Chapter 12
See Chapter one for full Summery and BTVS/HP Timelines.
Lost and Found
Buffy stretched out her senses as she patrolled the graveyard. A light mist lingered an inch above the ground, swirling about her feet as she walked. Her eyes swung around, watching the shadows for movement. There was nothing. She side stepped a tombstone expertly as she walked, letting her mind wander over the last few days' events.
After the incident with Kennedy they'd made their way back to Grimmauld place, Buffy supported on Remus's arm. By the time they'd arrived her neck had turned a lovely shade of purple, and her shoulders had ached something awful. The gash on her lip had stopped bleeding, and she sported a pair of spectacular black eyes. They would have been gone by the next morning when she woke (or the afternoon at the latest) but when Molly Weasley had seen the state of her…
Buffy winced at the memory.
"Sweet Merlin! Buffy, what happened? Are you alright? No child- here; put your feet up. Don't be silly child, sit! What were you boys doing out there! Look, there's nary a scratch on you… and look at the state of Buffy. Tssk, tssk. No no, you sit; I'll go get some ice. One of you boys go make yourselves useful and get the poor thing a glass of water… off with you Sirius, you'll smother the girl, really! Now Buffy-"
A sound off to her right side-tracked her reminiscence and she allowed her whole attention to refocus on the task at hand. An owl hooted off in the distance somewhere and crickets chirped. Buffy silently crept towards the area the noise had come from.
She was alone once again for patrol tonight because Sirius was spending the last night of the full moon with Remus. And she felt oddly alone without the huge wizard-dog at her side.
When Remus and Sirius had realized she still planned to patrol, even without Sirius, they had both blown a gasket. Well, Sirius had. Remus had gone all quiet and stoic watching her with intense eyes.
It was more a verbal non verbal.
Buffy had told them, in no uncertain terms, that she was perfectly capable of patrolling alone. She'd done it for years, starting with when she was barely 14 years old, so three nights alone after spending over a decade on nightly patrols was not going to kill her. Pouncing on her logic, Sirius had complained that she'd 'needed' their help with the Spol'tic Demon. Which was true, she'd even admitted as much, but she wasn't likely to run into one of those in a local graveyard. She hoped.
More than Sirius's obnoxious whining, Remus's quiet worry had bothered her the most. He'd tried to 'give Sirius back to her.' But she had told him no. Sirius would do more good with Remus on these full moons then he would with Buffy. But the man wouldn't stop worrying, and to her frustration, wouldn't tell her why.
Silently, Buffy had come up on a clearing. Closer. But the noise had come from further west. As Buffy continued to hunt, she let her mind wander again.
The next afternoon, sporting some fading bruises, she chanced upon a disturbing sight. Sirius and Molly locked in a vicious argument.
"'s not your business what I do or-"
Buffy hadn't meant to eves drop… well not in the beginning. But the shock of seeing these two going toe to toe had stunned her to stillness.
"Absolutely irresponsible, don't know what they were thin-"
What had they been arguing about? What else.
Harry Potter.
Sirius wanted to go get him regardless of what Dumbledore said. And Molly very much didn't agree. It vexed Sirius to no end that the Weasley matriarch was concerning herself with his 'business.' Buffy was just glad the poor kid wasn't around to see it.
"Don't you tell me what-"
It was so silly. They both obviously loved the kid to bits. Why they had to antagonize each other so much was a mystery to her. The misery they would cause the boy if they got him caught in the middle…
Another sound echoed through the graveyard. Closer this time. Clearer. It was the sound of a brittle twig snapping under foot. Buffy kept going, her whole self straining to find the source. The noise had been in front of her but suddenly her spiddy senses screamed 'behind you!'
She whiled around.
It was definitely a Vampire, but she couldn't see it. It lurked around her in plain sight, and yet not. She'd dealt with invisible opponents before, but this felt... different.
"Show yourself."
Laughter followed her order. It floated all around her. Buffy gritted her teeth in annoyance.
"Why should I?"
Buffy whipped around again.
"So I can stake you and go home?"
More laughter erupted.
Buffy turned in a slow circle. Her senses were going haywire. Something was wrong. Off. It didn't feel right. Vampires were like an itch she couldn't quite reach. They swirled on the edge of her awareness, becoming ever more insistent and irritating depending on its proximity, strength and age. This one hummed over her skin. She'd never felt anything else like it before in her life.
"Silly, Slayer. You cannot kill what you cannot see."
"Watch me."
Laughter followed her declaration. A brush of air on her neck was all the warning she got. Her chest hit a tree, a firm body pressed against hers, pinning her in place. She struggled wildly but its hold was too strong.
Something cold passed over her ear, a mouth touched her throat. She couldn't see it, she couldn't even move enough to turn her head, but she felt the vampires fangs touch her throat. She shuddered, renewing her struggles desperately. More breathy laughter floated around her.
"Calm yourself Slayer," It whispered into her ear. "If I wanted you dead, you would surely lie at my feet already."
"Then let me go, already." She gritted.
More laughter.
"When I get out of this I'm going to shove your head so high up you're a-"
The laughter didn't stop.
"You're not going to do anything, Slayer." He told her. One of his hands was stroking her cheek. She gritted her teeth. "I just wanted you to understand. This isn't your fight. You can't win. Look at you, you can't even move. If you stop asking questions, if you go back to your pathetic little life then we'll leave you alone. But persist…" He bit down lightly on her neck, scraping with just the tips off its fangs. Buffy gasped. "I will kill you."
It was Buffy's turn to laugh.
"and here I thought you'd done your homework. You should know better than to think I could be scared away. I'm not going anywhere."
She felt it shrug.
"I expected you'd say as much, you having far more brawn then brain, as it were. So, let me make this as simple as possible for you. If you do not cease and desist I will kill you, I will turn your sister, torture your Watcher and mutilate your friends... I will destroy everyone and everything you have ever known or loved and still you will not be able to stand against the Dark Lord"
Buffy's breathing quickened.
"So you're one of Voldemort's stooges, huh?"
"I am his right hand man, his emissary." He shook her shoulders in anger. "I am not some lowly grunt that kisses his hem like a snivelling fool. Once I was weak and pitiful, but now, with my Lords help, his intervention, I have become his equal."
Buffy chuckled darkly. "Somehow he doesn't strike me as the type to share power."
"He has given me eternal life! Power, strength, endurance; He has blessed me! Before my master gave me life I was nothing more then a pathetic mortal who gave into terror at every turn, now I have no fear. He has saved me!"
"He killed you! Fed you to some Vampire like a human slurpy and now you're nothing but a demon with a human face and fun new set of memories."
"You're point?"
Buffy growled.
He laughed again.
Buffy had stopped fighting long ago, forcing her muscles to relax in his tight grip. Slowly, ever so slowly, its grip slackened. With a mighty jerk the Slayer took her opponent by surprise, ripping free before it could reaffirm its grip.
Buffy elbowed the Vampire in the stomach and felt it back off. She spun around, her back to the tree she'd been pinned to a moment before.
It was gone...
..and it wasn't.
It laughed; though Buffy took heart that its laughter sounded a little more forced this time around.
"Come out and fight me." Buffy yelled.
"If you insist."
A disembodied arm floated into view to her left, a long piece of wood in its hand.
"Oh fu-"
"Stupefy!"
A flash of red light struck her in the chest and she knew no more.
They'd told her it wasn't possible. They'd said 'Buffy, Vampires can't use magic.' This is what they'd said. But as Buffy slowly came back to consciousness again she was fairly certain that laughy-the-Vampire had put a spell on her. Wand. Light. Magic. Wizard. Vampire.
Yup, he'd put a spell on her, alright. She was seriously thinking of castrating Sirius and Remus… well Sirius anyway.
Buffy's head throbbed irritably and her ears were ringing. She wasn't lying on the cold ground of a cemetery anymore, thankfully. Instead her head was pillowed on soft linins and a thick comforter was draped over her form. A warm hand smoothed her hair back from her face tenderly. The feeling was a safe and comforting one.
"Remus," She mumbled.
There was a scraping of chairs as two people moved around her bed. The hand on her forehead had stilled, but didn't leave altogether, for this Buffy was glad. Another hand took her hers and squeezed it reassuringly.
"Buff? Hey you with us again? Time to wake up, lazy pants. Buffy?"
That wasn't the voice she expected. What was Xander doing at Grimmauld Place?
"Buffy? Buffy we would both feel far better if you would but open your eyes."
And Giles? What was going on? Okay, it was time to get with the program and do the waking up thing.
Buffy's eyes fluttered open. Two sets of eyes, one with a very pirate like patch, peered down at her. One set belonging to her aging Watcher, Rupert Giles, the other attached to her long time friend Xander Harris.
"Wha?"
Xander leaned forward, his face was slightly grey. He looked exhausted, they both did.
"Hey, there you go!" Xander grinned at her. "You alright Buffy?"
"Yeah," Buffy said, sitting up. It was then that she recognized where she was, her old room in Scooby central. It was fairly sparse, a bed, a dresser and a desk. Nothing too personal. Nothing very permanent.
She glanced at both the men. "What happened?"
"Cassidy found you at St. Perry's cemetery, but you wouldn't wake up… when we saw you…we thought… we thought you were dead, Buffy."
"Oh... Well I'm not…" Buffy blanched, "I'm not right?"
"No Buffy," Giles said, smiling a tiny smile. "You're not."
"Oh, good. Hate being dead." Buffy's brow furrowed. "Uhh, again I say; what happened?"
"I don't know, what do you remember?", asked Giles.
Buffy blinked at them. Of course they didn't know.
"I was patrolling", she told them hesitantly. Giles face darkened but he didn't speak. "I ran across a…" She paused, what had she run across? A Wizard? A Vampire? A Death Eater? All three? But what to say?
"A vampire."
"A vampire…" Xander, bless him, sounded incredulous. "You haven't let a Vamp get the drop on you since..." he didn't finish that sentence.
"He wasn't an ordinary Vampire. He was also a Wizard."
"But…" Buffy looked over to the previously silent Giles. "Vampires cannot be Wizards. It is written…"
"Hey, speaking as the person who just got wammied by a member of the wand-waving-undead, I'm going to say your source material majorly sucked." As did Remus and Sirius's, but she left that unspoken.
"It's unprecedented!" Giles said as he polished the lens of his glasses. Buffy smiled affectionately at the man. "I missed you guys." She said suddenly.
Giles actually looked startled by her statement, but some of the darkness drained from his face. He smiled warily beside the widely grinning Xander.
"And we missed you as well." Giles said, patting her hand.
Buffy felt the emotions churning in her gut, her eyes were beginning to burn. Hastily Buffy changed the topic again.
"So, how have things been here?"
The look they exchanged made her heart jump. The smiles had faded, replaced by an aching sadness.
"We lost Angelica two nights ago and Marcus with her."
Buffy's breathing hitched. Angelica Johnson, a beautiful 15 year old girl with short black spiky hair and chocolate eyes. She'd been spunky and bright and had picked up Slaying even more quickly and easily then Buffy herself had at that age. She'd only been called the year before, like Buffy, at 14. Marcus Grey was, or had been, her Watcher and a good fiend of Buffy's. She'd matched the two of them personally. Suddenly the tears that had stung her eyes before came back with a vengeance.
"How." She croaked.
"Vampire." Xander said softly, his voice sympathetic. He knew how close she'd gotten with Angelica and Mark. She always kept a close eye on the young ones. The spell Willow had used changed all the rules of the game. Potentials became Slayers almost instantly after being chosen. Most times they were around 15, maybe 16 when found, but on the odd occasion they were younger. Much younger. The youngest yet had been a kid named Stella. She'd been called at 12, she was 17 now. Angelica had been different. Young and perky. She embraced her destiny with open arms. Her Mother, her only surviving parent, was very poor and could barely feed herself let alone a child. With Buffy's assurances that her child would be well cared for Mrs. Johnson had watched her little girl leave to be trained and taken care of by the NWC. Buffy had all but adopted the child. She'd had big dreams for Angelica. Dreams that they'd shared with each other regularly. And none of them had involved such an early expiration date.
Giving her over to the tutelage of Mark had been the toughest choice she'd ever made. The selfish part of her wanted to keep her as her own. Train her, teach her. But she couldn't. She wasn't a Watcher and she wouldn't have been able to let the pre-teen walk out the door and fight a fight she might well loose. Now she wished she had been selfish, at least then Angelica would still be alive.
"Did you kill it?"
Neither Giles nor Xander could mistake the edge in her voice. If they hadn't, she would.
"No. It was… It was invisible. Markus told Kilye, who was a watcher in training, to run when Angelica died, he said-"
But Buffy was no longer listening. An invisible Vampire.
Buffy jumped out of her bed, startling her friends.
"I'll kill him." She snarled. And she would. But first she had to get back to Grimmauld place. She needed Sirius and Remus. She needed them to tell her how, then she was going to kill him.
"Buffy, wait!" Xander said, grabbing her wrist. "Tell us what's going on. Kill who?"
"It. Him. Laughy the Wizard Vampire, that's who."
"The one that put the spell on you?" Giles clarified.
Buffy nodded angrily. "The very same."
"Buffy, you can't just run off. You need to think about this. Calm down. We'll think of something together!"
Buffy glared at the dark haired man. Her heart was screaming at her to go. Kill it. Don't let little Angelica's murderer get away. Giles laid a hand on her shoulder and the understanding in his eyes was her undoing. Her body relaxed and the strength left her limbs. She felt hollow.
She rested her head against Xander chest, her eyes were still stinging, but no tears fell.
Springbrume: Sirius is hard to figure out sometimes. He pouts about Remus and Buffy more out of petulance, then anything else. I don't think him and faith would actually work. I've read some great fic with that pairing but I don't think its anything close to cannon. I mean look at how he treats Snape who was a bad guy but flip flopped back to the other side. He isn't a sympathetic character, he's very black and white while faith is all about the shades of grey. Thanks for the review!
Ghost Whisper: Buffy's friends are a big part of the arc in the first 'act' of my fic. The dissention in the NWC and the strained relationships between the Scooby's and Buffy was done for two reasons. One, it got her away from them, so that it was just her in the Wizarding world, so that she could create strong bonds to Remus and Sirius (among others) Secondly; I wanted to deal with some old issues that the show let unanswered and needed and viable excuse for the NWC to become involved in a 'wizarding' war. I am trying very hard to keep my plot original, so it means a lot that you think it is! Thanks!
IceBlueRose: Remus telling Kennedy off was a joy to write. I never really liked Kennedy, but it wasn't because she was with Tara. A lot of people didn't like her because she was with Willow, I didn't like her because of her attitude towards Buffy. thanks for the review.
Serrafina: Oh wow, sorry! I didn't mean to keep you waiting so long. I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
SpikesDreamer: I'm not a Ron Hermione 'shipper' in the way some people are; I like the two of them together, but I'm not opposed to other ships as well. But for this fic, I'll probably use a Ron Hermione Ship cause… well just cause of the cuteness. Thanks for the review!
Dilvish: A lot of great insight as usual. I think like a big corporations, they forget what its like to be the little guy. Maybe the Scooby's have been on top a little to long, what ever the reason for there actions, they need to see that Buffy has got the short end of the stick. They will come together again, it will just take some time.
EverAfter-01: I know, I am one. (a quiet one, I mean -)
Toniboo: Thanks, yeah I was really down in the dumps, I hate getting sick! But with winter here I know I'm in for one more cold before the April thaw. Thanks for your concern, and your review.
Sarah: Your welcome for the chapter, heres the next one. Enjoy.
Tina: Yup, sooner or later she'll reconcile with the Scooby's, thanks.
becky24: More Buffy action? Lmao Yes, Remus will see lots more action.
General Mac: lol No, no crawling… except maybe for Kennedy. But things will be resolved.
KristiKristin: More kisses coming soon!
Moony-Mione-Padfoot: I don't know about Kennedy yet… will she or wont she… (be redeemed.) I guess you'll just have to wait and see.
Poisyn: Oz, yes I love Oz. There will be Oz. Thanks for the review.
VaMpEdChiK: Oh me too! I really like iyari limon, (Kennedy's actress) She's great.
XinnLajgin: Buffy got her ass a little kicked too. Thanks for the review.
spike's wicked pet:
mika: Ron and Hermione remind me of Xander and Cordy a little. Closets would suit them!
Onlimain: Kennedy has a big mouth, but doesn't necessarily have to tell the 'whole' truth thoe, if you get my drift. Look forward to more Scooby interaction.
Spk: Thanks a bunch for your review.
Lightdemondarkangel: Kennedy is a big fat lier, ever heard of broken telephone? That applies here.
Allen Pitt: Your favorte character? Oops :p well, I needed a bad guy… sorry. You have some great insights, and as you can see some of them are right on track. Thanks for your review.
Feyechelon: Thanks for your review. It is always the quiet ones, like me for instance. : )
Authors Note: Sorry for the delay guys! Hope you enjoyed this chapter and make sure to review and tell me how much (you liked it)! (or how little (you liked it) if you must)
