"H-How was slaying?"
Dropping onto the couch and swinging her feet up on the table, Buffy shrugged. "Slay-ey."
"How very literal."
The Slayer grinned at him, stretching her arms over her head with a satisfied groan. "You know me. Took out a couple of vamps on campus and a few in the old cemetery." She looked up at her former Watcher curiously. "So, what's the what? Why'd you call a meeting of the Scoobies?"
"A letter arrived from Willow this morning." He replied. "I thought you all might want to hear the news about how she's getting on." Buffy opened her mouth to say something, but Giles raised a hand. "And I'm not going to open it until everyone is here."
"You're no fun." The Slayer grumbled.
The former Wizard chuckled. "I try."
It was barely five minutes later when the door opened again, permitting Xander and Anya to enter the house. As usual, they were bickering about something, which had become a frequent feature of their relationship since their return from London.
Since, Anya had discovered she was a billionaire by Wizarding standards, she had decided that Xander would have to be one too and would have to put a few coins into a savings account, then get himself turned into a demon for a thousand years. Needless to say, he was not to thrilled about the whole idea.
"Honey, I don't want to be a billionaire. I'm happy as I am." he paused. "well, maybe not happy, but comfortable. I'm comfortable."
"You live in a basement and you work for Dairy Queen!"
Her boyfriend sighed. "That's because I can't get any other job and since I can't get any other job, I can't move out of the basement."
"so become a billionaire like me! Its nice having lots of money for clothes."
"Anya, I don't want to be a billionaire. I just want to be comfortable."
"But I can't date someone who has less money than have, Xander!" The former demon exclaimed miserably. "Its like a Queen dating a slave. And a muggle slave at that!" She gave him a plaintive look. "Can't you become a demon billionaire for me? I thought you loved me, Xander."
"Can we not have this argument now, sweetie?"
"Can we have it later?"
Xander reluctantly nodded. "I guess so."
"Okay!" Anya cheered up considerably and looped her arm through his. "Hi Giles!"
"Good afternoon, Anya...Xander."
"Will this take long? We have an argument to finish."
"It shouldn't take too long, Anya. Willow's owl arrived this morning with a letter from her."
"Her owl! I bought that owl!" She squeezed Xander's arm. "See, if you had billions of dollars, you could buy her an owl as well, instead of the presents that no one likes!"
"But she wouldn't need two owls, would she, Anya?" Buffy put in hurriedly, seeing the embarrassed expression on Xander's face. "C'mon! Sit down! I want to see what she's been doing and what her crazy family are like! Giles," She gave an impreious wave of her hand. "Make with the reading"
"Is that any way to speak to your elder?" The Englishman made a parody of being shocked.
"All right, all right." Buffy laughed. "Make with the reading...now!"
Shaking his head, Giles chuckled as he opened the letter. "You're incorrigible."
Hi guys!
I thought I should write to you, to let you know whats going on and that I'm okay and everything. I got home to The Burrow (it feels weird writing that now) a few days ago and I'm having a great time here, even though my family are crazier than I thought they would be!
They built a room for me and stuck it on the roof of the house. From the outside, it looks like its standing on top of one of the chimneys, which looks really weird, but inside (You have to crawl along the roof to get to it, which is really neat. Weird, but neat) it looks just like my room back home in Sunnydale. You have to come and see it some time!
HI! Its me! Ginny!
Dad just called Willow down to ask her about more muggle stuff, so I thought I'd write something, since she left her quill ltying around (which is a really stupid thing to do in this house!). Willow thinks we're all crazy here and I s'pose she's right! Mind you, she's the only person in the family who has actually made friends with the ghoul in the attic, so maybe she fits in more than she realised...
Uh oh! She's coming back! Bye!
You know what I really don't like about this? Everyone else in the family could delete something that someone else had written with their wand, but I don't have a wand and no one else will show me how to do the spell to erase what Ginny wrote, so it looks like I'll have to leave it in for now.
Anyway, I wanted to tell you all about everything thats going on here. Everyone has come to stay at home and Fred and George keep trying to play tricks on me. Don't tell them I wrote this, but they're really funny. Ron is kind of funny as well, but in a non-jokey way and he's really nice. He reminds me a lot of Xander (if you're there, hi, Xander!).
Charlie is hardly ever here, cos they just had a new shipment of baby dragons and he can't leave them yet. He also says he won't get one for me (I asked if I could have one, when they're old enough)because they don't make good pets and because he thinks mom would be mad if it burned the house down.
Percy stopped visiting after George gave me a fake wand and it shot out sparks as soon as I touched it and set Percy's suit on fire. I don't know why he didn't want to see me again, after that. I told him it was an accident, but George said I could only set the wand off if I wanted to 'set Percy's arse alight'. I didn't! Not really.
Bill is really nice and his wife...she's okay. She's kind of like Cordelia, except she's got lighter hair and a French accent (a French Cordelia...that's scary!). I haven't met Fred and George's girlfriends yet, but mom says they're coming for dinner one night, when members of my family that I don't know stop visiting.
I've got about fifty uncles and aunts from all over England and its really crazy here now, cos every day, one or two of them falls out of the fireplace when we're having breakfast and asks to see me! I thought only my grandma did the cheek-pinching thing, but I was wrong! Mom thinks its really funny, especially since she hasn't seen half of them for years and they just arrive.
Apparently, Rita Skeeter did find out about the 'missing Weasley' and I was featured in the Daily Prophet and only in the nicest of terms. I think Rita is scared I'll set you on her, Buffy! it turns out that I'm almost as famous as Harry is, so I'll probably have books written about me in a few years. How cool is that? I'm nearly famous!
I have to finish this now! Merlin (my owl - thanks Anya!) is getting impatient again because he knows I'm writing a letter for him to take and when he's bored waiting, he rattles his beak along the cage. I had to send letters to mom in the kitchen, just so I could let him do something and shut him up!
I miss you all! Write back to me soon!
Lots of love,
Willow.
"She sounds like she's doing okay." Buffy commented, accepting the letter to re-read it. "Do we have an owl to write back to her with?"
Giles motioned towards the roof with his glasses clutched between forefinger and thumb. "M-Merlin is up there somewhere. If we write quickly, we may escaped without the cage rattling." An indignant hoot sounded high above them. "Same to you, you little bastard." The former librarian muttered with grimace.
The three youths couldn't help laughing.