PART THREE

After arriving back at Hogwarts, both Severus and Willow reported to Dumbelore's office. Albus was dressed in one of his crazier robes, with swirls of color (really swirling) splashed all over it. After the defeat of Voldemort, Albus had let his fashion sense get even crazier. Of course, Willow had no idea that this was worse than normal.

"Lemon drop?" Albus offered as they sat down.

"No thanks." Both Severus and Willow declined.

"What did you find in Sunnydale? Is there reason for alarm?"

"The Initative is back, but we don't know why. The death eaters are there too. We don't know what there purpose is, or how they are helping the Iniativive. We found a prophesy." Willow pulled out a slip of paper and handed it to him. "We think that this is referring to an upcoming battle. We know it is going to take place sometime in the summer, but we don't know when exactly or how. We think that a former Iniativie solider, Riley Finn, is behind this new organization, but we have no proof. My people are doing research at home, and I intend to do some here. We have to find out what this prophesy means, and where the rest of it is."

"What do you mean?" Albus looked at her a little confused. "This is the prophesy."

"Well, yes, but where is the outcome of the battle? There is always a prediction. We need to find out what is supposed to happen so we can stop it or help it along, depending on what the outcome is supposed to be. Also finding this version in another place will confirm that this is indeed a prophesy, and one meant for our lifetime as opposed to another slayer three hundred years from now."

He really is incompetent, isn't he? Willow thought inwardly shaking her head. She decided it didn't matter, because he was not going to be involved in the fight. The last thing the Scooby gang needed to have to do was keep track of a senile old wizard while trying to dodge lighting bolt attacks. Her thoughts shifted to Severus. He had been oddly quite the entire time that they had been back.

"Well, Severus, what do you think?"

"Headmaster, there is nothing we can do now but wait. I did not see any death eaters while I was in…Sunnydale, but that does not mean that they were not there. I could not feel anything, but the town was immersed in dark magic, so I do not know which was the death eaters and which was just the town itself."

"Yup. That's good old Sunnydale. The center of mystical convergence and all that," Willow said chirpily. "Don't worry. We will find the prophesy; we will defeat the bad guy and everything will be alright. It always is."

Willow stood up. "If you will both excuse me, I will be in the library." With that said, she turned and left the room, leaving the two wizards to converse.

The cheerful slightly dazed look slid off the headmaster's face. "Can we trust them Severus?"

The Potion's Master sat forward a little in his chair and folded his hands together. "They seem to know what they are doing. They seem to want to save the world."

"That is not what I asked. Are they trustworthy?"

"They are all like Willow, sir."

"Ah, capable of great darkness and great good? Which will they choose do you suppose?"

Had the Headmaster been possessed? Severus thought to himself. Willow was not capable of anything but happy laughter and good cheer. Dumbledore had finally lost his mind. It was official. He had helped the great Harry Potter defeat Voldemort, only to fall to the natural decay of the mind. This was a sad day indeed.

"Sir, Willow is not evil; she will never be evil. She is disgustingly on the side of light. It is obvious."

"Is it Severus?" The dim look had reappeared on Albus' face. "Lemon drop?"

Severus groaned. "I must go Headmaster. I have papers to grade." With that Severus swept out of the office.

The old man sat behind his desk stroking his long grey beard. "Severus, you will see, things are not always what they seem." He giggled and popped a lemon drop into his mouth.

In the library, Willow was having little luck finding anything on the prophecy. We need a name for the damn thing, she thought. Then we could actually use the index to find what we are looking for.

Snape sat in his dungeons staring at a glass of firewhiskey and the ungraded stack of papers on his coffee table. This was getting him nowhere. He had to find out what to do about this situation. What to do about his obsession. What to do about these death eaters and the problems that they were going to have to face.

S

A man with blond hair, long and silky, attached to pale skin and light grey eyes, dressed in black robes and carrying a cane stood in the center of a warehouse. In a former life his name was Lucius Malfoy. He had been captured and sent to Azkaban. His cellmate had been a nice blood-sucking fiend named Benjamin. Benny told Lucius about a plan concocted by one of the only vampires to fight beside the slayer and still be alive. Ben told Lucius about the fight, and about how to stay young forever, and about how he could have super strength and his wizarding ability. Ben had then turned Lucius. Upon waking, Lucious had killed Ben and the two guards standing watch over Azkaban that night…Stupid Ministry, thinking that two Aurors were enough to contain a man how Lucius strength and intellect.

"We have been in Sunnydale for three months, and have yet to encounter the slayer." Lucious calmly pointed out.

"She's out there. Remember I know where she lives. I know how she works. I know her friends. I know her family. I was once." A tall man with short brown hair and dressed in military garb moved stealthily across the room. "She doesn't know about me yet. She doesn't know about us, or about our plans. She knows nothing. It stays that way." The man's face changed and he growled. "I'm going to go get something to eat. Check on the troops." With that he turned away and left the building

Lucius stood before two doors: One painted green and the other painted black. "Time to check on the kiddees…"

PART FOUR

The semester was back in full swing, and the end of the year was approaching fast. Willow and the Scoobies were no closer to finding an answer. As Willow had found nothing at Hogwarts to indicate that this was in anyway connected to the wizarding world, Professor Snape was not convinced that this was actually a problem. After all, they hadn't seen any Death Eaters while in Sunnydale. Professor Snape continued to avoid Willow, and Willow continued to not notice.

The week before summer leave was to begin, Albus called Willow and Snape into his office.

"Willow, Severese please sit down. Lemon drop?"

"No thanks."

Severus turned his head slightly to indicate a negative answer.

"Miss Rosenburg, I assume that you will be returning to Sunnydale for the summer."

"Of course Headmaster. That is where my friends and family are, and, of course, we have the newest big bad approaching."

"Yes, about that, I want to send you help. Severus, I was hoping that you could accompany our DADA professor to her hometown to defend it against evil."

"But Headmaster, I have obligations. I have reseach and lesson plans and…"

"Ah, but Severus, there will be no reason to do any of those things if there is no world."

"But sir…"

"Now, Severus, I think that this would be for the best."

"Headmaster," Willow interrupted what could only prove to be a circular argument. "With all due respect, my friends and I have defeated a lot of different apocalypse situations; if Professor Snape does not want to come and help save the world, he should not have to. It can and will be done without him."

"Be that as it may, Miss Rosenburg. The Order feels that someone should accompany you and the only person not currently in Auror work is Severus, and me, of course, but I do not think that I could easily blend in with muggle society. Severus needs to go with you."

Severus stood up. "I must go and prepare my things." He swept out of the room. (His version of crossing his arms and pouting when he knows he has lost a battle.)

Willow looked at the door way worriedly. "Headmaster, there really is no reason for him to come."

"Willow. Thing are not always what they seem. Severus is needed in Sunnydale, if you are in Sunnydale. Lemon drop?"

As Willow left the office and started the trek to her rooms she thought about lemon drops. Why does that man continuously offer people lemon drops, when they constantly refuse them? Is he perhaps that forgetful…or is it something else?

She shook her head to clear it. People had told her that the Headmaster was a bit batty, and she couldn't agree with them more. It would be great to get back to Sunnydale for awhile. She really missed her friends; life was going great, but Willow knew what that meant, something was coming.

Severus Snape was mad. If he could afford it, he would Inceino all of the items in his house, just to watch them burn. The Headmaster had no right to do this to him. No right! He was a grown man; he did not need another master. He was himself and no one had the right to tell him what to do with his free time.

"He had to make it Order business. He couldn't just let it be; could he? Oh no. Where ever that blasted man wants me he gets me to be."

The stoic potions master just wanted to scream aloud. He wanted the entire castle to feel the rage that he was feeling. He had to spend a significant chunk of his summer with Willow. With the woman he was trying to avoid. He only had three more years to go! But evidently that was unacceptable to the Headmaster. Albus wanted him in Sunnydale, so to Sunnydale he would go.

"Damn sunshine," Severus spat, as he magicked a black longsleeve shirt into his trunk. "Damn California; and damn Willow Rosenburg."

S

"The plan is nearly finished." If Lucius had been talking to the Dark Lord, he would have added a my lord to the end of that sentence; however, he was not. He was talking to some punk-ass kid, who had gotten vamped and has now decided to go after the slayer. The only reason Luscious felt the need to allow this plan to continue was because it just might work. Lucius was never one to get his hands dirty—even dead. He would allow this plan to come to fruition, and then he would kill this imbecile little boy, who thought he had an army of death eaters at his fingertips.

"Yo, Luc. You got the game plan for your people? My people are set. We fight tomorrow."

S

Willow didn't know what it was she was supposed to do about Severus. Sure he was tall, dark, and creepy, but he was also kinda hot. She had been afraid of him, and she still was kind of, but obviously he wasn't going to hurt her. In all the time that she'd known him, he'd never hurt anyone. His past was his past. She was not afraid of him because of his past; she was afraid of him because every time she saw him she got butterflies in her stomach. She knew that he didn't feel the same way, and it didn't matter anyway because she was only going to be at Hogwarts for another three years, and while anything could happen in three years, she knew that Severus was not going to give up Hogwarts for a demon riddled town in Sunnydale. This was her home, and Hogwarts was him. Willow pushed all of those thoughts down into the deepest dark pit of her mind, where all the other ones she had had through the past year had been pushed. She was not going to worry about this now.

She and Severus had arrived in Sunnydale a week ago, and they were no closer to finding the answers to this crisis. Buffy and Spike both were getting restless—actually it was more than that. They'd almost decided that the problem didn't exist. Neither one of them were very patient. Willow thought that maybe she should have just talked to Giles about all of this, and left Buffy out of the loop until closer to slaying time.

The chime over the magic box jangled loudly. Buffy and Spike walked in.

"Something is up," Buffy proclaimed loudly. "There were no vamps."

"None at all?"

"None. It wasn't just quiet—there were literally no vamps, but that is not all, there were no demons either. Willy's was closed, and that's not normal. Something is coming. I want to know what; I want to know when, and I want to know how many."

"Little girl. You must learn patience." Severus couldn't take it anymore. These kids were driving him insane. They thought that all the answers would just fall into their laps. He was just as frustrated as everyone else, and he had a new-found respect for Giles. How that man could put up with all of their trivialities was beyond him. "The answers will come."

Giles took off his glasses and began to polish them on the edge of his shirt. "This silence is unnatural. There has to be something…Let me see that prophesy again."

Giles slid the book from the center of the table and hunched over it. "Oh dear."

"What? What is it? Are they attacking tonight, or something?" Xander laughed.

Giles didn't answer and the room went quite.

"Yes."