Categories > Books > Harry Potter > The Slayer, The Avatar And The Guardian Of Light
CH34 - Plotting And Praying
3 reviewsHermione gets into an awkward situation with one of the new professors and Dumbledore starts plotting.
5Exciting
Chapter 34 - Plotting And Praying
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 10th August 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Hogwarts Grounds
Time: Afternoon
Harry was skimming across the grounds on his broom on the way back from the Quidditch pitch.
After his rapid exit from Dumbledore's Office he had decided to take a flying tour of the grounds before attempting to rejoin the group.
He had decided to take a detour to the lake to see the Squid. After the battle, he had not had the chance to thank it for helping, he mentally noted to bring some food with him next time.
He reached the lake and flew over the ring of larger rocks surrounding the shore and skimmed a little way over the water.
As he passed over the boulders he could have sworn he had heard a yelp, doubling back he saw to his surprise a very startled Buffy lying in a heap on the shore; he approached and jumped off the broom.
"Are you alright?"
"What do you think? I was lying here relaxing, minding my own business when a broom passed less than a meter above my head." She looked just as intrigued as annoyed.
"Sorry," he replied, plucking his broom out of the air and walking towards Buffy. "I expected everyone to be at lunch."
"We finished early, Adam went of to the library or something so I thought I would come and see Squidward."
He raised an eye brow at her.
"Squidward?"
"Well what would you call him them?"
"Is he even a he?" asked Harry.
She shrugged and settled back into her makeshift rock seat. "So how come you fly off every time someone asks about where you have been?"
"Like I said earlier I have been living with my aunt and uncle since I was one and this summer they decided that they had had enough, some of my friends who work with Dumbledore, thought it might be a good idea to scare 'my family', and I use the term extremely loosely, into treating me better. So as soon as I got back home I was thrown into the room I used to live in, not that you could call it a room, and I was beaten, punched, kicked and burned until I could not even move," he said, sitting down beside her.
"They what! Why?"
"Because they don't like me or anything to do with magic, even mentioning magic is blasphemy. What made it worse was the fact that I came down with Wizard Flu which is much more dangerous than normal flu, I was locked in my room for five days with no food or water, sick with the flu and black and blue from the beating, I was actually at the point of begging for death."
Buffy was seeing red; she was really wanted to hurt something now, preferably Harry's relatives.
"But just in time my current hosts rescued me, they treated me, cared for me and ensured that I was safe, I won't tell you about the rest of my summer but that is the main reason why I am here."
Buffy was beginning to grind her teeth. If she ever met Harry's 'family', she would make them pay for what they had put him through. She now knew what he'd been through in his short life. He reminded her of herself, how could someone who'd been through so much grow up to be so nice?
"Buffy, BUFFY," Harry called, waving his hand in front of her face.
"Hey, what?" she said shaking her head. "Oh sorry, zoned out for a minute there. What were you saying?"
"I said I want you to promise that you will tell only Adam about this, even my friends don't know yet, I would make you promise not to tell him but if he is as powerful as he says he is I probably wouldn't be able to keep the information from him if he wanted it."
"I promise." said Buffy trying to calm herself down.
"So what's it like being a Slayer?" asked Harry lying back against a rock.
"Oh, well you know, usual stuff...patrol at night, slay the odd vampire, kill the odd demon, avert the apocalypse."
Harry stared at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" Buffy asked.
"You call that the usual stuff?" he said, amused.
"Oh and I assume you think flying and making objects float is totally ordinary."
________________________________________________________________________
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 10th August 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - The library
Time: Afternoon
Hermione was searching the shelves for books on The Guardian. Even though he had told them all that they wouldn't find any, but never one to pass up a challenge she thought it was worth a try.
She was walking down an aisle reading from an old tome that lay open in her arms, it described a powerful being who helped save a small colony of Chinese wizards from a dragon attack, it spoke of how an oddly dressed Caucasian man with dark hair appeared seemingly out of nowhere, tamed the beast and disappeared just as quickly, unfortunately as with most old texts (and much to Hermione's annoyance) the tomb failed to say how he 'tamed the beast', she couldn't even tell whether he engaged it in unarmed combat and barely escaped with his life, or if he simply brought out a pipe and sang it to sleep, which of course she now knew actually works.
She turned the corner that led her out of the shelves and turned back in the direction of the table she had been sitting at, she had barely taken a step when her foot caught on something causing her to trip.
With a squeak she closed her eyes and fell forward, but instead of encountering the carpeted library floor she landed on something soft as she heard her tome fall hard to the floor.
Opening her eyes she looked up only to find that she was lying on top of the Guardian while he sat against a bookshelf with his legs outstretched and an amused smile on his face.
Looking around, she realised that she had miscalculated and had in fact wandered straight out of the shelves and walked into the corner where he had been lying.
"Good afternoon Hermione." he said.
In a panic she attempted to get up very rapidly and proceeded to trip over her own robes (Why had she bothered to wear them anyway). This time she ended up falling straight at him. She closed her eyes as she fell, not wanting to see where she landed.
After she landed, she could feel a slight pressure on her lips; she opened her eyes and realised that she was looking straight into Adam's own. The pressure on her lips were his. She had somehow managed to land on his lips.
The kiss was very chaste, nothing serious and could easily be called an accident.
She leaned back, her arms stabilising her on the shelf he was leaning on as she blurted out, "Oh God, I'm SO sorry. I didn't mean to, I...."
She suddenly stopped talking; the reason for her silence being that she had made the mistake of looking into his eyes. They were the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.
Hazel, not that you would have been able to see that from a reasonable distance and she was most definitely not at a reasonable distance.
"It's quite alright...." he began, only to be cut of by Hermione's next action.
She would later come to regret what happened next, but also she wished that it would happen again. She suddenly felt the urge to lean forward and kiss him full on the lips, cutting him of mid-sentence. Her arms went around behind him, pulling herself closer as he moved his hands to hold her shoulders.
The kiss wasn't chaste; it had passion. It was most definitely what you would call a lovers kiss, the type where you cling to each other for dear life, which is exactly what Hermione was doing right now, but what shocked her even more when she looked back on the events of that day was the fact that not only had her first kiss been with a Professor, but her first full snog was also with a Professor.
After about ten seconds, she realised what she was doing and froze. She pulled back so their faces were about five inches apart.
His face was unreadable, Hermione's expression on the other hand was rapidly changing; horror because she had kissed a Professor and the fact that she had only known him for a day, shame that she had allowed herself to lose control, anxiousness that he didn't seem to react suggesting that she was a bad kisser, embarrassment that she had tripped over in the first place and desire to try again.
She threw herself backwards off him so she was sitting awkwardly on the floor. She crawled backwards. "I....I'm....I was.... There....I.... You see....I....oh God," she blurted out.
Adam got onto his knees and caught her hand before she had got any further. "Hermione, it's ok really. I don't mind," he said, attempting to calm her.
"It's just....and I....and then we," she continued.
"Hermione!" he said loudly, attempting to take control of the situation. (Thank God Madam Pince was on holiday at the moment, she would have thrown them out.)
She stopped and stared.
"Look into my eyes," he said.
'NO! I....mean.... I shouldn't.... That's how it started." Oh God, now she was shouting at a Professor.
"Look." he said firmly, taking her head in his hands.
She looked into his eyes.
"It....is....alright," he said slowly. "I do not mind. You are a young developing woman, your body is full of hormones, you reacted to being in close contact with a man, I understand that you do not have feelings for me and that it was spur of the moment....You do not need to worry....ok?"
His voice was so soothing. Oh God, she wanted to kiss him again. NO....no....she liked Ron....She liked Ron. If only she could tell him that....oh God.
"Ok?" he said again, despite his words of reassurance, Hermione was not sure his explanation for the encounter was correct, though she prayed it was.
"Ok." she answered. He stood and held out his hand for her. She cautiously took it and stood as well.
He bent down and retrieved his and her books and handed her open tomb back to her.
"Come sit with me," he said, walking towards a nearby table still carrying the rest of her books.
Hermione froze. She was terrified she would try to kiss him again.
Stay focused Hermione, focus....focus.... Think of Ron's red hair, his eyes....eyes.
She didn't even know the colour of Ron's eyes.
"Hermione?" Adam asked. She realised she hadn't moved she was standing exactly where she had tripped.
"S....sorry," she replied, moving to the table a little too quickly, and almost tripped again.
"Honestly Hermione, it is all right. Don't worry about it," he said leaning over and taking her hand in comfort. Oh God, he had nice hands, such a gentle touch.
"Ok," she managed, turning her attention to her book as he withdrew his hand. He picked a book up off the table and then began writing in it.
"What are you researching?" he inquired, not looking up.
Oh dear. Why did he have to ask that?
"I was....well I....I," she stuttered.
"I should have guessed," he said, looking up and smiling. "I can't blame you for trying. It's not that I don't want you to find anything, but I honestly don't think you're going to."
"I....I did actually." She answered nervously.
"Really," he smiled looking up in interest "Anything conclusive or just someone appeared and then disappeared?"
She turned the tomb around so he could read the page.
"Oh, the Chinese Fireball in 1589, I haven't thought about that for millennia." He smiled before turning the book back to her before returning his attention to the book in his hand.
Trying to distract herself from what had just happened Hermione noticed again that he was twirling the silver disk between the fingers of his spare right hand.
She was trying desperately to think of anything but Adam, but there was something that was nagging at her. When she had kissed Adam, he hadn't pulled her closer, but he also hadn't pushed her away.
She just had to ask, "Professor....am I...."
"You're not a bad kisser," he answered before she even finished asking, not looking up from his book as he did so.
"Are you....?"
"Yes, I am sure."
"But when I kissed you, you didn't respond."
He placed his book on the table and turned to her. "I do recall kissing you back, but if you mean why I didn't pull you in closer."
She nodded.
"You will also recall I did not push you away either."
It was true, he had not.
"I was simply letting you kiss me. I wasn't encouraging you and I wasn't pushing you away. That way you would realise on your own what you were doing and you would stop yourself. You would also know you could stop yourself if a similar occasion occurred in the future, in addition to the fact that I am now your Professor, or at least I will be on September first and it would have been inappropriate....You are not a bad kisser. That was a very good kiss for a first attempt and Ron would be a fool to turn down anyone who could kiss like that."
Hermione blushed.
How did he know I liked Ron? I didn't tell him.
"And so you know, Ron has blue eyes."
Oh God, she hadn't verbalised that had she.
They sat in silence for a minute before Hermione started studying the table they were sitting at.
On one side of the table was a stack of pagers, which were slanted allowing Hermione to see what was on the below sheets, every spare inch was covered with complex mathematical equations, mostly crossed out, written through or covered in organised notes in several different languages.
"What are you researching" she asked.
He looked up and saw her looking at the equations. "That was my attempt to create a more affective method of dimensional travel."
"You mean a portal or wormhole?" she asked, leaning forward, interested in the idea. She found it fascinating that while he spoke, the hand holding the disk alternated between twirling said object and sketching on a piece of parchment at phenomenal speed, despite the fact that he hadn't looked at the parchment once.
"Almost yes, you see creating a portal is relatively easy providing you have enough energy, even time and dimensional ones, but wormholes which are one of the only few stable ways to travel between dimensions that allow you to actually plan where you are going, well....they require precise mathematics to work. You have to firstly fix the entry and exit coordinates, then determine whether it is temporary or permanent. Added to that, you need to plan whether there will be a time differential between the two ends, the radius of the openings, the positioning of the connection, whether it will be on the same plane or otherwise, what the power source for the wormhole will be and finally how the wormhole will be activated."
"Why not simply use portals?" she asked.
"Portals are instant transportation and that is something that my magic does not work well with."
"I don't understand?" she said confused.
"You know your magic resides in your blood yes." She nodded "Well mine does not work like that; mine is tied to my spatial coordinates as my magical core does not reside within me. Imagine....imagine that you are holding a piece of string vertically and you are looking down from above it."
"Ok." She nodded, not quite understanding where this was going.
"When you can not see the length of string, only the end because the rest is hanging vertically below it, that is when my magic is gathered in the same space as me, but if you move the top of the string that you are holding, the tail will wave around until gravity pulls it straight again. That is how my magic works, its sort of like a time delay, if I move on a train or plane or some other form of Muggle transport my magic will be almost on top of me because in the grand scheme of things I am not moving that fast, but if I use a portkey, I Apparate or if I use Floo Travel then that is close to instant travel so my magic will still be where I was moments before, which is why I am currently a lot weaker than I am normally as I did some very rapid flying just before I came here including one time and one dimension jump so my magic is currently scattered widely over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans not to mention Africa and America, it should take a couple of days for it to fall back into place."
He sighed, waving his hand carelessly at the stack of paper. "Portals are very bad for me magically, a wormhole or a similar method of transport is like travelling down a tunnel as a shortcut, meaning that although it is very fast its not instant and is therefore better for me, but as you can see, it is not easy."
He then laid the book he had been writing in on the desk. "I'm now just writing in my journal, as I no longer have my old one."
"What happened to it?" she asked, now over her earlier embarrassment.
"I left it in Sunnydale with Buffy's friends. It has a complete record of all my activities in the last fifteen billion years, and yes before you ask it is magic. Otherwise it would be the size of an office block."
She laughed slightly, it pleased him that she had recovered from her stuttering. She had begun to sound like Tara....before he met her of course. Tara was now getting fairly confident. She would soon be a real asset to the Forces of Light.
He closed the book. On the front Hermione saw the image of a stag's head.
"You like deer?"
"Indeed, it is the symbol of The Guardian....my sign....I choose it just after I ascended."
"Ascended to becoming The Guardian?" she guessed.
He nodded.
"Harry likes stags." she commented.
"Because of his father."
She looked up surprised.
"You knew his father?"
"Yes, you were not there when we first regained consciousness, so you missed the conversation."
"Does Harry know?"
"I told him as soon as I found out who he was."
They returned to their reading for a couple more minutes before Hermione raised her head again, after he had explained to her about the kiss she had begun to feel guilty about putting him as a Professor in that sort of situation.
"Professor, I...." she began.
"School hasn't started yet Hermione," he reminded her "You can still call me Adam."
"Sorry....Adam, I just wanted to apologise if I put you in an awkward situation after we....after I kissed you....being a Professor I mean."
"It's ok Hermione." he said not looking up.
"I mean it," she said putting a hand over his "I really am sorry."
Adam had tensed the second her hand touched his, seeing his discomfort she quickly withdrew her hand.
"Sorry."
There was a moment's silence before Adam pulled a gold watch out of his pocket, checked the time, collected his papers rather quickly and stood.
"I am afraid I....I must be going. I will see you later." he bowed slightly before walking out of the room.
Hermione turned and watched him leave slightly confused. When she turned back, she saw a piece of paper that had dropped off the table onto the floor. She picked it up and saw that it was different from the rest. It was the picture he had been drawing.
It was a pencil drawing of a woman with long flowing straight hair, she was beautiful. It was wonderfully drawn; it almost looked as though it was a photograph, it was so life like.
She quickly ran to the door and looked each way down the corridor; he was no where in site.
________________________________________________________________________
"I don't like it Severus." said the Headmaster looking at the man on the other side of his desk. "I agree that we need to find out where he has been, but I do not like this course of action."
"What would you recommend then Headmaster?" asked Snape "He seems determined to be even more spoiled and more disrespecting than ever, he did not even acknowledge your presence in the Hospital Wing and every time one of us has asked he just flies of like the cowered that he is."
"I would hardly call Mr Potter a cowered Severus." said Professor McGonagall disapprovingly "I would hardly call facing of against 'You-Know-Who' on several occasions and leading a rescue mission into the Ministries most dangerous department cowardice."
"No, that is just stupidity and attention seeking to suit the pampered upbringing he has had."
"Severus." chastised Dumbledore "Harry does not seek attention and his upbringing was no different to anyone else's other than the fact that like most Muggle-Born students he did not know of his magical heritage."
"Maybe it would make more sense if I asked him in private Albus," suggested Professor McGonagall "As I was the only one he acknowledged in the Hospital Wing it shows that whatever he currently has against you does not extend to me, and I am his Head of House, maybe he will open up to me without others around." She suggested, sending a sideways glance at Severus.
"It is a good idea Minerva but I believe that it would be better if I were present and therefore I must agree with Severus's plan."
"Albus!"
"No Minerva, we have to at least try." sighed Albus.
"Very well Headmaster," said McGonagall stiffly, standing up "But I want no part of it; I can not condone this course of action."
With that she turned and walked out.
________________________________________________________________________
On the other side of the castle, Adam almost ran into the room that Dumbledore had given him.
Dropping the books and parchment on the desk he ran into the replica of the meditation chamber he had made from back at his mansion.
He ran to the alter and dropped to his knees, his expression frantic.
"Please forgive me, I didn't know what I was doing, I was only trying to comfort her....Please forgive me....Please."
AUTHOR NOTES: REVIEW RESPONSES
Just so you all know as I have talked to a reviewer about this, this story is not a three way crossover, it is only HP/Buffy, the Avatar is a character I am creating, based on but NOT related to the TV series.
Happy New Year Everyone
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 10th August 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - Hogwarts Grounds
Time: Afternoon
Harry was skimming across the grounds on his broom on the way back from the Quidditch pitch.
After his rapid exit from Dumbledore's Office he had decided to take a flying tour of the grounds before attempting to rejoin the group.
He had decided to take a detour to the lake to see the Squid. After the battle, he had not had the chance to thank it for helping, he mentally noted to bring some food with him next time.
He reached the lake and flew over the ring of larger rocks surrounding the shore and skimmed a little way over the water.
As he passed over the boulders he could have sworn he had heard a yelp, doubling back he saw to his surprise a very startled Buffy lying in a heap on the shore; he approached and jumped off the broom.
"Are you alright?"
"What do you think? I was lying here relaxing, minding my own business when a broom passed less than a meter above my head." She looked just as intrigued as annoyed.
"Sorry," he replied, plucking his broom out of the air and walking towards Buffy. "I expected everyone to be at lunch."
"We finished early, Adam went of to the library or something so I thought I would come and see Squidward."
He raised an eye brow at her.
"Squidward?"
"Well what would you call him them?"
"Is he even a he?" asked Harry.
She shrugged and settled back into her makeshift rock seat. "So how come you fly off every time someone asks about where you have been?"
"Like I said earlier I have been living with my aunt and uncle since I was one and this summer they decided that they had had enough, some of my friends who work with Dumbledore, thought it might be a good idea to scare 'my family', and I use the term extremely loosely, into treating me better. So as soon as I got back home I was thrown into the room I used to live in, not that you could call it a room, and I was beaten, punched, kicked and burned until I could not even move," he said, sitting down beside her.
"They what! Why?"
"Because they don't like me or anything to do with magic, even mentioning magic is blasphemy. What made it worse was the fact that I came down with Wizard Flu which is much more dangerous than normal flu, I was locked in my room for five days with no food or water, sick with the flu and black and blue from the beating, I was actually at the point of begging for death."
Buffy was seeing red; she was really wanted to hurt something now, preferably Harry's relatives.
"But just in time my current hosts rescued me, they treated me, cared for me and ensured that I was safe, I won't tell you about the rest of my summer but that is the main reason why I am here."
Buffy was beginning to grind her teeth. If she ever met Harry's 'family', she would make them pay for what they had put him through. She now knew what he'd been through in his short life. He reminded her of herself, how could someone who'd been through so much grow up to be so nice?
"Buffy, BUFFY," Harry called, waving his hand in front of her face.
"Hey, what?" she said shaking her head. "Oh sorry, zoned out for a minute there. What were you saying?"
"I said I want you to promise that you will tell only Adam about this, even my friends don't know yet, I would make you promise not to tell him but if he is as powerful as he says he is I probably wouldn't be able to keep the information from him if he wanted it."
"I promise." said Buffy trying to calm herself down.
"So what's it like being a Slayer?" asked Harry lying back against a rock.
"Oh, well you know, usual stuff...patrol at night, slay the odd vampire, kill the odd demon, avert the apocalypse."
Harry stared at her with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" Buffy asked.
"You call that the usual stuff?" he said, amused.
"Oh and I assume you think flying and making objects float is totally ordinary."
________________________________________________________________________
Dimension: 563 - Earth
Date: 10th August 2001 AD
Country: Britain - Scotland
Location: Hogwarts - The library
Time: Afternoon
Hermione was searching the shelves for books on The Guardian. Even though he had told them all that they wouldn't find any, but never one to pass up a challenge she thought it was worth a try.
She was walking down an aisle reading from an old tome that lay open in her arms, it described a powerful being who helped save a small colony of Chinese wizards from a dragon attack, it spoke of how an oddly dressed Caucasian man with dark hair appeared seemingly out of nowhere, tamed the beast and disappeared just as quickly, unfortunately as with most old texts (and much to Hermione's annoyance) the tomb failed to say how he 'tamed the beast', she couldn't even tell whether he engaged it in unarmed combat and barely escaped with his life, or if he simply brought out a pipe and sang it to sleep, which of course she now knew actually works.
She turned the corner that led her out of the shelves and turned back in the direction of the table she had been sitting at, she had barely taken a step when her foot caught on something causing her to trip.
With a squeak she closed her eyes and fell forward, but instead of encountering the carpeted library floor she landed on something soft as she heard her tome fall hard to the floor.
Opening her eyes she looked up only to find that she was lying on top of the Guardian while he sat against a bookshelf with his legs outstretched and an amused smile on his face.
Looking around, she realised that she had miscalculated and had in fact wandered straight out of the shelves and walked into the corner where he had been lying.
"Good afternoon Hermione." he said.
In a panic she attempted to get up very rapidly and proceeded to trip over her own robes (Why had she bothered to wear them anyway). This time she ended up falling straight at him. She closed her eyes as she fell, not wanting to see where she landed.
After she landed, she could feel a slight pressure on her lips; she opened her eyes and realised that she was looking straight into Adam's own. The pressure on her lips were his. She had somehow managed to land on his lips.
The kiss was very chaste, nothing serious and could easily be called an accident.
She leaned back, her arms stabilising her on the shelf he was leaning on as she blurted out, "Oh God, I'm SO sorry. I didn't mean to, I...."
She suddenly stopped talking; the reason for her silence being that she had made the mistake of looking into his eyes. They were the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.
Hazel, not that you would have been able to see that from a reasonable distance and she was most definitely not at a reasonable distance.
"It's quite alright...." he began, only to be cut of by Hermione's next action.
She would later come to regret what happened next, but also she wished that it would happen again. She suddenly felt the urge to lean forward and kiss him full on the lips, cutting him of mid-sentence. Her arms went around behind him, pulling herself closer as he moved his hands to hold her shoulders.
The kiss wasn't chaste; it had passion. It was most definitely what you would call a lovers kiss, the type where you cling to each other for dear life, which is exactly what Hermione was doing right now, but what shocked her even more when she looked back on the events of that day was the fact that not only had her first kiss been with a Professor, but her first full snog was also with a Professor.
After about ten seconds, she realised what she was doing and froze. She pulled back so their faces were about five inches apart.
His face was unreadable, Hermione's expression on the other hand was rapidly changing; horror because she had kissed a Professor and the fact that she had only known him for a day, shame that she had allowed herself to lose control, anxiousness that he didn't seem to react suggesting that she was a bad kisser, embarrassment that she had tripped over in the first place and desire to try again.
She threw herself backwards off him so she was sitting awkwardly on the floor. She crawled backwards. "I....I'm....I was.... There....I.... You see....I....oh God," she blurted out.
Adam got onto his knees and caught her hand before she had got any further. "Hermione, it's ok really. I don't mind," he said, attempting to calm her.
"It's just....and I....and then we," she continued.
"Hermione!" he said loudly, attempting to take control of the situation. (Thank God Madam Pince was on holiday at the moment, she would have thrown them out.)
She stopped and stared.
"Look into my eyes," he said.
'NO! I....mean.... I shouldn't.... That's how it started." Oh God, now she was shouting at a Professor.
"Look." he said firmly, taking her head in his hands.
She looked into his eyes.
"It....is....alright," he said slowly. "I do not mind. You are a young developing woman, your body is full of hormones, you reacted to being in close contact with a man, I understand that you do not have feelings for me and that it was spur of the moment....You do not need to worry....ok?"
His voice was so soothing. Oh God, she wanted to kiss him again. NO....no....she liked Ron....She liked Ron. If only she could tell him that....oh God.
"Ok?" he said again, despite his words of reassurance, Hermione was not sure his explanation for the encounter was correct, though she prayed it was.
"Ok." she answered. He stood and held out his hand for her. She cautiously took it and stood as well.
He bent down and retrieved his and her books and handed her open tomb back to her.
"Come sit with me," he said, walking towards a nearby table still carrying the rest of her books.
Hermione froze. She was terrified she would try to kiss him again.
Stay focused Hermione, focus....focus.... Think of Ron's red hair, his eyes....eyes.
She didn't even know the colour of Ron's eyes.
"Hermione?" Adam asked. She realised she hadn't moved she was standing exactly where she had tripped.
"S....sorry," she replied, moving to the table a little too quickly, and almost tripped again.
"Honestly Hermione, it is all right. Don't worry about it," he said leaning over and taking her hand in comfort. Oh God, he had nice hands, such a gentle touch.
"Ok," she managed, turning her attention to her book as he withdrew his hand. He picked a book up off the table and then began writing in it.
"What are you researching?" he inquired, not looking up.
Oh dear. Why did he have to ask that?
"I was....well I....I," she stuttered.
"I should have guessed," he said, looking up and smiling. "I can't blame you for trying. It's not that I don't want you to find anything, but I honestly don't think you're going to."
"I....I did actually." She answered nervously.
"Really," he smiled looking up in interest "Anything conclusive or just someone appeared and then disappeared?"
She turned the tomb around so he could read the page.
"Oh, the Chinese Fireball in 1589, I haven't thought about that for millennia." He smiled before turning the book back to her before returning his attention to the book in his hand.
Trying to distract herself from what had just happened Hermione noticed again that he was twirling the silver disk between the fingers of his spare right hand.
She was trying desperately to think of anything but Adam, but there was something that was nagging at her. When she had kissed Adam, he hadn't pulled her closer, but he also hadn't pushed her away.
She just had to ask, "Professor....am I...."
"You're not a bad kisser," he answered before she even finished asking, not looking up from his book as he did so.
"Are you....?"
"Yes, I am sure."
"But when I kissed you, you didn't respond."
He placed his book on the table and turned to her. "I do recall kissing you back, but if you mean why I didn't pull you in closer."
She nodded.
"You will also recall I did not push you away either."
It was true, he had not.
"I was simply letting you kiss me. I wasn't encouraging you and I wasn't pushing you away. That way you would realise on your own what you were doing and you would stop yourself. You would also know you could stop yourself if a similar occasion occurred in the future, in addition to the fact that I am now your Professor, or at least I will be on September first and it would have been inappropriate....You are not a bad kisser. That was a very good kiss for a first attempt and Ron would be a fool to turn down anyone who could kiss like that."
Hermione blushed.
How did he know I liked Ron? I didn't tell him.
"And so you know, Ron has blue eyes."
Oh God, she hadn't verbalised that had she.
They sat in silence for a minute before Hermione started studying the table they were sitting at.
On one side of the table was a stack of pagers, which were slanted allowing Hermione to see what was on the below sheets, every spare inch was covered with complex mathematical equations, mostly crossed out, written through or covered in organised notes in several different languages.
"What are you researching" she asked.
He looked up and saw her looking at the equations. "That was my attempt to create a more affective method of dimensional travel."
"You mean a portal or wormhole?" she asked, leaning forward, interested in the idea. She found it fascinating that while he spoke, the hand holding the disk alternated between twirling said object and sketching on a piece of parchment at phenomenal speed, despite the fact that he hadn't looked at the parchment once.
"Almost yes, you see creating a portal is relatively easy providing you have enough energy, even time and dimensional ones, but wormholes which are one of the only few stable ways to travel between dimensions that allow you to actually plan where you are going, well....they require precise mathematics to work. You have to firstly fix the entry and exit coordinates, then determine whether it is temporary or permanent. Added to that, you need to plan whether there will be a time differential between the two ends, the radius of the openings, the positioning of the connection, whether it will be on the same plane or otherwise, what the power source for the wormhole will be and finally how the wormhole will be activated."
"Why not simply use portals?" she asked.
"Portals are instant transportation and that is something that my magic does not work well with."
"I don't understand?" she said confused.
"You know your magic resides in your blood yes." She nodded "Well mine does not work like that; mine is tied to my spatial coordinates as my magical core does not reside within me. Imagine....imagine that you are holding a piece of string vertically and you are looking down from above it."
"Ok." She nodded, not quite understanding where this was going.
"When you can not see the length of string, only the end because the rest is hanging vertically below it, that is when my magic is gathered in the same space as me, but if you move the top of the string that you are holding, the tail will wave around until gravity pulls it straight again. That is how my magic works, its sort of like a time delay, if I move on a train or plane or some other form of Muggle transport my magic will be almost on top of me because in the grand scheme of things I am not moving that fast, but if I use a portkey, I Apparate or if I use Floo Travel then that is close to instant travel so my magic will still be where I was moments before, which is why I am currently a lot weaker than I am normally as I did some very rapid flying just before I came here including one time and one dimension jump so my magic is currently scattered widely over the Atlantic and Indian Oceans not to mention Africa and America, it should take a couple of days for it to fall back into place."
He sighed, waving his hand carelessly at the stack of paper. "Portals are very bad for me magically, a wormhole or a similar method of transport is like travelling down a tunnel as a shortcut, meaning that although it is very fast its not instant and is therefore better for me, but as you can see, it is not easy."
He then laid the book he had been writing in on the desk. "I'm now just writing in my journal, as I no longer have my old one."
"What happened to it?" she asked, now over her earlier embarrassment.
"I left it in Sunnydale with Buffy's friends. It has a complete record of all my activities in the last fifteen billion years, and yes before you ask it is magic. Otherwise it would be the size of an office block."
She laughed slightly, it pleased him that she had recovered from her stuttering. She had begun to sound like Tara....before he met her of course. Tara was now getting fairly confident. She would soon be a real asset to the Forces of Light.
He closed the book. On the front Hermione saw the image of a stag's head.
"You like deer?"
"Indeed, it is the symbol of The Guardian....my sign....I choose it just after I ascended."
"Ascended to becoming The Guardian?" she guessed.
He nodded.
"Harry likes stags." she commented.
"Because of his father."
She looked up surprised.
"You knew his father?"
"Yes, you were not there when we first regained consciousness, so you missed the conversation."
"Does Harry know?"
"I told him as soon as I found out who he was."
They returned to their reading for a couple more minutes before Hermione raised her head again, after he had explained to her about the kiss she had begun to feel guilty about putting him as a Professor in that sort of situation.
"Professor, I...." she began.
"School hasn't started yet Hermione," he reminded her "You can still call me Adam."
"Sorry....Adam, I just wanted to apologise if I put you in an awkward situation after we....after I kissed you....being a Professor I mean."
"It's ok Hermione." he said not looking up.
"I mean it," she said putting a hand over his "I really am sorry."
Adam had tensed the second her hand touched his, seeing his discomfort she quickly withdrew her hand.
"Sorry."
There was a moment's silence before Adam pulled a gold watch out of his pocket, checked the time, collected his papers rather quickly and stood.
"I am afraid I....I must be going. I will see you later." he bowed slightly before walking out of the room.
Hermione turned and watched him leave slightly confused. When she turned back, she saw a piece of paper that had dropped off the table onto the floor. She picked it up and saw that it was different from the rest. It was the picture he had been drawing.
It was a pencil drawing of a woman with long flowing straight hair, she was beautiful. It was wonderfully drawn; it almost looked as though it was a photograph, it was so life like.
She quickly ran to the door and looked each way down the corridor; he was no where in site.
________________________________________________________________________
"I don't like it Severus." said the Headmaster looking at the man on the other side of his desk. "I agree that we need to find out where he has been, but I do not like this course of action."
"What would you recommend then Headmaster?" asked Snape "He seems determined to be even more spoiled and more disrespecting than ever, he did not even acknowledge your presence in the Hospital Wing and every time one of us has asked he just flies of like the cowered that he is."
"I would hardly call Mr Potter a cowered Severus." said Professor McGonagall disapprovingly "I would hardly call facing of against 'You-Know-Who' on several occasions and leading a rescue mission into the Ministries most dangerous department cowardice."
"No, that is just stupidity and attention seeking to suit the pampered upbringing he has had."
"Severus." chastised Dumbledore "Harry does not seek attention and his upbringing was no different to anyone else's other than the fact that like most Muggle-Born students he did not know of his magical heritage."
"Maybe it would make more sense if I asked him in private Albus," suggested Professor McGonagall "As I was the only one he acknowledged in the Hospital Wing it shows that whatever he currently has against you does not extend to me, and I am his Head of House, maybe he will open up to me without others around." She suggested, sending a sideways glance at Severus.
"It is a good idea Minerva but I believe that it would be better if I were present and therefore I must agree with Severus's plan."
"Albus!"
"No Minerva, we have to at least try." sighed Albus.
"Very well Headmaster," said McGonagall stiffly, standing up "But I want no part of it; I can not condone this course of action."
With that she turned and walked out.
________________________________________________________________________
On the other side of the castle, Adam almost ran into the room that Dumbledore had given him.
Dropping the books and parchment on the desk he ran into the replica of the meditation chamber he had made from back at his mansion.
He ran to the alter and dropped to his knees, his expression frantic.
"Please forgive me, I didn't know what I was doing, I was only trying to comfort her....Please forgive me....Please."
AUTHOR NOTES: REVIEW RESPONSES
Just so you all know as I have talked to a reviewer about this, this story is not a three way crossover, it is only HP/Buffy, the Avatar is a character I am creating, based on but NOT related to the TV series.
Happy New Year Everyone
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