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fandomweekly2024-09-27 02:12 pm
badly_knitted) wrote in fandomweekly2024-09-27 02:12 pm
Entry tags:
[#235] Gone Awry (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Theme Prompt: 235 - Magic
Title: Gone Awry
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating/Warnings: PG / None
Bonus: Yes.
Word Count: 1000
Summary: Willow really thought this time she’d found a way to de-rat Amy, only the spell has somehow gone a bit wrong.
De-ratting Amy was NOT going to plan. Willow was trying her best, reading every book on magic she could get her hands on, and Tara was helping her practice spells and… other things. You know, potions, charms, and… stuff. When they weren’t otherwise occupied with college classes, homework, and… certain extra-curricular activities. But Amy was still a rat. A very cute and well-behaved rat, true, but it wasn’t an ideal situation.
The new, or actually very old, spell book Willow had recently acquired looked promising though, and she’d already mastered a couple of the minor enchantments in the first section, so… Maybe she should have kept working her way through the spells in order instead of jumping ahead to the transformative incantations, but rats weren’t especially long-lived, and she didn’t know how long Amy might have before… Well, there was no way of knowing whether Amy as a rat would still have a human lifespan. It would be awful if she died before Willow could turn her back.
So yes, she’d jumped ahead, and started practising turning one thing into something else, inanimate objects at first, and that had worked well enough, turning a pencil into a ruler, a pillow into a cushion, a chair into a table, and okay, it had ended up as a rather small table, but it had worked. She’d even turned an apple into a carrot, and back again, and it had still looked, smelled, and tasted like an apple after it was back in its original form.
She’d been so sure she could do it; she’d even gathered her friends around to witness Amy’s restoration! In retrospect, that might not have been the best idea. There only thing she could think to do was call Giles.
“And you’re sure this is the spell you used?” Giles polished his glasses and put them on again before studying the incantation once more.
“Yes, but it didn’t work quite the way it was supposed to.” On Tara’s dormitory bed, Amy sat up on her haunches and squeaked. Willow smiled apologetically. “Sorry, Amy.” She turned back to Giles. “I was so careful! I was sure I’d done everything exactly right, but instead of turning Amy back into a girl, this happened; I don’t know what went wrong.” Her shoulders slumped.
Feeling something tugging at his foot, Giles looked down; a rabbit was eating his shoelace. He moved his foot, but the rabbit followed. “So this is… Buffy?”
“Or Xander, or someone. I don’t know! They’re rabbits, they all look the same to me! Besides.” Willow looked at perhaps two dozen rabbits hopping around the room, chewing on the rugs and the furnishings. “There weren’t this many people in here when I cast the spell. I have no idea where all the extra rabbits came from.”
“Perhaps you didn’t turn everyone into rabbits then. You might simply have sent them somewhere and replaced them with rabbits.” Giles looked hopeful. “Then we’d just have to send the rabbits back where they came from, and hopefully that would bring the others back.”
“But it’s a transformation spell,” Willow reminded him. “Maybe it turned each person into several rabbits, in which case… Oh, what if we turn them back and they’re all mixed up, bits of several people combined into one! That would be bad.”
“Yes, it would.” Taking his glasses off, Giles pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have to make some phone calls. I’ll be back.” Detaching the rabbit from his shoelace, Giles picked up the spell book and made for the door. “Don’t let any of the rabbits escape.” Pushing one away from the door with his foot, Giles slipped through, quickly closing it behind him.
With a heavy sigh, Willow sat down on the bed. “I was so sure it would work!” she told Amy as the rat rested a paw on her leg. “All my other transformations did, and I followed the instructions to the letter, I’m sure I did!” She shook her head. “No, I THOUGHT I did, but I must have got something wrong, because you’re still a rat and now all my friends are rabbits, and if Giles can’t find a way to fix this…” Trailing off, Willow flopped backwards onto the mattress. “We’re all doomed. Seriously! I turned Buffy into a rabbit! How can she fight vampires like that? Bunny the Vampire Slayer doesn’t have the same ring to it, and anyway, I can’t see vampires being scared of something small and fluffy.”
It was almost two hours before Giles came back, carrying several books and a notepad. Willow jumped to her feet as he came in. “What did you find out? Can you turn them back?”
Giles shook his head. “The only person who can undo a spell from this book is the one who cast it. I called the Council, made some enquiries, and… well, apparently it has a bit of a reputation for being unreliable. The… ah… person who wrote it appears to have been something of a trickster and cast a randomisation charm on the spells, so that they don’t always do what they’re supposed to.”
Willow stared at him in horror. “But we can’t leave everyone as rabbits!”
“Hopefully we won’t have to. There is a counter-spell on the last page that should, in theory, reverse the effects of any spell cast from the book, but it’s written in code, so I had to get some assistance in deciphering it.” Giles handed the notepad to Willow, having found the right page. “I’ll wait outside. I wasn’t here when the original spell was cast, so my presence might… cause problems.”
“Right, okay.” Willow sat down on the bed again as Giles left, giving the spell a quick read-through. She drew a deep breath. “Okay, here goes nothing…”
Thankfully, the spell had the desired effect, turning everyone back into themselves. Well, except for Amy, who was still a rat.
“Sorry, Amy. I tried.”
Oh well, better luck next time.
The End
The new, or actually very old, spell book Willow had recently acquired looked promising though, and she’d already mastered a couple of the minor enchantments in the first section, so… Maybe she should have kept working her way through the spells in order instead of jumping ahead to the transformative incantations, but rats weren’t especially long-lived, and she didn’t know how long Amy might have before… Well, there was no way of knowing whether Amy as a rat would still have a human lifespan. It would be awful if she died before Willow could turn her back.
So yes, she’d jumped ahead, and started practising turning one thing into something else, inanimate objects at first, and that had worked well enough, turning a pencil into a ruler, a pillow into a cushion, a chair into a table, and okay, it had ended up as a rather small table, but it had worked. She’d even turned an apple into a carrot, and back again, and it had still looked, smelled, and tasted like an apple after it was back in its original form.
She’d been so sure she could do it; she’d even gathered her friends around to witness Amy’s restoration! In retrospect, that might not have been the best idea. There only thing she could think to do was call Giles.
“And you’re sure this is the spell you used?” Giles polished his glasses and put them on again before studying the incantation once more.
“Yes, but it didn’t work quite the way it was supposed to.” On Tara’s dormitory bed, Amy sat up on her haunches and squeaked. Willow smiled apologetically. “Sorry, Amy.” She turned back to Giles. “I was so careful! I was sure I’d done everything exactly right, but instead of turning Amy back into a girl, this happened; I don’t know what went wrong.” Her shoulders slumped.
Feeling something tugging at his foot, Giles looked down; a rabbit was eating his shoelace. He moved his foot, but the rabbit followed. “So this is… Buffy?”
“Or Xander, or someone. I don’t know! They’re rabbits, they all look the same to me! Besides.” Willow looked at perhaps two dozen rabbits hopping around the room, chewing on the rugs and the furnishings. “There weren’t this many people in here when I cast the spell. I have no idea where all the extra rabbits came from.”
“Perhaps you didn’t turn everyone into rabbits then. You might simply have sent them somewhere and replaced them with rabbits.” Giles looked hopeful. “Then we’d just have to send the rabbits back where they came from, and hopefully that would bring the others back.”
“But it’s a transformation spell,” Willow reminded him. “Maybe it turned each person into several rabbits, in which case… Oh, what if we turn them back and they’re all mixed up, bits of several people combined into one! That would be bad.”
“Yes, it would.” Taking his glasses off, Giles pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have to make some phone calls. I’ll be back.” Detaching the rabbit from his shoelace, Giles picked up the spell book and made for the door. “Don’t let any of the rabbits escape.” Pushing one away from the door with his foot, Giles slipped through, quickly closing it behind him.
With a heavy sigh, Willow sat down on the bed. “I was so sure it would work!” she told Amy as the rat rested a paw on her leg. “All my other transformations did, and I followed the instructions to the letter, I’m sure I did!” She shook her head. “No, I THOUGHT I did, but I must have got something wrong, because you’re still a rat and now all my friends are rabbits, and if Giles can’t find a way to fix this…” Trailing off, Willow flopped backwards onto the mattress. “We’re all doomed. Seriously! I turned Buffy into a rabbit! How can she fight vampires like that? Bunny the Vampire Slayer doesn’t have the same ring to it, and anyway, I can’t see vampires being scared of something small and fluffy.”
It was almost two hours before Giles came back, carrying several books and a notepad. Willow jumped to her feet as he came in. “What did you find out? Can you turn them back?”
Giles shook his head. “The only person who can undo a spell from this book is the one who cast it. I called the Council, made some enquiries, and… well, apparently it has a bit of a reputation for being unreliable. The… ah… person who wrote it appears to have been something of a trickster and cast a randomisation charm on the spells, so that they don’t always do what they’re supposed to.”
Willow stared at him in horror. “But we can’t leave everyone as rabbits!”
“Hopefully we won’t have to. There is a counter-spell on the last page that should, in theory, reverse the effects of any spell cast from the book, but it’s written in code, so I had to get some assistance in deciphering it.” Giles handed the notepad to Willow, having found the right page. “I’ll wait outside. I wasn’t here when the original spell was cast, so my presence might… cause problems.”
“Right, okay.” Willow sat down on the bed again as Giles left, giving the spell a quick read-through. She drew a deep breath. “Okay, here goes nothing…”
Thankfully, the spell had the desired effect, turning everyone back into themselves. Well, except for Amy, who was still a rat.
“Sorry, Amy. I tried.”
Oh well, better luck next time.
The End
no subject
Amy does get turned back eventually, but not until the sixth season, if I'm remembering correctly.
no subject
I kinda remember thinking Amy being a rat was cute, despite my aunt (who was a big Buffy fan a while ago).
no subject
I've kind of stalled halfway through season three in my current re-watch, too many other things demanding my attention, but I'll get back to it eventually, maybe over winter while I'm knitting. At the moment, if I want to write something set post-season three I have to find the episode transcripts. I really need to write some drabbles set in the later seasons, lol!