Thanx to Cow as White as Milk and Chrios for reviewing. This will be last update for a while, but when I get back, there should be a few chapters going up.
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Chapter
24 - Buffy's Plan
Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dawn all headed in
to the Room of Requirement. The room was once again arranged in the
way that it had been when Harry and Dawn would come in for their
conversations. Dawn plopped herself down on the couch while Ron and
Hermione slid into chairs around the room. Harry, however, preferred
to stand, and it was he who spoke first.
"Dawn, where
were you last night?" Harry asked trying to keep his temper from
rising the way it did the previous night. "And don't lie."
He added. He really didn't think Dawn would, but he wanted to be
sure. Normally she would have been offended that Harry thought she
would lie, but she knew they had a point. Dawn hadn't told them
anything about Draco until last night. If she were in their position
she would have made the same request. Dawn took a deep breath in
preparation to answer the question.
"I was with Draco."
She said. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked as though their worst fears
had just come true.
"You what?!" Ron and Harry
asked at the same time. Hermione seemed to be trying to remain calm.
Apparently taking to heart what Dawn had said to her the night
before.
"You guys heard me." Dawn said defensively.
The group sat in silence for a few seconds before Hermione finally
spoke up.
"Why?" She asked Dawn.
"Because
you guys were insulting him like he wasn't even in the room. I
thought after a meeting like that he might quit on us." Dawn
said this as if it were an obvious answer.
"Why would we
want to work with him?" Ron asked. "This is the same person
that made my first quidditch match a living nightmare. This is the
same person who insults my family at every chance he gets. Why would
I want to try to make this work?"
"Ron, he knows
people in Voldemorts inner circle. He has access to information that
can help us in this fight. It could even save your families lives. He
knows how the inside works and he wants to help-"
"How
do we know he wants to help?" Harry asked. "How do we know
he's not turning around and giving the information that we are giving
him to Voldemort?" Harry asked, his temper rising yet
again.
"Because he's not!" Dawn said
defensively.
"But how do you know?" Harry
pressed.
"Look, I just do okay?! You wanna know the
details, you're gonna have to go talk to Draco. He's the only person
who knows the answers to those questions. One thing you three are
going to have to accept is that Draco is on our side. If you can't
get over that fact right now, then you're going to be fighting a two
front war. On one front you'll have Voldemort and on the other,
you'll have yourselves." Just as she said this, the bell rang to
signal the end of break. The four students made their way to History
of Magic, and the topic of Draco Malfoy was not discussed for the
rest of the day.
That day, Buffy tracked down Dawn and Draco
and told them to meet in her common room after dinner. When the
students had finished their dinner Dawn shot Draco a meaningful look
that clearly told him to follow her in a few minutes. When Dawn got
to the marble staircase, she told the others that she wanted to stop
by her sister's room before heading up. She told the others that she
would meet them in the common room later. When they gave their
consent Dawn headed down to Buffy's room.
As soon as Dawn was
out of sight Harry took off at a run. He sprinted up the marble
staircase to Gryffindor tower. Then he flew up stairs to the boys
dormitories, and came back with his silvery invisibility cloak just
as Ron and Hermione walked through the portrait hole both wearing
equally confused looks. Then Hermione notice the cloak in Harry's
hand.
"Harry, you are not going to go and spy on Dawn!"
Hermione said outraged.
"Hermione, I have to know what's
really going on." Harry said exasperatedly. Hermione could tell
there was no changing Harry's mind.
"Fine, but you'll
have to go by yourself, because we will not be taking part in this."
Hermione said defiantly.
"But, 'Mione I want to know-"
Ron started clearly wanting to know what was going on just as much as
Harry, but Hermione gave Ron a look that clearly said that if he went
with Harry she would jinx him into the next millennium.
"It's
fine." Harry said. "It's probably best if I go by myself
anyway that way I have a less likely chance of getting caught."
With that Harry put on the invisibility cloak, and the last thing Ron
and Hermione could see was the portrait opening of it's own accord.
Harry reached the picture that lead to Scooby
tower just as it was closing, which allowed him to slip in to the
common room unnoticed. It wasn't until after he had entered the
common room that he had noticed that the person he had followed in
was none other then Draco Malfoy.
Harry noticed that the
entire Scooby Gang seemed to be present as well as Dawn and Draco.
Harry settled himself down on the floor in a corner of the common
room just as the meeting was about to begin.
"So, Dawn
and Draco," Xander was saying, "what did you guys thing of
my class today?" He asked enthusiastically.
"My
class." Anya said.
"Our class." Xander said
trying to compromise, however that wasn't quite the answer Anya was
looking for, but Dawn, sensing trouble gave her response before Anya
could retort.
"It was great guys." She said quickly
and meaningfully."
"Really super." Draco said
who was also sensing trouble. He had to remember to ask Dawn about
them later.
"As much as I would love to hear about that
lesson, we really don't have a lot of time." Buffy said getting
the groups attention. "You all know the current situation we are
in with Draco's father and his visit to Hogwarts." Buffy said
while the others nodded letting her know they had not forgotten the
Scooby Sr. meeting that had taken place the previous night. Before
Buffy could continue, however, Dawn stuck her hand up in the air like
she was in class and asked a question.
"Where are Spike
and Faith?" She asked suddenly realizing they weren't present.
"Oh, they went out on patrol, but they should have been
back by now. They probably just ran into a busy night for the world
of the undead." Buffy said casually before turning the attention
back to the problem at hand. "Anyway, tomorrow, Mr. Malfoy will
be making his way to Hogwarts. Professor Dumbledore will be taking a
portkey over to the original Hogwarts location. Now, as it will be a
Saturday, it also happens to be the first planned
Hogsmem-"
"Hogsmeade." Giles corrected
automatically.
"Hogsmeade visit." Buffy continued as
if she had been right all a long. "This means that the students
above third year will not be in the building, but they should be in
the town that is surrounding the building. Precautions have already
been put in place so that anyone who should look at Hogsmeade that
day will see the town, as it should be on a day when Hogwarts
students visit. The problem is that no one expected anyone to come in
the school during that time, so Will, you're gonna go to England for
a day and help Professor Dumbledore out so he is sure that everything
is they way it should be when Mr. Malfoy comes to visit." Willow
nodded. "Now my next question is for Draco." She turned her
head from Willow to Draco. "Were you supposed to do anything
your first weekend off?" Draco nodded.
"My father
told me that I'm supposed to meet him in an ally at the end of the
village on the first Hogsmeade weekend." Draco said.
"Okay,
then it looks like you'll be making the trip to Hogwarts as well."
Buffy said and was about to go on with the day's plan when Dawn
interrupted her.
"Can I go too?" She asked
hopefully. Harry felt his anger rising.
"I don't think
so." To everyone's surprise it was not Buffy who said this, but
Draco.
"What?" Dawn asked surprised. "Why
not?"
"Because Dawn, you have not met my father
before and I really don't want you to ever have to meet him. Besides,
there's Voldemort in England, and we really shouldn't be sending more
people over there then we have to." Draco said trying to
convince her with logic. That, however, did not work with Dawn.
"But
I-" Dawn started to argue.
"You're. Not. Going."
Draco said in a quiet, but very dangerous voice that made everyone
shut up, and Dawn give him a very hurt look. She did not say a word
for the rest of the meeting. It took the group a few seconds to get
over what had just played out in font of them. Eventually, Xander
broke the silence.
"Well," he said, "that
settles that." Then in a slightly more optimistic voice he said.
"Next topic of discussion?" Giles stepped up to answer
Xander's question.
"There really isn't one. At this point
we can go no farther until we have more information about Voldemort.
Besides, our first priority is making sure Lucious Malfoy gets in and
out of Hogwarts with out noticing anything has changed." Just as
he finished answering Xander's question Faith and Spike came through
the Portrait hole.
"Where were you guys?!" Buffy
asked. "You should have been back an hour ago!"
"We
were." Faith said defensively. "But those Knight guys were
pokin' around out front. They were obviously trying to determine if
there was anyway that the thing they were looking for was in an
abandoned building. They were also trying to figure out if this place
was really as dangerous as the sign said." Then Spike picked up
the story.
"And we weren't about to show them that it is
indeed perfectly safe, and get ourselves held up in another abandoned
building." Spike paused and looked at the others. He read the
question on all of the faces that had been present the last time they
were dealing with the Knights. "Yes, there was that many of
them. Faith and I had to wait until they left. There was no way we
were taking them on. We're going to need to figure out a way to stop
these guys, Buffy. Before it's too late." The group absorbed
this information. Draco, who wasn't supposed to know about Dawn and
the Knights, looked at Dawn, who refused to meet his eyes. He
supposed it was out of fear, and due to the fact he had just spoken
to her rather harshly. Draco was pulled from his thoughts when Buffy
finally spoke up.
"Okay, we'll worry about that later.
For now, we need to focus on what's going down tomorrow. The Knights
can't get in here now, so we have some time to deal with them."
The others nodded in agreement. "So, Draco, you need to be back
here at eight o'clock sharp tomorrow morning." Draco nodded.
"Same goes for you Will, but you live here so that makes it very
easy for you." Willow nodded and gave Buffy one of her goofy
smiles. "Draco, do you have any questions about tomorrow?"
Buffy asked, not wanted the boy to be confused or unsure about
anything.
"Yes." Draco said as he nodded. "What
exactly am I supposed to do tomorrow? I mean, how should I act?"
He asked not sure he made his question clear.
"All you
have to do is meet with your father. Act like nothing has changed
since you last saw him. Get as much information as you can about the
way Voldemort works, and what his plans are. You're in a good
position to ask questions like that, as you're only a few months away
from when he thinks you will be come a Death Eater." Buffy
concluded. Draco nodded. He was starting to get nervous. This would
be the first time he would have to face his father since he started
working with Harry Potter instead of against him. The thing that
terrified him more then anything else was the thought that he would
slip up. Buffy seemed to be able to read is emotions.
"You're
going to be fine." She said.
"Yeah, kid." Faith
chimed in. "Be confident. If you accidentally say something the
old you wouldn't say, don't get nervous. Make it out like he's the
one who made the mistake, not you. If you believe that what you're
doing is the right thing, no mistake you make will matter, just
believe in yourself." The others all agreed, though they were
slightly surprised that it came from Faith, but you figure the path
to redemption will do that to you. Draco, was now feeling much
better. The only bad feeling inside him was a guilty weight in his
stomach. This was due to the fact that he knew the reason Dawn hadn't
said another word, since the debate about her traveling to England,
was because of him.
