Chapter 17: The Scourge of Europe

******Nearly Where We Left off Hogwarts*****

Draco knew Buffy was going to sneak out before midnight to go to the forest to slay. Although he knew Harry and Hermione would probably be there as back up, he wanted to be there for her, too. He watched from the bathroom door until he saw her sneak out. For a moment, he debated what to do. Then he decided to follow her. Before he could get very far, a voice said, "Where do you think you're going?"

His cousin stood with her hands on her hips, giving him that look women had perfected long ago.

"I was going to follow Buffy. Give her backup if she needs it," he said.

"Oh, yeah? You think you can handle the Forbidden Forest after dark?" Cordelia asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Of course," he said arrogantly.

Cordelia grinned. "I give you a seven for your brazenness," she said. "How you think you're going to make it outside without getting caught?"

"I don't know, but I have to try," he said.

Cordelia grinned. "Do you have a stake?" she asked.

"I have my wand," he said.

"You will need a stake, too," she said. She picked up a pencil off the table in the common room and pulled out her wand. "I learned a few useful spells that I think could save my life back home on the hellmouth. Having a stake is important if I lose my wand. Learning to set vampires on fire is good, but sometimes, it could bring too much attention or cause an actual fire. California often has severe droughts."

"That's clever," he said, touching the stake she handed him.

"Not particularly," she said. "But I heard the twins working on an invisibility spell. They hadn't perfected it, but they taught me what they knew. Then I had Willow practice it with me—she's book girl."

"You can make yourself invisible?" he asked, amazed.

"I can for a full minute," she said. "It's as long as we could get the light to bend around us or something. Willow explained it in boring detail."

"So if Filch is skulking around, we might be able to fool him?" Draco asked.

"Hopefully," Cordelia said. "Let's go."

Draco felt immensely better having his strong and capable cousin going with him, and they creeped quietly down the halls of Hogwarts. Somehow, though, they didn't see a single soul.

As for their friends, Buffy found it very awkward under the cloak, especially as Harry and Hermione insisted on going with her. It meant that they had to walk perfectly in step to get outside. It seemed to take them forever, but finally, they were breathing in the night air.

Buffy didn't waste any time, throwing off the cloak and running into the forest, not really waiting for companions.

Hermione pulled out her wand to give them some light as they tried to follow after her. They had little understanding, though, of what a pissed off slayer who didn't get to slay regularly could accomplish in the five minutes it took them to catch up to her. They stepped over more than a few beasties and even one large spider that was still on fire.

"I didn't know she could cause so much death in so short a time," Hermione remarked to Harry.

"She's very focused," he remarked.

For the next half hour, both learned what a slayer really was. The sheer amount of violence she was capable of was startling.

Once or twice, they were able to use their wands to give her some minor assistance. Eventually, Cordelia and Draco caught up with them.

"How did you find us?" Harry asked them.

"Oh, we just followed the dead bodies," Cordelia said with a snort. "She's in the zone, huh?"

"I am very worried," Hermione revealed. "I've never seen her like this."

"We didn't really know she could be like this," Harry admitted.

"It's the slayer," Cordelia said. "She's kept it inside too long. Remember, in Sunnydale, she slayed nightly. She hasn't gotten to slay since the twins went with her back home."

Buffy turned and narrowed her eyes at them. "What are you guys doing here? I don't need a fan club or more people to watch out for," she said flatly.

"As if," Cordelia said with a haughty look. "We are just here to take in the night air."

"Sure," Buffy said.

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked her.

"I'm fine, Hermione," Buffy said. "I just wanted to kill evil things."

Something crept up behind Draco and grabbed him in a choke hold. Cordelia turned when she heard him cry out. To her dismay, it was Spike.

"I'm an evil thing," he said, grinning.

"Let him go!" Cordelia said.

"Why would I do that?" he asked, pulling his arm tighter around Draco's neck.

"So I can kill you fair and square," Buffy said, marching toward the pair. Her friends moved to step behind her.

Spike laughed. "I told Angelus that if we just waited here in this forest, eventually, you'd come out to hunt. No slayer can resist their nature for long," he said. "You did, though, resist it longer than I figured, but now you're here."

"Now you can die first," Buffy said. "Let Draco go."

"Why would I do that?" Spike said. "I live to make you and your friends suffer. You took my dark queen from me." He moved his arm from around Draco's neck and broke Draco's arm as easily as a twig.

Draco's scream drew Buffy's ire, and she moved quickly to yank Draco out of Spike's grip by grabbing his good arm. "Get him out of here!" she yelled at Cordelia, who nodded. She grabbed him by his good arm and fled the area, heading toward the castle, determined to let Uncle Snape know what was going on.

"Let's have a go," Spike said eagerly. "And just so your friends won't set me on fire, I brought some friends."

Much to their dismay, several vampires came out of the woods behind them.

Harry and Hermione didn't delay throwing fire spells, which Professor Wyndam-Price had made sure all of them knew after Ron's death. A few vampires, however, moved too quickly and invaded their personal space.

Buffy hoped the duo could take care of themselves as she and Spike began to fight. For once, she wasted no energy on quips. Instead, she channeled Kendra, the former slayer, and was all business. This vampire killed her dad, and he had to die.

"Did you know that it was me who nabbed your daddy? I brought him to the Dark Lord myself," Spike said with a wide smile.

"You will regret it," she said, finally speaking.

"No, I won't," Spike said, kicking out with a hard kick that connected to her stomach, knocking her hard against a tree.

While Buffy was getting to her feet, she looked at her younger friends. They seemed to be holding their own. Both had put the wands away to engage in close quarter fighting; the extra fight club practice was paying off.

"I gotta hand it to the Dark Lord, he is creative with his curses," Spike said. "Your daddy's every last minute was excruciating for him. He was begging to die when the wizard finally put him out of his misery."

"You mean you didn't kill him yourself?" Buffy snarled, swinging a fist and knocking his head back.

"No, I didn't get the pleasure," he replied. "But it was my idea to gift him to you! Did you like that little gift?"

Buffy's mind nearly shut down as she saw only red. Her body seemed to transform on her own as she reverted to her dragon form.

Spike's eyes widened in shock as the slayer turned into a very large dragon. "Bloody hell!" he called out. "When did you learn to do that?" He didn't wait for an answer as his survival instinct kicked in, and he turned to run.

Buffy, though, opened up her mouth and let out an angry roar, fire shooting from her jowls.

Spike thought that he could outrun a pissed off dragon.

He was wrong.

The two remaining vampires fighting the Golden Duo lost no time in running to the forest behind their intended victims when the slayer transformed into a dragon. One of them looked back in time to see Spike, one of the most vicious vampires to ever live, killer of two slayers, on fire by the dragon's breath.

Just like that, Spike was no more, and Buffy still raged, fire shooting out, desire to burn down the forest building within her.

Harry and Hermione's relief at the disappearing vampires didn't last long as they quickly realized how far-gone Buffy was.

"What do we do?" Harry asked.

Hermione lifted her wand to douse the small fires breaking out near them, and then dragon Buffy turned her glare on them.

"Calm down, Buffy," Harry said in a mild voice, not wanting to antagonize her. "The vampires are gone. You need to release your form and come back to us."

Buffy did exactly that; however, her screams as she bent down on her knees, hands digging into the ground sent chills down Harry's back. For Buffy, the slayer had never been so close. Desire for the blood of her enemies filled her, and she ran through the forest, lost in her desire to slaughter evil.

The creatures in the Forbidden Forest quelled in fear while the centaurs grew alarmed.

"We must sooth the slayer before she destroys our home," Firenze said to his brethren.

"We should kill her and end the threat," Magorian replied.

"Do we wish to get the next slayer to come and wipe us out? One falls another is called—that is the way it has always been," Firenze said.

"She is out of control," Magorian said.

"She is mourning," Firenze said. "The stars have foretold her coming as you well know. She is to purge our forest and defeat the darkness in our land."

"What if she tries to kill us?" Magorian countered.

"We will defend ourselves, of course," Firenze stated. "However, let us speak peacefully to her."

He took off to intercept the slayer while Harry and Hermione left to get Snape.

Buffy was startled when a large horse stopped in front of her. Upon closer inspection, she realized that it was not a horse. Its blonde hair and human body revealed its nature.

"A centaur," she said, a bit freaked. Giles had told her that they were reputed to live in the Forbidden Forest, but Buffy had not actually believed the creatures were real. A second one with dark hair glared at her.

"Yes, we are," the centaur said. "I am Firenze, and this is Magorian. We could feel your rage and grew alarmed."

"Are you here to harm us? You won't find us easy to defeat," Magorian snarled.

"What? I'm not going to harm you. Giles said that you don't harm humans, nor are you evil," Buffy said. "Is that true?"

"We only harm in defense of our own lives," Firenze said.

"Well, then, you don't have to worry about me," Buffy replied.

"You tried to burn down our forest," Magorian said. "You slaughter creatures without hesitation."

"Have you met a slayer before?" Buffy asked them.

Both centaurs shook their heads.

"We have a built-in radar that senses evil creatures," she explained. "I have only killed things that would harm you or other humans. I just killed Spike, an Aurelius vampire who helped torture my stepfather, the man who raised me. He also probably killed Ron Weasley, one of my classmates."

"Then it is good the vampire is dead," Firenze remarked.

"Now you can leave our forest," Magorian said.

"I got a bit carried away," Buffy said, giving them a sheepish look. "I was just so angry when Spike taunted me with how my dad was tortured. I kind of lost it."

"That is understandable," Firenze said. "One must protect herd members."

"I'm Buffy, by the way," she said. "Buffy Summers-Snape. I only found out I'm a witch last May. Professor Snape is my father."

"We wish friendship with you, Slayer Buffy," Firenze said.

"If you harm us, though, you will be our enemy," Magorian said.

Buffy's eyes widened. "I'm sorry. I will go back to the castle. I didn't mean to scare you; I just lost it for a minute or two. I let the slayer in me take over," she admitted.

"Farewell," Firenze said. He and Magorian watched her leave. "See. She is not our enemy."

"She is very young," he remarked, a note of surprise in his voice.

"Slayers always are. It is their nature," Firenze replied.

Magorian nodded, not sure how he felt about the childlike slayer who could kill so easily.

Buffy was walking slowly back to the castle, trying to calm down. An annoyed looking Snape, however, was marching toward her.

"Are you insane?" Snape snarled as he approached his daughter. Relief that she was okay warred with genuine anger at her foolishness.

"Not yet," Buffy said, biting back a smile. "I know, Father. I just had to slay tonight, and I did it. I killed Spike!"

Severus closed his eyes, trying to get a handle on his emotions. When Draco and his niece pounded on his bedroom door, telling him Spike was in the forest and so was Buffy, his heart nearly stopped. Draco was sent to the infirmary while Cordelia was ordered back to her room. He didn't wait to see if she complied, fear pushing him to seek out his daughter.

He knew that he was holding her back too much, but he could not survive her loss. He would tear down their entire community before his vengeance killed him. She returned his heart to him and filled his life with joy, and he could not bear to lose her.

Opening his eyes, he admitted his fears. "If you die, it will destroy me," he said. "I cannot lose you."

Buffy felt a twinge of guilt. "I'm not going to die, Father," she assured him. She stepped into his space, her arms hugging him close. "I am not easy to kill."

Severus hoped it was true as he felt the battle was only just beginning.

*****Lestrange Estate*****

Bellatrix urged her lord to not wait. "We must punish our enemies now before they grow more confident," she said.

"The slayer killed Spike," the vampire named Angelus said. "The one that escaped said she transformed into a dragon. She is stronger than I knew."

"How could you not know she was an animagus?" Voldemort asked him.

"I did not know such things were possible," he admitted. "Your type of magic avoids hellmouths, so I knew little of your community. Buffy only recently found out about her heritage."

"She is very formidable," Voldemort. "Yet our prophecy states only the Boy-Who-Lived can defeat me."

"Prophecies can be thwarted," Angelus said. "Buffy was prophesied to die at the hand of my master. He drowned her in a pool of water. However, her friend gave her CPR and brought her back."

"What is CPR?" Bellatrix asked.

Angelus looked incredulous. "Seriously? You don't know what CPR is? It's when you breathe into their mouth and pound the water out of them," he said. How such ignorant people could have such power was hard to understand. However, their idiocy would make it all the easier for him to defeat them when they no longer served a purpose.

"Fascinating," Voldemort said.

"Disgusting," Bellatrix said.

"Buffy has already defied one prophecy," Angelus said. "It's possible she could help the Potter kid defy another."

"Then we need to get inside the wards in Hogwarts," Bellatrix said.

"I agree," Voldemort said. "We will find a way." They needed to move soon. Losing the vicious vampire, Spike, to the teenage slayer was another hard blow. Lucius Malfoy would pay for his betrayal.

*****London*****

Narcissa was picking out a novel for her husband to read at a muggle bookstore. He was confined to their home for the foreseeable future, and he grew more restless every day. She believed no one she knew would know her in the muggle part of town. Hopefully, none of their enemies would think to look for her there either.

Sadly, she was wrong.

*****Chapter End*****