Title: In the Shadow of the Willows
Prologue: A walk with the rain
By: Cheddar
A/n: Just know that this fic will be Slash. Don't bitch if you have a problem with it because I don't care. Thanks to my beta: Danish Pastry
The room was dark as Albus listened to the pen scratch its way across the page. He was writing names for that year's new students. By the light of his candle he glanced up to read the newest name. There it was. Just under the bright green inked name of 'Weasley, Harlen' was a new name written in a green ink so dark it was black. Seth Wiles. There was nothing extraordinary about the name its self but it was the color that struck Albus' notice.
The pen wrote down the name of every magical child born in England and its surrounding areas. The colour or shade of the ink determined how much power each child held in his or her potential. The average witch or wizard was written in bright green, with near squibs in a pale green, and the most powerful written in black. Only two people had ever had their names written in black so far as the old wizard could remember. Tom Riddle and Harry Potter. He would have to keep and eye in this Seth Wiles... and make sure he came to Hogwarts.
***
New Orleans was a party city. One he'd always hoped to some day visit but never had. Always with one thing or another he'd never had the chance. As a human he'd never given the place a second thought but as a vampire, the city was very well known for how friendly it was to such creatures. It was the one place a vampire could truly disappear in. So when that whole gang back in Sunnyhell had broken up like a clump of mud in water, Spike set out. It was the first time he could ever remember being completely free.
So then why was he so lonely? Here he was in a city he'd always wanted to see with more money than an average man could hope for and yet he hated it. There was no one to share it with. But even that didn't really bother him. There were people here like no place else on earth. He could find a person to share it with but...
The city poured around him in warm spring rain, with people dancing and partying around him, Spike was completely alone. Sure, he might find some girl that looked like her... He could talk to her... But she'd be gone in the morning and the pain wouldn't be. And there was little he could do now. None of that old gang was left any more. They'd blown away like leaves in autumn. So why did he want to go back so badly?
No, going back was the coward's way out. Or the brave man's. Neither of which Spike was. He was a loyal man... Loyal to himself... Loyal to those he loved... But he always ended up failing the ones he was loyal to.
So he stayed in New Orleans letting himself get attached to no one. He would show no loyalty or weakness. He would live a no man's life for a while. Let the city swallow him whole. See if it took to him. See if it took him any place better than that heart-screwing, soul-baring thing called love had.
***
Ron Weasley knew that his son wasn't the first child ever born to a man and a woman but the sight of his son, pink and wrinkled though he was, felt like it might be. Harlen Weasley was his first son and young though the child was, Ron had his whole future planned out.
He'd go to Hogwarts. Become friends with wonderful people. Break every rule he could without getting expelled and just live life much the way his very happy father had. It went without saying that the boy would be in Gryffindor like Ron and Lavender had.
But Little Harlen knew nothing of these great plans. For while Ron watch his child take in the world, he couldn't help but wonder what his own best friend was doing just then. He hadn't seen Harry Potter in two months now. After they'd graduated, Harry had gone off to play Qudditch for England but after five years, he'd disappeared. The search for their great hero had united the wizarding world but not a trace of him could be found. But Ron knew he wasn't dead.
Could a hero ever really die?
*** No one called him Oz anymore. Now he was known as the Wolf. Daniel to those in the village. But here in the mountains with his mentor and the others, he was Wolf. Oz seemed a distant memory or dream now instead of what once was. Here, high in the Tibetan Mountains, Wolf worked with these men he had come to call his brothers.
They showed him the ways of the wizarding world with its curses and charms while he told them of life with slayers and demons. After that long ago night when he'd though he had the control to return to Sunnydale, he'd come back here and completely disappeared into the Wolf. He'd lost himself completely in his work to find the final cure.
Now, taking a deep breath, Wolf inhaled the deeply unnerving scent of the brew before him. A potion he knew little of but he cared little about that. Would this one work where so many others had failed? Praying, he drank the foul stuff down and before it had the chance to burn his throat, his mind was off. Meditating. Praying. Concentrating. Hoping... Hope that it would work. Because werewolves mate for life... humans don't.
***
Two months and already it seemed like a lifetime ago that he'd been a carefree young man playing Quidditch with friends and watching as Ron and Lavender got ready for the birth of their child. But then it had changed.
He remembered it all so well. The rain fell that night much as it did this night. The man cloaked in shadows had approached him. "Do you know, Mr. Potter that since you have chosen to step down from your place as champion of evil one hundred and twenty six people have lost their lives to the remaining Dark Forces?" The man had known just what would catch his attention. Damn his noble Gryffindor heart. It had only been a matter of days before he was dropping off the face of the earth to once more fight the good fight.
And why? He still didn't know. But it was his new life. No way out. As the rain fell heavy on his head, he tracked his prey through the wet streets of hell.
***
He should have been happy. And Xander knew it. His new company in Austin, Texas had just struck oil a few miles south of the City. He was rich in the space of only a few hours but after the first wave of drunken shock had rolled off him, he reverted back to the man he'd been living these past few months since he'd left Sunnydale. The man who had lost his friends and family all within the space of a year. They'd been flung about the earth. And he didn't know the wheres or whys of it.
So here he sat at his big empty desk in his big empty office of his dark building while the rain threatened to pound the glass from the window... wanting nothing more than to be the child he'd been just months before.
***
They'd kissed. And it wasn't that Buffy was against kissing, she wasn't, but she was against watching this. Angel slid his hands around Cordeilia's back and up her back as he drew her towards him. Neither knew of Buffy watching from the shadows. She didn't want them to. Without a word she turned around and walked back out into the pouring rain going back to where she had come from. Once more alone
TBC...............? Tell me! v v v V
Prologue: A walk with the rain
By: Cheddar
A/n: Just know that this fic will be Slash. Don't bitch if you have a problem with it because I don't care. Thanks to my beta: Danish Pastry
The room was dark as Albus listened to the pen scratch its way across the page. He was writing names for that year's new students. By the light of his candle he glanced up to read the newest name. There it was. Just under the bright green inked name of 'Weasley, Harlen' was a new name written in a green ink so dark it was black. Seth Wiles. There was nothing extraordinary about the name its self but it was the color that struck Albus' notice.
The pen wrote down the name of every magical child born in England and its surrounding areas. The colour or shade of the ink determined how much power each child held in his or her potential. The average witch or wizard was written in bright green, with near squibs in a pale green, and the most powerful written in black. Only two people had ever had their names written in black so far as the old wizard could remember. Tom Riddle and Harry Potter. He would have to keep and eye in this Seth Wiles... and make sure he came to Hogwarts.
***
New Orleans was a party city. One he'd always hoped to some day visit but never had. Always with one thing or another he'd never had the chance. As a human he'd never given the place a second thought but as a vampire, the city was very well known for how friendly it was to such creatures. It was the one place a vampire could truly disappear in. So when that whole gang back in Sunnyhell had broken up like a clump of mud in water, Spike set out. It was the first time he could ever remember being completely free.
So then why was he so lonely? Here he was in a city he'd always wanted to see with more money than an average man could hope for and yet he hated it. There was no one to share it with. But even that didn't really bother him. There were people here like no place else on earth. He could find a person to share it with but...
The city poured around him in warm spring rain, with people dancing and partying around him, Spike was completely alone. Sure, he might find some girl that looked like her... He could talk to her... But she'd be gone in the morning and the pain wouldn't be. And there was little he could do now. None of that old gang was left any more. They'd blown away like leaves in autumn. So why did he want to go back so badly?
No, going back was the coward's way out. Or the brave man's. Neither of which Spike was. He was a loyal man... Loyal to himself... Loyal to those he loved... But he always ended up failing the ones he was loyal to.
So he stayed in New Orleans letting himself get attached to no one. He would show no loyalty or weakness. He would live a no man's life for a while. Let the city swallow him whole. See if it took to him. See if it took him any place better than that heart-screwing, soul-baring thing called love had.
***
Ron Weasley knew that his son wasn't the first child ever born to a man and a woman but the sight of his son, pink and wrinkled though he was, felt like it might be. Harlen Weasley was his first son and young though the child was, Ron had his whole future planned out.
He'd go to Hogwarts. Become friends with wonderful people. Break every rule he could without getting expelled and just live life much the way his very happy father had. It went without saying that the boy would be in Gryffindor like Ron and Lavender had.
But Little Harlen knew nothing of these great plans. For while Ron watch his child take in the world, he couldn't help but wonder what his own best friend was doing just then. He hadn't seen Harry Potter in two months now. After they'd graduated, Harry had gone off to play Qudditch for England but after five years, he'd disappeared. The search for their great hero had united the wizarding world but not a trace of him could be found. But Ron knew he wasn't dead.
Could a hero ever really die?
*** No one called him Oz anymore. Now he was known as the Wolf. Daniel to those in the village. But here in the mountains with his mentor and the others, he was Wolf. Oz seemed a distant memory or dream now instead of what once was. Here, high in the Tibetan Mountains, Wolf worked with these men he had come to call his brothers.
They showed him the ways of the wizarding world with its curses and charms while he told them of life with slayers and demons. After that long ago night when he'd though he had the control to return to Sunnydale, he'd come back here and completely disappeared into the Wolf. He'd lost himself completely in his work to find the final cure.
Now, taking a deep breath, Wolf inhaled the deeply unnerving scent of the brew before him. A potion he knew little of but he cared little about that. Would this one work where so many others had failed? Praying, he drank the foul stuff down and before it had the chance to burn his throat, his mind was off. Meditating. Praying. Concentrating. Hoping... Hope that it would work. Because werewolves mate for life... humans don't.
***
Two months and already it seemed like a lifetime ago that he'd been a carefree young man playing Quidditch with friends and watching as Ron and Lavender got ready for the birth of their child. But then it had changed.
He remembered it all so well. The rain fell that night much as it did this night. The man cloaked in shadows had approached him. "Do you know, Mr. Potter that since you have chosen to step down from your place as champion of evil one hundred and twenty six people have lost their lives to the remaining Dark Forces?" The man had known just what would catch his attention. Damn his noble Gryffindor heart. It had only been a matter of days before he was dropping off the face of the earth to once more fight the good fight.
And why? He still didn't know. But it was his new life. No way out. As the rain fell heavy on his head, he tracked his prey through the wet streets of hell.
***
He should have been happy. And Xander knew it. His new company in Austin, Texas had just struck oil a few miles south of the City. He was rich in the space of only a few hours but after the first wave of drunken shock had rolled off him, he reverted back to the man he'd been living these past few months since he'd left Sunnydale. The man who had lost his friends and family all within the space of a year. They'd been flung about the earth. And he didn't know the wheres or whys of it.
So here he sat at his big empty desk in his big empty office of his dark building while the rain threatened to pound the glass from the window... wanting nothing more than to be the child he'd been just months before.
***
They'd kissed. And it wasn't that Buffy was against kissing, she wasn't, but she was against watching this. Angel slid his hands around Cordeilia's back and up her back as he drew her towards him. Neither knew of Buffy watching from the shadows. She didn't want them to. Without a word she turned around and walked back out into the pouring rain going back to where she had come from. Once more alone
TBC...............? Tell me! v v v V