A/N: I always read the previous chapters of my stories in order to refresh them in my mind – and if I was the reader I would kick my ass so badly for the long wait after that last chapter.

Chapter 16 – Tomorrow

The Slayer sat on the window ledge in the Astronomy tower, looking out at the grounds. In her minds eye, she saw broken and bloodied bodies and the grass painted red. All of her senses were telling her that today was the day of battle. A small smile crept upon her face at the idea; finally something she knew how to handle.

The fall of footsteps sounded but the demon didn't bother turning to see who it was. Harry Potter slowly walked over to his demon, leaning slightly over the ledge and looked out over the same grounds. Only his mind wasn't filled with blood and killing.

But it is only a matter of time, the demon thought reflectively; Buffy seemed saddened by the thought but Slayer saw it as a natural part of life that she couldn't and shouldn't protect her Master from.

"How'd you escape Mme. Pompey?" Harry asked lightly, not ready to enter dangerous waters just yet.

"You accidentally destroy a cabinet of potions and your persona non grata for life," whined The Slayer, though the effect was ruined slightly by her smirk. Harry chuckled slightly, but the serious look never really left his face. Like her, he seemed to sense that something important was going to happen that day.

"Voldemort will attack today, won't he?"

She nodded.

"He can't allow me the time to regain my bearings."

Harry hesitated for moment, remembering the brief glimpse he had experienced of Buffy's memories when they had returned. He had only caught a small portion and the memories along with the emotions had threatened to overwhelm him. How could Buffy act as if nothing had happened?

"Are you...I mean, is Buffy..." he floundered, trying to think of the right words to say. Frustrated, he ran a hand through his dishevelled hair, revealing his trademark scar. The Slayer reached out and ruffled his hair, earning herself a glare.

"What do you want to tell Dumbledore?" she asked, neatly avoiding the question. If Harry noticed he didn't give any indication as he contemplated The Slayer's question. Much of Harry's faith in the headmaster had been lost after Dumbledore's actions last year but Dumbledore was still the most powerful wizard after Voldemort. Not to mention he was in charge of the school.

"I think they'll need to know so they can prepare," the boy said slowly, standing straight and taking one more look before he turned to head for Dumbledore's office. A hand on his shoulder stopped him and then he felt the familiar tingle as The Slayer transported them inside the headmaster's office.

Regaining his bearings, Harry glared at the grinning demon and growled, "Would you stop doing that!" to which she only stuck out her tongue. Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall (who happened to be in the middle of a meeting) watched the pair with amusement (Dumbledore), aggravation (Snape), and disapproval (McGonagall).

"Harry, how can we help you?" Dumbledore asked with the telltale twinkle in his eye. Harry eyed Snape wearily and addressed the headmaster.

"According to The Slayer, Voldemort is going to attack today."

Snape snorted.

"Did the great Harry Potter think he knew something that we didn't? We already know that," Snape spat, still in a bad mood from his last spying mission for the Order.

"So you also know about the demon army he's gathered?" the Boy-Who-Lived retorted, knowing his guess was right when three astonished faces looked back at him. "That's what I thought."

"Now see here you little brat..." Snape stopped his insults as he felt cool metal against his throat. The small demon grinned upwards at him, and Snape knew that only the whim of a sixteen-year-old boy kept his throat from being slit.

"Severus, Buffy ... this isn't the time for us to be fighting amongst ourselves," Dumbledore said very seriously. The Slayer sent a scornful look the old wizard's way, sneering as she said, "It's not your place to order me around." She pressed harder on the knife and a bead of blood slid down the potion master's neck before she roughly pushed him back to his seat. Keeping the knife out, the Slayer kept herself between her Master and the other wizards – clearly stating her distrust of them.

Coughing slightly, McGonagall tried to get the meeting back on course.

"What do we tell the students?" she questioned, fear for her charges clearly on her face. Dumbledore sighed heavily; he had tried to keep the children as far away from the war as Voldemort would allow but it seemed that he was no longer able to do so.

"That it's time to fight."

The adults were startled by Harry's sudden contribution to the conversation. Snape began to sneer before a sharp twinge from his neck reminded him of the repercussions of doing so.

"Mr. Potter, you cannot be suggesting that we allow the students to fight against Death Eaters and demons?" McGonnagal asked outraged at her prized Gryffindor.

"They're not going to escape this unscathed from this war; no one is. They have the right to protect their school, themselves, and everyone they care about."

"That will only get them killed," Snape sneered, eyeing the Slayer out of the corner of his eye.

"At the Department of Mysteries we..." Harry began to argue before he was interrupted.

"And you had to be saved by the mutt before he got himself killed," Snape responded cruelly, knowing that the loss of his godfather was still a sore spot for the boy. Before either Harry or Slayer could respond Dumbledore interrupted.

"I think it would be best if we blockaded the students in their dormitories until the battle is over." Dumbledore gave Harry a grave look. "This includes you, Harry."

"What? What about the prophecy?" Harry shouted. "I'm the only one who can stop Voldemort!"

"Until we know what 'the power he knows not' is, I'm afraid I can't allow you to take that risk."

Knowing the old man wouldn't change his mind; Harry stormed out of the office – kicking the gargoyle as he passed by. The nerve of Dumbledore, he didn't even know what this mysterious 'power he knows not' is and for all they knew the only way to make it appear is to fight Voldemort.

"He loves you."

That shook Harry out of his inner tirade against the headmaster. Staring at his demon with a dumbfounded look on his face and doing an admirable imitation of a fish, he managed a choked out, "Huh?"

"Even though he knows your destiny, he's trying to protect you for as long as possible. That's why he's keeping you from the fight now, and why he kept the prophecy from you in the first place."

"Yeah, and what would a demon know about it?" Harry asked angrily, immediately feeling ashamed at the glazed look that crossed the Slayer's face.

"I ... Buffy ... had a prophecy depicting her ... my ... death; to protect us our Watcher tried to keep the prophecy from me and even tried to take my place when the time came," The Slayer shifted uncomfortably, obviously still trying to deal with the aftermath of regaining her memories and for all intents and purposes, another personality. The comment from her Master had stung her slightly, even though she had always been proud of being a demon.

God damn, stupid human emotions, she cursed to herself and could have sworn that her inner human was smirking at her. She needed a spot of violence to get the foul taste of compassion out of her mind.

"Master, I beg your leave."

Harry grimaced at the formality of the statement; The Slayer seemed to recognize that the young wizard was uncomfortable with the master/slave relationship and had toned down much of the slavery overtones. He must have really made her uncomfortable for her to fall back into those behavioural patterns.

"Sure, but before you go I just wanted to say, um, thanks, I mean, for what you said; it helps," he finished clumsily but earnestly which earned him a small smile. The Slayer turned to leave when she remembered another important matter.

"Master, what do you wish to be done with the spy?"

"Snape? But he's on our side?" Harry asked in confusion, his nose crinkling as he thought.

Buffy shook her head, slightly amused at the face the boy was making.

"No, Voldemort's spy – Draco Malfoy."

Harry paled considerably at this news. Malfoy could leak their preparations to Voldemort, or at least tell him that Hogwarts wouldn't be caught unawares. Reading her master's mind, Slayer realized he didn't understand the full brevity of the situation.

"If the spy isn't contained, he can launch an assault against our backs while Voldemort attacks the front."

"What do you want to do?" Harry asked, knowing that The Slayer already had a plan in mind. Slayer grinned and the wizard felt a shiver go down his spine; it was a smile that promised pain and a slow death. It was no secret that Harry detested Draco Malfoy, but to basically order his death?

"Unlike you, he chose his role in this war – his fate has been decided by his own actions, not yours." Green eyes bore into green eyes, communicating as effectively as they would with words. Harry was the first to look away, staring at the ground beneath his feet.

"Maybe...maybe he'll change his mind," Harry argued weakily, still looking at the ground. He heard a derisive snort and couple stop a small chuckle that escaped his lips. "Perhaps," Slayer replied, her tone saying exactly what she thought of the odds of it actually happening. "But if he doesn't others will die."

Harry Potter, The-Boy-Who-Lived, sat alone in the Great Hall picking at the plate of food that Dobby had grabbed for him. His friends had begun avoiding him ever since he had refused to help Slayer regain her former life. Harry suspected that Hermione was in library trying to discover everything about demons and master/slave bonds. He looked at his ring, and for a moment felt the temptation to take it off.

It wasn't fair, Harry reflected to himself, I'm only sixteen years old – all I should have to worry about is girls and school, not whether or not I should order a death!

"You look like someone's died," a husky voice said by his ear. The wizard quickly drew his wand at the stranger, who just laughed. "It's pretty useless to be drawing your stick after I've already gotten this close."

"Faith, right?" Harry asked nervously of the beautiful – and powerful – girl in front of him. He hadn't had much contact with her outside their brief moment of sharing Slayer's ... Buffy's ... memories.

"Yup, so what's got you all down and gloomy?" she asked, hunkering down and looking pleasantly surprised when her own plate of food appeared in front of her. Watching with amusement as the girl proceeded to stuff herself in much the same way Ron did, Harry merely shrugged in response to her question. Seeing the penetrating look coming his way (which looked eerily similar to The Slayer's) Harry quickly changed the topic.

"Where are the rest of your friends?"

Faith did an imitation of Harry's shrug. For the first time, the outgoing girl seemed to hesitate. Giving a few glances at Harry, then back to her food, she hunched around her plate as she asked quietly, "Do you still remember anything from when...?"

Harry didn't ask for clarification, hunkering down over his own plate and not making eye contact.

"A little. But it's..."

"Overwhelming?"

"Yeah."

The two continued to eat in silence, but it was a comfortable one. It was broken a little while later as the demons entered the Great Hall arguing.

"Why can't we just flip a coin?" Slayer asked in frustration, obviously having been arguing for quite some time. Gawain looked at her in annoyance.

"Because I remember the last time you flipped a coin," Gawain said firmly, Talyn and Emrys nodded in agreement. "Not to mention it was a really bad pun."

The Slayer turned on the demons with a look of mock outrage.

"I do not do bad puns! My jokes are great, you just don't have the sophisticated humour to appreciate them," she said snootily, giggling slightly, "Heads it is."

The other demons just rolled their eyes, and the watching wizard and slayer exchanged amused glances.

"I almost want to know what they're talking about," Harry remarked.

"Yeah, almost," Faith agreed with a smirk.

"If we can't agree on teams, why don't we just do a free-for-all?" Emrys asked in exasperation.

"It would be fun to mock all three of you when you lose," Slayer pondered, grinning wickedly as Gawain punched her in the arm.

Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Harry asked, "Teams for what?"

"ALL STUDENTS TO THEIR COMMON ROOMS IMMEDIATELY!"

Dumbledore's booming voice echoed through the castle. The demons and the Slayer whimpered at the assault to their superhuman hearing. Still trying to regain her hearing, Slayer jerked a thumb towards the general direction of the Headmaster's office and replied, "For that."

Moments later the Hogwarts staff poured into the Great Hall, and McGonagall and Dumbledore frowned when they saw Harry.

"Mr. Potter, report to your common room immediately," McGonagall ordered sternly. Before Harry could protest, Slayer placed a firm hand on his shoulder, keeping him seated, and replied, "We'll make sure he's safe."

Looking at the demons suspiciously, Dumbledore nodded, deciding to trust them. Moving faster than his age would suggest, the staff headed out the doors to where Aurors and other allies waited for the arrival of Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Harry looked at Slayer angrily who merely shrugged innocently and remarked, "I said we'd make sure to keep you safe, but I didn't say it would be back in your dormitories. Oops, my bad." Slayer turned to the other demons, and motioned for them to get to their positions. Emrys and Talyn disappeared, but Gawain hesitated for a moment. Glancing at Slayer, he reached out a hand to Faith – who after a moment's hesitation took it and they disappeared.

The Great Hall was quiet. The entire school was quiet, quieter than Harry could ever remember Hogwarts being. He couldn't shake the feeling that this was the last time he would be sitting there, in Hogwarts heart. The Boy-Who-Lived stood up, and took one last look around at the only place he had ever thought of as home.

He started to head for the door but paused as Slayer spoke, "And the spy?" Not turning around he answered, "If Malfoy ... if anyone attempts to help the Death Eaters ...you have my permission to do anything to stop them."

"Anything?"

Harry nodded and headed for the doors. Slayer watched her master with pride, and spoke quietly to the figure that had appeared behind her. "Go to Tuath and tell him it's time."

Valet bowed slightly and asked, "Anything else you would have of me?"

"You heard your Master's order," she replied in a meaningful tone. Valet bowed again and disappeared.

Slayer followed after her master leisurely, whistling a made-up tune as she made her way to the soon-to-be battlefield. One of the few things that Slayer and Buffy agreed completely on was the call of battle, and this was shaping up to be one hell of a war.

TBC