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.