Chapter Thirteen

She Did What?

Tara's face turned red as she realized the implications of her simple statement. While the scooby gang and the Gryffindor students knew of Dawn's status as the key, Draco had no idea. She knew they had refrained from telling him in the beginning because of who his father was and his previous behavior. She hoped Buffy wouldn't get too mad at her.

The rest sat there in shocked silence looking fervently at each other. Then as one, the scooby gang began some hastily created explanations, with the exception of Dawn.

She was studying Draco. She could tell he wasn't believing a word that was being said and began retreating back into himself. The cold indifferent look began to reappear on his face.

His actions that day were confusing to her. When she had awoken she found him by her bed holding her hand. Then he had smiled at her. A genuine smile! Not his trademark smirk. He seemed concerned for her well being, but had disappeared when her friends had arrived.

The next time Dawn had seen him, he had a slight frown on his face. What could possibly change his attitude from one minute to the next?

She felt the arm across her shoulder squeeze her tightly and heard Harry's voice in her ear, "Don't worry, he'll never find out."

Dawn had a sudden flash of insight. She knew that Draco hated Harry, but why would he care if he sat next to her? Unless...

Someone yearns for yer love....

Was it Draco? She looked closely at him and felt something stir inside. Somehow she knew that he was the one Doyle was talking about, he said she would figure it out on her own.

Open yer heart....

Just as instinct told her he was the one who loved her, it was telling her to trust him. With everything.

"It's me. I'm the key." Dawn said clearly, causing everyone to turn to her in shock.

"But.."

"It's ok Spike, he's suppose to know." Dawn said, cutting him off.

"How do you know that?" Buffy asked.

"Buffy, you know how you tell me to trust my instincts?" The slayer quietly nodded. "It's telling me to trust him with this. That he's going to be needed."

A harsh voice spoke next to her. "Like Malfoy could be needed for anything."

Dawn turned to glare at him. "Everyone is needed Harry. I can't believe you would say something so cruel about someone."

"Dawn, I've told you what he's done! He's said worse about Hermione! How can you trust him?"

"First off, Mr. Potter, someone's past actions doesn't necessarily indicate their future ones. Look at Spike. He's killed two slayers only to fall in love with a third. Do you want to stake him because of his past? Even though he's good now?"

"No, but..."
"As for why I trust him? He prevented a demon from attacking me from behind. That's all I need to know. Now I suggest you find somewhere else to sit."

Harry just looked at her with a dumbfounded expression on his face. He couldn't understand why she was so angry; it was Malfoy for heaven's sake. He slowly stood and crossed over to where Ron and Hermione were sitting on another bed.

Draco took the moment of silence to ask, "what do you mean that you are the key?"

Dawn turned to look at him and smiled softly. "The key was a mystical ball of energy that was found by some monks about a thousand years ago. Nobody seems to know where it came from or how old it really is. A couple of years ago a hellgod named Glory began her search for it, cause it could open a portal to her dimension."
She took a deep breath and looked down at her hands. She wasn't sure she could stand everyone's look of disbelief as she told Draco the truth.

"So in order to protect the key from Glory they sent it to the slayer, only they changed it to hide it better."
"And they turned it into you." Draco finished softly.

"Yeah."
"So if the key was a green ball of energy and the magical fire around you last night was green, then it's probably safe to assume that you were tapping into the key's properties." Draco said.

"Oh my god!" Buffy exclaimed. "When she bought her wand green fire was around her."
"Damn," Spike said. "I should have noticed it then."

"Take it easy Spike." Willow said comfortingly. "We were all there and none of us put two and two together."
Madam Pomfrey chose that moment to chase the visitors out of the infirmary claiming her patients needed rest. After the others had left, Dawn and Draco sat in their respective beds in silence.

Draco's head swirled with thoughts. First his angel defended him to Potter, then she had all but told scarhead to get away from her. Then she had entrusted him with her secret.

Him! A Slytherin! A Malfoy! His angel deemed him trustworthy. Maybe Whistler was right, maybe he could be someone to be counted.

He looked over at her. The strength and fire she had shown towards Potter earlier was gone and left behind a pale, fragile looking girl.

"So what happened?"

She looked up quickly. "Huh?"

"With Glory. Is she still looking for you?"

Dawn's face had a bitter smile and she let out a small laugh devoid of humor. "No. She eventually found out that I was the key and the only way to access the key's power was through my blood. She captured me, took me to the top of this tower, and tied me there. She went to fight Buffy who had shown up to rescue me and Buffy killed her."

Dawn's volume kept dropping and Draco had to strain to hear her. "But this other demon cut me and the portal opened. The only way to close the portal was for me to die. Buffy reached me and untied me, but it was too late. The genetic material the monks used to make me came from Buffy, so she jumped and died. The portal closing with her."

Draco just sat there in stunned silence. His brain was overloading trying to process everything she had told him. The slayer had killed a god! He made a mental note to never piss her off. Then she had died.

Wait!

"She died?"

"Yeah, had a funeral and everything. Five months later Willow raised her from the dead."

"Wow," was all he could say. Apparently there was more to wicca than he had thought. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what?"

"Why are you telling me all this? I haven't really given you any reason to."

She smiled lightly and said, "Let's just say I have a feeling I can trust you. I'm taking a chance."

A small smile tugged the corners of his mouth at this. That one statement made his heart soar.

Dawn's smile got bigger as she realized she was getting a second smile from him in the same day.

*******

Harry was pacing furiously in an empty classroom that he had ducked into with his friends. "I can't believe she told him!"
"I don't get it either." Ron said, still in shock from the conversation that had just occurred.

"She defended the bloody ferret!"

"Yeah, what's up with that?" Ginny asked.

"He probably just saved her life to be able to get more information, I just know it." Harry continued, not hearing Ginny's question.

"Harry, calm down." Hermione chided.

"Calm down?!" Harry practically exploded. "How do you expect me to calm down? She all but placed herself into Voldemort's hands!"

"He didn't know."
Harry whirled to face Ron, "what?"

"Draco didn't know she was the key."
"So? We all know that, we were there when he found out remember?" Ginny said with a small amount of sarcasm in her voice.

"Then why was he staring at her?" Ron asked her. "First we thought he knew she was the key, but apparently not. So why?"

Harry's thoughts raced through his mind. There was only one other reason Malfoy would stare at Dawn. "He likes her." Harry said softly, sitting down on the floor with a small thump.

He had a sinking feeling in the bottom of his stomach that maybe Dawn liked Malfoy back, if her actions earlier were any indication.

******

Buffy and Spike sat in Dumbledore's office waiting for him to arrive. Fawkes, as usual, flew directly to Spike's shoulder the moment he had entered the room.

"I don't like this Spike."
"Like what, luv?"

"It can't be coincidence that Dawn can suddenly access the power of the key. I mean I know she didn't open a portal or anything, but whatever is going on is tied in with the key, I just know it."

"You're probably right. When you guys researched the key during that thing with Glory, did it mention anything like this?"

"Spike we didn't even know what the key did until those knights told us."

"So there's no information out there? I find that hard to believe."

"All I know Spike is that we found nothing about the key and very little about Glory. Did you guys do any research after I died?"

"No." Spike said rather sheepishly. "We had other things to deal with and we thought that the call for the key was over, that she was safe."

"So did I. Guess we were all wrong."

"What about the knights or even the monks? Surely they had something about it since their orders centered around the key."
"I doubt the knights had any; they only wanted to destroy it. We'll never know about the monks cause they're all dead and we don't know where their monastery was."

"Ah, but there is someone who knows where it is," said a voice behind them.

"Albus, you know?"

Dumbledore smiled and nodded his head. "I thought you knew where it was, otherwise I would have said something earlier."

"Where is it?" Buffy asked. "We need to see what information they had on the key."

"I am afraid that Glory had destroyed the monastery. I had gone to look myself and there is nothing there but a pile of rubble. Why the sudden interest in information?"

"Apparently during the attack in the forest, the 'Bit accessed the power of the key. We just figured it out when we asked Draco and Dawn what happened."

"Interesting."

"What is?" Buffy asked.

"The monks came to me shortly before they had performed the spell to have me check over everything. I had mentioned the possibility of this occurring."

"What possibility?"

"That when transformed into a human, they could use the key for more than its original purpose. Young Miss Summers seems to be able to do accomplish this."

"But Albus, she didn't do this on purpose. She said that it just happened, that she had no control over it."
Buffy's nerves were already frayed from worrying over Dawn and Draco all night, but this new information broke her last one and she exploded. "So what do we do about this? Is this going to put her in danger?"

Dumbledore raised a hand to quiet the slayer and spoke in a calm voice. "I suggest we look in the library to see what is written there. Then teach her how to access and control these new powers."

"I'm afraid the kids have already researched in there, mate. They haven't found anything."

"I doubt they have looked in the restricted section. I'll inform Madam Pince to allow them access. I'm sure that they will find something there."