Part Two-Sirius-ly His Fault.

Maybe she had dreamed it all.

The fear, the pain, the raw emotion of it all. Maybe it had been nothing more than some sort of waking nightmare. She could have sworn at the time that it was all real. She could have sworn everything she saw and experienced was real-but then it was all ripped away.

And Cordelia? How could it be that Cordelia would come to rescue her? Though significantly less self-involved than she had been in the past, Cordelia still didn't seem like the most likely candidate for a heroine. It would have made more sense for Buffy to be there, or even Angel. But Cordelia?

And that was what made her think that it wasn't just a dream. There was no way her mind to stick Cordelia into the role of her saviour, not in a million years. Xander had always been her fantasy white knight, and after sophomore year of high school, reality took over and Buffy was her saving grace. Had she been dreaming any of it, it would have been her blonde friend coming to her rescue. Of course, if it had been Buffy to the rescuing, there probably would have been more violence involved. The Slayer would have laid waste to those hooded creatures that had surrounded the redhead more than once since she had been taken from Sunnydale. Buffy would have wiped the cold, stone floor with those boys and then proceeded to beat the crap of the men with sticks.

But there had been no violence. There hadn't even been any light cursing. The only thing that had happened was that Cordelia had shown up and suddenly Willow was being carried to safety.

She guessed it hadn't been a dream after all. She had been through all that, seen all those things. Those horrid cloaked figures, the ones that hissed and brought bad hallucinations to people. She remembered those visions, the pain and misery of them. She couldn't count how many times she saw Jesse die, seen Jenny's body lying cold in her coffin. All those horrible things she had seen on the Hellmouth had come roaring to the front, flooding her mind with the grisly images of things better left forgotten.

But the absolute worst had to be the visions of Spike. That day, when he had taken both her and Xander, locking them up in the remains of the old factory, that day she had replayed in her mind over and over again. That same paralyzing fear she felt when she saw Spike standing over Xander's prone form. The terror of having to sit and wait on the drunken monster, fighting not to flinch as he buried his demon face into her neck. It had to have been the most terrifying night of her entire existence, and that was saying a lot.

And she knew that it was those things in dark cloaks doing it to her. She could practically feel the dark magicks rolling off their bodies, knowing before they even approached that something bad was going to happen.

They came so often that Willow just began to lose track of time. It was like the present time faded away and she was just stuck in the horrible memories of the past three years. She couldn't move past it, not once. And soon, she gave up trying to. There was no point, she admitted defeat after watching Jesse die for the twentieth time. She just couldn't handle it anymore.

But then poof! There she was, Cordelia in all her shining glory. The brunette even found time to be a bit snarky, but Willow could feel her concern underneath it all. The redhead knew she would forever be in debt to the ex-cheerleader, not for just getting her out of that place, but for taking such good care of her after. Willow only remembered bits and pieces of the car ride, but knew that Cordelia held her the entire time she cried.

She had fallen asleep in the car, not sure where she was whenever she awoke. All she knew was that when she opened her eyes, she could hear lots of people murmuring before someone tried to shove chocolate down her throat. She thought it was remarkably odd that at a time like this, when she was obviously sick, people were trying to feed her an entire lifetime's supply of chocolate.

A hand brushed against her side. Willow groaned and turned away from it, straining to get the hand to release her.

"No more chocolate," the redhead moaned. Willow turned in her sleep, finding a solid warm body there. She snuggled up against it almost unconsciously, pausing only when she fully realized what this meant.

There was a man in her bed.

She opened her eyes cautiously, fearful of what she might find. Relief flooded her almost instantly as she took in the features of her best friend. Xander was fast asleep, dark hair flung over his forehead as he snored softly. Willow allowed herself to just look at him, marvelling at how innocent her best friend could look while he slept.

"He's been sleeping more than you," mused a voice from behind her. Willow frowned, recognizing the voice immediately and shifting around so she could look at her visitor. Cordelia smiled down at the redhead. The brunette gave her shoulder a quick pat before leaning back in her chair.

"Cordelia," Willow shook her head, looking more closely at the former cheerleader. "You look terrible."

Willow felt like smacking herself when she said that, wincing apologetically the second the words had left her mouth. She was very surprised when Cordelia only gave her a tired smile in response, folding her arms across her chest while stifling a yawn.

"Yeah well, someone has to watch over you," the brunette shrugged. "Especially since Xander can't be counted on to keep his eyes open for even an hour. Either way, you so owe me when this is all over."

"What is all this?" Willow asked next, her voice low and fearful. The redhead looked around herself, noticing for the first time that she was in a very strange room. It was quite nice, the bed she was laying on a big four poster one with large warm quilts piled everywhere. Lamps lit up the room here and there, as well as the small fire roaring in the fireplace off to the left side of the room. It was decorated entirely in rich gold and red colours, giving it a very lively appearance.

It would have been comforting had Willow known how she had gotten here.

"Where are we?"

"Well, technically, it's like this really big boarding school for magic-users," Cordelia replied flippantly. "In reality, it's a huge, kind of creepy castle in the middle of Scotland somewhere. Giles sent us here; he said we would be safe."

"Safe from what?"

"The men in dresses," the brunette reminded her. "You know, the ones with a taste for kidnapping and unlawful confinement. By the way Willow, you should see the snit everyone is making about what happened to you. Giles even got the Watchers' Council on his side and the whole bunch of them are raising hell. It's kind of funny, you know, if you forget about the part where you were abducted and tossed into an unholy prison for no reason whatsoever."

"Okay," Willow shook her head. "I feel a migraine coming on."

"Well, I'm about three ahead of you in that department," Cordelia grinned, rubbing her eyes in a tired fashion. "Any more room on that bed? You seem to be all nice and recovered now, maybe I can catch some Zs."

Willow nodded, scooting over to make room for the brunette. She had to push Xander back, quite roughly, though the boy didn't notice. He only grumbled in his sleep, slinging an arm around the surprised redhead and pinning her to the bed next to him. Cordelia giggled at the sight, scrambling under the covers before winking at Willow.

"He hasn't let you leave him side for days," she confided in the redhead. "That's why you're both in the same bed. He wouldn't even sleep in a separate room from you. He was really freaking out there for a while. I've only now just managed to get him to stop trying to beat up everyone that crosses his path. For his own health, because you know he'd probably get his ass kicked."

"Well, that's usually why Buffy fights most of his fights for him," Willow giggled. "Speaking of which, where is Buffy? Is she okay? Did everything turn out all right?"

"Everything's fine," Cordelia assured her with a yawn. "Buffy's in Sunnydale, because Giles said she couldn't leave it unprotected for long. Mrs Summers calls every now and then to tell us how she's been taking out her frustrations on the demon population."

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but poor demons," Willow clucked her tongue sympathetically. Cordelia nodded again, shutting her eyes briefly.

"Anyway, I'm getting some sleep," the brunette announced. "Now that you're all right, Giles is probably going to show up soon and pull us into his whole protest thing."

"Who's he protesting?" Willow asked innocently.

"The Ministry of Magic."

"There's a Ministry of Magic?"

"Hey, this is a school for witches and stuff," Cordelia reminded her. "You shouldn't be all that surprised. But maybe you should be kind of indignant. I mean, why didn't anyone think to ask you to attend this kind of school? You do pull off some major magic when you feel like it."

"Schools for magic," Willow murmured. "Sounds oddly familiar."

"Who cares?" Cordelia whined. "Let's just rest for now."

"One more thing," Willow vowed. "Why was I thrown into that place?"

Cordelia's face darkened and she opened her eyes. Willow was momentarily surprised by the level of outrage and anger she saw there. Fiery brown eyes caught hers and Cordelia made a disgusted face.

"They won't explain properly," the brunette growled. "Everyone's just saying you got put in jail because it's serious."

"Huh?"

"That Fudge guy, the one with the stupid hat? Everyone says he's after you because of serious, which doesn't make much sense. Think it's some kind of weird slang?"

"Not slang," Willow replied, her voice faint and her gaze hardening. The redhead set her mouth in a thin line, sending a dark glare up to the ceiling.

"Five bucks says I got stuck in jail because of Sirius Black."

"What's seriously black?" Cordelia asked, fighting off yet another yawn. Willow scowled, snuggling up closer to Xander before she replied, her tone hard and angry.

"Not what, who."

"Fine then," Cordelia rolled her eyes. "Who is Sirius Black?"

"He's my father."