Disclaimer: These characters belong to either 'the god' Joss Whedon, or the wonderful J.K. Rowling. :)
Author's Note: Okay everyone! I've gone through and revised my previous chapters trying to tie up some loose ends (and hopefully not create more!). Also I'd like to thank Interested for volunteering to be my beta reader (for the storyline part of the story...hehe).
Oh, and Christmas is right around the corner so obviously I'll be really busy and I also have relatives staying over soon. After Christmas I'm also going away for a little bit (not too long). But I'll take some paper and a pen and see if I can get some writing time while I'm gone.
Anyway, here are the responses to the reviews from Chapter 7:
Interested: Hehe, that's true about Snape. At the time I couldn't think of anything for him to say before he went away so I went back later and fixed that up, I think. Lol. I'm also working on the 'volume' thing, I've got so many ideas it's hard to say everything I want and then I tend to forget about expanding or returning to other occurrences in the story.
WiccanOne48: I don't think you have to complain about the evil cliffhanger, I've been pretty nice so far, hehe :)
A Watcher: Hehe, I thought I might just annoy a few people by doing that. Thanks for reviewing!
Thanks for the reviews, you guy's rock and don't know how much it means to me to get feedback! Anyway, onto the chapter!
* * *
Chapter 8 - Green-eyed Monster
"...Congratulations Geoffrey Hooper!" Angelina announced.
Mostly there was a moan of disappoint, coming from all the people who tried out and their friends. However, there was a cheer from a corner of the room where Geoffrey and his friends stood.
Dawn, sitting on the couch, could feel the eyes of her sister and friends on her. It didn't make her feel any better, to say the least.
Hermione dropped herself on the couch next to her twin and reached over to give Dawn's hand a quick supportive squeeze.
"Oh well," Harry spoke up. "You gave it your best."
Ron joined in encouraging Dawn. "Yeah, and I bet you were pretty close to getting the keeper too."
Dawn frowned, attempting to decide if that was a compliment.
Hermione noticed this and jumped in. "Ron means that you were that good that he's sure it was close, we saw you out there and you were great."
Dawn still hadn't spoken up; she was so let down. She quickly stood up and backed out from the couches.
"I'm going to go up to the Girls' dorm, I'm kind of tired from everything that's happened today." She explained, indicating to the Girls' staircase.
She turned around to walk towards the stairs but Hermione called something out. "But it's dinner time, you have to eat!"
"I'm not really that hungry." Dawn replied without looking back.
She entered the empty dormitory, one side lavished with Parvati's and Lavender's endless supply of robes sprawled across the floor and the other side kept in pristine condition - Hermione and Dawn's side. Even though Dawn wasn't a neat freak, unlike her sister, she did keep everything in place to please her sister.
She walked over to her four-poster bed near the window and flopped onto it, stuffing her face into her pillow in the process.
"Finally I found something that I really wanted," She began talking quietly to herself. "But of course I'm never good enough."
To get her mind of the disappointing news, Dawn thought that she might finally read her parents' letter. She pulled it out from her pocket and unfolded it carefully.
Dear Hermione and Dawn,
Your father and I are already missing you and we hope that you can come home next holidays. Hermione, look out for you sister and make sure she does all her homework because it's an important year.
Dawn stopped reading momentarily.
"That makes me sound like I'm stupid or something!" She thought to herself, she was now focusing her annoyance towards the letter instead of trying to forget how annoyed she was. She continued reading.
We trust that your prefect duties are going well, Hermione. Your father and I just can't express how proud we are.
Dawn, we hope you're feeling better after that horrible stomach bug you had during the end of the holidays and are doing well with your classes.
Your father and grandparent's all say 'hello' and hope to see you next holidays.
Love,
Mum and Dad.
Dawn groaned as the placed the letter on the bed, a jealous voice quietly speaking in the back of her mind. "Mum and dad didn't say that they were proud of me!"
She jumped up off her bed. She was going crazy and needed to clear her head so she left the room swiftly.
Dawn decided that wandering the quiet corridors while everyone was at dinner sounded like a good idea to clear her head. She turned a left after exiting the Portrait Hole.
She wandered the corridors, completely lost in her thoughts that she was completely unaware of where her feet were leading her.
Before she'd known she'd rounded one of the many corners in the castle and straight into something solid. She fell to the ground with a small thud.
The solid object appeared to be a person and he called out. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
He has just left the room he was staying with when Dawn had accidentally collided with him. She looked up and took his offered hand to help her stand back up.
"Sorry Professor..." She trailed off waiting for him to offer his name; she didn't take Muggle Studies because she was muggleborn.
He chuckled slightly. "I'm no Professor, believe me. I feel more comfortable if everyone around here calls me Xander."
Dawn scowled somewhat, if he wasn't an actual Professor, then what was he doing at Hogwarts assisting with Muggles Studies?
Xander realised his tiny mistake and decided to change the subject quickly. Since they were both headed in the same direction, he motioned for them to both start walking slowly.
"Why aren't you at dinner in the Great Hall?" Xander questioned with a concerned frown.
She sighed and began to talk. "I didn't really feel like going to dinner, I was just really disappointed and annoyed that I didn't make the Quidditch team - I worked really hard for it."
Dawn didn't know why she was pouring out her thoughts to a stranger that she'd just run into in the hallway. But he seemed kind of understanding and trustworthy for some reason.
"Life can really suck sometimes." Xander said grimly, recalling some of the horrific events that have occurred since he met Buffy. "So, what house are you in...?"
"Oh, my name is Dawn, Dawn Granger." She said quickly, realising she'd not given her name. "And I'm in Gryffindor."
She paused momentarily; many things didn't match up. The Gryffindor logo was proudly displayed on her robes, why didn't this new Professor know the school houses?
While she was thinking another thought occurred to her. "Why is it that Hogwarts got so many new Professor's this year, and you all seem to be close friends?"
Xander shrugged, trying to come up with the right answer that would satisfy Dawn's curiosity.
"I don't know, we come in one big package, I guess." He finished off with a dashing-Xander-smile.
A thought appeared in the back of Dawn's mind. "He's kind of cute in a dopey sort of way," Dawn stopped herself right there. "Sod it, I shouldn't really think that about a Professor."
Snapping out of her thoughts, she noticed that they'd walked back to the hallway that lead to the Portrait Hole. Xander had still had no idea how to navigate around most of the castle, so he started down the hallway in the opposite direction.
"The Gryffindor Tower's this way," Dawn pointed out. "I'm going back up to my room. Thanks for listening."
"No problem, Dawn. Don't worry about the Quidditch thing." Xander said before he walked off.
Dawn started heading towards the Portrait Hole but ran into Harry not far down the track, it appeared he'd just returned from dinner in the Great Hall.
"What were you talking about?" Harry asked, peering back down the corridor.
Dawn smiled for the first time since the start of the day. "Oh, nothing much - just talking about some things."
"Like what?" Harry frowned a little.
Dawn had to refrain from laughing because of the way Harry was asking and how he seemed to be pressing the issue a bit. "Just venting out my thoughts that were annoying me."
Harry's frown disappeared as they entered the Common Room.
"Well... you can always talk to me, you know." He said quietly and softly.
Dawn's heart fluttered. "Thanks, Harry." She briefly threw her arms around him.
They said their goodnights before Dawn turned to rush up the stairs and into her dorm. She only got a few steps away when she heard a painful groan. Dawn turned around to see Harry at the foot of the Boys' Staircase.
"Are you alright?" She questioned when she noticed Harry was holding his forehead.
Harry nodded slowly. "Yeah, don't worry - just a little pain from my scar."
Dawn wasn't quite convinced; she stood there for a minute and had noticed that the pain had apparently gone. She said goodnight again and hurried up the stairs to her dorm.
Hermione was sitting on her bed reading a book, as usual.
As Dawn sat down on her bed opposite her sister, she felt her stomach give a huge rumble. She hadn't eaten since lunchtime.
"I took the liberty of taking some food for you." Hermione happened to say at the right time, she pointed to a plate of food sitting on Dawn's side table.
Every thought of jealousy that had run through Dawn's head earlier was instantly forgotten.
"Thanks." She said simply right before she jumped tackled Hermione and they fell onto the floor laughing.
* * *
Buffy was woken up to Willow shaking her rather fiercely. She rubbed her eyes and sat up.
"Will, what is it?" She asked groggily.
As soon as Willow noticed that Buffy had woken up, she leapt up from her kneeling position.
"Quick," Willow began urgently. "Apparently there's an important meeting in Dumbledore's Office right now!"
Buffy squinted and peered over at her watch. "At this time of the morning, it's three thirty!"
"I have no idea what it's about, but I was just talking to Giles and he made out that it was serious."
Buffy leaped out of her bed, throwing back her covers in a messy heap. She ran over to her wardrobe and pulled on a jacket and some rather fluffy looking slippers.
Walking along the dark, deserted hallways, Willow and Buffy stumbled upon a few of the other Scooby Gang members: Xander and Anya. They too had looked like they'd left their rooms in a hurry with jackets thrown over their pyjamas.
Once they'd all passed the gargoyle, they all gathered around the fireplace in Dumbledore's Office. Giles and Tara were already there waiting with grim looks on their faces, they'd already been informed as it appeared.
Dumbledore toddled over and sat in front of the group; he was in a serious mood, which wasn't that often.
"An hour ago, Minerva informed me that Mr. Potter had a disturbing dream tonight." Dumbledore stopped to let Giles explain the significance of Harry's dreams to Buffy, Willow, Xander and Anya.
Giles took of his glasses. "You see, since the night when Voldemort (Giles didn't believe in not speaking his name) attempted to use the death curse on Harry and backfired, there has been a sort of connection created between him and Voldemort because of that. So, sometimes Harry's scar may hurt when something bad to do with Voldemort is occurring and lately this sense has progressed to dreams."
Willow looked highly interested. "So, this dream from tonight was to do about Voldemort?"
"And it's not good news either, judging by the looks on your faces when we walked in." Anya added.
Dumbledore spoke up again. "You are both correct, Miss Rosenburg and Miss Jenkins. From the information that we acquired from you, Miss Summers, we have found out that Glory and Voldemort are now working together to find the Key."
"Shit!" Buffy exclaimed, slightly under her breath.
"So instead of just worrying about Glory being after the Key, Voldemort is too now?" Willow asked with disbelief.
Dumbledore nodded. "This also means that there will now be Death Eaters sent after the Key too, which will put Hogwarts in some danger."
"Why does this Voldy guy want the Key, we know why Glory does, but what use is it to him?" Xander questioned reasonably.
Tara spoke in the conversation for the first time. "A-at first I asked myself that question too, but then I realised that if the Key can open the door separating dimensions, t-then it would have to have a lot of power, right?"
Dumbledore and Giles both nodded in agreement.
Giles gently cleaned his glasses. "There's no telling what Voldemort could do if he found the Key."
* * *
A.N - Merry Christmas everyone!! I'll be back with another chapter probably in a few weeks. Now Please review and I'll love you forever!
Author's Note: Okay everyone! I've gone through and revised my previous chapters trying to tie up some loose ends (and hopefully not create more!). Also I'd like to thank Interested for volunteering to be my beta reader (for the storyline part of the story...hehe).
Oh, and Christmas is right around the corner so obviously I'll be really busy and I also have relatives staying over soon. After Christmas I'm also going away for a little bit (not too long). But I'll take some paper and a pen and see if I can get some writing time while I'm gone.
Anyway, here are the responses to the reviews from Chapter 7:
Interested: Hehe, that's true about Snape. At the time I couldn't think of anything for him to say before he went away so I went back later and fixed that up, I think. Lol. I'm also working on the 'volume' thing, I've got so many ideas it's hard to say everything I want and then I tend to forget about expanding or returning to other occurrences in the story.
WiccanOne48: I don't think you have to complain about the evil cliffhanger, I've been pretty nice so far, hehe :)
A Watcher: Hehe, I thought I might just annoy a few people by doing that. Thanks for reviewing!
Thanks for the reviews, you guy's rock and don't know how much it means to me to get feedback! Anyway, onto the chapter!
* * *
Chapter 8 - Green-eyed Monster
"...Congratulations Geoffrey Hooper!" Angelina announced.
Mostly there was a moan of disappoint, coming from all the people who tried out and their friends. However, there was a cheer from a corner of the room where Geoffrey and his friends stood.
Dawn, sitting on the couch, could feel the eyes of her sister and friends on her. It didn't make her feel any better, to say the least.
Hermione dropped herself on the couch next to her twin and reached over to give Dawn's hand a quick supportive squeeze.
"Oh well," Harry spoke up. "You gave it your best."
Ron joined in encouraging Dawn. "Yeah, and I bet you were pretty close to getting the keeper too."
Dawn frowned, attempting to decide if that was a compliment.
Hermione noticed this and jumped in. "Ron means that you were that good that he's sure it was close, we saw you out there and you were great."
Dawn still hadn't spoken up; she was so let down. She quickly stood up and backed out from the couches.
"I'm going to go up to the Girls' dorm, I'm kind of tired from everything that's happened today." She explained, indicating to the Girls' staircase.
She turned around to walk towards the stairs but Hermione called something out. "But it's dinner time, you have to eat!"
"I'm not really that hungry." Dawn replied without looking back.
She entered the empty dormitory, one side lavished with Parvati's and Lavender's endless supply of robes sprawled across the floor and the other side kept in pristine condition - Hermione and Dawn's side. Even though Dawn wasn't a neat freak, unlike her sister, she did keep everything in place to please her sister.
She walked over to her four-poster bed near the window and flopped onto it, stuffing her face into her pillow in the process.
"Finally I found something that I really wanted," She began talking quietly to herself. "But of course I'm never good enough."
To get her mind of the disappointing news, Dawn thought that she might finally read her parents' letter. She pulled it out from her pocket and unfolded it carefully.
Dear Hermione and Dawn,
Your father and I are already missing you and we hope that you can come home next holidays. Hermione, look out for you sister and make sure she does all her homework because it's an important year.
Dawn stopped reading momentarily.
"That makes me sound like I'm stupid or something!" She thought to herself, she was now focusing her annoyance towards the letter instead of trying to forget how annoyed she was. She continued reading.
We trust that your prefect duties are going well, Hermione. Your father and I just can't express how proud we are.
Dawn, we hope you're feeling better after that horrible stomach bug you had during the end of the holidays and are doing well with your classes.
Your father and grandparent's all say 'hello' and hope to see you next holidays.
Love,
Mum and Dad.
Dawn groaned as the placed the letter on the bed, a jealous voice quietly speaking in the back of her mind. "Mum and dad didn't say that they were proud of me!"
She jumped up off her bed. She was going crazy and needed to clear her head so she left the room swiftly.
Dawn decided that wandering the quiet corridors while everyone was at dinner sounded like a good idea to clear her head. She turned a left after exiting the Portrait Hole.
She wandered the corridors, completely lost in her thoughts that she was completely unaware of where her feet were leading her.
Before she'd known she'd rounded one of the many corners in the castle and straight into something solid. She fell to the ground with a small thud.
The solid object appeared to be a person and he called out. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
He has just left the room he was staying with when Dawn had accidentally collided with him. She looked up and took his offered hand to help her stand back up.
"Sorry Professor..." She trailed off waiting for him to offer his name; she didn't take Muggle Studies because she was muggleborn.
He chuckled slightly. "I'm no Professor, believe me. I feel more comfortable if everyone around here calls me Xander."
Dawn scowled somewhat, if he wasn't an actual Professor, then what was he doing at Hogwarts assisting with Muggles Studies?
Xander realised his tiny mistake and decided to change the subject quickly. Since they were both headed in the same direction, he motioned for them to both start walking slowly.
"Why aren't you at dinner in the Great Hall?" Xander questioned with a concerned frown.
She sighed and began to talk. "I didn't really feel like going to dinner, I was just really disappointed and annoyed that I didn't make the Quidditch team - I worked really hard for it."
Dawn didn't know why she was pouring out her thoughts to a stranger that she'd just run into in the hallway. But he seemed kind of understanding and trustworthy for some reason.
"Life can really suck sometimes." Xander said grimly, recalling some of the horrific events that have occurred since he met Buffy. "So, what house are you in...?"
"Oh, my name is Dawn, Dawn Granger." She said quickly, realising she'd not given her name. "And I'm in Gryffindor."
She paused momentarily; many things didn't match up. The Gryffindor logo was proudly displayed on her robes, why didn't this new Professor know the school houses?
While she was thinking another thought occurred to her. "Why is it that Hogwarts got so many new Professor's this year, and you all seem to be close friends?"
Xander shrugged, trying to come up with the right answer that would satisfy Dawn's curiosity.
"I don't know, we come in one big package, I guess." He finished off with a dashing-Xander-smile.
A thought appeared in the back of Dawn's mind. "He's kind of cute in a dopey sort of way," Dawn stopped herself right there. "Sod it, I shouldn't really think that about a Professor."
Snapping out of her thoughts, she noticed that they'd walked back to the hallway that lead to the Portrait Hole. Xander had still had no idea how to navigate around most of the castle, so he started down the hallway in the opposite direction.
"The Gryffindor Tower's this way," Dawn pointed out. "I'm going back up to my room. Thanks for listening."
"No problem, Dawn. Don't worry about the Quidditch thing." Xander said before he walked off.
Dawn started heading towards the Portrait Hole but ran into Harry not far down the track, it appeared he'd just returned from dinner in the Great Hall.
"What were you talking about?" Harry asked, peering back down the corridor.
Dawn smiled for the first time since the start of the day. "Oh, nothing much - just talking about some things."
"Like what?" Harry frowned a little.
Dawn had to refrain from laughing because of the way Harry was asking and how he seemed to be pressing the issue a bit. "Just venting out my thoughts that were annoying me."
Harry's frown disappeared as they entered the Common Room.
"Well... you can always talk to me, you know." He said quietly and softly.
Dawn's heart fluttered. "Thanks, Harry." She briefly threw her arms around him.
They said their goodnights before Dawn turned to rush up the stairs and into her dorm. She only got a few steps away when she heard a painful groan. Dawn turned around to see Harry at the foot of the Boys' Staircase.
"Are you alright?" She questioned when she noticed Harry was holding his forehead.
Harry nodded slowly. "Yeah, don't worry - just a little pain from my scar."
Dawn wasn't quite convinced; she stood there for a minute and had noticed that the pain had apparently gone. She said goodnight again and hurried up the stairs to her dorm.
Hermione was sitting on her bed reading a book, as usual.
As Dawn sat down on her bed opposite her sister, she felt her stomach give a huge rumble. She hadn't eaten since lunchtime.
"I took the liberty of taking some food for you." Hermione happened to say at the right time, she pointed to a plate of food sitting on Dawn's side table.
Every thought of jealousy that had run through Dawn's head earlier was instantly forgotten.
"Thanks." She said simply right before she jumped tackled Hermione and they fell onto the floor laughing.
* * *
Buffy was woken up to Willow shaking her rather fiercely. She rubbed her eyes and sat up.
"Will, what is it?" She asked groggily.
As soon as Willow noticed that Buffy had woken up, she leapt up from her kneeling position.
"Quick," Willow began urgently. "Apparently there's an important meeting in Dumbledore's Office right now!"
Buffy squinted and peered over at her watch. "At this time of the morning, it's three thirty!"
"I have no idea what it's about, but I was just talking to Giles and he made out that it was serious."
Buffy leaped out of her bed, throwing back her covers in a messy heap. She ran over to her wardrobe and pulled on a jacket and some rather fluffy looking slippers.
Walking along the dark, deserted hallways, Willow and Buffy stumbled upon a few of the other Scooby Gang members: Xander and Anya. They too had looked like they'd left their rooms in a hurry with jackets thrown over their pyjamas.
Once they'd all passed the gargoyle, they all gathered around the fireplace in Dumbledore's Office. Giles and Tara were already there waiting with grim looks on their faces, they'd already been informed as it appeared.
Dumbledore toddled over and sat in front of the group; he was in a serious mood, which wasn't that often.
"An hour ago, Minerva informed me that Mr. Potter had a disturbing dream tonight." Dumbledore stopped to let Giles explain the significance of Harry's dreams to Buffy, Willow, Xander and Anya.
Giles took of his glasses. "You see, since the night when Voldemort (Giles didn't believe in not speaking his name) attempted to use the death curse on Harry and backfired, there has been a sort of connection created between him and Voldemort because of that. So, sometimes Harry's scar may hurt when something bad to do with Voldemort is occurring and lately this sense has progressed to dreams."
Willow looked highly interested. "So, this dream from tonight was to do about Voldemort?"
"And it's not good news either, judging by the looks on your faces when we walked in." Anya added.
Dumbledore spoke up again. "You are both correct, Miss Rosenburg and Miss Jenkins. From the information that we acquired from you, Miss Summers, we have found out that Glory and Voldemort are now working together to find the Key."
"Shit!" Buffy exclaimed, slightly under her breath.
"So instead of just worrying about Glory being after the Key, Voldemort is too now?" Willow asked with disbelief.
Dumbledore nodded. "This also means that there will now be Death Eaters sent after the Key too, which will put Hogwarts in some danger."
"Why does this Voldy guy want the Key, we know why Glory does, but what use is it to him?" Xander questioned reasonably.
Tara spoke in the conversation for the first time. "A-at first I asked myself that question too, but then I realised that if the Key can open the door separating dimensions, t-then it would have to have a lot of power, right?"
Dumbledore and Giles both nodded in agreement.
Giles gently cleaned his glasses. "There's no telling what Voldemort could do if he found the Key."
* * *
A.N - Merry Christmas everyone!! I'll be back with another chapter probably in a few weeks. Now Please review and I'll love you forever!
