Title: Once Upon A Time
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. At all. If I did, I'd have more money then God and would never have canceled BtVS and Angel.
Summary: A teenage girl is given an impossible destiny. She's taken away from everything she knows and everyone thinks she's dead. Eight years later, she's back, and in for one hell of a fight.
Distribution: Just ask if you want to use this.
Spoilers: All of Buffy and Angel. Through GoF, and some minor ones from OotP.
a/n: I have chocolate. I'm happy. I'm glad so many people replied to the survey! They were really helpful! These are all of the replies to the reviews from Chapter Ten. I got so many! I'm really really really happy! I'm also sorry for making everyone wait so long for an update, but I've been working on a musical with some of my friends and I haven't had a lot of spare time on my hands.
Now, to address some concerns…
Jenna Summers- Thank you, thank you, thank you, for replying to the survey. I really appreciate your suggestions. Don't worry, I'm working on the update thing.
Etoile Star- Yeah! You did the survey, too! I'm glad some people are. The answers are really useful. Giles will have a bit about the jellies in here, don't worry. I already had that planned.
clcountry- Tonks will be in one of the future parings, if I can manage it in this. She'll definitely be in the sequel. Remember, Hermione was acting distinctly Hermione-like when she first moved to LA. You know how she was always really determined to research? Well, her family was threatened, she just re-applied that determination to acting. I think it explains why she was so good at keeping everyone fooled. Sorry, I don't think I'd be able to write an Evil Andrew without cracking up and falling off of my computer chair from laughing too hard. I hope you do, just so I can read it!
goddessa39- I think that the Scoobies had a year to get over the whole "let betray Buffy" kick, and realize how wrong they were. Buffy saving their asses in the battle against the First, and losing so many people might have drawn them closer together again. I hate cliffhangers when I'm reading something, too. But I'm addicted to writing them! Maybe I should go to CA- Cliffaholics Anonymous.
Alen Pitt- I'm not revealing anything about the prophecy at this point. Not a thing. As the story progresses there will be more character reactions and Hermione-ness coming out in Buffy. I figured it would have been a while since Buffy had seen anything from her past, and when she does, it will bring out a few Hermione traits.
Slays- I am seriously working on updating faster, don't worry.
manticore-gurl071134- thank you.
DyingRoses- Snape was only mentioned briefly in Chapter Three or Chapter Four, I think. I know he was mentioned in the chapter where the Order is trying to figure out who Buffy is, but I'm too lazy to check which Chapter that is.
Bob the Almighty- Check out all of the pairing related author notes in the other chapters. I'm not even sure there's going to be any pairing in this fic. It might be in the sequel, if I ever do one. I'm not sure if it would work with all of the issues floating around. The reason I posed the question was to see what people wanted or thought that I was hinting at. I never said anything about following the replies to that question, as Buffy would be paired with about fourteen different people. I just thought it would be nice to see what people think. Most likely, no one will get paired up until the sequel, when things are less uncertain and new. I'm not sure yet.
Thank you everyone else who reviewed! That is Brooklyn, Moonjava, Lightdemondarkangel, Aprilise, djeem, chicklepea, jf, NixiNox, EE, sherbetdip, texaswookie, Damia- Queen of the Gypsies, Lindsey, Lanhar, Taryn, DoubleAgent, gabrieldarke, Vld, Dnic5, Just Me, Malaika Pyralis, Perceval, Mistress Saturn1, Charmed-Angel4, Ice Blue Rose, marcus aurelius26, Jo, Heain, Sunflowerlynx, CapriceAnn Hedican-Kocur, and Lorency.
Review Please!
"Nothing," Dawn huffed, slamming the book shut, "there's nothing in here!"
Buffy smirked at her younger sister.
"If we could find it in the first book I'd know the world is ending for real," she said.
Dawn thought about that. And in true Dawn-fashion it immediately led her to ask a question.
"What do you call it when the world is supposed to end, but doesn't? Is it like an apoca-wasn't?" she asked.
Xander gave the teenager a look that was almost wise.
"Ah, a question that scholars have pondered for ages," he said in a mock-learned voice, "or normal people who have to read all of the stuff the scholars wrote."
"Actually, most of the people who wrote these books were considered insane," Anya put in helpfully.
"Great, the fate of the world depends on some crazy guy's diary," Xander said.
"The crazy people have helped us before," Willow pointed out.
"Look how well that ended," Buffy said.
They were all assembled in Giles' office, and had been for three hours, now. It was nearing 1 a.m. and Sugar Bear's, a local pastry shop with heavenly desserts, had just delivered the Scooby Gang's necessities in the form of donuts, causing Xander to complain that they could have just ordered donuts the first time around, instead of making him go get them.
"Ow!" Xander cried, rubbing his wrist where Giles had smacked it, preventing him from getting the jelly-filled donut he had had his eye on for the last twenty minutes.
Giles just looked at him.
"You signed away all of your jelly rights," he said primly.
Xander groaned.
"You did, you know," Anya pointed out, "Giles has full ownership of your share of the donuts. He could do anything with them, such as have Buffy sign them and 0sell them on the street to demons who want to feel special."
"Anya, demons hate me," Buffy pointed out, giving the woman an odd look.
"Most of them do," Anya replied, "but there are quite a few of them, like Clem, who don't really want to get eaten by the more vicious types."
"Someone wanted to eat Clem?" Willow questioned, her nose wrinkling.
Anya nodded.
"Well, not all of him, just his stomach, his organs, his brain, his eyes, his pe-,"
Xander clapped a hand over his girlfriend's mouth hastily as everyone fought not to dwell on yet another Anya-manufactured mental picture.
"Not another word," Kennedy said, "not one word."
"Why not?" Anya asked.
"Because I don't want to hear it," Kennedy replied, "Actually, I'll never want to hear anything with the word penis in it unless it involves someone getting kicked there, okay?"
"Well, that's unnatural," Anya pronounced.
"No it's not," both Buffy and Willow said, Willow just looking disgusted and Buffy looking at Dawn who had opened her mouth to agree with Anya.
Or not.
"Um, guys?" Dawn squeaked.
The teenager's skin had turned stark white, and her eyes were opened wide.
"Dawnie?" Buffy asked anxiously.
The others were looking at the Key, too. She looked like she had just seen a ghost.
"Dawn?" Giles voiced his own concerns at Dawn's frightened expression.
In response, the brunette raised one trembling finger and pointed at the window. The Scoobies immediately spun around to see what had Dawn so panicked, and found something pretty damned unsettling.
"Holy Mother of Pizza!" Xander exclaimed.
Cal looked at the strange human curiously. He'd never before heard such an odd expletive. Do all mortals speak so bizarrely, or was it just this one? The prophet mentally shook his head. Now wasn't the time for such musings, he had business with the Slayer.
Speaking of, he could see the original Chosen One subtly shifting into a fighting stance. Now, that wouldn't do at all. After all, Father was counting on him to make sure the Head Slayer got the message, and Calvin didn't like to disappoint his life-giver.
So Calvin Diabl, most feared warrior of his clan, High Priest to the Ancients, and all-around daddy's boy, raised his hand in a gesture of peace and said,
"Don't."
Clearly, the Slayer hadn't been expecting such a powerful and commanding voice, for she stopped in her tracks and stared at Cal in obvious awe. Calvin preened a little. He scared the most feared Slayer in all of history! Wait until Father heard! Not that he hadn't expected to, of course.
Then the Slayer emitted a strange, chortling sound. Interesting. Was this another human defect? Her mouth was stretched upwards, too. Ah, now Cal could see it. Clearly, the Slayer was expressing her tremendous fear of him in some outlandish chant of horror and dread. Within seconds her companions had joined in, also. As he needed them, Cal decided to show them mercy.
"I have important information for you," he began.
This spurred the Slayer and her companions to even louder chants. Now, abject fear was well and good, but their incessant pleas for their lives were starting to become irksome.
"I will not hurt you," Cal said impatiently, "but the Slayer and I have very important things to talk about."
Still the humans' chanting did not stop. Cal decided to get their attention.
"Silence!" he roared, jumping in the air and coming down with a loud thud that made the earth beneath him quake.
The chanting continued and Cal released a sigh. Dealing with these annoying mortals was going to take a while.
Buffy could barely believe what she was seeing. Suddenly, Dawn's fear made sense. This small, two inch tall, light blue, white-clad demon was shrieking around in an annoyingly high voice.
The second it had opened its mouth, Buffy hadn't been able to contain her giggles any longer, and soon no one else had been able to either. Well, everyone but the notable exception of Dawn, who was covering her eyes and trying to keep her mind off of what was in front of her, if the words "Puppies, candy, Orlando Bloom," were to be believed.
Then the little thing jumped up and down, trying to stop the Scoobies from laughing…
While looking exactly like a smurf.
Something Dawn had been scared to death of since she had been three. The teenager had always stubbornly asserted that there was something wrong with Papa Smurf, and that the other smurfs would one day show up to steal everyone's cute shoes. Which explained why she was now trying to hide- and failing- under the coffee table.
"I have to speak to the Slayer!" the little demon squeaked indignantly.
"Oh look, he's so cute!" Willow squealed in a voice high enough to rival Smurfie's.
Buffy rolled her eyes, still laughing.
"Let's just see what Tiny Tim has to tell us," she said.
The little demon shot them an annoyed glare.
"My name is Calvin Diabl, and I am the High Priest to the-," he began.
"Calvin? Your name is Calvin?" Xander said incredulously.
Anya snorted.
"Calvin happens to be a very popular name, you know. I think it has something to do with those strange little books you're always looking at."
"You read Calvin and Hobbes?" Andrew asked interestedly.
"No," Xander said with conviction.
"I have to converse with the Slayer!" the little Smurf announced loudly.
Well, loudly for him, anyway.
Hearing a Smurfy-looking demon say the word "converse" just made everyone laugh even harder.
Finally losing his patience, and completely exasperated, the little demon finally shouted,
"The Dark Lord Framourac is trying to kill us all!" Cal finally shrieked.
That got their attention.
And then it burst into flames.
Draco looked out at the cold summer night. They were going back to Hogwarts tomorrow, ready for another year of watching over the little brats and making sure none of Voldemort's personal arse kissers took over the school. What joy.
Draco wished someone would just strangle Oldandmold and be done with it. Things would be a lot simpler if they did. Of course, it wasn't like things could ever be that easy. Hell, the Granger affair was proof enough of that. That had been completely unexpected, especially Granger's new attitude. Draco would never have thought the bookworm would turn out like this. Then again, he wouldn't have thought a lot of things that had happened.
Still, everything had been stranger then usual lately. Much stranger. And it had all started with Granger's reappearance and her not-so-happy feelings towards the Order. Not that Draco was sad about that. Quite the contrary, no chance of her shouldering her way back into the Trio now. Still, it was strange, this new Hermione. She unnerved him more then a little bit.
"Hey," Buffy said easily while her friends were informed about the Order.
"What do you want?" Draco replied rudely.
He had been in the corner of the basement meeting room, silently observing all that was taking place with all of the calculation of a Malfoy when the Slayer had chanced to look over and see him. And, of course, being the insufferable little brat that she was, the blonde just had to come over and pester him.
Surprisingly, Buffy didn't seem fazed by the rude tone. Instead, a small, sad smile flitted across her lips.
"Just checking on you, making sure the resident formerly evil guy is okay," she said lightly.
But her voice said one thing and her eyes were saying another. Draco shifted under her clear gaze uncomfortably.
"I was never evil," he told her, "not once, just had some ideas that could have been. I'm good, now. There's no way I'd ever kiss Lord Full of himself's robes."
Buffy nodded and smiled that little smile again.
"Good for you," she said warmly.
And, once again, the look in the Slayer's eyes disturbed Draco. It seemed like she was seeing through him, in a way that not even Dumbledore could. Like she could see all of the potential hidden inside of Draco, because she wasn't looking at Draco at all. Buffy seemed lost in her own mind for a second, looking at the ghosts of people no longer there, who had once had that same potential. And for a second Draco felt like he, too, could realize all of those secretly hidden dreams, because someone else already had. Just for a second. And that scared Draco more then he would ever admit.
Then the faraway look disappeared from Buffy's eyes and she went over to answer her sister's question.
No, something was definitely wrong with Granger. She didn't even seem like Granger, really. The smart little bookworm who Hermione Granger had once been would never have scared Draco like that. He might have been scared of all of the hexes she could put on him, but Draco didn't think that she would have been capable of making him afraid like that. Not even Dumbledore was, and he was Dumbledore for Merlin's sake.
All in all, Draco came to the conclusion that he wanted nothing more then to stay away from MadWoman and her Mental band of friends. Especially the scary, loud blonde. He hadn't thought that anyone could say half the things she had without getting struck down by lightning, and that was saying much, as Draco wasn't exactly religious. Although those crazy Americans could drive a person to anything.
With a small shake of his head Draco cleared his thoughts and got up from the small window seat in his bedroom.
She looked up at the sky and lost herself in it. It was just so large. A big, blank, gray canvas that was everything and nothing all at once. Just like she was. Everything and nothing. All and none. Here but not here. As endless as the cosmos, and just as old at times. Other times she was a newborn fledgling, young and new, like the very first dawn. Everywhere and nowhere. She would be here. Soon.