Whew! I had to completely rewrite this chapter when my father decided to reboot the computer and it erased all the files. But here it is and I'm sorry for the delay. Thanks a bunch to my reviewers and especially Matthew (real funny review haha).
ScruffyWes, Sirob, and Draco-FutureBF I will put your fears to rest. Dawn shall not be paired with Draco, I have him staked for Jordan. But they won't even get together until the end. Harry will not have to worry about Dawn being taking by Draco. Mmmm Draco. Sorry got a little sidetracked there. LOL.
I put Dawn in Slytherin because she is cunning and resourceful. Like Sirob (and you hit it right dead center with your review as to why I thought she belonged in Slytherin. Kudos to you!) said, she grew up at the Hellmouth, which you sort of have to be both in order to survive. Look at the stealing she did too. I think Slytherin is a cool house and I don't think being evil is a requirement. It just happens to have traits that evil people have. That was why I didn't put her in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw SPASH Panther. Also, I wanted to make Harry and Ron gain a bit more insight into what makes a Slytherin which you pointed out A Watcher. And it will be interesting to see how Draco and the other Slytherins react to her being in Slytherin. So I do have storylines and it goes with the plot dancetdplc although not exactly a specific plotline.
becks89: Well not exactly Romeo and Juliet, but a little like it. I did put her in Slytherin to serve as a barrier to a relationship between her and Harry. I'm not sure if ten galleons is a lot. I remember Percy bet on it with his g/f in the third book, which I actually just read again so that's why I remember it. Jordan and Aidan do come from a wealthy family though.
polgara-5: Hehe.*laughs evilly* You just wait and see.
Destiny's Dragon: Well it's okay to be evil sometimes. Something has to balance out the good. But yeah, I would definitely be in Slytherin and I would be proud of it.
Tiger Tiger2: Yes, we may all loathe her with a burning passion. LOL.
Enjoy!
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Dawn finally opened her eyes and almost squealed when she noticed that she was quite high up in the air. For a moment the sickening feeling of doom had crept into her stomach. Her fears of heights were left over from when she had been kidnapped by Glory and been tied up on a rickety tower built by crazy people. Her sister later jumped off that same tower to close the dimensional portal that had been opened thanks to her blood. Over two years had passed since that terrible incident, but she still harbored a little guilt from it. It should have been her jumping off that tower.
"Wow," she breathed.
She had her arms wrapped tightly (almost too tightly) around Harry. He had been the one to take her up on his Firebolt and he was glad he did. Jordan was going to take her up, but she miraculously changed her mind and suggested that Harry do it. Must remember to thank her for that later.
"This-this is amazing," she said in awe.
"Yeah. Makes you glad that some stereotypes about our kind our true," he replied.
"Well this is okay, just so we don't-AAAAAAH!" Harry had made the broom do a bit of a dive and he was instantly sorry for it. Dawn squeezed him so hard he swore a couple of ribs cracked.
"Don't do that again!" she screamed when he slowed.
"Sorry, I couldn't resist though," he said playfully.
"You know if I wasn't so terrified about falling off right now, I'd let go and hit you," she said dangerously.
Harry chuckled even though he didn't doubt that she would have hit him. He wished he could turn around and see her beautiful face. She probably looked especially pretty now with her cheeks flushed from the dive and her blue eyes alight with excitement and a little bit of fear. He noticed that two people were approaching the Quidditch Pitch. One was a very large man with a messy black beard and black hair. That was Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts. The petite blonde beside him he recognized as Buffy. Hagrid waved to him enthusiastically.
"Alrigh' there Harry?! Yer friend like it up there?" he asked loudly.
"Not really!" Dawn replied for him.
"Dawn?!" Buffy exclaimed.
"It's okay Buffy. Just a flying lesson," Jordan told her.
"Who's your friend Buff?" Xander asked apprehensively as he looked the large man up and down.
"Rubeus Hagrid. Yeh must be one Miss Summers' friends. Professor Dumbledore told me to take her here to the Quidditch Pitch. Said yeh might be down here," he extended his hand to shake Xander's.
"Hagrid you don't need to call me Miss Summers. Makes me feel old. Just Buffy," Buffy told him.
Hermione, Ron and Ginny greeted him with hugs. Harry landed (much to Dawn's relief) and came over to give the man a hug of his own.
"So is it true? Are yeh a slayer now Hermione?" Hagrid asked.
"Yes," she replied.
"Merlin! Our little Hermione is a slayer. Never woulda saw that one comin. Now yeh can teach that bloody Malfoy a thing or two for callin yeh all them nasty names," he said wryly.
"Are you suggesting I use my powers for petty revenge Hagrid?" Hermione asked seeming appalled with the idea.
"No! Course not!" he said.
"That'd be wicked," Ron said thoughtfully.
"Hagrid, these are Xander Harris, Willow Rosenburg, Jordan and Aidan Firewell, and my sister Dawn. She'll be attending this school now," Buffy said as she introduced her friends.
"New students! Thas great! I teach Care of Magical Creatures. Got some good lessons in store fer yeh," he said.
Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and Harry looked at each other nervously. Hagrid had a particular fondness for dangerous (what he would call interesting) creatures. His first lesson in their third year was with a hippogriff named Buckbeak. Malfoy ended up insulting it, which Hagrid said specifically not to do, and got mauled by it. Not a good way to start out.
"Cool. I always loved learning about animals," Dawn said.
"These aren't always the cute and cuddly kind Dawn," Jordan told her remembering a lesson at her own school with a flobberworm. She really hated worms.
"Where's everybody else Buffy? I thought Faith and some other slayers were coming," Willow asked.
"They're inside. That's what I came here for. I need you and Xander, and Jordan and Hermione to come with me," Buffy replied.
"What about me?" Dawn asked not wanting to be left out of the loop.
"We're just gonna be going over training schedules Dawnie. It'd be more fun for you to stay with Harry. Hagrid is gonna stay with you guys," Buffy explained.
"Oh, ok," she said in a disappointed tone.
"Come on guys," Buffy beckoned as she started walking back to the castle. Willow, Xander, Jordan, and Hermione followed.
"Don't worry Dawn. Hermione and I will give you all the boring details later," Jordan said before turning around and jogging to catch up.
They went straight to Dumbledore's office and found a large group of people waiting for them. Giles and Wesley were there as was Faith and many slayers that had fought at the Hellmouth. Also there were Angel, and two others Jordan vaguely remembered seeing at the Hyperion and...
"Um Buffy? Is it just me or is there a green guy with horns dressed in a blue suit in here?" Jordan asked.
"Oh Lorne? He works with Angel. He's harmless," she assured the young slayer.
The guy/demon was currently talking on a cellular phone, which made Jordan and Hermione wonder how he could work it. Wizarding areas and schools had the same affect on Muggle electronics as hellmouths did on wizard magic. Dumbledore must've charmed it for him, Jordan thought.
"Ah Miss Summers, are you ready to commence your meeting?" Dumbledore asked.
"I guess so," she replied.
"How are the wounded doing?" Jordan asked.
"Robin is still in the hospital. Doesn't heal as fast as the slayers, but he's gonna be okay. We have some of the girls who were at the hospital here and some others are back in LA," Faith answered.
"Buffy I suggest we decide how to act upon locating as many slayers as possible. We need as much firepower as we can get in this upcoming conflict," Giles said.
"Yeah, I figured Will could do her Wiccan mojo to do that," Buffy replied.
"Then we gotta figure out what to do when we find them. I mean, there's gotta be hundreds of them out there," Faith said.
"There are many surviving members of the Watcher's Council that were stationed all over the world. We have been working to contact them all. So far the ones we contacted have agreed to cooperate and help in any way," Wesley said.
"Aw thanks honey I really appreciate that," Lorne spoke into his phone.
"Dude, hang up the phone. This is important," Gunn told him.
"I'll get back to you," he reluctantly hung up.
"Thank you for joining us Lorne," Wesley said in an exasperated voice.
"Hey I was just doing my duty," he replied defensively.
His red eyes lingered on Jordan and Hermione who were both staring at him with half-amused half-bewildered expressions.
"They're cute. Where did you get them?" he said.
"Lorne they're slayers. Remember how we explained how one of Buffy's potentials was a witch from this world and there was another like her?" Fred told him.
"Neat. Guess you two are even more special than the rest of them. Would you mind singing for me?" he asked sweetly.
"What for?" Jordan asked.
"He's an Empath. He can read people's souls when they sing. But now isn't the time Lorne," Angel answered and gave Lorne a look, which made the green demon sigh and walk around the room.
"This is some pad you got here. So where do you keep the liquor?" he said as he examined the room.
Jordan snorted. She was definitely starting to like this guy/demon/whatever. It brought back the memory of meeting another friendly demon. She and a couple potentials (some of which were in the room now) had gone with Buffy and Spike to a demon bar during a training session. They had met with Clem at the bar and he did this freaky thing with his face which scared the shit out of her and the rest of the girls. Thinking back on it she found it kind of funny now. This Lorne seemed as benevolent as Clem. It was a comforting thought that there were demons out there who didn't have it in for humanity.
"Mr. Lorne, I'd be happy to provide you with whatever sufficient refreshment you require after we are finished our business here," Dumbledore said.
"As we were saying, now that me and mine are working at Wolfram and Hart, we can use their resources to find and train slayers," Angel told them.
"Oh great idea Dead Boy. Use the company of uberevil and death to find slayers," Xander sneered sarcastically.
"Xander!" Buffy and Willow scolded.
"I'm just saying that it's a bit too risky to use Wolfram and Hart in this. I mean, they are evil," he said.
"Well now that Angel is the CEO, it should be less evil. We're going to work hard to change it from the inside," Fred said.
Xander didn't reply but just ran his hand through his hair in a gesture of frustration. He clearly was not going to support the idea of using the resources of Wolfram and Hart in the current situation.
"Isn't there a way you could put up some map of the world and have little lights representing slayers? It could narrow it down so you guys don't go looking in places that don't have slayers in them," Jordan suggested.
"An excellent idea Miss Firewell," Dumbledore replied.
Jordan beamed. "Took a leaf out of my brother's book. Sounded like something he would come up with."
"What are you going to do when you find them? It's not like all these girls won't have homes and families and lives," Gunn said.
"Oh oh! Matrix tactic! We can offer them the blue pill or the red pill!" Xander exclaimed.
Hermione stared at him in utter confusion and horror at the thought of giving them pills. "Excuse me?"
"You're starting to sound like Andrew," Buffy muttered. "But I get what you're saying and I think we can do that."
"Whoa whoa! What the hell does 'the Matrix tactic' mean? And tell me why you want to give them pills," Jordan said.
"He doesn't really mean to give them actual pills honey. The Matrix was a movie made in 1999; big box office blockbuster. The sequel isn't that great so I wouldn't recommend seeing it. Anyway, what Cyclops there means is that we can tell these girls the deal and if they don't like it they can go back to their normal lives and forget about all of it. If they want to sign on, well we'll bring them in or whatever you guys plan to do," Lorne explained.
"Oh. Would it have killed you to use those terms instead Xander?" Jordan said.
"Sorry," Xander said.
"Okay, so we got that one obstacle partly overcome. I figured we could try and construct various bases and training facilities all over the world. Especially around hellmouths. We should also get to recruiting watchers," Buffy said.
"I could suggest it to students at the start of term feast. I think there are some rather good candidates amongst our older students," Dumbledore offered.
"That'd be great. Thanks," Buffy said.
"B, what about the training issue? How are we goin' about that?" Faith asked.
"Well, we got two months before school starts back up again. We'll focus mainly on getting Hermione up to speed during that time. And then during the year I figure we can do the training with Jordan and Hermione like two or three days a week and on Saturdays in the mornings since they have school here. As for the other girls training here we can set up patrol schedules and if Dumbledore allows it, they can help train students in basic defense tactics," Buffy looked at Dumbledore hopefully.
"I think that would be a fine idea Miss Summers," he replied.
Jordan then raised her hand and spoke. "Um Buffy? Faith? Not to rain on your parade, but I did have hopes of joining the Quidditch team. That might conflict with slayer training. I don't mean to sound selfish, but I did sorta want to get back to a sort of normal life seeing as how it just might be shorter than I originally planned."
Buffy sighed. It would be unfair to take Quidditch away from the girl, but this was important. More important than any game. But then again having as normal a life as possible would probably be the best course of action. She didn't want to come off as the stern and unyielding commander. She knew Faith would definitely let Jordan do Quidditch. It wouldn't hurt to be more like Faith in some aspects she grudgingly admitted to herself.
"I guess we could work around that," she finally said which brought a relieved smile to Jordan's face.
"What's Quidditch?" Lorne asked intrigued by the word.
"It's a popular Wizarding game. Both of my best friends are on the house team," Hermione answered.
"A game? What do you do in this game?" Gunn asked also intrigued.
Wesley sighed in frustration. "Gunn we are not here to discuss Quidditch. We are here to discuss our plans for the-"
"Come on Wes, I think we got everything covered for now. I wanna see this game," Gunn replied.
"Yeah, and I need a drink," Lorne chimed.
"Are we done?" Jordan asked hopefully.
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Yeah I guess."
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Dawn fiddled with the rock cake that Hagrid had given her as she and Aidan listened with rapt attention at the story Harry, Ron, and Ginny were telling about the Death Eater attack when they went to the Quidditch World Cup. She was astounded at all the adventures, well more like misadventures, these people had gone through. It certainly gave her life a run for its money. She couldn't wait to tell them some of her stories.
"And then he shot the dark mark right up into the sky! And all the Death Eaters got scared and ran off," Ron recalled with more excitement than he felt at the time.
"The dark mark?" she asked.
"It's something all Death Eaters have tattooed on their arms so Voldemort can call them whenever he needs them," Harry explained.
"Oh. Were you guys scared?" she asked.
"Bloody terrified! You know what Death Eaters will do to you if they catch you?" Ron exclaimed.
"Do I wanna know?" Dawn said apprehensively.
"No yeh don't. Them Death Eaters are brutal. Yeh don't need teh be hearin awful things like that," Hagrid said.
"It's okay Hagrid. I've seen a lot of brutal things living at the Hellmouth, and I've experienced some of them," Dawn said.
"Tell us some of your stories," Aidan requested.
"Well, there are a lot of them. I guess I could start with when I first got kidnapped and I found out about the whole slayer deal," she said.
"First got kidnapped?" Harry arched an eyebrow and Dawn managed to get a glimpse of that lightning shaped scar on his forehead.
"Um yeah. I have this habit of getting kidnapped by my sister's enemies. She always rescued me though," Dawn said.
"Oh, must be risky being the sister of the Slayer," Ron said.
"Yeah. Anyway, it was when Spike first came to town. You guys ever heard of William the Bloody?" she asked.
"I read about him in History of Magic. I can't believe I actually remember that, but he was part of a group of four vampires wasn't he? The Scourge of Europe?" Harry said.
"Yeah that would be him. Well he and his girlfriend Drusilla came to town looking to kill Buffy cuz she's the Slayer, but they didn't plan on having her family and friends helping her. My mom hit him with an axe when he first attacked at Buffy's Parent-Teacher Night. I was ten when he kidnapped me and I remember I was at Willow's house cuz she was babysitting me. I, being the stupid child that I was, wandered outside while Willow went to get more snacks. I had heard someone whispering my name out there. As soon as I step onto the porch I get scooped up by one of Spike's minions."
Dawn paused as she let the memory of that first terrifying event fill her mind. Funny how her first meeting with Spike should be so terrifying, but yet she came to love him as a brother.
"I couldn't even scream because he had his hand over my mouth. I tried biting him, but I couldn't open my mouth. So I was stuck with trying to struggle out of his grasp, which was pretty pointless considering I was nothing but a ten-year-old girl and he was a vampire. When I was put down, I saw that I was in Buffy's highschool. There was this woman there and she had all these dolls. She kept asking me if I wanted to play with Miss Edith before I died. And then Spike comes along and he starts talking to the vampire that brought me. I was officially freaking out. I was crying and hugging myself and rocking back and forth. I mean, I had no idea what was going on! I had no idea what they wanted me for, but I do remember thinking I was going to die. That's pretty bad for a ten-year-old to think that."
"Spike came over to talk to me. He said that as soon as my sister came, everything would be alright. I didn't know what my sister had to do with anything, but I suddenly wanted her more than anything. He had to keep telling the woman, Drusilla, not to bite me until later."
She stopped and looked at everyone. Their eyes were wide open and they were barely moving. She had their complete attention.
"Go on!" Hagrid urged.
"Well one of the minions grabbed hold of me when Buffy showed. And that was the first time I ever saw her so angry. I didn't know why they wanted her there, but at the time I didn't care. I just wanted her to fix things. Then, you know, the usual. Spike threatened me and yadda yadda and Buffy threatened back and yadda and more vamps begin to fill the school. She fought the vamps and I saw Xander, Giles, and Buffy's then boyfriend Angel come in. Angel was the one who killed the vampire holding me and he carried me out of there. After Buffy, Giles, and Xander fought off most of the minions and Spike and Drusilla of course got away, they took me home. That's when I demanded Buffy explain everything or I would tell Mom. So she did explain and it all made a sort of weird sense. I had nightmares for months after that and our mom never found out about the incident until like a year later," she said solemnly.
"Wicked," Ron breathed.
"Wow," Ginny said.
"Man all your lives are so interesting. Mine didn't get interesting until a couple months ago," Aidan said.
"Well you're in for a treat this year Aidan. Attending this school with us is guaranteed to make your life interesting, or downright scary," Harry assured him.
"Plenty more stories where that came from. I'll trade mine for yours," Dawn said smiling mischeviously at Harry.
They didn't have time to exchange anymore stories, however, because they were interrupted by knocking at the door. Hagrid answered and Hermione and Jordan walked in.
"Hey guys. Meeting's all done. Have fun without us?" Jordan asked cheerfully helping herself to a rock cake.
"Yeah. Dawn just finished telling us about the first time she got kidnapped," Aidan replied.
"The first time?" Hermione asked in horror.
Jordan smiled and then her smile disappeared as she spit out the rock cake. Luckily Hagrid didn't notice because he had gone out into the garden.
"Why didn't anyone warn me?" she said wiping her mouth.
The rest of the teens just laughed to which Jordan gave them the famous One-Finger Salute. Ron and Ginny had no idea what it meant. Hermione wouldn't explain it and she instantly chastised Jordan for doing it.
"Okay if you are all finished acting like children. There are some guests who would like to see you demonstrate Quidditch," Hermione said.
They exited Hagrid's cabin and walked back to the Quidditch Pitch. A group of people were gathered there talking. Harry stopped in his tracks and grabbed Dawn by the arm.
"Is there a green guy talking on a cell phone down there?"
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A/N: I know the whole thing Spike did with Dawn was dumb of him, but you got to remember, he had never fought a slayer with friends and family before. He learned from his mistake of course. Until next time! R&R!