A/N: Haha! In less than three weeks, I have made two updates. I feel proud. Especially considering I still have two more chapters of o-chem to cover today. Read and enjoy!
Chapter 16: Of Swords and Mums
A knock at the door interrupted Buffy and Severus's daily ritual of grading papers together. "Come in," Buffy responded before a word could leave her companion's mouth.
Harry's wiry frame appeared in the doorway. "Professor Summers?" he asked nervously.
The Slayer exclaimed, "Harry! Come on in. Sev and I were just grading some papers." Harry entered and was surprised to see a real smile on Severus's face at his appearance.
"Take a seat, Harry, anywhere you like," the Potions Master said in a voice containing less than half the venom it used to. The Boy-Who-Lived slid into a deep leather chair that was adjacent to the couch that Buffy and Severus were sitting on.
"Professor Summers-" he began.
"In here you can call me Buffy," his new foster mother interrupted.
"Buffy, I wanted to say thank you for taking care of me. When Dumbledore told me, I just couldn't believe it. Does this mean we're spending Christmas here at Hogwarts? How long do you get to keep me?" Harry asked, speaking almost too quickly to be understood.
The petite blonde took a deep breath and said, "I was thinking that we'd spend most of Christmas here, except for perhaps a trip to Bath to visit my stepfather. Unless you would rather go elsewhere? I have custody of you until you're eighteen unless something changes."
Harry launched himself at his new foster mother as soon as the words were out of her mouth. "Thank you, Buffy," he whispered.
"You're welcome, Harry."
"Will Professor Snape be with us too?" Harry asked.
Buffy looked directly at Severus before replying, "Yes, he will be."
"Would you and Harry come to dinner with me this weekend?" the tall, darkly attired man asked.
Harry's face showed an expression of shock, but his new foster-mother answered for him, "We would love to. At least I think we would- Harry?"
This seemed to jerk him back to reality and he stuttered, "Uh, yes, Professor Snape, thank you."
"Well, then both of you should be ready by six o'clock in the evening on Saturday. I have some business to take care of now, I'll leave you two to talk things over," Severus said, leaving the room quickly.
Harry and Buffy chattered for over an hour. Harry told her about his adventures from each year. Her eyes lit up with joy when he brought up the story of the basilisk. She told him to story of taking down Mayor Wilkins and Glory's giant snake. Finally, Buffy stood up and stretched. "Harry, it's time for you to go back to the Gryffindor tower and time for me to go patrolling," she told him, smiling. Their lives had been very similar. Chosen at birth for something they never wanted but had to live with.
Harry walked out quietly, smiling like he had won the lottery. In a way he had, they both had. Both had lost a family and now they were slowly making a new one.
Hermione and Ron immediately noticed a change in their friend's emotions as he entered the Gryffindor common room. "Harry, what's going on? I haven't seen you this happy since-since-"
"Professor Summers is my new foster mum!" he yelled.
"What!" his two friends asked, along with everyone else in the Gryffindor Common room.
Harry explained, "Professor Summers and Dumbledore got the papers drawn up so she's my guardian until I'm eighteen. I never have to go back to the Dursleys again!"
"Congratulations, Harry," Hermione's voice chirped.
Ron added, "Yeah, congrats."
"She's not old enough!" one Seventh-Year boy complained.
Harry whirled and told him, "Austin, she may only be twenty-two, but she's seen more horror in her lifetime than most of the teachers here. That includes Voldemort's reign of terror. What she's seen would be enough to age anyone well into their graves."
Austin, a tall eighteen-year-old shrunk from Harry's form. "Sorry, Harry," he said.
Someone else said, "He only said it 'cause he's jealous. Potter, you've got the hottest mum here. She's like--" He was stopped when a kind friend put his hand over the boy's mouth. It was clear that Harry didn't particularly like having his foster mum being spoken of like that. His face was red with a combination of embarrassment and anger.
Eventually, the crowd broke up and Harry dug into his Potions essay. It was due the next day and he couldn't concentrate. Every time he started to write, he kept remembering how Snape had invited him and Buffy to dinner.
It was like Professor Snape had turned into an entirely different person since Buffy had come to Hogwarts. He was still cruel most of the time, but it was a tempered cruelty. No student had fled from his classroom in tears unless he and Buffy had been fighting.
By midnight, Harry had finished the essay and slowly dragged himself up the stairs to his room.
As Harry fell asleep, Buffy was in the middle of her patrol in the Forbidden Forest. Something in her gut told her that there was something big in the forest tonight. That was why she had a very long sword strapped to her back along with the crossbow in her hands.
"Ah, Miss Summers, have you forgotten something?" a voice echoed from the depths of the forest.
Buffy spun around and said to the voice, "What, like to take my daily multivitamin?"
"That this part of the forest is beyond Hogwart's barrier?"
"Um, no. I know that."
The voice chuckled, "You should be afraid, very afraid."
"Can't you just see me quaking in my shoes?" she retorted.
"Avada Kedavra," someone said. The jet of green light flew at Buffy. With the fluidity of a dancer, the blond slayer had unsheathed her sword and brought it around to absorb the curse.
There was silence. No one had ever seen a sword, or anything, absorb the Killing Curse. "Are you Death Eaters?" she asked in her best Valley Girl voice.
No response was made as half a dozen figures, indeed Death Eaters, emerged from the trees. The sword was sheathed again and Buffy was doing everything the good old way: hand-to-hand. It was clear that none of the Death Eaters had ever needed to learn any physical combat.
Three of them tried to aim more spells at her, but she moved to fast. In just a few seconds, one of them was unconscious. Three more fell in her path in quick succession. The last two saw the error that their brethren made and put away their wands. One drew a small knife.
Not that it made the slightest difference. Though one man did manage to swipe at her forehead with the knife, Buffy was on a roll. All six men were knocked out cold at her feet in less than two minutes. The only injury she had suffered was a cut across her forehead, which was bleeding into her eyes.
She removed a pendant from her jacket and activated it by rubbing its face twice clockwise, once counterclockwise, and once clockwise. "Buffy?" a very surprised Severus said.
Buffy told him, "I need a Death Eater pick-up. I ran across six of them in the forest. They're unconscious, but I assume that Dumbledore will want to turn them over to the government?"
"Are you hurt?" Severus asked, "What am I asking, I can see you're hurt, there's blood in your eyes. I'll be right there and I'll get Dumbledore to call in some Aurors."
Five minutes later, Dumbledore, Poppy, Severus, Xander and Remus all arrived at the clearing where Buffy kept watch over the sleeping Death Eaters. "ETA of the Aurors is ten minutes," Xander said, answering Buffy's first question.
Severus went straight to her. He was thankful to see that she was relatively uninjured. Remus and Xander weren't at all bothered. Poppy was preparing the simple healing potion. "Severus, I'm FINE! It's just a little cut. Head wounds bleed a lot. That's the way it is. Just let me go. I want to see who these boys are before the cleanup crew gets here," she glared at her boyfriend while she said this.
Buffy stalked over to the pile of men and started pulling off masks. "Hmm, you look an awful like Linus Flint, are you his daddy?" she murmured at one rather rat-like man, "Ohh, and, lemme guess, you are Jessalyn Dinkman's father?" She turned to the group of people staring at her like she had grown another head. "It's like an Evil People of Hogwarts: Grown Up! Special!" she said by way of explanation.
An hour and a half later, the Death Eaters had been taken into custody and Albus, Buffy, Poppy, Remus, Severus and Xander were on their way back to the castle. Xander started saying, "You should have seen Sevvy here. Kept popping up in our fireplaces saying 'Buffy…Death Eaters…injured…help!' And here all you have is one little cut."
"That's what I said," Buffy grumbled, "But no. Let's bring the cavalry."
Severus shot back, "You looked horrible in the mirror. Blood in your eyes, how was I to know?"
"Aww, you care," Buffy whispered in his ear, leaving a peck on his cheek, "At least they didn't find out that spells don't affect me."
"How did you manage that?" Remus asked, surprised.
"I'm fast. And that nifty sword worked. Absorbed the Killing Curse."
"I've always wondered what that did," Albus mused, the sword had been taken from the school's collection of swords, "We got it about a thousand years ago from an unknown benefactor. I must admit, I never knew it had that power. The runes were unreadable, not of this world…"
"But now we know what it does. Can I keep it? Please, please please please?" Buffy begged.
Albus looked over at his youngest faculty member and said, "Of course you may. And now, I am off to bed. My body does need a bit of sleep."
The remaining people soon split up. The cut on Buffy's head had been completely healed. Xander was tired and had planned to meet Mr. Weasley to go shopping for parts for their submarine. Poppy had a boy who had managed to turn his hand into a head of lettuce in the infirmary. Remus…was Remus. Soon enough, Buffy and Severus were left by themselves in the hallway. She rested her head against his chest.
"Tired, love?" Sev asked her. Buffy nodded, her eyes closed. Surprisingly, he picked her up and carried her back to their apartment. She was asleep before they even reached the door.