Thanks to the reviewers: shdurrani, matt and VLD.
Shdurrani: Thanks! But credit goes to matt for the Scrappy comment!
VLD: Jaden not being at the dance is explained fully in the next couple of chapters, but it's basically because she's in Slytherin.
I apologise in advance for this chapter. I'm not very good at writing fight scenes, :-(
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CHAPTER 12- FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE
Chaos reined in the Great Hall. Students frantically tried to push themselves back as far from the crowd blocking the exit, most of them ending up huddled in a corner.
As yet none of the death eaters had moved. They were obviously waiting for some kind of signal from Voldermort. And although the vampires were practically quivering at the smell of so much powerful blood, they had also not attacked.
Dawn and Harry re-entered the main hall, the doors slammed shut behind them. All around the hall windows were closing themselves making sure that no-one could get in...or out.
Voldermort seemed to enjoy the fear he was causing. He was in no hurry to attack when he could cause so much confusion by just standing in the doorway. He noticed a group of children gathering near the centre of the room.
**************************************************************************** ***
"Dawn!"
Dawn heard her name in an urgent whisper and saw Flick, Skye, Robin and Ginny along with Ron, Hermione, Dean, Neville and a girl she didn't recognise.
"Are you all OK? Are you ready?" Four anxious nods answered her. "Don't worry, you're all trained and we've faced worse, right Flick?"
"Yeah." But Flick sounded anything but certain.
Some of the group looked confused at what the 'exchange students' were saying. They looked even more confused when Dawn waved her hand and suddenly they were all dressed in muggle clothes- most of them wore tracksuits of some sort, but Dawn wore her typical Sunnyhell leather trousers.
It added to their scared bewilderment when Dawn opened what could only be described as a green hole floating in midair. Dawn pulled out several differing kinds of weapons out of the hole- swords, axes and things the young wizards had never seen before.
With another wave of her hand a green, shimmering shield sprung up in the corner where most of the students were cowering and one around each of the slayers. Dawn turned to the non-slayers in the group.
"Get under the shield! Take as many weapons as you can hold and try to cover our backs." Harry looked about to protest. "This isn't your fight, GO!"
They all including the girl Dawn didn't recognise, started gathering weapons in their arms. Hermione following Dawn's look explained the girl to her:
"That's Luna; she fought with us last year."
Dawn nodded as they left. This Luna was stronger than she looked; she had more weapons than anyone else without any difficulty.
When her friends were safely under the shield, Dawn turned back to the slayers, muttering a spell that would give her slayer strength and speed.
"What is he waiting for?" Robin asked fearfully.
"He's just trying to scare everyone." Flick answered.
"Are you sure you want this? You can walk away if you want to." Dawn said. The students had noticed the shield and were trying to get to it; Voldermort would give the word any moment now.
"We're staying."
"Good. Remember your training, usual teams. Try to get as many students to the shield as you can and if one of you is injured get to the shield. Good luck!"
A death eater whispered something in Voldermort's ear and a cruel smile slid across his face. He pointed his wand at a young girl with long blond hair. "Avada Kedavra." A green light shot out the end and she fell to the floor.
That appeared to be the signal that everyone was waiting for as the vampires sprang into action. Skye and Flick fought back to back and Ginny, Robin and Dawn fought in a triangle formation.
Dawn tried to call Jaden using a technique she had discovered during training one day, but either it wasn't working for one reason or another, or Jade wasn't answering. Instead she sent one to Professor Dumbledore, requesting his help.
The slayers and Dawn tried to keep protecting each others backs, but the sheer numbers of the vampires attacking soon separated them. Dawn looked over at Flick and Skye. Flick was doing well. She was the only slayer to have fought in a battle of this size before and it showed in her fighting method- kill fast and move on. Skye was faring quite well. After Flick, she had had the most training, and she was putting it to good use.
On her side of the hall Robin and Ginny were also killing vampires. Ginny hadn't found out about her 'special talent' long ago, and had got off to a rocky start. But when she got into a routine she was doing well, Dawn thought that Ginny had the most natural talent for slaying, probably because she'd been experiencing evil ever since her first year at Hogwarts. Ginny was, pretty much, as good as Skye who had a couple months of extra training on the red head.
Robin, however, wasn't a natural slayer. She lacked confidence and that affected her abilities, it took her nearly twice as long to stake or behead each vampire, but she still managed to hold her own and slayed a very respectably number of vampires.
Dawn herself was finding things the easiest out of the group. Her spell put her on a par with her slayers and her experience made things easier for her. But she made sure to keep an eye on her slayers and on the death eaters that had yet to enter the battle.
Dumbledore arrived about half an hour into the fight after Professor Flitwick and himself had broken through the charms and barriers preventing their entry. That levelled the playing field. The Hogwarts professors started throwing fire hexes at the vampires causing them to burn to ashes. One vampire even got a wand through the back of its heart from Professor McGonagall as it tried to sneak up on Ginny.
Voldermort regained his advantage when the death eaters launched into the fight. They had a distinct advantage as evil people are really...well...evil, and they weren't afraid to use unforgivable curses.
The minute Dumbledore had arrived, Voldermort left, escorted by some of his death eaters. At around the same time the vampires started to pull back.
'Miss Summers.' Dawn heard a voice in her head.
'Professor Dumbledore?'
'Indeed. I'm sure you have noticed the vampires retreating, we have reason to believe that they are planning to attack one of the houses.'
'Which one?' Although Dawn could hazard a pretty good guess.
'Gryffindor. You should take your slayers to stop them.'
'What about everyone here?'
'Myself and the others professors shall remain, I'd be very grateful if you could leave Miss Reiner to assist us. And I think extreme circumstances warrant extreme measures, don't you?' With that, Dumbledore's voice vanished leaving Dawn to fight toward her slayers.
"The vampires are going to attack Gryffindor." Dawn said when she had gathered all the slayers. "We're going after them, the professors can hold the fort here if one of us stays. Dumbledore asked you to stay, Skye."
Dawn began to open a green portal that would lead the group directly to the Gryffindor common room. They all clambered through the small hole, except Skylar who had gone back to fighting a death eater who had lost their wand somewhere or other, and Dawn closed the portal.
Thudding filled the room as several vampire pounded on the portrait hole. The group of slayers turned around to be greeted by the sight to the first three years to Gryffindor's standing in a shocked silence staring at the girls who had appeared out of nowhere. Dawn explained what was happening with her normal amount of tact:
"The school is under attack. Go upstairs and whatever happens don't come down and then you might all be alive this time tomorrow."
Several frightened students ran up the stairs and onto the upper landing as the portrait finally splintered open. Dawn quickly threw up a shield over the watching Gryffindor's before launching back into the fight.
"Eight to one? I like those odds!"
All the slayers and Dawn had minor cuts and bruises, and most had some more serious cuts, Ginny in particular was bleeding freely from the shoulder and this was making fighting difficult for her. She was relying on one handed movements with the short sword she was using, but was being pushed backwards by two vampires. She bumped back against a table and lifted her sword to block a blow, but the vampire knocked it out of her hands. Ginny tried to keep calm and remember her training, she smiled.
Ginny broke the leg off table and slammed it through the vampire closest to her. She swung around and put it through the heart of the second vampire before throwing herself back into the foray, leaving the sword forgotten.
Robin was having a similar success against the creatures she was fighting. She had opted for a longer sword than Ginny so could keep her distance a little more and swung her sword around decapitating anything that came within a 5ft radius. As Robin slashed rhythmically with her sword, she couldn't help but wonder where Jaden was. She knew that Dawn was worried about after voicing her thoughts to her that morning, even though the watcher didn't talk about it much.
****************************************************************************
FLASHBACK:
"Hi Dawn, have you seen Jade?"
"Not in a while, Robs. Why?"
"She was supposed to meet me to do some training, but she didn't show."
"Again?" Dawn said referring to the other times Jaden had blown off her friends for some reason or another.
"Yea, the only time she sees us anymore is if she thinks she'll get to kill something."
"I know." Dawn sighed.
"Can we do something? Talk to her..."
"And say what? When Giles gets back, I'll talk to him. He's had some experience with slay-happy slayers." Robin raised her eyebrows in question. "Faith." Dawn explained. "But I'm sure everything will work out."
"Didn't Faith have to kill a man, torture people, go to prison and fight in an apocalypse before it got better for her?"
"Amongst other things. But we know what we're dealing with now. I think Skye went to train with Ginny down behind Hagrid's hut."
"I'll go with them then." Robin started to leave.
"Oh, and Robin, don't worry about Jaden, she'll be OK." Dawn smiled reassuringly.
Robin smiled back, closing the door behind her. Dawn sighed, her smile vanishing.
"She'll be OK... I hope."
****************************************************************************
Robin heard another vampire head touch the floor before it turned to dust. Jaden was probably in the Great Hall or maybe she didn't even know what was happening. That was it. She wouldn't just not turn up, and she loved fighting. Robin turned her attention back to her opponents, kicking one across the room and decapitating another.
Dawn was punching and kicking with strength to rival any slayers. She had to admit being a bit worried about the vast numbers of opponents, and she let out this worry in true Summers fashion; quips and insults.
"Honey, being dead doesn't mean you have to stop caring what you look like." She said to a vampire who looked to have been about 25 when she died and, judging by her wardrobe, died in the early nineties.
"Next please! Whoa! Haven't the evil undead ever heard of personal hygiene? Get a tic-tac, only 2 calories!" Dawn swung her axe around chopping off the head of the offending vamp.
A vampire (female, late twenties) kicked her across the room. Dawn hit the wall shoulder first and cried out in pain.
"Are you OK?" Flick called from across the room.
"Just peachy!" Dawn scrambled up, kicking the vampire away from her. She punched the vampire in the face and raised her axe. The vampire tried to punch, but it was blocked by the watcher who started to bring her axe down.
"Try again! Whoops, you can't, you're dead! Next!"
A vampire came up to her. This one had a weapon, a short dagger with a near black blade. They fought for a bit neither gaining the upper hand, but the vampire managed to slash Dawn across her stomach.
"Ouch! Didn't your mother ever tell you not to hit a lady?" She threw him across the room using magic and leapt over to his side holding a stake that seemed to appear out of nowhere. She picked the dazed vampire off the floor and glared at him.
"Any last words?"
"What are you?"
"I thought we went over that; I'm a lady." She staked the vamp and jumped back to avoid being covered in dust.
Felicity snorted at Dawn's last comment. "I hate to break it to ya luv, but you're no lady!"
Dawn looked offended for a minute before shrugging her shoulders. She examined the new wound on her abdomen.
"Why do the bad guys always go for my stomach? At this rate I'll never be able to wear a bikini!"
****************************************************************************
As the night wore on, it took longer and longer to kill each vampire. By three o' clock, the slayers were tiring, as were the vampires, so neither side was gaining an advantage. At about 3:30, Dawn noticed that the sun was rising. She broke away from the vampires she was fighting and then leapt over to the massive curtains that covered one of the windows in the Gryffindor common room.
The curtains spilt open, bathing the room in early morning sunshine. The vampires withered in the light, bursting into flames and turning into pillars of dust. Two vampires escaped the light. The first jumped backwards, only to be staked by Ginny. The second span backwards into the shadows, grabbing Robin as he went.
The vampire picked up the sword that Ginny had dropped earlier and held it to Robin's throat.
"Well, well, well. Don't we have a situation?"
Flick jumped forward. The vampire dug the blade into Robin's neck drawing blood. Flick froze at Robin's whimper.
"Let her go."
"Give me one reason why I should? You'll just kill me the minute I drop her."
"We wont, you have our word."
"Your word? What use is you word? You're lying."
"No. We don't lie."
"Oh, so you're honest. That makes me feel so much better. I believe it was Johnny Depp who said in one of his more recent films that it was the honest men you had to watch, because a dishonest man you could always trust to be dishonest, but you never know when an honest man will do something incredibly stupid."
"We wont, if you kill her, then I swear to god, you will die."
"Already dead, luv."
The vampire slid the sword across Robin's neck. A shocked look appeared on her face as she collapsed down to the floor, Flick staked the vampire, who died wearing a satisfied smirk.
Dawn checked Robin's pulse. "She's dead...We've got to get back to the hall. You." She pointed to a Gryffindor boy on the stairs. "Make sure she gets to the hospital wing. We've got to go."
Flick could have sworn she saw her watchers eyes flash black as she turned around and was sure that her hair was ever so slightly darker than usual, but that was impossible, right?
****************************************************************************
Two slayers and their watcher returned to the great hall a little after dawn to see that there was still a fight taking place. All but four of the professors were fighting and there looked to be about 25 death eaters still conscious. The tired looking students under the shields protection were tending to fallen teachers and the victims of any curses that managed to get past Dawn's shield.
The teachers and Skye who were still fighting were as tired and weary as those fighting in Gryffindor. They had all (except Professor Dumbledore) been hit by a curse at least once that night, some had yet to wake up. Before the slayers even entered the hall, they heard the sound of a killing curse being fired and turned to see who was on the receiving end.
It was Skylar. Her shield flared up as the green curse hit her, but must have gotten through some how as she flew backwards into the wall and fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.
Time seemed to freeze as everyone realised what had happened. That is for everyone except for Dawn.
"Uh oh. This doesn't look good" Flick's words were barely above a whisper, but they drew everyone's attention.
Dawn's hair and eyes had gone coal black and deep blue veins could be seen over her deathly white skin. Power seemed to crackle around her, and that power was defiantly evil.
She screamed a high pitched scream that had everyone covering their ears. The sky/ ceiling in the great hall clouded over and green balls of fire reined around them. Some of the students threw up their arms to cover themselves, but they needn't have bothered. The green fireballs were aiming specifically at the death eaters, encasing each in a fiery prison that they couldn't escape.
When all the death eaters were imprisoned, Dawn collapsed. As she crumpled to floor, the black went from her hair, the ceiling returned to showing the sunset and all the shields dropped. Harry ran over to his girlfriend.
"Dawn? Dawn, are you OK? Wake up!" He shook her gently by the shoulders, and was pulled back by Ginny. Flick bent over watcher and then lifted her effortlessly.
"She's still breathing, just. We've got to get her to Madam Pomfrey. Ginny, could you grab Skye? Professor-"
"Go. We'll take care of things here." Professor Dumbledore said, but the slayers were already out the room, closely followed by Harry, before he'd finished speaking.
****************************************************************************
Madam Pomfrey was waiting for the casualties to arrive. She indicated for Flick to set Dawn down on the bed.
"What's wrong with Miss Reiner?"
"She was hit by the Avada Kedavra." Ginny spoke in a low voice.
"Oh, "Madam Pomfrey's voice softened. "Set her down over there, I've got to see to Dawn." Madam Pomfrey bustled about trying to deal with Dawn before anyone else came along. She was muttering things about exhaustion and blood loss as well as things that the slayers couldn't understand. She finally settled Dawn down on a bed and then turned to the slayers with a stern look on her face.
"She's sleeping. I heard you also have injuries. Let me take a look at them...NOW."
****************************************************************************
Ten minutes later Professor Dumbledore had sent all those who could walk for themselves to the hospital wing, leaving the staff the grim job of determining the living from the dead. Professor looked around the hall, seeing the young bodies littering the floor.
"In war it is always the innocent that suffer. Dear Merlin, what have we done?"
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That was a bad chapter- I'm almost afraid for people to review! Almost, but I'm a big girl, I can take it!
Shdurrani: Thanks! But credit goes to matt for the Scrappy comment!
VLD: Jaden not being at the dance is explained fully in the next couple of chapters, but it's basically because she's in Slytherin.
I apologise in advance for this chapter. I'm not very good at writing fight scenes, :-(
******************************************************************** ***
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CHAPTER 12- FIGHTING FOR YOUR LIFE
Chaos reined in the Great Hall. Students frantically tried to push themselves back as far from the crowd blocking the exit, most of them ending up huddled in a corner.
As yet none of the death eaters had moved. They were obviously waiting for some kind of signal from Voldermort. And although the vampires were practically quivering at the smell of so much powerful blood, they had also not attacked.
Dawn and Harry re-entered the main hall, the doors slammed shut behind them. All around the hall windows were closing themselves making sure that no-one could get in...or out.
Voldermort seemed to enjoy the fear he was causing. He was in no hurry to attack when he could cause so much confusion by just standing in the doorway. He noticed a group of children gathering near the centre of the room.
**************************************************************************** ***
"Dawn!"
Dawn heard her name in an urgent whisper and saw Flick, Skye, Robin and Ginny along with Ron, Hermione, Dean, Neville and a girl she didn't recognise.
"Are you all OK? Are you ready?" Four anxious nods answered her. "Don't worry, you're all trained and we've faced worse, right Flick?"
"Yeah." But Flick sounded anything but certain.
Some of the group looked confused at what the 'exchange students' were saying. They looked even more confused when Dawn waved her hand and suddenly they were all dressed in muggle clothes- most of them wore tracksuits of some sort, but Dawn wore her typical Sunnyhell leather trousers.
It added to their scared bewilderment when Dawn opened what could only be described as a green hole floating in midair. Dawn pulled out several differing kinds of weapons out of the hole- swords, axes and things the young wizards had never seen before.
With another wave of her hand a green, shimmering shield sprung up in the corner where most of the students were cowering and one around each of the slayers. Dawn turned to the non-slayers in the group.
"Get under the shield! Take as many weapons as you can hold and try to cover our backs." Harry looked about to protest. "This isn't your fight, GO!"
They all including the girl Dawn didn't recognise, started gathering weapons in their arms. Hermione following Dawn's look explained the girl to her:
"That's Luna; she fought with us last year."
Dawn nodded as they left. This Luna was stronger than she looked; she had more weapons than anyone else without any difficulty.
When her friends were safely under the shield, Dawn turned back to the slayers, muttering a spell that would give her slayer strength and speed.
"What is he waiting for?" Robin asked fearfully.
"He's just trying to scare everyone." Flick answered.
"Are you sure you want this? You can walk away if you want to." Dawn said. The students had noticed the shield and were trying to get to it; Voldermort would give the word any moment now.
"We're staying."
"Good. Remember your training, usual teams. Try to get as many students to the shield as you can and if one of you is injured get to the shield. Good luck!"
A death eater whispered something in Voldermort's ear and a cruel smile slid across his face. He pointed his wand at a young girl with long blond hair. "Avada Kedavra." A green light shot out the end and she fell to the floor.
That appeared to be the signal that everyone was waiting for as the vampires sprang into action. Skye and Flick fought back to back and Ginny, Robin and Dawn fought in a triangle formation.
Dawn tried to call Jaden using a technique she had discovered during training one day, but either it wasn't working for one reason or another, or Jade wasn't answering. Instead she sent one to Professor Dumbledore, requesting his help.
The slayers and Dawn tried to keep protecting each others backs, but the sheer numbers of the vampires attacking soon separated them. Dawn looked over at Flick and Skye. Flick was doing well. She was the only slayer to have fought in a battle of this size before and it showed in her fighting method- kill fast and move on. Skye was faring quite well. After Flick, she had had the most training, and she was putting it to good use.
On her side of the hall Robin and Ginny were also killing vampires. Ginny hadn't found out about her 'special talent' long ago, and had got off to a rocky start. But when she got into a routine she was doing well, Dawn thought that Ginny had the most natural talent for slaying, probably because she'd been experiencing evil ever since her first year at Hogwarts. Ginny was, pretty much, as good as Skye who had a couple months of extra training on the red head.
Robin, however, wasn't a natural slayer. She lacked confidence and that affected her abilities, it took her nearly twice as long to stake or behead each vampire, but she still managed to hold her own and slayed a very respectably number of vampires.
Dawn herself was finding things the easiest out of the group. Her spell put her on a par with her slayers and her experience made things easier for her. But she made sure to keep an eye on her slayers and on the death eaters that had yet to enter the battle.
Dumbledore arrived about half an hour into the fight after Professor Flitwick and himself had broken through the charms and barriers preventing their entry. That levelled the playing field. The Hogwarts professors started throwing fire hexes at the vampires causing them to burn to ashes. One vampire even got a wand through the back of its heart from Professor McGonagall as it tried to sneak up on Ginny.
Voldermort regained his advantage when the death eaters launched into the fight. They had a distinct advantage as evil people are really...well...evil, and they weren't afraid to use unforgivable curses.
The minute Dumbledore had arrived, Voldermort left, escorted by some of his death eaters. At around the same time the vampires started to pull back.
'Miss Summers.' Dawn heard a voice in her head.
'Professor Dumbledore?'
'Indeed. I'm sure you have noticed the vampires retreating, we have reason to believe that they are planning to attack one of the houses.'
'Which one?' Although Dawn could hazard a pretty good guess.
'Gryffindor. You should take your slayers to stop them.'
'What about everyone here?'
'Myself and the others professors shall remain, I'd be very grateful if you could leave Miss Reiner to assist us. And I think extreme circumstances warrant extreme measures, don't you?' With that, Dumbledore's voice vanished leaving Dawn to fight toward her slayers.
"The vampires are going to attack Gryffindor." Dawn said when she had gathered all the slayers. "We're going after them, the professors can hold the fort here if one of us stays. Dumbledore asked you to stay, Skye."
Dawn began to open a green portal that would lead the group directly to the Gryffindor common room. They all clambered through the small hole, except Skylar who had gone back to fighting a death eater who had lost their wand somewhere or other, and Dawn closed the portal.
Thudding filled the room as several vampire pounded on the portrait hole. The group of slayers turned around to be greeted by the sight to the first three years to Gryffindor's standing in a shocked silence staring at the girls who had appeared out of nowhere. Dawn explained what was happening with her normal amount of tact:
"The school is under attack. Go upstairs and whatever happens don't come down and then you might all be alive this time tomorrow."
Several frightened students ran up the stairs and onto the upper landing as the portrait finally splintered open. Dawn quickly threw up a shield over the watching Gryffindor's before launching back into the fight.
"Eight to one? I like those odds!"
All the slayers and Dawn had minor cuts and bruises, and most had some more serious cuts, Ginny in particular was bleeding freely from the shoulder and this was making fighting difficult for her. She was relying on one handed movements with the short sword she was using, but was being pushed backwards by two vampires. She bumped back against a table and lifted her sword to block a blow, but the vampire knocked it out of her hands. Ginny tried to keep calm and remember her training, she smiled.
Ginny broke the leg off table and slammed it through the vampire closest to her. She swung around and put it through the heart of the second vampire before throwing herself back into the foray, leaving the sword forgotten.
Robin was having a similar success against the creatures she was fighting. She had opted for a longer sword than Ginny so could keep her distance a little more and swung her sword around decapitating anything that came within a 5ft radius. As Robin slashed rhythmically with her sword, she couldn't help but wonder where Jaden was. She knew that Dawn was worried about after voicing her thoughts to her that morning, even though the watcher didn't talk about it much.
****************************************************************************
FLASHBACK:
"Hi Dawn, have you seen Jade?"
"Not in a while, Robs. Why?"
"She was supposed to meet me to do some training, but she didn't show."
"Again?" Dawn said referring to the other times Jaden had blown off her friends for some reason or another.
"Yea, the only time she sees us anymore is if she thinks she'll get to kill something."
"I know." Dawn sighed.
"Can we do something? Talk to her..."
"And say what? When Giles gets back, I'll talk to him. He's had some experience with slay-happy slayers." Robin raised her eyebrows in question. "Faith." Dawn explained. "But I'm sure everything will work out."
"Didn't Faith have to kill a man, torture people, go to prison and fight in an apocalypse before it got better for her?"
"Amongst other things. But we know what we're dealing with now. I think Skye went to train with Ginny down behind Hagrid's hut."
"I'll go with them then." Robin started to leave.
"Oh, and Robin, don't worry about Jaden, she'll be OK." Dawn smiled reassuringly.
Robin smiled back, closing the door behind her. Dawn sighed, her smile vanishing.
"She'll be OK... I hope."
****************************************************************************
Robin heard another vampire head touch the floor before it turned to dust. Jaden was probably in the Great Hall or maybe she didn't even know what was happening. That was it. She wouldn't just not turn up, and she loved fighting. Robin turned her attention back to her opponents, kicking one across the room and decapitating another.
Dawn was punching and kicking with strength to rival any slayers. She had to admit being a bit worried about the vast numbers of opponents, and she let out this worry in true Summers fashion; quips and insults.
"Honey, being dead doesn't mean you have to stop caring what you look like." She said to a vampire who looked to have been about 25 when she died and, judging by her wardrobe, died in the early nineties.
"Next please! Whoa! Haven't the evil undead ever heard of personal hygiene? Get a tic-tac, only 2 calories!" Dawn swung her axe around chopping off the head of the offending vamp.
A vampire (female, late twenties) kicked her across the room. Dawn hit the wall shoulder first and cried out in pain.
"Are you OK?" Flick called from across the room.
"Just peachy!" Dawn scrambled up, kicking the vampire away from her. She punched the vampire in the face and raised her axe. The vampire tried to punch, but it was blocked by the watcher who started to bring her axe down.
"Try again! Whoops, you can't, you're dead! Next!"
A vampire came up to her. This one had a weapon, a short dagger with a near black blade. They fought for a bit neither gaining the upper hand, but the vampire managed to slash Dawn across her stomach.
"Ouch! Didn't your mother ever tell you not to hit a lady?" She threw him across the room using magic and leapt over to his side holding a stake that seemed to appear out of nowhere. She picked the dazed vampire off the floor and glared at him.
"Any last words?"
"What are you?"
"I thought we went over that; I'm a lady." She staked the vamp and jumped back to avoid being covered in dust.
Felicity snorted at Dawn's last comment. "I hate to break it to ya luv, but you're no lady!"
Dawn looked offended for a minute before shrugging her shoulders. She examined the new wound on her abdomen.
"Why do the bad guys always go for my stomach? At this rate I'll never be able to wear a bikini!"
****************************************************************************
As the night wore on, it took longer and longer to kill each vampire. By three o' clock, the slayers were tiring, as were the vampires, so neither side was gaining an advantage. At about 3:30, Dawn noticed that the sun was rising. She broke away from the vampires she was fighting and then leapt over to the massive curtains that covered one of the windows in the Gryffindor common room.
The curtains spilt open, bathing the room in early morning sunshine. The vampires withered in the light, bursting into flames and turning into pillars of dust. Two vampires escaped the light. The first jumped backwards, only to be staked by Ginny. The second span backwards into the shadows, grabbing Robin as he went.
The vampire picked up the sword that Ginny had dropped earlier and held it to Robin's throat.
"Well, well, well. Don't we have a situation?"
Flick jumped forward. The vampire dug the blade into Robin's neck drawing blood. Flick froze at Robin's whimper.
"Let her go."
"Give me one reason why I should? You'll just kill me the minute I drop her."
"We wont, you have our word."
"Your word? What use is you word? You're lying."
"No. We don't lie."
"Oh, so you're honest. That makes me feel so much better. I believe it was Johnny Depp who said in one of his more recent films that it was the honest men you had to watch, because a dishonest man you could always trust to be dishonest, but you never know when an honest man will do something incredibly stupid."
"We wont, if you kill her, then I swear to god, you will die."
"Already dead, luv."
The vampire slid the sword across Robin's neck. A shocked look appeared on her face as she collapsed down to the floor, Flick staked the vampire, who died wearing a satisfied smirk.
Dawn checked Robin's pulse. "She's dead...We've got to get back to the hall. You." She pointed to a Gryffindor boy on the stairs. "Make sure she gets to the hospital wing. We've got to go."
Flick could have sworn she saw her watchers eyes flash black as she turned around and was sure that her hair was ever so slightly darker than usual, but that was impossible, right?
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Two slayers and their watcher returned to the great hall a little after dawn to see that there was still a fight taking place. All but four of the professors were fighting and there looked to be about 25 death eaters still conscious. The tired looking students under the shields protection were tending to fallen teachers and the victims of any curses that managed to get past Dawn's shield.
The teachers and Skye who were still fighting were as tired and weary as those fighting in Gryffindor. They had all (except Professor Dumbledore) been hit by a curse at least once that night, some had yet to wake up. Before the slayers even entered the hall, they heard the sound of a killing curse being fired and turned to see who was on the receiving end.
It was Skylar. Her shield flared up as the green curse hit her, but must have gotten through some how as she flew backwards into the wall and fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.
Time seemed to freeze as everyone realised what had happened. That is for everyone except for Dawn.
"Uh oh. This doesn't look good" Flick's words were barely above a whisper, but they drew everyone's attention.
Dawn's hair and eyes had gone coal black and deep blue veins could be seen over her deathly white skin. Power seemed to crackle around her, and that power was defiantly evil.
She screamed a high pitched scream that had everyone covering their ears. The sky/ ceiling in the great hall clouded over and green balls of fire reined around them. Some of the students threw up their arms to cover themselves, but they needn't have bothered. The green fireballs were aiming specifically at the death eaters, encasing each in a fiery prison that they couldn't escape.
When all the death eaters were imprisoned, Dawn collapsed. As she crumpled to floor, the black went from her hair, the ceiling returned to showing the sunset and all the shields dropped. Harry ran over to his girlfriend.
"Dawn? Dawn, are you OK? Wake up!" He shook her gently by the shoulders, and was pulled back by Ginny. Flick bent over watcher and then lifted her effortlessly.
"She's still breathing, just. We've got to get her to Madam Pomfrey. Ginny, could you grab Skye? Professor-"
"Go. We'll take care of things here." Professor Dumbledore said, but the slayers were already out the room, closely followed by Harry, before he'd finished speaking.
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Madam Pomfrey was waiting for the casualties to arrive. She indicated for Flick to set Dawn down on the bed.
"What's wrong with Miss Reiner?"
"She was hit by the Avada Kedavra." Ginny spoke in a low voice.
"Oh, "Madam Pomfrey's voice softened. "Set her down over there, I've got to see to Dawn." Madam Pomfrey bustled about trying to deal with Dawn before anyone else came along. She was muttering things about exhaustion and blood loss as well as things that the slayers couldn't understand. She finally settled Dawn down on a bed and then turned to the slayers with a stern look on her face.
"She's sleeping. I heard you also have injuries. Let me take a look at them...NOW."
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Ten minutes later Professor Dumbledore had sent all those who could walk for themselves to the hospital wing, leaving the staff the grim job of determining the living from the dead. Professor looked around the hall, seeing the young bodies littering the floor.
"In war it is always the innocent that suffer. Dear Merlin, what have we done?"
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That was a bad chapter- I'm almost afraid for people to review! Almost, but I'm a big girl, I can take it!