A stunned silence followed Dawn's pronouncement. Both Xander and Buffy practically flung themselves onto the floor on either side of Dawn, not quite believing the words the girl had read out – somehow they hadn't believed the old Council could be so callous. Willow quickly located the file on her own laptop, and was soon joined by Andrew and Faith, Giles peering over the younger ones' shoulders to read the file for himself. Will finished first, and just stared in disbelief at the screen. Xander's mouth slowly dropped open as he read, saying afterwards:

"What? But how…. That's so… Huh?"

"Those assholes!" Buffy cried, anger filling her hazel eyes.

"Please, Buffy, language – " Giles started.

"G! Don't even say your defending the bastards!" Faith yelled furiously, "I mean, I knew the old Council were freaks, but this… Assholes doesn't even BEGIN to cover it!"

"Faith, I was not about to defend the actions of my predecessors. You know as well as I, they were bloody fools, but there is nothing that can be done to change things. At least now we know what happened, and we understand the chain of events, though the motives, as ever, are a complete mystery."

"Giles is right, Buffy," Willow added softly, "Hey, one of the other directives probably details the spell the put on Dawnie, that's good, right?"

"How could they plan this? To let Dawnie be killed in some experiment?" Buffy asked, her anger mixing now with disgust.

"How could they not tell us what happened? How could they let us believe they were okay?" Dawn countered, her voice low, but steady.

"Dawnie, it's okay to be mad…" Xander told her, concerned by the girl's lack of reaction.

"I'm not. I don't care what they tried to do, to me, anyway. I could – and did – take care of myself. Their motives… okay, they sucked, but they had no effect. I can't be mad because they failed. The way they went about it though…… it's just not fair. Not to us, not to Harry. To see it written there like it's nothing… that hurts." Dawn's eyes filled with tears, the sheen they caused masking the dark edge within. Blinking twice to clear the salty liquid, the girl reopened blue eyes, now devoid of emotion. Beginning to move through the system once more, she found the 1988 directive file.

Locating the two mentioned directives, she opened the first, scanning the text document. It described a fairly basic potion, a Rejuvenating Draught, and a simple incantation – with counter-spell. The incantation was one Dawn hadn't seen before, but a quick mental translation showed the intended effects – to lengthen the effect of a potion indefinitely. So that was how they'd made Buffy younger. Dawn smirked to herself – finally she had something to hold over her sister: after all, she had the distinct impression Buffy was enjoying looking ten years younger than her old friends, and ageing that much in a day would never be of the good for the elder Potter.

The second file proved much more difficult to understand. Though the original spells and potions used on her own appearance were present, it was clear the old Council had never imagined the need to remove them. There were no antidotes or counters in the file, and Dawn sent the file to the printer, aware that there was another challenge ahead. The paper copies would allow for notes and ideas – but this could take a while. After all, neither girl really knew potion-making that well, so Dawn was beginning to think that this would come down to the trial-and-error way. Which could be incredibly amusing, she mused, before her more pessimistic side chipped in: or could lead to some weird side-effects.