CH 12- Merry Christmas?

Angel took Buffy to the location they decided to take her back to and George was there waiting for them. The pranking freak did not expect them so suddenly when they came upon them with their disheveled appearances "What happened?"

The souled vampire's eyes then got even, if possible darker "Just take her back to the school & we will send for you once we need you"

George then mounted his broom and got the unconscious slayer as he took off into the sunset. Angel headed back in and saw that the fight had already started and it seemed that everyone had a 'partner'. Fred had Harry, Xander with Willow and Meredith while they all took care of the deatheaters. Spike and Ron were also helping Willow and Meredith in case somebody wanted to sneak up on the two while they weren't looking so as to throw a curse at the unlucky sods. Faith and Hermione were doing the same for Xander and Fred while throwing curses too. Draco than came up to Angel "Hey, yeah it seems that you have me as your partner while we 'tag-team it' as Xander puts it". It was then when Angel vamped out and got a look that Angelus would be VERY proud of as he stomped off into battle with Draco following him only assuming that meant he was going to work with him.

-Meanwhile at Hogwarts-

Dumbledore was now in the Hospital Wing looking at the multiple patients which he thought to himself was quite an occurrence during this type of thing or year. Katie, Oliver, Dawn & Buffy slept peacefully as they were being guarded. Giles & Snape stood there too as their hate for the Dark Lord grew even more. Then abruptly Dawn woke up moaning "Uh…where the heck am I?"

Giles' eyes then lit up as he ran up and hugged her softly as he was aware that she was filled with many bruises. After a few moments of the embrace Dawn asked awkwardly "Uh Giles…I need some air so can you…?" He loosened the grip and straightened himself before answering her "Well you're at Hogwarts which is a wizarding school in England. Buffy, Willow, Xander & Anya have been here for the past five months. Willow is no longer…curvy as you put once when we all found out. Angel teaches here as well, he actually co-teaches with your sister. Just last month Faith & Wesley came after she 'got released' from jail and she is cool with everyone".

Dawn's eyes went wide "So Willow has a boyfriend? That's cool. So wait a second…what is the date of today?"

"The same year that you were taken but it is Christmas as of now. I am the headmaster here, or as Xander put it 'principal dude'. You can call me Professor Dumbledore. The man next to Professor Giles is Professor Snape" the old man introduced. Dawn looked at the two men she was introduced carefully as she shook their hands. She was silent for a moment before saying to Snape "You must be Willow's boyfriend or whatever"

He got a sneer "You could say that and be correct"

She just nodded her head and asked "So how many more people do I get to meet? It's not like a LOAD of people because I don't do well in groups"

The three men quickly counted and thought of something to say "Well seven more give or take. You have already met Katie & Oliver due to the nasty business of Voldemort's. You will meet the rest of them afterwards if the battle goes the way we want it too. For now though just wait here while Buffy is being transported back".

The young brunette then got a priceless confused look as she said "What and…what?"

-Riddle's-

Thud. One down…just about dozen more to go' Ron thought after knocking someone unconscious. All the other deatheaters that they had defeated had been stupified and got locked into this invisible cage thing that they had managed to somehow get. Ron looked over at Draco and realized whom the blonde male was fighting. 'He can handle him…hopefully. Right now I have to deal with my own slime ball' Ron thought as he landed a punch into a persons face. He had taken his last one now and saw Spike was having a little trouble with his oddly enough so he went to go help him.

Faith was doing all the physical fighting while Hermione as doing the cursing upon them. Fred & Harry were doing an amazing job as well. They literally were fighting back to back. When they wanted to switch the other would yell the word & flip over each other. George & Xander though were doing the funniest thing possible: mocking ALL their victims. George had managed to bring back some of the prank supplies. So he would throw a candy in their mouth and the next second they would be a chicken! Once they were the little bird the pair would stun them. Meredith meanwhile herself was too doing a great job. Willow was doing a protection spell upon the whole group & kept doing so it wouldn't wear off.

Draco was currently fighting somebody he couldn't tell who it was, yet. The suddenly they revealed themselves "What Draco? No hug for your father?"

Then the younger Malfoy saw only red, next thing either knew one of the unforgivables was cast on the elder of the two and past out after a few good seconds. Angel went up to him then and said "Is he dead or what? If not he gets a 'go to jail card' like to oh say Azkaban?"

The battle was over for now, Voldemort was dead. But not all of his dear deatheaters were it was just a matter of time before they would try to bring him back yet again. For now though the good guys rested until the ministry got there 20 minutes later. They took the dark lord's servants in magical cuffs to Azkaban and every one else went back to Hogwarts.

Almost everyone went to the Hospital Wing but only Meredith and George went to the Common Room. She felt numb with shock of everything that had happened so far, she had only got one bump the entire battle which was fairly well. George was still worried about what had happened with her the other day at the campsite and was staying with her. Sure she wasn't telling him what her and Willow's little pow-wow said but he wasn't going anywhere and now thing's between them were getting tense.

"Do you want me to help you up to your room?" George suddenly asked her breaking the eerie silence. She had trouble walking but had refused to go to The Hospital Wing for some strange reason. She just shook her head & immediately fell asleep as if some one had placed a spell upon her. He simply picked her up and carried her up to her own bed where she slept somewhat calmly. George knew that she'd sleep calmly after a day like today but had been ordered not to tell anyone about what he saw happen with Meredith earlier that day. He wasn't planning on telling anyone something he really didn't understand a lot, he still found it odd he'd been the only one who actually SAW what happened to her eyes. Everyone else had forgotten or didn't see because of the angle she was at, which was just aggravating him now. Especially since her and Willow wouldn't explain what the heck was going at the moment!

-Hospital Wing-

Only Dawn and Oliver had awoken so far while the slayer and potential still hadn't. Faith had briefly told the others what had gone done in Tom's room before and how he was dead now. George had arrived, told everyone that Meredith had been drained of all of her energy & would come visit in the morning. Soon though it was about midnight and most of the people who were still in the wing were about to drop so Albus made everyone who wasn't a patient leave so they could get some good rest. They so willingly obliged and nothing else happened until about 2 hours later. Katie & Buffy finally awoke a little confused "Um, I'm guessing since were in this infirmary thing we are having another one of those off Christmases!"

Buffy shrugged a little because she was a little bit groggy "I have had worse…I think. Right now I can't remember much of last night but the worst one I remember is when Angel tried to commit suicide and the first was all behind it. But he got saved by the higher powers so that was a good part"

Katie got wide eyes "He what?!? The First - Did they like show him past victims or really bad fashion statements he'd rather forget?"

This made the older blonde chuckle as she nodded, but before she could respond Madam Pomfrey finally heard her patients "Oh Dear, do you two remember anything of what happened?"

Buffy tried to look over her memories once more and it was then it hit her "My bad…this is my worst Christmas". She got sad smiles from the two other women right before Madam Pomfrey gave them their sleeping potions so as to have a sleepless night.

The next morning George awoke with a slight pain in his shoulder from sleeping funny on it while he was in the chair next to Meredith's bed. He had stayed next to her bed all night long and she had slept to his knowledge, peacefully. He didn't really mind sleeping in the chair but now he slipped into the bed & watched her sleeping. The two were like that for awhile but he really did not mind as long as he knew she was alright. He thought about the other time they did something like this in the Room of Requirement and hoped she wouldn't get startled. After all that afternoon she was fine with lying on the bed talking to him face to face and hoped she would be alright this morning. 15 minutes later she stirred and was finally awake with his face kinda right in front of her. She blinked a little bit before realizing he was really there and let out a squeal and wrapped her arms around him. Of course this put a smile on his face "I'll take that as you were worried about me…am I right?"

She just gave him a mock glare but then smiled with a mischievous look. The two then kissed as they spotted one magical mistletoe that his brother and himself had set up around school had found its way into her room. The two however were oblivious to Hermione & Ginny staring down the two for waking them and they cleared their throats. Then the two separated very embarrassed as Hermione said "Next time George bring Harry & Ron and that won't happen".

Then all of them laughed and that's how Harry and Ron found them a few minutes later. The guys shrugged and just left for breakfast while shaking their heads. Awhile later after tossing George out so they could dress Meredith told them to go on because she had something she needed to do real quickly. The two Gryffindor's nodded as she left to go see Katie & Buffy. On the way she ran into the elder brunette slayer, Faith "Hey - You headed to the Hospital place as well?"

She nodded and they went to see their blonde counter parts. So far all the slayers at Hogwarts had connected real well, herself and Faith patrolled together a lot of the time leaving Katie to Buffy occasionally they switched patrol partners but for the most part stayed with one another. So the two went down their together and when they where about to open the door Buffy & Katie came out. Meredith slipped into a hug with the two blonde slayers before slipping into the Hospital Wing, before they noticed she had left she had already come back out licking her lips. Faith, before she could ask what Meredith had done in the Hospital Wing, then noticed the look on her fellow sister slayers asked "Whoa…what else happened? Cuz last time I checked I knew all the crappy info"

Katie then replied "Nasty potions & creepy grandpas basically sum it up"

The four 'sisters' then laughed as they looped arms and headed down to the Great Hall.

-Potions Hall-

Willow was wandering around the hallway trying to find Severus' room entrance but just couldn't find it. She had found it once before by accident when trying to get to the Room of Requirement place and they had gotten to have some fun, well at least she did. The red-headed Wicca had been looking for at least an hour and was slowly growing tired of not finding it. She hadn't been to his room in a while and couldn't remember where the door was hidden. She sighed in frustration.

"Looking for me?" Snape suddenly whispered into her ear huskily and placed small kisses upon her neck. This made her smile and she turned around so she could face him while he held her. The couple had not been able to spend much time together because of all the trouble recently. They had not been able to touch each other since…well a long time for them, too long for the potions master. Now they were able to catch up "No, I was looking for the other devilishly handsome potions master"

"It's too bad we can't do this long because I have to do this research thing with Meredith", She was pouting, eyes cast low

"You better go then before I get that prodding lip of yours begging for me to take it as my own" While he told her he had quiet a mischievous look.

"Hey now, I didn't say I didn't have time for smoochies with you" she defended herself. They then smiled and then had a passionate kiss. They continued to do so until she actually had to go and meet Meredith in the library.

"Mere! Are you ok after our talk from the other day? I know after first finding out your potential if rough but now this –"

Her eyes were red and beginning to tear and she grabbed Willow by the arms, "Willow you don't understand – this answers many thing's I have needed to know why happened over the years. Yeah it's a little to X-men for my standards but at least I know what's wrong and we can figure out how to fix it!"

"You do know that this isn't something to fix, that's a side effect to that which I think is rather odd and the others are going to find out eventually along with you faking being a potential, which I'm not quite sure HOW you did that by the way and actually being an elemental"

"Say what Red?"

The pair turned around to see Buffy, Faith, Angel and Spike all standing there with their jaws dropped.

"Hehe uh Merry Christmas guys?"

So I WAS going to post this the week of Christmas but I was in the hospital that entire week all the way until New Years, yeah it sucked. Got the stitches to prove it! But here's your new chapter to bide you over to next month - I gotta work people(!) - and y'all deal with this revelation. Plus what are Buffy and Faith gonna do now that's there's only ONE potential?!?!?! And why didn't Giles tell them because you know he knew! And what's the "side effect" Mere is talking about with Willow?

Here's what's to come in the next chapter:

- Katie yelling at Mere in the Great Hall

- Draco shows us the Slytherin Common Room

- Spike and Angel spy on the Slayer and her patrolee

- Someone making out in the Astronomy Tower, again -author giggles-

This next chapter is the LAST one, after this it's all new stuff so if you've read it before under the old post prepaire yourself for awesomeness! See you soon,

~Vixen519