Buffy knew what she had to do. The same blood flowed through both her and Dawn’s veins, that meant that she would be able to close the portal as well. She told Dawn how much she loved her, that she would always look after her. That Dawn had to take care of the Scoobies, and make sure that Giles’ life didn’t get too boring. “The hardest thing in this world, is to live in it.” As Buffy imparted this last bit of wisdom to her sister, Spike reached the top of the tower.

“Slayer. Buffy. You can’t be thinking about jumping.”

“I have to Spike. It’s the only way. I won’t let Dawn do my job and sacrifice herself.”

“But you’ll die, Buffy.”

“It’s what I have to do. It’s what I was chosen to do.” The look that Spike was giving her was breaking her heart. He looked completely devastated.

“But I love you, Buffy.” Buffy squeezed her eyes together tightly.

“I know you do, Spike. But that doesn’t change what I have to do. It’s my blood that can close the portal. Mine alone, because I will not let Dawn throw away her life.”

“But you’ll throw away yours!” Spike screamed in a rage.

“My life isn’t meant to be long!” Buffy yelled back. “I’m meant to die, so that Dawnie can live! It has to be my blood.” Her blood. Spike wasn’t going to let that happen. It had to be her blood, it didn’t have to be her.

In the blink of an eye Spike charged the Slayer, slipping into his Vampire visage. “I won’t let you throw your life away, Buffy.” He whispered as he lowered his fangs to her throat. Buffy struggled, but was weakened by Spike’s strong pulls. He was draining her.

When Buffy was about to give up and give in, to close her eyes. Spike released her. He looked into her eyes. “I won’t let you die.” He whispered. Then he was gone. He ran to the edge of the platform, outstretched his arms, and dove.





It hurt. Everywhere, it hurt. Spike didn’t know that obliteration would hurt this much. He rather thought that it wouldn’t hurt at all, for there would be nothing left to hurt. But this hurt like a bloody bitch.

He could hear voices around him, but he couldn’t tell what they were saying. It was like everything was too loud. It also sounded like there were people screaming. Cracking open an eyelid was useless, for the world around him was blurred. But he did notice that there was someone lying next to him. Spike blinked a few times, trying to clear his vision.

Buffy.

Buffy was lying next to him. As he realized this, she let out a groan. Spike dragged his body closer to hers and put his arms around her. Why was Buffy there? What had happened? Trying to look around himself, Spike noticed people running towards them. They were wearing long robes and talking, rather excitedly. Before Spike could take any more in, however, he passed out from sheer exhaustion.


When Spike woke up a second time it was in a far different environment. From what he could tell, he was in a bed, in some sort of hospital. Buffy. He looked around for the girl in question. She was on the bed next to him. There didn’t seem to be anyone else in the room, though.

Spike maneuvered his way off of the bed and sat down on the edge of Buffy’s. What was she doing there? He had gone into that portal so that she didn’t have to die. But shouldn’t he have died? Death logically followed sacrificing yourself for another.

Buffy groaned. Her eyelids squeezed together and she turned her head. Spike saw his marks on her neck. Two perfect little pinpricks. Even in his haste he had tried to be gentle. He didn’t want to hurt her.

“Spike?”

“M here, Slayer.” She opened her eyes.

“Where are we?”

“Dunno. Woke up, same as you. Though I was in a different bed originally.” Buffy smiled a little.

“You tried to save me.” She whispered, putting a hand to her throat.

“Wasn’t too successful though, was I?” He hung his head a little.

“Well, we aren’t dead, at least.” Buffy looked at Spike. “The portal. It did this weird thing where a part of it broke off…it looked like lightening. And it sort of grabbed me, and then there was this whole sucking thing, and wooosh, it took me too.” Spike nodded.

“Least we aren’t dead.”

“Or, you know, deader.” Buffy smiled. The two looked at each other for a long moment. Buffy wanted to thank Spike for what he did, she wanted to hug him. To let him know how much it meant to her. But her thoughts were interrupted by the opening of a door.

“It’s nice to see that you are awake.” The man who addressed them had long silver hair, and a beard to match. He was wearing, what looked to Spike and Buffy, a dress with moons and stars adorning it. He had half moon spectacles and pretty blue eyes. “I’m Albus Dumbledore. I’m the Headmaster here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. And you are?”

“Well, I’m Buffy. Buffy Summers.”

“M name’s Spike.” They introduced themselves.

“How did we get here?” Buffy asked. “And where is here? Besides some weird ‘school’?” Buffy asked, complete with air quotes. There was no school she knew of that had hospital beds.

“I’m not entirely sure how you came to be here, Miss Summers. I was actually wondering if you would be able to enlighten me on the subject.” Buffy just shrugged her shoulders. “You are currently, as I said, in Hogwarts School. It’s a boarding school for young witches and wizards in England.”

“We’re in England?” Buffy asked. When Dumbledore nodded, Buffy looked at Spike. “This is where they make Gileses.” Spike smirked at Buffy.

“That’s right, love.” Dumbledore smiled at the pair.

“Maybe if you could tell me of the circumstances before you awoke here.” Buffy filled Dumbledore in on Glory and the Key and the big bad portal that Spike had tried to close. She basically fit it into two sentences. Score one hundred to the nutshell capabilities of Buffy Summers. Dumbledore had listened patiently the whole time, his fingers tented and his face contemplative.

“That is rather astounding, I must say.” He commented. “For the time being, I would prefer if you would stay here, with us. I will of course attempt to contact your friends in California to tell them that you are alright.” Buffy nodded her compliance.

“It’ll be cool to have a nice vacation after all that.” Spike smirked.

“Sure you don’t mind having me around for this vacation of yours?” Buffy nodded and entwined her fingers with Spike’s.

“I think you could use a nice vacation too.”

Dumbledore was successful at getting in touch with the Scoobies back home. Buffy then wrote a letter saying that she and Spike were fine, but still recuperating and would be staying across the pond for a while. Everyone was very glad that they were alive and safe.

“I never knew that there was a school for teaching witches and wizards.” Buffy said to Spike. “I mean, Willow and Tara learned it on their own. They should take out an advertisement or something.”

“I’m sure they like to be discreet, pet.”

“Yeah, but they’re make more money if more people knew about them. I know Willow would pretty much sell her soul to get into a place like this.”

“We are not an establishment interested in making money, Miss Summers.” Dumbledore had come to visit the two surprise guests and see how they were coming along. “We do not charge the students who come here, we educate them because it is for the betterment of our magical society as a whole.”

“But, don’t you get paid? I mean, you must get paid.” Both Spike and Dumbledore chuckled at this.

“Yes we are given our Salary. It is paid by the Ministry of Magic, our government.”

“You have government jobs? The benefits must be pretty sweet.” Dumbledore chuckled again.

Over the next few days Buffy, Spike, and Dumbledore had many conversations about their lives. Well, mainly Buffy and Spike’s time in Sunnydale. What they did there. What the fought there. Buffy was finding it easy to get to know Spike better without her friends constantly reminding her how evil he was. Spike had been willing to die for her.

Dumbledore was especially interested in learning about Buffy’s Slayer status. “In the Wizarding world we have heard of the Slayer, but she has always been regarded as a myth.” Buffy laughed outright at that.

“You mean to tell me,” Spike asked. “That a bunch of blokes that can turn whomever they please into toads don’t believe in someone that’s destined to protect them from the nasties in this world?”

“We have a different kind of Nasty here, Mr. Spike.”

“Just Spike.” He corrected for the hundredth time. “And what do you mean a different kind of Nasty? There isn’t anything that my girl here can’t take.” Buffy beamed at his compliment.

“I’m beginning to see that.” Dumbledore said. “Now, you’re a vampire?” Spike nodded. “Why do you care for her so?”

“Because she’s the be all, and all, mate. That’s all there is to it. I would die for her.” Cause she looks at me like a man. Spike said this all unabashedly. Dumbledore smiled at him.

“There is something I think the pair of you would be able to help me with.” Dumbledore then set to telling the newcomers all about the big Evil that threatened the wizarding world, about how he was conquered by a baby boy named Harry Potter, but that, years later, he had risen again. This boy, Harry was sixteen now, and would eventually have to face and conquer Voldemort again.

“And what do you want us to do?” Buffy asked.

“I want you to help Harry. He has a lot in front of him, and he needs to learn to defend himself physically without magic, and he needs to learn to persevere. He needs to learn things that you can teach him.”

Buffy and Spike sat in silence. Though Dumbledore could tell that their glances to one another spoke volumes. “We’ll do it.” Spike finally answered.

“Now, I want to use the utmost discretion in this. So I am going to make both of you temporary Professors here at school. You won’t have classes, so to speak, but you will have duties.” Buffy and Spike nodded.

“When does the term start?” Buffy asked.

“The first of September. If you like, I can arrange it so that you can return to your homes and collect whichever personal effects you think you might need.”

“That would be great, thanks.”



The reunion back in Sunnydale was a tearful one. Dawn was so happy to see the sister that she had thought she lost she refused to let her out of her sight. Spike was at his crypt gathering things that he would need and Buffy felt strangely alone without him with her.

“Dawnie, if I tell you something, do you think that you could keep it a secret?” Dawn’s eyes went wide with excitement but she zipped and locked her lips before crossing her heart. “I think that I have feelings for Spike.” Dawn’s eyes bugged out of her head. She squeaked and threw her arms around her sister.

“Buffy!!! That is so great. I am so proud of you! And it’s about time!” The sisters hugged and giggled.

“I haven’t told Spike yet. But he was willing to die for me, Dawn. And being away from the other Scoobies has really made me realize that he isn’t evil. He isn’t bad. He’s better than Angel ever was.”

“Yeah, they always hated Spike. I mean, I know that he tried to kill you guys like every other day, but that was so like, three years ago! He’s changed so much.”

When Buffy was finished packing she looked at her assembled friends sadly. “I’m gonna miss you guys. But I’ll write all the time.” She turned to Giles. “Swear to me that you’ll take care of Dawn as if she were your own daughter.”

“I swear, Buffy. Be careful.”



Buffy met Spike at his crypt. Dumbledore had explained to them about port keys and arranged for some bit of rubble of Spike’s to be theirs. When she entered his crypt, Spike was smoking a cigarette and sitting in his favorite chair. “I’m gonna miss this chair.” He confessed. Buffy smiled at him. “I used to be willing to pay anything to see you smile at me like that, and now you do it for free.” Buffy blushed.

“I’m seeing you in a new light, Spike.” Buffy told him. “Being away from the others, makes it easier to see you for what you really are.”

“And what might that be, love?” Spike stood so he could look into her eyes.

“A good man.” Buffy whispered to him. Spike felt like he would split in two from the happiness that swelled within him upon hearing her say that. Buffy hugged him and kissed his cheek. “I owe you so much.”

“You owe me nothing, Buffy.” She smiled.

“I think we have to do the potkey thingie now.” Spike looked at Buffy’s watch.

“You might be right about that, pet.” They arranged their luggage so that they could have one hand on their luggage and one on the portkey. In a great woosh of air, and a pulling around their navals they disappeared in a swirl of air.

Buffy and Spike felt a little out of place at the head table. They also looked out of place. Neither of them were wearing robes, instead opting for their normal clothes. They were also the youngest of the teachers around them. Well, the youngest looking, for Spike was actually the oldest.

Buffy watched with delight as students were sorted into different school houses by a hat being placed upon their head which would eventually scream out their destination. The hat had also sung a song. When the sorting was over, Dumbledore stood and all of the students quieted their chattering.

“While there is a lot to say, time only allows for me to say one: Enjoy!” He threw up his hands with a smile on his face. Buffy and Spike watched as food and drink appeared on tables all around the Great Hall. While Spike didn’t necessarily have to eat, he did enjoy tucking in every now and then. He even spied some hot wings. And Buffy, though she was small, was also known for being able to pack it away.

After gorging themselves on food and blood for Spike, Buffy felt very sleepy. She was lazily looking around the hall at the different students, trying to figure out which one was Harry Potter. She remembered Dumbledore saying that he had black hair and was rather tall, but with everyone wearing black and being seated, that wasn’t much to go on.

Soon the plates had cleared themselves, something Buffy wished that she had back home, and Dumbledore rose to speak once more. “I have a few start of term notices for all of you. First of all we have two new additions to our teaching staff this year. They have both graciously agreed to take on the role of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors.” There was a smattering of applause. Buffy waved her hand and smiled, but Spike merely nodded and looked threatening.

“Let it also be known to first years, and let me remind the rest of you, that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds to all students. We have come to a time in our lives where there is much uncertainty and chaos. We must stick together to conquer it once and for all. Now, head on up to bed so you can be well rested for your first day’s lessons.”

In a great flurry of motion a mass of black rose together and tried to squeeze out of the Great Hall’s doors all at once. Buffy watched all of this with a placid smile on her face. She had never thought of being a teacher before. She had never really thought of her future that much anymore outside of being the Slayer and eventually dying. But a teacher? Much less a teacher of Magic? This would be interesting. Buffy then smirked as a new thought entered her head. She was going to be able to hand out detention. Revenge at last!

Spike looked at Buffy. She had a big grin on her face and it warmed him inside. It made him feel a bit like a ponce, but it warmed him. He knew that things had changed between them. He knew that there was goodness between them now, and he was thankful for that. Because he had made a promise to a lady, and he would protect her and the Bit until the end of the world. They walked together towards their sleeping quarters, which were across the hall from one another.

“Goodnight, Spike.” Buffy hugged him quickly, almost as if she were afraid that he wouldn’t let her.

“Night, Princess.” Spike kissed Buffy’s cheek before turning and entering his own room.


Their first class was the class that would contain the boy that was their main mission. It was comprised of Gryffindor and Slytherin sixth years. Dumbledore had explained the dynamics of the different school houses, and had informed them that these particular two made no show of getting along.

Buffy knew that Spike wouldn’t be putting up with any crap, and neither would she for that matter. She watched as students filed into the classroom and took seats. Most arrived in groups of three or four, but there were a couple of students who arrived alone. One boy with hair the same hue as Spike’s arrived with a veritable entourage complete with bodyguards. Buffy scoffed at this, openly.

The bell sounded and Buffy looked to Spike to begin. “As you were told last night at the feat, we are your new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors.” Spike paused. “My name is Spike. You will call me Spike. There will be no calling me Professor Spike, because that sounds wrong.” Spike eyed Buffy when he said this. Buffy knew that she would be allowed to call him Professor Spike in the right kind of outfit.

“That goes double for me. While Professor Summers doesn’t sound quite as strange, I may not respond to you, as I will be looking for someone who shares my last name. Buffy is just fine.” She smirked. “But if you quake in the face of complete informality, you can address me as Miss Buffy.”

“So there you have it- Miss Buffy, and Spike. Now that that’s over with, we can get down to business.”

“Shouldn’t we do some sort of roll call?” Buffy asked. Spike shrugged and Buffy began looking for a paper that she knew she had somewhere. After a good minute of shuffling through miscellaneous papers she found it with an “Aha!” Her cheeks turned, in Spike’s opinion, a lovely shade of pink before she cleared her throat and began calling out names. “Harry Potter.” When she called out his name Spike’s head snapped to attention. He really hadn’t been paying the names any mind because he didn’t really care about knowing who was who. But he knew that Harry was important.

Buffy and Spike both looked at the boy who raised his hand. He had black hair and glasses that hid green eyes. He was sitting in between a red headed boy and a girl with very curly and bushy brown hair. After a minute, Buffy continued with the other names on the roll call.

“Now that the boring stuff is out of the way, on to the teaching.” Buffy frowned after saying this. “Which could be seen as even more boring stuff.” Spike chuckled, along with some of the students.

“What I think Miss Buffy means, is that we are a different kind of teacher. There won’t be any wand waving in this class and whispering funny sounding latin words. Cause what happens when you don’t have your wand? What happens when you’ve been disarmed and are backed into the corner? What happens, when you have nothing left to depend on but yourself?” Spike’s voice had lowered to a deadly serious tone, and the class hung on his every word.

“That’s right.” Buffy interjected. “When you are left without your wands, you might think that the fight is over. But never discount the power that you have inside of you.” Buffy was poised to go on, but stopped when she heard snickering. “Spike, I think we have our first volunteer.” Spike winked at her.

“You!” He barked, pointing his finger at the snickering platinum blonde.

“Me, sir?” He asked.

“Don’t Sir me. Get up here, now.” The boy visibly paled and made his way to the front of the classroom. “This year, Miss Buffy and I are going to teach you lot resourcefulness, hand to hand combat, and other useful things that’ll help get you out of a bind.” Spike proceeded to pick the boy up by the front of his robes. “We’re also going to teach you,” he set the boy on the ground and moved aside for Buffy to have her turn. Every mouth in the class hung open when Buffy repeated the same action as Spike.

“That not everything is as it seems upon first glance.” She finished his sentence for him. She set the boy down. “Now,”

“Draco. Draco Malfoy.”

“Now, Draco, I want you to think twice before you snicker in my classroom again.” He nodded his head and returned to his seat.

Spike and Buffy spent the rest of the class telling them their class schedule. Every other class would be lecture, and the others would be training. They were to arrive dressed in comfortable clothes, ready to work. They would be allowed to leave class ten minutes early on these days so that they would be able to change for the rest of their classes.

“That was definitely interesting.” Hermione commented as she walked with Harry and Ron to their next class.

“Interesting! That was fantastic!” Ron punched a fist into the air. “Malfoy being humiliated on the very first day back has got to be a sign of good things to come.” Harry nodded his agreement.

“I can’t believe how strong Miss Summers is.” said Harry. “It barely looked like any effort at all when she lifted him off the ground.”

“That was rather remarkable.” Hermione replied with a smile. “And the look on his face was absolutely priceless, but.” Ron groaned.

“But what?”

“I’ve never read about there being two Professors for a subject before, let alone two who are so informal. They don’t even wear robes!”

“So Dumbledore does something unconventional and you’re, what, surprised by this?” Ron asked. “I think it makes sense that since they’ll be teaching us hand to hand fighting methods that there would be two of them.” Harry nodded his agreement.

“That is a good point.” Hermione conceded. “Maybe I’m just over thinking things.”

“You? Over think things? Never!” Harry laughed at Ron’s look of bewildered disbelief. Hermione just blushed and grumbled under her breath.

“Snape mustn’t be too happy about losing the position again though.” Harry said. “And to think, being beaten out of it by two Professors and not just one.” Ron groaned.

“He is going to be extra unbearable this year.”

Later, the trio found out just how right they were about Snape’s unhappiness. He was even more vile than usual and had Neville to tears in less than five minutes. After the lesson, Hermione assured Neville that she would give him extra help, that all he really needed to do was to stop being so nervous and focus.

“I try.” He said to her. “It’s just really hard to not be nervous when you have a great overgrown vampire bat breathing down your neck the whole time!” Harry, Hermione, and Ron laughed.

“There’s a vampire? Where?” The foursome turned to see Buffy and Spike looking interested.

“No vampire. Just Professor Snape in his great Vampire Bat like presence.” Harry answered. Spike smirked.

“Git does look like a great overgrown bat.” Harry and Ron looked overjoyed to hear Spike say this. “Slimy too. Like some vile reptile.” He added.

“It’s more grease than slime.” Neville said under his breath. Spike laughed out loud, and Buffy did too.

“He seriously is in need of a shower. And has he never heard of deep conditioner. Those locks are in some serious need.” Hermione and Buffy laughed the most at this. The group began to walk down to dinner together.
“So, how did you come to teach here?” Hermione inquired.

“Met Dumbledore and he sort of just offered it to us. Well, not just, he got to know us for a few days first.” Buffy explained.

“How long have you known Dumbledore?”

“A couple of weeks now, right Spike?”

“Sounds right, Pet.”

“Only a couple of weeks?” Hermione asked. “But of course you knew of him before. He is a great wizard after all.” The students were astounded when Buffy and Spike replied in the negative.

“Never heard o’ the bloke before. But he seems like a good fellow.” Spike surmised. “And the pay here is good. ‘ll keep me in blood and smokes for a long time.”

“Blood?” Ron asked in a slightly shaky voice. Buffy’s eyes widened for a split second and she rushed to cover Spike’s slip.

“Spike has been in America too long. Blood is what we call food. Really good food.”

“Oh. Okay.” Hermione replied, though she was thoroughly unconvinced.

“So what’s the deal with that Draco kid, seems like a real brat?” Buffy hurried to try and change the subject. She knew that her lie hadn’t been a very good one.

Harry, Ron, and even Neville rushed to tell Buffy and Spike about how awful and arrogant and stuck up the Malfoy boy was. The only one who hadn’t forgotten Spike’s mention of blood by the time they reached the Great Hall was Hermione.



“Blood?” Spike looked at Buffy with a quirked brow. “You mentioned blood to them!” She scolded him in a fierce whisper, looking around the deserted hallway for the umpteenth time.

“And you gracefully covered my mistake.” Spike responded. Buffy smiled.

“Stop trying to butter me up.”

“Why? Is it working?” Buffy blushed.

“Maybe a little.” Spike smirked. He knew that something had changed between them. She had been so much more open around him. He loved seeing this side of her out and in full force. This was the side that he used to see when he spied on her when he was looking for weaknesses. The side that he saw that very first night, while she was dancing with her friends.

“What?” She asked, interrupting his thoughts.

“Nothing.”

“Not nothing. You’ve got something face.”

“I like this. How we are now.” He confessed. Buffy slipped her hand into his.

“Me too.” She replied honestly.


Over the next few weeks Buffy and Spike settled into an easy routine. They taught, they patrolled at night, though there was really nothing to fight, and they hung out with each other. They tried to figure out ways to see Harry and his friends on their own, because they were supposed to be giving them special attention. But both Buffy and Spike thought it would seem weird if they approached the teenagers out of the blue.

In the beginning of October, both thought the time was right to begin their lessons on Vampires. Buffy began the lesson by asking the students to take out their books and to turn to the chapter on vampires. On the very first page of the chapter was an illustration of a vampire. Or, what was supposed to be a vampire. Buffy took the copy from Harry’s desk. “This is supposed to be an illustration of a Vampire.” Buffy ripped the page out of the book and crumpled it. “But that is not what a vampire looks like.”

“The truth is,” Spike took the reigns. “That a vampire can look just like you, or even me.” Buffy smiled when Spike said it. “They only look all fangy and bumpy in the face when they are
newly risen, or when they are getting ready to lay on the hurt.”

“Bumpy in the face?” Hermione questioned. Buffy nodded.

“Vampires look like humans most of the time. It makes it easier for them to hunt. But, when they transform into their demon visage their canines elongate to form fangs, and the bones in their face shift making them appear more scary.”

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Another student asked. Spike shrugged his shoulders.

“Not really.” He sighed. “Vampires don’t feel pain as acutely as people. “Sure it bothers them, especially if there’s enough of it. But things that would stop humans wouldn’t stop a vampire. They’re strong, fast, and deadly.” Buffy grinned to herself. She could tell Spike was feeling all Big Bad.

“But they are kill able. I’m sure you all know the drill. Stake through the heart, decapitation, and sunlight. Surefire ways to kill a vampire. Holy water, crosses, and fire can harm them, but stick with the first three and your golden. A vampire usually has time to react and put out the fire if they are old enough.” Spike nodded along with Buffy.

“Vampires kill to eat, they kill for fun. It’s as much survival for them as it is a hobby. Some vampires enjoy the hobby more than others.” Spike added.

“Now, has anyone here ever heard of the Slayer?” Buffy asked. She was met mostly with blank stares, but there was one hand which rose in to the air. As Buffy had come to expect, the lone hand belonged to Hermione.

“The Slayer is a legend. It is told that there is one girl in all the world who was chosen to protect the world from evil. Vampires, Demons, and other creatures of that ilk.”

“Textbook.” Spike commented. “But she isn’t a legend.” Hermione looked incredulous.

“But there have never been any actual accounts of Slayers. No documentation of their existence. They are merely fabled beings.”

“Spike’s right Hermione. The Slayer does exist. Why would there be such things as Vampires and Demons if there was no force to fight them?” Buffy asked.

“Then why doesn’t this Slayer help us with the fight against Voldemort?” Harry challenged.

“Maybe she never heard of this Voldy guy before.” Spike smirked at how Buffy could get the name of the most feared Dark Wizard wrong. When Buffy noticed his smirk, she smiled a little as well. “Well, no one ever says his name, how am I supposed to get it right?”

“How can she not have heard of him? It sounds to me like it’s the Slayer’s job to know.” Harry continued the debate.

“Well, she’s only one girl. She can’t be expected to know everything. Her head would explode. And believe me, exploded head is really hard to get out of a shirt.”

“How can you be so sure that she exists?” Ron asked, joining the verbal volley.

“Cause Buffy and I have met her before.” Spike answered. “Cute bird, lives around where we were in California.” Hermione looked flabbergasted.

“And there are accounts of Slayers, Hermione. Accounts of hundreds of them. They’re kept by the Slayer’s Watcher.”

“The Watcher is the white hat that’s assigned to teach the Slayer all things Slaying.” Spike explained. “They are mostly useless, but every once in a while you come across a good one. Watching is a birthright, much like being called as a Slayer.”

“It’s magic, just like you guys use magic.” Buffy concluded.

Shortly thereafter the class ended. “And fifteen points to Gryffindor for making it an interesting class!” Buffy called after their retreating backs. Hermione, Ron, and Harry were the slowest to leave.

“Somethin’ you were wondering, nibblet?” Spike asked Hermione.

“Have you really met the Slayer?” She asked. Spike’s eyes flicked to Buffy for a moment. “Yeah, I have. ’ve even fought along side her once or twice.” Hermione looked between Spike and Buffy, a pensive look on her face.

“Listen.” Buffy said, realizing she was alone with Harry and his friends. “There’s something me and Spike want to talk with you guys about. Meet us here after dinner, okay?” Harry looked surprised, but nodded nonetheless.


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a/n listen…I really appreciate those of you who are reviewing. It puts some serious smiles on my face (serious smiles..teehee) and makes me wanna write more. I’ve never posted a fic before, usually I just write for myself…but I felt inspired to begin posting. Again, just, thanks for the support, you guys are the best!!!!

“What do you think that they want to speak with us about?” Harry wondered aloud. The three had been talking about the request all day.

“Maybe it has something to do with that last essay we had to hand in.” Hermione said, worry etched on her face. “Maybe they know that I helped you with yours.” Ron rolled his eyes.

“It’s not illegal to help your friends with their essays, Mione.”

“Yeah, it’s not like we copied off of you.” Harry added. “For once.” The friends continued talking about it throughout dinner, every now and then throwing glances to Spike and Buffy at the head table. When Harry noticed them leave, he got Ron and Hermione’s attention. “They’ve gone, we might as well go too, yeah?” His friends nodded along and they left their long house table.

No one paid them any attention, which Harry still had trouble getting used to after the past year. He had gotten so used to faces turning to him wherever he went, whispers behind hands, accusations of lunacy, that it felt weird to be left to his regular celebrity. He was back to where everyone was used to him, and no one thought him so scandalous anymore. Harry frowned as he found that he was almost bothered by this. How could they act like everything had gone back to normal?

They arrived at the Defense Against The Dark Arts Room before Harry realized they had moved at all, so lost was he in his musings. Hermione put a hand out in front of him when he attempted to enter.

“What?” He asked. She shook her head and put a finger to her lips, making it quite plain she wanted Harry to shut up. He rolled his eyes to Ron, who shrugged his shoulders, but the three could soon hear voices floating out of the room. The professors obviously weren’t watching how loudly they were talking, assuming that even if there were students finished with supper, they would be headed back to their dorms.

“What should we tell them?” It was the voice of Miss Buffy. “I mean, Dumbledore never exactly told us what to tell them.” She sounded strained, something the three weren’t used to hearing in their new teacher’s voice.

“Pet, I think Dumbledore trusts us to figure out what we are going to tell them.” Spike’s voice answered her. It sounded so much softer than when he spoke in class.

“We should have figured it out first!” Buffy replied. “I mean, they’re probably on their way here, and we have no clue what to say to them.” There was silence. Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at one another.

“They’ve actually been here for a while, Buffy.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” There was more silence. “Why didn’t you tell me that you could hear them out there? That means that they probably heard what we were talking about.” The trio looked at one another when all they heard was more silence. Suddenly, though, the door swung open and they were face to face with Spike.

“I think you should come in and stop lurking about.” The way he looked at them didn’t exactly encourage them to step into a room where there were no witnesses. Hermione spoke up first.

“W-we weren’t lurking about.” She stammered. “We just didn’t want to…interrupt you when you were speaking.” Spike smirked at her.

“Likely story, but I’ve heard them all. In you get.”

Buffy was sitting cross legged on the desk wringing her hands in her lap. “Take a seat.” She motioned for them to sit where they usually sat in class. Spike leaned against the wall nearest them. “There is something that Professor Dumbledore asked Spike and I to do. As a special favor to him. Maybe even sort of like repayment.” Buffy said the last part more to herself than to the three teenagers, but that didn’t stop Hermione from questioning her on it.

“Repayment for what, exactly?” Buffy considered the curly haired girl for a moment. She reminded her so much of Willow, except she was a little more bold. Willow didn’t really ever accost teachers like Hermione did.

“Spike and I sort of arrived here under unusual circumstances. From what Spike told me, combined with what I know, we got here through this portal that was supposed to end the world, but we stopped it- mainly Spike stopped it, and we landed in the middle of some sort of field. I don’t remember this part cause I wasn’t conscious. But Spike said that all he remembers is being aware that we weren’t dead, and that for whatever reason I was there with him, and then we both woke up in the hospital wing which is when we met Dumbledore.” Buffy paused to take a breath. “Dumbledore took care of us, so we said we’d do him a favor.”

“And what is that favor?” Hermione pressed. She was finding this all very interesting. The only portals regularly used in the wizarding world were through the Floo Network. This seemed to be a rogue portal.

“The main part of it,” Spike took the lead, “is what we have already been doing. Teaching you brats about the real world and how it is to fight without magical aid. But Dumbledore wanted us here to teach you three especially. And to help protect you.”

“Protect us?” Harry spoke up for the first time. “How are you going to protect us?” Buffy looked most distressed at this question and looked hard at Spike for a long time. Hermione saw him incline his head ever so slightly at her, a gesture so small one could have easily missed it. But she could tell that Buffy caught it and that it meant more to her than it did to Hermione.

“We talked to you about vampires today.” Buffy began, but seemed to decide a different tact. “Hermione was very hard to convince that the Slayer does, in fact, exist.”

“I still find it rather hard to believe, actually.” Hermione interjected. Ron and Harry rolled
their eyes. Spike smirked.

“I don’t blame you Hermione. It does seem fanciful, like something out of a story book. A heroine made to protect all of humankind until she dies by the age of twenty two. Or sixteen. I mean, it’s not like you deal with extraordinary things on a daily basis.” Hermione was nonplussed. “Hermione, there is always a balance between good and evil. There has to be or the world can’t function.”

“And you’ve met the Slayer?” Ron asked. He looked between his two professors, who were sharing another silent exchange. “What is she like?” Spike spoke to the children, his eyes still trained on Buffy.

“Pretty tiny for such a powerful girl. A goldilocks. Green eyes. Spitfire. Would sacrifice herself for any of you. Even if she didn’t know you. “

“She doesn’t know us.” Hermione reminded him.

“But she does, Nibblet.” Spike corrected her. “She knows you probably better than you could imagine. Especially since you doubt her existence. I mean, how could you know that you’ve been taught by none other than The Slayer since the beginning of the term?” Spike’s little speech was all very dramatic, and he was very amused by the reactions of his audience. Buffy grinned like a pleased kitten, while the three teenagers were looking at her with open mouths and expressions of disbelief.

“That’s how she picked up Malfoy!” Ron exclaimed. Hermione scoffed.

“Honestly, Ronald, you just find out that you know a living legend and all you can think about is how she made a fool of Malfoy!”

“But she’s right, Hermione. She’s got super strength if she’s the Slayer, that means she would have been able to pick him up no problem.” Harry jumped in. The Slayer. The Slayer was here. The knowledge didn’t exactly move Heaven and Earth, for they still weren’t really aware of what a Slayer was, but Harry knew that it couldn’t hurt to have one around. He grinned at Ron, who was grinning right back. But Hermione….

“So that explains Buffy.” She began delicately, “But not you, Spike.”

“How so?” Spike crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back. He knew that he couldn’t put anything past this one.

“Well, if Miss Buff really is the Slayer, then how can you fight her? You really seem to toss each other around, and for a while I thought maybe it was some sort of show. That the technique was real, but since you are so differently matched that it couldn’t be real. But now I know that Miss Buffy is so strong…” She let the end of her sentence drop, watching both Spike and Buffy very closely.

Buffy looked like she could barely breathe, and in fact, she was finding it quite hard indeed. What were they supposed to tell the three teens? Radioactive spider bite? Would the young wizards even get the pop culture reference? Their culture didn’t exactly pop in the same way as the rest of the world’s, after all. Could they really tell the teens that Spike was a vampire?

“M a vampire.” Spike intoned. Buffy sighed, exasperated.

“How do you do that?” She asked, arms crossed in front of her chest.

“Do what, pet?”

“Make such a big decision so quickly, without any thought?” Spike cocked his head to one side.

“Who said that I didn’t think about it? Maybe ‘ve been thinking about it since we started working here, since I thought that it might be an eventuality.” Buffy had no response for this. She never really thought that Spike was thinking about it as much as she was. He never seemed to be. “There’s no need to make everything so life and death, Slayer. There are plenty of things that are already that way.”

“Stop being all insightful…it’s creepy.” She said these words with a smile, remembering when she said that same exact thing to her younger sister. When Riley left.

When Riley left. It didn’t hurt as much as it used to, something she hadn’t realized. When had it stopped hurting? Spike cleared his throat to get her attention. When she looked at him, she realized. That’s when it stopped hurting.

Spike grinned at her. “I’m allowed to be insightful pet, I’m a lot older than you are. Much wiser.”

“Hey, I wouldn’t say you were so much wiser, I mean, I always managed to foil your evil plots.”

“Maybe I wasn’t trying as hard as I should have been.” Buffy opened her mouth to retort, but caught sight of the three teenagers before she could continue with the banter. Ron looked slightly frightened as he eyed Spike. Now that she was really looking, neither Harry nor Hermione seemed to keen on the idea either. Of course they wouldn’t be happy about it. They had spent all class period telling them how vicious vampires are.

“Spike is a different kind of vampire.” Buffy tried to explain, smiling in spite of herself. If Giles could hear her now. “I didn’t use to think that there was such a thing. I had them all lumped together in the bad and evil category, but Spike is truly different. He was willing to give his life up for mine.”

“What do you mean?” Hermione asked. Buffy then related a more in depth story of how they came to be at Hogwarts. Telling them about Glory and the Key and Spike’s plan to save Buffy and Spike.

“Which did sort of work cause hey, totally not dead.” Buffy finished the story and grinned at the faces she had garnered from the teenagers. They looked awestruck.

Harry’s mind was going a million miles a minute. He had never met another person who’s path in life so resembled his own. Someone who was born to fight, someone who had to fight. She was responsible for so many people’s lives and yet she could still smile. Harry didn’t know how she did it. Most of the time he felt like pulling his hair out and scratching at his eyeballs, and he always knew who he was up against. It seemed like Miss Buffy faced a new evil every single week.

“So you’re a good vampire?” Ron asked Spike. Spike’s face was hard.

“Oi! I’m not good. ‘M just slightly less evil.” Buffy rolled her eyes. He was such a baby. “Sometimes sacrifices must be made.”

“And you’re going to help us in the fight against Lord Voldemort?” Hermione asked. Buffy shrugged her shoulders.

“I guess so. I mean, there really isn’t anything all that dire happening on the home front, and seems like this Moldy bread guy rates big in the Bad Guy Zagat Guide, which is what I was born for…”

“Seems like what Dumbledore has in mind.” Spike summed up Buffy’s rambling. “That’s why we’re going to be holding the three of you to a slightly different standard than the rest of your classmates. You’re the front line, you need to know what you’re doing.”

“I hate fighting without a wand.” Hermione grumbled.

“But it might save your life.” Spike scolded. “Wands can get taken away, or broken, or stolen. You don’t want your life to end on account of a piece of wood, believe me.”


Spike, Buffy, Harry, Ron, and Hermione talked for a long time that night. They worked out a schedule where they could have private classes for more intense training. Spike even said that they could eventually teach them how to use weapons that weren’t spells. Hermione had asked question after question about slayers, making Buffy consider asking Giles if she could send some of the Watcher’s diaries her way. Buffy knew that he would as long as she didn’t tell him that she was planning on loaning them to a sixteen year old witch.

“I think that went rather well, what do you think Spike?” Spike shrugged his shoulders and watched the pack of teenagers walk down the hallway.

“Went alright. Let’s just see if tomorrow the whole school knows that I’m a vampire, and you’re the Slayer.” Buffy giggled and slipped her hand in Spike’s.

“Let’s go patrol.”

Patrolling the grounds at Hogwarts was always disobligingly uneventful. There were no vampires, besides Spike, and no demons to slay. Nothing wrong going on. So most nights, patrolling time turned into time that Spike and Buffy spent talking. Or walking.

Buffy felt at peace at Hogwarts. Sure there was a Big Bad Evil looming in the beyond, but it was a completely ambiguous evil that had so far posed no real threat. Buffy could be Buffy. Buffy could be Buffy strolling along hand in hand, quite happily, with an attractive male shaped someone. With male parts. Who was happy being with Buffy. And that made her happy. She could be normal.

“I don’ know if we can even call it patrolling anymore pet.” Spike commented. He flicked the ash off of the end of his cigarette before taking another drag. “We might have to downgrade it to a walk in the park.”

“Or a date.” Buffy said the words before she even thought about what they meant. When she saw the look on Spike’s face, one of such quiet wonder mixed with a reserved fear. The look was gone as quick as it came though, to be replaced with his patented smirk.

“A date with me is a downgrade?” Buffy smiled.

“Methinks that wasn’t the point of the conversation, Buster.” Spike wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Why are you so afraid of this conversation? I thought you loved me. I thought that you wanted this.”

“Why wouldn’t I be afraid, Buffy? You’ve told me that you could never love me. You told me that there were no crumbs. I’ve learned that hoping with you is sort of pointless.” It hurt Buffy more than she could express to hear Spike say those things, and Spike could tell. He could practically smell the blood flooding her body from her broken heart. But it wasn’t completely his fault, she had to take some of the blame.

“Spike, I know that I’ve said the most awful things to you. That I’ve called you a thing, a monster, something completely incapable of love. But being away from Sunnydale is helping me to realize things. Things that maybe I wasn’t so ready to feel before.” It was something hard for Buffy to say, hard for her to open herself up to so much pain. But if she didn’t, there wouldn’t be any soothing balm to heal her heart either.

Spike sighed deeply, trying to put off the time when he would have to answer her. He always put himself out there for her. Sure, he had only stopped trying to kill her a few months ago, but he had actually been helping her for years. Somewhere inside of him, he knew that he had loved her since the moment that he had laid eyes on her. “Slayer.” Buffy grimaced at his reverting to his impersonal name for her, but said nothing. “I’d walk to the end of the Earth for you, go to hell and back to see you smile. But I want you to be sure.” With that, Spike dropped her hand and walked off into the darkness of the grounds.

Unbeknownst to either of them their every movement was being watched. Snape’s blood was at a boiling point to know that he had lost the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor to those two. Those two who were teaching them hand to hand combat, which was surely ridiculous. From the moment Dumbledore had introduced them as new members of the staff, Snape had vowed to do what he did best: try and get the blonde duo fired.

About a week into term is when Snape noticed that the pair often walked the grounds late at night. Sometimes they would practice their combat moves, but a lot of the time they would just walk and talk. The couple of times that Snape tried to get close enough to hear their conversation, it was as if they could sense him. He could actually see them as they noticed him. Their heads would snap to attention, Spike’s head would cock towards where he was standing, concealed by magic, and both of their stances would stiffen and settle into a more aggressive manner.

So Snape had never gotten the chance to hear what they were speaking about. He ached to know. He knew that there must be a reason for them to go on these walks every night. Knew that there was a reason they wanted such privacy. It was these conversations that held the key to them being dismissed. He was maddened at being so close but unable to do nothing to seize his triumph.

He had begun to watch them every night that they went out, obsessively. Tonight it had taken them longer to appear outside than usual. Snape cursed himself, thinking that maybe they had discovered him and moved their meetings to another location. But no, they appeared as they always did.

If only he could figure out what they were doing. Dumbledore wouldn’t be able to ignore his protests any longer.




Spike left Buffy knowing, or rather hoping, that she would feel hurt at his dismissal of her. If she felt hurt, than that meant that she really did want something with him. She would eventually come after him. Until then, he would keep his distance.

Spike was so focused on his own thoughts, he almost missed the presence of another. He slowed his steps, but didn’t stop completely. He was being watched. Whoever it was, was concealed well, but he was always able to feel wizards when they were around him. They made his skin buzz.

Wondering why he was being watched by a wizard, but not caring enough to put much effort into finding out who it was, Spike returned to the castle thinking he would go to the kitchens and get some blood.

Snape let out a long breath. He had noticed Spike’s steps slow down and knew that it was because of him. He hadn’t been prepared for Spike to leave so abruptly like that and was standing right in the path Spike would take back to the castle. Snape berated himself silently. He should always be prepared. He was getting to used to their routine and therefore falling into one of his own. He knew better than most that routines may feel safe, but they very rarely actually are.



Buffy watched Spike walk away, feeling as if her heart had just been gripped in Glory’s fist and given a few twists. She had ruined it. Ruined it before she even accepted the fact that there could be an it. And it hurt.

After a few moments she began to walk again, following the usual route that she and Spike took. Spike never walked away from her. He was always walking after her, lurking behind trees and buildings, just wanting to be close to her. And now that she wanted to be close with him, he walked away. Stupid vampire.

She shook her head at herself for saying that. He wasn’t a stupid vampire. He was a stupid man. They always walked away. They always left her. And she always let them She let her father go and he wouldn’t even come back after her mother had died and she and Dawn really needed him.

She had let Angel go. Her first…her first everything and she let him go. But that was really for the best.

And then Riley. Riley had said that he really loved her, just like Angel said. Just like her father told her. But then she wasn’t good enough. He had to get his jollies off somewhere else. With vampires. And Xander and Willow still adored him. So why couldn’t they adore her if she wanted to be with Spike? Why couldn’t they accept it, if it were making her happy.

“If you really think that you can love this guy- I’m talking scary, messy, no emotions barred- if you’re ready for that, then think about what you’re about to lose.”

Xander had said that to her right before Riley left and she had gone running. She could have gotten to him. It was something that she had never confided to anyone, but she could have made it in time if she had wanted to. About halfway there, while running, she had begun to think of Spike. Which, at the moment, she had found extremely weird. But the thoughts were overpowering. Things that he had said to her. Why he had showed her something that hurt her so badly. It was a few moments before she realized that she had stopped running completely.

She could have made it if she really wanted to. But her subconscious was trying to tell her something. She had been running in the wrong direction. She didn’t want to be running to Riley. She had wanted to be running to Spike. Because he wasn’t beneath her. He never was.

Xander had wanted her to be happy. But he wanted her to be happy with a person that he thought was acceptable. Someone that, at first, he hadn’t even liked. Xander had mocked Riley relentlessly and Riley hadn’t ever really warmed to Xander either. But then Riley lost everyone, all of his friends and the initiative. That’s when they really started to get along.

Willow had liked Riley from the beginning. She had even helped Riley in his efforts to win her over. And Buffy knew that Willow hated Riley on principal because that’s what best friends were for. But also, if Riley ever came back, she knew that Willow would be very happy to see him.

But they wouldn’t ever accept her being with Spike. No matter what Spike did. But why not? Couldn’t they see what she could see? That he loved her with everything that he was? Wasn’t that what mattered? Spike would never go to some vampire whorehouse if they were together. He would never say that she wasn’t giving him everything. He’d find a way to make her give everything. To make her want to give everything.

And he would never really leave her. He was perfect. But he had walked away. Well…for once…Buffy would be the one to chase him. And she broke off in a mad dash back to the castle.

After the three young wizards parted ways with their professors they returned to the Gryffindor common room. Though it was late, none of them were tired at all, the night’s revelations too fresh in their minds to contemplate sleep.

Ron and Hermione sat on a couch and Harry took an armchair across from them. “So Spike’s a vampire.” Ron said, trying to break the silence. Harry nodded, but Hermione was silent, and it almost seemed as if she hadn’t even heard him.

“And Miss Buffy is the Slayer.” Harry replied.

“How weird is that?” Ron and Harry laughed, and it felt so good to them. The whole night had been so intense. Hermione, however, remained in silent contemplation. “Do you reckon they’ll join the Order of the Phoenix?”

“They might.” Harry replied. “Though you don’t really have to be in the Order to be against Voldemort.”

“But the Order makes up a lot of the people who actually believe that He’s come back.” Harry nodded at Ron’s bit of logic. “I guess we shouldn’t be surprised, our Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors were never quite normal, were they.”

“That they weren’t.” Harry said, remembering the past professors, especially Imposter Moody and Quirrel.

“I’ve never heard of anyone being transported through a portal like that.” Hermione finally spoke. “Sure we use portkeys, which are very strictly controlled portals, but never loose, unpredictable and surely volatile portals. In fact, I’m sure I’ve never heard of it. Especially not for them to come out alive on the other side.”

“And what does that matter?” Ron asked, eyebrows to his hairline. “There’s a lot that they said tonight that I’ve never heard of happening before. It’s like a whole other sort of magic.”

“But what if it wasn’t an accident that they came here?”

“Then we should be thankful that this non-accident occurred. I think they can really help us, Hermione.” Harry didn’t understand why Hermione looked so concerned. “You’re over analyzing this. It’s good that Spike and Buffy are here. They’ll be able to help us.” Hermione nodded.

“Maybe I am thinking it over too much.” She conceded, though she didn’t believe the words that she spoke. Hermione just felt that there was something else going on. Something that she hadn’t thought of yet. She was shaken out of her thoughts once more by Ron’s laughter. “what’s so funny?” She demanded.

“If Snape ever finds out that Spike is a vampire, he is going to go berserk.” He said through snorts of laughter. Hermione and Harry laughed along with him.

“It would be rather priceless to see his face.” Hermione let her more serious thoughts dissolve away in the laughter.






The weeks passed quickly as Harry, Ron, and Hermione met with Buffy and Spike three times a week on top of their normal classes. Sometimes Spike and Buffy would take them out on the grounds, and other times they would stay in the DADA classroom. At the end of some lessons, Spike and Buffy would regale the trio with tales of triumph in the face of enemies.

During that course of time, Buffy was tentatively trying to prove to Spike that she really wanted him. That she was serious and wasn’t going to turn tail and run. It was hard for her to do, to not be afraid, but she knew that it was something worth doing.

Spike was also finding it difficult. He wanted to believe Buffy, believe that she wanted him. But he didn’t want to run into her arms, shag her senseless, and then have her change her mind and regret what happened. He wouldn’t be able to let her go after that, and it would kill him when he had to.

As it got closer to Christmas Buffy longer more and more to be able to return home for a visit. She finally broached the subject with Spike. “I want to go home for Christmas.” She said one night while they walked through the snow. Spike’s heart dropped in his chest. He had half deluded himself into thinking that she might want to spend the holidays with him. Of course she wanted to go home.

“The Bit will be happy to see you. She always says how much she misses you in her letters. I hope you have a good time.” Spike forced out. Buffy stopped in her tracks.

“You’re so dumb.” This stopped Spike too.

“What? Why?” Buffy giggled. “Why’re you laughin at me for?”

“Sorry, but that ‘why, what’ routine didn’t help your application to join Mensa.” Spike rolled his eyes.

“Oh, very funny Slayer. Get on with it, yeah?”

“I want you to come home for Christmas too, duh.” Buffy answered. “Did you honestly think that I would leave you here, alone, for Christmas?” Spike didn’t answer right away.

“Part of me did.” He said honestly. Buffy was angry that he still thought that she would just put him out with the trash.

“For Christ’s sake Spike!” She threw her hands into the air in exasperation. “How long is it going to take to get through that thick, chipped skull of yours? I like you. I want you. I’ll do anything to prove it to you. Now will you come home for Christmas?”

“Alright.”





On their last meeting before the holidays Buffy and Spike went very easy on the three teenagers. Buffy had convinced Spike that they would benefit way more from a little party complete with tasty treats borrowed from the kitchens than from anything else. Spike didn’t need very much convincing.

So the evening found the five some sitting on magically conjured sparring mats in the middle of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. “So what are you three doing for the holiday?” Buffy asked them.

“Harry and Hermione are staying with me and my family.” Ron answered. “It’ll be loads of fun.”

“Yeah.” Harry agreed. “Way better than staying here without my best mate. Besides, there’s nothing like a meal cooked by your mum.” The two boys slipped into a momentary reminisce of previous Mrs. Weasley feasts. Hermione could tell it was food they thought of by the bit of drool in the corner of Ron’s mouth. She shook her head, smiling a little.

“What are you doing for holiday, Miss Buffy?” Hermione asked.

“Spike and I are going back to Sunnydale for the vacation. Spend some time with the family and all that.” Buffy replied. Spike scoffed.

“Yeah, right. Spend time with family.” Hermione looked at Spike with interest.

“Do you have a family?”

“Of sorts.” He replied. “They aren’t in Sunnydale though. An’ I don’t rightly fancy seeing them none either.”

“Are they like you?” Hermione inquired further. “I mean, are they good?” Ever since they had first found out that Spike was a vampire, Hermione had become a little obsessed. She thought and researched day and night for happenings of vampires being good. She hadn’t found any. It was like they were a well kept secret.

“No they aren’t like me.” Was Spike’s short reply. He didn’t much feel like explaining the intricacies of his vampire relatives at the moment. Or ever, really.

“Angel is sort of like him.” Buffy supplied. But she knew the second that the words were out of her mouth that she had made a mistake in saying them.

“Angel is nothing like me.” Spike growled. The sound of his voice was deadly, making the hairs on the backs of the three teens’ necks raise. “That bloody poofter is only good because he got a soul shoved down his throat. And on top of that, it took a while for that soul to really kick in.” Spike was revealing things that he knew Buffy wasn’t aware of, but he didn’t care. She deserved to know.

“For years after he got cursed with that soul of his, he followed Darla around like a kicked puppy wanting to make its master love it again. He killed for her, on demand. He would do anything for her. It was only when she tired of him and sent him away that he started to eat from the sewer.”

“Eat from the sewer?” Ron couldn’t keep himself from voicing the question.

“Rats.” Spike said simply and effectively grossing out Harry and Ron too much for them to
continue thinking of food.

“But he has a soul? And he’s good now?” Hermione asked. She looked between Spike and Buffy. Buffy had her eyes averted and was looking at her hands folded in her lap. Spike was seething, but obviously trying to get his emotions under control. Hermione wished beyond all else that she knew the history behind these half glances between them and the high running emotions.

“He does good now.” Spike replied, his voice controlled. “He lives in LA routinely saving the day. Or night. Then walking off into the distance, long coat billowing. Using too much hair gel.” Hermione couldn’t help but smile at how Spike sounded very much like a jealous little boy. “But he is nothing like me. He loses that soul of his and he’s back with the head bashing and blood sucking fun that is Angelus.”

With that Spike walked out of the room. Buffy watched him leave. “I’m sorry if I said something wrong.” Hermione said quietly.

“It’s not you, really.” Buffy assured her. “Spike has a very complicated relationship with the vampires that he’s related to.” But she wished that Spike would see now that he had a good family. He had her and Dawn now. Buffy looked at her watch. “It’s getting late, you better get to bed or Filch’ll be on about hanging you up by your eyelids or something.”

Buffy hugged Hermione, Ron, and Harry before seeing them off. “You behave yourselves and practice everything that we’ve taught you over your vacation. There will be a test when you get back.”

“Really?” Ron asked, his mouth agape.

“Not really.” Buffy smiled. “But that doesn’t mean that I’m not serious about you practicing the moves.”

The next morning the castle was a flurry of commotion. And so were the grounds. Snow poured from the heavens as if by magic, and Buffy wasn’t certain whether or not magic actually had anything to do with it. All she knew was that it looked absolutely beautiful.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron were standing in the middle of the empty Gryffindor common room along with Fred, George, and Ginny. They were getting a special escort back to the Burrow on account of Harry and were waiting for Professor McGonagall to arrive.

Spike entered Buffy’s room, his bag packed and ready to go. They were meeting Dumbledore in his office and catching a portkey back to Sunnydale. Spike wasn’t very excited about going back to California, if he was completely honest with himself. He would be going back to a place where people hated him, where he hated Buffy half the time and loved her the other half, and where Buffy wanted him dead- all of the time.

Buffy didn’t turn around when Spike entered her room, just reveled in the feeling of him behind her. Watching her. Trying to read her thoughts as if the back of her head were see through. She felt him slowly come closer to her, to stand directly behind her at the window. With such thick and heavy snow there was no sunlight to harm him. When Spike was close enough to her, Buffy let herself gently lean against him.

They stood together like that for long stretching moments that neither of them counted. Spike feeling Buffy’s warm body heating his own, and smelling her hair, and wishing against all odds that these moments would never end. Buffy looked through the window at the snow covered grounds only half absorbing what was happening in front of her. She could only feel Spike’s hard body. Spike’s hands as they tentatively came to rest on her waist.

It was a beautiful scene, the two blondes standing there in the silence of a snowy morning. But it was a scene that was not to last.

“Spike, what’s that?” Buffy tilted her head to one side and squinted out the window, trying to see. At first she hadn’t been sure that she was seeing anything, she was so lost in sensations that there were spots in front of her eyes. But the spots were growing larger.

“What’s wot?” He asked. Spike was just as fuzzy in the mind as Buffy was at the moment. Feeling her so close to him was driving him mad. He wanted her so badly in every way and wanted her to want him just as much.

“There. Do you see? Is that…are those people?” Spike’s head snapped up and he looked out of the window. All he saw was snow, snow falling, and the Forbidden Forest. And yes, he did see them.

“Yeah, pet, those are people. And I don’t think that they are the kind that we should invite in for a cuppa.”

“What makes you think that?”

Spike didn’t answer, just made a dash for the door with Buffy at his heels.




“I wonder what’s taking McGonagall so long?” Ron asked. He had sunk into an armchair. “She said that she would be back in a minute. And it’s been more than just a minute.”

“Missing your dancing partner, Ron?” Fred asked.

“Will you ever let me forget that?”

“Never.” The twins said together, identical evil grins on their faces.

Hermione looked at her watch. “She has been gone for a long time.”

“Maybe something’s happened.” Ginny said.

“Like what?” asked George. “This is Hogwarts, there really isn’t much in the way of bad happenings here. Unless we’re behind it.”

“And we haven’t shoved anyone into that vanishing cabinet since that Slytherin git.” Fred and George laughed. Harry agreed with Ginny though. He didn’t know how to explain it. But there was something that didn’t feel quite right. He absently rubbed his forehead.





Spike and Buffy were running at full speed towards the Great Hall when they ran into Professor McGonagall. Spike narrowly avoided colliding with her as he skidded to an abrupt halt. McGonagall scowled. “Where are you off to in such a hurry, Spike?” She said his name like it was a bad taste in her mouth. And it was, for she hated being so informal with someone.

“Sorry, Minerva, but there’s a whole pack of people coming onto the grounds from the Forbidden Forrest.” He explained.

“The Forbidden Forrest? That’s impossible. There’s no way into the grounds through there, it’s protected as is the rest of the Hogwarts Grounds.”

“Then you have a serious security problem, cause they’re coming.” Buffy replied. She took the older woman’s forearm and led her to the large wooden doors and threw them open. She pointed into the not so distant distance. “Look. And they’re getting a lot closer. We have to do something.” Buffy watched the woman’s face as it tightened and paled. She flicked her wand and something silver shot out of the end of it.

“We must protect the students. We have to protect Harry.” McGonagall said.

“He’s still here? I thought that all the students that were leaving were gone early on?” Spike asked.

“Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, and the Weasley boys and girl are waiting for their escort to be ready. Harry needs to travel in a special guard, lest something happens to him.”

“Wot? Somethin like this you mean?” Spike asked sarcastically. Just then, Dumbledore joined them at the front doors.

“Death Eaters.” He whispered. “Minerva, alert the other teachers. We must evacuate the children who are still in Hogwarts.” McGonagall went off at once. Dumbledore then turned to Buffy and Spike. “You must get to Gryffndor Tower and to Harry. You then can take them to my office and take the portkey back to Sunnydale. I’m afraid it is the only option at the moment.” Buffy nodded.

“No problem, we’ll fit them all somewhere. And really, who’ll look for them in California?” As Buffy ended her sentence something whizzed over her head. She looked at the approaching figures. All cloaked in black with masks on their faces. Someone had shot a spell at her. Spike growled at the on comers.

“We’ve gotta go Spike. We have to hurry.” Buffy took his hand and tugged him away from the doors as another spell hit the frame. Dumbledore whispered the required passwords to Spike as they began to run.

Running to Gryffindor Tower, Spike and Buffy passed many other Professors and some students running in all different directions. Some were headed to the front to help Dumbledore hold off the troops, others were helping students get out safely.

They arrived at the portrait of the Fat Lady in record time and Buffy shouted out the password. They crawled through the hole and came out of the other side to meet with surprised faces. “Plans have changed.” Spike hurriedly explained. “Take what you need, leave your pets, lets get out of here.” To their credit, the teenagers all rushed into action and were ready to go in seconds.

“We’re headed to Dumbledore’s office.” Buffy told them in case they were separated. “Stick close together, keep your wands out, and don’t stick your necks out.”

Back in the halls, making a mad rush to Dumbledore’s office, they met nearly no one. There was an occasional Professor still rushing around with the odd student or two, but it was far from quiet. They could hear yelling and crashes from somewhere in the distance, though it sounded like the fight wasn’t really advancing and the Death Eaters were being held at bay.

It was slower getting to Dumbledore’s office as not everyone was gifted with preternatural speed, but they all made it their safely. Spike gave the password and the stone steps began moving like an escalator that they all mounted. They ran through the door and touched a finger to a crumpled piece of paper on Dumbledore’s desk. They waited with bated breath for the familiar pull from behind their navel.

They landed in a heap in the middle of the Magic Box much to the surprise of The Scoobies seated around a table covered in books. Buffy groaned from the middle of the heap. “I think someone is kneeing me in the liver.”

“Boo hoo, Slayer. Someone’s prodding me in my manly bits.”

“Sorry, Spike.” came Hermione’s voice.

Giles cleared his throat. “Giles?” Buffy struggled to sit up, pushing various legs and arms
off of herself. When her eyes met those of her newly reinstated Watcher’s she grinned. She wrested her way out of the pile and threw herself into his arms. “I missed you so much!” Giles hugged her back, smiling to himself.

“We were all so glad when you were okay, Buffy.” He answered. Buffy then hugged all of her friends in turn, saving Dawn for last so they could hug the longest.

“I’m so glad your home Buffy.” Dawn whispered. “Giles has been staying at the house and
he is so strict. He’s worse than mom.” The sisters laughed.

“Tell me about it,” Buffy answered. “I’ve had to take it from him for years.”

“Yes, though I must say, Dawn actually listens to me.” Giles commented.

“What are you guys all doing here anyway? It’s like, two in the morning here, isn’t it?” Buffy looked around herself for a clock.

“Giles insisted that we waited for you.” Anya answered. “I didn’t see why it was necessary when I could be at home receiving orgasms but he insisted. But I’m glad we’re here now since you brought potential customers and or shoplifters.” She eyed the group of unkown teenagers who had finally gotten to their feet behind her.

“There was a slight problem.” Buffy then gave them a rundown of what had happened at Hogwarts before they made their escape. “So they’re spending Christmas with us until we hear otherwise. They’re gonna shack up at Casa de Summers.”

“It’ll be like a slumber party.” Dawn said happily. She waved at the group and smiled. Hermione and Ginny waved back with large smile on their faces. Dawn seemed very nice and
bubbly to them.

Spike lit a cigarette, thus announcing that he was a little insulted at not being addressed yet. “Hey! Put that out!” Anya walked up to him and snatched it from between his lips.

“Oi! It’s hard to find smokes in wizard land you bint.” He looked around at the faces looking at him, and saw that only Buffy and Dawn were smiling at him. “Hey there Niblet.” He greeted the girl. She squealed and ran to him, hugging him.

“Spike, it has been so boring here without you around. And by the way, thanks for saving my life before you left!” Spike hugged Dawn and stroked her hair.

“Your sister would have kicked my arse bloody if I hadn’t. ‘Sides, since it was you I wanted to do it.” Dawn grinned at Spike’s response. “Now, Dawn, let me introduce you to Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George. Be nice.” Spike then looked at the boys of the group. “And you all…hands off.” He growled to emphasize his point. Buffy laughed and shook her head.

“And aside from Dawn, this is Giles, Anya, Xander, Willow, and Tara. They’ll be around a lot, so I’m sure you’ll get to know them a bit before you get back home. Whenever that’s going to be.” Buffy turned to the Scoobies. “So what’s with all the books? Is there major research? Sunnydale acting all Hellmouth-y again?”

“Not really, we were just kind of bored waiting for you.” Willow replied.

“So you decided to bore yourselves even more?”

Xander laughed. “Now that’s what I said.” He picked up a comic book from the nearest book.



Shortly thereafter, Buffy, Spike, Dawn, and Giles led the visitors back to the Summers’ home. The other Scoobies made their way home, promising to come over later in the day for Christmas presents and food.

It took a while to get everyone a place to sleep, but with Giles saying that it would be nice to stay at his flat for once, it worked out. Hermione, Ginny, and Dawn were going to share Dawn’s room. Fred and George were going to share the master bedroom that Giles usually used. Harry and Ron were going to sleep in the living room on the couches.

Though they were still on Hogwarts time, everyone was very tired by three thirty in the morning as all the adrenaline was wearing off. Everyone was in their separate corners of the house, getting ready to hit the sack. Spike and Buffy were in the kitchen, Spike warming a mug of blood.

“I wonder if that’s a routine thing for Hogwarts.” Buffy mused.

“Don’t think so, pet.” Spike replied. “McGonagall looked right surprised and brassed off when she saw them. Hogwarts is supposed to be a safe haven of sorts.”

“We could ask Hermione tomorrow.” Buffy watched Spike as he savored his first taste of the blood. “She quotes that book all the time. The everything you wanted to know and everything that you didn’t about Hogwarts book. She would know.” Spike nodded. He tried to draw out finishing his mug of blood, knowing that it would be time for him to leave after he was finished. It would be light in no time and he didn’t fancy running around underneath a blanket.

“Better be going then.” He said, putting his mug in the sink.

“Oh.” Buffy looked at her hands. She had thought that Spike might stay there.

“See you when the sun is at a little less deadly of a height again.” He said with a smirk.

“I thought that you were going to stay.” Buffy blurted out. She would have been so mad with herself if she had just let him walk out.

“Wot?” Spike cocked his head to one side, something that Buffy adored absolutely.

“I. Thought. That. You. Might. Stay.” Buffy grinned a little wider with each over exaggerated pause. “I mean, if you want. I wasn’t going to kick you out.”

“Where?” Buffy looked puzzled and Spike half wanted to use her own obnoxious method against her. “Where am I going to sleep? The basement?” He nodded his head towards the door that led downstairs. Buffy looked at the basement door.

“If you want, but I thought that you might stay with me. In my room. The curtains are thick and I promise you won’t get crispy.” Buffy could hardly meet his eyes while she said it, but when she did, she met orbs with a firey intensity. It made her hot in the stomach.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” She answered, her gaze not leaving his.

“Let’s go then, pet.” Spike wrapped his fingers in Buffy’s and led her to her room. Buffy watched Spike as he drew the curtains, taking extra care in making sure that they overlapped and he wouldn’t wake up on fire. He had woken up on fire before and it wasn’t the most pleasant experience that he could remember.

Buffy stood before her bureau, debating on whether she should change in front of spike or not. But then she began to think more about what Spike intended on wearing to bed. She didn’t know if he ever wore anything to bed in the first place, not to mention that they had left in such a hurry they didn’t bring any of their luggage home.

“Don’ worry, pet. I won’t make you blush. ‘ve slept in jeans before.” Spike said, as though reading her thoughts, while pulling his t-shirt over his head. “Though, of course if you find jeans too scratchy.” Spike leered at her, tucking his tongue behind his teeth.

“I think the jeans will be staying on.” She replied, trying hard to not blush at the way he looked at her. “Now…please turn around so I can put my pajamas on.” Spike raised an eyebrow but stayed uncharacteristically silent as he turned his back. Buffy didn’t notice as she hastily changed that he was playing with a mirror, all the better to see her with. She didn’t even question when he knew to turn around.

Buffy stood facing the half naked vampire, trying to not stare at him too obviously and wondering if she should just crawl into bed, or what. Why was this so difficult?

Spike tool the initiative and rolled down the bedding, slipping underneath easily and holding them up for her entrance. She slid in easily and molded herself again him. Spike thought that it felt like a heaven that he shouldn’t have been able to touch. It was better than that time that she had kissed him. It was an action purely of her desire and not as a reward for being a good doggie.

He reveled in the feel of this golden girl in her cotton pajamas against him, and he draped an arm around her. It was perfect. No other word could do it justice but that. Perfect.

They didn’t speak at all, each too lost in the feelings created by the other. Buffy wrapped up in her thoughts. But eventually Buffy drifted to sleep and once Spike was sure that she was safely in dreamland, he kissed her cheek and closed his own eyes.



By the time that Buffy awoke the next morning, she could tell that the house around her was in full wing. She snuggled closer to the warm embrace of the dozing man beside her, delighted that she had warmed him throughout the night. It felt good to wake up with him. She didn’t understand why she ever thought that something like this with Spike could be bad or wrong. Her friends were dumb, she thought with a smile. They just didn’t know. Especially when there was such a sweet rumbling coming from his chest.

Buffy turned in his arms and looked at his sleeping face. He was angelic. Every hard edge of his face sharpened in slumber, every façade collapsed and unguarded. It was a breathtaking sight to behold.

She knew that beneath the slightly creased eyelids were miraculous orbs that never missed the deepest secret hidden in her soul. She was beginning to suspect that he might even know her better than she knew herself, which wasn’t such a bad thing since he wasn’t trying to kill her anymore.

Spike shifted slightly in his sleep, tightening his hold on her. His eyelashes splayed against his cheek, and they looked so black on his white skin. The contrast seemed to be the very embodiment of the man himself. He was supposed to be evil. Supposed to be. But Buffy knew now, he hadn’t been evil for a very long time, if there had ever been a time when he was truly evil at all.

A knock at the door broke Buffy from her rather blissful fog. Spike stirred and his brow furrowed. The door cracked open and Buffy smiled at her younger sister peeking her head through. “Merry Christmas, Niblet.” Spoke the sleeping form of Spike. Except he was apparently no longer sleeping. His eyes were still closed and the only palpable change in his appearance was the smile now on his lips.

“Merry Christmas guys!” Dawn entered the room and let out a tiny squeal of glee. “I’m so glad that you’re home.” Spike sat up in bed so that he could receive Dawn’s hug of greeting. “And this,” she looked between her sister and the blonde vampire “is pretty much one of the best Christmas gifts I think that I’m getting.”

Buffy and Spike looked at each other. Buffy smiled at him, causing him to smile back. Dawn squealed again.

“But anyway, everyone’s already here since it’s like, noon. The others are all awake and we’re all just waiting on you, you lazy bones. We wanna open presents!” Buffy giggled at her sister- the girl who was always trying to be so much more grown up- regressing into a four year old because it was Christmas morning.

“What presents, though? We had to leave all of our things at Hogwarts.” Buffy said, a hint of apology in her voice.

“And yet, like magic, presents appeared here this morning. Almost like magic.” And Dawn left the pair in bed, with a silly giggle and a grin on her face. Spike looked at Buffy.

“Like magic.” He shook his head.

Buffy dressed quickly, this time not making Spike turn his back and smiling when he was unsure about how much he should watch her. He took to busying himself with his own dressing, taking more time than needed to put on a t-shirt and his boots. He looked away, like a naughty boy caught, every time that Buffy watched him watching her.

They ventured downstairs together and entered the living room where everyone was gathered. Under the Christmas tree, that Buffy hadn’t even noticed the night before, was a large assortment of presents. “Like magic.” Buffy repeated the words of the morning with a big smile on her face. She looked around the room at her gathered friends who were her family, her sister, the young wizards, and Spike.

Everyone was looking at the gifts under the tree. All the teenagers were obviously itching to get their hands on their own. “What are you guys waiting for? That looks like an invitation to me.” It took all of thirty seconds for there to be Christmas wrapping paper everywhere.

Buffy sat on the couch watching the happy chaos with a smile on her face. Even with the strange invasion of Hogwarts, she felt light and happy. Something she didn’t very often get the opportunity to feel. Spike sat beside her and she intertwined their fingers. She caught the looks of Xander and Giles, but they didn’t say anything to her.

All of the Weasley children, plus Harry and Hermione had received Weasley sweaters and were wearing them. They were playing with all sorts of bits and bobs and eating candy they had received. Dawn was delighted over books that Buffy and Spike had picked out for her from Hogsmeade and was enraptured by the moving pictures in them.

All of the Scoobies loved their gifts from the wizarding world, and promised not to show them to people who weren’t ‘in the know’. Giles especially liked the book he received where he merely had to whisper what he wanted to read about to the spine of the book and the words appeared on the pages. It did, of course, have its limitations, but Giles was speechless nonetheless.

Buffy eventually got down to opening her own presents from the Scoobies, Giles, and her sister.

“Spike, this is for you.” Dawn had plopped down next to him on the couch and placed a box in his hands. Spike looked from the box to Dawn, a small smile on his face.

“Thanks, Li’l Bit, but you didn’t have to get me anything.” Dawn rolled her eyes.

“But I did anyway, so open it.” Spike smiled at the teenager and unwrapped his gift. Under the wrapping was an unassuming white rectangular box, like a jewelry box. Spike lifted the lid off of it. It was a ring with a green stone set into it. “Sorta looks like a ring I used to have.” Spike told her.

“Yeah. I remember. A ring with a special sort of stone, right?” Spike looked at Dawn when she said this. There was something in the sound of her voice. Spike looked at the ring more closely. It was a dead ringer, but it couldn’t be. “It is, Spike.” Dawn told him.

“But how did you get it, Bit?” Spike’s voice was awed, he couldn’t believe that she trusted him so implicitly. That she would give him something so amazing. Dawn, a big grin on her face, shrugged her shoulders.

“I did have a bit of help.” She admitted. Spike followed his gaze to where Giles, Willow, Anya, Tara, and Xander were watching him.

“But…you lot hate me.” Spike said. “A lot. Guts and all. And besides, I thought the poofter destroyed this thing.”

“Well, you sort of did this self sacrifice thing that made us see you in different light.” Xander said, like it was nothing.

“Yeah, saving the life of not just one but two someones that we love, and not to mention the world as we know it. Sort of made us like you a lot more.” Willow added.
“
And I never hated you, Spike.” Tara said in her gentle way.

“Me either.” Anya voiced.

“And when I asked about it, even Giles was willing to hit the books. As it turns out, that guy made more than just one special ring. It’s just that they were identical twins, so no one ever really suspected that more than one existed.”

Buffy took the ring from the box and put it on Spike’s finger.

“Giles is sort of a genius though, when it comes to research, and he figured it out somehow.” Spike looked at Giles, a man of the Council, someone he never thought would give him any amount of trust.

“Merry Christmas, Spike.” intoned his fellow Brit.

“You deserve it, Spike.” Buffy whispered before hugging him. Spike, half in a daze, wrapped his arms around Buffy as well.

“I feel like there is something here that we don’t understand.” Everyone turned and looked at Fred.

“At all.” George agreed.

“And I feel like we are the only ones who aren’t understanding.” Ginny was looking, not at Spike and Buffy, but at Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Hermione’s eyes widened immediately and Ron’s ears turned as red as Ginny had ever seen them. Harry was the only one who was managing to look politely abashed at the accusation. Fred and George surveyed the others as well.

“I think you’re right, Gin.” George said as he and his twin narrowed their eyes at the accused. “There’s something that everyone isn’t telling us.”

Spike sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Looks like it’s story time.”

Buffy dressed quickly, this time not making Spike turn his back and smiling when he was unsure about how much he should watch her. He took to busying himself with his own dressing, taking more time than needed to put on a t-shirt and his boots. He looked away, like a naughty boy caught, every time that Buffy watched him watching her.

They ventured downstairs together and entered the living room where everyone was gathered. Under the Christmas tree, that Buffy hadn’t even noticed the night before, was a large assortment of presents. “Like magic.” Buffy repeated the words of the morning with a big smile on her face. She looked around the room at her gathered friends who were her family, her sister, the young wizards, and Spike.

Everyone was looking at the gifts under the tree. All the teenagers were obviously itching to get their hands on their own. “What are you guys waiting for? That looks like an invitation to me.” It took all of thirty seconds for there to be Christmas wrapping paper everywhere.

Buffy sat on the couch watching the happy chaos with a smile on her face. Even with the strange invasion of Hogwarts, she felt light and happy. Something she didn’t very often get the opportunity to feel. Spike sat beside her and she intertwined their fingers. She caught the looks of Xander and Giles, but they didn’t say anything to her.

All of the Weasley children, plus Harry and Hermione had received Weasley sweaters and were wearing them. They were playing with all sorts of bits and bobs and eating candy they had received. Dawn was delighted over books that Buffy and Spike had picked out for her from Hogsmeade and was enraptured by the moving pictures in them.

All of the Scoobies loved their gifts from the wizarding world, and promised not to show them to people who weren’t ‘in the know’. Giles especially liked the book he received where he merely had to whisper what he wanted to read about to the spine of the book and the words appeared on the pages. It did, of course, have its limitations, but Giles was speechless nonetheless.

Buffy eventually got down to opening her own presents from the Scoobies, Giles, and her sister.

“Spike, this is for you.” Dawn had plopped down next to him on the couch and placed a box in his hands. Spike looked from the box to Dawn, a small smile on his face.

“Thanks, Li’l Bit, but you didn’t have to get me anything.” Dawn rolled her eyes.

“But I did anyway, so open it.” Spike smiled at the teenager and unwrapped his gift. Under the wrapping was an unassuming white rectangular box, like a jewelry box. Spike lifted the lid off of it. It was a ring with a green stone set into it. “Sorta looks like a ring I used to have.” Spike told her.

“Yeah. I remember. A ring with a special sort of stone, right?” Spike looked at Dawn when she said this. There was something in the sound of her voice. Spike looked at the ring more closely. It was a dead ringer, but it couldn’t be. “It is, Spike.” Dawn told him.

“But how did you get it, Bit?” Spike’s voice was awed, he couldn’t believe that she trusted him so implicitly. That she would give him something so amazing. Dawn, a big grin on her face, shrugged her shoulders.

“I did have a bit of help.” She admitted. Spike followed his gaze to where Giles, Willow, Anya, Tara, and Xander were watching him.

“But…you lot hate me.” Spike said. “A lot. Guts and all. And besides, I thought the poofter destroyed this thing.”

“Well, you sort of did this self sacrifice thing that made us see you in different light.” Xander said, like it was nothing.

“Yeah, saving the life of not just one but two someones that we love, and not to mention the world as we know it. Sort of made us like you a lot more.” Willow added.
“
And I never hated you, Spike.” Tara said in her gentle way.

“Me either.” Anya voiced.

“And when I asked about it, even Giles was willing to hit the books. As it turns out, that guy made more than just one special ring. It’s just that they were identical twins, so no one ever really suspected that more than one existed.”

Buffy took the ring from the box and put it on Spike’s finger.

“Giles is sort of a genius though, when it comes to research, and he figured it out somehow.” Spike looked at Giles, a man of the Council, someone he never thought would give him any amount of trust.

“Merry Christmas, Spike.” intoned his fellow Brit.

“You deserve it, Spike.” Buffy whispered before hugging him. Spike, half in a daze, wrapped his arms around Buffy as well.

“I feel like there is something here that we don’t understand.” Everyone turned and looked at Fred.

“At all.” George agreed.

“And I feel like we are the only ones who aren’t understanding.” Ginny was looking, not at Spike and Buffy, but at Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Hermione’s eyes widened immediately and Ron’s ears turned as red as Ginny had ever seen them. Harry was the only one who was managing to look politely abashed at the accusation. Fred and George surveyed the others as well.

“I think you’re right, Gin.” George said as he and his twin narrowed their eyes at the accused. “There’s something that everyone isn’t telling us.”

Spike sighed and rolled his eyes.

“Looks like it’s story time.”