AN: CHAPTER 8 UP. WHAT A WAY TO SPEND A MONDAY. I'M ILL AND I HAVE BEEN BANNED FROM THE COMPUTER. SO I'M WRITING FANFIC ON MY LAPTOP INSTEAD.
DISCLAIMER: I'M A TEENAGE GIRL, ERGO I DON'T OWN EITHER Buffy, ANGEL OR HARRY POTTER. ANY ATTEMPTS TO SUE ME WILL BE LAUGHED AT.
RATING: PG-13
Chapter Eight
When Angel awoke that evening, Buffy was sitting by his side, holding a polystyrene cup containing what smelt like pig's blood. When she saw that he was awake, she passed him the cup and watched as he drained it. As soon as she saw that the cup was empty, she took it from him and gestured for him to get up. She smiled at him and spoke,
"Angel, the sun has set. We have to go to this nocturnally place you were talking about earlier. Oh, and Weasley is a git."
Angel smiled at her as he sat up slowly. He didn't know what Ron had done to earn Buffy's displeasure, but he would not want to be in the young wizard's place at the time when it happened. He rose slowly and almost smiled when Buffy blushed and turned her face away from him. It was beautiful that she was still so innocent in many ways. But she wasn't innocent. That saddened Angel slightly, that Buffy would never be a normal girl again. Angel would give anything to let her have that opportunity, but he knew that she would never be normal. She was the slayer and she would never be able to change that. All Angel could do was make her happy in what normality she had.
When he was up, he searched through his trunks. He groaned slightly. All he had were the leather pants and silk shirts that he had worn as Angelus. He doubted that wearing those would be good for his relationships with the others from Sunnydale. He turned to Buffy,
"Buffy. You wouldn't happen to have packed any of my clothes would you?"
Buffy gave him an extremely strange look and he continued,
"Well, all I've got is Angelus' wardrobe and he's not big on anything other than leather pants and red silk shirts."
Buffy smiled,
"It won't really matter. I didn't particularly want to go back to your apartment after everything. The others won't mind if you explain about your wardrobe. Anyway, I like you in leather trousers."
As Buffy said this last part, she blushed slightly. Angel smiled at her and pulled on a pair of leather trousers and a crimson shirt of crushed red velvet. When he was dressed, he and Buffy left the room and descended the stairs into the large kitchen.
They found all of the Weasleys and Hermione in the kitchen, as well as a few members of the order that Angel did not recognise. The visitors from Sunnydale stood in one corner of the room, as far from the others as possible. Giles was talking quietly with the severe looking witch who Angel had introduced as Professor McGonagall. They all looked up when Angel entered with the slayer. The visitors from Sunnydale stared at Angel's outfit and Cordelia asked, in her typical tactful manner,
"What's with the clothes? You're not going all evil again, 'cos that would like, really suck?"
Angel sighed and Buffy snorted at Cordelia's gift for being completely tactless.
"No, I am just having a shortage of clothes. All I had at the mansion were these and some other things that don't really count as clothes."
Buffy smiled,
"I'm interested."
Angel shrugged,
"No, really you're not. They're a bit on the bizarre side."
Buffy smiled even more,
"Now, you can't say that and not tell me what you mean."
The younger Weasleys also appeared to be slightly interested, so Angel shook his head,
"No, you don't need to know."
Buffy sighed and brought out every female's most powerful weapon. She pouted at Angel and he felt his resolve weakening rapidly,
"Okay, I'll tell you later."
Buffy smiled at him sweetly and the men in the room groaned at how easy it was for women to manipulate them. Angel sighed and turned to his lover,
"How is it you always persuade me to do things like that?"
Buffy smirked at him,
"It's a female thing. We have certain weapons we can use to achieve our aims. Men are powerless against us. They teach us about them in sex ed. Boys get told about contraception and STD's and women are told how to manipulate men into doing whatever we want them to do. It's a gift passed down from generation to generation. It's a mother-daughter bonding activity. Men go fishing and women talk about manipulation."
Angel smiled at her. She smiled at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She stood on tiptoes and pressed a light but passionate kiss on his lips. Angel caught her round the waist as she pulled away. He kissed her again and then let her down, pressing feathery kisses into her smooth blonde hair. Buffy turned her face up and smiled at him. Xander spoiled the moment by making gagging noises. Both Cordelia and Willow hit him round the head, but the moment had been ruined. Buffy extricated herself from Angel's grasp and moved to stand by his side instead.
Mrs Weasley entered the room then and smiled benevolently at them all. She gestured to her children to stand and they did. She went over to the fireplace then and took a pot of floo powder from above it. She spoke,
"Mr. Black told me you had some shopping to do, Harry. If your friends want to come with us they are very welcome."
Buffy held tight onto Angel's arm, signalling that he would not be going anywhere without her for quite some time after his reappearance. Cordelia looked intrigued by the idea of wizarding shops and gestured that she would accompany them. Xander shrugged and Willow and Oz also agreed to accompany them. Giles excused himself from his conversation with the Transfigurations professor and indicated that he would follow after his slayer. Fred and George said that they had an errand to run in Diagon Alley and Ron, Hermione and Ginny also agreed to join the party.
They all gathered round the fireplace as Mrs Weasley explained the principals of Floo powder to the visitors from Sunnydale. After they knew what they were to do, Buffy turned to Angel,
"Will you be safe travelling through the fire?"
Angel shrugged,
"I've never tried really. But I don't want to risk it, so I'll just apparate to the Leaky Cauldron and see everyone there."
Fred and George then said that they would apparate as well. It ended up that Giles, Cordelia, Oz, Willow, Xander, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Mrs Weasley would go by floo. Angel had merely suggested that Buffy take floo powder as well and was greeted with such a look as he realised that the chance of him being able to separate himself from Buffy for the next few weeks were very slight. He wasn't particularly annoyed by this fact and explained that he was licensed to do dual apparation.
Those who were to be travelling by floo lined up around the fireplace and took their pinches of the powder. Angel, Fred, George and Buffy all blinked out of sight with a small pop.
They reappeared at the Leaky Cauldron with another pop. Buffy looked around with great interest. Her slayer senses were on high alert. She could feel the magic pulsing in the room. Concentrating hard, she shut down her slayer senses so that she could only sense those that were threats. She felt a pulse of dark magic from one corner of the room and gestured it out to Angel. Angel nodded,
"That's Lucius Malfoy and some of his cronies. They're all Death Eaters."
Buffy scowled,
"Why don't we just go and stop them. They're planning something, I can sense it?"
Angel nodded,
"They most probably are. There's nothing we can do though. Even if we could prove anything, Malfoy's made too many contributions to good causes to get into any real trouble. Anyway, the ministry still doesn't believe that Voldemort's back and is unlikely to take the word of a vampire."
Buffy scowled,
"But aren't you supposed to be some sort of hero here or something?"
Angel shook his head,
"I am. But the media didn't like me last year and that idiot Fudge didn't want to accept the idea of Voldemort being back."
Buffy snorted,
"What about me. I'm the slayer. Won't they believe me?"
Angel sighed,
"If it were anyone else, I would say yes. But Malfoy practically owns the ministry. No we'll get him at a time when he can't deny what he's doing."
Buffy sighed but agreed with him. The four of them walked over to the fireplace and waited as the others appeared. When all of them were accounted for, they walked out of the back door of the Leaky Cauldron and into the yard. When the gateway to Diagon Alley opened, the visitors from Sunnydale hardly flinched. When you lived on the Hellmouth, you saw a lot of this that put a disappearing wall to shame.
They all entered the street and you could see Cordelia was itching to go and look around. Angel smiled and turned to Mrs Weasley,
"Can we go to Gringots quickly please?"
Mrs Weasley nodded,
"Of course, dear. I have your supply list here so you can get your books and other supplies."
Angel thanked her, slightly disturbed a woman who was really younger than him calling him 'dear'. He could Xander laughing behind him and scowled slightly. It would almost be worth going evil again just so that he could torture Harris without feeling any remorse. He doubted he would feel much if he tortured him now, but there was the whole issue of Buffy liking Xander. He'd have to let his torture of Xander remain a popular fantasy.
Mrs Weasley led them all towards the large and imposing façade of the wizarding bank. They entered the well-lit main hall and approached a high marble desk. The goblin looked up from where he was weighing out a pile of rubies the size of hens' eggs. He appeared somewhat shocked when he locked eyes with Angel and stuttered slightly as he asked them what they wanted. Angel placed three small golden keys on the marble surface. He spoke smoothly,
"I want to access these three vaults. The last vault is to accessed by any one of the people with me."
The goblin nodded, still slightly shaken. He summoned another goblin, which he introduced as Grabbler, to lead them to the vaults. They entered two carts, as there were so many of them. The first cart journey took them down to a low-level vault. Angel approached the vault and placed his hand in the centre of the door. Long slim lines of silver light worked their way out from where his hand touched the door. They travelled out to the edge of the door, where they sunk into the stonework. The door slowly swung inwards. Inside the vault there were huge piles of gold galleons and many chests containing priceless antiques. There were paintings stacked against the wall of the vault and many other priceless objects, for example there were wardrobes full of beautiful silk dresses and other clothes, all in perfect condition. Buffy spoke, her voice hushed in awe,
"What is this place?"
Angel smiled sadly,
"This is the O'Connor family vault. I'm the only remaining member of the line. All this is my heritage. This is how I lived for ten years."
Hermione asked then,
"What happened to the rest of the family?"
Angel winced and Buffy turned to glare at Hermione, but Angel stopped her,
"They deserve to know Buffy."
Buffy shook her head vehemently,
"You don't deserve to go through this again."
Angel smiled sadly,
"I can never forget Buffy."
Ron spoke then,
"I get the feeling we're missing something here."
Buffy scowled at him and Angel spoke,
"There are no other members of the O'Connor family because I killed them all as soon as I was turned, along with the entirety of Galway."
Hermione gasped and flushed that she had been the one to bring up what was obviously a very painful subject. Then Buffy saw the coat of arms on one wall of the vault. In the centre of it there was the pattern from the claddagh ring. She turned to Angel,
"Why do you have a coat of arms?"
Angel would have blushed then if it were possible, he settled instead for looking extremely uncomfortable,
"My father was the Duke of Galway. That's the family crest."
Buffy stared at him for a long moment,
"Does that make you a Duke?"
Angel nodded and Buffy squealed and wrapped her arms around him. After a moment, she flushed and pulled away from him. Angel went to one of the stacks of gold and took out a small bag. He filled the bag with coins and placed it back in his duster. They then left the vault and re-entered the carts.
When they reached the second vault, Angel merely placed the key in the lock and opened the door like a normal door. There was less gold in this vault and no antiques or memorabilia. Angel collected some more gold and then quickly re-entered the cart. The last vault was at the very bottom of Gringots. There were human skulls moulded into the door and onto the arc above it. An ornate letter A was carved into the arch and there were demonic letters carved around the door. A black mirror was placed in the very centre of the door itself.
Angel walked up to the door and slipped into game face he walked up to the mirror and spoke clearly,
"I am Angelus. Childe of Darla, childe of Heinrich Joseph Nest, the Master. I wish for access to the vault of the Order of Aurelius. I claim my heritage as the eldest of this line. Grant me entrance into the vault now. Those that accompany me are granted access to the vault as my friends and my mate travels with me."
Giles stared at Angel. He realised that this was the vault of the order of Aurelius. Angel was the eldest of this line. He had just been granted access to the resources of one of the eldest and most powerful vampire clans in the world. The consequences of this, what it might mean to develop the common understanding of vampire traditions.
The door slid open smoothly. The vault inside was lit by torched in sconces decorated with skulls. The amount of money in the vault was astounding. As well as countless gold coins, there were jewels and jewellery. There were shelves and shelves of ancient books, many written in unknown demonic languages. There were paintings and artefacts. Along one wall of the octagonal vault, there were vials and vials of dark blood. There was one huge book, open halfway through. Several of the pages were stained with dark blood. There were lists of names, all hand-written. Many of the names had been crossed out. Angel gestured to them that they were to follow him in.
They slowly entered the room. Buffy went immediately to a huge array of weapons along another wall. Giles went over to the bookcases and gazed in awe at the selection of books he saw there. They were arranged in alphabetical order and many of them were ancient and glowing with magical aura. He turned to the vampire that stood by the entrance,
"Is this where you had the codex?"
Angel nodded,
"Just about every book ever written on demons and demonology is in here. This is the vault of my clan. I cannot touch this money and I would be glad if you would accept to use it. All the resources of this vault are at your constant disposal if you wish it."
Giles nodded dumbly, the connotations of having access to these resources were amazing. He was certain there was more here than in the entirety of the council archives. Buffy lifted a long katana from the rack and gave it an experimental slash through the air. It hummed through the clammy air of the vault.
Angel smiled and went over to one corner of the vault and pulled out a large trunk. It had six locks. Angel brought it over to Buffy and spoke to her,
"This trunk has six different compartments, most of an ordinary size, but one the size of a large room. Put whatever you want in here."
Buffy smiled and went over to the weapons rack once again and chose out some knives and a long sword. She placed them in the trunk and then went and picked out some more weapons, including a selection of deadly looking throwing stars. Giles then went into action. He pulled out almost every other book in the shelf and placed them in another compartment. Willow then followed him over to the shelves and chose scores and scores of books on Wiccan magicks. Xander, Oz and Cordelia merely stood by the door of the vault and watched as the slayer, her watcher and the wicca-in-training rushed around the chamber collecting the things that they were interested in.
Once they were finished, Angel locked the trunk and placed one hand over it. The trunk shrunk to the size of a walnut and Angel pocketed it in his duster. They left the vault and Angel closed the door with similar words as he used to open it. They re-entered the cart and then went to Giles' modest vault. He took some money and they then left the underground tunnels.
They came out into the streets, blinking from the light of the lanterns. Angel then took his list from Mrs Weasley and he and Buffy took off into the shadowy street. The others shook their heads as the two lovers went into the first open shop they came to.
Buffy and Angel entered the robe shop together. Madam Malkin approached them as soon as she saw them, as if sensing that she was about to have two very rich customers buying a whole new wardrobe. Angel spoke before she could,
"We need one set of Hogwarts robes for me and robes for our own use."
Madam Malkin hurried off with her measuring tapes. She returned with swatches of different fabrics for their inspection. Angel's Hogwarts robes were made up very quickly, but it took a long time for Buffy to decide what robes she wanted for teaching in as well as casual wear. They eventually finished and paid for their clothes. They then picked up Angel's books and other equipment. They then left Diagon Alley and went out of the Leaky Cauldron into muggle London. Buffy dragged Angel into countless expensive boutiques and designer shops.
When Buffy had finally satisfied her urges for shopping in what felt to Angel like every shop in London, they re-entered the Leaky Cauldron. Angel led Buffy back into Diagon Alley and then walked towards the entrance to Knockturn Alley. He saw that Buffy was still walking at his side,
"Buffy, why don't you go on ahead to Florean Fortescue's. Order yourself an ice cream and get me some coffee. I'll meet you there as soon as I'm done in Knockturn Alley."
Buffy scowled,
"I can look after myself in this Knockturn Alley place. I mean, I'm the slayer. I've faced a lot scarier things than a couple of wizards. I've had meetings with principal Snyder. I've held people's brains in my bare hands. I've had a puppet try to kill me. I've blown up a blue guy using a rocket launcher. I've died Angel. I can cope with a few wizards."
Angel nodded,
"I know you can, love. But this is something I need to pretend to be Angelus for and turning up with the Slayer won't help that."
Buffy sighed, clearly not happy with what was going to happen but accepting that if Angelus the Scourge of Europe and slayer of slayers turned up with a slayer the shopkeeper wouldn't be easily convinced. So, she let go of Angel and headed towards Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour. She sat down outside, so as to be easily visible to Angel and any of the others and also so that she could continue looking around this New World. Florean approached her as soon as she sat down and handed her a menu. She was astounded. She hadn't known half of these flavours of ice cream existed. She gave a prayer of thanks for the advanced metabolism of the slayer and ordered a little bit of every flavour except rhubarb. She also ordered herself a butterbeer, after being shocked to discover that they didn't serve diet coke or any other type of coke. When Angel arrived ten minutes later, she ordered him a large cup of very strong coffee.
They sat there for a long time. They talked together for all the time they were together. They laughed together as Buffy told Angel about how she had spent her day with the Weasleys. Angel told her more about what he had done at Hogwarts and about his life in Galway. Buffy told him about her childhood in LA and what she had done in her first few weeks as the slayer.
After a time, the others joined them there. Cordelia was carrying many bags from boutiques up and down Diagon Alley. When she saw that Buffy was carrying bags from Bloomingdale's, she groaned that she hadn't thought of going out into London. Xander was carrying most of her bags, as was a man's task in life. They sat down and ordered coffee and ice cream then and talked together for a while. After a time, Ron and Hermione became tired and Mrs Weasley ordered them all to return to Grimmauld place and get some sleep before they went off to Hogwarts the next day.
Reluctantly, the group from Sunnydale returned to Grimmauld place along with the Weasleys and Hermione. Mrs Weasley sent her charges to bed, but the others said that they stayed up late to patrol anyway so they didn't normally need much sleep. Angel and Buffy needed less than anyone did. After they had explained this, they went to explore the large house. After some time, they came across a large room with a lot of open space in it. After asking if they could use it, Buffy set it up to train in. Buffy trained for a time with her watcher, but then Angel interrupted the fight, or rather, interrupted Giles desperately trying to make sure he didn't get too injured.
"Giles, I'm a bit out of shape. Would you mind if I sparred with Buffy for a while?"
Giles shook his head,
"Go ahead. I'll just sit here and wait for feeling to return to my limbs."
Angel smirked at Buffy,
"So, what's it going to be?"
Buffy smirked back at him,
"Quarter-staffs."
Angel nodded and went to collect two from the weapons chest they had placed by one wall. He tossed one to Buffy and they began to spar. Oz, Xander, Cordelia, Willow and Giles watched as the two trained together. They matched each other perfectly. There was very little difference in their skills. It was like watching a deadly dance. They circled each other, so in tune with themselves that they could easily predict what the other was about to do. They didn't tire but they started to work up a sweat like Buffy never did when she was working with Giles. They realised that only Angel and Faith even posed a challenge to Buffy's considerable skills. When the match finally finished, Buffy emerged the victor, pinning Angel to the floor. They had discarded their staffs much earlier and were fighting fist to fist. Buffy dropped onto the ground and spun her legs around. She knocked Angel from his feet and then pressed onto his chest before he could move.
Applause came from the doorway. Sirius and Remus and a few other order members had come to watch the fight. Buffy jumped to her feet and offered her hand to Angel, he spoke then
"You were holding back."
It was not an accusation or a question, merely a statement of fact. Buffy shrugged,
"What can I say, you're out of practise."
Angel mock-glared at her,
"Yeah, well. Hell was less about the working out and more about the running as fast as possible in the other direction."
Buffy flinched,
"Oh, God. Angel, I'm so sorry. There must have been another way."
Angel shook his head,
"You know that there was no other way, Buffy."
Buffy nodded weakly and wrapped her arms around him, a gesture that reassured both of them that the other was really there and not just another dream or illusion sent to torment them. Then Sirius spoke from the doorway,
"Hell?"
All those from Sunnydale flinched, Giles spoke so that neither Angel nor Buffy had to,
"It's a very long story."
Sirius was not deterred; he fixed his godson with the steely glare of parental doom,
"How long where you there?"
Angel sighed,
"I was away for two months. Time is different there though. I was there for the equivalent of five hundred years in this dimension."
The wizards stared at him and Buffy choked on a sob. Finally Remus asked the question that was on all of their minds,
"How did you get there?"
Giles made as if to change the subject, but Buffy spoke before he could,
"I sent him there."
The order members gasped. They had thought that the two were in love, yet the slayer had sent Angel to hell for five hundred years. Angel spoke then,
"She had no choice. I was trying to pull the entire world into Acathla's hell dimension. It was her duty to stop me and the only way was with my blood."
Now the order members were staring at Angel in fear, a black skinned man with an earring asked the question that they were all thinking,
"Why?"
Angel flinched and neither he nor Buffy looked ready to explain, so Giles took it upon himself to explain as best he could.
"I trust you are all aware of how Angel regained his soul in 1898. The gypsy curse had a loophole. If Angel were ever to experience a moment of true happiness, then he would lose his soul once again. Angel experienced this true happiness and became Angelus once more. Some time after he lost his soul; he tried to open the portal into Acathla's realm. Buffy went to stop him whilst Willow attempted the spell to put Angel's soul back. She succeeded, but not before the portal was opening. Buffy was forced to send Angel to hell. He only recently returned within the last few days."
Now everyone was staring at the red-haired Wiccan sitting with her friends and boyfriend. Remus spoke again,
"You successfully managed to return a soul to its body?"
Willow was very uncomfortable with all the attention she was getting, but she managed to nod that, yes, she had returned a vampire his soul. Remus spoke again,
"What else can you do?"
Willow didn't understand the attention, but answered anyway,
"You know, the usual. I can do a bit of summoning and contacting the spirit realm is quite easy now. I can do glamours. Levitating feathers. Fire out of ice. You know. Basic stuff. I can control two of the elements and I'm working on the other two. Also, there's that thing with sage and virgin's saliva that I'm not supposed to know how to do. I've decided against trying love spells after what happened with the one Amy did."
They stared at her and then Sirius asked,
"I probably don't want to know, but what happened with the love spell Amy did?"
Xander flushed and Willow began to tell the tale with relish and just the slightest bit of babbling,
"Well, Xander had just started going out with Cordelia. But he thought she didn't care about him. So, he went to Amy and asked her to do him a love spell. But, it didn't quite work out the way he intended it to. See, every woman in Sunnydale, except Cordelia, fell madly and passionately in love with him. Including Buffy's mom and Drusilla, though out of those two I don't know which one's more disturbing a concept. So, no love spells for me."
Angel snorted,
"I wondered what was going on that day. Drusilla was most put out afterwards. She was still quite attracted to you, always was apparently. Spike was most annoyed."
Xander groaned and buried his head in Cordelia's shoulder,
"That one was of the experiences in my life I try and forget about, along with what I did when I was possessed by those Hyenas and ate a raw pig, among other things."
This time, Willow and Buffy turned on Xander,
"I thought you couldn't remember what happened then?"
Xander flushed and swore under his breath,
"Yes, well, I don't suppose you'd believe me if I said I was guessing?"
He took one look at the expressions on the faces of Buffy and Willow and sighed,
"Okay, I knew what happened. Can we please move on from embarrassing Xander now?"
Angel shook his head,
"No, do continue. I'm finding this most entertaining."
Xander groaned and Buffy explained with delight.
"Well, Xander and these other kids got themselves possessed by these Hyenas when we went on a field trip to the zoo. He started out just acting like an idiot and sniffing me a lot. Then he and the rest of the pack decided that sausages were over-cooked and they were going to have something a little more rare. Principal Flutie had just got this pig as the school mascot, so, they went and ate Harvey. Then Xander went from acting like an idiot to acting like an utter pig-headed bastard and attempted to act on his animal desires. I knocked him out and shut him in the library cage while the rest of the pack ate the principal; thus we had the attack of the horrible Snyder monster. We managed to get him all un-possessed but he claimed he couldn't remember a thing."
By this point Xander was the colour of an embarrassed beetroot. Angel tried hard not to laugh and took out a small notebook and a pen from the pocket of his duster. Angel quickly wrote in it and then closed it. Buffy asked,
"What's in the notebook?"
Angel smirked,
"This is my book of things to torment Xander with."
Buffy laughed,
"Can I see?"
Xander signalled hastily that Angel should not show the book to Buffy, but he did. Buffy opened it and started to laugh. She leafed through the notebook and was amused to see that it was over half full already. When she had finished, she passed it round to Cordelia, Oz, Giles and Willow and they took their turns. When they were finished, Willow turned to Angel,
"I have loads more, though I didn't know half of these, particularly some of the ones about Dru. If you want, I'll make a general contribution. Like that time when the anointed-one kidnapped Cordelia because they wanted to bring the Master back to life. Well, we got sent this ransom rock. We were told that Buffy had to go to the Bronze before it opened or they'd make Cordelia a meal. Well, Xander asked if they were going to make her dinner. It was classic."
They all cracked up. Xander glared,
"Traitors. Just remember I was the one who found out where they were keeping you."
Buffy laughed then and said,
"No, Xander. That was me. I put my cross in that vampires mouth and persuaded her to tell us. You just threatened to kill me."
The others laughed again, though the order members seemed slightly disturbed by the idea of putting a cross into a vampire's mouth and the death threats. Xander snorted,
"Yes, well. It was the evening after that dance. What did you expect?"
Buffy blushed this time but managed to mostly keep her cool,
"Promises of being my eternal slave."
They all laughed. Memories like these were the only things that kept them sane while living on the hellmouth. That was probably why Xander made so many jokes. If they could laugh for a while then they could pretend that they weren't fighting the forces of evil on a daily basis. They had to accept death and therefore they made jokes. Xander then came up with his ultimate defence,
"Well, if it weren't for me the judge would still be in one piece, not several thousand."
Buffy snorted,
"Xander, that was 'cos you spent Halloween running around shooting everyone you saw."
Xander scowled,
"Well, at least I didn't faint every time I saw a car and complain about the 'low apparel' I was wearing."
Buffy glared at him and then Willow interrupted the fight before it could go any further,
"Well, at least you too didn't have the problem of passing through everything you touched. It made research very difficult."
Buffy and Xander shrugged, admitting defeat in the face of the girl who had been turned into a ghost for Halloween. Then Cordelia decided that she wanted in on the taking the piss out of Xander contest,
"Angel, did you know that looking at linoleum makes Xander want to have sex?"
Xander groaned, while the others laughed. Sirius looked at them and said with conviction,
"I really, really don't want to know."
Remus looked hard at Oz then and Oz rose from where he sat by Willow. The two circled each other, sizing each other up. They were growling softly. Then Remus nodded curtly and sat down. Oz turned away and returned to his seat by Willow. Sirius turned to his friend and asked,
"What was that all about?"
Remus grunted,
"He's an alpha."
Sirius stared at Oz,
"You're a werewolf?"
Oz grunted,
"Yes."
Then Tonks, who had also come to watch, spoke,
"So, what was with the testosterone display?"
Remus groaned and answered her,
"Politics. I'm beta, he's alpha. He was asserting his dominance. It's complicated."
Oz interrupted,
"Alpha's are more powerful than betas and kill any who don't agree with their rule. It was my right."
Remus sighed,
"Apparently not that complicated."
Willow was staring at Oz,
"Okay. One, you're a dom. Two, wasn't that your entire ration of syllables for the next month or something. Not that I mind. I like it when you talk. It's just you're not big on talking usually. I don't mind that either. I like it when you're quiet. And you're supposed to stop me when I do this."
Oz almost smiled,
"Yeah, well. I like it when you do that."
Willow smiled at him
"I know. Still interested in the alpha male part."
Xander interrupted,
"Okay. We're getting way too close to PDA and TMI."
Sirius decided that now was as good a time as any to get to know his godson's friends. The other members of the order had left to go to bed or on missions and he sat down and asked,
"So what do you guys do?"
They smiled. Buffy started them off,
"I slay. That's about it. I don't do research or anything. They just tell me what to kill and when and I go out and do the slayage."
Angel continued,
"I help with the slaying, and brood, and stalk and make cryptic comments whilst handing out free jewellery."
Giles snorted and made his own contribution,
"I read books and stuff. I make plans and do a bit of magic when required."
Willow smiled,
"Again with the magic and the books. But I also do all the Internet hacking."
Oz almost smiled,
"I smell stuff, occasionally help preparing spells and do fetch and carry. I also make a nice show piece in the library three nights a month."
Xander snorted self-deprecatingly,
"I make smart comments and fetch doughnuts and rocket launchers."
Cordelia laughed,
"I help with the research and act as bait."
Xander added on to the end of this,
"She also cheerleads. It's amazing what a busy life she leads."
Sirius stared at the group. They were just plain weird. Maybe bordering on insane or psychopathic. But hey, he wasn't the sanest person on the planet either. Dolores Umbridge was not going to know what hit her. If only he weren't a wanted fugitive then he could be there to see it. Such a shame.
TBC.