***
Chapter Three: Is this home?
See chapter one for disclaimers and notes.
***
"What I'd give to return
To the life that I knew lately
But I know that I can't
All my problems going back
Is this home?
Am I here for a day or forever?…
Oh, but then
As my life has been altered once
It can change again"
~Beauty and the Beast
***
The plane ride was much longer this time around. Dawn sat next to me and chattered on and on about how she'd always wanted to see England. Ever since she met Spike and then me. I was pretending I wasn't scared out of my mind. I tried thinking about how Spike was faring down below. He was packed in a large crate labeled fragile. I didn't know which to laugh at first; the fragile label or the fact that he was in my old school trunk.
Giles had found a house for us in a small town on the edge of the forest and as we pulled into the drive, I watched Dawn's mouth falling open. "This place is huge! It's gotta be what? Six? Seven bedrooms?"
"Eight," Giles muttered. He seemed almost embarrassed. "I know it's a bit excusive but it's secluded from the town and very near the forest. From what I can figure, the actual Hellmouth is just to the north a bit."
"Swell," said Xander. "It'll be just like high school only without the homework and such."
I have to say, the house wasn't nearly as big as the Manor. I wondered briefly what every one would have to say about my former home as I took in the ancient looking house. It was built of tan stone with sweeping grounds that looked like they needed more than a little work. In fact, the whole place was falling apart from what I could see.
"Do you think the inside's as bad as the outside?" Dawn asked me.
"I don't know."
"Well, you can do the mojo thing and fix it u can't you?"
I hadn't really thought about it but now I was beginning to wonder. "I don't know," I admitted. "Technically, I'm still and under aged wizard and now that we're not half way around the world, I don't want to chance it until I'm of age."
Dawn nodded. "Come on. :Let's go claim our rooms."
The inside was a bit better. I took a room in the attic. I suspected that at one point it had been part of the servants' quarters but I liked it. It was small and I could climb out the window onto a bit of flat rooftop that had been converted into a kind of balcony. The rails sagged but I figured that between me and Xander, we could fix it up in no time.
Dawn chose a room just below me because her sister refused to let us share a floor. "It's not that I don't trust you," she told us. "I just don't know if I trust you both." I ended up having the whole top floor to myself which suited me fine. It reminded me of my apartment over the magic shop at home. Spike was living in the basement.
We drifted into the kitchen not long after we got there. "So," Willow said. "What now? I need to get some things from town."
"We need food."
"I want to go exploring the forest," Buffy said. "Spike and I should do a patrol just around here tonight."
"I'm game," said the Vampire.
"Can Draco and I go out and see what's here before it gets dark?"
"You can go," I told her. "I'm tired."
She humphed at me.
"I agree with Draco," Tara said. "I didn't get any sleep on the plane."
"Ok," Buffy said: The leader, as always. "Dawn, you can go out if you take some one with you and get back before dark. That gives you about an hour. Willow and Giles can go into town. If you guys need anything, write it down. The rest of you are welcome to come patrolling tonight. It should be slow anyways." And that was the end of that. We all drifted off and I climbed up to my new room.
I lay down on the antique mattress and lay in the growing dark. My mind was too full of my life before and how very close it was. Just on the other side of all those trees. I wondered how deep the forest was before you came to Hogwarts and how far north or south of us it was. I thought about how I still would have been in school there whereas now, I was done with high school in my new life.
And that was another thing. Me. I'd changed so much. I wasn't even sure that I could go back. I was just too different. I hardly looked the same and I'd grown up in a way that most people never do. Death was such a constant part of our lives that… I felt almost as if I have lived two very separate lives. In the first, I was my father's heir: Draco Hayden Lucius Malfoy, Harry Potter's enemy. But now? Now I was my own person. I stood with people instead of behind or against them. I was just Draco.
I wondered what they all thought had happened to me. I knew that there must have been some search attempts but they had obviously failed. I was still here after all and not with them. But what did they say about me? Was I dead to them? I hoped I was. It was easier that way.
In the morning, the sunlight cut across the room in such a way that for a moment I could have sworn that it had wiped any and all color from the world. I squinted at the clock and groaned. It was five in the morning. I could hear people moving below me and I stumbled out of the bed where I promptly fell on my face. Graceful, I told myself. Very slick.
As soon I walked into the kitchen, Dawn began to giggle. "Have a nice fall?"
I glared at her but didn't respond.
"We should have a meeting, Willow said as she breezed into the room. "We got a lot done last night."
"Where's Anya and Xander?"
"Still sleeping."
"Do you honestly think that those two are asleep?"
"After yesterday? Yes. I do."
It took them a while, but by six, everyone was fed, clothed, and sitting around the living room. Well, I suppose at one time it had been a parlor but now it held only one dusty couch and we had to sit on the floor as the dusty wafted over us from the rugs all around us.
"So," Buffy began. "Spike and I found a few vamps last night. It felt like Sunnydale back in high school. We dusted about seven or eight. And we didn't even go that far."
"Tara and me went towards town. There's a couple'a houses along the road but only one of them looked like people were living there. Could be some nests in the empty ones."
"There are a few shops in town we should look at today. There's a furniture store that looked reasonable. They all seemed very interested in what we were doing here. The If any one asks, Buffy and Dawn's grandmother died leaving them this place. It's called Birchwood House by the way."
The conference broke up soon after that and we all began to get dressed. I pulled on a pair of faded jeans from a few years ago and an old Linkin Park t-shirt. I felt very under dressed for England. I was just lad it was still warm enough to not need a jacket.
We went into town which seemed to me, to be just like Hogsmead only without the magical element to it There were a few pubs and general shops. The furniture store that Giles had mentioned seemed to be entirely to big and out of place here among the tiny shops filed to bursting with antiques.
We each were given a budget by Giles and told to pick something out for ourselves. I, having decided that I rather liked the bed I had now, bought a new mattress and pillows. I got a new dresser as well but only because my room didn't seem to have one.
The man who helped us with our purchases seemed very keen on finding out more about us. Who we were, where we came from, did he know Dawn's relatives? No? What a shame. I'm sure the gossip mongers down at the pub hadn't had such an interesting evening out in quite a while.
***
It didn't take long before we had all settled into a comfortable pattern at Birchwood House. We slept in in the mornings before we got up and some one would cook breakfast. We rotated the fixing of meals. The afternoons were spent researching and fixing up the house and in the evenings, we all went out on patrol. Not in a group, mind you, but as smaller groups. I normally ended up with Spike. We were a good team and it felt good to have some one to talk to who wasn't a girl.. Or Xander. There were times when I really didn't get that guy.
It was one such night when Spike and I were out patrolling the forest just to the south of the house. Buffy, Dawn, and Xander were sweeping the north while Willow, Tara, and Giles had opted to stay home and do a bit more research on the mythical and magical history of the area. We hadn't turned up much so far.
"Come on," Spike said.
"Where are we going?"
"We never did check out those empty houses and I'm kinda bored with this. We haven't seen a vamp all night."
"Or we could not. I'm not in the mood to take on a nest with just us. Backup would be nice."
Spike shrugged. "Tomorrow then. And we'll take the slayer if it'll make the little wizard feel better."
"Shut up."
"Shhh…" Spike coked his head to one side. "You hear that?"
"No," I said. "What was it?"
"Come on," he said motioning for me to follow him. "I think out night might have just gotten a bit more interesting. Got any weapons on you?"
I had a crossbow and a knife. "Sure," I said. "You?"
He smirked. "Sword."
"Show off."
We made our way deeper into the forest. I strained my ears to hear what it was that the vampire had heard but I didn't seem to be gifted like that. The wood grew darker around us and memories of my first year at Hogwarts filtered unbidden into my head. Potter and that damned dog and that THING sucking the unicorn. I hoped that none of those memories would be revisited in real life any time soon.
POP.
It was very faint and I almost missed it. No, there it was again. Like some one making popcorn not far away. I would know that sound anywhere. Apperation. Spike smiled. "Recon it's anything we can fight?"
"No," I told him flatly. "I think it's wizards. We'll be dead before you can draw the sword."
"We'll just watch then."
We hunched low to the ground and found a fallen tree which would do well to hide us. We could hear everything in stark clarity but in the dark, all I could see were dim shapes. I hoped that the vampire could see more.
"You're late," I heard a cold voice say. "Do you have the girl?"
The reply didn't come from any Death Eater I'd ever heard before. In fact, the owner of the voice shocked me so badly that I almost missed what was said: "Yes, my Lord. I was… inescapably detained but I've got her now."
tbc....?
Chapter Three: Is this home?
See chapter one for disclaimers and notes.
***
"What I'd give to return
To the life that I knew lately
But I know that I can't
All my problems going back
Is this home?
Am I here for a day or forever?…
Oh, but then
As my life has been altered once
It can change again"
~Beauty and the Beast
***
The plane ride was much longer this time around. Dawn sat next to me and chattered on and on about how she'd always wanted to see England. Ever since she met Spike and then me. I was pretending I wasn't scared out of my mind. I tried thinking about how Spike was faring down below. He was packed in a large crate labeled fragile. I didn't know which to laugh at first; the fragile label or the fact that he was in my old school trunk.
Giles had found a house for us in a small town on the edge of the forest and as we pulled into the drive, I watched Dawn's mouth falling open. "This place is huge! It's gotta be what? Six? Seven bedrooms?"
"Eight," Giles muttered. He seemed almost embarrassed. "I know it's a bit excusive but it's secluded from the town and very near the forest. From what I can figure, the actual Hellmouth is just to the north a bit."
"Swell," said Xander. "It'll be just like high school only without the homework and such."
I have to say, the house wasn't nearly as big as the Manor. I wondered briefly what every one would have to say about my former home as I took in the ancient looking house. It was built of tan stone with sweeping grounds that looked like they needed more than a little work. In fact, the whole place was falling apart from what I could see.
"Do you think the inside's as bad as the outside?" Dawn asked me.
"I don't know."
"Well, you can do the mojo thing and fix it u can't you?"
I hadn't really thought about it but now I was beginning to wonder. "I don't know," I admitted. "Technically, I'm still and under aged wizard and now that we're not half way around the world, I don't want to chance it until I'm of age."
Dawn nodded. "Come on. :Let's go claim our rooms."
The inside was a bit better. I took a room in the attic. I suspected that at one point it had been part of the servants' quarters but I liked it. It was small and I could climb out the window onto a bit of flat rooftop that had been converted into a kind of balcony. The rails sagged but I figured that between me and Xander, we could fix it up in no time.
Dawn chose a room just below me because her sister refused to let us share a floor. "It's not that I don't trust you," she told us. "I just don't know if I trust you both." I ended up having the whole top floor to myself which suited me fine. It reminded me of my apartment over the magic shop at home. Spike was living in the basement.
We drifted into the kitchen not long after we got there. "So," Willow said. "What now? I need to get some things from town."
"We need food."
"I want to go exploring the forest," Buffy said. "Spike and I should do a patrol just around here tonight."
"I'm game," said the Vampire.
"Can Draco and I go out and see what's here before it gets dark?"
"You can go," I told her. "I'm tired."
She humphed at me.
"I agree with Draco," Tara said. "I didn't get any sleep on the plane."
"Ok," Buffy said: The leader, as always. "Dawn, you can go out if you take some one with you and get back before dark. That gives you about an hour. Willow and Giles can go into town. If you guys need anything, write it down. The rest of you are welcome to come patrolling tonight. It should be slow anyways." And that was the end of that. We all drifted off and I climbed up to my new room.
I lay down on the antique mattress and lay in the growing dark. My mind was too full of my life before and how very close it was. Just on the other side of all those trees. I wondered how deep the forest was before you came to Hogwarts and how far north or south of us it was. I thought about how I still would have been in school there whereas now, I was done with high school in my new life.
And that was another thing. Me. I'd changed so much. I wasn't even sure that I could go back. I was just too different. I hardly looked the same and I'd grown up in a way that most people never do. Death was such a constant part of our lives that… I felt almost as if I have lived two very separate lives. In the first, I was my father's heir: Draco Hayden Lucius Malfoy, Harry Potter's enemy. But now? Now I was my own person. I stood with people instead of behind or against them. I was just Draco.
I wondered what they all thought had happened to me. I knew that there must have been some search attempts but they had obviously failed. I was still here after all and not with them. But what did they say about me? Was I dead to them? I hoped I was. It was easier that way.
In the morning, the sunlight cut across the room in such a way that for a moment I could have sworn that it had wiped any and all color from the world. I squinted at the clock and groaned. It was five in the morning. I could hear people moving below me and I stumbled out of the bed where I promptly fell on my face. Graceful, I told myself. Very slick.
As soon I walked into the kitchen, Dawn began to giggle. "Have a nice fall?"
I glared at her but didn't respond.
"We should have a meeting, Willow said as she breezed into the room. "We got a lot done last night."
"Where's Anya and Xander?"
"Still sleeping."
"Do you honestly think that those two are asleep?"
"After yesterday? Yes. I do."
It took them a while, but by six, everyone was fed, clothed, and sitting around the living room. Well, I suppose at one time it had been a parlor but now it held only one dusty couch and we had to sit on the floor as the dusty wafted over us from the rugs all around us.
"So," Buffy began. "Spike and I found a few vamps last night. It felt like Sunnydale back in high school. We dusted about seven or eight. And we didn't even go that far."
"Tara and me went towards town. There's a couple'a houses along the road but only one of them looked like people were living there. Could be some nests in the empty ones."
"There are a few shops in town we should look at today. There's a furniture store that looked reasonable. They all seemed very interested in what we were doing here. The If any one asks, Buffy and Dawn's grandmother died leaving them this place. It's called Birchwood House by the way."
The conference broke up soon after that and we all began to get dressed. I pulled on a pair of faded jeans from a few years ago and an old Linkin Park t-shirt. I felt very under dressed for England. I was just lad it was still warm enough to not need a jacket.
We went into town which seemed to me, to be just like Hogsmead only without the magical element to it There were a few pubs and general shops. The furniture store that Giles had mentioned seemed to be entirely to big and out of place here among the tiny shops filed to bursting with antiques.
We each were given a budget by Giles and told to pick something out for ourselves. I, having decided that I rather liked the bed I had now, bought a new mattress and pillows. I got a new dresser as well but only because my room didn't seem to have one.
The man who helped us with our purchases seemed very keen on finding out more about us. Who we were, where we came from, did he know Dawn's relatives? No? What a shame. I'm sure the gossip mongers down at the pub hadn't had such an interesting evening out in quite a while.
***
It didn't take long before we had all settled into a comfortable pattern at Birchwood House. We slept in in the mornings before we got up and some one would cook breakfast. We rotated the fixing of meals. The afternoons were spent researching and fixing up the house and in the evenings, we all went out on patrol. Not in a group, mind you, but as smaller groups. I normally ended up with Spike. We were a good team and it felt good to have some one to talk to who wasn't a girl.. Or Xander. There were times when I really didn't get that guy.
It was one such night when Spike and I were out patrolling the forest just to the south of the house. Buffy, Dawn, and Xander were sweeping the north while Willow, Tara, and Giles had opted to stay home and do a bit more research on the mythical and magical history of the area. We hadn't turned up much so far.
"Come on," Spike said.
"Where are we going?"
"We never did check out those empty houses and I'm kinda bored with this. We haven't seen a vamp all night."
"Or we could not. I'm not in the mood to take on a nest with just us. Backup would be nice."
Spike shrugged. "Tomorrow then. And we'll take the slayer if it'll make the little wizard feel better."
"Shut up."
"Shhh…" Spike coked his head to one side. "You hear that?"
"No," I said. "What was it?"
"Come on," he said motioning for me to follow him. "I think out night might have just gotten a bit more interesting. Got any weapons on you?"
I had a crossbow and a knife. "Sure," I said. "You?"
He smirked. "Sword."
"Show off."
We made our way deeper into the forest. I strained my ears to hear what it was that the vampire had heard but I didn't seem to be gifted like that. The wood grew darker around us and memories of my first year at Hogwarts filtered unbidden into my head. Potter and that damned dog and that THING sucking the unicorn. I hoped that none of those memories would be revisited in real life any time soon.
POP.
It was very faint and I almost missed it. No, there it was again. Like some one making popcorn not far away. I would know that sound anywhere. Apperation. Spike smiled. "Recon it's anything we can fight?"
"No," I told him flatly. "I think it's wizards. We'll be dead before you can draw the sword."
"We'll just watch then."
We hunched low to the ground and found a fallen tree which would do well to hide us. We could hear everything in stark clarity but in the dark, all I could see were dim shapes. I hoped that the vampire could see more.
"You're late," I heard a cold voice say. "Do you have the girl?"
The reply didn't come from any Death Eater I'd ever heard before. In fact, the owner of the voice shocked me so badly that I almost missed what was said: "Yes, my Lord. I was… inescapably detained but I've got her now."
tbc....?
