Finally here is your second half of my update. It's rather later than I intended, but it's in. Thanks to my reviewers; I will respond next chapter. I made Faith's last name on a spur-of-the-moment thing so just go with it.
The train had started working again shortly after Willow, Tonks, Wesley, Xander, and Jordan returned. They were not far from Hogwarts; only a half-hour or so. That time had been spent by Dawn, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Aidan, Seamus, Neville, and Dean trying to coax something as to what had happened out there. Something must've happened; the sickly white faces of Tonks and Jordan were proof enough.
Jordan was distant and quiet and curled up in a corner when she got back on the train. Aidan sat next to her with Jinx in his lap patting his sister's shoulders and glancing worriedly back at everyone else. The students kept inquiring as to where the tattered cloak had come from, but Wesley was silent on it and told them he would tell them when he saw fit. No one else was very forthcoming either and it was making Harry and Dawn, who were always tetchy at being withheld information, extremely frustrated. Neville, Seamus, and Dean repeatedly asked who the new students were and why they had weapons with them until Hermione told them to shut up and that all would be explained later.
The Hogwarts Express finally arrived at its destination and Ron, Ginny, and Hermione were off directing the younger students to their proper places. Hagrid was there as usual with his large lamp calling out,
"Firs' years! Firs' years this way!" He was very quick at gathering the small witches and wizards to him and loading them in their boats.
"Professor Lupin! Dumbledore say yer teh portkey up to his office straightaway. You and Tonks and Mr. Wyndam-Pryce, and Miss Rosenberg, and Mr. Harris. I got the key righ' here," Hagrid informed Lupin as he searched his pockets.
Indeed the instrument was a key and he handed it to Lupin. Lupin gathered Wesley, Tonks, Xander, and Willow to him and explained. After making sure Dawn would be all right Xander and Willow agreed to go with them.
"Wait! Let me take Jordan with you guys. I think she needs to go to the Hospital Wing. She's not looking so good," Aidan requested his arm held tightly around Jordan.
"Yes, of course. Come here," Lupin beckoned them over and bid them to lay a finger on the portkey.
Harry and the rest watched them disappear and then walked over to the carriages driven by the partly invisible thestrals. Only those who had seen death could see them so naturally Dawn gasped when saw them. Harry was at first shocked that she could see them and then he mentally smacked himself in the head. Of course she would be able to see them.
"What are those things? And how come most everyone else seems find and dandy with them?" she questioned Harry.
"Most of them can't see them. They're called thestrals. Neville and I can see them and a girl from Ravenclaw named Luna Lovegood—she was with me and my friends at the Ministry a couple months back, remember I told you?—and there was some other kid. But only those who've seen death can see them," he explained grimly.
"Oh," she murmured eyeing the gruesome creatures warily. "Go figure."
When they reached the castle the students were brimming with excitement over what had happened with the train. Rumors were already spreading as to why it had happened and now that they were within the safety of the castle walls they were no longer afraid. They were beginning to separate into their four houses and Dawn sighed and said goodbye to her friends as she walked over to the Slytherin group. A pug-faced young lady scrutinized her with glittering dark eyes full of suspicion.
"Where do you think you're going?" she asked imperiously.
Dawn frowned at her tone of voice. Apparently it was a trait among the Slytherins to think the world bowed down to them. Jordan said Draco Malfoy acted much the same way towards her.
"With the rest of my housemates. What's it to you?" Dawn shot back.
The girl quirked an eyebrow and looked Dawn over skeptically. A short blonde woman came barreling through the mass of students to engulf the supposed Slytherin girl in a hug.
"Dawn! Thank God you're all right!" the woman cried.
"Do you know what happened Buffy?" Dawn asked after the woman released her.
"Not yet. Giles, Faith, and I and some Aurors are being summoned to Dumbledore's office where we'll find out. I heard Jordan was taken to the infirmary though. What happened to her?" Buffy asked with concern.
"I don't know. She came back from outside and she looked all pale and she was shaking quite a bit. I couldn't see any physical wounds though," Dawn told her.
Buffy bit her bottom lip as she contemplated this. "I'll check on her when Dumbledore is finished briefing us. Her parents were summoned anyway because of what happened. No doubt they'll be wanting to get this over with so they can see her."
Dawn smiled humorously over Buffy's newfound grammar. "You sound all general-like. It's kinda funny."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Well it comes with the territory. I better get up to Dumbledore's office before they start without me."
"Ok, I'll see you at the Welcoming Feast. There is still going to be one, right?" Dawn asked worriedly.
"Oh yeah. Dumbledore wants to keep things as normal as possible. We won't take long," she replied.
As soon as Buffy left Dawn turned back to the Slytherin girl who was eyeing her with even more suspicion and some confusion.
"Oh. That was my sister, Buffy. I'm Dawn Summers." Dawn held out her hand for the girl to shake and the girl just looked at her and blinked.
"Pansy Parkinson. So what are you? Mudblood or Pureblood?" she asked bluntly.
Dawn gripped her bag nervously as she contemplated on how to answer that. She figured she might as well be honest about being Muggle-born. They were bound to find out sooner or later.
"I was raised a Muggle. But since I lived in Sunnydale, the Hellmouth in Southern California, my signal was sorta blocked. I was sorted while I stayed at Hogwarts for tutoring during the summer," Dawn explained keeping her voice as cheerful and nonchalant as possible.
"You can't be in Slytherin if you're a Mudblood. So either you're impersonating a Slytherin and are a filthy little Mudblood or you're joking," Pansy declared.
Dawn sighed in frustration. Already she could tell it was going to be a long school year. "Look, I don't know why you people hate Muggles and Muggle-borns so much, but I can tell you right now that people like me are no different than you. In fact I think if it weren't for Muggles your kind would have died out. But I am in Slytherin and I don't the think the hat would have stuck me there if it believed I didn't belong there. So either deal with it or get out of my way. I'm hungry."
Pansy's eyes nearly popped out of her head in shock of being spoken to that way by a Muggle-born. She stiffened and looked the girl, who was a few inches taller than her, straight in the eye.
"You would do well to remember what house you're in then and learn not to speak to those who could make your life a living hell that way. You stay out of my way Mudblood bitch," she snarled before walking over to a group of girls in Slytherin uniforms.
Dawn groaned inwardly when she started pointing to her and the girls started gasping and staring at her like she was a disgusting bug in dire need of being squished. She didn't bother hanging around to confront the lot of them and found a place at the Slytherin table among the second and third years. She caught Harry's eye and he smiled in encouragement to her which sent goosebumps rising on her skin. God that boy had one wicked smile! Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville, and Seamus waved to her and she returned the waves earning many glares from her housemates. Why was a Slytherin waving to Gryffindors in any way other than to taunt?
She looked for Draco Malfoy so she could fix his image in her mind and remember his face. Living in Sunnydale had made Dawn develop the habit of knowing potential enemies. She didn't know whether to be relieved or disappointed when she didn't see a sixteen-year-old boy with white-blonde hair. She had been looking forward to a confrontation with him.
Dumbledore closed his eyes in sorrow tinged with disgust when Willow undid her transfiguration spell on the boy. Everyone in the office gasped and backed away at the utter horror of the sight. The only people who seemed apparently unaffected were Mad-Eye Moody and Professor Snape. Moody's real eye was staring at the boy through emotionless eyes and his fake eye was whirling around in his head. Snape's gaze was glued to the boy his greasy hair concealing most of his face. His dark eyes were unreadable as he looked the boy over.
"God, this is…this is….," Faith whispered trying to search for words that seemed appropriate.
"Monstrous?" Mr. Firewell offered.
Buffy just sighed and found herself thinking, Well, I shoulda seen that one coming. While it was unthinkable that a human being would commit such an act all one had to do was look at the history of the world to see that it was possible. She was relieved that Willow and Wesley had been sensible enough to hide this from the students. If Jordan had been affected as badly as they said she couldn't imagine how the normal students would have taken it. This heinous act only proved the madness and cruelty of the man they were dealing with.
"Do you know who he is…erm…was?" Faith inquired.
"No, but we're sure he was a Muggle," Wesley replied quietly.
Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them thoroughly. It was a method, Buffy had learned, that her watcher employed so he wouldn't be able to see what was going on around him. Buffy sometimes envied him for that respite.
"What are we going to do with him? Keep him and examine him or give him back to the Muggle world so they can take care of it as they see fit?" Willow asked.
"I would propose that we turn his body over to Wolfram and Hart so Fred and her team can examine him further. With their resources they can detect magical and non-magical presences on his body," Wesley suggested.
As was expected a chorus of protests followed after. Willow, being stressed out already, shouted for everyone to shut up and by the look on the Wicca's face everyone figured it was wise to obey.
"Wes is right. We don't have time to keep arguing over it so just go with it," she snapped wearily.
Dumbledore almost smiled at Willow's take-charge attitude. "Well, if the rest of you do not mind I have a Welcoming Feast to attend. I would like to keep things at my school running as smoothly as possible. Mr. Wyndam-Pryce I trust you may handle things in the case of this unfortunate child. I request that after you are done examining him that you return his body back to the Muggle world so his family can hopefully find him," he implored Wesley.
"Of course," Wesley replied.
The people in Dumbledore's office went their separate ways. Wesley prepared to contact Fred while Buffy, Faith, Giles, Xander, Willow, Professor Snape, and Professor Dumbledore left for the Dining Hall. The students were awaiting their annual Welcoming speech from Dumbledore and were all expecting explanations as to why there was an addition of over thirty teenage girls who sat at a table of their own.
"There they are!" Hermione exclaimed when she saw Professor Dumbledore and his party enter.
"About time! I'm starving!" Ron moaned. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"You think you're starving? I threw up everything I ate today which amounts to nothing in my stomach right now," Jordan's voice broke in.
She was still looking rather paler than usual, but she was no longer shaking and looking around furtively. She gave the others a faint smile in reassurance of her health. Aidan followed her looking very peeved that she would not cooperate with his, Buffy's, their parents', or Madame Pomfrey's wishes of staying in the Hospital Wing.
"How are you feeling?" Harry asked cautiously.
"Other than really really hungry, I'll live. I just need a while to absorb it all," she replied and noticing the blank looks on their faces sighed. "You guys don't know what happened."
"Nobody has been talking yet," Ginny told her.
Jordan had told her brother what had caused her to lose it so shamefully and her parents were filled in by Dumbledore. Aidan was shocked that Voldemort would do such a thing to a child and understood how his sister would react like that. Her feelings had perked up a little when she noticed Draco Malfoy was also in the school infirmary trying to get his bruised face healed as quickly as possible. Tut, tut Draco, if you had let me help you on the train you wouldn't be in this predicament. She waved to her fellow slayers at the table they were sitting at which was situated diagonally towards Gryffindor table. She noticed Dean, Seamus, and Neville staring at her suspiciously.
"Are those girls slayers?" Neville asked.
Jordan shrugged, but offered the boy a small smile. He narrowed his eyes at her.
"Are you a slayer too?" he queried.
She didn't answer but winked at him and turned her attention to the teachers' table where Dumbledore was standing to give his speech. The hall silenced abruptly.
"On behalf of all the staff at Hogwarts I welcome all new and previous students to Hogwarts. I know you all have been through much today after your train ride here, but I assure you that all is being taking care of and you have nothing to worry about. This year is a very special year as we have some guests staying at Hogwarts as I'm sure you have seen. I understand that the Ministry has announced the return of Voldemort and I'm sure many of you are very frightened about what is to come. I say to you now that as long as we band together and do not let petty differences divide us we will prevail against our foe however dangerous he may be." Dumbledore ignored the visible flinches of the majority of the people in the dining hall at hearing the dark lord's name.
"Since the return of the dark lord new precautions are being laid down. Everyone is to be in their dorms by nine o'clock, unless given special permission to be elsewhere. Prefects will continue normal patrols and they will be assisted of which I will explain further on."
"The Forbidden Forest is off-limits to everyone now unless expressed otherwise. Should you need to go in there for whatever reason, you will be escorted by Hagrid or one of the young ladies at that table right over there. Moving on as to why one of them will escort you: Will Miss Buffy Summers and Miss Faith Aldens please rise?"
Two young women sitting at the table full of teenage girls rose at Dumbledore's call. Both beautiful in their own way, the shorter one with the blonde hair having more of a freer, lighter beauty while the taller woman with the dark hair and dark eyes had a more alluring, dark beauty to her. Many young men leaned forward in their seats to get a better look and a few catcalls were made. The short blonde woman rolled her eyes while the taller raven-haired one smirked.
"As I am sure many of you have heard we have the privilege of having the Vampire Slayers as our guests and allies. The two standing are the original slayers. Miss Summers is the elder slayer and the first Chosen—she is the one on the right—and Miss Aldens is the second Chosen. Most have already heard of these two but due to events at the Hellmouth in Sunnydale, California in America there are now thousands of slayers worldwide. We also have two slayer-witches among us. They both have not spoken against having their identities known so will Miss Jordan Firewell please rise and Miss Hermione Granger?"
A flutter of astonished gasps arose when they heard that one of their own was a slayer. Neville looked over at Dean and Seamus with a smug grin that said I told you so! They were both too busy goggling at their new classmate and old classmate in awe and sudden understanding. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, Hermione's roommates, were staring at Hermione with wide eyes and dropped jaws.
"Yes, one of our own is among the Chosen. Miss Firewell is accompanied by her twin brother, Mr. Aidan Firewell, and their parents are among the most elite of Aurors from the United States of America and are also among our allies. I will now introduce Miss Summers' and Miss Aldens' companions: Mr. Rupert Giles is Miss Summers' watcher and current head of the new Watcher's Council, which is being rebuilt as we speak and is in dire need of watchers. Any students interested are to speak to him or his fellow watcher, Mr. Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, who is not here at the moment. In addition we have Miss Summers' younger sister, Dawn, who is in Slytherin House. Two of Miss Summers' friends are here: Mr. Alexander Harris, he prefers to be called Xander—yes thank you for the reminder—and Miss Willow Rosenberg. I trust everyone here will treat them with the respect they deserve as you do owe them your lives for quite a number of times am I not mistaken?" His eyes twinkled ironically at that.
"As for the decrees set down by our former High Inquisitor: they are hereby all revoked and any clubs any of you wish to form are allowed provided they are appropriate. Now that I have kept you from your dinner long enough I say these words—Live long and prosper!" Giggles from many Muggle-born students erupted from that saying and food finally appeared on their plates.
"Finally!" Jordan cried in relief as she instantly began wolfing down her dinner.
The two slayer-witches were not to eat in peace, however, because many students were bombarding them with questions. Jordan received the brunt of it since she was new to the school and she was extremely annoyed at how a third of those questions involved her brother being available. She craned her neck to find Dawn among the Slytherin students. Dawn's housemates seemed to think twice about giving her trouble about her heritage after finding out she was the younger sister of the eldest living slayer. Many had heard stories about that particular slayer and did not think it wise to anger her. They settled for sending her hateful glowers which she pointedly ignored. She caught Jordan's eye and when her friend beckoned her over Dawn picked up her plate and went to sit at the Gryffindor table. A few Gryffindors glared at her as if she had no right to be sitting at their table, but Dawn ignored them as well.
"Hey, how are you feeling? What happened out there?" Dawn asked as soon as she sat down.
Jordan looked down. "Could we talk about that later? I really don't wanna think about it just now. Really doesn't do any good since it's practically burned onto my brain, but at least not talking about it just yet helps."
Though her curiosity was only sharpened by that remark Dawn kept quiet on the subject. She also suffered the somewhat irritating, but somewhat flattering dozens of questions employed by the curious Hogwarts students.
"Harry, are you back on the Quidditch team?" Seamus asked.
"Yeah, I asked McGonagall during the summer and she let me back on," Harry replied not bothering to say that he was a sound candidate for the position of captain. McGonagall had yet to answer his question on that.
"Are you two trying out for the team?" Dean asked Jordan and Aidan.
"Yeah, we were chasers back at Cristallon," Aidan answered.
"I think you should be a beater Jordan. With that slayer-strength you would be perfect," Neville told her.
"Yeah, but because of that slayer-strength I could kill someone. It's best if I just stick with my chaser position. It's the only one I'm good at anyway," Jordan said.
"So, did they know about you being a slayer at your school?" Dean asked her.
"Well, when I was there I was a potential slayer until I went to the Hellmouth to fight the First Evil with Buffy and Faith. And then Willow, who's a Wicca, turned all potentials into slayers. Right in the nick of time too since we were fighting these really strong and ancient vampires called Turok-Hans. They're a lot harder to kill than the normal type," she explained. The young slayer frowned when she noticed a certain vampire was not at the feast.
"Dawn? Where's Spike?" she whispered to her friend.
Dawn looked around for the familiar bleach-blonde in his trademark leather duster, but failed to find him. She shrugged her shoulders and went back to eating.
"Guess he didn't feel much like being introduced," she said simply.
"Hermione did you go to the Hellmouth to fight?" Neville queried.
"God no! They didn't know I was a potential and I hadn't the training. When they did that spell I was of course, um, activated, and I wrote to Professor Dumbledore about it. He took me to Los Angeles, well he took me to Jordan and Aidan's house first and then we went to Los Angeles where all was explained. I was trained by Buffy and Faith during the summer and I will continue to be trained throughout the school year," she told them.
"Wow. I can't believe it. Teacher's pet is a vampire slayer!" Dean quipped.
Ron snorted, but covered it with a cough. Hermione cocked an eyebrow and Dean wisely decided to be interested in his food.
After everyone had had their second or third helpings of dinner the plates were magically cleared and Dumbledore rose again.
"I imagine you all are very tired and probably very curious about our guests. But I am afraid now is not the time for questions it is the time for rest so prefects, if you will?"
Dawn said her goodbyes to her friends while receiving another heart stopping smile from Harry. She returned the favor and took a leaf out of Jordan's book by winking at him, which served to redden his face quite a bit. She ambled over to the group of Sixth-year girls which included the imperious Pansy Parkinson. A very large girl with rather unlady-like muscles threw Dawn a smoldering glower. Dawn smiled cheekily at her in true Spike fashion. A boy with white-blonde hair whom Dawn guessed must be the infamous Draco Malfoy was leading the Slytherins to their dorms. A look of disdain flitted over his face when he saw Dawn. Obviously he had been warned about her, but he seemed to think his prefect duties more important at the moment or he just wasn't eager to start a row between a slayer's younger sister. While Dawn was appreciative that they were afraid of what Buffy might do were they to taunt and ridicule her sister Dawn wanted to be able to stand up for herself and not have to depend on Buffy.
She shivered instinctively at the chilliness of the halls leading towards Slytherin Tower. She was used to the warmth of Gryffindor Tower and was sorely disappointed when she finally entered the Slytherin Common Room. While not much different looking than the Gryffindors' with silver and green upholstery in place of the red and gold it was a lot less homey and more gloomy in appearance. And it was far too chilly for the tastes of a girl raised in southern California. Her things were already stowed away in the girls' dormitory courtesy of the house elves so she trudged up there after the other girls to change into her pajamas.
When Dawn spotted her luggage she sauntered over by that bed and searched through her belongings for her pajamas. Her search was interrupted by someone shoving all her things off that bed and sending them scattering all over the floor. Dawn slammed her suitcase shut and looked her offender in the eye.
"This is my bed!" Pansy declared malevolently.
"God what is your deal?! Seriously!?" Dawn shot back.
"My deal is there is a filthy little American Mudblood who thinks she can be one of us," Pansy hissed.
"Well like I said before: Deal. With. It. Cuz it's not gonna change any time soon," Dawn snapped irritably gathering her things and dumping them on the bed farthest in the corner.
"You little bitch!" Pansy cried walking over to Dawn and swinging her arm in an attempt to slap her. Now this was not the wisest course of action on Pansy's part. Apart from the obvious aspect of Dawn being sister to a slayer, she also could defend herself.
Pansy swung hard only to meet with air. Dawn had ducked the poorly executed hit and lashed out a foot to trip Pansy. The Slytherin girl let out a shriek and crashed to the ground while Dawn quickly pulled her wand out to point it at the other girls, particularly the large one, who were descending on her.
"Don't even think I will not use this! I may not be a slayer, but you don't grow up with the Slayer and not learn a thing or two. And I have faced things so much scarier than you your intimidation factors don't even register on my meter. So you're much wiser just backing off and leaving me the hell alone because I will not hesitate to hex one of you or beat the crap out of you," Dawn spat, full of indignation and ire. While she doubted she could actually beat the crap out of the large girl, she knew she could take the others and there was always her trusty wand.
The girls were stunned into halting until one by one they took Dawn's words to heart and moved into their beds. The large girl helped Pansy up who was giving Dawn the most hateful, righteously pissed off look she could muster. The large girl, however, was giving Dawn a thoughtful look tinged by what appeared to almost be respect.
When she was sure that none of the girls would try attacking her again Dawn quickly changed into her pajamas and crawled under her covers. She spent her time while trying to fall asleep thinking of how everything would have been different had she been in Gryffindor. Probably a helluva lot more pleasant and not so much threatening. But she was determined not to be scared by these pompous Slytherins. She knew they all weren't like that because a fair few of the first and second years she had told stories to on the train were in Slytherin and they had been rather sweet. That may have just been their fear speaking at the time, but she was sure they were the more pleasant type. A strange grin formed on her face right before she fell asleep. She was actually anticipating the confrontation the boys would give her tomorrow. That should actually be fun, was her last thought before losing consciousness.