Chapter 31- Facing the Darkness

Disclaimer- I don't own Buffy or Harry Potter

Buffy had been dreading this day since they received Hagrid's letter 2 weeks ago. Buckbeak was being put to death at the demand of Lucius Malfoy. Buffy didn't really like the creature all that much but she knew that Hagrid was torn up about it. So she was going down with Harry, Ron and Hermione to say goodbye. It was just then dusk, their new curfew for outdoors, and they were sneaking down to Hagrid's when they came across Drake standing outside on the hill overlooking Hagrid's hut. The four Gryffindor's stopped next to the lone Slytherin and Buffy noticed that you could see Buckbeak perfectly from right here. "I'm sorry that his pet has to die." He said at length and Harry grunted back a response. No matter how hard Buffy tried to understand the male species they were completely beyond her grasp. Drake turned around and pinned his grey eyes on her. " See you around, Summers." He nodded in the others direction and then was off towards the castle. Buffy looked around. "Come on. Let's get out of here before we see anyone else."

They were running back from Hagrid's to avoid being caught by the ministry and Dumbledore while breaking curfew. Somehow, inexplicably Ron had found his long lost rat when a jar broke and 10 minutes later Buffy was wishing the damn thing had never been discovered. The group had barely escaped Hagrid's hut before the executioner's party had gotten to Hagrid's thanks to rock being thrown at Harry's head by someone that had been watching out for them.

They stopped at the top of the hill for a grand total of 2 minutes. Just in time to hear the axe swing down heavily and thud against something as a flock of crows took off into the evening sky. Hermione let out a sob at the sound and Ron pulled her close. Harry and Buffy just watched the two interact, both knowing that they needed to move. "Come on. We can cry when we get back to the common room." Harry hissed and he grabbed Hermione's arm. They were just passing the Womping Willow when Ron let out a strangled curse. The other three turned and looked at him.

"He bit me. The stupid rat bit me." He looked around and started going off in the direction of the rat. "Ron! Get back here." Buffy said but it did no good. Just then Crookshanks darted out from nowhere and started to try and get at Scabbers and Buffy had a sinking feeling. "Something isn't right." She told Harry and the younger boy looked up at her. "What do you mean?" She shook her head and turned her attention back to Ron. "C'mon, Ron! They'll be comin up over the hill any minute now." Harry called to his friend but he was too distracted by the cat trying to get at his familiar. "Hermione!" He said agitated and Hermione moaned in distress. "Crooks…come on now Crookshanks." But the cat wasn't having any of it and the rat escaped again. "NO! Scabbers!" Ron yelled and the four watched as Crookshanks began the chase Ron darted off after the two into the bushes on the far side of the tree and but the three could hear Ron's end of the scuffle.

" No. Get away you dumb cat. C'mere Scabbers. Aha I gotcha you dumb rat!" Buffy whispered a hurried , "Lumos" and Buffy, Harry and Hermione ran towards Ron's voice. They found him laying on the ground and Buffy realized that he had stuffed his rat in his back pocket and has holding onto the squirming lump with both hands. "There you won't be getting away now." He said triumphantly and Hermione grabbed his arm. "The minister…Dumbledore. They'll be coming any minute." She said but before any of the younger teens could do more than register the sound of running paws hitting the ground Ron had been captured and was screaming bloody murder as he was pulled away and Buffy was running right after him. She watched in horror as Ron wrapped his foot around a root and the dog kept pulling. She winced as the sound of breaking bone reached her ears and watched as the dog finished dragging the boy into the tree.

At that moment the branches came to life, one of them hit Buffy squarely in the abdomen and flung her back 30 feet to rest, breathlessly at the feet of her friends. Hermione and Harry both knelt down next to her. "Are you okay?" Harry asked and Hermione moaned again. "Oh…I knew this was a bad idea." Buffy groaned and used Harry's shoulder for support to get up again. "Buffy…are you sure you're okay?" She nodded and winced as she pulled a deep breath in. Nothing broken at least. "Slayer, remember. I'm more worried about Ron. A dog has him. A big black dog." Harry had a look of pure determination on his face. "The Grim." Hermione darted a look at him. "Oh you can't tell me you believe that stuff Trelawny was spouting." Buffy looked around. "Okay enough bickering. Either way a big scary black dog has our friends…it's time we call the pound." She got a smirk on her face and looked around. "Do these branches stop?" She asked needing a slight refresher on the tree that the school had installed for Remus.

Harry shook his head but Buffy was already off, pacing back and forth in front of the tree assessing her obstacle. "That's it! That's how they were getting in…but how did they immobilize the tree." She was talking to her self and pointed the wand up at the tree. "Imobulus!" The branches froze and she looked at Harry and Hermione. "GO!" She bellowed and the three ran, Buffy in the lead towards the whole in the trunk of the tree where she had seen the dog begin to pull ron below. There were a few splotches of blood on the ground and Buffy froze for a tenth of a second and then was off again tearing down the tunnel leaving Harry and Hermione running behind her breathlessly. She reached a dusty staircase covered in rat droppings and looked around.

It appeared to be an old, unused house. "Where am I?" She mumbled to her self and Harry came up on her right side and Hermione on her left. "I think this is the Shrieking Shack." Hermione stated as she looked around in awe. Just then a creak sounded up stairs and Buffy held her finger to her mouth. She looked up and then stepped lightly across the floorboards. Harry and Hermione exchanged glances at this new side of their friend. They had seen her distraught, happy, mad, but never had they seen her in full slay mode which was what they were guessing she was in. She turned to look at them and said, "Alright. We don't know what's in there so stay behind me, alright?" Harry and Hermione nodded and did indeed stay behind her until they were in a bedroom. Crookshanks was on the battered old bed purring contentedly with Ron huddled in a corner clutching the still squirming Scabbers and eyeing something on the far wall with utter fear. "It's him. Black. He's an animagus."

Buffy turned quickly and placed herself in front of her friends, looked at her father for the first time and felt a shiver of revulsion run through her. He had lanky, dirty brown hair that reached below his shoulders, dark sunken eyes, his face and body both emaciated and his teeth were yellow from lack of care when he bared them at her in a grimace. "Expelliarmus." Her father shouted and Buffy, Harry, and Hermione's wand flew out of their hands and sailed into his. Buffy felt her ire peak but stayed put sizing up the situation.

The comment Dumbledore had made to her around Thanksgiving came back. 'You might be able to fight Vampires but we are talking about a grown wizard who has had all of his schooling and has killed 13 people. I shudder to think of that situation.' And now here she was. Here they all were. Just a bunch of third year kids without wands faced off against a full grown wizard. But if she could get his wand away it wouldn't take much to finish him off.

She edged toward Ron who stood up grimacing horribly at the pain in his leg Buffy put out an arm to steady him. "You'll want to sit down. You'll hurt you leg even worse." Black said in a voice rusty from disuse. Buffy turned her head incredulously to him. "You care about what happens to him? You so, don't wanna lie to me right now." She said with heat and stared him down. "What do you want?" She demanded and the man eyed her up and down curiously and she felt a quiver go through her. This was the same, handsome man that had been looking at her with such love and devotion in the picture she kept at the bottom of her school trunk. "I came here to get my revenge." Buffy blinked and moved to stand in front of Harry. "You'll have to go through me." She stated in a deadly calm voice and Hermione stood next to her. "And me." Black blinked his blue eyes at them in confusion and then Ron said. "And me." Buffy turned to look at Ron but never letting Black leave her line of sight. "Ron. Just sit down, okay. You're not doing yourself any favors by standing there okay?" Ron groaned and nodded slowly lowering himself down to the ground.

"Who are you?" Black asked quietly and Buffy looked up with her battle look on her face. "Buffy Summers, better known as your worst nightmare." Black sighed, obviously not taking the short blonde girl seriously when she said that. "At any rate. There will only be one murder here tonight. So sacrificing your lives will not be necessary. Although I'm sure Harry here appreciates it." Buffy growled low and she glared at this man. The more he stood there talking the less she like him. "You'd do best to not say his name again." Black opened and closed his mouth again and looked at her with that odd expression.

She couldn't help but feel as though something in this situation just was not right. "Please…you have to listen. You have to understand." He pled his grotesque face morphing into a pleading mask. "UNDERSTAND?!" Harry bellowed and Buffy and Black both jumped slightly at the malice he held in his voice. 12 years of bottled up pain and anger were coming out with a vengeance. "You MURDERED my PARENTS!" He roared and Black cringed slightly and Buffy saw something in his eyes that made her do a double take. She thought that she had seen guilt. Not the kind of guilt of those who have committed crimes but the kind of guilt that she had seen in Angel's eyes countless times before. The guilt of the innocent who assume the guilt for themselves.

She looked again and there was nothing there but the insane gleam of the man who was her father. "I won't deny it." He said in the same self depreciating tone that Angel used when talking of the atrocities that he had committed as Angelus. No…something was not right at all. "You just have to give me a chance to explain…You'll regret it if you…." Buffy looked at Harry who was red in the face. "Explain what? How you sold your best friends to the devil? You never had to listen to her screams, did you? You never witnessed what went on in that house. Her screams haunt me to this day." Harry said with violence and Hermione put her arm on his forearm and he jerked it away from her. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you with my bare hands!" He yelled and Black jerked again. "Because you need to know the truth. You need to know what happened that night." Harry was shaking with barely contained rage and Black threw his wand back at him, Hermione, and Buffy. "There. Now we're all on equal footing. Please. Let me explain what I am going to do and then you may make your decision."

Buffy eyed the man. She now had the upper hand. Three untrained wands and slayer speed, agility and strength against one grown wizard in poor health they could take him. Apparently the same thing was running through Harry's mind. His wand was poised to strike and Buffy gave a fleeting thought to whether or not he knew of the killing curse and whether or not he was going to use it on her father. They heard footsteps on the landing below them before Buffy could analyze the feelings that she was experiencing. Hermione looked relieved. "Oh! We're here! Up here. Sirius Black! Black is up here too." She yelled and the footsteps sounded closer and closer. Just then the door burst open and there stood her cousin in all of his shabby glory.

Buffy felt immediately relief at seeing Remus. "Remus! It's Black!" She said and looked at him expectantly. She was thinking that he'd come in, hurl a couple of curses at the fugitive and that they'd be back at the castle in five minutes. She was wrong. Remus didn't even spare her a look. "Padfoot." He said cordially and then turned on the teens and gave Buffy a slightly apologetic look and said, "Expeliarmus!"

"Moony? How did you know I was here?" Remus turned around gave him a secret smile and said, "I saw it on the map. Wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes." Buffy started to feel uneasy. She was pulling Harry and Hermione into a protective half circle around their wounded friend. "You believe me?" He asked and Remus nodded and the two shared a tight hug that wouldn't be out of place between brothers and Buffy felt her stomach turn over. "I'm so glad you're here. You can help me make them see. They just won't listen." Remus cocked his head. "I don't completely understand myself. What happened…the only thing that I can possibly conclude to make this work is that you…switched without telling me…you changed… Which means you thought that it was me." Black nodded and his eyes shown with that same guilt that made Buffy's heard constrict. "Can you ever forgive me Moony?" Black asked and Remus embraced him again. "Of course. Can you forgive me for believing it was you?" Black nodded and the two clung to each other as if bracing a storm. Which Buffy supposed was not to far off the map. Remus turned to Buffy.

"Buffy. Do you trust me?" She nodded immediately. "With everything Remus. You know that." Black watched the exchange in curiosity, eyeing up the blonde headed girl that had been confusing him all night. He knew her but from where? Remus motioned for her to come over by him. He had moved slightly closer and he was wearing the look that she had grown to love. An understanding, sympathizing look. "It's alright Buffy. He's not here to hurt any of us." Buffy's mouth opened slightly and Harry and Hermione both gripped her wrists when her feet began to move.

Hermione squeaked, unable to keep quiet any long. "He's a werewolf Buffy. He's a werewolf and he's been helping Black get into the castle." Buffy shook her head. "I know he's a werewolf. I've known since before school started. And he hasn't been helping him get into the castle. Isn't it obvious from the conversation they just had?" She turned to Harry who was staring at her with betrayal shining bright in his green eyes. "Don't hate me Harry. This secret wasn't mine to tell." Hermione wasn't buying it though.

"I kept your secret, even when I knew that you could hurt us all, I kept it and all this time you've been helping him!!" She yelled and Remus looked at her with a slightly bemused look on his face. "How long have you known?" He asked and Hermione smiled without humor. "Since Professor Snape's essay." Remus smiled a smile that was filled with bitterness at her. "How Severus will be pleased. He accomplished what he set out to do." Hermione just looked at him quietly and Remus said, "What Buffy says is true. The past 12 years I believed that Sirius killed our friends but now. Now I know the truth. Sirius is innocent but before we do anything more I think you should come over here Buffy."

Alright, there is another chapter. YAY! Anyways…another 3 or four chapters have been written and I'm thinking one more after that and the story is done. I've decided to do the fourth book as well and so yeah…anyways. Review the story and thank you for reading!

Nat