Time Together

A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter.

(_)(_)(_)(_)(_)(_)

November 25, Watcher HQ

In the wake of Sunnydale's collapse, the Scoobies had adopted and adapted Thanksgiving to their own purposes. They had turned it into a day to be thankful for surviving another year, and to remember those who hadn't.

Unlike the actual holiday, Scooby Thanksgiving was not locked into a particular day, mostly as a nod to the fact that their schedules didn't generally allow for such rigidity. This year, for example, with most of the celebrants scattered all over England and unable to take a Thursday off, the celebration was postponed until the weekend.

Now, Giles, Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Xander and Spike were at HQ and closeted in Giles' suite. It was rather sobering to realize that the attendees were roughly half of the survivors that had fought in Sunnydale prior to the First's assault. More than half of the Scooby squad over the years had either never escaped Sunnydale or had been killed in L.A. at some point. Even then, Buffy counted as one of the 'dead', because she had been killed and buried at one point. Even adding in the Slayerettes who had flocked to Sunnydale when the culling of Potentials started failed to improve matters. Of the dozen-plus girls that had made it to Sunnydale, only six still lived. In short, demon hunting was a brutal, brutal business.

Which was why they'd started celebrating surviving another year, and remembering the ones who hadn't. None of them had any illusions about eventually being on the 'being remembered' half of the program sooner rather than later.

There was no talk of current business during the meal. Instead, they all laughed and talked and remembered various incidents in Sunnydale. The stories focused mostly on good memories of the now-lost Scoobies, though there was certainly a fair amount of good-natured raillery at each other over their teenaged foibles. In the case of Giles and Spike, it was good-natured teasing about their British-ness, especially with Giles. Once the meal was over, there was a long moment of silence to respect the dead, and then they cleaned up before sprawling on the couches Giles had installed in his sitting room.

"So, how are things in the Ministry?" Xander asked.

"Going surprisingly well." Giles said. "With the bulk of the subversive element driven from the body, they're being remarkably sensible, for politicians. Though that may well change in a few weeks, as they're finally starting to hit bottom on the ridiculous laws on the books that everyone can agree need to be stricken."

Xander grimaced. "At which point they start going over the not-blatantly-obviously-wrong laws and the fighting starts." He said.

"Quite. That will be the real test for Madame Bones' ability to lead, I fear." Giles said. "And things on your end?"

"Way quieter than on yours." Xander said. "The teachers have been having a blast revamping their classes and suggesting new ones and getting them ready to be added to the curriculum next year. Draco seems to be taking his desire to move to the Muggle world seriously. I've seen him talking to several Muggleborn Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. He's not approached any of the ones in Gryffindor. Given the rivalry between his House and theirs, and how badly he fought with Harry and his friends, that's probably a wise move."

"An' Snape's still on a tear with his Slytherins." Spike added. "Seems to be working, too."

"What of the demonic no-go zones?" Giles wanted to know.

"No word from Black yet." Spike said. "But given how far back he's got to look, might be a while yet."

"Daphne Greengrass has been a heck of a help." Xander continued. "Her father's library is ... interesting. As much for the stuff it doesn't have as what it does."

"What do you mean?" Giles asked, knowing that Xander meant more than the Greengrass library wasn't as extensive as Hogwarts'.

"Greengrass has evidently made a point of not including books with blatant disinformation in them." Xander said. "As well as books with a heavily bigoted bias in either direction. He's got a list of titles of books that are like that, but not the books themselves. And he's got books that back up his assertion that the books on the list are wrong or badly biased."

"Intriguing. I assume this has been a long-term family project?" Giles asked.

"Has to have been." Xander said. "Some of the books either on the list or used to refute the list are older than Hogwarts."

"What's interestin'." Spike said. "Is that there's a sharp increase in bad books starting 'bout fifty years ago. Right 'bout the time the whiskered wanker 'won' his little spat with his ex-buddy."

"Right about the time that Dumbledore attained the preeminence he felt he deserved." Giles said with a sigh. "And was able to begin twisting things to his requirements." Giles shook his head. "Speaking of that blasted man, any word on Fawkes?"

"Close to full strength now, according to McGonagall." Xander said. "She's been keeping well clear of him, and has forbidden even the house-elves to go into the office until he's full power, in hopes it will reassure Fawkes. Seems to be working. We'll know for sure if he's free and clear in another week or so, she said."

"That is a relief." Giles said. "I sincerely doubt anyone will see Fawkes again once he is able to go his own way. He can't have been happy with fifty years or so of slavery."

"No kidding." Xander said.

"Octavian is doing good as well." Willow said. "He's keeping his promise, and making slow but steady progress with earth magic. I don't think he'll be really powerful, but given how you get power with earth magic, that's not necessarily a bad thing." The less Octavian had to mess about with the gods, the better it would be for him. There was always some sort of price when you appealed to the gods, and it wasn't always an easy price to pay.

"Quite." Giles agreed, and the others all nodded. They were familiar with the price that Willow'd had to pay over the years for her own dabbling. None of them wanted a repeat of that.

"So how many folks do you think we'll get from magic-land?" Dawn wanted to know.

"Roughly a dozen or so, I think." Xander said. "We've pretty much got Sirius, Remus, and Harry in the bag. They're so angry and disillusioned they're going to jump at a way to be rid of the magical world, at least for a while. They might go back someday, but it won't be for a long while. And I'm willing to bet that Harry never does go back."

"I doubt he will either." Giles agreed. "Even with you being the one to actually kill Voldemort, the wizarding world will never leave Harry in peace."

"Draco's goin' to join up too." Spike said. "And maybe Daphne, of the kids. That Ron bloke, and the Hermione chit will follow Harry, I think. At least for a while."

"Flitwick and Snape have both been sniffing about too." Xander said. "I don't think either of them is going to commit full-time, but they'll probably be more than happy to consult and be backup help for big apocalypses."

"Same for some of the Aurors we've worked with ... especially Moody, the crazy bastard." Spike said.

"Madame Bones has been expressing a great deal of interest in some of our magical tricks." Giles said. "Especially Willow's containment bubble. She was a bit disappointed when I told her it was an earth magic technique that took a certain amount of power to use."

"I'll bet she was. With the dementors gone, they're going to need a better way to guard their criminals. A containment bubble'd work a treat. But not even Willow can make one THAT big." Xander said, having seen pictures of Azkaban. "She's scary good, but she's not quite that good."

That got a laugh from Willow. "Definitely not. And creating containment bubbles for the individual cells wouldn't really work with the way the place is set up. They'd overlap, and while some spells can overlap, the containment spell's not one of them. Creates weak spots and holes in the bubble, rather than strengthening the bubble."

November 25, Hogwarts

The Scoobies weren't the only ones enjoying a weekend to themselves. Sirius, Remus, and Harry were similarly ensconced in Sirius' quarters. Of course, in their case, it wasn't something as grand and traditional as what the Scoobies were doing.

Remus was sitting at Sirius' desk, grading essays. Sirius was sprawled on the small couch doing likewise. Harry was sprawled on the floor at Sirius' feet finishing his homework. After a few more moments of silence, Sirius finally rolled up the last essay.

"Right, that's done. How close are you two?" He asked.

"Give me five more minutes." Remus said. "This student's scrawl is nearly illegible."

"About the same here, Sirius." Harry said.

"Cool. I'll get us some tea while I wait. Dobby!"

Dobby popped in. "Yous is calling, Master Black sir?"

"Dobby, could you bring us up some tea for the three of us?" Sirius asked.

Dobby nodded emphatically. "Dobby is doing it right away, Master Black sir." He said, and disappeared again.

"He is so much easier to deal with than Kreacher ever was." Sirius said with a sigh. "I cannot begin to tell you how nice it is to deal with a house elf that doesn't give me the willies."

There was an amused laugh from Harry. "You just have to deal with the overexcitement."

"Not me so much. Just you." Sirius said with an amused snort.

Harry lifted his head long enough to stick his tongue out at Sirius, then went back to his homework.

Dobby arrived back with a heavily laden tray at that point, and placed it on the side-table next to the couch.

"Stay, Dobby. You can join us for lunch." Harry offered. Complaints aside, he did like Dobby, a lot. He'd long since forgiven Dobby for his actions second year. The little guy's heart had been in the right place, and he'd saved Harry quite a bit of grief since then.

Dobby went wide-eyed. "Yous is wanting Dobby to eats with you? Like he is a wizard?"

Harry snorted as he finished one last sentence and then rolled his parchment and closed his book. "You can do magic, can't you? Qualifies you as a wizard in my books, Dobby." He said.

This, of course, got him floods of tears and an ecstatic Dobby hug. Harry grinned down at the little guy and patted his back.

While Harry was busy with Dobby, Remus finally finished grading his last essay and rolled it up. "Right, that's done. Now let's eat."

They divvied up the spoils between the four of them. Dobby looked a little shifty and uncomfortable at first, but once he realized that neither Sirius nor Remus was going to object, he relaxed a little bit.

"So how've things been?" Sirius asked, once their first hunger was satisfied and they'd been reduced to nibbling.

"Unnervingly quiet." Harry admitted. "I'm used to being up to my ears in intrigue and danger and mystery this time of year. Not having anything like that going on has me rather uncomfortable, for all I've enjoyed it."

"You'll eventually get used to it, kiddo." Sirius said, reaching down to ruffle Harry's hair.

Harry saw him coming and leaned forward enough to evade Sirius' hand. "Hey! Quit trying to tangle the hair!" Harry squawked.

Sirius laughed at him and nudged his back. "So. There is something we do need to talk about." He said.

"What's that?" Harry wanted to know.

"I think I know." Remus said, smiling at Sirius.

"The Council's offer to us. I know they've been dangling juicy carrots in front of Remus for a while. Me too."

"They hardly had to try with me." Harry admitted. "They treat me like *Harry*. Not like the Savior of the Wizarding World or an up-and-coming Dark Lord. Which is more than the magical world can say." He huffed.

"And they don't care about my lycanthropy." Remus said. "Heck, according to them, I won't even be the first werewolf on the Council's payroll."

"They're even fine with Dobby. Xander gets a kick out of you." Harry said, glancing at the little house-elf.

"So the real question is ... what are the downsides to joining them?" Sirius said.

"About the only thing I can think of is that we'd be fighting the Dark all the time." Harry said. "But even then ... we don't HAVE to be on the front lines. We can just do research or be Watchers, rather than full-time combat." Watching would involve getting into fights, of course, but not quite as many as if they became a front-line magical team. Especially if they became training Watchers to the younger girls.

"And plenty of bad sides to staying in the magical world." Sirius said with a sigh. "Even with things changing, bigotry won't end overnight. And like you pointed out, Harry, people just can't seem to let you be Harry, and I don't see that changing anytime soon, if ever."

"So we're decided then?" Remus asked, glancing at the others.

Sirius, Harry, and Dobby all nodded.

"As soon as I get my OWLs, we're signing up." Harry said. "So seven months, give or take a few days." He sounded (and felt) relieved as he leaned back into the couch. Sirius reached down and gripped his shoulder gently.

"You don't have to, kiddo." Sirius pointed out.

"I think I do. I don't want to give them an excuse to come hunt me down and try to obliviate me or something." Harry said. "Five Acceptables on the OWLs is the minimum requirement to be allowed to operate as an adult wizard. Without that ... I really don't want to find out what they'll do."

"You have a point." Sirius said. "All right, so OWLs. We can work on Potter Manor over Christmas break, make sure the place is livable, get the wards strengthened if need be, that sort of thing. That way we have a place to live other than the Council's HQ or wherever we end up getting sent."

"Dobby is being able to do that for yous, Master Black, if yous is telling Dobby where Potter Manor is being." Dobby offered. "Then yous can have a head start if it bes needing lots of work."

Sirius nodded. "All right, Dobby. Thanks for the offer. I'll give you the coordinates and you can head over there tomorrow, see what the place is like."