Chapters 11-12 *C*

~*~Part Eleven~*~

She had studied and prayed, studied and prayed – for days on end, until she felt as though she couldn’t possibly study or pray any more.

And that’s when Willow would start all over again.

She had to get this right, or else Sunnydale would pay the price. How easy it had seemed back then, when she had done it with only a few short days’ notice, reading directly from a spellbook that was so large as to be almost too heavy for her small hands to hold. She had been a child then, just a babe in the world of magic. Now she was a full-fledged witch and she was terrified of what was to come. Maybe it was the fact that she had too much preparation time this go round. Or maybe it was just that she had gotten more and more paranoid about this type of thing as they years wore on.

She didn’t know and, right now, didn’t care.

The Hellmouth would be opening sometime tonight, after sundown.

Willow shivered, glancing wearily around the hotel room, book open in her lap. She was alone for the first time in days. Well and truly alone. Severus had seen to it, noting to her that she seemed anxious and maybe some quiet time would help with that.

Yeah, right. She wouldn’t be able to get true quiet time until after the Hellmouth was closed again. Up to that point she would have to deal with, at the very least, the voices in her head saying she wasn’t good enough and never had been.

Even Bill had taken Severus’ hint and left her alone, though. He was out, with Xander, wandering the streets of Sunnydale, being guys. She knew her bestfriend was likely to be trading stories with Bill, telling him about all the mishaps she had gotten into as a child and teen while Bill gave him, in turn, stories about her adventures in spells gone wrong.

Not that Xander was unaware of that type of thing – he had seen quite a few of her spells go wacky on varying occasions.

She glanced at the TV, wondering if now was a safe time to turn it on. Or would there be more stuff to remind her of what was happening tonight? All over Sunnydale strange things were being reported; things that could be passed off as freak acts of nature – even though they were portents of the large evil that was rising tonight. Like frogs. Someone had reported a rain of frogs for an entire city block this morning.

That was truly Hell.

This would all be over soon – and then she could go back to her job, back to England – and back to planning her wedding.

~*~*~

“There aren’t any stars out tonight.”

Willow shrugged, giving Bill a sad smile. “Yet another sign of the pending badness, I’m afraid. A pitch black night is truly something to be afraid of. Don’t they teach that in Defense?”

The eldest of the Weasley children shook his head, a few loose strands of hair swishing from side to side as they fell from his ponytail.

“Are you scared?” he asked gently, putting an arm around her shoulders. She breathed in, smelling the tangy scent of that homemade cologne his mother whipped up for him and his brothers each Yule.

“Of course I’m scared,” she scoffed lightly, poking him in the stomach with her finger. “Wouldn’t anyone in my position be?”

Bill shrugged. “Professor Snape doesn’t seem to terribly frightened.”

“Well that’s because he’s seen enough badness in his life to make him immune to all of that. Personally, I’ve only been around the really big bads a few times in my life – sure, I’ve been with the little bads a lot – but not the bigger ones. Those are pretty rare – like tonight. So – I’m terrified and he’s not. Which is good. He’ll keep me grounded during the spell.”

She felt the first tremor before the others did, her eyes widening with fear when she realized it was a quake of pure magic and not physicality. Willow shivered, bringing her hands up to rub at her arms.

“It’s starting guys. . .everyone to their places. . . please?”

As if her words were a call to battle, the area immediately surrounding the old school was suddenly teeming with activity. Vampires were pouring from across the streets, out of the charred remains of the school. They were coming towards her, towards where the library had once stood – this would be where the mouth of Hell would open.

The next tremor, as the fight began, signaled the actual opening of the Hellmouth.

Willow took a step back unconsciously as the ground split in a deep rift only a few feet from where she stood. A steadying hand on her shoulder, an influx of silently given power, and she knew Severus was there. It was time.

She lifted the parchment she had copied the spell on, glancing down at it for a moment before beginning, the words spilling from her mouth in a steady cadence. She could feel the forces she was calling on overwhelm her, fill her to the brink and then beyond. She was swimming in a sea of pure power, her very cells absorbing it, becoming one with it. Please, she was chanting to the gods, close this portal to the Hell dimensions; let not the work you have done on earth count for naught. Aid your daughter in this quest.

There was more to it than that, of course. Some placating verses, some pleading cries, some chants for refuge. All of these things and more went into the spell as she allowed that power to ride her, using her body as a conduit to reach the Hellmouth.

In the distance Buffy was screaming for Xander to duck and Willow fought the urge to look over her shoulder. She didn’t want to see, or know, what was happening. The people she cared about most in the world were out there, fighting to keep the baddies from reaching her. The least she could do was finish the spell.

And that she did.

The last of the words left her mouth and she was silent, waiting. So much time had gone by since the original time she closed the Hellmouth, and she forgot how this all ended.

It closed with a crack of thunder that Willow could feel rattle her teeth. The last of the spell’s magics drained from her body and she wavered on her feet, falling face forward towards the earth, unable to catch herself.

Thank the Goddess for Severus, she sighed silently, as his strong hands caught and held her before she could hit the ground. And then Bill was there, asking if she was okay, and she was nodding. The vampires and miscellaneous demons had left, with the Hellmouth closed there was no reason for them to hang around. Not when the Slayer was busily exterminating anything non-human that got in her way.

“Giles – what’s this thing? I thought it was a vamp – but it didn’t go poof.”

Willow was too tired to raise up and look when Buffy tossed the body to the ground only a few feet away. She turned, seeing wizarding robes out of the corner of her eye.

“That –“ Severus began, eyes wide. “That is Voldemort. . . you have slain the Dark Lord.”

The red haired witch felt her heart leap up into her throat, thudding painfully with a joy she was too tired to feel.

Voldemort was dead.

~*~Part Twelve~*~

In the aftermath of the battle there was much cleaning to be done. The demons didn’t fade to ash so neatly as vampires did, in fact many of them left large, stinking corpses that had to be dealt with.

It was at the bottom of a pile of these smelly corpses that another discovery was made.

“Lucius Malfoy is dead,” Severus informed Dumbledore gravely, via Floo, upon returning to Giles’ townhouse. It was often difficult to judge emotions via this communication conduit, however he could clearly see at this time that Dumbledore was saddened.

“I had always hoped that he would see the errors of his ways, much as you had, Severus.”

“I know. And Draco is now left without a father. Will you be the one to break the news to him and Narcissa – or would you prefer that I do it?”

Dumbledore pondered for a moment in silence. “You should do it since you are a friend of the family. Draco will need a positive role model in his life if he hopes to escape the same path his father fell down.”

“Very well. I shall Apparate back immediately. Miss Rosenberg and Mister Weasley can follow at their convenience. I assume the Ministry has been notified of the Dark Lord’s demise?”

“They have – Aurors will be there shortly to take control of the body. For now – come home, Severus. We will need you here in the hours to come.”

“As you wish.” The Potions Master extinguished the fire, ending his conversation with the Headmaster. He had only his bag of things to gather from the hotel and then he could be gone from this place. Even with Voldemort’s death there would still be work to be done, Death Eaters to unmask and place in Azkaban for their crimes. Lucius Malfoy was just one of many.

The work of the just was never done.

~*~*~

“You’ll come back and visit, right?”

“She has to – or else we’ll . . . you know, fly over there and visit her.”

Willow giggled, her eyes darting back and forth between her two best friends in the entire world.

“Of course I’ll be coming back to visit. Though – maybe not until after the wedding. Things will be pretty busy until then, you know.”

“And – we’re invited, right?” Buffy prompted with a grin.

“And again, of course,” Willow laughed. “I already told you that you could be my Maid of Honor, silly. An invitation to the wedding sort of goes without saying.”

“Which reminds me – Xander you’re going to be one of my groomsmen, right?” Bill asked with raised eyebrows, a smile on his lips.

“I am?” Xander looked confused. “Oh yeah – I am. I mean, I’d love to be. And . . .right. That’s a yes.”

The assembled group of friends laughed.

“We have to get going now, honey,” Bill reminded Willow, feeling just a little saddened by the look in her eyes. She missed her home, her friends. He made a silent vow to himself to do everything in his power to make sure that she came back to visit on a regular basis. There was no reason for her not to, of course, with Apparating being so easy.

“Right. C’mon – hugs!” The red head gestured to Buffy and Xander, a small ‘oof’ escaping her mouth when they jumped into her arms, hugging her tightly.

“Don’t be sad,” Buffy whispered into her ear. “You have a good life, a good hottie of a husband to be, and you still have us. Just pop in and visit when you can. All is good, Wills.”

“I second that,” Xander smiled, kissing Willow’s forehead.

Willow giggled at the term ‘pop in’ – she would have to take Buffy up on that and Apparate right into her house sometime.

They said their final goodbyes outside, the darkness of the night providing ample cover for the magic that was about to be woven.

Willow stepped into Bill’s arms, looking up into the eyes that she knew so well and knowing that everything was going to be just fine between them, between herself and her friends, and in the world in general.

With that smile on her face, they Apparated home. . .there was still a wedding to plan.

~*~The End - Complete~*~