Ch.9- Blind Dates & new students! -

The next day was very busy for the blonde slayer and the once-more-Vengeance Demon. They were preparing for their dates that afternoon, the usual looking extra sexy so as to snag the guy. Anya and Buffy were not talking much as of nerves and one had a question but couldn't find it in herself to ask the other until it slipped out "Buffy isn't this kinda weird for you? I mean, are you doing this to get back at Angel or Spike or are you doing this to move on period?"

Buffy never answered her as she did not quite have an answer for her or herself so the two continued to get ready in silence with their nerves and wondering if they both should even be going on these dates.

-Shrieking Shack-

"Moony what the heck am I gonna do? I haven't been on a date in ages, since before I went to Azkaban! I'm rusty! Oh god I'm sodding Dumbledore in the dating department" Sirius rambled while pacing back and forth in the living room. Remus was already prepared & was now helping his psychotic friend. He placed him down in a chair that was somewhat stable over the years of his transformations, "Padfoot, my highly sugared friend, you aren't 'rusty'. You just haven't been available and I'll have you know I have a very capable theory about Dumbledore and who he is dating!"

Sirius than gave him a look and said "How in bloody hell can you just stand there so bloody calm, plus forget Dumbledore for the moment and you're theory – although tell me about that later so we can borrow Harry's cloak to follow him around to see who it is!? We are about to go on dates with women who are in their twenties! Does that not worry you that when they were born we had just been fresh out of Hogwarts?"

Remus the replied "I believe they are coming because they are aware of our ages and don't think us as 'old & horny men'. After all Harry told them how old we are. And only ONE of them is in her twenties, the other is 1000 give or take" Remus joked; it only calmed him down a little bit though.

- Lunchtime Hogwarts -

The Gryffindor's, along with Draco were the only ones at lunch that since everyone else were away on holiday. Wesley & two girls then entered, hidden underneath their cloaks. "Everyone, I would like to introduce you to the next slayers, should anything happen to Buffy or Faith. The brunette is Meredith and is going to be in 6th year. And the blonde would be Katie who will be with the 5th years. Both have been training for about 5 years vaguely. I would appreciate it if you would treat them as if the were any wizard or witch" Wes said to them.

The two teen's then removed their cloaks. Katie had hazel eyes, had quite the curves, and her face was stunningly beautiful. The only place that showed her pain that the trio knew about was her eyes. Meredith had frizzy hair that slightly resembled Hermione's old hair before Willow showed her this charm earlier in the semester. The difference between her and Katie was Meredith was the shorter.

"Hey, I'm Faith and Buffy couldn't be here but she'll meet you guys later. Just as a head's up neither of us is the 'main slayer', we both have been activated or whatever so both chosen. Anyway with that out of the way let me introduce you to some friends of mine". She then whistled at Ron, along with the rest of the gang – AN: Harry was taking Buffy and Anya.

"Hey guys, y'all come talk with them. They seem like they'd fit in with y'all perfectly fine". With that she left the 2 Americans with them in a rather hurry, along with Willow and the students noticed that basically all teachers were gone. They soon learned that Meredith was 16 years old while Katie was 15 which was kinda funny since Katie's birthday was the day before Meredith's. The teens exchanged information until Ginny noticed Katie was looking over at Draco with an odd look upon her face.

"Um…Katie? Come back to Hogwarts" Katie jumped then, from what looked blushed. "Mere…you totally suck!" The brunette just chuckled then said "Well, it ain't my fault I knew that there would be some guy who tickled your…fancy as they say over here. Well now you owe me that $30. So hand it over" This made all the girls giggle while the boys were confused but they winced when they had giggled at a high pitch when they were all combined.

"I'm not gonna bloody bother. So Neville want to go talk Quidditch with Oliver & Malfoy?" Ron nodded and the boys were then off.

"Mind if we came over here to talk to you guys? The girls are doing…girly stuff, already!" Neville explained to the 2 guys. Draco leaned over to get a good look at them. Hermione was in a deep conversation with the brunette and it was obviously about hair because she was doing weird stuff with her hair now in all sorts of designs and pointing her wand. And Ginny was talking with…a beautiful blonde who was probably in disguise and was really an angel. 'Oh my god- I'm so glad that I can like whoever I can without worrying about my fathers stupid pureblood talk!'. "Oliver, what's the blonde girl's name again?" He made the mistake of asking aloud with the group there. Ron, Neville & Oliver then all got the same evil smile.

-Afternoon Hogsmeade-

Harry had lead Anya & Buffy in front of the Three Broomsticks & they were now awaiting Padfoot & Moony's arrival. The great things about having the date this day was, one) Sirius had been cleared as far as the people of Hogsmeade were concerned. And two) it wasn't a student weekend; they could go to their homes or a friend's. So they didn't have to worry about being goggled at while trying to enjoy themselves. "Harry, weren't they supposed to get here 30 minutes ago?" Buffy asked because she was starting to get impatient. Right before Harry was going to answer Sirius & Remus arrived.

Anya looked over the two men. One had the wild hair thing going on for him. She immediately knew that it was Harry's godfather. The other man was very attractive, he had a wiser look and his hair went down to his ears. The man's hair was a sandy blonde with flecks of silver. Anya hoped that this was her date.

While Anya was examining Buffy was too. She noticed Anya got the 'he is mine!' look when looking over the blonde. 'That is good for her; she needed a new guy after that mess with Xander'. Then Buffy got a look at the dark haired man who Harry introduced as Sirius, her date. She could already tell that it would be a buddy relationship. Nothing more, nothing less 'Oh well, we can be mean & exchange blackmail on Harry & them. Heh heh heh-'

Harry then left so that they could more aquatinted with each other. He headed back to the school, or at least that's what he told them. Little did they know was that there were a few people hiding underneath invisibility cloaks inside the pub. In the back corner was Willow, Faith & Harry under one and they ate popcorn or chocolate frogs. Xander & Spike underneath another cloak and finally Wes & Angel were underneath the final one. The vampires ate blood.

Both couples had decided to get their own tables away from each other. Oddly enough Buffy's table was near the hidden friends. Now Sirius being part dog could sense them there but didn't say a word because he figured they had a reason to be spying on the date and sensed they were friends. "So Buffy, what else do you wanna share about yourself?" Buffy thought for awhile and said "Before I answer can you promise not to tell anyone? Not even Remus or Harry, not even Dumbledore! I'm telling you this because Harry trusts you and all the praise I hear from him about you"

He just nodded to tell her that she could go on. "I have been the slayer for a very long time. Some may say for to long. Sine I was 15 to be exact, I'm 22 now. I was in California that whole time. All those 7 years were, interesting. I had the wonderful times and the really crappy ones too but there as many as crappy as there are wonderful, sad enough. My parents got a divorce because… of my father's unfaithfulness and him being an abusive alcoholic. My sister was too young to remember so I'm the only living one to remember. When I moved to Sunnyhell I swore to make better decisions & get grades closer to the beginning of the alphabet. Also get friends that would stay buy my side. I'm glad to say I still have them". Buffy paused to take a sip of her drink and a breath.

"I understand what you went through with having an abusive father, mine was as well. I wasn't the son he wanted, not good enough you could say. When I got to Hogwarts though everything changed, I then became friends with the most amazing people on this earth I have encountered so far. I hope that nobody ever forget's what they did". Harry was very shocked to hear all this about Sirius' blood family. He had never talked about his family, ever.

Buffy was kinda gapping more or less "Wow –chuckle- I didn't realize this conversation would be so serious so soon after meeting you. All we need now is a cemetery". Spike and Angel taken a sip of their blood right before that and had sputtered a little bit. Sirius got a puzzled look upon his face "Ah, as corny as this is I know it's a serious conversation. Because, hey - that's my name!"

They both laughed at the corny joke. Sirius then got a good look at her as she laughed. The way her face had a certain glow to it, like it rarely came out so when it did come out, it lit up the room. He then realized that that was the first time she had smiled during their whole time. "Buffy, why isn't a beautiful, wonderful girl like yourself, in a cemetery like you said?"

The blonde slayer then had a flash of pain in her eyes that NOBODY missed, hidden or not. He then got a look of horror on his face "I'm so sorry, I must have overstepped my line". He then made the move to get up. But she wouldn't let him "No. It just…startled me. That's all. Before I answer that I want to explain what I want. I just want to be friends. We can do pretty bad damage with exchanging blackmail & whatnot". They both got evil looks in their eyes that Harry didn't like at all. Then they did their best evil laugh. "I say friends. So when do we start exchanging?" Sirius asked sitting down and propping himself up by his fists. "We can start whenever you want to. Now to answer your question-"

Suddenly there was an explosion outside and it sounded like a chicken screeching. They both look at each other before following Remus & Anya outside. Remus then snuck back in, without being noticed, and walked right up to them. "You all are VERY lucky that Sirius didn't point out to Buffy that you were here. I owled the twins to send something at a poor innocent chicken so you all could get out of here before they could get back inside". They all did leave, feeling rather guilty for eavesdropping.

-Next day-

Buffy was in one of abandoned dungeons with Faith, Katie & Meredith. They were doing talks about interesting kill's on some vampires that they had done. Then the younger brunette then asked "Buffy, how would a vampire be able to attack in broad daylight?"

Faith & Buffy then exchanged a look before saying "Well there was the Gem of Amara, but it was destroyed, why?". The teens then got a sad look on their faces before telling their story "That's how Kerby died. She had been bitten and we weren't able to stake her because we never found her" Katie told. Meredith had been looking downward and finally she looked up with her eyes brimming with tears. She had a hopeful like look on her face "Buffy, can we do the research thing with the watchers? Only them though, we don't want Hermione to freak out knowing a shell of her cousin is out there somewhere". Buffy just nodded and then they went into patrol for the night.

Post shall be again soon because the other one is already in the edit document thingy.

~Vixen519