THANKS TO MY WONDERFUL REVIEWERS:
The Lady Morgaine: I think it's compulsory for someone to get the better of Snape in every BtVS/ HP crossover! Thanks for reading and reviewing- and cool job on Through the Looking Glass :)
TTrunks: Dawn is 24- it's ten years after the monks 'made' her. Thanks for reviewing.
Gabrieldarke: Thanks for reading and reviewing, I hope you like this chapter too.
Penny01'S Email: I have a confession to make; I have now read so many BtVS and HP stories that I am losing track of the 'reality' in the TV show or the books. Now I've been referring to the first HP book for a lot of this story, but if someone seems a little out of character or you can't remember a certain event happening quite like that in the books/ show then that's why. I'm sorry and please don't maul me for it! ;-) Thank for the email!
The dates are not real; I just wanted them like that to suit my devious needs! Or cause I forgot the actual dates…whatever.
CHAPTER EIGHT: REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER
SATURDAY 1st NOVEMBER- First Day of Winter- Wrap Up Warmly!
It was a bright and breezy Saturday morning. Trouble is that bright and breezy is British code for below freezing temperatures.
So that's it. British summer time has officially ended…when did it begin again? Ever since Dawn had moved to England nearly a year and a half ago and it had been almost a constant winter with occasional day of sun and in Scotland it was even worse. There had been floods since September and temperatures were way into single figures.
And ruddy Dumbledore was making them sit in the freezing cold to watch basketball on broomsticks.
So that explains why Hogwarts' only born and bred Californian was searching through dozens of tank tops, hundreds of tees and thousands of 'light jumpers' to look for anything warm. She had finally settled on a pair of leather trousers and boots with a bottle green roll neck jumper over a white tank top. It seemed to be a Summers'-extended-family gene to own a minimum of one pair of leather trousers, even Xander had some!
Dawn took a last look in the mirror. She smiled shakily at her reflection. After going to her class looking like a, let's face it, total mess, she decided that now she looked fairly normal. Today, her shoulder length chestnut hair was straightened and flicked out at the ends and there was a touch of make-up accentuating her, some might say, overly large features.
She grabbed her cloak from where it was slung over a chair back and hurried out the door.
Apart from the whole freezing cold thing, she was quite looking forward to the quiditch game. She had never seen one before, for the last one (Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff) she had been holed up in the library...hey, wait a second! Why hadn't Dumbledore insisted she go to the last game?
Of course. Harry flaming Potter. At this point, Dawn was steadily ignoring the feeling of anxiety, excitement and sickness…one might say that it were the feeling a parent may get at their child's first quiditch match. But Dawn was in denial right now, so the feeling didn't exist.
A few minutes later Dawn took her seat in the spacious teachers box in between Professor Snape and Professor Sprout. Professor Sprout smiled a greeting, as did Professor Quirrell who was sitting on the other side of Professor Snape who kept staring straight ahead.
As the players dressed in maroon and dark green appeared on the pitch, Dawn felt a flutter in her stomach which again was ignored. She glared at Dumbledore's back, how dare he force her to come to this game and make her feel things!
Dumbledore smiled to himself and turned around to meet Dawn's stare. He grinned cheekily and gave her a little wave. Everything was working out nicely.
For the first ten minutes Dawn didn't take her eyes off Harry. She watched him fly round and round in circles looking for the snitch. She finally drew her eyes away from the Gryffindor seeker and began watching the game. She looked around the stand. About three quarters of the spectators were supporting Gryffindor, Semus and Dean even had a 'Potter for President' banner, Dawn was surprised to see such a muggle reference amongst the crowd.
Lee Jordan who was doing the commentary for the game, attracted her attention to Harry.
"Wait a moment- was that the Snitch?" His voice boomed.
An audible murmur ran through the crowds as Slytherin's seeker joined Harry who was already in a steep dive for the snitch. Dawn edged forward on her seat.
'Remain impartial, remain impartial, remain impartial.' She repeated mentally.
A cry went up in the crowds. "Foul!"
Marcus Flint had blocked Harry causing his broom to spin off course. Madam Hooch called Flint down and a penalty shot was given to Gryffindor.
"After that obvious and disgusting bit of cheating-" Lee proclaimed loudly.
"Jordan!" McGonagall growled.
"So after that open and revolting foul-"
"Jordan, I'm warning you!"
"Alright. After the Slytherin captain nearly kills the Gryffindor seeker, which could happen to anyone, I'm sure; a penalty shot is given."
The game resumed, but Dawn's attention was back on Harry, watching his every move. Watching his brooms every jerk…wait- was a broom supposed to be jumping about like that? Apparently not. All over the pitch, people were starting to point up at Harry's broom.
Dawn grabbed Snape's arm in panic. "What are you doing?" She asked seeing Snape staring at Harry and muttering.
Snape didn't break eye contact. "…constans servo cado." He muttered. "I believe I'm saving your son. Servo altus occumbo…"
For once Dawn didn't correct the Lily-her thing. She continued to hold onto Snape's arm as he chanted in Latin. A few moments later chaos broke loose, more so that it already had.
Professor Quirrell went headfirst into Professor McGonagall who was sitting in front of him and Snape jumped up, his robes engulfed in a blue fire. As Harry began to clamber back onto his broom, Dawn let her instincts take over. She dove for Snape, throwing them both to the floor where she then proceeded to roll him over until the flame died out.
"What in Merlin's name do you think you are doing!" Snape spluttered when she let him up.
Now Harry was safe on solid ground again, Dawn regained her composure. "Err stopping you from burning? Ever heard of stop, drop and roll?"
"No." Snape replied curtly.
"Well, maybe you should try it next time you're on fire!"
"I don't plan for there to be a next time, Miss Summers."
"Did ya plan for there to be a first time?" Dawn got up, preparing to leave. "And oh lookey, the games over. And Slytherin lost. Boo stinking hoo."
Snape spluttered a lot as the youngest staff member left the box.
McGonagall tried not to smirk while Dumbledore chuckled openly. "That's a wonderful childlike nature Miss Summers has, don't you agree Severus?"
Snape spluttered some more. He'd never met anyone quite like Dawn Summers, that was for sure…and if he met someone like her ever again it would be too soon.
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SUNDAY 2nd NOVEMBER- Only 45 Shopping Days Left Until Christmas!
"Harry!"
Harry stopped and waited for his teacher to catch him up. "Yes Professor?"
"I just wanted to check that you were okay, you know, from yesterday and what with the troll slayage the night before. Hey Ron, are you alright? Again troll slaying, very good work there." Dawn babbled.
"We're fine." Harry said cautiously.
"I guess we should just be grateful Professor Snape was there to do the protection thingy, huh. Anyway, you're both okay? Great. Well…bye then."
Dawn wandered off, leaving two very confused first years behind her.
"Protection spell?"
"Who's doing a spell?" Both boys jumped as Hermione appeared behind them. Killing the troll together had formed an instant friendship between the three, much like sharing your yellow crayon on the first day of school, only more violent.
"Professor Summers said that Snape was saving Harry."
Hermione's eyes went wide. "Do you think she's in on it?"
"She saved us from the troll, why would she then try and kill me?" Harry said reasonably.
Hermione shrugged. "To cover her tracks maybe? You have to admit, she's a bit weird."
"A bit?" Ron scoffed. "She's a bloody headcase!"
Harry clearly agreed with Ron. This teacher ran through corridor's crying, gave non-magical lessons and carried an axe about with her; those were the facts. Professor Summers was, so to speak, a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic.
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MONDAY 3rd NOVEMBER- Anniversary of Voldermortist's Defeat- Hang those Horseshoes Proudly!
A dark mark hung over a little cottage. It was the former residence of Andromeda Tonks, deserter of the noble house of Black, and her very muggle husband, Ted.
Seven hours later, thousands had seen magical pictures of the scene as it had appeared in the Daily Prophet.
In his office, Dumbledore was worried. The Tonks' had been known as possible targets ever since Andromeda had 'disgraced' her family's name by marrying a simple muggle. The only blessing was that Nyphandora and Cassiopeia were both absent at the time of the attack; Nyphandora seeing to her auror duties and her younger sister Cassie was attending a muggle university.
Even though there had been several mysterious magical deaths amongst muggle families who had some connection to the wizarding world and Dumbledore had known that they were signs of Voldemort's return, he had not expected anything quite on this scale quite so soon.
Minister Fudge had claimed that the wizarding world should not panic, that anyone could have performed the dark mark spell. But it made no difference.
All over the streets were deserted. No-one dared to step foot outside and it hadn't even been a day since the Death Eaters went public, on the very day that the dark wizard Voldemort had taken his name from had perished. There was only one explanation:
Voldemort was regaining his power.
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TUESDAY 4th NOVEMBER- Only 43 Shopping Days Left Until Christmas!
The next day's Daily Prophet brought more news of killings. It seemed in the Death Eaters warped minds, synchronised slaughter was a fun sport. At exactly midnight, thirteen muggle homes were blown up by a 'gas explosion' a.k.a. a powerful dark wizard's minions out for a fiery midnight stroll.
All ready seven students had been pulled out of Hogwarts, one Gryffindor, three Ravenclaw, three Hufflepuff and no Slytherin. What a shocker!
Dawn had telephoned Giles again on the charmed phone to update him on the situation. Their conversation had been brief and awkward; it was a business call between two acquaintances not a conversation between a scared young woman and her pseudo father. Giles hadn't even asked if she wanted to come home yet; it was clear that she was still upset about her family's betrayal, although she was definitely coping better than she had been the last time they had spoken.
The wizarding community weren't coping well with the news of Voldemort's return. As far as most of them had been concerned, he had died along with James and Lily Potter on that Halloween ten years ago. Windows and doors had been boarded up and there had been an enormous increase in mail order protection spells brought in the last two days (everyone was too scared to go out and buy them for themselves in shops). Businesses were closed and those witches and wizards with muggle relatives had tried to hide them abroad as best they could.
Once again Dumbledore was sitting in his office worrying about the situation. The wizarding world was not prepared to deal with Voldemort, using the aurors would be like sending the muggle police force out to the front lines of a war, totally useless. The only hope he had was in the prophesised Trojka, but although he knew who the prophecy referred to he didn't know how to tell them. But it looked like he would have to soon. There had been no attacks on anyone since the last one at midnight and that meant one thing; Voldemort was saving his strength.
He was planning something big and (probably) deadly.
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31st October 1994 – 10:26 pm
"Let me through! I have to see the Dark Lord!" A voice squeaked in front of the throne room.
"The Dark Lord does not want to be disturbed, Pettigrew." One of the death eater guards sneered. "Especially not by the likes of you."
"But I have information." One of the group's lowest ranking death eaters whined.
"Uh huh. Sure you do."
"I do! And useful information at that! I know where the Potters are!" Peter Pettigrew moaned.
"What?" The door behind the death eater guards opened to reveal a man in his mid forties with very defined features. He would have looked human if it weren't for his too-grey skin and the glowing red orbs for eyes.
"I-I- I know where the P-Potters are hiding, s-s-sir. I was m-made their s-secret k-keeper not one hour ago."
"They chose you to be their secret keeper? Why you?" Voldemort hissed.
"Please, My Lord; I was a close friend of J-James at H-Hogwarts. H-He did not believe I would be suspected." He said the last part a little bitterly. He had been the last picking as always, chosen because no-one would think of poor weak Peter. It was just like school; he had wanted to be James or Sirius, but he was only ever their tag-along puppy and then in the Order his 'friends' were given important jobs right out of school while he wasn't trusted with such responsibility. That was why he turning to the dark side; for power and appreciation. He didn't really get either, but his role as being a spy for Voldemort had been an important one and given him a smidgen of respect amongst the other lower ranking Death Eaters.
Voldemort smirked. "I see." He turned to the guards. "Malfoy, Lestrange! I want you two and four other Death Eaters ready to go by midnight. Pettigrew isn't it? You have pleased me this time; if you keep doing so then I could make life very good for you."
"Yes my Lord, thank you my Lord." Peter whimpered, the guilt over his actions beginning to arise but he squashed it down again.
"Get ready my loyal followers," Voldemort said to the guards before they left; "tonight, we kill the Potter's and their little boy too!"
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WEDNESDAY 5th NOVEMBER- Guy Fawke's Night- Prepare for the Fireworks!
Fang yelped as he bit down on the rock cake that had been suspiciously dropped by Dawn who smiled as Hagrid sheepishly; that man just couldn't cook!
"So you knew the Potters' well?"
Hagrid smiled at the young woman in front of him. Dumbledore had told him about her predicament in the hope of him being able to help her come to terms with it and to be able to tell Harry the truth soon.
"Quite well. They wen' to Hogwarts ya know. James was head boy and Lily head girl, two o' the finest people you'd ever meet."
Dawn smiled. In some ways it was weird hearing about her former self like this, but something was telling her to do whatever it takes to regain her memories. She was lucky she'd always been fairly quick at adapting to things, like when she found out she was the key; there was that one 'incident' and then close to normality.
"James were one o' the marauders, him and his friends Peter an' Remus an'" Hagrid stopped suddenly and his eyes clouded over.
"What?" Dawn pressed, but Hagrid sat there in a stony silence. Dawn felt something pressing at the edges of her conscious mind, probably another memory. She'd been remembering quite a lot recently; James sitting under a tree by the lake with his best friends- three of them. The marauders. "Hagrid, who was the fourth one?"
"What?" He asked gruffly.
"The marauders. There was James, Remus, Peter and someone else. I remember that much."
"No. He was the one who betrayed them, betrayed you. He were no friend o' James. His name is Sirius Black. He's in the Azkaban for life, do yer remember, Dawn? He was yer secret keeper an' he betrayed yer to he-who-must-not-be-named."
"But I thought that Peter was the secret keeper."
"Peter? Why did yer think that?"
Dawn frowned in agitation; where had she heard that…the dream! "I had a dream a couple of days ago, I saw, felt her last moments and thoughts. She thought that Peter had betrayed them, I'm sure of it."
Hagrid shook his head sadly. "Peter were killed by Sirius when he confronted him in a street full o' muggles, there were witnesses."
Dawn took in this information. It didn't sound right. Something in her was screaming that Sirius would never betray James or kill one of his friends with loads of muggles watching. She was snapped from her thoughts by someone knocking on the door.
Who could it be? Dumbledore had insisted that the students all be inside the castle by nightfall due to the Voldemort situation. Hagrid opened the door, expecting Dumbledore or one of the other Professors.
"Harry! Ron! What are yer doing here?"
Dawn got up and went to the door, her eyes resting on Harry briefly. "What are you doing out of the castle? It's dark out, you know what Dumbledore said!"
Harry and Ron looked confused. "We just came down to visit Hagrid, Hermione's working in the library, we didn't…" Harry trailed off and shrugged uselessly.
"When did Dumbledore say something?" Ron asked.
"After lunch, right before third period in the great hall."
"Before DADA… We were there…" Realisation dawned on Harry's eyes. "Oh Sorry Professor, Hagrid; I totally forgot!"
"Me too."
Dawn clicked her tongue in agitation. "You've got to pay more attention! These are dangerous times and you can't just be wandering about in the dark by yourself. Come on, I'll walk you back to the castle."
Harry nodded. "Sorry Professor. See ya Hagrid."
Hagrid smiled at the boys. "Visit me in daylight next time. Goodbye Dawn, be careful."
Dawn returned the smile. "See you later, and thanks."
"Anytime, best get after them. They're good boys really." Hagrid nodded to the doorway which Harry and Ron had just left.
"I know. Bye."
Dawn followed her students out the hut and Hagrid closed the door behind her so that the only light was that from the nearly full moon. She looked on ahead but saw no sign of the pupils. "Harry? Ron?"
No response. The only thing she could hear was a slight scuffle over towards the forbidden forest. Taking the dagger out of her ankle sheath, Dawn opened her senses and followed the noise soundlessly. The place reeked of dark magic; it didn't take a slayer to figure that out.
Now she had become more accustomed to the darkness, she saw five or six silhouettes no more than ten meters from her. Clutching the dagger tightly she went over to the figures. As she got closer she noticed two floating bodies, Harry and Ron, and several cloaked figures that had to be death eaters.
Harry and Ron must have been stunned or something coming out of Hagrid's hut, the death eaters had been waiting for them.
"Hurry up with that port key." Dawn heard one of the death eaters say in a low voice. They obviously hadn't heard or seen her yet.
"Activating now." Another death eater replied.
Dawn took this as her cue. With a yell and all the slayer-ness that seemed to invade her body at a moments notice when she most needed it, Dawn leapt forward hoping to knock the port key clear from the death eater. Unfortunately, Dawn was no slayer and she misjudged the jump.
Instead of gracefully saving the day, she barrelled into the death eaters and was teleported away with them.
Three seconds later they landed in a hallway in a tangle of limbs and two young boys drifting next to them. Dawn tried to get to her feet and she what mess she'd gotten into this time, but there was a heavy someone on top of her and she was still slightly stunned from diving headfirst into evil minions.
One of the masked wizards reached out for his wand. Who was this girl? Why was she here? Those questions didn't matter right now, she had to be contained.
Dawn saw the wand pointing at her and heard the word that Draco Malfoy had tried to curse her with that first day of classes. Unfortunately one hundred and twenty pounds of death eater prevented her from avoiding the spell and she lapsed into a relieved unconsciousness.
At least they hadn't killed her yet.
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31st October 1994 – 8:12 pm
James opened the door to Godrics Hollow. They had moved to his parents' old house as an extra safety precaution only an hour and a half ago with all the possessions they could fit into four suitcases. "Hey Peter, thanks for coming."
"Sure." Peter squeaked. "What did you want? Why aren't you at your house?"
"Dumbledore thinks Voldemort might come after us." James said seriously.
"He does?" Peter said trying to sound surprised. He'd heard about why his master was hunting down some of his oldest friends.
"He thinks we should appoint a secret keeper."
"M-me?" Pettigrew could hardly believe his luck; he could deliver the Potters to his master on a plate.
"If you're willing. Lils' upstairs putting Harry in my old crib, but we both agreed on you. Sirius is already here to perform the spell. Will you do it?"
"Of course, Prongs." The Dark Lord would be so pleased when he got the news; and Peter could finally get that power everyone had been going on about. For the first time in his life, he was going to be someone important.
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Somewhere in the middle of nowhere where they had absolutely no chance of being found, one of the kidnap victims had woken on a cold, hard floor. Dawn threw her head back in annoyance; kidnapped again! Why didn't she just tie herself up and write a big sign saying 'sister of the slayer- please attack me' but then, it probably wasn't the slayer thing this time.
Scratch that, it defiantly wasn't the slayer thing this time. It was her fault, she'd been the one who'd leapt with semi-superhuman reflexes to try and get the port key away from Harry and Ron.
"Why do I only get slayer instincts when it'll land me in trouble?" Dawn muttered, gingerly getting to her feet.
She looked around the cell (surprise, surprise; why couldn't evil overlords ever afford decent accommodation for their victims?). She felt her way over to where Harry and Ron were still unconscious; both had a strong pulse to her relief and no obvious injuries.
Already knowing it to be useless, she tested the door. Locked. Damn.
Well this was marvellous. For all they knew the Death Eaters could be killing the rest of the students right now. And two out of three of the world's strongest fighting force ever to be seen were locked in a cell.
Oh yeah, the world was defiantly doomed this time.
A/N: I like reviews