Thanks to everyone who reviewed in particular Marz1 who is writing perhaps the best written fan fiction on the site, a Harry Potter fic called 'The Basement' that is so funny and really great, and still finds time to review my little fic. Go and read the story, it's great I promise! (Marz1 that's also a big hint to you to update k?)

Okay going to start listing the people that review each chapter and thanking them in the hope that people will get so excited about being in the list that they will review and then I will break 100. Ok so thanks to the people who reviewed Chapter 12:

Jen

Jubee1

Kyra2

manticore-gurl071134

wllw979

Alexandra the half-wolf (love your reviews, they make me laugh)

Charmedfanatic3000

Punkycowgirl (liking the song!)

And thanks to everyone who reviews all the other chapters, keep doing it and then you will be on the list and I will be happy J

Chapter 13 – The Shrieking Shack

Buffy awoke with the dawn, as she had gotten used to doing. The sun was creeping over the horizon, rays spilling over the deserted land that lay before them. Briefly Buffy thought of the werewolves, now men, in the barn. She cast them from her mind quickly, they would have to find their own way through their lives now, just as Oz and Remus had. Sirius and Buffy had not the time to help them as much as they would want to.


Sirius was still sleeping peacefully, which was surprising for Buffy as it was usually he that woke her, not the other way round. It was probably the night time adventures that had made him tired, Buffy reasoned. She propped herself up, careful not to dislodge his arm and wake him right away. His eyelids flicked, moving with whatever he was dreaming and his brow creased as troubled dreams plagued.
Watching him sleep was strange for Buffy, she felt almost like she was intruding, seeing in him a weakness she had not seen before, the deep scars that Azkaban had left upon his mind and soul.

Watching him, Buffy remembered, or thought she remembered him kissing her last night, gently on the lips as she passed from awakeness into slumber.  The thought pleased her for a moment, and then scared her that it pleased her. Buffy shook her head, it had probably been a dream, she really couldn't remember. Standing up carefully, she surveyed the barren land around them, heart sinking at the though of how much farther they had to go. It was early October and Sirius had told Buffy it would be at least another week before they reached the grounds of Hogwarts. Still, she hadn't been lying lat night, she was enjoying herself. Aside from the tiredness and dirtiness, and the encounters with demons, she was loving the freshness of what she was doing. England, a whole new country, a whole new adventure hiking from Liverpool to Scotland, in search of a wizard school to protect Sirius' godson. It was like nothing she had experienced. And Sirius, a new someone, like her but not, with pain in his life that no amount of time could fully heal.

Crouching down she nudged him gently.
 "Sirius," she said softly. "Time to get going." Sirius opened his eyes blearily.

 "Ug, morning already," he grumbled. "Stupid werewolves." He clambered up and looked towards the horizon.
 "Have you been in there?" he asked, gesturing towards the door. Buffy shook her head and so Sirius transformed into a dog. Together they hauled open the barn door, which was severely dented from the wolves throwing themselves at it. A boy, about seventeen and a man about ten years older lay unconscious on the stone floor. Carefully ignoring their lack of clothes, Buffy shook them until they awoke.
 "Where am I?" the younger boy said blearily when he awoke. "Who are you?"
 "That doesn't matter," Buffy said. "What matters is that you're a werewolf. But I guess you knew that right?" The boy nodded guiltily as the other man looked on.
 "Then you need to do something about it, maybe the two of you could lock yourselves in here in future. But you're dangerous, you will kill people." Buffy said sternly and the boy quailed. "It's three nights a month where you got to be careful." She looked at the other man who nodded at her.

 "Thanks," he said. "Sorry I tried to eat you."

 "Hey it happens," Buffy said casually. "Hope you do okay. C'mon Padfoot." She and Sirius left the barn. Once out in the pale chilly sunshine he transformed back into a human.

 "We'd better go," he said as he consulted the map.
 "Just what I was jonesing for," Buffy said cheerfully. "More walking."

After a few hours of walking, Buffy and Sirius stopped for a short break. They had encountered a small village and Buffy went to a tiny shop to buy some food. They carried on their walking before stopping in a field to eat.
 "So I was thinking," Buffy said, her mouth full of bread. "I need to be more englishy."

 "How's that?" Sirius said, drinking a can of coke.

 "Not by wearing tweed if that's what you're thinking. Anyway, so we get to Hogwarts and we need food right," Buffy began. "So I go into the village, Hogsweed is it?"

 "Hogsmeade." Sirius corrected. "Carry on."

 "So I go into a shop and say okay I want this and this and this," Buffy continued. "And right away I'm really obviously sticking out and will have Aurors attacking me. How many American people go to Hogsmeade? Like none. But If I'm English sounding then I blend with all the other English people there."

 "You know, in your own way, you've got a point," Sirius said thoughtfully. "I could teach you, in the next week. Just the important stuff, asking for food, a newspaper and all of that."
Consequently the last part of their journey was filled with Buffy's new hobby: trying to talk English like an English person.

 "Say 'I'd like a loaf of bread please'," Sirius instructed, enunciating carefully. The result of the lessons caused Sirius to laugh a lot at Buffy's attempts as she tried to talk English but just ended up sounding more American than ever.
However, with the new project the journey, which took them just under another two weeks, passed quickly.

It was Friday 22nd October when they arrived, in the afternoon. The sky was murky grey, steely and threatening to rain. They reached Hogsmeade through one of the alleys.
 "We can't just walk onto the Hogwarts grounds, they'll have guards," Sirius said to Buffy as the stood in the shadows. "I'll wait here; you go ask for some food, remember what I told you. See if you can get a paper too." Buffy nodded and walked out into the street.
The immanent rain had caused the people in Hogsmeade to turn up their cloaks against the wind. Buffy sidled down the street unnoticed except for the vaguest of glances. She went into the nearest shop, picked up a paper and enough food to last them for about a week. She paid with money Sirius had provided her with and left the shop lugging bags. Looking up and down the twisting road, Buffy spied a clothes shop. Eagerly she headed towards it, shopping deprivation making her forget how weary she felt.
 Buffy put her shopping by the dog and began to peruse the robes. Thoughtfully she selected a couple of sets of robes, thinking it would be useful to have them to blend in. She also picked up a cloak; it was long and black with a hood. She paid the shop keeper and gathered up her purchases, then wandered back down the street towards Sirius, stopping to look at a sign on her way.

 "I got food, a newspaper and some robes," Buffy murmured when she returned. "Figured they'd be useful for going incognito round Hogsmeade. But that sign it said that Dementors would be patrolling the streets after sundown until you're recaptured." They both looked towards the dwindling sun.
 "C'mon," Sirius said roughly and he scampered down the alley, dog formed. Buffy followed him, still carrying the shopping and the backpack. She followed him up a deserted hill towards a dank looking house. Furtively, Sirius crept around to the back of the house and Buffy followed. He pushed through the ivy that hung over the walls and waited patiently for Buffy. When she too pushed through the ivy, to her surprise she found a door.
She turned the handle and it opened. Sirius bounded in and Buffy carried the shopping in and closed the door behind her.
 "What is this place?" she said, looking around the dusty room that was apparently a kitchen according to the grime covered sink and surfaces and the large wooden table.
 "The shrieking shack," Sirius said, running a finger across one of the surfaces and gathering dust. "When Remus used to transform, he was locked in here so he wouldn't hurt anyone. The villagers heard his howls and thought this place was haunted, so no one goes near it. It's known as the most haunted place in Britain or something. But it's not at all."

 "Is it really deserted?" Buffy said looking round the filthy room in distaste.

 "Dumbledore knows about it," Sirius said. "So does Remus and some of the teachers. But we should be okay. We have to stay here, it has a direct route to Hogwarts, so we won't have to pass the dementors." Buffy nodded and wandered through the house. Sure enough in one of the rooms was a dusty hole which Sirius assured her lead to Hogwarts. The house was filled with dust as it hadn't been disturbed in a long time. Paper was peeling from the walls, there were stains all over and the windows were boarded up. Every piece of furniture was ripped up and broken to pieces. Going upstairs, Buffy found a bedroom was a magnificent four poster bed, hung with hangings that had gathered yet more dust. She and Sirius went back down to the kitchen.

 "I know it's not a palace, but think we can stay here?" Sirius said hopefully.

 "Beats sleeping outside or in werewolfy barns," Buffy said. "Wonder if we have running water." She walked over to the sink and brushed cobwebs off of the taps. Slowly, with a lot of effort she turned one of the taps. A loud groaning noise filled the house, followed by a grumbling as the pipes shifted. But, eventually a trickle of water made its way out of the tap, followed by more until the tap was flowing.
 "Yep I can stay here; it has running water and everything!" Buffy exclaimed.

Later, when evening had fallen over Hogsmeade Buffy and Sirius built a fire in the huge fireplace in the kitchen. They heated water in a huge cauldron over it, and then filled an old tin bath that they found in one of the rooms. Buffy was able to have a bath for the first time in longer than she could remember. She took her time and finally got out, hair washed, and clean from head to toe. She put on her pyjamas and went into the other room on the ground floor, the sort of living room to wait while Sirius had his bath. The house was small, only two rooms on the ground floor and two upstairs, but it beat sleeping outside Buffy decided. She sat on the moth eaten sofa that had chunks missing from the legs and quickly wrote a letter to Giles.

Hey Giles, It's been a while I guess, hope everything is okay in Sunnydale and that you are looking out for my mom. I'm doing okay, tired but no more travelling outside which is good. The place is okay, dusty but it's the best place for us to be. Won't say exactly where in case this gets intercepted. It's near enough Hogwarts for us though. If you want to write to me then send a letter back with the owl to the Hogsmeade Post office. Send it under the name of Joan Smith and I will pick it up.

Let me know if anything's up,

Buffy

P.S Say hi to the guys for me

By the time Buffy finished this letter and one to her mother, Sirius was finished having his bath and joined Buffy in the living room.

 "Feel better huh?" Buffy said with a smile as he sat down next to her. Buffy curled her legs under her.
 "Much," Sirius said. He lounged back on the sofa. "Feels good to be stopped, not having anywhere else to go." Buffy sighed, relaxed.
 "What's the plan from here then?" she said sleepily.

 "Dunno," Sirius said distractedly. He got up and went and got the paper from the kitchen. Sitting down, he opened it out. A picture of himself glared at him from the front page of The Daily Prophet.
 "Nice picture," Buffy commented, a note of amusement in her voice. Sirius grimaced and began to read the article that accompanied the picture and the headline 'Murderer still at large'. A minute later he looked up.
 "They think I'm going to storm the castle," he said, a note of amazement in his voice. "Run in using my dark magic to protect myself, kill Harry then go to find Voldemort and bring him back to his full strength."
 "They must think you're pretty dangerous," Buffy said carefully.
 "Not to anyone but Wormtail," Sirius replied determinedly. "But to go and find Voldemort? Please."

 "This guy Voldemort, who is he?" Buffy said curiously. "Like obviously he's the big bad and he killed a whole load of people but why?"

 "Long story," Sirius said with a smile. But hey, we've got time to kill. I'm not to clear on his background but he gathered a group of followers. Voldemort hates muggles, gathered a lot of support because of it. There are some wizards who are born to muggles, like anomalies, and some wizards have children with muggles. Wizards like Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts believe that origins don't matter. Voldemort doesn't agree, his followers are all purebloods and obsessed with purging the world of muggle blood. So they started doing it. There were spies everywhere, in the Ministry for Magic and people being killed everywhere. It was a terrible time. Dumbledore set up the Order; you've probably heard me mention it, the Order of the phoenix. A group of people, Aurors, Ministry workers, teachers, anything all united in the fight against Voldemort. Back in those days we did more fore the cause than the Ministry ever did, because we were never infiltrated. And when we were, when Wormtail turned, well you know how that turned out. Voldemort tried to kill Harry, but somehow it didn't work and the curse turned on him. He's somewhere now, not dead but waiting."

  "I still can't believe we didn't know about this," Buffy said shaking her head. "I mean pretty much every big bad comes to Sunnydale to drink in the evil goodness. Good thing this guy didn't know about the hell mouth, he could've got a pretty good bad magic fix."
 "He'll be back," Sirius said gravely. "Some people think he's dead but he's not, he can't be. There's this whole prophecy thing, anyway he'll be back. I need to get Peter out of there before Voldemort gets power. Because the second he does, Harry will be dead."
 "Okay, so what are we gonna do?" Buffy said, eyes fixed intently on Sirius. He yawned widely, and she followed suit.
 "Right now, go to sleep," Sirius said, with a sleepy smile. "We'll work it out tomorrow." Tiredly they wandered upstairs. Sirius let Buffy have the room with the grand four poster bed, taking a smaller room with a simple bed and Buffy sink into the velvety coverings, which though she had shaken them vigorously were still slightly dusty.  Sleep overcame her and she fell into dreams about rats, wands and green light.