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Chapter 93 - Tempus Fugit

The Scoobies had decided to stay at Hogwarts for a few weeks; especially now that they had found their friends (or to be more precise Tara had found Adam) again, so they didn't want to leave too soon. They were not too worried about Sunnydale as Chlem had promised to call them if anything came up and Angel was going to pop in now and then to check on the place.

The urge to stay was increased when the rumour was spread that a ball was to be held for Halloween in the Scoobies honour as a thank you for their help with the rescue.

As soon as Buffy, Willow, Dawn and Anya heard about the Halloween Ball they had rushed into Hogsmeade to buy appropriate dresses (courtesy of the schools accounts), the rest of the school would have to stick with the dresses from the last school event, though some were obviously ordering more as the mail owl's, which had scared the life (or death in Spike's case) out of most of the Scoobies when they first saw them, kept bringing in large boxes.

The next day was reassuringly dull, or rather duller than the average day at Hogwarts; there were no battles, no creatures sneaking about the pipes trying to kill them, no escaped convicts breaking in, just a few Americans and a middle-aged Brit accompanied by a British Vampire. It caused even more excitement when it was discovered that several of the Americans were Muggle's and the others were, a demon, another Slayer and a pair of Wicca's, all these mysterious people gathered together in the castle had caused the entire school to go mad with intrigue, especially as they had not officially been announced as guests of the castle yet (in other words they were just there and none of the Professors had said anything about them).

The Scoobies had all been given guided tours which Harry had been volunteered to give, with Fleur and the rest of the 'Gryffindor Three' helping him. They had spent hours walking around, asking questions while he answered them all as best as he could with Ron, Fleur or Hermione contributing whenever he missed something out or they drifted towards subjects of their liking such as Quidditch, history or lessons.

While they were staying Tara and Willow had agreed to teach some of the student's Wiccan magic while Buffy, Spike and Giles agreed to help in Muggle Defence classes. In fact all the Scoobies had managed to get involved somehow, when Giles, Buffy and Spike weren't helping in MD they and Anya agreed to assist Fleur in History Of Magical Creatures, bringing their insights in Demons and Vampires to the class (something Spike enjoyed as it meant he could be scary again even if he could not bite the students.)

Likewise Xander and Dawn had been caught by the Muggle Studies Professor and roped into his class as real life examples of Muggle's who lived around Magic but did not need it to go about their lives (outside of fighting the forces of darkness that is), this also helped because as they noted when entering the class most of the Pure-Blood students there thought that Muggle's still used Crossbows, spears and horses to fight and they were able to contribute greatly to the classes knowledge of the Muggle World, though none believed that they was telling the proof about men walking on the moon and getting there in a metal firework, what a ridiculous thing to say.
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The biggest surprise to all came twenty four hours after the rescue when Lylacor and Mystique came charging into the castle. The Scoobies all felt very embarrassed that they had forgotten the animals and left them outside the castle on the moor dealing with what they had discovered later were called Death Eaters, they had insisted on coming to their masters aid, of course they only insisted as a dog (sorry, wolf) and a cat can, by constant howling, purring and anything else that would either persuade or annoy the humans so much that they were forced to bring them, Willow had done a little spell to avoid any quarantine issues (none of them had ever travelled with animals before so were not sure how it worked).

The Scoobies also remembered that they had left all their luggage back at their hotel, they had been so preoccupied with everything else they had not even noticed its absence. Dumbledore had sent Remus with them via the Floo Network to collect it, the Werewolf was more than a little of surprised at the amount of weapons they had brought with them, he was amazed they managed to get through Customs without half the British army coming down on them, another spell it turned out which gave him a new respect for the two Wicca's, he knew their magic was powerful but this was more than he had expected.

When the animals arrived they literally leapt on Adam who was so weak from his injuries that he had actually been using his Staff to support his weight rather than as a magical tool. Needless to say that he hit the floor very hard when they landed on him and considering how heavy Lylacor was he suffered quiet the impact; luckily he was built of stronger stuff and just let out a very loud groan.

There had actually been a round of applause when Adam walked into the Great Hall the that morning, he still looked terrible, his face was still dark and slightly misshaped from the burns and cuts, he was sporting several scars to the face and neck (these were the only ones that were visible), the fingers on his left hand had grown back, but the thing that surprised or to be more accurate stunned everyone that knew of his injuries was the fact that he was leaning heavily on the staff with his right arm.

The arm that had been cut off.

He also walked in with two normal coloured eyes.

And as he was supposed to be blind and short one eye this surprised them even more.

When they asked how he did it all he said was.

"Magic."

Much to the annoyance of the others, they knew some powerful glamour spells must have been at work but they would not allow him to touch anything with a non-existent arm.
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Dimension: 1375 - Earth
Date: 6th October 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Outside The Great Hall
Time: Morning

The next morning was to be the first morning that the Scoobies were due to make a proper appearance at the castle, Dumbledore was going to introduce them to the school over breakfast and more than one of them was very nervous.

Tara, Willow and Dawn were especially so and were either pacing up and down or trying to distract themselves, Xander, Giles and Buffy were not overly worried though it was clear to those that knew her that Buffy was not as calm as she let on, Spike of course was not overly bothered by the whole thing and was enjoying the others discomfort, finally there was a very eager Anya who was eager to try to sell some of her Magic Box merchandise (she had brought some with her just encase) to young rich and gullible students.
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Inside the Great Hall the students were talking excitedly, they all knew what was coming as the teachers table had eight extra places laid out.

As such when Dumbledore stood every student in the hall fell silent.

"Good morning Hogwarts. As I am sure you are aware we have some new quests in the castle, they aided us with the dangerous rescues of Professor Berio and Miss Weasley after travelling all the way from America Muggle style, so please give them a warm welcome. The Scoobies!!"

As the doors opened and the group walked in led by Buffy almost the entire hall erupted in applause much to the startled looks of the group.

Walking down the aisles between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables they were reassured by the smiling faces of Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

Reaching the end of the hall they walked to their seats and attempted to sit down, but Dumbledore was not going to let them off that easily.

"I would like to introduce to you from the left we have Mr Alexander Harris, a Construction Worker,"

He awkwardly stood and bowed to the sound of applause and more than one wolf whistle.

"Miss Willow Rosenberg and Miss Tara Maclay, a pair of very powerful Wicca's,"

Another round of applause and even more wolf whistles much to the embarrassment of the pair, the sounds of greeting were also mixed in with the excited whispers of students asking whether they had heard the Professor right and that they really were Wicca's.

"Next to them we have our first local, the British born Mr Spike, who prefers to be known just as Spike, to avoid widespread panic later I will explain now that he is a Vampire and used to be known as William the Bloody, but I stress that he is not going to bite anyone and if you do not annoy him or bring any fire, crosses or stakes anywhere near him he will be most pleasant to you."

Spike snorted at that comment, before Willow and Anya who were on either side of him forced him to stand and bow. There was less applause this time as quite a few of the students were looking at him wearily.

"Next we have Miss Anya Emerson, a Vengeance Demon, she too will not harm you but I must stress that you must never use the words 'I wish' around her."

Anya who had been standing and smiling widely dropped back down into her seat sulking as Dumbledore stomped on any possibility of her having any demonic work while at the school. Even the enthusiastic clapping and more wolf whistles did nothing to improve her mood.

"Following that we have Mr Rupert Giles a British Watcher, and encase you do not know what that is I am sure either he, one of his companions or the Library will answer your questions."

Giles stood and bowed politely.

"Miss Dawn Summers the sister of our very own Professor Summers."

Dawn gave a shy wave before Giles nudged her to her feet to bow properly again accompanied by the sounds of applause and whistles.

"And lastly we have the current Vampire Slayer, Miss Buffy Summers."

Some people clapped but most just looked on in confusion, many noticing what they had not before when they realised they really were seeing two identical people at the head table.

"As I am sure that confused more than a few of you allow me to explain. Professor Summers and Miss Summers are in fact one and the same person, though due to a magical accident some time ago they were split in to two separate beings, Miss Summers retaining the Slayer strength and Professor Summers the ability to do magic. As they too have only just found out about this Professor Summers is changing her name to Anne Summers, and again if you wish to learn more about the Slayer you can ask one of our guests or look in the Library."

More excited mutterings.

"I am also pleased to announce that during their stay they will be assisting in lessons to help explain their individual area of expertise. Mr Harris and the younger Miss Summer's will be assisting in Muggle Studies. Mr Spike, Mr Giles and the elder Miss Summers will be assisting in Muggle Defence classes; they will also be joining Miss Emerson in History of Magical Creatures. Misses Rosenberg and Maclay will be doing some classes in Wiccan Magic, see your Common Room notice board for details and lastly the younger Miss Summers as well as helping in Muggle Studies will be joining some of you in classes. The last thing I want to add is another change in classes. From now on Muggle Defence, Duelling Lessons and meetings of the DA which Professor Potter has revived, legally this time," there was a splattering of chuckles around the room from DA members "Will all be held together."

This definitely got people talking.

"That way each class can benefit from the others as well as helping you to combine fighting styles. With the aid of our guests as well as Professors Potter, Summers and Berio-Megiltura all who attend this class should be most proficient by the end of the school year, again see your notice boards for details."

Seating himself without his usual mad ending the hall excitedly began to discuss what they had just heard, the next few days would be very interesting.
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Dimension: 1375 - Earth
Date: 7th October 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - An Empty Classroom
Time: Late Morning

The following day Willow and Tara were about to conduct their first Wiccan lesson in an empty class room.

"This is a bad idea." Said Willow worriedly as she paced up and down the room "I mean, you don't ask someone who almost destroyed the world because of a magic addiction to teach others how to perform magic."

"You will be ok Willow," catching Willow in mid pace "I'm here for you and you are not going to be teaching them advanced spells, just a few simple shielding and summoning spells. You won't go dark for just that."

"Are you sure, I mean, do you know for certain that it won't be too much, every time I do a spell I get dark roots, it doesn't take a lot to push me over the edge."

"I'm here for you Willow." Calmed Tara, pulling the redhead into a tight hug before brushing her lips with a kiss "Giles trusts you, Dumbledore trusts you, they would not let you teach the students if they thought you would go dark....Trust in yourself."

She finished the sentence off with a longer kiss which lasted until they heard an "Ouch." from the doorway.

Looking around they saw Hermione staring at them in surprise while Ron and Neville rubbed their heads. Ron, having stopped dead at the sight of the pair of very attractive witches kissing each other, resulting in Neville walking straight into the back of him.

"Hey." Said Willow embarrassed, moving away from Tara "Please come in."

The group filtered through the door, most of the men and several of the women stared at them with glazed expressions as they entered. The group consisted of Hermione, Ginny, Harry, Ron, Neville, Luna, quite a few other students (most of whom were DA members), Draco (heaven knows why) and Dawn making over thirty in total, (though Buffy, Anne and Giles didn't know Dawn was there).

"Hey guys," greeted Willow nervously, she and Tara had never expected so many people to show up and both were getting nervous now.

There were several seconds of silence before she spoke again, thirty faces watching her was a little unnerving, her last teaching class was a lot more reluctant to learn....and a lot smaller.

"So....I guess you're all here to learn about Wiccan Magic."

Another pause occurred before Tara came to her rescue.

"Wh....why don't we start with a demon....demonstration." she stuttered, before directing her line of sight towards one of the school bags lying against the wall (the class was sitting on the floor as there would not be room for desks when they started practicing.

Quite a few members of the class gaped as the bag rose off the ground with no word of command and nothing more than a glance of her eyes.

"W....Wiccan magic, has a different source to the Wand Magic you use."

"Your magic comes from within yourselves," Willow continued, now that the initial hurdle had been overcome she could keep the momentum going "Whereas ours relies on our abilities to gather and control Magic from around us and provide it with purpose. Like you we can run out of power when we get too exhausted to pull more magic into us."

"We can store magic within our bodies like you can," continued Tara, the school bag slowly drifting across the room above the heads of the students "But for us it's just holding it until we use it, although we do have magic that occurs naturally in our bodies as you have though we rarely use it to perform whatever task we wish to accomplish, but rather use it to direct the Magic around us to do so, which is why the bag is still floating around and I am not feeling as much of a power drain as you would if you were performing magic."

"Remember that unlike wand magic Wiccan magic comes from around you not within, try to draw it from your surroundings, this being a magic school there is a lot of magic around to use." Tara continued "Split into pairs and attempt to create a shield wandlessly, both Wiccan and Wand Magic use Latin so your normal incantation should work. We will come around and provide help where necessary."

They split in to the obvious pairs Hermione and Ron, Ginny and Draco (now that Ron had finally accepted him....Just) and finally Harry and Dawn, Dawn had become inseparable from Harry and Fleur and was spending almost all of her free time with them and not just because she found Harry attractive, but because she got on very well with both Harry and his mate.
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About ten minutes later Ron was still trying unsuccessfully to create a shield.

"Ron you've got to relax remember, otherwise you won't be able to do it," Hermione reminded him, it was true that none of them had managed to create a shield yet but she knew how much it annoyed Ron when he could not do things.

"Go on then, you do it." he said slightly annoyed, he sounded like he had in first year, Hermione almost laughed at the memory of their first Charms Class.

She shook herself out and closed her eyes, attempting to feel the magic around her, the slight tingle Willow and Tara had told them about as one of the additional pointers crossed her skin.

Good that's going to plan; now she had to focus the magic.

Wait....its changing....it feels different.

She....she could feel the magic flowing through her.

But that wasn't all; she could feel other concentrations of magic near her.

She felt light headed, she tried to stop, but the magic continued to grow.

It kept growing, expanding, filling her.

She felt herself being pulled away from herself.

She tried to focus on the sounds around her, her friend's voices.

Something was wrong.

They were different.

She opened her eyes.

She looked at Ron.

He wasn't moving.

She looked at the others, they weren't moving.

Wait....They were....they were moving very slowly.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to concentrate but closing her eyes showed her even more that her open eyes did.

She could see the room from every angle; it was as if she were standing everywhere at once.

Her other sense were suddenly overloaded by sounds and smells.

The noises were deafening, she heard everything.

The slight shuffle of shoes on the floor.

The slight rubbing of peoples clothes.

The scuttling sound of a small spider moving across the wall, the sound of each of its legs slowly hitting the surface like sledge hammers.

The smells were almost as bad.

She could smell everyone in the room, their scents, unique smells, the perfumes, deodorants and the whiff of a chocolate frog in someone's robes.

Opening her eyes again they were overloaded with colour.

She could see the magic in the room, the magic flowing through everyone, their auras.

Everything.

The lights flashed past her as if she were travelling incredibly fast.

She clutched at her head, the pain was overloading her, she collapsed to the floor screaming as the world accelerated back to its usual speed.
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Tara turned at the scream to see Hermione writhing on the floor.

She ran over the rest of the group right behind her.

"Hermione, HERMIONE." she shouted dropping to the floor beside her just as Willow reached them.

Hermione continued to scream, clutching her head.

Willow dropped to her knees beside her; the rest of the group had gathered around, Harry and Ron were on the ground on her other side.

Willow moved her hand over Hermione and muttered something under her breath and Hermione seized crying out, her head rolled as she left consciousness.

"Quick!" urged Harry "We must get her to the Hospital Wing!"

Harry muttered a spell and Hermione floated between them as the group as one ran through the door and down the corridor.

Draco and Ginny moving ahead to warn Madam Pomfrey of Hermione's plight.
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In his tower Adam was updating his book, now that Willow had returned his Journal he had to update everything out of the new book he had made himself as a replacement. He could do it magically but he enjoyed the sensation of writing.

He felt a lot better than he had just twenty four hours before, Madam Pomfrey was a good Nurse but he had had to conceal the fact that as most of the weapons used were magic based her potions had little effect upon him. If they could see him as he really looked they would see he was still covered in cuts, still one eye short, still armless, fingerless and still blind, but he was not about to tell them any of this.

He did not want them to look on him with sympathy, he was The Guardian, he wasn't allowed to be weak, when people looked on a legend or a myth (and lets face it when you have been around as long as he had that is exactly what you become) they did not want to see a man only just holding himself together, they wanted someone powerful and more importantly someone who looked it.

Half way through a line written in a little known language a sound caught his ear.

A distant scream.

A scream he recognised.

Hermione.

He was out of the door in under a second, summoning his staff to his magically present hand as he went.
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Half way down the last corridor Tara was hit by a wave of senses, her vision was filled with lights, her nostrils filled with scents and her ear drums felt like they would burst; unbeknown to her she was experiencing exactly what Hermione had mere minutes before.

She collapsed to the floor screaming as her world began to spin.

Dawn and Ron had to veer out the way to avoid hitting the collapsed Wiccan.

Willow skidded to a halt and ran back to her lover, almost tripping over on the stone floor in the processs.

"Tara, TARA!!"

The door of the Hospital Wing banged open as Draco, Ginny and Madam Pomfrey ran out, meeting them halfway down the corridor.

The Nurse immediately dropped to the floor next to Tara.

Harry and some of the others continued in to the Wing and placed Hermione on a bed, before a few returned to help with Tara.

Adam threw himself around the corner and dropped to the floor by a still screaming Tara, almost knocking Dawn off her feet.

His hands immediately went to her head and he began chanting.

After about three seconds she calmed and sagged to the floor.

Sighing briefly Adam had but a moment before his arms and legs gave out and he collapsed to the floor beside her.

"Maybe Tara was right....No magic."