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Author's Note: Please read the following. Further details on the stuff below can be found in the prequel, Alea Jacta Est.

1. When they first appear in this story, Harry, Ron and Hermione are 18 or nearly 18, and Ginny is 17 - I've decided her birthday is in May.

2. The story starts in spring 1998 (corresponding to the end of Harry's 7th year and Season 2 of Buffy). This date is correct for both series - Harry's 2nd year was 1992/3, as evidenced by the fact that Nearly Headless Nick's Deathday Party on Halloween in Book 2 was 500 years after his beheading in 1492. Buffy and co. graduated in 1999 (see Graduation Day episodes in Season 3 for details), making them about the same age as Ginny.

3. Ron and Hermione are a couple, as are Harry and Ginny.

4. Harry is able to draw on awesome amounts of magical energy thanks to innate knowledge passed on by his parents' reading of an ancient Egyptian scroll (see the prequel for details). He defeated Voldemort at the end of his 7th year thanks to his new powers.

Ginny The Vampire Slayer

Season 1, Episode 1: Birth Of A Slayer (Part 1)

**********Sunnydale, California; spring 1998**********

Kendra collapsed to the ground, blood pouring from her slashed throat. As she gasped and gurgled out her last choking breaths, the vampires dragged the helpless Giles from the library, leaving Willow and Xander lying injured amid the chaos and destruction.

Buffy ran frantically into the room just moments too late. She dropped to her knees beside the prone form of her fellow Slayer, numb with despair. Her Watcher and mentor captured, her friends hurt, all on the orders of the thing that had once been her lover. Sunk in horror and self-hatred at how easily Angel had duped her, she barely registered the yell of "Freeze!" from behind her as a gun was pointed at her head.

******************************

And meanwhile, half a world away, in a hidden castle, an island of light amid encroaching darkness, a girl with hair the colour of fire looked up from a textbook in sudden, inexplicable shock............

**********Somewhere in England; several days later**********

The circle of robed, hooded men stood in a dark stone cellar, hidden from the prying eyes of those who would not understand the importance of what they discussed.

"We have located her."

"Where is she?"

"At Hogwarts."

"This is new. Such a thing has never happened before."

"It will require careful handling."

"But it may have great advantages."

"Indeed. Two sets of powers brought together..."

"Plans must be set in motion at once. We cannot lose such an opportunity."

"At once? They will not wish interference now."

"That is true. But contact must be made."

"Let us prepare an embassy to be ready as soon as one becomes possible."

"Agreed."

**********The Burrow, England; July 30th, 1998**********

[A/N: Stuff in italics denotes dream sequences]

She hurled one of her assailants over her shoulder, sent a second hurtling backwards with an uppercut to his jaw and delivered a flying kick to a third. Raising a sharpened piece of wood over her head, she drove it deep into the chest of the fanged, demon-faced man. He exploded into a cloud of dirty grey dust.

The one she had hurled over her shoulder leapt on her back, knocking her to the ground. She brought up her knee into his stomach through the thick folds of her dress and flung him head first into the stone wall behind them, dislodging a tapestry which collapsed to the floor, burying him beneath the fabric. Tripping one of her remaining opponents as she leapt to her feet, she stabbed another with the stake, reducing him to dust as well. The prone one swiftly went the same way, quickly followed by the one who was still fighting his way out of the tapestry.

She stood alone at last, breathing heavily from her exertions - but not for long. Suddenly more of the creatures burst from the torchlit passages around her, nearly a dozen of them this time. They surrounded her, seemingly waiting for orders. A tall figure in long, blood-red robes marched into view, flanked by two pale, beautiful women in white. Raising his ugly face, which bore a look of fiendish glee, the leader spoke. "I want her alive." he said in an ancient, rasping voice.

The circle of foes around her leapt forward. She fought desperately, one against ten, trying to break free from the melee and escape, staking two more with lithe, deadly movements, but she was too heavily outnumbered and eventually she was wrestled against the wall, superhumanly strong arms pinning her straining limbs to the cold stone.

The leader stalked triumphantly towards her, a gloating expression on his horrible visage. He stopped just in front of her and reached out an unnaturally pale white hand, brushing her raven hair away from her face and neck. She bit her tongue until it bled, trying to stop herself from screaming. The terrible creature smiled, displaying his two-inch long canines, then lunged forward with blinding speed and buried them in her throat, and now she did cry out.

"NOOOOOOO!" Ginny Weasley sat bolt upright in her bed, screaming at the top of her voice. Her cry stopped at last and she took great sobbing breaths, her hand going to her throat to feel the lacerations which should surely be there but weren't.

"What's wrong?" asked Harry Potter, sitting up beside her and putting soothing hands on her shoulders.

Ginny's breathing slowly returned to normal. "I had a terrible dream." she gasped, shuddering at the memory of it. "I was fighting loads of what looked like vampires in a castle or somewhere, and they overpowered me, and one of them bit me..." She clutched her throat again.

Harry's arms tightened reassuringly against her, and Ginny realised that he knew all too well what it was like to have such frightening dreams - he had been plagued by nightmares almost continuously for the last three years through his connection with the Dark Lord Voldemort, until he had defeated him barely a month ago. "Have you had dreams like this before?" he asked in a concerned voice.

Ginny was silent for a moment, somehow unwilling to confide this secret to anyone, even him. "I've been having them almost every night for months now." she eventually whispered.

Harry's mouth fell open. "Why didn't you tell someone?" he demanded incredulously. "You could have got a sleeping potion to stop you dreaming, and got Dumbledore or someone to investigate them! Why didn't you say anything, Ginny?"

"I don't know." Ginny said, unable to look him in the face. "I can't explain it...but I have this feeling that I need to experience these dreams, and deal with them myself."

"Fair enough." replied Harry, who still didn't look very happy but seemed to understand. "Is it always the same dream?"

"No, not exactly the same. I'm always fighting something, usually vampires but sometimes stranger things, and it always ends with me being killed. Everyone's dressed differently in each one, though - in this one tonight I had a sort of medieval dress on, but in other ones I've been wearing older costumes - in the very first ones I just had animal skins or something on. Oh, and I had one a while ago where I was wearing nothing at all and I was wandering around Hogwarts trying to find my wand. I think that was just an ordinary dream, though." She grinned slightly.

Harry smiled a little too, and the tension between them broke somewhat. "Hmm, it sounds like your dreams are actually progressing through history." he said, brow furrowed in thought. "I've no idea what that could mean, though."

"Me neither - that thought had occurred to me too."

"I suppose you could try talking to Hermione." Harry suggested. "If she doesn't know anything about dreams like this, I'm sure she knows of a book about them."

"Good idea-" Ginny began to say, but she was cut off by a tap on the door and the voice of her youngest brother. "Ginny!" whispered Ron. "Are you okay in there?"

"Yeah, we heard you screaming - in fact the whole house probably did." put in Hermione's voice.

"The whole house?!" Ginny replied, casting a panicked glance at Harry, whose eyes widened as he realised the implication. "Quick - Hermione, get back to Ron's room before Mum or anyone asks why you're not in here!" The original sleeping arrangements for Harry and Hermione's week-long stay had been that Harry would sleep in Ron's room and Hermione in Ginny's, as they had done in the past. However, they had swapped as soon as everyone else went to bed, and Ginny didn't even want to think about what her parents' reactions would be to this.

"Oh, bloody hell, she's right!" Ron said. "Hermione - run for it!" Harry and Ginny heard soft running footsteps as Hermione retreated. "So what's wrong, anyway?" Ron asked. "Do I want to know?" The couple blushed slightly but snorted with laughter.

"It was just a nightmare, Ron, it's okay. I'll tell you and Hermione about it in the morning."

New footsteps suddenly sounded from the stairs, closely followed by Mrs Weasley's voice. "Oh, hello, Ron - is Ginny all right?"

"I'm fine, Mum, I just had a bad dream. Sorry to wake you all up." Ginny called, praying her mother wouldn't try to come in and check on her.

"Is Hermione there? Didn't your shout wake her up too?"

Ginny thought fast. "She was trying out a sleeping spell, she won't wake up till morning - rather clever of her, really."

"Where's Harry, Ron? Still asleep as well?"

"Um - yeah, he didn't wake up, at least not properly."

"Oh well, if you're sure you're all right, Ginny..." said Mrs Weasley uncertainly.

"Perfectly sure!"

"In that case, good night, everyone."

Ron and Mrs Weasley left, and Ginny sighed with relief. "Phew, close call!" said Harry. "I take it that's the first time you've cried out in your sleep from one of these dreams and woken everyone?"

"Not quite, I did scream once before, but that was in my room at school near the end of last term and no-one heard me." Ginny explained, recalling how she had woken in a cold sweat thinking a terrible scaly creature was tearing out her heart, and lain shivering with dread for the rest of the night.

[A/N: For the purposes of this story I'm assuming that older students, or maybe just prefects, get rooms to themselves. This is supported by evidence to some extent - Percy locked himself in his room in book 2 - and the reasons for it will be made a bit clearer later.]

"And you've no idea what might be causing them?"

"None at all. At first I thought they were just caused by fear and stress, because we were fighting Voldemort and I didn't know how long we all had to live, but then they continued after you defeated him, so I knew that couldn't be it. Harry, I think something might be happening to me, something that started back in the spring, and these dreams have something to do with it. I feel....I don't know....different is the only word I can think of." She managed a small smile. "Guess I've been hanging around with you too long - all the destiny rubs off."

Harry laughed. "Welcome to the Unwilling Heroes Club."

Ginny laughed in reply. This, she thought, was why she loved him - not because he was famous or special. Not because he could hurl lightning bolts from his wand or split steel with a thought. Not because he had duelled with Voldemort until the Dark Lord was drained of energy and helpless to stop Harry binding him while a dementor sucked out his evil soul and destroyed it forever. No, she loved him because, in spite of all this, he could still laugh and be human. It had taken her a while to realise this, but once she had got over her idiotic girlhood crush on him and they had become friends, she had seen what kind of person he really was - a perfectly ordinary boy, thrust through no fault of his own into a role he had never asked for. Pulling him close, she kissed him softly on the lips, and they held each other in silence.

Finally stirring, Ginny glanced over Harry's shoulder at the clock on her bedside table. "Half past four," she groaned. "At least I managed to get some rest - I can never get back to sleep after one of these dreams."

"Are you absolutely sure you don't want to take a sleeping potion and avoid having them?" Harry asked.

"Perfectly," she said firmly, though she had no idea why she felt so certain that this was the right thing to do.

"All right. Actually, you're right. Even if you didn't have this gut feeling, your dreams do seem to have some pattern - maybe the meaning'll be clearer when they get up to the present day. Anyway, what are we going to do now, since sleep is evidently not an option?" He gave her a sly grin.

Ginny chuckled evilly. "I think you already know the answer to that question." She kissed him again, arms moving down to his waist.

[A/N: Ahem! This series goes out before the watershed, you know! Cut! :-)]

**********King's Cross Station, London; September 1st 1998**********

"Got everything?" asked Harry as he heaved Ginny's trunk onto a trolley.

"Bit late if I haven't." she replied with a wry grin.

"Oh, I thought you might want this." Harry handed her an old piece of parchment. Ginny frowned. "What's this - oh! Is it -"

"Yes, it's the Marauder's Map." he nodded. "It's not much use to me now, so I thought you might like it."

"Thanks, I'm sure I can find uses for it." She kissed him on the cheek as they entered the station.

Her dreams had continued unabated since the night she had woken everyone up. The historical periods they seemed to be set in had continued to move forward in time - the ones in the last week had seemed quite up-to-date, including the one the previous night in which she had been bitten again by a huge, terrible vampire and held underwater until everything went black and she woke up soaked with perspiration in Harry's bed at Sirius Black's house (Harry's godfather had been cleared of all the charges against him after Wormtail, the true perpetrator, had been captured during the final battle at Hogwarts).

She, Harry, Ron and Hermione had been unable to find any convincing explanation for her dreams (at Ginny's request, no-one else had been told yet). There were plenty of books on the subject of dreams, but all of them were 'speculative nonsense', in Hermione's words, or 'Divination-related' in other people's. Since she was not, as far as anyone knew, connected in any magical way to someone as Harry had been to Voldemort, and she was a different person in a different time in each dream, it seemed unlikely that she was living someone else's experiences or memories, particularly as the only thing connecting all the people in her dreams was that they had been killed by supernatural creatures, were female, and seemed to be quite capable fighters - otherwise they differed wildly - she had died as cavewomen, rich noble ladies, beggar girls, waitresses, and many others.

She and Harry reached the barrier between platforms nine and ten. "I'll miss you." he said suddenly as they waited their turn to go through to platform nine-and-three-quarters. He would be going off to start Auror training in a few weeks, and they probably wouldn't see each other again until Christmas.

"Me too." Ginny replied, hugging him tightly.

Their embrace was interrupted by a yell of "VOLDEMORT!" from behind them. Glancing over their shoulders, they saw a black-robed figure throwing back its hood, revealing a head of silver-blond hair and the wild-eyed, unshaven face of Draco Malfoy, who had disappeared from school and joined Voldemort over a year ago, and had been one of the few Death Eaters to escape death or capture at the time of the Dark Lord's destruction. He now bore a look of insane hatred, and was pointing his wand directly at Harry, though it shook a little. Harry and Ginny's wands were in their pockets, and there was no time for Harry to build up the concentration he needed to use his powers wandless. Malfoy opened his mouth to form the words of the Killing Curse -

- and, moving as if everything around her was in slow motion, Ginny shoved Harry to the ground, launched herself at Malfoy in a low dive, caught him around the waist and knocked him down, before he had even finished saying "Avada -" She snatched his wand, snapped it effortlessly in half, rolled him over and pinned both his arms behind his back in a vice-like grip. He snarled like an animal and tried to get free, but he might as well have tried breaking out of steel chains.

Harry stood gaping in amazement, then he shook his head slightly, pulled out his wand and bound Malfoy securely so that Ginny could get up. Around them, Muggles were screaming and pointing. "It's all right, folks, everything's under control!" Harry shouted to them (his eyes were taking on the glow they always acquired when he called on his additional powers). "Please remain calm, just bear with me for a second...there!" A wave of light washed out of his wand, bypassing Ginny and the other witches and wizards near him, but catching all the Muggle onlookers, who blinked, their faces going blank, then continued about their business.

"Ginny - just what the hell did you do there?" Harry whispered urgently to her as they hurried through the magical barrier, dragging the protesting Malfoy. "I've never seen anyone move that fast - for crying out loud, I didn't know any human being could react like that! And since when have you been as strong as that?"

Ginny's mind was in turmoil. She had attacked Malfoy almost without conscious thought and certainly without any idea of what she was doing - although the sensation as she had leapt had felt oddly familiar. "I - I don't know!" she said helplessly. "I just acted instinctively - I had no idea I could do that! Wait a second - it was like being in one of my dreams! Yes, in them I could fight like that!"

Harry frowned. "I've no idea what that means, though it looks like your dreams and these new abilities of yours are connected. Quick, you'd better hurry or you'll miss the train. I wouldn't want this git -" he prodded Malfoy "- to cause any more trouble. I'd better take him to the Magical Law Enforcement people - they'll be glad of one less surviving Death Eater to watch out for."

"You're sure you just want me to go?" Ginny asked, somewhat put out. "After someone tried to kill you?"

"People have been trying to kill me since I was one," Harry said bleakly. "One more doesn't really make much difference."

"Well...okay." Ginny clambered onto the train, collecting her trunk as Harry levitated it up to her. She blew him a last kiss, and he smiled before Disapparating with Malfoy.

The train was almost full, but Ginny managed to find a compartment to herself at the far end. She sat down with a sigh of relief, glad of the chance for some time by herself to think. Where had these incredible abilities suddenly appeared from? And why had they appeared? Exhausted by the shocking events and a rather less than peaceful night, she slowly fell into a troubled sleep in spite of her worries, huddled in a corner of the compartment.

......The eyes of the pale, dark-haired woman in front of her blazed red. She was unable to move as the woman walked towards her, a mad, fanged, lunatic grin on her face. She knew she should fight, cry out, defend herself, but those eyes held her mesmerised. The woman raised a hand and slashed her long nails across her unmoving throat. Blood gushed from the gaping wound as she crumpled and fell, crazed laughter the last thing she heard.....

Ginny jerked awake, almost falling out of her seat. Once again she clutched her throat, feeling certain there should be a terrible gash across there, yet there was none. She tried desperately to memorise the details of the dream before they slipped away. It looked as though she had definitely reached the present day - in both her most recent dreams now, she and most of those around her (except some of her adversaries) had been dressed in 90s Muggle clothes. In the latest one, she had again been fighting before her death, though curiously enough, not alone - there had been others too, though they had been overwhelmed before she had died.

She suddenly realised it was dark outside the window, and the train had stopped. She leapt to her feet and began to make ready to get off, pulling on her robes and hauling her trunk down from the luggage rack.

******************************

"Oh, hi, Ginny, I was beginning to think you'd missed the train!" said Colin Creevey as Ginny slid into a seat at the prefects' end of the Gryffindor table. "I didn't see you in the prefects' section."

"No, I needed some time alone." Ginny explained tiredly. "I have the feeling this is going to be a long year."

"Missing Harry?" asked Colin with a sympathetic look.

"Yeah."

Further conversation was prevented as the Sorting Hat was brought in and the Sorting began. When all the new first years had been allocated to their correct houses and greeted in the appropriate manner, Professor Dumbledore rose.

"Well, since you are all no doubt starving, I will be brief as always. First of all, once again the Forbidden Forest is, and Hogsmeade is only to be visited by third years and above who have permission. Secondly, I would like to welcome a new member of staff. As some of you may remember, Madam Pince, our long-standing librarian, retired at the end of last year. Her replacement is Mr James Radcliffe." Dumbledore indicated a fairly short man in his mid-thirties sitting about halfway down the staff table, wearing (oddly) a tweed suit and tie instead of wizards' robes. He had slightly untidy brown hair, and seemed to be scanning the ranks of students intently as if searching for someone or something. He also looked more than a little uncomfortable in his surroundings. There was somewhat unenthusiastic applause at Dumbledore's announcement. "Finally, I look forward to this year being considerably more peaceful than the last for most of us." Some students laughed, and others shouted loud affirmatives. Ginny, however, was troubled - had Dumbledore's eyes flickered to her just for a moment as he spoke the last phrase? "That is all. Tuck in!"

The first course of the feast appeared on the serving dishes, and everyone fell to with gusto. Ginny ate ravenously, not having had any lunch. In fact, she had noticed that she seemed to have a greater appetite all the time recently, though she had not put on any weight. She put this out of her mind as she chatted with Colin and the other seventh years, swapping stories about their summers.

******************************

Ginny awoke the next morning feeling fresh and ready for anything, after an untroubled night of completely dreamless sleep. She went down to breakfast humming cheerfully and collected her timetable, glad to have something normal to occupy her attention for once.

The day passed peacefully and without incident until the late afternoon. As she was walking down a corridor towards the stairs to the Gryffindor tower after her last class, Transfiguration, an unwelcome figure stepped out in front of her, closely followed by several others. Ginny groaned inwardly as she recognised Andrew Flint, a Slytherin boy who had spent quite a lot of the year before last asking her out in increasingly unpleasant tones until she had lost patience and got Harry to warn him off, and several of his leering hangers-on.

"Hello there," he said with a thoroughly nauseating smile.

"What is it, Flint? I thought I made it clear about four hundred times that I can't stand you and wouldn't go out with you if you were the last man on Earth." Ginny replied crossly, trying to brush past him.

"Ah, but that was before," Flint grinned. "This year is a little different, isn't it? What with lover-boy not being around. You'll be feeling a bit....lonely, I bet? I hate to see a pretty girl feeling lonely." He grabbed her arm to stop her getting away as his cronies chuckled. "C'mon, give me a chance. You know I can make it......aaaargh!"

Ginny, furious at him for ruining her good mood, wrenched at his arm and succeeded in whirling him through the air and smashing him flat on his face on the floor with an audible crack. She stared transfixed as he pulled himself to his knees, cradling his hand. "My arm," he said in disbelief. "She broke my arm!" His friends backed away from Ginny in alarm. One of them helped Flint to his feet, and they all took off down the corridor as fast as their feet would carry them, glancing fearfully back at Ginny.

She just goggled as she watched them go. She was going to be in trouble for this if she didn't explain about these unexpected new abilities, make it clear that it had been an accident. She needed to talk to Dumbledore - he seemed to know something.

This resolution made, she turned to head for Dumbledore's office, but had not even taken a step before a hesitant voice said "Miss Weasley?"

"What?" she demanded irritably, spinning round once more. The speaker backed away slightly, raising his hands defensively. It was the new librarian. "Sorry." Ginny said hastily.

"That's all right, you have every right to be annoyed at the moment. I saw your little...feat a moment ago, and I think I may be able to alleviate your confusion."

"You know what's happening to me?" Ginny asked, sensing that he knew more than just what he had just seen.

"If you are Miss Virginia Weasley, then yes, I know precisely what is happening to you."

She made a face. "Ugh, I haven't been called Virginia since I was about four. Just call me Ginny."

"Very well; you can call me James, then."

"So what is happening to me?"

"Ginny, you are a Slayer."