All characters belong to their respective creators / film companies / etc. and are used without permission. This story may only be distributed on a non-profit-making basis.
Work in Progress. If you like this story, check out my other stories on the Fanfiction Net, Twisting the Hellmouth, and Fonts of Wisdom websites.
I'm British, so's my spelling. Live with it.
Author's note: I am currently busy on a non-fanfic writing project and it is likely that updates on this and my other stories will be VERY slow for several months to come. I'm not abandoning any of my ongoing stories, but I probably won't update often or start anything new until well into the summer. See my livejournal for news.
Since the last installment was posted Angel S5 has revealed much more about events in the Buffyverse post Sunnydale. Once again I should emphasise that this story is a crossover and any resemblence between its plot and Angel post season 4 is more or less coincidental.
"This really is very irregular, Granger," Professor Vector said as she was hustled to the car park.
"It's for your own safety," said Harry.
"Is that you, Potter?" Harry remembered that he was still wearing the Dumbledore mask the Weasleys had given him and discarded it.
"Yeah. Sorry, Professor, but it really is important. We think someone might try to hurt you."
"But why?"
"We're not sure," said Viktor Krum, catching up with them, "but it has something to do with the destruction of Durmstrung."
"Oh. I see." She swayed slightly, and Hermione was afraid that she was about to faint.
"Professor? Are you all right?" asked Harry.
"What?"
"Are you all right, Professor?"
"I'm sorry," said Professor Vector, "It's a bit of a shock."
"What is?" asked Hermione.
"All this." They reached Cordelia's SUV, she opened the doors and started the engine.
"Professor, this is our car. Could you get in, please, I think we're a bit conspicuous out here."
"Where are you taking me?"
"Somewhere safe."
"That might be a good idea."
"You have to understand that we were losing the war," said Professor Vector, looking around the conference room at the Hyperion.
"Losing?" asked Angel. "I thought that by that time you had Voldemort on the run."
"It may have looked that way, but appearances can be deceptive. He was retreating, but still had most of his strength and was still gaining allies."
"How do you know that?" asked Krum.
"I was a consultant for the Ministry of Magic."
"Merlin!" said Harry, "You kept that one quiet."
"Voldemort was ready to kill anyone prepared to stand against him. The Ministry, the parts of it that were actually effective against him, was one of his main targets. There were a dozen very carefully planned assassinations in your last two years at Hogwarts."
"I never realised."
"Why should you? They were lost in the general mayhem caused by the Death Eaters. Voldemort didn't mind people knowing that they killed people, but he worked hard to make it look like they were just random targets. In fact he was destroying the most able minds of the wizarding community, leaving his allies and nonentities like Fudge to run things. Arthur Weasley survived because until late in the war Muggle Artifacts seemed the least significant part of the Ministry, so Voldemort was slow to turn his attention that way. I think he'd genuinely forgotten how destructive muggles can be. We used his neglect as cover for our plans."
"Cover for what?" asked Angel. "My guess is a weapons programme, something like the Manhattan project."
"Good heavens no, nothing so... well, so expensive. We were trying to destroy Voldemort on a shoestring, adapt anything we could think of to do it, entirely unofficially. Professor Berkle's paper was a godsend."
"What went wrong?" asked Harry.
"We were betrayed."
"Who by?"
"By whom, Harry," Professor Vector said reprovingly.
"By whom then."
"I wish I could tell you, but you'll have to ask elsewhere."
"Professor," said Cordelia, "your life may be in danger, don't you think you should tell us?"
"I would if I could, my dear, but I think you misunderstand. I can't tell you because I never knew. It was someone senior, that I'm sure of, the Death Eaters knew exactly when and where to strike. There can't have been more than a handful of people who knew enough."
"If you don't know," said Angel, "why was someone trying to keep you from talking?"
"I really have absolutely no idea."
"Damn."
Gunn came in with a mobile phone in his hand and said "I think we have other problems. I've just been speaking with Wesley, he says he can keep the Department of Magic off our backs for maybe another day, but only if Professor Vector speaks to them and they make sure she isn't being held against her will. Harry needs to talk to them too."
"What about the assassins, if that's what they were?" asked Angel.
"The Department of Magic has them in custody, but both of them seem to have taken some sort of amnesia potion. They think they can identify it and give them an antidote but it'll take at least a couple of days."
"Why is Wes being so helpful?" asked Fred. "Why did he even call us?"
"The deal we cut with Wolfram and Hart still has a few advantages for us. One of them is that they're our attorneys of record, so anyone wanting to bust us legally has to get past the evil lawyers first, and they have to keep us posted. And like it or not, they're goddamned good at what they do."
"I'd better get on to Giles," said Dawn, "These days the Watchers have a lot of pull with the magical side of the government, here and in Britain. I'm pretty sure we can make a case for this being Council business."
"That's good," said Angel, "but sooner or later we're going to have to face the music. Or were you forgetting Soprano? The guy we kidnapped and killed?"
"That was self-defense," said Willow, "and you've got five witnesses to say so."
"Wouldn't have happened if we hadn't snatched him."
"Actually I doubt that the Department of Magic will be too worried about that," said Hermione. "I've been reading up on American wizarding law, if I'm interpreting it correctly we're okay. Your intention was to question him about an attempt to kill a wizard and a breach in the secrecy of the wizarding world then release him, right?"
"That's right, I guess. He volunteered to come to Britain with us."
"Then I think it's all right. Your lawyers will have to handle the paperwork, but I think you can justify it as the equivalent of a citizen's arrest under the terms of the Uniform Code of Wizarding Justice. When he attacked us he was acting as a free agent, so killing him was self-defence. There are at least a dozen cases that support that interpretation."
"Wow," said Dawn. "Hermione, if you ever want to think about a research career with the Watcher's Council look me up, I'll give you contact details. You're exactly the kind of person we're looking for." Hermione blushed. "Just to be on the safe side I'll phone Giles, can't hurt to have the Council ready to help us." She went out to the lobby to make the call.
"Getting back to business, " said Angel, "are you sure that you have no idea who betrayed you, Professor?"
"None at all. Very few people knew all the details."
"Could you give us a list? If we're right there's still a Death Eater spy in the Ministry of Magic. I think it needs to be investigated."
"You still don't understand," said Vector. "It wasn't like that. I really don't know who was involved. It was better that way. Percy insisted on it, he said that..."
"Percy?" interrupted Harry. "Percy Weasley?"
"Yes, of course. He was my liason with the Ministry."
"Bloody hell..."
Out in the hotel garden a plump beetle with eye markings a little like ornate spectacles landed on the rim of an old ornamental fountain, full of green-scummed water. Rita Skeeter still had contacts in the Ministry of Magic, and the diplomatic section was in an uproar about the kidnapping of Professor Vector. Finding where she was being held had cost a small fortune, but in the post-war boom the Daily Prophet wasn't short of Galleons. If her informant was right Vector wasn't alone here; Harry Potter and Viktor Krum were also present, along with their muggle abductors. If she could only get inside without being spotted, and ahead of the aurors who couldn't be far behind, it would be the story of the century. She watched from the rim, studying the back of the hotel and looking for a way in.
Behind her, concealed by the surface layer of scum, the newt that had once been Furio Giunta hungrily eyed her and slowly drifted into striking range.
"It looks like the Department of Magic is going to stay out of our hair for now," Angel said that evening. "Wes even got them to retroactively okay Viktor's entry into the country, and the rest of his team." He sounded tired.
"What is the problem," asked Viktor. "Surely it is good that we are no longer illegal."
"It's not that, it's just discouraging to see them manipulate the system so easily. I know that this time it's in a good cause, but they'd do the same thing for pond scum if it paid their fees."
"Are you sure that this is a good cause?" asked Cordelia.
"I don't understand."
"What happens if we solve this, and it turns out that someone in the Ministry of Magic was responsible for the destruction of Durmstrung?"
"I guess the Ministry arrests them. Why?"
"That's not the end of it though. Not with the Baba Yaga on the warpath."
"I know."
"Oh crap," said Willow. "I'd forgotten her."
"About that," said Angel, then hesitated. "Wesley told me something else."
"What?"
"Around the time you were busy at the wizard's conference this afternoon there was an incident in Britain. Someone killed Lucius Malfoy and burned his manor half to the ground. Eight other casualties with serious injuries including his wife, the attacker was described as a crone riding inside a giant flying bowl and waving a huge club. Ring any bells?"
"If the bowl was a mortar and the club was a pestle it's the Baba Yaga," Viktor said calmly.
"You don't sound very surprised."
"She has her ways of learning things."
"Yes," Angel said flatly. "Especially if she has someone on the inside taking notes for her."
"Taking notes?" asked Dawn.
"While you were all out this afternoon I heard a popping noise from upstairs, the noise you hear when someone apports. So I got curious and took a look around. Sergeant Stok and Professor Gödel were playing pool in the bar, but I couldn't find Corporal Kuryakin. Couldn't hear her either, not anywhere in the hotel. So I went up to the rooms your people are using and sniffed around, and realised that I knew her scent."
"You know Corporal Kuryakin's scent?" asked Viktor.
"That's right. Where is she, anyway?"
"She and Professor Gödel are making some potions, I think. Why?"
"How much do you know about her?"
"What?"
"What is she? Another grand-daughter? A grand-niece?"
"I don't understand."
"She's blood kin to the Baba Yaga. Mostly human, I think, but there's some demon in there too. She's related."
"You're sure of this?"
"Positive."
"Then I won't try to deny it."
"And you were planning to tell me about this when, exactly?"
Viktor shrugged, and said "If it became necessary. Perhaps we should talk to her."
They found Kuryakin and Stok in one of the unfurnished bedrooms, now fitted out as an improvised laboratory. She was pouring a bubbling liquid through a coffee filter into some small ceramic bottles, while Stok stoppered and sealed them. "Corporal Kuryakin," said Viktor, "Mister Angel has some questions for you. He wishes to know about your family."
Kuryakin finished pouring the potion and said "I presume you refer to my grandmother."
"Grandmother?" asked Willow.
"The Baba Yaga."
"If she's your grand-mother..." began Harry.
"We are a long-lived family."
"What the hell is grand-daughter of the Baba Yaga doing playing soldier?" asked Angel. "That's a big-time wizarding family, I'd expect you to be running the... what is it called these days, the People's Bureau of Magic?"
"If you mean the People's Revolutionary Bureau of Magic, that name hasn't been used since the end of the Cold War. It's the Eastern Wizarding Bureau. And I don't wish to run it, I prefer a more practical way of life."
"As a corporal?" Angel asked skeptically.
"It has been my experience that attention is usually concentrated on officers, leaving the other ranks a certain amount of freedom to act unobserved. It was often useful when dealing with the old regime."
"Which one, the communists or the Tsar?"
"Both, of course. I'm surprised it took you so long to notice me, we have met before."
"We have?" Angel couldn't conceal his surprise.
"Vienna 1875. You tried to drink my blood, I flayed you and left for the ravens. How did you escape?"
"Darla had me cut down. About ten minutes before dawn, I think, took me a month to recover." There was a reminiscent half-smile on his face. "I remember now, you used to hang with the vengeance demons. Should have known drinking your blood would be a bad idea."
"Anyanka or Halfrek?" asked Dawn.
"You know them?" asked Kuryakin.
"Knew," said Willow. "They're both dead. D'Hoffryn killed Halfrek, Anya gave up her powers and was killed in the fight when we closed the Hellmouth."
"I knew Halfrek was dead, I hadn't heard about Anyanka." She looked a little sad.
"Getting back to the point," said Angel, "did you tell your grandmother about Malfoy?"
"Of course. Do you doubt that he was involved? He killed my cousin and everyone else at that school."
"But we didn't have proof!"
"And now you won't need it. When we have more names I'm sure that she will kill them too. My grandmother lacks faith in the English wizarding courts. Malfoy had already escaped them twice."
"Did it occur to you or your grand-mother that we might need to question him?"
"I'm sure it occurred to her. I doubt that she cared."
"Well, if she keeps on doing this we'll never find all of the killers."
"Very well, I'll ask her to wait." She turned back to her potion-making.
"And that's it?" asked Harry.
"Any solution that doesn't involve the Baba Yaga destroying Britain works for me," said Willow. "If she gives us time to investigate this properly maybe we can talk her into giving the courts another chance."
"But.."
"Do you want to argue with her?" asked Angel, heading for the door, followed by Willow, leaving Viktor behind.
"Leave it," said Dawn. "We'll talk downstairs." She took his arm and pulled him outside, still spluttering his protest. As soon as they were out of the room she gestured for silence and led him downstairs.
"What the hell was that about?" asked Harry, as soon as they were back in the lobby.
"You don't argue with the Baba Yaga, Harry, she makes Voldemort look like Little Mary Sunshine."
"What?"
"Kuryakin," said Willow. "Did you really think that the Baba Yaga would send a granddaughter for this? It's a matter of her honour, she sees to it personally. If she isn't a metamorphmagus she's got some kind of potion that's a hell of a lot better than polyjuice. First time I've really looked at her properly."
Harry asked Dawn "But how did you know?"
"Willow signalled it," said Dawn. "Watcher's code, kinda sign language but less obvious, doesn't set off magical alarms the way telepathy does."
"Does she know you know?"
"Probably. But she doesn't know that we know she knows..."
There was a scream of "Demon", and they looked round to see Hermione holding her wand on someone who had just walked in.
"Clem?" said Willow and Dawn.
"Dawnie?" said Clem, with surprise in his voice. "Howa ya doing, kid, how's Spike and the Slayer?" The floppy-eared demon waved at them, and Dawn rushed over and hugged him, saying "It's okay, Hermione, he's a friend."
"Hermione Granger?" asked Clem. Hermione nodded. "Then I guess that's Harry Potter over there. Got a message for you, kids."
"A message?" Harry asked warily.
"Yeah, my cousin owled me and asked me to bring it over, thought that something sent directly to you might be intercepted."
"Your cousin?"
"Sure. Works at Hogwarts."
"I don't think..." began Harry, Hermione just goggled.
"C'mon, can't you see the family resemblance? Sure, I know I'm only house elf on my second mother's side, but even so..."
"You're part house-elf?" asked Harry.
"One fifth house-elf, three-fifths demon, and one fifth human, but we don't talk about that side of the family. I'm surprised cousin Dobby hasn't shown you a picture."
"You're Dobby's... cousin?"
"Bingo. Give the kid a coconut."
"What's the message?"
Clem reached into his pocket and pulled out a small scroll. "Here. Dobby says it's from Dumbledore."
Harry examined Dumbledore's distinctive seal and touched it with a finger, feeling the magical wards around it, then broke the seal and unrolled it. Inside was a small green-striped sweet wrapped in cellophane.
"What does it say?" asked Dawn.
"Dumbledore says that he needs to see us urgently. All of us."
"All of us?" asked Willow.
"There's a list. You and Kennedy, Hermione, Dawn, Angel, Cordelia, Gunn and Fred, Professor Vector, and Viktor and his people. And me. The sweet's a port-key, he says it's to the private bar of the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade."
"Does he say why?" asked Angel.
"No."
"Do you think it's some sort of trap?" asked Dawn.
"Dumbledore?" asked Harry, "No way."
"Then let's go," said Angel. "We're off to see the wizard."
"You had to say that..." said Dawn.
TBC
