Buffy and Percy were walking to the Great Hall for lunch. Buffy was starving since she didn't eat breakfast that morning.
"Hello! Percy, Buffy."
"Hello Sir Nicholas." They both chimed. Buffy told Percy to go on without her.
"Sorry I missed you last night and this morning Sir Nicholas."
"Quite all right Buffy. I heard you had a rough night last night. Though I must admit I think you missed the best first year faces ever. One kid actually passed out. I believe he may be related to Mr. Longbottom."
"Thank you for keeping up tradition even though I wasn't there."
"My pleasure Buffy."
Buffy waved bye to him before leaving to eat lunch. She walked in and saw Oliver and the others waiting for her. She took her seat between Oliver and Harry.
"Hey Buff, how ya feeling?" Xander asked her.
"Better, but I'm serious considering hurting Lockhart." The food was on the table. They all started talking.
"Now Buffy, he meant well." Willow said.
"Yeah and I'll mean well when I throw Mr. Pointy at him. So…Ron, Harry, what was your punishment?"
"Detention with Lockhart." Harry replied.
"Detention with Snape."
"Ron, you're in for a night of clean cauldrons. We did particular nasty spells today and Snape told us to leave them behind." Oliver told him.
"Who did you get detention with Wood?" Harry asked.
"Professor Giles."
"Which means training with me and then patrol. You're going to be sore tomorrow honey."
Wood nodded.
"Hello."
Everyone looked up to see who was saying hello when a flash blinded Buffy and Harry.
"Hi Harry, Buffy. I'm Colin Creevey! I'm in Gryffindor, too!"
"Oh, hi, Colin. Nice to meet you."
"Why are you taking our pictures?" Buffy asked without giving a greeting.
"You two are famous. I can't believe that I'm in the same house as you." Colin said excitedly.
"That's nice. Now go sit down or take pictures of something else. I don't want you taking pictures of me stuffing food into my mouth." Colin nodded and left everyone alone.Everyone was enjoying lunch when an owl flew into the hall. It looked like it was drunk or dizzy. The bird flew toward the group trying to land gently on the table.
"Ron, is that your bird?" Lee Jordan asked.
"Bloody birds a menace! Oh no!" The bird landed knocking over anything that was in his path as it skidded on the table. It finally stopped in front of Ron. "Errol!"
The owl had a red envelope in its mouth. Ron looked horrified.
"What's the matter?" Harry asked.
"Ron's got a Howler." Xander said.
"What's a Howler?"
"Just watch." Willow told him. Ron's fingers slowly opened it.
"STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE- I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! YOUR FATHER IS FACING AN INQUIRY AT WORK, IT'S ENTIRELY YOUR FAULT AND IF YOU PUT A FOOT OUT OF LINE WE'LL BRING YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME." The
Howler turned to face Ginny. It's voice loud but much sweeter. "Oh, and Ginny dear. Congratulations on making Gryffindor. Your father and I are so proud!"
The Howler simply poofed out of existence. You could hear a few people talking and laughing about what happened.
"That's a Howler." Willow said.
"That was intense," replied Harry.
"They usually are. Try not to fret about it too much Ron. I'll write to the Ministry about what happened. You're dad's job will be safe." Buffy told him.
After lunch Harry, Ron, Hermione and the other second year Gryffindor's went to DADA class. All the girls were staring at Lockhart dreamily including Hermione.
"Let me introduce you to your new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher…me. Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, third class, honorary member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five time winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. But I won't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her. Now, be warned, it is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizard kind. You may find yourself facing your worst fears in this room. Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. I must ask you not to scream, it might provoke them!"
"Cornish Pixies?" Seamus Finnigan questioned. "They aren't very dangerous are they?"
"Don't be so sure! Devilish tricky little blighters they can be!" Lockhart moved to open the cage. "Right, then, let's see what you make of them."
He opened the cage and the blue pixies immediately flew out and began to terrorize. Neville Longbottom was their first victim as they lifted him up by his ears. The others began tearing up the classroom. Some were tearing up books others were breaking windows. The students struggled to get the little pixies off of them.
"Please get me down." Neville called out as he was now hanging from the chandelier.
"Get them off!" Hermione had one on her back and one in her hair.
"No, stop, stop! Hold still!" Harry had used his book to knock the pixies away from Hermione.
"Pesky Pixie Pestrinomi!"
Lockhart said as he pointed his wand and nothing happened. A pixie seemed to laugh at Lockhart as it grabs his wand and threw it out the window.
"I'll ask you three to just nip the rest of them back in their cages."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione watched as Lockhart made for the door and fought to get his picture back before leaving them.
"Can you believe him?" Ron asked as he batted at another pixie.
"IMOBULOUS!"
The pixie froze where they were. Students looked to see who it was that had stopped the pixies. They smiled gratefully upon seeing Buffy.
"I passed by Lockhart moving away quickly from the classroom thought I should investigate. Good thing I did." She moved down into the room and looked up at Neville who was still hanging around. "Hey Neville, How's it hanging?"
"Fine. Do you think you can get me down?"
"Sure. Wingardium Leviosa!"
Neville slowly rose off the chandelier and was now slowly floating down to the ground.
"Thanks Buffy." Neville said once he was on the ground.
"No problem. Grab that cage. Every one who can reach a pixie grab one and put in the cage. I'll get the higher up ones."
Everyone grabbed a frozen pixie and began stuffing them back in the cage. Buffy did a few jumps and had the rest. When they were all locked up again Buffy let the spell go. The pixies shook the cage in rage at being locked up again.
"I'll see if I can get your Defense teacher back in here." Buffy said taking the cage with her.
At dinner that night Buffy noticed that Lockhart was missing. A small smile crept upon her face as she heard Hermione talk.
"Poor Lockhart was attacked by those pixies in his office. I heard that they flew out when he opened his cabinet. He's in the hospital wing now getting his wounds looked at. I wander who did it?" She looked toward the Weasley twins.
"Don't look at us." Fred said innocently.
"Wish we had thought of it." George told her.
"Yeah, it was bloody brilliant."
"Thank you boys. Nice to know my works appreciated."
Hermione, Harry, Ron, and the twins looked at her in shock. The twins new Buffy had a sense of humor, but nothing like that. Oliver, Xander, and Willow, just grinned.
"You did that?" Ron asked. Buffy nodded.
"Bloody pillock deserved it. The pain he put me through with having to grow my arm bones, he's lucky I didn't break every bone in his body."
They all grimaced. Most of them had her screams till Snape brought the sleeping potion.
"A great Wizard like him should be able to stop a few pixies. I didn't even put the whole cage in. The fraud."
"You've been hanging around Giles way too much." Xander told her.
"You're our hero Buffy." The twins said. "We're not worthy! We're not worthy!"
The twins were on the floor on their knees bowing to Buffy. She laughed at their antics.
"Stop it you two. All I need is to draw attention to this, though I don't doubt that Dumbledore already knows."
Buffy looked toward the teacher's table and saw that Dumbledore was indeed looking at her. She just gave him her most charming smile.
"You give us such inspiration Buffy." Fred told her
"Looking forward to see what you can do. Gotta patrol. You coming with me honey." She asked Oliver. He nodded and got up to follow. "Catch you guys later."
Oliver had gotten everyone up for a very early practice. He had the job of waking up the boys while Buffy woke the girls. He had awoken the twins already and was now waking Harry. He shook Harry.
"Whassamatter?" Harry asked groggily.
"Quidditch practice! Come on!"
Harry rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. He looked out the window to see the pink and orange sky that signified it was dawn.
"It's the crack of dawn."
"Exactly." Oliver said with way too much cheer for this early in the morning. "It's part of our new training program. Come on, grab you broom and let's go. Buffy and the girls will be waiting for us. None of the other teams have started training yet; we're going to be first off the mark this year…"
Wearily Harry climbed out of bed. He shivered when the cool air hit his warm body. Harry saw that Oliver was grinning like the Cheshire cat.
"Alright, I'm coming."
"Meet you on the field in fifteen minutes."
Harry quickly got dressed and grabbed his robe and cloak for warmth. He quickly made his way to the common room. Buffy was about to head out again and waited for Harry. The two walked to the locker room together. Everyone looked tired and sleepy except her and Oliver.
"Good you two are here. Now I wanted a quick talk with you all before we actually get onto the field, because Buffy and I spent the summer devising a whole new training program that we think will really help us keep the Quidditch cup. To make sure we keep it, we're going to train harder than ever before…now let's get out on the field so we can show you what we mean."
The team headed for the field. Fred and George started asking Buffy questions.
"You knew of this and didn't tell us?" Fred complained.
"I only found out about the early practice yesterday. He knew I would have killed him if he woke me after I had been up and slaying all night."
Ron and Hermione were just entering from one entrance as the Slytherin came from another. The Gryffindor team was about to start when Oliver saw them.
"What? I don't believe it." The others looked to see what Oliver was talking about. "Where do you think you're going Flint?"
"Quidditch practice." Flint replied smugly.
"I book the pitch for Gryffindor today. We got up specially. You can clear off now!"
"Easy Wood, I got a note."
"Uh-oh, I smell trouble." Ron stated as he and Hermione were standing next to Buffy and Harry. Wood read the note.
"I, Professor Severus Snape, do hereby give the Slytherin team permission to practice today bowing to the need to train their new Seeker. You've got a new Seeker."
"Who?" Buffy asked.
Draco Malfoy stepped from behind his teammates grinning his most devilish grin.
"Malfoy?" Harry asked not believing what he was seeing.
"That's right. And that's not all that's new this year. Let me show you the generous gift he made to the Slytherin team."
All seven of them held out their brooms for the Gryffindor team to see.
"Those are Nimbus 2001's." Ron informed everyone.
"Very latest model. Only came out last month," said Flint who was bragging. "I believe it outstrips the old two thousand series by a considerable amount. As for the old Cleansweeps…sweeps the floor with them."
Flint said nastily toward the Weasley twins. Buffy had come closer to them with a bored look on her face.
"Those are good Flint, but mine are better."
Buffy told him. She pointed to the sky where seven howls were carrying brooms. The owls dropped them to each of the Gryffindor team members. They each carefully examined them. Buffy made sure the Slytherin could see them.
"You may have the Nimbus two thousand and one, but can you actually say you have a broom named after you? I can. This will be the new model to come out next. The Slayer is the fastest, strongest, and most responsive broom ever. Just like me. These are the first seven made especially for us. A gift from the people I know. Your father may money Draco, but he doesn't have near the connections I do. Let them have the field. Draco's is going to need all the practice he can get. We'll practice elsewhere."
Buffy mounted her broom and flew off the field with such a feeling of satisfaction. She knew that her whole team had the same look she did. She landed outside the stadium they all stopped giving Buffy congratulations for showing up the Slytherin.
"That was so very wicked Buffy." Ron told them. "You really showed them."
"When you flew out they were literally gaping." George told her.
"They looked more like owls than snakes." George laughed.
"How could you afford these Buffy?" Hermione asked looking at Harry's broom.
"Simple. I told the Watcher's Council that my team needed new brooms. Better the equipment we have the better the chance. Told them that I wanted them specially made and like no other. Since the Slayer is so famous in the wizarding world, they figure they could profit from it. These will probably be out by next season but ours are unique. The new ones won't look like this. If you look at them closely you will see that they say Gryffindor, our positions, and have each of our names on it. Nothing is too good for this team."
"This is why I love you. You always find ways to surprise me."
Oliver told her and kissed her passionately. Buffy gasped when they broke apart.
"The rewards are always worth it."
"Thank you Buffy. These brooms are the best and ma will love that you have once again defended the family name."
George said actually giving her a hug that was soon followed by one from Fred. Each member gave her some kind of gratitude.
"Come we have a practice to get back to." Buffy reminded them.
"But how Buffy? You let Slytherin have the field." Ron reminded her.
"I've got permission from Dumbledore to practice at my place in case something like this ever came up. You remember don't you Ron? Charlie brought you and the twins to my place where we practice in the field. I still have the spell to make it look like a Quidditch field. Be sides we'll get a lot more privacy out there and our new play really will be a surprise to Slytherin. We can get there by floo and practice as long as we want. I'll let Giles know where we're headed since I have to get the powder from him."
"I remember now. Do you mind if I come along?"
"I don't mind. You welcome to come to Hermione. Giles library has quite a few books you might find interesting."
"I'd like to see that."