And We're Off (11/?)
Summary: Quickie Recap: Neville is Xander's cousin. Willow and Xander have gotten really close again. Harry tired to raise Sirius from the dead under the encouragement of the First Evil. Well, that all I can think of that's important.
Spoilers: Harry Potter books 1-5, Buffy 1-7 and maybe a couple of Angel references (sorry just happens) up to season 5.
Parings: Willow/?, Xander/? Don't try to guess, i'm not even sure yet.
Rated: PG-13, still not sure yet, may get higher. It's only 13 for my tendency for having people curse and drink a lot.
Chapter Comments: First off everybody thank Heiress for betaing! Thanks, again! She really needs to be thanked. Okay notes: Alright i now have a job, 8:30-5:00. I try to write at work but don't always get a lot of time but i will keep going, everyone please be patient. But a Few "Get off your lazy ass, and write, bitch!" emails might help get me going when i'm tired lol. Well all enjoy, hope to hear from you soon.
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Chapter 11: Old Enemies Die Hard
June 2003
All anybody knew was that they'd be meeting someone, someone more powerful then their Dark Lord. All any of the Deatheaters knew for sure was that this had something to do with Peter Pettigrew. He had left for months, something about finding his sister. There had been no word for him, until one day a letter arrived. After that Voldemort summoned his closest members to a meeting. They waited around, first for the Dark Lord to arrive, and then for Pettigrew.
Voldemort met with his people in a cabin far out of the way of everybody's concern. If all of their focus were not on the Dark Lord they would have noticed the three figures appearing behind them.
"Welcome," said Voldemort, who was not surprised. Everyone turned to see the trio, everyone recognized the familiar Peter, but the two women he was with. One was older than he and the other could not have been no more than in her early twenties, they both wore what could be argued as muggle clothing.
"Master," the pasty Peter spoke up, this time confidant knowing that he had something important and wanted for his superior. "I would like to introduce you to my niece, Amy Madison." The younger woman stepped forward.
The Dark Lord seemed to be uninterested in her. "And she is your sister Catharine," Voldemort assumed.
"Hardly," aid the older women.
"She is reason I'm here," Amy spoke up rudely. She was not one of his minions; she worked for a higher power. "She's who we have brought you to meet," she continued impatiently.
"You are the one?" He scoffed at the woman in disbelief.
"Yes I am." She walked forward and changed her image, now appearing as a young man, James Potter. He smirked then morphed again this time into Lily Evans-Potter.
"It's a Demon!" yelled Bellatrix, taking out her wand.
"I'm not a demon," the abomination of Lily spoke harshly to her. "I am something that you can't even conceive. The First Evil. Beyond sin, beyond death; I am the thing the darkness fears. You'll never see me, but I am everywhere. Every being, every thought, every drop of hate."
Voldemort smiled. He had found his new ally.
---
After only five minutes of telling Dumbledore about the First's presence an emergency meeting of the Order was called. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were sent back to bed with 3 weeks detention and lost 100 points each. Harry would come along to 12 Grimmauld Place for the meeting and his punishment would be decided in full later. It was supposedly safer there than in the school, but Xander and Willow had their doubts. If Voldemort had the First on his side, It might be spying on them. But all this would have to be said even with that threat. Every one would need to know what they were up against.
Everyone was sitting around the tables in the kitchen. Coffee was passed out to everyone attending, it was nearly three a.m. and they needed everything they could get to keep their minds sharp. Dumbledore and Snape but McGonagall needed to remain at the school. Lupin and Tonks had come in from Hogsmeade, and arrived with an older man they called Mad-Eyed Moody. No wonder, thought Willow, his eye seemed to be rolling around in its socket. The second arrivals were the parents of two of their students, Molly and Arthur Weasley. Arthur seemed almost delighted that they had met before, but the parents were mostly concerned about the contact their two youngest children had had with the newly acknowledged evil.
For the seemed liked the hundredth time since their arrival Willow and Xander were center stage telling the last big events of their evil fighting career. Willow started. "The First is a non-corporal being that can take on the identity of any dead person. It likes to taunt and trick. Do to a flaw that was created in the Slayer bloodline. It was given a chance to make an imbalance in the war of good versus evil. Its goal was to wipe out all of the Slayers so that the scale would be tipped in Its favor so It would be able to take on corporal form."
"You activated all the Slayers?" Asked Lupin.
"Yes. It was the only way to keep the balance, the First had an Army of Uber-Vamps waiting in the Hellmouth," answered Xander. "Not to mention the Bringers and Caleb working on his side. But, hey, at least no more Caleb." Xander made a big fake smile.
Willow pulled out her laptop, which she had grabbed before going to headquarters, and brought up the images they had of the bringers and their weapons. She showed it to the rest of table. "We need to call Giles!" Willow announced out of nowhere. "What if-"
"Called him when I first got here, he's on alert. He activated the slayer-calling-tree so they'll all know by the morning. He also put an alert on the website."
"Oh." Relieved. "I think the website was the best thing the new council came up with." In Cleveland the Scooby's all got together and created an online database for the Slayers with resources and history to keep everyone connected and up to date on the new evils. They even had an "Ask Giles" section where they would submit questions or research topics for any new knowledge they required.
"So these 'Bringers'…?"
"They work for the First. He sends them out to kill or kidnap or whatever corporeal thing he wants."
There were nods. "What about this 'Caleb'?" Asked Moody.
Willow answered this time. "He was this preacher
who got caught up with the First. Was human but somehow got super
strength; we don't know how the First does it yet, but at least we know
that when you get through all that he's killable. Buffy sliced him in
half, right?"
"Yep." Xander smiled. "Serves him right." Xander unconsciously was touching his eye.
"Is that the new 'Aeger's Eyes?" asked Moody, getting up and without looking took a very close up look at Xander's new eye. Xander felt uncomfortable with the strange wizard poking at his eye. "Much improved since my day. Almost couldn't tell the difference from the real thing." He stepped back and gave him another look. "I've been thinking of upgrading, but then they'd have to call me something else."
"Let's get back on track," said Dumbledore, and the questions about the First Evil continued.
Harry was very quietly sitting next to Lupin. He knew his role in all this would be coming up soon. He wouldn't look at anyone especially the Weasley's. The conversation went on around him; he casually picked up little pieces of what they were saying. He kept thinking that it couldn't be the First Evil that was talking to him; it had to have been Sirius. Sirius was a good man. Evil can't take the form of a good man. He put in his full attention however when his professors started to talk about the First's plan. Maybe because Xander started out with the epiphany "Maybe its Harry…"
"Maybe it's Harry. I mean the First wants to tip the scales right? Well there are no more imbalances in the Slayer line, but maybe in the wizarding world he found one. There is and this whole, Harry-Voldemort prophecy, good versus evil thing might be the key. I mean Voldie is the ultimate evil villain, and well, Harry here is the teenage force of good." He turns to Willow. "Sounds a little familiar right? I'm getting a Buffster vibe here." Willow gave him a look, and Xander turned around to look at Harry, realizing he shouldn't have said that the nonchalantly in front of him. Too much pressure put on him. Dumbledore and Lupin were also giving him the same look as Willow. "Then again I could just be full of bull sh…"
"No." Said Harry who's face was still stoic. "You're right, it's always about me, always after me. Doesn't matter what's happening, it's always about me." Harry quietly got up from his seat from around the table and left the room. Lupin went after him.
----
Willow sat with her computer, in one of the empty rooms. Molly had to force her husband out of the room to stop him from trying to play with it and take it apart. Willow found him a funny but kind man, and meeting Arthur and Molly made her understand Ron and Ginny more. Willow had just gotten off the phone with Fred. She was happy to help out anyway she could. She said something to the point of finally doing something for the good guys for a change. Willow didn't even think of Wolfram and Hart being the big evil law firm. This was harmless and babbling Fred, who reminds her of herself. Willow rethought that. Maybe Fred wasn't so harmless after all.
Fred had Wesley email some info on the First and whatever they had on Voldemort to Willow right away. The rest would be sent by owl to the school, turns out Wolfram and Hart had dealings with him during the seventies. They would have to go down to archives but it would take a while. Willow was going through what she got, looking for anything new.
After a little bit of time she let her mind wonder. She needed it to shock the feeling of dread of having to deal with the first again. It was quite similar to the impeding doom feeling. She realized at this point of her life she had most of what she wanted, but she was missing something big. The job, actually, interfered with that one missing thing. There was the upside of being able to be with her best friends but she really missed not having a lover. She had always been able to turn to Oz, Tara, and Kennedy, they had been there for her. There was no one at the school for her. Xander was and would always be her best friend but it would never work. Though she didn't always mind when he would feel her up in her sleep, but that was just another symptom of sleeping in the same bed.
Kennedy was great for taking the edge off. Actually that's what they really were to each other, just something to take the edge of the fear of death. Xander was a good, supportive friend but not a boyfriend. She thought about Fred. She liked her and remembered Fred was flirting with her when she went to L.A. She kind of hoped Fred would come to bring the information in person. She let her mind drift back to her present task. She remembered Giles' lecture after Valentines last year. Personal relationships have to wait until after the apocalypse, well at least for right now. She got back to work.
She had to get back to the school soon, Dumbledore had taken Harry back to Hogwarts much earlier but Willow needed to stay around to use the phone and computer. Snape stayed behind to make sure she got back to school all right. Xander stayed around too, he was always worried about her around other guys, especially him. Willow just found the whole thing very sweet. He went to a different room to try and get some sleep.
"Get in touch with your friend?"
Willow gasp in surprise, the new comer had startled her by coming in with her back turned. She spun around and saw a familiar face she didn't recognize.
"Sorry." Said the woman. Willow recognized the voice, it was Tonks. "Didn't mean to change faces on you like that." She smiled. "I'm supposed to be in Hogsmeade now, don't want people to get suspicious if they see me around Town."
Willow smiled back. "It's alright. You look good as a brunette."
"Thanks," she put a glass of juice down at the table. "I thought you might be thirsty."
"Oh great, thanks," she took a big sip, "much better for me than coffee. Much sweeter."
Tonks sat down in the chair next to hers. "We'll it's almost morning anyway."
"After this transfer from LA completes, I'm going back to the school. I should really get some sleep. I least we don't have classes to teach today."
"Well that's something." She tried to be supportive.
"Is this what you got? Doesn't look like much."
"There isn't too much information here. Not much to have on the First."
Willow got frustrated looking at the same information over and over again. Tonks reached her arm over and began to rub her shoulders. Willow was surprised but didn't stop her; she simply turned her head to the side to look at her face. Tonks had a look in her eyes that Willow was familiar with and liked.
Maybe there was someone around for her after all.
---
Xander sat down on the first couch he saw. He had been warned about all the creepy things that live in the house and for once listened when they told him to stay away from them. He wished he could sleep. He guessed he could once they got back to the school, but they had to get back as soon as possible. They didn't want to draw extra attention.
He after a long sit he thought he might actually be able to fall asleep, but he felt a presence that made him keep himself awake. "So how are you doing so early in the morning?" Xander asked with closed eyes.
"I could use another hour of sleep. And yourself?"
"Six would probably do it." He stretched his arms and yawned. "Is Willow done yet?"
"She said it would only be a few more minutes, something about the… download being slow."
Xander touched his eye. "Yeah it's always slow." Xander tried to make a joke but wasn't so sure how to make one through his sleepy haze.
"I wondered how that happened," said Snape with his usual tone but Xander could help but feel that it was much less harsh and agonizing as Xander had become accustom to. "I'm referring to your eye. I believe it has something to do with that Caleb, you mentioned." He sat down in the armchair a good distance away.
"Yeah, it was Caleb." Xander wasn't sure but he felt like telling the story. He never actually talked about it before. At the house everybody told everybody and he didn't tell his parents, and everyone else believed a lie. Now he wanted to tell the truth even if it was to Snape. "We were trying to ambush Caleb, we knew it could have been a trap. He had just rolled into town and sent a message to Buffy that he had something of hers. We didn't know about his strength boost yet, we thought we could win, two Slayers, a whole bunch of potentials… how could we not? We were losing and we were going to retreat. The girls started dying and getting hurt. I stayed to help get them all out." Xander stopped recalling the pain. "He grabbed me and knew all about me. He knew I was the one who sees things. Not as in the future, just sees things others don't. He smashed my eye with his thumb. I never thought I would get hurt. I wasn't a potential or a superhero or even a wizard then, I was just there, and me, and he attacked me." Xander stopped talking and turned to Snape. For the first time he thought Snape actually patiently hearing what he was saying, not getting annoyed or rude. "Why did you want to know?"
"Just the possible moves of new enemy."
"Well, that was Caleb not the First. He may be dead but he's still the starring character of my nightmares. Well, at least it gives my father the time off." Xander stood up.
"Your father?"
"Oh you know those standard dreams, "your worthless, you're a failure" pulling out your heart with a bare fist. The same old." Xander stretched out his arms, regaining his sense of wakefulness. Snape was looking at him strangely, like Willow did when she would go into his mind. "I'll go see how Willow is doing." He quickly excused himself.
"You were the heart, Mr. Harris. That is just as important."
---
Willow walked through the halls, keeping an eye out for any dead person the First might pretend to be. It was a long day. With the normal ghosts hanging out everywhere, she didn't know what to trust right now. The lack of sleep was making her a bit more paranoid. She hated all-nighters, screwed her up for days afterwards she had barely gotten sleep for the past few days.
She had been supervising detentions too. Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione detentions started right after dinner and lasted until late. From what Willow could tell, the student body didn't know what really happened to get these classmates in trouble but the common theory was some sort of sex scandal. All involved were satisfied to leave it at that for now, the truth was to embarrassing and well could have gotten any other students suspended. They also didn't want to worry the students about the First. Hermione and Ron got defensive at the accusation of them being together, however Ginny seemed to get into the idea of her and Harry being an item. Ron was not pleased by the insinuation that his little sister… well was a slut; he had to be held back from more than one fistfight.
As Willow reached her door, she decided to take a nice long bath. Xander was on duty most of the evening so it would be a perfect time not to hog the bathroom. He idea was cut short when there was a note on her desk. CB wasn't around and Willow could believe how CB always seemed to know where she'd be. She opened the note and looked first at the sender. She had a moment of surprise before grabbing up her robes and heading out. She left the note where Xander would see it so he wouldn't worry.
She never expected to hear from this person, not this way. She made her way through the streets of Hogsmeade and some arrived at the correct address. She knocked on the door and was disappointed to be greeted by a house elf. "I'm here to see Mrs. Longbottom, she should be expecting me. I'm Willow Rosenberg."
The elf led her in with little words and took her into the well decorated room. This must have been the room Xander told her she was in. She remembered him talking about some of the portraits. The room now was empty. She was sure the little elf said something about bringing his Mistress.
Willow looked around the room. This was the first private, up-kept, wizarding home she had been in. She remembered quickly that this was not the Longbottom's family house but a friend's. "Willow Rosenberg."
Willow jumped back from what she was looking at and turned to see Mrs. Longbottom walking into the sitting room. She was just the way Xander has described her. "Hello," Willow said, moving into the middle of the room. "Yes, I'm Willow."
The women had a strong presence in the room, Willow felt intimidated by her almost immediately. Willow realized it was probably her intention. The old woman didn't say anything as she crossed the path of the room and sat down on the sofa. "Please have a seat, Miss Rosenberg."
Willow did as told and sat down on the same couch, facing Mrs. Longbottom. "You wanted to see me?" she said hoping something will lighten the mood.
"Yes I did." She pierced her lips to talk but waited longer than necessary. "As you are no doubt aware my Grandson has grown quite attached to his cousin."
"Yes, so is Xander." Willow added sweetly, still having no idea why she was here.
"From what I understand you and Alexander are very close."
"We've known each other almost all our lives." She answered quickly, then realizing Mrs. Longbottom wouldn't come right out and tell her what was going on ask: "What does any of this have to do with me?"
Willow knew she had surprised the woman by being so blunt but she did not like being summoned and getting no reason. "I want to know more about him and I have found you find more about somebody from their friends."
"You just want me to tell you about Xander? He said you interrogated him the last time he was here, what new things do you think you'd find out?"
After getting that off her chest, Willow noticed the woman relax more, she even smiled. "My grandson looks up to him, I just want to understand him from all sides."
Willow was confused but thought 'to each his own'.
"You must understand Neville never had his father. He meets Xander who is his teacher, his cousin, and he will form an attachment. I want to make sure that it isn't an ill-favored one."
"Xander is the best person ever!" She defended childishly, and then changed to an adult agreement. "He told me, he told you all about himself."
"Yes, but that subjective isn't it?"
"I'd try to hide all his flaws too."
"Yes but I'd noticed the inconsistencies."
When Willow realized she was joking and relaxed. "Well what kind of things do you want to know? I know everything from Kindergarten Kicks to Heroic… heroics."
"Well actually, I wanted to hear more about his family, his childhood. We can start there."
Willow sat back and relaxed and told Xander's life story from her point of view. She talked about how they met in moms and tots and when Xander's dad lost his job and Shelia offered to take care of Xander while his mother worked. She only made an allusion to his father's drinking and abuse, and how he, for several years, was at her home more than his. Willow realized that this confession made Mrs. Longbottom sadden, and made Willow pleased the woman cared so much for someone she had just met.
After an hour Willow was talking about more recent events. "He saved me after my girlfriend was killed. I was very far gone and he brought me back."
"She must have been a very good friend for you to be so effected by her passing."
"Yes, very." Willow was going with a "don't ask don't tell" policy with her sexuality. Her mother would be so disappointed in her. After thinking about how much her mother did for Xander, she realized she wasn't as bad a mother as she had once thought Shelia was. Willow left with the impression that Mrs. Longbottom was a very good woman and only the best intentions about her grandson.
When she got back to the school, she discussed the entire evening with Xander. Mrs. Longbottom left town not long after their meeting. Xander and Willow both believed that she approved of them spending time with her grandson.
---
A few weeks had gone by and there didn't seem to be any "First" sightings, but than again there were a lot of students, and First could have taken on any form, but the Ghost knew what to look for, they could tell if one that was not actually ghost. Things seemed to settle more with the students. Hermione personally apologized to Willow and Willow could not blame the girl's intentions, they were so much like her own, and their relationship returned to what it once was with just a bit more caution on Willow's side. Ron just acted as if nothing had happened, but made Neville feel guilty for telling on him. Harry was still depressed; he was doing everything that was asked but no more.
Willow and Xander just believed it all to be the status quo. They had something different on their minds. The month of October was quickly coming to a close and in the next day Buffy would arrive. Soon the troublesome two would be the terror-some trio and they couldn't wait. The student were excited to, Buffy was going to kick off self-defense week. They even made sure that they would have the holiday weekend free to take her around places, plus they were invited to what was supposed to be a "Hot Young Party", wizarding party of course, in London. Tonks invited them.
Xander realized ever since he first met Tonks, at the Phoenix headquarters, she had kept popping up in Hogsmeade when he would go out with Willow. He knew it was her job to watch over the town, but still. It wasn't like he didn't like her. She was funny and fun but he was irritated with the way Willow always seemed so happy to see her every time. He also noticed that she kept getting letters from her. At first Xander thought that's how they were passing information for the Order but she would have told him. He finally got the picture when Willow announced to him that she was going out for a date. This was the first they talked about Tonks being someone she was interested in.
Xander sat on the couch, as Willow rushed around to get ready. He had planned his evening around them watching a movie but now that was moot. Maybe he'd go and hang out with the students for a while. He was sure there was some evening activity he could go to. He was sure that there would be chess and cards in the Great Hall.
"You don't mind do you? You could come with if you want." Willow said putting on her outer robes.
"Nah, don't want to intrude on your 'date'." He said pointedly.
"Sorry. I know I should have told you sooner about her and me…"
"You don't have too." He forced a smile. "It's your business and you've always been kind of secretive about your love interests." He got up and planned his quick escape, inwardly scolding himself for feeling any jealously. "Well I better go or I'll miss all the games." He excused himself and went quickly out the door.
She's your best friend! he scolded himself as he walked the halls. She's practically your sister! He quickly went to the activity board to see what was going on tonight, something to keep his mind off Willow. There were games in the Great Hall, but he found something more interesting to do.
He made his way out to the Quiddich pitch. He had heard a lot about the game but never got the chance to check it out. There was a Gryffindor practice tonight and this seemed like the perfect time to learn what it was all about.
He kept his eyes on the students flying around and then look up at the stands to spectators watching the practice. He decided to join them. "Professor Harris!" Called Hermione. She sound very surprised. Neville was sitting on the same bench but far away from her.
"Hey." He waved and came over and sat down between her and Neville.
"Come to watch practice?"
"Yeah, never seen the game played."
"Well it quit simple, I'll try to explain." She quickly explained about the basic of the game, then told him about the players. "Harry is team Captain and seeker, he goes after the snitch. He was the youngest Seeker, made the team his first year. Ginny was Seeker last year after Harry got in trouble, now she's a Chaser taking over for one of the players that graduated. Ron is Keeper, he was really bad last year but he got a lot better…"
He sat and watched for a while, he talked to his students. It was just before the end of practice that Ginny flew over towards them and asked Xander if he wanted to play. Xander jumped at the chance and grabbed the first broom he saw. He flew up into the air to join the game, he had done much better with it then Willow had. He teased her about it often but she just kept reminding him of her teleporting skills. He learned to play the game. The Hufflepuff team joined in to make it a friendly practice match and Xander filled in for Mark, the new Chaser, who had been called away. The other team thought it was unfair to have a teacher on Gryffindor side until they found out he had only been playing for 30 minutes.
They play for a while, and then got distracted on a break by Xander telling them the story of the Sunnydale Swim team. They sat in the middle of the field with the teams and the spectators were sitting around a fire Hermione had made. He told the tale to the fascinated teens, until it grew late. Harry was the only student not to relax, he was suspiciously searching over the crowd of students, Xander assumed he was First Evil searching. It was getting late Xander didn't notice. It got so late that Xander had to escort them all back to their dorms so they wouldn't get in trouble for breaking curfew.
When he got back to his room, Willow had not gotten back yet. He thought twice about waiting up for her and went to his room and closed the door. She was a big girl, he didn't need to worry so much about her, besides he had something else to think about. Buffy was coming tomorrow.
----
"So how was your date?" Xander asked Willow as they lingered outside the school gates. Buffy would arrive at 10 am sharp but to make sure they were there in time, the went to the rendezvous fifteen minutes early.
Willow had gotten home sometime after one in the morning. "It was good." She smiled and sounded shy.
"Oh come on? Do I have to guess what happened?"
"It was a date." She insisted.
"You were out until one a.m. in the sleepy little town of Hogmeade, and I want to know what you found to do."
Realizing he wouldn't stop bugging her she finally answered. "We were making out in a bar, alright?" she shouted out.
"That's all I wanted to hear. Later I will demand details. I want play by play actions, Will."
"Pig."
"Darn tootin'." Xander said just Buffy began to portkey in.
Buffy caught herself before falling over herself but stayed hunched over waiting for the feeling in her stomach to dissipate. Xander and Willow just waited.
The blond to several deep breaths. "Alright," She started harshly, "I've been to hell, heaven, and the Hellmouth and I've never had a trip like that." She finally stood upright, flipping her hair back behind her head. She smiled when she saw her friends watching her. "Look who's finally come to visit." She held her arms out presenting herself. "Anybody miss me?" Xander and Willow both ran in for a big group hug. The gang was back together again.
--End Chapter 11—