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!
CHAPTER 37:
DINNER AND A LETTER
"Well, lassie, you two certainly know how to make an exit."
Willow grinned and shrugged diffidently. "Thanks, professor," she said, handing the last two volumes of Constant Vigilance back to the wooden-legged professor. He took them with a bemused grin and threw them into the second compartment of his enchanted trunk.
"And thanks for all your help over the summer, too," Harry added. "It's meant a lot to me."
Moody laughed. Willow took a breath; even after weeks of visiting the former Auror's office on a regular basis, she still found his laugh chilling. "Don't mention it, laddie," he chuckled. "Keep practicing. Minerva will make an Auror out of you yet."
"I will," Harry promised.
They were sitting in Moody's office, which was nearly completely bare by now, as Moody was almost completely packed to leave for London.
"So … are you leaving tonight?" Willow asked.
Moody chuckled. "Now, now, lassie, there's a Hogsmeade visit tomorrow, you really don't think I'd a' be missing that, would you?"
Willow laughed. She had almost forgotten about that in her excitement over … other things.
"I'll go into the village with the students in the morning. Take the public Floo to London from there that afternoon."
"Couldn't resist a little more butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks?" Harry asked with a knowing grin.
Moody's eyes glinted with dangerous humor. "'Course not. Not that I drink much, mind you, but I've got my first meeting with that prat Fudge Saturday evening. You don't really think I'd show up sober?"
Harry laughed. "Fudge wants to meet the new point man in London, I'm guessing?"
Moody somehow managed to laugh and grunt at the same time. "Bloody right. But the new point man in London is not so keen on meeting him."
"He is kinda stuffy," Willow admitted, remembering the short, self-important man who had appeared in Buffy's living room to deliver their invitations to Hogwarts.
"That's a polite way of putting it," Moody agreed. "I don't know what Dumbledore was thinking, trying to make me into a suit."
"What about Shacklebolt?" Harry asked.
Moody shot Harry a look, as though he were talking about something he shouldn't be, but Willow shrugged. She'd never heard of Shacklebolt, whoever he was. Probably some other member of the Order that Dumbledore had mentioned, but she wasn't trying to pry. Moody shrugged. "Dumbledore doesn't want to expose him yet, and much as I'd love to leave him the job, I have to agree."
"Well, do write sometimes, OK?" Willow added with a shy grin. She had never felt really comfortable showing much emotion, let alone affection, around Moody, but Harry was here now, the scarred older man was about to leave, and he really had done a lot for her over the past several weeks.
"Oh, you bet I will, lassie," Moody answered with a rough grin. "Have to see how you're doing with my job, don't I?"
"Your job?" Harry asked.
Willow's eyes widened. She hadn't gotten around to telling him yet. Of course, it had only been a few hours and they had spent most of it telling far more pointless but more personal stories with Ron and Hermione, and talking about Buffy's long absence and the upcoming Malfoy inauguration.
Moody cast her a knowing look with his artificial eye. "You didn't tell him?"
"I was going to tonight. We've had a lot to talk about."
"Told me what?" Harry asked impatiently.
Moody shook his head, bemused. "Young Miss Rosenberg here is taking over for me when I leave."
Harry's eyes widened. "You're kidding!"
Willow smiled and shrugged sheepishly. "Just following in your footsteps."
"My footsteps?"
"Dumbledore told me you taught other students last year."
Harry's eyes widened. His thoughts seemed to swirl for a moment, then a slow, self-depreciating look spread across his face. He leaned back in his chair and let out a long breath. "I guess I did, at that," he noted.
"And this year, you won't have to be secret, so you can keep teaching."
"But will I have to … I mean, will I be …?"
Willow laughed. "Don't worry, I asked the same thing. No, you're not. Dumbledore said he'll be teaching you, not me."
Harry's eyes lit up at that. "Seriously?"
Willow nodded, glad that Harry wasn't mad that Dumbledore hadn't told him first. "He seemed to think you were a little better than sixth year—and plus, I don't think he wanted to put us in that situation. He seems to be really nice about things like that."
"Bloody softie, he is," Moody growled affectionately. "If I were him, I'd have put him in your class and given you permission for corporeal punishment."
"Oh, we might do that anyway," Willow added quickly, with studied absence.
Harry flushed a brilliant shade of scarlet.
The air of excitement permeating the school grew more and more tangible as the day progressed; it was the last day of classes, and the last Hogsmeade visit of the summer was the following day. The younger students had finals the following week, but most of the older students were doing independent studies, and almost all of them had worked hard to finish before the Hogsmeade trip, and to have a week off before the start of fall term.
"There has to be somewhere more private than this," Willow mused, nuzzling Harry's shoulder and nodding in the direction of several other groups of children engaged in various disports around the top of the astronomy tower. She had a feeling that none of them were wholly concentrating on what they seemed to be doing. Harry Potter dating a Slytherin was the kind of stuff of which legends were made, even without anyone else knowing all the gory details of her past.
Harry simply hummed absently for a few seconds, then started as her words finally reached him. "Well, I'm sure there's a classroom somewhere," he mused hesitantly.
Willow made a negative noise.
She felt Harry brighten next to her a moment later. "Hey, I know a place," he said, rising to his feet and offering her his hand to help her do the same a moment later. "Come on."
She smiled at his enthusiasm, trying not to look back at any of the other students watching Harry practically drag her away from the tower.
"So where are we going?" she asked as he started leading her into a part of the castle she had only been in once before.
"It's a secret place I used to use as a classroom when I was teaching other students Defense Against the Dark Arts," Harry explained.
"A secret place … except for the whole everyone knows about it thing," Willow noted.
Harry laughed sheepishly. "Well, if anyone's in there practicing, we'll find somewhere else."
They reached the seventh floor corridor, and Harry stopped after walking past an enormous tapestry a few times.
"Is it behind the tapestry?" Willow asked uncertainly.
"Nope," Harry answered. "Behind you."
Willow turned. On the wall opposite the tapestry, a large, polished door with a brass handle had appeared, which she would have sworn was not there before. A moment later, Willow's eyes narrowed, however. "That doesn't look like the door of a private room," she noted.
Harry's eyes narrowed as well. "You're right …" he managed as he reached out slowly and turned the latch. "Bloody hell!" he gasped a moment later, after looking inside.
"What?" Willow asked, reflexively reaching for her wand. She had sensed magic being used within as soon as he had opened the door.
Harry stepped back from the door and shut it as quickly and quietly as he could. "We need to get out of here," he said earnestly.
"What …?"
"Just come on!" he continued, with greater insistence, practically pulling her down the hall.
"Circum Obfuscato!" Willow hissed, finally getting her hand on her wand within her robe. Harry stopped and jerked away, sensing her power building, and was about to say something about it when he realized that he couldn't see her anymore. Looking down, he realized that he couldn't see himself anymore, either. Willow quickly reached out to where she knew he was, hoping he hadn't moved, and fortunately guessed right. Harry quickly drew her into his embrace, and they settled down behind the foot of a statue some distance down the corridor.
The door of the Room of Requirement opened a moment later, and Pansy Parkinson emerged.
"You sure, Bulstrode?" the Slytherin prefect called back over her shoulder.
"Positive," Millicent Bulstrode's voice answered from within the room. "He was there."
"Great, that tramp is going to know about us."
A figure pushed past Pansy into the hallway, and Willow recognized the seventh-year Slytherin prefect, Miles Barclay. "Maybe. Maybe not. I'm guessing he was only here for a moment. If he had been listening, he wouldn't have opened the door."
"He wasn't listening," Martin Gandersworth's echoed into the hallway. "None of the wards on the room were broken."
"You can never tell with that git," Pansy seethed.
"No, Martin's right," Miles continued. "I'm sure he saw us, but he can't have heard much. After all, we required a soundproofed room. But Rosenberg will be on her guard now."
"Bloody hell," Pansy swore as she strode back inside the room. Miles followed, slowly, looking down the corridor in the direction they had gone until he, too, was back within the room.
"What did you see?" Willow whispered to Harry, still not extricating herself from his embrace.
"Not much," Harry admitted. "But it can't be good, whatever it is. They were all working around a table, it actually looked like they were writing or drawing something. I have no idea."
"Me neither," Willow admitted disappointedly after a moment of racking her brain.
"On the other hand," Harry said, massaging her head slowly and drawing a soft purr from Willow, "I had no idea you'd learned to become invisible without a cloak."
"They have cloaks?"
"Sure. I've got one that my dad left to me."
"That would make it a lot easier," Willow noted. Basic invisibility wasn't extremely hard, but it was a lot harder to hide someone else at the same time, and Willow had used a more powerful variety that made it harder to detect or counter. From the way Miles had been looking down the corridor before returning into the room, she guessed that had probably been a good precaution.
"But we should probably get out of here before they come out again."
Willow groaned softly. Sitting here in each other's arms, invisible to the rest of the world, had a certain allure at the moment. Had there not been five scheming Slytherins in the room just down the hall, she would even have considered this fun. As it was, though, she forced herself to admit that Harry was right. "All right," she managed. "So where now?"
"Hmm. Not sure. Hey, wait … the map!"
Willow's invisible eyes widened. She had completely forgotten about Harry's enchanted map of the castle; it had been lying in the bottom of her socks drawer for weeks, since Peter had been captured and she had not wanted to risk it getting lost, seen, or damaged.
"Good idea," she whispered back. They kept a hand in each other's as they rose to their feet and backed away around the nearest corner. Once they were out of sight of the entrance to the Room of Requirement, Willow dispelled the invisibility spell.
Harry made a brief move to Summon the map, but Willow stopped him, explaining that she had been layering her room with wards. Harry nodded and put his wand away, and agreed to meet her in the stairwell a few floors below the entrance to Slytherin Tower, so there wouldn't be any risk of him getting caught lurking outside the Slytherin dorms.
Willow entered the dorms alone with no small amount of trepidation, wondering if the Pansy Posse had already left a nasty surprise for her, but the trip was anticlimactic. The Slytherins gathered in the common room were intent on their studies, and while a few turned sneering looks at her, most backed away as she passed. She set a few additional spells and tripwires from the latest volume of Constant Vigilance in place, just for some additional peace of mind, retrieved the map, and was gone from the Tower again.
Harry met her on the fifth floor landing, and together they quickly turned away into the fifth floor corridor.
Harry took a quick look around to make sure they were alone, then tapped the map with his wand and announced proudly. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
A brief message flickered across the surface of the parchment. With a fox like that? Who wouldn't be?
Harry laughed, and a rosy tinge rose in Willow's cheeks, as the message faded and the familiar lines of the map began to appear on the parchment.
"What was that about?" Willow asked, a little short of breath.
Harry's grin was decidedly impish. "Either my dad or Sirius, hard to tell which."
"So their personalities are in here?"
"Reflections of them. Just like in the portraits," Harry confirmed. A moment later, his expression saddened a little. "Not enough of them there to have a real conversation or anything, though. I wish." His voice trailed off at the end, and Willow gave him a tight squeeze, which he returned gratefully.
"So," Willow continued. "Two hours 'til dinner. See anyplace that looks promising?"
Harry and Willow scanned the page for a minute. "Hey, what about this place, that looks all out of the way and private?" Willow suggested, pointing to a spot that looked as though it were sort of part of the second floor, but then again, sort of … odd. She was already second-guessing herself when Harry answered.
"That would be private, but maybe not the best place to go. Sort of a secret area, you have to reach it through a trapdoor on the third floor. The kept the Philosopher's Stone there my first year. Devil's Snare, life-size Wizard's Chess pieces, swarms of enchanted flying keys like wasps …"
"I get the picture," Willow cut him off. "All right, not there." Then something hit her, something Harry had mentioned in passing weeks ago at the Atlantis but that had slipped her mind, and she suddenly kicked herself for not thinking of it for all these weeks when she had been looking for someplace large and private to practice her more powerful spells. "Hey, what about that Parseltongue chamber?"
"The Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked, wonderingly. "Well, it would certainly be private, and the only thing that was guarding it is dead now … but it's a bit gloomy and dirty."
"We can fix it up!" Willow answered with a light smile. "Maybe it just needs a woman's touch."
Harry laughed uproariously. "I wonder what Salazar would say to that," he mused, a twinkle blossoming in his eye that reminded Willow suddenly of Dumbledore. "Well, it's kind of a long way, but if you're serious, we can go after dinner. We wouldn't have time to do much there if we went now."
"Maybe," Willow answered, actually more interested now than she had been when she brought up the subject; she had only been half-serious. She really did want to see the place, though—from what she had read for her History of Magic class, it was not only the most secret place in Hogwarts but among the most secret places ever created. "So, where until then?"
Harry looked around, a mischievous grin on his face. "Well, I don't see anyone else here, do you?"
Ninety minutes later, Harry and Willow arrived, hand in hand, at the door of the Great Hall for dinner. A collective ripple passed through the throng as nearly everyone turned to look in their direction at least briefly. The students trickling past them into the hall gave them looks of varying degrees of approval, amusement, and disdain, as well as jealousy from more than a few of the girls.
They halted just past the arch; they were going to have to separate for dinner. "Come back soon?" Willow offered nervously.
"Come back in one piece?" Harry answered flippantly. Willow winced. Yes, this could be interesting. Reflexively, she cast a glance down the Slytherin table to where the five students who had attacked her were sitting. They were studiously avoiding looking at her, but even Willow knew enough about the Slytherin game to know that they were thinking about her. A lot.
"I'll do my best," she answered softly.
"I'll keep an eye out," Harry reassured her. He drew away, extending his arm to its fullest to prolong their contact as long as possible, before turning and walking over to sit at the Gryffindor table. Willow waited a little longer before taking her seat at the Slytherin table.
The food had not yet been served, which normally meant that Dumbledore had announcements to make. Sure enough, less than a minute after she had sat down, he tapped his glass with his spoon for silence; somehow, the sound could be heard throughout the hall without hurting anyone's ears.
"Good evening, good evening!" he chirruped happily. "Goodness, this has been a busy summer, quite the busiest ever here at Hogwarts! Well done, everyone!
"I have two short announcements before we begin our last Friday meal of summer session," Dumbledore continued. "First, if you haven't tried any of Winky's golden marinated turkey, you really must, it's quite heavenly." There was a general laugh.
"Second," Dumbledore continued, "I know I haven't been around much lately, but I will be settling in tonight and staying for the duration of fall term. However, Professor Moody will not be able to stay with us for the fall, so we will have a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher." The hall got noticeably quieter at that; Moody and Lupin had both been incredibly popular, especially considering the experience the school had had over the past few years.
"Fortunately," Dumbledore went on, once he was sure he had everyone's attention, "Many of you already know her, and I do believe most of our underclassmen feel she has done a wonderful job and will enjoy taking classes with her in the fall. Our new position in the fall will be filled by Miss Willow Rosenberg."
Willow felt color rise in her face as Dumbledore announced that. A general murmur of surprise ran through the crowd, and all eyes turned in her direction. The embarrassment only got worse a few seconds later, when several of the underclassmen whom she had met over the previous few days started clapping and cheering enthusiastically. She ducked her head to hide the color in her cheeks.
Dumbledore smiled reassuringly, and Willow hunted across the room until she found Harry's eyes and found them. That always sent a shot of self-confidence up her body, and she was able to slowly force her nerves back under control.
"So, to our dear Slytherins, I'm afraid I'm going to have to steal her from your table after tonight," Dumbledore continued. Willow's eyes widened. She hadn't thought of that. That was a definite plus. The teachers' table didn't seem quite as political. "And now, I believe I've taken enough of your time; let the feast—begin!" Plates filled with food appeared on the tables, and most of the hall turned their attention away from Willow and closer to their own bellies.
Several minutes passed, and many of the first- and second-year students nearby continued to give her congratulations, which she did her best to accept graciously, but she had never been really comfortable in the spotlight. She tended to retreat inwards in an attempt to block out the attention.
Suddenly, however, she realized that there had been a change in the voices in the room, and noticed several students looking up towards the ceiling.
An owl had arrived.
Willow's eyes narrowed. She had seen owls arrive at dinner before, but only twice in the entire summer. In addition, they were almost always family owls, bearing important news from major families to their heirs. This was a young barn owl that clearly did not belong to any of the major lineages. It was clutching a single letter in a red envelope, and moving much more quickly than either of the other two evening owls she had witnessed, as though it were eager to be rid of the package.
It looked as though it were going to fly by Willow before it suddenly swooped down and deposited the letter in front of her, right on top of her plate. It quickly flew off without even waiting to be paid; Willow held up a hand briefly as though to call it back, then realized the idiocy of such an idea and looked down at the letter in front of her.
Her eyes narrowed. The envelope was red, nondescript, and had no return address. But there was something about this that seemed very wrong …
She suddenly realized that Harry was standing up at his place, looking concerned. His wand was in his hand.
A rustling sound to her left distracted her. The other first-years nearby who had seen the envelope were backing away. Willow felt sparks of mystical energy prickle in her awareness elsewhere in the hall and realized that several upperclass Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs were weaving Silence Charms around themselves. The upperclass Slytherins were looking down the table with interest, though. On a dark suspicion, Willow reached into her robe for her wand.
Vincent Byron had also stood to get a better look; he was not too far up the table, but he had advanced quickly among the older students and was shorter than anyone with whom he now sat. "Willow, look out!" he called suddenly. "Howler!"
Willow barely had time to wonder, A what? before the envelope suddenly burst open with a flash of flame. A vague scent like an exotic flower touched Willow's nostrils for a moment, but it was immediately blocked out by the roar of a powerful, polyharmonic voice that sounded like several people talking at once filling the chamber. Not talking, she realized a moment later. Chanting.
"Serpensortia!" it roared.
A black blur burst from the ashes of the letter, and a moment later, Willow screamed as something cold and scaly landed on her face. She threw herself back from the table with a strangled cry, blind panic reaching up to seize her. Her wand tumbled from her hands as she reflexively grappled at whatever it was that had landed on her. Whatever it was, it definitely felt alive.
Suddenly, she cried out in pain as she felt something hard and sharp pierce her neck. Several younger students nearby, who could see what had happened, screamed. Visions of vampires burst into Willow's awareness, and with a desperate heave, she finally got her hands around whatever it was on her neck and threw it off of her. Her hands were suddenly unsteady, however, and her vision suddenly began clouding on the edges. It was clear enough, however, for her to get a good look at the king cobra lying on the floor a few feet away, his fangs still red with her blood.
Author's Notes: Thanks to all readers for all the kind feedback on graduating.
LunaeDea88: Wow! Impressive reviews, and you do note a lot of mistakes that I made that I only realized after I started posting.
The Slytherin common rooms are supposed to be in the dungeons; I had read something that suggested once that they were in a tower, and had a Dragonspire-like vision for what I pictured as Slytherin's roost. Hermione did indeed never take three years of Divination. The post-first-years would indeed have taken the horseless carriages up to Hogwarts, and Harry return to the station on one. (Another one you forgot to mention is that I had Hogwarts and Hogsmeade stations as two separate stations, based on the fact that it didn't look like there was much of a village around the station in the first movie, which was my first exposure to HP.) I forgot about Dennis Creevey. And, of course, the author's name correctly spelled is Rowling, not Rawling.
A lot of things you saw stem from the fact that I saw the movies before I ever read the books (I was a LotR-only fan for a while). The Great Stairwell is presumably to one side, or behind, the entrance hall; this would be the huge bottomless stairwell from the movies. Calling the names first-name-first was a movie thing, as was the hat speaking out loud.
Other things, I'm more inclined to defend: I've been to Scotland in June. 65 degrees is within normal range for summer (and I'm from Ohio, so it doesn't occur to me that such should be considered "freezing" :-P). Voldemort could easily have been world wizard news, not British wizard news; all the different nations at the Quidditch World Cup seemed to know about him and recognize the Dark Mark, anyway. I don't think the houses are really supposed to be "ranked" from best to worst in any objective sense (which is Hermione's forte). I did have Lupin changing 3 days a month (see ch. 22); since only one class generally fell on those days (allowing for weekends and off-days), Dumbledore only has to teach once. I also did have the predominant age of the first-years be eleven (see ch. 35).
Does it ever say that Hogwarts doesn't accept exchange students? Also, wouldn't someone with one Muggle and one magical parent be a Mudblood to Slytherin?
The ages are always hard to reconcile in crossovers, especially because of the different release schedules of Buffy seasons and HP books. Season 6 of Buffy ended May 23, 2002. If we assume that to be real time and Harry's birthday to be 1980, then Harry would be 22. Since this is Book 5, we know that he's 15. The timelines don't merge for crossovers, you have to finagle them a little.
Erin: Another challenging review! I like it, and thanks for your input. I would answer: about the Creeveys and the timelines, see my response to LunaeDea: the Creeveys could still be half-Muggles, and the ages just have to be reworked as carefully as possible. Los Angeles being on a Hellmouth was just my idea, seemed to explain some things (like why it seemed that a lot of the demons in L.A. were more powerful and more numerous than the ones in Sunnydale).
Whew! You people keep me on my toes.
Coming Soon: Chapter 38, "Snakes."
Sneak Preview:
It wasn't working. The wound had been on her neck. The poison was spreading too quickly, and her thoughts were growing too numb to work the spell properly. She could feel the numbness reaching her chest, feel it creeping to her toes, and she spread her legs slightly to keep herself from falling.
From falling?
Since when have I been standing? she suddenly wondered.