The Eighth Weasley

"Fred!"

Buffy and Remus barely had time to move aside before the bruised Fred Weasley was grabbed from between them by his parents and pulled into a tight hug. More than four other arms were rapidly added, and Remus gave the Slayer a brief smile.

"Times like this, it makes things worthwhile, doesn't it?" he said softly.

"Sometimes," she had to agree with a nod. "You fill Dumbledore in for me?"

Remus nodded. "I'll get it sorted," he said. "Do you want some food sent up to your room?"

Buffy shook her head, watching the Weasleys hurrying their son up towards the castle, and kicked the crushed can that had served as the portkey to one side. "I'm good," she said. "I'll just walk back up more slowly. Take my time."

Remus gave her a curious look, but didn't ask anything else, making his way after the Weasleys.

Kicking the can again, Buffy sighed.

It was weird that on a day when the sky was blue without a single cloud and she could hear the kids at the school enjoying a free afternoon, she still felt like she was screwing everything up.

Yeah, they had got Fred back, and they had hopefully set Glory up to screw herself over, but that didn't make her feel any better knowing that Dawn was still trapped somewhere, at the mercy of witches and wizards who didn't give a damn if she lived or died, as long as they got what they wanted.

She walked back towards the school.

This far from the castle, the grass was still pretty long, and she didn't feel like following the carriage path, so she waded through it, kicking up dandelions, white fluff catching on the wind.

Spring already, getting closer and closer to summer.

Ducking under the trees, she stepped out onto the lawn that led up towards the castle, a smile creeping onto her lips.

She was still wearing her coat, but it looked like the kids in the school thought it was already the middle of summer. Some of them were wading in the shallows of the lake, while others were sunning themselves on the grass, sleeves rolled up, collars undone; enjoying what they thought was warm weather.

Walking out of the shade of the trees, she wondered how they would deal with the good old weather of home then stopped. Home. It'd be weird going back, after living in a world where everyone knew what she was, and didn't mind. Going back to anonymity. It was something she hadn't considered.

"Professor Summers!"

Startled, she turned.

Duncan Cameron was hurrying towards her across the grass. He had apparently been sitting with a group of other Gryffindors, but had got up as soon as he saw her, leaving his books and sweater in a heap on the grass.

"Hey, Duncan," she said, when he was close enough, trying to pull on a convincing smile. "You okay?"

He nodded, tugging at his grass-stained cuff anxiously. "I saw Mr and Mrs Weasley coming up from the gates," he said carefully. "Was today the day ye were going to try and get the last bit tae Dawn?"

Buffy nodded. "We got Fred Weasley back as well," she said quietly.

"But not Dawnie," he finished for her, looking down at the grass. "She'll... she will be all right, won't she?"

"Yeah." The Slayer crossed her arms, rubbing her left hand against her right arm and looking passed the boy towards the castle. "I think she will." She tried to laugh. "As long as she doesn't make anyone cranky."

"Aye," Duncan agreed quietly. "I wish I could help, Professor."

She smiled tiredly. "You are," she said. "You helped us with her wacky soup stuff and you helped with Snapey and you're going to be waiting with us when she comes back, right?"

Duncan's smile was stronger. "Aye," he said firmly. "She won't get rid of me as easily as all that."

Okay, it was probably totally inappropriate, but she had to hug him for that.

When he stepped back, he stared at her, blinking. "Um..."

"Get back to your buddies," she said with a smile that wasn't forced. He nodded, almost running away from her, and she laughed quietly. As she continued on her way back up to the castle, she could hear the teasing begin.

8.8.8.8.8

The Goddess was standing over them and Narcissa looked anxiously at Dawn, who was laid out on the bed as if she was in the process of dying very noisily. Glory had returned and immediately come to the room, demanding to finish the medicine to stop the Key from making such a noise.

A single hair had been tugged from her head and she had thrust it at Narcissa without even saying a word. She had looked angry, but for once, it wasn't directed at Narcissa and the girl on the bed.

Filling a cup with the potion, she approached the bed, slipping her arm under Dawn's shoulders to draw the girl into a sitting position.

"It in?" Dawn murmured barely audibly.

"Your medicine is ready," Narcissa said coolly, pressing the cup against Dawn's lips and she saw the girl's expression of disgust as she forced herself to drink some of the lumpy polyjuice potion.

Narcissa sat back at once, waiting for the change.

Dawn continued to moan and groan theatrically. Nothing happened. Blue eyes darted towards Narcissa, the unspoken question visible in them, and Narcissa shook her head. Nothing physically was happening, internally or externally.

Dawn swore so softly it barely reached Narcissa's ears and she grimaced, nodding just enough for the girl to see.

"Well?" Glory demanded sharply. "Is it better?"

Narcissa caught Dawn's hand in her own, which felt ice-cold, looking from her to the demon Goddess and back again. She felt the child grip her fingers, looked at her, and saw the brisk, quick nod.

"Yes," she said, returning her coolest look to Glory. "She will recover."

"Keep potion!"

She nodded stiffly to show she had heard the girl's hiss. "Although I should keep what remains of her medicine close at hand, should she have a relapse of any kind. It would be most... unfortunate."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Glory said, waving dismissively.

"I'm hungry!"

The Goddess stopped in the doorway, turning around. Dawn was sitting upright in the middle of the bed, all pretence of illness gone now. "You're hungry?"

"Yeah," she replied. "We need proper food. Nice stuff. She's gotta look after me and I've got to be at full strength if you want me to work properly, right? So we need to have good food."

Glory stared at her suspiciously then nodded. "Okay." She kicked one of the demons by the door. "You hear that? You make sure the Key and her nurse are given good food and kept healthy. Don't want it sick again before I need it."

The demons nodded obediently, scurrying off out of the doors, closely followed by the Goddess, who gave them both a lingering scowl before slamming the door. The locks slid into place and they heard her shoes clattering noisily as she stalked away.

Dawn's shoulder sagged, defiance gone. "So much for that plan," she said, looking over at the cauldron which was sitting close to the fireplace. "No walking out of here in Glory-shape."

"The potion may have been flawed," Narcissa said carefully.

Dawn shook her head. "I know that potion way too well to screw it up," she replied with certainty. "I've made it before and used it and it worked. Bring some more and we can switch, and I'll prove it."

"That is not necessary, Miss Summers," Narcissa demurred, looking thoughtfully at the cauldron. "Perhaps it is her nature that prevented a reaction. It would not have worked on her as a non-human creature, but perhaps, because she is not truly human, it had no affect on you, even if she bears human shape."

"But if that's right, then it shouldn't work on me," Dawn said, frowning. "I'm not even real-human."

"But you are closer to real humanity than she is," Narcissa said, a thoughtful look on her face. "You were crafted from the Slayer, were you not? And she, despite her power, is still a human?"

Dawn nodded slowly. "But Glory has human parts too," she said. "I remember something about her being kept in a human vase? Vase-kinda-thing?"

"A vessel?" Dawn nodded. "But that does not mean she is of human blood. She says herself that she isn't like us. She's a demon, and she can't stand humanity. You are human. She isn't."

For a moment, Dawn only stared at her then she smiled. "Yeah!" she said, as if she had only just realized. "I'm a real, live human and I'm gonna kick that evil demon's hinney... uh..." Her face fell. "Once we come up with a new plan."

"A new plan that uses those ingredients that we have left, and a cauldron of polyjuice potion, perhaps?" Narcissa suggested with a nod to Dawn's equipment that was stacked by the cauldron. "After all, your friend was most generous."

Dawn's smile returned. "I think we can come up with something," she agreed.

8.8.8.8.8

Shutters had been drawn over all the windows of the workroom. The only light rose from a round basin that had been placed in the middle of the table, flickering and glowing with a soft blue nimbus.

"If we can find a way to carry the charm," Willow said, pointing to an image in the book she had recovered from Snape's quarters. "Kinda like a portable pensieve-for-sucked-souls, to pull out what she took."

Dumbledore thoughtfully stroked his beard. "There may be a risk that too many minds would be liberated at once," he replied. "If many of her victims are present, then who can say if a mind will return to its rightful owner or be lost to the ether?"

Professor McGonagall was leaning on the table, looking at the contents of the pensieve. The pale light made the lines of her face deepen, her frown almost palpable in the air. "But it would too dangerous to attempt to use physical contact to hold both victim and perpetrator," she said.

"A magic connection?" Willow offered hopefully. "Maybe bond them together, so there's no bad-touching?"

Hermione shook her head. She was sitting in the chair beside Willow, sorting through the notes. "You can't be certain it won't reverse on you," she said. "It might end up with her taking from you, instead of you taking from her."

Willow made a frustrated sound. "It all looked so neat and easy," she said, flipping through the pages of the book. "Do the magic, make the mojo-rific doohickey and get everyone their brains back."

"Nothing is ever as simple as it first appears," McGonagall murmured, sitting down and crossing her arms on the tabletop. "Unless you could find some way to ensure that Glory only comes in contact with one of her victims at a time, and you can do so in a way that means no harm will come to you."

"A shield charm?" Giles suggested. "Some of them seemed to work quite efficiently against her."

"But if we trap people inside a shield with her," Hermione pointed out, "she'll need to feed again to regain her strength, and they would be trapped inside it with her, even if it was just for a moment."

"This would be so much easier," Willow decided, "if we had a kinda magic laser-gun to shoot magic at the right people." She looked around at the faces that were all giving her exactly the same look. "What?"

"What exactly would you call a wand?" Hermione said with a smile.

Willow went red. "Oh. Yeah. Right."

"The difficulty arises in having two simultaneous targets," Professor McGongall said, tapping a fingertip on the table. "If there is a battle being fought, then there are no assurances of a clean strike, which would lead to even more trouble should a charm hit the wrong person."

"If you have two people doing the charming specifically, they could cast the positive and negative," Giles said slowly, as if processing the thought. "And the targets would be drawn together."

"The force of magical attraction?" Hermione's eyes were round. "The spells would have to be incredibly specific to ensure contact."

"If we do find charms which are specific enough, it would mean that we wouldn't have to touch either Glory or victim personally," Giles said, "but there would be enough contact for this to work." He tapped the edge of the pensieve, which sent the liquid shimmering. "As long as it didn't put all minds back into the first individual we tried."

"If we only have her and whoever it is in range," Willow said, "it should be okay. Kind of like the ghost-traps in Ghostbusters. Big glowy light and swoosh! Soul pulled out of Glory and put back in the right place."

"At least we have time to find some specific spells..." Hermione began.

The door at the end of the room burst open, and Ron Weasley stumbled in, panting, his face scarlet and hair in disarray. "Demons just started showing up at her building site," he wheezed. "She'll be there in a few hours. Thought you'd want to know."

Hermione shut her mouth firmly.

Dumbledore rose from his seat. "In that case," he murmured. "Inform the Slayers to arrange their weapons. We will work on the charms we need here for as long as we have, and as soon as word reaches us that she has appeared, then we shall go."

8.8.8.8.8

"So, how we gonna choose?"

Buffy looked at the array of weapons spread on the floor of the former classroom and present training room. "Well, you found the hammer," she said, looking up at Faith. "And I can never swing it right. You saw what I did to the dummies."

"Missed totally?"

"Pretty much," Buffy said with a rueful grin. "And it looks like we'll be the ones who need the goddess-smashing stuff, so I'll take that sword I got from Dumbledore's office, because it made such a great hole in her last time."

Faith nodded in agreement. "And all the wandies can wave their little bitty sticks and do what they do, right?"

"And what about us no-wandies?" Gunn inquired. He was leaning against the wall of the room, watching the Slayers sorting through their weapons by the late afternoon light. "You guys just brought me along to watch?"

"Hell no, big G," Faith said with a grin. "Brought you for the eye-candy."

Gunn raised an eyebrow. "Kid, that's sweet, but if I'm gonna be here, you know I'm not gonna sit back and wait for y'all to come begging."

"Jesus, B," Faith said, laughing. "He's like Xan. If Xan were kinda... cool."

"Thanks, I don't think," Xander snorted, walking into the room and stopping dead, his eyes on the collection of weapons on the floor. "Are you two trying to compensate for something?"

"Says the guy with no wand or weapon," Buffy said. He stared at her, then grinned and nodded. "You're going to come along for the ride too?"

"You'd have to knock me out to stop me," he said at once, then gave both Slayers a wary look. "And that isn't a suggestion. Cordy sent me down to make sure we didn't get stuck with the crappy weapons."

"Cordy too, huh?"

Buffy laughed quietly, squatting down to sort through some daggers, turning them over and checking the blades. "I get the feeling we're gonna surprise some witches and wizards, don't you?"

"Hey, it was our fight way before we ended up hiding out in their school," Xander said. "And anyway, no one takes one of us and gets away with it." He eyed a large and sharp-looking spear. "Can I have that?"

"Something to keep the nasties as far from you as you can, Xan? Real manly." The dark-haired Slayer glanced at the weapon he'd asked for. "And hey! Who you askin' about compensating, Harris? That is way longer than my piece!"

"Faith," Buffy said, shaking her head with a chuckle as Xander groaned and rolled his eyes. "You just can't help it, can you?"

Faith grinned, teeth gleaming. "What'd be the fun of that, B?" she asked. Swooping down, she grabbed a handful of throwing knives and the belt they hooked on to. "We do got demons and shit to kill, apart from Glory, right?"

"And some of the humans on her side too."

For the first time since they'd started sorting through the weapons, Faith went quiet.

"The crazies?" she asked finally.

"And witches and wizards," Buffy said. "You going to be okay?"

Faith nodded stiffly. "Yeah," she said quietly. "Big bad and her minions. Hell, I'll stick with fighting the demon-things. There's gonna be a whole army, right? Gotta be something there I can kick the hell out of."

"A whole army," Buffy agreed. "But we get her out of the way first."

Faith nodded again, strapping the belt of throwing knives around her waist. "Well, if we're gonna go and kick ass, we should get mounted up, right?"

Buffy gave her a smile. "Yeah," she agreed. "Time to save the world. Again."

8.8.8.8.8.8

The Key was all tied up. Luce's girl didn't look pleased about it, but she was standing back all the same, arms folded, watching the demons leading the Key out the door of the room.

"You sure you want her coming after us?" Glory looked at Lucius impatiently. He looked at the woman standing on her lonesome in the room and nodded. "Okay, so we leave Jinx here, and as soon as I know she's not going to do anything dumb, he lets her come. How about that?"

"That would be appreciated," he murmured.

Glory looked him over. Ever since he'd got back from being all captured, he'd been kinda weird. Quieter, for one, and he didn't yell back at her anymore. He wasn't as much fun and he'd not even tried touching her since then.

"You're pathetic," she decided, grabbing the Key by the hair. "All... feelingy and with the emotions." She pulled a face. "Sooner I'm out of here, the better."

"Glory." She turned, startled. The woman in the room was looking at her. "Good luck."

The Goddess snorted. "Yeah, sweetcakes," she said. "Like I need it."

Luce's girl didn't say anything else, but her hands were squeezing her arms real tight and she looked liked she was clenching her teeth to make sure she kept her mouth shut. At least she'd learned something.

Luce went to her, telling her something about portkeys and meeting at the place, and some other crap about everything being fine. Glory left them to it, pulling the Key along by the hair.

"That hurts!"

"Just wait, honey," Glory said with a grin. "You've got a big night ahead of you."

Luce caught up with them a few minutes later in the big front hall, and he looked even more grumpy than usual, but he nodded when she looked at him. "We're ready to go," he said.

He waved his wand and made a table glow. Forcing the Key to touch it, she grabbed the edge, and her demons did the same. Around them, the whole world went swirly and they landed near the stones of the circle.

It was dark already, best time for rituals, and it looked like all the crazies came out in the moonlight too. Everything was all lit up with blue, and there wasn't even a cloud in the sky. The stones looked like huge blocks of silver standing there, shining.

She'd been surprised when Luce'd suggested the place for the ritual, but when she had stepped into the middle of the circle for the first time it was like something had lit up in her head. There was so much power.

The Key stumbled, and Glory heard it gasp. "Stonehenge?"

"An illusion of intelligence now?" Luce muttered. "Spare us."

Glory laughed and shoved the Key at him. "Get her up top," she said.

With a snap, he vanished with it, and Glory stepped into the circle with a satisfied grin. It was all going right according to plan. Her grin widened. The rude guy in black from the school was right there, finishing building the tower that was stretching way above them. How the brainy had fallen.

Whirling around in the middle of the stones, she laughed.

There was a sharp crack.

Stopping mid-spin, Glory froze.

She remembered that sound from when Luce showed up to surprise her, appearing out of nowhere. Could be some more of his wizard guys were about, but with all the bad luck she'd had already, she wouldn't be surprised if there was some dumb attempt at a rescue.

Moving towards the edge of the circle, she pushed passed some of the crazies who were still working. Stepping between two of the standing stones, she couldn't see anything and stepped out from the shadow of the stones.

Something whirled through the air and she spun in time to see a hammer swinging at her. It lifted her and threw her away from the circle. Scrambling upright, she whirled around as there were more and more cracks of sound, figures appearing behind the one with the hammer, and racing for the tower.

Glory yelled a curse, her own demons and the crazies started to move, trying to stop them getting anywhere near the wobbling tower. Someone caught her shoulder, spun her round and hit her again with the hammer hard enough to make her bounce and skid along the grass.

Picking herself up, Glory bared her teeth. Stains! On her new dress! Oh, that was not good.

"Hey there, blondie." It was the dark-haired Slayer, the huge hammer propped on her shoulder, and she was grinning like she wasn't about to get torn to pieces. "Sorry to crash the party."

"You!" Glory hissed.

Something struck from behind, pain scorching through her, and she looked down to see a sword sticking through her chest. "And me!" the other Slayer said from behind her, pulling the sword out. "How's it going?"

It wasn't fair!

They should have given up already! She had beaten them both before, so why the hell did they just keep on coming back? They didn't get it! All she wanted was to get the stupid Key to open the doorway, so she could go home already.

Around them, demons and wizards and witches and hugwits and mugheads were all fighting as well, and Glory wanted to scream and throw things. The sword hurt! The hammer hurt! Everything was starting to hurt!

There was the sword, and the hammer, and they just wouldn't stop.

Light was flashing everywhere, people where yelling, things were exploding and it was starting to hurt and she could feel blood on her skin. The only good thing was that Luce was up there, with the knife, and the door would open soon.

"Now!"

It was the blonde Slayer yelling and Glory staggered around to face her again.

The rude guy in black from the school seemed to be flying through the air and crashed straight into her. Somewhere, a voice cried out something about memory and white light blasted up from underneath Glory.

Her mind felt like something tore it open and she screamed.