CHAPTER 26: PIECES

A skeletal woman, with humongous glasses that magnified her eyes and made them seem to bulge out of her head, colourful bangles that swathed her arms, glittering rings that covered her fingers, innumerable chains and beads that wrapped around her neck, and a gossamer spangled shawl draped around her shoulders made her look quite the sight.

A large, glittering insect was the first thing that came to Buffy's mind, and she couldn't help but think back to the She-mantis that had come to Sunnydale High. The so-called Divination teacher in front of her didn't make Buffy's senses go wild; in fact, she seemed relatively normal, except for her awful fashion taste, which Buffy decided was downright scary.

Unfortunately, as she knew how to kill it, a She-mantis was crossed off her list as soon as the 'beast' in front of her opened her mouth. And started to scream.

Buffy had no idea what to do.

"Death! All I see is Death! You poor, poor child," Trelawney said, bringing her hand to her heart. "You shall not live for long; I can see that Death surrounds you and it will not let you go."

"Um, that's good to know," Buffy said, looking at the woman strangely. So maybe she wasn't a demon; she sure screamed like a regular woman.

"My dear! Why are you not worried?" Trelawney asked amazed. Everyone else was looking at Buffy with surprise evident on his or her own faces. To their knowledge, Harry had been the only one whose death was regularly predicted by the bug lady. "It is only a matter of time before your life is taken from you!"

'Again?' Buffy thought, slightly annoyed. "Everyone dies," Buffy said. "Some sooner than others." 'And some more than once,' Buffy thought with a scowl. All this talk about death kept bringing her mind back around to heaven and what it felt like, what it still felt like, being torn out of it.

It was an understatement of historic proportions to say that it was unpleasant.

"You should not walk away from something this serious," Trelawney cried, shocked at the woman's nonchalance. "Why are you so unconcerned?"

"It gets old after a while," Buffy called out, brushing past them. "You'd think someone would come up with something new by now," Buffy said absently, not knowing the others could hear her.

"What?" Hermione whispered quietly, mostly to herself.

"I'm a Seer!" Trelawney cried, desperate to be believed. "I can see the future!"

"Then what will I wear tomorrow? It might save me some time to search through my closet," Buffy said over her shoulder.

"You won't make it to Christmas, my dear," Trelawney continued to call out, tears forming in her eyes. "You should be careful who you trust, for the ones you love will betray you."

At that, Buffy paused in thought. She remembered her old Divination teacher when she was at school. She had taken it for part of third year before getting sick and tired of the death predictions and prophecies of doom that she picked up a different class instead. It was starting again and she didn't like it. This new Divination professor even said some of the same things her old one had. It was creepy and she was getting a little frustrated and angry. Who were they to dictate her life? Prophecies and predictions were never good; it did not do to dwell on things and forget to live. That's what happened when one believed in a prophecy, one believed that there was no way to change the outcome, although she was a prime example that that was not the case.

She turned around and stalked back towards the insect-like creature.

"So, do you know how I'm going to die? I mean, if one of my friends is going to kill me, I should at least know how, right? Or better yet, who? Who's going to do it? Who's going to kill me? And why? You're the Seer, aren't you? So tell me, how am I going to die? Is it going to be painful? Do you think it'll hurt? Do you think I'll go to Heaven?" Buffy nearly shouted.

"You're not good for anything," Buffy said quieter since she got no response. "You can't tell me anything useful, can you? Just that I'm going to die before Christmas. Which Christmas? This one, the next one, the one ten years from now? I'd like a date and time if at all possible, just so I can be prepared."

Once again she was met by silence, so Buffy took one last look at the Seer and walked away, hearing her mutter, "So much pain and darkness. Stay away from her; Death's not letting go," as she walked up the stairs, opting to skip dinner. Buffy's mind was whirling. She wasn't stupid enough to dismiss everything the thing had to say, but she wasn't going to become paranoid over it. She knew that now more than ever she had been right in worrying about who to trust. 'Be careful who you trust,' the Seer had said. Giles, Xander, Willow, Anya, even Faith, were the ones she trusted. They wouldn't betray her; they'd been through too much together for her not to realize that. She didn't know what anyone else would do; she'd trust no one else.

Dumbledore watched her go; he had been watching the exchange with curious eyes and he still could not figure her out. Every day he seemed to see a different side of Professor Fox and none of them seemed to match up. It was frustrating, as he had no idea whether or not she could be trusted. Especially around his students. Who's side was she on?

"Well," Dumbledore said, trying to lighten the mood and break the tension, "I believe dinner is waiting, as are our friends and colleagues. If you will," he said, gesturing towards the door. Surprisingly enough, the commotion had gone unnoticed by the rest of the castle; perhaps, the noise in the Great Hall overruled the screams coming from Trelawney, or perhaps the doors to the Great Hall blocked the sound; they were very solid and thick.

The trio pushed open the doors and filed into the Hall; they didn't talk until they sat down at the table. Amazingly enough, Dumbledore acted as if nothing had happened; as if their Divination professor hadn't predicted the death of the DADA professor, who went crazy at the news.

"What do you make of that?" Ron asked, breaking the thoughtful silence of the group.

"I don't know," Hermione said with a shake of her head. "It sounded like she had gotten that warning before, or perhaps a similar warning of death..." Hermione trailed off, lost in her thoughts.

"Don't you think it's weird, though?" Ron asked. "I mean, she's never really predicted the death of anyone besides Harry, for obvious reasons."

"She thought she'd be considered legit if she predicted something correctly, so she chose the most obvious thing," Harry finished for him.

"It's a good thing you're so stubborn," Ron said with a slight smile.

"I get it from my dad's side," Harry joked half-heartedly.

"I don't get it!" Hermione said suddenly, very frustrated. "Who is she?" she hissed. "Why would Trelawney predict her death? It's not like she's ever accurate, but she's done the same thing to you over and over again. But everyone knows You-Know-Who is after you. Why would she have to worry about betrayal and death?"

"Maybe she's been associating with some bad people," Ron said.

"Trelawney did say something about darkness and staying away from her," Harry said. "Maybe you were right before; maybe she is a spy for Voldemort," Harry said, getting frustrated when his friends flinched. "Would you please stop that?" he finally asked. "It's just a name."

"Sorry," Hermione apologized, abashed.

"Of course Hermione's right," Ron said. "When is she ever wrong?"

"So should we tell someone?" Hermione said.

"Who're we going to tell? Dumbledore was right there with us," Harry said. He was still angry at the headmaster for making him take more lessons with Snape. He was only bad at Potions because Snape was an awful professor; if he was going to take Remedial Potions, he'd do better with a different teacher.

"I'm not hungry," Harry said, pushing his plate away, thoughts of his lesson running through his head.

"Me neither," Hermione said.

"Well, one of us has got to eat," Ron said as the two looked at him, almost expectantly.

"Don't wait up for me," Harry said. "I don't know when I'll be done." Harry got up from the table to go back to the common room to grab some things before heading down to his lesson. He still had some time left.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Buffy!" Willow cried happily. "We weren't expecting you. How are you doing? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, you didn't look so good the other day," Anya pitched in.

"I'm fine," Buffy said.

"Are you sure? Cause that doesn't look like a happy Buffy," Xander said.

"It's nothing, I just met the Divination professor; another prophecy foretelling my doom. She wouldn't even tell me when," Buffy said lightly, trying to make it seem unimportant.

"Don't you hate it when that happens?" Xander joked, although he did exchange a worried look with Willow. She couldn't die again. They needed her.

"Yeah, it's a real drag. So, Willow, how's it coming?"

"Oh," Willow said, startled by the abrupt change of subject. "Well, not as well as I had hoped."

"We knew it wouldn't be easy," Buffy said. "It'll take some time."

"I know, but I think you're going to have to do it."

"What? Why me?"

"Well, you've grown up around this type of magic and you know more about it than me. This is extremely complicated and I'm not sure if I'm the right person for it."

"And you think I am?" Buffy asked with wide eyes.

"Well, yes. But I'll be there to help you," Will said quickly as she noticed Buffy start to protest. "Plus, I can't get everything I might need. The Apothecary in Diagon Alley doesn't carry some of the more... questionable items."

"Right, well, I think I can get whatever you need at Hogwarts. Snape probably has everything you've ever dreamed about having. He's really into potions."

"That's good. Maybe you could come by every night so that we could do some experimenting. This is more in your territory than it is in mine."

"I thought Potions would be right up your alley, with all the stuff you've done over the years."

"Yes and no," Willow said, fiddling with her hands. "I've done simple things that required common ingredients,"

"I get scared when she includes eye of newt with the common ingredients," Xander said.

"Well, compared to some of the ingredients I saw in the Apothecary, eye of newt is just trivial. Potions are very delicate, especially something like this. One wrong ingredient could create something awful. I don't know what all the ingredients do, what happens when you mix them or the special things that you have to do to some before adding them. It's really complicated. Wicca is easy compared to this stuff."

"Okay," Buffy said. "I'll do it, but I'll still need your help."

"Done," Willow said with a relieved smile. She didn't like playing with ingredients that she didn't know. She'd probably poison them all accidentally.

"Well, let's get started, shall we?"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"That's strange," someone muttered after Dumbledore finished telling the incident with Professors Fox and Trelawney to the other members of the Order.

"Indeed," Dumbledore said thoughtfully.

"You don't believe her, do you Albus?" McGonagall asked, amazed. "I mean, she's never been the most... astute person; I don't think we should rely on her... abilities to assess the situation correctly," she said, trying to sum up her thoughts nicely.

"As... flighty, as Sybil appears to be, she has proven to be adept at her profession." Hearing McGonagall's disbelieving snort, he continued, "I believe she has given a prophecy or two in her life; one of which was given to Mr. Potter during his third year exam. And it proved to be true."

"Just because she gives one correct statement doesn't mean we must believe everything that comes from her mouth," she argued.

"It just means that we should place some credibility to her words."

"She's been predicting Potter's death since she first laid eyes on him. He's not dead yet, and won't be anytime soon if I have anything to say about it."

"Well, there has been the constant threat to his life, so perhaps we are safe in assuming that there is a threat to Professor Fox's life."

"Why would anyone want to kill her?" Moody asked.

"Apart from the obvious, you mean?" McGonagall interrupted bitterly.

"I don't believe you've ever even talked to her, Minerva," Dumbledore said. "There is something about her that strikes me and I cannot discover what it is. It is actually quite frustrating."

"The question is do we want to save her," Tonks spoke up. "Who's side is she on?"

"I believe the priority is finding out who she is," Moody said. "If we figure that out, it'll be easier to answer the first question."

"I was lucky enough to run into young Mr. Creevy," Dumbledore said. "He was kind enough to provide me with a picture of our Professor." Dumbledore placed a brand new photo on the table, allowing people to pass it around to examine.

One by one, people shook their heads. Moody stared at it for a long, long time. A memory of some kind seemed to flicker on the edge of his mind, but the harder he tried to get it, the farther away it went. Pretty soon, all he felt was frustrated for not being able to recognize her.

"I can take it to work and ask around," Mr. Weasley said. "If she's got any friends at the Ministry."

"If she even works there," Moody growled.

"Then I can get some information about her," Arthur finished. "It might not be much, but it's a start."

Dumbledore nodded. "Everyone keep their eyes and ears open. If she's a spy, it's best to know about it as soon as possible. If she can be an ally, even better."

"How did Remus' mission go?" Molly asked suddenly, missing the werewolf.

"I don't think it was very fruitful," Dumbledore said. "Pettigrew lead him all over Europe and he had no luck catching him. I believe he was cornered in Italy, but Remus managed to escape. He should be here any moment. Sirius is waiting for him by the fireplace. I believe he thought it better than listening into another meeting."

"We really should do something," McGonagall said. "We can't keep him locked up here by himself. He's not a patient person, if you remember."

"I agree. Remus will keep him company for the time being, but other than that, I'm afraid there's nothing we can do. Everyone's on the lookout for him, and by now all the Death Eaters have memorized his animagus form. It's unfortunate, but that's the way it is."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The next morning, Ron and Harry found Hermione sitting on a couch, scratching away on some piece of parchment; however, there weren't any school books around.

"What are you working on?" Harry asked.

"My essay for Defence class," Hermione said absently.

"You're actually going to do it?" Ron asked amazed. Off Harry's look he added, "Right, dumb question, don't know what I was thinking. But, really Hermione. It's not even due. She's not going to look at it; we don't have to do it. There's not even extra credit involved."

Hermione finally glanced up and frowned at them. "So? I think it's a good assignment, and you should take the time to do it. I think you'd discover quite a bit about yourself," she said, glancing at Harry quickly.

"I know enough about myself already and that's just another two essays that I'm not required to do," Ron said, flopping down into a chair.

"You're doing it, aren't you Harry?" Hermione asked. Harry just shrugged his shoulders uncertainly, causing Hermione to sigh. "Why not? I should think you of all people should do this. I think it's very useful."

"You think everything is very useful," Ron said.

"Divination's not."

"Well, let's see what you've come up with," Ron said, dropping that subject. He tried to reach for the parchment but Hermione pulled it away, a blush creeping up to her cheeks.

"No, it's mine. You're not supposed to read it."

"Hermione, it's just a stupid assignment and we're your best friends."

"No. You won't even think about doing it, so why should I show you mine? You'll probably just make fun of me."

"Fine, look I'll do it right here and now," Ron said. "The worst thing that could happen to me would be that my family was all killed and I'd be the only one left," Ron said fairly casually. Sure he'd be upset if his whole family was gone, but they weren't and it wasn't going to happen. The possibility was there, especially with Voldemort back, but it wasn't likely. It was just a stupid homework assignment, anyway.

"Now what could make that worse?" Hermione said.

"I just told you that was the worst thing," Ron said, confused. "What's worse than having your whole family taken from you?" Ron asked, forgetting about Harry for a moment.

Hermione, however, didn't. She snuck a glance at Harry, who was trying hard to keep his emotions hidden. "A lot of things, Ron, it just depends on the person," she told him. "This is part of the assignment. You have to keep going until you've finished."

"Fine. I'm all alone and giant spiders come and attack me."

"Ron!" Hermione said.

"What? I hate spiders!"

"You're useless," she complained. "What about Harry and me?"

"Oh, right," Ron said. "It'd be worse if you and Harry were killed too, but I considered you as part of my family." Ron was starting to be a little less nonchalant about the whole mess. It wasn't easy to be talking about everyone he loved being dead.

"Okay, good, now what's worse?"

"What's worse than that?" Ron asked.

"Well, how would you feel? Would that be it for you? Is that your reason to switch sides? Because they killed your family?"

Ron was beginning to squirm in his seat a little and Harry remained quiet.

"I don't know, I don't want to think about it," Ron confessed.

"Well, what if it happens? You have to be prepared."

"What did you write?" Ron asked, switching the conversation from himself to her.

"Well, I went a little more detailed then you, but I'm still not done."

"So, give us what you've got."

"Okay," Hermione said slowly. "Everyone I loved is dead."

"That's the same thing I said!" Ron said defensively.

"But they're dead because of me. Someone made me kill them." This quieted Ron and he knew he had yet to find the worst thing. Harry's next idea came close.

"What if no one made you do it," he said quietly. So far, their discussion had tended to run along the lines of how his life was. His parents had been murdered, the only family he had was the Durselys, but they didn't count. Cedric was dead because of him; true, he hadn't said the curse, but he might as well have. More people were going to die because Voldemort was back, once again, thanks to him. He knew his life hadn't been wonderful, but he was surprised that he was able to last this long. Looking up, he realized that it was because he did have some family left. He still had Ron, Hermione and Sirius. Even Dumbledore.

Hermione was the one that finally broke the silence, choosing to switch to a different subject. "How was your lesson last night?"

"Awful, but I didn't have Potions," Harry said, lowering his voice even more.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, confused.

"I'm taking Occlumency, but I have to tell everyone that I'm taking Remedial Potions. No one's supposed to know what I'm doing. But now, I have to take it two times a week because I'm awful at it. Apparently Dumbledore wants me to be good at it really soon."

"Why do you need Occlumency?"

"I guess so that Voldemort stops going into my mind."

"That makes sense," Hermione said. "Then your dreams will stop and you won't be influenced by him. I wonder... I wonder if it would stop your scar from burning."

"I doubt it," Harry said. "It hurts even when I'm near him, not just when I have a dream."

"True," Hermione said. "Why would Dumbledore want you to start now? Why not earlier?"

"I don't know," Harry said. "I can't believe he wouldn't teach me himself, I mean, what does he expect me to learn from Snape?"

"He must be good at Occlumency," Hermione said. "Otherwise Voldemort would see right through his thoughts and discover he was a spy."

"Yes, but I'm sure Dumbledore's even better, and he knows we can't stand each other. He's a slimy git!" Harry said.

"I'm sure he has his reasons," Hermione said.

"But what are they? I wish he would tell me!"

Hermione's eyes widened in realization. "Maybe that's why he hasn't told you anything!" she said excitedly. "Whatever he tells you has the possibility of transferring back to you, so he won't tell you anything until you've mastered Occlumency. If I were you, I'd work really hard."

"You're probably right," Harry said, upset that he'd actually have to work with Snape in order to get information. What a horrible trade off.

"Just think, the harder you work, the more you practice, the sooner you'll have all the answers," Hermione said. "And with two lessons a week, you're bound to improve quickly."

"I'm glad I'm not you, mate," Ron said, staring at Harry with pity. "Two extra lessons, and those times you'll be by yourself." Ron shivered in horror. "I don't think I could take it."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER 27: PASSING DAYS

-------------------BY ORDER OF-----------------------

The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts

All Student organizations, Societies, Teams, Groups, and Clubs are henceforth disbanded.

An Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club is hereby defined as a regular meeting of three or more students.

Permission to re-form my be sought from the High Inquisitor (Professor Umbridge).

No Student Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club may exist without the knowledge and approval of the High Inquisitor.

Any student found to have formed, or to belong to, an Organization, Society, Team, Group, or Club that has not been approved by the High Inquisitor will be expelled.

The above is in accordance with Educational Decree Number Twenty-four.

Signed:

Dolores Jane Umbridge

HIGH INQUISITOR

Harry, Ron, and Hermione stood in shock in front of the Gryffindor Tower's bulletin board, looking over Umbridge's latest plan to make their lives hell.

"Who does she think she is?" Ron asked angrily.

"The High Inquisitor of Hogwarts," Hermione said smartly, causing Ron to scowl.

"She's Fudge's right hand man," Harry said. "Er, well, maybe not."

"No, no. Man fits her perfectly," Ron said.

"You're just insulting your gender," Hermione retorted to Ron, who had to stop and think about what he had said.

"You know what I mean," Ron glared.

"How did she know?" Hermione asked, forgetting about Ron. "I mean, she's obviously put this up because of us, but how did she know? We haven't even had our first meeting yet! It was all in the planning stages."

"She must have had spies somewhere," Harry said. "Maybe one of the members said something."

"No, I've charmed the parchment, remember? We'd know if someone told."

"She must've had someone at the Hog's Head that day," Harry said finally.

Hermione said and then said, "Well, what're we going to do now?"

"Why're you asking me?" Harry asked. "You're the one that started this!"

"Yes, but you were elected as leader, so it's up to you."

Harry gave her a look while Ron said, "You fell right into that one, mate."

"We'll keep it going," Harry said after a long pause.

"Even with our new lessons," Hermione said in a whisper.

"Especially now," Harry said. "We have no idea how long this is going to keep up, or what she's really doing. Plus, it can't hurt to have extra practice."

Hermione and Ron nodded in agreement and all three turned back to look at the new legislation with looks of disgust on their faces.

The days flew by quickly as everyone's work load and schedule increased drastically. Between homework, Occlumency, Quidditch practice and planning the DA meetings (the first of which went off without a hitch), Harry was very busy.

Harry was very glad that he rarely saw Profess-no, High Inquisitor Umbridge anymore. And he hadn't had a detention in ages, which was making Angelina much happier. Practices were held daily, to prepare for the upcoming match: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin.

The rest of September flew by, and October came and went just as quickly. The Defence lessons always proved to be interesting, and they were learning more stuff than they had in all previous four years combined. Harry hated to admit it, or was that feeling something else, but Professor Fox was an even better professor than Lupin was.

His Occlumency lessons were going fairly well. At first it was awful trying to learn from Snape, but he was determined to learn as quickly as possible so that he was able to hear what Dumbledore had to say. Plus, he was getting sick and tired of having Snape see his memories. He swore that Snape was actually trying to find the ones he didn't want to share.

One time, he was able to push the spell back onto Snape, much to his later disgust, and saw several memories of the greasy haired potions master.

One memory in particular stuck in his mind, no matter how hard he tried to get rid of it. It wasn't a long memory, in fact, Harry had only glimpsed it before another one took its place, but it was the most memorable. He saw a much younger Snape shove a blonde girl up against the wall. She was definitely not happy, as he could see the slightest bit of fear cross her features; her striking green eyes were burned into his memory. He thought she looked familiar, but he couldn't figure out where he'd seen someone like her before. Obviously he hadn't seen her, because that was some fifteen years ago, before he was even born.

He remembered how furious Snape had been, and much to Harry's surprise, it seemed he was disgusted with himself. Harry wanted to know what had happened, but as he was quickly dismissed, he figured he shouldn't ask. Other attempts at looking inside of Snape's mind were futile; Snape was much more protected around him.

Every night before he went to bed, he cleared his mind and did everything else Snape told him to do. Although, if he was honest with himself, he hadn't really improved much until his one 'detention' with Professor Fox.

He had gotten detention after one really hard class. He hadn't been in a good mood that day, so he might not have been doing as well as he could have. At least, that was the only reason he could think of for receiving detention. As he didn't have Quidditch, and he was so surprised that she gave him it, that he didn't really question it.

If Umbridge had done it, he would have exploded at her, but with Professor Fox, he kind of wanted to have detention. And no, it didn't make any sense to him.

He had gone to her study with brave, but pitying, faces from Hermione and Ron, and strangely enough, a smile from Neville.

She sat in front of her desk, scribbling over several parchments, grading their essays on vampires, he expected.

"Harry, have a seat," she said, gesturing towards the seat facing her desk.

Harry sat and watched silently as she finished writing comments on the side before writing a big E on the top. She then pushed the pile of papers into a drawer and sat back in her chair, looking at Harry.

It was the first time she had been alone with Harry, and truth be told, she was quite scared. Maybe more nervous than scared. She had been watching him in class and during meals, discreetly of course, and she finally thought it was time to meet with him.

She knew he didn't trust her, of course. It was painfully obvious since the first class; he didn't hide his emotions well at all. He wore his heart on his sleeve, like she used to do, as someone had once told her. Now she should earn an Academy Award for all the false performances she'd put on. She had become very good at hiding her real emotions.

Buffy didn't know how much Harry knew about his parents, and well, her, so she wasn't just going to announce it to him. Yet. Based on his attitude and performance in class, she'd say he would jump up, call her a liar, curse her, and then go get Dumbledore. Then who knew what would happen.

She had to play this safe. She had to earn his trust. And, more than anything else, she wanted him to like her. Love her even. If she could, she'd take him away from the Durselys and have him live with her, but he might not even know she existed. Or he assumed she was dead, just like the rest of the wizarding world.

With an evil wizard after him, it wouldn't really do to tell him that she was his long lost aunt come back to life. He was being safe, not trusting everyone, and that was good. Except she wanted him to trust her.

She studied her nephew for a moment, marvelling at how much he looked like James. Except the eyes. Those were without a doubt, Lily's eyes.

"So, Harry," she said, breaking the tense silence. "You were a little... edgy today. Is there anything you want to talk about?"

"Talk?" Harry repeated, disbelief evident in his voice. "You gave me a detention so we could talk?"

"Well, kind of," Buffy said. "I believe that detentions should be useful in some way. For the most part, sitting around doing nothing, or copying lines won't do any good. Believe me, I spent plenty of time in detention when I was in school."

"For what?" Harry asked, despite himself. He couldn't believe a ministry official was telling him this. What was she up to?

"For a lot of things," Buffy said, thinking back to her days at Hogwarts and Sunnydale High. "I skipped class on a regular basis; I don't think the teachers liked that very much. I know principle Snyder didn't," she said with a wrinkle of her nose. "Stupid little troll," she muttered to herself, unaware that Harry heard her.

"Principle? Where did you go to school?" Harry asked.

"Oh, um, some school in America. I moved when I was fifteen; not my choice, really," Buffy said. "We used the term principle instead of headmaster."

"Right."

"So, anything going on?" Buffy prodded again.

"Why do you want to know?" Harry asked, narrowing his eyes just the slightest, something that Buffy didn't miss.

"Look, if you're going to come into my class acting like a... like you did today," Buffy said, making sure she didn't insult him. Not a nice way to earn his trust, "then you can be kicked out just like Malfoy. I know you don't want that."

Harry was getting furious at this professor. Who was she to tell him how to act? He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off.

"Look, I know we all have bad days, and we all get angry sometimes, but leave it outside of my classroom, please? I'm going to be honest with you; I think you have a temper problem. As in, you can't control it. I've heard the stories of your behaviour from the beginning of school from High Inquisitor Umbridge and I've seen your behaviour around school and in my class. You have a lot of suppressed anger. I'm not sure who you're angry at or why, but it isn't good to keep it locked up inside, trust me.

"If you ever need anyone to talk to, you can come to me and I'd be happy to listen. I'd even be happy to help you figure out whatever problem you need solved."

"Why?" Harry asked suspiciously. Did she want the inside details so she could send them to Minister Fudge?

"I was a counsellor at a school in America for a while, I've got some experience with this." 'Not that anyone thought I was all that great,' Buffy thought, remembering Robin Wood's laughter as he told her why he'd hired her. She had thought she was doing a decent job; sure, she couldn't help everybody, but being The Slayer was tough. Late nights and early mornings do not do good things to her attention span.

"Why aren't you still a counsellor?" Harry asked.

"Um, well, I wanted a change."

"So you went all the way to the Ministry in London?" he asked sceptically. Alarms were going off in his head; she wasn't being honest with him. He couldn't trust her.

"Well, it was a long process," Buffy tried to cover.

"You're not that old," Harry challenged bluntly.

"I was a counsellor for less than a year," Buffy said, staring into his eyes.

"You left in the middle of the year?"

"They didn't need me anymore."

"So you weren't good enough?" Harry countered, noticing with little satisfaction that a flicker of something he didn't recognize flashed through her eyes. When he blinked it was gone.

"The school closed," she said. "I was out of a job, I decided to go back home, I picked up the pieces of my old life and applied for a secretarial job in the Ministry before I began to climb the ladder."

Harry was silent for a moment, contemplating everything she had told him. "What do you do now?"

"I teach," Buffy said, her forehead wrinkling slightly at the obvious answer.

"I mean at the Ministry."

"I don't think that's any of your business," Buffy said finally, not able to think of a good department. She had said she climbed the ladder so she couldn't be a secretary, and if she named a department, it was possible he would go look it up. Or maybe Hermione would when he told her, which he undoubtedly would.

Buffy knew she had chosen the wrong thing to say, when once again, Harry's eyes clouded over with suspicion.

"So are we done yet?" Harry asked.

"No," Buffy said, lifting an eyebrow at him. "We still haven't fixed your attitude problem."

"I'm not going to talk to you," he said.

"Fine. I don't want to listen. But you will do what I tell you to. You are in detention after all."

Harry scowled at her angrily.

"Like that, see?" Buffy pointed out. "There's no need to get upset. You're in trouble, deal with it. Don't take it out on me. Nobody's going to like you if you keep venting your frustration on your friends."

"Most people are too scared of me anyway; they all think I'm psychotic, thanks to your ministry and the papers," he said, folding his arms over his chest.

"And I'm sure your attitude is really helping to deny those accusations," Buffy said. "If you yell, throw things, talk back to teachers, snap at your friends, they're really going to flock towards you."

"Nobody's telling me anything!" Harry grumbled unconsciously, his frustrations coming back again. "I have to do what everyone says and I'm not even sure why! And nobody believes anything I say anyway. It's all going to get twisted around!" Harry stopped abruptly, suddenly realizing exactly who he was talking to. A possible spy for the Ministry. For Fudge.

"What aren't they telling you, Harry?" Buffy said, unaware that her question solidified Harry's theory.

Harry sat in silence, not acknowledging her presence.

Buffy sighed and sat back in her chair. "Maybe if you were a little nicer, a little calmer, people would be more willing to accept you. In other words, grow up."

Harry's head snapped up at her words and he glared angrily at her. "You have no idea..." he started, but stopped once again.

"Life is hard and it's painful and it's everyday, but it's something you have to deal with," Buffy said. "You have your friends to help pull you through, but if you pull away and alienate yourself then it's going to be so much worse.

"You have to realize that the world doesn't revolve around you, that everyone has lives they have to take care of and other priorities. That's just life. You won't always be on the top of the list and if you get jilted, then you just have to deal with it. Do what you're supposed to do and be as happy as you can while you're doing it. It's the little things in life that make all the difference. Who's going to be at your side through it all? Why are they going to be there? It does matter, Harry.

"Don't be angry, don't be stressed, live happily. After all, stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Life is short, eat dessert first," Buffy finished with a smile.

"What?" Harry asked, startled by her strange ending.

"It's an old saying I heard once. I thought it was cute."

"Oh," Harry said.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" Buffy asked seriously.

Harry just nodded, his mind whirling.

"It's not always easy to keep your emotions in check," Buffy said, "But it can be done with practice. And it does get easier. Meditation helps a lot. Basically, you focus your energies on yourself and finding your inner calm. Typically, the more controlled you are, the less vulnerable you are."

And for the next hour the two of them practiced meditating, clearing one's mind and focusing one's energies.

Harry did that every night he went to sleep, as he found it decreased the chances of nightmares, letting him sleep better than he had in months, and it also helped him in Occlumency.

He was also much more pleasant to be around; he was much more like his old self than the strange angry person that had developed over the summer, much to Hermione and Ron's pleasure.

Harry was even much happier than he had been. He still didn't trust Professor Fox, but he did respect her. To some degree. She was, after all, still a ministry official under Fudge's control.

The Quidditch stands were filled with people, oddly enough, some of them were singing, but the lyrics were drowned out by the whistling and cheering.

It was the first game of the season, Gryffindor vs Slytherin. Harry was fairly confident, as they had not yet lost to Malfoy's team, but he was a little nervous for Ron, who looked like he might keel over any minute. His nerves combined with the shock of playing in front of the whole school were not a good combination.

The game began and Harry flew high to look for the snitch. Unfortunately, he kept getting distracted by Ron's performance, which was getting worse with each passing moment. The Slytherin's and their song were not helping either.

"Weasley cannot save a thing,

He cannot block a single ring,

That's why Slytherins all sing:

Weasley is our King."

Harry flew around frustrated because of the stupid lyrics. He knew Lee was trying his best to drown out the song, but it was a useless attempt.

"Weasley was born in a bin,

He always lets the Quaffle in,

Weasley will make sure we win,

Weasley is our King."

Harry turned around on his broom, abandoning his search for the snitch, in order to watch Ron play. Once again, Ron let the Quaffle go right by. "Stop listening, Ron!" Harry muttered to himself. "You're better than this."

"Weasley is our King,

Weasley is our King,

He always lets the Quaffle in,

Weasley is our King."

Harry beat his hand on his broomstick as he watched the Slytherins gain possession of the Quaffle once more. He was startled out of his thoughts when he heard Angelina yelling at him.

"Harry, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET GOING!"

It was only then that Harry realized he had been stationary for more than a minute, forgetting completely about the snitch, which was the 150-point sphere. He flew around, glancing at Malfoy once to make sure he didn't see the golden ball.

As they circled the pitch, looking in opposite directions, Harry heard Malfoy singing along with the song. He forced himself to calm down and find the snitch. He could sing all he wanted, but in the end, Gryffindor would be victorious.

Harry was circling closer to Malfoy and every once and a while he had to dodge the Bludgers that Crabbe and Goyle were frequently sending at him. Fred and George were doing an admirable job sending them straight back to where they came.

A glint of gold shone in Harry's right eye, and he turned his broom sharply to see the golden snitch hovering high in the air, quite a ways away from both him and Malfoy, but closer to Malfoy.

Harry took off on his broom, wanting to get ahead of Malfoy, who had yet to spot it. If he had tried to be sneaky, it wouldn't have worked, as he had avoided Malfoy for the entire game. He had yet to get within a hundred feet of him, and he'd have to get fairly close in order to pass by. He figured racing was the way to go.

Naturally, Malfoy didn't notice him until he flew right by, but then the blonde took off right behind him.

Coming closer to the snitch, it decided it wanted to play more, so it shot straight up into the sky. Higher and higher, causing Harry and Malfoy to fly almost vertically.

Harry was so focused on the snitch that he didn't notice Crabbe and Goyle still shooting the Bludgers at him. Fred and George were getting a little off track, as the singing and Ron distracted them. They were trying to help Ron stay focused, but they forgot that the two Slytherin beaters wanted to get Harry out of the match.

In his peripheral vision, Harry saw a blur coming at him and he spun his broom like a top, causing the bludger to miss the underside of the broom as it past, while allowing him to stay on his path of chasing the snitch.

Malfoy was right underneath him, and suddenly, the snitch veered off horizontally again. Harry turned sharply, not even thinking about how high they were, but noticed that Malfoy was beneath him, attempting to catch it from below.

Harry flew faster on his broom, casuign Malfoy to drop behind him. He was almost there. . .

Harry reached out his hand for the snitch, but pulled back as one of the bludgers charged right by him. While he was avoiding the one Bludger and still keeping his eye on the snitch, Harry didn't see the one Crabbe had shot that was heading straight for him until it was too late.

The bludger collided with him, slamming into his chest, knocking out his breath, and breaking a few of his ribs. The force of the bludger caused him to slide backwards off the broom.

It seemed like forever that Harry was falling in mid-air, it was only now that he vaguely realized how high he was, but in reality it was less than a second before he collided with Malfoy who was still speeding off towards the snitch on his broom.

Harry slammed into Malfoy, jarring the broom and causing it to flip upside down. Acting on instinct, Harry grabbed onto the broomstick, catching himself from the fall. Farther down on the broom, Malfoy was holding on with his legs, surprised at the right side up face of Harry Potter, as his own blonde hair hung upside down.

Malfoy snarled at Harry to get off, so Harry did just that.

Harry swung himself upward, using the broom like a muggle gymnast, flipping himself up to the top or bottom, since Malfoy's feet were gripping tightly to the broom, keeping himself from plummeting to the ground. Once he was up, he released the broom and used his momentum to finish the swing.

Harry planted his feet on the broom for the briefest of seconds, standing on it only long enough to push off, launching himself towards his own broom a few feet away.

Harry didn't hear the screams of the crowds as he had first fallen off, and he didn't hear them now as his right hand didn't grip the broom and he began to plummet once more towards the ground. All he knew was that he couldn't let another Cedric Diggory loss happen, especially to Malfoy.

As he fell towards the ground, he was vaguely aware of passing Malfoy, who had righted his broom and showed no motion to help him out. Everyone in the stands were still screaming, but all Harry saw was a broom moving swiftly towards him. It was someone on his team. But they weren't low enough.

Harry was dropping too quickly and passed the broom's height before his saviour could help him.

However, the Gryffindor was not going to let Harry fall to his doom, and he flung himself over the side of his broom as Harry sailed by, grabbing onto his left arm, stopping him from his death dive.

The two of them hung in the air for a second to catch their breath. "Alright there Harry?" George asked.

Harry looked up at him and grinned faintly, holding up the snitch in his right hand. "Fine," he said.

George's eyes widened in astonishment. "You took that dive to save the snitch! Are you mad?"

"I figured I should prove the rumours right," Harry said, happy that everything was okay. The horrified screams of the crowds now changed to ecstatic excitement, as they couldn't believe what had just happened.

George just laughed as he hung upside down from his broom, Harry's left arm still in his own.

George was just about to pull Harry up, and put himself right side up, since the blood rushing to his head was making his face match his vibrant hair, when a bludger ran into the small of Harry's back, knocking him out of George's grip.

Cries of outrage rang through the crowd, as Goyle had shot the bludger after the snitch had been caught, and at a helpless person. Luckily for Harry, he had fallen quite a ways before George had caught him, so he didn't fall nearly so far.

However, it was still a painful landing.

Once again, the air was knocked out of his lungs and his ribs protested painfully. Harry could see his team-mates all coming to a stop around him, worried about his safety. Even Ron had forgotten his painful performance to check on Harry.

Madame Hooch had come over and was looking him over, declaring that he needed to go to the hospital wing. Everything was happening too fast for Harry. People were congratulating him and scolding him, handing him things, like his broom, shoving him this way, and pushing him that way. Too many people were talking; he hit his head a little harder than he would have liked.

Unfortunately, he was able to hear Malfoy's vicious comments to the Weasleys. He tried to hold back George and Ron, even though he was still a little shaky, but Malfoy finally went too far.

"Or perhaps," said Malfoy, leering as he backed away, "you can remember what your mother's house stank like, Potter, and Weasley's pigsty reminds you of it—."

Harry was not aware of releasing George and Ron, all he knew was that a second later all three of them were sprinting after Malfoy. With all the craziness that had happened, he had completely forgotten about his anger management issues, and all the teachers that were watching. All he had wanted to do was cause Malfoy as much pain as possible. With no time to draw out his wand, and his anger fuelling his tired body, he drew back the fist still clutching the Snitch and sank it as hard as he could into Malfoy's stomach, while Ron attacked Goyle for his unsportsmanlike behaviour.

Girls' voices were screaming, Malfoy was yelling, others were swearing, and then Harry was hit with an Impedimenta curse, knocking him backwards.

Madame Hooch came storming up, breaking up the fight. "I've never seen behaviour like it — back up to the castle, all three of you, and straight to your Head of House's office! Go! Now!"

Reflecting back, Harry should have realized that it wouldn't have been a good idea to attack Malfoy. As he sat in front of McGonagall's stern, disappointed, and unhappy face, he knew he was going to get punished severely.

Unfortunately, he didn't count on it becoming much worse. But it did. As soon as a "Hem, hem" interrupted McGonagall's lecture.

Professor McGonagall did her best to ignore and dismiss the High Inquisitor, who was strangely accompanied by Professor Fox, but she would not be dissuaded.

She pulled out another roll of parchment, "Educational Decree Number Twenty-five."

"Not another one!" exclaimed Professor McGonagall violently. Harry looked up to see Professor Fox looking mildly amused by the outburst, but her features were soon blank again.

"So... I really think I will have to ban these three from playing Quidditch ever again," Umbridge said, looking from Harry to George to Ron and back again.

"What?!" Ron yelled.

"Ban us?" Harry asked, his voice sounding strangely distant. "From playing... ever again?"

"Yes, Mr. Potter, I think a lifelong ban ought to do the trick," said Umbridge, her smile widening still further as she watched him struggle to comprehend what she had said. "And I think, to be safe, this young man's twin ought to be stopped too-if his team-mates had not restrained him, I feel sure he would have attacked young Mr. Malfoy as well."

"Dolores, a word, please," Buffy said, speaking up for the first time since entering the office.

Dolores scowled but then walked outside the door with her fellow ministry employee. It wouldn't look well to dismiss her totally.

"Yes," Umbridge said.

"Are you mad?" Buffy asked, not realizing the door hadn't closed all the way and that the four people inside could still hear her.

"Excuse me?"

"You cannon ban four of the Gryffindor players for life," Buffy said. "Do you have any idea what that will look like?"

"Will it look something like expelling Mr. Malfoy from class for life?" Umbridge retorted.

"No, because nobody likes Mr. Malfoy," Buffy said slowly, as if explaining it to a small child. "If you ban them, they'll become martyrs, except they didn't have to die. The whole school will soon rebel against us! You cannot do this," she finally hissed.

Buffy knew how much Quidditch must mean to Harry and the other boys; it had meant a lot to her when she was on the team, and she couldn't imagine ever being banned from playing.

"Actually, I can, and I just did. Fortunately, I am High Inquisitor and you are not."

"Well, fortunately, I might not be High Inquisitor, but Fudge did appoint me to this position himself, and I'm sure that he'll back anything I say. Plus, you said you'd back any decision I made. Remember?" Buffy said.

"I don't know what you're playing at, but you've obviously forgotten our goals. Banning him from Quidditch is just the first step towards expulsion," Umbridge said, hissing the last part so quietly that the people inside didn't hear.

"I remember the goals perfectly well, thanks," Buffy said. "But there are better ways to achieve them; this is stupid and immature."

"Then I'm glad it's not up to you."

Buffy glared at Umbridge before continuing on. "Fine. I guess I'll have to dismiss Mr. Goyle from Quidditch for purposely hitting a Bludger at a defenceless player after the game was over, Mr. Crabbe for hitting a potentially fatal bludger at another player, and Mr. Malfoy for not helping Mr. Potter as he fell. I think these all qualify for lifelong bans, if a simple fight after the game is over does as well. I don't think Mr. Malfoy would be too happy to hear his only son was banned from Quidditch as well as class. I might as well expel the kid. And don't ridicule me, because I do have the power."

Umbridge glared at the blonde before admitting defeat and storming away angrily.

Buffy smiled to herself outside, happy that she had saved Harry and the Weasley's from a horrible punishment. She steeled her face and marched back inside the room.

"You're punishment has been revoked due to the amount of people involved. You will all serve detentions with Professor Snape for the next week, no arguments. Fifty house points will be deducted total. I'm sure that fighting is not uncommon at this school, but I would have expected better from you. You are also banned from practice for the next week, just so that you'll have plenty of time to do your homework and your detentions."

Buffy turned to leave and then added, "Next time, think first. It's not always smart to go charging in headfirst when it's easier to walk away."

Buffy left the group of three students and one professor, each one shocked at what had just occurred.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER 28: DISCOVERIES AND ENCOURAGEMENT

"She did what?" Hermione asked for the third time that night, clearly in shock over the events that had transpired only hours ago in Professor McGonagall's office.

"She let us go," Ron said. "I was beginning to think that Umbridge was going to eat us, but Professor Fox stood up to her. She's my hero," Ron sighed.

Harry frowned at Ron while Hermione rolled her eyes. "That doesn't seem right," she said, deep in thought. "I mean, why would she go against Umbridge? They're supposed to be working on the same side. Ugh!" she yelled suddenly, slamming the book she had been studying down on the table, startling Harry and Ron. "None of this makes sense!"

"Hermione's finally lost it," Ron said with wide eyes. "She's hurting her books; I'd never thought I'd see the day."

"The book's fine, Ron," Hermione huffed.

"I know what you mean," Harry said, causing two sets of eyes to look at him in surprise. "It doesn't make sense. None of it does. There's something about Professor Fox... ever since I first saw her, I've had this feeling... but I'm not even sure what the feeling is, I just know that something isn't right. She acts like a different person every time I see her. It's like she wants me to trust her, but then she's talking about some plan that they have, and I think that I'm a part of that stupid plan, and I just don't know who to believe anymore," Harry finally finished his semi-rant.

"You know you can always trust us," Hermione said loyally, causing Harry to give a small smile.

"Yeah, I know," Harry said. "It's just everyone else I don't trust," he said, remembering his previous DADA professors.

"Not even Dumbledore?" Ron asked.

Harry paused for a few seconds, considering, then said, "I don't know. He's been acting stranger than usual since the summer, and I have this feeling he's hiding something from me. He said he'd tell me once I've finished remedial potions, but I think I've gotten good enough to know."

Just then, the portrait door opened and Professor McGonagall entered. "Harry, come with me, please."

Harry gave a worried glance towards his two friends but obediently got up and followed his head of house. He figured he was still in trouble due to the Quidditch match. The party in the common room had long since died down and most people were heading to bed. It was really late, and Harry was surprised Professor McGonagall couldn't wait until morning.

Once the portrait door closed, Professor McGonagall turned to Harry and said, "Professor Dumbledore wants to see you. He's waiting in his office." With that said, she turned and walked off, presumably to get some sleep.

Harry walked the familiar path to the headmaster's office, curious as to what he wanted to discuss, while slightly nervous due to his behavior at the Quidditch match. He wouldn't get any more punishment, would he?

Harry muttered the password to the gargoyle and then slowly walked up the steps to Professor Dumbledore's office. He heard Dumbledore's voice beckoning him in before he even had a chance to knock.

Whatever Harry had expected to find upon opening the door, it wasn't this. Professor Dumbledore was sitting wearily behind his desk, his eyes had lost their familiar twinkle that had become so reassuring to Harry over the years, and he just looked, well, old.

"Professor?" Harry asked cautiously. He knew his behavior was uncalled for, actually, it was totally called for, it just wasn't very appropriate, but he didn't think it was bad enough for Dumbledore to look so... sad.

Maybe this wasn't about the Quidditch match, surely he would've summoned him earlier. Something else must have happened. Fear gripped Harry's heart as he let his thoughts wander to what could have happened. Who could have been hurt.

"Professor, is everyone okay? Is anyone hurt?"

Dumbledore gave a small smile, appreciating Harry's selfless concerns. "Everyone's fine. That's not why I called you here. Please, have a seat," he said, gesturing to the seat across from his desk where Harry had sat many times before. Fawkes came flying off his perch and landed on Harry's shoulder, giving him more reassurance and strength. He always did like Fawkes.

"If this is about the Quidditch match, I'm sorry, but Malfoy was provoking me, saying awful things..."

Dumbledore held up his hand to stop Harry's ramblings, giving a slight chuckle at the eventful afternoon. "No, it's not about that, either," he said. "Although, that was a very well played game, not to mention fairly dangerous. You'd still be in the hospital wing if Mr. Weasley hadn't caught you," he said seriously.

"Yes, sir," Harry said, feeling slightly foolish for the way he risked his life just to catch the snitch. He continued to absently stroke Fawkes' head.

"It has happened before and I have no doubt it will happen again," Dumbledore said, reminding Harry of his other dangerously played games. "When you set your mind to something, there's not much that will stop you."

Harry didn't have much to say to that. "But, if no one's hurt, and I'm not in any more trouble, why did you call me?" Harry asked, bewildered.

Dumbledore sighed heavily. "Right to the point; you were never one to be deterred. I hear your Occlumency lessons have been going quite well."

"Yes, sir," Harry said, becoming slightly more excited at where the conversation was heading. It seemed that maybe he'd finally have all the answers he so desperately wanted. But why wasn't Dumbledore happier?

"I should have told you this five years ago, but I wanted to protect you; I wanted you to have some type of happiness. Now that you have become sufficient at Occlumency, I can rest assured that this information will not be passed on to Voldemort, which I don't need to tell you would be a significant problem. I am going to tell you everything. I ask only a little patience. You will have your chance to rage at me – to do whatever you like – when I have finished. I will not stop you."

And so Dumbledore began his tale to Harry, telling him why he must stay at the Dursely's, his only blood relation, for at least a month each summer, why he neglected to inform him of this information during each opportunity that presented itself, why he watched him grow up without telling him the real reason why Voldemort wanted him dead.

Harry sat silent for most of the story, asking questions only when needed; most of it made some sense, and he couldn't be too mad at Dumbledore for not telling him. He did what he thought was appropriate at the time and he couldn't be too upset because he just wanted what was best for him. He cared about him and his happiness, and there were very few people in the world that did. No matter how much Harry might have wanted to know the truth before, he was going to get it now. No one had gotten seriously hurt, except for Cedric, but that might have happened with or without his knowledge.

"Voldemort tried to kill you when you were a child because of a prophecy made shortly before your birth. He knew that prophecy had been made, thought he did not know its full contents. The dreams you have been having are Voldemort's attempts to lure you to the Department of Mysteries where you will find the entire prophecy. Only the people the prophecy has been made about will be able to take the prophecy; therefore, Voldemort wanted you to take the prophecy so he could steal it from you. This is the weapon he has been seeking so assiduously since his return: the knowledge of how to destroy you."

Dumbledore continued on, telling the shocked Harry more details about the prophecy, how it came to be in the Department of Mysteries, how it was first told to him, and how he is the only one that knows the prophecy in its entirety.

He picked up the pensieve he had sitting on the corner of his desk and placed his wand to his temple, bringing the memory to the basin.

Much to Harry's surprise, the familiar figure of Professor Trelawney rose up, however, her voice reminded Harry more of the time during his third year exam when she predicted a servant's escape, than of her usual surreal, mystic voice.

"THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD APPROACHES... BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED HIM, BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES... AND THE DARK LORD WILL MARK HIM AS HIS EQUAL, BUT HE WILL HAVE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT... AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES... THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD WILL BE BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES..."

The silence that was left after the misty figure retreated back into the shallow stone basin was overwhelming. The portraits didn't move, Dumbledore didn't speak, and Fawkes had stopped his satisfied cooing that came from Harry's petting, although Harry had stopped petting him some time ago.

Harry tried to wrap his brain around the new information finally presented to him. He tried to understand what Dumbledore was trying to tell him, but he was in such a state of shock that not much was penetrating his mind. On some level he understood, but he needed Dumbledore to make sure he was right.

Harry didn't want to believe that this was his destiny, one that he couldn't escape, so when Dumbledore said that Neville had also been a potential, Harry felt a ray of hope run through him; maybe he could have a normal life after all. Maybe he could stop worrying about the dangers and threats around him and start enjoying his life with his friends.

Dumbledore crushed all his hope when he confirmed what his heart still believed; that Neville wasn't it, Neville would never be it, and it was in fact him that the prophecy was made about. "But I don't have any powers that he hasn't got!" Harry said in a strangled voice.

"There is a room in the Department of Mysteries," Dumbledore said, "that is kept locked at all times. It contains a force that is at once more wonderful and more terrible than death, than human intelligence, than forces of nature. It is also, perhaps, the most mysterious of the subjects for study that reside there. It is the power held within that room that you possess in such quantities and which Voldemort has not at all. That power has saved you over the years, led you through many different trials and has helped guide you when you were lost. It doesn't matter that you may not beat him in a proper dual, as he has access to the darkest of arts or that you might not be able to close off your mind completely. It will be, as it has been before, your heart that saves you."

Harry closed his eyes, thinking back to all the battles he had already had with Voldemort, to the one that would inevitably end it all. "The end of the prophecy... it was something about... 'neither can live...''"

"'...while the other survives,'" said Dumbledore.

"So," said Harry, dredging up the words from what felt like a deep well of despair inside him, "so does that mean that... that one of us has got to kill the other one... in the end?"

"Yes," said Dumbledore.

Harry sat there stunned, neither of the two said anything, allowing all the information to process. In the end, he'd either be a murderer or a victim. He didn't really want to be either. If he became a murderer, he'd become just like Voldemort. That's why he didn't let Sirius and Remus kill Pettigrew in his third year; he didn't want his dad's best friends to become murderers, no better than the person they would have killed. Now it seemed that he might become one.

"I feel I owe you another explanation, Harry," said Dumbledore hesitantly. "You may, perhaps, have wondered why I never chose you as a prefect? I must confess... that I rather thought... you had enough responsibility to be going on with."

Harry looked up at him and saw a tear trickling down Dumbledore's face into his long silver beard.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Buffy, you okay?" Willow asked when her friend appeared in the flat's living room.

"Yeah, it's been a long day," she said, explaining what happened with Harry, the Quidditch match and the following arguments. "I swear that kid is going to drive me into an early grave," Buffy said. "Well, another one, anyway. You should have seen the incredibly stupid dive he took. He could've been killed, falling from so high up. I know I stopped breathing for a minute and I'm fairly certain my heart stopped for a couple of beats. Even James wasn't that bad. I don't know where he gets it from, it's certainly not Lily. I'm surprised he's not dead yet, all the reckless, dangerous things he does. I've heard the stories, I know," Buffy ranted.

"Uh, Buff," Xander said with a smile, trying to get her attention.

"What?" she said snappishly.

"Well, I definitely think he's related to you," Willow said when Xander backed off.

"Who else do we know is crazy, reckless, dangerous, sometimes foolish, and rash?" Xander said, giving in to the temptation.

"I am not any of those things," Buffy said defensively.

"Uh huh," Anya snorted. "And I have all the money I've ever wanted."

"I'm not!" Buffy said, looking at her friends who were looking at her with amusement. "I have plans of attack."

"Sometimes," Willow agreed.

"And then sometimes you go in with a couple of screws loose," Xander said.

"Well, I think better on my feet," Buffy said.

"Maybe he does too," Willow said.

"Trust me, his feet were no where near the ground," Buffy said, getting back into lecture mode.

"I can't wait to see you two together," Willow said happily.

"Think of the damage that could be done," Anya said.

"As long as I don't have to fix anything, I can't wait. Maybe we could blow up another school."

"We are not destroying Hogwarts," Buffy said with wide eyes.

"But... that would actually make a school you've gone in without destroying some, if not all, of it," Willow said.

"And we can't break tradition," Xander said with a smile.

"No," Buffy said firmly.

"Okay, just admit that you can be crazy and rash and dangerous," Willow said.

"And planless," Xander added.

"I have plans," Buffy said. "Most of the time. Anyway, I don't need plans. I see the end and I get there successfully."

"As did Harry," Willow said. "He wasn't hurt, or killed, and he won, didn't he?"

"Yes, but why are you defending him?" Buffy asked.

"Just so you don't go too hard on him later," Willow said. "You've done crazier and more stupid things than he will ever do, so be nice. You want him to trust and love you, not despise you."

"Always have to be reasonable," Buffy grumbled. "Besides, he doesn't even know who I am yet."

"If you continue to assert such an active stance in controversial events, you're identity will be quickly questioned and discovered," Giles said.

"In other words," Xander said, turning to Buffy, "Keep your mouth shut and your head down, otherwise someone's going to figure it out."

"I don't know if I care anymore," Buffy said. "I mean, Sirius and Remus are probably... they're probably dead."

"You don't know that," Willow said, gently.

"They're not on the maps, Will! A long time ago I might have doubted your skills, but not anymore. If you can't find them they're not there. I don't think they can just disappear like that without being dead!"

"Geez people, lighten up."

"Faith?" Buffy asked with wide eyes, seeing the dark haired slayer enter into the room.

"The front door was open. Well, it was unlocked at least. I was in town looking for some potential slayers and thought I'd drop by. I can leave, if you want," she said, looking at all the shocked faces.

"No, no," Buffy said, coming out of her reverie. "That's fine. I'm actually... I'm glad you're here."

"Like I said, I'm only here for a couple of days at the most, but I figured you might like to go patrolling."

Buffy's eyes widened. "I would love to. I haven't been patrolling in ages! I can't believe I'd actually miss going out, but what can you do? The forest at Hogwarts is really creepy and perfect, but I'm afraid I'd just be hanging up a sign that said, 'Slayer, come eat me,' on it if I went in there."

"Well, are we gonna go? It's already pretty late," Faith said, gesturing towards the door.

"Yeah... Oh, no. I don't have any weapons and I'm supposed to do this thing with Willow."

"No, Buffy, go. We can't do anything anyway; I meant to ask you to pick up some more ingredients. We'll do it later," Willow said.

"Weapons?"

"We have some in the bedroom," Giles said.

"Kinky," Faith said.

"In the trunk under the bed," Giles added, removing his glasses with a sigh.

"But I left my favorite ones at Hogwarts," Buffy pouted.

"Aren't you a witch?" Anya asked.

Buffy brightened considerably. "Oh yeah," she said. "Ooohhh, now I can customize my very own. Wanna see some magic?" she asked Faith with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Sure," Faith said, after glancing at everyone else and noticing none of them seemed concerned.

Buffy whipped out her wand, muttered a few choice words under her breath and suddenly, the glass on the table next to Faith became a wicked looking sword.

Faith broke out into a wide, appreciative grin. "Now that's what I'm talking about," she said, reaching for the sword.

"Let's make it a matching pair," Buffy said, waving her wand at the dirty plate in the sink. "Ready to go?" she asked, lifting her own sword.

"Ready," Faith said, heading out the door.

"Don't wait up," Buffy said, closing the door. "Merlin, I've missed this," Buffy said, swinging the sword experimentally.

"It definitely grows on you."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"This is a definite setback," Voldemort said, grinding his teeth in frustration.

"What is, my lord?" Wormtail said from his low bow on the ground.

"Someone taught the brat Occlumency. Now my plans to get him to steal the prophecy are useless. I'll have to find another way. Although, I bet the old fool told him what the prophecy was. It won't take too much to get it out of him. How is the project coming along?"

"Very... very good, sir. It sh... should be ready before Christmas," Wormtail said.

"Excellent. And what of this new professor that's causing so much trouble?"

"My Lord," Lucius said stepping forward, keeping his head bowed. "I do not recognize her as a Ministry official. I have even checked the records of employees and there has been no one named Sarah Fox ever working there, in any department. Sarah Fox does not exist."

"Well, I suggest you find out who she is," Voldemort said, his silky voice laced with the promise of pain.

"Yes, my Lord," Malfoy said, stepping back in relief that he wasn't tortured this time.

"Now everyone get back to work. I want this finished!" Voldemort said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm worried about him, Ron," Hermione said as she walked to class with only one of her best friends. "Dumbledore must have told him something awful. He came in so late last night, he hasn't talked to us all morning, and he didn't even have breakfast."

"Do you think he'll show up for class?" Ron asked.

"Why would he?" Hermione asked, as if the idea of skipping class was totally absurd. "It is Defense Against the Dark Arts; it's his favorite class."

Ron just rolled his eyes at Hermione's attitude. They walked into the class and sat in their normal seats, getting a little anxious when they discovered Harry wasn't in class yet. They weren't that early themselves.

"Where is he Ron?" Hermione asked anxiously. Unbeknownst to them, Buffy heard their conversation, thanks to her Slayer hearing, and was wondering what could have happened now.

Just as she was about to start class, Harry Potter came through the door, not looking all that good. Buffy frowned as she surveyed his extremely messy hair, his wrinkled robes, the bags under his eyes, and the contemplative frown that marred his features. It looked like someone had been brooding all night long. But what about?

Buffy shut the door, closed and locked all the windows, and placed a silencing charm around the classroom, like she did at the start of every class.

"We've been studying Vampires and different types of Demons lately. Now, we'll learn about the Vampire Slayer," Buffy said. She was a little uneasy about bringing up this topic seeing as how Hermione was so sharp. Buffy was afraid someone would figure it out, but it was unlikely. She didn't go patrolling and she hadn't really shown her strength, so she didn't have too much to worry about.

Her announcement was met with a bunch of snickers and disbelieving looks.

"What?" she asked.

"The Slayer is a myth," Seamus said, murmurs of agreement coming from the rest of the class. "Why do we have to learn about myths in D? Isn't that what History of Magic is for?"

"Myths and legends are basically the same thing," Hermione spoke up from the front. "They are stories told, passed down through the generations, based once upon a time, on fact. There is some evidence of Slayers being real, stories of girls that have battled great monsters," Hermione said.

"Yeah, there's also stories of Bigfoot but that doesn't make it true," Dean said, the muggle reference lost on most everyone.

"I mean, really, Hermione," Ron said. "Girls battling demons? Yeah, right." Every girl turned to glare at Ron, Hermione included, and Ron decided to retract his comment somewhat. "I mean, it wasn't too long ago that women were still considered inferior to men." This didn't help much and he began to blush. "Of course, now we know that women are equal, and in some cases... most cases... all cases... are better than men." Now all the guys in the room were glaring at Ron.

"Just shut up, mate," Harry advised, saying the first thing since Dumbledore's talk the night before.

Ron groaned and slid down in his seat.

"Back to Vampire Slayers, since Miss Granger seems to know enough about them, why don't you inform the rest of the class just what the Slayer is," Buffy said.

"Into every generation a Slayer is born, one girl with the strength and skill to stop the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She has a watcher, which guides her and helps to train her. I'm afraid that's almost all I know. I've ran across a reference to the Slayer when I was researching for our essay on vampires, and there really wasn't too much about her.

"The wizarding world believes her to be a myth as they don't think a muggle would have the power to do anything. And it's absurd that the Slayer is a witch, because the amount of power she would have is too much for a normal person to handle; that amount of energy would collapse the human body and destroy the mind. Most people believe that the alleged Slayer is just a witch that tricks people, mainly muggles, into thinking she's not using any magic."

'"Very good," Buffy said. "Twenty points to Gryffindor. Now, the question is, do you believe in her? Anyone?" Buffy asked, addressing the class.

Most were hesitant, and only a couple raised their hands in a so-so manner.

"Do you?" Neville asked, causing Buffy to give a small smile.

"Yes. I mean, given what we've talked about already, it seems perfectly reasonable. Remember, a long time ago the world was full of pure Demons, and they were all driven away. The last one mixed its blood and created a vampire. Now this was ages and ages and ages ago. Don't you think that without a Vampire Slayer, the world as we know it would be destroyed, or at least overrun by vampires?"

"The witches and wizards of the world are what control the vampire and demon population from getting out of control," Parvati said. "I mean, one person couldn't have made that much of a difference."

Her words caused Buffy to raise an eyebrow at her. "One person makes all the difference," Buffy said seriously.

"But all those vampires," Lavender said, speaking up for her friend, "and demons. There's only one at a time; imagine how many she'd have to kill. It's impossible."

"Hundreds and hundreds, I'm sure," Buffy said. "Besides, I doubt that The Slayer is the only one in the entire world fighting the forces of darkness, but I bet she plays a key role in keeping the world from going to hell."

"Oh, so now the world's going to be destroyed?" Parvati scoffed.

"Why not?" Buffy asked with a shrug. "I mean, the demons don't like all the humans around; I'm fairly certain most of them would just like to send the world to hell, killing and torturing every last human being, letting the world become overrun by demons like it once used to. Way. Back. Then."

Still the class looked at her in disbelief.

"Okay, we'll take an example. You still don't think one person can make a difference? What about Voldemort?" Buffy asked, and was relatively surprised when almost the whole class flinched. "What?" she asked, confused.

"You said his name," Lavender whispered.

"So?" Buffy asked, confused. "Why wouldn't I say it? What else am I supposed to call him?"

"He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," someone whispered.

"You-Know-Who," another one said.

"You have got to be kidding me," Buffy said, rolling her eyes. "You're afraid of a name?"

By this time, Harry was paying rapt attention to the professor, and the rest of the class' reactions.

"It's a name. Your name is Lavender, your name is Parvati, yours is Hermione, yours is Ron, yours is Neville, yours is Seamus," Buffy said. "It's a name."

"But you're supposed to fear him," Lavender whispered. "You can't just say his name."

"Why not?" Buffy asked again. No one answered so Buffy continued. "Is he gonna hear and come running? I thought he was defeated fifteen years ago, anyway. And you still don't say his name? You people have some serious issues.

"Just by saying his name, he's not going to rise from the dead, he's not going to come rushing in here to kill all of you, he's not going to magically appear and be really pissed off because someone said his name. Look, if you're afraid of his name, I can't even imagine how scared you are of him. He's only human. Even if he did manage to make himself immortal somehow, all you have to do is chop off his head. That'll kill him real quick.

"We cannot go any farther in this lesson until all of you say his name nice and loud. Fear of a name only increases the fear of the thing itself. If you fear it, it's very difficult to fight it. Overcome your fears and you'll be much better off."

Harry stared at the professor, wondering if she knew her words echoed ones that were told to him when he was a first year student.

Slowly, one by one, the class began to say the name. Some stuttered it out very quietly, but Buffy quickly put a sonorous charm on the whole class, causing their voices to magnify greatly. Lots of people jumped, others were shaking slightly, and still others were very unsure. Only Harry said it without any waver in his voice, earning fifty points to Gryffindor.

"Now, all together now, nice and loud," Buffy whispered. "One, two, three..."

"VOLDEMORT!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, causing several students to fall backwards. Everyone stood still, as if waiting for someone to come crashing through the walls to kill them all. When no one did, they all looked at Buffy's triumphant 'I told you so' look, and they began to relax. Pretty soon they were all saying it with very little flinching, their legendary Gryffindor bravery shining through.

"Good, good," Buffy said, making their voices normal again. "Now back to the lesson. One person can make a difference. Voldemort, for example, killed hundreds of people. He got himself followers, Death Eaters, each of which carried a high death count too. They destroyed families and took lives. All because one person decided he thought he was all-powerful and people should bow down before him. He got a big head, just like Hitler did during WWII and the evil wizard Grindelwald.

"Most of the horrible things in history happened because one person stepped up and took over. Everyone else was too scared to step up and face the enemy, too scared even to say a name," Buffy said, satisfied when most of the class looked sheepish. "All it takes is one person to step up to the challenge and defend what they believe in. If someone had said no to Hitler at the beginning, and fought him in the correct manner, instead of following blindly, things could have been different. Fear induces paralysis and people become sheep.

"If one person can do that much damage, shouldn't the opposite be true? With enough followers, one person can also make a difference. Individually, people are smart, logical human beings, but all together, they're stupid and scared. They want a leader, someone to show them what to do. That's how the evil is fought. One person steps up and says "No." One person challenges the wizard or the person. If the battle is large enough, that one person takes another person. And another. And another. Until that one person has enough people to win.

"One person can make all the difference," Buffy said, looking straight at Harry as she finished.

The class looked at Professor Fox, absorbing all this information she had presented them with, and they actually felt ashamed for the behavior of past generations. She was right; people were sheep. Before anyone could say another word, the class was over, and they filed out the door, still too lost in thought to speak.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER 29: SNAPE'S OFFICE

The next day Harry, Hermione and Ron were sitting at the table for breakfast. Ron and Hermione were eating while Harry half-heartedly pushed food around his plate. So far, all of his friends' attempts to discover the source of his problem had gone unanswered.

"Harry?" Hermione asked softly, noticing his behavior. "You need to eat something," she said, remembering how Ron had to practically drag him to the Great Hall, seeing as how he didn't eat anything the day before, as he was avoiding meal times.

Harry didn't answer for a minute, but eventually he answered so quietly that Hermione thought she had missed it. "Why?" he asked. "What's the point?"

Hermione was so shocked by his words that she lost her voice for a minute. "Because," she finally sputtered, "if you don't eat, you'll get sick. Eventually you'll die." Hermione desperately wished Harry would tell her what his problem was; she couldn't stand to see her best friend like this.

"Everyone dies eventually," Harry said. "Some sooner than others."

Hermione turned to Ron, trying to get his support, when she realized that they were talking too low for anyone else to hear them. She wasn't about to alert anyone else in the Great Hall about Harry's sudden bout of depressions; who knew what rumors would circulate? "Harry," Hermione asked gently, "why don't we go for a walk before classes start?"

"No thanks," Harry sighed, about to stand up. Anything else he was going to say was lost with the arrival of the morning mail and Ron's sudden exclamation.

"Harry? What's Professor Fox doing with Hedwig?"

"What?" Harry asked, turning to look at the head table, watching in amazement as a snowy owl came and landed next to the DADA professor.

"That's strange," Hermione said quietly.

"That's not Hedwig," Harry said, noticing the truth upon careful examination, or as careful as one could be from several yards away.

"Are you sure?" Ron asked, squinting to try and see the subtle differences that Harry noticed. "She looks like Hedwig to me."

"Yeah, but Hedwig's not your owl; trust me, that's not Hedwig, although it looks remarkably like her."

"It's odd, though, isn't it?" Hermione said. "I mean, how many snowy owls do you see around here? They live mostly in the United States and Canada, as well as Greenland and Iceland."

"How do you know all this stuff?" Ron asked, amazed once again.

"I read, Ron," Hermione said nonchalantly.

"Well, why would you want to know about useless things like where Snowy Owls live? I mean, when will you ever use that information?"

Hermione raised an eyebrow at Ron, "What do you think brought this entire conversation about?"

Ron had nothing to say to that, so he chugged down the rest of his juice.

"Maybe they're related," Harry shrugged, not caring too much anymore. It wasn't important or life threatening; it was just another owl.

"I just think it's a strange coincidence, that's all," Hermione said softly, watching as Harry stood up to leave for his next class. "We need to do something, Ron."

"Mehmph," was all she got in response.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buffy was startled by the arrival of Morrigan at her table. She had yet to receive any mail from her friends; there wasn't much use since she stopped by every night. If they weren't exchanging pleasantries that meant something bad must have happened.

Buffy worriedly untied the letter, written on parchment like Buffy showed them so as not to arise suspicion, and read the short message.

It didn't work. We're still missing something.

That was it. No greeting, no name, nothing but the message; it was vague but understandable. If someone else had intercepted the letter, they'd have no idea whom it was to, whom it was from, or what it was about.

Of course, Buffy understood perfectly. Relief wound its way through her body, attacking the tight knot that had formed in her stomach at the thought of harm coming to someone. That feeling didn't last long before disappointment soon followed. She was sure they had it right this time! What else could they be missing?

"Is something wrong?" Dumbledore asked, seeing the professor's frown.

"Um, no, not really. Just some disappointing news from home. Family stuff," Buffy said, hoping he wouldn't question her anymore. And he didn't.

"Is that your owl?" McGonagall asked.

"No, it's my friends," Buffy said. "Why, is something wrong?"

"Oh, no," McGonagall said. "It's just that your owl looks remarkably like Mr. Potter's owl."

Buffy was surprised at this small revelation. "The shopkeeper did say that she had a sister that was bought years ago, maybe that's it."

"Yes, it's a small world, isn't it?"

"You have no idea," Buffy said with a small smile, earning a more thoughtful glance from Dumbledore.

He really had to find out who this woman was.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buffy walked determinedly through the empty hallways down towards the dungeons. It was way past curfew for everyone and so she hoped everyone would be asleep this late. Hopefully she'd have plenty of time to sift through all his books and ingredients, trying to find the key ingredient that was missing. She'd borrowed supplies from Snape's cabinets several times before; the school paid for them anyway, it wasn't as if he was loosing money.

Well, maybe not the ingredients in his personal stash, which is what Buffy looked through the most. He stored the more volatile and rare ingredients in his office, which was were she was heading tonight.

Her feet as light as an elves, she crept along towards the door. After performing the complicated counter spells to unlock his office door, Buffy quietly eased it opened and stepped into the pitch-black room. She waited for her eyes to adjust and stepped nimbly through the room, heading for the door in the back of the classroom. She had been through so many times that she really didn't need any light to navigate around the student desks.

Upon reaching the office door, Buffy stopped breathing and just listened for any bit of noise that would alert her to someone's presence. No light could be seen from underneath the door crack, but that didn't mean anything. After about a minute, Buffy continued to breathe quietly and decided that no one was in there. She eased the door open and slipped inside.

She walked carefully over to the locked cabinet in the corner and raised her wand, about to unlock it, when a voice behind her made her stop.

"Drop your wand."

"Damn it," Buffy whispered, frustrated with herself. She should've been able to sense if someone else was in the room. She'd done this so many times before she'd become careless. She didn't bother to drop her wand but did turn around slowly. She knew there was no way out of the room other than the door behind which Snape was standing. She was in trouble now.

"Lumos," Snape said, allowing the light to flood the room and illuminate his thief. "You?!" he cried in amazement.

"You were expecting someone else?" Buffy asked lightly.

"Yes, actually. I thought I had finally caught Potter," he snarled, missing Buffy's raised eyebrow and slight smirk in his frustration. "Although, this might be more interesting, as I'm sure it's grounds for dismissal. Sneaking around at night, stealing from the other Professors. I'm interested in how you get yourself out of this one."

"There's nothing to get myself out of," Buffy said, lowering her wand to her side confidently. "I work for the Ministry of Magic."

"I don't think working for them gives you permission to break the law," Snape said.

"I think you forget that I make the law," Buffy said. "It's a simple enough matter," she continued, seeing Snape about to explode, "You have dangerous and unpredictable potions in here that are not suitable for a school environment and I've slowly been confiscating them."

"And you have to take them one at a time?" Snape sneered.

"Of course. You of all people should know what happens when certain ingredients mix with others."

"Why are you coming in the middle of the night?" Snape asked, not believing her, but finding it difficult to argue with her story; she was working for the Ministry.

"For several reasons. One, I highly doubt that you'd take kindly to my coming in during the middle of a class and undermining your authority in front of all your students. Also, anything could happen and it's best if less people were around, for safety reasons, of course. Merlin forbid I should trip with all those dangerous substances. A possible explosion could happen, stretching who knows how far, destroying the classroom, your office, possibly your sleeping quarters depending upon how close they are."

"Are you threatening me, Miss Fox?" Snape asked incredulously.

"Of course not. Threatening is a waste of time and I'm not very patient. I'm just letting you know the consequences certain actions have."

"I'd be very careful around here Miss Fox," Snape said. "I'm afraid you don't have as much power as you seem to think you have."

"Are you threatening me, Snape?" Buffy asked.

"I wouldn't dream of it," he said with a smirk. "I'm just letting you know the facts of the matter so you don't go doing stupid things."

"Thanks, but I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. Now, if you would," Buffy said gesturing to the still locked cupboard.

"The items in my office are mine alone and you are not to allowed to confiscate any of them. They are not a part of the students' curriculum and the students are not even allowed anywhere near my office, so you can rest assured they're all safe."

"Why do I find that hard to believe? I mean, you seemed to expect Potter to be here instead of me, so obviously you've had trouble with this before."

Snape scowled at Buffy and couldn't find anything to retort with. "You will not take anything from my supplies until an official from the Magical Law Enforcement comes and says that I've put the students at risk, is that clear?"

Buffy sighed angrily and proceeded to walk towards the door, while Snape stepped aside. "I'd watch out if I were you, professor," Snape said.

"Thank Merlin that's not the case. I think I'd have to kill myself. Besides, I'm smart enough to watch out whose hands are lingering near my goblet."

"I thought you didn't threat," he sneered.

"I don't. I was just stating a fact." Buffy walked out of Snape's office, muttering "Lumos," as she went. The night was ruined and now she might never get a chance to finish the impossible potion.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"There is no Sarah Fox listed anywhere," Arthur said, completely baffled. "No birth records, no employment records, no medical records, nothing. It's like she doesn't exist. I mean, it's not too difficult to invent a name, but she's working for the ministry and she must have gotten in somehow. I've even checked the ministries in France and the United States upon your request, Dumbledore. No one has a Sarah Fox and no one has seen anyone of her description."

"I've asked around the ministry and nobody has seen her before. The guard said he saw her come in one day, but he said he never saw her before. I even tried to get the information he collected, but he doesn't have any records of her wand or identification. And I'm sure he doesn't forget things like that, especially since it's the only thing he has to do," Kingsley said.

"What's she look like?" Sirius asked from his spot next to Lupin.

"Fairly short, thin, blonde hair, blue eyes," McGonagall said. "She's looks like she can't be more than 25."

"Well where did she come from?" Tonks asked. "She couldn't have just appeared from nowhere."

"Now the real question is what she wants," Moody said, speaking up for the first time.

"Maybe she just wanted a new start. Perhaps something happened to her and she felt that her best choice was to start over," Lupin suggested.

"Even so, you can't work at the ministry unless you have proper qualifications and background checks."

"She's obviously up to something," Snape said. "I caught her sneaking around my office earlier, stealing potion ingredients."

"Really?" Dumbledore asked, surprised.

"So now will you finally get off Harry's case?" Sirius asked. "You've got proof he didn't do it."

"I'm still sure Potter's guilty. Professor Fox wasn't around in his second or fourth year, was she?"

"What'd she take? Anything that could give us a clue as to what she's putting together?" Moody asked.

"She's taken random things, nothing that could be combined together because of the dangerous repercussions. If I had to guess, I'd say she's trying to make something from memory, or just trying to invent something on her own."

"What would she want that badly?" Lupin asked.

"So, are you suggesting she's just using her place at Hogwarts in order to steal potion ingredients from your stock," McGonagall said.

"I'm sure that's only part of the reason," Snape sneered. "It isn't impossible to get what I have from other stores."

"I'm sure you've gone down Knockturn Alley more than a few times," Sirius said. "It suits your personality perfectly. Dark and slimy."

"Enough," Dumbledore said, stopping anything that was about to be said. "We still don't know what her true purpose is, whether good or bad, but for the safety of the students, we must assume it is bad."

"She did threaten me," Snape said in agreement. "Although she'll never admit to it."

"What? She threatened you? Where is she? I'm gonna give her a kiss; I like her already," Sirius said.

"For now we'll have to watch her movements a little more carefully. She is still under Fudge's care, so we must not do anything to attract more attention to ourselves."

"Now, here's an interesting thought. Is Fudge protecting her by choice, or by force?" Moody said, speaking up.

"I'd say choice," Snape said. "Umbridge is following Fudge as well but Umbridge despises the girl."

"She keeps rising on my list," Sirius said. "She's threatening Snape and hates Umbridge. I don't really see a problem."

"You will when she kills Potter," Snape said, "which it seems is probably her ultimate goal. All the DADA professors save one seemed to have it in for the boy. And I can't really blame them."

"Harry has proven time and time again that he is more than capable of defending himself. I'm sure he'll be fine, but it wouldn't hurt to find out more about this Sarah Fox person," Lupin said.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple of days later Harry still wasn't eating and it didn't look like he was sleeping, either. "Harry, please tell us what's wrong," a very worried Hermione said.

"It's nothing, I'm fine," he said.

"You're not fine, mate," Ron said. "We're worried about you."

"I'll be okay. I just need to figure some things out, that's all," Harry said. "It might take me awhile, but I'll get there eventually."

"If you just tell us, we can help you," Hermione said.

"No. No one can help me. I need to do this myself. I'm sorry."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Up at the head table, everyone was eating their breakfast happily. Buffy had felt the extra set of eyes following her around everywhere since her little meeting with Snape. It was really unnerving, but now she knew they were watching her. She had to be extra careful now.

This morning was her chance to finally get what she needed. Snape would be otherwise occupied while she stepped into his office. She had studied several different books and detailed descriptions of different potion ingredients and she had a sudden insight on what she could use. It was a little risky, but it might work.

Buffy finished eating and drank the rest of her juice before standing up.

"Finished already?" Professor Dumbledore asked.

"I left something in my room and I don't want to be late," Buffy said. She really hated to leave, but she needed to go now while Snape was still eating.

Snape hadn't touched his food or drink an entire day after Buffy had 'warned' him. Now he just kept close watch over his plate and goblet, realizing that the house elves prepared the food, not the professors.

Little did he know Buffy had gone down to the kitchens early that morning and asked a curiously dressed house elf, possibly Dopey, to add a little 'herbs' to freshen his meal. Needless to say, the overenthusiastic elf was more than happy to oblige.

Buffy walked out of the hall but waited right behind the doors for a couple of seconds. She was wasting precious time but she had to see this. James would've been proud.

Right on time, gasps and a couple of screams could be heard coming from the students and professors. Buffy gave a quick glance into the hall before stifling her laughter and continuing on her way.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hermione and Ron had been very quiet as they watched their friend try to keep them away from something. They had been friends for almost five years now and there had been very few secrets between them. Hermione and Ron just didn't know what to do. Obviously it had to be something really bad, since he wouldn't tell them. Or maybe it was about them and Harry wanted to protect them.

Harry didn't know if he wanted to tell his friends at all. He always knew that Voldemort wouldn't stop until he was dead, but it never really clicked just how bad it could be. It was officially up to him to . . kill . . Voldemort. He didn't know how his friends would react and he didn't want their pity or their rejection. He didn't know if he wanted them to stay by him, either. He didn't want them to get hurt. They'd been lucky so far but now that Voldemort was back, more people were going to die and Harry didn't know what he'd do without Ron or Hermione.

He still couldn't get over the part of the prophecy that said he had to kill or be killed. 'Just like the Vampire Slayers,' Harry thought. Maybe he was like one of them. He was just a person that had to fight the good fight.

Harry was startled out of his thoughts by the gasps and screams that erupted from various students. Harry tensed as he, Ron and Hermione looked around for the danger. It couldn't be now, could it? He wasn't ready.

A look of disbelief passed over his face quickly as he saw it wasn't an attack on the school. It was Snape. He was inflating. Just like his Aunt Marge did one time. "I didn't do it," Harry said quickly as laughter soon began to take over.

Hermione and Ron turned to Harry. "Feeling guilty, mate?" Ron asked with a smile.

"No, it's just that I accidentally blew up my aunt once, remember? But, I didn't do it this time," Harry said.

They watched in amusement as Snape's very poofy body caused him to float up over the table, but amazingly enough, stayed down near the ground. It was almost as if someone was teasing him because he couldn't stop. His arms and legs were sticking straight out like plump sausages and he was floating just high enough off the ground so he couldn't touch it. Actually, every once and a while, he'd come in contact with the ground, but as soon as he did, he was bounced up higher again.

If that wasn't bad enough, it seemed his face had stretched into a permanent smile. It was rather eerie, especially when he began flashing different colors. Red. Then Blue. Then Yellow. Then Green. Then Purple. Pink. White. Brown. Neon Green. Somehow, the candles and torches in the Great Hall all extinguished, leaving the glowing Snape as the only light.

"Brilliant!" Fred shouted.

"I wish I'd thought of that!" George yelled.

"Think whoever did that will let us use it?" Fred asked.

"You didn't do it?" Hermione asked, shocked.

"Unfortunately, no!"

"Wish I had!"

"If you didn't, who did?" Harry asked. No one had an answer to that.

The entire student body, Slytherins included, was laughing so hard, tears were coming down their eyes. Someone had gotten enough courage up and decided to hit the floating 'balloon' and it wasn't long before others joined in.

Of course, this didn't last long as Dumbledore commanded everyone's attention. Every spell he and the other Professors tried had failed. It seemed that every spell gave it more and more energy.

"To your classes!" Dumbledore commanded. Everyone got up and left, some heading to their dormitories before classes, which didn't start for fifteen more minutes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harry, Ron and Hermione left the Great Hall but didn't go back to the common room.

"I'm never going to forget that, as long as I live," Ron said. He could still hear the professors trying to help Snape and their unfortunate failures. "That was even better than Malfoy's ferret last year. I can now die happy."

"Well, that's good, because we have Potions first," Hermione said bitterly. That stopped Ron's laughter.

"What? He's going to be in a horrible mood!"

"And it's double potions," Harry groaned, his good mood effectively diminished.

"We're doomed," Ron moaned. "There's no hope. Say your goodbyes now."

"We might as well get there early. We don't want to give him reasons to take off points; he comes up with ways all by himself," Hermione said. The three friends lapsed into depressed silence for a while on their way to the dungeons.

Until Ron burst out laughing again, causing the three friends to relive the great moment. As soon as they calmed down enough, they entered the potions classroom, only to see Professor Fox exiting and locking Snape's office door.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Buffy was so immersed in the complicated spell procedure (he'd redone all the spells since she last been there) that she didn't hear the trio enter the room behind her. Needless to say, she was quite startled when she turned around; she almost dropped the important ingredient she took from his office.

"Merlin's beard!" Buffy yelped. "You scared me. How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough," Hermione said with narrowed eyes.

"What are you doing here, anyway?" Buffy asked, confused. "Class doesn't start for another ten minutes."

"We could ask you the same question," Harry said, looking pointedly at the bottle in her hand.

"I had to get something from Snape's office," Buffy said, holding up the bottle, hoping they wouldn't see what it was.

"What for?" Hermione asked.

"I wanted to find some shampoo," Buffy deadpanned. "Obviously I wanted to make a potion."

"Why don't you get Snape to make it? He's a potions master," Hermione said.

"He doesn't have time to be making all the little potions I want. Just like you don't have to have him make all of yours."

"Yes, but the potions I want to make don't include ingredients from his locked cupboard in his locked office," Hermione said.

"Most of the time, anyway," Buffy said, looking at Hermione with a raised eyebrow. When she saw Hermione's shocked face, she knew she'd been right. "I mean, how could you know he keeps a locked cupboard of special ingredients in his locked office? Unless you've been there yourself."

Hermione didn't have anything to say at that, but a bit of a blush crept up her cheeks at having been caught.

"Let's make a deal. I won't tell if you won't," Buffy said, walking towards them to leave before other students came.

"What do you need Nightshade for anyway?" Hermione asked suddenly.

"I don't see how it's any of your business," Buffy said.

"It is my business if you're stealing from Professor Snape in order to slip Nightshade into someone's drink," Hermione said.

"I wouldn't slip anything into anyone's drink," Buffy said seriously. "I'd make it into a powder and have the house-elves put it in their food," she said with a wink, causing all three jaws to drop.

"You did that?" Ron asked with wide eyes.

"Did what?" Buffy asked innocently. "See you in class," she called out before she left.

"It does make sense," Hermione said after recovering from her shock. "She set up a diversion so neither Snape nor the students would come into his classroom, giving her enough time to steal the Nightshade."

"The question is, should we tell anyone?" Harry asked.

"Are you kidding?" Ron asked. "She's my hero! That was the greatest prank of all times! It was better than anything Fred and George have come up with and I'll be willing to bet it's better than anything your dad came up with."

"Yes, but she took Nightshade, Ron," Harry said, being the voice of reason. "Who knows what she's going to do with that? I mean, if she could blow up Snape just to take an ingredient, who knows what she's capable of."

"I don't know," Hermione said, surprising Harry and Ron. "There are tons of uses for Nightshade besides poisoning someone. I'm sure she won't use it for something awful."

"You just don't want her to tell on you for stealing the ingredients for the Polyjuice potion, do you?" Harry asked with a smile, knowing he was right when a blush came over her features once again.

"Hermione! That was in second year! I don't think you'll get in trouble," Ron said.

"You never know," Hermione said stubbornly. "I just don't think it'd be smart to go around and volunteer information like that." Hermione walked over and sat down at her desk, opening up her potions book and studying a page on the uses of Nightshade.

Harry and Ron just looked at each other and sighed. "Don't come running to Harry when someone collapses at lunch," Ron said before joining Harry at a different table.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER 30: ANOTHER DEFENSE LESSON

Harry, Hermione and Ron dragged themselves through the DADA classroom door, drained after a boring double potions lesson with Umbridge. Snape had failed to show, so Umbridge decided it was her duty as High Inquisitor to make things run smoothly. Needless to say, there was no potion making; only lots and lots of theory reading and note taking. Not to mention plenty of accusations and taunts that came from Umbridge aimed at Harry. Everyone was amazed at Harry's reaction, or lack thereof. He was surprisingly cool and ignored most of what she was saying; clearly different than his attitude from the beginning of the year.

"I can't believe I'm actually saying this," Ron said, "but I want Snape back."

"If it was any other day, I would too," Hermione said. "However, I doubt he'd be better than Umbridge considering the events that occurred not too long ago."

"She's got a point," Harry said. "I'm glad we didn't have to deal with Snape after what Professor Fox did. I can't even begin to imagine how mad he'd be. Or is."

"Right," Ron said, shuddering slightly. By that time, everyone had filed into the classroom and was seating at their desks. Professor Fox came in, closed the door and preformed the spells as if they were second nature to her, which by now they probably were.

"Okay, today we'll continue our discussion of The Slayer," Buffy said.

"What else is there to say?" Seamus asked. "Even if the slayer was real there's not much known about them."

"You forget that I work for the Ministry and have more information than some people might believe," Buffy said with a smile.

"My dad works for the Ministry and he's never said anything about slayers," Ron said. "And he's someone that is very interested in muggles."

"Well, maybe he just didn't want to tell you," Buffy said. "Or maybe he didn't know anything. The point is, I know. The Slayer is real." Gasps were heard around the room.

"The thing is, there is only one Slayer at a time, making it difficult to ascertain whether or not she is real. However, the Ministry is aware of the status of the Slayer but they keep it under wraps so as not to drawn unneeded attention to her. Think of what could happen if some witch or wizard decided they were better than the Slayer and set out to kill her? More than likely, one of them would end up dead. That's why only a few people know the Slayer is actually real; the myth was created to throw people off."

"Then why tell us the truth?" Hermione asked. "I mean, one of us could think they could defeat the famous Slayer and go after her."

"It'd be a little more difficult now," Buffy said with a smile. "Recently, information has become available that perhaps there is more than one Slayer."

"I don't understand," Hermione said. "How is that possible?"

"A very powerful wicca," Buffy said. "It's probable that she somehow unlocked the power of the Slayer and activated all the Potential Slayers out there, creating hundreds of new Slayers."

"But the power," Hermione said with wide eyes, "that person had to have incredible power to override something like that. What would she gain by doing that?"

"Our information is still incomplete," Buffy said with a shrug. "I'm sure there was a good reason."

"She could be building an army of Slayers!" Hermione said.

"It's possible," Buffy said with a raised eyebrow.

"Think of the damage she could do!"

"Or the good," Buffy said, frowning.

"Hmph," Hermione said.

"What?" Buffy asked.

"It's been my experience that people with that much power are easily corrupted and hardly ever use their power for the good of others. Power like that is only used to benefit the user."

"What do you think Slayers do?" Buffy asked. "They have plenty of power, but they use it to help humanity, save the world, avert apocalypses. I hardly think they appreciate people thinking that they use their power for their own benefit."

"Oh please," Parvati said. "Anybody with the amount of power you say they have would surely help themselves. It's human nature."

"Obviously you people have been hanging around the wrong people," Buffy said. "You don't understand a thing."

"Well, everyone in a point of power has abused his or her power," Hermione said. "Take Voldemort for example."

"What about Dumbledore?" Buffy retorted. "He has more power than Voldemort does and he is hardly a selfish person."

"There are always exceptions," Lavender said, speaking up.

"You really think that powerful people are that selfish?" Buffy asked incredulously.

"For the most part, yes," Ron said. "We've seen it happen all the time, to most of our Defense professors, in fact."

"Well, we're just going to have to clear up all your confusion. Let's take the Vampire Slayer for an example. Does anyone know at what age she is usually called?"

No one raised his or her hand and everyone looked puzzled.

"Around fourteen," Buffy said. "Possibly earlier, although hardly ever after eighteen.

"I should start at the beginning. A Slayer has a Watcher that guides her, trains her and prepares her to face whatever she has to. For the most part, potential slayers are found by the Council, which is basically a group of Watchers, when she is very young. She is taken away from her family and friends and raised alone, trained to be a fighter. Some potential slayers are not found and others go unnoticed until they become a Slayer."

"Imagine that for a moment; an isolated life where you're trained to fight the evil things that lurk in the shadows; the things you were afraid of as a kid. No family, no friends. Just a watcher, who shouldn't be overly emotional to her, as some idiots believe relationships conflict with work and productivity."

"I think it makes some sense," Hermione said thoughtfully. "I mean, if a Slayer had friends and family, wouldn't she always worry about their safety instead of her own?" She cast a furtive glance at Harry, which went unnoticed by everyone but Buffy.

"To some degree, yes. I think that it'd be hard to fight for your life if you're too worried about others to concentrate on the task at hand. However, if you were a Slayer, wouldn't you like someone to go home to? Someone to make you laugh when you're ten seconds from sobbing?

"Wouldn't it be difficult to care what happens to the world if you don't have anybody to anchor you to it? I mean, I don't really understand how most of the girls stayed sane. Slayers go out just about every night in order to fight the forces of darkness--"

"I've never seen any demons or monsters," Dean interrupted. "How many could there be?"

Before Buffy could answer, the door suddenly exploded, scaring everyone within the room. As someone stalked into the room, Buffy jumped up off the desk and brought out her wand, preparing herself for whatever was coming. Unfortunately the unexpected explosion disoriented her long enough for someone to grab hold of her robes and push her against the wall, causing her head to smack hard and her vision to blur.

"I know it was you," someone snarled. "And I'll make sure you pay for what you did."

All the students were frozen in their desks at the sight of their potions professor assaulting their defense professor. No one could believe what was happening and no one had a clue as to what to do.

"Snape," Buffy said, her vision clearing slightly. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'd appreciate it if you let go of me."

"Did you really think I'm that stupid?" he hissed.

"You're the one that blew up, not me," Buffy said.

"A bottle of Nightshade is missing from my supplies. I know you took it and I know you poisoned me to get access."

"Poisoned you? Hardly. It was probably something you ate. Allergic reactions can be such a pain," Buffy said, her face still inches from his. Their conversation wasn't that quiet, so naturally the classroom was hanging onto every word that was being said. "Besides, I wasn't even sitting near you at breakfast this morning. And I wasn't even around when it happened."

"Then how do you know what happened?" Snape said, smirking victoriously as he thought he'd caught her in her own lie.

"It's not everyday that a hated professor gets blown up and tossed about the room like a beach ball," Buffy said. "News travels fast in a small school like this."

The smirk promptly fell off of Snape's face and it was replaced with a scowl. "I will not be made a fool of in my own school!"

"Too late," Buffy said.

Snape growled and shoved her against the wall again. "I will get you for this. I know you're not Sarah Fox, as no person exists," he whispered so the students couldn't hear, not that he was actually aware of the students. "We'll find out who you really are and you'll pay."

"I said... Let... Go." Buffy said, waving her wand and causing him to fly across the room and crash into several students' desks. A couple of people screamed and people scrambled to get away from the fight that was occurring. Buffy nonchalantly stepped away from the wall and straightened her robes and her hair as Snape rose from the wreckage.

"Serpensortia," Snape said, pointing his wand at Buffy and watching as a snake shot out from his wand and hissed angrily.

Buffy rolled her eyes at Snape. "That's the best you can do? Conjure up a snake? Scary." Buffy waved her wand and the snake, which was in the middle of attacking, disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Furnunculus," Snape said.

"Protego," Buffy said in a bored voice. "This is beyond pathetic," she said. "Resorting to charms that the students use in the halls?"

"Expelliarmus," Snape said, sure that he'd get her wand. Buffy didn't even try to dodge the spell and was hit square on in the chest. Instead of watching her fly back into the wall and catching her wand in his hand like he'd thought, she merely took a couple of steps back to recover from the blow. Amazingly enough, the wand stayed firmly in her hand.

"A little weak, don't you think?"

Snape scowled and said, "You will not last another day in this school. You'd wish you'd never set foot in this castle."

"Not very original is it?" Buffy said. "Now please leave my class before I make you."

Snape didn't say anything, but he raised his wand at her again. Before any words could escape from his mouth, Buffy flicked her wand with a bored sigh and sent him flying out of the room only to slam into the hall wall opposite the door. Snape slipped into unconsciousness as Buffy repaired the door and slammed it with a loud "BANG!" startling all the students again.

'So much more satisfying to hit them,' Buffy thought as she turned back to her class. "So," she said. "Where were we?"

"You... you just... you," Hermione stuttered looking amazingly at the door where Professor Snape had flown through moments before.

"Kicked Snape out of my class?" Buffy finished. "Yes. I did. How am I supposed to teach when I have lunatics coming in and attacking me? Not very professional is it?"

"But..." Hermione started again, while everyone else was still staring in awe.

"Hey, he attacked me. I didn't do anything to provoke him; everyone here is a witness."

"And we'll make sure everyone knows that," Seamus said.

"You're my hero," Ron sighted happily.

"Right," Buffy said with a tight smile. "I'd actually appreciate it more if you didn't say anything. So, everyone get settled and we'll continue with our lesson." Buffy quickly repaired the broken desks and was amazed that none of the students were hurt during Snape's spectacular fall.

"Anyway, you don't really know much about real evil creatures. You live in a school run by Albus Dumbledore for most of the year. Do you really think he'd let anything come near you guys? Besides Snape, I mean?" she said, earning a small laugh to come from the students. "The Forbidden Forest is about the closest anything can get. Even then, there's hardly anything really bad in there."

"There's giant spiders!" Ron said.

"You think giant spiders are really bad?" Buffy asked with wide eyes. "For a wizarding class, you don't really know much."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"You guys are aware that things aren't what they seem. You know that there's magic and that vampires are real. You know that some monsters and creatures in muggle fairy tales are real.

"But you don't really know what's out there. There are demons that you'd never even thought of. There are hundreds of books filled with information about different species of demons, prophecies and other things that go bump in the night. I know; I've seen some. Most people, mainly muggles, when they see something they can't really explain, they ignore it. Pretend it didn't happen. Or worse, rationalize it as best they can. 'I was really drunk that night; it was just a trick of the light.' If you're going to defend yourself, you have to know how much is real.

"Not much is known about Slayers, but I imagine that most of their lives are spent trying to save the world from evil. Slayers are typically around your age, so what would you do if you were approached by a strange man and told that it's your destiny to save the world? Never mind the fact that you'll die before you can really enjoy life; the average life span of a Slayer is only a couple of years.

"I hardly think that giving ones life to save another's is selfish," Buffy said to the mass of amazed kids. "But maybe that's just me. Or maybe I just know a little more than you do, seeing as how I've lived in the real world and not some safe boarding school, for several years now. It is true that power corrupts, but not everyone succumbs to that power. I'd hate to see what the world would be like if that was the case. I'd seriously doubt there'd be a world at all."

Their serious discussion about Vampire Slayers was interrupted by the ending of class and people were reluctant to leave. One person, however, had to stay behind.

"Harry, could you stay after a moment please?" Buffy asked.

"But, we have class," Hermione protested. Even though she didn't like Snape, she didn't trust Buffy at all anymore. She attacked Professor Snape! He was one of the good guys (for the most part) and she threw him out of the classroom (never mind that he attacked her first).

"He can come after," Buffy said, looking at Hermione curiously.

"But... it's Care of the Magical Creatures and Hagrid said we were going into the Forest."

"Well, I'll walk him. Now get to class and let Hagrid know we'll follow later, okay?" Buffy said.

Hermione couldn't really answer, so Ron pulled her arm away and led her out the door. "Let's go, Hermione."

"So, what's up?" Buffy asked Harry after the last student had left and she had closed the door again.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked cautiously.

"You've been very broody all class. You haven't said a word and you're normally very... vocal around Snape."

"Sorry, I've got a lot on my mind," Harry said.

"So I can see. Do you want to talk about it?" Buffy asked gently.

Harry gazed at her for a long moment, tempted to tell her the entire story. He barely even knew her and yet he wanted to spill his guts. That stopped him from telling her anything, deciding that she could use the information against him somehow. How was he to trust her if he didn't know which side she was on? Sure she stopped Umbridge from giving him a lifetime ban from Quidditch, but she also said something about 'plans' that she had for him.

"No. Not really."

Buffy looked at Harry, recognizing the all too familiar look in his eyes: the one that told of burden and pain, sacrifice and suffering. It was obvious to Buffy what the problem was, despite Harry's reluctance. Apparently he just began to understand the importance of his own role in the fight against Voldemort. Buffy could only guess as to what was really going on, but she assumed that the responsibility of Voldemort's downfall fell on his shoulders. It made sense to her and she was surprised that the rest of the world didn't think along the same lines. But maybe they did.

"Vampire Slayers never asked for what they had been given," Buffy said. "If they had had a choice, if they really knew what it would be like, I'm going to say that most of them would've said no. Vampire Slayers are just ordinary girls that happened to be graced with strength, skill, and speed needed to stop the forces of darkness. I doubt very much that if you asked a random girl on the street to trade her life for that power, she would've said no. It's not worth it.

"But they accepted it; there wasn't anything else they could do. They embraced their destiny, however sucky it might be, and trained themselves to be better. If they were going to go down, they'd go down fighting, taking as many demons as they could with them. If they let their minds worry too much about the things that couldn't be changed, then they were more likely to be killed. You have to embrace the time you have and spend it happily among friends and family. Prepare yourself for what's coming, but don't lose sight of what you're fighting for. People fight for peace. For love. For life. For hope.

"There isn't much known about Vampire Slayers, but one Slayer changed history a bit, made her more noticeable. Do you know what she did?" Buffy asked.

Harry shook his head curiously. What she was saying was making a lot of sense and it was clearing up a lot of the thoughts that had been running wild in his head ever since Dumbledore told him the prophecy.

"She died. I know, it may seem unspectacular because all Slayers die, but this Slayer was different. Several years ago there was a prophecy saying that she would face the Master, a big powerful Vampire, and she would die. The Master would be loose and hell would reign upon Earth. Bad things. Anyway, she tried to quit being a Slayer, as she didn't want to die. However, she found that it was her duty to face the Master because if she didn't the world would end and everyone she knew and loved, and everyone she didn't, would be killed and tortured.

"She went and faced the Master knowing she'd die?" Harry asked in awe.

"Yep. And the prophecy was right. The Master killed her."

"But why would she do that?" he asked. "Why would she go knowing that she would die?"

"I told you, she realized it was her destiny. She figured maybe she could take him down with her, but she didn't have much luck at the time. She didn't want to send anyone else to do her job. It was her fight and she'd be damned if anyone else was hurt because she was afraid."

"It was prophesized," Harry said. "How would she be able to defeat him if she was dead?"

"Prophecies are very tricky things, Harry," Buffy said. "You see, it said that she would face the Master and that she would die; however, it failed to mention that the Master needed her blood to rise. If she hadn't gone down there, he wouldn't have been freed."

"So, how come the Master isn't loose around now? How come the world hasn't ended?"

"Because she came back to life," Buffy said.

"But the prophecy..." Harry started to say.

"The prophecy was fulfilled," Buffy interrupted. "She faced the Master and he killed her. It never said anything about her staying dead."

"But, how could she be brought back to life. I thought Slayers couldn't be witches," Harry protested.

"I never said she was. The story is a little less clear from this point, but I believe she had drowned. Someone came by and gave her CPR, saving her life and enabling her to live again so she could defeat the Master," Buffy said. "That's why there's no Hell on Earth."

"She went back and faced the Master after he'd killed her?" Harry asked.

"She let the prophecy control her thoughts and actions when she first faced him," Buffy said. "She knew it was written, so she believed there was nothing she could do to change it. After she died, thereby fulfilling the prophecy, she was back to her old self and fought with a vengeance, knowing what was at stake. You can't let something like a prophecy or someone's words control your life; things like that are vague and misleading. Have you ever heard of the term self-fulfilling prophecy?" Buffy asked, remembering her psychology class in college.

Harry shook his head and listened raptly while Buffy continued on.

"Basically, if a person thinks something is true, then their behavior and thoughts will be created to fulfill that statement. For example, if you go to a party thinking it's going to be boring, you're not going to socialize much, your attitude will ruin your mood and the party will turn out awful. If you expect the party to be good, you'll be more crazy and carefree, you'll smile more and people will want to be around you. You'll have fun. Do you understand?"

"I think so. If I... if someone believed that they'd die just because it was written somewhere, chances are they'll die, not because it was written, but because they believed it," Harry said thoughtfully.

"Exactly. I mean, who knows what we could do if no one knew anything. That's why seeing the future is so dangerous. We tend to believe everything and act a certain way to make it come true."

"Thanks," Harry said gratefully.

"Anytime. Now, let's get you to class, shall we?" Buffy asked.