CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: THE NEWS

Sirius, Snape, Giles, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Harry, Draco, Ron and Hermione stood on the front lawn of Hogwarts, the nine of them forming a circle as thy listened to Sirius' tale. 

"Well, we didn't believe that she would be being kept at Azkaban," Dumbledore said.  "Perhaps somewhere within the Ministry."

"Wherever she's being kept, I'm fairly certain that there's at least one Dementor with her," Sirius said.  "I heard the main guards talking about Fudge requisitioning a personal bodyguard of a Dementor for some reason.  I'd bet on Snape's life that it was for Buffy."

Snape glared at Sirius, but refused to rise to the bait. 

"Aren't there any people at the Ministry who'd be able to find out for sure?" Harry asked.

"What about my dad?" Ron suggested.

Dumbledore nodded.  "I've already been in contact with several Ministry members.  I'm expecting a reply within the hour."

Harry sighed and ran a hand through his hair.  He didn't want to wait for that long.  An hour seemed like far too much time to spend waiting to hear what the Minister of Magic had done to his girlfriend.

He opened his mouth to complain, but was stopped when he heard the hooting of an owl making its descent towards the group.  He sighed with relief and watched as the bird dropped a letter into Dumbledore's waiting hands.  The Headmaster read the note, oblivious to the anxious stares of the eight other members of the circle. 

Dumbledore's eyes narrowed and he looked up at the group.

"It seems that Miss Summers is no longer in need of rescuing," he said, a smile curling onto his lips.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco quickly burst into a round of questions.

"What?"  "Why not?"  "She escaped?"  "Brilliant!"  "But how?"  "Where is she?"

Dumbledore held up his hand.

"She is no longer on Ministry grounds.  I can only guess that she apparated," Dumbledore explained.

The Headmaster had been about to suggest to the four students that they should go and check the Gryffindor Tower, but before he could even begin his suggestion, the four students were already racing back up the stairs and into the school grounds.

When they reached the top of the marble stairs in the Entrance Hall they split into two groups.  Ron and Hermione raced towards the Gryffindor Tower while Draco and Harry continued up the stairs towards the seventh floor.  Harry quickly paced the length of the floor three times and prayed to find what he wanted inside the Room of Requirement.  The door shimmered into existence, and he and Draco burst into the room.

Draco left out a soft whistle at the sight in front of him.  It was Harry and Buffy's private room that they'd constructed the first evening they'd found the room.  But there was no sign of Buffy whatsoever.  Harry slammed his hand against the wall, punching a hole through the drywall.  He swore violently and tore his fist away from the hole.  Draco watched in amazement as the hole fixed itself within seconds.

"Maybe Weasley and Granger have had better luck," Draco said.

Harry could only nod and take a deep breath.  The two boys quickly ran towards the Gryffindor Tower, but were met by Ron and Hermione halfway there.

"Did you find her?" Harry asked at the same time as Hermione.

As they realised their twin questions, they knew that they had their answer.

"She's not here," Harry said sadly.

"Maybe there's somewhere else she would have gone," Draco suggested.

"The Quidditch Pitch maybe," Harry replied, shaking his head even as he suggested it.  "The library.  Maybe the hospital wing if she was really hurt.  But she hates hospitals so, that's a bit of a long shot.  But then again-"

"Harry, you're babbling," Hermione said.

Harry closed his mouth and blinked back tears.

The four teens despondently made their way back down the stairs, surprised to see the four Professors and Sirius still outside on the front lawn in a smaller circle.  They walked out to them, and watched as Giles' face fell in disappointment when the DADA Professor realised that Buffy wasn't with them.

"No luck I take it," Sirius observed.

Harry shook his head.

"She's not up in the Gryffindor Tower, she's not in our room, and we have no idea where else she would have gone," Harry replied.

"Perhaps she didn't come back to Hogwarts," McGonagall suggested.  "She's aware that the Ministry is capable of finding her here, perhaps she would have gone where she felt safe."

"That's feasible," Dumbledore said.  The Headmaster turned to look at Giles.  "Could she have perhaps gone back to Sunnydale?"

Giles looked completely surprised by the question.  He hadn't given Sunnydale much thought in a while.  He knew that ever since Joyce Summers had had her memories reversed, Buffy hadn't thought of Sunnydale as home. 

"I very much doubt it," Giles replied.  "Perhaps someone should be in contact with Sara."

"Who?" Sirius asked.

"Sara Lanstone," Giles explained.  "Her mother."

Sirius cast his mind back to his Hogwarts days and found the face that he knew belonged to Sara Lanstone.  He knew that the girl had been in Slytherin, and now that he thought about it, he could definitely see the resemblance between Buffy and Sara. 

"I don't think she'd go somewhere so obvious," Hermione said.  "Especially not to someone who can't protect her."

"Couldn't we use her owl to track her," Draco suggested.  "Those birds always seem to be able to find their owners."

"Willow," Hermione said softly, thinking of the red-plumaged owl that usually resided in their room.  She suddenly looked up at the group, a smile on her face.  "That's where she is!"

"I'm fairly certain I've missed something somewhere," Sirius said in confusion.

Harry began grinning as well.  He could have kissed Hermione had he not been completely devoted to Buffy, or fairly certain that Ron would have decked him for it.

"She's at Willow's!" Harry yelled.  "Of course.  Willow's is the one place the Ministry would never think to look for her.  I doubt they even know that she exists."

Giles mouth curled into a smile, thankful that the sixth-year students were far smarter than they were ever given credit for.  His face fell suddenly when he realised something.

"Do we even have Willow's address?" Giles asked.

Harry, Hermione and Draco all shook their heads.  Ron just shrugged.  He didn't know Willow that well.  Hermione sighed. Wondering where they would be able to get Willow's address.  It wasn't as though Willow had been very close to any other Hogwarts students…

"Tara!" Hermione cried.

"Huh?" Ron asked, dumbfounded by the sudden outburst from his girlfriend.

"Tara.  Willow gave Tara her address so they could write to each other," Hermione exclaimed with excitement.

------------------------

She stood in shock staring at the blonde figure who had somehow ended up in the apartment.  She placed her can of soda on the table and crouched down beside the small girl, rolling her onto her back, checking her for injuries.  The only visible injury was a bruise to the face, and the fact that she was cold as ice.

"Oi, you may wanna get in here," she called loudly.

She waited and heard footsteps running towards the living room.  She turned back to look at the injured girl, but timed the redheads response precisely.  The dead-stop, followed by a shocked gasp, followed by a quick lunge towards the injured girl. 

"Buffy!"

She hadn't been expecting that though.

Willow knelt beside her injured friend, hastily checking Buffy's pulse, breathing a sigh of relief when she felt the strong fluttering beneath her fingers.

"Faith, help me get her on the couch," Willow instructed.

Faith nodded, not really understanding what had just happened.  She grabbed Buffy under her arms and helped Willow carry her to the couch.  Willow gently placed a cushion beneath Buffy's head and raced into the bedroom to grab a quilt from the bed.  She tucked it around Buffy, ensuring that she was completely covered.

Faith looked down at Buffy's shivering form in shock.  From all of Willow and Xander's stories about the blonde girl, Faith had been expecting to meet an invincible warrior type.  The fragile girl lying on the couch was not the person she'd secretly had to compete with during her time in Sunnydale.

"That's Buffy?" Faith asked.

Willow nodded distractedly.

"Goddess, I wonder what happened to her," Willow whispered. 

"She doesn't look too hurt," Faith offered.  She genuinely liked the redheaded Californian girl, and she didn't particularly like Willow to be worried about anything.  Seeing her so frazzled like this was making Faith a little uncomfortable.  "Just the one bruise."

"She's never just shown up like this before," Willow replied.

"Yeah, about that…how did she just show up?" Faith asked.

"She's a witch.  She uh…apparated I think it's called," Willow explained. 

"A witch…I thought she was a Slayer," Faith said in confusion.

Willow shook her head.  Trying to explain everything to Faith was distracting her from worrying too much about Buffy and she couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. 

"It was just a spell to make her as strong as a Slayer," Willow explained.  "But the bigwig magic people took her strength from her.  She's still fairly strong…I mean three years of martial arts training is bound to have some impact on her, but…she's not Slayer strong or anything."

"So…should we call someone?" Faith asked. 

Willow shook her head, frowning.  She didn't know how to get in contact with the wizarding world without Buffy contacting her first. 

"They don't have phones at the school," Willow explained.  "And without her owl, I can't send a letter there."

"An owl?" Faith repeated, sounding completely sceptical. 

Willow nodded.  Faith just shrugged, not really understanding any of what Willow had just said to her.  She supposed that it was possible.  She'd seen a lot of strange things during her time as the Slayer.  Witches with owls was completely feasible.

The silence was broken by a gentle tapping on the window sill.  Faith looked over her shoulder and her jaw dropped in shock.  She walked to the window an opened it.

"Owls, huh?" she asked as a small orangey-red bird entered the room.

"Willow!" Willow cried.

Faith looked at the redhead, wondering if she'd finally cracked.  It took her a moment to work out that Willow was addressing the bird and not just talking to herself.

Willow detached the letter from the birds leg and read through it quickly.

"What's it say?" Faith asked.

Owls delivering mail…she didn't know what the world would think of next.

Willow smiled widely.  "Giles and the others have been looking for Buffy," she explained.  "One of Buffy's friends figured out that she might have been here.  They got my address off Tara."

Willow moved to her desk to grab a pen and paper, writing her response frantically. 

"Tara?" Faith repeated.  "The Tara?  Famous Tara who you don't shut up about?"

Willow blushed fiercely and nodded.  She and Tara had exchanged over a dozen letters in the last months.  Willow still had an unopened letter from the previous day that she hadn't been able to read because of Faith's impromptu arrival in London and consequent need of a place to stay for a few days.  Willow had put the letter aside, hoping that it hadn't contained any vital information.

"He said something about Buffy needing some place safe to hide while the Ministry is looking for her," Willow explained.

"Looking for her?" Faith repeated.  "What'd she do?"

Willow shrugged.  "It doesn't say.  Just that she's innocent and that if she turns up, I'm to contact them."

Willow finished writing her letter and attached it to the owl's leg. 

"Take this back to Giles okay, Willow," the redhead said.  She always found it strange calling a bird by her name, but she understood that Buffy had meant it in the best of ways.

The owl hooted softly and flew out the window. 

"Just when I thought I'd seen everything," Faith commented.

Willow smirked and moved back to Buffy's side.  She placed a gentle hand against the small girl's forehead.  Buffy moaned as though in pain. 

"No weapons…"

Willow turned to look at Buffy, expecting her to be awake.  But Buffy's eyes were still closed, scrunched up tight as though either in deep concentration, or in pain.  Willow hoped it wasn't the latter.

"What's left?" Buffy whispered quietly.

Willow's eyebrows furrowed in confusion.  "What's left?  What's left in what?"

"Me," Buffy continued.

Faith looked at the two girls, unsure of what to do.  She'd never met Buffy before, and she didn't want to intrude on Willow trying to take care of the younger girl.  There was something so startling vulnerable about the blonde girl that Faith couldn't help but want to try and protect her.  If Buffy needed a safe place to hide, what place was safer than an apartment with a Vampire Slayer?  She took a seat on the single sofa across from the two girls and protectively watched them.

"Buffy, you're not making any sense," Willow whispered.

"No friends…"

"Buffy, you've got friends," Willow whispered, tears appearing in her eyes.  Whatever had reduced Buffy to this must have been bad.  "You have people who love you.  Me and Xand…Giles, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Drake…all of them.  You just have to wake up."

"No hope…"

Willow turned to look at Faith, desperate for some sort of answer.  Faith could only shrug, equally as hopeless.

"You know her better than me Red," Faith said gently.  "I don't know squat about the magic gig."

"Magic," Willow repeated, latching onto the word for dear life. 

"You said she was a witch," Faith said, wondering why Willow had gone into an almost trance.

Willow snapped out of her thoughts and nodded. 

"Yeah.  She is.  And…well, I do know a ritual to uh…help her snap out of it, but I'm no where near powerful enough for it.  I'd end up killing us both," Willow said.

"Well…what about that school you mentioned?  And Giles?" Faith asked.

Willow sighed and cast a concerned glance at Buffy who mumbled another phrase under breath.  "Take all that away…"

"We'll have to wait," Willow said despondently.  "But…I don't know if leaving her like this will do her any good."

"Well…is it gonna be better to wait for someone with the power to do the funky mojo, and risk being late, or risk killing you and her as well?" Faith questioned.

Willow sighed, knowing that Faith's logic was right.  "I hate it when I'm wrong," Willow said.

Faith smirked and fiddled with one of the silver rings on her hand.  Before she'd met Willow she hadn't had any real friends.  It was strange to find someone who had wanted nothing from her.  Most people either wanted her body, or they wanted her help.  Willow had been content with nothing, and that had thrown Faith off balance.  Willow wanted nothing more than friendship from her.  And for the first time in her life, Faith had found someone that she knew she could trust. 

"She'll be okay Red," Faith assured her friend.  "Everything you've ever told me about her, well…she sounds like a fighter.  No way is she gonna let a little thing like being a renegade get her down."

Willow nodded again and swallowed her tears.  Buffy was going to be fine.  She had to be.

-----

Ooo, updates.  Hurrah.  *grins* Many thanks for all your feedback, you guys seriously ROCK!
Toodles.

K.