Dawn followed everyone into DADA class on Tuesday. She wasn't surprised by the conversation she heard up ahead of her.
"She looks like a Muggle," said Lavender.
"A very pretty Muggle," said Seamus.
"Who is she?" asked Dean.
"I think I saw her on Platform nine and three quarters when the train was leaving," said Neville.
"It's Buffy!" said Ron.
The kids ahead of Ron all turned to look at him. "You know her?" asked Seamus.
"Yeah," said Ron. "She's Dawn's sister."
All eyes shifted to Dawn as she came into the class. Dawn could see Buffy was at the front of the class, leaning back against the teacher's desk. Dawn couldn't help thinking that Buffy was dressed to Slay. Black jeans, boots, and a battered black leather jacket. She had her hair tied back into a pony tail. She saw Dawn and smiled and waved. Dawn waved back.
"Did you know about this?" asked Harry.
"Not exactly," said Dawn. "I suspected. Her last couple of letters just said she'd be visiting 'soon,' and then Professor Lupin went all mysterious about who the 'guest lecturer' was going to be. I figured there was a good chance it would be Buffy."
"So why is your sister our guest lecturer?" asked Dean.
"I can think of a few reasons," said Dawn. "Why don't we wait to see what she says?"
"If you'll all take your seats, we can get started," said Buffy from the front of the class. Everyone moved quickly into a seat. She waited until they had all settled down a bit. "Okay, as I think most of you know by now, my name is Buffy Summers, and you all know my younger sister over there." Buffy held her hand out toward Dawn. "I'm here to talk to you all about non-magical defense."
A puzzled murmur went through the class.
"That's right," said Buffy. "Non-magical. It isn't just magic you have to defend against, and magic isn't the only way to defend yourself. Many dark creatures will attack you with no more than claws and fangs, and are vulnerable to all manner of mundane weapons." She reached back and picked up a stake off the desk. She held it up. "A simple wooden stake is one of the most effective weapons you can use against a vampire. Puncture its heart with it, and the vamp is dust." She put down the stake and picked up a sword that Harry recognised. "Many creatures are vulnerable to swords. Professor Dumbledore tells me that Harry there…" Buffy pointed the sword at him. "…made very effective use of this sword against a Basilisk that was troubling the school a few years ago. And both the stake, and the sword will ruin your whole day if someone stabs you with them."
Buffy put the sword back down on the desk. "And it isn't just weapons you have guard against. Let's start with a simple demonstration. Dawn and Harry, could you come down here please?"
They exchanged a bit of a puzzled look, and got up from their desks. Harry had his wand in his hand, and Buffy asked him to put it into his pocket, and stand off to one side of the open space in front of the desk. He noticed that some of the pads that they used in Ginny's training room were on the floor here, and he started getting a little nervous about just what Buffy had in mind.
Buffy was whispering some instructions to Dawn. When she was done Dawn came and stood about fifteen feet in front of him. Harry saw the smile on Dawn's lips, and that made him nervous too. "Er, you aren't going to hurt me are you?" he asked.
"Don't worry," said Dawn. "You shouldn't feel a thing."
The rest of the class laughed a bit at the exchange.
"Okay Harry," said Buffy. "I want you to wait until you see Dawn start to move, and then I want you to pull your want out of your pocket, and stupefy her."
Harry looked at Buffy. "Are you sure?"
"Yep," said Buffy. "I hear it's mostly painless."
"Mostly?" asked Dawn.
"Well, you know you might hit your head or something when you fall down," said Buffy. "Are you both ready?" Harry and Dawn both nodded. "Okay. As soon as Dawn moves, stupefy her."
"Right," said Harry. He stood watching Dawn. She stood still for a few seconds, and suddenly she was coming at him. Harry snatched his wand from his pocket and raised it toward her. "Stu—" Dawn snatched his wand out of his hand. "—pefy!"
Weak sparks flew from his wand, even though it was in Dawn's hand when he completed the spell, but she had it pointed up toward the ceiling, so they didn't accomplish anything.
"And there you see a very simple non-magical defense, or it could have been an attack." Buffy picked up the sword off the desk again. "If Dawn had been holding this, and was so inclined, she could have taken Harry's head off before he could stop her with his wand." She put the sword back down. "Let's try something else, Dawn, give Harry his wand back."
Dawn smiled and gave Harry his wand.
"Okay Harry, now you're going to start with your wand already out and pointed, but Dawn's going to be a lot closer." Buffy positioned them about five feet apart, and Harry pointed his wand at Dawn's chest. "Alright Harry, this time you get to go first. Stupefy her."
"Stupe—" Dawn's hand lashed out. "—fy!" Once again she was holding his wand before he was done.
"As you can see, if you're close enough, you can stop someone from cursing you, without magic, if you act quickly," said Buffy. "Now, you two can return to your seats."
Buffy waited for Harry and Dawn to sit down before she started talking again. "I'm only going to be teaching this class for a couple of days, and it takes a lot longer than that to teach someone how to do what Dawn just did. She's had years of practice at that sort of thing. It's a skill that has to be learned, just like casting spells. The primary purpose of that demonstration was to show you that someone, even if they are unarmed, can be a threat to you.
"So, what can you do? The first thing is that you need to be aware of the threat. I doubt if Dawn could have taken Harry's wand nearly so easily from across the room a second time. The first time worked because he didn't know what she was about to do, and so he basically just stood still, and let her take it. Same with the second time. He was standing still.
"So what can you do? First thing, if some starts to come at you: don't just stand there! Move! Back away, move sideways, even toward them if you don't have any other choice. Give them a moving target."
Buffy had them divide up into pairs and practice keeping a hold of their wands, while the other person in the pair tried to take it away from them. Instead of using the Stupefy spell she had them use Aqueous which made a jet of water shoot from the end of their wands. Everyone was thoroughly soaked by the end of the class, even Buffy, who got caught more than once by stray sprays of water from someone's wand. (Dawn was always facing the other way, and working with Harry and Neville whenever she turned to look to see who hit her in the back.)
It took several minutes of drying spells to get everyone cleaned up at the end of class. Nearly everyone left to go to their next class but Dawn, Harry, Ron and Hermione stayed behind for a bit. Buffy and Dawn exchanged a big hug.
"So, when'd you get back?" asked Dawn.
"Just this morning," said Buffy. "I came in by Floo from the Leaky Cauldron. Dumbledore set it up. Weird way to travel."
"And how long can you stay?"
"Just a week. I wanted to check up on you, see how Ginny's coming along, and have a chance to talk with Professor Lupin, once he's over being all wolfy. So how's it going with you?"
"It's going great!" said Dawn.
"Keeping out of trouble?"
"Yes!"
"Not skipping any classes?"
"No!"
"Eating all your vegetables?"
"Buffy!"
Buffy smiled. "Just checking." She hugged Dawn again. "Had to get in nearly a month's worth of nagging there. So you're really enjoying yourself?"
"Yeah, I am. How about you? Saved the world recently?"
"Nope. Things are still quiet. Too quiet." Buffy looked around. "That was supposed to be a cue for something bad to happen."
"It's like washing your car," said Dawn. "It doesn't work if you wash it because you want it to rain. Um, we have to get to our next classes, but I'll see you for lunch?"
"Yes and no," said Buffy. Dawn raised her eyebrows at her. "I'm a 'guest teacher' so I'm eating at the staff table. Something about 'maintaining a proper level of authority' or some such. But I'm bunking in with you, Hermione and Ginny, so I'll see you tonight."
"Oh, and Ginny's next training session is at four this afternoon, so you'll come for that too, right?"
"Wouldn't miss it!" said Buffy.
Dawn got through Herbology without anyone asking her about the DADA guest lecturer, but word quickly spread at lunch that the pretty blonde in Professor Lupin's usual seat at the staff table was her sister. The third year Ravenclaws were also telling everyone about the lecture she'd given them about vampires.
Hagrid found that the Kneazles he was teaching about today in Care of Magical Creatures were taking second place to everyone wanting to hear more about Buffy from Dawn. Dawn would have much preferred that everyone's attention was on the Kneazles, one of which had just scratched the hand of a Slytherin girl who had tried to pet it.
"Is it true that Kneazles are good judges of character?" asked Laurie, as Sandra Teske sucked on her bleeding finger.
"Tha's true," said Hagrid. "Kneazles are very good at telling if someone isn' trustworthy, an' they can react badly to 'em." He glanced at Sandra too. "Or sometimes they jus' take a dislike to someone fer no reason at all."
Dawn, Laurie and Rob had a Kneazle between them. The cat-like creature was purring loudly as Rob stroked him. "This one must be broken," he told Laurie. "It seems to like me." He looked at Dawn. "So the third years told us they got a lecture on vampires, from someone with a whole lot of first hand vampire experience, and your class got a lesson on non-magical defense. Everyone seems to agree that Ms. Summers is a Muggle, so how does a Muggle get to know so much about vampires and such?"
"We lived on top of the Hellmouth for seven years," said Dawn. "Even the Muggles in Sunnydale knew that there was something strange about that town, even if most of them wouldn't admit it out loud."
"Still, it seems a little strange."
"Strange is what Sunnydale was."
Dawn and Hermione returned to their room after Muggle Studies. They found Buffy unpacking her bag, and Ginny getting changed into her workout clothes. They started to get changed too. When they were finished Buffy told Ginny and Hermione to go ahead without them. She wanted to have a private chat with Dawn first.
Buffy pointed to a pile of books on Dawn's desk. "Willow sent you those. What do you want with a bunch of books on electronics and stuff in a Wizarding school?"
"Muggle Studies term project," said Dawn. "We're supposed to get a piece of Muggle technology that doesn't normally work in Hogwarts working. Hermione and I are trying to make my computer work."
"Ah," said Buffy. "So, how much have you taught Ginny and the others?"
When Buffy and Dawn arrived in the Room of Requirement they found that Ginny, Harry, Ron and Hermione were engaged in warm-up exercises. Buffy watched for a moment before she called for attention. "Okay, Dawn's been filling me in on what she's been teaching you guys, so now it's time for me to see if you're all doing as well as she says you are."
Buffy had Harry pair up with Ginny, and Ron with Hermione while she and Dawn stood back and watched. Harry, Ron and Hermione were showing a lot more enthusiasm than they were actual skill, but they were doing well for kids who had just started a couple of weeks ago. Ginny was doing a lot better. It was really no contest between her and Harry, but she was relying on her superior speed and strength a lot more than she was on skill. Buffy was pleased to see that Ginny was also being careful about how she used her strength, so as not to hurt Harry.
After a while Buffy had Dawn take Harry's place, to watch how Ginny performed against a skilled fighter. This time things weren't nearly as one sided. Ginny was still usually the winner, but every once in a while she hesitated in her attacks and counters, in ways that let Dawn take advantage. Every time Dawn won a bout she and Ginny would do a quick debrief on what had happened, and how Dawn had managed to beat her. Ginny rarely made the exact same mistake twice, though it was plain to Buffy that most of Ginny's mistakes came from her being careful not to hurt Dawn.
Buffy had seen enough. "Dawn, why don't you and Harry work out a bit together? It's time for me and Ginny to have a turn…and Ginny, I'm a lot less breakable than Dawn is."
Ginny also discovered that Buffy was a lot quicker than Dawn, when her first attack on Buffy left her lying on her back on the mat with the wind knocked out of her. Buffy was still standing, and smiling down at her. She stretched out her hand. "Want to try that again?"
Ginny let Buffy pull her to her feet. "Not exactly." She tightened her grip on Buffy's hand, pulled, twisted, pivoted…and wound up on the mat again, only this time Buffy hadn't let go, and Ginny was locked into an armbar.
Ginny tapped out, and Buffy let go of her. They both got back to their feet, and Buffy smiled at her. "Nice try, but I'm the one who taught that one to Dawn. Let's go again."
Ginny circled Buffy carefully, watching for an opening, and all the time aware that whatever opening she thought she saw, would probably be some sort of trap. She saw Buffy seem to leave herself open several times, but she didn't attack.
"You have to attack me sometime," said Buffy.
"No I don't," said Ginny. "I could wait for you to attack me."
"True," said Buffy. "But then something like this…" Buffy darted in past Ginny's defense, and once again Ginny was pinned to the mat. "…might happen."
Ginny tapped out again, and they got back to their feet. "If I attack you, I lose. If I wait for you to attack me, I lose. What should I do?"
"In a situation like that, there's always the Monty Python defense," said Buffy.
"What's the Monty Python defense?"
Buffy was surprised that it was Harry who supplied the answer. "Run away! Run away!" he cried in a high pitched voice. She looked and saw that everyone else had stopped what they were doing to watch her and Ginny. Dawn and Hermione were laughing, and Ron was giving Harry a very strange look.
"Exactly," said Buffy. "Sometimes the best thing you can do is run away. First rule of Slaying: don't die. Standing to fight against something faster, stronger or better than you, when you don't have to, doesn't do you or the world a bit of good. Sometimes you have to stand and fight: to protect others, allow them time to get away, or because if you don't stop the threat now, it will only get worse, so you fight, and hope you get lucky. But sometimes the best thing you can do is run away."
"Have you ever run?" asked Ginny.
"Lots," said Buffy. "Why do you think I'm still alive? You run, you regroup, you find another way: a better place to fight, where you have the advantages; a better weapon; a better plan. Learn from your opponent, see if you can find a weakness you can exploit."
Buffy stopped the sparring session, and started on some exercises to improve Ginny's speed, while maintaining the control she needed to keep from hurting anyone. It was something Buffy had never been able to do much during her training. She had almost always had sparring partners who couldn't hope to match her strength and speed, so her initial training sessions with Merrick, her first Watcher, had often ended with him being injured in some way. With Buffy as a training partner, Ginny could push herself more rapidly without having to worry about breaking her opponent before she learned to fully control herself.
Buffy was also mindful of the fact that once she left Ginny would be training with Dawn as her primary partner again, so she was careful to see to it that Ginny didn't get careless. She knew that they weren't pushing to get Ginny ready for combat as soon as possible, as she had been pushed, and as they had pushed the Potentials a year earlier. They had a couple of years before Ginny would be put into a position where she would be fighting for her life.
