Racing With Destiny: Chapter 20
by Lisette
Legalese: See Chapter 1 for disclaimers and ratings.
"Shortly before being knocked unconscious and bound to a chair, before being injected with an unknown substance against his will, and before discovering that the world was deeply mysterious in ways he'd never before imagined, Dylan O'Conner left his motel room and walked across the highway to a brightly lighted fast-food franchise to buy cheeseburgers, French fries, pocket pies with apple filling, and a vanilla milkshake."
-Dean Koontz-
With the sun beating down upon her bowed head, Buffy couldn't help but wonder about Giles' earlier insistence that the weather in his mother country was all rain, gloom, and cold darkness. In the past two months there had been the occasional shower, and she could hardly forget the cold upon her arrival all of those weeks ago, but if anything, it seemed as though she had brought the sunshine with her from her native California. Even now with the days ticking down until June, the warm weather was beginning to feel reminiscent of the weather that she had left behind in the beginning of April. And while she caught some of the others griping about the unnatural warmth and a series of complaints from Hermione about global warming, Buffy was perfectly content in the warmth for it was as though she had just another little bit of home along with her.
Home. It was amusing to think that after wanting nothing more than to leave the Hellmouth and everything that it stood for, for so many years... it was strange to think of how much she missed it at times. Well no, that wasn't really right. She didn't miss the danger, the bloodshed, and the nightly patrols through the cemeteries accompanied with the occasional apocalypse. She had enough of all of the above at Hogwarts to never miss that. What she did miss was the Scoobies that made Sunnydale home. She missed Willow. She missed Xander. She missed Oz. And oddly enough, she missed Faith.
Smiling wryly, Buffy shook her head at that. From their letters, it seemed as though they were getting along well on the Hellmouth without her. Willow talked about her classes at the UC of Sunnydale, a girl named Tara that she met at a campus Wiccan group who Willow swore was the 'real thing,' and of course she talked about Oz. Xander talked about the odd jobs that he drifted between as well as the love/hate relationship that he shared with Faith - a relationship that seemed to frustrate him as he bemoaned his constant attraction for her with the fierce desire to wring her neck. And Faith... Faith didn't write.
Buffy realized that the thought didn't surprise her, for as Faith liked to point out, she just wasn't that kind of girl - not huggie-feelie, and certainly not a let-me-sit-down-and-write-my-life-story, kind of girl. She simply didn't have the patience. On the other hand, Faith's new watcher, Elizabeth, wrote to Giles weekly and through her letters Buffy learned about her sister slayer. She knew that Faith was kicking demon ass on the Hellmouth and she had learned through those long, and somewhat tedious letters that the army boys that had flitted around Sunnydale's shadows were really known as the Initiative. Apparently, one of the commando boys, a guy named Riley Finn, was a grad student and an assistant in one of Willow's classes - and even better, the head lady was a professor. However, the group only found out about all of this when the army boy broke protocol and came to Willow for help. He had recognized her as one of the civilians that fought the dark stuff that they fought, and when he learned that his head lady was using the demons they didn't kill to build a monster - well, he knew that it wasn't something right nor was it something that they could handle on their own. So, he came to the Scoobies for help, and according to Faith's watcher, the Scoobies were in hard core research mode to find a way to stop the monster, known as Adam, that had gotten out of control. Scratch it up to Faith's first Big Bad - an ass that Buffy knew Faith was going to kick all the way to the Hell that spawned it... or maybe that was a laboratory. Yeah, she still wasn't quite clear on all of the details.
"Okay, you're doing that odd smile thing again."
Rolling her eyes dramatically, Buffy flashed Harry a brilliant smile as she pushed a wave of long, golden blonde hair over the shoulder of her black tank. "What odd smile thing? I thought smiling was good!" she countered as she interlocked her fingers with his, her hip bumping against his leg.
"It is good," Harry agreed, stumbling slightly before squeezing her hand as his green eyes took in the beautiful, sunny afternoon - the kind of afternoon that Buffy loved and always managed to drag him outside for. "It's just odd when you start grinning like a mad woman for no apparent reason," he added, a small dimple forming in one cheek as he quickly pulled away to avoid Buffy's playful slap.
"Mad woman?" she asked, pulling to a stop and crossing her arms defiantly over her chest. "Please don't tell me that's the best you can come up with? To think that after all this time you would have begun picking up some American English so that you can lay in with the good insults. Mad woman?" she repeated, shaking her head slowly and admitting defeat.
"At least I didn't call you a wanker or a pillock," he defended easily, the sun catching the edge of his black-rimmed glasses as he continued across the vast sea of green, his eyes locked on Hagrid's hut just a short distance away.
Wrinkling her nose, Buffy looked towards the blue heavens and beseeched them silently for assistance. She had been surrounded by stuffy British people for two months now and she just knew that Xander would have been amused. Buffy's eyes trailed over Harry's form as he continued on without her. His black robes abandoned back in the castle, Harry was wearing his usual school uniform of dark pants and a dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, his tie having disappeared months ago. Smiling appreciatively, she didn't know why she hadn't noticed it the first time they had met, but just the sight of his lean frame, broad shoulders, narrow-
"Bad Buffy, bad!" she admonished, her words causing Harry to turn and throw her that odd, quirked grin of his. Shrugging slightly, Buffy grinned back impishly and finished the distance between them, linking her arm with his and propelling them both towards the back of Hagrid's little cottage. "Anybody home?" she called out, eyes dancing as she took in the small pen that sat behind the cottage, Berry stirring at the sound of her voice.
"Is it tha' time already?" Hagrid asked by way of greeting as he lumbered from the open door of his home and stretched in the warm sunshine, his eyes narrowing even further by the onslaught of the bright light.
"You know it!" Buffy chirped as she skipped over to the edge of the pen, waiting for Hagrid's nod before she vaulted over the fence and waited patiently for Harry to follow her over. It had been a long process that had taken much time and patience on everyone's part, but as Harry kept pointing out, the only way for Buffy to ever get over her past was to face it. And so she had. Day by day she had fallen into a comfortable routine whereby she would make the daily trek to Hagrid's hut with the others after their classes, just in time to offer the recovering bloodred bugbear its nightly dinner. At first she had contented herself to watching the others as they clambered around the massive, disturbingly colored creature and followed Hagrid's lead to earn the bear's trust - always back and from a safe distance, her muscles tensed and waiting for disaster to strike. But when that disaster never came, Buffy found herself relaxing day by day and inexorably moving closer to the pen, when, before long, she soon found herself in the pen with the bugbear itself, never left unaccompanied but undeniably within the creature's grasp. And as of only yesterday, Buffy had begun feeding the bugbear herself.
"Where are Ron and 'ermione off to today?" Hagrid asked, scratching his grizzled chin through his wiry beard as he bent to retrieve Berry's plate of food.
"Hermione is speaking with Professor McGonagall about the upcoming exams," Harry offered as Buffy accepted the dish and began her slow, tentative steps towards the bugbear. "She and Ron said that they'd catch up with us," he added, tensing slightly as Berry shifted and first sniffed at Buffy's outstretched hand before sniffing towards her proffered plate of dismembered rooster.
"Aye, tis gettin' about tha' time, isn't it?" the half-giant returned, his eyes once more searching out the bright sun. "Summer is almost upon us now," he added, his tone strangely muted as he turned back towards the pen, watching as Harry moved to join Buffy beside the large animal. "Almost upon us," he repeated absently before turning back to his darkened cottage. "Aye'll be righ' back," he called out, shaking his head as the two teens spared him the briefest of nods before returning their attention back to the large bugbear, and more importantly each other. Rolling his eyes, Hagrid lumbered forward and disappeared into the cottage.
"So you have some exams coming up?" Buffy asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen between them.
"Yes, the NEWTs," Harry agreed, wrinkling his brow at the thought. "The toughest exams of all, and in order to get any sort of a good job in whatever you want to do, it's imperative to get high markings on the exams."
"Oh, well that sucks," she offered, shrugging slightly as she very pointedly forced her next question away. She knew it was a touchy subject with Harry. Then again, it wasn't as though she could blame him. She had never enjoyed the inevitable question that adults always asked when they were ignorant of her destiny.
What do you want to do when you grow up?
Live.
That's all that she ever wanted now. Just to live to see another day.
Shoving her thoughts to the side, Buffy turned her attention back to Berry. "How ya comin' Big Guy?" she asked, her voice soft just as Hagrid had schooled her. The large, blood-red bugbear had long-finished its afternoon meal and was instead sitting strangely quiet, its head dipped down low. Confused, Buffy crouched down and tried to get a look at the bugbear's face. She'd never seen him act this way before. "Hey Harry, do you think-" she began, her voice cutting off as Berry suddenly lurched to his feet and swung around, its massive, shaggy paw sailing over her head and connecting with Harry's chest hard enough that she was sure that she heard something crack, the teen flying back from the force of the blow and landing in an unmoving heap on the ground beside the opposite fence.
Frozen in shock, Buffy couldn't move fast enough as the bugbear's wide flank shouldered past her, pain flaring along her side as she was thrown to the side and tumbled to the hard ground, her head smacking against the dirt as she rolled away. Gasping, Buffy felt the gritty taste of dirt against her lips, mixing with blood as a strange buzzing filled her ears. Everything was happening far too quickly for her brain to process and Buffy found herself floundering. Grimacing, her body protested against the smallest of movements as she forced herself to her feet, pushing the pain away and turning to see that in those few brief seconds, the bugbear had crossed the distance to Harry. Numb, she could only watch with wide eyes as Berry lifted himself to his full height, his white teeth flashing in the afternoon sun. He was going to kill him. Berry was going to kill Harry and it was that realization that finally broke her from her paralysis.
"Leave him alone!" she cried, dismayed by the way her voice cracked in the command as she threw herself at the bugbear's back, slender fingers wrapping themselves in coarse red hair. Whimpering, Buffy tried to banish the whisperings of her past and of a similar struggle against a similar beast that was so much larger than her - a beast that wanted nothing more than to rip her to shreds. Only this time it was different. This time it was Berry and this time it was going after Harry.
"Leave... him... alone!" she grunted as she used all of her strength to wrestle and twist the bugbear away from Harry's unmoving form, forcing him back against the far fence before twisting away and darting back a few steps so that she was now standing between them. Gasping, her green eyes strayed from her opponent for the briefest of seconds as her eyes darted over her shoulder to quickly sweep over Harry - a glance that caused her blood to run cold as she saw that already his once pristine white shirt was now soaked in red fluid, his skin pale in the bright light. It didn't take a mediwitch to see that he was hurt - badly hurt.
Feeling tears burn her eyes, Buffy turned and focused on the creature that towered before her - the form so familiar from a muggle world, but the coloring all wrong. She knew that only seconds had passed since the attack had begun, but Buffy felt as though time had frozen. She would never let anything hurt Harry, but that didn't mean that she could ever force herself to lift her hand against that same creature to help herself, for in Berry's eyes she saw the eyes of the bear that she had killed before to save her life. An innocent life that was being used for another's means. And suddenly, as the bugbear's eyes locked with hers and its mouth lifted in a ferocious smile, Buffy knew that somehow... somehow Berry knew that she wouldn't hurt it. She couldn't hurt it. Not after what had happened in the Centre. She couldn't do that again. And as Berry leered at her, Buffy knew that he knew - he knew and it would be the death of her.
Mind clouded and hazed as the voices of the past began to call out to her, Buffy could do nothing but stare in dumb horror as Berry dove towards her, his large mouth closing on her shoulder and neck. And as the bear's sharp teeth tore into her skin and clamped around muscles and bone, Buffy felt her world explode in a fiery blaze of pain that radiated throughout her body. Yet even as her agonized scream tore through the tranquil afternoon and echoed over the Hogwarts' grounds, she somehow managed to wrap her small hands around the bugbear's muzzle and pried its jaws free of her body. Gasping, Buffy's blood streamed down her body in deep red rivulets as she lifted her spotted vision to the bugbear's face, eyes locking with his. "Who are you?" she whispered before the his heavy paw slammed into her body, claws ripping through skin and sending her flying back until her body collided with the back wall of Hagrid's hut, just as the half-giant tore through the doorway beside her.
Alerted by the terrified scream, Hagrid froze in the doorway, his eyes locked on the small slayer's bleeding and unmoving form on the ground beside him before turning to lock on Berry, now poised over Harry, also unmoving and covered in blood. "'arry!" he roared, panic filling his veins with ice as he ran forward, the earth trembling beneath his heavy footfalls as he dove at the bugbear's back. "No, Berry, no!" he commanded, his voice hoarse as he struggled to pull the animal away from the downed teen - from the boy that he had loved ever since he was a baby. But it was a battle that Hagrid knew that he was destined to lose for the bugbear was just too strong - too powerful for even a half-giant to pull him away. Which was when his salvation came in the form of one terrified word.
"Stupefy!" Hermione cried, her steps stilling on the other side of the cabin long enough to freeze the bugbear with her spell, her wide eyes trying and failing to make sense of the horrible scene that faced her and Ron. And then the two teens were running, the blood pumping through their veins as they toppled over the pen's fence and froze at the sight of Hagrid crouching over Harry's still form, his white shirt in tatters and heavy with blood. "H-Hagrid, what happened?" she stammered, already feeling the tears begin to burn her eyes as the shaking groundskeeper gently reached out as though to touch the ugly wounds before quickly coming back to himself.
"Ron, see ta th' lass," Hagrid ordered, nodding towards the open door to his hut as he gently scooped Harry into his arms, the boy's head lolling against his massive chest.
Confused, Ron turned and followed Hagrid's eyes until he saw Buffy's small form. "Oh no," he whispered, feeling his legs threaten to give way beneath him as he stumbled the distance to the petite slayer's side. If he had thought that Harry had looked bad, his friend had nothing on the girl that lay before him in a quickly growing pool of her own blood. "Hagrid, I-"
"I can't carry both of 'em!" the half-giant called out, his voice rough as he began making his way towards the castle.
Swallowing the thick bile that rose in his throat at the sight of so much blood, Ron quickly bent over and gathered the small girl into his arms. "Hermione, find Sirius and Giles," he called out as he hurried to catch up to the giant, thankful now for Buffy's petite stature. "And hurry!"
Side by side the two men raced through the dark halls of Hogwarts, Hermione struggling to keep pace with them. It had taken her far too long to locate either Sirius or Giles, but whatever time had been wasted in searching for them was quickly being made up in their frantic dash through the school's stone corridors. She had been pale and shaking as she skid into the school's library, her eyes puffy and red. But all the poor girl had managed to get out was the fact that both Harry and Buffy had been hurt somehow and were being brought to the infirmary - for that was all that needed to be said. Instantly both men were off and tearing through the halls, unmindful of the scene they were causing in their haste to reach their wards' sides. And throughout the frantic run, the same thought kept running in Giles' mind: he hadn't made things right. His own guilt from his past actions had alienated his Slayer to the point where he no longer knew how to make things right... and now something had happened to her and what if he never had that chance?
Robes flapping around his lean frame, Sirius took the lead in the last second and dove through the open doorway of the school infirmary with Giles trailing after a few moments later - and the scene that met their eyes nearly drove them both to their knees. There was blood - blood everywhere as Madam Pomfrey rushed back and forth between two hospital beds, her eyes frantically raising to meet those of the two men that stumbled into her rooms. "I-I can't heal her. She won't respond. I can't heal her," she mumbled, fear pinching her features as Giles rushed to his slayer's side.
Following Giles' cue, Sirius turned to the other bed as both Ron and Hagrid stepped back to allow him access, both their clothing stained with the red fluid that drenched the white linens that his godson rest upon. "Harry, is he-"
"I'm fine, Sirius," Harry whispered, bloodshot green eyes blinking open as he weakly lifted his hand and slipped it in his godfather's, taking strength from his warm grip.
"Madam Pomfrey gave him a potion - said he should be fully healed in a little bit," Ron explained quickly, forcing a reassuring smile for his friend. But Harry wasn't looking at Ron and instead had his head turned to the side, his green eyes locking on the figures that crowded around the bed beside his.
"Mr. Giles, she hasn't responded to any of my potions or spells," the mediwitch fretted as Giles' skilled hands explored the series of cuts that traversed Buffy's chest and stomach.
"She won't," he murmured, his tone distracted as he bypassed those wounds, relatively minor, and instead focused his attention on her bloody shoulder. "Buffy's immune to our magics," he added, idly realizing that perhaps that would have been a pertinent bit of information to share with the mediwitch prior to this. Pushing that thought away, he reached for a clean rag that drifted in a nearby bowl of water and gently washed the blood away, hissing at what seemed to be puncture and crush wounds that extended all the way to the bone in some places. "This looks like a bite wound," he whispered, his brow tightening in confusion before his thoughts were scattered by Buffy's soft groan.
"Giles?" she murmured, pain-glazed green eyes blinking open and locking on her watcher's face.
"Shh, you're alright," he murmured before snapping his eyes to the mediwitch who looked so out of her element that it would have been comical under any other circumstance. She had probably never encountered a malady that couldn't at least be diagnosed or healed with her magic or her magical supplies. It was a good thing that Giles was well-versed in muggle first aid, for his skills had seen he and his Slayer through many a similar situation - far too many. "Poppy, I need gauze and bandages," he ordered, giving the frantic witch a task to occupy her hands.
"Giles, no hospital," Buffy murmured, her eyes desperately seeking his out. "No hospital," she repeated as she lifted a blood soaked hand and wrapped it firmly around his wrist, marking him with her blood as she fought a wave of darkness.
"No, no hospitals," Giles agreed, smiling softly at the girl as he gently but firmly pried her hand loose and quickly set to work bandaging the terrible wounds. While obviously very bloody and painful, she had endured far, far worse, and already the cuts were beginning to close and the blood flow slowing. She would be tender and sore for a few days, probably weak from blood loss, but by the end of the week he judged that his slayer would be as good as new. Something that he knew Buffy was aware of as she sighed in relief at his words, her body sagging slightly on the soft mattress. "What happened?" he asked, his attention drifting away from his slayer for but a moment as he looked about the room. In his mind, his real question was what kind of demon had attacked his slayer in broad daylight and on the grounds of Hogwarts itself - what had bit his slayer?
"They were jus' feedin' th' bugbear," Hagrid mumbled, answering for everyone as his small eyes remained locked on Buffy's still form. "I 'ad just gone in fer a second - jus' a second," he added, obviously still in shock as his hands began to twist the hem of his coat, his movements jerky and unsure.
"Ron and I were supposed to meet them at the pen," Hermione offered when the silence became unbearable. "We saw the bugbear attacking," she added, knowing that the memory would be one that would haunt her dreams for many a night. The blood staining the grass...
And then, as if his emotions finally found focus, Sirius quickly wheeled around and rose to his full height before Hagrid - meaning, of course, that he now stood close to Hagrid's shoulder - and allowed his pent-up anxiety to fall free in a wave of blinding anger. "What were you thinking?" he demanded, his tone so soft and even that it caused the hairs on Hagrid's head to raise. "What in Merlin's name would possess you to keep a dangerous creature within reach of the children?"
"But Berry wasn' dangerous!" Hagrid protested weakly, feeling the tears brim in his eyes as he instinctively knew to what end his beloved bugbear would now come to. It felt like Buckbeak all over again.
"It wasn't Berry's fault."
Surprised, everyone turned to look back to the diminutive slayer who seemed to be finally and fully alert as Giles helped her to sit, leaning her back against a mound of pillows. "At least... I don't think it was his fault," she amended, a small frown pulling at her lips as her wan green eyes lifted to those in the room. More specifically, her eyes lifted until they could lock on the knowing eyes of her watcher. In that moment, it was as if the last month of tension had never been. "Giles, when it attacked Harry and I it... it smiled at me," she whispered, her voice cracking as she shuddered at the memory. "But bears don't smile - not even bugbears, do they? Do they?" she repeated, her eyes turning away until they could lock on Hagrid's face, now frowning in puzzlement.
But before Hagrid could answer, Sirius was already shaking his head, his eyes meeting briefly with the watcher's. "Voldemort," he muttered, the name causing most everyone to flinch as his haunted eyes returned to the two children that had been attacked within the school's grounds. "He must have somehow placed the bear under the imperious curse," he added, noting the way that the small slayer shuddered at his words.
"But how did he know?" she whispered, her voice so soft yet carrying to everyone in the room. Biting her lip, Buffy's eyes drifted down to her crimson-stained hands before slowly turning her eyes to Harry's. "Why something that looked like a bear? Out of everything to use against us, why a bear?" she repeated, her confusion and uncertainty welling within her until she began to tremble slightly. "I-I couldn't fight it," she stammered, hating the way that the tears burned at the corners of her eyes. "Not again," she murmured, shaking her head as one tear broke free and streaked down her pale cheek. "But how could he have possibly known that?" she asked again, her voice becoming hard and cold as she turned her eyes to Harry. "You're the only one that I ever told about that time - ever," she added, watching as Harry's face mirrored her confusion.
"There is much that Lord Voldemort knows about you, Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer," a new voice added - a cold, deep timbre from the doorway before their beds. "And more that he's learning every day."
Confused, Buffy turned towards the door and watched as a tall man dressed in tattered black robes shuffled forward before leaning heavily against the frame. His black hair was lank and clung to the dark whiskers on his cheeks and chin while his pale face looked gaunt, dark shadows lining his eyes. "And who the-"
"Professor Snape!" Hermione interrupted, her surprised cry quickly echoed by the others as the man tumbled forward and fell to the ground, his dark robes flaring around him.