Disclaimers, etc, see part one.

Author's Notes: This was difficult to write. But I think it was worth it. Many thanks to my beta, Chaos.

Face In The Crowd proposed an challenge early on where Ginny gets a good nickname. I hope this counts as good.

Remember that if there is anything you've always wanted to see in an HP/Buffy crossover, and it hasn't been contradicted yet, you can email me.

* * *

The rest of the week went fairly smoothly. Snape didn't yell at Harry during his detention. In fact, he didn't say anything at all. He merely pointed to the benches, threw Harry a rag and disappeared back into his office.

When Harry returned to the common room at half past nine, Ron was struggling through his potions essay and Hermione and Ginny were talking very quietly beside the fire. Harry watched them for a few minutes until they looked up at him. Ginny blushed and Harry quickly looked away.

He didn't like Ginny, he told himself. He liked Cho, with her shiny black hair, and the way she grinned at him during DA meetings. They would need to have another one of those soon. He wondered if Buffy and the others would be able to join them again

Buffy had been very popular, showing off her fighting skills. And she had had a lot to say about the practicalities of protecting yourself. She'd survived more than Harry on a regular basis, and was actually able to describe the techniques she'd used. Running away was her favourite way of ending a fight. Neville had felt better for that. Harry was also sure that his fellow students had tried harder with an audience.

Harry dragged his own potions text out of his bag and tried to concentrate on writing the essay. As Hermione kept reminding them, the most important thing about this year was OWLs.

The rest of the week continued normally for the school. Snape snarled at people in potions; Dawn followed Ron around to classes; Buffy and Spike helped Hagrid; Willow, Tara and Xander attended classes with the First years and taught Spike what they had learnt in the evenings; and Draco spent the week running into the Gryffindors by accident and glaring at them.

Harry had become quite good at ignoring Draco altogether, but his constant appearances seemed to be irritating Hermione to new lengths.

"There must be another way," Hermione said, muttering at Draco's retreating back after potions on Thursday.

"Another way to do what?" Ron asked.

But Hermione didn't answer. Instead she sat down in the corridor, pulled a book out of her bag and began to look through the index.

"Hermione, lunch?" Harry asked.

Hermione looked up at the three of them, keeping a finger in the book to mark her place. Harry looked concerned. Ron had that adorable 'Hermione's lost it' look on. Dawn held her hand out and Hermione let herself be pulled up. She didn't eat very much at lunch, though, because she spent most of the time glaring at Draco from across the Hall.

Snape sat the teacher's table watching Draco more circumspectly than Hermione was. The boy had been behaving oddly, even for him, this week. The last few days he had become very quiet. He rarely managed to be so fixated on something without vocalising it, either teasing the people involved, or complaining to Crabbe and Goyle. It was habit Snape found particularly annoying. Snape wanted to know where the fire would break out so that he could avoid it.

"What's the matter, Severus?" McGonagall asked.

Snape jerked upright. He stared at her, suspicious of the lack of taunting in her voice.

"Nothing," he replied.

She didn't say anything, but her mouth was set in a thin line. Snape sighed. He'd tried and failed to go up against that look when he was at school, and she was a lot more practiced now. However, so was he.

"You don't know anything," Snape said.

"I know how to turn you into a cauldron," she said. "I'm sure Neville will need a new one soon."

Snape paled. He glared at McGonagall, but she could see that he was mildly impressed by her threat.

"You think Mister Malfoy poses a threat?"

"Something's bothering him, he's calculating. Once he has finished the reckoning, someone will get the bill."

Snape looked like he had swallowed bubotuber puss. Explaining himself to a Gryffindor was demeaning enough.

"And how do you know all that?" McGonagall asked, politely neutral.

She was sure that it was a characteristic that Draco had inherited from one of his parents, and she was not going to let a chance to tease Severus about his past slide by.

Snape looked distinctly uncomfortable.

"His aunt was exactly the same."

Under normal circumstances McGonagall would have pushed him. She would have asked which aunt, and exactly how Snape knew what he did. She was certainly curious, but Snape was wearing a look she hadn't seen since the night he had first arrived at the Order. The one that said he knew that he was worthless.

"Dumbledore has arranged another meeting after supper," she said quietly.

Snape nodded both his understanding of the message and gratitude for the change in topic.

"I see you have once again out manoeuvred our potions master," Dumbledore whispered along the table at McGonagall.

He mimed a cauldron, so she would understand. But she turned an elegantly blank look at him. He reached forward and took of her hands between his own.

"I am sorry, Minerva," he said.

She sniffed haughtily.

"I think there is something wrong with the elder Miss Summers," she said.

Dumbledore looked down the table and little blonde woman. She certainly looked better than she had when she had arrived. The time in the sun with Hagrid was doing wonders for her. Maybe Minerva was right, though, Dumbledore didn't know much about Slayers, but he didn't think she'd tried to slay anything while she was here, and hadn't seemed to be interested in the Forest. People rarely let their instincts and skills lay dormant. Perhaps he could ask Hagrid to talk to the Centaurs on her behalf, they might know more about her.

He didn't need to reply to McGonagall's change of subject, because she too, was focused again on her food. Dumbledore surveyed the hall. Most students were chatting with their friends while they ate. Some were glaring at others across the hall. The Headmaster sighed happily at such carefree displays of youth.

…

Things were not so content on Friday morning. Apparently Draco had had enough of quietly seething at Hermione. He was waiting out side the Great Hall for the three Gryffindor perfects and their Muggle pet to arrive for breakfast. He deliberately ran into Hermione and snarled "get out of my way, Mudblood," at her. Hermione pushed Ron, Dawn and Harry forward and turned calmly to face Draco.

He stared down his nose at her. Hermione stood up straighter to look back at him. They were standing at the entrance to the Great Hall, backed by friends. Hermione had Harry, Ron and Dawn, and Draco had Pansy and Blaise. Neither of them could act with so many teachers watching, but the first one to acknowledge that fact was going to be the loser.

Buffy arrived before the air between them actually froze, but she shivered.

"Ah, guys?"

She waved a hand between them and they both blinked. Hermione blushed. Draco turned away in a swirl of black. Dawn caught Buffy's eye and rolled her own. Buffy grinned.

"You can go and sit down now," Buffy said.

She watched the four of them leave, glad that Dawn had friends her own age. Spike came up behind her and she grinned at him too. He looked at her suspiciously and she almost chuckled. At the Slytherin table Draco was still glaring at Dawn and her new friends. Buffy wondered how soon it would erupt, and whether she would be there to see it.

The storm broke on Saturday. Dawn arrived, refreshed, at breakfast. Harry and Hermione were already there. Ron joined them before Draco appeared and set about silently demolishing a plate of bacon and eggs.

"What are we going to do today?" Dawn asked.

"I was going to work on my Arithmancy essay," Hermione said.

Ron and Harry both looked at her like she was mad. She looked back calmly. The day was clear, but cold, and spending it in the tower beside the fire wasn't an unpleasant idea.

"I think you should teach me how to ride a broom," Dawn told Ron.

Harry suppressed a grin. He and Ron had had something of a talk the previous evening about Dawn. It went pretty much along the lines of Harry telling Ron that if he liked Dawn he should go for it. Ron had blushed, but not as deeply as he was now. He seemed unable to speak.

"You don't have any other plans?"

Ron shook his head.

"Great," Dawn said.

"Harry's broom's better," Ron spluttered.

"Faster?" Dawn asked.

Harry nodded.

"I think I'll play it safe," Dawn smiled. "This being my first time and all."

Ron swallowed and hastily took another bite of toast. Dawn grinned, uber-pleased with herself. Hermione was struggling not to laugh outright at the look on Ron's face.

Ginny joined them and the rest of the Scooby gang at the Quidditch pitch, although Buffy claimed that she was only there to catch people when they fell off.

"I'll be fine," Dawn had tried to tell her.

"What about him?" Buffy asked, nodding to Ron.

Dawn looked back at him and blushed. Buffy raised an eyebrow. She hadn't missed the fact that Dawn seemed to have been following Ron rather than his friend around the school.

"Come on, Dawn," Harry called.

"You aren't going to try, love?" Spike asked.

"Do you remember my speech last night?" Buffy asked. "The perfectly happy with my own superpowers speech."

Spike scoffed. "A sentence isn't a speech. And it's not a superpower, it's a broom."

"I'll go no higher than my legs can send me, thank you very much," Buffy said.

Spike shrugged a 'your loss,' and walked across the pitch to where Ron was laying out the school's brooms. Buffy went to sit in the stands. Hermione went to stand beside the broom next to Tara, who was looking apprehensively at the piece of wood at her feet.

"It's not too bad," Hermione said.

Willow and Tara both looked at her.

"I'm not very good at it," Hermione confessed. "But Ron and Harry are, you saw them. And Ginny flies a lot when her brothers aren't using their brooms."

Ron coughed nervously. Hermione turned to him, expectantly. Dawn was looking interested, Ginny amused. Ron tried to remember how Harry had wormed his way out of actually standing in front of everyone.

"If you really want to fly, it should be easy," he began.

He looked nervously at Hermione, who tried to smile encouragingly.

"Okay, just hold your hand out over your broom and say 'up.'"

Everyone did so. Hermione's broom rose slowly, and she gripped it with white knuckles. Tara's broom leapt slightly, Willow's rolled over. Anya's didn't do anything, but Dawn, Spike and Xander were each now clutching a broom, ready to mount.

Ron stepped forward to help Dawn, Spike and Xander. Ginny stepped up beside Anya, who was glaring at the twigs and wood at her feet.

"Say it again," she said.

Hermione was staring dumbly at her broom. She had barely managed ever to get a broom into the air, and certainly not on her first go. She looked over at Dawn and Ron and decided that jealousy was an amazing motivator.

Tara and Willow both tried again, with better success. Eventually they were able to climb on their brooms the way Hermione showed them and kick off into the air with Anya and the others.

The three of them and Anya followed Ginny in a few practice moves across the pitch. Willow led the way over to Buffy, who was leaning against the edge of the stands. She grinned as her friend approached.

"Go, Willow. You're a real witch now."

"I wasn't a real witch before?" Willow pouted.

"Of course you were. But now we've got brooms, and wands," Tara said.

She almost slid off her broom as she turned to face back across the pitch. Buffy grabbed the heavier woman and held her up until the broom steadied again. Ron was just coming back with a large box under his arm. Ginny's eyes widened.

"I'm going over there," she announced, and took off.

Anya, Hermione, Tara and Willow were left hovering around Buffy's head and watching the impromptu Quidditch game. Ron had brought out three Quaffles. Spike was particularly excited and he seemed more animated than Buffy could remember him being since Drusilla had left. At least this time the animation was sport, and not death, related.

Ron looked over to the girls at the edge of the pitch.

"Do you want to learn some Quidditch?" he yelled at them.

They waved the suggestion away and Ron shrugged with the obvious air of someone who didn't understand, but wouldn't argue. The rest of them divided into pairs; Ron and Dawn, Harry and Xander, Ginny and Spike; to practice basic passes.

Both Harry and Ron were surprised at how proficient Ginny's Quaffle handling skills were. Spike was enthusiastic and Ginny was giggling at him, and kept having to throw her hair back over her shoulder.

Dawn threw the Quaffle back to Ron, but as he wasn't really paying attention to her, it hit him in the side of his head. He jerked backward in shock and unseated himself from his broom.

'Everything looks different upside down,' he thought vaguely, as his legs instinctively crossed to keep himself from falling. His arms wouldn't quite reach the broom handle, and every flailing attempt to reach it just made it more difficult. The broom seemed to take his sudden shifts in weight as a command and he was getting dangerously close to falling off the front of his broom.

Dawn flew up underneath him and grinned at him, upside-down.

"Sorry about that," she said.

Ron let his arms fall above his head. And glared at her. Dawn grinned wider. She very carefully took her hands off her broom and grabbed Ron around the middle. He uncrossed his legs and plonked onto her broom. It too started to slide, but Dawn reached around him to grab the handle and bring the pile of wood back under control.

Ron looked up at his broom, which was just sitting in the air, now, looking slightly guilty. He snatched at it and Dawn had to catch him from falling off again.

"Would you stop doing that?" she said.

Ron blushed. His entire head turned red in embarrassment. The sudden heat in his body was not helped by how close he was sitting to Dawn. Dawn was still smiling broadly. She leant forward and gently kissed Ron on the nose.

"I want you both down here right now!" Buffy yelled.

Dawn glanced down, saw Buffy's furious face and blushed. She glanced around quickly and everyone else looked away, grinning slightly. Ron grabbed onto her shoulders as she pointed the broom towards the ground. Buffy was there when they dismounted, but seemed unable to say anything.

Xander cuffed Ron on the back of the head. Harry landed, Ron's broom in one hand and dropped it on the ground. Ron found himself standing in the middle of a large group of people, some of whom were angry and most of whom were amused.

"Now, that wasn't my fault," Ron said.

"No, it was definitely Dawn who decided to risk her neck to save yours," Buffy said, glaring at her sister.

Ron started to protest on Dawn's behalf. But Dawn didn't feel like watching him be eaten alive by a Vampire Slayer, so she kissed him instead. It wasn't a grand, deep, passionate kiss. She merely stood up on her toes slightly and pressed her lips to his.

Whatever reaction Buffy, or anyone else, might have had was interrupted by another voice saying:

"Well done, Weasel."

The entire group turned to face Malfoy. He looked particularly pale in his black robes, and seemed unperturbed by the glares he was getting.

"I mean I knew Muggles were easier to catch than Quaffles, but that wouldn't mean much to you."

Ron turned bright red again, this time with anger. Dawn was all too aware that she didn't have a wand, although Xander and Harry had drawn theirs, and Willow had clenched her fists. Buffy was closest to Malfoy and turned a dead cold glare on him. He didn't blink, having dismissed Buffy as another Muggle.

Two people shouted together, before anyone else, and two flashes of light hit Malfoy. His face erupted in several large flapping things. He tried to bat them off, but he was shaking too hard. Hermione stalked up to him, wand still pointing at his chest and pushed him over. He lay on the ground, quivering, as the group gathered around and poked him with their boots.

Ginny giggled and Harry flashed her a grin. He stepped up beside Buffy to check out what was wrong with Malfoy's face.

"What hex did that?" he asked.

Ginny wormed her way in beside him.

"Bat-Bogey," she said. "Rachel and I have been practicing them for a couple of years now."

'Rachel?' Harry connected the name to the little dark haired girl he'd seen Ginny studying with.

"So you're like Batgirl?" Spike asked.

Ginny looked confused for a moment. Harry grinned, so she grinned too. Malfoy groaned. Buffy leant and picked him up. He glared at her through the flapping things on his face and continued to jiggle around uncontrollably.

"Can you get back to the school on your own?" she demanded.

"Yes," Draco said. He managed to sneer despite his condition.

"If you even think of insulting my sister or her friends again, I will personally beat you into a bloody pulp, as will the rest of us."

Buffy gestured to the group assembled. Draco nodded. Buffy dropped him back on the ground and he scrambled away.

"That was fun," Harry said, watching Draco head towards the castle.

Buffy turned to face him and grinned at the awed expression on Harry's face. He grinned back, his green eyes sparkling from behind his glasses and his scar just visible from beneath his fringe.

Buffy felt a wave of frustrated anger rise in her at the sight of the boy in front of her. In a flash she wanted to wrap her hands around his throat and sink her teeth into him, in a non-good way. She blinked, suddenly faced with a shocked teenager. Spike had a hand on her arm, preventing her from actually raising her wrist.

The entire assembled group were watching her warily. She could see Anya leaning over to ask Xander what had happened, and Willow reassuring Dawn with a hand on her shoulder. Buffy took steps backward into Spike, who collected her in his arms.

Slowly the group broke up and the tension dissipated. Xander helped Ron collected the Quaffles and Anya and Willow gathered most of the brooms together, including Spike's. Harry was still watching Buffy nervously. Buffy tried to smile. It didn't look like was working so she turned her attention to Dawn.

"You and I are going to have a talk," she said.

Dawn grinned cheekily and took her own broom back to the shed. Spike's arms were still holding her close. He leant over her shoulder.

"What happened, pet?"

"I need to talk to Giles," Buffy told him.

Spike nodded gently and ushered Buffy back up to the school. Harry followed, carrying his Firebolt and trying to work out what was going on.