Part 3 Shopping
Willow, Faith, and Fred stood in front of the fireplace in Snape's office looking at the two professors as if they had grown extra heads. Mcgonagall was holding out the small box containing floo powder waiting for any of the women to comment.
"I'll go first," Snape said, reaching into the box, and taking some of the powder, "Just be sure you get out when you see me."
He quickly stepped into the fireplace, threw the powder in front of him, "Diagon Alley."
As the women watched, the flames turned green and he disappeared. Willow recovered from the shock first.
"Now he's in this Diagon Alley place?" She turned her attention to the older woman.
"Yes," Why don't you go next, "Just be sure to speak clearly, don't panic, just get out when you see him."
"Sure," Willow muttered taking some of the powder, "'Cause he's such a welcoming sight."
Mcgonagall tried without success to hide her smile, these girls were nothing like any of them were used to, and on top of being muggle raised they were also American and were unlikely to allow Severus Snape to bully or intimidate them in any way.
Fred and Faith watched as Willow copied Snape's earlier actions and disappeared. Faith stepped up next and quickly disappeared, followed by Fred.
Mcgonagall placed the Floo Powder back on the mantle and made her way out of the room, Severus didn't like going to Diagon Alley when he had to, and he certainly was unhappy about taking these women. Though she was just as sure they would make it an interesting experience for him, she thought as she pulled the door closed and headed to her own office.
********** Willow stepped out of the fireplace, as soon as she saw the sneering face of Professor Snape. Smiling at him, she brushed some ashes from her jeans. She looked around the room they were in; it appeared they were in a pub of some kind, only it was filled with people dressed in robes and wizard hats. A few people greeted Snape, apparently surprised that he was there. She listened quietly as he explained why he had come, leaving out the information about the missing headmaster.
When Faith and Fred had both emerged from the fireplace, he turned his attention back to the women, "Ready?"
"Gonna introduce us to your friends?" Willow asked.
"They are not my friends, and no I'm not," He snapped, "Let's get this over with."
They followed him into a backroom and watched while he quickly tapped out a pattern on the bricks.
"Wicked," Faith muttered as she watched the bricks of the wall move to form a doorway for them to enter another street.
"Where are we?" Willow asked following the others to the hidden street.
"London," Snape answered, "This is a wizard street it's hidden from muggle view. You can however find everything you need for the new term here."
He quickly handed each of them a list of items they needed along with the stores they could most likely find each item. He also gave them each a key and explained that there was more than sufficient gold for them in vaults at Gringott's bank, and how wizard money worked.
"Do you need me to go with you?"
"Don't bother, we'll manage," Willow answered, "I'm sure you have brooding to do somewhere."
"Meet me back here at," He quickly checked his watch, "six, and we'll go back then."
They watched as he quickly stormed away from them. Willow's attention turned to the store next to them, featuring more owls in the windows than she had ever seen.
"Where to first?" Faith asked, glancing at her list, "You two seem to have a lot more than I do on the list."
"First I guess, we should go to this Gringotts," Fred suggested, "I'm guessing these stores aren't going to take American, muggle checks and credit cards."
They headed down the street where they could see the very large white building looming at the end of the street.
********** Two hours later, they were sitting at a table outside a small restaurant, finishing their lunch. Faith set her fork down and picked up her list, quickly scanning it and the pile of bags in front of her.
"We've been to buy robes, books, parchment, and quills," She said, "which pretty much covers my list."
"I still have to get a wand, and I want a broom and an owl," Willow smiled, she really liked it here, "They really fly on brooms."
"I need a wand too, and I want to at least go to that store with the owls," Fred agreed, "Don't know if I want to try and fly on a broom though."
"Then why don't I go and find out where I can contact Giles, or B, and I'll call Angel for you, "Faith suggested, "And I'll pick us up some real clothes, and other stuff that we need from stores that aren't.here."
"Okay, it's only two o'clock right now," Willow checked her watch, "We don't have to meet the broody one, until six. So why don't we meet at that Leaky Cauldron place at five-thirty?"
"Sound good," Faith agreed, "See you later."
After Faith had walked away, Willow turned her attention to Fred. "Wands first I think, it'll be the smallest. I don't want to carry and owl or a broom around."
"Sounds good, Can we go back to that book store too," Fred asked, "I'd really like to look around but Faith didn't seem happy about it."
"I never object to book stores," Willow stood grabbing her packages and began walking toward the sign for Olivander's followed closely by Fred.
Willow pushed open the door and walked into the large shop, she set her bags down as Fred pushed the door closed. Both women took in the large room filled from floor to ceiling with long thin boxes. As they were staring, an old man came up next to them.
"Miss Rosenberg?" He asked, startling Willow.
"Um Yes," She said recovering from the surprise quickly, "How did you."
"Professor Mcgonagall told me you were coming, you must be Miss Burkle?" He turned his attention to Fred.
"Yes," She smiled, "This place is.interesting."
"Yes, well I understand you need wands," He quickly moved behind the counter and began looking through the boxes, "Let's see."
Finally he pulled a box off a shelf and brought it to the counter, "You first Miss Burkle," He pulled a wand out and handed it to her, "Well go ahead wave it."
Fred lifted her hand and moved the wand quickly up and then down again, and screamed when several boxes flew from the shelves, then quickly dropped the wand to the counter.
"No that's not it, you see the wand chooses the wizard," He mumbled going back to looking through boxes again.
After giving her several wands, with messy if not disastrous results he finally handed her one, mumbling something she couldn't make out. Taking a deep breath, Fred took the wand from his hand and waved it hesitantly, feeling bad for reeking havoc on his shop.
This time instead of a mess, several small flowers burst out of the tip, Fred set the wand back on the counter with a sigh of relief.
"Yes, yes that one is perfect, odd but perfect."
"Odd?" Willow asked.
"Yes, you see this wand is different than most other's here," The man was back to looking for wands, this time for Willow, "This one has a drop of blood in the tip, not unusual in itself but this blood, you see, comes from a demon."
"The wand that just produced flowers, came from a demon?" Fred asked.
"Yes, not a dangerous demon mind, he seemed quite friendly when I met him, years ago," Olivander handed Willow a wand as he spoke, "He had the gift of divination, but only if." His voice trailed off as dark smoke billowed from the tip of Willow's wand.
"You sang?" Fred asked, as Olivander took the wand from Willow's hand, reaching for another.
"Yes, how did you know?"
"I know him." She explained.
"Oh, how very interesting," He smiled, "Give it wave Miss Rosenberg."
Hesitantly Willow waved the wand, this time producing a great wave of White light that quickly moved through the air reforming itself into a transparent rose in the air.
"Very good, as I said the wand chooses the wizard, your wand is unique to, very curious," He took the wand from her hand placing in a box and quickly wrapping both boxes in brown wrapping.
"Why?" Willow asked, fascinated by the experience.
"You're contains two items in its tip," He handed a package to each of them, "It contains a drop of a mystical energy that could be used to open."
"Hell dimensions?" Willow took the package from his hand.
"Yes, you know of it?" He asked, at her nod he continued, "It also contains a hair from a werewolf."
"Do you uh, know this werewolf?" Willow asked, it couldn't be, could it?
"No, I'm sorry; he was through here a few years ago, searching for a way to control his wolf."
"T-thank you," Willow said quietly. It was Oz, she thought.
Both girls quickly paid the man and left the store. They decided to head to the store where they had seen brooms next.
In the store saying, it sold Quidditch supplies Willow looked at all the brooms, having no idea how to choose one. Finally a man approached her, after explaining the situation he helped her pick a broom that he assured her was perfect for beginners. He then offered his help to Fred who declined saying she wasn't ready to fly.
When they left the store, Willow checked her watch; they still had time to go the bookstore and to purchase an owl before they had to meet Faith. So they happily headed to Flourish and Blotts.
********** After finding her way back into the Leaky Cauldron Faith had no problem finding the street beyond, and after speaking to a few people she was able to get directions to a bank that would exchange her money for her so that she could purchase the items they would need and contact Giles and Angel.
As she left the last of the clothing stores, she was glad that the man at the Leaky Cauldron had said she could leave her packages with him; she already had more than she could handle carrying and she still had not purchased any toiletries. She spotted a small store that looked like they would have what she needed and made her way into it. She quickly purchased toothbrushes, toothpaste, and various hair care and personal products for the three of them and left that store.
Back on the street she spotted a payphone back near the Pub and headed over to it. Setting her packages down she reached in her pocket for her change, there was no way she would have enough so she scanned the directions on the phone for placing collect calls. Now she just had to hope that it wasn't some new kid answering the phone, she thought as she dialed the number.
"Hello."
Faith sighed with relief at the sound of Andrew's voice, never thought that would make me happy, she thought to herself, she waited patiently as the operator told him who was on the line and for him to agree to accept the charges.
"Andrew, I need to talk to Giles or Buffy," She said as soon as the operator clicked off the line.
"They aren't here, they're looking for you and Willow," He said, "Where are you anyway, is Willow with you?"
"It's a long story, and yeah, I've got Willow with me," Faith was not going to trust this to him, "How about Xander, or Dawn?"
"Dawn's here, not happy about it but she's here," Andrew set the phone down and Faith waited impatiently as he went to find the youngest Summers'.
"Faith, where are you guys, we've been worried sick!" Dawn had picked up the phone.
"Sorry kid, we couldn't call until now. We're in London."
"England?"
"Yeah, look we were kind of magically kidnapped to help these people, it's a long story, but apparently there's like this whole wizarding world that we didn't know about. Anyway, some dark wizard has been trying to kill this kid and now the only wizard strong enough to stop him has disappeared and had left instructions to get Willow, Fred and either B or me if he didn't show up and well here we are."
"Okay, so you were kidnapped to England. Got it," Dawn said, "But you're okay, don't need rescuing?"
"Just from boredom, they have no electricity at this school."
"What school, how do we contact you?"
"Hogwarts is the name of the school. They don't have phones or receive regular mail, "Faith explained, "They get special mail by owl. Willow's going to send you a letter tomorrow by owl explaining it all, and giving you directions on how to get an owl to send messages to us."
"Oookay," Dawn said, "Sure you aren't high or something?"
"No, just tell Giles okay and look can you guys call Angel and tell him all this, we'll send him a letter when we send yours but."
"Don't want him to freak and kill and innocent owl?"
"Yeah,"
"I'll take care of it, and we'll expect your letter soon."
"Thanks Kid, bye." Faith hung up the phone checked her watch, it was only four so she decided to go back to the Leaky Cauldron and get a drink before heading out to meet her friends."
********** Faith glanced around the crowded barroom; she had put her newest purchases in the pile with the others and now had a drink in her hand and needed an empty table. However, there didn't seem to be any available so she started to make her way toward the back hoping to spot one she couldn't see from the bar.
"You can sit here."
Faith stopped at the sound of the voice and looked around for the person that had spoken to her. She spotted a man in shabby looking robes, similar to what she had just purchased, with light brown hair graying at the sides watching her. He gestured to the empty chair across from him.
"Thanks," Faith set her drink down and turned the chair before sitting, "Place is really crowded."
"Parents waiting for the children to finish buying their new school supplies," He extended his hand to her, "Remus Lupin."
"Faith," She shook his hand and smiled. He was older than her, no doubt about that, but not really that old.
"You don't look like you have a child at Hogwarts."
"God no, I'm going to be teaching there," She took a sip from her drink watching him closely.
"You're a witch?" Lupin looked carefully at the girl in front of him, she couldn't have been out of school long herself, and her very tight leather pants, and black sleeveless shirt under a leather jacket didn't look much like a recent graduate of any wizarding school, Hogwarts or other.
"Nope, Slayer. Red's the witch," Faith smiled at the shocked expression on his face.
"You're the slayer?"
"You know what a slayer is?" Faith asked, feeling kind of glad to be somewhere that she didn't have to explain or hide who she was.
"I've heard of them, but you're the first I've met," He watched her for a moment before continuing, "How can you teach at Hogwarts, aren't you supposed to be the only one out saving the world from vampires?"
"I was never the only one. I was kinda the extra and since Will did her thing we now have more slayers than Giles can handle."
"Excuse me?"
"First evil wanted to wipe out the slayer line, Red found a way to activate all the potentials so that we could kick some ass."
"I have a feeling that story should have been much longer," Remus knew the girl was leaving a lot out of her story, "How were you ever the extra?"
"The Master drowned B, but Xander revived her, but she had been dead so Kendra was activated, she died; here I am." Faith glanced at her watch, "Damn, where are they, if we're late meeting Professor Bitchy he'll probably leave us."
"Professor Bitchy?" Remus smiled, he was sure he knew who she was talking about.
"Uh, yeah," Faith said spotting Willow and Fred coming into the room, "His name is Snape, I think."
Willow had spotted Faith and had approached the table.
"Hi," Willow smiled at Faith and turned her attention to Lupin. "I'm Willow, this is Fred."
"Remus. Will you be teaching at Hogwarts as well?" He asked, smiling at the two new arrivals.
"Yes," Fred glanced at her watch, "We better go, if we're late."
"If Snape leaves you behind, come back here," Lupin suggested, "I can get you back to Hogwarts."
"Thanks," All three girls said their good-byes and headed back to Diagon Alley, picking up Faith's packages on the way.
Snape was waiting for them in the back room when they arrived. He was scowling even more than usual.
"Do you ever smile?" Willow asked cheerfully, she was having fun and wasn't about to let him ruin that.
"You're late."
"Get over it. We were talking to someone who was actually pleasant," Willow said then turning to Faith, "Remus was kinda cute where'd you find him?"
"Remus Lupin?" Snape snarled looking even angrier than he had a few minutes before.
"Yeah why?" Willow didn't even bother to glance at him.
"He's a. He is a werewolf." Snape said slowly.
"So?"
"He is a wolf, that doesn't concern you at all; do you know how dangerous they are?" Would this woman's stupidity have no end?
"Not very, most of the time," Willow smiled sweetly handing some of her packages to Snape and stepping into the fireplace grabbing floo powder on the way, "At least not the one I slept with. Hogwarts," She dropped the floo powder and disappeared into the green flames.
Fred followed closely behind Willow carrying as many packages as she could. Faith stepped into the fireplace laughing at the still sputtering Snape carrying most of the remaining bags, leaving Willow's broom and owl for him to bring once he regained the power of speech.
Willow, Faith, and Fred stood in front of the fireplace in Snape's office looking at the two professors as if they had grown extra heads. Mcgonagall was holding out the small box containing floo powder waiting for any of the women to comment.
"I'll go first," Snape said, reaching into the box, and taking some of the powder, "Just be sure you get out when you see me."
He quickly stepped into the fireplace, threw the powder in front of him, "Diagon Alley."
As the women watched, the flames turned green and he disappeared. Willow recovered from the shock first.
"Now he's in this Diagon Alley place?" She turned her attention to the older woman.
"Yes," Why don't you go next, "Just be sure to speak clearly, don't panic, just get out when you see him."
"Sure," Willow muttered taking some of the powder, "'Cause he's such a welcoming sight."
Mcgonagall tried without success to hide her smile, these girls were nothing like any of them were used to, and on top of being muggle raised they were also American and were unlikely to allow Severus Snape to bully or intimidate them in any way.
Fred and Faith watched as Willow copied Snape's earlier actions and disappeared. Faith stepped up next and quickly disappeared, followed by Fred.
Mcgonagall placed the Floo Powder back on the mantle and made her way out of the room, Severus didn't like going to Diagon Alley when he had to, and he certainly was unhappy about taking these women. Though she was just as sure they would make it an interesting experience for him, she thought as she pulled the door closed and headed to her own office.
********** Willow stepped out of the fireplace, as soon as she saw the sneering face of Professor Snape. Smiling at him, she brushed some ashes from her jeans. She looked around the room they were in; it appeared they were in a pub of some kind, only it was filled with people dressed in robes and wizard hats. A few people greeted Snape, apparently surprised that he was there. She listened quietly as he explained why he had come, leaving out the information about the missing headmaster.
When Faith and Fred had both emerged from the fireplace, he turned his attention back to the women, "Ready?"
"Gonna introduce us to your friends?" Willow asked.
"They are not my friends, and no I'm not," He snapped, "Let's get this over with."
They followed him into a backroom and watched while he quickly tapped out a pattern on the bricks.
"Wicked," Faith muttered as she watched the bricks of the wall move to form a doorway for them to enter another street.
"Where are we?" Willow asked following the others to the hidden street.
"London," Snape answered, "This is a wizard street it's hidden from muggle view. You can however find everything you need for the new term here."
He quickly handed each of them a list of items they needed along with the stores they could most likely find each item. He also gave them each a key and explained that there was more than sufficient gold for them in vaults at Gringott's bank, and how wizard money worked.
"Do you need me to go with you?"
"Don't bother, we'll manage," Willow answered, "I'm sure you have brooding to do somewhere."
"Meet me back here at," He quickly checked his watch, "six, and we'll go back then."
They watched as he quickly stormed away from them. Willow's attention turned to the store next to them, featuring more owls in the windows than she had ever seen.
"Where to first?" Faith asked, glancing at her list, "You two seem to have a lot more than I do on the list."
"First I guess, we should go to this Gringotts," Fred suggested, "I'm guessing these stores aren't going to take American, muggle checks and credit cards."
They headed down the street where they could see the very large white building looming at the end of the street.
********** Two hours later, they were sitting at a table outside a small restaurant, finishing their lunch. Faith set her fork down and picked up her list, quickly scanning it and the pile of bags in front of her.
"We've been to buy robes, books, parchment, and quills," She said, "which pretty much covers my list."
"I still have to get a wand, and I want a broom and an owl," Willow smiled, she really liked it here, "They really fly on brooms."
"I need a wand too, and I want to at least go to that store with the owls," Fred agreed, "Don't know if I want to try and fly on a broom though."
"Then why don't I go and find out where I can contact Giles, or B, and I'll call Angel for you, "Faith suggested, "And I'll pick us up some real clothes, and other stuff that we need from stores that aren't.here."
"Okay, it's only two o'clock right now," Willow checked her watch, "We don't have to meet the broody one, until six. So why don't we meet at that Leaky Cauldron place at five-thirty?"
"Sound good," Faith agreed, "See you later."
After Faith had walked away, Willow turned her attention to Fred. "Wands first I think, it'll be the smallest. I don't want to carry and owl or a broom around."
"Sounds good, Can we go back to that book store too," Fred asked, "I'd really like to look around but Faith didn't seem happy about it."
"I never object to book stores," Willow stood grabbing her packages and began walking toward the sign for Olivander's followed closely by Fred.
Willow pushed open the door and walked into the large shop, she set her bags down as Fred pushed the door closed. Both women took in the large room filled from floor to ceiling with long thin boxes. As they were staring, an old man came up next to them.
"Miss Rosenberg?" He asked, startling Willow.
"Um Yes," She said recovering from the surprise quickly, "How did you."
"Professor Mcgonagall told me you were coming, you must be Miss Burkle?" He turned his attention to Fred.
"Yes," She smiled, "This place is.interesting."
"Yes, well I understand you need wands," He quickly moved behind the counter and began looking through the boxes, "Let's see."
Finally he pulled a box off a shelf and brought it to the counter, "You first Miss Burkle," He pulled a wand out and handed it to her, "Well go ahead wave it."
Fred lifted her hand and moved the wand quickly up and then down again, and screamed when several boxes flew from the shelves, then quickly dropped the wand to the counter.
"No that's not it, you see the wand chooses the wizard," He mumbled going back to looking through boxes again.
After giving her several wands, with messy if not disastrous results he finally handed her one, mumbling something she couldn't make out. Taking a deep breath, Fred took the wand from his hand and waved it hesitantly, feeling bad for reeking havoc on his shop.
This time instead of a mess, several small flowers burst out of the tip, Fred set the wand back on the counter with a sigh of relief.
"Yes, yes that one is perfect, odd but perfect."
"Odd?" Willow asked.
"Yes, you see this wand is different than most other's here," The man was back to looking for wands, this time for Willow, "This one has a drop of blood in the tip, not unusual in itself but this blood, you see, comes from a demon."
"The wand that just produced flowers, came from a demon?" Fred asked.
"Yes, not a dangerous demon mind, he seemed quite friendly when I met him, years ago," Olivander handed Willow a wand as he spoke, "He had the gift of divination, but only if." His voice trailed off as dark smoke billowed from the tip of Willow's wand.
"You sang?" Fred asked, as Olivander took the wand from Willow's hand, reaching for another.
"Yes, how did you know?"
"I know him." She explained.
"Oh, how very interesting," He smiled, "Give it wave Miss Rosenberg."
Hesitantly Willow waved the wand, this time producing a great wave of White light that quickly moved through the air reforming itself into a transparent rose in the air.
"Very good, as I said the wand chooses the wizard, your wand is unique to, very curious," He took the wand from her hand placing in a box and quickly wrapping both boxes in brown wrapping.
"Why?" Willow asked, fascinated by the experience.
"You're contains two items in its tip," He handed a package to each of them, "It contains a drop of a mystical energy that could be used to open."
"Hell dimensions?" Willow took the package from his hand.
"Yes, you know of it?" He asked, at her nod he continued, "It also contains a hair from a werewolf."
"Do you uh, know this werewolf?" Willow asked, it couldn't be, could it?
"No, I'm sorry; he was through here a few years ago, searching for a way to control his wolf."
"T-thank you," Willow said quietly. It was Oz, she thought.
Both girls quickly paid the man and left the store. They decided to head to the store where they had seen brooms next.
In the store saying, it sold Quidditch supplies Willow looked at all the brooms, having no idea how to choose one. Finally a man approached her, after explaining the situation he helped her pick a broom that he assured her was perfect for beginners. He then offered his help to Fred who declined saying she wasn't ready to fly.
When they left the store, Willow checked her watch; they still had time to go the bookstore and to purchase an owl before they had to meet Faith. So they happily headed to Flourish and Blotts.
********** After finding her way back into the Leaky Cauldron Faith had no problem finding the street beyond, and after speaking to a few people she was able to get directions to a bank that would exchange her money for her so that she could purchase the items they would need and contact Giles and Angel.
As she left the last of the clothing stores, she was glad that the man at the Leaky Cauldron had said she could leave her packages with him; she already had more than she could handle carrying and she still had not purchased any toiletries. She spotted a small store that looked like they would have what she needed and made her way into it. She quickly purchased toothbrushes, toothpaste, and various hair care and personal products for the three of them and left that store.
Back on the street she spotted a payphone back near the Pub and headed over to it. Setting her packages down she reached in her pocket for her change, there was no way she would have enough so she scanned the directions on the phone for placing collect calls. Now she just had to hope that it wasn't some new kid answering the phone, she thought as she dialed the number.
"Hello."
Faith sighed with relief at the sound of Andrew's voice, never thought that would make me happy, she thought to herself, she waited patiently as the operator told him who was on the line and for him to agree to accept the charges.
"Andrew, I need to talk to Giles or Buffy," She said as soon as the operator clicked off the line.
"They aren't here, they're looking for you and Willow," He said, "Where are you anyway, is Willow with you?"
"It's a long story, and yeah, I've got Willow with me," Faith was not going to trust this to him, "How about Xander, or Dawn?"
"Dawn's here, not happy about it but she's here," Andrew set the phone down and Faith waited impatiently as he went to find the youngest Summers'.
"Faith, where are you guys, we've been worried sick!" Dawn had picked up the phone.
"Sorry kid, we couldn't call until now. We're in London."
"England?"
"Yeah, look we were kind of magically kidnapped to help these people, it's a long story, but apparently there's like this whole wizarding world that we didn't know about. Anyway, some dark wizard has been trying to kill this kid and now the only wizard strong enough to stop him has disappeared and had left instructions to get Willow, Fred and either B or me if he didn't show up and well here we are."
"Okay, so you were kidnapped to England. Got it," Dawn said, "But you're okay, don't need rescuing?"
"Just from boredom, they have no electricity at this school."
"What school, how do we contact you?"
"Hogwarts is the name of the school. They don't have phones or receive regular mail, "Faith explained, "They get special mail by owl. Willow's going to send you a letter tomorrow by owl explaining it all, and giving you directions on how to get an owl to send messages to us."
"Oookay," Dawn said, "Sure you aren't high or something?"
"No, just tell Giles okay and look can you guys call Angel and tell him all this, we'll send him a letter when we send yours but."
"Don't want him to freak and kill and innocent owl?"
"Yeah,"
"I'll take care of it, and we'll expect your letter soon."
"Thanks Kid, bye." Faith hung up the phone checked her watch, it was only four so she decided to go back to the Leaky Cauldron and get a drink before heading out to meet her friends."
********** Faith glanced around the crowded barroom; she had put her newest purchases in the pile with the others and now had a drink in her hand and needed an empty table. However, there didn't seem to be any available so she started to make her way toward the back hoping to spot one she couldn't see from the bar.
"You can sit here."
Faith stopped at the sound of the voice and looked around for the person that had spoken to her. She spotted a man in shabby looking robes, similar to what she had just purchased, with light brown hair graying at the sides watching her. He gestured to the empty chair across from him.
"Thanks," Faith set her drink down and turned the chair before sitting, "Place is really crowded."
"Parents waiting for the children to finish buying their new school supplies," He extended his hand to her, "Remus Lupin."
"Faith," She shook his hand and smiled. He was older than her, no doubt about that, but not really that old.
"You don't look like you have a child at Hogwarts."
"God no, I'm going to be teaching there," She took a sip from her drink watching him closely.
"You're a witch?" Lupin looked carefully at the girl in front of him, she couldn't have been out of school long herself, and her very tight leather pants, and black sleeveless shirt under a leather jacket didn't look much like a recent graduate of any wizarding school, Hogwarts or other.
"Nope, Slayer. Red's the witch," Faith smiled at the shocked expression on his face.
"You're the slayer?"
"You know what a slayer is?" Faith asked, feeling kind of glad to be somewhere that she didn't have to explain or hide who she was.
"I've heard of them, but you're the first I've met," He watched her for a moment before continuing, "How can you teach at Hogwarts, aren't you supposed to be the only one out saving the world from vampires?"
"I was never the only one. I was kinda the extra and since Will did her thing we now have more slayers than Giles can handle."
"Excuse me?"
"First evil wanted to wipe out the slayer line, Red found a way to activate all the potentials so that we could kick some ass."
"I have a feeling that story should have been much longer," Remus knew the girl was leaving a lot out of her story, "How were you ever the extra?"
"The Master drowned B, but Xander revived her, but she had been dead so Kendra was activated, she died; here I am." Faith glanced at her watch, "Damn, where are they, if we're late meeting Professor Bitchy he'll probably leave us."
"Professor Bitchy?" Remus smiled, he was sure he knew who she was talking about.
"Uh, yeah," Faith said spotting Willow and Fred coming into the room, "His name is Snape, I think."
Willow had spotted Faith and had approached the table.
"Hi," Willow smiled at Faith and turned her attention to Lupin. "I'm Willow, this is Fred."
"Remus. Will you be teaching at Hogwarts as well?" He asked, smiling at the two new arrivals.
"Yes," Fred glanced at her watch, "We better go, if we're late."
"If Snape leaves you behind, come back here," Lupin suggested, "I can get you back to Hogwarts."
"Thanks," All three girls said their good-byes and headed back to Diagon Alley, picking up Faith's packages on the way.
Snape was waiting for them in the back room when they arrived. He was scowling even more than usual.
"Do you ever smile?" Willow asked cheerfully, she was having fun and wasn't about to let him ruin that.
"You're late."
"Get over it. We were talking to someone who was actually pleasant," Willow said then turning to Faith, "Remus was kinda cute where'd you find him?"
"Remus Lupin?" Snape snarled looking even angrier than he had a few minutes before.
"Yeah why?" Willow didn't even bother to glance at him.
"He's a. He is a werewolf." Snape said slowly.
"So?"
"He is a wolf, that doesn't concern you at all; do you know how dangerous they are?" Would this woman's stupidity have no end?
"Not very, most of the time," Willow smiled sweetly handing some of her packages to Snape and stepping into the fireplace grabbing floo powder on the way, "At least not the one I slept with. Hogwarts," She dropped the floo powder and disappeared into the green flames.
Fred followed closely behind Willow carrying as many packages as she could. Faith stepped into the fireplace laughing at the still sputtering Snape carrying most of the remaining bags, leaving Willow's broom and owl for him to bring once he regained the power of speech.