DISCLAIMER: The characters aren't mine. I'm borrowing them from the esteemed Joss Whedon and J.K. Rawling.
SPOILERS/BACKGROUND: Everything from BtVS Season 1 to Season 6, AtS Seasons 1 to 3, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
MORE THANKS TO …
Lisette … great to hear from you at long last! Good to hear the moving nightmares are drawing to a close!
DragonKatGal, Lisette (again!), Ranae, and everyone else who took time to write a more in-depth review or e-mail. I always enjoy reading those! (Plus I've always been jealous of the length of the reviews that Minerva McTabby tends to receive.)
All new readers! Thanks for taking the time to look over my humble work. Special thanks to those who took the time to review individual chapters as they went! I sincerely appreciate it.
All reviews always welcome! I hope everyone is enjoying this so far!
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CHAPTER 4:
THE HOGWARTS EXPRESS
"Ergh," Buffy groaned as the first rays of sunlight fell across her eyelids.
Willow stirred in the bed next to her, though only to scrunch up tighter in an attempt to avoid the sun. "Ergh," the redhead agreed.
"Ergh," Buffy groaned again. Then, "What time is it?"
Willow stretched out at looked at her watch. "10:30." Then she took another look. "10:30?!"
Buffy bounded out of bed, peeling her nightdress off as she did and practically diving for her suitcase. "Dammit, we slept in! We'll never make it in time!"
"You could always fly," Willow kidded, rousing herself much more gradually. All things considered, she was in a good mood this morning, even despite the events of the previous night, because for the first night in a long time, her sleep had been untroubled by nightmares of Tara. She had also fallen asleep with her nose in a book, the Beginner's Book of Spells that had been on their reading list, something she had always enjoyed doing but hadn't done a long time.
"And you could always move," Buffy retorted.
"Relax," Willow said, pulling her new wand from out of its case. She made a gesture in the air and said, "Apparelate." Buffy and Willow were both completely dressed.
Buffy's eyes widened. "You're learning quickly."
"I think you will, too, once we get into things. You're a Slayer, after all."
"Will, I'm going to be taking classes, but you know I'm really here just to be with you."
Willow shrugged. "I bet Dumbledore won't see it that way. Nor any teachers, probably, though we haven't met any yet. We know teachers."
Buffy groaned again.
"Now I just wish I knew something for showers and hair," Willow mused.
"Never mind. We're going low-maintenance today. We've got to make that train, or we'll be completely lost."
They scrambled all the way down the stairs, out the door, up Diagon Alley, and out into the streets of Muggle London. Fortunately, it was after the morning rush, and they were able to travel more quickly without Hagrid with them. On the other hand, they were pulling a lot of suitcases with them; Buffy ended up carrying five suitcases at a time—all three of her own and two of Willow's—up and down several flights of stairs in the different Tube stations. They finally made it to King's Cross at 10:50.
"Come on, we still have to make the train!" Buffy said as they leapt off the Tube at the station. Willow was right behind her. Willow noticed that Buffy was getting a lot of strange looks from passersby alert enough to see how much she was carrying, but she was not about to say anything at the moment.
They made it to the main lobby adjacent to the platforms. "What platform are we?" Buffy called out to Willow. The Slayer had no hands free to look at their tickets.
"Er … this makes no sense … it says 9¾."
"Do platforms come in fractions?"
"Not that I know of," Willow answered flatly.
"Well, let's just get to between platforms nine and ten. Maybe someone there can help us."
There was an aisle that ran between platforms nine and ten; platform nine was on one side, platform ten on the other. There was nothing in between but a row of brick columns.
"So now what?" Buffy panted. "Just stop someone and ask, 'hey, where's platform 9¾?'"
"I don't know," Willow answered. "See if you see anyone that looks … you know … odd."
"Right," Buffy answered, remembering how everyone in Diagon Alley had looked.
Suddenly, Buffy's supernatural hearing picked up a pair of voices shouting and running not far away.
"Harry, if we're late again, Mum's gonna kill me. Maybe even you, too."
"Relax, Ron, we've got five minutes. The train leaves for Hogwarts at eleven sharp—and unlike most trains here, it runs on time."
"Five minutes isn't much time!" the other voice answered him. "A lot can go wrong … remember your elf friend?"
"Don't be such a pessimist," the second boy's voice spoke again. Buffy finally got a glimpse of the two of them. Both were wearing robes that could have been normal, but Buffy recognized them, because she had one just like it in her suitcase. In addition, both were pushing trolleys, and one of the items on the second trolley was an owl in a cage. Buffy had seen enough of them in Diagon Alley to know what she was looking at.
"Will!" she called. Willow turned around. Buffy pointed after the two boys, who were already running further down the platform. "Follow them!" Willow immediately picked out the two and followed them, Buffy right behind her.
The two boys were only steps ahead of them when they appeared to veer off course. The red-haired one, leading the charge, careened straight for one of the brick pillars, and Buffy flinched in advance of the collision.
The collision never came. The boy and his trolley vanished into the pillar as if it weren't even there, save that he didn't come out the other side.
"Wait!" Willow called to the one remaining boy.
The boy turned around. He had an unruly mop of black hair that had the look of hair that would not lie straight despite the best intentions of its owner. He wore a fairly nondescript pair of glasses. Like the boy they had met the previous day, Draco, he seemed to be just filling out the height that he had gained over the previous few years. When he saw Willow, he seemed to flinch inexplicably for a moment, but regained control of himself quickly, though he spoke as though he were in a rush.
"Umm …"
"Listen, you're going to Hogwarts, right?" Willow asked, just loud enough for the boy to hear her.
"Sure," the boy answered.
"Sorry, we're American exchange students, this is our first time here … can you tell us …?"
"Ah, how to get to 9¾?" the boy seemed to understand, and seemed to be a bit relieved, as though he had been expecting Willow to attack him or something. "Don't worry, I needed help my first time, too. Real simple, though. Just run straight into the pillar."
"No … spells … first?"
"Nope, it's all already in the barrier. If you're accepted into Hogwarts, you'll get through."
"Nifty," Willow answered with a smile, and the boy gave her a warm smile in return.
"Why don't I go first?" Buffy offered. Willow nodded. Just in case this didn't work, Buffy could handle running into a wall.
"Best to go at a bit of a run," the boy added.
Buffy lined herself up and ran straight at the wall. Willow watched her run forward … and vanish. "Wow," she said. She had half expected the boy to have been playing a joke on her and to have to pick up the contents of her luggage from all over the platform.
"Why don't you go next?" the boy offered. "I'll go last."
"S-sure," Willow answered. She was getting nervous already. She took a deep breath, and started for the pillar.
She skidded to a halt a few feet shy of the wall. "I can't do this," she said breathlessly.
"Sure you can. Once more. Just like she did, go at a bit of a run."
Willow tried once more, and choked at the last instant, skidding to a halt in front of the forbidding brick.
The boy cast an eye up at the clock on the wall, and Willow followed his gaze. It was 10:58.
"I can't do this, I can't do this," Willow mouthed again.
The boy smiled. "Here," he said. He cast his own trolley in front of him and through the brick portal. The boy himself stayed behind, however. Willow did not have a trolley, and all she had left was one suitcase, so he could not tell her to do the same with her own to show that it worked.
"Come on," he encouraged her, sticking a hand into the brick to show that the portal was still open.
"I …" Willow was having flashbacks to the times she had politely declined to go skydiving, or bungee jumping, or white-water rafting, and this seemed like an even less intelligent idea.
The boy was still smiling at her, at least. That was comforting. It just wasn't quite giving her the confidence to run headlong into a brick wall.
The boy came over and took her suitcase, casting it through the wall as well. He then turned around one more time. "Ready?" he asked.
"Not really," Willow admitted with a leaden feeling in her stomach.
"It's OK, we'll do it together," he said. He took her hand, and turned her around so that she would be backing through the gate, facing him instead of the brick wall. For some reason, that seemed to give her an extra shot of confidence. She forced her breathing to steady.
"Right," she said after a moment, casting a glance up at the time. The boy seemed to have lost track of it. It was 10:59 and thirty seconds. It was now or never. "Let's go," she said.
The boy nodded, and gradually eased her back through the gate, never letting go of her eyes with his own until they were through, and Willow suddenly found herself looking at a brick wall materializing behind the boy that had not been there before.
"Wow," she breathed again. The two held each other's eyes for another moment, until a train whistle startled them.
Buffy and the red-haired boy were standing on the balcony on the rear car of the train, shouting frantically for them to hurry up. All of their luggage had already been loaded; a red-haired woman who had to be the other boy's mother was just loading Harry's last suitcase, and passing up a thinner, longer, separately wrapped bundle. Suddenly, with a lurch, the train started to move.
"Oh, no, come on," the boy said, pulling her after him. Willow needed no urging, running forward as fast as her legs could carry her, but in her sixteen-year-old bookworm's body, that was not as fast as needed. The train chugged past the end of the platform only seconds ahead of the running pair.
The boy muttered a curse, then turned to her, scowling at the people behind her who were giving them sympathetic but helpless expressions. "Do you trust me?" he asked earnestly.
"I … think so …" Willow answered.
The boy turned and pulled a wand from within his robes and pointed it at the train. "Accio Firebolt!" he called.
Willow saw something rise up off of the platform where Buffy and the taller boy were still standing with their luggage. A moment later, she saw it was a broomstick, and that it was flying right for them. A moment later, the boy caught it in his hand. A moment after that, he was astride it, holding out his hand to help her mount behind him.
"I don't know about this," Willow said, the leaden feeling in her stomach returning. She looked into the boy's eyes again for confidence, and for some reason, found it there. "Not too fast?" she said.
"Sure, just hurry up before the train picks up any more speed."
Willow nodded and did her best to swallow the butterflies in her stomach. Even though she did understand what they boy was saying about getting there before the train really got moving, it took her a minute to find a position where she didn't feel like she was going to fall off the moment the boy kicked off. She ended up holding the boy around the waist as tightly as she could, her head tucked down in the small of the boy's back.
"Not too fast," she reminded him. "I've never flown before."
"Seriously?" the boy was genuinely surprised. "Wow … never mind, let's just …"
"Wait!" Willow called.
"What?" the boy asked.
"Just … tell me your name first."
For some reason, a tension that Willow hadn't even noticed was there seemed to flow out of the boy's shoulders and arms as she said that. He turned around and gave her another winsome smile. "Harry," he said. "Harry Potter."
With that, he kicked into the air, and true to his word, he stayed low to the ground and didn't go that quickly, at least not at first. They had delayed long enough to let the train pick up some speed, however, so he was forced to gradually increase their pace. The wind caught Willow's hair and it streamed out behind her like a banner, and the breeze whistled over her back.
Suddenly, a familiar voice drifted down to her. It was Buffy! Willow finally forced herself to look up, fighting against the wind in her face. They were closing in on the train, and Buffy and the red-haired boy that Harry had arrived with were both still standing at the back of the last car, cheering them on like race fans urging a tired underdog down the home stretch. For some reason, that took a lot of the fear out of the whole experience, though she did not think she was about to try flying again anytime soon.
"Hang on!!" Harry called back to her, and ducked her head down again. There was a lurch as Harry turned, racing out ahead of the last car, then turning back in to reach the car at an angle and flying on board from the side, exactly as he would have done as if boarding the train from the platform. Willow suddenly realized that his feet were on the ground, and put hers down with a welcome sigh of relief. Buffy helped her dismount.
"That was awesome!" Buffy congratulated Harry. "I wish I'd have been late!"
"Ugh, no you don't," Willow sighed, her breathing and her balance beginning to return to normal. She turned back to Harry. "But thank you, anyway, I really appreciate it. I'd never have been able to make the train like that."
"No problem," he said with a grin. "I love flying, anyway."
"You're very good at it. I mean, I've never seen anyone else fly on a broom, but I'm sure you're good at it."
"Hey, don't give him any bigger a head than he already has. He's already thinking he can outfly Viktor Krum."
"He isn't a god, Ron," Harry retorted pointedly.
The red-haired boy rolled his eyes and decided to change the subject. "Anyway, now that we're all here, I'm Ron. Ron Weasley. That was me mum you passed back on the platform."
"And I'm Harry. Harry Potter."
"Nice to meet you," Buffy replied. "And thanks for helping out my friend, too. And I'm Buffy. Buffy Summers.
"Willow Rosenberg," Willow said simply with a shy wave.
"All right, well, shall we go sit down?"
"Yes, let's," Willow answered, eager to get inside.
"Ginny's saving us a car," Ron added. Then, looking around at the four of them, added "it's going to be a bit cramped with six of us."
"We'll manage," Harry answered. "Come on."
He led them inside to a compartment just inside the last car. Two other girls were already inside. "That one with the red hair is my sister Ginny," Ron said. "Going to be a fifth-year Gryffindor, and the other one is my best friend Hermione Granger, sixth year Gryffindor, same as us." He then introduced Buffy and Willow to the others.
"Hey, cool, we're going to be sixth-years, too," Buffy noted.
"Really? What Houses are you in?" asked Hermione, a rather lanky but attractive-faced girl sitting at the window.
"Uh … we don't have Houses yet," Buffy explained. "We're new, from America. Uh … what are Houses?"
"Your House is sort of like your fraternity, sort of like your family," Hermione explained, in a very academic voice. "There are four of them: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. People get selected for a House when they first arrive at Hogwarts based on their personal qualities. The short version is that Gryffindors are warriors; Ravenclaws, scientists; Hufflepuffs, industrialists; Slytherins, politicians. It's a bit more complicated than that, though; Slytherins are noted for ambition, Gryffindors for honor, and so on. There are competitions between the Houses all throughout the year."
"Quidditch?" Buffy asked.
"Of course Quidditch," Hermione answered, "but not just Quidditch."
"Not that Quidditch has been much of a competition," Ron said smugly.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Ron just became Keeper for the Gryffindor team last year, and thinks he's a human brick wall now. Which, of course, is perfectly true, just not the way he's thinking."
"Hey, Hermione!"
"Anyway, there are competitions in class, at Quidditch, and at other things—basically anything you do to make your House look good can win you points, and anything you do to make your House look bad can lose you points. The House with the most points at the end of the year gets the House Cup, a really big deal."
"So Ravenclaws are the … well, book-learning types?" Willow offered.
"Normally," Harry entered the conversation for the first time. "But Hermione here is smarter than any Ravenclaw." Hermione blushed. "It's the way she studies … much more like a fighter than a scientist … that makes her a true Gryffindor," Harry added.
"Still, sounds like Ravenclaw's where I'm going to end up," Willow added.
"Not a bad House." Harry certainly didn't seem to think that was a bad thing.
"He's just saying that because Cho is in it," Ron laughed, earning him a friendly punch on the shoulder.
"Somehow I doubt we're going to get back together," Harry sighed. "We were never that serious, and we haven't talked in a long time."
Buffy grinned. It was good to see that people weren't so different in the magical world as the world she had grown up in. Of course, she hadn't quite grown up in the normal world, either.
"Well, I have a feeling I'm going to end up in Gryffindor," Buffy sighed. "I think fighting is pretty much my job description."
"Really?" Ginny asked. "You don't look … well, I mean … well, looks aren't everything anyway."
"You didn't see her coming onto the platform," Ron added. "Carrying five ruddy big suitcases, she was."
"Oh well. As long as you're not Slytherin," Ginny finished.
"Is there something wrong with Slytherin?" Buffy asked.
"Most of them," Harry answered. "Or at least a lot of them. Just about every wizard that's ever gone bad has been a Slytherin."
Willow had a sudden dread in her belly that she might not end up in Ravenclaw after all.
"I take it this Voldemort character we keep hearing about was one," she asked.
Ron and Ginny suddenly reacted as though someone had dropped a live snake in front of them, tensing up and scooting away from them, which annoyed Hermione in particular, as Ron scooted right into her. Hermione herself seemed a little uneasy at the mention of the name. Only Harry was unfazed.
"He was," Harry confirmed. "His original name was Tom Riddle, a long time ago."
Willow sighed. Tom Riddle. A completely normal human name, not a demon, not an evil spirit. Not at all unlike Willow Rosenberg.
"And I take it people have a rather odd superstition about mentioning his name," Buffy surmised.
"People do," Harry said with a wicked grin. "I've been trying to get Ron to use Voldemort's real name for years now, but every time I say 'Voldemort,' Ron acts like Voldemort himself entered the room. Voldemort gets so much power out of his reputation, just because people teach themselves to fear the name 'Voldemort.'"
By the end of this, Ron and Ginny were pressed against the glass and were actually whimpering. Hermione was taking it a little more in stride but was also distracted by the weight of a rather large Weasley on her. "Ron, if you don't get off me right now, you're going to end up flying to Hogwarts without a broom."
Harry gave Willow a conspiratorial wink. "Told you she was a Gryffindor."
"Well, isn't this a merry gathering?" a new voice asked from the doorway.
Buffy turned around. "Draco!" she said. She hadn't expected to see him here.
For some reason, none of the others seemed as pleased to see him. "Malfoy," Harry said curtly.
Draco hadn't recognized Buffy until she turned around. As soon as he recognized her, his posture seemed to change a little. Some of the stiffness left his face.
"Well, quite a little party you've got going here. Don't let me spoil it," he said brusquely, shutting the door again and walking off down the hall.
Harry looked confused. "You know, that may be the shortest exchange of words Malfoy and I have ever had?"
"Normally he's just warming up at that point," Ron agreed.
"Maybe he's lost a little of his confidence without Crabbe and Goyle to back him up," Hermione suggested.
"Never stopped him before," Harry disagreed. "And he's got everything Lucius couldn't take with him now. I'd think his head would be twice as big as before."
"I take it the two of you aren't the best of friends?" Buffy asked.
"Malfoy?" Ron said with a laugh. "That great git's been the bane of our existence since our first day at Hogwarts five years ago."
Buffy squirmed. She hadn't seen anything of the sort in the boy back at Quality Qudditch Supplies, but then again, he had also clearly acted differently than he had been going to when he had recognized her in the car.
"I'll be right back," she said, excusing herself.
She turned right, towards the rear of the train. There were only two compartments further back than theirs, but Draco was sitting alone in the rearmost one, reading a book of some kind. She slid the door open quietly and stepped inside.
"Hey," she said softly, taking a seat across from him.
He looked up. "Get too crowded in Potter's clubhouse?" he asked.
Buffy shrugged. "You looked like you could use some company."
Draco's eyes widened. He hadn't expected that. He shrugged. "Sure they didn't kick you out? I'd hate to think they forced you to go sit with Draco Malfoy."
"No one forced me to do anything," Buffy replied testily. "I just wanted to see how you were. And say that that was a rather different you than I saw back in Diagon Alley."
Draco grinned wickedly. "Saint Potter always brings out the best in me."
"Yeah, I kind of got the impression that you weren't exactly chummy," Buffy answered. "But I don't think that was the real you. I don't think you're as mean as … well, as those four think you are. At the very least, I came over here to apologize for them."
Draco laughed. "Apologize? I think Potter would box your ears if he heard you say that."
"He might find that harder to do than he thinks," Buffy replied with a secretive smile. "But before, you were saying … why wouldn't people want to sit with you? I've been here for three minutes now, I haven't been turned into a toad."
Draco looked at her quizzically. "You seriously don't know?"
"American, remember? News gets there kind of late."
Draco shrugged. "Dad was a Death Eater. Potter exposed him, he had to run. A lot of Slytherins did, about a third of us are gone, including the two kids I used to hang out with a lot."
Buffy shrugged. She had no idea what a Death Eater was, but it sounded rather unpleasant. "But you're not a … a whatever it was, a Death Eater?"
Draco laughed mirthlessly. "No, but that doesn't stop everyone from treating me like one. Not many of their kids came back."
Buffy understood that Draco was saying that his father had been quite a … well, a bad guy … but there was something about him that told her that he hadn't made any choices yet about where he was going with his own life. "So … why did you? Come back, I mean."
Draco shrugged uncomfortably. "Not sure. A lot of reasons. Partly because I'm not ready to give up, and I'll be damned if I let Potter think I ran away. Partly just for the Quidditch, though the team's going to be in trouble this year. Partly just because I have too much to lose," he said, holdng up the book he had been reading. Management of Magical Estates, by Midas McGold, the title read. "Partly because I'm a prefect, so I get to feel a little important here—though it doesn't have the same feeling, since Dumbledore made Potter one right after the end of fifth year, just a few weeks ago. Broke the tradition of two from each year of each House. That git gets more special treatment … well, never mind. And … well, call me reckless, but partly just because Hogwarts always seems to be where all the action is."
Buffy became pensive for a moment, thinking Sunnydale had always been the place where 'all the action' was. "It's not … Hogwarts, I mean … it's not … on a Hellmouth, by any chance?"
Draco actually laughed, and Buffy found herself cheered, even though she had no good reason to be; Draco really did have a bright smile, when he chose to bring it out. She made a mental note to herself to get her to bring it out more often.
"Is that what they call it over there?" he laughed. "Typically American. Well, it's certainly on a Node, a supernatural confluence of mystical energies, but you can't really call it a Hellmouth … a Dark Node … unless something really bad taints it. Not likely while Dumbledore and all the professors are there."
"Well, that's good, at least," she breathed. "And I think it's good that you came back. Not giving up is the first step towards winning. Whatever it is that you're trying to win." She flashed him a smile of her own. "And you have a great smile," she said, getting up. "You really ought to show it more often."
She let herself out of the cabin, enjoying the expression of Draco's face, just as the train whistle announced their approach to their destination.
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COMING SOON: Chapter 5, "The Sorting Ceremony." Buffy and Willow get their first look at the legendary school of witchcraft and wizardry that will be their home away from home this summer, and must go through the Sorting ceremony in the enchanted Great Hall with the first-years.
SNEAK PREVIEW:
The Sorting went on. There were more than fifty new students for the summer term, which Buffy heard several of them say was a record. Eventually, however, the R's came up. Jeremy Robbins was sorted into Hufflepuff, and then …
"Willow Rosenberg!"
"'Luck, Will." Buffy nudged her friend forward.