EPISODE ONE: The Vampire Who Cried Wolf


Disclaimer: All hail JKR.We own nothing but our wits and charm. Nothing. Capital N, rhymes with frothing.

Authors' Note: If you enjoy it, think of the hourswe slaved and the blood we shed...review. If you didn't enjoy it, think of how your comment will aggravate us for weeks on end... review. In a word. REVIEW. We don't even mind nitpicking.


CHAPTER ONE

Into every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.

... Why do they have to be so big with the caps?

The Chosen One. They make her sound like some sacred being, like it was a benediction. Sanctimonious, that's what it is. She was never Chosen. Being oppressed felt more like it.

Being a Slayer didn't mean just losing two hours of sleep to be out hunting for vampires and demons, and dedicating extra time for training to making herself fit for the job.

It also meant losing your parents, losing your friends, because from that Chosen day onwards, you'll be walking a path shrouded from them. It meant leaving home to fight for everybody's survival, to respond to a higher calling. Giving and giving until you yourself haven't your own air to breathe. At least, that's what it meant to her. That's what it's been like for her.

Her airborne carriage gave a sudden lurch. She could feel it landing. Thirteen hours of flight and she was almost there. She took out the note she'd slipped in her pocket. Hogsmeade, Hogshead, Lupin. She looked out of the window, and got a panoramic view of her new home, with the lake casually laid in the cresses of the mountains like a glistening mirror under the morning sun, and tiny wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys of the small village not far away.

A few minutes later, the carriage made a bumpy landing, and she could feel bits of stone and gravel crunching beneath its wheels as it stopped in front of the Hogshead Inn. She unfastened the bolt on the door, opened it and stepped out.

A young man was rubbing his hands right outside the inn. Presumably the pageboy. "Been expecting ya, miss. You go ahead and I'll take all your luggage for ya." He gave her a grin. She nodded curtly and went in.

There was hardly anybody inside the tavern. Two people wearing cloaks sat in one corner, and a man with graying hair sat in another.

She noticed the bartender looking at her as he cleaned a glass. Perhaps he'd never seen an Asian before. She stared impassively back at him, but not without a glint of danger in her eyes, and walked towards the solitary man.

He looked up expectantly, and she saw him size her up in a second before saying in a low voice, "Please, take a seat."

So this was her Watcher, Remus Lupin. Although his face was haggard, it wasn't run with signs that he was aging, and she could still sense vibrancy in his eyes. He was different from her first, she could tell, but what did it matter? Their role is always the same - to have authority over the Slayer. She sat, never taking her eyes from his face.

"So, Miss Lee... or Sharon? Which would you prefer?"

"Sharon." She sent him a piercing gaze.

His blue eyes, steely and bright, responded with equanimity. "Fine, then. How was your flight? Feel any fatigue from adapting to the air pressure a few thousand feet beyond the call of gravity?"

"I'm good."

He looked thoughtful. "Well, that's even better. Then we can start getting acquainted with each other and with your duties much sooner than I'd thought. If you please." He stood up and gestured for her to walk before him.

She rose from her chair and walked, slightly puzzled by his relaxation but hiding it by holding up her chin in defiance. If he thought being trifle with her would win her over, he was wrong. She'd been Chosen against her own will, and as much as she'd force herself to face her destiny, she wouldn't fraternize with anyone from the Watchers' Council.

Lupin was sliding a coin over the counter to the bartender. "Do me a favor, Rob, will you? Send the young lady's bags to Hogwarts... yes, thank you..."


The moment the man and the girl disappeared through the door, one of the cloaked figures went up to the bar. "Drop of sherry, Rob, be a good boy." He flipped a Knut into a glass on the counter.

"Well, Spike?"

"I'd say we've got ourselves a big, bad puppy."

"Yes, well. Hopefully, you won't have to continue doing this gig for long."

"Well, someone's got to do the dirty work before the Slayer arrives in town." Spike tried to shrug his broad shoulders as casually as he could, but there was a hint of sadness in his smile.

"No worries, my friend, I'll be on the look-out."

"Good man." Spike walked back to his table with his sherry. "You sittin' alright there, pet?"

Dawn, for the first time since she'd put her hood on, raised her head and let him see her eyes, already dulled with anger and tears. "Have you found anything about... her?" She spat out that last word like it tasted vile in her mouth.

Even Spike, as what he was, could not help feeling a wave of pity wash over him. "No, little bit. Nothing yet."

Dawn hid her eyes again, and didn't look up even once until they left right after sundown.


"... and so Hogwarts will be home to the new Chosen One, as befits the requests of the Watchers' Council and the Ministry of Magic..."

She decided that she liked Dumbledore. He was like her headmistress back home; firm, authoritative but never without a twinkle of amusement in his eye. He and Lupin bore a resemblance towards each other. The only difference was that Dumbledore hadn't received a mandate to monitor her. Well, Lupin seemed saner too... and not as funky. Dumbledore's white beard was so long he had to tuck it into his leather belt, which she would've killed to have, and that day he was wearing burgundy robes with suns and moons embroidered on it in gold thread.

"But Albus, certainly Fudge realizes that she is Muggle? I mean, the idea is entirely preposterous, to be frank..." Professor McGonagall spread her hands apart, her crooked hat slightly askew because of her anxiety.

Sharon had been told that she taught Transfiguration, whatever that was. Her Watcher had to realize sooner or later that it didn't matter to her what the wizarding world was like. Even if she had to live there, the Slayer still had to walk alone.

"Why, I'm surprised, Minerva," said Dumbledore, "Slayers have worked with wizards before, just not in the corner of our world. Their identity isn't non-existent to our knowledge."

"But what if she tells her kin about... about us?"

Sharon shifted her gaze to Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes, perched on the stand beside his desk, his feathers an array of dancing colors.

"She won't," Lupin said reassuringly.

"Don't be so certain," Professor Snape sneered from his corner of the room, his black oily hair clouding his narrow eyes. "Headmaster, I must implore you to reconsider accepting the Ministry's terms. We all know from the past that trusting Remus could be a liability... Why should we trust this Muggle girl, particularly is she's under his charge?..."

God, she hated the Potions master. The loathing bubbled up inside her when she heard him call her a Muggle. It was different when McGonagall said it. She was only speaking of what she customarily knew. She could tell that Snape held a particular grudge, a particular prejudice. Discriminating git.

"Very smooth, Severus," Lupin snapped, "If I recall correctly, your own fickle allegiance has given us reason to doubt you. You had a choice, I didn't. And neither does this girl sitting here..."

"Severus, Remus, please!" McGonagall hushed.

Dumbledore gave Sharon a friendly wink, which made her face momentarily lapse into a glimmer of a smile.

"I'm sorry, Minerva, Severus. I'm afraid my decision is quite final. Sharon has gone great lengths to be here for us all, and I, for one, would not want to see her slaying skills go to waste," said Dumbledore conclusively, "Minerva, please be so kind as to show Sharon to her room at the South Tower. Remus, if I may have a word with you..."

"I still do not think this is a good idea," Snape declared loudly in his malevolent voice.

She knew that she should be civil to all the Hogwarts teachers, but she gave Snape a deadly glare all the same.

McGonagall sighed and gestured for Sharon to come with her. "Well, Miss Lee, if you will come this way please..."

Sharon rolled her eyes and followed her down the moving spiral staircase. So much for a welcoming party.


One, two, three...

He watched as the stone staircase leading to the Headmaster's office spun downwards, counting the seconds as it did. He remembered that the staircase always took a total of eighteen seconds to sink fully back down.

Seven, eight, nine...

God, hurry up. He needed to talk to Professor Snape. He hadn't wanted to. He would've preferred not to have any contact with any human for the rest of the summer holiday. He liked the isolation. His mother was the exception. He wanted to hear from her. Snape might have a letter for him.

Twelve, thirteen, fourteen...

He didn't want any letters addressed him. It'd only make the other teachers talk. They might as well don't. He hated gossip.

Seventeen, eighteen...

McGonagall was on the staircase as well. Drat. He'd thought he could finally catch Snape alone.

But McGonagall swept by him, walking briskly down the corridor. The clicking of her heels echoed off the walls.

A girl in Muggle wear followed behind her. All in black and Asian, but her skin was too pale for one. She didn't notice him too, her pointed, oval face wrapped up in its own sullenness and half-hidden by a curtain of long black hair, crossing her arms to huddle into herself, defensive.

He watched her as she made her way down the corridor, putting one booted foot before the other, as if walking on an invisible narrow strip of floor, like she didn't want to take up any space, like she didn't want to exist here at all.

Snape was standing beside him, evidently annoyed by something.

"Who's that?" he jerked one elbow towards where McGonagall and the girl had disappeared.

"New student arrived early," muttered Snape disgustedly, and didn't say anything more.

So, he didn't want to share.

But suddenly, Snape whipped towards him and put up one finger accusingly. "I'm warning you, Mr. Malfoy, stay away from her for the next fortnight, if you ever do see her, or you'll be answering to me."

He scoffed, "Fine." As if he wanted to have anything to do with anybody. To hell with the Asian girl.

Snape marched towards the opposite end of the corridor, and Malfoy shrugged to himself and slinked away.

It only occurred to him after he'd turned a corner that he'd forgotten to ask about his mother.


A/N: (whistles innocently)