In This Chapter: The gang is attacked and ends up back at Hogwarts, while some other surprises await them.
"Happy Christmas!"
"Oomph! Hermione! What the hell are you doing?" A very groggy and cranky Harry said as Hermione jumped on his bed.
"Doing you a favor, Harry," Hermione answered with a grin. "Making sure you don't sleep through the most wonderful day of the year!"
By this time Harry was more awake, and less cranky, and Ron walked in from the door to his room, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
"Excellent," The red head said. "When is Jessica coming over?"
Hermione and Harry rolled their eyes in unison. "Jess needs some time with her family too, Ron," She said. "Honestly, if I didn't know better, I'd say you guys were married," She finished with a wink and a grin.
Ron blushed a bit but that wasn't abnormal for him. What Harry and Hermione didn't know (and that was a lot) didn't hurt him.
"Right," Ron said, changing the subject. "Anyway, I'll cook us some breakfast after I change, and we'll open presents."
"Great!" Hermione said and left to go change out of her pajama's and robe.
"There's something different about you," Harry said as he climbed out of bed. "I can't place it, but there is definitely something different."
Ron glanced nervously at his worn pajama sleeve. "Don't know what you're talking about Harry." And he turned and started for his room.
Harry gave an inward shrug and started rummaging through his own drawers, finding some clothes to wear for Christmas.
Two hours later, full, happy and still somewhat sleepy, Harry, Hermione, and Ron were gathered in the living room, opening presents form each other, friends, and family. Hermione guessed that Dumbledore forwarded all of their Christmas gifts to them with some sort of untraceable charm. Each of the three friends got a Weasley sweater, homemade fudge and assorted candies.
"This is great," Hermione said contently as she put down a letter from her parents. Her parents did not know about Hermione current predicament and Dumbledore's charms where making the letters come off as a bit confused, but it still felt nice to hear from them all the same.
"When is Jessica coming?" Ron asked for the hundredth time that morning. Hermione and Harry would have been becoming annoyed if it wasn't for their excellent mood and Holiday cheer.
"Ron," Hermione said in a forced, patient voice. "Jessica will get here when she gets here, I know her parents, they are strict and put family before all else, don't worry about it," She then went back to carefully selecting Bertie bott beans from her stocking,
Soon they started to play a game of exploding snap in front of the fire. Unlike Chess, Harry excelled in this game, and soon he had won several games in a row.
Suddenly Hermione looked up, feeling aware of something that wasn't quite right.
"Do you feel that?" She asked her friends. Ron and Harry looked at her strangely.
"Are you cold?" Ron asked, moving to get her a blanket.
"No," Hermione answered, a bit scared. "I'm not cold, I just feel like something isn't right," She looked over the room, not really knowing what she was looking for.
"I'm sure it's ok," Harry said, but looking around the room as well. "You're probably just homesick, it is Christmas after all."
"Harry," Hermione looked at him. "I know what feeling homesick is like, every day that we have been here I felt it, and this is something different, almost sinister."
Ron and Harry gazed around the room uneasily, and then looked back to Hermione.
"I'm sure it's just the wind or something," Ron said uncertainly. "Nothing to worry about."
Hermione finally just agreed and settled back down, waiting for their friends to come.
And come they did. When Jared and Jessica finally arrived around six o'clock that evening, Ron practically jumped Jessica at the door, giving her a big kiss, which she returned with a laugh.
"Missed you too!" She said smiling; her cheeks still red form the cold outside.
And from then on they had their own little party. Ron and Hermione cooked a dinner, and later exchanged gifts. Jared and Jessica went home that night laden with inconspicuously magical gifts, trying to figure out a way to explain some of the stuff to their parents.
Hermione, Harry and Ron laughed all the way up to their respected bedrooms, clearly forgetting Hermione's strange feelings earlier that afternoon.
~
BANG!
Hermione bolted straight up in her bed. There was something…someone…downstairs.
Hermione wasted no time grabbing her wand at her side table and ran into Harry's room, using the connecting door.
"Harry!" Hermione said loudly, roughly shaking him awake, when Ron ran in as well.
"Did you hear that?" He asked urgently.
"No," Hermione snapped. "I am shaking Harry awake so we can have our nightly shag."
Harry chose this moment to wake up, and both he and Ron responded with various confused words.
"Recognize the sarcasm later," Hermione said urgently. "Harry, there is something downstairs, I heard them."
"Same here mate," Ron said, looking very pale under his freckles.
:"I think we need to get back to Hogwarts," Hermione said quietly. "Do you all still have your portkeys?"
Harry and Ron pulled out the necklaces from under their shirts.
"Got 'em," Harry said, the sleep starting to leave his voice.
"Let's get out of here," Hermione said. She reached for her necklace as Ron and Harry disappeared, but a hand grabbed her arm from behind.
"Fancy meeting again, Miss Prewit," Hermione turned around to look into the cold grey eyes of Lucius Malfoy.
Hermione stole a glance around the room, and saw the many deatheaters that she and her friends had thrown into Azkaban the previous year. She was not afraid until her eyes settled on one figure, half casted in shadow. Draco.
She fixed her eyes on him and then back to his senior. "Well, you caught me. Again. Good for you, guess we just weren't smart enough for the bad guys."
Lucius smirked at her, but his eyes didn't smile. "Yes, Miss Prewit, it appears we have. Draco, please lead our new guest to the apparition grounds," He threw Hermione into Draco, who caught her in strong arms.
"You are terrible," Hermione said fiercely as Draco led her out of the house. "I don't understand how you live with yourself, how you can sleep at night, I-"
"Draco!" A furious Lucius Malfoy came out of the house. "That is the wrong way you idiot boy! Come here at once!"
Hermione felt Draco tense up beside her, and before she knew what was happening, Draco said,
"This is the right way for me, goodbye father," And then Hermione heard, nor saw, anymore.
~
"Look, he's waking up."
Draco Malfoy groaned a bit at the racket going on inside his brain. He opened his eyes then quickly closed them because of the light.
"Hello?" A voice, a girl's voice, said through Draco's black world. "Are you awake?"
Draco opened his eyes finally, a little bit at a time and saw who was talking. A pretty red head with a little button nose looked back at him, her face a mix of very many different emotions. Draco could sense her fear at the stranger before her.
Draco had never seen her before, and sat straight up. Turns out he was lying down on a couch in a house he had never been to before.
"Where am I?" He asked the pretty redhead. "Who are you?"
"We would like to ask you the same question," Another girl came up behind the redhead, her arms crossed over her chest. Draco could see she was small, but she had an aura of power, physical strength, but no magic.
"Auugh," A figure on another couch groaned just as Draco had a minute before.
"The girl is waking up," A dark haired man said. He was sitting on a chair beside the couch.
"Hermione?" Draco turned his head and looked at the brown haired girl on the couch, and then she too sat up.
"Malfoy!" She said as soon as she saw him. "Where the hell are we? Who are these people? Where have you taken me?"
The questions that had been whirling around inside Draco's
head where brought to light by Hermione, where were they?
"I don't know," Draco said truthfully. "But we aren't near home, their accents are different. I messed it up."
Hermione looked at him, wide-eyed, and jumped off the couch. She was still just dressed in her pajamas, but Draco was dressed in long black robes.
"Ok, who are you?" She asked the man who was sitting beside her.
"Um," He said, unsure of what to say. Hermione saw him steal a glance at the small blonde, who gave a nod.
"I'm Xander," He said. "The blonde is Buffy, and the redhead is Willow. You guys were out cold in the graveyard, and, well, it's not the greatest place to be out cold in," He looked at them with curious eyes.
"Out…cold"? Hermione said, trying to sort through all her thoughts. Then her eyes lit up.
"Malfoy, outside, now," She said it in a voice that left no room for argument, although it was apparent that Buffy did not want her new visitors out of her sight.
Draco looked wearily at the now fuming brunette, but followed, he had his wand in his pocket, if Hermione should turn homicidal on him.
"Where the hell are we, Malfoy?" Hermione asked one there where outside whoever house it was.
"I don't know," Draco said truthfully. "But it sounds to me that we are in America, their accents give it away,"
"America?" Hermione asked faintly, and backed away slightly. "Why? Why did you bring me so far away? What are you playing at Malfoy, because I am getting really tired of playing cat and mouse with you?"
"I didn't do it intentionally," Draco said in a somewhat embarrassed voice. "I panicked when I apparated and you are supposed to be in a clear mind. I meant to take you to Hogwarts, but somehow we ended up here. You aren't supposed to Apparate over seas, it's not safe. I don't even have a license,"
Now Hermione was more confused than she had been in a long time, and Hermione hated to be confused.
"Why would you want to take me to Hogwarts?" She asked, and then she cried out. "Hogwarts hasn't been taken, has it?! Oh no…Ron and Harry portkeyed there, oh no…"
"No, Hermione," Draco said. "Hogwarts is still controlled by Dumbledore, and the Dark Lord is no closer to capturing it. I was trying to get you away from them, they were taking you back to Voldemort," He looked at her with expressionless eyes.
To his surprise, Hermione laughed at him. "You expect me to believe that?" She asked with mirth. "Why the hell would Draco Malfoy all of a sudden turn good on us? What motivation do you have for fighting for Dumbledore and Harry, the golden boy? What's in it for you?"
Draco continued to look at her, his face revealing nothing.
"What's in it for me?" He asked. "I don't honestly know right now what is in it for me, but I know I will go insane to fight it anymore. She comes to me in dreams, and even when I'm awake I can feel her all around me, and she keeps telling me I must not be my father, that the Dark Lord will not by my ally. I can't fight it anymore."
Hermione felt like she knew what Draco was talking about, the dreams she had had her mother in it, but why would she want to talk to Malfoy?
"That's my mum," Hermione said, taking a stab in the dark. "I have dreams about her too, she warns me about things. I knew you were coming to kidnap me that night."
"So that's how you knew we used to be friends," Draco said more to himself than his companion. "You dream about us?"
"Us as babies," Hermione said. "We couldn't have been much more than a year old, and we're always together. In a nursery, outside, anywhere,"
Draco stayed very quiet. He knew Hermione's family history, he knew what their destiny was going to be together, but he really didn't think now was the time to say that if Voldemort caught them, he would be her new husband, so instead, he said,
"It is important that they never find us," Draco looked at her. "It's very important,"
Hermione wanted to ask why, but another pressing matter was at hand.
"How are we going to get home?" She asked.
"We can't Apparate," Draco replied. "It's a miracle we didn't get splinched,"
Hermione cringed, and then began pacing, mumbling to herself.
"I'm in America with the junior deatheater of the year, telling me that he dreams about my mother and is a good guy now, and I almost got splinched because he tried to be a hero, and… good Lord, I'm doomed," She said this all very fast.
"Hey, I'm sorry that I'm not a natural fucking good guy like Potter, I just saved your skinny ass and this is how you repay me?" Draco looked at Hermione, furious.
Hermione, to his surprise, grinned. "Aha," She said. "This is the Malfoy I know, and I know how to deal with that one. It's going to take a lot more that one minor thing to repay all the shit you've done in the past, Malfoy,"
Draco just looked at her, open mouthed. "You are the most infuriating wrench I have ever met," He said.
Hermione smiled. "I know," Then she paused. "What are we going to tell the muggles in there?"
"Nothing," Draco said. "We can't tell them anything,"
The sun was beginning to set, and dark shadows sprawled along the lawn, making the entire area looked sinister and evil. Hermione suddenly became afraid.
"I don't like this place," She said. "There's something wrong with it, but I can't figure out what it is,"
"Let's go back inside," He said. "We can just wing it from there,"
Hermione followed Draco back inside the comfortable looking house, but glanced over her shoulder one more time.
"Well," Buffy the blonde said as they reentered the house. Hermione took a quick glance and saw that there where now six people in the living room.
An older man came up to her and introduced himself. Hermione felt a huge wave of relief to hear his thick British accent.
"My name is Rupert Giles," He said. "You have met Willow, Buffy, and Xander. That is Dawn and Anya,"
"Pleased to meet you," Hermione replied in a polite tone, even though she wanted to ask many questions on the inside.
"How did you get to Sunnydale?" Buffy was now saying, as the last of the sun set.
"I don't know," Hermione said, covering for her and Draco. "I actually don't know a whole lot right now. I know my name, and I know Malfoy's name, but not much else.
"I don't think we ever caught your names," Willow was saying.
"Hermione…Granger," Hermione answered unsurely. "And this is Malfoy,"
Giles looked at the blonde boy sharply, but didn't say anything. They way he was looking at them made Hermione uncomfortable.
"Well, you're welcome to stay here as long as you need," Buffy said. "It won't be the first time strangers have crashed here. You sound like you could be Giles long lost cousins or something…or Spikes,"
"Nah," Dawn, you youngest looking, said. "They came in the sun, they aren't-"
She was cut off by a swift kick from willow, who looked up at the two British people and smiled. "Dawn has an imagination that gets away with her sometimes,"
"I do not!" Dawn said indignantly, but let the topic drop. This caught Hermione's interest. What didn't the Americans want them to know about?
"So you don't remember where you came from?" Buffy asked, somewhat suspiciously. "Do you know anything about yourselves?"
"I'm sixteen," Hermione said, then in an afterthought, "So is Malfoy,"
"Is his name just Malfoy?" Dawn asked, "Or does he have a real name too?"
"My name is Draco Malfoy," Draco said, looking at Hermione sharply. "Hermione just has a problem calling me by my first name,"
"Why!" Dawn said, her eyes lighting up. "Draco is a great name! A little weird, but it's cool, very British,"
"British?" Giles said, looking at her, "Are you saying my name is very British too?"
"Duh," Dawn said, with a roll of the eyes, "I mean, Rupert? Come on, who is named Rupert anymore?"
Hermione smiled while Giles muttered something under his breath about American teenagers, and no respect.
Just as Hermione was going to ask something about the geography of Sunnydale, the door opened and a man with bleached blonde hair walked in, clad all in black, complete with trench coat.
"Oy everyone," The new man said.
"Hey Spike," Dawn said with a friendly smile.
Hermione looked at Spike, and a look of utmost fear crossed her face, and she reached for her wand in her pajama pants, but then the spasm of fear left and she realized she had been very obvious in her look of complete shock.
"Hermione?" Giles asked, "Is something the matter?"
Hermione fought with herself, but finally turned to Draco, then back to Giles and said, "I'm sorry, but…is there something different about Spike?"
Anyone who was not looking at Hermione now was, and that included Spike, who then asked, "Who's the chit?"
Hermione looked at him, and said in a voice that she hoped sounded confident, "Hermione,"
Buffy didn't let the subject drop. "What do you think is different about Spike?" She asked.
Hermione took a tentative step towards the blonde man, and felt Draco move behind her. For an instant she thought that maybe this was a clever plot of Voldemorts to catch Hermione off guard and have a good laugh, but she knew that wasn't his style. He was direct and to the point, this Spike guy had nothing to do with the evils that plagued her life, although there was something about him.
"He's a vampire," Hermione said, then widened her eyes at her own daring.
This caused more of an uproar than what was expected, as Buffy jumped up and grabbed Hermione, Draco jumped up and grabbed Buffy who grabbed Hermione, Willow and Dawn started rapid-firing questions, Xander tried to get Draco off Buffy, and Spike, Giles, and Anya stepped back, an amused expression on their faces.
Finally between the joined efforts of Hermione and Draco, Hermione was free from Buffy and both pulled out their wands.
"Ok," Hermione said in a very cool voice, "I think we all owe one another explanations. I want to know about the vampire, and why he has a soul,"
It was Draco's turn to look at Hermione in surprise, but Hermione kept her warm brown eyes locked on Spike.
"Wait just a minute," Buffy interrupted, "I think we should do the asking, this is my house, after all, and why are you pointing those sticks at us?"
"Their Wizards, Buffy," Anya said, trying to conceal her smile, "I think they are the ones in control now,"
"But I'm the slayer!" Buffy replied, sounding like Dawn in a bad mood.
"Won't do you much good if you're in a full body-bind, love," Spike said, not bothering to hide his smile. "So I suppose I should start talking,"
Hermione slightly lowered her wand, but Draco kept his up, glancing to all the people in the room in turn.
"You're right," Spike began, "I'm a vamp, it's no big deal really, I'm in complete control. "I fought for my soul, that's all you need to know. I know you're a witch, and you're a wizard," He turned to Draco, "And I know of your family, Draco Malfoy, I wouldn't even need to know your name to see the Malfoy genes well alive in you, both in body and mind,"
Draco looked mildly impressed, but not very surprised.
"I know who you are now," Hermione said in awe, as if she just had a mind blowing revelation. "You're William the bloody, you sired out Defense against the Dark Arts teacher,"
Now it was Spike's turn to look surprised. "Did I now, and who is going around saying that I sired them?"
"Professor Rain," Hermione said.
If Spike could appear paler than he was already, he would have achieved it at the mention on that name. "Rain teaches now?" He asked, "I always wondered what happened to him,"
"I thought you said you had a soul," Hermione said, narrowing her eyes, "You wouldn't sire an innocent person with a soul,"
Spike laughed, "Love, if Rain comes across innocent now, you don't know what he was like a century ago, and the soul thing is a recent story,"
Hermione sat down on the couch, her head swimming with facts, she felt as if she were going to explode.
"Our turn," Buffy said. Hermione figured she had a superiority complex, she liked being in charge.
"Why are you here?" Buffy asked.
"Apparation gone wrong," Draco said, his cheeks tinting pink. "I meant to transport us to Hogwarts when Hermione and her friends were attacked by the deatheaters, but I panicked and crossed over the ocean, quite unintentionally, I might add,"
"Apparated over the ocean!" Anya burst out, "How in the hell did you not get Splinched?"
Now they were drawing quite a look from the other part of the group.
"Ok, Anya, you better sit down, let us deal with this," Xander said to his girlfriend.
"Right, honey," Anya said, "I'm older than everyone present, give me a little credit, my knowledge of witches and wizards is a little better than yours,"
Xander put his hands up in defeat. "Right, right, boring mortal here, so sue me,"
Hermione would have giggled if the situation wasn't a little more serious, but Xander reminded her of Ron, and the thought of how worried her friends were made her sad. She had no way of getting back to them, and no way of contacting them.
"How do you know about that?" Hermione asked instead. "You three are the only ones not trying to put me in ahead lock,"
"I was a vengeance demon," Anya said brightly, as though this was an everyday conversation. "But now I'm going to get old and wrinkly, just like you,"
"Er," Hermione looked down at her wand, then back at Anya. "So you're not a demon anymore?"
"Nope," Anya said cheerfully. "Although it has been an on-again off-again gig, I think I'm pretty settled down now,"
"Good to hear," Draco interrupted. "What about you?" He looked at Giles. "What's your story?"
"I'm a watcher," Giles said. "And Buffy is the Slayer,"
"Oh!" Hermione exclaimed, "She's The Slayer? How long have you been at it? I have read all about the history of slaying, and the watchers council too! That is all so excellent, even though the council repeatedly refuses to study the wizarding world, that's alright, some muggles just don't understand,"
Hermione said this all very fast, and Buffy and the gang, save for Anya, Spike, and Giles, looked at her as though she was speaking a language they had never known existed.
"I think," Giles finally said. "We need to start at the beginning of both of our stories. I'll go make some tea, and then we can tell each other everything."
(A/N)
heh, this is where I find my loyal readers. Those willing to read though my Buffy obsession as well as my Harry Potter one. Don't worry, the buffy gang aren't going to be a real big thing, except obviously, spike is Rain's sire, but the rest don't really have a big part. Maybe 3 chapters tops. Thanks for reading and PLEASE review!
