Order of Things

Summery: It's been 5 years since Buffy Summers and co. fought the First Evil in Sunnydale. So, maybe it's high time she wound up in another adventure. But the rules have changed without her realizing it, and where once it was the slayer's job to save the world, it now falls to another. Buffy will have to find out just what her part in this apocalypse is, before it's too late. Btvs/HP

Pairings: Remus/Buffy (the only pairing going at the moment.)

Timeline: Set before the beginning (during the summer) of the 5th book for the Harry Potter universe and 5 years after the final episode of season seven for Buffy.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Buffy belongs to someone other then me and even the plot of this Fic is intersected with actual dialogue and situations from the book "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." All I ask is that you don't sue me. Thank you.

Concerning the Buffy and Harry Potter Universes: Buffy is 27 years old, and Remus is (only just) 37, Sirius (who is the older of the two) is 37 as well. Buffy is spending the majority of her time in the Wizarding World, so the others ( Willow, Xander, Giles, Dawn, ect.) aren't going to be around much. As for Harry, this fic takes place parallel to the fifth book, following the adventures of Remus and Buffy as they work for the order. At certain times the two 'stories' will connect and things will start sounding familiar as I start taking bits and bites out of book 5. Some things are going to change, others will stay the same. On an important note, I love Sirius Black, I love Remus Lupin, I love Buffy Summers and I love Harry Potter, these are my Now, finally, let'sJmain characters. Lets all be clear on that from the start! get on with the fic!

Note to my Beta Reader: I've been informed that I didn't give my 'fabulous' absolutely 'spiffing' beta reader any love. So here is her love. Kim, my sister is my beta reader. She is wonderful and I thank her very much. Even if she is an opinionated, bossy, stubborn bitca of a sister. So thanks.


Chapter 5

The One In-Between

When Buffy's green eyes fluttered open the next morning she found that the morning outside her window had dawned grey and overcast. A lengthy stretch later, Buffy slowly pulled herself out of the soft bed she'd fallen into the night before. The room, which had escaped her notice the previous night, was moderately sized and well furnished, if not a little musty. The bed was huge against the fall wall; an oak monstrosity that seemed to take up more room then was proper. Beside it stood a solid oak wardrobe, which had a strange crest delicately carved into it.

The room had the distinct smell of an area that had been thoroughly cleansed only recently, and was stubbornly refusing to release its dusty odor. Moving to the window, Buffy traced the decent of a droplet of water that was making its progress down the opposite side of the plane. With a tug, the widow opened, but she didn't get the blast of cool air she'd anticipated. The humidity of the night before had given way to a misty rain that was thick and warm. With a sigh of disappointment Buffy let the frame fall closed with a thump.

Moving over to her suitcases, all of which -she was please to see- had mysteriously appeared sometime overnight. She dug through them, pulling out a few essentials, which included a clock that read 12:30. Standing, she turned to investigate what she hoped would be, and was, a connecting bathroom. A happy sigh escaped her as she eased the door closed behind her. Just what she'd been looking for.

Half and hour later, Buffy exited the bathroom, a fluffy towel tied around her. It took her another 30 minutes before she was ready to face her day. Wearing a simple white blouse and cream trousers, her hair left to cascade freely down her back, she exited the room.

The slayer stepped out into the hall and turned this way and that. Choices, choices. The night before she'd been absolutely exhausted and hadn't kept track of where Black and Remus had been leading her. The scene from the kitchen came back to her, making her flush. A tired Buffy was a wacky Buffy, not that the two of them had been any less with the wacky. Still, how embarrassing. She wondered what Remus would think of her acting like vapid airhead. Normal circumstance didn't see Buffy giggling much… but last night. With a frustrated sound the blonde woman pouted in annoyance.

Choosing the left, because it seemed the way to go, Buffy silently made her way down the hall. Ah ha, success! The stairs she'd climbed the night before loomed ahead. Wonderful.

Finally relaxing a little, the slayer softly padded down the wooden steps without making a sound. At the entrance hall Buffy noticed a thick hanging on the wall. Curious, she moved closer, reaching out with one hand to remove the fabric to see what was beneath. Buffy only had a second to contemplate the bizarreness covering a painting with drapery, before it… began to scream. With an exclamation of shock, Buffy stumbled back a few steps, ending up with her rear on the floor. Above her, the seemingly innocuous portrait of a severe older woman was shrieking at the top of her lungs.

"Vile half breeds, filthy abominations! Out, OUT! You dare… How dare you! That you would dirty my forefather's home! Impure cretins, tainting the good and pure name of the most noble and ancient house of Black. I curse you. I spit on you. I-"

There was a sudden stampede of people tumbling into the room from all directions. Still in shock, Buffy watched as Black, the innocent wild man she'd met the night before, come forward with a snarl.

"Aiiiieeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Filth of my flesh. Blood traitor! Be gone, shame of my blood… Freak!"

"Just bloody, shut up!" He bellowed back at the painting. "You horrible hag, SHUT UP!"

It was a moment in which Buffy could understand why one would think the man capable of murder.

"Buffy?" A soft voice broke into her hazy thoughts.

Above her stood Remus, looking down on her with a strangely worried look on his face.

"Wha?"

The eldest Weasley and Sirius Black were trying to muscle the heavy cloth that Buffy had unwittingly removed back to its earlier position.

A warm hand took her arm and brought her to her feet. Feeling absolutely foolish, Buffy didn't meet Remus' warm eyes. When they'd finally managed to subdue the raving woman, the room fell eerily silent. It reminded Buffy that she really didn't know these people, or their world.

"I'm ah…"

Molly Weasley shook her head, and retrieved her from Remus, drawing her into the next room. Behind she could hear muffled voices as the people from the hall followed.

"Now then," said Molly when they reached what looked like a dinning room. "You must be absolutely famished dear, sit. I'll get you something to eat." This said, and with out waiting for an answer, Molly moved into what Buffy believed would be the kitchen.

Buffy blinked. And blinked again.

"What?"

There was laughter behind her, and another red head sat in the chair beside hers.

"All right there? I'm Ron, Ron Weasley"

Another red head, how many were there?

Still Buffy couldn't quite seem to be able to make any words come out. There were people sitting around the table with her now. Ron, Sirius and Remus. Plus the twins, a young girl that looked so much like Willow from Sunnydale High days that in took her breath away, and the older man Arthur Weasley.

"I'm… really sorry." She finally blurted, looking incredibly guilty. "I'm… it was… you see… It's like this, I… and then…." The words were still escaping her.

Sirius smiled wryly, "Don't worry about it, Buffy."

"What was that thing?" Buffy asked.

"That…" Sirius said with a grimace of distaste. "That was my mother."

Buffy swallowed hard. "Your mother? … ah, was she always… you know, a painting?"

Laughter bubbled up and out of Sirius as his shoulders began to shake; the others around the table began to laugh along with him. Remus, who was across from her, smiled widely at her, chuckling as well. Not sure whether it was a good or a bad thing that they were laughing at her, it took her a few moments before she joined in.

"Oh," Sirius moaned, wiping at his eyes. "That's just a portrait of my mother. Brought to some semblance of life using magic."

Buffy flushed a little. "Ah," she said, as if this made perfect sense.

"I'm still sorry." She added finally. To her surprise it was the mini-Willow that answered.

"Pfft, Fred and George are always setting her off. They can't help but be loud and obnoxious." The twins made some feeble protests in their defence, but the girl continued as if not hearing them. "Oh, and I'm Ginny by the way." She added, with a smile.

"Buffy." The slayer greeted laughingly.

"I know," Ginny told her. "The twins won't shut up about you."

"Oi! Ginny!"

More laughter ensued.

When Molly came back with her food, which was actually far too much for one person, they began to discus their plans for the day.

"There'll be an order meeting at the end of the week." Molly told her quietly, as one of the twins nicked a chip off her plate. "Then you'll get your orders from Dumbledore, till then, this house needs to be made habitable.

"What's wrong with it?" She asked curiously.

Remus snorted, which seemed unlike him.

"What's not?" Sirius answered stonily.

Buffy raised an eyebrow in surprise at the bitterness in his voice.

"Grimmauld Place is Sirius's ancestral home." Remus informed her cautiously, "his family is one of the older pureblood families in Wizarding England. They were…" Here he paused, throwing a look at his gloomy friend.

"What he means to say," Sirius interrupted suddenly, his voice angry. "Is that my family was a bunch of pureblood elitists and practitioners of the Dark Arts. This whole bloody house is one big bloody booby trap." Buffy blinked rapidly. "Oh." She said smartly.

Ron scowled and looked around the room.

"So we've been relegated to cleaning duty." His voice was annoyed.


It was the same afternoon, as Buffy poked her head into different rooms curiously, that she came across an odd sight. Remus Lupin talking to a mammoth black dog in the second floor study. Remus was bent over to the dog's level; the dog was giving the werewolf a severe sort of look. Intrigued, Buffy made her way silently into the room.

"I'm warning you, don't come crying to me if you get bit on the nose again. Those Doxy's aren't for playing with and Molly'll have both out hides if we miss any because you were arse-ing about." The big dog pulled back its lips and snorted, Remus glared. "You're supposed to be more man then mutt, Padfoot. Would you just-"

The dog had caught sight of Buffy suddenly and its behaviour shifted. Down went its head, and he whimpered, sending the slayer a pathetic look, its tail between its legs.

"Do you always yell at your pets?" Buffy asked.

Remus jumped and whiled around.

"Buffy! I-"

Buffy ignored the man, and knelt down to the dogs level, holding out a hand, palm up. "Here, Padfoot" The dogs tongue lolled of its mouth and it trotted over to the blond, snuffing at her hand and whining at her. Buffy laughed.

"He's sweet." She said, glancing up at Remus. But Remus had the oddest look on his face.

"Padfoot" he warned.

Buffy frowned at the man, and continued to pet the dogs head. She was almost knocked on her rear though when the massive mutt starting liking her face.

"Padfoot!" The dog turned its head and growled at Remus. Buffy scowled. "He's just being friendly." She said. Apparently satisfied, Padfoot rolled over onto his back, presenting his belly to the blond.

Remus stepped forward and snatched the dog by the scruff of the neck.

The dog blurred for a moment and in its place was a tall black haired man.

"Ow, not so hard Moony!"

Buffy blinked. It was Sirius. Sirius was the dog… the dog was Sirius.

"Oh…" Buffy said. "eww"

Sirius looked mildly offended.


The next few days passed in a haze of activity as Buffy found her days firmly entrenched in the new and confusing Wizarding world. And no matter how much time lapsed all the new and mysterious things never cessed to knock her for a loop on many the occasion. Everyday was full of startling experiences, as she learned about the complex and exciting society that she'd chosen to protect.

One such revelation came on her third day at Headquarters. Buffy, Ron and Ginny were seated quite comfortably around the kitchen counter swapping stories. The Weasley children, who Buffy found she liked quite a lot, were telling her about their third year, when Remus had been 'Professor Lupin' and Sirius Black had been an escaped convict out for there friend's–or Best-Friends if you were Ron- blood.

It was around this time that a white owl flew into the kitchen. "Hedwig!" Ginny exclaimed. Buffy ducked as the owl dropped onto the kitchen counter.

"Ah, anybody wanna explain the owl. Please?" Buffy said, having become at least a little used to all the daily surprises.

Ron glanced up. "She's Harry's."

"Harry… Sirius's godson?"

Ron nodded, reaching over to untie something from around the birds' leg.

"This still doesn't explain why it's here… or why friend Harry has an owl."

"Owls deliver our mail in the Wizarding World." Ginny said. Glancing over Ron's shoulder at what Buffy had realized was a letter written of a piece of parchment.

"Oh, he's not happy."

Ron nodded grimly. Hedwig was watching Ron with a rather stern expression.

"Who, Harry? Why?" Buffy asked

"Dumbledore told us were not allowed to tell him anything about the Order or anything else…"

"Oh, ouch…"

"Yeah."

Ron scribbled a reply and attempted to attach it back to Hedwig's leg. The owl ruffled her feathers and began to peck Ron's fingers viciously.

"Uouch!"

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "I think I'll just stick to postmen, thanks. They don't bite."


Buffy found that Grimmauld place, though gloomy and stifling at times, was a treasure trove of fantastic discoveries that she spent hour upon hour endeavouring to uncover. Cleaning house had never been so much fun. The other occupants of the house, namely Sirius, didn't seem to share her enthusiasm. (Except perhaps Molly, but for the entirely the wrong reasons.) Creatures large and small were turning up everywhere like, well, like things that turned up a lot. Every time she turned around there was another creature to be investigated, and to Buffy's amusement and private joy, Remus took great pleasure in breaking into spontaneous lectures on the various beasts that they were finding.

"Professor Moony," Sirius explained in a stage whisper one afternoon when he, Remus, Buffy and Ron had come across a nest of Chizpurfle's. "He's not totally happy unless he's lecturing someone about something"

The little blighters looked like a cross between a cockroach and a beetle, and though Buffy was glad to investigate all things magical… They were bugs.

Buffy didn't do bugs.

"They're parasites." Remus had told them. "They feed on magical items, and as this house is full of unused magic, it's the perfect nesting grounds for them." Sirius had then sprayed a few that had scuttled by with a potion that- supposedly – killed them, but all it had really done was make them extremely hyper.

"They're a right hassle." Sirius had said. "Worse then fleas"

Buffy had cringed and stepped up onto a chair when Sirius –in Padfoot form- had chased a few in her direction.

"Stop it!" She'd shrieked, causing Ron to laugh hysterically. Sirius had then nicked Remus's wand, and in the guise of being helpful, cast a spell to float her several feet in air -to 'save' her from the Chizpurfle's of course-. Buffy, not used to hanging suspended mid air like that, had yelled at the top of her lungs.

"Sirius I swear to god, if you drop me you are so going to be a girl doggy from now on."


Even with all the things she'd seen over the seven days she'd been at Grimmauld place, she still managed to be taken by surprise by her first encounter with the skulking house elf Kreacher. She'd seen him at a distance many a time, but this evening at the dinner table she was finally able to get a first hand look at the small creature.

It creeped into the dinning room on the night of Buffy's first Order meeting, bowing low and obviously covering something in its hands. The little elf was filthy and wore a few strategically placed rags as clothes; its skin hung on it like to big clothing, wrinkled and think. Its eyes were a mean watery grey and it had a snout-like nose in the middle of its face. On either side of its bald head sat two huge bat like ears sprouting white hair.

"Kreacher," Sirius said, looking more them a little annoyed, "what have you got?"

Sirius' mood had, of late, been decidedly sour. Apparently he'd been told in a fire-call that he was not to go collect Harry before he'd been given the proper permission. (As he'd been planning to do.) The animosity between Molly, who'd obviously told Dumbledore about Sirius' plans, and the black haired man was at an all time high; which meant that tensions were running high in all the other occupants of the house as well.

"Kreacher does nothing, yet the blood traitor snarls at him, he does. What would our mistress say, Kreacher wonders, to know of the people the blood-traitor let into her most noble home?"

The House elf's voice carried surprisingly well and Buffy began to wonder if maybe Ron and Ginny had not been exaggerating after all.

The day before the three of them had sat down for a session of exploding snap, and they'd been full of tales about Kreacher's antics. Buffy had thought they'd been telling tall tales, but maybe not so much.

Sirius seemed ready to snap, so Buffy gently restrained him, catching Remus' glance for a moment. So he was worried too.

"Kreacher." Buffy said firmly. Her tone very reminiscent of the way she would speak to a particularly annoying vampire. "Give me what ever you have. Now."

The elf looked at her, its eyes glittering madly.

"What does the murdering woman want with Kreacher," it hissed under its breath. "She wants this, she does. The filthy muggle bitch"

Buffy's eyes widened in shock. Sirius made to lunge at the elf but her hand on his arm restrained him. The others at the table, Tonks, the Weasley's and Remus, uttered a few words of astonishment. Buffy's eyes narrowed in an indignant anger of her own. "Now, Kreacher!" She snarled. The whole table held its breath. None of them had every heard her take that tone before. This was the slayer. The proud and strong woman that would have what she wanted.

With a suspiciously simpering smile, the elf dropped its prize into her palm. All trace of the proud and strong woman vanished at once, and she screamed.


Note: I just saw the advert for Goblet of Fire for the first time on TV! I'm so excited! Anyway, if you're interested in hearing the answers to reviews, and reading about this fic, where it's been and going, then join me at my Live Journal! (It's the homepage link on my info page) If not, then I suppose I'm just doing it for my own amusement... which is okay I guess… Hey, before you go, take a moment and review! What did you think of it? I'd love to know!