The rhyme used is one that we used to sing in the playground at school. I'll give the actual one we sang at the end of the fic.

Thanks for sticking with me!

--

Dawn giggled as she ran through the bushes. Twigs crackled underfoot and dry leaves swept through her hair as she ran, she was short enough that the branches weren't a problem. Ahead sunlight shone, beckoning her.

She burst into the sunlight as a fresh wave of giggles overcame her. One part of her knew this was a dream. But that part of her was parcelled away so as not to cause trouble. And this was her favourite dream. She hadn't had it since she'd been told she was the key. Finding out that she was technically only a few months old had spoiled many fond memories for her. Things she thought she'd known she put to the back of her head. Memories that used to make her smile now filled her with… nothing.

Ok. that was a lie.

But her memories were confusing. A shoddy patchwork quilt designed by those who'd never known how a little girl should be.

Once, wondering how they had filled her head with memories of a childhood she'd never experienced, she confronted Giles about it. He'd stuttered and stumbled before making some excuse to leave. She'd decided to try and find out herself, looking up memory spells. She'd found what she was looking for in Commemini–isse.

Apparently memories could be taken from others around her and fitted to suit her. So that when Joyce had commented that Dawn and Buffy had played the same games when they were young, it hadn't been just coincidence.

That knowledge had nearly torn Dawn to pieces.

She ran on, enjoying the feel of the leaves slapping off her arms. She truly felt like a kid again. And the non-kid part of her revelled in the feeling. This was something that no-one could take from her. She broke into the open whooping with joy. As she ran across the playground she could hear him behind her, calling.

"Wait up! I can't run that fast!" Dawn stopped running as the raven-haired boy bent double panting. She didn't believe him one bit; he'd pulled this trick one too many times before.

Wait.

That thought pulled her up short. Harry grinned at her through the tangled mop that was his hair.

"Why did I think that?" She asked. "Have I met you before?"

Harry grinned.

"It's a dream, Dawnie." He said in his little boy voice. "You know that. Nothing else matters here."

Dawn nodded, then giggled afresh as he threw himself forward, caught her round the middle, tackling her to the ground and tickled her mercilessly.

"I give up! I give up!" She squealed.

Harry sat back on his hunkers and shook his head in mock despair.

"You give in too easy."

"Gotcha!" Dawn yelled as she threw herself at him, tickling him under the armpits, his most vulnerable spot.

"Give in!"

"Never!"

Finally, both breathless, they flopped back on the grass and lay quietly.

"Your turn to pick a game." Harry said. Dawn glanced across, she frowned a moment, thinking. Then smiled.

"Ok, sit up."

"Huh?"

"Up! Sit cross-legged, no facing me. And put your hands up with the palms facing me." Harry complied. "Follow me."

The sound of the children's voices carried across the still air, but there was no one there to hear them. Just the silent movement of the swings and the empty sandbox. They sang.

Cin-der-ella dressed in yel-la

Went up-stairs to meet a fel-la

On her way she killed a snake

And all Death-Eaters in her wake…

Their hand clapped in time to the song but Dawn couldn't help feeling the song had changed since she'd last played this game. Clouds were coming up now. The sun was less bright than before.

"Harry?"

"Ya?"

"Where did that come from?"

Harry followed her gaze upwards.

The clouds now fully covered the sky, grey and fierce looking. But nothing compared to the image dancing across their underbelly.

"It's the Dark Mark." Harry said sadly. "He follows me everywhere."

"Who?"

The dream changed and Dawn was now standing in a dark forest. Thick undergrowth blocked her path and over the sound of the wind through the trees she could hear the screams of people too far away to find. A quick glance up showed the Dark Mark still dancing across the dark sky. The snake twisting and writhing as it emerged from the skull.

"Harry!" She screamed, as she turned about looking for the boy. "Harry!"

He stood a few feet away staring into the sky, ignoring the wind as it tore at his clothes.

"He killed my parents, you know" Harry said it so matter-of-factly.

"Harry!"

He looked at her, then turned to walk away.

The forest was gone now to be replaced by a stone chamber. There was one door behind her, an ancient looking thing, and a stand alone mirror off to the side.

"Who killed your parents?" Dawn was completely lost now.

"Voldemort." Harry was standing near the mirror and Dawn could see his reflection in the glass.

"This is where I first met him, and defeated him for the first time, that I remember anyway, when I was eleven." He was beginning to sound angry. "Dumbledore went off and left me to face him all on my own. I was only a boy!" He raged.

"But just as I did when I was a baby, I defeated him, I reduced him to spirit form." Harry turned to her. "That was just one of four times I came up against Voldemort, a wizard so feared by my kind that most are afraid to say his name. And I did it." He sighed. "Because I had to.

"What do you know about prophesy, Dawn?"

Dawn huffed.

"Only that it screws up the lives of anybody mentioned. Bloody immutable shite." She muttered. Even though she hadn't in reality been present, her monk-formed memories reminded her exactly what had happened when Buffy had been told of the prophesy of her own death.

Harry nodded.

"A seer made a prophesy about me before I was born. She didn't even know she was doing it and has only made one other that's come true." He paused and took a breath to steady himself. "She said that I would come up against Voldemort and one of us would die."

"Oh!"

"Dawn. Voldemort's still out there. And I'm already dead."

"Wha-"

"I died in a potions accident." Harry said urgently. "Voldemort had nothing to do with it. The prophesy has to be fulfilled. If for no other reason than to save my friends. Please I need your help!"

"Harry, I-"

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives...the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

"But what does that have to do with me?" Dawn said, completely bewildered.

"Your birthday is on July 31st, your sister has stopped the world ending three times, and she died to save you, like my mother died to save me." He stepped closer to her. "You've been marked too. That's why I chose you."

"What?" Dawn was furious now. She would not have her life meddled with and picked apart by someone she didn't know, who she'd never met and who was in fact not even alive at this point in time.

"You did this to me! You're setting me up in this! How- How could you!"

"Dawn! Please! I can't leave until this is done! Please, I was given the chance to pick who I thought would be able to do this for me. You can do it Dawn! Please!"

Dawn shook her head, trying to drive away this insistent voice. And then it wasn't just his voice. A multitude of voices cried out for vengeance. And Dawn knew in her heart these voices belonged to those who'd been killed by this evil wizard. Voices, every one distinct, an individual, as if she could reach out and touch them. So much pain. And just two words.

Help us!

Dawn cried, tears falling slowly. She sank slowly to the ground, her hands covering her ears trying to block it out. But they were in her head, insistent. She felt a pair of hands on her shoulders. Like a switch had been thrown off, the voices were gone, with just his remaining.

"Dawn?"

"Yes."

She trembled under his hands. But she nodded.

"I'll help."

--

Cinderella dressed in yella (yellow),
Went upstairs to meet a fella,
On her way she kissed a snake,
How many doctors did she take.