Disclaimer: Buffy characters are the property of Mr. Whedon. Harry Potter characters are the property of Ms. Rowling. I do own the story that I am writing, but I'm just borrowing the characters for a little while. So, yeah, if you decide to sue... I'm uber-broke.
Through the Looking Glass
Chapter 17
All Hallow's Eve
x x x x x
"Shouldn't I-"
"No."
"But, they'll-"
"I'll tell them."
"It's-"
"It's better if it is like this. And when you have arrived, please, act normal. Did you take that potion that I gave you? Good."
Willow gulped slightly. It wasn't that she was nervous; it's just that she remembered taking that horrible goopy potion. It had felt like slime as it went down. McGonagall had told her that it was a very complex protective form of magic that she had swallowed. When Willow asked more about it; McGonagall had ignored her. Willow figured it was for the best. Especially if the Death Eaters found out about her and tried to hack through her brain.
"Nervous?"
"Just a little," Willow breathed.
"Don't be too nervous. Since Malfoy seems to think that you're being held captive here, then he obviously isn't suspicious of you."
"Yeah, he took this weird liking towards me." Willow nodded as McGonagall handed Willow a wand. "What..."
"We know that you can do magic without a wand, but if Dolohov finds out. He'll probably have you murdered."
"Oh," Willow looked at the wand.
Bright little ray of sunshine, McGonagall is, Willow thought.
"Miss Rosenberg," McGonagall took Willow by the hand. "You have everything that you need. Around Christmas, we will need you to come back, as you already know. And, remember they will not know anything other than what you tell them."
"Uh, okay." Willow nodded. She had been through about a five hour meeting with the majority of the teachers and a few other people who she would probably never meet again. Willow felt very privileged, but wondered exactly how she was going to get through this. If anyone was to be going to spy, Willow thought that it should be Buffy. Definitely not herself. But, Dumbledore had thought that she was the best candidate for it.
"We're going to take you to a portkey-"
"Wait!" Willow yelled, then let out a nervous laugh. "You're really serious that I won't be able to go and tell my friends 'bye?"
"It's best," McGonagall said as she pulled Willow towards a windowsill. "Touch the feather, dear."
Willow touched the feather and felt a slight pull below her belly button. When she finally felt her feet touch ground she let out her breath and opened her eyes. There stood Draco Malfoy, looking at a small black pocket watch.
"Just in time." He smirked. "Let's go." He took her hand and pulled her towards a swirling black hole. Willow didn't want to step in the hole, but Draco kept pulling her forwards. "Lord Dolohov cannot contain his excitement."
x x x x x
"Xander?"
Xander looked up to see Cordelia standing over him. He smiled and pointed at his new creation... a wooden puppet.
"Yeah?"
"What is that?"
"Venny the Puppet." Xander made the small puppet wink at Cordelia and then nod its wooden head towards a few students walking down the hall. "Homework, y'know. Flitwick wanted them to charm something immobile and make it move."
"Well, Geppeto, if you see Willow will you tell her that I need to talk to her?" Cordelia rolled her eyes and continued down the hall.
Xander watched as Cordelia walked off. Even if he saw Willow, he figured he would annoy Cordelia and just keep his mouth shut.
x x x x x
"You're kidding?"
"No, Miss Chase, I am not." McGonagall shook her head.
"You mean-"
"Yes."
"No."
"Oh, yes."
There was a stunned silence in the room as Xander, Buffy, and Cordelia looked at McGonagall.
"We're really getting to throw the Halloween Party?" Xander asked.
"Yes." McGonagall huffed.
"That could be cool." Buffy nodded; which Xander noted that she was being incredibly quiet as of late.
"Why isn't Willow-"
"She's busy doing other errands." McGonagall said. "I'll fill you all in after you all have helped with the Halloween party."
"But-"
"You have my answer;" McGonagall frowned at Buffy who had dared tried to get a word in. "Now, hop to it!"
x x x x x
"Ouch!" Xander looked down at his finger as a small drop of blood appeared on the skin. He put his throbbing finger in his mouth and pouted for only a moment. Xander heard footsteps to his right and when he looked up he saw a tall, thin redhead.
Normally when a tall, thin redhead walked towards Xander, he wanted to do back flips to get their attention. Hell, anything to get a date with something that didn't want to eat him after having sex. However, today when a tall, thin redhead walked his way, he felt really strange to be thinking this way. Considering the redhead was a guy.
The man looked at Xander for a moment and then walked over to tiny Professor Flitwick. Xander noticed the man nodding his head towards Xander and then a smile flew across his face. The freckles that Xander hadn't noticed earlier appeared rather quickly when the man smiled.
"You're one of those Protector chaps;" he called across the Great Hall. Xander looked around as the echoes bounced in every direction.
"Sure am." Xander noticed that he still had his finger in his mouth, (so it sounded like, "Thurham.") and feeling thoroughly embarrassed yanked his finger out quickly. No wonder the man had looked at him strangely.
"Brilliant!" The man walked over to him and then held out his hand. "I'm Ron."
"Xander." Xander stood up quickly and took his hand.
"What are you making?" Ron pointed at the crumpled heap beside Xander.
"It's supposed to be a Grim Reaper, but the damn blade cut me. Who'd'a thought it was real, y'know?" Xander laughed.
"I dunno, mate," the man shrugged as he looked at the black mass on the floor. "Looks more like-"
"The Blob?" Xander interrupted and smiled.
"What?"
"Never mind," Xander said when he realized that the majority of the time; it was useless to talk about muggle things. "Not important."
"Xander!"
"Yeah?" Xander whirled around and saw Cordelia and Buffy carrying a large pumpkin.
"Help, please," Cordelia muttered as she tried to shift her weight. Ron hurried over to help with the heavy load and Xander was right on his heels. They took the pumpkin away from the girls and nearly fell over from the weight of the large orange accessory.
"Nicked it from Hagrid's, huh?" Ron asks as they sat the pumpkin down on the floor, not three feet away from where Cordelia and Buffy stood.
Buffy stared at Ron and Xander, "Well, hell, we could have put it there."
"Yeah, Hagrid wanted us to take the largest pumpkin he had, but considering this was the smallest, I don't think we would have lasted very long," Cordelia rubbed her shoulder where the pumpkin had been resting. "Thanks for helping..."
"RONALD WEASLEY!"
Ron's ears went pink as the shrill voice echoed throughout the halls. He slowly turned around and two figures (a witch and wizard) were walking towards the group.
"How dare you go off without telling me where you were going! Your mother called worried sick, because her clock said that you were mortal peril! How dare you scare me like that! And what with this new war going on! You ought to be completely and utterly ashamed of yourself!"
There was a tense silence in the Great Hall as everyone stared. And as quick as lightening, the woman leapt into Ron's arms, kissing him and hugging him.
"Hello to you too, Hermione," Ron's muffled voice spoke amidst the kisses.
"They're always like this," a deep voice sounded in the room. Xander looked over to Flitwick, who hadn't moved a muscle and was still working on enchanting a line of skeletons to dance. Then Xander's eyes fell on the wizard who had just entered with Hermione.
"They married?" Cordelia asked.
"They will be soon enough," the wizard laughed as Ron desperately tried to calm Hermione down by telling her that he never was in mortal peril. He had had a run in with a rather snarky unicorn ghost and it had tried to gore him ("Nothing I couldn't handle, really!").
"And I thought she was married to Harry," Xander commented.
The wizard laughed. "Oh, no. The three of them were inseparable during their years here at Hogwarts. The best of friends; Weasley and Granger didn't even come to their senses until after their seventh year. When Harry found out he told them that it was about time."
They were all silent as the little tiff between Hermione and Ron continued ("How was I supposed to know that it was only a unicorn and not Dolohov!").
"Oh," the wizard grunted. "Forgive my rudeness... I'm Nigel Isler."
"I know that name..." Xander muttered.
"You're one of the PMS'ers!" Buffy shook her head knowingly.
"I beg your pardon?" Nigel blinked at Buffy.
"Phoenix Message Sender... a PMS'er." Cordelia rolled her eyes. "I'm Cordelia, that's Xander and Buffy, we're-"
"Yes, I know, three quarters of the HPU." There was a pause as Buffy, Xander, and Cordelia stared at Nigel. "Hogwarts Protective Unit. I can do the same thing, Miss Summers. Where's the other-"
"We were told she was off doing an errand." Xander replied.
"Oh, yes," Nigel bit his bottom lip and nodded his head. "I remember now."
"Will someone please start decorating!" Flitwick's voice carried throughout the Great Hall. "I can't do this entire hall all by myself!"
x x x x x
The Halloween Bash was going rather well. Or at least the planning part was going rather well... Nigel, Hermione, and Ron had all stayed to help a little with the party. And everyone had a specific job. Cordelia was assigned as the art/theme manager; Buffy, the costume designer; Xander, the construction artist (no matter how hard he tried, Cordelia wouldn't let him be color coordinator ... and besides at least his title wasn't construction worker); Flitwick, the special effects director; Ron, the party favors planner; Nigel, the culinary expert; and Hermione, the overall director.
Cordelia was upset that Hermione had taken over as soon as she had stepped foot into the Great Hall. But, when Hermione was off doing other things, Cordelia took it upon herself to be the director.
"Hey Flitwick!" Cordelia crossed the room and watched as a dozen coffins were being dragged into the hall. "What's in those?"
"Vampires!" Flitwick called back.
Cordelia looked at Flitwick like he had fifty heads. "Like real ones?"
"Oh, yes, they always enjoy our parties. Believe me though, they've had plenty to drink."
"Too bad, Buff, I'm sure you've been getting a little rusty as of late." Xander winked at Buffy as he yelled across the hall and nearly fell off the tall beam he was sitting on. "Whoa!"
"Yeah," Buffy called out nervously and turned back around to the costumes that she had been cooking up. With a little help from Hermione occasionally to put the pieces together by magic, Buffy was getting all of the students' costumes in order. The Protectors had thought that a more muggle style of celebrating Halloween would change things up a bit in the magical realm.
"How is everything going in here?" Hermione appeared with a small pen in her hand and the notebook she was writing in was floating with her as she walked.
"Fine," Cordelia huffed.
"Ron," Hermione patted Ron on the shoulder. "I'm going down to the kitchens and I think-"
"Oh, no you don't!" Ron stood up from his work place where there were tons of bags piling up on each side of the desk. The party favors were going to be the best thing for the kids - fun and games and plenty of candy for them to make themselves sick off of. Literally.
"What?" Hermione looked shocked. "What are you talking about?"
"I'm not going near the loon!" Ron's hands flew up in the air. "You know what he's like!"
"Yes, but he would love to see you," Hermione scolded. "You owe it to him to visit."
"Fine," Ron gave in and turned to the group, rolling his eyes. Buffy laughed inwardly.
"Hey!" Xander called out as he nearly fell from the beam again. Building a guillotine was tricky; he wished that he could just find a guillotine in the castle, but Nearly Headless Nick had made sure to take anything remotely close to a guillotine out of Xander's reach. Something about not having someone else join the Headless Hunt before Nick himself was allowed to join. Xander thought of how insane his life was, but laughed it off. "I've never been to the kitchens; I haven't been able to find a way there yet."
"Sure, you can come along," Hermione smiled, "and no, Ron, he can't take your place."
Ron huffed and Xander followed the crazy lovebirds off toward kitchen bliss.
x x x x x
Xander found himself surrounded by house elves that were all too willing to get him anything he wanted or even thought about wanting. Xander asked for a banana split with vanilla ice cream and it was handed to him on silver platter with a rather large spoon. Xander was in banana split heaven.
"Who's that?" Xander asked in between bites as he pointed at one of the crazier looking elves. He had tons of socks hung at every possible position on his little elf body.
"Dobby," Hermione said as Dobby leapt towards Ron and gave him a big hug. Ron made a few incoherent mumblings, but there was a definite, "GEROFF!"
Dobby waddled towards Xander who was still busy stuffing his mouth with ice cream. Dobby's big saucer-like eyes blinked up at Xander, "And you is, sir?"
Xander looked down at Dobby, "I is Xander. Dobby right?" Xander held out his hand and the elf looked at his hand with his large eyes. "Please to meet you," Xander continued as he pulled his unshaken hand.
"Dobby, where's Winky?" Ron asked as a dozen elves brought him some cookies and tea.
Xander saw Hermione hit Ron in the shoulder ("Ouch! What was that for?") as a huge tear leaked out from one of Dobby's eyes. There was a small sniff from Dobby and from one of the house elves closest to Xander.
"Winky drinked herself to death, Ron," Xander heard Hermione whisper, "Or have you forgotten?"
"It's been almost three years Hermione!" Ron shouted.
Xander turned his face away and looked at Dobby and the house elf beside him. "Sorry for your loss."
" 'Tis very dangerous for the house elf to drink," Dobby sniffed and then walked back towards the main part of the kitchen.
"Did you know Winky too?" Xander asked.
The other house elf beside Dobby looked up at Xander and shrugged, "I gots a cold." Another sniff. "I came after Winky died. Not too many elves felt too sad, I heard, though." The elf took in a deep breath and then coughed. "She didn't want to work, I's heard."
"Oh," Xander watched as the other elf followed Dobby. Looking down at his banana split, Xander didn't feel like eating anymore. A small pink elf with pink eyes took the platter away and said thank you about one million times.
"Ron, I am very upset," Hermione said as she motioned for Xander to come along.
"I forgot!" Ron defended himself as they all exited the kitchen.
"How do you forget things like that?" Hermione shook her head and continued to walk.
"I have you to remind me, so I take to forgetting quite easily." Ron muttered.
x x x x x
"Wow, this actually turned out to be decent," Buffy said as she placed her cross on the table. She thought that it would be rather funny to be a nun for Halloween.
"Except the part where Nearly Headless Nick decided he wanted to steal my guillotine!" Xander piped in. He had gone as a Sherlock Holmes.
"At least you stopped him from trying to behead himself entirely." Cordelia patted Xander on the shoulder. "I was almost really jealous;" she teased, as she had been Marie Antoinette for the bash.
"I think that if we stay here until next year, that we have to throw the Halloween party again," Buffy sighed as she took off her wimple.
"I agree!" Flitwick walked up to the group and then glanced back into the Great Hall. "The student enjoyed everything - the specialized costumes I think really did it, Miss Summers."
Buffy smiled and thanked him.
"Especially my... what did you call it? Mini-Me costume?"
The three protectors all smiled at each other as Flitwick went back to the party.
"Success is sweet," Xander said as he relaxed in his plush velvet chair.
x chapter's end x
After Thoughts: Did you read? Please review!
I hope I made all the R/H 'shippers happy. It's about time Ron showed up, eh? Seventeen chapters in and FINALLY he makes an appearance. (We're not counting Chapter Three, because he didn't actually have a line.) I really am an evil author. I bet you'd all be surprised to know that Ron is my FAVORITE Potter character.
Oh, and, um, to clear something up. Buffy couldn't tell that Lupin was a werewolf because of the "she has no power" situation. Remember what God was telling Gabe? Buffy, Xander, and Willow aren't supposed to be at Hogwarts... so things are different for them. Any magic from the Non-Magical world (ha - that's funny) is going to change. I am probably incriminating myself right now. Gah!
Look forward to Ch. 18 entitled:
Argh Me Hearties!
Xander, feeling deeply depressed, copes by telling stories...
I am really excited about the next chapter. Yeehaw! I must say that I am insane, but that sometimes when an author writes rather insanely, it turns out rather nicely.
