Buffy and The Creatures From The Black Lagoon.
The lamps had been lit inside the Hogwarts Express for several hours when a voice echoed around the train. "We will be reaching Hogsmeade station in five minutes time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to Hogwarts separately."
Lovell immediately stood up and reached above his head into the luggage rack.
"They want me to leave my trunk behind!" squeaked Buffy sitting very still and shooting her cousin's back a panicked look.
Caradoc, in the process of rising from his seat, paused and cast her a curious glance.
"Hmm?" Lovell replied, more interested in taking his coat from the luggage rack and gathering his belongings than listening to what she was saying.
"Lovell," Buffy spoke slowly and put as much meaning as she could into the relevant words, "My TRUNK is gonna be left BEHIND."
It wasn't as if she could mention the boggart while Caradoc was in the compartment. What if Spikey realised she'd gone and sprung out when others came to move her trunk? Boggarts were territorial; he might become stressed and go into scare mode. If only she could get Caradoc out of here, she could speak to Spikey and explain.
Lovell turned, with his coat neatly folded over his arm. "I don't see why you need your... Ah!" The penny dropped, and Lovell gazed over at Buffy's trunk with a creased brow.
Caradoc, who'd gone across to the trunks and was in the middle of taking school robes out of his, frowned at Buffy's trunk.
Buffy widened her eyes at Lovell and nodded towards Caradoc. The boy had two Aurors as parents and, from the conversation they'd shared, he'd shown himself to be far from stupid - he knew something was going on. Thankfully for Buffy, Lovell had an idea.
After exchanging his coat for school robes, Lovell closed his trunk's lid and announced in a matter-of-fact way, "Caradoc, Buffy needs to change her blouse. She's dribbled chocolate down the front and she can't change with us in here."
Caradoc's eyes dropped to Buffy's chest as she instinctively put a hand over an imaginary stain.
"Oops, clumsy me," she agreed, turning on the dizzy blonde persona with ease. "I promise I won't take long."
As soon as the door closed behind them, Buffy pulled down the blinds in the compartment and opened her trunk. Taking out Spikey's travelling box, she held it up to her face and whispered, "Spikey, I'm almost at Hogwarts. I need to go soon and someone will come in and take the trunk up to my dormitory. I'll check up on you as soon as I can. Don't spring out and scare anyone. Okay?"
The boggart scratched on the side of the box, and Buffy took that as a yes. She'd known from the start that smuggling Spikey into Hogwarts like this was a risk but felt she had no choice. She couldn't leave him behind, he'd only follow her and cause more trouble along the way. At least this way, he stayed inside her trunk. Once there, all she had to do was make sure no one saw them interacting. Lovell had told her Professor Merrythought taught boggart banishing spells in DADA classes, and she often brought in boggarts for her students to observe and practise on. Buffy hoped that if someone did see Spikey in the castle, they would assume he was a boggart brought in for classes and not trace him back to her.
….
As the Hogwarts Express pulled into the quaint, lantern-lit Hogsmeade Station. Buffy left the compartment and made her way down the corridor to where Lovell and Caradoc waited for her a short distance from the carriage door.
"Professor Kettleburn will call the first years before us," Lovell said. "There's no rush." He pushed Knuts further down into his pocket. The toad didn't want to keep still, he kept crawling to the top of Lovell's pocket and trying to leap out onto the floor.
"FIRST YEARS!" bellowed a loud voice from the platform. "FIRST YEARS! CARADOC DEARBORN, AND BUFFY LOVEGOOD-SUMMERS!"
Buffy shot a startled look at Lovell. "I thought there was no rush?"
"Oh, I forgot," Lovell replied sheepishly. "New students travel separately to the rest of us. You'd better go. Kettleburn doesn't like to be kept waiting."
It was one of the prefects' duties to disembark first and hold the doors open for new students. At their nearest door, a sandy-haired, fifth-former girl wearing Gryffindor colours stepped out and held open the door of their carriage. Caradoc climbed out next and surprised Buffy by holding out his hand for Buffy to take. For a second, she was taken aback but then slipped her hand into his.
"Thanks," she flashed him a broad smile and jumped down.
Once on the platform, both she and Caradoc looked across to where the teacher stood, holding up a lantern and continually calling for the first years. Buffy never once looked behind her, if she had she'd have recognised one of the prefects holding the doors as Tom Riddle and seen the speculative way he watched her.
Instead, her focus was on the man who'd teach her about Care of Magical Creatures. Silvanus Kettleburn was a middle-aged wizard with fair thinning hair, a black eyepatch over one eye, and a badly scarred face. He didn't wear wizarding robes, he wore a knee-length dragon-hide coat and long serviceable boots.
"Oi, you tall uns at the back!" He pointed over the heads of the first years to where Buffy and Caradoc were standing. "Ger over ere! I want you two at the front!"
"Yes, Sir," Caradoc called back politely.
Buffy didn't reply, with a little smirk at being described as tall, she simply followed Caradoc as he pushed a path through the first years.
"Now then!" Kettleburn looked around him, holding the lantern higher and scanning their faces. "That's everyone I take it? Right then, everyone follow me! This way to the boats!"
They followed him from the station and out onto the road. There a long row of carriages waited, each one harnessed to a winged, skeletal creature. Buffy looked at the beasts curiously, and the strange, horse-like creatures turned their coal-black heads as she passed.
"Whoa! Scary," said a boy's voice from behind her. Buffy glanced over her shoulder to see an overweight kid giving the Thestrals a wide berth.
"Do you mean the carriages, Crabbe?" Rigel Black scoffed. "What's so scary about them?"
"No, not the carriages!" Crabbe replied. "The winged things that are harnessed in front of them!"
"I don't see anything," retorted Rigel Black. "Everyone knows the Hogwarts carriages are self-propelled. You should ask your mother to take you for an eye test."
"But they're right there!" insisted Crabbe looking from the nearest Thestral to Rigel. "There's monsters pulling the carriages!
"I don't see anything," a girl behind them called out.
"I don't see anything either." More voices chimed, confirming they weren't able to see the creatures either.
"Crabbe's gone mental," Rigel sneered. "He's seeing things that aren't there." He gave the fat boy a push and sent him staggering towards one of the waiting Thestrals. " Maybe he wants his Mummy? Or maybe he's a mental case who needs locking up in St Mungo's? Which is it Crabbe?"
Buffy had had enough of the privileged boy's bullying, she spun around, her black robe whirling around her. "He isn't mental. I can see them as well. They're called Thestrals and only those who have witnessed death can see them."
Rigel glowered at Buffy for daring to correct him. In scathing tones, he replied, "There's no such thing, you're making it up!"
Kettleburn halted and swung his lantern, lighting Rigel's face. "Well Black, she's right an' yer wrong! The creatures that pull the Hogwarts carriages are indeed called Thestrals and yer can't see them as you've not seen anyone die!" He turned to Buffy and asked more gently, if a bit gruffly, "You've seen someone die, haven't you?"
For a moment, Buffy's mind went blank. 'Had she seen someone die?' The faces of the vampires she'd staked flashed in her mind. "Er, yeah."
"See," grunted Kettleburn. "She's seen someone die. That accounts for it."
Rigel tried to appear disinterested and failed as he kept glancing at the empty spaces in front of the carriages.
Kettleburn turned and continued talking as he walked. "You'll learn about Thestrals in Care of Magical Creatures which is what I teach. And I'll not take messin' around in my class!" He swung around fast and wagged a finger at Rigel who'd been sticking out his tongue at the man's back. "And we don't take a poor attitude from our pupils! You'll treat the teachers with respect or get points taken and a detention!"
They marched on, past the last of the waiting carriages to where the fir trees thinned, and the road dropped away. Here they followed a stone path for a short distance until they rounded a rocky outcrop and found themselves on a stony beach bordering a great lake. A string of lanterns was hung along a wooden dock and, in the water, a number of small boats bobbed up and down.
"No more than four to a boat," Kettleburn barked as he marched along the line of first years. "Yer don't need to row, they're charmed to float across the lake to Hogwarts. All yer got to do is sit back, an' enjoy the ride." He glared at Rigel, who was trying to push Crabbe off the dock and into the lake. "An' no messin' about!"
Caradoc nudged Buffy. "Come on, we'll take the one over there."
As they walked over to the small boat, Kettleburn yelled, "Oi! Dearborn and Summers! You two in separate boats, you're bigger than the rest!"
Caradoc was directed to a boat holding two girls and a boy whilst Buffy found she'd drawn the short straw. Her boat contained the annoying Rigel Black, a sharp-faced boy, and the plump Crabbe. She quickly took a seat in the stern, letting Black and the small boy take the central seat whilst Crabbe sat in the prow.
The small flotilla set off. The small craft magically propelled over the dark water of the lake, heading for the cliff opposite. There Hogwarts lay, every window lit and glowing in the darkness. For a while they were all quiet, overawed by their surroundings and the magnificent castle that was their destination. As time passed, however, the boys became restless and began to talk.
"Do you think there are monsters down there?" Rigel leaned over the edge of the boat, trailing his hand in the cold water.
"There's a giant Squid," Buffy replied, her eyes on the castle glowing in the distance. "And Merpeople and the horned water demons." She'd dipped into the book 'Hogwarts, A History' the previous night, skim reading the chapter on its location in case it mentioned the existence of a Hellmouth in the area.
"There are no such things as demons!" snapped Rigel. "What are you?" he sneered. "A Muggleborn? You're lying because you think you can scare us."
Before Buffy could answer, the small, sharp-faced boy sat next to Rigel piped up, "Newt Scamander says Grindylows are water horned demons! I've read it in his book!"
"That's right." Buffy gave the small boy and encouraging smile. "They are also mentioned in Hogwarts, A History. Aunt Bendy Bones says that Grindylows live in lakes and you can find them hiding under bulrushes, waiting for children to come within range." Her eyes flicked to the kids watching her. "Then they SPRING OUT," she made a clawed motion with her hands, "and drag them down into the water and eat their flesh."
"That's rubbish!" Rigel jumped to his feet and glared down at her. The little boat slowed, dropping behind the others and began to rock in the water. "You're trying to scare us!"
"It isn't rubbish, it's true. Sit down and stop rocking the boat," Buffy replied. She didn't like the way the water sloshed over the sides or how quickly the rest of the boats disappeared from sight.
"I won't!" Rigel held the central pole and climbed up onto the seat. "You can't stop me!" Then he placed his foot on the side of the boat and began to rock it to and fro. "There's no such thing as demons, only Mudbloods and Muggles believe in them."
"Sit down!" she told him again. The boy sat next to Rigel had wrapped his arms around the central post, the lantern above swinging wildly with the boat's movement. Over in the prow, Crabbe scrabbled off the seat and knelt on the boat's floor.
"You can't tell me what to do, Mudblood," laughed Rigel, contemptuously. He let go of the pole and built up a rhythm with his feet. The boat rocked harder and harder and more lake water sloshed over the sides. "I'm a Black. We do whatever we wa-"
His foot skidded on the wet wood. Rigel's arms flailed as he desperately tried regaining his balance. Buffy leapt up and grabbed for him, but she was too late. The boy slipped from beneath her grasp and plunged into the Black Lake with a loud splash.
"HELP!" yelled Crabbe from the prow. "Man overboard! HEELP!"
But the lights on the other boats were too far ahead of them, and they gave no sign they'd heard him.
Buffy dropped to her knees and stared into the dark water below her. "Can anyone see him?"
"No," Crabbe replied, scanning the waters around them. "Rigel can't swim."
"Oh crap," she muttered. Pulling off her robes, hat and shoes, Buffy placed her wand between her teeth and slipped over the boat's side into the inky waters. The water in the Scottish lake was icy cold, it froze her marrow-deep, and her brain stuttered from the shock.
….Buffy was in an underground chamber, large branches of candles flickered all around her, and somewhere out of sight something evil lingered. She walked on, the long prom dress swirling around her legs, her chest pounding with fear as she gripped the crossbow in her hands. She was hunting and determined to kill the creature the vampires called The Master.
"You don't understand your part in this do you?" the Master called out from somewhere out of sight. His voice as smooth and sensuous as a lover's."You aren't the hunter here, you're the lamb."
And then he was in front of her and she fell under his thrall. Pulling her against him, the Master slid the jacket from her shoulders, revealing her neck. A tear fell from Buffy's eye as she realised that she'd lost, there was nothing she could do to stop him from biting and killing her...
"Oh, the power," he groaned after feeding. He threw her away like a piece of garbage, to land face first in the water...
Buffy snorted water through her nose as her head dropped and slammed into the side of the boat. She spluttered, realising that she'd just relived a memory –and not a good one.
"I still can't see him," Crabbe shouted down to her. He crawled from one side of the boat to the other, searching the water for Rigel. "He must have sunk."
Taking her wand from her mouth, Buffy cast a Lumos charm. This time when the overpowered light shot out, Buffy thought that it was a good thing. Not only did it light up the surrounding water, but it shone across the lake and would alert others to their position and predicament.
There was still no sign of Rigel. Buffy drew in a series of deep breaths to inflate her lungs, replaced the wand between her teeth, and dived. As she dived, she checked her surroundings, her eyes trying to make sense of the shapes in the darkness beyond the reach of the light. There was no sign of Rigel, Buffy pushed on, swimming deeper and deeper.
Although there was no sign of the boy, there were other things in the water with her. Things that she could sense rather than see. They weren't vampires or anything similar, but they grated on her Slayer senses in the way demons did. Buffy swam on, wary of an ambush as pushing her way through a tangled forest of rippling black weeds that slapped at face and arms as she forced her way through them.
There!
She caught a glimpse of a pale face in the distance. Rigel? Buffy swam towards him, trying to ignore the way her lungs already begged to take a deep breath. She was a Slayer. She could hold her breath longer than most.
Slayers could still drown...
A memory tugged, trying to rise into her mind, and she fought it off. Not now!She couldn't afford to drift off into memories, she had to focus.
As she pushed her way through a dense patch of weeds, fingers wrapped around her ankle and tugged. More fingers grabbed at the back of her blouse – the shock of them almost causing her to draw breath. Buffy twisted in the water, at the same time kicking out hard. Her foot struck the first horned water demon directly on the top of its bony head, and it fell away with a crushed skull. The second she tore at with her hands, ripping at the fleshy arms, her Slayer strength tearing them from the body. It managed to escape, the demon's tentacles pumping furiously as it left its arms behind.
Her lungs were burning now after expending energy, and she was starting to feel light-headed through lack of oxygen. There was no way she could abandon the boy now, Rigel was almost in front of her. Grasping the boy's shoulder with one hand, she tore at the water demons that held him with the other. They bared their fangs at her, their strong hands grabbing for her, fingers tangling in her hair and one brazen demon trying to take a bite at her cheek. She recoiled, then her inner Slaydar took over and she began punching, kicking, and tearing at any Grindylow within range.
With a final brutal kick, the last demon was thrust away. The water around her swirled with their dead forms; some without arms or tentacles, others headless, and there were even more demons shredded so badly that Buffy wasn't able to recognise what they'd been. Not that she cared. She'd achieved her objective and that was to set Rigel free. With a powerful kick with her legs, she struck out for the surface, pulling the motionless boy along with her.
Buffy had almost made the surface when a grey humanoid face appeared from the gloom, another face appeared and then another. She recognised them from her studies as the Merpeople who inhabited this lake. They must have been drawn by the disturbance, but as they didn't attempt to stop her, she pushed on. A moment later, she hit the lake's surface.
She sucked in great lungfuls of air as she trod water and held the boy against her. There was no sign of the boat. The lake's surface lay still and cloaked in darkness, while high above her, the lit castle continued to glow the night's sky.
Why hadn't someone come to help her?
Her limbs were cold and heavy in the water, and she felt tired from the underwater fight and lack of oxygen. Yet if they were to survive she needed to reach the castle. There was no sign of life in the boy lolling against her but she couldn't give up hope. Still holding onto him, she began to swim for Hogwarts.
She hadn't gotten far when a group of mermen and mermaids broke the surface alongside her. Despite their yellow eyes and sharp teeth, Buffy felt nothing but gentleness and compassion radiating from them when they smiled at her. Tenderly two of them lifted Rigel from her and carried him away, much faster than she could swim, towards a row of lights below the castle. Before she could follow, two of the Merpeople took hold of her arms and half-carried, half-towed her along the surface of the water to a cave at the foot of Hogwarts Castle. There, strong arms reached down from the dock to pull her out the water and up onto dry land.
…
A/N ;
author's note, thank you to the reviewers who left a comment last chapter. They are always appreciated and yes do help me to get the chapters out so never think your input doesn't matter.
So... What will the Sorting Hat say? Is she a Gryffindor or a Slytherin? A Hufflepuff or a Ravenclaw?
Tommy boy is lingering in the background. Watching and taking note.