Okay, finally I've posted this chapter which is where the story starts to have a proper focus and point. This is kind of the pivotal chapter from which the rest will stem.

Thanks to:

Kyra2 – Voldemort only went in Faith's head for a little while; he's not still in there. That would be mega bad.

Chrios- hehe if you though last chapter was a downer, wait for this one!

Charmedfanatic3000

Dreamer Child – read this chapter and you can stop wondering…

Clcountry

Thorn of Blood – hey don't worry I really like your fic, just give it some time. I think the Slayers have more stealth than other wizards so they can dodge curses and stuff but I don't think they can just be un susceptible to magic.

Lost angel92

Silver Warrior – don't worry, it wasn't a stealing information kind of poke around in her head. More of a mess with her thoughts thing. And he couldn't have found the location if he'd wanted to because it's protected by the Fidelius charm

lAcKlUsTrE

Chapter 32 – Shattered

True to her word, Buffy didn't make any more ventures to Voldemort's hideouts. She supposed by that point they had set up somewhere permanent, but she tried not to concern herself with where that might be and what they might be doing.
A month passed steadily, and November came, Buffy being two months pregnant and suffering from morning sickness. Faith was still dating Kingsley, perhaps the longest relationship she'd ever had and the only serious one.

A Tuesday afternoon in early November brought a letter from Hogwarts for Faith.
 "It's from Dumbledore," she announced. "He says that there's a nest of vampires in the Forbidden Forest and he wants to know if I can take care of it for him."
 "Just you?" Buffy asked indignantly. Faith looked up and grinned.
 "B, you're pregnant," she reminded her. "Vampire fighting isn't the best pregnancy exercise." Buffy pouted.
 "I could totally take a nest of vampires," she retorted. "I've only got a tiny bump. I'll come with you, I haven't slayed in forever."
 "Sirius won't be happy," Faith said, wagging a finger. Buffy merely shrugged.
 "I'll convince him," she said matter-of-factly.

Faith and Buffy portkeyed to Hogwarts that evening, Buffy having convinced Sirius that light exercise wouldn't hurt her and she was more than a match for a few vampires, especially with Faith.
Then landed in the grounds, in the vegetable patch of Hagrid's Hut. Dumbledore hadn't wanted them to arrive in the castle; he didn't want Scrimgeour to know they were there and had promised to keep him in a meeting all evening.
 "Alrigh'?" Hagrid said, coming out to meet them. "Dumbledore said yeh'd be comin'. He said ter take yeh in, show yer the way."

Buffy and Faith had only met Hagrid a few times at Order meetings but they chatted warmly as he led them through the forest.
 "I'm not the best wi' vampires," Hagrid said as the followed a thin, barely recognisable track. "Course I can hit 'em, but they can run pretty fast. Never could keep up."

 He carried a crossbow and his large boarhound accompanied, who they had been introduced to as Fang and who proceeded to slobber on them.

 "Don' get many vampires in 'Ogwarts," Hagrid continued. "Maybe a nest once a year. Preying on the 'Ogsmeade lot. Course there's a lot of other stuff in 'ere that'll prey on you as well."

Buffy and Faith exchanged significant looks, both their slayer senses were tingling, the forest was clearly full of magic.
 "This is it," Hagrid whispered, parting some bushes in front of them. Faith and Buffy peered through to see a group of about eight vampires sitting around a fire. Two dead bodies lay to one side, drained of blood. "Oh an' Buffy? Sirius sed ter tell yeh ter be careful and don' do anythin' stupid. Congratulations by the way."

Buffy scowled and Faith smirked. Together, they pushed through the trees and walked into the clearing where the vampires were nesting.
Two of them stood up whilst the other just sat still looking somewhat confused and bewildered.
 "Fresh prey?" one of them said doubtfully. "Here?" Buffy and Faith swept into action, taking on the vampires together. The Slayers carried stakes only and made quick work of the vampires, fighting their way through them to dust them all efficiently.
 "English vampires suck," Faith said and Buffy giggled. "And not just literally. The Sunnydale ones always had more pizzazz."

"I never saw a slayer before," Hagrid said in an awed voice. "It's really a sight. Come on." He led them back down the path they had followed before.
Halfway back, they all stopped at once.
 "You hear that?" Faith asked urgently. Buffy and Hagrid both nodded and they all tightened their grip on their weapons. The bushed before them rustled as something came towards them. The noise came closer and they focused on one bush. A creature came out of it and stopped before them.
 "Oh, it's jus' you Firenze," Hagrid said, breathing out heavily. "Buffy, Faith, this is Firenze. He's a centaur," he added unnecessarily. Buffy and Faith stared at the centaur before them, mouths slightly open.
 "Yeh should be more careful," Hagrid berated the centaur lightly. "The centaurs took yeh back; yeh don't want the get killed righ' away. Yeh shouldn't sneak up on people anyway. We could've killed yeh'."

Firenze stared hard at Buffy and Faith now, eyes moving between them. Both were somewhat uncomfortable.

"You are slayers," he said is a masculine, yet soft voice. "My kind have heard of yours."
 Faith Buffy nodded nervously and Firenze stared hard at them in turn before focusing on Buffy.

 "Miss Summers?" Firenze said in a level voice, and Buffy nodded in surprise. "I have heard tell of you. You are with child. The forest is not safe for you. You must leave immediately."
 "I can take care of myself," Buffy said uncomfortably. "Slayer remember?" Firenze continued to stare at her and Buffy had the odd sensation that she was being looked at deeper than face value, that the centaur was somehow able to see inside her mind and heart.
 "You could not defend yourself against what hunts you," he said darkly and Buffy frowned and lifted her chin.
 "What hunts me?" she asked hesitantly. "There's something after me?" Firenze stepped closer to her, not breaking his penetrating gaze.
 "Buffy, what do you know about centaurs?" Firenze asked his brow furrowing.
 "Nothing," Buffy said shrugging. "Apart from the whole half-man, half-horse thing. I didn't even know they were real til about a minute ago."

 "Centaurs watch the planets and read the stars," Firenze said in a deep slow voice. "We see what is written in the sky for the future. The stars prophesize and the centaurs read it." Buffy gulped.
 "If you mean the prophecy about me dying, that's been and gone," she said nervously. "I died and I'm back. No fuss, no muss." Firenze shook his great head.

 "That is not the prophecy of which I speak," he said hesitantly. "Centaurs are forbidden to work against the stars, we must align ourselves with what we read but when I read something significant, I cannot concur with this. That is why many of my kind have turned against me in the past." Buffy felt cold deep in her stomach.
 "You read something…about me?" she asked quietly. Firenze surveyed her.
 "I am sorry," he said despondently and Buffy moved one hand to her stomach protectively. "I wish the stars were wrong but what they say is a message that has been read for thousands of years. They speak of a child, of her blood. Her blood is potent; that which runs through her veins holds great power. Power that if harnessed could be used for great evil."

"Not my baby," Buffy said bitterly. "It can't be. Not again. How do you know that it's me?" Her eyes were blinded by tears and she rubbed them furiously, glaring at the centaur.

"I am sorry to be the one telling you this," Firenze said stricken. "But you have to know. It is your baby, a baby born of your blood. There is no question of that."
 "No," Buffy murmured numbly, looking down. Then she looked up at the centaur and her eyes were blazing and she found herself yelling. "No, I won't! I won't listen to this bull anymore! It's not my baby, not my little girl."

Firenze bent his head in sorrow and his large eyes looked at her with grief.

 "It is your child," Firenze said sadly. "The stars speak of a great prophecy about this child. Born of the slayer of the hellmouth and the wizard who have both broken death. They speak of your daughter's blood, its potency. Whoever would drink her blood would possess inconceivable power." Buffy stared at him without seeing, without feeling. Every inch of her was numb, focused on the stubborn life that dwelled inside of her. The cursed life. Just like her own
 "They'll kill me," Buffy said distantly, not willing her words to come and feeling surprised when they did. "They'll kill me and then they'll cut me open and take her. My baby." Firenze shook his head slowly.

 "She must be born, only once you have given birth can her blood be used," he clarified. Buffy looked down, fighting back tears.
 "No one can know," she said hurriedly. "I'll kill you all before I let you tell. Everyone, the centaurs, all of your kind. You have to keep it a secret. No one can no. No one." She was clutching at straws and she knew it, her strength breaking piece by piece and the flood of sorrow threatening to fall.
 "The stars are not written for the centaurs alone," Firenze said quietly. "The prophecy is there to be read by anyone that walks in this dimension."
 "They'll come after her," Buffy predicted, tears falling down her cheeks. "Someone, anyone, one of them will come and I won't be able to stop them. They'll take her and they'll kill her. And I can't stop it. Oh god." Buffy's knees buckled and Faith caught her arms quickly, supporting her in a way that her legs couldn't manage.
 "The stars have spoken of this child for generations," Firenze said, looking up towards the stars that were picked out in the dark night sky. "She will be important, they do not say how, it is not known how. But there are many out there who have been waiting for this child. They will know that she is come. That is why you must leave. I am sorry." Buffy looked up at him blankly.
 "Everyone says that," she said desolately. "It means nothing. It doesn't help. Nothing does."

She stood up straight, took a deep breath and walked away from the centaur. No one knew what it cost her to take the strength to do that. A couple of metres away she became aware of Faith and Hagrid walking behind her.
 "B?" Faith said tentatively but Buffy didn't turn.
 "It was there," she murmured, more to herself than anything. Her tears were dried for the moment, only visible in dried trails on her cheeks. "In the Department of Mysteries when I went. Another prophecy about me. But I didn't look, I couldn't. And you know what, ignorance was bliss." She spun around suddenly and they stopped before her.
 "No one can know," she snapped, fear giving into bitter anger. "You can't tell anyone about this….this thing growing inside of me. I don't want anyone to know." Faith and Hagrid exchanged a look.
 "B," Faith said anxiously. "Look, we have to do something about this, get stuff going so we can protect you and your daughter." Buffy laughed hollowly, mirthlessly.
 "What's the point?" she asked coldly. "They'll get her, in the end they'll get her. Voldemort or anyone. Vampires, demons, they'll all be after her. I can't protect her forever, whatever I do." She turned again and continued walking.

"Buffy," Faith tried again, catching up with her. "We've got to deal with this, maybe there's something we can do to help it. There's got to be something. This is your daughter." Her voice shook on the word 'daughter.'
"And I brought her into the world to suffer and die," Buffy said in an empty voice. "Another prophecy fulfilled."
 "The prophecy didn' say she'd die," Hagrid put in gently. "Jus' that she'd be born. Isn' that summat?" Buffy didn't answer, just kept walking briskly.
They reached the edge of the forest and she kept walking until she reached Hagrid's vegetable patch.
 "We've got to go," Buffy said in a stricken voice. "Faith, we've got to leave." Faith nodded mutely casting a worried look at Hagrid before taking the portkey and disappearing along with Buffy.

They landed in the dark, empty kitchen and Buffy sat down at he table, face in her hands.
 "B?" Faith said tentatively. "You want me to get Sirius?" Buffy looked up at her, and Faith saw the fear that filled her eyes.

 "I should tell him," she said in a flat voice. "Tell Giles. And Remus. But just Remus and Giles. Tell him he can even look it up in the codex. He has that one, I know. Chapter 32."

Faith nodded, opened her mouth to say something then thought better of it and left without a word.
 Sirius came in a few moments later, looking worried.
 "What's up?" he asked anxiously. "You're not hurt are you?" Buffy shook her head, willing the tears not to come.

 "I have to get an abortion," she said blankly. "As soon as possible I have to do that."  For a moment Sirius didn't move, didn't speak, didn't how any emotion. Then he spoke to her in a voice she had never heard him use to her before.
 "Why?" he asked, bewildered. "What's wrong with our baby?" Buffy looked away, she suddenly felt guilty that she had to tell him. He had been so happy, so excited.

"Our daughter," she said in a ghost of a voice. "We have a daughter. A little girl." Sirius' expression softened as he reached for her. She turned away from his reach.
 "What's going on?" he asked in confusion. "Are you in trouble? Talk to me, please."

Buffy looked back at him wordlessly. Far from willing the tears not to come, she felt emptied of them; no tears were waiting to be cried. Buffy turned, leant on the kitchen counter, took a few deep breaths. The kitchen was so flat, so empty, it was wrong that it should be like that when so much was wrong with the world.
 "There's a prophecy," she told him in most level voice she could manage. "About a child, our child and it's been around for hundreds of years. A child will be born of a slayer of the hellmouth and a wizard who have both defied death. That's us." Sirius stared back at her motionless and expressionless so she continued. "Her blood has power, from the moment she's born, anyone who drinks her blood with have 'inconceivable power,' the centaur called it. It's been in the stars for ages, everyone know, everyone except us that is. They're all looking for her, waiting for her to be born so they can take her from us and kill her."
Buffy had nothing left in her to say and then she began to cry, even though she thought she couldn't. Great wracking sobs that poured tears down her cheeks and shook her whole frame. She screwed up her face against them but still they came and so she covered her face with her hands. She was ashamed; she had to control this emotion. She had to be in control so she could handle this.
But she was crying, anguish was tearing through her body, eating her up inside and damaging her irreparably. Her daughter, her baby still inside her and she had to kill her. She couldn't let her live with this prophecy, as a slayer she had to protect the world and as a mother she had to protect her daughter.

She couldn't see anymore, her eyes were screwed shut but she felt his arms, one wrapped around her head, the other round her back, pulling her to him. Sirius held her tight and together they cried for their daughter.
 Buffy didn't know how long they were there, but gradually her tears subsided and she was left clutching the front of Sirius' robes.
 "I'm sorry," she whispered tearfully. Sirius kissed the top of her head.
 "This isn't your fault," he murmured. "We're both powerless."
Powerless was exactly how Buffy felt, she had been swimming against a powerful tide that the Powers That Be had built up and built up and it had finally broken her. It was over for her, she didn't know how much more she could handle.

"We've no choice," she whispered brokenly. "We have to do this now, or she'll live a cursed life." Sirius nodded, his lip trembling.

 "I wanted to be a mother," she murmured, eyes glassy and unfocused. "I don't know if I would've been good at it but I wanted try. For our little girl."

They were standing, just holding each other, willing that this hadn't happened, that it was all some cruel nightmare and that it would end. But they knew it wouldn't, this was their lives and this was how the world was.

The door opened behind them and they turned to see who it was. Giles, Remus and Faith entered.  For a while no one spoke, Buffy couldn't think of anything anyone could say, there was nothing. Giles came towards her, holding a book in his hand.
 "I've found something," he said hoarsely. "The prophecy in its entirety is in the Codex."
 "Its entirety?" Buffy asked, leaving Sirius' embrace. Giles nodded, pulling off his glasses.
 "The centaur did not tell you the entire prophecy, perhaps he did not know. There's hope," he said, a reassuring smile making its way to his lips. Buffy couldn't move until he spoke again, the faintest hint of hope too fragile to risk shattering.  "The prophecy in the Codex speaks of the child, born of the slayer and her blood and what it can bring to the drinker of it. But what the centaur told you wasn't its entirety. Perhaps it is not in the stars in its entirety. Perhaps he read it wrong.

 The Codex tells of this potency of blood only lasting a year. For the first year of her life, her blood will hold this power. But on her first birthday, the power will be hers to keep and use as she will."

Buffy couldn't speak, her hand clapped to her mouth and she whirled around so they could only see her back which was shaking. Sirius stepped towards Giles.
 "So if we keep her safe for a year," he asked tentatively. "Then she can live, she'll be okay?" Giles nodded, placing his glasses back on his face and putting the Codex gently down on the kitchen table. Sirius drew in a shaky breath. He sat down hard on a chair, staring into space.
 "It's okay," he said calmly, partly to himself, partly to Buffy. "It'll be okay. It'll be okay." Buffy turned around and leant back against the counter. She tipped her head up, closed her eyes and stood motionless for what seemed like an age. Then she sighed, rubbed her face hard and looked at Giles.
 "You're sure?" she asked wearily. He nodded firmly, handing her the book.
 "The Codex is concrete," he said reassuringly. "There is no incorrect prophecy pertaining to the slayer within it." Buffy looked down at it but the words weren't in English so she put the book down and moved forward to hug Giles.
 "Thank you," she said numbly. "I don't know what I would've done if…." She trailed off wordlessly.
 

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Buffy didn't go to bed with everyone else that evening, she stayed up in the living room, staring into space and thinking. A million thoughts were whirling through her head, pushing their way around and making her head hurt.
Sirius found her still sitting up when he came downstairs in the morning.

 "Buffy," he said gently, and she jumped and looked up at him.
 "I was kind of in my own…thing," she said tiredly. "Sorry." He sat down next to her and took her hands in his.
 "You're freezing," he said and took a blanket off of the back of the sofa to wrap around her firmly. He looked at her and she finally met his gaze. "Are you okay?" he murmured softly.
Buffy nodded slowly.
 "Stuffs starting to work itself out," she said quietly. "What we have to do, what this is gonna take." Sirius nodded and then yawned, a gigantic jaw breaking yawn.
 "Didn't sleep much either?" Buffy said, a ghost of a smile on her face. He shook his head ruefully.

 "I was thinking too," he said pensively. "I was thinking that it's gonna be okay." Buffy looked at him reflectively.
 "It could be," she said, leaving the other option unsaid. Sirius looked over to the table where three sheets of parchment lay, covered in Buffy's handwriting.
 "Letter writing?" Sirius asked Buffy nodded, standing up and stretching.
 "Willow and Xand," she said, picking them up and glancing over them. "They need to know. Dumbledore, he does too. I made Hagrid promise not to tell anyone so I'd better let him know. And Angel."

"Angel?" Sirius said, standing up and joining her. "Why are you writing to him?" Buffy looked up at him and touched his cheek.

 "Because he's one of the few people I trust to protect us with everything he's got," she said quietly. "He's our refuge if we have to run." Sirius nodded.
 "We're not alone," he said, putting his arms around Buffy's waist and kissing the top of her head. "The Order, all of them will take care of you. They'll fight to protect you as well. We're not alone."
 "Funny," Buffy said softly. "Because it feels like we are."

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