Part 6.
"Thank You Very Much."

By OldScout

"Hey, Tonks, how ya doing?" Buffy asked when the young Auror came into the interrogation room. Buffy sat back in her chair, put her feet on the chair opposite her and pushed it away from the table. "Have a seat."

Tonks stared at the woman. Most people left to sit in these little rooms on those uncomfortable chairs would be mad as hell right now; demanding lawyers, and due process and everything. Buffy was behaving like she'd been sitting there for a few minutes, not several hours.

As Tonks took her seat Buffy asked. "Can you tell me two things, who is watching me on that camera thing that's flying around here and where to get one?"

"Director Bones, Auror Dawlish and probably Minister Fudge are monitoring the Observer right now."

"Cool. Can they hear me too?"

Tonks nodded.

Buffy turned to face the corner where she felt she was being watched from. "Listen up people." She said without raising her voice. "Let's get this show on the road I have things to do and my friends will start missing me. You don't want them to have to come get me; they're not big on surgical strikes." With that she turned back to Tonks and smiled sweetly. "So really how are you after that what did you call it? Crucio curse? It seemed to hit you pretty hard."

"Ah, I'm fine, the medi-witch gave me an antidote..." Tonks stopped just now thinking about what Buffy had said. "What did you mean 'Not big on surgical strikes'?"

"Well, you know, when you remove something surgically you go in, be real careful, do as little damage as possible, blah, blah, blah. When you remove something non-surgically, you start hacking your way through not caring about how much damage you do and junk. Plus surgery takes a lot of planning and stuff and I doubt they're going be that patient." Buffy continued smiling sweetly. "If you want to give them a call, and let them know what's going on it might prevent a lot of trouble."

"Call?" Tonks thought for a second. "Oh, right, a muggle telephone. I don't think we have one here, somebody who knows how to do use one will have to go up to the street."

"The number is in on my business card in my wallet." Buffy said turning to where she felt the observer move to. "Do you think they'll call?"

"I don't know, usually it's up to the defenses advocate to contact family."

"Advocate, you mean lawyer?"

Tonks nodded.

"And when am I supposed to get one of these advocates?"

"I don't know. They've been trying to find somebody but everybody's afraid of retribution from the Death Eaters and who they serve."

"Oh." Buffy stared on Tonks for a second. "So do you think they're going to make the phone call?"

"I doubt it."

"I was afraid of that that." Buffy continued to stare at Tonks and after a couple of seconds started tapping the table again. "So now what?"

"Well I guess I'm supposed to keep you occupied until Minister Fudge gets some information he's waiting for."

"How are you supposed to do that?"

"Minister Fudged mentioned either telling you stories about Hogwarts or reciting dirty limericks."

Buffy stared at Tonks for several moments. "What's Hogwarts?"

"Whew." Tonks smiled. "I don't really know that many dirty limericks."

--

"She threatened us." Director Bones said in disbelief. "Did she really just threaten us, The Ministry of Magical Law Enforcement? She obviously has no idea who she's dealing with."

"Maybe she's delusional?" Auror Dawlish suggested.

"There's obviously something wrong with her." Minister Bones agreed. "Why else would she kill three people like that, it was absolutely not called for."

"What's that?" Minister Fudge asked looking up from the conference table where he was studying Buffy's things.

"Miss Summers said that if we didn't let her go soon, her friends would come to get her and do a lot of damage in the process."

"Pish." Fudged waived his hand at the two. "I don't care who this girl is, there are so many charms, protection spells and trained Aurors around the Ministry that even You-Know-Who and all of his Death Eaters combined couldn't get in."

Just then Director Bones's assistant came into the room. "Minister Fudge," she said from the doorway. "A courier from the American Ministry of Magic and the Supernatural is here to see you in your office."

"I'll be right out." Fudge replied.

"Why do they have Supernatural in their name?" Dawlish asked. He'd always wondered but never had reason to ask somebody who might know.

"I think it has to do with their damn Hellmouths, always gotta rub peoples' noses in it."

"Hellmouth."

"What?" Fudge was half way to the door.

"Remember, one collapsed." Director Bones replied.

"Serves them right, baring the international magical community from them, as if given time we couldn't train Aurors to handle the dark forces there."

--

Minister Fudge followed the assistant back to his office where the courier was waiting. The wizard look to be in his mid thirties, slightly heavy set and stood just under two meters tall. The wizard wore a long traditional purple wizarding robe decorated with crescent moons and stars with a matching odd flat hat with a wide brim. Fudge contemplated the hat for a second then noticed the odd matching boots, ah, a cowboy.

"Minister Fudge," The wizard said with a voice louder then Fudge was used to. "I'm Auror Billy Bob Hicklock from the American Ministry of Magic and the Supernatural."

"I'm glad you could come so quickly, Auror Hicklock." Fudge said in greeting.

"Billy Bob."

"Excuse me?"

"Please, call me Billy Bob, you start talking to Auror Hicklock and I start looking for my Ma."

"Yes, of course." Fudge tried not to frown. "So, Bill Bob," Fudge squeezed the name(s) out like there was something stuck to the roof of his mouth. "I hope your journey was uneventful." As he spoke Minister Fudge walked to his chair behind his desk and motioned for Billy Bob to have a seat in the guest chair in front.

"Well the floo from my home in Toledo to Salem was nauseating as usual but the Ministry transatlantic port key is a very refined way to travel." Billy Bob replied with a large smile.

"I hear ya'all have one of our nationals here." Billy Bob continued and opened a thin muggle envelope taking out a muggle photograph, handing it to Minister Fudge.

It was a picture of Buffy Summers taken from a distance and enlarged so she filled the frame. She looked to be in her mid to late teens so the picture was obviously several years old. "That's her, but she's older now."

"Yes, of course, but that's the best we have."

"Would you like more? We have plenty of footage from the Observer in the interrogation room." Fudge asked smugly.

Billy Bob seemed to pale. "Does she know you're recording her?"

"I would assume so since she's been mugging and making faces at the Observer. Which brings me to my first question; how can she see the Observer? It is guaranteed to be invisible to any witch, wizard or muggle."

"My guess is that she can't see it," Billy Bob replied. "I think she can sense it watching her."

"How, that's impossible."

"If you hadn't already guessed the answer to that, I wouldn't be here."

"By Merlin, man, don't play games with me here; I have a muggle accused of murdering three wizards. It doesn't matter the circumstances, they're from powerful families who want justice one way or another."

Billy Bob opened his robe to reveal his wand in a slim holster strapped to his right leg. He held the wand up and uttered a silencing charm then said "She's not really a muggle."

Fudge glared at the man. His office had permanent silencing charms on it but if this was the only way to get him to talk, so be it. "So what kind of magical creature is she?"

"Officially, I guess you could classify her has a magical creature, but she's more then that."

"What exactly is she, I need to hear it."

Billy Bob stood and said as he stepped toward the door. "Listen, make it easy on yourself and let her go, forget the whole thing happened."

"What? Is? She?"

"She's the Chosen One, The Slayer." Billy Bob's hand was on the door; he didn't turn around to face the Minister.

"Not possible, The Chosen One's a myth."

"Why would the Secret Tenets be written about a myth?" Billy Bob asked the door.

"How do you know about her and the Tenets?"

"It's my job, that's why I live so close to hell. You're on a cusp here, Minister, don't start a war with her and her people, it'll make what's his name look like minor leagues." With that, Billy Bob left.

The Minster of Magic, Cornelius Fudge stared at the door. This couldn't be happening. His job and his way of life hung on the line. If she was who the American said she was then he had to let her go without a trial. If he did, he'd be drummed out. All the purebloods, the families of Death Eaters, their direct supporters and sympathizers would raise a holy hell.

If he put her on trial, the rest of the Wizarding world would do the same thing. It was self defense. Pure and simple everybody knew it, there were witnesses even an Auror.

If he disclosed why he couldn't try her, then a new stink would arise. Voldamort would gain followers even new groups could arise out of simple fear or disdain for her. Would that be so bad? Somebody would kill the Chosen One and no more problems; except a new Chosen One would be called. And legend had it that the first thing a new Chosen would do was to hunt down and kill those responsible for the death of her predecessor. That was how wars were started. That was why the Tenets were secret and that was why the Ministry of Magical Law Enforcement existed. He leaned forward, put his head in is hands and stared at the picture laying on his desk. How could one little girl so threaten his way of life?

--

Meanwhile, across town in the shadows of the setting sun two young women looked at a map. A small white dot glowed near the top right hand side.

"I swear, Red, it should be somewhere around here." The woman with wavy brown hair said.

"Well there's nothing here." The red headed woman said looking around the street. "I'd be able to sense it if there was that much magic anywhere around here."

The brunette held up the map waived it at her friend. "Well it's your locator spell you probably did it wrong."

Willow looked at the map being waived in front of her face. "Let me see that." And she snatched it out of Faith's hand. She looked at it then looked at the street around them then back at the map. "This is wrong; you had the map upside down or something. She pointed to the bottom of the map on the opposite side of the glowing light. "We're down here somewhere."

"No we're not, let me see." And Faith snatched at the map. This time Willow didn't have time to let go before Faith grabbed the map and it ripped in half and the locator dot went out.

"Good going miss five by five." Willow snapped. "Now you've lost the locator."

Faith handed her half of the map back. "Well just cast the spell again."

"All of my supplies are back at head quarters and I'll need an INTACT map." Willow grumbled.

"Why don't you just do your big white witch thing and go get her?"

"Yea, right, you want to use a tank to swat a fly. Besides, I don't think the populace would appreciate seeing White Witch Willow floating down the street looking for her lost friend."

"Hey, Red, what ever gets the job done."

"No, I can sense she's not in danger, just behind a lot of complex magic. We'll go home and start over. Thank you very much."

"You're welcome."

To be continued........