1. prologue

Prologue

This was it, after everything we had been through it was over. No more making Snape miserable. No more quidditch. No more losing at chess against Ron. No more pulling pranks with the twins. No more ruining Malfoy's life. No more magic. No more demons, moot point really. No more Angel.

With a deep breath I walk forward, what else was I supposed to do? My friend's lives were in danger and I was able to stop it. And in hindsight people will probable hate me for doing this, but if I was the only one to be able to save everyone then I'd do it.

I take my time though. An extra few minutes wasn't going to cost anyone their lives. If I was going to do this I was going to enjoy my last few minutes.

Getting closer to my friends I hear a scream and start to run. Only before I make it to them a hiss rings through my ears. Pain engulfs me and the darkness overtakes everything.


	2. Chapter 1

a/n-please read he first book in the series, Lost in translation, before reading this

disclaimer- belongs to Joss whedan and J.K. Rowling not me

Rating-T

Spoilers-um book 2 and not sure for Buffy it takes place after season 2 but I reference the other seasons

Chapter 1

What was the point in summer if all it entailed was working? It's been a few years since I was 12, well the first time and it was really only 5or6, but I remembered it being filled with fun. All work and no play makes Buffy a dull girl. Of course Whistler couldn't fathom this and didn't listen to me.

Angel and I didn't see him very often anyway. At the beginning of summer he transported us to Cleveland and left us in the care of Peter and Emily Vincent who worked for the powers. From what I gathered they were completely human and for some reason still did the PTB's chores. They were nice enough I guess. They don't know much about us except for that we were demon hunters and needed to stay in Cleveland for the summer.

I suspect that they realize we aren't normal 12 year olds, away from school we were not keeping up with the charade as well as we should. Our magic was kept a secret from them as well which was fine considering that we weren't allowed to do any outside of school even though the ministry wouldn't be able to find out probably. Strength and skill was hard to keep a secret considering that we killed demons for a living and most preteens couldn't which made us abnormal. They didn't ask questions though, it wasn't there job to know just do.

At first Angel and I found it awkward to live under there rule. Not that there really rules, but they did do our laundry and cook for us and in return we did a few chores and were gracious guests. Angel found it strange because he hadn't had anyone look after him at all since the 1700's, excluding school but that was a bit different and I guess he had servants as Angelus but that wasn't the same either. I found it strange to have an actual caregiver look after me who wasn't Mom. Neither of them obviously kept up with her.

But after a week or two we loosened up and the Vincents grew on us. For one thing it as just nice to be back in the good old USA. And they were really nice. Besides from the slaying they treated us like normal kids. At dinner they asked us normal questions and I felt well like a normal human. Emily, we were supposed to call them by their first names, took me shopping and Peter taught Angel all about muggle life in the 21st century.

Times where we were just having fun were few and far between but when we did I was in heaven. Angel was finally learning what it meant to be human. We went to a few movies and an amusement park and the mall and bowling. He loved it.

The slaying part sucked and saying that that was the majority of the time summer overall was sucking. Whistler said we were needed on a Hellmouth and the one in Sunnydale, which also existed in the dimension, was out of the question due to how uncomfortable it would make us. So instead we were sent to Cleveland. Personally I would have preferred one in Greece or something but why would the powers listen to me? Whistler told us it had to be Cleveland though because it was the only Hellmouth where there weren't any of those strange other weak spots around where the demons or people we knew in SD (Sunnydale dimension compared to HD, Hogwarts dimension) would be able to easily find us or be alerted to our position.

It was the beginning of August now and the monotonous routine of slaying was making me go insane. The past year at school with such little slaying made me forget how much I hated it! And I swear my nails were not handling it well at all. I had so many chipped nails it wasn't funny! Then finding vampires was actually harder since we weren't of a socially acceptable age to go to any clubs. Even a fake ID wasn't getting us anywhere so we had to do it the old fashioned way. Cleveland was more of a city than Sunnydale, though nowhere near LA, so that did help a little bit.

We didn't really talk to our friends. Getting letters to England was a wee bit difficult. Owls would get too tired and Whistler said it was annoying enough to get us the Daily Prophet and wasn't going to worry about us socializing too. Hopefully they wouldn't be too mad. Knowing how Harry felt at the beginning of the second movie because of Dobby made me regret not communicating, but we had no choice.

That was a large source of our discussions, what was next year going to entail. First year was similar to the fictional first year but not at the same time. Both of us were praying that the chamber wasn't actually real, but knowing our luck it was going to be. Obviously trouble and evil were going to find us; we just weren't sure what it was going to be. I was fine with anything as long as we kept our lives. I've come to the realization that our lives were always going to be living hell so we may as well keep our lives.

Angel sighs and I turn to him with a questioning gaze. He lifts his head out from his magazine, _Car and Driver _because as it turns out he is a huge car fanatic, and shrugs. I walk over from the mirror where I was fixing my hair and walk over to my bed where he is sitting.

"Something's up, spill."

"It's silly and trivial…"

"Not if it's bothering you."

"It's just that I found the perfect car and I realized I was too young to drive it."

He's right it was silly and against my better judgment I laugh a little. "Angel you've been like this for almost a year now and it's just getting to you?"

"No, you know how weird it is to go out and not have a glass of wine or a shot of whiskey or even a beer!" he exclaims. "And look at this car, it's gorgeous."  
I look at his magazine, "It's a car."

"This is a 1967 Pylmouth GTX, which is not an ordinary car."

The urge to roll my eyes is overwhelming and I give in, "Come on we're going patrolling get ready."

Still with a sour puss on his face he walks across the hall to his room. I grab my weapons and a jacket before I walk out to the hall and wait for him. Of course he takes forever. In my opinion after having a reflection for a year you'd be used to it, but nope Angel still takes a long time just to stare at his face.

When he joins me he too has his weapons bag and put on his duster. We were both pleasantly surprised when we were shopping and found a duster similar to his old one that would fit him. He grabs my hand and we walk down the stairs together and after letting Emily and Peter know that we were heading out we walk out.

I don't like Cleveland. It's just too; well I can't really explain it. When it comes to cities I'm really picky. And well it doesn't compare at all to LA in the slightest. Plus it's just too smoggy after living in the middle of nowhere for so long. Being in hell also messed up my senses and the Hellmouth energy was so similar that it put me on edge.

There were plenty of demons to take my ease the tension at least. In one night Angel and I managed to bag five vampires and two demons. Not great but not bad either. At least we didn't manage to just find fledglings and two of the vampires had obviously been in charge. They put up a good fight but obviously we killed them.

If there was one thing about being little that helped slaying it was the cuteness factor. Whereas a lot of vampires enjoyed the taste of desire with their meals and a lot also had serious sex addictions there was a large amount of demons and vampires alike that craved prepubescent innocent blood. According to Angel virgin blood was sweet and the younger ones were the sweetest; so two small children walking alone brought out a good number for us.

The demons we caught up with were attacking a group of people at a potato chip factory. This breed had a strange fetish for peanut oil and bathed in it. And every night when there were tours there were more people too. Obviously they found it to be great because they took their ritual baths and got a meal, a two for the price of one type of thing.

In the end I turned the temperature up so high on the oil that it managed to boil them alive. Thankfully the tour was going on so a worker managed to drain the oil before it was used. We save lives, not kill them via demon soup.

To my dismay when I collapse onto the bed after covering my burns from splashing oil. Slayer healing works better in my sleep so they shouldn't scar if I get enough sleep. Only I can't and I groan in agony as I roll over onto a third degree burn. Suddenly as if a light bulb lights up I run over to my Herbology textbook in my closet. Back at school I would always use magic when I was seriously hurt. That was why I worked so hard at charms and potions! However none of my healing spells would work without actually using magic and I had no healing potions with me.

Herbology wasn't my best subject in the world but at least it came with a legit glossary in the back.

Finding the right herb was easy but I wasn't sure if it was in the house. Getting out of bed proved too difficult, ugh I hate it when I have to rely on other people. "_Angel are you asleep, I could use some help getting downstairs."_

"_Coming," he groans tiredly._ A second later I hear a gasp and Angel rushes to my side. "_This looks worse than when we got in."_

"_Feels worse too and the worst part is the pain is going to increase by a tenfold in the morning."_ I don't know why he's still communicating with me telepathically, but whatever I'll go along with it.

"_What can I do to help?"_

"_Can you go see if we have aloe, yarrow, comfrey, figs, and witch hazel?"_

"_Of course grá mo chroí," _he kisses the top of my head and goes to get them, leaving me. It takes him longer than I can understand and he comes back with his hands between his back. "So there wasn't any of that."

"But you come bearing gifts?"  
He nods and hands me a bottle of ibuprofen and aloe gel. "I know aloe doesn't do much with burns that bad but it might help."

"Thanks," I smile and when I wince he comes over and helps me put the aloe on. As predicted it doesn't do much. At least the ibuprofen does though. The pain isn't gone, but at least it's dulled enough that I'm able to drift into a fitful sleep.

My alarm goes off in the morning and I move to turn it off, only I can't move. Damn it, my burns must have gotten even worse than I imagined them getting. I poke Angel, the most I can move, and when he sees me he shakes his head at me and glares at me a bit. Last night he suggested we go to the ER, but I wouldn't go. For one my burns would take months to heal they were so bad and would have given me skin grafts along with other surgeries. I figured if it got bad magic would heal it and slayer healing should kick in too.

Apparently it would have been a good idea, but I wasn't about to go into a hospital if I could help it.

Still mostly asleep Angel just hands me more pain meds and falls back asleep. For someone so alive he still slept like the dead. With him asleep I also had no one to help me. I'm tempted to scream in frustration but keep it in so I don't wake anyone, meaning Angel, Emily and Peter go to work early in the morning and weren't home. The more I lie there the more my body gains a bunch of movement back.

With every ounce of will and energy I can muster I get out of bed and walk slowly over to the bathroom. Every step makes me cringe in horror since I can't feel my body. Maybe this wasn't the best idea in the world after all. It takes a while but I do get in there. Of course once in front of the sink it's impossible to even brush my teeth.

Looking at my face in the mirror is mortifying. I had no clue my face could look so bad and that's saying something considering how much abuse my body has been through. My hand painfully clenches into a fist and I'm about to punch the mirror when a small vile of pink liquid and a letter attached to it catches my eyes.

Slowly my arm reaches out and grabs the letter. It's from Whistler telling me to take the elixir. There's a second part to it that just says the answer is yes, but I barely pay any attention to that. All I can focus on is the pink liquid that can fix me. Adrenaline courses through my veins and I manage to grab it and drink it quickly. Not even a minute later my body starts to tingle before I become numb for a moment, err even number in some areas since my nerves are now damaged.

Feeling returns to my body starting with my head toes and ending in my head. I move my fingers first and eventually take a few steps into the room and then do a tuck. Happy with how the potion worked I walk over to Angel and wake him up to inform him of the exciting news.

The two of us spend the day researching a possible demon attack on a young kid's camp. It's so boring and after we figure out it was just a normal human we look into a rogue Wiccan who found a way to suck the life out of old people. Still with a bit of time left I finish my History of Magic report. Herbology sucks, history of magic is even worse. But when I finish it I do feel a sense of accomplishment so I guess it was a good thing. After that we walk downstairs and watch a bit of TV.

A little after 5, Peter walks into the house and we wave at him. "Angel, Buffy," he frowns after walking from the garage door to the front porch. "Um I think there's an owl here to see you."

Realization courses through me and I run over to the door and grab the letter off of the owl and bring t over to Angel. "It's from Ron," I smile.

"Let me see," he demands and lays it in between us.

_Angel and Buffy,_

_Hey so I haven't heard from you all summer but I suppose that's because you're too busy kicking demon arse. Mum and Dad are letting me have you guys over for the remainder of the holiday. And if your uncle won't let you two go then the twins and I have a way to get you here. Although it may not be an option if you aren't in the country… So hope to see you two soon._

_Ron_

_P.S. The twins are currently pranking Percy and also say hi_

_P.S.S. Have either of you had contact with Harry, he hasn't answered any of my letters._

After reading the letter I smile in excitement, it would be great to actual see my friends and hopefully Harry will be able to come too. And suddenly Whistler's cryptic letter this morning makes sense. More than likely we'll leave later in the week and I have a feeling that I'll have time for one more shopping spree.

**Kind of boring I know but I wanted to show what the**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

To say I was excited to go to The Burrow, as Ron confirmed was the name of his home, would be an understatement to say the least. Not only was I going to get to see my friends but it would mean a break from slaying and getting to use magic again. Well I guess I couldn't use magic but that's besides that point.

Angel too was psyched and we both counted down the days until we were allowed to go. Whistler wanted us to stay and finish solving some demon vampire ritual before we left. Thankfully that didn't take too long and we were all packed and ready to go.

"Make sure you stay in touch," Emily said and gives us each a hug goodbye. "Oh and Buffy don't forget your new bags we got yesterday." I nod and run back upstairs to grab my two new bags, a Dooney and a Longchamp. I was only going to get one but Emily insisted that after so long of not shopping I needed both. And of course why would I complain about that?

Peter comes over and hugs me, "It was nice having a daughter while it lasted."

"We'll hopefully come back next summer and over breaks."

He smiles and hugs Angel as well, "And finally a son to teach the finer aspects of football too."

Angel laughs, "I never did realize Americans fascination with the sport until now." Of course he had an American accent, but the two didn't ask questions. Truthfully after being here for so long I didn't get why he still considered himself Irish.

Just then the doorbell rings and I go to open it only to find Whistler on the other side. He claps his hand and our bags disappear. With a wave goodbye to the Vincents, Angel and I grab Whistler's hands and disappear.

Traveling like this is awkward when we appear in the UK. We left the good old US of A at night and are now arriving in the morning. It's so disorienting and takes Angel and a couple of minutes to adjust to our bearings. Of course Whistler who is used to traveling like this appears to be fine. Time probably means nothing to him.

"Walk down the hill until you see a house and that's where the Weasleys will be," he tells us. "If the powers won't call on you until the school year starts. And once the year begins we will contact you. Once back you know how to get in touch with me. While here if you need to get in touch with me just call me and I'll be here."

We nod and he leaves us to go and find out friends. As we walk down the hill the sun bakes our skin and I look around to admire the quaint little farming village that we seem to be in. Once on Ron's property we drop our bags so that the rest of his family doesn't get suspicious of the amount of weight we're carrying.

We see the twins first who are outside doing some type of manual laboring chores. They notice us and come and swoop me off my feet and into the first of what I predict to be many hugs today. The two of them lead us into the house where a large amount of people are eating breakfast.

Ron smiles, "Everyone this is Buffy and Angel. You two these are my Mum and Dad, you know my brothers that are present and Ginny is still in her room."

"Pleasure," Angel and I say together although he sounds a bit nervous.

"_What's up?"_

_ "I can't remember ever meeting parents. What if they don't like me?"_

I scoff at him and go over to sit in between Ron and Harry and help myself to a large plate of breakfast. We had yet to eat dinner so I was starved. Mr. Weasley asks us questions about muggle life throughout the entire meal and his children apologize for him even though they too seem intrigued by what we have to say.

He leaves for work and Mrs. Weasley lets us all go off to do our own thing. The four of us head to the top floor where Ron's room is located. On the way up the little female redhead Ginny stares at us and blushes when Harry says good morning. Then when Ron introduces us she blushes even more at Angel. He seems to fins this funny and as soon as she walks away I elbow him in the gut for finding it amusing.

Comfortable in Ron's room I turn to my two friends as give them hugs. Harry chuckles, "Nice to see you too Buffy, how's your summer been."

"Fantastic," I roll my eyes. "I did everything from getting third degree burns and losing half my skin to ending up with broken ribs to slashing my leg open."

"She also did do quite a bit of shopping," Angel adds.

"You two slayed that much?" Ron asks and we nod. "And your uncle was okay with that?"

"He insisted that we come," Angel snorts. "Apparently we were bugging him with how much we were complaining."

It was a good lie and I nod in agreement. "So how have your summers been?"

"Splendid," Harry laughs dryly. "I got locked in my room for two weeks because a bloody house elf decided that I shouldn't go back to school."

Angel gasps, I forgot to tell him about that, "that's horrible. How could anyone with a soul do that?" He still had issues with seeing soulful people do such callous and vile things.

"If you met them you wouldn't think they had souls."

"What about you Ron?"

"Chores," he says. "My summer's dull compared to you two. Even being locked away sounds more exciting than it is here."

I shake my head, "I don't know it seems kind of cool here. It's all magical and stuff."  
"I'm used to that."

"Ron just be grateful that you have a family to bore you," I tell him solemnly.

"In an instant there gone and all you'll do is feel heart wretched and guilty for what you did."

"If you're lucky enough to remember them," Harry adds solemnly.

Ron looks at us strangely, "Um okay?"

"And on that happy note let's go outside and have some fun," I suggest and three smiles and nods prove my idea to be satisfactory. Years of practice have helped teach me when the tension needs to be broken and I've also mastered how to break it. I mean I'm not as skilled as Xander at it but I'm definitely have some skill. At least more than my friends.

We run down the stairs and into the backyard. By the looks on Harry and Ron's face I figure what they want and giggle. _Angel look at their faces._

_ "I'm guessing you're thinking what I'm thinking?"_

_ "Yep," I smile _and then Angel jumps and attacks me. He tackles me to the ground and tickles me making me giggle. Then I retaliate and jump up before kicking him in the gut. He glares at me and we continue our little sparing session for a while.

By the time we're done both of us have worked up a sweat and our panting. We ended up just calling it a tie. I frown at the strange creepy crawly feeling going up my skin. Looking around I start to blush. It seems as if the entire Weasley clan has made their way over to us and are watching.

"Bloody awesome," the twins say together.

"Was that some muggle thing?" Mr. Weasley asks.

"Are you two hurt?" Mrs. Weasley worries.

Ginny just stares at us in awe and Percy just guffaws at our recklessness and foolishness, apparently we were still beneath him. I don't know how to answer and Angel manages to, "Um that was a mix of muggle martial art forms, kind of how they protect themselves without magic."

"Angel and I have trained for years and have been teaching Ron and Harry some stuff," I add.

"Can we learn?" George questions, wide eyed.

"Um sure," I frown not really sure about having more people see us and teaching more people. It wasn't that big of a deal really but it was freaking annoying. Angel seems to be on the same page a me and in my head rolls his eyes at me.

_"Why the hell did you say yes?"_

_ "Was I supposed to be a bitch and say no?"_

_ "Yes you were."_

_ "I'm too nice."_

_ "Nice?"_

_ "Well at least to people I like and the twins count as nice."_

_ He laughs at that, "More than me?"_

_ "Seriously?" I snort. "I love them more than you and I'm dying to go and bed the two of them together. I have an erotic fantasy involving twins." _Out loud he growls a little and I chuckle, "_Kidding you idiot seriously of course I don't like them more than you."_

_ "You better mean that."_

_ "Of course I mean that."_

Ron clears his throat, "What are you two doing? I did not miss your mind conversations over the summer. "

I chuckle out of nervousness, "Last time I checked there wasn't a spell that could have us communicate telepathically."

Angel shoots daggers at me with his eyes, I mean I know my answer made me look guilty but the Weasleys didn't seem to notice. From what I see from the brief glance Harry gives me he seems to see that something is up. He was the one who changes the subject though, "Yeah you know I kind of am looking forward to school starting. It just feels like home."

I smile at him for changing the subject and in agreement, "I know what you mean."

"So who do you thing will be our new DADA teacher," Harry asks and we start a conversation about that. Mrs. Weasley goes back to the kitchen and Mr. Weasley finally goes off to work.

We spend the day basically just hanging around with the Weasleys, at least some of them meaning just Ron and the twins. Ginny was with her Mom the whole time and it made me laugh to think that Percy was even going to be in the same room as us. It reminded me a lot of when I was little and my friends and I would just hang around the neighborhood randomly and play sports or have tea parties in each other's houses or play dress up.

Basically it was just fun. The morning was spent teaching the twins a few basic defense maneuvers. Simple tasks but enough to let them get a taste of it and since they didn't actually know anything, less than Harry and Ron, they let us do basic things and thought it was extraordinary. Harry and Ron found them amusing and we just reminded them of when they started and how pathetic they were. That got them to shut up.

After that we walked up to the town and Ron showed us a few of the stores and we watched the twins flirt with a few girls. It was very entertaining really.

For lunch Mrs. Weasley made us sandwiches. I thanked her and everything but they were a little bit too British for me. There would never be a time that I turned down food or anything, except for Hagrid's of course, but I much prefer my pizza and BBQ to kidney sandwiches. Apparently they were pretty good though and I know that the sides were and so were the sweets she makes that she has sent her children in the past. But no way will I ever like strange British food.

When lunch ended we walk outside just the four of us and walk out to the garden. Ron has chores and is making us help. Angel and him are doing the laundry since they pulled the short sticks and Harry and I are left weeding.

"You know I forgot how much I despise chores."

He snorts, "I can't imagine not being at school and not doing chores."

"Yeah guess life with the Dursley's does involve a lot of those."

"Buffy that's an understatement. Weren't you home and doing chores over the summer or did your Uncle not make you do them?"

Um, "Well we weren't back in Sunnydale. I mean after the curse stuff it wasn't really possible so he's been traveling all year so we don't have a home at the moment. We stayed with his friends in Cleveland, Ohio which is like a random city in the states all summer and they didn't make us do anything. I mean we slayed but that was it. My uncle was rarely there as it was."

"Where was he?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. He was working and his job requires him to travel a lot. He works for the government or something," I lie.

Harry thinks about this for a second, "So you really don't have any family left either." Bu either I assume he means like himself.

I nod, "Not really, I mean Uncle Whistler's great."

Laughing interrupts me and I glare at him, "Sorry his name's Whistler?"

"It's a nickname but anyway he's great and all but even when we were living with him in LA right after our parents died and then in Sunnydale he wasn't around once we were old enough to fend for ourselves. And even when we were younger we kind of were left in the care of nannies." Not technically a lie, when I was younger I was raised by a nanny part of the time.

"Sorry," he frowns.

"Don't apologize especially after your life," I tell him and then get all serious. "How are you by the way? You know with all of the end of the year and stuff."

"Okay," he sighs. "It's still a bit strange to imagine that the man who killed my parents went and did all of that to me and did it by building a strange robot and zombie demon hybrid thing. I guess I'm holding up. What about you?"

I laugh, "Hell for me this was absolutely nothing. You should have seen all of the other shenanigans that I've dealt with in my long and varied career."

"Has it been that long?"

"Four years," I shrug.

"You've been slaying demons since you were 8?"

"Oh yeah kind of, we really only did it nightly since we were 10 or 11 in Sunnydale but before then we went with my Uncle before." I think quickly to find something to say to get his mind off of the inconsistencies that our lives are and smile teasingly, "Thinking about patrolling soon m young grasshopper."

"I might need a few refresher courses," he answers honestly.

We both crack up and finish the weeding in silence. Being away from them for so long has made me forget about all the lying I had to do in order to keep up appearances. Hopefully Angel's doing a better job and if he finds out about what I'm doing then I am screwed. He'd kill me quite literally for kind of revealing stuff. Harry already seemed suspicious enough half the time and I was definitely not helping at all. Damn it, I've never been to good at this secret identity crap, Xander and Willow were proof of that. Less than twenty-four hours must be some kind of a record.

Once we finish up the chores the four of us head inside and play some wizard chess. I bore of it quite easily though since I suck so much and end up going into the kitchen to help Mrs. Weasley. Not that I'm good at cooking or anything but I figure I can help with something. She takes me up on my offer though and laughs at my aloofness at cooking. She knows the lie about my upraising though so she figures it was because I grew up with my uncle and promises me that I'll by the time she's done with me I'll be a master chef.

Dinner did turn out to be pretty good though. It was probably because I barely did anything, I burn water for heaven's sake! And it was much better than the strange lunch; pot roast was semi-American so I didn't mind it. Overall it was a repeat of breakfast and lunch with all of us at the table and goofing off. Mr. Weasley was back though and had us answering question after question about muggle life. Which was surprisingly thoroughly entertaining since even though I knew that they were clueless in the ways of muggle life I didn't know they were _this _clueless.

And why anyone would care about the function of a rubber ducky baffled me in a very hilarious way. Angel didn't have any clue what it even was and that made me laugh even more. Due to our circumstances it was pretty easy to forget he was ignorant in the ways of 21st century muggle life. One summer wasn't going to actually teach him everything he needed to know.

With our stomachs full we head out back where we teach Ron how to play soccer, or fútbol as Harry says. Or I should say attempted to teach him. He really couldn't grasp the concept of kicking a ball and not playing on a broomstick. Really if I could understand it the other way I don't know why this was such an issue but I guess it is.

So needless to say it wasn't a very successful game and Ron tripped over his feet multiple times. It was very entertaining though and I made a note that in the future Angel and I really needed to teach him some more agility when we train.

Before bed Mrs. Weasley made us some delicious hot cocoa and cookies. Sitting by the fire and eating cookies with hot cocoa and obviously marshmallows made me miss Mom a lot. She made the best hot chocolate in the world; it was so good that even Spike enjoyed it. But fortuitously I'm able to push the tears back and enjoy myself.

Sleeping arrangements were a bit strange though. The boys were all in Ronald's room and I'm rooming with Ginny. In itself that wasn't weird but I haven't said a word to the girl since I got here she was that shy which was the opposite of me. Maybe it will get better if we're alone though.

Once I get into the room after brushing my teeth and changing she's already in bed and I go over to the mattress that's been brought into the room. "Hey," I wave at her.

She blushes, "Hi Buffy."

"What's the what?"

"Excuse me?"'

"Sorry I abuse the English language," I laugh and she joins me.

"It's okay um I like your pajamas."

I look down at my new Betsey Johnson sleep pants and tank top. Compared to her modest nightgown it was very risqué and probably looked like lingerie to her since to me even the top did, "Thanks, except I forgot how frickin cold it is here. Hold on a second." I dig through my bag and put my sweatshirt on, "There much better."

"It does look warmer," she agrees after examining my Sunnydale High Boars sweatshirt. I don't know how Whistler did it but he managed to get me one.

There's an awkward silence for a moment and she looks at me self-consciously, "So you and Angel are together?"

I nod and smile, "Yeah and you have a crush on Harry."

If it's possible her blush turns even darker, "Maybe."

"Don't worry, I won't tell him but he obviously knows," I yawn which isn't strange considering how long I've been up. "Maybe we should sleep."

She nods and we both whisper good night and I fall fast asleep.

**Next chapter, which will come sooner, will be featuring Diagon Ally **


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Staying at the Burrow was definitely an experience to say the least. Everything worked by magic. The dishes, the cleaning, the knitting, hell basically everything in the house was run by magic and the few things that weren't were the children's chores. There was magic everywhere at school, but this was different. It was brilliant the way everything was done.

Staying there reminded me of the summer camps I went to when I was younger. Just having fun with everything no matter how simple it was. Half of the time we were just outside doing nothing and it was so much fun. We played a lot of quidditch, usually me, Ron, and Fred against Angel, George, and Harry. The actual players were purposely split up to make it more even and Ron turned out to be a decent player. Angel, not so much.

The three of us were still trying to teach Ron soccer or fútbol or whatever it was called. And eventually he got the hang of it but he still hated the game. Apparently there was no point in kicking a ball into a goal. Soccer wasn't my favorite sport, I'm a cheerleader, but it is fun to play. Ron was just crazy and didn't like it because it's a muggle sport. For someone who is interested in muggles and has nothing against them he really was closed minded some of the time.

For example we played a lot of chess, but he would only play wizard chess. The only difference was that the pieces moved and killed each other which was more entertaining but he wouldn't even attempt to play the normal way. On the flip side Mr. Weasley was with Harry, Angel, and me as much as possible to learn the strange ways of muggles. I loved the Weasley family so much.

Even Ginny warmed up to us. She was still very shy and barely said a word to Harry or Angel, but she talked to me. Well it was mostly at night when we were in her room but it was a start. And from listening to her it was obvious how huge of a crush she had on Harry. Personally I didn't understand it. I guess he was kind of attractive, I mean I didn't think so but he's like my brother and I can't see him that way, kind of like Xander. Plus he was 11, a 12 year old cannot be hot in my mind saying that I'm technically a college student now if I never went to hell and turned like 300 and then 11. The only kid our age now that I think is attractive is Angel and that's because he's Angel and really he's only cute not hot.

Breakfast is always a huge ordeal. Rolls and eggs and bacon and sausage and pancakes and pumpkin juice flying everywhere. The first few meals I ate at the Burrow were insane but I'm used to it now.

As I reach across the table to get another delicious muffin an owl suddenly hits the window and falls down. From what I've heard this must be Errol. Percy walks over to the fallen owl and picks up eight envelopes with the Hogwarts crest on them. He gives us each our letters. I'm really excited to get a letter this summer since last summer I didn't get a letter.

This one isn't the whole acceptance thing though, just explaining a few boring things and then giving us a list of supplies we need. Nothing exciting yet the letter itself is exciting. Thinking about how that works makes my head hurt and I decide just to drop it.

"Mum this is going to cost a lot," Percy says. Of course he has to point something like that out.

"We'll make it work," she smiles. "And there's only one place where we can get all this stuff. Diagon Ally."

With that we all scarf down the remainder of breakfast and rush upstairs to get dressed. Half an hour later I enter the living room to find that I'm the last one there and that everyone else has been ready for a while.

"_We've been here for twenty minutes," _Angel tells me.

"_Sorry I had to do my hair and makeup," I roll my eyes._

"Okay," Mrs. Weasley interrupts our silent conversation. "Traveling by floo powder is simple. All you do is stand in the fire take the powder and drop it as you say where you want to go. Why don't you go first Percy and show them how it's done."

He walks into the fire place as if it is no big deal, insane in my opinion, and after saying Diagon Ally he disappears in flames. Angel goes next and then the twins and then Ron. Harry goes next and says it with a strange accent that sounded closer to diagonilly. Mrs. Weasley frowns.

"Did he just say what I think he said?"

"That's what I heard," Mrs. Weasley sighs.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that he went to the wrong place. Hopefully he's close and we can find him."

That sounds like a dumb idea to me and when I get my powder and step into the fire and repeat what Harry said and then I'm gone.

Traveling by floo is the weirdest sensation in the world. I can't even really describe it. It's like your being engulfed by flames, being in hell for centuries will teach you the true meaning of that, except even though it tickles you it doesn't hurt. You're being sucked up and down and side to side so fast that it's just a blur. Yet some of the time you can see the fireplaces your passing. Maybe that's just me though since I have super senses, I'll have to ask. Then finally you land and if it wasn't for my preternatural coordination I would have fallen on my ass and rolled over, from the looks of it Harry did.

He's looking around the store we have landed in and has dust all over him. I snap and he turns to me. "Buffy? What are you doing here?"

"You said the wrong thing so I just copied what you said so that I could save you. Speaking if which," I take out my wand. "Oculus reparo."

The glasses fix themselves and Harry smiles, "I really need to remember that spell."

I shudder, this place is setting my senses on fire. It's as if it reeks of evil. I hear footprints approaching and give Harry a warning glance. He takes the hint and we both go and hide. The footsteps get closer until they are right in front of us. But thankfully I'm hiding so well that there is no way they could see me unless they're looking.

"Do you have it," an icy cold voice asks.

"Of course Lucius," a familiar voice says but I cannot place who it is. "This must be your son."

"Yes this is my son Draco. Draco get over here, Lucius, Malfoy's father, calls. Malfoy comes running over from the demonic relic he was examining.

"Hello Mr. Rayne," he says and I'm pretty sure they shake hands.

Great so somehow Ethan Rayne is here and is working on something or other with the Malfoys, I cannot see a way that this can end well. With the three of them occupied Harry and I make our way outside. Personally I would have rather stayed inside though. The ally we enter is all dark and dreary and smells ridiculously bad. And don't get me started on the people. All of them make me feel as if I'm being bathed in evil and filth. Do wizards really have that bad of fashion sense?

_"Buffy where are you?" _Angel's worries voice says in my head.

_"I don't know," _I admit_. "But it feels evil and looks like Diagon Ally if we were in a B rated horror movie."_

There's a pause for a moment, _"What am I supposed to tell them without showing that we have this connection?"_

I didn't think about that and sigh, "_I'll find our way back."_

"Buffy have you ever heard of Knockturn Ally?'

"Nope," I pop the p.

A witch straight out of a kid's book comes over and sniffs us. Pissed off, I push her away with a little too much force and Harry laughs. A booming voice calls our names and we see Hagrid, not that you can miss him.

"What are you doing here Hagrid?"

"Buying supplies to get rid of the damn spiders around the school. You two?"

"Got lost in the floo network, nbd," I giggle.

"NBD?"  
"No big deal," I explain and we all crack up. Hagrid leads us back to Diagon Ally which so happens to be about five feet away. We must have only landed one portal thingy away. Angel sees me when we approach them and gives me a giant hug and s kiss that was all but chaste.

I break away before people start to stare, "You do know that I can take care of myself when I get lost right?"

"Doesn't mean that I don't worry," he retorts and grabs my hand as we walk into the book store which is a little too crowded.

"What's going on?" I ask.

"Gilderoy Lockhart is what's going on," Ron snorts.

"Who?" Harry asks.

"Only the most accomplished wizard ever," Ron rolls his eyes. "Mum fancies him."

Just then some blonde hair guy comes up to the front of the store. If it wasn't for my superb eyesight I wouldn't be able t see him from where I am. "Welcome welcome," he gives us a fake smile. Before he continues he catches sight of Harry and brings him forward. "Smile big Harry," he whispers so that every other person couldn't hear it.

He goes on and on about how amazing it is that Harry is here and gives him a bunch of books that I don't understand why anyone would want to read. All in all I hate the guy and I haven't said a word to him.

Mrs. Weasley takes our books to get signed; we have a bunch of his books on our list anyway, and we make our way to the back of the store. Of course blocking our way has to be the Spike wannabee though. "What do you want Malfoy," Angel snarls and wraps a protective arm around my shoulder.

Malfoy ignores him, "Bet you loved that Potter, being in the limelight like that and everything. So famous that you can't even walk into a book store all because of a silly little scar. Oh sorry it's a little bit more than silly saying that it's so famous. Almost as famous as the one who gave it to you.";

"I'd rather not have it than not have my parents," Harry growls.  
"Seriously Malfoy bugger off."

"I haven't gotten to you yet Summers, I still owe you for what you did last year."

"What did I do?" I ask innocently.

"I know you and your crew of misfits had something to do with the little earthquake stunt last year. I know of no spell that causes it but it was obviously you."

"Leave them alone," Ginny shouts.

"Another Weasley," he says with disgust.

"Now Draco," Lucius walks up and interrupts. "Who are your friends" Obviously he adds his disdain with the way he says friends. "I'm guessing the red heads are Arthur's children which means this must be the mudblood and the half-blood."

"Don't you dare disgrace our blood," I growl. "There's a lot more to a person than the blood running through their veins. You're so obsessed with it you may as well be a vampire."

Angel and I start cracking up as a stunned Lucius is silent. Ron comes over and high fives me "That was brilliant Buffy did you see his face?"

"I've said it once and I'll say it again no Spike wannabee is going to torment me."

"You just leave that to Spike himself," Angel laughs.

"I never let him get the best of me," I think about it for a moment. "Well there was that one time where he got you."

"Must we bring that up? I was sick for weeks."

"What are you talking about?" Harry asks.

"Long story," we say together and Angel groans in agony as if reliving the moment and knowing him he is.

With time to kill before our books are signed we decide to go and hang around Diagon ally. Angel had to basically drag us out of the quidditch store as we were ogling the nimbus 2001. Personally I love my broom and since it's unique for me there's nothing that can technically top it. Harry's broom on the other hand is no longer the newest and best model but he didn't seem to mind.

Then after a quick stop at a few random stores that we had fun messing around in and we bought all of our stuff we walk over to some little antique store. As soon as we walk through the door Iose control of my actions and am immediately drawn to the back of the store. The next thing I know I'm standing with my friends in line for ice cream.

"What happened?" I groan due to the throbbing in my head.

"You don't remember?" Ron asks incredulously. I shake my head no and immediately regret it. "We walked into that strange store and you touched some mirror or book, I couldn't see and then passed out."

"It was weird," Harry agrees. "It was as if you were possessed or something."

"Was I?" I turn towards Angel.

We order out ice cream before sitting down and returning to our conversation. "There were no obvious signs but it did seem like possession or at least manipulation. What's the last thing you remember?"

"Um…oh we walked into the store and I saw something I liked and wanted to see it."

"That doesn't sound like either of those," he muses. "I think I need to do some research on this." "_Maybe it was a slayer thing," he adds to me._

_ "I don't remember to be honest," I blush _before speaking out loud. "On a better note who agrees that Gilderoy Lockhart is a douchebag."

"Douchebag?" Ron asks and the rest of us chuckle.

"A git," Harry explains. "How come you weren't charmed by him and his accomplishments? Plus his dreamy good looks."

"That's abusing sarcasm Harry," I laugh.

"Okay but I'm serious."

I shrug, "For one thing he isn't attractive. His chin is too chiseled, his complexion is obviously like that due to makeup, and don't get me started on how fake his smile is and how much product he had to use to get his hair to look like that. And come on I've accomplished what he has in years in one month back in Sunnydale."

"Good," Ron pouts. "Because apparently all the girls cannot get over how amazing he is and he's all they talk about."

"Well don't worry about that from me," I assure him.

"Did you notice anything wrong about him?" Angel brings up.

"You mean besides being brought up to the front of the store and being mortified."

"It wasn't that bad Harry."

He snorts, "It was more than a little bad so don't even try to be nice about it Buffy. Malfoy has a point, even though I hate to say it, this stupid scar gets me too much attention."

"Agreeing with Malfoy?"

"Yes," he whines. "It's strange."

"Well it's something you have to deal with. I have red hair and freckles, Buffy's hot and Angel's forehead is insanely big."  
"Keep your eyes off my girlfriend," Angel growls.

"Okay, okay," Ron puts his hands up in defense. "I was just stating a fact."  
"I guess you're right," he sighs.

"But why the hell did he have to call Angel a mudblood! How rude!"

"It wasn't that big of a deal," Angel tells me. "Anyway did anyone notice that Lockhart was kind of off and I mean the non-human variety?"

"Non-human variety?"

"I've been listening to you for too long," Angel laughs. "But it's kind of true."

"I didn't notice anything. But talking about things of the non-human variety guess what harry and I saw when we were at some evil shop in Knockturn ally?"

Angel and Ron shrug, "We saw Malfoy and his Father," Harry says. "It looked like they wanted a dark relic fixed."

"And what was it?"

"I don't know," he admits.

"And guess who was fixing it?" More blank stares. "Ethan Rayne."  
"Who?" Harry and Ron ask as Angel's face turns red.

"What the hell is he doing here! Is it him or the other him! And why is he still alive right now if you saw him."

"Long story?" Harry rolls his eyes.

I just nod and rub circles on Angel's hand to try and get him to calm down. Eyghon and now Ethan? The PTB's must really hate us but there's really nothing I can do about that.

Ginny and I sit on her bed later that night and she's staring dreamily at the signed Lockhart picture she managed to grab. I just roll my eyes at her but manage to keep my mouth shut before I start to badmouth him again. But what the hell he isn't even attractive!

I spill all of the crap I bought onto the bed. And really it isn't crap, just a few books and stuff like that. One plus side of working for the PTB's when they need us is that we have an unlimited supply of money at our disposal. Well technically that wasn't true, but since we buy so little it seems as if we have tons and tons of money.

"This is a pretty journal," Ginny comments as she picks up some leather bound one.

I frown, "Oh right I got that to use as a diary, but I could have sworn it looked different. Hey you didn't find a journal in your caldron did you?"

"No why?"

"Just wondering," I answer awkwardly. At least that was one less thing to worry about.

**Next chapter is the return to Hogwarts**


	5. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Summer vacation went by very fast once we were at the Weasley's. Before I knew it we were packing for school to start. Last year we didn't own anything and our trunks were just packed and coming back from school was just packing the few things we owned. Until I started trying to put everything in the trunk I didn't know I bought so much over the summer.

Well it wasn't that I had too much, I just had stuff. Before vacation we barely had any muggle clothes so the Vincents got us a lot of clothing, specifically me. And even though I could have left my stuff there over the school year since I didn't need normal clothing very often I really didn't want to. Thankfully I had super strength to help me fit everything in.

"You're still packing?" Angel asks as he walks into the room and I jump in surprise.

Going over to him I hit him in the chest, "You idiot, that scared me to death."

"Sorry," he smiles in that way that shows he wasn't actually sorry. "Why do you find the need to have so many clothes?"

"Um are you really asking me this?"

"Buffy, I went for a hundred years with only getting new clothes when mine were literally torn to shreds, and even then I still wore them."

"Well we can't all be vampires with no fashion sense. And we don't all have practice living like a hobo."

"As I recall in hell we both only were one pair of rags for three centuries."  
"That's different," I groan. "If you're going to be mean to me just get out!"

He dodges the underwear I throw at him and in a perverted fashion smirks and puts it in his pocket before walking out of the door. Seriously what the hell! Since when has Angel acted like a normal hormonal jerk of a guy?

I don't have time to think about that though and just finish packing all of my stuff. By the time I'm done it's time for dinner and I walk down four flights of stairs to the kitchen.

The next morning rushes in a blur. With eight people going away to school there was so much to get done and so many things to pack. All in all it was frickin insane. Percy was being an ass and trying to get everything done himself since of course he's that much better than us. The twins were trying to undo everything he was doing and the rest of us were just thoroughly entertained. By the time we all pile into the car, which we all fit in thanks to magic, everyone is yelling at each other over the twins latest prank. We leave pretty early but due to Mr. Weasley's car that drives itself, and not very well, we make it to King's Cross with only about five minutes to spare.

My friend and I are the last ones to go through the barrier and am only slightly surprised when we run into a solid wall. Thankfully it doesn't hurt any worse than when I run into a fist, so I'm fine but Ron and Harry's heads are bruised from the fall. I laugh at them and they glare at me, "Sorry but you did fall onto your ass."

"Sorry we can't all be graceful like you," Ron spits out.

Angel snorts, "Buffy and graceful don't go together."

"Shut up," I hit him.

"I know I may be pointing out the obvious here," Harry speaks up, "but we missed the train."

"That could be problematic."

"Let's just wait by the car for your parents Ron," Angel suggests. "They can help us get there."

I shake my head, "I don't get it though, why would it close in the first place. Percy just went literally a second before us."

"It doesn't bloody matter why," Ron says in aggravation. "No matter what we still missed the train and have no way to get to Hogwarts."

"People are staring," Angel hisses at us. "Let's just go wait by the car."

Ron's face lights up, "The car!"

"No way!"

"Come on Buffy."

"No Ronald, you can't even drive let alone work that car. Unless I'm mistaken none of us can drive."

_"Actually I find driving to be fun."_

I ignore him and look at Harry who's been silent, "Buffy has a point. But what if the barrier isn't working the other way either. Then we're stuck here."

"I could call my uncle. Last time I checked he was staying in London." Well not really, but saying that he can teleport I figure it wasn't that much of a lie. That brings me to the problem of how to actually get in touch with him though. Reaching into my pocket I take out my cellphone, which Ron is staring at as if it's an alien, and pretend to dial a number and silently pray for him to come.

To my astonishment his voice appears on the other line and when I tell him what's happening he tells me that he'd come but is in the middle of something. With that idea done I groan.

"He can't come?"

"Nope," I pop my p. "But I have another idea. All we have to do is somehow open up the barrier."

"Which is magically sealed shut," Angel reminds me.

Harry laughs at him, "And if we do magic outside of school then the ministry will come and expel us. I already have a warning because of the house elf incident."

Ron shakes his head, "Plus all we have is a first year education and I doubt even you and Angel are strong enough to tear brick from brick."

I snap, "Not helping you guys." Suddenly I hear a loud growl and turn around to see fifteen foot tall troll coming our way. I point at it and we all scream. Muggles turn to look at us and I can't figure out why no one else can see it.

Instinct kicks in and I run to the other side of the troll and kick it in the shin. Only to my dismay it doesn't even notice it. I punch it a few times as hard as I can and end up with a broken hand. Probably wasn't a good idea to hit a thing made of rock, but whatever. The thing takes the giant club in its hand and tries to hit me. As I dodge it he aims at Harry and he too manages to roll under it.

Getting annoyed the creature aims at Ron and even though he is spared from injury his wand is not and it snaps in half. He sits there cursing the damn thing as Angel and I take turns feigning attacks on the thing to confuse it, but it doesn't work as well as we hoped. Apparently trolls aren't as stupid as we believed them to be.

Violence apparently is not the key for this to work so the next time the club comes swinging towards me I jump onto it hoping to grab it but find that the thing is too strong and get picked up with it. Pissed off that I'm on it he starts swinging it around. If my grip wasn't so amazing I would be flying through the air right now. Instead I manage to grab onto its neck and stick the dagger I keep attacked to my stomach into its eye.

The troll screams out in pain, but doesn't manage to fall. Harry's on the floor with a black eye and Angel is trying to dodge its hits. Without a wand Ron is hopeless so I throw him mine. He seems to understand what I do and points it at the club before screaming, "Wingardium Leviosa!"

His spell works and the cub floats into the air before falling onto the troll's head. It falls to the ground with an echoing boom and of course I end up under it. Great this thing is insanely heavy and on top of a broken hand I'm pretty sure I broke a few ribs as well. Years of broken bones have trained me to not feel pain so I don't scream. Angel, Harry, and Ron walk over and help push the giant troll off of me.

The everyday muggles around us have disappeared and have been replaced by security and police officers. Whatever they're seeing obviously makes us look psychotic because the police start towards us. Not even realizing what his actions are, Angel hits one of them in the head when he get too close and the rest suddenly draw their guns. When I'm on patrol and slaying demons I do run into the cops and have had my good share of altercations with them. And it sucks. I hate having to deal with them, especially when it's for no reason whatsoever!

They yell at us to drop our weapons, I mean I know I have a knife but that's hidden again and I had it out for about a second so they couldn't have seen it, plus no one else has a weapon. They repeat themselves and I realize they're talking about our wands. Harry realizes this and drops his, the other two figure this out and drop theirs as well.

Great so now we have no way to protect ourselves. Casting a spell would have been easy, they wouldn't have known what we were doing but if I physically attack them it would be a bit conspicuous and obvious that I mean them harm. Not that I want to hurt them, but we kind of need to get away.

Without seeing another option I raise my hands and surrender. Angel gives me a look of disbelief but follows my lead and so do Harry and Ron. They handcuff us and take us outside and into the police cars. And even though we're in England the experience is just as mortifying as it is in the States.

Processing us takes an unbelievable amount of time. It takes about five minutes for Ron and Harry but even two hours later Angel and I remain unprocessed. As hard as they try our names don't come up in the computer. Ron who knows nothing of muggle law doesn't even flinch by this but I can tell Harry finds it strange. We tell the dude we're American and he still cannot find us. They blame it on a communication and computer error but we know differently. When the powers brought us here they obviously didn't see us getting into trouble with the law and didn't worry about creating the false documents.

None of us take a phone call. Harry's aunt and uncle wouldn't help, we had no way of contacting the wizarding world, Ron didn't know how to work a phone, and well Angel and I were alone. Without anyway for an adult to help us the police scramble to find people to deal with us.

We're stuck waiting for a long time. The only thing that keeps me sane as we sit there is watching Ron. Since he rarely, if ever, travels to muggle London he had no idea what anything was. He looked at everything with an appraising eye and even confessed that the computer was even cooler than magic. I don't agree with him there, but I guess in his mind this stuff is magic.

Four hours after we arrive the police come over to our cell and grab Angel and me. As they pull us over to the main lobby I push down the urge to kick the guy carrying me, I don't like being manhandled. But I can't imagine that would help out case and find the will to not act on the impulse. Looking around the front of the station I see Whistler waiting for us.

He looks as if he's torn between amusement and exasperation towards us. I don't blame him though, the situation is incredibly funny yet he had to go out of his way to help us get out of the mess we made. "You two are impossible."

"Hey," I stomp my foot and put my hands up. "It's not our fault a troll attacked us."

"Angel didn't have to attack a police officer."

He looks down sheepishly, "I thought he was a demon working with the troll, sorry."

"We would have been arrested anyway," I assure him. "So can you get us out of here?"

"Of course I can, I got you out of hell didn't I?"

Oh right I forgot about that. "Please hurry then," Angel pleads. "Prison is not fun."

"When have you been in prison before?"

"Long story. Let's just say Angelus found getting arrested to be quite fun and had a blast killing all of the inmates."

I shudder and Whistler laughs at my reaction, "Your friends are getting out as soon as I leave. The Weasley's were notified of your whereabouts and a man from the ministry is coming to escort you via floo powder to the school."

"Are we in trouble?"

"No, it's not your fault although it's causing a lot of problems on my end. Just try to stay out of trouble." We both nod at him. "Okay then, your stuff is at the school and here are your wands."

He hands us our wands before walking out of the station. As soon as he leaves a cop brings a confused Harry and Ron over to us. They're un-handcuffed and the cop hands us over to a harsh looking older man in a suit who screams authority. I'm guessing he's the ministry guy and gestures for us to follow him.

The guy leads us to a back room in a pub across the street and lights the fire before handing us some floo powder. Before we each go in I give Harry his wand and Ron the two pieces of his wand. He frowns but steps into the fire first. Each of us takes a turn and before ling we are sitting in Filch's office. I guess the feast is still going on or else Dumbledore would be here.

Filch gets up and leaves except we aren't alone. The moment he exits Snape comes strolling in through the door, just our luck. "You four should be expelled. Revealing the wizarding world to hundreds of muggles, assaulting an officer, getting arrested, just because you all think this school belongs to you doesn't make it so you can do whatever you want."

"But sir, it wasn't our fault," I explain. "A troll was attacking us and the barrier didn't open and we were going to be killed. We were just protecting ourselves."

He throws a muggle paper onto the table, "There's still this to consider."

I look at the paper and frown; it's a picture of the four of us attacking a group of muggles. Harry' frowns, "Sir someone must have charmed the troll. We wouldn't hurt innocent people."

"It doesn't matter what happened, you still broke over fifteen wizarding laws and that is grounds for expulsion. None of you will be here come tomorrow"

"That's not your decision Severus," McGonagall says when she bursts through the door with Dumbledore right behind her. "It's up to the students head of house to assign punishments. And even if you don't believe their story I do."

"The ministry has investigated your claim," Dumbledore informs us. "They arrived to take care of the muggles memories and found the dead troll at the scene and that the barrier would only let people in and not out."

"I've decided that you will each serve detention for breaking the laws, but due to extraneous circumstances there will be no more punishment."

"Yes Ma'am," we all chorus and Dumbledore leads a fuming Snape out of the office.

"Don't repeat this but if I could I would give you points," McGonagall smiles. "Not many second years can battle a full grown mountain troll and live to tell the tale. It was foolish, but with no other choice you all behaved exceptionally well. Are you hurt at all?"

Ron answers first, "I damaged my wand but physically I'm okay."

"Angel and I have some cuts and bruises but we're okay besides that," Harry says.

"Peachy," I smile.

"She's not alright Professor," Angel tells her. "Buffy has a broken hand and multiple broken ribs. The troll seemed to take a special interest in her."'

"I'm fine it looks worse than it is," I assure them.

McGonagall ignores me, "Hospital wing all of you, I want Madame Peirce to check you out and straight to the common room after that, classes do start tomorrow."

We all nod and head down to the hospital wing to get fixed. She heals Harry and Angel in a second and it takes no time at all to fix my broken bones. In all honesty I didn't need it fixed; I'd be fine in a day or two thanks to slayer healing but whatever. Before we go back to the dorms she gives us dinner since we did miss the feast and I don't know about my friends but I was starving. The second we're finished we get the A-Okay to head to bed.

I was actually a little bit giddy to go to the common room. Over the past year the place had become home and I had missed it terribly. However all of us were tired and went to our respective dormitories only about five minutes after we arrived. Walking into my room I noticed my stuff was already waiting for me and everyone had left me the same bed I had before. It was just my year's girls still but more people would make it too crowded.

"Is it true?" Lavender asks the second I get to my bed.

"Is what true?"

"Rumor has it you're expelled," Pavarti explains.

I chuckle, "No just a detention."

"What trouble did the four of you find now?" Hermione rolls her eyes.

"A troll attacked us at the train station, no big deal."

They look at me as if I'm crazy but don't comment. I'm pretty sure they're used to it by now and after what Hermione went through last spring at Gringotts she understood that it wasn't as bad as it sounded and we could easily handle it. She still found us insane though.

"Aren't you all excited for Defense against the Dark Arts," Lavender says dreamily.

"Who isn't," Hermione replies such a girly manner it took me a minute to realize it was her that said it.

"Wait who's the new teacher?"

"Oh right you weren't at the feast. Gildoroy Lockhart is the professor for the year."

Yuck, I hate that guy. I don't tell them that though, I wasn't in the mood for a fight after the long day I had. Instead I just yawn and change into my pajamas before walking to my bed. For the rest of the night we all discuss our vacation before falling into a deep slumber.


	6. Chapter 5

One thing I didn't miss about school was waking up at a godforsaken hour of the morning. I'm more of a night person being the slayer and all. It wasn't until I had a cup of coffee that I was even awake. I know my friends are a little weirded out by my silence act. I'm not surprised they're staring at me though since even in my tired stupors I ramble on and on and on.

Eventually I'm awake and yawn, "I hate mornings."

"You're not normally this tired," Angel frowns.

Seamus snorts as he puts a piece of bacon on his plate. "And we know it has nothing to do with being up all night with Angel since we share a room and he was next to me snoring all night."

_"You do snore," I tell him and he ignores me._

"They didn't do anything all summer either," Ron laughs. "Trust me they were staying at my house and they were completely appropriate."

It may be my imagination, but I think I hear disappointment. If I was awake I would have come up with a snappy retort, but I'm too tired. To my surprise it's Angel that responds, "That you know of."

We all laugh and Sir Nicholas shakes his heads at us, "Youth is getting more outrageous and indecent as time goes on."

He floats away and we laugh some more. As true as he is I think it also has to do with my influence saying that I'm not 12. Hell I'm not even a virgin! Wait am I since I'm 12 again? Eew did I lose my V-card before I even technically went through puberty? I shake the disturbing thoughts out of my head. Nastiness is not a good way to start out the morning.

"Not our fault Buffy has a nice rack," Ron whispers and Angel glares at him.

"Are you all always this crude?" Hermione rolls her eyes.

Harry pretends to think about it for a moment, "Actually we are." Hermione glares at him after that and we all laugh. I don't know why she's mad at the answer though. We're just being honest.

McGonagall comes over and hands us our schedules. The second I look at it I get angry and start to ramble, "This is ridiculous! We have double history of magic first thing on Monday mornings. How am I supposed to stay awake during that?"

Everyone nods in agreement and I look at the rest of my schedule. It's not too bad besides Mondays when we have double potions after double history. More reason to hate Mondays. Ugh and if today was a Monday and the first day that would be terrible. But nope, our first class today is transfiguration. And then we have Herbology before ending the day with double DADA.

Not the worst day in the world, but not the best either. Transfiguration is fine and all, but Herbology, ugh. Plants just don't like me, plain and simple. Double periods suck in general, and DADA might be great or it might well suck.

From what I know about this Lockhart character it's going to suck. Ginny made me read a few of his books, I only caved so she would shut up and to see if he's evil, and there's no way he did any of that stuff. The technique he used to kill a mummy is the exact opposite of how he got rid of a werewolf. Do systems vary, of course, do they change, definitely; but nobody switches as drastically as he apparently did. I just don't get how more people don't realize this.

As the first bell rings, at least I guess it's a bell even though it sounds like an organ, all us Gryffindors slowly get up, too annoyed that summer's ending to worry about making it on time to McGonagall's class. Well at least nobody was until we notice the time. Everyone starts to run, except for me. I figure I'll just stroll until the last second and break out in a sprint.

With everyone else gone I look around to make sure nobody is around and start to sprint the remainder of the way, making sure I go around the long route to avoid my friends. Reaching class first, I sit down and save a few seats. When the walk in Angel sees me and smirks as he's shaking his head. Everyone else is staring at me with wide eyes and gasps. "How did you get here so fast?" Ron asks.

I shrug, "What can I say, I found a shortcut."

They're all used to me making excuses like that and believe it without a second thought. Err, everyone except for Angel that is who sits next to me and pretends to look at me sternly, "That wasn't a good idea you know."

"You say that," I smile, "but your laugh says differently."

This makes him laugh more and we banter back and forth until McGonagall comes over and tells us to be quiet so that she could start her lesson. I think she said more about us being more mature now and stuff, but I totally ignore her. In my opinion it isn't worth listening to her lecturing us when it has nothing to do with the class. Hell it has nothing to do with anything at all especially since I know for a fact that as you get older, in your teen years, that you just get more immature. So why pretend it won't happen.

Hermione looks mad at us for some reason. Maybe it's because we're the cause of a non-educational lecture. But that's just a guess.

By the time lunch rolls around I sit down and sigh in relief as I put a giant pile of food on my plate. The twins look at me and one of them, who I think is George, chuckles. "Damn Buffy I forgot how much you eat."

I glare at him, "What can I say, fast metabolism and all."

Ron comes over next to me and groans, "I hate school, why did summer ever end?"

"It kind of has to," Angel tells him slowly as if Ron was a little child (technically he is). "And what's so bad about class? Personally I thought our lesson today was interesting."  
"That's because unlike us you managed to turn your animal into a goblet," Harry reminds him.

"Which is also because I didn't step on my wand and have it break in half over the summer."

Ron starts mumbling under his breath and I'm pretty sure he's cursing Angel out, but I can't be sure. "Isn't it your fault he broke it though?" I ask Angel. "You know saying that it happened when you made him fall off the broom."

"I was scared!" he exclaims and we all laugh as his face turns the shade of Ron's hair. Angel despises being embarrassed. He says that it's a normal human reaction, but I'm positive it's still residual from being a prideful demon. "If we were supposed to fly we would have wings."

"You sound as if you're from the 1700's or something," Harry chuckles.

"Wizards have been flying long before that," Ron points out.

"Muggle thing Ronald," I inform him and look over at Angel to find him taking a deep breath before going off on them in Gaelic. People all around us turn to stare at his rant even though they don't really understand him. And the few that are from Ireland probably only understand a phrase here and there since his tongue is from, well the 1700's.

I roll my eyes at him, "_Angel shut up, people are staring. And Harry didn't mean anything by that, it's an expression."_

_ "Fine,"_ he says with a humph and looks down at his food. From across the hall I see Malfoy stare at us and whisper something to his friends who all snort. Ugh I really hate that guy. And after meeting his Father I can see where he gets is.

"Will he ever leave us alone?"

"I doubt it," Harry sighs. "I doubt we're ever going to get rid of them."  
"And I wouldn't want to after what he did to my family in Diagon Ally. How dare he pick on my sister!"

"What was he saying about an earthquake thing?"

"Oh Buffy told me he looked really weird when I was in the hospital wing last winter, maybe he thought I cursed him," Angel suggests even though he knew the truth."

"I did no such thing," I put my hand over my heart as if they're accusation really hurt me. "Why would I ever do anything to ruin his life?"

They all give me an incredulous look and I sigh, "Okay so I may like nothing more than having that git get his just desserts, and that's putting it mildly."

Of course after I say that we all look back over at Malfoy and see him yelling at Crabbe and Goyle for something. I laugh at them and return to my food.  
After lunch we head upstairs to the Defense the Dark Arts Classroom, only to find it empty. The room feels, I guess the word would be morbid. It's just a little strange to think that this is the same classroom we spent hours in last year with a teacher who is now dead, twice. Lockhart redid the room so that it now has little knickknacks all over along with pictures of himself. But there was still a sense that this was Jenny's classroom.

When she died in Sunnydale by the hands of my psychotic ex-boyfriend of sorts I didn't care so much. Was I sad she died? Of course, but more than sadness I felt guilty. It was my fault Angelus was there to kill her. This time I don't feel guilty, just really empty inside. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to feel. Regret? Angry? Depressed? Being back in this classroom brings emotion though, it brings pain.

Years of practice have taught me how to hide things well though, and I find it helpful right now. I don't really want anyone, AKA Angel, to know how upset I am right now. There's no reason for them not to, but there's something about the feeling that I want to keep private.

Just then the door blasts open and Lockhart walks in. Why do people find him so attractive, because really all he looks like is a poser? His smile alone makes me want to barf. For one, no one's teeth are that white. Second of all, it's obviously so practiced that it isn't naturally that big and bright. Apparently the girls just love it though. Personally as celebrities go I prefer movie stars to fake heroes.

"Welcome," he smiles with those disgusting pearly white teeth. "Welcome to a great year of Defense Against the Dark Arts with me, Gilderoy Lockhart."

The girls in my class swoon and I snicker a little bit at them. Ron pretends to hurl next to me and I roll my eyes at him even though I am thoroughly amused. Harry gestures over to Hermione and I burst into laughter. For such a conservative person she is definitely batting eyes at him, a _teacher._ Angel just glares at the guy and I don't exactly know why. I'll make sure to ask him later.

"I know it might be weird having such a handsome celebrity such as myself teaching you, but I'm just a normal teacher. One who happens to have won multiple awards, but a teacher nonetheless. So of course this year we will be looking at many of my accomplishments. You all bought my books for this year and for homework I expect you to look at chapter one of my autobiography. But for now we're going to do something a little more hands on."

This does pique my interest a bit and I try to look back to the movie I saw years ago to figure out what he does. I can't remember anything though. I'm pretty sure I only saw the movie like once so it's not surprising but a little annoying. As long as he doesn't let loose a bunch of vampires which isn't likely saying there's some law against that in the wizarding world. Slaying vampires might just make me have to admit my secret identity.

He removes a sheet from a giant cage in the front of the classroom and everyone screams in terror. Me, I just laugh. Angel looks over at me and shakes his head at either my amusement or everyone's reactions; knowing him it's both. Inside of the cage are many brown, furry beasts. They seemed to be pretty small, but one snarled and I caught sight of many rows of sharp and deadly teeth. I'm not completely positive what they were, but whatever.

Lockhart smiles at everyone, "These little creatures are called bestiolo. Very small, but watch out because their bite packs a big punch. One bite could mean sudden death of you're allergic to their venom. You're job is to stop them."  
After that he opens the cage and as soon as the monsters burst through the opening. Lockhart squeals quietly, soft enough that I doubt anyone but Angel and I heard it. He looks out at all of us before rushing to his office with enough fake grace that it's obvious he practiced the art of looking suave and confident. That little jerk, pretending to be all macho then leaving us to defend ourselves.

Thankfully I'm used to situations like this and immediately take out my wand. I attempt to petrify one coming near me, but it seems to be immune to it. Great, so now the venomous creatures are immune to one of the only spells we know that could be useful.

Once everyone sees that the spell doesn't work, panic sets in. The people around me start grabbing their textbooks and hitting the creatures to try and squish them. Me, well I look at Angel to see what he's doing. He to is taking a textbook and trying to hit them.

"W_hat are you doing? That obviously isn't going to work."_

_ He shrugs, "Obviously magic isn't working and if we take out our daggers it may look a little suspicious."_

_ "Since when have you cared about people seeing you?"_

He doesn't answer and I roll my eyes at him. Looking around I see Harry and Ron struggling to keep the creatures away from them. Apparently the training we've been doing is working though. They're able to hit them away with enough strength unlike the majority of everyone. Hermione sits there, completely still, and starts mumbling spells, trying to find the right one. I laugh at her, if it wasn't for everyone else swatting the things away she would be bitten by now.

I do have to give her some props though, at least she's trying and doing something that could help.

Figuring that thinking of spells wouldn't work I run over to the cabinet at the back of the room and groan as I open it. Last year Angel and I had done some recon and found a bunch of potions in here that could stop these things. Apparently Lockhart found no reason for these and filled it with hair care products. Seriously I think this guy puts more product in his hair that Angelus, Spike, and Angel combined!. Sadly, these things are extremely fast and rush over to me, obviously sensing the threat I posses. Good let them be scared.

Someone screams and I see Neville fall to the ground, I guess he's allergic to these things. This is Neville, so it wouldn't surprise me. Suddenly I see Hermione's eyes light up and she points out her wand, screaming "Locomotor Mortis!"

The bestiolo freeze before all falling to the ground. We all look at Hermione with wide eyes, most filled with gratitude. Me, I'm still anxious. Something still doesn't feel right, there's a crackling energy that's threatening to explode. A low buzzing sound makes it's way through the classroom and I purse my lips. Before I can even think about what was going on the bestilo stand up and all rush towards Hermione, apparently they don't enjoy being bested.

From what I know about venom, even if Hermione isn't allergic to these things so many of them attacking at once could cause a lot of harm. Angel seems to sense the same thing and runs to her. I stay where I am, I'm fast and all but these things are faster. A feeling of hopelessness runs through my veins. I just don't see what I can do to hep.

That feeling does not last long however and out of nowhere anger spreads form head to toe. How dare these creatures attack on my territory? How dare Lockhart allow this to happen? How dare they hurt any of my friends, Neville, or kind of friends, Hermione. On its own accord my hand reaches up and tingles start at my head and make it's way to my fingertips. The static escapes my body and as if becoming a tangible cord I feel it reaching out of me, grabbing the bestilio and chocking them. All of them collapse and this time I just know that it's for good, but just to be safe I wave my wand and send them all back into the cage before locking it.

None of them wake up and with a sigh of relief the kids who had hidden under desks stand up and those who were attacking put there makeshit weapons down. Lockhart comes out of his office and smiles his fake smile at us. "Well done, well done all of you. Each of you obviously has what it takes to go far in this subject. Now before our next class I want all of you to fill out this pretest that I have put together. It's sitting next to the door. You are all dismissed."

Every male in the class, plus me, doesn't waste a second to get out; the girls on the other hand stay around gazing longingly at him as long as possible. I snort at their absurd attitude, I mean why does a guy have to ruin any ounce of anything they have. On the way out I grab the piece of parchment and snort at the homework we have. Is this guy for real?

As soon as we're sure we are out of his earshot we all start cracking up. Dean and Seamus who are next to us start laughing as well. Everything about this DADA class is ridiculous. Glancing at who else is near us I groan, we forgot Neville and I doubt Lockhart will know what to do with him. I tell this to Angel who shakes his head and we make our way back to class to find that Neville is still lying on the floor.

Lockhart spots Harry and smiles, "Ah Harry how are you?"

He inconspicuously rolls his eyes, "Good Professor, I um enjoyed your class today."

"Yep," I agree sarcastically. "You know a lot about your dark arts."

My friends laugh at this, but he doesn't seem to notice my tone. "Why thank you, Ms…"

"Summers," I smile widely. "Um we'd talk but we should bring Neville to the hospital wing."

"Of course, of course, run along. And I expect all of you to do well on this pretest."

Angel grabs Neville out of Harry's hands since he is struggling with his weight. Guess our training didn't help as much as I first thought it did. Whatever, we'll just go and train more. Actually we got out of class early, so we should have plenty of time this afternoon to chill.

Madame Pomfrey is not surprised to see that the four of us are in the hospital wing, or the fact that Neville was injured in class. Apparently a year here and teachers already get the impression that we get into trouble a lot. But we don't really…trouble just happens to find just wherever we go.

After Neville is safe in Madame Pomfrey's care we head up to the room. Making sure no one is following us we walk in and I grin when I see all the stuff that is in here. Nothing really changed. There's still the library, the weapons closet, the couches, the changes of clothes, and there's even a bunch of snacks waiting for us at a table. None of us waste a second and go straight towards the food.

As I take in my surroundings I can't help but realize the parallels between this place and the Sunnydale High library. I mean both have that dark and drab feel to them. There's books, weapons, and

A round table for us to sit at. The area starts to shimmer and the room transforms into Sunnydale. I shudder and as if sensing my mood it switches back. Harry and Ron look around in confusion while Angel looks at me and silently asks me if I'm okay. I just nod and cough awkwardly, "Um so do we train or do our work?"

Ron looks at me as if I've grown horns, "Buffy are you crazy? Homework? Really?"

Harry rolls his eyes, "I think that was sarcasm Ron."

He mumbles something unintelligent and stomps over to a bean bag chair before collapsing and gesturing us to go ahead. Ron could be such a drama queen when he wanted to be. Just shaking my head at him, I go over into the weapon closet and change out of my uniform before making my way out and run into a round-off, double back handspring, whip. When I land I bow and watch my friends start to clap.

"Hold your applause," I smile. "I mean it wasn't that amazing, I could do a full if you want?"  
Of course no one knows what that is and we crack up. I don't know what possessed me to show off my mad cheer skills, I really have no clue. Scratch that, I do know. Whatever happened in DADA really freaked me out. I didn't do anything, yet I managed to use magic to subdue the monsters. Magic that didn't use a wand, err at least I don't think it did, and I've never heard of. Magic that worked on magic resistant creatures. Magic that seemed to be buried deep inside of me.

Cheerleading was such a part of my old normal life that when I'm in a wigged out mood I tend to start tumbling for no apparent reason.

Sparring is exactly what I need to take my mind off of weird occurrences. Stepping into the familiar routine of sparring with Angel and teaching Ron and Harry how to fend off enemies and fight definitely calms me down. Nothing gets rid of tension as well as literally beating the tension out of you. Well maybe not literally since I'm not hurting myself, but the point remains the same.

Once we are all tired and sweaty we actually sit down to do our homework. Err let me restate that; Angel, Harry,and I start our homework while Ron just sits there looking bored to death. Really has anything changed since last year?

We head down to dinner after a while and I sit there with a Cheshire grin. For some reason I'm just in a good mood, even considering all the work I still have after dinner and the terrible DADA class I had. Something about being in school is just nice. I'd love to see Willow's reaction to me right now.

Dinner comes and goes and by the time I'm lying in bed getting ready to go to sleep, all I can do is smile. I love being back home. And I feel as if Hogwarts really is home. As I drift into unconsciousness I can't help but keep smiling.

**Sorry for the long wait and the not so great chapter. I was having insane writer's block and kind of lost all inspiration for this story. Because of that I am revamping the story and changing the summary as well, so if you see a different summary under the same title, it's because I'm changing the plot a little. This won't effect what you have read so far, but it may mean irregular updates for a while. **


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

The next two weeks of school pass by like always, boring. I go to class, train, do homework, and other typical stuff that adds to the monotony of my life. Not that I don't like things being a bit boring, or that I was sick of Hogwarts and magic, it's just that I'm still not really used to things being so _normal._ Plus Angel's been stressed out lately. Whereas I am calm, Angel is incredibly tensed. According to him there's some type of energy in the air, but I can't feel it. I know Angel still has the ability to feel supernatural energy, but it cannot be anything serious if I cannot feel it either.

Sitting at breakfast on a typical Tuesday morning, I groan when I read the message an owl has just sent me. "Guys not good," I shake my head.

Angel panics, _"As in Whistler just contacted you?"_

I roll my eyes at him, "According to McGonagall we all have to serve our detentions on Friday night."

"Bloody hell," Ron groans, "I almost forgot about that. Please tell me I don't have to spend the night with either Snape or Lockhart?"

"Better than Filch," Angel supplies.

"I think Filch is better than Snape," Harry says and we all laugh. "Come on Buffy don't keep the sususpense going."  
I smirk at my intended effect. "At 7 o'clock on Friday night Ron is being summoned to McGonagall. Harry you are going to Lockhart, Angel you are with Filch," I snicker at him. "And I am with Snape."

"McGonagall?" Ron sighs, "she's a bloody drill sergeant!"

"Better than me," Angel groans. "I mean Filch really? I'd much rather be eaten alive and controlled by a Sluk demon!"

Ron and Harry don't ask what a Sluk demon is. They're too used to our strange comments to say anything; although they do roll their eyes at us. I laugh. It's amazing that we can say something about demons and not be called crazy. Thank the PTB's that we were sent to this dimension and not one of those awful ones I've heard about where everyone goes around killing each other for one out-there comment.

After a very depressing breakfast we go through our day as if nothing had happened, since technically it didn't. Thanks to Snyder's distaste of anything I did, I kind if got over the whole detention thing a long time ago. Plus the Charms test we have today is a little more precident in my mind than a detention with a professor I actually like.

Friday approached quicker than I imagined after another long and tiring borefest of a week. Turns out even learning about things that interest you can be incredibly annoying and boring at times. Before our detention though it seems that we have to go to our first quidditch practice of the year. Since all of our team from last year returned to Hogwarts and the only reason we didn't win the House Cup was because of stupid technicalities of having two of your star players hospitalized, Wood decided it was better to keep the team instead of holding tryouts.

I didn't mind though, our team plays well together and I like them all. Plus George and I are kind of as unstoppable as a pair of beaters can be. Giles is probably to thank for how good I am at it, but I'm not going to go there. Plus it could have been my cheer-leading experiences too, so no need to praise the watcher too much.

In the middle of practice a powerful force comes out of nowhere and blinds me for a moment. I hear people yelling my name. their voices die out eventually and I scream as a figure appears out of nowhere and scratches my back with a pair of claws.

The next thing I know, I am lying on the bench of the locker-room with a worried looking Angel standing above me. My head is pounding and I breathe in and out a few times to try and calm myself down and to get a grasp on my surroundings. Once I feel a little bit better, I try to sit up and groan in the process. Someone pushes me back down and starts to run a hand through my hair, must be Angel. Slowly, I sit up again, this time ignoring the pain shooting up and down my spine and through my limbs.

I take my time to look around the locker room and see the entire team plus Ron and Angel. Even though it's great that all these people do care and all, it seems too overcrowded at the moment. Angel seems to read my mind and shoos everyone out except for the three of them.

"What happened?" I ask finally.

"It was hard to tell from the air," Harry says, "but you fell off your broom."

"Impossible, I don't lose balance, it literally goes against my biological makeup!"

Ron rolls his eyes, "Buffy sorry to break it to you, but everyone falls once in a while. Doesn't matter how good your coordination is, you still fall."

Angel doesn't comment and I groan, "So none of you saw some grotesque creature rip my back in half?"

They all stare at me as if I grew two heads, "Um no…"

"Okay so it wasn't grotesque it was actually invisible," I rush out and again I am received by three stares that basically show how they think I am crazy. "I felt claws scratch my back."

Before they could protest, I slowly and painfully lift my shirt up so that they could see the giant ass scratch across my back. To ym astonishment, no one gasps. "Did it stop bleeding already? Because I don't think I was out for more than a few minutes and I usually don't start healing from something that bad for at least an hour."

"An hour?" Harry frowns. "You cannot possibly heal in an hour."

I look down quickly to avoid the glare I know Angel is sending me. "It's an American saying," I laugh awkwardly and flinch in pain. "Note to self, don't laugh."

"Um Buffy, sorry to point out the obvious, but there's no scratch here."

"Not funny Ron!"

"There's nothing there," Angel assures me and I frown. "Let me go get a mirror and I'll show you."

He goes over to my locker and pulls put my mirror. I grab it from him and put it up to my back and shiver. "Not a funny joke you guys! This thing is hideous, how the hell do you explain it if it wasn't an oogily boogily?"

Everyone stares at me and now I get furious. This is getting out of hand. Angel sees my face and through our link sends me an image of the flawless skin on my back. Confused, I send him the image I just saw in the mirror, a bleeding scrap that is obviously infected, possibly full of poison, and needs medical attention ASAP, and that's coming from a girl who hates hospitals and all things medical related.

"Wait did I actually touch the ground?"

Harry shakes his head, "Angel managed to catch you which is why there's no reason you should actually be in this much pain. I've seen you take a lot harder blows when you two spar."

I glare at him, "Obviously it hurts that much since I was frickin attacked by an invisible demon!"

Ron looks at his writ and sighs, "We kind of need to get to detention…"

"Since when have you cared about getting to detention?"

"Since I don't want to get a second one," he retorts and I snicker.

He does have a point and I send Harry and Ron on their way, having Angel stay with me. Using my sight as his eyes, he touches the part of my back that I see as bleeding and oozing weird demon goo or something. From where I'm standing, err sitting, it isn't pretty and I just don't understand how the hell nobody else can see it.

Angel doesn't know what to do however, so he carries me bridal style into the dungeons so that I can at least go and serve my detention. Snape actually likes me, and I actually like him as a teacher, so it wouldn't be in my best interest to be late or do anything that would make him look at me as if I was Harry. Really, I don't understand everyone's big deal with him anyway. Snape is just one of those teachers who won't put up with any crap and only likes teaching people who show interest. He knows what he's talking about though, and is actually kind of funny so he's good in my books.

Okay so when compared to someone like Snyder everyone is good in my book, but that's besides the point.

Snape gives Angel a dirty look when he drops me off, carefully putting me on a chair, and nodding before running off to Filch. It's funny how Angel can face any demon, yet he cowers away from a teacher. Whatever though, everyone is allowed to be scared of something. I'm terrified of hospitals, Ron is terrified of spiders, Xander was terrified of danger, Cordelia was terrified of bad hair days, Angel's terrified of Snape, no big deal.

"Professor," I wave at him.

His menacing look vanishes and is replaces by confusion when he looks at me, "What happened Ms. Summers."  
"Just a little quidditch accident, I'm fine. Angel tends to overreact when I injure myself."

He scoffs and disappears for a moment before reappearing with a vial in his hands, "Here rub some of this on where ever hurts. It won't work as well as Madame Pomfrey, but it will do for now."

"Thanks," I smile and rub it on my back. It doesn't do anything except cool the burning a bit, but I'm used to hiding pain and I pretend as if it feels better.

"Don't mention it," he says with a scarily straight face. "Can't have you injured and ruin my classroom now can I?"

I nod in understanding and sigh, "So what's the what?" He stares at me and I crack a smile, "Um I mean what am I doing tonight?"

"Americans and your words."

"Technically I'm British! And yes I've been told on multiple occasions that I butcher the English language."  
He ignores that, "From what I have seen in class you have a natural talent for potions that most do not. Your Mother excelled as well you said? Americans tend to brew pathetic potions," he sneers.

Oh right I did say that, "That's what my uncle told me, my mom dies when I was 5 and she grew up here."

"But she didn't attend Hogwarts," he states accusingly and inside I roll my eyes. Seriously what's with the 20Q?

"I don't know. She was muggleborn and my Uncle never told me where she went. I have her old potions journal full of notes though."

Snape seems to consider this for a moment before continuing, "Well then I have to restock my supply of multiple potions and I want you to brew me one of them tonight. You will be brewing the Alihotsy drought."

"Doesn't that cause hysteria?"

For a second I'm pretty sure he looks proud and surprised, but it disappears quickly. "It is, it is also at least a fifth year's level if not higher. You have as long as you need and free reign of the closets. Begin."

I get the sense that he's making me do this to amuse himself and to test me. Biting my lip, I walk over to the back and grab the A book of what is kind of like an Encyclopedia for potions. After flipping to the correct page I go to the storage room, grab the ingredients I need, and light the fire underneath my cauldron. Only I stop quickly before I even put the first ingredient in. Smirking at Snape's ingenious test, I go over and get the correct cauldron from him. I can't use my pewter size 2. For this potion I need a pewter cauldron size 3 with traces of gold in it.

Given the level of difficulty of the potion, I'm surprised it isn't harder than it is. I mean not that potions are hard for me in general; guess I have the Powers That Be to thank for that. Why they bestowed so much potion knowledge to me is beyond me, but I'm also not complaining to them anytime soon. For a person with such little patience, it surprises me that I can wait for things to be ready and to be so presice as I brew. It goes against everything that I am. Again, not complaining though.

Once the potion is finished, I pour it into multiple vials and bring one of them over to Snape. He doesn't open it which doesn't surprise me. When he had me brew the drought, he didn't expect me to fail, or at least it seems that way, and he isn't going to risk inhaling any of it and gaining a case of hysteria. Instead, he puts the bottle on a table next to a mouse and has me follow him to the other side of the room. With a flick of his wand, the top comes off and the mouse smells it. Suddenly, the mouse begins to go berserk and jumps around like crazy.

I smile at my job well done and smirk at Snape. He shakes his head in amusement . "I hate to say it, but job well done Ms. Summers."  
Once again, I smirk at him, "And you would expect any less professor?"  
"No ordinary 2nd year can brew this potion, regardless of their abilities. And no one I know of can brew it without a face-mask on for risk of inhaling it." This time he smirks and I curse silently. Snape 1 Buffy 0.

"Um, I can explain," I say weakly. "See my Mom wrote a whole bunch of random potions down, and one of them was a kind of preventive thing from other potions so I don't need to worry about this effecting me."

It's obvious he doesn't believe me, but he plays along anyway. Another reason we probably get along is because we understand that we both have a dark past and many secrets. And neither of us judges the other for it, it's a secret and it isn't a big deal. With that being said however, I don't get why him and Angel don't get along. It is obvious they have similar pasts, evil ways left behind for redemption; at least it is obvious to me… Maybe they're too similar.

And really I don't know why the potion did not effect me, it was pretty careless of me to forget the protective gear. Maybe it's a slayer thing. I am not in the mood to figure it out though, because I am in so much pain that I can barely stand. I feel the blood dripping down my leg and I've lost so much that I'm surprised I haven't passed out already. "Is that all?"

After observing me with a curious look in his eye, he nods, "But, let me get somebody to help you upstairs. You really should have Madame Pomfrey look at your injury."

"No," I say too quickly and cough to cover it up. "I mean I'm fine, I've had much worse. Um maybe Angel can come and help me? He's with Filch right," I pause in the middle of the sentence and burst out screaming in pain.

"Mr. McKinley can stay where he is, you're going to the hospital wing."

Who knew that Snape could show so much compassion? "Please no, all I need is Angel."

"Ms. Summers it seems to be a lot more than a minor injury that your boyfriend can heal. This is much more severe, at least it seems."  
"Don't!" I all but scream. "I promise it isn't as bad as it looks, err appears since there's nothing to really look at," unless your me of course.

"_Angel where are you?"_

_"Trophy room," he answers. "I'm almost done though."_

"Where was his detention being held," he sighs and if I wasn't so hurt I'd do the Snoopy dance in triumph.

"Trophy room," I cough and the next thing I know, I am being swept off my feet and he is carrying me to the trophy room.

The second I get there, I run as best as I can to where Angel is and nod my thanks to Snape. I'm not sure if he saw it though because he disappears. I get really dizzy and nauseous and groaning, I puke all over Angel's nicely cleaned trophy before falling down.

"Buffy?" he asks, voice full of compassion and concern, "why aren't you in the hospital wing?"

"I made Snape take me here instead, and even he won't argue with me."

Angel cracks a small smile at my lame joke before sobering up quickly. "Your well-being is more important than you being mad at me. Come on, we're taking you there now."

"And what? Have me locked up for mental problems since there is no cut on my back? No thank you…been there done that."

He runs a hand through his hair in frustration, and grabs me anyway. As soon as he lifts me up though, Filch appears at the door. In this state, their words start slurring together and I cannot make out the entire conversation. All I get is that if Angel leaves, he'll be expected back on multiple occasions. Angel replies, but I don't hear it and he walks out of the room with me in tow.

And for the second time today, I pass out.

**Sorry it isn't very long, I'm making it a two part chapter instead of one long one**


End file.
