Chapter 25

Friday came and all through the day Buffy was antsy and she couldn't tell anyone why. Terrence, Augusta and Minerva couldn't know because they didn't know everything about her. Tom wasn't allowed to know because Buffy knew he would follow her out into the Forest, and that was one of the things she wanted to avoid. And of course there was Quentin, who was still avoiding her like the plague. At least he'd stopped trying to glare her to death.

It was dead easy to sneak out of the common room on that Friday night, dressed in a pair of transfigured jeans, one of her school sweaters and her cloak, which she had transfigured to be more form fitting, to resemble Spike's trench coat. Which, in reality, was something she didn't want to think about, but it afforded an ease of movement that her cloak just didn't have.

Buffy was certain that no one had followed her down to the Entrance Hall; she hadn't heard anyone following her, and when the hallways were deserted footsteps echoed. She assumed she was safe. This time, at least.

"You were able to leave the common room like that without any questions?" Professor Giles asked, arching an eyebrow at Buffy's attire. The younger girl shrugged.

"Wasn't that hard. They all think I'm a little strange an unusual anyway," Buffy replied. "Besides, the common room was empty. I'm guessing they were all off, doing other things. So, can we go and make with the slayage already?"

"Eager to get out there, I see," Professor Giles said with a nod of approval. "Excellent."

"Sure, we'll go with that," Buffy said, even though it was only partially true. Professor Giles just arched an eyebrow at her, but said nothing, before leading her out of the castle and into the forest.

It was the middle of March now; the snow was beginning to melt, although it was still far too cold for Buffy's liking. A chilly wind blew through the grounds, cutting through Buffy's relatively thick coat and chilling her skin. She couldn't wait until spring and summer arrived, when she could feel the sunshine again, even though it wouldn't be the California heat.

At the edge of the forest, Professor Giles stopped and reached into her pocket. She extracted a small box from the depths of her cloak and set it on the ground before pointing her wand at it. The box enlarged, surprising Buffy a bit.

"Woah," she said, looking at the box. "What's in it?"

"A small arsenal of melee and long distance weaponry for you to pick through," Professor Giles replied with an amused sparkle in her eye.

"Oooh, shiny!" Buffy exclaimed, extracting a sword, a crossbow and a couple of stakes while taking inventory of what else was in the box. "Is it sad that weapons make me more excited than jewellery?"

"If you weren't a Slayer, maybe," Professor Giles said with a wry smile before leading Buffy into the forest. "Now, this is both a Slaying mission and a training exercise. I want you to close your eyes and reach out with your senses, try to find something that is out of the ordinary."

"This whole place is out of the ordinary," Buffy grumbled, but obliged, closing her eyes and reaching out in an attempt to find anything worth slaying. She could sense a lot of different presences, non-human but not demonic in nature. She was about to give up when something pinged on her radar.

Vampire.

"Did you find something?" Professor Giles asked as Buffy opened her eyes and started walking into the forest, not even trying to keep quiet.

"Yep," Buffy replied, not looking back at her professor turned Watcher.

"What is it?" Professor Giles asked, rushing to catch up to Buffy. "And could you at least try to be quiet? You don't want to go scaring off the demons!"

"Vampires and demons can sense the slayer, just like I can sense them," Buffy replied. "Once they figure out a slayer is in this forest, they're going to try and stand their ground and make a name for themselves, the guy who killed the slayer."

"Well pardon me," Professor Giles said with a roll of her eyes. "Heaven forbid the knowledge of the experienced Watcher supersedes the knowledge of the teenaged Slayer."

"Knew you'd understand," Buffy replied perkily. She knew that her professor was being particularly snarky, just like her Giles had been when she acted like a teenager more than usual. It made her smile; it vaguely reminded her of home, and it wasn't in the form of a vampire or a creature that could take the shape of a vampire.

Stopping periodically to make sure she was on the right path, Buffy was close enough to see the vampire, and what it was doing. It was grappling with someone, but Buffy couldn't tell who it was. It didn't matter – all that was important was that the vampire was snacking near Hogwarts and Buffy had to stop it before the victim died.

Running through the brush, ignoring the branches snagging on her clothes and raking across her face, she got to the vampire in record time, throwing it off of its late-night snack. A fight ensued, fists and feet flying until Buffy got the vampire onto the ground. As it was stunned, she took the stake she had shoved into the back of her pants and plunged it into the vampire's chest, dusting it.

Getting up and dusting off her hands, Buffy turned to the prone figure on the ground. He was lying there motionless, and Buffy recognized the crest on the robes. Gryffindor. Chewing on her lip, really not wanting to know who was laying on the ground, most likely dead, Buffy made her way to the boy on the ground.

It was Quentin.

"No," Buffy gasped, rushing to his side, checking for a pulse or any other signs of life. "Don't be dead, don't be dead, don't be dead."

He groaned and his eyes cracked open, and Buffy sighed in relief, although she knew they had to get him to the hospital wing as soon as possible.

"Buffy?" he whispered, but Buffy placed a finger over his lips.

"Shhh. You can tell me how stupid you were when we get you to the hospital," she replied. He gasped out something that could have been interpreted as a laugh as Buffy turned to the direction of where she was sure the professor was. "Professor Giles!"

"Is he still alive?" she asked, rushing over, her wand pointed at Quentin.

"Now, yeah, but he got bitten," Buffy replied, pointing to the bite mark on his neck. Professor Giles gasped. "I don't see any blood on his mouth though so I don't think he's going to turn into one."

"Let's get him to the hospital wing, see what Matron Pomfrey can do," Professor Giles said, waving her wand to conjure a stretcher. Flicking her wand again, the stretcher levitated, and they headed out of the forest as quickly as they could, hoping that they got him to the hospital wing in time. Thankfully, Quentin wasn't far from the path, and it was a relatively easy journey to the school grounds.

Up to the hospital wing they went, meeting no one on the way despite it being Friday night and before curfew. She supposed everyone was off in some nook or cranny in the castle, and it wasn't really something Buffy liked to think about. Right now, though, she and Professor Giles had to concentrate on getting Quentin to the hospital wing where they could take care of him.

"What is the meaning of this?" Matron Pomfrey said as Buffy and Professor Giles burst into the hospital wing, the stretcher with Quentin between them.

"This boy requires medical attention," Professor Giles replied briskly. "He was in the forest and was bitten by a creature. Hurry, before it's too late!"

Matron Pomfrey gestured to one of the beds at the end before bustling off to gather supplies. Professor Giles levitated the stretcher over to the indicated bed and gently lay Quentin down on top of the sheets. Buffy pulled up a chair next to the bed and grabbed one of Quentin's hands in her own. It was so cold, and he was so pale, but he was breathing so Buffy wasn't worried too much at the moment. She knew that it took more than a couple of minutes for someone to become a vampire, and the potential vampire had to die first.

"Out of the way, Edna, out of the way!" Matron Pomfrey said, Poppy on tow. "You too, Miss Summers."

"Snowball's chance in hell," Buffy retorted. "He's my best friend and if he's going to die he's not going to do it alone."

"He's not going to die, Miss Summers," Matron Pomfrey said, exasperated. "Now move!"

"You'll need wild hellhounds to get me away from this bed," Buffy replied stubbornly. Throwing up her hands in defeat, Matron Pomfrey began waving her wand over Quentin as Buffy squeezed his hand, for both his comfort and hers.

"What was he bitten by?" Poppy asked as she began gathering bottles of different coloured potions. Buffy glanced at Professor Giles, question in her eyes, wondering if she should tell the truth or not. Professor Giles nodded slightly, giving her consent. Buffy sighed, hoping that neither woman would faint dead away.

"It was a vampire," Buffy replied. Both women stared at her, surprised, but neither of them had fainted. Or screamed. Or called her crazy. Good.

"You're certain about this?" Matron Pomfrey said.

"Saw it with my own two eyes," Buffy replied. "There's a pile of dust out in the forest somewhere. I don't think Quentin drank any of the blood, so we're not in any risk of him turning into one."

"How do you know all of this?" Poppy asked as she watched her mother bustle around the bed, poking Quentin with her wand and smearing a salve of some kind on his neck.

"Let's just say I have some practical experience," Buffy replied with a shrug as Professor Giles left the infirmary.

It seemed like ages before Professor Giles came back. Buffy hadn't moved from Quentin's bedside, holding onto his hand for dear life. His skin was beginning to warm again as he slept, his breathing was easier and he was looking better.

"There's not much you can do for him until he wakes up," Matron Pomfrey said, placing a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Maybe you should head back up to Gryffindor tower and get some sleep? You can come back here first thing."

"I'd rather stay here, if you don't mind," Buffy replied, looking up at the stern faced matron hopefully.

"Well, all right," Matron Pomfrey said. She pointed to the bottle on Quentin's bedside table. "Make sure he takes that when he wakes up. It's a blood-replenishing potion."

"I will," Buffy replied, resting her head on the top of Quentin's blanket. She was asleep within moments.

XOXOXO

A short while later – Buffy wasn't entirely sure how long – she was awoken by someone shaking her shoulder gently. Shaking the cobwebs from her brain, Buffy looked up to see Professor Giles looking at her sadly. "Professors Dumbledore and Dippet wish to speak to you out in the hallway," she said, helping Buffy to her feet.

"Miss Summers," Dumbledore greeted with a nod when both Professor Giles and Buffy entered the corridor. Neither he nor Dippet looked particularly happy. "I trust Mr. Trimble is well?"

"He'll live, without the whole fangy and allergy to sun problem," Buffy replied. "Which I'm grateful."

"You may leave, Professor Giles," Dippet said, gesturing in a direction that vaguely said "away".

"I wish to stay, Professor Dippet," Professor Giles replied. "You are speaking to my Slayer and, seeing as she has no other advocate, I wish to be present."

Professor Dippet did not look particularly happy at this development, but only huffed and didn't say another word. Buffy caught Professor Dumbledore's eye, which had a distinct amused twinkle in them.

"Now then, you're probably wondering why I asked to see you," Dippet said.

"Well yeah," Buffy replied. "This isn't about the whole life-save-age thing, is it?"

"Well, in part, yes," Dippet said after a moment, after he had deciphered what Buffy was trying to tell him. "I've noticed that since your arrival there have been certain… things occurring."

"I'm guessing it's the whole vampires and demons invading your forest type of thing?" Buffy asked.

"Well, yes," Dippet said, taken aback a little. Buffy smirked to herself; the dumb blonde thing was mostly an act – she was far more perceptive about this kind of thing than she usually let on.

"All the nasty beasties are drawn to me. Demon magnet," Buffy replied. "They want to kill me, I want to kill them. I usually end up winning."

"Be that as it may, we are becoming a little… concerned… about the safety of the students here," Dippet said delicately.

"Why do you think I've been patrolling the forest?" Buffy shot back, before shooting a pointed look at Professor Giles. "At least, I've been trying."

"If you weren't here, we wouldn't need someone to patrol the forest," Dippet replied mildly.

"You think I want to be stuck in this time, where everything is backwards and strange?" Buffy hissed, glancing around to make sure no one had heard her. Wouldn't be a good idea for the entire castle to know she hadn't been born yet. "You obviously don't want me here, and I want to go home, to where my friends, my mom, my old school, my old Watcher are. Since neither of us can get what we want, were just going to have to make do with what we've got. You let me stay here, I keep the kiddies safe."

"You haven't been doing a very good job," Dippet said, nodding his head toward the hospital wing.

"He'll live. Isn't that enough?" Buffy asked, becoming upset.

"He still got attacked," Dippet reminded her.

"And that's my fault?" Buffy asked. "It's not like I led him into the forest on a leash or anything and oh God, that sounded way less wrong in my head."

"This time," Dippet said with a scoff.

"Have I done something to offend you?" Buffy asked. "Besides the whole Slayer thing and dropping into your school unannounced thing."

"You are not unwelcome here, Miss Summers, you should know that by now," Dumbledore said calmly. "Now, we can't send you home. We'll probably never be able to. You are building a life here. There are people who love you here. One of them is laying in that hospital bed."

"And if someone hadn't been accusing me of luring hapless students into demon fights, I'd be at his beside, waiting for him to wake up," Buffy retorted.

"Why don't you go and sit with Quentin," Professor Giles said, wrapping an arm around Buffy's shoulders and shooting a pointed glare at Professor Dippet. Buffy looked up, mouthed her thanks to her stand-in Watcher and headed back into the hospital wing. She made a beeline to Quentin's bed, sitting down in her previously vacated chair and taking Quentin's hand in her own again.

He hadn't woken up yet.

She sat there for what seemed like ages and must have fallen asleep again, because the next thing she remembered was pale, early spring sunlight streaming through the window and feeling the mattress move underneath her cheek; she must have laid her head on top of Quentin's blanket for a moment and ended up falling asleep.

"What am I doing here?" Quentin asked sleepily, looking around. He winced when he turned his head, pulling at the wound on his neck. His hand flew to the bandage there, his eyes widening. "What happened to me?"

"You snuck out into the forest and became a vampire snack," Buffy replied, blinking the sleep from her eyes. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired, kind of sluggish," Quentin replied while trying to stifle a jaw-cracking yawn.

"Oh yeah, here, you have to drink this," Buffy replied, grabbing the bottle from the bedside table and handing it to him. He popped the cork off of the bottle and downed it in one go, gagging afterwards. "That bad, huh?"

"Tastes like old coffee grounds," Quentin said with a shiver as he replaced the bottle on the table. "Okay, I know why I'm here. What are you doing here?"

"I saved your ass," Buffy replied. "I was out patrolling with Professor Giles when I heard something in the Forest. Found a vampire snacking on a student and dusted it. I didn't know it was you until afterwards."

"So if you'd known it was me, you would have let me die?" Quentin accused, narrowing his eyes at her.

"I didn't mean it that way," Buffy replied with a sigh, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes. "And for the record, you stopped talking to me. You're the one mad at me, not the other way around."

"Funny way of showing it," Quentin muttered.

"What was I supposed to do, follow you around like a hopeless puppy?" Buffy asked. "You made it very clear you wanted nothing to do with me."

"You started seeing Riddle again," Quentin retorted. "You know how I feel about him."

"You can't control who you fall in love with," Buffy replied quietly. "Believe me, if you could my love life would have been so much easier."

"What made your love life so difficult?" Quentin asked.

"Remember that psycho ex I told you about?" Buffy asked. Quentin nodded. "Vampire."

"Seriously?" Quentin asked, eyes wide. "How is that possible? Aren't you supposed to be all, you know, slay-y around vampires?"

"He was different," Buffy replied. "He had a soul. Too bad it wasn't permanent."

"What happened?" Quentin asked, although he was trying to sound disinterested.

"We got all groiny, he lost his soul, went on a rampage and ended up killing my Watcher's girlfriend," Buffy replied, halting her speech a little. She had almost called Ms. Calendar her computer teacher, which would mean having to explain computers, which would probably mean having to explain that she wasn't really from the 1940's.

"Groiny?" Quentin asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Moment of pure happiness and he loses his soul. It's a gypsy curse thingy," Buffy replied with a shrug. "But yeah, he tried to bring forward this majorly bad demon that opened a portal that would have sucked Earth into Hell unless I shoved Angelus back in. It was hard enough to do it to the demon wearing my lover's face, but just before I shoved the sword in his gut, he got his soul back."

"How?" Quentin asked.

"My friend Willow," Buffy replied. "She was trying to do the soul restoration spell. The first time had failed due to vampire attack and she ended up in the hospital. We didn't think she'd want to try it again, and by the time his soul came back it was too late. I had to kill him. So believe me when I know evil bastards. Tom might be manipulative and a smug bastard, but he's not evil. He still has his soul."

"And here I thought your life couldn't get any weirder," Quentin said. He was sitting up now, wide awake, gobbling Buffy's words as if he were a starving man.

"Don't remind me," Buffy replied with a shake of her head. "Hey, there's a kind of good, weird thing that will come out of this night."

"What's that?" Quentin asked, curious.

"We'll match!" Buffy replied, pulling the collar of her shirt away from her neck, revealing the ugly scar on her neck.

"Your boyfriend didn't give that to you, did he?" Quentin asked warily, although there was a flash of protectiveness in his eyes.

"No, no," Buffy replied. "Besides the smack-down before I had to shove him into that portal, Angel never laid a violent hand on me. This is from The Master. The night I died."

"I thought you said you drowned?" Quentin asked.

"I did. He drained me to the point where I was still alive, but passed out and then tossed me into a pool of water," Buffy replied. "I died, but got revived."

Quentin went silent, and for a few moments they just sat there in the quiet. It was then that Buffy realized that she was still holding Quentin's hand, but when she tried to take it away, Quentin squeezed it, indicating that he didn't want to let her go.

"I've missed you," he said quietly. "I would have talked to you sooner, but I didn't know what to say. I said some pretty awful things and I didn't think 'I'm sorry' would have sufficed."

"Well, it's a start," Buffy replied. "And I've missed my best friend, even though he somehow got possessed by a pod person."

"I'm your best friend?" Quentin asked. "I thought Riddle…"

"Riddle – Tom – is my boyfriend. He's nice and everything, but he's not the one I go to when I'm having a bad day and all I need is a shoulder to cry on," Buffy replied. "Sadly, that's your job."

"I'll take what I can get," Quentin said, squeezing her hand again with a hopeful smile. "So, are we okay?"

"No," Buffy replied, and Quentin's face fell until he heard the next part. "We're great."

XOXOXO

Quentin wasn't allowed to leave the hospital wing until Sunday evening just before dinner. Both Matron Pomfrey and Poppy wanted to make sure that Quentin did what he was supposed to do, so with a promise to take a dose of blood replenishing potion before bed and to come back to the hospital wing if he felt light-headed, dizzy or weak, he was discharged to Buffy's care with a promise from her to drag him back to the hospital wing if she noticed he was feeling off.

Linking their arms together, Buffy and Quentin made their way down to the Great Hall for dinner. After the multitude of instructions and promises to follow them, they were running slightly late, and almost the entire school was seating and dishing out their dinners when they pair arrived at the Gryffindor table.

"Where have you two been?" Terrence asked, looking at the sixth years in front of him. His eyes travelled to their linked arms. "Did you come to your senses and ditch Riddle, Buffy? Is that where you two have been? Don't toy with me, Buffy."

"No, Tom and I haven't broken up. Sorry to disappoint you," Buffy replied with a roll of her eyes as she disengaged her arm from Quentin's and sat down across from Terrence.

"Well, then where have you been?" Terrence asked, cocking an eyebrow at them.

"Quentin landed himself in the hospital wing with a nasty stomach bug," Buffy lied quickly. She glanced over at him and was glad to see relief in his eyes. If they could get Terrence to believe the lie it would be beneficial, as explaining he was laid up in the hospital wing due to a vampire bite would probably lead to more questions than answers.

"You're not still sick, are you?" Terrence asked, drawing his robe over his nose as if it could ward off germs. "I can't afford to get sick, what with NEWTs coming up and all."

"It was just a twenty-four hour bug," Quentin replied. "I'm right as rain."

"Good," Terrence replied. He turned to Buffy. "We know why he was gone. What's your excuse?"

"I was in the hospital. You know, visiting and making sure he was okay," Buffy replied.

"Holding the bucket when I puked," Quentin mumbled.

"That was more information than I needed," Terrence said with a grimace. He began eating his dinner.

"Obviously not enough to put you off your dinner," Quentin said as he and Buffy began dishing out their own dinners.

Not long into their meal, Buffy felt like she was being watched. She looked up and she wasn't surprised to see Tom staring at her. He jerked his head toward the door, the universal cross-room signal to go meet outside. With a sigh, Buffy got up from her seat.

"Bye, bye the first yummy food I've had all weekend. I hardly knew ye," she said before turning to Quentin and Terrence. "Sorry guys, but it looks like I'm being summoned."

"Ignore it," Quentin said, narrowing his eyes at Tom as he got up from the Slytherin table and headed to the doors.

"And then he'll grab me on my way out and pull me into a dark, dank alcove," Buffy replied with a roll of her eyes before turning and following Tom out. He was standing just outside the doors, leaning up against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest. "What's up?"

"Where have you been all weekend?" Tom asked, his voice neutral.

"This couldn't have waited until after dinner?" Buffy asked. "I've been eating hospital wing food all weekend and I was really looking forward to that shepherd's pie in there. Did you see the shepherd's pie?"

"Are you all right?" Tom asked, concerned. He uncrossed his arms and stepped forward, resting his hands on her shoulders. "Are you injured? Have you been ill?"

"Nothing like that," Buffy replied. "Quentin was in the hospital wing and I was staying with him. You know, because he's my best friend and all."

"You two were fighting," Tom said, dropping his hands from her shoulders and dropping them to his sides. "What changed?"

"Just because we were fighting, it doesn't mean I stopped caring about him," Buffy replied. "As a friend."

"Are you sure?" Tom asked, sounding, for once, uncertain.

"Scared of a little competition?" Buffy teased with a smile, although the look on his face made the smile drop off of hers instantly. She grabbed his hands and held them in her own, rubbing the backs of them with her thumbs. "You have nothing to worry about. Nothing. I love Quentin, but like a brother. You are the one I'm with, not him."

Tom met her eyes for a moment, dark blue locked on hazel for a few very long moments before Tom wrapped his arms around Buffy's waist and crashed his lips into hers, kissing her fiercely. He drew back before Buffy melted in his arms, but he kept his lips hovering over hers.

"You're mine," he whispered, breathless.

"And you're mine," Buffy agreed.

XOXOXO

The next few weeks flew by. The cold, windy March weather gave way to rainy April afternoons, although if Buffy hadn't had classes outside, she wouldn't have known what the weather was doing. While she was doing reasonably well in her current classes, her tutors and teachers were trying to cram five additional years of magical learning into her brain during the evenings and weekends, sacrificing their time and energy to help her learn everything she needed to know.

OWLs were coming up, and Buffy was already beginning to panic.

The first dry day they had around mid-April was a Saturday, and Buffy was frantically studying Charms while Augusta drilled her. After five wrong answers, Buffy pressed a pillow from the couch she was sitting on and pressed it to her face, muffling the scream of frustration she let out.

"I think it's time we take a break," Augusta said, putting the flashcards she had made to one side before she plucked the pillow from Buffy's hands.

"There is no way in hell I'm going to be able to pass this exam," Buffy moaned, placing her face into her hands.

"Well, it's only April," Augusta said brightly, although the smile on her face was a little strained.

"What you need is a distraction," Terrence said, having just entered.

"Oh yeah? And what do you suggest?" Buffy asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Well, it's the first nice day we've had in a while. I vote that we head out to the Quidditch pitch and give you that flying lesson I promised you," Terrence replied.

"Do I get a say in this?" Buffy asked. "Can't I just, I don't know, take a nap? A nap would be nice."

"You need to go outside, get some fresh air," Augusta agreed. "Besides, flying is fun. You'll like it."

"And if I don't?" Buffy asked.

"Then I don't know what to say to you," Augusta said with a shrug.

"Come on, let's go," Terrence said, sounding a bit like an impatient five year old. "Go on and get your cloak. It's still a little chilly and if you get up in the air you might get cold."

"I'm going, I'm going," Buffy grumbled, although she was quite thankful for the break. Trying to cram her brain full of Charms theory was beginning to drive her crazy.

Running up the stairs, Buffy grabbed her cloak from her bed and ran back down the stairs, swinging the cloak around her shoulders as she did so. "Let's get this over with already."

"You won't regret it," Terrence said with a grin as the three of them trooped out of the common room, gaining two more tagalongs in the forms of Quentin and Minerva as they exited through the portrait hole. When they reached the Quidditch pitch, Terrence led them to the broom shed. He entered, and after several moments of crashing sounds and, presumably, the sounds of brooms falling from their upright positions, Terrence emerged triumphantly, a broom in hand. "This one is the best of the lot."

"Not very impressive looking," Buffy muttered as they trooped to the Quidditch pitch. Surprisingly, it was deserted that afternoon. Buffy had expected, with Quidditch finals upon them, that one of the other house teams would have booked it to run drills and practice scrimmages. Gryffindor and Slytherin were in the running for first place, which Buffy had been told wasn't unusual at all. The animosity between the two houses drove their need to win.

"It's an old school nag," Terrence replied with a shrug. "This one lists a little to the left, but that's easy enough to correct. Some of the other stall if you don't hold it right, and some of the others vibrate if you fly them too high. But this one, she's sturdy and usually does what you ask her. Come on, let's get started."

"Okay," Buffy said, growing nervous. This would be the time where she would totally make an ass of herself in front of everyone, even if 'everyone' just so happened to be her little group of friends.

"Quentin, are you all right with me taking her up?" he asked the other boy, who nodded. He turned his attention to Minerva, the same question in his eyes, who also nodded. Grinning like a maniac, he hopped onto the broom, sliding forward so that there was enough room for Buffy to sit behind him. "Hop on!"

"Are you sure that's safe?" Buffy asked, looking at the broom uncertainly. It looked like it might hold her and Terrence's weight separately, but together? Not so much.

"Of course, it's spelled," Terrence replied. "Look, if you fall off and break your neck you can come back and haunt me for the rest of my days."

"Oddly enough, that's not comforting," Buffy said, but she swung a leg over the side of the broom and wrapped her arms around his waist in a death grip, burying her face into the space between his shoulder blades.

"If I'm going to be taking you up, you need to loosen your grip," Terrence said, gasping a little for effect. "Can't have me passing out while we're up in the air."

"Fine," Buffy mumbled into his back, loosening her arms a little so that she wasn't crushing his ribcage.

"And you might want to turn your head so that you can actually see," Terrence said as he kicked off. "The view is spectacular."

Buffy sighed and turned her head so that one eye was exposed, but that didn't last very long. Sure, they weren't flying very high, relatively speaking, but everything looked so different from that distance above the ground. She could see everything on the grounds from this distance, even though they were only hovering around the height of the highest stands of the Quidditch pitch.

"Ready to move?" Terrence asked, glancing at Buffy over his shoulder.

"Umm, maybe?" Buffy said uncertainly.

Terrence just grinned at her and began urging the broom forward, slowly at first, but gradually gaining speed as he flew laps around the pitch. Soon, he was doing dips, dives and barrel rolls, Buffy laughing joyously as she clung to him. After a few loop-the-loops, Terrence made a gradual descent, touching down lightly before getting off of the broom.

"So, do you want to go up on your own?" he asked with an impish smile.

"No way," Buffy replied with a vehement shake of her head as she followed suit. "I don't want to ruin that."

"As well, we still have studying to do," Augusta piped up. "You still haven't mastered the summoning or the banishing charms, and those will certainly be on the exam."

Buffy whined but didn't say anything, leaning on Quentin's shoulder as she handed the broom back to Terrence. Quentin, in turn, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and began leading her back up to the castle, Minerva and Augusta on tow as Terrence jogged back to the broom shed to put the broomstick away.

She wanted to enjoy her walk, her last little bit of freedom before she had to go back to her book-lined prison. And she did enjoy her walk, but it was cut shorter than she had expected when she saw who was waiting for her at the Entrance Hall doors.

"I'll catch up with you," Buffy said, slipping from underneath Quentin's arm and went to go see Tom, who was standing off to the side with a rather unpleasant expression on his face. "What's wrong?"

"Where were you?" he asked. His voice was calm, but it was forced, as if he was trying to keep his emotions out of it.

"Taking a break from studying," Buffy replied. She began to wrack her brain, trying to figure out if they had had plans that afternoon. She came up empty. "We didn't have plans this afternoon, did we? Because if we did, I'm sorry. It's been really crazy these last couple of weeks."

"No, we didn't have plans," Tom replied. "I just thought it was strange to see you on the back of a broom, clinging to Longbottom, and then hanging off of Trimble on the way back to the castle."

"I was clinging to Terrence because if I didn't I would have fallen to my death, and we both know that isn't a good thing, and I wasn't hanging off of Quentin," Buffy replied. "He was offering support because I was going back to studying charms. You know how much I hate charms."

"But he was pawing at you!" Tom exclaimed.

"The only person pawing at me is you," Buffy retorted. "Quentin and I hug. We link arms. We're touchy people, it's what we do. It's completely innocent – if I was going to dump you, I'd do it before starting anything with anyone else."

"That's so comforting," Tom said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. Buffy rose onto her tiptoes and pressed her lips against his softly, lowering herself back down before he could get too caught up in the kiss. "What was that for?"

"Because you're my boyfriend and I felt like it," Buffy replied with a shrug, wrapping her arms around his waist. "When will you understand that I'm with you, not Quentin, or Terrence, or anyone else? Are you really listening to Malfoy and what he's got to say about me?"

"No," Tom said with a sigh. "I've just had everything I love taken away from me. I don't want to lose you, either."

"Don't worry," Buffy replied, kissing him again. "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, I promise."

XOXOXO

Okay, so I know it's late. But you get an extra-long chapter, so that's good. Right?

Still don't know precisely how many chapters this is going to be, but I can see the end in sight. Under thirty chapters, I think. Should be fun.

As always, feedback is awesome.