Just so you know, these are kind of set at no particular point: all characters are in it, Spike and Faith are good, nobody from Harry Potter who dies is dead, and the same with Buffy. Riley's a thing of the past but Buffy still thinks of Angel...it's just kind of like, an idealistic time period :)

Buffy and Spike landed in a tangled mess on the cold concrete floor.

"Jeez," Buffy gasped, picking herself up, "couldn't you have chosen somewhere more...comfortable?" Lupin, however, was standing calmly looking at his scarred watch.

"Where are we, then?" Spike asked, his eyes widening as he looked up and blinked at his surroundings. They were in a deserted car park, with faded lines and split bins.

"Muggle car park." Lupin replied. "Can't apparate straight into Hogwarts, security regulations. We're in the nearest empty muggle spot. We'll walk to the local magic pub, and travel into Professor Dumbledore's office using the floo network."

"...you what?" Buffy asked, completely oblivious to what on earth Lupin was saying.

"Basically, love, we'll go grab a pint and then jump in some hocus-pocus fire to get there. Clear?" Spike replied.

"...er..."

"We don't have time, come on, Dumbledore's waiting."

The three of them set off, Buffy and Spike still both amazed that they had gone halfway across the world in a few seconds. Her thoughts were mainly set on her surroundings, and remaining inconspicuous, when suddenly she realised how closely she was walking next to Spike. Their hands were repeatedly brushing each other, and every time they did she felt him flinch away just as fast as she did. She focused on walking straight forward, and it took a lot of unfair self control to stop herself from grabbing his conveniently placed hand. Her own emotions confused her; didn't she hate Spike? Where was that burning suspicion that he was secretly against her? Why was her heart beating so fast over a man – well, not even that – who had tried to kill her? Then she realised he was right. He'd always said she couldn't live without a bit of bad in her man, a bit of evil, that something that just put him on the edge...and that was exactly what Spike had. A bit of your regular, casual evil. She felt guilty for needing that.

"This is it." Lupin interrupted her thought train, and she was tempted to slap him for it metaphorically with a neat remark, but she bit her tongue to stop herself, remembering that she didn't really know him well enough for that yet. Suddenly she wondered if there were any kind of spells that automatically prevented words that she'd barely thought from escaping her mouth...

"There's a tongue tying curse, that might do it," Spike said, chewing his lip suggestively. Buffy raised her eyebrows. "How did you..." she asked.

"Saw you clamping your mouth shut. Forcing yourself to keep the words inside you. Wise move." he smiled knowledgeably.

"You know too much." she teased, shaking her head.

Lupin led them through a door that Buffy was sure hadn't been there a few moments ago, but she didn't question it for once. They were in a dusty, under populated pub, with only the bartender and one drowsy looking old man disintegrating into the corner.

"Eh, is this like the Leaky Cauldron?" Spike asked, interrupting the deliberate silence.

"Shhhhhh." croaked the old man in the corner. "I'm contemplating..." he buried his face in his knuckles and retreated into the darkness.

Spike looked affronted, but silenced. Lupin gestured to them and they hurried over to the dilapidated fireplace. Spike wondered if it was going to survive the floo procedure...

"Right," Lupin whispered. "Buffy, you go first. Take a handful of power, step into the fireplace...stoop if you have to, and say very clearly 'Professor Dumbledore's office.' and then drop the powder. Make sure you say the words very clearly. We had a situation once where-"

"Old' Harry boy said diagonally instead of Diagon Alley. Didn't get him anywhere he wanted to be..."

"Exactly." Lupin said. "Come on then."

Buffy stepped forward; her head was full of nervous thoughts, but on the outside she showed no signs of fear. She took a handful of powder from a musty pot on the mantelpiece, and stooped slightly to fit in the fireplace. She closed her eyes tight, and spoke very clearly: "Professor Dumbledore's office." She dropped the powder as instructed, and just as she felt herself being sucked into the abyss of chimneys, she opened her eyes, and she caught Spike's fixed onto her, torn in some kind of overwhelming emotion...it confused her, but she had more to think about as she lost her breath in the rush of scenes that went past. Darkness, rooms, more darkness, the airlessness and the soot...this was a bad route...darkness, and finally she tumbled out onto a wooden floor, and looked up into the kind, withering face of Albus Dumbledore.