CHAPTER 16: DETENTION
Buffy walked briskly back to her room, desperately missing her friends. She liked the wizarding world and was happy to be back in it, but she didn't think she'd miss her friends this much already. They had been through so much together, both good and bad, and she guessed she took it for granted that they'd always be there. They were a few times when they weren't, like when she got kicked out of her own house, but there were circumstances...
She wasn't going to take lord over them, saying that she had been right, that they shouldn't have kicked her out; however, up until not too long ago, Buffy thought that that went without saying.
Thinking back to the battle with The First, Buffy was reminded of all the potential slayers Willow had activated into real slayers. She honestly had no idea what happened to them all; she had been in such a rush to get to England that she forgot about the slayer issue. It was something she was going to have to talk to Giles about.
Upon reaching her room, Buffy walked straight to the fireplace and decided that maybe a portkey would be best. People could be watching the floo network, and she didn't want anyone to know what she was up to.
Pulling out the books she had brought, Buffy looked up the spell to create a portkey, and quickly read over the incantation. She grabbed a spare piece of parchment, aimed her wand, thought about her destination, and said "portus."
The paper turned blue, causing Buffy to lift an eyebrow, and began to tremble slightly, causing Buffy to step back warily. Then the parchment settled down and returned back to normal.
'Is that supposed to happen?' Buffy thought. She shrugged and picked up the parchment. If it didn't work, she wouldn't go anywhere, no big deal.
As soon as she touched it, she felt a tug behind her navel and only had a brief second for her soft cry of triumph to escape before she disappeared from her room.
She landed unsteadily on the grass outside of her friends' flat, but managed to stay upright thanks to her slayer reflexes. 'Not exactly where I wanted to be, but close enough,' Buffy thought. Next time she'd have to be a little more specific, say the kitchen for instance.
She quickly closed the gap between the door and her current location, all the while getting more excited to see her friends. What if she lost them one day? What would she do?
These types of thoughts were not new to the slayer, but the issue with James, Sirius, and Remus just renewed her fears. They were her friends, come hell or high water, and she wasn't going to let anything happen to them. She couldn't save James, but she was not going to let anyone else die.
She knocked and opened the door, announcing her presence. "Guys? It's me. Thought I'd stop by for a little while."
The gang all came out from the bedroom on the far right, which when open revealed the bedroom covered in books and research materials. "Getting down and dirty, huh?" Buffy joked.
Nobody really heard her, as they were all excited to hear about her first day. Sitting down in the small living room, Buffy shared with them a quick run-through of the day's events.
"So your nephew has a little bit of an attitude problem?" Xander asked after listening patiently, and waiting while Willow and Giles asked the inquiring questions.
Buffy grimaced slightly, remembering her first encounter with her remaining family. "Yeah, we're going to have to work on that."
"I still can't believe you gave someone else a detention. Picking favourites already?" Xander joked.
"I can't believe you gave anyone detention. I thought you'd be more sympathetic after having to sit through so many detentions yourself," Willow said.
"Those were pointless detentions," Buffy said carelessly. "So, enough about my day, how was yours?"
The group glanced at each other for a moment before looking back at Buffy. Giles took off his glasses and Willow walked into the bedroom she had come out of several minutes before.
"We've been researching," Anya said sullenly. "All day."
"I'm fairly certain we've found the cause for why we seem to be five years behind the rest of the world," Giles said, causing Buffy's eyes to widen in anticipation.
"And," she prompted impatiently. Willow walked back into the living room carrying a book in her arms, presumably one she picked up in the bedroom.
"Do you remember these guys?" Willow asked, placing the book open in front of her friend.
Buffy frowned as she tried to place the demon. "Yeah," Buffy said, remembering. "These were those demons that Warren..." Buffy stumbled over the name, glancing ever so slightly at Willow before continuing, "...um, made attack me and blame me for his ex's death."
"Yes, the Rwasundi," Giles said. "In all the rush and excitement that had been going on, I failed to read further into the matter, which it has become apparent that I should have."
"I'm not following you," Buffy said.
"The Rwasundi are not from this dimension, and they're presence causes a temporal disturbance, inducing hallucinations," Giles started.
"And a slightly tingling scalp," Anya interrupted from her spot on the couch.
"Right, we've been through this before," Buffy said confused.
"Remember Halloween? The fear demon?" Xander spoke up.
Buffy's eyes went wide as she remembered the missed description of the demon reading 'actual size'. "What did you miss?" she asked Giles.
"It seems that their presence in our dimension for a few seconds causes the hallucinations, but the longer they stay, the more damage that occurs. How long do you think you fought them, Buffy?"
"Five minutes maybe," Buffy shrugged, unsure. "I can't remember exactly."
"That's what I thought," Giles said. "The demons create a localized temporal disturbance, and the area affected ranges proportionally to the amount of demons. In our case, the three demons, combined with the energy of the Hellmouth, caused the entire town of Sunnydale to be encased in the temporal disturbance.
"For each minute the demons stay in this dimension, a year passes in the area outside of the disturbance. Time slows down with respect to the outside world; since we are all still moving at the same time with respect to each other, we would not notice the difference. I'm not sure if I'm explaining this correctly," Giles said as he looked at his confused slayer.
"No, I think I get it," Buffy said thoughtfully. "We didn't notice the change in speed because we were all going the same speed. If Willow was to start walking extremely slow, while all of us could walk regularly, then we would be at different speeds, and so the difference would be noticeable. But, if we were all going the same speed, then we wouldn't be able to tell a difference," Buffy said slowly.
"Right," Giles said.
"Wow, Buffy," Xander said. "I'm impressed."
"Well, I am living at a school now," Buffy joked.
"You practically lived in the library at school, but that didn't seem to help much," Willow said.
"Yeah, but Hogwarts is magical," Buffy said with a grin.
"What I don't get is how no one else in Sunnydale noticed anything," Anya said. "How can you just miss five years of your life? One day you wake up and you're five years in the future?"
"Ahn," Xander said, "It's Sunnydale. Denial is their mascot, and theme song. Plus, we didn't notice anything."
"Well, that's because we were busy," Anya said defensively. "We didn't have much down time to look at the date or anything. After those demon thingies, Warren tried to kill Buffy, Willow went evil, the world almost ended, and then the First started poking around killing everyone. It all happened so quickly."
"If you think about it, we didn't actually lose five years of our lives," Willow said thoughtfully. She had learned long ago to tune out most of what Anya said. "I mean, we didn't get any older, it's just that everyone else did. It's weird."
Everyone silently contemplated everything before Xander said, "What in our life isn't weird? I mean, it would be weird if nothing was weird."
"That's true," Buffy said. "I wonder what we would do if we were normal." At one point in her life, Buffy longed to be normal, but now she remembered that she was a witch, and if she ever gave up being the Slayer, she'd still never be normal.
"What's normal anyway?" Xander asked. "I mean, Anya's an ex-ex-vengeance demon, Willow's a super-powerful wicca, Giles is a watcher, and you're a slayer and a witch. And I'm a Cyclops. I say normal is overrated."
"Speaking of slayers, whatever happened to the rest of the slayers? I kind of forgot with all the memories coming back," Buffy said.
"Well, Faith took them all back to Angel's place for the time being. Since they got a nice new law agency, they gave us the hotel to use as we see fit," Giles said.
"It's going to be our base of operations," Xander said.
"Faith is going to be the girls' trainer. One of them at least," Willow said. "Kennedy's going to help too, but she has a little power issue she has to get over. The rest of the old potentials are using Wolfram and Hart's connections in order to locate slayers around the world. A new watcher program is being devised by Wesley and we're getting help hiring new employees and what not."
"Why do I think you guys have talked to them recently?" Buffy asked.
"We called to check up on them today. They're doing really well," Willow admitted.
"I installed a new phone," Xander said, indicating the kitchen before Buffy could ask. "Willow helped magic things along a bit."
"You guys have been busy, haven't you?" Buffy said, impressed.
"And tomorrow's going to be even busier," Xander said.
"What's tomorrow?" Buffy asked confused.
"Tomorrow's when we catch up on all the happenings in the last five years. Think of all the things we've missed! All the comic books, video games, TV shows, and movies! My jokes are all old and dated!" Xander complained.
"You're going to be late for detention if you don't hurry up," Giles interrupted, looking at his watch.
Buffy jumped up and raced to hug everyone goodbye. The last thing she needed was to be late to detention; who knows what Umbridge would do to Neville.
Quickly turning the parchment she had used before back into a portkey, she travelled back to Hogwarts, landing on top of her bed. Running into the living area, she saw Celsia sitting on the back of a chair, preening her feathers.
"You found me, good." Buffy said, "But I've got to run. I'll see you in a bit."
Scrambling out of her quarters, Buffy rushed down to her office, which she had found after her second class earlier that morning. Luckily, she was actually a couple of minutes early and Neville hadn't shown up yet.
Buffy walked into her office and sat down behind her desk, waiting for the young man to arrive. She didn't have to wait long before a timid knock came from her door.
Buffy stood and opened the door wide, allowing Neville ample room to enter; she had long since stopped answering, "Come in."
Neville was trembling slightly while he slowly walked into the room. He had heard stories about a quill that carved into your hand while you wrote. He didn't know if he could stand the pain.
"Have a seat," Buffy said, gesturing to the chair in front of her desk. She was just about to close the door when Professor Umbridge appeared in the doorway. Inside, Buffy cringed. 'What could she want now?'
"Professor!" Buffy exclaimed. "What a pleasant surprise! What are you doing here?"
Hem hem. Umbridge cleared her throat as she looked at the still trembling Neville and the overly cheerful blonde girl. "I thought you might be interested in this," Umbridge said, handing her a quill.
"You want him to write lines?" Buffy asked with a raised eyebrow, not noticing that Neville suddenly went pale.
"Yes. You'll find it very effective in getting your point across," Umbridge replied.
"Writing something over and over again can be very tedious," Buffy said, remembering one time in detention she had to copy lines out of the dictionary; certain words like 'responsibility', 'failure', and 'expulsion'. That had been after the Parent Teacher meeting had gone awry; Snyder wasn't too happy.
"It's hard to forget something that you write repeatedly," Umbridge said with a cruel little smile.
"Well, thanks," Buffy said, taking the quill. "I'll be sure to put it to good use."
"And when you decide that the Potter boy needs detention, don't hesitate to make him write. He's gotten better at it, but he still has a long way to go before the message really sinks in."
Buffy started to get a little angry that Umbridge had obviously given Harry plenty of detentions already. It was hardly a month into school! "I will, thanks again," Buffy said dismissively. "Goodnight," Buffy said, closing the door.
She turned around and sat in the chair behind her desk, facing a faint-looking Neville. "Are you alright?" Buffy asked, concerned.
Neville managed a weak nod, but said nothing.
Buffy twirled the quill in her hands contemplatively, letting the silence grow as she studied Neville.
"Do you know why you're here?" Buffy asked suddenly, startling Neville and making him jump a little.
Neville started to shake his head, before changing his mind and answering in the affirmative. "I'm here because of Harry."
Buffy kept quiet for another minute. "Are you friends with Harry?"
"Y... yes," Neville said. "I think so."
"You don't know for sure?" Buffy asked, curious.
"Well, I like him," Neville said, more calmly. He was still cautious of her and what she was going to make him do, and he was eying that quill carefully, but she was so relaxed and calm that he felt himself calm down a bit.
"Do you think Harry likes you?"
"I hope so," Neville said. "I mean... yes, I think he does. It's just, he's best friends with Ron and Hermione. I'd be just like a fourth wheel."
"Do you have your own little group like Harry does?"
"N... no. Not really," Neville said, getting a little embarrassed and uncomfortable with the line of questioning.
"Do you know why that is?" Buffy asked. Before he could answer, she quickly changed the subject. "What is your favourite class?"
Neville almost sighed in relief as he answered, "Herbology."
"Why do you like it?"
"I guess it's always been something that interested me, and it's the only thing I'm good at. There are so many different kind of plants, each with their own adaptabilities, uses, and defences."
"What class is your least favourite?"
"Potions," Neville answered immediately with a grimace.
"Really?" Buffy asked, mildly surprised. She had been expecting that answer, but since his favourite class was Herbology, she found it interesting. "Herbology and Potions go really well together, as lots of the potions contain many different plants."
"I'm just not good at it. There are too many steps, and I'm so clumsy and I always mess something up, or put something in too early, or mix something wrong..." Neville rambled on nervously.
"Why don't you just slow down and take it one step at a time?" Buffy asked.
Neville was silent for a moment, as if arguing with himself, before he said quietly, "It's Professor Snape."
Buffy's Slayer hearing allowed her to catch what Neville had mumbled, but she wanted him to repeat it anyway. "I'm sorry?"
"It's Professor Snape," Neville said with more volume. "My boggart turns into Professor Snape," Neville hinted.
Buffy's mind quickly searched for the familiar sounding term boggart. A little light bulb went off in her head as she correctly recalled that a boggart would turn into the thing one fears the most.
"You're afraid of Severus?" Buffy asked, remembering the younger Severus of her school years. She could only imagine that he had gotten worse. How he became a professor, she had no idea. "He can be a little intimidating," Buffy agreed.
"Everything I do is wrong, even before I do it," Neville said, warming up a little more, now that Professor Fox seemed to be on his side.
Buffy frowned as she heard Neville continue on about what Snape does in class. When he finished, slightly embarrassed at his unusual outburst, Buffy put the quill down on her desk and leaned forward.
"Are you trustworthy?" Buffy asked, looking into his eyes.
"I'd like to think so," Neville gulped.
Buffy picked up her wand and pointed it overhead, casting a silencing charm over the room. Then she locked the door.
Neville was getting more nervous; was she going to have to silence his screams of help? "I don't want to write lines," Neville said. "I'd rather clean the trophy room for you, without magic," he added.
Buffy frowned at him. She knew how big the trophy room was, having had to clean it a couple of times herself, and she couldn't see why he would rather do that then write lines. It was tedious and boring, but it didn't hurt. Unless...
"Why don't you want to write lines?" Buffy asked him.
"I just... I just don't want to," Neville said meekly.
"I won't make you write lines if you tell me why you don't want to."
"Because the quill hurts!" Neville blurted. "I've heard about that quill, and I don't want to be carving into my skin!"
"What?" Buffy said incredibly, looking at the innocent looking quill on her desk. She should have known Umbridge was up to something in the way she insisted on using that quill, but she just dismissed it. She figured Umbridge didn't know she had her own quill; which actually seems pretty ridiculous now that she thought about it.
"I know, I'm not brave, I shouldn't be in Gryffindor, I should be in Hufflepuff, but I don't want to write lines," Neville rambled.
Buffy looked back at Neville, the quill temporarily forgotten. "Why would you think you shouldn't be in Gryffindor?"
"I'm not brave, or daring, or anything that fits a Gryffindor," Neville said miserably. "Everyone says so."
"Who's everyone?" Buffy asked irked.
"Well, Malfoy in particular, but I know everyone thinks it."
"Malfoy?" Buffy asked surprised. "Lucius' son?"
"Yes," Neville said, confused as to why she didn't know that. Everyone knew that.
"Well, if he's anything like his father, which I'm sure he is, then what are you doing listening to him? The sorting hat put you in Gryffindor for a reason. It can see inside you, it can see things that other people might miss; things that you might miss yourself if you're not looking for them.
"And as for what the other people think, for one, who cares? Don't worry about what they think. Just be yourself, no restrictions. If they like you for you, then you're all set, if not, then you don't need to be hanging out with people like them. I doubt that everybody thinks you don't belong in Gryffindor. I was psychic for a while, and I must say that you may think you know what someone is thinking, but ninety nine point nine percent of the time, you're so completely wrong.
"Oh, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone that I was psychic. It was a demon thingy."
Neville sat in astonishment. He never would have expected this from his new professor.
"About this quill," Buffy said, picking it back up. She reached for a piece of parchment and drew a line straight down the paper, starting in surprise when she felt an invisible knife cut into the skin on the top of her right hand. Just as soon as she felt it, the cut and blood disappeared, leaving no trace behind.
Buffy looked up at Neville incredulously. "She actually used this on people?" Buffy asked, while Neville merely nodded. "She actually used this on Harry?" 'Oh, that toad is going to pay,' Buffy thought.
She was about to go storming off after Umbridge, when Neville's words reminded her that she was here for another reason. She could deal with Umbridge later, in a more practical manner.
"I don't have to write lines now, right?" Neville asked hopefully.
"No, no one will be writing lines anytime soon," Buffy said, breaking the quill in half, much to Neville's amazement.
"Who are you?"
Buffy took a deep breath before answering. "Sometimes I don't even know," Buffy admitted. "I'm in the process of figuring that out. When I do, I'll let you know."
Neville just looked confused.
"The most important thing right now, is that you don't tell anyone anything about me, do you understand? If you're friends ask, which I'm sure they will, because they care about you, just tell them that you had to write lines and that you hate me. Understand?"
Neville still looked confused, but he nodded his head in agreement.
"Good. Now we can get onto more practical matters. Such as the real reason you have detention tonight," Buffy said. "Amazingly enough, I didn't randomly pick you out of the class. I heard some people talking about you in the hall, about Potions," Buffy clarified when she saw Neville's face drop a little, "and I thought we could help each other.
"Severus can be a real pain in the ass, I'm not denying that," Buffy said, causing a small grin to appear on Neville's face. "You just can't let him bother you. If he says something to you, so what? If he takes points away, so what? He's not going to kill you, he's just trying to intimidate you so that you'll mess up and he can have a good laugh. Just ignore it. If you let him bother you, he'll bother you. If you don't let him bother you, he won't. He can try, but it won't do any good. Your reactions just egg him on, so stop reacting."
"But it's hard. And I'm not good at Potions anyway; I've blown up or melted my cauldron over a dozen times!" Neville said.
"Well, hopefully I can help you with that," Buffy said. "Can you cook?"
"Pardon?" Neville asked, surprised in the quick shift in topic.
"Can you cook? Have you ever made food before? The muggle way, I mean," Buffy clarified.
"No, my grandmother won't let me near anything in our kitchen. I'm very forgetful and clumsy. I'd wreck the place."
"Have you ever cooked with your mom before? My mom used to let me be her little helper, even though I didn't actually do anything," Buffy said. She stopped when she noticed that Neville's face got sad and closed off.
"No," Neville said.
Buffy recognized that look; she had worn one similar for quite a while after her mother had been sick. She then recalled that he had said his grandmother had forbid him from entering the kitchen, not his mother.
"Neville," She prompted carefully, wanting him to open up a little. "Do you want to talk about it? It can help." When he didn't answer she continued, "When my mom," Buffy stopped slightly as she got caught on the word mom. She had thought of Joyce as her mom for so many years, and she was. Joyce would never replace her biological mom, but she would never be thought of as less than a mother. She had taken care of her like a daughter for about six years.
"My mom got a brain tumour and had to have surgery," Buffy continued. "She got through the surgery well, and everyone thought she was going to be okay. But one day I came home and found her on the couch. She wasn't moving. She had an aneurysm due to the surgery and died; it was so unexpected. I never even got to say goodbye." Buffy was thinking not only of Joyce, but also of her mom and dad and brother. She had never said goodbye.
"My parents are at St. Mungo's," Neville said, opening up to the blonde who opened up to him. He felt a connection of sorts with her; she might understand how he felt in a way that not many people did.
"A Death Eater used the Cruciatus Curse on them so long, trying to get information, that they went crazy. I never knew them for who they really were, and every time I see them, they have no idea who I am."
"I didn't know the Cruciatus could make you go mad," Buffy said, bewildered.
"If you're held under long enough," Neville said bitterly.
"Before the surgery, my mom was going crazy, saying things that didn't make sense, talking to us as if we were someone else. Then my friend went crazy for a while; it broke my other friend's heart. I know what it's like," Buffy said quietly. "They might not show it," Buffy said, "but I know that some part of them recognizes you and are proud of who you have become."
Neville was shocked. He had finally met someone who could somewhat understand how he was feeling, and what it was like. She didn't pity him; that's what he hated the most. People just didn't understand, that's why he never told anyone.
"Enough of this sappy, corny soap opera talk," Buffy said, standing up. "We've got work to do." With a couple of waves of her arm, and a few well placed spells, she had transfigured a part of her office into a muggle kitchen. All that studying on Sunday had paid off, but Buffy felt that there was something more going on. She was remembering spells too easily and getting them to work a little too nicely after having been away for so long, and after not finishing school. Maybe it was her slayer power.
"Wow," was all Neville could manage.
"Once upon a time, I used to be fairly good at Potions; amazingly enough, I am a horrible cook. Two wrongs might not make a right, but hopefully two bad cooks will make a great batch of cookies. What do you say?"
"Wouldn't two bad cooks just burn the kitchen down faster?" Neville asked.
"If you look at it that way!" Buffy said with fake exasperation. "It's all about attitude, now let's get going."
They walked over to the small kitchen corner and lifted the lid of the mixer. "Now what's first?" Buffy asked.
"You're asking me?" Neville squeaked.
"A recipe, we need a recipe," Buffy said. "And a recipe is very similar to a potion's assignment." Buffy opened the cupboard above her head and pulled out a small cookbook and flipped through it to find a recipe for chocolate chip cookies. "A recipe is just a list of ingredients we'll need, and the steps we need to take in order to have a finished product. Just take things one at a time.
"What should we do first?" Buffy asked, setting the recipe in front of Neville.
"Um... set out the ingredients?" Neville said timidly.
"Correct! We must make sure we have all the ingredients, because if you're in the middle of it and find out you've run out of eggs, well, bad things could happen. And if you need to substitute, find out what the correct substitutions are beforehand, otherwise, things could explode."
Neville nodded his head, remembering how many times his cauldron had exploded. "But what if I forget what I've done or not done? I'm horrible at remembering."
"Well, just write down everything you've done as soon as you've done it, or at least check it off." Neville nodded gratefully; he had never thought of that!
One by one, they set out the ingredients that they needed to create the cookies, Neville marking beside each item they had. Buffy actually had to transfigure an egg, which she warned Neville not to do in Potions. Who knew what could happen?
"Next, preheat the oven." Buffy fiddled with the buttons for a while before turning to Neville desperately. "Do you know how to do that?"
Neville shook his head with wide eyes. They were going to blow up the school; he could see it now.
"Okay, I'll figure it out." She prodded the buttons a little more, but a beeping sound emitted from someplace. "Oops," Buffy said. The beeping continued, with no sign of letting up anytime soon. It was starting to get annoying. Buffy didn't like to be annoyed.
She started pounding on all the buttons, trying to get the screeching sound to stop. Finally, she pulled out her wand and pointed it at the stove, and muttered something incoherently.
A flash of yellow light emitted from the wand, struck the oven, and was absorbed inside. For a second, there was blissful silence, as the beeping stopped. But then...
BOOM!
The oven exploded, with flames dancing around the edge and smoke billowing from the door. Buffy and Neville stood covered in soot not too far from the small explosion.
"Did I do that?" Buffy asked, remembering her Steve Urkel from Family Matters.
Neville could only nod in astonishment. 'I knew this was going to happen!'
Buffy once again lifted her wand, causing Neville to flinch slightly. "Oh, don't worry," Buffy said. "I'll fix it." Water shot out of her wand, much to Neville's relief, quenching the fire. The smoke eventually got swept away but they were still covered in soot. The oven was ruined.
"Let's try this again, shall we?" Buffy asked.
"Are you crazy?" Neville asked. "You just blew up the oven!" He had never seen a professor screw up before, and he was shocked.
"I can make a new one," Buffy said. With a few waves of her wand, the oven was as good as new.
"But you don't even know how to work it. You might blow it up again."
"Well, we're not going to get any better unless we work at this, are we?" Buffy asked.
"No," Neville said reluctantly. "At least I'm not the only one who blows things up."
Buffy cracked a small smile as she thought of all the things she had blown up, or burnt down, or caused to sink into the earth and disappear for forever.
"Alright, let me try this time," Neville bravely stepped up to the oven and started pressing different buttons.
The two of them were up until 1:00 in the morning before they were able to successfully create a batch of cookies that actually turned out really well. They had gone through many batches, several more explosions, and a few small fires.
The first time they turned on the mixer with the dry ingredients, they turned it on too high, causing the flour to spray everywhere and cover their corner of the room, and themselves, with a fine layer of white powder. Eventually they got it right; eventually the cookies were edible.
It wasn't until 1:15 that Neville finally made it back to his bed, tired and sore, but happy. He never thought he'd see the day when he was actually happy he got detention.
Unknown to him, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had stayed up as late as they could, worried about their friend and the treatment he might have received at the hands of the new professor. Unfortunately, they fell asleep around 12:30, exhaustion of the first day back overcoming them.