Chapter 25

"I-I-I ..."

"Perhaps we should leave your answer for another time. We have a visitor."

The door opened between offices and Harry stuck his head in. "You wanted to see me Professor Dumbledore?"

The headmaster extended his hand. "Yes Harry, please come in."

Harry nodded at me with a slight smile creasing his lips. I turned back to the caldron.

"Miss Rosenberg has been kind enough to extend us her services. In particular a service to you."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "What kind of service, sir?"

The Headmaster peered over his half-moon glasses. "A permanent means to shield your mind from Lord Voldemort without continuing your Occlumency lessons."

He perked up at that. "Really?"

I nodded. "It'll be a bit messy, but afterward nobody will be able to penetrate your mind."

"Excellent!"

The Headmaster stood. "I've made arrangements with Sirius to use the basement at our place in London."

Harry nodded like it was some kind of secret.

I was curious. "We can't do it here?"

His eyes turned serious again. I'd rather not take the chance that someone will find out about our efforts. The place I spoke of is unplottable and shielded from all but trusted eyes."

I covered the caldron. "We have to do this within the next hour or the mixture will have to be redone."

He ushered me out the door. "Then gather your friends, Willow and I will send for Sirius."

It didn't take long to find the gang. Buffy had mentioned a performance for the Defense Against the Dark Arts morning classes. I had been invited as well, but Harry's casting came first.

One of many aimless students trying to cut class was more than happy to escort me to the classroom. I still hadn't gotten a decent tour of the school and I'd been her for three days now. Sirius has been slacking. I guess it's time for someone to be disciplined. Did I just think that?

We had just rounded a corner when I heard the noise. It could have been cheering or screaming or hooting. I didn't have a clue so I hurried to the door. I opened it up to find Buffy side-stepping a hex and then dropping to her stomach and back up again avoiding hex after hex.

"Enough!" the Professor yelled above the noise.

A tall slicked-back blonde was furious at not being able to hit Buffy with any of his hexes.

"Excellent, Miss Summers. I've never seen agility such as yours." The Professor was beaming with excitement. "I dare say that you could have disarmed Mr. Malfoy at any time."

Buffy shrugged the compliment off. "It gets harder the closer you get, but yeah."

He turned to the class. "Questions?"

One of the students raised his hand. I think it was Neville from yesterday's D.A. class.

"Mr. Longbottom."

Yep.

"Is it true that you cannot do magic?"

"That would be a big yes. Faith and I prefer to kill demons and vampires with this." She whipped out one of her stakes and twirled it between her fingers. "Willow does all the magic."

I saw her eyes shift to me and the class collectively turned and found me by the door. I wiggled my fingers in a wave back at the glass.

"You're kidding," said the blonde Malfoy boy. "That little slip of a muggle girl? How do you get anything done?"

The Professor wasn't pleased. "Mr. Malfoy! These are our guests. Proper respect will be shown. Five points from Slytherin."

Faith couldn't help it, "She could kick your skinny butt up and down these halls, Malfoy, plus half the glass."

I just leaned against the door frame. Contrary to what you might think I'm not really one for confrontation if I can avoid it.

One of the other students raised their hand. "What about him?"

She was pointing at Xander who suddenly became the focus of the class.

"What do you want to know?" he asked.

"Well Faith and Buffy are Slayers, and Willow does magic. What do you do?"

Xander was sitting on one of the Professor's table. He hopped down and rubbed his hands together. "Well, uh, I provide support ..."

"What kind of power do you have?"

"Well, I don't have, any power, per say." He air-quoted the power portion.

It had always been a sore point with Xander that he couldn't contribute in that way. So I stepped forward.

"Xander has the most important power of all of us."

Even Xander was looking at me wondering what I was going to say.

"His power is his heart, and mind."

The girl wouldn't let it go. "He's the brains?"

That made Faith cough in attempt not to laugh.

I stepped further into the room. "Don't let his brutish exterior fool you." I looked down and back up. "Sure he's freakishly strong and easy on the eyes, but a couple of years ago when everyone had done their best to stop a evil witch bent on destroying the world it was him that stopped her. All by himself."

Buffy raised her hand. "Kicked my butt all over the place."

Faith shook her head. "I wasn't there, but if Buff here had a problem ..."

"What about you?" the girl asked.

I looked down.

Xander saved me. "That story is for another time."

I looked up and met his eyes ... um, eye. There was enough love in that one eye to make up for the other being gone. We understood each other even if the kiddies didn't.