Sunnydale Sounds Nice

Disclaimer: I own nothing, I claim nothing - I am just playing with J.K. and Joss's characters for fun.

A.N. - This is taking place totally AU for Buffy and HP - I will be ignoring continuity as I see fit (it's called artistic license) so please do not panic

Sunnydale

It sounded like a nice enough place - Sunnydale. The name implied a bright cheery little town with neat sidewalks and pretty flowers. It sounded like the kind of place Dementors would avoid. It also had the advantage of being far, far away from any known Wizarding community. Those two items were at the top of the priority list for Sirius Black.

It had sounded like a nice enough place... Sirius was beginning to have his doubts about that though. He had decided to throw caution to the wind and make his entrance into town in human form. It was a little easier to get around that way. He had also decided to arrive close to nightfall, just in case. That way if anyone did recognize him he could escape under the cover of darkness. There was just one flaw in his master plan. The streets of Sunnydale were empty.

Sirius had heard of small towns closing up early, but this was ridiculous! It was barely dusk and everyone was already in for the evening. One store looked to still be open.

THE MAGIC BOX

Curiosity got the better of him, and Sirius headed for the shop.

****

"Anya, Giles told you to close early." Xander was quickly loosing patience, "That means that its OK to close the store."
"But then people can't come and give me their money." Anya pouted.
"Yes, but we need to have a major strategy session." Xander countered. "And since this is where all the good books are this is where we are going to meet."
"So?"
"So we can't have customers hanging around while we talk about whatever is having half of Sunnydale for lu-"

The sound of the bell cut Xander off. It wasn't Buffy or any of the other Scoobies but Anya's eyes went wide with surprise and recognition. Before she could say anything Buffy and the rest of the Scoobies did show up, through the back door.

"Anya," Giles sounded more than just slightly annoyed, "I thought I asked you to close early."

Anya was still staring open mouthed at the man in the shop. The man had noted the presence of the Slayer and company. He had also noted, with some apprehension, the look on Anya's face. He slowly backed toward the door.

"It's really getting dark out there, you know." Buffy said, her voice rose a notch as she turned to Giles. "I don't think it's safe out there, do you?"
"No, probably not." Giles sighed.

Sirius had taken another step back toward the door when Anya finally found her voice.

"Your Sirius Black, aren't you," she placed her hands on her hips. "How did you get out of Azkaban?"

That was it. Sirius turned to bolt. Damn! How had she known who he was? Sirius was so busy wondering about that he never heard the bell indicating that someone else had entered the shop. He didn't realize that someone else had come in until he ran headlong into them. They both tumbled onto the floor.

"Anya," Xander asked. "How do you know this guy?"
'Good question' Sirius thought.
"I was summoned to curse him." Anya answered simply. Sirius had, by this point gotten to his feet. It was now his turn to stare at the girl in shock.
"You actually remember one of your victims?" There was a note of incredulity in Xanders voice.
"I din't do it."
"What?"
"I didn't curse him."
"Why not?"
"Well, I really couln't think of anything worse to do to him." Anya shrugged matter of factly. "He had already been sent to Azkaban even though he was innocent. He wasn't going to go insane, so I figured that he would sit there in tottal misery for the rest of his life. I had to turn the girl down."

Sirius couln't quite believe his ears. This girl not only knew who he was, but claimed to know he was innocent. Not only that, she had just claimed to be a vengeance demon... he had heard of those. They were a frighteningly vindictive lot. Yet none of the other people seemed at all upset or shocked by any of this. Who were these people?

"Alright," Buffy said looking back and forth from Anya, to Giles, (who at the mention of Azkaban had paled a bit) and back to Sirius. "What is going on here? What's an 'Azkaban'?"
"It's a prison." Giles supplied. "For Wizards who have done terrible things. That's all I really know about it. I had always thought it was a myth."

Sirius knew that he should probably leave while they were busy talking about him but...
"How did you know I was innocent?" He asked the girl behind the register.
"Oh, demon purview." She said dismissively. "It came with the job. One mans curse is another mans paradise. It helped to know which was which before wreaking vengeance on someone."
"So you are a Vengeance Demon?" Sirius had the strong urge to bolt again.
"Not anymore." Her voice took on an impatient edge, "You still haven't answered my question. How did you get out?"
"I escaped... Who are you people?" This was just getting too weird.

They all looked at each other for a moment. Then slowly, all eyes turned to the blond and then to the older guy who seemed to be the only other one to have even heard of Azkaban. He nodded to the blond, she took a deep breath and began to talk.

"Alright." Buffy began, "You see, a lot of those things that go bump in the night are real, in case you haven't noticed. To keep the world safe there is always one girl fight them, when the old one dies a new one is called, yadda yadda." She paused. "That girl is me. Buffy Summers. I kill Vampires, Demons and what-not, stop the apocalypse or two and generally make the world a better place. This is my watcher Giles, and these are my friends referred to as Slayerettes or Scoobies."
"I prefer 'Scooby' myself." Xander quipped. "I am not an 'ette'."

Sirius now turned to look at the person that he had knocked over. He figured that if these people were going to try to apprehend or kill him they would have done it by now. Sirius froze when he realized who, or rather what he was standing next to.
A vampire.
Spike was casually dusting himself off. He did not look to be too concerned by the fact that he was standing in the same room as a girl who claimed to slay creatures like him for a living.
Sirius took a reflexive step away, wishing not for the first time that he had a wand. If nothing else he could use it as a stake to defend himself.
"Don't worry about Spike." The blond, Buffy, told him, her voice took on a mocking edge as she continued, "He had his fangs pulled."
"'Ey." The vampire drawled. "No fair telling everyone. It's rude, ya know."
"How can a vampire be harmless?" Sirius asked suspiciously, still looking directly at Spike.
"The Army done went an' put a chip in me head." Spike answered.
"It delivers an electric shock whenever he tries to hurt anyone." The redhead, who had until now remained silent spoke up. "They surgically implanted it in his brain, very sophisticated," she smiled. "In a creepy, evil military sort of way." She added quickly.
"Anyway," Buffy said taking control of the situation. "It is now officially after dark, and in case you haven't noticed, Sunnydale is not a nice place after dark."
"I hadn't really, actually." Sirius replied, "It's my first night in town. What's wrong with this place anyway?"
"You don't know?!" Anya asked mystified.
"Know what?" Sirius returned irritably.
"Sunnydale is on a Hellmouth." The older man, Giles, told him.
"Which means that it's basically demon-nasty-bad-stuff central around here." Xander quipped.
Sirius began to wonder what on Earth he had been thinking to come here. A Hellmouth? How had he missed this? No one in their right mind went anywhere near a Hellmouth!
"You don't look so good." The redhead was saying, "Maybe you should sit down." She indicated a table surrounded by chairs in the corner of the room. Sirius hadn't paid much attention to the rest of the shop, and so he hadn't noticed it. Next to the table and in an alcove above it were books. A lot of books. Some of them looked to be very old books.
Sirius walked over to the small library like area. He was surprised to see that some of the books he recognized. He was even more surprised to see that he didn't recognize a whole lot more of them, despite the fact that all tittles indicated that they dealt with the supernatural. It almost made the library at Hogwarts seem lacking.
The Slayer and her gang followed him over.
"Quite a collection." Sirius said. "I don't recognize all of them, but then, I was never much of a bookworm."
"Some of them are quite rare." Giles admitted.

Willow turned to Buffy. "Is there any reason we shouldn't get started?" She asked. "Times a-wastin' you know."
"Get started with what?" Sirius asked.
"There's something nastier than Vampires out there." Buffy informed him. "I plan on getting rid of it. Just as soon as I know what it is, and how to kill it."
"And this would be the less glamorous side to being a Slayer." Xander said as he went up to the alcove of books. "I think that's the only reason Buff keeps us around."
"Of course." Buffy smiled sweetly.
"What do you know about it?" Sirius asked as he took a closer look at some of the books on the shelves.
"Not much." Buffy admitted ruefully. "We just have dead bodies... missing people."
"More than usual that is." Willow added as she picked up a large leather bound volume and took it to the table.
"Excuse me," Giles said, "But what do you think your doing?"
"Helping." Sirius said simply. Giles had moved between Sirius and his books.
"And what makes you think you can help?" Giles asked irritably as Sirius ducked around him trying to get at the books.
"Well, seven years of Defense against the Dark Arts classes have to be useful for something." Sirius said. "You said dead bodies?"
"Yeah," Willow said. "It's really weird. They're just... dead... The doctors can't even determine the cause of death."
Sirius froze at the description. "No mark at all?"
"No," Buffy shook her head, "No evidence of claws, fangs or even struggle."
"You know something, don't you." A young man with red hair said. He had been silent and unnoticed until now. He held Sirius with a calm steady gaze that reminded Sirius in an odd way of Remus.
"Yes." Sirius said quietly. "I think I do."
"What is it?" Buffy asked intently.
"It sounds like the killing curse..." Sirius did not like where his thoughts were going. "Avada Kedavra..."
Xander made an attempt to not laugh, but the result was a half aborted snort. Sirius looked at him and spoke sharply, "It's not at all funny!"
"How do you stop it." Buffy asked her voice even, cool and business-like.
"You can't." Sirius told her. "Unless you stop the caster. There is no way to block it. This is one of the three unforgivable curses known to the Wizarding World. It's what they send people to Azkaban for..."
"There's no defense?" Willow asked, sounding a little shaken. "Not even a little one?"
Sirius shook his head sadly. "None that I know of. The curse is one-hundred percent effective." He paused, then amended, "Well, almost one-hundred percent effective. There is one known survivor."
By now they were all sitting at the table near the shelves of books.
"One?" Giles asked, "Who?"
Sirius weighed his next words carefully. He could trust these people. Of that he was reasonably sure. He had already decided to contact professor Dumbledore at Hogwarts. There were very few Wizards who would use an unforgivable curse, and even fewer who would use it with such impunity. None of them were people he, or any of the young people assembled here, were prepared to face. He would need back-up.
"A boy." Sirius began slowly. "One boy has survived the killing curse. And there were... I mean there was..." Sirius fought to keep his voice steady. "His mother sacrificed herself to protect him."
"You mean the Potter kid?" Anya asked bluntly.
"Yes." Sirius answered in a tired voice. "Harry."
"You knew them." The red headed boy stated.
"Well, duh." Anya retorted. "That was part of the reason they threw him in to Azkaban; for betraying the Potter family to some nasty dark wizard, Lord Volde-something. Not that he actually did it." She added quickly.
"His name is Voldemort." Sirius said.
"Do you think we're dealing with him?" Buffy asked.
"I hope not." Sirius told her truthfully. "Look, I need to send a message to some friends of mine. I'm guessing that none of you know where the nearest owl-post stop is, do you?"
"There's one in town, actually." Spike, the vampire said casually. "Even got a branch office in L.A. from what I hear." He stood and stretched. "Wouldn't recommend you go in one though. See, it's an old American tradition to put up Wanted posters in a post office. Besides, it would take a while for a message by owl to get all the way to England."
"You have a better idea?" Sirius asked in a dangerous voice.
"Why not do that thing where you talk to them in the fireplace or what not." Spike suggested, "You know, green flames and all. I'm sure they've got some of that powder stuff you use to do it lying around here somewhere."
"Do you know how expensive that stuff is to get?!" Anya asked rising out of her seat.
"All the same." Giles said calmly, with a hint of disappointment, "Spike has an excellent point. Give him some of the powder. If what he says is true, I suspect we shall need all the help we can get."

Remus Lupin was very bored. Considering the current situation in the Wizarding World, boredom was the last thing anyone should complain about. All the same, Lupin was still extremely bored. It had been particularly quiet on the Voldemort front as of late. The 'Dark Lord' seemed to be biding his time, amassing his army in secret. According to the information professor Dumbledore had gotten from Snape, Voldemort had sent some of his more trusted Death Eaters out on recruiting missions. Too many of his former supporters were rotting hopelessly insane in Azkaban or dead.
Remus hoped that Sirius didn't run into any of those 'missions' while he was out. He had left almost a month ago, after they had finished gathering the 'old crowd'. The Wizarding World in general still had no clue that Voldemort had returned. Fudge had issued a statement in the 'Daily Prophet' denouncing the fact as gossip, and claiming that the events at the Tri-Wizard Tournament were a tragic fluke.
Remus nearly leaped through the roof when he realized that the fire in his study was staring back at him.
"Sirius!" Remus started, regaining some composure and feeling his heart rate return to normal. "I wish you wouldn't do that. How long have you been there?"
"Long enough to get an earful about wasting powder." Sirius grinned. It didn't reach his eyes though. Whatever his friend was calling about was serious.
"What's wrong?" Remus asked.
"Have you ever heard of a little town in America called Sunnydale?" He began cryptically.
Remus paled a bit. As a matter of fact, he had heard of a little town in America known as Sunnydale. It sat on an active Hellmouth, a virtual magnet for dark creatures.
"What about it?" Remus asked cautiously.
"They have a bit of a problem."
"Sirius, I am sure that they have many problems." Remus said calmly. "They're on a Hellmouth."
"So I've been told." Sirius repliied ruefully. "I've been talking with the resident experts and this is more than just Hellmouth activity. From the sound of it, there are people running around using unforgivables."
Remus stood suddenly. "I'll notify Dumbledore and be there as soon as I can. Sirius please don't do anything rash. Voldemort has been recruiting, you probably found some of his Death Eaters."
"No Voldemort?" Sirius asked quietly.
"I doubt it, Our last intelligence puts him in Albania again."
Sirius gave him the address in Sunnydale where he would be staying before promising again that he would not do anything until help arrived. Remus reminded him once more for good measure (Sirius was one of the most impulsive people he knew) and then broke the connection. Grabbing a pinch of the powder from his own mantle he then called Dumbledore.

*Meanwhile, elsewhere in England (sort of)*

Harry Potter could not believe that this was happening. The Dursleys were going to America, and they were actually going to take him with them.
Not that they wanted to, mind you. They had originally planned to leave him whith Mrs. Figg but she had disappeared quite suddenly. According to her neighbor watching the house and collecting the mail it had been a family emergency. She had not known when she would return.
Harry had suggested the Weasly's, but Uncle Vernon wanted nothing to do with them at all. After what had happened last summer he did not ever want one of those 'red-headed freaks' near him or his house again. Harry hadn't had time to arrange a drop off or something else and so he was stuck.
He had, at least, managed to get a mesage off to Ron. Who knew, maybe Ron or the twins could come up with a way to rescue him from the Dursley's after all.
Harry patted his wand, carefully hidden in his pocket, for reassurance. He had managed to sneak it on to the plane with him (it didn't show up on Muggle metal detectors or anything). He had even managed to smuggle his broom and some of his homework with him as well using his invisibility cloak. What the Dursleys couldn't see couldn't hurt him.
So far, even the plane ride over hadn't been that bad. Uncle Vernon had let Harry stay in coach while upgrading the rest of his family to first class.

Uncle Vernon was very proud about this trip. Aparently, Grunnings Drills had an oportunity to get an exclusive contract with a building firm in California. They had just recently moved their headquarters to a town called Sunnydale (apparently most of work that they did was in Sunnydale, it was quite profitable) and were looking for a new supplier of high quality drills. Uncle Vernon had decided to bring his family with him on the sales call (he could write off a large portion of the trip as a business expense - so it was a cheap vacation).
Harry patted his wand again. After everything that had happened at the end of the the last school year Harry was glad he had been able to sneak it past Uncle Vernon.

*Sunnydale*

"Dawnie," Buffy sighed with exasperation as she and Sirius entered her house. "What are you still doing up?"
"It's only 10:30 Buffy." The teenager sighed back, equally exasperated. "Who's is that?" She asked pointing at Sirius.
"This is Sirius Black." Buffy said. "Sirius, this is my sister, who should be in bed, Dawn." She gritted out the last part of the scentance while glaring at her sister.
"Buffy!" Dawn whined with indignation. "It's only 10:30!"
"Dawn!" Buffy returned in a parody of her sisters voice, "Go to bed!"
"Fine." Dawn huffed. "Not like you were in bed any earlier when you were my age." She grumbled as she stomped up the stairs.
Sirius watched her go with a mixture of amusement and confusion. So far nothing he had encountered in this town had been anything close to resembling normal. These were the strangest Muggles he had ever encountered.
"You can sleep here on the couch." Buffy was saying, "Sorry, the beds are sort of full... But I've been told it's a really comfy couch" Buffy offered apologetically.
"A couch is good." Sirius grinned.
"Right." Buffy nodded. "I'll get you some blankets." She dissapeared up the stairs for a moment and Sirius took the opportunity to look around the room. The room was decorated nicely and had a very 'lived in' feel. Sirius noticed on closer inspection that many of the furnishings had been expertly repaired.
"Xander is a very handy guy to have for a friend." Buffy said, peeking out from behind a stack of pillows and blankets. She had caught Sirius giving a closer inspection to the many times repaired coffee table as she came back down the stairs. "Particularly when someone forgets the basic house rules." She dumped the fluffy burden on the couch and looked back up at Sirius.
"Which reminds me." She continued. "The basic house rules are: 1.) Under no circumstances are you to invite anyone into the house after dark. 2.) People who smolder or smoke in daylight are also to be denied entrance into the house, for obvios reasons."
"Got it." Sirius nodded.
"I'll be upstairs if you need me." Buffy told him as she finished putting together the bedding on the couch. "The light switch is over there." She paused, "You do know how to use it, right?"
"Yes."
"Good."
With that, the blond slayer dissapeared once more up the stairs.
Sirius took off his shoes, hit the lights and settled down on to what was indeed a very comfortable couch.

Harry was really wishing he could have stayed with Ron and his family. He was beginning to think that even staying with Mrs. Figg would be better than his current predicament. The Dursleys had arranged for a hotel suite room. Duddley had not only insisted on his own bed, but had demanded his own room as well. Since Aunt Petunia couldn't stand to be too far from her precios Duddy-kins, Uncle Vernon had relented and paid the extra money for the extra large suite style room. It had two bedrooms and a small living area furnished with a rock hard loveseat and a rigid chair.
Harry was currently trying to find some approximation of a comfortable position on the loveseat and not having a whole lot of success. He tossed and turned and tried to block out the loud snorting and snoring coming from the two bedrooms indicating the Dursley's obvios lack of discomfort. Harry finnaly managed to settle on a position that was at least not painfull and began the long wait untill sleep could overtake him.

The morning was bright and sunny. Both Summers girls had awoken somewhere around the crack of ten. The teenager, Dawn, came downstairs rubbing bleary eyes. Buffy had managed to drag herself from bed about five minutes before her sister, and was on hand to offer breakfast.
"So what's the plan for today?" Dawn asked through a gaping yawn.
"First I'm going to give our guest the grand tour of Sunnydale." Buffy said as she poured three large glasses of orange juice. "Then probably research at the Magic Box."
"Can I come?" Dawn asked as she took her glass. "I don't have plans."
"Dawn, why don't you-" Sirius saw the look of abject missery on Dawn's face as her sister began to object. He also saw a familiar glint in the teens eye that he knew all to well.
"I don't mind." Sirius offered, "Really."
"Buffy, please?" Dawn begged.
"Fine, but no wandering off, and I want you to stay out of the way in the research field. Got it?"
"Loud and clear."

Xander was sure to put on his best work clothes when he got dressed in the morning. There were some people comming from overseas to see the site today. Apparently the representative from the drill company that was tring to get Sun Builders drill contract and his family. Xander breifly wondered what kind of weirdo would bring his wife and kids to a construction site for a vacation, but decided in the end that he was hardly one to judge what was weird and what was normal. Buffy had also called to warn him that she would probably be swinging by with Dawn and the new guy for his grand intro to Sunnydale tour. He was currently working on rebuilding the high school and so the work site just happened to be on the Hellmouth.
Anya had left early to help Giles open the Magic Box. She seemed to think that if they opened the store earlier today, she could make up for the time she lost yesterday.
Willow and Oz had decided to hit the library at U.C. Sunnydale in an attempt to find more information on various types of magic. Willow was familiar with Wicca, and had heard a little bit about what Sirius had told them about last night. Some of the things he had mentioned last night had jogged her memory about something. She and Oz were going to try to fill in some of the peices.

Harry woke up in the morning with a swat from a pillow from Duddley's bed. His pig-faced cousin laughed as Harry tried to fend off the offending object. He was saved when room service arrived with breakfast.
Harry rummaged about his suit case for a clean shirt, carefull not to disturb the invisibilty cloak that concealed some of his most prized possesions. He then went to the bathroom to change. Today they had to go and visit one of the construction sites for the company that Uncle Vernon was trying to sell drills to. His uncle had already given Harry a long lecture about how to behave and what would happen to him if there was any funny stuff. Harry had been sure to nod and say "Yes Uncle Vernon" in all the right places. He now made sure that his wand was carefully concealed in his oversized clothes. Once again, what Uncle Vernon didn't know wouldn't hurt him. Besides, something about Sunnydale gave Harry the creeps. He did not want to be without his wand. He had a feeling he would need it.

Dawn followed as Buffy gave Sirius the grand tour of Sunnydale. They had started by checking in at the Magic Box. It had been blessedly quiet last night, no new deaths. They had then proceded to the cemetary and the U.C. Sunnydale campus. U.C. Sunnydale had a pretty decent library when it came to ocult research, second only to the Magic Box. It aslo happened to have internet access. It was at the library that Buffy checked up with Willow desreetly. Oz showed Sirius the actual section that had what he later called 'the most accurate record of magic he had ever seen in a Muggle library'.
Whatever a Muggle was.
After the library they went the one place Dawn actually wanted to go. It was the primary reason she had wanted to come along. The next stop was the sight of the old high school. The construction site Xander was currently working on. Xander had told Buffy that he would try to sneak them in so she could show their guest the one mystical item that put Sunnydale on the map. The Hellmouth.

Harry followed a descreet distance from the Dursleys as the President of the construction company gave them the grand tour of one of their current projects. It was the rebuilding of the local high school. Apparently it had been destroyed almost two years ago by a gas main explosion. It had happened during the graduation ceremony killing the Mayor and a number of graduating students.
Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia put on their best 'Oh how terrible faces' while Duddley looked sickeningly interested. His cousin had recently developed an interest in real-world events, so long as they were terribly violent. He would often complain loudly if he thought Uncle Vernon drove past a good auto wreck too fast.
Harry didn't like this place. It gave him the creeps. He reached into the spot he had stashed his wand and fingered it lightly. He then pushed the oversized hardhat back so he could better see where he was going.

"Okey, the coast is clear." Xander said as he motioned for Buffy, Sirius and Dawn to folow him.
"Wow." Buffy marveled as she looked around. "You guys have really cleaned this place back up."
"I know." Xander said with a quirky grin. "You would hardly recognize it as the place we worked so hard to blow up."
"You did this?" Sirius asked bewildered as they walked down the remains of the halls toward the library.
"Yep." Buffy nodded, sounding very pleased with herself.
"The day we graduated." Xander added.
"They had to stop the Mayor from eating the entire graduating class." Dawn supplied.
"Was he a vampire?" Sirius asked, bewildered.
"No." Buffy shook her head in a casual manner, "Giant, near immortal snakey thing." She said as if this was an every day normal thing to talk about. Then again, this was Sunnydale, maybe it was an every day normal thing to talk about.
They heard voices up ahead. "This area has been cleaned up, so it's perfectly safe."
"That's the boss." Xander told them quietly. "Must be the tour."
The four of them ducked back into the shadows and watched as Xanders boss and three other people came into view.
No, wait, make that four other people. There was a fourth person following at a very descreet distance. He kept pushing his borrowed hard hat back from over his eyes.
Sirius sucked in a sharp breath and made a sudden jump toward the boy. Buffy caught his arm to hold him back. Sirius didn't even try to struggle against her grip, there was a faint poping noise, and suddenly, Sirius was gone.

Harry was now really bored. Duddley seemed to be enjoying the carnage around him immensly. He had even looked dissapointed when the comapny president had told them that it really used to be much worse. Harry had the distict feeling that he was being watched. The next thing he knew he was lying on his back and looking up into pale eyes and black fur.

Xander stared in horror. What was that Sirius guy doing? Did he want to get them all caught? Did he want to get him fired?
Buffy looked eaqually as shocked, though for slightly different reasons.
How had he done that?
She had been holding on to him! Then he had been gone!
Dawn watched as the president and the other three guests continued. The president was explaining how the drills that the large rotund man's company could provide would be used. The woman looked as though she was going to be sick. The other boy (who looked far too large for his age) looked... happy. But none of them noticed that the other boy had been tackled by a large black dog.
Dawn cautiosly stepped out from their hiding spot and approached the boy and the dog. Who ever he was, he looked really happy to see the dog.
Where had the dog come from anyway?
The dog steped away from the boy who stood and dusted himself off. Dawn slowly walked toward him. She let out a small squeak when the large dog 'poped' and in its place stood Sirius Black.

Harry heard the faint squeak as Sirius turned back into his human form. He looked over and saw a girl, about his age standing not too far away.
"Sirius, I think we have a problem." He said quietly.
Sirius turned and looked at Dawn. "Hey Dawn." He said lightly. "Where did your sister and her friend go?"
Harry looked on in shock. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. "Do you know these people?"
"We've met." A blond girl said as she and another guy stepped out from the shadows.
"I just need to check." The guy was saying, "I know we've only just met, but are you trying to get me fired?"
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked in mock innocence.
"Alright." Buffy said in a no-nonscence tone of voice. "First, what do you think you're doing? Next, who is this? And, aren't they going to notice he's missing."
"Not likey." Harry said, "It may take them all day to notice that I'm gone. If I'm lucky."
"This is my godson." Sirius said solemly, he then turnd to Harry. "What are you doing there."
Harry could hear the concearn in Sirius's voice. "Uncle Vernon had a business trip. They couldn't get anyone to watch me, not that I need a babysitter, but they had to take me with them."
He paused to catch a breath then continued, "Sirius, what's wrong?"
"Why don't we show you." He said and he nodded toward Buffy.
The blond took the lead, closely followed by a dark haired construction worker he had seen earlier at the site. Sirius motioned for him to stay close. The girl who had approached them earlier fell into step behind them.
They soon reached an area that the clearing crews had not started on yet.
"Carefull" Xander warned them. "The floor should be stable, but we haven't even begun to work over here yet."
"Where are we?" Harry asked. He didn't understand what could be so important in this burned out old high school.
"In what used to be the library." the construction worker told him.
"More importantly we're right on top of the Hellmouth." Buffy told them. "It would be the great gaping hole in the center of the room."
"What's a Hellmouth?" Harry asked. He had never heard of one before. Where was Hermione when you needed her?
"It's..." Sirius looked at Harry intently, but seemed unable to continue.
"It's basically a demon magnet." The girl supplied from behind them. "It draws a lot of Vampires and Demons, anything evil, really."
"So that's what you were so worried about." Harry said looking at his godfather and forcing a smile. No wonder Sunnydale had felt off.
"I promise I'll be carefull."
"No Harry, it's more than that." Sirius said quietly. He then turned to Buffy. "This is the most accesable Hellmouth I have ever heard of." His voice was quite.
"Do you think that's why they're here?" Buffy asked.
"Yes." Sirius sounded worried. "I'm sure of it."
"Why who's here?" Harry asked, feeling as though he were missing the last few pages of a mystery novel (the pages that explained who done it, why and how).
"Death Eaters, Harry." Sirius said. He sounded more worried than Harry could ever remember. "There are Death Eaters in Sunnydale."

Remus had arrangements made by the next morning after speaking with Sirius. Dumbledore had agreed that Remus was the best choice for a first response Wizard. Unfortunately there were not a whole lot of Wizards that knew of Sirius's innocence. Dumbledore would be able to tell them, and they would believe him, but that would take time.
Remus was exhausted. He doublechecked the potion ingrediants one last time. He may have to spend a moon in Sunnydale, he did not want to have to worry about running around biting people in the middle of a Death Eater crisis. Just to be safe he double the potions ingrediants, packing them separately so that if one were damaged or lost he would still have another dose.
After checking everything one final time, Remus departed for the last place any sane Witch or Wizard went (and that made him worry breifly about Padfoot), Sunnydale.

Arabella Figg returned to her Muggle home. Voldemort was back. She had just left a meeting with Dumbledore, one that had lasted nearly a week. They had had much to discuss, what with Voldemort back and Sirius innocent...
That had come as something of a shock. The day Sirius Black had show up at her front door to tell her that Dumbledore needed the old crowd again she had nearly hexed him into a stupor on the spot. Fourtunately Remus Lupin had come with him and stopped her before she called the Ministry. They had decided then and there that it would not be wise for Sirius to approach the others. Arabella had taken it upon herself to gather the old crowd, telling her neighbors that it was a family emergancy and she didn't know when she would be back, and if they could please watch her cat's while she was gone?
She picked up her mail from one of her neighbors and handed over a healthy sum to their son for being such a dear and taking care of her pretty kitty's while she had been away. The boy had thanked her profously while his mother smiled and asked how her family was. Arabella assured her that things were fine for now, but that her 'sister' was still in danger.
"There's just no more good I can do there." She said with a sad smile. "Though I may be called away at a moments notice anytime now."
"Well, we'd be happy to watch your house anytime Arabella." The neighbor woman said in cheerfull voice before lowering to a conspiratorial whisper "Though I do believe you have spoiled Petunia Dursley... she came by not to long ago... wanted you to watch that nephew of theirs for a while. Seems they were going to America and didn't want to bring him for some reason."
"Oh?" Arabella was genuinely suprised. "They don't seem the type... did they mention where in America?"
"Someplace in California... Sunnydale I think was the name. Apparently it's equal business and pleasure."
Arabella's stomach made a sickening lurch. Sunnydale? As in the home of the Hellmouth? Oh dear, Albus needed to hear about this. Arabella departed as soon as common courtesy would allow, and left to call the headmaster.

Remus arrived at Sunnydale close to 5 p.m. local time. After checking the house where Sirius had indicated he would be staying and finding no one to be home he headed into town. It didn't take Remus long to find the place that Sirius had called from the other night. There was only one place in town that it could have been - The Magic Box. Remus was able to recognize a majority of the things in the store window as not only actual tools of magic, but very practical ones at that. It was no Diagon Alley, but considering its location it was rather impressive.
The bell jingled softly as he entered the store. He slowly headed into the interior of the shop. A young woman behind the register entreated him to purchase something. Remus stopped and looked at her, shocked at her forwardness.
An English-accented voice reprimanded her from a table set to the side and back from the rigister. Remus turned his head to follow the voice to the source of the sound and saw a couple of young red-heads and an older gentleman sitting at a large table next to a large collection of books.
"Excuse me," Remus said, adressing his fellow Englishman calmly, "I was looking for Sirius Black. Have you any idea where he might be?"
All eyes in the store turned to stare back at him intently. Remus could almost feel their suspision, it was so thick in the air it was almost tangible.
The bell jingled softly behind him and was followed by an immeadiate exclamation.
"Professor Lupin!"
Remus turned and stared as Harry Potter, followed by Sirius and three other people that he didn't know entered the store.

After an hour of explanations, telephone calls (to inform the Dursleys that Harry would not be returning with them, yes they would be refunded the cost of his plane ticket, and someone would be by for the luggage that night, thank you very much) and a few scattered arguments it was decided that Harry would be just as safe here as he would be in England. Buffy and Dawn agreed to let the visitors stay at their place. And Willow and Oz dropped a virtual bomb.
"There is a pattern." Willow said. "The police don't see it but only because they don't know where to look."
"What kind of pattern?" Both Giles and Remus asked at the same time.
"In stereo!" Xander chided looking from one to the other, "Impressive."
"There are a couple actually." Oz supplied as Willow glanced through some notes before speaking again.
"Well, aside from the location of the bodies, which I'll get too in a moment, they all had one thing in common."
"And that was?" Sirius prompted.
"They were all schooled in a private school out on the east coast."
"What school?" Giles asked.
"See now, that's the funny part. It doesn't say."
"So your saying that these people all went to the same non-exsistant school?" Buffy pressed, Willow nodded. Buffy turned to Giles and her voice took on a playful edge as she asked "Why couldn't we all go to school there."
"What was so interesting about the location of the bodies?" Giles asked, pointedly ignoring the slayers question.
Willow blushed a furios shade of red that nearly matched the color of a Weasley's hair. She avverted her gaze, looking at the table now as if it were the most interesting thing she had ever seen. "Umm, well..."
"We were trying to find more information about what you told us last night." Oz said looking directly at the visitors.
"We didn't find much." Willow said, still blushing. "But there was a picture in a paper from the late 70's, regarding a death similar to what's been happening here... there was a funny looking, really creepy, symbol that appeared there."
Remus and Sirius exchanged knowing looks. "Most likely the Dark Mark." Remus supplied.
"Skull with a snake?" Willow asked in a slightly squemish voice.
They both nodded.
Willow didn't say anything more. She pulled up a printout of a map detailing the location of where all the bodies had been found. Penciled in on the surface was a sort of connect-the-dots. It was obvios at this point what the final picture would be.

Buffy and Giles went with Harry to pick up his things from the Dursleys hotel room. Giles, on Harry's advice, wore his most boring tweed. This seemed to impress the Dursley's who were quite releived to find out that Giles was a relatively 'normal' person.
They quickly retrieved Harry's case and were on their way. The handle had been broken at some point in the cases history (probably during one of Dudley's tantrums) and as a result was extreamly difficult to manage.
"That's a really big suitcase." Buffy said with a raised eyebrow. "You going to make it?"
"It was the only one they had left." Harry told her as he tried to pick it up by the corners. His arms just weren't big enough to get around the case.
"Here, let me." Buffy said as she leaned over and took the case from the boy.
"Carefull, I put some of my..." Harry didn't bother to finish the scentance. Buffy had palmed the case and thrown it on her sholder, carring it like a boom-box. "Wow."
"Being the slayer has some advantages." Buffy said cheerfully as they continued on to her house.

Meanwhile Willow was working with Remus to try and find any more information on the current victims to date. According to Remus, all of the victims had attended a school for Witchcraft and Wizardry on the east coast called the Salem Institute.
"Is there any way we can get a list of graduates that have moved out here, or live around here?" Willow asked as she pulled her laptop out of her bag.
"I could send a request by owl-post to the American Ministry." Remus mused. "But that could take awhile and there's no garuntee that they would actually give me the information. What's that?" He asked pointing at Willows computer.
"My laptop." Willow said as she began hooking up the power plugs and phone connection. At Remus's still confused expression she elaborated, "It's a computer, only smaller... it let's me look things up, like a book, only quicker... and... bigger. But little package..." Willow stopped suddenly and then opened her mouth to appologize for babbling.
Her appology never left her mouth. Before she could say anything the door opened and Harry, Giles and Buffy came in. Sirius was visibly relieved to see Harry. The sun had set almost half an hour ago, and he had been pacing up and down the living room for the last fourty five minutes.
"That was relatively painless." Buffy smiled as she set Harry's suitcase down. "Just tell me one thing."
"What?" Harry asked as he bent down to exmine his suitcase.
"Are your relatives always that weird?" Buffy cocked her head to one side as she spoke.
Harry tried, and failed, to control the laughter that welled up inside him. The Dursley's, in their never ending quest for complete normalacy, did indeed come off kind of weird he supposed. Harry had never really thought about it before. Now that it had been pointed out to him though, it was so obvios he wondered how he had missed it.
"Yes, they are actually." Harry finnaly managed. "Where should I put my things?"
"We're going to stick you in Dawn's room." Buffy told him, "It's upstairs, second door on the right."
Buffy went upstairs to show Harry the room. Mild protests could be heard form Dawn as she relinqueshed her room to the visitor. Remus had been informed that he and Sirius could sleep on the couch, or an air-matress, as soon as it had been located.
It was at this time that Remus began to notice something. Neither of Buffy's parents had come home yet. He looked to the girl, Willow, who was busy hacking into the police database. She did not seem to think it strange that neither of the Slayers parents had come home. Given Sunnydales reputation, however, Remus was hesatent to voice his question.

Albus Dumbledore listened with growing concern to Arabella Figg's information. It seemed that in her abscence, the Dursley's had taken a 'vacation' to America. Since Arabella had been absent, they had taken Harry with them. This was nothing to be overly concerned about. So long as Harry was with his family he was still relatively safe.
No, the matter that concerned him was the destination that the Dursley's had chosen. Sunnydale, California was one of the most dangerous locations known to the Wizarding world. Most Witch's and Wizards avoided it, actively. That in and of itself was a reason for concern.
More worriesom however, was the recent possible Death Eater activity in the area. Fortunately, both Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were already in Sunnydale.

Harry awoke slowly. It took him a few minutes to remember why the walls were pink. He reached over taking his glasses from the bedside table and placed them on his face bringing the room into focus. Yep, there was no doubt about it, this was a girls room. If the pink walls hadn't given it away, the flowery bed comforter certainly would have.
Harry gingerly crawled out of bed. He scanned the room for a clock and was shocked to see that he had slept util a little after nine. Usually when he was with the Dursley's he had to get up at the crack of dawn to start his chores (one of which was preparing Dudley breakfast, that took a while). When at school he was occasionally able to sleep in, but between Quiddich and whatever mystery he and his friends were trying to solve it didn't happen all that often. Even when he stayed with the Weasley's he had often woken up a little earlier than he would have liked (that was usually because the twins were up to something loud).
Harry heard voices from downstairs. He quickly threw some clothes on and then hurried down the stairs to see what was up.

"Dawnie," Buffy said, voice dripping with honied sweetness, "Why didn't you tell me we were out of milk?"
Dawn looked up from her bowl of cereal. "Oh, sorry. Buffy we're out of milk." She said in her most innocent voice. "I just used the last of it." She informed her sister, indicating her bowl.
Buffy groaned and headed for the fridge. By this time both Sirius and Remus had made their way to the kitchen. "Dawnie..." Buffy smiled as she closed the fridge door, "When exactly did we run out of eggs?"
"Yesterday morning." Dawn told her without looking up from her breakfast.
"Dawn," Buffy stood across from her sister, weary frustration in her voice. "You need to tell me when things run low so I can buy more and this doesn't happen."
Remus felt his suspisions from the night beofre hit him again full force. The Slayer and her sister's parents were no where to be found. He had been able to talk to Sirius breifly the night before, after everyone else had gone to bed. His friend had neither seen nor heard anything about the girls parents.
Dawn was now glaring at her sister with an expression that clearly indicated she blamed Buffy just as much as Buffy blamed her for the current lack of breakfast.
The silence was akward. Buffy and Dawn continued to glare at each other oblivios to the two Wizards that had entered the kitchen. Sirius and Remus for their part were hesitant to draw any attention to themselves, somehow it just didn't seen safe.
The silence was broken when Willow and her boyfriend Oz walked in.
"Buffy..." She called as she walked in. "I hope we're not to early, I mean I wouldn't want to interupt breakfast or anything, but you did say to be here in the morning and I know we needed to get started and I need set up my computer and..." Willows voice trailed of as she reached the kitchen.
"We brought donuts." Oz said sagely.
"Good." Buffy groused, "Somebody forgot to mention that we don't have any food in the house."
Oz set the breakfast offering down on the table. Buffy reached into the box taking a chocolate frosted donut with multi colored sprinkles.

Willow took her computer into the dining room and began to set up. Remus followed her in.
"Willow," he began. His voice was quiet, calm and measured. He suspected the answer to the question he was about to ask. "I don't mean to pry, but where are Buffy and Dawns parents?"
The red head looked down, staring at the ground for a long moment before wiping her eyes and looking back at Remus and answering. "They were divorced right before they moved to Sunnydale. Their dad works in L.A., but we don't really know where he is. Their mom... died... recently."
She looked as though she was going to cry, "It was really sudden. I mean, we all knew people who died, friends, classmates... sorta normal living on a Hellmouth." She continued in a hushed voice. "But that was Vampires and Demons and stuff... Buffy's mom just got sick, a tumor, and then we thought she was better and then she was just gone..."
"I'm sorry." Remus said. He was acutely aware of just how lame those words sounded. He just couldn't think of anything better to say. Willow nodded in aknowledgement mutely and went back to setting up her equipment.

Sirius joined Remus in the room with Willow's stuff. The girl had gone to the bathroom to recompose herself. He mutely handed his friend a donut. Remus didn't even look at the pastry before taking a bite. He was vaugley aware that he was prabably lucky that this was neither the Wizarding World, and that his friend did not have access to a wand. Otherwise, blindly accepting food from Sirius could be hazerdous to your genneral well being.
"I take it you were right?" Sirius asked softely. Remus nodded. "Damn..." he breathed out under his breath. They hadn't known the Slayer and her gang for long, but they had come to like them almost immeadiatly. The group of kids had seen way more terror and strangeness than most even in the Wizarding World. Way more than they should.
"I feel like a dolt." Remus finaly said between bites of chocolate and sprinkles. "To bring up what I had to know would be a touchy subject so tactlessly."
"You, we, needed to know." Sirius said, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "Chances are, better you than me to handle it."
"You mean let you, the brutaly tactless handle a sensitive situation?"
"I wouldn't say brutaly tactless..." Sirius said, emphasizing the word brutaly as he said it.
"The rest of us would Padfoot."
"Hey!" Buffy had poked her head out of the kitchen. "No chocolately goodness in the carpet rooms without a plate!"

Despite the fact that they had not yet recieved word back from the Salem institute, there was little doubt left that the recent death srpee in good old Sunnydale was the work of Death Eaters. After examining police photos of the crime sceenes, there was also little doubt that all of the victems were Witchs or Wizards.
"How can you be so sure?" Giles asked as a very whitefaced Remus examined picture after picture.
"This." He said pointing to a small stick still clutched in the hand of the most recent victim. "They all had thier wands out."
"Wand?" Willow asked, uncertainty clear in her voice. "You use wands?"
"Yes." Remus replied, his voice slipping into an easy lecture tone. "It helps to focus magical energy and direct a spell. A Witch or Wizard could perform some spells without it, but it would be very draining and the success per failure ratio would drop significantly. Considering some of the things that can happen when a spell attempt fails, not using a wand is generally frowned upon."
"Oh." Willow said softly, turning slightly red.
"I take it that you don't all walk around with your wands out at the ready?" Giles inquired.
"No." Remus said, Sirius shook his head confiming his friends negative response.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Xander asked, stuffing the last of the donoughts into his mouth.
"It means that the knew they were in trouble." Buffy said moving to get a closer look at the picture on the computer screen. "They were fighting these guys."
"That still tells us very little." Giles sighed.
"No, but it is enough to formulate a theory." Remus said calmly. "I would need to contact the American Magical Ministry to be sure, but I suspect that we may be looking at this from the wrong prespective."
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked, confusion written all over her face.
"They were tracking the Death Eaters," Sirius said, eyebrows raising. "You think they may have been Aurors?"
"It's a possibility." Lupin conceeded, nodding his head.
"That changes things," Oz spoke up for the first time since breakfast, "doesn't it."
"Yes." Remus agreed quietly, "A great deal, I should think."

Buffy hid an extra stake in her jacket. Vampire activity had been low the last couple of weeks, but Slayer instict told her tonight would be different. They had recieved word from the Salem Institute. The victems were all graduates, they were all wizards. They had all graduated top of their class too. They had also recieved word from the American Ministry of Magic. Sunnydale was aparently in the middle of being investigated by 'Aurors'. They had been kindly asked to butt out.
Buffy checked the end of her favorite stake, the one she had long ago dubbed 'Mr. Pointy'. It was still good. Then with a last glance in the mirror, she headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" She recognized the voice of Remus Lupin questioning her.
"Patrol." She answered shortly.
"Would you mind if I joined you?" Remus asked mildly.
Buffy eyed the man skeptically. He was pale, thin and looked older than Giles.
"I am quite capable of taking care of myself." Lupin assured her brandishing his wand. "Besides, if you run into more than the undead tonight, a well trained wizard would certainly not go amiss."
Buffy hated to admit that he probably had a point. Deep within her the same Slayer instict that told her to pack an extra stake tonight, the one that normaly told her to go it solo, was not at all adverse to allowing the mild mannered Englishman to come along. Reluctantly Buffy nodded and she and Lupin headed out the door.

"Where are they going?" Harry asked no one in particular from the top of the steps. Professor Lupin and Buffy had just walked out the door. Buffy had been brandishing a peice of pointed wood that if his DADA lessons were worth anything told him was a stake.
"Patroling." A voice answered from next to him in the hall. Harry turned to see Buffy's sister, Dawn standing next to him. "It keeps the vampire population down."
"So your sister just goes looking for vampires." Harry mused. "I thought most people tried to avoid them."
"That would be the normal, logical, sane thing to do, yes." Dawn agreed. "But around here you will discover that sane, normal, and logical need not apply. Besides," Dawn continued, "Buffy is the Slayer, so it sort of qualifies as her job."

There was nothing to be done about it. The Muggle athorities had found the body first. The only good thing about this whole fiasco was that Sunnydale was known for having rashes of inexplicable deaths and other strange happenings. How the Muggles who lived here could be so oblivios to what was happening all around them was beyond any Witch or Wizard that Sam knew.
Sam had a growing suspision though, that if one lived here long enough they would become blind to all the oddities. Sam had barely been here a month and already he was able to turn a blind eye to an appaling number of things. All Sam wanted now was to find out who was using Unforgivables and go home.
He absently brushed the some non-existant dust off his wand, checked his clothes one last time in the mirror (he missed the reassurance provided by his mirror at home - it never failed to compliment him on his good looks) then quietly exited the motel room.

"So, if there's this whole huge community of witch's and wizards out there, why haven't I heard about it?" Buffy walked at a casual pace through the deserted cemetary. She wasn't really expecting too much trouble tonight. Since the killings had started the vampires had started to make themselves scarce.
"We try to remain hidden." Remus Lupin, Buffy's patrol buddy for the night responded. "There are very few non-magic users who know about the wizarding world."
"But what about Giles?" Buffy pressed. "I mean, It's his job to know about all these wierd things, and the best he had was rumor."
Lupin raised an eyebrow and gave Buffy an amused look, begging her to continue. Buffy responded by stopping in the cemetary and crossing her arms over her chest.
"I just think that it's weird that my watcher knows more about ancient prophesies than modern magic." Buffy gave him her best 'slayer' look. The cool stare that put demons and vamps in their place.
"If you are trying to intimidate me," Lupin pointed out mildly, "might I remind you I did teach a year at Hogwarts."
"And that's another thing." Buffy said, placing her hands on her hips, "If there's all this magic community and such for people who can do magic why didn't Willow get an invite?"
"A good question." Lupin said mildly. "I assume that she has lived in Sunnydale all her life?"
"Born and raised, I think." Buffy said, then stopped suddenly. There was something... there, by the Jacobs crypt. "Company." Buffy whispered. Remus nodded and drew his wand while Buffy readyed her stake.

"Bloody hell!" Buffy lowered her stake at the sound of the familiar voice. Remus looked at her questioningly without lowering his wand.
"Time for you to meet Spike." She deadpaned.
Lupin didn't lower his wand, but he followed the slayer as she jogged toward the crypt. "Who exactly is 'Spike'?" He queried.
"Local resident," Buffy responded in a wry voice.
It was then that another voice came to them, this time from inside the crypt.
"Back, foul creature." The voice sounded American, male, and scared.
"Oh, and did I forget to mention he's a Vampire?" Buffy added as they came upon the scene.
"Foul creature? Me?" Spike said incredious, "Your the one in me crypt!"
"What's going on here?" Buffy stepped into the situation, placing herself between Spike and the slightly shaken American wizard.
"I go out for food, come back and this bugger is in my crypt when I get back." Spike said indicating the wizard. "Patroling with company tonight Slayer?" Spke asked as he saw Lupin.
"William the Bloody, I presume?" Remus asked calmly as he approached, not lowering his wand. The other wizard paled a bit at hearing Spikes old nick-name.

Buffy heaved a tired sigh, this is not what she had been thinking of when her instinct had told her that tonight was going to be an eventful night.