By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All things Buffy are owned by Joss Whedon, Alien Enemy, 20th Century Fox, etc. The Harry Potter universe is owned by J.K. Rowling. I'm just putting them in the same bowl and mixing them up a bit. 8-)
Once again, SPOILER WARNING for those who haven't seen Season 5 of Buffy or read Book 4 of Harry Potter.
A/N: This is my first posting since the WTC disaster. My heart and prayers go out to everyone touched by this tragedy.
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Harry walked around the mourners with Dawn, holding her hand as she accepted and shared condolences with people who'd known Buffy.
Suddenly, she stopped short. "Oh, my God."
"What?" Harry looked and saw a very short man, a good bit taller than a house elf, but extremely short by human standards, walking in, arm-in-arm with a tall blonde with an angelic face and eyes the color of aquamarines.
"It's Mr. Snyder. He was principal when Buffy was in high school."
"Who's the lady he's with?"
She shrugged. "I don't know."
Snyder and the blonde made it to Dawn's side. "Miss Summers, this is my wife, Erica."
"I'm pleased to meet you, Mrs. Snyder." Dawn said. "This is Harry." She'd heard enough surprised exclamations of '*the* Harry Potter?' to last her the rest of her life, so she left Harry's last name off. Harry appreciated it.
"Your sister was a troublemaker and a discipline problem." Snyder was interrupted as his wife elbowed him in the head gently. "But she will be missed." At a sharp look from Erica. "I will miss her. The world was richer for having her to help keep even worse trouble at bay."
Dawn was touched by this uncharacteristic courtesy on the part of the former principal. "Thank you, Mr. Snyder."
Snyder and Erica moved on. Moments later, Harry heard Xander's voice calling out just above the murmuring of the crowd. "Hey, Mr. Snyder! Good to see you!"
As Harry and Dawn continued circulating through the crowds of mourners, they happened across a very distracted Giles.
"What's the matter, Giles?" Dawn asked.
"Huh?" Giles looked down at Dawn for a moment, then distractedly stared across the room again. "Oh. Nothing. Nothing's the matter."
Harry looked the direction that Giles was staring in, where he saw the mortician, deep in conversation with a man wearing a jacket that had CORONER written in large letters across the back.
Giles looked down at them again. "Could you wait here a minute? I'll be right back." With that, he headed to the other side of the room.
Before Harry and Dawn had a chance to discuss what had just happened, a deep male voice behind them said, "Hi."
Dawn spun around. "Angel!" She threw herself into the arms of a tall, dark man. Harry could hear her sob as she started to cry again.
Angel stroked the back of her head gently, crooning to her. "I know, sweetie. I know."
A dark-haired woman stood nearby. She seemed to suddenly notice Harry there. "Oh. Hi. I'm Cordelia." She stuck out her hand.
Harry took it. "Harry." He was still watching Angel comforting Dawn.
"I talked to you on the phone earlier, didn't I?" Cordy asked. "That's our boss. Angel. We're . . . private investigators. And this is Wesley."
A man that Harry hadn't noticed before came forward then. "Pleased to . . ." He started in a clipped British accent that reminded Harry of home, then he stopped. "Oh, my God." He reached one trembling hand forward and brushed Harry's hair out of his face. If his eyes widened any more, they would have popped clean out of his head. "Oh, my God." He repeated. "You're . . ."
Harry sighed and rolled his eyes just as Dawn interrupted them. "Wesley, don't!"
Wesley looked vaguely affronted by the interruption. "But he's . . ."
Dawn stepped in between Harry and Wesley. "We know. He doesn't like all that Boy-Who-Lived stuff, Wesley." She hissed.
Harry, meanwhile, had retreated to rest his head against one of the walls of the room. He longed for the stone walls of Hogwarts, which felt so cool against his forehead. He wondered briefly if there was some kind of charm to cool plaster . . .
"Hi." Harry recognized the voice. It was Dawn.
"Hi."
"You wanna come on back?" She asked. "Wesley's promised not to make a big deal out of . . . you know."
"Sure." He smiled at her and they walked to rejoin Angel and his cohorts.
"Harry, this is Angel." She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "He and Buffy used to be a couple."
"Pleased to meet you." Harry held out his hand. When Angel shook it, Harry noticed that his skin was cool to the touch, just as Spike's had been.
Willow and Tara joined them, then, and exchanged hugs and sympathy with Angel and Cordy while Wesley stood off to one side, looking uncomfortable.
"They want to get started on the funeral." Willow said to Dawn, who nodded silently.
Harry tried to hang back, but Dawn wouldn't let go of his hand, and so he ended up being dragged along to sit with the "family" in the front row, which consisted of Willow, Tara, Giles, Xander, and Anya. There were eight seats per row, and this left one empty. Spike and Angel apparently both had designs on that one chair, for they circled each other like leopards for a moment before Cordy stood and whispered something to Angel that made the tall, dark-haired man quietly take a seat with her and Wesley in the second row. He glared at Spike as the blond vampire took the final seat.
"Is there some, er, bad blood between Spike and Angel?" Harry asked.
Dawn's eyes widened in shock.
"Angel's a, well, you know, too, isn't he?"
Dawn nodded. "How did you know?"
"He's cold to the touch, too. Just like Spike."
All of the other attendees filtered into their seats as the priest of the Episcopalian church that Buffy and Joyce attended sporadically took his place at the podium and began the service.
"I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."
After he concluded the abbreviated form of the Burial Rite for the Dead, the priest relinquished the podium to anyone who wanted to say a few words about Buffy.
First up was Willow.
She closed her eyes for a moment, whispering something under her breath. Then she opened her eyes and began to speak.
"Buffy was one of my best friends. We all relied on her to do the right thing, to be there for us, to always be able to lend a hand when it was needed. And I'll miss her."
Willow left the podium and Spike took her place.
"I loved her." He said simply. "I loved her with every fiber of my being. I still do. She was everything good, and right, and perfect in the world to me. Only," he looked up at Angel and something wordless passed between them, "she didn't love me. Her heart belonged to someone else."
Harry's heart went out to the blond vampire as Spike left the podium.
Everyone looked around for a moment, and then Dawn stood.
"I'd like to thank everyone for coming. Buffy would be glad to know that so many people cared about her. This means a lot to me, and to my family." Her eyes flicked from Giles, to Willow and Tara, to Xander and Anya, to Spike, and finally to Harry. "Thank you."
She stepped down from the podium and returned to her seat by Harry, clutching his hand until her knuckles were white, as the attendees began to silently file out of the room.
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A/N: Snyder's wife is the result of an on-line BTVS writing project that I did with a few friends. If you're out there, Melody, yes, I mean you.