UnExpected

Chapter 25

Her name was Faith. The new Sunnydale Slayer. And a wild child – or so Willow had been telling her in all of her recent updates.

A letter arrived for Buffy early Sunday morning. Her half-awake mind grabbing the letter from Deity before the owl hooted once and flew away. Stuffing the unopened envelope underneath her pillow, Buffy yawned, stretched, and rose from her bed.

A half-hour later, freshly showered and changed, she retrieved the delivery that had interrupted her much needed beauty sleep and tore the envelope open. The white, lined paper always made her smile from the reminder of her Muggle-living days. Her smile widened even more as she read the letter from her friends on her way down for a late breakfast.

Ethan Rayne had been back in town. Which automatically spelled trouble. His sneaky little habit of raising mayhem had made yet another appearance. Last year it was Halloween. This year it was band candy. Apparently, demon raiser Rayne had bewitched the chocolate bars that Snyder had forced everyone to sell, band member or not, which should've been innocent enough, but this was Sunnydale after all. The candy had all the adults who ate them revert back to their glorious teenage days. Insert creepy mental images here. The 'adults' partied like it was 1979. They partied, moshed, showed some major disgusting PDA, and stuck it to the man. Even Giles had been part of the action. It seems that Willow and Faith had accidentally walked in on him snogging Ms. Morgan, a history teacher at Sunnydale High, on their way to the chocolate factory to put an end to Ethan's plan. Which was disturbing in it of it itself until it made you wonder what else they had been up to. Ew, gross, bad imagery. Buffy was just glad her mother hadn't been there, who knows what she would've done. Thankfully, she was back at home, or at Grimmauld Place with Sirius and Remus, enjoying some tea. Not being part of any snogging of any kind.

"Hey, Buffy."

Quickly folding the letter in her hand, Buffy turned around.

"Hey, Ginny," she said with a smile as the redhead came off the last step into the common room, in which Buffy had just barely realized she was in.

"What are you reading?"

"Nothing, just a letter, from some people – what's up?"

Ginny eyed her suspiciously, but was used to Buffy's secretiveness by now to shrug it off. She was still in her little Buffy shell which was more than okay. She hadn't exactly gotten the warmest of receptions from people when she returned, and Ginny was patient. It was one of her most grateful virtues.

"Feel like playing in some snow?" she asked cheerily.

"I don't know...all that cold...icy fingers, frozen limbs..."

"We can throw snowballs at Neville."

"Okay, I'm in." Ginny grinned at the sudden happy smile on Buffy's face. "I thought you were going to spend the day with Michael?" she asked, referring to Ginny's boyfriend.

"Not until later. He's at the pitch playing Quidditch with his friends."

Buffy gave a quick nod of understanding. "Okay, just let me grab my coat, and I'll meet you outside."

"Cool, I'll see if I can find Luna," Ginny suggested.

"The more the merrier."

The girls parted ways, with Ginny leaving through the portrait hole, and Buffy going back upstairs.

"I wonder who she's writing to," Ron said almost accusingly.

"Who?" Harry asked, his eyes still on the parchment.