I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or anything associated with it. It belongs to its creator Joss Whedon and whoever else owns it. This piece of literature is simply the work of a humble fan. I don't own Harry Potter neither. It belongs to J.K. Rowling.
:::Author Notes:::
This takes place during Season Four of Buffy. It's after the episode Restless (Where the First Slayer killed all of them in their dreams). For Harry Potter it takes place after the events of book five: Order of the Phoenix.
Some of you had questions in your reviews. I don't like people being confused so here are your answers.
Q&A
Are you going to put Angel and Buffy together? — Good question. I don't want to give anything up. All I can give you is you'll find out in the sequel.
Why is there snow in California? — Because I wrote there was snow… I live in Texas and have been to California once… Didn't really read any books on the climate while there.
Is Sirius going to get with Buffy in the sequel? — Nope. That's kind of like going out with her surrogate father sorta. Him being Harry's godfather and her father's best friend. That pairing kinda creeps me out just because he's Harry's Godfather. What will Buffy tell Harry? "Hey, I'm going out with Dad's best friend"
Correction: It has been brought to my attention repeatedly that there was two errors in the last chapter. First Buffy's street name is spelled Revello not Rovello… Second there is no snow in California whatsoever. I wrote there was snow on the ground, not snowing, just snow on the ground and people went into an uproar…
Stars Not in Heaven
Chapter Eighteen: The Lycan Who Cried "Sub!"
By: Water Mage
Blood.
Death.
Smoke.
Buffy walked along the blood stained, field looking around in horror. All around her people were fighting for their lives. Her dream had started off nice just like usual, but then it suddenly took a turn for the worst, propelling her into a scene that would have given the US Civil War a run for its money as the bloodiest war in US history. Screams and shouts of war cries filled the air as an army of people dressed in robes faced off against each other. On one side was a group of people in full black while on the other side were people wearing dark red robes. The sun was low in the sky and the air was filled with gray smoke from the explosions that had rocked the very earth. Ahead, Hogwarts castle stood silent and strong, the red robed people took out anyone who got to close to the castle.
Buffy knew this was a dream but it felt so real. The stench of burned flesh and thick smoke filled her nostrils causing her eyes to water. She didn't know how she knew but without a doubt Buffy knew that this was the Final Battle. Somehow she was witnessing the final showdown between the Light side and the Dark Side, lead by Lord Voldemort. Buffy looked up into the sky and there was a strange, glowing light in the sky. If she had a telescope Buffy would have seen all the planets aligned single file, the Great Conjunction.
Buffy watched the battle like a spectator would for she wasn't even there. This was only but a glimpse into the future. A hush suddenly fell over the battlefield. Buffy shivered involuntarily, as a figure she had come to recognize appeared calmly walking across the field. His blood red eyes met hers…
Suddenly a bright, white light burst from the sky. Buffy looked up and quickly shielded her eyes, as the light was far too bright to look into. The light wasn't just bright it was beautiful. So white and pure. It radiated holiness and power. A figure could be seen floating within the light, but Buffy couldn't make out its face. The light masked the person's features. In a voice that was loud and full of thunder it spoke to her.
"This is only the first battle," it boomed from the sky. "Soon she will come."
"Wait! Who will come!" Buffy cried desperate for an answer.
She jerked as a hand grabbed her shoulder and roughly spun her around. Buffy gasped in surprise at the smirking person, whose face was hidden by the light that rained down on them from above. The only thing she could see was flashing, blue eyes and a large smirk.
"No, not who," said the mysterious person. "Me."
Quickly the person raised their arm and without even a pause they drove their fingers directly through Buffy's skull.
Buffy jolted awake, and bolted up in her bed. Breathing heavily she clutched her rapid beating heart. That was the second time this week she had had that dream. That makes it a total of three times in all that she had had it. The first had been during the Yule Holidays when she was at home in Sunnydale. Now almost a month and a half later the dream had started up again. Buffy rose from her bed and crossed her room to the window. She looked out to moonlit grounds of Hogwarts. The dream disturbed Buffy to the core. When the dream started again earlier in the week, Dumbledore and Giles had been the first people she told. One verbally and the other through a letter delivered by Einstein. Dumbledore had been just as disturbed by it as her. His conclusion was the battle with Voldemort was going to be fought on the grounds of Hogwarts. Who wins is unknown but She, whom the light covered figure mentioned, was not known to even Dumbledore. The only thing the both of them could think of was that after Voldemort a new, bigger threat was going to come in to play.
That thought alone made both Dumbledore and Buffy cringe with worry.
Buffy wished that she could talk to her friends about this, knowing that the battle in her dream was going to take place in only a couple of months was nerve wracking. But they were in Sunnydale, and she was in Scotland. They only had letters to communicate with, but sometimes it wasn't enough. She knew that Remus and Sirius were there for her, as the three of them had become a close group of friends. Buffy had shared her prophetic dream with the two older adults and they both were disturbed by it like her.
"My life is just a little too complicated," muttered Buffy, watching the stars twinkle in the dark sky.
Buffy sat in her office the afternoon sun shinning through the clear, glass window behind her. A parchment was held in her hands and her eyes scanned the paper reading it through. Professor Dumbledore had charmed a paper that outlined what exactly the Order had been doing lately. It would burst into flames and destroy itself as soon as she finished reading for security reasons. So far since December they had recruited almost a hundred and twenty people for the Order of the Phoenix army. Also the news of Sirius' untimely arrival had caused uproar inside the Council that headed the Phoenix Order. The Order's science sorcerers had subjected the newly returned wizard to multiple tests, wondering if his brief time in Heaven had changed him in anyway. Nothing had been found except a change in his aura, as it now seemed brighter and stronger.
"Shit," Buffy swore, reading the parchment. It seems that Voldemort was gathering forces also. The Giants hadn't gone to his side luckily, but the lower demons that didn't mind having a master and some vampires and plenty of dark wizards had joined his cause.
Suddenly a knock interrupted her from her reading. A pained squeak erupted from her as the parchment in her hand suddenly burst into flames and vanished.
"Come in!" yelled Buffy, voice muffled because of the stinging finger she held in her mouth.
Hermione entered the room, hair pulled into a messy bun and a bright smile on her face. "Hi, Buffy. How are you today?"
"Same old, same old," smiled Buffy. "I only just got back from one of Professor Dumbledore's lets teach Buffy magic or I'll break my neck trying lessons. So what's up?"
"I ran into Professor Lupin a little while ago and he told me to give you this."
Buffy took the letter from Hermione and with a wave the teenager left the room. Buffy unfolded the letter and started reading.
Dear Buffy,
The full moon is tonight and I need to get ready for it, so would
you mind taking over my classes for a couple of days. I know that
you haven't done it before, so there is a lesson plan already laid out.
Love,
Remus
Buffy groaned out loud and with a sigh she thumped her forehead against her desk. Thanks to pure chance and luck every time that Remus went about his monthly transformations, Buffy hadn't had to sub his classes. Remus either had changed during a weekend or on a day that he hadn't had to teach classes like on a Friday. Buffy knew she had to do this favor for him. It was part of her agreement she made with Dumbledore to become a counselor here. Buffy tucked the note in her desk drawer. Slipping her wand in her pocket she was out the door.
Buffy walked down the empty corridor to the Defense classroom that was just down the hall from her own office. She entered the room and wasn't surprised to find it empty. She went to Remus' desk and found a stack of reference books and a roll of parchment that contained the entire lesson plan for the rest of the week. Buffy grinned and rolled her eyes as she spotted today's lesson.
"Ha ha, Remus," she said aloud talking to herself. With a sigh Buffy plopped herself down in the chair behind the old, wooden desk. "I better be getting paid extra for this."
It wasn't long before the bell rang and the corridors filled with hundreds of students on their way to their next class. Slowly kids started to trickle into the classroom. Buffy wanted to bite her tongue. Her first class of the day was going to be double Slytherins and Ravenclaws. The Ravenclaws weren't a problem but the Slytherins, now those kids always seemed to rub her the wrong way. They reminded her too much of Cordelia's group, the Cordettes, back in High School. Only these kids seemed like they wouldn't hesitate to hit someone with a dark curse given the chance. But Buffy wasn't the least bit intimidated; after all she has taken on a stronger than hell US government made Frankenstien monster and won.
'Oh great,' Buffy mused internally. 'The evil reincarnation of Spike is here.'
Draco Malfoy walked in flanked by Crabbe and Goyle. With a sneer tossed in Buffy's direction he took a seat. Buffy rolled her eyes refusing the urge to start clapping for his Days of Our Lives dramatic entrance. Buffy stood up as the final tardy bell rang.
She graced her class with a smile and said, "Hey guys, how's everybody?" the usual shrugs and murmurs accompanied the question. "Professor Lupin isn't too well now, since tonight is the Full Moon so he asked me to sub his classes till he feels better."
"What makes you so qualified to teach this class?" interrupted Malfoy not bothering to keep the superior tone from his voice.
Buffy leveled him with a smirk that matched his own. He blinked, clearly surprised at the look. "When I was fifteen I burned down my high school gym to kill a sect of vampires that were attacking the school dance." Malfoy's smirk disappeared while Buffy grinned. 'That's what I thought.'
"Now like I was saying before I was interrupted," Buffy shot a look at Malfoy. "Today we will be learning about a group of demons that I've actually encountered before."
"How?" asked a Ravenclaw from the back of the classroom.
Buffy stopped herself pausing for a moment. She couldn't very well tell people she was the Slayer. Even Ron and Hermione still didn't know. Thus was the purpose of a secret identity. "…They attacked my town once and the local Demon Slayer took care of them. Now anyway, this group of demons are particularly dangerous. They are called the Gentlemen..."
Instantly at that name most of the Slytherins straightened in their seats and the Ravenclaws looked positively frightened. Buffy raised her eyebrow astonishment etched on her face. "I see some of you have heard of them. Anyone want to share. You… go ahead," she said calling on a boy whom had his hand raised.
Zach Raine had black hair and intelligent blue eyes. His whole demeanor radiated intelligence, obviously a Ravenclaw. "Well, I know of the Gentlemen only through my Grandmother and books. She told me once that when she was a young girl the Gentlemen had attacked a neighboring wizarding village near hers. She said that from then on they started to sing a song so they would never forget them…
"Can't even shout, can't even cry, the Gentlemen are coming by," Zach started off by himself but slowly the other students joined in. "Looking in windows, knocking on doors, they need to take seven and they might take yours. Can't call to mom, can't say a word, you're gonna die a-screaming, but you won't be heard."
Buffy was really surprised now. Made her wish that some of the people living on the Hellmouth were wizards. Some may have actually known what the hell the Gentlemen were immediately. Too many people died that night last year.
"I see you guys are familiar with the Gentlemen. Let me go over them for those who don't know who they are. They are demons of the ghoul species. The Gentlemen's main operation is to enter a town, steal the voices of its residents, and take seven hearts out of still-living, conscious victims. These ghouls come in two varieties--the deceptively polite morticians, who dress in suits and carry doctor bags that contain their scalpels. They travel by floating above the ground and wear chilling grins on their faces. Aiding them are the straight-jacket wearing rigors, who traipse along like apes. They perform the muscle work--holding down victims…"
Buffy took a breath a little amazed out how textbook she was sounding. She looked around the classroom and the class was actually listening and taking down notes as she was lecturing. A small flutter of accomplishment welled up within her because of her success.
"The Gentlemen don't steal voices to prevent their victims from making noise as is commonly believed. They steal voices to prevent victims from screaming because their eardrums are very sensitive to the sounds of human screaming. A loud enough scream is deadly to them."
"How do the Gentlemen take voices?" asked Blaise Zabini, sixth year Slytherin. "I've never heard it really explained."
"At night when the residents of the town have gone to sleep, the Gentlemen use some mystical means, which no one is sure of, to remove the "noise-making" properties of everyone's throats. These "voices" travel across the city and enter a distinctive-looking wooden box, which one of the Gentlemen closes so that the voices are trapped there."
Draco Malfoy wasn't smirking and his tone wasn't superior sounding, only curious as he asked, "How do you know all of this? This is more detailed information than I've ever heard on one particularly demonic group before. Especially one so shrouded in mystery as the Gentlemen."
Buffy shrugged. "The Demon Slayer in my town is a friend of a friend of mine. You tend to overhear things…"
She talked for twenty more minutes till the bell rang and she dismissed them. And so it went for the rest of the day she taught the different classes with the aid of the provided lesson plan. Teaching, as a whole seemed hell of a lot easier then she ever thought it would be. One student in particular prompted a smile on Buffy's face every time she thought of her. Luna Lovegood had the most odd questions that Buffy had ever heard. How on earth would Buffy even know what a viscous demon does on its spare time when its not plotting to kill someone?
The hours passed in a blur for Buffy. The day went by much faster than she had expected. As the last bell of the day rang, Buffy dismissed her class, first year Hufflepuffs, and left the room after they filed out. A tired yawn sounded through the air as she walked the corridor to her shared rooms. She placed her hand on the tapestry and said the password (Hellmouth). The tapestry turned transparent and she walked through it. Instantly she was bombarded with the raised voices of three teens. Buffy frowned recognizing the voices as Ron, Hermione, and Harry and it was coming from behind the closed door of Harry's room.
"You know how much I like her!" yelled Ron, voice muffled by the door.
"It was an accident, Ron!" pleaded Hermione.
"Really, Ron it was! I swear! We were studying and the next thing…"
"I go out to get a drink and then I come back and find my two best friends snogging!" roared Ron.
"Ronald Weasley, calm down this instant!" yelled Hermione. "First off you don't own me! We aren't even going out! You can't get mad at us because you haven't quit being all thick and stepped up!"
Buffy winced at the tone Hermione had used. Obviously Ron not outright declaring his feelings for her was a sore spot.
"We'll I hope you two are fucking happy together! I don't ever want to talk to either of you again!" spat Ron.
"Ron wait!"
"GO TO HELL, POTTER!"
The bedroom door swished open and Ron came stomping out without so much as glance at Buffy. The blond just stepped out of his way. Harry and Hermione noticed her however and both looked flushed and guilty at being caught. Hermione's hair was disheveled and Harry's lips looked swollen. A tale tell sign of a heavy make out session.
Buffy crossed her arms giving both of them a hard look. "Anyone want to tell me what in the hell just happened here?"
This is more a filler chapter in case you can't tell. Two more chapters and that's the end! We're getting close! The next chapter won't probably come till Sunday maybe. I'm going to a dance on Saturday and I might not even come home this weekend after it, so it's just a theory… Is anyone feeling like they want to yell at the WB? First Buffy and now Angel!!!!!! What will I do now without a show featuring that unique and quirky universe filled with Champions and Slayers? Thank god for Fanfiction…