Whoo-hoo lucky number 13! Matthew pointed out to me that knuts is actually pronounced k-nuts, which is lame. I don't even remember them going over it in the movies. Anyway, let's just pretend that it is actually pronounced without the "k"; it's funnier that way. I'm sorry it took me a while to update, but I aced all my exams (I think) and now I got a big five day weekend. Thanks a bunch to my reviewers!
gyver21: You're perfectly welcome to use that way of getting rid of Kennedy. I'll take a gander at your fic and tell you what I think.
ScruffyWes: Yeah I think Hermione and Ron do make more sense as a pair and I'm glad you like the Harry and Dawn sparks. Draco will still be a bad boy throughout most of this fic because it takes time to change. Don't worry you'll see more Wesley and the rest of the Angel gang. Just have to wait a couple of chapters.
A Watcher: Yeah cliffhangers are fun to write, not so much fun to read though.
CaptJesus: Don't worry, lots more Aidan to come and I hope you enjoy the chapters to come as well.
dancetdplc: Well I'm definitely not one to judge who is going crazy or not cuz I'm a little not with it myself, but I am pretty sure this is leading towards a Willow/Tonks pairing. Glad you liked the last line, I thought we could use a jinx.
becks89: Hehe, you'll just have to scroll down to read and find out.
Xan: I'm glad you were open-minded enough to give it a shot and I'm delighted to see I proved you wrong.
NoAlias: Sorry, hope this helps.
matt: Like I said above Willow and Tonks are probably going to hook up. Nice to see you liked the t-shirt and jinx thing.
Thanks also to Silver Warrior and CF28 for reviewing. Enjoy!
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The screams emanating from outside their private room made the hairs on the back of Harry's neck rise. His mind instantly started making all kinds of theories as to what was causing the screams. The scariest one was that Voldemort and his Death Eaters had done some locator spell and were going to kill him and all those around him. Despite his morbid thoughts earlier, he didn't want to die. Not yet. And his friends (new and old) were in here. So as Buffy opened the door a crack to see what was causing the problem he prayed over and over, Please don't be him. Please don't be him.
The blonde slayer saw before her eyes a pack of at least twelve demons in the restaurant. They were of all different shapes, sizes, and species, but they all looked equally ugly to her. The customers and employees screaming and running about in a panic provided a sufficient distraction from Buffy and her friends, but it wouldn't last long. She shut the door and turned to the rest of the group.
"Demons. You guys have to get out of here," she told them.
Harry breathed a barely audible sigh of relief. He had never seen nor faced a demon before, but anything to him was better than Voldemort.
"How many?" Giles asked.
"Twelve give or take. I didn't take time to count. Willow, Giles, I want you two with me. The rest of you get back to Headquarters. Can one of you magic people-"
She was cut off due to a bloodcurdling shriek from Ginny as a demon came plowing through the kitchen doors behind them. Mr. Weasley instantly covered his daughter protectively and tried to stun the demon, but it was too fast for him and swatted him aside. He flew across the room and crashed into the wall with a sickening thud.
"Dad!" Ron cried.
Buffy was about to tackle the demon when the door leading into the main part of the restaurant burst open and she was thrown forward into the room. She put her arms out in front of her and somersaulted back to her feet. Once on her feet she attacked the demon that had Ginny cowering in a corner. She heard the three Aurors yelling out numerous words and phrases that she didn't understand so they must've been spells. Good more firepower.
Before Harry knew what was happening he was pushed under the table by Tonks and she and the other two Aurors stood in front of him while hurling various hexes at the demons. What about the others? Why was he the only one under the table? What about Dawn?
Dawn, at the moment was fighting at Jordan's side. Well, Jordan was doing most of the fighting, but Dawn threw in a well-aimed punch or kick every now and then. The number of demons had been reduced somewhat thanks to the magical efforts of Willow and the Aurors, but the remaining ones had wised up and were now trying to disable those four while dodging any curses that came their way. Some curses even bounced off of them harmlessly.
"Dawn! Heads up!" Jordan yelled.
Dawn ducked to avoid the swing taken at her by a bluish-green demon with claws. The species name of the demon floated around in the back of her mind, but as of right now she didn't care what it was. Jordan kicked its legs out from under it and when it fell to the floor she wrapped her arms around its neck and gave it a good twist. She heard the satisfying snap of the neck and let it fall completely to the floor.
"Gotta love that slayer strength," she remarked breathlessly.
Harry watched in mute fascination coupled with horror at the spectacle of two teenage girls killing a demon twice their size. Is that what Hermione is capable of? He scanned the room for his best friends.
Hermione didn't exactly know what she was doing. Her mind was telling her to duck and cover, but her body begged to differ. Something Jordan had said about letting slayer instinct take over had come to her mind when the demons attacked. Granted she had no prior training in any type of martial arts, but her body seemed to know what to do well enough. It seemed that she had ceased being Hermione, the teacher's pet, the bookworm, and had let herself become someone completely different. A slayer. When one of the demons had come towards her and Ron, she gritted her teeth and stepped between her best friend and the demon and before it even saw it coming she had picked up one of the chairs and swung it around to hit the demon square in the chest. The force of the blow threw it halfway across the room. Ron's jaw dropped at that display of power.
"Hermione, that-"
"Not now Ron," she ordered sternly.
She grabbed onto his sleeve and they went over to Ginny who was kneeling by her father's still form.
"He's alive, but he's going to have a nasty headache when he wakes up," Ginny told them. They all let out collective sighs of relief.
He watched his friends beside the unconscious man's body and could no longer stand staying under the table. He had to know if Mr. Weasley was alright. He bolted from where the Aurors had made him stay and quickly ran to his best friends' sides.
"Is he alright?" Harry asked anxiously.
"Yeah. I think. He's alive anyway," Ron replied.
"You think they need any help out there?" Harry asked him.
"I think they know what they're doing," his best friend said.
"Just the same. Wands out, I reckon?" Harry said.
Ron, Ginny, and Hermione nodded their heads in agreement and pulled their wands out.
Giles, Aidan, and Xander were taking on two demons together. Both of the older men were very surprised at the amount of skill the boy showed. He apparently had not been left in the cold while his sister trained. Aidan had been completely paralyzed with fear when the first demon burst through. He had always pictured himself battling bravely and ferociously against the evils of this world alongside his twin. But, having never before seen a demon in the flesh let alone kill one, he had completely forgot all about his previous fantasies and only one thought entered his mind, Run away! He swallowed that fear when he watched his sister fight a demon. He had trained with her, sparred with her (even winning on occasion), but he had never seen her truly fight. This was his first glimpse of it and it gave him a sorely needed confidence booster. He threw himself completely into his training and unleashed hell upon his foes.
"Whoa Jordan! Check out your brother! He's totally waling on those demons!" Dawn exclaimed.
Jordan couldn't help but let out a proud grin as she watched her twin brother pummel a demon. In her mind she kept chanting, Yeah, that's my brother! Doesn't he kick ass?! Unfortunately the scene had distracted Jordan from her own fight and the demon took the opportunity to grab her arm and twist it around into a rather painful position. Another snapping sound that was not as satisfying as the last she heard filled Jordan's ears. Oh God, please don't let that be my arm. That plea was in vain, however, as the pain finally registered. Damn. The demon flung her onto the table and she rolled off of it and onto the floor in front of Harry and his friends.
"Jordan?!" Hermione exclaimed.
The auburn-haired slayer gave them a weak smile.
"Hi guys. Just checking in," she said between winces of pain.
"Where's Dawn?" Harry asked.
Jordan's eyes widened and she tried to get up but her arm greatly protested the movement.
"She was fighting beside me," she said.
Harry stood up and saw that the demon had its slimy hands wrapped around Dawn's neck and it was strangling her. He aimed his wand, not even caring about the consequences he could suffer, and was prepared to hex the demon when Buffy came to the rescue. She kicked it so hard in the gut that it doubled over and dropped Dawn. Mr. Firewell darted forward and helped Dawn. His sleeve was ripped and his arm was bleeding. Tonks and Mrs. Firewell were also pretty bruised up themselves.
"Is she okay?" Harry inquired with worry.
"I'm fine," Dawn said in a raspy voice as she rubbed her throat. "Is Jordan alright?"
"I'm just peachy. I, uh, can't move the fingers on my left hand though. Good thing I'm a righty," Jordan smiled through the throbbing twinges of agony that were assaulting her left arm.
Mr. Firewell knelt beside his daughter and carefully lifted her broken arm. He prodded it and felt for a break.
"Ow! Dad! It's broken! I kind of figured that out with the snapping sound and all," she cried as she tried to pull her arm out of her father's hands.
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Instead of killing the demon that had almost taken her sister from her, Buffy had Willow do a binding spell on it so she could question it. The other eleven demons lay either unconscious or dead around the room. Luckily none of the humans of the room suffered any casualties. Even so, when demons attack you right before you eat dinner and thus postpone your dinner making you even hungrier than you were it tends to piss you off.
"Start talking. I wanna know what you guys were doing here," Buffy said, her voice serious and hard.
The demon was gray in color with black eyes, and eight fingers on each hand. Its head was composed of a gaping mouth with broken, blunted teeth, a flat circular nose, and a huge bump on the top of its head. It looked at the slayer and gave off a sound that sounded like a laugh.
"Slayer. You're not welcome here. More will come to kill you and yours if you stay. Go back to the states where you belong," it snarled in its guttural voice.
"How did you know she was the slayer before?" Willow asked.
"I won't tell you anything except to go home or die. This isn't your business," it said.
Mrs. Firewell aimed her wand at the demon.
"Do you work for Voldemort?" she asked.
The demon didn't answer her but gave off another laugh. Buffy gripped its neck and squeezed hard, cutting off its air supply.
"You're a demon, I'm a slayer. Ergo completely my business," she hissed.
She turned to the other adults.
"Buffy we need to get the kids back to Headquarters. Jordan needs her arm taken care of and Mr. Weasley needs tended to," Giles said.
"Can one of you get them back with one of those portkey things?" she asked the Aurors.
"Yeah. Tonks can go with them and I can take the surviving demons in for questioning. It's possible that they might be in league with Voldemort, which counts as Auror business. My wife will stay to clean up and erase memories," Mr. Firewell told her.
"Has Voldemort worked with demons before?" Willow asked.
"He's been known to," Tonks replied.
"What I want to know is how they knew Buffy was the slayer. That can't be of the good," Xander pointed out.
"More reason to believe that they're working with Voldemort. He could've sent them after you," Mr. Firewell said.
"If Voldemort knows who I am then why didn't he just come himself?" she asked.
"Buffy we don't even know it's Voldemort they're working for," Giles said.
Buffy sighed in frustration. If this dark wizard already knew who she was then he was turning out to be a bigger problem than she thought. If this was the work of some other evil power then that was just as bad. She was pretty sure this all had something to do with Voldemort. Since she was now an ally of Dumbledore and a defender of Harry Potter she probably had already made it on his "people to kill" list. Thankfully it seemed Voldemort didn't know much about Buffy personally to think a pack of demons was enough to take her out.
Tonks charmed one of the silver platters on the table into a portkey and everyone gathered around it. Aidan kept a secure hold on his sister whose arm was now immobilized thanks to her mother. Xander and Giles lifted Mr. Weasley's unconscious form and carried him to the table. Mr. Firewell had contacted some other Aurors to help bring in the demons and assist his wife in the aftermath cleanup.
Ginny was shaking uncontrollably as she reached out to touch the platter. Ron put a reassuring arm around his younger sister.
"It's okay Ginny. Dad'll be fine. Mum will fix him up right quick," he told her. She gulped and nodded.
When they got back to Headquarters they found the house mostly empty. Mrs. Weasley was in the kitchen making supper while Dumbledore spoke with a man dressed in black robes with very greasy hair and dark, cold eyes. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Tonks knew it was Professor Snape. Introductions weren't made yet for the others, however, because Mrs. Weasley shrieked in horror when she saw the state of the group.
"Arthur! Merlin's beard! What happened!?" she cried as she ran over to where Xander and Giles were carrying Mr. Weasley.
"Demons attacked us at a restaurant in the city," Jordan explained as Aidan helped her into a chair.
"Demons?! Oh my! Ron, Ginny are you okay? Harry? Hermione?" Mrs. Weasley pulled her children into a suffocating hug.
"They're fine Mrs. Weasley," Tonks said in a soothing tone.
"Who's your friend?" Buffy asked Dumbledore while gesturing to Snape.
"Severus Snape. He is the Potions professor at Hogwarts and will be instructing your sister there," Dumbledore told her.
"Buffy Summers," she held out her hand to the man.
He looked at her hand in what could almost be called disdain and then reluctantly took it.
"I know who you are Miss Summers. Professor Dumbledore had been telling me all about you and your work," he said in an oily, ominous voice.
After Mr. Weasley had finally awakened and Jordan had her broken arm treated they all recounted the event while eating dinner. They never did get to eat at that restaurant thanks to the demons. Dumbledore seemed troubled by the notion of Voldemort already knowing about Buffy. He frowned many times during the story and stroked his beard thoughtfully.
"Do you think it's possible he already knows about me?" Buffy asked.
"It is indeed possible. Voldemort has many loyal followers and allies with many manners of powers and connections," Dumbledore told her.
"Isn't that just our luck? We get another enemy who seems to know everything," Xander muttered.
"Do not worry Mr. Harris. It is possible that that may be all Voldemort knows. As long as you all stay within the boundaries of the Wizarding world this should not happen again. I daresay he will try something more drastic next time if killing you and yours was his intention," Dumbledore told them.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Jordan asked.
"It means he could have just been testing Buffy out. Seeing how good she was," Aidan said.
Dawn yawned while they debated the point over and over. She had barely gotten any sleep the night before and this day had been exhausting. Demon fighting on top of all day shopping. She and Jordan would be going to Hogwarts tomorrow and she didn't fancy being a zombie in the morning for it. Dumbledore must've noticed how tired she and the others were because he raised his hand to silence the room.
"Perhaps we can continue the discussion some other time. I believe you all should get some rest. I will tell the other Order members what happened although they may already know from Mr. and Mrs. Firewell," he said.
"Yes! To bed all of you!" Mrs. Weasley ordered.
Ron and Ginny were too tired to argue, as was the rest of the group. So they all wearily trudged up to their rooms.
"Where'd you learn to fight like that mate?" Ron asked Aidan.
"I trained with my sister since we were eight. Although that was the first time I ever fought a demon," he replied.
"Blimey. Gonna have to learn some of that stuff," Ron said quietly. "What about you Harry? Harry?"
Harry was already snoring into his pillow.
Jordan lay awake long after her three roommates had fallen asleep. The events of today and the troubling things they had spoken about with Dumbledore had kept the sleep at bay. Mrs. Weasley had done a pretty effective healing spell on her arm, but it was still sore. She chided herself for getting distracted in battle. That was one thing she would have to work on. Mandy had always scolded her on it. Focus on the battle Jordan. You are too easily distracted. Try and act like you do when you read a book or make a potion. Which didn't help much because when she did those things she was pretty much in her own little world and didn't respond to anyone. That was why Aidan was able to best her in sparring matches sometimes. Although seeing him fight that demon like a pro made her feel a lot better about losing to him in previous matches. He was a formidable opponent.
Her thoughts strayed from her twin back to Voldemort. She didn't want to think about him right now. He gave her cold sweats. The First she could handle because it was incorporeal and couldn't physically hurt you. But Voldemort was a whole other story. She couldn't understand how Harry and his friends survived the Ministry skirmish against him those few weeks ago. Of course no one would have ever thought a bunch of teenage girls could hold back thousands of Ubervamps. What were they going to do about all those slayers out there not yet found? Did Voldemort know about all the newly called slayers too? For hers and their sake Jordan sincerely hoped not.