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.
REVIEWERS … I LOVE YOU ALL!!
Wow … I didn't expect to get so many for such a short chappie!
spacecatdet: You wrote "Hogwart's students start when they are 11, not 10, which means the girls have to be aged to 17 not 16;" year 1 begins at age 11, 2@12, 3@13, 4@14, 5@15, and sixth year at age 16 … or maybe my American math education missed something …
Athene Saile: I wanted the events to begin immediately after "Grave" (May 21, 2002) and HP-OotP (year unknown but clearly ending at the start of summer), so I worked in a summer session.
midoth: thanks for the suggestion, and I'll definitely see what I can do with that in future chapters! … Though it may be a while, as I've got the next several already pretty much written.
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CHAPTER 10:
DINNER
Buffy and Willow spent most of the rest of the day closeted in their dorm room, where Willow had left the books she borrowed from the library. They skipped lunch, and only left the room twice, both times to go up the stairs to the roof of Slytherin Tower to practice their magic where they would be unlikely to damage anything if anything went wrong.
Buffy didn't feel like she was doing badly, and Willow assured her that she wasn't. In just a few hours, she had already managed to levitate a quill pen, transform a matchstick into a needle, stun a few unsuspecting insects, summon a dim light from the end of her wand, boil and freeze water, set a small piece of cloth on fire, magnify her vision, and accomplish a whole list of other tasks from different first-year books from several years ago that Willow had borrowed from the library earlier that day. Buffy knew Willow wasn't lying; the books themselves said that learning what she had learned in one day should have taken two weeks, though the books didn't assume one would be working from sunup to sundown.
For all of her own accomplishments and Willow's reassurances, however, it was fairly clear that Willow was already miles ahead of her. Watching the redheaded wiccan work was something else. While Buffy was managing to levitate a quill pen, Willow had actually managed to levitate herself, even if she only managed to lift herself a few inches for a few seconds. She had also transfigured a newspaper into a sundial, water into coffee, insects into pebbles, then the pebbles into sugar cubes for the coffee, and the coffee cup into an old-fashioned pocket-watch when she was finished. She had summoned a much brighter light from the tip of her wand than Buffy had been able to manage, and had even managed to slow down the breeze blowing atop the tower for a minute or so. Of course, Buffy had seen Willow use much more powerful magic than that, but Willow seemed to be determined to do things the Hogwarts way—which Buffy heartily approved of, because she never detected the slightest hint of the darkness in her friends' eyes that had betrayed when she had drawn too deeply on powers best left alone.
"How far ahead are you already?" Buffy asked after Willow slowed the wind.
Willow coughed uncomfortably. "We're both kind of behind, you know."
"You know what I mean."
"Well, that one's in the third-year textbook."
"Don't tell me you've covered three years in a day," Buffy growled. That was just completely unfair.
Willow laughed demurely. "No, no, it's not like that … how many times did we ever cover a complete textbook from cover to cover at school?"
"Not sure. I didn't usually get from the cover to page one."
Willow threw up her hands in mock-helplessness. "Teachers are doing really well if they get through half of any textbook and get their students to remember a quarter of that by the end of the course."
"Hey, not my fault. I kind of had other things going on."
"True, but they were the kind of things that made bad excuse notes."
"'A vampire ate my homework,'" Buffy tried aloud. "Nah, guess not."
Willow smiled. "A little strong on the pushing things there."
"Tell me about it. Most the teachers in Sunnydale were less sympathetic than the vampires. At least the fang gang knew what I went through every night."
"Let's just hope the ones here are a little nicer. Though that might be expecting a little much."
"Yeah, I can't wait for my first Potions class with Snape."
"How do you think I feel? I've got to take private tutoring in Occlumency with him, just me and Harry."
"In that case," Buffy answered with a wicked grin, "I would guess you feel pretty darn good about it."
Willow's ears reddened. "Well, it might not be all bad," she admitted modestly. Buffy burst out laughing, and the red in Willow's ears deepened and spread to her cheeks. "We're so pathetic, aren't we?" the wiccan asked after another moment.
"Oh, but we've got it down to such an art. The gang back home would be so proud."
"That reminds me," Willow added, "we should head down to dinner soon. I want to get Harry's address before he leaves, just in case we want to keep in touch during the summer."
"He's leaving?" Buffy hadn't heard that.
Willow nodded. "Apparently he has to spend his summers at home for some reason; he was just here getting some books to take home to study, and visit Ron and Hermione and his friends for a couple of days. He won't be back until fall."
"And you're feeling how about this?"
"Not like I've got a say in it, is it? Besides, you know, it has its advantages—like being able to study without being distracted, and me not risking making an idiot of myself and losing whatever vague self-esteem I have left."
"You're so not OK with that." Willow was one of the worst liars Buffy had ever met.
"Did I not already mention the patheticness that is us?" Willow asked morosely.
"You did, and our patheticness now requires us to go to dinner to get your prefect's address," Buffy answered, putting her arm around her friend and pulling her to her feet. "Seize the moment, remember?"
"The last time you told me that, I ended up getting led into a graveyard by a vampire," Willow reminded her pointedly. "And stop calling him 'my prefect!'"
"Just staying optimistic," Buffy said lightly.
"And what in our history with the opposite sex would make you do a thing like that?"
"Hey!" Buffy pouted. She had left herself so open for that one.
"Maybe we should just go to dinner late … you know, I can get his address tomorrow morning at breakfast …"
"No, we're going to dinner right now," Buffy answered firmly. "We're going to get you Harry Potter's address and you're going to waste countless hours for the rest of the summer when you should be studying writing to him."
"But …"
"No buts!" Buffy cut her off as she guided her friend towards the exit.
"Yes, Ma'am," Willow said with mock-modesty.
Dinner had already started by the time they arrived; Harry was already sitting near the head of the Gryffindor table, surrounded by Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and a few other older Gryffindors that Buffy had seen him with earlier. Buffy noted that the Gryffindors didn't seem to have the same politics going on at their table that the Slytherins did; from the sound of things, Harry probably had as much status as anyone in Gryffindor, but he was seating a good six or seven seats down from the head of the table, and no one else seemed to really care about where they were sitting. Or how they were eating. That just seemed to be the Gryffindor way: fiery, emotional, and dramatic. Her mind went back to the wild cheering that had erupted when she had flown out of the dungeons the previous night with Torrence. She had saved people's lives before; she was usually rewarded with breathless thank-you's and stunned relief. The Gryffindors had acted like the Sunnydale football team after winning the district title.
She shook her head to clear her mind as she followed Willow to their seats. She was beginning to understand why she had ended up in Slytherin. She had barely been here for a day and she was already starting to understand the natures and politics between the Houses, without even trying.
She glanced up the Slytherin table just before sitting down next to Willow. Several faces quickly and conspicuously turned away. Buffy scowled. They were still trying to figure out why Buffy and Willow had refused to move up to the head of the table. No doubt they had read all kinds of politics into it.
"Will, could you pass the crab salad?" she said as she sat down, deliberately ignoring the stares. Maybe I deserve to be a Slytherin, she seethed inwardly, but I don't have to play by the Slytherin rules. Of course, she realized a moment later, not playing by the rules was known to be a Slytherin trait. She rolled her eyes at the artificial sky. Talk about a no-win situation.
Willow smiled, somehow understanding what Buffy was doing, and passed the crab salad. Buffy noticed that Willow was studiously avoiding looking across the room.
"Psst psst … he's still there," Buffy whispered in Willow's ear. The redheaded wiccan blushed again.
"I can't just go walking across the room and ask him, you know?"
"Of course not," Buffy answered dismissively. "Just wait until he leaves. Catch him outside."
"What if he … well …"
"What?"
"Doesn't want to be caught?"
"Well, you'll never know if you don't give it a shot. Besides, why come down here just to not ask?"
"Because you dragged me?"
"Well, besides that."
They bantered back and forth for a few more minutes before, out of the corner of her eye, Buffy noticed Harry getting up from the table. She bit her lip. He was leaving early, and Ron and Hermione had gotten up with him.
"Come on, Will, time to go."
Emotions warred on Willow's face, and she eventually simply threw her head down. Her lip trembled dangerously. "I can't," she said. "I'm sorry, I just can't, I mean I barely know him."
"We've been through this already," Buffy hissed exasperatedly. However, a moment later, Buffy realized, Willow was right. If she dragged him out to talk to him, she'd more than likely either get utterly tongue-tied or gibber like a loon, and it didn't seem very likely that Willow would be any better by breakfast the following day.
"All right," Buffy said a moment later. "I'll go talk to him."
"No, it's all right, you don't have to."
"You mean I wouldn't if you would," Buffy threw back over her shoulder as she pushed back her chair. She didn't give Willow time to send a retort her way; Harry had already nearly reached the doors at the back of the hall, and if Willow wanted to argue the point, she was going to have to get up and come after her.
Buffy was halfway back down the hall when Harry reached the doors at the far end. He stopped for a moment, glanced backward, then shrugged and turned back through the doors, following his friends. Buffy spared time for a look behind her, trying to follow where the black-haired boy's eyes had gone. They had clearly been turned towards the Slytherin table. Buffy saw Malfoy at the head of the Slytherin table scowling after the departing young wizard with undisguised disdain, but she didn't think Potter had been looking at him. The shrug Harry had given before leaving didn't look like the likely response of a Gryffindor to such a challenging stare, particularly from Malfoy. It had been much more anticlimactic than that. Buffy looked at Willow; Willow was paying studious attention to her food, not meeting anyone's gaze but her plate's.
Buffy set off again for the back doors a moment later. She reached them just in time to see Harry and his two friends taking a stairway out of the Entrance Hall. She hurried after them; no one seemed to be watching, so she didn't feel any more reservations about running.
"Harry!" she called as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Harry, Ron and Hermione were just at the top. Harry turned around. When he saw who it was, he motioned Ron and Hermione to go on ahead; a moment later, sharing a shrug, the two of them did so. Buffy climbed the stairs to meet him at the second floor landing.
"Hey, Buffy," he said as she approached.
"Hey," she answered. "Heard you were leaving tomorrow morning."
"Yeah," Harry admitted, with a rather forlorn look. Apparently he didn't like wherever it was he was going, or was strongly attached to Hogwarts, or both.
"Anyway, I was wondering if I could have your address—in case we want to send … uh, owls … back and forth over summer?"
Harry gave her an appraising look. "You were wondering?" he asked slowly.
"Well, all right, Willow was, too."
"And you've never sent mail by owl?"
"No, sorry, kind of new at all this."
"No, no, it's fine," Harry answered. There was an unreadable look in his eyes, but it wasn't distant or unfriendly in any way. "So Willow wanted my address?"
"Well, yeah."
"Nope."
"Excuse me?"
"Nope," he repeated, and she could tell that he was being serious, even though he was grinning and his tone was light, even amused. Buffy's mouth dropped open, and she wondered if she were losing her touch. Harry continued a moment later. "But let her know if she would ask me herself, I might give it to her." He started up the stairs again for a moment, then turned around. "You can tell, her, too, that it would mean a lot to me if she would. Friends don't need anyone between them." A moment later, he was following his friends.
Buffy was left staring after him for a minute, not knowing what on Earth she could say to him to press the matter further, and a minute later, the moment to do so was gone. Her first instinct was to be offended, but then it came to her that Harry was indirectly giving Willow the exact same advice that Buffy herself had given her only moments earlier. For some reason, it just seemed less—well, appropriate—coming from him, though she couldn't quite put her finger on why. She also felt partly like she had been turned down, even though she was only asking for a friend. However, a moment later, the impact of the last thing he had said hit her.
Friends don't need anyone between them. She had taken it as just a British way of saying friends shouldn't need go-betweens. But it wasn't. Buffy could now go back to Willow and say that Harry had not given Buffy his address, which would help stop Willow from thinking that Harry was, as Buffy herself had said earlier, 'stealing her prefect.' If Willow asked Harry herself, there was no chance of her thinking he was just giving his address because Buffy was asking.
She thought of how McGonagall had told her yesterday that she'd have made a good Gryffindor. It occurred to her that Harry might have made a good Slytherin.
It didn't look like Willow had so much as looked to either side for the entire time Buffy had been gone, though it looked like she had at least been eating. Buffy sat down next to her with a friendly smile.
"Well?" Willow asked nervously.
"Nope," Buffy said lightly.
"What?" Willow looked confused, and a little crestfallen.
"He wouldn't give me his address," Buffy explained, softly, trying to keep anyone else from listening. She imagined she looked very Slytherin-ish, talking in near-whispers. "But he said he'd give it to you if you asked. And, for what it's worth, he sounded like he wanted you to."
Willow's eyes widened, mostly with fear and nerves, but Buffy saw a quick, excited light pass behind them before the nerves took over. "You're kidding, right?"
"Serious as Snyder," Buffy promised.
"You're never that serious."
"I know. Good thing, too. But I'm not kidding."
"Oh my gosh, that's cruel. He's cruel. He's evil. It is just like the last time you told me to seize the moment."
"Except for the fangs and graveyard."
"Well, yeah, but still, all with the cruelness and the evil." Nevertheless, despite her nerves, Willow was clearly in a much better mood than she had been ten minutes ago, and Buffy was smiling again.
"So, what's the plan?" Buffy asked a moment later.
"Still working on that," Willow admitted. "But, well, at least I'm starting to feel that there might at least be one."
A knot loosened in Buffy's stomach, and her smile brightened. "We're getting somewhere."
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COMING SOON: Chapter 11, "The Owlery." Willow and Hermione share some grousing about Divination … and Willow and Harry finally get some alone time.
SNEAK PREVIEW:
"And I'm going to guess you've never sent mail by owl before?"
"Nope," Willow admitted. "But I think I'll figure it out. Why? Is it hard?"
Harry gave her a secretive smile, and scooted forward on his broom to make room, motioning her to sit down behind him. "Why don't I go show you?" he asked.
FINAL NOTE: For anyone else out there whose future involves the LSAT, may you age less when you take it than I just did this morning. I feel like a dementor just came up and sucked the life out of me.