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Chapter 33 - Explanations And Conversations

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 10th August 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - The Hospital Wing
Time: Lunch Time

The Hospital Wing. Buffy, Harry, Ron and Hermione are in beds, all conscious while Professor Dumbledore and McGonagall are standing together deep in thought while Snape paces much to the annoyance of Madam Pomfrey who was fusing over the 'Injured Party's'.

"Really I'm fine honestly, I don't need to be kept in" Hermione protested.

"You were hit by a Killing Curse Miss Granger...you were just lucky it only skimmed you, if you had arrived any later or you had been hit full on I seriously doubt you would still be with us." Madam Pomfrey argued "Fortunately when a Killing Curse skims you it does not act upon you in the same way, it causes the skin to start to deteriorate and die but luckily you got here in time, it takes less than five minutes to kill this way and to my knowledge you are the first to have survived this sort of run in with the Killing Curse."

"I'm amazed the curse hit you at all Hermione, it was aimed at me and only missed because I dodged, you were over a hundred meters away" Harry commented, though the worry was evident in his voice.

"Think of it Hermione," said Ron grinning, trying to hide his urge to hug Hermione with humour "You can now be known as 'The Girl-Who-Lived.'"

Hermione scowled while Harry and Dumbledore hid there smiles.

"Wait...how, how did I actually get here?" Hermione asked returning to the previous comment "I remember running into that man in the corridor, then....then I must have passed out, who was that man anyway?"

"That would be me."

The voice filled the room but didn't seem to come from anywhere

All looked around for the source of the voice, it didn't sound like a Sonorus Charm as the voice didn't seem to have a source.

"Who are you?" Hermione asked to nowhere in particular.

A screech was heard outside; a bird flew in through one of the high windows and landed on the rail at the end of Hermione's bed.

On closer inspection Hermione recognized it as a Falco Peregrinus, the Peregrine Falcon, the name meant Wandering Falcon, it is a cosmopolitan species that lives world wide and it is also the fastest animal on the planet.

My god, I really am a bookworm.

"That's the bird that raked Lucius Malfoy's eye out." Harry commented.

"It did what?" Snape demanded, coming to a full stop and glaring at Harry.

"Raked his left eye out." Harry repeated trying not to growl out his response, god he hated that man.

Snape face changed to display what could safely be described as the most evil grin any of the assembled group had ever seen. He was definitely enjoying the thought of Malfoy in pain, which did not go unnoticed by the others occupants of the room.

As soon as he noticed their attention he rapidly shrunk back into his dark shell, which itself earned looks of amusement from Dumbledore, McGonagall and the falcon (if that's possible).

"Wait," Ron thought out loud. "Isn't Malfoy supposed to be in Azkaban Prison?"

There was a short silence in which the teachers exchanged awkward looks.

"Azkaban is empty," Dumbledore informed them, sighing heavily. "The Minister finally decided to replace the Dementors, but by the time the Aurors got there to replace them, Azkaban was devoid of any form of life, no Dementors, no prisoners, nothing, all they found was a couple of young Lethifold's."

There was a long silence in which everyone considered what Voldemort could do with all those Dementors, or rather those who knew what they were did, Buffy just sat thinking about what type of demons these Dementors could be.

Eventually the silence was broken by the bird giving a short call before hopping onto the ground.

It grew, changed shape and altered its posture. It grew until it was at least six feet tall, quickly assuming the shape of The Guardian.

"You?" Hermione said, surprised.

He looked down at himself and then replied dryly "Last time I checked." earning smiles from Buffy and Dumbledore.

"Who are you?"

"He's the one who saved your life, Miss Granger," Madam Pomfrey explained, though she too was quite shocked by what she had just seen. "He came flying in through the window. You were launched out of the birds chest and landed softly on a bed while the bird flew out of the room again."

"I had to check the grounds were clear," Adam explained, coming to sit in the chair between Buffy's and Hermione's beds. "When I found you in the corridor I transformed myself along with you into the bird, flew onto the grounds, helped Harry, flew here and left you in Madam Pomfrey's capable hands before going back outside to conduct an aerial sweep of the grounds and forest. I would have got you back here immediately, but Harry needed my help and I knew my magic would keep you alive, even in my depleted state."

"Thank you," Hermione sighed, obviously coming under the effect of The Guardians 'magical' aura (or maybe just his good looks) though she did seem to be studying his features, for other reasons than stated above.

"I'm Hermione Granger." she said, extending her hand.

"You're welcome," he said, kissing her hand. "Miss Granger, I am Adam."

"Adam?" she replied dreamily. When she noticed everyone's attention on her, her face turned the colour of Ron's hair...and his face come to mention it, obviously not pleased that Hermione was looking at someone else like that.

"Just Adam."

Hermione's reaction got smiles from Dumbledore and McGonagall and.

"Albus," Adam said, getting up "I think it is time for lunch."
________________________________________________________________________

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 10th August 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Dumbledore's Office
Time: Afternoon

The Headmasters Office; the Gryffindor Trio, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Madam Pomfrey and Buffy are sitting around the Headmasters desk. Adam is standing beside it and Snape is leaning against the opposing wall in the shadows.

Those who had keen eyesight or were good at observation would have seen Adam rotating a small silver disk between the fingers of his right hand. The disk was about two and a half centimetres wide, with a hole in the centre just over half a centimetre in diameter. The rest of the disk seemed to be covered by lines which all seeming to be concentric. Both sides had these, though each side was unique. The only people who noticed in this case were Harry, Dumbledore, Snape and Hermione.

"Questions?" Adam asked.

"Who are you?" Harry asked earning a smile from Adam at his to the point approach.

"I am The Guardian of Light."

"I've heard about him," Hermione jumped in. "....I mean you." Adam and Albus exchanged smiles, as did Harry and Ron.

"Go on then, Miss Granger. Please enlighten us." Adam said, smiling.

"Please, call me Hermione," she said with a blush. "You've been around a long time about....about...." Hermione screwed up her brow, searching her mind for the answer.

"Fifteen billion years," Adam supplied, earning looks from everyone except Buffy, Dumbledore and Hermione.

"Yes." She nodded.

"I think it is fair to say that I look pretty good for my age." he added dryly.

Buffy burst out laughing and was sent a look of venom from Snape. Everyone else was trying with various levels of success to stifle their laughter behind their hands, either from the joke, Buffy's reaction or Snape's reaction to Buffy.

"Miss Gra...I beg your pardon, Hermione, please continue."

"Of course." she stifled what remained of her laughter. "Well you were created to be the ultimate warrior."

"Not a very nice way to say it Hermione," said Ron "It makes him sound like a murderous matchean."

Harry rolled his eyes, one day Ron would develop some tact.

"It's machine Ron," she corrected before turning to Adam "Sorry....the most powerful fighter?" she tried, waiting for Adam's acceptance of the definition before continuing "For the side of light, you are supposed to fight this apocalyptic battle with....with....with...." she struggled

"Go on....you're almost there," Adam encouraged, a slight smile edging its way along his lips.

"....THE FIRST," she finished a bit too loudly, feeling quite proud of herself.

"Very good. I'll have to get Albus to lend you the book at some point. I'd lend you mine if I still had it."

Upon mention of the book and her realisation that Willow still had it, Buffy suddenly realised that she didn't have a clue what happened to her friends after they fell through the portal.

"Oh my God. Willow, Dawn are they ok, what happened after we left?" she blurted out, standing and beginning to look frantic. Harry moved quickly in front of her, gripped her shoulders.

"Buffy....BUFFY!" he shouted, trying to get her attention over the babbling. "Your friends will be fine."

"He's right, Buffy," Adam added. "I would know if they were seriously hurt."

"Are you sure?" Buffy said calming down a bit and allowing Harry to push her back into her seat.

"Trust me." Harry smiled.

She looked deep in to Harry's eyes and saw how certain he was, they were the sort of eyes that made you trust the owner implicitly, they were like Adam's, you knew they could place your life in their hands and you knew they would always do the right thing.

No one noticed Adam smile at Harry's actions.

"Ok, I'm sorry," Buffy apologised.

"Completely understandable, Miss Summers," forgave Dumbledore.

"Anyway, next question." Adam asked.

"Who are you?" Harry asked Buffy, still standing in front of her "And how did you manage to defeat those Death Eaters without using magic?"

Adam turned to Buffy.

"Do you want to do the speech, or shall I?"

"No let me," she said smiling. "I can do a pretty good Giles," she cleared her throat "Into every generation, a Slayer is born. One girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will have the strength to fight the demons, the vampires and the forces of darkness, to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers."

"And you're this Slayer?" Ron asked.

"Yes" Buffy answered.

"So you fight the forces of evil?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, demons and vampires mostly, though I have fought a Hell God."

"A Hell God?" Hermione asked.

"Yep, name of Glory." she added.

"Glorificus," Adam corrected. "We can give you a demonstration later. Next question?"

"Bloody Hell."

"Ron, don't swear." Hermione scolded.

"How did you get here?" Ron asked ignoring Hermione's complaint.

"We came through a portal." stated Buffy like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Adam smiled slightly while Dumbledore chuckled quietly.

"I think he meant how you came to be falling through a portal into the Great Hall." Hermione clarified.

"She had just fought previously mentioned Hell God with a little help from her robot counterpart, a Dagon sphere and a troll hammer and had run up to the top of a tower to save her sister, who is actually a sphere of green energy called The Key."

"ADAM!" Buffy shouted.

"We can trust them, Buffy," Adam reassured her. "I can give you a full explanation later, but the abbreviated version is as follows: she was slightly late and her sister's blood spilled and opened said portal, which would destroy existence as we know it. The only way to close it was for the blood to stop flowing."

He paused briefly for dramatic effect.

"But as the monks who turned The Key into Buffy's sister had made her entirely out of Buffy, she is an exact biological copy of Buffy except for her looks because the Key's energy changed them," he digressed. "But we can look into that later. As Buffy is the exact genetic copy to her sister, her blood could also stop the portal."

Everyone sat transfixed, what amazed them was even though it sounded like a lecture he said it in such a way that it was interesting, even to Buffy who already knew all this.

"So Buffy jumped in and closed the portal. I was there because I was battling with my brother, son, twin, call him what you will, that is also a conversation for another time. Simply I had been battling my brother after defeating about one hundred of his demon henchmen, which needless to say took a lot out of me. We had battled and I had finally defeated him when he reminded me that as I had to come forward in time to catch up with him I had missed Dawn being taken prisoner and a lot of other fairly important events that happened in my absence, so I mentally searched for you," he said looking at Buffy. "Saw you on the tower and very rapidly flew from the Indian Ocean to Sunnydale, though I did tear up the Time Space Continuum in the process, which might hold the explanation to a mystery which I will explain in a minute."

He paused for a brief second before continuing.

"So I got to Sunnydale about a thousandth of a second too late and got caught in the portal too and then we woke up in the Hospital Wing," he finished. Everyone in the entire room was looking at him like he had grown another head.

"Is something wrong?" he said, confused by their looks.

"How long can you hold your breath?" Hermione asked, astonished.

"A bit longer than you." he replied with comprehension.

"Anyway back to the matter at hand. Why did this Glorificus want to open this portal in the first place?" Dumbledore asked turning to Adam.

"It was supposed to open to her dimension, though for some reason it deposited us here, but that is mystery I think I have solved." Adam answered.

"What was the other mystery you mentioned earlier?" Harry asked.

"I think it will be better if I explain that mystery first. The mystery is why the Death Eaters attacked now, so soon after we arrived, hardly a coincidence." Adam let the sentence hang before Harry continued following his line of thought.

"It wasn't...a coincidence, that is...but they were not after me this time. They wanted Buffy." everyone from Hogwarts looked at the Slayer.

"I don't know why these guys want me," she said, holding up her hands in ignorance.

"I think I do....just before we left, you defeated Glory," Adam said to Buffy.

"Yeah, thanks to the troll hammer."

"Well she was working with my brother," he added for the benefit of those who did not know. "I believe the answer to this mystery to be also the answer to the other, though I don't like what it could mean."

He paused to think for a minute. Everyone else thought their brains were going to explode. There were far too many mysteries being discussed at the same time. It was a nightmare to keep track of them.

"When I was trying to get to you, I was travelling extremely fast, faster than anyone ever should," he paused again for dramatic effect.

"Whilst I was doing so, I had to pass through a dimension portal to reach you. As I passed through the portal at such a high speed, it created a lot of subspace damage and I believe I tore through the barrier between dimensions, leaving what can best be described as an open wound. I believe 'The Gods'," he said mockingly. A growl of thunder was heard from outside which was very strange due to the fact it had been glorious sunshine not a moment ago.

"Give it a rest," Adam said at the ceiling. "Interfere with someone else's existence for once."

Another roll of thunder was heard followed by a flash of lightning striking one of the class windows causing it to shatter, sending glass falling in that luckily empty corner of the room.

"As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Adam continued, clenching his teeth and waving his hand in the direction of the window causing it to repair itself. He paused in case he was about to get interrupted again. "They," he said, nodding at the ceiling. "Redirected the portal through the tear towards Hogwarts, once they knew we were going to come through it. The portal's energy along with some of mine could seal the tear between dimensions," he said with an annoyed tone. "Now coming back to the other mystery, I believe in doing that, our two dimensions merged into one."

"What, you mean yours and ours?" Ron inquired.

Adam turned to Hermione, knowing that she would understand him and not to disappoint him, she hit the bull's-eye.

"You mean that our dimension now has demons?"

"And mine has wizards and witches with wands?" Buffy added.

"With wands?" Hermione questioned. "You mean yours don't?" she added excitedly.

"That's a yes to all the first two and a no to the last." Adam answered.

"Oh dear." said Ron flatly.

"Exactly, and I believe when that happened, my brother James came here and contacted Voldemort."

There were collective shudders from all but Adam, Dumbledore, Harry, Hermione and Buffy, as she didn't know why they were shuddering in the first place.

"And made an alliance." Hermione finished.

Adam nodded.

"Tom's not stupid," Dumbledore confirmed. "If your brother has the same powers you do then Tom would have been able to see that he is a lot more powerful than he ever was. He'd know it would be better for him to join James, better to work with him rather than for him or against him."

"Exactly," Adam agreed. "And he probably wanted to act as soon as possible before either you or I were ready to defend her."

"Why is she so important?" Snape asked, speaking for the first time.

"Hello, you guys do know I'm right here," Buffy complained. "I can hear everything you're saying. Please stop talking about me like I'm not."

"My apologies," said Adam before turning to Snape. "Answering your question, I believe it is because of my great battle with The First. During that battle, I am going to need help in eliminating the rest of The First's army. Buffy was going to be one of my Generals and The First knows that it is a lot easier for him to eliminate her when she is on her own and weak, rather than when armed to the teeth and surrounded by an army of others."

"Well, if there are no further questions, I believe it's time for dinner," Dumbledore concluded.

Some of the group got up to leave.

"Wait. There is something else," said Buffy. "What are we going to do? Because if we are going to head back to Sunnydale we should really get moving."

"We won't be going back, Buffy." said Adam slowly.

"What?" she demanded.

"If we were meant to go back we wouldn't have been sent here; in addition they are probably planning the funerals for us both by now, even though there are no bodies to bury."

Buffy experienced a flash of pain at the thought of her sister being all alone without her there to care for her.

"We have to stay here for some reason. It's almost ironic really, as the place I was going after Sunnydale was going to be Hogwarts."

"Why?" Snape demanded

"To ask for your help in the Great Battle, but let's not talk about that now. What we need to discuss is what we are going to do once the pupils return."

"I think I have an idea about that," Dumbledore said with one of his knowing smiles. "Buffy have you ever had any experience teaching?"

Buffy sat there stunned before bursting out laughing.

"Me....teach....that's....that's a good one." she managed before collapsing in to laughter.

After a minute to lying on the floor laughing she saw the expression on Dumbledore's face.

"You're serious?" she asked, slightly worried as Dumbledore's nodded.

"I can't teach. I can't do magic for a start."

"I was thinking more along the lines of a self defence club....maybe called...."

"Muggle Defence." Adam suggested.

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed. "And as it would be a club, you would only have to teach a small number of students, say fourth years and above, maybe every Saturday afternoon between two and four. You and Adam could run it jointly."

"You could teach hand to hand combat and I could teach the use of weapons as well as assisting in demonstrations." Adam offered.

"Well....I....um....ok." Buffy finally managed to stutter, not really knowing what she was letting herself in for.

"Excellent, I will have rooms arranged for you immediately." Dumbledore smiled. "Then I suggest we go down to dinner."

"Not yet Headmaster," sneered Snape "Potter has yet to explain where he has been all summer."

"I am not going to tell you anything Snivellus." replied Harry in the same tone.

Snape growled drawing his wand, but Harry was already on his broom and out of one of the open windows.

"Severus," sighed Dumbledore "I wish you would control yourself, every time you draw on him he fly's off, if you want to stop him leaving you have to find a way to keep him here and you must be diplomatic."