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Chapter 4.

Giles looked at the book with a small frown. Of course on the rare occasion when a student would actually check out a book he or she couldn't be the nice book respecting type. They had to be that very special type of person that would find joy in destroying the book by spilling coffee across the cover, or writing in the margins or other heinous crimes such as these.

He went back to the central tables to collect more books then turned to head back up the steps. "Agh!" he yelled dropping his pile to the floor. Despite herself Buffy smiled. Giles was so easy sometimes.

"Buffy," he spluttered. "I-I didn't see you come in."

"I guessed that," Buffy smirked.

"Was there something? How did your patrol go last night?" Giles ducked to gather the books, placing them back on the table.

The smile completely vanished from Buffy's face. "Only one vampire."

"Ah, good." He paused searching her face. "What else?"

Buffy lowered her eyes. "The vampire, she was feeding on someone. I knew him."

"Oh. I am so sorry Buffy," he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah... No! He's not dead. He's Ron. And Harry too.

Giles brow furrowed. "Ron and Harry?"

"Yeah, you know. My friends from..." she glanced around the library as if to ensure they were alone, "Hogwarts," she said in a whisper.

"Oh." He got it now. "Oh my."

"Are Willow and Xander...?"

"They're not here, no." He ran a hand through his hair. "Are you quite sure? Did they recognise you?"

Buffy nodded. "My biggest clue was when they called me Hermione and told me they were here to take me home. Giles what am I gonna do?" She threw up her arms and fell into a seat.

"Well I believe that the first thing would be to determine if they are alone or if they are accompanied by others. Do you think you could convince them to leave you here?"

"Even if it's just Harry and Ron, I don't see them leaving without me. They can both be very stubborn. And if everyone else is here as well, there's no way that they'll take no as an answer. They'll insist I go back."

"Do you want t go back?" Giles asked her.

Buffy pulled a face. "Does it matter what I want? Given a choice I would never have left, but it wasn't up to me. Besides, I'm needed here. Hellmouth remember?"

"Yes, yes, of course, but if you could choose to go back..."

"I'd go in a second."

"I see."

Buffy seemed frustrated now. "It's not that I don't love you guys, but there I could really study magic. They used to say I was the brightest witch in my year. I excelled Giles. I was good at magic. Then I came here and everything is different. I'm bottom in my classes, the ones I actually go to anyway, most of my teachers think I don't exist 'cos I'm never there. I miss just being able to go to class, do the homework thing, without everything else getting in the way."

"So this is about grades?"

"No! A little maybe, but not just that." Buffy crossed her arms on the table in front of her. "Things used to be simple. I was a witch when I was at school or with my friends, then when I was at home I was normal. Ok, so I was leading a double life, but it made sense. I knew who I was supposed to be and when and I didn't have to lie to anyone I cared about. Then I got chosen and I have to keep that a secret from everybody. You are the only person that knows every aspect of my life. The guys know I'm a Slayer, but don't know about the witchy stuff. Mom knows that I used to be a witch, but not only does she think that I gave all that up when we moved here, but also she doesn't know that I am now the Slayer. And everyone else? They all expect me to be normal. I can't keep doing this Giles. I can't lead three lives all at once." Buffy wasn't quite sure when she'd stood up and started pacing, but at that moment she became aware that that was exactly what she was doing. "So, yes, Giles! I would go back there, because then at least I could stop lying to the people that I love. I could just be a normal witch. I could be normal little Hermione Granger, Bookworm Extraordinaire!"

Giles, who had remained silent through Buffy's rant, cleared his throat. "Be that as it may, even if you went back there, too much has changed in your life. You cannot simply stop being the Slayer, even there. Your calling is a part of you and you won't be able to just stop slaying. It's not like quitting a job."

"I KNOW!" Buffy shouted. She dropped back into her chair dropping her face into her hands. "I know."

Giles crouched next to his distraught Slayer. He'd need to handle this carefully. "Have you ever considered telling your friends the truth?" he asked gently.

Buffy's head snapped up. "You mean Xander and Willow right? 'Cos I know you would never condone me telling Harry and Ron about my Slayerness." At Giles' nod she continued, "Ok, that would be great, except there's this little thing called the Statute of Secrecy. Any witch or wizard who tells muggles about the wizarding world will most likely end up in prison. Your memories would be erased and then I would be all alone. I wouldn't even have you. Of course I'd be in prison anyway so..."

"Buffy, I don't pretend to know how the wizarding world works, but I do know that your friends can keep a secret. Besides, they are already aware of the fact that the mystical exists, they just don't realise how, how organised it is." He stood slowly, feeling the ache in his knees. "It is your decision of course. I suggest you think about it."

"Ok. Thinking about it can't hurt, I guess." Buffy also rose to her feet swinging her bag onto her shoulder. "Are you going to be here later?"

"Yes, of course."

"I'm meeting Harry and Ron after school. We need somewhere to talk. Can I convince you to be somewhat inconspicuous if I were to bring them here?"

"Well...I...what exactly are you planning on telling them?"

"Nothing Slayery don't worry. I wanna know how they found me and I guess they want some more detail on why I left."

"Ah. Well in that case I shall endeavour to be elsewhere. You can use the study area" The two of them walked over to the counter.

"Thanks Giles. I appreciate it. Now I've just gotta remember precisely what I told them in that letter so I can keep my story straight. It doesn't help that it wasn't a particularly good story to start with. I had about thirty minutes to come up with something believable, write the letter and convince Hedwig to deliver it."

"Hedwig?"

"Smartest owl ever."

With that Buffy left the library, knowing without even looking that Giles' face was sporting a look of absolute incredulity.

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The library door was opened just enough for a blonde head to poke through. "Anyone here?" There was no answer so Buffy walked the rest of the way in motioning to her two companions to follow. "Come on, we have the library to ourselves. No one ever comes in here."

Ron snorted. "Trust you to choose the nearest library for a reunion with your best friends."

"I feel comfortable here," Buffy replied with a shrug. She led the way to the study area and the trio sat down with Buffy opposite her two old friends. 'Ironic,' she thought, 'that this conversation is going to take place directly above the Hellmouth, when it kinda represents the whole reason I had to leave them in the first place. Not that I can tell them that.'

"So," she said aloud, "you first."

Harry and Ron exchanged a glance. "Where do you want us to begin?"

"Let's start with why you're here. How did you find me?"

"That's a really funny story actually," Ron told her trying to be casual, "especially the part where we were the ones that figured out where you were when the Order couldn't."

"The Order was looking for me? Why" Buffy really was surprised. Although she knew that were any members of the Order of the Phoenix to come across her would coerce her back to school she found it difficult to believe that they would actively go out looking for her. As far as the Order was concerned she was just a regular witch, her only significance being that her best friend was Harry Potter. Then something else that Ron had said registered. "So you two found me then, not them? As in, it just being the two of you?"

"Yup. Just us. Mum went mental when you left, said you'd probably been forced to leave by your parents. Wanted to give you the option of staying with us while they went off to hide."

Buffy, who was already feeling somewhat emotional, felt her heart catch. Mrs Weasley had always been like a second mom. She'd been very fond of her.

"Dumbledore agreed that you might have gone against your will," Harry added, "but he thought you'd been kidnapped by Death Eaters as a way to get to me. Though I think they eventually realised they were wrong when no ransom notes were sent. After a couple of months the Order just, gave up,"

"But we didn't," Ron piped up. "We thought maybe it was Death Eaters, but to be honest, we didn't care. We just wanted to make sure you were alright. So Harry hired a muggle detectorer and he led us to you."

"A detectorer?"

"He means a detective," Harry clarified. "When I was at home for the summer I found him. Told him as much as I could considering he was a muggle. I think he thought it was a little weird when I told him that the only way to contact me was by owl. He got back to me about two weeks ago."

"That was...actually really clever," Buffy admitted grudgingly. "We hid by muggle means so that really was the most logical way to find us. Most wizards would never think to search that way even though they knew that my family are muggles and I couldn't use magic outside of school."

"That's what we thought. So, the detective, Mr Browne, found a paper trail. Plane tickets, copies of name change documents, the deed to your parents house, photographs. Then of course, your school records." He looked up, and Buffy noticed for the first time that his smile didn't reach his eyes. "We're very disappointed in you Hermione Granger. You used to be such a promising student."

Buffy blushed. "All part of the disguise y'know."

Ron took up the story. "As soon as we got the letter telling us where to find you Harry and I snuck out of school, went to Glasgow and caught one of those heleplanes here. Then we just had to find you, which has turned out to be pretty easy if you don't count the vampire thing last night."

"I can't believe how much trouble you two are gonna be in when you get back. Ron, your mother will freak. This is way worse than stealing your dad's car and crashing it into a tree! And Harry! You two are going to be expelled. You shouldn't have done it! I'm not worth that." Buffy couldn't believe they would get in so much trouble for her. Ron and Harry seemed rather amused at her reaction, almost as if they'd been expecting it and it was that that actually calmed her down. Hermione might've been worried about expulsion and detentions and house points, but Buffy was always in trouble and had already been expelled from one school. She really wasn't in a position to judge.

"Ok, I'm saying nothing, forget it for now, but I do have one question. What did you do for passports and stuff?" Harry, being muggle raised, might not have a problem getting that kind of thing, but Ron was wizard raised and technically didn't exist in the muggle world.

"Gringotts sorted all that out," Ron told her. "Those goblins'll do anything if you wave enough galleons at them?"

"Galleons?" Buffy exclaimed. "Now I'm saying something. How much did you two spend? No wait, how much did you spend?" she rounded on Harry.

Harry held his hands up as though to defend himself. He glared at Ron for bringing this up. "Money's not an issue Hermione."

"Don't give me that bull."

"It's really not," he insisted. "You mean a lot to me- to us- and I don't care about how much money I had to throw around if it means we get you back."

"Besides Harry's loaded now. Sirius left him everything in his will."

"What!"

"Ron!"

Harry looked really angry now. Buffy just couldn't believe it. "Sirius died?"
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Just outside the double doors two figures, one tall, one petite, gazed at the scene.

"Can you hear anything?" Xander asked Willow hopefully.

"Nope, but it's definitely those two guys from last night and it seems to be quite an emotional meeting. I just assumed that she'd saved them from a vamp or something, especially with that guy holding his neck. I didn't think she knew them."

"Me either. This is all making the kind of sense that's... not. Why didn't she say anything."

"Should we go in?"

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"This is all making the kind of sense that's... not." Is Oz's line from Becoming pt 2.