Chapter 10
Recess
by OldScout
Buffy had just made it past the set of guards down the hall when she felt someone grab her arm. She knew who it was so she stopped and looked at him.
"Miss Summers, if you have new information on this case, then you must tell me about it."
"Inspector Clayson, haven't you figured it out?" Buffy almost pleaded. "This case is out of your jurisdiction and your league."
"Listen, I've apparently got two deaths that are somehow related, some strange group of…people manipulating the evidence and a bunch of teenage girls everybody is afraid of." Clayson stated. "I need some answers."
"I told you you wouldn't believe. Even after being to the head loony bin and this torture chamber you still can't say wizards and magic." Buffy started off down the hall, but this time at slower pace so the inspector could keep up.
"This has all been a little much to take in at one time." Clayson admitted as he walked next to Buffy. "I just need time to sort it all out."
"We don't have time. You just have to accept it or you're going to get more people killed."
"Help me accept." The Inspector pleaded.
"How?" Buffy made another blind turn down another obscure hospital hallway.
"Answer some questions."
"I'll try."
"Why you?" Even though Miss Summers had obviously slowed down so he could keep up, Inspector Clayson was still having trouble keeping up the pace, carrying on the conversation and watching where he was going.
"I really don't know." Buffy admitted. She knew they were referring to two different things but really did not want to talk about slayers right now.
"I can have you arrested for obstruction of justice." Clayson threatened. He knew it was an empty threat, but he had to say something.
Buffy scoffed. "Imagine trying to explain that one to a judge. You've been here and don't want to believe. How is a judge going to respond?" She kept winding her way through the corridors of the hospital.
"Do you have any idea how to get out of the infernal place?" Clayson asked as Buffy took another sharp turn.
"Not a clue." She responded as she continued to march forward.
"What did that woman tell you?"
"The address of a place they used to meet." Buffy responded as she found a set of stairs and started down.
"Are you going to tell me?"
"Nope. Like I said, it's not in your jurisdiction and you couldn't handle it any who."
"And you can?"
"Yep, that's what I do."
The pair walked through a couple of old oak doors at the bottom of the stairs and were in the lobby of a modern hospital.
"Hey I know this place. It's Saint Marcus." After glancing around he turned back to Buffy just in time to see the top of her head disappear into the crowd outside of the hospital. He turned back to the doors they'd just exited to find a standard pair of steel doors with word "Stairs" labeled on one. Opening the door revealed a standard tiled hospital stairwell, nothing like the old stone and slate stairs they'd just left behind. Inspector Clayson fished his cell phone out of his pocket and called the office.
"—"
Evening was coming on fast by the time Buffy got back to the nearly empty school. There was no sign of Dawn or any of the other girls. Which was good, Giles was to be getting them out of the country before Child Services showed up to start interviewing them. A message from Kennedy said she was carting Faith and Meyers all over town for what ever business Burp had them on. Buffy smiled. Never in a million years would she have guessed a slayer would go to work for the US government, let alone it be Faith. But then again, she had a debt to pay and they were the only ones who could legally say the score was settled.
Buffy popped the last piece of bubble gum into her mouth, threw away the empty pack then started to fill her duffle bag. It was standard Slayer issue reinforced military grade fabric specially formulated flat black so it wouldn't reflect light. Along with an assortment of stakes and other standard equipment, she included her 'heavy' weapons, swords, cross bows, a supped up cattle prod and a really cool hand held flame thrower Xander and Willow had cooked up.
Crack! Crash. "I'm alright!" Tonks knew how to make an entrance.
"Hoy, where is everybody?"
Buffy came down the stairs carrying her duffle bag, first she looked at Tonks then around the room. "Where's Dawn."
With a squint of her eyes Tonks looked around the room too. "I don't know…oh, wait a minute." She pulled out her wand. "I'll be right back." Crack.
"—"
Tap.
"How long is she staying here?" Snape looked across the old kitchen table at the muggle girl. Part of him still thought of her as a muggle, but part of him seemed to know better. That girl had magic, it was just that nobody had figured out how to access it yet.
Tap, tap.
"We sent Kingsley to find her. They should be back soon." Molly said as she placed a glace of juice in front of professor Snape.
Tap.
"Woman, I know that. It was my idea." Snape hissed at Molly Weasley.
Tap.
"Severus, keep a civil tongue in your head." Moody growled. "You have no call to be talking that way to Molly."
Tap.
"My apologies." Severus said through clenched teeth.
Tap.
Moody put two cards on the table and looked up to Dawn who immediately picked up the discards and laid her hand out in front of her.
"I believe I win again." Dawn said then tapped the stake/port key she was holding on the kitchen table.
Tap, tap.
"I believe that makes it twenty five galleons you owe me."
Tap.
"Miss Summers!" Severus Snape barked. "Would you desist in making that infernal noise with that stick!"
"I" Tap. "Will." Tap. "Do." Tap. "What." Tap. "Ever." Tap. "I." Tap. "Want." Tap. "Until" Tap. "Somebody." Tap. "Takes" Tap. "Me." Tap. "Home." Tap.
"You infernal child!" Snape stood and roared. "If you don't put down that cursed stake I'll…I'll…"
"Blow a gasket?" Dawn offered. "Have kittens?" She smiled as her potions professor's pale skin turned beet red. "Hey," She offered as she placed the stake in her lap. "Isn't this the wrong night for a meeting of a secret society?"
"Honey, this isn't a secrete society." Mrs. Weasley offered with her ever ready matronly smile.
"Well if it isn't," She looked at Snape and Moody then back at Molly. "The alternative is," Dawn frowned, hugged herself and shivered. "And thank you very much I did not want to go there."
Mad Eye Moody began laughing hysterically. Severus Snape got up from the table and stormed out of the room so fast his chair fell over. Molly just frowned and stared at Alastor.
"I don't understand." Molly stated.
"Don't worry, you'll figure it out eventually."
The front door of the house opened and foot steps could be heard running down the hall to the kitchen. "Hoy, oh thank Merlin, you're still here." Tonks gasped as she slid on the hardwood floor and bumped into a counter.
"Where else would I go, Nymphadora?" Dawn asked sweetly.
"Ah, just Tonks." Tonks responded out of habit.
Dawn stood up. "Sorry, Nymphadora. I forgot, Nymphadora."
Tonks paled a bit and her hair lost some of its color. "Yea, I'm reallyreallyreallyreally sorry about that. I just got busy with the clean up then reports at the office…"
"Okay." Dawn said. "Are you taking me home or not?"
"Yea, let's go." Tonks held out her hand.
"Wait." Dawn turned to Moody and held out her hand. Alastor stood up to shake until Dawn turned the palm up. "You still owe my twenty five galleons."
"You actually want to collect?" Moody asked dumb founded.
"A bet is a bet. I'm an unemployed high school student going to a private boarding school." Dawn defended. "I need all the money I can get."
"I don't carry that kind of money on me." Moody stated. "I'll have to owe you."
"I may never see you again." Dawn said. "Perhaps you can borrow…."
"Not on your life!" Snape yelled from another room.
"I'm sorry, dear." Molly replied when Alastor looked toward her. "I only carry a few sickles for emergencies."
Alastor looked back at Dawn and shrugged.
"Then I'll need collateral."
"What! What would I use as collateral?"
"Well," Dawn crossed her arms and considered. "I can think of a couple possibilities."
"—"
Crack, thump, "Ouch."
"Watch it!" Clunk. "Look what you did!"
"Don't worry, I can fix it."
"That's not the point."
Buffy listened to the noise coming from downstairs. "Yep, they were home." She hung her head for a second steeling herself for the wrath of Dawn. She pulled on a black duster made of the same material as the duffle bag and headed for the stairs.
The sound of a soda can opening accompanied Dawn's voice. "Can you believe they don't have Vernors in the Wizarding world?" Dawn griped as she wandered back into the living room.
"Dawnie," Buffy said in greeting. "Nobody has Vernors. We have it shipped in from Cleveland just for you and even they have a hard time finding it."
Dawn took a long swig from the green can then looked around the empty house. "Where is everybody, did you already send them to headquarters?"
"Mostly." Buffy admitted. "But the Death Eaters did get away with one of the girls."
Dawn paled a little. "Who?"
"Dana."
Immediately looking at her watch, Dawn looked at Buffy. "How much time do you have?"
"Ten or twelve hours." Buffy admitted. "But I've got a lead."
Dawn looked her sister up and down. "Are taking the whole team?"
"Not yet." Buffy looked at Tonks. "But I could use some help."
"You want me?" Now it was the witches turn to pale a little.
"If you're going to be part of the group its time you did a little wet work."
"What does that mean?" Tonks looked a little confused.
Dawn patted her on the shoulder. "You'll find out soon enough." Then to Buffy. "What about Willow?"
"Those bastards port keyed her somewhere." Buffy admitted. "I can only hope she's strong enough to get back or at least get safe."
"So now what?"
"We wait for Kennedy to get back and get you to headquarters then Tonks and I go check out the lead."
Dawn was looking around. "Where's Illyria?"
Buffy shrugged. "I have no idea. We were taking the floo to the hospital and she kind of went off on her own."
"That's going to be interesting." Dawn observed.
"So what's in the bag?" Buffy pointed at a small velvet bag that Dawn held in one hand.
The young brunette smiled. "Oh, just collateral."
"—"
"Your hair is pretty." A young girl's voice said.
"Hmmm?" Willow looked up from the trees she'd been watching dance and turn odd shades of green and blue.
"All the colors are really pretty." The voice spoke again.
"Hmmm? Really pretty colors? Yes, pretty." Willow concentrated on the young voice. It wasn't a really familiar voice but she knew she'd heard it before.
"When can we go home?" The girl asked.
Yes, it was a young girl. There was a little girl with her. Why? Willow concentrated where were they? She moved her head and watched the greens and blues swirl around to become browns and greens and more blues. "Home?"
"You said we could go home after you rested." The girl said. "My mommy's going to be mad."
"Yes, home." Willow hung her head and shook it. What was going on? She felt like she was high. It was the magic in her. She'd been absorbing pure clean energy from the earth. She'd never done it so slowly before and must not have noticed when she crossed the line.
"These are really pretty flowers." The girl said. "Can I pick some to take back to my mommy?"
Concentrate. Willow slowly opened her eyes as she concentrated on the voice. The little girl was sitting in front of her holding her little twig doll. All around them an assortment of flowers had sprung up. The biggest and most colorful circled around Willow then fanned out from there. "No, dear." She finally said. "Don't pick them, they're just visiting. I need to send them home." Willow waived her hand at the circle of blooms and watched them fold up and pull back into the earth. She looked at the little girl. The fog had mostly lifted. "Are you ready to go home?"
The girl, Debbie, jumped to her feet. "Oh yes, oh yes." She even clapped a little.
Willow slowly climbed to her feet. She had to concentrate to keep from floating. She could feel the pure raw energy embracing her. It was going to take a long time or some really big spells to safely return this much power back to Gaia. She figured she'd deal with that once she got the two of them home safely. "Have you ever seen the Wizard of Oz?"
"That's one of mommy's favorites." Debbie said. Her blue eyes danced with anticipation of going home.
"Good." Willow said as she stood up and straightened out. "Now I'm going to need your help to work some magic like Dorothy did in the Wizard of Oz."
"Mommy says magic is just pretend." Debbie informed Willow.
"It is pretend." Willow agreed. "But sometimes if we pretend really, really hard we can do magic too."
"Is that where the flowers came from?"
"Yes. And I sent them home, just like we're going to do." Willow stepped up to Debbie. "Now we're going to pretend really, really hard that we're going to go home." The girl looked at Willow intrigued. "Remember how Dorothy went home?"
"Oh, yes. She just clicked her heals and said 'There's no place like home.' Is that all I have to do?"
"Pretty much, but it might take a little longer; we aren't in a movie." Willow stood behind the little girl and hugged her close. "Now, I want you to close your eyes and concentrate on your home and say 'there's no place like home'."
The girl closed her eyes and starting whispering "There's no place like home. There's no place like home."
"That's good." Willow whispered back so softly she hardly spoke at all. "Now picture your most favorite room in you house." Willow slipped into Debbie's mind just enough to see what she was concentrating on. It was small room painted bright blue with clouds and a rainbow on the wall. "You have a pretty room." Willow thought at the girl. "Show me around." She guided the girl out of the bedroom into the hall and down the stairs. Family pictures and small paintings covered the walls. Furniture in the living room at the bottom of the stairs was worn but comfortable looking. "What does the outside of your house look like?" Willow asked.
"There's no place like home." Debbie whispered as Willowed led her outside.
Outside Willow saw the small row house and a narrow yard leading up from the busy street. "What a nice neighborhood." Willow thought softly to the girl. "Are there any parks nearby to play in?"
"There's no place like home." Debbie said but thought back "Down the street."
"Show me." Willow guided Debbie down the street. A block away they came to a small park with nice grove of trees in the middle. "This is really nice." Willow thought to Debbie. "Now concentrate on the trees, keep your eyes closed and click your heels together three times."
"But I don't have ruby slippers." Debbie whispered.
"That's okay; it'll still work if you want it to really bad."
"There's no place like home." Debbie said and clicked her heels together.
Willow raised the shield. There were other methods of travel that didn't take as much effort, but this was the gentlest one she knew. On the second click Willow took the image of the park from Debbie and pushed the magic to it. By the third click of Debbie's heels the shield disappeared from the mountain valley and immediately appeared in small grove of trees in the small park a block from Debbie's house.
"Okay, open your eyes." Willow said gently.
Debbie looked up to find that they were no longer in the valley but in her favorite park. She squealed with delight and grabbed Willow's hand. "Come on, take me home."
The two walked quickly through the early evening to Debbie's house. Willow stopped at the sidewalk and let Debbie go up to the door by herself. When the door opened Debbie's mother picked her up and hugged her. "Did you have a nice time visiting Aunt Mae?" The mother asked.
"I wasn't with Aunt Mae." Debbie informed her mother. "I was with my friend Willow, the witch."
"Of course, dear." The mother could be heard saying as the door closed.
Aunt Mae? Even from the street, Willow could sense the residual magic coming off the woman. Goddess, she hated memory charms.
Willow pulled her cell phone from a pocket of her blazer. "Hey, Buff, how's it going?"
"Yes, I'll be home in a few minutes." Willow listened to Buffy. "Yea, you're right." Willow looked at her watch. "I'd say less then ten hours now. I'll be there in a few minutes."
"—"
Buffy closed the phone and looked at Dawn. "At least Willow's safe."
As she spoke, the front opened letting Kennedy in. "Hey, Brat, I see Nympho was able to get you back okay. Any word on Willow?"
Buffy held up her cell phone. "Willow just called; she'll be home in a few minutes."
"Cool, that's my girl, nothing keeps her down." Kennedy looked at Buffy's supplies, ignoring Dawn's sudden coughing fit. "So, we going to finally go kick some Wiz.." She looked at Tonks. "Death Eater butt?
"Actually." Buffy said. "I've got a different job for you."
Kennedy's eyes narrowed. "Okay."
"I need you to take Dawn to council headquarters."
"So, what, you and Willow get to go get Dana on your own?"
"No." Buffy said slowly. "We're just looking for a contact. When it's time to take Dana back, we're all going in; no holds barred."
"Alrighty then." She turned to Dawn. "Let's go kid."
Buffy opened her phone and dialed. "Hey, Will, where you at? Close enough." She snapped the phone shut and looked to the back of the house just in time to see the patio door open admitting Willow. Her long hair was multiple shades of red and floated off her shoulders as if a steady wind was blowing up from the floor.
"Wow, babe, new look for you." Kennedy smiled.
"Ah, yea, I kind of absorbed too much energy in order to get Debbie back home without too much trauma." Willow grinned sheepishly. "It'll take a while to drain it off safely."
"If you don't mind, Willow," Buffy said. "Maybe you should stay charged up for awhile. We may need it. That is if you can handle it."
"They have Dana." Willow responded. "I can handle it. Besides, it's pure, nothing like that black stuff I got from the hellmouth."
"Great, we'll take the van, Kennedy, you take the car and get over headquarters. I'll need everybody ready when we find out where they have Dana." Buffy had already picked up her bag and was heading for the door.
"Why can't we take the van and you take the car?" Dawn asked.
"Because the back seat is non-existent and we're going to a part of town I don't want to leave the car in." Buffy said.
"Yeah, but slayers and sports cars are not my idea of good time." Dawn grimaced at the thought of the last time she rode with Kennedy. "I know, I'll drive." Dawn reached for the keys but Kennedy already had them.
"Too late kid; lets go."
"Um, Willow." Tonks said as people headed for the door.
Willow turned and looked at Tonks. "Yes, Tonks?"
"Perhaps you should try to reign in that power." Tonks suggested. "It's making my head spin and where ever we're going if there are any magic users there they're going feel you coming from blocks away."
Willow looked a little sheepish. "Sorry, it's still making me a little light headed." She closed her eyes and concentrated. The color of her hair faded back to normal and it settled back to her shoulders. "Better?"
"Much."
"Can you drive?" Buffy asked. "Cause if you can't I can."
"No, I'm fine, I'll drive." Willow took the keys. The last time they let Buffy drive one of the vans she rolled it over taking a corner too fast. It was the reason they bought the Eclipse and took her to the track every couple of weeks.
Outside of the Summers School for girls, Inspector Clayson sat with surveillance crew. He closed his phone after talking to the crew assigned to watching the family of Debbie Leary. "Willow Rosenberg just walked Debbie home from her Aunt Mae's." Clayson stated.
"Aunt Mae?" One of the techs asked.
"Don't ask." Clayson responded. "I understand, and I sure don't want to."
"Hey, how long ago did Rosenberg drop of the kid." The other tech asked.
"About five minutes ago. Why?"
"Well, if the Leary's are on the other side of town, how did Miss Rosenberg get here already?" The tech looked at Inspector Clayson and said. "I know, don't ask."
The crew watched a Mitsubishi Eclipse pull out of the driveway and speed off in one direction and the van with Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg and a young woman with green hair head in the other direction.
"Who do we follow?" The driver asked.
"Follow the van." Clayson said. "And keep the Team notified so they can meet us where ever Miss Summers and friends are leading us."
"Yes, sir."
"—"
Across town, the secret society known as the Order of the Phoenix sat down for their regular non Tuesday night meeting. This week they were short one person.
"Any word on Miss Tonks?" Albus Dombledore asked the group.
"She is apparently with Miss Summers and her group tonight." Mad Eye Moody grumbled.
"Any word on what's really going down tonight?" Severus Snape asked Kingsley Shackelbolt.
The big Auror sitting at the far end of the table just frowned. "They say Miss Summers got some information from Lady Dracheauge but she wouldn't share it with Director Bones, or the muggle detective for that matter. Fudge is afraid Summers is going to act on the information tonight. Apparently the Death Eaters kidnapped one of the girls during the attack on the funeral and Miss Summers is determined to get her back asap."
"By Merlin, that could get a lot of people killed." Author Weasley said from his chair next to Shackelbolt.
"Yea, Weasley." Snape observed. "But who?"
"Ah, by the way, Alastor." Dumbledore asked. "What happened to your eye?" He pointed to the heavy leather patch the old Auror was wearing over what was normally his wild magical eye.
As Snape groaned, Moody just growled. "I don't want to talk about it."
To be continued…