Sorry about the wait. The guy who came to fix the computer made it even more broken, Idiot! Anyhow, thanks to everyone who reviewed: Mademoiselle Morte, Jess yes, there will be more interaction over the next couple of chaps) and matt
CHAPTER 16- Prophecies
'The boy who lived should be assisted in his battle with the Snake Lord by the Key.
Together they will fight the darkness; they will stand united, but fall apart.
One shall live, one shall fall. Both can triumph, for they make a formidable team;
But without each other, they shall surely fail.'
"That's it?" Voldermort hissed. "You are gone for three days and you know nothing new?"
"Please, my Lord, we know that we can not beat them together."
"Who together? 'The boy who lived' is obviously Potter," he spat, "but we don't know what this 'key' is!"
"It must be something living, my Lord, how else how could it live or die?"
"Yes, yes." Voldermort said slowly, considering something. "A student perhaps? Or a teacher? Or a flower; It could be the lake monster for all we know! One thing I do know, the Key can not get to Potter. Rayne; leave me now. Continue to try to find the identity of the key."
"Yes, my Lord." Ethan Rayne backed out of the room, bowing as he went. He was going to have to try all of his old contacts; one of them must know the identity of the Key.
..................................................................................................
In a country estate in the middle of nowhere, chaos had broken out. A couple of death eaters had rushed down to the basement upon hearing a very big crash coming from the usually quite prisoners.
They were incredibly surprised to see a heavy oak door lying flat on the floor in front of the room/cell the prisoners from Hogwarts had been locked in. And further shocked to see the side door of the damp basement half open.
The first death eater was knocked out by the leg of a chair before he could voice his surprise. The second was also taken care of, but not before his yell alerted the death eaters upstairs.
"Come on; we've got to get out of here!" Luna lowered the chair leg, dashing out the side exit of the basement to find herself in a moat-like ditch that ran around the estate.
"Wait! What about our wands?" Emily asked, supporting Annie wit one arm, the other held a second chair leg.
"No time. Someone would have heard that shout; we've got to get as far away from here as possible." Luna was already climbing out of the ditch. When she got out, she leant back over and pulled Mike up without any difficulty.
Annie was surprised at Luna's attitude. Although she was a few years younger, they were both in Ravenclaw and the younger girl had always thought Luna to be quite, well totally actually, dippy.
Emily closed and barricaded the door they had just come through to try and bide them some time. "Let's head for the woods over there. If we go over the moors then we'll be like sitting ducks."
As they headed for the cover of the trees, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles had just heard the news about a certain prophecy.
"We have to get Dawn away from here." Buffy was adamant that this was what she wanted.
"Miss Summers, I really think-"Dumbledore began, but he was interrupted by a worked up Buffy.
"No! She's my sister and I'm not putting her in danger."
"Err, guys. It seems we have a development." Willow indicated to the large map behind her. It showed seven blue dots and two orange dots slowly moving east and a big group of black dots gaining on them. "We've found them."
"There are apparating wards around the area. We can't get in that way. We could set up a port key, but that will take a while." Dumbledore commented.
Buffy slipped into business mode. "Find Dawn. Our best bet is to open a portal right next to them and then pull them back."
Dawn was tracked down by Willow and met the others in the guest rooms Dumbledore had set up for the American visitors. "What?" she asked wearily.
"We've found the missing students. Can you open a portal right neto the little dot things?" Xander said, pulling a short sword out of a suitcase.
"Sure. Hey, how are there slayers with them?"
"Slayers?" He trained his one good eye on Dawn.
"Yes. There are two little orange dots. All the slayers are accounted for...it must be the second Hogwarts slayer and another one-"
"We can worry about it later." Buffy reminded her of the task in hand. Dawn closed her eyes and concentrated. Almost immediately a swirling green portal opened up.
"Keep it open until we get back." Buffy said before jumping through the portal. Dawn nodded not speaking for fear of breaking her concentration. Dumbledore, Giles, Xander and Willow jumped through after Buffy and found themselves a few meters away from a group of tired looking students.
Two of the group went into defensive positions, before they saw Professor Dumbledore.
"Professor!" Emily sighed with relief. "The death eaters are coming! We have to get out of here."
"Is everyone here? Capital. Well, off you go then. Miss Rosenberg, if you'd be so kind as to lead the way back."
"Back? Aren't we gonna pound the bad guys?" Buffy asked, slightly disappointed.
"We're not ready to fight them. We would lose." Dumbledore went back through the portal with Giles. Willow shrugged and followed them, hearing the death eater's shouts as they got closer.
"Live to fight another day, Buff; let's go." Xander said pushing Buffy over to the portal and then following her through.
"Dawn, are you OK?" Buffy said as her sister almost collapsed after closing the portal.
"I'm fine. Just a little tired. Is everyone OK?"
"Everyone's fine. Tired and hungry, but apart from that..." Buffy smiled and was glad to see Dawn return it.
Half an hour later, everyone had been fed and the group were still sitting in the guest lounge, but they had been joined by several more. Most of the Hogwarts professors had joined them and several of the close friend and family of the ex-prisoners were also around.
"Did you do the spell?" Dawn asked of Willow.
"Yup. Two of them have slayer energy. Luna and Emily. Emily's is relatively new energy so I think she's the one who didn't show up on the locator spell I did last summer. Either that or she wasn't actually on Hogwarts ground when I did it. Or she only just turned thirteen. Or-"
"Willow, you're babbling! Shall I talk to them now?" Dawn asked nervously.
"Might as well get it over and done with. Do you want Giles to go with you?"
"Nah, I'll be fine. Get it over with, right?"
"Right." Willow offered her 'adopted little sister' an encouraging smile as Dawn walked over to first Emily and then Luna and took them to a secluded corner to sit down.
"Have you ever heard of the legend of the slayer?" She asked.
"My father told me about it. It's a demon who eats non-magical humans, or that's what it was. Now it's a vegan and lives in the Rocky Mountains." Luna answered. Emily only looked confused.
"Not exactly." Dawn fought back a giggle at the thought of a Buffy-demon living off dandelions and sitting in a mountain cave. "The slayer is one girl..."
.............................................................................................................
"She thought we were demons?! Oh my God! What did she say when you told her the truth?" Flick and Dawn were walking through the outskirts of the forbidden forest. According to Dumbledore, Voldermort and his remaining death eaters had left the forest so normal patrols were starting up again, but not too deep into the forest.
"Luna took it quite well. She said she was gonna tell her father but she says he'll be fine with it. It took her a bit of convincing that slayers weren't demons, but she's pretty easy to talk round."
"What about the other girl, Emma?" Flick asked, looking around for any signs of trouble.
"Emily. She thought it was cool. She only turned 13 a couple of weeks ago so she just wants to be a superhero. She'll need an experienced slayer to show her the ropes..." Dawn said, hinting heavily.
"No way! I'm a slayer, not a babysitter!" Flick protested.
"Come on Flick, you'd make a great role model...and besides, having the newest slayer as a partner means you don't have to patrol as much in this freezing weather." Winter was setting in the United Kingdom and Scotland wasn't the warmest part of it- both the girls were freezing!
"No patrols, huh? I guess I'll do it...for the good of the team, of course."
"Oh, of course." Both the girls erupted into giggles and continued with their patrol.
.........................................................................................................
"Jade!" Flick ran to envelop her sister slayer in a hug. Her and Dawn had just returned from their very unfruitful patrol and had entered Buffy, Willow, Xander, Spike and Giles' lounge and saw Jaden back from LA (as well as the rest of the slayers and Harry, Ron and Hermione). "How are you?" Flick asked seriously.
"I'm...good." Jade was stunned at her warm reception. She hadn't left on the best of terms with her friends due to her having slightly evil tendencies, but that was all better now, right?
"That's great, Jade." Dawn spoke for the first time and gave the returned slayer a hug too. And that surprised Jaden even more.
"Aren't you mad at me?" Jaden asked of the room.
"We shouldn't have left you alone so much." Dawn said. "I'm sorry you had to go through that." Giles nodded in approval. He had spoken to Dawn and the rest of the slayers about accepting Jade back and Angel had assured them all that she was 100% not evil.
Jaden looked around with a smile on her face before sitting down next to Skylar. Flick and Dawn also sat down on one of the sofas and Giles stood up and cleared his throat ready to speak.
"Dawn, did you find anything on your patrol?"
"Nope, Zippo. All is safe at Hogwarts."
"Good...that's good. But I'm afraid Professor Snape found some disturbing news today. A prophecy which involves some people in this room. The exact translation goes as follows:
'The boy who lived should be assisted in his battle with the Snake Lord by the Key.
Together they will fight the darkness; they will stand united, but fall apart.
One shall live, one shall fall. Both can triumph, for they make a formidable team;
But without each other, they shall surely fail.'"
Giles looked around, trying to guess everyone reaction, particularly Harry's and Dawn's.
"How do we get the key?" Hermione asked, seeing that Harry was staring into space.
"I'm the key." Dawn spoke quietly, but everyone heard. Buffy moved to sit by her sister's side and threw an arm round her shoulders protectively.
"How?" Harry spoke, dully.
"Four years ago, these monks decided to mould the key into human form and send it to the slayer so that she would protect it. They invented me out of her and then created memories for everyone so that people would think that I was really Buffy's sister."
"You're not really her sister?" Hermione half stated, half questioned.
"Yes, I am." Buffy said defensively. "We are by blood and it feels like we're sister so we are." Buffy glared around, daring anyone to correct her.
"So, either Dawn or I will die." Harry said meeting Dawn's eyes for the first time since the prophecy was read out.
"Yes." Buffy answered. "That doesn't mean you will stay dead, though. I mean a prophecy said I'd die, and I did, but I came back."
"What are the chances of that happening again?" Willow said dejectedly.
"About a million to one." Xander said in an equally depressed voice.
"We can't give up hope." Buffy said, looking to Giles for support as usual.
Harry hadn't broken eye contact with Dawn. He got up and left the room and Dawn went to follow him. "We need some time to think." Dawn told her sister as she left.
Dawn caught up with Harry outside the portrait of a vampire and they walked in silence towards the grounds. The stars were twinkling above them and the couple watched them as they walked. Finally Dawn spoke.
"We don't have to do it you know."
"Yes we do. Well, I do."
"Why? Buffy can jet us off somewhere and hide us. There are loads of wizards about to fight." Dawn pleaded.
"Another prophecy says that I'm the only one who can kill Voldermort. I have to fight."
"Oh. That means we fight. You kill him. I'll help and Buffy will help too... and the slayers."
"You don't have to stay. I don't want to put you in danger." Harry held Dawn's hand, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.
"I'm staying; and that's final. Besides dangers like my middle name." Dawn joked. "I'm not going to let this prophecy ruin things. We just won't stay dead. You heard the prophecy, we make a formidable team."
"Yes, we do." Harry cupped her chin and raised it before lowering his lips to meet hers in a deep kiss.
"Are you OK with this? Me being the Key and everything." Dawn asked when they parted for air.
"Why shouldn't I be? Sure, I wish you'd told me earlier, but it's all in the open now." Harry smiled at her.
"But I'm not real." Harry looked confused at Dawn's comment, so she clarified. "The monks just made me out of Buffy parts. Technically I'm only four years old; all my memories are fake."
"Then let's make some new memories. Besides, you feel real to me." Harry grinned before leaning in for another kiss. They parted and sat for hours just kissing and looking at the stars.
........................................................................................................... ...........................................................................................................
I'm not sure if the formatting of this story will work so well. Fan fiction's new set up doesn't like my computer and my computer doesn't like me.
I'll try and get the next chapter out soon, but I'm in the middle of my exams so it could take longer than normal. But please review!
CHAPTER 16- Prophecies
'The boy who lived should be assisted in his battle with the Snake Lord by the Key.
Together they will fight the darkness; they will stand united, but fall apart.
One shall live, one shall fall. Both can triumph, for they make a formidable team;
But without each other, they shall surely fail.'
"That's it?" Voldermort hissed. "You are gone for three days and you know nothing new?"
"Please, my Lord, we know that we can not beat them together."
"Who together? 'The boy who lived' is obviously Potter," he spat, "but we don't know what this 'key' is!"
"It must be something living, my Lord, how else how could it live or die?"
"Yes, yes." Voldermort said slowly, considering something. "A student perhaps? Or a teacher? Or a flower; It could be the lake monster for all we know! One thing I do know, the Key can not get to Potter. Rayne; leave me now. Continue to try to find the identity of the key."
"Yes, my Lord." Ethan Rayne backed out of the room, bowing as he went. He was going to have to try all of his old contacts; one of them must know the identity of the Key.
..................................................................................................
In a country estate in the middle of nowhere, chaos had broken out. A couple of death eaters had rushed down to the basement upon hearing a very big crash coming from the usually quite prisoners.
They were incredibly surprised to see a heavy oak door lying flat on the floor in front of the room/cell the prisoners from Hogwarts had been locked in. And further shocked to see the side door of the damp basement half open.
The first death eater was knocked out by the leg of a chair before he could voice his surprise. The second was also taken care of, but not before his yell alerted the death eaters upstairs.
"Come on; we've got to get out of here!" Luna lowered the chair leg, dashing out the side exit of the basement to find herself in a moat-like ditch that ran around the estate.
"Wait! What about our wands?" Emily asked, supporting Annie wit one arm, the other held a second chair leg.
"No time. Someone would have heard that shout; we've got to get as far away from here as possible." Luna was already climbing out of the ditch. When she got out, she leant back over and pulled Mike up without any difficulty.
Annie was surprised at Luna's attitude. Although she was a few years younger, they were both in Ravenclaw and the younger girl had always thought Luna to be quite, well totally actually, dippy.
Emily closed and barricaded the door they had just come through to try and bide them some time. "Let's head for the woods over there. If we go over the moors then we'll be like sitting ducks."
As they headed for the cover of the trees, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles had just heard the news about a certain prophecy.
"We have to get Dawn away from here." Buffy was adamant that this was what she wanted.
"Miss Summers, I really think-"Dumbledore began, but he was interrupted by a worked up Buffy.
"No! She's my sister and I'm not putting her in danger."
"Err, guys. It seems we have a development." Willow indicated to the large map behind her. It showed seven blue dots and two orange dots slowly moving east and a big group of black dots gaining on them. "We've found them."
"There are apparating wards around the area. We can't get in that way. We could set up a port key, but that will take a while." Dumbledore commented.
Buffy slipped into business mode. "Find Dawn. Our best bet is to open a portal right next to them and then pull them back."
Dawn was tracked down by Willow and met the others in the guest rooms Dumbledore had set up for the American visitors. "What?" she asked wearily.
"We've found the missing students. Can you open a portal right neto the little dot things?" Xander said, pulling a short sword out of a suitcase.
"Sure. Hey, how are there slayers with them?"
"Slayers?" He trained his one good eye on Dawn.
"Yes. There are two little orange dots. All the slayers are accounted for...it must be the second Hogwarts slayer and another one-"
"We can worry about it later." Buffy reminded her of the task in hand. Dawn closed her eyes and concentrated. Almost immediately a swirling green portal opened up.
"Keep it open until we get back." Buffy said before jumping through the portal. Dawn nodded not speaking for fear of breaking her concentration. Dumbledore, Giles, Xander and Willow jumped through after Buffy and found themselves a few meters away from a group of tired looking students.
Two of the group went into defensive positions, before they saw Professor Dumbledore.
"Professor!" Emily sighed with relief. "The death eaters are coming! We have to get out of here."
"Is everyone here? Capital. Well, off you go then. Miss Rosenberg, if you'd be so kind as to lead the way back."
"Back? Aren't we gonna pound the bad guys?" Buffy asked, slightly disappointed.
"We're not ready to fight them. We would lose." Dumbledore went back through the portal with Giles. Willow shrugged and followed them, hearing the death eater's shouts as they got closer.
"Live to fight another day, Buff; let's go." Xander said pushing Buffy over to the portal and then following her through.
"Dawn, are you OK?" Buffy said as her sister almost collapsed after closing the portal.
"I'm fine. Just a little tired. Is everyone OK?"
"Everyone's fine. Tired and hungry, but apart from that..." Buffy smiled and was glad to see Dawn return it.
Half an hour later, everyone had been fed and the group were still sitting in the guest lounge, but they had been joined by several more. Most of the Hogwarts professors had joined them and several of the close friend and family of the ex-prisoners were also around.
"Did you do the spell?" Dawn asked of Willow.
"Yup. Two of them have slayer energy. Luna and Emily. Emily's is relatively new energy so I think she's the one who didn't show up on the locator spell I did last summer. Either that or she wasn't actually on Hogwarts ground when I did it. Or she only just turned thirteen. Or-"
"Willow, you're babbling! Shall I talk to them now?" Dawn asked nervously.
"Might as well get it over and done with. Do you want Giles to go with you?"
"Nah, I'll be fine. Get it over with, right?"
"Right." Willow offered her 'adopted little sister' an encouraging smile as Dawn walked over to first Emily and then Luna and took them to a secluded corner to sit down.
"Have you ever heard of the legend of the slayer?" She asked.
"My father told me about it. It's a demon who eats non-magical humans, or that's what it was. Now it's a vegan and lives in the Rocky Mountains." Luna answered. Emily only looked confused.
"Not exactly." Dawn fought back a giggle at the thought of a Buffy-demon living off dandelions and sitting in a mountain cave. "The slayer is one girl..."
.............................................................................................................
"She thought we were demons?! Oh my God! What did she say when you told her the truth?" Flick and Dawn were walking through the outskirts of the forbidden forest. According to Dumbledore, Voldermort and his remaining death eaters had left the forest so normal patrols were starting up again, but not too deep into the forest.
"Luna took it quite well. She said she was gonna tell her father but she says he'll be fine with it. It took her a bit of convincing that slayers weren't demons, but she's pretty easy to talk round."
"What about the other girl, Emma?" Flick asked, looking around for any signs of trouble.
"Emily. She thought it was cool. She only turned 13 a couple of weeks ago so she just wants to be a superhero. She'll need an experienced slayer to show her the ropes..." Dawn said, hinting heavily.
"No way! I'm a slayer, not a babysitter!" Flick protested.
"Come on Flick, you'd make a great role model...and besides, having the newest slayer as a partner means you don't have to patrol as much in this freezing weather." Winter was setting in the United Kingdom and Scotland wasn't the warmest part of it- both the girls were freezing!
"No patrols, huh? I guess I'll do it...for the good of the team, of course."
"Oh, of course." Both the girls erupted into giggles and continued with their patrol.
.........................................................................................................
"Jade!" Flick ran to envelop her sister slayer in a hug. Her and Dawn had just returned from their very unfruitful patrol and had entered Buffy, Willow, Xander, Spike and Giles' lounge and saw Jaden back from LA (as well as the rest of the slayers and Harry, Ron and Hermione). "How are you?" Flick asked seriously.
"I'm...good." Jade was stunned at her warm reception. She hadn't left on the best of terms with her friends due to her having slightly evil tendencies, but that was all better now, right?
"That's great, Jade." Dawn spoke for the first time and gave the returned slayer a hug too. And that surprised Jaden even more.
"Aren't you mad at me?" Jaden asked of the room.
"We shouldn't have left you alone so much." Dawn said. "I'm sorry you had to go through that." Giles nodded in approval. He had spoken to Dawn and the rest of the slayers about accepting Jade back and Angel had assured them all that she was 100% not evil.
Jaden looked around with a smile on her face before sitting down next to Skylar. Flick and Dawn also sat down on one of the sofas and Giles stood up and cleared his throat ready to speak.
"Dawn, did you find anything on your patrol?"
"Nope, Zippo. All is safe at Hogwarts."
"Good...that's good. But I'm afraid Professor Snape found some disturbing news today. A prophecy which involves some people in this room. The exact translation goes as follows:
'The boy who lived should be assisted in his battle with the Snake Lord by the Key.
Together they will fight the darkness; they will stand united, but fall apart.
One shall live, one shall fall. Both can triumph, for they make a formidable team;
But without each other, they shall surely fail.'"
Giles looked around, trying to guess everyone reaction, particularly Harry's and Dawn's.
"How do we get the key?" Hermione asked, seeing that Harry was staring into space.
"I'm the key." Dawn spoke quietly, but everyone heard. Buffy moved to sit by her sister's side and threw an arm round her shoulders protectively.
"How?" Harry spoke, dully.
"Four years ago, these monks decided to mould the key into human form and send it to the slayer so that she would protect it. They invented me out of her and then created memories for everyone so that people would think that I was really Buffy's sister."
"You're not really her sister?" Hermione half stated, half questioned.
"Yes, I am." Buffy said defensively. "We are by blood and it feels like we're sister so we are." Buffy glared around, daring anyone to correct her.
"So, either Dawn or I will die." Harry said meeting Dawn's eyes for the first time since the prophecy was read out.
"Yes." Buffy answered. "That doesn't mean you will stay dead, though. I mean a prophecy said I'd die, and I did, but I came back."
"What are the chances of that happening again?" Willow said dejectedly.
"About a million to one." Xander said in an equally depressed voice.
"We can't give up hope." Buffy said, looking to Giles for support as usual.
Harry hadn't broken eye contact with Dawn. He got up and left the room and Dawn went to follow him. "We need some time to think." Dawn told her sister as she left.
Dawn caught up with Harry outside the portrait of a vampire and they walked in silence towards the grounds. The stars were twinkling above them and the couple watched them as they walked. Finally Dawn spoke.
"We don't have to do it you know."
"Yes we do. Well, I do."
"Why? Buffy can jet us off somewhere and hide us. There are loads of wizards about to fight." Dawn pleaded.
"Another prophecy says that I'm the only one who can kill Voldermort. I have to fight."
"Oh. That means we fight. You kill him. I'll help and Buffy will help too... and the slayers."
"You don't have to stay. I don't want to put you in danger." Harry held Dawn's hand, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.
"I'm staying; and that's final. Besides dangers like my middle name." Dawn joked. "I'm not going to let this prophecy ruin things. We just won't stay dead. You heard the prophecy, we make a formidable team."
"Yes, we do." Harry cupped her chin and raised it before lowering his lips to meet hers in a deep kiss.
"Are you OK with this? Me being the Key and everything." Dawn asked when they parted for air.
"Why shouldn't I be? Sure, I wish you'd told me earlier, but it's all in the open now." Harry smiled at her.
"But I'm not real." Harry looked confused at Dawn's comment, so she clarified. "The monks just made me out of Buffy parts. Technically I'm only four years old; all my memories are fake."
"Then let's make some new memories. Besides, you feel real to me." Harry grinned before leaning in for another kiss. They parted and sat for hours just kissing and looking at the stars.
........................................................................................................... ...........................................................................................................
I'm not sure if the formatting of this story will work so well. Fan fiction's new set up doesn't like my computer and my computer doesn't like me.
I'll try and get the next chapter out soon, but I'm in the middle of my exams so it could take longer than normal. But please review!