AN: Thanks to all reviewers! The last chapter got the most reviews so far. It encouraged me to make this one longer. The pairing suggestions I've gotten show Harry in the lead. However, I think I might try several pairings with several people. I mean, in normal life teenagers have multiple relationships so I might not keep everyone with one specific person necessarily. I wanna maybe play around and have breakups and different people together and stuff. We'll see where my muse takes me.

Oh and PS I'm American so the Hogwarts crew will probably sound American. Sorry! I'll try though and I have no idea how to do Hagrid speech so he won't be talking like Hagrid but he hopefully still will be acting like Hagrid. (We won't see him yet in this chapter anyways). Again, sorry!

Now...on to the fic!

Chapter 4: Of Wizards and Shopping

Buffy was wide awake and restless. She had slept most of the plane ride and had more bad dreams. She decided to resign herself that she will probably have nightmares about one thing or another for the rest of her short life. Hmmph. Reluctantly, Buffy walked off of the plane. She felt slightly childish, dragging her feet the way she did, but she was not sulking! She was happy to get away, but she couldn't help feeling apprehension about having to start all over again. Whatever though, she looking at the paper for the hundredth time Giles had given her. Giles had given her a paper informing her to go to a place called The Leaky Cauldron. He had the name of the shops next to it so that Buffy could tell the cab driver where to go. It was a wizard pub and she had to focus hard on the name to see it. Whatever, she thought again. She looked around for her a payphone to call her mom. Her mom picked up on the first ring.

"Mom?" Buffy said.

"Buffy! How was the trip? Are you okay, do you know what to do?" her mom asked, concern for her little girl all alone in another country lacing her voice.

"I'm fine. The ride was long and my legs are a little crampy. I need to go get my luggage, but I just wanted to check in and let you know I'm alright. I probably won't get a chance to call you often at school, but I will try to write once every couple weeks or something."

"Don't worry about it. I'm just so happy for you. Mr. Giles told me what a wonderful school this was. We should have thought of private school for you earlier. It will be good for you, Buffy, really. Just please don't get in any trouble? I don't know what we'd do if we had to find you another school, although Sunnydale didn't kick you out so you could always go back..." Joyce said, slightly worried about her daughters knack of finding trouble. Were all teenagers this difficult? No, Buffy was just a special case, her special case.

"I'll try not to. I really gotta go now. And mom, I love you, okay? Please be carefully. Sunnydale has a lot of gangs and isn't always safe. If anyone bothers you or is scaring you, talked to Giles. He's a good guy, if a bit stuffy."

"Mr. Giles," she automatically corrected Buffy. "I love you too, I'll tell you what, I'll be safe if you will. Bye sweetheart. I love you," Joyce said.

"Safe. Promise," Buffy lied through her teeth. What is safety for a slayer? It doesn't exist. "Love you, mom," Buffy said again hanging up. Her mom would be fine. Angel promised.

Buffy turned and followed the signs to the baggage claim to collect her luggage. She hauled each bag off one by one. There were a lot of bags, plus her weapons trunk Giles had shipped ahead of her to The Leaky Cauldron. Buffy was not a light packer. While her slayer strength helped with the weight of the bags, she only had so many hands and had to struggle to get all her bags. She ended up having to use one of those little cart thingies. It was a very grumpy Buffy who ended up at The Leaky Cauldron. Fortunately, she spotted the place with no trouble at all. Her slayer senses made it a no brainer. She could have found the place with her eyes closed. The place had a faint hum to it. Since dying, her special slayer senses had gotten stronger, plus she had been working harder on developing them, and not just relying on the poor fashion of vampires to pick them out. She should have been doing that before, she thought. Patrolling went much faster when she feel where the demons were. She straightened up, armed herself with her sunny Californian girl façade, smoothed out her short curve hugging casual dress and walked into the place, dragging her stuff behind her and making a show about how heavy it all was, and not having to act about making several trips. It was a lot of stuff. Upon her entering, everyone turned and stared at the muggle looking girl until she approached the bar.

"Hi! I'm Buffy. I'm supposed to be staying here until the new term at Hogwarts starts. I'm American. And I'm new. This is my first time in England even actually." Buffy stopped not knowing what else to say. She looked around the place and observed her surroundings. Everyone was dressed funny. Giles didn't say anything about the horrible fashion! She stood out like a sore thumb. Great, just great. Tom came to her rescue though.

"Nice to meet you, Buffy. My name is Tom. I was told you would be coming. We have a room all set up for you already. It's a pleasure, really."

"Thanks. Um, could someone help me carry my stuff?"

"Sure thing the house elves are already on it," Tom said and as Buffy pondered what a house elf was, three weird looking little creatures with huge eyes and floppy ears in rags (was that a pillowcase on that one?) appeared and took off with her stuff up the stairs. Buffy just stared, feeling more uncomfortable by the moment. Tom chuckled, which normally would have irritated her but didn't for some reason.

"Those are house elves and your stuff will be in you room. Room 14," he said handing her the key. "That trunk of yours is here too," he said to Buffy's relief. "Now, I was also instructed to give you a school supply list and you'll find everything you need in Diagon Alley. Someone will be by tomorrow morning to help you with your shopping. Until then, I recommend you just get yourself settled and eat something. The bill's been paid for, anything you want."

Buffy snorted at the idea of needing help shopping. But then after looking at the list cluelessly, conceded to the fact that she probably would need help. And diagonally? What was he talking about? She didn't ask questions though.

"Thanks," Buffy said. She flashed a pretty smile and went upstairs. She confirmed that all her stuff was in fact in her room and that the weird little creatures didn't take them away. She wished Giles would have explained more. At the thought of Giles though, she felt a wave of longing for everyone she left behind. She could always visit but it would never be the same. She suddenly regretted her treatment of everyone. She really couldn't help the way she behaved though; all the fear and anger and panic and everything else was trapped inside her. They could never understand but that didn't mean they deserved her harsh treatment. She was glad they couldn't understand. How terrible if they all had to go what she went through.

Back in Sunnydale she had felt a darkness building up inside her, contributing to her attitude after her death. Here, it wasn't so bad without the Hellmouthy vibes. She decided she would try for a fresh new start, maybe a fresh attitude (or maybe not, she'll play it by ear) even if she wasn't the same girl who had come to Sunnydale hoping for the same thing. But that was on the Hellmouth. Things had to be easier, away from the entrance to Hell itself, right? Shit, she hoped she didn't just jinx herself.

The next morning Buffy was up surprising early, well she felt it was early anyways. It was around 10. She got showered and dressed into some dark tight jeans, a tight t-shirt, and some sunglasses. She looked good. She also put on her silver cross Angel gave to her. Angel. No denying she had a crush on the vampire she reflected. More than a crush, she cared for him. He was way hot and had the whole mysterious vibe going. But he was a vampire so it was better that she wouldn't get to see him. It was a confusing relationship if you could call it that yet and there was no way it would have ended well, would it have? She'd never know. He would keep them safe, that was what mattered now. She wrinkled her nose as she thought if maybe she'd meet some new hotties at her new school. All she could picture were a bunch of mini Gileses. In tweed robes. Ew. She ran downstairs two at a time and greeted Tom.

"Hey, morning," she greeted. "Have anything for breakfast?" she asked.

"Whatever you want. Did you sleep well?' Tom replied.

"Sure. And I'll take pancakes. So who's meeting me and when?" Buffy refused to let her mood dampen after he asked if she slept well. She had a dream about a fight. It was definitely a slayer dream. There were colors flying everywhere and they were clearly wizards by their clothes. They also had these pathetic little excuses for stakes that the colors were coming from that she assumed were the wands. There was also a curtain thingy. All things considering, it wasn't that bad of a dream compared to what she was used to and it was pretty straight forward, not all cryptic or anything. It was a wizard versus wizard battle. She couldn't make out the faces of anyone fighting though and the curtain didn't make sense. Hey, at least it didn't look to be predicting her death.

"Professor McGonagall will be taking you to Diagon Ally. She should be here soon. She's your transfiguration professor," Tom said.

"Cool," Buffy said digging into her pancakes. Then she paused and added, "Trans what?"

"Transfiguration. A subject you will be taking at Hogwarts. Don't worry you'll learn all about that later. She is also the head of Gryffindor House. Don't worry about that either," he responded to her confused frown. How could she not know what transfiguration was he thought. Then he looked up as a woman approached them.

"Good morning, Tom. Ms. Summers I presume?" the woman asked, fixing her gaze on Buffy.

"That'd be me. So you're Professor McGongall? Nice to meet you," answered Buffy politely will finishing her food. She downed her milk too.

"McGonagall," she corrected, watching the small blonde girl finish off her pancakes. "I am a friend of Rupert Giles."

"Oh so you're Giles' friend. Cool. Thanks for the breakfast, Tom. So are we going yet?" Buffy analyzed the stern faced woman. She wondered how she knew Giles.

"Yes we will be going now. Goodbye, Tom." Tom said goodbye back and Minerva looked at Buffy again. She was very American for lack of a better word. Rupert had assured her and Dumbledore that Buffy was a very smart girl. He only had praise for the girl and Minerva honestly couldn't see where it came from, although she was friendly enough. He also said she had been through some traumatic events, although he wouldn't elaborate, and that she was having some trouble dealing and to be patient with her. She didn't seem to be very troubled, Minerva thought. Buffy bounced out of her seat.

They reached the wall in the back of The Leaky Cauldron. Buffy looked suspicious and less then impressed.

"I thought we were going to Diagonally or something. This is a wall," Buffy stated blunty and rudely. She also itched to grab the knife she had someone hidden in her tight ensemble. No way could this be a trap. Not with all the people just around the corner. And McGonagall was a friend of Giles. No way. Right?

Minerva just smiled, noticing not only Buffy's impatient stance, but the weariness in her eyes. She noted that. "Welcome to Diagon Ally," she said, stressing the space between the words while tapping a sequence of bricks and the wall opened. Buffy, who had been standing cross armed with her hip out in a standard impatient annoyed stance, simply raised her eyebrows. She had lived on the Hellmouth. She had slayed on the Hellmouth. She was not impressed by a magic wall.

"Cool," she said smirking to herself as McGonagall clearly expected a little more jaw dropping or something. She stepped through while Minerva, feeling irritated, hurried up to walk ahead of her. She led Buffy to the bank and Buffy immediately went tense. She saw the goblins and they might her spider sense tingle lightly.

"Those," said Buffy. "What are they?" She didn't take her eyes away from the dozens of nasty looking little creatures. Never underestimate tiny.

"Those are Goblins. They run the bank and have for centuries. They are not the nicest of things but they won't hurt you as long as you do not steal anything. They are very efficient bankers, if a bit rude." Again, McGonagall noticed Buffy's suspicion. Most people upon first seeing goblins were a little weary but Buffy looked ready to attack.

Buffy relaxed after McGonagall reassured her. Goblins. If they don't attack she won't. Besides, she wanted her money. She gave them the large amount of muggle money she had. Her mother had given her enough for the school years and Giles had also provided her with some. She was very thankful to Giles and decided if Giles was friends with this woman than she would trust her. She happily collected her wizarding money even if she didn't understand their money system. Turning to McGonagall, she smiled, truly excited. Her face lit up.

"Let's go shopping!"

Minerva was amused by Buffy's enthusiasm. Buffy clearly was eager to shop. Her lips twitched upward slightly.

"First, we need to get you a wand. Olivander's is right over there. I'll stay with you for that but then I must be going. I have some errands to run. I trust you can find the stuff on your list on your own. If you have any trouble, just go back to the Leaky Cauldron and I'll check on you later and help with anything you didn't get."

As Minerva led Buffy towards the wand shop, she took another look at her out of the corner of her eye. Buffy stood out. With the war, Minerva didn't want Buffy going up to strangers asking where things were. She looked muggle and might ask the wrong person who would gladly lead her away and hurt her. Rupert would not be pleased if the young girl he clearly cared about was hurt. Minerva did not want anything to happen to Buffy either. She was only a child, really. And Rupert had told her Buffy was unfamiliar with magic, so how could she defend herself? "And do not go into Knockturn Ally. It's a dangerous place with dangerous thing and nothing you need anyways."

"Sure," said Buffy, making a mental note to check the place out later. Dangerous, huh? Right up her ally, no pun intended she thought. Maybe they sell weapons. She could always use more weapons.

"I'm sure I'll be okay. Besides, I'm a fantastic shopper," Buffy said with a grin.

McGonagall didn't comment on that and lead her to Olivander's. Buffy was creeped out slightly. The place gave out weird vibes. She felt someone approaching from behind her as she was looking around. She spun around.

"Welcome to Olivander's. A little old aren't you?" an old man said. Look who's talking Buffy thought, but didn't respond. He greeted McGonagall and then snapped his fingers and a tape measure appeared.

"Wand arm?" Olivander asked.

"Um, right?" guessed Buffy. She could use both arms almost equally well though, being the slayer and all. Right was still her preferred one though.

"No, left!" she suddenly said instead, earning her weird glances from both adults. She wanted her favored arm to be available for a weapon. She figured if she could learn this magic junk, then she could use her left for her wand and her stake in the right. Besides, she could use her left arm better than most people used their right so she'd be fine.

"Alright try this one" said Olivander. "Willow, 16 inches, Unicorn hair." Buffy jerked the wand and it was quickly taken away. "No, no," Olivander muttered. He repeated the process startling Buffy a number of times as something exploded or flew off the shelf. Several wands even exploded in her hand, which she felt horrible for. Buffy wondered if everyone made this much mess of the shop or took so long. Maybe Giles was wrong and she couldn't do magic afterall.

"Not to worry, we'll find you one," Olivander said making Buffy wonder if she spoke out loud. McGonagall sighed. "Try this," he said bringing one out from the back. A small spark came out and Olivander was delighted. "Closer," he said snatching it away and going to the back again. He came back with a couple more boxes. "Here."

Buffy waved the wand. She felt something primal in her stir and a power awaken. She breathed as gold and sliver sparks came out. It was beautiful and reminder her faintly of a sparkler. A really pretty sparkler.

"Perfect!" exclaimed Olivander. "Very rare. Yew 13 inches, a powerful wood. He Who Must Not Be Named had the same wood," he said causing McGonagall's eyes to widen ever so slightly. "Two magical cores, which is what makes these boxes all rare. Very old, two cores are not often done anymore. Runespoor Fang, best for those who deal with dark arts and a drop of Slayer blood," he said meeting her eyes at that last comment. Buffy stared at him. He knew. He wouldn't say anything though she felt sure somehow. "Strong wood, won't break easily," he said with a wink McGonagall missed. "Very pleased to meet you, Buffy Summers. I expect great things from you," he said. She paid and they left. Buffy remembered she never told him her name.

"Well that's over and I must be going. Remember what I said," Minerva said leaving Buffy to herself. That took unusually long she thought And what a strange wand the girl ended up with. Two cores. She shivered at the thought of slayer blood, she had never heard of that and she only knew a few people with Runespoor fang and they were all Aurors or Deatheaters. Very strange girl indeed.

Buffy loved her wand. It felt right somehow. Like it was hers. Plus, a strong wood wouldn't break if it had to be used as an improvised stake. Good. And now she could go shopping! She bought her books, which was boring although Giles would have a field day in the bookstore. Willow would have too, for that matter. Then she got her other supplies and robes. She didn't like the robes but made the best she could and bought a variety of different colors and the most flattering she could find. She startled herself by actually looking decent in them. She dropped some stuff off at her room, ate, changed into a robe as to not stand out so much and went out for weapons. She entered Knockturn Ally and immediately felt the difference in the air. It felt dark. She could taste it almost. A different dark then the Hellmouth though. She saw several different stores with weird things but kept her mind focused on a new weapon. Without running into trouble, she found a shop lined with weapons. She knew she'd have to come back here again she thought as she examined all the things on the wall. She picked up a dagger carefully looking at it then turned suddenly so it was at the throat of the guy sneaking up behind her.

"Little girls shouldn't play with weapons," he said in an oily voice, hiding his surprise as the girl lowered it and twirled it in her fingers. He had expected to sneak up on the girl and before he could blink she had the weapon at his throat.

"I know what I'm doing," she answered and put the dagger down and ran her fingers over a crossbow and a mace. She picked up a sword that caught her attention and gave it some swings.

"I can see," said the man smoothly, impressed by the slight, pretty girl handling the sword with ease. It wasn't the most expensive, intricate or fanciest weapon, but for practical purposes the best he had at the moment. He wondered who she was. "What's you name?"

"Does it matter?" asked the girl, handing him the exact amount of money the sword was labeled to cost and walking out before he could say anything. The man was definitely impressed and hoped she would be back. If she came back he would try to remember to tell the Dark Lord about her.

It was dark outside and surprise, surprise she ran into a vamp on her way out of the ally. It was there to do some shopping of it's own as Knockturn Ally was not only a place for wizards but for other dark creatures such as demons and vampires, when it was night at least. Buffy got to test out her new sword. She cut off his head and hid the sword in her robe. So much easier than hiding weapons in tight pants or with a mini skirt on. Then again, in Sunnyhell people would usually ignore a weapon if they saw one, rationalizing it somehow. Or at least they never questioned her. She went back to The Leaky Cauldron, satisfied with her weapon and with a smile on her face. Buffy Summers had had a good day.

AN: I looked up somewhere on line what the different woods and cores meant. So all that stuff is legitimate. Can't remember where. (Except slayer's blood, obviously. And the part that only Deatheaters and Aurors had runespoor fang.)

Please remember to review, I appreciate it. Longer chapter reviews desperately wanted.