Chapter 16

Buffy slipped into the Forest, grabbing a piece of wood that was distinctly stake-shaped. Perfect. Dumbledore had suggested that she could use her wand as a stake, but she didn't want to risk it. She'd seen what had happened to stakes if she didn't withdraw them right away, and she'd rather not have to explain to Dumbledore and Mr. Ollivander that her wand had turned to dust because she had used it to stake a vampire and wasn't quick on the withdrawal.

The buzz under her skin was beginning to intensify and before long she could feel distinctly what was in the Forest. Vampires.

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" said a voice, male. A vampire, unknown to her, came forward, flanked by two others. "A lost little lamb wandering to her slaughter. An appetizer before the main course."

"Don't you scumbags know that Halloween is supposed to be my night off?" Buffy asked, letting the Slayer take over. Her attention was focused completely on the immediate threats, the vampires, that she wasn't aware of anything else. She could sense at least another three vampires hiding in the trees around her.

"The Slayer wasn't supposed to be here," the leader snarled, morphing into game face. Buffy slipped into a fighting stance and was ready when his two goons advanced on her, attacking as a unit.

Holding her own against the two minions, she was able to dispatch them quickly. Brushing the dust off of her uniform, she turned her attention to the leader again.

"Buffy, look out!"

Turning her attention to the person who called her name, she was surprised to see Quentin, Tom and Hagrid standing behind her, armed with wands and a crossbow. She didn't have time to dwell on the why and how of it as five more vampires advanced on her; she had underestimated the number of vampires that had been hiding in the bushes. She went on the attack, but before long she was unable to keep up her offence, going on defence and fighting for her life quickly.

At least, that's how it would have been if she didn't have reinforcements in the form of three of her friends at her back.

Spells were shouted and crossbow bolts were shot and before long all of the minion vampires had been dispatched. There had been four more hiding in the trees besides the five that had attacked Buffy, plus the ringleader of the whole operation. He was looking at the four Hogwarts residents nervously, backing away as they advanced on him.

"Can you, you know, forget that this happened?" he asked, holding his hands up in surrender. He looked at each of them in turn before turning and running through the woods, making a huge racket as he did so. Buffy sighed and took aim, throwing her stake like a javelin. It hit its target, the vampire turning to dust fifty feet away.

"Huh, that almost never works," Buffy said, turning her head to the side quizzically. A cough from behind her drew her attention to the three boys who had followed her into the forest. "I guess I can't convince you that that was a mass hallucination or something?"

"No way," Tom said with a snort. "I've already seen you in action. Although I don't know what it means, I'm sure I'll figure it out someday."

"Like you'd be able to," Quentin said with a scoff.

"Are you saying you've figured Buffy out?" Tom asked, arching an eyebrow. "Because I highly doubt someone like you would be able to figure out someone like her."

"And I'm standing right here and if you don't stop it with the male posturing bullcrap I'm going to kick both of your asses the Muggle way," Buffy ground out, narrowing her eyes at them. She looked rather scary at that moment, befitting of her calling even though she was still tiny and blonde.

Both boys stopped arguing, settling on glaring at each other as Buffy watched them to make sure they didn't start fighting. All four of them were quiet until, surprisingly, Hagrid spoke up.

"Those were vampires, weren' they?" he asked. His face was pale and his voice shook a little, but he wasn't cowering and his hands were sure and steady on his crossbow.

"Unfortunately," Buffy replied with a grimace. "Look, is there any way I can convince you guys that this was all some freaky dream and that it didn't happen?"

"'Fraid not, pet," Tom replied. Buffy blinked at him and Quentin glared at him, but Tom seemed to take no notice. "Looks like you're going to have to tell us what's going on whether you like it or not."

"And what if I don't?" Buffy challenged.

"We'll dog you with questions until you do tell us," Tom retorted. "You might be able to withstand the onslaught at first, but even you can't hold us off forever."

"Fine," Buffy replied with a sigh before she turned to Hagrid. "Is this area of the forest safe enough for us to sit and talk for a bit?"

"Safe enough," Hagrid agreed. "Jus' make sure yeh got yer wands on yeh and yeh should be all right."

"Okay, pull up a stump, this might take a while. Crap, Giles was so much better with the 'splainy thing. I'm the brawn, not the brains," Buffy said as the three boys sat down on stumps and logs. "The world is older than you know, and it didn't start off as a paradise like the Bible said it did. For thousands of years demons walked the earth before they decided to leave. The last demon mixed its blood with a human, creating the first vampire. The vampire plague spread across the land, to the point where humans needed a protector. So, a bunch of old men got together and gifted a young girl with the speed, strength and skill to take down the vampires. The first Vampire Slayer. When she died, another was called, and then another and another until finally, the calling got passed down to me."

"You're the Slayer?" Quentin asked, his eyes shining the same way they had when they had been covering vampires in Defence Against the Dark Arts. "But I thought the Slayer was supposed to be a myth?"

"That's what the Watcher's Council wants you to believe," Buffy replied. "Apparently, because you guys can work the mojo you don't need the Slayer hanging around to get rid of the beasties that go bump in the night."

"But why a girl?" Tom asked, curious. "What's the point of giving all of this power to a girl when a man would be better suited to be a protector?"

"Given the choice of a small, defenceless looking girl and a fit young man, who do you think the vampire is going to attack first?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow. All three boys remained silent. "Exactly my point. Make the Slayer seem vulnerable and it makes her job so much easier. The vampires and demons come to her. By the time they sense that she isn't the vulnerable midnight snack they thought she was, they're within Slaying distance and poof, dust."

"But why you?" Quentin asked. "How is the Slayer chosen?"

"No idea. Random luck of the crappy draw, I guess," Buffy replied with a shrug.

"But why are you here?" Quentin grilled her. "I mean, shouldn't you be at La Boca del Inferno or something?"

"Hellmouth," Buffy explained when she saw the confused looks from Tom and Hagrid. "And the thing is, well, I died."

"So, you're a zombie?" Tom asked. "Pretty good looking for one of the walking dead, if you ask me. No rotting or anything."

"I'm not a zombie, moron," Buffy replied, resisting the urge to smack him on the back of the head. "I got bitten by a master vampire, blacked out and was tossed face down into a puddle of water. My friend Xander rescued me with mouth-to-mouth. I was dead for maybe thirty seconds at most, but it was enough to call the next one."

"So, you're safe now?" Hagrid asked. "No early death or nothin'?"

"Afraid not," Buffy replied with a sigh. "There's a very real possibility of me dying before I turn twenty."

"And how old were you when you were called?" Tom asked.

"Fifteen," Buffy replied. "It's not uncommon for girls to be called younger. I think it has something to do with onset of puberty. Man, I wish Giles were here. He really was better with the 'splainy thing," Buffy said with a sigh.

"This Giles, is he your Watcher?" Quentin asked.

"You got it," Buffy replied. "Well, my second Watcher. My first one was killed before I moved to Sunnydale. Vampire. It happens a lot around me, unfortunately."

"How can you be so… so… okay with this?" Quentin asked, sounding outraged.

"It's not like I have much of a choice," Buffy shot back. "I didn't choose to be the Slayer. I didn't choose to have my friends die via vampire bite. I didn't choose to have a destiny to die early. Have I accepted the fact that I may die early? Yeah, although it doesn't mean I have to like it. I'm just trying to live as much life as I can for as long as I'm around. If I get lucky, it could mean a very long and fulfilling life. If I'm not, my life will still be fulfilling."

"I suppose that's one way to look at it," Quentin said. "But…"

"Can we not talk about this anymore?" Buffy asked, her voice quiet. "You know what I am and what I do. Or, what I did before I came here. You've seen me do what I do best. I don't think there's anything else we really need to talk about right now. I don't think I need to tell you to keep your mouths shut about this?"

"I'm not going to blab," Quentin said quickly. "I wouldn't trust the snake, though."

"I'll keep yer secret," Hagrid agreed. "Not like I got anyone to tell, anyway."

"Your secret is safe with me, as well," Tom agreed.

"Good, because I'd hate to have to kill you guys," Buffy joked with a smile. None of the others returned it. "Okay, note to self, lay off the death jokes. Now, wasn't there talk about a feast of some kind?"

The weeks flew by after that. Buffy continued to improve in her classes, except for Care of Magical Creatures. Then again, she didn't expect any kind of improvement in that class. Professor Ramsay had thought she was pulling some kind of joke on him when she handed in her wand core creature essay. He'd never heard of vampire blood being used as a wand core, so of course it couldn't have been possible that Buffy's wand had vampire blood in its core. He had, however, written to Mr. Ollivander to make sure that Buffy hadn't been pulling his leg. When he had found out that she hadn't, his mood had turned even more foul towards her, and she was ever so grateful when the Christmas holidays rolled around. Three weeks without Professor Ramsay was going to be heaven!

Ever since Halloween, Quentin, Hagrid and Tom hadn't mentioned the whole Slayer thing, although they still treated her a little differently. All three of them treated her like she was going to disappear or drop dead randomly at any moment. Considering how she had arrived at the school in the first place it wasn't entirely impossible, but they didn't know that. While Hagrid and Quentin being nice wasn't odd in and of itself, Tom was being just as, if not more nice than the other two boys. It was really beginning to freak Buffy out a little. She kind of hoped the Christmas holidays would bring Tom back to his snarky self.

Professor Dumbledore had taken a list of people who were planning on staying at the school during the holidays. Buffy had put her name down as just a formality, because both she and Dumbledore knew that she wasn't going home for the holiday. That she didn't have a home to go to for the holiday. Quentin had kept his word, putting his name down on the list shortly after Buffy had.

"There's still time for you to put your name on the list of people going home," Buffy said one afternoon as she and Quentin were doing their Transfiguration homework. "You really don't have to stay here on account of me."

"And I already told you, I don't mind staying behind," Quentin replied. "No one should be alone at Christmas. Besides, after I told my mum that you were staying over the break because you couldn't go home, she insisted that I stay to keep you company."

"You told your mom about me?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow. "All good things, I hope."

"Nothing too incriminating, I assure you," Quentin replied with a grin. "Although don't be surprised if you end up with some presents from her. She does that with all of my friends, but I think you might be special."

"Should I be worried?" Buffy asked.

"Nope," Quentin replied. Buffy waited for him to elaborate, and when he didn't she didn't press him for more information. She glanced at the grandfather clock in the corner, eyes widening when she saw what time it was.

"Crap, I have to go," Buffy said, quickly shoving her books into her bag. "I was supposed to meet Tom ten minutes ago for tutoring."

"When are you going to tell that pillocky git to leave off?" Quentin asked. "I mean, it's not like you need tutoring in Potions anymore. You're doing so well that I'm certain that you'll do fine on your exams in the spring. You've been getting Exceeds Expectations on all of your homework assignments."

"Because Tom looks them over and tells me what I've done wrong and where to find the correct answers," Buffy retorted. "I wouldn't be doing nearly as well as I am now if I didn't have that kind of support. Maybe after Christmas I'll see about cutting down the tutoring sessions a bit, but I just don't feel comfortable handing in an assignment or doing a potion without him there to guide me through it."

"Well, as long as that's all you're doing down there," Quentin said with a sigh. He glanced up at the clock. "You should probably get going. Wouldn't want one of those snakes pounding on the door, trying to get in or anything like that."

Buffy sighed but said nothing else as she slung her bag over her shoulder and headed out of the common room, waving at Quentin one last time as she did so. She hurried out of the portrait hole and headed down to the dungeons, taking a hidden staircase behind a tapestry that was a direct route to four floors below. She reached the dungeons without incident, and she only hoped that Tom wouldn't be too mad at her for being late.

"You're late," Tom said, glancing up from the book he was reading.

"Sorry," Buffy replied. "I got carried away with the whole study session thing."

"Understandable," Tom said. "Do you need me to look over your assignment for Potions or can we get right to the brewing?"

"Brewing would be of the good," Buffy replied. "I don't wanna look at that essay again for a while. It's making my brain hurt."

"Fair enough," Tom said before grabbing a book and opening it to a page he had already marked. "We'll be doing a Shrinking Solution tonight. It's a fourth year potion, but I want to see if you can brew it all on your own without my assistance."

"You just want to see me blow up a cauldron, don't you?" Buffy asked with a snort as she took note of the ingredients and supplies required for the concoction she was about to brew. It was much like their first tutoring session; a lower level potion that Buffy was supposed to brew on her own, only this time she had the feeling that she wasn't going to get any kind of help from Tom unless she was at risk of blowing up her cauldron.

"I doubt you'll blow anything up, Buffy," Tom replied. "You haven't managed to do it yet, even in class, and those potions are much more complex than the ones we do here."

"Yeah, but on those ones I'm not going in solo," Buffy retorted. "I've got a decent partner slash tutor helping me out."

"I'm just a decent partner?" Tom asked with an arched eyebrow as Buffy came back to the table, arms full of jars of icky things that were soon to be tossed into her cauldron. She said nothing about Tom's remark, choosing to remain silent.

A somewhat awkward silence descended on them as Buffy brewed and Tom observed. It had gone like this since the big reveal after the Quidditch match; awkward silences that neither of them seemed to want to acknowledge.

At least, until now. Buffy was getting fed up with the wary glances thrown her way, by not just Tom but Quentin and Hagrid as well. She was quite certain that out of the three of them, Tom would be the one who would be most likely to ask his questions, even if Quentin was much more eager to know about the Slayer.

"'Kay, I know you have all kinds of questions, so spill," Buffy said suddenly when her potion was about halfway finished. She looked up from her potion and sat back on her stool, taking in Tom's surprised expression. "Don't look at me like that. You and I both know you have a burning desire to know all of my secrets, so get with the asking so things can go back to how they were."

"I doubt things will ever go back to the way they were," Tom said as he sat back, surveying Buffy for a moment, as if studying her. She shifted in her seat in discomfort, not used to being studied so intensely. Finally, he spoke. "What's it like to die?"

Of all the questions Buffy had expected, one about her death definitely hadn't been on the list. She blinked at him a few times, trying to formulate something that could be considered coherent.

"Well, I wasn't dead for very long," Buffy replied with a shrug. "First there was pain because I'd been bitten, then everything went black before waking up like Sleeping Beauty. The kiddie version, not the original version."

"I don't ever want to die," Tom said thoughtfully. "And I'm not going to. I don't care of witches and wizards are supposed to live longer than Muggles. I'm going to live forever!"

"Everyone dies some day, Tom," Buffy said carefully. She didn't like where this conversation was going. She hoped he didn't want to become a vampire; Slaying her friends was high on the "Stuff Buffy Finds Fun" list. "Even old, strong vampires and long lived demons die eventually."

"But they get killed by the Slayer, though," Tom reasoned. "I'm going to be strong and immortal and no one will be able to stop me then."

"Why does this feel like one of those times where the villain reveals his cunning, evil plan to the hero before said villain kills said hero in an elaborate set-up?" Buffy asked idly, staring into space a little.

"Huh?" Tom asked. As fascinating as Buffy was, sometimes he had problems following her train of thought. Like now.

"What happened to all of the smart wordage?" Buffy asked. "I don't think I've ever heard you use 'huh'."

"I must be tired or something," Tom said with an obviously fake yawn. "Do you mind if we leave our session here? I don't think I can concentrate much longer."

"Yeah, sure, that's fine," Buffy replied, wondering how stupid Tom thought she was. It would give her something to think about over Christmas, without Tom around to distract her.

Christmas holidays were upon them a week later, and roughly a quarter of the students stayed at the castle. To Buffy's surprise, Tom had stayed behind as well. It was then that she realized that she knew next to nothing about her Potions tutor, something she vowed to remedy after the holidays were over. Possibly sooner, but it looked like Tom was enjoying his time with the Slytherins that had stayed behind for the holidays, and she was certain she'd be as welcome as ants at a picnic at their table, given that she was a Gryffindor and all.

The teachers hadn't set too much work over the holidays, and Quentin had insisted that they get their work done as soon as possible, so that they would have plenty of time to have fun during the rest of their time off. They spent their days mostly playing wizarding games; Quentin had insisted on teaching her the staples: Gobstones, Exploding Snap and Wizard's Chess. He had even convinced her to brave the cold and have a snowball fight with him, although the fun had been sucked out of that pretty quickly once Quentin realized that he was getting his ass handed to him by a girl.

Soon Christmas Eve dinner was upon them and the remaining students were heading to the Great Hall for a feast. The students and faculty had been sitting at one extra-long table for meals during the holidays, although the students usually stayed within their own friend groups and didn't mingle.

Buffy tried to cross the threshold of the Great Hall at the same time as Tom. They were both relatively early; only a few people were at the table so far and people were trickling in one by one. Quentin was still in Gryffindor Tower; he had fallen asleep on one of the couches in the common room and had told Buffy to head down to dinner without him so that he could straighten himself up. Buffy supposed that he had heard her stomach rumbling and didn't want to keep her from the feast.

She smiled at Tom and he smiled back as they both tried to take another step to enter the Great Hall. The odd thing was, they couldn't. Both of them looked down at their feet curiously, trying to move and finding that their feet were somehow magically glued to the floor. A small giggle from the Great Hall alerted them.

"It's magical mistletoe!" a little second year seated at the end of the table said with another giggle. "You're gonna have to kiss before you can sit down to dinner."

Buffy cursed under her breath. Somehow, she knew this was Dumbledore's doing, although she was sure that the Gryffindor Head of House had something to do with this. Magical mistletoe was definitely one of those things Dumbledore would find a sick sense of amusement from. She turned her attention to Tom, who was quirking an eyebrow at her in question. She shrugged and leaned in. Taking the hint, Tom closed the distance and Buffy pecked him on the lips, breaking the spell.

"Buffy!" Quentin said as the charm was broken and she and Tom were able to move again. "What's going on here?"

"Magical mistletoe, I had no choice," Buffy replied with a shrug, looping her arm with Quentin's. "Come on, I think there's some roast beef and Yorkshires on the table tonight."

Brightening at the thought of his favourite dish, Quentin momentarily forgot about the scene that he had stumbled upon, although it wasn't for long. Soon he was questioning her about what he had walked in on and Buffy maintained that it was the magical mistletoe. If she hadn't kissed Tom, she would have been stuck in the doorway. He tried to insinuate that she and Tom had planned it so that they could kiss in public without garnering undue attention. One glare from Buffy had Quentin cowering in his chair and that was the end of that.

The rest of dinner passed without incident and Buffy left before Quentin, wanting to make an early night of it. Quentin waved her on, mouth full of pie and whipped cream. Smiling and shaking her head, Buffy left the Great Hall, heading back up to Gryffindor Tower alone.

At least, that was her plan.

Almost as soon as she had exited the Hall, someone grabbed her arm in a firm grip and pulled her into an alcove. She fought, hitting anything she could reach until she heard a familiar voice.

"Shh, shh. Merlin, you fight like a hellcat," Tom said, his voice full of amusement.

"What's with the grabbing and the dragging?" Buffy hissed, narrowing her eyes. The alcove was light enough that she could see him smirking. "What part of Slayers hit first and ask questions later don't you understand?"

"I didn't think I'd ever get you away from that git," Tom replied. He wrapped an arm around her waist, drawing her closer to him.

"What in the frilly heck do you think you're doing?" Buffy asked, although she didn't really feel the urge to push him away.

"You call that thing you did back there a kiss?" Tom asked. "This is a proper kiss."

He bent down slightly and his lips hovered over Buffy's for a moment before he closed the distance between them. Buffy's eyes fluttered shut and she let him kiss her. It wasn't like any of the boys she had kissed at Hemery, and it definitely wasn't like Angel. Still dangerous and somewhat forbidden, but none of the urgency or desperation there had been with Angel.

It was… nice, she supposed.

Before she could really get into it, though, Tom drew away and, with a smirk full of promises, he withdrew from the alcove and headed towards the dungeons, leaving Buffy to wonder what was going on, and what the hell would happen next.

So there, we have some more smoochies. I'm not quite sure if I entirely like this chapter, so feedback would be appreciated. Kiss scenes have never been my forte, even though I was somehow able to write an explicit Harry/Draco shower scene six years ago.

Some people have asked how long this story is going to be. Since I'm certain that the people who vocalized their questions are not the only people who have them, I'm going to give you all an answer and hopefully put to rest any concerns people might have over the length of this thing is going to be.

The short answer is this: I don't know.

The long answer: I have lots of stuff that I need to cover before I can tack "The End" onto the bottom of the page. Even then, there's still the sequel to think about. If you want a word count figure, I can see this clocking in at 100k, easily. I can't give you number of chapters, and I'm definitely not going to give anyone details of what exactly I'm going to deal with now, or in the sequel.

Anyway, reviews and comments are appreciated, flames will be used to toast marshmallows. Thanks for reading.