Thanks to:

Miz

C@rMeiNa

ScruffyWes

Dreamer Child – lol you'll have to wait a little while for Sirius, I haven't got any plans to bring him back right away.

Renna

Erak

Anne-Marie

Captinuv

Nobody…

Midnight

Becks89 – thanks for the speedy updates, they were really good! Lol you said in your review for me to get Sirius and Buffy together soon, but what about you?! I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for you to get them together in The Youngest Evans!  

SlayerGirl

Wllw979- lol Buffy was never famed for her intelligent plans was she?!

Vampy the chosen one

Chapter 8 – Mrs Black and Hermione

Buffy and Harry were soon disturbed by the rest of the house's occupants entering the kitchen for lunch. They all crowded round the table as Mrs Weasley cooked rapidly a huge lunch for them. Buffy noticed right away a change in harry, he had opened up more, joined in with the conversations, laughed at Fred and Georges antics. There were moments where he drifted into silence, and his face closed over but these weren't permanent. Remus shot her a grateful glance for the change in Harry's temperament and Buffy felt oddly pleased that she had actually been able to help him.

 "We've got a welcoming dinner tonight for Harry," Mrs Weasley said as she laid out a large loaf of bread on the table and began passing out salads and cold meat. "Hermione's coming to stay this afternoon, and Alastor is coming, Kingsley, Tonks, Mundungus if he ever wakes up and Professor Snape." There was a collective groan from the table.
 "Why's Snape coming to Harry's welcoming dinner?" Ron moaned and his mother gave him a reproving glance.
 "Because there's a meeting of the Order afterwards and I said he could come to dinner beforehand," Mrs Weasley explained. Ron sighed deeply, but then brightened when he looked at Buffy. "Snape's the one you knocked out." Buffy considered for a moment and then recalled the man who had pointed a wand at Sirius in the Shrieking Shack so long ago.
 "You let a lot of strange people into the Order," she said thoughtfully. "That's guys so evil you can practically taste it." The Weasleys and Harry smiled collectively. "I'll be interested to meet him." They all considered the idea of Buffy and Snape meeting with delight.

 "There's a meeting?" Harry asked.
 "Yes, for the entire Order," Mrs Weasley confirmed. "Dumbledore's coming, I invited him to dinner but he said he wouldn't be able to make it sadly." Buffy watched Harry, and saw the expression on his face. Somewhere between anger, pain, regret, sorrow and nothingness flickered across his face at the monition of Dumbledore. Buffy supposed Dumbledore had been right to say he wasn't Harry's favourite person at the moment.

They all tucked into the feast and once again Buffy felt herself enjoying the happy family atmosphere around her.
Growing up as an only child she'd never experienced gatherings like this. Even with all the Scoobies in her house, the noise and liveliness was nothing like this. Fred and George alone were enough of a distraction. Buffy was sitting between Charlie and Bill and she stopped eating long enough to speak with them.
 "I thought there was another brother?" she asked. "Peter, or Percy or something. What happened to him?" Charlie and Bill exchanged glances.
 "Percy isn't on the best terms with our family," Bill said slowly and Ron butted in.
 "Put bluntly, he's a git," Ron said and Buffy smiled a little.
 "When Voldemort rose there was a big outcry," Charlie explained. "People had been living with peace and harmony for so long that they didn't want to believe that it was possible that this would all be shattered. When harry came back from Voldemort's rebirth and told Fudge, that's the Minister for Magic, that Voldemort had risen and he had seen it, he refused point blank to believe him. He tried to discredit Harry, and Dumbledore who he's terrified of, and tried to cut him off from the Ministry. Percy had to choose sides, and he chose to side with Fudge. Said Harry was a liar, collaborated with fudge's stories. They both got the shock of their lives when Voldemort showed up at the Ministry last year."
 "So why isn't he here?" Buffy said, puzzled.
 "Because he's a git," Ron repeated. "Percy can't face admitting that he was wrong about something." Buffy nodded, noticing that Mrs Weasley had looked progressively unhappy during this conversation.
 "So, do you lot all play Quidditch?" she ventured and they all nodded fervently.
 "We've all been on the team at one point," Ginny said. "Bill was a keeper, Charlie was a seeker, Fred and George were beaters, Ron's a keeper, Harry's a seeker and I was seeker for a bit last year but I'm gonna try out for chaser this year."
 "You'll get in" Harry said loyally and Ginny grinned.
 "Okay, that's a lot to digest," Buffy said with a laugh. "My Quidditch knowledge is somewhere between dodgy and non existent. I've seen you play once, when I was up in Scotland."
 "That was the match with the dementors when I fell off wasn't it?" Harry asked and Fred and George scowled at the memory of the only match they had lost with Harry as seeker.
 Buffy nodded.
 "I was around a lot that year," she said with a smile, remembering. "At the Quidditch match, I ran into Ron and Hermione in Hogsmeade, and then when we went to the dormitories to get the rat."
 "You were there when the curtains got slashed?" Ron said in surprise and Buffy grinned.
 "It was me who slashed them," she admitted and they laughed. "And then I was there at the end."

The doorbell rang startling them all from their reverie and an unearthly screeching filled the house.

 "Dammit," Bill said, jumping up and running out of the kitchen. Buffy followed him, feeling potential slayage. He ran into the hallway and Buffy saw what had been behind the moth eaten curtains.

A portrait of an old woman, eyes rolling, yellowed skin stretched taut screamed and yelled loudly, clawed hands reaching out of her portrait as if she wanted to escape from her picture. The other portraits in the hallways began to screech in sympathy.

 "BLOOD TRAITORS, MUGGLES IN THE HOME OF MY FATHERS, SCUM, FILTH, HALF BREEDS!" she screeched an assortment of curses as Bill attempted to wrench the curtains shut. Buffy grabbed the other side of the curtains and helped to yank them closed over the old woman. The screeches died out and silence fell again.
 "What the hell was that?" Buffy exclaimed and Bill shushed her.
 "Sirius' mother, Mrs Black," Bill said quietly. "Loud noises tend to….disturb her."

 "Why haven't you burned it?" Buffy asked, also quietly.
 "We think there's a permanent sticking charm on the back of the portrait," Bill said taking a deep breath. "We've been trying to get it off." Buffy stored that information away at the back of her mind, wondering how much the portrait would be a match for Giles and his chainsaw. The thought of Giles made her insides clench, she missed him now. She hadn't seen him before she had left; it had been such a hurry. She had written a short letter to them all to say she had arrived but since then, nothing. She would write that evening, she decided.
 "Who was at the door?" she asked, pointing to hit and Bill clapped a hand to his forehead.
 "I almost forgot," he said and Buffy smiled. He opened the heavy black front door and a pretty girl with bushy brown hair and an assortment of trunks and bags stood impatiently on the doorstep.
 "Hi Bill. Sorry did I wake Mrs Black?" she asked concernedly. "I heard her yelling, I forgot about that and it was too late after I rung the bell. She and Bill began to collect up her bags and bring them inside quickly and Hermione helped.
 "Buffy," she said in surprise. "You're here. Why…I mean of course but….umm…" Buffy suspected it was the first time Hermione had ever been lost for words. She waited for the babble to stop then replied.
 "I'm staying here for a while," she answered, conscious of her hand shaking a little and stuffing it in her pocket.
The people from the kitchen moved into the hallway. Hermione squealed and threw herself upon first Ron and then harry in hugs. Then she hugged Ginny.
 "Hi herm," Ron said, apparently a little flustered. "How have you been?"
 "Oh you know," she said casually. "Doing my summer homework, all of that." Ron and Harry both rolled their eyes good naturedly.
 "But how have you two been?" she asked concernedly and her eyes fixed particularly on Harry. He looked determinedly at the wall.

 "We're okay," Ron said with a sideways glance at Harry, who did not look back. "Hey, did you know Buffy's the Slayer?" Hermione frowned at the abrupt subject change and then brightened as she realised what he had said.
 "The slayer?" she asked interestedly.

  "A slayer," Buffy corrected. "One of two actually."
 "How is that possible?" Hermione quizzed her. "Every text written on the vampire slayer has explicitly expressed the fact that there is only one at a time."
 "And that was true…up to now," Buffy said with a sardonic grin. "I died a while back, that is I was clinically dead for a minute or something. In that time the new slayer was activated and then I came back to life. That was Kendra, but she was killed by Drusilla. So Faith was activated."
 "Two vampire slayers," Hermione mused. "Where is the other one, faith is it?"

"Back in Sunnydale, fighting the good fight," Buffy confirmed. "Normally we work together, since we live together, but she's taking care of the hellmouth while I'm here."
 "What kind of things do you do as vampire slayer? Do you work closely with the watchers council? What is your watcher called? What qualifications does he have?" Hermione began to fire questions at Buffy, and Buffy held up her hand, laughing, to stem the flow of words.
 "Questions later," she said, with a chuckle. "You babble just like Willow. We'll talk at dinner." Hermione nodded, choosing not to ask about the strange 'Willow' comment. She, Ginny, Ron and Harry began to take her bags upstairs while the rest filed back into the kitchen.
 "That was Hermione," Remus supplied with a smile. "She's been a good friend to Harry. And she's very intelligent, one of the most diligent pupils I've ever seen."
 "She reminds me of my friend Willow," Buffy said wistfully. "The babbling, the smartness. Loyal friend. Very Willow."

"Ron, Ginny, Hermione and Harry all learned their own mortality last year," Remus said as they all entered the kitchen. "They were in the big final fight at the Ministry, along with two others students. The six of them against a lot of fully grown death eaters. And they held their own for a while. Harry doesn't believe it but everyone is very proud of him, proud of all of them. He still blames himself."
 "Why were they there in the first place?" Buffy asked. "Especially since you say that the Ministry pretty much hated Harry at the time."
 "Harry is special in a lot of ways." Remus said. "Ever since Voldemort gave him that scar by trying to kill him, the two have had a connection of sorts. Harry feels when Voldemort feels particular emotions and sometimes he has visions of what Voldemort sees. When Voldemort rose again, the visions were more intense and more often. And then Voldemort became aware of this connection and sent Harry visions of Sirius getting tortured in the Department of Ministries. Harry thought what he saw was true and so went to the Ministry."
 "But why did Voldemort want Harry to go there?" Buffy asked, feeling more confused. "You, and Dumbledore, have told me about what happened to Sirius and the fact that he went to save Harry but I don't know why they were all there in the first place."

 "The Department of Mysteries holds a lot of strange things, as Dumbledore probably said." Remus replied. "Even those that work there don't understand the things kept there. It contains the mysteries of life, things that people will probably never understand. They also keep every prophecy made about anyone. The prophecy can only be picked up by the person whom in concerns, otherwise it causes madness. You know about Harry's prophecy, but Voldemort didn't. He knew the first part, that a boy would be born with the power to kill him, but not the second, about marking him as his equal. He heard it, and then went to kill Harry, meaning to end the prophecy. But he failed, and this time he intended to hear the prophecy for himself in full before attempting anything. But he couldn't collect it, and so he had to get Harry there. So he used Sirius, one person that Harry would've risked everything for. But he failed, the prophecy was smashed and he didn't hear it."

 "Every prophecy?" Buffy said with wide eyes. "I'd like to see that, like to see my own prophecy. I'd like to see the Ministry itself."
 "I could take you," Bill offered, having been listening in to the tail end of their conversation. "I've got to go in tomorrow to pick up some parchments for work. You could come with me."
 "I'd like that," Buffy said warmly. She smiled then looked back at Remus. "But what stops Voldemort catching one of us, that knows about the prophecy and torturing us til he gets it, or using a spell thing to find it out?"
 "Prophecies can only be told willingly," Remus revealed. "They can only be extracted from a person if they are willing to them. No amount of torture or spells will extract the prophecy from a person and Voldemort knows that. He was lucky to hear the first part; he overheard the original seer prophesising to Dumbledore." Buffy nodded, remembering overhearing Giles and Angel discussing her own prophecy. With a smile, she remembered Giles saying that he would go and take on the Master himself. She missed him a lot now.

****

Again, not a natural cut off point, but I want to stop there before I get into the next big thing and I'm supposed to be doing my English coursework at the moment! Hope you enjoy, read and review please!