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Ron groaned. “Not here again.”

Hermione opened the door to the second floor girl’s bathroom. “Yes here. It’s perfect. No one comes in here.”

“Why’s that?” Buffy asked curiously as they made their way into the large concrete bathroom. There was a set of sinks in a circle in the centre of the bathroom and a long row of cubicles to the left of the entrance.

Harry pointed up towards a window. “Cos of her.”

Buffy gasped when she saw a translucent looking girl sitting on the windowsill, glaring at them.

“Her?!” the ghost cried angrily. “Her?! That’s all the thanks I get? Even after I helped you last year!”

Harry swallowed nervously.

“Sorry,” he said, looking chagrined. “Myrtle, this is Buffy.”

“Hey Myrtle,” Buffy greeted, trying to sound casual, but failing miserably.

Myrtle floated down so that the two girls were at eye-level.

“If you’ve come to make fun of me, then you can just turn around right now.”

“No, no funny-making coming from me,” Buffy said. “Scouts honour.”

Myrtle gave a snobbish ‘hmph’ and floated back up to her windowsill. The foursome gave each other amused glances before settling themselves onto the concrete floor; Buffy and Hermione sitting cross-legged while Harry and Ron spread themselves out comfortably, leaning against the walls. Harry and Buffy sat on one side whilst Ron and Hermione sat on the other.

Buffy looked around, feeling something ‘off’ about this place.

“Buffy?” Harry asked quietly.

She looked at him, a distracted expression on her face.

“What is it?” Hermione asked.

“My spider-sense is tingling,” Buffy commented, momentarily forgetting that the people she was with weren’t Willow, Xander and Cordelia or Oz.

“You’re what sense?” Ron asked.

Buffy snapped out of it and realised what she’d just said. “Oh, uh…nothing. Pop-culture reference.”

“Uh huh,” Ron replied vaguely. “What’s it mean?”

Buffy looked around the bathroom again and found her eyes coming to focus on one specific tap, though she couldn’t for the life of her figure out why.

“There’s something…off about this place,” Buffy commented.

Harry followed her gaze, surprised to find that she was looking at the very tap that opened the Chamber of Secrets.

“Off?” Harry asked.

“Evil,” Buffy said. “Like…uber-evil.”

“You can feel that?” Harry asked.

Buffy nodded absently, her gaze still fixed on the Chamber entrance. Buffy finally just waved it off and put it down to simple paranoia.

“Probably nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” Ron said. “That’s the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets.”

“The what of whats?” Buffy asked.

“The Chamber of Secrets,” Harry repeated. “A secret chamber that was built by one of the founders of the school. He hid a monster -a basilisk- down there that could only be controlled by his heir.”

“A basilisk?”

“Dirty great snake,” Ron said. “Sixty feet long.”

Buffy nodded and swallowed hard. No wonder this place was giving her creepy vibes.

“It’s gone though,” Hermione said, seeing Buffy’s discomfort. “Harry killed it two years ago.”

Buffy turned to look at Harry, clearly impressed. Harry ducked his head, grinning embarrassedly.

“So…” Hermione said, wanting to hear the explanation before they had to go to any of their first classes for the day. “Are you the Slayer?”

Buffy shook her head. “No. I’m not.”

Hermione felt completely deflated. She’d felt so proud of having figured out the answer all by herself. Being shot down really didn’t do anything for her.

“But at the same time, I kinda am.”

“Okay,” Ron said, drawing the word out slowly, obviously not understanding. “Hands up for those who actually got what that meant?”

Silence descended.

“It means that I was never actually chosen as one, but I still do what a Slayer does,” Buffy explained.

“Oh,” Ron said. He paused for a moment. “Why?”

Buffy shrugged. “Why not?”

“Because it’s dangerous!” Harry cried.

The other three looked at him incredulously. He coughed a little to hide his discomfiture.

“And following me last night wasn’t?” Buffy countered.

“Touché,” Ron whispered.

“Trust me when I saw I can handle myself,” Buffy continued.

“You could have been killed,” Harry argued.

“Oh, and you going up against…what was it again? A dirty great snake…that was fun and games?” Buffy asked.

“It was a matter of life and death,” Harry replied.

Ron swallowed hard, hating the memories that that particular life and death comment conjured. His sister Ginny was the one who’s life had been in danger, and he still hated thinking about her being down in that Chamber.

“And killing vampires isn’t? What would have happened if they’d come into Hogwarts? Or gone out into the rest of the world? Isn’t that a matter of life and death?” Buffy asked.

“You could have been hurt,” Harry said.

Buffy nodded. She knew only too well the perils of slaying. She’d come home bruised and bloody on more than a hundred different occasions, and still she’d continued to go out night after night.

“I could have been, yeah. Better me than some innocent person strolling through the Forest out to prove something to their friends,” Buffy said. “God only knows how many idiots have dared their friends to go into the Forest at night.”

“It’s forbidden,” Hermione said.

“Yeah, hence the appeal,” Buffy said. “Who actually follows the rules set down here? Cos, if last night was any indication, then you three certainly have no respect for the rules.”

“Weren’t you breaking them as well?” Ron asked.

Buffy shook her head.

“Dumbledore asked me to take care of it.”

“But you’re not the real Slayer,” Harry said.

“No. But I’m trained for it and someone has to do it,” Buffy replied. “I’ve lived on the mouth of hell for two years now. A nest of vampires isn’t out of the ordinary.”

“The mouth of hell?” Ron repeated.

Buffy winced, unable to believe that she’d just said that. Giles was probably going to kill her.

“Hellmouth,” Buffy said. “It’s a su-”

“Supernatural convergence of mystical energy,” Hermione said.

Buffy turned to look at her, wondering how on earth Hermione knew that.

“You read too much,” Ron complained.

“There’s only a few of them strewn throughout the world,” Hermione explained. “You actually lived on one?”

Buffy nodded. “Not fun, I’ll tell you that much.”

“No wonder you wanted to help out. But…if you aren’t the Slayer, why do you have a Watcher?” Hermione asked.

“How do you know I have a Watcher?” Buffy asked.

“You called Professor Giles your Watcher last night,” Hermione explained.

Buffy nodded. She hadn’t even realised she’d done so. Becoming the Slayer had been such a natural extension of who she was that she hadn’t even thought about the fact that she wasn’t truly the Slayer before going into that Forest. And, part of being the Slayer was having a Watcher. Giles was her Watcher, no matter what. It’s how she thought of him, how she treated him.

“Well, I suppose he pretty much is my Watcher. He trains me, teaches me,” Buffy explained.

“Gets knocked out,” Harry said.

She turned to glare at him, wondering why he was so adamantly against her trying to rid the world of evil.

“He protects me and he gets hurt because of it,” Buffy corrected. “I’ve been doing this since I was fou-”

She stopped short. She hadn’t been fourteen when she’d been called. She’d only been twelve.

“Since you were…” Ron prompted.

“I was twelve,” Buffy whispered, almost to herself. She shook herself out of her shock, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach at that mind-numbing thought. And she’d thought being fifteen had been bad enough.

“I still don’t think it’s safe,” Harry grumbled.

Buffy went to answer but Hermione beat her to it.

“Harry…think,” Hermione said softly. “What would you do?”

Harry stopped and seriously considered the question. He sighed, knowing he’d been beaten. He looked up at Buffy who was shocked to see tears in Harry’s striking green eyes.

“I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Buffy nodded and placed a gentle hand on Harry’s knee.

“I won’t be.”

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