Awakening
Author: Jaded
Story: Bloody Ghost
Pairings: Not sure yet.
Disclaimer: I own no one. I do this merely for fun, not profit
Summary: Willow dies and finds herself as a ghost in Hogwarts...and decides that Draco Malfoy needs a real friend, whether he wants one or not.
Time Line: So, I was thinking, I should probably give timelines for this. For Harry and Co, it’s an AU fifth year. For Buffy and Co, it’s an AU Seventh Season. Mainly, Willow didn’t go to England after her Darth Willow episode. She remained in Sunnydale with Giles and the gang. And I promise the nice!Spike things will be explained in time. : )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------“So, the spell worked, right?” Buffy asked a few hours later. Dumbledore was slumped back against a chair in the room they had been keeping Willow in. He looked exhausted, as did Spike and Giles. Downstairs, waiting impatiently, were Dawn, Anya, and Xander.
“Yeah, it’s done Slayer. Now, she just needs to recharge,” Spike muttered as he yawned. He glanced at the two wizards across from him. “I’d forgotten how tiring that level of magic could be.”
“You and me both Spike,” Giles murmured. Dumbledore smiled half-heartedly at the two before turning to Buffy.
“I hate to impose, but is there someplace where I may take a nap? I’m afraid I’m not as young as I once was,” he apologized and Buffy snapped out of her thoughts.
“Of course, take my room,” she offered. Albus nodded and stumbled out the door. Buffy watched him go with a small, concerned frown.
Giles reaction to the old wizard had cemented Buffy’s opinion that he was a white hat; the old watcher had been absolutely thrilled his old friend was there. According to Giles, Dumbledore had occasionally met with the Council when they needed magical assistance in anything and through that Giles and he had met and become friends. He’d told her the meetings had been few and far between because the wizard had been very vocal of his displeasure of how the Potentials and Slayers were treated. Despite that, he had never refused to help if he could.
As far as Buffy was concerned, he was someone she could trust.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Willow felt achy.
For anyone else, this may have been cause for alarm. For Willow, most of the past six and half years had been filled with aches and pains of one form or another. The feeling was almost natural by now.
So why did she feel like something wasn’t right about the whole thing?
Gingerly, she shifted in bed, her legs and arms feeling stiff and ungainly as if they weren’t used to the action. She frowned and opened her eyes.
“And she awakes,” a soft, amused voice spoke from next to her. Willow stared up at the ceiling, her brow furrowed. That wasn’t Giles, or Spike’s voice. Yet she felt like she knew it…
All at once everything came back to her. Images raced through her mind, blurry as if from a dream but concrete enough that she knew these were memories and not figments of her imagination. She looked over at the side and smiled haltingly at the tired looking wizard. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out. She frowned, opened her mouth again, but all that came out was a soft breath of air. Dumbledore smiled kindly down at her.
“You haven’t used your vocal cords in three months, my dear, and they need time to get used to the idea of talking once more. I could attempt to speed it along but I’d rather not risk it while sitting on a hellmouth,” he told her kindly and she nodded in agreement. She didn’t want to risk it either. She had enough nightmares about the Gentlemen as it was.
“Wills?” Xander’s soft voice caught Willow’s attention and she turned to the doorway. Tears sprang to her eyes at her best friend’s expression. She smiled brightly and he grinned back before pouncing on her bed. Willow would have laughed if she could have. As Xander babbled to her, she saw Dumbledore slip out the door as Buffy, Anya, and Dawn all bounced in. She smiled back at her friends.
“It’s so great to have you back,” Xander finally finished, his eyes misty. Willow smiled back at him brightly.
“Me too,” she mouthed the words and Xander grinned like a dope.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------“I’m afraid I have to leave,” Albus told her a week later. He’d remained with her to help deal with both her magic and the effects of being disconnected for so long. They had traveled by car out of the city limits so he could magically hurry her healing without worrying too much about the hellmouth. Even so, she was still unsteady on her feet and her own magic kept going kerplooey. Giles, Spike, and Dumbledore all thought it was because her spirit, her essence, had been at Hogwarts for so long; they suspected her magic itself had changed a bit and was settling back into her body with a lot of fireworks.
As for how she ended up disconnected, no one really knew. Willow had been found unconscious on her bed by Spike. The Vampire had been awoken by a wave of black magic so dark he’d nearly thrown up. When it had dissipated from the house, he’d felt something off about one of the three woman he’d taken to looking after and had gone to investigate.
Spike, Giles, and Dumbledore all agreed it had to have been a magical attack on the Slayer’s Witch, as Willow was known as in the demon circles. Spike was almost positive whatever the spell had been had meant to outright kill her. No one, not even Dumbledore or Giles, seemed to know why it hadn’t worked.
“Is everything okay?” Willow asked from the recliner. Dumbledore appeared deeply troubled and that worried the redhead. She may only have hazy recollections of her time as a “ghost” but she knew one thing: When Dumbledore got worried, bad things were afoot.
Dumbledore studied her, wondering how much to tell her. One hand, he believed she could possibly help but on the other hand he didn’t want her to overexert herself. He frowned as he recalled the extent of the damage and knew in his heart that not to tell her would be a very bad idea.
“Mr. Malfoy was attacked,” he told her quietly. Willow froze, staring hard at him as Dawn and Buffy exchanged puzzled looks from where they sat on the couch.
“How bad?” she demanded, her voice wavering. Dumbledore’s eyes dimmed.
“He was hexed numerous times, and at least two crucios were used by his attackers,” he told her gently. Her eyes flashed and he leaned back at the amount of raw power she was suddenly exuding.
“How. Bad,” she demanded again, her voice firm.
“He will miss at least a month of classes, most likely more. And he may have permanent scarring and injuries,” he replied quietly. Willow eyes turned black and a lamp exploded. Willow ignored Dawn’s shriek.
“I was supposed to protect him,” she murmured and Dumbledore nodded even as Spike came barreling up from the basement.
“Bloody hell, Red, calm down!” he yelled as he skidded to a stop just off to the side. Willow turned to him.
“They hurt him Spike. I was supposed to protect him and because I came home they were able to hurt him,” she told him softly. He nodded, his face not showing any emotion.
“Frying us isn’t going to help him though, is it?” he asked rhetorically. “You have to calm down and think rationally, Red. You had to come home to get reconnected so you can protect him better now.”
“Better how?” she asked thoughtfully, he eyes turning a dark green.
“Well, he is obviously a wizard. Now, you have your magic back so you can play with the big boys,” he told her and the redhead smiled slightly. “You just have to calm down enough to think logically and strategically about the whole bloody thing.”
Willow stared at him a moment before closing her eyes. When they opened again, they were back to their normal green. Off to the side, Buffy and Dawn released the breaths they had been holding. Ever since Tara’s death, the only two people who seemed to be able to get through to Willow when she had an episode were Xander and the vampire.
“Thank you Spike,” she murmured and he nodded, relaxing as her magic was reigned back in. Dumbledore was nodding thoughtfully to himself as Willow turned to him.
“I’m coming with.”
