A/N: Okay, I thought that when my muse came back that I'd write faster. Sorry that this chapter took so long to come out. Thank you to all that reviewed. It means a lot to me that people are still interested and are still reading this story.

Chapter Eight

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Draco, Ron and Harry walked towards to food court in complete silence. Ron and Harry were quiet because they were completely baffled by how different Draco Malfoy was from the prat that has harassed them during their first five years at Hogwarts.

Draco was quiet because he was angry, but that anger was, for the most part, directed at himself.

His little outburst in the clothing store. At Weasel had been a weak moment, and had revealed far too much of his inner turmoil to those he had always considered rivals. His saving grace, Draco believed, was the fact that he had always been arrogant. Hopefully Ron and Harry would take his reaction for defensiveness about his looks.

Then again probably not. The old Malfoy would have would have made a snide remark about the garish color of Weasel's own hair. But that would have been Draco Malfoy's reaction, and he wasn't that person anymore. He was J.J. Summers. And J.J. Summers has been "overly proud", as Ron had put it, of his hair because it made people think that he was related to Spike. And after the destruction of Sunnydale, J.J. had been overly sensitive about it.

Draco was spared from further berating himself for his actions when a voice interrupted his thoughts.

"And if you hit the ball foul, it's a strike?" Ginny asked, her voice bringing Draco out of his thoughts. Her voice was like the most soothing of lullabies to him, and thought it had haunted his dreams, he had believed that he would never again hear it in his waking hours.

Draco tried to will himself out of the reverie, not wanting Dawn to see whatever look was on his face and try to guess what was going on in his head. He knew his best friend was already curious as to his feelings. She had, after all, accused him in the car of keeping secrets, and glanced at Ginny as she said it, implying he had a secret that concerned the younger girl.

He wanted to avoid pouring out his heart to Dawn about his feelings until he had to. But judging by the expression on her face when she looked up and saw him, the sly smile she had, and the nearly imperceptible nod towards the redheaded girl, he'd have to do that sooner than he'd like. Probably the instant they got any time alone.

"Could this day gat any worse?" Draco thought to himself. He had to pick up his rivals at the crowded muggle airport, had to take them shopping as well. Dawn had mentioned both Cordelia and Spike. His best friend had figured out a secret that he had sworn no one would ever know. And he had lost his temper and aloof reserve by practically attacking Ron.

That, more than anything else, was the thing that was eating at him. Everything else seemed nearly insignificant by comparison. Then Ginny Weasley turned to them and smiled. Draco knew that she was smiling at her brother and her crush, but it lifted most of the weight off of his shoulders anyway.

Most, but not all.

He had intended to be the same arrogant Draco Malfoy that he had always been. He didn't want these people to know the person that he had become. If they were going to call him Malfoy, then he would be Malfoy.

But a Malfoy would never have lost his temper over a jibe about his hair. Draco wanted to be a Malfoy in front of them, but he was now wondering if he could even act like the Malfoy they had known, let alone be that person.

When Dawn called his name, he realized that he couldn't be that fifth year that he had left behind at Hogwarts. Because, as Dawn had just addressed him, he was J.J. now.

"What the hell took you guys so long? You're almost too late to get any food!"

"Relax, Summers. There is still plenty of mall time left."

J.J.'s words made Dawn wonder what had happened between the boys. He hadn't addressed her as Summers in a long time. Since before he had, as far as the Scoobies were concerned, become one himself.

"What the hell is wrong with you, J.J.?"

"Nothing. I'm peachy with a side of keen. Can we go?"

He began to turn in the direction of the doors, but stopped when he saw the look on Ginny's face.

The girl was studying him as if she had never seen him before in her life. As if, just by looking at him, she could figure him out, figure out who he really was. Furthermore, she had looked like she wanted to figure him out, and it made his heart skip a beat, the curiosity in her eyes. Perhaps being J.J, Summers, the person that he really was, instead of playing the role of Draco Malfoy, the person he had always hidden behind, wouldn't be so bad. It couldn't be that bad, not if it made Ginny look at him as if he was a great mystery, and she wanted nothing more than to puzzle him out.

"Okay, which one of you hit his British asshole button? I'd thought I'd finally managed to disengage it." Dawn stood and glared at the two other boys, who looked as if they wanted to curl in on themselves and hide from her angry gaze.

J.J. snorted at her words, knowing that he couldn't laugh. Well, he could, but she'd stop being angry at Ron and Harry for making him cranky if he was happy, and the wizard was enjoying their discomfort too much. He swung his gaze towards the other boys, eager to see them receive the full power of Dawn Summers' anger.

"Well?" she demanded, arms crossed, toes tapping, eyes blazing. The resemblance to her sister was never more noticeable than when she was angry. She actually gave off a slayer vibe when she was like this. "He wasn't all snitty in the car, so it had to have been one of you." She narrowed her eyes at them. "Or was it both of you?"

The boys cringed at the look on her face. But Harry straightened his shoulders, and J.J. could almost hear him thinking, "I stood up to Voldemort, I can stand up to this girl."

"He overreacted to something that Ron said. It wasn't our fault." Harry crossed his arms over his chest with his words, glaring at Dawn in defiance. It was obvious that Harry was unhappy about the situation he was being forced into, especially after learning that situation included Draco Malfoy. Now it seemed the Boy That Lived was going to take out his frustration on Dawn.

"He threw Ron into a wall, all for a little comment." Harry walked towards Dawn, trying to use the height he had gained over the last year to intimidate her. J.J. had seen Angel try the same thing, and if the Scourge of Europe couldn't manage to intimidate her that way, no simple wizard would have success. "It's his problem, whatever it is, so don't blame us." Harry stated, the words practically spat at Dawn as he glared down at the girl.

Even Ron was surprised at the venom that was in Harry's voice. He knew that his best friend was angry that they had been sent away from Hogwarts, and even angrier that Draco was one of the people that would be protecting them. But this girl, Dawn, had been nice to them so far, even if she seemed close to Malfoy. And Ron had been taunting Malfoy.

Ron took a step towards the two angry teens, the others looking on curiously to see what he would do. He gently pulled away his angry best friend, and turned to face Dawn himself.

"It was my fault, I guess. I provoked him, though I didn't realize that he would get that upset about it." Ron shot a look towards Draco, whose expression changed from one of surprise to one of anger.

"What did you say to him?" The look on Dawn's face made Draco's pale in comparison, so Ron decided to tell her.

"I twitted him about his hair." Ron looked at his shows, "how he used to be so proud of it"

It was quiet for a minute, and Ron chanced a look up. He had been expecting Dawn to be ready to tear into him. Instead, he saw that her expression had changed to one of sadness. She looked towards Draco, then stepped towards him.

Draco flinched, as if Dawn was going to hit him. All of the new arrivals were surprised when she hugged him tightly instead.

After a minute she let him go, ruffling his multi-colored hair, and speaking words that made no sense to them, but made Draco smile grimly. "It was really brown, you know. He had to dye it to get it this color." With that, Dawn fingered one of the few platinum locks that remained on the Slytherin's head. "Now go grab some food. I'm starving!" She pushed J.J. towards the food booths, and both teens laughed.

The four Gryffindors just stood gaping at them, knowing that they had, once again, missed something of importance.