Okay, here is the next chapter which rounds up Buffy's guest performance in my story. This won't become a real x-over with Buffy, I just needed a character used to dealing with vampires and I know the Buffy series better than others, so I chose to use her as my backup. I might borrow her or another character from the Buffy verse later in the story again if necessary, but I don't know yet where the plot will lead me.

Thanks for all your reviews and now happy reading.

Vampire Attack

Julia Thornston was happy to be at Hogwarts. While she missed her old friends from Salem, she had befriended the girls of her year in Ravenclaw easily enough. And Hogwarts was great. So old and mysterious. She hoped her mom was alright and that the trial for her father would soon be over. She wanted to see her mom again. Just now she was walking towards the room Professor Slughorn had chosen for the Christmas party of his Slug club.

She and her best friend Regina were talking what kind of food there would be and if they would really meet Gwenog Jones. Finally they reached the room and went inside. The decorations were wonderful and soon Professor Slughorn was greeting them and introducing them to the guests he had invited, Eldred Worple and a vampire called Sanguini and the real Gwenog Jones. Both Julia and Regina loved Quidditch and were really happy to meet the Captain of the Holyhead Harpies.

They went over to the buffet to see what kind of food there was and were impressed with the selection.

"Can you believe it, Julia? We really met Gwenog Jones! I can't wait to tell my mum when I go home for Christmas." Regina raved.

"Yes, it's great. I just wished my mom was home over Christmas. But with the move and everything, it's easier for me to stay at Hogwarts this year. But next year we'll celebrate together again." She said.

"Don't worry, from what I heard the older Ravenclaws telling, Christmas at Hogwarts is splendid. You'll have a good Christmas." Regina assured her.

Julia nodded. She knew she was at Hogwarts for her safety. The CIA, it had really surprised her to find out that they had magical agents, had constructed her new identity to protect her from those that worked with her criminal father. The trial would be held early in January. After that, her mother would come over to live here in Britain with her. She just had to be patient. Anonymity was her best shield.

Harry discretely pointed Julia out to Buffy. She nodded and both kept their eyes out for the hidden vampires in the room. They kept their drinks to non-alcoholics and watched over Julia. Harry talked with some of his friends, introduced Buffy to them and pretended to just have a good time. After two hours and fifteen minutes it seemed the time for the vampires to strike had come.

Julia and Regina seemed to get ready to leave the party and return to their common room. When they bid good-bye to Slughorn and walked towards the door, they suddenly were jerked up and screamed.

"Nobody moves, or we'll turn the girls here and now." One of the vampires threatened the other guests and Slughorn.

Then a blurry of two people was seen and both vampires turned to dust. Behind them stood Harry and Buffy with a sword and a stake in their hands respectively.

"That was easy." Buffy commented.

"You're right, Buffy. What I want to know is why are vampires hidden in the room at the party? Care to explain this Sanguini? Or Mr Worple?" Harry asked coldly.

Eldred Worple shivered under the look Harry Potter gave him. He had heard of the power the teenager had, but he never could really understand it before he was confronted with that look.

Sanguini was irritated. His two minions had been dispatched too easily. Normally no wizard should have been able to prevent them getting the girl. Even Harry Potter shouldn't have done that. Then he looked closer at the girl. He had never seen her before, but she had that aura. Could she be …?

Julia and Regina were currently comforted by Hermione and Susan. The two girls were appalled that vampires had been hidden at the party and tried to kidnap two students.

"I'm still waiting for an answer." Harry stated.

"Harry, my boy, I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding." Slughorn tried to moderate, but a raised hand from Harry stopped him.

"This isn't a misunderstanding, Professor. They targeted Julia and Regina specifically. I have noticed that Sanguini watched the two girls the whole evening, hence my timely interference with whatever they had planned to do to the girls." Harry stopped any argument.

Sanguini knew he just had one chance, taking the girl by force. He was one of the older vampires and even the powerful Boy-Who-Lived had nothing on him. So his face morphed into a grimace and he jumped at the girls, only to be intercepted by Buffy who began fighting against the vampire. Harry stunned Worple, who he suspected to be controlled or at least in on the plan.

Sanguini realized who this girl was. The strength she possessed was not normal for a girl her age.

"Slayer!" He hissed hateful.

"Right genius, but your realization comes too late." Buffy replied and rammed the stake into the vampire's heart, which led to him turning into a pile of ash.

The other guests at the party were pressed to the walls and some of the younger students cried. Harry took control and went around, calming them down.

"It's okay, it's over, all the vampires are dead now." He said.

Slughorn was mortified. This wasn't how he had wanted his party to go. He had thought Eldred was in control over Sanguini, but the vampire had brought two others and attacked a student for whatever reason. And then the term he had called Harry Potter's date. A real slayer?

"Professor Slughorn, get Professor Dumbledore, Professor Flitwick and Professor McGonagall here." Harry ordered.

Slughorn just complied. After this attack he would have a hard time explaining to the headmaster how it could have happened.

Soon the called Professors were there and Professor Dumbledore got a report from Harry what had happened.

"So you want to tell us, that Horace invited a vampire to the party?" McGonagall asked irritated.

"Yes." Harry answered.

"How were you able to deal with the vampires so easily?" Dumbledore asked.

"I'm the slayer." Buffy answered, turning all the attention to her.

"More importantly, I'm a free agent of the American CIA. The CIA has a special division that deals with magical creatures. While I'm not truly magical myself, only my special abilities are, I have much experience with vampires and demons in my position as a slayer. I was contacted by the CIA some months ago to help with the protection of a girl whose father helped dark creatures to escape persecution and detection. The CIA placed the man's daughter here at Hogwarts to continue her education in a safe environment. We had hoped she wouldn't be found, but sadly it happened.

"From one of her letters to her mother we found out that Professor Slughorn planned to invite Sanguini, a known old vampire, to the party. While we didn't know if Sanguini was connected to the girl's father, we thought it would be best to take security measures. From the media we knew that Harry Potter was a wizard with a lot of magical power and that he had fighting experience, so we contacted him, if he would be willing to help one of our agents, in this case me, to enter the castle to protect the girl during the party.

"He was willing to help us immediately. He was instructed on the finer points in fighting vampires and helped me keeping an eye open for trouble. When we spotted the vampires, that had kept hidden, take action, we took them out quickly."

"That is very interesting, Miss Summers, but why haven't I been informed if this?" Dumbledore asked.

"The less people were involved, the less risk of a breach in security. We originally thought that with the wards Hogwarts is famous for, there wouldn't have been any risk of dangerous creatures even getting inside the castle, but obviously this isn't the case." Buffy swiftly disabled all protests.

Dumbledore frowned at this stab at the security of the castle.

"Why didn't you take action sooner?" Professor Flitwick asked.

"Because we didn't know if Sanguini worked for the girl's father. He could have been neutral and the two vampires I immediately spotted could just have been bodyguards. If nothing had happened, there would have been no reason to act. I don't kill every vampire I come upon, I know that certain magical vampires keep to blood bottles and willing donators and blend into the world without causing much trouble. And Sanguini was a magical vampire. The last thing I wanted to do was provoking a war with a vampire clan if they weren't hostile." Buffy explained.

They accepted the explanation of the slayer and soon the other students that were at the party were escorted to their common rooms.

"I didn't know you knew how to fight vampires, Harry." Hermione said impressed with Harry's actions.

"Well, I read up about them for the Triwizard Tournament. But Buffy helped me with a bit of training to prepare for an eventual fight. Believe me, her strength is monstrous." Harry replied, rubbing his arm, faking bruises from training.

"But why did the CIA contact you?" Hermione continued her little interrogation.

"Buffy explained why. I was the logical choice. Who else would have been in the position to bring an outsider as his date for the party? Nobody would oppose me doing so. And I didn't mind it at all. Buffy is a great girl and it was fun getting to know her. She really has an exciting job." Harry told her.

Hermione huffed for not having been told before the party that there could have been danger. But she also understood logically that Harry had only followed orders of a CIA officer.

Harry and Buffy just entered Dumbledore's office. They had been called to discuss the fight yesterday before Buffy would return to Sunnydale.

"Ah, thank you for coming. I must also thank you for your fast action yesterday, it prevented a tragedy. I wish I'd have been informed of Miss Thornston's situation beforehand so I could have provided higher security for her though."

"I don't think that would have helped much. You don't have the best track record in keeping students that are high profile safe." Harry countered, making Dumbledore flinch.

He couldn't deny the facts that Harry had been in more dangerous situations than any student during the whole time he had attended Hogwarts.

"Let's face the facts, headmaster, while you definitely aren't evil, you lack the mentality to put the welfare of an individual before your schemes. Your high plans to defeat Voldemort cost me my childhood and decent preparation in case he returns. The first time I really trained was for the Tournament and that was on my own with the help of my friends. You didn't do anything to prepare me. You tell me he is back, was never dead but even after I encountered him in my first year you didn't do anything to prepare me. If his attempt had been successful, we would be faced with a big problem, because face it, the Ministry has to clean up the mess Fudge was allowed to make, before it would be efficient against any threat.

"Now with Julia, you would have told the teachers, they would have talked about it when they thought themselves in private, but with magic it's nearly impossible to have that amount of privacy. And rumours travel extremely fast here at Hogwarts." Harry stated.

This was another truth that couldn't be denied. Nothing could be kept truly secret at the school.

"Harry is right. The risk that anybody would have been overheard or had been legilimensed was too big for us to take. And vampires are masters of the mind arts. From what we found out, the wards of the castle don't repel any dark creature. Vampires, werewolves, acromantula, giants, trolls and dementors, I could continue but they all could just enter the castle and attack the students if they wanted to. That was the reason I was sent here to ensure Julia wasn't harmed. And it was good I did. I expect the wards will be fixed. I don't have any problem with you keying in trustworthy persons like Remus Lupin or those who have creature blood. But you can't just let any dark creature have free access to the students. Muggles that have been turned into vampires lose their souls in the process and just feel the thirst. Wizards keep an imprint of their personality so they mostly have a bit more control over the urges but turning into a vampire tends to make them dangerous in ninety eight per cent of all cases." Buffy gave out some facts.

Dumbledore nodded. He had already decided to fix the wards. He had also given Horace a thorough dressing down that he wouldn't be allowed to invite any guests he hadn't approved of. It was pure luck that nothing bad had happened to the students at the party.

What also puzzled him was the proficiency Harry had shown while dealing with the problem. There was something off. He just didn't know what it was. But he would find out; that much was sure.

"What are you going to do now with Julia?" Dumbledore asked.

"Well, the vampires won't attack again so soon after they lost one of the older vampires. They will know that the wards will be fixed now and they won't be able to get in anymore. As long as Julia stays inside the castle, she will be safe. Harry has offered to keep an eye on her until the trial of her father is done. As he helped protect her, she shouldn't have any problems to trust him." Buffy said.

All of this was well choreographed. They had agreed during a last meeting to plan that it would be best that in case there was a fight, that Buffy pretended to be a CIA agent as nobody would be able to find out the truth. This enabled Harry to keep his cover.

"Are you sure you'll be able to fulfil the job, Harry?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, I am, as long as the wards are fixed I can deal with it. After all the only danger there could be would be from students and to be honest, after all the training for the Tournament even the seventh years would be really hard pressed to win against me. And I don't think there would be a mass attack. There are no more Hogsmeade weekends before the Hogwarts Express leaves for the holidays so a mass imperius isn't realistic. And the trial is January 3rd."

"What will happen after the trial?" Dumbledore wanted to know.

"That will depend on Julia's mother. I think it will be too dangerous for them to return to the States so they will be given some options outside the States by the CIA. Probably the British counterpart of the magical arm of the CIA, if it exists, will be involved." Buffy said, pretending to think.

"Hm, as far as I'm informed we don't have such a division. The Ministry only informs the Prime Minister of anything of importance for the muggle world. Otherwise the DMLE deals with things like that." Dumbledore said.

Harry didn't bother correcting him. The employment of witches and wizards by the MI6 was a secret for now. It was good to know that the magical government was too blind to see it.

"Well, we can only hope everything will be handled professionally from now on." Buffy said.

Dumbledore nodded.

Buffy had returned to Sunnydale after all the formalities had been dealt with and Harry had told Julia about the agreement that had been found regarding her protection. Julia had no problems that Harry Potter would look after her for the Christmas holidays until the trial was over. She had taken a liking to the older boy, for Harry she was like the little sister he never had. She was bubbly, smart and stubborn but cherished her friends more than anything else.

Harry had organized with Professor McGonagall that the two girls were moved to Gryffindor Tower for the holidays. The older Ravenclaws were all going home this year, so Harry thought it best for Regina and Julia, Regina had convinced her parents that she couldn't leave her best friend alone this Christmas, to be close to him in case something came up.

Both girls liked Gryffindor Tower well and soon settled in their temporary quarters.

Harry then sat them down for some ground rules.

"All right you two, we need to set up some rules how we'll do things over the holidays. Here in the common room you're absolutely safe. Nobody but Gryffindors and the teachers know the password. So nobody who could want to harm you can enter. The common room and the dorms have wards that will keep dark creatures outside. So you can do whatever you want, still regarding the normal school rules of course, as long as you stay here. Outside of the common room, you should be safe now as Professor Dumbledore has reset the wards making them keep dark creatures out. But we don't want to risk anything, so when you leave the common room, please inform me."

"How long will we have to be that careful?" Regina asked.

"At least until Julia's father is convicted. We'll wait for some time to be sure no revenge will be attempted before we lift the security measures, but until the end of the school year at least. I'll mostly be involved until the trial is done. As I'm a student myself and not a professional I only can help you during the holidays or after classes. I'll gladly help with problems if you have them, but I also will be pretty busy studying for the OWLs this year." Harry answered.

Both girls nodded. They could live with telling Harry when they wanted to leave the tower and where they went. After the trial things would be discussed with Julia's mother again. For now it was important to prevent anything to happen to Julia so that her mother couldn't be blackmailed.

"So mostly we'll have to inform you if we leave the tower and where we go?" Julia asked.

"Yes. I'll accompany you to your destination and will only leave if there is a teacher present. I'm sorry to tell you that you have to stay inside the castle though. The grounds are too dangerous for now. I'm sure in a few months when the weather gets better we'll have found a solution. When you want to go anywhere else, inform the teacher that is watching over you to get me."

"Okay, I just hope this won't be for long. I feel so restricted." Julia sighed.

"Believe me, I know what you're going through. I was in the same situation during my third year here, but nobody thought it would be prudent to tell me why they were more or less imprisoning me." Harry told her.

"So that is the reason for the scene you made two years back. I heard some older Ravenclaws talk about it." Regina stated in awe.

"I didn't know they still talked about it, but yes, I protested being treated like a prisoner for no reason. I set some things straight right in front of all students because the teachers thought I should stay at the castle despite me having permission to visit Hogsmeade. Somebody thought it would be too harsh to tell me why I needed protection. Turned out it was all rubbish. I never was in danger from Sirius Black."

"Isn't that the murderer who killed thirteen muggles and a wizard? You-Know-Who's right hand man?" Regina asked.

"No, he never was a Death Eater, the real traitor of my parents is Peter Pettigrew and he also killed the muggles with a blasting hex. Sirius was framed and I have a written wizard's oath to prove it. But our dear former Minister was a fool, corrupt and only interested in his political position so he didn't take my word and the evidence and just decided the Ministry couldn't have made a mistake."

"Why didn't the new Minister correct it then?" Julia asked.

"She has to clean up in the Ministry first. There is so much that has to be fixed in the government that it will take time until he can trust the Ministry to not just kill him when he turns up for a trial. But when the Ministry is ready he will turn up and clear his name, or if I can catch the traitor and put him on trial. But that is tricky as he has a good disguise and is very hard to find" Harry explained.

"What disguise?" Regina asked curiously.

"A rat." Harry answered.

"A rat?" Both girls asked disbelievingly.

"Yes, there are wizards and witches that can turn into animals. Professor McGonagall is one for example. She can turn into a cat. They are called animagi. Now you see the problem with finding a rat in all of Great Britain or perhaps he has escaped to the continent. It's nearly impossible to find a rat."

"Are you an animagus?" Regina wanted to know.

"No, not yet. The animagus transformation is very advanced magic. It's only taught to the best students in the NEWT Transfiguration class. But I'd like to become one. I think it's a cool ability." Harry said grinning.

There was no need to tell anybody that he was close to mastering his transformation. Sirius had been happy to find out that he had the ability and had coached him to become an animagus. But for it to be successful it was best if the wizard attempting to do it was at least thirteen or fourteen years old. With the horcrux in his scar they had decided that the training would only start after the horcrux had been dealt with. So they had started the training at the beginning of this school year. Harry's form was fitting to his love for flying.

And it was dead useful for spying too. Nobody would look twice at a raven after all.

Harry sat in the Great Hall at his desk, answering the questions of his Charms OWL. It was easy in his opinion. He could finally show his knowledge and abilities. The MI6 had given him green light to show everything requested by the examiners. If he wanted to get the best training for his NEWT classes, he needed to show he was ready for it. While most of his training was handled by the MI6, the normal wizarding education was done at Hogwarts. No need to bore him doing things twice after all.

Hermione had stressed out before the exams and bullied all of her friends into taking their studies really serious. Harry thought Ron just did what she said because a furious Hermione Granger was scary as hell. Even Fred and George had relented and kept the quiet of the common room for the preparation time.

Now they just had to take the exams and would have to wait for their results until sometime during the holidays. Harry had a full timetable as he had to take exams in all classes except Divination. And he had orders to ace them all. Sirius had impressed upon him that after the OWLs his training as a secret agent would be upped. Harry didn't know what the new training would include but he suspected if he didn't do well enough on his OWLs Sirius would think up some really unpleasant exercises.

Albus Dumbledore sat in his office. It was the last day of the school year and the carriages were waiting for the students to take them to Hogsmeade Station where they would board the Hogwarts Express. One student was on his mind, Harry Potter. The boy had done things he just didn't understand. He had changed immensely from the shy and impressed boy that had arrived at Hogwarts five years ago. He had grown into a strong young man, a man who was coming into himself nicely from what anybody could observe.

But the boy had distanced himself from the teachers at school. Nobody here held the boy's trust. He knew it was their fault for not doing what was right in Harry's early years at Hogwarts. He would respect his teachers in class, but in every aspect of his private life he was massively independent and didn't let anybody tell him what to do and what not to do. Sadly nobody could force him to see reason. He had checked the records and Sirius was his guardian. And as nobody was able to find Sirius, he still didn't understand how the man could hide this well, nobody could make him give up custody of Harry.

And he had the impression that something else was going on, something he couldn't determine. Harry was stronger than he had expected him to be, considering his training in magic and otherwise. No normal fifth year student would have been able to assist a slayer like Harry had done. From the things he had observed during his practical OWLs, Harry was also very magically adept. He had breezed through the required tasks. That was quite unusual. But there was no way to find out more. Severus had reported that his mark hadn't acted up at all since it had become black during the third task of the Tournament last year.

Something had happened to Voldemort. But what? Was Harry involved in it? Well, he probably was. But he didn't tell him. He just told him Voldemort wasn't a problem anymore. What did that mean? He knew Harry had told the truth about the ritual, the interrogation of Malfoy had confirmed the ingredients for the potion that had been attempted. The investigation of the graveyard also backed it up. So why did he have the feeling that something was missing?

And annoying as it was, no tracking spell seemed to stick to Harry. They always disappeared as soon as Harry was left alone for more than five minutes. But none of the portraits knew anything. That and the boy seemed to disappear a lot of times. It was just a mystery and he hated not having all the information about something.

Harry just shook his head. Another tracking charm. Did the headmaster never learn? He just lifted the charm from his trunk and boarded the train to Kings Cross Station. The year had been interesting. After the vampire attack he had looked out for Julia for the rest of the holidays openly. After that he continued to observe her secretly. He stopped two attempts of werewolves to sneak onto the grounds undetected. Obviously Dumbledore hadn't stretched the wards far enough. From the information Agent Sinistra gave him, the trial was over in record time. Julia's father was convicted to fifteen years in prison.

They could only prove some criminal activities, not all of them, but it was enough for the CIA to get the rest of the criminals that were now unprotected. Julia and her mother had decided to wait with the decision what to do until the end of the year. Harry was to head to headquarters as soon as he reached London. During the train ride he and his friends talked about their summer plans. Hermione would travel to Italy with her parents for three weeks, Ron and Ginny would stay at the Burrow, Neville had a trip with his uncle planned to collect some rare plants, and the twins were going to start their joke shop, with a little start capital from Harry, which they were to keep a secret.

Well, the MI6 was also interested in getting the twins to invent several products. Harry had made a deal with the two that they would have a side line of products that were meant for defence against the dark arts. They would invest eighty per cent of their time in joke products and twenty in defence products. When they asked him why he wanted the defence line, he had smiled mysteriously and just said that you never knew.

Finally the train arrived at the station and Harry bid his friends good bye.

Julia and her mother sat at a meeting room in the MI6 headquarters, both being worried what would happen now. What none of them knew was that several agents were observing the room on monitors. The cameras in the room were a standard security measure in the rooms of headquarters.

Harry just entered the monitor room, where Steven Connors, their CIA contact was talking to M.

"Good afternoon ma'am, reporting back for duty." Harry greeted his superior.

"Good to see you, Agent Potter, you know Agent Connors?" M asked.

"Yes ma'am. We met briefly in January." Harry confirmed.

"I still have problems to believe that you have an agent who is fifteen years old and already middle class. Even the children of our agents that are trained early on to protect themselves normally don't become that good that early. They are normally too occupied with their schooling to do much training." Connors said shaking his head.

"Well, Agent Potter is special. But we are here to discuss the options the di Fances have now that we got Antonio di Fances into prison. Virginia and Julia need to find a place where they can securely live. We have them in the witness protection program, but we need to have them more or less completely disappear." M explained.

"That will be difficult as Julia needs to go to school." Connors said. "And with her being discovered at Hogwarts I don't know if she would be safe staying there."

"What is the state of the wards Agent Potter?" M asked.

"Lacking. I don't know if Dumbledore plans to strengthen them over the holidays and has only fixed the worst problems during the school year but at the moment I can't guarantee Julia's safety there. And next year she would be allowed to visit Hogsmeade on weekends. The wards don't reach that far." Harry stated.

"That's definitely a problem. We'll probably have to relocate the two again." Connors said.

"Perhaps not." Harry said thinking about an idea he had had some days ago and wanted to discuss with his superiors.

"What is your idea, Agent Potter?" M asked, knowing the young man was becoming a gifted agent.

"Our opponents will think we'll relocate them. After all it would be the logical thing to do. They won't waste their time looking for Julia at Hogwarts after a brief check of the register at the Ministry. They can't access Hogwarts' register in the castle as it is only accessible by the headmaster and his deputy. And records at the Ministry are easy to falsify. I say we make them believe we have Julia attend another school next year, perhaps in Australia as there wouldn't be a language barrier there. I'm sure our allies in their secret service would help us fake an entry in the school register there. They will hunt something that isn't there." Harry gave a rough image of his idea.

"Classical distraction. Even if they find out that the family isn't in Australia, they would have to find them elsewhere. We could also fake more than one transfer to confuse them, which would make them believe that she really left. They would only find out if any of the students at Hogwarts that knew Julia worked for them. Which is unlikely. I like the plan. But wouldn't the teachers at Hogwarts talk about it?" M asked.

"Not if we make them swear magical oaths to not disclose that information ma'am." Harry replied.

"Tricky to make them do it. How could we get them to swear the oath?" Connors asked.

"Contact Dumbledore directly. The man isn't evil after all, just terribly nosy and manipulative. But Julia isn't of interest for him. So he wouldn't meddle with her. We just need another name in the register instead of Thornston and we are good. And after the vampire attack last year he will be eager to protect her right this time." Harry said.

"We'll discuss it with Mrs di Fances and her daughter. If they agree, we can try it." Connors said.

"Agent Potter, you'll remain here and watch the conversation. I don't want to blow your cover." M said.

"Understood ma'am." Harry answered.

Alright, another chapter is finished. Till next time.