Trumps - Queen of Disks

Disclaimer: See chapter 1
Rating: See chapter 1
AN[1]: Feedback appreciated as always.

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"My witch!?" Buffy repeated, looking at her sister with wide, alarmed eyes.

"You know the old saying... 'Smile at a red headed witch and she'll follow you home. Hug her and she's yours forever.' Or is that 'she'll follow you forever'? It worked for Tara and Kennedy..." Dawn mused, as Buffy sputtered, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't get her into trouble with her very perceptive younger sister.

"Dawn!" was all she was able to come up with at that moment.

"And," Dawn pulled a small, thin book out of a pocket and waved it teasingly in her sister's face, "it says right here in the 'Guide to Living with a Red Witch' - 'When your witch plays with dangerous looking magic, don't expect your sister to get in the way or to try and stop her.'" She smirked at her now speechless sister.

"Dawn..." Buffy whined, still unable to respond in an intelligent manner. "Oh, alright!" she huffed. Dragging her protesting sister with her, Buffy stepped gingerly into the lobby and headed towards the reception desk where Ginny was standing.

As soon as Ginny saw them coming her way Buffy noticed that the feeling she'd been getting that heavy magic was being used lightened considerably. She wasn't surprised to see Aimee, the slayer on afternoon door duty, visibly relax when she also spotted them approaching.

"Hey Ginny!" Buffy called out. She tried not to grin at the cute sight she thought Ginny made, standing there with her red hair floating around her shining face. Between that and the feeling of magic in the air, it was obvious to Buffy that she'd been working hard at something requiring a lot of energy.

"Hi Buffy." Ginny gave her a warm smile and pulled her hair out of her eyes.

Buffy couldn't help but smile back in response. "What are you up to?" she asked, frowning slightly at the sight of her sister stepping behind the reception desk with slow, exaggerated movements.

"Well... this morning's incident with the sword reminded me of something I've been wanting to do since I came here." Ginny told her. "You know how Willow has some wonderfully complex spells warding the building and providing alarms if someone walks in with certain dangerous magical objects and weapons?"

"Yes, she was quite proud of setting them up." Buffy told her, eyeing the skinny stick Ginny was waving for emphasis.

"This morning I remembered some things that her wards don't detect and thought I would try to fix it." She waved the stick again. "I planned to just tweak the wards to detect them. But because of the way Willow did her spells I sort of have to sneak my changes in there unless I want to completely redo them. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be." She pushed her wayward hair back again with a free hand.

"And you had to do this in the lobby?" Buffy grinned slightly, still amused, and gestured at her sister and the other slayer. "You're making a few people nervous." Dawn stuck her tongue out at her sister and Aimee blushed in apparent embarrassment.

"Sorry." Ginny apologized. "I was also trying to enhance the lobby alarms so the things the wards detected couldn't be brought into the rest of the office. They would have to be turned over at the desk." she explained. "That's a bit different. It's more than just detecting something dangerous. I almost have it working. But that kind of change is very dependant on the place the spell is supposed to protect. It has to be done here."

"So that was what all the magic was about a few minutes ago?" Buffy asked, eyeing her curiously.

"You could feel that?" She said in obvious surprise before looking at Buffy and Dawn thoughtfully.

"Umm... slayer here." Buffy reminded her with a small grin.

"I did put up a shield around the room that should have kept most people from noticing what I was doing, unless they walked into the room. I didn't know slayers are so sensitive to that kind of magic."

"Being able to sense magic can be a matter of self preservation when dealing with some demons." Buffy said. "I'm surprised you didn't have a crowd of slayers down here watching you. That amount of magic being used usually attracts them like flies."

"Sorry." Ginny apologized again.

"It's okay. It isn't a big deal." Buffy reassured her, ignoring the questioning look her sister was giving her, knowing Dawn would let her know what it was about Ginny's magic use that was bothering her later.

So," she asked curiously, "do you have the detection part all done?"

"Yes." Ginny told her and looked at Aimee. "It works, right?" She nodded back at Ginny. "We can demonstrate it if you want us to."

"Maybe later." Buffy said, looking around the almost empty lobby, glad they hadn't drawn a crowd yet. "Why don't you save the rest of it for another day? I think it's a wonderful idea but maybe you should test the idea on a smaller scale somewhere else first?"

"Okay." Ginny agreed, looking slightly disappointed.

"Why don't we continue this discussion in my office?" Buffy suggested. Ginny nodded and started to follow her out of the lobby.

"I'll talk with you later." Dawn called out to her sister and stayed behind to chat with Aimee.

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Once they'd reached her office Buffy plopped down with a sigh into the large chair behind her desk while Ginny made herself comfortable on the love seat, curling her legs up under her.

"Okay, I'm assuming that stick you've been waving around is one of the things you want the wards to detect?" Buffy asked her, holding out her hand in a silent request.

"Yes. It's called a wand. Some people use them to focus their magical power. Preventing anyone from entering the rest of the office with a wand seems like a good idea." She stopped waving the wand around when Buffy continued to hold out her hand. Leaning forward, she nervously handed it over to Buffy. "Take it away and most of them are helpless."

Buffy thought about the woman, Amanda, and her refusal to enter without her sword that morning. "Won't they object and simply refuse to come in?" Buffy asked her. She looked at the slim stick curiously for a minute before handing it back to a visibly relieved Ginny who hid it away in her clothes in a place that Buffy couldn't quite detect from her desk.

"They might." Ginny acknowledged. "But there are other places where you can't just walk around with a hidden wand, so why not here?"

"Can anyone else do a spell that'll change Willow's wards to detect wands?" she asked curiously.

"Other than Willow?" Ginny frowned for a moment in thought. "They would have to really understand wiccan magic to modify her spells and also have some understanding of how wands are used first. There are very few people who know enough about both to do it correctly. There might be someone with the coven in Westbury who could eventually figure it out if they really needed to."

"What about some of those 'wand users'? Could they do it?" Buffy asked, watching her intently.

"There are several people who can use wands to do wand detecting spells. But they don't really understand wiccan magic. So getting them to change Willow's spells is not really an issue." Ginny told her. "Also, I don't think we really want to let them know about this. They might react badly."

Buffy raised an eyebrow at this. "React badly how?"

"In the 'if you can't do magic with a wand you aren't supposed to know about it so they use spells and charms to make you forget.' kind of way." Ginny mumbled quietly.

"And the reason you know about wands?" Buffy asked softly.

"Because that was my wand I was using to experiment with..." Ginny told her nervously. "It isn't a big deal, really. We aren't going to be visited by anyone who will try to make us forget about it. Willow's spells do a good job of shielding the Council buildings from people who might notice things like that. And if they do show up I can probably talk them out of it."

"How many other people around here know about wands?" Buffy asked.

"There are the people who use them but most other magic users think it's just a myth or a stereotype. Of the people with the Council, Willow and Mr. Giles know people can do magic with wands because I had to tell them when I started. Several members of the Westbury coven I worked with before coming to Cleveland also know." Ginny shrugged. "I'm sure there are other people but they aren't going to admit to it. And now you know wands exist."

"So we need to start teaching everyone how to defend themselves against anyone using them." Buffy told her firmly.

"You can't tell anyone!" Ginny insisted. "They probably won't notice if we have wards to detect wands but secrecy about this kind of magic is taken very seriously. All anyone else in the Council can know is that there is another magical weapon that isn't allowed in the building."

"A weapon my slayers don't know how to defend themselves from." Buffy told her. "We're going to have to talk about training them without breaking your rules. Soon. If we can't do it your way we'll have to do it my way."

"Okay." Ginny reluctantly got up to go. "Was there anything else?"

"Yes, you should probably let Willow know about the changes you've made to her wards. And the ones you plan on doing. She's still supposed to be checking her e-mail. And I think we need to do the same thing for the other offices real soon. So either you need a way to change the spells in the other offices remotely or there's a long trip to the other Council offices in our future. Unless you can find some other way to do it." Buffy told her firmly.

"Got it." Ginny looked at her and visibly brightened when Buffy smiled at her.

"Ginny, it was a good idea. We're just not used to displays of so much magic unless we're in the middle of an apocalypse." Buffy consoled her. "It makes people nervous. Next time let me know first. Okay?"

"I understand." Ginny replied with a small smile before leaving the room.

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Buffy sighed and leaned back in her chair, wondering what other surprises Ginny would have for her in the future. Even with her insistence on maintaining secrecy concerning the existence of people who used wands to perform magic, Ginny was a lot more straight forward and casual than Willow when it came to using magic on a daily basis. They were all going to have to get used to it.

"So what's the deal?" came her sister's voice from the door to her office. "Did she explain what that stick thing is?"

"Yes." Buffy watched her sister stroll confidently into her office and perch on one of the chairs facing her desk. "And no, I can't tell you what it is used for. At least not yet."

"Why not?" Dawn asked, surprised.

"It's related to one of those things Willow told us we can't ask Ginny about." Buffy told her. "And the less you know the better. For now anyway."

"And that's it?" Dawn stared at her.

"Not quite." Buffy grinned at her sister. "You can help us figure out how to teach the others how to protect themselves from it. Just in case they run into someone with one."

"Without knowing what it is or does?" Dawn asked in a surprised voice, giving her sister an astounded look. "Isn't that a bit much? Even for us?"

"No. We teach slayers how to defend themselves against all sorts of things without teaching them how to use them." Buffy reminded her. "This isn't any different."

"I think this is different." Dawn told her bluntly. "You seem to have forgotten how you felt when Giles wouldn't tell you something just because he thought the knowledge of it would be too dangerous."

"I haven't forgotten!" Buffy protested. "If the only way to protect my slayers is to tell everyone about Ginny and her secrets, we will. But for now it's better that we don't."

"And do Giles and Willow agree with you?" Dawn asked angrily.

"Yes. They agreed to it long before Ginny came to Cleveland. I had no say in the matter. And they believe there are very good reasons why this should stay a secret." Buffy watched her sister deflate with that answer.

"Oh..." Dawn said quietly, slumping in her seat and looking disappointed.

"Would it help if I ask Ginny to tell you everything she can about this?" Buffy asked her.

Dawn visibly brightened. "You would do that? Please do!" And Dawn quickly stood up, giving Buffy a big smile and a hug before leaving her office. Buffy just stared bemusedly at the door for a minute before getting back to work. Some times her sister amazed her.

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Continued in Trumps - Changes