I Solemnly Do Swear...

The portrait of Phineas Black refused to tell them more about Lily Moon. He became cantankerous, complaining loudly about students who woke him in the middle of the night and threatened to deduct points from them. Aware Phineas could wake the rest of the house, Lovell hastily thanked him, apologised for disturbing him, and picked up the candleholder from the table.

"It's better if we leave," Lovell whispered to Buffy as he turned away from the portrait. "Much longer and I think he'll shout Arcturus down."

"He'll probably tell on us in the morning," Buffy replied quietly. She'd hoped the painting wouldn't tell their hosts, but she wouldn't count on it. Phineas Black was a whiner.

Lovell shrugged, looking a lot less concerned than she'd thought. "We asked a portrait about a defunct organisation. The Blacks will put it down to the Lovegoods being..."

"Whacky?" Buffy chimed in brightly.

"Eclectic and unusual," finished Lovell firmly. "We might not get invited back, but they won't care enough to complain about us. It isn't as if we took him off the wall and interrogated him."

Buffy spun on her heel and Lovell grabbed her arm, stopping her. "No, Buffy!"

She pouted. "I don't see why not. Interrogation and torture is a great idea."

"And have him screaming the house down? No, come on." He tugged again on her arm.

Reluctantly, Buffy turned away from the headmaster's portrait. "At least we've more info on the last Slayer," she said. "Do you think Lily Moon has relatives in the Wizarding World we could speak to?" Even if the Watchers Council had taken Lily away to train her, she might have kept in contact with her magical family.

"I don't know anyone called Moon," replied Lovell. He was relieved that Buffy had given up on the idea of torturing Phineas' portrait, he'd thought she might be more stubborn and put up a fight. "Dad might know. I'll ask him."

The British Wizarding community wasn't large. There was a good chance someone knew someone who knew a family called Moon. Suddenly, he remembered. "The Minister of Magic is called Spencer-Moon. I wonder if he's related?"

Immediately he bit his lip, wishing he could take back the words. If Buffy decided to find the Minister and question him, he couldn't see it ending well. The Ministry was still hunting for the killer of the opera vampire and if Buffy appeared, asking questions about vampire slayers, it was bound to raise suspicions. Even if Buffy proved that she was a mythical Slayer, killing vampires still required a licence. If they found out she'd already dusted several vampires, she'd get a one way ticket to Azkaban.

Luckily, Buffy's mind had already moved on to other questions.

"Do you think the way Lily died destroyed the Slayer spell?" Buffy asked. "A Slayer is, in essence, a warrior of the Light. Every Slayer I know of died young and violently - me included. The first time, I was gone long enough for a new Slayer to be called. The second time, I..." Her voice broke. She still dreamed of dying. Of her body striking the tower's crossbars, the portal's energy ripping into every cell of her body. And there was also the sense of loss. She'd lost everyone and everything that night.

The light from Lovell's candles shining into her eyes brought her back from her dark memories.

"...don't make a habit of dying in this life," Lovell was saying. He had the candelabra held high so that the light fell onto her face. "I don't want to lose you."

His words and kind face created a warmth in her chest. She had to remember that she wasn't alone. She had a family who loved her. She might be a misplaced Slayer, but here she had the freedom to become anything she wanted. Here, the worst evil she had to face was school, a mountain of homework, and the extra study she needed to catch up with her classmates. Feeling strangely blessed, she bumped Lovell's shoulder with her own. "Slayer rule number one, don't die."

He shyly smiled back at her from under frizzy bangs. "It's a good rule. One we should all live by. And I mean it: don't die on me, cousin." The shyness overtook him and he lowered the candelabra, turning from her and reaching for the door handle.

Buffy's hand shot out, grasping Lovell's wrist. "Don't open it!"

"What?! Why?"

She blew out the candles. "Someone's on the stairs."

He froze. Lovell strained his ears, wishing he could cast a strong Disillusionment Spell to hide them both. Buffy reached out with her Slayer enhanced senses. She'd definitely heard the floorboard squeak on the stairs, it was probably the same one that had gotten her earlier.

After a moment, she heard someone descending the stairs. Had they heard a noise and come to investigate? Would they smell the smoke from the hurriedly extinguished candles? What if they came into the library? She and Lovell should get ready to hide. Where? The desk? Could they crawl under it? But when the person reached the hallway their footsteps turned away, fading as they headed towards the back of the house.

Without a second thought, Buffy opened the door and was out in the hall. She glimpsed the hem of a dark cloak as its owner disappeared around the corner.

"What are you doing?" Lovell whispered, his hand on her shoulder.

"Someone's up to no good," Buffy whispered back.

"Then that makes three of us," he retorted. "Let's leave them to it and go back to bed."

Buffy shrugged her shoulder free. "I'm gonna check on them."

She moved off, following the figure down the passage and into the basement. At the back of the house was another doorway with a small window beside it. Buffy leaned forward, standing on tiptoe to peer out of the window. Although they were below ground, they could still see the rear yard from the top of the window. She watched as the cloaked figure climbed the steps, strode across to the gate, unlatched it, and shut it behind them.

Lovell whispered, "Did you see who it was?"

"It's Walburga."

"Walburga?" He leaned forward as if to check for himself, but the yard was empty. "Where would Walburga Black go at this time?"

"Let's find out." Buffy swung open the door and they stepped out into the moonlight.

"I think this is a bad idea," Lovell said as they climbed the area steps up into the yard. "Tell me that it isn't."

"You could find the moth of a lifetime while we're out," Buffy replied. "A Burnished Giant and then you'd have your photo in Moths Monthly."

"It's called Moths and Chrysalids Monthly, and it's a Blenheim Giant that's rare not a Burnished Giant," Lovell corrected with a sigh. During the summer he'd spent ages explaining which moths were rare and which weren't. Buffy would never make a serious lepidopterist if she couldn't remember their names. Though, he supposed that at least she'd tried, which was more than others had.

The rear gate led onto an alleyway that ran along the back of the houses. Buffy had seen Walburga go right so they set off in that direction. Lovell muttering darkly about nosy Americans, and Muggles who left their rubbish bins in places where others could trip over them. Buffy knew he was right about her being nosy, but she was curious to see where Walburga was going. This wasn't the first time Walburga had snuck out in the middle of the night. Last time, Buffy had found her in the middle of a graveyard. What had she been doing before the vampires had caught her? Grave robbing? Conducting a Dark Ritual? From what Buffy had heard about the Blacks, it wouldn't surprise her.

At the end of the alleyway, they stopped and examined the street ahead. In the distance, they could hear the sound of traffic on the busier roads, but here not even a solitary car passed them.

"There," Lovell said, pointing to the bottom of the street. The cloaked figure of Walburga could be seen crossing the empty road.

They set off at a brisk pace but hadn't gone far when Buffy suddenly yanked Lovell into the shadows. They stood, the brickwork at their backs still warm from the September sunshine.

"What are we doing?" Lovell asked after seconds had passed and he'd not seen or heard anything odd. "Won't we lose her if-."

Buffy cut him off. "Shh," she hissed.

Lovell noticed then that her attention wasn't on the street. He followed her gaze to the roofline opposite. Despite the moon being in its waxing gibbous phase, the smog of London hung low in the sky and the rooftops were shrouded in mist and shadows. He stared hard, taking a long look at the chimneys where the deepest shadows were and the smog was at its thickest. Was the smog natural? Or had it been conjured?

"Vampires?" he whispered. He knew they often followed their prey by using the roofs of buildings, but then so did Wizards – if they had a head for heights.

Buffy's eyes met his. She shook her head. "No. It must have been pigeons. Come on, we don't wanna lose her." She set off at a jog and Lovell followed.

"What did-?" the question he was about to ask died on his lips as they both heard the rusty squeak of metal ahead.

"This way!"

Buffy took off at a run, Lovell beside her until they came to a bomb-damaged shop that stood at a crossroads, a large gaping hole in the front facade. Here they skidded to a stop, shocked at the landscape in front of them.

The German air raids had hit this section of Islington hard. Broken, roofless buildings with jagged walls, and blown-out windows and doors was all that was left of the beautiful homes of the upper-middle class. Across the street, the houses had fared even worse. The only thing showing where they'd once stood were mounds of bricks and rubble. Broken roof joists and splintered floorboards had been stacked into piles, waiting for the demolition squads to clear the area. Strangely, amidst all the ruins was a park. A small oasis of greenery in the middle of a bombed-out wasteland.

Buffy looked back at the still-standing houses. Had their owners been home when the bombs had hit or had they been in one of the public shelters? If they were still alive, they must have been devastated when they'd come home to find everything in ruins. Up in one of the bedroom windows the tattered remnants of curtains blew in the breeze, forever waiting for the owners to come back home.

"Why do Muggles love war?" Lovell asked, taking in the horrific scene. Buffy could hear the bewilderment and horror in his voice. "It makes you wonder if Grindelwald is right. Why are we staying in the shadows and letting them destroy the world? It's our world as well as theirs, we should have a say in it."

"I'm not arguing with that," Buffy replied.

"They say he foretold this war. Why didn't the Magical Ministries stop it when they had the chance?" Lovell added bitterly.

"Maybe he started it?" Buffy retorted cynically. She'd spent the summer catching up on schoolwork, not Wizarding politics. As for prophecies... those she had a real aversion to. "Prophecies and foretelling are never of the good. Either they're self-fulfilling or else they're a complete joke."

"Don't let Professor Trelawney hear you say that. She sets great store in Tasseomancy."

Buffy snorted. She'd only had one Divination lesson so far and had managed to stay in the background and not draw attention to herself while the bespectacled professor babbled on about tea leaves.

Buffy pointed over to the park gate. "I think Walburga went in that-a way."

Snap!

For a second, Buffy thought her boggart had apparated in. But there was no sign of Spikey, and the sound seemed to originate from inside one of the houses. She didn't say anything to Lovell, but as they made their way to the park, Buffy spotted a shadow move at one of the upstairs windows. Was someone up there? Had that sound been a floorboard cracking underfoot? Was it someone seeking shelter, or someone with more villainous intentions? During her time at the orphanage, Martha had warned her about the dangers of abandoned buildings. She'd said that a lot of vagrants moved into them and they'd take advantage of a young defenceless girl if she wandered too close.

Up ahead, a stone rolled away as someone stumbled over it.

"Morgana!" Walburga screeched. "Filthy Muggle animals can't even clean up after themselves!"

Buffy and Lovell hurried on, entering the over-grown park and jogging down the weed-infested pathways where once nannies had walked their charges. At the other side of the park was a row of small ornamental trees and through them they could see Walburga. Her long black cloak was billowing out behind her as she walked through the rubble-strewn street.

"Merlin. The gate is broken," Lovell said. "We'll need to climb the railings to get out."

Sure enough, Buffy could see that the gate hung off broken hinges and had was held in place with chains and padlocks.

"Or we could use that gap over there, the same as Walburga did," Buffy whispered back, her Slayer night vision spotting a section of fence with missing rails.

At the fence, Buffy crouched down and wriggled between the bars, then stood, looking around her whilst waiting for Lovell.

"I wonder if there's a graveyard near here," Buffy said quietly, still scanning the area. "You never know what creepies are digging their way out."

Seeing Lovell's look of dismay, she added quickly, "Not that I'm gonna going in to look. No slaying for me tonight, unless it's in self defence."

"You're in enough trouble already," he replied as they continued scrabbling through the bomb damaged area.

Buffy pouted. "Hey, it isn't only me who frequents graveyards!"

"I only go in looking for moths!" he protested.

"I meant Walburga!"

"Oh, I thought... I thought you meant me."

Ignoring him, Buffy went on, "I bet Walburga is heading for a graveyard so she can collect bones, coffin seepage, or other icky stuff. You know, the ingredients you need for bringing the dead back to life or creating one of those poisons that eat you from the inside out." Warming up to the subject and not realising it was making Lovell become uncomfortable, she continued, "Or maybe she's gonna conduct a ritual and raise zombies to do her bidding. I'd say Inferi but I think you need to have murdered them first and from what I've read they aren't nearly as clever as zombies at carrying out orders."

Lovell gave her a sharp look. "And why is it you know more about Dark Rituals then I do?"

She shrugged a shoulder. "Extra reading?"

Lovell's face fell. "You haven't!"

She knew exactly what he was worried about. "Shhh! And that's a nope. I haven't been in the Restricted Section."

It wasn't her fault the librarian had left a pile of Restricted books on one of the tables and been called away before filing them. "I was doing my homework in the library and came across these books that looked kinda interesting-."

CRACK!

That was definitely the noise made by someone apparating in. It was close by, too. They both ran over to the corner of a broken building and peered around the corner, then darted out to a broken wall and ducked down behind it.

In front of a broken shop facade, a Wizard stood with his back facing them.

Walburga threw back her hood, her long, dark hair flowing freely over her shoulders. She began running towards the newcomer.

"Howard!"

At her shout, the man turned. He was young, in his early twenties, with close-cropped hair and teeth that shone in the moonlight. Buffy saw that he wore a long overcoat similar in style to the one Alastor Moody wore. Did that mean he worked at the Ministry as an Auror? Or was it a style choice?

Howard raised his arms,Walburga stepped into them, and he pulled her in close wrapping them around her.

"They're snogging each other!" spluttered Lovell.

"It was the lip-lockage that gave it away, huh?"

Lovell gave Buffy the stink-eye. "I know what kissing is. And I know she shouldn't be doing it. She's cheating on Orion," Lovell felt offended on the absent boy's behalf. "I don't particularly like Orion Black, he's-."

"Obnoxious?" Buffy finished.

The intense embrace was still going on and Lovell dropped his eyes, embarrassed. "Well... yes, he is obnoxious. It's just that... she agreed to the betrothal and yet she's... being intimate with someone else."

"Hmm," Buffy agreed non-committally. Walburga might have agreed to marry Orion but she hadn't had much choice. Buffy couldn't blame her for sneaking out to meet someone else. She wondered how long they'd been an item. "Do you think she met him at Hogwarts?" she asked.

Lovell sneaked a fast look at the two lovers. "I don't recognise him. Not that I can see much since she's practically eating his face. Buffy?!"

A subtle change had come over his cousin. The amused expression had gone, replaced by something much darker, and her eyes had become sharper, almost predatory. As he watched, Buffy pulled something sharp and pointy from her pocket, and Lovell saw that it was a stake.

"What's happening?"

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something freaky this way comes."

Lovell, unaware of the mangled Macbeth, cast a confused look at her hands. "What?"

"We've incoming." With one graceful move she was on her feet, no longer caring about being spotted by Walburga.

Lovell stayed where he was. He felt disorientated, as if he had the beginnings of a fever. "Vampires, coming here?" His voice was croaky with anxiety.

"Uh-hu. And please don't tell me to put my stake away. I don't think these are gonna be the Ministry approved versions."

Lovell rose awkwardly to his feet. "Alright, I won't. But promise me, you'll keep the stake out of sight and not use it unless you have to."

A/N;

to those who take the time to leave me a comment or a review, thank you. Each one is like a box of chocolates to be slowly unwrapped and devoured.

So if you like the chapter, leave cyber chocolate! :-)