The Wand and Watcher Chronicles: Sunny Beginings

A/N: a rather bloody and frighting nightmare at the beginning. If that bothers you, perhaps you should skip that part. Also some mild spoilers for the episode the Freshman.


Hermione was walking down the hall in Gryffindor Tower with the wall stained with black blood. The bones of the dead where hanging off the walls each had name tags of those students that lost their lives in the cause. They should not have died they where just teenagers who deserved so much better. She entered the first room there was a room with a table where Harry Ron and Ginny where playing cards sculls for stakes.

The room was painted blood red. They smile at her, their faces pale and see through till their own sculls where showing. She screamed and ran into another blood red room where Tonks and Kingsley where dancing like they did the day they where married. Instead of the white dress that Tonks wore she was wearing a black dress her pearl necklace was replaced with a necklace made of snake bones. Kingsley was also in all black except where his gold earring was an earring of scull with red snake like eyes. All of a sudden snakes come up and pull them under. She screams and runs from the room and finds refuge in another blood red room.

There Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Dumbledore where throwing bloody paint balls at the head master paintings at the headmaster’s office. They turned and in the place of their kind faces where snake sculls. She let out a startled Hermione was walking down the hall in Gryffindor Tower with the wall stained with black blood. The bones of the dead where hanging off the walls each had nametags of those students that lost their lives in the cause. They should not have died they where just teenagers who deserved so much better.

This room was the common room where Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Percy, Fluer, Mr. Wesley and Mrs. Weasley where playing Quiddich with snake sculls. They where covered head to foot in blood and they where pale as ghosts. Mrs. Weasley turned to her and said “Hello Hermione dear, come and play with us. You know how much you enjoy playing with people’s lives.” She said with a wicked Voldemort like grin.

She screamed and ran hysterical now down to another room that went out back to Hagrid’s hutt. It was black and almost falling apart. The skeleton of Fang was hanging off the front door. She peered in the window to find Hagrid and his wife Olympe playing wizard’s chess with the figures of the rest of the order. Their bodies where black and falling apart just like they where when she came across their dead bodies in the Forbidden Forest. They smile at her with their black and decomposing faces skull showing and white lights where their eyes used to be. She screamed and cried harder as she ran, not sure where she was going through her tears.

She found herself in the bowls of the Ministry where she was the night they lost Sirius. There she saw Luna and Neville sitting on the floor of the prophecy room. They where playing with a large black bear- like dog throwing him bones to catch. When the dog saw her he went over to lick her face in a comforting gesture. Through her tears she smiled at the dog she affectionately called snuffles in his lifetime.

Luna smiled her dreamy smile at her. “ He has missed you a lot Hermione we all have. We where just playing to pass the time.” The room suddenly changed to the room where the Veil was. Neville and Luna got up while the dog morphed into a dark attractive wizard with long black hair and gray eyes. He smiled at her and took her hand.

“Where are we going Sirius?” she asked him. “We are going home love.” Behind the Veil she saw Remus and Severus smiling at her. Severus still had the bite mark on his neck and the silver of his memories going down his face nose and eye. Remus was pale and covered with dragon pox holding a bundle in his arms. Hermione was suddenly afraid to go to them. Neville, Luna and Sirius sensed her hesitation and grabbed her on all sides and began to carry her to the Veil. She begged and cried telling them she did not want to go, but they paid no head. She could feel the arms of Severus and Remus along with the other lost souls taking her and pulling her in. Then she could hear the sound of Voldemort laughing echoing throughout the room…



Hermione woke up screaming and thrashing then she felt arms around her and a gentle voice in her ear. She struggled at first forgetting where she was. When she opened her eyes and looked up at the dark hared man she remembered that she was not at Grimmauld Place anymore she was in California. “ Sorry Giles I forgot where I was for a moment. I am sorry if I woke you.” she said in a lost and confused tone

“ It is quite alright Hermione, I was up anyway. I am going to make us some tea and toast.” He pulled the covers over her and went downstairs to make her some breakfast, a routine that he feel into with her since her arrival three months ago. She would dream about the people that she lost wake up screaming or crying; he would hold her till she calmed down and he would make breakfast. The screaming got so bad that he had to put a silencing charm on the place to avoid disturbing the neighbors and avoid questions that he was not prepared to answer. She was straight with him with where she was coming from and where she knew his name but she did not say much after that. It was obvious the pain was still too fresh for her to discuss it. It was obvious that the girl had been through a terrible ordeal, and was still grieving. He decided he would not pry for now, he just waited for her to be ready to talk about it on her own.

Giles was deeply saddened to hear about how Remus died. The poor bloke went through so much in his life as it is, having your wife and unborn child taken away from a terrible disease then succumbing to the disease himself, was just to grievous to imagine. When he left school he left the wizirding world behind not caring what went on. He felt so guilty about that now. Good people died and suffered to make the world a safer place, and he knew nothing about it. He was such a berk not wondering what would happen to Dumbledore or the school. He was so consumed with contempt and fear over his destined position as a watcher that he had no room to even contemplate what could happen as he left. He cringed to think at what his mother would have said, turning his back on his heritage he got through her bloodline.

He began to teach Hermione right away about Watchers and everything associated with them the day after she arrived. He knew she needed something to keep her going and she seemed to be okay during the day it was the night that was the problem. He did not tell anyone about Hermione yet, he was unsure about how Hermione would react to other people right now. It was unbelievable how astute she was, how she sucked in knowledge always wanting more.

It was amazing how different Hermione was in her style of learning to how Buffy did. Hermione was driven to find the answer in any book that would have it while Buffy on the other hand went by pure instinct and heart. He was not sure how much Buffy needed him at this time in her life. She seemed to have it all together and not coming to him for help or guidance anymore. Hermione needed him now, she was so lost and broken desperate for a new life. He would take care of her for Dumbledore, Remus and perhaps his own sake.


Meanwhile

Buffy was walking the halls of her dorm feeling lost and out of place. High School at Sunnydale High she could handle. She knew the ghosts, vampires, demons and teen drama like the back of her hand. She was prepared for any event she was prepared. College it seemed was a different animal all together. She felt so out of her league in this hubel of higher learning. It would not be so bad if Willow felt the same. Willow did not seem lost at all, as a matter of fact it appeared as though she was in her element. Even Oz whom she expected to feel left out, was doing just fine. Her roommate was to perky and irritating for words, she had not seen Giles for three months and to top it all off she accidentally toppled books on a cute boy who turned out to be her Teachers Assistant. She had not seen Xander since he had left town at the end of graduation. The fact that she was feeling off also effected her slaying. Vampires that she could have taken down easily in the old days where taking her on with ease. Maybe it was time to talk to Giles about this. She would visit him tomorrow to see what he would do.


The next day

Giles was picking up the paper the next morning when he saw a sight he never thought he would see, Buffy Summers on his doorstep. “Hi Giles, I just came to stop by”. Giles knew it was not the case, so with some gentle prodding he was able to decipher what was wrong. He told her that all she lacked was confidence since she felt so out of place that it was normal and it would pass. He would be here to aid her if the need arises but he did not see any reason to at the moment. Buffy seemed hesitant but encouraged that he had talked to her.

Giles went back inside to find Hermione looking out the window in only his shirt. She looked pale and sweaty like she normally did when she had a nightmare. For some odd reason she got up this time. He had a surge of guilt when he realized she had a nightmare and he was not there to comfort her. “ So that was Buffy. She does not seem like the slayer from the outside, she appears to be so fragile.” Giles just nodded. “ We are never what we seem to be. Now where were we on our schedule?”

A figure in black with black shoulder length hair and black eyes was watching them to see what they where doing and saying invisible to them both. “We where on the history of the slayers, the second known slayer I believe.” she then paused then said“ Giles maybe we should look into this trouble with the students. Buffy looked worried and you said that her instincts where always good. Aren’t Watchers supposed to listen to their charges as well as guide them?”

“Not strictly speaking no.”responded Giles with a note of apprehension

“Well they should” she replied before she goes to her room with her tea and toast to get ready for the day. Giles was left to watch her leave, with an uncomfortable feeling that she could very well be right.

The figure walked through the wall cape billowing behind him, bat like, and into a room of white a type of in between place that he called home. He found a man with brown hair mustache,light scars on his face, and in all white suit and tie waiting for him. “Didn’t you mother tell you that it was not polite to spy Severus?” The dark haired man snarled at him before replying

“ I, unlike you Lupin, care what happens to Hermione. If you cared you would not have sent her to that lunatic. She is totally unprepared for the dangers of living on a Hellmouth.”

“ First of all Severus since when had Hermione done anything that she has not wanted to do? Secondly she is a capable witch that can handle almost anything.” Replied the man once known as Remus Lupin.

“Once I upon a time perhaps. She is broken from the losses from the war, I see it in her face she way she carries herself. It will take more that a new profession to help her through her losses.” Rebuked Snape.

Remus sighed “I know, I have seen it also in the rare glimpses that I am allowed. You are testing the boundaries of the rules when you travel without knowledge or orders.”

“Bugger the orders. She is the last of us, she deserves to be happy in her life not haunted by her past and the horrors that await her now” he replied in a cold impatient manner that he did not seem to loose in death.

“ I agree, certainly but not the way you are going about it. You risk your place in the afterlife she would be devastated if she found out you did that for her. It would be another thing that she would feel guilty over.” Reasoned the other man

The man who was once known as Severus Snape only glared “Save your speeches for someone who actually listens to them. Now I have work to do.”

Remus sighed and retreated into the white. “Have it your way, she will find out and she will find a way to come here and kick your arse herself. You can’t say I didn’t warn you” as he left to return to his wife and friends leaving Snape to scowl at him before returning to the looking glass, watching the only other friend he had beside Lily waiting for any sign of trouble. Remus was troubled by Snape’s involvement in the matter.It was not that he did not trust Ripper he did, otherwise he would not have sent Hermione to him. Snape always had good instincts and his predictions where hardly ever wrong. He would have to keep an eye on the situation in the event that Hermione would need him.


Giles and Hermione found out that Buffy was not off about the fact that there was something wrong on campus, There was a clan of Vampires attacking students and making it seem as though they left of their own free will. The Scooby Gang as the teens called themselves figured it out and came to her aid. Giles came too late for the cavalry but not too late taking Buffy’s things to the dormitory. Hermione followed with her invisibility cloak, that she inherited from Harry, not ready to interfere in the gang of friends. She just was not ready to make more after the grievous loss of all the friends she had, she just was not ready yet. They seemed nice though. A red haired green-eyed girl named willow, A dark haired boy brown eyed boy named Xander and a dark haired boy known as Oz.

Hermione was pleased that things where back on track with Giles and Buffy. He would never admit it but the separation between them was a cause of major distress. She liked him a lot and looked forward to learn much from him.

Meanwhile somewhere in LA

A man with long blond hair was looking at his State side investments now that he had moved away from England to start anew. His son and wife came with him with great reluctance to leave all that they knew behind. It was necessary to avoid persecution and enemy wrath for being on the losing side of the battle. Lucius’s father once said that to survive you might have to make compromises in your beliefs. He did that twice, once when he turned on everything to ensure the safety of his son, secondly to flee all those that would do him and his family harm. He went to the only place that he could think of that no one would care to look, the world that he was raised to despise, the Muggle world. He hated to go to a place where ways where foreign to him but he had no other choice. He settled in the States where the influence and power of the Malfoy family allowed him refuge. Lucius never cared much about his father’s dealings that eventually would give him a safe haven. He greatly regretted that he did not know his father as well as he should one of his many regrets in life that accumulated at the end of the war. He did not know anymore what he knew nor believed other than his son’s safety was the most important thing in his life.

This night Lucius was going through more dossiers getting familiar with everything that he owned knowledge that could save him again one day. He had gone through many in the year since they arrived in Los Angles, yet many still remain. As he went through the portfolios and secret projects his money funded he came across something startling.

A dossier on scientists messing with the other world for government purposes, A picture of the black veil that was stolen from the Ministry a month after the war ended, and the picture of a man in a comma that he never expected to see again in this lifetime. His enemy and cousin Sirius Black.

Some muggles sure where fools, didn’t they know that it was stupid to bend and twist use the other world’s magic for their purposes? Even the darkest wizards knew that. They used what power already existed for their purposes. This experiment will end badly. The only question is, will he allow Sirius to remain where he was or would he cling to the family honor, the only thing he had left, and try to find a way to help him?