A Well in the DeadLand
By Marz
Chapter 5: First Impressions
Dawn Summers was suspicious. It was not that she didn't trust her traveling companions. She'd jump off a cliff blindfolded if they told her too. She knew it was not outside the realm of possibilities that they'd invited her on a trip to England just to be nice, either. But Xander and Giles were incredibly tense as they packed for the trip. They didn't calm down until the stewardess was handing them drinks at thirty thousand feet. Maybe Xander shouldn't have relaxed, Dawn thought giggling. He'd bumped the Stewardess' elbow and got hot coffee poured in his lap. Buffy had to stay in New York to find and train a bunch of new slayers, and though it made her feel a little guilty, Dawn didn't mind being on vacation without her. Still, something wasn't right.
Dawn picked up another magazine. Don't they have anyone to take pictures of besides Prince William? She thought, flipping through the pages. She glanced at Giles who was looking at the display of souvenir shot glasses that covered the entire wall of the airport gift shop. They'd been waiting there for Xander for over an hour. She loved him like a brother, but he could be such an annoying goof ball some times. He'd been dragged off to the customs office with passport issues. Dawn sighed.
"Flight delayed?" asked a quiet voice with a very nice British accent.
Dawn smiled as she looked up at the teenage boy addressing her. He was a little punk looking, with messy spiky black hair, and a slightly quirky smile. Dawn was certain he had to be in some kind of band, or was at least a high ranking groupie.
"No, my friend just tried to smuggle in nail-clippers. Interpol is all over him. They think he might be the head of a clipper smuggling syndicate."
The boy's smile was fading. Dawn closed her mouth quickly. Her attempt at witty conversation was rapidly turning into babbling. She tried to casually put the magazine back in its rack, and dropped it on the floor. She and the boy reached for it at the same time and their foreheads bounced together with a resounding crack.
"Oh sorry, sorry," Dawn shrieked. "Are you ok?"
She rubbed at her stinging forehead and the boy mirrored her. His hand pushed back his hair to reveal a strange lightening shaped scar in the middle of his brow. He looked confused for a moment, as if he were listening to something. When he looked at her again the smile had returned.
"I suppose my chances of doing this is suavely have gone down the toilet, but would you like to join me for coffee anyway?"
"Sure!" Dawn said excitedly. "But I thought everybody here drank tea?"
The boy looked confused again, but then shrugged.
Oh great! You've just insulted and stereo typed the entire population of his country, she thought to herself. But he wasn't calling her a damn yank or storming off or anything.
"Hang on one second. I've got to tell my, um…tour guide where I'm going. One second!"
She nearly sprinted to Giles. Her mind whirled, trying to come up with a good reason for Giles to let her wander off with a strange boy she just met. I probably should have asked for his name, she thought. She put on her best "I'm an adult and can do what I want" face, then reconsidered and changed over to her "I'm responsible but will start to cry if you say no" face. Giles looked up from the souvenirs as she stopped in front of him. She started to extol the virtues of cultural exchange, but noticed right away that he wasn't really listening. He was looking at something over her shoulder.
Giles tackled her.
Dawn let out a shriek and a red light flashed in her face, blinding her. Giles landed on top of her, slamming the air out of her lungs. She tried to push the unconscious man off of her legs. Her hair was falling in her eyes but she saw the boy coming toward her. He had a piece of wood in his hand, about the size of a drum stick, and the end of it was glowing with sickly green light. He pointed it at her and she shrieked at the top of her lungs. The boy flinched and stepped back for a second, but only for a second.
"Somebody help me! Please!"
As if answering her plea, tennis shoes squeaked on the over waxed floor. The boy turned and disappeared in an avalanche of Hawaiian print. Xander might be a goof ball, but he has great timing, Dawn thought as she rolled Giles over onto his back. As she checked his pulse, Xander and the boy went crashing through a rack of magazines. The glowing stick fell from the boy's hand. Dawn cheered as Xander landed a lung collapsing punch, and then pulled the boy to his feet by the collar of his shirt. Dawn snatched up the glowing stick just as a security guard arrived.
"What's going on then?" the guard demanded, goggling at the mess they'd made of the gift shop.
"This little psycho attacked us," Xander said, shaking the boy by his shirt collar.
The guard looked doubtful. "Well all of you will have to give statements when the police arrive. I think I'd better hold on to the boy till then."
Xander shrugged and shoved the boy over to the guard, who caught the boy's arm and cuffed his hands behind his back. Dawn couldn't help but think the guard's movements looked somehow strange and wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on why. The guard turned toward her next.
"I don't know what that thing is," he said, nodding to the glowing stick in her hand, "But I think I'd better hang onto it until the police take over."
Dawn wanted to argue, but couldn't think of anything to say that didn't make her sound like a raving lunatic. No you can't have the magic wand! That'll work. The guard stretched out his hand and leaned forward. She dropped it in his palm. It fell right through. Dawn gawked, open mouthed. Before she could form a coherent thought the boy stepped right through the fading form of security guard and snatched it up.
Xander charged forward but the boy turned and shouted something in Latin. Ropes flew from the end of the wand and Xander fell, bound and gagged at the boy's feet. Dawn snatched up a very heavy looking paper weight and chucked it at the back of the boy's head, but he whirled and shouted, and in the next instant the weight was sailing right back at her. She dodged, but the weight crashed into the shot glass display behind her, and broken souvenirs rained down on her. She shrieked again, wondering where all the real security guards were. Having run out of other options and things to throw Dawn turned to run. The boy shouted again.
"Impedimenta!"
It felt as if she'd just leapt into a swimming pool full of glue. She pushed as hard as she could, her legs shaking with effort, but she barely progressed a centimeter.
"Somebody help!" she screamed again.
There was a crack like a gun shot and a blue light struck Dawn. She started to scream again but as the light hit her, the gluey feeling faded away and she fell forward onto her hands and knees. Another light flew by her and she heard another strange Latin phrase echoing in the air.
"Immobulus!"
Dawn turned and saw the boy frozen half way through taking a step. His eyes turned and blinked but he was other wise still. A man in a threadbare gray suit and cloak was striding across the terminal towards them. His face was pale and sick looking and he had dark circles under his eyes. He had a wand in his hand and blue light glowed at the end of it. He was shaking, but Dawn couldn't tell if it was from anger or illness. He walked right up to the boy and poked him, tentatively in the shoulder. Apparently proving solid, the man took the wand out of the boy's hand. He inspected it before slipping it into one of his coat pockets. He rapped the boy rather sharply on the side of the head with his wand, and the boy began to move again. The boy hung his head.
"Harry, what in God's name have you done?"
The boy, Harry, started to answer but the sick man cut him off again.
"That thing you conjured up in your room, do you have any idea what it's capable of? Your Aunt and Uncle and Cousin, they could've all been killed, not to mention the members of the Order sent to find you. What did you summon?"
"I didn't summon anybody Professor Lupin," Harry said. "She came on her own."
"Who came?" Lupin said. The shaking returned.
While they spoke, Dawn tip-toed around behind them and began to untie Xander.
"Mum. My mum came. She knows Professor." The boys voice became almost awed.
"Knows what?" Lupin asked, nearly whispering.
"She told me how to get Sirius back," Harry said. "We can save him. We can still save him."
For a moment the Professors face reflected the boy's hopeful expression, but then his face fell and he looked worse then before. He grabbed the boy's shoulders.
"Harry, whoever has been telling you these things is not your mother. Lily is dead Harry, and so is Sirius. They can't come back from that. You're being manipulated."
"I'm not. It's her. It really is her. I know she's dead Professor. That's how she knows how to get Sirius back. He isn't dead yet, he's still caught up in the veil. We can save him. All we need is her."
Dawn looked up from her untying and saw them both staring at her. The Professor pulled the boy farther away.
"Harry, leave those muggles alone."
"You don't understand. The girl, she isn't real!"
Dawn felt her stomach drop. She got through the knot and Xander wiggled free of the ropes. The boy struggled to get away from the professor, trying to get at Dawn.
"She's not real," the boy declared again. "She's the Key. We need her blood…"
"Harry stop it!" The Professor gave him a sharp shake.
"No! Listen to me! I'm telling the truth. Ask her. Ask Her!"
"Ask her what?" The professor said, exasperated. "Harry…"
"Listen to him Remus."
Everyone in the gift shop turned to look at the red haired woman who had just appeared in their midst. She was young, with a kind face, and bright green eyes. She wore a cream colored dress, thick with embroidery. Her feet did not quite touch the floor as she walked towards them. The professor was so surprised he lost his grip on Harry, who scrambled over to his dead mother's side.
"You can still save him Remus," the woman said. "It isn't too late. Sirius waited in Azkaban for twelve years. He waited for you save him, but you never came. Don't do that to him again Remus. Help us open the veil and get him back. Don't leave him in hell again."
"You aren't Lily Potter," the Professor said, shaking worse then ever. "Harry, that is not your mother. Come back here." He waved rather desperately at the boy.
Xander was slapping Giles lightly on the side of the face, trying to wake him.
"It's her professor! Ask her anything!" The boy called.
"If you're Lily, then…then…"
Dawn got to her feet. "Don't listen to her!" She pointed at the red haired woman. "That's the First!"
"The first what?" asked the Professor.
"That's the First Evil!" Dawn was starting to shriek but she didn't care. They thought the First had been destroyed months ago, but here it was again, trying to kill them again, and Buffy was on the other side of the ocean. "The First can take the form of anyone who's dead. It knows everything, but it can't touch you! Don't listen to it."
The professor looked her in the eye, and she saw that he believed her. The First saw it too. She whispered something to the boy. He raised his hand.
"Accio wands!" Harry cried.
The wands flew from the Professor's hand and pocket. The boy caught them, smirking slightly. The Professor stood there, mouth tightly shut, waiting.
"It is her Professor. Come with us. Help us save him!"
"Harry, don't do this. Its some kind of trap," the Professor said.
The boy looked rather saddened by his response. "I'm sorry Professor."
His arm moved so fast Dawn could barely track its motion.
"Obliviate!" Harry shouted.
A blue light struck the Professor and he collapsed on the gift shop floor. Xander was already in motion. He shoved Dawn out the door of the shop, and the two of them raced through the terminal, their desperate flight ignored by those they passed. A pretzel cart exploded to their left and a baggage train toppled over on their right. Xander rushed her towards an emergency exit. They sprinted towards it but the boy shouted and a light flew past them, striking the door. Xander plowed into it full tilt, and bounced back onto the floor, winded. There was no where else to go. Xander staggered to his feet and stood between Dawn and the boy. They stared at each other.
"You aren't touching her," Xander growled.
"You're going to stop me?" the boy scoffed.
Xander dove towards him, but he wasn't nearly fast enough. A red light struck him and rolled back across the floor, coming to a stop against Dawn's legs. Xander's eye patch had come off. Dawn fought down her nausea as she looked down at the empty spot in her friend's face. He was still breathing though. The boy was pointing the wand at her.
"Imperio!"
The world faded away.