Hogwarts' Next Top Witch

Hogwarts' Next Top Witch

By Mariposa

Chapter 7: The Girl Who Received a Compliment From the Vampire Slayer

"Eet eese now time for you all to return to ze suite and pack your bags because een a few 'ours you weel all be going to Sunnydale!"

"WE'RE GOING TO SUNNYDALE!" Lavender screamed excitedly. She paused. "Where's Sunnydale?"

"Wait a minute," said Hermione, "this wouldn't be Sunnydale, California, would it?"

"Oui." Fleur frowned quizzically at her. "You 'ave 'eard of eet?"

"Yes, I didn't know it actually existed, though. I thought it was a fictional place," Hermione replied. "As far as I know, Sunnydale is the home of Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer."

"The what?" asked Cho.

"That name sounds familiar," said Ginny.

"That's because I've told you about her," Hermione said as she frowned at Fleur. "Buffy isn't a real person, though. She's a character on a Muggle telly show."

"Non, non

!" cried Fleur. "Buffy Summers eese very much a real person. What you don't know eese zat Joss Whedon created ze show because 'e knows Mademoiselle Summers."

"Joss Whedon is a wizard?" Hermione asked disbelievingly.

"Who's Joss Whedon?" asked Lavender.

"Non, 'e eese a Muggle. 'E just 'appens to know ze right people," replied Fleur. "Now listen up! I 'ave some announcements to make. First of all, Pervin Crunk weel be leaving us."

"What? You didn't tell me you were sacking me!" Pervin cried indignantly.

"Oui, you do not add anyzing of value to ze judgings." Fleur pointed her finger at him. "You're fired!"

"This is the second time I've been fired!" Pervin muttered. "C'mon, Mervin, I can tell when we're not wanted!"

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out!" Hermione called cheerfully. She was so relieved she didn't have to see the Crunks anymore.

"Now," said Fleur, turning back to the four remaining girls, "let me tell you a leetle bit about Buffy Summers. She was born April 14th, 1981, which makes 'er sixteen. Just last year she discovered she was ze Chosen One."

"I thought Harry was the Chosen One," said Cho as Lavender snickered.

"Zere eese only one Vampire Slayer and she eese eet. I 'ave arranged for all of you to meet 'er and she weel show you what she 'as learned. Now we weel be flying out to ze States since none of you have ze experience to Apparate zat far yet. 'Ave any of you flown een a Muggle plane before?"

Hermione was the only one to raise her hand.

"Oh, before I forget, 'Ermione, since you won ze last challenge, you weel be able to seet een first class and you may choose one ozzer girl to join you."

"I choose Ginny," Hermione decided immediately.

"Thanks!" Ginny replied. "First class sounds nice."

"It is," Hermione said.

Okay, you girls need to get packed. Ze plane leaves een four hours! We must be queek to ze airport! Queek queek!" Fleur clapped her hands together rapidly.

* * *

Four hours later Hermione, Ginny, Lavender, Cho, Fleur, and Cyra were on a plane headed to California, Hermione and Ginny sitting up in first class. As the plane began its descent down the runway, Ginny clutched at the armrests, her knuckles turning white. The plane began to rise and she let out a loud yelp.

"Excuse me, miss, are you okay?" an elderly woman who sat across the aisle, asked her.

"Just her first time flying," Hermione explained as she patted Ginny reassuringly on the hand.

"Ah," the woman replied with a knowing nod.

"We're really high up!" Ginny said in a high-pitched voice as she leaned over Hermione to look out the window.

"Relax, you're perfectly safe," Hermione replied. "I've been on planes many times and I've never crashed." She lowered her voice. "Besides, you're pretty high up on your broom when you play Quidditch."

"Yeah, but at least I have more control. What if we crash onto some tropical unknown island and nobody ever finds us?" Ginny asked fearfully.

Hermione let out a laugh. "What kind of tropical island are you going to find in the North Atlantic? We're more likely to crash into the ocean and drown." She stopped talking instantly when she saw the look on Ginny's face.

* * *

"What about that one?" Ron asked, pointing to the corner of the cage.

Harry rubbed his chin and shook his head. "No, that one isn't the right color. Arnold was a more subdued colored pink. That one is more of a cotton candy pink."

"You should really go into interior designing, you know that, Harry? Thank Merlin someone around here knows their pinks." Ron rolled his eyes.

Harry colored a bright red. "Well, if we're going to do this, we have to do this right!"

"I can't believe you killed Ginny's beloved pet." George, who was helping them pick out a new pygmy puff, shook his head in disbelief.

"We didn't kill him!" Ron exclaimed. "It was Crookshanks. You know, this was all Hermione's fault! If she didn't have to keep that blasted cat over at our house, this would have never happened and Arnold would still be alive!"

"Uh, I don't think it exactly works that way," Harry said.

"Why don't you just tell Ginny that your girlfriend's cat ate Arnold?" George asked Ron.

"Are you crazy?!" Ron exclaimed. "And risk getting hexed? I don't think so!"

"Somebody is a chicken!" George cried. He began to dance around the room as he raised his hand to the top of his head, waving his fingers, chanting, "Cha-chi, cha-chi, cha-chi, cha! Cha-chi, cha-chi, cha-chi cha!"

"What's going on?" Fred had heard all the commotion and came over to join them.

"Ron and Harry are too scared to tell Ginny that Arnold was eaten! Cha-chi, cha-chi, cha-cha cha!"

Fred had decided to join in the fun by flapping his arms around and bobbing his head. "Caw-caw! Caw-caw! Caw-caw! Ca-ca-caw! Ca-ca-caw!"

"What is that, a chicken?" asked Harry.

"Would you guys just shut up and help us pick out one that looks most like Arnold?" Ron said irritably to his brothers.

"Hey what about this one?" Harry picked up a pygmy puff that had been buried under some sawdust. "It matches Arnold's coloring almost perfectly!"

"It does look like Arnold!" Ron said delightfully. "Ginny will never know!"

* * *'

By the time the plane reached LAX, Hermione and Ginny had to wait for the others. Ten minutes later Fleur, Cyra, Cho, and Lavender emerged from the coach section.

"Good, everyone eese 'ere," Fleur said with relief. Hermione had a feeling she didn't enjoy flying on an airplane so much, which kind of surprised her as she came to Hogwarts three years ago in a flying carriage!

After they had retrieved their luggage, they hopped on a bus marked "Sunnydale" where they were dropped off at the Sunnydale University residence hall (it was still open for summer classes) where they would be staying. The four girls would be sharing one large dorm with two bedrooms. Ginny and Hermione shared one room and Cho and Lavender shared the other. Fleur and Cyra shared a single room across the hall.

Since they had an hour to spare, the four witches went to a grocery store to buy some chapstick Cho was in desperate need of. While they were there, Lavender bought a box of raisin granola bars and Hermione bought a six pack of Red Bull.

"Energizing drink," she explained to the other witches who were looking at the cans oddly. "I could sure use some!"

"I doubt that stuff tastes like Butterbeer, just so you know," Cho told her.

They were scheduled to meet the judges at the Sunnydale High School library in less than half an hour, so they went back to the residence hall to get ready.

* * *

Harry and Ron were in Ginny's room, setting up the old Arnold's cage for the new Arnold. They were both pretty pleased with themselves. This pygmy puff really did look like Arnold, down to the marking on its ear!

"Ginny is never going to know that Crookshanks ate Arnold," Ron grinned, pleased as punch as he put the new Arnold into its home. "Unless Crookshanks decides to puke up the old Arnold."

"I just hope she doesn't find out," Harry said nervously. "I don't need for us to start our relationship up again with a dead pet on the brain."

Ron thumped him on the back. "Would you relax, mate? She'll never find out! Trust me!"

* * *

"So this is what an American Muggle high school looks like," Lavender mused as the four remaining Top Witches followed Fleur and Cyra down a corridor.

"Let's be sure not to use ze word "Muggle," a lot," Fleur told them. "We're going to be around plenty of zem 'oo don't know what zat word means.

"Don't Buffy and Giles and her friends know that we're witches?" Hermione asked.

"Oui, zey know, but not ze rest of Sunnydale." Fleur frowned at Hermione. "'Ow did you know about Monsieur Giles? Oh right, ze show."

"This is so weird being here," Hermione muttered to herself, looking at the familiar location she had seen through her TV. Not that she spent most of her time watching TV since she was usually at Hogwarts or at the Weasley's. Come to think of it, she couldn't remember the last time she had seen her parents...

Fleur opened the doors that led to the library and it was just like Hermione had turned on an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Leafing through a thick leather book filled with dust was Giles and sitting around a table, arguing, were Buffy, Willow, and Xander. To be sure she was seeing things right, Hermione rubbed her eyes and removed her hands, still seeing the same scene.

Giles looked up when he heard the door clang behind Cho who was bringing up the rear.

"Ah, you're here," he said. "I've been telling Buffy and the others about your arrival."

"You're Buffy?" Lavender said, looking aghast at the petite blonde. "The way Fleur was going on about you, I was imagining you a lot more taller...and bulkier."

"How cute, Giles!" Buffy exclaimed. "They're British...just like you!"

"Well, let me introduce you to everyone," Giles said. "I'm Rupert Giles, Buffy's Watcher. Oh, and I'm also the librarian. You already know Buffy, and these are her friends, Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris."

"Are you guys really witches?" Willow asked with interest, leaning forward across the table. "I've been studying sorcery with my friend Amy. She's a witch too!" she added in a whisper.

Ginny frowned. "Are you a Muggle? Or a purebred?"

"Huh? Giles, what's she talking about? What's a Muggle? Is that one of your British slang words?"

"Even if it was, d'ya really think Giles would know it?" Xander asked as he ripped the wrapper off of a Milky Way and took a big bite out of it. "Have you ever heard Giles use slang?" he asked, his mouth full of chocolate.

"Ugh, Xander, that's gross," said Buffy looking disgustingly at her friend. "You're spraying chocolate everywhere."

"Sorry, Buff."

"Zank you so much for 'aving us," said Fleur. "Zese are ze girls - 'Ermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Cho Chang, and Lavender Brown." She pointed to each girl as she said their names. "And zis eese my co-judge, Cyra Dickinson."

"So you're in some kind of contest? To see who's your school's best witch?" asked Buffy.

"Oui, eet was my idea," said Fleur proudly. "Eet's called 'Ogwarts' Next Top Weetch. Zere next task eese going to test zem to see 'ow well zey do fighting off vampires...weethout magic!" she added dramatically.

"What!?" Lavender exclaimed.

"Don't worry," Fleur assured her. "You'll be een very good 'ands." She smiled warmly at Buffy. "Mademoiselle Summers weel teach you everyzing you need to know!"

"Um....when are we ever going to need to know how to fight vampires?" Hermione asked tentatively. "We hardly ever run across them."

"You guys don't know how lucky you are not to live on a Hellsmouth," Buffy said rolling her eyes.

"And even if we did, we'd have our wands," Ginny added. "We would defend ourselves."

"Yes, but zere may be a time you're weethout your wands," Fleur replied, a bit annoyed. "And what would you do zen, hmmm?"

"But I always have my wand with me!" Ginny protested.

"So do I," Hermione replied.

"But you never know!" Fleur snapped. "And eesn't eet always best to always be prepared?"

"I guess," said Hermione.

"Well, then, if you guys are going to help me fight off the big bads, then we should go to the mall and shop for some good vampire-killing clothes," Buffy stated.

"Ooh! A mall!" Lavender squealed. "That's the place where Muggles go to shop!"

"There's that word again!" exclaimed Willow. "I really need to learn some British slang."

* * *

Later that evening, Buffy, along with Willow and Xander, took Hermione, Ginny, Lavender, and Cho to the Sunnydale Mall. They split up in two groups and decided to meet at the food court in an hour.

Hermione, Ginny, and Buffy headed in one director while the others went off in another direction together.

"So this magical school you attend," Buffy said, trying to make conversation, "what's the name of it?"

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," Hermione and Ginny replied in unison.

"Wow. That's a mouthful. And you guys learn magic there?"

"Pretty much," Ginny answered.

"Can you make yourself disappear?"

"I just learned Apparition this past year and got my license," Hermione said.

"Wow," Buffy said, clearly impressed. "That sounds like a really neat trick."

"Well, it's not really a trick," Hermione tried to explain, "we actually do disappear to a different spot. I would show you, but I don't think this is the right time or place to do it."

"Right," Buffy said. "So how long does one go to magic school?"

"Seven years," Ginny told her. "From the ages of eleven to seventeen."

"Ah, so you're almost graduated."

"I just finished my fifth year," Ginny said.

"And I just finished my sixth," Hermione added, "except we don't know if the school is going to be open next year because our Headmaster was killed."

Buffy gasped. "That's horrible! And kind of a coincidence since my principal - that would probably be the equivalent of your headmaster - was also killed. He was mauled by students who thought they were hyenas."

"He was what?" Ginny asked, shocked.

"Yeah, it was pretty nasty. How did your headmaster die?"

"Another teacher killed him with a killing curse," Hermione said quietly.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Buffy was quiet, not quite sure what to say.

Ginny broke the silence by saying, "And if that wasn't enough, the most evil wizard who ever lived is trying to take over the world."

"Oh my God!" Buffy rolled her eyes up to the heavens. "Don't you just hate that? Lord, if I had a dollar for every asshole I ever met who wants to take over the world...honestly! There was this vampire who called himself "The Master" - real original, I know. Anyway, he wanted to take over the world and have control of world domination, you know, the usual."

"What happened?" Ginny asked, her eyes wide.

"I killed him," Buffy said in a bored voice as she examined her nails. "Of course that doesn't mean I'm not going to get my fair share of others who want to take control of the world. I know what my fate has in store for me. That's what I get for being The Chosen One."

"Well, you and Harry certainly have a lot in common," replied Ginny. "He's the Chosen One too, er, well, actually they call him The Boy Who Lived."

"The Boy Who Lived," repeated Buffy. "Hmm, that has a nice ring to it. I suppose it's been trademarked and I can't call myself The Girl Who Lived? Oh, here's Old Navy. We'll find some cheap clothes for you here."

After Hermione and Ginny bought dark sweatpants and hoodies, it was time to meet the others at the food court.

"Wow, so many choices!" Ginny exclaimed as she looked around at all the many places where she could get dinner: Chick-a-Filet, Pizza Hut, Subway, Burger King, Panda Express, Taco Bell, Arby's, Gyros, and Mrs. Fields. "I have no idea what to get!"

"Stay away from Burger King," Buffy warned her, "but everything else is fair game. I'm going to go to Chick-a-Filet. I love their waffle fries."

"I'll trust you and come with you," Ginny decided.

Hermione saw Willow and Xander standing in line at Subway and decided to go there. She saw Cho and Lavender in line at Panda Express. When she got in line behind Buffy's best friends, she couldn't help but overhear a little argument they were having:

"Xander, the pretzel stand isn't part of the food court!" Willow was saying.

"Of course it is," Xander replied.

"The food court is upstairs. The pretzel stand is downstairs, it's not like we're talking quantum physics here," said Willow.

"The pretzel stand counts as an eatery," Xander explained, "and eateries are part of the food court."

"That's poppycock!" said Willow. "Eateries that operate within the designated square upstairs count as the food court. Anything outside of said designated square counts as an independent unit for mid-mall snacking." She turned around at the moment and noticed Hermione. "Don't you agree..uh, I'm sorry, what was your name again?"

"Hermione," Hermione replied. "And I wouldn't know. I don't spend a lot of my time in malls."

"Hermione, that's a very interesting name," Xander said. "You don't meet many Hermiones anymore, at least not in Sunnydale." He frowned. "Actually, I don't think I've ever met a Hermione, much less ever heard of the name."

"Well, I guess I'm one in a million," Hermione couldn't help saying with a small smile.

* * *

When the four witches returned to the dorm later that night, Lavender went balistic when she found that one of her granola bars was missing. So without thinking twice, she knocked loudly on the door to Hermione and Ginny's room.

Hermione opened the door. "What is it?"

Lavender shoved the box into Hermione's chest. "One of my granola bars is missing, that's what!" she snapped. "And I know you did it!"

"Me!" cried Hermione. "Why would I eat your granola bar? I'm not even sharing a room with you! Why don't you go ask Cho if she ate it?"

"Don't be snide with me, Granger! You have to have everything I have, don't you? First you steal my boyfriend, and now my food! How dare you!"

"What are you talking about?" Hermione demanded. "I did not "steal" Ron from you. You two had broken up long before we got together, you know that!"

"Yes, but he broke up with me to get together with you!" Lavender glowered.

"Hermione, I know exactly how you feel about getting accused for stealing someone else's food." Ginny, who had been lying on the top bunk, spoke up.

"Lavender, I didn't eat any of your granola bars, and why are you getting so worked up for, anyway? They're just granola bars." Hermione rolled her eyes.

"That's not the point!" Lavender snapped. "They were my property and I don't particularly like people to go through my things!" She stomped over to the mini refrigerator the room had come equipped with and took out two Red Bulls and marched over to the bathroom sink.

"What are you doing?" Hermione cried as Lavender opened one of the cans and started to pour it down the sink.

"If you're going to waste one of my granola bars, then I'm going to do the same with your drink!" Lavender declared.

"If Cho were here, she'd say something about hay-spay-tu," Ginny said.

"Hay-spay-tu can be shoved up your ass!" Lavender spitted out.

"Damn, what the hell is wrong with you?" asked Ginny. "Do you have PMS or something?"

Hermione bit back a laugh.

"No, I do NOT have PMS!" Lavender snapped. "I don't appreciate it when people steal my things that I PAID for, thank you very much!"

"I told you, I didn't take your precious little granola bar. Honestly!" exclaimed Hermione. "Everyone better calm down because we have a big day tomorrow. Our vampire slaying training starts."

* * *

"RON! HARRY! WAKE UP!"

"WE HAVE THE MOST FABULOUS IDEA!"

"Ugh, what in Merlin's beard?" Ron sat up in his bed.

Harry also sat up and sleepily reached for his glasses. When he put them on, the blurry red blobs in front of him turned into Fred and Geroge who had just barged in. They were both grinning from ear to ear.

"We have an idea that will make us rich!" Fred cried.

"Galleonaires!" George whooped.

"Really?" Ron was now a little more awake, looking interested. "What is it?"

Both Fred and George paused dramatically for a few seconds, then in unison they shouted, "WE'RE GOING TO START A BOY BAND!"

"A what?" Ron asked, confused.

Harry groaned and flopped down on his back. "A boy band? Are you serious?"

"Yes! We were talking to Angelina and she told us boy bands are really popular in the Muggle world!" George exclaimed with giddiness. "They have girls screaming over them, they make loads of money, and they're worshipped all over the land."

"Uh, I don't think that last one is quite true." Harry rolled his eyes.

"But this is where you both come in," George said, with a serious voice. "Angelina told us there are usually about four or five members in a boy band, so we want YOU TWO to join us!"

"You should be very honored," Fred added. "We almost went with Lee and Oliver, you know because Oliver is good looking -"

"But then we thought he might be too busy with his Qudditich," George interjected, "and if we have you in our group, Harry, they'll be sure to sign us!"

"And of course we wanted to have our favorite brother in the group," Fred added loyally to Ron who glowered at him.

"Even if I wanted to be in your band," Harry replied, "I can't. Maybe you've forgetten, but there's some evil wizard out there who wants to kill me?!"

"Well, surely, you can balance both of them at the same time!" George said. "We already have our name. What do you think of The Magic Boys? We'll also have our own special names. For instance, I will be Sauve Magic and Fred here will be Sexy Magic. Harry, you can be Scar Magic, and Ronnie can be Freckle Magic!"

Harry and Ron just stared at each other in horror.

"Check it out, we even have our first single planned out!" said Fred. Both he and George cleared their throats and started to sing:

"I don't care which House you're in, if you can play Quidditch, if you're Muggle-born as long as you love me!"

"Well, I care!" Ron said. "I sure wouldn't want to go out with some Slytherin!"

Harry laughed.

"Just think about it, okay?" George pleaded.

"I'm going to save you some time and politely decline," Harry said.

"Yeah, me too," Ron decided. "There's no way I'm going to be singing pouf songs like that in public."

"Fine, then we'll just have to find out other members!" Fred replied.

* * *

Hermione, Ginny, Cho, and Lavender worked very hard on their slaying traning. They did some warm-up stretching before actual traning began. There were four dummies filling in for vampires, and Buffy showed them how to use the crossbows and how to throw the wooden stakes. They went through a week of grueling tranining. On the eve before their next competition, Buffy decided to let them have a breather and took them out to The Bronze along with Willow and Xander.

When they entered, Holiday was playing and all around them people were dancing. The four witches, two muggles, and one vampire slayer found a table and ordered drinks.

"Do they have any butterbeer here?" Cho asked.

Buffy misheard her. "We can't drink beer. Maybe the legal drinking age in the UK is sixteen, but here it's twenty-one."

"She said butterbeer," Hermione informed her. "It's a drink we have back home, and no, they don't have it here." She gave Cho an exasperated look.

Once their drinks came and they took a few sips, a techno version of Faithfully started to play.

"Ooh, I love this song!" Lavender cried. "Let's dance!" She tugged on Ginny's hand. "Come on!"

Shrugging, Ginny got up and followed her. Cho, who had been eyeing a cute guy, also got up to follow them over to the dance floor. Lavender and Ginny started waving their arms around and dancing, Lavender moving her head about so her hair was flying all over the face.

"Hey, get your skank-ass hair outta my face!" an angry voice demanded.

Lavender and Ginny turned to see an angry, tall black girl, a few years older than them, glaring at Lavender, her own posse behind her.

"Sorry," Lavender muttered, glaring back.

"Oh-ho! So you're from England? You think you a big shot cuz you're from some big, fancy European country? Uh-uh! I don't think so!" The girl snapped her fingers in Lavender's face.

"Bitch, get your fingers out of my face!" Lavender retorted.

"Oh, no you di-idn't!" the girl screamed at her.

Now people had stopped dancing and were staring at the two fighting girls.

"Tiffany, just ignore the blonde girl," one of the girls in the posse said to her. "She ain't worth getting in trouble over."

"You're right," Tiffany decided. She shoved Lavneder. "Get off my dance floor, beey-otch!"

Lavender reached out and grabbed a mug of beer on the table nearest to her and threw it on Tiffany.

"BITCH POURED BEER ON MY WEAVE!" Tiffany screamed.

Hermione, who had been watching the commotion with Buffy, Willow, and Xander, heard Buffy sigh and mutter, "It's time to get out of here."

Hermione followed them as they rounded up Cho, Ginny, and Lavender who was still holding the now empty mug. Bufffy took it from her and set it back down on the table. "Rule number one," she said as they all ran out of the Bronze, "never pour beer on anyone's weave!"

"What's a weave?" asked Ginny.

"It's a hairpiece," Buffy explained. "Wow, you magic people are really sheltered, aren't you?"

* * *

The next evening, just before it became dark, the girls got dressed for slaying and headed over to the Summers' house where Buffy said she wanted them to meet her before they headed out.

Hermione frowned at Cho as they walked up to the front door. "Are you wearing leather pants?" she asked the older girl.

"Yes," replied Cho as the pants squeaked each time she took a step.

"Why?"

Cho glared at her. "Buffy told me she wears leather pants when she slays, so if she can do it, so can I!"

Hermione just shrugged at her. The other girls were wearing black pants and hoodies and, unlike Cho, they could walk freely.

Ginny rang the doorbell and Mrs. Summers answered it. "Oh, hello. Buffy said she was inviting a few friends over tonight."

"I got it, Mom, thanks," Buffy said as she appeared in view. "Come on up to my room, guys."

The four witches followed the blonde upstairs and into her room. Buffy shut the door as Lavender and Hermione settled themselves on her bed and Ginny took a seat on the desk chair. Cho, who couldn't bend her legs, remained standing against the wall.

"Okay, here's the deal," Buffy said in a low voice as she turned to the girls. "We need to keep a low profile because my mom doesn't know that I'm a vampire slayer and she certainly doesn't know you four are witches, so you can't be doing any magic-"

"We can't anyway," Lavender interrupted. "We don't have our wands."

Buffy gave out a snort. "You mean like magic wands? You use magic wands?"

"Yeah, so?" Cho shot back.

Buffy shook her head. "I'm sorry, it's just whenever I think of someone using a magic wand, I think of, well, a magician or a fairy godmother." She unzipped a large black duffle bag and began to pile crossbows and wooden stakes and jars of holy water into it. "Alright, I got enough for everybody. Are we ready to go?"

The four withces glanced at each other nervously.

"Ready as we'll ever be, I guess," replied Hermione. "Um, you'll make sure we won't die, right?"

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Duh! Okay, let's go!" She slung the duffle bag over her shoulder.

They trotted down the stairs and Buffy shouted, "We're going out for awhile, Mom!"

"Have fun!" Mrs. Summers called from the kitchen.

They quickly walked to the graveyard and when they reached the black iron entrance, Buffy unzipped the bag, equipping each girl with a wooden stake and a jar of holy water. "I only have two of these," she said as she pulled out a crossbow. "I'm giving the other to Hermione since she knows how to work it the best."

Once they were all equipped, Buffy opened the gate and the four girls followed her, crouching behind. They sneaked past old graves, Cho's leather pants sqeaking as she took a step.

Hermione, who was in front of her, whipped her head around and hissed, "Why did you have to wear those?"

"Hey, at least I look good in them!" Cho snapped back, perhaps a little too loudly because at that instant a rather grotesque-looking vampire appeared from behind a large tree trunk and grabbed Cho from behind.

"AHHGHHHHHH!" Cho screamed.

"AHHGHHHHHHH!" screamed Hermione, Ginny, and Lavender.

Buffy turned around and whipped up her crossbow. "Let her go, you bloodsucking imbecile!" she snarled as she pointed the weapon at the vampire's heart.

"Slayer!" the vampire hissed. He moved Cho in front of him so Buffy would have to shoot her to get through him. "I should have known it was you!"

"I can't die yet!" Cho wailed. "I haven't professed my love to Oliver Wood!"

Buffy lowered her crossbow and aimed at the vampire's left leg. She hit him right above the knee.

"OWWW!" he screamed, but instead of releasing Cho, he gripped her even tighter.

"You can still walk!" Buffy shouted. "The next one and you'll be paralyzed!"

"Um, how can you paralyze somebody who's already dead?" Ginny asked.

Buffy glanced at her, then frowned. "Hey, where did Hermione go?"

The vampire suddenly turned into a pile of ashes and Hermione appeared where it had been standing, holding her stake. "I'm right here," she said with a smile.

Buffy nodded at her. "Nice job."

"Are you okay?" Hermione asked Cho, who was still sobbing.

Cho clutched her. "Oh, it was so awful! For just a moment, I swore I saw Cedric. And he said to me, 'Cho, no, you can't give up now! It's not your time yet!'"

"Wow, that's very...profound," Hermione replied, not sure else what to say.

"Let's move on," Buffy said. "Where there's one vampire, there's always more where that came from."

"Can't we just go back home now?" Cho asked in a small voice. "I don't like this challenge!" She screamed when not one, not two, but three vampires jumped down from a tree right in front of the five girls.

"Weapons out!" Buffy demanded as she raised her cross bow. Hermione did the same and Ginny and Lavender pointed their stakes at the vampires. Cho hurriedly unscrewed the lid off the top of her holy water and threw it at the nearest vampire and missed.

Hermione pointed the crossbow at one of the vampires who was now running towards her, but was unable to pull the trigger before he seized the weapon from her arms and smashed it on the hard ground.

"You know, my weapons don't exactly come cheap!" Buffy said, rolling her eyes and aiming her crossbow at the vampire, killing him with one perfect shot.

Meanwhile, Ginny and Lavender had ganged up on one of the remaining two vampires, stabbing it numerous times with their stakes until they finally found the heart.

The remaning vampire was walking slowly towards Cho until she was backed up against a tree and could no longer move. She clumsily got out her wooden stake, but was too scared to do anything. "SOMEBODY HELP ME!" she screamed.

"Bathe in this!" Lavender yelled as she poured her jar of holy water over the vampire who shrieked as he melted away.

"Buffy, watch out!" Ginny warned as two vampires came running after the slayer.

Buffy kicked the first one right in the stomach who hunched over in pain. She rolled over his back and stabbed the second one, who was right behind him, in the heart. She kicked the kneeled over vampire and when he landed on the ground, she pinned him down and looked at the four witches who were looking at her in amazement.

"Anyone care to do the honors?"

"I want to!" Ginny volunteered. She joined Buffy and stabbed the vampire's heart, but nothing happened.

"Uh, a little bit lower," Buffy told her.

Ginny stabbed again and this time the vampire disincarnated.

* * *

The next afternoon was the first elimination to take place during their stay in Sunnydale. They met at the Sunnydale High School library after school hours. Since Buffy had trained them to kill vampires, she was a guest judge.

"I 'ave four beautiful, talented weetches een front of me," Fleur said in a serious voice. "Zree of you weel continue on and one of you weel be leaving us today. Cyra and I 'ave 'ad discussions weeth Mademosielle Summers and while she tells us she was impressed weeth 'ow quickly you learned to slay vampires, zere eese one girl een particular 'oo really shined...and zat girl eese...'Ermione!"

"Surprise, surprise," Lavender muttered as she rolled her eyes.

"Congratulations, 'Ermione, you are still een ze running to become 'Ogwarts' Next Top Weetch and you 'ave won a five 'undred dollar gift certifcate to use at any of ze shops at ze Sunnydale Boardwalk!"

"Er, thanks," Hermione said as she took a step forward.

"You really did a great job with the vampires, especially the one who had Cho captive," Buffy said nodding at the girl.

Hermione could only smile. Buffy Summers had given her a compliment!

Fleur paused dramatically as she waited to call the next girl's name. "Ginny, congratulations, you are still en ze running to become 'Ogwart's Next Top Weetch."

Ginny tried to keep her squeal to a minumum as she joined Hermione.

Fleur gave a long glance at Lavender and Cho before she started talking again. "Lavender, I've 'eard you are 'aving some problems weeth ozzer certain girls-" Lavender turned to glare at Hermione - "and Cho, Buffy told me you were ze weakest at last night's competition. Zerefore, Lavender, you are still een ze running to be 'Ogwarts' Next Top Weetch, but just barely."

Lavender, who had been holding her breath, let out a long sigh and happily joined Hermione and Ginny.

Three girls remain...WHO will be Hogwarts' Next Top Witch?