There was a stack of books waiting for Dawn on the common room table when they got back, with a note sitting on top of it. She picked it up and read it. "Oh, god, I'm supposed to read the first two chapters of A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration and the first chapter of Magical Theory tonight," she told Harry and Hermione. "And we're starting with Professor McGonagall first thing tomorrow morning. She says I'll find out the rest of my schedule then."

Dawn grunted as she picked up the stack of books. They were pretty heavy. "I guess I better get started. Call me when dinner gets here." She carried the books to the stairway that led up to her room.

Dawn was half way through the first chapter of her assigned reading when Hermione came up to get her for dinner. She ate quickly, and returned to her room to finish. She also took a look at some of her other books. Three volumes of The Standard Book of Spells, Magical Draughts and Potions, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and several other books on Herbology, Arithmancy, and other subjects.

It was nine o'clock when Dawn finally reappeared in the common room. Harry and Hermione were playing chess together and there was no sign of Buffy or Giles. "Rook takes pawn," said Harry, and Dawn wasn't the least bit surprised anymore to see that the rook moved across the board all on its own without anyone touching it. She was surprised by the way the tiny figure of a castle crushed the pawn under it though. "Check!"

"Bishop takes rook," said Hermione, and her bishop slid across the board and smote the castle with its staff. The castle crumbled away to dust.

"Queen takes bishop." Harry's queen moved to the hotly contested square, drew a sword, and cut the bishop down. "And that's checkmate." Hermione's king dropped his sword in surrender. Harry looked up at Dawn. "So you get all your reading done?"

"Uh, yeah," said Dawn. "I never thought of chess as a violent game before."

"Wizard chess," said Harry. "I hear some Muggles found out about it a few years ago and created a computer version. Called it 'Battle Chess.'"

"Oh, yeah, I've heard of that." Dawn looked around. "What happened to Buffy and Giles?"

"They went off to see Professor Lupin," said Hermione. "They said something about training him in Watcher 101 while you were getting Remedial Magic. So all set for your first real Transfiguration class tomorrow?"

"Yeah," said Dawn. "I think I might understand how that matchstick to a needle spell's supposed to work now."

"We don't have any matchsticks." Hermione looked around and saw Crookshanks curled up by the fire. She went over to him and stroked her hand along his back a couple of times. When she came back to the table she brushed several cat hairs onto the table, and waved her wand over them. They transformed into matchsticks. "Try on one of those."

Dawn separated one of the matches from the others and placed it in the center of the table. She waved her wand over it, and spoke the words of the spell. This time the matchstick shimmered, and got a little skinnier and more needle like, but it still looked like a wooden match.

"Hey, pretty good!" said Harry. "Um, try putting a little more emphasis on 'metallum' when you say the spell. Try again."

Dawn repeated her attempt. This time she got what looked like a metal replica of a match.

"Okay, we're getting there," said Harry. "Let's see if we can combine the two effects."

By the time Buffy and Giles came into the common room Dawn had a pile of sharp metal pins in front of her. She was working on getting eye holes in them to make proper needles. She demonstrated what she'd been doing to Buffy and Giles. "Neat, huh?"

"The neatest!" said Buffy, "But I think it's time for you to get to bed. You have an early start tomorrow."

Dawn looked at her watch and saw that it was nearly eleven o'clock. She suddenly found herself having to stifle a yawn. "Gosh, you're right! I totally lost track of the time." She started to sweep up the needles and matchsticks with her hands.

"Here, I'll take care of it," said Hermione. Dawn pulled her hands away and Hermione's wand swept over the table. All the matchsticks and needles became cat hairs again, that another flick of Hermione's wand sent flying into the fireplace where they sparked as they burned up.

"Wow, magic certainly makes cleanups a breeze!" said Dawn.

"Get to bed!" said Buffy. "I'll be up in a little while."

"Yes Master!" said Dawn. She started up the stairs toward her room, with Hermione right behind her. She saw that Harry was heading for the stairs up to his room too. "See you in the morning!" she called to him.

"Good night!" said Harry.


Dawn was asleep before Buffy came up to bed, and Buffy was still sleeping next morning when Hermione woke Dawn up. She and Giles still hadn't appeared when Harry, Hermione and Dawn had finished their breakfasts, and left the tower to go to Dawn's first Transfiguration class.

Dawn didn't see Professor McGonagall when they arrived in the Transfiguration classroom. There was a large tabby cat with unusual rectangular markings around its eyes sitting on her desk. "Looks like the Professor slept in," said Dawn. "You could have let me get a few more minutes." She saw the way Harry and Hermione were grinning. "What?"

Harry gestured toward the cat. Dawn turned back to look at it, just in time to see it transform in to Professor McGonagall with a slightly audible pop! "Good morning Miss Summers."

"Oh, good morning Professor. That was cool!"

"Thank you Miss Summers." Professor McGonagall sat at her desk. "Before we start your lesson today, here is your schedule for the next two weeks." She held out a roll of parchment to Dawn.

"Thanks." Dawn took the roll and looked at it. Harry and Hermione looked over her shoulder. After a two hour Transfiguration class with Professor McGonagall she had two hours of Charms with Professor Flitwick. After lunch she had Arithmancy and History of Magic. Then on Wednesday—

"Four hours of Snape!" exclaimed Harry.

"Potter, if term was in session you would have just lost ten points," said Professor McGonagall. "You will refer to your professors by their proper titles."

"Yes, Professor McGonagall, but four hours with Professor Snape?"

"Professor Snape seemed to be quite impressed with Miss Summers. He believes that with two weeks of intense study to prepare, she may be ready to take on his advanced Potions classes."

"Five years worth of Potions in two weeks?" asked Hermione. "Can't be done!"

"We don't expect it to be done," said Professor McGonagall, "but Severus believes that Miss Summers can have the basics down in that time, and with additional study, she can be working at a sixth year level by Christmas."

"I can't take that much of Snape," muttered Harry.

"Lucky for you Professor Snape feels the same way," said Professor McGonagall. "He has specifically requested that you not accompany Miss Summers to her Potions classes. She will be taking those with Miss Granger helping her alone."

"Oh, joy!" said Hermione. She saw the look McGonagall was giving her. "Sorry Professor."

"Yes, well, Miss Summers will have four hours of Potions, every other day for the next two weeks, except for the weekend where she will have four hours on both Saturday and Sunday."

"The weekend too?" asked Harry. "Doesn't she get any time off?"

"For the next two weeks, no," said Professor McGonagall. "Once the school term starts, Miss Summers will be following a schedule similar to our other students."

Hermione took another look at Dawn's schedule. "There's no Defense Against the Dark Arts on here."

"Yes, well, Professor Lupin feels that Miss Summers couldn't really benefit from it at this time," said McGonagall.

"What does that mean?" asked Dawn. "I've got lots of experience in that sort of thing."

"Until you have learned the basics of Charms and Transfiguration, you are not ready to learn defensive spells," said McGonagall. "But for non-magical defense, your practical experience in the field is far beyond that of even our senior students. You may not know about many of the minor Dark Creatures that Potter and Granger have learned about during their study here, but you have already faced several creatures that, quite frankly, we don't even consider teaching our students to defend against. They are part of the advanced Auror courses for students who have graduated from Hogwarts. If you perform as well as expected in your Transfiguration and Charms lessons over the next two weeks, Professor Lupin feels that you will be able to join his sixth year DADA classes without any other training.

"Since Potter's mornings will be free on the days when Miss Summers is taking Potions, he will be seeing Professor Dumbledore. The Headmaster thinks it is time for you to resume your Occlumency lessons. He expects you at ten o'clock tomorrow morning.

"Now, if you don't have any other questions, let's see if you learned anything from your reading last night." Professor McGonagall placed a matchstick on her desk. "Let's see you transform that into a needle."

McGonagall was impressed with the pin that Dawn was able to produce, and they spent the rest of their time together working on more difficult transformations, and the theory behind them. She also gave Dawn two more chapters to read before their next class.

They moved on to Charms with Professor Flitwick. Dawn had read the chapter of Magical Theory he had set for her, but she hadn't practiced her levitation spell, so when asked, she stuck another feather into the ceiling. Professor Flitwick accepted that quite calmly, and suggested that she try a less vigorous swish with her wand on the next attempt. By the end of the class Dawn had her feather flying around the room, going where she commanded it. She was feeling quite proud of herself. Flitwick assigned her two more chapters to read before their next class too.

When Dawn got back to the dorm after History that afternoon she found a note from Professor Snape telling her to read the first four chapters of Magical Draughts and Potions. He also wanted an essay on the uses of Burba Weed, other than spicing up blood for vampires, to be handed in to him at the start of next morning's class. A quick check of the index of MD&P didn't show any references to Burba Weed in it, so Dawn got up again and headed for the library. Hopefully she could have the essay done before dinner.


Dawn and Hermione arrived in Snape's dungeon at eight the next morning. Dawn dropped a couple of white pages on his desk.

"What's this?" asked Snape.

"My essay on Burba Weed." said Dawn.

"It's not parchment."

"Well, no, it's regular paper," said Dawn. "Parchment is so nineteenth century."

"It wasn't written with a quill."

Dawn pulled a ballpoint pen out of her bag and wiggled it between her fingers. "Again, it's the twenty-first century. These work much better."

"All Hogwarts essays are to be written on parchment, with a quill pen," said Professor Snape.

"Look," said Dawn. "If you plan to teach me five years of Potions in two weeks, we're going to have to take a few shortcuts. Unless you can give me a heck of a lot better reason than 'because I say so' I'm not going to bother learning to use a quill pen!"

Professor Snape frowned at Dawn for a moment. "Very well." He waved his wand over the bench in front of her and Hermione and everything for the potion Dawn had been making the other day appeared in front of her. "Carry on where you left off. Granger can show you the proper technique for melding."

Professor Snape fixed Hermione with his gaze. "You may answer Summers' questions, but you are not to offer suggestions without her asking you. If she asks you how to do something, you may demonstrate it, but Summers must do the procedure herself for any ingredients added to her potion. Carry on." He sat down at his desk, and started to read Dawn's essay.


Dawn came down to the common room after finishing her reading for Professor McGonagall. She needed a break before she started in on Flitwick's assignment. Hermione was reading a book, and Harry was sitting on the floor by the fire, just looking at the flames. Dawn sat down beside him. "Whatcha doin'?"

Harry glanced at her, and smiled. "Trying to clear my mind. I'm supposed to practice every night. Part of my Occlumency training."

"I meant to ask what that was."

"It's supposed to help keep Voldemort out of my mind," said Harry. "We've got this connection." Harry pointed at his scar. "Because of this. I can sometimes feel what he's feeling, especially when he's really mad, or really happy. Sometimes in my dreams I see what he's seeing. This is so I can shut him out."

"Sounds like it could be useful…knowing what he's up to."

"Yeah, I used to think that too…but Voldemort knows I can do it, and he can use it against me. Send me false dreams. That's how he tricked us last spring. Sent me a dream that he was torturing Sirius, when he really wasn't, so I'm learning to shut him out." Harry looked back into the flames.

"Oh." Dawn sat watching him for a minute. "Have you tried breathing?"

"Huh?" Harry looked at her. "I think I pretty much do that all the time."

"Yeah, but you don't think about it," said Dawn. "A basic meditation technique is to concentrate on your breathing. Here, look at me. Sit like this." Dawn sat facing him, her legs crossed, her back straight, her hands on her knees. Harry matched her pose. "Okay, now you start by just breathing with your diaphragm. Take a deep breath through your nose, and let it out, without moving your chest." Dawn demonstrated.

Harry emulated her, matching his breathing with hers, feeling the air flowing in and out.

"Good," said Dawn after a minute. "Now try it with just your chest." Her chest rose and fell as she took another deep breath. Harry smiled as he copied her.

They spent another minute breathing with just their chests. "Now comes the hard part," said Dawn. "We combine them. Take a deep breath using your diaphragm, and then inhale more with your chest. Hold for a beat, then exhale with your chest, and then with your diaphragm. The staged exhale is the tricky part."

Harry tried doing as Dawn said, and was surprised to find she was right. It was hard to control his exhalation that way. He had to fight at first to keep from letting out all the air at once. It took him a little time to get the hang of it. They sat together, their breathing synchronised. Dawn closed her eyes as they breathed together. Harry found his eyes drawn to Dawn's rising and falling chest.

"I think you might find it works even better if you close your eyes," said Hermione. Harry looked toward her and saw that she was watching them over top of her book. It hid her mouth, but her eyes were sparkling. Harry blushed.

Dawn climbed back to her feet. "Watching the fire while you do it would be good too. I need to get back. I've got two more chapters to read for Professor Flitwick." She smiled down at Harry. "That was good. Really relaxing. Gets all the tension out. See you later."

Dawn bounced away toward the stairs up to the girls' dorms. Harry watched her go, and then turned back to the fire. He inhaled, filling his lungs in stages, and let out the breath again while he watched the flames dance in front of him.