FicWad

Chapter 91 - The Otter And The Unicorn

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 4th October 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Entrance Hall
Time: Late Morning

They landed in the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts, just inside the main doors.

The Sunnydale crew stagger as they landed falling to the ground as they were not used to travelling by portkey.

Buffy (the one from Sunnydale) falls back against one of the walls.

"What in the name of all that is undead was that?" she orders to know one in particular.

"It was a portkey Miss Summers." McGonagall replies from Adam's side.

"How do you...." she was cut off before she could finish as Hermione shouted at Adam, his eyelid had slid shut.

"Wake up!!....Adam!!....WAKE UP!!"

Tara joined her at his side.

Remus moved forward and checked his pulse; sighing he closed his eyes in sadness.

"He's gone."

"NO....noooo." Hermione cried.

Ron knelt down beside her and she immediately threw herself into his arms, sobbing into his chest.

"Adam....Adam." Tara whimpered "Time Lord."

Willow (whose hair was slowly returning to red) moved forward and took Tara in her arms.

There were several moments of silence before Professor McGonagall remembered what the others had not.

Her eyes snapped open and she turned to her star pupil "Miss Granger."

The grieving Gryffindor looked up slowly her face stained with tears.

"Your dream....there is still hope you can save him....the otter can save him."

"Not," sob "Without the Unicorn."

The words triggered Tara's own memory....Adam had called her the unicorn.

"I'm....I'm the unicorn." she announced drawing everyone's attention.

"Of course," Giles said wiping his glasses "Your dream."

"Yes but what about the wings?" Draco asked "You have to give the falcon back his wings....what are the wings?"

Snape, who until now had been exchanging glares with Spike (despite the sad atmosphere) looked around as he worked out what the others had not.

"His magic....you have to return his magic."

All the Hogwarts group were astonished that HE had solved the problem.

"But how?" asked Hermione "I don't know how to do that."

Tara sat up straight, pulling away from Willow.

"I do." she was now glad she had been reading a lot of magic books since her power boost.

"What do I do?" asked Hermione picking up the staff and moving back to Adam's left while Tara returned to his right.

"Is that his?" Tara asked, gesturing to the staff.

"Yes."

"Give it to me, but keep your hand around it. Take his hand." Tara ordered taking his right.

Hermione took his left in her own, gripping it like her life depended on it.

"Now what?" asked Hermione.

Tara lowered the staff to Adam.

"Recursus." [Return]

Both Tara and Hermione arched their backs, pained expressions crossing their faces.

"Tara!"

"Mione!"

Willow and Ron moved towards their respective partners.

"No."

"Don't touch them." Snape and Giles warned simultaneously.

The two witches stiffened as a white flash of light travelled through the staff, down into the two witches then into Adam.

The witches sagged back into their partners arms.

McGonagall and Remus moved to Adam.

"Adam....Adam are you there?"

No response came for several seconds until his eye slowly opened.

"It appears so." he answered in his normal tone, if not slightly weakened.

He managed to lean up on his elbows only to be enveloped by Hermione and Tara.

They had both unfortunately again forgotten that although he now had his powers back, he was still only just in one piece, in the fact that:

His skin was half gone and the rest was either burnt of pealing,

He had one eye and he was blind,

He had no finger on his left hand,

And no hand on his right arm.

But more importantly they had forgotten that he was in a great deal of pain, something their very enthusiastic hug certainly reminded him of.

"ARRRGH!!"

They both pulled back immediately.

"Oh God....I'm so sorry,"

"Really sorry, it's just that,"

"We didn't mean to hurt you,"

"You were dead and now you're not, are you ok?"

"How badly are you hurt?"

"Is there anything we can do?"

He raised his hand to stop their babbling apologies.

"I'm ok," this earned a few snorts that was one thing they were sure he was not "I've felt better, argh I," he groaned raising a hand to his head "By the gods, I hate dying....at least it wasn't as bad as last...."

He was cut off by a crashing sound behind them.

Buffy two (from Sunnydale) had just backed into a suit of armour as she for the first time saw her doppelganger (for a Slayer she's not very observant).

This act also drew the other Buffy's attention to the Hogwarts Buffy, when she saw her doppelganger she had a very similar reaction.

"Who?"

"What?"

"What are you?"

"I'm Buffy, what are you?"

"I'M Buffy!!"

"Ladies calm down." Remus interrupted moving to the Hogwarts Buffy "I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable and simple explanation for all this.

Most of the assembled company turned to look at him.

There was NEVER a simple explanation.
________________________________________________________________________

Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 4th October 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Hospital Wing
Time: Late Morning

In the Hospital Wing Adam, Hermione, Tara, Ginny, Kingsley and Moody are in beds along with those who had been there since Adam's disappearance.

Ginny, Kingsley and Moody were fine but Madam Pomfrey insisted on checking them out and it was only thanks to McGonagall that Moody was taking the potions given to him.

Hermione and Tara were just drained since their power levels had been returned to normal.

Adam was another matter entirely; Madam Pomfrey almost had a heart attack when he was brought in. Skin ripped off, pealing and charred, multiple slashes and cuts all over his body including to his throat, blood running freely, fingers gone, an arm gone, an eye gone AND to top it all off....blind.

He had been fed so many potions in the last five minutes that they had all lost count.

The bleeding had stopped and his wounds were closing (although it would take a while for them to heal fully and there would be scars from most).

But his sight, eye and arm were another matter; there was nothing she could do about them.

The fingers were small and simple enough to be regenerated but everything else was a right off.

He was now lying in a bed, his lower half covered with a sheet (he would have had pyjamas on but they would give too much contact to the skin and that was a bad idea until it was fully healed). If anyone had looked closely they would have seen that the he wasn't actually touching the bed or the sheet, they were being held a millimetre away from his skin, Madam Pomfrey knew some useful charms.

In the room at the moment other than the bed ridden were McGonagall, Snape, Remus, Ron (who was sitting between Hermione and Ginny's beds), Draco (who was sitting on the other side of Ginny's bed), both Delacour's (sitting between Harry and Fleur's beds) and the Scoobies who were not quite believing half of what they were seeing.

"I know you are not well Professor," began Madam Pomfrey "But I need to know if you are aware of any way to revive the Headmaster and Professor's Potter and Delacour?"

"What have you tried?" Adam asked tiredly.

"Every conceivable restoring agent that I know, no charms or potion seems to be able to revive them."

Adam thought for a second before turning to Snape.

"Professor, do you have any juice from the Black Poppy in your stores?"

"Black Poppy juice. Yes, a small amount." He replied after a moment's thought, it was a strange ingredient to ask for, it was a Wizarding plant with no relation to Muggle Poppies that was used to send people into deep sleeps, it was not used often because there was the risk that it could induce comas.

"Enough for three full standard size test tubes?"

"Yes."

"Then please summon it, each of them needs one, followed immediately by a Pepper-Up Potion."

Snape drew his wand and gestured towards the door.

A minute later he opened them just long enough for as a small bottle to enter the room, coming to a stop in his hand.

Turning to Madam Pomfrey he filled the three test tubes before helping to administer them to the three.

In less than thirty seconds all had been shocked awake by the steam pouring out of their ears.

"Incredible." Beamed Madam Pomfrey, immediately fusing over her patients "How does it work?"

"It's a special immobilising charm which prevents you from waking the victim unless they are sent further into sleep first. Black Poppy juice can do that as you only need a slightly sleepier patient in order to bring them back around. It's rather brilliant when you think about it."

"So where the bloody hell are we?" exclaimed Spike, unable to remain quiet anymore. Giles had been sending the Scoobies subtle ‘wait' and ‘be patient' messages but Spike being Spike was not prone to doing what he was told.

"Spike, don't swear." Dawn chastised as most of the room turned to look at the Scoobies "See what you've done now, everyone's looking at us."

"You are at Hogwarts." came the response from the recently awakened Dumbledore.

"Hogs....what's?" she asked.

"Hogwarts." Dumbledore repeated "Allow me to formerly introduce myself; I am Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

Tara and Willow's eyes lit up.

It suddenly dawned on them, that's why the stakes they had been wielding were a bit on the scrawny side....they were wands....they actually used wands.

"You teach magic here?" Willow asked.

"Indeed. Mr. Weasley, a demonstration please?"

Ron withdrew his wand and levitating the flowers beside Hermione's bed.

"Cool." Dawn smiled.

Dumbledore smiled, Dawn already liked this guy, he looked like a skinny Santa Claus.

"Please forgive me for seeming a little confused but a lot seems to have happened during my absence. Severus, would you mind awfully if...."

"Of course Headmaster," the Potions Master replied, drawing his wand again and pointing it at his head, the group watched as he drew a long wisp of silver from his head, touched it to the Headmasters wand where it spilt in two and both returned a wisp to their heads. In the background Tonks was doing the same for Harry and Fleur.

The Headmaster stood still for a few seconds before looking up and opening his eyes.

"Thank you Severus," he nodded "Now, where were we?"

"Err....What did you just do?" Willow asked timidly.

"Severus had given me a copy of some of his memories from the past week, explaining what happened after myself and the other professor's were rendered unconscious. Continuing introductions this is Professor McGonagall, Transfiguration teacher and Head of Gryffindor House."

"Pleasure." the woman greeted.

/She looks nice enough/. Thought Dawn.

"Wait, what's transfiguration?" Buffy Two asked

"The changing of one object into another." Willow supplied.

"Oh."

Dumbledore turned to continue "Professor Snape, Potions Master and Head of Slytherin House."

Snape snorted in response.

Geez /Thought Dawn /What's up with tall dark and greasy? He could probably match Angel for broodiness.

Dawn leaned over to Buffy (Sunnydale Buffy) and whispered "Who put the stake up Cranky Pants ass."

Unfortunately she said it the tiniest bit too loud.

This earned a glare from Snape and chuckles from Ron, Harry, McGonagall, Remus, Buffy one, Buffy two, Draco, Adam and Dumbledore as well as more glares for all who laughed.

The Buffy's were trying their best to hide their snickering while trying to look like they disapproved....needless to say they were failing.

"Moving on," the Headmaster continued "Professor Lupin, Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Call me Remus." Willow nearly jumped out of her skin when she looked at him properly now that they were in full light rather than the half light of Voldemort's castle.

"You're a werewolf!" she said only after realising that that was probably not the best thing to say out loud.

The Hogwarts group not including Adam and Buffy stared at Willow in surprise.

"How did you...." Remus began.

"Your aura....I used to date a werewolf. I recognise the pattern, though it's slightly different it's still roughly the same."

The Hogwarts group (excluding those mentioned above) were not quite sure if they should be relieved or worried.

She could see auras only the really powerful like Adam and Dumbledore could do that. They all recalled the discussion in Professor Dumbledore's office a few weeks previously when they discovered Buffy was a witch.

"Moving on again this is Alastor ‘Mad-Eye' Moody, retired Auror and former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Sort of." Moody growled out, he wasn't trying to be threatening it was just his usual tone, though the Scoobies did not know that, Dawn and a couple of the others recoiled slightly as his spinning eye focused on them.

"Sort of?" Spike asked, the slightest hint of interest was heard in his voice.

"A doppelganger of sorts." Dumbledore contributed.

"Can we not use the word doppelganger please?" asked Xander alternately looking between the two Buffy's "Every time we have encountered one thing's never go well."

Dumbledore chuckled "As you wish....simply put it was an enemy in disguise, he kept the real Alastor locked up for the entire year, so he was a Professor but he never actually did any teaching."

"Well that's one way to get out of work." said Spike, earning a chuckle from Dumbledore.

"I would get up but I have been ordered into this bed." Moody glared at Madam Pomfrey with his magical eye that was still ‘wigging' out some of the Scoobies.

Ron leaned over to Hermione and Harry and whispered "So much for constant vigilance." which earned a snicker from Hermione and Adam (thanks to his exceptional hearing which the others all thought was getting slightly creepy).

"What's an Auror?" asked Anya.

"Wizard Policeman." Explained Hermione.

"In and around the beds we have Miss Virginia Weasley a fifth year student who has unfortunately just been through a very traumatic experience."

"Call me Ginny and I don't want to disagree sir, but I have hardly been through a very traumatic experience, I just spent a few days asleep....if anything I feel refreshed....thank you again Adam." she said turning to him smiling.

"It was my pleasure."

"Next to her we have Mr Harry Potter a very remarkable sixth year student...."

Snape snorted earning a disapproving scowl from all those who knew Harry.

"And Duelling Master."

"Just Harry." he corrected, during the conversation Ron and Hermione had quickly update Fleur and himself as to what had happened.

"You're a Professor AND a student?" asked Giles.

"Yes, the Headmaster thought I was someone else while I was using a legal second identity as a disguise. He hired me so I could teach myself to duel and I....‘accidentally' forgot to tell him." He chuckled.

"I did that for a bit too." added Willow.

"Lady Fleur Delacour, History of Magical Creatures Professor."

"And my Mate." Added Harry.

"Hello." She smiled.

"Why do I get the feeling that the ‘M' in mate was capitalised?" asked Giles.

"Because it was," Fleur replied "I am only three quarters Human, the last quarter is Veela and Veela can choose a mate and bind their soul to them if they choose."

"Fascinating." Smiled Giles.

Anyone who had been watching Dawn closely would have seen that when Harry was introduced that her eyes locked on him and she sighed contently.

The only ones to notice this happened to be the two Buffy's.

Both of them recognised the look she was sending him.

It was the same look she gave Angel every time they meet.

The ‘Oh my god this guy is gorgeous' look.

Though both Buffy's were having different thoughts on the subject.

Buffy one, having known Harry for a while was thinking.

If I had to choose a boy friend for my sister it would be him, if only he wasn't already taken.

Buffy two on the other hand was thinking.

If this boy misbehaves I'm going to break both his arms off and beat him to death with his own fists.

Though the latter's though changed when Fleur was introduced:

If this boy misbehaves I will tear his arms off and let his mate beat him to death with his own fists.

"Comte Delacour and his wife Delphine," continued Dumbledore "Member of the French Wizarding government and Fleur's parents."

"Mr Ronald Weasley, another sixth year, Miss Weasley's brother and the best chess player this school has known for many years."

"Oooo, a challenge." Willow said excited "I've never met anyone except Dawn who can match me at chess."

Dawn would have blushed if she hadn't been staring intently at the strange scar on Harry's head.

Ron also smiled at the thought of a worthy challenge.

"We'll have to arrange a game."

"Next we have Miss Hermione Granger by far the cleverest student of her age at Hogwarts."

Hermione blushed.

"And my girlfriend." Ron added, drawing her attention, she gave him a look that clearly said ‘is that right'.

"I do not recall you actually asking." she replied folding her arms.

"Ok then, consider this the question." he said in a rare display on spontaneity, getting down on one knee "Hermione....will you go out with me?"

Hermione was speechless; he asked her....he actually asked her, talk about timing, he had to do it in front of over a dozen people.

"Yes....yes I will."

Ron engulfed her in a very tight hug followed by a passionate kiss, Hermione briefly saw Adam wink at her over Ron's shoulder.

"About bloody time." Harry whispered to Ginny.

Some members of the room were tearing up or getting closer to their respective partners.

Others like Snape had very different opinions.

"Headmaster do you mind if I depart....I'm getting nauseous."

Needless to say that put a damper on the romance causing Ron and Hermione to separate.

"Carrying on," Dumbledore said smiling at the pair "We had Draco Mal...."

"Holy coholy!" Anya exclaimed "Its Spikes ‘mini-me'."

That drew all eyes to Draco.

Spike looked like he had seen a ghost.

"Spike are you ok?....SPIKE?" asked Buffy two.

He turned and walked out of the room.

"Spike!" Buffy asked again, following after him.

He didn't get very far as just outside the hospital wing was a very large window over looking the grounds and since they entered the wing about half an hour ago, the sun had moved around and now flooded the entire corridor.

Spike started to walk into the light without even realising and only stopped when his hand started smoking.

"Argh!!" he exclaimed looking down at his hand then at the light blocking the passage "....Balls."

Buffy two followed him out.

"Spike....what is it?"

"A bad dream." he replied leaning against the wall, arms folded.

"Spike....explain!" the last word was an order not a request.

Spike sighed and walked back into the Hospital Wing.

Everyone looked at Spike expectantly, including Draco who was just recognising the similarities.

"When I was human my full name was William James....Malfoy."
________________________________________________________________________

Draco was in shock, his eyes were fixed on Spike, he looked so familiar but he couldn't seem to remember from where, he said he was related but he actually remembered his face from somewhere.

The silence was broken by Adam.

"D.T.C."

"The what now?" Xander asked.

"Indeed." agreed Dumbledore "Could you expand on that point please."

Adam turned his head to them.

"Dimensional Temporal Correction. i.e. D.T.C."

"I think I understand." Hermione said, sitting straight up.

Adam smiled, he should have guessed, he wondered how long it would be before Willow picked up what was going on, if she gets this right he'd be very impressed, all he had said was the name of the phenomenon.

"Go on then Hermione....You will probably be able to explain it better than me."

She smiled and blushed at his confidence.

"Well, if I understand you correctly, when you and Buffy came through the portal, you didn't cross from one dimension into another dimension as we thought, you actually pulled the dimensions together, they merged into one, in doing so the time...."

"Wait, wait." Xander interrupted "Dimensions merged?"

"When Buffy and Adam came through the portal." she explained.

"But they didn't go through the portal." Willow argued.

"Correction," said Adam "Not all of us did, some of us remained but most of us came through. That part I worked out a little while ago when I first realised I didn't have as much power as I should have."

"So what your saying is," Buffy one guessed "That when we came through the portal, our bodies, a copy of our bodies were left in Sunnydale." Adam nodded "And we were buried and had funerals and stuff." she turned to Willow who nodded "Then you tried to raise us using the Right of....of...."

"Osiris." Harry contributed.

"Right right, and I came back obviously, which is why there are two me's." She guessed.

"Dear lord." Giles exclaimed rubbing his glasses at the thought of two troublesome Slayers running around at the same time as Dawn groaned.

"Oh great, now I have two sisters telling me what to do."

Dumbledore and several of the Scoobies laughed at her statement as the Buffy's glared.

"But I was too powerful to be brought back that way," added Adam "So a powerless copy of my body is still buried in Sunnydale."

"The explanation sounds about right." Willow confirmed.

"Hey how did you know about the Right?" Anya asked.

"When you performed the Right of Osiris a portal opened and tried to suck us through," Adam explained "In the end it took some of my magic and Buffy's Slayer strength."

"It took Buffy's strength?" Xander repeated "So she's all weak now."

"Hey!!" Buffy protected "I still got my Slayer speed and senses....Plus a few other things." Buffy argued, not wanting to seem weaker than the other her.

"What were you saying Miss.... Granger was it....about the Dimensional Temporal Correction." Giles asked.

"Please, call me Hermione, where did I get to....Oh yes, the merger, like I was saying when the portal opened it used Adam's magic to seal the damage done by him trying to get to Buffy in time, in doing so our two dimensions became one, and if I am correct in understanding the Professor."

Adam cleared his throat.

"Sorry, Adam. If I understand ADAM correctly then he is saying that the history of both our dimensions are rewriting themselves together so that they fit as if they were always were one."

She finished, Adam just smiled.

"You really are the cleverest witch of your age."

She blushed even deeper than before, while Ron looking on proudly.

"But it's still not possible." Willow countered "They are from different dimensions, they can't be related."

Adam raised an eye brow "Can't they?"

He turned to Spike.

"Did you have any siblings?"

"Yeah....Younger sister and older brother."

"What happened to them." he asked

"I killed them." he answered instantly, before his face creased up in confusion "No....wait...., they were magical, I couldn't get near them, it's bloody hard to kill someone who can set you on fire in the blink of an eye....my mother was a Muggle that's how I managed to turn her, I was a Squib."
___________________________________________________________________________

Everyone was staring at Spike intently.

Snape was curious, what did he mean by eat and turn.

"That's not possible I remember killing them....I remember!" Spike said slightly louder arguing with his own memories.

Snape whipped out his wand upon realising the truth.

"Vampire!" he hissed aiming his wand at Spike and moving in front of Dumbledore protectively, when he said the word, Draco, Ron and Harry moved in front of Ginny and Hermione.

"Severus!" Dumbledore said calmly "I'm sure our new friends would not have brought him if he were not on our side."

"It's true, he's on our side." Dawn contributed, moving protectively in front of Spike.

"He's been neutered." Explained Anya.

"Hey!!" Spike exclaimed, moving from the wall, Snape's hand tightened as his wand followed him "I have not been bloody neutered....You'll be calling me a eunuch next."

Xander attempted to quell a snicker, Spike turned to him.

"Watch it whelp."

"Could you please elaborate on his....safeness." Dumbledore requested.

"There is a chip in his head." Buffy one explained before the other Buffy took over.

"He can't hurt anyone, without getting mind splitting migraines."

Xander looked between the two of them.

"Could you not do that....please, it's very confusing."

"Severus," Dumbledore said calmly "Lower your wand."

The others all lowered theirs, Snape was about a second slower and sent Spike a warning glance that said very clearly ‘Don't try anything'.

"Anyway," Giles said cleaning his glasses and looking at Spike "I'm sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for your memory problem."

Xander was about to jump in with a comment when Willow cut him off by exclaimed "I GET IT!"

Adam smiled, he knew she wouldn't be too far behind Hermione; he could have placed bets on it.

"When the dimensions merged our version of history and theirs mixed together, so in this dimension you're his Vampire uncle."

"Correct," nodded Adam "The reason Spike remembers both histories is because the dimensions fixed the timeline problems on a case by case basis, up until the point that I asked about Spike's relatives he would not have even considered the possibility that they were Magical and that their line survived."

There was the sound of something dull hitting the floor.

They all turned to see Draco lying on the ground where he fainted; Ginny was instantly beside him trying to waken him.

"Draco....Draco!"

"He's no relation of mine."

"You're his uncle." Dawn countered.

"He bloody fainted; I will not be related to anyone who faints."

"Don't swear." Hermione responded automatically before gasping when she realised she had just told a complete stranger not to swear.

Spike raised his eyebrow.

"Miss no Miss." he said in mock salute, causing a ripple of laughter.

Hermione blushed Adam raised his arm weakly.

Trying not to laugh Dawn turned back to Spike.

"Well he did faint and you are his uncle, so live with it."

"Not living with it would be preferably," suggested Xander shortly before Dawn hit him.

Though he obviously wasn't at full strength Adam struggled to move his arm so that it was pointed in Draco's direction.

Raising it he floated Draco off the floor and onto Ginny's bed, Ginny moving on to the bed beside him while Ron tried not to react.

"Adam your weak, don't do any magic yet." Tara ordered.

"Yes Miss." Adam replied with a smile, mimicking Spike's earlier mock salute, albeit a lot slower.

"Wait." Willow interrupted "How did you know where he fell....your bl....I mean you're...." she hesitated attempting to avoid using the word.

"You can say it." he reassured her.

"Visually challenged?" Harry suggested.

"Very tactful Harry." Dumbledore replied with a smile before looking to Adam for his answer.

"There are other ways of seeing." he replied slyly, obviously not planning on saying any more.

Draco moaned as he regained consciousness "What happened?"

"You fainted you bloody poof....You call yourself a Malfoy?"

"Spike." both Buffy's chastised.

Draco got to his feet, groaning slightly at the headache he now had.

"So let me get this straight, you're my what, great, great uncle or something?"

"You tell me." The vampire returned.

"What were your brother's and sister's names?"

"Edward Charles Malfoy and Elizabeth Catherine Malfoy."

Draco began counting on his fingers "Great, great, GREAT uncle." he concluded.

"Well lucky me, I have relatives." Spike quipped.


AUTHORS NOTE: I'm not overly happy with this chapter, but I can't think how to get all the information and introductions written down in a way that I would be happy with.