Hi readers! I just wanted to say thank you for reading my story, and a humongous thanks to all those who have reviewed: matt, sofi, Amanda, Dee, Susan and LizaGirl. I like knowing if people are reading my story.

Also I'm going on holiday for 10days, so I won't be updating at all next week.

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CHAPTER 7- SUSPICIONS and VIGILANCE

"Dawn!" Hermione caught up with Dawn and the others as she was leaving the Great Hall. "Hi, I don't know if you remember me, I'm-"

"We remember you Hermione!"

"Right. That's good then. I just wanted to tell you three who you'd be rooming with because I'm the Gryffindor prefect." She told Dawn, Flick and Skye. "Skylar; you're going to be in a room with Ginny, Sharon, Katie and Alison. You two will be coming in with me, Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown. I don't know how we're all going to fit; maybe they've used magic to expand the room... I can't wait for classes to start tomorrow, what are you taking? I wonder who the new DADA teacher will be..."she mused.

Dawn and Flick exchanged grins. Hermione was very much like Willow. Even if they hadn't already found that out over the summer (Ron was constantly talking about her.), they could have worked it out over their brief conversation with her.

"Hey Skye! You're rooming with me, isn't it great! Come on I'll show you to our dorm! Hi Hermione!" Ginny dragged Skye towards the Gryffindor dorms.

"I'd say that I'd show you the way, but the guys can't get into the girls rooms. The stairs turn into a slide if we try to climb them." Harry explained.

"It's OK. We'll just wait for Hermione. You go."

"OK. See you tomorrow. Bye Flick." Harry went off to rejoin Ron with a wave.

"So you two seem to be pretty friendly. Harry said you met up again over the summer."

"Yeah. We saw each other a couple of times...did he tell you what for?"

"Yea. He said that you visited the Weasley's a lot 'cause there's not much to do here."

"Oh, Is that all he said?" Dawn asked casually trying to find out if Harry had told Hermione about the slayer-watcher thing.

"Yes. Why? Should he have said anything else?" Hermione was starting to get suspicious.

"No, no, it's just..." Dawn looked to Felicity for help.

"Dawn wanted to know if he'd said anything about her." Dawn flashed her friend a grateful smile, that turned into an irritated look.

"Oh." Hermione seemed happy with this explanation. "He's defiantly interested in you, but he doesn't know if you feel the same. To get into the Gryffindor rooms, you just say the password to the fat lady portrait." Hermione said, indicating a big portrait as she spoke. "Never tell the password to anyone outside Gryffindor. The password's Pumpernickel." The painting swung open and the three Gryffindor's clambered through the hole that had appeared.

"This is the common room." Hermione was saying. "The girls rooms are up here, your trunks should have been moved already."

For the next half hour, the witches unpacked. Then Hermione, Dawn and Flick went down to the common room to meet up with Ron and Harry who were playing wizarding chess.

"Check mate!" Ron exclaimed as the girls came down the stairs.

"Hi guys. Whatcha doing" Flick asked

"Wizarding chess. Do you want to play? Harry isn't very good at it, and that's an understatement."

"Hey!"

"What? Your not."

"I know...but still, Hey!"

"I'll give it a go." Flick volunteered

"Cool!" Ron set up for another game whilst Hermione watched. She couldn't help but feel jealous at Ron and Flicks happy chatter.

'He's your friend. NOTHING more. He probably doesn't even think of you that way. And anyway, all we do is fight.' Hermione turned around and met Dawn's knowing gaze and couldn't stop herself from blushing.

'Damn!' That was the problem with having girlfriends- you told them about boys and then they know how you feel.'

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"Wake up!" Hermione was trying to wake Dawn for the first day of classes.

"Here, allow me." Felicity offered. "Dawn, if you don't get up this minute, I'll tip up that bed with you on it and then you'll fall on to the nice cold floor!"

That got her up. Hermione was surprised that an empty threat like that got her up. 'After all,' she thought, 'Flick couldn't lift that bed if she tried.'

Despite their little wake up routine, all three made it to breakfast on time.

"Hey guys!" Jaden came over to the Gryffindor table. "Are we patrolling tonight?" she asked in a quieter voice.

"Jaden." Dawn scolded. But it had already been said and Hermione had heard.

"What's patrolling?" she asked.

"It's, ummm, an American thing!"

"Yeah, that's right! An American thing."

"What kind of thing?"

'Damn that girls suspicious' Dawn thought. 'That could be a problem.'

"Nothing much. It's kinda like a marching thing where we march and stuff." She finished lamely. Hermione didn't look convinced. "Talk to you later Jade."

"OK, sorry about that."

"Why's she sorry?" Hermione still wasn't convinced

"We didn't want anyone to know, about the patrolling, I mean."

"OK" Hermione said slowly.

The group continued with their breakfast, but Hermione was still suspicious.

'They're hiding something.' She thought. 'And I'm going to find out what it is.'

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"Hi Harry, Ron." Hermione said running up to her friends. "Did Dawn and Flick talk to you much over the summer?"

"I guess. Why?"

"Pur-lease. You didn't really believe that patrolling story did you? It's obvious that they're trying to hide something."

Hermione didn't see the looks Harry and Ron were trading behind her back.

"W...What do you mean, Hermione?"

"Patrolling club? Honestly Ron! What if they're spies for Voldrmort?"

"Dumbledore wouldn't let Voldemort's followers into the school." Harry pointed out.

"Half the Slytherin's are Voldemort's supporters, look at Malfoy, he'll take the dark mark as soon as he leaves school."

"But they're not in Slytherin."

"Jaden is."

Harry couldn't argue with that. He was surprised when one of the slayers was put into Slytherin and Dawn had been worried about her wanting power and something about having faith? Or possibly being like faith, but that didn't make any sense. Anyway Dawn knew more about these things than he did, and he could tell it scared her.

"Maybe not all of Slytherin are evil." Hermione looked at the boy-who-lived in surprise. He always insisted that all Slytherin's were evil.

"Maybe not. But we still need to find out what their secret is."

As Hermione strode off to history of magic, Harry and Ron exchanged worried glances.

"We can't let her find out." Harry said firmly.

"Why not? I mean I know Dawn said not to tell anyone but this is Hermione. We can trust her. Why can't we tell her?"

"Tell who what?" Another voice interrupted.

"D...Dawn!"

"Hi. Tell who what?"

"Hermione. About the slayer thing. We can trust her, Dawn, I know we can."

"I trust her too Ron. But," she held up her hand to stop his protests, "the less people who know the better. It's safer for her and us."

"But it's Hermione. She wouldn't tell anyone."

"Not intentionally, no. But what if she's forced to? There are magical ways to extract information, aren't there?" At their confirmation she continued. "Well what if she told someone about Flick or Skye or Me...or Ginny?"

She was playing dirty and she knew it. Ginny's safety was too important to Ron for him to risk it.

"But...OK." He relented. "I won't tell her."

"Me neither. But she will find out, she's not stupid." Harry warned.

"I know. And that's what worries me."

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Dawn looked around the class. Professor Binn's was droning on about some reformation or something at the front of the class and Hermione seemed to be the only one listening. Harry had fallen asleep on his textbook across his desk and Ron was doodling on his parchment. Dawn tried to focus on what the ghost was saying but soon drifted to sleep with her head on her hands.

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'Where am I?' Dawn thought. She spun around feeling a tap on her shoulder and found herself looking into Harry's eyes. He lifted a finger to his lips without saying a word, but Dawn understood the meaning: be quiet. He guided her though a forest until they came upon a group of people sitting around a chair. Dawn couldn't see the person sitting on the chair as he was in the shadows.

"Very good Wormtail." The person in the chair was saying. "You have pleased me."

"Th...thank you, my Lord."

"You may go. Tell Albert and Rasta to come to me" The small man backed away bowing. As he approached the edge of the clearing where Harry and Dawn were crouching, he turned towards them. Dawn couldn't stifle a gasp. He was the one who had ordered the men in cloaks to fire the killing curse at Felicity. But he didn't even look at them.

Dawn looked questionably at Harry who mouthed 'I'll explain later' Harry pointed at the man in the chair in the clearing 'Voldemort.' Dawn tried to get a better look at the rather frail looking man in the chair, but couldn't see. Instead she settled with mouthing a question at Harry. 'Why are we here?' 'I'll tell you later. Do you trust me?' he mouthed. Dawn nodded receiving a smile from Harry.

Another man, Albert, walked strait past them and approached the centre of the clearing where the chair sat. "My Lord," he said bowing his head, "I have made a great breakthrough in the protection spells surrounding some of our number. They should be able to come back to you soon."

"It's about time. I do not like to be kept waiting...but they do not need to be here yet. Do not free them until I say so."

"Yes, master."

"RASTA!" Voldermort hissed at a man cowering in the shadows. Albert made a hasty exit as Rasta reluctantly approached his master. "What more have you found of my prophecy?"

"We found someone who knew of the prophecy, my lord, a knight. We were going to question him this morning. But he killed himself before he could tell us about the key."

Harry felt Dawn grip his hand. When he looked at her, she looked terrified and all the colour had drained from her face.

"So you know nothing more."

"No, my Lord." The man admitted.

"Nothing more? All I know is that this key can give great power to me or Harry Potter." He practically spat out Harry's name. "What if he finds it first?"

"I'll try harder my lord."

"You cannot do it, you're useless. Cruico!"

Harry clutched his forehead in pain and suddenly Dawn was thrust back into her class.

"Harry?" she heard Ron say. Harry seemed to be having a fit. He was clutching his forehead and moaning in pain, but was still asleep. Suddenly he shot upright in his chair, wide-awake.

"Are you OK, mate?" Ron asked

"Yeah, I just need some fresh air. Professor?" with Professor Binn's consent he left the class. About five minutes later the bell went and the rest of the class left.

Dawn, Ron, Hermione and Flick hurried off to find Harry. They found him in the Gryffindor common room.

"Are you OK?"

"I'm fine."

"Why did that happen? You were fine in the forest."

"The forest?" Ron was confused. "You were in History of Magic."

"The dream was in the forest. Why were you there?"

"I don't know." Dawn admitted. "I've prophetic dreams before, but nothing like this."

"Prophetic dreams? Real one?"

"Yeah. Not often through."

"Whoa. Trawnerly would go nuts! Do you predict deaths?"

"Ron, we're getting off topic. What was the dream about?" Hermione reminded them of the matter at hand.

"Voldemort." Harry said dully. "He said that he was getting more supporters to come back to him and that a key would give one of us power."

"What kind of key? A key to what?"

"I don't know. He wanted to find it before me."

"Then we'll find it first. I'll go to the library and look in some of the books."

"What about these followers?" Ron asked, rolling his eyes at Hermione's predictability.

It was Dawn who answered him. "He's going to get the death eaters out the Azkaban."

"Bloody hell!"

"Ron, don't cuss. He can't there are shields and aurors stopping them from escaping."

"They've found a way to get through the shields."

"We've got to tell Dumbledore."

"We have DADA in five minutes." Ron pointed out.

"Then we'll go afterwards."

"Hey, who's the new teacher? Did you see anyone knew at the feast, Harry?"

"No. You don't think Snape's taking it do you?" Flick shuddered. She'd only been coming to Hogwarts for a couple of months, but she already disliked the potions master as much as the other Gryffindor's.

"Honestly don't you two listen to Dumbledore?" at their blank faces, Hermione continued. "The teacher hasn't arrived yet, so we get a sub until they arrive."

"Thank Merlin!" Ron muttered as the group rushed to their next lesson.

"I don't believe it!" Harry exclaimed as they entered the room. Draco Malfoy came in behind them and went very pale.

"Hurry up and sit down." A gruff voice said.

The students hurried to their places and waited for the teacher to start the lesson.

"Welcome to class. Some of you think you have met me before. I am Professor Moody." He said lifting up his hat and making a third blue eye rotate in its socket. "Today, we are going to practice counter curses. I am told you learnt the theory last year, but that won't get you anywhere if you are attacked as a lot of you will be at some point. Constant vigilance! You have to learn that...pair off!"

Felicity went with Jaden, much to the disgust of a lot of their classmates, Harry asked Dawn and Ron hesitantly asked Hermione. In each pair they swapped between hurling minor curses and raising a shield to deflect the jinxes.

Malfoy, partnered with Pansy Parkinson, was accidentally hit with a curse that deflected off Dawn's shield that turned his hair blue. Too get his revenge, he hurled a boggy jinx at Dawn when her back was turned, and only just managed to duck as it reflected back at him hitting Pansy.

"Summers! Malfoy! Potter! Come here!" Professor Moody saw what happened and called the trio over before Harry retaliated with a particularly nasty boils hex. "Parkinson, go to the nurse." He said to the sobbing girl who fled the classroom before he finished speaking. "What happened?"

"Malfoy hurled a hex at Dawn when her back was turned." Harry explained.

"Did you put up that shield for her, Potter?"

"No, I don't know how she did that. She couldn't have seen it coming."

"I had a reserve shield up. I always have one, just in case." Dawn explained. Moody looked impressed.

"What kind of shield? You can't hold any shield I know for too long of a time."

"No, sir. It's a Wicca protection spell."

"You can do Wicca?"

"What's the point in being a Wicca?" Malfoy scoffed. "They are only muggle wannabes!"

"Well if reflected your curse pretty well Malfoy. Besides didn't you hear about the Wicca who nearly destroyed the world? Well she's amazingly powerful and she taught me a lot of what I know."

"Where are you from Summers?" Moody asked

"America"

"Yes, yes, I know that, where abouts in America?"

"California. Sunnydale to be exact."

"The hellmouth?"

"Yes, sir." Dawn was surprised. Not many people knew about the hell mouth.

"Why do you always have a shield up?"

"Constant Vigilance?" Dawn suggested. "Living on a hellmouth means you can be attacked at any time."

"A little paranoid, don't you think?" Malfoy sneered.

"Just cause you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that they're not out to get you." Dawn retorted.

"Absolutely!" Moody exclaimed. "I like you kid- sound way of thinking, keep you alive longer."

"Err thanks, I think."

"Malfoy, sit down. 100 points from Slytherin."

"Miss Summers, one more question. Why, if Harry was the only one hexing you, did you keep the shield up?"

"Someone else may try something." Dawn replied. "My sister always said never assume anything, including who may be trying to kill you. Just cause one person tries to kill you; there's no reason why someone else may try to do the same."

"Good answer."

"How good?"

"10 points to Gryffindor."

"Thanks professor!" Dawn said going back to her place.

"I really like that girl!" Moody said to Harry. "You could learn something. Constant vigilance, Potter. Never forget it."

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The next morning, there was much chatter at breakfast. And it centred on the new DADA teacher who had been seen arriving that morning, but who hadn't been seen since.

"I wonder who it." Ron said to Dawn, who was bright eyed for breakfast as she and Flick had gone for a run that morning.

"No idea." Said Dawn with a smile.

"You know something." Accused Harry.

"Who? Me?"

"Yes, defiantly."

"Whoever it is won't last more than a year anyway." Said Ron.

"Why not?"

"The curse. First year was Quirrell, he turned out to be evil and tried to kill Harry. Second year was Lockhart, he obliviated himself-"

"Obliviated himself?" Dawn asked, not understanding.

"Lost his memory, totally. Anyway, then it was Lupin but he was a werewolf and the parents didn't want him teaching."

"That's stupid. He would have only been a wolf for three nights a month and then he could've locked himself up then."

"How do you know so much about werewolf's?" Hermione asked. She was still trying to find out the so-called exchange students secret and not having much luck.

"They were attracted to the hellmouth where I used to live." Dawn lied, not wanted to tell them about Oz. "Most of them just locked themselves in a cage before sunset and rode it out in there."

"So, after Lupin, it was an evil Moody impersonator who tried to kill Harry and last year it was Umbridge who made us read the textbook's all lesson and kept trying to prove Harry was crazy."

"You don't have much luck with Defence teachers do you?" Flick joked to Harry.

"Not really. I-"

He was cut off by Dumbledore entering. When the hall was quiet, he began to talk.

"Good morning, I hope you all slept well. Today our newest Defence Against the Dark Arts professor begins teaching; I know you will all make him fell welcome. He was once a student here at Hogwarts. Without any further ado, I introduce you to Professor Giles."

Giles entered the hall, to a round of applause, smiling at Dawn who waved back. "Hello." He greeted. "I look forward to teaching you."

"In addition to Professor Giles, we also have some new staff joining us to take additional classes. But they wont be at Hogwarts for another month as they have unfinished business to attend to. With that said, everyone tuck in!"

"Did you know he was coming?" Harry asked

"Of course! I recommended him."

"You know the new Professor?" Semus Finnegan called from down the table.

Dawn could feel Giles watching her, listening to the Gryffindor's, but that didn't affect her answer.

"Yes, I do."

"How?"

Dawn smiled at Giles. She had been angry at him for trying to kill Spike even though she and the bleached vampire weren't on the best of terms. Thing's hadn't been the same between them since that, especially with Spike dying in the final battle.

She turned to Semus and said in a clear voice: "He's family."

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I just did a word count: over thirty-two-hundred words! My longest chapter yet!

Do you want the Scooby's to come to Hogwarts? Also, do you want Draco Malfoy to be evil? It's your choice, if I don't get reviews, I'll just do whatever.

Please review and tell me what you want or don't want to happen in the next few chapters.

Kiara x x x