A/N: I hope that you enjoy the next instalment. Sorry that it has taken me so long to update this story, all of my fanfics have suffered the same neglect...I have heaps of excuses saved up but you don't want to hear them, you just wanna read so enjoy...oh and I'll try to be more punctual from now on. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

NEW BEGININGS.

PIVIT DRIVE.

"Harry Potter!" Uncle Vernon yelled up the stairs for the boy. He appeared at the top of the staircase.

"Yes uncle?"

"How long until you leave?"

"Another week sir."

"Drat. Go away then boy!" Harry quickly disappeared from his Uncle Vernon's line of sight as he retreated to his room.

Harry Potter was to complete his Seventh and final year at Hogwarts this year. This both saddened and cheered Harry. He would have to leave the place he had called home for the past seven years. Hogwarts."

He hated this place. His home or it was supposed to be. His relatives were terrible. He had been working as a slave since he'd returned from Hogwarts at the end of his last year. There was one week until September First when he returned to school.

HE was moping about when someone thumped on the front door. He bolted down to open it before it was knocked off its hinges.

"Harry!" Ron cried.

"Ron!" The two best friends hugged happily. "What are you doing here?"

"We've come to take you to Diagon Alley of course."

"Great! I'll grab my trunk!" The two ran up the stairs to Harry's room and piled everything Harry owned into his trunk. Harry let Hedwig out and carried the cage and one end of the trunk with Ron on the other down the stairs.

"Uncle Vernon. Aunt Petunia!" Harry bellowed.

They came cautiously. "What?"

"Clean your own house. I'm off!" With that he and Ron walked off.

HOGWARTS.

Buffy was shown her room and she slept like a log all night and into the morning. She woke cosy and fully rested.

Pulling herself out of bed se had the chance to look around her quarters properly. She had a large but cosy bedroom with a four-poster bed there was a fireplace in the corner. She had a bathroom to one side and to the other she had a large wardrobe out of the bedroom she had a common room style room. Large couches and another fire place. There were two doorways leading from there. She opened the first and saw that it led to the outside corridor. When she opened the other she saw it led to a spiral staircase that went down.

Her curiosity overcame her need to change from her pyjamas and she climbed down the stairs. Another door stood at the bottom. When she entered her breath was taken away. There was a huge gym/training room.

There was a Boxing bag, uneven bars, parallel bars, beams and a large spring floor. Crash mats were scattered around. In a corner of the room was a shelf with an assortment of weapons on it. She was so shocked she didn't hear Snape come in.

"Not bad huh?"

"Wow."

"Yeah. That was my original thought. Three years ago Dumbledore had it prepared. Selected students train in here. There are several entrances but Dumbledore thought to make your room attached to one of them."

"Thanks."

"Yes. Well, I come here every morning to practice." Snape told her.

"Oh?" What do you train with?"

"The sword. Do you use it?"

"Of course. Comes with the duties."

"Yes, well...will you join me for morning practices?"

"Sometimes. I prefer to train after lunch. Normally I don't get much sleep with patrol and I have been told that I'm a grouch in mornings." Buffy smiled and he raised an eyebrow.

"You're not too bad now."

"Speechless from the sight. Besides I didn't patrol last night."

"Yes but we were up past one in the morning!"

"That's nothing. Most nights were three 'o' clock numbers."

"Oh."

"Yeah, well." Buffy wandered over to the closest beam. "I haven't used one of these for years!" She exclaimed.

"Will you train now?"

"Yeah okay. I've gotta get changed first though." She gestured to her pyjamas. He chuckled. "I'll be right back!"

"Buffy sprinted up stairs and grabbed her trunk. She threw clothes around until she found her black sweat pants, white tank top and sneakers. Dressing hurriedly she brushed her teeth, hair and washed her face. She ran back down the stairs and joined Severus still pulling her hair up.

"That was quick. I thought that girls took forever to get changed."

"Only when were not excited." She retorted beginning her stretches. They worked at them for a few minutes before buffy decided to skip the rest and get right to it.

She chalked up her hands.

"Did you ever do gymnastics before yo became the Slayer?" Snape asked Buffy.

"Yeah actually, then on to cheerleading.

"Oh."

"You wanna see my award winning beam routine?" Snape who had been selecting his sword turned stunned to see Buffy execute a perfect double twist mount. She was a blur on the apparatus. Hand springs, flips, and backwards somersaults. One more move flowing to the next and she ran, cart wheeling into a leap from the beam flipping in the air and landing surely on two feet. She hadn't really worked up a sweat but her eyes were wide from adrenaline.

"That was incredible!"

"Thankyou. I haven't done it for a while so I was a bit rusty."

"It looked good."

Buffy shrugged. "It was a good warm up." She wandered over to the weapons and grabbed a staff. It was a basic weapon yet good to train with. The two worked hard for on an hour. When Buffy called a halt they had both worked up a sweat.

"Let's shower shall we?" She asked adjusting the straps of her top.

"Very well. Then I shall guide you to the great hall where everyone meets for lunch."

"Okay."

The two split up and Buffy returned to her room to find that her mess had been cleaned up, the bed made and all of her things had been unpacked in the spaces provided.

Shrugging she stepped under the shower.