Part 14
"Tough Decisions"
By OldScout
That was it. Willow stared at the tenets. Legally the Ministry Of Magic couldn't hold Buffy for killing the Wizards. In fact they shouldn't have held her one minute after figuring out she was the Slayer and that was probably about five minutes after Billy Bob got here. She looked around the room. Where had he gotten off to anyway? Willow wondered what did this have to do with her own use of magic. She tried to remember what Hicklock had said and how he'd acted. She looked at the first tenet again.
"..shall make no law affecting ... challenging or contradicting decisions or actions taken by the Chosen One...deems worthy of protection".
She kept repeating it to herself, how did this affect her? Is this why the American Ministry didn't come for her when she "lost it"? Did they consider her off limits because of Buffy? When Buffy accepted her contrition; was that the end of it? Was that why she was never approached by the Wizarding community? She was left to learn on her own because of her friendship with the Chosen One. How dare they not trust her or Buffy, Willow fumed. By the time she started experimenting with Magic, the American Ministry should have known Buffy well enough to trust she wouldn't start killing them just on general principles. Of course now Willow wasn't quite so sure since it had been a strange couple of years.
"So," Buffy said after contemplating the tenets for herself. "I've wasted my whole afternoon here and you almost had a blood bath for nothing."
"What!" Minister Fudge yelped.
"You knew who or what I was pretty early on, or suspected it." Buffy said. "Yet you've kept me cooped up here this whole time making me miss dinner with my sister." Buffy stood and approached him. "How many people almost got killed tonight because of you?"
Minister Fudge cringed from the look on Buffy's face and instinctively reached for his wand.
"Touch it and I'll shove it up you're a...."
"Buffy!!" Willow yelled. "Back off."
Turning to the door, Buffy said. "Let's go get my stuff and get out of here." All the girls stood.
"You can't leave." Fudge ordered. "We have three dead Wizards, breaking and entering on Ministry property, use of unlicensed magic...."
"Quiet." Willow whispered, stopping Fudge's rant. He kept talking by no voice was coming out.
"Thanks, Red." Faith said. "I was about to rip his tongue out."
As Faith spoke, Dawn and 'Fred' were walking by and heard the comment.
"There's hope for some of the muck yet." 'Fred' observed.
"We've talked about this." Dawn replied. "You've got stop to calling the slayers muck."
"One day I will be your guide, Oriens." 'Fred' said. "Then you will understand."
"Don't call me that."
"Please, Ladies, don't leave yet." Dumbledore said. "Minister Fudge does not speak for the whole Wizarding community."
"He doesn't seem to speak for anybody right now." Kennedy smirked as she put an arm around Willow's waist.
"Please, ladies, sit back down." Director Bones pleaded. "Minister Fudge meant no harm he just wants to protect the Wizarding community and as you now know, we have reason to be cautious when it comes to the Chosen One. There a number of political issues he must deal with."
Fudge was now totally red and apparently yelling at the top of his lungs. He even pounded soundlessly on the table.
"What kind of spell did you put on him?" Dumbledore asked with a smile as he looked at the minister who had just realized nobody could hear him.
"Not on him, I put a baffling spell around him." Willow replied. She thought for a second "I don't generally put spells on people. Do you? That can be pretty dangerous."
"We do train our children to control their magic." Dumbledore responded. "It really reduces the risk of miss-cast spells, plus we have specialists to reverse unintended side effects of magic."
Willow could tell there was a lot left unsaid about the Wizarding world. She looked around the room. "The magic is a great gift, but your people seem to take it for granted. The first thing we teach a new slayer is to treat her gift with respect, because if she doesn't, people will start dieing." She turned to Buffy who was waiting at the door. "Let's hear them out, they need our help whether they want to admit or not."
"You know about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" Director Bones asked in disbelief.
"Oh, yea." Willow smiled. "You guys have some big bad you want help with too."
--
Buffy tried her best to contain her laughter. After Minister Fudge realized Willow had silenced him she thought he was going to have stroke. He sat or stood in place yelling at Willow to remove the spell which she refused to do, then he started for the door to get help when he realized the baffle was stationary and all he had to do was walk away from it. The other Wizards in the room were doing a very good job of not laughing, but the others didn't even try to not laugh.
Traditionally in every conference room, the middle of the head table was the head of the table. Minister Fudge stared at his spot in the middle of the table. Somehow without a wand the red headed witch had cast a charm around that place of the table. Any sound coming from the spot could not be heard by the rest of room. He was convinced now that this girl must be related to that horrid Weasley clan. She must have somehow spirited a charm on to the table and activated it with a word. Now she refused to deactivate the charm or move it forcing him to sit a couple of seats away.
As he waited for their guests to get back to their seats, Professor Dumbledore studied Miss Rosenberg and the spell she had cast. Cornelius thought that it was an object she'd activated, but it wasn't. The young woman had cast a complex spell around the Minister with a thought and word. It was the kind of spell that might be assigned to a Witch or Wizard to create and learn for their seventh year finals exams and most would fail. When the woman used magic, he could feel it around her like he could from any powerful old Witch or Wizard. But when she wasn't casting, she felt like a muggle. Her occlemancy skill must be extremely advanced.
"Okay, Fudgey." Buffy said as 'Fred' and Dawn finally wondered back to their seats. "You have our attention again. Tell me what you have in mind."
"Apparently some people in here think you and your, ah, Slayers might be of use to us." Fudge growled. How dare this girl talk to him like that, who did she think she was he rambled to himself, The Chos.... He stopped his train of thought.
That's exactly who she was, The Chosen One. It was her job to protect the muggles from the Wizarding world if the Wizards failed to do so themselves. They had been failing, and muggles and wizards were dieing. If they hadn't discovered each other now, then they would have soon enough. Perhaps even the next time Voldemort attacked. If this girl had found a bunch of evil Wizards killing people, the hunt would be on and they would have risked repeating a bloody history. They still did. There were a lot of Wizards who weren't Voldemort supporters but still considered themselves above muggles. If some muggle had shown up looking to exact muggle justice....he stopped. That was it; that was why they feared the Chosen One. She lived outside all laws. The muggle laws couldn't hold her and Wizards weren't allowed and would have difficulty as well. There was a reason why they called her "The Slayer", she was Judge, Jury and Executioner all rolled up in one and she had an army. He started to sweat.
"Minister is everything alright?" Director Bones inquired after Minister Fudge fell silent and started to sweat. "Would you like us to get the medi- witch on duty tonight?"
"I'm fine." Minister Fudge finally said. He turned back to Miss Summers. "I was thinking that perhaps our two organizations could work together, perhaps draw up an agreement of understanding."
Buffy stared at Fudge then back at the other Ministry personnel, finally looking Tonks whose platinum white short spiked hair looked dangerous on its own. She looked back at Fudge. "I'm listening."
"I understand from talking to yourself, your associates and Auror Hicklock that you have opened offices and training centers in several countries." Fudge said. "Well, the Wizarding world has methods of travel that could allow travel between offices very quickly."
Buffy looked at the Minister. She could tell he was doing something he did not want to do. He was offering use of Ministry facilities to a bunch of muggles and did not like it. In return, he was going to ask for help with something and he didn't want to ask muggles for help with a Wizarding problem. "That could be useful." Buffy said cautiously.
"It is also my impression that one of your biggest assets is Miss Rosenberg." With this statement everybody turned and looked at Willow.
Dumbledore watched as one of the most powerful and talented magic users he'd have met blushed, sank into her seat and leaned into the young woman called Kennedy. How could this shy young woman have come to posses so much power? Now he knew why though she was obviously the smartest, most level headed and one of the most dangerous members of the group she wasn't the leader. She was shy and actually introverted probably preferred being alone or with just one or two friends. If it wasn't for Miss Summers's friendship Willow probably never would have had more than one or two friends or acquaintances.
"What about Willow?" Buffy asked. The tone of her voice was obviously defensive about her friend.
"It's just that she can only do so much." Fudge replied. "If our organizations had a relationship, you may find a few Witches or Wizards interested in joining your fight against the, ah, darkness." Fudge tried real hard not to look at the young Auror sitting next the Miss Summers. "Tonight you proved that slayers and witches can make a formidable team. Though I don't know anybody with the skills Miss Rosenberg has given us a glimpse of tonight, a well trained Wizarding Witch or Wizard might still be extremely useful to you."
"This all sounds good for us." Buffy said cautiously. "So what are you expecting to get? Control of Slayers? A little extra muscle? An easy way to keep track of our organization? What?"
Face getting redder, Fudge could barely maintain the remaining threads of his composure. He was trying to open the door to a historical new alliance and that buffoon of an American girl just a few years out of school was making paranoid accusations. He thought a different person might have better luck. Gritting his teeth, he turned to Director Bones and through clenched teeth said. "Tell her about Him."
"We have a problem we need help with." Director Bones finally said. "A dark Wizard we thought defeated many years ago is rebuilding his strength and recruiting new followers. Those men you fought today are called Death Eaters. They are follows of the Dark Lord."
"Does this mysterious Big Bad have a name?" Faith interrupted.
"People are so afraid of him nobody says his name." Tonks supplied. "They just call him 'You Know Who' or 'He Who Must Not Be Named' or some other thing that gets the meaning across."
"What's his name?" Dawn asked.
"Yea, something like that." Tonks said.
"No," Dawn smiled. "I mean, what is his name?"
"His name is Lord Voldemort." Dumbledore finally said. "His name was Tom Riddle, but that Wizard is long gone. All that remains is Voldemort."
"So, what?" Buffy asked. "You want to take a hit out him or something? Cause we're not for hire, that's not how we work."
"We can take care of Him ourselves." Minister Fudge replied. "I knew this wasn't a good idea."
"If that's the case then what do you want from us?" Faith asked.
Professor Dumbledore looked to Minister Fudge and Director Bones. "If I may?"
Fudge nodded.
"I assume, ladies." He began turning back to the young women. "That you have dealt with a prophecy or two in your tenure as slayers?"
"A few." Buffy replied.
"There's a prophecy, which states that Voldemort can only be defeated by one person, a boy at my school." Dumbledore said. He looked at Faith, having been told her last name by Minister Fudge. "Perhaps you've heard of him, Harry Potter?"
Faith looked puzzled. "No, why would I have heard of him?"
Willow started choking trying not to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Faith glared.
"Don't you remember the name you gave them?" Willow said with a smile and started laughing again.
"Yeah, it was Faith," she hesitated and thought then grinned. "No wonder everybody had trouble saying my name."
"You told them your name is Faith Potter?" Buffy asked. "Where in the hell did you get that name from?"
Faith shrugged. "An old sign for a pottery shop up on the street."
All of Faith's friends were now laughing or snickering.
"Why did you give a fake name? What other lies have you told us?" Minister Fudge asked with a frown.
"If you knew my parents, you wouldn't want to use their name either." Faith replied.
"We haven't been lying to you Minister, which is more then we can say about you." Buffy said. "Faith's current last name is always a running joke with us. It changes so often we don't even notice it anymore." She nodded sideways at Tonks whose hair was now shoulder length with stripes of green, blue and pink. "Sort of like her hair."
"Auror Tonks," Director Bones said sternly. "It would be best stop entertaining the younger slayers during the meeting."
"Yes Ma'am." Tonks replied as her hair shortened to its normal length and turned a dark almost normal looking red as she slouched in her chair.
"Ah, man, but that was sooo cool." One of the younger girls said.
"Yea, and this is sooo boring." Another added.
"Don't worry," Dawn said. "We'll be going home in a little bit."
"So what about this prophecy with this Harry Potter kid?" Buffy asked trying to get them back on topic.
"Right now." Dumbledore started again. "Our job is to train and protect young Mister Potter so that when the time finally comes, he is ready."
"I'm not big on prophecy fulfillment myself." Buffy said.
"Yea." Willow added. "We've found that most prophecies are either self fulfilling or can only be interpreted to fit events that have already taken place."
"We understand that." Dumbledore agreed. "But this prophecy has taken on a life of its own. If Mr. Potter is defeated by Voldemort it would be devastating to the Wizarding community and give him a major foot hold amongst the elite pure blooded Wizards and Witches."
"We were hoping to recruit you, your organization, to join us in our fight against him." Minister Fudge took over. "This fight is yours as well. Lord Voldemort wants to rid the world of muggles and mixed blood witches and wizards. He says it's wrong for the Wizarding community to hide from the muggles like rats hiding in the shadows."
Staring at the wall and listening to this story of Lord Voldemort Buffy thought about the events of the day. How the bureaucracy tip toed around those guys that had attacked them and some even want to blame her for the death of that child. "No," She finally said. "This is your fight." She pointed to the Tenets. "It says right there, your whole reason for existing is to protect the muggle community from wizards like your talking about. Instead, you coddle them and pretend they didn't just try to kill a guest in your community and one of your Aurors. You know you were even considering charging me with murder though you knew it was self defense. Do you wonder why you can't handle these creatures? It's because you've put politics and your own continued position of power and comfort over the job that needs to get done."
"How dare you speak to me that way!" Fudge stood face red, knuckles pressing down on the table.
"I dare, Minister Fudge, because it's the truth." Buffy said without emotion. "You ask me to put my life, my families' lives, my friends' lives and the lives of teenage girls who've been entrusted in my care on the line when you're not ready to do what ever it takes to get the same job done yourself. As long as maintaining you're comfy little job is more important than doing what has to be done, don't come to me looking for help."
"Don't you DARE lecture me on how to do MY JOB!" Fudge yelled. "What in the name of MERLIN do you know about making tough decisions?! What's the toughest decision you've ever made? What color nail polish to wear or what shoes look best on the dance floor or some foolish thing like that?"
"Actually," Buffy whispered. "It was what outfit to bury my mother in."
Fudge dropped into his chair.
"The decision to face The Master, knowing the prophecy said I was going to die was easy. The decision to send the man I loved to hell to save the world was easy." Buffy stood and approached Fudge. She continued to speak barely above a whisper. "The decision to sacrifice myself to save my sister was easy. The decision to forgive my best friend for her love was easy. The decision to lead a bunch of normal girls in a war against the first was easy. Burying the dead in my back yard was hard. Loosing girls in ambushes and having them killed before they ever got to me was hard. You know, deciding to end the waiting and lead those girls right down into hell was relatively easy. Watching them die before and after Willow's spell was cast, that was hard."
Buffy stood directly in front of Minister Fudge. "I dare lecture you on how to do your job because apparently you have one thing to do and you're not doing it. Let me tell you this, if we have to get involved, it will be too late for you. If your little problem spills into my world, I'm not just going after what's his name; I'm coming after you too." She pointed at the wall. "Your job is to protect non-magical people from the Wizarding community." Buffy pointed her finger at him emphasizing each of the following words. "So. I. Don't. Have. To."
"Please, Miss Summers." Professor Dumbledore said. "I apologize for how you were treated today."
"It wasn't your doing." Buffy replied.
"Yes, but as an elder in the community and a member of the Wizengamot I still feel a reasonability for the behavior of the ministry." Dumbledore watched Fudge glare at him but, of course, he didn't care. This girl was absolutely right. The only reason nobody had actually done anything about Voldemort was because of the politics and protectionism around the old pure bloods where he drew his followers. "We still have an unprecedented opportunity to create a relationship between your organization and the Wizarding community.
"I don't know." Buffy said after thinking for a few minutes. "We really don't know anything about your community, though you apparently know quite a bit about us." She looked at the women sitting around her. "Perhaps there is some way for you to teach some us about the Wizarding community so we know who and what we'd be helping."
"Perhaps you could visit the school." Dumbledore suggested. "We're used to teaching muggle born witches and wizards about the Wizarding world." The old man's eyes gleamed. "You could come to the school, sit in on some classes, maybe do some guest teaching."
She seemed to think about it for a few seconds. "I can't. There's just too much to do to rebuild the council, find new slayers and everything else."
"Perhaps somebody else," Dumbledore looked to Willow and Faith.
"Willow has to help with finding the slayers, and Faith leaves to take over the New York station tomorrow."
"I'll go." A very familiar voice said from the middle of the room.
"What?" Buffy looked at her sister.
"I'll go, sounds like fun."
"What about school?" Buffy asked.
"Ah, hello, it's a school." Dawn looked at Dumbledore. "It is a school right, regular classes and everything? Unless I'm too old, or too young."
"I guess you're seventeen or eighteen." Dumbledore stated. With a nod from Dawn he continued. "Then you're the same age as the upper classmen; the ones in their sixth and seventh years."
"What kind of classes do you teach?" Buffy asked. "Is it anything that would be worth while? She's not a witch, so if you're teaching how to do magic what would she take."
"Hey, I've done spells before." Dawn defended.
"Simple Earth spells, honey." Willow interjected. "Anybody with a sharp mind and good language skills might have been able to cast those spells."
"Well, lets see." Professor Dumbledore said. "We offer potions."
"Chemistry." Dawn replied.
"Muggle Studies."
"Social Studies."
"Divinations."
"What?"
Dumbledore thought of the best way to explain to a muggle girl. "Fortune telling and Prophecies."
"Psychology and Watcher Training One oh One."
"History of Wizarding."
"History or Literature."
"And many others." Dumbledore finally said.
"See, I could do it. I'll be fun."
Buffy looked at Dumbledore.
"She's more than welcome." He said. "She'll be fine."
"I have been interested in seeing how these creatures train their spawn to use their droplets magic." Illyria said from next to Dawn.
Professor Dumbledore looked at the creature that looked like a pleasant intelligent young woman. "I don't know how well you'd fit in."
"Oh," Buffy smiled. "I think she'll be fine." She looked at 'Fred'. "You will behave yourself like we've discussed, right?"
"I have agreed."
"See." Buffy smiled. "Everything will be just fine."
---Finis---
Don't miss Faith's adventures in New York in
"Bump In The Night"
Coming Soon: Dawn visits Hogwarts in
"The Key, the Smurf, and the Boy Who What?"
Buffy, Willow, and Tonks take a walk on the dark side of the Wizarding world in
"Judge, Jury, Executioner"
Xander visits LA to find his new older brother in
"Who Is William Harris"
"Tough Decisions"
By OldScout
That was it. Willow stared at the tenets. Legally the Ministry Of Magic couldn't hold Buffy for killing the Wizards. In fact they shouldn't have held her one minute after figuring out she was the Slayer and that was probably about five minutes after Billy Bob got here. She looked around the room. Where had he gotten off to anyway? Willow wondered what did this have to do with her own use of magic. She tried to remember what Hicklock had said and how he'd acted. She looked at the first tenet again.
"..shall make no law affecting ... challenging or contradicting decisions or actions taken by the Chosen One...deems worthy of protection".
She kept repeating it to herself, how did this affect her? Is this why the American Ministry didn't come for her when she "lost it"? Did they consider her off limits because of Buffy? When Buffy accepted her contrition; was that the end of it? Was that why she was never approached by the Wizarding community? She was left to learn on her own because of her friendship with the Chosen One. How dare they not trust her or Buffy, Willow fumed. By the time she started experimenting with Magic, the American Ministry should have known Buffy well enough to trust she wouldn't start killing them just on general principles. Of course now Willow wasn't quite so sure since it had been a strange couple of years.
"So," Buffy said after contemplating the tenets for herself. "I've wasted my whole afternoon here and you almost had a blood bath for nothing."
"What!" Minister Fudge yelped.
"You knew who or what I was pretty early on, or suspected it." Buffy said. "Yet you've kept me cooped up here this whole time making me miss dinner with my sister." Buffy stood and approached him. "How many people almost got killed tonight because of you?"
Minister Fudge cringed from the look on Buffy's face and instinctively reached for his wand.
"Touch it and I'll shove it up you're a...."
"Buffy!!" Willow yelled. "Back off."
Turning to the door, Buffy said. "Let's go get my stuff and get out of here." All the girls stood.
"You can't leave." Fudge ordered. "We have three dead Wizards, breaking and entering on Ministry property, use of unlicensed magic...."
"Quiet." Willow whispered, stopping Fudge's rant. He kept talking by no voice was coming out.
"Thanks, Red." Faith said. "I was about to rip his tongue out."
As Faith spoke, Dawn and 'Fred' were walking by and heard the comment.
"There's hope for some of the muck yet." 'Fred' observed.
"We've talked about this." Dawn replied. "You've got stop to calling the slayers muck."
"One day I will be your guide, Oriens." 'Fred' said. "Then you will understand."
"Don't call me that."
"Please, Ladies, don't leave yet." Dumbledore said. "Minister Fudge does not speak for the whole Wizarding community."
"He doesn't seem to speak for anybody right now." Kennedy smirked as she put an arm around Willow's waist.
"Please, ladies, sit back down." Director Bones pleaded. "Minister Fudge meant no harm he just wants to protect the Wizarding community and as you now know, we have reason to be cautious when it comes to the Chosen One. There a number of political issues he must deal with."
Fudge was now totally red and apparently yelling at the top of his lungs. He even pounded soundlessly on the table.
"What kind of spell did you put on him?" Dumbledore asked with a smile as he looked at the minister who had just realized nobody could hear him.
"Not on him, I put a baffling spell around him." Willow replied. She thought for a second "I don't generally put spells on people. Do you? That can be pretty dangerous."
"We do train our children to control their magic." Dumbledore responded. "It really reduces the risk of miss-cast spells, plus we have specialists to reverse unintended side effects of magic."
Willow could tell there was a lot left unsaid about the Wizarding world. She looked around the room. "The magic is a great gift, but your people seem to take it for granted. The first thing we teach a new slayer is to treat her gift with respect, because if she doesn't, people will start dieing." She turned to Buffy who was waiting at the door. "Let's hear them out, they need our help whether they want to admit or not."
"You know about He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?" Director Bones asked in disbelief.
"Oh, yea." Willow smiled. "You guys have some big bad you want help with too."
--
Buffy tried her best to contain her laughter. After Minister Fudge realized Willow had silenced him she thought he was going to have stroke. He sat or stood in place yelling at Willow to remove the spell which she refused to do, then he started for the door to get help when he realized the baffle was stationary and all he had to do was walk away from it. The other Wizards in the room were doing a very good job of not laughing, but the others didn't even try to not laugh.
Traditionally in every conference room, the middle of the head table was the head of the table. Minister Fudge stared at his spot in the middle of the table. Somehow without a wand the red headed witch had cast a charm around that place of the table. Any sound coming from the spot could not be heard by the rest of room. He was convinced now that this girl must be related to that horrid Weasley clan. She must have somehow spirited a charm on to the table and activated it with a word. Now she refused to deactivate the charm or move it forcing him to sit a couple of seats away.
As he waited for their guests to get back to their seats, Professor Dumbledore studied Miss Rosenberg and the spell she had cast. Cornelius thought that it was an object she'd activated, but it wasn't. The young woman had cast a complex spell around the Minister with a thought and word. It was the kind of spell that might be assigned to a Witch or Wizard to create and learn for their seventh year finals exams and most would fail. When the woman used magic, he could feel it around her like he could from any powerful old Witch or Wizard. But when she wasn't casting, she felt like a muggle. Her occlemancy skill must be extremely advanced.
"Okay, Fudgey." Buffy said as 'Fred' and Dawn finally wondered back to their seats. "You have our attention again. Tell me what you have in mind."
"Apparently some people in here think you and your, ah, Slayers might be of use to us." Fudge growled. How dare this girl talk to him like that, who did she think she was he rambled to himself, The Chos.... He stopped his train of thought.
That's exactly who she was, The Chosen One. It was her job to protect the muggles from the Wizarding world if the Wizards failed to do so themselves. They had been failing, and muggles and wizards were dieing. If they hadn't discovered each other now, then they would have soon enough. Perhaps even the next time Voldemort attacked. If this girl had found a bunch of evil Wizards killing people, the hunt would be on and they would have risked repeating a bloody history. They still did. There were a lot of Wizards who weren't Voldemort supporters but still considered themselves above muggles. If some muggle had shown up looking to exact muggle justice....he stopped. That was it; that was why they feared the Chosen One. She lived outside all laws. The muggle laws couldn't hold her and Wizards weren't allowed and would have difficulty as well. There was a reason why they called her "The Slayer", she was Judge, Jury and Executioner all rolled up in one and she had an army. He started to sweat.
"Minister is everything alright?" Director Bones inquired after Minister Fudge fell silent and started to sweat. "Would you like us to get the medi- witch on duty tonight?"
"I'm fine." Minister Fudge finally said. He turned back to Miss Summers. "I was thinking that perhaps our two organizations could work together, perhaps draw up an agreement of understanding."
Buffy stared at Fudge then back at the other Ministry personnel, finally looking Tonks whose platinum white short spiked hair looked dangerous on its own. She looked back at Fudge. "I'm listening."
"I understand from talking to yourself, your associates and Auror Hicklock that you have opened offices and training centers in several countries." Fudge said. "Well, the Wizarding world has methods of travel that could allow travel between offices very quickly."
Buffy looked at the Minister. She could tell he was doing something he did not want to do. He was offering use of Ministry facilities to a bunch of muggles and did not like it. In return, he was going to ask for help with something and he didn't want to ask muggles for help with a Wizarding problem. "That could be useful." Buffy said cautiously.
"It is also my impression that one of your biggest assets is Miss Rosenberg." With this statement everybody turned and looked at Willow.
Dumbledore watched as one of the most powerful and talented magic users he'd have met blushed, sank into her seat and leaned into the young woman called Kennedy. How could this shy young woman have come to posses so much power? Now he knew why though she was obviously the smartest, most level headed and one of the most dangerous members of the group she wasn't the leader. She was shy and actually introverted probably preferred being alone or with just one or two friends. If it wasn't for Miss Summers's friendship Willow probably never would have had more than one or two friends or acquaintances.
"What about Willow?" Buffy asked. The tone of her voice was obviously defensive about her friend.
"It's just that she can only do so much." Fudge replied. "If our organizations had a relationship, you may find a few Witches or Wizards interested in joining your fight against the, ah, darkness." Fudge tried real hard not to look at the young Auror sitting next the Miss Summers. "Tonight you proved that slayers and witches can make a formidable team. Though I don't know anybody with the skills Miss Rosenberg has given us a glimpse of tonight, a well trained Wizarding Witch or Wizard might still be extremely useful to you."
"This all sounds good for us." Buffy said cautiously. "So what are you expecting to get? Control of Slayers? A little extra muscle? An easy way to keep track of our organization? What?"
Face getting redder, Fudge could barely maintain the remaining threads of his composure. He was trying to open the door to a historical new alliance and that buffoon of an American girl just a few years out of school was making paranoid accusations. He thought a different person might have better luck. Gritting his teeth, he turned to Director Bones and through clenched teeth said. "Tell her about Him."
"We have a problem we need help with." Director Bones finally said. "A dark Wizard we thought defeated many years ago is rebuilding his strength and recruiting new followers. Those men you fought today are called Death Eaters. They are follows of the Dark Lord."
"Does this mysterious Big Bad have a name?" Faith interrupted.
"People are so afraid of him nobody says his name." Tonks supplied. "They just call him 'You Know Who' or 'He Who Must Not Be Named' or some other thing that gets the meaning across."
"What's his name?" Dawn asked.
"Yea, something like that." Tonks said.
"No," Dawn smiled. "I mean, what is his name?"
"His name is Lord Voldemort." Dumbledore finally said. "His name was Tom Riddle, but that Wizard is long gone. All that remains is Voldemort."
"So, what?" Buffy asked. "You want to take a hit out him or something? Cause we're not for hire, that's not how we work."
"We can take care of Him ourselves." Minister Fudge replied. "I knew this wasn't a good idea."
"If that's the case then what do you want from us?" Faith asked.
Professor Dumbledore looked to Minister Fudge and Director Bones. "If I may?"
Fudge nodded.
"I assume, ladies." He began turning back to the young women. "That you have dealt with a prophecy or two in your tenure as slayers?"
"A few." Buffy replied.
"There's a prophecy, which states that Voldemort can only be defeated by one person, a boy at my school." Dumbledore said. He looked at Faith, having been told her last name by Minister Fudge. "Perhaps you've heard of him, Harry Potter?"
Faith looked puzzled. "No, why would I have heard of him?"
Willow started choking trying not to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Faith glared.
"Don't you remember the name you gave them?" Willow said with a smile and started laughing again.
"Yeah, it was Faith," she hesitated and thought then grinned. "No wonder everybody had trouble saying my name."
"You told them your name is Faith Potter?" Buffy asked. "Where in the hell did you get that name from?"
Faith shrugged. "An old sign for a pottery shop up on the street."
All of Faith's friends were now laughing or snickering.
"Why did you give a fake name? What other lies have you told us?" Minister Fudge asked with a frown.
"If you knew my parents, you wouldn't want to use their name either." Faith replied.
"We haven't been lying to you Minister, which is more then we can say about you." Buffy said. "Faith's current last name is always a running joke with us. It changes so often we don't even notice it anymore." She nodded sideways at Tonks whose hair was now shoulder length with stripes of green, blue and pink. "Sort of like her hair."
"Auror Tonks," Director Bones said sternly. "It would be best stop entertaining the younger slayers during the meeting."
"Yes Ma'am." Tonks replied as her hair shortened to its normal length and turned a dark almost normal looking red as she slouched in her chair.
"Ah, man, but that was sooo cool." One of the younger girls said.
"Yea, and this is sooo boring." Another added.
"Don't worry," Dawn said. "We'll be going home in a little bit."
"So what about this prophecy with this Harry Potter kid?" Buffy asked trying to get them back on topic.
"Right now." Dumbledore started again. "Our job is to train and protect young Mister Potter so that when the time finally comes, he is ready."
"I'm not big on prophecy fulfillment myself." Buffy said.
"Yea." Willow added. "We've found that most prophecies are either self fulfilling or can only be interpreted to fit events that have already taken place."
"We understand that." Dumbledore agreed. "But this prophecy has taken on a life of its own. If Mr. Potter is defeated by Voldemort it would be devastating to the Wizarding community and give him a major foot hold amongst the elite pure blooded Wizards and Witches."
"We were hoping to recruit you, your organization, to join us in our fight against him." Minister Fudge took over. "This fight is yours as well. Lord Voldemort wants to rid the world of muggles and mixed blood witches and wizards. He says it's wrong for the Wizarding community to hide from the muggles like rats hiding in the shadows."
Staring at the wall and listening to this story of Lord Voldemort Buffy thought about the events of the day. How the bureaucracy tip toed around those guys that had attacked them and some even want to blame her for the death of that child. "No," She finally said. "This is your fight." She pointed to the Tenets. "It says right there, your whole reason for existing is to protect the muggle community from wizards like your talking about. Instead, you coddle them and pretend they didn't just try to kill a guest in your community and one of your Aurors. You know you were even considering charging me with murder though you knew it was self defense. Do you wonder why you can't handle these creatures? It's because you've put politics and your own continued position of power and comfort over the job that needs to get done."
"How dare you speak to me that way!" Fudge stood face red, knuckles pressing down on the table.
"I dare, Minister Fudge, because it's the truth." Buffy said without emotion. "You ask me to put my life, my families' lives, my friends' lives and the lives of teenage girls who've been entrusted in my care on the line when you're not ready to do what ever it takes to get the same job done yourself. As long as maintaining you're comfy little job is more important than doing what has to be done, don't come to me looking for help."
"Don't you DARE lecture me on how to do MY JOB!" Fudge yelled. "What in the name of MERLIN do you know about making tough decisions?! What's the toughest decision you've ever made? What color nail polish to wear or what shoes look best on the dance floor or some foolish thing like that?"
"Actually," Buffy whispered. "It was what outfit to bury my mother in."
Fudge dropped into his chair.
"The decision to face The Master, knowing the prophecy said I was going to die was easy. The decision to send the man I loved to hell to save the world was easy." Buffy stood and approached Fudge. She continued to speak barely above a whisper. "The decision to sacrifice myself to save my sister was easy. The decision to forgive my best friend for her love was easy. The decision to lead a bunch of normal girls in a war against the first was easy. Burying the dead in my back yard was hard. Loosing girls in ambushes and having them killed before they ever got to me was hard. You know, deciding to end the waiting and lead those girls right down into hell was relatively easy. Watching them die before and after Willow's spell was cast, that was hard."
Buffy stood directly in front of Minister Fudge. "I dare lecture you on how to do your job because apparently you have one thing to do and you're not doing it. Let me tell you this, if we have to get involved, it will be too late for you. If your little problem spills into my world, I'm not just going after what's his name; I'm coming after you too." She pointed at the wall. "Your job is to protect non-magical people from the Wizarding community." Buffy pointed her finger at him emphasizing each of the following words. "So. I. Don't. Have. To."
"Please, Miss Summers." Professor Dumbledore said. "I apologize for how you were treated today."
"It wasn't your doing." Buffy replied.
"Yes, but as an elder in the community and a member of the Wizengamot I still feel a reasonability for the behavior of the ministry." Dumbledore watched Fudge glare at him but, of course, he didn't care. This girl was absolutely right. The only reason nobody had actually done anything about Voldemort was because of the politics and protectionism around the old pure bloods where he drew his followers. "We still have an unprecedented opportunity to create a relationship between your organization and the Wizarding community.
"I don't know." Buffy said after thinking for a few minutes. "We really don't know anything about your community, though you apparently know quite a bit about us." She looked at the women sitting around her. "Perhaps there is some way for you to teach some us about the Wizarding community so we know who and what we'd be helping."
"Perhaps you could visit the school." Dumbledore suggested. "We're used to teaching muggle born witches and wizards about the Wizarding world." The old man's eyes gleamed. "You could come to the school, sit in on some classes, maybe do some guest teaching."
She seemed to think about it for a few seconds. "I can't. There's just too much to do to rebuild the council, find new slayers and everything else."
"Perhaps somebody else," Dumbledore looked to Willow and Faith.
"Willow has to help with finding the slayers, and Faith leaves to take over the New York station tomorrow."
"I'll go." A very familiar voice said from the middle of the room.
"What?" Buffy looked at her sister.
"I'll go, sounds like fun."
"What about school?" Buffy asked.
"Ah, hello, it's a school." Dawn looked at Dumbledore. "It is a school right, regular classes and everything? Unless I'm too old, or too young."
"I guess you're seventeen or eighteen." Dumbledore stated. With a nod from Dawn he continued. "Then you're the same age as the upper classmen; the ones in their sixth and seventh years."
"What kind of classes do you teach?" Buffy asked. "Is it anything that would be worth while? She's not a witch, so if you're teaching how to do magic what would she take."
"Hey, I've done spells before." Dawn defended.
"Simple Earth spells, honey." Willow interjected. "Anybody with a sharp mind and good language skills might have been able to cast those spells."
"Well, lets see." Professor Dumbledore said. "We offer potions."
"Chemistry." Dawn replied.
"Muggle Studies."
"Social Studies."
"Divinations."
"What?"
Dumbledore thought of the best way to explain to a muggle girl. "Fortune telling and Prophecies."
"Psychology and Watcher Training One oh One."
"History of Wizarding."
"History or Literature."
"And many others." Dumbledore finally said.
"See, I could do it. I'll be fun."
Buffy looked at Dumbledore.
"She's more than welcome." He said. "She'll be fine."
"I have been interested in seeing how these creatures train their spawn to use their droplets magic." Illyria said from next to Dawn.
Professor Dumbledore looked at the creature that looked like a pleasant intelligent young woman. "I don't know how well you'd fit in."
"Oh," Buffy smiled. "I think she'll be fine." She looked at 'Fred'. "You will behave yourself like we've discussed, right?"
"I have agreed."
"See." Buffy smiled. "Everything will be just fine."
---Finis---
Don't miss Faith's adventures in New York in
"Bump In The Night"
Coming Soon: Dawn visits Hogwarts in
"The Key, the Smurf, and the Boy Who What?"
Buffy, Willow, and Tonks take a walk on the dark side of the Wizarding world in
"Judge, Jury, Executioner"
Xander visits LA to find his new older brother in
"Who Is William Harris"