Title: Meeting Red
Author: Clara Fox
Summary: Fluffy-ish one-shot HP-Buffy crossover. "Um, tall, scary-type man? With the, the nose? And the hair all - And the
swooping? Does he swoop like that a lot?"
Setting: Sometime soon after the end of HP6, and after BtVS S6E22 ("Grave").
Rating: K
Reviews: yes, please!
The girl with red hair slouched against the tree and pouted. This nature stuff was pretty and all, but she was so, so bored. And not even patrolling-on-Halloween-type bored, but seriously, completely bored. There was nothing here to study, nothing to research, and there was no point in trying to figure out new, totally awesome spells, because then she'd just want to test them out and, well, all dark and veiney much?
She sighed and flopped face-first into the grass. English grass was a lot greener than California grass. Also the dirt was a lot more mucky. A poppy noise made her look up.
A man was standing in front of her, an out of breath man who did not look happy. The girl went suddenly lightheaded from the magic pulsing off of him, like he was some sort of giant, magic pulse machine. She wrinkled her nose, trying to either shake off the rush of the magic or at least to figure out a better way of describing it to herself.
When she looked at his face again, he still didn't look very happy. But he also looked like he had noticed her. In that he was doing his piercing gaze thing right into her eyes.
"Um, hi! You got here kind of suddenly. Also, you're clearly a warlock, a- and that's cool. That's very – cool. I used to be one, a witch, I mean."
"You still are a witch."
"What? Oh, no. Ha. Ha, no. Um, but can I help you somehow else? Are you looking for Giles?"
"No. I'm looking for a place to stay hidden for a short time. Is that your house?"
"No, it's Giles' house. Are you sure you don't want to talk to Giles? Or – wait, you're hiding from someone?"
The man moved impatiently. "Someone will come here looking for me, possibly soon. It will probably be a girl, she would be a few years younger than you. She will have ridiculous hair. You will tell her I disappeared again within seconds of arriving here."
"O…kay. Are you, by any chance – did Spike send you here?"
The man stared at her with a strange mixture of amusement and distaste, and swept off toward the house.
The girl watched him go. She wasn't bored anymore. Seconds after the man had disappeared into the house, the poppy kind of noise happened again, and this time a girl had materialized on the grass. The girl looked around hastily and fixed her eyes on the redhead.
"Did you see him? A man, I think he would have appeared here just a few minutes ago."
"Um, tall, scary-type man? With the, the nose? And the hair all - And the swooping? Does he swoop like that a lot?"
"Does he – sorry?"
"…Swoop. Like, 'look at me, I'm all angry and also mysterious.' I knew a guy who used to do that. One time, he lost his soul. Well, a couple of times, actually. But if your swoopy guy did too – I mean, if he lost his soul – I could totally put it back. Or – or I mean I could tell you how to, because I really can't do… that… anymore."
The other girl just stared at her.
"Sorry, um, you wanted to know where he – went. Well, I can't tell ya. I mean, because I don't know. Not because, like, I know but I'm not supposed to tell you. Because I don't know. How am I supposed to know where a person is after they disappear? You can't. Not without a locating spell or something. And I can't help you with that, that's for sure. The same way I can't help you with telling you where he went."
"You are a witch, though? Where's your wand?"
"I? No, not a witch. No wand here. Not at all a witch. Okay, I was, but now I'm not."
The curly-haired girl opened her eyes in recognition and sympathy. "Oh my god! They took your wand? What did you do? Was it – " the girl suddenly looked very dangerous – "was it Umbridge?"
"Um, well, I'd say it was a liiittle more than just umbrage. But you know, it was pretty… well, actually it was extremely awful, what I did, so… anything they want to say or do to me is kind of completely justified."
"I can't believe that woman. Is it because you're a half blood?"
"Me? Uhh.. no, I'm… all-blood. Yup, both my parents are one hundred percent – um, why are we talking about this?"
"God! She's really branched out. I cannot believe the nerve of that woman. Look, as soon as I've found Snape and either… killed him, or gotten some sort of incredibly convincing reason why I should bring him back like Lupin wants, I will find some way to get your wand back, and teach that evil woman a lesson."
With that, the curly-haired girl took off toward the house. The redhead turned, and called after her. "Wait, I said he didn't go into the house. He went somewhere not into the house. Don't go into…" but the girl was gone.
The girl with red hair sat back down against the tree. British people were seriously weird, with their slang and their mean meanness about reminding people they couldn't do magic and their freakily intense interest in whether or not you were Jewish. Who even used the word "umbrage" nowadays? Well, Giles, probably. Yes, probably Giles would know just what to do with them.