DISCLAIMER: The characters aren't mine. I'm borrowing them from the esteemed Joss Whedon and J.K. Rowling.

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!


CHAPTER 33:

AS TIME GOES BY

A week passed at Hogwarts, and then another. Then three more. Buffy wrote every once in a while—short, perfunctory notes just to say that she was all right, and that Draco was taking the loss of his mother hard, and the stress of the preparations for his inauguration were getting to him as well. Willow tried to be as understanding as she could, but she seriously wished that Buffy would write something a little deeper every now and then.

Flitwick had finally deciphered the warding against the Recall Charm that Lupin's opponent had used, but it had been too late; it had taken so long that the mystical after-image of the battle had faded beyond even Flitwick's ability to reconstruct it. Flitwick assured everyone that he would be able to break it much more quickly next time, now that he had it figured out, but he still sounded rather crestfallen whenever he talked about it.

The Slytherins were growing increasingly hostile, particularly the older ones. They were cold about it, withdrawn, calculating, but even she could tell. The Baron had been right; whatever the case, she was going to get pulled into their stupid Game eventually. Alliances, lineage, and strategy were all important to their politics, but pure power was still the cardinal virtue of Slytherin, and Willow was beginning to truly come into her own. She had been studying sometimes as much as fourteen hours a day, just to remove herself from the world. It had gotten to the point where she was almost afraid to try out some of the spells and potions she was learning, because doing so might attract attention. At one point, even Hermione had made a comment along the lines of "you might be pushing yourself a little hard."

Fortunately, she had found one new friend. At least, she had made his acquaintance again. He had come home with her from the July Hogsmeade visit, and now slept in her bedroom. He was sitting atop her desk at the moment, basking in the setting sunlight slanting through the window and watching her sprawled amidst her books on the floor.

"Hey, Squiggles," she greeted him, flopping over on her back and looking up at him.

"Good evening, Misss Rosenberg," the garter snake from the hillside by the Shrieking Shack answered. She had never really thought of snakes as friendly creatures, and it was true that he was somewhat aloof, but the snake's manners seemed infinitely better than most of the humans who lived in the Tower with her. "Are you weary?"

"Completely," Willow admitted. "But I'll have a few hours left in me after dinner."

"You will sssee your friend sssoon, yesss?"

Willow nodded. It was hard to believe that Draco's inauguration was a week from Saturday. Finals week for summer session started in a week. She buried her face in her hands. Ron and Hermione had been getting less and less free time, as the Gryffindor prefects were less secretive than the Slytherin ones and it was expected that they would spend as much time as possible preparing their younger charges for exams. They had only gotten to hang out twice in the past week, and even then, not for very long.

"But you haven't reccceived your invitation yet?"

Willow shook her head. "I'm probably going to be the last." Even the invitations had been a status play; they had gone to the closest friends and relatives of the Malfoy family first, and progressed downward. Several seats near the head of the table had changed hands because of the order in which the older Slytherins had received their letters.

"I am sssurprised. Your friend would have insssisssted you reccceive your letter early."

Willow smiled. Even the snake somehow understood the games of Slytherin politics better than she did. He had actually taught her a thing or two about it in the three weeks she had had him; the Baron knew more, but the snake was always there.

"I'm sure I'll get one eventually. Besides, Buffy would know that I wouldn't really want to be near the front of the ceremony anyway."

"Of courssse."

"Hungry?" Willow asked.

"Are you finissshed?" the snake asked. "It'sss quite early."

"For the moment," Willow said resignedly, gathering up a stack of books to return to the library and slamming closed the one she had been reading. "That's a pretty good stopping point," she added. "That History of Magic book there was the last of the required summer reading. Just in time for finals."

"I thought you did not have finalsss."

"Sorry, I don't," Willow admitted. That was the one failing of the snake. It truly didn't understand sarcasm. She found herself thinking that he and Xander would have had serious communication problems. "Also, my Speedreading Serum is wearing off, and it would be pretty dumb to take another one before dinner."

"Oh. Sssplendid then. But I thought you had progressssed well beyond sssixth year."

"In a few things," Willow admitted, too tired to sound proud, though she was. In fact, it was quite more than 'just a few things,' thanks to Moody's instruction and books, Hermione's Speedreading Serum, and her own photographic memory and access to the restricted section of the library. "Stuff that I used to do back home: transfiguration, charms, all that. That book over there is actually stuff from an Auror special forces unit, way beyond school stuff. Moody got it for me. I've been writing stuff out of it to Harry. But most of it is stuff I really can't practice here."

"You ssseek ssspace?"

"Seriously," Willow admitted, laying the back of her hand across her eyes. "This place is too cramped. And I think that Parkinson girl is monitoring the top of the Tower somehow."

"The cassstle is large. I'm sssure you can find sssomewhere with privacccy."

"Buffy and I looked once," Willow said. "We didn't find anything, other than Lupin's office, which is all closed up now, and isn't really big enough, anyway." Not for the kinds of things I can do now, she thought, a little chilled at the thought. She still wasn't wielding the kind of power she had been able to draw upon on the Hellmouth at her peak, but she was getting closer. Much closer.

"Perhapsss."

"Oh, well. See you after dinner. I think they're serving turkey tonight, I'll bring you back some."

"Thanksss."

She gathered up her books and headed off to the library, sighing uncomfortably at her own nervousness as she passed the prefects' doors. The four that had attacked her had studiously avoided her since a few days after the incident on the steps of the Entrance Hall; the following weekend, Pansy had tried to break into her room while Willow was away studying with Hermione. There had been quite a brouhaha in Slytherin Tower in the couple of hours following her attempt as people tried to figure out how a small warthog had gotten into the Tower, before Willow had returned and undid her Porcomorph Hex that she had set in a mystical tripwire. Willow had lost eight points for the incident—Snape had taken ten for causing pandemonium in the House dorms and then given her two for teaching a good object lesson—but Pansy and her cronies had largely left her alone after that. Only the one prefect that had not been involved in the original incident, seventh-year Elaina Delacroix, still showed her face around Willow.

When she reached the library, she noticed Professor Moody talking to the librarian at the circulation desk. He stopped when she entered the room; his back was to her, but Willow had long ago learned that nothing escaped Moody's roving eye.

"Hi," she said softly as she approached. They were in the library, after all.

"Evening, Willow," Madame Pince greeted her as she set her stack of a half-dozen books down on the desk. "Finished already?"

"Well, I've had this one for more than a month now, so it's not like it should be all 'wow' that I finished it," Willow demurred, nodding at the History of Magic textbook on top of the pile.

"True," Pince answered with a knowing smile. She moved that book off the top of the pile. "But do I remember this one from last Friday?" she continued, referring to the next book in the stack.

"Interesting," Moody commented neutrally, noting the book Pince had revealed: Essences and Polymorphing. It had been Professor McGonagall's doctoral dissertation.

Willow nodded, glad he had not announced the title for anyone listening to hear, or worse, its implications. Then again, she realized that Moody was probably the last person in the world likely to do something that careless.

"Oh yes, the last one's not from the library," she remembered to inform Madame Pince as the librarian moved to take the rest of the stack behind the desk. The librarian took the other five away to reveal volume ten of Constant Vigilance, which she had borrowed from Moody the previous Thursday.

"Very nice," Moody said, keeping his voice neutral. "Willow, I don't suppose I could see you in my office?"

"Sure."

Willow had been in Moody's office two or three times a week for the last few weeks, even though she had never taken him up yet on his offer of sparring practice. However, as she entered the disheveled room this time, she had not been this nervous since that first night after the fight in the Entrance Hall. Moody knew his arts, and he knew Minerva McGonagall. He couldn't have missed the significance of seeing Willow with the Transfiguration teacher's dissertation. Willow took her customary seat by the door.

"You're really pushing the pace," he noted. He picked up the last two volumes of Constant Vigilance and handed them to her; he had not given her two at a time since the first night. "Looks like you're done with the summer stuff, so you'll have some extra hours to fill. Unless you've decided to take up sleeping again."

"It's tempting," Willow admitted.

"Thinking of becoming an Animagus, are you?"

Willow shrugged and nodded. There was no way she could lie to him. She didn't even think she'd be able to even if he hadn't seen the book.

"Did Harry put you up to that?"

"What? No!" she denied indignantly. "I haven't even told him yet. Well, I mean, he knows I want to, but I haven't told him I borrowed that book yet."

"Minerva's book is definitely one of the best," Moody agreed.

Willow looked at him quizzically. That wasn't quite the direction she'd been expecting him to take. The ex-Auror had more surprises in him than a haunted house. "So … you aren't mad?" she asked tentatively.

"Me?" he looked surprised. "Why would I be mad?"

"Well, I thought it was sort of … well, I don't know … against the rules." She remembered something from her History of Magic textbook that a law against unregistered Animagi had been passed at some point in the nineteenth century. Not that she'd broken it yet, since she hadn't actually turned into anything, but she had done a lot of work and was familiar with how it was done now.

"Oh, right, rules!" he said, with a feral laugh. "I always forget about those."

"Are you … well, I mean, really?"

"Well, unfortunately, you're right, what you're doing is definitely against the rules. And, as a member of the faculty, I'm obligated to take appropriate action when situations like these arise. So, let's see … what to do with you … ah, yes! One point from Slytherin."

Willow laughed before she could stop herself, and Moody grinned. The stories of Moody's exploits as an Auror had grown in the telling, but it was fairly well known that he wasn't exactly strict about following rules. From what she had heard, he had been practically as much of a headache to the Ministry as to the Death Eaters in the First Great War.

"I think I've learned my lesson," she said, with deliberately feigned meekness.

"Good. Well, best get those back to your room before dinner," he said, nodding at the books in her hands.

"Right. Um … thanks again," she said politely as she excused herself and returned to the Tower.

"You're back sssoon," Squiggles greeted her.

"I know," Willow answered. "I really couldn't bring Moody's last books in his set to dinner."

"Ssseems reasonable," the snake concurred.

"Thanks," Willow said with a light smile. The smile faded a moment later, however, and she sighed wearily. Squiggles really wasn't bad company, and Harry's letters were magnificent, but snakes and owls couldn't make up for human friends. She picked up her quill and started writing another letter to Harry.

Author's Notes: Many thanks once again for all your feedback! And here's another shout out to all the people with me on their AuthorAlert list … my stats say that there's more than a hundred of you now! W00t!! Nice to know I've got that kind of audience. (The last couple of chapters have been big on hundreds … I just noticed that I also went over 100,000 words for this story a few chapters ago. That's long-winded even for me!)

Up Next: Chapter 34, "A Broken Breaking." Lucius makes a very unwise mistake.

Sneak Preview: This is a double update, so none necessary! Continue on and see for yourself! (I'd love it if you'd review both chapters, though … particularly if you thought that this "fast forward" frame to the end of the summer in this chapter was a bit too abrupt. I was worried the story would start to drag a lot if I tried to narrate everything over those weeks, but I'm wondering if I went too far in the other direction.)