Chapter 7

Trust and Stuff

A/N: Hello, all. I'm happy to see you are all still reading my story even though it's ridiculously long. It's now seven chapters, and fifty one pages long.

"So, where are you from, specifically?" Ginny asked.

"Los Angelus, California originally. But I lived in Sunnydale, California for years. That was my real home." Dawn replied from her seat leaning up against a willow tree by the lake. She and Ginny were the only one's there because everyone else was busy.

Ginny frowned. "I was in an exchange program there a couple of years back. I stayed in San Francisco, California. I've never heard of Sunnydale."

"When were you there?" asked Dawn looking up.

Ginny thought for a moment. "Four years ago."

Dawn nodded. "By then, the entire town had... collapsed might be the best word."

Ginny looked at her skeptically. "Do tell?"

"Let's just say it involved an apocalypse, a Hell Mouth, the First Evil, and a pretty necklace thing that we gave to our vampire buddy."

"Your life seems complicated."

"It was. I like it here in England. No end-of- he-worlds to deal with, and my biggest problem is training."

Ginny laughed. "I've got to go. I want to grab a snack before my next session with Snape. You want to come?"

Dawn shook her head. "No thanks. I think I'll sit out here for a while."

Ginny gave a slight wave and took of for the castle. A few minutes after that Harry came out of Professor Hagrid's cabin and saw her. She wished more than ever that she had gone with Ginny.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry saw Dawn comfortably sitting against the willow tree. She looked so comfortable despite the heat. He had tried talking to her on several occasions but she always said a few short words and excused herself. It was getting irritating.

Maybe she loves me, he thought jokingly.

He didn't hesitate to approach her and sat down next to her. She still wouldn't look at him. "Hey, Dawn,"

"I thought you were busy."

"I was. 'Was' is a past tense word." She didn't say anything. "Why don't you talk to me? Am I really that bad?"

"I don't trust you."

"Maybe you should."

"Or maybe I shouldn't."

"Talked to the ferret lately?"

"I can assure you I have absolutely no idea who your talking about" she replied coolly.

"Malfoy. Have you talked to Malfoy lately?"

"Yes," she said shortly.

"Do you really want me to say again what a bastard that guy is? You're a muggle, and I can assure you he doesn't just make friends with muggles for the fun of it."

"That is why I hate you!" she suddenly yelled. "You are so bloody judgmental. Have you ever given him a chance? How many times did you talk to him before you decided he was evil for life? All Slytherins can't be bad."

"They're to ambitious, doomed to be Voldemort's followers, the lot of them."

"How can you say that? If they're power hungry, wouldn't they fight against Voldemort because the think he has too much power?"

Harry looked down onto Dawn and for the first time in a while, not liking her that much. "You don't understand these things, your just a muggle." However when he saw her hurt face after he said this, he started to like her more.

"I understand better than you do, because you see it in black and white."

"Is there a problem with that?" he asked.

"Yeah, I learned a long time ago that nothing can be separated into good and evil."

"What TV show did you get that from exactly?"

She rolled her eyes. "You still don't get what this Voldemort thing is all about."

"Honor and Death?" he replied.

"No, my sister understood this. Slytherins understand this. Just like everything else it's about power."

"Whatever," he mumbled before storing away. Or maybe she hates me.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Idiotic biased son of a bitch!" Dawn exclaimed later that day.

"Dawn, language!" Draco replied jokingly.

"He is though." She was pacing by the hearth of the Slytherin Common Room and Draco was seated in an armchair.

"I know he is, but I don't get why you care so much what his opinions are."

"He basically called all Slytherins Death Eaters! You should be... insulted or something."

He shrugged. "I've always known what he thought of me and my house."

"I can't believe you don't care,"

"Your not a Slytherin, why do you?"

She racked her brain for a reply. "I... Well, I... I have friends in Slytherin." she came up with finally.

"And while I'm touched deeply be the consideration we both know there's more going on."

"What do you mean?" She sat down on the couch and faced him.

"I say all Gryffindors are stupid all the time, you don't care then. You have friends in Gryffindor, but you don't say anything, just change the topic."

"What's your point?"

"You usually don't care what anyone thinks of anyone, just silently disagree. However, when Potter does, your all over him. Yelling at him, fighting with him."

"I do not,"

Draco smiled. "You just care what he thinks."

"No, I-"

"Yes." He smiled again grabbing a book from a shelf beside him. "It's okay, your aloud to like him." Dawn dropped the subject and began to read.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Harry learned to like silence. Through the many hours under the stairs at the Dursley's, he learned how comforting it could be. He leaned back further in the chair enjoying just being able to stair into the fire with no one speaking.

That is until someone spoke. Ron was laying on the couch. "Yesterday when I was kissing Dawn I had the strangest thought-"

He was cut of, of course by Harry bolting upright out of the chair. "What?" he yelled.

"Kidding, mate. I was just curious what your reaction would be." He laughed.

Harry glared at him before taking his seat. "We got in a fight today."

"About what?"

"Mostly Slytherins. She thinks I'm biased against them, so I told her that, being muggle, she probably doesn't understand this. Well, then she really went ballistic."

"And that surprises you? You not only insulted her intelligence and comprehension, but you insulted what she is. Don't expect to get away with it."

"Like she never insulted me."

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

"Would you cut the wise-man crap?"

"Okay. Here's what you have to do." Ron leaned a little closer. "You need to stop talking to her. Stop looking at her, stop approaching her and stop flirting with her. She knows you like her, you've made that clear, now just wait for her to come to you, and then talk to her."

Harry shook his head. "Who'd have ever thought one day you'd be giving me advice on women?"

Ron smiled. "This isn't your type of women. You like the one's who like you back. You're in new territory now."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hey, Bitch," Dawn heard someone say from behind her. It was past ten when she left the Slytherin Common Room to go to the Ravenclaw tower. The halls were mostly empty except for a few groups that hung out at the occasional corner.

Dawn turned to face that Lavender girl who had just spoken. "What do you want?"

"I did some research two years ago about slayers." she said.

"And while that is just fascinating I can assure you I don't care."

"I know your Buffy Summer's sister." she said looking at me coldly.

"Yeah, I know that too. What's you point?"

"She died once."

"What are you? A slayer text book? I know this. And she died twice."

"That second time it was to save your ass, wasn't it?" Dawn didn't say anything. "When she came back, she was in a deep state of depression."

"And how pray tell did you learn this?"

"Mr. Giles wrote a book on her. How many people died that year? How many people aren't here because your sister died to save you? If you had done something different, maybe if you had gotten away from the Hell Goddess, or if you had died instead all those people would be alive. Do you know anyone that died that year?"

Dawn's mind immediately flew to Tara. Tara who might be alive, of Buffy had been in better psychological health then. Tara would be alive, still smiling. Dawn's voice shook as she replied, "You- You- I- You don't know anything." She tried to look as though she didn't care, but tears were forming in her eyes. She quickly turned and started to run.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Dawn was running. Harry could see her from his stance on the stairs. She was upset too, she was almost crying. Harry watched as she started to run

up the stairs.

Now, this particular staircase happened to be above Harry. Right above Harry. They were in the large staircase hall, where the stairs moved. (A/N: You remember, from the movie.)

Dawn had just stepped onto the staircase above Harry when it moved suddenly. She fell backwards gripping the bottom stair and dangling. The staircase stopped as though it new she was there, and wanted to get her of but they both new it wouldn't stay there for long. She screamed.

"Let go!" Harry yelled quickly. She looked down and saw him standing there. "I'll catch you, I promise!" But Harry knew she wouldn't let go. She didn't trust him.

Suddenly she did let go, and fell about fifteen feet right into Harry. Harry's arms clasped around her right before he fell down onto the stairs.

"Ow," Harry muttered still holding her.

"Are you alright?" she asked looking genuinely concerned for him. That look made all the pain from falling onto a case of stairs after catching her go away.

"I would ask you the same question." He reached up and wiped a tear from her face. "Are you alright?"

She nodded, standing up. "Just something that Lavender girl said got to me."

"What was it?" Harry asked urgently suddenly feeling an overwhelming dislike for Lavender.

"My sister's a slayer, and she just knew some stuff about my history. It just got to me, that's all."

"You wanna talk about it?" Harry asked looking concerned. She shook her head. "But I can-"

"I'm just, not ready yet," she said softly. "I'll let you know when I am."

Harry nodded, wanting to change the subject.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A/N: Just changing point of view.

Dawn tried hard to keep her mind from returning to how close she had just been to Harry. She wasn't succeeding.

"Why did you let go?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Maybe, although I hate to admit it, I trust you."

He shrugged. "Okay."

Suddenly anger flared inside of her. She'd just told him something important. Just given in. He now had power over her. He didn't even have any gratitude that she now trusted him. No sign of happiness that she now trusted him. He didn't even tease her which she would prefer over the way he obviously doesn't care.

He turned and started to walk away, but she yelled after him. "Aren't you going to say something?"

He turned around walking backwards. "Like what?"

She responded aggravated, "Anything!"

"Okay, I trust you too." And with that he turned the corner and disappeared from sight.

A/N: Please review. Below is just a few comments to past reviewers.

OverXposed: Chapter thirteen. Just keep reading until chapter thirteen.

Fadafordqt: Thanks for putting me on your favorites list.

Fiarysk8r: Thanks for that review! It put everything in a whole new perspective for me.

Hecatonchires1-Thanks!