The Staff of Troy - 5
Professor McGonagal broke the silence that followed Dumbledore's statement. "Are you sure? He's been sighted, or is there some other confirmation?"
"Apparently, he has been much cleverer than any of us thought. He infiltrated the school in the form of one of Miss Summer's weapons."
Buffy recoiled in horror, barely hearing the buzz in the room from all of the professors. 'The crossbow,' she thought. 'How could I be fooled like that, but Dumbledore was the one who sent me to that shop.' "Professor, isn't Stoneflower one of your friends?" she asked.
"Yes, he is indeed, and it is impossible for me to believe that he was involved. Misbane must have done something to him. Of course, anyone could have pretended to be Stoneflower in the shop and sold you the crossbow. I most certainly should have accompanied you. My humblest apologies, Miss Summers. That reminds me." Turning to Hagrid, "Please go down to Diagon Alley right now and check on Stoneflower. I will meet you at his shop shortly." Hagrid left immediately.
Professor Snape jumped to his feet. "Professor Dumbledore, I must again voice my objections to involving these outsiders. This is wizard business, and Muggles should not be here!" he declared angrily. Buffy looked at him with distaste, but a cold ball formed in her stomach. If a wizard had gone to the shop, they would have seen through the ruse instantly.
"Severus, please! Professors Giles and Rosenberg are here now, as is the Slayer. They have come here of their own free will to assist us. Without them, we would not have even known of his plot, and he would probably still be here, disguised as something else." Professor Dumbledore calmly stared at Snape until he sat down. "Professor Flitwick, have you had any luck in countering the staff?"
"Well, we don't know for sure, but I believe we did. The spell completed successfully, so he shouldn't be able to masquerade as a student or faculty member, at least not on the grounds."
"Excellent. Good witches and wizards of Hogwarts, please be on your guard, and keep aware of anything that doesn't appear to belong here. If he's in the school now, he's got to be in the form of something that doesn't already exist here. Good evening."
As Willow and Buffy left the room, Giles tapped Buffy's shoulder. "Don't take this too badly. You are in unfamiliar territory and cannot expect to pick up on all of this immediately." Giles turned and walked back to his office with Dumbledore.
"Where are you going?" Willow asked anxiously as Buffy headed off toward the stairs, rather than toward their room.
"Patrol. It's even more important now that I've screwed up so badly." She turned without another word and walked up the stairs.
"Miss Summers!" called a voice behind Willow. She turned to see Snape. He pointed his wand at picture on the wall next to Buffy. The crossbow in the hands of the warrior pictured there jumped out into her hands. "Try to keep better track of this one."
"Thank you Professor Snape. Perhaps you'd like to accompany me?" she said icily, despite the comfort she felt in having a weapon again.
"Delighted," he replied in a voice almost as cold, withdrawing his wand and following her up the stairs. They were both oblivious to Willow's stare, and the plaintive cries of the warrior in the picture, who was now unarmed against a very large dragon.
"Well, what should we do now?" Giles and Dumbledore had returned to their tea. "Oooh," Giles made a face.
"Cold?" Dumbledore asked. At Giles' nod, Dumbledore raised his wand. "Wait, allow me," said Giles. Dumbledore hesitated, looking over Giles' shoulder with a worried look, then shrugged and nodded. Giles raised his wand and said "Reversus!" The tea flowed through the air back to the pot. There was a whoosh as the steam from the room returned to the pot. Giles raised his wand again, and the tea flowed out to the cups again, piping hot.
"Very good," Dumbledore said as he took a sip. Giles raised his own cup and took a sip. "Strange, I thought it was Earl Grey, before, but this tastes like Darjeeling." He shook his head, then continued. "I'm going to spend some time in your library. I need to find out more about this Staff. I'm particularly interested in anything that can tell me how to destroy it, and whether there are any spot reversals that can affect it."
"Well, there are some good references there. I'd start with the History of Magic, then The Amulet's Journey. They should have some good information. I've looked through them myself, but I don't have quite the gift for research that a Watcher would have."
"Well, thank you. We do try our best, but this is a bit more than I've bit off before." Giles chewed a biscuit thoughtfully. "How did Lady Ravenclaw find the staff? Is there any record of that?"
"Sadly, the History of Magic is the only book I know of that covers that event, and it's very sparse. I think that may be by design."
"Well, that certainly makes sense. Well, we need to go see Hagrid, don't we."
"Certainly." Professor Dumbledore drained his cup before they walked out, smiling at the clear taste of Earl Grey in his cup.
Willow sat on her bed, looking at her laptop's glowing screen. She was scrolling through a list of spells for the next day's class. 'Hmm, a charm to make things hotter on demand.,' she thought. "Soliosa!" she said quietly as she pointed the wand at her glass of water. The water began to steam, then boil. She turned back to her computer. 'Querioma, a spell to find answers to questions. Cartocher, a spell to find direction." She shut the screen of the laptop. She lay back, ready for tomorrow's lesson. CRACK! She jumped off the bed, grabbing her wand, then put it down. Her glass had split when the water had boiled away. "Yes, that is a handy spell," she muttered to herself.
Giles, Hagrid and Dubledore were meanwhile at Hagrid's shack, looking down at Stoneflower, who was laying on Hagrid's sofa with a cloth on his forehead. "He really should be brought to Madam Pomfrey's," Dumbledore began, but was waved off by Stoneflower.
"Albus I'm fine. It's just a crack on the head. Give me some more of that fine tea, Rubeus, my good man," he said as he sat up.
"Mr Stoneflower, my name is Rupert Giles. I'm here to assist in this situation." Giles put out his hand, which Stoneflower shook heartily.
"Sebastian, please. Noone calls me Mister, makes me feel too old." Albus grinned, as he and Stoneflower had been at Hogwarts together as first years. "Now, you want to know about the lass who did this to me, don't you?"
"Yes, that would be helpful. Was she someone you recognized?"
"No, but she may be someone you recognize. She was someone you'd be more likely to be acquainted with." He said this with a raised eyebrow.
Giles paused in thought, then grimaced. "A vampire." he sighed tiredly.
"Any doubts we had about keeping your team involved are certainly dispelled." Professor Dumbledore commented to Giles. "Any thoughts as to how she fooled Buffy? The Slayer would have known immediately?"
After a moment, Stoneflower nodded slowly. "Well, I do keep numerous masquerade charms for sale, albeit none as powerful or accursed as that dreadful staff you're after."
"Hmm. This does make things a little more difficult, doesn't it?" mused Giles. "How are we fixed here for dealing with vampires?"
"The usual, enchanted mirrors everywhere that shriek when people don't reflect, a good supply of garlic, etc." Albus responded.
"Well, that helps some. If a vampire or group of vampires is assisting Misbane, then he has to leave school grounds to consort with him. We should try to look for unusual happenings at the edge of the grounds." Giles jotted some notes down as he spoke.
"I'll get the dogs checking the boundary to the Forbidden forest at once, sir." Hagrid stepped out the back door, Fang following him out the door.
"Had you ever met this vampiress before?" Giles asked.
"No, she wasn't regular clientele. Those folk usually go to my competitor's shop in Knockturn Alley."
"Well, that's a start. I've got to get to the library and start looking for reasons why a vampire would be involved."
Buffy and Snape heard Hagrid calling the hounds to the boundary of the forest. They were standing in the courtyard, looking for any evidence of Misbane. "Hagrid's hounds are fairly dependable. They should find anything out there," Snape told her. They turned back to the courtyard, checking doorways for forced entry.
"Here." Buffy called Snape over. The door she was pointing to looked normal enough.
"What?"
"The bottom of the door." She pointed, and Snape saw the string leading out from under the door. She pulled on it, and the knob turned, the door swinging open.
"Excellent," Snape replied, surprising Buffy. She looked at him and he was almost smiling. She turned away from the door and walked back to the edge of the courtyard, looking for clues to his path to the doorway.
At breakfast the next morning, Harry and Ron were discussing the Suffolk Sword's quidditch match of the night before, and arguing noisily about Suffolk's chances against Chudley the next week, when the mail arrived. Harry looked up happily when Hedwig dropped off two small bags. "Good, it's here. Excuse me." He took the bags and walked over to where Cho was sitting.
"Hi Harry, what's up?"
"Hey I just brought you this." He reached into the first bag and pulled out a bottle of broomstick polish then with a sly grin pulled a warm bottle of butterbeer out of the other bag. "Hope that hits the spot."
"Gee, thank you Harry, but what's the occasion?" she asked as she turned the cap off the bottle of butterbeer. "Mmmh that smells wonderful." She put the cap back on then placed it in her bag to enjoy later. (Quentin Buttersmith's invention of forever warm, forever fresh beer bottles the previous year had transformed the butterbeer trade.)
"Huh? You wanted to go get those last night?" said Harry curiously.
"I did? Then you know me better than I know myself. I was studying with Theresa last night. Oh gotta go" she exclaimed as the bell rang.
Harry walked over to get his bag. "You look like someone just stepped on your wand. Something wrong Harry?" Hermione asked as they trotted off to class with Ron.
"Yeah, I think." Hermione looked at him curiously. "I know I talked to Cho last night after dueling practice, but she doesn't have any memory of it."
"That's very unusual. What do you thinks going on?"
"Maybe one of the Slytherins is messing with amnesia charms."
Hermione looked thoughtful, then shook her head. "No, those are very difficult. I tried one last summer and it didn't work at all. It backfired and I spent the whole next week remembering everything I did the first six months of my life. I don't think any of the Slytherins could do it." At Harry's giggle, she slapped him. "What's so funny?"
"The great Hermione. Of course, if you can't do it ... Ouch! That's gonna leave a mark."
"Well, whatever happened, it can wait until after charms. I can't wait until Miss Willow shows us that heat charm."
On the other side of the great hall, Snape and Buffy were showing Giles and Dumbledore the string they had untied from the door. "Well, it's still a string, so this is definitely not Misbane himself." Dumbledore said. "Did you replace it, so he won't know we've discovered it?" At their nods, he turned to Prof. Flitwick, who was walking up. "See what you can do with this, please." Professor Flitwick took the string and headed back to his office.
Buffy and Giles walked off, then stopped as Snape called, "Miss Summers, can I have a moment of your time?"
"Go ahead, Giles, I'll catch up with you tonite." She turned to Snape as Giles walked up the stairs to his office. "Yes?" she said sweetly to Snape.
"Professor Dumbledore and I agree that we should keep watch on that doorway. You, as the Slayer have a particular ability to camouflage yourself against our charms, and should be invisible to any exposure spells he may use before he tries to enter through the door."
"Good idea. I'll be there tonite."
Harry, Ron and Hermione enjoyed Willow's lesson greatly, casting heat charms at their cauldrons and watching them boil. After the lesson, they dropped their bags off and headed for lunch. "I can't wait to try that on Fred and George!" Ron said with a smirk on his face. "Flitwick didn't teach that to them, so I'll catch them by surprise."
"Yeah, this Professor Rosenberg is fascinating. She teaches so differently from our other professors." Hermione was, of course, ecstatic about all the homework they had for Professor Rosenberg's new curriculum.
Harry heard a voice behind him call, "Hey, Harry, look at this." He turned to see George behind him. "Check this out Harry. It's a Reversa-Stick."
"A what?"
"A Reversa-Stick. It lets you fly backwards on your broom. Practice with it tonite. I've got an idea for our next match against Slytherin."
"Is it legal?" Harry asked.
George just laughed and walked off.
Giles looked up at the knock on the door. "Come," he answered.
"Hey, just wanted to let you know I'm heading out for patrol. Or I guess I mean guard duty." She rolled her eyes. "Have you found anything yet?"
"No I haven't got the slightest idea why vampires would be interested in this staff. It doesn't seem to be able to give them the ability to enter a place they haven't been invited into, even if they are masquerading, so I can't see what good it would do them."
"Call Willow down. I'm sure she'd like to help find this too."
"Yeah, you're probably right."
Later that night, Harry Ron and Hermione were in the Gryffindor common room. "I wonder how this works?" Harry mused, pulling the Reversa-Stick out of his pocket.
"Harry, I don't think that's a good idea." Hermione started.
"Oh, please, Hermione, you don't think anything's a good idea, unless it's studying!" Ron blustered at her.
Harry grinned and waved the stick around idly. Neville, who happened to be walking by them, started walking backward, his face breaking into a scared look.
"Oops, sorry Neville." Harry exclaimed as he waved it again. Neville stopped his backward motion, and was able to get up the stairs, which he did even quicker now.
"That's amazing!" Ron cried. "Let me try." He took it from Harry's outstretched hand and waved it at the clock in the corner. The hands started moving backward. He waved it again, and they righted themselves. "This is neat!" He whirled around a little to quickly to show it to Hermione, who had just stood up from her chair. Crookshanks, her cat, jumped out of her lap just as the Reversa-Stick in Ron's hand waved in front of her.
"Crookshanks!" Hermione cried out, as the cat's jump forward became a reverse flight out the window, breaking the window pane as she went. "Ron, how could you?" Hermione burst out, then ran to the window to look. Harry looked over her shoulder.
Crookshanks was lying on the ground beneath the window. "Crookshanks, here kitty" called Hermione to no avail. "What did you do to my cat, Ron?"
"Hermione, take it easy, it was an accident," Harry said to her. "She's just stunned from the fall and hitting the window." He turned and used his wand to fix the window.
"What are we going to do? We can't leave her out there! We've got to go out there and get her"
Harry looked at the miserable look on her face, then at Ron's embarassed look, then sighed and went to get his invisibility cloak and Marauder's Map.
Many characters in this story, now to numerous to mention, are the creations of J.K. Rowling and Joss Whedon. My thanks to these two fine artists for their contributions to this genre.