Epilogue

"You think that'll really work?"

Joyce Summers looked at the sheets of paper arranged in front of her on the dining room table. Outside, someone was mowing their lawn in the sun. "I don't see why not," she said. "After all, if a wizard can't forge medical documentation, who can?"

"How about someone who knows that transistor isn't part of a human body?" Buffy said, pointing to one of the sheets with a laugh. "Wizards don't see things like us, especially for medicine thing. They use chocolate as a cure!"

Joyce considered that. "I think that's a very practical thing to do," she decided.

"You just like that it means chocolate's good for you," Dawn said with a snicker.

She was kneeling on a chair at the other end of the table, writing a letter to Duncan. They had tried e-mailing for a few weeks, but it hadn't worked out in his magic-filled house, so they were back to using owls.

Or in Dawn's case, a grumpy-looking eagle that had been sent on from Salem for her.

Joyce gave her younger daughter a pointed look and Dawn immediately ducked back down over her letter. "I don't want to have to see her held back a grade," she said, "but she was away for so much of the term."

"I did my homework!" Dawn exclaimed, lifting her head. "All I missed were some stupid papers!"

"I don't know if that argument'll work, sweetie," Joyce said apologetically. "If we don't have the proof about why you were away."

"Say that I got struck down with that crazy-person disease that made everyone crazy!" Dawn exclaimed quickly. "Tell them I got better and now, I'm back to normal and don't have to skip anything."

Buffy was reading one of the sheets of paper. "I don't think they'd believe it," she said.

"The crazy disease?"

"The getting better," Buffy replied, grinning.

"Hey!" Dawn hurled a screwed up ball of paper at her sister's head.

Both the Slayer and her mother laughed, then turned in surprise when there was a brief knock at the door.

"Are we expecting anyone?" Joyce asked.

"No one who bothers to knock," Buffy replied, pushing her chair back and getting to her feet to answer it. She peered through the window beside the door, then a smile lit up her face and she pulled the door open. "Hey! I thought you'd forgotten about us!"

Severus Snape offered her a hesitant smile. He was dressed like a Muggle and he looked uncomfortable in the clothing, but she knew he'd made the effort so he could come. "I hope the invitation still stands," he said carefully.

Buffy smiled and rose on her toes to kiss him. "It does," she said, and pulled him into the house.

Yes, it's finally finished.