Title: Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live
Author: Angelina
Email: angelina2006@hotmail.com

Part 1


“Hey Will!”

Willow looked up from the book she’d been reading and smiled at Xander as he approached while at the same time surreptitiously closing the book and slipping it into her bag. “Hi Xander, whatcha up to?”

“Oh you know, the usual. This morning I performed life-saving surgery on a new-born child and right now I’m taking a break from splitting an atom or two to have lunch with my good buddy Willow” He grinned widely and dropped down onto the ground beside her. “You not eating this fine lunchtime?” he asked.

“Nah, I’m not very hungry right now.....at the moment I mean....not now in general.”

“You sick?” Concern filled Xander’s normally mischievous brown eyes.

“No, I’m fine...it’s just...nothing, I’m 100%, A-OK.” She saw his doubting expression. “Honest”

“OK” Xander conceded for now but resolved to keep an eye on his close friend. He decided to change the subject. “So, what were you reading?”

“Nothing” The reply came too quickly and too forcefully. Willow nervously put a strand of red hair behind her ear.

“Nothing?” Normally Xander wouldn’t have pursued this avenue of conversation but Willow’s reaction had puzzled him. “Come on Will, I know I’m no Andrew Einstein..”

“Albert” Willow corrected him, absentmindedly.

“Whatever, I’m no scholar but I do have a vague idea what a book looks like and you were reading one when I came over”

“Oh, you know, it was just one of Giles’ demon books, what else? So have you got anywhere with Cordelia yet?” Willow asked, hoping to distract Xander from the subject at hand,. Either that or depress him enough that he would forget about it.

“No, she still won’t take my calls. Her answering machine message told me to....Hey! No fair changing the subject!” Xander was a little miffed at how easy he was to get around. “Now don’t lie to me. That wasn’t a book from the library, it was one of those modern ones with the shiny jackets that Giles hates. Now why won’t you tell me what it was?” Willow wasn’t the type to be secretive about things and she certainly wasn’t a liar. Just as he was about to quiz her further, the bell rang.

“Oh, gotta go Xand, I have a class. Later” Willow sprang up and practically sprinted into the sanctuary of the school building. Xander was left alone and worried. He decided that the best thing to do would be to talk to Buffy. He got up and set off to find her.

It was the end of the school day before Xander managed to track Buffy down. He located her putting books into her locker.

“Hi Buff.”

“Hey Xander, what’s up? Any luck with Cordelia?” Buffy offered him a supportive smile. She knew that he hadn’t meant to hurt Cordelia by carrying on a clandestine affair with Willow. Something had been building between those two their whole lives and it was bound to explode sometime...the fact that it came to a head while they were both in relationships with other people was unfortunate timing to say the least.

“No, look we can talk about that later. We have something serious to discuss” He raised his eyebrows to intensify the drama of his statement. Buffy was amused and intrigued by Xander’s behaviour. She doubted whether he could spell ‘serious’ never mind act that way. She decided to humour him.

“And what would that be?” she asked, suppressing a smirk.

“Willow.” That one word was enough to wipe away Buffy’s smile.

“Xander....” she began slowly, “I thought you and Willow were finished. I though your fling was flung. She’s back with Oz and you want back with Cordelia, isn’t that the situation or am I missing something?”

Xander sighed in frustration and then fixed Buffy with an annoyed look. “Why is it when I mention Willow’s name do you automatically, no questions asked, assume that it’s about sex?”

Buffy was a little taken aback by Xander’s reaction, she continued tentatively. “Well Xand, you don’t really talk..or think, about much besides that. And given recent events between the two of you I just thought....”

“OK, OK so you’re probably justified in jumping to the wrong conclusion.” Xander allowed. He paused for a second, the word ‘sex’ had caused some very pleasant images to appear in his head. He shook it, reluctantly, to clear them away. He carried on “But it’s not about that this time.”

“So what is it about?” Buffy was getting confused.

“I’m worried about Willow” Xander said simply.

“Why?” asked Buffy, concerned. Xander wasn’t one to worry needlessly.

“Haven’t you noticed anything weird about her lately?” Xander prodded.

Buffy considered Willow’s behaviour over the last few days. “Ummm, she’s been kinda tired”

“Yeah, and she hasn’t been eating properly...and she’s hiding something?”

Buffy was becoming worried now, up until the whole Xander thing Willow had never kept anything secret. And keeping the Xander thing under wraps had completely stressed her out.

“Hiding what?”

“I saw her reading a book earlier and when I asked what it was she blatantly lied about it.”

Buffy closed her locker and headed towards Willow’s without another word to Xander.

The walked silently through the halls until they spotted a familiar head of red hair bent over a water fountain. As they drew closer they saw that she was splashing the cold water on her face.

“Willow, are you OK?” Buffy called while hurrying to her friend’s side.

Willow stood up, wiping her face with a tissue. She smiled.

“Hey guys, I’m fine, why do you as...” Her sentence was cut short as a dizzy spell overcame her and the last thing she remembered before the blackness enveloped her was two sets of arms around her, cushioning her fall.

When Willow awoke she was lying on a bed in the nurse’s room. Xander was sitting in a chair close by and Buffy was perched on the edge of the bed. Both visibly relaxed when they saw Willow’s eyes were open.

“Hey sleepyhead, howya doin’?” Xander asked softly, smiling down at her. Buffy’s face was still etched with worry.

“I’m fine.” Buffy and Xander exchanged a look. “Honestly guys, I was just a bit too warm earlier”

Willow sat up slowly to avoid giving herself another head-rush and scaring the pants off her friends for a second time that day. The nurse came over to talk to her and Buffy and Xander stood aside, muttering softly to each other. When Willow was ready to leave they each took one of her arms, to give her support of course but mostly so that she didn’t run off before they could talk to her.

“Guys I’m totally fine, really, I’m Health-Gal!”

Willow tried in vain to convince them of her all round well-being but they were having none of it. They marched her to the library and sat her down at the table.

“OK, now spill.” Xander’s eyes made it clear that this was not a request.

Giles peered around the stacks.

“Oh hello, I thought I heard voices”

He came down to join them.

“Too much to hope for that any other student of Sunnydale High would actually want to borrow a book I suppose”

He took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes and replaced them. He looked at the three young people he had come to know so well. There was something wrong, Willow looked as if she were being questioned in the Spanish Inquisition....or the Salem Witch Trials Giles thought with a smile.

“What’s the matter?” he asked lightly, hoping that it wasn’t another demon or monster problem. He was busy cataloguing his collection of medieval texts on vampiric activity in Eastern Europe and could really have done without the distraction.

“The matter is, Giles” said Xander without taking his gaze from Willow’s face “that Ms. Rosenberg here is hiding something from us.”

Willow was concentrating intently on removing a speck of dirt from underneath one of her fingernails. Buffy, who had said nothing since they’d left the nurse’s room, gently cupped Willow’s chin with her hand and made her look up.

“Talk to us Will, if something’s bothering you then tell us and maybe we can help.” Willow’s eyes were filling with tears with every word. “But we can’t do anything until you tell us what’s wrong.”

Willow sniffed and attempted a watery smile. “I know I can talk to you about anything and I swear I was going to tell you....I just wanted to do a little investigative work on my own first....to make sure.”

“Make sure of what?” Giles was also worried now.

Willow sniffed again and inhaled deeply to steady her breathing. “To make sure that I didn’t have a regular illness” she said finally. These words elicited a collective gasp from the other three who then tried to cover up their reactions by all talking at once.

“Illness, so you are sick?” asked Buffy.

“I knew it” said Xander, taking no pleasure in being right.

“What do you mean, ‘not a regular illness’” put in Giles.

Willow stood and turned her back on the others. She began to speak, “Remember a little while ago when we were fighting that demon?”

“Uh, you’re gonna have to be a teeny bit more specific there Will,” said Xander, earning a ‘shut-up’ look from Buffy.

“Ariadnon, remember? He had a particular distaste for anyone with uhhh, Wiccan tendencies”

“Oh yeah, the one who called you a vile little tr..”

“We all know what he said Xander, we were there too” Buffy had been incensed by the things he had said to Willow and had no desire to hear them repeated any time soon. That particular demon had met with an especially sticky end. Total coincidence of course.

Willow continued with her story. “Well, it seems he comes from a family of witch haters. He has a brother, Proctorion, who is even more powerful than he was.” Willow appeared to be tiring and she was now leaning on the back of a chair for support. “This brother was banished from the mortal realm by a witch, but unfortunately her spell was never completed, she was killed while still reciting it. So this Proctorion, although he can’t appear in the world, can get to witches when they are practising their craft. There usually has to be some kind of link for him to do it...” Buffy, Xander and Giles were absorbing this news with a growing sense of dread. “Last week I was floating my pencil when there was a sort of explosion and black smoke came out of nowhere. I was sure I heard someone laughing too” She sat down heavily in the chair, unable to stand any longer. “That’s when I started to feel sick.”

“So I’m guessing that you’ve been reading up on this guy?” asked Buffy, not really wanting to hear the answer.

Willow nodded wearily. “At first I didn’t make the connection. I went to the doctor but he didn’t find anything physically wrong. I bought a book on health - you saw me reading it earlier Xander - but there was nothing in there either. It was by total chance that I stumbled across this guy on the web”

“So what does this demon fellow actually do?” asked Giles.

Willow swallowed and looked Giles straight in the eye. “His speciality is long, slow, painful deaths with no apparent cause..for witches” Willow couldn’t hold back any longer. A sob escaped from her throat, followed by another. Buffy immediately went to her and pulled her into her arms, at which point Willow broke down completely, sobbing pitifully into Buffy’s shoulder. Buffy was crying too, while Xander and Giles were in shock. After a few minutes, Giles broke the silence.

“Did you find anything about how this blasted demon can be stopped?” he asked.

Willow shook her head. “I didn’t read anything after what I just told you....I was....I couldn’t...”

“It’s OK Will, we understand” Buffy squeezed Willow’s shoulder a little tighter.

“Well there’s still hope then.” Said Giles, brightening a bit. “We’ve beaten demons before on numerous occasions. There must be some way to reverse this curse” Willow smiled a little though her tears

“Buffy, why don’t you take Willow home, you should both try and get some rest - I’ll tell Faith to patrol tonight” Giles was getting into organiser mode, it calmed him down. “Xander and I will stay here until we find something to help you.” Xander nodded in agreement.

Willow was so overcome with gratitude to her friends that her tears spilled over again. Buffy told Giles to call her house as soon as they found anything and then led a still sniffling Willow out of the library. Xander and Giles did not speak. They merely got to work on what was probably the most personally important information search they had ever undertaken. They both knew the price of failure and neither was prepared to pay it.




Next Chapter