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The trio walked until they were out of hearing distance of the castle. Surprisingly, it was Spike who struck up the first piece of conversation.

“Well, I betcha didn’t expect to be seeing me again so soon, Slayer,” he said.

Buffy turned to glare at him.

“I really hate you Spike.”

“Hate you too Elizabeth.”

She was tempted to slap him across the face, but she didn’t dare in case they were being followed by anyone else.

“All this time I was trying to kill you, and if I had, I would have been no more than a dusty pile on the floor,” Spike mused. “Good thing you were lucky, eh?

“Luck had nothing to do with it,” Buffy retorted. “You killed two Slayers, but you couldn’t kill me, even though I’m not one. What does that tell you?”

Spike growled and took a menacing step forward. Angel stepped in, pushing the blonde vampire back.

“Patience, William, patience. We’ll have our fill before long. Until then, it’s yes-my-lord’s for the both of us,” Angel said, his voice mocking and lyrical, returning with a touch of the Irish brogue that Angelus had usually spoken with. Buffy was having a hard time reminding herself that it wasn’t actually Angelus. No wonder Spike had been fooled.

Spike looked towards the older vampire with interest. “You mean to kill her?”

Angel swung his gaze to Buffy, his eyes speaking what his mouth could not. Buffy saw the request there and began walking backwards, away from them, her body trembling with fear. The fear, however, was quite real. She wasn’t afraid of Angel of course, but she was afraid of her father. She had no idea what was left in store for her, nor did she know when she would be able to leave.

Spike saw the fear and revelled in it. He hadn’t seen the Slayer afraid since the incident at Halloween when her memory had been lost and she’d been convinced she was merely an eighteenth century girl. The fear was intoxicating for him. Even though she wasn’t a Slayer, she was still quite possibly the most powerful girl that the planet held.

“I don’t mean to just kill her Spike,” Angel said with exaggerated impatience. “There are all sorts of other things that we could do to her before death.”

Buffy swallowed hard. She was keenly reminded why she’d hated Angelus. The demon was obsessed with torment and torture, and she knew from reading about him that he wasn’t a demon to be trifled with.

“We?” Spike repeated.

Angel turned to look at him incredulously. “You’ve been after this girl for months Spike. You think a sire could really deny his favoured childe at least a taste of the spoils of war?”

Buffy felt her back hit a tree trunk, and she stopped, both of the vampires looming before her. Angel’s eyes looked at her softly, silently questioning if she was alright. She nodded once, and told him to keep going with wherever it was he was planning on going with this.

“In fact,” Angel continued, “I think we should start right now.”

Spike looked at the dark vampire.

“You heard what the Dark Lord said,” Spike protested.

Angel waved his hand as though Voldemort’s warning had been nothing more than an empty threat.

“Spike, she won’t tell,” Angel said. He pointed disdainfully towards Buffy. “Look at her. Can’t you smell the fear on her? She wouldn’t go running to daddy if anything were to happen.”

Spike looked at the girl thoughtfully, his head tilting to one side. He seemed to be considering it, a thought which made Buffy’s blood run cold. Angel hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that Spike was infatuated by her.

“Peaches has got a point,” Spike said, stalking towards Buffy. “You wouldn’t go running to daddy would you?”

Buffy looked past Spike towards Angel who was reaching into his coat. She saw the dark vampire pull out a stake and Buffy immediately turned her attention back to Spike.

“Y-you wouldn’t-”

“Wouldn’t I?”

“Please…”

Spike laughed and stepped forward again until they were only millimetres apart. His hand came up to cup Buffy’s face.

“I went through all the trouble of going into Hogwarts to get you, and you think I wouldn’t do something all mean and nasty like hurting you,” Spike said rhetorically.

Angel faltered. He hadn’t known that it had been Spike that had brought Buffy out of Hogwarts.

“But…how did you get in?” Buffy asked. “There’s barriers and…you wouldn’t have been invited.”

Spike smirked and began playing with a strand of Buffy’s hair, running his fingers through it gently.

“Ah, but I was invited,” Spike said. “You see, I was a student at Hogwarts…a hundred and thirty years ago. It’s amazing what a simple carving into an old floorboard will achieve. William lives here. I didn’t need an invite into my own home.”

Buffy looked at him incredulously.

“But why…why would you?”

“Why?!” Spike repeated, almost yelling the word as he began to laugh maniacally. “Why? Because, Elizabeth, bringing you to Voldemort would make me the most important person in his circle. Do you have any idea what kind of power he has, any idea at all? With that kind of power, I coulda finally got Dru back. I would finally be better than Peaches over there! When no one else had the guts to go into Hogwarts to get you out, I volunteered. When I heard that it was a girl who’d been bought up as a Slayer, I knew, just knew that it was you. And lo and behold…there you were. The one person who had aggravated me more than anyone else was the one person who would end up making sure I was one of the most powerful beings to walk this earth.”

Buffy swallowed, feeling disgusted. She couldn’t believe that she’d made a truce with the blonde vampire who had sold her out completely. She couldn’t believe that she’d let him get away after he had ‘helped’ her to fight Angelus to defeat the demon Acathla.

“You’ll never be powerful Spike,” Buffy said quietly.

Her eyes locked with Angel’s, and Spike seemed to realise what was going on. He turned quickly and felt the solid wooden stake being shoved firmly into his heart. He gasped and looked up at his sire, surprise and betrayal on his face.

“So long William,” Angel said coldly.

Spike turned to dust within a matter of seconds. Angel grabbed Buffy’s hand, not even giving her a chance to process everything that had just happened. He began running as fast as he could away from Voldemort’s estate. They ran through a dark patch of woods, ducking in and out of trees, under and over branches, running to get away from the blackened towers of Voldemort’s castle.

They came to a large brick fence, ten feet high. They stopped, Buffy breathless after the run that had been almost twelve miles.

“Now what?” Buffy asked.

Angel looked around and saw no trees anywhere near the fence line. He looked up at the height of the wall, as though considering his options.

“I can give you a hand over it, but…”

“But then you’d be stuck,” Buffy said.

Angel nodded. Buffy sighed and she too looked up at the wall.

“I could pull you up once I was at the top of it,” she said.

“Buffy-”

“I’m still strong Angel,” Buffy said before he could begin to protest. “It would be worth a shot.”

Angel sighed and nodded, knowing that Buffy was the most stubborn person on the face of the earth.

“But if you can’t pull me up, then you have to promise me that you’ll keep going,” Angel said.

Buffy looked at him, aghast at the thought of leaving him behind.

“Angel no!”

“Buffy, I can’t let you stay here because of me. It’s not safe for you here, especially seeing as we’re trying to escape. If you’re caught, the punishment will be much harsher for you than it would be for me. I’d be killed in an instant…you wouldn’t be so lucky.”

Buffy shuddered and hated the fact that he was right. She nodded, but Angel knew that she wouldn’t hold true to her word unless she was forced to say it aloud.

“Say it Buffy,” he implored. “Promise me that you will keep going if for some reason I can’t get over.”

Buffy hesitated and closed her eyes. “I promise.”

“Promise what?” he insisted.

“I promise I will keep going, even if you don’t make it to the other side.”

Angel nodded, satisfied with her oath. He knelt down and cradled his hands together to make a foothold. He lifted her until she could grab hold of the edge of the wall. She pulled herself up, grateful that she had kept up her training even though she hadn’t slayed anything since the incident in the first week with the vampires in the Forbidden Forest.

The top of the wall was thick, about five bricks across so that going through the wall would have been hard. It made balancing atop it a lot easier though. Buffy lay down flat and held her hand down to Angel. He could only just reach her hand.

“We shoulda done this the other way around,” Buffy commented.

Angel shook his head as he grabbed hold of her wrist for a better grip.

“No, because then you would have been stuck down here,” Angel said.

He tried gripping his feet into the grooves in the wall that the bricks made, and found that it helped a little. He tried to pull himself up without making Buffy topple back on top of him. He finally managed to grab hold of the top of the wall, and Buffy was able to grab hold of the vampire under his arms and haul him up. They toppled over, thankfully landing on the right side of the wall.

Angel again grabbed Buffy’s hand and the two of them began running once more.

“Where the hell are we anyway?” Buffy managed to ask as they ran.

“Just outside of London. We need to get to Diagon Alley otherwise I have no idea where we are,” Angel replied.

Buffy shook her head, but realise that it had little effect seeing as she was behind him.

“We just need to get far enough away from Voldemort’s place,” Buffy said. “There’s dark magic around here, it’s stuffing around with my senses. As soon as we’re clear, I can try and disapparate us out of here.”

“You’re not strong enough for that,” Angel said.

“That stupid sleeping spell has finally worn off Angel,” Buffy said. “It’d be worth a shot.”

Angel turned to look back at her even as they kept running, relying on his senses to ensure he didn’t run into any trees.

“No, I mean…disapparting’s advanced Buffy. The Ministry only lets you try when you’re eighteen. And as much as I wish you were turning eighteen next month, I know you’re only sixteen.”

“I’ve done it before,” Buffy said. “The other day. And why do you wish I was turning eighteen?”

“You’ve disapparated? How were you not expelled?” Angel asked curiously.

“No one knew that I’d done it. No one except-” she stopped speaking, suddenly remembering her new boyfriend.

“Except who?” Angel asked.

“Harry,” Buffy admitted.

Angel felt his heart sink. He’d known that there was someone knew in Buffy’s life. He’d been able to smell someone else on her, and whilst part of him was glad that she’d been able to move on and find someone, part of him resented that it wasn’t him. That it couldn’t ever be him again.

“I still wanna know why you wish I was eighteen,” Buffy said, trying to divert the attention away from her admission about Harry.

“Because,” Angel replied, “You were only fifteen when we made love. It makes me feel like some dirty old man.”

Buffy couldn’t help the giggle that came from her mouth. She couldn’t believe that Angel had just said that. It just sounded so unlike him. He smiled when he heard her laugh, thankful that his comment had garnered that particular reaction. He was hoping to make her laugh, the sound of her happiness was something he’d been longing to hear for many years spent in a hell dimension.

“So, tell me about this Harry guy,” Angel said. “What’s he like?”

Buffy tried searching his tone of voice for any resentment, but could hear only genuine concern and curiousity.

“He’s nice. Really nice. Except…he’s gonna be a little angry about this whole, me being Voldemort’s daughter thing,” Buffy said.

“Why’s that?” Angel asked.

“Well duh! The fact that I’m Voldemort’s daughter is pretty much enough to make anyone not like me. And the fact that my father killed his parents is probably another reason for him to never speak to me again,” Buffy said sadly. “I wonder if they’ve worked it out yet.”

“They would know you’re missing Buffy,” Angel said. “Professor Dumbledore would have worked it out quickly enough.”

“Plus Giles is probably freaking,” Buffy added.

“Giles? Giles is at Hogwarts as well?” Angel asked.

Buffy nodded, and again realised that Angel was in front of her and unable to see her body language.

“Yeah. He’s the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher,” Buffy explained. “He’s really good.”

“I imagine he would be,” Angel mused. “I believe I owe him several hours worth of apologies.”

Buffy’s face fell. In the last few months, she’d forgotten all about that. She’d forgotten that her Watcher had been badly injured by Angelus, tormented by the demon that bore the face of Buffy’s lover. She’d been trying to repress the few months that Angel had been without his soul and just concentrate on the better memories from when they’d been together. Forgetting about Angelus had helped her forget the truth of what she’d done when she’d killed Angel.

“I think you mighta earned some brownie points for getting me outta there,” Buffy said.

Angel nodded and they continued their trek towards London. Buffy stopped suddenly, gasping aloud as a sharp pain stabbed her in the crook of her elbow. She clutched at it in pain. Angel stopped immediately, holding her arm gently.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“My arm. Angel, it hurts so much,” she whimpered.

Angel frowned and began rolling up her sleeve gently. They both gasped in unison when they saw the black design on her skin. It was a skull with a snake coming out of it’s mouth. Worry stretched across Angel’s face.

“It’s the Dark Mark,” he explained. “Voldemort’s symbol.”

Buffy felt incredibly faint. She looked at it closely. It wasn’t a tattoo as she had originally thought it to be. It had been burnt onto the skin. She swallowed nervously.

“Will it…it won’t lead him to me will it?” she asked hesitantly.

Angel shook his head, grateful for that small reprieve.

“It was just a mark to let him communicate with his followers. The burning of the Mark like yours just did was to summon the others,” he replied. “He won’t be able to tell where you are.”

“But he knows I’m at Hogwarts,” Buffy said. “Someone must have known the password to the Gryffindor Common Room.”

“Get Dumbledore to ask one of the prefects to change it,” Angel replied. “Hogwarts is the safest place for you to be at the moment.”

Buffy nodded, knowing he was right. She just wasn’t looking forward to going back. She estimated that she’d been taken sometime around five in the morning. It was now ten thirty in the evening. Her disappearance wouldn’t have gone unnoticed by the teachers or the students. As to the rumours that would inevitably spread about her reason for suddenly being nowhere to be found, she could only guess as to how bad they would be.

They walked down the deserted London road towards the Leaky Cauldron. There weren’t many people about, something that Buffy was fairly grateful for. They moved through the pub and out into the small courtyard. Buffy pulled her wand out and tapped the bricks to get the doors to open.

She sighed in relief as they stepped into Diagon Alley and the walls closed up around them. She felt safer now that she was on familiar territory. The problem was, what was Angel going to do now that he’d helped her escape from Voldemort?

“Angel?”

He looked down at her and knew without her having to ask. She was worried for him. He pulled her close to him and cupped her cheek gently.

“Don’t worry about me Buffy,” he whispered.

“But-”

He placed a gentle finger to her lips, silencing her.

“I won’t stay,” he whispered. “It’s not fair to you. Or to Giles. The things I did…”

“It wasn’t you!”

“But I remember doing them. I remember enjoying it,” he whispered. “I’m gonna head back to the hellmouth. It’s unprotected now with you gone.”

She really hated when he was right.

“I love you Angel,” she said quietly.

Angel smiled and tilted his head, his lips meeting hers softly.

“I love you too.”

“I wish things could be different,” she whispered.

He nodded and finally pulled back, beginning to walk down the darkened street.

“So do I, beloved. So do I.”

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