Well, thank you once again, to my luvverly reviewers. Mucho thanks to the one, the only, Pink-Zelda! Aka, Lucy or alohiluana. Jees you've got a lot of names. Well, anyway, this one's for you, just because you check my fanfiction way too often and so you were the only one who reviewed it within a day of it being updated. Also thankee to Elendrod, my other dear friendly consistent reviewer. I was actually feeling like an author when I wrote that passage. Isn't it luvverly? Linnea is based after…sorry can't tell you. This is also going out to James Marsters, for dying his hair for…well actually I don't know how long he dyed his hair but that's ok, and for speaking in an uber cool fake accent. You've inspired a whole new generation of fangirls to terrorize their friends and anyone else who happens to start them on the subject of Spike. I, of course, am NOT included in the number of those fangirls. Really. Stop looking at me like that, I'm not kidding! Fine then, be that way. Oh yeah! Andrew from Buffy might show up in this chapter because Lucy requested that he show up, and any requests from my readers will probably be fulfilled because they haven't given me any suggestions yet, and I'm too lazy to think up my own plots. At least I think it'll be this chapter, but I'm going to be focusing more on Linnea and telling you why Buffy and everyone are there. I think I'm actually changing my mind on why she showed up from the last chap, but that's ok. Anyway, on with the show.
"So, why are you transferring from America? That must be a really big change, especially in the middle of the year," Hermione looked sideways at Linnea.
"Uh, it's kind of a long story, but let's just say things weren't working out. There aren't very many wizarding schools in the US, so I had to come here to get what I needed."
"And how did Dumbledore know you were supposed to be in Gryffindor without the Sorting Hat?"
"We do have Houses in other schools too. I was in the equivalent of Gryffindor in my old school." Harry and Ron fell into step with them as Linnea finished her sentence.
"Who're you?" Ron asked with his usual tact and subtlety.
"This is Linnea, Linnea, this is Ron and Harry." Hermione introduced them. Ron just looked even more confused than he had been. "She's a transfer Ron." Hermione explained in the voice she would use with a two year old. Ron didn't seem to notice, as he just smiled and nodded.
"Don't I get introduced?"
"That would be the Narrator," Harry sighed. "Yes, we have a narrator that speaks to us. Mostly to complain, actually. Just ignore her. Not important."
"Ok." Linnea's voice came out quietly. "Um, would anybody mind telling me what happened back there?"
"Oh, that. Well, I assume you've heard of Voldemort?" Harry inquired. The girl walking a few feet away from him turned pale and fainted. "Oh do grow up!" Harry muttered at her. Linnea nodded mutely. "Well, I'm his…I guess you could say nemesis. I'm Harry Potten…Potter. So dear Moldy Voldy was just having one of his usual insane attempts on either my or Dumbledore's life. Problem is instead of using magic, which we could have countered, he used muggle weapons. I think he actually might have killed someone, which is surprising."
"Oh. Ok." The Dream Team escorted Linnea along the corridor, chatting and trying to get her to come out of her shell a little bit. More of their friends joined them as they went, and she seemed to grow smaller and smaller. As they kept walking, a dark figure made its way along behind them, watching the girl with a sad smile on its face.
The next morning Linnea woke slowly, feeling slightly awkward in the new bed. As she opened her eyes and sunlight hit them squarely she groaned and pulled the covers over her head.
"Come on Linnea," came a voice from above, "Professor Dumbledore needs to see you, I got an owl from him this morning."
"Fine," was the groggy reply. Linnea pulled the covers off and reopened her eyes, but far slower this time. Hermione went on getting dressed and ready for the day as Linnea pulled herself out of bed and over to her chest of drawers. Since she didn't have a uniform yet, she dressed in her own clothes. She chose black cargo pants, very baggy and obviously well loved and well worn, a boy's t-shirt that was pale blue and said "Only an idiot would…eat paste…get hit by a parked car…read this shirt". She pulled her short hair into two tiny pigtails.
"Can you show me where Dumbledore's office is Hermione?"
"Sure." Hermione led Linnea through the hallways and to the gargoyle in front of the entrance to Dumbledore's office. "Malted milk balls." She said in complete seriousness. Linnea shot her a strange look. Hermione led the way up the stairs and knocked on Dumbledore's door.
"I have to go to breakfast or I'll miss class," she informed Linnea, "but I'll see you when you finish here." She turned briskly, her bushy hair flipping behind her, and trotted down the stairs.
"Come in," Dumbledore's voice rumbled from the other side of the door. Linnea sighed and pushed open the door.
Linnea stepped out of Dumbledore's office feeling as if she had been interrogated using the latest by way of torture devices ad then smiled at and given hot chocolate and an ice pack by the person who had done it, then informed that it had only been done to see if it would hurt, where and why. Dumbledore had questioned her ruthlessly about her last school-why did she act out? What had happened to her grades? Why did she suddenly stop talking to all of her friends? Didn't he know that the Spanish Inquisition was over a long time ago? She obviously couldn't tell him the truth, which was that she was the Slayer. Yes like from the TV show. After Buffy had died the second time, strangely enough, the world seemed to need another Slayer, and Linnea was it. Dumbledore had reminded her how painful it had been to cut her friends off, but they couldn't know. Then he had also brought up Henry, her Watcher, and that had merely helped her remember how much it had hurt to leave him too. He was her best friend besides being her Watcher.
Dumbledore had forced her to relive every second of the excruciating ache. Had made her dredge up every lie she had ever told, then made her feel as if he could see right through them. But somehow, by the end of it all, she had still trusted him completely. He had said all the right things, and although he never said anything about vamps or demons, he seemed to understand anyway. He had also made it clear that if she ever "needed" to talk again, to just come to him.
"Hello," a heavily accented voice jerked her from her reveries. Linnea looked up, surprised to find that her thoughts had taken her away from Dumbledore's office and almost all the way back to Gryffindor Tower. She also found a self-assured looking man with bleached blond hair, brown eyes and a well-chiseled face, wearing all black and standing directly in front of her. She stood for a moment, memories not quite clicking, but something telling her that she recognized him.
"You look like Spike from Buffy!" she blurted out when she finally realized why he looked so familiar. He started, a confused look dominating his countenance.
"I look like who from what?" he finally managed to say.
"Spike. You know, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. You sound like him too. Oh, don't tell me you've never heard of Buffy," Linnea groaned exasperatedly.
"Of course I've heard of Buffy. I've tried to kill her a couple of times. Hell, I've even saved her life a few times,"
"Wait. You really are Spike? You've not just some obsessed weirdo just trying to pull my leg?"
"Um, I have no idea what I'd be obsessed with, and I'm not joking. Why would I kid about something like that? Obviously I'm famous, although I'm not sure why," he grinned slightly.
Linnea felt a strange surge of relief wash over her, which was a strange reaction since she had just found out she was talking to a vampire. She hadn't been the Slayer for long, but it had always seemed slightly unreal, as though it were all some kind of fantasy she had made up from watching too much Buffy. Now, meeting someone like Spike, but somewhere she had never been before, somewhere where she knew she couldn't just be making things up, things seemed to cement themselves into her brain as reality.
"Oh good, I'm not crazy," she breathed.
"Well, you may not be, but in a few seconds you may think you are," Spike cocked his eyebrows, but the motion turned into the all too familiar morphing of the face. He shook his head slightly as though to clear it and looked at her through his vampire face.
"Oh no. You got the chip taken out?" Linnea demanded, annoyed.
"Yeah. How'd you know?" Spike asked surprised.
"Well, you wouldn't have bothered to go all vampy if you weren't going to bite me, and thus kill me, which you couldn't do it you had the chip in. See how that works? It's called logic!" Linnea smiled that classic "I'm the uber cool Slayer who's going to beat you up soon, but wants to make fun of you first" grin and Spike's confused frown deepened.
"Or he might just always look constipated, it's hard to tell with vamp faces." The Narrator put in.
"Who asked you!" Spike and Linnea commanded.
"I'm just going to stop talking now,"
"Yeah, you better. Where were we?" Spike stopped glaring at nothing and turned back to Linnea. "Oh yeah, why aren't you screaming and running?" Spike inquired. "It makes it more fun, although at this point in time, it might be kind of noticeable, so maybe it's a good thing you're not."
"Well what I think is really fun is kicking the asses of people like you," Linnea advanced slowly.
"Ooh, harsh language. You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" the Narrator prodded.
"I always liked you on TV," Linnea, whispered, ignoring the Narrator. "Too bad you're so much ruder in real life," and she punched him in the nose.
"You did not just do that!" Spike's voice finished much higher than it was supposed to be as he held his nose, back in normal face.
"Oh, is Spike's voice still changing? Poor Spike, that must be hard on you,"
"Do you have any idea who and what you are dealing with?"
"Yes, but I don't think you do," Linnea continued to advance and began to punctuate her words with punches. "See…I'm…the…Slayer!"
"WHAT?" Spike caught her final punch, more out of surprise than reflex and froze. "How does that work? There's already two Slayers, Faith and Buffy, how many more do we need?"
"Well, I don't know you very well yet, and this isn't really my favorite topic, so I don't really feel like spilling my life story to you. Can we get on with this?" Linnea proceeded to begin kicking Spike's butt, with the occasional helpful comment from the Narrator.
"Look, I don't mind getting beat up by a Slayer, it happens to me all the time, but could we please get the peanut gallery to shut up?" Spike muttered as Linnea shoved his face against the wall.
The song "Pressure" by Billy Joel starts playing, and Spike growls.
"Sorry, I just couldn't resist" the Narrator giggled.
"Well it's actually kind of nice, getting away from everyone and having some time on my own," came a familiar voice from down the hall. Spike twitched, and the music came to a screeching halt.
"Buffy," he breathed. The peppy blond came into view form around the corner, chatting amiably with Sam. She froze as she saw the scene before her.
"I'm sorry, I hop we're not inter…Spike?" she asked incredulously, stepping forward. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I was just hanging around, not doing much of anything, until I met this lovely young lady. Buffy, this is…well actually I don't know your name yet, as we didn't really get properly introduced," Linnea slowly let Spike down from the wall and pulled her t-shirt straight.
"I'm Linnea," she offered her hand to Buffy. "Linnea Rhode."
"Buffy Summers," the young woman took the proffered hand with a smile.
"Yeah, I actually kinda, already knew that. Did you know there's a TV show about you?" Linnea grabbed Spike's arm as he tried to sidle off down the hall without taking her eyes off Buffy.
"Uh, yes I did. Um, not that I mind entirely much, but what were you doing beating up my ex-boyfriend?"
"It's kind of a hobby. Not beating up ex-boyfriends per say, more beating up…" she trailed off, throwing an uncertain glance at Sam. Somehow Buffy seemed to get the message.
"Sam, honey, can you just go on ahead for a second, I'd like to sort this out,"
"Sure," Sam edged past Spike and down the hall, an uneasy silence reigning until he was out of sight.
"It's more a hobby of beating up vampires." Linnea finished. "And slaying them, as often as possible."
"Wait, wait. You're telling me that you slay vamps?"
"Well, that does seem the logical thing for me to do as I am the Slayer. Well, one of the Slayers,"
"One of them?"
"Yeah. I'm pretty sure we're up to three now."
"And how does that work?"
"That's what I was trying to find out!"
"Shut up Spike, I'll deal with you later."
"Well, when you died the first time, Kendra became Slayer, then when she died it was Faith,"
"Yeah, tell us something we don't know sweetie," Spike glowered.
Linnea cast a withering glance at Spike and continued. "When you died the second time, apparently it still counted because I became a Slayer." Spike and Buffy stood for a moment, processing.
"How did I not know about this?"
"I dunno. Watcher's Council doesn't really keep in touch with Giles, do they?"
"I'm just going to let that pass. We have to talk about this, but we don't really have the time right now as I have to get to class and you probably do too. What house are you in?"
"Gryffindor."
"Good, I'm there too. We can talk tonight." Buffy turned on Spike, all thoughts of Linnea gone. "And what on earth are YOU doing here?"
"Nothing. Looking for a bit of lunch until Slayerette here decided to give me a nose job." Linnea made a face at the "Slayerette" comment.
"You were following me," Buffy stated flatly.
"No!" Spike replied, outrage written on every inch of his face. "Ok maybe. Well yes, maybe that was part of the reason I came, but that's not the only thing I came for."
"And pray tell, what else did you come for?"
"To have a look around. I need some time to think about stuff, see the world, and if you happen to be in the near vicinity, then that's all the better."
"Get out."
"You have no right to order me around!"
"Right, as interesting as this conversation is, I think I'm just going to step out now. I'll talk to you later Buffy," Linnea smiled and hurried away down the hall.
"Fine, but don't follow me around, and don't come crawling back to me,"
"I won't. In fact, I came here to meet new people. And look at what interesting new people I've already met!"
"You KILLED someone!"
"Well, I need to eat."
"There's a butcher's shop in Hogsmeade,"
"There is?"
"Yes."
"Oh. Thanks for the tip. Nice seeing you!" Spike turned around and followed Linnea.
"If you hurt anyone else, do not for one moment think that I won't kill you just because we went out!" Buffy yelled after him. He just raised a hand and waved as he turned the corner.
"Ooh, hash breakup huh?" the Narrator asked sympathetically. "If you need somebody to talk to, you know I'm always here,"
"Where?"
"Well, anywhere actually. Never really though about it before. I'm just always willing to listen, ok?"
"Ok. That's a good thing, because I think I might need it."
Ok, sorry Andrew didn't make it in this time around. But I'm going to try my hardest to get him in! Hey, and aren't you proud of me? I think this is my longest chapter yet, and it didn't involve ANY song lyrics! It was actual plot development. So, you know what to do. That lovely button down there. You can just hit it, and then tell me what you think! Or just tell me that you're reading, you don't even need to give me any feedback. Just so long as I know you're there, it makes me feel better. Anyway, hopefully this will get funny again soon, and slightly less angsty; I've been watching Buffy too much. And I will get back to my old characters soon, There's going to be a lovely scene soon involving kittens, poker, Fred, George, Spike, Merry and Pippin. Ta for now!
