A/N: Sorry it's been so long. My teachers this year are obsessed with long term homework. I'm going to try to update at least once a month.
It had been several days since Dawn had seen Hermione, Ron or Ginny. The work load got vigorously harder, and her friends were going through the same thing.
Ginny spent most of her time in the Potions Dungeon with Snape. Hermione was in the library all the time doing work Professor McGonigal assigned to her. Ron came and went on a normal basis. Sometimes he stayed for a few nights, other times he would stop by for only a day.
The only person Dawn saw excessively was Harry. And although she hated to admit it, and probably never would, she would probably miss him if she stopped seeing him too. The only reason she saw him was because the aurors were always around.
They would talk to them about how to act when cornered by an evil wizard Harry talked once about werewolves, and that killing should be avoided seeing as how it's a person most of the time.
One wizard talked about vampires, causing Dawn interject and speak up about Angel and Spike. She noticed Harry looked at her strangely as she said that not all vampires are bad. She shrugged it of also ignoring the way she was worried that he thought she was weird or crazy.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"There's something going on with them," Hermione said to the man sitting next to her.
"You think?" he asked sarcastically. She slapped him playfully on the arm.
"No, seriously, they've been acting weird..."
"I bet they say the same thing about you. Are you sure no one will see us here?"
She shook her head. "This is the library, remember? Only one that would walk in here willingly is Dawn and she'd be in fiction or magical creatures. Plus it's lunch time."
"Where'd you tell them you were going?"
"Bathroom," she said weakly.
"And you've been in the bathroom for," he glanced at his watch, "twenty minutes."
"It could happen," she replied indignantly. "Can we get back on topic? Dawn and Harry are acting strange. I think they might like each other."
"You know, for a smart person, your terribly slow sometimes," he teased. "They do like each other. She's just denied it for so long, it'll take a while for her to work over that."
"Like us?"
"Yes, like us."
"You know, you'd make a great psychologist?"
"And you'd make a great Minister of Magic. However, since we are neither of them yet and have so much free time, why don't we return to our previous activity?" he suggested with a mischievous smile. Hermione smiled at her lover as their lips met.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Hey, Giles," said a voice from the door way.
Giles looked up from his book. "Buffy?"
"Hey," sounded Andrew's voice from behind her. "She's not standing alone, you know?"
"What are you doing here?" he asked standing up and going to greet them.
"We just came by for a visit," said Kennedy.
"Have you seen Dawn yet?" Giles asked, motioning them to come and sit down in his rather large temporary office.
"No, we came to you first, in hopes you could negotiate a place for us to sleep and eat for about two weeks, maybe a castle?" Willow said still looking around appreciatively.
"And, how, pray tell, did you find the castle? More importantly, how did you know about it?"
"Wesley," said Xander simply.
"Why didn't he mention it?"
"We told him not to, it's kind of a surprise, for Dawn too," Buffy said excitedly. Giles thought he saw Willow shift uncomfortably, but he might have imagined it.
"Well, I'm positive you can stay here for as long as you like. There's always plenty of food, and as for beds, they have more than enough. I'll ask the headmaster if you can stay in the Ravenclaw dormitory's with Dawn."
"Great! Thanks, Giles."
"Have you eaten yet? We could go down to the kitchens."
"No thanks," Willow said smiling. "We ate on the plane."
"Well, then, let's go find Dawn."
*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry sat at a long table in the library studying. The table had a few other workers and the library was filled with a constant murmur of voices that Harry was sure Madame Pince would never allow.
Madame Pince was on vacation so there was no librarian, just a magical sign in and out sheet and a pointer that will immediately show you to the books you need.
Slowly, Harry became aware that across the table, and two seats down sat Dawn who was hunched over and completely engrossed in her book. Her face was about a half a foot form the pages, and her shoulders were bent. Slowly she sat up and rubbed her neck muttering something but all Harry caught was, 'exhausted,' and 'homework.'
Her face looked up and their eyes met. They had been meeting like this on a regular basis of three or four times a week. Of course they saw each other in class but other than that they always seemed to be in the same place at the same time.
Harry quickly averted his eyes and went back to his book, silently scolding him-self for wanting to look at her again.
"What are you studying for?" her voice came from across the table.
"To quote an auror named Mad Eye Moody, 'You never know what piece of information will save your life.'"
She shook her head smiling. "I don't know how you do it. I could never study willingly."
"To be honest, I don't know how I do it either. I was defiantly not like this at school."
"So, how'd you become an auror?" she asked curiously.
"Sometime in sixth year I decided that that was what I wanted to do, so I buckled down and got to work."
"Sounds kind of like me. Through most of my high school years, I... I was dealing with a lot. My mom, my sister, stealing, apocalypse. But after all that I realized that I needed to start working, and I got into Oxford."
"You know, we have a lot in common?"
"Yeah," she replied, "we do."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Ah, Mr. Malfoy?" Giles said as the passed him in the hallway.
"Yes, sir," Draco answered politely, hoping that Giles would mention it to his boss.
"I wonder if you have seen Da- Miss Summers."
"Dawn? Last I heard, she was in the library studying, but I'm meeting her in a half hour, so you might want to hurry if you want to catch her."
"Thank you. I trust I'll see you tomorrow, you will be leading the discussion on Hell Gods and Goddess."
Draco thought he saw an interested look pass through the blond's face, but he might have imagined it. "I'm looking forward to it," replied Draco with distinct sarcasm in his voice. With a nod of his head Giles continued with the group towards the library.
Draco briefly wondered why so many people were looking for Dawn, but shrugged it of as he had somewhere to go, and someone to meet.
A/N: Completely pointless, but it does explain how they found her so fast.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"A chicken!" Dawn said in gasps between giggles. "Now, I know your joking."
"I'm not," Harry replied with a grin admiring the way she looked when she was smiling. "The twins thought I was cheating on Ginny during the very short period we dated so, they turned me into a chicken for a week before the managed to turn me back."
"Didn't the teachers notice you were gone?"
"I've always wondered that actually..." he trailed off.
"You know, I like you much better like this."
He frowned. "Like what?"
"When your not acting obnoxious, or a bigot, or a jerk."
"Well, that was uplifting," he said sarcastically.
Dawn was about to say something when someone caught her eye. Dawn screamed.
Now, Harry wasn't very experienced in hearing females scream. He pulled his wand out, turned around and pointed it defensively, assuming Dawn's scream had been out of terror.
However instead another scream sounded form the door, this one belonging to a petite blonde woman about his age. She had several people behind her all looking just as excited to see Dawn.
The blonde and Dawn rushed forward wrapping each other in a tight embrace. The whole library was, as I'm sure you can guess staring at the scene, but deciding there would be no more screams soon returned to their conversations and books.
"What are you doing here?" Dawn asked the blond excitedly.
"Can't your big sister just come for a visit?"
"She's not here alone, you know?" came a male voice from the group behind Dawn.
Dawn than hurried to the group behind Buffy hugging everyone there. "How are you guys?" she asked.
Harry stared at the group with a vapid interest. Somehow, he always pictured Dawn's home life as lonely, ever since he found out her mom died. But now he stood here watching this. Her was mostly people she wasn't related to at all. He smiled to himself when he realized he had that with the Weasley's.
Slowly he started to walk out of the library, until he heard Dawn say his name.
"Potter!" He turned. Dawn was waving him over to the group. So, he walked over to them, feeling awkward, and stood next to Dawn. "Guys, this is Harry Potter, he's one of the aurors. Potter, this is, Andrew, Xander, Kennedy, Buffy, my sister and Willow." With each name she pointed at someone else.
"It's nice to meet you all," Harry said a little awkwardly feeling out of place.
"Wow," said Willow causing everyone's heads to turn toward her, and gaze questioningly. When she finally noticed their looks she said, "Oh, sorry Harry, you just have a lot of power."
Harry eyed her curiously, before feeling a similar feeling toward her. "Not as much as you."
The conversation went on for a few more minutes, before Harry politely excused him-self, feeling awkward in the group. However he smiled as he left remembering how Dawn had smiled at him as she waved him over to join the group...
~*~*~*~*~*~
The girls stayed up late last night. 'The girls' were Dawn, Buffy, Kennedy and Willow. They were all staying in the same room, and they treated it just like a sleepover that they would have had years and years ago. They concentrated on their first topic. Boys.
"So," Dawn began, "How have you guys been?"
"Well, Kennedy and I've been fine, but Buffy's been having some boy troubles."
"Oh," said Dawn interested, "Is it Sean?" Buffy gave a curt nod. "What'd he do now?"
Sean was someone Buffy had been seeing of and on for a few months. Before Dawn had started training they found out he had been a solider from the initiative. He had found out she was the slayer.
"He went on another trip," Buffy said.
"Where this time?" Dawn asked knowing how he went on military trips for weeks on end.
"That's the thing, he wouldn't tell me! I know he's going of to fight demons but I don't know where, or when he's coming back, and if he dies, I won't know. I just wish everything wasn't so secret with him."
"This from the girl who lied to him for three months," Dawn joked.
Buffy smiled, "Hey, he lied to me for that long to. But enough about me, what about that hot blond boy in the corridor that knew exactly where you were?"
"Draco?"
Kennedy shrugged. "His last name began with a M."
Dawn nodded. "Draco Malfoy, and we're just friends."
"Ah, the legendary, 'just friends' line." Willow joked from next to Kennedy.
"We are!" Dawn exclaimed laughingly.
"Well then what about that Harry guy? He seemed nice," Buffy commented with a wiggle of her eyebrows.
"Yeah," Dawn agreed and possibly it was a little more dreamily than she intended.
Kennedy chuckled. "That nice, huh?" Dawn through a pillow at her.
"I don't know," Dawn said simply, "Sometimes he'd okay to be around, and other times I want to wring his neck."
"Now you can see why we gave up on men," commented Kennedy.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Harry sighed contentedly from his position on the boulder. It was evening of the next day and he was relaxing for the first time in a while by the lake.
"That's my rock," Dawn's voice sounded from behind him.
"Funny, I don't see your name on it," Harry commented not having to turn around.
Dawn sat down next to him. "I've been coming here for at least once a day for weeks."
"I used to love coming here back when I was a student," Harry said watching ripples grow in the water and remembering the second task in fourth year. "I figured you'd be spending all your time with your friends.
"They went out to dinner with Giles. I would have gone but I had a lot of homework. I just finished."
He nodded. "I pictured your sister differently."
"Like how?"
"I knew she was a slayer. Taller and burlier I would say."
"Don't let her size fool you. She could kick your ass."
"I don't doubt it," he said leaning back and propping himself up with his arms.
Dawn smiled slightly as an unfamiliar feeling rose in her chest. "You know," Dawn said slowly, "she died twice."
"I heard that but I didn't believe it."
"Once she was drowned and the other time it was to save me..." Dawn looked away unsure why she was telling him this.
"I'm sorry," he said slightly awkwardly. His hand reached out and tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"I should go," Dawn said softly standing up. "They'll be looking for me."
He nodded. "See you tomorrow."
"Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks." She turned to leave. Unfortunately the move that was intended to be graceful was ruined when she slipped and her body head straight for the side of the rock.
Suddenly Harry jumped up, grabbed her, and pulled her to safety further up the rock. He laid her down, and leaned over her as if to make sure she was alright.
"I'm fine," Dawn said immediately, not liking the way that him leaning over her was making her heart race.
"Are you sure?" he said still looking concerned.
She nodded. "Thanks." Her hand subconsciously went up and brushed his cheek before she yanked it back to her.
"I'll always catch you." He looked at her for a moment before saying softly, "I really want to kiss you."
Fear and excitement filled her lungs as she found it hard to breath. His perfect green eyes were settled on hers waiting for consent. But it did not come. Instead, the fear overcame the excitement, and she quickly stood up and ran all the way to the castle.
And it's funny, she thought as she raced through the door and flew up the steps towards her common room. She had been fighting this feeling for Harry ever since their first conversation, and now suddenly realized it's hopeless. She was falling for him.
A/N: You are out of excuses not to review. Really, I'd be happy with a simple, "I read this." So don't tell you have nothing to say.