SERIES: Beyond the Veil

TITLE: 6 – Little Stick Thingie

AUTHOR: Scorpio

FANDOM: Harry Potter/Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Multi)

RATING: PG (Varies)

SUMMARY: Sirius Black meets the Buffy Summers. They chat.

Beyond the Veil 6 – Little Stick Thingie

A knocking on the door to his room interrupted Sirius from the task of cleaning up and getting ready to go meet with Xander in the main lounge area. Xander had offered to show him a real muggle movie on the TV. He couldn't remember what it was called, but he had been promised that it would be filled with lots of beautiful half-naked women prancing about and many big fiery explosions. Sirius figured that anything else, like plot, would just be icing on the cake of fun that they were sure to have.

The knock sounded again and with a big grin, Sirius bounced over to the door and flung it open without looking, "Hey Xan! Almost ready for movie night! Just gotta find my shoes in the mess here…." He trailed off uncertainly at the smirking blonde woman standing outside his door. "Uh… you're not Xander."

Sirius could have smacked himself in the head for saying something so stupid as that, but the blonde just smiled bigger and nodded in agreement with his statement.

"Nope, not Xander. I'm Buffy Summers."

Then she cocked her head at a slight angle and stepped into the room studying him with big hazel eyes that left him feeling a bit like a mouse being stalked by a hungry cat. She paced around him in a circle before coming to stop directly in front of him and giving him a look that was straight out of Professor McGonagall's handbook of intimidation tactics for unruly children.

"Are you Seriously Black?"

Sirius blinked at her hesitantly for a moment until his saw the glimmer of mischief in her eyes. The earnest expression combined with the mostly hidden twinkle of mischief made him think of the time when Remus Lupin had turned to him and admonished him in perfect deadpan, 'Be serious, Sirius! The NEWT's are a seriously serious bit of seriousness. And you need to study seriously, Sirius!'

He grinned at Buffy wildly. "Nope. Seriously Black is my evil twin; he who studies, eats vegetables and cleans his room. I'm Ridiculously Black; the fun twin who eats too much candy, loses his house key and flirts with waitresses."

Buffy smiled back just as widely before adopting an obviously fake sad frown. "Oh, pity. I was supposed to give this…" she pulled his wand out from behind her back and held it up, "little stick thingie to Seriously Black."

The smile wiped from his face instantly to be replaced with shock. Little stick thingie!? Then it hit him; his wand!

"My wand!" His shout echoed from the ceiling even as his hand whipped out and grabbed it from her. He cuddled it close to his chest for a moment as the warm flow of his own magic rushed out from within his body to reconnect to the core of the wand. Once done, he held it out and gave it a gentle swish. Red-gold sparkles filled the air.

"Huh? So, you really can do magic with that thing?" Buffy looked between him and the wand, her expression partly amused and partly wary.

He nodded and grinned widely.

"Yeah." Then he tilted his head and considered. "Well, at least, I can do more magic with it then without. I'm pretty much limited to internal magic and a few minor parlor tricks without it. With a wand I can do a whole lot more because the external magic spells are almost impossible wandless."

"Internal?" Confusion shone in her eyes.

"Hmmm?" Sirius pulled himself from contemplating his wand. "Oh, internal magic is magic that a wizard can do to or on himself. I'm an animagus, which means I can turn myself into an animal. My animal form is a big black dog, but I don't need a wand for that. It's all internal. If I wanted to turn someone else into a dog, then I'd need a wand. It's external magic to transfigure anything or anyone other than myself."

Buffy nodded her head, but Sirius didn't think she understood a word he had said.

"Okay…." She tilted her head again. "I guess that's useful." Then she shrugged. "I just don't think it's a very good stick to dust vampires with. It's so skinny and little, it'd probably just break."

Sirius gaped at her in horror, not even realizing that he was cradling the wand to his chest protectively. "No! Don't ever stab a wand into the body of the undead! Who knows what all that necrotic dark magic animating the thing would do to a wand's magical core. It'd corrupt it beyond belief."

Buffy nodded her head again, obviously humoring him. "Yeah. Uh-huh, I knew that. No dustin' vamps with your little stick thingie."

[END: Little Stick Thingie