Thanks to all the reviewers:
ADSpencer: A short review is miles better than no review and is VERY much appreciated. Glad you like the story; hope you keep liking it!
LaRoseMinuit: I changed the spelling you picked up on and a couple of others that I noticed. Thanks for reading and reviewing.
Silver Warrior: I feel sorry for them, but I'm still gonna kill one of them! Thanks for reading and reviewing!
Blondi gurl: Thanks for reviewing! Reviews make me write faster and you've responded a lot; I'm grateful for people like you.
Akalea: Thanks for reviewing, I'm glad you're finding it interesting and somewhat surprised that people read the review beg at the end of each chappie!
Buffy the slayer: Yup, Harry's lyrics were amended from Once More With Feeling, but the rest were my own. Thanks for reviewing.
Matt: The embarrassing singing chapter is a necessity in fanfic! Thanks for reviewing so regularly; it's really good to know that someone out there is reading this and keeps coming back for more! Also, and I'm sure I can talk for all of those doing exams, thanks you for thinking of us at the moment.
Jess: Thanks for the compliment and the review! I was a bit worried about the singing bit, but the positive feedback made me feel a lot better!
Vld: I didn't kill Robinette, I just sent her to a better place :-) And you're right about it all going wrong, but hey, no-one's life is perfect, and what's a little death and destruction between friends? Thanks for reviewing!
Wow! That's a lot of review responses! I've just got a quick note before I start the chap:
A/N: AFTER THE FLASHBACK this carries straight on from Jaden's bit in the last chapter last chapter. This means Jade had just sung about her doubts on her evil-ness and rushed from the Scooby common room with Flick following her.
CHAPTER 19- DANCING FIRE
FLASHBACK: FIRST DAY OF TERM
"Mormon, Jaden!" Professor McGonagall called.
['Another slayer,' the sorting hat said softly to Jade, 'but, unlike Miss Chardon, you crave power. It better be...']
The hat barely touched her head before it shouted "Slytherin!" Jade saw Dawn and Felicity share a look and she felt a pang of doubt. They'd all heard about Slytherin and it couldn't be a good sign that a slayer was in that house.
Jaden joined her house apprehensively. A blond boy gestured for her to sit down next to him so she sat in-between him and a girl who looked like she'd been hit round the head with a frying pan one too many times.
Blondie introduced himself as Draco and frying-pan-face was Pansy (who kept on glaring at her).
"So you're an exchange student?" Draco said with one eyebrow raised.
"Yup; that's me; from Salem School." It was then that he noticed her accent.
"You're American!" He stated; his voice half disgusted, half curious.
"I had noticed." Jade grinned.
Draco seemed to assess his housemates' reaction before smiling with her.
Later that evening, Jade sat in the common room pondering over her quick conversation with Dawn. Not only was she in the worst house, but the most welcoming housemate was apparently the most evil one.
"Penny for 'em."
Jaden jumped despite her slayer healing abilities. "Draco! It's not important."
"You were pretty deep in thought." He said flashing his most charming smile.
"It was, ah screw it, are you evil?"
"Umm no?"
"Are you sure? Because everyone says you are."
"I'm sure. And I bet it was St. Potter who told you that. Listen, you're going to hear some bad stuff about a lot of the Slytherin's but most of it isn't true, alright?" Sincerity rang in his eyes and voice.
"I believe you."
"Good...Oh and one more thing; you should try and stay away from the Gryffindor's." He warned
"Why? They're my friends."
"They're Gryffindor's; our enemies!" He ranted.
Jaden's only response was to roll her eyes and, when she went to talk to Dawn the next morning, to shoot Draco a smug glance.
END FLASHBACK
Jaden ran though the hallways. How could she have sung that? She hadn't even admitted what she was feeling to herself yet, let alone proclaiming it to her friends; if they were still her friends after what she said. She practically said that she was evil!
As Jade ran towards the Slytherin dorms, her eyes blurred from the tears, she wasn't looking where she was going and ran strait into a tall, muscular body.
"Hey there. What's up Jay?" A cool voice said.
"Draco." The young slayer sobbed, flinging her arms around his neck.
"Hush it's alright; why don't you tell me what's the matter?" He said stoking her back soothingly.
"The potion...and Dawn...Harry...prophecy...all screwed up!" Was all he could manage to gather from her sobbing.
"Err, right." Draco said a flash of annoyance on his face for a moment. "Why don't we talk about this in the common room?" He lead her in though the portrait hole and into the cold common room.
"Now why don't you start from-"
He was interrupted by a loud banging from the other side of the portrait. "Jade! Jaden; are you there?"
"It's Flick." Jade whispered. "I don't want to speak to her right now."
Draco masked his confusion before nodding and stepping quickly out the Slytherin quarters.
"Let me in, Malfoy. I have to speak to my friend!" Flick said angrily.
"No can do. Jaden doesn't want to talk to any of you right now and you're not coming in here until she says so."
"Like you could stop me. I know you know what we're capable of." Flick scoffed.
"I know that you could beat me to a bloody pulp without batting an eyelid, but how would that help your cause? You still don't know the password."
Felicity opened her mouth to she something, thought about it, and then shut it again.
"I too am Jaden's friend; and I will not let any harm come to her. You have my word." He assured the slayer who looked at him as if trying to guess if he was telling the truth.
"Fine, just tell her...that it's OK and that she'll always be one of us."
Draco nodded slowly, a question in his eyes, but Flick offered no explanation before leaving. Draco waited until he couldn't hear her footfalls before whispering the password and returning to Jade.
The young slayers tear streaked face looked up at him. "Did she say anything?"
"She said a lot. Nothing you need to worry about though." He said; his eyes blank of emotion. He shook himself. "So are you gonna tell me what's bothering you?"
"It's nothing; you'd just think I was being stupid."
"Try me." Draco smirked.
Jaden looked up; her hazel eyes meeting his icy blue ones. "You saw what happened in potions; well there was a side effect. It made us sing out our most private thoughts. I sung about ...what I told you the other night."
FLASHBACK
"Do you think I am?"
"You are what?"
"What if I'm not, though?"
"Not what?"
"Evil!" Jaden said exasperated.
"Rubbish. I've met evil; you've met evil; and you're not it." Draco said lazily.
"Are you sure?" She asked doubtfully. "What about what the sorting hat said; I crave power. What if I'd do anything to get it?"
"Nah; you wouldn't do anything drastic. You think too much to end the world or anything like that."
"Yea; maybe the hat was wrong." Jade said relieved.
"I didn't say that. You could crave power. I could crave power, doesn't mean I'm gonna do anything about it. Or you could crave good power. Like your watcher; she wreaks of power but the good kind. That's it; you wanna prove yourself and get the good power. I'm almost certain of it."
Jade gave him a half smile as he changed that conversation. Almost wasn't certain.
END FLASHBACK
"Jade they're your friends I'm sure they won't think you're evil and try to kill you." Draco said casually.
"Kill me?" Jade squeaked.
"So what else is bothering you?" Draco asked, swiftly changing the subject.
"Nothing." She sighed, not very convincingly.
"Right I can tell because you're totally acting like yourself." Draco deadpanned.
She graced him with a slight smile before considering. "Drake; if I tell you something, you have to promise not to tell anyone else. No-one, I mean it!"
"OK, what?" Draco enquired slowly.
"Well...there's a prophecy." Jaden paused.
"Yes, and?"
"It say that Harry will defeat Voldermort, it's only a name Draco, with someone's help."
"Whose?" Draco asked his eyes wide.
"Dawn's. And Voldermort knows about the prophecy and one of them is going to die and you can't tell anyone." She babbled.
"I won't; you have my word."
"Thanks." Jaden said very seriously.
Flick wandered slowly back towards the Scooby Common room, wondering what Harry and Dawn had sung about.
When she was about half way back, she saw a person walking towards the quiditch field. She followed them at a distance; watching as whomever it was pulled out their wand and muttered a charm that summoned his or her broomstick.
The moment they pushed off into the air and started zooming over the pitch, Flick knew that it was Harry. She had seen several quiditch games over the months that they had been at Hogwarts and no-one could pull off the stunts that Harry did. Flick settled down in the stands to watch him and wait for him.
It was about an hour and a half before Harry came down and jumped off his broom. He looked towards the great hall and saw the candle's lit and heard the quiet murmur of people talking in the distance. It may have only been six thirty, but the December weather meant that it was already dark and close to freezing.
Harry made his way to the edge of the pitch when he saw a bundle huddles in the stands.
"Flick?" He gently shook the 'bundle' awake. "What are you doing here? You must be frozen!"
"Nah, slayer bonus!" She bragged rubbing her eyes. "Aren't you cold, though? How long have you been out here?"
"Nah, wizard bonus!" He replied. "And I've been out here about an hour and a half."
"Why?" She asked as they started back to the castle.
"Dawn needed some time." Harry said looking straight in front of him.
"And what about you. The whole singing thing must have been hard on everyone, not to mention the prophecy."
"I'm fine." He said not too convincingly.
"Yea; and I'm the Queen of Sheba. Come on, Harry, there's obviously something wrong." Harry didn't say anything. "Is it Dawn? Friend stuff? The singing? The prophecy?"
"I'm fine." He ground out.
"OK, so it's the prophecy. I don't blame you, if I found out that...anyway I'd be pretty upset."
Harry stayed silent for another moment. "I guess." He finally said.
"You are not going to make this easy for me are you? Look; I know we haven't been the best of friends and there are probable a million people you'd rather share with, but I'm here and they're not, so start sharing." Flick commanded.
Harry chuckled slightly. "You'd be surprised. I used to be able to talk to Ron or Hermione about everything; but we've drifted apart. They spend time together as a couple and then it's the whole three's a crowd thing, and then I spend time with Dawn. I guess we don't have so much time anymore."
"You could always make time. Dawn wouldn't mind and I'm sure Ron and Hermione wouldn't mind doing stuff as a threesome- that came out wrong, but you know what I mean."
"Yeah. You're pretty good at this." Harry commented as they continued back to the castle.
"Pretty good? I'm amazing!"
That evening, Harry was sitting in the common room. Ron and Hermione clambered through the portrait hole and sat down on the sofa opposite him.
"Flick said you wanted to talk to us." Hermione started.
"I bet she bloody did." Harry muttered with a roll of his eyes.
"Anything we should know about?" Ron asked with one auburn eyebrow raised.
"Nah; we just don't spend much time together anymore."
"I know," all three were silent for a moment, none knowing what to say. "Did you hear about Umbridge?"
Harry wrinkled his nose at the mention of his former 'teacher'. "No, what?"
"She's gone nuts! She was supposed to visit Hogwarts again, but apparently she didn't know about the thestrals. She could hear the hooves but didn't know where they were coming from and had some kind of fit or breakdown or something. She's only seeing a bloody shrink!" Ron said triumphantly.
"Ron,"Hermione chided, "well, I guess she did bring it on herself." She continued after Harry and Ron sent her death glares.
Ron and Harry had been playing wizarding chess in the common room since Hermione had gone to bed.
"We should do this more often." Harry said.
"We really should...checkmate!" Ron said smugly. "I'm gonna head up to bed now, are you coming?" He yawned.
"In a bit."
"Want me to wait for you?" Ron offered.
"No, I'll only be a minute. See ya tomorrow."
After he had gone, Harry looked into the flickering flames of the fire. He heard the portrait hole grate open and looked round to see who it was. It was Dawn.
"Are you ok?" He asked.
"I'm fine, you?" Harry nodded so she continued. "Good. Thanks for letting me have some space earlier. I kinda needed something away from the craziness of everything."
"Me too." Harry admitted.
Dawn snuggled up beside him on the sofa and he put his arm around her. They both watched the fire dance for a minute or so.
"I heard once, that watching a flame was one of the most intoxicating things you can do." Harry said softly.
"Mmm." Dawn responded comfortably.
They sat together for a while longer; just enjoying each others company until Dawn leant over and gave Harry a passionate kiss.
"Wow." He gasped when they pulled apart. "What was that for?"
"Just 'cause. Why; do I need a reason?"
"Never." He said pulling her back in and letting his hands explore her body.
"Well? Have you discovered anything?" The Dark Lord hissed.
"Yes; my Lord. It came to my attention that there is a prophecy regarding Potter and the Key."
"I already know that." Voldermort said, his voice taking a deadly tone.
"I know who the key is. Her name is Dawn Summers and she is the sister of this generation's original Vampire Slayer."
Voldermort started laughing manically. "We've got them, we've got them."
One chapter closer to the end folks! I finish my exams on Weds the 21st, so expect the next chapter around the 25th.
Writers tip: Next time you're bored, you really should watch a fire- it dances and is great for thinking, it helped with this chapter!
Until then please review; whether it's two words or twenty, everything is appreciated and gives me inspiration.