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"Happy Birthday to, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to Dawn, happy birthday to you!" Everyone sang a little off key. Dawn smiled, it was the first celebration after the destruction of Sunnydale, or closing of the Hellmouth, whichever you preferred.
People had changed that day. Faith, Principal Wood (now Robin), Buffy, everyone…even her. They had lost people that day. Potential slayers, friends, enemies, allies. She has lost Spike. Blinking back tears, Dawn told herself she wasn't going to think about him. He had died, yes. But he had died good. He had died a champion.
"Dawn," she looked up, when she hear her name being called. Robin stood in front of her, an unwrapped box in his hand. It was weird to call him by his first name. Cause she had known him as Principal Wood, the thing was, he was a principal with no school. It was dust in an even bigger pile of dust that had been known as Sunnydale. Blinking, she shook her head and looked up at him.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Here," he handed her the box. "I know it's not fancy or anything. But you should like it."
Dawn nodded and opened it. Inside lay a coat, a black leather coat. Spike's coat. She looked up at the black man. "Wow. I mean, thank you," she sputtered before smiling again. "Thanks."
He nodded, "Spike gave this to me, you know. It was my mother's. I guess it was his own way of telling me he was sorry. But you will get more use out of it than I will."
Smiling again, Dawn took the coat out of the box and slipped it on. God, it still smelled like Spike. "Thanks," she told Robin as she stood and slipped out of the Hyperion Hotel.
They had been there for the past two months. It was nice really, better than everyone crammed into the house. There were rooms and Dawn got her own room back. Well, not her own room, but a room to herself. The potentials shared rooms, two to a room. Five rooms per bathroom. Floors four, five, six, and seven were potential "dorms". Floor three were for everyone else, like Robin, Faith, Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, her, and Angel and his people.
Stepping into the garden, Dawn spied a crossbow lying haphazardly on the ground, stakes upon the bench above. Dawn snorted softly. Potentials were becoming careless. That would get them killed. Picking it up, she loaded the crossbow with one of the stakes. It felt so right in her arms. It was hard to believe she was not called, but then again, Dawn was glad she wasn't.
She heard a noise and swung around, the crossbow, cocked and aimed. It was just Connor, Angel's teenage son. His dark brown hair was long, and tied back at the base of his neck. Merry blue eyes snapped and crackled as he laughed as he pushed the crossbow away. "Careful were you point that thing," he told her. "You could hurt somebody."
Dawn glared, "Not you, you walking weapon of mass destruction."
He grinned. "Maybe, maybe not." He flopped down upon one of the benches and beckoned for her to join him. Dawn looked at him before dropping the crossbow and sitting next to him. "You okay?" he asked her after a few moments of silence.
She looked at him, "Yeah, why?"
He shrugged, "You looked sad. When you got the coat. I was wondering if you wanted someone to talk to."
She looked at him, curiosity plain in her eyes. "Why?" Dawn asked him simply. No one had really asked her if she was okay, mentally, in a long while.
"I know what it feels like to be alone. It's not fun," Connor leaned his head back so it was touching the wall.
Dawn looked at him from the corner of her eye, "Did you think that up all on your own?" she snapped. Instantly she felt like an ass. "Connor, I'm…" she tried to say.
He looked at her darkly. "Don't say a thing. I get it." Standing he started to walk away.
Dawn stood up too and grabbed at his hand, making him turn around. "Stop it, okay? Look, I'm sorry. It's just. I don't know. Life is wacky, and I took it out on you. I'm sorry, okay?" She looked into his eyes for a second before looking down. That's when she realized she was still holding his hand. She let it go, blushing.
Before either of them could say anything, a large owl swooped down, dropping two letters. It landed in a nearby tree.
Dawn looked at the letter that sat in her hands.
Miss Dawn Summers
Hyperion Hotel Front Garden
2323 Secant Court
Los Angeles, California, United States
She blinked at the strange address. How had the person known that she would be standing in the garden when she received the letter? It was very strange indeed.
Opening in the letter she started to read.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
Of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)
Dear Miss Summers,
It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although circumstances have led to a late acceptance, we feel strongly that accepting you in your fifth year will be far better than allowing you to join the wizard world with very little to no schooling. Please think about our offer. The term starts September 1st, but I will be sending two students to collect you from Boston International Airport on July 21st. Please send your response with Aein.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster
Dawn looked up, her mouth opened and closed, with no sound coming out.
"Nice impression of a goldfish," Connor told her.
She looked at him sharply. "Well you would be like that too if you got something like this!" Dawn waved the piece of parchment in her hand in the air.
He gave her a smirk that almost rivaled his father's. "Oh but I did," he waggled a finger in her general direction.
Dawn blushed for the second time that night, "Shut up," she mumbled.
"So what do you think?" Connor asked her.
She looked at him. And then sighed, flopping onto the bench. "It'd be cool. Be a change. We could be normal. Well as normal as one could be in a wizarding school. Wow, this is very Lord of the Rings."
Connor looked at her, "That's the movie with the freakishly short people, right?"
She looked at him strangely before nodding. "Yeah, but the book was better."
He nodded, "It could be fun. Think there will be a ring?"
She gave him an exasperated look. "You do know that was a movie, right?"
He shrugged. "So what do you think. How do we'll tell everyone?"
"The truth?" Dawn asked her.
He shook his head, "They'll think we're nuttier than extra-chunky peanut butter. I say we write back to this Dumbly-door person and say yes, and then figure out how to tell them."
Dawn nodded, "You do realize we only have a good 13 days to tell them?"
Connor shrugged, "Oh well, 13 was always my lucky number."
Dawn glared at him. "Come on, let's get back inside before someone misses us."
Connor looked at her as he caught her hand. "But what if I want them to miss us?"
She gave him a smile. "There will be plenty of time for that. But it's my birthday, and I want to celebrate." Connor nodded as he let her pull him into the hotel.
"Do you think we should have done something different?" Dawn asked as she dragged a suitcase behind her. Spike's coat flapped behind her, just like it had done with Spike. They were boarding a plane that would take them to New York. From there they would be taking the train to Boston.
Connor looked at her, mirth clear in his eyes. "What, you don't think the note was enough?"
Dawn giggled. The note had read:
Everyone, we ran off to Vegas to elope. Well not really. We needed to go "find" ourselves or something like that. Don't worry, we'll write, honest. Don't try to find us either. We're safe.
~ Connor and Dawn
"Well it wasn't the best way to let them know. But I guess that's where procrastination leads, huh?" Dawn looked at him.
"Hard work may pay off later, but procrastination pays off now," Connor quipped.
Dawn rolled her eyes. Who needed the Scooby gang when you had Mr. Destructo boy at your disposal? He was much with the quip as well a virtual one-man monster killer. Not to mention he had some serious magic mojo going on. Oh yes, Connor Angel was just one big mixture of the original Scooby gang, with a pinch of brooding Angel and ex-cheerleader.
And she found it sexy.
"You find what sexy?" Connor asked.
Dawn blushed, "Nothing! Nothing at all."
He raised his eyebrow in a very Angel fashion. Sorta like the time he had caught her going through her sister's stuff. She wanted to read Buffy's diary. Angel had been lurking in her room. That's when Dawn had found out he was a vampire. She had found out even before Buffy had. She felt special. And Connor made her feel even more special.
She sighed, "I was thinking about how you're a mix of the original Scooby gang. You've got that Willow magic groove, you kill demons with ease, and that's so Buffy and you crack not so funny jokes like Xander. And then you've got the bit about Angel, what with the slight brooding. Which is sorta weird. I mean, you're the son of my sister's old boyfriend. It's icky when you look at it like that. But then again we aren't that differing. You're only about a year and a half, and I three. Younger men and older woman never seem to work out as couples though…"
Dawn would have gone on, if it weren't for him pulling her into their seat. She looked at the teen she was running off with. Wow, that sounded awkward. She never thought she would do something like this. "Wha?" she asked before she found herself assaulted by Connor's mouth.
Okay, assaulted wasn't the exact way to describe it, but it was a surprise. When he finally let up, and she thought it was from lack of air, she looked at him. "Wow," she said, a sloppy grin pasted on her face.
"Wow, that made you shut up. I'll have to remember that for next time," she hit him. "If there is a next time. Oh yeah, I don't brood," Connor smiled slyly before turning away and buckling his seatbelt. He then turned and did the same for Dawn.
"Er…um…" Dawn was still tongue-tied.
"Ready or not, here we come," Connor whispered as the plane started rolling down the tarmac. They were leaving their lives behind.
The airplane ride was interesting. Dawn kept sneaking looks at Connor. He had kissed her! It was the first, not counting Halloween two years ago, that had kissed her.
A boy had kissed her, a boy of the living variety. If she could have, she would have melted into a Dawn shaped puddle right there in the airplane. Then the airplane attendants would have to scoop her into a little baggie for Connor to take home.
But home was back in LA. And they were going to someplace overseas. They were jumping the pond. She wondered what it would be like when they were in England. The English people she had met, well she didn't like them.
Except for Giles, and Wesley, although Wesley was really annoying when she first met him. Or maybe that was just the Council of Watchers, or what Giles called them under his breath, the Council of Wankers.
Maybe this Hogwarts thing would be fun. Who knows. She might even make a couple friends.
Her smile widened. Yeah, this would be fun.
Connor looked at Dawn; she was grinning. He liked that look on her. It lit up her face; it made her even more pretty than she already was. He hoped he could keep her smiling. She was like a breath a fresh air in his otherwise stuffy life.
And when had he become such a poet?
He wasn't crafty with words. Weapons on the other hand, well that was something totally different. He wondered if Dawn would like to see the forty-seven ways to maim a Flargg Demon with his bare hands. Nah, she wouldn't go for that stuff. Connor bet that Dawn liked pretty things, like soap, and flowers, and candy. Okay, candy wasn't pretty. It was nice. He had taken a liking to twizzlers. They make your mouth happy.
"Why are you grinning?" Dawn asked him.
He looked up, embarrassed. "No reason," he said quickly.
Dawn wasn't impressed. "Uh huh. Sure. Now what's with the grin?"
"I was thinking about things that made mouths happy," he confessed. She got a scandalized look on her face. "Not like that!" He hissed. "You know, twirlers?"
"Oh!" Dawn sighed. "I thought I had taken a liking to a pervert."
"Hello, fifteen year old boy," Connor said.
She patted his arm. "You keep telling yourself that."
Connor scowled.
"Okay, where are we supposed to go now?" Dawn asked as they stepped out of the air-conditioned airport to the muggy July air of New York.
"The train station," Connor told her. Hadn't they gone over that part already?
Dawn glared at him. "I knew that, but how do we get there?"
Connor shrugged. Sighing exasperatedly, Dawn hailed a cab, or tried to. Pushy people took them before either of them were able to take a step. Dawn turned towards Connor. "Get them?"
He shook his head. "How about we walk instead?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I am not lugging around this suitcase. So go and get us a taxi." Pushing him towards the curb she waited until Connor was able to flag down a cab to walk over to him.
They sat in the taxi, taking in the sites of New York. "What's that?" Connor asked, pointing to the Empire State Building.
"The Empire State Building," Dawn answered. They were sitting in traffic, again. This was worse than LA!
"Oh, can I jump off of it?" he asked.
"No," she told him before glaring at the taxi in the rearview mirror. "You know, you're supposed to get us to Grand Central Station the quickest way, not the most expensive." The taxi driver didn't say anything. And Dawn folded her arms, pouting. She just hoped they'd make their train on time.
"Happy Birthday to, happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to Dawn, happy birthday to you!" Everyone sang a little off key. Dawn smiled, it was the first celebration after the destruction of Sunnydale, or closing of the Hellmouth, whichever you preferred.
People had changed that day. Faith, Principal Wood (now Robin), Buffy, everyone…even her. They had lost people that day. Potential slayers, friends, enemies, allies. She has lost Spike. Blinking back tears, Dawn told herself she wasn't going to think about him. He had died, yes. But he had died good. He had died a champion.
"Dawn," she looked up, when she hear her name being called. Robin stood in front of her, an unwrapped box in his hand. It was weird to call him by his first name. Cause she had known him as Principal Wood, the thing was, he was a principal with no school. It was dust in an even bigger pile of dust that had been known as Sunnydale. Blinking, she shook her head and looked up at him.
"Yes?" she asked.
"Here," he handed her the box. "I know it's not fancy or anything. But you should like it."
Dawn nodded and opened it. Inside lay a coat, a black leather coat. Spike's coat. She looked up at the black man. "Wow. I mean, thank you," she sputtered before smiling again. "Thanks."
He nodded, "Spike gave this to me, you know. It was my mother's. I guess it was his own way of telling me he was sorry. But you will get more use out of it than I will."
Smiling again, Dawn took the coat out of the box and slipped it on. God, it still smelled like Spike. "Thanks," she told Robin as she stood and slipped out of the Hyperion Hotel.
They had been there for the past two months. It was nice really, better than everyone crammed into the house. There were rooms and Dawn got her own room back. Well, not her own room, but a room to herself. The potentials shared rooms, two to a room. Five rooms per bathroom. Floors four, five, six, and seven were potential "dorms". Floor three were for everyone else, like Robin, Faith, Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, her, and Angel and his people.
Stepping into the garden, Dawn spied a crossbow lying haphazardly on the ground, stakes upon the bench above. Dawn snorted softly. Potentials were becoming careless. That would get them killed. Picking it up, she loaded the crossbow with one of the stakes. It felt so right in her arms. It was hard to believe she was not called, but then again, Dawn was glad she wasn't.
She heard a noise and swung around, the crossbow, cocked and aimed. It was just Connor, Angel's teenage son. His dark brown hair was long, and tied back at the base of his neck. Merry blue eyes snapped and crackled as he laughed as he pushed the crossbow away. "Careful were you point that thing," he told her. "You could hurt somebody."
Dawn glared, "Not you, you walking weapon of mass destruction."
He grinned. "Maybe, maybe not." He flopped down upon one of the benches and beckoned for her to join him. Dawn looked at him before dropping the crossbow and sitting next to him. "You okay?" he asked her after a few moments of silence.
She looked at him, "Yeah, why?"
He shrugged, "You looked sad. When you got the coat. I was wondering if you wanted someone to talk to."
She looked at him, curiosity plain in her eyes. "Why?" Dawn asked him simply. No one had really asked her if she was okay, mentally, in a long while.
"I know what it feels like to be alone. It's not fun," Connor leaned his head back so it was touching the wall.
Dawn looked at him from the corner of her eye, "Did you think that up all on your own?" she snapped. Instantly she felt like an ass. "Connor, I'm…" she tried to say.
He looked at her darkly. "Don't say a thing. I get it." Standing he started to walk away.
Dawn stood up too and grabbed at his hand, making him turn around. "Stop it, okay? Look, I'm sorry. It's just. I don't know. Life is wacky, and I took it out on you. I'm sorry, okay?" She looked into his eyes for a second before looking down. That's when she realized she was still holding his hand. She let it go, blushing.
Before either of them could say anything, a large owl swooped down, dropping two letters. It landed in a nearby tree.
Dawn looked at the letter that sat in her hands.
Miss Dawn Summers
Hyperion Hotel Front Garden
2323 Secant Court
Los Angeles, California, United States
She blinked at the strange address. How had the person known that she would be standing in the garden when she received the letter? It was very strange indeed.
Opening in the letter she started to read.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL
Of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorcerer, Chief Warlock,
Supreme Mugwump, International Confederation of Wizards)
Dear Miss Summers,
It is my pleasure to inform you that you have been invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Although circumstances have led to a late acceptance, we feel strongly that accepting you in your fifth year will be far better than allowing you to join the wizard world with very little to no schooling. Please think about our offer. The term starts September 1st, but I will be sending two students to collect you from Boston International Airport on July 21st. Please send your response with Aein.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster
Dawn looked up, her mouth opened and closed, with no sound coming out.
"Nice impression of a goldfish," Connor told her.
She looked at him sharply. "Well you would be like that too if you got something like this!" Dawn waved the piece of parchment in her hand in the air.
He gave her a smirk that almost rivaled his father's. "Oh but I did," he waggled a finger in her general direction.
Dawn blushed for the second time that night, "Shut up," she mumbled.
"So what do you think?" Connor asked her.
She looked at him. And then sighed, flopping onto the bench. "It'd be cool. Be a change. We could be normal. Well as normal as one could be in a wizarding school. Wow, this is very Lord of the Rings."
Connor looked at her, "That's the movie with the freakishly short people, right?"
She looked at him strangely before nodding. "Yeah, but the book was better."
He nodded, "It could be fun. Think there will be a ring?"
She gave him an exasperated look. "You do know that was a movie, right?"
He shrugged. "So what do you think. How do we'll tell everyone?"
"The truth?" Dawn asked her.
He shook his head, "They'll think we're nuttier than extra-chunky peanut butter. I say we write back to this Dumbly-door person and say yes, and then figure out how to tell them."
Dawn nodded, "You do realize we only have a good 13 days to tell them?"
Connor shrugged, "Oh well, 13 was always my lucky number."
Dawn glared at him. "Come on, let's get back inside before someone misses us."
Connor looked at her as he caught her hand. "But what if I want them to miss us?"
She gave him a smile. "There will be plenty of time for that. But it's my birthday, and I want to celebrate." Connor nodded as he let her pull him into the hotel.
"Do you think we should have done something different?" Dawn asked as she dragged a suitcase behind her. Spike's coat flapped behind her, just like it had done with Spike. They were boarding a plane that would take them to New York. From there they would be taking the train to Boston.
Connor looked at her, mirth clear in his eyes. "What, you don't think the note was enough?"
Dawn giggled. The note had read:
Everyone, we ran off to Vegas to elope. Well not really. We needed to go "find" ourselves or something like that. Don't worry, we'll write, honest. Don't try to find us either. We're safe.
~ Connor and Dawn
"Well it wasn't the best way to let them know. But I guess that's where procrastination leads, huh?" Dawn looked at him.
"Hard work may pay off later, but procrastination pays off now," Connor quipped.
Dawn rolled her eyes. Who needed the Scooby gang when you had Mr. Destructo boy at your disposal? He was much with the quip as well a virtual one-man monster killer. Not to mention he had some serious magic mojo going on. Oh yes, Connor Angel was just one big mixture of the original Scooby gang, with a pinch of brooding Angel and ex-cheerleader.
And she found it sexy.
"You find what sexy?" Connor asked.
Dawn blushed, "Nothing! Nothing at all."
He raised his eyebrow in a very Angel fashion. Sorta like the time he had caught her going through her sister's stuff. She wanted to read Buffy's diary. Angel had been lurking in her room. That's when Dawn had found out he was a vampire. She had found out even before Buffy had. She felt special. And Connor made her feel even more special.
She sighed, "I was thinking about how you're a mix of the original Scooby gang. You've got that Willow magic groove, you kill demons with ease, and that's so Buffy and you crack not so funny jokes like Xander. And then you've got the bit about Angel, what with the slight brooding. Which is sorta weird. I mean, you're the son of my sister's old boyfriend. It's icky when you look at it like that. But then again we aren't that differing. You're only about a year and a half, and I three. Younger men and older woman never seem to work out as couples though…"
Dawn would have gone on, if it weren't for him pulling her into their seat. She looked at the teen she was running off with. Wow, that sounded awkward. She never thought she would do something like this. "Wha?" she asked before she found herself assaulted by Connor's mouth.
Okay, assaulted wasn't the exact way to describe it, but it was a surprise. When he finally let up, and she thought it was from lack of air, she looked at him. "Wow," she said, a sloppy grin pasted on her face.
"Wow, that made you shut up. I'll have to remember that for next time," she hit him. "If there is a next time. Oh yeah, I don't brood," Connor smiled slyly before turning away and buckling his seatbelt. He then turned and did the same for Dawn.
"Er…um…" Dawn was still tongue-tied.
"Ready or not, here we come," Connor whispered as the plane started rolling down the tarmac. They were leaving their lives behind.
The airplane ride was interesting. Dawn kept sneaking looks at Connor. He had kissed her! It was the first, not counting Halloween two years ago, that had kissed her.
A boy had kissed her, a boy of the living variety. If she could have, she would have melted into a Dawn shaped puddle right there in the airplane. Then the airplane attendants would have to scoop her into a little baggie for Connor to take home.
But home was back in LA. And they were going to someplace overseas. They were jumping the pond. She wondered what it would be like when they were in England. The English people she had met, well she didn't like them.
Except for Giles, and Wesley, although Wesley was really annoying when she first met him. Or maybe that was just the Council of Watchers, or what Giles called them under his breath, the Council of Wankers.
Maybe this Hogwarts thing would be fun. Who knows. She might even make a couple friends.
Her smile widened. Yeah, this would be fun.
Connor looked at Dawn; she was grinning. He liked that look on her. It lit up her face; it made her even more pretty than she already was. He hoped he could keep her smiling. She was like a breath a fresh air in his otherwise stuffy life.
And when had he become such a poet?
He wasn't crafty with words. Weapons on the other hand, well that was something totally different. He wondered if Dawn would like to see the forty-seven ways to maim a Flargg Demon with his bare hands. Nah, she wouldn't go for that stuff. Connor bet that Dawn liked pretty things, like soap, and flowers, and candy. Okay, candy wasn't pretty. It was nice. He had taken a liking to twizzlers. They make your mouth happy.
"Why are you grinning?" Dawn asked him.
He looked up, embarrassed. "No reason," he said quickly.
Dawn wasn't impressed. "Uh huh. Sure. Now what's with the grin?"
"I was thinking about things that made mouths happy," he confessed. She got a scandalized look on her face. "Not like that!" He hissed. "You know, twirlers?"
"Oh!" Dawn sighed. "I thought I had taken a liking to a pervert."
"Hello, fifteen year old boy," Connor said.
She patted his arm. "You keep telling yourself that."
Connor scowled.
"Okay, where are we supposed to go now?" Dawn asked as they stepped out of the air-conditioned airport to the muggy July air of New York.
"The train station," Connor told her. Hadn't they gone over that part already?
Dawn glared at him. "I knew that, but how do we get there?"
Connor shrugged. Sighing exasperatedly, Dawn hailed a cab, or tried to. Pushy people took them before either of them were able to take a step. Dawn turned towards Connor. "Get them?"
He shook his head. "How about we walk instead?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I am not lugging around this suitcase. So go and get us a taxi." Pushing him towards the curb she waited until Connor was able to flag down a cab to walk over to him.
They sat in the taxi, taking in the sites of New York. "What's that?" Connor asked, pointing to the Empire State Building.
"The Empire State Building," Dawn answered. They were sitting in traffic, again. This was worse than LA!
"Oh, can I jump off of it?" he asked.
"No," she told him before glaring at the taxi in the rearview mirror. "You know, you're supposed to get us to Grand Central Station the quickest way, not the most expensive." The taxi driver didn't say anything. And Dawn folded her arms, pouting. She just hoped they'd make their train on time.