Ok, so I think I'm going to have to put up the rating because this part is a little violent but I thought it was necessary since Willow seemed to be acting so good an nice all the time when she was supposed to be a little bad sometimes.

I also rushed this chapter a bit because I have a lot of other things that I should be doing instead, so sorry if there are any glaring errors.

Part 10

'Em, Minerva, I don't suppose I could ask you not to tell anyone about this?' Willow gave the transfiguration teacher her best pleading look. 'I think this may come in useful if we can just keep it a secret.' Willow quickly used her wand to change back to her regular, alive, self, although the feel of the binding leather corset and pants had not been quite so bad this time, in fact she could really grow to like it.

The Professor looked thoughtful, 'I shall have to tell the headmaster of course, but other than that it can be kept secret. This is rather unusual, I don't suppose that after the need for secrecy has passed that you would allow me to complete a paper on this, and also on your rather unusual wand and it's peculiar habits.'

'Well I don't see why not, once I'm finished with Voldemort I don't suppose there is much point in hiding my abilities.' Willow agreed instantly, relieved that there would be no problem with the plans that were beginning to form in her overactive mind.

'And speaking of secrets my dear,' the Professor began ominously, 'I think it's about time we were told exactly what happened in Hogsmeade. You need not be worried about persecution while you are within these walls, we really do not doubt the essential goodness of your intentions.'

The final statement that was meant as a reassurance merely made Willow feel a little guilty since she herself was not convinced of the essential goodness of her intentions. Her personal goals and the goals of those she was working with just happened to coincide at the present time, who knew when that would change. The days when she would do anything for anyone were long gone, and while she was in no way evil, she was not above using destruction and mayhem to achieve her objectives.

'Well the abbreviated version, you know, the one without all the emotional baggage, is that Voldemort has this complicated shield thing that means that any magical attack on him will fail to hurt him. He gave me a quick run down on how it worked, which kind of upset me, since it uses the tortured souls of his victims. I wasn't really thinking all that clearly and I came up with this brilliant idea that if I couldn't hurt him in a direct attack of magic, I might be able to kill him with something physical. Hence the fire, you know it might have worked but he escaped through the window and I was a little emotionally unstable so I kinda poured too much of my magical resources into the flames and blacked out. I think that's about the time when Spike rushed in and saved me. Goddess I really hate being helpless.' The explanation came out as a high-speed babble and it took a couple of minutes for Minerva to digest the information.

'A soul shield? Well that complicates things, the spells and ritual behind such things was thought to be lost, I think there is some information on them in the restricted section of the library, I think a large amount of research is required, although I doubt that we will find anything substantial. Unfortunately I think that Voldemort,' she stumbled over saying his actual name, 'may be in possession of the only remaining copy, and without the actual wording of the spell it will be impossible to find its limitations or a way to break it.'

'Well my research skills may be a little rusty, but I'm pretty sure the art of digging information from musty old books, is something you never forget. If we are finished her for the moment perhaps I could start making some headway.' Without waiting for an answer willow walked quickly out of the class room towards the library intent on finding the information to destroy her father.





'Damn it!' The force of her anger and frustration caused her magic to flare up and the book in front of her launched itself across the library, almost decapitating Harry, who had just walked through the door in search of his half sister.

He calmly walked over to her, ignoring the sudden wind blowing through the room and the fact that Willows hair and eyes were several shades darker than normal. 'You've been camped in here for a week, it's about time you went out and blew off some steam, don't you think? You have another couple of days before school starts, I'm sure can't afford to take some time off.'

Willow stared at him blankly for a minute and he was beginning to think there was something seriously wrong with her when she blinked rapidly and the magic surrounding her calmed down. 'I cant find what I need here anyway, I'm going to have to find another source of information.'

'Is it dark magic you're looking for?' Harry asked since Willow had declined to tell him what exactly it was that she was researching, only allowing Spike and Professor McGonagle to help her search the library. At the moment the library was in a terrible state, with books covering every available surface, Madame Pince was going to have a fit when she returned.

'The darkest.' Was the only answer Willow gave, unsure whether she should explain exactly what she was looking for. On one hand Harry really had a right to know since it was his mothers spirit that was being tortured and he might have to face Voldemort again in the near future. On the other hand, she was a coward and didn't want to see his reaction.

'Knockturn Alley' Harry's voice brought her out of her thoughts.

'What?' she asked, confused by the reference.

'If you want to find something connected to evil stuff, you should look in Knockturn Alley, its one of the side streets that branches out from Diagon Alley, it's where you met Spike, remember.' Harry had promised himself that he would wait until Willow offered to tell him what was happening before he asked any questions so he was just trying to be helpful, hoping she would trust him eventually.

'Thanks Harry,' Willow headed for the exit, intending to pick up Spike on her way to the suggested center of dark arts. She paused in the door way, knowing that this was something she really didn't have a choice in, and remembering how she had hated it when people kept things from her, 'for her own good'. 'I'll explain what's going on when we get back, okay?'

Harry nodded mutely, a wide smile lighting up his face, making Willow feel a bit sick since she knew that it would devastate him to know that Voldemort was using his mother's soul as a shield. She pushed that thought to the side, leaving it to be dealt with later as she began her search for Spike.

'Well luv, here we are.' Spike looked around the small, dark street, hoping for some kind of light display, or small miracle to show them where to look.

'What are you standing there waiting for, divine intervention?' Since that was exactly what he had be waiting for, he didn't comment, but followed as Willow marched past him, making her way to the nearest dingy hole trying to pass itself off as a shop.

The atmosphere in the shop would have been menacing if either of them had been less confident of their power, as it was the dark and dreary interior merely made it difficult to pick out their victim, the large, greasy-looking man behind the counter.

Willow stalked up to the man, not even bothering to look around since she had no idea what she was really looking for. 'If it hurts feel free to scream,' she said with a sinister looking smile.

The man just stared at her, clearly not impressed by the redhead before him who was a fraction of his weight and height, looking particularly fragile in her jeans and low cut top.

'Um pet, I think you started in the middle, trust me I have experience in this area. You're supposed to say; tell me what I want to know or I'll gouge out your eyes and use them as Christmas decorations. Then when he refuses we move on to the screaming bit, and no offence luv but you don't seem all that intimidating at the moment.' Spike came up behind her and circled his arms around the petite redhead, grinning wildly in anticipation of playing with the shopkeeper.

'Get out, both of you, before I hex you into the deepest pits of hell.' The shopkeeper stepped towards them with his shoulders squared, evidently not amused by the couple in front of him.

'Now mate, you really need to learn to use a little more imagination when you threaten people, the pits of hell thing is getting a little old.' Spike let his demon face come forward, enjoying the brief look of fear that passed through the man's eyes.

'Tam!' the shopkeeper yelled in the direction of the back of the store, 'get out here, we've got a vampire making threats.'

Almost immediately a huge man came in and stood beside the shopkeeper, idly swinging what looked like a large baseball bat by his side. Now that he was backed by the bear-like man there was no fear in the shopkeeper, 'Now you two can leave now in one piece, or in a few minutes, in multiple pieces.'

Willow turned to Spike who was still grinning, 'are you trying to say that I'm less scary than these two idiots?' Spike did not answer so she pulled away from him, taking a step towards their adversaries.

'Have you ever killed anyone?' she asked the question, seemingly out of the blue in an innocent little voice.

'Usually just filthy muggles but I don't think I mind adding a couple of vampires to me list,' the man sneered at her.

'So you would consider yourself evil then? You don't regret your actions?' Willow smiled in anticipation of the answer.

'What's the crazy bint on about?' it was the larger one, Tam, speaking this time, 'of course we don't regret it, and we won't regret two more neither.'

'Well, I'm afraid there's no hope for you two' she dropped her shields, letting her magic flow through her, bleeding into her hair and eyes making them pure black.

A wind began howling through the store, and the two men found themselves suddenly pinned to the back wall and fixed in place with razor wire digging into the skin of their wrists and ankles. 'How about now?' Willow questioned, her voice almost drowned out by the screams of the men.

'Very intimidating luv, but see now you're not playing fair, I want a shot, I've been waiting for this longer than you, you got to torture someone just a few months ago. I want to make sure I'm not rusty.' Spike gave a very genuine smile, he couldn't believe how amazing this woman was, she could match both the demon and the man in him.

'You're right,' as Willow spoke she released the men, who collapsed to the floor clutching at their wrists in agony, desperately trying to stem the blood flow. 'I'll make it up to you.' She held out her hands to summon the items she required and passed them to Spike who took one look at them and kissed her roughly as a thank you before moving towards the victims.

'How rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself,' he spoke quietly but he had no doubt that he was heard. 'The names' William the Bloody, but most people call me Spike,' he pulled a metal railway spike from the bundle Willow had given him, 'do you think you can guess why?' He slammed the spike through the shoulder of the massive man, who had long since abandoned his bat in favor of cowering in a corner.

The torture continued for several more minutes, filling the room with pain wracked screams and moans, until Spike stopped short and moved to where Willow was standing watching him. 'You know, we never did tell them what it was we wanted to know.'

Willow burst into a fit of giggles, which seemed incredible out of place amongst the all the blood and gore of the scene. 'Hello, guys?' she waved her hand in front of their faces and got very little response as the pain brought them close to blacking out.

'Can I get a little audience participation here please.' She muttered a few spell words to block the pain of their many injuries so they could pay attention to her. 'Now, do you feel like answering our questions, or should we just kill you?'

The first man answered in a tired, broken voice, 'whatever we know, we will tell you.'

'Good, have you ever heard of a shield that uses the souls of victims as protection?' Willow grew disappointed as she saw the man shake his head.

Her enjoyment of the situation left her as her frustration returned, 'do you know anything about Voldemort that might be useful?' She knew she was clutching at straws but it was all she had left to do.

As the man shook his head again, she turned to leave, 'Spike do you want to kill them or will I?'

On hearing these words the man named Tam shouted out, 'Wait! We have a book, it was written by one of the Deatheaters that's in Azkaban now. It was supposed to be a kind of biography, for after the war was won, it has a lot about the Dark Lord, you can take it, if you don't kill us.'

'Get it,' was all Willow said, and the man found that he was healed well enough that he could stand.

Very slowly he inched past Spike and went to one of the shelves of books, hidden in the shadows. Willow couldn't see exactly where he took the book from but he returned with a small, leather bound book, which he passed to the vampire now blocking his path.

'It's in a code, I don't know what it is.' He explained this as he moved as far from them as possible in the cramped space of the store.

Willow took the book from Spike, suddenly feeling tired of the whole thing, 'Do what you want with them Spike, I'll see you outside.' With that said she turned and left the store leaving her soulless vampire lover to do what he wanted, knowing that those two deserved whatever they got.

End part 10