A/N Sorry this one took a while. Thanks as always to those who have taken the time to read and review, I appreciate the effort. It goes without saying that I have no proprietary claims on either BTVS or the works of JK Rowling.

I STILL CAN'T GET USED TO IT

Gabrielle Delacour was scared and beyond that, she had no idea what to do about it. Once again she looked at the object that was causing all of these cascading emotions in her. It was just a hair pin; frail, insignificant in the great scheme of things. But what it represented was something else all together; Fleur was calling for help. For Gabrielle it felt as though gravity had suddenly stopped working. For all of Gabriele's life, Fleur had been a rock, she was steady, confident, and capable and always there; she was Gabrielle's hero. And now that hero was asking her for help and Gabrielle had no idea what to do.

When the pin had first arrived, landing on Gabrielle's face; her first instinct had been to call her parents. Sadly, she had no idea where they were. For as long as Gabrielle could remember, her parents had been much more involved in their own lives instead of the lives of their children. The sad truth was that Fleur had been more of a mother to her than her own mother had ever been. So if her parents weren't a possibility, then who did that leave?

Well there was Alexander. He cared for Fleur, Gabrielle had no doubt about that; and the man was certainly capable of finding and rescuing Fleur if the stories her sister had told her were true. But then Gabrielle realized that if Fleur was in trouble then it was likely that Alexander was in trouble right beside her.

Suddenly Gabrielle straightened, that was it. She might not get Alexander, but she could get in contact with a lot of very competent people who were very protective of the one eyed man. Now that she had a plan, Gabrielle moved decisively. She went over to the table and picked up the telephone that was there. Glad that she had actually paid attention in muggle studies class, she studied the numbers on a piece of paper in her hand and then started dialing.

"Hello."

"Nicole, is that you?"

"Gabrielle, hey, how are you?"

"Not well, my sister is in trouble."

This got Nicole's attention immediately. "And since she's dating Xander, he might be in trouble as well."

"That's what I'm afraid of; if he's not there I mean,"

"Honestly I don't think he's here, but hang on a minute while I get Dawn."

Gabrielle waited for what seemed like hours, but was probably less than two minutes, before a new voice was on the line. "Gabrielle, are you there?"

"Yes, is this Dawn?"

"Yeah, so tell me what you know."

Gabrielle went into the appearance of the hair pin and what it meant as well as the absence of her parents. "Do you think you can find them and help," she asked desperately.

"Probably, but if it's folks from the Wizarding world that have them, then we could use some help."

"I'll help," the girl immediately answered. "I'm not as good as Fleur, but I'm not bad."

"Thanks," Dawn replied. "If you can think of anyone else that could give us a hand, bring them to the front steps of St. Paul's in London in one hour. Can you do that?"

"I'll be there," the girl answered decisively, "and I'll see what I can do about finding more people to help."

"Excellent," Dawn said, then she went on. "Listen Gabrielle, I know you're kinda freaking out right now, but seriously, don't worry. Your sis is tough, and she's good at what she does and Xander's no slouch either. They'll make sure that we've got every chance to get em back, count on it."

Relief and gratitude rushed through Gabrielle right then, she was so overcome that she could barely answer. "Thank you Dawn," she said, but her tone said much more.

"Hey, I remember what it was like when Buffy was always in trouble, so I figured that you needed to hear what my mom always told me." Then her tone changed back to something very business like, "so we'll see you in an hour?"

"One hour," Gabrielle replied and hung up the phone. As Gabrielle stood there, she tried to come up with someone that would help, someone that she could trust. She knew that she couldn't got to the ministry, they might be the very people that had taken Fleur in the first place. She could think of no family friends that might aid them and the ones that she did consider weren't available as well. The young woman was beginning to feel like it was a hopeless cause when a gleam came to her eye. She thought of some people that Fleur knew who just might help. Quickly grabbing some Floo powder, she approached the fireplace.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Hopeless, now there's a word that described Harry Potter, at least in his mind. Since Voldemort's defeat, Harry had been down. Not that he was a constant wet blanket, but he could drop into a depression at the drop of a hat. What was bothering him was the fame, he didn't like it, but at the same time he was letting it define him. In his mind he was no longer Harry Potter, he was 'THE FAMOUS HARRY POTTER' complete with a fanfare. Any time he went out, there were people who were anxious to see him, who wanted to thank him or who just wanted a moment with their hero. He wasn't taking it well. If he'd invested more in hair gel, then he'd be Angel (not that he knew who Angel was) with glasses; for all the brooding he did. He was currently sitting in a rather squishy armchair and staring morosely into the fire at #12 Grimauld Place, and brooding about how his friends just didn't understand.

He'd decided that the only way he'd get some peace was to move to Montana over in America. All that was there were sheep ranches and mountains and you could have fifty miles between neighbors. To Harry, that sounded perfect, naturally all his friends were appalled. The 'discussion' had finally ended when Ginny had told him to get over himself and start living again. She was currently in her room talking to Hermione while Ron was looking for something to eat in the kitchen and Neville was conducting another of his chancy crossbreedings in the little greenhouse on the roof. Harry sighed and shifted in his chair, when suddenly he was showered with ashes and a young blond was standing in front of him.

"Gabrielle," he asked, sheathing his wand.

"Hello Harry," Gabrielle answered. "I'm sorry to cause such a mess but I need some help."

This peaked Harry's interest and so brooding was set aside for the time being. "What's the matter?"

"Fleur is in trouble," the young woman answered. "I cannot go to the ministry because they might be the ones behind it and our parents aren't available. I was hoping you and your friends could help me."

"Hang on and I'll call them," Harry told her. He looked around and sure enough, there was Kreacher. "Could you tell everyone to come to the Library, Kreacher?"

"Certainly Master," Kreacher husked out then disappeared in the middle of a bow.

Harry turned back to Gabrielle, "is there anything I can get you?"

"No, thank you," she replied. They just stood there in awkward silence until the other four had arrived. Everyone looked a bit startled to see Gabrielle there but they kept quiet and the young woman began to talk. She told them of what she knew about Fleur and what had been happening in her life; about Alexander and the trouble with the ministry.

"So you think that some of these ministry wankers are going to knock her off because she doesn't agree with them," Ron asked.

"Language," Hermione hissed, smacking him in the back of the head.

"Yes, I do," Gabrielle replied, ignoring their byplay.

"Do you have any idea about how many there are," Harry asked.

"Not really, Fleur only talked about four that were giving her trouble but that doesn't mean that there aren't more."

"True," Harry replied, feeling more alive than he had in months. "So is it just us going after them?"

"No," Gabrielle replied. "Alexander's friends will also be helping. We're supposed to meet them in front of St. Paul's in about 30 minutes."

Harry looked back at his friends, "so, are we going to help?"

"Sure Harry," Ron replied for all of them, "you lead and we'll follow."

Harry smiled at them, and the realization that his friends would always be there for him broke through the cloud of gloom that had been hanging over his soul. "Alright then, let's get what we need and go meet Fleur's friends."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Five 'cracks' sounded in the silence on the front steps of St Paul's cathedral revealing six people; Gabrielle had been forced to side along apparate with Hermione. "Alright then," Ron spoke up, "we're here, where are they?"

"All around you," a voice replied from the darkness. "You all really have to work on being stealthy," a blond woman said as she walked into the light. "You OK there Gabby," she asked, looking at the teenager.

"I will be when we get Fleur back," Gabrielle answered.

"Gabrielle, are these the people that we're helping," Harry asked as he watched about nine younger women and two older ones emerge from the shadows.

"Yes," she replied, "these are Alexander's friends and co-workers." She started to introduce them but Dawn cut her off.

"We can play who's who later," Dawn said. "Right now time is crucial," then she turned to Harry, "can you get us close with that apparation Gabrielle mentioned."

"Everyone here," Harry asked.

"Yeah."

"Probably, but why don't you want us to just apparate to where they are?"

"Because it's too noisy, not to mention the whole momentary disorientation; it would give the bad guys too many advantages."

"So what do we do then," Hermione asked.

"We get within visual range, then we do a teleportation circle, it's much less disorienting, not to mention quieter, Willow replied."

"What the . . . . . did you say 'teleportation circle'," Hermione asked incredulously. I've never heard of anything like that."

"It's Wiccan."

"Wiccan, you mean you lot are some kind of religious nuts that run naked in the fields and that kind of thing?"

"No, I mean Wiccan, as in Earth magic."

"Earth Magic," Hermione practically yelled, "there's no such thing." Hermione would probably have gone on except, suddenly, there was a very angry blond in her face.

"Now, we could go on for hours about things that exist that you don't know about, or we could do what we're here to do and rescue two people before they're killed. Now if you want to help, then shut up and help. Otherwise you can go home now."

It took every bit of control that Hermione possessed to keep herself from cowering in submission. She had never experienced someone who had a presence like the blond in front of her; even Snape at his most intimidating didn't come close. The blond stood there for another second but seemed to be satisfied with what she saw in Hermione's eyes. Finally she turned away and addressed everyone. "Alright, once we get to the jumping off point we're gonna team up, two of us with every one of you wand wavers. We'll worry about taking whoever took Fleur and Xander, but we need you guys to protect us and counter whatever spells these schmucks throw at us." She turned to Gabrielle and friends, "can you all handle that?"

"Sure," Harry replied, "do you want us to take them out if we see an opening?"

"If you can do it without risking the mission, then yeah. Remember," the blond said, turning to everyone again, "our first priority is to rescue the two of them. Taking down the bad guys is secondary to that. Everyone clear?"

Everyone was, and so after a bit of crowding up, five cracks rang out in the night and the stairs of St. Paul's was once again empty.

Hermione watched closely as a red head and a brunette drew a rather complicated symbol on the ground with chalk. She was fascinated despite her skepticism; some of the markings on the edge looked very similar to some of the runes that she knew about. She was about to take a step forward for a closer look when the red head said "don't move," without looking up. Hermione looked down and saw that she was close to smudging the outline and hastily scooted back. It was actually very pretty, and what's more, Hermione could feel the build up of something. It felt like magic, but at the same time, it didn't. "It's similar, but not the same," a voice muttered in her ear. She whipped around to see Gabrielle standing there.

"You've done this before?"

"Yes, Fleur and I traveled from Scotland to a tropical island in an instant. It was quite intriguing, I wanted to ask how it was accomplished, but I felt it would be rude to do so."

She was about to ask the French girl more about the people they were with when she was distracted by a loud exclamation of, "bloody hell, what is that thing."

That "thing," looked to be a gun, actually several guns; but they didn't look like anything she'd ever seen before.

"Tazer rifle," one of the girls answered. "It shoots electricity and stuns your opponent. His voluntary muscles won't work for about ten minutes. You get less time with demons, but it still works on em."

"Demons," Ron exclaimed, "what kind of demons?"

"The usual," the girl continued, seemingly oblivious to Ron's distress; "Vampires, Fyarls, Omooodiwo, T'Kreth, that kind of thing."

"I've never heard of any of those, well except Vampires."

"And despite that, they still exist," the girl replied. Then she took Ron by the arm, "come one, Willow's almost done."

Ron followed the girl, all the while wondering what they'd got themselves into.

Gabrielle just watched as Buffy put the groups together. She would be working with Nicole and Vi, a red headed girl that she didn't know too well. Buffy and Dawn were with Harry, Willow and Kennedy were with Hermione, Neville was having to deal with Faith and Rona, and she wasn't really sure who was with Ron or Ginny.

"OK, go in thirty seconds," Buffy said. Then Gabrielle noticed that Dawn was doing something with her phone. "Is this really the time Dawn," Buffy asked.

"I'm just letting Xander know we're coming," the brunette replied.

Then time was up and everyone went through the circle. They didn't expect what confronted them.

It should have been over in seconds, after all it was just one guy against six Witches and Wizards, a Wiccan of astounding power, ten Slayers and the mystical Key to the Universe (who could fight dirty with the best of them). But the one guy just happened to be a Wizard as well. A Wizard who was able to fight with a wand in each hand and had honed his skills with years of practical use, and these skills were earning him a stalemate, for now.

Gabrielle was surprised; she had believed that anyone would have been overwhelmed quickly and easily, but then again, this was her first taste of what real Wizarding combat was like. She was doing her job and protecting Nicole and Vi, when she noticed that Kingsley had changed the types of spell he was using. At first he had been relying heavily on stunners, but now he was using spells designed to injure or incapacitate. It then struck her with brutal clarity, how this fight would go. It was scary in a way, how the way the entire fight was now in her head, fully formed. She could see how both sides would start using more dangerous spells and tactics with the obvious conclusion that someone would be killed; most likely a slayer. Once that occurred, any chance that Kingsley had of living past this evening were gone and the only question that would remain is how many he would kill before dying himself. To Gabrielle, this was unacceptable, and in the middle of defending her slayers she searched for a way to end things without having someone die. After a few seconds she saw where her best chance lay and called out, "buy me three seconds," to Nicole. The young slayer just nodded and started towards Kingsley, breaking the perimeter that they had formed. She was using her superhuman agility to avoid Kingsley's attacks and in addition, she was distracting him from what Gabrielle was doing. Gabrielle lined up her shot and sent the strongest stunner she could manage in Kingsley's direction. The bolt roared in front of his face, but unfortunately it didn't distract him, even for a second. One of his hexes had caught Nicole with a glancing shot and the young slayer was down and helpless. Everyone could see that Kingsley was preparing to finish the girl. 'No he won't,' Gabrielle thought and cast the strongest shield she could manage. Kingsley's bolt spattered against the shield that had suddenly sprang up between Nicole and himself, its energy was dissipated. Nicole was hurt, but she would live.

Then all at once, there was silence. Everyone could see Kingsley standing there, arms at his side; and with a little work they could also see a small blond figure standing behind him, her wand resting against his head, under his ear.

"Drop your wands or so help me Kingsley, you'll be left cursing the fact that I didn't kill you."

There was something in Fleur's voice, a quality that he'd never heard there before that told Kingsley that very ruthless action would soon be following the words, so he did the smart thing and dropped his wands. Immediately the room was full of action. Some were securing Kingsley and the four conspirators, others were making sure that there were no more surprises in the house. Gabrielle was seeing to Nicole, making sure that nothing was wrong with the young slayer. Fleur turned to see Buffy, Faith, Willow and Dawn all fussing over Alexander; and despite all of the attention from some very pretty women, the man's gaze was fixed on her. "I told you Dawn," he said, "scarier that PMSing Buffy."

Fleur blushed, the others laughed and Buffy managed to look both offended and proud at the same time.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

After she had made sure that Alexander was alright, she did the worst thing that she could think of to punish him for sacrificing himself the way he had. She told everyone exactly what he had done. The resulting fusillade of verbage, punctuated with smacks to the arms and head were exactly what the situation demanded, at least in Fleur's opinion. As Alexander was being dealt with, Fleur sought out the other person that required her personal attention.

"Will Nicole be alright," she asked her sister.

"She should be," Gabrielle answered, looking up from the injured Slayer, "it was a glancing blow, and I think that there is only a deep bruise with no magical residue. Her slayer healing should see to it overnight."

"That's good," she then focused on her sister, "and that was a brilliant move you made."

Gabrielle blushed, "it seemed like the smart thing to do. I had to stop it before people started getting killed."

"And you figured out what to do and executed your plan without hesitation. You were even willing to risk a friend to do so."

"I'm sorry about that," Gabrielle said, looking chagrined.

"Don't be," Fleur replied. "One of the hardest lessons that I ever learned is that sometimes we have to risk everything to do what needs to be done. It looks like that's already a lesson you've learned. You could be a great Auror some day Gabrielle."

Fleur looked around, checking on everyone's status and leaving a blushing Gabrielle where she sat. Absently Fleur noted that Gabrielle held the young slayer's hand the entire time, and had yet to let it go. Fleur smiled to herself and hoped that her sister would be happy. The group berating Alexander had broken up and as Fleur made her way back to the one eyed man, she was peripherally aware of the conversations going on around her. Willow was enduring a furious barrage of questions from Hermione about the different types of magic. Ron and Neville were having a quiet chat about the Slayers and how they were dressed, being typical guys in other words. Ginny was talking to a few of the girls, and asking about the things they did and fought. And Harry, Fleur looked over to the young man. Harry was standing there quietly; he wasn't speaking, just watching the activity with a wistful smile on his face. His bottom half wasn't there, which told Fleur that he had found his invisibility cloak and was just holding it. Idly grabbing Buffy on her way to speak to Alexander, Fleur was determined to see if they could do something for the Boy Who Lived.

They were making their way to the Ministry, which actually wasn't far from where Fleur and Alexander had been taken. As they strolled along, Ron and Neville were animating the unconscious conspirators and Kingsley so it didn't look too fishy, Harry was thinking about what he'd done. It had been a long time since he'd let himself go in a fight the way he had, and he liked it. To him it was almost as good as flying; unfortunately there wasn't a whole lot of use for that particular skill set. He was still musing over the fight when he realized that someone was walking next to him. He looked over to see a rather curvy brunette who's eyes were fixed on him.

"What?"

"So you're the guy that dealt with the big bad in these parts?"

"Big bad?"

"Head evil guy."

"Yeah," Harry replied, "his name was Tom Riddle, but he called himself Voldemort."

"Well that's lame; so what was he?"

"A part snake guy that wanted to run everything and was afraid of dying."

"That sounds familiar, why do they always want to take over things when it would be a lot easier to just make themselves rich and live the easy life on some island somewhere?"

"I wondered that myself, anyway; I fought him. All of the others helped but I had to do it, it was a prophecy."

"Never rely on those things. We've dealt with prophecies before; they never turn out the way they're supposed to. Hell, half the time the only reason they come to pass is because you do know about em."

"What?"

"Well look at B up there," she said, indicating the petite blond. "It was prophesied that she would fight this really old vamp, and if she didn't he would end the world. But the thing is, she was exactly what he needed to escape his prison and really end the world. If she hadn't gone down there, he never would have had a chance to do anything but stand there and be a jerk. Anyway, the reason I wanted to talk to ya was to make an offer."

"What kind of offer?"

"Xan's looking to get a few of you wand types working with us. I figure if you can handle a guy like that then you might be up for what we do."

"Why would you think I'd want to work with you all?"

"Because you're bored, I can see it easy. You saved your society, we save the world. So I'm wonderin if you're ready to move up to the majors?" Then she walked away, leaving Harry walking along, deep in thought.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Those who saw it remarked on the odd procession they'd seen at the Ministry. There were several prominent members of the Wizengamot and the chief Auror that all looked to be restrained in some way or other. There was the French half breed Auror and her sister, Harry Potter and his friends and a great lot of Muggles who looked like they were supposed to be there. No one interfered and no one questioned what they were doing after seeing one of the Muggles, a young woman, pick Auror Stringford (who was not small) up with one hand and politely informed him that they had business with the Minister of Magic.