Chapter 20: Parting of the Ways

Dumbledore stood up. He stared down at Barty Crouch for a moment with disgust on his face. Then he raised his wand once more and ropes flew out of it, ropes that twisted themselves around Barty Crouch, binding him tightly. He turned to McGonagall.

"Minerva, could I ask you to stand guard here while I take Buffy, Harry and Dawn upstairs?"

"Of course," said McGonagall.

"Severus" —Dumbledore turned to Snape— "please tell Madam Pomfrey to come down here; we need to get Alastor Moody into the hospital wing. Then go down into the grounds, find Cornelius Fudge, and bring him up to this office. He will undoubtedly want to question Crouch himself. Tell him I will be in the hospital wing in half an hour's time if he needs me."

Snape nodded silently and swept out of the room.

Harry and Dawn moved on either side of Buffy so that they could support their sister as they followed Dumbledore from the office.

"I want you three to come up to my office first," Dumbledore said quietly as they headed up the passageway. "Sirius is waiting for us there."

"Albus, how's Cedric?" Buffy asked.

"He is well, Buffy," Dumbledore said. "It seems after all you've done. He seems interested in becoming your Watcher in the coming months. He graduates this term. I told him you already had one."

"Officially I don't," Buffy said. "Haven't since I graduated high school. Giles is more my mentor now. That said since Faith has been released from jail. He has been acting as her Watcher now. She's even been staying in my house with my permission."

"Then maybe he can be of help," Dumbledore suggested.

"I rather he didn't," Buffy said. "He's been through enough."

They had reached the stone gargoyle. Dumbledore gave the password, it sprang aside, and they went up the moving spiral staircase to the oak door. Dumbledore pushed it open. Sirius was standing there.

In one swift moment, Sirius crossed the room. He looked at the woman who had come to be much like Harry one of his own godchildren along with her sister. "Buffy, are you all right? I knew it—I knew something like this could happen when you told me you were doing the tasks in Harry's place—what happened?"

Harry and Dawn helped their sister to a seat as they let Dumbledore explain everything.

There was a soft rush of wings. Fawkes had left his perch, flown across the office, and landed on Buffy's knee.

"'Lo, Fawkes," said Harry quietly.

Dumbledore sat down opposite the siblings, behind his desk. He was looking at Buffy. "I need to know what happened after you touched the Portkey in the maze, Buffy," he said.

"We can leave that till morning, can't we, Dumbledore?" said Sirius harshly. He had put a hand on Buffy's shoulder. "Let her have a sleep. Let her rest. I think she has more than deserved that. She's been through more since being called as a Slayer than anyone should ever have to. On top of that she almost gave her life, again, for one of her siblings."

Buffy looked up at Sirius and smiled gratefully at the support.

"If I thought I could help you, Buffy," Dumbledore said gently, "by putting you into an enchanted sleep and allowing you to postpone the moment when you would have to think about what has happened tonight, I would do it. But I know better. Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it. And you and I know you will it feel it, Buffy. After all you had to send one person you loved to hell to save the world. And what it meant after for you. Then there was what happened with the vampire you called, The Master."

"He's right, Sirius," Buffy said with a sigh. "I've always bottled things up until it would overwhelm me." She looked at her sister as she remembered Dawn's introduction to the supernatural.

June 2, 1997

The Master held Buffy by her arms pinning her so that she could not escape. "You tried. It was noble of you. You heard the prophecy that I was going to break free and you came to stop me. But prophecies are tricky creatures. They didn't tell you everything," he said as he whispered intimately in her ear. "You're the one that frees me." He smiled. "If you hadn't come, I couldn't go. Think about that."

The Master buried his fangs in Buffy's neck as he drank her blood. He reared his back at the power flowing through him for Buffy's blood. "God, the power!" he said as Buffy sagged in his grasp. "By the way..." he said as he left Buffy to her knees before falling face-down into a pool of water. "I like your dress."

He walked out of the cave passing Dawn who had been hiding and watching everything unfold. When he was gone, she ran to Buffy and pulled her sister out of the pool. "Buffy?" she said.

Buffy didn't respond, Buffy wasn't even breathing. Dawn feared her sister was dead.

"Buffy, please," Dawn begged her sister as she cradled Buffy's head in her lap. It was then she heard footsteps approaching. When she looked up, she saw Xander and Angel approaching. "Xander!"

"Dawn!" Xander said as he rushed to her and Buffy, shocked to see Buffy's little sister there.

"She's not breathing, Xander. Help her, please," Dawn begged as tears streamed down her face. (A/N)

June 24, 2002

Buffy knew the memories were modified to include Dawn, but she had long since accepted that they were hers and she didn't want to give them up for it meant if she did, she would forget Dawn. So, she let the memory play out as she remembered that Xander had saved her and that Dawn had been there. She remembered that for months afterwards how hard it had been to admit that she died to anyone let alone her baby sister. She looked at Dawn and smiled at her. She kissed Dawn's cheek. "I'm sorry for worrying you when the Master killed me," she whispered.

Dawn put her arms around Buffy's neck and held her sister for a moment. When she let go, Buffy began explaining everything.

Like the memory that had just played itself back in her mind, Buffy saw everything that had happened that night as if it was happening all over again. She could see in her mind's eye sending Cedric back to protect him from the killing curse, she saw the potion, the Death Eaters Apparating between the graves around them.

Once or twice, Sirius made a noise as though about to say something, his hand still tight on Buffy's shoulder, but Dumbledore raised his hand to stop him, and Buffy was glad of this, because it was easier to keep going now that she had started.

She found a great amount of relief actually talking about everything and not bottling it all up as she had more than once in the past.

When Buffy told of Wormtail piercing her arm with the dagger, however, Sirius let out a vehement exclamation and Dumbledore stood up. Dumbledore walked around the desk and told Buffy to stretch out her arm. Buffy showed them the place where her robes were torn and the cut beneath them.

"It's in the same place," Dawn said as she held up her own arm and showed them the scar from where she had cut herself when she had been questioning if she was real. "That can't be a coincidence can it?"

"How did you get yours?" Dumbledore asked.

"I cut myself," Dawn admitted. "It was back when I learned about the Key. I was questioning if I was real."

"It could have been foreshadowing what was to come or, yes, it could have been a coincidence," Dumbledore said.

"My blood," Buffy said. "He needed my blood because of the protection mom left on Harry. He said he could touch Harry now."

Dumbledore returned to his seat behind the desk. "Very well," he said, sitting down again. "Voldemort has overcome that particular barrier. Buffy, continue, please."

Buffy went on; she explained how Voldemort had emerged from the cauldron, and told them what she could remember of Voldemort's speech to the Death Eaters. Then she told how Voldemort had untied her, returned her wand to her, and prepared to duel.

"And that is when the portal opened," Buffy said. "I dove in as he prepared to fire a curse at me to keep me from getting away."

"What portal?" Sirius asked.

"The Key," Dawn said. "Professor Dumbledore has been teaching me how to control it all year."

"Is there anything else, Buffy?" Dumbledore asked.

"For a brief second as I dove into the portal, I swear I could see our parents, I could see Lily and James. It was like they were there inside the portal," Buffy said. "Between the Cruciatus curse and the blood loss from the wound on my arm, I figured I imagined it."

"You may have actually seen them," Dumbledore said. "The Key opens the doorway between all dimensions. Heaven after all is just another dimension, one though that is on a higher plain of being. It is possible while Dawn had the portal open you could actually see them as they likely have been watching over you and Harry since their passing."

It was then that Buffy noticed that Fawkes was no longer on her knee. It was also when she noticed that the wound on her arm was gone. She looked at the phoenix and nodded her thanks.

"I will say this," said Dumbledore. "You have shown bravery beyond anything I could have expected of you tonight, Buffy. You have shown bravery equal to those who died fighting Voldemort at the height of his powers. You have shouldered a burden that no one has any right to shoulder. And I am not talking about just what happened tonight but since you were first called as a Slayer. I will take you three to your suite, Buffy. A Sleeping Potion, and some peace… Sirius, would you like to stay with them?"

Sirius nodded.

"And I believe Buffy may have a way that you can remain for the summer in their lives," Dumbledore said.

"How would you like to come with us to Sunnydale," Buffy said.

Sirius blinked as he looked at Buffy.

"Scrying magic does not work on the hellmouth," Dumbledore said. "If it did, I would not have lost track of Buffy's location for five years."

"I would like that," Sirius said as he hugged Buffy.

"That said, Sirius," Buffy said. "I hold three seats on the Wizengamot. I intend to get you the trial you were denied and clear your name."

Sirius looked at Buffy shocked and then smiled at her. "Thank you," he said near tears. He transformed back into the great black dog so Buffy would not see him fall apart at her generosity. He walked with Buffy, Harry, Dawn and Dumbledore out of the office, accompanying them to Buffy's suite. He took out the sleeping potion and once he conjured extra beds for Dawn and Harry, he gave each of them a drop of the sleeping potion that would give them each dreamless sleep.

"You should be proud of her, Sirius," Dumbledore said after Buffy, Dawn and Harry were asleep.

"I am," Sirius said after he transformed back to human. "She's not my goddaughter officially. But unofficially …"

"You love her and Dawn as if they were," Dumbledore said as Sirius nodded. "I figured as much."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Dumbledore stepped into the hospital wing to hear Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Ginny, Ron and Hermione all demanding to know where Buffy was and what had happened to her. "Buffy, Harry and Dawn are asleep," he said. "I will allow Ginny to go to them, but the rest of you I would like for you to wait till morning."

Mrs. Weasley looked toward her daughter and nodded as she realized why Dumbledore was allowing Ginny to go. After all Ginny was Dawn's girlfriend. "When they wake, tell them we're here."

"I will, mum," Ginny said.

"Oh, and Miss Weasley. When they wake. Tell them I would like them to remain in Buffy's suite until I have spoken to the school," Dumbledore said.

"I will, Professor," Ginny said as she ran out of the hospital wing. She ran through the castle and stopped outside the portrait hole that led to Buffy's suite. "Hellmouth, Simon."

"Very good, Miss Ginny," Simon said as his portrait swung open and Ginny hurried in.

Ginny was surprised to see Sirius there. "How are they?" she asked.

"Asleep," Sirius said. "And how are you doing? I know you are Dawn's girlfriend but…"

Ginny knew what Sirius was saying. "I feared the worst. I know from talking to Dawn that her worst fear was that Buffy would die for her. Even though Buffy like Harry is my friend. I didn't want to see Dawn hurt, not like that. She knew there had been a chance last year that Buffy would die for her if it came down to it when Buffy faced Glory. I hoped beyond hope that Dawn would not have a repeat of that. And sadly, my hope wasn't enough because it almost happened again."

"Yes," Sirius said sadly as he watched Ginny walk over to the bed Dawn lay on. He watched as his goddaughter's girlfriend lay down beside her. He was sure with friends like those his godchildren had, that they might be able to survive what the future threw at them.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Dawn woke to find Ginny's arms wrapped around her.

"Morning," Ginny said as she kissed Dawn.

"Morning," Dawn said.

"Isn't that sweet," Buffy said as she looked toward Harry. She noticed that Sirius had transformed back into a dog, probably thought it would be more comfortable that way as he likely was used to sleeping that way since he was still on the run. She reached down and rubbed her hand through Sirius' fur waking him.

At that moment the portrait hole swung open and Dumbledore, Snape, Mrs. Weasley, Ron and Hermione entered. Dumbledore had filled them in on everything that had happened the night before. As a result, Bill had left with a message for his father from Dumbledore.

"Simon," Dumbledore said as Simon appeared in a portrait. "Make sure no one disturbs us."

"Of course, Headmaster," Simon said as he exited the portrait.

"And now," Dumbledore said, "it is time for two of our number to recognize each other for what they are." He looked at the black dog on the floor next to Buffy's bed. "Sirius… if you could resume your usual form."

The great black dog looked up at Dumbledore, then, in an instant, turned back into a man.

Mrs. Weasley screamed. "Sirius Black!" she shrieked, pointing at him.

"Mum, shut up!" Ron yelled. "It's okay!"

"It is," Dawn, Buffy, Harry and Ginny agreed.

"Him!" Snape snarled, staring at Sirius, whose face showed equal dislike. "What is he doing here?"

"He is here at my invitation," said Dumbledore, looking between them, "as are you, Severus. I trust you both. It is time for you to lay aside your old differences and trust each other."

Sirius and Snape eyed each other with the utmost loathing.

"I will settle, in the short term," said Dumbledore, with a bite of impatience in his voice, "for a lack of open hostility. You will shake hands. You are on the same side now. Time is short, and unless the few of us who know the truth do not stand united, there is no hope for any of us."

Very slowly—but still glaring at each other as though each wished the other nothing but ill—Sirius and Snape moved toward each other and shook hands. They let go extremely quickly.

"That will do to be going on with," said Dumbledore, stepping between them once more. "Now I have work for each of you. Fudge's attitude, though not unexpected, changes everything. Sirius, I need you to set off at once. You are to alert Remus Lupin, Arabella Figg, Mundungus Fletcher—the old crowd. Lie low at Lupin's for a while till Dawn opens a portal to you, then join them in Sunnydale. I will contact you there."

"Good luck, Sirius," Buffy said as she hugged her godfather.

"You too, Buffy," Sirius said as he returned his goddaughter's embrace. He nodded to Dumbledore, transformed again into the black dog, and ran out the portrait hole.

"Severus," said Dumbledore, turning to Snape, "you know what I must ask you to do. If you are ready… if you are prepared…"

"I am," said Snape.

"Then good luck," said Dumbledore, and he watched, with a trace of apprehension on his face, as Snape swept wordlessly after Sirius. "I must go downstairs to inform the school." He turned and followed Snape out of the suite.

"Have you decided what you're going to do with your winnings?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "Cedric explained how you and he grabbed the cup at the exact same time. The judges then agreed you had tied with him."

"None of us need it," Buffy said. "Our grandfather's invention makes it so we don't have to worry about money. Keep it for yourself and your family."

"That's," Mrs. Weasley said shocked at Buffy's generosity. "Thank you."

July 2, 2002

They learned that when Dumbledore had spoken to the school that he had merely requested that they leave Buffy, Dawn and Harry alone, that nobody ask them questions or badger them to tell the story of what had happened the day of the third task.

"When are you guys coming for the summer?" Ron asked.

"Harry and Dawn will come back after their birthday," Buffy said. "Myself I will be coming back and forth throughout the month of July as I try get Sirius the trial he didn't have and clear his name."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

It was with a heavy heart that Dawn packed her trunk up in the dormitory. It was not because she was going home it was because she wouldn't be seeing Ginny for about a month.

"Hey," Ginny said as she walked into the dormitory.

"Hey," Dawn said. "I'm going to miss you."

"No, you're not," Ginny said. "Well not for the entire month. Before you come back next month. Mom said I can go visit you. Expect me close to Harry's birthday."

Dawn smiled and she hugged Ginny.

0 – 0 - 0 - 0 – 0

Buffy, Dawn and Harry joined Ron, Ginny and Hermione in the Great Hall for the Leaving feast.

"The end," said Dumbledore, looking around at them all, "of another year. There is much that I would like to say to you all tonight but I must first acknowledge the bravery of one person. Our new Professor of Defense Against the Forces of Darkness, Buffy Potter. It is because of her that Cedric Diggory is alive today. Please raise your glasses in a toast to Buffy Potter."

They did it, all of them; the benches scraped as everyone in the Hall stood, and raised their goblets, and echoed, in one loud, low, rumbling voice, "Buffy Potter."

Harry and Dawn looked at their sister and smiled.

"If it had not been for Professor Potter, Cedric Diggory would have been murdered by Lord Voldemort."

A panicked whisper swept the Great Hall. People were staring at Dumbledore in disbelief, in horror. He looked perfectly calm as he watched them mutter themselves into silence.

"The Ministry of Magic," Dumbledore continued, "does not wish me to tell you this. It is possible that some of your parents will be horrified that I have done so—either because they will not believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, or because they think I should not tell you so, young as you are. It is my belief, however, that the truth is generally preferable to lies, and that any attempt to pretend that Cedric could have died as the result of an accident, or some sort of blunder of his own, is an insult to him as well as Professor Potter."

Stunned and frightened, every face in the Hall was turned toward Dumbledore now… or almost every face.

"There is somebody else who must be mentioned in connection with Cedric and Buffy," Dumbledore went on. "I am talking, about Dawn Potter. For it is with an ability she has mastered over the course of the last year that she was able to save her sister from Voldemort. While I will not go into detail on this ability, I will say this, she was extremely brave in doing so."

Dumbledore turned toward Dawn and raised his goblet once more. Though the majority of everyone there did not understand how Dawn could have saved Buffy they too raised their glasses.

When everyone had once again resumed their seats, Dumbledore continued, "The Triwizard Tournament's aim was to further and promote magical understanding. In the light of what has happened—of Lord Voldemort's return—such ties are more important than ever before."

Dumbledore looked from Madame Maxime and Hagrid, to Fleur Delacour and her fellow Beauxbatons students, to Viktor Krum and the Durmstrangs at the Slytherin table and finally to Buffy.

"Every guest in this Hall," said Dumbledore, and his eyes lingered upon the Durmstrang students, "will be welcomed back here at any time, should they wish to come. I say to you all, once again—in the light of Lord Voldemort's return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided. Lord Voldemort's gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great. We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust. Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open."

"It is my belief—and never have I so hoped that I am mistaken—that we are all facing dark and difficult times. Some of you in this Hall have already suffered directly at the hands of Lord Voldemort. Many of your families have been torn asunder. A week ago, a student as well as a professor were nearly taken from our midst. Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy, remember what happened to a young woman who was good, and kind, and brave, because she strayed across the path of Lord Voldemort. Remember Buffy Potter."

July 3, 2002

Buffy had decided she; Harry and Dawn would ride the train to King's Cross and then from there portal home. They joined Ron, Hermione and Ginny in the crowded entrance hall to wait with the rest of the fourth years for the carriages that would take them back to Hogsmeade station.

"Buffy!"

Buffy turned and saw Fleur Delacour was hurrying up the stone steps into the castle. Beyond her, far across the grounds, she could see Hagrid helping Madame Maxime to back two of the giant horses into their harness.

The Beauxbatons carriage was about to take off.

"We will see each uzzer again, I 'ope," said Fleur as she reached Buffy, holding out her hand. "I am 'oping to get a job 'ere, to improve my Eenglish. And maybe someday to help you. Good-bye, Buffy." She turned. "It 'az been a pleasure meeting you!"

"You take care of your sister," Buffy said.

"I intend to," Fleur said as she looked at Dawn and Harry. "You do ze same with both your brother and sister."

"I intend to," Buffy said as she watched Fleur hurry back across the lawns to Madame Maxime, her silvery hair rippling in the sunlight.

"Do you think you will take her up on her offer?" Dawn asked her sister.

"I don't know," Buffy said. "I hope not. She needs to be with her family."

"Wonder how the Durmstrang students are getting back," said Ron. "D'you reckon they can steer that ship without Karkaroff?"

"Karkaroff did not steer," said a gruff voice. "He stayed in his cabin and let us do the vork."

Krum had come to say good-bye to Hermione. "Could I have a vord?" he asked her.

"Oh… yes… all right," said Hermione, looking slightly flustered, and following Krum through the crowd and out of sight.

"You'd better hurry up!" Ron called loudly after her. "The carriages'll be here in a minute!"

Buffy thought for a moment that it would be Ron trying to keep a look out for Hermione. She noticed instead her brother was craning his head. She smiled. Maybe Harry had found love like his sister had and just had yet to realize it.

Hermione and Krum returned quite soon.

"I want to apologize to your, Ms. Potter," Krum said.

"For?" Buffy asked.

"For trying to attack you when I was under the Imperius curse," Krum said.

"It's alright," Buffy said. "All's forgiven."

The weather could not have been more different on the journey back to King's Cross than it had been on their way to Hogwarts the previous September. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Buffy, Dawn, Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had managed to get a compartment to themselves. They all more fully and freely than they had all week as the train sped them southward.

They broke off their conversation about what action Dumbledore might be taking, even now, to stop Voldemort only when the lunch trolley arrived.

When Hermione returned from the trolley and put her money back into her schoolbag, she dislodged a copy of the Daily Prophet that she had been carrying in there.

Buffy looked at it, unsure whether she really wanted to know what it might say, but Hermione, seeing her looking at it, said calmly, "There's nothing in there. You can look for yourself, but there's nothing at all, Buffy. I've been checking every day. Just a small piece the day after the third task saying you tied with Cedric in the tournament. But that's it. If you ask me, Fudge is forcing them to keep quiet."

"He'll never keep Rita quiet," said Harry. "Not on a story like this."

"Oh, Rita hasn't written anything at all since the third task," said Hermione in an oddly constrained voice. "As a matter of fact," she added, her voice now trembling slightly, "Rita Skeeter isn't going to be writing anything at all for a while. Not unless she wants me to spill the beans on her."

"What did you find out?" Buffy asked.

"I found out how she was listening in on private conversations when she wasn't supposed to be coming onto the grounds," said Hermione in a rush. "Rita Skeeter" —Hermione's voice trembled with quiet triumph— "is an unregistered Animagus. She can turn—"

Hermione pulled a small sealed glass jar out of her bag.

"—into a beetle."

Buffy laughed. "That's her?" she asked as Hermione nodded. "May I?"

Hermione handed Buffy the jar.

"Look," Buffy said as she looked at the beetle in the jar. "I will let Hermione let you out someday as long as you promise never to come after my family again. Otherwise you will remain a beetle for the rest of your life."

"Well that kind of goes against what I told her," said Hermione. "I told her I'll let her out when we get back to London. I've put an Unbreakable Charm on the jar, you see, so she can't transform. And I've told her she's to keep her quill to herself for a whole year. See if she can't break the habit of writing horrible lies about people."

Buffy thought about it and then nodded. She looked down at the jar. "I'll live with what Hermione said. But if you write one story about any of my family or their friends ever again. Not only will we spill the beans about you being an unregistered Animagus but I will sue you into the next century." She handed the jar back to Hermione.

Smiling serenely, Hermione placed the beetle back inside her schoolbag.

The door of the compartment slid open.

"Very clever, Granger," said Draco Malfoy.

Crabbe and Goyle were standing behind him. All three of them looked more pleased with themselves, more arrogant and more menacing, than Harry had ever seen them.

"So," said Malfoy slowly, advancing slightly into the compartment and looking slowly around at them, a smirk quivering on his lips. "You caught some pathetic reporter, and Potter's Dumbledore's favorite boy again. Big deal."

"Mr. Malfoy," Buffy said. "How would you like to spend your summer vacation in detention. I can get Dawn to use her little ability that Dumbledore mentioned to send you somewhere where you would have the worst summer ever."

Suddenly it was as though someone had exploded a box of fireworks within the compartment. Blinded by the blaze of the spells that had blasted from every direction, deafened by a series of bangs, Buffy blinked and looked down at the floor.

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were all lying unconscious in the doorway.

Ron, Hermione, Harry, Dawn and Ginny were on their feet, all of them having used a different hex. Nor were they the only ones to have done so.

"Thought we'd see what those three were up to," said Fred matter-of-factly, stepping onto Goyle and into the compartment. He had his wand out, and so did George, who was careful to tread on Malfoy as he followed Fred inside.

"Interesting effect," said George, looking down at Crabbe. "Who used the Furnunculus Curse?"

"Me," said Harry.

"Odd," said George lightly. "I used Jelly-Legs. Looks as though those two shouldn't be mixed. He seems to have sprouted little tentacles all over his face. Well, let's not leave them here, they don't add much to the decor."

Ron, Harry, and George kicked, rolled, and pushed the unconscious Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle—each of whom looked distinctly the worse for the jumble of jinxes with which they had been hit—out into the corridor, then came back into the compartment and rolled the door shut.

Buffy smiled. "Consider these points in advance for next year. Ten points for each of you for Gryffindor."

Everyone laughed.

"Exploding Snap, anyone?" said Fred, pulling out a pack of cards.

They were halfway through their fifth game when Harry decided to ask them.

"You going to tell us, then?" he said to George. "Who you were blackmailing?"

"Blackmailing?" Buffy said. "Do I need to rethink those house points."

"It doesn't matter," said Fred, shaking his head impatiently. "It wasn't anything important. Not now, anyway."

"We've given up," said George, shrugging.

But Ginny, Harry, Ron, and Hermione kept on asking, and finally, Fred said, "All right, all right, if you really want to know… it was Ludo Bagman."

"Bagman?" said Harry sharply. "Are you saying he was involved in—"

"Nah," said George gloomily. "Nothing like that. Stupid git. He wouldn't have the brains."

"Well, what, then?" said Ron.

Fred hesitated, then said, "You remember that bet we had with him at the Quidditch World Cup? About how Ireland would win, but Krum would get the Snitch?"

"Yeah," said Harry and Ron slowly.

"Well, the git paid us in leprechaun gold he'd caught from the Irish mascots."

"And the gold vanished," Buffy said as George and Fred nodded.

"By next morning, it had gone!" Fred said.

"But—it must've been an accident, mustn't it?" said Hermione.

George laughed very bitterly. "Yeah, that's what we thought, at first. We thought if we just wrote to him, and told him he'd made a mistake, he'd cough up. But nothing doing. Ignored our letter. We kept trying to talk to him about it at Hogwarts, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us."

"In the end, he turned pretty nasty," said Fred. "Told us we were too young to gamble, and he wasn't giving us anything."

"So, we asked for our money back," said George glowering.

"He didn't refuse!" gasped Hermione.

"Right in one," said Fred.

"But that was all your savings!" said Ron.

"Tell me about it," said George. "'Course, we found out what was going on in the end. Lee Jordan's dad had had a bit of trouble getting money off Bagman as well. Turns out he's in big trouble with the goblins. Borrowed loads of gold off them. A gang of them cornered him in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had, and it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts. They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him. He's lost everything gambling. Hasn't got two Galleons to rub together. And you know how the idiot tried to pay the goblins back?"

"How?" said Harry.

"He put a bet first on you, mate," said Fred. "Put a big bet on you to win the tournament. Of course, then Buffy turns out to be the one doing the tasks and he changes his bet to her. Bet against the goblins."

"So that's why he kept trying to help us win!" said Harry as he looked toward Buffy. "Well—technically Buffy did win, didn't she? So, he can pay you your gold!"

"Nope," said George, shaking his head. "The goblins play as dirty as him. They say, like everyone else, that Buffy and Cedric tied, and Bagman was betting she'd win outright. So, Bagman had to run for it. He did run for it right after the third task."

George sighed deeply and started dealing out the cards again.

Buffy felt bad for Fred and George. "Fred, George," she said as she nodded toward the corridor. The twins nodded and she followed them out shutting the door behind them. "What were you needing the money for?"

"To open our own joke shop," Fred said.

"What if I gave you the money. I have more than enough in my vault," Buffy said.

"You don't have to," George said.

"I want to," Buffy said. "And I won't take no for an answer."

Fred and George smiled at Buffy. They though had a counteroffer for Buffy. They would accept the money only as long as Buffy became a silent partner when they finally opened their joke shop. Buffy agreed.

The rest of the journey passed pleasantly, and all too soon, the Hogwarts Express was pulling in at platform nine and three-quarters. The usual confusion and noise filled the corridors as the students began to disembark.

Harry pulled Buffy back into the compartment when the others were halfway down the aisle. "What did you talk to Fred and George about?"

"I'm giving them money for a joke shop."

They all disembarked from the train. Mrs. Weasley was there waiting. She hugged Buffy, Dawn and Harry very tightly when she saw them. "I expect you to visit this summer," she said.

"As I told Ron," Buffy said. "Harry and Dawn will be staying in Sunnydale till after their birthday. Myself I will be coming back and forth as I try and get Sirius a trial, since he didn't have one, and clear his name."

Mrs. Weasley smiled and nodded. "I will floo you and let you know when Ginny is coming. I believe she wants to stay the week around Harry and Dawn's birthday."

"I'm sure I speak for Dawn that she looks forward to seeing Ginny," Buffy said.

"See you, Harry, Dawn, Buffy," said Ron, clapping them each on the back.

"'Bye, Harry!" said Hermione, and she did something she had never done before, and kissed him on the cheek. She then turned toward Buffy and Dawn and pulled them into an embrace and hugged them. "Bye, Buffy! Bye, Dawn!"

"Fred, George," Buffy said. "I plan to open you a vault with money for our enterprising business venture before we leave London. I will get you the key when we return."

"Buffy—thanks," George muttered, while Fred nodded fervently at his side.

"Dawn," Buffy said. "To Gringotts and then home."

Dawn smiled as she closed her eyes and pictured the wizarding bank as the portal formed in front of her.

Author's Note: During the run of the original Buffy comics they eventually started telling stories set during the early seasons of the series and that arc had Dawn in them. That arc of the comics started with Buffy remembering her altered memories of when she faced the Master. It had been said in that comic that Dawn had followed Buffy into the Master's cave and had been the one to pull Buffy out of the pool of water, with Xander still performing CPR to revive Buffy.

Next 2 chapters are Dark Willow and then move into Order of the Phoenix.