Chapter 19
"Oh, I'm sooo sorry. I forgot."
I blinked up at Hermione. "What?"
"Tara. I forgot that she was ..."
I smiled at her. "No, that's not what's got me all misty eyed."
Her face twisted up like I was just saying that to make her feel better.
I shook my head. "This is the best thing ... her picture."
Now she was really confused.
"Buffy told you about closing the Hellmouth." She nodded. "When we did --- it caved in. All of Sunnydale was lost with it. Tara's grave too." I sniffed. "And all of the pictures I had of her."
I looked back down at the photo. "I was starting to forget what she looked like." I shrugged. "I know it's horrible. But all I have is her memory and that gets all fuzzy over time."
I reached over to Hermione and pulled her down to me in a big hug. "Thank you."
When I finally let her go I grabbed up the magazine. "Can I ... can I have this? I'll pay you or ..."
She smiled at me. "I'll do better than that."
She spread out three additional magazines across and took the one that I had, laying it at the end. Her wand was in her hand and she swished it and pointed.
"Duplicatus!"
A small pop sounded, and right below each of the magazines was an exact duplicate.
"There you go. Now you have one of each."
I grabbed them all up and grinned from ear to ear. "How can I ..."
She picked up the quill I had been using and held out the magazine that had my picture on the cover. I stopped and smirked. After dipping the quill in the inkwell I stopped to think for a second, and then scribbled out 'To Hermione, who gave me back my most treasured memory. Willow Rosenberg.'
She pointed her wand again. "Permanens Animare."
I watched as the ink glowed gold and set itself into the cover like it was pre-printed in gold. then I almost jumped when my picture animated and waved at me. I started to wave back.
"It's a single-direction spell. It's not like the portraits around the school."
I looked back up at her. "So it's not gonna talk to me?"
"Right." She pointed to one of the portraits hanging over the librarian's desk. "The portraits are painted by a Pendermagius. They use magically imbued oils that lend a semblance of life and intelligence to the product. And the model has to actually sit for the artist. Something about imprinting."
"How do you know all of this?"
She pointed over to the history section. "HW209 Hogwarts, A History."
****************
I was totally worthless for the rest of the afternoon. I read through the magazines and spent way too much time starring at the pictures of Tara. You can imagine my surprise at finding out that the actress that played me in the show was engaged to the guy that played Wesley. Buffy will never find out about that little tidbit. I'd never live it down.
"Hey, Red!"
My head snapped up to the library doors. It was Faith, of course. A loud 'shhh' came from the librarian along with a deep frown at Faith's disturbance.
Faith smirked back at her. "Keep your merry-widow on grandma."
A couple of snickers came from behind the stacks.
I gathered my notes and the magazines along with the book and stuffed them in my pack. "Sorry," I said as I passed the desk on the way out.
"What's wrong?"
Faith smiled. "Nothin' I promised Harry that I'd take you to the D.A. meeting."
"D.A.?"
Faith explained. "Dumbledore's Army. In the last book they had a Ministry of Magic ass that was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts class. She wouldn't teach them anything. So Harry and a bunch of others formed an illegal club to learn on their own."
"If it's illegal won't they get in trouble?"
"They kept it together after she got canned. It's more of a dueling club. Harry's in charge. Dumbledore knows all about it, so it's cool."
Before I knew it we had climbed a couple flights of stairs and walked down one of the dark hallways. It was dark because it was already night. I had let the afternoon fly by without even noticing.
"Okay, it's around here somewhere."
She was searching the hallway for a door, I suppose. Maybe it was hidden or something. Just then a door appeared and opened from the inside. Harry was standing there smiling and a bit winded.
"Come on, then."
We walked in and looked around at the room. It was about 100X100 feet. It was gigantic. The floor was covered in practice mats and the walls were lined with shelves. Books, weapons, practice dummies. Buffy would love this ... well if it had a punching bag or seven.
"This is cool," I said as I looked around. That is until I turned to one side. There had to be about fifty students lining one wall, all looking at me and Faith.
