that thought. Two and a half months of dating Sirius and they still had not engaged in any clothes off experiences. He still slept on the living room couch – transfigured into a bed at night – and she was surprised about his lack of move making. A while ago they had gone into that whole 'exes' conversation and Willow had been taken aback at his sheer number of exes. Of course, none of them had been serious, but he had gotten some serious action back in the day… So a part of her couldn't help but to start to question why he hadn't tried to have sex with her yet.

Sure, they had discussed it and said they would wait until she was ready – especially after last month when Tara – or rather, the First pretending to be Tara – stirred up a lot of bad memories. But dang it – Willow was feeling pretty ready now!

Her attention was drawn to Xander and Buffy arguing about her game plan.

Buffy sighed as she walked towards the door. "It's out there. It's hurting my friends. I'll find it."

She opened the door to leave and Willow jumped when she saw Giles standing there.

"Buffy," he stated in his oh-so-proper British way.

"Giles." Buffy stepped forward to hug him but a fair-skinned girl with long, curly brown hair walked through the door.

"Nice place. Bit of a mess," she observed in an accent. British, Willow decided, but different from Giles' and Sirius'.

A second slayer with long light brown hair just smiled as she walked past.

This is a slayer?" A third girl with a creamy caramel complexion and wide, dark eyes smirked as she walked through next. The girl was very beautiful and her hips swayed slightly when she walked. She appeared older than the first two but slightly younger than Willow.

A fourth, and younger girl, walked through next holding a wand. She had white blond hair that fell in soft waves around her face and great blue eyes blinked at them lazily. "Oh, hello," she said in a soft accented voice. "Did you know that you've got mifflepops living in your bushes? You might want to call an exterminator; they're known to eat plants quicker than a locust, depending on the alignment of the stars."

Silence greeted this bizarre suggestion as the girl just smiled dreamily and walked further into the room.

"Mifflepops?" Buffy asked in a confused voice.

Giles just smiled and walked inside after a slight shrug.

"Don't worry about the mifflepops," added a new male voice. "From what I read, they died out a millennia ago."

A man wearing shabby wizarding robes with thick light brown hair that hung slightly over his ears walked in behind Giles. A scar lined his cheek and his face looked drawn with exhaustion but he smiled kindly at everyone in the room. He was handsome in a quiet way – not overtly so like Sirius but he imbued a sense of warmth and kindness that brought out the best in his outer looks.

Willow felt Sirius stiffen behind her. "Remus!" he shouted in a mixture of excitement coupled with a small amount of confusion.

His dark brown eyes widened considerably as he noticed Sirius holding onto the red-haired woman. "Come now, Padfoot old friend, you didn't think that I'd let you fight an apocalypse on your own, did you now? Someone had to make sure to keep you in line," he joked in an easy manner – the kind that signified they had known each other for a long time.

Releasing Willow, Sirius strode quickly to the door and embraced Remus tightly. "Bloody hell, I've missed ya Moony."

Buffy held up one hand like she was back in a high school classroom. "Wait a second" Buffy she asked slowly as her eyes darted towards Giles in suspicion. "What apocalypse?"

A/N:

So now the Summers household has 3 witches and 2 wizards living in it… *grins*

And Remus & Luna won't be the last. I'm taking suggestions for any HP people that you would like to see in Sunnydale – I know who will be coming but there is an open spot on that specific mission as well :)

Thank you for reading!!

Luna