Disclaimers etc. in the first part.

AN: Okay, so I haven't updated in so long many of you think I have now abandoned this. In point of fact I have not. I simply managed to lose about fifteen pages and I am now ever so slowly reconstructing those pages from memory. However, it seemed that since I now have something almost long enough to call a post completed I had better post it. So, here it is, my apologies for the delay and more apologies that this isn't more exciting. Thank you to all those who took time to review and even more thanks to you for never pointing out the no doubt vast numbers of canon-related errors in my fic. I love you all. Ice cream for everyone!

Yeah. On with the fic.

The week crawled by ever so slowly for the Gryffindors, their teachers and the Slayer and her vampire. Buffy's only visitor was Hermione, bringing her the days assignments, notes, readings and gossip. Angel didn't speak again, causing Buffy's concern to rise a couple notches from where it had fallen. Refusal to talk only meant that he was more damaged, emotionally or physically, than she had thought after his request that she read more. Having tried everything she could think of to get a response from her boyfriend the Slayer was at her wits' end. She had spoken to him of their time together in Sunnydale, everything from his past that she knew, stories and gossip about her Slayerettes, the wizarding world, Hogwarts, Harry Potter The-Boy-Who-Lived and his friends, her schoolwork, she read Hermione's notes, her textbooks, assignments, the collection of books in the room, a loaned copy of "Quidditch Through the Ages" and poked, prodded and harassed him.

None of it did any good. He was affectionate, devoted, anxious when she left the room and frequently hyperactive. It was like living with someone who had been possessed by the spirit of an animal like Xander was in grade ten. Only instead of being like a mad hyena Angel was like an extremely affectionate, if slightly afraid of abandonement, dog. One of those big dogs that think they're actually the size of a scotty. Not once did he speak another word.

Daily visits from Hermione were Buffy's only connection to the rest of the world. While she would update Hermione, and therefore Ron, Harry and Ginny as well, Hermione would tell her about class, their assignments, help her with the practical work and give her the day's news and fresh changes of clothes. By the end of the week both girls were very worried about Angel, Buffy wondering how long it would take him to recover, Hermione wondering if he would recover at all. That afternoon, following her usual visit to see the couple the brown-haired witch arrived back at the Gryffindor common room to the expectant looks of her friends.

"Anything?" Harry asked.

Shaking her head, Hermione replied, "Nothing. I just wish there were some way to reach him. Not to mention that Buffy deserves a break. After all, there's only so much she can do about her grades if she can't do the practicals."

Rolling his eyes, Ron retorted, "Oh yeah. Great reason to take a break 'Mione, school. Fantastic break."

"A change is as good as a rest you know," replied the witch with a superior sniff.

As her brother drew breath to retort, Ginny cut him off in an attempt to put off the inevitable fight between him and Hermione. "Be that as it may, we still need to figure out how to help her and Angel. Maybe if he saw some new faces-"she began.

"No!"

"Absolutely not." Harry and Ron spoke at the same time. It was a week old argument dating back to the first time the idea had come up right after Buffy and Angel's seclusion.

"He attacked me 'n Harry and there's no telling what he'd do to you." Ron stated firmly. "I, for one, am not going to get attacked by a snarling nutcase with fangs." With an emphatic nod he glared at his sister. Harry's response was a slightly less patronising pleading look and determined nod, but he agreed nonetheless.

Hermione's response was also part of this now well-choreographed routine. "So it's alright for me to face off with 'a snarling nutcase with fangs'?" she inquired. "One who, might I add, is the much beloved boyfriend of a friend of ours?"

Ron stuttered. "Well . . . see . . . it's . . . you're . . . er . . . different," he managed.

"How?" demanded Ginny.

Now it was Harry's turn. "Look. I'll go tomorrow and-"

"No!" the other three shouted at him. He looked hurt.

Sighing, Hermione rose to the occasion as the Voice of Logic once more. "Harry. Angel attacked you and Ron that day in the hall. That's why you two haven't been going. We don't know what set him off, and until we do there is no way we can risk sending you in." Hermione responded to the obvious objection her friend was about to make. "It's not that anyone thinks you're a coward or anything else like that Harry," she said firmly, "It's just that there's no reason to go rushing headlong into danger right now."

"Which still leaves why I'm not allowed to go," Ginny mentioned.

Ron exploded, "'Cause he just sorta sniffed the air and then launched himself at me and Harry that day and he might've been coming for you next!"

"Hermione-"Ginny started, but she was cut off by the aforementioned witch's wide-eyed look of concentration. An expression very familiar to those involved in the conversation, it signified that she was having one of her impressively frequent moments of intellectual epiphany.

"Sniff. That's it!" she shouted suddenly. "Ron, you're a genius!"

"He is?"

"What?"

"Eh?"

"Don't you see?" Hermione demanded.

Ron actually replied to the rhetorical question. "No."

She shot him an irritated glare. "Buffy told us that the demonic vampires have a very enhanced sense of smell. Angel is currently working with a very primitive mindset. Animalistic even. He no doubt identified her partly by her scent and probably considers her his mate." Her boyfriend opened his mouth again, but Ginny beat him to it and cast a silencing spell on him. Hermione spared her a grateful smile. "Because of his state of mind, when he saw you two he must have also smelled Buffy's scent on you and believed you to be a threat to his claim on his mate."

Ginny smiled happily at her friend. "Y'know what that means?" she asked her brother and boyfriend triumphantly. "That means there's no reason for me not to spend time with Buffy and Angel."

Predictably Ron freaked. "What do you mean 'spend time with Buffy and Angel'!" he squawked.

"By 'spend time with Buffy and Angel' I mean to be in the same immediate area as Buffy and Angel, for a significant amount of time for the purposes of providing companionship," replied his sister with some asperity.

"But . . . but . . ." Ron sputtered.

"You sound like an outboard motor Ron," Hermione told him with a grin. He glared at her.

Harry in the meantime had pulled Ginny slightly to the side. "Are you sure?" he asked. She was about to snap at him for being overprotective, but the concerned look in his deep green eyes made her pause before yelling at him and his next words dissolved her anger even further. "I'm not trying to be overprotective but Idon't want you going into a dangerous situation when you don't have to. Rescue missions are one thing but you don't have to do this," he told her.

She sighed. It wasn't the most eloquent explanation but she understood. More than that, she heard the other unspoken message that, if anything happened he would go to her and the others for help. He was just being Harry. "Yes I'm sure. And I do have to do this. Buffy needs to do her schoolwork and maybe if Angel interacts with more people he'll start talking again and stuff."

Ron was now muffled firmly by several well-cast hexes by Hermione and could only fume as Harry said, "Fine. But promise me you'll run like hell for help if 'stuff' becomes dangerous."

An eyeroll followed. "Yes dad."

When a wicked smirk crossed Harry's face, Hermione petrified her boyfriend and quickly hauled him away hearing, "Now Ginny, I don't think you should mistake me for your father," followed by a surprised squeak before the protrait swung shut behind them.
Saturday morning Hermione and Ginny took their first shift alone with Angel while Buffy went to make up the practical work from the classes she'd missed. Angel came wandering into the room after a half an hour looking concerned and slightly confused and becoming a little alarmed when he didn't locate Buffy. Finally turning to the two girls he asked, "Where is Buffy?"

"She had to go out for a while," Hermione told him in a soothing voice. Inwardly delighted at this evidence that he wasn't a lost cause she added, "Buffy has to make up some work for her classes."

The response was slightly less encouraging. "Where is Buffy?" He didn't seem to understand the words just spoken to him. Indeed neither of the girls could be entirely certain he would understand anything they said. Ginny tried to simplify the concept.

"Buffy will be back soon. She's fine. We're just here until she comes back." He frowned, seemingly processing her words for several seconds until he abruptly nodded decisively and graacefully sprawled out onto the chesterfield.

Silently the girls stared at each other, wondering what to do next. The problem was solved by Angel looking at them curiosly then asking hesitantly, "You . . . have . . . been . . ." he paused, frowning.

An encouraging smile crossed Hermione's lips. "Yes?" she prodded gently.

"We . . ." exasperation covered Angel's face and it was evident his lessened vocabulary bothered him. Something seemed to occur to him and it came out normally. "We've met before, haven't we?" he asked Ginny. She looked slightly startled at his reversion to fairly standard English for a moment before responding with a slightly wry smile.

"The first night you were here," she replied. "You attacked Ron and Harry. I don't think you were really aware of what you were doing."

For a long couple moments the girls wondered if this relatively abstract collection of concepts was too complicated for Angel's currently malfunctioning mind, but after the pause he nodded in understanding before frowning again. "Harry and Ron." Again he paused. "One is like . . ." he trailed off again, searching for the words that were on the tip of his toungue.

Hermione came to his rescue. "Boys," she stated. "One with hair like," she reached over and gently tugged on Ginny's bright locks, "Ginny's, that's Ron. The other has black hair. Harry." They looked at Angel expectantly.

He tilted his head a little. "Ron," he said. "He's your . . ."

"Brother," Ginny supplied. "Hermione and him are together and Harry and me are together." She paused, unsure if her meaning would be fully clear to the vampire. In spite of his attention, neither could help but feel that until he was speaking normally, they couldn't trust that he would fully comprehend the conversation around him. A sudden inspiration had her add for clarification, "Like you and Buffy."

As Angel's eyebrow rose in a look of sceptical interest, Ginny and Hermione wondered if there had been a miscommunication of some kind. Then he leaned forward and his nostrils flared as he took a delicate sniff. "Not exactly like," he replied, a small but breathtakingly sexy smile flitting across his face.

Flushing Ginny muttered, "No, not exactly like that." While Hermione looked confused. She shot a questioning look at Ginny who refused to meet her eye. A smirk from Angel followed by a very pointed look tracing the area around her hips had Hermione letting out a startled "Oh!" followed by a blush that outdid Ginny's.

The conversation that followed was somewhat stilted, frequently stalled and was slow in the extreme. However the difference between Angel's previous state and his current one was made obvious by Buffy's squeals of delight at her boyfriend's improvement when she returned from her makeup tests and classes. The other two girls smiled at each other and left.
While Hermione and Ginny were having a stilted chat with Angel in the Room of Requirement, Buffy was taking her makeup tests and practicals. Transfiguration was first and that went fairly smoothly although Buffy's time away from the classroom had affected her skills slightly and the lack of practice showed. In potions however, she simply plonked down and mixed away. Snape sat at the front of the classroom sometimes glancing up at her as he pretended to read a text on the qualities of Far Eastern herbs and the subtitutions possible with Western ones.

Finally Buffy was in the last stages of her assigned potion, an elixer designed to temporarily improve the user's memory. It had to be left to simmer for several minutes before the last ingredients were added. Passing the time until she could wrap up her work by flipping through her text in search of a good potion to use on the ice demon she'd run across on her way down to the dungeons, Buffy was startled out of her ruminations (explode the demon or go for the more conventional melting option?). Snape had abruptly slammed the book he was pretending to read shut and had asked, "Miss Summers. I was wondering about the state of your . . . ah . . ." he trailed off uncertainly.

"Angel is much better," she told him with a small smile. "He hasn't started talking again really, but he's better."

It was with a great deal of hesitancy that he asked his next question. "Have you any notion of what changed him?" he inquired.

She sighed. "I wish I knew. He's not talking so I can't find out that way and the only magical evidence of what was done are some small traces that might be the cruciatus." A shrug and an expression that was both sad and exasperated crossed her face.

"But even transfigurative spells leave significant traces and given the alterations to his physiology-"Snape was cut off by Buffy's laughter. At his irritated glare she controlled herself and explained.

"Angel wasn't human to begin with. The physiological differences between himself and a regular human are because he isn't one." The teacher's expression immediately cleared, then it turned thoughtful as he considered the repercussions of her statement. He was also extremely relieved to discover that there would not be an army of crazed mutated former wizards running around under Voldemort's control. That is, at least Angel wasn't the forerunner to such an invasion.

Another couple minutes passed during which Buffy reached the conclusion that it had been far too long since she had last gotten to blow anything up and so she was going to explode the ice demon. Then she was going to add some of the Weasley Wizarding Wheezes Quick Swamp Mix to the leftover puddle and see how the Hufflepuffs handled getting out of their common room.

Clarifying, Snape asked, "So . . . Angel . . . is somewhat like a veela in the sense that he has two forms, one which is more human and one that is less?" He raised an eyebrow, noting that her book was open to a potion formula that was particularly explosive. He also noted that she bookmarked the page with a slip of paper that read 'Hufflepuffs'. He decided not to ask. The little fluffballs deserved whatever they got.

"Mmm. A little. In that way. He really only gets with the ridges and fangs and things when he's really upset." She grinned at her teacher. "All of his seductive abilities are completely unrelated to magic." He did not deign to respond to that and there were several minutes of silence as Buffy made various adjustments to her potion and settled down for the last bit of brewing. Some minutes had passed before she turned to Snape and asked a question that had been bothering her for some time. "Why exactly is it that you hate Harry so much? I know you hate Gryffindors on principle and I don't blame you. We seem to be a fairly irritating bunch, but you really take it all out on Harry."

Snarling slightly the teacher responded, "It is his unmitigated arrogance and gall. The way he is constantly talking back to me acts without a thought in his head for anything save his fame and those irritating friends of his as well as the way he takes after that bullying man that was his father."

"Ah," Buffy said noncommitally, her face smooth.

Temper flaring up at the pacifying nature of his current favourite student's response he nearly growled. "Ah? I see. You are about to tell me that Potter is none of those things I say and that he is the paragon everyone else claims him to be. The-"

"I said no such thing and I'd appreciate it if you didn't go around assuming stuff about me. I get that enough back home and you know what they say, assmue makes an ass out of you and me." Her voice was flippant but eyes that would not be cowed by the fury of a former death eater no matter the situation stared cooly back at him.

Her response stopped him. "What do you mean you get enough assumptions back home?"

Certain now that she had Snape's attention, Buffy grabbed a chair and sat down facing him across his desk. She leaned forward a little as though to emphasise her point. "I'm a blonde girl from southern California. I care more about my clothes than lots of other things and I am in a lot of ways the definition of a valley girl. Everyone thinks I'm stupid because of it. They see the hair, clothes and the way I talk and they think that I don't know anything about anything just because of how I am. They talk down to me and refuse to talk about anything serious with me. Conversation winds up being all about clothes, makeup, movies and pop music." Snape leaned forward slightly himself, interested in where she was going with this. "It's a cycle. They think I can't talk about serious stuff, so they don't talk about it. Then I don't talk about since they're not talking about it which makes them think I can't talk about it even more. And so on and so on."

"People, especially teenagers, usually wind up acting just the way you expect them to when you treat them like they're gonna act that way. Y'know?" She looked at him expectantly. He just blinked at her confused. "Lemme put it another way. Everyone acts like the Slytherins are all evil so that they're all upset with everyone." Buffy paused to make sure he was still following and he gestured at her to continue. "So since they're all pissed off, it just goes to prove that they're evil to everyone else."

"Sad but true." He sat back. This was hardly news to him. He tried very hard to make his house realise they had other options, but they were constantly slotted into that category by the other houses. It was difficult to shake.

He waited a bit as Buffy poured her potion in the mason jar and screwed the lid on, labelling it neatly and cleaning up her work area. As she picked up her book bag she turned to him and said, "Not to say that Harry's perfect 'cause he's really, really not." She paused. "So not." Another slight pause. "But did you ever consider that he talks back to you like that because you insult him more than all the other people in the school combined?"

With that she left him with suddenly rather a lot to consider.

TBC at some point soon. I hope