PART TWO
Two days later, Snape and Willow apperated together to the front yard of Buffy's house. Snape was not prepared for the pandemonium that greeted them.
Three people rushed out of the house as they landed in the front of an obviously muggle house.
"Willow!" A willowy dark haired girl probably about the age of the seventh years at Hogwarts barreled towards them to give Willow a hug.
"Wills!" A dark haired man in about his early twenties greeted them. "How have you been, how is magic school?"
"Xander, Dawn, Buffy! How are you guys!"
"I thought you couldn't just leave in the middle of the school year," a blonde haired girl smirked. She had obviously been hanging around Spike way too often. She was standing on the porch leaning against one of the white pillars.
"Ha ha. No actually I have some rather bad news, but I was asked to come here. Oh by the way everyone, this is Professor Severus Snape. Professor this is Dawn, Xander, and Buffy." He nodded at them, still quite unsure what to do. It was obvious that these people were close. He felt as though he were dropped in the middle of a story and he had never read the beginning.
"Xander, where's Anya?"
"Um, well Wills, we decided that it wasn't working out, she went back to being a vengeance demon and I decided I rather liked my life the way it was."
"But wait," Willow said as they all started moving into the house, "I thought that D'Hoffren wouldn't give her, her old job back."
"I guess he just changed his mind."
Buffy had made up one of the spare rooms for Willow, and Severus was to bunk with Xander down in the basement. Xander had moved in after the break up with Anya. He figured he could better help out by living there. Sure it was another basement, but what was important was that it was not his parents' basement, and he felt like a person who was helping rather than an encumbrance. Willow used her newly controlled powers to transfigure one of the chairs into a bed so that Severus had a place to sleep. Xander came downstairs while she was making up the bed.
"Wills, are you really doing alright?"
"Yes, Xander, I am fine, school is great!"
"Wills, it's me, you don't have to pretend. What's going on in your life?"
"Honestly, I love teaching and I love the school. I guess, I wasn't ready to be pulled out to fight the newest Big Bad. Plus now I am here, but it isn't just us, it's us and Snape, you know, and he knows about the slayage, but I am not sure he understands about the way our group works and all of that. It will be imperative if we have to fight the Initiative again."
Xander looked at her seriously for a moment as if he were debating saying something.
"We can't Willow."
"What do you mean?" Willow looked at him confused.
"We can't fight the Initiative again. We never really fought it before. What we fought was Adam. The Initiative destroyed itself, and if they do the same things again they will destroy themselves again…but we won't be able to stop them—they're human… They aren't some demons that Buffy can just cut off their heads."
"We can't just let them do that though. We need to save Spike and then find out what's going on. Maybe we should save our speculation for a time when we actually have some information."
Willow went upstairs to talk to Buffy and to set up the ingredients to do a locator spell. They needed to find out where Spike was. Then they could concentrate on the rising of the Initiative.
Buffy was in the kitchen washing some dishes or at least that what it looked like she was trying to do. What she was actually doing was staring out the small window in front of her with her hands immersed in the dishwater of the sink. She looked sad and a little lost. Willow walked into the kitchen and put her hand on Buffy's shoulder.
"Buffy, we'll find him. I'm going to set up now and do that spell. Do you have something of his that we can use to track him? Snape says that it will be easier to locate him with something of his to use, because generally the spell looks for the living essence of the person, but as a vampire he's not technically alive."
"I have a shirt of his. Will that be enough?"
"It should be." Willow gathered some of the supplies that she had stashed away in her bag. She began to form a circle with the candles. She then spread the map out in the middle of the circle. "I am going to find Snape now, I am not sure exactly sure how to use the personal artifact instead of the living essence and right now I don't have time to read up on it."
Willow found Severus in the living room looking at the blank TV screen.
"What is this used for?" He asked.
"Stories are acted out by people and then transmitted via satellite to people who wish to watch them. I'm ready to do the spell now. Do you think that you could come help because I don't know how to use the artifact and you do," Willow asked. She wanted to get this spell over with; she wanted to find Spike and then find out what the Initiative was up to. The sooner that they knew what was going on, the sooner they could do something about it.
Willow and Severus went into the dining room where the circle was already prepared. He laid the shirt over the map and then took out his wand. Whispering an incantation the shirt shrunk into the size of a very tiny person then moved over the map until it was…right in front of Buffy's house? Just then a leather clad vamp rushed into the house and slammed the door.
"Spike!" Buffy exclaimed, running to him and hugging him. Then she stepped back and punched him in the nose. "Where the hell, have you been?"
"OW! Bloody hell, woman. For your information I have been on the down low. Your buddy Finn is back! And he's got some black robed friends with him. They showed up at my crypt two nights ago, I've been on the run ever since. I circled back to make sure that they hadn't been here and the place wasn't being watched. It's not so far, but something weird is going on." Just then he caught sight of Willow and Severus.
"Hey, Red. I thought you were off at magic school. What're you doing here? And who's tall dark and broody there behind you? Man, you look like you could give peaches a run for his money."
"Spike, I am here because you were missing. Oh and a vague rumor that the Initiative is back has wormed its way even to Scotland. Oh and this is Professor Severus Snape. He may have some experience with the black robed guys that you saw. This is one of the reasons that Headmaster Dumbledore is concerned. Evidently the magic world had their own Big Bad and he was recently defeated, however some of his followers escaped punishment. It is now rumored that they have joined forces with an American government agency."
"Ah, let me guess," Buffy interjected, "the Initiative."
"Yep."
The room fell silent.
"Okay," Buffy broke the silence, "We've seen the Initiative before in action. But what about these black robed men? Willow said you had experience with them? What are they?" She asked turning to Snape.
Snape looked uncomfortable for a minute as all the eyes in the room were directed at him. He cleared his throat and scowled to cover up his discomfort. He crossed his arms, hugging them tightly to his body, "They are called Death Eaters. They are wizards that followed the dark lord, Voldemort, through his reign. They are, for the most part, pure blood wizards who think that pure bloods should rule the world. What doesn't make sense in this is why they would be with this agency. They hate muggles and anything to do with muggles. There has to be someone else behind all of this." Having spoken the most he had since he arrived in Sunnydale, he sighed. He didn't know what else to say. As a spy he had helped Dumbledore in the war, but he didn't know what else he could do about them now. They knew that he worked for the Order now; they would never trust him again. He was afraid that he would be of no help to Willow and that she would be disappointed. Who cares, he interjected in his mind, she is not important you are only here at the request of Dumbledore. Maybe while you are here you can find a different way to exist besides teaching, because you know how much you hate teaching.
"Great, Death Eaters, that sounds promising," Buffy said. "Why can't they ever have names like fluffy bunny people."
"Well that would have scared Anya you know," Willow said. "I think that it's all in perspective."
"Well I guess it's time to have a Scooby meeting," Buffy said. "We need to find out what the Initiative is up to and what these death guys are up to. I'll call Giles. Can you go talk to Xander. Magic Box?"
"Sounds good."
"Tell him we're looking for any books on death eaters and Voldemort. Even thought that guy is gone doesn't mean that there isn't some prophecy about these guys." Willow said.
"No problem."
A few short hours later Severus found himself seated around a table with a very large book reading up on Death Eaters and prophesies involving said beings. For the most part he was not reading anything he did not already know. However he thought that this was a book he could have used during the war. Miss Granger could have devoured it and quit asking him so many infernal questions. He looked around; the boy called Xander had brought pizza and doughnuts and was currently absorbed in one of the books on his lap. Personally Severus thought that the man was just pretending to read. He didn't think that the History of Magical Beings was going to be much help as the Death Eaters were fairly new to the magical realm.
Willow was on her computer with Dawn looking up things about the Initiative. She was…googleing…he thought she had said, the terms about the Initiative. Buffy and Spike were not there. Evidently they had gone out to "patrol" and see what they could find in the field. Severus didn't understand why Spike would go after hiding out for a couple days, but he didn't know how to broach the subject. The way that these people worked together did not make him want to try to infiltrate their system anyway. They were obviously a very close knit group. Once again, he was the outsider.
Spike and Buffy stormed into the Magic Box in the middle of an obvious argument.
"Spike, you can't just go walking around town. You said it yourself, they're after you."
"No, your ex-honey is after me. I really don't think that the rest of the Initiative really gives two figs about me. It's all about Caption Cardboard. You know that."
"Ah Buffy," Willow said, "Do you think that Riley is behind the attacks on Spike?"
"Oh, I am sure of it, I just don't agree that Riley is the only threat to Spike. The rest of them know that he's a vampire. They don't know about the soul, but it wouldn't matter. You know they don't discriminate. Oh my gosh," Buffy cut herself off startled. "We have to call Angel."
"What do you mean? We do not need to talk to that poofter!"
"Spike, Riley knows about Angel too. Angel could be in trouble. He needs to be warned. Besides he might know something about what's going on. I'll give him a call later tonight."
Who is Angel? Snape thought, then shook his head, another vampire obviously. He just didn't want to know. How these people could trust such violent creatures, soul or no, he did not understand. Plenty of people had souls and were still evil. Hell, look at Riddle, or any of the Death Eaters. Hell, look at him, he had a soul when he chose the side of the dark. A soul was not a safeguard against violence; it just gave the person a conscience. If they didn't use it that was up to their discretion. Obviously this Spike person was a pretty special vamp, but Angel? Severus had heard of Angelus and didn't want to know if they were the same vampire or not. He imagined they were there couldn't be that many souled vampires out there, now could there?
Just then Willow squealed from across the table. "Guys I think I found something! Listen to this. 'Attention all soldiers. Do you believe in vampires? Werewolves? Things that go bump in the night? If so, there is a special taskforce is being set up to fight against the paranormal. Talk to your superior officer if you are interested.' This was posted about six months ago on a military discussion board. I hacked into their files. If you remember from before we had to get disks to have info, but I bet that they have an Intranet system that probably has a backdoor somewhere from the Internet. I highly doubt that they would be so backwards as to still carry everything around on disks. If I can just find it…but obviously we're on the right track right?"
"So they're recruiting openly this time. Isn't that kind of strange?" Xander spoke up, "From what I remember about being a solider, you are always told what to do and where to go. Asking military people if they want to join up, seems really really strange. If they are already in the military they would just be sent here if they government wanted them there. Either that post is a ploy, or someone is working from the inside…"
"Riley, it's gotta be. It all fits don't you think? He came back and found out that Spike and I were together and he thinks that I've gone off the deep end. He thinks that the world is no longer safe because, in his mind, I can't see the difference between good and evil anymore…so he decides the Initiative or some version of it needs to be started back up again." Buffy said.
"But what about Sam," Willow asked. "What happened to her? She seemed to be a very big part in Riley's life, and she also seemed mostly sane."
"Maybe she's in on it? You know like a husband wife squad," Dawn interjected cheerfully.
"Okay, let's say that Riley is behind it, regardless of whether on not Sam is involved, this means that it's back. The question now is, what exactly does he want it to do? He knows that this is my territory, regardless of what he thinks of my mental state."
"Oh dear," Giles said.
Everyone except Severus groaned. Willow looked over at him and his confused expression, "It's never good when Giles says, 'oh dear.' In fact it usually means an apocalypse."
"A child shall be born. He shall fight the demons, then be called by the darkness. He shall bring the remaining dark and fight against the Slayer."
"Um, Giles…" Buffy said. "That's not talking about Riley is it? Cause we really should have found that sooner if it was. He hasn't been around in like two years."
"Well, Buffy, I am not positive that this is discussing Riley, in fact this could be anyone, however, turning to the side of dark and fighting against the Slayer, is what I am concerned about, and "he shall bring the remaining dark" which perhaps could be these Death Eaters that you all have been discussing."
"Does it say when he and his army are going to be pitted against the Slayer?" Willow asked. She was still worried about her job at Hogwarts. She supposed that she could apperate and go back and forth if need be, but that took a lot of energy and with her mind already divided on her teaching and the slaying, the constant traveling might be problematic.
"At the rise of the new moon, the planets in alignment, the heat of summer, he will attack. All of the magic dark and light will collide, a more powerful force has not been known."
"What a load of crap, there's been lots more shit thrown at us than an army of soldiers. Maybe even a few powerful wizards."
"But Buffy, think about it," Willow said. "They are all human. Everything else you have fought can be killed. Humans have their own laws. You will have to incapacitate them, but you can't kill them. There are going to be too many. How will this work? The soldiers we can bring down with magic, but the Death Eaters? Even though they are wizards they are human. They belong in jail for their crimes, but you still can't kill them. It is not hard to think that they could be the most powerful force that we have fought for that reason alone. Xander, you were right. How are we going to fight them?"
Willow was a very smart girl. Snape came to that realization with a start. She knew what she was talking about. She was the brains of this outfit, without her, they would fall apart. They needed her. With that realization came another. If he wanted to be around her after she was done teaching at Hogwarts he would have to come here and he would have to become part of the Scooby gang. He couldn't see a place for himself here though. How was he supposed to fit in? They already had one old knowledgeable guy, that was Giles. They had a brain and witch—that was Willow, they had Joe normal, Xander, and they had brute strength, Buffy and Spike. With their tight knit group it did not seem that it would be easy to try to carve a place for himself. Did he really want to though? It wasn't as if Willow had ever given him any hope that she could think of him as anything more than a colleague, or even given him hope that she thought of him any more than necessary. He really didn't want to try, but if she was coming back here anyway would it hurt to try? Maybe against all odds, she would care for him just a little. Maybe he could join the group as something like 'Willow's boyfriend.' It didn't look like that place was filled by anyone yet.
There wasn't much more that Willow and Severus could do, the prophecy said "the heat of summer" and there were months between December and July or August. That was the problem with prophecies—no exact date. The next morning Willow, Buffy, Xander, and Dawn were all standing around in the kitchen, preparing for Willow's departure.
"So Wills, how are you really?" Buffy asked, in a moment of unusual insight.
"Really truly, fine. I love teaching—and I love not having to hide what I know. These children have had to keep their identity just as secret as you ever had to. They know what that means. They've gone trough some hard times—some of which I didn't know about, but I intend to look more into, especially with this new development."
"So, how's your love life," Dawn asked with a wave of her eyebrows.
"What love life? All the people I know are either too young or too old!"
"What about Sev?"
"Snape? Somehow, I don't think that he's interested."
"I don't know girl," Buffy said. "He was giving you some interesting looks."
"Snape? He looks like a vampire, Willow wouldn't get mixed up with someone like him," Xander said.
"Hey! I happen to be in a relationship with a vampire! Some vampires can be useful members of society!" Buffy said, thinking of something Anya had once said. Truth be told, no one seemed to know why exactly Anya had left. Xander seemed quieter after her departure. Willow wonder if she really went back to D'Hoffren, or if something else had happened.
"So speaks the Vampire Slayer," Xander quipped.
Everyone laughed and at that moment, Snape walked in.
"We should depart shortly. I have a lesson to prepare and papers to grade." He stood stiffly looking uncomfortable in the bright kitchen.
Willow looked at her friends. "I'll be back over Christmas, in the meantime, I'll look for stuff about the Death Eaters and about the Initiative. I'll see what I can find at Hogwarts. You guys see what you can find with Giles. It looks like we have some time."
She hugged each one, and Dawn whispered in her ear, "He's watching you."
"Goodbye Dawnie. You and your delusional ways. I'll see you all soon. Buffy, watch out for the Initiative."
Snape stood with his arms crossed. He had been ready to try and feel out a relationship with Willow. He knew that he probably didn't have a chance, but he was willing to give it a go. He knew he probably didn't have a chance when the young woman's voice had stopped him. "He was giving you some interesting looks." When Willow said his name, he knew it was him that they were discussing. He had never thought he had a chance to begin with, but now it was almost certain. He must stop watching her, if even the obviously self involved woman saw such a thing, then even she must have noticed—she was too nice to just tell him that.
All he wanted to do was go back to his dark cold dungeons—the safe isolation that Hogwarts had always given him. He would avoid her—she would leave soon, he was sure that he could avoid talking to her for the next three years—if only he could just get home.
