CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: UNVEILING
Boxing Day started as a lazy day spent in the Common Room. Buffy noticed that things between Ron and Hermione were unusually tense, and when she questioned Harry about it, he explained the argument that the two had had in the Common Room the evening before about Ron thinking of Hermione as a second choice. Buffy had smirked and shook her head laughing. It was Xander and Cordelia all over again. She couldn't wait to see whether it would be Ron or Hermione who cracked first.
For a week, the Common Room was filled with students frantically trying to do the massive amount of homework that the teachers had assigned over the Christmas break. Harry was beginning to worry more and more about the egg and the indecipherable noise that it made whenever it was opened. Buffy had been faring no better, and they'd promised to tell the other if either of them figured out how on earth to decipher the clue hidden within.
The first day of term started, but not in any way that any of them had expected. Fred, George, Lee, Buffy, Angelina, Alicia and Katie all walked into the Great Hall for breakfast and the room went deadly silent. The group exchanged a glance before deciding to trudge down to their seats. Buffy sat down beside Neville Longbottom, who shifted slightly away from her. Buffy frowned, but said nothing, knowing the boy was incredibly nervous, especially around girls.
"This is strange," Angelina whispered.
"Even for Hogwarts," Lee quipped.
The group nodded its agreement. George leaned across Buffy to snatch Neville's copy of the Daily Prophet. Neville went to protest, but it died down quickly. The redhead flipped to the second page and his heart practically stopped.
He put the paper on the table, and Fred leaned across to read it better.
"'Dumbledore's Dangerous Decisions'," Fred recited. "'Albus Dumbledore…' blah, blah, blah…'hired Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody…' blah, blah, blah… 'looks kindly when set beside the part-human Dumbledore employs to teach Care of Magical Creatures'. …blah, blah, blah… 'unearthed evidence that Hagrid is not, in fact, even pure human'…blah, blah, blah… 'mother is giantess Fridwulfa'."
"I'm still not understanding the silence," Lee commented.
George's heart dropped when he saw where Fred had stopped reading.
"'Dumbledore is also making dangerous decisions with the enrolment of students. It has been discovered that Hogwarts Triwizard Champion Eliza 'Buffy' Potter-Summers, is in actual fact, Eliza Anne Black, the only child of Joyce Potter-Black and Sirius Black, notorious criminal and escaped convict'."
Buffy closed her eyes and felt as though she was about to throw up everything in her stomach. George reached across and grabbed hold of Buffy's hand, squeezing it firmly in silent support.
"'Not only is 'Buffy' the daughter of Sirius Black, but it has also been revealed that she is the Vampire Slayer, the one girl in all the world, Chosen to hunt the vampires. As if that wasn't enough, only six months ago, Miss Black was in a romantic relationship with one of the most vicious vampires in History, Angelus the Scourge of Europe'."
The Sixth Year Gryffindors fell silent, each of them reeling with the information they'd just been bombarded with.
"Anyone else feel like skipping DADA and having a late breakfast up in our room?" Fred suggested.
As one, the entire group stood, collected a few plates of food and walked out of the Great Hall. Buffy refused to let herself break down in front of the other students. She held her head high as she walked out of the Hall, and as soon as the door closed behind her she looked to George.
"How the hell did they find that out?" she asked quietly.
"I swear to you, I didn't tell anyone except Fred," George said.
Fred stepped forward, his hand over his heart. "I promise you that I never said anything to anyone about what George told me."
Buffy nodded. It was rare that the twins were ever serious about anything, but she could see the truth in their eyes. They hadn't divulged anything to anyone. They wouldn't have. Which meant that whoever had written the article had found out from somewhere else.
Buffy took the article out of George's hand and skimmed through it. The reporter was Rita Skeeter, which didn't surprise Buffy at all. What she did have to wonder was how on earth the woman had found out any of the information that she had told George. She hadn't sensed anyone around the lake, and unless Skeeter could actually disguise herself as the giant squid that lived in the lake, there was no way that the woman could have been there.
They got to the Common Room, all of them silent. They were met with Harry, Ron and Hermione, all of them looking worried and upset as well. Without a word between them, the ten of them walked up the stairs and into the boys dormitories.
"You read the article?" Buffy asked.
Harry, Ron and Hermione all nodded.
"I was hoping that she'd never find out about Sirius," Harry admitted. "I knew everyone in school'd react like this."
"No offence, but can you blame them?" Alicia asked quietly, eyeing her small blonde friend. "Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban…he killed-"
"He never killed anyone," Buffy said. Her voice wasn't angry or loud. It was just a quiet statement of the facts.
"But…what about that wizard he killed? Peter something-or-other," Katie questioned.
"He faked it," Ron said bitterly. "Chopped off his own finger and disappeared before anyone could realise what had happened. He's an animagus."
Fred and George looked at their younger brother suspiciously. "How d'you know that?" they asked in unison.
Ron grimaced and said one word. "Scabbers."
The twins' jaws dropped in shock. They knew that there was something wrong with the rat that Percy had had throughout his years at Hogwarts. Ron had been given it as a hand-me-down.
"So…Pettigrew was really the one to betray the Potters?" Angelina asked. Everyone in the wizarding world had grown up hearing the story of Voldemort's defeat. Everyone knew everything about the Potters and how'd they been betrayed by one of their best friends.
Harry scowled and nodded. "He was the spy working for Voldemort." He ignored the way nearly everyone shuddered at the use of the name.
"But, if your dad's innocent Buffy, why are the Ministry still looking for him?" Lee asked.
"Cos there's no proof that Pettigrew's still alive," Harry answered. "He got away, and Fudge didn't believe that we'd seen him."
Fred, Angelina, Lee, Katie and Alicia all felt slightly better knowing that Buffy's father wasn't some psychopathic murder. But there were still two other things about their friend that Buffy had never told them.
"What about what Skeeter said about Angelus?" Hermione asked.
"It's half true," Buffy replied.
"Half?" Angelina asked.
"He had a soul," George explained. Buffy smiled at him gratefully, not certain that she could have explained everything about Angel to them without breaking down. "Stuff happened, he lost his soul, end of story."
"And the thing about you being the Slayer?" Ron asked curiously. "That's not really true is it?"
"No, it's true," Buffy replied. "It'll be three years in May."
"Wow," Ron gasped in awe. He wasn't the only one.
Angelina and Alicia were looking at their friend with new eyes. Katie looked slightly smug. She'd always known that Buffy was different from the beginning, but that the differences weren't a bad thing.
"You two don't seem to be all that shocked about this," Angelina commented, glancing at Fred and George.
"We found out last week," George admitted.
"We were the only ones who knew," Fred commented.
"I knew about the Slayer thing," Harry said. "And about Sirius of course."
Ron and Hermione looked at him, offended he hadn't told them. He just shrugged. It hadn't been his secret to tell, just like knowing that Neville's parents had been tortured to insanity by the Cruciatus Curse wasn't his to tell.
"Any other deep dark secrets we should know about?" Lee asked, half joking.
Buffy pretended to think about it. "Oh…well, yeah, there is one more thing," she said. She paused dramatically before continuing. "Snape and I are having an affair."
There was silence for all of four and a half seconds before the entire group cracked up in hysterics.
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Term began once more, and the days seemed to drag even more slowly than usual for the Slayer. People were pointing and whispering behind her back even more often, but unlike when they'd been doing it because of her status as Hogwarts champion she knew that the whispering going on around her was far more nefarious. She hated every second of it and was grateful whenever it was time to go back to the Gryffindor Tower. She could at least count on her true friends to be completely supportive of her.
On Tuesday though, she awoke with the worst feeling in her gut. She couldn't remember what she'd dreamt about, but she had a terrible feeling that the dream had meant more than just a random nightmare. She just wished that she could remember it.
By the time the day had finished, she'd thought that it was nothing, but she should have known better than to let herself relax completely. As she walked down the stairs towards the Great Hall for dinner, surrounded by the other Sixth-Years she heard her name called out from below.
"Hey Giles, Professor McGonagall," she greeted, trying to stay calm. "What's up?"
"Professor Dumbledore needs to speak to you," McGonagall replied.
Buffy regarded the Professor curiously, trying to read the woman's eyes. What she read there was not making her comfortable at all. She looked to her Watcher, and he looked unusually upset. Whatever this was about, it wasn't good news.
"Now?"
McGonagall nodded. Buffy glanced back at her friends, George in particular. None of them looked too happy about the summoning either, but there was nothing that could be done about it. Buffy followed McGonagall and Giles up the stairs and towards Dumbledore's office. They ascended the spiral staircase and entered the office.
Buffy's eyes went wide in shock.
"Mom!" she cried. "What are you doing here?"
The two women exchanged a hug before Joyce pulled back. Buffy could see tears in her mother's eyes and immediately her heart dropped.
"Where's dad?"
Joyce sighed. "He was taken back to Azkaban," Joyce replied softly.
"When? Why? How'd they find him?" Buffy asked, tears welling in her eyes.
"After that article that that horrible Skeeter woman wrote…they found out," Joyce explained.
Buffy closed her eyes and tried to stay calm. She felt completely sickened to know that her father was back in prison. She'd heard about the Dementors and what effects they could have on people. She didn't know if her dad would be strong enough to stand a second go in Azkaban prison.
"This is all my fault," Buffy whispered.
Joyce grabbed hold of Buffy's chin and forced her to look up.
"This is not your fault. It's that horrible reporter who's at fault," Joyce said vehemently.
"I've banned her from returning to Hogwarts," Dumbledore informed them.
"I don't even know how she found out about it all," Buffy said. "The only person I told was George, and he and Fred swore that they didn't tell anyone else."
"The Ministry doubled the guards on Sirius's cell," Dumbledore interrupted quietly. "He's been put in solitary confinement in a cell with solid wars instead of bars."
"And it's nearly impossible to escape, right?" Buffy asked.
Dumbledore nodded. "There is nothing that would allow Sirius to escape."
Buffy sat down, her legs trembling and threatening to collapse. She put her head in her hands, trying to calm her thoughts so that she'd be able to think properly. A mouse scurried out from beneath Dumbledore's desk, and Buffy's eyes widened.
"There's no way he can escape," Buffy whispered. "But there is another way to get him out."
"The Ministry believes him to be guilty of murdering fourteen people, and being an accessory to James and Lily's deaths," Giles reminded his Slayer.
"I don't care what the Ministry believes," Buffy replied, her eyes flashing with determination and anger. "He never killed anyone. And I'm going to prove it."
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The wizarding world was abuzz with the news that Sirius Black had been captured. The students at Hogwarts, minus most of the Gryffindors, were still on their guards around Buffy, but she had learnt to ignore the whisperings around her a long time ago. People had been gossiping about her behind her back since her days at Hemery, and Hogwarts was no different.
Buffy and Harry were still trying to work out the riddle behind the golden egg, and neither of them had figured out how to get it to stop screeching. And when Harry was approached by Ludo Bagman in the Three Broomsticks on the Sunday while he was in Hogsmeade, he was tempted to let Bagman just give him a hint. But Bagman was a judge, and it would have been completely against the rules. And while Harry may have technically been cheating by allowing Hermione to help him, her drew the line at asking a judge to bend the rules.
Bagman had left however when the twins and Buffy had sat themselves down and offered to by him a drink. The Minister of Games and Sports had fled as fast as humanly possible.
The trio joined Harry, Ron and Hermione for Butterbeers and sat around the table discussing the last few weeks events. Hagrid had tried to put in his resignation from position as Professor, but Dumbledore had refused to let him. Buffy had been sure that Professor Moody would have wanted to stop tutoring her, but he'd explained to her that it didn't matter to him who her father was.
Ron suddenly stared pointedly at the door. "Uh oh."
Rita Skeeter had just entered. Fred and George had to be lightening fast to grab hold of Buffy's arms to stop her from jumping up and racing across to Skeeter to strangle her to death. Buffy settled for glaring at the woman.
Skeeter spotted Harry and darted towards him. "Harry! How lovely! Why don't you come and join-?"
"I wouldn't come near you with a ten foot broomstick," Harry replied furiously. The others at the table smirked behind their hands, snickering softly. "What did you do that to Buffy and Hagrid for, eh?"
"Our readers have the right to know the truth, Harry."
"Truth?" Buffy replied furiously. "You completely skewed the stories to make us sound liked we'd kill everyone at the drop of a hat!"
Skeeter turned to look at the Slayer who had a death-glare fixed on the reporter.
"Well, you are dangerous aren't you?" Skeeter asked mildly.
"Do you want me to be?" Buffy asked brightly.
Skeeter glared at the Slayer in disgust.
"Hmmm…I can see the headlines: 'Slayer threatens mild-mannered-reporter'."
Buffy grimaced. "Clark Kent you're not. How can you live with yourself? You'll do anything for a story won't you?"
"I report the facts," Skeeter replied dangerously.
Buffy stood up and stepped towards the woman, and smiled inwardly when she saw that Skeeter took a step back.
"Well, Mosquito, report anymore 'facts' about me, or any of my family ever again, and I'll make sure that you can't ever write anything again. Don't mess with me," Buffy warned.
"Is that a threat?" Skeeter asked. Buffy could tell that the woman was nervous as anything, but trying to keep her cool in front of the people in the Three Broomsticks who were watching the confrontation.
"No," Buffy replied mildly before taking her seat in between the twins once more. "Just a fact."
Rita Skeeter huffed with annoyance, though Harry could have sworn it was a sigh of relief that Buffy had backed off, and stomped away from the table.
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Ten Gryffindors sat beside the lake, a massive blanket beneath them, a spread of food in front of them as they ate their lunch in the warm sunshine. The group had taken to eating lunch outdoors to reduce the amount of gossip they had to hear from the other students.
Harry and Buffy both had their eggs in the middle of the blanket, staring at them, almost in hope that they would suddenly be inspired by how to work the egg.
Lee grabbed hold of Buffy's and tossed it across the blanket to Ron who fumbled it slightly before throwing it to George. Buffy put her hand out expectantly, but George grinned wickedly and tossed it to Harry, who tossed it to Angelina, who then threw it to Hermione. Unfortunately, Hermione was distracted by the book in front of her, and missed catching the egg. It flew behind her and with a loud plop, dropped into the lake.
The group looked at each other sheepishly. Buffy turned to glare at Lee.
"This is your fault you realise," she said angrily.
"Uh…sorry," he offered.
Buffy rolled her eyes and stood up, walking to the edge of the lake. The edge where she was had a slight drop instead of the gentle incline of sandy banks. She could tell that it was deep, but she could see the golden egg glittering at the bottom at least twelve feet down.
She pulled out her wand and aimed it down into the water. "Accio golden egg!"
The egg shot up slightly, but got caught in a tangle of weeds and remained at the bottom. Buffy sighed and put her wand back in her cloak.
"So…who's going to volunteer to get it?" she asked, turning to look back at the group.
Everyone started looking everywhere except Buffy. The Slayer rolled her eyes and shrugged out of her cloak, kicking off her shoes and socks, leaving her in her skirt, blouse and sweater.
"You can't!" Harry yelled. "The water will be freezing."
Buffy considered that option. She pulled her jumper off as well and the group looked at her with wide-eyed confusion.
"Are you nuts?" Lee asked.
Buffy just shrugged. "Is anyone else gonna go in and get it?"
The group fell silent again.
"Okay then. So…who knows a drying spell?" Buffy asked.
Hermione, Angelina and Katie all raised their hands. Buffy felt slightly relieved for that.
"Well, get ready to use one," she said.
She took a deep breath and dived into the lake. The group all rushed to get to their feet, racing to the edge of the water to see Buffy hit the water and swim downwards to grab hold of the egg.
For a terrifying moment, the group thought that something had gone wrong. They could see her beneath the water, but she wasn't coming back up even though the egg was in her hand. Just as George was shrugging out of his cloak, Buffy shot up out of the water and gasped for air, a grin on her face.
"Merlin Buff, you almost gave us a heart attack!" Lee yelled angrily.
Buffy just grinned and held up the egg in triumph. "I think I figured the egg out!"
"What?!" the all yelled in unison.
Buffy tossed the egg up to the group and Harry caught it expertly. Buffy climbed up the short rock cliff face and George helped her over the edge. He tried his hardest not to notice the way Buffy's white blouse had gone see-through. Lee had no qualms about openly ogling her. Hermione quickly cast a drying spell on Buffy and her clothes, much to Lee (and George's) disappointment. Buffy rubbed her hands up and down her arms and pulled her jumper and cloak back on, drier but still chilled.
She took the egg back from Harry. "You have to listen to it underwater," she explained.
Harry looked absolutely horrified. "I'm not going in there!" he cried.
Buffy laughed. "It's called a bath you moron," she teased.
"Oh," Harry said softly. He coughed uncomfortably and nodded. "Alright then. I'll do that."
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Sorry for the lack of updates. I'd forget my head if it wasn't semi-firmly attached. Many thanks for the reviews and stuff!
Toodles.
DKG.
Oooo, go read First Knight by Asha Dreamweaver. Fricken awesome.
Ooo, and poke Lisette for an update of Equinoxium. Then Kattie will be a tremendously happy girl.