Disclaimer etc. in part 1.

Notes: Okay, so it's been like, forever since I updated. This is also a lot shorter than my other updates. I have been lazy and ignoring this and I'm a horrible person. Mea maxima culpa. I don't think this will update any faster than before, but hopefully, those who have been going crazy over this story and the lack of updates can have temporary relief. I made up alithiserum, it's base is in Greek rather than Latin, but it means truth serum just the same. As always, if you have any comments or complaints leave a review or email me at scwlcyahoo.ca. Yes, I know the update is short.

"That's so creepy."

"Stop it."

"I can't. It's creepy. The way he's just sitting there, staring and staring and-"

"Shut up before I make you shut up Harry."

"But 'Mione-"

Buffy smiled at her friends. "Quit before Hermione turns you into something Harry," she advised the boy. "And stop worrying about Snape. You're probably just in his eyeline while he's thinking."

Harry gave her an incredulous look. "Just because he thinks you're the greatest thing since alithiaserum..."

"Why not just veritaserum?" Hermione asked curiously. "Both of them make you tell the truth and veritaserum is far more effective."

A snort emerged from Harry's mouth. "Veritaserum is controlled by the ministry and is illegal to make, whereas alithiaserum is legal and it was invented by a Slytherin." Silence reigned for a few minutes after that as they all took notes from the professor's lecture and Harry found himself under a silencing charm before he could point out that Snape was looking at him with that same creepy considering look again.

Then, in a lull, Buffy asked, "Why truth potions?" Harry and Hermione stared at her for several seconds trying to figure out where the remark had come from. "Normally people say 'the best thing since sliced bread.' I get that you want something different for Snape, but why truth serums specifically?"

Grouchily glaring at Hermione, who was looking at him curiously, Harry didn't speak. His friend finally prompted, "Aren't you going to answer?"

It was that moment that Snape chose to address his question to Harry, "Well, Mr. Potter. Since you appear to already know everything about the classwork, perhaps you can tell me what effect the addition of fwooper feathers would have when combined with the restorative potion we are discussing."

"Given the presence of both the boomslang skin and hen's teeth they will combine to provide an amount of magical energy restoration as well as simple physical energy," Harry replied. As a malicious smirk crossed Snape's face Harry closed his eyes waiting for the blow. It never came. Snape, with a visible effort, seemed to curb his tongue and turned away.

He swept down the aisle to stunned looks from all the NEWT students in his classroom. "What you did not mention Potter, is that such combinations have a nasty tendency to have minor hallucinogenic effects. If taken too frequently, they can eventually cause a permanent dementia. Because of both of these effects and the ease with which fwooper feathers can be acquired, the making of this potion is strictly regulated by the ministry and anyone found with evidence of making this potion, unless he or she is licensed to do so, can be arrested and seriously fined."

"I'm sure you could find a way around those restrictions professor." Cassiepeoia Campbell of Slytherin smiled winningly at the teacher, angling herself slightly so that Snape could see down her strategically unbuttoned blouse from where he stood. An amused snort sounded from Buffy's direction. It quite easily destroyed the other girl's attempt at seduction, not that anyone believed it. Snape, after all, was not the most attractive male in the school and Campbell was certainly not intellectual enough to "appreciate him for his mind" or some such crap along those lines.

A dark look crossed Snape's face, causing those around Buffy to disassociate themselves from her as much as humanly possible. "Do you have something to say Miss Summers?" He inquired silkily, "Or is your opinion of my intellect do low that you believe me incapable of understanding that as well?"

"Please," Buffy said with a roll of her eyes. "Like you believe that I think you're stupid anymore than anyone else in this class thinks you're stupid." Looking mildly baffled as he worked his way through that sentence in order to determine whether or not it was an insult, he remained silent as Buffy continued. "I was just thinking that clearly she doesn't understand that your position as a Potions Master isn't just some teaching thing but gives you the right to brew almost any potion ever invented under the law. You have no need to get around that law the way that Nestor Fairefaxe did in 1893 when he figured out that boiling the boomslang skin in rose water for seventy-two hours in an iron cauldron with a pure platinum bottom."

Snape merely smirked at both girls, Campbell looking extremely pissed Buffy had screwed up her bid to raise her mark, Buffy merely shrugging. As he turned back to continue his lecture, Buffy said, "So?"

"So what?" Harry replied, puzzled.

"So why alithiaserum?" she inquired.

Harry shot her a grouchy look. "If you must know, it's because he's always threatening me with veritaserum."

"Oh Harry!" said Hermione, looking shocked. "You should have said something-"

"Why?" he asked. "If he really meant it he'd've done it already, and since he hasn't, all anyone can say is that it's an empty threat like Ron's threats he's going to pound Malfoy into a bloody pulp."

The brunette witch frowned a little, but didn't say anything more on the subject as Buffy snickered quietly to herself, gaining frowns from the other two. Finally, to break up the little routine of Buffy snickering at the notion of Harry spilling all his secrets to the Potions master under veritaserum and Harry glaring back at her, Hermione inquired, "How do you suppose Ron's coping with Angel?"

Ron wasn't coping. He was in a staring contest with a vampire and neither seemed likely to break the deadlock. "So . . . er . . . Angel . . . er . . ." he tried again for the fifth time. He also trailed off for the fifth time. It was Angel who broke the moment finally by speaking.

"Why Buffy . . . isn't Buffy . . . here?" he inquired.

It took Ron a moment to determine what Angel was asking before he understood. Then he replied, "She's got class. And before you ask, I didn't get high enough on my OWLs to take potions at the NEWT level."

Several seconds of blank looks and blinking later, Angel finally managed to inquire, "Owls? Newt?"

"Ordinary Wizarding Levels and Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests," the redhead replied. "They're tests that let the teachers know whether we're good enough to take advanced classes in a subject or whether we should just drop the course. Thing is, you need certain NEWTs if you want to even apply for certain jobs and training programmes." Ron's explanation stalled the vampire for several more seconds, but Angel's comprehension was improving by leaps and bounds and it didn't take him long to understand.

He leaned forward, looking interested, and asked Ron, "What courses are you taking?" That spurred Ron into chatting about his transfiguration class, charms, care of magical creatures and defence against the dark arts. That led to the discussion of possible job options and by the time Hermione, Harry, Buffy and Ginny had arrived at the Room of Requirement, Quidditch.

"... But, if you had the beaters set up over there by the goals, then they could score after the chasers ran through the other team's lines there." Angel was saying as the others walked in.

Ron looked positively gleeful. "Hey Harry! What d'you think of this play Angel came up with?"

Several silent seconds passed before Harry walked over and lost himself in discussion of the finer points of Quidditch strategy. Ginny joined them a moment later to toss in the perspective of a chaser and the four became completely oblivious to any other topics.

"Boys!" said Hermione in indignation.

Buffy was smiling at the sight of Angel communicating almost normally with her new friends and it took her moment to catch what Hermione had just said. "And girl," she prompted, indicating Ginny. A harrumph was her response from the frizzy-haired witch. Buffy just laughed and suggested they do their homework so they could mock the others later. Hermione perked up at the idea then fervently denied it was over the opportunity to mock her best friends later.

Buffy was ecstatic that evening as she allowed Angel to pull her into bed. He didn't seem to truly remember who or what he was, but his personality was shining through. Only time would bring back her boyfriend, but she could see the light at the end of the tunnel now. That and Angel's enthusiastic face as he climbed on top of her, clearly planning to do all sorts of wicked things to her.

"Angel," she said softly. He looked at her inquiringly. He still didn't speak much with her, the bond of love they shared allowing her to understand his wordless commentary. He also didn't need her to speak as the implicit words of love and happiness at his recovery were easy for him to see in her eyes. For a moment, he put his plans on hold just to look at his mate as she lay beneath him.

One word escaped him, carrying with it all the love, worship and need he felt when he so much as thought of her. Buffy understood how he felt because at the animalistic core of her, the part that was more hunter and slayer than human, Buffy also felt that visceral connection to her mate. Soulmates was all very well, but this went deeper than that. It was something that touched a place more of the Earth than the soul. Something primeval. Then they were sinking into the softness of the bed and there was no thought, only feeling.

"Buffy."

It was the next morning that Hermione walked straight into the Room of Requirement to get Buffy for her last weekend of makeup tests. As she pushed the door open, she was startled to realise that Buffy didn't seem to be up yet. It got worse when she finally looked at the bed and spotted two clearly naked bodies twined together, all the naughty bits covered from her perspective, but very few of them covered by covers. Most were covered by the simple expedient of someone having a hand or leg in an interesting place.

As she watched, stunned into immobility by the sight before her, Angel began to move. Slowly he woke, and Hermione was transfixed as he blinked, stiffened, stared down at the girl lying beside him on the bed saying, "Buffy?" in an incredulous sounding voice.

Squeaking before she could suppress it, Hermione silently cursed her luck and fate when Angel's eyes moved up to look at her in clear bafflement. "I . . . Uh . . . Where am I?" he asked. Hermione felt her eyes widen a little more. There was hesitancy there, but it wasn't the stuttering of before where he was just searching for the words to express himself. He was hesitant because he, like Hermione, had no idea what he should be saying or doing at that moment.

"Angel?" she squeaked. Then she winced because she'd squeaked.

Angel looked even more baffled. "Do . . . I . . . When did we meet?" he inquired. What truly unnerved Hermione was the way he had managed to sound like a true Victorian gentleman, barring the American accent, when he'd spoken. She fled, leaving him alone in the room of requirement.

"Hermione?" Harry asked as she hurtled down the hallway. She came to a halt and stared at him, slightly wild-eyed. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah 'Mione," Ron added. "You look awful." A moment later, "Ouch! What Ginny?"

The diminutive redhead stared at her brother for a moment. "You are an idiot." She informed him solemnly. "'You look awful' honestly!"

"There's something wrong with Angel again and I've never been so humiliated in my life!" Hermione wailed in response. Her friends just looked at her silently, clearly wondering if the day had finally come that all the stress had gotten to the smartest witch in Hogwarts and she'd snapped.

Ginny came up with a reasonable question, "What's wrong with Angel?"

What was wrong with Angel was that the last thing he could remember was being in Yorkshire and his annoyance at being diverted there on his way back to Sunnydale. He couldn't remember how he wound up in the room he was in, where he was or, worst of all, how he'd wound up in bed with Buffy, naked, both of them smelling like they'd slept with each other. Not that it was bad that they might have done so, but the fact that he couldn't remember it . . .

Then she was stirring slowly in his arms, stretching, and turning over to look at him with a smile. "Morning," she said. "I really hate to have to go, but I have the rest of those makeup tests to do and the headmaster won't give me much more leeway on them-"Buffy broke off abruptly. "Angel? What's wrong?"

"What's wrong?" Angel stared at her, feeling a little wild. "I have no idea where we are – clearly not Sunnydale because you're talking about a headmaster – I don't know how we wound up sleeping together, or why I can't remember it or the girl who was just in here. Who was she Buffy? What's going on?"

After a long pause, Buffy asked him, "What do you remember last? The date?"

"August 25th," he replied. "Buffy what's going on?" She looked anxious and happy at the same time.

"August," she said softly, "But you can remember everything before that? You, me, Xander, Willow, Giles?"

Unsure of what was going on, Angel tried to keep things light. "I'm Angel, the vampire, you're Buffy the vampire Slayer, Xander and Willow are your best friends and go to school with you. Willow's a redhead and Xander's an idiot." That got a giggle out of his slayer and Angel felt something in his chest loosen a little. At least things weren't so bad that she couldn't laugh. "Giles is your watcher. Buffy please . . ." He gazed at her pleadingly. Something about the way she'd said August made him worried.

She swallowed. "I don't know everything Angel, but you just appeared here a couple weeks ago and you were . . ." Buffy didn't know how to tell him what had happened but she plunged on anyway. "You . . . you were like an . . . an animal or something." It had to be forced out. The look on his face as she said that told her he was imagining the worst.

"Did I . . . I didn't . . . Buffy tell me I didn't . . ." He couldn't force the words out. They were too ugly. Too horrifying. The notion that he could have done that to her was unbearable.

"No!" Wrapped around him, Buffy set herself to putting his fears to rest. "No. You never did anything to me that I didn't want and agree to. I promise Angel. Nothing bad happened. Not then."

"What do you mean not then?" he asked. "Buffy did I do anything?"

"No," she told him firmly. "What I meant was that you showed up looking like you'd been tortured. The only thing we could think of was that you had suffered some kind of trauma that was making you act like that."

"Who's we? Where are we Buffy? I know this isn't Sunnydale-"

Cutting him off Buffy said, "I'll try to explain Angel." She sat down and patted the bed next to her. "You see, there are witches that are born with really big internal magical batteries. Witches like Amy's mom need to call on gods and stuff to give them the power to do things. Witches like me just need to take the magic we already have and push it out."

"Witch?" was the only thing Angel could say.

"Witch," Buffy confirmed. "The second kind have a sort of sub-society thing. They hide from the rest of the world and a lot of them totally live in the dark ages. They're worse than Giles. I mean quills? Really! It's like they haven't even heard of the ballpoint pen or anything. At least Giles had a phone."

"Witch?" he asked again. Buffy sighed and explained everything to him. About the wizarding world, her father, Hogwarts and magic school. By the time she was finished telling him everything, including the Statute of Secrecy that didn't allow anyone to tell any muggles about magic unless they were immediate family to the witch or wizard in question, he was completely dumbfounded.

One unneeded breath later he gathered himself and looked at her. "So let me get this straight," he said. "You are a witch, but different from all the other witches I've ever met before."

"Yep."

"There's a whole underground society of witches and wizards who are living in the Middle Ages by the technology they use and they have a standardised magical education system."

"Yeah."

"So that girl who was just in here is one of your classmates at this magic school in Scotland which is in a castle."

"Uh-huh."

"Oh," Angel replied faintly. "Glad we have that cleared up."