Thanks to my two reviewers! and Allen Pitt, I remember you, you reviewed some of my other stories, didn't you?
I realize that I forgot to add a disclaimer last chapter, my bad so here it is:
Disclaimer: I down own Buffy or Harry Potter they belong to Joss Whedon and J.K. Rowling respectively.
When they got to England, Faith hailed a cab and gave him directions to Giles' house. Once inside, Dawn decided that a little exploring was in order. She dropped her bag in the middle of the foyer and looked around the living room, it was very simple and modest, all cherry wood. She past the stairs and walked into the kitchen, it was bright and sunny with white curtains over the windows and a ceiling fan. There was a breakfast nook in the corner that looked like a cozy place to spend an evening reading.
She left the kitchen and traveled her hand over the banister of the staircase; it was a dark, almost black wood. She climbed the stairs and look into the first door, it was a full bathroom, across the hall was the master bedroom which she avoided for privacy reasons. Further down the hall was a guest bedroom with a single bed and a vanity, there was a large dresser against the far wall that reminded her of the moving one from Beauty and the Beast. Across the hall was yet another guestroom, looking the same as the first one.
Dawn exited the room and turned, staring at the blank wall at the end of the hall curiously. It looked to her that there should be something there. Like another door or maybe a tapestry. She blinked at the wall for a moment, running her hands over the smooth drywall then turned and walked back down the stairs to retrieve her bag.
Faith was on the phone in the living room, presumably with Buffy or Giles so Dawn decided to go pick her room and find some of Giles' books. She grabbed the first one she could find on the nearest shelf in the living room and then entered the kitchen to curl up in the nook.
Upon opening the book, however, she realized it was entirely in German. She sighed and dropped her chin onto her knees, pulling her hair behind her ears. She was horrible with German, ancient Sumarian however; she could read without a problem. Still, she had just gotten comfortable, so she decided to give the book a go and set about translating it in her head.
Twenty minutes and a single page turn later; Faith entered the room and looked around "I talked to B, Dawn" Faith said and Dawn looked up slowly, blinking her eyes to readjust them and ever so slowly she uncurled her long legs and placed her feet on the floor.
"I'd prefer it if you didn't call me Dawn" she answered "I'm used to all the nicknames people give me"
"What would you prefer I call you then?" Faith asked, eyebrows raised.
"Well…I'm pretty fond of Bit," she said slowly, as her mind turned to Spike and she smiled.
"A Spike nickname?" Faith laughed "I can tell…at least he doesn't call you Fluffy like he used to call Buffy."
"He's called Buffy a lot of things, nicknames are kind of his forte" Dawn continued smiling softly. "He's called me: Niblet, Bit, Platelet, bite-size…" She laughed at the last one and closed the book. "So what did you and Buffy talk about?"
"You" Faith replied, taking a seat across from her in the nook. "I told her about you asking me to train you and she agreed that it was a good idea as long as I didn't toss you to a pack of Vamps."
"Damn, there goes my plans for tonight" Dawn replied sarcastically.
"So, I think we should go out and buy some supplies" Faith interjected "proper training clothes, some snazzy weapons" she smirked and winked at the younger girl.
"Sounds fun, I'll get my purse" Dawn grinned. Suddenly, having Faith around wasn't so bad. She could tell that the other girl was trying her hardest to get along with Dawn and make this as seamless as possible. It was hard for both of them, Dawn knew, so Dawn made it a goal to be as mature about this as she could and make things less stressful for Faith.
As they walked down the streets of Aberdeen they talked, it didn't seem as though either one meant to, it just happened while they were looking through shops. Faith would say something, Dawn would reply and eventually it turned into a conversation that continued on for the rest of the shopping trip. For the first time in 4 years, Dawn was comfortable with who Faith was, she recognized all the progress that Faith had made and she was actually proud of her.
Dawn looked down the street as Faith browsed the windows of the nearest shop and saw a set of tracks, on the other side of the track was what interested Dawn, however. There was a village, and from the village she felt magic, it felt like it was pulling at her very core.
"Dawn!" Faith yelled, tugging at the smaller girl's arm "Come on, there's a store down here that sells weapons"
"Ok" Dawn nodded, straining her eyes to see the village; it seemed to be trying to fade out of sight.
Once they got everything that they needed, they headed back to Giles' house and started to set up in the basement. Faith reinforced Dawn's tumbling technique, showed her how to fall properly without injuring herself and showed her how to turn a fall into a tumble and keep right on going.
"I want to spar with you" Dawn said, shifting her weight from foot to foot on the blue matting on the floor.
"That's not such a good idea" Faith muttered, dropping her head slightly "I'm not exactly known for self control."
"Please?" Dawn asked brightly. She wasn't willing to say that she trusted Faith quite yet, but she wanted to be able to and this was a big step toward that.
"Ok…come at me" Faith said and took a deep, steadying breath.
Faith was hesitant to even strike out at Dawn, just content to block the younger girl's offensive maneuvers. But it wasn't long before Dawn got bored with that and demanded to be hit, so that she had something to block and return with.
Slowly, Faith worked up the courage to trade blows, holding back everything she had as she did so. Dawn encouraged Faith to add more force and even managed to sneak a hit past her defenses. Faith's shoulders dropped slightly as she began to relax and then her and Dawn really began to spar, her giving instructions to the smaller girl as she got knocked on her ass for the third time.
The sun began to set and Dawn retired to her room, emptying out the contents of her bag to get to the paper that she had stored there. As she began writing a note to the Sunnydale gang, she paused, looking out the window. There it was again, only stronger, like the nighttime intensified the fact that she could feel something pulling at her.
She rose from her chair and stood in front of the window, placing her hands on the glass, her dark hair falling over her shoulders and swinging jauntily in her peripheral vision. Her hazel eyes searched the night for anything that could be calling out to her, she didn't know what she was expecting, but a large neon sign would have been nice.
She looked behind her towards the door as she heard movement and then the shower started running and Dawn made up her mind, she grabbed her phone, stuffed it in her pocket and opened the window quickly, ducking her head as though to avoid being caught. Slipping expertly out the window and hopped nimbly to the nearest tree and swung down to the ground, she didn't know where she was going, but she'd definitely know when she got there.
Dawn moved gracefully through the night, living with a Slayer and many nights of sneaking out had taught her how. She briefly thought of calling Faith and telling her about what she was feeling but it just didn't seem right, it seemed like something that Dawn had to go at alone, so she did.
However, as soon as Dawn stepped out into the middle of the street, following her gut instead of her eyes, she really did wish that she had Faith with her. A small group of newly risen fledglings surrounded her, the dirt still not quite gone from their hair. Dawn knew there was no way that she could take all of them on and still manage to live to talk about it. So, doing what she did best, she kicked the nearest one in the shin and ran as fast as she could.
She could feel them gaining on her, even if she couldn't hear them and she attempted to pick up the pace, her phone rang loudly and she fished it out of her pocket with nary a pause. "H-hel…hell…o?" she breathed ragged.
"Dawn, did you sneak out?" Faith asked, sounding amused.
"Yuh-huh" she squeaked and rounded a corner, her legs pumping furiously.
"What are you doing?" Faith asked, her amused voice fading to slight concern.
"R…run…ing…." She answered.
"Are you being chased? Yes or No, short simple" Faith said, her voice giving way to the fact that she was completely on the alert now.
"Yes" Dawn answered, feeling the strength sap from her legs in a near physical sensation.
"How many?" Faith asked.
"Four" Dawn replied.
"Did you get any?" Faith question and she could hear a door slam in the background.
"No…kick" Dawn continued to breathe raggedly "can't…run…anymore…" she wheezed as she began to slow down.
"Keep going Dawnie, I'm almost there, you use a really strong perfume" Faith laughed slightly.
"Lavender" Dawn replied, doubling over as a stitch hit her side. The stitch was a miracle in disguise as it helped her to avoid being grasped around the neck. She rolled to her feet and took off again, the adrenaline rush giving her a renewed strength.
"Dawn, are you ok?" Faith asked, "Where are you? I see some vamps but you're nowhere in sight" the phone started fuzzing in and out and Dawn shook it slightly.
"I'm on the corner…Faith? Can you hear me? I said I'm on the corner near…Faith?" She groused loudly as her phone went dead and she gripped it tightly as she skidded to a halt near a building, she threw open the door and fell inside, hoping against hope that it wasn't a public establishment.
Dawn lay on the floor for a moment, panting and coughing, trying to return her lungs to normal, unaware that she was being gawked at. She lifted herself up slightly and her legs shuddered at the thought of moving again, but still, she lifted her head up to look at her surroundings. Boy was she ever shocked at what she saw, it seemed to be a bar of some type and there was a tall man with long black hair that hung limply around his taut face. He wore a long black robe that seemed to have endless layers to it and he was gripping a twig tightly in his hand.
The woman behind the counter had frizzy, curly hair and was in the process of pouring a glass of liquor, unaware that it was spilling over as she stared at the leggy brunette that had just dropped herself through the door.
"Hi…" Dawn said, her voice holding an odd squeaking noise as she continued to breath heavily. She sat up fully and tucked her hair behind her ears, looking around nervously with just a hint of curiosity shining in her eyes. This was where she was trying to go, and she had gotten here anyway, she could feel.
The woman realized her mistake instantly and righted the bottle grabbing a towel to clean the spill, the man fired up instantly, twig still clutched in his hand as he strode forward briskly and grabbed her tightly by the arm, pulling her to her feet. "Detention!" he yelled in her face and she was slightly taken aback "No student should be out of bed, especially down here in Hogsmeade, what house are you in?" he sneered.
"Um…come again?" she asked, too frightened to pull away from him yet to confused to not make a face at him.
"Your House, silly girl" he sneered "don't play ignorant, you're probably a Hufflepuff" his nose wrinkled in distaste, Dawn was completely confused. "I suppose I'll have to take you back the castle myself."
"I'm not…" Dawn began, when she finally realized what he was talking, he thought she was a student at a school, apparently a school that was near here and apparently it was a private school.
"Silence, you're already in enough trouble, I don't need to hear excuses" he spat and dragged her towards the door.
"No, you don't understand…" Dawn said, trying to shove away from him, but his grip held like iron.
"I understand perfectly, you got caught out of bed and now you don't want to get in trouble for it" he cut her off again and pushed open the door.
"You don't want to go out there…" Dawn told him quickly, attempting to pull back away from him.
"I don't need a student telling me what to do" he narrowed his eyes "especially one who is already in enough trouble, you would be best to keep quiet Miss…" he trailed off questioningly.
"Summers, but I'm not…" Dawn huffed in annoyance as he once again interjected on her sentence.
"Enough" he said as he pulled her out into the night.
Almost immediately, the group of fledglings was upon them, there was only three, so Dawn figured that Faith must have gotten the other one. The man immediately tightened all his muscles and shoved her behind him, holding the twig aloft. Dawn shook her head back and forth quickly, the man didn't know... he was going to get killed. As the vampire lunged forward she bent over and ran forward, spearing it in the gut and taking it down to the floor. She pulled a stake from her lower back, kicked the newly risen demon in the head and staked it through the heart.
She turned quickly and started trading blows with a different vampire, she managed to get the upper hand once, but he was too strong, less strong, however, than Faith was. Just as she was about to be overtaken she heard a loud 'incendre' from her right and the vampire burst into flames and collapsed into ashes, she kicked it's ashes sullenly and she noticed the man looking around wildly, as though to find more.
Dawn panted heavily and doubled over to put her hands on her knees, looking at the man wide-eyed and shocked. His lips were pursed into a thin white line and he looked to be containing his own look of shock. They locked eyes "Who are you?" they both demanded at the same time, ready to go back on the offensive if need be.