Disclaimer: Buffy characters are the property of Mr. Whedon. Harry Potter characters are the property of Ms. Rowling. I do own the story that I am writing, but I'm just borrowing the characters for a little while. So, yeah, if you decide to sue... I'm uber-broke.

x x x x x

Remus Lupin could always tell when the full moon was near. And every month he would hope that the days before the full moon would never come to pass. They always did.

"Remus!"

Remus looked up and waved his wand at the door. It opened and Severus Snape walked in.

"I have your potion."

"Thank you, Severus." Remus rubbed his temples. "I don't know how I'll ever repay you."

"You probably won't be able to," Snape shrugged. "Never you mind, I'd much rather have the werewolf of the castle be peaceful than angry, like he was last time..."

Remus shook his head and didn't notice that Snape was gone until he looked up again. He took a sip of the potion and made a face. It wasn't the most pleasant of things to drink. He then downed the entire contents of the cup and placed it down with a loud clank.

"Uh... Remus?"

Remus looked up and noticed the ever beautiful Buffy. He wiped the potion from his lips and stood up quickly. "Buffy."

"Afternoon whiskey?" Buffy pointed towards the now empty cup.

"My potion." He breathed in deeply and exhaled. "Why do I have the pleasure of your company?"

"English."

"That was in English."

"No, I mean, that's the reason. I have a poem to show you." Buffy held out a sheet of paper.

Remus grabbed the paper and looked down. His heart was thumping... she had written him a love poem. Though her spelling was rather shotty... wait...

"What is this?"

"I think I found the puzzle that leads to the last piece of the mirror." Buffy explained. "I found it in an old book in the Restricted Section. When I was in school, I never had time to really pay attention in English... so I was hoping you could decipher it. I think it's talking about clues hidden in the poem."

"Yes, I believe so." Remus agreed. "But, I can't make anything out, the spelling is so bad. I think I'll have to rewrite it and then we'll show McGonagall. I'm sure she's seen it before..."

There was a pause and Buffy began to shuffle towards the door. "Well... I'll be off. Just thought you might want to know." Buffy pointed at the paper in his hands.

"Buffy?" Remus placed the paper down and crosses his arms against his chest. "Are you busy Christmas Eve?"

"No... why?"

"I was hoping we could have lunch together."

x x x x x

"No, no, Ron!"

"What?"

"Put the crystal doves over here."

Cordelia and Ron had been working in the Great Hall together all morning. After breakfast they had decided to stay and help with decorations.

"I don't see why it's so important for them to go in a specific place." Ron muttered.

"It's Christmas. Things have to be perfect!" Cordelia retorted with a smile on her face.

"Fine, the doves go over there. Now... what about the mistletoe?"

"Are you trying to suggest something?" Cordelia teased.

"That's not very funny, Cordelia." A voice interrupted their fun. "Ronald would never suggest something like that."

Of course, Cordelia thought, it's Hermione.

"Would you, Ronald?" Hermione tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for an answer.

"Er... no."

"No, what?"

"No, dear."

Cordelia laughed under her breath.

"Well, I really must take Ron away from decorating for a moment. Auror business." Hermione grabbed Ron's arm and began to pull him away.

"I'm practically an Auror too, you know!" Cordelia's nostrils flared with anger. Not very many things could make her angry anymore, but Hermione certainly had a way to make Cordelia feel anger. Cordelia figured it was their clashing personalities. "Just in case you haven't realized. I'm helping you and the Order, Miss Priss. You don't have to drag him out of the room just to tell him something."

"Oh, yes, I do!" Hermione snapped.

"Hermione..." Ron pleaded. "Why? She's not a Death Eater."

"Don't you remember anything?" Hermione huffed. "The day they made us Aurors... you took an oath! An oath, Ron!"

"Oh, yeah," Ron smiled, "Bloody hard oath to memorize too."

Hermione looked to Cordelia, "We'll see you." Then she turned around and grabbed Ron by the arm. "Let's go."

"Bitch." Cordelia muttered.

"Who?" Xander looked at Cordelia as he entered the Great Hall. They weren't very far apart, and it startled Cordelia.

"Nothing," Cordelia muttered as she slowly moved her hand from her heart. "Don't ever scare me like that again."

"What I do?"

"And the Dumb-Ass Award goes to..." Cordelia bobbed her head.

"Who?"

"God..."

x x x x x

Willow stared at the potion that McGonagall was holding. She remembered the last time she had had to drink the stuff. Not only was it, for lack of a better word, chunky, but it smelled horrible. Willow gulped, perhaps warning her stomach to prepare whatever stomachs prepare with bad tasting things...

"Here," McGonagall handed Willow a larger portion than she had expected. "We have to up the dosage, or else it won't work as long."

Willow slowly reached out for the cup and closed her eyes. This was going to taste... bad...

x0x0x

"Imperio!"

Willow felt her head go light as she stared at the scene before her. She turned to try and find the voice that had just shouted an incantation, but she couldn't take her eyes away... there were thousands of people screaming. It was complete chaos.

Willow turned, trying to find the person who said those words. She saw a Death Eater that she didn't know very well. He was holding up a piece of the mirror. She stood for a moment, transfixed as to why a piece of the mirror was brought here. Then her body began to feel immense pain.

I need to move, Willow thought. As soon as she took a step, the pain began to subside, as she continued to move, the pain was gone.

"What-OW!" Willow watched as her own hands began to move and she heard words start to come out of her mouth. She was about to start an earthquake. Oh, this was not good. What was wrong with her.

The earth began to shake and Willow felt the building before her crumble.

No, Willow tried to scream, but realized that she couldn't talk. NO!

"Parliament! Not Parliament!" A woman's voice interrupted Willow thoughts. Willow turned around and saw that the mirror that the Death Eater was holding seemed to be reaching out, and pulling the broken pieces of the building into it's glassy depths.

x0x0x

Willow stuck out her tongue and handed McGonagall the now empty glass. "Eugh... that's disgusting."

"Yes," McGonagall nodded her head. "Now, you must return, and take the Letum Essum with you, or else Dolohov will think that something has happened."

Willow shook her head, the taste of the potion still in her mouth. "I don't want to."

"But you must!"

"Do you know how horrible it is being evil? I - well - it's not fun. I hate how it makes me feel." Willow crossed her arms and realized how childish she looked. She uncrossed them quickly and decided that a hard stare might work better. "I won't."

"If you don't do this-"

Willow looked over at Harry. He had been relatively quiet for a while and he had let McGonagall do all of the talking, but then he had to go and ruin his silence. She held up her hands and waved him away. He disappeared in mid-sentence.

"What... where did he go?" McGonagall looked surprised. "How..."

"I think he's somewhere around the Great Hall." Willow mumbled. "He's fine."

"But... no one can Apparate in Hogwarts." McGonagall stared at Willow and shook her head. "It's impossible."

"Look," Willow huffed, "don't get off the subject. I'm not going back."

"Oh, yes you will."

"I said... what?" Willow had heard that voice only a few times before. It was only a voice from a painting, but it still held a lot of authority.

"Dumbledore, if she doesn't want to-" McGonagall started.

"She must return for all of our sakes to save every witch and wizard from Dolohov's harm. If he gets the last piece of Rowena's mirror... we we all pass into the world of chaos." The portrait of Dumbledore stopped and he seemed to be thinking. "Willow, how did you feel when Dolohov used the Imperious Curse on you?"

"Is that what that was?" Willow stared at Dumbledore. His blue eyes weren't twinkling as they had before. Instead they were deep in thought and seemed very concerned. "Well, it felt awful."

"Just think if Dolohov pushed this world into chaos and every wizard, witch, and muggle would be under the same curse." Dumbledore paused again, but not for long. "What happened to you that day, is only a mere blip compared to what could happen should he get his hands on the last mirror piece. Willow, you are the Order's only hope of keeping us in tune with Dolohov's plans."

McGonagall looked at Willow and gave her a nod as if to say that what Dumbledore said was true.

"No one ever said that doing the right thing was easy, Miss Rosenburg." Dumbledore nodded and his flowing, white beard seemed to wave. Then a twinkle came back into his eyes. "Now, would you please use some of your marvelous magic skills and bring back Mr. Potter?"

x x x x x

Buffy seemed to float back to her room. As soon as she was inside her room, she ran quickly to the chest beside her bed and pulled out a quill. It was enchanted to never run out of ink, since she had no idea how to blot or anything else...

Buffy hurried to her flip calendar (it had pictures of famous witches and wizards on the pictures for each day of the year) and hurriedly flipped to Christmas Eve. She put a large heart on Christmas Eve and then flipped over to Christmas Day.

Buffy gasped. The tiny letters spelled out.

x x x x x

Willow stared at Victoria as the both grabbed onto the piece of the mirror. Willow hoped that the Whomping Willow didn't decide to whomp as she whispered the few words she had been told would bring her back.

The trip back was a lot less dramatic and Willow found herself on a stone, marble floor.

"Thank you Willow." Dolohov held out his hand to help Willow up. "I take it you had no trouble."

"Only a little," Willow was happy that she wasn't lying.

"Oh, Master!" Victoria squealed as she threw herself down in front of Dolohov. "Master! I knew you would save me. I tried to get the werewolf to join with you, hoping that he would release me. But, I should have known that you were going to rescue me!"

"Do you have the mirror?"

"Yes..." Victoria's smile seemed to twist into a cruel shape. "They thought that they got the mirror that I used... but they don't know of your powers, Master!"

"Good girl," Dolohov rolled his eyes. "Give it to me."

Victoria held out her hand and Dolohov held out his. A large shard of glass appeared out of thin air and flew into Dolohov's hands. He tossed it to Draco, who wasn't exactly ready to catch a piece of glass. Willow saw a drop of blood spill on the floor.

"The minions are doing well if these are the only visions she has recieved," Draco inhaled sharply when the glass cut him again, as he tried to look deeper into the glass.

"See, Master!" Victoria pointed at Draco and the mirror piece. "Are you pleased?"

"Hardly," Dolohov's voice seemed more of a growl. Willow didn't realize it, but she took a step away from Victoria. "You went and had yourself caught! A failure in my eyes!"

"B-but... I-I..."

Dolohov turned to Draco. Dolohov took the mirror piece from him and then motioned towards Victoria. "You know what to do."

"Avada Kedavra!"

Willow watched as Victoria's eyes opened wide. The green light hit her before she had even known what was happening. The lifeless body flopped quickly to the ground; a small thud echoed around the room.

"Willow, dear," Dolohov turned around to look at her. He motioned towards the dead girl on the floor. "If you don't mind?"

Willow nodded and hurriedly asked her question, before Dolohov could leave the room. "Lord Dolohov?"

"Yes?"

"How did she get to the Seer?"

x chapter's end x

After Thoughts: Meh. I'm going to hold off on TLG for a little while. Only if I have more time than needed will I update here. I've got some other priorities that need my attention.

HOWEVER - I will come back to finish this story - because it's probably one of the most complex and intricate plots I've ever had the pleasure of calling my own. I just need a break from it, because I don't love writing it as much as I used to. As I'm sure some of you can tell ... what with the lack of reviews and such.

Thank you to:

SpikesDreamer - Thanks for your review. No, I'm not acting like Dawn never existed... I just didn't need her for this story. :) And, I haven't been asked that yet, so go you! She still exists and she might get mentioned in passing (like when Buffy and Remus get to talking more) later on.

William Fakespeare - You've got the best name. Ever. Nah, I'm not that evil to give such subtle wordplay about how Dawn is the key to everything. In fact, the riddle is very hard to guess at... it took me at least a day to make sure all the math was right. Might just be because I'm bad at math. Hmm...

Zantac the Barbarian - Your STILL the coolest reviewer - EVER! (Because you know that I always like reading your reviews.) Thanks for all those wonderful reviews, yo. Yo! Just had to say it twice, y'know?

Superfan - Dude, Lost is so much cooler. Heh. Hey, that Tom Welling guy (isn't he from Smallville?) and Lost's own Maggie Grace are going to be in a movie together. It's like... weird isn't it? Thanks for reading and reviewing.

Mama T - I think you've been with me from the beginning. Oh, parting is such sweet sorrow. Well, I do promise I'll update this again! I always do. Thanks for all those lovely reviews.

Anna, Brutal2003, Slinky-and-the-BloodyWands, Hoosier Daddy, IsiwaruofCkaloatia, and everyone else who has read and reviewed.