Part 5- Hogwarts

A/N: Sorry this part took so long. I've had a lot of other things to do like University etc, plus I lost my interest in the story for a bit, but reading HBP has really made me want to finish this story. Though this part is pretty much Charmed and Buffy.

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"Paige where's that black sweater you borrowed?" Piper shouted from her room.

"In the wash" Paige called back from her room.

The sisters were back at home preparing now to spend a year to Hogwarts. Since Buffy, Dawn and Willow had only a few possessions they had volunteered to go with the Halliwells to aid their packing. Andrew (who had remained relatively quiet during Dumbledore's visit) had insisted on coming too, but Buffy was still deciding wether he should even come with them to England.

While Dawn was on Wyatt duty (something she was beginning to enjoy), Buffy and Willow helped Piper and Paige to pack their things. Phoebe had gone to her work to plead with Elise to make some sort of arrangement. There was no way Phoebe could have a year off, but Elise wasn't going to allow her to quit either. After some time the pair came to an agreement. While Phoebe was in England dealing with the "family emergency" she was to write her column using e-mail rather than post. It was also now to be monthly. Elise was not pleased with that particular part of the deal, but she did not want to loose the great 'ask Phoebe' column.

"Well that's it for the clothes" Piper announced after returning to her room with the sweater from the wash. "It doesn't get all that hot in England does it? Because I didn't really pack a lot of summer clothes"

"No" Willow answered sitting on Piper's bed. "I was only there for a couple of months, but I don't really remember there being a sun there"

"Good" Piper then squashed the lid of her suitcase upon all of the clothes. "I need to get a few things from the basement."

"I'll come help you" Willow offered as they exited Piper's room.

When the pair reached the basement, Piper had no hesitation to quickly walk down the stairs into the bottom room. However Willow had only gone a few steps when she stopped.

"Uhh…Piper?" Willow called as Piper began to search in a cardboard box. Piper turned to Willow confused as to why Willow hadn't come down the stairs.

"Why do I feel surge of power in here?" Willow curiously asked feeling a little nervous about it.

"Oh…" Piper realised that Willow being a Wiccan witch used the world around her for her powers. Of course she would be able to feel it. "It's the Nexus. Perhaps it best you don't come down. Phoebe being born in the house has a slighter greater pull towards evil because of the Nexus. I don't want to risk you"

"I understand" Willow smiled knowing Piper's intentions were not to offend her.

"Willow, are you sure about this? Going to Hogwarts with all that magic around. You won't be tempted to uh...become evil again?" Piper asked trying to protect Willow's feelings.

She had to ask it though. When they had been discussing their types of magic Willow had told the Charmed Ones what happened after Tara was murdered. They understood what it was like to loose someone and wanting to make the pain go away. Willow had continued to tell them of her time in England and how she was recovering from her 'episode'. It had made Piper a little wary about going to a magical school with an unstable witch, but she had chosen to remain quiet about it until now.

"I think that…I'm ready for this. I became a Godess when I performed the spell on the potentionals. Last year was the greatest test for me with magic" Willow explained. "And I passed"

"I'm sorry" Piper quickly said. "I just had to ask"

"It's okay. Xander already asked me the same thing. I know you are just concerned" Willow said as she sat down on the steps to wait until Piper was done.

Piper gave Willow a small smile and began looking around the basement. Soon after they arrived home Dumbledore had sent them an owl regrading their house. He somehow knew Piper would be worried about evil taking it over. It had happened before. Dumbledore had arranged for a magical couple to take care of the house until the Halliwells returned. Piper wasn't exactly happy with strangers staying in the house, but Dumbledore was trustworthy so she assumed his friends would be too. Plus Piper didn't have much of a choice.

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When the time came to travel to England it was soon decided that orbing would be the best way to travel. It would save Dumbledore from having the trouble of connecting a fireplace to the floo network or organizing a portkey. It was a great distance for Paige to travel to so she had been practising by taking everyone's luggage separately. She then took her own family first before returning to the hotel to take the Sunnydale group.

In the end it turned out Buffy won the argument about Andrew accompanying the group to England. He was to continue with his training to become a watcher. She advised Faith and Wesley (who were to train him) to put him far out of his way as possible since Andrew had a habit of being a pest. He had already began his constant whining as soon as Buffy told him there was no point in taking him out shopping for his 'England fashions'.

The slayers naturally were all to remain behind too. There was no need for them to be at Hogwarts. If there were a fight against Voldemort the Scoobies would handle the physical battle. Faith had been voted as their new leader since Buffy would be leaving. Gunn had used a couple of Wolfram and Hart's tricks to keep Faith out of jail. Robin was also just out of hospital as Buffy left, choosing to stay with his new girlfriend in America. He was going to get a job in a nearby school to get out of having to train Andrew.

As for finding new Slayers, Angel had set up a division of Wolfram and Hart to aid Faith and Robin in rounding up slayers all over the world. The seers would find the slayers and either Faith or one of the other slayers would bring them to the states until they were trained enough to return home with their own watcher. Cho-Ann proved to be a great asset when the first Slayer the seers found was buried in the heart of China where there was little English speaking people.

So it was Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles and Dawn travelling to Hogwarts with the Halliwell sisters plus Leo and Wyatt. Wesley brought an owl from some contacts in New York to keep in close contact with Giles, as he wanted to be informed of everything that went on. Wesley had wanted to go to England, but his loyalties lay with Angel and didn't want to leave Wolfram and Hart without really giving it a go. Plus Fred was certainly remaining in the states and Wesley had no intention to let go of his feelings for her.

At first it was believed that Kennedy would also be part of the Hogwarts group, but it was when Willow was packing that Kennedy revealed that she preferred to remain behind. When they were saying their goodbyes in the foyer of the hotel Willow's mind recalled her conversation with Kennedy.

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Kennedy entered the room to find Willow taking a few of her books out from the drawers. It had only been a short while since they arrived at the hotel, yet Willow was already packing her things. Not that she had much to pack. All of her things had been buried in Sunnydale. The books Willow had were spell books that Wesley had found for her at Wolfram and Hart. It was the last thing that Willow had to place into her small suitcase.

"You know what I'm going to miss?" Kennedy asked Willow as she sat on their bed.

"Playing follow the leader with the junior slayers?" Willow smiled, remembering how much Kennedy enjoyed her short amount of leadership.

"You're adorable little pout. Remember I told you that it was sexy on our first date" Kennedy said.

"Date? You tricked me into that!" Willow laughed. Then she realized what Kennedy meant by it. "Wait…y-you're not coming to Hogwarts?"

"No. You know I'm going to miss these freckles too" Kennedy said as she brushed Willow's hair out of her face.

"Why aren't you coming to England with us? Is it me? Have I done something wrong? Are we actually breaking up or are we going to do the long distance thing because I don't know if I could handle the long distance thing. I'm used to having the person there with me not thousands of miles away" Willow rambled.

"The magic deal was always your thing Willow. I'm a slayer. I belong here. Faith will need my help in rounding up the slayers" Kennedy explained.

"That's it? You're staying here because of Faith?" Willow backed away from her 'girlfriend' sounding a little jealous.

"When you put it like that it sounds like I'm ready to hop into bed with her" Kennedy snapped, angry with Willow's tone.

"I just…don't understand. I-I thought you'd be coming to Hogwarts with us. Dumbledore said that there's room for as many people as we wish."

"Willow I care for you deeply, I probably love you, but I can't run off to some magic school. Slaying is my life now. Its my passion" Kennedy tired to reason with Willow.

"You sound like Faith" Willow said softly.

Kennedy wasn't too keen on bringing up Faith yet again so she choose to remain silent. Willow sat down on the bed looking more dejected than Kennedy had ever seen her. A small tear slid down Willows cheek as she realized that her relationship was over. It wasn't the same sadness she felt when Oz left nor the anger she felt when Tara was murdered. It was simple grief for a dead relationship.

- -

"Wow" Buffy breathed. "This is SO much better than Dracula's castle"

The entire American group had finally arrived at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had told them they would be staying at the school until the term began. Grimmulad place was just too crowed for nine most guests. Orbing (unlike apparation) was not effected by the many charms and spells placed on Hogwarts as it was not their type of magic. Whoever placed the charms on the area hadn't bothered to deal with orbing, or didn't know about it, as it was a power reserved for whitelighters.

While orbing into Hogwarts was simple enough it soon became very tiring for Paige. Buffy was the last of the group to be orbed to England, which Paige was extremely grateful for. She had sat down on the nearest chair as soon as Buffy let go of her hand. Madam Pomfrey was on site already with a handful of chocolate she practically shoved into Paige's mouth. It was odd to have chocolate as the 'medicine', but Paige happily accepted it.

"Welcome to Hogwarts" Dumbledore greeted with Hargid by his side. "This is Hargid, keeper of the keys and grounds here"

"'ello" Hargid greeted fondly with his strong accent.

While the group was still getting over the fact that Hargid was part giant, Dumbledore started to speak.

"I have a proposition for you all…"