Disclaimer: See chapter 1 for full disclaimer and notes.
Thanks to my reviewers. Review Chart.Good: 3, Evil: 0. (the reviews keep me writing.)
Sitting in Stoner Park, in the midst of parts of Sunnydale, inspires me, as it turns out, so I'll probably have at least one chapter written every weekend, if not more.
Chapter 4: The Beginning
"Um, okay, you realize that there's a wall there, right?" Dawn looked at Giles skeptically.
Giles explained to Dawn for the fourth time that she would most definitely go through the wall as long as no one other than their small group was looking at her.
Dawn sighed and tried to explain to him again that people would notice someone disappearing through a wall right in front of them. "I would," she added, as if to confirm her point.
Tara decided to finally step in and save Giles before his head exploded.
"You grew up in Sunnydale around people who somehow haven't noticed that their very small town is overrun with demons." She said, smiling a bit at Giles's thankful expression.
Dawn stopped to contemplate this for a moment, then nodded.
"We have ten minutes before the train is supposed to leave," spoke Anya from the back of the group where she had begun flipping through a copy of "Modern Bride" as soon as the lengthy debate on the awareness of passersby to disappearing tourists began.
"We should get going," said Giles, picking up his duffel bag and grabbing Dawn's backpack for her. "You two go first and Anya and I will be right behind you."
Tara and Dawn nodded, and Tara leaned against the divider between platforms nine and ten as casually as she could muster, indicating for Dawn to do the same. As soon as the younger girl's shoulder hit the wall, both girls abruptly disappeared from view. Anya waited a moment before strolling through, followed by Giles. As soon as he got to platform nine and three quarters, Giles was greeted by a sight that made him chuckle a bit to himself.
Tara and Dawn had managed to fall through the barrier, landing in a tangle on the other side, and both were struggling to get to their feet while simultaneously gaping at the large red locomotive that sat at the platform, waiting for its passengers. Tara's legs were caught in her long green skirt, which was in turn trapped under her, along with a very frustrated Dawn. Anya was trying to untangle them while keeping up the appearance that she wasn't also awestruck by the beauty of the old-fashioned train a few feet away.
"Okay, stop moving!" Anya shouted at both of the girls on the ground, after a few fruitless moments of struggling with the skirt, which had ridden up to Tara's knees.
"Easy for you to say," grumbled Dawn, "I stop moving, and lungs collapse."
"I'm not that heavy," Tara replied, frowning at the younger girl, whose face was slightly below and to her left, and getting progressively redder, with embarrassment, or possibly asphyxiation. Tara wasn't sure which.
The girls stopped moving and Anya yanked Tara's skirt out from under her, and then pulled her to her feet. Giles helped Dawn stand after Tara had been pulled off of her.
Tara looked at the group sheepishly, "Er, I guess leaning wasn't the best idea. It seemed good at the time, but then the train was so pretty and Dawn was right behind me, and then all the falling and badness. Ow." She said, rubbing her thigh where she had landed on it.
"No bother," replied Giles, "that is very much the reaction I had when I first saw it, though I was wearing pants at the time, so I was able to stand up without assistance."
Tara grinned at him, her cheeks still slightly flushed with embarrassment.
Just then, a porter stepped off the train and noticed the four new arrivals.
"Ah, you lot'd be the Hogwarts group, then," he said, and Tara nodded, though she wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement of fact since he had already begun to grab their bags before he had finished saying it.
They followed him onto the train, where he stowed their bags in an empty compartment and turned to leave.
Giles stopped him right as he got to the door. "Are we the only passengers?"
The porter shook his head. "One of the professors from the school is a few compartments down."
Giles nodded, and the man left before Tara could decide whether to tip him or not.
The small group settled in for the train ride as the large locomotive pulled slowly out of the station. Just as the train hit its top speed and began to run more smoothly, there was a knock at the compartment door. Giles reached up to open it, revealing their visitor, a tall woman wearing what Tara assumed was a traveling cloak of some sort. Dawn frowned as the woman assessed her over the top of her glasses, but then relaxed when she replaced her slight scowl with a very motherly smile.
"You must be the professor the porter spoke of," Giles finally spoke up, breaking the slightly uncomfortable silence.
"Yes, and you must be the visitor whom Albus was speaking so highly of." The visitor replied, taking the seat Tara offered her, making the compartment slightly more cramped than it should have been, causing Anya now to have the slight scowl.
"Rupert Giles," Giles said, shaking her hand briefly, "and this is Dawn Summers, Tara Maclay, and Anya Jenkins." He concluded the introduction by indicating each of them in turn.
"I am Minerva McGonagall," the woman replied, smiling a bit wider as the girls nodded their acknowledgement. "I understand you are picking up a few of Albus's trinkets to sell to some muggles in America?"
Dawn gave Tara a questioning look.
"Muggles are non-magic people. Although, I believe they do magic a bit differently here." Tara answered, looking to the professor for confirmation.
Professor McGonagall looked a bit taken aback.
"Tara is a practicing witch in America," Giles broke in, "she's a Wicca."
"Ah," replied the professor, understanding showing on her face, "a witch who uses the natural forces of the earth. Impressive. And much harder to control."
Tara frowned a bit, "yes, I know. My mother was one too. The first thing she taught me was the importance of control. And, of course, about your world."
Professor MacGonagall looked curiously at Tara for a moment before turning to Giles, "Albus tells me you have a considerable amount of power yourself, Mr. Giles."
"Please, call me Rupert. And yes, I have a bit of talent, though I am quite out of practice. I spend much of my time in my books these days."
"Yes, you are a Watcher, I believe he said. Though, I must confess, I have no idea what it is you watch."
Giles laughed, "Most people don't. I assist the current vampire slayer in training and researching, and generally improving her technique and abilities."
The professor's curiosity now fully focused on the slightly younger man sitting across from her. "The vampire slayer? Really? Well, now, that is quite interesting. You shall have to tell me all about it before you leave."
Giles nodded his confirmation.
"I'm the slayer's sister," Dawn spoke up. "I help her sometimes. Or, um, I try to. She says I'm too young. Which is so not true."
Tara, Giles, and Professor MacGonagall laughed, "yes, well, I'm sure it's in your best interest to not spend too much time around the undead." The professor told her, which made Dawn settle in for a silent sulk.
"And the last of the group, though perhaps I shouldn't ask," MacGonagall said, turning finally to Anya. "You are not a vampire, are you?"
"No no, he's watching the shop," Anya supplied, grinning obliviously and shaking MacGonagall's hand.
The professor gave Giles a questioning look.
"Ah yes, long story. I'll tell you about that too."
MacGonagall smiled, "At this rate, you'll be here until the end of the term."
"I'm just a regular ol' human. No demon here," said Anya, still smiling cheerfully, "Rupert and I own a magic shop, and his friend told him that he had some items that might be of interest to us. A lot of things for the shop, and one or two books for Rupert's private collection. Though, I don't know why we shouldn't be able to sell them too. We could probably make the most money off of the rarer things. Typical, really."
"Well, I'm sure Albus doesn't want anything harmful getting sold to muggles who have no idea of their power. Just a precaution, most likely," MacGonagall replied.
"Um," Dawn interrupted, "so what's the deal with calling people 'muggles'? I mean, just cuz Tara and Willow do magic stuff doesn't mean they're not just normal people, right?"
"Well, Ms. Summers, our world is a bit different than yours when it comes to magic."
"What, like England? Cuz Giles is British and he does the regular old magic stuff."
MacGonagall looked to Giles for the answer.
"Quite right," he told an intrigued Dawn, "but that is because I was trained by the Council and therefore I never went to wizarding school. I, and a group of my friends, taught ourselves the natural magicks because, um, well, mostly out of boredom, actually." He trailed off a bit, looking flustered.
"You're a wand waving wizard, huh?" Anya asked MacGonagall, which caused Dawn's eyebrows to shoot up to her hairline.
"Wand?!" she exclaimed as MacGonagall pulled her wand out of her black cloak and held it up for Dawn's inspection.
"Cool! I want a wand!"
Tara smiled, "you have to be a witch to have a wand, Dawnie. They're not exactly sold on every street corner."
"But imagine if they were," replied MacGonagall, causing everyone to chuckle.
Tara finally sat back comfortably. She had been giving the odd woman serious scrutiny, even going so far as to read her aura, and she was convinced that there was nothing dark about her. She was one of the good guys. It calmed Tara a great deal, as she had been warned early on that quite a few wand carrying witches turned dark, possibly more so than Wiccans. Though when Wiccans went evil, they almost never recovered, since it was so deeply imbedded into who they were and how they dealt with their emotions and the world around them. She tuned back into the conversation, laughing inwardly at Dawn's enthusiasm in cross-examining the professor about every aspect of her world.
"So everyone wears those robes? Wicked cool!"
Thanks to my reviewers. Review Chart.Good: 3, Evil: 0. (the reviews keep me writing.)
Sitting in Stoner Park, in the midst of parts of Sunnydale, inspires me, as it turns out, so I'll probably have at least one chapter written every weekend, if not more.
Chapter 4: The Beginning
"Um, okay, you realize that there's a wall there, right?" Dawn looked at Giles skeptically.
Giles explained to Dawn for the fourth time that she would most definitely go through the wall as long as no one other than their small group was looking at her.
Dawn sighed and tried to explain to him again that people would notice someone disappearing through a wall right in front of them. "I would," she added, as if to confirm her point.
Tara decided to finally step in and save Giles before his head exploded.
"You grew up in Sunnydale around people who somehow haven't noticed that their very small town is overrun with demons." She said, smiling a bit at Giles's thankful expression.
Dawn stopped to contemplate this for a moment, then nodded.
"We have ten minutes before the train is supposed to leave," spoke Anya from the back of the group where she had begun flipping through a copy of "Modern Bride" as soon as the lengthy debate on the awareness of passersby to disappearing tourists began.
"We should get going," said Giles, picking up his duffel bag and grabbing Dawn's backpack for her. "You two go first and Anya and I will be right behind you."
Tara and Dawn nodded, and Tara leaned against the divider between platforms nine and ten as casually as she could muster, indicating for Dawn to do the same. As soon as the younger girl's shoulder hit the wall, both girls abruptly disappeared from view. Anya waited a moment before strolling through, followed by Giles. As soon as he got to platform nine and three quarters, Giles was greeted by a sight that made him chuckle a bit to himself.
Tara and Dawn had managed to fall through the barrier, landing in a tangle on the other side, and both were struggling to get to their feet while simultaneously gaping at the large red locomotive that sat at the platform, waiting for its passengers. Tara's legs were caught in her long green skirt, which was in turn trapped under her, along with a very frustrated Dawn. Anya was trying to untangle them while keeping up the appearance that she wasn't also awestruck by the beauty of the old-fashioned train a few feet away.
"Okay, stop moving!" Anya shouted at both of the girls on the ground, after a few fruitless moments of struggling with the skirt, which had ridden up to Tara's knees.
"Easy for you to say," grumbled Dawn, "I stop moving, and lungs collapse."
"I'm not that heavy," Tara replied, frowning at the younger girl, whose face was slightly below and to her left, and getting progressively redder, with embarrassment, or possibly asphyxiation. Tara wasn't sure which.
The girls stopped moving and Anya yanked Tara's skirt out from under her, and then pulled her to her feet. Giles helped Dawn stand after Tara had been pulled off of her.
Tara looked at the group sheepishly, "Er, I guess leaning wasn't the best idea. It seemed good at the time, but then the train was so pretty and Dawn was right behind me, and then all the falling and badness. Ow." She said, rubbing her thigh where she had landed on it.
"No bother," replied Giles, "that is very much the reaction I had when I first saw it, though I was wearing pants at the time, so I was able to stand up without assistance."
Tara grinned at him, her cheeks still slightly flushed with embarrassment.
Just then, a porter stepped off the train and noticed the four new arrivals.
"Ah, you lot'd be the Hogwarts group, then," he said, and Tara nodded, though she wasn't sure if it was a question or a statement of fact since he had already begun to grab their bags before he had finished saying it.
They followed him onto the train, where he stowed their bags in an empty compartment and turned to leave.
Giles stopped him right as he got to the door. "Are we the only passengers?"
The porter shook his head. "One of the professors from the school is a few compartments down."
Giles nodded, and the man left before Tara could decide whether to tip him or not.
The small group settled in for the train ride as the large locomotive pulled slowly out of the station. Just as the train hit its top speed and began to run more smoothly, there was a knock at the compartment door. Giles reached up to open it, revealing their visitor, a tall woman wearing what Tara assumed was a traveling cloak of some sort. Dawn frowned as the woman assessed her over the top of her glasses, but then relaxed when she replaced her slight scowl with a very motherly smile.
"You must be the professor the porter spoke of," Giles finally spoke up, breaking the slightly uncomfortable silence.
"Yes, and you must be the visitor whom Albus was speaking so highly of." The visitor replied, taking the seat Tara offered her, making the compartment slightly more cramped than it should have been, causing Anya now to have the slight scowl.
"Rupert Giles," Giles said, shaking her hand briefly, "and this is Dawn Summers, Tara Maclay, and Anya Jenkins." He concluded the introduction by indicating each of them in turn.
"I am Minerva McGonagall," the woman replied, smiling a bit wider as the girls nodded their acknowledgement. "I understand you are picking up a few of Albus's trinkets to sell to some muggles in America?"
Dawn gave Tara a questioning look.
"Muggles are non-magic people. Although, I believe they do magic a bit differently here." Tara answered, looking to the professor for confirmation.
Professor McGonagall looked a bit taken aback.
"Tara is a practicing witch in America," Giles broke in, "she's a Wicca."
"Ah," replied the professor, understanding showing on her face, "a witch who uses the natural forces of the earth. Impressive. And much harder to control."
Tara frowned a bit, "yes, I know. My mother was one too. The first thing she taught me was the importance of control. And, of course, about your world."
Professor MacGonagall looked curiously at Tara for a moment before turning to Giles, "Albus tells me you have a considerable amount of power yourself, Mr. Giles."
"Please, call me Rupert. And yes, I have a bit of talent, though I am quite out of practice. I spend much of my time in my books these days."
"Yes, you are a Watcher, I believe he said. Though, I must confess, I have no idea what it is you watch."
Giles laughed, "Most people don't. I assist the current vampire slayer in training and researching, and generally improving her technique and abilities."
The professor's curiosity now fully focused on the slightly younger man sitting across from her. "The vampire slayer? Really? Well, now, that is quite interesting. You shall have to tell me all about it before you leave."
Giles nodded his confirmation.
"I'm the slayer's sister," Dawn spoke up. "I help her sometimes. Or, um, I try to. She says I'm too young. Which is so not true."
Tara, Giles, and Professor MacGonagall laughed, "yes, well, I'm sure it's in your best interest to not spend too much time around the undead." The professor told her, which made Dawn settle in for a silent sulk.
"And the last of the group, though perhaps I shouldn't ask," MacGonagall said, turning finally to Anya. "You are not a vampire, are you?"
"No no, he's watching the shop," Anya supplied, grinning obliviously and shaking MacGonagall's hand.
The professor gave Giles a questioning look.
"Ah yes, long story. I'll tell you about that too."
MacGonagall smiled, "At this rate, you'll be here until the end of the term."
"I'm just a regular ol' human. No demon here," said Anya, still smiling cheerfully, "Rupert and I own a magic shop, and his friend told him that he had some items that might be of interest to us. A lot of things for the shop, and one or two books for Rupert's private collection. Though, I don't know why we shouldn't be able to sell them too. We could probably make the most money off of the rarer things. Typical, really."
"Well, I'm sure Albus doesn't want anything harmful getting sold to muggles who have no idea of their power. Just a precaution, most likely," MacGonagall replied.
"Um," Dawn interrupted, "so what's the deal with calling people 'muggles'? I mean, just cuz Tara and Willow do magic stuff doesn't mean they're not just normal people, right?"
"Well, Ms. Summers, our world is a bit different than yours when it comes to magic."
"What, like England? Cuz Giles is British and he does the regular old magic stuff."
MacGonagall looked to Giles for the answer.
"Quite right," he told an intrigued Dawn, "but that is because I was trained by the Council and therefore I never went to wizarding school. I, and a group of my friends, taught ourselves the natural magicks because, um, well, mostly out of boredom, actually." He trailed off a bit, looking flustered.
"You're a wand waving wizard, huh?" Anya asked MacGonagall, which caused Dawn's eyebrows to shoot up to her hairline.
"Wand?!" she exclaimed as MacGonagall pulled her wand out of her black cloak and held it up for Dawn's inspection.
"Cool! I want a wand!"
Tara smiled, "you have to be a witch to have a wand, Dawnie. They're not exactly sold on every street corner."
"But imagine if they were," replied MacGonagall, causing everyone to chuckle.
Tara finally sat back comfortably. She had been giving the odd woman serious scrutiny, even going so far as to read her aura, and she was convinced that there was nothing dark about her. She was one of the good guys. It calmed Tara a great deal, as she had been warned early on that quite a few wand carrying witches turned dark, possibly more so than Wiccans. Though when Wiccans went evil, they almost never recovered, since it was so deeply imbedded into who they were and how they dealt with their emotions and the world around them. She tuned back into the conversation, laughing inwardly at Dawn's enthusiasm in cross-examining the professor about every aspect of her world.
"So everyone wears those robes? Wicked cool!"
