As can be seen, I have decided to continue this story, though it still won't be a very long one, probably only one more chapter after this. I have to say I like the first part better than this chapter, but maybe you guys will have different opinions.

Anyway, enjoy.

It was midnight, freezing and Andrew was sitting on a hard wooden bench in a deserted park with nothing but a flickering candle on the ground and a bronze dagger tucked in his pocket. This was not the stupidest situation he'd found himself in, though it came close.

"I hate being bait," he muttered.

The reason for this night time excursion was a Corlaq demon terrorising the neighbourhood - though honestly it was hard to tell with such stuck-up, sneering neighbours. And the way Corlaq demons terrorise was quite different to the way other demons terrorised. Corlaq demons fed off emotions, but, like with normal food, they liked different flavours of emotions. Most Corlaq demons tended to like the same combinations of emotions - fear and despair, for example, but this one either had a sick sense of humour, or had strange taste.

This Corlaq enjoyed sneaking up on unsuspecting humans while at their happiest and then show itself and scare the living daylights out of them. It had interrupted quite a few romantic dates and family picnics this way and had landed quite a few humans in the hospital as a result. Corlaq demons weren't much of a threat as they didn't really feed in the normal way or affect humans all that much. Most didn't even realise when a Corlaq was feeding off them.

It was an annoyance, basically, and so Andrew got stuck dealing with it. And got stuck with one other thing.

"Shut up about it, I'm not exactly thrilled to be here either."

Seeing the look on Dawn's face, Andrew knew it wouldn't be wise to continue with his line of whining. She too had a dagger tucked away somewhere, but she'd been smart enough to bring another jacket. Andrew glared at the girl slumped next to him, cursing her for her foresight. She should be just as miserable as him. So much for summer: the nights were just as cold as midday winter. They had been pretending to be on a date all night and nothing had happened. They were both starting to get irritable.

"I knew Buffy should have done this," Dawn muttered darkly as she got up and kicked at an upraised tree root, finally tired of doing nothing but sitting for hours. "She and Xander have been so sickening lately; they would have been the perfect victims. But no, she had to go off to Ireland for the week. Bet it was just an excuse for her and Xander to get all smoochie without everyone else around."

"What about me?" Andrew cut in. "I don't even like ..." he swallowed as he saw the interested look Dawn was sending his way and changed what he was about to say, "... parks."

"Sure." Dawn's smile was far too knowing for Andrew's liking and he scowled, his irritation growing as he realised that did nothing but cause her expression to become even more knowing.

Stupid smarty-pants Dawn, just because she caught me doing that ... thing with the ... thing doesn't mean anything!

"You're thinking about that time I caught you in drag acting out that scene from Star Something-or-other with Mr. Gordo, aren't you?"

"Pft, of course not," Andrew sneered, hoping the darkness could hide his blush. "And it was a scene from Velvet Goldmine, so 1, not exactly drag and 2, nothing 'Star' related, okay?"

Dawn rolled her eyes at his protesting. "Hey, I know what I saw and there was makeup involved. And the movie still has a weird name. Sounds like an Austin Powers movie."

Andrew let the scenario of an Austin Powers Velvet Goldmine parody run through his mind for a moment before shaking his head and glaring at Dawn. "I don't make fun of your choice in movies, so why do you always do that to me?"

"Because your movies are lame."

"You have no taste."

"Says the boy who dances in drag."

"I do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not times infinity, so there." Andrew stuck out his tongue at Dawn, whose eyes should have been falling from her sockets by now with the amount of times she'd rolled them that night.

"Whatever."

Andrew took that as an indication of victory and did a happy dance in his mind.

They continued in a bored/smug silence for a few more minutes before Dawn got fed up again and started pacing. The girl had no patience; Andrew was quite content to sit and not move so that the wind couldn't bite at any slightly warm parts of his body.

"When the hell is this stupid demon gonna come and suck our feelings out?" The poor tree was probably going to die with the treatment Dawn was giving its roots.

"Maybe you're doing something wrong," Andrew suggested from his slightly-less than comfortable seat. The wind had picked up and he hated Dawn for her jacket again.

Dawn turned on him with a glare. "Me? Hello, I happen to be an expert in being a victim for demons."

"Some expert," Andrew snorted. "Can't even get a Corlaq demon to attack you right."

"Gah! You are so infuriating! And stupid. And did I mention moronic?"

"You know attacking others is a sign that you're unhappy with yourself. Is there something you want to talk about, Dawn-meister?"

"Don't call me that, you're not allowed."

"Is that because Xander's the only one allowed to call you that? Having a little trouble accepting his and Buffy's new smoochie-fest?"

Dawn looked very peeved all of a sudden and Andrew had a sinking feeling he shouldn't have taken that extra step. "Oh like you're one to talk about former crushes - operative word being former there."

He sat up completely at the implication and glared at Dawn. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"You tell me; after all, I wasn't the one following a sociopathic murderer around like a puppy-dog."

Their argument was suddenly not as fun any more. "You have no idea what you're talking about," he growled, "and I suggest you leave that can of worms unopened."

"Oh yeah?" Dawn was a little taken aback by Andrew's sudden appearance of a backbone, but wasn't going to give up now.

"Yeah."

Luckily for them, the argument was halted before it could become an all-out brawl. A quick-moving body suddenly sprung through the tangle of bushes near the bench they'd camped out by and tumbled headlong into the two of them. Dawn, standing up as she was, was able to move out of the way of the human-sized projectile, but Andrew wasn't so lucky.

The bench rattled a little with the sudden impact of the second body and Andrew was a little sore from attempting to catch the other person by reflex.

"What the hell was that?" Dawn turned her attention to the hole in the bushes. "Pale guy stuck in the fifties at ten o'clock. Make sure he's okay," she said over her shoulder as she moved to intercept the vampire.

Andrew was a little concerned about Dawn taking on the vampire by herself, but along with the extra jacket she'd apparently packed a stake and holy water. A groan coming from his lap turned his attention back to the vampire's former prey.

"You okay there?"

"Not sure," he heard in grumbled reply. "Could have sworn I saw a vampire, so I think not."

"Oh don't worry, he'll be dust soon."

"Great." The person shifted around so that they weren't so uncomfortable - or sitting in Andrew's lap any more. When the person looked up, Andrew noticed a very familiar face instead of the stranger's face he was expecting.

No wonder I was getting such a sense of déjà vu.

Harry Potter blushed as he looked upon the face of his saviour. "Hi again," he mumbled. "You seem to be in the habit of saving me when I need it. Thanks."

"No problem." Embarrassment must be contagious, because Andrew started blushing as well.

"So, um, you're in a park." Andrew blinked at the non sequitur and Harry quickly added, "At midnight. It's a little odd."

"Ah, yes, I suppose it is, but not as odd as some things." Andrew was having trouble keeping his train of thought. "I'm not always an odd person, just a little strange sometimes, but I don't always hang out in park at midnight, just ... sometimes." And he was babbling again. Harry was watching him, bemused, and perhaps a little amusedly as well. "Um, so ..."

The two sat in awkward silence avoiding each others gazes until—

"Ugh! I hate vamp dust! It's gonna take me ages to brush this off."

Dawn's voice coming from nearby following the sound of an unearthly scream interrupted their non-moment.

"Is that your girlfriend?" Andrew would have paid more attention to the disappointment he heard in Harry's voice, had he not just heard one of the most horrific questions in existence. It was right up there with "What's that sound coming from the basement?" and "How do you like your eggs?"

(Don't ever ask about either, they involve long traumatising stories that should never be visited upon the human ear.)

"Ew!" Andrew shuddered. "I did not just hear that."

"Oh, so you two are just ..."

"We're just nothing, She's ... Dawn." Andrew managed to hold back another shudder, his mind still caught up in the horrific images from the third most frightening question he'd ever been asked.

"Were you talking about me behind my back again?" Dawn stepped through the bushes just then, still brushing vampire remains off her jacket.

"Why would I bother talking about you when there are far more interesting people in the world?"

"Who? Like you?" Dawn asked sardonically. "Whatever, let's walk him home and get out of here. I'm not staying out any longer. We're obviously not gonna find that stupid ... uh, thing, tonight." Dawn glanced warily at Harry, who was only paying the barest attention to her words.

Andrew's expression fell a little as he realised his second encounter with Harry would also be a short one. "Oh, right, guess we should do that. Though, you know," Andrew started as a sudden thought occurred to him, "you could go on home, I could walk Harry home myself."

"I don't really want to be a bother," Harry piped up.

Dawn glanced suspiciously between the two of them before smirking. "No deal. You two lovebirds need a chaperone. Come on." She grabbed both Harry's and Andrew's arm and pulled them up from the bench, ignoring the embarrassed looks the two sent each other. Or probably just storing them away for later blackmail material.

Once they were on their way towards Harry's house, Dawn skipped a few metres ahead to give them a little room to talk alone. She wasn't totally evil after all, just a little evil. Even so, Andrew and Harry did little more than make awkward small talk about the weather, the town, whether Andrew and his housemates were fitting in all right, whether or not the man chasing after Harry was really a vampire ... little unimportant things that had them both a little frustrated and relieved.

Andrew was greatly disappointed when Harry pointed out his house among the other very similar houses in the street they'd been walking down. Dawn waited a few houses down while Andrew walked Harry to his yard.

"Um, thanks for helping me again," Harry said as they paused at his front yard.

"I like helping you. People. I like helping people, and you too." Harry chuckled at the babbling and Andrew felt a little bit better about it. "Um, so now that I know where you live, maybe I'll come visit you some day."

"I'd like that." Harry's face fell a little as he continued. "Though my family might not. They're not too fond of having my friends hanging around. But I don't really care what they think," he added when he noticed Andrew's let-down expression.

"I'll come visit soon then," Andrew promised.

"Great. Guess I'll see you then."

"Yeah."

Harry headed slowly towards his house, pulling out a set of keys. He waved at Andrew just before he went inside and locked the door behind him.

Andrew stared at the house a moment longer before heading back towards Dawn, who was smirking.

"Andrew's got a boyfriend," she sung as they headed home.

Even as Andrew told her to shut up, he didn't really mean it. It had a nice ring to it.