Chapter Fourteen

You're Who?

Madam Pomfrey held Draco and Dawn in the infirmary until Sunday night. During that time they spent most of their time resting and did little talking. Neither Harry nor the other Gryffindors came to visit, only the scoobies.

Dawn was alone in the classroom where muggle defense was held stretching the next morning. She heard someone enter behind her and turned to see who it was.

"Hey."

"Harry," Dawn said curtly, before resuming her stretching.

"I don't understand why you're mad at me." Harry said softly.

"Oh gee, I don't know Harry. Maybe it's because you doubt my instincts. Or maybe because you insulted Draco..."

"Why do you defend him?"

"Cause I believe he's trying to change and you won't let him. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt."

"But it's Malfoy!"

"His name is Draco," Dawn said evenly. "You know I was the first to accept Spike? I trusted my instincts then, and I trust them now."
"But..."

"No buts Harry. If you truly are my friend, you'll accept it and drop the subject."

"Fine. Still doesn't mean I understand." Harry said sullenly.

Dawn smirked and said, "I'm a woman, you're not suppose to understand."

The rest of the class began to filter in and soon Buffy and Spike arrived, and class began.

******

The next morning Spike was standing outside of his classroom for DADA as the sixth year Gryffindors and Slytherins were entering his class. Dawn and Harry had just arrived as Peeves came floating down the hall. Unfortunately Spike didn't see him until it was too late.

"It's ickle William!" Peeves cried in delight.

Spike's eyes widened in horror. He had been able to avoid the poltergeist until that moment. "Not now Peeves."

"Ickle William has come back to Hogwarts!"

Spike's eyes flashed yellow as he tried to keep his anger and fear in check.

"So mama let her little boy grow up after all?"

"Shut up Peeves!"

Dawn and Harry exchanged curious glances. In the past several months at Hogwarts neither had seen Spike look so agitated.

"What's the matter ickle William? Still not living up to the Malfoy name like your brothers did?"

Harry's jaw dropped in astonishment. Spike was a Malfoy? Why didn't he ever tell them?

Spike vamped out. "Move along Peeves, you've done enough damage already."

"Ohhhh. Baby Malfoy grew some teeth." Peeves cackled.

"Would you like for me to perform the exorcism now?" Spike said menacingly.

With a startle expression Peeves headed silently down the hall.

Spike put his human mask back into place and slowly turned to Harry and Dawn. Seeing their dumbfounded expressions, he became apologetic. "Sorry you guys had to find out like that."

"Why didn't you ever tell us? Tell me?" Dawn asked softly. She had always been close to Spike and thought that they could tell each other anything. The fact that he had kept his heritage a secret hurt her.

"The name Malfoy isn't exactly well liked if you haven't noticed. Although, it's not as if I ever actually acted like one. Why don't I explain everything tonight, to everyone?"

"Does Buffy know?" She asked hesitantly.

"Yes 'Bit, she knows. I told her when we became Draco's guardians."

Dawn just nodded her head and entered the classroom.

Spike turned to Harry, "is that all right with you mate?"

"Yeah."

********

That evening the entire scooby gang and Buffy's trainees gathered in the scooby's common room. Everyone was curious to learn about Spike's past.

After everyone was comfortably seated, Spike got up and stood in front of them. "I just want you guys to know that I had left my old life behind me and became someone else. That's why I rarely talk about my human past, let alone my heritage."

Those who weren't present that morning looked at each other in confusion.

"I was born in London in the year 1854 as William Joseph Malfoy."

They all stared at him in mute astonishment, except for Draco. With a look of utter disbelief and outrage he leaped to his feet. "That's impossible! Your name is not listed on the family tree."

"If you'll sit down and listen to my story Blondie, I'll explain." Spike waited until Draco did as he asked before he continued.

"I was the baby of the family and my mother treated me as one. As you can tell by my last name, mine was a wizarding family. My father, Draco, and my two older brothers, Lucius and Anguis, had the typical Malfoy temperament - hard and cruel."

"How come your name is so different from the rest of your family?" Buffy asked.

"My mother chose it. The others are family names, passed down through generations."

"Oh, makes sense."

"My mother," Spike continued, "was kind and gentle. How she ended up with my father I'll never know. She protected me and sheltered me as best she could. As a result I behaved more like her than the rest of the family, much to my father's disappointment.

"When I turned eleven I received my letter of invitation to Hogwarts, like my brothers before me. My mother feared that I would get sorted into Slytherin. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on who you asked, I didn't become a Slytherin like all Malfoys."

"Which house did you get sorted into?" Giles asked, with no small amount of curiosity since Spike always avoided the subject.

"Hufflepuff."

"You're joking," said Xander.

"No whelp, I'm not."

"Interesting," Giles murmured.

"Growing up at the Malfoy Mansion had been hell before, but after my sorting it was worse. My father scorned and berated me for not being a proper Malfoy.

"Since I was so shy I had no close friends growing up and so had no one to talk to besides my mother. That is until a fifth year Gryffindor took pity on me and befriended me."

"Who was it?" Ginny asked, fully intrigued by the story, her fascination with Spike only growing because of the story. The fact that he was a Malfoy didn't bother her.

"Albus Dumbledore."

"You knew Dumbledore when he was a student?" Ron asked with wide eyes. When Spike nodded, Ron grinned and said, "Wicked."

"Actually, he was quite a troublemaker. He was a pretty good prankster in his day."

"No wonder he was so easy with Fred and George," Ron said.

"I'll tell you those stories later. So, Albus became my friend and I was able to share my troubles with him. This just upset my father even more, so I spent very little time at home, mostly just during the summer.

"But however mean and cruel my father was, I always secretly craved his approval, but could never bring myself to behave as he did. After I graduated my mother left my father and I went with her. Because of this, he disowned me and erased me from the family tree. He had been waiting for a good excuse to do it.

"So I lived with my mother for the next eight years and got a job at the Ministry of Magic. Mostly I pushed papers around since I wasn't a very good wizard. I was still as shy as ever so Albus was still my only friend."

Spike ducked his head, he knew Xander was going to give him hell forever about the next bit. "One thing I did have a passion for was writing poetry." He paused waiting for a comment from Xander, when none came he continued. "I wasn't very good at it, but I wrote anyway."

"When I turned twenty-one my mother forced me to go to parties. I think she was worried that I would never find a girl since I was so shy. After a couple of years I finally fell in love with a girl named Cecily. One night after my twenty-sixth birthday we were at a party and I told her how much I loved her. She rejected me and I ran into the streets to hide my humiliation. As I was hiding in a stable Druscilla came to me and turned me."

"Stupid girl," Ginny muttered, referring to Cecily. Everyone looked at her and she blushed furiously. Dawn and Hermione shared knowing looks and giggled quietly.

Spike just raised an eyebrow and continued. "When I awoke as a vampire I felt power running through my body and my secret desires for my father's approval found an outlet with my demon. But when my grandsire, Angelus, learned that my wand carried slayer blood..."

"Your wand has slayer blood?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah, my old one carried the blood of the slayer of the time it was made. My new one has Buffy's in it."

Draco shifted uncomfortably in his seat. It seemed he was more like Spike than he had thought. His own wand carried the blood of a slayer named Kendra.

"So you had a connection to the slayer line even when you were a human." Hermione said thoughtfully.

Spike tilted his head to one side, "Never thought of that before. Is something of a coincidence though. 'Specially since I've killed two slayers."

"Probably more than a coincidence." Giles pointed out. "I believe I said something to that effect to you several years ago."
"You killed two slayers?" Ron asked.

"Huh?" Spike said, jolted out of his thoughts. "Oh yeah. I'll get to that. So, Angelus made me put my wand away. Said it was appalling that I would use a wand that had a connection to the thing that hunted us. I stopped practicing magic and eventually forgot where my wand was. In an effort to leave my old life behind me I changed my attitude and my name. I hunted down the ones who had tormented me and shoved a railroad spike into their heads, hence my name.

"I could never find Cecily though; it was almost as if she had dropped off the earth. Wasn't till a couple of years ago that I found out what happened to her."
"What did happen?" Asked Willow.

"You met her a couple of years ago. She's demon-girl's friend Halfrek."

"That's Cecily?" Buffy asked darkly.

"Yeah luv, thought you knew."

"No, I didn't," she said, narrowing her eyes.

"Relax luv. You're the only one in my heart now."

"I better be."

"Can I continue?"

"Yes, but we'll talk about this later."

Spike winced, then continued. "So my life as part of the Scourge of Europe began. I loved my new life, the power, the killing. It was in China during the Boxer Rebellion that I killed my first slayer.

"A couple of years later Angelus left, then Darla."

"Who's Darla?" Asked Ginny.

"Angelus' sire."

"Oh, that's right, now I remember," she said. Spike gave her a quizzical look and she quickly replied, "Dawn mentioned her when she was telling us about Buffy being a slayer."

Spike nodded his head in understanding. "When they left, Dru and I were on our own. I spent most of my time taking care of her since she is quite insane, but I loved her anyway."

"Why did you?" Tara asked.

"Mostly because she was my sire and the blood gave us a connection. But also because of her childlike innocence at times. She had shown me a new world and loved me for who I was and not who I should be. And because the demon in me was attracted to the one in her. She was my black princess."

The room remained quiet for a moment, the only sound being the crackling of the fire. "I wouldn't encounter another slayer until the seventies in New York. She had a lot of fire like Buffy, but in the end I killed her and took her leather duster.

"The next slayer I met was Buffy and she was a challenge. I had set out to kill her like all the others, but in the end it was she who slayed me." He said smiling, while looking at Buffy.

"Ever the poet," Xander snorted.

"So that's my tale. Any questions?"

After his initial outburst, Draco had sat absorbed in his thoughts, only catching snatches of Spike's story.

So Spike knew that not all Malfoy's were evil and yet he still treated him with disdain. Spike was a Malfoy himself and never told him the truth! Had let him believe that he was not worthy of a kind gesture.

Even after he had been placed in Spike's care he had received little in the way of encouragement for his change of demeanor. Instead, Spike had doubted him and treated him as a spy. As if he were there to gather information for Voldemort.

Pain and anger began to rise in him until he could take it no more. He rose to his feet and shouted, "You asshole! You knew you were fuckin' related to me and said nothing! I've done nothing but try to prove to you that I wanted to change and you denied it! You know how hard it is to do what I'm doing, but you never helped me! You fucking son of a bitch!" Then he ran out of the room.