Part 23 Preparation

Willow opened her eyes slowly, the room was still dark and her head was resting on something way to hard to be her pillow. She raised her head up enough to see the face attached to the chest her head was resting on and smiled. She had one arm thrown across his chest. She must have fallen asleep while they were talking. She moved her head a little more trying to see if he had a clock.

"Of course not," She muttered, "why would there be a clock here."

It was Saturday anyway so it wasn't like she had to go teach a class. She moved her hand across his chest making small circles. He wasn't moving. Can't have that, she thought as she pushed herself up so she could reach his face. She placed one hand on his cheek before lowering her lips to his.

Severus opened his eyes when he felt her lips touch his. It had been a long time since he had been woken this way. He moved his arms around her, rolling her over so he was over her, before breaking the kiss to look at her.

"You're awake," She smiled.

"Wasn't that your intention?" He asked trailing kisses along her jaw.

"Well," She turned her head and kissed him again, "The thought had crossed my mind. Right after I was done being angry that you don't have a clock. Do you realize there aren't any clocks anywhere in this castle." The rest of her comments were cut off by another kiss.

"It's Saturday, we have plenty of time," He said quietly.
**********

Remus rolled over, raising himself up on one elbow and watched the woman sleeping next to him. Part of him still thought she shouldn't be here, she was only a few years older than Harry. In some ways she still a child. You could see that when she was lying there asleep. Not trying to be strong.

Another part of him, knew that she may look young, and technically be very young, but in so many ways she had seen and experienced more than most people ever would. She was a Slayer. True now there were many of them, but that had only been true for a few months. Faith had said she was never the only slayer, that Buffy had always been there. That hadn't made her life any easier. They had talked a lot about her past. She hadn't really had parents, she had taken care of herself. Then the Watcher's Council had found her, so she had someone taking care of her, but a vampire killed her watcher while she watched. She was on her own again. Even in Sunnydale she hadn't really felt she was a part of Buffy's friends. The Mayor, had taken her in, but part of her had known that what he was doing was wrong. Then he had been gone too. Then she was in prison. She had grown up too fast.

He raised his hand to her face and pushed her hair away and ran his fingers over her cheek. Stopping when he felt her smile.

"Morning," He said quietly.

"Yeah," She opened her eyes. "How long you been up?"

"Long enough."

"Shoulda woke me," Faith sat up leaning close to kiss him.

"You looked so peaceful."

"Could've found better ways to pass the morning than you watching me sleep though,' She ran her hand down his chest.
**********

Fred sat up and looked at the two beds on the other side of the room. Both were empty. Okay, so she hadn't really expected Faith to return, but Willow was gone too. Charlie had left last night because they had expected Willow to return. She glanced at her watch next to the bed, he was going to be back soon. They were going to go into Hogsmeade this morning. Get away from the school for a while. Sighing she quickly got up and grabbed some clothes out of her trunk. Glad to have her own clothes back. She had been so happy when Lorne had given her a suitcase full her things. Letting Faith go to pick out clothes for all of them hadn't been the best idea.

She was pulling her hair into a ponytail when she heard Charlie enter the sitting room and call her.

"Be right down," She shouted as she grabbed her shoes and headed to the steps.

"Where's Willow?" Charlie asked when Fred came down the steps.

"Don't know. Well, I would guess and say with Snape," Fred kissed his cheek, "She didn't come back last night."

"So you know, he was my Professor not that long ago, I didn't need to know he has a personal life," He smiled and kissed her, "Ready to go?"

"Yep."

They were just on their way out of the teachers quarters when the ran into Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Harry.

"Charlie, is Professor Rosenberg in her room, we were going to work on that spell," Ginny said when she spotted her brother.

"She's not there," Fred answered.

"Do you know where she is?" Ron asked, "Hermione is all excited over the chance to study even more than usual."

"She's probably." Fred began.

"You don't want to know," Charlie interrupted. "If I were you I would just wait until she finds you."

"Why?" Hermione asked.

"She didn't go back to the room last night," Charlie replied.

He laughed as he saw realization of where exactly Willow was show on the four teen-agers faces. "See you guys later."

Fred waved over her shoulder to the kids as Charlie pulled her away.
**********

"Do you have to bring them here?" Snape asked again as Willow headed to the door.

"No you could come up to my room," Willow answered pushing the door open, "But in my room you're not allowed to be mean to them."

"Fine, how long will this take?" He asked. He felt he had been too much of his free time with Potter and his friends.

"Depends how long it takes you guys to understand the spell. It shouldn't take long, I mean Xander caught on pretty fast last time and he has no magical talent at all," she left the room and went in search of the rest of the rescue Dumbledore party.

Professor Snape sighed as the door closed. He still wasn't happy about this spell. It was dangerous, and these were children. At least it was Granger performing the spell, he thought, as much as he hated to admit it, she was an exceptional student. Probably the only student he would trust to even attempt this. A few minutes later the door pushed open and Willow walked in followed by the four students.

"That was.fast," he said when he they had pushed the door closed.

"Yeah, did you know they have this cool map that shows them where everyone in the school is? They were just waiting for me to leave here so they could come and find me," Willow smiled, "We so could've used a map like that in Sunnydale. Would've made patrolling a lot easier. Just look at a map and say there's a vampire, no walking around all the cemeteries waiting for one to show up. Oh and finding out the Glory/Ben thing."

"Professor Rosenberg." Snape said trying to get her attention.

"Sorry off topic again right?" She smiled, "the spell is pretty straight forward, you just need to read the words, and follow the directions. Oh and supplies."

Willow pulled a piece of parchment out of her pocket, and handed it to Severus.

"Do you have these things?"

"Everything put Taro cards," He frowned, "Why would I have those?"

"You wouldn't I guess," Willow answered.

"Professor Trewaleny has some," Ron suggested.

"Can someone go get them?" Willow asked.

"I'll go," Ginny stood up and headed toward the door. "Why should I tell her we need them?"

"Just make up something about all of us dying violent deaths and she'll give them to you," Snape said.

"Good point," Ginny smiled, who would've thought Professor Snape had a sense of humor or even paid attention to the divination teacher.

"I think we need to work on exactly what we are going to when we get there," Willow suggested, "Faith is pretty much set on search and destroy. Which is fine for her, once we disarm them. Buffy and Angel will be the same."

"How are we going to disarm them?" Harry asked. "The disarming Spell isn't strong enough."

"That's why you need to learn to do this without your wand. Odds are they'll take it from you before we get near Voldemort." Willow pointed out. "But don't underestimate Faith, Buffy and Angel. They will get some wands."

"What if. Some of them may be able to call their wands back to them," Snape said quietly.

"I can almost guarantee that if we get the wands, they won't stay usable for long," Willow replied, "Harry any wand you manage to get away from a Death Eater destroy it, break it, whatever just make it not usable."

"Potter another thing you need to remember is don't try to keep me out," Snape said, "I don't want to be inside you any more than you want me there, but if you fight me, you may all die."

"I know that," Harry snapped.

"I wish there was a way to practice this, let you get used to it, but it's too dangerous," Willow sighed, "What we can practice is some nifty little tricks I know. Let's start with defensive spells. The offensive stuff you'll have to practice on inanimate objects."

Willow quickly explained the spells they had seen her use weeks ago when she had dueled Snape in the great hall for her class. Willow demonstrated the thicken spell with Severus' aid and Ron and Harry began to take turns practicing on each other. When Ginny returned with the cards she and Hermione began practicing too.

"I have a question," Snape said as the children were practicing, "How do we do this if Harry is disarmed? I don't."

"Well, I'll teach him a spell that will work very well. But it's risky he can't really practice it. But I was thinking, if he masters these wand-less spells. We can send him in with a fake wand, Ginny says her brothers have them, and Buffy or Angel can carry Harry's wand. Give it to him after he's been checked."

"That may work," Snape agreed.

"Ready to move on guys?" Willow turned her attention back to the students. "Looks like you've gotten this down."

She then explained the spell that would allow him to disappear. Reminding everyone that you need to move quickly because you are still there just out of sight. "It gives you an advantage though because it's hard to aim a spell at someone you can't see."

After practicing the new spell for a while both Harry and Hermione had been able to master it. Ron and Ginny found they could only manage to maintain their invisibility for a few seconds at a time. Since the only one that really had to do it was Harry they moved on to spells that would allow them to attack.

"Harry don't go after him too fast," Willow reminded him, "Let me do what I can first. You have to be the one to deal the final blow but nothing says he can't be weakened first."

"With any luck one of the others will have freed Dumbledore by that time too," Snape added, "Someone is going to be on that task correct?"

"Yeah, Buffy or Angel will be working toward freeing him," Willow answered, then directed the kids to practice their new spells on objects located in the room and to be careful not to aim at each other.

Snape watched quietly as the children vanished, incinerated, or otherwise destroyed several items in his room. Sighing with relief when Willow announced they had practiced enough and it was time for dinner.