Girl In A Bar - Part IV

"G..good morning Buffy." Hermione stammered in surprise. Minister Dent gave her an astonished look that clearly said he would be needing an explanation sooner rather than later. Recovering quickly, she continued "You seem really cheerful this early in the morning. Do you normally get up this early after being out dancing so late?"

"No, I'm more of a night person. I attribute my wide-awakeness to a heavy dose of Randall's strongest coffee. I'm sure he can find you a cup somewhere..."

Hermione shuddered. "No thank you. I'll stick with tea." She looked at the Minister and he nodded, indicating she should continue. "So... you're the Slayer? Can you explain what a slayer is ? None of our official records concerning the Council of Watchers or your charter refer to anyone as a 'slayer'. And there doesn't seem to be any information in any of the other places I looked."

"Sure, we'll be glad to fix that. Giles has a whole speech he loves to give to people who have no idea what one is." Buffy said, winking at Giles as he mumbled under his breath, too low for anyone but Buffy to hear, that she was welcome to explain what a slayer was this time. "But first... why don't you tell us what you know, and then we'll fill in the blanks."

Not one to pass up an opportunity to display her knowledge, Hermione began - "Well, we know your Council does a lot of research into dangerous, often evil, creatures and that someone, some kind of agent or specialist in these creatures, will often appear to deal with them if they do prove to be a danger. But the description of this agent seems to change on an almost yearly basis. The only thing in common in all of the reports I've seen is that it is usually a woman."

"Hmmm." Vocalized an interested Giles. "This 'agent' would be the person we refer to as the 'Slayer' and there is a very good reason why you won't find one description of this person. We'll try to explain that in a minute. What else did your research reveal?" he asked with obvious interest.

"That was it for actual facts, other than that an accident destroyed your London office several years ago. We would also love to have an explanation for that just for the sake of completeness."

"I think we can do that as part of the other explanation. Go on... " Giles smiled in encouragement.

"We have access to a rather extensive library about magic use around the world and using what we know about your Council I was able to find some vague myths and fragments of information that I believe refers to your organization. Something about a magical creature called a Slayer that fights evil and several references to someone called the 'Chosen One'. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough to figure out what these people actually did because the references were incomplete."

"That's actually pretty close to the truth," Giles explained. "Magic is involved with the 'Slayer' and the 'Chosen One' though calling them magical creatures is a bit of a misnomer. I would be interested in seeing these myth fragments at some point."

"Yes. You've just made his day." stated Buffy, grinning at them. "Giles loves researching obscure scraps of information. If he wasn't the Head of the Council he would live in the library."

"Yes, well...we all have our quirks and hobbies." Giles cocked an eyebrow at Buffy in response to her statement. "Let's get back to the matter at hand before we get too sidetracked."

"Yes, you were going to tell us what slayers are and what they have to do with your Council. And about this 'chosen one'."

"The concept is fairly simple really..."

"Come on Giles, you promised!" Buffy pouted. "You're not going to get away with not giving your chosen one speech. You can simplify it later."

"Okay." He raised an eyebrow at her. "We, like a lot of other very old organizations, have our own myths and legends to explain what we do. It basically goes like this:" Giles' voice deepened slightly as he began --

"This world is older than any of you know. Contrary to popular mythology, it did not begin as a paradise. For untold eons demons walked the Earth. They made it their home, their Hell. But in time they lost their purchase on this reality. The way was made for mortal animals, for man. All that remains of the old ones are vestiges, certain magicks, certain creatures. . ."

"The books tell the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human form possessed, infected by the demon[base ']s soul. He bit another, and another, and so they walk the Earth, feeding. . .Killing some, mixing their blood with others to make more of their kind. Waiting for the animals to die out, and the old ones to return."

"He means vampires." Buffy interjected. "The existence of demons and vampires is very important to us. If they didn't exist, we wouldn't."

"Yes, the Council was founded on the idea that we not sit back and let demons, especially vampires, reclaim this world. We fight them whenever and wherever we can."

"And you've been doing this since the fall of Babylon?" asked a fascinated Hermione.

"The fall of...? Oh. That." Giles grimaced. "That was a bit of exaggeration on the part of a previous Council Head. While we have been around for a number of centuries, the council in its present form dates back to the founding of Alexandria."

"Where does this slayer, whom I believe Ms. Summers is an example of, fit in ?" asked the Minister. Hermione could almost see him taking mental notes for the monograph he wasn't going to be able to publish on this subject.

"Well, it goes like something this:

"Into each generation a Slayer is born, one girl in all the world, a Chosen One, one born with the strength and skill to hunt the vampires, to stop the spread of their evil."

Giles noticed the look that passed between the Minister and his assistant at that. "Yes, the 'Slayer' and the 'Chosen One' are the same person. Slayer refers to the role of the 'Chosen One' and that title refers to a mystical process that selects the person to be the Slayer. And before you ask, No, we don't really know how the slayer is chosen or by whom. The Council is able to identify the slayer once they are chosen and plays a role in the life of the slayer but it doesn't create them. We do know that a group of higher beings called "The Powers That Be" take advantage of the slayer in their own battles against evil. We also don't really know how the first Slayer was created..." He stopped at the look on Buffy's face.

"Giles!" If they were going to tell the truth, Buffy wasn't going to let him slip that little slayer creation myth scandal under the rug. "You'll have to forgive him. The creation of the slayer isn't a shining moment in our history. We found out several years ago how the first slayer was created and a number of embarrassed people," she gestured at Giles with her cup, "would prefer to not think about it even though it happened long before the Council was created."

With an obligatory nervous cleaning of his glasses, Giles continued - "Sorry. As Buffy said, not a shinning moment for us. Basically, some elders of an ancient society decided to fight demons by making their own non-evil demon, the Slayer, out of an innocent young girl by infecting her with the magical essence of a powerful demon they'd captured. We don't really know how they changed that essence into something positive, a tool that enables the slayer to be such an effective weapon against evil. Or how they arranged it so that it is somehow passed on to succeeding generations. We do suspect there was some kind of divine intervention but we don't really know. And so much time has passed that the trail is very cold."

"So how did your council end up in charge of the slayer ?" asked Hermione.

"As far as we know it was entirely by accident. Several early members of the Council saw this young girl fighting vampires in the burning ruins of a temple and gave her a home when they found she was the sole survivor of a vampire attack. We believe the Council is actually the third group to guide the slayer and assist her but we don't know much about the previous groups. Over time we've managed to keep the slayer line going though there have been several occasions where the council was more of a hindrance than a help. "

"Giles... I'm not sure that adequately describes the previous council's behavior." Buffy interjected. "But they probably don't need the full story." Buffy looked at their guests, "I'm sure Giles won't mind if I finish his story." Receiving a nod from Giles, she continued - "Basically, the Council occasionally forgets their role is to guide the slayer and starts treating her like a disposable tool. I didn't take kindly to that treatment when I became the slayer and in the chaos that followed when Giles and I started shaking things up..." at this point she grinned sadly at Giles, "one of our oldest enemies saw an opportunity to destroy the Council and Slayer and attacked. The old council didn't survive the encounter but the slayers did and Giles has been rebuilding the Council ever since. Fresh ideas on how to treat slayers and new watchers have done wonders for slayer moral."

Something occurred to Hermione. "You've been saying 'slayers'. But Mr. Giles has referred to only one. How many are there ?"

"Originally there was only one slayer at a time. But that hasn't been true for several years. You'll pardon me if I don't explain how this happened or give you exact numbers." Giles explained. "The safety of the slayers depends upon not being well known by their enemies. Otherwise they become targets for a large number of evil creatures. At this point we have enough trained slayers to protect at least every major city around the world."

"Yes, we've got global apocalypse insurance coverage" quipped Buffy. "A slayer is never more than a day away from anywhere on the planet."

"Buffy, since you are from Cleveland, if you aren't in London, who protects it ?" asked Hermione, trying to get a picture of how this worked.

"London currently has two slayers assigned to it since it is home to our European headquarters. You actually met one of them last night when we went dancing." This remark earned both Buffy and Hermione looks from the other two, causing Hermione to blush.

"So Fred is a slayer ? She seemed very young. Is the other slayer just like her ?"

"No. Not all slayers are alike." This earned Buffy a muttered "thank God!" from Giles and she just smiled at him. "If you have time when the meeting is over I'll give you a tour of the office and introduce you to Izzy. I think you'll enjoy meeting her. Except for the things that make her a good slayer, and they are both two of the best we have, she is very different from Fred."

For the next hour Giles and Buffy reviewed the wording of the new charter with Hermione and Minister Dent. Once they agreed to its conditions as long as they met with the approval of the Council lawyers, the Minister excused himself from the offered tour of the Council facilities and Giles claimed a need to catch up on other paperwork. Buffy was left alone with Hermione for the first time since she had arrived.

"Buffy," a cautious Hermione asked, "does Ginny know what you really do for a living?"

"No." answered a startled Buffy. "It's not something you tell someone you've just met. Why? Do you plan to if I don't ?"

"No. The confidentiality agreement in your charter applies to us also. We can't tell anyone else your secrets unless you request it. If someone asked about you we would say your Council is a Ministry chartered organization but that is all we would say." Hermione carefully picked out words in her head for what she felt she had to say next. "I really don't want to interfere..."

"But you're going to anyway?" Buffy wasn't quite sure where Hermione was going with this. It almost sounded like she was about to get the best friend/older sibling-threaten the boyfriend talk. She wasn't sure why she was the target of this but it felt a bit odd. As much as she was enjoying her time with Ginny this week she had nothing more than friendship in mind.

"I've known her and her family for a long time. If you plan on becoming real close to Ginny, and not just a friend, you'll have to tell her at some point. Her older brothers are very protective and tend to react badly if they think she is in danger or is around someone they think is dangerous. No matter how much she likes you now..."

"Okay... though people usually don't take the idea of there being such evil and people chosen to fight it too well." Buffy didn't consider herself too dense. She'd learned to read people fairly well but she still wasn't getting Hermione's point. Maybe Willow could shed some light on it when she had a chance to talk with her in a couple days when she got back to Cleveland.

"You'd be surprised at how well Ginny would take it." Hermione murmured to herself. She couldn't tell Buffy about the wizarding world that she and Ginny were a part of without permission from the Ministry and she didn't have it.

Buffy pretended not to hear what she'd said. They still had the tour of the office to finish if she wanted to be free for lunch. "I think we should take that tour now. Let's start here." Buffy said, gesturing towards the window. "Most of the building we are in is office space so we'll skip that. Nothing very exciting. Most of senior staff have offices here and a few, like Giles, have additional spaces like this conference room."

"And you?"

"I'm just visiting." Buffy grinned slightly. "I have an office in Cleveland for those times I'm not travelling so they stick me in a free visitor office near the training rooms whenever I'm here."

"And the rest of the facilities?"

"That building," she gestured towards the left side of the campus, "is the slayer training center. We'll take a look at several of the training rooms there. There are also several classrooms, the armory, and medical facilities in the same building. The building to the right houses our research library and labs." She noticed Hermione perking up at the mention of a library. "Unfortunately, most of it is off limits to visitors so there's no point in going there."

"How does one get permission to use your library?" Asked a curious Hermione.

"I'll check with Giles. I'm not sure what the policy is. It's a rather specialized library. And most of it is in languages very few people know. So very few people find it useful anyway."

"And that building at the end ?"

"That's everything else, including the cafeteria and living quarters for some of the staff. Let's go take a walk."

The tour didn't take very long. While it appeared to be fairly large, they didn't run into anyone and Hermione assumed it was intentional. The training rooms were fascinating to the untrained eye but with no one using them she couldn't tell what much of the equipment was for. The cafeteria was fairly elaborate but was obviously just that. Neither the research labs nor the armory were on the tour but it was the library that Hermione really regretted not being able to see.

The last part of the tour was the Victorian garden at the center of the campus.

"Let's introduce you to the two slayers we have in London." After pausing for a moment to call someone on her cell phone, Buffy motioned to a bench in a secluded corner. "Fred and Izzy will be here in a couple minutes. You've already met Fred. Izzy is a bit different as you'll see. The only thing they really have in common is that they are very good at what they do. They also work very well together. We learned the hard way a few years ago which personalities work well together in a team of this sort. If their Watcher is free she'll join us also."

Hermione wondered at the evident sadness in Buffy's voice at this point but let her continue without interruption.

"I'm sure you must have other questions that you haven't asked yet. Now would be the perfect time to ask."

Never one to pass up such an opportunity, Hermione saw this as a chance to ask Buffy several slightly personal questions. "I know you can't tell me how many slayers there actually are but I was wondering how long you've been a slayer."

"And how old I am?" Buffy grinned at her. It was a question she'd expected to be asked earlier. "I became the slayer when I was fifteen. At that time most slayers survived until they were 18. Some a bit longer, if they were lucky. We changed the rules several years ago when I was twenty-two. There are now many more of us out there. It's still a dangerous occupation but we hope to have at least doubled the survival rate with the changes we've made in the past two years."

"So... those rumors of the slayer changing appearance aren't really true ?" Hermione was disturbed by the information she'd just received. "It's really because the slayer would die ?"

"In the past, yes. Being a mystically chosen good guy does have its drawbacks. Especially if you're the only one. There are always more bad guys out to kill you. One of them is bound to get lucky sooner than later. I was lucky to have friends and family who helped me survive. Most previous slayers didn't have that kind of support system."

"What about your family? Didn't they object to you being chosen?"

"They didn't know at first. My mother did object to me being a slayer once she found out but it isn't something you can give back. The only way out, to retire, was to die. She never really accepted it but we came to an understanding before she died." Buffy sadly explained. "My sister... I kept her as far away as possible from it for as long as I could. But keeping her away from the action was almost impossible. Just by being my sister she was involved. She maintains it's not a real apocalypse unless someone has taken her hostage at least once. It took me a long time to accept that she would be involved whether I liked it or not." Buffy shivered slightly at the memories this dredged up.

Hermione couldn't imagine what it was like. Although she wasn't very close to her much younger sister and she was only a year older than Ginny, her closest female friend, she couldn't imagine what it must have been like for someone to know their sister wouldn't have a chance to grow up. "What does she do now?"

"When we needed people to rebuild the Council she was one of the first to volunteer and we really needed her research experience. Right now she helps out when she's not in class." Buffy grimaced slightly, recalling the arguments that had led to that situation. "If we called her right now, she'd probably be deep into figuring out some prophecy that is guaranteed to give one of us a bad day."

"Prophecies? So you have some warning of things happening?"

"Well... as a vampire once told me, prophecies can be tricky things. They can be very misleading. And now that we have more slayers running around, figuring out what one means when it refers to a slayer has gotten a lot harder. We often live or die based on a prophecy in some obscure language and my sister has become one of the best we have at translating and interpreting them. Without her a lot of us would be doing more dying than living. When she's done with college Giles already has a job waiting for her here in London."

While waiting for Fred and Izzy to appear, they chatted for a few more minutes about minor things. Hermione could see why, beyond the obvious, Ginny was interested in her. Buffy Summers was a fascinating person.

Three young women approached them from the direction of the building containing the training facilities that Buffy had referred to in jest as 'Slayer Central'. As they came closer Hermione thought she recognized two of them as the women she had seen outdoors just before the meeting that morning.

Buffy grinned at her obvious recognition of Fred, who'd gone dancing with them the night before. "Fred, I'm sure you remember meeting Hermione last night. Izzy, Jayne, this is Hermione Granger. She's a member of the government charter commission that gives us permission to work in Britain without too much interference. We thought it would be useful for you to meet her."

Buffy sat back and indicated they could talk.

Fred winked at Hermione and Izzy just smiled at her shyly while Jayne stood to the side and silently observed.

"I saw you outside earlier and what you were doing looked fascinating. Almost like dancing in slow motion. What do you call it?"

"Tai Chi" answered the diminutive Fred. "It's one of the first things we're all taught when we join the Council. It helps out a lot, especially after a night of dancing." she grinned.

"We've found it to be an excellent way to help deal with the stress and issues that becoming a slayer can have on someone." Buffy interjected.

"Jayne, Buffy hasn't really explained what you do. I know Fred and Izzy are slayers and have some idea of what they do, but what does a watcher do?"

"Well..." It was obvious she was reluctant to be drawn into the discussion. "I do a lot of the research and paperwork they don't have time for..."

Buffy once more jumped in. "Like most Field Watchers, Jayne has a tendency to be overly modest." Blushing, Jayne briefly smiled at her. "A watcher is an expert in the care and feeding of slayers. They attempt to keep them out of trouble when they're not fighting." Buffy winked at Jayne. She got along well with all of the new field watchers and liked to tease them. "A Field watcher assists the slayer they are assigned to in the field, complementing their skills. The role used to be a supervisory one but one of the changes we've made is to make it more of a partnership. Teamwork is very important in a slayer team. By the time we send a team into the field the watcher and slayer have been working and training together for well over a year."

They spoke for a few more minutes before Hermione had to head back to her office with a promise from Buffy that she would check with Giles to see if Hermione could have access to the research library. It had been a fascinating morning and Hermione couldn't wait to discuss it with her boss.

• Not how I originally planned it.
• Giles' demon and chosen one speech is borrowed from an episode of BtVS.
• Hermione now has a sister.

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