Chapter Thirty-Eight: Hearing Things
"What are you rummaging around in there for?" Draco asked Dawn confused and distracted as he tried to do his Transfigurations home work. Dawn and him were sitting in there common room on the floor doing homework near the fire, but now Draco looked up after hearing Dawn shuffle through her pencil case for the last few minutes.
"A pen. Or pencil. Anything besides a damn quill." Dawn said annoyed after finding a bunch of quills, five bottles of ink, three pens that didn't work and a broken pencil.
"Great, just great." Dawn said frustrated, "Now one of the bottles of ink have spilled!" Dawn pulled out her hand to see it covered in black ink and saw most of her purple pencil case was black.
Draco sighed and finally put down his own quill.
"Here." He said as he withdrew his wand. He muttered a short phrase and flicked his wand and all the ink had disappeared from her pencil case, and her hand.
"Woah, thanks." Dawn said as she inspected her hand and her pencil case.
"That's okay." Draco said, tucking his wand into his pocket, "but I thought you knew how to use quills properly now?"
"Yeah, I do, its just…" Dawn said as she put all her things back into her pencil case and reached into her pocket. "I still thinks its just easier to use a pen, and I get more done coz I don't have to dip it in ink every 5 seconds! That's why, I always keep one in my pocket just in case." Dawn said as she fiddled in her pocket searching for a pen.
"Ahah!" Dawn exclaimed triumphantly as she withdrew a blue pen from her cloak pocket.
Draco rolled his eyes and resumed his homework once again.
"So, I was thinking," Dawn began sweetly as she pulled a Potions text book closer for her to read, "maybe this weekend we could go to Hogsmeade together because my friends birthday is-"
"Dawn, how many times have we been over this?" Draco said, sighing, as he put down his quill again to look at her, "You cannot go outside."
"Yeah, I know but now that I have the Marauders map I'll know if there are any Death Eaters there." Dawn protested. She had told him about Harry borrowing her the map the day before, and she'd told Buffy and they had come to an agreement that Buffy would borrow it at night for her patrols and Dawn would have it during the day.
She'd also been over this conversation with Buffy, about her being able to go outside but her sister had also been against the idea.
"Dawn, you don't know every single Death Eater, you wont be able to know if every man or woman are looking for you or just shopping!" Draco replied exasperated, "And even if you did identify one, what if you're too slow and they manage to get their hands on you, then they can dissaparate immediately and take you to Voldermort himself. Dawn, this is for your own safety."
"Yeah, I know okay? I know." Dawn snapped, frustrated. "You just, you don't understand. You don't understand what it feels like to be cooped up here everyday. Never being able to go outside, smell fresh air, sit by the lake, go shopping or play Quidditch! Everyday, I see people playing Quidditch and, I envy them. God, I'd love to go see a Quidditch match, or better yet play in one! But no, I have to sit inside everyday studying or doing homework. I don't want my life to be like that! Hiding inside a school, hoping Voldermort or Glory will never find me, because there gonna find a way in eventually you know."
"I know. You're right, I don't understand." Draco said gently, taking her hand in his. "But this isnt what you're life will be like. Its just temporary, okay? Just till your sister and Dumbledore figure out a plan."
Dawn sighed and nodded. She knew she wasn't going to get anywhere pushing for her to be able to go outside, and they did have a point, but part of her didn't care, part of her just wanted to be able to go outside and not let Voldermort and Glory win by having her backed into a corner, unable to leave this castle.
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It had been nearly a week later and Dawn slid open the door to her sisters office. She entered to see Buffy and Spike in conversation and both looked up quickly as she entered.
"Hey, hope I didn't interrupt." Dawn said as she entered and Buffy moved back, away from Spike, to lean on a corner of her desk.
"No, its fine, we were just talking." Buffy said glancing at Spike quickly and back to her sister. Spike gave Dawn a small nod and smile as a greeting.
"Well, I know its nearly sun down so I thought I'd bring you the map now, is it helping?" Dawn asked, slipping it out of her pocket and handing in to her sister.
"Yeah, it is, not much baddies out there anymore." Buffy said, "Well, except for the demon followers, we now know some full blooded demons don't show up on the map. Partially human ones do though, like Spike."
"Well, that's okay, most of the really dangerous ones are human anyway, right? Coz of them being wizards, right?" Dawn asked them.
"Got that right niblet." Spike said reassuringly. "Demons, we can handle but, humans, well, I can't even hit em for one, cant even bleedin curse em. So, yeah, your sis here handles the wizards and I take out the demons."
"Right." Dawn said nodding, "Any new info though?"
"Uh, not at the moment but don't worry, I'm sure we'll figure something out soon." Buffy said smiling reassuringly.
Dawn felt a twinge of annoyance, but didn't say anything. It seemed that everybody was so worried about making sure she was okay and talking to her like a kid and reassuring her that everything was okay, when she wasn't a kid. She was pretty much an adult and has handled stuff like this before. Okay, well, not stuff like this exactly but she had handled supernatural stuff before and she didn't want to be coddled and protected all the time.
"Right, okay then. I actually got a lot of homework and stuff so I'm gonna head off to the library now." Dawn said, "Good luck for your patrol."
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Dawn hurried through the halls, hoping to God Filch wouldn't catch her.
She had stayed in the library a little longer than expected and no one had told her that the clock there was broken! On the plus side, she'd finished all her homework and done a Potions assignment that would probably earn her an A, even by Snape's marking. But on the down side, it was just past 10 o clock and she was lost, running through corridor after corridor trying to find some place that looked familiar so she could find her way back to her homeroom.
She rounded another corridor and heard loud noises up ahead, as if glass bottles were being rummaged through. At first, she was ready to bolt thinking it was Filch, but then she realised it wasn't because it was staying in one place, and it seemed hurried. She quickly slowed her footsteps and made sure she was being as quiet as she could as she crept forward, closer to the noise, trying to keep her breath as shallow as possible. She with drew her wand, just in case.
She kept her eyes on the dim light emanating from the open door and when she was about a meter away, she must have stepped on a loose wooden floor board because it gave a creak as she stepped on it. As soon as it did that, she lifted her foot into the air and the rummaging from the open door stopped.
She silently cursed, and thought she may as well see who was in the room, since they had probably heard her.
Dawn took another two steps and, with her wand in her hand, quickly poked her head around the corner to see into the room.
It looked like a storage cupboard, full of glass jars of liquids and strange creatures, with a ladder about 15 meters high, resting on what look like the 50th shelf up above. What surprised her the most though, was the fact that there didn't seem to be anybody in there.
Dawn took a wary step inside the room and glanced around, in each corner to see any sign of life. All she saw was a burning candle and a few jars resting on a table.
"Hello?" Dawn asked tentatively as she took one more step into the room.
She waited for a reply she knew she wouldn't get and when she heard none, she stilled her breath and listened intently for any sound.
When she couldn't hear any thing out of order, she stood there for a minute wondering what to do. Should she leave? She was positive she heard some one rummaging through these glass jars. And then something hit her, maybe who ever was there was invisible. Harry had told her about his invisibility cloak, maybe some one here had one too.
She knew it was a long shot, but she wanted to be certain, especially with Voldermorts and Glory's followers looking for her. She knew Buffy wouldn't want her doing this but she had no choice, if she left now to find her, she was sure that she would find no one here when she returned. And besides, she wasn't to happy with the way Buffy, and every one else, was treating her, as if she were a child.
She felt around each corner of the room, high and low. She hadn't heard a sound out of anything and then realised there was one last place this person could be; the ladder. As if responding to this thought, the ladder gave a small creak. She sighed out nervously, as she approached the ladder, making sure her wand was in front of her, ready to send or repel any curse her way.
As she placed her first foot onto the first wrung, she heard a cats meow behind her, causing her to jump nearly out of her skin.
She turned to see Filch's cat, standing in the doorway, looking at her.
She put her hand to her heart, willing it to slow down.
"Mrs Norris? Where are you?" She heard Filch call out in a sing song voice, but she was relieved to hear he was still one or two corridors away, enough time for her to escape if she left now.
She glanced at the ladder, wanting to continue but not wanting to get caught. She wasn't even sure if anyone would be up there, and she would of thought, by now, if there were some one there, they'd probably be some one looking for her, the Key, or else they wouldn't hide, and why hadn't they attacked her if so?
She heard Filch call out to his cat as he came nearer and nearer to where she was. Dawn sighed, glanced one more time longingly at the stairs and turned and hurried out of the room to her common room, making sure to avoid being caught by Filch.
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