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Disclaimers, etc, see part one.
Chapter Eight
The Graveyard: Part One.


It was a beautiful evening. One made for romance and intimate walks, proposals and declarations. The atmosphere was reminiscent of a forties musical or an evening stroll with an invisible orchestra as back up to a secret lovers' tryst.

Moonlight flickered off a pool of water and the stone statues had taken on a silver gleam. A beautiful aroma wafted from the roses and the night blooming jasmine someone had planted in remembrance of someone else, filling the air with a heady sent. In the nearby thicket of birches, a pair of nightingales serenaded. The weather was perfect. It was neither too cold nor to warm; comfortable for an evening stroll.

In Harry's opinion that was just plain nasty. They were in one of the most dark-magic steeped areas in England-the place of the horrifying rebirth of Voldemort-and the cemetery of Little Hangleton was audacious enough to be acting as though it were nothing more sinister than a theme park devoted to romance. Harry pointed in the direction of Tom Riddle senior's grave as they passed under the archway.

Buffy strode ahead through the cemetery, swinging her sledgehammer like it was an umbrella in Singing in the Rain. Harry really hoped that no one started singing. Ron, walking on Hermione's other side from Harry, leant across to catch Harry's eye.

"This is really creepy, mate," he said, he didn't sound sarcastic, but he was grinning.

Harry rolled his eyes. "It was worse last time," he said, darkly.

Hermione glanced sideways, checking Harry's reaction to everything and decided that it was best to change the subject.

"Did you see what Severus was wearing?" she asked, with just the hint of wistfulness in her voice.

Harry heard Ron choke and had to suppress a grin. He wasn't sure Hermione even knew, but any mention of Snape got a nasty reaction from Ron, now. He'd left dinner without having a second helping just last week after Seamus asked to borrow his Potions notes.

They wound their way through the grave plots towards the central part set aside for the Riddles. It had not changed in the three years since Harry had last been there: two headstones had been broken by the random curses they had sent after him and the ground was scorched from the dome that had formed over the Priori Incantatem. Harry lost the desire to grin.

Before the central plot there was a pine tree with a seat at the bottom. Harry dropped onto the bench to survey the scene. Ron sat beside him, but Hermione walked forward to read the headstones. She had a notebook with her, and began writing furiously.

"Do you reckon she wants to write a book, too?" Ron asked.

Harry shrugged. Ron didn't sound pleased at the prospect, and Harry had to agree with the sentiment. He wondered, if Hermione were to write a book, just how much of him would be in it. He shuddered, remembering the conversations about Cho. But then he was distracted by Buffy, who had found Tom Riddle's headstone and perched on it, leather clad legs swinging.

"Who's digging?" she asked.

Giles and Snape were carrying the shovels and they had brief wordless argument over who was going to dig where. Giles took the feet. Severus took off his cloak and draped it over the headstone before starting at the head of the grave, beside Buffy. Under his cloak his was wearing a loose cotton shirt and a pair of black trousers. Harry stared for a moment before giving up thinking about Snape, and looked at Ron. Ron was staring at Hermione, looking kind of lost and desperate at Hermione's appraisal of Snape in relatively revealing clothes.

Remus approached the bench quietly, listening and watching for anything strange. He took the place on the other side Ron, and followed Ron's gaze to Hermione.

"You have to make a move," Remus said. He sounded detached, but firm, and he didn't stop watching their surroundings.

"What?" Ron asked. Harry thought he was trying to sound confused, but he couldn't pull it off.

Remus nodded gestured to Hermione. "She'll only try for so long to make you jealous. You need to make your move."

Ron didn't try to deny it. The look he turned on Remus was eager.

"Make me jealous? You're sure?"

Remus grinned, without pausing his scan of their surrounds. "She using Snape," he said. "Given his politics, there's no way she's serious, regardless of his physical attractiveness. Which is none, by the way," he added, with the faintest amused grin.

Ron nodded. He might even come to believe it, Harry thought. They were thankfully distracted from Ron's emotional dimwittedness by a shout from Snape. Snape had stopped digging and crossed his arms.

"Have you reached it, yet?" Hermione asked. Harry briefly wondered if her overwhelming desire to learn new things was a pathological condition; it could not be healthy to be that excited about grave-robbing.

Giles said, "No," quite darkly, still shovelling dirt from the grave. He was glaring at Buffy, who smirked.

In a flash Harry thought he knew exactly what had caused Snape to jump. Ron thought that Buffy some kind of hero for merely kicking Snape. Harry didn't have the heart to tell Ron that Buffy hadn't used her feet; he glared at her, instead. Buffy, however, was watching Snape. Snape turned to her, putting on the haughty Potions Master look that had so scared Neville.

"Kindly keep your appendages to yourself," he said.

Buffy grinned. "If you really want me to," she said, with faux sweetness.

"Buffy, please let Severus dig," Giles said. "We're almost there."

Snape turned his back on Buffy and resumed digging. Hermione crept closer to Giles. Ron shifted uncomfortably. Harry agreed that digging up a coffin was not something to be eager for, even though it was their stated purpose. Harry was beginning to remember the last time he had seen any of Tom Riddle senior's bones.

Before Harry's thoughts could be come too maudlin, there came the hollow sound of metal hitting wood, and a clap of delight from Buffy. Hermione took another step closer, standing right on the end of the re-dug grave. Harry and Ron also crept closer, although Remus stayed on the bench, carefully scanning the rest of the scenery.

Snape leant the shovel against the gravestone and took a step back from the grave. He carefully brushed the dirt from his trousers and straightened his cuff. He held his hand out and Buffy passed him in cloak. With perfunctory melodrama, he swirled it around his shoulders.

"Weasley, you can lift the casket," Snape announced.

Giles scowled at Snape, as he climbed into the grave himself. Then he looked up at Buffy, still sitting on the gravestone with her legs crossed and relaxed smile.

"Why aren't you doing this, Buffy?" he asked.

Buffy shrugged. "I do the dying to save to world, and you dig up the bodies. Vampires tend to climb out on their own. Besides, I've just had a manicure."

Giles sighed and rolled his eyes and bent to pick up one end of the coffin. Ron climbed into the grave at the other end and between the two of them they lifted Tom Riddle senior's rotting coffin on the grass. The lid was broken where the bone had come through for the original spell, and Harry shivered seeing the splinters of wood.

'Please let this be over soon,' he thought.

They fell naturally into a loose circle around the coffin. Ron stood beside Harry, casting furtive glances at him that Harry tried his best to ignore. Hermione was taking notes and peering closely at the coffin. She glanced up at Harry questioningly, but saw the blanched look on his face and didn't say anything. It looked innocuous; just an old wooden box with a hole in the lid.

Giles kicked the end of the coffin. The sound made Harry leap in the skin. Ron drew his wand.

"Don't be an idiot, Weasley," Snape snapped.

Ron flushed and looked at his feet. So he missed the angry scowl Hermione shot at Snape, and the encouraging one she turned on Ron. Harry was relieved by the both the evidence that Hermione really did care more for Ron than Snape, and the familiarity of Snape's biting tone.

"Any magic we use on the bones will strengthen the Dark Lord."

"Then how are we going to break them up?" Ron asked, examining the coffin sceptically.

Buffy swung herself gracefully off her perch and picked up the sledgehammer leaning against it in one movement. She hefted the hammer easily, twirling it between her hands like a baton. She caught Harry's surprised look and grinned.

"I trained as a cheerleader," she said.

Her grin dropped as she glanced back at the coffin, and Harry was forced once more to think about why they were there. Remus was the only one not paying attention as Buffy swung the sledgehammer and brought it down in the middle of the lid. There was an explosion of dirt and bugs and dust. Ron immediately took three steps backwards. Hermione coughed, but peered closer.

"Careful," Buffy said, raising the sledgehammer to her shoulder again.

Buffy glanced sideways at Giles. "Would you like to do this bit, too?" she asked, with a smirk.

Giles shot her a withering glance before he waved his hand easily. "No, please, you go ahead," he said.

Buffy grinned and brought the sledgehammer down again. There was a sickening crunch as it hit what was left of the ribcage. Harry couldn't look away as Buffy rained blows on the ancient skeleton. Ron was still paces behind him. Snape had his arms crossed, and was watching Buffy's movements with an intensity that would make even the new Neville Longbottom quail.

Harry lost track of time and count of the number of strikes. He was caught up simply watching the arc, the rise and fall, of the hammer. Until Buffy's rhythm began to slow and she began to pick particular places to land a blow. Eventually they were left standing around a pile of dust and splinters of wood.

"It's really over," Harry said.

"This bit," Giles said. "We still need to find, ah, Peter, isn't it? and then Voldemort himself. We need to make sure we can find him before he realises that he is weaker than before."

"Yeah, okay," Ron said. "Spoil the moment."

Ron sounded distracted, though. He was watching Buffy, who wiped the sheen of sweet of her forehead. Buffy stepped back and reached for her bag. She pulled something out and crouched down by the powdered bones. It turned out she was holding a small jar, and she scooped up a couple of handfuls of dust and poured then into the jar. She screwed the lid on tightly.

She presented it to Snape with a mocking curtsey. He raised an eyebrow.

"You've already got so many ookey things in jars. I though this would be a nice addition."

"Thank you," Snape said, accepting the jar reluctantly.

But he looked as though he were almost smiling. He handled the jar gingerly, but he pocked it immediately in an inside pocket.

"So, we're done?" Buffy asked, looking at Giles.

Giles smiled. "I think we're done," he said.

"It was very interesting," Hermione butted in. "To think of the law of magical similarities being put into practice like this is fascinating. There is an article on something similar in one of the folios in the school library. I think I could develop a thesis from this." She stopped abruptly and changed topics. "And Buffy, your skill in that, I remember that you'd done it once before."

Buffy shrugged, a little uncomfortable. "Have sledgehammer, will travel."

There was a moment of silence as the uncomfortableness of the cemetery reasserted itself after their rush of activity. The night was no less pleasant than it had been, but the open grave and the pile of dust were somewhat eerie. Harry was pleased that it had begun to feel like he remembered, and did not want to stay any longer than they had to.

Snape waved his wand and the piles of grave dirt slid back in to the hole until the gave itself looked untouched. Ron kicked the ground moodily, but said nothing. Snape looked smug enough already.

Hermione folded her notes reluctantly. Harry turned at last for the gate, in time to see Remus spring to his feet and march off in the wrong direction.

"Hey," Harry tried to call out, but Remus did not turn around, or even raise his hand to show that he had heard. He had his wand out and was tracking something through the grass.

'Bugger,' Harry thought. He punched Ron and pointed after Remus.

Ron swore as well and pulled out his wand. Harry took a deep breath, and together they run after Remus. Harry wondered if the cemetery was a natural place for bad things to happen, or whether it was just him.