Title: Second Time Around
Author: Wildecate
Email: wildecate@yahoo.com
Disclaimer: HP to Rowling, BTVS is Whedon
The Song With No Name is by Shane McGowan and has been slightly amended.
Notes: Sorry about this - I couldn't even tell you where this came from but once I started writing it I couldn't stop. I'm sure we've all had moments like this. One day I will write something cheerful and fluffy. Honest!

"How long has it been now?"

"Three days. She hasn’t been out of that room in three days."

"She’s got to come out sometime."

Harry frowned at the wooden door which stood, firmly shut in front of him. He couldn’t think of a single charm that would work to open the door, the witch on the side had used a locking charm far more powerful than anything he knew. He turned back to the girl standing beside him. Ginny Weasley was still holding a tray loaded up with a plate of sandwiches, a mug of hot coffee and a piece of Molly Weasley’s famous carrot cake. She rapped her knuckles against the wood, putting her mouth close to the keyhole to shout through.

"Willow? There’s food here for you. You have to eat at some point."

There was no answer and Ginny banged on the door again a little harder.

"Willow?"

To their surprise the door swung open and revealed Willow Rosenberg standing on the other side of it. Harry would not have thought it possible that Willow could ever look ugly but her usual beauty was dimmed. Her eyes were swollen and her cheeks were tearstained. The skin beneath her eyes was bruised black and it was obvious that she had not slept. The weight seemed to have dropped off her and her hair was mussed and tangled around her face. She looked as though she had aged another ten years in the three days that she had been locked in her room. Harry and Ginny were shocked into silence.

Willow’s eyes were blank as she stared first at Harry and then at Ginny. Harry, in an attempt to break the silence, took the tray from Ginny and held it out to Willow who took it, wordlessly, and stepped away from the door, leaving it to swing shut. Harry and Ginny were horrified at the state of their friend but at least they knew she was eating.

They re-joined the others downstairs, Giles, Ron, Dawn, Buffy, Xander - everyone was there. Buffy gave them an anxious look but Ginny shook her head in answer.

"How is she?" Giles asked.

"She took the tray but she looked awful." Harry settled himself at Dawn’s feet as Ginny curled up next to Xander.

Buffy threw Giles a look and then raised her eyebrows at Xander.

"Awful how?" Xander asked. "Are we talking black eyes and veins?"

"No" Ginny answered looking slightly confused. "More like blotchy face and messy hair."

The held breaths of the Sunnydale gang were quietly exhaled and went unnoticed by the others.

Giles sighed. He missed Willow. After the news had come she had taken it very calmly, just read the scroll, and walked out of the room. Her footsteps thudded heavily on the stairs and there was a quiet click as her bedroom door closed behind her. The sobbing that had been heard from her room over the last few days had been heart rending. He had been within a hair’s breadth of finding the little tosser and beating seven kinds of hell out of him. But no. She wouldn’t like that. Because she loved him – even if he was an arsehole.

Giles snarled quietly and felt the need for a cigarette. He headed out of the room and made himself comfortable on the back step of the Weasley house, pulling out his packet of Marlborough Lights, flicking his lighter to strike the flame into life. He touched it to the end of the cigarette, reminding unused muscles how to breath deeply in so he could inhale the smoke and feel the burn at the back of his throat. He had started smoking again when they had returned to England after the devastation of Sunnydale.

He had brought his "kids", as he thought of them, to somewhere he thought they would be safe, Ottery St Catchpole, home of his old friends, Arthur and Molly Weasley and their children.

A quiet step behind him told him that Buffy had joined him on the back step. She settled herself next to him and he blew the smoke away from her, knowing that she hated it in her face.

"What’s the plan then?" he asked turning to face her.

She shrugged and said, in that little light California voice of hers "I don’t have one. This isn’t really my territory. It’s more a Xander thing. He’s better at this than me."

Giles briefly marvelled at how far his Slayer had come in being able to admit that she couldn’t deal with everything on her own.

"OK. Well what’s Xander’s plan?"

"Truth to tell, I don’t think he has one."

"Who is the little shit who did this to her?" Giles stretched out his long legs and blew another plume of smoke into the night sky.

"He’s someone Ron, Harry and Hermione were at school with. Draco Malfoy."

"Malfoy?" Giles spat out "I thought she had more sense. I also thought she batted for the other team."

"Well apparently Draco is quite the charmer."

"That he is. The coven were also helping him get back on his feet too after his little brush with the dark magic. They had a lot in common and it’s easy to get into an intense relationship when you’re feeling like that."

Giles threw Buffy a quick look and she knew he was referring to her and Spike. A pang went through her and she realised how much she missed the vampire, the belief that he had in her had kept her going for so long, she hadn’t realised quite how much she had depended on him.

There was silence for a moment as Slayer and Watcher sat in quiet contemplation. Giles finished his cigarette and stubbed it out on the step.

"I should have kept a closer eye on her. I didn’t realise things were so serious between them."

"I don’t think anyone did."

"And now he’s dead."

Giles remembered the cocky blonde haired boy who had reminded him so much of Spike. Malfoy’s eyes were fixed straight on Willow when he had bought her to the house. Of course he had seen them walking together, spending time together. He had thought they were helping each other, encouraging each other. Part of him had thought it was a good thing – two people so lost in grief – Willow for Tara and Malfoy for Hermione. How short sighted he had been.

"At least he died well."

Despite the defeat of Voldemort, there were many who had paid the price. Hermione had been killed protecting Draco from his own father’s magic. Arthur Weasley, Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape. All lost. Draco’s grief over Hermione’s death had been violent and he had reacted the only way he knew how. His onslaught of dark magic that no one realised he had a command of weakened Voldemort sufficiently for Harry to cast the final curse that defeated him. It had taken three Aurors and Professor Dumbledore to subdue Malfoy long enough to get through to him.

After his time with the coven, like Willow, Draco had pulled himself together and moved on. He had joined the Ministry of Magic, trained as an Auror and went after what remained of Voldemort’s followers. He had made quite a reputation for himself, fearsome in battle and relentless and when he had had to face down his own father, he had not flinched but instead, gone after him. He had captured Lucius and prepared to take him to Azkaban to await trial when Lucius, snake that he was, had broken free. Draco had sent a fatal curse in his father’s direction which had killed Lucius but not before Lucius had sent one back in his son’s direction.

The news spread like wildfire and Draco Malfoy was mourned and missed by those who had come to trust and know him, to love him. Ginny had cried at his funeral and they had laid him to rest peacefully beside his Hermione. Harry and Ron, once his mortal enemies, missed their friend very much and it was at this time that Harry and Ginny had found comfort in each other.

"He died doing what he had to do" Giles stood up and pulled Buffy with him. "You’ll catch cold sitting there."

She grinned at him, but allowed him to pull her to her feet. "We’ll try and get Willow out of her room tomorrow. She just needs some time that’s all. As long as she’s not all black mojo then I’m not keen on disturbing her right now."

Their voices faded away as Buffy and Giles re-entered the house. They did not see Willow sitting at her open window, directly above them. She had heard every single word of their conversation.

She stared down at the piece of paper before her. The scroll that had arrived by owl had been accompanied by a short letter.

"My dear Miss Rosenberg,

I was once asked by a friend to do a favour for him. On his death I was to send you this sealed scroll. I do not know the words that it holds but I know that it contains much love. Remember the man you met with love and pride and affection and know that he felt just as deeply for you. Do not grieve too painfully. He was a man with little joy left in his life when you returned to America. Read the enclosed scroll and remember the man you knew as Draco Malfoy, your friend.

With kind regards and my deepest sorrow

Albus Dumbledore."

Her fingers brushed over the flat parchment, read and re-read many times over the last few days.


"A time ago I fell in love with a lady proud and fair
So passionate were she and I, we made fire in the air
I loved her more than life itself, she loved me just the same
And it broke my heart to think we'd part and thus ended the affair

And now I know this lady fair can never more be mine
Long gone are nights in my lonely bed all suffering and crying
I fear that through this barren life she'll only call me friend
Even when I'm dead and buried in my grave, my Love will never end"


She thought back to her time before in England. She and Draco had felt constrained by the house and they had walked for what seemed like miles. Eventually they had stopped by the river, dipping their tired feet in the icy water. He had finally spoken to her of Hermione and she had spoken of Tara. And then he quoted the song. It was as if he had understood exactly her love for Tara for his feelings for Hermione had equalled hers. And in their grief they found hope.

And then it had come. The nightmares, the feelings, the blackouts. The knowledge that she had a job to do, she did not have time to laze around in an English manor learning to control the forces at her command. She should be by her friends' side helping her fight the battle of her life. Willow had told Draco and it seemed as if she had devastated him again. He had held her close in the hallway, and with the scent of lilac in her nostrils, he had spoken in her ear and quoted the song to her, meaning it for her.

She looked down at the strong lettering and her tears welled up in her eyes again but this time she spoke firmly to herself, pushing the tears back. She wiped her face carelessly with the sleeve of her top. She couldn’t go on like this. This is what had got her into trouble last time. And he would not want this for her.

She opened the door and went down the stairs, taking each step on at a time. Her friends sat in the living room, talking quietly about nothing in particular. Buffy was in the middle of saying something when Willow came in, and she paused mid sentence at the sight of her best friend. Willow stood there bravely, fidgeting slightly but looked straight at Harry.

"I want to see him."

"I’ll take you" Harry answered.

Xander stood and moved over to her holding his arms out. Willow allowed him to hold her and was reminded of another time that Xander had held her when she had lost someone. But this time it was different. This time she would not make those mistakes. She was mad with anger, seething and was desperate to take it out on someone but instead she clutched the scroll in her hand and once again heard him speak those words to her.

"Even when I'm dead and buried in my grave, my Love will never end."