Hello everyone! Sorry that it's been so long since I've updated. I kind of had writer's block with this story. I knew what I wanted to happen much farther down the road, but I couldn't seem to get the stuff in between figured out. But my wonderful beta, PuNKyCoWGiRL, helped out so things are fine now.

A/N: I'm going to return to the letter format in the next chapter.

Cow as White as Milk, fairysk8r, harmoni9, Chaotic Reign, dancetdplc, selene12, Tituba, Annje, Lolly6, Kandice, Pandoras Box1, kiki, thank you guys so much for your reviews, you guys are awesome!

moonbunny77, I'm afraid I've got Draco a little oc in this chapter, but he kept wanting to be written this way. As for the last chapter, he was trying to remain cool and not let her affect him as much. The whole - Malfoy's are better than letting some muggle girl get the better of him. Does that make sense?

Faith5321, Dawn and Draco probably won't get together until near the end of the fic. He's got a long way to go.

My reviewers are just the best! You guys kick ass!

Part Nine

Dawn somberly walked through the castle alone. It was her last full day at Hogwarts since they were leaving first thing in the morning and she felt rather sad about leaving. There was something about the castle that made her feel safe, a feeling she wasn't exactly familiar with. After all, it was hard to feel safe in a house on the hellmouth and your sister's a slayer - which seem to attract all sorts of baddies. Not that working at Wolfram and Hart was any better. So she was wandering the halls trying to engrave that feeling on her memory.

She remembered that she hadn't had the chance to check out the library as much as she would have liked. Hermione had briefly pointed it out to her on the tour, but they didn't have any time to explore it. Then, Dawn had spent most of her week in classes with Hermione or surrounded by students asking questions about what it was like to have a sister who is a slayer or to be a watcher. Deciding that now would be the perfect time to look at the library, she turned and headed in that direction.

On her way there, her thoughts turned to Draco Malfoy. After the big blow up before potions, he seemed to avoid her like the plague, which only served to make her more curious about him. As a result, she had spent a good deal of her time that week discreetly watching him.

Regardless of the fact that he was an arrogant jerk, she had noticed that he was extremely intelligent. Which made sense considering that he was head boy. Potions seemed to come naturally to him, and he was also gifted in Charms and Transfiguration. He really shined in Defense Against the Dark Arts, but he didn't seem to be aware of it. Despite his rant in his letters to her denouncing Lupin, he paid close attention to the werewolf even though most people didn't realize it. Dawn had studied him enough to know that even though his face was a portrait of boredom, his eyes told a completely different story.

She seriously hoped he would take their offer to join the watcher ranks. They really needed people with his abilities. Not to mention, having his sexy smirk around wouldn't be a bad thing. Bad Dawn, she said to herself. Bad Dawn. You're not supposed to be thinking that the allegedly evil Slytherin has a sexy smirk. Even though she had thought the same about Spike many a time before he had truly become good.

The brunette smiled in way of greeting to Madam Pince as she entered the library and headed to the stacks labeled Demons and Magical Creatures. She just wandered up and down the aisles, hoping that a title that she had never seen would leap out at her. Unsurprisingly she had gone through most of these books either from Giles' collection or Wolfram and Hart's. She was surprised to see Draco sitting by himself at a small table in the corner.

Deciding that now would be the perfect time to talk to her pen pal before leaving, she walked up behind him and peered over his shoulder. She briefly saw the word slayer on his paper before she said, "Hey!"

He jumped and turned to look up and face her.

"Did I scare you?" She asked with a grin.

A scowl appeared on his handsome features. "No, you didn't scare me."

"Puhlease. It sure looked like I did."
"I was startled, not scared. There is a difference between startled and scared."

"Yeah, whatever," Dawn said as he turned back to his book. She sat down across from him and watched him for a few minutes. "You know, I can help you with that," she said finally.

"I don't need any help," Draco said flatly.

"I'm just saying... that paper on the slayers - I can help you."

"Like I said, I don't need your help," he replied, not looking up from his book.

"You know, I am a watcher, my sister is a slayer..."

"Listen. Summers. I don't need your help. I finished that paper two days ago. Now why don't you run along and find the golden trio."

Dawn looked curiously at him. "The golden trio?"

"Potter, Weasel, and Granger," he said with a sneer. "They can do no wrong in the eyes of the faculty, with the exception of Professor Snape, but that's only because he has more common sense than the others."

She sighed and changed the subject. "If you've finished the paper, then why are you reading about slayers?"

Draco looked at her in alarm. "What are you talking about?"
"I saw the word slayer on your paper. If you're not working on you paper then what are you doing?"

"That is none of your business, you little muggle. Now why don't you just leave?"

Rolling her eyes, Dawn said, "I've told you. I'm not a muggle."

"Why don't you tell me why you're not a muggle?" He challenged.

"It's none of your damn business, Ferret-Face."

"Ha!" He cried, standing up so quickly that he knocked his chair over. His voice rose as he said, "I think you are a muggle, you're just ashamed of it. So you made up this 'I'm not really a muggle, but I'm not telling you why' business just to cover it up!"

Dawn jumped to her feet. "I'm not lying!"

"You keep telling yourself that, Summers."
"Ferret-Face! I'm not a muggle, I'm the..."
"Children!" Madam Pince said, interrupting them. "Either lower your voices or leave."

"I think I'll leave," Draco said. "The stench of muggle is a little too much for me." He grabbed his parchment and left.

Madam Pince gave Dawn a stern look.

"I'll behave myself," Dawn said sullenly. The librarian nodded and then left.

Looking down, Dawn noticed that Draco had left the book he was reading behind. It looked to be fairly new, so she picked it up. She frowned slightly as she wondered, What is Draco doing reading Buffy's slayer diary?

***********

Draco kept muttering darkly to himself as he made his way to the Slytherin Dungeons and into his room. He angrily threw his parchment on his desk and flopped down on his bed.

"Stupid muggle girl and her beautiful hair," he muttered without realizing it.

He hadn't been lying when he had told her that he had finished writing that paper two days earlier. His older cousin, Seline, had been considered a potential until she had turned twenty-one and the council had told her that she was too old to become a slayer. But now, because of that spell, she was a slayer. Therefore he was quite familiar with had the slayer thing worked.

However, it had been pure chance that he had come across old slayer diaries in a musty corner of the library. The thought of being able to read about Dawn's sister had gnawed on him until he had finally broke down and pulled her diary from the stacks.

Being familiar with slayer history, he had been amazed at how different Buffy's life had been from her predecessors. Buffy alone had faced more enemies and stopped more apocalypses than any slayer before her.

Draco wondered what it was like to have a life like that. Not that he wanted to save the world, he'd leave the world-saving up to Potter. But it was more of not knowing whether you'd live to see another day.

Of course, he was already sort of living that life. He knew that he decision not take the dark mark, in spite of his parents' and friends' urgings, would eventually lead to a great deal of trouble.

While he didn't particularly care for muggles or mudbloods, over the years he realized that killing them wasn't really a solution. He didn't know what the solution was, but he knew it wasn't killing them.

He sighed and ran a hand through his blond hair. The whole reason he had looked in Buffy's diary was to find out what Dawn meant by not being a muggle. Draco hated to admit it, but that mystery just bugged him. It was rare that he ever came across a problem that he couldn't readily solve.

Plus, it helps that she's beautiful, came an irritating voice in the back of his mind.

"Shut up," he muttered angrily. "She's a stick-like muggle. One who seems to enjoy terrorizing me."
It was then that Draco remembered that he had left Buffy's diary lying open in the library. Knowing that girl, she looked at it.

Boy was he in trouble.