DISCLAIMER: The characters aren't mine. I'm borrowing them from the esteemed Joss Whedon and J.K. Rawling. I'm not making any money off this; in fact, if I didn't do this, I could probably get better grades and make more money someday.

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 50: TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

Buffy was on her way back up the stairwell to the Slytherin dorm when Draco intercepted her. He beckoned her off down a little-used passage onto the fifth floor, and she shrugged and followed him.

"So what's the what?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Not really ready to head back to the dorm. There's going to be a huge crowd there—some saw Willow mad, and most think I'm not coming back until a week from Saturday. I'm not in the mood for crowds and questions yet. Chocolate?" he asked, holding a small box of one of Honeydukes' special collections out to her. "Serious comfort food for the long-imprisoned."

"Gladly," she said, taking one and popping it into her mouth gratefully.

"So how'd it go?"

"Willow's going to try bringing Lucius back."

Draco stiffened. "Why?"

"Dumbledore asked her to. And I wanted her to."

Draco shrugged. "They're just going to give him the Kiss again if they get the chance, you know."

"Maybe. But even if 'they' have any dementors left, at least it won't be because of me."

Draco looked her up and down again. "I get that, I guess," he said at length. "I guess I wouldn't want that on my mind, either. But that doesn't mean I want him back in action."

"Dumbledore says Moody and the Aurors have him. They ought to be able to keep him under wraps."

Draco thought about that for a moment, then grinned mirthlessly. "Yeah, Mad-Eye definitely won't go easy on him. Maybe now that the dementors have revolted and they can't send him to Azkaban, they'll let Mad-Eye turn him into a bouncing white ferret."

Buffy laughed. "Looks like you've got a lighter perspective on things," she observed.

"Being locked away next to the corpse of a giant snake for two months can do that to you. Suddenly being a ferret doesn't seem half so bad."

"Hmph. You were locked away next to one. I was locked away in one's skin."

Draco's silver eyes widened as though something had just clicked behind them. He looked like he was about to say something more on that topic, but then appeared to think better of it and held his tongue. He hesitated a moment longer, then asked simply, candidly, "You want to talk about it?"

Buffy hesitated as well, on the verge of saying no. Eventually, however, she started to talk, just giving him the basics. Once she started, it became easier, and eventually, she told Draco everything about what had happened at his house, starting with when she had first met his father at the Malfoy hunting lodge in the hills west of the manor. She noticed an intense silver fire burning behind his eyes when she told her of the events back in her cell with Lucius the night she had killed Bucky.

"I think that was part of why … what happened … well, happened. Dumbledore says it's because I was worn down, but I think there was more. I think there was some part of me … the other part of me, the Buffy part of me … that wanted it to," she admitted moodily. "Or at least didn't mind."

Draco drew her into a tight, warm embrace. "That doesn't make you a killer, or even a bad person," he whispered comfortingly. "It makes you human."

"I still feel horrible."

"That makes you human, too."

It was well after midnight when she finished; they had strolled out onto one of the outer walls, and the night wind rustled their hair.

Draco shook his head. "I can tell it's really getting to you that You-Kn … that Voldemort got to you that way," he said, "but don't let it. No one else I know could have fought him for half as long, not alone like that."

Buffy listened as he, in turn, told about what had happened to him, and her heart went out to him. Lucius, Deggle, and Bellatrix had ambushed him at Hogsmeade Station, and it had been over so quickly that he had never even known what hit him. By the time the commotion had subsided, Lucius was already disguised as Draco with Polyjuice Potion and had told everyone that it was nothing, some potion ingredients had just broken and exploded. Lucius and Deggle had spirited him back across the lake and into the school, hiding him in the chamber; Lucius had put him under Imperius and forced him to relate the events of the previous few days, so he had known about Buffy and Draco's argument, but he had never asked Draco how he felt about her, so had assumed that he was just doing the politically genteel thing showing her around. The idea that his son would have developed feelings in such a short time for a Yankee with no great family blood never occurred to him then. Lucius had then ordered Deggle to stay and keep him bound, and Lucius had gone to get some more of Draco's more precious things from his dorm room. It had been then that Buffy had seen Lucius on his way out of the castle, and unwittingly let him know that she had feelings for Draco. Lucius had never let Draco hear the end of that over the summer, and had also enjoyed tormenting Draco with the knowledge that he could get free if he could have ever freed himself just enough to give Deggle a piece of clothing, but that there was no chance of it happening. He had continued to bring Draco updates of how what they were planning, how they had captured Buffy, some of the different kinds of things that had been doing to her, and occasionally hinting at some of the different intentions that he personally had had for the Slayer for whenever Voldemort had been finished with her. Draco's voice was dripping with venom by the time he got to the part when Harry and Willow had stumbled into the chamber and freed him, allowing him to free Deggle.

"Can't believe that was all just hours ago," Draco mused as he finished. "Feels like forever."

"Been a long day," Buffy agreed.

"Long summer," Draco added.

Buffy nodded. Draco drew her to his side again, and together they stared out over the horizon from Hogwarts. They had both missed this sight terribly over the last few months. "So now what?" Buffy asked at length.

Draco chuckled softly. "Well, actually, I think my inauguration will go on as scheduled. Just now I'll actually be there instead of dead."

Buffy chuckled grimly in return. "Convenient," she observed. "Though … don't take this the wrong way, but why didn't he kill you earlier?"

Draco grinned mirthlessly. "First and foremost, he needed me for Polyjuice Potion. But also, because I was his only child, and he was officially stripped of his title, he needed me alive. If I died, the Malfoy line would have ended, invalidating any claim any Malfoy made to our estate. If he had been inaugurated, however, he'd gave gotten it back, and then he could have gotten rid of me … either had another child, or let the line die with him the second time around. The inauguration rite is binding. Odd loophole in the inheritance laws; they were laid down and enshrined by all the great families long before Polyjuice Potion was invented. No one dreamed of anyone trying something like that back then."

"Devious."

"That's my father."

A thought occurred to Buffy. "So does that mean that after next Saturday, I'll be talking to Lord Malfoy?"

Draco grimaced slightly, and shrugged. "In name. It's going to take some work to build the estate up again. You probably noticed it seemed a little empty, even before it got ruined."

"Indeed, my lord." Buffy's smile was the perfect picture of innocence.

Draco laughed uproariously. "Kinda like the sound of that, but I'm still Draco." He trailed his finger down her side. "And none of the ancient sorceresses who wore the sai'ha took orders from anyone. Y … Voldemort seems to be a fan of irony."

"Ooh. Maybe I'll keep it around."

Draco grinned and seated himself on a small ledge that ran along the inside of the outer walls. "You know I wouldn't complain."

Buffy tilted her head and turned to look at him, enjoying the argent heat in his eyes. "I'll bet you wouldn't, my lord," she laughed. She seated herself sideways in his lap and gave him a challenging stare.

"I do like the sound of that," he grinned.

"I don't," Buffy answered. "Too much talking." She leaned up, turning her head sideways to capture his mouth with hers. She breathed deeply, inhaling the intoxicating taste of the kiss ... a melange of long-frustrated hunger and the aftertaste of Honeydukes chocolate. She found that she also secretly enjoyed the light, innocent red in his cheeks when she pulled away. She was used to dating people with more experience ... in some cases, centuries more ... but there was something magnetic about Draco's cocktail of fire and innocence that she hadn't experienced since her earliest days with Angel.

She locked Draco's eyes with her own, trying to gauge his reaction. He looked hesitant for a moment, as if unsure what to do in this situation, but eventually, Buffy saw the silver fire in his eyes flaring up again, even brighter now. A new kind of smile crossed his lips, one that she hadn't seen before.

"My lady raises a good point." With that, he turned her so that she was leaning backwards across his lap in her arms as he bent over to kiss her, forcing her to wrap her arms around the back of his neck to keep her balance. The meeting of their lips muffled her laughter, as his words turned themselves over in her mind. My lady. I like the sound of that, too, she decided.

They did not speak again until the moon was well past its zenith, and all of the Honeydukes chocolates were gone. A chance motion in the courtyard below distracted them; Sprout, on her way to check her greenhouses in the middle of the night. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it shattered the world in which just the two of them had existed, which they had created over the past hours. Sprout vanished quickly, never even looking in their direction, but Buffy could already sense the fire in her flesh ebbing.

Draco broke the stillness at last. The awkward, inexperienced sixteen-year-old was back. "Ahem … eh … ur … anyway, think Willow would be done by now?"

Buffy sighed and stood. "Probably. It doesn't take that long for someone who knows how do to do it."

"She's done this before?"

"Not to a human. To a vampire. Same thing, though—flesh but no soul."

Draco's eyes widened. "Whoa," he said. "That's some pretty heavy stuff. Necromancy hasn't been taught at Hogwarts for more than a hundred years."

"Neck-what?"

"Undead magic."

"Oh. Heh. I think that was pretty much the order of the day in Sunnydale," Buffy answered wryly.

They finally made their way back to the Slytherin dorm, but the man in the painting holding the python held up a hand to stop them. "If you're looking for … Miss Rosenberg …" for some reason, it sounded like he had been going to say something else there, "she told me that she was going to be in the library."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Sure likes to make us walk," she muttered. She had a feeling she knew why Willow would be in the library, though, besides the fact that Willow and libraries went together like judges and courts; she would want to be catching up with a certain tousle-haired young wizard that wouldn't be able to get into the Slytherin dorms.

Buffy and Draco were surprised to see that not only were Willow and Harry in the library, but the other two Gryffindor prefects were there as well. They looked like they were doing more than sharing stories, too; Willow had a fairly large stack of books out, and Hermione and Harry both another small stack between them.

"Please don't tell me you're going back to studying already!" Buffy practically whined. I am so behind, she thought to herself.

Willow laughed. "Just a little legal research," she said dismissively.

"And a little Dark Arts stuff for me," Harry added.

"Which these two won't tell us what it's all about," Ron added stuffily. Buffy noticed Willow and Harry share a knowing grin at that.

"I do hope you were just waiting until we got here," Buffy said.

"How'd it go?" Draco asked, cutting in.

Willow shrugged. "Certainly felt like it worked, and Dumbledore told me that Moody said it did."

Buffy and Draco both detected something hesitant in her voice. "Anything else?" Draco prodded.

Willow shrugged again. "Dunno. For some reason, Dumbledore seemed to be about ready to start howling with laughter when he told me, so I'm wondering if I did something wrong. He told me everything went well. 'Better than I could have ever expected,' he said, but he wouldn't tell me what that meant yet. But I did the best I could."

"If Dumbledore said it worked, it worked," Harry said firmly.

"I know. But I still want to know what he was all laughing about."

"I imagine we'll find out soon."

"Probably."

"All right, back to more important things," quipped Buffy, though she was glad to hear that Willow was a success—not that she wanted to see anything good happen to Lucius, but she was glad to hear the news. "What's with all the research? Fight's over. Think fun. Not books."

Willow gave her a hurt, pouting expression. "Books are fun."

"Harry and Willow here are having us look up inheritance laws," Hermione announced. "Don't suppose you can shed any light?" She directed the last at Draco, guessing that he would have the most cause of any of them to know about such things.

"I know a thing or two," the flaxen-haired Slytherin answered sardonically. "Hope you aren't thinking about trying to take what's left of my house."

Willow grinned, and stood up, drawing everyone's eyes. She laid a massive, oversized book out on the reading table, A Catalogue of the English Great Families, and turned out several pages that folded outward into a large family tree.

"Actually," she announced, passing her hand over the spread and causing a few more lines on the family tree to appear. "I'm kinda trying to see if I can have what's left of mine."

"Say what!" Buffy asked. "Is Sunnydale okay?"

Willow's smile broadened. "I'm not talking about Sunnydale."

Draco had leaned forward to look at the wide page Willow had just revealed. Hermione and Ron had clustered around, too, but Ron didn't seem to grasp what he was looking at, and while Hermione did, she didn't know where on the massive spread to start looking. Draco traced some lines over it for a few seconds, then his eyes widened in stunned amazement. "Salazar's ballocks!" he gasped. "You're the Marvolo heiress!"

"What?" Hermione gasped, looking down to where Draco's fingers rested and following it, her eyes growing wider and wider as she realized what she was seeing. Harry seemed to already know, since he didn't move from his seat, and his roguish grin broadened. She turned to look at Willow as though seeing her for the first time.

"Someone want to clue me in on the skinny here?" Buffy asked, perplexed.

Willow flashed her a smile. "Looks like I'm a countess. Who'd 'a thunk?"

"Countess!" Hermione gasped. "Willow, you're the Heir of Slytherin!"

Willow shrugged. "Second in line for that one, actually, but since Voldemort's lost his right to the Marvolo land and title in Britain …" she trailed off suggestively.

Buffy's eyes widened. "Oh, wow, Willow, that is awesome!"

Willow grinned and shrugged. "I really didn't want it at first," she said. "But I think I could get used to it. I might have to, anyway."

"Isn't it someone else's by now?"

Willow shook her head. "Seems the land has been officially administered by the Ministry for the last sixteen years but largely left as a nature preserve. There are enchantments on it that make it pretty much impossible to get to for anyone that isn't a Marvolo and cursed land to anyone who gets in and tries to take control. I don't think the Ministry's ever even been able to send anyone onto it. It should have gone to me when Voldemort fell, but no one knew I existed. Now, though, if I don't take it, Voldemort could take control of it again by default … not legally, the Ministry wouldn't recognize him again, but the enchantments on the land would because they could sense that I abandoned the claim, and that's what would basically count."

Draco nodded. "Looks like you've done your homework."

"Good," Harry said. "You can help me with mine."

"What are you working on?" Buffy asked.

"Trying to figure out what Bellatrix did to get away. Didn't look like Apparating, looked almost like she burned up, but there was no body or ashes, just darkness, then nothing."

"Remember the spell?" Willow asked.

"Umm … tenebris … gosh, I don't know, it was a long one."

"Want me to have a look?" Willow asked.

Harry and Willow exchanged a long look, and Buffy wondered how so much could pass between them with just a glance. Buffy guessed that she and Draco weren't the only couple that had enjoyed a little bit of quiet time over the last few hours. Harry nodded a moment later, and Willow pulled out her wand. Harry closed his eyes calmly, and began to take deep, measured breaths.

"What're you doing?" Ron asked.

"Shh," Willow said softly. "Legilimens."

Harry's breathing quickened for a moment, but he steadied it a moment later. Buffy's eyes widened. For some reason, this moment seemed to impress on her more than anything else just how much she had missed. Willow was doing far more to Harry than she had to Buffy, and he wasn't even watching as she did; he was letting her delve into his mind itself. What he was doing had to take an incredible amount of trust. She cast a glance at Draco, and unconsciously squeezed his hand.

Harry opened his eyes a moment later, and Willow pulled back.

"'Tenebris corporis meum et spiritus meus cedo, reviviscam mea,'" she quoted. "The Sarcophagus of Oblivion. She was drained, right?"

"I thought so, but that spell looked awfully strong for someone who was drained and hurt."

"She was dying," Willow agreed. "That was a desperate spell. She didn't have any power left."

"Then how did she pull it off?"

"A kind of Faustian bargain, basically," Willow explained. "She obliterated her own body—what was left of it—for the essence for the spell. I don't understand how it works, really. But basically, she's out there—not dead, but not really alive."

"Sort of like Voldemort after his curse backfired?" asked Hermione.

"In a way, I guess," Willow said, "though I think she's too far out in limbo to really affect the world the way he could, and I have no idea what it would take to restore her. She may be able to do it on her own eventually, or Voldemort may be able to do it at some point, if he can find her; it's hard to find your way around in the nether realms. Or the darkness may simply swallow her so completely that she'll never come back. I don't know. But there's no way it will be easy. Once the darkness has you, it doesn't let go easily." She said the last point with bitter emphasis.

"Has anyone ever come back from it?" Harry asked.

"A long time ago," Willow admitted. "Salazar Slytherin used to teach that spell to his most powerful lieutenants, in case they were ever overmatched or ambushed and unable to Apparate. He knew how to bring them back. I don't know if anyone's ever been able to manage it on their own, but I suppose it could be theoretically possible. I'll draw you a diagram later," she finished lamely, noting that the others seemed to have heard enough.

"So we might run into her again," Harry concluded flatly.

"If she's worth enough to Voldemort to go to the trouble of bringing her back. It's not easy, Voldemort's hurt, and it used to take Salazar at least a year."

"She might be worth it to him," Harry admitted. "In the graveyard my fourth year, he actually seemed to like the Lestranges. Or at least value them, which is more than I could say for anyone else."

"Well, we'll deal with that when we have to," Buffy interrupted. A year was far too long in advance to worry about problems in her line of work. "In the meantime, I think I have some serious letterage to catch up on." She had been out of contact with the Sunnydale crew for so long she could barely remember what they looked like, especially with the dementors eroding her memories of them.

"Ergh," Draco groaned. "So do I. I've got a week to get the place presentable again."

"I can help with that," Willow offered.

Draco smiled. "Actually, the house-elves can build, I just need to find someone to manage the group; they don't give each other orders well, and I'm going to be too busy. But I do appreciate the offer. My lady," he added, with a polite bow.

"Oh, please don't start," Willow groaned, rolling her eyes at the ceiling.

"That's right," Buffy said, remembering the conversation she had had with Lucius while he was still posing as Draco. "The Malfoys were the Marvolo visors."

"Viziers," Draco corrected her, looking startled that she knew that, but Buffy was already turning a sly look on him.

"Hmm," she grinned. "I think Willow outranks you."

Draco gave a helpless smile, and shrugged.

"Ooh, this could be good," Harry said, his eyes suddenly brightening and all kinds of wheels clearly starting turning in his head.

"Don't get any ideas, Potter." Draco wrinkled his nose at the tousle-haired Gryffindor.

"Too late."

"Harry," Willow admonished.

"Oh, please, please, pleeeeeeease?" he begged. Ron looked rather enthusiastic all of a sudden, too.

Willow gave him a reproving gaze, and Harry stayed quiet, but the wheels were definitely still turning behind his eyes.

"I don't think I'm exactly much value to you at the moment, anyway," Draco admitted. "The family finances are a wreck, since father was squirreling all our income into his own hidden accounts and basically looting the place, and Gringott's will probably charge half of what's left just to put the other half back in order. And the Arcanum Malfi is more than a little worse for wear; father was more concerned with business than with learning. I'm going to have to cash out some of my own savings just to get by for the next week or two, just to hire people to jumpstart the place again."

"Poor fellow." Harry's sympathy sounded about as deep as the water in the Sahara.

Buffy nodded. Draco certainly had a lot of work ahead of him. Then, suddenly, something hit her, and her eyes widened. "So let's see. You're going to need a construction supervisor, someone who's good with money, and a librarian, all willing to work cheap," she said. "I'll see what I can do about that."

Willow's eyes widened, and a brilliant smile spread across her face.

Author's Notes: Thanks once again for all the feedback! This story would never have made it this far without your encouragement. Shout outs (and responses) especially to:

Shabopo I agree about the long-term effects that her loss of control could have on Buffy, but she's a tough girl. Maybe sequel material? (Wink wink?)

Silver Warrior: I think there are actually more than a few parallels that could be made with Ginny and the younger (seasons 1-3) Willow, before she matured into the bad-ass Wiccan that she became. Not just the red hair, but the certain lack of social skills, the willingness to let their curiosity get the better of them with regard to darker magics.

Morena Not the last chapter yet! But true, getting close.

musicgirl141: It seemed to be the kind of repartee (bonus points for using that word, too!) that would go on between the Scoobies in that situation. Sort of reminiscent from the S7 finale when they all talk about what they're going to do the next day right before they go in to fight the Ubervamps.

laffinpebbles Course. Didn't really want to turn Buffy into the ghost of Faith past. That said, I didn't really want Lucius to get off easy, either. More on that yet to come ... ;-)

IceBlueRose Thanks again ... still, been a good ride, hasn't it?

Naitch03: Not sure if there would be a real sequel. I just figured I ought to leave Voldie alive just in case ... and if not for my sequel, for the fact that there are still two more real HP books coming out (one rather soon)!

Ambs I think he wanted to see as much as possible. Figure he has to keep all these old artifacts around for something other than show value.

Pamie884: I'll definitely take that as a compliment. Dumbledore is a hard guy to write because he's such a hard guy to predict in the Potterverse—though he's been getting easier, unfortunately. He used to be the unpredictable maverick genius, back in 1-3. Since GoF, he's become a more stock character, even though he's taken a more prominent role in the books.

Thanks as well for the props from Mama T, DragonBaby1987, jumping-jo, wordoftruthhunter, and Fate.

Coming Soon: Chapter 51, "Return to Sunnydale." As if the title didn't give it away: Buffy and Willow return to Sunnydale for a quick visit and a modest proposition.

Sneak Preview:

"How do you guys feel about a little change of scene?"