First of all I want to apologize for taking so long to get this up. I have the next chapter all written, but how long it will take me to type God only knows.
Now, time to answer review questions;
Kilea859: The reason Dumbledore didn't know he was going onto a hellmouth is because he didn't have time to look in to it. Like he said before it took him two months to set the place up, so it was pretty much a close you eyes and point at a random spot on the map, and go there kinda deal.
Sellser: Thanx for letting me know. Mistakes should minimize cuz I got a Beta reader.
Becsulet: I think I'm gonna go with your ideas for pairings. I was kinda going that way my self.
AN EXTRA SPECAL THANX TO; ezrajade, Kalystia, brigurl, Becsulet and Kristy Marie for their input on pairings.
NOTE: Anything inside asterisks() are thoughts.
Now for the story.
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Chapter 10- Potions and Changes
Harry had just gotten into bed when he felt the familiar stabbing pain in his forehead. It didn't last long, but it was enough to keep Harry up all night trying to figure out what Voldermort was feeling.
Harry had no intention of telling anyone about his scar hurting. The next day was torture enough for all of them. They had their first potions class of the year, and for Dawn, it was her first potions class ever. Snape started his class with a lecture about being in the N.E.W.T. potions class. Then he went right in to instructions that began with making sure Dawn and Hermione were not sitting next to each other.
"Directions are here." He flicked his wand at the board. "You know what to do." He turned to Dawn. "Miss Summers, you will not be able to participate. Why you are in this class I do not know. There is no need for you to make an effort. Just sit and do not disturb anyone or anything.
Draco smirked, however his expression quickly changed to surprise when Dawn began to make the potion anyway. No one tells a Summers they are not good enough! Dawn thought. She knew she had Willow and partially Anya to thank for knowing the ingredients to the potion. Dawn recalled the many times Anya had yelled at her for putting things next to each other in the Magic Box. They were making a sleeping draft. Fairly simple for an N.E.W.T. class, but today, Snape was in no mood to deal with students messing up. Just give them something easy the first class, then knock them over with something hard. That was his thought process anyway.
Snape walked around the room making nasty comments to all the Gryffindors , and complimenting all the Slytherins. However, when he came to Dawn he could not come up with anything nasty to say, so he kept walking, and moved on to Harry where he found many things to insult. Ron did not miss that Dawn was not insulted, and he stared at her in awe.
At the end of the period, Snape had them bottle a sample of the potion for testing. He 'randomly' selected Dawn's potion to test on a rat. "Now, if Miss Summers has made this correctly, which I doubt, then this rat will go to sleep and reawaken when I give it this solution. If not he will most likely be poisoned, and it will not reawaken." Snape tested Dawn's potion, and to everyone's surprise except for Dawn's, the rat woke up. Snape's face went from a smirk, to shock, to a sly smile. "Ten points from Gryffindor. I told you to sit, and not mess with anything Miss Summers." He said as the bell rang.
The Gryffindors left Snape's dungeons as mad as anything. They could not believe that Dawn had done everything right even though she wasn't expected to, and still lost points. The Slytherins all left with identical smirks on all of their faces.
On their way back to Gryffindor tower for break. Ron turned to a fuming Dawn. "There was nothing you could have done." He told her. "Snape would have found someway to take points off no matter what." He said wistfully.
"That's not the point. I made that potion better then almost everyone in that class. He said he could not understand why I was in that class, so I showed him why. Man, I wish I could introduce him to Buffy. I can tell she would hate him. He would be on the ground in five seconds." Ron, Harry, Hermione and Dawn all took a moment to visualize that, before Harry brought the topic around to Malfoy.
"Did you guys see the look on Malfoy's face when Dawn did the potion correctly! I wish I had a camera. That is the kind of thing I want to remember forever."
"So what's his deal anyway?" Dawn asked.
"Who Malfoy?" Harry said. Dawn nodded. "That's one thing we were never able to figure out. He has always treated everyone who was not a pureblood-"
"Comes from an all wizarding family." Hermione added seeing the confused look on Dawn's face.
"or not as rich as he is like dirt. Then of coarse, we're in Gryffindor so-"
"He likes you about as much as a whole in the head to begin with." Dawn guessed. Harry, Ron and Hermione nodded. They spent their break telling Dawn all the countless things Malfoy has done over the years. Then they headed for DADA.
Spike started today's class by introducing a new faculty member who was sitting in on the DADA classes for the day. " What she is going to be doing I don' know, and frankly I don' care. Anyway, here's Professor Anyanka." This was the second time this week that Dawn's jaw hit the table. She swore she was going to have a bruise there. This time however, Harry, Ron, and Hermione also shared her surprise when the girl who they had seen running from bunnies walked into the room. Anya sat down in Spike's chair behind his desk.
"Right, well, today we are going to be talking about Vengeance Demons." He then turned and smile mischievously at Anya who smiled back. Malfoy was the only one who caught the exchange of smiles between Dawn and Spike, and then to his surprise, Dawn and Anya. Spike went on to explain what the Vengeance Demons' power source was, and then he let Anya take over saying she knows a lot about the subject.
Draco didn't know what was happening to him. He felt like his life was being turned upside down. He had gone from a little rich boy with no worries, always thinking people weren't as good as him because they weren't purebloods or they weren't as rich as him. But this summer, everything changed.
Draco knew his father was a Death Eater, but that really didn't matter to him in the past. No, the truth was he never truly understood what a Death Eater did. When his father was a true Death Eater, not a Death Eater in hiding, Draco had been too young to remember exactly what his father had done. At the end of last year, Voldermort had officially returned to power (or at least, the Ministry finally admitted that Voldermort was back at full strength). Over the summer Draco had found out what being a Death Eater was all about. He also found out that he wanted no part of it!
Draco really didn't have a say in the matter though, over Christmas break, he was going to be initiated. He would have the Dark Mark burned into his skin, and there was nothing he could do about it. What his father was apart of was pure evil. Now, Draco knew that he could be mean to anyone and not care, but this was different. He would be helping Lord Voldermort kill people! Just to think of it gave him the chills.
All of the sudden, new things mattered to Draco. He found that he didn't want to be mean anymore, not even to Potter and his friends. This, he thought, was mainly out of fear of turning into his father. Draco wanted to change. But how could he change now?
He couldn't. It was that simple. But for something so simple, it seemed so amazingly difficult. He found himself spending most of his time out of Slytherin common room, away from the others who could not stop talking about what their parents were doing for Voldermort. He simply couldn't take it. With Crabbe and Goyle graduating last year. Draco expected himself to feel alone, but he wasn't. The only reason Crabbe and Goyle hung out with him to begin with was because Draco's father was some powerful Death Eater. He never really had friends. That was one reason he picked on Harry Potter. Draco was highly envious of what Harry had. True friends.
Speaking of Harry, Draco had noticed a new girl hanging out with Potter and his crew. This girl was so much different then any other girl he had ever seen before. Every time he saw her, his stomach lifted. He also had never met anyone that was so quick with a come back when he put them down, but then, that was one of the things he liked most about her. What was he saying! She was a Gryffindor, and one of Potter's friends. Plus there was something odd about her. She seemed to know all of the new teachers. Now one he could understand, but two. He had a feeling that it was too much of a coincidence. And where was it that she, Potter, Granger, and Weasley went every night. He knew he didn't have a chance with her, but he couldn't help wondering what they were up to. He decided that to night, he would find out.
