AN: CHAPTER FIFTEEN HERE. I HAVE NO SELF-CONTROL AND THEREFORE HAVE NOT WAITED FOR THE SPECIFIED ONE HUNDRED REVIEWS BEFORE WRITING THIS CHAPTER. I JUST ENJOY WRITING THIS TOO MUCH TO BE ABLE TO LEAVE IT ALONE FOR ANY SPECIFIED PERIOD OF TIME.

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN IT AND I NEVER WILL UNLESS THE WORLD TURNS INSIDE OUT AND MARILYN MANSON GETS MARRIED TO BRITNEY SPEARS, WITH TONY BLAIR CONDUCTING THE CEREMONY.

RATING: PG-13, MAYBE R LATER ON, BUT ONLY IF I GET ENOUGH REVIEWS TO GET RID OF THAT BREAK CLAUSE.

Chapter Fifteen

Everyone in the room stared at Malfoy. Angel would have paled if he had circulation, but as he didn't he settled for looking highly disturbed instead. Buffy did not pale; her cheeks flushed scarlet with fury. She rose from her seat on the sofa and started towards Draco,

"How did you? When did you? If you tell anyone… I swear I'll…"

Angel rose and laid a hand on Buffy's arm,

"Buffy, calm down. I'll deal with this."

He looked into her eyes until she subsided and sat back onto the sofa.

"Fine, you deal with it. I don't like it though."

Angel smiled at her and then turned back to Malfoy,

"I'm not going to ask how you know as it would be pointless and an insult to both of our intelligence. The important thing is, does anyone else know?"

Draco shrugged,

"I don't know. I only found out because I was outside your office when I heard you talking about it. I don't think that anyone else in Slytherin knows and the others houses wouldn't tell anyone. That's all I know. It was an accident that I found out and I was suspicious about it. You should be fine as long as you don't put out an advert."

Angel stared at him for a moment and then nodded,

"Okay, I believe you. But, if you tell anyone…"

The threat in Angel's tone was unmistakable and made those in the room who had known Angelus shiver. Draco shook his head,

"After what I just told you, would I tell anyone?"

Angel looked at him for a moment and then he said,

"I believe that you won't tell anyone. But you have to understand how dangerous my secret is."

Draco looked at him,

"I've just told my father that I won't nothing to do with the Dark Lord, what can possibly be more dangerous than that?"

Angel didn't smile,

"You could say I have a lot of enemies. Spike in particular would like nothing more than to have my dust in an urn. He and Dru will have probably allied themselves with the Dark Tosser. If they find out that I'm here then they'll come here. Spike and Dru would have no problem with killing every single person at this school. Dru's insane, I don't know what she'd do when she finds out, but Spike would try and kill me, I have no doubts about that. Dru would try and bring him back and we really really don't want that."

Draco stared at him,

"I'm not even going to pretend I have a clue what you're talking about, but I won't tell anyone. And if you're a vampire, aren't they supposed to have no souls?"

Angel winced,

"Vampires don't have souls. They are corpses possessed by demons that allow them to live forever. Their souls leave their bodies at the moment of death allowing the demon to enter them and take control. They have all the memories of the person they were, but none of their human emotions for the people they knew."

Draco stared at Angel and then at Buffy,

"So, you're a vampire and she's a vampire slayer. Why are you still alive?"

Both Buffy and Angel winced at that. Buffy was the one to speak, deciding to save Angel from having to talk about his soul and his curse,

"It's a long story."

Draco shrugged,

"Well, I don't much else to do and if you don't explain then I'll just end up asking questions I shouldn't."

Angel nodded,

"He's right Buffy. After what he did for us in not telling his father about me, he deserves the truth. Anyway, it's better this way."

Buffy nodded reluctantly,

"Okay, you can tell him. But don't blame me if anything happens."

Angel nodded,

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Draco stared at the two of them. He couldn't admit to having a clue about what was going on, but he knew that it was something big. Then Angel began to speak,

"I am a vampire and, when I was first made, I was just like every other vampire. I won't tell you what I've done, as you seem to have done excellent research into my actions as Angelus. You will then know what I was like as a vampire. But, about a hundred years ago, everything changed. I made the mistake of feeding off a Romany girl. She was about seventeen years old, maybe a bit younger. She wasn't exactly the cleverest girl I've ever met, but she was a favourite of her clan. They cursed me in punishment. They returned my soul and all my memories of what I'd done."

Draco interrupted him,

"What, were they all out of suppurating boils and oozes."

Angel shook his head,

"That kind of thing would have been a mercy in comparison. As a vampire you feel no compassion for the people you kill. They just become another meal. You feel nothing. The act of feeding, it's an amazing feeling if you have no compassion for the person you are feeding from. You have read about the kind of vampire that I was before I was cursed. And I was more than an ordinary vampire. I was a master vampire, unmatched in violence and brutality. I was one of the eldest members of one of the most powerful vampire clans on the planet. And I took delight in all the pain and torture, both mental and physical, that I perpetrated. I longed for it. I became a master in all aspects of torture. And I loved it, in the only way that vampires can love anything. I had only two passions, for blood and for my sire, the vampiress Darla. I killed everyone I had ever loved as a human and everyone that they loved. And then my soul was returned."

Angel stopped for a moment and Buffy wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his chest. His eyes were rimmed in crimson tears as he continued,

"They cursed me with my soul, with the human emotions I had lacked as a vampire. I had all the memories of how I had killed and tortured all the people I had loved, and anyone else who caught my attention. I had killed to feed and also because I just felt like it. I had drunk from the master of Clan Aurelius. My power was unimaginable; I rarely needed to feed at all. I killed because I wanted to, I killed because it gave me pleasure. I was given back a conscience and all my memories off the one hundred and fifty years I had been a vampire and I felt a human's grief for what I had done. Every person I had killed haunted me, and I had killed hundreds, maybe thousands, I don't know."

There was a pause and not just Draco was listening to Angel's words. Buffy and Angel had long since spoken of these events and feelings, but the Scoobies knew nothing of the true meaning of Angel's curse. Even Giles, with all his knowledge, knew nothing of the real consequences of the curse. Angel continued,

"I remembered killing the people who had found and raised me when I arrived in the past. I remembered the torture, everything I'd ever done. I went to America about eighty years ago, after the First World War. I had been in France before and had fought in the trenches, fought for both sides. I had tried to end the conflict, but there was nothing I could do. It was so, so senseless. There was nothing to be gained by the men who actually fought. I ran as far as I could, I stopped running in New York. I lived in an alley. I fed off rats, eating barely enough to stay alive. I think that by the end I was eating one rat a week. I don't know if you've ever seen what a vampire looks like if they don't feed. It's not pretty. I looked barely more than a corpse. Then he came."

Angel paused as Buffy swore softly under her breath, then he continued,

"I am perfectly aware of your feelings concerning Whistler, but he was the one who showed you to me. He told me that you were about to be called as the Slayer. He said that I had a greater destiny that what I had become. He said that my destiny was to help you, that your destiny was intertwined with mine, He said that I could redeem myself, that I could become someone. In the end I went with him, I followed Buffy. I lurked and watched her as she was called, I saw her come to terms with her destiny as the slayer. Then I followed her to Sunnydale. That was when I first introduced myself to her. Buffy found out what I was. Darla had come to Sunnydale for her sire, the Master. She found me there and tried to bring me back to her side. She tried to get me to kill Buffy. When she failed in that, she tried to kill Buffy herself. I killed her before she could do that. Then the master rose and killed Buffy. I couldn't do anything to help her. I had no breath to give her CPR. Xander did CPR and brought her back to life."

Buffy flinched at this part. She may have mostly recovered from her death, but it was still not something she particularly enjoyed talking about. But she wanted to talk about the next part of Angel's story even less. Angel continued, knowing that this part of the tale would be the hardest to tell,

"But, my curse was more complicated than I had suspected or ever imagined. If I were ever to experience a moment of true happiness, then my soul would be banished back to the aether. Angelus would return. I experienced that true happiness with the woman that I loved. My demon was in control once again. But it was more complicated than that. Angelus came back wrong. In the years of being suppressed by my soul, the demon had gone completely insane. I, he, did awful things, more than I would like to recount, then I tried to end the world. Buffy stopped me by sending me to the hell dimension that would have otherwise consumed the earth. But even then it was not that simple. There had been a woman from the clan of gypsies that had cursed me. She was attempting to perform the curse to return my soul. I killed her. But she had left the curse in her office. Willow found it and attempted to perform the curse on me. The curse was successful, but by the time it had been performed, it was too late. The vortex to the hell dimension was opening and killing me was the only way to close it. Time passes differently in that dimension and I spent five hundred years there before I was able to apparate out of it. It was not an easy feat to accomplish and one I never wish to attempt again. The magical backlash of this was what led Professor Dumbledore to me. After that, you know what happened."

There was complete silence in the room as Angel finished his tale. Those in the Scooby gang who hadn't known the complete story were just as shocked by it as Draco, who had known none of it. Buffy had wrapped her arms completely around Angel and was burrowed into his chest. There was a long moment before Draco spoke again,

"Well, that explains a lot. So, I'm guessing you're trying to find a way to make sure Angelus never comes back?"

Everyone nodded and Draco continued,

"Need any help?"

The weeks passed quickly after this. Draco did help the folks from Sunnydale try and find a solution to the curse problem, but there was no obvious one that any of them could see. Willow was making little progress with her translation of the original curse and their studies of the books provided no help except to inform them of the strength of the gypsy magic, which they already were all too aware of anyway.

Buffy felt helpless. They were making no progress and every day it was becoming harder to remind herself to stay away from Angel in that way. The temptation was getting stronger and she knew that it was only a matter of time before she gave in to it. She could only hope that Angel would be strong enough for both of them, otherwise it would be far too late for both of them.

In other ways they were also making little progress. She had moved on to the physical part of her teaching course and few of her students were making any progress whatsoever. A few were showing some talent, but they all relied far too much on their magic and their wands to make any real progress in defending themselves without the assistance of their magic.

However, things were not all as bad as they seemed. Willow was making huge leaps in her magical studies and her skills in Wiccan magic were also greatly improving. Oz had gone to talk to Professor Snape before the first full moon and the potion's master was now making him the potion that he required. This made full moons a lot easier for all of them.

Buffy just felt restrained, like nothing was happening. In her time as the slayer she knew this to be a sign that something big was about to happen and that it wasn't going to be good. The phrase, the calm before the storm seemed to be far too appropriate to think about at that time.

Then, one day, it happened.

Willow had been searching through her books, attempting, as always, to find a solution for Angel. The others lay around idly. Draco was doing a piece of Arithmancy homework, which Angel was assisting him with. Buffy was sharpening a stake while sitting on the couch. Oz was playing his guitar softly while Cordelia and Xander were making out. Giles was assisting Willow in the research.

Willow shrieked, making them all jump. She rose to her feet, clutching a book to her chest. She cried out,

"I've found something."

Everyone crowded around her, their lethargy instantly gone as the witch opened the book out in front of her and pointed out the passage she had been studying. There seemed to be little difference between this book and all the others, but Angel and Buffy studied the page intently. Willow explained what she had found out for the others, who could not see the book,

"Apparently, the curse the gypsies used on Angel the first time was a modified version of the curse. This was the curse I used as well. Apparently, Angel was not the first to be cursed, but the others had all dusted themselves as soon as they regained their memories of what they had done. This curse is the original one, the one that the gypsies based their curse upon. It contains no break clause and is easier to perform."

Angel and Buffy had finished reading and turned back to Willow,

"What's the catch?"

Willow stared at them, then turned back to the book,

"There doesn't appear to be any catch. It just says that this curse will return the soul to a vampire."

Angel sighed,

"There's the catch. I don't need my soul returned, I just need it bound, permanently."

Willow sighed,

"I see the problem. If we bound your soul to your body then your soul would remain behind after you died and that wouldn't be good."

The others groaned and made to turn back to what they were doing then Willow gasped,

"I know, if we contain you after getting rid of your soul, then we can simply just do this new curse on you then."

Buffy and Angel shook their heads and Angel said,

"No, I won't bring him back, not even for the time it takes to cast that spell, it's just too risky. There is a chance that he'd escape and that would be catastrophic for all of us. He's insane and the time in hell will have made him even more so that before. There had to be another way."

Buffy nodded in agreement with Angel,

"I agree. For one thing I don't know how we'd bring him back other than the perfect happiness thing. If there's no other way we might consider doing this, but it has to be only as a last resort."

Seeing that Buffy and Angel were in perfect agreement over this point, Willow sighed and returned to her books. There just had to be another way to do this.

It was a few days before the start of the Christmas holidays before the problems really began. They were all in the great hall having dinner when it happened. This was a few days after the incident when they had discovered the other curse and Buffy and Angel were still adamant about only using it as a last resort.

Tension was still high amongst the group as Buffy and Angel found it more and more difficult to keep away from each other. Draco didn't understand as much of what was going on, but he made sure that he didn't interfere or get in the way of any of the arguments that Buffy and Angel were having.

Those arguments were becoming all the more frequent now. The tension between the two was obvious and painful for all those who got in their way. They sat apart at dinner now, the tension between them making it too difficult for them to sit next to each other without fighting over something. There were now sitting as far away from each other as possible at the staff table.

The doors swung open, slamming against the walls of the great hall. The students screamed in fear as twenty vampires entered the hall; game faces to the fore. Buffy and Angel were on their feet in an instant. They worked flawlessly together, their movements co-ordinated entirely. They had staked fifteen vampires by the time another figure appeared in the doorway.

Buffy and Angel looked up at the figure and gasped. The figure was all too familiar to both of them. He was not very tall and was very slim. He was dressed in black jeans and a black silk shirt. Over this he wore a black leather duster similar to the one Angel was wearing. He had peroxide blond hair spiked up off his head. His cheekbones were so defined as to appear almost blade-like in his pale face.

The figure smirked as he saw Buffy and Angel. He opened his mouth to display long fangs. His eyes were demonic amber and his face was contorted into demonic features. He spoke, his voice a sneer,

"And if it isn't Peaches and Fluffy the Vampire Layer."

Angel growled at this and started towards his grande-childe. Spike groaned,

"Oh, wonderful. You've got a bloody soul again. I don't want to have to tell Dru about this."

Most of the people in the hall were confused as Angel approached Spike and stood in front of him. The two were so similar yet so much each other's opposite. Angel was dressed in a black leather duster, leather pants and a carmine velvet shirt. They both wore black boots and dusters, but the similarities stopped there.

Then Angel's face morphed into his demonic visage and more screams echoed around the hall. Buffy sensed that Angel and Spike were just about to start to fight, she stalked up to the two snarling, growling vampires. She stood in between them and glared at both of them.

"Angel, that is quite enough. Spike, I thought I made it perfectly clear that I never wanted to see your face again?"

Spike shrugged.

"Don't blame me, Slayer. You said I could never go back to Sunnyhell and I didn't. It's not like I thought you would be here."

Then the blonde vampire saw the others from Sunnydale,

"Oh, great, the whole gang's here. Anyway, aren't you supposed to be rotting in hell, Peaches?"

Angel growled,

"That's none of your business boy. Why are you here then?"

Spike smirked,

"Oh, Dru went back to that Moldy guy. I'm with him as well 'cause Dru said I'm not demon enough for her. She's sleeping with some chaos demon. After everything I did for her. We're here to kill some kid named Harry Potter. I came along so I could cause some merry mayhem as well. Anyway, hand over the bloody idiot and we can all go back to our normal unlives."

Angel smirked,

"You have no idea, boy. I am Harry Potter."

Spike would have paled if that were possible. Two of his henchmen were sneaking closer to the three and Buffy whirled, a stake in each hand. She watched the two vampires approaching and then ran forward. The vamps came towards her, one on each side. She held out the two stakes and slammed one into the heart of each vampire. Two clouds of dust surrounded her.

The other three minions approached her then and she somersaulted backwards. She came down on top of one and placed her hand in his hair. She pulled his head right off of his body, causing him to explode into a cloud of dust. The other two paused, slightly shocked by the brutality of this display. Buffy ran forward towards them, pulling a knife out of its sheath at the base of her spine. She span towards them, a whirl of living death. She sliced the knife down the first henchman's arm and the limb smoked as the vampire screamed. The holy water she had soaked the knife in burned the vampires flesh. She brought the knife up and sliced through the vampire's thick neck. The flesh burned as the vampire screamed. Then the head was off and the vampire's screams stopped as he turned into a cloud of dust. Buffy turned to the only remaining henchman. The vampire turned and tried to run from her.

She brought a stake up to her side and ran towards the vamp. She caught up with him easily, the vampire had obviously only recently been turned. She slammed the stake straight into the vampire's unbeating heart. The final fledgling turned into just another cloud of dust. Buffy smirked,

"Dust to dust, ashes to ashes. In the end, they're always just another cloud of dust."

Spike turned and fled from the hall, slamming the doors shut behind him. Buffy turned to Angel,

"Do you reckon he'll tell Voldemort?"

Angel shrugged,

"He might. Or he might just take Dru off somewhere until she agrees to sleep with him again. It all depends. It doesn't really matter that much now. The secret's out. Good idea with the holy water on the knife by the way."

Buffy shrugged,

"It seemed to be a good idea at the time. I was getting board and had no stakes to sharpen. I thought I might as well. Oh, and you can change back now."

Angel looked slightly sheepish as his face returned to its human visage. The hall was in silence for a long moment before everyone started screaming. All except a few of the Gryffindors and one ex-Slytherin.

Then the hall doors swung open once again. In walked Minister Fudge, flanked by Professor Umbridge and some Ministry officials that Angel didn't recognise. Professor Umbridge was smirking so much that she looked like an overgrown toad. Then Angel flinched. He fell to one knew as he heard all his worst memories. This was a feeling that was far too familiar to him, yet it had been centuries since he had felt it.

Six dementors swept into the room. Angel looked to one side and saw that Buffy was panting and had fallen to her knees beside him. Minister Fudge spoke then,

"Angelus, you are under arrest for multiple cases of murder, first degree. You will be subjected to the Dementor's kiss immediately."

TBC…

AN: CLIFFHANGER, I'M EVIL. EVIL EVIL EVIL EVIL IS WHAT I AM. CIAO.