The Firewhiskey Chats

***For angelaask's birthday. Sorry about the delay.***



Title: This Old Place?

Series: The Firewhiskey Chats

Author: eena_angel2001

Email: eena_angel@hotmail.com

Rating: PG-13

Category: BTVS/HP

Pairing: Willow/Seamus

Disclaimer: Rowlings owns HP, Whedon owns BTVS.

Spoilers: OotP for HP, S7 for BTVS.

Summary: Just a drink before the war . . .

Notes: Dedicated to angelaask, on her birthday, who asked for any

Willow pairing with any HP male character, and that got me to

thinking of some I hadn't tried before. And behold! A new series on

the horizon. I hope you enjoy angelaask, and happy birthday once

more.



This Old Place?



He had insisted on making it up to me, and so I decided to

let him. After all, it wasn't often that a girl like me got invited

to have a drink with a tall, dark, and handsome man like this, and I

thought I should take advantage of it. Besides, after the night that

I had had, a drink sounded very good.



He escorted me to this quaint little pub, and the bartender

promptly seated us. I took a quick look around and noticed that

everyone here seemed to be dressed in long, dark robes. Fantastic, I

had been dragged into a wizard's bar. Hopefully these ones won't be

as skittish as the American wizards, who I think have banned me from

every single magical establishment the American ministry had

jurisdiction over. Yeesh, try to end the world and all of a sudden

people are treating you like you're some sort of criminal.



Okay, bad joke, but those are the only ones I've got

nowadays. Xander's usually much better in this area, but he's off in

Australia this month. Faith is also better at this than me, though

her jokes are often cruder, but unfortunately the brunette Slayer had

opted to be the responsible one and head back to report to Giles.

She hadn't given me much of a choice either. A quick shove towards

my would-be attacker was all that I got, other than a snicker or two

and the warning not to do anything she wouldn't do. I wonder how

effective that little saying is in Faith's case. There isn't much

that Faith wouldn't do, and that's by her own confession. I guess

she thought she was being cute or something.



"Will you be having the Firewhiskey, then?"



His question jolted me out of my thoughts. I raised my eyes

to find him waiting expectantly for my answer, and I just nodded in

consent though I had no idea what Firewhiskey was. Was it different

from regular whiskey? Giles might know; he's more of a drinker than

I am. The limited experience I've had with alcohol has been with

bottled beer and those girlie drinks they serve in restaurants. I

hoped that I could handle whatever it was that Seamus had ordered for

me.



"So, you are one of them Watchers, aren't you?" he asked

after signalling the bartender to bring us our drinks. "I've seen a

lot of you in the past months."



"I'm not exactly a Watcher," I replied with a shrug. "Maybe

more of a Watcher-in-Training than anything else. I haven't spent

enough time learning how to be a Watcher from Giles yet, and he's

hardly got the time to teach anyone right now. Maybe later when all

this fuss dies down."



"You think it'll die down soon?" he asked.



"I don't know," I said with a frown. "I mean, I don't even

know much about these bad guys and their Dark Lord or whatever. I

don't even remember his name, though Buffy kept saying it was

something like Vault of Warts."



Seamus laughed suddenly and then stopped himself as if

remembering where he was. "That's not what his name is, but I can't

tell you what it actually is," he told me. "His name is a curse in

our world. We try to avoid saying it."



"That's kind of silly," I told him. "How can you fight

someone when you're too afraid to say his name?"



"You're not the first person to make that argument, and

though it's a good, it's hard to change people's ways," Seamus said

with an easy smile. "Besides, it's not like he didn't give us all a

reason to be afraid. And now, it feels like he wants to give us

more."



"And he also feels like branching out," I continued for

him. "That's the third batch of bad wizards we've run into in the

past six weeks. Of course, this is the first time we've run into any

of you, Aurors did you say?"



"Yeah, Aurors," Seamus nodded, flushing slightly at the

mention of their meeting. "By the way, I'm sorry about what happened

out there. I mistook you for one of them, completely my fault-"



"Don't worry about it," I said dismissively. "There was a

lot of magic flying about. I'm just surprised most of it actually

landed on its intended targets."



"Quite a scuffle," he agreed. "And your friend, the

brunette, she certainly added to the excitement."



"It's what a Slayer does best," I laughed. "And Faith is no

exception. She loves a good fight."



"The way she was flying all over the place, I don't doubt she

could win all those fights," Seamus chuckled. "I particularly enjoyed it

when she knocked that Death Eater all the way to the end of the

alley. That was beautiful, I wish Harry could have seen it."



"Well, he might," I replied. "Giles said that he keeps

getting messages from your bosses at the Ministry. Apparently they

want to wipe the slate clean, forget all this Wizard-Watcher

animosity, and work together."



"And why do you sound so sceptical about it?" Seamus

interjected. "Trust me, there`s nothing shady about it. As soon as

we noticed the pattern of attacks, and saw that you guys were the

links, Dumbledore and Shacklebolt when straight to work trying to

open up the lines of communication."



"It's just, no offence or anything, but we haven't had the

best experience with you guys," I told him gently.



"Meaning, you haven't," Seamus said simply. "Faith swore

she's new to this way of magic, and I'm sure most of the other

Slayers are as well, but you're a witch. Certainly you know

something of our world-"



"And it hasn't been the greatest," I answered sharply. "Of

course, it's mostly my fault, but we're not getting into that. Let's

just say I don't like being told my power is nothing more than a

perversion that shouldn't have been allowed to happen."



"Who told you that?" he asked.



"Never mind," I muttered. "Say, where are our drinks?"



"Ah, a woman after my own heart," Seamus said with a grin

before he turned towards the bar. "Eh, Tom! Where's the bloody

Firewhiskey?"



"Keep your pants on," was the curt reply. The bartender

shuffled our way, plunking a bottle of liquor and two glasses down on

our table. "I was dealing with my paying customers first," Tom

explained, narrowing his eyes at Seamus.



"I'm a paying customer," Seamus protested. "Of course, when

I pay is an entirely different story."



"Well pay soon," Tom said briskly. "I've been running your

tab for over three weeks. You're lucky that Potter guarantees you'll

pay-"



"Of course he guarantees it," Seamus chuckled. "If I don't

do it myself, he'll just garnish my wages until it is paid off. So

what are you worrying about Tom? You'll get your money, you always

do."



"If it's that big of a deal, I've got-"



"Put it away girl," Seamus said in a serious tone. "I told

you I was buying you a drink, and I'm buying you a drink. Besides,

Tom here doesn't really like taking Muggle money, now does he?"



"Just drink your whiskey and get out," Tom snarled before he

walked away, grumbling about `new Aurors' and `snotty young pups'

under his breath. Seamus was seemingly oblivious to the man's

unhappiness, or in actuality, uncaring about Tom's grievances. He

was more concerned with pouring the Firewhiskey, which he did with

great relish.



"All right, bottom's up Willow," he prompted with a grin,

slipping the glass into my hand. "We've got a lot of bottle to get

through before we can leave."



"The whole bottle?" I shook my head. "I don't know, I'm not

that crazy about hard liquor."



"Just drink it down," he encouraged me. "Once the first

one's down, the next few go down easily. Trust me."



I eyed the brown liquid in my glass, and then turned my head

upwards to look at Seamus. He only grinned again and raised his

glass to mine.



"Cheers," he said before downing the whole glass in one sip.

I watched him carefully, noting that he didn't wince as the liquor

went down. That either meant that it wasn't that bad, or Seamus was

just very accustomed to it. I was betting on the latter.



"Oh well," I whispered as I raised the glass to my

lips. "Cheers."



~*~



When I woke up the next morning, my head was throbbing

horribly and my stomach felt like it was about to jump up my throat

and out of my body. The sun had flooded my room and lit the whole

place up, making it difficult for my bleary eyes to see anything

probably. I managed to turn myself over and get a look at my clock.

It was one-thirty in the afternoon.



"Ick," I moaned to myself before turning back to burrow my

head into my pillow.



"Oh no you don't."



I don't know why I hadn't noticed Faith before. Perhaps

because my mind was still groggy and my aching head protested too

much for me to take a proper look around when I woke up. Whatever

the reason, Faith was in my room, and making her presence felt.



One second I felt her foot on my ankle, and before I could

even open my scream to protest, I was hauled out of bed and dragged

onto the floor. My blankets fell around me and made it difficult for

me to see properly, let alone fight off the deranged Slayer

assaulting me in my own room.



"Faith!" I whined. "Let go! I'm too hung-over for this!"



"Well too bad," Faith returned wickedly. "Giles says it's

time to get up, and I think you should listen to him. After all,

he's so caught up in all this wizard business that if you obey him

quickly enough, he might even overlook the fact that you came home

last night with a drunken Irishman."



Seamus! I bolted upright and looked around my room for any

sign of my drinking partner.



"He's not here," Faith told me. "Some hottie with black hair

and green eyes showed up this morning to collect him. He so did not

look impressed with our boy Seamus."



"Did he and I-" I struggled to say. "That is, did we-"



"Have crazy, naked monkey sex?" Faith finished for me. "And

that would be a negative. He's surprisingly gentlemanly when he's

drunk. He didn't take advantage of you once. Just brought you here

right from the pub, and handed you over to me. He slept in the guest

bedroom down the hall, and hightailed it as soon as Mr. Hottie

arrived. But he did tell me to tell you that any time you wanted to

go for another drink, he'd be more than happy to oblige you."



My stomach turned again and I groaned. "I'm never drinking

again," I vowed.



Faith pouted. "So what? No more hunky Irishman hanging

about?"



"I said I wasn't going to drink again," I clarified. "I

never said that I wasn't going to see Seamus again."



"All right Willow," Faith said approvingly. "Back to driving

stick after such a long hiatus."



"You're so crude," I muttered before heading to my

bathroom. "Tell Giles I'm on my way. Just give me a minute to clean

up."



"Whatever," Faith said in a bored tone before flouncing out

of my room. I stumbled into the bathroom and made right for the

toilet. Ten minutes later, my stomach was empty, but my teeth were

brushed and I had managed to make myself somewhat presentable. I

wasn't joking before. I am never drinking again. No matter how cute

the Irishman, I wasn't going to drink again.



That Firewhiskey stuff just isn't for me.



~*~