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The organisation and first meetings of the DA came and went. They had decided not to use the Scooby common room, partly because it was too small and partly because they didn't want to reveal Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles's allegiance too soon. As a result they had been desperate to find anywhere else, but had finally struck gold with the Room of Requirement.
When the fateful Quidditch match arrived, Oliver did everything in his power to try keep Harry and the Weasley twins on the team, but to no avail. Worse, Umbridge had clearly marked him down as a troublemaker and watched him far too closely after that.
Lesson inspections went as well as could be hoped. Umbridge had not yet realised that Buffy disliked her intensely, so her inspection went quite well.
From Xander's reports, Umbridge had had little to no interest in the Muggle Studies subject, and had only inspected the lesson to check he wasn't secretly screaming, "Support Dumbledore! Kill Fudge!" or anything like that.
Willow had tried to blend into the background when Umbridge inspected the Potions lessons, so was relieved when the results came back with no mention of her.
Hagrid, once he returned, was delighted to meet them all, and pleased, if surprised, by the sudden appointment of an assistant. Buffy was more relieved than anything else to have someone else take over the lessons. She had started to tire of thinking up lessons and was happy to let Hagrid take over the reins.
She particularly enjoyed the Thestral lesson, despite Umbridge's infuriating presence. Unsurprised by the fact that Dawn and Harry could see the Thestrals, she was more interested in other two who could, the tall Slytherin and the round-faced Gryffindor, whom she was almost definitely sure was Neville Longbottom, the boy Dumbledore had mentioned.
They were all busier than they had ever been before, especially the girls. They were trying to organise the New Year Masquerade Ball. It was fun to do so, but involved more work than they had realised.
Dawn had her only restful moments when she went down to the lake. Her friendship with Sasesi was flourishing, and she enjoyed every second. It would have been simple to find out who it was – a matter of a single Lumos – but she felt strangely reluctant to do so. She could be herself, and not worry about what he thought of her when he was just a faceless figure. He presumably felt the same, as he never even suggested swapping their real names.
Then suddenly, after weeks of routine, Dawn and Hermione woke up on the morning two days before the end of term to find Ron and Harry gone. They panicked at first, especially when McGonagall sent them to see Dumbledore at breakfast.
Terrified, with their minds spinning all sorts of nightmare scenarios, they had made their way down to his office, only to be reassured that Harry and Ron were fine, but were visiting Mr Weasley who was in hospital.
After two tense days, Dawn and the other Scoobies made their way to Grimmauld Place, where they had all been invited to spend Christmas some weeks before. Hermione came with them, and they were all eager to see the others.
Faith and Spike weren't able to come, but hadn't seemed overly upset about this, although Faith had pointed out that she was likely to stake Spike if she had to spend too much time alone with him.
Trying to talk sense into Harry proved easier than she had expected it would be when she heard what he was doing. All it had taken was a reminder from Ginny that he wasn't the only one who thought about being possessed and chats from Willow and Dawn about their respective experiences. Willow told him all about Warren, and the apocalypse she had nearly caused, which shocked him to say the least and Dawn went into more detail over how she was the Key, and her existence had caused her sister's death.
Christmas morning dawned cold and crisp. Xander woke for some reason at 7 o'clock, but seeing no reason why he should get up at that unseasonable hour, rolled over and went back to sleep.
Or tried to, as moments later the door burst open and a thousand witches poured in, or so it seemed to him in his sleepy state.
"Wake up! It's Christmas" Buffy cried.
"Yeah! Presents!" Dawn squealed.
He glared at Willow, who shrugged apologetically.
"They dragged me out of bed too; why should I suffer alone."
Groaning, Xander sent them out as he rose to get dressed. Then he joined the group of wizards and witches as they moved downstairs, some definitely more awake than others.
Ginny, one of the more active of them, jumped the last three stairs and hurried into the sitting room.
Her voice floated out to the others. "Ooh! Presents for all of us!"
Once they were all settled with their respective piles of presents, Dawn counted down.
"Three, two, one, OPEN!"
They tore into their presents, wrapping paper going everywhere. Hugs and thank-yous were exchanged, as were some bemused comments.
Buffy frowned at her present from Xander.
"Why have you bought me a load of lollipops?" she asked, pulling one out to taste it.
Dawn, who happened to look up at that moment, nearly dived across the room to stop her sister from licking the lolly.
"Don't! I bought a load of those for Spike. They're Blood-Flavoured."
Buffy brought the lolly safely away from her mouth, revealing a disgusted expression.
"I'm gonna change my question a bit then. Why have you bought me, a human being, a load of blood-flavoured lollipops for Christmas."
Xander swallowed. "I thought you could, you know, use them as bait. It seemed like a good idea at the time…"
Turning away from the hapless man with a glower, Buffy opened the next of her presents. This was also related to her Slayer activities, but was at least far more thoughtful. It was from Willow and Giles jointly, an embossed stake with the inscription 'Buffy, Slayer, Sister, Friend'. Smiling and then throwing at a handily placed bauble, she had to react quickly as it hit the bauble and came swerving back.
"Charmed with the Boomerang Charm," Willow explained. "It'll always come back to your hand."
"Cool," Buffy grinned. "Did you like your earrings?"
As an answer, Willow held back her hair to show off the chandelier earrings that Buffy had given her, ones which changed colour to coordinate with your outfit.
Presents had been exchanged among the teens as well, with Dawn giving Buffy Chocolate Frogs, which she loved more than anything else. As she said, 'what's not to like? All that chocolatey goodness, plus you work off the calories catching the stupid thing in the first place.' She had also given presents of the edible kind to Harry and Ron, but to Hermione she had given a book on becoming an Animagus.
She knew the brunette witch longed to be able to transform into an animal, but hadn't realised that Hermione had recognised that in her too, until she opened her present from Hermione and found an exact copy of the book she had given Hermione.
Interested, Harry and Ron leaned over to read the first chapters, and but they became sidetracked with a discussion about what the Animagus forms of their teachers would be.
"Dumbledore would be a phoenix," Harry stated.
"Obviously. I reckon Snape would be a snake or something." Ron added his opinion.
Dawn disagreed, "He's slippery like a snake, but he's not very hidden about his attacks, is he?"
Their talk was interrupted by Molly announcing Christmas dinner, a dinner which went quite well.
Xander and Ginny were equally amused by Tonks' face-shifting, though for different reasons.
Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Hermione and Tonks all became involved in a talk about what they were wearing to the New Year Ball.
The men tried to join in, but became confused almost instantly and with some relief turned their talk to Quidditch and school, with them moaning about Umbridge and Sirius and Lupin sharing old school stories about the Marauders' exploits at school. Xander also related some parts of the Slayer's history, both stories giving the twins more ideas than they could count.
"You, a professor," Fred asked.
"Burned down," George added.
"A school?" They finished simultaneously.
Molly saw the way the conversation was going and quickly turned the discussion to when they would go visit Arthur.
Visiting St. Mungo's was an odd experience. Horrified by the witch with the satsuma in her nose, Dawn kept quiet through most of it, especially the argument about stitches. She was fascinated to meet Professor Lockhart, but became bored quickly.
Because of this, she was the first to see Neville.
"Hey, Neville!" she called.
The round-faced boy looked up and his face drained of colour.
Surprised by his reaction, she waved him over. He reluctantly approached with his formidable-looking grandmother. Introductions were made, and all were treated the same way, acknowledged barely with a nod from Mrs. Longbottom. Even Harry got the same treatment. Apparently her support of him did not extend to public displays of respect.
Dawn barely restrained a gasp when she heard the fate of Neville's parents. Then she suddenly remembered the prophecy: that it could have been Neville. Her eyes flicked towards Harry and she realised he was thinking the same thing.
'What would have happened if Voldemort had picked the other person? Would Neville's parents have died for him like Harry's did?' Her musings were interrupted by Alice Longbottom shuffling her way down the ward. She slipped quickly behind Ron. She didn't know if her non-active state as the Key would still be noticed by the insane, but she didn't want to risk it. Thankfully, she went unseen, as did the tears that pricked her eyes. It was one of the saddest things she had ever seen.
The journey back to Grimmauld Place was silent and sombre.
A bit of a summary chapter to get me to the plot, I know. Still, reviews are gold dust despite the chapter topic, so press that blue/grey button and start typing...