Thanks reviewers!! A quick post before Thanksgiving break! Sorry it's been so long, I've been bad. On we go!

Chapter 9: Longings

The weekend finally came. Buffy was feeling very frustrated. Her classes were going slowly. She was still getting used to doing magic and was just a beginner. And she had to study almost constantly in order to try to catch up. She was really far behind. And she hated studying. She'd take an apocalypse over studying any day. Well maybe not really, but still. The point is she hated studying.

DADA was going good though and she had some people to talk to now. Also, she had finally gotten to blow off some steam by patrolling the other day. The forest would take some getting used to however since she never really had to patrol in the woods before. She had been an urban/suburban slayer.

Buffy waited until her roommates were asleep. Then, quietly, she slipped out of bed and grabbed her weapons. She had a sliver knife and her stake at her hip, the sword she bought strapped on her back, and her wand, even though that probably wouldn't help her much. She hoped that she'd be able to transfigure stuff soon, then she wouldn't have to carry weapons around, she could just transfigured stuff when she gets there. Having armed herself, she snuck to the window and climbed out on the ledge. She surveyed the area to try to figure out how to get down. She was pretty high up. Too high even for a slayer. This wasn't going to work. Maybe...no, she couldn't do that, yet anyways. She instead silently snuck to the Slytherin common room and out the portrait.

Avoiding Filch wasn't difficult at all. She had her slayer senses on full alert and could hear him a mile away. Peeves didn't make as much noise, at night when no one was around anyhow, but she could feel him. Without anyone around she was able to quickly leave the castle, swiftly walking down the halls and jumping down stairs whenever they weren't in a convenient place or tried to move. Once she was outside though, she had to sprint to the forest to narrow her chance of anyone happening to look at the window and seeing her.

Buffy paused for breath. Then she made her way into the dark forest. Coming from the city and suburbs, Buffy wasn't used to things ever really being as dark as they were in the deep forest. Even being a slayer and comfortable in the dark she wasn't used to patrolling areas this dark. And graveyards and allies didn't have roots. She tripped several times, probably making a racket she thought. Good, let the baddies hear her, it would save her the trouble of having to find them. They could come to her.

Her senses all of a sudden started tingling on over drive, and she turned just in time to lash out at some creature. It was big, human shaped, but covered in fur with pointy ears, sharp teeth and claws as every demon seemed to be equipped with, a ridge of spikes on its back, and one hell of an uppercut. Buffy back fisted it when she turned, throwing her weight into it. The thing stumbled back only to lunge at her and tackle her to the ground. It was strong and fought wildly, relying on its strength. They wrestled until Buffy was able to throw it off her, but not before taking some heavy blows as it scratched at her side and she wasn't able to avoid a strong punch in the jaw. She flipped up and grabbed her knife out since her sword had fallen off in the wrestling. It came at her with a wild string of swipes she ducked and dodged, and sometimes was hit with. Finally, she was able to side kick its stomach and as it staggered a few feet, she threw the knife into its heart. The thing gave some kind of roar/howl and ripped it out of its chest.

"Okay, knife through the heart a no go, gotchya." Buffy ran for her sword and dove for it as the demon ran towards her in rage. It wasn't a fancy fighter, but it was strong and fast and a difficult opponent. Buffy grabbed her sword, rolled over, and thrusted up with it just as it jumped for her, all in one smooth motion. It impaled itself on her sword and Buffy used the momentum to throw it over her. The demon landed with a thump and struggled on the ground. It was hurt pretty badly from the knife and now the in its stomach sword, and a thick rusty red colored blood oozed out the wounds. Ew. It growled at her in vain, but Buffy just yanked the sword out and cut off its head, finishing the job.

"Decapitation. Works every time," she said to herself. She looked down and realized she had quite a bit of blood on her, not to mention her jaw must be ten shades of purple. Thank god for make up and slayer healing. Still, it hurt and she decided one tough demon was enough for the night and made her way slowly back to the castle. Despite her injuries, it had been a successful first night and she felt a lot better having had a good fight. In a bit of pain, and a little hungry and horny maybe, but better.

"You seem in a good mood," Draco commented to her at breakfast.

"Girl can't be in a good mood ever?" Buffy questioned, shifting in her seat, she may be in a better mood, but she was slightly sore. Stupid demon.

"Nope. It's great that you're feeling good," he said, giving her a smile. Buffy and Blaise turned to each other and shared a look.

"What do you want Draco?" Buffy asked.

"I just thought today might be a good day to teach you some flying."

"Flying?" she almost squealed. "You, Draco Malfoy, want to teach me to fly?" she said disbelieving. "What's the catch?" Buffy wasn't sure if she liked the idea of flying. Yeah, it was cool, but on brooms? Soooo cliché. Another thing Buffy wasn't to comfortable to admit was that while she wasn't scared, it took a lot more to scare her, she didn't like the idea of being way off the ground like that, where you weren't in total control and your life depended on the whim of a broom. A broom!

"No catch at all," Draco started to say when Blaise interrupted him.

"Bullshit, Draco. Slytherin hasn't won the quidditch cup since Potter came here." She faced Buffy. "Draco wants to test you out to see if you're good, so you can play quidditch if you are."

"Me? Uh, uh. No way. Even if I were a good flyer, which I probably won't be, I have way too much work to catch up to. I'm like 6 years behind everyone else and have been working my ass off to catch up as quickly as possible. And I loathe studying. Buffy and school work don't tend to mix."

Draco just smiled. "You're right. You're just a silly little muggle bint. I doubt you'll ever catch up in school. Even if you did start your first year, you'd probably still be behind. You're not exactly the brightest, are you? Hmm, I don't know why I even wanted to bother teaching you to fly. You'd probably just get yourself killed. On second thought, that might not be such a bad thing. I'll teach you to fly anyways. It won't be my fault if you kill yourself. Less muggle filth is never a bad thing, and no one will miss you. Your family sent you off to a boarding school they know nothing about on the opposite side of the world, and this is assuming they are your real family since I still think you can't have been muggle born and be a Slytherin. They were most likely thrilled to send you away I bet," Draco droned on.

Buffy knew he was baiting her, but his words still hurt. Her mom sent her away so easily, trusting Giles, a practical stranger to her mom, about the school. Was she that eager to get rid of her trouble making, failure, and delinquent daughter? And her father never wanted to see her anymore. Her friends and Giles have a new slayer now, would she replace her to them? Buffy gave Draco a glare, and Summers women could glare and a Summers Slayer's glare was even worse. He didn't even flinch though, keeping that smug little look on his face and she left, imagining beating him to a bloody pulp. If he knew what she could do to him, he wouldn't be so cocky. Then again, he was Draco and he probably would be anyways. She stormed around the castle, finally opening a door at random.

Buffy gasped when she opened the door. It was her room, the one at home, down to every detail. She walked around it in awe, stopping to look at and picking up some photos and things. She ran her fingers along everything as she walked. It was real. She made her way to her bed and sat down. She grabbed Mr. Gordo and a photo album from off her dresser. She picked it up and opened it. The first pages were with her family when she was little. They were on vacation to Disneyland. She had on a Disney princess crown and was with her parents. She had always been her daddy's princess then and growing up. They were so happy. She continued flipping slowly through the pictures. It was a large album. She passed birthday parties, more vacations, pictures with friends, ice skating, and Hemery. She flipped through her homecoming and cheerleader days. She looked happy. Then she got towards the end of her Hemery days. There was a picture of her, her mom, and dad. The last one of all of them together. Buffy had shadows under her eyes and a far off look. She'd been called. Her dad had a huge smile plastered on his face and her mom a small one. It may be the last one of them together physically, but they weren't really together. Within days the happy family would finally collapse. The next section was Sunnydale. There were a few pictures of her and her Mom in front of the new house, and a couple of her with Willow and Xander. A few of just her and 2 with just her Mom. There was one with her, Ms. Calendar, Giles, Willow, and Xander. That was it. Not nearly as many as the same time span at Hemery.

"What a week. It's the end of the first week and already we have a mound of homework. Hermione..." Ron started.

"It's not my fault you two wanted to take potions again. You know it's a difficult class, and potions was never either of your strong suits. I'll help you, but don't expect me to give you the answers."

"But I have the Half Blood Prince on my side now," Harry said grinning.

"That book is bad news Harry. Besides, wouldn't you feel more accomplished if you weren't using someone else's work? It's borderline cheating," Herminone said.

"No," Ron answered. "I think someone's just jealous that they aren't the best anymore and that Slughorn is praising Harry as the genius in that class."

Hermione fumed in her seat at that.

"Yeah but we want to be Aurors. We need to take this class and the Prince is the only way I'll do well. And anyways, I am learning. I'm learning more from the Prince than I ever did from Snape," Harry said. He needed the Half Blood Prince to get a good enough Newt to be an auror. And he was determined to be one. After all, he had faced Death Eaters and Voldemort and had survived. How could they not let him be an Auror? Hermione just sighed and started discussing the pitfalls of using the book. Ron decided to stop her and interrupt.

"How about quidditch this year? Let's take a break and go flying." Harry sighed. He always loved flying, it relaxed and exhilarated him all at once. And it was one thing he knew for sure he was great at that had nothing to do with Voldemort.

"No I think I'll pass right now," said Harry. He decided he'd busy himself with seeing about starting the DA again, with Dumbledore's permission. He walked up to the room of requirement. He had to think about if he did this what supplies they would need. Maybe he'd talk to Professor Slughorn too. The man was, odd, but he was brilliant and adored Harry

Harry was thinking about adding physical defense into the DA if it continued too; it was practical, basic and common sense. From experience, he knew physical attacks could be dangerous too, having often taken serious beatings by Dudley. Harry did not know how to fight, but he was a fairly efficient dodger, thanks to his cousin. With these thoughts, he walked to the room, hoping upon entering that the room will form into what he needed, even if he did not know everything he wanted.

Harry opened the door. He looked around. This was not what he was expecting. The room was fairly small, a muggle girl's room complete with muggle music posters. There was a window on the far side and it looked like night outside, despite being the middle of the day. And on the bed sat Buffy Summers and a Hufflepuff girl who's name he didn't know. They were looking through a muggle picture album together. Buffy looked up.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"It's Hogwarts and I'm allowed to be here," he shot back. Then, with curiosity in his voice, he asked "Where is this?"

"It's the room of requirement," Buffy said with a smirk. She knew Harry knew what the room was, because Tara had told her about the DA. While she was looking at her photos, Tara had come in earlier. She confessed to Buffy that she had been coming up to this room from first year, when things were difficult it was always a comfort to her. It would often turn into her room too, or a wooded area by a stream her mom used to take her. It would turn into a peaceful place she needed for comfort. Buffy found herself pouring her heart out to Tara right back, avoiding the Slayer stuff and therefore some of the reasons, many of the reasons for her distress in life. She told her how she missed home, yet was grateful to get away, and how hard everything was for her. She even confessed to her hesitantly that her parents had put her in an institution when she had tried to tell them about the supernatural. That was the short censored version anyway, but more than she would tell anyone else. She talked about her parents and her worries that her Mom was abandoning her too and what Draco had told her. She also told her how hard it was to make friends, especially in Slytherin. Everyone in her House was so guarded, and she couldn't really talk to anyone like she was talking to Tara. Tara wouldn't judge her, Buffy knew. She was a great listener and her presence was comforting.

Tara on her part was surprised that she had told Buffy everything she did. And Buffy, who seemed guarded most of the time, shared right back. She liked her, and she liked her room. Buffy wasn't like the other Slytherins. She could also tell that she was hiding something, but didn't want to push. She watched cautiously when Harry entered. He was a celebrity and she felt even more shy than usual around him. Buffy didn't have any qualms though. He was just another boy to her, a cute one though. Tara had to hide a smile at Buffy's response. Buffy didn't know what the room was when she came in and Tara told her about it, what it had done for her, and about the DA. Tara had never gone to that though, but Buffy seemed really interested.

"I know that." Obviously he knew. "I mean, what is it that it turned into?" He figured it was the Hufflepuff's room. He was really amazed that Buffy was with her. A Slytherin and Hufflepuff hanging out? Especially one like this one. He didn't know her name or anything, but he'd seen her around. He knew she was shy and had a stutter. He also knew she was victim of Slytherin tormenting sometimes. All of a sudden, Harry felt horrible for not knowing her name.

"A room. It's my room," said Buffy surprising Harry. It was muggle. "I came up here and opened the door and it turned into this. I guess I miss home." She said this with the smartass tone gone from her voice and hugging some stuffed pig to her chest. "I was just showing Tara-" Tara was her name! "-some pictures from back home. I wasn't raised a death eater, you know," she said, annoyance in her voice at that. "I was raised muggle. You know that. This is my room from Sunnydale, where I've lived for the past year about. Wonder why it's not my LA room, I lived there longer."

Harry looked at Buffy. She was Slytherin! But you could have been too, a voice in the back of Harry's mind said. Harry chose Gryffindor because Ron had said Slytherin was evil, and because Malfoy was in it. It was evil! You would do well in Slytherin. Buffy didn't know enough about Slytherin to make a real choice. The hat had almost put him there and he wasn't evil. These thoughts ran through his head as he tried to put them together and think straight. He remembered talking to Ginny a few nights ago about Buffy.

"What's your problem?" she asked.

Harry wasn't used to Ginny acting like that around him. However, she'd grown out of her shyness. "You guys liked her just fine on the train, well maybe you not so much because you were busy being all mopey." Ginny paused and her face softened as she said this, remembering what a hard time Harry was going through with Sirius's death. "You shouldn't judge people. I personally like her. She's fun and treats me like a person, not just like someone else's kid sister." That had always been an issue for Ginny. She didn't have any close friends in her year, not really close anyways, and everyone else, including Harry, always saw her as Ron's little sister and never included her in things until the end of last year. This year they'd gone back to excluding her. Fortunately, she was becoming good friends with Buffy, and even Luna and for some reason Neville she talked to a lot. She thought Neville might have a crush on her.

"I'm not judging. It's just that, Ginny, Voldemort's back. We can't trust anyone. All of a sudden this new American girl with a vague past just appears here. We don't know anything about her. I'm just saying be careful..." I can't lose you he silently added, surprising himself with that thought. He always liked Ginny, she was Ron's sister, but the fierceness behind that last thought still surprised him.

"Do you mind?" Buffy said, snapping Harry back to the present. "We're leaving now. I have a ton of work to do this weekend, like I guess I will for the rest of my short life and something with Peroxide Head to take care of." Peroxide Head? Malfoy. Buffy just called the "Slytherin Prince" Peroxide Head?! He swallowed a laugh at the nickname. And wait did she say short life? He must have misheard. "And I don't exactly want some boy nosing through my room, even if it is fake, while I'm not here. You can come back in, just like, reset it or something. I dunno. Later." With that she and Tara left the room, Tara looking back to glance at the Boy Who Lived and quickly turning away when she saw he was looking after them. Harry stood there, not really knowing quite what to think of the encounter.

Review Please! And tell me if the slight back and forth time confused anyone. Or if my back and forth view points are confusing. Or anything else you feel like telling because I love reviews! And mini poll...should I do a Sunnydale chapter anytime soon, where it checks in on the gang, or stick with Hogwarts longer? Either way I will definitely do a hellmouth recap eventually.