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.

      Reviews always welcome!  (Responses to reviews at end of chapter.)

            *           *           *           *           *

      CHAPTER 13:

      PARTING

      Willow could tell that something was wrong the moment she walked into their dorm room.  Buffy was there.  She wasn't smiling.

      She was studying.

      "Whoa, what's the special occasion?" she asked.

      Buffy looked up, and quickly shut the book she was reading.  The sullen expression faded from her face, and she grinned lightly.  Too lightly, Willow would have said.  "Well, you certainly have a little extra bounce in your step," she commented.  "Things went well, I take it?"

      "I think so.  I mean, we hit it off really well, and I'm going to say goodbye to him down by the lake tomorrow morning after breakfast, and I learned to send owl-mail."

      Buffy smiled, and though it looked genuine, it also looked somewhat weak.  "That's awesome, Will."  The smile faded.  "And he convinced you to get on the back of his broom, too, I saw."

      Willow stiffened.  Buffy had been watching?  How much had she been watching?  "You … saw?" she asked carefully.

      Buffy sighed, and tossed the book aside.  "Draco and I went out for a flight.  He showed me around the grounds, and we went up higher than I'd ever gone—than he'd ever gone, either—and everything was going great, then we came back down just as you and Harry were flying to the Owlery.  Just for a moment.  I'd have just let it pass if he hadn't seen, too.  He completely flew off the handle."

      The knot that had vanished from Willow stomach for a while returned.  "Am I in trouble?"

      "Not with me, you're not.  He is," Buffy stated flatly.

      "Still, I'm sorry.  It sounds like you were having a great evening up 'til then."

      "I was.  Draco is so nice until he gets started on Harry.  Things generally go downhill from there."

      "So you had a fight?"

      "We had a perfectly polite discussion.  Which is to say, I told him to shut up, told him what he needed to hear, and left."

      "Ooh.  How'd he take it?"

      "Not sure yet.  We'll know if I wake up tomorrow turned into a frog."

      "Ouch."

      Buffy shrugged uncomfortably, but smiled.  "I think I'll survive.  But not if you don't fill me in on all the fun details of the you two I just stood up for."

      Willow grinned, but didn't blush.  "Not much happened.  I met him out by the quidditch pitch, and we went to the Owlery and he showed me how to send owls.  Oh yeah, did you know that the envelopes address themselves?  I mean, without you even needing to know the other person's address?  He sent me this just across the room."  She handed Buffy the envelope that Harry had sent her.

      "You didn't even open it?"

      "I … well, I guess not.  I was just surprised to see the envelope addressing itself."

      For a split-second, Buffy appeared to simply take that in stride, but then the significance hit her.  "Wait, so when he told me …?"

      Willow nodded.  "He just wanted me to come talk to him."

      "I don't know if I should be offended or say 'good for him.'"

      "I think I was a little of both, but leaning towards the good side."

      "Yes, but you're not entirely objective here."

      "No I'm not," Willow admitted with a grin.

      "Good for you," Buffy answered lightly.  "So then what?"

      Willow squirmed uncomfortably.  "Well, we walked back down from the Owlery and across the bridge to the great stairwell, then he told me I could come say goodbye at the lake tomorrow, then we split up."

      "Not bad."

      "Except I think I hurt him," Willow added.  No secrets, remember? she thought to herself, though the temptation to keep it to herself was overwhelming.  She trusted Buffy not to tell anyone, though, and keeping it to herself was making her just as uncomfortable as saying it.

      "Huh?"

      "We talked, you know, as we walked.  We started talking about some serious stuff—apparently his godfather who he was really close to was killed recently, by a Death Eater.  I started to tell him about Tara, but then his head started hurting, and then a moment later, too.  It was almost like … well like he could actually feel the pain when I was just thinking about her."

      "Well, not to be all optimistic, but maybe it was just thinking about his godfather?"

      "Maybe, but for some reason it didn't look like that.  It was too sudden, like one minute it was hurting, and the next minute, it wasn't.  Also it looked more like someone was stabbing him than a headache."  She knew how it felt to think about the recent murder of someone so close, and it hurt, but it didn't look like that.

      "Ouch.  Talk about a heavy conversation.  Did you ask him about it?"

      "Sort of, but he didn't want to talk about it."

      "Well, give him some time."

      "Well, after tomorrow, I'm sort of going to have to."

      "You'll have owls."

      "Not really the same thing."

      "True."

      Willow searched for a change of subject, and found one springing to her mind fairly quickly.  "By the way, about you and Draco …"

      "Will, it's OK, he's just going to have sort out his issues."

      "No, I was just going to say that it doesn't look like he's told anyone, at least not yet."

      "What makes you say that?"

      "Well, I just kind of think people would be looking at me funny … or cursing me … back when I passed through the common room.  Nothing looked unusual."

      "They're Slytherins," Buffy reminded her.  "Hiding what they're thinking seems to be something they do."

      "True, but not all of them are that good at it," Willow countered.  "Heck, Draco's probably the most controlled of the group, and he lost it, so I can only imagine how some of the less … disciplined … kids would react."  Indeed, she remembered, most of the people in the Common Room had barely given her a passing look as she passed through, and it had been pretty obvious that they were thinking about her Defenestrator curse, not anything more serious.

      "Well, I hope so," Buffy said.  "Though it was less than an hour ago, so it's way too early to say."

      "Well, if you want to give it until tomorrow," Willow offered, "there's still a while before lights-out … feel like another study session?"  She was more than up for it herself; studying had always helped clear her mind, and she needed that now, but she knew Buffy didn't always feel the same way.

      "Sure."  Buffy let out an exasperated breath.  "Come on.  Let's work on some of those dueling Charms.  I feel like shooting things."

      Willow grinned lightly, but she found herself wondering, in the suspicious, Slytherin-like corner of mind, if it wouldn't be a bad idea to learn a few more of those herself.  She wasn't going to worry Buffy with it any more tonight, but she found herself wondering what Malfoy might do after Harry left.  "You're on," she said with a feral grin as she reached for her stack of textbooks.

            *           *           *           *           *

      Harry was up late.  He had a lot on his mind.

      It was actually the first time he had used his new prefect's privilege of being out past curfew.  He had only been one for a few weeks, and still didn't really think of himself as one.  The teachers were being tolerant.  It was summer, and they knew he was only here for a few days, and what he'd been through and was going through, but he knew that wouldn't last forever.  The job wasn't anything he couldn't do, keeping the House in order and so on, and he knew people already looked up to him as a leader of the House, but it did take time.  He felt guilty making excuses like that, though.  Ron and Hermione were increasingly busy as well, yet they found time for it, and Harry's appointment had been as much Dumbledore's way of taking some pressure off of them as by way of belated apology to Harry.

      He was not up late thinking about his responsibilities to Gryffindor, however.  He wasn't thinking about any Gryffindor at all.

      He approached the gargoyle statue that concealed the stairs to Dumbledore's office.  He wasn't sure if Dumbledore wanted to see him or not, or had time to, but he knew the old man would find a way to say so, one way or the other.

      There was a note lying on the statue.  Harry looked over and read it.

      It is not our abilities that show what we truly are …, it read.

      Harry looked up with a smile.  Dumbledore had admitted to Harry that he was human and made mistakes, but it was good to be reminded that he was still Dumbledore.  Trust the old man to know everything going on at his school.

      "It is our choices," Harry finished aloud.

      The statue swung around and out of the way, revealing the staircase to the headmaster's office, and Harry climbed up.

      The headmaster was seated at his desk, reading over a stack of old, handwritten sheets of parchment that looked very much like an entire course's worth of meticulous school notes.

      "Good evening, professor," Harry said as he entered.

      Dumbledore looked up with a kindly smile.  "It is indeed," he said.  "Though a much better evening for you, than for me, if I do say so.  Making new friends always makes for a better evening than reviewing one's old Alchemy research."

      Harry actually felt a spot of color rise in his cheeks, but pushed it aside.  "Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that, professor," he continued.

      "Yes?"

      "About Willow."

      "I see," Dumbledore said softly.  "Well, you know, I cannot give out truly personal information about other students.  You might try asking her yourself, though."

      "It sort of involves me, too," Harry explained.  "Sometimes, when I'm with her, or when we look at each other, my scar hurts.  Like it did when Voldemort was really worked up—not really that bad, but the same kind of thing."

      Dumbledore was silent for a moment as he processed this.

      "How much has Miss Rosenberg already told you about herself?" he asked.

      Harry's mind worked.  "She just arrived from America, and said she lost someone very close to her over there recently.  About the same time as Sirius died, actually," he added, just making that connection.

      "She did," Dumbledore confirmed.

      Harry's mind raced further.  "She came here only weeks after her friend died.  I'm suddenly thinking that isn't a coincidence."

      Dumbledore smiled.  "It doesn't sound like you need my help."

      Harry concentrated harder on the conversation they had had on the way back from the Owlery.  I lost someone … my best friend in the whole world … not myself for a while afterward.  It still hurts to think about her.  That had been the moment Harry's scar had begun hurting.

      "She said she was not herself for a while afterward," Harry continued.

      "Is that so surprising?" Dumbledore asked.  "Or have you forgotten your own battle with Bellatrix Lestrange?"

      Harry certainly had not.  I used an Unforgivable Curse, he thought bitterly to himself.  Even though he thought Bellatrix deserved much more than the few seconds of the Cruciatus Curse he had been able to manage, he would take that back if he could.  Grief and anger had blinded him.

      "I suppose not," Harry admitted.  "But why bring her here?  And why does my scar hurt when she thinks about it?  Does she have any connection to … to Voldemort?"

      Dumbledore's smile was benevolent, but serious.  "Don't you?" he asked.

      Harry winced.  He never liked thinking about that.  He used a wand with a core the twin of Voldemort's own, was marked by Voldemort, even had a share of Voldemort's own powers within him.  Not to mention the two sometimes shared thoughts, which was never pleasant.

      "Still," Harry pressed, "you know what I mean."

      Dumbledore stood, and looked thoughtfully out the window.  "Willow Rosenberg is still a mystery to me, too, Harry," he admitted.  He turned a kindly smile on Harry.  "And, if my instincts are not completely amiss, I may not be the one in this room with the best chance of solving it."

      Harry's eyes widened.  Whatever he had been expecting to hear, a yes, a no, a complete runaround, that was not it.

      "But I will say this," Dumbledore.  "I have the assurance of a Gryffindor alumni, who knew Willow for years before she came here and who has my complete confidence, that Willow had never so much as heard the name Voldemort until a few weeks ago."

      That was good enough for Harry, and he thanked Dumbledore and made his way to the exit.  He was halfway back to Gryffindor Tower before he remembered that he had shared a connection with Voldemort long before he had ever heard the Dark Lord's name, too.

            *           *           *           *           *

      Willow stirred groggily.

      "Morning, sunshine," Buffy's voice called from nearby.

      "Mm, hey," Willow yawned.  "Have a nice morning flight?"

      "What does it look like?"

      Willow opened her eyes.  Buffy was still in her nightdress.  "Oh," she said simply.  "Burned out on your second day?"

      "Totally," Buffy admitted, "but not from studying."

      "I hear that," Willow concurred.  "Feels like we've been here a month already."

      "I know.  All right, I'm going to hit the shower.  Breakfast is in twenty.  I'm going to need some serious comfort food.  My thighs will forgive one bad day."

      "What?  Oh, go for it," Willow said with a shrug.  Buffy was already heading for the girls' bathroom in the corridor, casting an odd look at Willow, as though wondering what she had said that had been so surprising.

      As soon as Buffy was gone, Willow pulled out her wand.  She took a deep breath, and focused on how she wanted to appear that morning.  She had been surprised when Buffy had told her breakfast was in twenty.  She had wanted to give herself more time than that to get ready; she didn't think she was particularly vain, but she wanted to look good when she said goodbye to Harry.  However, what Flitwick had done couldn't be as easy as it looked, or almost every girl in Hogwarts would be doing it every morning.

      "Hygienis femina," she chanted.

      She let out a surprised breath as she released the spell and it rippled through her, but it wasn't as bad as she'd thought it could be.  A moment later, she cast a glance at herself in the mirror on the wall.  She smiled.  It was harder working with her sixteen-year-old body, but she didn't think she'd done a bad job, particularly with her hair; she had removed a lot of the brown, leaving something close to the purer red that she had adopted after graduation.  She had also recovered the slightly wavier style in which she had usually worn it since then.

      She realized she was still in her nightdress as well.  She flicked her wand at her robes.  "Apparellate," she intoned.  For some reason, that one was much easier.  She considered getting dressed the old-fashioned way, but realized that she would have had trouble doing that and leaving her hair intact.

      Buffy returned a few minutes later.  "You're up, Will," she said as she hurried through the door, doing her best to dry her hair as she went for her brush.  Then she caught sight of Willow's reflection in the mirror.  Willow grinned sheepishly as Buffy turned around.

      For a moment, it looked as though Buffy were going to say something about her using too much magic.  A moment later, however, she grinned and shook her head resignedly.  "Cheater," she said.

      Willow laughed.  "Here, let me give you a hand," she said, getting up and walking over to Buffy.

      "Uh, that's all right, I can get it."

      Willow smiled at the anxiety in her friend's voice.  She picked up Buffy's hair brush.  "I meant the old-fashioned way," she said.

      "Oh," Buffy said.  Her smile returned a moment later.  "That's OK, then."  She took a seat, and Willow gently smoothed out her friend's hair, leaving Buffy free to work on her makeup.  Buffy smiled contentedly, and Willow smiled in understanding.  She and Tara had always enjoyed grooming each other, but Willow had missed out on it the last time she had been this age.

      "Better than comfort food?" Willow asked.

      "No reason I can't have both," Buffy answered regally.  Willow smiled to herself.  That was the first time she had seen Buffy able to think about what had happened the previous night without openly feeling down about it.  Willow was glad about that, both because she hated seeing her friend down and because smiling and relaxing now couldn't hurt at breakfast, when she knew that both she and Buffy were going to have to sit at the same table as Draco, at the very least.

      They left for breakfast a few minutes later.

      Draco was already seated at the head of the Slytherin table when they entered the Great Hall, though if he was looking at them, they neither knew nor cared.  They didn't spare him so much as a glance as they made their way to their seats.  Willow looked across the room for Harry, and spotted him seated with the usual group of friends he sat with, though they were in a different place and arranged differently.  The Gryffindors seemed to believe in assigned seats a lot less than the Slytherins did.

      Breakfast was surprisingly uneventful, which Willow considered a very good thing, all things considered.  Neither the Slytherins nor the Gryffindors gave her any of the looks that she had been afraid she'd be seeing.  A few of the younger Slytherins even gave her compliments on her hair.

      "Hungry?" she asked her friend, seeing Buffy piling her plate high with blueberry pancakes, juicy rashers of bacon, and scrambled eggs.

      "Can you pass me the maple syrup?" Buffy asked in answer. 

      Willow smiled and reached across the table for the small tin pitcher.  As she did, she caught sight of Harry through a gap in the crowd between them, and realized that he was catching his first sight of her that day.  His eyes widened appreciatively, and a tingling feeling spread up Willow's spine.

      Harry got up to leave at around eight-thirty; Willow moved to follow him, but Buffy put a hand on her arm and shook her head quietly.  Willow took her seat again.

      "What's up?"

      "He's going to have to go get his things from his room," Buffy reminded her.  "It's only five minutes down to the boathouse, and he doesn't leave 'til nine."

      Willow nodded.  The unspoken message was there, too: Don't be too obvious about following him.  Malfoy's watching.

      She swallowed and forced her stomach back under control.  She forced herself to make small talk for another few minutes, then excused herself.  Buffy came with her this time, effortlessly plucking a small strawberry muffin from a dish at the table as she left.  Willow shook her head.  Buffy always made everything look so natural.  Willow couldn't help feeling that what she was doing was writ large on her face as she walked towards the back of the room.  Of course, she reflected, Buffy probably wasn't dealing with the same tension in her stomach.

      Once clear of the Great Hall, they made their way quickly down to the boathouse.  Hermione and Ginny were on the pier, and Hagrid was there as well, sitting in the boat that would take Harry back across the lake.  Ginny gave Willow and unreadable look, but Hermione, at least, was smiling.

      "Come to say goodbye?" Hermione asked.

      "Looks that way," Willow answered.

      "You realize it's still going to take me a while to get used to that."

      "What?"

      "Well, you know, you being Harry's friend."

      "Oh, because we're …"

      "Well, yeah.  I've seen a lot in the last five years, but I've never seen him talk about a Slytherin as a friend."

      Willow saw Buffy give her an approving smile out of the corner of her eye, but there was more than that in what Hermione had said.  "So … did he talk about me at all?"

      "Mm, he said a few things," Hermione said, with a maddeningly secret smile.  Buffy laughed, and Willow rolled her eyes and shook her head.

      "Oh, you are cruel."

      Hermione's smile didn't waver.  "You could always ask him yourself.  There he comes."

      Willow turned around to see Harry descending the stairs; he and Ron were carrying a large trunk between them.  Harry flashed her a smile as soon as he saw her, just as he and Ron reached the foot of the stairs.

      "Be right back," he said quickly as they passed.  They went up to the boat, loaded the trunk into it, said a few words to Hagrid, and came back.

      "All set?" Hermione asked.

      "As set as I'm going to be," Harry answered wistfully.

      "Don't worry, we'll send you mail as often as we can," Ginny promised.

      Harry laughed.  "I'll be happy to get them, but I think I'll worry anyway."

      "If that makes you feel better," Buffy chided.

      "Sort of not entirely my choice."

      "Don't worry, you'll be back before you know it," Willow said.

      "I certainly hope so."

      "All right, Will, I'm going to jet," Buffy said.  She turned to Harry.  "Shame you've gotta take off so soon.  Take care of yourself this summer," she said, extending a hand to him.  "We're going to want you back here in the fall."

      Harry laughed and shook her hand.  "Now I know I've never heard that from a Slytherin before."  Buffy gave a friendly shrug before heading back up the wharf.

      "Yeah, take care of yourself," Ron said, stepping up to shake Harry's hand next.

      "And don't forget to spend some time studying without me standing over your shoulder," Hermione added, though her tone was mild.  "McGonagall's serious about turning you into an Auror."

      "I will," Harry promised.  "And you promise to have some fun and not spend all your time studying.  There's more to life than books."  For some reason, Willow thought she caught Harry's eyes shift towards Ron as he said that, just for an instant.

      "Is there?" Hermione said loftily.  Harry laughed.  Ron wore a wry grin.  "All right," Hermione continued.  "I've got to go meet with McGonagall."  She backed away and turned down the wharf.  Ron followed after her.  Willow was surprised by that; she would have those two would have been the last ones to say goodbye to him.

      Ginny hesitated.  "You will come visit the Burrow, won't you?" she asked.

      "As often as I can," Harry promised, giving the shorter redhead a brotherly hug.  "And tell your mom and dad I said hello.  And keep practicing on that broom.  There are chaser spots open, even if I'm back at seeker."

      She pulled away and stuck her tongue out at him.  "You keep practicing on that overpriced broom of yours," she said.  "Just in case Slytherin has any wicked new talent this year."  She gave a pointed glance back in the direction of the stairs up to the castle, in the direction Buffy and the others had gone.  She hesitated another moment, and for a moment, it looked like she intended to stay; then, with a brief, "See ya," she headed back down the wharf after the others.

      Harry and Willow were left alone on the pier.

      "Wish you didn't have to go," Willow said simply.  She had never been comfortable in situations like this.

      "That's two of us," Harry said earnestly.  "Unfortunately, it's really important, or I'd never leave this place.  I still think of Hogwarts as my real home."

      "Oh well.  You've at least given me something to look forward to in the fall," she said sadly.  She could feel the corner of her mouth trembling, and she didn't have the willpower to stop it at the moment.  "Slytherin isn't much good for company.  I'm really going to miss you."

      Suddenly, Harry reached out and took her hand.  He looked directly into her eyes.  "You've given me something else to look forward to, too.  And I'll miss you, too."  Willow's breath caught.  There was something about the touch of his hand and the look in his eyes that reached out to her.  She completely lost any train of thought that might have resulted in something to say; a slow warmth crept across her face and through her belly.

      "Harry, lad, time to go!" Hagrid called.

      Harry let go of her hand, a regretful expression playing across his face, and headed up the pier.  It finally sunk in for Willow that he was leaving.  Harry's eyes narrowed momentarily, but the look was gone a moment later.  "Don't forget to owl!" he called as he stepped in the boat.

      "I won't!" she called after him.

      Harry stepped in the boat, and Hagrid started the boat back across the lake.  Willow watched them go.  Harry cast one last look over his shoulder a minute or so after they started out.  Willow waved, and he waved back, then settled himself down in the boat and did not look back again.

      Willow stood on the pier for a few more minutes before she remembered that she still had not opened the letter he had sent to her the previous evening at the Owlery.  With a melancholy sigh, she sat down on one of the posts supporting the pier, pulled it from within her robes, looked at it for another couple of minutes, then finally slid it open.

      A smile broke out across her face as she read it, and she cast one more glance out over the lake at the black speck on the surface of the water in the distance.  She was still smiling contentedly as she folded it up again, slipped it back into her robes, and drifted back down the wharf towards the school.

            *           *           *           *           *

      THANKS AGAIN to everyone who reviewed the last chapter; your comments are a huge help when I sit down to write future chapters.

      Red2: now, now, that would be telling!  On the other hand, it would probably leave a lot of unanswered questions and loose ends if they didn't.

      BashfulC: thanks for the compliment; you put me in good company.

      DiscordantDragon, unknown reviewer: thanks for the kudos on the flight scenes, I've always been really proud of those and it makes me feel warm and fuzzy that other people notice, too.

      Jedi Buttercup: well, I'd probably bet on Hermione against Draco in a pitched duel.

      ShadowElfBard, musicgirl141, DiscordantDragon: Thanks for the kudos on Buffy's little tirade; I was worried I might have had her laying it on a little thick there.  (I'm sure some others probably thought so.)  Lots of times people really don't say everything they're thinking like that.

      COMING SOON:  Chapter 14, "Another Parting."  Another Hogwarts student has to head home for a little while.

      SNEAK PREVIEW:

      "Hey Draco," she said, trying to sound as friendly as possible.  "Didn't see you at breakfast.  Kind of a shock seeing Millicent in your chair."

      A wry grin split his features.  "Well, it's sturdy.  I think it can support her for a few weeks."