August 8, 2014 - History of Magic
August 8, 2014 - History of Magic
Alt Title: Day 8 - HoM Professor Adam
Author: mmooch
Summary: **For the 2014 LiveJournal’s Twisted Shorts FaD** challenge. Now the students would have to find another place to get their sleep.
Crossover: Harry Potter, Highlander
Rating: FR-13.
Word count: 1381
Challenge: for the livejournal 2014 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.
Timeline: vague for Highlander, but after Methos met Macleod.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. Highlander characters belong to Davis-Panzer Productions. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
London
Buffy really felt like smacking some Wizarding heads together. Granted, the Muggle world had its fair share of bigotry, too, but it annoyed her there as well. In this case, she couldn’t hire a teacher who had the highest NEWT score in over a century because he happened to be a werewolf.
Their logic boggled her mind.
They were fine with accepting a professor - who happened to be in the same class as the one she wanted - that had ties to their current enemy in a civil war. Really close ties. Their argument was twofold: Dumbledore vouched for Snape and with it being a civil war, everyone had close ties to the enemy, regardless which side of the war they were on.
It made a little bit of sense, but not their reason for rejecting Remus Lupin. There were no known attacks by him resulting in injury, infection or death; he took care to ensure that wouldn’t happen by locking himself up during the full moon; and with the recent discovery of Wolfsbane, he would be even safer during that night. And that wasn’t including her hope of getting a hold of Oz to find out where he was trained to stop his transformations.
Willow was going crazy, trying to figure out why werewolves here only turned on the actual night of the full moon while Oz used to change three nights. The best guesses they could come up with for the moment were that it was a different strain of the virus or possibly that being magical before getting infected altered the effects of the virus.
Back to Buffy’s current dilemma, the best she could talk them into was allowing her to hire Lupin as an associate professor. She still needed a full professor to be in charge of the class.
A scuffle from a nearby alleyway caught her attention, causing her to smile. She really hoped it was a vampire because she had some venting to do.
Sadly it was two guys fighting with…swords? Kinda strange, but she had seen stranger. Before she could get to them, the one whose back was to her shot the other guy. He starting gloating…to himself since he obviously didn’t hear her approaching him. Either that or the other guy’s corpse, and that raised the level of weird.
When he raised the sword to behead the corpse, Buffy finally had enough. She grabbed a piece of rebar from the ground and thunked him good - hard enough to knock him out, but not so hard as to kill him. She bound his hands, then went to check on the victim to see if there was anything she could do for him.
She ripped open his shirt to look at the damage and knew that anything she tried would be futile. Having stabbed as many vampires as she had over the years, she knew where the human heart was and that entry wound was right over it.
Then the most extraordinary thing of the night happened: she watched as the bullet reversed itself and popped out of his body. Then the hole in his chest healed over without leaving a scar. She quickly disarmed him and retreated to a safe distance to wait for him to wake up - as she was sure he would now.
Not giving him time to catch his bearings, Buffy started her interrogation as soon as his eyes fluttered open, “You aren’t a vampire, so what are you?”
“What happened to the other man that was here?” he asked as he rubbed his eyes and glanced down at his chest. As soon as he saw the muzzle flash, he figured he wouldn’t be waking up again. The Highlander wasn’t in the country to save his sorry arse this time.
She pointed to the other side of the alley with his sword. “He’s resting for now. Time for you to answer my question.”
“Depends…is it just vampires you know about or do you know more about the world?” he continued to delay her.
“As the Slayer, I know more than most,” Buffy replied, hoping to scare him by giving her supernatural alias.
He took a closer look at her and quipped, “A little long in the tooth for that job, aren’t you? You look like you could be the mother of a Slayer, not one yourself.”
She glared at him, but kept her distance. It was possible he was trying to goad her into attacking so he could overpower her, but she wasn’t going to fall for it. “You really think it’s a good idea to annoy me? After all, I do have a few weapons on me. Plus I could beat the crap out of you if you really pissed me off.”
“It was worth a shot,” he said. “Have you heard of Immortals? I’d guess not since we aren’t demonic and don’t fall into your jurisdiction,” he answered his own question.
“What’s an Immortal?” she asked. The other guy started to stir, so she walked over and conked him out again. “Continue,” she prompted him.
“We start out as regular human beings until our first death - usually a nice and violent one - and then we regenerate; come back to life like a phoenix…without the flames and turning back into a youngster. We always remain the age that we were at our first death.”
“Is he one?” Buffy inquired, gesturing towards the unconscious man.
“He is,” the man said. “He was trying to kill me to take my Quickening. It’s a thing between us Immortals. The only way we can die. By the way, my name is Adam Pierson, Miss Summers.”
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How do you know my name?”
“I have a few contacts in your community,” he replied casually. “Born in California; Called in Los Angeles; defeated several Master-level vampires; saved the world just as many times; and probably have slayed hundreds of vampires and demons over the course of your 13 or 14 year career?”
“Try thousands and you’re probably closer,” Buffy said. “What’s your deal, Adam Pierson?”
“I happen to be the oldest known Immortal in existence, so a lot of people want my Quickening,” Adam explained, knowing it was better to be upfront with her; another thing he had heard was that she hated cryptic people.
“But you’re a good guy?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t go that far. In the past I’ve been pretty evil. In fact, I’ve probably been more evil than anyone you’ve ever faced before. I was one of the Four Horsemen,” he told her candidly.
“Which one?”
“Death.”
Her sudden smile scared him like very few things could anymore. “But you aren’t evil anymore, right?” Buffy persisted. When she had been told ‘Death was her gift’ all those years ago, she didn’t think it would be in response to needing a professor.
“I try to stay out of the way these days,” he warily responded. What did she want to do with him?
“Good. Perfect answer!” she chirped, coming over to help him stand up. “I’ve got a proposition for you that will help keep you out of trouble.”
“And what might that be?” Adam asked, finding himself oddly charmed by her upbeat attitude.
“I need a teacher of history, and I’m guessing that since you’re so old, you’ve seen quite a bit of it firsthand,” she said, leading him to nod in reply. “Cool! You teach history and you’ll get free room and board at Hogwarts, plus a nice salary. Anyone coming to look for you will have me and some other fighters to get through first,” she finished her offer with another smile.
“Given Hogwarts’ location, they couldn’t demand a fight with me anyway. As a convergence of ley lines, it’s considered a holy place, and therefore no fighting can be done between Immortals,” he remarked. “But I accept anyway. It’s been a long time since I taught in a school and it can be quite…interesting.”
“Just remember, I’ll tell you what I told the former Source of All Evil…you go evil again, and you’re dead meat. Got it?” Buffy asked in that same perky voice. “By the way, you’ll have a nice werewolf as your assistant if he accepts the position.”
“Understood,” he agreed. “Wait…the Source?”
A/N: Sorry for not having a lot of Remus in the chapter, but I liked having it mostly be Buffy/Methos.
Tomorrow…I think maybe Languages would be nice.
Alt Title: Day 8 - HoM Professor Adam
Author: mmooch
Summary: **For the 2014 LiveJournal’s Twisted Shorts FaD** challenge. Now the students would have to find another place to get their sleep.
Crossover: Harry Potter, Highlander
Rating: FR-13.
Word count: 1381
Challenge: for the livejournal 2014 August Fic-a-Day Challenge.
Timeline: vague for Highlander, but after Methos met Macleod.
Disclaimer: BtVS/AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon/Mutant Enemy. HP characters belong to JK Rowling. Highlander characters belong to Davis-Panzer Productions. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.
London
Buffy really felt like smacking some Wizarding heads together. Granted, the Muggle world had its fair share of bigotry, too, but it annoyed her there as well. In this case, she couldn’t hire a teacher who had the highest NEWT score in over a century because he happened to be a werewolf.
Their logic boggled her mind.
They were fine with accepting a professor - who happened to be in the same class as the one she wanted - that had ties to their current enemy in a civil war. Really close ties. Their argument was twofold: Dumbledore vouched for Snape and with it being a civil war, everyone had close ties to the enemy, regardless which side of the war they were on.
It made a little bit of sense, but not their reason for rejecting Remus Lupin. There were no known attacks by him resulting in injury, infection or death; he took care to ensure that wouldn’t happen by locking himself up during the full moon; and with the recent discovery of Wolfsbane, he would be even safer during that night. And that wasn’t including her hope of getting a hold of Oz to find out where he was trained to stop his transformations.
Willow was going crazy, trying to figure out why werewolves here only turned on the actual night of the full moon while Oz used to change three nights. The best guesses they could come up with for the moment were that it was a different strain of the virus or possibly that being magical before getting infected altered the effects of the virus.
Back to Buffy’s current dilemma, the best she could talk them into was allowing her to hire Lupin as an associate professor. She still needed a full professor to be in charge of the class.
A scuffle from a nearby alleyway caught her attention, causing her to smile. She really hoped it was a vampire because she had some venting to do.
Sadly it was two guys fighting with…swords? Kinda strange, but she had seen stranger. Before she could get to them, the one whose back was to her shot the other guy. He starting gloating…to himself since he obviously didn’t hear her approaching him. Either that or the other guy’s corpse, and that raised the level of weird.
When he raised the sword to behead the corpse, Buffy finally had enough. She grabbed a piece of rebar from the ground and thunked him good - hard enough to knock him out, but not so hard as to kill him. She bound his hands, then went to check on the victim to see if there was anything she could do for him.
She ripped open his shirt to look at the damage and knew that anything she tried would be futile. Having stabbed as many vampires as she had over the years, she knew where the human heart was and that entry wound was right over it.
Then the most extraordinary thing of the night happened: she watched as the bullet reversed itself and popped out of his body. Then the hole in his chest healed over without leaving a scar. She quickly disarmed him and retreated to a safe distance to wait for him to wake up - as she was sure he would now.
Not giving him time to catch his bearings, Buffy started her interrogation as soon as his eyes fluttered open, “You aren’t a vampire, so what are you?”
“What happened to the other man that was here?” he asked as he rubbed his eyes and glanced down at his chest. As soon as he saw the muzzle flash, he figured he wouldn’t be waking up again. The Highlander wasn’t in the country to save his sorry arse this time.
She pointed to the other side of the alley with his sword. “He’s resting for now. Time for you to answer my question.”
“Depends…is it just vampires you know about or do you know more about the world?” he continued to delay her.
“As the Slayer, I know more than most,” Buffy replied, hoping to scare him by giving her supernatural alias.
He took a closer look at her and quipped, “A little long in the tooth for that job, aren’t you? You look like you could be the mother of a Slayer, not one yourself.”
She glared at him, but kept her distance. It was possible he was trying to goad her into attacking so he could overpower her, but she wasn’t going to fall for it. “You really think it’s a good idea to annoy me? After all, I do have a few weapons on me. Plus I could beat the crap out of you if you really pissed me off.”
“It was worth a shot,” he said. “Have you heard of Immortals? I’d guess not since we aren’t demonic and don’t fall into your jurisdiction,” he answered his own question.
“What’s an Immortal?” she asked. The other guy started to stir, so she walked over and conked him out again. “Continue,” she prompted him.
“We start out as regular human beings until our first death - usually a nice and violent one - and then we regenerate; come back to life like a phoenix…without the flames and turning back into a youngster. We always remain the age that we were at our first death.”
“Is he one?” Buffy inquired, gesturing towards the unconscious man.
“He is,” the man said. “He was trying to kill me to take my Quickening. It’s a thing between us Immortals. The only way we can die. By the way, my name is Adam Pierson, Miss Summers.”
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “How do you know my name?”
“I have a few contacts in your community,” he replied casually. “Born in California; Called in Los Angeles; defeated several Master-level vampires; saved the world just as many times; and probably have slayed hundreds of vampires and demons over the course of your 13 or 14 year career?”
“Try thousands and you’re probably closer,” Buffy said. “What’s your deal, Adam Pierson?”
“I happen to be the oldest known Immortal in existence, so a lot of people want my Quickening,” Adam explained, knowing it was better to be upfront with her; another thing he had heard was that she hated cryptic people.
“But you’re a good guy?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t go that far. In the past I’ve been pretty evil. In fact, I’ve probably been more evil than anyone you’ve ever faced before. I was one of the Four Horsemen,” he told her candidly.
“Which one?”
“Death.”
Her sudden smile scared him like very few things could anymore. “But you aren’t evil anymore, right?” Buffy persisted. When she had been told ‘Death was her gift’ all those years ago, she didn’t think it would be in response to needing a professor.
“I try to stay out of the way these days,” he warily responded. What did she want to do with him?
“Good. Perfect answer!” she chirped, coming over to help him stand up. “I’ve got a proposition for you that will help keep you out of trouble.”
“And what might that be?” Adam asked, finding himself oddly charmed by her upbeat attitude.
“I need a teacher of history, and I’m guessing that since you’re so old, you’ve seen quite a bit of it firsthand,” she said, leading him to nod in reply. “Cool! You teach history and you’ll get free room and board at Hogwarts, plus a nice salary. Anyone coming to look for you will have me and some other fighters to get through first,” she finished her offer with another smile.
“Given Hogwarts’ location, they couldn’t demand a fight with me anyway. As a convergence of ley lines, it’s considered a holy place, and therefore no fighting can be done between Immortals,” he remarked. “But I accept anyway. It’s been a long time since I taught in a school and it can be quite…interesting.”
“Just remember, I’ll tell you what I told the former Source of All Evil…you go evil again, and you’re dead meat. Got it?” Buffy asked in that same perky voice. “By the way, you’ll have a nice werewolf as your assistant if he accepts the position.”
“Understood,” he agreed. “Wait…the Source?”
A/N: Sorry for not having a lot of Remus in the chapter, but I liked having it mostly be Buffy/Methos.
Tomorrow…I think maybe Languages would be nice.