Chapter 26
Awakening
- - - - -
Buffy sat in the Common Room late that night, staring at the fireplace, which crackled with intensity. Her eyes were lost inside the flames and her mind was turning over all of the thoughts, good and bad, she'd had that day.
On top of it all was the necklace her friends had sent her. Buffy reached down and touched the emerald necklace, frowning slightly. These were her closest friends. They knew how badly this drug had hurt her, how it had changed her life forever.
Didn't they trust her enough to let her make her own decisions?
"Buffy?" a soft voice asked behind her.
"Harry," she said, turning to her brother with a soft expression on her face. "You're up late."
"So are you."
"I'm just thinking," she said, turning back to the fireplace.
"About what?" Harry asked, seeing the troubled expression on her face. "Buffy, if it's something any of us have done..."
"It isn't," she said, turning back to look at him. He could see the fire reflecting in her eyes. "It's just... I'm getting used to this place."
"Are you doing okay, though?" he asked her.
She nodded. "Right as rain, whatever that means." She sighed suddenly. "I think that things just changed a bit fast for me. I mean, I meet you and your best friends family, which was incredible. And now I'm back in school. I thought I'd gotten through the first time."
"Do you regret coming here?" Harry asked.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "I don't. If Mom and Dad loved this school enough to sign your name up the day you were born, I can only hope they'll be happy I'm here."
"They will be," Harry said, reaching for her hand in the darkness. "But there's something else on your mind, isn't there?"
"Tell about Cho Chang," Buffy said quietly, staring back into the fire. "I talked to her after Defense Against the Dark Arts today. She told me that I'm not the only one who's lost a boyfriend."
Harry tensed immediately. He wasn't ready to get into any details about Cedric Diggory yet. "I... I can't."
Buffy turned to him in surprise and saw the tense look on his face. He was actually shaking, she realized. "Don't worry about it, then," she said quickly, pulling her hand away.
In the four days they'd been at Hogwarts, Harry felt as though his sister was starting to slip away from him. She spent a considerable amount of time with the first years and the seventh years. Even the third years who had Buffy in one class saw more of her than Harry did. He was especially starting to envy the time she spent around Emma Vance and Katie Bell.
"It's okay, Harry," she said, turning away from him. "I know you'll tell me when the time is right."
He swallowed hard. He felt that if he didn't say something now, he wouldn't get another chance to. "Her boyfriend's name was Cedric Diggory. He was the most popular boy at school. He was a year younger than Wood, but he was a brilliant Quidditch player. He... we were involved in this tournament two years ago. And then..." Harry's eyes darkened as the memory overcame him. "We both won the tournament and our prized award cup turned into a portkey. A portkey is something that transports you instantly to another place. We ended up in a graveyard. There was a voice. And then Cedric was dead."
"A voice?" Buffy asked him, her eyebrows knit in confusion. "What kind of voice?"
"It was the killing curse," Harry whispered. "Avada Kedavra. The same curse that killed our parents."
Buffy winced slightly as she stared at her brother. "What happened then?"
"Voldemort came back that night," Harry said quietly. "The man who destroyed our lives came back. He killed Cedric and he tried to kill me."
Buffy shivered even though she was in front of the warmth of the fire. "Oh, Harry..."
There was a different look in her eyes now. He recognized that look. He had seen it on Sirius' face a few times. It was a haunted look, as though she knew exactly what he was talking about.
She knew that she understood what he was talking about. After all, she'd been dead once.
"What do you think will happen to you once this thing with Voldemort is over?" Buffy asked him.
"I haven't really thought it about it, actually," Harry admitted. "I've had my heart set on being an Auror."
"A dark-wizard chaser?" she asked, nodding her approval. "I suppose that's respectable."
"How about you? You've just been introduced to this world... are you going to turn the other way from it?"
"I don't think I can," Buffy said honestly. "I'm not going to leave you without a proper relative just because our aunt and uncle are a pair of slimy prats. Now that I'm here, I'm not going to get away so easily. Although," she said, a thoughtful look on her face, "someone did mention that there is a division in the Ministry that hunts down vampires. I could be quite useful there."
"I was hoping you'd say that you wouldn't get away," he said, his voice slightly hoarse. If only he'd gotten to spend more time with Sirius. If only... "Are you going to take up Quidditch tryouts on Sunday?"
"I haven't got much of a choice," Buffy said with a terse smile. "My roommate would kill me if I didn't. After all, we're going to go out and practice tomorrow night. I finally get to see if those weird flossing tools are worth anything."
"You mean the goalposts?" Harry asked, slightly confused.
"Is that what those are called?" she asked, her voice full of wonder. "I seriously need to get my head out of the clouds when it comes to this sport."
"You'd better," Harry teased. "Your future husband might not be too happy if you don't learn it."
"Will you stop?" she asked, turning to him and hitting him across the arm. He laughed and launched himself at her, knocking her chair over. Both managed to roll onto the floor, laughing. "You do not want to take me on," she said, her eyes sparkling.
"Want to make a bet on that?" he asked, crawling over to where she was laying on her side. He gently helped her up. She just laughed and threw her arms around him, knocking them both over again. When their laughter and the extra energy died away, they were both laying on the rug in front of the fire.
"I think you'll be the death of me," Buffy groaned, clutching a stitch in her side.
"Don't say that," Harry said, turning to her with a sober expression. "There's nothing funny about death."
"Did I say there was?" she asked, surprised at the look on his face. She saw the darkness in his eyes, reflecting the warmth of the flickering flames at their feet.
He shook his head and sat up. "I think I'm going to head towards bed. You probably should, too, since you are going to play Quidditch tomorrow."
"Right," Buffy said, rolling her eyes as she slowly got to her feet. "But first..." she walked over to her bookbag and pulled out a quill wrapped in a bit of cloth. "Have a present. Courtesy of Ron's brothers."
"They sent you some quills?" Harry asked in confusion.
"It's better than that, Harry," Buffy said, grinning. "They sent me chocolate quills."
"Oh, Buffy. What are we going to do with you?" Harry asked, eyeing the quill with interest.
"Oh, you love me, admit it," she teased, ruffling his hair as she lifted her bag on her shoulder.
"Nah," Harry said, managing a weak laugh at the horrified look on her face. "I think I'll keep you in suspense a little bit longer."
She turned towards him, a dangerous glint in her eyes. "Run," she whispered, the challenge in her face evident.
Harry didn't waste a second longer. He raced towards the boy's dormitories, leaving his giggling sister behind.
She didn't go to bed as she said she wanted to. Instead, she dropped back down in the armchair and pulled out the journal her parents had left for her. She'd been looking at it every night, hoping to catch a glimpse of what her parents lives must have been like. She was so enraptured by one picture that she didn't even hear footsteps behind her.
"Buffy?"
Buffy nearly dropped the book and turned to see a redheaded girl standing at the bottom of the stairs. "Ginny," Buffy greeted, closing the book and setting it aside. "Did I wake you?"
Ginny shook her head. "No... I just can't sleep."
"You missed Harry," Buffy replied, turning back to stare at the black book.
"What is that?" Ginny asked, turning to point at the journal.
"My parents left it for me," Buffy replied, picking it up and after a moment she handed it to the younger girl. "You might as well look. You're the only other person who knows this exists. Well, live people, anyway."
Ginny opened the front cover and smiled at the letters written inside. "This is the sweetest thing they could have done."
"I just wish," Buffy said slowly, "that I could know more, you know? This book shows my mother loved working with other people and she loved using her magic for the powers of good. I think my father was more of an arrogant git, sort of like your brother."
"I heard Percy's coming in next week with a few other Ministry representatives," Ginny said quietly, turning her attention to the first photograph. She smiled when she recognized James' face from the pictures she'd seen of him. He was very young and quite handsome, his features reflecting those of Harry's. He was sitting next to Sirius, Ginny recognized. Although this was very different from the man she'd known for two years now, he was still devastatingly wonderful looking. The two were laughing in the moving picture, pointing and sniggering to whomever was standing behind the camera. It had to be Lupin, Ginny decided, smiling.
"Did you know these men?" Buffy asked softly.
"Sirius Black," Ginny said, pointing him out. "He was your Dad's best friend. I only knew him for a short while, but he was a wonderful man. I can see that Harry misses him a lot. He blames himself, you know, for Sirius's death. No matter how much we try to convince him he wasn't responsible and that Voldemort was... he won't stop."
She found a different picture and grinned. "That's Lupin."
"That is Lupin?" Buffy asked with interest, staring at a handsome, weathered young man grinning through the image. "He's adorable!"
"He was also one of the Marauders. That's what James and Sirius called their gang," Ginny grinned. "I've known him since my second year. He taught Defense Against the Dark Arts. Best damned teacher we've ever had, too. He taught us that we could be strong enough to face our strongest fears."
"I wish I had a teacher who could tell me how to do that," Buffy said darkly, watching as Ginny continued searching the album. "There's a lot of fears I've had to face. Vampires for one thing. But now I guess I have something else to fear. Something bigger."
"You're not alone," Ginny said, watching the older girl closely. "Everyone fears Voldemort, especially now that's he returned to full power."
"He killed my parents, Ginny. He took away the real thing in this world that I never knew," she said softly, rubbing her eyes as exhaustion set in. "And now my brother is facing a battle against this guy."
Ginny gave her a sympathetic smile.
Buffy seemed to be thinking something through very hard. Her face was tense and her eyes were darting back and forth, as though to determine whether or not they were truly alone in the Common Room.g
She was thinking that she needed to get the prophecy off of her mind. Ginny had known Sirius Black. She could prove to be useful if only Buffy could gain her trust.
"Ginny, I have to tell you something," Buffy said suddenly, realizing that she had to get this off of her mind now if she were going to sleep tonight. Her mind kept turning over the fact that Harry blamed himself for the death of his godfather. "There's two of us Slayers, right? One of the other reasons I was at the Ministry of Magic was because I was in the Department of Mysteries. People have kept asking me if I had seer blood, and now I'm wondering if I do myself."
Ginny looked confused. "Why would you be at the Department of Mysteries? And what does this have to do with two Slayers?" In her mind, she was retracing the steps she and Harry and the others had taken just a few months before, the night Sirius died.
"We share dreams," Buffy replied. "And lately our dreams have been prophetic. There's a prophecy on them, now. And that prophecy read that Sirius Black was still alive."
This had completely stunned Ginny, Buffy realized. Her jaw had dropped and her eyes had widened.
"Sirius Black... alive?" she asked in a shaky voice. "B-But Harry saw him d-d-die!"
"He's not dead," Buffy said, realizing that the light from the fire was waning. "But the thing is, you see, only the blood of his own kin can bring him back."
"But he was the last Black!" Ginny said, looking even more lost. "He is the only one who can resurrect himself?"
"No," Buffy said, a shadow falling across her face. "He may have a blood member of his family. The other Slayer."
"Whoa," Ginny said in a low voice. "What?"
"Her name is Faith," Buffy replied. "I told you and Hermione about her, didn't I? Anyway, she thinks she's some relative of Sirius. She may even be his daughter."
"But Sirius spent how many years in Azkaban!" Ginny said incredulously. "There is no way he could have had a child!"
"Even if she isn't his daughter, she's related to him," Buffy said, biting her lip in frustration. "That's the only way we could have had the same dream. I had to speak for the prophecy. She knows what she has to do."
"Does Harry know?" Ginny asked. "Does he know Sirius is alive?"
"He doesn't," Buffy said, giving the younger girl a sharp look. "And you're not going to tell him, either. If he knew... it could destroy him. Please, could you just keep it between the two of us until we know?"
"If he doesn't know and finds out about it, it'll destroy whatever bond you two have spent the past two months creating," Ginny said in protest. "Buffy, why are you holding back on him?"
"I have to make sure it's real," Buffy said.
"But you just said--"
"I need help, Ginny," Buffy said, turning away from her and tucking the album back into her bookbag. "I need help because I need to know that Faith is a relative of Sirius Black. The only way he'll ever come back is if we can find out that she is. Her blood is needed to set him free from the veil. That's all I really know." She paused for a moment. "Can you promise me that you will never, ever tell Harry? If he knew..."
"I understand," Ginny said softly. "And I promise. But why ask me?"
"I know you care for Harry," Buffy said quietly. "And because you knew Sirius Black. You knew him. I can't look for someone I didn't even meet. I wouldn't know how."
"I've cared for him since the day I met him," Ginny said. "Nothing's changed."
Buffy stared at the younger girl for a silent moment. "Do you love him?"
"Does it matter?" Ginny shrugged. "There's only so many boys I can date. I can't wait for him forever."
Buffy nodded, understanding this.
"But I will help you," Ginny said, bringing the topic back up. "I'll do all I can, but you should really ask Hermione for help, too."
"Do you think she'll be able to keep something this big from Harry?" Buffy asked softly.
"I think she'll manage. She loves doing detective work," Ginny said, grinning.
"That's a good start. I'll tell her about it during Ancient Runes tomorrow. She's the only person I know in that class, so it'll be brilliant. I should get to sleep though. I have Charms after breakfast tomorrow."
"Good night, Buffy," Ginny said, watching as the older girl lifted her bookbag and walked toward the dormitory steps.
"Good night, Ginny," she called back, disappearing from sight.
Ginny turned back to the remains of the once roaring fire. Had she just agreed to keep something so large and painful from Harry? She closed her eyes.
She had.
- - - - -
"Quidditch is easy enough to understand," Katie said the following evening as the two women walked down the hill towards the Quidditch pitch, broomsticks in hand. "And it's easy to master, too. Any idea on which position you'd like to try out for?"
"Err... position?" Buffy asked blankly.
"You sound like I did six years ago," Katie said, setting down her broomstick and walking towards a box that had been set there for practice. "We only have about an hour since Slytherin booked the pitch for tryouts tonight. Wood was really helpful, though. He's a good teacher."
"I'll be sure to use that against him," Buffy chuckled as Katie opened the box and handed her a large red ball. It was surprisingly lightweight and smelled of rubber. "What's this?"
"It's called a quaffle," Katie replied. "There's a position known as a Chaser. I'm one of them. We try to get this ball and try to put it through one of those three hoops. You do this, and you earn us ten points." She pointed over her left shoulder to where three large goalposts rose an easy fifty feet in the air. "The keeper, who's Ron, defends the hoops."
Buffy held the ball a moment longer before handing it back to Katie. "That's great," she said, feeling less confused now.
Katie replaced the ball and pointed to a ball on either side of the still one. They were bouncing in their restraints. "These are called bludgers. They're charmed to go around and try to knock around the players. Each team has two Beaters. Their job is to make sure that the bludgers don't bloody up their team too badly. That, and they hit them as hard as they can towards the other team with these." She held out a small object that looked like a blunt baseball bat. "This is a club, the essential tool for a Beater. Now, this is Harry's job and I must say he's damned good at it."
She bent down and released a small pouch on the top part of the trunk. Inside her hand as she rose was a tiny golden ball the size of a walnut. "This is the golden snitch. It's wicked fast and it's the hardest thing to catch. Harry is our Seeker and his job is to catch this. When this is caught, it wins us one hundred and fifty points and usually gives us the match. Now... Harry, Ron and I are the only three people on the team currently. I'm a Chaser. There are three Chasers, two Beaters, a Keeper and a Seeker. Ginny played as Seeker last year when Harry was banned from playing. I think she's trying out as a Chaser this time around. I'm hoping we'll get lucky and find outselves a pair of Beaters. Fred and George were ours until last year when they were, too, banned from playing."
"Fred and George got banned? How?"
"Malfoy," Katie said, a look of sheer disgust on her face. "He was insulting Harry's... err, your parents and the Weasleys. They've been rivals since the day they arrived at this school."
"Just gives me another reason to bring upon him more and more pain," Buffy muttered under her breath.
"Let's see your Chaser skills for now," Katie said, replacing the snitch and lifting up the quaffle again. "You do know how to fly, right?"
Buffy nodded and mounted her broomstick, both women flying into the air. "Oooh!" Buffy shouted, enjoying the swooping sensation in her stomach as she soared in a small circle before stopping in front of Katie. They were both floating about thirty feet above the ground.
"Catch!" Katie shouted, lifting the ball and tossing it into the air.
"Crap," Buffy muttered under her breath. And yet she sped forward and tipped higher up, easily catching the ball over her head. She swooped down again, joining Katie, who looked pleased.
"Now, toss it up to me. I'll show you how it goes!"
For the next hour, Buffy and Katie practiced passing the quaffle and she learned the different tricks to goal scoring.
They had clearly forgotten about the time because they had just finished doing a few loops around the pitch when Katie suddenly screamed. A bludger had shot out of nowhere, nearly knocking the other Gryffindor girl off her broomstick. Buffy turned her own Nimbus around and stared down. Seven figures in green robes were lifting in the air. A second bludger flew dangerously close to her, yet she managed to duck it, her broomstick easily dropping ten feet.
"What are you playing at?" Katie screamed at one of them as the seven rode and stopped in front of them. Buffy directed her broomstick so she was level with Katie.
"I booked the pitch for Slytherin," one of my boys said, sneering at the two blonde-haired women. "I don't remember this to be a Gryffindor pitch tonight. You picked Sunday."
"I know," Katie said impatiently. "I was training Potter here."
"Potty... training?" Malfoy sneered, his broomstick moving closer. "Well, what do you know? There's a Potter who knows how to fly. Does your broomstick have wings? Or a parachute?"
Buffy was about to retort when Katie reached out and touched her arm. "Don't provoke him."
"That's right, Potter. Listen to the other Gryffindor. We know you don't have the courage to take me on--" His voice was suddenly cut off as a broomstick veered right at him. As he turned away, he ducked to avoid a returning bludger.
"Oh, no," Katie muttered under her breath, watching as Buffy easily chased Draco around the pitch once before Malfoy started lifting higher in the air. Buffy was a novice flyer, she realized. This really wasn't a good idea.
But the girl had a definite affinity for flying, Katie decided, watching as Malfoy finally joined the rest of his Slytherin teammates and Buffy returned to her side, breathing hard, but looking elated. Her windswept hair gave her an almost glowing appearance, and she looked overjoyed she'd been able to keep up with the Malfoy boy.
"I'd take you on anyway, Drake. You just name the time and the place," she said, drawing her broom next to Katie's.
"You have to admit it," said Montague, the Slytherin captain who'd been forced to repeat the last year at Hogwarts due to the incident of appearing in a toilet the year before. "The Potter girl can fly."
"She's been seen with Wood," Malfoy spat. "I'm sure he's taught her all about flying."
Buffy looked like she wanted to have another go, but this time Katie latched onto her broomstick. "Do you want to get expelled?" she asked in an angry voice.
Buffy turned her dark gaze back to Draco. "It'd be worth it."
"Look, we really didn't mean to invade your territory," Katie said quickly before either one of them could react. "I apologize we ran through our time. Now, we're just going to go back and--"
"You're not going anywhere," Warrington said. Crabbe and Goyle flexed their Beater's clubs behind him. "You want to train the Potter girl? Let her have a go against a real Quidditch team."
Buffy looked utterly perplexed at this. Katie just wanted to get the hell out of there before Buffy did something stupid, or else Malfoy provoked her enough to. "I think we'll just leave and let you have your own team practice," Katie said hastily.
"Oh, come on, Bell. Give the girl a voice," Warrington said, turning to look at the other girl. She wasn't afraid to look any Slytherin in the eye. Her gaze was strong and intimidating, even to the Slytherin's seventh year eyes.
"Go and play, Warrington," she finally said with a curt nod. "We're out of here."
"Are you sure, Potter?" Malfoy jeered. "You could actually learn how to play the game." He was looking at Katie with cold, mocking eyes. "Instead of having this... Gryffindor show you how to play it safe."
Buffy was tempted by his offer for nearly a half second, before she shook her head, grinning at them. "When I want to learn the game properly, I'll be sure to not call upon you. Have a nice day."
Dodging a final bludger, she and Katie reached the ground and hurried away.
"Did you really want to stay?" Katie asked as they walked quickly from the Quidditch pitch.
"Nah," Buffy said with a casual shrug. "Malfoy may be an evil git, but the last thing I need for my self-confidence is for him to taunt me about how to play Quidditch. If I wanted a real lesson, I'd ask Oliver, you know?"
"I figured you would," Katie replied as they reached the stairs. "Besides, those Slytherins would have killed you."
"I wish I could hold my own," Buffy said sadly. "Harry's going to be so disappointed in me on Sunday."
Katie shook her head, laughing suddenly. "Maybe we could invite Malfoy to the pitch and you can chase him..."
Buffy burst into giggles at the thought of dragging her brother's biggest rival onto his turf. "Or... or... that whole damn team..."
"You could probably even get Malfoy to do something really stupid..."
"Like crash into the ground..."
"Or fly into the Whomping Willow..."
Both girls took a deep breath and sighed, their laughter waning.
"I really needed that," Buffy said, shaking her head as the two girls climbed the stairs, heading back inside the castle and towards the Gryffindor common room.
"Relax, Buffy," Katie said in an encouraging voice. "You flew really well today. I think you may have awakened a certain skill you never knew you had."
Buffy laughed, suddenly realizing that she'd flown quite well in chasing that Slytherin maggot around the pitch. "If I concentrate on what I'm doing, I probably wouldn't get so weirded out about being thirty feet from the ground, you know?"
"True," Katie agreed as they reached the potrait hole. "I think Harry's going to like what he sees. I think you impressed the hell out of those two Slytherin seventh years, too."
"Come off of it," Buffy said, turning to the Fat Lady, who was watching them both with keen interest. "Peski pepsi," she continued.
The portrait hole swung open and both girls walked into a crowded common room.
"How did she do?" Emma asked, standing up from the table she and Yasmine had been sitting at, studying.
"Brilliantly," Katie replied honestly. "You should have seen her chasing Malfoy all over the pitch."
"You one-upped Draco?" Tess asked, coming up behind them, her eyes wide with awe.
"Something like that, yeah," Buffy said with a casual shrug, taking the empty seat on the other side of Yasmine. "What are you guys studying?"
"Transfigurations," Emma said, grimmacing. "I think you're probably better off with the first years."
Buffy nodded. "I think you just read my mind, Em. But can't it wait until tomorrow? It's Friday night!"
"If you want to wait, sure," Tess said, taking the seat on the other side of Emma, who'd just sat down. "But the rest of us have to worry about our N.E.W.T. finals."
"You have newt exams?" Buffy asked, feeling confused. She'd heard Hagrid announce it during one class. Professor Pryce had brought it up too, she realized, suddenly feeling a bit daft and shallow.
"Not newt," Emma said quickly, realizing that Buffy probably wouldn't know what it was. "It's 'N.E.W.T.'. It stands for Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests. Or Trials. One of the two."
"Oh, so they're sort of like the Muggle version of the P.S.A.T.," Buffy said in a hushed voice.
"That what?" Tess asked curiously.
"Oh, like I know what it stands for!" Buffy said, waving the matter aside. "So, nastily exhausting, eh? Well, more power to you if you can pass them, I guess."
"They determine your career for the rest of your life," Yasmine said seriously. "I mean, if you don't get many N.E.W.T.'s, you're basically stuck frying dragon burgers in Hogsmeade the rest of your life."
"Eww?" Katie commented, opening her own Transfigurations text. "I have a dream of becoming a great Quidditch star. Just like Angelina and Alicia."
"They graduated last term," Tess muttered into Buffy's ear. She nodded in understanding. "Both were Quidditch girls."
"I plan on playing with two other female Chasers my last year, too," Katie said firmly, glancing at Buffy. "Ginny Weasley is also trying out. She made a fantastic Seeker. I can't wait to see how she does in goalscoring."
"I'll probably kill myself on Sunday," Buffy said cheerfully.
"Oh, don't be such a spoiler," Yasmine said, looking carefully at the older girl. "As Katie has been telling us since last night, you and your brother probably have his Quidditch talent. So be happy you're more talented than more than half of this school. If it makes you happy, think about crushing Slytherin."
A satisfied smile spread across Buffy's face. "Thanks, Yas. I needed that, too."
"Just trying to keep things in perspective," Yasmine replied, turning back to her stacks of parchment.
"What are you all studying, anyways?" Buffy asked, leaning over Yasmine's book to see what the girl was studying.
"We're learning about human transformations and the study of becoming an Animagi," Yasmine replied.
"It sounds more interesting than turning a pair of dice into a couple of buttons," Buffy said with a shrug. "And what's an Animagi?"
"It's so cool," Emma enthused. "It's the art of turning yourself into an animal at will. Can you imagine being able to transform? There's only a few registered in this century though, like seven. There are probably loads of unregistered."
"I'll definitely have to keep that in mind," Buffy said in an impressed voice.
The other girls went back to work and Buffy rose, stretching. She wasn't in the mood to do homework. She wanted to find Harry and see what he was doing.
Buffy found Harry and Ron in their usual spots near the fire, playing Wizards chess. "You have got to be kidding me," she said, dropping down in the empty chair next to Ron. "Chess... again?"
"It's entertainment," Ron said, grinning as his Queen smashed into Harry's knight. "How was practice?"
"It was great, Captain of mine," she said with a teasing smile. "I got to see Malfoy on a broomstick. The little wuss has talent."
"Don't let him hear you say that," Harry said, his eyes wide. "He'd probably twist it to something along the lines of you liking him."
"And that would be a bad thing," Ron added, watching as one of his pawns was swept off the board by Harry's opposite bishop.
"I think it'd be fun," Buffy said. Both boys looked at her in horror. She sat back, pretending to look affronted. "What? It's exactly what he deserves!"
"Don't you dare even think it," Ron said, his eyes wide.
"Oh, she's thinking it," Harry said in a hushed voice.
Buffy glanced around the room, which was beginning to thin out slightly. "Where's Ginny? And Hermione?"
"I haven't seen them all night," Ron replied, turning back to his game.
Buffy looked at Harry, who just shrugged and stared back at the board.
She turned towards the portrait hole. She hoped that wherever the two girls were, they were together. She had a nagging feeling that Hermione knew about the prophecy by now. She just prayed that Hermione would keep her trust.
- - - - -
"Are you serious?"
"I am," Ginny replied.
It was nearing nine o'clock in the evening. Hermione stared at the girl sitting across from her in the small corner where Hermione loved to study. Ginny had just walked over a half hour before, a troubled look on her pretty, young face. After a little prompting from Hermione, Ginny had told the other girl what was on her mind.
Hermione hadn't been expecting what Ginny had confided to her.
"Are you saying that she doesn't want Harry to know?" Hermione asked in a faint voice.
"Yes," Ginny replied. "And you have to promise you won't tell him, Hermione. You're his best friend, but you have to do this for Buffy. She has earned this sort of trust."
Hermione finally nodded. "She definitely has earned my trust... but no wonder she didn't tell us about this."
"I wonder if Percy knew," Ginny said softly, "or even Oliver."
"Does it matter now?" Hermione asked. "What did she ask you to do?"
"We have to find out if there is anyone else in the Black family," Ginny said. "She says its important in order for the prophecy to come true. She thinks that her opposite Slayer--"
"Another Slayer?" Hermione asked, looking shocked. "Ginny, do you understand what you've just said? The only way there can be another Slayer is if the first one dies!"
Both girls were quiet for a long, silent moment.
"Do you... do you think Buffy died?" Ginny asked in a small, fearful voice.
"Either that or Faith did," Hermione said quietly. "But I'm betting on Buffy, because she didn't explain it."
"Why does she always have to be so vague?" Ginny asked sadly.
"I don't know," Hermione said, feeling slightly frustrated. "I feel terrible for her, though. Can you imagine having to tell Harry that his godfather may still be alive and the fact she's been dead already?"
"I don't want to know," Ginny replied. "I just want to help Buffy."
"So do I," Hermione replied, drumming her fingers on the wooden table, her brain searching for a way to begin. "I think we should start with genealogy, because that's where I first read up on Harry."
"Right," Ginny said as both girls stood up, leaving their corner.
But the thought of one Slayer dying before another one was called was sticking fresh in Hermione's mind. Harry was going to literally freak out if he ever found out his sister had died. Hermione made a mental note to ask the other girl about it and turned back to her search.
After an hour though, neither girl could find anything. It wasn't until Ginny found an old copy of The Daily Prophet did both girls stop looking.
"Take a look at this," Ginny whispered, opening the newspaper out onto the table.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, setting down an armload of books.
"It's the obituary for Sirius's brother," Ginny whispered excitedly. "It says that he was survived by a wife. But it doesn't say that there were any children."
"What?" Hermione asked, pulling the paper closer to her. "Oh, my word."
"It doesn't give her name, but it's the closest thing we've got," Ginny replied, rolling up the paper and grabbing the second one.
"Set it aside," Hermione suggested to Ginny, who pulled the paper back out. "I think it'd be something she'd look at."
She remembered last summer, when Harry had told her and Ron about Sirius's brother. He had been killed on Voldemort's orders. Hermione began to wonder if Faith was the daughter from that union, even if she wasn't named. It would certainly make her a Black by blood.
"There's something else," Ginny suddenly whispered. "Look at this. Bellatrix Lestrange had a child. She used to be a Black because she was a cousin to Sirius. It doesn't say what ever happened to it, but it said that there was a child."
"The Lestranges?" Hermione gasped in horror. "Are you telling me that the Witch who drove Neville's parents to madness could be the mother of this other Slayer?"
"I'd rather have her be a niece of Sirius'," Ginny said with a frown, studying the article carefully, "than be the product of a Lestrange marriage."
"You and me both," Hermione said, finally closing the book she'd been reading. "I think we should bring Buffy down here sometime this weekend and get her to talk to the both of us. We have to ask her about the double-Slayer thing."
Ginny shrugged. "It could be a painful topic for her. How did you know about it?"
"I've been reading up on Slayer lore all week," Hermione told her. "I've been trying to understand what she is, because Professor Pryce has been going on and on about supernatural beings in class. I wonder if he knows that there's actually a Slayer in his class."
Ginny leaned over and checked the time on the large clock behind the stacks. "Hermione, it's almost ten."
"We should probably go. We do have hall duty," Hermione told the younger Prefect as they moved to put everything away.
As they left, a single figure moved out from behind the shadows, his face full of disbelief. And the deepest lines of suspicion
"I wonder what that was about," he said softly under his breath.
- - - - -
Harry went to bed early that night, feeling drained. As he closed his eyes, he could hear the laughter of his fellow Gryffindor males as they moved by the door, laughing and talking.
It had been quite a day, he decided. After Care of Magical Creatures that day, Hagrid had drawn Hermione, Ron and himself aside to discuss taking them into the forest to see Grawp.
"You still want us to talk to him?" Hermione had asked in a faint, frightened tone.
"I'd understand if yeh didna," Hagrid said in his heavy voice, his eyes still puffy and bruised as he regarded the three teenagers standing far below him. "But Grawp has been bored. He's really sweet once yeh get to know 'im."
"Right," Ron said, staring at Hagrid as though he were bloody mad. "Right..."
Ron's voice stretched out until it was a cry of pain. Harry turned and instead of seeing Ron standing next to Hagrid's hut, he was bending down with pain. They were in the Ministry of Magic and back in the Department of Mysteries.
"Ron?" Harry asked. Ron looked up at him. Harry recoiled in horror. Most of Ron's face was covered in blood and through eyes swelling to the point that only a slip of the soft blue color appeared, he heard Ron breathe once and then keel over.
"It wasn't his time," a voice said from behind Harry. He turned and saw his sister. She was staring at Harry now, and a beautiful smile graced her face. "Death, Harry, bow to death..."
"What?" he asked, incredulously. She was speaking the same way that Voldemort had spoken to him and in the same voice that he heard Voldemort speak in whenever Harry was in close proximity to the Dementors.
"Bow to death, Harry," Buffy said, the smile never leaving her face. "It will come easily. It might even be painless. After all, I would know..."
"How would you know?" Harry asked, his voice full of horror as Ron twitched and spluttered out a long stream of blood at his feet.
"Death is your gift," a soft voice said from behind him. Harry took a step back, nearly stumbling over Ron. The dark-haired girl was standing in front of Buffy, her arms crossed.
"What?" Harry gasped, paralyzed with fear. "Death is my gift? That isn't funny, Buffy... Buffy's friend... death isn't a gift. I've lost too many people..."
"Death is your gift," Buffy said, walking over to Harry and hugging him tightly. "You never asked for this life. You never wanted it to end this way. But it is your choice. To die or to bring death. It is a gift you must give."
"I don't understand!" Harry shouted, looking back and forth between the two women, who were now surrounding him. He was beginning to feel as though he couldn't breathe. "What are you trying to tell me?"
A cold, slimy hand fell on his shoulder. Harry slowly turned around, a chill racing down his spine. Behind him stood a slowly decomposing body in a long black cloak, his red eyes glittering evilly under the cloak.
"Death, Harry... bow to death. It will be quick... it might even be painless... I would not know... I have never died..."
The hood fell off and Harry screamed out, "Sirius!"
Gasping, Harry sat up in bed, hearing voices echoing in the silent room. He wasn't aware that he had cried out until he saw his bedhangings wrenched from their position and Ron's tense, pale face.
"Are you all right, mate?" Ron asked in a low, urgent voice.
Harry tried for a smile and he found he couldn't speak.
"Is it you-know-who?" Ron asked, his voice even more urgent.
"N-No," Harry choked out. Behind Ron, Seamus was peering over Ron's shoulder in concern. "It wasn't Voldemort." He ignored Ron's violent flinch.
"It was Sirius..."
- - - - -
Chapter 27... Quidditch tryouts; the Ministry has news; Faith leaves the US.
Chapter 28... Lupin visits Harry; Azkaban is broken open...
AND Chapter 29... Hogsmeade.
To the Readers / Reviewers:
Just a few loose ends I chose to tie up here. The only problem is, someone was listening in. Naughty, naughty. And to appease the eavesdropper scene, his identity is revealed in the next few chapters. Unfortunately for Buffy, keeping secrets from Harry isn't a really smart thing to do, especially since Harry's about to find out everything. It couldn't come at a worse time, with Faith on the way... things are about to get tougher for the Potter siblings.
Chapter 29 will be the return of Oliver. I realize that leaving him out of nine chapters doesn't do well for the relationship-side of the fic, but this isn't a romance to begin with. And besides, they write to one another. As for Harry, he'll get his own. Percy will return in Chapter 27. The other Weasleys will return at Christmastime, so around Chapter 40ish. I haven't written that far ahead yet. I only finished chapter 30.
Sorrow1 -- This is one of the reasons why I didn't want to include that. But, my beta pointed out to me that Buffy doesn't understand this world yet. The reason why no one rebuked her is because how could they dare go up against someone who doesn't this world? Her saying that the room is full of Muggles only proves she is able of making mistakes, just like anyone else.
Kel -- I adore that word. Oliverness, hee. Ahem. Since the two BEST Weasleys are in Diagon Alley and not Hogsmeade, they will not be making an appearance until a later chapter. Probably one of the Christmas-time ones. I haven't thought that far ahead yet.
CapriceAnn -- It makes more sense than her being a daughter, doesn't it? I like the explanation, too. I hope this chapter cleared up some of it for you. It gives us a bit to think about. But I should say you're almost dead on.
StarBella -- Fred and George won't be making an appearance until the chapters close in around 40. I know it's an impossibly long time off, but I'm hoping to make it well worth the wait. There's just too much to get through before then. Oliver's coming back, too.
electric pancake -- I'm assuming Buffy is short, like 5 foot zero or one or something. I know Harry is supposed to be small, but he was said to have grown in Book 5, I'm thinking his height is a good six inches taller than her. As for me being a politician, I'm too left-wing for my own good. Mmmm, and chocolates! That is my best vice, along with fanfiction, of course!
Marz1 -- I know. I'm just showing how despisefully powerful the Council can be. If they have the power to return someone living on American soil for 18 years, then they really do have that sort of power. As for the whole blonde thing, I'm thinking she gets the blonde hair from her mother's side of the family, since Aunt Petunia and Dudley are both fair-haired.
Goddessa39 -- Okay, no more Angel. He'll probably be mentioned in passing, because that is part of the Buffy storyline. I feel bad now.. durnit.
lightdemondarkangel -- Actually, I don't have to go to school anymore. I just graduated university a few months ago. So, until I pick up my Masters, I'm done. My younger sibling gets to start the first week of September. My roommates start the same week. And to answer your question about the necklace thing, Buffy's not using it. I promise I won't bring in any future confusing lectures or discussions.
kped -- Welcome back! I'm planning on another double update this week too! Anyway, as for Harry/Hermione, the more I read/listen to OoTP (which I have on a single CD as an MP3 audio book so I can listen to it at work), I really do believe Harry loves Hermione like that, no matter who he convinced in Book 4 of otherwise. He was WAY more concerned with her than he was with Ron during the end Ministry scenes, anyway. As for Buffy seeing more of James, she will, but not through Snape. And her tutorials are basically a chance for her to catch up, yeah. But she won't reach her full potential yet. She may be a Slayer, but she isn't Supergirl.
Let's see... countdown is two more regular chapters before October rolls around. Finally. The way this is spacing out, I think Christmas will fall around Chapter 40. I'm also thinking that I'll end this fic at 45 to 50 chapters. It could go a lot longer, but I think I want to give you nice readers a little break. Unless there is more interest to continue, this story will probably come to a nice, cliffhanging end. I'm not a fan of cliffhangers. But I can write one.
Nearly 400 reviews? I love you, dearest readers and reviewers! I shall give you all a token of my esteem and shower you with champagne (I had a good night at work tonight which included sampler platters and the bubbly).