Treasure Hunting

Title: Treasure Hunting
Author: Jinni (druscilla@cox.net)
Rated: PG13
Pairing: W/Bill Weasley
Genre: HP Crossover
Disclaimer: All things BtVS belong to Joss Whedon and/or whomever is currently claiming responsibility for them. The wonderful world of Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.
Distribution: A Witch's Love, NHA, Bite Me Please, WLS, Aislin. All others please ask first.
Author's Note: This idea was posted on my WitchsLoveFanfic group by goddess792. Good idea and I'm gonna go with it now. Hope you all enjoy. This takes place sometime, perhaps a year, after Oz leaves Willow. Nothing else is cannon past the point where Oz left and I'm winging it as I go.
Feedback: Keeps me going.
~*~Part One~*~

Willow brushed the dirt from the knees of the dusty suede-looking cotton of her pants. Her green eyes glanced hesitantly around the cemetery, alert for even the slightest indication that she wasn't alone. There was none for the time being, the best time for her to leave in her opinion. No chance of her staying lucky enough to not run into a vampire if she insisted on staying in the cemetery far longer than was healthy in the first place.

She bent over, grabbing the last of her supplies from the ground. The cemetery had been the perfect spot to do the spell she had attempted that night, even though the spell itself had not worked in any way - good or otherwise. It was just as well. Buffy and the others really did prefer that one of them were with her when she tried new spells, just in case. At least this way she could say that yes she had snuck off behind their backs but, look, she was still alive and healthy and had managed not to unleash any type of demons on the town.

'Not this time, anyway.' She thought sadly. No matter how hard she tried she just couldn't get her magic to go 'right'. It felt at times like she was missing something, a key element that would help her focus. But that was just a feeling, and she hadn't been able to find anything in the books she had read during her solo studies to indicate that she was doing anything inherently wrong. Of course, she hadn't found much to indicate she was doing anything *right*, either. Most of her spells went downright astray, another large percentage didn't work at all. The rest, however, like the simple fire and lightning spells she knew, those worked just fine.

Which was just as well. As neat as it would be to be the all powerful mojo worker of the Scoobies, she just wasn't feeling her heart in it anymore. Their research time had taken second place to Buffy's dating time and Xander's courting Anya time. The demons and prophecies had been scarce during the last few months. And that left them with little reason to plan or train. Even Giles had found hobbies to occupy his abnormal amount of 'spare time'. That left only her as the odd woman out, the one without anything to do in their spare time except sit around and hit the books.

They had, of course, encouraged her to find a private life, a social life, any kind of life outside of the research she loved so much. But that just wasn't her. She enjoyed magic, despite the fact that she couldn't get the hang of it. And, she knew, that if she just kept practicing, eventually she'd find that one thing she had been missing.

The red head shoved her ingredients and spell book into her bag, forcing her tired line of thoughts away from her at the same time. It would do no good to dwell on what was just a matter of life. Friends grew up and moved on. Only rarely did one manage to keep the same friends you had made in high school beyond that delicate period of life.

And this was her time to move on, to find her niche, and to make a life for herself.

She walked slowly through the cemetery, still alert for any signs of the supernatural - vampire or otherwise. She was so intent on seeing only the strictly supernatural, in fact, that she almost failed to see something that, while out of the ordinary, wasn't too terribly terrifying either.

A man with a map.

A man very intently -studying- said map.

She bit her lip, the corner of her mouth leaning up in a smile. Whoever he was, he certainly was handsome from the profile she had view of. Long hair, bound back in a ponytail, was the same shade of red that her own was. The kind that made you wonder if it was straight from the Goddess or straight out of a bottle. His skin had a healthy glow about it, definitely not the pasty white of a vampire. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, both showing off the sleek lines of a body that was obviously used to doing some sort of activity on a regular basis. Not a book nerd like herself, she was sure.

She leaned back on a headstone, watching with amused eyes as he continued to scan the map. He was looking for something, it was apparent; though it was equally obvious that he was horribly confused. She pulled herself up silently onto a headstone, still unnoticed by the handsome stranger. She could leave him here to blunder through the cemetery, she reasoned, and hope that he didn't become something's midnight snack; or she could watch him from a distance. Or, she could always -

"Ya know - it isn't safe to be here after dark."

~*~*~

Bill Weasley frowned down at the map the head of his current department had given him for the fifth time, wondering how the hell he had ended up in a cemetery. Certainly what he was looking for couldn't be located *here* of all places? As if being on a Hellmouth wasn't bad enough he was now completely lost. Not a feeling he was used to at all and one that he was sure Percy would yammer about if it got out.

Good thing no one he knew was around to witness this.

His green eyes scanned lightly over the markings on the map. It was an old piece, roughly three hundred years old, and leading to a relic worth far more than the richest vault in all of Gringotts. And that was probably the reason that the Ministry wanted it. They were growing increasingly bold in their attempts to ferret out the last remaining unrecovered true magical relics that had been scattered around the globe.

And that was his current assignment.

He had just located the probable source of his mapping mistake when he heard a soft voice somewhere to his right.

"Ya know - it isn't safe to be here after dark."

Bill turned, arching a playful eyebrow at the beauty he found seated on a headstone not even twenty yards away. He took a step towards her, watching as her eyes played gently over him, as if ascertaining whether or not he was going to be a threat, whether to run or chat. It gave him a moment to look her over, surprised by what he saw. She had to be in her early twenties, most likely still a student at one of the local universities. Her body was small, but without that anorexic looking thinness that he found so appalling in Muggle models. Her hair identified her immediately as someone that would fit right in with his family. And then there were her eyes - green like emeralds.

He smiled, coming to a stop still some distance from where she sat.

"If that's the case - why are you here."

She smiled, the expression teasing.

"I can handle myself."

"Ah." He murmured, the sweet caress of her voice washing over him. "And I can't?"

"Didn't say you couldn't." She shrugged, hopping down off of the headstone. Only then did he see that she wasn't that tall, almost short. Not a bad thing, he decided.

"I was only warning you," She continued, winding her way through the headstones, always keeping him at what he knew was her 'safe distance'. "That it isn't safe out here after dark. And - it's not." She stopped, smiling. "Besides. I saw the map and you looked sort of lost. Do you need directions?"

"Not unless you can tell me where to find a centuries old Gem." He muttered, not intending her to hear him.

But, of course, she did.

The red haired woman tilted her head to the side, looking at him curiously.

"Which gem?"

"Nothing you would have heard of, I'm sure." He replied smoothly, wondering if it would be possible to get her number. The idea of spending some time with a pretty lady while he was in town didn't sound bad at all.

"Try me."

Was it just her imagination or did she seem a little harder. A little more cautious maybe? He shrugged, flashing her a smile. Might as well humor her.

"The Gem of Amarra."

~*~*~

Willow's hesitant smile faded to an open frown at the mere mention of the Gem. She shook her head.

"Should've figured you were just someone else out seeking that damn thing." She sighed. "What is it that *you* want it for, hmm? Fame? Glory? Power? Life eternal?"

The man backed up a step at her sarcastic, sniping words. He held his hands up in a gesture of placation.

"None of that. My employer wants it."

"Employer?" Willow threw back at him, almost snarling. "Do you work for Wolfram and Hart? 'Cause if so, buddy, you better start running now before I curse you to the next dimension!"

"Hold on. Hold on!" The man shook his head. "I don't know who Wolfram and Hart is. I work for a museum of sorts, back in London."

"London?" Willow queried. "Museum? You don't work for the Watchers do you? If so - same thing applies as with the damn law firm." She was sounding a lot more confident than she felt, truth be told. This man was bigger than her and obviously not totally on the up and up. One couldn't be on the side of right and still want the Gem. Not if Spike was any example.

"Watchers?" The look on his handsome face was pure confusion.

"Nevermind." Willow sighed. "The Gem isn't here. It was taken by one William the Bloody to Los Angeles where he used it for, among other things, torturing his Grandsire. Said Grandsire then got his revenge, spent some time in the sun, and destroyed the Gem. Sorry you came all this way for nothing."

She turned her back on him then, slowly proceeding along the path she had been taking when she first ran into the red haired man.

~*~*~

Bill Weasley listened with growing curiosity and confusion as the woman in front of him accused him of wanting the Gem for himself, and then of being employed by some sort of firm, and then of some other group called the Watchers. He had never heard of any of them, though the Watchers did send off an alarm in the back of his head, as though he had heard of them at one part and forgotten it.

And then she had mentioned William the Bloody, a name he knew all too well from his DADA classes way back in his Hogwarts days. Hadn't Dumbledore come in for that lesson and recounted his one and only run in with a group of vampires known as the Scourge of Europe? And wasn't William the Bloody's Grandsire Angelus? The most feared vampire of all time?

How did this girl know so much?

And what about her threatening to curse him to another dimension.

Was she a --?

"Wait!" He called after her, jogging the short distance between them to catch up. The look on her face was one of open caution. She didn't trust him and how could he really blame her? If she knew what the Gem was and all of its varied uses, how could she truly give him her undying trust after only having known him for no more than ten minutes.

"Yes?" She murmured, backing up a step from him. She looked so innocently beautiful, standing in the moonlight. It was difficult to resist his very real urge to kiss those pale pink lips, bruise them to a bright red with the passion of his lips.

First things first.

"I'm sorry." He sighed. "We got off to a bad start, I think. My name is Bill Weasley." He held out his hand to her. After a moment's hesitation she was shaking it, her grip soft and undecidedly feminine.

"Willow Rosenberg." She murmured. "Look, I'm sorry if I got snippy with you about the Gem. It's just that we had some bad experiences with it and Angel nearly was killed because of it. I'm assuming that you know all about it since you came this far?"

Bill nodded.

"That's one of the reasons I was sent. We, my employers that is, didn't want the Gem to fall into the wrong hands. It is too powerful for any one individual."

Willow smiled sadly.

"That was Angel's thought, too. That's why he destroyed it."

"He really destroyed it?" Bill muttered, shaking his head. The Gem was a priceless artifact, even aside from the power it held. The idea of someone just wantonly destroying it was almost unheard of.

"Yep." Willow smiled. "The Gem is gone. Had been for a couple years now. Sorry to disappoint you."

The crackle of dry leaves in a thicket of trees at the edge of the cemetery they were nearest reminded Willow all too clearly of where they were. The cemetery - also known as Not-A-Safe-Placce.

"We need to get out of here." She murmured, grabbing hold of Bill's arm and tugging him out of the cemetery without further aplomb. Chatting with a handsome stranger was all fine and good, but not in a dark cemetery where the undead were certainly waiting for their next meal.

Bill allowed himself to be dragged out of the cemetery without a fight, sensing the urgency that she was giving off. For one reason or another, she truly believed that the cemetery was a bad place to be and that was good enough for him. He wasn't about to question her since apparently she was both familiar with the area and familiar with the supernatural. Which led him to his next question, as soon as they had stopped outside the gates.

"Are you a witch?"

~*~*~

Willow heard his words, but didn't immediately comprehend them. She stared at him for a long moment, her brain unable to fathom that this absolute hottie had just asked her what was normally a very unusual question, even in Sunnydale.

"Um… Well… You see… Sunnydale… Hellmouth… " She began to babble, her face heating up. She lifted her eyes to his face, her torrent of words ceasing at the smile on his face.

"Yes. I'm a witch." She sighed, her tone more resigned than anything else.

"Though so." Bill chuckled. He reached out, brushing a piece of hair from her cheek. The soft feel of her skin against his finger was enough to make him pick up the blushing she had finished with only moments before. He pulled back, amazed at his own brashness. Certainly he was the more flirtacious member of his family, but usually not this much so. He picked back up where he had left off, stammering.

"The whole threatening to curse me to another dimension thing was a dead give away, you know."

Willow frowned. "I probably wouldn't have been able to do that, anyway. No worried." She smiled in a completely self-deprecating manner. "I'm not a very good witch, you see."

There was such dejection in her voice, such sorrow, that Bill couldn't help but feel puty for her.

"Well maybe you just need some more practice. What kind of wand do you use?"

"Wand?" Willow's forehead crinkled in confusion.

"Yeah. Wand." Bill pulled his from his back pocket, showing off the thick rowan length.

"The books never said anything about a wand." She muttered, her eyes alight with a fierce curiosity as she looked over the rather innocent looking 'stick' that Bill was holding. She hardly took notice of the fact that this quite obviously meant that her new companion was not only familiar with magic, but was also a user of it as well.

"Where did you go to school at? What wizarding academy?" Bill questioned, uncertain how she had managed to get this far in her life without knowing about something as elementary as a wand.

"Wizarding academy?" Willow blinked in outright confusion. "There are *academies* for this?"

The look of confusion on her face, the slight tinge of anger in her eyes; Bill couldn't help himself.

He laughed.

Willow's eyes became fully irritated at that point.

"I don't see what's so funny!" She snapped, hurt by his laughter. "I've had to teach myself everything I know, thank you very much."

"Not laughing -at- you, Willow." He reassured her, his laughter fading to a gentle smile. "Just at the situation. And that look on your face. It was priceless."

Willow scowled at him, her expression softening with his next words.

"How about this," He began, pulling a list from his pocket. "You help me find the…lets see… Idol of Kyntal, and I'll try to arrange for you to speak to someone from one of those schools, maybe someone that can give you some tutoring?"

'Plus,' he added silently, 'it gives me a chance to spend a little more time with you. Maybe doing a dinner date type thing?'

"You mean it?" Willow breathed.

"Of course." Bill grinned.

Willow blinked, not believing her relative good fortune. She trusted him, despite the fact that she knew relatively nothing about him; something she was more than willing to change if it meant spending some more time in his handsome company. It was the idea of getting to finally learn magic from someone that was a professional, that made her feel so warm and tingly inside, she insisted, not lust.

Okay, so maybe it was a little bit of lust, too.

"Well, then." The red haired woman giggled. "Follow me. The Idol of Kyntal is currently being used as a bookend by a friend of mine."

~*~Part Two~*~

Willow led the way through Sunnydale, glancing occasionally at the red haired man walking next to her. He was handsome, but not in a drop dead gorgeous way she admitted after a few nice looks at him. More of a wholesome goodness, a sweet handsomeness that would knock a girl off her feet. His hair was pretty long, definitely past shoulder length, and bound back with a black band of some sort. She had never been attracted to men with long hair before -

But there was a first time for everything.

And, to top it all off, he was an actual wizard! A wand carrying, went-to-school-to-learn-magic, wizard! The Goddess couldn't have sent her a better end to her night if she had tried.

"So, where is the Idol?"

The witch snapped out of her thoughts, flashing Bill a grin.

"One of my friends - well, actually - he's more like a father figure type of person. Anyway, he's using it as a bookend. It isn't really that powerful of an artifact and none of its powers work on the Hellmouth - the energies cancel each other out."

Bill shook his head, returning the charming woman's smile with one of his own, the type that was known to make a woman melt, sometimes literally. It didn't have that effect on his companion, though he could definitely see a little hint of pink rise in her cheeks. She was adorable both in looks and mannerisms.

'And she's a witch.' He thought happily. 'One that never had the fortune of formal education in the arts, but still a witch. Mum would be pleased.'

Wait a minute.

Since when was he considering her a candidate for 'bringing home to Mum'?

He shook his head at his own thoughts. She was pretty, beautiful even, but he had hardly known her long enough to want to bring her home to his mother and introduce her to the rest of the wacky Weasley clan.

Right?

"Something funny?"

That brought another shake of Bill's head.

"No. Just thinking about home."

"Where's home?"

"I'm living in a flat in London currently, but I was thinking more of my family home, in the countryside of England."

Willow smiled to herself. She had thought he sounded altogether British, and she was right. Though Bill's accent was somehow much more alluring than Giles' had ever been.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" She ventured, since he had made mention of his family home.

Bill chuckled. "Do I ever - five brothers and one sister."

"Wow!" She exclaimed softly, shaking her head. "That must make for interesting family dinners."

The wizard nodded. "It does. Especially when we start getting into everyone bringing a guest and things like that. Mum is used to it, though. She wouldn't have it any other way."

To Willow it sounded like heaven. A large family, bustling with activity at meals and a constant source of companionship if you were feeling lonely. She could imagine that it was inconvenient at times, too, especially when one was craving that kind of aloneness that all humans eventually needed to keep themselves sane.

"Are you youngest? Oldest?" She stopped, snapping her mouth shut. "Sorry. Just stop me if I get too curious."

Bill shook his head, smiling indulgently.

"No worries. I don't mind talking about my family. I'm the oldest. Then there's Charlie - he works with dragons in Romania."

"Dragons?" Willow questioned, wide eyes with wonder.

"Yep." Bill grinned. "Next is Percy - he works for the Ministry of Magic. Then the twins - Fred and George - the family pranksters. Last brother is Ron and then my sister, Ginny, the youngest."

"I said it once and I'll say it again - wow."

"You?" He asked. "Any brothers or sisters?"

Willow snorted, shaking her head.

"I'm an only child. Mom and Dad hardly had time to raise me before they wanted to gallivant around the globe some more - another child would have just held them back even more."

"They left you home alone a lot?"

Willow nodded then, seeing the look of pity on his face, hastened to reassure him.

"Don't feel bad for me, though. I had plenty to do to stay busy. They would have just made things difficult on me. Never would have allowed me to study magic or help Buffy or do any of the things I enjoy. Or - enjoyed."

"Buffy?" That was a new name to Bill.

"Yeah - one of my best friends. She's the Slayer."

"Holy - " Bill stopped, his mouth snapping shut in amazement. "You know the Slayer?"

"Yep. Have since I was fifteen."

"But - that would make you -" He stared at her for a long moment, mouth slowly dropping in surprised astonishment. "That would make you the witch that helped the Slayer close the Hellmouth that time - right?"

Willow blushed.

"News certainly travels, I see."

She neither denied it nor confirmed it, so he was forced to ask for clarification.

"So - it *was* you."

Willow nodded.

"Oh yes, that was me. I'm the only witch Buffy has ever had at her beck and call, really. So any stories you've heard about the Slayer's witch - well that'd be me."

Bill was speechless. This tiny, frail-looking woman was the witch that had assisted with the closing of the Hellmouth? Now, sure, it hadn't stayed closed - but that didn't matter. She had helped, and that took a lot of power.

"Then that means you are also the one that restored Angelus' soul?"

"Permanently." She smiled, remembering that happy moment.

"And you've never had any formal training?"

"Nope." She sighed. "Maybe that's why all the little spells I do don't go according to plan."

Bill couldn't imagine a single spell that should have been outside of this remarkable woman's grasp, but he asked anyway.

"Like what?"

"Well," Willow blushed. "There was this 'will be done' spell I did a year or so ago when my boyfriend and I broke up. Basically it went all sorts of wacky and caused my friends a lot of pain. Made Buffy almost marry Spike."

"Spike?" Bill questioned. "You don't mean William the Bloody, do you?"

"The one and only." She grinned. "Don't worry. He's not nearly as fearsome as he used to be."

"I'll take your word on that."

Willow smirked, stopping in front of the door to Giles' townhouse, her hand poised to knock.

"Won't have to take my word for it - he's probably inside as we speak."

And then she knocked.

~*~*~

Giles was shocked, to say the least, to see Willow standing on his doorstep at nearly ten o'clock at night. He was even more shocked to see the man standing next to her.

But not as shocked as that young man was to see *him*.

"You -"

"Yes?" Giles hid a smile as the young man was brought into his house, Willow looking back over her shoulder in confusion.

"You're in my parents' yearbooks."

"Then I would assume that I was right when my initial thought of you was that you looked like Arthur Weasley?"

Bill nodded.

"You know his dad, Giles?"

The former librarian sighed, nodding at Willow.

"We went to school together. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Oh." The young witch murmured, sitting heavily on the edge of the couch. "You knew there were schools for that type of stuff, Giles?"

And here Giles noticed his fatal error. Willow looked at him with green eyes filled with such sorrow and disbelief and he knew right away that he had failed her without even meaning to. Should she have gone to Hogwarts, yes; but she was already so old by the time she showed any propensity for magic that he had decided just to act as though he knew nothing. But that didn't seem like such a good idea in hindsight, looking into her sparkling eyes.

"Yes, I knew."

Willow shook her head, disbelieving what she was hearing.

"You knew." She stated finally, her face stony.

"Would you have had me send you off to one of those schools to be in classes with children that were four or five years your junior, Willow?" His own voice was sterner than he would have liked when he replied to her accusation. "I do not see how that would have done you much good."

"I should have at least had a choice." She shot back, venomous. She became aware quite suddenly that Bill was rubbing her back, between her shoulder blades. It was soothing and very much unexpected. And, she decided, completely enjoyable despite the conversation she was having with Giles at that very moment.

"Yes." Giles admitted after a long moment of looking into her sad green eyes. "You should have had the choice. And I am more than sorry for taking it away from you."

It was a deadlock between the two of them, neither wanting to keep the anger going for very long, but both feeling very secure in their own feelings on the subject. Willow looked away first, nodding sadly.

"You were in Slytherin, right?" Bill spoke up, eager to change the subject.

Giles smiled a very predatory smile, nodding.

"Yourself?"

"Gryffindor." Bill grinned. "All of my family is and was and probably will continue to be for all of time. That Hat is bloody biased at times."

Giles smiled ever so slightly, nodding.

"Bill came to town looking for the Gem of Amarra, Giles." Willow spoke up. She didn't understand the conversation her mentor was having with her guest and didn't really care at that moment. She was too peeved with Giles for keeping the secrets of the wizarding world from her to honestly give a damn if he wanted to 'catch up' with the son of long lost friends. "I told him that its long gone but offered him a consolation prize instead, since we're not using it."

She pointed up to the bookshelf, gesturing at the Idol of Kyntara as though it were nothing more than a really odd statue that she had picked up on vacation one year. That was close to the truth though, and the reason why she felt secure in offering the Idol to Bill - she had found it while out exploring the nearby caves and had only allowed Giles to keep it until she found a better use for it.

Which she now had.

That Idol was going to be her ticket to controlling the powers she had struggled with for years.

"What'll the Watcher use to hold up his books then, Witch?"

Willow rolled her eyes, looking towards the hall and their newest guest.

"Dunno, Spike. Guess he'll have to buy a real bookend."

"That's --?" Bill trailed off as the vampire's blue eyes landed on him very suddenly, a cruel smirk appearing on the creature's lips.

"Knock it off, Spike. No one's scared of you." Willow muttered. She stood up and grabbed the Idol from the shelf, handing it to Bill without further aplomb.

"You should be scared, Red." Spike sneered, taking a step closer to the witch. "When I get this bloody chip out of my head -"

"You'll bathe in my blood." Willow rolled her eyes. "Been there and done that, fangless. Get a new threat." The red head noted with amusement that Bill had taken his wand from his pocket and was holding it at his side, ready to deal with the 'threat' Spike posed if necessary. The gesture made her feel all tingly inside - he was ready to leap to her defense.

"I'll talk to you later, Giles." Willow threw over her shoulder, dragging Bill out behind her before Spike got even more belligerent. She waited until they were out of the house and halfway down the block before speaking to Bill again.

"So - your parents were friends with Giles at school?"

Bill shook his head.

"Not at all. Gryffindor, the House my parents were in, and Slytherin, the House your Giles was in, are arch-rivals - enemies even. It's the oldest and worst rivalry at Hogwarts. I only recognized him from Mum's yearbook, a picture of him and our current Potions Master when they were both still students."

"Ah." Willow sighed, a yawn escaping from her lips.

"You look tired." Bill commented, stopping her with a hand to her shoulder.

"Been up since early this morning for finals." She smiled.

"Then let me walk you home. I need to contact my employer and let them know I was successful in at least one of my objectives - and get some information for you on a tutor." He added, noting the pleased smile on her face at the mere mention of their agreement. "Want to meet for dinner tomorrow night so I can tell you what I find out?"

Willow couldn't hide the blush that crept across her face at the invitation. Was this a date? Had to be - otherwise why would his eyes be twinkling like that?

"That would be wonderful." She murmured.

He held his arm out to her and she took it, the blush on her face coming back in full force as they walked down the street, talking about anything and nothing at all, as he walked her home.

~*~End Parts 1-2~*~