Thanks Brutal2003, ManiacPlea, and becks89 for being my first reviewers. I thought it might be interesting to make Hermione a slayer. And don't worry the rest of the scooby gang will be in this fic. You didn't think I would forget them would you? Anyway I am working on the romantic pairings. I only know for sure that Hermione and Ron are gonna get together. They make such a cute couple. As for the others, well I am open to suggestions from readers.
The lobby of the Hyperion, so silent one moment, was now filled with the chattering voices of dozens of battle-weary teenaged girls. Now that the battle of the hellmouth was all over, they were succumbing to the flush and frenzy only victory can bring with a healthy dose of solemnity for their fallen comrades and the wounded in the hospital.
Angel searched over his lobby to find a particular petite blonde. If his heart could beat, it would have been beating furiously in anxiousness over his former lover. He sighed in relief when he spotted the young woman he had been looking for. He immediately walked over to engulf her in a tight hug.
"Um, Angel, it's good to know that you're happy to see me, but one: I need to breathe, and two: I was sorta skewered in the stomach," she said as she patted him on the back.
"Oh, sorry. Are you okay?" he asked anxiously.
"I'll live. Right now I'm going the same track as I did when I blew up the school. Fire bad; tree pretty. Or I guess it would be like big huge crater bad; solid ground pretty. There wasn't much fire this time around," she quipped.
Wesley, Gunn, and Fred were helping the girls unload their weapons and were working on getting them rooms. All three of them were looking quite hassled at the amount of work they had to do when normally they didn't get much business at all.
"So do you want to tell me all that happened now or do you want to get some sleep?" Angel asked Buffy.
She sucked in some air and walked over to a couch in the lobby and sat down. Angel followed her, thinking that whatever news she was about to give him wouldn't be good judging by the sober expression upon her lovely face. It was sort of ironic that she sat upon the same couch Willow had been sitting on when she had come as the bearer of the news of Buffy's death.
"You should know, that amulet thing you gave me, Spike used it. He destroyed the hellmouth and pretty much saved the world." Her voice was carefully controlled, but Angel could sense the strong emotion behind it.
Angel then noticed that Captain Peroxide was not among the group. He glanced at the doors to the Hyperion and saw Willow walk through with her arms around Xander whose face carried the familiar signs of grief. He had a feeling Spike wasn't the reason for his pain.
Buffy answered his unasked question, "Anya's status has been moved from MIA to KIA. She died saving Andrew's life."
"Oh." He had no idea who Andrew was and only met Anya twice, therefore her death didn't cause him too much grief, but he felt sympathy for the guy just the same.
"We had gone down into the hellmouth and the First had a nice little army of Ubervamps for us. We fought them until the amulet started acting up and then hightailed it out of there. We lost a lot of girls in this fight. And Sunnydale is no longer on the map," she told him levelly.
"I don't understand. You took a bunch of potentials and had them fight against Turok-Hans? How did so many manage to survive? They don't-"
Buffy cut him off, "Didn't. They didn't have the power of the slayer, but now they do. Thanks to Willow and my wicked cool scythe that I King Arthured out of stone. She used it to activate all potentials."
It took a minute for that information to process in his brain. Was she telling him what he thought she was telling him?
"You mean every girl that could be a slayer is now a slayer?" he asked incredulously.
"Yep, we changed the rules. And I like these much better than the ones those stupid men made up thousands of years ago," she muttered.
"Wow. So where is Faith? She made it through right?" he inquired worriedly.
"She's at the hospital with the wounded. She said she didn't mind sleeping in the waiting room. I, for one, am sick of them," she said.
"I'll get you a room and you can get some rest." He stood up and he and Buffy walked over to where Wesley was conversing with Giles and an auburn-haired girl with a black duffel bag slung over her shoulder he didn't know. They abruptly stopped their conversation when Angel and Buffy approached.
Buffy winced when she looked at Jordan. "Remind me again why I didn't make you go to the hospital?"
"Seriously Buffy, I'm fine. I think I could get used to being a slayer," Jordan replied.
Angel noticed that the girl was eyeing him with apprehension and a bit of intrigue. He began to feel nervous under her scrutinizing gaze.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"Angelus, the Scourge of Europe," she stated. "Pretty bad deal with the soul, eh? I mean, for you. Definitely not for us."
"How did you know?" Buffy asked in amazement.
"My watcher told me all about him and Dawn filled me in on the rest," Jordan said nonchalantly. "Oh, by the way, she told me to tell you that she already went to bed," she added.
Buffy was still staring at Jordan with a strange expression on her face. There was something really strange about this girl, but Buffy just couldn't put her finger on it. Then she shook her head.
"I'm going to bed. My brain is starting to fall asleep," she told them.
After Buffy left, Angel decided to head over to the hospital to check on Faith and the other girls. Wesley waited until Angel was out of earshot before he turned his attention back to Jordan.
"Now you need a room with a fireplace, am I correct? I don't know much about your world so why is it that the fireplace is important," he asked.
"I need it to floo to my family's manor. I promised them that I would go there as soon as this conflict was over. They probably already know about the hellmouth being reduced to a big sinkhole, which means I have to get to them pronto before they start freaking out," Jordan explained.
"Where do you live?" Wesley asked.
"Katsmorn, it's an all Wizard town in Montana. My family lives on the outskirts of it in the mountains," she told them.
"Yes, of course. Wesley and I will escort you to a room where you can use a fireplace." Giles took her by the arm and gestured for Wesley to lead the way.
Wesley led them to a medium sized room with a small fireplace. Jordan set her stuff down and appraised the thing with a frown.
"Jeez, that's it? I thought it'd be bigger," she remarked, wondering how she would fit.
"Do you need a fire to be lit?" Wesley asked.
"Yeah, let me get my floo powder out," She unzipped her bag and sorted through its contents until she pulled out a small box. "Here it is."
Wesley was able to get a small fire going and Jordan immediately opened the box and threw the powder onto the flames. The flames changed from orange to bright green much to Wesley and Giles' surprise.
"Remarkable," the two Englishmen commented simultaneously.
Jordan heard them and turned her head to them. "Okay, that was freaky." She then just dismissed it with a shrug and said,"I'll be back as soon as I can. You can humor Buffy and tell her I finally went to the hospital or whatever."
With her black duffel bag secured on her shoulder she stepped into the flames and the two men were shocked to see that she didn't get burned at all. She waved at them and uttered the words, "Firewell Manor, Katsmorn!" and then she was gone.
Wesley and Giles stood there, still as stones, in the middle of the room. Their eyes were wide with wonder.
"Em, can I get you a cup of tea, Rupert?" Wesley offered.
"Yes, thank you," Giles replied absently.
As luck would have it, Ron's owl, Pig, showed up only two hours after Hermione drafted the letter to Professor Dumbledore. He twittered about her room while she wrote a hasty response to Ron's letter, which was something about his brothers, Fred and George, trying out their products on the garden gnomes.
She added that she had to borrow his owl to send a message off. She was very lax in the details of whom she was sending the message off to or what it contained. Knowing Ron, he would probably grumble and complain about her using his owl to send a letter off toViktor Krum. That boy could be awfully presumptuous at times.
Hermione managed to grab hold of Pig and tie the two letters on to his leg. It was a difficult feat normally, but she snatched him out of midair effortlessly and held him down just as easily. She did not allow herself to think too much on that.
"Now I want you to get to Professor Dumbledore first and then go to Ron," she instructed the tiny owl.
He hooted in response and flew out her window.
With that taken care of she went downstairs to get something to eat. Her parents had left earlier to go to work, leaving Hermione alone in the large house with her thoughts. Normally, being left alone with her thoughts didn't bother her. She often enjoyed it from time to time. There was nothing like curling up with a good book or getting a head start on schoolwork. But with her disturbing dreams from last night and the possibility that she just might be more than a witch was enough to make her head spin. Now she had to wait for what would probably be an agonizingly long time for Dumbledore's response.
"This is madness. I shall drive myself crazy if I don't do something to ease my mind," she said to herself.
Why not put your little theory to the test? A small voice in her head whispered slyly to her.
That actually would be a good idea, but she wasn't sure she really wanted to know the truth. Deep down she knew that she was the Slayer. After all, she was not the brightest girl in all of Hogwarts without something to show for it. After reading about the Chosen One and finding her symptoms matched accordingly, the truth was glaringly obvious. She could feel the strength coursing throughout her entire body. Her blood seemed to hum with the new power. It was just that she didn't want to face the truth.
All she wanted to do was just graduate from Hogwarts and get a decent job, possibly working to free house elves or something like that. Slaying demons and vampires wasn't exactly the most appealing occupation to her. And then there was that pesky little shortened life span that accompanied every slayer.
Oh sure, she had been placed in her fair share of dangerous situations, but it came with the territory of being friends with Harry Potter. She didn't want to go out and look for fights. And then there was Ron. Her face flushed whenever she thought of him and her blood would practically sing. Sweet, annoying, handsome, clueless Ron. Lately she had been getting some rather more than friendly feelings about him. If she was now the Slayer, a relationship would be almost impossible. She wouldn't have long to live and it could put him in danger.
You don't even know if he feels the same way for you though. Hermione sighed wistfully. Life just wasn't fair.
"Might as well get this over with," she muttered.
She began brainstorming different ways to prove to herself that she was the Slayer. She didn't think jumping off her balcony to see if she could withstand the impact without serious injury was a very good idea. That sounded like something a boy would do. So, she settled on testing the strength factor. She ventured outside and made her way to a stone bench that she knew took at least two men to lift. She stood before it, silently studying it with her sharp brown eyes while mentally preparing herself for what she was about to discover.
Hermione clapped her hands together and then gripped the bench. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath,and then wrenched it up into the air. It took a minute for it to sink it until she sat the thing back down. Then she sat on it and put her head between her knees. I just lifted that stone bench all by myself. And it didn't even feel heavy! She just sat there in the same position to allow blood to rush back into her brain. After the bells stopped clanging she sat up and the same thought kept running through her head. What happens next?
I just wanted to add as a forewarning, I plan on getting rid of Kennedy because I loathe her with a burning passion. Willow can do so much better. Sorry to those that like her.