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Lavender and Parvoti

Hermione could almost hear the giggling and squealing. By the end of the letter, she was bright red. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Parvoti and Lavender. She did, but she was grateful for the fact that Evelyn and Torianna didn’t shriek.

Ron blinked. "Mione? You okay?"

She held the letter loosely, and Ginny grabbed it. She read and laughed. "Good god! How did they find out?"

Hermione huffed. "They know everything!"

"Know what?" Ron asked. He snatched the parchment from his sister, and, after reading it, went reader than Hermione. "Uhm… I… I think I have some music I need to… transpose… and… yeah." He got up abruptly, But Ginny grabbed his hand and pulled him to sit back down.

"Big baby," she muttered.

Defense against the dark arts was the last class of the day, and Hermione stayed after, since Ron and Harry needed to get to chorus. She walked up to Professor O’Brien’s desk, and dropped a stack of parchment in front of him.

He blinked up at her and slowly read took the parchment, skimming over the first page. "You know."

She nodded.

He sighed. "Knew you were a smart girl."

"You… you killed all those people… for… a hundred and fifty years."

He nodded. "I did." He looked up at her calmly. "You afraid?"

"A little."

"A little fear can be a good thing," he told her. "Any questions?"

"The Hogwarts Massacre… that was you?"

He nodded again. "Yeah. I killed the entire Ravenclaw house in one night."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

She sighed. "Why did you do it?"

Angel sighed. "Because it was fun."

She paled. "I don’t understand."

Angel sighed again. "Hermione, I explained to you in class about souls and the fact that vampires don’t have them. I didn’t have one, and the only thing that mattered to me, was me, really. Vampires are ruthless, sick creatures. When I got my soul back, I spent eighty years wondering around, trying to come to terms with what I’d done. I’m still trying."

Draco grumbled, as he sat in Professor Giles‘ classroom, waiting for chorus to begin.

He was finally getting around the replacing his broken string, and retuning his guitar.

It wasn’t going well. Everything he did made it worse.

Ron burst through the door and ripped the guitar from Malfoy. "Merlin! What are you trying t’ do, kill me?! The poor thing is flat, and it’s driving me nutters! If you can’t tune it, wait for someone who can!"

After a few moments, the guitar was in tune. Ron handed it back to Malfoy and sat next to him on the risers.

Draco played a few chords and shrugged. "Thanks."

"Yeah," Ron replied. "So… how long have you been playing?"

"Long while… six years, I suppose."

"That’s… nice."

"Yeah." Draco started to play a few chords.

A chord progression which made Ron smile, and start singing along a little.

And that was how Tara found them. Singing along to Draco’s playing.

She smiled.

"So, what’s next?"

Sirius sighed. "Buy a place, I suppose."

"Us, as well," Remus said, taking Sarah’s hand.

"You should get a place together," Torianna said.

Sarah sighed. "Sirius and I might kill each other," she snickered.

"I’ll probably wind up across the street anyways," Sirius grinned.

The three adults and three teens smiled at each other in silence for a moment.

"Well," Remus said. "We’d best be off."

"Right," Harry nodded.

Sirius pulled Evelyn into a tight hug. "If Malfoy hurts you, I’ll kill ‘im."

Evelyn snickered. "Okay, Dad."

Torianna hugged Remus tightly as well.

Harry sighed, and looked at his shoes, feeling slightly envious, wishing for another dream about his parents. He hugged Sirius and clasped hands with Remus. He turned to take Sarah’s hand, but she wrapped her arms around him instead, giving him a comfortably tight squeeze.

It was strange. He’d only known the woman a few days, but she was hugging him as if he were her own son. The hug felt like a motherly hug should. He stood with his hands glued to his sides, for a moment, before returning the hug. She let go a moment later, and put a hand through his hair. "Take care, Harry." She turned and Hugged both Torianna and Evelyn in the same fashion.

Dudley Dursley hated Hogwarts. He’d only been there five minutes, and he already hated it. It was cold, it was huge, and Harry lived there.

Harry walked down the steps wearing black slacks, and a white dress shirt with a red and gold striped die. His hair was as it usually was, and his glasses still hung off his nose slightly. He held a stick in his hand that lit up the night a little.

But there was something different about him that Dudley couldn’t quite figure out. He walked up to stand in front of him. "I want you to be here just about as much as you want to be here. Let’s just try and make the best of this."

Dudley snorted. "I hate it here."

"Good," Harry snapped. "So the next time something like this happens, you’ll peg your parents to leave you someplace else."

Dudley glared. "You better watch it, Potter, or I’ll-"

"Hit me?" Harry interrupted. "Go ahead and try. I can whip out my wand and stupefy you before you get the chance… not that you need any more stupefying."

"THAR SHE BLOWS! MOBY DICK!"

Harry jumped, and turned to see Fred and George standing at the top of the stairs leading into the castle.

"I wanna captain Ahab!" George cried.

"No!" Fred cried. "I’m captain Ahab!"

Harry rolled his eyes. "What do you two want?"

"Quidditch practice starts now," Fred replied. "Oliver wants us all on the pitch."

Harry groaned. "Tell him I’ll be down as soon as I get Dudley situated."

"But Harry," George wined. "We don’t have enough room in the tower for him! He can’t even fit through the portrait hole!"

Dudley turned a bright shade of red and looked down.

Harry sighed, exasperated. "Come on."

When he put Dudley’s things in his dorm room, he put on his Quidditch gear and picked up his Firebolt. He sat Dudley down in the common room. "Okay, Dudley. I have to go to Quidditch practice. I’ll be back in a couple of hours… If I’m lucky, and you just sit here… and… stare at the wall."

Dudley glared as Harry rushed out of the common room.

Harry passed Ginny on the way out.

"Gin! I’ve got a really huge favor to ask!"

Ginny blinked. "What?"

"Look after my cousin in the common room while I’m at practice?" he asked.

Ginny blinked. "Alright, I suppose. I can do homework there for awhile."

Harry smiled brilliantly, leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. "Life saver, you are. Thanks, Ginny!"

She turned a deep red as he rushed off.

"Periwinkle," she muttered to the fat lady.

"Well, wasn’t that sweet," the fat lady smiled, and opened up.

Ginny walked in, and blinked at Dudley. "Hi. I’m Ginny. Harry asked me to keep you company while he’s at practice."

Dudley glared at her.

Ginny sighed sat in a chair next to the couch Dudley sat on. She took out her school books. She wondered if that kiss was worth looking after the tub of bitterness next to her.

Draco smirked at Evelyn as he passed her the halls.

She smirked back, but stopped short.

She blinked.

Draco.

No hair gel.

She turned to look at him as he walked away from her. His ridiculously blond hair was loose and soft-looking, falling a just short of his ears.

For the first time, she really, really wanted to touch his hair.

He felt her eyes on him, and stopped, but didn’t turn around. "See something you like, Black?"

She snickered. "Tell you later, Malfoy."

He grinned, and walked off.

"YOU WHAT?!"

Harry couldn’t believe it.

Ginny looked awfully guilty as Harry began to flip out.

"How could this happen?!"

Ginny sighed. "George made a bunch of comments about whales and lard and the like, and Dudley just ran off. I’m really sorry, Harry. I tried to go after him, but he’s quick for a large one."

"Calm down, Harry," Hermione said soothingly. "He can’t have gone far."

Ron’s brow furrowed in thought, and he tapped his temple with a finger. "Actually… I believe we have a problem."

"Don’t tell me you’re having a vision now," Harry snapped.

"He’s in the dark forest."

Harry shook his head. "Bloody typical." He ran up to his dorm, and came back down a moment later carrying his invisibility cloak. He sighed, and was about to throw it himself and Ron and Hermione, but stopped short.

"If any type of naughtiness takes place under this cloak, I’m going to put at least one of you in a binding spell."

Ron glared harshly, and Hermione turned a deep shade of red.

Harry’s lips twisted into a smirk for a moment before throwing the cloak over them.

"What about me?" Ginny asked, hands on her hips.

"You’re not going into the Forbidden Forest," Ron’s voice replied. "Stay here."

Ginny sat down on the couch grumpily as the portrait hole opened and closed.

"So… the spying was good?"

"It was fine."

"You’re talkative."

Snape sighed. "Dumbledore does not want me to speak about this to anyone but him."

Faith nodded. "Yeah, okay." She sighed, and looked around the Forbidden Forest. "Damn. I thought you said there were giant spiders in here!"

"Acromantulas," Snape replied. "They’re here somewhere. You’ve got to keep… why are you being nice?"

Faith blinked. "Shut up and enjoy it while it lasts," she snapped. She kept walking.

Snape just shook his head.

Draco slumped onto the couch.

Snape and Dumbledore had transformed one of the dungeons into a training room.

"It’s okay to lose," Buffy told him. "Better to lose here against me, than to an actual vampire. And I‘m a little tougher than your run-of-the-mill undead guy."

He nodded. "Guess so. Am I improving at all?"

Giles nodded. "A little. Mind you, it’s only been two hours, Draco. You must be patient."

Draco rolled his eyes. "Right."

"Draco?"

He looked up to see a very pale MacGonagall staring at him from the steps out of the dungeon.

He got to his feet.

"Your father is here to see you."

His mind reeled into a panic. "Bloody fucking hell."

Lucius Malfoy walked slowly down the stairs, staring at his son harshly. "A moment alone with the boy, please?"

Buffy stood up, ready to argue, but Giles grabbed her by the arm and dragged her out, closing the door behind them.

"What are you doing?" Buffy snapped. "Do you know what might happen in there?"

"This is Draco’s fight. Draco’s choice. "Not ours."

Buffy sighed.

They had barely entered the Forbidden Forest when something dropped on them from above.

They all screamed in surprise and scrambled out from under the cloak.

Hermione was grabbed and a hand clamped over her mouth.

Harry noticed that she didn’t look frightened at all, even though her captor wielded a large axe. She mere looked quite annoyed. Her brown eyes rolled in exasperation.

Harry lifted his wand. "Lumos!" It lit up and Harry’s attention turned to Ron.

His eyes were a burning white. A deep, animalistic snarl escaped. It was nothing Harry’d ever heard out of his best friend before. Frankly, it was scary.

Hermione’s captor was around their age, with shaggy brown hair and horrible taste in Muggle clothing.

Harry, at this point, was more frightened of Ron than Hermione’s assailant.

"I’d let her go," Harry warned the other boy. "They’re dating. He’ll kill you dead."

Another low, menacing rumble came from Ron. An agreement, Harry wagered.

"Who are you?" the brunette boy asked.

"Students," Harry replied. "Please let her go. I really don’t want my best friend to rip you limb from limb. He’s a half-demon, y’know."

The boy glared, and raised his axe to Ron, who riped it out of his grasp and chucked into the trunk of a tree behind them.

"Oy! Watch it with that!"

Harry turned sharply. "Dudley?! That you?"

Dudley walked up to them, looking frightened. "What is this place?"

"Forbidden Forest," Harry replied. "Emphasis on Forbidden."

All of the sudden, Hermione’s captor howled in pain and threw Hermione at Ron, who shoved her behind him.

"What did you do?" Harry asked her.

"I kicked him where it counts," Hermione replied. "He bloody deserved it."

"Alright, Animal," the boy said. "You really want a piece of this?"

Ron glared.

"Ron, no," Hermione spoke up.

"Stop," Harry agreed.

"Bring. It. On."

Ron’s eyes glowed even more, almost as much as Harry’s wand. He felt stronger than ever. He knew his half-demon was fueling this, and he didn’t care. The only thing he could think of was Hermione with the axe to her head.

The boy lunged for Ron, but was grabbed by the hair and thrown to the ground. Professor Morgan stood over him. "Oh, Connor. You’ve been a bad boy."

"What is the meaning of this?" Snape growled from behind Faith. "Potter Granger? Weasley?… What happened to Weasley?"

"We came in after Dudley," Harry explained. "He wandered in here."

"You guys shoulda told a teacher," Faith chided. She stopped. "Damn, am I a hypocrite." She noticed Connor getting to his feet, and she kicked him. He fell on his back.

"Ron got a vision," Hermione said. "We had to go."

"You have nothing to do with Weasley’s visions, Granger," Snape told her.

"C’mon, Sev," Faith voiced. "She’s got every right to tag and you know it. She’s the Wes to her versions of Angel and Cordy." She dragged the fallen boy to his feet. "Cmon, Connor. Time to go see Daddy."

"Who is he?" Hermione asked. She took Ron’s hand in hers. He sighed, and his eyes slowly changed to their natural state.

"This is Connor O’Brien," Faith introduced.

"Professor O’Brien has kids?!" Ron cried.

"Just this one, not including the vampires," Faith replied. "Come on, kiddies, let’s go in."

"How did he get here?"

"Beats me," Faith replied. "He and Ron were about to throw down in the Dark Forest."

Angel sighed as he leaned back in his desk chair. "Not surprising. My son pisses everyone off. We gotta get in touch with LA, see what they have to say… he‘s lucky he didn‘t run into Spike and Dru."

"Or Buffy," Faith added. "She was training Draco… thinking about taking him into the forest."

Angel sighed.

"You haven’t told her about Connor, have you?"

"Well… no."

"Dumber than advertised, ladies and gentlemen," Faith quipped. "Tell her."

"I will."

"ANGEL!"

"Too late, I’m gone," Faith got up and dashed She rushed past Snape, who caught her arm.

"Where are you going?" He growled.

"Charlie Weasley’s room."

"…Why?"

"I can’t tell you," she told her uncle. "You’re too innocent."

Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Severus, you have the libido of a seven-year-old cootie-fearing second-grader. Now leggo." She rushed off, turning back to him for a moment. "Oh! Don’t go to Angel’s office unless you have the ultimate death wish."

"What?"

"The shit has hit the fan. Steer clear."

:: On To Chapter Sixteen ::