Newho, onto the fic!
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Harry peered into the darkness. There was someone coming toward him. Someone - or something. Harry squinted, trying to cut through the void. The light was foreign to his eyes in this place, yet the figure remained unknown.
Visions assaulted his mind. There was a man, scrawny looking. A woman - Miss Calendar. And a maid. They were talking to someone. Tempting someone. Tormenting their unknown prey.
"Most kill to feed, but you enjoyed it more than any creature that walks or crawls."
"It's the only thing you ever had a talent for."
"I only want to help you."
"Take her. Take what you want. Pour all that frustration and all that guilt into her, and you'll be free."
As the visions stopped, the figure continued to draw closer. A flash of light illuminated the pained face of Professor O'Donerty, and everything stopped.
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Harry opened his eyes slowly. Looking around, he assumed that Professor Trelawney hadn't noticed him fall asleep. He looked over at Ron and found him sniggering quietly behind his hand. The class ended, and Harry and Ron got ready to leave.
"You talk in your sleep you know." Ron told him.
"I do not!" Harry replied.
"Yes you do!" Ron maintained. "Everyone heard you! Even Trelawney!"
"What did I say?" Harry asked, slightly afraid of what might have come out.
"Well, you just mumbled something, but Trelawney says she clearly heard you say 'the Grim' - says it's an omen. She let you sleep so that you might see more of your 'imminent death.'"
Harry groaned.
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Dawn looked quizzically at Oz. "What do you mean it's not a dog? It looks like a dog!" Taking a whiff of air, she added, "and it sure smells like a dog."
Spike chuckled a bit. "Wonderful observation, Bit. But wolf-boy's right. He's got a distinctly human smell to him. But who could it be, I wonder. Who could it be?" Spike asked. His tone suggested he knew something, and the gleeful smirk on his face was saying 'I know something you don't know!'
Dawn sighed in exasperation. "Spike! What AREN'T you telling us?"
Spike's smirk grew wider. "Distinctly human smell. Distinctly human. I smell a Black. Serious."
"Yes, we know it's serious, Spike. And I believe the politically correct term is African American. Or, African-British I guess," Willow trailed off.
Spike chuckled. "No, no, no! Serious Black. This is Serious Black!"
Before everyone's eyes, the dog changed into a scruffy looking male. His smirk mirrored Spike's. His young eyes looked over the four before him, and rested on Oz.
"Nice sense of smell you go there," he said a bit suspiciously. "Not many people can tell the difference between a man and a dog. Or a wolf," he added as an afterthought.
Willow stepped between the two. "Back off," she said in warning. "We'll be the ones asking the questions."
"You're the one everyone's so worried about," Serious said cryptically.
Willow eyed him with a confused expression. "What are you talking about?"
"You would do well to learn to hide your power. You absolutely reek of it. And the trained wizards will know something's off. Not exactly the students, but the professors will know something's not right. On the outside, your magic comes from Gaia, with all the roots, and the earth, everything that's connected. But just a little deeper, there's dark. Deep, deep black that's trying its hardest to make its way to your heart and swallow it whole. And your heart doesn't completely reject it. Part of it welcomes the dark, with a sense of familiarity that only gets there if it's been swallowed before."
Willow looked on in horror as Sirius Black changed back to a dog, but he didn't stop there. His shape changed to a wolf, menacing and ready to attack. The wolf twisted and contorted into a dementor. Willow felt her heart tearing out of her chest as her mind revisited the very worst times in her life. Again, Willow watched Oz leave her. Again, Willow saw Buffy die in Glory's swirling vortex, and felt her cold, lifeless body. Again, Willow felt Tara dying in her arms. Again, Willow felt herself alone as the darkness swallowed her whole.
The images stopped, and before Willow was a figure so dark she barely dared to breathe what she knew was his name.
"Voldemort."
"Very good my dear," came the mocking hiss. "I can see the darkness in you. It calls out to me, as does a lighthouse to passing ships. I will have you, and I will control your darkness. You will be mine, and I will rule!"
Willow fell into darkness as the figure of Voldemort dissolved in a whiff of darkness. And there was no more.
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Oz quickly caught Willow as she fell. No sooner had he said the thick mass of fur wasn't a dog before she fainted. Looking over at Spike, he gently laid his girlfriend on the grass.
"Alright, whoever you are," Oz said menacingly to the dog "you had better not be responsible for that."
"He wasn't," Spike assured Oz. "No, whatever caused Red to faint is the same thing that cleared out the town. And I don't like it. Come on, bring the dog. Lets go Bit. I don't like this town one bit, and I'm not staying here any longer."
"Good idea," Dawn replied, glancing around her. "There's someone else here. I can feel it. And it's evil. Really, really evil."
The group continued out of Hogsmede, Oz carrying Willow, and Spike keeping a hold of the dog. As soon as they had safely passed the borders of the town, the group paused. Oz carefully laid Willow on the ground as she stirred. Slowly opening her eyes, Willow took in the surrounding faces with relief.
"I had, the worst dream of my life, well, besides the ones when the world is swallowed by the Hellmouth, but they don't count," Willow would have continued her babble-fest, if she hadn't spied the dog. In fact, she even felt the dog, who was nuzzling her arm.
Jumping up quickly, she pointed at the dog accusingly. "You're Sirius Black!"
As Spike, Dawn and Oz turned to regard the dog, they gasped. There was no dog, only a man. His hair unkempt, and his face unshaved, Sirius Blak was a rugged figure.
"And you're starving!" Willow finished, seeing the man for what he really was. "Look at you! Have you even eaten in months?!"
Sirius looked surprised at the redheads outburst. "Well... I... no... but... you see..."
"Don't worry, she's always like that," Dawn assured him. "Nobody from Sunndydale is normal."
"You don't think I'm... evil?" Sirius asked, slightly surprised. Even if they didn't know him, after the girl fainted, he would have expected them to be a bit more cautious.
"We're from the Hellmouth," Spike told him. "We know evil when we see it."
Sirius sighed. "Well then, I suppose I can tell you that I'm Harry's godfather. Sirius Black, nice to meet you all."
"Oz"
"Dawn"
"Willow"
"Spike"
"Willow Rosenberg?" Sirius asked, surprised.
"How do you know?" Willow asked, slightly wary of the stranger.
"I've been waiting for you."
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ok, that's it. It took me that long, and it sucks ass... but now that I've got this chapter out of the way, I can work on more important chapters... so there ya go...
Reviews welcome and encouraged!