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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