FicWad

Chapter 63 - Called Home

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 2nd September 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Staff Quarters
Time: Morning

Early the next day the alarm clock in Buffy's quarters went off.

She groaned and rolled over, bringing her hand down on top of the clock a little too hard resulting in the bell and a couple of other bits of metal separating from the mechanism as the rest of it dropped to the floor

Buffy groaned again as the broken mechanism of the clock continued to rattle as it attempted to hit the now missing bell.

Buffy made a mental note to get someone to put one of those unbreakable charm things on it later on.

She would not have gotten up for hours if it were a normal weekend but thanks to the fact that term always started on September first at Hogwarts, which on this case was a Saturday making today a Sunday she had to get up and prepare for the demonstration MD lesson for so the students knew if they wanted to actually attend next weekend.

Rolling out of bed she gave the remains of the clock another whack and it stopped making noises. She plodded over to the walk in wardrobe and picked out some clothes before heading towards the bathroom.

Slipping out of her night attire she got in the shower, turning it up to scorching hot in order to wake her up.

As she freshened herself up for the day ahead she recalled everything that had happened to her in the last few weeks, after Harry had left, Hermione and Ron had explained the Wizarding world in details along with more information about Harry, his history, his relationship with Dumbledore and what had happened during their first five years at school, it bore a remarkable similarity to her own; beasts, bad guys, failed relationships and really big snakes.

That evening she had discovered a bag full of money in her quarters with a note from Adam telling her to go to Diagon Alley and buy some clothes, which she had done with Hermione and Minerva the next day, buying herself several sets of work out and 'Slayer' attire along with a couple of sets of Wizarding robes, though she doubted she would use them, thinking back she probably should have used one of them at the feast the day before.

Cleaning the nights grime off she put conditioner in her hair before going over and slipping into the hot tub, letting the conditioner do its work while she relaxed. Her mind slipping towards what had happened since, her exploration of the castle, her foot getting caught in that trip step on the stairs....four times, meeting Hagrid for the first time and getting talked into helping him with those creatures of his, not something she would forget easily.

A long time later she reluctantly climbed out of the tub and rinsed her hair out before dressing and getting ready for the day ahead.

Slowly walking down towards breakfast she greeted several students and teachers as she went.

Reaching the Great Hall she smiled to Harry friends as she passed before seating herself beside Colette.

"Morning."

"Morning, sleep well?" asked the French Professor.

"It would have been better if I didn't have to get up so early." She replied "Whose bright idea was it to hold this demonstration lessons."

"The Headmasters." Replied Colette with a smile "I like the idea; it gives us a chance to get rid of the students that just want easy qualifications, leaving us with the ones that actually want to lea....Merlin's bloomers, look at that."
________________________________________________________________________

At the Gryffindor table Harry had just parted from Fleur and greeted Ron and Hermione when an entire flock of owls and various other avian creatures flew in through the window and began dive bombing him.

"What in Merlin's name!" exclaimed Ron "What's going on?"

"We are being bombed by birds," replied Hermione hiding under one of her books.

"I realise that, but why are all these ruddy birds attacking us."

"Ron, don't swear." Cried Hermione, in between dodges "I'm guessing they are trying to deliver mail."

At last all the birds seemed to settle on every available surface within five meters of Harry, they seemed to all have dropped their mail and were contenting themselves with eating the student's breakfast, ignoring the various cries of complaint from the students:

"Hey!"

"Flutter off!"

"Give back my bacon!"

"How do we get rid of these things." Called a Ravenclaw as he swung at the birds with his copy of the Daily Prophet.

"Very Easily." Replied Colette as she casually walked towards the group, her skin turning to feathers as she went, the birds all slowly turned to watch her approach.

Once fully transformed Colette launched herself into the middle of the flock, with a shriek she sent the rest of the birds flying out the windows as fast as they could flap.

With a smug grin (that looked most interesting when she had a beak rather than a mouth), she slowly turned back into her original form, shock and fascination on the faces of most of the student population, though the look that Buffy sent was by far the most amusing.

"There you go, carry on."

Harry grinned before sitting back down in front of the pile of letters, scrolls and packages that were left in the flocks wake, he would have to forget about breakfast, not that he could get to it with all the mail on top of it.

There was still one bird left, a large Augurey perched on the next chair, Harry reached over to take the letter attached to its leg.

"Harry don't." called Lavender "Auguries are bad luck."

"Oh for goodness sake." Exclaimed Hermione, taking the letter from the bird and handing it to Harry before proceeding to stroke the bird's plumage, turning to Harry she asked "Whose it from?"

Harry grinned at her before opening the envelope, extracting the letter and beginning to read.

"It's from Luna's father; he's asking if I would be willing to do an interview with the Quibbler about where I was this summer."

"I guess he saw how popular our last two interviews were." Grinned Hermione "What are you going to tell him?"

"That if I do decide to tell the press that it will be his paper that I tell." replied Harry after a moment's thought.

"Here." Said Hermione withdrawing a piece of parchment and a quill from her bag.

Harry took them and scribbled a quick reply and handed it to the Augurey who flew off with a wail leaving the group alone with the huge pile of mail.

"Err, everyone start opening." He shrugged as Buffy and Fleur arrived at the table to investigate.

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville (who had also just arrived, albeit it from the opposite direction), Buffy, Colette, Fleur and Lavender all started opening letters.

The first one Harry opened was a congratulations from a wizard for causing the Ministry and the Minister so much grief during the summer, the second was similar except it was from a Ministry employee chastising him causing her so much grief.

"Three interview requests with French and German papers." Said Colette, flicking through the letters in her hands.

"Remind me later to write polite apologies to those and tell them that they will have to contact the Quibbler for any stories I tell the press." Replied Harry.

"This one's an interview request with the Prophet." Said Ron almost spitting out his response "They say they are very sorry for what they have said about you in the past."

"This ones the same from Witch Weekly Magazine." Added Buffy.

"Burn them." Harry replied "I'm not even going to reply after the rumours they posted about us during our forth year."

"What have you got Neville?" asked Hermione "....Neville?"

The others turned to look at a red face Neville whose eyes were locked to the letter in front of him.

"What is it Nev?" asked Ron, moving around to look at the letter "What could, oh...."

"What?" asked Harry as Hermione and Lavender moved to look at what the boys were staring at.

As the girls saw the letter Hermione's eyes also expanded before she turned a deep shade of red, Lavender on the other hand just smirked and whistled obviously impressed by what she was seeing.

"What is it?"

"It's a letter from a fan of yours Harry, asking if you would like to meet up sometime for a....private chat, there is an enclosed photograph."

As one all four of the readers looking at the picture tilted their heads to the left.

"Those can't be real." Lavender added.

"I didn't know that position was even possible." said Neville.

"I am sure I could try it if you want Neville." Grinned Luna as she and Ginny came up behind them, making him jump.

"I....I....I...." tried Neville only to be silenced with a kiss from Luna.

"Calm down Neville." She smiled before moving to the next letter whilst turning to Harry "Have you received my father's letter yet?"

"Yes, I've already sent a reply saying that if I do talk to the press it will be to the Quibbler and they will have to buy the stories from him."

Luna smiled widely before taking the previous letter out of Neville's hand and placing it and the one she had just opened next to Harry.

"Same as the previous one, just without the picture and with more....descriptive language."

"This one's a surprise?" smiled Colette "From my father's company, wondering if you would like to do some modelling, goodness I remember writing this years ago, it must have been automatically sent out by your emancipation and as you have been hiding all summer this is the first time if could reach you."

"I would say the same is true of this one." Said Fleur stiffly "It's from Playwizard asking the same thing but with fewer clothes."

"Burn it." Replied Harry "Only you get to see me like that."

The look on Lavenders and the rest of the halls faces was amazing, over thirty chins dropped.

"You....you two are...."

"Yes."

"Professor Dumbledore's allowing it?" she asked.

"I didn't give him any choice; I proved that there is no way he can legally force us to separate."

"Morganna." She exclaimed slumping into a seat.

Harry chuckled before turning to Luna.

"Remind me later to give you an interview about my summer for you to send to your father."

Moving onto the first package Harry opened the lid, as soon as it was open there was a bang and a cloud of smoke appeared.

"Merlin, what did that?" called Ron from somewhere in the cloud.

"This package," replied Harry as Fleur and Colette vanished the cloud.

As soon as the others were able to see Harry they started laughing.

"What?"

"You look," tried Hermione in between fits of laughter "You look like a panda Harry."

Withdrawing a pocket mirror from her trousers, a laughing Lavender opened it up and presented it to Harry.

His entire face was black except for his eyes.

Fleur, deciding to take pity on Harry withdrew her wand and cast a cleaning charm on Harry.

"Who was that from?" asked Ron trying not to pull a muscle from laughing to hard at the annoyed look on Harry's face.

Reaching into the box Harry pulled out a letter with a header that read:

Weasley Wizard Wheezes

"Oh, we should have known," sighed Harry "It's from your brothers."

"Your right, we should have known." Grinned Ron "What do they want?"

"It says, in their usual style; hello, I hope you enjoyed your present, how have you been, what have you been up to, congratulations for shocking the entire school and for getting Snape. They then follow that up with a short graph and table showing the current state of my shares and finishes with 'Mischief Managed'."

"Why does that not surprise me." Commented Hermione, still trying to regain her composure.

"What do the other letters say?" asked Harry.

"Well there are six like the one Neville opened," replied Luna "Five from women, one from a man, four more from women without pictures, eight letters of congratulations, seven letters chastising you, there of which were howlers including one from Ron and Ginny's mother, all of which I disabled, seven international interview requests, four home interview requests, three letters from those at your party asking how you have been and who April was and finally the packages were from companies asking you to either model, indorse or buy their products, the packages contain free samples."

"Samples?"

"Copies of Playwizard, catalogues from Professor Fontaine's and other clothes stores and a box of sample chocolates from Honeydukes called Harry's Hazelnuts."

"Harry's Hazelnuts?" he laughed.

Opening the box Luna tasted one of the small lightning bolt shaped chocolates.

"They're pretty good." She replied "The accompanying letter said that they are expecting such high sales that they are offering you fifty percent of the profits."

"Do I have to do anything?" he asked.

"Just give them permission to make the chocolates using your name."

"Ok then." Nodded Harry "It could be fun to have sweets named after me; I don't even think Dumbledore has managed that, was there anything else?"

"Just this one." Replied Fleur, handing him an envelope with the Gringotts crest on it.

Opening it Harry began to read, his face turning serious as he did.

"What is it Arry?" asked Fleur, moving to look over his shoulder, luckily thanks to Harry she could now read English as well as she could speak it.

"It's about Sirius," he replied "The Ministry have finally sorted out how his criminal record effects his will and they have set a date for the reading, as soon as I say I can attend as the primary beneficiary they will be sending our summons to all the others who need to attend."

Hermione conjured another sheet of parchment and handed it to him as he scribbled a reply.

"I will have Hedwig deliver this later."

Before another word could be said the doors opened loudly as the Minister or Magic complete with a pair of Auror bodyguards entered.

Walking up behind Harry.

"Harry, we are overjoyed to see you alive and well, we were most worried about you."

"Thank you for your concern Minister but it was not needed." Replied Harry, not turning to the annoying man.

"Tell me Harry, were have you been all this time." Asked Fudge, trying not to get annoyed at being ignored.

"Hiding." Replied Harry shortly still not turning to the Minister, he could see his friends out of his peripheral vision trying hard to keep straight faces at the scene.

"Please Harry, tell us where you were." the Minister asked again.

"I do not see how it concerns you Minister, I am here, I am obviously safe so why do you need to know?"

"We need to know who kidnapped you Harry so that we can arrest them." Replied Fudge his face beginning to twitch at Harry's refusal to cooperate.

"Kidnapping implies taking me away without my consent, I was not taken without my consent therefore you do not need to know."

Fudge twitched at the phrase.

"Harry please...."

"Unless you have other business here Minister, I request as a Hogwarts Professor that you leave."

"As a what?" demanded Fudge.

"As a Hogwarts Professor." Repeated Fleur.

"Miss Delacour, please stay out of this." Said Fudge, trying his hardest not to snarl.

"That's Lady Delacour to you Fudge." Returned Fleur, taking over from Harry in annoying the man.

"I am the Minister of Magic; you WILL address me with respect."

"Was that a threat Fudge?" asked Colette, joining the fun "That would make a wonderful newspaper headline 'British Minister of Magic causes international incident, Minister Fudge threatens daughter of next French Minister of Magic', imagine how well that one would sell."

Fudge fumed for a moment before turning on his heals and storming out of the room, his Auror guards running after him in order to keep up.

"He just wants to make himself look good in they eyes of the public by arresting someone." Commented Hermione.

"I will be interested to see how he plans to get me back for not telling him." Smiled Harry.
________________________________________________________________________

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 2nd September 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Professor Radcliffe's Office
Time: Late Morning

Harry was just finishing arranging the last of his pictures in the cabinets along the walls of his new office when there was a knock at the door.

"Come in." he answered walking around behind his desk.

The door opened to reveal his Head of House.

"Good morning Professor." She smiled entering and closing the door.

"Professor McGonagall, how can I help you?" he asked gesturing her towards one of the seats on the other side of his desk "I'm afraid I can't offer you tea and biscuits as I haven't got any."

McGonagall smiled as she settled into the seat.

"It is perfectly alright Po....May I call you Harry, I don't feel comfortable referring to one of my colleagues by their last name.

"Of course Professor, but please excuse me if I continue to call you Professor, as I am still a student most half the time it makes things easier. Now errr, how may I help you?" he asked, rather awkwardly, not used tom being on the opposite side of the desk.

McGonagall reached into her robes and withdrew an envelope before handing it to him.

"Your OWL results, they were delivered here when they could not find you."

Opening the envelope Harry pulled out the parchment held within and began to read.

Ordinary Wizarding Levels for Harry J. Potter

Written Practical Overall

Ancient Runes N/A
N/A N/A

Arithmancy N/A
N/A N/A

Astronomy A*
A A

Care of Magical Creatures E
E E

Charms E
O E

Defence Against the Dark Arts O
O* O

Divination A
A A

Herbology E
E E

History of Magic D**
N/A D**

Muggle Studies N/A
N/A N/A

Potions O
O O

Transfigurations E
O E

Total
8

* Due to an incident during the examination, all results were set to Acceptable. A retest will be available to all who wish to attempt to better this result.

** A retest will be offered, since there has never before been a student attacked during an exam.

* The proctor stated that if there were a grade above Outstanding, this student would have been granted such a grade.

"Better than I expected," smiled Harry "Though I will retake Astronomy and History of Magic,"

"Very wise Harry, but we have a problem to discus before we even get to retaking exams."

"What Professor?"

"What NEWT's you are going to take and how are you to take your NEWT's if you are teaching at the same time?"

"I have thought about that Professor, am I correct in thinking that a student can be allowed not to attend a class if he or she proves that they can pass all that subjects exams with above acceptable results."

"This is true," nodded the Professor "What classes were you planning on taking and skipping?"

"Well for NEWT's I was planning on taking DADA, Transfiguration, Charms, Potions and then I was going to drop Divination and COMC and pick up Ancient Runes and Arithmancy if I am allowed."

"You may be allowed to with the Professor's permission, but which of the others are you going to skip."

"I was planning on taking the tests for Charms, DADA, Potions and Transfiguration."

McGonagall raised an eyebrow.

"You are probably skilled enough to skip Defence Against the Dark Arts and possibly in Charms, I won't say anything about potions, but unfortunately Harry you are not skilled enough to skip Transfiguration."

Harry smiled before standing and moving to the side of the desk where he, much to his Head of House's surprise, transformed into a stag before her very eyes.

"Harry," she gasped after several seconds as she stood and moved around him, inspecting his appearance "I am VERY impressed. You became an Animagus in just one summer."

Harry nodded his large head, being careful to make sure that his antlers did not hit the Professor.

Transforming back into his human form, Harry returned to his chair.

"I presume you are registered with the French Ministry Of Magic?" continued McGonagall.

"Yes, it's a lovely little loop hole in Wizarding Law that. I never have to tell anyone in Britain that I am an Animagus, just so long as I am registered somewhere."

"There are so many holes in Wizarding Law rule book that an entire Quidditch team can pass straight through the pages," agreed McGonagall, before she remembered something "While I remember Harry, over the summer I managed to get your Quidditch ban lifted, you can now resume your place on the team."

"Thank you Professor." Beamed Harry, he had missed Quidditch, even if he had been playing all summer he still missed the competition of the game."

"I will have your broom returned to your quarters," she smiled, standing up "I will see you later Harry."

"Goodbye Professor."
________________________________________________________________________

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 2nd September 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Muggle Defence Classroom
Time: Afternoon

During that morning many students had turned up for the demonstration History of Magical Creatures and Alternative Magic classes (it was decided that Duelling didn't actually need a demonstration as everyone knew what it was) and now there was only Muggle Defence left, Adam and Buffy were busy sparring, awaiting the student's arrival.

Buffy was dressed (now that she had some clothes other than the ones in which she had arrived) in blue jeans and a red top.

Adam was wearing the same sort of clothing he had been wearing ever since the students returned: the usual black shirt, tie, trousers that he used to wear along with a cloak with silver trim, thanks to his magic he did not need to buy anything as he could change clothes with a snap of his fingers, Buffy guest that the cloak was actually just his....what was the word....oh yes, transfigured coat, though he had been generous enough when he left earlier in the summer to leave Buffy enough to buy several really good sets of work out and practical clothes as well as a couple of sets of robes and other assorted Wizarding attire though she doubted she would wear them much.

The room that had chosen was impressive, thirty meters square, the floor was covered in crash mats and the walls were lined with weapons of every description. Those House Elf creatures had definitely done a good job of tweaking it to their needs.

Buffy and Adam were stretching while discussing the revelations of Dumbledore's speech.

"Why didn't you tell me that there was a Werewolf here?" Buffy asked.

"I thought it would be a nice surprise for you. Anyway, he is only one three days a month."

"I'm not complaining about it, I of all people know what good people Werewolves can be, but you still could have told me, if the Headmaster hadn't told everyone it would have been bothering me for weeks to find out what was going on with him."

"My apologize. What is your opinion of the Wizarding World?" he inquired whilst stretching his neck.

Buffy laughed. "Very different....wands, ghosts, moving stairs....blast-ended skrewts."

Adam's mouth stretched into a half-smile.

"I take it you've seen Hagrid other than at meal times."

"Yeah, some of his creatures are cool but the skrewts were just scary. I hope we don't have to cover how to defeat them in Muggle Defence lessons."

"I should not think so and you might want to call it MD, it's easier to say." Adam suggested, doing a series of back flips before walking over to one of the shelves, removing a quarterstaff and starting to run through a series of very rapid manoeuvres.

"Oh and speaking of things that are easy on the mouth, Berio-Megtra?" Buffy asked, removing another quarterstaff and moving to spar with Adam.

"Berio-Meg.ill.tour.ra," he said, emphasising each syllable. "It was a name someone gave me a long time ago." Adam explained, a memory flashing through his mind before vanishing back into the deepest realms of this mind.

Moving his hands down his staff so he was holding it like a sword, Adam then proceeded to knock Buffy's staff out of her hand before hooking his own under her leg and pulling so that she collapsed to the floor.

"There is more that one way to use a staff," he pointed out, extending his hand and pulling her to her feet.

At that moment the first students knocked and entered, Harry, Ron, Hermione and two others, a red headed girl, Buffy knew to be Ron's sister and another boy, he was shorter than Harry and a bit bulkier, but as Harry was as thin as a rake, that's not hard to imagine.

"Afternoon, Professor Berio, Professor Summers", Hermione said, studying the layout of the room.

"Afternoon, Hermione," Adam replied "Ron, Professor Potter."

Harry groaned much to Buffy's amusement, now he knew how she felt when the students addressed her as such, though technically he had been teaching for several weeks already, what made it weirder for her though was that quiet a few of them were taller than her, she wondered how that really short Professor managed to express any authority when even the first years were taller than him.

"Please don't make me beg you not to call me that." Pleaded Harry "It was bad enough at Beauxbatons."

"Think of the bright side Harry," grinned Ron "You can give Malfoy detention whenever you want."

"Ron," chastised Hermione "Harry will only use his abilities as a teacher responsibly, wont you Harry."

"Of course." Nodded Harry, before sending a subtle wink at Ron which he was certain Hermione saw.

Adam, deciding to leave the subject and walked over to one of the other students.

"You must be Ron's sister," he smiled, extended his hand.

"Ginny Weasley, yes Professor." she said, taking his hand.

"Adam," he introduced, kissing her hand and making her blush. "None of you have to call me Professor in this room, just in the halls to keep up appearances. The same goes for Buffy."

"And ME." stressed Harry "I'm only going to be a Professor while teaching."

"And your name is?" Asked Adam, turning to the last member of the group and extending his hand again.

"Ne....Neville Longbottom," he managed to say, taking the outstretched hand.

By this time, the rest of the students had filtered in, there were about thirty in total, including all the DA members.

"Welcome one and all to Muggle Defence. In this club we intend to teach it as you would a class, awarding you points etc but I am sure you will be devastated to hear that we will not be setting homework other than practice," there were silent cheers and looks of relief from the students "We will split the sessions into two parts, hand to hand and armed combat."

There were murmurs of excitement.

"Professor Summers will handle hand to hand, while I will teach you armed. You will see that around the room are various weapons. Only myself or Professor Summers can remove them from the walls, so don't try. Next I'm glad to see that the message reached you all and you are all without ties and constricting robes," he commented, removing his tie and then his cloak and holding them up. "Robes and cloaks can get in the way. Could you also remove your shoes and socks, as during hand to hand training sessions they can cause more damage than intended. Lastly in this room, for those of you that did not hear, you do not need to refer to us as Professor, just Adam and Buffy, as this is a more informal working environment."

At the nods from the class, Buffy continued where he left off.

"Alright, we are going to start by giving you a little demonstration of what can be done in hand to hand combat. As you can see, Adam is significantly taller and more heavily built than I am."

There were sighs from the female occupants of the room, which made Adam, Hermione, Buffy and most of the male students roll their eyes.

"But just because I am smaller that does not mean he will defeat me. The fact that he has been practising for a LOT longer," she said, exchanging a smirk with him. "May, but strength isn't everything. With the right amount of speed and leverage, you can beat an opponent significantly larger then yourself, as we will now demonstrate."

They moved into the centre of the room and the class gathered around to watch. Adam launched himself at Buffy whilst throwing a punch at her head. Buffy blocked his first punch, redirected his second before grabbed his extended arm as he tried a third, twisted around on the spot, bent over and pulled. Adam went flying over her head and landed on his back on the mat at least three meters away.

Buffy knew he could easily have stopped her, hit her with every punch and probably could have avoided falling on his back as well if he wanted, but for the purpose of the demonstration he didn't.

Getting to his feet Adam turned to the class who were all staring at Buffy open mouthed.

"That was just a quick demonstration of what you can do with the right training," said Buffy.

"We will start today by teaching you how to punch and block. We know that may sound simple, but you have to start somewhere. Will everyone please pair off and find a space, do some stretching and then punch and block like this." Adam moved to punch Buffy's face and was blocked and deflected by Buffy's forearm. "Alternate your arms. Please don't use your full force. We do not want broken bones." finished Adam.

The group paired off: Harry with Ron, Hermione with Luna, and so on. Everyone paired off until only two people were left, Ginny and....

"Malfoy....Where did you come from?" Ginny exclaimed.

"I've been here all the time, Miss Weasley. You just weren't looking," he sneered back, he didn't seen to like the situation any more than she did. "I suppose we better start punching or the Professors will get annoyed." Ginny reluctantly agreed and they started, Ginny punching and Draco blocking.
________________________________________________________________________

After about ten minutes, Adam told them to switch roles and then continued to move around the room, correcting posture, offering help. Buffy was sure that some of the female occupants were deliberately doing it wrong just to get Adam's attention, she was also pretty sure some of the male ones were doing the same for her, Adam told her only to focus on the girls while he did the same for the boys for this lesson, that way they could hopefully get rid of those who wasn't serious about learning.
________________________________________________________________________

"Draco, I may be a girl and a lot smaller than you but you can hit a bit harder than that."

Draco stopped, surprised.

"What?" Ginny asked.

"You called me Draco."

"Yes, so?"

"You've never done that before."

"Yes well, if for whatever reason you are going to be in these classes and we are likely to have to work together more often and if we are sneering at each other all the time one of us is likely to end up injuring the other." she responded fairly cheerfully, as he resumed punching, though a bit harder this time.

After another minute, Adam approached them.

"Very good Miss Weasley. Try to change the direction of the hit as well as blocking it. When you move your arm to intercept, keep it moving so the hit falls past your shoulder, otherwise you will end up with a very bruised arm. Like this." He assumed Ginny's position and deflected the hit Draco sent his way "You try."

She resumed her position and tried again.

"Very good." He then turned to the rest of the group. "Ok now we will work on counter attack."
________________________________________________________________________

The class continued for another hour. They learned simple ways to punch, block, deflect, counter attack, and started learning how to kick.

"Well done everyone. We hope to see you all next Saturday, when we will continue kicking and start using close combat weapons."

The class dispersed and started discussing the fun they had had in the last two hours until only the Harry, Ron Hermione, Ginny and Neville were left talking to the Professors and Draco was tying up his shoes.

"So what did you guys think?" Buffy asked.

"It will definitely be worth giving up Saturday afternoons for." Ron complimented. Fortunately, he hadn't seen Ginny being paired off with Draco, or they would have had a real fight on their hands.

"Thank you. We hoped you would enjoy it. You should definitely appreciate next week's class as we'll be using AAARRRRRRRR." Adam cried out, doubling over.

At the same time, Buffy and Harry collapsed to the floor in pain.

"HARRY!"

"ADAM!"

"BUFFY!"

"PROFESSORS!" called the others simultaneously, moving to them.

Adam and Buffy were in tremendous pain. Fire burned through their bodies. If Adam were not as strong as he was, he would have been writhing on the floor like Buffy was.

Harry's mind was pounding. He felt like he had just been hit over the head with a sledgehammer. "NOT ARRRRGGHH AGAIN," he managed to say through the pain.

FLASH

Four people sitting in a circle between two graves

FLASH

BUFFY ANNE SUMMERS

1981-2001

BELOVED SISTER
DEVOTED FRIEND

SHE SAVED THE WORLD
A LOT

FLASH

ADAM

THE BEGINNING - 2001

BELOVED MASTER
DEVOTED FRIEND

LORD OF TIME
AND GUARDIAN OF ALL

FLASH

A red headed woman killing a fawn

FLASH

"Here lay the warriors of the people. Let them cross over."

FLASH

The ground around the four people shaking

FLASH

The Muggle Defence Room

FLASH

The ground beneath Adam and Buffy spiralling away.

FLASH

The pain ceased and Harry staggered to his feet. Adam and Buffy were still suffering. Buffy was convulsing on the floor while Adam was on his knees doing his best to fight the pain and remain upright at the same time.

"We have to move them quickly," Harry gasped out, still recovering from the vision.

"What?" Ginny asked from his side.

"Move them, NOW!"

They managed to pull Buffy out of the way. Adam was harder, as he was still on his knees and therefore couldn't be dragged. They moved him just as the floor opened in the form of a swirling portal, exactly where the Professors just were.

Draco had been standing in shock at what he had been seeing the whole time.

"Draco, get Dumbledore," Ginny called out, turning to him. Draco snapped out of whatever stunned state he had been in just in time to grab Ginny and pull her out of the way as the portal expanded outwards under where her right foot had been less than a second before. It seemed to be following the Professors.

"Get Dumbledore," she said again after giving him a thank you smile.

Draco nodded and ran from the room.

The others moved Buffy as far away from the portal as the wall would allow, she was totally overcome with the pain. Ron was trying to set up shielding charms, but they were not powerful enough and the portal passed straight through them, Harry tried to assist but the vision had almost knocked him unconscious.

They were now separated by the portal. Buffy, Ron, Neville and Ginny had been pushed against one wall of the room by the expanding object. The rest were pinned at the other end of the room.

None of them could reach the door now. Harry and Hermione kept trying to move Adam, but fighting the pain meant that he was resisting with all his might, even levitation was hard.

Adam suddenly snapped his eyes open and straightened up with great effort.

He flung his hand towards the startled Harry and Hermione and sent the flying away from the vanishing piece of floor under their feet, across to the other end of the room.

They by some luck managed to land on their feet beside Ginny, Ron, Neville and Buffy on the slightly large piece of land.

Adam altered the position of his hand.

"Thangail."

A shield of transparent white light engulfed the wall and its occupants. The portal stopped advancing when it reached the shield protecting Buffy and the others.

"ADAM!" Hermione called out.

Adam realized that it was a warning a second too late. The portal hit his right foot and sucked it in.

Dumbledore flung himself through the doorway followed closely by Draco and Professors McGonagall and Snape.

"Oh Merlin," Draco exclaimed. "It's got a lot bigger."

The portal now engulfed the entire room except a meter square around the door, the wall covered by Adams white translucent shield and the area under Adam's left foot.

Adam flung his hands out as his left foot got sucked in and he got absorbed up to his waist. His hands were held palm down and you could literally see the magic radiating from his hands, keeping him from sinking lower, they were like the heat waves from a jet engine.

Behind the shield, all eyes were focused on Adam. A strange thing happened to Buffy, who was still convulsing on the floor. A ghostly white image of her seemed to be pulled from her body. As soon as the image left her the pain ceased and she slowly sat up.

The image got pulled through the shield before any of the others could react and got sucked into the portal. Adam tried to grab it, but only succeeded in getting pulled in further.

At that moment, a name appeared in Harry's mind. Somehow he knew it was important.

"OSIRIS."

Adam snapped his eyes to Harry, understanding what he was saying, and nodded.

With one final effort Adam flung an extra surge of magic down his arms and into the portal, sending him flying towards the ceiling. A ghostly white image of him was left as he rocketed away from the portal, the image got sucked through.

Adam seemed to drain when the ghostly figure separated from him, but he was no longer in pain or being sucked in. A blinding white light was emitted from his eyes and mouth as he hovered in the air above the portal.

"Osiris, pron Adam, Tirno Calaquendi, pron can lye, sollen pron assa."

The portal fluctuated.

"Pron Maethor a Arato nad art Eru, pron, can lye, SOLLEN....PRON....ASSA!"

The portal diminished, shrank and then vanished. Adam waved his hand at the wall and the shield vanished letting the others out, he sighed in relief before dropping to the ground like a stone.

"Mokir assa," was all he managed to groan before colliding hard with the floor, conscious but very evidently drained.

Ginny ran to his side. "Professor, PROFESSOR," she said while shaking him vigorously.

"I told you to call me Adam" he groaned "By the Gods I hate portals." getting to his feet he was aided by Ginny and Draco, no less.

It was now for the first time that Ron noticed Draco.

"Get away from them, Malfoy." Ron spat out, starting to move towards Draco.

"It's ok Ron," Adam reassured him, turning to Draco. "He's not like that anymore."

Draco looked worried. He wasn't going to tell them about not wanting to be a Death Eater? How in Merlin's name did he know?

When Adam with great effort straightened and turned to Dumbledore, his worried look did not go unnoticed.

"Albus, we need to have a meeting."
________________________________________________________________________

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 2nd September 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Dumbledore's Office
Time: Afternoon

A few minutes later in Dumbledore's Office; The teachers (including Buffy, Harry, Fleur, Colette and Tonks), Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and to the Ron's great annoyance, Draco were all present.

Buffy was lying back in a chair, beside Dumbledore's desk while Adam mirrored her on the other side of the desk, both trying to recover from whatever had just happened to them, Adam looked by far the worse, his condition was best described as the look of exhaustion that a marathon runner would wear after staggering over the finish line, he was again twiddling his silver disk between his fingers though slower than previously.

Adam had just finished explaining what had happened in the MD room.

"What caused the portal?" inquired Lupin.

"Four people sitting between two graves," Harry answered to the surprise of all except Adam.

"Let me guess...." said Adam sighing. "One blond, one brunette and one red headed woman accompanied by one dark short haired man."

Harry nodded, although he had no idea how Adam would know that.

"Willow, Xander, Tara and Anya." Buffy realized, attempting and failing to get up.

"They were conducting the Rite of Osiris on us." continued Adam.

Dumbledore and Snape both gasped at this, which made people stare at the unusually vocal Potions Professor, other than being the black hole in the room; he usually didn't make any noise what so ever other than arguing and complaining with whomever else was present.

"Don't they realise how dangerous that was?" Snape almost shouted, launching himself away from the wall

Adam turned to Harry "When you saw them by the graves did anyone of the group look particularly dominant or in charge?"

"Yes, the red head, the others looked worried, her eyes were black and she had blood on her cheeks, I think by that point the others wanted to stop."

Adam nodded in worry.

"I thought as much. Xander and Anya don't have any magical power on their own and Tara wouldn't do anything that dangerous without being talked into it. She has more sense." He sighed. "Willow is more reckless."

"Are they ok?" Buffy asked, still trying to get up, but not being allowed to by Hermione and Harry, who were holding her arms down.

"They're fine," Harry answered.

"The thing that worries me is the fact that I think they succeeded," Adam said quietly through his weakened state.

"What?" Snape and Dumbledore asked in unison.

Adam slowly turned. "Did you notice the white image of both myself and Buffy getting pulled into the portal?" At the nods of those who were present, he continued. "I believe that that was an aspect of myself and Buffy getting pulled back. Osiris submitted too easily to my counter spell, it's only because he got a part of us through that he closed the portal so quickly, I believe that the portal absorbed an aspect of our power. In my case, it absorbed a large proportion of my magic and for Buffy; I believe it absorbed her Slayer strength."

"What?" Buffy asked, sitting up now that she had recovered a bit.

Adam climbed to his feet and walked over to her.

"Hit me."

"What?"

"Hit me....You won't hurt me any more than I already have been."

She unsteadily got to her feet with the aid of Hermione and Harry and rather unspectacularly punched him in the jaw.

"OOOWWW....I might not hurt you but that most certainly hurt me....Jesus." Buffy complained, shaking her hand in an attempt to remove the pain.

"Like I said, your Slayer strength has gone, but I believe that you still have all the agility and speed, which is just as well really. Otherwise I'd have to teach MD by myself."

"No offence, Professor Berio, but if you don't mind me saying, you look like you can barely stand." observed Lupin.

"No offence taken and call me Adam. That goes for all of you," he said, turning to the rest of the room. "And in regards to my physical state, it should improve greatly when I retrieve a certain object from my Gringotts vault." He turned to Buffy. "I believe I also can retrieve an object that will assist Buffy now that she has lost her Slayer strength."

"What?" Buffy asked curiously.

"A wand."

"WHAT?" The word and various other incarnations of confusion and shock were echoed by the rest of the population of the room.

"But she's a Mud, I mean a Muggle," exclaimed Draco, quickly correcting himself, receiving warning glances from most of the room, though Ginny, Dumbledore and Adam looked pleased that he had corrected himself without being told to.

"Mr. Malfoy is correct Adam," Albus commented. "She is Muggle and therefore unable to use a wand or any other form of magical device."

Adam smiled at Dumbledore. "Look at her aura."

"I'm sorry, her what?" asked Ginny.

"Aura, it's a unique pattern of magic that flows through everyone, it varies from person to person. Muggle's, Wizards, Slayers, Demons, every type of being has its own unique signature. Only the very powerful can see them. Do you see it, Albus?" he asked, turning to Dumbledore, who was studying Buffy through squinted eyes.

Adam also sent a glance at Harry who was trying to do the same without being noticed, he could see that Buffy's magical aura was now similar to that of Hermione (as she was sitting next to Buffy she was the easiest to compare to).

"Yes," said Dumbledore, a little surprised. "Her Slayer powers must have been suppressing it."

"My thoughts exactly, if I am not mistaken then every Slayer may also be like Buffy, but as you said her Slayer powers suppresses it. Blasted Shadow Men." He whispered the last section to himself. "But now that Buffy is not a complete Slayer, she should be able to access it."

"Access what?" Buffy demanded. She had been getting more and more annoyed that she was being talked about and not to and that no one had discussed what it was that she was now supposed to have. "What have I got? What am I now?"

"A witch."