Okay then. Yeah. Another chapter. Gotcha. Here it comes.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked, in confusion.
"You ever been to a club?" Craig responded, leaving the room, with Harry hurrying to keep up.
"No," Harry replied, drawing level with Craig. "The Dursley's wouldn't have ever allowed me to do something that could even be misconstrued as fun."
"Well, we're going out to relax tonight," Craig said.
Harry stopped, grabbing Craig's arm. Craig jumped. "Sorry," Harry said quickly. "But how do you expect to do this?"
"Public transportation out of Hogsmeade," Craig explained. "It'll be easy to trick the guard and get a quick portkey to London."
"No," Harry said. "It's not safe in the city."
Craig looked at him, incredulously. "You're kidding, right?" he asked. "After all the danger you've been through, you're not willing to risk a little bit to be able to relax?"
"I wouldn't be very relaxed, thinking that Voldemort could come jumping out of a closet at me," Harry pointed out.
"There is no way Creepozoid would ever figure out that you're in town," Craig said. "We'll go to a muggle club, since those are better anyway. Muggles get so much angrier than wizards, it makes the dancing more fun. Now, I'm going to do this with or without you, so you'd better make up your mind now."
Harry thought it over. What were the chances that Voldemort would find out that he was away from Hogwarts for one night? And it had been so long since he'd done something purely for the sake of fun - he'd been the good little soldier for long enough, it was time for a break.
"Okay," he said. "But we're going to be careful."
"Of course," Craig said. Harry got the distinct impression that Craig didn't know the meaning of the word 'careful'.
Five minutes later, Harry had dragged a confused Ginny down out of Gryffindor Tower to the Entrance Hall, where Craig waited. He'd donned a trench coat to cover the black trousers and sweater he always wore. "Ready to go?" he asked.
"Go where?" Ginny asked, in some exasperation. Harry grinned sheepishly.
"Fill her in on the way there," Craig said.
They left, Harry telling the plan to Ginny on the way. They passed through the gates of Hogwarts just as Harry finished outlining the plan. To his surprise, Ginny smiled at him.
"You are kidding, right?" she asked.
"No," Harry replied, seriously.
"Oh," Ginny said. She didn't know what to say for a moment. "Are you crazy, then?"
"Look, kiddo, we either go or we don't," Craig said. "And we're already off school property, so why not throw in the whole way?"
Ginny looked at Harry, and for just an instant, she seemed a bit like the child she once was. "Are you sure about this?" she asked.
"Would I be doing it if I weren't?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Ginny said, but her smile revealed that she was teasing. Partially.
They'd entered Hogsmeade. "Stick to the shadows," Craig advised. "I'll see about making us a bit more inconspicuous."
They kept advancing through the darkness, walking at a quick pace that didn't betray much noise. They were, obviously, trying to avoid attracting too much attention. Luckily, the inhabitants of the streets of Hogsmeade at this later hour were all slightly to largely drunk, and paid about as much attention to the them as could be expected of drunken happy people.
In short order and without incident, they reached the small platform that transported people to and from the village of Hogsmeade. The security wasn't very tight - there was one aging security guard, not even a troll. Every hour he would push a small button on his consol and whoosh! Off would go another small convoy of people bound for the capital city of Britain. It was boring duty, and he was half asleep doing it.
It took no trouble for Craig to sneak himself, Harry and Ginny aboard.
The crowd they stood with on the small, circular metallic platform was not large or bustling. Most of them were workers heading home for the day; why they didn't take up residence in the village was a mystery to Harry, since it had to be a bother doing things this way now.
After a few slightly tense minutes of waiting to see if they would be caught, Harry and the others felt a familiar jerk behind their navels.
The portkey, which apparently was the platform itself, deposited its passengers in a long, low hall in London.
As they all picked themselves up (all but Craig and Ginny had fallen down), Craig whispered in Harry's ear, "I know the place. Follow me."
He led them out of the hall and onto a street. Upon looking back at the door they'd just passed through, Harry discovered that it was actually a parking meter.
What a strange sense of humor these wizards have, Harry thought.
Craig led them surely up the street. "So, how exactly do you know where this place is?" Harry asked.
"I do too much reading," Craig responded.
"Reading what?" Ginny asked.
"Stuff," Craig offered, unhelpfully.
"You must be a nightmare at twenty questions," Harry grumbled.
Craig turned a corner, and they passed out of a business district and entered a residential section.
"I've never been to the British slums before," Craig said. "Funny. They're not too different from American slums. I guess that all poverty really is created equal."
This drew a blank look from both Harry and Ginny. Craig sighed. "I guess that Constitution jokes are lost on Brits, huh? Yeah, I'm better without the humor. Its just that I've got some rowdy dead comedians acting up right now..."
Now the blank looks turned into looks of slight disgust. Craig tried to cover for it. "Well, you know, dead comedians are better than some of the crackpots I have to listen to. Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Wilhelm, Napoleon, Ivaan the Terrible..."
Now the looks of slight disgust became looks of complete disgust. Craig blustered a bit, trying and failing to come up with something. "Nice weather we've been having, huh?" he asked.
Thankfully, they reached the club shortly thereafter. The grimy neon sign in the front proclaimed the name of the place to be "Bang Bang Boom".
The three looked at each other. Harry and Ginny turned to Craig with suspicious looks. "Hey, its your country," he said.
They entered. The door fee was non existent - they'd come on a free entry night. Getting through the first door, they got into the main club.
Harry and Ginny had never seen anything like it. Their Hogwarts uniforms, minus the robes, were drastically out of place in the mass of scanty to nonexistent clothing. Craig seemed closer to the general dress code, completely wrapped in black as he was. The vicious grin was back in place. Craig breathed in the smell of the place: sweaty and hot.
"Home sweet home," he muttered.
He descended quickly onto the dance floor, leaving both Harry and Ginny standing dumb struck, wondering why on Earth they'd ever agreed to this.
"Why on Earth did we ever agree to this?" Harry asked.
Ginny just shook her head.
"Shall we try and find a table?" Harry asked, and she nodded, not trusting her voice to rise above the enormous amount of noise being made by the band on stage.
The club was a hazy place, the smoke mostly created by dry ice and haze machines. There was so much of it that Harry and Ginny both silently questioned whether or not smoke detectors were installed in the place. Neither of the two Hogwarts students could guess how the building had ever passed an inspection by the board of health. The floor of the place was in unfinished concrete. Wooden boards covered parts of the floor. The walls had probably started out as some form of metal painted black, but ages of spray paint had turned the walls into a more florescent mixture of colors. The stage, which was set into the back wall where the ceiling began to curve downwards, was covered in lighting equipment, which projected strange images into the foggy haze over and amidst the dance floor. The tables sat on a raised platform above and to the left of the stage, overlooking both it and the dance floor.
The whole place appeared as though it hadn't been cleaned in either of the two Gryffindors' lifetimes.
Neither of them were prepared for the club. They were at least vaguely aware that such houses of debauchery existed; it was common knowledge that, if not spoken, was at least understood. But the reality of it was quite different.
The two students made their way up to the platform upon which the tables rested. A bar on the far side sold drinks to kids using 'real' ID's; a lot of them never made it off the platform, because they passed out before leaving. Harry and Ginny selected a table set as far from both the dance floor and the bar as possible.
"Why did we agree to this?" Ginny asked Harry, staring in horror at a girl whose shirt was ripped in several revealing locations.
"We were going to have fun," Harry offered, turning distinctly red when he saw what Ginny saw.
"Having fun yet?" Ginny asked him, shouting over the incredibly loud metal assaulting their ears from the lower level.
"Not really," Harry replied back. "Actually, I wouldn't mind leaving now."
"Neither would I," Ginny said, obviously relieved. "Come on, let's find Craig."
They rose quickly from their seats and headed for the stairs. Unfortunately, a couple of older kids had spotted their out of place clothing and facial expressions and had decided to have a bit of fun with them.
Three college aged boys and a girl who couldn't have been much older than Ginny stepped in front of them, blocking the stairs. Believing that it was an accident, Harry endeavored to go around them, but they shifted, grinning maliciously, to block him.
"Hey, kiddies," one of them said. "How's it going?"
Harry didn't know what to say. The guy who was addressing him wore dark, baggy clothing and had several dozen body piercings. "Uh..." Harry stammered a bit. "Not too bad, I suppose. We're actually just leaving..."
"No you're not," one of the others, a man with straight black hair and a long goatee said. "You just got here. You're going to have some fun, and so are we."
Harry groaned. "Where have I heard that before?" he said to himself.
The girl stepped forward and looked Ginny up and down. "I love the costume," she said. "Getting in touch with your inner school girl, it most turn him on like crazy. Tell me, does he fuck you in that or do you take it all off first?"
Both Harry and Ginny were dumbstruck for a moment. Then Ginny blushed furiously. Harry was furious too, but he wasn't blushing. "I think you really should leave us alone now," he said, through clenched teeth.
"Oh, you are a prude, mate!" the final college boy said. "You're here in the best club in all of London, and you get all upset over a little question like that? Come on, we're just making nice."
Harry attempted to shove past them. "Make nice somewhere else," he said.
The malicious grins disappeared off the young men's faces. "Maybe we don't want to," Goatee said.
Piercings grabbed Ginny by the shoulder, and she yelped loudly. Of course, in the mass chaos of the club, no one cared. Ginny shook herself free quickly.
"Look, I don't want to have to hurt you, annoying as you may be," she said. The boys laughed out loud.
"Hurt us?" they said. "Oh, I think we're going to be the ones doing the hurting, bitch."
The girl with them laughed as well. "Fine," she said. "But I get him." She pointed as Harry.
Ginny took a swing at her. Despite all her training, she forgot for a moment her Slayer strength, and she knocked the girl flying halfway across the room.
The other boys turned quickly serious. "You're going to pay for that one, slut!" They launched themselves at Ginny.
Goatee came in first, taking a big swing at Ginny with his right fist. She sidestepped him quickly and easily, hooking his arm with her own, and using his momentum and her own super strength, applied gruesome pressure to his arm. It popped out of its socket.
Dropping Goatee to the floor to deal with is new arm problems, Ginny turned back just in time to get hit in the face with a chair. Dazed by the force of the blow, Ginny sunk to one knee. She rolled away underneath a table to regroup.
Meanwhile, Harry had run to the side of the platform upon which the tables were. He had decided to try and get Craig, but the problem was that the stairs were still blocked by the goons, and a crowd was being drawn, congesting things. So, while Ginny dodged around the tables, trying to get her bearings back after the chair shot, Harry made a decision.
He took a quick, steadying breath and launched himself over the side of the railing, down fifteen feet onto the dance floor.
Later, Harry wouldn't be completely sure what broke his fall; regardless of what it was, though, a second later, he was crowd surfing. It wasn't a deliberate thing; he would have rather walked. However, getting down was a problem, as he discovered quickly.
Instead, Harry scanned the crowd as he passed over it. After a minute or two of searching, he head a sharp laugh and a voice call out, over the music, "Thattaboy, Harry! Have a little fun!"
"Craig!" Harry yelled, as loud as he could. "Ginny's in trouble!"
Craig was by him instantly, helping Harry down off the crowd. "Where?" he asked. His eyes were alight with fire.
"Up on the platform, near the tables," Harry said, breathing heavily from his surfing ordeal. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Craig was gone.
Harry pushed his way through the crowd in time to see Craig, who had apparently jumped from the floor up onto the platform, hit one of the thugs from behind. Heartened by the evening of the odds, Ginny stopped her charade and attacked the final jerk.
In the face of Craig and Ginny, two people who were obviously too strong for them to deal with, the remaining goons backed down, throwing up their arms and declaring defeat. Ginny stopped her attack immediately, and it had appeared as though Craig had, as well, when he suddenly whirled back on the Piercings and grabbed him, tossing him over the railing and onto the dance floor.
"Who's next?" He asked, viciously. He was breathing heavily, though the exertion of throwing the thug couldn't have been all that hard on Craig. "Come on! Step up! I want a fight!"
Harry walked cautiously up to Craig and laid a hand on the other boy's shoulder. Craig turned, snarling. "Craig," Harry said, more than a little freaked out. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Craig relaxed a little, but the glow in his eyes didn't go anywhere. "Sure," he said. "I've had enough for one night, anyway."
As he headed down the stairs, the crowd parted for him, and Harry and Ginny followed in his wake. They, and not him, cast a single worried glance toward Piercings, who hadn't been caught by the crowd and lay with his leg bent at a strange angle.
Then the three were back out on the street. "Craig, what was that all about?" Harry asked.
"What?" Craig asked.
"That guy had given up, that's what! And you threw him over a railing!"
"So? He was the bad guy," Craig replied, shrugging it off as though it were nothing.
Harry and Ginny cast worried looks at each other behind Craig's back. And, what made them even more nervous was that he didn't notice.
Getting back to Hogwarts was easy enough. Though security was heavier for people trying to get into Hogsmeade, they were no match for Craig's intelligence and stealth. They wouldn't have been a match for his violence either, but luckily, Harry and Ginny managed to rein him in.
As they walked back up the lawn, the darkness a bit oppressive, Craig turned away from the path to the castle. "I'm heading into the forest to go hunting. You two in?"
Harry looked at him in utter incredulity. "You have got to be joking," he said. "After all that..."
"It got me going a bit, and now I need a few kills before bed time," Craig said. "Come on, it'll be fun."
"Thanks, we've had enough fun for tonight," Ginny said, and, grabbing Harry's arm, she marched up to the castle. Craig shrugged and turned back to the forest.
Once back inside the castle, Harry and Ginny had to be careful not to make too much noise. Mrs. Norris and Filch were always out on the prowl at this hour, whatever hour this was; and getting caught by either was the kind of unpleasant experience that no student wished to go through more than never.
Their luck held in this, at least; no sign of Filch or his cat turned up at any point. Harry and Ginny quickly gained the Common Room, receiving a knowing smile from the Fat Lady on the way.
"Oh, just so long as you were being careful about it, don't worry - all the kids are doing that nowadays," she said, with slight reproachfulness.
"Doing what..." Harry began, but then he saw the state of himself and Ginny. Both had been involved in several small physical ordeals that night, and they were roughed up just enough to give the appearance of...
"Oh, why does everyone seem to think that about us!" Harry yelled, and pulled Ginny into the portrait hole, leaving the Fat Lady looking a bit puzzled.
Harry immediately sat down, hard, on his favorite couch. Ginny sat down next to him, leaning her head against his shoulder. "What time is it?" She asked.
Harry glanced at the clock and winced. "Three in the morning," he said. "Hard to believe we were out that long, isn't it? Oh, well - I'm heading to bed."
Harry began to rise, but Ginny called him back. "Harry, there's something we have to talk about," she said to him.
He came back around the couch and sat down again, with Ginny facing him. "What?" he asked.
"Well, what everyone keeps saying about us..." Ginny said. "What they think we've been doing..."
Harry blushed. "We haven't been doing," he finished. "There's nothing to worry about, Ginny."
"Oh, I know that," she said. "I would have noticed if we'd..." she faltered, searching for an appropriate verb, and finally just giving up on it. "But that's not the point."
"Then what is?" Harry asked, somewhat bewildered. What was this all about?
"Well," Ginny said, nervousness etching itself across her face in a pattern only Harry could read. "Have you ever thought about doing...it?"
Harry's blush returned a bit. "I don't know," he said. Ginny gave him a severe look through her own nervousness. "Well, sure, okay, I have," he admitted. "But never seriously, Ginny. I have too much respect for you to pull anything like that."
Ginny seemed even more hesitant to pull the next words from her mouth. "But, what if I wanted you to..." She cut herself off.
Harry looked closer at her, but she kept her face hidden. "Ginny, what are you saying?" he asked.
"It's this Slayer thing!" she said. "Something about it...I don't know...makes me more..."
"Oh," Harry said, cutting her off before she had more trouble finding an appropriate word for an inappropriate subject. "Well, I...that's....um..."
"Yeah, my thoughts exactly," Ginny said, miserably.
Harry turned to think for a moment. On the one hand, there was the fact that they were both awfully young for such an intimate connection - but they weren't that young anymore. He was sixteen. She was fifteen. Both had been forced to grow up really fast in the last few years. They weren't children.
Which was why he had to do the mature thing here. Deciding once today that he'd had enough of maturity had already had disastrous results, and Harry wasn't eager to make an even bigger mistake. "We're not ready for that, Ginny," he said. "I love you, but I don't think that it would be a good idea for us to have sex until we're older."
Ginny smiled a little. "You're right," she said. "What would I do without you?"
"Let's never find out," Harry said, drawing her into his arms. In moments, they were asleep.
They dreamt together again. The same dream as before. They met. They kissed. Ron staked Harry. And Harry turned to dust. They awoke at the same time, harshly, and looked at each other. Neither said anything.
As Craig walked back to his usual sleeping tree, he wiped the demon's blood off of his face. It had been a messy kill. It had been a good kill.
He felt sated for now. There would be another urge to kill later, but the forest was full of demons. It wouldn't be all that hard to find another one.
As he approached his tree, he became aware of someone in it. He looked up and grinned. "I would have paid money to watch you climb up there," said Craig.
Dumbledore didn't smile back. "Why did you do it, Craig?" he asked.
Craig jumped. He easily made it to the branch upon which Dumbledore sat. "Cause," he said. "We all needed a little fun."
"That wasn't the only reason, though, was it?" Dumbledore asked.
Craig sighed. The smile left him. "No," he said. "It wasn't."
"What was it you were trying to test?" Dumbledore asked.
Craig was resigned to this. He would have much rather gone about directing Harry and Ginny without Dumbledore's interference; but Dumbledore had been making plans for Harry for the better part of two decades, so Craig had to defer.
"Sex," he said. "Seeing how strong their relationship is when they get that thrown in their faces."
Dumbledore frowned. "You could have done that easily enough here," he said. "Why go to all the trouble?"
"Because," Craig said, impatiently, "they know everyone here. They would either dismiss it as being something that nosy person would say, or they would question why someone would ask them that rather than think about it truly. By hiring some dumb whore to say it to them, it shocked them a bit. It made them think."
Dumbledore thought about it a bit. Then he nodded. "Fine," he said. "I have left this up to you. Remember, though, that I am in charge of this overall, and that you should always okay things with me first."
"Of course," Craig said, but he didn't believe it. Perhaps Dumbledore knew that. As far as Craig was considered, that didn't matter. Dumbledore left, jumping down to the ground, and Craig was left alone in his tree. He was asleep minutes later.
Faith arose the next morning and, dressing quickly, walked outside. A beautiful day was beginning. She left the barracks behind her and headed down to the field to begin getting the Slayer training course ready for the day.
In the weeks since Buffy's arrival back, Faith had taken to getting things ready each morning. No one else would do it, and rather than take time out of training to have the trainee's set things up, she would do it.
They had amassed quite a bit of neat stuff. A lot of it was junk, if you asked Faith, but some of it proved useful. Every day, she checked over the obstacle course to make sure that it hadn't been damaged somehow; a damaged obstacle course presented dangers that they didn't need to deal with. Everything was in order.
Training was, as usual, the usual thing. The Slayers had fallen into a constant routine. However, one person was missing.
"Where's Maria?" Faith asked. "This is her day for target practice; you'd think she wouldn't want to miss that."
A couple of the girls cast uncertain looks at each other. "She's...a bit indisposed," one of them said, eventually.
"I don't think she was feeling well this morning," said another.
Faith looked around at the looks on the girls' faces. Then she smiled. "I understand that you want to cover for your friend. Don't. It'll just make things worse. Where is she?"
The girls hung their heads. "Back in her room," they said, eventually.
Faith nodded and left. She wasn't particularly mad at the girls; she'd have done the same thing for a friend. It was good to see that the new Slayers were developing a sense of camaraderie.
It didn't help in this situation, though.
Maria Grieta was going to be a problem. Giles and Shannon had both said it. Buffy said it later. So did Faith. In fact, everyone in a position to say so said so. Maria Grieta was going to be a problem.
So why were they being so lenient with her? Why did they seem surprised when she did end up being a problem? Faith didn't know the answers to those questions. The old her, the murdering, crazy bitch her, wouldn't have even asked the questions. She'd grown as a person just enough to know that the questions were there.
Faith entered the barracks just as Giles was leaving. He was decked out in padding from his head to his foot, and was waddling more than he was walking.
"What's up with the suit?" Faith asked.
"I'm teaching fundamental aikido and capoiera today," he replied. "What are you doing back in?"
"Maria," Faith said. Giles groaned. "She didn't show up for target practice."
Giles sighed. Then he grinned a bit. "Don't go too hard on the girl, Faith," he said. "Try not to kill her, eh?"
"Not funny," Faith said. She kept walking.
Maria's room was near the middle of the front row on the second floor of the barracks. Faith didn't bother to knock. Instead, she opened the door and walked in.
Maria was asleep on her bed. She had definitely fallen asleep quickly and without planning, because the joint was still lying on her chest, where it had fallen.
"Wake up!" Faith said sharply.
Nothing.
Faith walked over to Maria and punched her in the arm. Still nothing.
Faith grinned to herself. Okay, the girl wanted to do this? Fine, she'd pay the consequences.
Faith left and returned a few minutes later with a bucket of icy water. She unceremoniously poured the freezing water over the head of Maria.
Needless to say, Maria woke up in a hurry. She didn't know where she was at first, or what was going on, but she did know that the sensation of frigid water dousing her still partially unconscious body was deeply unpleasant. She bolted out of bed.
"What...?" she asked.
"You overslept," Faith said. "Mighta had something to do with this." She held up the joint, which was now a bit soggy.
"Oh, shit," Maria said.
"Yeah, that about sums it up," Faith responded. "Let's go see Buffy."
"You brought drugs here?" Buffy yelled. "Here? We're training an army to fight a huge war against enormous odds, and you bring drugs into the camp?"
"Yeah," Maria muttered. She refused to look up and meet Buffy's eyes. Faith flexed a hand. This was even worse than she'd expected.
Good.
"Tell me," Buffy said, standing up behind her desk and crossing around it. "Do you believe in anything you've been taught here, Maria?"
"What?" Maria asked, still unable to look up.
"Sacred duty," Buffy said. "Do you know that you have one? Do you know that you're supposed to be a savior of the people? Are you aware that a lot of lives depend on all of us, including you? Can you understand that, in a fight, I need to know that I can rely on all of you, because if I can't, we all die? Do you understand me?"
"Yes," Maria muttered.
"I don't think you do," Buffy said. "Or else this wouldn't be happening."
"Have you ever been addicted to anything?" Maria burst out.
"No," Buffy said, truthfully.
"It's not like all that stuff you've had," Maria said, finally meeting Buffy's eyes. "A normal, upper middle class life, then a sacred duty, and now this. I had nothing. So I got hooked. You don't just get unhooked. Doesn't work like that, chica."
Buffy wasn't impressed. "You're going to kick this thing," she said. "Or you're going to leave. Your choice."
They'd hit a standoff. Seeing that they were losing Maria quickly, Faith jumped in. "Maria, you never had much. Neither did I. But I've got something now. You can too, if you stay, and you can be free of the addiction, too. Doesn't that sound okay?"
Maria looked over at Faith. "I suppose it does," she said.
"Then stay," Faith said. "Please."
Maria considered for a while. Then she nodded. "Okay," she said. "I'll stay."
"Good," Faith said. "Now get out into the yard and take some target practice with the others."
Maria left.
"Why did you do that?" Buffy asked. "Convince her to stay? It was her choice."
"I didn't change that," Faith said. "I just helped her make the right one. Maybe I have a soft spot for Slayers who make the wrong choices. You can understand that, right?"
"Yeah, I can understand that," Buffy said. "Keep Maria in line, and I'll understand it better."
Faith nodded to her and left. It was all she could do to keep from saluting.
Hmmm. Not bad, right? PLEASE, oh PLEASE, leave me some feedback. Just write a quick little review! Please oh please oh PRETTY please? I need reviews to keep writing.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked, in confusion.
"You ever been to a club?" Craig responded, leaving the room, with Harry hurrying to keep up.
"No," Harry replied, drawing level with Craig. "The Dursley's wouldn't have ever allowed me to do something that could even be misconstrued as fun."
"Well, we're going out to relax tonight," Craig said.
Harry stopped, grabbing Craig's arm. Craig jumped. "Sorry," Harry said quickly. "But how do you expect to do this?"
"Public transportation out of Hogsmeade," Craig explained. "It'll be easy to trick the guard and get a quick portkey to London."
"No," Harry said. "It's not safe in the city."
Craig looked at him, incredulously. "You're kidding, right?" he asked. "After all the danger you've been through, you're not willing to risk a little bit to be able to relax?"
"I wouldn't be very relaxed, thinking that Voldemort could come jumping out of a closet at me," Harry pointed out.
"There is no way Creepozoid would ever figure out that you're in town," Craig said. "We'll go to a muggle club, since those are better anyway. Muggles get so much angrier than wizards, it makes the dancing more fun. Now, I'm going to do this with or without you, so you'd better make up your mind now."
Harry thought it over. What were the chances that Voldemort would find out that he was away from Hogwarts for one night? And it had been so long since he'd done something purely for the sake of fun - he'd been the good little soldier for long enough, it was time for a break.
"Okay," he said. "But we're going to be careful."
"Of course," Craig said. Harry got the distinct impression that Craig didn't know the meaning of the word 'careful'.
Five minutes later, Harry had dragged a confused Ginny down out of Gryffindor Tower to the Entrance Hall, where Craig waited. He'd donned a trench coat to cover the black trousers and sweater he always wore. "Ready to go?" he asked.
"Go where?" Ginny asked, in some exasperation. Harry grinned sheepishly.
"Fill her in on the way there," Craig said.
They left, Harry telling the plan to Ginny on the way. They passed through the gates of Hogwarts just as Harry finished outlining the plan. To his surprise, Ginny smiled at him.
"You are kidding, right?" she asked.
"No," Harry replied, seriously.
"Oh," Ginny said. She didn't know what to say for a moment. "Are you crazy, then?"
"Look, kiddo, we either go or we don't," Craig said. "And we're already off school property, so why not throw in the whole way?"
Ginny looked at Harry, and for just an instant, she seemed a bit like the child she once was. "Are you sure about this?" she asked.
"Would I be doing it if I weren't?" Harry asked.
"Yes," Ginny said, but her smile revealed that she was teasing. Partially.
They'd entered Hogsmeade. "Stick to the shadows," Craig advised. "I'll see about making us a bit more inconspicuous."
They kept advancing through the darkness, walking at a quick pace that didn't betray much noise. They were, obviously, trying to avoid attracting too much attention. Luckily, the inhabitants of the streets of Hogsmeade at this later hour were all slightly to largely drunk, and paid about as much attention to the them as could be expected of drunken happy people.
In short order and without incident, they reached the small platform that transported people to and from the village of Hogsmeade. The security wasn't very tight - there was one aging security guard, not even a troll. Every hour he would push a small button on his consol and whoosh! Off would go another small convoy of people bound for the capital city of Britain. It was boring duty, and he was half asleep doing it.
It took no trouble for Craig to sneak himself, Harry and Ginny aboard.
The crowd they stood with on the small, circular metallic platform was not large or bustling. Most of them were workers heading home for the day; why they didn't take up residence in the village was a mystery to Harry, since it had to be a bother doing things this way now.
After a few slightly tense minutes of waiting to see if they would be caught, Harry and the others felt a familiar jerk behind their navels.
The portkey, which apparently was the platform itself, deposited its passengers in a long, low hall in London.
As they all picked themselves up (all but Craig and Ginny had fallen down), Craig whispered in Harry's ear, "I know the place. Follow me."
He led them out of the hall and onto a street. Upon looking back at the door they'd just passed through, Harry discovered that it was actually a parking meter.
What a strange sense of humor these wizards have, Harry thought.
Craig led them surely up the street. "So, how exactly do you know where this place is?" Harry asked.
"I do too much reading," Craig responded.
"Reading what?" Ginny asked.
"Stuff," Craig offered, unhelpfully.
"You must be a nightmare at twenty questions," Harry grumbled.
Craig turned a corner, and they passed out of a business district and entered a residential section.
"I've never been to the British slums before," Craig said. "Funny. They're not too different from American slums. I guess that all poverty really is created equal."
This drew a blank look from both Harry and Ginny. Craig sighed. "I guess that Constitution jokes are lost on Brits, huh? Yeah, I'm better without the humor. Its just that I've got some rowdy dead comedians acting up right now..."
Now the blank looks turned into looks of slight disgust. Craig tried to cover for it. "Well, you know, dead comedians are better than some of the crackpots I have to listen to. Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Wilhelm, Napoleon, Ivaan the Terrible..."
Now the looks of slight disgust became looks of complete disgust. Craig blustered a bit, trying and failing to come up with something. "Nice weather we've been having, huh?" he asked.
Thankfully, they reached the club shortly thereafter. The grimy neon sign in the front proclaimed the name of the place to be "Bang Bang Boom".
The three looked at each other. Harry and Ginny turned to Craig with suspicious looks. "Hey, its your country," he said.
They entered. The door fee was non existent - they'd come on a free entry night. Getting through the first door, they got into the main club.
Harry and Ginny had never seen anything like it. Their Hogwarts uniforms, minus the robes, were drastically out of place in the mass of scanty to nonexistent clothing. Craig seemed closer to the general dress code, completely wrapped in black as he was. The vicious grin was back in place. Craig breathed in the smell of the place: sweaty and hot.
"Home sweet home," he muttered.
He descended quickly onto the dance floor, leaving both Harry and Ginny standing dumb struck, wondering why on Earth they'd ever agreed to this.
"Why on Earth did we ever agree to this?" Harry asked.
Ginny just shook her head.
"Shall we try and find a table?" Harry asked, and she nodded, not trusting her voice to rise above the enormous amount of noise being made by the band on stage.
The club was a hazy place, the smoke mostly created by dry ice and haze machines. There was so much of it that Harry and Ginny both silently questioned whether or not smoke detectors were installed in the place. Neither of the two Hogwarts students could guess how the building had ever passed an inspection by the board of health. The floor of the place was in unfinished concrete. Wooden boards covered parts of the floor. The walls had probably started out as some form of metal painted black, but ages of spray paint had turned the walls into a more florescent mixture of colors. The stage, which was set into the back wall where the ceiling began to curve downwards, was covered in lighting equipment, which projected strange images into the foggy haze over and amidst the dance floor. The tables sat on a raised platform above and to the left of the stage, overlooking both it and the dance floor.
The whole place appeared as though it hadn't been cleaned in either of the two Gryffindors' lifetimes.
Neither of them were prepared for the club. They were at least vaguely aware that such houses of debauchery existed; it was common knowledge that, if not spoken, was at least understood. But the reality of it was quite different.
The two students made their way up to the platform upon which the tables rested. A bar on the far side sold drinks to kids using 'real' ID's; a lot of them never made it off the platform, because they passed out before leaving. Harry and Ginny selected a table set as far from both the dance floor and the bar as possible.
"Why did we agree to this?" Ginny asked Harry, staring in horror at a girl whose shirt was ripped in several revealing locations.
"We were going to have fun," Harry offered, turning distinctly red when he saw what Ginny saw.
"Having fun yet?" Ginny asked him, shouting over the incredibly loud metal assaulting their ears from the lower level.
"Not really," Harry replied back. "Actually, I wouldn't mind leaving now."
"Neither would I," Ginny said, obviously relieved. "Come on, let's find Craig."
They rose quickly from their seats and headed for the stairs. Unfortunately, a couple of older kids had spotted their out of place clothing and facial expressions and had decided to have a bit of fun with them.
Three college aged boys and a girl who couldn't have been much older than Ginny stepped in front of them, blocking the stairs. Believing that it was an accident, Harry endeavored to go around them, but they shifted, grinning maliciously, to block him.
"Hey, kiddies," one of them said. "How's it going?"
Harry didn't know what to say. The guy who was addressing him wore dark, baggy clothing and had several dozen body piercings. "Uh..." Harry stammered a bit. "Not too bad, I suppose. We're actually just leaving..."
"No you're not," one of the others, a man with straight black hair and a long goatee said. "You just got here. You're going to have some fun, and so are we."
Harry groaned. "Where have I heard that before?" he said to himself.
The girl stepped forward and looked Ginny up and down. "I love the costume," she said. "Getting in touch with your inner school girl, it most turn him on like crazy. Tell me, does he fuck you in that or do you take it all off first?"
Both Harry and Ginny were dumbstruck for a moment. Then Ginny blushed furiously. Harry was furious too, but he wasn't blushing. "I think you really should leave us alone now," he said, through clenched teeth.
"Oh, you are a prude, mate!" the final college boy said. "You're here in the best club in all of London, and you get all upset over a little question like that? Come on, we're just making nice."
Harry attempted to shove past them. "Make nice somewhere else," he said.
The malicious grins disappeared off the young men's faces. "Maybe we don't want to," Goatee said.
Piercings grabbed Ginny by the shoulder, and she yelped loudly. Of course, in the mass chaos of the club, no one cared. Ginny shook herself free quickly.
"Look, I don't want to have to hurt you, annoying as you may be," she said. The boys laughed out loud.
"Hurt us?" they said. "Oh, I think we're going to be the ones doing the hurting, bitch."
The girl with them laughed as well. "Fine," she said. "But I get him." She pointed as Harry.
Ginny took a swing at her. Despite all her training, she forgot for a moment her Slayer strength, and she knocked the girl flying halfway across the room.
The other boys turned quickly serious. "You're going to pay for that one, slut!" They launched themselves at Ginny.
Goatee came in first, taking a big swing at Ginny with his right fist. She sidestepped him quickly and easily, hooking his arm with her own, and using his momentum and her own super strength, applied gruesome pressure to his arm. It popped out of its socket.
Dropping Goatee to the floor to deal with is new arm problems, Ginny turned back just in time to get hit in the face with a chair. Dazed by the force of the blow, Ginny sunk to one knee. She rolled away underneath a table to regroup.
Meanwhile, Harry had run to the side of the platform upon which the tables were. He had decided to try and get Craig, but the problem was that the stairs were still blocked by the goons, and a crowd was being drawn, congesting things. So, while Ginny dodged around the tables, trying to get her bearings back after the chair shot, Harry made a decision.
He took a quick, steadying breath and launched himself over the side of the railing, down fifteen feet onto the dance floor.
Later, Harry wouldn't be completely sure what broke his fall; regardless of what it was, though, a second later, he was crowd surfing. It wasn't a deliberate thing; he would have rather walked. However, getting down was a problem, as he discovered quickly.
Instead, Harry scanned the crowd as he passed over it. After a minute or two of searching, he head a sharp laugh and a voice call out, over the music, "Thattaboy, Harry! Have a little fun!"
"Craig!" Harry yelled, as loud as he could. "Ginny's in trouble!"
Craig was by him instantly, helping Harry down off the crowd. "Where?" he asked. His eyes were alight with fire.
"Up on the platform, near the tables," Harry said, breathing heavily from his surfing ordeal. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Craig was gone.
Harry pushed his way through the crowd in time to see Craig, who had apparently jumped from the floor up onto the platform, hit one of the thugs from behind. Heartened by the evening of the odds, Ginny stopped her charade and attacked the final jerk.
In the face of Craig and Ginny, two people who were obviously too strong for them to deal with, the remaining goons backed down, throwing up their arms and declaring defeat. Ginny stopped her attack immediately, and it had appeared as though Craig had, as well, when he suddenly whirled back on the Piercings and grabbed him, tossing him over the railing and onto the dance floor.
"Who's next?" He asked, viciously. He was breathing heavily, though the exertion of throwing the thug couldn't have been all that hard on Craig. "Come on! Step up! I want a fight!"
Harry walked cautiously up to Craig and laid a hand on the other boy's shoulder. Craig turned, snarling. "Craig," Harry said, more than a little freaked out. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Craig relaxed a little, but the glow in his eyes didn't go anywhere. "Sure," he said. "I've had enough for one night, anyway."
As he headed down the stairs, the crowd parted for him, and Harry and Ginny followed in his wake. They, and not him, cast a single worried glance toward Piercings, who hadn't been caught by the crowd and lay with his leg bent at a strange angle.
Then the three were back out on the street. "Craig, what was that all about?" Harry asked.
"What?" Craig asked.
"That guy had given up, that's what! And you threw him over a railing!"
"So? He was the bad guy," Craig replied, shrugging it off as though it were nothing.
Harry and Ginny cast worried looks at each other behind Craig's back. And, what made them even more nervous was that he didn't notice.
Getting back to Hogwarts was easy enough. Though security was heavier for people trying to get into Hogsmeade, they were no match for Craig's intelligence and stealth. They wouldn't have been a match for his violence either, but luckily, Harry and Ginny managed to rein him in.
As they walked back up the lawn, the darkness a bit oppressive, Craig turned away from the path to the castle. "I'm heading into the forest to go hunting. You two in?"
Harry looked at him in utter incredulity. "You have got to be joking," he said. "After all that..."
"It got me going a bit, and now I need a few kills before bed time," Craig said. "Come on, it'll be fun."
"Thanks, we've had enough fun for tonight," Ginny said, and, grabbing Harry's arm, she marched up to the castle. Craig shrugged and turned back to the forest.
Once back inside the castle, Harry and Ginny had to be careful not to make too much noise. Mrs. Norris and Filch were always out on the prowl at this hour, whatever hour this was; and getting caught by either was the kind of unpleasant experience that no student wished to go through more than never.
Their luck held in this, at least; no sign of Filch or his cat turned up at any point. Harry and Ginny quickly gained the Common Room, receiving a knowing smile from the Fat Lady on the way.
"Oh, just so long as you were being careful about it, don't worry - all the kids are doing that nowadays," she said, with slight reproachfulness.
"Doing what..." Harry began, but then he saw the state of himself and Ginny. Both had been involved in several small physical ordeals that night, and they were roughed up just enough to give the appearance of...
"Oh, why does everyone seem to think that about us!" Harry yelled, and pulled Ginny into the portrait hole, leaving the Fat Lady looking a bit puzzled.
Harry immediately sat down, hard, on his favorite couch. Ginny sat down next to him, leaning her head against his shoulder. "What time is it?" She asked.
Harry glanced at the clock and winced. "Three in the morning," he said. "Hard to believe we were out that long, isn't it? Oh, well - I'm heading to bed."
Harry began to rise, but Ginny called him back. "Harry, there's something we have to talk about," she said to him.
He came back around the couch and sat down again, with Ginny facing him. "What?" he asked.
"Well, what everyone keeps saying about us..." Ginny said. "What they think we've been doing..."
Harry blushed. "We haven't been doing," he finished. "There's nothing to worry about, Ginny."
"Oh, I know that," she said. "I would have noticed if we'd..." she faltered, searching for an appropriate verb, and finally just giving up on it. "But that's not the point."
"Then what is?" Harry asked, somewhat bewildered. What was this all about?
"Well," Ginny said, nervousness etching itself across her face in a pattern only Harry could read. "Have you ever thought about doing...it?"
Harry's blush returned a bit. "I don't know," he said. Ginny gave him a severe look through her own nervousness. "Well, sure, okay, I have," he admitted. "But never seriously, Ginny. I have too much respect for you to pull anything like that."
Ginny seemed even more hesitant to pull the next words from her mouth. "But, what if I wanted you to..." She cut herself off.
Harry looked closer at her, but she kept her face hidden. "Ginny, what are you saying?" he asked.
"It's this Slayer thing!" she said. "Something about it...I don't know...makes me more..."
"Oh," Harry said, cutting her off before she had more trouble finding an appropriate word for an inappropriate subject. "Well, I...that's....um..."
"Yeah, my thoughts exactly," Ginny said, miserably.
Harry turned to think for a moment. On the one hand, there was the fact that they were both awfully young for such an intimate connection - but they weren't that young anymore. He was sixteen. She was fifteen. Both had been forced to grow up really fast in the last few years. They weren't children.
Which was why he had to do the mature thing here. Deciding once today that he'd had enough of maturity had already had disastrous results, and Harry wasn't eager to make an even bigger mistake. "We're not ready for that, Ginny," he said. "I love you, but I don't think that it would be a good idea for us to have sex until we're older."
Ginny smiled a little. "You're right," she said. "What would I do without you?"
"Let's never find out," Harry said, drawing her into his arms. In moments, they were asleep.
They dreamt together again. The same dream as before. They met. They kissed. Ron staked Harry. And Harry turned to dust. They awoke at the same time, harshly, and looked at each other. Neither said anything.
As Craig walked back to his usual sleeping tree, he wiped the demon's blood off of his face. It had been a messy kill. It had been a good kill.
He felt sated for now. There would be another urge to kill later, but the forest was full of demons. It wouldn't be all that hard to find another one.
As he approached his tree, he became aware of someone in it. He looked up and grinned. "I would have paid money to watch you climb up there," said Craig.
Dumbledore didn't smile back. "Why did you do it, Craig?" he asked.
Craig jumped. He easily made it to the branch upon which Dumbledore sat. "Cause," he said. "We all needed a little fun."
"That wasn't the only reason, though, was it?" Dumbledore asked.
Craig sighed. The smile left him. "No," he said. "It wasn't."
"What was it you were trying to test?" Dumbledore asked.
Craig was resigned to this. He would have much rather gone about directing Harry and Ginny without Dumbledore's interference; but Dumbledore had been making plans for Harry for the better part of two decades, so Craig had to defer.
"Sex," he said. "Seeing how strong their relationship is when they get that thrown in their faces."
Dumbledore frowned. "You could have done that easily enough here," he said. "Why go to all the trouble?"
"Because," Craig said, impatiently, "they know everyone here. They would either dismiss it as being something that nosy person would say, or they would question why someone would ask them that rather than think about it truly. By hiring some dumb whore to say it to them, it shocked them a bit. It made them think."
Dumbledore thought about it a bit. Then he nodded. "Fine," he said. "I have left this up to you. Remember, though, that I am in charge of this overall, and that you should always okay things with me first."
"Of course," Craig said, but he didn't believe it. Perhaps Dumbledore knew that. As far as Craig was considered, that didn't matter. Dumbledore left, jumping down to the ground, and Craig was left alone in his tree. He was asleep minutes later.
Faith arose the next morning and, dressing quickly, walked outside. A beautiful day was beginning. She left the barracks behind her and headed down to the field to begin getting the Slayer training course ready for the day.
In the weeks since Buffy's arrival back, Faith had taken to getting things ready each morning. No one else would do it, and rather than take time out of training to have the trainee's set things up, she would do it.
They had amassed quite a bit of neat stuff. A lot of it was junk, if you asked Faith, but some of it proved useful. Every day, she checked over the obstacle course to make sure that it hadn't been damaged somehow; a damaged obstacle course presented dangers that they didn't need to deal with. Everything was in order.
Training was, as usual, the usual thing. The Slayers had fallen into a constant routine. However, one person was missing.
"Where's Maria?" Faith asked. "This is her day for target practice; you'd think she wouldn't want to miss that."
A couple of the girls cast uncertain looks at each other. "She's...a bit indisposed," one of them said, eventually.
"I don't think she was feeling well this morning," said another.
Faith looked around at the looks on the girls' faces. Then she smiled. "I understand that you want to cover for your friend. Don't. It'll just make things worse. Where is she?"
The girls hung their heads. "Back in her room," they said, eventually.
Faith nodded and left. She wasn't particularly mad at the girls; she'd have done the same thing for a friend. It was good to see that the new Slayers were developing a sense of camaraderie.
It didn't help in this situation, though.
Maria Grieta was going to be a problem. Giles and Shannon had both said it. Buffy said it later. So did Faith. In fact, everyone in a position to say so said so. Maria Grieta was going to be a problem.
So why were they being so lenient with her? Why did they seem surprised when she did end up being a problem? Faith didn't know the answers to those questions. The old her, the murdering, crazy bitch her, wouldn't have even asked the questions. She'd grown as a person just enough to know that the questions were there.
Faith entered the barracks just as Giles was leaving. He was decked out in padding from his head to his foot, and was waddling more than he was walking.
"What's up with the suit?" Faith asked.
"I'm teaching fundamental aikido and capoiera today," he replied. "What are you doing back in?"
"Maria," Faith said. Giles groaned. "She didn't show up for target practice."
Giles sighed. Then he grinned a bit. "Don't go too hard on the girl, Faith," he said. "Try not to kill her, eh?"
"Not funny," Faith said. She kept walking.
Maria's room was near the middle of the front row on the second floor of the barracks. Faith didn't bother to knock. Instead, she opened the door and walked in.
Maria was asleep on her bed. She had definitely fallen asleep quickly and without planning, because the joint was still lying on her chest, where it had fallen.
"Wake up!" Faith said sharply.
Nothing.
Faith walked over to Maria and punched her in the arm. Still nothing.
Faith grinned to herself. Okay, the girl wanted to do this? Fine, she'd pay the consequences.
Faith left and returned a few minutes later with a bucket of icy water. She unceremoniously poured the freezing water over the head of Maria.
Needless to say, Maria woke up in a hurry. She didn't know where she was at first, or what was going on, but she did know that the sensation of frigid water dousing her still partially unconscious body was deeply unpleasant. She bolted out of bed.
"What...?" she asked.
"You overslept," Faith said. "Mighta had something to do with this." She held up the joint, which was now a bit soggy.
"Oh, shit," Maria said.
"Yeah, that about sums it up," Faith responded. "Let's go see Buffy."
"You brought drugs here?" Buffy yelled. "Here? We're training an army to fight a huge war against enormous odds, and you bring drugs into the camp?"
"Yeah," Maria muttered. She refused to look up and meet Buffy's eyes. Faith flexed a hand. This was even worse than she'd expected.
Good.
"Tell me," Buffy said, standing up behind her desk and crossing around it. "Do you believe in anything you've been taught here, Maria?"
"What?" Maria asked, still unable to look up.
"Sacred duty," Buffy said. "Do you know that you have one? Do you know that you're supposed to be a savior of the people? Are you aware that a lot of lives depend on all of us, including you? Can you understand that, in a fight, I need to know that I can rely on all of you, because if I can't, we all die? Do you understand me?"
"Yes," Maria muttered.
"I don't think you do," Buffy said. "Or else this wouldn't be happening."
"Have you ever been addicted to anything?" Maria burst out.
"No," Buffy said, truthfully.
"It's not like all that stuff you've had," Maria said, finally meeting Buffy's eyes. "A normal, upper middle class life, then a sacred duty, and now this. I had nothing. So I got hooked. You don't just get unhooked. Doesn't work like that, chica."
Buffy wasn't impressed. "You're going to kick this thing," she said. "Or you're going to leave. Your choice."
They'd hit a standoff. Seeing that they were losing Maria quickly, Faith jumped in. "Maria, you never had much. Neither did I. But I've got something now. You can too, if you stay, and you can be free of the addiction, too. Doesn't that sound okay?"
Maria looked over at Faith. "I suppose it does," she said.
"Then stay," Faith said. "Please."
Maria considered for a while. Then she nodded. "Okay," she said. "I'll stay."
"Good," Faith said. "Now get out into the yard and take some target practice with the others."
Maria left.
"Why did you do that?" Buffy asked. "Convince her to stay? It was her choice."
"I didn't change that," Faith said. "I just helped her make the right one. Maybe I have a soft spot for Slayers who make the wrong choices. You can understand that, right?"
"Yeah, I can understand that," Buffy said. "Keep Maria in line, and I'll understand it better."
Faith nodded to her and left. It was all she could do to keep from saluting.
Hmmm. Not bad, right? PLEASE, oh PLEASE, leave me some feedback. Just write a quick little review! Please oh please oh PRETTY please? I need reviews to keep writing.