When Cordelia dared to open her eyes, she noticed that she was in a rather neat office space with red and gold trimmings. It had a fire place down one end and a desk with a cat sleeping on it at the other. Bookshelves lined majority of the walls except for the one with the fire. Above the fire, a large portrait of someone that Cordelia didn't know was glancing at the newcomer.

Cordelia spared a quick glance down at the baby asleep in the baby pouch as she investigated the office. It was amazing that Connor was still asleep after everything that had happened from the time Cordelia had burst into his room. Hopefully he would be content to stay asleep until after she found her aunt.

"Hey kitty kitty," she whispered not really wanting to wake the cat. But she wanted to try to ease some papers from off the desk, just to find out for sure if she was in the right office.

Sure enough, there was the name of Professor McGonagall on the front of the parchment. So Cordelia breathed a sigh of relief, it had worked as it was supposed to. She was in Hogwarts; she was safe for the time being. Now if only she could find her aunt.

The cat had opened one eye and was watching her as she shuffled round the odds and ends in the office. She was impressed at its size and once again she was reminded of Angel. She had asked him over and over again if she could have an office. Then when he had given in, she complained that it wasn't big enough for her.

"Oh Angel," she began to sob. "You had so much left to achieve before you were supposed to be killed. And now, I'm alone and looking after a baby on my own and I have no idea as to what I am supposed to be doing."

She dropped to the floor in front of the fire, unaware of the cat getting up off the desk, nor of the cat going through a change. She was still oblivious when her aunt walked up and wrapped her arms around her.

"Cordelia, it's alright. Minnie's here to help."

The words broke Cordelia out of her slump and she jumped up ready to defend herself before she realised what had been said. Relaxing again, Cordelia turned to look at her aunt.

"Aunt Minnie," she said still rather upset. She rushed into her aunt's arms, careful not to jostle or squish Connor too much. "I had no where else to go."

"My dear, can you tell me what has happened?" her aunt asked as she navigated them to the small sofa in front of the fire.

To Minerva, her niece was looking awfully fragile and pale. Nothing like she had remembered the last time she had gone to visit the family. In reality, Cordelia was in actual fact her great-great-great niece but it was only told to the children once they came of age and if they realised that their aunt didn't look like she was aging normally. Cordelia was the only one who knew before she had become of age. Maybe it had been an effect of living on the Hellmouth. Whatever it was from, Cordelia always prided herself on being able to stand up to anything that came her way. So to have her here in tears, looking lost and alone was a shock to Minerva.

"Aunt Minnie, I'm so confused."

"Do you want me to hold the baby while you get comfortable?" Minerva asked. She watched as Cordelia firstly pulled away protectively, covering as much of the baby as possible before finally undoing the straps.

"His name is Connor, and as of two weeks ago, he is my son."

Relief was evident on Minerva's face; Cordelia hadn't given birth to the sleeping boy, but if she was claiming him as hers, then Minerva decided she had the right to get to know her newest nephew.

"Cordelia honey, why don't you start at the start and tell me everything," she prodded again wanting to understand why her niece had adopted the boy and suddenly appeared in her office. She knew that she had used the necklace and was in a way glad that Cordelia had figured that her aunt would be able to help. But what exactly was she running from?

Flashback

"Wes, what are you doing?" Angel asked as he noticed Wesley pulling out a stake and heading in his direction.

"The father will kill the son," Wesley whispered as he closed the distance. "I will not let that happen, not to Connor."

"You think I would kill my own son?" Angel growled. "Never!"

His face morphed slightly between his human and his vampire faces. With that he rushed Wesley and punched him once, strong enough to knock him out. He grabbed the stake from Wesley's clutch and shook his head. What made Wesley believe he would kill an innocent child?

He decided to leave Wesley in his office to wake up and cool down while he tried to make sense of Wesley's words. Wes knew he loved Connor and that he would give up his eternal life for him. So why was he suddenly expecting Angel to murder his own boy?

Turning his back on Wesley, Angel started to leave the office. Little did he know, Wesley hadn't actually been knocked unconscious. Little did he know, Wesley had another stake hidden on him. And he never expected Wesley to be the kind to stab someone in the back. So he definitely didn't expect to turn to dust.

Cordelia had arrived in the room just as Wesley had struck. She rushed to the weapons cupboard and grabbed a sword before turning to face him, the sword held between them.

"Are you going to kill me now?" she demanded. "Do I need to warn the others that you'll be after them too?"

"Cordelia, I had to kill him," Wesley answered. "He was going to kill Connor. I did it to protect his son."

"He would never hurt Connor," Cordelia protested, stepping closer to him while still keeping the sword at the ready.

"There was a prophecy Cordelia, that the father would kill the son."

"Right, a prophecy," Cordelia said in disbelief. "And considering you know Buffy and what she's managed to do, you took this prophecy to be a 100% true and took it upon yourself to be his judge and executioner?"

"Cordy, you don't understand…"

"No Wes, you don't understand. How many times do prophecies come true exactly as they are written? Buffy will die at the hands of the Master, true but did she stay dead? No. So maybe, Angel was to kill Connor but what's to stop modern day medicine from bringing him back?"

Dropping the sword, Cordelia swept from the room to notify the others what had happened to Angel. Then she had to call Angel's one true love, Buffy Summers. During the call, the two girls cried over Angel and Cordelia felt herself truly grieving for her boss.

Over the next two weeks, Cordelia avoided Wesley, as did the others. Fred worked hard on researching the prophecy that Wesley had so blindly followed while Gunn took the workload onto himself and went into overdrive.

Finally Fred had found the truth and presented it to the group as well as Wesley. A little later the group heard a gunshot and when they went to investigate, they found Wesley dead.

Tears were streaming down Cordelia's face as she explained the vision to her aunt and how she had left her friends to die when she escaped.

"Cordelia, you did what you could. You promised to protect the boy and you did. The others made up their minds to assist you in the way that they did. Do not pity them, instead celebrate the fact that if they died after you left, it would have been in the way that they chose, to die in battle to save an innocent's life."

"You're right, Aunt Minnie but it's still hard to believe everything that has happened. Now I have no idea what to do, how to raise a child… any of that."

"And has having no idea stopped you before? When your parents split up, you managed to get through it, when your father was arrested for tax fraud, you got through the change in lifestyle. You managed to get through the changes in the towns you have lived in. You managed to not only confront you fears but you also fought your fears," Minerva softly ranted. "Now are you going to let a little thing like not knowing how to do something stop you from attempting it?"

"No Aunt Minnie."

"Good, now I have class I must go and teach but feel free to have a look around the office while I am gone," Minerva said. "I must ask you refrain from going outside of this office until I return as I must inform Professor Dumbledore of your arrival and the need for you to stay here."

"Okay, I'll stay here. I think I'll have a short nap."

"Certainly dear."