Harry and Ron ran to the two girls, gathering them into their arms. Harry could feel Ginny shaking, and tears of relief rolled down his cheeks as heard her sobbing softly into his chest. It was over. They had won. 'Til he comes back again, with even more vampires and giants and other stuff.

          He shook off the dire thoughts and stroked his hands through her hair. This was what mattered. They were safe. No one had died. Voldemort's time would come. Harry was sure of it.

          Over the top of Ginny's head, he caught Ron's eye. His friend held a shaking Hermione the same way he held Ginny, and their were tears on his face, too. Harry offered a little victory grin; it wasn't much, but Ron echoed it, and a second wave of relief washed over them.

          After a few minutes, Harry felt a hand on his shoulder. He gently disengaged, still holding Ginny close to him but with enough room to lift his head. The shoulder of his robe was sodden with tears.

          "You guys okay?" The hand belonged to Buffy.

          "We'll be fine. I'm sorry to say we've been through worse."

          "I know that feeling. At least there was no death. Death makes me cranky." She turned her gaze on Ginny and offered a small smile. "Especially my own. You okay, too? It's Ginny, right?"

          Ginny gave a half-shrug, half-nod and curled deeper into Harry's arms. "I-I'm fine. J-just need a m-minute or so to settle myself."

          "It's scary," Buffy said simply, "but you guys did good. Really good."

          "I guess," Harry replied. "Last time I try a spell without a wand, though."

          "Things sometimes don't go how you plan them," she agreed. "Listen, as soon as you're up for it, I need you guys to help out. Would that be alright?"

          Ron and Hermione heard her and stepped closer, their arms still wrapped tightly around each other.

          "What can we do?" Ron asked.

          "We're going to put some of our guys in with the professors guarding each dorm, in case Darth Vader makes a return appearance. Can you show them where to go?"

          Harry and Ron nodded their agreement, glad to have something to do. Hermione looked around the courtyard.

          "What happened to Willow and Tara?"

          "They took Grey to the infirmary."

          Three heads turned sharply. Harry had seen Willow healing him before they left.

          "He's alive?" Hermione asked.

          "Barely," Buffy answered quietly.

          "The lightsaber," Hermione said, looking at Ginny. "It must have protected him."

          "Giles said something about that, yeah."

          "Is he going to be okay?"

          Buffy hesitated before answering, but decided they deserved the truth.

          "I don't know. Giles was looking more than slightly wigged and seemed pretty much like the big clock was ticking to get back to the books."

          Hermione straightened up. "Are they researching?"

          "Full research mode," Buffy affirmed.

          "We have to help," Hermione said to Ginny, who nodded quickly. The redhead seemed to recover some of her fire with a task in front of her. "You two can do the other part without us," Hermione added.

          "Is that kid who was with you, the one with the sword…"

          "Neville," Ginny supplied.

          "Yeah, is he around?" Buffy asked.

          Harry pointed to where Neville and Spike were engaged in an animated discussion, complete with mock sword thrusts.

          "He lives with you, right? Can you send him over here?"

          "Yeah, he does. We'll do that," Harry said. He hugged Ginny one last time, and the four of them split up.

          "Good call, Buffy," Dawn said, coming up behind her. "They seemed a little wigged, and not without cause. What now?"

          "Now," she said with sisterly concern, "it's time for certain people to get inside where it's safe."

          "But Buffy…"

          "No buts, nibblet," Spike said as he lit a cigarette, following Neville over to the Summers women. "You need to be inside with the other kiddies, not out here where the nasties might be roamin'." He gesture to Neville, but raised an eyebrow. The young wizard was blatantly staring at Dawn. "Though you did a'right by that crossbow. Longbottom, you up for escort duty?"

          "Uh, what?" He looked at Spike, temporarily taken aback. He hadn't ever met Buffy or her sister before, but Spike had told them enough that he recognized them. Up close, Dawn was beautiful enough to be a little overwhelming, and he was having trouble focusing. He was, after all, still a teenage boy.

          "Need you to get the bit here safely to that tragedy of Victorian decoration you call the Common Room. Can ya do it?"

          "Oh. Yeah. Yes. Definitely." He regained a small piece of his composure. "Now?"

          "Yes, now," he said, glaring. "Something happens to her, your training will involve a lot less sparring and a lot more running up flights of steps. Got it?"

          "Oh, please, Spike. Like something's gonna happen inside Hogwarts after THAT." She turned to Neville. "Hi, I'm Dawn."

          "N-Neville."

          "I know. Spike told me. He's your Mr. Miyagi, right?"

          "Mr. Miyagi?" Neville asked.

          "Yah. Karate Kid? … Never mind, I'll explain on the way in," she said with a shake of her head. How could he not know Mr. Miyagi? She looped her arm through his. "You can give me the rundown on all the gossip about Willow and Tara and Spike."

          Buffy heard Neville say "G-Gossip?" as he and Dawn left for the building.

          "I almost feel bad for Neville," she said to Spike when they were out of earshot.

          "Aah, he's tougher than he looks, that one. He'll find some bottle in a few minutes and start talkin'."

          "Bottle?"

          "British for courage. You never heard the Watcher say bottle?" She shook her head. "Odd." He looked her over carefully. "You're not hurt, are you?"

          "No, I'm okay." The way he was looking her over made her a little twitchy. "Spike, listen …"

          "Don't worry, Slayer, the Big Bad wasn't about to make a move on you."

          "Not even close to what I was going to say. I was going to say, we need to check the forest for those wizards, and we need Angel to do it."

          "Bloody hell. Two minutes in, the Poof'll poof me for sure. Can't we find another way?"

          Spike and Angel stalked down the corridor, the former smoking a cigarette with a half-smile on his face and the latter looking even more glowery than usual. Angel had a nasty slice above his eye and some blood had crusted beneath Spike's nose.

          "Did you find anything?" Giles asked, noticing their condition right away. He had been waiting outside of the library for their return.

          "Go on, Peaches. Tell the Watcher what you found." He did nothing to hide his smirk.

          Angel growled in return. "Shut up, Spike."

          "No, come on, tell 'im."

          "Spike."

          Giles' frayed nerves had reached their limit. "While I appreciate that you gentlemen are in fact the Abbott and Costello of the vampire world, would one of you get on with it and tell me JUST WHAT THE HELL IT WAS YOU FOUND!"

          Angel looked contrite, but Spike was still smirking.

          "We ran into a nasty that tried to take a bite out of the Slayer, but Poofulas here stopped it before it could."

          "Dear lord," Giles said. "What was it?"

          "Raccoon," Angel said softly, eliciting a howl of laughter from Spike.

          Giles shook his head in disgust and gave his glasses a quick swipe with his sweater. "Was there anything ELSE out there?"

          "No," Angel answered. "They left in a hurry and didn't drop much of a trail. We got to the edge of the grounds and all of the scents completely vanished."

          "Just as I thought. Some sort of transport spell."

          "Seems that way."

          "And Buffy?"

          "She went to check on Willow. Any change?"

          "Not as of an hour ago. Speaking of which, perhaps you two might assist us here? We're searching for some sort of cure, but it's awfully slow going."

          "What are yappin' out here for, then?" Spike brushed by them gruffly and stormed into the library.

          "He seems eager to help," Angel commented. His voice carried a less-than-subtle hint of skepticism.

          "He and Grey get on quite well. They've been training together for months. I would say that Spike considers him a friend."

          Angel nodded his understanding. Spike was many things, but to those people he cared about, he was loyal to a fault.

          "I would have thought that the three of you would not be the best tracking party right now." Giles knew that Buffy had taken them out together to settle the open hostility between them.

          "It wasn't the smoothest teamwork ever, but we got the job done."

          "And your feud with Spike? Would that be where the new cuts came from?"

          Angel wondered how Giles could be 200 years younger than him and still make him feel like he was speaking with his father.

          "Yes. … Well, from Buffy, so that we would back off. You know how she can be." He didn't seem terribly remorseful to Giles' ear.

          "Yes. And one of the things she can be is adult enough to make her own choices. I trust you understand that now."

          "I don't like it. The thought of them …" He paused, inhaling an unnecessary breath. "But, according to Buffy, I don't have to. We … live different lives now. I had no right to judge her like that."

          Giles could hear Buffy's admonitions in his voice, and suppressed a smile. She had very definitely grown up, he realized, to be able to put Angel in his place about this, when even she didn't know where things stood with Spike.

          "That is correct, Angel. And while I myself have major reservations about what has gone on, Buffy is free to live her own life."

          "I know." The admission sounded painful. "Do you think … will they start up again?"

          "Perhaps in time. But despite what we might wish, we have no control over that, do we?"