The Slayer and the Squib

Chapter 1 ~ The Lure of the Unknown

"Hi, Giles, how was your talk with England?" Buffy greeted him cheerfully when he walked through the door of the bungalow. "You have soot on your cheek, by the way."

Rupert Giles took off his glasses and rubbed the centre of his forehead to relieve the ache that had been building there. He looked down at the petite woman whose cheerfulness was still, two months after a huge abyss had swallowed both Sunnydale and its Hellmouth, a brittle surface mask. He wondered how she would react to his proposal - awe, laughter, a punch in the face, all were realistic possibilities.

"Perhaps we should discuss it in the kitchen," he stalled. "I'd rather talk about it sitting down." It was harder to punch across the length of a tabletop, even for the slayer.

A tiny frown creased her head, and the usually spirited expression went blank.

"Fine." She turned around abruptly and preceded him into the kitchen, which was actually the largest room in the bungalow.

"Hi Buffy, Giles." Willow Rosenberg looked up from a bag of groceries she was emptying and gave them a smile. "By the way, you have soot on your face, Giles." Her expression turned to alarm when she saw their faces.

"Should I..."

Giles shook his head.

"No, please stay. You might be interested as well."

Even after two months, their lives were at a standstill here, close to the crater, as if somebody had hit them with the pause button of a remote. Giles wondered if Buffy still listened at night for the door to open to admit a certain vampire. He knew Xander still listened for Anja's footsteps - he'd told him so after an intimate rendezvous with half a bottle of whisky.

Buffy sat on one of the chairs, back held stiffly upright.

"So they've asked you to come back," she asked without looking at him. She had to mean the remnants of the Watchers, of course.

"In a way," he replied carefully after a pause.

"So when are you leaving?"

The tone of her voice made Giles sigh quietly. Something in their relationship had shattered when he had left for England the first time a year ago, and he had no idea how to repair it, if that was at all possible. It was terribly hard to re-establish trust, he knew that much, and he had put an incredible strain on what little had remained by conspiring against the, well, unlife, of Buffy's lover.

"Well, actually," he began carefully, "I did receive a job offer, but there were inquiries about you as well." Her heart-shaped face scrunched up in surprise, but he continued before she could interrupt. "Have you ever considered a teaching position? As a profession, I mean," he added quickly when the footsteps of a gaggle of homeless girl slayers pattered down the corridor outside in a mad rush for the door.

"Teaching?" Buffy rubbed her nose in an unconscious imitation of Giles' mannerisms, which made the corner of Willow's mouth quirk up. "I haven't been such a hit at counselling..." she admitted, and then her head flew up. "Dammit, Giles, what are you talking about? Who asked about me?"

Bugger! Yes, that was the hard part.

"Well," he paused again, and looked through the window pane at the street outside, where Xander's legs were dangling out from under the battered old pickup they had bought after the bus had died on them. An assortment of tools lay next to him.

"There is a school for wizards in Scotland that badly needs a teacher for... well, for dealing with Dark creatures and such. They asked me to inform you of that vacancy and wonder if you would consider teaching for them for a year, at least."

Her eyes went round.

"Me? Surely that should be Willow." Willow coughed and Giles shot her a pained look.

"Actually, they're pretty... well-equipped when it comes to magic. But it seems that a powerful evil wizard is making his comeback and is trying to win over as many Dark creatures as possible to his side. You'd be an ideal candidate to train the school's youngsters in Defence against those."

"Youngsters?" There was a considerable note of panic in Buffy's voice, and Giles shrugged sheepishly.

"Well - it's a school, you see."

"And they want me to... defeat that evil wizard as well?"

"Goodness, no!" Giles exclaimed. "No, I think they have somebody marked out for that already. You'd only have to share your Defence knowledge, and train with the students - I was told that they have a teacher ready to take over the magical components of the classes."

Buffy fidgeted, wrapping one of her braids around a finger restlessly.

"I just don't know, Giles. I mean, Scotland... that's almost in Europe, right? I don't speak Brit! And you... you're a member of that, what's it called, coven?"

That almost made him smile. "It's a bit larger than a coven, and to answer your question, I'm not sure... I left them a long time ago, and they weren't exactly keen on me either." He pondered the question seriously for a moment. "But I'm not sure you can actually leave them for good."

"Giles!" Buffy crossed her arms in front of her chest in frustration. "Spill! If you want me to work for those people, I want to know what I'm getting into here. Might be getting into here," she amended.

"Uh... that's the problem, actually. I'm not supposed to tell Muggles about them, and the American Ministry is even more paranoid than the British one ever since that Salem incident..."

"Ministry? Muggles? Who the hell is Muggles?"

"Muggle," said Giles.

"Non-magical person," supplied Willow, followed by, "Oops!"

Buffy rounded on her and glared. "You know about this?"

Willow chewed on her lower lip in distress. "Ah... well... remember that witch circle in England where I went after trying to destroy the world?"

"That was them? That school?"

Willow nodded. "Only over the holidays, of course. And I'm afraid it's not exactly a witch circle. More like a really huge secret society." She emphasised it with a sweeping gesture. "But I couldn't tell anybody. It's supposed to be a really secret secret, and they do pretty nasty spells on people who know too much. Like Men in Black, only without the guns. They use wands, actually."

Buffy pulled a face at that. "Wands? And dressing gowns and pointed hats? What?" she added incredulously. "No broomsticks?"

Giles fell prey to a sudden coughing fit.

"They have broomsticks?" she blurted out.

"You don't want to know!" he insisted forcefully.

Buffy stared at him sternly, with a glint of amusement in her eyes that Giles had missed for a long time.

"Believe me, I do want to know. And you'll tell me everything about it right now if you know what's good for you."

~

A few minutes later, they had settled around the table, with a cup of Assam blend for Giles, a cup of that horrid instant coffee whose mere smell made him nauseous for Willow, and a diet cream soda for Buffy. The eyes of both girls were trained expectantly on Giles. Which just wasn't fair, he thought - pretty young women shouldn't look so much like bloodthirsty sharks.

"It's called the 'wizarding world'," he started dejectedly. "People with magical powers, who live in their own society, hidden from Muggles. That's, as Willow said-"

"-not magical guys, I heard," Buffy interrupted. "And you're one of those... wizarding persons?"

Giles felt the old, familiar, painful sting at the question. You're pathetic, he scorned himself, but it didn't go away.

"No. I'm not a wizard. Oh, my family are, my father's been a senior Unspeakable in the Department of Mysteries, but I'm little more than a squib."

He noted the bewildered expression on both faces and realised he'd lost them, even Willow. Weird, it took no more than a fireplace talk with Albus Dumbledore and he fell right back into the lingo he'd been so careful to suppress all those years.

"Your father's an unspeakable mystery and you're a squid?" Buffy shook her head. "Giles, are you drunk? Did Ethan Rayne drop by to feed you sweets again?"

"No!" They flinched, and Giles realised he had yelled at them without meaning to. It was just that the last thing he wanted to do was talk about the wizarding world and think about Ethan at the same time.

He took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. It's 'squib', not 'squid' - it means I was born with a wizard's bloodline, but without the power. I haven't carried a wand for ages - not that it would do me a lot of good," he added bitterly. "And the Department of Mysteries is a semi-independent subdivision within the Ministry of Magic - the wizarding government. Its members are called Unspeakables, because nobody knows exactly what they're up to. The members of my family have worked as liaisons with the Muggle Watcher organisation for centuries."

"Didn't you say your father owned a museum?" Buffy asked suspiciously.

"He did. It was the building right above the Department of Mystery's Hall of Prophecies. Very convenient, that. The Hall is supposed to be quite spectacular, but I've never been there, of course."

"So they haven't asked you to teach magic?" Willow asked softly.

Giles shook his head. "No - Muggle Studies. My... predecessor seems to have decided Hogwarts was too dangerous a place now that You-Know-Who has returned."

"No, I-Don't-Know-Who." Buffy objected and shook her head in denial. "I don't have a clue, really."

"Oh, sorry," Giles apologised with a sigh. "The Dark wizard I mentioned. People don't like to speak his name. Names are powerful, as they say in Ancient Runes."

"So you want to drag me to your old school?" Buffy pushed on.

He shook his head again. "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. No, I did not get a letter." The acrid disappointment of his father still burned deep in Giles' memory. It was no excuse for what he'd done to the old man in return, but the sting was still alive. "My brother did, though, and he told me about it." Gloated in smug superiority, to be precise, he added silently to himself.

"I didn't know you had a brother," Buffy said, sounding vaguely hurt.

Giles shrugged. "He's dead."

"Oh Goddess, Giles, I'm sorry," Willow whispered. "Was it that... that Dark wizard?"

Another shrug. "No, not at all. He was working on a biography of Dundrick the Downright Doomed, a thirteenth century warlock, and an iron-cast bust of Dundrick fell on his head when he was doing research at The Deadfalls, Dundric's mansion."

Willow recoiled, obviously torn between horror and laughter, and Giles realised, to his vague surprise, that the memory of Melchior Giles' death did not sting at all. He slapped himself mentally and shoved that fragment of Ripper back down to the back of his consciousness.

"And you've already made up your mind?" Buffy asked.

Giles shook his head. "No. I have told Dumbledore - that's the Headmaster - that I would consult with you, and adopt your decision as my own." He met her eyes firmly. "I don't want this enough to leave you to deal with the fallout of this summer alone, Buffy."

She took a deep swig from her can.

"What about the others - Dawn, Xander, the girls..."

"Dumbledore offered to bring everybody we wanted." Giles knew that the Ministry would give the old man hell for breaching the International Code of Wizarding Secrecy for such a crowd, but well, that was going to be Dumbledore's problem, wasn't it?

"Hm..." That was Willow. "I'm not sure if the girls would appreciate another culture shock so quickly after the last," she interjected. "Perhaps - if you and Buffy decide to move to Scotland, that is - they would be happier in Faith's and Wood's company here."

Privately, Giles agreed. Faith was surprisingly good with adolescent girls, and he was ready to bet that she wouldn't mind at all filling Buffy's shoes again.

"You're probably right," Buffy admitted reluctantly. "But what about Dawn? Could we enrol her in the school? Being an ex-key and all? She should qualify as a witch, right?"

Giles shared a sceptical look with Willow, but nodded. "As I said, you can bring whoever you want. I already told Dumbledore you had a sister."

"And if she doesn't want to go, I think between myself, Faith and Wood we can manage her just fine," Willow added.

"But Wills... you'll come, won't you?" Buffy asked, looking decidedly panicked.

Willow shook her head.

"I don't think so. I've caused enough cases of high blood-pressure the last time I stayed there, and they certainly preferred to see me leave rather than arrive."

Giles reached over to put his hand on hers and objected firmly,

"That's not true, Willow. They liked you very much. Dumbledore told you, again and again, that what happened was not your fault. Muggleborn witches and wizards are a danger to their surroundings only if they're not trained properly. And in your case, it was the New York Ministry that was at fault, not you. You should have got your invite to the Salem Institute as a child - it's their fault that they messed it up."

"You mean there's a similar school here," Buffy asked in astonishment.

Giles nodded. "The Salem Witches Institute, and the Salt Lake Advanced Academy for Young Wizards. The magical community still believes in segregation of the sexes in this backwater of a country." Giles snorted. "Not that the American Ministry would give me the time of day after I got on their case about Willow."

"They were responsible for what happened?" Buffy inquired with her best 'I'm going to kick their arses ten ways to Sunday' expression.

"Well, they're supposed to detect Muggleborn witches and wizards," Giles replied. "Though Willow was born in Sunnydale, and the Hellmouth did wreak havoc with most Magidectors - that's instruments to measure magical activity," he added quickly. "Still, that should have been taken into account, especially since they knew it would augment the powers of any magical child born in the vicinity. They were sloppy."

"Funny, out of all the untrained witches I read about in Hogwarts' records, I'm the only one who became the Wicked Witch of the West and tried to wipe out the human species," Willow pointed out in a subdued voice. "No matter what Professor Dumbledore said."

She waved off Giles' objection, and added, in a slightly more cheerful tone, "Anyway, me and Kennedy, we're just about to make things work." Giles observed Buffy's disappointed look, but also the slight upcurl of her mouth at Willow's decidedly dreamy expression. "But she's only just beginning to accept that she's sleeping with a witch," Willow added, "and I would hate to spring that world on her right now." She looked at Buffy intently. "Anyway, it won't even be a full year... if you don't like it, you'll be back soon enough."

"You think I should do it, then?"

The two girls shared a long, meaningful look.

"I think you should do it," Willow confirmed softly. "You need to get out of here. And it'll be a whole new world - you'll be too busy to look back, and I think that's just what you need."

Buffy stared out of the window, fingers playing absent-mindedly with her soda can as if another sip would settle her decision.

"What do you think, Giles?"

"I'd be glad to go with you," he confessed, even if secretly the idea of walking right into the heart of the wizarding world, squib that he was, filled him with holy terror. It shouldn't! his inner voice insisted harshly. It is your world as well. You have every right to be there!

He followed Buffy's glance out of the window, at the figure under the pickup, and Willow spoke his thoughts out aloud.

"And I think you should take Xander."

Yes, Giles thought. He needs a new world as well.

"They could use an assistant caretaker," he said.

"And you'll like Professor Dumbledore, Buffy," Willow threw in. "He's one of the most impressive people I've ever met."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "He's cute, then?"

A laugh escaped Willow's lips, and Giles couldn't suppress a lopsided grin himself.

"Cute in a way, yes," Willow chuckled. "And about as old as Angel. Only he looks it."

Buffy let out a deep, resigned sigh.

"Somehow I think I'm going to regret this," she mumbled. "Hell, somehow I think those kids are going to regret this. But ok, I'm in." She finished her soda, stood up purposefully and asked, "When does their term start, anyway?"

"Ah, well, that's..." Giles hedged. "Well, the headmaster had some problems filling the Defence position because it's jinxed, so you were the very last resort..." he stammered, faltering under her glare.

"Life would be a lot easier for everyone around if you'd just spill, Giles."

"In three days, actually."

Buffy sank back on her chair and banged her head on the tabletop with an audible crack.

"Damn you, Giles!"

~~~ tbc. ~~~