Author's Note: Monbade – Buffy isn't teaching DADA. She is teaching DAFD (Defense Against the Forces of Darkness (I.E. Vampires and Demons). Umbridge is teaching DADA. The book for Buffy's class is the 'A Treatise on the Mythology and Methodology of the Vampire Slayer' (btw that is the book that was mentioned in season 5 of Buffy during the episode where they find the Magic Box owner killed by Harmony's Minions).

Chapter 28: Return to Hogwarts

August 31, 2002

Buffy, Dawn, Willow and Mrs. Weasley returned from Diagon Alley around six o'clock, laden with books. Mrs. Weasley was also carrying a long package wrapped in thick brown paper that Ron took from her with a moan of longing.

"Never mind unwrapping it now, people are arriving for dinner, I want you all downstairs," she said, but the moment she was out of sight Ron ripped off the paper in a frenzy and examined every inch of his new broom, an ecstatic expression on his face.

Down in the basement Mrs. Weasley had hung a scarlet banner over the heavily laden dinner table, which read CONGRATULATIONS RON AND HERMIONE—NEW PREFECTS. "I thought we'd have a little party, not a sit-down dinner," she told Dawn, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Fred, George, and Ginny as they entered the room.

"Your father and Bill are on their way, Ron, I've sent them both owls and they're thrilled," she added, beaming.

Fred rolled his eyes.

Buffy, Willow, Sirius, Lupin, Tonks, and Kingsley Shacklebolt were already there and Mad-Eye Moody stumped in moments later.

"Oh, Alastor, I am glad you're here," said Mrs. Weasley brightly, as Mad-Eye shrugged off his traveling cloak. "We've been wanting to ask you for ages—could you have a look in the writing desk in the drawing room and tell us what's inside it? We haven't wanted to open it just in case it's something really nasty."

"No problem, Molly…" Moody's electric-blue eye swiveled upward and stared fixedly through the ceiling of the kitchen.

"Drawing room…" he growled, as the pupil contracted. "Desk in the corner? Yeah, I see it… Yeah, it's a boggart… Want me to go up and get rid of it, Molly?"

"No, no, I'll do it myself later," beamed Mrs. Weasley. "You have your drink. We're having a little bit of a celebration, actually…" She gestured at the scarlet banner. "Fourth prefect in the family!" she said fondly, ruffling Ron's hair.

"Prefect, eh?" growled Moody, his normal eye on Ron and his magical eye swiveling around to gaze into the side of his head. "Well, congratulations, authority figures always attract trouble, but I suppose Dumbledore thinks you can withstand most major jinxes or he wouldn't have appointed you…"

Ron looked rather startled at this view of the matter but was saved the trouble of responding by the arrival of his father and eldest brother. Mrs. Weasley was in such a good mood she did not even complain that they had brought Mundungus with them too; he was wearing a long overcoat that seemed oddly lumpy in unlikely places and declined the offer to remove it and put it with Moody's traveling cloak.

"Well, I think a toast is in order," said Mr. Weasley, when everyone had a drink. He raised his goblet. "To Ron and Hermione, the new Gryffindor prefects!"

Ron and Hermione beamed as everyone drank to them and then applauded.

"I was never a prefect myself," said Tonks brightly as everybody moved toward the table to help themselves to food. "My Head of House said I lacked certain necessary qualities."

"Like what?" said Ginny, who was choosing a baked potato.

"Like the ability to behave myself," said Tonks.

"What about you, Sirius?" Ginny asked.

Sirius, who was right beside Harry, laughed. "No one would have made me a prefect, I spent too much time in detention with James. Lupin was the good boy; he got the badge."

"So, Harry takes after dad?" Buffy said as Harry glared at her.

"Should I answer that, Harry," Sirius said as he ruffled his godson's hair.

"No," Harry answered.

Later Buffy slipped out and went upstairs. She intended to give Mrs. Weasley a parting gift. When she got to the door she stepped into the room. She opened the writing desk to face the boggart. What she saw was Dawn dead.

"No," Buffy said backing away. She raised her wand and pointed it at Dawn's dead body. "R-r-riddikulus!''

Crack.

Dawn's body turned into Harry's, spread-eagled on his back, his eyes wide open and empty.

"No," Buffy said again. "R-riddikulus!"

Crack.

Willow's body replaced Harry's, a trickle of blood running down her face.

"No!" Buffy moaned. "No… riddikulus! Riddikulus!"

Crack. Dead Xander. Crack. Dead Giles

Buffy hadn't heard anyone come into the room behind her till she heard Harry's voice.

"Buffy?"

"RIDDIKULUS!" Buffy called out again.

Crack.

What faced Buffy was a person she recognized, a person she saw in the mirror every day. Herself. But this version of her unlike the other forms the Boggart had taken was not dead. It was a vampire.

Harry didn't dare to try and divert the boggart's attention because he knew the next form it would take would be a dementor. "Professor Lupin!" he called out.

Lupin came running into the room, closely followed by Sirius, with Moody stumping along behind them. Lupin looked from Buffy to Vampire Buffy and seemed to understand in an instant. Pulling out his own wand he said, very firmly and clearly, "Riddikulus!"

The Vampire Buffy vanished. A silvery orb hung in the air over the spot where it had lain. Lupin waved his wand once more and the orb vanished in a puff of smoke.

"Buffy?" Harry said as he walked over to his sister.

"That was a vampire," Sirius said shocked. "Is that what Buffy's afraid of? That she will become a vampire?"

"Among other things," Harry said as he pulled Buffy close to him. He felt her bury her head into his shoulder as tears fell from her eyes.

"What other things?" Lupin wondered.

"Me, Dawn, Buffy's friends maybe even our friends, dead," Harry explained. "She's afraid of failing and the world going to hell."

"I came in here as a parting gift," Buffy's muffled voice said from Harry's shoulder. "I intended to get rid of the boggart so Molly wouldn't have to."

Sirius sighed as he looked at his godchildren. They both had been through so much. He whispered to Lupin who nodded and left the room. He then took Buffy from Harry and carried her to the bedroom she and Dawn had been sharing with Hermione and Ginny. He laid her on the bed as Lupin came back carrying a vial.

Sirius smiled at his friend as he took the vial from Lupin and then had Buffy drink it down. Moments later Buffy was asleep. "Dreamless I hope?" he asked.

"Yes," Lupin said. "I think it's time I found out the full story."

"I think your right," Sirius said as he led Lupin out of the bedroom and closed the door behind them.

Sirius, Dawn and Harry told Lupin, Moody, Tonks and anyone else who had not heard Buffy and Dawn's story the year before everything. How Buffy had been given up for adoption by James and Lily. How she had been called as the Slayer, how she had drowned and called the next Slayer before being revived by her friend. How she had killed Angel to save the world and had run away from home for the summer before finally returning in the fall. To destroying her high school to keep the town's mayor from becoming a demon to the Initiative and Adam to Dracula and finally Glory, Dawn and the Key.

Lupin and Tonks both sat back in complete shock at everything that had happened in Buffy's life.

"No wander she's afraid of everyone around her dying," Lupin said. "The poor girl. She's been through so much. More than anyone should ever have to be through. And we think Harry, here, has had to grow up fast. She's had to do it faster, in the span of days after she was called, she had to start acting older than she was because of her calling. Then her adopted mother dies and leaves her having to raise her sister at the age of twenty. No one should ever have to go through any of that. I see now Sirius why you consider both Dawn and Buffy your godchildren alongside Harry."

"Buffy has always put on a brave face."

They all turned and saw Willow standing in the kitchen doorway.

"I remember when she was told that the Master would kill her. I wasn't there to personally see. But from what I learned after she had gone to face the Master, she was a wreck. She didn't want to die," Willow said. "I think I see now what Professor Dumbledore was trying to tell me."

"What, Willow?" Dawn said.

"He called me on purpose by the wrong last name," Willow said. "He said Potter instead of Rosenberg. Then he said some stuff about my returning Buffy's feelings. And it being different than what Tara and I had. I think I have to find somehow to fall in love again. To return Buffy's love and then to help her finally and truly begin to move on. I don't know if I can do that now it's only been two months. I need time, it could be years, I hope it's not. Yes, I would love to wake up tomorrow and say yes, I know I'm in love again, but I know that's not how it works."

"Take your time, Willow," Sirius said as he stood and moved over to the redhead. "Let Buffy help you as you help her."

September 1, 2002

The next morning once all the trunks were downstairs and everyone was ready. Dawn opened a portal straight to platform nine and three-quarters.

"Well, look after yourselves," said Lupin, shaking hands all round. He reached Buffy, Dawn and Harry last and gave them each a clap on the shoulder. "You three as well; Harry, Dawn, Buffy. Be careful."

"Yeah, keep your head down and your eyes peeled," said Moody, shaking first Harry's hand followed by Dawn's and finally Buffy's. "And don't forget, all of you—careful what you put in writing. If in doubt, don't put it in a letter at all."

"It's been great meeting all of you," said Tonks, hugging Hermione, Dawn, Buffy and Ginny. "We'll see you soon, I expect."

A warning whistle sounded; the students still on the platform started hurrying onto the train.

"Quick, quick," said Mrs. Weasley distractedly, hugging them at random and catching Buffy twice. "Write… Be good… If you've forgotten anything, we'll send it on… Onto the train, now, hurry…"

Sirius smiled at Buffy, Dawn and Harry. "You three take care. I will see you all next summer if not sooner." He stood there and watched as his godchildren and Willow boarded the train.

"See you!" Harry called out of the open window moments later as the train began to move, while Dawn, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny waved beside him. The figures of Sirius, Tonks, Lupin, Moody, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley shrank rapidly, and then they turned the corner, and the platform was gone.

"Well," said Fred, clapping his hands together, "can't stand around chatting all day, we've got business to discuss with Lee. See you later," and he and George disappeared down the corridor to the right.

The train was gathering still more speed, so that the houses outside the window flashed past and they swayed where they stood.

"Shall we go and find a Buffy, then?" Harry asked, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Dawn.

Ron and Hermione exchanged looks. "Er," said Ron.

"We're—well—Ron and I are supposed to go into the prefect carriage," Hermione said awkwardly. "I don't think we'll have to stay there all journey. Our letters said we just get instructions from the Head Boy and Girl and then patrol the corridors from time to time."

"Okay," Dawn said. "We'll see you later, then."

"Yeah, definitely," said Ron. "It's a pain having to go down there, I'd rather—but we have to—I mean, I'm not enjoying it, I'm not Percy."

"I know you're not," said Harry and he grinned.

Hermione and Ron dragged their trunks, Crookshanks, and a caged Pigwidgeon off toward the engine end of the train.

"Come on," Dawn said. "Let's go find where Buffy and Willow hid themselves."

"Right," said Harry, picking up Hedwig's cage in one hand and the handle of his trunk in the other. They struggled off down the corridor, peering through the glass-paneled doors into the compartments they passed.

In the very last carriage, they finally found Buffy and Willow sitting in a compartment with Luna Lovegood. Ginny slid the door open and pulled her trunk inside it. Harry and Dawn followed.

"Hi, Luna," said Ginny. "Hey, Buffy. You wanted to be hard to find."

Buffy didn't answer as she stared out the window.

"Dawn," Ginny whispered as she, Dawn and Harry stowed their stuff for the rest of the train ride. "What's wrong with Buffy?"

"Nothing," Buffy said as she looked at Ginny who looked back at her. "Slayer, remember. Enhanced hearing comes with the package."

"It's just that I heard Sirius, Harry and Dawn with Professor Lupin, Mad-Eye and Tonks talking about you last night," Ginny admitted as she, Harry and Dawn sat down.

Buffy glanced at Harry and then Dawn.

"Professor Lupin was concerned," Harry said as he looked at his sister. "After what happened with the boggart."

"And me seeing everything I'm afraid of come to life," Buffy said with a sigh. "Yes, what I saw is what I'm afraid of every day. I'm afraid my friends, my brother, my sister will die and I can do nothing about it. I'm afraid that I will be bitten and turned into a vampire. I'm afraid I will fail and the world will be sucked into a hell dimension and everyone I love will experience unbelievable torture at the hands of a demon. I'm afraid of all of it."

"I won't let any of that happen," Ginny said.

"Nor I," added Dawn and Harry.

"And neither will I," added Willow. "I think, Buffy, we may have the makings of Scoobies 2.0."

Buffy looked at her brother, her sister, her best friend and her sister's girlfriend and smiled.

If Luna thought that conversation was weird, she didn't say anything as she watched them over her upside-down magazine, which was called The Quibbler.

"Had a good summer, Luna?" Ginny asked.

"Yes," said Luna dreamily. "Yes, it was quite enjoyable, you know." She looked toward Harry, Dawn and Buffy. "You three are Harry, Dawn and Professor Elizabeth Potter," she added.

"You know we are," said Harry.

Luna turned and glanced at Willow. "And I don't know who you are."

"Willow Rosenberg," Willow answered. "I'm transferring into seventh-year from Sunnydale Academy."

"Never heard of it," admitted Luna.

"It's a small school. Being on the Hellmouth not too many witches or wizards attend each year. Parents usually like to send their kids to Salem Academy instead."

Luna raised her upside-down magazine high enough to hide her face and fell silent.

The train rattled onward, speeding them out into open country.

Ron and Hermione did not turn up for nearly an hour, by which time the food trolley had already gone by. Harry, Ginny, Dawn, Buffy and Willow had finished their Pumpkin Pasties and were busy swapping Chocolate Frog cards when the compartment door slid open and they walked in, accompanied by Crookshanks and a shrilly hooting Pigwidgeon in his cage.

"I'm starving," said Ron, stowing Pigwidgeon next to Hedwig, grabbing a Chocolate Frog from Harry and throwing himself into the seat.

As the compartment began to get crowded Ginny moved over and into Dawn's lap so Hermione would have a place to sit.

Ron ripped open the wrapper, bit off the Frog's head, and leaned back with his eyes closed as though he had had a very exhausting morning.

"Well, there are two fifth-year prefects from each House," said Hermione, looking thoroughly disgruntled as she took her seat. "Boy and girl from each."

"Is that common?" Willow asked.

"Pretty much," Hermione said.

"And guess who's a Slytherin prefect?" said Ron, still with his eyes closed.

"Malfoy," replied Harry at once.

"'Course," said Ron bitterly, stuffing the rest of the Frog into his mouth and taking another.

"And that complete cow Pansy Parkinson," said Hermione viciously. "How she got to be a prefect when she's thicker than a concussed troll…"

"Hermione," Buffy said. "Would you like me to remove the points I already awarded you for from when we were riding home?"

"Sorry, Buffy," Hermione said.

"Who's Hufflepuff?" Harry asked.

"Ernie Macmillan and Hannah Abbott," said Ron thickly.

"And Anthony Goldstein and Padma Patil for Ravenclaw," said Hermione.

"You went to the Yule Ball with Padma Patil," said a vague voice.

Everyone turned to look at Luna Lovegood, who was gazing unblinkingly at Ron over the top of The Quibbler. He swallowed his mouthful of Frog.

"Yeah, I know I did," Ron said, looking mildly surprised.

"She didn't enjoy it very much," Luna informed him. "She doesn't think you treated her very well, because you wouldn't dance with her. I don't think I'd have minded," she added thoughtfully, "I don't like dancing very much." She retreated behind The Quibbler again.

"We're supposed to patrol the corridors every so often," Ron said, "and we can give out punishments if people are misbehaving. I can't wait to get Crabbe and Goyle for something…"

"Don't abuse the power, Ron," Buffy said. "Or I will take your points back. And before you say anything about Mr. Malfoy abusing his power as Prefect. That's not going to happen. If I catch him doing so. Not only will he loose points for Slytherin. He will also be in detention with me."

Ron sighed and nodded. "Alright, Buffy. If you do catch them, make their detention horrible."

"For what happened last year between Dawn and him," Buffy said. "While I can't play favorites, I'm not letting that slide either."

Everyone laughed, even Luna. And as she laughed her magazine slipped out of her grasp, slid down her legs, and onto the floor.

Buffy glanced at the magazine on the floor, noticed something that made her dive for it. She laughed at what she saw a fairly bad cartoon of Cornelius Fudge. She showed everyone else who laughed also. She began to look at the titles of other articles inside the magazine.

CORRUPTION IN THE QUIDDITCH LEAGUE:

How the Tornados Are Taking Control

SECRETS OF THE ANCIENT RUNES REVEALED

SIRIUS BLACK: Villain or Victim?

"Can I look at this?" Buffy asked Luna.

"Of course, Professor," Luna replied.

Buffy flipped through the magazine to the article on Sirius Black. She read through the article and laughed. Someone somehow had made the connection that Sirius was really a famous musician and that Sirius was an alias as he had been using when he supposedly quit performing and had retired from public view after a turnup had hit him in the ear ending his music career.

"You have to read this; Harry, Dawn," Buffy said showing them the article. "It's the funniest thing I've ever read. Can you see him as a musician?"

Harry and Dawn read the article then looked at each other. Neither of them could picture Sirius on stage as a musician any more than Buffy.

"The Quibbler's rubbish, everyone knows that," Hermione said.

"Excuse me," said Luna; her voice had suddenly lost its dreamy quality. "My father's the editor."

"I—oh," said Hermione, looking embarrassed. "Well… it's got some interesting… I mean, it's quite…"

"I'll have it back, thank you," said Luna coldly, and leaning forward she snatched it out of Harry's hands. Rifling through it to page fifty-seven, she turned it resolutely upside down again and disappeared behind it, just as the compartment door opened for the third time as Draco Malfoy appeared in the door with his cronies Crabbe and Goyle.

"What?" Dawn said aggressively, before Malfoy could open his mouth.

"Manners, Potter, or I'll have to give you a detention," drawled Malfoy.

"And I will have you in detention for abuse of power, Mr. Malfoy," Buffy said as he turned and looked at her. "Ten points from Slytherin. If I see you abusing that power. Not only will you lose more house points and get detention I will talk to Professor Dumbledore about having you replaced as a Slytherin Prefect. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, Professor," Malfoy answered. He motioned to Crabbe and Goyle and they followed him down the corridor.

Hermione slammed the compartment door behind them.

The weather remained undecided as they traveled farther and farther north. Rain spattered the windows in a halfhearted way, then the sun put in a feeble appearance before clouds drifted over it once more. When darkness fell and lamps came on inside the carriages, Luna rolled up The Quibbler, put it carefully away in her bag, and took to staring at everyone in the compartment instead.

"We'd better change," said Hermione at last. She and Ron pinned their prefect badges carefully to their chests.

At last the train began to slow down and they heard the usual racket up and down it as everybody scrambled to get their luggage and pets assembled, ready for departure. Ron and Hermione were supposed to supervise all this; they disappeared from the carriage again.

They shuffled out of the compartment feeling the first sting of the night air on their faces as they joined the crowd in the corridor. Slowly they moved toward the doors. They stepped down onto the platform and looked around, listening for the familiar call of "Firs' years over here… firs' years…"

But it did not come. Instead a quite different voice, a brisk female one, was calling, "First years line up over here, please! All first years to me!"

"Come on, Willow," Buffy said as she led Willow away from Harry, Dawn and Ginny. She led Willow to Professor Grubbly-Plank.

"Professor Potter," Grubbly-Plank said as she spotted Buffy. "Who do we have here?"

"A new transfer student," Buffy said. "Transferring into seventh-year. First time to Hogwarts."

"Give her the treatment you and your sister got last year?" Grubbly-Plank said.

Buffy nodded as she led Willow to a boat and they both got in.

Back further down the platform Dawn and Ginny found they had been separated from Harry as they moved off along the platform and out through the station and onto the dark rain-washed road outside Hogsmeade station.

Here stood a hundred or so stagecoaches that always took the students above first year up to the castle. Dawn looked at the the coaches and saw creatures standing between the carriage shafts. They were completely fleshless, their black coats clinging to their skeletons, of which every bone was visible. Their heads were dragonish, and their pupil-less eyes white and staring. Wings sprouted from each wither—vast, black leathery wings that looked as though they ought to belong to giant bats. Standing still and quiet in the gloom, the creatures looked eerie and sinister.

"Dawn?" Ginny said.

"What are those?" Dawn asked.

"What are what?" Ginny asked.

"The horse things," Dawn said.

"What horse things?" Ginny said as she looked around.

"The horse things pulling the carriages!" said Dawn; they were, after all, about three feet from the nearest one; it was watching them with empty white eyes.

Ginny gave Dawn a perplexed look. "What are you talking about?" she asked.

"I'm talking about—look!" Dawn said as she spun her girlfriend around so that Ginny was face-to-face with the winged horse.

Ginny stared straight at it for a second, then looked back at Dawn. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

"Harnessed to the coach," Dawn said. "You don't see it?" She realized that Ginny couldn't see it. "You can't. Their invisible to you."

"If I didn't know who your sister was and what she was," Ginny said. "I would think you are going mental. But if you say you see something, I believe you. I don't see it though."

"I can see them."

Ginny and Dawn turned and found Luna behind them.

"What are they?" Dawn asked.

"Don't know," Luna admitted. "But I've been able to see them ever since my first day here. They've always pulled the carriages."