Chapter Five. Family
Author: emptyfirefly
Summary: With her father's abandonment leaving fresh tears in her eyes, Buffy sets out to find the family that she never knew. But what she'll find in this journey goes far past blood kin, but to respect for life, pain, and understanding when the triumph is complete. Perhaps while defeating a baddy along the way!
Rating: PG13
Timeline wise: Just after "Dead Man's Party" in Season 3 of Buffy, and after book 4, the book 5 stuff is yet to happen!
Spoilers: Season 2, some for future seasons, on Harry Potter anything before book 5, however I am ripping the book to shreds; don't rely on anything!
Warnings: Violence, bit of language
Pairings: Buffy/Weasly(but which one. Which one.) Xander/Cordy, Willow/Oz, Ron/Hermione, Harry/wouldn't you like to know?
Disclaimer: Don't own anything but the plot (which rocks, by the way)
Reviews:
Jess S1:Hi emptyli'firefly!
Not bad so far. A little slow, but it's pretty interesting. I can't wait to see what happens next... If you haven't already decided which Weasley Buffy is going to end up with, I would prefer to see Buffy with one of the older brothers; Bill (if he's not with Fleur), Charlie or Percy. I like the twins, but most people can't write a good pairing with one of them because they don't like to differentiate between the two that much. And I'm a big Ron/Hermione fan, so that's out! But if you've already decided, shrugs I'm sure it'll be interesting, I just thought that I'd add my two cents. I'll be waiting for an update! Bye for now!
Jess S
Caz92: good story love it you gotta update asap
liit06: great chapter. i like charlie to be paired with buffy. happy writing
VaMpEdChiK: i love it! i think buffy would have to be with one of the twins or even charlie at most cause there closest to her age. or are her age. just not percy is all i ask lol. he can be her friend n all i dont care but just not a romance interest lol. thanks, update soon please, -Amber
Just Me Prime: Glad to have two new chapters, hope your problem is fixed now or close to it. Loved the chapters, especially how she reacted to Snape, i wondered how she was going to meet the Weasley's, good idea to have her stay with them for a month, love the hint at who she will be paired with, we just have to wait and see which one of the two it will be.Oh and the line Giles said "I was an arsehole to everyone back then if I remember rightly." has to be the best way anyone has ever summed up his past. Can't wait for more.
war90:good story looking forward to your next chapter.
Allen Pitt:This is giving Snape a long time to think about the implications, and realize who she probably is... one would think he wouldn't just wait passively for Buffy to return from the Weaseleys. I have to feel sorry for him, she'll be hearing about how awful he is from the W's... On the other hand, picture her in a class, going "Ok, Uncle Sevvy!" to every assignment . It'd creep out the entire class... One would think Ron would hate her instantly, if he knew about the relationship, same for the Trio; add in secrets (being the slayer) and they'd be very suspicious of her...
Toniboo:hey - great chap! i think it shud be a buffy/bill pairin, i didnt like him with fleur in the latest HP book! please update soon
Empty'lilfirefly: Thanks for reviewing guys! Sorry I took so long! I lost my… groove? Anyway, this next bit should make all of you very mwhahaha… interested! Anyway, keep reading, it should get interesting some time soon!
It took only a second before they appeared outside a shabby, but none-the-less cute, house. However it took Buffy a moment to notice this because she was busy losing her balance and falling over. Arthur let go of her shoulders to allow her to recuperate.
Buffy shook her head slightly to clear the confusion, than paused to look around her. She knew that she was in England because the countryside looked English-y, but besides that it was like nothing she'd ever seen before. In LA and Sunnydale everyone had miniature yards and boring houses, but here it was a big cottage surrounded by rolling hills and shrubbery.
"Woah." she whispered, and Arthur smothered a chuckle.
"Welcome, Buffy, to the Burrow."
He then lead her closer to 'the burrow' while she wondered at the name. There was a slight rustle and Buffy whipped around to see a gnome-like creature. It lightly growled at her and she dropped into a fighting stance, experience had taught her that you COULD nearly die from short things (or puppets).
Arthur smiled and dragged her up to the house, "It's just a garden gnome. They're such funny little creatures aren't they?"
Buffy looked back at the swearing potato-like thing, and bit a giggle. "Yeah, such… funny little creatures!"
The inside of the house was in a word; wicked cool (okay, two words). Inanimate objects were doing their own work, everything was quaint, and all over the house Buffy could hear people killing themselves laughing.
It was at that moment that seven people chose to storm into the room. At the head of the pack was a woman about Arthur's age, who was ordering the rest about.
"Now, if I hear one rude joke, or see one practical one, I'm talking to you two especially," she pointed her finger at a pair of identical twins who were attempting to look innocent, "then you won't go to Grimmauld at all!" She paused in her yelling for a moment, but none of the group looked around to see Buffy and Arthur standing right there.
With that she turned around and let out a minor yell in surprise when she saw Buffy staring at the group in confusion. The other six, all redheads, did start slightly, but besides that reminded mostly composed.
It didn't take long for the woman to get over it though, "Ah, dear, you must be Buffy Summers! I'm Molly Weasley, but feel free to call me Molly!" She held out her hand and shook the slightly dazed Slayer's hand.
There was once again a small pause before Molly gave the group a frown and they all sat at the table that had just set itself for lunch.
"These are our children, well most of them," Molly's face grew sad for a moment, so one of the identical twins interrupted.
"The other's one's Percy the Prat! Of course, George and myself take all the credit for making him leave."
Said 'George' nodded but continued shovelling food onto his plate, while the younger girl looked up angrily. "Hey! Who was it that told everyone about his girlfriend a few years ago? And who 'accidentally' burnt his report on cauldrons? Who-"
"Ginny! You were the one that did that?" The next youngest, from the looks of it, exclaimed, pride enveloping his features.
Molly rolled her eyes slightly and pointed out a seat for Buffy. It was in between the two eldest guys. Buffy took it quietly, and listened to the interesting chatter; it was nice to not be the centre of attention.
"Hey, I'm Bill Weasley," the one with longer hair and a fang earring explained, shaking her hand.
"Buffy Summers."
"Yeah, we heard! So, how was your "summer" before you came to visit us?"
Buffy gave the appropriate giggle, but thought about the question; lonely, Hell-ish, fighting, can't go back, no school, no friends, no family, no hope, only herself. "Okay. 'Here' is something of an improvement!"
Bill nodded understandingly while the guy on her other side tapped her arm lightly and held out his hand. "Hey, I'm Charlie! It's lovely to have you on board."
Buffy allowed him a giggle (what was it with her and giggling today?) before getting her hand back. "It's lovely to be here. Of course, not really sure where 'here' is! Or who any of you are."
The rest of the table stopped their discussion and turned to her.
"You don't know who we are?" The 'Ginny' girl asked, confusion evident in her voice.
"Nope, all I know is that Arthur over there is a nice guy!" Buffy nodded to Arthur, who flushed ever so slightly.
"Where'd you hear that from?" Bill questioned, never being one to beat around the bush.
"Giles, Rupert Giles. Although I guess you'd only know him as 'Ripper'." Buffy cut short her rambling much sooner than she might have.
Arthur's eyebrows shot up, right up. "You know Ripper?"
"Well, yeah, I mean; I know him as Giles. He's much more mellow nowadays."
Arthur chuckled slightly, doubt in his eyes. "I didn't know Ripper was the kind to change."
Buffy looked down uncomfortably, she didn't want to argue with her host family, but his opinion of Giles boiled her blood.
Molly saw this and changed the topic. "Well, today we were thinking of visiting Grimmauld. But perhaps some of us should stay here and-"
Her embarrassed rambling was quickly cut short by a head appearing in the fire; Dumbledore's head to be precise.
Buffy glanced over, and then bolted out of her seat. "Holy Mother of God! There's a head in your fire! Is that natural?"
Arthur gave her a look like she was crazy, then walked over to the floating head. "We were just discussing Grimmauld, what should we do?"
"Take Buffy with you. It should be an interesting experience for her." Dumbledore looked over at Buffy, "How are you going so far?"
Buffy thought for a moment, "Peachy on the side of keen!"
The identical twins shared an evil grin and seized hold of the small blonde girl. "You say that now, but you won't feel the same once you're in there!"
The other one quickly took over from his brother, for the second time this morning. "Yeah, it's all black, and dark, and there's evil crawling around everywhere, and… bloody hell, why do you look like it's Christmas?"
The pair gave up their evil smirks on the sight of Buffy's excited one. She was about to reply when she heard a noise.
True to her Slayer-ishness Buffy swung around and landed a right hook right in her opponents face. Unfortunately her opponent turned out to be Snape.
"Oh shit, sorry!" Buffy immediately fell out of her fighting stance and helped Snape off the floor. He gave her a look that suggested she should pretend she didn't hurt him, but Buffy didn't notice.
"I'm really really sorry! Are you okay? I'm surprised that you're even conscious, I must be getting sloppy…"
It was about that moment that Buffy noticed that every single redhead in the room was having a hysterical laughing fit. "What? What's so funny?"
It was Ginny that could breath enough to answer; "You just beat up Snape!"
Buffy went bright red and looked down; it didn't exactly rest well with her that she had just beaten up a man who could be her uncle.
"Snape… why are you here?" Arthur finally asked, wiping a tear from his eyes.
Snape, his face slightly less composed than usual, darted his eyes over to Buffy. "I wish to speak to Miss Summers."
There was a pause as no one moved.
"Alone."
There was another pause as the group realized what he meant.
"Severus, if you think for one minute that-" Molly cut off her own outburst before she let herself get carried away, "You can talk to her once we get to Grimmauld."
Snape looked like he was going to argue the point, but going by the looks on the groups faces he wasn't going to get his way.
At Snape's angry sigh, Buffy gave him a light pat on the shoulder. "It could be worse, you could have to talk to me with a counsellor!" Repressing an inward shudder Buffy looked up at the bewildered group once more. "So, how exactly are we getting to this place?"
From the smiles coming from the group; she didn't want to know.