Trinity Last, Slayer, this is for you two!! i luv you both BUNCHES!!
newho, to answer a few reviews...
fairysk8r - that was willow's dream... actually, in all honesty, it was originally not a dream, but wen Sirius gave that long spew about the darkness in willow, i went with the flow of my writing, and a dream resulted. I decided to leave the other, real-like stuff so that it wasn't an obvious dream. I wanted people to be like "what?!! she was in a dream!! What is this chick SMOKING?!!" or something to that effect - ya know?? Newho, it WAS a dream...
Alien - I'm gunna have a minor confrontation between Buffy and Snape, juss cause he pisses me off, and i want the snot beaten out of him... of course, he's really only going to get threatened... but the thought of Snape scared shitless REALLY amuses me!!
**!!!!IMPORTANT!!!!**
By the by everyone - I've been dealing with some shit lately, along the lines of "friends" and its really depressing down here (or most likely "up here" to all u ppl) and that really affects me so my writing will do one of two things.
a) it will drastically slow in the updating department
or
b) it will take on a very depressed attitude
i really have no idea which...
*whoever said friends are forever should be shot for false advertising*
FIC STARTS HERE!!
^*^
Buffy looked up sharply as the door to Extra Credit Muggle Defence burst open. Spike was in the doorway, followed by Willow, Dawn, Oz, and a shaggy black dog.
"We got trouble, luv" were the only words Spike said before Angel dismissed the class.
"Potter - stay - this concerns you."
Harry stopped and came back to the professors. Hermione and Ron followed closely behind, recognizing the dog behind Oz.
"You two can leave," Oz told them. "It doesn't exactly concern you."
"If Harry stays, then so do we," Hermione replied firmly.
Buffy sighed in frustration "Whatever! Guys, watch what you say," she told the others firmly. "What's going on that's so important you needed to pull me out of class for?"
"This dog here has quite an interesting tale. Giles wants to see us all in his office."
"Well then, lets go see Giles."
^*^
"What do you mean it's not the right translation?!!" Buffy screamed in frustration.
"Giles translated it himself!" Dawn cut in.
"So it can't be wrong!" finished Xander.
"Do they all share a brain?" Hermione asked Harry.
"I'm still trying to disprove that theory. So far, i have no evidence."
Ron chuckled quietly, and Angel turned to glare. "Remember, i can still hear you guys. And this is serious. By the way, don't look into their brains, you'll go insane."
Hermione giggled as Angel was attacked by the Scooby gang.
"Children PLEASE!" came the voice of Giles. "This is serious! If I've mistranslated something, it could have dire consequences."
"Alright, Black, say your piece," Willow told him sternly.
Black looked around the room. "Well, I've been all around lately, and I recently stumbled upon a coven that taught wiccan magic - run by a certain Miss Hartness, I believe you've met her before?" Willows eyes widened with recognition as she nodded for serious to continue. "Well, it turns out she's felt Voldemort's presence as well. One of her girls, a very powerful seer, used to work for Voldemort, and the coven was her only escape - Voldemort thinks she's dead. Anyways, she told of a prophecy that she herself made, by looking into the stars the night before Voldemort really started his havoc. She wrote it down, of course, and that's how it's wormed its way into the book you found it in."
"What's the catch?" Anya asked. "Cause it seems pretty straightforward to me."
"Well, Voldemort and his seers developed a sort of code so that noone else would know what they had found. It was VERY close to Latin, used all the same words so as to confuse others, but some of the words are different. You need someone who know's the code to decipher the prophecy properly. Unfortunately, the girl didn't remember much. To ensure security, all Voldemort's seers had a spell placed on them so that they'd forget anything after they wrote it down for him. That and, the book you were using didn't have the full version. The only one in existence is in the book Voldemort stored all his prophecies in. It was at the coven before, but they allowed me to bring it here."
"But then, why didn't they translate it there?"
"Because, there are very powerful spells binding that book. It was made for only one person to open. Before getting rid of it, Voldemort placed a spell on it so that only a prophesied witch could open it. The legends say she's a very dark witch, and Voldemort hoped to gain her allegiance by giving her the book"
"Who?" asked Oz quickly and sharply.
"Well, that's the difficult part. It's a riddle."
"Oh perfect!" exclaimed Anya. "Now we have to figure out a riddle, to open a book, which has another riddle inside!"
"Anya, calm down," Xander put in. "Let's just hear the riddle."
Sirius took a breath as he started to rhyme.
"My name is two words
both that many will seek
but only the brave will
find my true identity.
My first is in castle and cooking and tact
My second in rhythm and rhyme and abstract
My third is a question asked often by youth
My fourth is a pronoun most used by the couth
My fifth is the second of in, and, and on
My sixth is the of first of gabbroic and gone
My seventh is fifth in "remotely used words"
My eighth is the third that is just "for the birds"
My ninth and my tenth are but one and the same
The beginning of end and the end of the game!
My name is a puzzle that you need to know
change the words and my true identity will show!"
"This could take us forever to figure out!" Ron cried.
"Well then," Hermione said quietly, "we had better start working."
^*^
Hours later, no one was any closer to figuring out what the riddle meant. Not used to all night study sessions, Hermione, Ron, and Harry had fallen asleep. Buffy had moved them all from the tables over to the couches in the office. Dawn was falling asleep in Spikes arms, and even Buffy's head kept tilting onto Angel's shoulder. The room was silent as everyone thought about what the riddle could mean.
In an attempt to figure it out her own way, Willow began to write the verses down in a spiral notebook she found in on of the drawers of Giles' desk. After reaching the eighth line, her eyes widened. She quickly scribbled down the rest of the verse to test her theory. It just might work.
"GUYS I'VE GOT IT!" she screamed excitedly.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were jerked back to the waking world by her scream. They were so startled by the sudden wake that they all fell off the couch into a heap on the floor.
"What do you got, Will?" Xander asked drowsily.
"Well, we've been so preoccupied trying to figure out the meanings of these verses, we forgot to check the obvious!"
"Care to elaborate?"
"Well, take the fifth line, for example. "my first is in castle and cooking and tact" stop thinking about what's in a castle, like kings and thrones, and start thinking about what's in castle, like c, a, s, t, l, and e! Now, which of these letters is in all three words?"
"C!" came the response from Dawn
"Exactly! We've been looking too hard! If you follow that pattern for the whole thing, it works for all but the seventh and eighth lines!"
"So if we don't worry about those two, we have..." Harry started.
"C, R, something, something, N, G, T, R, E, E" Hermione finished.
"So, if we follow the way it's written, we have something, tree." Ron deduced.
"But what could the other lines possibly mean?" Anya asked noone in particular.
"Well, what does it mean by "youth?" Angel wondered. "Does it mean teenagers? Or younger? Like, toddlers?"
"Well, either way, what's a question they ask a lot?" Dawn wondered.
"Can I borrow some money?" Buffy offered.
"Buffy, this is no laughing matter!" Giles scolded.
"Well why not?! It should be!"
"Why!" Oz cried in triumph.
"Because it deals with serious dark magics!" Sirius told him sternly.
"No, I mean "why" is the answer, it's a question a lot of little kids ask. Plus, it's a letter!"
"Oz you're amazing!" Willow gushed.
"But now we need the last letter," Harry said.
"No, Harry, what you and me need is some sleep!" Ron whined.
"You and I, Ron!"
"Whatever Hermione."
"HERMIONE!!! YOU'RE A GENIUS!!" Harry cried. "I! Most people say "me" but anyone who's proper will say I! A pronoun that's used by the couth!"
"That's it then," Anya said. "Crying tree."
"But that puts us at another dead end! Where will we find a crying tree?!" Xander moaned.
"No, it said to change the words." Sirius told Xander matter-of-factly.
"Ok then, how do we do that?"
"Well, think of some synonyms for 'crying,'" Hermione suggested. "Like, sobbing, bawling, blubbering, weeping, sniffling-"
"Wait, what was that last one?" Dawn asked.
"Sniff-"
"No before that," Buffy said, catching on.
"Weeping?"
"EUREKA!!!" Anya cried, figuring it out.
"Weeping? What does that have to do with anything?" Ron asked.
"Think of a tree, and think of weeping." Giles instructed the boy.
Willow caught on and shook her head. "No way! There is no way! I mean, there could be others out there who fit that, right?"
"Willow," Giles sighed. "I afraid none of the others that might fit the bill are half as powerful as-"
"But they could be. I mean, come on, we really don't have any idea how powerful-"
"We'll never know unless we give it a shot," Dawn said.
"Do I have to?" Willow asked meekly.
"Yes. Once that's done, we can work on the rest."
"So then how do we figure out what it means?" Anya asked, trying to change the subject.
"I - I think i can translate it," Willow said tentatively.
"That's what they told me," Sirius revealed. "Said they taught you the code while you were 'healing.'"
"Yea, they did. Giles, give me the book."
Giles handed Willow the book cautiously. "Willow, right now you're our best hope of figuring this out. I don't want to involve Miss Hartness in this. Her girls are in enough danger from harbouring one of Voldemort's runaways."
"Giles! You know how bad I do when I'm under pressure!" Willow whined.
"Come on Will, you can do it!" Dawn told her encouragingly.
"We have faith in you, Red," Spike put in.
"Alright then." Willow sighed as she opened the book. Peering over the musty pages, her eyes narrowed into a concentrated look. Her eyes darted over the words, taking it all in, and trying to remember everything she had been told about Voldemort's secret code. Some of the words came quickly into her mind, while others she had to search her memory for. After only ten minutes, an English prophecy was laid out before the group.
^*^
well, thas where im ending it, cause... well, to be frank with you, i need to figure out how to word the damn prophecy!! ARG!!! i hate writing those bitches!! Oh well, I'll figure it out one day during french... cya!!
¤~*Aredhel*~¤