Chapter 5 - Diagon Alley
Harry followed the group around, feeling dejected at the lack of Sirius. He had hoped that he would be able to spend some time with him, catching up on what had happened since he had died. Apparently the rest of the group weren't feeling the same way, Dawn and Willow were talking to Ginny and Ron about magic, the scoobies asking a lot of questions. Giles was talking with Mrs Weasley, telling her about how the destruction of the watchers council meant that he and Buffy were now paid for the work they had done, and could pay the other slayers, and Xander was telling Hermione and Lupin about the time he had fought zombies. Harry sighed unhappily.
"Harry!" he heard a voice call behind him, "Harry!" Harry turned around and saw Sirius and Buffy waving wildly at them. They wandered over to the group, and Harry broke into a huge grin.
"How are you getting along?" Sirius asked.
"We've got wands!" Dawn said excitedly, "All of us! Even Giles!"
"Nifty," Buffy said, "That's just where we're headed now."
"Remus, we need to get some supplies for our class," Sirius said, " How about you me and Buffy, and Harry if you want to come, sort that out and we can meet you later in the Leaky Cauldron." The group agreed.
"You're teaching at Hogwarts?" Harry said, "That's great! Defence Against the Dark Arts right? With Professor Lupin?"
"Yeah," said Sirius glancing at Remus, "I hope you don't mind."
"Not at all, Padfoot," Lupin said, clapping Sirius on the shoulder.
"What's with the Padfoot?" Asked Buffy, "Have you got big feet or something?" At this, Sirius promptly turned into a large black dog. Buffy laughed and patted it on the head. Sirius turned back into his human form.
"Wow, neat trick" Buffy exclaimed, "Can you do that too?" she asked Lupin.
"No unfortunately, my animal transformations are involuntary," he replied, somewhat cautiously, "I happen to be a werewolf."
"Oh, cool, just like Oz," Buffy said cheerfully, "Willows ex, he was a werewolf too." Lupin relaxed noticeably.
They arrived outside Ollivanders, and they entered the shop. A grey haired man appeared beside them and looked at them carefully in turn.
"Mr Potter, I remember, your wand was phoenix feather, yes…Mr Lupin, werewolf tail hair, very rare, and Mr Black, why I'd heard you were dead. Never can believe what you read in the paper I suppose," he said mistily.
"Well I was dead," Sirius broke in loudly, making Buffy stifle a giggle, "But I'm not anymore."
"Yes.. Well" Mr Ollivander said vaguely. He turned his attention to Buffy.
"Miss Summers, I just took care of your friends, yes, your sister, 8 inches, yew and the hair of a monk, very strange wand….and Miss Rosenburg, 10 inches, maple and phoenix feather, powerful wand, very powerful indeed…. and of course Mr Harris, eleven inches, holly and dragon heartstring."
He nodded thoughtfully, then came back to his senses. He took out his tape measure and began to measure Buffy, her arm, her leg, until the tape measure began to do it by itself. Mr Ollivander went to the shelves and began to pull out a variety of boxes. He handed a wand to Buffy.
"Holly, and unicorn tail hair, quite unusual," Buffy raised the wand, but Mr Ollivander plucked it out of her hands and gave her another.
"Oak and veela hair, quite unusual," Buffy lifted the wand again, but it was again removed from her by Mr Ollivander.
"Hmm now lets try this, yew and the hair off the head of a slayer, a very powerful one if I'm not mistaken." Buffy took the wand, feeling that at last this was right. She took the wand, and warmth rushed through her hand, and as she raised it purple sparks flew out of the end.
Harry, Sirius and Lupin cheered. Mr Ollivander muttered to himself but they chose to ignore him, and Buffy paid for her wand with the money she had changed up at Gringotts, and they left the shop.
Buffy followed Remus and Sirius, who had begun to discuss lesson plans. Buffy fell into step with Harry.
"So, Sirius tells me you're a celebrity in the Wizarding world, you even got your own prophecy," Buffy said to Harry.
"Yeah, aren't I lucky?" he said sarcastically, then laughed, "Its difficult, because no one quite understands what it mean, the fact that I'm going to be a killer or be killed, I have no choice in the matter."
"Actually," Buffy said, "I can understand. There was a prophecy made about me, that I would die at the hands of the Master, a really major vampire, but I'm still here. Maybe you do have some control in your destiny, try not to worry about it too much." Harry grinned at her, feeling that the addition of the scoobies at Hogwarts would be a positive thing.
They went to Madame Malkins where Buffy was fitted for some robes, to be made in a variety of colours ranging from beige to midnight black at her request. She just smiled and said:
"I want to look my best," when Sirius began teasing her good-naturedly about the amount of robes she had.
They also went to Flourish and Blotts where Remus and Sirius picked up a huge pile of books for their classes, giving Buffy a large pile to carry, claiming that her slayer strength needed to be put to good use. They then headed back to the Leaky Cauldron where they met the others.
Buffy, Dawn and Willow entered a discussion about robes. Willow had bought hers in earth tones, such as green and brown, whereas Dawn was forced to buy mainly plain black since she would be attending some classes as a proper student. She had managed to get some in dark blue and green as well.
Harry sat down next to Sirius and ordered a butter beer.
"How are you feeling?" he asked concernedly.
"I'm fine," Sirius said, "Its getting better, and I'm glad to be back. Thanks again Harry, I owe you a lot." He clapped his hand on Harry's shoulder, and Harry nodded grinning at him.
"So, what do you think of our new friends?" he asked.
"Well I don't know any of them yet, except for Buffy, but she seems very nice," he said, glancing at her. Harry chuckled, Lupin had always said that Sirius was a ladies man. And from the way Buffy kept glancing at Sirius, it appeared he hadn't lost his touch. Harry quickly introduced the rest of the group to Sirius:
"This is Giles, he's Buffy's watcher, this is Xander he's Buffy's best friend, as is Willow, who is also a very powerful Wicca. And this is Dawn, Buffy's sister, and former key of the Gods." Sirius shook hands with each of them in turn.
"Buffy said you can turn yourself into a dog," Dawn blurted out, "That's so cool!" Sirius grinned at her and quickly transformed into his dog form, and then back again.
"Oooh I had a tingle moment!" Willow said, "That was way cool!"
"Erm, thanks, I think" Sirius said.
"Don't worry, its our Americanisms," Xander said, "Plus our scoobyisms."
The group left the Leaky Cauldron after they had all finished their drinks and they headed for the outside world, having decided to walk back to Grimmauld Place. They arrived back to find Moody, Tonks and Mr Weasley home from work looking exhausted.
"It almost makes you wish Fudge was still in denial," Mr Weasley said tiredly, "But things have got even worse, with the latest breakouts from Azkaban."
"Azkaban?" Harry asked quickly, "You mean Lucius Malfoy and his friends?"
"I'm afraid so," said Tonks, "The Dementors have revolted, and almost all the prisoners are out." Harry thought for a moment that his Occlumency must have been going well, since he hadn't felt anything from Voldemort in ages.
Dinner that night was a noisy affair, since Buffy, Willow, Xander, Dawn, Lupin and Sirius would be leaving for Hogwarts the following day, two days before the students. Harry went to bed that night, felling much happier about things than he had for ages, Sirius was back, and from the way he had laughed at dinner, was on the road to recovery. With this he promptly fell asleep.