New Discoveries

Disclaimer: I am not Joss Whedon, nor J.K. Rowling.. I am me.. I own nothing, but some of the plot and saying.. lol

Author’s note: I know, I have lots of stories, but this is where the muse went, so this is where I follow.. sigh! I’m trying to finish my stories, really I am! Thanks to Buffy2theSlayer! My new beta! I’m so happy, minus Kate, the car!

Prologue

“Crucio.” The voice hissed, causing the blonde to bite her lip as pain went coursing through her body. She held in the scream that was threatening to let go. This was the third time that the thing had done this to her and she wasn’t sure how much more she could take. She had been kicked and hit and cursed by the four other men in the room also and she was hoping for the chance to return the favor in spades.

“Is that all you have?” the blonde hissed out, her green eyes sparkling with something that the man had never seen before, she was damned sure that she wasn’t going to break for this man or she would go insane trying, she had faced worse and survived, “My watcher hits harder than that.” She frantically hoped that Giles was looking for her, because she might have forgotten to mention she was leaving. She wasn’t sure how long she had been there, but she knew that after an hour Giles would notice that she wasn’t pestering him with her questions.

“Elizabeth this would go easier if you would just give in.” the man hissed, the blonde flinched as he carrased her skin in envy.

“The name is Buffy.” She replied, her head held high as she came to her feet once again. “Not Elizabeth, you freak.”

“Crucio.” The man said and Buffy felt the all too familiar pain course through her body. “If you think..”

“My lord,” another man said smoothly interrupting the dark Lord’s tirade, but the girl paid him no mind focusing on the rest of them as the other man began to talk, he had been the only one not to curse her, though the others had not realized this. He cringed slightly, as though waiting to be hit with the same curse thingy, like she had been which might very well be likely.

“Severus,” the thing hissed, “what is it you want to say?” The man looked relieved that he wasn’t about to be tortured.

“I don’t think this is the way to woo her to our side.” He said and the murmurs started around the room about Severus over stepping his boundaries.

“What would you suggest, Severus?” the snake hissed again, “I asked her nicely,” the thing pulled some papers out, “I was even willing to prove what I had to say.”

“I can’t read them.” Buffy replied glaring at the snake looking thing, pure venom in her eyes, and the rest of the room shuddered glad that she was unable to do anything. “So why should I trust you to tell me what they really mean?”

“Crucio.” The man said, not breaking a stride in the conversation with Snape, “But she was unwilling to even listen to what I had to say.” She was showing traits that were very familiar to him, stubbornness and arrogance and at the moment they were very dangerous traits.

“I would recommend,” Buffy said, her voice drawing everyone’s attention, because she had yet to break, no matter what they had done and she was still conscious, “that you ask me nicely to talk with you, instead of sending your goon,” she jerked her head towards the silver haired man who had found her, “after me.”

“You dare speak to our Lord like that?” the silver haired man said, “Crucio!” the girl twitched once her face falling forward as she began tamping down on the feelings.

“Lucius,” the dark Lord said, “you over step your bounds.” Lucius moved away from him, before realizing that he was showing a weakness and stopped all movement, his head bowed slightly, waiting for his punishment. “Crucio.” Voldermort turned his attention back to Snape, “Continue,” Snape spared Lucius a glance, before looking at the dark lord, his head bowed slightly.

“I would suggest,” he took a deep breath preparing himself for the pain that he knew was to come, “that you stop torturing her and allow her to see what you have to offer.” A gasp of disbelief came from Lucius, who was still withering on the ground in pain, “If she was raised by the council, than this will do nothing.”

“Maybe you are correct,” the man said and Snape breathed a sigh of relief, “But you over stepped your boundaries. Crucio.” With a flick of the wand Snape was withering on the ground, all attention on him, “Boys.” The man said and the other three men jumped on Snape, the chance to beat the man was seemingly to great not to risk his wrath later. Snape was hit with punches and kicks, he could hear his own bones break and knew that he would have some trouble getting back to the house. He felt pain course through him because of the curse, but it was only added upon with the physical abuse being done to him.

Buffy waited until the attention was no longer on her, pushing the pain into the back of her mind, grimacing because patience was not her forte. She didn’t have long to wait as they turned on the other man, but it was all the time that she needed. Springing to her feet, she punched the snake thing with an uppercut that Giles would have been proud of, knocking him out, grabbing the pointy stick that looked like a stake and the papers that had been in its hand, and rushed towards Snape. She punched and kicked her way through the other five men, knocking all of them unconscious, before kneeling beside Snape wondering why he had helped her, even vaguely. The fight took only a few seconds, the others were too shocked to see her move to put up much resistance, not that it would have mattered against a pissed off slayer.

“How do I make it stop?” Buffy asked the man still withering on the ground. He hadn’t heard her at first, the pain was intense. The curse was stronger this time and the other people adding to the curse did nothing for the pain. The blonde realized that she didn’t have his full attention and patted his cheek until his eyes opened and focused somewhat on her, “How do I make it stop?”

“It will stop on its own.” The man hissed out, the pain this time was worse, the dark lord had not been happy with him, making Snape think that he was a suspected of treason to the dark lord. “Leave.” He wanted to apparent to the Order’s house, but he was afraid that he would splech himself, but he also knew that the girl needed to leave.

“Not without you.” Buffy replied, she quickly grabbed him and flung him over her shoulders in a fireman carry, there was just something about this man that called to her. “Where to?” she took off in a run, following her senses that were leading her back to civilization. She wasn’t sure where she was, but it was a factory of some kind on the water front, near the watcher’s council. She realized that Snape would be no help in getting them wherever they needed to go and so she put her trust in her slayer.

“Dumbledore.” Snape spit out and the blonde wasn’t sure if that was some code that she was supposed to know. Deciding that she was far enough away for the moment, and that the men were most likely still unconscious, she set him on the ground and looked at the extent of his injuries and if he had any type of identification on him. As she patted him over, she searched his pockets, swiping his stake thingy also and putting it in the pocket with the Dark Lords. Luckily he had passed out, so he didn’t put up any type of fight. She found a scrap piece of paper with 12 Grimmauld written on. She realized that it was an address. Stuffing the paper into her pocket, just in case she got lost, she picked him back up and began to move through the city of London and she reached Grimmauld place.

A Little While Later

“11.. 13.. mhmm, I could’ve sworn it said 12.” Digging into her pocket Buffy pulled out the paper and read it again, “yup, it was 12.” Looking up, she noticed a house materializing between 11 and 13, it appeared brick by brick, until the entire structure was there. Looking around, the girl stepped cautiously up the stairs and knocked on the door.

“FILTHY MUDBLOODS!” Buffy winced as the screaming continued, she had no idea what a mudblood was and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. She just wanted to drop the man on her shoulders off and get back to Giles, before he got too worried.

“Who are.. oh my Lord! Severus!” a red haired woman said opening the door taking a look at the girl and Professor Snape slung over her shoulders. “DUMBLEDORE!” she ushered the girl inside, looking around the street before closing the door behind them, “Set him here, he must be heavy.” The girl shrugged, laying the man on the table as the older woman bustled about. The girl bristled when three men entered the room, two that looked about Snape’s age and an older man that reminded her of Gandalf, they all were looking at her like she was the next Charles Manson.

“Who are you?” one of the men asked. He looked like he had just escaped a refugee camp or had been on the run, he was thin, too thin for his height, his hair was unruly and in need of a cut, but other than that he was sort of cute looking. She could tell that he was on the mend from something and wasn’t sure what it was.

“What happened?” the other man asked at the same time. Buffy took her time studying him, there was something familiar about him she just couldn’t place her finger on it.

“Werewolf.” Buffy said out loud smiling and the man bristled, she had been right. “You’re a werewolf.”

“What happened?” the Gandalf looking man asked, commanding all attention. Buffy eyed him momentarily, trying to decide if she should trust him and just how much she should tell him. “We need to know what happened to him in order to fix it.” He had a lot of questions to ask, but they could wait, the thing that mattered was finding out what happened and how they could fix it.

“Well,” Buffy said, “Voldermort?” when the group winced she guessed that she said the right name and mentally congratulated herself, “Cursed him a couple of times,” she took a breath to continue, but was interrupted, the glare she sent him would have sent the Scourge of Europe on a run to get half way across the world.

“Is that it?” the first man asked he cringed slightly at the look that he was getting, not realizing that he was backing away from a girl.

“No,” she said, “And if you would let me tell the story it would go smoother.” The man nodded curtly and Buffy smiled, “And the other three guys threw some curses at him, while also kicking him and stuff.”

“There were four people there?”

“Well, no.” the girl replied, “Some guy named Lucius was there, but he was under the same curse thingy also.”

“Malfoy,” the werewolf hissed and the others nodded.

“Voldie,” the people in the room winced as she butchered his name, but she didn’t care, “shouldn’t put his people through so much or they won’t come back.” Before anyone could comment on this their eyes were drawn to the bed as Snape let out a groan.

“His shoulder is dislocated,” the red haired woman said, “I can’t do anything until it is put back in..” before she could finish the statement the girl moved forward, grasping his shoulder.

“I am sorry.” She told him, even though she was sure that Snape could hear her, before putting his shoulder back into place. “There you go. Do you need any help I’m good with the first aid.”

“No.” the woman said, looking a little flustered, “I’ve got it under control.” She took out something that looked like a stake and pointed it at Snape, but Buffy moved between them defensively.

“What are you doing?” she asked demandingly. The red head stepped back slightly as the power whirled around Buffy and she wondered if the girl knew what she commanded. Noticing the glint in Buffy’s eyes she realized that Buffy most likely did know, to some extent, the power within her.

“Healing him.” The woman replied deciding that Severus’ life meant more than being afraid of the girl, moving the girl slightly she let the blonde watch her every move, “Watch.” Giving the proper incantation a light shot out of the wand and enveloped Snape’s ribs, they could hear the bones going back into place and the bruises receded.

“Wicked!” Buffy exclaimed in delight, “Can you teach me that? Do you have to have one of those stake looking stick things?” Snape gave a slight laugh as he heard what she was saying he had regained consciousness with very little pain, just a twinge that remained from the Crucio. With a start he realized that Buffy hadn’t been looked at yet.

“Girl.. Crucio..” Snape muttered and the others looked at the girl with obvious distrust, but hearing his words they all reached for their wands, “no,” he protested when he noticed everyone had done this, “she was hit by it.”

“Let me have a look at you.” The red head said, but was stopped when Buffy moved back shaking her head as she did so.

“That’s alright.” She replied quickly, “I’m a quick healer.”

“Look at her ribs.” Snape replied, his eyes were closed so he never saw the glare that Buffy shot him. “She was hit at least five times.”

“And she’s not insane?” Gandalf asked shock settling over his face.

“It’s alright,” Buffy replied again as though the Gandalf man hadn’t spoken, moving backwards, keeping an eye on everyone in the room, “what is your fascination with those stake looking things.”

“They are called wands.” The older man said, “I am Professor Albus Dumbledore.” He told her, “This is Molly Weasley,” he pointed to the red head, “Remus Lupin,” the werewolf, “And Sirius Black. I see you have already met Severus.”

“Nice to met you.” The girl replied, “If you could point me towards central London, preferably the library I will get out of your hair.”

“I don’t think you understand the danger you are in.” Dumbledore told her calmly.

“So what else is new?” she replied with a shrug, she was the slayer after all. “And why do you need wands?”

“They focus the magic that we do.” Lupin replied, clearly puzzled by this. The girl was aware that there was magic, she hadn’t seemed surprised, but she didn’t know about wands.

“I have a friend who can do magic without a wand.” The girl replied matter of factly.

“And you are?” Black asked, dying of curiosity about the girl that had saved Snape’s life.

“Buffy Summers.” Buffy replied waiting tensely to see if they knew the name, sighing in relief when nothing happened. “Library?”

“You can’t leave.” Snape told her weakly, “He will just look for you.”

“Well, I think my watch.. my father might have something to say about that.” Buffy replied catching herself with the watcher, but from the looks going around the room she realized that they had caught it.

“I am sure that your watcher will understand.” Snape replied and Buffy looked at him sharply. “you didn’t think it was by chance that Lucius just happened to know where you were going to be this afternoon, did you?”

“No,” Buffy replied sarcastically, “I caught onto that when he kidnapped me.” She backed up towards the door, “Now that I’ve done my good deed for the day, if you would just let me out, that would be great.”

“Why does He Who Must Not Be Named want you?” Molly asked and Buffy shrugged nonchalantly, while Snape raised his eyebrow.

“Probably has some ritual that involves slayer blood.” Buffy replied, “Although why he doesn’t just go after Faith is beyond me.”

“Faith?” Remus asked.

“Other slayer.”

“I thought there could only be one slayer at a time.” Black asked slightly confused.

“Long story,” Buffy replied, “Do you have to use wands to do magic?” she moved again towards the door, Snape reached for his wand, but was unable to find it.

“Yes.” Dumbledore replied.

“What happened to my wand?” Snape asked and Buffy looked a bit sheepish as she pulled out the two wands. Handing them to Snape, because she wasn’t sure whose was whose, she let him figure out which one was his wand.

“Do you have any idea whose this is?” Snape asked with a slight awe and more than enough fear, Buffy shrugged nonchalantly as she answered.

“I swiped it off of Voldie.” She told them as they looked at her in awe, “I wasn’t exactly sure what it did.” Snape was looking at her with admiration in his eyes the blonde was certainly very adept at hiding what she was and what she did,

“Do you know how many men have died trying to take that wand?” Dumbledore asked quietly.

“No.” Buffy replied, “I have no idea who he is, what that does, or where I am.”

“How did you get here?” Snape asked and Buffy looked a bit sheepish again.

“Well,” she replied, “you passed out so I looked to see if you had a wallet or something and I found the paper with the address on it.” The others looked at each other sharply, it had been charmed so that only a member of the Order of the Phoneix could see it and no amount of magic would unlock it, “you can have it back.” Buffy pulled the paper out of her pocket and handed it to Snape.

“You can read what’s on this?” Snape asked and Buffy nodded a curious look on her face. Why was everyone so concerned that she could read? She knew that American schools systems weren’t considered the best, but they did still teach everyone how to read.

“It’s very clearly written.” Buffy told them, “Look this has been great, but I need to get a hold of my watcher and I need to go.”

“Miss Summers,” Dumbledore said and Buffy looked at him, “If we could have a moment of your time we would like to talk with you.”

“Sure.” She replied and moved to take a seat across the table from them, when she felt something poke her. Remembering the papers she swiped she shifted and pulled them out.

“What are those?” Snape asked, they looked familiar, but he couldn’t place it.

“No idea.” She replied she scanned them, giving a huge sigh as she went through each page, “Great! Another language.” She set them on the table slightly frustrated, “Why couldn’t it be in English?”

“May I?” Dumbledore asked motioning towards the papers.

“Sure.” Buffy replied with a nod, “I took them from Voldie.” Dumbledore looked them over a look of shock coming across his face.

“Your parents are Hank and Joyce Summers?” Dumbledore asked and Buffy nodded.

“Well,” she said, “Mum and dad divorced, but yea. Why?”

“These are adoption records.”

Chapter 1

“Where is she?” a English voice asked angrily. Buffy’s head snapped up at the sound of her mentor, she had been so involved with the confusion that was her thoughts, she didn’t notice anything going on around her. She didn’t even notice when Dumbledore, Lupin, and Black disappeared to go get Giles from the London library or wherever he had actually been. Snape had been appointed to watch Buffy, not that she had moved since Dumbledore had dropped the bomb, but she hadn’t fainted, she had taken everything calmly, for the most part, and started assimilating the new data.

Flashback

“What do you mean adoption papers?” Buffy snapped, snatching the papers from Dumbledore, before giving a frustrated sigh. Throwing her hands up in the air, Buffy paced the length of the room as she muttered to the Powers that Be, threatening to rip out their rib cages, if they had them, and wear the for hats if someone didn’t explain something. They must have been listening and in fear of their ribcages, because Dumbledore quickly rectified the situation, a simple incantation was the only thing needed.

“Traduia.” Dumbledore said and the papers arranged themselves from French into English.

“What the hell was that?” Buffy asked eyeing the older man. She knew that she had just asked for help, but she had wanted to understand the help. She wasn’t sure if she could trust the men before her, they seemed trustworthy and she got that vibe off of them, but they could procure anything that they wanted. Giving a frustrated sigh, Buffy waited for Dumbledore to explain what he had done and hoped that they weren’t just playing with her.

“A simple spell that translates papers into a desired language, in this case English.” Dumbledore told her, he could sense the frustration, it was practically rolling off the slayer in waves and wondered how he could sooth it. He also wondered how the frustration would affect the slayer whether she would become violent or not. Not a lot was known about the slayer in the wizarding world, because slayers were considered extremely volatile magical creatures. They had certain rights within the wizarding world, but he wasn’t sure how he was going to apply them, when the slayer was also a witch.

“Are these for real?” she asked as she leaved through the papers, stopping at the one where her mother’s signature lay. Buffy recognized that signature anywhere 18 years hadn’t done anything to it. But then again, it could easily be replicated in this world, Buffy thought to herself as she looked over the papers.

“They bear the mark of the Ministry.” Dumbledore replied gravely as if that explained everything and she supposed it did for these wizards, but she didn’t trust them as far as Giles could throw them. Snape watched as Buffy looked through the papers again emotions playing across her face starting with disbelief and ending with triumph.

“This can’t be me!” Buffy said proudly pointing to the part on the paper where it said date of birth, “I was born January 19, 1981(not too sure about that!), making me 18! And these papers are an adoption of a baby in 1983!”

“They changed your birth date.” Dumbledore replied as though a great weight had been placed on him, and a way it had, through Buffy’s appearance in the wizarding world. Buffy knew nothing about the wizarding world and he was going to ask her to do something huge for them and he only hoped that she would.

“Why?”

End Flashback

“Buffy!” Giles yelled rushing into the room and grabbing his charge. Before he could reach her though he was pushed backwards by an unseen force, Snape stood between the girl and her watcher, wand raised.

“Ripper.” Snape said with a slight nod of his head.

Flashback

“The name’s Ripper.”

“Severus Snape.” Snape replied as he took in the other boy’s appearance. “What can I do for you?”

“We need help with a dark spell.” Ripper replied unconcerned with where they where and who was around them, he didn’t have to explain who the we was, because Snape knew that he meant Ethan Raynes. Snape looked around them frantically eyeing the Gryffindor’s and assembled teachers, none of them seemed the wiser. Motioning Ripper to follow him, Snape lead him into a deserted corner of the library.

“What can I do?” Snape asked with no hesitation about what would be needed of him, Snape hoped that it had to do with the Maurders, because they deserved whatever they got.

End Flashback

“Severus Snape.” Giles said through clenched teeth, “Do you mind?” he pointed to the wand that was currently pointed at him. Snape shrugged easily, but anyone could see the tenseness of his shoulders, like a seasoned warrior ready to spring or in this case, curse.

“Actually I do.” Snape said he wasn’t sure what made him stand between Buffy and Giles, especially who her parents were, but he felt something for her and he hadn’t even realized what he was doing until he was curing Giles, “What I want to know is why I should trust a man who bears the mark..”

“I wouldn’t talk about men who bear marks.” Giles replied, Ripper coming to the fore front. “Unless something has changed since I last saw you, you bear the mark on your left arm.” Buffy looked between the two men and wondered what the hell was going on, how did all these people know her watcher?

Flashback

“I need you to show up at the Astronomy Tower tonight at eight.” Ripper replied and Snape nodded.

“Will I need anything?”

“No.” Ripper replied and watched as Snape walked away, a huge smile crossed Ripper’s face. “That was almost too easy.”

“The Dark Lord will be pleased.” Ethan said stepping forward and clapping Giles on the back.

“But what does he want Snape for?” Ripper asked, he wasn’t sure what the Dark Lord saw in Severus Snape, there was just something about him that made Ripper’s skin crawl, something untrustworthy.

“Ours is not to question.” Ethan replied and Ripper shrugged. If the Dark Lord wanted Snape, then he would get Snape.

End Flashback

“Can you have your pissing contest later?” Buffy asked, moving to stand beside Snape a hand reaching out and pulling Snape’s arm down, not realizing that she didn’t immediately release his hand. Snape looked at the very feminine hand clutching his arm, the heat going through his robe and soaking into his skin, he reveled in the feelings for a moment. It had been a long time since someone had touched him willingly, he studied her as she faced off against her watcher and him, her eyes flashed with green sparkles and he was losing himself. Snape shook himself clearing his throat making Buffy blush slightly as she realized that she was still holding his hand, releasing it like it had burned her, Snape felt like he had lost something as she removed her hand. Dumbledore took this all in, his eyes twinkling, because Snape had protected Buffy even knowing who her parents were. She continued to speak as she moved to stand in front of him, “Besides we all have marks.” She flipped her hair up and showed Snape the mark on the back of her neck.

“I thought you had that removed.” Giles replied as he cautiously stepped towards Buffy, he knew what was on the back of her neck and why. Noticing that Snape did nothing, Giles pulled Buffy into a tight hug, noting when she winced. “What happened to you?”

“Nothing.” Buffy said just as Snape told him, “She was hit with the Crucio curse a couple of times.” Giles stood back an authoritative air settled around him and looked over his charge, noting that the slayer healing had already kicked in.

“Your ribs?”

“Bruised.” Buffy replied wincing as Giles touched a particularly hurt spot.

“She wouldn’t let us look them over.” Molly told Giles, an accusatory glare sent towards Buffy, who smiled innocently.

“I don’t know you.” Buffy replied as though it explained everything and it did, to Giles.

“Will you let her look now?” Giles asked and Buffy looked about ready to say no. “I know all of these people and they are very trustworthy.”

“Unlike some people that I could mention,” Snape muttered under his breath and Buffy shot him a look. Snape looked a bit sheepish for a moment, before catching himself and clearing his face of all emotions, returning Buffy’s glance with one of disinterest.

“Why do you still have the mark, Buffy?” Giles asked as Molly made herself busy, looking over Buffy. “Didn’t you have it removed?”

“I did.” She replied wincing when Molly found a sore spot, “It reappeared within days. So, instead of spending more money on having it removed again, I just covered it up with make up.” Snape eyed her with interest and shock, it shouldn’t have stayed unless it had been done with magic and even then it could be removed by someone with a wand.

“I need to see what your ribs look like.” Molly said and Buffy looked around the room. The guys looked as though they had no intention of leaving and Giles had seen her in a sport’s bra before, so showing a little skin shouldn’t fluster him too much. She pulled up her shirt until her ribs could be seen. Snape let out a wince of pain as he eyed the ribs they were purple and swollen, how she could move was beyond him, he winced every time that she did. This did not go unnoticed by the Headmaster and the Watcher, who were watching with some amusement, although Giles was concerned about Snape being in the Dark Lord’s service.

“Why does she bear the mark?” Snape asked Giles deciding that a distraction would be a good thing at that moment.

“What mark?” Lupin asked, he could tell that it hadn’t been the dark mark, but he hadn’t seen it close enough to tell what it was.

“The Dark Mark?” Black asked, because he hadn’t seen it at all. Buffy responded to various questions that were being asked by Molly, not really focusing on the conversation around her, until she heard the intake of breath at the mention of the dark mark. She filed that away for questions to later ask Giles.

“The Mark of Eyghon.” Snape said dryly nodding towards Giles as everyone gasped and moved forward to see the mark that was on Buffy’s neck. Buffy attempted to move back, but Molly shot her a disapproving glare, quelling the slayer’s movements. “How did she receive it?”

“Wait.” Buffy said pulling her shirt down as Molly finished up. She sent the woman a grateful nod, she was going to like it here if they could heal her quickly, before looking at her watcher, “I wanna know how my watcher knows you people.” Giles sighed and wondered if he would get out of this with Buffy’s trust it was still shaky from the Cruciamentum.

“Let me give her the back story,” Giles said to Snape and the rest, everyone getting antsy for some answers, but Buffy was the most dangerous of the group when she got cranky, “And I will tell the rest of the story afterwards.” Buffy eyed her watcher impatiently, arms crossed over her chest. “You know I was rebellious when I was younger.”

“Had the pleasure of meeting Ripper.” Buffy said with a snort, her mind flashing to the Band Candy incident. Snape’s eyes rose at the mention of Ripper, it was obvious that the slayer was well aware of Giles’ alter-ego, but not of all of his past apparently.

“What you didn’t know was that I went to a magical school for wizards and witches.” Giles said Buffy’s eyebrows rising at this announcement, “While I was there I met Ethan Rayne.” Buffy looked about ready to deck someone at the mention of his name and Snape filed that information away for a later date.

Flashback

“Giles, Rupert.” A younger-McConagall said and Ripper strode forward moving to the single chair in the hall and placing the hat on his head. Giggles could be heard through the hall, as the girls looked him over, Ripper reveled in the attention shooting some smiles and winks at the girls, laughing when they blushed.

“Mhmm.. a watcher in training.” The hat said as it was placed on his head.

“I am not going to be a watcher.” Ripper replied vehemently surprising the hat, he had things he was going to accomplish, great dark things he wasn’t going to be a goody-goody.

“You will accomplish great things,” the hat told him and Ripper felt great pride, “But it will be beside a slayer.” The hat told him and Ripper flinched slightly, before reigning in his emotions, “I think that you should see what the dark does so that you are better prepared. The best place for you is SLYTHERIN!” Ripper took the hat off and swaggered towards the table flashing smiles to the girls already there, before sitting beside another boy.

“Ethan Rayne.” The boy said holding his hand out. Ripper eyed him for a moment, sizing the other boy up, before taking his hand and shaking it.

“Ripper.” Ripper replied, the boys forming a bond right then and there.

End Flashback

“I attended Hogwart’s for six and a half years.” Giles recalled losing himself in his memories. He began to pace the room, Buffy sitting calmly to the side, but Snape could feel the tension in her body. “During my fifth year a secret war began.”

Flashback

“Stupid mudblood.” Ripper spat with disgust as a young boy ran into him by accident, “Watch where you are going.” Ethan watched on in amusement as Ripper hexed the boy with curses that were not known by most fifth years or at least weren’t taught to fifth years.

“I have someone you need to meet.” Ethan said, he knew that Ripper would be a perfect addition to the Dark Lord’s armies. Ripper was vicious, ruthless, and could conjure without a wand. His cruelty towards the mudbloods was just a bonus.

End Flashback

“Dark Lord?” Buffy asked in confusion, pulling Giles out of his thoughts. He shot her a look that spoke volumes, all of them saying to be quiet. Buffy sighed but settled back, she knew that Giles would eventually get to her questions but she wasn’t sure when.

Flashback

“My lord,” Ethan said bowing, “May I present Ripper.”

“A pleasure, my Lord.” Ripper said bowing in front of the man in the long robes. He wasn’t sure where Ethan had brought him, but they all seemed like fun chaps.

“Ripper?” the Dark Lord asked raising an eyebrow. “your name?”

“Rupert Giles.”

“Ahh, a watcher.”

“Bloody Hell does everyone know that!” Ripper exclaimed angrily, he could see Ethan cringe, but he didn’t let that bother him, he kept his head bowed, but got up and paced the length of the room, before adding, “I won’t be a watcher!”

End Flashback

“He seemed amused by this.” Giles recalled, “He took an instant liking to me.” He paused in his story to look at Buffy, “I don’t know if he realized something, a soft spot if you will, about me that I didn’t, but he didn’t have me start doing anything for the Death Eaters until Severus took the mark. He had me doing a lot of recruiting though.”

“And what happened on the day Severus joined?” Buffy asked cautiously.

“You were conceived.” Ripper replied and Buffy looked at him shocked, it couldn’t be true, she couldn’t be tied that closely to these weird people. “It was about a year later that this happened.”

Flashback

“My Lord,” Ripper said, “I have brought Severus to you.”

“Very good, my boy.” Voldemort said, “Step forward Severus.” Snape stepped forward, eyes slightly downcast and Voldemort nodded in satisfaction, “You will do.”

“Do?” Snape asked, unsure of what was going on. He had heard rumors, but nothing substantial, no one was willing to talk about the Death Eaters, “Do for what?”

“I expect great things out of you.” Voldemort responded, “That is all you need to know.” Snape nodded starting to step back, “And Snape,” Snape looked towards the voice, “Crucio.” Snape fell to the floor in pain, “You don’t speak unless told to. Do you understand?” Snape nodded and Voldemort smiled in satisfaction, it was shaping up. “Ripper.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

“I need you to get me a girl.” Voldemort said and Ripper was slightly confused, there were plenty of girls and almost all of them wanted to be with the Dark Lord.

“Alright, my Lord.”

“See, Severus? This is how you act.” Voldemort said, “I need you to bring me Lily Evans tomorrow night.” Snape kept his feelings well hidden, but he couldn’t help the emotional rollercoaster that was going through his head. Lily Evans was teased by almost all of Slytherin, including him, but he had to work with her and he had found that she was quite intelligent and beautiful, he had developed a crush on her.

End Flashback

“You bastard!” Black flew across the room, decking Giles who didn’t even defend himself as he went sprawling onto the floor. “It was you!” Buffy said nothing, recognizing the name from her birth certificate, but when Black went to hit Giles again, Buffy stepped in.

“Hey!” Buffy said, pushing Black back, “He screwed up. Haven’t we all? Back off.” She pushed him back, with partial slayer strength and glowered at him, “Why did Voldie need Lily Evans?” Part of her already knew that answer, but she wanted to hear it from her watcher.

Flashback

“My Lord,” Ripper said dragging Lily forward, she was bound and stupefied. “Lily Evans.”

“Very good, Ripper.” The Dark Lord commented, “Severus,” Snape moved forward, “Do you have the potion?” Snape nodded and moved forward handing a vial to the Dark Lord. “Very good boys.”

“Thank you, m’Lord.” Ripper and Snape replied at the same time. The Dark Lord clapped and thirty women and male muggles entered the room escorted by Death Eaters.

“Have fun.” He told them, taking control of the sleeping Lily.

End Flashback

“I followed him.” Giles said, “I didn’t know what would happen, but I had a pretty good idea. I don’t know why I was so interested, she meant nothing to me,” Black, Lupin, and Snape growled at Giles, who wasn’t phased too lost in his own thoughts.

Flashback

“Lily Evans.” Voldemort said watching the fear and loathing well up in her eyes.

“You!” Lily exclaimed, “What does the great Voldemort want with me?” there was a twinge of sarcasm, but it went unnoticed by Voldemort who nodded and preened that she feared him. “What do you want?”

“An heir.”

End Flashback

“I’ll spare the details,” Giles replied looking at Buffy, “but suffice to say Voldemort raped her repeatedly, using the potion that Snape made, to make sure Lily pregnant.” Snape looked ashamed at this before his usual mask falling into place. Buffy had caught the look though and she wondered what game he was playing and why.

“What did the potion do?” Buffy asked her mind was reeling from everything that had been told to her. Her watcher knew that her mom wasn’t her mom. Hell it was practically his fault that she was conceived in the first place.

“It ensures that the drinker would become pregnant, but it also protected the unborn child, so she could not get rid of it.” Snape explained, because Giles was still unsure of what it had done. Snape had been arrogant in his youth, but he had been very proud of his position with the Death Eaters. Even though his first Dark potion had been used on Lily Evans, he had pushed those feelings aside and rolled in the feelings of being wanted by someone, even if it was for his talents with potions.

“I always wondered why she hadn’t just gotten rid of the child.” Giles said and Buffy flinched, he moved to touch her, but she flinched away, scooting closer to Snape. Sighing Giles pressed on, “I eventually figured out what would happen to the child, so I approached Lily.”

Flashback

“Lily!” Ripper screamed moving forward Lily was in her ninth month of pregnancy. Given the circumstances around the pregnancy the Headmaster had allowed her to stay in school and use concealing charms, although the Mauraders knew.

“What!” she spat when she noticed she was cornered.

“What do you plan to do with the child?” Ripper asked, looking around to make sure that there was no one around.

“Why do you care?” Lily replied, “It’s your fault anyways.” She watched the emotions flicker across his face, shame and guilt the most dominant.

“The Dark Lord wants the child.” Ripper said and Lily protectively held her stomach as though that would stave off the Dark Lord, “He is going to take the child and kill you. He wants his heir to train in his ways.”

End Flashback

“Well that answers that question,” Buffy said and Giles looked at her with questions in his eyes, “Whether she wanted me or not.”

“Of course she wanted you!” Black and Lupin exclaimed as one jumping to their feet.

“And how would you know?” Buffy replied she fought to hold the tears back. It hurt to think that someone she didn’t even know didn’t want her, but they had been forced to give birth to her and that was the only reason she was alive. She liked it when she had a mother that had loved her and told her how special she was. They may have had their ups and downs, but they had loved each other.

“We were friends of Lily and her husband.” Lupin told her, he was a little weary around Buffy, ever since she had spotted him being a werewolf without having met him before, but if she was Lily Evans’ daughter then he would get over it, hopefully. He wondered if it was because she was the slayer that she had been able to spot him that quickly, hopefully he would be able to question her later about her slayerness to figure that answer out.

“She was married! I thought she was still in school!” Buffy exclaimed looking around the room hoping that someone would take pity on her and explain what was going on.

“She wasn’t married until after school, about a year after she had you.” Black explained as he paced the length of the room, feeling very caged suddenly, “After Lily became pregnant she became depressed and suicidal.”

“Yes, that makes it sound like she wanted me.” Buffy muttered and Snape shot her a look, although no one was really sure what that look meant. He couldn’t believe that this was Lily Evans’ child. Snape looked over Buffy trying to see Lily in her, but he couldn’t although he couldn’t see any of the Dark Lord in her either. He wondered if a charm had been placed on her to alter her appearance somehow and he tucked that away to ask at a later date. He wondered if Buffy looked anything like Tom Riddle had when he was younger and if she did how his Slytherins would react to her.

“We, Remus, James Potter, and I, noticed and confronted her.” Black continued bringing Snape back to the present, he had never heard what happened after the night and assumed that nothing had come of it, “I guess she was at the breaking point, because she explained it all.”

“We were shocked at first,” Lupin told Buffy.

Flashback

“Lily.” James said, moving to the girl huddled on the Astronomy Tower floor, “You weren’t thinking of jumping where you?”

“It wouldn’t matter.” She replied, “He placed a charm on me, so I can’t hurt myself.”

“He who?” Black asked and James shot him a look, because Lily began to clam up.

“He who, Lily?” James asked again, drawing her into his arms as he settled against the wall, “We will give a wizard’s oath to you if you would tell us.” Lily contemplated it, they weren’t really her friends, but she was going to break any second.

“Voldemort.” She replied and the boys gasped, but it was too late to stop the dam as it broke, “He raped me and I’m pregnant now. The headmaster said I could stay in school, because of how it happened. But Voldemort placed a charm on me so I can’t hurt myself or get rid of the baby.” The tears began to fall and James rocked her, muttering soothing words in her ear, this wasn’t exactly how he always pictured it.

“Lily.” Lupin said, “what are you going to do?”

“Have her.”

“Her?” James asked and Lily nodded.

“I went to a muggle doctor and they told me the gender.” Lily continued.

“And then what?” Lupin pressed.

“I don’t know.”

“It’s a chance to start over.” Lupin told her and Lily looked thoughtful.

End Flashback

“There were times we couldn’t get her to shut up about you.” Black told her, Lupin and he had moved forward during the talking until they were sitting beside her, Snape had moved behind her, although Buffy looked distinctly uncomfortable at this. “After that moment, all’s she could think of was what you guys were going to do together. She started to decorate a nursery.”

“She talked to you for hours.” Lupin said with a smile on his face as he lost himself in his memories, “She would encourage us to talk to you, saying it would help you grow. We laughed at her, but complied. We told you of our latest pranks and Quidditch.”

“Oh.” Buffy said not sure what there was to be said, before shrugging and asking the one question predominant in her scattered thoughts, “What’s Quidditch?” Giles gave a slight chuckle at his slayer’s train of thought. She was being bombarded with information about her past and she took it in stride and asks about something entirely irrelevant. That was the slayer he knew and loved.

“So you approached Lily?” Dumbledore asked steering the conversation back to what he needed to know. He had always wondered what happened to the child, but the documents had been sealed by someone high in the Ministry. “Why?”

“My father,” Giles began.

“The watcher.” Buffy added her fingers doing the quote motions and Giles shot her an appraising glance, if she was making jokes she was okay.

“Yes, the watcher,” Giles said softly, “Who was also part of the Ministry of Magic.”

Flashback

“What do you want now?” Lily hissed, her arms around her middle protectively wand clutched tightly in her hand and pointed at him.

“To help.”

“Like you helped me before?” she asked sarcastically, “I think I’ll pass on that type of help.”

“Please, Lily.” Ripper said again he stayed a safe distance away from her, because he really didn’t want to frighten her anymore than he already had, “My father works for MOM.” Lily paused at this. “He was surprised to hear from me, but I’m leaving in two weeks.” Lily raised an eyebrow at this, but Ripper shrugged continuing on. He wasn’t going to let her know that watching her being raped had destroyed all of his plans for the future, he had become lost and had finally figured out what the sorting hat had meant. He would fight for the light, because he had been tainted by darkness, “I know you are due soon.”

“And?”

“I think that you should give the child up for adoption,” Ripper said bluntly knowing that Lily wouldn’t take him pussyfooting around the situation, “Make it look like the child died, because the Dark Lord wants that child to groom in his stead.”

“How can I trust you?”

“By meeting my father.”

“Where?”

“There is a Hogsmeade weekend coming up, you should meet him then.” Ripper replied, “Bring all of the Maurders if you want, but just come and listen to what we have to say.”

End Flashback

“She didn’t actually bring anyone but James.” Giles said, Lupin and Black looking shocked at this revelation. “They heard the entire plan, never making a sound until we were done.”

Flashback

“So what you want me to do is have my baby and give her up, while pretending that she has actually died?” Lily said softly, she had come to terms a while ago that she was going to have a girl and she had become excited, now they were taking her child away. She could feel her heart breaking, but she stayed and listened anyways, because if they were right the Dark Lord was going to kill her and take her child, raising her to be the next Dark Lord.

“Yes.” Ripper replied.

“Ms. Evans,” Ripper’s father said he glanced at his son, who showed no emotion, “I know that my son is part of the reason you are in this situation, but Voldemort cannot get his hands on the child. What Rupert hasn’t mentioned is that your child has the possibility of becoming a slayer added to both of yours and Voldemoret’s magical contributions. She would be powerful, more powerful than Voldemort himself, perhaps one of the most powerful witches that the wizarding has ever seen.” Lily and James gasped, they had studied slayers in DADA, they were powerful and magical creatures themselves.

“But she’s my baby.” Lily replied, tears in her eyes. Ripper and his father looked on with pity in their eyes, but said nothing as James attempted to comfort her. She seemed to grow stronger, as though taking part of his strength as she faced them again a new confidence a lit in her eyes. “If we do this, I want to meet the family that will be taking her in.”

“Of course.” Ripper’s father replied. “Then it is accord?”

“Yes.”

End Flashback

“We met with Joyce and Hank Summers later that week.” Giles said, “It was during that meeting that Lily went into labor. We rushed her to the hospital and waited. When you were born, Lily named you Elizabeth Ann Lupin-Black. She refused to tell them who your father was and Dad didn’t put him on the birth certificate. He then took another baby, one that died in child birth and switched your cribs, faking your death.” He took a deep breath as he looked at Buffy, “He brought you to the Summers and that was it. He buried the papers so deep in the Ministry that no one should have found them.”

“Who changed my name?” Buffy asked slightly confused “and why change my birth certificate.”

“Dad told them to change your age and date of birth, but it was Joyce’s decision to change your name.” Giles replied and Buffy nodded slightly.

“She named you after us?” Lupin said, tears forming in his eyes. He went to hug Buffy, but she scooted back and further into Snape, who was looking slightly uncomfortable at the touching, but didn’t want to upset the girl any further than she already was, so he let her stay.

“There was one other thing that she did to protect you,” Giles told her needing to get the rest off his chest, “She placed a charm on you that only Dumbledore or I could take off.” Buffy looked at him startled.

“What does it do?” she asked and Giles nodded his approval, because his slayer was still thinking.

“It altered your appearance.” Giles told her.

“Take it off.” She said and Giles looked at her, “Take it off.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” She replied and waited for him to take the charm off. He looked at her a moment, before looking at Dumbledore.

“You’ll have to do it.” He said, “Before I left, I took my wand to Gringotts and placed it in my vault.”

“Revealo.” He muttered tapping the top of Buffy’s head. Her hair began to darken and lengthen, until it was a dark reddish-brown and her eyes went to silver.

“That’s it?” she asked in relief, “That didn’t change much.” Giles looked a little flustered at this and Buffy looked at him, “What?”

“There was one other thing that was hidden.” He said, “On your stomach there will now be an exact copy of the Dark mark.” Everyone gasped in shock, Buffy pushed her shirt up and there was a mark on her skin that had never been there before, located right by her belly button. “He wanted to be sure that you would be well recognized.”

“Can he call her?” Snape asked Giles, who seemed to have been in the Dark Lord’s favor when he was younger, though he looked at Buffy with pity. He hoped that he couldn’t, because he wouldn’t wish that on anyone, especially someone that had already gone through much.

“No.” he replied and the room sighed in collective relief, “It’s a birth mark, but he can activate the mark if she is willing.” Everyone eyed Buffy, who was looking at the ground, unaware that she was practically sitting on Snape’s lap. Snape took the time to study Buffy, she now had Lily’s hair and her eyes were just as expressive, but the color belonged to Riddle. She had Lily’s lips, just as kissable, Snape pulled away from those thoughts, unwilling to think of Buffy in those terms, but it didn’t seem to be working, the thoughts kept coming.

“In light of everything that has happened,” Dumbledore said taking the attention off the awkward moment happening before them as they all looked at the new Buffy, “I would like to offer you the chance to attend Hogwarts.”

“I don’t really want to start school over.” Buffy began, she had finally finished school with a bang and although this principle seemed nice, who knew if he had an evil twin?

“You would be entering in as a sixth year.” Dumbledore replied and Buffy hesitated unsure if she should or not looking to Giles for some guidance.

“I will be behind you.” Giles told her shrugging his shoulders, “I go where you go.” He knew that Buffy needed stability at the moment, especially after everything that had happened, so far he had been the one to offer the stability, unless you counted Joyce’s numerous trips as consistent. He didn’t understand why she would still be willing to trust him after everything that she had been told, but he wasn’t willing to look the gift horse in the mouth.

“I’ll be behind the other students.” She told him, on the one hand she would get a chance to find a family, but on the other hand half of her family was feared by the wizarding world and sought to use her.

“Lucky for you,” Dumbledore said a twinkle in his eyes, “I know some teachers who would be willing to teach you.” He looked at Snape and Lupin as he said this, they both nodded, “So it is up to you.”

“Let me think about it.” Buffy replied and Dumbledore nodded. Buffy had many things to think about when it came to this situation. She was unsure if she wanted to talk to her mother at this moment, but knew that it would have to be at some point, especially if she decided to stay and go to school. She would also have to deal with her friends, though she was unsure where they were at the moment, they had all taken off for the summer, leaving her alone, never asking if she had wanted to go with them.

“Take all the time you need.” Dumbledore responded, “Although if you are going to stay, I would suggest you begin your lessons immediately.” He paused to think for a moment, “Though I would suggest that you learn basic magic even if you do not stay, for protection.” Buffy nodded absent mindedly, thinking about everything when it suddenly hit her,

“If I’m younger than I was a few hours ago,” Buffy began, “how old am I and who is my guardian? I am right in thinking I’m young enough that I have to have a guardian, right?”

“You are sixteen, the normal age that children enter their sixth year. Your birth date is April 10,” Dumbledore told her he looked at Giles momentarily, but he was busy looking around the house, “and your guardian is Mr. Rupert Giles.”

“I beg your pardon?” he exclaimed looking at Dumbledore very startled, before taking his glasses off and cleaning them, “How?”

“Well,” Dumbledore said, “It appears that Lily left a note in the papers, that should her daughter ever return to the wizarding world and she was underage, that her guardian would be Rupert Giles.”

“Why not Black or Lupin?” Buffy asked, “If she was friends with them, why would she have Giles be my guardian?”

“I think that she had hopes that he would turn out to be a watcher someday,” Dumbledore said, “And if you were to be a slayer then she hoped that he would be your watcher.”

“Oh.” She replied shortly, she rubbed the back of her neck, the mark itching slightly. Snape caught the movement and took out his wand.

“Removo.” He muttered and Buffy felt the itching stop, Snape watched in satisfaction as the mark disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

“What did you do?” she asked turning to face Snape, who lowered his wand immediately, not wanting Buffy to feel threatened. He had seen what she had done to the Dark Lord and that had been under a curse, he didn’t want to deal with a slayer at full strength.

“I removed the mark.” He told her a smile tugging on his lips as Buffy looked at him in clear disbelief, even as the slayer assessed the threat. She hid her ablities by acting blonde, playing on everyone’s misconceptions of her. She nodded slowly, before flashing him a huge smile, which he returned briefly.

“Thanks.” She said moving forward to hug him. He looked uncomfortable for all of three seconds, before his arms enfolded her. Black and Lupin let out a growl at the seeming trust that Buffy had for Snape. Lily had never been close to Snape, but she had been close to them, they had assumed to that Buffy would have been close to them, like Lily, but she seemed to trust Snape more.

“How did you get the mark?” Snape asked as Buffy disentangled herself from him, after hearing Black and Lupin growl and feeling the air become tense, “it was obvious that you didn’t know what a wand was, so you couldn’t have done the mark yourself.”

“That would be my fault.” Giles replied.

“And you want him to be her guardian?” Black said while Dumbledore held up his hand.

“Lily must have chosen him for a reason and I would like to hear the story, before discussing whether or not he is fit to be her guardian.” Dumbledore replied and Black nodded slowly, settling back into his chair.

“Actually,” Buffy said shortly drawing everyone’s attention, “That would be Ethan’s fault, along with all of the other slimy little plans the man had.”

“You’ve met Ethan Raynes?” Lupin asked in surprise, he had heard them mention Ethan earlier, but had assumed that it was a different Ethan. “If he still keeps in touch with Ethan, how do we know that he isn’t still working with the Death Eaters?”

“I do not.” Giles replied.

“You’ll excuse us if we don’t take your word for that.” Lupin replied coolly. “And if you aren’t still in with the Death Eaters what are you doing here?”

“Watcher?” Buffy asked dryly, “Ringing any bells up there?” Snape stifled his laughter at the expression on Lupin’s face, the girl had a quick wit and a problem with authority by the looks of it he couldn’t wait to see her at Hogwarts, “I see that it is. How about Watcher’s Council in London?”

“That’s enough, Buffy.” Giles said making Buffy pout. The others looked on and wondered if she was that easy to reign in and control, but they could see a glint in her eyes that told them she only listened to Giles, because she trusted him.

“Spoil my fun.” She replied, settling back into a chair she watched the scene unfold around her as Lupin and Black attempted to figure out if Giles was still with the Death Eaters. She was angry with Giles and part of her wanted to let him get cursed by the men in front of her, but the other part had already forgiven him and would stop at nothing to protect him. She eyed the men and woman around her, attempting to figure out if they were about to do something foolish to her watcher, but none of them moved, except to speak with him.

“And you just happen to be with him?” Black asked looking at Buffy and bringing her back to the meeting going on, “And you get kidnapped, how would they know unless someone told them?”

“If he has been looking for me,” Buffy replied, “then he would have found me when I was on the Hellmouth. ‘Sides until recently I was 18 and legally able to go where I want.” She let the words sink in, before adding, “And being the slayer, what are the Watcher’s Council going to watch if not the slayer?”

“Hellmouth?” Black asked after she finished, “you lived on the Hellmouth.”

“Ya, for the last three years or so.” She replied at the same time that Dumbledore said, “It would make sense as to why Tom couldn’t find you.” Everyone looked at Dumbledore clearly interested and impatient for him to continue, “If you were on the Hellmouth it would disrupt any attempts of location spells and when you came to England it would have allowed him the chance to find you.”

“Why?” Lupin asked after a moment, dazed that someone would willingly go to live on the hellmouth, “Were your parents crazy?”

“Mom moved there after I got kicked out of school for burning down the gym in Los Angeles,” she said, “And I am the one girl in all the world who can protect the Hellmouth.”

“And Faith?” Giles asked and Buffy’s eyes darkened.

“Doesn’t count, being in a coma will do that for you.” She replied and it was Giles’ turn to grimace.

“Coma?” “Faith?” “You burned down the school gym?!” was blurted out by Lupin, Snape, and Black.

“Yes,” she sighed, “I burned down the school gym, I also blew up the last highschool. You sure you want me in your school?” she said looking at Dumbledore.

“I am sure that there were extenuating circumstances around these events.” Dumbledore replied.

“I’m glad one of my principles finally thinks so.” She muttered before turning to Dumbledore with a question, her expression remained serious, though the question was not, “You’re not a Nazi with a bug up his butt the size of an Emu are you?” Dumbledore laughed, because Buffy would be a delightful child like Lily.

“Faith?” Lupin asked hesitantly and Buffy sighed.

“The other slayer.”

“One girl in all the world? Isn’t that how it goes?” Lupin asked looking interested in how Buffy was going to answer.

“Yea, that’s how it went.” She replied bracing herself for the next part, she didn’t understand why everyone always seemed to flip at the next part it wasn’t like it was a permanent thing, “until I died.”

“You died!” was shouted by everyone except for Buffy and Giles, who shared a look daring the other one to tell the story, but it was Buffy who spoke first.

“Only for a couple of minutes.” She replied defensively and Giles gave a snort of laughter, she always managed to throw in that she only died for a couple of minutes.

“But it was long enough to call the next slayer,” Giles reminded her and she stuck her tongue out at him.

“Sure remind me, why don’t you?”

“And what is the other slayer doing in a coma?”

“I put her there.” Buffy replied shortly, not elaborating on the comment even though she could see the curiosity in their eyes.

“Why?” Black asked when it became apparent that Buffy wasn’t going to continue. Buffy stared at them long and hard before answering.

“I don’t feel that is any of your business.” She replied shortly and Snape stifled his laughter at the disgruntled looks on Black’s and Lupin’s faces. They looked to Giles for the answers who merely shrugged as Buffy turned a glare on him.

“It is her story to tell.” He replied shortly.

“You’re her watcher.” Snape pointed out, he had to admit that he was very curious about the girl.

“And?” Giles asked raising his eyebrow.

“Can we look at your Watcher’s diary?” Lupin asked he had heard about watcher’s diaries and how they contained everything about slayers and the fights they had fought, along with pictures.

“No.” Giles stated firmly.

“How did you receive the mark of Eyghon?” Dumbledore asked, the two had been willing to share that story and if it would appease the men around them, maybe they could get on with something important, like protecting Buffy.

“Ethan Raynes came to town.” Buffy stated, “It was around the time that Giles’ friend had come looking for him to tell him that Eyghon had returned, but Eyghon had killed him and taken his body. When Giles’ friend had found us, as Eyghon, he was close to killing the body so he fought me and died, but he jumped into Jenny’s body. Jenny acted all weird and stuff, so Giles figured it out and we came up with a plan. We found Ethan, but he knocked me out. When I came to I was tied and he was doing the tattoo and that’s when Jenny, who’s Eyghon, showed up. Willow and the rest of the Scoobies had Angel choke Jenny and Eyghon jumped into Angel, but Angel already had a demon in him.” She said this as quickly as possible, making the rest wonder if she had taken a breath during that entire thing.

“Jenny?” “Angel?” Lupin and Black asked, Giles and Buffy sighed.

“Friends of ours.” Buffy replied, Giles sent a grateful look towards her and she smiled in return. This last year had been the hardest for Giles, especially after Angel had come back from Hell. “I hate to change the subject,” the group looked at her, “Well I really don’t, but what is going to happen to me?”

“Well Ms. Lupin-Black,” Dumbledore said, “That is up to you and guardian. I hope that you will consider our invitation to join the sixth years, but I will not force you.”

“I got that.” She replied dryly, “I was wondering about Voldemort.” She saw everyone wince and wondered about that, “Why does everyone wince when I mention his name?”

“During the first war,” Snape began, “people feared that by saying His name you would draw his attention. It kept on, even after everyone thought he had died.”

“How did he die?” Buffy asked curiously, the man she had seen had looked very much alive.

“A mother’s love protected her baby and bounced the Killing curse off of the baby.” Dumbledore replied and Buffy looked at him wondering where the catch was.

“So, he was killed by a baby?”

“Essentially,” Giles said, “Yes.” The others wondered what he was doing, because he hadn’t been in the wizarding world at the times so how did he know what had happened.

“What’s the catch?” she asked after a moment.

“The catch is the baby is your half-brother.” Snape said, he could tell from the short time that he knew her, she expected nothing but the truth.

“Same mother obviously.” Buffy said quickly figuring everything out in her head. “So,” she said, “If it was my mom’s love to protect my brother, how?”

“She died to protect him.” Snape told her, “It leaves an invisible mark on the soul and protects them. The killing curse snapped back and hit Him, killing Him instead.”

“Where is he? What’s his name?”

“Harry Potter.” Black said and Buffy looked at him, “I’m his godfather.”

“He is currently with your aunt and uncle.” Dumbledore said and Buffy realized that he was attempting to acquire her into the family so to speak. She knew that he needed something from her and she wasn’t sure what it was.

“What do you want?” she asked, subtly had never been her strong suite besides being the slayer had made her antsy. “Why do you need me?”

Chapter 2

Buffy stood in the back yard of Grimmauld Place. She had been there a little over a week mulling over the information that she had been given and the options that had been laid out in front of her. Even though she was once again sixteen Giles treated her as though she was still eighteen and this did not sit well with some of the Order, namely Black.

Giles had left the decisions in her hand, telling her that he knew that she would make the correct one.

Flashback

"What do you want from me?" Buffy asked a little more forcefully this time. No one really had an answer for her. They weren't prepared for her to be so forceful, they were sort of hoping that she would be in shock and simply agree to help, without knowing what she was agreeing to. They were at the point that they needed all the help that they could get. They were waging a war that most people thought was over and there were heavy causalities for their side, because of this.

"The wizadaring world is under attack," Giles told her, ignoring the looks that he was receiving from the other's in the room. Buffy nodded, waiting for him to continue, for someone to fill in the missing pieces. "Most people do not believe that this war is still going on. They think that when Harry defeated Voldemort that that was it, the war had ended, but his group will do anything to resurrect him and they have done anything to do this."

"Whose the group?" Buffy asked, looking around the room for someone with the answers. Giles seemed to be avoiding this and she briefly wondered why.

"A group," Snape continued glaring at the old coot, who looked like he didn't want to say a thing to begin with, "known as the Deatheaters,"

"Same group as Giles?" Buffy questioned and Giles nodded as the others glared at him. They still did not understand what a slayer was. Sure they had all read about her, but not one of them knew what it was really like to have a slayer in the family to constantly watch her go out into battle knowing that this could be her last one.

"They are attempting to remove what they have deemed unworthy people in the wizarding community."

"Muggles." Buffy replied and she received a nod as an answer once again. Buffy was quickly tiring of this line of questioning, it was like pulling teeth she got better answers from the demons she interrogated.

"And half-breeds." Snape said, Buffy looked disgusted as he said this, she couldn't believe that she had essentially been created for this reason, to destroy. She snorted to herself wondering why she had to kill, to destroy anything at all. The powers used her to destroy evil and her "father" wanted to use her to destroy good. When was she going to make a choice as to what she did?

"Voldemort is leading this group," Giles said pulling Buffy out of her dark thoughts, she laughed slightly when everyone winced at the name. "And he has plans to get rid of everyone in his way, starting with the Order of the Phoenix."

"If you wince every time the name is said, how do you expect to win this war?" Buffy questioned looking around the room at the men and woman that were gathered in front of her. They shifted uncomfortably, they realized that they would need to overcome this fear, but they were embarrassed that a young girl had pointed it out. Buffy realized then that she knew that name, it was the one that Snape had had on the card in his pocket, "The name on the card?" Buffy asked, "The one that everyone was so surprised that I could read?"

"Yes that would be the one." Snape replied, "The card was made to be read only by those that are in the Order of the Phoenix. So when you were able to read it we were a little surprised, to say the least, as to why."

"Could it be because my biological mother was in the Order?" Buffy asked and the other's looked thoughtful.

"No." Snape replied quickly, Buffy wondered briefly if he had created the protective charm around the card, it would only seem logical since that he would be the one testing it when he went to meetings, "Harry was not able to read the same card and they share the same mother."

"That would be my fault…" Giles said and everyone turned to him wondering what else he could have done that would create Buffy's ability to see the card.

End Flashback

She was so lost in thought that she never heard the door open, but she did feel a caress of power as someone stepped inside the room, a dark power, feral in nature. Reacting quickly she tossed the person over her shoulder, her foot landing on the person's chest.

"I am so sorry." Buffy stuttered, a blush creeping its way across her cheeks as she stared at the person she knocked on the ground.

"It's quite alright, my dear." Remus Lupin said slowly getting to his feet and dusting himself off. He knew he should have knocked, but he kept forgetting that this tiny slip of a girl was a slayer.

"Hey!" Buffy said, looking at him, her silver eyes piercing and devoid of emotion, he shuddered at this look. The slayer was in
control, for the most part, and the werewolf was not liking this, he wanted to crawl under a table and hid from her gaze, but he knew that Buffy would not hurt him, intentionally. "No need to go and insult my height."

"I said that last bit out loud?" Remus asked a red hue a lighting his features when Buffy nodded. Clearing his throat he got the matter at hand, "Dumbledore wanted to know if you had figured out if you were going to stay or leave." He wanted to ask her if she knew what she was doing, but didn't feel like his right. She looked like Lily, but she didn't act anything like her mother, she was more confident than Lily had ever been. She was also more adept at magic than her mother. Lily had been one of the most brilliant minds that the wizardering world had ever seen, but Buffy was able to grasp complex spells after only been studying for a week, she had caught up with the fifth years and would be able to attend as a sixth year if she so chose to. Giles
was teaching her to control more of the slayer abilities and to do wandless magic. Everyone had been skeptical at first, but Buffy had been able to erect shields, without ever uttering a word, that shut everyone up.

"Where is he?" Buffy asked, she wanted a few assurances before she agreed to join their little group, even if Giles had ensured that she would join anyways. She wanted to be sure that her mom would really be safe from these Death Eaters and she wanted to meet Harry. She had heard so many things and if what they said was true then she might be able to get the Ministry to allow Giles guardianship over Harry as well, since they were brother and sister, but that was another battle
to fight.

"He is at Hogwarts at the moment," Remus replied and Buffy nodded, making her way towards the door. "Where are you going?"

"To see the wizard." Buffy replied with a snicker in her voice, but Remus just gave her a blank stare. No one got her sense of humor.

"Do you need a heart?" a dry voice laden with sarcasm asked, "No, you did save me. Perhaps it is courage?" again the voice laughed slightly, "No, again, you rescued me. Maybe you just want to find your way home."

"Severus," Remus said softly when he noticed Buffy go pale, "now is not the time…"

"It's okay, Remus," Buffy said softly, "if he cannot overcome being saved by a girl, than he is nothing more than an overgrown boy," she sniffed the air slightly and amended her statement, "in need of a shower." Snape stiffened considerably and was about to retort when he noticed the look on Buffy's face, she looked like she was holding back tears. Buffy usually liked to banter back and forth with him, a contest of wits to keep each other on their toes, but she really didn't seem up to it today. He looked towards Remus to supply the answers, but there were none forthcoming.

"Buffy," Giles called, "it's time to go." He walked into the room and looked at his slayer, whom he had come to think of as a daughter. He assessed the situation quickly and turned to stare at the other man whom Buffy had taken a liking to despite his resolve that she would not. "What did you say to her?"

"I merely asked the child if she needed to find her way home." Snape replied and Giles couldn't understand how that would make Buffy upset, so he turned to look at her. She looked at everyone and wondered how she was going to survive in a place where no one really knew her. She loved to banter back and forth with Severus, but was that enough? Would Giles be able to keep her sane?

"It's her favorite movie." Buffy whispered, giving Giles a watery smile. His eyes widened slightly as recognition flared in them. Snape had made reference to `The Wizard of Oz' which happened to be Joyce's favorite movie. "Will it hurt her?" her voice was so soft, that if Remus hadn't been a werewolf he wouldn't have caught what she said. Giles must have been used to her, seemed to anticipate her question, because he quickly enfolded her in a hug before answering.

"No." Giles replied, Snape wanted to rip Buffy out of his arms and hold her himself, but he restrained himself, barely. The Order had talked about it and it had been decided that Joyce would be safer if her memories were to be erased. Buffy wanted to go back to the Hellmouth to say goodbye to her mother, before Giles erased her memories. They then needed to repeat this with all of her friends, for their own safety. He hoped that his slayer was strong enough to do all of this and more, the Order wanted her to join the fight and if they took everything without returning any of it, she would only be a shell.

"Will what hurt her?" Snape asked impatiently, wanting to know what had caused the sadness in his slayer's eyes. He may be a bastard, but Buffy looked so fragile and he couldn't stand it. He wanted to put the fight back in her, to see her smiles. Snape shook his thoughts off, grimacing, because he realized that he was infatuated with a girl, a school girl. Snape focused his attention on Giles, when he looked at Buffy who nodded slightly, before turning to face the other two men.

"It was decided that it would be best if Buffy's foster mother and her friend's memories were erased." Giles replied and Snape felt about ready to kick himself. He was rarely cruel, despite the appearance at school and he looked to Buffy cursing himself for the lack of knowledge and understanding. She always seemed so strong and he wanted to be the one to hold her, to comfort her.

"When was this decided?" Remus asked a bit harshly, "By whom?" he was a werewolf, so he knew what it was to be on the outside and that's exactly what Buffy would be feeling when her friends were gone.

"The Order of the Phoenix and Buffy." Giles replied, "it was decided the other night, you and Severus were not present at this time." Remus and Snape could not figure out where they had been, why they hadn't been present at this meeting, until Remus realized that it had been a full moon. "It was done so that Buffy could meet the rest of the Order, so there wouldn't be any surprises when she arrived at school and Harry's long lost sister was found." Buffy snorted, she hadn't been lost, nor did anyone else know that Harry had a sister, so this was going to be an interesting year.

"And where are you going?" Snape asked although he did have a sneaking suspicion he might know where they were going. He wanted to take the attention off the fact that she was only a school girl, she seemed much older and in a way she was. She was faced with all of this responsibility and had been raised years older than she was, so it was only fitting that she seemed older. There was a darkness rooted in being the slayer that he found a kinship in, he knew there was more to it, but he couldn't express himself in anyway to her until she was out of school and by then he would be over her.

"Buffy and I are returning to Sunnydale, where she is going to say her goodbyes right before I erase their memories." Giles replied holding up the cloak for Buffy to step into. She slowly stepped into it, everyone could feel her withdrawing, it was like the sun was setting and the coldness was creeping into the room. Remus wanted to see her smile once again, to see the amazingly bright girl that she was.

"Absolutely not!" Snape replied jumping everyone with the concern that was in his voice, "Have you forgotten that HE is after her! He will find her in a matter of seconds and you will not be able to protect her from his wrath!" Snape yanked Buffy towards him, her small body colliding with his. Giles watched as Snape wrapped his arms possessively around the blonde slayer who looked slightly annoyed at being treated as some silly girl who didn't know what was going on. Grabbing one of Snape's arms, Buffy pulled him over her shoulder and sent him crashing to the floor.

"You are forgetting I have lived there the last four years without him ever finding me!" Buffy retorted, wondering briefly if she had overreacted, but getting a strange satisfaction for doing it, "Besides you have no say in what I do! I am the slayer! I could
kick your ass in a heartbeat, if it weren't for the fact you are human," she watched the looks that crossed everyone's faces, as
though everyone were saying `Thank God!' before adding, "some of the time."

"Who is going with you?" Lupin asked trying to relieve the tension in the room. Giles looked at him and nodded his thanks, before going to answer.

"It will be just Buffy and I returning to Sunnydale."

"I've always wanted to visit the Hellmouth." Lupin replied with a small smile. He was willing to go out on a limb to try to get to know the slayer. He wanted to know what she was like, what type of child Lily could have raised. She had a sharp sense of humor, he could see that, but he wanted more. This was another small piece of Lily that had survived and although James hadn't been her father, he could see so much of the two in her that it almost made his heart break.

"Of course," Giles replied, "you are welcome to come and visit." Snape and Lupin nodded at once, like eager little boys. The slayer sighed slightly, she wasn't sure whether she wanted to kill Snape or kiss him. He was so frustrating, but at the same time he made her heart skip a beat, like Angel had. One of the only problems was she was about half of his age, and she was pretty sure that he would want nothing to do with a student-teacher relationship.

"You're not going dressed like that, are you?" Buffy asked the three wizards standing in front of her.

"What?" Snape asked looking down at his wizardering robes, before looking at the other two who were wearing similar things, "What's wrong with our state of dress?"

"Nothing," Buffy said as she looked over each of them critically, Giles flushing slightly as he realized exactly what was wrong with their dress, "If you're all cross-dressers." Giles pulled off his glasses and began to clean them thoroughly while glaring at Buffy, who was looking as innocent as possible.

"We may want to go dressed as muggles." Giles replied, "Despite being on the Hellmouth, our wizardering clothing will stick out. We need suitable attire."

"You're not going to dress them in tweed, are you?" Buffy asked and Giles shot her a look, "What? I'm just saying that it would be a waste of hunky men." She smiled wickedly when all the men flushed slightly. Giles hid back the smile, behind his handkerchief, this was the Buffy that he knew. Taking out his wand he did a simple spell that changed his clothes and those of his companions into jeans and sweaters.

"Wicked!" Buffy exclaimed as Giles did the spell, they hadn't taught her that one, mostly because any wand she used was kind of wonky, they had been hesitant to go to Hogsmeade until she had learned some wandless magic. So, Buffy had been stuck learning magic with someone else's wand, they told her it would be much easier with her own wand, "Maybe being a witch isn't so bad." Giles smiled at her reaction, she had caught on so quickly that it was hard to believe that she hadn't attended a school at some point. She would be far advanced than most sixth years, could probably take seventh year classes and would still be advanced in the self-protection spells and shields. He knew that she still thought of herself as eighteen and would needed to be treated as such, he trusted her judgment more than most of the men he was standing with at the moment.

"Right," Giles said clearing his throat and shaking off these other thoughts, "we need to get going if we are going to do this today." Giles looked at Buffy whose __expression was unreadable, but he was not fooled, he knew that she was going through a horrible time and there was nothing that he could do about it. He never saw the black shadow slip into the room behind him, but he certainly heard the voice which made him jump and turn around.

"Wouldn't it be easier to obliviate her as well?" Black asked quietly to Giles, smirking slightly when Giles jumped. He was glad that he could get one over on Ripper, as far as he was concerned Ripper deserved to be put into prison from all of the crimes he committed. Dumbledore had told him what was going on and he had decided he wanted to see where she had lived all of these years. He wanted to thank the person that had raised her so wonderfully, even though she would never remember the conversation. "After all the goodbyes had been said," he replied when he received a glare from the slayer.

"No." Buffy replied glaring at Black, who was starting to fidget under all the attention from the slayer, startling Snape and Lupin who hadn't heard what Sirius had said to Giles, "it would not be easier to obliviate me. You raise your wand in my direction and I will hurt you." Snape looked ready to second the motion, when he was interrupted.

"I thought that slayers couldn't harm humans." Black said, Buffy just smirked at him. She just wanted to reach over and smack the man upside his head, he was treating Giles so badly and it was because he had made a few mistakes as a child, it wasn't like Black was perfect either.

"But you're not just human," she replied, "You're a dog." Snape laughed softly, while Giles looked a little confused before realizing what Buffy was alluding to. Lupin looked about ready to smack his friend as well, but settled for moving closer and talking with him.

"And what would you replace all of those memories with?" Lupin asked his friend as he pulled him to the side, out of the range of normal humans, but not Buffy. She smiled at the attempt that Lupin was making, she knew that he just wanted to get to know her, but he wasn't trying to take over her life or treat her like a child. He seemed to understand that her life had made her grow up too fast and she may be older than anyone in that room.

"Something happy." Sirius replied and Lupin scoffed at this idea, "A happy life where she wasn't killing things nightly, where she was safe."

"Think about this," he told Sirius, "those horrible memories that you are trying to replace play into what makes this woman so special. She knows more about demons then you could ever hope to know. The knowledge that she carries helps her survive from one night to the next. Those horrible memories keep her alive. Even if you take all of those memories away she would still be the slayer, she would still need to go out every night. Even if you did take those memories away and she got into a fight without knowing what she was or who she was, she would die all the more quickly." He waited for the words to sink
into his friend's head and left him to think about these thoughts.

"What he said." Buffy said, smiling her thanks to the werewolf who smiled softly back, maybe this wouldn't be so bad afterall. "What do you say we get this show on the road?"

"Yes," Giles said, "let's."

"How are we getting there?" Snape asked he wanted to see the dog squirm some more, but they needed to get there before sun down, even if they had the slayer, he did not want to meet what went bump in the night.

"Portkey." Giles replied, "Keep one person with you at all times." With that said they all touched the portkey and the tugging sensation went through everyone's naval. All four men looked slightly green, but the slayer looked exuberant.

"Can we go again?" Buffy asked, laughing when all four men glared at her. "Spoilsports." She began to walk quickly up the drive and into the house that she had been raised in. She was assaulted by thousands of different memories and she felt the tears going down her cheeks. How could she erase her mother's memories? Who would raise her?

"Buffy?" she heard her mother asked, "What are you doing back so soon?" Joyce walked into the living room from the kitchen, "And with friends?" she wiped her hands on her apron before reaching her hand out. "Joyce, Buffy's mom."

"Severus Snape."

"Remus Lupin."

"Sirius Black." She shook each of their hands, nodding to Giles who smiled slightly.

"What are you all doing here?" she asked finally when everyone was seated some where in the living room. She noticed immediately that Buffy seated herself as close to herself as she could possibly get and that the man, Snape, seated himself beside Buffy. She wondered briefly if this man had gotten her into trouble and then shook her thoughts off. Buffy had gone over to England to heal.

"When were you going to tell me, Mom?" Buffy asked, pushing the adoptions papers towards her mother who looked slightly panicked at first, before sighing.

"There was never really an opportunity." She replied, reaching her hand to encompass Buffy's. Joyce pulled her daughter closer, they may not be related by blood, but Buffy was her daughter and she knew what was coming. She remembered what the man had said when she had gotten Buffy about if Buffy ever found out. She knew that this would be about the last time she held her daughter, that she would remember her daughter.

"Tell me now." Buffy murmured from her secure place in her mother's arms. She savored the safety that she felt there and wondered if she would ever feel this safe again. Her eyes caught that of the man she had saved earlier and she knew that she would always find comfort with him. She pushed this aside and focused on her mother, she would deal with this bond at another time, if there was anything to deal with.

"I was approached by this British man," Joyce began to tell her story, stroking her daughter's hair.

Flashback

"Joyce Summers?" a cool voice asked with a British accent.

"Yes?" she replied, turning around. The first thing she noticed was the baby that was being held by a young red headed woman.

"My name is Mr. Luther Giles," he said, his hand going out, which Joyce accepted.

"I remember." Joyce replied warmly.

"Have you given thought to what was said?"

"Yes," Joyce replied, "I have discussed this with my husband an we have decided that we would love to adopt a little girl." She watched the young girl hug the baby closer to her, tears sliding down her face.

"In that case," he replied and the girl moved forward, "this is Lily Evans."

End Flashback

"You met my real mom?" Buffy asked, interrupting Joyce's train of thought.

"Yea, honey," Joyce replied twirling one of Buffy's now dark strands tears filled her eyes, "you look just like her. So beautiful." Buffy hugged her mom closer, as the tears slid down her face. She got up and walked out of the room, but not out of hearing.

"Go ahead, Mr. Giles." Joyce said, "Your father told me that if she ever found her way back to England it would be safer for everyone involved if our memories were gone. I understand, just remind her that I loved her like my daughter and she will always have a place in my heart."

"Of course, Mrs. Summers." Giles replied, before taking his wand out and pointing it at Joyce, "Obliviate."

Chapter 3

Buffy walked into the kitchen and stared at the room that she had come to know so well. She could feel the tears well up in her eyes and she did nothing to stop them as they began to make their descent down her face. She couldn’t imagine her live without her mother, but now she had new men to take care of her, but that did not dull the pain in her chest.

“I am sorry, Buffy,” Remus murmured as he crossed the room and held her, he wasn’t sure were he should place his hands so he kept them by his side. Buffy never seemed to notice as the tears slid down her face. He could feel the hot, wet tears soak into his shirt. He felt so useless, but there was nothing he could do, except hold her and he would do it. “I know you wanted to be alone, but I couldn’t stand to hear you hurting anymore. One of the side effects of being supernatural being.” Buffy nodded her ascent.

“I know.” She remembered when she had first became the slayer, she could hear her parents arguing down the hall and what they were arguing. They would argue about the money being spent on her, the number of fights that she was getting into at school. She withdrew into herself even more because of this and she couldn’t even explain it to her parents.

“Crying will not solve anything,” Snape said when he entered the room. He didn’t want to be around the mutt any more, but the truth was he couldn’t stand to see her hurting and if she was mad at him then the hurt couldn’t be as bad. He knew that he could anger her with a few words and he wasn’t surprised when he heard her snarl back,

“I’m sure these emotions are foreign to you,” Buffy replied back, without looking up at Snape, “Any emotions are foreign to you, but they are rough and hard, but you deal with them.” Remus carefully put his arms around Buffy’s back, hugging her tightly as he glared at Snape, as was his right. He may not know Buffy that well, but he knew her well enough to have fallen in love with her in a daughter sort of way.

Snape eyed the wolf and felt a little resentful towards him. He wanted to be holding her tight and comforting her. Why hadn’t she come to him? He shook himself out of his thoughts and continued to watch the two. The way that Remus was holding her was like a father would to a child, Snape could live with that. He would not live with the mutt holding onto her, he couldn’t stand to think of the mutt touching her, although Buffy seemed to agree with this sentiment.

“We’re done,” Giles said pulling everyone out of their thoughts. He crossed the room and pulled Buffy into a hug, before whispering in her ear, “Why don’t you go pack what you need, I’ll give the Scoobies a call.” Buffy nodded quickly, walking up the stairs to her room. She knew that she did not have a lot of time, Giles had placed a charm upon her mom to make her sleep until they left the house, but Buffy couldn’t stand being there for too long, without breaking down again. She walked quickly to her closet and began packing.

“It would go faster if we used magic,” Snape offered as a way of apology. Buffy seemed to sense this and nodded briskly. She would point to the things that she wanted to keep from this life and Snape would quickly pack them. “I am sorry about what I said.”

“I know.” She replied, grabbing Mr. Gordo and stuffing him into one of the trunks. “How are we going to take all of this stuff with us.” Buffy asked, she had accumulated a lot of things in the eighteen years, no make that sixteen years. It was so hard for her to think of herself as sixteen, again. She was far more older than sixteen anyways. Giles and Snape seemed to realize this, Remus was well on his way, but Black had a problem with accepting this. He was always questioning a decision when she made one. He hoped he fell into a somewhat peaceful setting soon, because she would be back at Hogwarts soon and that meant that she would be back to patrolling. Giles had not allowed her to slough in that department. After teaching her wandless magic, he had begun to incorporate magic into their training sessions, telling her that she would never know what she would encounter in the Forbidden Forest.

“We are going to shrink everything so that it will fit in our pockets.” Snape said, drawing Buffy out of her thoughts. She had looked like she was a million miles away and he didn’t want her to be too caught up in her memories she would have the time during her stay at Grimmauld place. Although once the children arrived she wouldn’t be so lucky. He wondered briefly how everyone would take to her, she was far more mature than them, Ms. Granger would be the likeliest choice for a companion for Buffy, because she was far more advanced than other students, like Buffy.

“Spiffy,” Buffy replied, giving the room a once over, she noticed a picture of her friends and her, including Faith. Her plans resounded within Buffy’s mind and she was thankful that she was a slayer, because it gave her the natural ability to block any attempts at a forceful entry into her mind, she could allow someone in, but they needed a key of sorts, even in her sleep. She became excited as she thought of the trick that she was about to pull on them, but she tampered down on that.

“Are you ready?” He asked and Buffy nodded quickly, “Evanesco,” Buffy watched as the rest of her life disappeared, like she had never been there or had belonged there. Snape watched the sadness flicker across her face and put his arm around her, she buried her face into his side as he shrunk her suitcases and levitated them into his pocket. Not wanting to, but knowing they needed to leave, he lead them down the stairs and into the kitchen were Black, Giles, and Remus were waiting.

“Ready?” Giles asked and Buffy nodded. “I have called a Scooby meeting and we are running ahead about a half an hour.”

“Good,” Buffy replied, “we need to go to the hospital first.”

“Are you hurt?” Black asked, glaring at Snape, “What did that bastard do to you?” Black was immediately dangling in the air, by his foot, Buffy began to bounce him like a yo-yo, where he came dangerously close to the ground.

“When are you going to learn that I can take care of myself?” she asked, she allowed him to get dangerously close to the ground before slowly dropping him on it. He fell with a thud and rubbed his head painfully, “Besides I need to see someone.”

“Are you sure that is a safe idea?” Giles asked, knowing whom the only person was in the hospital that Buffy could possibly want to see.

“Do we have a choice?” she replied with a grin and Giles shrugged. “That’s what I thought.”

“I would like to know who we are going to see,” Black asked and Buffy shot him a glare.

“You don’t deserve to know.” She replied, before turning to her watcher, “can we apparant?”

“Yes,” Giles replied and everyone prepared to do so. He moved to take a hold of Buffy, but Snape had already grabbed her and apparanted away to the hospital. Sighing, Giles followed suit, he didn’t like it, but he was unwilling to spoil what happiness she may come into. But if he hurt her, no matter of heaven or hell would stop Giles from getting his revenge. Taking one more look around Giles, apparanted away. He appeared beside Snape, but Buffy was no where near them, she had already taken off towards Faith’s room.

“I got this,” Buffy said as they reached the hospital room that Faith was in. Giles gave a look of doubt, but Buffy smiled, “I’m just a holler away.”

“Alright,” Giles said, “I don’t like it, but I will deal with it.” Buffy nodded before entering the room. She looked around the room and noticed that Faith was by herself. She wondered if this was the mayor’s doing or the watcher’s councils, probably a little bit of both of them.

“Silencio,” Buffy murmured after the door closed, she could feel the magic hum and she gave a happy dance. “Fidelis,” she said pointing to herself. She knew what she was doing. Buffy had come up with a plan, but first she needed to make sure that her location was an unknown. She would allow Giles into her secret, but she would place the charm on him as well, so that he would not be able to give the information out. She had learned, innocently, from Dumbledore that this was how he had made Grimmauld place disappear from the wizarding radar. She had just done this to herself. “Finite Incantatem,” Buffy watched as Faith slowly opened her eyes.

“Come to finish me off, B?” Faith rasped out, she could feel the numerous tubes sticking out of her arms and wondered what Buffy wanted, the golden slayer.

“No,” Buffy replied, pulling out Pensieve of her first meeting with Voldemort, “I just want you to look at something and understand. Silently Faith touched the Pensieve and was immediately sucked in. She didn’t know how long she was there, but when she came back, Buffy was waiting for her.

“What the hell was that?” Faith asked and Buffy smiled, knowing that this was Faith’s turn to shin.

“This is your chance to shine.” Buffy replied with a smirk. “I have a proposition that you might be interested in.”

“I’m listening.”

“I want you to become the slayer,” Buffy began.

“It’s a little late for that,” Faith replied with a smirk.

“of the Hellmouth.” Buffy said, “I just found out…” Buffy quickly laid out everything for Faith, who absorbed it all.

“So you want to replace everything you’ve done with me?” Faith asked wondering if this would work.

“Not so much,” Buffy replied, “I want you to take the fidelius charm on you. It will allow you to retain all of your memories, but you will not be able to share them with anyone, unless this person already knows me, so the gang.” Buffy had been working on modifying the charm to allow her to do this. She wanted to keep her friends, but she knew that she would need to modify the memories of the men that came with her. She had been trying the obliviate one rats and stuffy, but she wasn’t sure about people.

“Why?” Faith asked finally, she knew that Buffy didn’t do anything without a reason.

“I believe in you.” Buffy replied, “I saw one path and you saw another, if I hadn’t been here you would have chosen the right path, there is only supposed to be one slayer at a time and it gets confusing when there is two of us.”

“Why help me, though?” Faith knew that she and Buffy had their differences, especially after she had tried to kill Angel. She wasn’t sure whose side she should be on and didn’t understand how Buffy could trust her this much.

“Because I can see myself in you.” Buffy replied and she left it at that, she didn’t need to go any further, after all they are sisters.

“How do you know I won’t go to the dark side again?” Faith asked, she could still feel the yearning to be dark, but there was something holding it back.

“Because you know that you will be the only thing stopping the evil this time. There won’t be me here to help you, you will be on your own, with a new watcher and the new Scooby gang.” Buffy replied softly, she knew she was giving her life to Faith, giving her a chance to make up for what she did, but it was up to Faith.

“I’ll do it.” Faith said suddenly, “Put the charm on me,”

“Fidelis,” Buffy murmured and Faith could feel something hit her and wrap itself around any and all memories of Buffy. “I modified it.” Buffy said proudly as she watched the spell mingle with Faith’s aura. The girl had darkness, but it wasn’t as nearly as tainting as Faith thought it was, it was like a small spot, that was slowly being absolved.

“Now what?” Faith asked getting out of bed, she looked at the gown she was wearing and then at Buffy with a look of despair. She was not going out to meet anyone dressed like this.

“Now you change and we go meet the Scoobies,” Buffy replied, handing Faith a package that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Faith grinned at Buffy as she pulled a pair of black leather pants, a red halter top, a thong, platform shoes, and socks. “Hurry up.” She called over her shoulder as she walked out to meet the men.

“How did it go?” Giles asked as Buffy stepped out of the room, “Is she…”

“Awake and willing,” Buffy replied, she watched the look cross his face and knew what he was thinking, “The watcher’s council will be sending a new and young watcher to help Faith through this. She is willing to try this and get through this, without another slayer here to be compared to.” Giles nodded slowly, knowing that what she said was true.

“Awake and willing for what?” Sirius asked, he didn’t think awakening the dark slayer was a good idea, but everyone was more intent on listening to the child than him.

“To be the good slayer,” Buffy replied shortly, she didn’t like she had been named after this man, he did not seem to care for her too much, he was still living in the past. She understood he had been framed, but that didn’t give him the right to live on in the past. He needed to grow up and begin to live in the now.

“How can you trust her?” Black asked, Remus silently agreed, but he wasn’t about to voice that opnion.

“How do you trust Snape?” Buffy replied back, smiling at Snape when he flinched to let him know that she understood.

“I don’t,” Black replied at the same time Remus replied, “He’s changed.”

“So have I.” Faith said stepping out of the room. Black snapped to attention as the darker slayer entered into the conversation, “Hey G-man,”

“Hello Faith,” Giles replied slowly, he looked to Buffy and saw her give Faith an encouraging smile.

“Who are these hunky men?” Faith asked Buffy, trying to hide how scared she was feeling at that moment. She let her eyes look across the men assembled. She eyed the dark potion master and instantly connected to the man. She noticed how he stood protectively beside Buffy, glaring at her, that wasn’t something B had mentioned. She looked over Remus and stopped short, “Werewolf.”

“Do I have a sign on my forehead?” Remus asked annoyed, this was the second time a young girl had said that to him in a week, before anything else. Buffy and Faith chuckled softly.

“It’s part of the slayer package,” Faith replied as she turned her attention to Black. He noticed there was something off about him, she looked to Buffy for help.

“He’s a dog.” Buffy replied.

“As are all men.” Faith said and the men looked slightly annoyed.

“No,” Buffy replied with a laugh, “he can turn into a dog.”

“Really?” Faith asked looking at him with a new interest, “Cool. Can you teach me?”

“Ahh, Faith, Buffy,” Giles said looking at his watch, “It is time to go.” The slayers nodded as one, turning as one they walked out the front door of the hospital, Buffy filling Faith in on everything she needed to know, “females,” the other men nodded in agreement as they followed the men out.

By the time that they had reached Giles’s flat, the two slayers had discussed everything that had happened to Buffy and why Faith had done what she had done. They discussed the ascension on both sides.

“Buffy!” Willow exclaimed rushing to give her friend a hug, Xander doing the same, Oz nodded to Buffy, until they noticed that they had visitors.

“What is she doing here?” Xander asked eyeing the dark slayer with suspicion. Faith stuck her tongue out at him and Buffy rolled her eyes. Giles began to raise his wand and point it at the Scoobies.

“Stupefy,” Buffy whispered and watched the selected men go rigid, going over to Giles she took his wand, “Finite,” Giles fluttered to live while still trying to cast the spell. “I’m sorry Giles, but I couldn’t let you do it. I need your help.”

“Buffy what is going on?” Willow asked as she eyed her best friend.

“It’s a long story,” Buffy replied, eyeing her watcher with a pleading look.

“Buffy just found out she was a witch created to destroy everything good and these guys were sent her to erase her memories from you so that you would be safer.” Faith said laughing at Buffy’s disgruntled expression. “She awoke me so that I could make up for my misdeeds and help to save the world.”

“Oh.” Willow said, Oz nodded, and Xander eyed the slayer quietly.

“How do we know she won’t betray us?” Xander asked quietly, Willow and Oz quickly nodded.

“I have asked her to allow me to place a charm on her, which is now what I am asking all of you to do.” Buffy replied, speaking to the Scoobies and Giles. “I have modified a charm that will ensure that not one of you can speak about my location, except to each other. If there are listening devices or someone invisible, you will not be able to do it either. You won’t be able to discuss what we have done or what we will do with anyone but ourselves. Someone will not be able to read your thoughts about me or make you tell about me, no matter what. They will not be able to lift the charm, only I can do that.” Giles looked subtly impressed. He knew that she had been locking herself up in the room learning spells, but he had never thought she was so advanced.

“I’ll do it.” Willow replied, Oz nodded, Xander nodded and looked at Buffy, they really looked at her and saw how powerful she had become.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me, dear girl.” Giles said and Buffy shrugged.

“I didn’t think you would allow me to do it.” She replied and he nodded, because it would not have been allowed by the Order of the Phoenix.

“I’ll do it.” He said too. “But what about them?” He nodded to the stunned men. Buffy realized what he was asking.

“We obliviate them or they join the charm.” Buffy replied and went first to Snape, undoing the spell on him.

“You could’ve warned me,” He snapped, “You know I would have said yes.” He moved to stand by the other Scoobies. She nodded her thanks to him. She hadn’t wanted to obliviate him, but with the modified spell even his master would be unable to read his thoughts.

“Remus?” she asked quietly as she undid the spell on him. He nodded slowly, looking at the group of students that had helped Buffy through her early years.

“I have a condition,” he said quietly and Buffy nodded slowly, “I want to know about your life. What it was like as the slayer.” Buffy felt the pain course through her as it always did when she thought of the people she could have saved. She jumped when she felt a hand on her arm.

“It’s okay,” Faith murmured, “You can’t save everyone, but you can save those that were meant to be saved.” Buffy nodded slowly, she knew, now, that Faith was plagued with the same thoughts she was.

“Alright,” Buffy replied softly, before turning to Black, “And you?”

“Of all the idiotic things…” his words were cut of as Snape cast a silencing charm. He glared daggers at Snape who shrugged, smirking slightly.

“This is not the time to yell at me,” Buffy replied softly, “Every minute we spend here the more time that Voldemort has to find me. Now that he knows that I am alive he will spend every waking moment looking for me. When he doesn’t find me, he will realize one of two things, I am at Grimmauld place and being hidden or I am on a Hellmouth somewhere that allows a new sort of protection.” Sirius realized why Giles was so willing to trust her instincts, she knew her stuff, “I am sorry that I am not what you were expecting, but I need you on board or I need you to forget, the choice is yours.”

“Speaking of locations,” Snape asked suddenly, “Why wouldn’t he just use blood magic?”

“Because I used the Fidelius charm on myself and only a select people can find me.” Buffy replied and Sirius suddenly realized how well thought out this all was. Like she was a general in an army and in a way she was.

“Even with the charm he should be able to find you.” Remus said softly and Giles began to smile.

“This has something to do with the modifications that you made, doesn’t it?” Giles asked and Buffy nodded slowly.

“It is sort of like the charm that Dumbledore used to protect Grimmauld place,” Buffy said and Remus’s eyes widened in shock as he realized what she had done when she had weaseled the information out of Dumbledore. “I sort of used my blood and created a charm that would confuse anyone trying to locate me, without my permission. Think of my blood as Grimmauld place,” she stated and Snape looked fairly impressed with the amount of effort she put into this. Black looked at her through new eyes as he processed this information. “Well?” she asked him softly and he slowly nodded. Snape took of the silencing charm, somewhat disgruntled that he had to do so.

Everyone formed into a circle and waited for Buffy to do her stuff. The Scoobies were waiting their turn to ask their questions. They wanted to know who the men where with her, they looked like nothing they had ever seen before. Buffy seemed to be able to control the powers she had just come into, with more vigor than anyone thought.

“Fidelius.” Buffy murmured and everyone could feel the power flow through the room. Now that Faith wasn’t in the mix, she could watch Buffy. The power that Buffy was using came to her and flowed through her. Faith watched as it twined with her aura, stealing from it, but never dwindling her life force. The others felt the power wrap around them and go directly where it was intended to her memories, binding them.

Snape felt her brush his mind and his eyes sought hers. She smiled at him and opened her mind to him. He saw flashes of her life, her leading in battles, her school time, her friends, and the time she spent creating the charm. She broke the connection and he felt a rush of loss at this. He knew that she had taken his memories, the darker ones; he seemed somewhat lighter than he had in ages. He didn’t have the constant nagging of guilt and he looked at her questioningly.

“He bespelled you to feel guilty,” Buffy replied, he thought she meant Voldemort, but she had known the spell signature anywhere, it was Dumbledore’s. A million thoughts ran through her mind, but the most predominant was why. She didn’t understand what he thought he would gain from an Order member that felt guilty all of the time.

Did you know that Dumbledore bespelled you? Buffy sent to Snape. He looked at her in shock, before quickly masking it and shaking his head in a negative. All the guilt, everything, was due to him. Why would he does this to you?

Probably to amplify what I was feeling when I first joined, Snape replied, while looking interested in the chatter that Willow was causing with her questions to Giles. He probably wanted to make certain that I would join the Order.

But why leave it on for so long? Buffy thought back. Why not take it off when you had joined?

To ensure my place? To make sure I didn’t start to enjoy it? Snape thought as he began to question what had happened as well. He wasn’t sure what Dumbledore was up to, but the old man would have a good reason, of that he was sure of.

Chapter 4

“What did you do to him?” Dumbledore asked, Buffy absently noticed that the twinkle in his eye was no longer there.

“What did I do to who?” she asked, staring at him dumbly. She wondered who had told him or what he knew. She knew better than to admit to anything, years on the hellmouth had taught her that.

“Severus,” Dumbledore said, “I know that you removed the spell that I had on him.” He wondered if she knew what she had done, without that spell he might not be as remorseful as he should be. She wondered how long it had taken him to debate whether or not to confront her. Although, given the alternative, a truth potion or the spell, neither one worked on her. Since her encounter with the mind demon no one had been able to penetrate her mind, unless she allowed it and it seemed that the slayer did not like being poisoned and that’s what it considered the truth potion, poison.

“You mean your little spell that made him feel so much guilt that he did not want to live?” she asked, “That one? Or the one that made him go crawling back to his “master”? What gives you the right to place this spell on him? Are you afraid that if you didn’t, he wouldn’t be going back to Voldemort? That he would feel he had finally repaid his debit?” Dumbledore flinched and she realized that she was right. She felt the fury well up inside of her and the house began to shake.

Snape felt uncontrolled magic swarm through the house seconds before the house began to shake. He wondered briefly if Potter had returned, when he realized it was too powerful for Potter and had to be Buffy. Getting to his feet he rushed up the stairs and found her yelling at Dumbledore. “Do you think so little of him that you need him to barely function, sleep, exist?”

“Don’t,” he said, stepping up behind her and placing his hand on her shoulder, she jumped and he wondered if that was a smart move to startle a slayer that was controlling that much power, but she did nothing to hurt him. She seemed to relax under his touch, but he simply chalked this up to his imagination.

Although Snape was willing to forget about it, Dumbledore saw this and wondered if this was the reason she removed the spell. He watched them silently, as some sort of communication flowed between the two, intimately, and he almost felt guilty for watching, almost. He didn’t understand what she hoped to gain from this removal of the spell. Snape was easier to control with the spell on. But as her eyes flashed to his, he realized that until she was done with school he would not be able to return his little spell to Severus. Silently, he turned and left leaving the two of them alone.

“Why?” she questioned, she had been waiting for Dumbledore to confront her and it had been building for days. No one had been able to talk about it and Molly had no idea what was going on, but everyone could feel the tension whenever Dumbledore and Buffy where in the same room together. The house would still, as though waiting for blood to spill, traitor blood, before getting loud whenever they walked away from the confrontation. Buffy also wanted the confrontation, she wanted to lash out at the man who had put this curse on someone, who never deserved to feel this curse.

“He is just one man trying to fight a war,” Severus said slowly, he had not removed his hand from Buffy, afraid to be cold again, “and he wants to assure himself of his people’s loyalties.” Buffy made a face at him and he laughed, it was times like these that he was reminded of how young she was, although it never seemed that she was that young, but was a general in the army. “We are picking up Potter tonight.”

“And?” she could tell that he wanted to change the topic to a less explosive one and she had to give him a brownie point for that. She could tell that he was struggling to keep her age in balance, but with the both of them thinking of her as eighteen it was hard to do this.

“Just wondering if you are going?”

“To meet my long lost little brother?” she said sarcastically and Snape winced, Dumbledore had once again tried to manipulate the slayer into the war and she knew it. “Would I give up such a chance?”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said, before they could discuss this any further they heard a racket down the stairs. Buffy watched as the change over took him, he seemed to get older and sighed deeply, she looked at him questioningly, “The rest of the Weasley’s and Hermione Granger.” Buffy had continued her education and had surpassed what had been expected of her, she had studied hard on self-defense spells and potions and taken everything else on in stride.

“So, let’s go meet the Weasley’s and Hermione Granger,” she laughed softly when he gave her a disgruntled look. She could tell that he did not want to do that, but instead wanted to run and hide in the library, but he forced himself to lead the way down stairs. Before they had even reached the bottom of the stairs Dumbledore came rushing down spouting something about going to the Ministry. When the elder Weasley came down, Buffy stopped him.

“What is going on?”

“Harry has been caught using underage magic,” Arthur said, “I need to get to MoM, to help Dumbledore.” He rushed on leaving a confused slayer behind. There was some brief yelling as Hermione and Ron were told not to tell Harry too much. They complained loudly that he was their friend and deserved to know, but no one was willing to tell them why he wasn’t allowed to know.

“What?” she asked turning to look at Snape. Snape shrugged as to what magic and then realized that Buffy was asking about what underage magic had to do with anything, because she had been doing that for a while during the summer and they hadn’t had to go to the Ministry of magic.

“Harry has been caught using magic outside of school which is strictly forbidden. If they convict him, then he will be tossed out of school no questions asked.” Snape told her, Ron and Hermione were waiting for the sneer that was sure to accompany that statement and some sort of jabbing remark, but they found none coming, “Although, knowing your brother there is always a good reason.”

“Well,” Buffy said slightly impatiently, “what are you waiting for? Show me the way to my brother.” Snape looked startled, “If Dumbledore is going to take care of that, then I am going to get my brother, so that he can defend himself.” She started down the stairs and ran straight into a brown haired girl that had been listening in on the conversation.

“Umph!” the girl exclaimed as Buffy was going down the stairs. She looked chagrined as she realized that she had been caught listening in on Snape and Buffy. Buffy noticed that although the girl looked sorry, she also looked defiant and took an instant liking to her.

“So, sorry,” Buffy mumbled pulling the girl up and into a standing position, deciding to pretend that she didn’t realize Hermione had been listening in. Snape snickered when Buffy ran into the brown-haired know it all, “Shut up,” she muttered to Snape and the brown haired girl gasped, causing Snape to laugh. He was waiting for the “You shouldn’t talk to a professor that way” speech and decided that he did not want to hear it, so he put a stop to it before it even began, by introducing the two.

“Hermione Granger,” Snape said still laughing, “meet Elizabeth Lupin-Black.”

“How do you…” Hermione trailed off as the last name kicked in, “You’re related to Sirius and Remus?”

“Way to shock the girl,” Buffy said dryly, “No, Mom named me after them,” Hermione looked intrigued, Buffy stuck out her hand, “My friends call me Buffy.”

“Hermione,” she said, shaking the blonde’s hand, “So your mum went to school with Remus and Sirius then? But how, no offense, but you are American,”

“I was raised American,” Buffy agreed, turning to look at Snape, “Ready?”

“Then how did you wind up here?” Hermione asked.

“Ms. Granger is our resident know it all,” Snape told Buffy, “If you need any help, this is the girl to go to.” Hermione looked shock at the almost compliment and Snape had to withhold a smile.

“Glad to meet you,” Buffy said, “But I have an important person to meet.”

“Who?” Hermione asked before she could stop herself.

“My brother.” Buffy said with a smirk, while she grabbed Snape by the arm and lead him away. Hermione looked shocked that someone was willingly touching Snape and leading him off to meet her family. Shaking her head she decided she needed to drown out those thoughts with a book.

“I don’t see why I need to go,” Snape said as Buffy lead him outside. It had become a usual sight for everyone at the headquarters to see the two of them together. So no one thought anything of it when Buffy drug Snape outside.

“Because you know him and he’s probably a little paranoid right now.” Buffy replied dryly, while grabbing a hold of Snape and telling him, “Apparent us there.” Snape was astounded that she trusted him so implicitly, he could just apparent the two of them off to the Dark Lord and she would not know until they arrived, but she trusted him to get her to her brother. Putting his arms around her he apparented them away to her brother, directly outside the Dursley’s home.

“REMEMBER MY LAST, PETUNIA!”

“Nervous?” Snape asked as Buffy jumped, she glared at him and raised an eyebrow, “It’s a howler. If you get angry at someone you can send one and it actually sounds like you are yelling at them.”

“Well, let’s go met my aunt and uncle,” Buffy said as she moved to the door. She held up her hand getting ready to knock, slightly nervous about meeting her long lost brother. She jumped when she felt Snape brush up against her and knock in her stead.

“Yes,” an fat man answered and Buffy had to hold down the light supper that she had had, it was disgusting to look at him, “can I help you?” He then noticed how Snape was dressed and sneered in disgust, “Come to cart him off to jail?”

“Yes, sir,” Buffy said playing along with the pig man and pushing her way inside.

“Of course sir,” Snape sneered, spitting out the last word as though it would chock him if he said it. Harry heard the voice of his Potion’s professor and didn’t know if he should feel happiness or dread. “Come along, Harry,”

“How do I know you are Professor Snape,” Harry asked warily, keeping his eyes on the shorter witch who had hair like his mom. “Tell me something that only Professor Snape would know,”

“Fine you obnoxious boy,” Snape said with a sigh and Buffy realized how much the man despised her brother, “In your third year you and your cohorts created Polyjuice,” Harry looked shocked, “what you thought Ms. Granger’s adventures as a cat would be kept from me when I was looking for the person stealing my boomslang?”

“Alright, you are Professor Snape,” Harry said before jerking his finger at Buffy, “whose she?”

“I am Buffy,” she said before Snape could introduce her, that would not go over very well.

“Well now that this is all settled,” the pig man said, “will you be taking the boy or not?” Buffy glared at the man, but decided he was not worth it.

“Yea and he won’t be coming back,” She said, “Harry get everything you need, because you will not be coming back to this place,” Harry looked at her in shock, before turning back to Snape for confirmation, Snape nodded slightly and Harry quickly bound up the stairs, he was leaving and he didn’t have to come back! He wanted to question, because he knew that the blood magic would have to be kept and if he wasn’t coming back then that meant Dumbledore had found another member of his family!

“Good riddance!” Dursley said and Buffy rounded on the man. Snape winced at the look in her eyes. He knew he should interfere before something happened, but he knew that not even Potter deserved to be treated the way that he was whenever he was with the Dursleys.

“Good riddance?” she asked in a sweet voice, watching as he nodded briskly happy with himself, “You are happy of how you treated the boy?” she asked, her voice started to raise, she fought to control the magic that was flowing all around her, “How you beat him, ignored him, shoved him in a closet?” she looked at him in disgust, “He was sent to you, an only child, a child who had just lost both of his parents, but instead of raising him like he was yours, you ridiculed him and told him he was unworthy. He knew nothing of his parents, because of you. He has felt unloved and unneeded, because you are too bigoted and have your head so far up your…”

“Buffy,” Snape said, “it is time to go. We need to stop wasting time.” Buffy shook as she struggled to calm herself, but she glared at them, before turning on her heel and stalking up the stairs. He quickly followed the girl up the stairs to find Harry packing up the last of his things. “Let’s go,” he said, “Buffy you need to apparent on your own, as I can only apparent with one other person.”

“Sure,” she replied and allowed Harry to grab a hold of Snape, “See you at Headquarters,” with a pop she was gone. Buffy reappeared in front of Grimmauld Place and waited. She was not very patient and the waiting was killing her, just when she was about to go back, they appeared in front of her. She smiled at Harry and handed him piece of paper. He looked at it and then looked up, jumping back when a house suddenly appeared, “Let’s go in, before I explain.” He nodded and slowly went inside.

“Harry!” Hermione yelled at the dark haired boy came inside, she pulled him into a hug, which Harry returned heartedly. Hermione was happy to have her friend back and released him into Ron’s half hearted hug/hand-shake thing that boys did, when she looked at Buffy sharply, “I thought you were going to get your brother.”

“I did.” Buffy replied with a smirk, this was the part she loved, “We haven’t been properly introduced yet,” Buffy said facing Harry, “My name is Elizabeth Lupin-Black, my friends call me Buffy,” Harry looked a little confused, she had his godfather’s last name not his, “Known to your mother as daughter.”

“No,” Harry said shaking his head, “I am the only one, my parents had only one child, just me and they were killed!”

“Yes, your parents had only one child,” Buffy said and Harry gloated for a moment, they looked nothing alike, besides Buffy’s hair resembling his mother’s, “But your mother had me before she married your father,”

“No!” Harry shouted he was shaking with anger, no one ever let him know about anything that was going on, “It isn’t true! My mother only had me,”

“I know this is hard to digest,” Buffy began and Harry stared at her, “But ask Lupin, Black, hell ask Snape,” Buffy said pointing to the potions master who was trying to hide himself from view.

“Why?” Harry asked, he would talk to Lupin and Black later, what he wanted to know was why.

“Why now?” Buffy asked, “Because until recently I have been living on the Hellmouth and I have been protected from the wizarding world.” Harry looked at her, waiting for her to go on and explain what she was doing in London at this point, “Let’s start at the beginning. Into every generation there is one..”

“You’re talking about the slayer,” Hermione interrupted and Buffy nodded happy that she didn’t need to explain, because it seemed the wizarding world was already aware of her.

“What’s a slayer?” Ron asked, Harry was wise enough not to nod, although he wasn’t sure himself. He saw the look that Hermione gave Ron and knew that lecture mode was coming, Ron was going to be lectured about listening during class.

“Really Ron,” Hermione said, “Don’t you ever pay attention during class? A slayer is a young girl, generally chosen between 12 and 18, to fight the forces of darkness, like vampires.” Buffy smiled amused at their antics, it reminded her of Willow and Xander.

“I don’t remember studying slayers.” Ron said and Hermione rolled her eyes.

“Boys.” She muttered in disgust.

“For the last three years,” Buffy began interrupting the fight before it began, “I have been the slayer. Directly after I was called my mom, Joyce Summers, moved us to a place called Sunnydale. Now Sunnydale is on top of a Hellmouth, a mystical convergance of energy that will open a door directly into hell. My watcher came out here for a watcher retreat and invited me to go as a way of saying sorry. I agreed, but as I was leaving Watcher Headquarters to go shopping some blonde headed freak grabbed me and zapped us away somewhere. There I met Snape and came here,” she decided to leave out meeting daddy dearest and fighting him.

“That doesn’t explain how you are my sister,” Harry pointed out and Snape took over from here.

“When she arrived she had some papers she had grabbed from Voldemort and Dumbledore had them translated.” Snape explained, grinning when Ron gasped at the name, “They were her adoption papers, her watcher showed up and we had fun figuring out what happened.”

“WHERE IS HE?” Dumbledore thundered as he strolled into Grimmauld Place, he interrupted any questions Harry or Hermione might have had for Buffy, which Buffy was grateful for.

“Right here, professor,” Harry said confused. The professor sounded mad, but wasn’t he the one that sent Buffy and Snape after him?

“You just couldn’t wait!” Dumbledore said, Harry thought he was talking to him at first, until he realized that it was Buffy, “You just had to go off and do this yourself, what were you thinking? Do you even realize what the Dark Lord will do to you..”

“Yep,” Buffy replied calmly, stopping his tyrant in the middle. “I realized that I couldn’t let my brother stay in a place where he wasn’t wanted while a bunch of people, who have no idea what happened and why he used magic, debated his fate. If he is going to trial, he is going to have a fair one,” No one but Dumbledore and Snape felt Buffy’s power began to rise, though her hair began to move as though a slight wind was blowing through the house.

“I’m going to trial?” Harry asked, trying to stop the fight that he felt was coming, he didn’t know if he believed her or not, but she was telling him something.

“Yep,” Buffy replied keeping her eyes on Dumbledore, “You are going to have your say before MoM tomorrow.” She raised an eyebrow daring Dumbledore to correct her, “Then we are going shopping for you school supplies and robes,”

“That is completely unsafe there will be no..”

“With Snape and the Weasley family,” she continued, “I assume that is safe enough for you?” Dumbledore nodded briskly. Hermione watched the interaction with interest, she had never seen the professor act this way for any one, not even the Minister of Magic.

“Is she my sister?” Harry asked.

“There is a spell you can do,” Hermione told him, “If you don’t want to take her word,”

“yes,” Dumbledore agreed, “It would be best, this way we can transfer the blood magic to her as well.”

“You’ll excuse me if I have Snape do the spell won’t you?” she asked sweetly and Dumbledore looked ready to disagree, but Snape already had his wand out and was saying the spell. The world spun for Harry as the magic flowed through him, he was allowed to see the truth in her words and the fact that she was his sister. He felt a mixture of emotions flow through him at this, anger and happiness being the top two.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Harry asked coldly, “All this time, everything I have endured, I could have been sent off with her and saved the pain..”

“I wasn’t in the wizarding world, Harry,” Buffy replied reminding the angry boy, once again, that she couldn't be there before, “He was trying to keep me out, but he needs you, the question is why?”

Chapter 5

The discussion had gone about as well as Giles could have expected, there was yelling, mostly on the part of Harry, and little blood shed, because he had sat next to his slayer. She had calmly taken in everything that had happened to her, but when she had found out how her little brother was being treated she was angry, but the minute she had heard prophecy she had been livid.

“I’m going out,” Buffy announced calmly getting to her feet. The discussion was far from over, but she wasn’t about to sit and listen to a prophecy about her brother, made by a weirdo teacher who was thought to be a quack. She wasn’t going to listen to Harry’s destiny, why couldn’t destiny let the two of them go? What right did it have to take a hold of her life and her brother’s life, without so much as asking. She was angry, very angry, and she needed to blow off some steam before she hurt someone.

“Miss Lupin-Black,”

“It’s Summers.” Buffy cut in, she would not accept that destiny, quite yet, the wizarding world was not ready to handle the daughter of Voldermort, time would tell if she would be ready to be that girl, she had finally come to an understanding of her slayer power, if not anything else. She held up her hand when the arguments would have begun again, “Your world is not ready for me to be Voldemort’s daughter, I’m not ready to be Voldemort’s daughter. I am still an American citizen by the name of Buffy Summers and until that has passed, I am 18!” Giles tried to not smile, but he couldn’t help it, this was his slayer, stubborn, but very loyal to those that deemed themselves worthy. “And if I sit here any longer listening to him,” she jerked her head to Dumbledore, “I’m going to seriously consider taking his stick thing too.” She stood up and began to make her way out of the room when she realized that Harry wasn’t behind her. “You coming, Harry?”

“Yea,” he said, he wanted to get to know his sister and she was the only one that was treating him as though he had the right to know what destiny had in store for him. He hadn’t heard what her story was, but he was sure that she would tell him, she just seemed like she was getting the short end of the stick, like him. Hermione and Ron quickly got up and followed the group out. Dumbledore put his head in his hands and wondered what he had done to deserve this group of people, Buffy would give anyone a run for their money in trouble making, including the twins.

“I’ll be going with them,” Giles said, he knew that she would go to a nightclub and she wouldn’t want to take Harry’s friends with her when she slayed, she might consider taking Harry so that he could see what she had been sent away for, what power she possessed and so that they could talk about prophecies.

“I’ll go as well,” Severus said slowly, Giles looked at him knowingly, but he chose to ignore that, “You have been out of our world for a while, you don’t know whom you can trust.” The two of them made their way to their own rooms to grab muggle looking clothes, but Snape was having some trouble. Buffy watched as he was trying to get ready, he would flick his wand every now and again to change his outfit and then he would shake his head and began again. Buffy had taken two seconds to get dressed in her leather pants, a dark green top that accented her new red hair, that had no back and her hair was down, making her look like a tasty treat for any vampire. She giggled as he began talking to himself and he turned sharply, a retort on his lips, but it died the minute he saw what she was wearing or more aptly what she wasn’t wearing.

“Need help?” she asked innocently, a rush of heat swept through her as he looked her over. She returned the favor looking him over, picturing him in some tight, dark blue jeans, a white wife beater, and a black silk dress shirt and sent the image to him. He thought for a moment and then did his wand wave again, changing his outfit to that which Buffy had presented. She nodded her approval at him, allowing him to keep his black dress shoes.

“Hermione, I don’t really think that is what you want to wear to go clubbineg,” a young girl’s voice said. Hermione was dressed in a simple plaid skirt and shirt, her bushy hair was going wild.

“What’s wrong with the way I’m dressed?” Hermione asked innocently, the other girl rolled her eyes, in a way that just screamed Willow.

“What isn’t?”

“Whose that?” Buffy asked, Snape and she were watching from the doorway and she could feel the heat from his body. She turned her head sideways and a little up so that she could look at him, at the same time that he looked down. Their eyes caught and they both watched each other, wondering what they should do.

“Ginny Weasley,” Snape said slowly, he could just drown in her eyes. He knew she was a student, or soon to be student, but he just couldn’t stop the way he was feeling. Buffy sighed as the argument kept going, she wasn’t going clubbing with Hermione dressed as she was. She trudged down the stairs and grabbed Hermione.

“Let’s go,” she said, practically dragging the girl up the stairs, Ginny smirked at Hermione and stayed where she was. “You’re not coming?”

“There is no way that my little sister is going clubbing,” Ron said as he walked down the stairs. Harry and he were dressed in some jeans and t-shirts, Buffy could tell that Harry had dressed the two of them, because Ron looked slightly uncomfortable in the clothes he was wearing.

“I don’t think that is really up to you,” Buffy said slightly, he wanted to be treated as an adult, but he didn’t want the same thing for his sister. She could understand how protective he felt, but it didn’t get any safer than with her and two wizards, “If she wants to go, she can go.” Ginny nodded eagerly, and grabbed Buffy and Hermione and ran up the stairs.

“There couldn’t be a safer person to go with,” Snape said to Ron, who looked like he was ready to have a heart attack. Snape being nice, to them, the world was going to end. Coming to his senses and realizing what he was doing, Snape turned on his heels and went to find Giles, before he did anything else.

Ginny dragged a protesting Hermione up the stairs, Buffy indicated that they should go into her room and Ginny dragged her in there. They slammed the door and Buffy began to rummage through her clothing until she found something that would look good on Hermione.

“Do you mind?” Ginny asked, indicating Buffy’s closet.

“Nah,” she replied, “Go ahead. Hey, I thought that the purebloods were oblivious to the styles of muggle clothing, yet you knew that Hermione wasn’t wearing clubbing clothing and you knew muggle terms, how?”

“Dad,” Ginny said as she took a look at the clothing Buffy wanted Hermione to wear and nodded her approval, “he is obsessed with what the muggles do and wear and invent, I saw the outfits that you guys wear and became opposed.”

“And the shoes,” Buffy said, she was happy to find someone that liked shopping as much as her. Ginny nodded happily and Hermione sighed,

“There is no way I am wearing that,” Hermione said interrupting the two girls before they could get into a discussion of how Ginny knew what she knew. Hermione had a slight look of disgust as she observed the outfit Buffy was wearing, but she was blushing though, which Buffy knew that Hermione was putting up the fight because of who she presented to be.

“Yep,” Buffy replied, “you have no choice,” she forced the girl behind the changing screen and threw the clothes over the top, “Change,” she turned her back and waited until she heard Hermione moving around before going to take a seat on the bed. “I don’t know what you are so afraid of, you’re going to make the guys go non-verbal.”

“You’ll look really good, Hermione,” Ginny said as she pulled out a pair of leather pants, may as well make it a matching set for them all, but she had a top much like Buffy’s, except it was black with a green dragon on the front, accenting her hair and eyes. Hermione thought she looked great, they both did, they had the bodies for it, but she did not, she couldn’t hold a flame to the two of them.

“I like them verbal,” Hermione muttered, but Buffy’s hearing was good enough to pick up on it and she laughed, “What? They have a hard enough time talking to me as it is,”

“That’s because they see you like a sister,” Buffy replied, “This will make them see you as anything but a sister,” she didn’t know why she was helping this girl, probably had something to do with Hermione reminding Buffy so much of Willow, where she was shy and quiet. Ginny reminded her of her bestest friend because of her coloring and temper, she also seemed to pick up on the moods of her friends, much like Xander. She missed her friends so much and after learning that her brother had his own prophecy made her almost go mental. On the plus side, Giles was already looking for the prophecy references in the Codex, which is why she got her favorite torturer, of other people that is, Snape.

“Well?” Hermione asked when she stepped out. Buffy took in the black leather pants and light pink halter top, it looked perfect, except the hair. Buffy stalked over to where Hermione was standing and began pulling her bushy hair back, except for two pieces in the front, and made a tight bun, after pulling some thin stakes from one of her drawers and placing them in Hermione’s hair, the girls were ready to go. Buffy grabbed a small leather jacket for Hermione and Angel’s for herself and Ginny had already grabbed hers’, before the three girls made it down the stairs. The boys stopped their chatter as the two girls made their way down the stairs, they both remembered Hermione at the Yule Ball, but this was different, she was different, she looked deadly.

“You look completely awesome,” Ginny whispered, nudging her, Hermione was going to attract some attention tonight and it was going to be great. She was hoping to catch the attention of one wizard, with messy hair and a scar.

“See,” Buffy said in satisfaction, pointing to the way that the boys were practically drooling over Hermione, “alright, let’s get this show on the road.” She walked quickly, confidently outside, past the adults that were still arguing in the kitchen, the others were hesitant, as though they were expecting a reprimand. Snape followed the group out, closing the door behind them, the only person that had observed them go was Molly and she nodded his thanks to Snape, who nodded back. She had threatened the two adults before they had left, but she knew that the kids needed to get out of this house and be kids, even if they were at war. Ron and Ginny were spending time together and that was an amazing feet alone by itself.

“Alright, everyone,” they gathered around her and she held out a stake, “Grab a hold,” everyone did and gasped as they felt the familiar tug of a portkey. When they got their senses together, except for Buffy and Snape, who were already on the look out for danger, the group made their way to a building with a lone man standing outside. Buffy nodded to the doorman who opened the door and let the group inside. The group gasped as they saw magic swirl around them. No one was doing outright magic, but there were spells creating a damper on the room so no one would know they were there. Everything else was run the same way as a muggle club, with a DJ, who nodded to Buffy, who returned the favor.

“Bloody hell,” Ron said with awe in his voice as he tried to watch everything going on around him, “It’s a wizards club,”

“You have to be very important to find one, let alone get into one,” Severus murmured and Buffy nodded happily, being the slayer had it’s benefits. One of those benefits came from when she saved the live of the doorman and knew the club owner, it helped to get into places.

“Ya, save someone once and you can’t get rid of them,” Buffy replied, “Just a couple of things, there is no fighting here, I don’t care who it is, whether they started it or not, the owner doesn’t like fights,” she didn’t mention that if it was her then the rules were simply bent, “So have fun,” was all she said as she made her way to the dance floor, pulling Hermione out with her. As the music played Buffy began to teach Hermione how to dance and found that the girl had some moves all on their own, soon the two began to let the music take their movements and had the appreciation of every male in the place. Harry and Ron watched from the sidelines, unsure of what they should do, but that was quickly displaced as Ginny grabbed Harry and drug him out onto the floor. Ron was flustered for a moment and looked like he was about to go after Ginny, when a cute girl, with light brunette hair grabbed him and pulled him into the throng of people. Ron watched her dance, she was wearing a small black mini-skirt and a strapless top, that had section that covered her like a bra, that was black, and then the bottom part was see through pink and black area. Severus stayed in the shadows, absently talking to Giles, watching the blonde move; her movements were mesmerizing and almost primal, feral.

“Woo!
Shady, Aftermath
There she goes shaking that ass on the floor
Bumpin and grindin' that pole
The way she's grindin that pole
I think I'm losing control,”

Buffy and Hermione were having a great time, they were attracting a lot of attention from the opposite sex as well. Buffy smiled when she saw how wild Hermione was when she wasn’t so in control of everything. This girl was Faith, if Faith had a little bit more control and you know, hadn’t gone all evil. Buffy felt remorse for the way that the Faith situation had been dealt with, because she had gotten a bad rap, maybe she’d owl her later.

“Get buzzed, get drunk, get crunked, get fucked up
Hit the strip club don't forget ones get your dick rubbed
Get fucked, get sucked, get wasted, shit faceted
Pasted, blasted, puke drink up, get a new drink
Hit the bathroom sink, throw up
Wipe your shoe clean, got a routine goin'
Still got a few chunks on them shoestring showin'
I was dehydrated till the beat vibrated
I was revibed as soon as this bitch gyrated
Them hips and licked them lips and that was it
I had to get Nate Dogg here to sing some shit,”

Harry was having a great time. He had known how Ginny had felt about him, he was oblivious, but he wasn’t that far gone. He wasn’t sure how safe it was for him to be dancing this close with her, since she did have six older brothers, but when she had grabbed his hand and dragged him onto the floor he had felt something, it was like a calm peaceful feeling and he didn’t want it to go away. He could feel the many stares he was getting and for once it was because of who he was with and not who he was. These wizards didn’t seem to realize that he was amongst them or they just really didn’t care. The only adults in the entire place were the doorman, the owner, Snape, and Giles, everyone else was a kid. Harry realized that they needed to be kids just like them, they couldn’t be coddled forever, but they could act like the kids they were while they were here.

“Two to the one from the one to the three
I like good pussy and I like good trees
Smoke so much weed you wouldn't believe
And I get more ass than a toilet seat
Three to the one from the one to the three
I met a bad bitch last night in the D
Let me tell you how I made her leave with me
Conversation and Hennessey
I've been to the muthafuckin mountain top
Heard muthafuckers talk, seen 'em dropped
If I ain't got a weapon I'ma pick up a rock
And when I bust yo' ass I'm gon' continue to rock
Getcha ass off the wall with your two left feet
It's real easy just follow the beat
Don't let that fine girl pass you by
Look real close cause strobe lights blind,”

Ron was having the time of his life. He could still see his little sister, but he knew that eventually she would date and why not someone that he knew wouldn’t take advantage of her innocence, because he was innocent as well. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to give Harry a hard time, it just meant the brothers wouldn’t be plotting his death, unless he hurt her and then he was fair game. Ron shook off his thoughts about Harry and concentrated on the girl that had drawn him onto the floor. She was teaching him how to dance and made it look good.

“I’m Tara,” she said, while she taught him how to respond when she ground against, she giggled at his shocked reaction.

“Ron.”

“We bout to have a party (turn the music up)
Let's get it started (Go head shake your butt)
I'm lookin for a girl with a body and a sexy strut
Wanna get it poppin baby step right up
Some girls they act retarded
Some girls are bout it bout it
I'm lookin for a girl that will do whatever the fuck
I say everday she be givin it up
Now,

Shake that ass for me, shake that ass for me
Come on girl, shake that ass for me, shake that ass for me
Ohh girl, shake that ass for me, shake that ass for me
Come on girl, shake that ass for me, shake that ass for me,”

Hermione and Buffy girls were dancing with each other and no one else, when a boy or girl got too close the two would dance away. It wasn’t as though their movements screamed they were together, just that they weren’t there to look for a fling. Buffy felt someone’s hands on her hips, she pulled away, but they would not let go. The person may not have known who they were grabbing, but they were about to get a first class introduction, slayer style.

“Excuse me,” Buffy snarled as she turned around, she was startled for a moment at the appearance of the person, it was Spike, except a living, breathing one, kind of shorter too, “Mr. Grabby Hands,” she put her slayer strength into her movement and forced him to let go of her hips, “I don’t believe that I asked you to dance, so why don’t you go back to your cronies and dance with them,”

“Malfoy,” Hermione spat and the boy looked surprised, as though he hadn’t known who Hermione was, but with her new look who could blame her. Buffy was very proud that Hermione’s apparent enemy hadn’t been able to identify her, that meant Buffy did a good job with her.

“Well, well, well,” Malfoy said in disgust, “I see they will let just about anyone in here now a days, mudblood,” Hermione bristled and flushed with anger, she was used to hearing that from Malfoy, but it didn’t mean that she wanted to hear it, ever. She got her wand at the ready, but Buffy beat her to the punch, she knew that Hermione would probably regret whatever she did to the boy later, even if he deserved it.

“Well they did let you in, so I guess I should talk to management about who they let into these clubs.” Buffy replied and it was Malfoy’s turn to flush with anger. He reached for his wand, but Hermione and Buffy already had theirs out and pointed at him. He wondered briefly if he should just let it go, but he knew that he couldn’t let some mudblood and her friend show him up, a Malfoy, his father would kill him.

“What, you think a mudblood is going to get away with that in here?” Malfoy asked in a surperior tone, he knew that he could get away with it, because of who he was, but there was no way that the wizards in this room wouldn’t help him. “I am a well-known respected pureblood and if I say that you started the fight, then you are the one that is going to be unwelcome.”

“Them?” Buffy asked, nodding to the rest of the room, “Oh, I don’t think they are going to help you,” she smirked at his look, this little boy knew nothing. She knew it had been the buzz of the club that she was coming tonight obviously someone forgot to mention it to this little twerp, that was why the club was this crowded. She wondered briefly if it had been intentional on the part of Lorne, but he was against unnecessary violence, so he might actually want her to take the boy down a peg or two. Her smirk grew bigger as Malfoy looked around and noticed no one else had drawn their wands to save him, in fact they were all looking on in interest. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced,” she said with a sickly sweet smile, “I’m Buffy.”

“The slayer?” Malfoy asked, he turned pale slightly, he had seen his father in the hospital and he would shift in his sleep muttering something about the slayer. Out of curiosity Malfoy had looked the slayer up and found out all about her and what she was capable of. It was amazing the information that the Ministry had on the slayer, but they spoke of her with fear and awe, she was rarely spoken of because of her duty, but the Ministry did keep track of the current slayer.

“You have heard of me,” Buffy exclaimed happily, “Now why don’t you walk away, before I get you a bed next to your father?”

“This isn’t the last..” before he could finish Buffy had hit him, sending him flying back through the club.

“What?” Buffy asked when Hermione looked at her, “I told him to go before he met the same fate as his father, sides he faired much better than his father.” Malfoy moved to stand again and began making his way through the throng of people, but was stopped byt the girl that Ron had been dancing with, shrugging it off Buffy nodded to the DJ who began to play the music again as Hermione dragged Buffy off the dance floor.

“His father,”

“Is a total ass-hole,” Buffy replied, “he didn’t realize that a slayer can’t be controlled. Oh sure, we can play at it, but the slayer is a part of us that likes to be in control when in battle situations. And when they come, it will be the slayer that will be the one in control, the one that can’t be controlled, the stronger one.” She felt, rather than saw the man who came up behind her. He was a green demon with two tiny horns, “Hey Lorne, sorry about that,”

“Hey,” he replied, “you know I don’t like it when there is a fight, but because it’s you and he started I’ll let it go this time.”

“You know,” Hermione said, getting over her shock of this demon quickly, “you can place a spell on your club that would allow no fighting,”

“Really, doll face?” Lorne replied and the girl nodded. He looked to the slayer who shrugged and smiled, “Tell me more,” he lead her towards the VIP area, where only the owner was allowed to go and she couldn’t help but smirk at Malfoy who was watching the scene with disgust. Buffy smiled and nodded to Giles. She jerked her head towards a couple on the dance floor and began to make her way to the floor. The boy saw her coming and his eyes went wide, he had gone a long time undetected here, but there was no way he could fool a slayer, especially when she had been on the Hellmouth. He made a run for the door, Buffy right behind him. Giles got Harry’s attention and told him to go outside to see his sister. He nodded and made his way out the door and was shocked at the sight that greeted him. Buffy was fighting a vampire, he remembered Hermione mentioning them at some point during their career at Hogwarts. He was too shocked to react, he just watched as his sister kicked the vampire into the wall. The vampire slid down the wall and kicked himself up onto his feet, launching himself at Buffy, who met him half way in the air.

“Into every generation there is one who will be given the strength and skill to stop the spread of them.” Giles said as he stood behind the boy, “She is the slayer, the Chosen one. She is your sister. Your sister was called as the slayer three years ago, when she was fifteen and she has been fighting for her life since then. Before she found out about all of this,” Giles waved his hand towards the magic that could be seen in the club, “she was living on the very active Hellmouth,”

“I know this,” Harry replied, Buffy had already mentioned this slayer information to him and he didn’t know why he was hearing it again, “tell me something I don’t know,”

“There was a prophecy that said the Master would rise and she would fall. She said she quite, she was very different then most slayers I had met, but she had a spark that the other’s didn’t. After vampires had attacked her friends, she had gone down, even though it meant death and she did, die that is,” Giles said, he could see Harry’s shocked face at this news. Hermione had told him that there was only one slayer at a time, but he had heard the others saying there was another slayer and he finally figured out why.

“But I had something no one had ever accounted on. Something no other slayer before me had, something that the Watcher’s Council didn’t want me to have,” Buffy said, she had finished off the vampire when they were talking, “I had friends. One friend who followed me down into the hell hole and gave me CPR, saved my life,” she took a step closer to Harry meeting his eyes, “but the vampire that killed me? He let me in on a secret, prophecies are very tricky things, they only tell half the story,” she laughed bitterly, “if I hadn’t gone down, he wouldn’t have been able to rise.”

“But you went down!” Harry exclaimed, he was still trying to wrap his head around her dying, he hadn’t known her long, but he was protective of her, because she was family. It didn’t matter who fathered her, she was his family. “You died!”

“I had to, Harry,” Buffy replied, “it was the right thing to do. I couldn’t let someone else die fighting the fight I was supposed to,” Harry took this all in and nodded his thanks. He finally understood why she was so upset with his prophecy and could see that he would have the same thing she did, great friends that would pull him through the roughest times. “Just remember that even if your prophecy says that you will kill him, you will find a way, without dying yourself.” She turned to look at her mentor, “Which is another thing we need to do right after his visit to court, is to go the Department of Mysteries.” Giles nodded and they began to make their way inside when the guy she had been fighting with and the girl Ron had been dancing with came out the door.

“What were you thinking trying to start with a person under the slayer’s protection?” the girl demanded, smacking Malfoy on the head, and Harry smiled at this. Buffy realized that this girl knew about slayers, most of the wizarding world thought she was a myth, but this girl knew that they were real, “Do you not remember what dad looked like afterwards?”

“Most of that was caused by his employer and not the slayer,” Malfoy retorted, “Besides she’s just a mudblood,” the girl smacked him again,

“That’s what is going to take you down the same road as our father and I am not going to be there to protect you,” the girl said and Malfoy looked ashamed for a moment. “You know how he feels about me, but you make him proud. Normally that would be a good thing, but you know that making this man proud is not something we want to do. He has already been asking to get you the Mark and the day you get that Mark is the day you loose you sister,” Malfoy looked ready to cry at the news. This was news to Harry, he hadn’t realized that Malfoy had a sister.

“Malfoy has a sister?” Harry asked, “how come we’ve never seen her before?”

“She doesn’t go to school with you?”

“No,” Tara replied, she had noticed them right after she had gotten done yelling at her brother, “father didn’t want his good name sullied by a child that doesn’t believe in the old ways, but unfortunately I got a letter from Hogwarts this year and I accepted before he could decline.”

“That’s awesome,” Buffy said stepping forward to talk to the girl, there was something about her that she liked and she just wasn’t sure what it was, yet.

“Ms. Summers,” Snape said as he walked outside, “I would recommend stepping away from the girl, you don’t know who she is,” Tara turned to look at Snape and flashed him a huge smile, before she took out her wand. He had been said to hear that her training was finally complete and that she would be returning, as good little girl, he had hopes that she would overcome that.

“Deatheater,” Tara hissed, “I remember you. I remember how you talked my father to send me away, I thought it was for my protection, but then I arrived there and the family treated me horribly. I was physically and mentally abused for years, thanks to you.”

“It was supposed to protect you,” Snape replied, he hadn’t heard where Lucius had sent the girl, until it was too late. He wouldn’t wish the McClays on any child. While they weren’t considered witches or wizards, they were the best at taking away the innocence of a child and beating them into submission, “I tried to get you out as soon as I realized where he had sent you, but it was to no avail, he wouldn’t budge, but I heard that you came along nicely and that you would be joining our ranks soon.”

“Never,” she spat, her wand was still pointed at Snape, “I will never join that scum and neither will my brother. The family finally sent me back when they realized that I would never bow down to them and I began to fight back.” Buffy felt for this girl who had been through a war, like her, for years, “When I finally killed the evil scum trying to rape me, it became apparent that it was time for me to go home,”

“I am glad to hear that you will not be joining us,” he turned on his heel and walked back into the club, before anything else could be said. This was the one girl, besides Lily, that he had tried to help, because she was too innocent, too free and he had ruined that for her. He had killed that innocence, just like everything else he had touched.

“Sometimes fate has something in mind and it doesn’t want us to know,” Lorne said coming to stand beside the man, there was something about him that just screamed brooder and he was the exact opposite of the golden slayer that he liked. Lorne couldn’t wait to see how well that turned out and he would be around to see it turn out. He patted him on the shoulder and turned around and walked away.

Outside

“Hi, I am Buffy,” she held out her hand and Tara shook it, they both gasped as a fleeting memory took them over. In the space of a minute they both relived each other’s most impressionable memories. “Wow,”

“Yea,” she replied, quickly conjuring a paper and pen she wrote a number on it and handed it to Buffy, “this is my cel. Call me, we’ll get to together when the boys aren’t around.” She nodded to Harry and Malfoy who were eyeing each other, they both looked ready to kill each other. Buffy and Tara rolled their eyes at this.

“It’s not his fault,” Buffy said quietly so that Tara would be the only one to hear her.

“I know,” she replied just as softly, “but there was no one else to blame.” Buffy grabbed the girl in a hug and they both sighed in relief when they weren’t transported through each other’s lives again. Buffy wondered how Tara was able to see her memories anyways, but shrugged, she would look at her spell later, much later. “Would you let him know that I don’t blame him?”

“Of course,” she replied and they turned back to their brothers, “What are we going to do with these two?”

“We could turn them into house elves,” Tara joked and the two boys had the same look of revulsion that even Giles laughed at.

“We are going to get our school supplies tomorrow,” Buffy said, “Why don’t you come along?”

“What time?”

“Well, Harry’s meeting with MOM is at nine, so probably ten or so.”

“Sure, meet outside the bookstore?”

“See ya tomorrow,” Buffy replied, nodding to the Malfoys. Buffy, Harry, and Giles walked back in and rounded up the other members of the group and they made their way outside. It was the quietest they had been in a while, it was a good quiet though, the group was reflecting on the first night of fun that they had, had in a while. The group tromped into the house and found that the other adults were still arguing about them,

“Honey we are home,” Buffy exclaimed, jumping every adult in the room. They had lost complete track of time and only know realized that the children had left the house. The adults began to argue once again, about whose fault it was, only Molly was smiling. These children looked like children, for once,

“I think it is time for bed,” Molly said and the gang nodded making their way up the stairs, “Did you see that?”

“See what?” Dumbledore asked,

“Harry was smiling,” Molly replied, it had been a long time since she had seen Harry smile and she was happy to see it. It had been so long since any of them acted like children. Having Buffy around would be good for them, “I think I will go up and say good night to my boys,” Dumbledore looked thoughtful as well, Molly was right, Harry had been smiling and it had been a long time. Maybe Buffy was right and it was time to start talking to the other people rather than trying to manipulate them. The first thing that would need to happen though would be for Harry to learn to block his mind from Voldemort. He would talk to Severus tomorrow about that, there would be plenty of time tomorrow.

“Well that worked out well,” Giles said as he too turned and walked up the stairs, Black looked ready to kill him, still, but Lupin had a thoughtful look on his face. Giles realized that Lupin would probably be talking to him tomorrow about Buffy and how to get to know her, but that was tomorrow and not tonight. He forgot how exhausting it was to go to a club with Buffy, at least she hadn’t made him dance again. He too went up the stairs, leaving everyone else in the kitchen.

“Tara Malfoy has returned,” Snape said, “She has decided not to join the deatheaters, but she is going to have a hard time trusting you guys. Buffy may be our best option and we all know how she feels about you.” He gave a pointed stare to Dumbledore, before he turned and began to climb the stairs. Dumbledore realized that he would have a long road with the two children, but he hoped that they would figure it out before too long, “We have a long day tomorrow, I would suggest everyone go to bed.”

Later in the night

Buffy woke quickly, stopping her movements she listened intently for the sounds that would have woken her. She heard them once again and quickly made her way out into the hallway, following the noises. She opened the door and found Severus thrashing about on his bed. Moving quickly she gave him a shake on his shoulder and was amazed to find herself on the wrong end of his wand.

“Good morning to you, Sev,” she said, “Could you get rid of the wand?” He slowly lowered it, “She doesn’t hate you,”

“Who?” he asked, “There are a lot of people that hate me,”

“Tara,” Buffy replied, she knew that he knew right away who she was talking about, but if he wasn’t going to admit it, then neither was she. “She told me it was easier to blame you, but she doesn’t hate you. She has come to terms to what her father was a long time ago.” She moved him over and laid down on the bed too, “tell me about her, how did you meet, why did you have her sent away?”

TBC

Back