"You see the student that was attacked is not just any student. It sounds incredibly overdramatic but his life continuing could prevent the rise of a great evil."
"Nah not overdramatic just a regular day in Sunnydale. So what's this evil then and who's the kid?"
"It's rather a long story but it begins I suppose with Tom Riddle."
"I know that name, Giles why do I know that name?"
"It doesn't matter right now Buffy just listen to Professor Dumbledore."
Dumbledore continued in a calm, steady voice. "Tom Riddle was a student of mine at Hogwarts many years ago but he went well bad. About as bad as its possible to go."
"We call that evil round here."
"Yes well evil covers it rather nicely. Anyway this wizard known as Lord Voldemort or to many The Dark Lord and though I don't approve of it 'You Know Who' caused terror as we in the wizarding world had never known. He was determined to cleanse the world of impurity, believing pure wizards to be those whose families had been magical back to their origins. He killed those who would not join him and he and his followers tortured and killed many, both wizards and muggles."
"Sounds just peachy doesn't he Dawn."
"Pretty light hearted compared to end of the world stuff but not sure I'd go as far as peachy. Insane might be closer."
"So what happened to this mouldywart guy?"
"Lord Voldemort was stopped thirteen years ago, a curse backfired, a killing curse.
"So shouldn't he be dead right now?"
"Absolutely. That's why everyone was so stunned. The killing curse is theoretically impossible to block but this particular one failed to kill two people, the baby barely a year old and Voldemort himself. Voldemort had been experimenting with immortality, we can only assume something he tried worked. The baby, well that's his story to tell, not mine. Anyway Voldemort was reduced to something bodiless but still evil."
"Uh oh" Bufy didn't like the sound of that at all. Bodiless meant hard to fight and evil needed fighting. "I hope you've got some good news to follow that."
"Well not exactly, most people felt that was the good news. There was certainly enough celebrating, shooting stars all over Kent if I remember correctly. Lord Voldemort has not regained his body but has been growing stronger. I am sure that he will try and realign himself with dark creatures and they are not likely to refuse him, he can offer them far greater rewards than I can offer bribes which I would be loathe to do anyway as they rarely work with creatures already soulless. If only the ministry weren't so stubborn.
"The ministry"
"Our government I suppose. Cornelius Fudge, the minister for magic does not believe that we should view Lord Voldemort as a threat. Unfortunately he will refuse to until Voldemort has killed and I don't intend to let that happen particularly not to someone in my school and not to the student who Miss Rosenberg saved, he was the baby Voldemort attacked. He was not killed only marked, chosen like you. It is not the first time he has been attacked since Voldemort's downfall, you and he seem to have comparable abilities to attract danger."
"What's his ability to get out of it like?" Asked Buffy with a hint of a smile but perfectly serious sound to her voice.
"He has survived Lord Voldemort three times and his adventures appear to have become yearly occurrences but I am not prepared to let him be further attacked in the manner he was last week. We are protected by many enchantments but they may not extend to the level necessary if we are to be completely safe."
"I get ya, you can't protect against what you don't know about."
"Exactly. Even the wisest of wizards does not know about the creatures a slayer faces, I expect most of them don't believe in a vampire slayer and would be very scared to hear that you are anything more than legend. So you'll consider coming?"
"Well lets talk some details over and see if we can work something out." Buffy was a lot happier now that she was beginning to like and particularly trust Dumbledore.
"What about me?" asked Dawn in a small voice.
"Well that's up to you Dawn. You are welcome to come to Hogwarts, you have a place and certainly the ability but if you don't want to you can stay here."
"Who with? If Buffy's gone who's gonna do patrol and stuff?"
"Well since I hoped it would be you, Buffy and Mr Giles coming to Hogwarts I suppose your friend Mr Harris will be in charge of things like that. The watchers council plan to send someone, perhaps with a potential slayer and there is help nearby in Los Angeles not to mention that transport between here and Hogwarts can be extremely quick."
"Where is Hogwarts anyway?" Dawn was incredibly unsure about all of this. She didn't understand how Buffy was taking all of this so easily. To her this was as big revelation as it must have been for Buffy to find out she was the slayer.
"in England although its exact location is concealed."
"We're going to Giles land yikes." Buffy tried to imagine living in a place where everyone dressed like Giles, drank tea and talked about the weather and the health of the Queen [It's not like that at all!!!!!!I should know I live there]"I mean wow, lots of old stuff and……oh the council."
"Buffy don't worry about that, the council has very little contact with the wizarding world, I just knew Dumbledore of old." Giles suddenly looked a little uncomfortable realising what he'd just said.
"Giles you said you were a muggle so how do you know a wizard."
Giles looked even more uncomfortable at that and considered a second lie but Buffy knew him awfully well and would probably see through it and it never ended well if you crossed a slayer. "Very well. It's just a touch embarrassing. I'm not a muggle but I'm not a wizard either. I'm something called a squib. It means my parents were magical but I'm not. I know the theory very well and can do some basic potions but spells completely by pass me. Well now that's over we can never mention it again. Ever. Dawn would you like to go to Hogwarts?"
Buffy finally thought about Dawn's position. "Uh I'm not sure I want Dawn going somewhere that's going to be attacked, se might be safer here with Xander and Giles you can tell me why you failed to mention a whole other world to me later."
"Buffy we're on a Hellmouth, soon to be a hellmouth with no slayer if you go. I don't think that's exactly safe and anyway I think I want to be a witch it could be cool.No more geometry."
"Dumbledore smiled, he knew the young girl could be a very powerful witch if she chose and would get on very well at Hogwarts especially if her older sister came with."
"We'd better talk then." The witch, watcher, slayer and wizard then proceeded to discuss arrangements. It was decided that they would go to Hogwarts in three weeks time after Dawn finished the school year and they had all had time to say good bye. Dawn was fairly worried about catching up all the work she'd missed over the past few years but Dumbledore assured her that she would do just fine. They were just getting onto Buffy's job description when Xander arrived.
"Hey Buff, Dawnie, G-man…"As he saw Dumbledore Xander's voice dropped and his mouth fell open. Unruffled Dumbledore rose to his feet and swept off his hat.
"Mr Harris I presume. A pleasure to meet you."
Xander looked at Buffy and Giles for some kind of explanation. Giles offered the opening.
"Xander this is Professor Dumbledore, an old acquaintance of mine."
"Uh ok" Xander mumbled before falling back into an armchair.
"Xander we're going away, me Dawn and Giles." Buffy hated that Xander was going to be hurt and couldn't draw it out any longer. Sure enough she saw pain in his eyes, he trusted her enough to bypass disbelief.
"What's happened?"
"It's a long story can we explain over dinner, I need some food."