[Fic] A New Spell, part 1

[white_hart]

The first part of a Buffy/Chalet School crossover that I got the idea for a couple of weeks ago. Set immediately after the end of Buffy season 6 and about 45 years after Prefects of the Chalet School. Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, the Chalet School belongs to the estate of Elinor M Brent-Dyer.

A New Spell

Oxfordshire, 2002

It had been a long night, and by the time the working was done and Rupert had been sent halfway across the world, hopefully in time to prevent the apocalypse, the sun had long since risen above the hills to the east and was glowing warmly on the mellow stone of the ancient Cotswold buildings. They stumbled outside and sat in the sunlight, not feeling the warmth, all of their thoughts concentrated on California, where it was still night, where the night might never end and the darkness might reach out to swallow the bright Oxfordshire morning, if he failed.

Helena made tea. No-one really wanted tea, least of all her, but tea seemed to be what was called for in this situation, and the sense of responsibility she had felt since childhood meant that she was the person to make it. She wondered vaguely if this was what it had been like during the air-raids she didn’t remember, when she was a baby: but then there would have been an all-clear siren, a definite end, and now they were just waiting, and she didn’t think any of them knew quite what they were waiting for.

The world didn’t end.

***

Rupert’s email came two days later. The crisis had been averted. The world was safe for now, and he was bringing the girl to England.

She needs to learn…great power…untaught…a danger to herself and others until she learns the techniques of control…I understand completely if any or all of you choose not to be involved with this.

Reactions were, understandably, mixed, but most of the coven remembered what it was like to be young and knew that it was only the fact that none of them had powers anything close to this girl’s that had stopped them going the same way. A bed was made up in one of the spare rooms; someone put a vase of wild flowers by the bed, and a selection of books appeared on the table under the window. She has enough to regret. Let her be happy here.

***

Helena drove the estate car to Heathrow; somehow no-one else seemed to be able to, and she was curious anyway. She stood in the crowded arrivals hall, not watching the disembarking passengers but letting herself feel for Rupert’s aura, which, when it came, was accompanied by a presence whose power startled her despite knowing what the girl had done, or nearly done. She was even more surprised when she saw the girl: tall, red-haired, appearing old beyond her years, she reminded Helena irresistibly of the girl she had once been.

‘Helena!’ Rupert said as he came up to her. ‘I’m glad to see you again. This is Willow Rosenberg, who will be spending a few months with us learning what we know of magic; Willow, this is Professor Helena Maynard, who is one of the key members of our coven.’

Willow smiled, shyly, and extended her hand. ‘Professor Maynard. Giles has told me so much about all of you, I feel like I know you already, and I’m so grateful to you for agreeing to have me here.’ A little stilted, uncertainty and fear underneath, and something – what? – that reminded Helena so much of another girl, so many years ago now, and as she led the way to the car she knew that whatever help she could give, she would.

***

A week after Willow’s arrival, Helena was walking in the garden, enjoying the evening sunshine after a day of showers, when she noticed the girl sitting on a bench, her face tilted to the sunlight. Her first thought was to turn aside and leave her in peace, but Willow seemed to sense her presence and smiled a welcome, indicating to Helena to sit down next to her. Helena did so, wondering a little. None of them, other than Rupert, had had much to do with Willow since her arrival.

‘Come and talk to me’, Willow said. ‘It’s dull, having no-one but Giles to talk to all day. I mean, he’s super nice, especially considering, but – well, he’s Giles. He’s so old, and stuffy, and b- old.’ Helena detected the slight stumble before the last word, and deduced that it had probably been intended to be ‘British’ before Willow remembered who she was talking to.

‘My dear girl,’ she said. ‘I am fifteen years older than Rupert, and a professor at one of this country’s most respected universities. I feel certain that I too have old and stuffy written through me like a stick of seaside rock!’

Willow shook her head. ‘I think Giles was born old and stuffy. And you – I mean, I’m trying not to use my powers and everything, really I am, but there’s something about you. When I first met you, I felt as if I knew you, and not just because Giles spent the whole flight telling me about everyone here. And you’re a professor! At Oxford! Wow! When I was a kid, that was what I was going to do. Except then I kind of got sidetracked by the whole fighting evil thing, but I guess that didn’t work out too well, because it kind of turned into the whole being evil thing, which, not so good. But hey! I end up near Oxford anyway, and Giles says maybe we can go there for a day trip sometime. What’s it like?’

Helena smiled. ‘Centuries old. And frequently extremely stuffy. I never planned to be a professor. I was going to go back to my old school and teach. It was all mapped out, until I got to Oxford.’

‘What changed your mind?’

‘Believe it or not, the same thing as you. “The whole fighting evil thing”, as you put it. Before I got to Oxford I thought magic was something that only existed in stories. And then I found out it was real, and I could do it, and that that could help people far more than teaching ever did. And an academic life in Oxford gave me a lot more freedom than going back to somewhere where everyone knew me.’ There was more than that, of course, but that could wait.

Willow looked sympathetic. ‘Small town, huh? Me too. But we had a Hellmouth. Which added thrills and danger aplenty.’

‘We had nothing so exciting. We moved to Switzerland when I was ten and lived on a mountain shelf which contained my school, the Sanatorium my father was head of, and a motley collection of English families who generally had connections to the School, the San or both. It was very beautiful, and only dangerous if you didn’t watch your step on the mountain paths, but it was not somewhere I wanted to go back to. Nor did any of the other people I knew who grew up there – my own siblings and the children of family friends.’

‘That does sound kind of limited. Sunnydale may be a one-Starbucks town, but we have a university, and the Bronze – that’s where all the cool kids hang. And the uncool kids, too, because it’s not like there’s anywhere else to hang out. And we have all the vampires you can stake, although that’s more Buffy’s line than mine.’ She stared into space, and Helena was fairly sure that instead of the garden she was seeing her Californian home, or maybe her friends. ‘I’ve never really been away before. Not this far, and not for this long. And now I don’t even know if I’ll ever be going back. Maybe they won’t want me any more, not after what I did.’ She looked worried and homesick.

‘Of course they will. True friends will stick by you, whatever you did.’ She smiled down into the troubled face. ‘And you are not the only person to have used their powers in ways they regretted. I think you know something of Rupert’s wild youth, do you not? And all of us here have similar stories.’

Willow looked up. ‘Even you? I can’t believe you ever used your powers for anything bad. You seem so steady and responsible.’

‘Oh, my dear girl, responsibility was half the problem. When I discovered I had power I wanted to use it to make everything right, but magic doesn’t work that way, and instead things went terribly wrong.’

Willow nodded, slowly. ‘I got into magic to help Buffy. I mean, she had the superpowers and everything, but it seemed like whenever we came up against some really Big Bad then stakes and super strength weren’t enough and it was the magic everyone was depending on, and I kind of got used to using it to sort stuff out. And then, when Tara…when she…when it happened, it was like something snapped, and I couldn’t stop.’

‘Many of us had similar experiences. Would it help you to hear my story?’ Willow nodded. ‘Well, as I said, I had a very sheltered upbringing. I was the eldest of eleven children, and I was always the responsible one, at home and at school. And then, when I was eighteen, I went up to Oxford, and everything changed.’

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[white_hart]

The next part is going to be flashback, so more CS than Buffy, but I hope you'll still enjoy it!