As soon as everyone else left, Buffy settled back down next to Angel, who leaned against a tree. Faith walked down towards the other end of the lawn to give them privacy and get a different vantage point. She stripped off her robe as she walked, folding it up and sitting on it.
Should have given it to one of them to take it back.
She looked over at Buffy and Angel who looked content to simply sit together.
Look at them. It's about time.
She crossed her legs and watched the people walk out of the store. Parents carrying their exhausted children, teens trying to walk and read at the same time, a few people hugging their books as if someone or something was going to jump out and take it from them.
This is nuts. Who'dve thought I could be as into this book as these people.
Across the way, Angel and Buffy sat in silence, enjoying each other's company. Buffy was reading with her head in his lap, using her cloak as a pillow.
"You know, they never told us what we won for the costume thing. I wonder what it is?"
"Read your book."
The rest of the evening went smoothly. The final Harry Potter fan left around 2:30 that morning, and Faith stayed to make sure the employees got out safely, while Angel and Buffy patrolled the area around the store to be sure that no one had fallen victim to creatures of the night. They met back at Faith's car at 3:00 to return to the office. When they got there, they found everyone waiting in Angel's office.
"What's going on? Why aren't you all sleeping?"
"There's a thing."
Buffy rolled her eyes and sat down in Angel's desk chair, exhausted.
"What now?"
"I think Harry Potter might be real."
"Excuse me?" Faith asked, not sure if she had heard Willow correctly.
"I was reading and I found something that makes me think that this may not be fiction at all. At first, I thought it was a coincidence, but then again, a lot of stuff I thought was fictional turned out real. Even Dracula!"
"Well, what are you talking about?" Angel asked, wanting to know more.
Willow picked up her copy of The Order of the Phoenix off the coffee table. It was open to page 49.
"Will! I'm disappointed! You're only on page 49? Tsk tsk!" Buffy teased her friend.
"Well, I got flustered. See, right here. This passage might not make much sense out of context, but it's the name."
Buffy, Angel and Faith leaned over to read the part she indicated.
"And this is Nymphadora--"
"Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus," said the young witch with a shudder. "It's Tonks."
"-- Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only," finished Lupin.
"And..."
"Tonks was one of the witches in the coven I went to in England. I remember she told me she hated her first name. Emmeline Vance is also mentioned, and she was one of the seers. I really think that I've met these people before."
Buffy turned to look expectantly at Giles who was falling asleep across the room.
"I don't know if they're the same people or not. Miss Rowling may have simply liked the names and used them in her book, or they may be the same people. This is not life threatening, so I suggest we put this on hold for the time being and go to bed. Tomorrow, we can figure out what to do."
Willow looked hurt.
"But, what if they are real and there is a whole other world of witches and wizards? Isn't that important?"
"Yes, but it's not life threatening. You may not need sleep, but I'm rather exhausted. Seven years of all-nighters tend to catch up with you once you've had some down time."
"Okay, well let's figure out where we can put everyone tonight."
"Taken care of, boss," Gunn interjected.
"Oh, well, then let's all go on to bed and we can deal with this later this morning. Okay?"
Everyone agreed and left the office except Buffy. She couldn't seem to get up out of the chair. Angel sat down across from her and smiled.
"Well, this is new. I haven't really looked at the place from this angle."
Buffy swiveled back and forth in the chair and stuck her tongue out at him. Angel just shook his head.
"This could either turn out good or bad. So many different personalities under the same roof."
"At least here there's a room for everyone. We had 12 Potential Slayers, Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, Spike, Dawn, Andrew, Faith and I living in our house in Sunnydale."
"Sounds like fun."
"It really wasn't. 17 women sharing a bathroom?"
"What a nightmare."
"Tell me about it. So what do you think about this Harry Potter thing?"
"I think it'd be strange, but it might be a good thing."
"Yeah."
After an hour, Angel noticed Buffy was beginning to fall asleep. On more than one occasion, her head drooped down to her chest and her eyes fluttered closed.
"Buffy, be honest. Are you trying to stay up because you know I do?"
She looked at his sheepishly. "A little."
"Don't. You need to sleep."
"But then I'll never see you," she protested weakly.
"I can adjust better than you can. Besides, I know we're gonna be up all day tomorrow, so I'll probably head to bed too. Does that make you feel better?"
"Yeah."
"Let's go. Come on," Angel walked around the desk and pulled her to her feet. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and lead her to his apartment.
"This is my apartment, and before you get any ideas, I have a guest room. I just don't know where else is free," he explained as he brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes.
"Okay. Goodnight, Angel."
"Goodnight, Buff."
******The next morning, everyone slept rather late; it was almost noon before everyone was awake enough to discuss Willow's findings. Someone had ordered pizza and Wesley took charge of the meeting.
"Okay, we've got to think things through here. Does anyone have any thoughts?"
"I really think that these people are real," Willow said, daring anyone to say otherwise.
"Any other thoughts?"
Andrew opened his mouth resulting in large sighs from Giles and Faith.
"I think we should at least look into this. It's possible."
"Why don't we look in the files downstairs? Maybe the archives have something," Gunn offered.
"And Willow and I can look on-line for anything there," Fred suggested.
"Now we're getting some where."
"I'll get on the phone and talk to Kendall back in England. He was the one who put me in contact with the coven, maybe he'll know something," Giles said, giving into the fact that they would be researching this.
Gunn and Wesley headed toward the archives room to see what Wolfram and Hart had in the way of information, Willow and Fred hit the computer, and Giles went off to call his contact. Xander and Andrew cleaned up the leftovers and generally tried to stay out of the way. Buffy, Angel and Faith wandered aimlessly around, not doing much of anything.
"Did you get Dawn settled back with your dad?"
"Yeah. She's not to keen on it, but we discussed it and I really can't take care of her. I have no income and she needs a semi-steady home life, so she stays with Dad."
******
Later that night, they all regrouped to discuss their findings. First, Fred explained what she and Willow did all afternoon.
"We had been searching for about five minutes before we realized that in Harry Potter, they don't use computers, so we resorted to looking in the books themselves for clues. That got us nowhere. We've got nothing."
Gunn pulled some files out and tossed them on the table they were sitting around.
"This is all the stuff we could find on witchcraft in England. There's nothing that pertains to Harry Potter directly, but we figured what the Hell, we'll bring 'em up for you all to look at."
Everyone looked at Giles, waiting for him to share what he found.
"I talked to Keith Kendall, the man who put me in touch with the coven. He said he knew there were more witches and, well he used the term warlocks, but didn't think there was a secret society of them. I called up Esmerelda Hornsworth, another of my associates in England and she didn't say much. She just giggled rather annoyingly, said it was about time, and informed me that we needed to get on a plane to England tomorrow. “Can I come too?" Cordelia asked as she walked into the office, smiling wearily at her friends.
"Cordelia? What? How?" Wesley managed to sputter before his colleagues could speak.
"I don't know."
"I do. Esmerelda told me we were to wait for the person that the coven had just healed. I just didn't know who until you walked in. It's good to see you, Cordelia."
Cordelia looked around, finally realizing that her old friends from Sunnydale were all in attendance too.
"Oh, wow. I take it something happened while I was in my fun little coma."
"Yeah. We pretty much fought the First Evil, blew up Sunnydale, came to LA to get the Harry Potter book, ran into these guys, and determined that Harry Potter is real."
"Wow, that qualifies as something. It's good to see you Willow, without having an uncontrollable urge to try to kill you."
"I see you're feeling better, Cordy. I'm glad."
"Cordelia, how does it feel?"
"What are you talking about, Xander?"
"Well, you were in a coma, I assume you haven't spoken for a while. Must be a new feeling."
"Shut up. And, hi, everyone else. I'd like to talk, but I think that this trip to England is more important than pleasantries right now."
Still a little shocked that Cordelia was back and they were going to England, Giles pressed on.
"Well, I presume we are headed for England to meet with the coven for more information. I suppose we depart tomorrow from wherever this plane is, probably as soon as the sun sets. Esmerelda said she would meet us there. She is also aware of Angel's special situation."
"Well, that's... interesting."
No one had anything to say. They simply went their separate ways and began preparing for their trip to England.
******
The next day, Cordelia took Xander, Andrew, Faith, Buffy, Willow and Fred shopping. Giles had protested at first, knowing that letting the girls loose in a mall was probably not the smartest thing to do. Then Buffy pointed out that they lacked luggage and clothing, and he quickly caved to her demands. By some miracle, when they got to the mall there was a huge sale.
"Convenient," Xander commented.
"Yeah, a little too convenient," Andrew added.
"It's almost as if someone knew we needed to do some shopping for our mysterious trip," Xander added. "Everything today seems really coincidental."
"It’s the semi-annual summer sale, knock it off." Cordelia told them, annoyed with their dialogue.
They shopped for two hours and then left so they could pack. While they were gone, Giles and Wesley set to work planning a timetable. They would have to switch planes at JFK International Airport in New York before crossing the Atlantic. All movement from plane to building naturally had to take place during the nighttime. There was a three hour time difference between Los Angeles and New York and a five hour time difference between New York and London. The flight to New York would take them five hours, and the flight to London would take another twelve.
Taking all of this into consideration, they determined they had to leave LA at 7:30 PST that evening. They would land in New York around 3:30 EST the next morning, where they would switch planes. At 4:00 they would take off for England where they would land at 9:00 that night. It would be a marathon trip, but it was the best and fastest way to get there.
In their rush to get packed and ready to leave, Xander realized they had all overlooked an important detail.
“Hey you guys? We need passports in order to get into England, don’t we?” They all stopped right in the middle of the lobby, staring at each other.
“I forgot! You guys don’t have them!” Willow frowned at the thought. At that moment, Harmony decided to show up for work.
“Hey boss! I’m sorry I’m late! You wouldn’t believe my night. You see I...”
“Harmony, not now!” Angel snapped.
“Oh, hey everybody! What’s up?”
“We were supposed to be leaving for England, but now we can’t.”
“Okay, who are you and why not?”
“Andrew Wells. I sat behind you in Junior English and US History? Nevermind. We can’t go because we don't all have passports.”
“Well duh! Anybody think to check with Archives? Evil Law firm - no, sorry, Reforming Law Firm! We can do almost anything!”
Angel, Fred, Gunn and Wesley looked at each other sheepishly, embarrassed that they had not thought of it. Harmony shook her head.
“What else have you forgotten?” she asked.
“Um... I can’t think of anything else,” Xander said.
“Well, if you do, I’ll be here. Need anything boss?”
“Not right now, no.”
“Then I suppose you’ll be wanting me to warn the pilot to get the company plane ready for you? What time did you want to leave?
“We have a company plane?” Gunn asked.
“Do you know anything about this company? Of course we have a plane. To answer your next two questions; yes, it has Necro-tempered glass and it will get you to England in four hours.”
“What now? You mean we spent 45 minutes figuring out a time table for nothing?” Wesley asked.
“Sounds like it. Just be glad you didn’t buy tickets.”
“Well fine then. Based on the time difference, we have to leave no earlier than sunrise unless we all have some desire to sit on the plane for more than an hour or so.”
“Actually, the sitting on the plane part is also a moot point, because Wolfram and Hart has a hanger at Heathrow, so Angel can stay out of the sunlight, even if you got there at noon.”
“Fine then.”
“I’ll go check Archives for your passports, call the pilot and ground crew about the plane and then I’ll order something for dinner.”
“Thank you, Harmony!” Angel called after her as she flounced toward the elevator.
******
An hour later, they were all gathered around a table someone had brought in the confrence room, passing around various containers of Chinese food, fried chicken and pasta, as well as assorted side dishes. In addition to finding passports for them all and confirming all of their travel plans, Harmony had taken great pains to order food to please everyone. After dinner, everyone caught a few hours of sleep before heading for the Wolfram and Hart airstrip at two thirty.
Six hours after dinner, Giles began loading the many suitcases into the back of one of the Wolfram and Hart vans. Willow came down shortly after him with her bags, followed by Faith, Gunn and Wesley. They stayed in the garage for a while, before Willow decided to find out what was keeping everyone else. She nearly ran into Xander as he hurried out the door muttering to himself as she entered the lobby. Andrew was coming down the stairs with his new duffel bag and backpack. He wore a baseball cap, sunglasses (despite the fact that it was the middle of the night) and a camera around his neck. He stopped at the foot of the stairs and set his bag down.
“Hey Willow!”
“What, Andrew?”
“‘It’s London, baby!’” Andrew shouted as he took her picture.
Blinking from the flash, it took a moment for Willow to realize what he was quoting.
“Okay, who let you watch Friends? You know you aren’t supposed to.”
“I was flipping channels earlier and it came on. I just got excited about the London part. Don’t be mad.” He made a sad puppy dog face like Xander taught him, knowing she couldn’t stay mad at him if he did.
Willow took a deep breath to calm herself before responding.
“Okay, what’s done is done. Just don’t keep saying it like Joey did. Gunn or Faith might hurt you. Heck, I might have to hurt you if you do.”
“I’ll be good. I promise.”
“You promise what?” Buffy asked as she hurried down the stairs and around Andrew, followed by Cordelia, Fred, and Angel, heading towards the garage. “Is Giles mad? We were looking for Cordy’s hair dryer. And what is Andrew promising?”
“One more time, Will? Pwease?” Andrew asked, putting more lip into the puppy face.
“Fine.” Willow sighed as she headed back to the elevator. “Hurry up.”
“Cool! Hey Buffy?”
She turned around to look at her friend. “What, Andrew? We have to go!”
“It’s London, baby!” he shouted again as he took her picture.
“Andrew! What are you...? You aren’t supposed to watch Friends! You know you always, always take it to far. Is that what you were promising? You’d better behave.”
“That’s what I was promising. And I solemnly swear I will not do it more than twice again.”
“Three times.”
“Once. Darn it!!”
“Always works.”
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