Title: Potential
Author: Shannon
Email: angels_soul_1@yahoo.com
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Willow/Remus Lupin
Disclaimer: BtVS and A: tS belong to FOX, UPN, WB, And ME. Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling
Distribution: My Site: Shades of Grey (http://www.shadesofgrey.us/) NHA, WLS, FF.Net and Twisting the Hellmouth. Anyone else that has my permission for other fics feel free, anyone else wants it just let me know where it’s going.
Spoilers: Anything through Season 7 of BtVS, Season 4 of A: tS, and Order of the Phoenix for Harry Potter.
Summary: What if Willow’s spell in ‘Chosen’ activated a Slayer at Hogwarts.
Author’s Notes: I want to thank everyone who sent such wonderful feedback and encouragement for ‘The Missing Headmaster’. Made it much easier to ignore the idiot flaming me and to decide to continue in a new fandom for me.

Part 8


Willow pushed open the door to the room Remus had set up for them to use for training. She was going to help Xander out for now, eventually she would have to work with Hermione on her magic, see how much it was affected by her new powers. Hermione was not allowed to use magic outside of school so they couldn’t do much with it right now.

Dawn was sitting on the floor of the new training room with Hermione and Ginny. Ginny had wanted to watch and see what they would be making Hermione do. Both witches had been full of questions about training since after dinner last night. Dawn was still doing her best to answer, but she hadn’t been involved during the early parts of Buffy’s training and the potentials from this last year, had super intense training sessions.

“Will I have to fight a vampire?” Hermione asked, “I mean right away?”

“Yep,” Dawn smiled as both girl’s eye’s widened in fear, “I’m sure Giles sent one in that trunk.”

“Dawnie,” Willow frowned, “Not supposed be scaring her.”

“Sorry, No vampires Hermione.”

“Xander’s late I see,” Willow said glancing around the room.

“Big surprise there,” Dawn shrugged.

“We can start without him I guess,” Willow suggested, “I’m not big on the hand to hand stuff but we can work on other things.”

“Like not breaking everything she touches?” Ginny asked.

“Yeah,” Willow smiled, “Not a lot to do about that really, you have to learn to concentrate more, make an effort to keep your grip loose. I was thinking more like reflexes.”

“You’re not going to throw knives at her like Giles does with Buffy are you?” Dawn asked.

“Yes, Dawn, that was my plan,” Willow frowned at the teen-ager, “To see if she’s mastered her shiny new powers by throwing deadly weapons at her.”

“So how are you going to--,” Ginny started to ask but stopped when a plastic ball across the room suddenly flew in front of her.

Hermione reached up and grabbed the ball just before hit Dawn’s face. Willow smiled, reflexes work, she thought. Hermione was looking at the ball in her hand like she didn’t know where it had come from. Dawn was glaring at both Willow and Ginny, who was laughing.

“Nice Will, attack the innocent,” Dawn crossed her arms over her chest, “I think I like watching Giles and Buffy better, they never throw things at me.”

“Only because you would see it coming,” Willow laughed, “And I wouldn’t have let it hit you.”

“How did you do that?” Ginny asked, she had never seen anyone do that without a wand before.

“When we’re at your school I’ll teach you,” Willow told her. “Anyway that’s how we practice reflexes, I throw non-deadly things you catch or block them. Wanna try?”

“Sure,” Hermione agreed.

They worked on catching and blocking the various plastic balls for several minutes, Hermione doing better than she expected. When Willow ran out of balls she asked Dawn and Ginny to gather them while she started explaining to her that now instead of stopping the balls she wanted her to duck them.

“Hey, start without me?” Xander asked coming in the door.

“You are late,” Willow pointed out.

“Maybe you’re early?” Xander said, mostly because he knew it would annoy Willow.

“I think Xander should demonstrate,” Willow suggested, “Xander don’t let anything hit you.”

As soon as she finished talking all twenty balls the girls had piled in the corner flew at Xander at once. Xander was covering his face and trying to avoid the flying plastic. Willow, Hermione, Ginny, and Dawn were all doubled over laughing.

“Sometimes I question why you’re my best friend,” Xander muttered as the last of the balls hit the ground. “You do know that was just mean right?”

“Sorry Xander,” Willow said still smiling and obviously not at all sorry, “We were just getting ready to practice ducking and avoiding. We already did catching and blocking.”

“I should just watch then?”

“Unless you want to demonstrate again,” she smiled.

“Go to hell Willow,” Xander said sitting on the bench in the corner.

Dawn and Ginny went to sit next to Xander while Willow waved her hand and the balls started to gather themselves into a new pile. Hermione took her place across from Willow.

This wasn’t so bad, Hermione thought to herself, she wasn’t fond of physical things usually but catching the balls had been pretty easy. Then she was pulled out of her thoughts when a blue ball hit her shoulder.

“Pay attention Hermione,” Willow said as she sent another ball at the girl’s shoulder.

Hermione managed to duck that one, but was hit by the next two. This went on for half an hour as Willow would send the balls at her, she was being hit more than she managed to duck.

Willow watched Hermione rub her shoulder where the last ball had hit and decided it was time to stop. Xander walked over to join them, followed by Dawn and Ginny.

“I’m sorry,” Hermione apologized, “I don’t know why I couldn’t--.”

“It’s fine,” Dawn assured her, “Even Buffy misses sometimes.”

“If I can’t miss those plastic balls how am I going to avoid being hit by those?” Hermione waved her hand at the wall where Xander and the twins had hung all the weapons.

“We aren’t using those until you’re ready,” Xander told her, “You have an advantage of not being the only slayer so you an take your time with training.”

“What’s next?” Ginny asked.

“Just plain exercise,” Xander said, “Giles says we have to get you in ‘top shape’ as quickly as possible.”

Dawn and Ginny agreed to go through the aerobic exercises with Hermione so she wouldn’t have to do it alone. Since the house didn’t have electricity Willow used magic to create a small radio that played all of Dawn’s favorite songs for them to work out to. Once Xander had them all working she left to explore the house.

She walked into the library and began to look at the all the small trinkets and items located on the various cabinets and shelves. She walked to a closed cabinet and pulled it open, jumping back and letting out a small scream when she was confronted with an image of herself, well the self she was after Tara died. Intellectually she knew it wasn’t her, that wasn’t a her from an alternate reality, it had been her. Still she found her self backing away from the advancing figure in front of her.

Remus Lupin had heard Willow scream from the office next to the library and quickly made his way to the next room to see what had happened. Hoping she hadn’t had a run in with the still very angry Snape. When he entered the library he saw the red headed Willow backing away from what looked a lot like her only with black hair and clothing, and black veins spread across her face. It was obviously a boggart and she obviously had no idea what it was.

Willow collided with the solid form of a person standing behind her, turning she saw Remus, and sighed in relief. Surely he knew what that thing was and how to get rid of it.

“It’s a boggart,” he explained pushing her behind him and watched as it formed a moon before he waved his wand and watched it disappear.

“What the hell is a boggart?” Willow asked when it vanished.

“It’s a shape shifter that takes the form of your greatest fear,” he explained. Seeing that she was still shaking he directed her to a chair, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” She muttered more embarrassed than anything else, “That’s why it turned into a moon.”

“Yes, but why was it—well—you when I arrived,” Remus asked.

Willow sighed and quickly explained about Tara’s death and her world ending magic spree. Remus stayed quiet until she finished her story. He had known most of it already but when he had met her, it seemed impossible that the incredibly cheerful girl he met would be capable of committing the acts she just described.

“You tried to end the world?” He asked.

“Yep,” Willow sighed, “Well tried isn’t right, I mean, tried implies I failed and I could have done it, but Xander kind of made me see that I didn’t want to do it.”

“Why did you think you did?” Remus asked, he could understand the pain of losing someone you loved but ending the world seemed rather drastic.

“That’s the funny part, Giles knew I would try to steal his magic and was sort of supercharged with good magic. So when I took it from him, I had this incredible jolt of all the pain of—everyone. I wanted to stop all the pain, not just for me, but for the world.”

“And you wanted to do that by--,” Lupin smiled slightly.

“Stopping the world,” Willow shrugged, “What can I say if I’m going to do something I do it all the way. I don’t know how they could all forgive me so easily.”

“Because you’re not a bad person. I’ve known you twenty-four hours and I can see that,” he assured her.

“I tried to end the world, I tried to kill my friends because they had power I could use to kill two people that had nothing to do with Tara’s death. Not really.”

“And a year later you used that power to save the world,” Remus pointed out. “You’ve learned to control your magic. Everyone deserves a second chance.”

“I haven’t learned to control it, not completely,” Willow said quietly, “Being here is reminding me of that in a big way. Mostly it hasn’t been that bad. When I’m around all of you it’s fine, with the exception of Snape you are all so filled with good magical energy that the magic feels right and good. When I’m alone here though, this house, is—the magic here isn’t all good Remus.”

“No it’s not,” Remus agreed, “Sirius’ family had a lot of dark wizards in it. A lot of items in this house are dark magic.”

“That’s making it very hard. I feel like I need to be—not here—for a while.”

“Tonks and I are taking the kids to Diagon Alley tomorrow for their school supplies, their letters arrived today. Would you like to join us?”

“Are you sure I wouldn’t be in the way?”

“Not at all,” Remus smiled, “The kids will mostly be out on their own, Tonks has some shopping to do, so we can get lunch and I’ll show you around, it’s an all wizarding area.”

“That sounds great,” Willow smiled.

“Dawn will be joining us from what Harry said,” Remus said, “Even though she won’t be attending the school, she’ll be wearing robes like the other students. So if you’d like Xander can join us also.”

“I’ll see if he wants to,” Willow told him, “I should go check on the training now though. Wanna come?”

He nodded his agreement and the two of them headed to the back of the house to watch Hermione’s training. They walked into the room pushing the door closed quietly. The girl’s had their backs to the door so they could watch unnoticed for a while.

“Xander, can we stop now?” Hermione complained.

“Five more minutes,” Xander said, “You think if you’re being chased by a vampire it’ll stop to let you rest.”

Hermione scowled at him, Ginny had stopped several minutes ago, though Dawn was still moving next to her.

“C’mon Xander it’s been forever, Giles never makes Buffy do this for that long,” Dawn pointed out.

Willow glanced at her own watch, it had been almost an hour since she had left the room, Dawn was right it was time to stop. Killing the girl in the first day wasn’t going to accomplish anything. Xander was explaining how he wasn’t Giles to Dawn, and that he could do what he wanted. Willow smiled slightly and spotted the pile of balls next to her. Before Xander had a chance to realize she was there all the balls were in the air flying over Dawn and Hermione’s heads and hitting Xander.

“Be nice to her Xan,” Willow laughed, “Us witches have to stick together.”

“Funny another word was coming to mind for you just now,” Xander muttered batting at the balls with his hands.

“Hermione why don’t you guys go get some lunch. Then maybe we can do some actual fighting. Xander gets to be the punching bag.”

“Ooh, can I do it too then?” Dawn smiled as she followed the other two girls from the room.

“I’m off to find lunch too, and thanks for volunteering me Will,” Xander said as he passed her.

“That was impressive,” Remus said, as Willow waved her hand at the balls and they quickly made their way back to their corner, “To do that without a wand.”

“Never had a wand, hell didn’t know anyone did until last week.”

“You’ve had no training?” Remus was surprised. How did this kind of power go unnoticed by the American wizarding community.

“Nope.”

“Would you like training?” Remus asked an idea occurring to him, “I don’t see a reason for you to learn to use a wand. I would think anything we do with a wand you can mimic without one, but, I would have to talk to Dumbledore, maybe you can attend some of the classes at Hogwarts. Learn what you can while you’re there. Special needs may need to be met for you to do the work with out a wand but some things, like potions don’t require one at all.”

“I can do the same spells without a wand?” Willow asked.

“I don’t see why not,” Remus said, “I’ll owl Dumbledore tonight if you’d like.”

“That would be great,” Willow smiled, “I would love to learn more about it. Even if I have to go to a class with Snape.”

After lunch Willow, Xander, and Hermione went back to the training room. Ginny and Dawn had decided to go up to their room and figure out exactly what Dawn would need to buy tomorrow. Mrs. Weasley had recruited the twins, Ron and Harry to help clean out another of the more neglected rooms of the house.

Xander began getting into the puffy suit he wore for Buffy’s training while Willow explained several different punches to Hermione.

“I have to actually hit Xander?” Hermione asked not completely comfortable with hitting someone when she didn’t have complete control over her strength anymore.

“Sure, think about all the exercise from this morning,” Willow smiled.

When Xander was ready he turned toward the two girls before putting the helmet over his head. Willow demonstrated the first punch again and motioned for Hermione to copy it.

Remus walked in the room and stood quietly watching Hermione punching, what he assumed was Xander in a very padded white suit. She was nervous and not hitting nearly as hard as he knew she was capable of. He waved slightly when Willow turned and smiled at him.

“Hit harder Hermione,” Willow said walking over to Remus, “You can’t hurt him in that suit.”

“I sent a message to Dumbledore, we should hear from him by morning,” Remus whispered, “Hermione is not the most uh, physical person, you know.”

“As I’m seeing,” Willow smiled, “I think her training will go better when we can combine her magic with her slayer powers. Though I can hit harder than that.”

Willow was frowning at the newest slayer. Her technique wasn’t as good as it could be but maybe that could be improved but her punch was so weak they couldn’t even get a feel for how well she understood the process. Willow knew the problem was that she didn’t want to hurt Xander, they had to do something to make her not worry about that. With the suit on, there was little chance of Xander being seriously injured. Willow smiled as an idea came to her, she leaned over and whispered in Remus’ ear.

“That could work,” Remus smiled. He raised his wand and waved it quickly at Xander who immediately began to change.

Hermione stopped mid-punch when Xander was suddenly gone and before her stood Draco Malfoy. Well, not the real Draco she knew, Willow or Remus who she had heard come in the room had done it.

“Is that better Hermione,” Willow said smiling as Xander was staring down at his new body. “Can you hit him now?”

Hermione smiled at Remus who nodded slightly encouraging her. Xander started to speak to ask what had happened but his voice came out sounding like Draco too. Hermione turned her attention back to the man in front of her and quickly performed the series of punches Willow had shown her earlier. Willow started laughing as the last punch landed and Xander fell backwards. Remus waved his wand again returning Xander to his normal state. Willow quickly went over to help him off the ground, there was no way he would be able to get up with that suit on.

“Nice work,” Willow told Hermione as she pulled Xander up.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean--,” Hermione was blushing, “Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine,” Xander sighed, “I spend so much time being beat up super strong women I have no ego left. So take it you don’t like the little blond boy much?”

“No,” Hermione said, “Thanks for the help Professor Lupin.”

“It was Willow’s idea, to make Xander look like someone you don’t like, she suggested Professor Snape,” Remus smiled, “But I thought you would hesitate to punch a teacher. Malfoy seemed like the next logical choice.”

“I think we have to stop for today,” Xander said climbing out of the suit. “Can only take so much abuse in one day. Same time tomorrow?”

“Actually Xan, the kids have to go get their school supplies tomorrow, wanna join?”

“School supply shopping?” Xander repeated, “Yeah, what fun.”

“Fred and George are going they can show you their joke shop,” Hermione offered.

“Well in that case,” Xander grinned.

“Then tomorrow we shop,” Willow laughed.




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