Chapter 2

To say I was excited to go to The Burrow, as Ron confirmed was the name of his home, would be an understatement to say the least. Not only was I going to get to see my friends but it would mean a break from slaying and getting to use magic again. Well I guess I couldn't use magic but that's besides that point.

Angel too was psyched and we both counted down the days until we were allowed to go. Whistler wanted us to stay and finish solving some demon vampire ritual before we left. Thankfully that didn't take too long and we were all packed and ready to go.

"Make sure you stay in touch," Emily said and gives us each a hug goodbye. "Oh and Buffy don't forget your new bags we got yesterday." I nod and run back upstairs to grab my two new bags, a Dooney and a Longchamp. I was only going to get one but Emily insisted that after so long of not shopping I needed both. And of course why would I complain about that?

Peter comes over and hugs me, "It was nice having a daughter while it lasted."

"We'll hopefully come back next summer and over breaks."

He smiles and hugs Angel as well, "And finally a son to teach the finer aspects of football too."

Angel laughs, "I never did realize Americans fascination with the sport until now." Of course he had an American accent, but the two didn't ask questions. Truthfully after being here for so long I didn't get why he still considered himself Irish.

Just then the doorbell rings and I go to open it only to find Whistler on the other side. He claps his hand and our bags disappear. With a wave goodbye to the Vincents, Angel and I grab Whistler's hands and disappear.

Traveling like this is awkward when we appear in the UK. We left the good old US of A at night and are now arriving in the morning. It's so disorienting and takes Angel and a couple of minutes to adjust to our bearings. Of course Whistler who is used to traveling like this appears to be fine. Time probably means nothing to him.

"Walk down the hill until you see a house and that's where the Weasleys will be," he tells us. "If the powers won't call on you until the school year starts. And once the year begins we will contact you. Once back you know how to get in touch with me. While here if you need to get in touch with me just call me and I'll be here."

We nod and he leaves us to go and find out friends. As we walk down the hill the sun bakes our skin and I look around to admire the quaint little farming village that we seem to be in. Once on Ron's property we drop our bags so that the rest of his family doesn't get suspicious of the amount of weight we're carrying.

We see the twins first who are outside doing some type of manual laboring chores. They notice us and come and swoop me off my feet and into the first of what I predict to be many hugs today. The two of them lead us into the house where a large amount of people are eating breakfast.

Ron smiles, "Everyone this is Buffy and Angel. You two these are my Mum and Dad, you know my brothers that are present and Ginny is still in her room."

"Pleasure," Angel and I say together although he sounds a bit nervous.

"What's up?"

"I can't remember ever meeting parents. What if they don't like me?"

I scoff at him and go over to sit in between Ron and Harry and help myself to a large plate of breakfast. We had yet to eat dinner so I was starved. Mr. Weasley asks us questions about muggle life throughout the entire meal and his children apologize for him even though they too seem intrigued by what we have to say.

He leaves for work and Mrs. Weasley lets us all go off to do our own thing. The four of us head to the top floor where Ron's room is located. On the way up the little female redhead Ginny stares at us and blushes when Harry says good morning. Then when Ron introduces us she blushes even more at Angel. He seems to fins this funny and as soon as she walks away I elbow him in the gut for finding it amusing.

Comfortable in Ron's room I turn to my two friends as give them hugs. Harry chuckles, "Nice to see you too Buffy, how's your summer been."

"Fantastic," I roll my eyes. "I did everything from getting third degree burns and losing half my skin to ending up with broken ribs to slashing my leg open."

"She also did do quite a bit of shopping," Angel adds.

"You two slayed that much?" Ron asks and we nod. "And your uncle was okay with that?"

"He insisted that we come," Angel snorts. "Apparently we were bugging him with how much we were complaining."

It was a good lie and I nod in agreement. "So how have your summers been?"

"Splendid," Harry laughs dryly. "I got locked in my room for two weeks because a bloody house elf decided that I shouldn't go back to school."

Angel gasps, I forgot to tell him about that, "that's horrible. How could anyone with a soul do that?" He still had issues with seeing soulful people do such callous and vile things.

"If you met them you wouldn't think they had souls."

"What about you Ron?"

"Chores," he says. "My summer's dull compared to you two. Even being locked away sounds more exciting than it is here."

I shake my head, "I don't know it seems kind of cool here. It's all magical and stuff."
"I'm used to that."

"Ron just be grateful that you have a family to bore you," I tell him solemnly.

"In an instant there gone and all you'll do is feel heart wretched and guilty for what you did."

"If you're lucky enough to remember them," Harry adds solemnly.

Ron looks at us strangely, "Um okay?"

"And on that happy note let's go outside and have some fun," I suggest and three smiles and nods prove my idea to be satisfactory. Years of practice have helped teach me when the tension needs to be broken and I've also mastered how to break it. I mean I'm not as skilled as Xander at it but I'm definitely have some skill. At least more than my friends.

We run down the stairs and into the backyard. By the looks on Harry and Ron's face I figure what they want and giggle. Angel look at their faces.

"I'm guessing you're thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yep," I smile and then Angel jumps and attacks me. He tackles me to the ground and tickles me making me giggle. Then I retaliate and jump up before kicking him in the gut. He glares at me and we continue our little sparing session for a while.

By the time we're done both of us have worked up a sweat and our panting. We ended up just calling it a tie. I frown at the strange creepy crawly feeling going up my skin. Looking around I start to blush. It seems as if the entire Weasley clan has made their way over to us and are watching.

"Bloody awesome," the twins say together.

"Was that some muggle thing?" Mr. Weasley asks.

"Are you two hurt?" Mrs. Weasley worries.

Ginny just stares at us in awe and Percy just guffaws at our recklessness and foolishness, apparently we were still beneath him. I don't know how to answer and Angel manages to, "Um that was a mix of muggle martial art forms, kind of how they protect themselves without magic."

"Angel and I have trained for years and have been teaching Ron and Harry some stuff," I add.

"Can we learn?" George questions, wide eyed.

"Um sure," I frown not really sure about having more people see us and teaching more people. It wasn't that big of a deal really but it was freaking annoying. Angel seems to be on the same page a me and in my head rolls his eyes at me.

"Why the hell did you say yes?"

"Was I supposed to be a bitch and say no?"

"Yes you were."

"I'm too nice."

"Nice?"

"Well at least to people I like and the twins count as nice."

He laughs at that, "More than me?"

"Seriously?" I snort. "I love them more than you and I'm dying to go and bed the two of them together. I have an erotic fantasy involving twins." Out loud he growls a little and I chuckle, "Kidding you idiot seriously of course I don't like them more than you."

"You better mean that."

"Of course I mean that."

Ron clears his throat, "What are you two doing? I did not miss your mind conversations over the summer. "

I chuckle out of nervousness, "Last time I checked there wasn't a spell that could have us communicate telepathically."

Angel shoots daggers at me with his eyes, I mean I know my answer made me look guilty but the Weasleys didn't seem to notice. From what I see from the brief glance Harry gives me he seems to see that something is up. He was the one who changes the subject though, "Yeah you know I kind of am looking forward to school starting. It just feels like home."

I smile at him for changing the subject and in agreement, "I know what you mean."

"So who do you thing will be our new DADA teacher," Harry asks and we start a conversation about that. Mrs. Weasley goes back to the kitchen and Mr. Weasley finally goes off to work.

We spend the day basically just hanging around with the Weasleys, at least some of them meaning just Ron and the twins. Ginny was with her Mom the whole time and it made me laugh to think that Percy was even going to be in the same room as us. It reminded me a lot of when I was little and my friends and I would just hang around the neighborhood randomly and play sports or have tea parties in each other's houses or play dress up.

Basically it was just fun. The morning was spent teaching the twins a few basic defense maneuvers. Simple tasks but enough to let them get a taste of it and since they didn't actually know anything, less than Harry and Ron, they let us do basic things and thought it was extraordinary. Harry and Ron found them amusing and we just reminded them of when they started and how pathetic they were. That got them to shut up.

After that we walked up to the town and Ron showed us a few of the stores and we watched the twins flirt with a few girls. It was very entertaining really.

For lunch Mrs. Weasley made us sandwiches. I thanked her and everything but they were a little bit too British for me. There would never be a time that I turned down food or anything, except for Hagrid's of course, but I much prefer my pizza and BBQ to kidney sandwiches. Apparently they were pretty good though and I know that the sides were and so were the sweets she makes that she has sent her children in the past. But no way will I ever like strange British food.

When lunch ended we walk outside just the four of us and walk out to the garden. Ron has chores and is making us help. Angel and him are doing the laundry since they pulled the short sticks and Harry and I are left weeding.

"You know I forgot how much I despise chores."

He snorts, "I can't imagine not being at school and not doing chores."

"Yeah guess life with the Dursley's does involve a lot of those."

"Buffy that's an understatement. Weren't you home and doing chores over the summer or did your Uncle not make you do them?"

Um, "Well we weren't back in Sunnydale. I mean after the curse stuff it wasn't really possible so he's been traveling all year so we don't have a home at the moment. We stayed with his friends in Cleveland, Ohio which is like a random city in the states all summer and they didn't make us do anything. I mean we slayed but that was it. My uncle was rarely there as it was."

"Where was he?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. He was working and his job requires him to travel a lot. He works for the government or something," I lie.

Harry thinks about this for a second, "So you really don't have any family left either." Bu either I assume he means like himself.

I nod, "Not really, I mean Uncle Whistler's great."

Laughing interrupts me and I glare at him, "Sorry his name's Whistler?"

"It's a nickname but anyway he's great and all but even when we were living with him in LA right after our parents died and then in Sunnydale he wasn't around once we were old enough to fend for ourselves. And even when we were younger we kind of were left in the care of nannies." Not technically a lie, when I was younger I was raised by a nanny part of the time.

"Sorry," he frowns.

"Don't apologize especially after your life," I tell him and then get all serious. "How are you by the way? You know with all of the end of the year and stuff."

"Okay," he sighs. "It's still a bit strange to imagine that the man who killed my parents went and did all of that to me and did it by building a strange robot and zombie demon hybrid thing. I guess I'm holding up. What about you?"

I laugh, "Hell for me this was absolutely nothing. You should have seen all of the other shenanigans that I've dealt with in my long and varied career."

"Has it been that long?"

"Four years," I shrug.

"You've been slaying demons since you were 8?"

"Oh yeah kind of, we really only did it nightly since we were 10 or 11 in Sunnydale but before then we went with my Uncle before." I think quickly to find something to say to get his mind off of the inconsistencies that our lives are and smile teasingly, "Thinking about patrolling soon m young grasshopper."

"I might need a few refresher courses," he answers honestly.

We both crack up and finish the weeding in silence. Being away from them for so long has made me forget about all the lying I had to do in order to keep up appearances. Hopefully Angel's doing a better job and if he finds out about what I'm doing then I am screwed. He'd kill me quite literally for kind of revealing stuff. Harry already seemed suspicious enough half the time and I was definitely not helping at all. Damn it, I've never been to good at this secret identity crap, Xander and Willow were proof of that. Less than twenty-four hours must be some kind of a record.

Once we finish up the chores the four of us head inside and play some wizard chess. I bore of it quite easily though since I suck so much and end up going into the kitchen to help Mrs. Weasley. Not that I'm good at cooking or anything but I figure I can help with something. She takes me up on my offer though and laughs at my aloofness at cooking. She knows the lie about my upraising though so she figures it was because I grew up with my uncle and promises me that I'll by the time she's done with me I'll be a master chef.

Dinner did turn out to be pretty good though. It was probably because I barely did anything, I burn water for heaven's sake! And it was much better than the strange lunch; pot roast was semi-American so I didn't mind it. Overall it was a repeat of breakfast and lunch with all of us at the table and goofing off. Mr. Weasley was back though and had us answering question after question about muggle life. Which was surprisingly thoroughly entertaining since even though I knew that they were clueless in the ways of muggle life I didn't know they were this clueless.

And why anyone would care about the function of a rubber ducky baffled me in a very hilarious way. Angel didn't have any clue what it even was and that made me laugh even more. Due to our circumstances it was pretty easy to forget he was ignorant in the ways of 21st century muggle life. One summer wasn't going to actually teach him everything he needed to know.

With our stomachs full we head out back where we teach Ron how to play soccer, or fútbol as Harry says. Or I should say attempted to teach him. He really couldn't grasp the concept of kicking a ball and not playing on a broomstick. Really if I could understand it the other way I don't know why this was such an issue but I guess it is.

So needless to say it wasn't a very successful game and Ron tripped over his feet multiple times. It was very entertaining though and I made a note that in the future Angel and I really needed to teach him some more agility when we train.

Before bed Mrs. Weasley made us some delicious hot cocoa and cookies. Sitting by the fire and eating cookies with hot cocoa and obviously marshmallows made me miss Mom a lot. She made the best hot chocolate in the world; it was so good that even Spike enjoyed it. But fortuitously I'm able to push the tears back and enjoy myself.

Sleeping arrangements were a bit strange though. The boys were all in Ronald's room and I'm rooming with Ginny. In itself that wasn't weird but I haven't said a word to the girl since I got here she was that shy which was the opposite of me. Maybe it will get better if we're alone though.

Once I get into the room after brushing my teeth and changing she's already in bed and I go over to the mattress that's been brought into the room. "Hey," I wave at her.

She blushes, "Hi Buffy."

"What's the what?"

"Excuse me?"'

"Sorry I abuse the English language," I laugh and she joins me.

"It's okay um I like your pajamas."

I look down at my new Betsey Johnson sleep pants and tank top. Compared to her modest nightgown it was very risqué and probably looked like lingerie to her since to me even the top did, "Thanks, except I forgot how frickin cold it is here. Hold on a second." I dig through my bag and put my sweatshirt on, "There much better."

"It does look warmer," she agrees after examining my Sunnydale High Boars sweatshirt. I don't know how Whistler did it but he managed to get me one.

There's an awkward silence for a moment and she looks at me self-consciously, "So you and Angel are together?"

I nod and smile, "Yeah and you have a crush on Harry."

If it's possible her blush turns even darker, "Maybe."

"Don't worry, I won't tell him but he obviously knows," I yawn which isn't strange considering how long I've been up. "Maybe we should sleep."

She nods and we both whisper good night and I fall fast asleep.

Next chapter, which will come sooner, will be featuring Diagon Ally