Girl in a Bar - Part III

Chapter Title: A'meetin We Will Go

Part IIIa.

Wednesday

Combine an intense evening of dancing in a crowded club, follow it up by several hours of eventless patrolling in the damp fog of an early autumn morning in London, add in an early wake-up call and what you ended up with was not the recipe for a happy slayer. Throw in an abysmal breakfast consisting solely of ersatz coffee as served in the Council's London cafeteria and Buffy felt fully justified in sharing her grumpy mood with Giles as he attempted to prepare her for another early morning meeting.

"So, remind me again." Buffy groused. "Why are we having a meeting before the rest of the civilized world has had a chance to hit the snooze button on their alarm?"

"8 AM is not early. Most of London doesn't sleep as late as you appear intent on doing while you are here." While Giles was normally one of the few people able to chastise her and appear comforting while doing so his efforts in that regard this particular morning seemed a bit lacking to the drowsy slayer. "Buffy, next time you might want to pay attention instead of spending Council meetings daydreaming."

"Okay, no more daydreaming Buffy in stuffy tweed meetings..." Thinking about what she'd been day dreaming about, Buffy qualified her statement with a grin. "Maybe. So, taking pity on my advanced age, for a slayer, refresh my memory on the purpose of this meeting before it starts?"

"As you should recall," began Giles in his most lecture-like tone, "the British government doesn't turn a blind eye to the supernatural like the American government. It doesn't have the kind of hands-off policy that could lead to an abomination like the Initiative. But it also doesn't actively involve itself with the supernatural. Instead it provides groups such as the Council of Watchers and the Wiccan Rede, whom you might recall meeting with yesterday, with charters to operate with minimal interference within the British Commonwealth in exchange for promises of help in a supernatural crisis. Normally a charter like the one held by the Council is good for 75 years. Our meeting is with the examination committee that re-certifies these charters when they expire."

"Okay, that's nice and expositiony but why are they coming here today? Shouldn't we already have one of these charters? We've been operating in London for over a year with no problems. Didn't the old Council have one and shouldn't it still apply to us?" asked a puzzled Buffy.

"Well, the Council's charter actually expired last year but we were able to get an extension on the renewal process because of the destruction of the old Council headquarters by the First. They agreed to wait until the Council was once more an active organization."

"They don't have a problem with us not really being the old Council?"

"Ummm..." Giles nervously rubbed an invisible spot from his glasses. "They don't actually know that. They just think it's the same organization with new members to replace those killed several years ago. As far as we can tell they also don't know how the old Council really worked, or even how long it has been around, only contacting the Head of the Council when they needed something. The old Council preferred it that way."

"Okay, sounds like the old Council. They really liked keeping secrets. If they've never met anyone except the Head of the Council why do you need me?" Buffy asked.

"That's one of the things I believe we need to change. While I don't think it would be wise to tell them most of our secrets they should at least know who we are and our purpose. The rest of the new Council has already agreed in principle."

"And my presence? Why do you need me here if you've already decided to do this?" Buffy asked a little more forcefully. "Without asking me?"

"Well..." again he stopped to nervously clean his glasses. While Buffy had calmed down since the battle with the First, she was still a force to be reckoned with if something upset her sense of duty.

"Out with it!" she ground out, more for show than out of displeasure.

"You need to understand that this committee we're meeting with is very secretive. According to the surviving private records for the Council Head's office, if they hadn't approached the Council after observing a slayer saving Prince Albert from a vampire we would have never known they existed. We had to agree to not tell anyone about them before they would agree to even discussing renewing our charter this year. They even insist on enforcing this secrecy with a secrecy spell. And this charter is too vital to our ability to operate as we need to in a large part of the world for us to not agree to their conditions."

"And..." she prodded.

"The new Council department chairs have all agreed that, since the slayers were at the most risk if we're wrong about telling them who we are, they would have some say in how much we tell this ministry about slayers. And since you and Faith are the Slayer's representatives on the Council governing committee... and Faith deferred to you, it is really up to you to decide on what we tell them about slayers."

"You've already asked Faith? And she agreed to this? How? Why?"

"Yes, actually." He shifted nervously. "You know she would rather be out in the field putting her talents to use. It didn't take much to convince her that you would make sure the Council didn't forget about the needs of the slayers and that you would involve her on a regular basis and not forget she was out there."

"Yes," she said a little sadly, "we made that mistake once before and look what happened. Faith is family. Granted she's a cranky, difficult member of the family but Dawn and Xander will make sure she doesn't forget she's one of us and they've already told Willow and myself that they won't allow us to forget her. So no worries there."

Giles looked both surprised and relieved. "Dawn and Xander?"

"Yes. I was surprised until I thought about it. They're her number one fans. They really care about her and make sure she knows it whenever they see her. Kind of cute actually." Buffy grinned slightly, thinking about how embarrassed Faith would get at the attention she received whenever she was in Cleveland or LA. It hadn't been easy but she'd outgrown her Faith issues long ago and she was now able to think about her former slaying counterpart with fondness instead of distrust.

"So Buffy, it really is your decision. They'll be here in ten minutes. How much do you want to tell them?"

"Let's keep it simple. You can given them your 'Chosen One' speech. I haven't heard that in years and you must be dying to say it to someone new. Just don't go overboard." She grinned at him before continuing - "and I'll give a quick non-technical explanation of why there is more than one 'Chosen One' and you can tell them how the Council supports the slayers and whatever else you've decided they absolutely need to know about the tweed brigade. Will that work? Do they know about Willow or anyone else?"

"Yes. That will do it. As far as Willow goes, they know we have a Wiccan working with us but the Wiccan Rede has agreed to not give any details of her involvement in both groups. And I would like to find out what they know about the Council and slayers before we say anything."

"Sounds like a plan. But you still haven't explained exactly why you want me in this meeting" she reminded him, not letting him dodge the issue.

"It's fairly simple really." he said. "We all know how little you like politics but you are the Council's representative in the outside world. We exist because you exist. You are an important symbol for the new direction the Council is taking. And to most people who know about us you are the Slayer. So we want you in the meeting much like we had you present when we met with the Wiccan Rede."

"So that's it? After years of fighting the 'forces of darkness' I'm really just 'symbol girl'?" Muttered an aghast Buffy. "That's laying it on a bit thick Giles!"

"Well, they also asked for our head field agent. They are under the impression that they should know whom is directly responsible for our 'agents' in the field."

"Okay, I can also play 'blame girl' for you." She shook her head at Giles' silent denial of this characterization. "And we so need to talk about this 'agent' thing."

"Well, as you know..." he started to explain.

"Later Giles." she interrupted him. "Let's not drag this meeting out. I don't have any room in my lunch plans for either tweed or secret government committees come to stare at the slayer in a cage."

Part IIIb.

Hermione and Ginny had returned home from dancing at the club with Buffy and Fred just before midnight. Exhausted, they'd agreed to talk about their evening later. While she'd spent a good portion of the evening observing Ginny's new friend and the other leather clad young woman, in awe at their displays of energy and enthusiasm, Hermione had still managed to spend enough time on the dance floor to wear herself out and had had no trouble falling asleep and waking up at her normal early hour.

She planned to talk with Ginny about the previous evening soon but now she had to quickly prepare for her day at the Ministry, starting with an early morning meeting out of the office at a muggle Magical Charter renewal examination. It was a rare opportunity for her that probably wouldn't occur again for decades and she didn't want to be late.

It hadn't taken much for Hermione to convince her boss to allow her to participate. The Committee of Muggle Magic Usage, in the Ministry's Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, rarely dealt with large organized groups of muggles involved in real magic. Most of the muggle magic users her office dealt with were solitary practitioners of their brand of non-wizarding magic. Those groups that did exist often predated the existence of her committee, many by centuries, if not longer and most kept to themselves. Very few had bothered to go through the charter process so seeing it in action was a rare treat for her.

Several centuries ago, following a number of magical accidents involving several different magically inclined muggle organizations, the Ministry had begun requiring any muggle run, magic practicing organization operating within the British Empire to be chartered if they wished to pursue their interests without Ministry interference. The last group to go through the renewal process had been the Wiccan Rede while she was still a student at Hogwarts. The next group after this one would probably be the Druids but that was decades away.

Unlike wizarding magic, which was treated as a normal part of life, like breathing, by its' practitioners, and which she had studied at Hogwarts, these muggle groups often attributed their magical abilities to some higher power. Hermione was not very comfortable with this religious aspect to magic and this meeting had her very nervous.

Although Hermione's boss had encouraged her direct participation in the process, her involvement had required several long weeks spent researching the obscure and secretive group, the Council of Watchers, that their committee was examining before renewing their charter. Although they claimed a history that predated even the Babylonians, Hermione had been unable to unearth any solid evidence that any of their claims were true. If the little information her research had unearthed was any indication they could be as old as they claimed. Unfortunately, there was really no way to prove it given the poor state of record keeping in the assorted departments in the Ministry she'd had to search through.

As far as she could tell, the only reason her committee even knew about them was that one of their members had been observed saving a member of the Royal Family around the same time as the Ministry had begun licensing magic users and tracking muggles who were involved in the kinds of magic that were very different from their own hereditary magic. And the details of this event were vague enough that they gave no clues about the goals of this Council of Watchers.

Even a long weekend spent in the restricted section of the Hogwarts library and talking with the more knowledgeable Hogwarts professors had yielded few clues. Other than a few scraps of myth and fragments of sentences in dusty tomes that kept referring to some 'Chosen warrior', and someone else called a 'Slayer', and some destiny to protect the world from darkness, she'd ended up with nothing really substantial. And other than a hunch based on similar names there really wasn't much tying those myths to the group renewing its' charter. She did know that they had at least one agent who constantly travelled the globe to further the groups' goals of fighting what they considered evil but she'd been unable to find out who this person was and how they got the job. Or even a definitive description of this person.

And she wasn't even sure they would find any of this out. This group was so secretive that even the Ministry's seers had been unable to find out what had happened to them several years ago when their London headquarters had been destroyed. They had disappeared for a year only to resurface and request an extension on the chartering process. Her boss hoped to use this rechartering as leverage to learn more about this Council but, like Hermione, he wasn't expecting much. But he had requested not only the presence of the Council Head but also the head field agent for the Council for the initial renewal meeting. And they had agreed, even allowing the meeting to take place in their London office.

Part IIIc.

Arriving early at the large Georgian mansion housing the Council, Hermione and her boss, Assistant Minister Dent, were led to a small, cozy conference room on the ground floor by the young man who had met them at the entrance. One wall of the room was lined with glass covered bookshelves filled with small books with what looked like dates on their bindings in a sequence that seemed to span over a thousand years. Facing this wall, across a small conference table, was a large whiteboard and several televisions, cameras, and other electronic items that Hermione was unfamiliar with.

Opposite the doorway they had entered was a wall containing several large windows that faced out onto a large Victorian garden. Looking out of the center window, Hermione's eyes were drawn towards the sight of two women engaged in something resembling a slow motion form of martial arts at the far end of the garden.

Asking them if they would like tea or coffee, the young man left them after quietly informing them "Rupert Giles, the Council Head, and the Slayer will be with you in a minute."

Hermione raised an eyebrow at her boss at this, wondering why they were not being given the name of both people they were meeting. An expert on mythical magical creatures, Dent had been fascinated with the information she had been able to dig up about this organization. The scraps of legend she had found had only briefly alluded to a mystical being called a 'slayer' but the Minister had been excited at the possibility of discovering an unknown mythical creature. Finding proof of the existence of a previously unknown mythical creature, even if they couldn't tell anyone due to their confidentiality charm, if that was what they were about to meet, was astounding.

Given what they had already discovered about the Council of Watchers, this added up to a very fruitful morning before the meeting had even begun. From the little they had observed during their walk to the conference room, the room itself, and the people they had seen, gave them the impression that they were dealing with a confident, wealthy, and vibrant organization. A curious Hermione hoped they would have a chance to look around once the meeting was over. She was intrigued with what she had seen in the garden and wondered what kind of research facilities they had. An organization that had been around as long as they had must have a fascinating collection of reference materials. She was almost drooling in anticipation.

"Mr. Giles?" his office assistant quietly interrupted.

"Yes Randall?"

"An Assistant Minister Dent and his assistant, a Ms. Granger, are waiting for you and Ms. Summers in the Head's conference room. Would you like me to bring you tea or coffee for the meeting?"

"Tea for me Randall. Thank you."

"Hey Rand, could I have one of those wonderful scones with my coffee?" Buffy asked with a bright smile. He nodded and left. "I haven't quite convinced him to make me something more complex than plain coffee but at least he now makes something I can drink. Maybe you can convince him to teach the cafeteria how to make real coffee?" she grimaced.

Giles, an inveterate tea drinker, wasn't too sympathetic with Buffy's quest for a foamy coffee like beverage - "I'm sure we can find some time before you head back to Cleveland to find someone here to make you the kind of coffee you require."

"Uh... Giles?", Buffy asked with a frown as something occurred to her. "The minister's assistants' name sounds vaguely familiar. Any chance you've got those hidden cameras scattered around the building running yet? So I can see if this is who I think it is? Not sure if it's important but I have an odd feeling about this."

If Buffy had a feeling about something Giles usually went along with it. Her hunches involving slaying were rarely wrong. Unfortunately, he couldn't accommodate her wish this time. "I'm sorry Buffy, but they aren't quite ready yet. Willow is still experimenting with using magic to hide them and since the Minister had requested a confidential meeting we didn't want to risk them finding out we were secretly recording them if something went wrong during the meeting."

"Okay, that makes sense to everyone who isn't me. I'm sure it can't be who I'm thinking of. That would be too big of a coincidence even for me. But I would appreciate it if you don't act surprised if I do know her."

"That'll be fine but I would like an explanation later, you know there are no real coincidences for a slayer." Giles replied. "Shall we join them? Randall should be there with the tea and your coffee and scones about now."

Tea and their hosts arrived at the same moment, distracting Hermione enough that she didn't notice much about them until she had put her cup down after taking a welcome sip. Across from her boss was an older gentleman, dressed in subdued, comfortable tweed, around the age of her father. His sad, warm eyes peeked out from a worn but distinguished face that lit up in welcome as he smiled at her. This could only be the Head of the Council they were about to evaluate.

When she turned towards the person across the table from her, possibly the mythical 'slayer', she was met by a totally unexpected sight. Rendered speechless, Hermione's jaw felt like it had dropped to the floor. This couldn't possibly be the petite, energetic woman from the previous night that Ginny had insisted she meet. While there had been something different about her, mythical or mystical were not things Hermione would have used to describe her. Hermione's usual confidence in her ability to take charge of a meeting deflated at this sign that she'd completely missed any sign of this woman being something unusual.

The Head of the Council warmly greeted them - "Good morning Minister Dent, Ms. Granger. Welcome to the London office of the Council of Watchers."

"Good morning Minister, Hermione." perkily added the woman Hermione was so surprised to see.

"G..good morning Buffy." Hermione stammered, unable to hide her surprise.

• Hadn't planned on part 3 being just about the meeting but that is where it seems to have ended.
• Too wordy but I really needed to get this info into the story

© Copyright 2009 Andy Stoffel. Last update: 7/19/09; 10:51:48 PM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.