The Phoenix Child by Malli

by Dur'id the Druid

A reposting of the story by Malli. More chapters posted as I edit them for . See my Author Bio for more details. COMPLEATE

8. Chapters 31 to 36

CHAPTER 31: THESTRALS

Buffy led Harry away from the school and towards the Forbidden Forest; they weren't that late, but the class had already left. The walk was silent as each was lost in his or her own thoughts. Harry was repeatedly going over everything Professor Fox had told him and using the information to help his own situation.

Buffy was thinking more of what Snape had said when he interrupted the class. "I know you're not Sarah Fox, as no person exists." 'How did he find out? How does he have the power to find that out? He's only a Potion's professor,' Buffy thought worriedly. "We'll find out who you really are and you'll pay." Obviously someone else was involved with the search, but who could it be? Umbridge? No, she wouldn't work with Snape. But who would? The only person that seems civil around him, has a lot of power is... Buffy stopped abruptly, her eyes widening slightly in realization.

"Dumbledore," Buffy whispered. He was looking her up and keeping an eye on her. She'd have to be more careful in the future. "... and you'll pay." Fortunately, they hadn't found out why she was really here or who she really was, so she still had some time. Just not a whole lot.

"What'd you say?" Harry asked as he turned back to look at his professor.

"Um, I just asked if you were ready," Buffy said, gesturing towards the woods in front of them.

"Yeah," Harry said. "I've been in here a couple of times. It's not too bad."

"Right," Buffy said. "We should get going, then. We don't want you to be too late."

"Er, how will we know where they are?" Harry asked. "The forest is pretty big."

"I'm sure we'll find them somehow," Buffy said with a smile. "Just stay close to me and don't do anything stupid." Buffy began walking when a burst of green light shot out from the treetops.

"I'll bet that's Hermione," Harry smiled. "Of course she'd remember that we had no idea where we were going."

"She reminds me a lot of my friend," Buffy said. "Except that Willow has red hair and Hermione has brown. Well, it doesn't look too far, so let's get going." The two carefully made their way towards the spot where the light seemed to be coming from. Buffy's 'spider sense' was going crazy in the dark forest and Buffy knew that there were plenty of things in here to keep her occupied for months; however, not all of them were bad. Fairly soon, Buffy heard the noise of people walking through the forest.

"Gather roun', gather roun'," a deep familiar voice called out encouragingly. "Now, they'll be attracted by the smell o' the meat but I'm goin' ter give 'em a call anyway, 'cause they'll like ter know it's me..."

"Um, Hagrid," Hermione interrupted quietly. "What meat?"

Hagrid looked around worriedly and glanced at himself to make sure he wasn't carrying anything. "Oh, blimey!" he said. "I forgot the meat!"

"So they're not gonna come?" Malfoy asked hopefully.

"I don't rightly know," Hagrid said. "I think they will. Jus' have tah call 'em."

"What's he calling?" Harry asked quietly as they got even closer to the group.

"I don't know," Buffy said. "But why do I get the feeling it's not something good?"

"Because it's Hagrid." Harry paused, seeming to realize what he said to the ministry official that could get Hagrid sacked. "I mean, he likes to show us the more unusual creatures, to prepare us for whatever comes."

"Uh huh," Buffy said with a raised eyebrow.

"He's a really great professor, even though his methods are a little strange," Harry practically pleaded.

"I'm not going to tell Umbridge if you don't," Buffy said reassuringly.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief and then joined his friends. "Thanks for that spell, Hermione. I don't know how we'd have made it without it."

" 'Arry!" Hagrid cried, interrupting whatever Hermione would have said. "Yeh made it!"

"So, what're we waiting for?" Harry asked, giving his friends an 'ask later' look to stop any questions.

"You'll see. Don' want to ruin the surprise!" Hagrid said before turning to Buffy. "Thanks for bringin' him down. It's not safe in these woods."

"No big," Buffy said nonchalantly.

"An who might you be?" Hagrid asked when he realized he didn't know the woman.

"I'm Sarah Fox. I'm the Defense professor," Buffy said, extending a hand.

"O' course," Hagrid said. "Rubeus Hagrid."

"Nice to meet you," Buffy said, watching in amusement as her small hand was engulfed by his overly large one.

"Hav' we met before? Yeh look awfully familiar."

"I doubt it," Buffy said, her smile becoming more forced. She had always liked Hagrid and had come to visit him several times during her stay at Hogwarts and was secretly glad that he might still remember her. "So, you're a professor now? How do you like it?"

"I love it. And I've got Dumbledore to thank for it. Good man, he is," Hagrid said. "Would yeh like to stay for the lesson? It's a special one."

Buffy looked around as her senses went even crazier. Something was coming. When she looked back to Hagrid, she caught a familiar blonde's eyes. Buffy gave a little smile while Draco scowled and looked away. "Sure, I'd love to. I don't have a lesson at the moment."

"Great! I jus' hav' ta call them."

"I think they're coming anyway," Buffy said quietly as Hagrid shook his shaggy head to get the hair out of his face and gave an odd, shrieking cry that echoed through the dark trees like the call of some monstrous bird. Nobody laughed; most of them looked too scared to make a sound, although some were slightly calmer now that their defense professor was there as well.

Hagrid gave the shrieking cry again. Half a minute passed in which the class continued to peer nervously over their shoulders and around trees for a first glimpse of the things that were coming. Buffy looked around her; her eyes better in the darkness than anyone else. She could feel the things coming. There were a lot of them, whatever it was. There was movement on her left and Buffy turned to watch a horse like creature thing walking briskly through the trees.

Harry nudged Ron and pointed into the black space between two gnarled yet trees. A pair of blank, white, shining eyes were growing larger through the gloom and a moment later the dragonish face, neck, and then skeletal body of a great, black, winged horse emerged from the darkness. It surveyed the class for a few seconds, swishing its long black tail, before its gaze became locked on Buffy.

A great wave of relief broke over Harry. Here at last was proof that he had not imagined these creatures, that they were real: Hagrid knew about them too. He looked eagerly at Ron, but Ron was still staring around into the trees and after a few seconds, he whispered, "Why doesn't Hagrid call again?"

Most of the rest of the class were wearing expressins as confused and nervously expectant as Ron's and were still gazing everywhere but at the horse standing feet from them. There were only two other people who seemed to be able to see them: a stringy Slythering boy standing just behind Goyle and Neville.

"Oh, an' here comes another one!" said Hagrid proudly, as a second black horse appeared out of the dark trees, folded its leather wings closer to its body and surveyed the class, once again, stopping on Buffy. "Now... put yer hands up, who can see 'em?"

Immensely pleased to feel that he was at last going to understand the mystery of these horses, Harry raised his hand. Hagrid nodded at him.

"Yeah... yeah, I knew you'd be able ter, Harry," he said seriously, "An' you too, Neville, eh? An'.. Professor Fox?" Hagrid asked, surprised.

Buffy's hand had slowly risen into the air, so as not to startle the two horse things that had been staring at her for quite some time now. It was as if they were sizing her up or studying her.

"Excuse me," said Malfoy in a sneering voice, "but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?"

"Thestrals," said Hagrid and Hermione gave a soft "oh!" of comprehension at Harry's shoulder. "Hogwarts has got a whole herd of 'em in here. Now, who knows-"

"But they're really, really unlucky!" interrupted Parvati, looking alarmed. "They're supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them. Professor Trelawney told me once--"

"No, no, no," said Hagrid, chuckling. "tha's jus' superstition, that is, they aren' unlucky, they're dead clever an' useful! 'Course, this lot don' get a lot o' work, it's mainly jus' pullin' the school carriages unless Dumbleodre's takin' a long journey an' don' want ter Apparate- an' here's another couple, look--"

Two more horses came quietly out of the trees, one of them passing very close to Parvati, who shivered and pressed herself closer to the tree, saying, "I think I felt something, I think it's near me!"

"Don' worry, it won' hurt yeh," said Hagrid patiently. Both the two new thestrals peered around and stared right at Buffy like the first two had, and the strange thing was, none of them had moved yet. "Righ' now, who can tell me why some o' you can see them an' some can't?"

Hermione raised her hand to answer. "The only people who can see thestrals," she said, "are people who have seen death."

"That's exactly right," said Hagrid solemnly. Three more thestrals had come trotting up behind Hagrid as he was talking. They too, stopped and stared out at the class, their gazes falling on Buffy.

Harry had finally noticed the strange behavior of the horses and it seemed that Neville had too. "Um, Hagrid?" Neville asked quietly so as not to frighten them. "What are they doing?"

Hagrid took his attention away from Umbridge, who had happened to show up while he was congratulating Hermione on her correct response. "Wha' do ya mean?"

"They're just standing there and staring," Neville said. "Shouldn't they be moving around?"

Hagrid finally took notice of the seven horses that had stopped and were staring at the blonde professor. "Oh, erm, I don' know."

"Professor Fox? What are you doing here?" Umbridge asked, shocked as she looked up from scribbling things on her clipboard.

"I came to drop off Harry and Hagrid invited me to stay for the lesson," Buffy said with clenched teeth as she continued to stare at the thestrals that were now surrounding her.

"Are you aware," Umbridge said loudly, "that the Ministry of Magic has classified thestrals as 'dangerous'? And with good reason, I believe," Umbridge said, looking pointedly at the situation professor Fox was in.

"Thestrals aren' dangerous! All righ', they might take a bite outta you if yeh really annoy them--"

"Shows... signs... of... pleasure... at... idea... of... violence," muttered Umbridge, scribbling on her clipboard again. "It would probably be best you don't annoy them," Umbridge said to Buffy, "It would be awful if something bad were to happen to you."

"I'll try my best," Buffy grit out, "but I have this bad habit of annoying big, monstrous, ugly beasts, as I'm sure you can attest to."

Hermione's eyes widened at the obvious insult in front of so many other students, while a couple others snickered.

"Uh, Professor, it migh' be best if you didn' move or talk too much," Hagrid advised as a couple of them shifted.

"Why are they going after her?" Parvati asked.

"I don' know," Hagrid said with a confused look on his face. "Yer not wearin' anythin' are you?"

"Oh, darn," Buffy said. "I knew I shouldn't have used Essence of Meat this morning. If only I'd known I'd be walking around with flesh eating horse things."

"Are you going to do something?" Neville asked, frightened for his favorite professor.

Before Hagrid could say anything else, more of the horses began to move, causing everyone in the area to hold their breaths. With a snort, one horse trotted up to Buffy, who stood tense but still, and began to do something no one would ever believe. It nuzzled her! Buffy was in shock; she had been prepared to fight the beast off, when it just harmlessly rubbed its head and neck on her cheek.

"Well, look at tha'!" Hagrid exclaimed happily. "It likes you!"

"Yay," Buffy said as a second one soon followed. And then the third. And the fourth. Soon all seven thestrals were fighting for her attention and making such a racket that several students had to cover their ears. Buffy was overwhelmed by the beasts and was soon on the ground with the thestrals all crowding over her. 'Great, I'm gonna get eaten by wild horse things. What a way to go,' Buffy thought as she tried to push her way back up, with little success.

"Alrigh', back off," Hagrid said, coming forward to save the blonde. Unfortunately as he got closer to the group of thestrals, one got annoyed, lifted its head and bared its teeth, snapping at Hagrid's hand that was on its skin, pushing it back. The class screamed as they saw Hagrid's hand begin to bleed, as thestrals became more dangerous, and everyone backed away and grouped together.

"We have to do something," Harry said.

"But what?" Hermione asked. "Those are invisible horses, who knows how many, that seem to be ready to attack anyone that goes near them."

Harry took out his wand and aimed it at the thestrals, looking pointedly at Hermione. "If we do it all together, we'll take them out before they can turn on us."

"Right," Hermione said, pulling out her wand. Others around them did the same and soon the words "Stupefy" filled the air, along with the bright red lights. People just pointed at random areas, hoping to hit something, while Harry, Neville, and the Slytherin boy were the only ones to aim properly. One by one the thestrals fell, some coming close to charging the kids, but eventually they were all down.

Buffy stood up, brushing all the leaves and dirt off of her clothes and pushing the hair out of her face. "Thanks," she said, looking around at the unconsious thestrals that littered the ground. "Good aim."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked. "Most of us couldn't see them and our curses went everywhere else."

"You didn't hit me," Buffy clarified.

"I'm so sorry," Hagrid said. "I didn' know they'd do that. Don' know wha's gotten into 'em." Hagrid was wringing his hands nervously, waiting for the two women to fire him.

"Don't worry about it," Buffy said. "It's not your fault. Dark scary things tend to attack me a lot." All the Gryffindors snickered at her joke, as they had witnessed Snape on a rampage earlier.

"I jus' don' know why they'd attack you."

"They didn't really attack me so much as they did you. You should really have that looked at," Buffy said, nodding towards his bloody hand.

"I'm alrigh', I've had worse than this," Hagrid said.

"Hem, hem." Buffy and Hagrid turned to look at Umbridge, both with a feeling of dread in their stomachs. "I believe that this was a most intolerable display I have yet to see. Students fighting for their lives, people getting hurt, people getting attacked. I don't know what you were thinking, but clearly you are not fit to be a professor. You have failed your examination and I cannot let you continue teaching. I suggest you pack up your things and leave school grounds immediately."

"What?!" Harry cried. "You can't do that!"

"Of course I can," Umbridge said. "And I don't have to take any more from you. Mr. Potter--"

"I think what he's trying to tell you is that Hagrid is not just a professor at the school; he's also the Gamekeeper. The Keeper of Keys, if you will," Buffy said, standing up for her old friend.

Hagrid had always been so nice to her, letting her have some of his teacakes, regardless of how they tasted. She knew he really enjoyed teaching, but there wasn't much she could do. In this point, Umbridge had more power than her, and Buffy seriously doubted that she'd let this one go. Buffy had already ruined too much for her and she had to be careful where she stepped.

"He may be fired as a professor, but his other jobs still stand and you don't have the authority to change that. Only Dumbledore does, so Hagrid doesn't need to pack and he doesn't need to leave," Buffy finished with a significant look at Harry, trying to tell him to keep his mouth shut. "Class is dismissed, everyone follow Hagrid out of the forest."

The class trooped along as they all began whispering amongst themselves, some about Hagrid, others about Professor Fox and Umbridge, and a couple were still talking about the thestrals.

"I still don' understand why they went after yeh," Hagrid was saying. "They don' normally do tha' unless you provoke them."

"I didn't provoke them. At least, I don't think I did,' Buffy said with a frown. "What provokes them?"

"Loud noises, lots of movemen', spells fired at 'em, normal things," Hagrid said.

"Oh, well, in that case I'm sure I didn't do it," Buffy said confidently. "It's all right," she added, seeing Hagrid's crestfallen face. "I didn't get hurt. And I'm sure you'll get your job back eventually. Don't sweat it."

"But they should've been nice! They're trained and everythin'! They're always good to me!" Hagrid whined.

"Maybe I just smelled really good," Buffy said. "I mean, they were licking me and everything so I couldn't have smelt bad, right?"

"But they only like meat and other dead things," Hagrid said.

Buffy's calm attitude soon vanished as she began to realize why the thestrals were all over her. "So they're attracted to death? I mean, they have connections to people who've seen death."

"Yeah," Hagrid said, blowing his nose.

"Wonderful," Buffy said. 'Death is my gift,' she thought. She had died twice, no wonder the stupid thestrals were entranced when she went near them. Weird.

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"So, what did Professor Fox want with you?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, she wanted to make sure I was okay," Harry said. "She said I was too quiet and it was making her suspicious."

"About that," Hermione said, glancing at Ron. "You have been really, well, depressed, lately," Hermione said quietly. "Will you please tell us what's going on? We can help you."

"I'm fine," Harry said with a grateful smile at his friends. "I know you were worried about me and I'm sorry. I just... I had something on my mind and it wouldn't go away, but I finally think I've figured it out. I'm really okay, now." He didn't like keeping things from his friends, but if he told the truth, he'd have to explain about the prophecy, something he didn't really want to do. He was finally getting over it and his friends would probably go nuts if he told them. He had decided to forget about what it said. HE wasn't going to let it ruin his life, he was just going to use it as a helpful tip.

He and Voldemort would battle, like they had before and Harry always knew they would again, and only one of them would be the winner, which Harry had always known. The information really wasn't anything spectacularly new; it was just startling to hear one's life laid out so plainly. Now Harry was more motivated. He'd focus more on his studies and spend more time learning new spells and preparing himself for what was ahead.

He had no doubts that it would be difficult, but it was his destiny, so he might as well be ready. Plus, he had the whole, 'power the dark lord knows not' thing going for him, so that was a plus. Harry actually wondered if he would be able to kill Voldemort should the opportunity present itself. Taking a human life, no matter how warped it is, was not an easy thing to do. Harry was afraid that by killing Voldemort, he'd actually become the thing he was fighting.

Although, deep down Harry knew that Voldemort's death would be the only way to stop the murders. Innocent peoples lives were on the line and it was possible, according to the prophecy, that if Harry died, Voldemort would eventually rule everything, killing hundreds more people in the process. It was clear now what he had to do; he had to fight. And he had to win.

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"Wormtail, how is the project coming along?" Voldemort hissed.

"It's doing well," Wormtail said, bowing low before his master. "Lucius said it'd be completed within two weeks. Before Christmas vacation."

"Excellent. Make sure there are no mistakes. I don't want to delay our meeting with Mr. Potter any further."

"Yes, my Lord," Wormtail said.

"Is there any new information on the Professor?"

"N... no, my Lord. No one has any idea where she came from or whose side she's on."

"Well, FIND SOMETHING!" Voldemort shouted, causing Wormtail to scurry away before he was punished.

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"Of course!" Willow said, reading the owl Buffy had sent her. "That should work."

Hurrying away, Willow carefully began to brew yet another batch of their potion, believing this might be the last time.

Several hours later, Will emerged from her room with a small vial of dark blue liquid. "This is it. It worked," Willow said, carefully handing it over to Giles.

"Are you sure?" he asked, peering at the potion.

"Well, we haven't actually had the opportunity to test it for real, but all the simulations and equations and everything worked. So, hopefully, it will work. Plus, it looks really pretty!"

"Yes, it looks like a jeweled necklace I had once. Xander, why don't you buy me nice things?" Anya pouted.

"Maybe because all of our things tend to get lost, stolen, burned, broken, buried, or swallowed," Xander said. "And I have little money to buy anything now because our entire town caved in, or did you forget already?"

"Well, get a job. We need money." Xander just rolled his eyes and ignored his girlfriend.

"That's a great idea, Anya," Will said.

"Of course it is. Everybody needs money. It's like one of the necessities of life. Like Oxygen."

"No, not the job, the necklace. I can put this on a chain and send it to Buffy like it's a necklace. Sure it'll look like a vial of potion around her neck, but it doesn't have to. It can be a lot of little small beads of potion. It's perfect!" Willow transformed the vial of potion into a beautiful, blue, beaded necklace and let Morrigan take it back to Buffy. "I hope she likes it."

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CHAPTER 32: THE DA

The days passed quickly and soon December began to roll through. Naturally, Umbridge didn't find a replacement for Care of the Magical Creatures and so took it upon herself to teach the class.

Hagrid was very upset over his dismissal from his teaching position and had locked himself in his hut for four days before Dumbledore finally came down and talked some sense into him. Since then, he had been extremely active in his duties as groundskeeper. Everything looked shiny and new.

Professor Fox had taken to wearing a beautiful blue-jeweled necklace around all the time, which led people to believe she had a nice rich boyfriend, which bought her all kinds of things. She refused to comment on any of their questions and rumors spread rapidly through the school.

Snape's violent outburst had had serious repercussions from both Umbridge and Dumbledore. Umbridge suspended him from his duties for a week and Dumbledore made him apologize in front of the entire student body at dinner. Needless to say, he wasn't a very happy man; people steered clear of him.

Unless their name was Sirius Black, in which case all bets were off.

"She blew you up?" he asked again, just to make sure he was hearing correctly. The Order meeting had started and of course they had to be informed of Professor Fox's strange behavior.

"Yes, Black, as we've been over twice now," Snape ground out. "She was trying to make a distraction so she could steal something from my office," he had explained.

"That's not a distraction, that's a party trick," Sirius said, eyes glittering.

"What did she take?" Moody asked.

"Nightshade. The whole bottle."

"What would she need nightshade for?" Tonks asked. "She's wouldn't kill anyone, would she?"

"I'm afraid we don't know what she's capable of..." Dumbledore said only to be interrupted by Sirius.

"Except blowing up Snape and making him turn colors," Sirius said. "I wish I could've been there."

"... and until we know who she is, we won't have any clue. Does anyone have any leads?" Dumbledore finished.

"I've had no luck," Arthur said. "I've search the French, Dutch and Swedish wizarding records, no one of that name or description."

"Me neither."

"Nothing."

"Sorry."

"I think I'm in love. Do you think someone can arrange for us to meet?" Sirius said thoughtfully, causing everyone to turn and look at him.

"Surprise, surprise. Another blonde," Snape sneered, causing Sirius to stop smiling and glare menacingly at him. "And if you haven't forgotten, you're still a wanted criminal. A murderer. No one's going to want to be with you. When's the last time you've even seen a girl you're age, let alone done anything else."

"Well you're not a wanted murder and you're not locked in a house. So what's your excuse?" Sirius growled.

"Sirius, stop," Remus said gently.

"But he--" Sirius defended.

"I know what he did," Remus said. "And I'd say he'd get what's coming to him, but I think being tossed around the room by his students might have been bad enough," he added, causing Sirius to burst back out into laughter. He couldn't calm himself down and Snape looked ready to pounce, so Remus led his old friend out into the hall.

"Do you think Harry will let me see his memory? What I wouldn't give to see that!" Sirius wondered.

"One of the more ingenious things I've ever heard of. Way better than most of the stuff we did," Remus said fondly.

"And to a professor!" Sirius said. "I mean, its one thing to do it to a student, but a professor is a whole different story! And something that humiliating! In front of everybody!" Sirius burst out in another round of loud laughter, pausing only when he heard a chair slam into the wall in fury, presumably sent by Snape who could still hear the laughter.

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"I think it's time to call another meeting," Harry told Hermione quietly. "We should try to get a couple more in before Christmas break."

"Okay, is Friday good?" Hermione asked, looking at her calendar quickly.

"Yeah, that's sounds fine. I don't think anyone has the pitch booked yet." Harry had been very different ever since his talk after class with Professor Fox. He was calmer, more focused, and he studied a lot more. Not that Hermione was going to complain. O.W.L.s were this year and she knew that Voldemort would likely be after him again. It always seemed to happen before the year was up, typically around finals for some reason.

Harry sometimes thought that he would have been extremely unhappy if it weren't for the DA lessons. He sometimes felt that he was living for the hours he spent in the Room of Requirement, working hard but thoroughly enjoying himself at the same time, swelling with pride as he looked around at his fellow D.A. members and saw how far they had come. Indeed, Harry sometimes wondered how Umbridge was going to react when all the members of the D.A. received 'Outstanding' in their Defense Against the Dark Arts O.W.L.s, not to mention any other fifth year class. She still thought that Professor Fox was only teaching them theory and nothing practical.

Harry had also been coming to the Room of Requirement for just regular studying purposes. He had found it to be very useful when he needed obscure curse or jinx texts or when he needed someplace soft so he didn't hurt Hermione or Ron. His grades had begun to improve over the last two weeks, even in Potions, but that might have been due to the absentee professor. Dumbledore had to teach the class himself. It was interesting and fun, for once. And Harry found that with the right professor, he wasn't too bad at it.

They had finally started work on Patronuses, which everybody had been very keen to practice, though as Harry kept reminding them, producing a Patronus in the middle of a brightly lit classroom when they were not under threat was very different to producing it when confronted by something like a dementor.

"Oh, don't be such a killjoy," said Cho brightly, watching her silvery swan-shaped Patronus soar around the Room of Requirement. "They're so pretty!"

"They're not supposed to be pretty, they're supposed to protect you," said Harry patiently. "What we really need is a boggart or something; that's how I learned, I had to conjure a Patronus while the boggart was pretending to be a dementor-"

"But that would be really scary!" said Lavender, who was shooting puffs of silver vapor out of the end of her wand. "And I still - can't - do it!" she added angrily.

Neville wasn't having too much trouble. His happy memory came easily enough; finding his parents waiting for him, alive and well. He had his family back and he couldn't think of a time when he had felt happier. Smoke was streaming from his wand, but no definite form was shaping.

"Harry, I think I'm doing it!" yelled Seamus, who had been brought along to his first ever D.A. meeting by Dean. "Look – ah - it's gone... But it was definitely something hairy, Harry!"

Hermione's Patronus, a shining silver otter, was gamboling around her.

"They are sort of nice, aren't they?" she said, looking at it fondly.

The door of the Room of Requirement opened and then closed again; Harry looked around to see who had entered, but there did not seem to be anybody there. It was a few moments before he realized that the people close to the door had fallen silent. Next thing he knew, something was tugging at his robes somewhere near his knee. He looked down and saw, to his very great astonishment, Dobby the house-elf peering up at him from beneath his usual eight hats.

"Hi, Dobby!" he said. "What are you – what's wrong?"

For the elf's eyes were wide with terror and he was shaking. The members of the D.A. closest to Harry had fallen silent now: Everybody in the room was watching Dobby. The few Patronuses people had managed to conjure faded away into silvery mist, leaving the room looking much darker than before.

"Harry Potter, sir..." squeaked the elf, trembling from head to foot. "Harry Potter, sir... Dobby has come to warn you... but the house-elves have been warned not to tell..."

He ran headfirst at the wall: Harry, who had some experience of Dobby's habits of self-punishment, made to seize him, but Dobby merely bounced off the stone, cushioned by his eight hats. Hermione and a few of the other girls let out squeaks of fear and sympathy.

"What's happened, Dobby?" Harry asked, grabbing the elf's tiny arm and holding him away from anything with which he might seek to hurt himself.

"Harry Potter... she... she..."

Dobby hit himself hard on the nose with his free fist: Harry seized that too.

"Who's 'she', Dobby?"

But he thought he knew – surely only one 'she' could induce such fear in Dobby? The elf looked up at him, slightly cross-eyed, and mouthed wordlessly.

"Umbridge?" asked Harry, horrified.

Dobby nodded, then tried to bang his head off Harry's knees; Harry held him at bay.

"What about her? Dobby – she hasn't found out about this – about us – about the D.A.?"

He read the answer in the elf's stricken face. His hands held fast by Harry, the elf tried to kick himself and fell to the floor.

"Is she coming?" Harry asked quietly.

Dobby let out a howl, and began beating his bare feet hard on the floor. "Yes, Harry Potter, yes!"

Harry straightened up and looked around at the motionless, terrified people gazing at the thrashing elf.

"WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?" Harry bellowed. "RUN!"

They all pelted toward the exit at once, forming a scrum at the door, then people burst through; Harry could hear them sprinting along the corridors and hoped they had the sense not to try and make it all the way to their dormitories. It was only ten to nine, if they just took refuge in the library or the Owlery, which were both nearer –

"Harry, come on!" shrieked Hermione from the center of the knot of people now fighting to get out.

He scooped up Dobby, who was still attempting to do himself serious injury, and ran with the elf in his arms to join the back of the queue.

"Dobby – this is an order – get back down to the kitchen with the other elves, and if she asks you whether you warned me, lie and say no!" said Harry. "And I forbid you to hurt yourself!" he added, dropping the elf as he made it over the threshold at last and slammed the door behind him.

"Thank you, Harry Potter!" squeaked Dobby, and he streaked off.

Harry glanced left and right, the others were all moving so fast that he caught only glimpses of flying heels at either end of the corridor before they vanished. He started to run right; there was a boy's bathroom up ahead, he could pretend he'd been in there all the time. He heard feet behind him and decided he couldn't make it and ducked into the next hallway, and the ducked again, taking turns every now and then. Someone was still following him and he could hear spells being cast. Thank goodness he was still practicing Quidditch. His seeker reflexes were really helping him now.

He was out of sight, so he ducked into a little nitch under the stairs and quieted his breathing. He wasn't too far from the Room of Requirement, but someone had been chasing him. He pulled out his Map and whispered, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Looking around, Harry noticed that Malfoy had been the one chasing him but he had gone right by him and was now a ways away. Quickly, Harry looked over the map, trying to see if everyone else got away. It looked as if Hermione and Ron were safely tucked away at the library, and a couple people had been smart enough to go to the Owlrey. Quite a few people had gone back to their common rooms, or were heading that way. It looked as if everyone was safe.

That had been close. He looked back towards where he was, trying to figure out which way to go, when a moving dot caught his eye. It said "Elizabeth Potter" and it was heading straight for him! In his shock, Harry didn't notice the dot labeled "Draco Malfoy" coming back the way it had come. Coming back to him. Harry quickly cleared the map, thinking it was some kind of a mistake. He was going to bring it up again, but unfortunately, Malfoy had found him and the words "Stupefy" were the last things he heard.

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

Harry was brought to consciousness and was surprised to find himself in the headmaster's office. He relaxed slightly, thinking he had gotten away, but then he tensed up when he realized the office was full of people. Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, his expression serene, with a hint of anger in his eyes, the tips of his long fingers together. Professor McGonagall stood rigidly beside him, her face extremely tense. Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, was rocking backward and forward on his toes beside the fire, apparently immensely pleased with the situation. Kingsley Shacklebolt and a tough-looking wizard Harry did not recognize with very short, wiry hair were positioned on either side of the door like guards, and the freckled, bespectacled form of Percy Weasley hovered insecurely by the wall, a quill and a heavy scroll of parchment in his hands, apparently poised to take notes. Ever since his reunion with his family, he had been less anxious to follow the Minister's every whim, and now that Harry Potter was about to get expelled, a very good friend of the family, he was worried his already strained relationship with his parents would break if he helped in any way.

The portraits of old headmasters and mistresses were not shamming sleep tonight. All of them were watching what was happening below, alert and serious. As Harry looked around, a few flitted into neighboring frames an whispered urgently into their neighbors' ears.

Harry pulled himself free of Umbridge's grasp and the door swung shut behind them.

"Really," McGonagall said exasperatedly, "was it necessary to stun the boy?"

"He was running from authority; something had to be done," Umbridge said.

Cornelius Fudge was glaring at him with a kind of vicious satisfaction upon his face. "Well," he said. "Well, well, well..."

Harry replied with the dirtiest look he could muster. His heart drummed madly inside him, but his brain was oddly cool and clear.

"He was heading back to Gryffindor Tower," said Umbridge. There was an indecent excitement in her voice, the same callous pleasure Harry had heard as she watched Professor Trelawney dissolving with misery in the entrance hall. "The Malfoy boy found him hiding near the stairs."

"He did, did he?" said Fudge appreciatively. "I must remember to tell Lucius. Perhaps even get him back into class. Well, Potter... I expect you know why you are here?"

Harry fully intended to respond with a defiant "yes": His mouth had opened and the word was half formed when he caught sight of Dumbledore's face. Dumbledore was not looking directly at Harry, as he didn't want to be accused of helping Harry in any way; his eyes were fixed upon a point just over his shoulder, but as Harry stared at him, he shook his head a fraction of an inch to each side.

Harry changed direction mid-word.

"Yeh – no."

"I beg your pardon?" said Fudge.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Buffy said, rushing into the room. "I had to get Malfoy to tell me what was going on; trust me, that took a while. Somebody forgot to let me know we were doing a raid," Buffy said with a significant look at Umbridge. She glanced quickly at Harry who was sitting angrily in the chair by Dumbledore's desk. Buffy walked around the many people and took a place by the back where she could keep an eye on him.

"Hey Fawkes," Buffy said absently as the phoenix flew over towards her and landed on her shoulder. Buffy stroked his head while he chirped a few content notes. Buffy was too busy focusing on what was happening that she missed Dumbledore's intrigued look.

"So, where were we?" Buffy asked as everyone had stopped and stared at her.

"We were just interrogating Potter; he's about to be expelled," Umbridge said.

To say Buffy was shocked would be a drastic understatement, but she carefully kept control of her emotions, pausing only briefly in her petting. "What was so bad that he'd get expelled? Did he burn something down?"

"No," Umbridge sneered.

"Blow something up?" Buffy asked, a puzzled look gracing her features.

"No."

"Kill someone?" Buffy finally asked, "or at least is he suspected of killing someone?"

"NO!" Umbridge finally shouted to get the blonde to shut up. "He has violated the law."

"Which is..." Buffy asked.

"We were just getting to that when you barged in," Fudge said with a calming smile.

"Oh, continue on," Buffy said, as if they needed her permission. Harry had stopped looking at Dumbledore and had taken to studying Professor Fox and what she was going to do.

"Thanks," Umbridge said dryly.

"Right then, Harry. Let's start again, shall we? Do you know why you're here?" Fudge asked smugly.

"No," Harry said stubbornly.

"No?" Buffy asked. "I mean, surely, if you've done something that bad, obviously you'd know about it. I mean, I might not have been the brightest kid at my school, but at least I knew why I was being expelled, which is way off the subject here."

"I don't know," Harry said, breaking the amazed silence and focusing the attention back on himself. "I didn't do anything."

Fudge looked incredulously from Harry to Professor Umbridge to Professor Fox. Harry took advantage of his momentary inattention to steal another quick look at Dumbledore, who gave the carper the tiniest of nods and the shadow of a wink, which Buffy's incredible senses took into account.

"So you have no idea," said Fudge in a voice positively sagging with sarcasm, "why Professor Umbridge has brought you to this office? You are not aware that you have broken any school rules?"

"School rules?" said Harry. "No."

"Or Ministry decrees?" amended Fudge angrily.

"Which one?" Buffy whispered sarcastically.

"Not that I'm aware of," said Harry blandly.

His heart was still hammering very fast. It was almost worth telling these lies to watch Fudge's blood pressure rising, but he could not see how on earth he would get away with them. If somebody had tipped off Umbridge about the D.A. then he, the leader, might as well be packing his trunk right now.

"So it's news to you, is it," said Fudge, his voice now thick with anger, "that an illegal student organization has been discovered within this school?"

"Yes, it is," said Harry, hoisting an unconvincing look of innocent surprise onto his face.

"I think, Minister," said Umbridge silkily from beside him, "we might make better progress if I fetch our informant."

"Yes, yes, do," said Fudge, nodding, and he glanced maliciously at Dumbledore as Umbridge left the room. "There's nothing like a good witness, is there, Dumbledore?"

"Nothing at all, Cornelius," said Dumbledore gravely, inclining his head.

There was a wait of several minutes, in which nobody looked at each other, then Harry heard the door open behind him. Umbridge moved past him into the room, gripping by the shoulder Cho's curly-haired friend Marietta, who was hiding her face in her hands.

"Don't be scared, dead, don't be frightened," said Professor Umbridge softly, patting her on the back, "it's quite all right, now. You have done the right thing. The minister is very pleased with you. He'll be telling your mother what a good girl you've been. Marietta's mother, Minister," she added, looking at Fudge, "is Madam Edgecombe from the Department of Magical Transportation. Floo Network office – she's been helping us police the Hogwarts fires, you know."

"Jolly good, jolly good!" said Fudge heartily. "Like mother, like daughter, eh? Well, come on, now, dear, look up, don't be shy, let's hear what you've got to – galloping gargoyles!"

As Marietta raised her head, Fudge leapt backward in shock, nearly landing himself in the fire. He cursed and stamped on the hem of his cloak, which had started to smoke, and Marietta gave a wail and pulled the neck of her robes right up to her eyes, but not before the whole room had seen that her face was horribly disfigured by a series of close-set purple pustules that had spread across her nose and cheeks to form the word "SNEAK."

Buffy wasn't able to stifle her laugh at the scene in front of her, but managed to clamp it down when everyone turned to look at her with wide eyes. Buffy promptly wiped the grin off her face and said "Oh, how terrible. That's just... awful. Someone should have to be punished. I mean, purple does nothing for her complexion."

"Miss Fox," McGonagall said, shocked. "This is no laughing matter. This poor girl is traumatized and another student is about to be expelled; surely even you could show some sympathy."

"I'm sorry, really," Buffy said. "I'll be a good girl and keep my mouth closed. But obviously she did something wrong here. I mean, did you see her face?"

"Never mind the spots now, dear," said Umbridge when she burst out into another set of wails. "Just take your robes away from your mouth and tell the Minister-–"

But Marietta's wails were too much and she just shook her head frantically.

"Oh, very well, you silly girl, I'll tell him," snapped Umbridge. She hitched her sickly smile back onto her face and said, "Well, Minister, Miss Edgecombe here came to my office shortly after dinner this evening and told me she had something she wanted to tell me. She said that if I proceeded to a secret room on the seventh floor, sometimes known as the Room of Requirement, I would find out something to my advantage. I questioned her a little further and she admitted that there was to be some kind of meeting there. Unfortunately at this point this hex," she waved impatiently at Marietta's concealed face, "came into operation and upon catching sight of her face in my mirror the girl became too distressed to tell me any more."

"Well, now," said Fudge, fixing Marietta with what he evidently imagined was a kind and fatherly look. "It is very brave of you, my dear, coming to tell Professor Umbridge, you did exactly the right thing. Now, will you tell me what happened at this meeting? What was its purpose? Who was there?"

But Marietta would not speak. She merely shook her head again, her eyes wide and fearful.

"Haven't we got a counter jinx for this," Fudge asked Umbridge impatiently, gesturing at Marietta's face. "So she can speak freely?"

"I have not yet managed to find one," Umbridge admitted grudgingly, and Harry felt a surge of pride in Hermione's jinxing ability. "But it doesn't matter if she won't speak, I can take up the story from here.

"You will remember, Minister, that I sent you a report back in October that Potter had met a number of fellow students in the Hog's Head in Hogsmead-–"

"And what is your evidence for that?" cut in Professor McGonagall. Buffy, meanwhile, was listening intently, gathering all the information she could, seeing as how she was cut out of the loop this time. The wheels began to turn in her head.

"I have testimony from Willy Widdershins, Minerva, who happened to be in the bar at the time. He was heavily bandaged, it is true, but his hearing was quite unimpaired," said Umbridge smugly. "He heard every word Potter said and hastened straight to the school to report to me-–"

"Oh, so that's why he wasn't prosecuted for setting up all those regurgitating toilets!" said Professor McGonagall, raising her eyebrows. "What an interesting insight into our justice system!"

"Blatant corruption!" roared the portrait of the corpulent, red nosed wizard on the wall behind Dumbledore's desk. "The Ministry did not cut deals with petty criminals in my day, no sir, they did not!"

"Thank you, Fortescue, that will do," said Dumbledore softly.

"The purpose of Potter's meeting with these students," continued Professor Umbridge, "was to persuade them to join an illegal society whose aim was to learn spells and curses the Ministry has decided are inappropriate for school-age-–"

"I think you'll find you're wrong there, Dolores," said Dumbledore quietly, peering at her over the half-moon spectacles perched halfway down his crooked nose.

Harry stared at him. He could not see how Dumbledore was going to talk him out of this one; if Willy Widdershins had indeed heard every word he said in Hog's Head there was simply no escaping it.

"Oho!" said Fudge, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet again. "Yes, do let's hear the latest cock-and-bull story designed to pull Potter out of trouble. Go on, then, Dumbledore, go on – Willy Widdershins was lying, was he? Or was it Potter's identical twin in the Hog's Head that day? Or is there the usual simple explanation involving a reversal of time, a dead man coming back to life, and a couple of invisible dementors?"

Umbridge let out a hearty laugh, while Percy still sat nervously in the corner. "Oh, very good, Minister, very good!"

Harry could have kicked her. Then he saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore was smiling gently too.

"Cornelius, I do not deny – and nor, I am sure, does Harry – that he was in the Hog's Head that day, nor that he was trying to recruit students to Defense Against the Dark Arts group. I am merely pointing out that Dolores is quite wrong to suggest that suck a group was, at that time, illegal. If you remember, the Ministry decree banning all student societies was not put into effect until two days after Harry's Hogsmeade meeting, so he was not breaking any rules in the Hog's Head at all."

Umbridge looked as though she had been struck in the face by something very heavy. Fudge remained motionless in mid-bounce, his mouth hanging open and Buffy looked curiously at Dumbledore.

Umbridge recovered first.

"That's all very fine, Headmaster," she said, smiling sweetly. "But we are now nearly two months on from the introduction of Educational Decree Number Twenty-Four. If the first meeting was not illegal, all those that have happened since most certainly are."

"Well," said Dumbledore, surveying her with polite interest over the top of his interlocked fingers "they certainly would be, if they had continued after the decree came into effect. Do you have any evidence that these meetings continued?"

As Dumbledore spoke, Harry heard a rustle behind him and rather thought Kingsley whispered something. He could have sworn too that he felt something brush against his side, a gentle something like a draft or bird wings, but looking down he saw nothing there.

"Evidence?" repeated Umbridge with that horrible wide toad like smile. "Have you not been listening, Dumbledore? Why do you think Miss Edgecombe is here?"

"Oh, can she tell us about two months' worth of meetings?" said Dumbledore, raising his eyebrows. "I was under the impression that she was merely reporting a meeting tonight."

"Miss Edgecombe," said Umbridge at once, "tell us how long these meetings have been going on, dear. You can simply nod or shake your head, I'm sure that won't make the spots worse. Have they been happening regularly over the last two months?"

Harry felt a horrible plummeting in his stomach. This was it, they had hit a dead end of solid evidence that not even Dumbledore would be able to shift aside...

"Just nod or shake your head, dear," Umbridge said coaxingly to Marietta. "Come on, now, that won't activate the jinx further..."

Everyone in the room was gazing at the top of Marietta's face. Only her eyes were visible between the pulled up robes and her curly fringe. Perhaps it was a trick of the firelight, but her eyes looked oddly blank. And then – to Harry's utter amazement – Marietta shook her head.

Umbridge looked quickly at Fudge and then back at Marietta. "I don't think you understood the question, did you, dear? I'm asking whethere you've been going to thses meetings for the past two months? You have, haven't you?"

Again, Marietta shook her head.

"What do you mean by shaking your head, dear?" said Umbridge in a testy voice.

"I would have thought her meaning was quite clear," said Professor McGonagall harshly. "There have been no secret meetings for the past two months. Is that correct, Miss Edgecombe?"

Marietta nodded.

"Well that certainly clears up a lot. Anyone else have other plans for tonight?" Buffy asked.

"But there was a meeting tonight!" said Umbridge furiously, ignoring Professor Fox. "There was a meeting, Miss Edgecombe, you told me about it, in the Room of Requirement! And Potter was the leader, was he not, Potter organized it, Potter – why are you shaking your head, girl?"

"Obviously she doesn't know what you're talking about," Buffy said. "And I'm sure yelling at her is really going to help."

"Usually when a person shakes their head," said McGonagall coldly, "they mean 'no,' so unless Miss Edgecombe is using a form of sign language as yet unknown to humans –"

Professor Umbridge seized Marietta, pulled her around to face her, and began shaking her very hard. A split second later Dumbledore was on his feet, his wand raised. Kingsley started forward and Umbridge leapt back from Marietta, waving her hands in the air as though they had been burned.

"I cannot allow you to manhandle my students, Dolores," said Dumbledore, and for the first time, he looked angry and Buffy took a step back, eying him warily.

"You want to calm yourself, Madam Umbridge," said Kingsley in his deep, slow voice. "You don't want to get yourself into trouble now."

"We wouldn't want that," Buffy muttered.

"No," said Umbridge breathlessly, glancing at the towering figure of Kingsley. "I mean, yes – you're right, Shacklebolt – I – I forgot myself."

"More like lost your bloody mind, but who's checking, right?" Buffy said.

Marietta was standing exactly where Umbridge had released her. She seemed neither perturbed by Umbridge's sudden attack, nor relieved by her release. She was still clutching her robe up to her oddly blank eyes, staring straight ahead of her.

"I think you broke her," Buffy said.

A sudden suspicion connected to Kingsley's whisper and the thing he had felt shoot past him sprang into Harry's mind.

"Dolores," said Fudge, with the air of trying to settle something once and for all, "the meeting tonight - the one we know definitely happened-–"

"Yes," said Umbridge, pulling herself together, "yes... well, Miss Edgecombe tipped me off and I proceeded at once to the seventh floor, accompanied by certain trustworthy students-–"

"You mean Malfoy?" Buffy snorted. "The one boy in the entire school that everyone knows has it in for Harry?" When Umbridge turned to glare at her, she added, "Just checking, you know, keeping things in perspective."

"--so as to catch those in the meeting red-handed. It appears that they were forewarned of my arrival, however, because when we reached the seventh floor they were running in every direction. It does not matter, however. I have all their names here, Miss Parkinson ran into the Room of Requirement for me to see if they had left anything behind... We needed evidence and the room provided..."

And to Harry's horror, she withdrew from her pocket the list of names that had been pinned upon the Room of Requirement's wall and handed the folded up piece of parchment to Fudge.

Buffy's stomach flip-flopped as to what the parchment could be. Her only guess was something not good.

"The moment I saw Potter's name on the list, I knew what we were dealing with," she said softly.

The look of horror on Harry's face confirmed her suspicions and Buffy briefly waggled her fingers, going unnoticed by everyone but Harry. "What is it?" Buffy asked, glancing over Fudge's shoulder as he opened the parchment. "Now that's really something," she said finally. "Can I keep it? I always wanted to have something like this."

"Perhaps you've given us the wrong paper, Umbridge," Fudge said finally, a note of hope mixed in his anxious voice. Everyone else in the room was confused as to what was happening.

"No, I didn't. It's a list. A list of all the names in the meeting," Umbridge stuttered.

"Right, well, make sure you throw out your crack pipe, okay?" Buffy said. "Those things really aren't good for your health. And now you're being delusional. Maybe we should get you some help."

"What is the problem?" Umbridge said, snatching the parchment out of Fudge's hand. She looked at it incomprehensibly before her eyes widened in shock. "NO! This isn't possible! There was a list! A list of names!"

"Uh huh, and I'm the Queen of England," Buffy said.

"NO! Finite Incantatum! Reveal! NO!" Umbridge cried as her spells did nothing to make the names reappear. "You! You did this, didn't you?" Umbridge cried, rounding on Potter and dropping the paper to reveal a Picasso-like painting. "You've messed with it all, haven't you?"

"Okay, lay off the schnapps for a while," Buffy cried, pulling Umbridge away from Harry.

"Control yourself, Dolores. or I will be forced to remove you from my office and consequently my school. You cannot harass my students," Dumbledore said.

"But, he also had another paper on him when Mr. Malfoy found him!" Umbridge said, once again trying to destroy the boy. "Something that's obviously illegal, using it to navigate the school or some such thing."

Buffy stiffened slightly as she looked briefly at Harry. It couldn't be... could it? If it was, did he know? This really wasn't the way she wanted him to find out about her. She was going to free Sirius, find Remus and then explain everything to Harry when they were a big happy family. A nice reunion where nothing could go wrong.

"Yes, Malfoy said that he'd seen it before, where did I put it?" Umbridge muttered before pulling a thick piece of parchment out of her pocket. "Ah-ha!" she cried. "Here."

"You've downgraded," Buffy said as she swiped the paper before Fudge could wrap his grubby palms all over it. "This one's blank. No pretty pictures." Buffy breathed a slight sigh of relief that if this was the map, which it certainly seemed to be, then it was thankfully blank. Who knew what would happen if everyone found out that Elizabeth Potter was standing right in the room with them? Alive and well?

"Yes, but it can only be read by certain people!" Umbridge said. "There must be some sort of spell or enchantment on it."

"Maybe you've been working too hard," Buffy suggested. "It seems that you're becoming even more delusional than you were. One might even say paranoid. Don't you think she's in need of a nice, long break?" Buffy asked Fudge, looking him in his eyes.

Fudge became slightly less alert as he fell under Buffy's persuasion. "Yes, I think that's a wonderful idea."

Dumbledore looked sharply at the girl that seemed to be, to some extent, controlling the Minister of Magic, for whatever reasons. It wasn't the first time a professor pretended to be on one side only to show their true face right before they tried to kill Harry. No matter what she was playing at today, it didn't seem to be looking too good for her.

"But Cornelius," Umbridge protested disbelievingly. "I'm your right hand! You need me! You're going to listen to her?! She's been-–"

"Look, I think we've all had a big misunderstanding and are wasting our perfectly good Friday night. It's obvious what's going on," Buffy said, interrupting Umbridge's rant before she could say anything too incriminating.

"And what is that?" Fudge asked, amazed.

"They had a meeting once in October. Big deal. Now, it just so happens that they're growing up. Amazingly enough, there are teenagers at this school and their hormones are running wild," Buffy said. Harry was the only one that really understood where she seemed to be going with this and a blush immediately started to grow on his cheeks.

"I mean, it's happened before and it's happened again, only this time things seem to be more complicated. This isn't the first time this has happened. The things that went on behind closed doors at my old school... well, I don't think it's very appropriate for the moment." Harry's face was rose red and he couldn't even lift his gaze from the spot that looked so very interesting on the floor.

"What are you talking about?" Fudge asked, bewildered.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Do I have to spell it out for you? There were teenagers, boys and girls, apparently in this room in which you could get whatever you required, including nice cushioned areas. Do the math." Since Fudge's confused expression did not change, Buffy said, "They were making out! They were snogging, doing other dirty things, I'm sure. We don't really want the details."

"But then why would people be running?" Fudge said after a moment of blushing silence and glances and the thoroughly embarrassed Harry.

"Did you ever want to be caught while you were kissing your girlfriend?" Buffy asked. "If you ever had one? I mean, really. How embarrassing can you get?"

"Apparently not as much as this," Harry muttered, earning him an amused glance from both Buffy and Dumbledore.

"Yes, well," sputtered Fudge, "why does that child have those things on her face?"

"Well, Harry's a pretty well-known kid and he probably didn't want news of his new girlfriend to spread around the school. Think of what he'd have to endure. So someone put a spell on her so that she wouldn't tell, or if she did, she'd regret it."

"Ah, but she wasn't near the room this evening while Harry was," Umbridge said smugly.

"Obviously they broke up and he found another girl. That's why she told. She wanted, not only to say she dated the great Harry Potter, but also to get him into trouble of some kind. Pay him back for dumping her. That's the way teenagers are. Significant others don't last long when you're that young. Trust me, I've seen it. Been there, done that, not too long ago," Buffy said, to which Fudge and Umbridge had no response.

"Well, as it seems there is no evidence and a perfectly valid reason, which is not against any rules, is brought to light, then Mr. Potter is cleared of all charges and now may head off to bed," Dumbledore said. "We have no reason to keep him here any longer and he has no reason to be expelled. Minister it has been wonderful having you here, but I'm sure you have more important matters waiting for you at home. Please feel free to use my own fireplace, as well as anyone else. Professor Fox, Professor Umbridge, have a goodnight."

Harry gratefully got up and walked out of the room, throwing a grateful look at both Dumbledore and Buffy, which no one really caught as she was walking out of the room too. Fudge and Umbridge had no more reason to stay and so reluctantly left empty-handed.

Harry ran through the halls and didn't stop until he got to his common room. He couldn't believe what had just happened!

"Harry! You're okay!" Hermione exclaimed, running to him and throwing herself around him in a relieved hug. "You are okay, right?"

"Yeah, but you won't believe what happened..."

"She did, what?" Hermione asked after everything had been explained to her and Ron.

"And you always thought she was out for blood," Ron said triumphantly. "I knew someone that hot couldn't be bad," he said, which earned him a smack from Hermione.

"But why would she do that? It doesn't make sense. They had you! They could have expelled you!"

"Thanks for reminding me," Harry groaned. "I came so close... I thought I was a goner."

"Well thank Professor Fox!" Ron said enthusiastically.

"Actually, I'll have to go see her tomorrow," Harry said with a frown. "She has my map. Draco must have taken it from me when he... The MAP!" Harry yelled suddenly, startling Ron and Hermione.

"What about it? Is it open? I thought you cleared it," Hermione said worriedly.

"No, before, when I was hiding from Malfoy, I was making sure everyone had gotten away and a dot caught my attention. It said "Elizabeth Potter" on it," Harry explained.

"Potter?" Hermione asked, astounded. "But, there are no other Potters, are there?"

"Not that I know of," Harry said. "Surely I wouldn't have had to stay at the Dursley's if I had another relative, right?"

"Maybe the map made a mistake," Ron suggested.

"That's what I thought. I cleared the map and I meant to take another look, just to make sure, but I never got the time. Malfoy must have snuck up behind me."

"Where was the dot on the map?" Hermione asked. "Was it in somebody's office or room? Maybe we could figure out who it was."

"No, it was going down the hall, towards me."

"You don't think... nah," Hermione said, gulping loudly.

"What?" Harry and Ron asked.

Hermione took a deep breath and forged on at her friends' inquisitive looks. "You don't think it's Umbridge, do you? I mean, she was searching the grounds right with Malfoy and she's the one that found you and took you to Dumbledore's office."

Harry and Ron's eyes grew round at the suggestion. "No, no it couldn't be. It has to be a mistake the map made. Besides, I think I remember seeing Umbridge's name somewhere."

"Or maybe it's just like Pettigrew!" Hermione said. "Maybe whoever it is is an animagus!"

"But why haven't we seen the name before?" Ron asked.

"I... I don't know," Hermione said.

"I just wish we had the map! Then we could figure all this out. Hang on," Harry said suddenly, running up to his dorm. He came back down holding his photo album Hagrid had given him in his first year. "If I do have a relative named Elizabeth, she has to be somewhere in these pictures!" Harry began flipping though, trying to find a girl that he had never recognized.

"Nothing!" Harry sighed, closing the book. "Sirius told me who everyone was. I just thought that maybe he'd missed someone."

"Sirius!" Hermione exclaimed. "Sirius would know anyone named Elizabeth Potter. She has to be related to your dad, and your dad and he were best friends!"

"Of course!" Harry said. "We can just ask Sirius. Although we have to be careful because the owls are getting intercepted," he said, deflating a bit. He didn't want to put poor Hedwig in any more trouble than the last time she was attacked.

"Oh yeah," Hermione said.

Before anyone could come up with a better plan, the perfect solution walked through the portrait door. "Mr. Potter, Miss Granger and Mr. Weasely, may I have a word?" she asked. By now, the common room was empty except for a few stragglers, but the three looked at each other anxiously and then followed her back out into the hallway, away from any portraits.

"Due to today's... events," McGonagall said with a small smirk on her face, "the headmaster believes that it might be best if you three stayed away for the weekend. He figured it would be best if you stayed out of trouble and away from the Ministry officials for a while and hopefully everything will cool down a bit before classes begin on Monday. He thought it was time for you to visit you pet, Potter."

The three students exchanged grins. This was perfect! Not only would they be able to ask Sirius about the map, they would also be able to get away from Umbridge! It was brilliant!

"Now I have a portkey for you as soon as you pack a bag," McGonagall said. "Now hurry up."

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CHAPTER 33: EXPLANATIONS

After hurriedly packing, while being exceedingly quiet so as not to wake their roommates, Harry, Ron and Hermione grabbed a hold of the portkey Professor McGonagall had arranged for them. In seconds, they disappeared from the Gryffindor common room and were sprawled over the kitchen floor of Grimmauld Place.

The three students untangled themselves, and their luggage, and stood up, brushing themselves off. "I'll never get used to that," Ron complained.

"I don't think luggage helped," Hermione said.

Harry wasn't listening to his friends, since all his attention was focused on finding Sirius. Unfortunately, everyone was in an impromptu Order meeting that was taking place in a different room in the house.

"Where are they?" Harry asked.

"It is pretty late," Hermione said. "Maybe Sirius is already asleep."

"Maybe," Harry said with a frown.

"What?" Hermione asked, knowing Harry well enough to know that something was bothering her friend.

"I just thought he would've been waiting for us, that's all," Harry said, struggling for indifference.

"Oh," Hermione said, understanding. "Professor McGonagall did surprise us with the information, so I doubt he was even contacted. I'm sure he'll be surprised in the morning."

"You're probably right," Harry said.

"Probably?" Ron questioned. "Probably? Hermione's always right."

"Ah, you're here," Mrs. Weasley said, bustling in through the kitchen doors. "Albus told us you were coming. Everyone's in an Order meeting, Sirius and Remus too," she added, as if knowing what was on Harry's mind.

"You were wrong," Ron breathed with wide eyes, looking at Hermione.

"How could I possibly know what was going on? I took a wild guess," she said.

"I jinxed it. Now you'll never be right again and it's all my fault," Ron said, not looking away from her. "My whole world is forever changed. What are we going to do about homework, Harry?"

Hermione, who was looking slightly flattered, scowled at Ron's last sentence and smacked him while she walked right by. "You can do it yourself from now on," she said. "You won't get so much as a peep from me, especially if you didn't jinx me."

Ron's eyes widened even further as he realized what this meant. Her tone was anything but comical. "I was just kidding," he said, however Hermione didn't stop walking. "She knows I was kidding, right?" Ron asked Harry.

"I don't know, mate," Harry said, amused.

"Well, you can find out tomorrow," Mrs. Weasley said, ushering them all out of the kitchen and up to their rooms. "It's late and you should be in bed."

"But I really need to talk to Sirius," Harry protested.

"You can see him tomorrow, dear. Right now he's at the meeting and it might be awhile before he gets out. And don't even think of trying to listen in," she said, crushing their hopes. "The protection charms have been increased due to Fred and George's miserable inventions."

"But it's important," Harry said. "I'll wait up, I'm not even tired."

"You say that now but tomorrow you'll be sleeping late and dragging around all day. You might as well get some sleep because you're not seeing Sirius tonight. Now get to bed. All of you," Mrs. Weasley said. "They'll be plenty of time to catch up tomorrow."

Harry sighed and shared a look of exasperation with Ron. They both knew they weren't going to win the argument. "Come on, mate. It can wait a couple hours."

"Yeah," Harry muttered dejectedly, dragging his bag up the stairs.

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"Let me get this straight," Moody said after Dumbledore finished describing the events of the evening, "Are you suggesting that she's controlling the Minister of Magic?"

"It would make sense," Snape hissed, "seeing as how she gets away with everything."

"You're just jealous," Sirius said happily. "She gets control of the Minister, gets the Defense Against the Dark Arts position, gets away with tricking and embarrassing you, while you step out of line and get a two week suspension. How was that by the way? Get much done?"

"That's another thing," McGonagall said, interrupting Snape's retort, "she could do whatever she wanted, but she's at Hogwarts, seemingly protecting Harry. I'm not saying that she did anything, but it seems a little odd that all the evidence Umbridge had mysteriously disappeared. They could have easily had him expelled, but he got away unscathed."

"It seems to happen a lot around here," Snape said. "The boy never gets in trouble no matter how high the offense."

"Well, seeing as how we'd all be dead if Harry hadn't broken quite a few of those rules, I see nothing to complain about," McGonagall said.

"You wouldn't," Snape sneered.

"You're just bitter because the House Cup has been noticeably absent from your office over the last four years," McGonagall said, goading Snape.

"That's a valid point, Minerva," Dumbledore said, causing everyone to look at him with startled expressions. "About Miss Fox," he clarified with a smile.

"Of course," she said.

"However," he continued, "I'm not so sure she has the best intentions for Mr. Potter. She may be trying to lure him into a false sense of security and gain his trust, much like young Mr. Crouch did last year. If she's planning for anything to happen to him at school, it would not do for him to be expelled."

"But she hates Snape, how can she be bad?" Sirius asked, bewildered.

"I do believe that Mr. Crouch wasn't too fond of our Potions professor either," Dumbledore said with a smile. "Not all the Death Eaters know each other, or even like each other. "Sarah Fox could be anyone if she is using a muggle's identity and polyjuice potion, which some of the stolen ingredients indicate she might be doing."

"So let's just tie her up and wait an hour," Tonks suggested.

"But that would be no fun," Sirius said, already knowing why they wouldn't do that.

"It'd take the pleasure out of guessing," Remus added.

"The point is to find out who she is and stop her, right?" Tonks asked, confused.

"To some degree, yes," Dumbledore said. "Unfortunately, we don't have enough evidence to prove that she's doing anything wrong."

"Since when do we care about following all the laws?" Snape asked.

"Since we may be putting an innocent young woman's life at stake," Dumbledore said. "It is a serious offense to accuse someone of controlling another person, let alone suspecting that person of controlling the Minister of Magic himself."

"And it's possible we're all being extremely paranoid," Remus said, "although that's not too likely, considering no one can identify any Sarah Fox."

"That seems to be the only real evidence we have against her and even then she may be from some far off country. Or she might have changed her name and/or her appearance for some reason or another."

"We must tread carefully and try to find out her real motives," Dumbledore said. "Once we know what she wants or who she is, we'll be able to take more decisive action."

"And if Harry gets taken and killed will we be able to do something to her then?" Sirius asked sarcastically. "If we think she's going after Harry, don't you think we should do something about it? He gets into enough trouble as it is, never mind the kind we just leave him open for."

"Harry is more than capable of taking care of himself," Dumbledore said with a tired sigh. "He is growing up and does not need, or want, the constant attention that we usually place on him. Not that I'm saying we're not going to be cautious," he added when he saw Sirius about to yell, "We'll just be more discrete."

"Don't you think we should warn Harry that it's possible his professor is after him?" Remus asked. "He tends to trust his professors more willingly than other people," he said. With a quick glance at Snape he said, "Well, most of them anyway."

"He'll need to learn who to trust on his own," Dumbledore said. "He's been doing fine these last four years and I believe he'll continue to do so throughout the rest of his life. If we're always around, telling him what is right and what is wrong, he won't be able to do anything for himself when the time comes. And I fear that that time will come sooner than any of us expect.

"How are things, anyway," Dumbledore asked Snape.

"I still haven't been privy to any information regarding the weapon. All I know is that it's almost done and I don't think we want that to happen. He's stopped going after the Department of Mysteries, but he's out for blood."

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The next morning Harry, Ron and Hermione were anxiously sitting in the kitchen, waiting for Sirius to show up. Mrs. Weasley was currently making a very big breakfast for them all. She had greeted them much warmer than she had the night before, hugging them, exclaiming how glad she was to see them and asking how they were doing.

"You boys aren't getting into too much trouble, are you?" Mrs. Weasley asked suspiciously as she tried to break the silence.

"No Mrs. Weasley," Harry said with a smile.

"Of course not, mum," Ron said. "I can't believe you'd even accuse us of something like that. Really, mothers should be supportive and loving, not accusatory."

"You're becoming more like the twins every day," Mrs. Weasley said, stopping her stirring to look at her son briefly.

"The scary part is, I don't know if that's good or bad," Ron whispered to Harry. "And how come you didn't ask if Hermione was getting into trouble?"

"Because it's Hermione, dear," Mrs. Weasley laughed. "The day she gets into trouble..."

Harry, Ron and Hermione all exchanged amused glances. "You know, it's usually Harry who gets us into things and Hermione that points the way. I just tag along like a good friend, making sure you all don't get yourselves killed," Ron said to his friends.

"You keep telling yourself that, Ron," Hermione said. "Right after you've finished all your homework by yourself."

"It's not like you ever do it for me anyway," Ron grumbled.

"She better not!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, overhearing part of their conversation. "I should hope you're not going to that school just so Hermione can do your work."

"Of course not, mum," Ron said. "Hermione would never cheat."

"And you would?" Mrs. Weasley asked, picking apart his words.

"No! I just meant that if I would cheat, which I wouldn't, Hermione would never allow it and she'd stop it. She just looks over our homework occasionally to make sure it's correct. It's not like she does our work," Ron said.

"Although I haven't been correcting much on yours lately, Harry," Hermoine said with a curious glance at Harry.

"Yeah, what's up with that, mate?" Ron asked. "Some days you're spending more time at the library then Hermione!"

"I've been busy," Harry said, avoiding his friends glances. "I had D.A. planning to do, which we've been having more often, and I didn't want to fall behind in my other classes."

"I think it's wonderful you're studying more," Hermione said. "It wouldn't kill you to do the same," Hermione said to Ron.

"She's right, you know," Mrs. Weasley said, interrupting again, this time putting plates of steaming food on the table. "You could do with a little more studying. You have O.W.L.s this year and you don't want to do as poorly as Fred and George, do you?"

"Mum!" Ron whined, as if he'd heard the same speech over and over, which he probably had.

"I'm just saying," she said, backing away. "A little more studying never hurt anyone."

"Some day we should find proof that that isn't true," Ron said to Harry.

"Harry!" Sirius said, walking through the doors, trailing behind Remus. "How are you?" he asked, giving Harry a hug.

"I'm glad to see you," he said with a fond smile. "Hi Professor Lupin."

"Hi Harry. I trust everything's going well?"

"Pretty much," Harry said, glancing briefly at Mrs. Weasley. Sirius and Remus seemed to pick up the hint.

"Hello Hermione, Ron," Lupin said. "How's school been going?"

"It's been interesting," Hermione said with a glance at Harry, which didn't go unnoticed by Sirius or Remus.

"Really? A little too interesting, perhaps," Remus said.

"You should've been more careful," Sirius said to Harry. "I'm all for your defense lessons, seeing as how you're not learning anything useful in class," another glance between the three did go unnoticed, "but not if you're going to be expelled."

"I know," Harry said. "One of the members told on us. Cho said she was trustworthy, so we let her in."

"You really should be more careful about who you trust," Remus said. "Someone perfectly innocent looking will stab you in the back."

"You do remember Pettigrew, right?" Sirius asked with a scowl.

"Of course," Harry said with a frown.

"You're just lucky that things went so well last night, otherwise I have no doubt you'd be expelled," Remus said. "They were just looking for an excuse and you practically handed yourself over."

"I know," Harry said.

"Here's some breakfast," Mrs. Weasley said, shoving two more plates in front of Sirius and Remus. "You two really should eat up," she said with a frown. "You're looking thinner every day."

"I'm sure you'll do your best to fatten us up," Remus said with an affectionate smile.

"Somebody has to," she said, cleaning up the mess she made. "Now, I have some cleaning to be done back at home, so if you'll excuse me I'll be back in time for lunch." Mrs. Weasley promptly left via the fireplace, thankfully leaving the trio alone with Remus and Sirius.

"What's wrong, Harry?" Sirius asked once he was sure no one else was around. No one else from the order had stayed that night and no one was expected anytime soon.

Harry paused only briefly, considering how to bring up the subject when he just decided to be straightforward. Maybe he'd get more answers that way. "Who's Elizabeth Potter?"

Sirius and Remus both froze, looking at Harry with surprised expressions and forgetting about their steaming breakfast.

Remus glanced at Sirius, as if trying to gauge his reaction. Buffy was hardly ever a safe topic to discuss with Sirius. After she had died, no one really talked about her unless Sirius or James brought her up. Either they would become depressed and almost catatonic or they'd become irrationally angry at whoever mentioned her. Remus could only hope that Sirius had gotten over his guilt and anger, but looking in his eyes, he knew that he hadn't. He still loved her and it hurt to remember his lost love, no matter how long ago. It wasn't too surprising, as he had been in Azkaban for most of the time since she died, probably repeatedly reliving that night.

"Who... where... how did you... why do you want to know?" Remus asked for Sirius, afraid of his response.

Harry exchanged a curious look with his friends, noting the startling reactions of the two adults. "Because obviously she's related to me somehow and I want to know who she is. And why no one's ever told me about her before," he finished, a hint of his old anger returning. This was his family and no one had mentioned that he had another living relative. He could have stayed with her instead of the Dursleys all these years.

"Who told you? How'd you find out?" Sirius asked.

"I'm not saying anything until you tell me who she is," Harry said crossly.

"Was it Snape? It was Snape, wasn't it? The bastard," Sirius growled.

"Who is she?" Harry asked stubbornly.

"It doesn't matter who she is, just forget about her," Sirius said.

"But I want to know!" Harry said. He couldn't believe Sirius of all people was withholding information from him! What was he doing?

"Some things you don't need to know!" Sirius said angrily. Now Remus knew which reaction Sirius was having. Silent depression obviously wasn't setting in.

"When are you going to stop treating me like a kid! I'm fifteen and I've got a right to know! I'm sick and tired of everyone hiding things from me and trying to protect me!" Harry said, not pausing when Hermione tried to put a calming hand on his arm.

"You know, not everything is about you," Sirius snapped. "Amazingly enough, there are other people in the world that don't think about you and how you feel and what you want twenty four hours a day. Other people have problems that don't involve you! Sometimes people don't tell you things to protect you..."

"I don't want to be protected! I want the truth!" Harry interrupted.

"... And other times people don't tell you things because it doesn't have anything to do with you and there's nothing to be done about it," Sirius finished.

"It has everything to do with me!" Harry yelled. "I know she's related to me somehow! Just tell me who she is!"

"James's younger sister," Sirius growled, storming out of the kitchen and slamming the door behind him.

The whole kitchen sat in shocked silence. Whatever the trio had been expecting, it wasn't that, although, that should've been one of their only options. Truth be told, they hadn't really thought too much who she could be, just that she had to be a relation of some kind.

"He loved her, didn't he?" Hermione asked insightfully.

"Still does," Remus said quietly, looking at where his friend left.

"What happened?" Hermione asked, keeping her voice low, as if afraid to talk too loud, breaking the thick silence that had descended with the slamming of the door.

"She died," Remus said, not taking his eyes off the door, causing him to miss the utterly shocked glance between friends.

"What?" Harry asked. "How?"

"Death Eaters," Remus said, glancing down to his plate as he remembered that night once again. "It was her fifteenth birthday, she was two years younger than us, when they attacked the house. Lily had already gone home, her and Buffy were best friends..."

"Buffy?" Harry asked confused.

"It's a nickname she had since she was little, Sirius gave it to her," Remus said. "Anyway, her parents weren't home and James, Sirius, Peter and I were in his room when they just came out of nowhere. We put up a big fight and were getting the upper hand when they took her and ran."

"They took her?" Hermione asked. Maybe she wasn't as dead as they thought... "Why would they take her?"

"I don't know," Remus sighed. "Maybe they were under orders to kill her and they couldn't get close enough so they thought they'd kill her someplace else. Maybe leave the body somewhere as a message; the Potters were a big target of Voldemort for whatever reason."

"They didn't leave the body somewhere?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"No. The Ministry got wind of the amount of magic coming from a house with two students and they sent Aurors down. Since it was during the war, students were allowed to use magic during the summer to learn more spells and to protect themselves. Within reason, of course. By the time they arrived, the fight was almost finished. A couple Aurors followed the escaped Death Eaters but they were too late to save her."

"How do you know?" Harry asked, thinking about Peter Pettigrew's incident and what the map said.

"They brought back her body," Remus said with closed eyes.

The hope Hermione and Harry had been building up was destroyed with those words and confusion began to grow. How was she on the map if she was dead?

"All the Death Eaters were caught and put in Azkaban but it didn't matter. Buffy was dead. I'll never forget that night. The looks on their faces... James and Sirius were destroyed."

"Were they close?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Remus said. "We all were, except Peter. She never liked Peter." Remus gave a small snort of laughter at the irony. "She's the one that named us the Marauders; we dedicated the Marauders Map to her. Buffy was so upset when she was left alone for two years while we were at Hogwarts. She had grown up with James and Sirius, following them around and being prey to their jokes; although we learned quickly not to get on her bad side. She gave as good as she got.

"They had been going out for a while and they were pretty serious. When James found out his best friend had secretly been dating his baby sister... he was furious," Remus said with a smile, remembering the chase that ensued. "After they made up, Sirius had to be careful not to let James see him and Buffy together. James was fine with it, to some extent, but he was very protective of her. Sirius had made this beautiful phoenix pendant for her birthday... she had a thing for phoenixes."

"Was she an animagus too?" Harry asked when Remus lapsed into thoughtful silence.

"No," Remus said with a laugh. "James was so adamantly against the idea of even letting her know that we were, let alone letting her try and become one. 'It's too dangerous', he'd say. We probably could have used her help. She was one of the best students in her year, much like you, Hermione, although, she didn't spend quite so much time in the library; we wouldn't let her. Things seemed to come fairly easily to her and she was eager to learn new things, but she always had time to be had time for fun. She was even going to be a Prefect, which horrified James to no end. It was fairly amusing to see him teasing Buffy only to have a Head Boy badge fall out of his Hogwarts letter... "

"Did she play Quidditch?" Ron asked.

"Of course," Remus said. "She wanted to be seeker, her reflexes were amazing, but that was James' position so she was a Chaser. Not that she minded too much; she was one of the best Chasers I've ever seen. With those two Potters on the team, we never lost."

"If she was so well liked, how come we've never heard of her before?" Harry asked.

"Nobody likes to talk about it," Remus said, sobering up again. "Everyone liked her and it was quite a shock when she died. After that day, the Potter family broke apart. Losing a child is never easy and your grandparents were destroyed. Her father dedicated his life to defeating Voldemort and it wasn't long before he too was killed. Her mom died of grief shortly thereafter.

"It wasn't as if James was much help, either. He was too busy with his own vengeance streak. James and Sirius would lock themselves in his room for days at a time, planning some suicidal mission. Luckily I was able to talk some sense into them and when we went back to Hogwarts, life went back to, well, not normal exactly, but good enough for what we'd been through. We never talked about her; it just hurt too much."

"She was in Gryffindor?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Of course," Lupin said with a slight smile. "I have yet to meet a Potter not in Gryffindor. Actually, she once told me, no one else would understand mind you," Lupin whispered, "that the hat almost put her in Slytherin."

"Really?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Yeah, at first I thought she was just playing around, but she looked too upset for it to be a joke. I was almost put into Slytherin myself, seeing as how I'm a 'dark creature' and she wanted reassurance that that didn't make her a bad person. I understood. She said the hat told her she had power and she was afraid. There's no doubt that she was sly and cunning, but she had no intention of doing anything bad to anyone ever. I'm not surprised she was in Gryffindor, and not just because of her family's attachment to that house; she belonged there."

"So she never would've followed Voldemort?" Hermione asked thinking of another way the map could've been right.

"The day Buffy Potter became Voldemort's follower is the day I wouldn't turn into a werewolf under the full moon," Remus said.

"But you never thought Peter would," Harry said, catching on to Hermione's thinking.

"He was weak and cowardly, following whoever would give him power," Remus said. "Buffy had her own power and was strong enough and brave enough not to do something that stupid. She'd never take orders from anyone; it just wasn't her style. She had a good heart."

They sat in thoughtful silence for a while, wondering how on earth Buffy could've been on the map if she hadn't been alive. It didn't make any sense.

"She didn't turn into a ghost, did she?" Hermione asked.

"No," Remus said, looking at the three kids more clearly now. "What are you three up to? What's going on?"

"Nothing, we just want to know if we could see her," Hermione said. "You don't have a picture, do you?"

"No," Remus said, eyeing them carefully. "Where did you say you heard about her from?'

"Snape," Harry said quickly. "He said something vague, you know how he is."

"Right," Remus sighed, buying it for now. "He's just trying to get Sirius worked up again."

"I should probably go apologize," Harry said abashed.

"Later. Right now he needs to cool down and sort through his feelings. More things are coming to him the longer he stays away from Azkaban. Having nothing else to do all day, his thoughts overwhelm him and I'm willing to bet most of them center around her."

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"Anything?" Buffy asked, looking around the map with wide, hopeful eyes. They had found a different locating spell that might lead them to Remus and/or Sirius. If it worked.

"Nothing," Willow said with a sigh. "I don't understand. This should've worked through any magic guarding them. It's a very obsure spell!"

"It's okay," Buffy said softly.

"Maybe they're dead," Anya piped up. "That might be the reason they don't show up ever."

"I don't think that's it," Willow said with a frown and a glance at Buffy.

"They're not dead. They can't be dead. Let's just try again. Give me the book."

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It wasn't until Sunday that Harry got the opportunity to apologize. Hermione made them finish their homework while they were waiting for Sirius to calm down, although most of the time they spent talking about Buffy.

"How is it possible?" Hermione asked, frustrated.

"Maybe it was a fluke," Harry said. "They said they dedicated the map to her, so maybe she has a dot that just wanders the halls sometimes. You know, so they don't forget her."

"I don't know," Hermione said. "I think she's still alive. She'd be about thirty, right?" she asked. "Thirty-one?"

"Something like that, yeah," Harry said. "But I don't think she's alive. They brought back her body. It wasn't like Pettigrew," he said, not wanting to get his hopes up of having other family.

"That's true," Hermione said thoughtfully, "but it is possible to transfigure something to look like a body. It wouldn't be alive, which wouldn't be a problem if you're faking a death."

"If she's not dead, why wouldn't she have come forward earlier?" Harry asked. "Why would she wait sixteen years? Why would I have lived with the Dursleys for so long?"

"Maybe," Hermione said hesitantly, "because Voldemort had her death faked so he could mold her to his liking."

"Don't be ridiculous," Ron said.

"It's just a suggestion," Hermione huffed. "A very plausible suggestion from what evidence we have."

"Professor Lupin said that she would never join Voldemort," Ron said. "Or were you too busy concocting weird theories to pay any attention?"

"It makes sense. She had power, was almost put in Slytherin, and was a little afraid of what she might do. If the Potters were such big enemies against Voldemort, what better way to make them suffer than by turning one of their own against them?"

"No," Harry said. "Voldemort was gone for thirteen years, and not even heard of for ten. What happened to her then?"

"It's possible she stayed at a Death Eater's house," she suggested.

"But with all the raids and trials that went on?" Ron questioned. "I don't think they would've overlooked a dead girl."

"There are ways to conceal things," Hermione said weakly. "I mean, she could've been using Polyjuice potion or something."

"I doubt it," Ron said.

"It was just a theory," Hermione said. "I never said it was true."

"It was a good theory," Harry said. "I just don't want to believe it."

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"Sirius?" Harry called, knocking on his bedroom door where he'd been cooped up for about a day.

"Come in," a voice answered from inside.

Harry hesitantly opened the door and let himself in. He walked forward and saw Sirius feeding and petting Buckbeak in the other room. Upon approaching him, Harry bent down low and then came back up, waiting for Buckbeak to do the same before he walked forward to pet the creature.

"I'm sorry about yesterday," Harry said. "I shouldn't have yelled."

"Remus told you?" Sirius asked quietly.

"Yeah," Harry said, avoiding looking at his godfather. "I'm sorry."

"It happened a long time ago," Sirius said. "I should probably be over it by now."

"I lost my parents and I'm not completely over it and I never really knew them. Plus, I doubt time in Azkaban helps clear your mind," Harry said.

"No, if anything, it made it worse. Some days I'd see nothing but that night, replaying over and over. I can still hear her crying for James."

"You really loved her, didn't you?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. I'm fairly certain she loved me, too," he said.

"You never thought about going out with anyone else?" Harry asked.

"No. We only had a year left at Hogwarts and then James and Lily got married. The threat from Voldemort was still strong and I wasn't in the mood to lose someone else. And then Halloween came and I got shipped off to Azkaban. I didn't really meet the nicest girls in there and I can tell you there aren't many women that want to date an escaped murderer. Plus, I kind of felt like I would be cheating on her, even though she was gone. A part of me just didn't want to believe it. I think that part still doesn't.

"I wish you could've met her," Sirius added after a moment of silence. "You would've liked her. You're like her in quite a few ways, especially since she was under the influences of James and Lily. She was impulsive and fun like James, but she was smart and imaginative like Lily. She had a way with words that was uniquely her own."

"She sounds nice," Harry said quietly, still petting Buckbeak.

"She was the best," Sirius answered.

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"She's a menace!" Umbridge screeched at Fudge Sunday evening. "Look at what she's doing! She's playing with your head! She's been doing it for months now!"

"She is doing no such thing, and I won't let you go back to work until you've gotten a grip on yourself," Fudge said.

"That's just what she wants, don't you see? She's controlling you!" Umbridge cried.

"That's enough," Fudge said.

"No! Just listen to me! Do you even know who she is? Where she came from before this? No one has heard of a Sarah Fox. She doesn't seem to exist and she certainly didn't work at the ministry before. In any department," Umbridge said.

"What?" Fudge asked, his mind becoming a little clearer.

"She's controlling you somehow; she never registered her wand, the guard barely remembers her, and she went up against the Malfoys! You would never let her do that unless she's been controlling you, getting what she wants."

"You've really been researching this haven't you?" Fudge asked.

"Yes, well, I've been out of a job the last two days; there's not much more for me to do except to bring the bitch down," Umbridge said. "She's ruining all our plans for Hogwarts, or haven't you noticed? We had Mr. Potter cornered and he was going to be expelled, and then she comes along. Every scrape he's gotten himself into, she's been there to brush it all away on some technicality or something. We're loosing our grip on the school and the situation! She must be stopped."

"Why didn't I see it before?!" Fudge said angrily to himself.

"She's been controlling you, sir," Umbridge repeated.

"Controlling the Minister of Magic. Even Dumbledore can't get her out of this scrape! She's going to have a lifetime sentence in Azkaban for this and I'll have to make sure Dumbledore goes in with her; it seems as though he's been behind this attack on me the whole time. Then you can have control of the school and the Potter problem will be solved quickly, I'm sure," Fudge said with a glance at Umbridge.

"Excellent, Minister. What's our course of action?"

"We must catch her unawares and do it in front of quite a few people so she can't get away. Accusing her and Dumbledore with plenty of witnesses around."

"Tomorrow at dinner?" Umbridge suggested viciously.

"Perfect. I want dementors waiting outside, but don't let them in. Merlin knows I don't want them around me, and I'm sure Dumbledore will be able to do something if they're in his precious school. I'll have fifteen Aurors walk in with me. Don't go to Hogwarts tomorrow; keep acting like nothing has changed. You're still out of a job. Hopefully she'll be blissfully unaware when we blast through the doors."

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"Are you all ready to go?" Sirius asked the three kids.

"Yeah," Harry said. He didn't want to go. Sure he wanted to go back to Hogwarts, but he felt bad about leaving Sirius again. Fortunately Remus had been staying with him. Ever since some mission he went on, Remus had been restricted to the house with Sirius. Perhaps it was for his own safety, but perhaps Dumbledore had wizened up and realized Sirius couldn't be cooped up in a house for too long. He was the trouble making type, not the sit still and do what your told type.

"Don't do anything too stupid," Sirius said. "Your mum would kill me if she knew you got expelled."

"I'll try my best," Harry said with a smile.

"Be careful," Remus said as the kids grabbed onto the portkey that would take them back to Hogwarts.

"Of course," Harry said with a cheeky grin before they disappeared.

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CHAPTER 34: NUMBER 12

"Sorry, Buffy," Willow said, watching her friend throw down the map in frustration.

"It's just... I'm... I know he's alive," Buffy said, fumbling with how to describe her feelings. "I know he's out there, somewhere; I just can't seem to find him!"

"If he is alive," Anya began, "he's obviously using magic to hide himself."

"We've been through this," Buffy said tiredly. "That's why we found this spell that should see through all magic."

"If the whole world is looking for him, don't you think someone would have tried that spell by now?" Anya explained. "He's using something more powerful; something that wouldn't fall apart under simple location spells."

"Of course!" Willow said. "If he's an escaped mass murderer, he's not going to let people find him. There might be all kinds of spells on him that protect him from other spells."

"But that much magic would have to leave a trace or a mark, right?" Buffy said. "Can you find any extreme amount of magic residue, Will?"

"I can," Willow said. "It might take me awhile, but I'll get it eventually."

"Why don't you go back to Hogwarts?" Giles asked. "It's getting late and you have class in the morning. You've been at this all night."

"Yeah, that's probably best," Buffy said. "Why don't you guys floo me if you have any news?"

"Floo? Oh, you mean the fireplace thing," Xander said with a shudder.

"But I thought you said we couldn't use that," Willow said, confused.

"You couldn't before because Umbridge was checking all the connections. Now that she's gone it'll be a lot more convenient. Safe, too," Buffy said.

"Somehow I can never get past the whole 'stepping into fire' part," Xander said. "That never screams safe to me."

"Safe as in you won't get caught," Buffy explained. "If no one's checking then no one cares."

"Great. I'll get started and you go get some rest, you look terrible," Willow said, shooing Buffy.

"Thanks, mom," Buffy said sarcastically.

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"You should probably ask for your map back tomorrow, Harry," Hermione said as they dropped their bags in front of the couches in the Gryffindor common room. "It's past curfew and you never know what she'll do."

"But I have to see if it's real. Maybe it was just a fluke, maybe she's not really here," Harry argued.

"I don't know why you just didn't tell Lupin you saw her on the map," Ron said, plopping unceremoniously on the couch.

"I couldn't," Harry sighed. "They all thought she was dead and if it turns out it was a fluke, I would've gotten their hopes up for nothing. Or, maybe it wasn't a fluke and maybe she really is alive."

"I don't see a problem there," Ron said.

"If she is alive, it's a Peter Pettigrew problem all over again," Hermione said, catching onto Harry's train of thought.

"Huh?" Ron asked through a yawn.

"If it's real, and they have a body buried for her, then someone obviously planted the body and raised her in the ways of the Death Eaters. She might be a traitor and we couldn't tell them that," Harry said. "Sirius loved her and so did Lupin. It'd kill them to know she's a follower of Voldemort. They think she's perfect."

"Right," Ron said. "That would be bad."

"And if she is alive, then you shouldn't be going to find her," Hermione said sternly. "She's probably here to bring you to Voldemort just like Crouch did last year."

"If I had the map, I'd know how to find her and stay away from her," Harry said, getting back on their original topic of discussion.

"Harry Potter, don't start with me!" Hermione lectured. "We've been best friends for five years now and we both know that if you have that map you'd go after her."

Harry sighed but didn't bother to argue.

"At least wait until morning, that way we can go with you," Hermione said sitting next to him.

That was unexpected.

Harry looked over at her with surprise written on his features.

"What?" she asked innocently. "I know you're going after her despite anything anyone says, so we might as well go with you. Besides, if she is evil, I'm not letting you fight her alone."

"Thanks, Hermione," Harry said with a smile.

"Of course. That's what friends do," she said, a blush creeping up her neck. "Besides, it would look awfully suspicious if you went now and asked for a blank piece of parchment."

"I know, I just want some answers," Harry said. "Everything's always a mystery."

"But that's the fun of it," Ron said with a cheeky grin.

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Buffy was walking towards her room, intending to sleep for a very long while, at least until classes started in the morning. She turned the corner and saw the familiar portrait guarding her room.

Before she could reach it, a hand snuck out and grabbed her elbow, spinning her around and causing her to become slightly off balance by the surprise attack. She twirled around and smacked into a man's chest, hard but somewhat soft and warm. Buffy tilted her head up from the black robes and her lips turned up in a smile as she looked into a pair of dark eyes. "Sirius," she breathed.

"Buffy," he said with relief, his arms wrapping around her. "I knew it was you. Where have you been?"

"I've been looking for you," Buffy said, relaxing into his embrace.

"You haven't been looking hard enough," he said. "You should have found me by now."

"I have been," Buffy said, hurt coming over her features. "I've been looking everywhere! I've even got my friends to help me."

"They don't know me, how could they help?" Sirius asked. "You should know where to look."

"But I," Buffy said, only to be interrupted by Sirius.

"It's going to happen soon, you know. Are you ready?"

"Sirius, stop being so..."

"Serious?" Sirius joked.

"No," Buffy smirked. "Earnest. It doesn't suit you. Besides, you're scaring me," she said, nuzzling into his shirt.

"I thought it was essential to be earnest," Sirius said.

"It's important, yes, but not essential," Buffy said. "You're much more fun when you loosen up."

"How loose should I be?" Sirius asked with a smile.

"I'll let you know," Buffy said as his lips came down upon her own. The kiss the two shared quickly escalated and they found themselves wanting more from each other. Hands began to roam and clothes started to come undone.

"My room... is right... here," Buffy said as Sirius began kissing along her neck. The only response she got was a short grunt. "James," Buffy breathed, causing Sirius to stop what he was doing and look at her incredulously.

"I know you two were close but that was just disturbing," Sirius said.

"No," Buffy said with a smile. "It's my password." Buffy pointed to the picture of the lake that seemed to be in the middle of a storm. Waves crashed on the shore and the pier buckled under the force of the rain and waves. In a small little hut, a frowning boy and girl could be seen looking longingly out the window.

"Oh, good," Sirius said. "That's never happened to me before and I really didn't want to start with you."

"There's nothing else on my mind," Buffy said, reaching up for another kiss.

"How come I'm not your password?" Sirius asked, pulling back indignantly.

"I was in shock and he was the first thing on my mind!" Buffy said, rolling her eyes.

"Why weren't you thinking about me?" Sirius asked.

"Because I had just seen Harry, who happens to look exactly like James," Buffy said. "I can't even believe we're having this conversation!" she said suddenly, realizing what they were talking about.

"Well, I just want to know you're still my girl," Sirius said.

"As always," Buffy smiled. "Besides, you know James couldn't ever take me from you."

"Not that he hasn't tried," Sirius remembered unhappily.

"He's my brother, he's just looking out for me," Buffy defended. "The only thing you ever have to be is scared of him. You're dating his baby sister. Besides it being illegal, there is the whole ick factor," Buffy said, switching topics quickly, "and I think I will be sick the next time you even try to insinuate that again. I can't even say it myself."

"Can you blame me?" Sirius asked.

"He's my brother, you're my... "

"Lover?" Sirius suggested.

"Not yet," Buffy said with a sly smirk. "But we can fix that."

"You'll have to find me, first," he said while Buffy pulled him close for another kiss and they both backed up awkwardly into Buffy's chambers. However, when Buffy opened her eyes, Sirius was gone.

"Sirius?" she asked. Buffy turned around and noticed that she wasn't in her bedroom like she had thought. Instead, she was in a dark hall that looked vaguely familiar. It wasn't someplace she had been often, but maybe someplace she had seen once or twice in her life.

Knowing better than to call out in a dark, unfamiliar place, Buffy carefully and quietly walked down the hall, noticing a series of heads lined up on the walls. "House-elves," she breathed quietly. Voices from a room up ahead caused her to quicken her pace a little.

"He shouldn't have gone back to Hogwarts," a deep voice growled. "Not until we've eliminated this threat."

"I know, Alastor," another, more familiar voice answered wearily. "But there's nothing to be done."

"It's like asking for trouble. You know the boy's going to do something stupid."

'Moody?' Buffy thought. 'As in Alastor Moody, the auror?' He was here, wherever here was.

"Harry has good intentions," the tired voice answered. "He just isn't always the most observant of traps and people's intentions."

"That's what I've been trying to teach them all. CONSTANT VIGILANCE! They have to be prepared for anything."

"They seem to handle surprises fairly well. Much better than Sirius and I."

'Sirius?' Buffy thought wildly. 'It's Remus! That's where I've heard the voice before!'

"Where is he, anyway?" Moody asked. "I haven't seen him all weekend."

"He's been locked up in his room with Buckbeak," Remus said. "I think he's still sleeping."

'Buckbeak?' Buffy mouthed in confusion. Buffy was torn with what to do next. She could stay here and possibly see Remus and Moody or she could go and see Sirius. Buffy carefully backed away, not hearing the rest of their conversation. Wandering around a bit, she found the stairs and started up them. With every step she took, she became a tiny bit more familiar with the house. She knew where this was; she'd seen it before, but where?

Almost as if on autopilot, Buffy wandered down the halls and up the stairs, instinctually knowing she was going to Sirius' room. The door at the end of the hallway; it was there. He was in that room. Buffy's pace sped up slightly in anticipation. The thought of knocking flitted around briefly before she decided to forgo that and just barge right in. She grabbed the doorknob, took a deep breath in and turned.

As the door swung open, Buffy bolted upright in her bed at Hogwarts, breathing deeply, letting the sun from the window wash over her.

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At the same time, Sirius sat up in bed, once again dreaming about Buffy. Both times, she was at Hogwarts, making him wonder how Harry found out about her in the first place.

Sirius rushed down the stairs and barged into the kitchen, interrupting Remus telling Moody that Harry had found out that James had a younger sister.

"What's wrong?" Remus asked, sensing his old friend's distress.

"I had another dream," he said hurriedly. "I have to go to Hogwarts!"

"Wait, slow down," Remus said. "Why do you have to go to Hogwarts?"

"I think she's alive!" Sirius said. "I had another dream about her. Both times she's been at Hogwarts."

"Sirius," Remus said sadly. "She's gone, okay? She's not coming back. She's not at Hogwarts."

"But she is! I know it!"

"Have you ever had prophetic dreams?" Moody asked.

"No," Sirius said after a pause.

"Then how do you know she's at Hogwarts? Did you think you'd start now? Any seers in your family?"

"No," Sirius said again. "But I know she's there."

"I know you miss her and it's harder for you since you've been in Azkaban and things are finally coming back to you, but all those thoughts and feelings are just old feelings that have been repressed by the Dementors," Remus said. "It's happened to other people who've spent only a couple of months or a few years in there. You've spent twelve years in there so it's only natural that it takes a couple of years for the memories to flood back. And now with Harry finding out and all . . ."

"No, she's back," Sirius said again, only this time he was much less convincing.

"You can't go to Hogwarts anyway," Remus said. "The ministry officials are there, not to mention other students that wouldn't have a problem turning you in. You're still a wanted murderer and you can't go anywhere. I'm sorry."

"He's right. I was there that night, remember?" Moody said. "I saw them kill her and I couldn't do anything about it. All I could do is bring her body back to her family. Not that that was an easy task."

"That's right!" Sirius said suddenly. "You were there! You were the auror that brought Buffy back. Is there any way she could have escaped?"

"'Fraid not," Moody sighed. "They were taking her somewhere and they saw me coming. I guess they didn't think they'd be able to escape, the way she was kicking and screaming, so they killed her. I was too far away to do anything about it and then they disapperated, leaving the body behind."

"See?" Remus said to his old friend. He didn't like to see Sirius like this and he didn't want to cause his friend any more pain. Chasing after old memories wasn't going to help him any. It would only make the pain worse because he had gotten his hopes up.

"It was probably just a dream," Sirius consented sadly, walking out the door with his head bowed.

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Harry, Hermione and Ron arrived to DADA class early, hoping to ask Professor Fox about the map. Unfortunately, she didn't rush in until two minutes after class had already started.

"Stand up and move towards the side wall," was the only thing she said after she performed the ritual spells. The class did what they were told, staring at their disheveled and obviously bothered professor. With a flick of her wrist, all the desks disappeared and a nice blue mat covered the once hard floor.

"Pair up with people of approximately the same size and or skill level. You shall be dueling today using everything we've learned so far, both physical and magical defense. Get started and I'll be back later." With that said, Buffy walked out of class, leaving the students rather confused.

"Okay, what do we do now?" Ron asked Harry.

"I guess we'll have to wait until after class."

"We should probably pair up now," Hermione said, taking charge of the class now that the professor was gone. "We've done this before so maybe we should do something different. If we keep alternating partners, soon everyone will have dueled everyone, what do you think?"

There were several glances around the room and eventually plenty of nods in agreement.

"Let's get started," she said and the class began their dueling. It was actually a pretty fun class, one of the best they had, and members of the D.A. went around helping others if they needed it.

The minutes ticked away and yet Professor Fox still didn't show up to class. The double period class.

"I wonder what's happened to her," Neville said to Hermione.

"I don't know," she frowned. "She didn't look very well when she came in. Maybe she's ill."

"Maybe," Neville said, glancing once again at the door.

Everyone had gotten a really good session out of class and managed to have a fun time, so no one was too disappointed that Professor Fox didn't show up when the class ended. No one except Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Where is she?" Harry wondered.

"Maybe she is sick. We'll stop by her office later but right now we have to get to Potions," Hermione said, dragging Harry and Ron behind her.

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Buffy was not feeling well. She had just spent the last hour sitting in the bathroom splashing water on her face, trying to figure out what her dream meant. She woke up feeling disoriented, and late for class, and she just couldn't shake the feeling that something was really off. She had flooed Giles and told him the gist of her dream and the strange feeling she'd been having all morning. He told her he'd look into it and see if the day or the way the stars were aligned had any significant meaning.

She also asked whether Willow had any luck, but he sadly replied that her search for an intense magical area hadn't yelded positive results, causing Buffy to be even more frustrated.

No matter what Buffy tried to focus on, her mind still went back to Sirius. She could still feel his lips on hers... his hand running through her hair... .

"Stop that!" Buffy muttered quietly. "Focus. Possible apocalyptic feelings, strange dream. Where was Sirius? He was in his bedroom. With the bed... and the sheets... argh!" Buffy yelled, splashing more water on her face. "THINK! Where have I seen that house before? House-elves... kitchen... stairs..." Buffy started pacing, urging her mind to concentrate on the problem at hand; she closed her eyes to imagine herself in the dream again. "Stairs... went up... bedroom... Sirius was in his bedroom... his bedroom... Of Course!" Buffy said suddenly. "He was in his bedroom. His house! Brilliant! He's been hiding in front of everyone this whole time!"

Buffy ran out of the bathroom and rushed to her study, anxious to floo Willow. She had only been to Sirius' house once before and didn't remember where he actually lived. Her parents were out of town for the day and Sirius had invited James over to play (if he couldn't be at James' house, he wasn't going to be alone at his) and Buffy, by default, had gone with. She remembered hating that house, and the creepy house-elf heads, not to mention the live one.

It wasn't long before she was in her office talking to Willow, forgetting, in all the excitement, to shut her office door properly.

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"Come on," Harry said, rushing out of the hated Potions dungeon. "Maybe we can reach her before lunch."

"Assuming she's even in her office," Hermione said, racing after Harry.

The three students quickly made it to Professor Fox's office, but came up short by the sound of voices carrying through the slightly opened door.

"She has company," Hermione whispered. "Maybe we should come back later."

"Or we could stay and listen," Ron said as Harry crept closer to the door.

" ... can't remember his address but I know he has to be there," Professor Fox was saying.

"So you want me to find out where he lives?" an unfamiliar voice asked.

"Or used to, yeah. There's bound to be a couple of spells on the house, something that wouldn't be too obvious that someone was hiding there, but something strong enough to hide him. He's an escaped murderer after all. Hundreds of people are looking for him," Professor Fox said.

"You don't think she's talking about..." Hermione asked with a look at Harry.

"So find the Black house and remove all the spells. Sounds simple enough," the new voice was saying.

"She is," Harry said, anger overwhelming him.

"But she can't get past the spell, can she?" Ron asked.

"No, only the secret keeper can give away the information," Hermione said. "He should be pretty safe."

"I'm coming with," Professor Fox was saying. "When we find him, I want to be there."

"I don't know if you should. I don't want to get your hopes up again. We've been looking for months now."

"I know, but this time I'm sure we're going to find him. Besides, you're going to need my help with whatever spell he has protecting him."

"Okay," the unfamiliar voice said slowly. "I just don't want you to get hurt."

"I'll be fine. I've survived worse than this," Professor Fox said. "Let's go."

"I can't believe her!" Harry yelled, after hearing her floo out. "She's spent months trying to make me trust her and the whole time she's been trying to get Sirius, she probably wanted me to tell her where Sirius was! She can't find him! We can't let her find him!" Harry ran off suddenly, Hermione and Ron following.

There was no need to ask where they were heading. It was obvious to all of them that their only hope in this situation was to go to Dumbledore. He'd know what to do.

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"The Black family used to live at Number 12 Grimmauld Place before they all died or went to prison," Willow said, reading from the files she had magically hacked into. "Does that sound right?"

"Yeah, I think so. It was a really long time ago, but that rings a bell," Buffy said. "Are you ready?"

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"Master," Wormtail said, cowering at the feet of Voldemort, "it is finished. They have finished construction and initial examination. They only wait for you to test it."

"Excellent," Voldemort said, standing up. "It seems we might be busy tonight."

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"Come in," Dumbledore said upon hearing the incessant knocking on his door. He wasn't very surprised to see Harry, Ron and Hermione barge in, but it was their urgent manner that alerted him that something was not right.

"Professor!" Harry gasped. It seemed that they had run all the way up to his office, from wherever they had come from, and were completely out of breath.

"Take a deep breath, Harry," Dumbledore said calmly. "What's wrong?"

"Sirius... she's after Sirius... you can't let her... get him," he said, his breath slowly coming back.

"Who is after Sirius?" Dumbledore asked, although he had a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly who it was.

"Professor Fox, sir," Harry said, confirming Dumbledore's suspicions. "We overheard her talking to someone... in her office. They said they knew where he was and that... there were some protection spells around him."

"She shouldn't be able to get to the house," Dumbledore said with a small frown. "That's the whole point of the spell."

"They acted like it might not be a problem," Hermione added helpfully.

"Please, Professor," Harry said. "You have to warn them. Tell them to leave the house. At least for a while. She can't get him."

"Very well," Dumbledore said after a moment of studying Harry. It was next to impossible for her to get to the house without his information, but stranger things had happened. Besides, Harry was still a little shaky around him and if anything happened to Sirius, Dumbledore didn't think Harry would ever forgive him. Dumbledore gave a nod towards one of the old Headmaster's paintings and the old man disappeared from the frame.

"Thank you," Harry said.

"I believe I can find a room to temporarily house Sirius and Remus," Dumbledore said. He waved his wand and a whole bookcase moved to reveal a small door. "They shall not be allowed to leave this room," Dumbledore said looking at Harry gravely. "And you may not visit them all the time. It wouldn't do to have Miss Fox find an empty house only to discover that they are sitting in Hogwarts itself."

"I understand," Harry said, nodding gratefully.

"I'm sure you'll want to spend some time with them, however, and you may do so at your leisure. Just use your judgment and don't be seen," Dumbledore said, a bit of his old twinkle returning to his eyes.

"Thank you, sir," Harry said again.

"Always a pleasure, Harry," Dumbledore said, just when Sirius and Remus appeared holding on to an old cup.

"Harry!" Sirius said happily. "Good to see you again!"

"You too, Sirius," Harry said with a smile. They hadn't been apart for more than a day and they were greeting each other like they hadn't seen each other in months.

"I guess I made it to Hogwarts, after all," Sirius said with a glance at Remus. One that Dumbledore didn't miss and didn't quite understand.

"As I have just finished telling them, you aren't allowed to leave your room," Dumbledore said, explaining that their mysterious Ministry employee had been searching for Sirius for several months.

"But they can't find the house unless you told them, right?" Remus asked.

"They shouldn't be, no, but Harry thought it was necessary to evacuate you, so I complied with his request," Dumbledore said. "You'll be staying here. Now, I think I shall leave you alone while I go eat some lunch." Before Ron could open his mouth to protest, Dumbledore swished his wand and caused a full plate of sandwiches and several goblets of pumpkin juice to appear on his desk. "I think these will fill you up," he said with a wink, leaving his office.

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CHAPTER 35: GRIMMAULD PLACE

Buffy, Willow, Xander, Anya and Giles appeared suddenly, and shakily, on the deserted streets of Grimmauld Place.

"Remind me why you insist on traveling like this," Xander said, picking himself off the ground.

"It's fast and cheap," Buffy shrugged. "You just have to get used to portkeys; they get easier with time. I think."

"So what house are we looking for, again?" Anya asked.

"Number 12," Buffy said, scanning the street. They were at the entrance to the subdivision, right in front of Number 1. "I really hope nobody saw us," Buffy said as she realized they were in plain view of the entire street in broad daylight. "Do English people do the whole Sunnydale thing or do they believe what they see?"

"It depends," Giles said. "Unless someone was avidly staring out their window at the exact spot we appeared from, they might believe it was a trick of the light of their lack of attention."

"Gotta love the Sunnydale syndrome," Buffy said, walking down the road, her friends falling behind her. "Are you picking up any magic residue, Will?"

"Yeah, but it's not as strong as I would've thought," she said.

"Well that's good, right?" Buffy asked happily, although everyone could hear the anxiety present in her voice.

"It should be," Willow said. They continued to walk past all the old houses that all looked the same. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this; it's like some weird twilight zone or something."

"The English are practical and don't feel the need for..."

"Individuality?" Buffy interrupted.

"Useless space," Giles answered, glaring at Buffy.

"So do they not feel the need for the number 12?" Xander asked, speaking up after he noticed the missing number.

"What the..." Buffy said, looking at the numbers. On her left, there stood Number 11. On her right stood Number 13.

"Where'd Number 12 go?" Anya asked.

"Do the English have a different counting system?" Xander asked.

"Well, they put all their numbers on the one side," Willow said. "We split our streets up even on the right side and odd on the left. Or odd on the right and even on the left, depending on which way you're going. Either way, we segregate our numbers," Willow said with pride before she fully realized what she said. "Oh. Hey, wait! Why do we segregate our numbers! We're supposed to be the land of the free and equality and all that, not that we really are, but we're getting better. Although I do have some bones to pick with the way we still treat..."

"Willow, off topic," Buffy said gently.

"Right, sorry," she said sheepishly.

"I don't understand..." Buffy said.

"Join the club. I'm president," Xander said. "You can be Vice President if you want, although I think Anya would probably like that so you could be treasurer or something, although Anya would probably like that too and I'm shutting up now."

"Thank the Lord," Giles said quietly, removing his glasses.

"The point is," Buffy said, interrupting any more discussion, "we can't get into a house we can't find. So, how do we find the house?"

"Well, I can feel the magic radiating off this place; not a lot, but enough to know a spell was cast," Willow said. "It feels like only one, but a strong one."

"Wow, she's really quite the smart one," Anya said, which only earned her a glare from Willow.

"A single spell," Buffy said, thinking to herself whilst the others bickered. "There are single spells all over the place! I mean, we have spells on the Leaky Cauldron to keep muggles away; only by knowing that it's there will you be able to see it. We have spells on some cars to make them speed right through other traffic, I mean, it looks like the buildings are being pushed away to make room for it. What am I missing?"

"Maybe they shrunk it," Anya suggested helpfully, tuning in to Buffy's muttering. "That's why you can't find it; everyone is really, really tiny," she said, beginning to look around the area between the houses.

"Ahn," Xander said, giving his girlfriend a look. "I don't think the neighbors want you peering in their bushes."

"Why not?" she asked. "It's not like I'm looking in their windows while they're having sex," she said. "The shades are drawn, the doors are locked, and it's not like I could've if I wanted to. Not that I would," she said defensively due to the stares she was getting. "I'm just saying if I wanted to. But I don't. Want to."

"Doors," Buffy said, a sudden memory deterring her attention. "Doors..."

"What about doors," Giles asked, thankful for the reprieve.

"It just reminded me about my dream," Buffy said.

"What happened in your dream?" Giles asked, intrigued.

"Sirius and I were standing in front of a door to my room," Buffy said.

"And?" Giles asked. "What happened?"

"Nothing. We were just talking."

"About what?"

"Um..." Buffy said, thinking back. "We were talking about... James! We were talking about James."

"And what about James?" Giles asked.

"No... not about James," Willow said remembering. "It's about James!"

"Wait. What?" Xander asked.

"It's not supposed to be about James the person, it's a reminder of James and what happened," Willow said excitedly. "Remember the vampire in the cemetery? We learned that when James and Lily went into hiding, they had..."

"... a secret keeper," Buffy said. "Of course. The only way for him to stay hidden from anyone is to have a Fidelius Charm performed! It would hide his actual location and deter anyone from using location spells to track him down. Remus must be the secret keeper; that's why we couldn't find him either! They're both in the house!"

"So how do we get into the house?" Xander asked.

"Well, normally only the people who are told the address by the secret keeper can find the house. I think," Buffy said. "Seeing as how we haven't been told, we can't find the house."

"So again, how do we get in the house?" Xander asked.

"That's where we come in," Willow said. "We should be able to break the spell using Wiccan magic. If we find a tiny flaw in the magic somewhere we'd be able to make the hole bigger and eventually break the spell."

"Why would there be a flaw?" Anya asked.

"If the spell's not done perfectly, which only a very, very powerful wizard would be able to do that, or if the secret keeper let a lot of people in on the secret," Willow said. "The more people that know, the more strain it will produce, causing little flaws to occur in the magical structure. Nothing noticeable, of course," she added. "Unless you're me."

"Seeing as how Sirius is a convicted murderer, I don't think a lot of people are in on the secret, so we'll have to go with option number one and hope that no one really powerful cast the spell," Buffy said. "And unless Remus gained quite a bit of power while I was gone, I don't think that's happening. I mean, he was good, he just wasn't flawless."

"Okay," Willow said, taking a deep breath, "this is going to take quite a bit of energy because we're breaking a magical barrier. I'm going to need everyone's help. If we stand in a circle and hold hands, I can use your energy to force the spell that much more."

"Don't you have all the power you need?" Anya asked, "Because I clearly remember you having all the power you needed and I don't fancy getting my energy sucked out of me."

"I don't want to go back to that place," Willow said with a nervous shudder. "I won't take too much, but it'll be enough from keeping me from using all of mine and digging deeper to use the darker supply. I'd rather let that sit for a very long time."

"You can use plenty of mine," Buffy said, grabbing Willow's hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "I've got enough to share."

"Thanks," Willow said. "I'll also need you to help me look. We've been working on wandless magic for several months now, but it's only been a little at a time. Don't get me wrong, you're progressing at an amazing rate, but wandless magic is a little more tiring and takes more concentration that wand magic, so you'll have to be really careful. Remember what happened our first lesson."

"Right," Buffy said. "Don't worry, I'll be fine. We have been working on it almost every night, like you said."

Willow gave her a last worried look before nodding and grabbing Xander's hand. Xander in turn grabbed Anya, who grabbed Giles, who held on to Buffy, and soon they were in a circle focusing their energies. Willow could feel it all flowing into her and she opened her mind to the small empty space between Number 11 and Number 13 where Number 12 should've been. She could feel the magic pulsing around her and she began to see the magical barrier that kept the house hidden.

After a couple minutes of prodding and probing, Willow was able to "see" the house beneath the magical shell. Buffy and Willow worked together, their minds in synch, and look over the bluish shell in front of them. It wasn't too hard to find a flaw and Buffy found it much easier than she had anticipated. Perhaps Willow was just hyping it up trying to prepare her. It seemed that the wizard hadn't cast a perfect spell, although in reality it was just that too many people knew.

Buffy and Willow magically worked to make the little flaw into a small hole. It was kind of like undoing a sweater in one's mind. They saw the loose thread and they started pulling, creating a tiny empty space. They tried to pry their "fingers" into the hole, pulling it to widen the hole. The two of them began to deplete their magical sources; the strain was too much as the "shield" was "tightly woven." Buffy and Willow pulled on the energy from their friends and we finally able to gain the power to rip open the generous hole, tearing the shield in two and destroying the spell.

Everyone opened their eyes and began breathing heavily, their energies temporarily drained. It didn't take long to notice the appearance of Number 12 Grimmauld Place right between Numbers 11 and 13.

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Dumbledore was sitting in his office, Remus and Sirius in their room while the trio ran off to class, when he felt something odd pulling at him. It didn't really hurt but it was a sense of some discomfort for him. Over the next half and hour, the sense of discomfort began to grow. It seemed like he was struggling to hold himself together.

It had to be Professor Fox working her magic, but he couldn't believe how she was doing this. How could she get through his spell? Dumbledore concentrated hard, trying to resist the tearing he could feel; he was trying to repair the damage but, much to his amazement, it wasn't doing much good. How powerful was this woman and her friend? Who was she?

That was all Dumbledore could think before he felt a last surge of energy and the final ripping of the connection. They had destroyed the Fidelius Charm; something that has never been done before.

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"Looks like you did it," Xander said, breaking the silence.

"We did it," Buffy said.

"I wonder if they know the spell's gone," Anya said.

"I don't know, but I hope not," Buffy said.

"Perhaps it would be best if we hurried along," Giles said. "I don't think it would be wise to dawdle."

"You're right," Buffy said with a deep breath. "We're going in." This is what she had been waiting for. She was finally going to see Sirius again... for real, anyway. Buffy could hardly contain the emotions inside her. She was worried about what he'd say, afraid of what he might do, happy that she'd see him, anxious to see his reaction... this was it.

"Should we knock?" Willow asked as Buffy walked up to the door.

"Guess not," Xander said as Buffy used her magic, which was harder than she would have imagined after that spell, causing the door to swing wide open.

"We don't want to alert them," Buffy said quietly.

"Of course not," Xander said. "We'll just break into their magically sealed house and surprise the nice wizards with pointy wands and hope they don't kill us."

Buffy ignored Xander and crept quietly down the hallway, the others following close behind. "There aren't any heads," Buffy noticed, not knowing how Sirius removed them all during his house cleaning.

"Normally I'd take that as a good thing, but you seem to be taking it as a bad thing," Xander said. "Why?"

"There were heads in my dream."

"Right. And moving on."

'Kitchen,' Buffy mouthed, feeling a sense of unease creeping about her. She stepped up close to the door and gently pushed her way through, hoping not to startle anyone too much. She snuck in and then her heart stopped fluttering briefly as she saw no one else. She opened the door wider for her friends and looked around the place. "Someone's here," she said quietly, pointing to the still warm bowls of soup on the table.

Buffy moved out and began to search the rest of the house, her heart pounding wildly. She followed the path in her dream, going up the stairs and to the door, ignoring the growing agitation she felt. She walked towards it while her friends searched the other floors. She hadn't heard any screams or any scuffles, so she figured they hadn't found him yet. He had to be in his room.

Buffy stepped in front of the door and stared at it before hesitantly lifting her hand and knocking. After getting no response, she grabbed the door knob. "Sirius?" she called quietly, turning the door in front of her. "Sirius?" She stepped inside the room, looking around carefully. "Sirius?" she called again, her adrenaline pumping when she didn't get any answer. "Sirius?!" she yelled, wanting so badly for him to be there and the chase to be over.

Buffy raced through the room, noticing the clothes that littered the floor and the sheets that lay tangled on the bed. She checked the bathroom and found no one there and then frantically tried another door, freezing when she saw a giant creature staring back at her. "You must be Buckbeak," she said, remembering the conversation from her dream.

The beast that was a strange hybrid of bird and horse snorted at her, making Buffy quickly decide to leave the room. "Good animal thingy," she said, shutting the doors again.

Turning around, she remembered the reason why she was here in the first place and her heart rate jumped up dramatically. Where was he? He was supposed to be here! Running out of the room and down the stairs, Buffy raced back to the kitchen, unknowingly mimicking Sirius' movements from earlier that morning.

"Sirius?" she yelled out, wanting so badly to find him. She was tired of the game she was constantly playing. She just wanted to be held and kissed and loved again. She wanted everything to be okay. "Sirius? It's me, Buffy! I'm alive!" she called out desperately. "Sirius! Please come out!"

She made it back to the kitchen close to tears. She finally acknowledged the uneasiness that had been gnawing at her since she stepped foot in the house. Sirius wasn't here. The house was empty. "I don't understand," she said slowly after dejectedly pushing the kitchen door open. "They were right here... where are they?"

"I don't know," Willow said, hurting for the palpable pain of her friend.

"They were supposed to be here. He was supposed to be here and everything was going to be okay again," Buffy said.

"I know," Willow said.

"Where'd they go?" she asked like a lost little girl.

"I don't know," Willow repeated.

"I'm tired of not knowing!" Buffy yelled suddenly, her anger rising to the surface. "I'm tired of hiding! I'm tired of being in the dark! I'm tired of being alone! I'm just tired! I don't know who to trust or what to do or where to go! I don't know if I'm doing the right thing or if I'm falling into someone's trap! I don't know where Sirius is and I don't know how to find him! I'm tired of not knowing!" Buffy sobbed, throwing the bowl of soup against the wall.

Everyone in the room jumped and covered their ears as a giant wailing began to reverberate around the house. It seemed Buffy's loud screaming and the subsequent crashing of the bowl was enough to wake up Mrs. Black.

"What the hell is that?" Xander yelled, trying to be heard over the loud noises.

"I don't know!" Buffy growled, her hands over her ears. Buffy stalked out of the kitchen, trying to follow the noise to its source. "Shut up!" she yelled as she saw a wizard painting was the source of the noise.

"FILTHY MUDBLOODS... TRAITORS!" it screamed. "GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!"

Buffy could feel her anger rising inside of herself. It was bubbling over and mixing with her grief. "STOP YELLING!" she screamed at the painting.

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! TRAITORS!" the painting screamed again.

Buffy grabbed onto the picture frame, intending to rip it off the wall; unfortunately, all she got for her trouble was sore hands and louder yelling. Buffy then saw the curtains that seemed to be covering it at one point in time, but she yanked too hard and the shreds were left in her clenched fists.

"SHUT UP!" Buffy yelled again, the screeching becoming too loud for her as she covered her ears with her fists. The pain and anger and grief that were building suddenly erupted in the form of magic, causing the painting to explode off the wall. Bits of plaster and painting rained down in the blissfully quiet hall.

"Emotional control!" Willow said anxiously. "Emotional control!"

Buffy tried to calm down as Willow came over and did her best to help. Buffy actually felt much better after the explosion; it must have released a lot of the tension inside her. Although she was probably just exhausted from all the wandless magic she had done in such a short time.

"Well, it seems we have a solution for unsticking superglue," Xander said.

"Do you think we could market that?" Anya asked.

"Are you okay?" Willow asked when she saw Buffy was much calmer, although her hair and clothes were more disheveled and she was covered in plaster.

"I'm tired," Buffy said. "I just want to go home."

"Okay," Willow said comfortingly, wrapping her arms around Buffy, "We can go home."

"Now which home does she mean?" Anya asked. "The apartment or Hogwarts because I'm not giving up my bed."

"She can sleep with me," Willow said. "But not... with me," Willow added at the looks she received. "We're best friends. Nothing more."

"Oh, you've used that line with me many a times before," Xander said jokingly, remembering their kisses.

"I think it would be best if she stayed with us tonight," Giles added. "I don't really fancy her going back to Hogwarts in this state. It was bad enough we couldn't find Sirius, I doubt it would be much help to be alone."

"Couldn't find Sirius," Willow whispered to herself. "But we can!" she said suddenly, striking upon a very important thought. "Sirius was hidden here because of the spell. Now the spell's gone and he doesn't have anywhere else to hide! A simple tracking spell will help find him now."

Willow quickly conjured up a map and the necessary supplies while Buffy perked up slightly. She didn't want to get her hopes up too high in case nothing came of it. "I've got something," she said, looking at the blinking red dot on the map. "They're somewhere up north."

It didn't take too long before Willow was narrowing the search down with smaller and smaller maps, however, she got stuck before she could pinpoint an address.

"They're in the middle of nowhere," Giles said, reviewing the maps in front of him. "No streets go up there, no towns or cities, I would assume no people. It looks like they're just waiting in the woods."

"Or someplace else really far north," Buffy said, a twinkle returning to her eyes. "Someplace that wouldn't be anywhere near muggles."

"You think they're at Hogwarts?" Willow asked.

"They might be," Buffy said.

"But why would they go there?" Giles asked.

"They know the school better than anyone else," Buffy said, hope beginning to return to her voice. "If they wanted somewhere to hide quickly, I'll bet they went there. They could be in a dozen places in that school."

"Do you have the map with you?" Willow asked.

"No, it's at the school. I can't remember where I put it," Buffy said.

"Why don't you go get it?" Willow said. "Go to the school, find Sirius and Remus and if they're there then take them back to the apartment so we can meet them," Willow said encouragingly. "We'll be waiting."

Buffy's lips quirked up in the beginnings of a smile, and she quickly hugged Willow before turning into a beautiful phoenix.

"Aghh!" Xander said. "I keep forgetting she can do that! It's rather disturbing."

Buffy trilled a couple of notes at Xander, warming his being and casting all dark thoughts aside.

"And also very cool," he added, feeling much lighter and happier. Buffy herself was feeling the phoenix's healing affects. Her spirits lifted and she began to feel rejuvenated. She really loved phoenixes!

"Good luck," Giles said.

"Bring home the hotties!" she cried out before Buffy disappeared silently. "What?" she asked innocently.

"Bring home the hotties?" Xander asked looking at Willow amazed. "That's almost as bad as 'That's right big boy, come and get it,'" Xander said, flashing back to their summer slaying experience.

"I never said that," Willow said, blushing slightly.

"You did too," Xander said.

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Oh, do shut up."

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"It seems that Harry was right," Dumbledore said.

"They broke the spell?" Remus asked incredulously.

"Yes, about a half and hour ago. It was quite an interesting experience," Dumbledore said, "although it was quite tiring."

"How is that possible?" Sirius asked.

"I'm not quite sure," Dumbledore said. "I've never heard of anything like that before and I've never experience it, either. I'm not too fond of it, actually."

"What are we going to do?" Remus asked. "If she's that keen on getting Sirius..."

"I believe you are quite safe here, for the time being. Just stay out of sight and we'll come up with something," Dumbledore said getting ready to leave. "Someone's going to the house in a little while, trying to see what exactly happened."

"Do you think I could go with?" Remus asked.

"I thought you might ask," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye. "You can join Moody as soon as Professor Fox gets back to Hogwarts."

"Thank you," Remus said.

A little bell went off somewhere in the outer office and Dumbledore turned back to Remus. "It seems as if she's back already. Quite disappointed, I'm sure."

"What was that?" Remus asked.

"A signal I just set up to let me know when she returned back to her office," Dumbledore explained. "I believe you can floo if you hurry."

Remus hurriedly left the room and headed for the fireplace, while Dumbledore left his office to go attend other business, leaving Sirius alone in his room. Sirius changed into his animal form and waited briefly to make sure that Dumbledore was gone before he snuck out of the room he had promised to stay in. He had a painting to find.

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Buffy had just appeared in her office, making sure not to make too much noise, or land on anything. She quickly changed back and began searching the papers on her desk for the map she had taken from Harry.

She was in the process of frantically removing all the papers from her desk when the door opened. Buffy whipped out her wand and pointed it at the person staring back at her. "Oh, Harry, what are you doing here?" she asked, surprised to see her nephew.

"I trusted you," Harry spat. He had been waiting outside her office ever since the last class got out. People were already congregating in the Great Hall for dinner, Hermione and Ron included. "I trusted you and you were just using me for information."

"What?" Buffy asked, halting her search for what looked like a spare bit of parchment.

"For months now you've been doing things for me, trying to make me gain your trust so I'd tell you something or I'd let slip that I knew where someone was. You weren't doing anything for me... I was all just a part of your plan. I was a tool!"

"Harry, I have no idea what you're talking about," Buffy said, confused.

"Don't," Harry snapped. "Don't try and trick me again. It's not going to work. I know your tricks and I'm not falling for them again. I trusted you and you lied to me. You betrayed me. To think I was starting to like you... I hate you," he said.

Buffy was speechless for a moment, not understanding what was going on. "Harry, it's true, I have been trying to gain your trust, but not because I wanted anything from you. Well, I didn't want information from you. And I would never betray you. I have no idea what you're talking about or why you think that I did, but I didn't. The last time I saw you was when you were about to get expelled. I'm sorry if I saved you from that fate; I didn't know you wanted to be expelled."

"Prove it," Harry said, figuring he could use her guilt to his advantage. "Prove to me that you didn't betray me." He didn't know what was going on, why she wasn't confessing and why she looked genuinely confused, but he couldn't take another risk. Not with Sirius on the line.

"How?" Buffy asked, her eyes narrowing slightly at his tone.

"Where's that piece of paper you took from Umbridge?" Harry asked. "I need it back."

Buffy froze. She couldn't give him back the map for several reasons. One, she didn't want him to find out who she really was and two, she really didn't know where it was. "Why?" she asked, stalling for time.

"Hermione invented an invisible ink that can only be revealed with a certain thing," Harry said. "We were going to test it but Umbridge took it before we were able," Harry lied, having already made up this part. "She's really upset about it."

"Get a new piece of parchment," Buffy said.

"She used all the ink," Harry countered. Did she know what the map was for? If she did, she'd surely see Sirius and Remus in Dumbledore's office.

"Well that wasn't very smart, was it?" Buffy asked. "I hope she took detailed notes. She might have to be remaking it."

"Why? I just want the paper," Harry said.

"I don't know where it is," Buffy admitted. "I put it down somewhere and I can't remember where."

"Fine, I'll help you look," Harry said, walking up to the desk and pushing around papers. Even if she did know what it was, she couldn't have known how to work it. Buffy was about to open her mouth to object when Harry said, "You're proving, remember?"

Buffy clenched her teeth angrily and shoved a pile of papers at him, mostly homework assignments and essays, some graded, some not. "Fine," she hissed. "I'll go look in the closet." Buffy stomped over her now very messy office and yanked open the door to the closet, expecting to find some messy shelves.

What she found was worse.

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CHAPTER 36: DINNER AT HOGWARTS

Remus and Moody arrived at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, surprised to see it in standing between Numbers 11 and 13 without popping up from nowhere.

"I didn't believe it at first," Remus said with a shocked look. "I thought it was a mistake, possibly a very bad joke, but it seems she really did it."

"If she did, then we're dealing with a very powerful witch," Moody said. "We need to find out her motivations and stop her before she does any more damage. No one's inside, let's go."

Remus and Moody walked up the stairs and into the house in which used to house their headquarters. Remus quietly opened the door, not wanting to wake up Mrs. Black, and was shocked to stumble over debris when he took his first step. Did she destroy the inside of the house?

His loud fall caused enough noise to have woken up Mrs. Black and he prepared himself for the noise that never came. He looked up and lit his wand, illuminating the gaping hole in the wall where Mrs. Black's portrait once hung.

Standing up and brushing himself off, Remus glanced around everything else, noticing that the debris he tripped over must have come from the apparent explosion from the wall.

"How did she do that?" Moody asked, surprised. "We've been trying for months to get that thing off! We used every spell, explosive ones included!"

"You said she was powerful," Remus muttered, continuing on through the hall. "Personally I think we should be thanking her for that small miracle," he said.

"Thank her all you want after she throws Sirius back in Azkaban," Moody said following him to the kitchen.

"It looks like they've searched the place," Remus said with a general glance around, noticing opened doors and pulled back bookshelves.

"Apparently she wasn't happy with the lack of results," Moody said, pointing out the soup dripping from the wall and the shattered remains of the bowl on the floor.

"Good," Remus said. "Nothing else really seems to be missing or out of place. I don't get it. One would think that she'd be a little more through in her search, try to find out where he went."

"Maybe she's not that smart," Moody said.

"She got this far," Remus said with a frown. "She's proven herself entirely capable."

"Maybe she did get a lead," Moody suggested, "found something that she thought was significant."

"Or maybe she's even smarter than we think and she already found him," Remus said with a significant look at Moody.

"She's already back at Hogwarts, right?" Moody asked.

"Back in her office," Remus confirmed, his eyes widening with sudden realization, "with the map that she took from Harry the other day!"

"The map?"

"The map that shows everyone in the school!" Remus said. "She knows Sirius is at Hogwarts! We have to get him out!" It didn't take long for Moody and Sirius to portkey back to Hogwarts in Dumbledore's office.

To their surprise and horror, Sirius was not in the office or in the room that Dumbledore had procured for them.

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Sirius was currently sniffing around the school, after having picked up a slightly familiar scent in Dumbledore's office, that wasn't Harry's. It was fairly recent but was obscured slightly by several others, some new and some old. Fortunately, dogs had an amazing sense of smell and he was able to track it down the stairs and out of the office.

Sirius had been a dog in Hogwarts before so he was used to the barrage of smells that attacked his senses, but it was a little difficult to keep track of just one of them, especially since it seemed to be pulling him in different directions, which would make sense since she traveled all over the school.

The question was, which way did he go?

Thinking it through, while the halls emptied fairly quickly as everyone headed off to dinner, he decided to pick a way and follow it for a while. He knew he needed to head to rooms somewhere, so heading off to the library or the Great Hall wouldn't help him much. Plus he didn't want to get recognized, dog form or not.

It didn't help that Sarah Fox was back in the building, either.

After several minutes of searching and contemplation, Sirius seemed to get a solid scent and the hallways began to look eerily similar to the ones in his dreams. He knew he had to be getting close.

As the scent he was following seemed to suddenly go in several directions, Sirius was sure it had to be here, because every time she exited her room, a new scent would be created. He transformed out of his dog form, aware that there weren't too many paintings down this hallway so it was unlikely he'd be recognized.

Just as he had expected, there was a picture of a lake. Strangely enough, the sky was cloudy and rain pelted down, just like in his dream. "James," Sirius said after a moment's pause. As the door opened, Sirius let out an unbelieving breath.

He had never been one for prophecies or divination and now here he was, following a dream that, so far, had turned out to be impeccably right. It was eerie.

Sirius stepped into the room, cautiously looking around for any signs of Buffy. It didn't look like anyone was in the room but he could still find proof that she lived here. Then Remus would have to believe him and they could find her.

Sirius shrugged and began rifling through files and drawers, trying to find something useful, but all he could find were a couple of textbooks and other random books; it didn't look like she had very many personal items in the room. Sirius strode diligently over to the bedroom and opened the door, thinking that he was more likely to find something there.

He stopped in amazement as he saw a beautiful, rather young looking, phoenix sitting on the bed preening its feathers. "Buffy?" he asked softly, remembering how she had been able to transform into a phoenix. Down in his heart, he knew it wasn't her, knew it wasn't the same phoenix he had seen so many times before, but he had just wanted to hope.

That hope was dashed when the bird stopped preening and turned its head sharply to look at him. Sirius was confused because phoenixes were extremely rare, but the one on the bed wasn't Fawkes and it wasn't Buffy, so that meant it had to be another one, which was very strange.

Where in the world did Buffy find another phoenix? The only one he had ever heard of was Fawkes and he was sure that if there had been another one somewhere, word would have gotten out quickly. It was very strange.

Glancing to the side, Sirius noticed what looked like an overturned photograph lying on the bedside table. Walking over, the bird watching him the entire time, Sirius bent over and picked up the picture. He felt some shock at seeing the old photograph of James, Remus, him and Buffy, but hope began to rise again. It had to be Buffy! She had to be staying in this room! She was at Hogwarts the whole time... right under their noses.

Sirius didn't know if he should've gone to get Remus or wait for her to return back to her room. After thinking it through for a couple of minutes, with the bird studying him, Sirius decided to go for a third option. He was going to follow her scent and try to find her now. He knew she was alive, he knew she was at Hogwarts and he knew she was within reach... sitting still and waiting was not a valid choice; he had to do something.

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Willow, Xander, Anya and Giles all made it back to their apartment and collapsed on the couches. "Do you think she'll find him?" Willow asked.

"I hope so," Xander said, pulling Anya closer. "She deserves a little happiness. I want our perky Buffy back."

"When do you think they'll be back?" Willow asked after a minute of thoughtful silence.

"I bet they're off having sex," Anya said bluntly. From the stares she then received, she added, "What? Do you really think that after being away from each other for that many years, the first thing they're going to do is meet the friends? They're having sex."

"Maybe not," Willow said half-pouting.

Any other retort was cut off by the sudden arrival of Faith, who looked very harried and ready for battle.

"Faith! What are you doing here?" Willow asked, surprised by the appearance of the rugged girl in the middle of their living room.

"I got the portkey B gave me," Faith said. "We've been attacked and we need more help. So grab a weapon and let's go."

"But what about Buf-" Willow asked.

"There's no time," Faith interrupted. "We have to go now! We're holding them off for the moment, but we're gonna need some magical help to keep them back."

"Okay," Willow said.

"This thing only works twice, so everyone hold on," Faith said, holding out the old stake Buffy had used. "Slayer Headquarters!" Faith yelled, causing a tug to pull on everyone's navel.

When they opened their eyes again, the gang found themselves trapped inside a room with too many windows and doors, demons and vampires of all varieties pounding to get in.

"Oh my goddess," Willow breathed, shocked at the shear number of demons.

"Good Lord," Giles said, picking up his weapon of choice and brandishing it well.

"Let's get to work, Red," Faith said.

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Dumbledore was sitting at the Head Table, enjoying a wonderful meal the house elves had prepared, and was chatting quietly with Professor McGonagall. Professor Fox had yet to show up for dinner, which didn't go unnoticed, and Dumbledore wondered what she could be up to. It never occurred to him that chaos was about to be let loose in his school.

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"What the hell?" Buffy asked, staring into green eyes that were startlingly familiar. The first thing that ran through her mind was that the First was back, wanting revenge for the demise of its plans; however, the fist that came out of nowhere and slammed into her face caused all of those thoughts to disappear. The shock of the attack and the force of the punch caused Buffy to stumble back, loosing her balance and causing her to be vulnerable to the next attack.

Harry looked over at Buffy's explicative and was shocked to find two Professor Foxes standing in front of the closet. The both looked exactly alike, from the clothes they were wearing down to the posture and hairstyles. Harry couldn't find any words to express the confusion he was feeling and he was even more speechless when one of them attacked.

Possible explanations flashed through his head, the most likely being that she ran into a boggart in the closet, but it didn't make sense that her worst fear was herself. Why would she be afraid of herself?

Then Harry thought back to the previous year when Mr. Crouch had kidnapped Moody and had stored his body in the trunk for a year, using polyjuice potion to keep up his appearance. Could Professor Fox be doing the same thing? It made some sense, but the double didn't look haggard at all, unlike the real Moody had.

As the fight continued, Harry had no idea which person to trust, which person to help, which person was the real one.

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To say she was shocked was an understatement, as Buffy was not prepared to deal with a double of herself walking out of her office closet. The thing attacked her, catching her off guard and causing her to stumble. Before she could gain her balance again, the thing came at her again. And again. Each punch was forceful and painful. The thing was relentless, not letting Buffy defend herself in any way.

Finally, after rolling over her own desk, Buffy did a flip kick, allowing her to get back onto her feet. "What the hell are you?" Buffy asked as the thing came around the desk. She didn't even notice Harry standing off to the side, watching with a dazed look on his face.

"I think the question is, what the hell are you?" the thing asked, preparing to hit her again.

Buffy dodged the punch and threw one of her own that was too easily blocked. Buffy felt like she was trying to hit steel, her arm was in so much pain. Buffy pushed aside all other thoughts as she concentrated solely on trying to beat this thing, whatever it was. It was almost as if she were fighting Caleb again, only, if it was possible, the Buffy copy was stronger.

As was proved by the kick that caused Buffy to fly across the room and slam into the door of her office... no, she didn't slam into the door... she slammed through the door, causing wood splinters to explode outward.

While Buffy was rolling backwards from the blow, Harry decided that it would be best if he stunned both of the Professors and then brought them to Dumbledore. Happy to finally have thought of a plan, Harry pointed his wand at the one still in the office and tried to stupefy her. Much to his amazement and bewilderment, the spell just bounced of the figure, coming back to hit him square in the chest, knocking him out.

The double walked calmly through the door towards Buffy, who lay still on the floor, trying to catch her breath and recover from the hit. "Please don't tell me the Terminator movies are real," Buffy muttered as she saw the thing still advancing. "Although after all I've seen I shouldn't be surprised."

Buffy quickly jumped up and tried to defend herself from the creature but was only successful in getting hit a couple more times for her trouble. With every hit she took, Buffy stumbled back, loosing ground to the double; they were quickly moving away from the office door.

As she took yet another brutal hit that caused her to fly back down the hall, Buffy decided that she really needed to focus if she was going to beat this thing. She needed to be more offensive and less defensive, so she got up and collected herself as the thing came closer. "Okay, no matter how hard you hit me, no candy's going to come out, I promise," Buffy said, preparing herself.

Like she expected, the thing just kept coming closer, and then they started to fight. The first couple of moves on Buffy's part were still a little off, as she was trying to test the creature's style... besides excessive face punching. It didn't take long before it escalated rapidly, each move getting faster, each kick connecting harder, each punch causing more pain. If she just concentrated hard enough, and kept from being hit, Buffy could keep up with the thing's pace. She could hold her own, but she didn't know how long she could.

Buffy attempted to punch, but the thing sidestepped her and grabbed her arm. Buffy reached her free arm back and pulled on the blonde hair with such force that she was able to flip the thing over her. When Buffy pulled her hand back, blonde tendrils were wrapped around her fingers. She didn't have time to think as the creature attempted to knock her down, but was used to reacting on instinct and she jumped over the feet coming at her.

The battle continued down the hall and Buffy had no idea how she was going to defeat the creature; it took a centuries old Slayer scythe to kill Caleb and she had to slice him in half too! Right now, Buffy was weaponless and already worn out due to the magic she had already expended earlier that evening. As Buffy ducked under a punch coming her way and twisted up to kick the thing in its face, she spied her saving grace. The suits of armor that decorated the halls.

Getting away from the thing was going to be a challenge, as grabbed her ankle and yanked her forward, making her fall on her face. Buffy quickly shook off the stars that accompanied the impact, and kicked her free foot behind her again and again, hitting the thing's face each time. "You're like the double from Hell!" Buffy grunted as she saw her efforts weren't making much of an impact. "Even Faith reacted a little. Get. Out. Of. My. Body." Buffy said, accenting each word with a kick. Finally, the double had had enough and it's grip loosed on her foot.

Buffy scrambled up and away, racing to the other end of the hall. "My knight in shining armor," Buffy said, surprised to see the headless suit in front of her. "Sorry," she said, lifting the sword out of its hands. "You won't be needing it anyway."

Buffy turned around, swinging the sword experimentally in her hands, getting a feel for the weight and balance of it. "So you can take a couple of hits to the face; it only proves you have a hard head; let's see how you like holes poked into it."

The double suddenly had a sword in its hand, one that Buffy could have sworn wasn't there before she blinked. "Okay, what are you?" she asked.

"I am you," the double said, swinging her sword at Buffy. Buffy quickly lifted her sword up and blocked the deadly blow.

"I'd really appreciate it," Buffy said through the exertion while the double was forcing her sword down, "if you'd stop... being... me!" With the final word, Buffy gathered her strength and forced the sword back up and away from her body.

And so the swordfight began. Buffy felt like she was fighting herself... which she was... but only with better technique and more power behind the moves. The speed and intensity of the fight began to wear on her. Yet again did she swing her arm overhead, yet again did she jump over the low aimed sword, yet again did she push off the wall, yet again did she parry the sword's sharp edge.

The double finally got the upper hand, twisting the swords in a way that trapped Buffy's wrist, and then using her free hand to punch her face. Buffy lost her grip on the sword and winced as it tumbled to the ground. Another well placed roundhouse kick made Buffy stumble farther from the weapon. The double picked up the exhausted Buffy by the throat and began to suffocate her.

"You are worthless," the double said, throwing the purple faced Buffy back with a simple gesture. Buffy slammed into the door, causing the doors to open from the impact. Buffy tumbled head over heels into the Great Hall, unaware of the resulting gasps and movement from the surprised students.

Buffy lay on the floor coughing, trying to get the precious air back into her lungs. Students scrambled from their seats and raced to the opposite side of the hall, towards the protective professors.

Buffy was alone as the thing continued to walk through the doors and head towards her, sword firmly in its hand. Buffy was so tired... she was tired of fighting... she was tired of going through this life alone... she was tired of the way her life kept turning out...

Buffy rolled over slowly, pain radiating with every movement of her body. Buffy looked up at the thing that had taken her body while she gasped desperately for air.

The students were all afraid of what was going on... there seemed to be two different professors and they couldn't tell them apart. Was it a repeat of last year? One of them was laying on the floor, obviously very beaten while the other one kept coming at her with a sword in her hand! She was their DADA professor and she couldn't even protect herself! Or could she? Was she going to kill her? Who would she kill next? Why wasn't she moving?

The professors were having equal difficulty with what they were seeing. Dumbledore might have believed that one of them was the real Sarah Fox except all the sources said that Sarah Fox didn't exist, but now there were two of them! He figured the best thing to do would be to stun both of them and then go from there. He didn't expect his spells to be useless against the one and he didn't want to leave one defenseless. But how could he help her?

"You're pathetic aren't you?" the thing asked, looming over her. "No friends... no hope... no love... no weapons... only death. You should've died a long time ago and saved everyone all the trouble you've caused."

Buffy could feel the same rage that she had used to beat Angelus and the First rise up in her. "Don't you people ever learn?" she said from her position on the ground. Suddenly, she kicked with all her might at the knees of the double, wincing slightly at the crunching sound that could be heard; she then kicking the sword out of its hands and into the air. Flipping up, Buffy stood above the creature that was on its knees in pain and reached for the sword as it fell perfectly into her hands. "Taunting me only pisses me off."

She lifted her arm back to give herself the momentum to chop off the creature's head when it unexpectedly changed into something different. The blonde hair shrank and was replaced with messy black hair, the green eyes changed to brown, and a familiar person was now standing in front of Buffy.

"James?" she asked, lowering her weapon to the ground in astonishment.

"What are you waiting for?" the 17 year old James spat. "You've killed me once, you can do it again."

"No," Buffy said, wide eyes filling with tears. "I didn't..."

"You killed me. You killed Lily. You might as well have killed Harry. And Sirius. And Remus. It's all your fault."

"No, James, I didn't..." Buffy tried to say, tried to deny what she believed in her own heart.

"I wish you'd never been born!" James said with the most furious eyes Buffy had ever seen.

"RIDDIKULUS!" a voice bellowed from the front hall, startling everyone and causing the figure of James to disappear suddenly. Buffy was too shocked to move and her sword dropped listlessly to the floor as she raised her eyes to look at her savior.

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The effects of the stunning spell had finally worn off and Harry had quickly gotten up to see what had happened with the two professors. Unable to find them in the office, or out of the office, he had continued his search for the map, knowing it would tell him where they went.

He had finally found it on one of the shelves in the closet, and he had quickly whispered, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Scouring the map, he had quickly located a surprising dot... the one he had been trying to get the map for in the first place.

Elizabeth Potter.

The shocking thing was that there was another dot next to it labeled Elizabeth Potter as well. 'The boggart must have found another victim!' Harry thought, the effects of Willow's spell making him unable to put the facts together correctly. 'The boggarts attacking her now!' With renewed energy, Harry tore down the hall, following he paths that would lead him to the great hall. Stuffing the map back in his pocket, he was just in time to see a surprising scene.

The boggart had left Elizabeth Potter alone and was back to attacking Professor Fox. He was surprised to see that the boggart had apparently turned into him, but upon closer observation (the taller and older figure), Harry realized it was his father. 'Why is Professor Fox afraid of my dad?' Harry thought.

He didn't waste any more time with pointless thoughts and yelled the spell that was sure to get rid of boggarts. No matter how much he wanted to stay with his dad, wanted to see his dad, Harry knew he didn't want to see him as a boggart, an image that might corrupt any thoughts he had of his father.

Now where did Elizabeth Potter go?

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"Sirius!" Remus whispered fiercely as he ran into the dog that had been running through the halls, chasing dozens of scents. "What are you doing?"

Sirius transformed, not caring about the problems that might be caused by his appearance. "I was right!" he said excitedly, pulling out the picture to show Remus and Moody. "She's alive! She's alive and she's here at Hogwarts! It was just like my dream!"

"Where did you get this?" Remus asked, holding the photograph, confused.

"On her bedside dresser. She left it there. It's proof! She's at Hogwarts somewhere, I know it!" Sirius shouted.

"Sirius!" Remus said. "You're still a wanted criminal! Keep your voice down. You're not even supposed to be here! You were supposed to wait in the room!"

"I know but I had to find her! I knew I was right!" Sirius protested.

"Well what are you going to do when you get caught by Sarah Fox?" Remus said, his frustration for his friend overshadowing any other happy feeling he got from the possibility of Buffy being alive.

"She looks a little like Sarah Fox, doesn't she?" Moody asked, examining the old photo, shrugging as he gave it back to Remus.

"I've never seen Sarah Fox before," Sirius said, brushing aside any thoughts that that statement brought up. "Remus, we have to find Buffy."

"This is my picture," Remus said suddenly.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"This is my picture. It was in my old house..." Remus said, trailing off in realization.

"The old house that someone broke into?" Sirius asked, his train of thought matching with Remus'. At Remus' nod, he continued in a triumphant voice. "See! More proof! She's obviously been looking for us!"

"I saw her die," Moody protested. "That can't be her."

"But it is! I know it!" Sirius said. "There must be some mistake! Maybe you were put under a spell; made to see something that didn't really happen."

Remus turned to Moody thoughtfully. "If Buffy's alive, you'd be the only one to know. None of this fits with your story."

"I can't be under a spell," Moody said. "Not for this many years."

"And you can't be taken hostage and stored in your own trunk for a year, either," Sirius said. "Oh, wait, that did happen."

With a growl at Sirius, Moody consented. "Maybe I am under a spell. If so, take it off immediately."

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The Great Hall was silent as everyone contemplated what had just happened. Buffy still hadn't moved, except to acknowledge that Harry had indeed been the one to save her. The students didn't move either; no one wanted to be the one that broke the tense silence.

Everyone had figured out that their DADA professor had been fighting a boggart, but what they didn't understand was why she was afraid of herself and why she was afraid of Harry Potter, or James Potter, depending on if the person knew enough to recognize the difference.

Harry was the one who started to move towards his professor, more to get to his friends than to get to her, whom he still didn't trust. He couldn't get any answers from her if she was dead, could he?

Harry bypassed her with a look and continued to his friends, who were concerned about his safety, seeing as how they knew he was waiting for Professor Fox. He was incredibly late to dinner.

Before a word could be said, however, people came bursting through the doors, surrounding Professor Fox. Aurors. A lot of Aurors. All with their wands raised and pointed at her.

And then Fudge and Umbridge entered, both wearing smug grins and looking way too happy and proud.

"You are under arrest," Fudge started. "For the impersonation of a Ministry official and for magically controlling the Minister of Magic."

Buffy hadn't moved as the guards had rushed in. She hadn't moved as they all lifted their wands at her. She hadn't moved as Fudge and Umbridge walked into the room, but she lifted her head at the sound of his voice.

"You," she spat, her eyes resting on the one person whose fault all of this was. None of this would have happened if Fudge had not ordered her dead. "This is all your fault."

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Note from Dur'id the Druid:

And this sadly is all Malli wrote before her fatal car accident. I hope you enjoyed the reposting of her work, and will later read my attempt to continue her truly excellent story, which I will publish as a seprate piece. I hope I can continue it to the standard to which she set, she has inspired me to attempt writeing again!

Otherwise, crystalcheyenne is gathering other authors' attempts to continue this and posting them at (FFnet isn't allowing me to post the web address. Look in my author Bio). Thank you for reading!