Chapter 5: August 5, 2015 – Security

Chapter Summary: The Marauders give Buffy a few ideas to make the school safer.

Warning: some swearing

Challenge: for the livejournal 2015 August Fic-a-Day Challenge

Timeline: Storywise – August 1982, after the school has rebuilt itself

Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. Leverage characters belong to John Rogers, Chris Downey, and TNT. Star Trek character belongs to Gene Roddenberry, CBS and Paramount Pictures. Jason Bourne belongs to Robert Ludlum, The Kennedy/Marshall Company and Relativity Media. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

Staff conference room

Over the shuffling of people finding their seats, Buffy heard Sirius entreaty James, "You suggest it to her. She doesn't hate you."

"Yeah, but she doesn't like me much more than you," James shot back. "Maybe we should have Remus do it. She actually likes him…for some reason."

Buffy caught Remus' eye from his place across the table from his school friends and they shared a slight grin, each knowing the other heard the whispered conversation.

While she didn't want to advertise the fact she was a Slayer, Buffy also didn't want to make any of her more supernatural staff members feel uneasy around her. That meant 'coming out' to Remus and Jim Ellison – both of whom returned the favor. She also convinced Oz to do the same with those two. Yes, there were other supernatural people (apart from the 'normal' witches and wizards), but those already knew what and who she was.

Back to Sirius and James, though. Buffy watched from the corner of her eye as Lily leaned over to James and whispered, "Maybe she likes him because he doesn't interfere with staff meetings by talking so she can't start."

Buffy snorted, then turned it into a throat-clearing cough to get everyone's attention. "If everyone is comfortable, why don't we get started with today's meeting. As you've already seen, Hogwarts has undergone some fairly drastic changes since school let out a couple months ago. You'll each get a map of the layout of the school, and feel free to wander around afterwards so you can get a feel for the place before the students get here. I'd like to introduce Xander Harris, the amateur architect who came up with the design based on suggestions from the staff…which I guess means that you probably already know who he is. I'll let him explain the process."

A little while later…

Once the meeting drew to a close, Buffy called out, "Could James Potter, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin stay behind for another meeting, please?"

"Ooo, somebody's in trouble with the principal!" Xander sing-songed. "I mean headmistress!" He suddenly blushed and apologized to Buffy softly, "That came out dirtier than I meant…sorry."

"You goof, get out of here before I make you sit next to Snape for your meals this week," Buffy mock-threatened him.

When the room cleared, Buffy started by saying, "Just so you know, I don't hate any of my staff. If I did, they wouldn't be here. Now…what is it that you need to tell me?"

Since she didn't tell them about her night job, James and Sirius looked stunned that she knew what they were saying earlier. "Can you read minds?" Sirius asked in surprise.

"No. I have my methods of finding things out," she answered with a slightly evil smile.

Shaking off the chill that ran down his spine, James said, "We have a couple things from our school days which you have security use to keep the students safe."

Remus was taken aback. He knew what they were referring to…probably…and couldn't believe lifelong pranksters would destroy the ability of students to sneak around the school.

"Security issues?" Buffy asked. "Just a sec while I get some people back in here." She quickly wrote some names down on a slip of paper and called out, "Scooby!" When the house elf arrived, she handed him the slip and said, "Can you ask all these gentlemen to come back right away? Thanks!"

While she was doing that, Remus leaned over and asked why they were doing this when it went against everything they stood for as Marauders. Surprisingly, it was Sirius who answered him, "When Buffy chewed my ass out for what I did to you and Snape in fifth year, it was like an ice bucket of water in the face. Now, I'll never like that git, but I'll be damned if anyone says he's more professional than me."

"Pranks are fun, but it's a dangerous time right now. Hell, it was dangerous in our time, too, and Dumbledore should have reined us in more. We can't be sure that somebody who is sneaking around isn't meaning to do harm to another student or staff member. So, unfortunately, that means we have to act responsibly," he finished. "After all, Harry's here; it needs to be safe for him."

"Did that cause you pain to say?" Remus asked teasingly.

Sirius shrugged. "A little."

The door opened and four men came in. As head of security, it didn't surprise anyone that one of those men was Worf. The other three were a mystery to the former Marauder, however.

Buffy explained, "All three of these men have experience with providing security – and circumventing it – so they should be able to help determine what we should do with your items – whatever they are."

"First is a map that shows the school and everyone in it," James said. "I don't know how the renovation affects it, but at the very least, we know the spells to create a new one if we have to…which we probably should anyway to make it more professional. The other things we used for our pranking were two-way communication mirrors."

Remus spoke up at that time, "They aren't what you're thinking. They're more like telephones, but with live pictures so you can see each other while you're talking."

"Video chatting in the Wizarding World? I'm shocked and impressed," Buffy replied.

"I count three ways we could use the mirrors," Nate Ford said. "First is having stationary mirrors set up in the public areas of the school with matching mirrors in a security room with a team watching them. Second, have the security members carry handheld mirrors with them while patrolling so they can raise an alarm quickly if necessary. And last, put some in the classrooms, dorms, and other locations like the front office to make communications easier. Then we don't have to bother the house elves to deliver messages, unless the messages have to remain private."

"We'll need a lot of mirrors," Jason Bourne added. "There's a lot of ground to cover in a place this size."

"And we'll need to make sure we eliminate blind spots if at all possible," Eliot Spencer said. His inner thief cringed at making the school a place he couldn't sneak into, but then again, he was supposedly reformed, and more importantly, people shouldn't be breaking into a school in the first place.

"I would like two versions of the maps done, if it's possible," Buffy told the Hogwarts alumni. "One version we can give the students that show them how to get to different parts of the school, and the other version is only for the staff, and that will show the names of people and where they're at."

"I think we're going to be very busy for the next several weeks," Remus told his friends.

"Maybe we can get some help from some trusted friends and colleagues?" James asked hopefully. If he was too busy with this project, Lily would be mad as hell at him for not getting help.

A/N: Hope you were sitting down when I showed you a more mature side of Sirius and James (especially Sirius). Any ideas what I should cover tomorrow?