My beta raised a few questions. Here they are:

Why is this story centering on Harry Potter when he's not even in CA?

Because it will. Honestly. And there's a piece of Harry's world in CA with Cho. The others are coming for her wedding. And things will be started in motion that won't stop.

Why Xander and Cho?

I wanted a wedding that could be a bit of a shock for both sides. Not only that, but there's great exploitation out of Xander's relationship with Anya, and now he has a Slayer too. And I think they have a neat relationship that will be later explained in detail.

What's Dawn got to do with it? What HAPPENED to her?

Why do you think there's this story? We'll have Buffy and a nice HP counterpart investigating what has happened to Dawn. And you're going to discover there is an American Ministry, and they're more ruthless than you could imagine.

So... what's this story all about then?

A wedding, two potential relationships, a person in need of serious help, and an enemy that will stop at nothing to cover their mistake and did we mention that Harry is all grown up now? Oh, we didn't. There's a crossover here. You'll have to read on to believe it.

So... what is all this? Expect flashback scenes or flashback chapters up to about chapter 7. That way, you're kept up to date on everything that's happened!

- - - - -

Chapter 2

By Dawn's Early Light

- - - - -

One Year Ago

It was a windy night in Los Angeles. Buffy stood waiting by gate seven, glancing every few seconds at the monitor showing the status of the plane flying in from New York.

Although it wasn't due to land for at least twenty minutes, Buffy was still pacing, slightly uneasy.

She'd received a phone call that afternoon from airport security in New York, telling her that her sister had collapsed while getting off the plane from London. Buffy had just asked that they make sure she was settled all right.

"It has to be exhaustion," Buffy muttered, pacing back and forth.

In front of her, Angel chuckled. "You shouldn't get too worried. You know how uncoordinated she is."

But Buffy was still worried. Even after Angel convinced her to go to the nearby Starbucks for a refreshing chai latte did she realize that something wasn't right.

"Someone should have stayed back with her," Buffy muttered, staring at the cup of tea she hadn't yet touched.

Angel was across from her, tapping the biscotti she'd bought on the edge of the glass plate. "Maybe you should have had Tara stay back, but what's the point? You have to let her grow up sooner or later."

"I know." Clunk. The other chunk of biscotti had flown from her fingertips, landing right in front of him. "But without Mom... what can I do?"

Angel sighed, reaching for her tea and sniffing it. "I know you're trying, and that's the point. We all have things we have to atone for, some of us more than others. She didn't have a chance to prove herself before. This is her one moment. Hogwarts has been her home for two years so I think she should take it easy."

Buffy nodded slowly as his words sank in. "How would you feel if Connor suddenly upped, left for two years, and returned a completely different person?"

"I'm the wrong guy to ask," he said wryly. "My son spent the first how many years of his life in Hell and returned convinced that I wasn't his father."

Buffy chuckled as Angel handed her the cup. "I don't know, Angel. I'm just... I don't know. What's next? College? Family? She can't stay with the Slayer train, it's going to get her killed."

"Stop doubting her," he said gently, watching as she started sipping the tea, more to cool her nerves than anything else. "She's a good kid. She's not even a kid anymore. She's eighteen."

Buffy nodded, slowly setting down her mug and checking the clock on the wall. "Oh, God," she moaned. "How am I going to live the next ten minutes down?"

Angel shrugged as he handed her back the plate of biscotti. "I'll get you a refill if you eat that for me."

"You have a deal," Buffy said, her mouth already full of the dry bread.

Angel returned a few moments later with a paper cup and the two rose and waited for her once again near the security gate. Even though the status read 'On Time', Buffy had reservations. It had been over a year since she'd last seen Dawn.

But before she knew it, passengers were streaming down the hallway, falling into the arms of their loved ones. After fifteen, twenty minutes, Angel and Buffy exchanged an uneasy glance. "Where is she?" Buffy asked in concern, walking over to a group of stewardesses who were leaving from a separate flight. "Excuse me, did you just see a girl walking down from gate seven?"

The two women exchanged a troubled glance. "Bobbi's bringing her now."

"What?" Buffy echoed in confusion, at the same time Angel said "Buffy."

She turned.

Two stewardesses were walking slowly, a third in between them wheeling a wheelchair down the narrow incline.

Her eyes widened when she saw Dawn's pale, clouded face. Her eyes were unusually bright and stared, unblinking, straight ahead.

"Oh my God, Dawn!" Buffy cried, moving to run to her sister, the tea falling from her hand and landing with a dull thud and splash on the cold tile, when Angel caught her arm.

"Buffy, the security gate."

"I don't care!" Buffy cried, throwing his arm off and running to her sister, words failing to express even the slightest hint of shock that was seen clearly on her face and in her movements. "Oh my God, Dawnie, oh my God..."

Angel reached her side in the next moment and took over wheeling the chair for the woman. Buffy quickly thanked her as they rushed along, out of sight and hearing distance from the other people, who were starting to stare.

"Dawn?" Buffy asked as soon as Angel stopped pushing. Buffy fell to her knees, her arms perched on her sister's. "Dawnie?"

Dawn stared straight ahead with blank eyes. Her mouth didn't even move. She didn't even register she'd heard Buffy, or even knew someone was talking to her.

"Dawn? Dawn?" Buffy asked, her voice becoming more and more frantic. "Dawn, what did they do to you?"

"Buffy," Angel said gently, placing a hand on her shoulder. "She can't hear you."

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked tearfully, turning to her sister, who still hadn't moved. "What happened to her?"

"She may be catatonic. We should get her to Willow."

"Right," said Buffy, trying to clear her head as she walked a bit away, trying to breathe. She took a deep breath. But the moment she turned around, the panic she'd just tried to rid of took over her body again and she started to tremble. "I-I..."

"I'll do it," Angel said, taking the wheelchair. "You just get her luggage."

Buffy's mouth was still moving, tears still sparkling in her eyes as they left the airport. Her hands were shaking so badly she could barely drive back to the Academy. She tried to push all anxieties on her mind as she reached the interstate, but it was so impossible.

She glanced in the rearview mirror.

Dawn was sitting exactly where Angel had put her. She hadn't blinked. She hadn't moved. And the only reason they knew she was still alive was because of her weak pulse.

She stared at the light in her sister's eyes. In the rearview mirror, it reflected back, as remote and empty as her soul was.

- - - - -

Present Day

The drive up to the mental ward was a long one. Buffy was glad she had Cho and Willow for company.

Willow was silent until they reached the interstate, before she turned to Cho. "Xander told me you called your parents a few days ago."

She nodded, looking stricken. "I did."

"How did it go?" Buffy asked in the soft, even voice she adopted every time they took this drive.

"Oh, it's the same as it always is," Cho replied, waving her hand as though to say it were nothing. "She's too young. She's only twenty. She's marrying a muggle. Why can't she get married in London? Why is she getting married? Why is she even a Slayer?" Her voice quieted down as the anxiety washed out of her. "It's always the same with them."

"They sound like good parents," Buffy replied in her same docile tone as she carefully passed a car. Next to her, Willow noticed her hands were trembling slightly.

Buffy had been through a lot the past fourteen months since Dawn had returned home. Although Willow and Tara were among the most powerful witches in the world, even they could tell that Dawn wasn't catatonic. But they did say her memory had been erased. How or why, they hadn't a clue.

That was fourteen months ago. Buffy used to make a weekly trip to see her sister, sometimes refusing to leave the small white cell for days. Now she was lucky to make it to see her sister in a month.

It was the first time in five weeks she was going up there. Willow knew it was out of guilt of not being able to find a cure or anything to help her. Dawn was responding badly to her treatments. It was time for a more aggressive approach.

Willow had made the call to the British Ministry of Magic. Or, rather, had emailed them. She had explained Dawn's situation and begged for any help that they could see fit. They hadn't responded to her query yet, which had been sent only a week before. Willow was just mortified she hadn't thought of it sooner.

But then again, they were taking the Slayer girls, nearly fifty in all, on a rigorous curriculum of Slayer studies and such. Giles himself was the head of a new Watcher's Council, and had named both Tara and Xander as official Watcher's. Some of his colleagues from England had arrived at the institution and he had named them Watchers as well.

Buffy and Faith both ran the school. Faith planned the strategies and operations of training, including attacks and skirmishes. And she was having the time of her life at it. She and Principal Wood from the Beverly Hills school district seemed to be getting more and more serious every time they were together, which, Willow saw, was often enough.

Buffy was the administrator, who worked closely with the new Council to make sure things were running smoothly. Xander had been a godsend, acting as both a carpenter and a blacksmith when the time came for a new table to be created. He had a staff of eleven working underneath him.

Fifty girls lived on the small campus that Buffy, Faith and Giles had prepared for them. Among the dry desert was a ranch-style hacienda for days off, as well as a spa for therapeutic makeovers and the like. Willow supervised the recreation activities, which included computer and technical studies, and all outdoor activities, from horseback riding to swimming.

It was a fun job, Willow thought to herself. They had been doing it for nearly three years now. And it was working. The slayers were becoming stronger day after day.

Buffy was afraid that they would just turn into a huge army for Angel, and yet he didn't seem to think so. Her level of respect for him grew so much higher day after day as he worked with the girls.

Things had been so strained between them when she returned to California to find Willow alive and well.

It was seeing Dawn in her condition that brought them all together.

Before she knew it, Willow was being gently shaken away by Cho, who seemed to have been talking with Buffy the entire trip. They were at the facility now, a short hour's drive from the Academy, just north of Los Angeles.

Buffy got out of the car, Cho behind her. "So you think it'd be all right if I took some of the girls to New York with me for a few days or so?"

"That's fine," Buffy said softly, her eyes on the intimidating stone structure before them. "After all, you need to get ready for your wedding."

Cho nodded, following Buffy's gaze. "It's so big."

And together, the three of them climbed the steps.

A few minutes later, they were shown down a dark hallway leading to a small cell at the end, where Dawn had lived for the past fourteen months.

Buffy approached it lightly, suddenly hearing her voice being called out from the shadows. She sank back slightly in relief as a figure stepped out. "Hello, Slayer."

"Spike," she said in acknowledgement.

"If you're here to see Bit, I'm afraid nothing's changed."

"Story of my life," she said shortly as they approached the door. Spike signaled to the guard and he unlocked it, letting the three women and Spike inside.

The interior was very dark, except for a small fire roaring peacefully in the corner. Seating in a rocking chair, her eyes staring dully into the fire, was Dawn.

"Hey Dawn," Buffy said cheerfully, walking around her, putting her arm comfortingly around her younger sister.

"Has Doctor Cretin spoken with you yet?" Spike asked gently from his dark spot in the corner.

"He called me last night and said I needed to come out here and sign some forms. It was something about a new shock treatment to help her memory... and hopefully pull her out of the trance."

"Well, pleasant," Spike said darkly. "But I wouldn't recommend it. The last patient they sent in that room came out sounding like her brain'd been fried."

"Oh, my!" Cho gasped, bringing both hands to her mouth.

"Spike, listen to me, and listen hard. I have watched my sister deteriorate before my very eyes for the past fourteen and a half months. I know something took her memory and put her like this and I'm not going to rest until I find out whom. And why."

He nodded curtly. "I didn't expect anything less."

Buffy turned back toward Dawn, who, as usual, didn't recognize her sister's presence. "Do you hear that, Dawnie? I'm going to bring you back." She bent down and kissed the top of her sister's head. "I'm going to bring you home to me."

Turning to Spike, she asked, "Can you take me to see Doctor Cretin?"

"Right this way," Spike said, pulling open the door and letting the three women out, before shutting Dawn back inside her silent cell.

- - - - -

To be continued...

Chapter 3 -- the fall of a Dark Lord.

See you next week! Look for longer chapters in the future!