Here's the next chapter! I've been having a little trouble writing chapter 17, but I'll have three more chapters up by Friday at the latest cuz my vocab story is due on Thursday.
Thanx to : vampy the choosen one, CrMeiNa, brigurl, and Tanydwr for reviewing and an extra special thanx to Me() for reviewing when you normally don't. And everyone else from previous chapters that I didn't put up, thanx. They (like always) made my day.
And DRACOBABE(), When Draco fights, he will look good.
Also, constructive criticism I can take. Suggestions are also good, but don't flame, cuz, like the review I got on 4-27 it'll be ignored, (just thought I'd bring that up cuz didn't say it before).
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Chapter 16 – Understanding
That day, right after Buffy left, Hermione said she was going to the library, and the others had no desire to spend any more time researching the necessary so Hermione went by herself. Ron had decided that he was hungry and headed for the kitchens. Harry and Dawn knew they would never get this opportunity to talk again, so they decided not to go with Ron. Instead they headed for the Room of Requirement.
When they got there, they found the room set up exactly the way it had been for their previous meetings. When they got in the room, Harry took a seat on the couch. Dawn, however, was still full of nervous energy, especially from sitting for the past hour, was pacing back and forth in front of the couch. Harry waited a little, thinking she was trying to figure out what to say. However, when a minute went by and Dawn had not said anything, Harry thought it was best to break the silence himself.
"Dawn." Harry said, but she didn't seem to hear him. "Dawn." He tried again, but still no response. Harry then got up and put himself in Dawn's path. "Dawn." He said gently. She looked up at him.
"Hmm?" Then she realized that he must have been trying to get her attention for sometime. "Oh, sorry."
"What has got you so preoccupied?" He asked.
"It's just-" Dawn finally sat down on the couch, and Harry did the same. "There are these guys, they call themselves the Knights of Byzantium. Their job is to make sure anyone who want to use the key for evil intentions can't get their hands on it. If someone bad wants it, their job is to destroy it." Dawn stopped to let these words sink in.
"So Voldemort truly is after you I suppose." Harry said.
"Looks like it." Dawn said dully. "That's the real reason I stayed at home last night, I ran into those Knight guys." Harry just nodded as he figured out the real meaning of this.
"So," he said slowly, "this means that Voldemort is going to use you to kill me." This statement was followed by an awkward silence as they both realized that Dawn could very well be what kills Harry.
"We don't know that for sure. I mean, Voldemort may not even be who wants me, it could be someone else." Dawn said thinking of other creatures in the world that could use the key to their advantage. "I mean, he wouldn't be the first to be after me. As of now, he's number three, assuming he is after me." Harry knew the Knights were after Dawn as well, but he wanted to know who the other person was. He was just about to ask when Dawn looked at her watch. "We should probably head to Potions." Harry nodded and decided he and Dawn would have to talk about her past some other time.
"When they got to the dungeons, they found Ron and Hermione sitting in the back and they made their way over to them. Little did they know they would not be in those sets much longer. "Today you will be working in pairs, which I will be choosing." Snape said wickedly as he entered the room. "For the next month you will be making the Polyjuice Potion," Ron, Harry and Hermione exchanged looks, "because there are two of you, I do not expect any one to ask me any questions." Then he moved through the room and assigned partners. Harry ended up with Blaise Zabini. This totally surprised him since he knows how much Snape loves putting him with Malfoy. But Snape seemed to think that he needed to 'share the wealth' so he put Dawn with Malfoy. Hermione was stuck with Millicent Bulstrode, and Ron with Pansy Parkinson.
When Dawn sat down the first thing she said was, "Same time, same place." Draco nodded, then made loud snide comments, criticizing the way Dawn was doing everything. One thing that was odd was, Snape didn't come around at all during the class. He just seemed very preoccupied with something he was working on at his desk. After class Ron was the first one to comment on Snape's odd behavior.
"Snape is up to something." He said the instant they were out of his room.
"Ron you have said that every year since first year, and every year he's been helping us." Hermione said exasperatedly.
"He is working for Dumbledore now Ron." Harry added.
"I still think he's up to something." Ron said stubbornly, causing Hermione to roll her eyes and Harry and Dawn to laugh.
The rest of their day was fairly normal. They had Transfiguration, Dawn went to her second year Herbology class, then Dawn had a free period while the others headed to Divination, for Ron and Harry, and Ancient Ruins for Hermione. After dinner, the others headed back to Gryffindor Tower, while Dawn stayed in the Entry Hall to wait for Draco. She didn't have to wait long, a few minutes after everyone had cleared out of the Entry Hall, Draco showed up and the two of them headed for the Summers' house. Once Dawn and Draco were out of Hogwarts, Draco turned to her.
"I'm sorry." He said. Dawn gave him a questioning look.
"For what?" Dawn asked confused.
"For what I said in potions." He said, as if it was obvious.
"Oh, that. What else could you do? We're not supposed to be friends." Dawn said, "Consider yourself forgiven." She added. They walked some of the way in silence before Dawn started another conversation.
"You recover from last nights thrilling activities okay?" She asked with a hint of sarcasm.
"I'm alright." He said simply. Dawn knew he wasn't telling her something.
"Alright, what's up?" She asked.
"What are you talking about?" He responded a little too quickly.
"You are way too quiet. Plus I noticed when you're stressed out about something, you get this little wrinkle right there." She said pointing at his forehead.
"You've known me for two days. How can you possibly know me like that?" He asked. Dawn shrugged.
"I'm just good with people. I was the first person to trust Spike." She said, touching on a topic she knew he would want to talk about.
"You did forget to mention that he was a vampire." Draco said trying to change the subject.
"Hey, no fair changing the subject. We can talk about that later. Right now, we are talking about what's bugging you." She said. Draco nodded and decided it was best to tell her the truth.
"I'm just not sure about all this." He said.
"All what?" Dawn asked, thinking she already knew the answer.
"I am about to go against my father. He is the one person I have always looked up too, and now, I can't." He didn't really expect Dawn to understand, especially when she had her sister to look up to. Meanwhile Dawn understood exactly what Draco was feeling. Like his role model had died.
"You feel like up until now, you've had a road map. Things to do every second that had to do with your father, but now you've lost the map." Draco looked at Dawn, who also looked up. She never stopped surprising him. "It gets easier. Just when you think you'll never find the map, another one turns up. It's not exactly the same, but it'll still get you where you wanna go. And if you realize you were holding the map upside down, and were heading in the wrong direction, you just have to flip it over, and you're back on the right track." They walked the rest of the way in silence, with Draco realizing he had so much more to learn about Dawn.
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Kinda short I know, but more will come soon. I'm gonna go watch some Buffy and see if I feel inspired. Don't forget to Review
