The Staff of Troy - 4
"Rupert, would you please come with me. Professor McGonagall and I have found a way for you to perform some simple spells in your class. You do understand the importance of keeping the students from becoming suspicious, don't you?"
"Yes, indeed. It's going to be tough enough as it is. What do you propose?"
Professor Dumbledore removed a box from the shelf behind his desk. He set it down, then tapped it with his wand, "Alohomora!" Professor McGonagall stepped forward and did the same. The box opened. Professor Dumbledore took it out and handed it gravely to Giles. "This is an extremely valuable and dangerous object. It's a Muggle Wand."
Giles hesitated, then took the wand from Dumbledore. "You can't be serious. I wouldn't even expect that something like this would exist."
"Ordinarily, we would be prohibited from crafting one, but these circumstances make it necessary. As you have no doubt surmised, it is a wand imbued with its own magic power, to the point of even allowing a Muggle to perform magic. Were it to fall into the hands of a wizard, it could potentially amplify his power substantially, at the cost of his soul. We don't handle such things lightly."
"One point you must remember," added Professor McGonagall. "You must say the spell word loudly and clearly, and you must pause a few moments after, then wave the wand. As you are not a wizard, it cannot attune to you as a wizard's wand ordinarily does."
"Certainly. I ... think I feel the need to practice this. Could one of you accompany me to a ... safe location?"
"Actually, we have anticipated this. Mr Weasley, would you please come in." A red-haired sixth-year boy walked in. "Rupert, this is George Weasley. He will help you with some basic spells." Professor Dumbledore grinned slyly. "Also, Mr Weasley happens to be a student of the highest ... initiative ... shall I say, and he should be able to give you some tips in 'concealing' your true nature, as George is very adept at that himself." Professor McGonagall worked very hard to keep the smirk off of her face.
"Thank ... you. Well Mr. Weasley, could you please, um, show me the way?" The two left the room.
Professor McGonagall turned to Dumbledore, serious again. "I really hope your faith in the Weasley twins is well-founded. They are going to have to really be on their toes to pull this off."
Buffy walked into the dueling chamber with her crossbow and a bag of stakes, courteously provided by the gamekeeper. She set them down, then removed her robe, leaving her clothed in the sweatshirt and jeans she was more accustomed to. Picking up two stakes, she walked out into the middle of the room, took a deep breath, and lunged at an invisible opponent. Before the stake had reached the apex of the attack, her left foot snapped out behind her, taking out another nonexistent enemy. As she brought her left leg back, she bent her right knee and tucked it under her, rolling toward her right, then snapping up into a double punch at a third attacker, then swung the stake in her left hand straight out to her side, imagining the cloud of dust that would appear next to her. Over and over she lunged, struck, kicked and rolled, following the kata she practiced with, but subtly varying it to match the moves she had learned from countless battles with the undead and about to be dead.
In the midst of a flying snap kick, her concentration was broken when she heard a slow series of claps behind her. Her kick went off balance, and she nearly fell to the floor, recovering in mid-air to land in a ready stance. She saw before her a wizard she vaguely recognized from the staff. "Aahh, yes, the Slayer. I've so wanted to meet you," he said with a hint of contempt.
"Who might you be?"
"I am Professor Snape, the potions master at this school. I have volunteered to assist you with the dueling club. I'm sure you'll need someone who knows the students well to make your classes go smoother"
Yeah about as smooth as your personality, Buffy thought. "Well, hey, sure, the more the merrier, I guess. Would you like to practice before the students arrive?"
Smiling, Professor Snape nodded. "Who wouldn't want a chance to spar with the Slayer?" He withdrew his wand from his robes. Buffy froze.
"What are you doing?"
"Expelliarmus!" Snape shouted, pointing the wand at Buffy. The stakes flew out of her hands, landing behind her. "Petrificus!" he shouted again, waving the wand at her.
Startled at the disarming spell that she was, she didn't let him finish his spell before she was moving, She dove into a roll to her right, feeling the spell graze her leg, tightening the calf as it passed. She leapt up from the roll, vaulting over Snape's head landing by her bag. As he turned, she grabbed the crossbow and a stake then rolled to her left, narrowly avoiding the bolt of lightning that struck the floor, blowing her bag of stakes to pieces. She fired the crossbow directly at him.
Snape grimaced, then waved his wand. "Morbus Detentus." The crossbow bolt fell to the floor. He didn't see the stake flying after it. It struck his left hand, drawing his attention in that direction.
Buffy saw her opportunity and vaulted closer. Snap-kick up and Snape's wand flew into the air. Snape looked at her in fury, and swung his impaled hand at her. The stake flew out, magically accelerated toward her face. Buffy's hands flew together, catching the stake between her palms. She instantly dropped it, as the stake caught fire in her hands. Snape grinned, then lost his grin when her foot came up, connecting with the stake and propelling it into his robes. They burst into flames immediately, as Snape had intended her clothing to do.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you're one of the good guys, aren't you?" She stood over him crossbow in hand, aimed at his heart.
His face furious, he opened his mouth to reply, then looked past her. Harry and Ron, along with several other students, had arrived for the club meeting to see him down on the floor with the Slayer over him. He stood up, calling his wand to him through the air, then stomped out waving it and yelling "Suffocatus!" The fire disappeared as he shut the door. As soon as he was out of sight, a wave of giggles passed over the students.
Willow sat facing the tiny Professor Flitwick. They were in his office, going over the ingredients necessary for the anti-infiltration charm. "This is an extremely complex charm, and it requires multiple spells to be cast at the same time to execute. Do you have experience in casting spells with another witch or wizard?" he asked as he got up to get something from a cabinet.
"Well, actually, most of my spell experience is in that manner, because I'm not good enough to do them by myself yet." Willow admitted.
Professor Flitwick frowned. Suddenly, he stretched out his wand arm toward her. "Bludgerous!" A large black ball appeared, rending the air is it flew at her at full speed.
Willow blinked and raised her arms to ward it off. Instead of hitting her arms, it disappeared into a burst of flower petals, showering Willow. She looked at them in amazement. "Did you do that?"
"I did the bludger, but you did the transfiguration. You see Willow, in our world, we usually find out whether someone is a witch or wizard in a kind of accidental manner. Something happens that frightens or alarms a child, and a strange event occurs because of it. This is a sign of magical ability deep within. You apparently never had this happen before did you?"
"No, never. I just started messing around with it because it was interesting."
"Was there anything you did very, very well before you started 'messing' with magic?" he asked in an amused tone.
"Well, I am pretty good at computers ... they're a kind of Muggle magic" she quickly added at the confused look on his face.
"Pretty good? Or are you being modest?"
"Well, I've never met anyone else my age that was better," she admitted.
"Well, that was probably a means for your magic potential to express itself. Please, try to be more confident in your magic. I should like you to remember that I plan on enjoying our time working together and teaching you, and I am not strictly thinking about this as an arrangement forced upon us by Misbane" he said kindly, with a twinkle in his little eyes. "Now, to work!"
Buffy spent the dueling practice showing them the basic moves she used, although none of them could hope to equal her without magic. Her students gave her rapt attention, despite the complete lack of magic in her lesson. She wrapped up the lesson by kicking stakes out of the air that had been thrown at her by Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy, who had volunteered for everything, and catching them before they hit the ground. The group erupted in applause.
"Thank you. Next class, I want you to each bring a stake and a fruit of some kind, and I will show you how to hit a moving target." The class dispersed, and she collected her things, at least those which Snape's lightning bolt had not destroyed. She stopped, looking around the room in confusion. The crossbow was missing, she ran out the door to see if one of the students had taken it, but they were already down the stairs. She gathered her things, meaning to go directly to Giles.
"Harry, wait up!" Harry turned and saw Cho Chang, the Ravenclaw seeker and a 5th year witch. "Hi! I was wondering if you'd have a minute."
"Of course. See you upstairs, Ron" he called, then frowned at the kissing lips gestures he was making where Cho couldn't see him. "What's up, Cho? I didn't even see you in the dueling class."
"Oh, I was in back, laughing at Draco. Listen, I've got to get some broomstick polish, and I was wondering if you'd like to go to Hogsmeade with me?" Cho's eyes pleaded with Harry as she looked at him.
Harry was flattered, but ... "Cho, this isn't a Hogsmeade weekend. How do you propose to get the polish?"
"Oh Harry, I'm sure a wizard as clever as you can figure out a way?!" she replied slyly.
"I dunno, why don't you send your owl after it, or I can send Hedwig?"
Cho's face fell. "Well, I guess. I was hoping to stop for some butterbeer, though, and maybe discuss some tactics." She gave Harry a look that melted him.
"OK, then, but follow me. I have an idea."
"Four thimblefuls of dragonfly eyes" Professor Flitwick read out loud. Willow looked for the thimble and the basket of eyes, found them and carefully measured them out, dumping them in the middle of the cauldron, then stirring twice clockwise and thrice counter-clockwise. She looked up. "That's about it," Professor Flitwick mumbled, dropping in the last ingredient, a chameleon skin that had been slowly cooked until it was nearly black.
"What's next?" Willow asked, not a little excitedly.
"We can perform the incantation after it has simmered for 60 seconds. When we're done, the staff's power will be limited but not broken."
"How limited?"
"The bearer will not be able to disguise himself as anything that's already on the premises. Also, it's forms will only last for a few hours, rather than unlimited time as normal. It's time," he said as the spell book levitated itself and rotated around for Willow to read the spell.
"Veritas, verite, verify, veridant" Willow and Flitwick chanted over and over, counting out exactly 17 repetitions.
Harry reached the one-eyed witch statue. "Come on, there's noone around." Cho came around the corner. "Now we simply --"
Harry didn't finish because Cho doubled over in pain. "What's wrong?"
Cho looked panicky. "Uuh, I must have had too many dragon icicles at lunch. I gotta go!" She ran down the hallway, ducking around the corner quickly.
Harry felt bad for her as her turned to go back to the Gryffindor common room. He didn't even notice that she had gone neither in the direction of Madam Pomfrey's or the Ravenclaw's staircase.
Buffy knocked on the door of Giles' office. "Come in, please," she heard his stately voice call. He was sitting behind the desk with his feet up, waving his wand in the air, muttering under his breath. At least fourteen ferrets were sitting on the desk, watching him.
"You always mutter to an audience?" Buffy asked, pointing at the ferrets.
"What? Oh, them." Giles shook his head in frustration. "It's this wand that Professor Dumbledore gave me. It usually works, but about every five or six times I've tried a spell, one of those popped out. I don't understand it."
"At least they're friendly," Buffy commented as she took biscuits from Giles' tea saucer and fed them to the smallest one, who climbed onto her hand.
"Oh rubbish!" Giles closed the book and placed it carefully on the desk, pushing ferrets away as he did so. "Have you found anything out yet?"
"Nothing of substance, but I think I met Principal Snyder's son." She described her encounter with Snape to Giles, who sat shaking his head.
"Buffy, please try not to antagonize him. We will probably need every wizard and witch on the staff to catch Misbane."
"That reminds me, I think we'll need the help of some of the teachers. My crossbow disappeared after class today. I don't want to suspect the students, but I think it should be found."
"Yes, of course. Especially since you may need it when we actually do find Misbane."
"Giles, I'm a little worried about that. He's human. What do I do when I catch him?"
"Professor Dumbledore is working on that for you. I suppose he'll be telling us his solution in due time."
Buffy got up. "Well, I suppose I should be going."
"Yes, you probably should patrol. Look out for anything unusual."
"In a school of witchcraft? Something unusual? Don't get your hopes up!" Buffy smirked.
"Oh, right." Giles sighed as he took out the spell book. Buffy closed the door, but not before she saw another ferret appear on his desk.
Harry caught up with Ron at the picture leading to the Gryffindor common room. "Ooh, Harry, what happened? She change her mind because of that brush-off you gave her in the last game? That was the best catch you've made yet." Ron was referring to the last Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, when Harry had almost knocked her off her broom when he zoomed between her hands to grab the snitch.
"No, she felt a little sick. Too many icicles at lunch, she said."
"What? She wasn't at lunch today, Harry."
"What do you mean?"
"She was in the library with Hermione, and they took sandwiches with them. Something about Hermione doing an independent study on moles and digging charms."
"Are you sure? She did look pretty sick. Oh, there's Jordan! Jordan, can I borrow this month's copy of Which Broomstick?"
"Come in."
"Aah, yes, Professor Dumbledore, are you busy?" Giles asked.
"No not at all. Please sit down." Albus waved his wand and a platter of tea and biscuits appeared on the desk. The cups pranced to their places before Dumbledore and Giles, while the tea floated out of the spout of the pot into the cups. "What can I do for you?"
"Have you ever had any problems with theft here?"
"No, not really. Is there something missing?"
"Yes, well. Buffy purchased a crossbow at Stoneflower's, and it has turned up missing after her lesson tonite. It's apparently very valuable. The proprietor said it had belonged to some wizard named Slytherin, many years ago. Some kind of enchantment, can't hurt snakes I think she said ..." Giles stopped, noticing the surprised look on Dumbledore's face. "Is something wrong?"
Professor Dumbledore waved his wand, and a megaphone appeared. "Attention all faculty: Report to the teacher's lounge immediately." He snapped his finger and the megaphone disappeared. "We need to go," he said to Giles. "Salazar Slytherin never owned a crossbow. He despised Muggles, and would never touch anything that even resembled a Muggle tool."
Buffy and Willow hurried down the corridor to the teacher's lounge. "What's going on?" Willow asked.
"I dunno, but that was strangest page I've ever heard."
They entered the room to see Professor Dumbledore with a very grave expression on his face. "Good wizards and witches, we have a problem. We thought that Misbane was in the school when we first discussed this. We turned out to be incorrect, but that hardly matters now. Misbane is here."