Chapter 9

I heard Xander close behind me. "Willow, hold up. Wil!"

I know I got more than a few stares before I reached the door between cars. This one actually opened up before I had to use magic. Lucky me.

There was a little balcony of sorts that let me stop and catch my breath. Only a few seconds later did Xander finally catch up.

He had a questioning look on his face.

"They know, Xander. They know about me almost destroying the world. I could see it in their eyes. They're scared of me."

He moved into me and held me close. It was a position that we were most familiar with over the last couple of years. Ever since we closed the hellmouth in Sunnydale and I activated a world littered with Slayers I have been at peace with myself. Even when Kennedy left me to go to South America I wasn't hurt or bitter. I understood.

The rest of the gang was comfortable with my re-blossoming powers. The scythe had cleaned me out and awaken the good part of me. But no matter how much good I have in me now, there are still times when I am reminded what I did to Warren, to my friends, and almost did to the rest of humanity.

Times like this.

"I'm sorry I'm acting like an angsty teenager." I mumbled into his chest.

The clickity-clack of the rails as we moved along drowned out my voice, I know.

"I have no idea what you just said, but uh-huh." Xander answered.

That made me smile.

"So, how 'bout that Sirius makin' the moves on you, huh?"

That made me rear back and frown at him. "Don't ruin a tender moment, Mr. Brutish Strongman."

He laughed, "See now that's what I'm saying. Doesn't that have a nice ring to it? I could rate a T.V. show all on my own. Righting wrongs, defending the weak ..."

"Saving the world," I offered.

"Nah. Saving the world isn't all it's cracked up to be." He stepped back and touched his eye patch. "Kinda rough on the redundant body parts."

I smirked and motioned to the door. "Come on. Time to go back and face the music."

He followed me back in. "Can it be a more upbeat New Orleans Dixieland kind of music. I'm getting awfully tired of the tension filled dramatic angsty stuff."

"Dixieland Jazz it is... right when we get back to our own universe."

"Awww."

*************************

Sirius was waiting for us in the hallway, trying to get the door back in place. He looked up at me with worry in his eyes.

"Sorry," a shrugged, "I overreact sometimes, but Xander knows how to calm me down."

I looked out of the corner of my eye at Harry. Hermione wasn't in the cabin anymore and I can't say that I blame her.

"Why don't you stand back. I can fix it."

Sirius stood and backed off a bit. I held out my hand to the door. "Repair."

The door jumped a little and slid back to its closed position . I open and closed the door again. "See, all better."

He gave me a funny look; kind of questioning and kind of understanding. It's weird how people connect. Something about going through hell that makes you bond better with others that have been through similar experiences.

We joined the others, in short course, and traded questions about what had been going on, in Harry's world and ours.

"So... erm ...you're a good witch now?"

I smiled. "Yeah. Brimmin' full of the goodness."

"Buffy was telling me how you closed the hellmouth."

I looked over at Buffy. "It was more of a team effort. I just activated the Slayers."

"Just," Faith scoffed. "Hell, Red, we were about to get our asses handed to us by a billion and a half uber-vamps 'till you came through and gave Spike a chance to use his nifty necklace."

Buffy stiffened.

The subject of Spike was still an open wound with Buffy. To this day we still don't know what had caused so much grief over his death. All she said was that he sacrificed himself to hold back the vamps. I knew there was more to the story than that, but I didn't pry. When she ready to tell me, she will.

"So when do we take care of this Moldywart guy?"

Like how she changed the subject there?

Sirius leaned forward. "We have to wait until he shows his face again. Unless Dumbledore has any new information?"

The last was directed at Harry.

He shrugged. "He lost a lot of Death Eaters the day that you... erm ... disappeared." He shifted uncomfortably. "My scar was aching for almost a week after."

"Scar?" Buffy asked.

Harry brushed up his hair to show everyone. "It hurts when Voldemort is near or feeling particularly murderous."

"Weird."

He shrugged. "It hasn't been hurting lately, but I don't know if that's because of the Occlumency lessons that Snape has been giving me over the last few weeks."

Sirius laughed out loud at the mention of the name Snape. Everyone looked at him and he smiled, teeth and all.

"Can't wait to see the look on the greasy git's face when he's found out I'm not dead."