Fic: Anywhere But Here (3/3)
Title: Anywhere But Here, Ch. 3: Anywhere We're Hidden
Author: 3am_moonlight aka mirrored_illusions
Rating: Gen with background het (HHr).
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) / Harry Potter - JKR.
Timeline: Anytime post-Chosen, anytime post books.
Characters: Buffy and Dawn Summers, Harry Potter/Hermione Granger, OC children.
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss Whedon. HP belongs to JKR.
Summary: The Potter's and the Summers' sisters reach Hogwarts.
Word Count: 1,260 (this chapter) & 3,597 (complete).
Note: Written for the 2017 August Fic-A-Day, Day 29.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was a bombed out ruin, just like the nearby village of Hogsmeade had been. Even after seeing the remains of the village they had soldiered on, hoping for a miracle. The castle had stood for over a millennium and it had withstood several magical wars and sieges, and what had finally destroyed it was a muggle bomb.
The six of them were standing on what had been the front lawn of the castle; two former students, two American's who hadn't even known about the school a fortnight ago, and two young magical children who would never attend the world's oldest magical school.
"We should go through the debris, see if there's anything we can salvage. Magical objects, books, something." Hermione looked like all her dreams had finally shattered, but then she shook herself and determination filled her face and entire attitude. "There might be something edible since we know it's just the wards that went down, preservation charms are not a ward. Not really."
No one objected and they quickly spread about six feet apart and then they began searching, even the children were participating even if they didn't really understand what was going on. Several hours later they had mostly just found the remains of students and several professors who had perished in the attack. Schoolbooks and library books were all collected and put in a separate bags which Harry had charmed with some kind of expansion and feather-light charms. Those would've been nifty back in the day when Buffy was younger, back in high school and college, and then traveling around the US with Faith Slaying vampires and demons, and partying in between. Packing everything into something which could literally be the size of a wallet would've made everything so much easier.
Now they had two sets of bags; one for books and writing supplies, one for magical objects (including wands), one for food and drinks, one for clothes and accessories, and a fifth for anything else that might be useful to them. The children had a separate bag, just for them. They weren't really old enough to understand what they were looking for, but they might still find something which could come in handy.
They spent the next week going through most of the ruins and burying the bodies of anyone they found. In the end, they found the earthly remains of 265 students and all twelve members of staff. Neither of the Potter's knew if that were all of the students or if some of them had been called home to their families when the news broke. It seemed likely as when Harry and Hermione had attended there had been just over 300 students, but there had been an increase in attendance since then.
While they had been searching Buffy and Dawn had encouraged their fellow adults to tell them about the school, the people they'd known while attending, what they'd been up to during their school years, and what they'd done since graduating. It was part of the grieving process and after a few false starts, it had slowly begun working. It would take time, but from all appearances, they were strong people and would prevail.
It was on the eighth day, which they had decided to take off, when Harry suddenly had an idea, one that originally mystified both of the Summers sisters.
"The Chamber of Secrets!"
"What?" All three women looked at him in confusion, although for different reasons.
"What's the Chamber of Secrets? And it better not be sex related, mister." It was Harry's turn to look mystified at Dawn's comment.
Unsurprisingly it was Hermione who gave an explanation, and like in some of her earlier explanation it sounded like she was reciting something verbatim. "The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing. Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."
Harry leaned towards Buffy and stage-whispered to her, "I'm pretty certain that's exactly how our History of Magic professor said it back in our third year, except he made it sound dead boring."
"Prat."
An amused smirk and then, "I love you." The sentiment was reciprocated and both Buffy and Dawn grinned at them.
"You two are adorable."
"Yes, yes." Hermione smiled a little at the compliment, "But back to the point. What about the Chamber? It's under several tonnes of rock."
"True, but we don't actually know if the bomb destroyed the ground floor/roof of the Chamber. We've been walking on the floor for a week and there's no depression like there should've been. There's no blast crater or anything like that. Slytherin probably used all kinds of spells to both protect and hide it. But I bet some of those spells were designed to withstand the entire castle falling on it. The wizard was reported to be the epitome of ambition and cunning, and he wanted his heir to be able to open it, so it had to be able to withstand time."
Hermione's eyes lit up, "If it's still there it'll be the perfect hiding place. No one will expect someone to hide down there, especially not under the ruins of Hogwarts. Anyone coming by will just see that someone tried to clean the place up a bit, maybe pay the last respect to the dead before moving on. We won't even need to put up wards or spells!" By the end of her little speech she was grinning, and Harry was as well before he sobered up a bit.
"We still need to find an entrance from the outside, but I'm sure there is at least one. The basilisk would need to be able to hunt every now and then, even if it was in hibernation for most of the last millennia. Slytherin probably also had a secret entrance for when he didn't want the other Founders to know where and when he was coming and going. Both of those should be visible, but I might need to use Parseltongue to actually get it open."
"You need a tongue in a package to do what?" Buffy had sort-of been able to follow most of that, but that last part had been more than a little confusing. Even Dawn didn't seem to have been able to understand that part if her frown was any indication.
Harry laughed a little, "Parseltongue is a fancy word for snake language. I can speak in hisses and understand when snakes do the same."
"That's so cool!" Dawn was grinning from ear to ear at this little tidbit of new knowledge but was derailed a little by Buffy's look.
"Okay, but let's see if we can find this chamber."
The next few days were spent searching and finally, on the fourth day they were successful and were even able to enter. It took even longer to make the place habitable, but to their surprise, it consisted of more than the two rooms Harry had already told them about. It was actually an expansive apartment running under the entire castle and even under part of the grounds.
The six of them made themselves at home, while carefully trying to clean up the castle grounds.
Author: 3am_moonlight aka mirrored_illusions
Rating: Gen with background het (HHr).
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) / Harry Potter - JKR.
Timeline: Anytime post-Chosen, anytime post books.
Characters: Buffy and Dawn Summers, Harry Potter/Hermione Granger, OC children.
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse belongs to Joss Whedon. HP belongs to JKR.
Summary: The Potter's and the Summers' sisters reach Hogwarts.
Word Count: 1,260 (this chapter) & 3,597 (complete).
Note: Written for the 2017 August Fic-A-Day, Day 29.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was a bombed out ruin, just like the nearby village of Hogsmeade had been. Even after seeing the remains of the village they had soldiered on, hoping for a miracle. The castle had stood for over a millennium and it had withstood several magical wars and sieges, and what had finally destroyed it was a muggle bomb.
The six of them were standing on what had been the front lawn of the castle; two former students, two American's who hadn't even known about the school a fortnight ago, and two young magical children who would never attend the world's oldest magical school.
"We should go through the debris, see if there's anything we can salvage. Magical objects, books, something." Hermione looked like all her dreams had finally shattered, but then she shook herself and determination filled her face and entire attitude. "There might be something edible since we know it's just the wards that went down, preservation charms are not a ward. Not really."
No one objected and they quickly spread about six feet apart and then they began searching, even the children were participating even if they didn't really understand what was going on. Several hours later they had mostly just found the remains of students and several professors who had perished in the attack. Schoolbooks and library books were all collected and put in a separate bags which Harry had charmed with some kind of expansion and feather-light charms. Those would've been nifty back in the day when Buffy was younger, back in high school and college, and then traveling around the US with Faith Slaying vampires and demons, and partying in between. Packing everything into something which could literally be the size of a wallet would've made everything so much easier.
Now they had two sets of bags; one for books and writing supplies, one for magical objects (including wands), one for food and drinks, one for clothes and accessories, and a fifth for anything else that might be useful to them. The children had a separate bag, just for them. They weren't really old enough to understand what they were looking for, but they might still find something which could come in handy.
They spent the next week going through most of the ruins and burying the bodies of anyone they found. In the end, they found the earthly remains of 265 students and all twelve members of staff. Neither of the Potter's knew if that were all of the students or if some of them had been called home to their families when the news broke. It seemed likely as when Harry and Hermione had attended there had been just over 300 students, but there had been an increase in attendance since then.
While they had been searching Buffy and Dawn had encouraged their fellow adults to tell them about the school, the people they'd known while attending, what they'd been up to during their school years, and what they'd done since graduating. It was part of the grieving process and after a few false starts, it had slowly begun working. It would take time, but from all appearances, they were strong people and would prevail.
It was on the eighth day, which they had decided to take off, when Harry suddenly had an idea, one that originally mystified both of the Summers sisters.
"The Chamber of Secrets!"
"What?" All three women looked at him in confusion, although for different reasons.
"What's the Chamber of Secrets? And it better not be sex related, mister." It was Harry's turn to look mystified at Dawn's comment.
Unsurprisingly it was Hermione who gave an explanation, and like in some of her earlier explanation it sounded like she was reciting something verbatim. "The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing. Slytherin, according to the legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his own true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."
Harry leaned towards Buffy and stage-whispered to her, "I'm pretty certain that's exactly how our History of Magic professor said it back in our third year, except he made it sound dead boring."
"Prat."
An amused smirk and then, "I love you." The sentiment was reciprocated and both Buffy and Dawn grinned at them.
"You two are adorable."
"Yes, yes." Hermione smiled a little at the compliment, "But back to the point. What about the Chamber? It's under several tonnes of rock."
"True, but we don't actually know if the bomb destroyed the ground floor/roof of the Chamber. We've been walking on the floor for a week and there's no depression like there should've been. There's no blast crater or anything like that. Slytherin probably used all kinds of spells to both protect and hide it. But I bet some of those spells were designed to withstand the entire castle falling on it. The wizard was reported to be the epitome of ambition and cunning, and he wanted his heir to be able to open it, so it had to be able to withstand time."
Hermione's eyes lit up, "If it's still there it'll be the perfect hiding place. No one will expect someone to hide down there, especially not under the ruins of Hogwarts. Anyone coming by will just see that someone tried to clean the place up a bit, maybe pay the last respect to the dead before moving on. We won't even need to put up wards or spells!" By the end of her little speech she was grinning, and Harry was as well before he sobered up a bit.
"We still need to find an entrance from the outside, but I'm sure there is at least one. The basilisk would need to be able to hunt every now and then, even if it was in hibernation for most of the last millennia. Slytherin probably also had a secret entrance for when he didn't want the other Founders to know where and when he was coming and going. Both of those should be visible, but I might need to use Parseltongue to actually get it open."
"You need a tongue in a package to do what?" Buffy had sort-of been able to follow most of that, but that last part had been more than a little confusing. Even Dawn didn't seem to have been able to understand that part if her frown was any indication.
Harry laughed a little, "Parseltongue is a fancy word for snake language. I can speak in hisses and understand when snakes do the same."
"That's so cool!" Dawn was grinning from ear to ear at this little tidbit of new knowledge but was derailed a little by Buffy's look.
"Okay, but let's see if we can find this chamber."
The next few days were spent searching and finally, on the fourth day they were successful and were even able to enter. It took even longer to make the place habitable, but to their surprise, it consisted of more than the two rooms Harry had already told them about. It was actually an expansive apartment running under the entire castle and even under part of the grounds.
The six of them made themselves at home, while carefully trying to clean up the castle grounds.