Chapter 20: Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered Part 3

Xander stood alone in the library for a moment, then decided not to take any chances, and moved the card catalogue in front of the door. For the first time, Xander was grateful that Giles had resisted the numerous implorations of Ms. Calendar to convert to an online catalogue like every other library in the universe.

Good. Now I'm safe.

Then the door opened and Dawn walked in, moving around the catalogue.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. A barricade only works against doors that don't open both ways.

"Alone at last," Dawn said. She was wearing a black raincoat that was tied shut. She was wearing high-heeled shoes.

She didn't appear to be wearing anything else.

"Dawn!" Xander said, getting his breathing under control. "Give me a heart attack . . ."

"Oh, I'm going to give you more than that," she said.

As she approached, Xander backed away from her, eventually stumbling onto the staircase to the stacks. Dawn moved closer, fiddling with the belt to the raincoat.

"Dawn, for the love of God, don't open that raincoat."

"Come on," she said, "it's a party. Aren't you going to open your present?"

"Dawn, what would Faith think?" Xander said trying to remind Dawn of the girl she loved.

"You think she might like to join us?" asked Dawn as she smiled.

"Dawn, you can't," said Xander. "Remember, your engaged to be married. I can't take advantage of you like that, not when I know you care for Faith."

The smile fell from Dawn's face. This would've been a good thing, except it was replaced with anger.

"So, you're saying this is all a game?" Dawn asked.

Oh, no. "A game? I—no—"

"You make me feel this way and then you reject me? What am I, a toy?"

"Dawn, please, calm down," Xander said, suddenly very nervous. And that was when he saw it, a green glow was beginning to surround Dawn. He realized instantly what he was seeing, the magic of the Key. And apparently it was tied into her emotions.

"I'll calm down when you explain yourself!" Dawn said.

"Get away from him," came a voice from the front of the library. "He's mine?"

It was Buffy.

"Oh, I don't think so," Dawn told her sister, sneering. "Xander, tell her."

"What?" He was at a loss, and wasn't sure he should say anything. "I—I—"

"He doesn't have to say," Buffy said. "I know what his heart wants." She started to move toward Xander, but Dawn blocked her.

"Funny," Dawn said, "I know what your face wants." And then she decked her sister.

Xander knew this was bad, very bad. Not only because Dawn was a witch but because both Dawn and Buffy where Slayers, equal in strength, speed, agilty, reflexes. They could really do some damage to each other.

"Goddess Hecate," said Dawn as Buffy rose to her feet. She gestured at her sister. "work thy will."

"Uh oh," Xander muttered.

The glow the surrounded Dawn had become blinding as she continued her incantation. "Before thee let the unclean thing crawl!"

Green fire burst from Dawn's hands and enveloped Buffy.

A moment later, Buffy was nowhere to be seen. Just her clothes and shoes crumpled on the floor.

"Buffy!" he cried. "Oh my God."

Naturally, Giles and Chloe chose that moment to return.

"What just happened?" Giles asked. He noticed the clothes and shoes on the floor and recognized them what Buffy had worn that day. "Dawn, where is your sister? Where is Buffy?"

A very large rat crawled out from the sleeve of Buffy's shirt.

As the rat scampered around looking for a corner to crawl into, Giles said, "Oh my God."

Dawn glared at Chloe. "Why is she here?"

Xander snapped, "Can you focus for a minute? Dawn, you just turned your sister into a rat!"

"Buffy can take care of herself," Dawn said, taking Xander's arm. "Why don't we go someplace private?"

Xander shook Dawn off. "Can you—? I'm not going anywhere until you change her back."

Chloe then grabbed Xander's other arm. "You heard him. So why don't you just undo your little magic trick and get lost?"

"Who made you Queen of the World?" Dawn asked. "You're old enough to be—"

"Well, what can I say?" Chloe said with a cattiness Xander wouldn't have previously given her credit for. "I guess Xander's too much man for the pimple squad."

Dawn started fuming. Then she began to glow again. "Goddess Hecate, to you I pray, make thi—"

She was cut off by Xander clamping his hand over her mouth. As the glow dissipated, Xander cried, "Quit with the Hecate!"

Giles finally got into it, grabbing both Dawn and Chloe and guiding them toward the desk. "You two sit. Be quiet." He turned to Xander. "We have to catch the Buffy rat."

As Dawn and Chloe slowly sat down opposite each other, Xander looked around. He saw the rat dash behind the new-periodical bookcase by the door. "Oooh, there!" He ran over and peered in the very skinny area between it and the wall. "Good Buffy. Just . . ."

He heard someone behind him. Thinking it was Giles, Xander turned—

Only to be punched in the jaw by Oz.

As Xander collapsed to the floor in a heap, Oz shook his hand up and down. "That kind of hurt."

"Kind of?" Xander said, furious. Today of all days, he didn't need Oz to be Macho Man. "What was that for?"

"I was on the phone all night listening to Willow cry about you. Now I don't know exactly what happened, but I was left with a very strong urge to hit you."

Then Oz reached out his hand to help him up. Xander accepted it, his anger crumbling to dust. He couldn't really say he didn't deserve it. As he rose with Oz's aid, he said, "I didn't touch her, I swear."

"Xander," Giles prompted. "Buffy?"

Nodding, Xander once again peered behind the bookcase, but he couldn't find the rat.

At Oz's confused look, Xander explained, "Dawn turned her sister into a rat."

"Oh," Oz said.

Giles was also looking around. "I don't see her." He turned to Xander. "If anything happens to her I'll—" He cut himself off, and Xander was suddenly grateful he didn't hear the rest of it. "Just go home. Lock yourself away."

"Uhm, Giles," said Xander. "That might not be a good idea. Remember I live with Dawn, Chloe and Faith. If Faith is home."

Giles nodded in understanding. "Find someplace else then for now. You're only going to cause more problems here. Dawn, Chloe and I will find Amy and then try and break the spells." Then he turned to Oz. "Oz, if you could aid us in finding, um, Buffy."

"Sure, absolutely," Oz said.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Cordelia had no idea how she had survived this day. It was like every girl in the school hated her. She went to her locker to put away her books for the night, then planned to go to the library to see if Giles could be any help.

When she got there, though, she found herself surrounded. It seemed like every girl—and most of the female faculty—were gathered around, and they all stared at her like she was, well, something hateful.

"Okay, what now, you don't like my locker combination?"

Harmony stepped forward. "It's not right. You never loved him. You just used him. You make me sick."

"Hey, Harmony, if you need to borrow my Midol, just ask," Cordelia said, suddenly nervous.

Harmony then slapped Cordelia. Stunned, Cordelia couldn't respond at first. Then Katie slammed her into the locker.

Dori grabbed at her. Kimberley yanked her hair. Faith slapped her. A girl from Health class pulled on her arm. Laura tried to bite her. A sophomore scratched her.

Cordelia found herself cringing on the floor, fighting off an attack of teenaged girls.

Then the cafeteria matron took a swing at her with a rolling pin.

"You thought you could do better? Is that it?" Harmony asked.

"No, I," Cordelia stammered. "I—"

Gwen snarled. "We'll knock that snotty attitude right out of you!"

Katie suddenly shrieked, "It's him! It's him!"

Several of the girls ran off to Xander, who had just entered the hallway. He looked like a deer in headlights for a second, then he ran toward Cordelia.

For her part, Cordelia tried to get up, but then Faith knocked her to the ground again.

Xander waded through and pulled Cordelia up into his arms, fighting off his adoring public as he went.

Right now, Cordelia didn't care that she hated him. She buried her head in his shoulder and started crying.

After a minute, they were outside. Xander let go of her. "I think we—"

They turned a corner to find another mob. This one was led by Willow.

"Lost them," Xander finished in a much quieter tone.

Willow was holding an axe.

"I should have known I'd find you with her," Willow said, snarling like some spurned soap opera character.

"Will, come on," Xander said, "you don't want to hurt me."

"Oh no? You don't know how hard this is for me. I love you so much, I'd rather see you dead than with her!"

Then the other mob, the one led by Harmony, came up behind them. Just as Willow swung at Xander with the axe, Faith stopped her.

Cordelia and Xander took advantage of the impromptu catfight that broke out to run away.

'Now that I know where Faith is,' Xander thought, 'Dawn's house might be safe.'

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Giles ran his hand through his hair, cursing all things teenaged. He, Dawn and Chloe had finally found Amy. To Amy, he said, "You must have botched the ritual so that Cordelia's necklace actually protected her from the spell. That one should be easily reversible." He then looked at Dawn, and said. "Dawn, where did you learn animal transformation?"

"Why did you send Xander away?" Dawn asked. "He needs me."

Chloe snorted. "That's a laugh."

"He loves me," Amy insisted. "We look into each other's souls."

"No one can love three people at once," said Chloe. "What we have is real."

Giles had had more than enough. "Instead of making me ill," he said as he looked at Dawn and Amy, "why don't either of you try to help me?"

Dawn and Amy leaned back, folded their arms, and pouted in that depressingly adolescent manner of teenage girls.

"Xander has put himself in very great danger," said Giles. "If either of you cared at all about him, you'd help me save him rather than twittering on about your feelings. Now let's get to work." He turned to look behind him. "Chloe—"

But Chloe was gone.

"Great," Giles muttered.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

It took over an hour to finally lose the mob, which had abandoned the catfight and joined forces in trying to pursue Xander and Cordelia. Xander had no idea what their actual plan was. Given that they were a mob, they probably didn't have one.

Xander remembered what mobs did in movies. He also remembered the riots that they'd discussed in history class. Then he ran faster.

By the time they reached Revello Drive, the sun had set. "Now I think we lost them," Xander said.

Cordelia had remained unusually quiet as they ran the streets of Sunnydale avoiding anyone remotely female, but now that they had put the estrogen brigade behind them, she exploded. "Xander, what's going on? Who died and made you Elvis?"

As they came in sight of the house he shared with Dawn, Faith and Chloe, Xander said, "There's home. Let's get inside. I'll explain later." He fumbled for his keys and unlocked the front door. He was glad that Elizabeth would be with Joyce and Marie at Buffy's house. That meant no babysitter tonight.

How wrong he was. Joyce was not at Buffy's house. She was at Dawn's.

"Xander. Cordelia?" Joyce said, letting them in. "What happened? Why are you all scratched up? Where's Dawn or Buffy?"

Xander hesitated. "They're, um, around," he said hoping that Marie was at home and not here.

Joyce led them into the kitchen. "Well, sit down and tell me about it." She turned to Cordelia. "Why don't you run upstairs, I believe Dawn has some bandages in the bathroom?"

Cordelia nodded and ran upstairs.

Xander fell more than sat into one of the chairs at the kitchen table. The strain of running from a mob of love-crazy teenage girls was catching up.

"Let me get you something to drink," Joyce said. "Are you in the mood for cold or hot?"

That required more thought than Xander was willing to engage in just at the moment. "I, uh—"

Joyce moved closer and put her hands on his shoulders. "I think it's more of a hot night, don't you?"

Xander dropped his head to the table. It hit with what Xander figured to be a very hollow thud. "Whatever," he said, defeated.

Joyce started massaging his shoulders. Despite everything, it actually felt kind of nice. "Goodness," she said, "you are so tense."

"What are you doing?" came Cordelia's outraged voice from behind them. "Make me yak!"

"Cordelia, go back upstairs, this is between us," Joyce said angrily.

"Gross. I think not," Cordelia said, and pulled the older woman off Xander and shoved her toward the back door and outside.

"What're you doing? Take your hands off of me!" Joyce cried, but Cordelia got the upper hand and closed and locked the door.

"And keep your mom-aged mitts off my boyfriend!"

Xander allowed himself a glimmer of hope at that.

"Former!" she added, and Xander sighed.

She turned back to him. "Why has everyone gone insane?"

"Insane?" Xander asked. "Is it so impossible for you to believe that other women find me attractive?"

"The only way you could get girls to want you would be witchcraft."

"That is such a—" Xander started, then cut himself off. "Well, yeah, okay, good point."

Then a rock went flying through the window of the back door. That was followed by the hand of Joyce trying to find and open the lock. "Xander, honey? Let Joycie in. Let Joycie in!"

Xander and Cordelia exchanged a glance, then ran out to the hallway and upstairs to Dawn's room. Xander knew that Dawn and Faith kept a weapon's chest at the foot their bed.

Shutting the door behind him, Xander breathed out a sigh of relief. He went over to the French doors that led onto the balcony so he could get a better look outside. The streets were empty, aside from one car driving by.

"Good. The mob still hasn't found us. We should be safer up—"

Suddenly, Nakamura, game face on, grabbed Xander by the lapels, smiled, said, "Works in theory."

"Xander!" Cordelia cried.

Nakamura pulled Xander close. "Where's Future girl?"

"Cordy, get out of here!" Xander yelled, hoping Cordelia had the brains to listen.

Nakamura threw Xander off the roof. Xander managed to land feet first and bend his knees with the impact, and so didn't actually break anything, though his ankles and knees were now killing him, and he stumbled and sprawled on his back.

A second later, Nakamura landed gracefully next to him. "Perfect," the vampire said with a grin as he grabbed Xander and pulled him up. "I wanted to do something special for Buffy."

Not willing to go down without a fight, Xander kneed Nakamura. When Xander tried to run, though, the vampire grabbed him and flipped him over onto the lawn. Nakamura then once again grabbed Xander by the lapels and pulled him close. Baring his fangs, he said, "If it's any consolation, I feel very close to you right now."

Before he could actually take a bite, though, a hand grabbed Nakamura and threw him off to the side.

"Dawn? Buffy?"

But it wasn't either Dawn or Buffy.

It was Drusilla.

"Don't fret, kitten. Mommy's here."

And she smiled.

Xander felt a chill that went all the way to his socks. It never occurred to him that the spell would also affect vampires. And Drusilla wasn't just any old female vampire: she was also completely, totally nuts.

Nakamura got up, furious. "I don't know what you're up to, Dru, but it doesn't amuse!"

Drusilla helped Xander up and stood protectively between him and Nakamura. "If you harm one hair on this boy's head . . ."

"You've got to be kidding," Nakamura said with a sadistic laugh. "Him?"

"Just because I finally found a real man . . ."

Nakamura shook his head. "I guess Angelus really did drive you crazy." He then seemed to fade in the background and disappeared.

Drusilla turned back to Xander who, for his part, was as scared as he'd ever been in his life. And that was some very stiff competition.

"Your face is a poem," Drusilla said in a dreamy voice. "Oooooh, I can read it."

"Really? It doesn't say, 'spare me' by any chance?"

She put her fingers on his lips. "Shhhh. How do you feel about eternal life?"

"We couldn't just start with coffee? A movie maybe?"

Just as Drusilla leaned in to do out of love what Angel had been about to do out of hate, angry voices sounded out from behind.

"There he is!"

"Get him!"

Xander had never been so happy to see a lust crazed mob in his life.

Drusilla and Xander were quickly separated by a gaggle of women who tore at Xander's clothes, reached for his hair, and generally tried to rip him to pieces.

Okay, maybe "happy" is the wrong word ...

"Mine! He's mine!"

"No, mine!"

Then there was Willow with the axe. "All you had to do was love me!"

Before she could bring the axe down, she was body slammed by Cordelia.

Cordelia managed to grab Xander and lead him to the house. Luckily, the members of the mob couldn't agree on who was Xander's true love, and so kept fighting one another rather than focusing on Xander himself. So, Cordelia and Xander managed, barely, to get into the house safely.

Nakamura watched with amusement as the women fought over Xander. Now it all made sense.

Obviously, someone had cast a love spell on Xander that made every woman in Sunnydale fall for him.

The vampire laughed. 'Oh, this is just too perfect. I couldn't have devised a better torture for the boy if I tried.'

Drusilla led a procession to the back door, which she knocked off its hinges.

The other women all barreled in, but Dru was stopped by what appeared to be an invisible barrier.

"Ah, sorry Dru," Nakamura said with another laugh as he drifted closer. "Guess you're not invited. Come on, Dru, let's go home, shall we? Sometimes, the Hellmouth just does our work for us."

"But Xander's in there!" she cried plaintively.

"Dru, dear—don't make me use force."

Cordelia locked the door behind her and Xander, then turned to see Joyce holding a very large knife.

"It's never gonna work for us, Xander. We have to end it."

"Where?" said Cordelia.

"Basement," said Xander. "Dawn has the Slayer version of a home gym, so there are weapons down there and only one way in or out."

Cordelia and Xander then ran for the basement. Xander shut and locked the door behind him, then he ran over to a chest.

"You know," said Cordelia. "Here's another reason not to date you. People are always trying to kill me when I'm with you. So, what do we do now, wait for Dawn or Buffy to come?"

"Right now, Buffy can't," Xander said as Cordelia looked at him. "Dawn turned her sister into a rat."

"Oh," said Cordelia.

"And let's hope Giles is forcing Dawn to help him reverse that spell," he added.

Behind the door, Cordelia could hear the entire female population of Sunnydale pounding on it.

"If we die in here . . ." Cordelia said.

"None of this would have happened if you hadn't broken up with me. But no, you're so desperate to be popular."

Cordelia was amazed. "Me? I'm not the one who embraced the black arts just to get girls to like me. Well, congratulations, it worked."

As Xander hammered in another nail, he said, "It would've worked fine, except your hide's so thick not even magic can penetrate it."

Feeling her jaw drop, Cordelia had just thought Xander was being his usual moron self. It never occurred to her . . . "You mean, the spell was for me?"

Suddenly, a large knife cut through the door. Cordelia screamed. She turned and ran down the stairs. They could hear the door being splintered. They then saw an arm crash through the window near the ceiling. Some of the girls were trying to get in that way.

"Oh my God," Cordelia cried.

"Stay behind me!" Xander said. He had grabbed the only weapon he could from the chest that would not kill any of the girls, a baseball bat.

And the mob closed in . . .

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Oz had to admit that his life had certainly changed since he met Willow. Not that he objected to these changes. For one thing, he now had a girlfriend, and an exceedingly cool one at that. For another, Willow's friends were pretty helpful when Oz's cousin's bite turned him into a werewolf. For a third, he finally got some explanation for why this town was so weird.

And he got to do things like chase people who'd been transformed into rats.

The latter was proving to be more difficult than Oz would have originally thought, once the rat in question left the library. Oz checked around, then heard somebody curse.

Following the noise, he saw Chris, one of the guys in his history class. "Yo, Oz, you see that?"

"See what?" Oz asked.

"This big ol' rat just ran down into the basement, man."

"Wow," Oz deadpanned.

Chris shook his head. "Man, don't nothin' faze you?"

Oz shrugged. "Not since I found out that vampires are real. After that, everything kind of pales in significance."

Chris shook his head, laughed, and walked off, obviously not believing a word of it. "Whatever, man. Watch out for the rat."

As soon as Chris was out of sight, Oz went straight for the stairs to the boiler room.

"Hey, Buffy?" Oz called out. He didn't want to turn the lights on, as the rat would run from that much brightness. Luckily, he found a flashlight hanging from a wall on the staircase. Turning it on kept him from tripping on anything, but of the rat there was no sign.

Oz heard a cat meow and hiss at one point, but he heard nothing ratlike.

Idly, Oz wondered if the custodian was in the habit of putting rat traps down here. He continued his search. "Here, Buffy . . ."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Giles had dragged Dawn and Amy to the chemistry lab where Amy had performed the original love ritual. After asking Dawn and Amy three times, they finally consented to help him. Amy redrew the female symbol on the floor while Giles prepared the herbs.

"Right," he said when all was in readiness. "Go on. Dawn, you first." They had agreed that Dawn would reverse the animal transformation, while Giles would reverse the love spell. This was mainly because Amy herself refused to do it.

When the water started boiling, and a rather pungent odor permeated the air, Dawn dropped a tuft of rodent hair into the mixture. "Goddess of creatures great and small, I conjure thee to withdraw. Hecate! I hereby license thee to depart!"

The beaker roiled, and a puff of red smoke emerged from it.

Holding the necklace Xander had given Cordelia in his hand, Giles took Amy's spellbook and read. "Diana, goddess of love, be gone. Hear no more thy siren's song."

He dropped the necklace into the beaker. The manifestation this time was on a much greater scale, filling the room briefly with a bright, red light.

Then the room was dark once again.

"What—what happened?" Amy asked, sounding confused.

"That's my question. Giles?" said Dawn.

"What do you remember, Dawn?" Giles asked.

Dawn thought back and then her eyes went wide. "Trying to seduce Xander, fighting with Buffy for him and then transforming my sister into a rat."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The first thing Buffy realized was that the cheese she had been about to consume was in a rat trap.

The second thing she realized was that, for the first time in a few days, she could think straight.

The third was that she was completely naked.

She was standing next to some crates. On the other side of those crates stood Oz, holding a flashlight.

To his credit, and Buffy's relief, he flicked off the flashlight as soon as he saw the state of Buffy's dress—or lack of dress, as the case may be.

"Hi, Oz," she said weakly.

"Hi."

"I seem to be having a slight case of nudity here."

Oz pointed at her and smiled. "But you're not a rat. So, call it an upside."

Buffy found she couldn't argue with that. "Do you think maybe you can get me some clothing?"

"Yes, I can," Oz said, turning to head upstairs. "Just don't go anywhere."

"Really not an issue," she said with feeling.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

'So, this is it,' Xander thought. 'We're going to die.'

And then, suddenly, it got quiet.

Xander looked up to see that all the women—Willow, Faith, Harmony, Katie, Gwen, Laura, Chloe, Joyce, and all the others—were kind of standing around looking dazed.

"What," Joyce stammered, "what did we—?"

Cordelia put on her May Queen smile and said, "Boy, that was the best scavenger huntever!"

February 18, 1998 - Saturday

"Scavenger hunt?" Dawn said shaking her head and laughing as she and Xander sat eating breakfast the next morning. Xander was recounting the story from his own perspective, including the rather nasty attack from Nakamura. He had just come to the end.

"Your mom seemed to buy it," Xander said defensively.

"She's repressing," said Dawn.

Xander sighed. "Well, I'm back to being incredibly unpopular."

"It's better than everybody trying to axe murder you, right?" Dawn asked.

"Mostly. But Willow won't even talk to me."

Dawn shot him a look. "Any particular reason she should?"

Xander asked plaintively, "How much groveling are we talking here?"

"Oh, a month at least. Xander, c'mon, I mean, this was worse for her than anyone. She loved you before Amy cast her spell. The rest of us . . ."

Xander shot her a look. He'd been so busy giving his side of the story that he hadn't gotten Dawn's. "You remember, huh?"

"Oh yeah," Dawn said with a nasty smile. "I remember coming on to you. I remember begging you to undress me." A pause, then: "I also remember that you didn't."

"I know what you and Faith mean to each other," said Xander. "I would never get in the way of that. After I'm going to be your best man, right?"

"Best man?" said Dawn.

"Well I can hope," he replied.

Dawn hadn't thought about her wedding yet, after all it was over a year away. But now that he had brought it up she knew he was right. She couldn't imagine not having him or Willow standing beside Buffy as her best man or maid of honor, in Buffy and Willow's case. "I think I would like that," she said.

February 20, 1998 - Monday

Cordelia had intended to face the next school day as another new day. Another ordinary day at her ordinary school. She was going to pretend that Friday just didn't happen. No love spells, no geeky losers trying to win her back, none of that.

She was walking with Harmony, Dori, Katie, Kimberley, and Laura, talking about guys. Everything was perfectly ordinary, as per the plan.

So why did it all feel wrong?

"Cody Weinberg called me at home last night," Harmony squealed.

Cordelia was impressed. "Cody Weinberg? The one with the Three-fifty SL?"

"The very one. Said he's thinking of asking me to the pledge dance on Thursday."

"That's so huge," Cordelia said.

"Yeah. There's just two other girls he's going to ask first, and if they refuse, then I—"

Before she could continue, Harmony literally bumped into Xander.

"Watch it!" Harmony said.

Expecting him to wig out or something, Cordelia was surprised with how meekly he said, "Sorry."

Then he just moved on.

Harmony called out to his back. "God, I'm glad your mom stopped working the drive-thru long enough to dress you."

Cordelia saw Xander hesitate, then keep walking.

And then she figured it out.

There had been something wrong about all of this, going back to when Harmony and the others blew her off just because she was dating Xander.

Cordelia was the trendsetter. People lined up to see what she was wearing so they'd know what the right thing to wear was. And what she did was, by definition, cool.

She thought about a beautiful silver heart necklace, and a guy who was willing to dabble in black magic to get her back.

"That reminds me," Harmony babbled on, "did yousee Jennifer's backpack? It's so trying—"

"Harmony, shut up," Cordelia said.

Harmony stopped walking and stared at Cordelia in something like shock. The others behind her did the same.

Down the quad, so did Xander.

"You know what you are, Harmony? You're a sheep."

"I'm not a sheep," Harmony said meekly.

"You're a sheep. All you ever do is what everyone else does, just so you can say you did it first. And here I am, scrambling for your approval, when I'm way cooler than you are because I'm not a sheep. I do what I want to do, and I wear what I want to wear, and you know what? I'll date whoever the hell I want to date."

Xander brightened.

"No matter how lame he is." Xander's face fell a bit.

With that, she turned on her heel, and walked straight for Xander. She grabbed his hand, and pulled him along, not breaking stride.

As soon as they turned a corner, she realized what, exactly, she had just done.

"Oh God, oh God."

"You're going to be okay," Xander said, talking like she was about to jump off a roof. "Just keep walking."

"Oh God, what have I done? They're never going to speak to me again."

"Sure, they are," Xander said confidently. "If it helps, whenever we're around them, you and I can fight a lot."

She looked up at him gratefully. "You promise?"

Smiling, Xander said, "You can pretty much count on it."

Dawn watched as the pair walked off. She regretted letting Xander and Cordelia get close knowing they would eventually break up. But that break up, she knew, would lead Xander to Anya. The one person he had almost married and if it hadn't been because of some phony visions shown to him by a former victim of Anya's he would have. Just as Dawn knew that Willow needed to find and fall in love with Tara on her own, she knew Xander had to do the same with Anya. She just wished it could have been done with less heartache on either Xander or Willow's parts.

"So, what are you thinking?" said Buffy as she came up beside Dawn.

Dawn turned toward her sister and smiled. "That I owe you an apology."

"It wasn't your fault," said Buffy. "Love can make people do the wacky. Look at me, I fell for a vampire, remember? Besides I know you didn't really mean it, little sis."

Author's Note: I know Faith got very little screen time in this and the last two chapters. But I didn't really see a place for her except as a groupie. I knew that Amy had to be part of it because of the spell as I didn't see Dawn agreeing to do a love spell. But once it was cast, I knew exactly what I wanted Dawn to do, I wanted Dawn, despite being gay, to be the one to seduce Xander and to be the one to transform her sister into a rat.