Part 9: The night evil normally rests

A/N: I've decided to do a trick I've seen before done in Alias. Basically they open the episode at a certain point then back track until that point. Just thought I better tell you my plans in case anyone is confused.

- -

It had started not long after the students were all meant to be in their common rooms. Naturally not all of them were.

Dawn and Hermoine had concocted an invisibility potion similar to the one Paige had used in an attempt to vanquish Cole. Harry and Ron refused to drink another foul tasting potion after Hermoine had nearly brought it up over Moaning Myrtle's favourite toilet so the boys squished under Harry's invisibility cloak.

Dawn didn't have to do any convincing to get them to come. Ron wasn't about to wait and see if his blood was going to be taken. Harry was insulted when Dawn told him what happened with Buffy. Paige spoke to Harry, Hermoine and Ron after class that they also would not be in the battle at all. After they had walked out of the classroom Hermoine smirked and announced that she knew this was going to happen. However it didn't stop her joining them when Harry suggested using the invisibility cloak. The plan was to remain unseen and wait until something happened. If a battle did erupt, like it was predicted then the students would throw themselves into it and there would be nothing the others could do.

It was extremely reckless and similar to the incident at the ministry last year, but Harry had pointed out to Hermoine that they were in Hogwarts. If something was to happen they were in possibly the safest place they knew.

They had to lie to Ginny about where they were as she was up doing homework when they wanted to leave. The group pretended to be going down to the kitchens for a late night snack. She didn't believe them, but she didn't bother to push any further.

They had positioned themselves in the Hall, which the Hogwarts trio often took to sneak down to Hagrid's hut. At one point they had almost been discovered when Dawn's gold chain became visible while Peeves floated past. Luck was on their side. The ghost was still laughing about something he had done to Mrs. Norris and didn't notice. Dawn quickly gulped some more of her potion and became completely undetectable once more.

Ten minutes after the halls were meant to be student-free, the Scoobies and the Charmed ones headed down the hall. The Order had offered to be there with them as they had fought the Death Eaters before, but the group had agreed to do this on their own. Buffy explained that she had already brought too many people than she wanted into her many battles she didn't want any more when she didn't need them.

Leo was also not there. Piper was not at all happy when Leo informed her that he was stuck taking care of a handful of desperate new whitelighters. Piper was forced to understand that Leo's job involved him being away, even at some of the more important times. The Elders had felt that the Charmed Ones had enough protection at Hogwarts and had given Leo other duties. Piper still saw it as a conspiracy.

Buffy instantly stopped when she reached the spot Dawn was standing.

"Piper, you did give Wyatt to Dawn to look after?" Buffy asked.

The question was a little sudden and odd considering the group was awaiting a battle between vampires and death eaters. Piper who was standing next to Buffy armed with various potion bottles turned and answered the original Slayer.

"Yes. She was going to stay in the Gryffindor common room with some of the sixth year girls so she could work on her catch up homework with them around to help. Dawn said that she was happy to watch Wyatt while she worked. Why?" Piper replied.

"I hope you trust those sixth years because Dawn is here." Buffy's became angry as she clutched the handle of the scythe a little tighter.

"Sorry Buffy I don't see her" Xander began looking everywhere including the corners of a couple of sleeping portraits.

Paige closed her eyes and concentrated on Dawn. She knew Dawn wasn't a charge or related to her, but Paige wanted to see if she could track Dawn the way Buffy somehow did. Her whitelighter powers and senses were growing faster since she came to Hogwarts because all the magic in the atmosphere. But it wasn't a magical power that revealed Dawn was there. There was a small female gasp when Giles stepped forward next to Buffy.

He had trodden on Dawn's foot.

"If Dawn's out here then she's also waiting for something to happen. She wouldn't be out here alone if there was going to be Death Eaters and Uber-vamps. Dawn's not THAT stupid. I'm betting Harry, Ron and Hermoine are here too." Buffy looked directly where Dawn was standing.

Nobody was surprised when Dawn suddenly appeared with Giles's foot on her. He quickly moved it off as Hermoine appeared and the boys flung off the cloak. The four of them looked ashamed, but fearless at the same time.

"Go back to your d-"

Buffy was cut off by the movement outside. Within an instant ten masked Death Eaters burst into the hall. On their heals was exactly ten vampires.

"A vampire for each" Willow whispered, now understanding why there were only ten vampires.

The wizards wouldn't have power of a great number of them and this way they would easily each control one.

It was one of the Death Eaters who struck first, sending a stunning curse directly at Willow. But it didn't anything to her as she had placed her own Wiccan shield on herself earlier. She although didn't think it would last very long as it was shielding against a different type of magic.

Buffy and Xander, the only two without any great magical power, launched into their physical fight. Buffy decapitated one vampire with the scythe while Xander continued to fight with other weapons. It felt so natural for the pair, yet the situation was slightly unnatural for them as they were the only two forced to perform physical battle. Buffy and Xander did have some magical skills, but there wasn't much of a chance of them disarming a Death Eater who grew up with magic.

Piper wasn't using her wand. Instead she chose to duck curses, attempt to freeze Death Eaters (Voldemort had done his research, Piper found they were immune) and try to have a good enough aim to blow one of the Uber-vamps up. A vampire attempted to jump Xander from behind while he cursed a masked Death eater.

"Thanks" Xander called as the vampire turned to dust.

The battle had begun.

-----

The four students had somehow ended up in the Charms classroom. The battle had been raging on for a while and the students had been separated from the adults. Two of the Death Eaters had managed to use a few well-placed spells in order to chase the students away from the adults. They had also taken two of the vampires with them, which meant it was a completely even fight, in terms of numbers.

"We can do this the easy or the hard way" The female Death Eater spoke, quoting some movie. "I have a knife here. The boy can simply cut himself and give me the blood and the vampires will not attack you"

Does she think we're stupid? Harry thought to himself remembering a similar conversation he had with Lucius six months ago. In fact the situation was extremely similar. That thought pained Harry considering one of the outcomes of that confrontation. He was determined not to fall into the trap. There was no way they were going to need rescuing this time. The only person he had to really worry about herr was Dawn as opposed to Ginny, Luna and Neville at the Ministry.

"Of course we can do it the more painful way. We stun you all and let the vampires go wild. You see there's not much blood in the forest for them to drink and the blood of witches and wizards is a rare treat for-"

"Incendio!" Hermoine shouted, pointing her wand at one of the vampires.

It burned for a few seconds before crumbling to dust. The sight for everyone in the room, besides Dawn had captured their attention for a few seconds. The bright fire burned itself onto their retinas as well as the vampire's body.

"Inc-"

"Accio wand!" The Death Eater shouted at the same time as Dawn.

Since she had not been practicing witchcraft for very long it was easy for the Death Eater to take the wand. Dawn refused to look scared. She had no weapons with her now. Dawn wished she had the sword she had used the last time she faced the Ubervamps. Dawn quickly erased that wish from her mind. It was not the time to make wishes. She remembered what Buffy had told her. Weapons are not power.

"That's it. All bets are off" The second, this time male, death eater spoke.

"I don't remember placing any bets in the first place" Harry smirked.

The male death eater didn't bother replying to Harry's comment. Instead he quickly stunned Dawn, which resulted in the same stunning spell being sent back at him. Hermoine had missed though. The vampire had been set loose heading towards Ron who was desperately trying to hit it with Incendio, but the vampire was too quick. Harry was dueling with the female death eater, while Hermoine with the male. They each knew Dawn was fine and there was no time to tend to her. Dawn just hadn't gotten out of the way in time. Her mind had been more focused on the vampires rather than the Death Eaters.

As the vampire closed in on Ron he finally managed to hit it with the spell. The Death Eaters could see the vampire burning up only inches away from Ron's skin. He was lucky that his robes didn't catch on fire. Ron was terrified in those few seconds. He had a feeling that spiders were no longer going to be his greatest fear.

Hermoine's downfall came when she turned to see what was happening with Ron. She had forgotten the advice Giles had told them. Turning you're back on the enemy is the worst thing possible you can do in a duel. Giles was right. Hermoine's body turned stiff as she fell to the ground.

"Accio Weasley's blood" Hermoine's attacker called holding out a small test tube that was magically filled with Ron's blood.

"No!" Harry shouted as Ron slumped to the floor.

"It's all right ickle Harry" The female Death Eater spoke very much like Bellatrix Lestrange. "Voldemort will be dealing with you personally."

Harry couldn't do anything more as the Death Eaters fled the scene. He went to Ron's side first. Harry hadn't heard of anyone magically taking blood from another with the accio spell. He didn't even know it could even be done. It did make the vampires rather pointless then. Harry guessed they were more of a distraction than anything. Something to keep Buffy from attacking wizards who aren't physically strong.

Harry had no idea what the effect for Ron would be even if there didn't appear to be much of his blood taken. Somehow the Death Eater managed to only take what she needed, but it had still made Ron blackout.

"Enervate, Enervate, Enervate" Harry brought Dawn, Hermoine and Ron back to consciousness.

"What was that?" Dawn asked slowly as Harry helped her up. "I just felt myself freeze and fall down."

"Stunning spell." Hermoine replied, angry that she allowed herself to be hit.

"Oh. So that's what it feels like to get hit by one. It looks a little different when you see someone else get hit" Dawn commented remembering her defense lessons.

She pitied Xander and Ron for the times he had played dummy while Hermoine and Harry taught the others the spell. Then Dawn remembered Paige was there to instantly heal them and she lost her sympathy for them.

"So Harry are you planning to help me up too or 'cause I'm not a girl I don't get help" Ron joked as he sat himself up.

Ron was pretty white in his face. There were a couple of small spots in his arm where the blood had come from. There was no blood coming out of them, but they weren't the most natural looking spots.

"I think we should get you to the hospital wing Ron. I don't think this was a good idea" Hermoine sighed as she and Harry helped Ron up.

"Gee Hermoine what gave you that idea?" Ron sarcastically snapped.

- - --

While the students headed to the hospital wing, Paige ran down the hall rapidly followed by Phoebe passing them on the way. Hermoine told them what happened in about ten seconds before the pair continued to sprint down the hall. Piper had somehow been separated during the fight the same way the teenagers had been. Together the sisters bolted down the hall as fast as they could. Paige would have orbed to her sister if she thought it would be faster. There was no need for words between the two younger Halliwell sisters. They could feel what was going on. Piper was being attacked. She was being hurt.

They found her slumped against a wall. There was no sign of any Death Eaters or Uber-vamps near her. Just Piper with her eyes closed and her wand about a meter in front of her. A couple of potion bottles were also smashed around her. Including the one that was meant to heal her injuries. Paige was first to rush to her sister's side. Since she hadn't had a job before coming to Hogwarts Paige was able to go running everyday while Phoebe didn't have the time.

"She's out" Paige called to Phoebe as she made sure Piper was actually still alive.

When Paige grabbed her sister's wrist to check for a pulse out of the corner of her eyes she saw two punchers in her sister's milky neck. They sat just above Piper's necklace of a small cross. Evidently it had little effect against the vampires. It was likely that they were so thirsty for blood they didn't care about the burns. Paige guessed that the vampires had drunken a little from Piper before the wizards pushed them aside to collect the blood. Paige turned and looked at Phoebe with a defeated look on her face.

"They got her blood"

Phoebe let out a single swear word under her breath. Paige quickly healed Piper's wounds bringing her sister to the conscious world again. Piper's eyes slowly fluttered open. The first thing she noticed was Paige's red hair. The face was still blurry, but after a few seconds Paige's features sharpened.

"Do you know what happened?" Paige questioned as Phoebe kneeled down on the floor next to her. She had Piper's wand in her hand.

"Bloody death eaters. I couldn't even freeze them. They knew who we were. One of them was taunting me" Piper muttered. Then she gave a small smile realizing what she had said. "I said bloody. We've spent too much time in England"

Paige and Phoebe exchanged a small grin between them.

"She's fine" Phoebe said helping her sister up.

"They got my blood" Piper told them as she felt her neck.

"We know. Ron's blood was magically extracted from him. Willow's blood was safe last we heard" Paige filled Piper on what had happened during the battle that was possibly still going on.

"So I got bitten by a vampire for nothing!" Piper complained.

"Yeah I guess so. Hermoine thinks the vampires were a distraction. I have to agree with her on that one." Paige replied.

"Big, strong, gruesome things that can drain the life from you. Yep-big distraction. But you know I probably would have been just as distracted if they waved a naked Pierce Bronson in front of me" Phoebe attempted to lighten the mood.

After all there was little to be done now. It was a rare occurrence, but they had failed. Piper knew exactly what her sister was trying to do, but it wasn't going to work on her.

"Tell me again why we didn't want the Order out here helping?" Piper asked.

She already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it again to see how it sounded after her blood was taken.

"We didn't want to bother them. Their plans are for the long-term war. This is a short-term thing. Plus Buffy had told us that we were strong enough to do this on our own. A way to show Voldemort that we weren't afraid of him" Paige answered.

They began to walk down the hall in the same direction Paige and Phoebe had come running a few moments ago.

"Cowards…mother f-"

"Buffy!"

The Halliwells had reached the main foyer where the battle was now over. Buffy was standing by the door looking incredibly annoyed. It was Giles who stopped her from swearing. He was tending to Willow and Xander who had been hit by something. The Halliwells picked it right away. The Death Eaters had escaped, taking Ron's; Piper's and they guessed Willow's blood too. Paige was surprised to see that no students were out of their beds wondering what was going on. Then she remembered that Flickwick had put silencing charms on all the dorms so the students would have no clue what was going on.

Buffy turned to see the three coming down the stairs and groaned. She knew the look on their faces. It was the same look Paige had given Phoebe before. As the threesome slowly came down the stairs Buffy explained what happened.

"This is going to make things a lot harder. One of those Death Eaters, I couldn't tell which one because he or she was masked, must have hidden behind some of the vamps or something because I don't think any of us noticed it until it was too late. The Death eater jinxed both Xander and Willow and took Willow's blood before I could dust the vamp I was battling"

"Just because he succeeded tonight doesn't mean Voldemort will fulfill the prophecy" Willow groaned getting over the floor.

She was covered in small cuts; similar to the ones Doc gave Dawn a little over two years ago. She and Xander had been hit with a double curse to stun them and make small incisions as to draw blood. They had to give the evil side credit for their creativity in getting the blood. If one plan hadn't worked there was another way to get the blood.

"They didn't even need the vampires." Buffy was upset that she had been so distracted by them.

Since she wasn't allowed to kill the Death Eaters, Buffy simply killed the vampires instead. It was her natural instinct as the wizards and witches didn't have much of a physical ability. The vampires also sensed Buffy as a Slayer because they launched onto her even though Xander was much more helpless.

"We'll just be better prepared next time" Phoebe stated trying to be positive, but it had the opposite affect.

It just depressed people more knowing that they would be back on Valentines Day to collect more blood.

"I'm beginning to think it was a myth that Halloween is a day for evil to rest" Willow moaned.

"Beginning? Will where have you been the last seven years?" Xander reverted back to his usual joking form.