Combining Worlds

"Who left the exploding snapdragons on the floor in front of the entrance hall?" Andrew asked, looking at all of the students and teachers gathered at the tables, waiting for their meal. Some people exchanged looks, and Spike had to press his head into Xander's shoulder to keep from laughing.

"We're not upset; we just want to know who had the idea of making snapdragons turn into miniature dragons, then explode," Oz clarified, giving Andrew a look for taking things so seriously. Slowly, Fred and George Weasley raised their hands, along with Harry, Ron, and Dawn. The students began to laugh as one of the people at the staff table raised a hand as well. Oz had to smile as Faith's hand went into the air. She really was as bad as the students sometimes.

Later that day, after the twins and Faith had been spoken to, Harry, Dawn, Hermione, and Ron were sitting at the edge of the lake, watching the water to see if the squid inhabiting the lake would make an appearance (1). Harry and Ron were explaining about how mean Filch had been, and how he seemed to enjoy the thought of torturing students.

"Really!" Ron was saying, "It's like he got off on seeing us squirm…"

"Ronald! That wasn't necessary," Hermione admonished.

"It's okay, Hermione," giggled Dawn. "I've heard far worse. I used to hang out in a crypt with a vampire and a demon, then go home to two Wiccans, another demon, and a watcher. The only normal person I've ever been close to was Xander. Cordy was normal for awhile, but then Doyle died, and she got visions."

"She wasn't always a seer?"

"No. Doyle had the visions, then he kissed her, died, and Cordy started getting the migraines…"

"Wait…" Harry suddenly broke in. "You were hanging out with a vampire… and demons?" Dawn eyes got wide as she realized her mistake. The truth about the humans had come out, but a few things had been left out of Dumbledore's narrative. Willow's going evil and trying to destroy the world, Angel and Spike being vampires, Anya and Lorne being demons, and Andrew's evil streak that the First instigated were of the not mentioned.

"Yeah… they were friends of Spike's… and every one of them was harmless."

"A harmless vampire and demon?" a cold voice sneered behind them. Dawn turned and saw the pale boy standing over them, wearing his robes even on the weekend. "That's not possible."

"Sure it is, mate," Spike announced, coming up from the side and surprising all five teens. He smirked at them for a moment before the clouds shifted, exposing the sun for the first time all day. Spike suddenly seemed to lose focus on what was happening around him; he simply stared at the sun, mesmerized by it. Dawn caught him fiddling with a green ring on his left hand, one identical to Angel's.

"How would you know?" Draco asked, sounding interested in spite of himself.

"I know two of them," Spike answered mysteriously.

"Why do you and Prof… Angel always play with those rings?" Hermione suddenly asked. Spike cocked his head to the side as he looked at her. Finally, after what seemed like an hour had gone by, the vampire shrugged and smirked.

"We both have an… allergy to the sun. If either of us spent even ten seconds in direct sunlight we would burn to a crisp. The rings just… keep that from happening. It's like muggle sunscreen, only the rings are one hundred percent efficient. (2)

The next day the Golden Trio and Dawn had the Gryffindor common room to themselves. Ron and Hermione were curled against each other, even if they weren't actually paying attention to one another. Hermione had her nose in a book, and Ron was organizing his Chocolate Frog card collection. Dawn was teaching Harry Black Jack. Suddenly the Weasley twins entered the room. Harry watched with a grin as Dawn's gaze remained on Fred far longer than usual. She never even blinked when watching the redhead, and it appeared as though she was able to tell the two apart even when they were trying to confuse people.

The twins waved hello before continuing their trek to their room, leaving Dawn staring after them.

"You might want to wipe that up," Harry commented lightly, drawing the attention of the other two people in the room.

"Huh?" Dawn mumbled, still staring after the twins.

"You're drooling all over the cards. You might want to wipe it up." Dawn's head snapped back to the others, her face red enough to rival the Weasleys' hair. "So which one do you have a crush on?" Dawn looked down and mumbled something, still blushing.

"What was that?" Ron asked, curious to know which of his brothers had caught the new girl's attention.

"Fred…" The teasing wasn't too bad, but Dawn felt that it was bad enough.

"Okay, now spill."

"Whatever do you mean, brother dear?"

"You can't get me with that tone; we perfected it together. Now, who do you like, and why haven't you told me before now?"

"I don't think it's appropriate to like her…" Despite what most believed of them, the Weasley twins did know how to be serious, and when it was necessary. They also knew what was and was not appropriate, they just usually didn't care enough to pay attention.

"Is she one of the new teachers?" Fred asked quietly. George nodded in misery. "Faith?" Another nod. "Well, she's still kinda young, so maybe she likes you back?" Fred suggested, not knowing how to help his twin feel better. George just shrugged.

"Maybe, but I'm not holding my breath…" He then shook his head and appeared to shrug off his bad mood. "Now what about you? Do I sense any feelings between you and Ronnikun's newest little friend?" Fred could only grin happily for a second, but then his grin suddenly dropped. "What is it?"

"You realize she has more 'older brothers' than Ginny?"

"What do you mean?"

"There are nine grown males in that group that came from America… Ginny only has six older brothers… including us…"

"In other words you could be hexed into your next life if anything ever happens to her?"

"Something like that, yeah…"

"So what are you going to do about it?"

"Continuing to invite her and Faith to help us in our pranks should make the others more willing to accept us…"

"Great idea Gred!"

"Thank you Forge."

>>>

"Do you remember the first class with Snape?"

"Yes! I swear I thought he was some kind of overgrown bat!"

"It probably didn't help that he swooped in there with his robes blowing out behind him like that…"

"They looked like wings."

"It's a lot easier in that class now."

"Yeah; Fred seems really nice."

"And somehow she seems able to make Snape shut up just by looking at him."

The three teens laughed at the things that had been happening to and around them lately, not noticing that Dawn had slipped out the door a good ten minutes earlier. She had fun with Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but there were times when she felt that, no matter what, she would only ever be able to fit in with her sister's crowd.

Dawn wandered the hallways alone for awhile, just looking around her. She was staring at the ceiling when she ran into something warm and solid. She looked down and into the clear, silver-blue eyes of Draco Malfoy. He looked as confused as she did as to why they had literally bumped into each other in a passage they led to only the Gryffindor common room and the Great Hall. He was confused as to why he hadn't seen her, and she was wondering where he was going in this hallway, since he was walking away from the Great Hall. So, she decided to voice her questions.

"Where are you going?" She asked politely, sounding curious, and in no way malicious.

"Why do you ask?" Draco responded, sounding like he was trying to hide something.

"The only place this hallway leads to in that direction," she pointed in the direction he was headed, "is a common room. Why would you want to go there?"

"I… uh… Can you keep a secret?"

"Usually. Unless it's one of Buffy's secrets, and then I tell just because she's my sister and it's my job to annoy her." Draco smiled lightly and nodded his head.

"I was going to talk to Harry."

"What about? And I thought you two were enemies or something…"

"I… uh… wanted to apologize for earlier this afternoon… For looking for you guys to pick on…"

"No one would believe this if I told them," Dawn told the blond, smiling. He looked at her with his brows furrowed in confusion. "No one would believe that you know how to stutter." Both teens grinned suddenly.

"There's more to it than that," Draco responded, warming up to the girl.

"And what would that be?" Dawn asked. Draco fidgeted for a minute, obviously not knowing how to answer that. "Okay, I'll tell you what. You tell me, and I'll tell you one of my deep, dark secrets."

"Harry and I are… uh… we're kind of… dating." Dawn squealed and wrapped her arms around the blond, startling him.

"I KNEW you two would make a cute couple! There was just too much fighting for it to be real!"

"What do you mean?"

"Xander and Spike used to always pick on each other like that, and I always thought that they were… overdoing it I guess. Then they finally admitted last year that they liked each other. I thought that might be the case with you two."

"Wow… okay, your turn."

"I used to have a crush on Spike."

"What?"

"Yeah… he just told such great stories… and he likes hot chocolate with marshmallows… I couldn't help… it…" Draco turned to look at her as she trailed off, and noticed her looking into a classroom. He too looked inside, and his jaw dropped with what he saw.

… -- …

(1) – Does the squid ever make an actual appearance in the books, or is watching the squid a fanfic thing?

(2) – Okay, I've finally answered the question with the ring. Kyra2, I think you were the only person who got that; or at least you're the only person who was determined to get an answer!

Now for the Thank yous!

parentaladvisory - Getting reviews... Nice ones... Never bothers me! Sorry the updates have been so slow lately! I'm graduating in another month, so we've got all of those last minutes projects to work with now... I will try to get them out faster, though. Thanks for the review!

catseye348 - I'm going as fast as my current schedule will allow! I promise! I will try to update quicker next time, though.

lovemehatemejustdon'tfearme - Thanks, I love those two, too. And as for the Sire thing, it's just my mental way of showing that he's becoming comfortable with Angel again. I mean, Angel just kind of walked out on him when he got a soul, and it was weird for a century following that. They're beginning to get along again... Besides, Drusilla's out of the picture. No more competition. Thanks for the review, and I hope you like this chapter.

NixiNox -If it makes you feel better, I have to go back and reread the whole thing when I try to write a new chapter! I forget what I wrote! I hope this chapter was acceptable!

AnimeHanyou39 - Correct me if I've forgotten this, but Hanyou is half-demon, right? If so, I like the name! I kinda like the SpikeXander-ness... Thanks for the review!

goddessa39 - I'm not planning on writing in a baby... I get bored writing them... I mean, all they do is eat, sleep, cry, and poop... Boring! As for Conner, I don't even know him, since I don't really watch Angel. I've seen maybe three episodes, and not one of them involved Conner... So no worries there! As for the rest, well, I hope you like how I write this, because I'm kind of writing this as the muses attack...

Buffy-CrazyaboutAngel - Yeah, but that's justmy brain... Whatever... I hope it doesn't ruin the story for you, though, and thanks for the review!

Chrios - Thanks you, and if I didn't send you your cookie, please email me and let me know!

Kyra2 - Um... I don't think that's going to be a major part of this... maybe a weird little subplot, but nothing major... Of course, I could be wrong... Who knows what my fingers will type... Thanks for the review.

Chara13 - Thanks.

gabrieldarke - They are dead... or undead, as the case may be. This world doesn't exactly mesh with canon... I tried to work in more HP stuff... I hope you liked!

Angel sumoritos - Babble as much as you want. The seemingly random babble reviews are my favorites! That was just a joke. As I wrote to goddessa39, I hate writing in babies. I hope you liked this chapter!

gyver21 - Thanks so much for the info, and I will accept anymore you're willing to give me! The closest I've come to a list of demons was watching that demon guide thing by either Andrew or Jonathan on a DVD on one of the seasons... Anyways, thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

IceBlueRose - Wow! Well, I'm glad you're enjoying it! It could take a little while for the next chapter, but I haven't given up on it yet!

Cecilia - I know it gets a little confusing, but sadly, that's what I deal with in my head every day... Sorry, but I think it kind of adds to the story... It kinda leaves it up to you to decie who's saying what... Thanks for the review, though, and if you want I'll try to do beter at writing in who says what.

hithwen tinuviel - Thanks for the info, and I think you gave me a bad email address. I tried to send you your cookie, but I got a notice back that it couldn't send... So if you're willing to try again, then so am I. Thanks again.