CHAPTER 30: ANOTHER DEFENSE LESSON
Harry, Hermione and Ron dragged themselves through the DADA classroom door, drained after a boring double potions lesson with Umbridge. Snape had failed to show, so Umbridge decided it was her duty as High Inquisitor to make things run smoothly. Needless to say, there was no potion making; only lots and lots of theory reading and note taking. Not to mention plenty of accusations and taunts that came from Umbridge aimed at Harry. Everyone was amazed at Harry's reaction, or lack thereof. He was surprisingly cool and ignored most of what she was saying; clearly different than his attitude from the beginning of the year.
"I can't believe I'm actually saying this," Ron said, "but I want Snape back."
"If it was any other day, I would too," Hermione said. "However, I doubt he'd be better than Umbridge considering the events that occurred not too long ago."
"She's got a point," Harry said. "I'm glad we didn't have to deal with Snape after what Professor Fox did. I can't even begin to imagine how mad he'd be. Or is."
"Right," Ron said, shuddering slightly. By that time, everyone had filed into the classroom and was seating at their desks. Professor Fox came in, closed the door and preformed the spells as if they were second nature to her, which by now they probably were.
"Okay, today we'll continue our discussion of The Slayer," Buffy said.
"What else is there to say?" Seamus asked. "Even if the slayer was real there's not much known about them."
"You forget that I work for the Ministry and have more information than some people might believe," Buffy said with a smile.
"My dad works for the Ministry and he's never said anything about slayers," Ron said. "And he's someone that is very interested in muggles."
"Well, maybe he just didn't want to tell you," Buffy said. "Or maybe he didn't know anything. The point is, I know. The Slayer is real." Gasps were heard around the room.
"The thing is, there is only one Slayer at a time, making it difficult to ascertain whether or not she is real. However, the Ministry is aware of the status of the Slayer but they keep it under wraps so as not to drawn unneeded attention to her. Think of what could happen if some witch or wizard decided they were better than the Slayer and set out to kill her? More than likely, one of them would end up dead. That's why only a few people know the Slayer is actually real; the myth was created to throw people off."
"Then why tell us the truth?" Hermione asked. "I mean, one of us could think they could defeat the famous Slayer and go after her."
"It'd be a little more difficult now," Buffy said with a smile. "Recently, information has become available that perhaps there is more than one Slayer."
"I don't understand," Hermione said. "How is that possible?"
"A very powerful wicca," Buffy said. "It's probable that she somehow unlocked the power of the Slayer and activated all the Potential Slayers out there, creating hundreds of new Slayers."
"But the power," Hermione said with wide eyes, "that person had to have incredible power to override something like that. What would she gain by doing that?"
"Our information is still incomplete," Buffy said with a shrug. "I'm sure there was a good reason."
"She could be building an army of Slayers!" Hermione said.
"It's possible," Buffy said with a raised eyebrow.
"Think of the damage she could do!"
"Or the good," Buffy said, frowning.
"Hmph," Hermione said.
"What?" Buffy asked.
"It's been my experience that people with that much power are easily corrupted and hardly ever use their power for the good of others. Power like that is only used to benefit the user."
"What do you think Slayers do?" Buffy asked. "They have plenty of power, but they use it to help humanity, save the world, avert apocalypses. I hardly think they appreciate people thinking that they use their power for their own benefit."
"Oh please," Parvati said. "Anybody with the amount of power you say they have would surely help themselves. It's human nature."
"Obviously you people have been hanging around the wrong people," Buffy said. "You don't understand a thing."
"Well, everyone in a point of power has abused his or her power," Hermione said. "Take Voldemort for example."
"What about Dumbledore?" Buffy retorted. "He has more power than Voldemort does and he is hardly a selfish person."
"There are always exceptions," Lavender said, speaking up.
"You really think that powerful people are that selfish?" Buffy asked incredulously.
"For the most part, yes," Ron said. "We've seen it happen all the time, to most of our Defense professors, in fact."
"Well, we're just going to have to clear up all your confusion. Let's take the Vampire Slayer for an example. Does anyone know at what age she is usually called?"
No one raised his or her hand and everyone looked puzzled.
"Around fourteen," Buffy said. "Possibly earlier, although hardly ever after eighteen.
"I should start at the beginning. A Slayer has a Watcher that guides her, trains her and prepares her to face whatever she has to. For the most part, potential slayers are found by the Council, which is basically a group of Watchers, when she is very young. She is taken away from her family and friends and raised alone, trained to be a fighter. Some potential slayers are not found and others go unnoticed until they become a Slayer."
"Imagine that for a moment; an isolated life where you're trained to fight the evil things that lurk in the shadows; the things you were afraid of as a kid. No family, no friends. Just a watcher, who shouldn't be overly emotional to her, as some idiots believe relationships conflict with work and productivity."
"I think it makes some sense," Hermione said thoughtfully. "I mean, if a Slayer had friends and family, wouldn't she always worry about their safety instead of her own?" She cast a furtive glance at Harry, which went unnoticed by everyone but Buffy.
"To some degree, yes. I think that it'd be hard to fight for your life if you're too worried about others to concentrate on the task at hand. However, if you were a Slayer, wouldn't you like someone to go home to? Someone to make you laugh when you're ten seconds from sobbing?
"Wouldn't it be difficult to care what happens to the world if you don't have anybody to anchor you to it? I mean, I don't really understand how most of the girls stayed sane. Slayers go out just about every night in order to fight the forces of darkness--"
"I've never seen any demons or monsters," Dean interrupted. "How many could there be?"
Before Buffy could answer, the door suddenly exploded, scaring everyone within the room. As someone stalked into the room, Buffy jumped up off the desk and brought out her wand, preparing herself for whatever was coming. Unfortunately the unexpected explosion disoriented her long enough for someone to grab hold of her robes and push her against the wall, causing her head to smack hard and her vision to blur.
"I know it was you," someone snarled. "And I'll make sure you pay for what you did."
All the students were frozen in their desks at the sight of their potions professor assaulting their defense professor. No one could believe what was happening and no one had a clue as to what to do.
"Snape," Buffy said, her vision clearing slightly. "I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'd appreciate it if you let go of me."
"Did you really think I'm that stupid?" he hissed.
"You're the one that blew up, not me," Buffy said.
"A bottle of Nightshade is missing from my supplies. I know you took it and I know you poisoned me to get access."
"Poisoned you? Hardly. It was probably something you ate. Allergic reactions can be such a pain," Buffy said, her face still inches from his. Their conversation wasn't that quiet, so naturally the classroom was hanging onto every word that was being said. "Besides, I wasn't even sitting near you at breakfast this morning. And I wasn't even around when it happened."
"Then how do you know what happened?" Snape said, smirking victoriously as he thought he'd caught her in her own lie.
"It's not everyday that a hated professor gets blown up and tossed about the room like a beach ball," Buffy said. "News travels fast in a small school like this."
The smirk promptly fell off of Snape's face and it was replaced with a scowl. "I will not be made a fool of in my own school!"
"Too late," Buffy said.
Snape growled and shoved her against the wall again. "I will get you for this. I know you're not Sarah Fox, as no person exists," he whispered so the students couldn't hear, not that he was actually aware of the students. "We'll find out who you really are and you'll pay."
"I said... Let... Go." Buffy said, waving her wand and causing him to fly across the room and crash into several students' desks. A couple of people screamed and people scrambled to get away from the fight that was occurring. Buffy nonchalantly stepped away from the wall and straightened her robes and her hair as Snape rose from the wreckage.
"Serpensortia," Snape said, pointing his wand at Buffy and watching as a snake shot out from his wand and hissed angrily.
Buffy rolled her eyes at Snape. "That's the best you can do? Conjure up a snake? Scary." Buffy waved her wand and the snake, which was in the middle of attacking, disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"Furnunculus," Snape said.
"Protego," Buffy said in a bored voice. "This is beyond pathetic," she said. "Resorting to charms that the students use in the halls?"
"Expelliarmus," Snape said, sure that he'd get her wand. Buffy didn't even try to dodge the spell and was hit square on in the chest. Instead of watching her fly back into the wall and catching her wand in his hand like he'd thought, she merely took a couple of steps back to recover from the blow. Amazingly enough, the wand stayed firmly in her hand.
"A little weak, don't you think?"
Snape scowled and said, "You will not last another day in this school. You'd wish you'd never set foot in this castle."
"Not very original is it?" Buffy said. "Now please leave my class before I make you."
Snape didn't say anything, but he raised his wand at her again. Before any words could escape from his mouth, Buffy flicked her wand with a bored sigh and sent him flying out of the room only to slam into the hall wall opposite the door. Snape slipped into unconsciousness as Buffy repaired the door and slammed it with a loud "BANG!" startling all the students again.
'So much more satisfying to hit them,' Buffy thought as she turned back to her class. "So," she said. "Where were we?"
"You... you just... you," Hermione stuttered looking amazingly at the door where Professor Snape had flown through moments before.
"Kicked Snape out of my class?" Buffy finished. "Yes. I did. How am I supposed to teach when I have lunatics coming in and attacking me? Not very professional is it?"
"But..." Hermione started again, while everyone else was still staring in awe.
"Hey, he attacked me. I didn't do anything to provoke him; everyone here is a witness."
"And we'll make sure everyone knows that," Seamus said.
"You're my hero," Ron sighted happily.
"Right," Buffy said with a tight smile. "I'd actually appreciate it more if you didn't say anything. So, everyone get settled and we'll continue with our lesson." Buffy quickly repaired the broken desks and was amazed that none of the students were hurt during Snape's spectacular fall.
"Anyway, you don't really know much about real evil creatures. You live in a school run by Albus Dumbledore for most of the year. Do you really think he'd let anything come near you guys? Besides Snape, I mean?" she said, earning a small laugh to come from the students. "The Forbidden Forest is about the closest anything can get. Even then, there's hardly anything really bad in there."
"There's giant spiders!" Ron said.
"You think giant spiders are really bad?" Buffy asked with wide eyes. "For a wizarding class, you don't really know much."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.
"You guys are aware that things aren't what they seem. You know that there's magic and that vampires are real. You know that some monsters and creatures in muggle fairy tales are real.
"But you don't really know what's out there. There are demons that you'd never even thought of. There are hundreds of books filled with information about different species of demons, prophecies and other things that go bump in the night. I know; I've seen some. Most people, mainly muggles, when they see something they can't really explain, they ignore it. Pretend it didn't happen. Or worse, rationalize it as best they can. 'I was really drunk that night; it was just a trick of the light.' If you're going to defend yourself, you have to know how much is real.
"Not much is known about Slayers, but I imagine that most of their lives are spent trying to save the world from evil. Slayers are typically around your age, so what would you do if you were approached by a strange man and told that it's your destiny to save the world? Never mind the fact that you'll die before you can really enjoy life; the average life span of a Slayer is only a couple of years.
"I hardly think that giving ones life to save another's is selfish," Buffy said to the mass of amazed kids. "But maybe that's just me. Or maybe I just know a little more than you do, seeing as how I've lived in the real world and not some safe boarding school, for several years now. It is true that power corrupts, but not everyone succumbs to that power. I'd hate to see what the world would be like if that was the case. I'd seriously doubt there'd be a world at all."
Their serious discussion about Vampire Slayers was interrupted by the ending of class and people were reluctant to leave. One person, however, had to stay behind.
"Harry, could you stay after a moment please?" Buffy asked.
"But, we have class," Hermione protested. Even though she didn't like Snape, she didn't trust Buffy at all anymore. She attacked Professor Snape! He was one of the good guys (for the most part) and she threw him out of the classroom (never mind that he attacked her first).
"He can come after," Buffy said, looking at Hermione curiously.
"But... it's Care of the Magical Creatures and Hagrid said we were going into the Forest."
"Well, I'll walk him. Now get to class and let Hagrid know we'll follow later, okay?" Buffy said.
Hermione couldn't really answer, so Ron pulled her arm away and led her out the door. "Let's go, Hermione."
"So, what's up?" Buffy asked Harry after the last student had left and she had closed the door again.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked cautiously.
"You've been very broody all class. You haven't said a word and you're normally very... vocal around Snape."
"Sorry, I've got a lot on my mind," Harry said.
"So I can see. Do you want to talk about it?" Buffy asked gently.
Harry gazed at her for a long moment, tempted to tell her the entire story. He barely even knew her and yet he wanted to spill his guts. That stopped him from telling her anything, deciding that she could use the information against him somehow. How was he to trust her if he didn't know which side she was on? Sure she stopped Umbridge from giving him a lifetime ban from Quidditch, but she also said something about 'plans' that she had for him.
"No. Not really."
Buffy looked at Harry, recognizing the all too familiar look in his eyes: the one that told of burden and pain, sacrifice and suffering. It was obvious to Buffy what the problem was, despite Harry's reluctance. Apparently he just began to understand the importance of his own role in the fight against Voldemort. Buffy could only guess as to what was really going on, but she assumed that the responsibility of Voldemort's downfall fell on his shoulders. It made sense to her and she was surprised that the rest of the world didn't think along the same lines. But maybe they did.
"Vampire Slayers never asked for what they had been given," Buffy said. "If they had had a choice, if they really knew what it would be like, I'm going to say that most of them would've said no. Vampire Slayers are just ordinary girls that happened to be graced with strength, skill, and speed needed to stop the forces of darkness. I doubt very much that if you asked a random girl on the street to trade her life for that power, she would've said no. It's not worth it.
"But they accepted it; there wasn't anything else they could do. They embraced their destiny, however sucky it might be, and trained themselves to be better. If they were going to go down, they'd go down fighting, taking as many demons as they could with them. If they let their minds worry too much about the things that couldn't be changed, then they were more likely to be killed. You have to embrace the time you have and spend it happily among friends and family. Prepare yourself for what's coming, but don't lose sight of what you're fighting for. People fight for peace. For love. For life. For hope.
"There isn't much known about Vampire Slayers, but one Slayer changed history a bit, made her more noticeable. Do you know what she did?" Buffy asked.
Harry shook his head curiously. What she was saying was making a lot of sense and it was clearing up a lot of the thoughts that had been running wild in his head ever since Dumbledore told him the prophecy.
"She died. I know, it may seem unspectacular because all Slayers die, but this Slayer was different. Several years ago there was a prophecy saying that she would face the Master, a big powerful Vampire, and she would die. The Master would be loose and hell would reign upon Earth. Bad things. Anyway, she tried to quit being a Slayer, as she didn't want to die. However, she found that it was her duty to face the Master because if she didn't the world would end and everyone she knew and loved, and everyone she didn't, would be killed and tortured.
"She went and faced the Master knowing she'd die?" Harry asked in awe.
"Yep. And the prophecy was right. The Master killed her."
"But why would she do that?" he asked. "Why would she go knowing that she would die?"
"I told you, she realized it was her destiny. She figured maybe she could take him down with her, but she didn't have much luck at the time. She didn't want to send anyone else to do her job. It was her fight and she'd be damned if anyone else was hurt because she was afraid."
"It was prophesized," Harry said. "How would she be able to defeat him if she was dead?"
"Prophecies are very tricky things, Harry," Buffy said. "You see, it said that she would face the Master and that she would die; however, it failed to mention that the Master needed her blood to rise. If she hadn't gone down there, he wouldn't have been freed."
"So, how come the Master isn't loose around now? How come the world hasn't ended?"
"Because she came back to life," Buffy said.
"But the prophecy..." Harry started to say.
"The prophecy was fulfilled," Buffy interrupted. "She faced the Master and he killed her. It never said anything about her staying dead."
"But, how could she be brought back to life. I thought Slayers couldn't be witches," Harry protested.
"I never said she was. The story is a little less clear from this point, but I believe she had drowned. Someone came by and gave her CPR, saving her life and enabling her to live again so she could defeat the Master," Buffy said. "That's why there's no Hell on Earth."
"She went back and faced the Master after he'd killed her?" Harry asked.
"She let the prophecy control her thoughts and actions when she first faced him," Buffy said. "She knew it was written, so she believed there was nothing she could do to change it. After she died, thereby fulfilling the prophecy, she was back to her old self and fought with a vengeance, knowing what was at stake. You can't let something like a prophecy or someone's words control your life; things like that are vague and misleading. Have you ever heard of the term self-fulfilling prophecy?" Buffy asked, remembering her psychology class in college.
Harry shook his head and listened raptly while Buffy continued on.
"Basically, if a person thinks something is true, then their behavior and thoughts will be created to fulfill that statement. For example, if you go to a party thinking it's going to be boring, you're not going to socialize much, your attitude will ruin your mood and the party will turn out awful. If you expect the party to be good, you'll be more crazy and carefree, you'll smile more and people will want to be around you. You'll have fun. Do you understand?"
"I think so. If I... if someone believed that they'd die just because it was written somewhere, chances are they'll die, not because it was written, but because they believed it," Harry said thoughtfully.
"Exactly. I mean, who knows what we could do if no one knew anything. That's why seeing the future is so dangerous. We tend to believe everything and act a certain way to make it come true."
"Thanks," Harry said gratefully.
"Anytime. Now, let's get you to class, shall we?" Buffy asked.