(a/n: a quick note to Morange. Actually, your plot of chocolate-smothering might well convince me to continue. I'm allergic to the stuff. Granted, smothering me in it could kill me after a while, so I suggest you don't try unless you never want me to finish. But there you go, your random threat is actually applicable.. :) .Be jubilant!)

Chapter 23 of Unexpected Losses.

The silence in the room was tangible. Most in the room were staring at the point where the portal had shut in disbelief. "He's gone." Someone finally uttered. No one was sure whom he or she meant, Ron or Voldemort. There seemed to be a void in the room. The two groups, Sunnydale residents and the wizards and witches pulled together, but apart.

Wormtail was huddling in a corner, staring unblinkingly at nothing in the middle of the room, to no real consequence. Lucius Malfoy laid on the ground still, curses burning behind his eyes. Of course, he had no way to display that rage, and no one in the room seemed to be paying him much attention in the shock that seemed to have taken over.

Buffy had a separated kind of shock all her own. Because the picture of the portal wouldn't leave her mind, and it was tormenting her just as it had for the previous summer. Was Angel still alive there? A sword through the chest wouldn't normally kill a Master vampire, but she had killed him. She had pushed him through after he'd regained his soul. How could he have survived in a hell dimension? Is that were that poor boy was now? Ron, the name seemed to come to her distantly. Was Ron in hell?

The latter of those questions seemed to burn at everyone in the room, regardless of whether the thinker knew the boy well. Not necessarily "was he in hell" but where was he in general. They'd never heard of a ghost being sent through a portal. With Voldemort gone, there was no way whatsoever to tell where the portal left, and Buffy was in no condition presently to tell them what she thought. And frankly, there wasn't much chance of her being believed. It wasn't a lack of trust between Giles, Xander, Willow, and Buffy. It was a simple matter of the fact that Buffy was still dealing with what had happened, and her mind might've given her the idea, Slayer senses completely aside.

No one spoke for some time, everyone just attempting to absorb what had happened. Buffy remembered when she faced the Master. Despite the prophecy, when she'd killed him, there was a sense of relief so profound; she wasn't sure how to deal with it. She had beaten him. Granted, she'd later gotten to "crush his bones into talcum powder", but it had just been another release of all that fear and anger. She wasn't completely aware of the situation, but she knew one thing well enough.

This wasn't a victory. There was no relief, merely a hollow following of the event, as if someone had taken a deep breath and all of them were waiting still for the exhalation. Willow leaned against Xander, exhausted in every possible facet. Xander easily propped her up as she leaned against him, with him leaning back into her without a second thought, striking a balance between the pair. Giles reached out and rested a hand on Buffy's shoulder, as if making sure that she was still there. The Watcher was bone-weary with the events of the past few days, and he was in no mood to attempt to hide the fact.

Charlie and Fred pulled Hermione and Harry into a four-person crush of a hug. Lupin's mind was still reeling at what he'd seen, and he hovered protectively over the children he thought of as his family. He glanced over at Giles, and they shared an uncomfortable glare. Some things just made a fight – no matter the source – seem incredibly trivial, and if what they'd gone through didn't count, then there was nothing that could.

Buffy carefully regarded the inhabitants of the room. Part of her wanted to talk to Giles about the chances of the portal and the dimension beyond. She'd never been the queen of tact (though Cordelia was easily worse), but she knew enough about losing people that it wouldn't be wise to suggest that Ron had been sucked into a Hell dimension. Even if he was a ghost.

After a few moments of the same silence, Willow pulled away from Xander with a brief hug. Quietly, she approached the other group. After noticing her standing there, all four seemed to regard her quietly, but seriously. Without the pretense of even a fake smile, Willow insinuated herself into Harry's somewhat shocked arms. After a moment, he hugged her as fiercely as she hugged him.

Willow was, by nature, not a solitary person. She wasn't often surrounded by a lot of people, and when she was, she was more uncomfortable than not. But she had always had a few people around her to ground herself to. And over the past while, Harry had been that person. They'd discussed their friends at great length. In general, they had a lot in common, and they had bonded quite quickly. At the moment, sharing this pain was comforting. Willow and Harry had compared their friends to an extent. There were a lot of similarities between Xander and Ron, and they'd delighted in sharing them.

Now, though, those similarities seemed to be attacking Willow. She could barely keep the thoughts of how she would feel in Harry's place away, and part of her didn't think it was very fair of her to try. Giles eventually walked up to her, and rested a hand on her shoulder. The two teenagers pulled apart from one another. Before, they might've blushed at their apparent closeness. But with the situation at hand, their capacity of being embarrassed had been destroyed, and didn't seem very important at all in retrospect.

"We need to get out of here." Giles reported quietly. Willow nodded in agreement and she grabbed Harry's hand without a second thought before she attentively followed the man who was like a father to her. He, with a rather disgruntled look, picked up a still-bound Lucius Malfoy, and slung the man over his shoulder before he continued walking, paying no respect to him whatsoever. Without being asked to, Willow cast the invisibility spell on he and Wormtail (who followed wordlessly, and still blank-eyed). Giles had to adjust his burden for a few minutes so he wouldn't look odd, but managed to seem somewhat normal.

Getting out of the castle was ridiculously easy after the trouble they went through to get in. They were all standing wordlessly together as they boarded a double-decker bus on their way back to the Ministry. When they finally arrived, Lupin led them down to the Auror's department. Giles dumped Lucius Malfoy over without so much as a pause or thought, and Wormtail was handed over, still staring vacantly. The rather pretty woman they spoke to, who had dark sable hair and pretty blue eyes in a heart-shaped face introduced herself as Nymphadora Tonks.

The woman asked several questions in quiet tones about what had happened. With eyes as large as saucers after it, she had left the front room and returned with several people within minutes. Among them was a tall, bald black man, a somewhat shorter, very badly scarred man (who's blue eye swung around in a state that left Willow feeling somewhat nauseous), and a very elderly old man, if his beard was any indication. There was a feeling of power around the elder man that left Willow feeling somewhat more than awed.

"Rupert. It's been some time." The man said kindly to Giles, who seemed a little flustered by the attention.

"Quite, Professor." Giles answered softly.

"I understand your charge has been at the center of some of this madness?" He asked, glancing at the three teenagers with Giles, wondering which of them it was. Willow stepped forward, still trying to shut off the response to run from this very powerful man. There was a sense of grandfatherly-ness about him, but behind that was someone as solid as tempered steel, and she knew that she had caused a number of problems recently. "What's your name, Miss?"

"I'm Willow. Rosenberg." She finished her name as an afterthought.

"My name is Albus Dumbledore." He answered. "I understand that Tom was, in part, after you?"

"Tom?" Willow asked with her brow furrowed in confusion.

"Voldemort's real name is Tom Riddle." Harry reported. "Professor. There was a portal…"

"I know." Dumbledore answered simply. "Ms. Tonks and myself met each other halfway here. The energy from that portal was probably felt for a great distance. When I felt it disappear, I assumed that this is where you would head. I'm aware of what happened to Ronald. I'm very sorry."

"He was a ghost." Harry answered. For the first time, Dumbledore seemed shocked. "He was the one who closed the portal. First he made Charlie throw his body in. Then he went into Voldemort and they went through. Is there any way to know where it went to?"

"I'm afraid the possibilities of where he went are infinite." Dumbledore replied regretfully.

The attention of everyone in the room was drawn to the front door of the room as it burst open. Willow recognized Mr. Fudge as he entered, glowering darkly at everyone. "You." He spat acidly at Harry, who glared right back at the man. "I knew that you had something to do with all this madness. Who allowed you into this…" He stopped ranting as he glanced about the room. "This is a branch of the Ministry of Magic. This is not some…party for delinquents."

"Oh. Can I hurt him?" Buffy asked Giles brightly. The Minister blanched angrily at the slip of a girl that dare mock him.

"Do you think that you're funny? Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Snyder Junior." Buffy answered, looking at Giles again. The librarian, despite (or perhaps because of) the heaviness of the current situation, had to smother a laugh into a cough.

"No. He's not on that high of a scale." Willow answered innocently. Wordlessly, the Minister turned on her, surprisingly daring to brandish his wand at the teenager. Easily, Harry and Giles both stepped protectively in front of her, and Buffy rushed at the man, disarming him without effort. Xander tsked the Minister and his stupid attempt at an attack on his best friend.

"Don't just stand there." The Minister shrieked. "Arrest them."

"On what grounds, sir? You pulled your wand on an unarmed Muggle and they were merely defending their friend." Tonks answered innocently, giving him the most serious look that she could muster. "None of them have attempted to hurt you, and besides, you attacked first. Technically, you're the one breaking code here."

"You are fired." The Minister hissed. Tonks narrowed her eyes darkly at him.

"I'm afraid that you don't have the right to do that, Cornelius." Albus Dumbledore said mildly, but a twinkle formed in his blue eyes. "Because Ms. Tonks is following procedure. Besides, the only one she could possibly detain is Ms. Summers, the young lady with your wand in hand. Unfortunately for you, sir, our laws have no grounds to cover the Slayer."

"The…the Slayer?" Fudge gaped in disbelief.

"I see you've heard of me?" Buffy addressed Dumbledore respectfully.

"Oh, yes, Ms. Summers. The Council and the Ministry have long debated the standing of the Slayer in our world. I'm quite honored to meet you, though. Seeing as how Slayers and wizards seldom meet. Even a wizard such as myself!" He chuckled lightly at that last, as if it was a joke only he understood.

"I'd like to speak with you, young lady." The badly scarred man spoke, both eyes focused unblinkingly at the girl. "I have a feeling that there is much that we could discuss."

"Alastor, this is not the time." Albus chided the man lightly.

"No, but this is an opportunity I shall not waste." The man nodded slightly, one eye focused on Dumbledore, and the other still on Buffy. If she was disturbed by that development, she didn't mention anything.

A woman burst into the room just as the Minister had a few minutes before, but this time not in anger. She, in fact, glared at the man before looking towards Dumbledore. "He was supposed to get help." She remarked in regards to the man. "There's something loose downstairs. I don't know how it got in, but it's attacking people."

"What is it?"

"That's what we'd like to know."

(a/n: that's it for this chapter. Hope that you liked it. Should be two more!)