Faith performed a spectacular move, rolling round on the broom to dodge the blow and unseat her attacker, but she lost sight of the guy on the other side. A jet of red energy hit home, and Dawn screamed,
"FAITH!" Faith lost her grip on the broom, flopping sideways into the space between the broom and the forest. "FAITH!" Dawn cried again, swinging round. But as the slayers limp form dropped beneath the canopy, strong hands encircled her arms, preventing her following, so all she could do was watch.
A soothing but strong voice told her,
"We have to go. Now!" She turned to Draco, and her heart fluttered as she realised he'd come to rescue her. But she shook her head.
"No! Faith!"
Draco dragged her round.
"There's nothing you can do now! We have to go! Buffy's here, she'll deal!" Dawn reluctantly did as she was told, following her boyfriend back towards the school as Wesley and Buffy engaged the startled enemy.
Dawn and Draco landed on the Hogwarts lawn, just as Dawn made up her mind. She leapt back on the broom.
"Dawn!" Draco cried, "What are you doing?"
"Going back." She replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"No way."
"Yes way!" she retorted childishly. "Buffy will fight off the bad guys, yeah, but she wont go back for Faith. She hates her, so does Wes. She saved my life, Draco! I can't just leave her!"
"But your sister said…"
"Screw what my sister said! I'm going back, and you can't stop me!"
"Dawn, I can't let you get hurt! Buffy told me to get you back here and keep you here." He drew his wand. "Please don't make me stop you."
"Oh I would love to see you try." She said coldly. Draco swallowed awkwardly. Power was crackling round the small girl.
"Then I'm coming with you." He said. Dawn softened, glad she wouldn't be alone, even if it seemed selfish.
"Thank you." She said. He smiled softly.
"I can't lose you, Dawnie." He said. They kissed once, gently, before pushing off again, heading straight back into the fire.
Buffy wrestled hand to hand with the death-eaters. They'd expected an un-armed girl to be a pushover, but unlike Faith, Buffy was at full strength, and very pissed off. Most of them found that their wands had been kicked from their grasp before they even got close to the blonde slayer. Out of the corner of her eye, Buffy saw something that infuriated her. Dawn was back! She flew past un-noticed by the battle-engaged death-eaters, and sunk into the trees with Draco.
"Faith?" Dawn called out, as loud as she dared.
"She probably isn't conscious after that fall." Draco reminded her. Dawn saw movement to the left, and went towards it, only to find a wounded death-eater, who they stunned quickly.
"Crap, this'll take hours!" Dawn exclaimed. Then she smiled. Laying her wand flat on her hand, she concentrated on Faith and said, "Point me." The wand spun round and pointed off into the trees on her right. She grinned, and Draco shook his head,
"You spend too much time with Potty Potter." He grumbled. Dawn nudged him in the ribs, and he was silent. Dawn repeated the spell frequently, knocking out death eaters as they went, until she saw a crumpled figure up ahead, that even in the darkness, she could tell was not dressed in black. She rushed to the fallen slayer's side.
"Faith?" She said, touching her face gently, scared to move her too much. The blood from her stab wound had spread, giving the shirt a sickly tie-dye effect. Dawn swallowed, and checked for a pulse, sighing in relief when she found one, though it was weak. "Faith, oh god…" She repeated. The older girl's eyelids fluttered. "Faith?"
"Dawn?" She breathed. "I told you to run…"
"Yeah, well I'm a Summers, I never do what I'm told." She replied with a scared smile. Faith tried to return it, but couldn't.
"Go…" Was all she managed.
"Uh-uh. No chance. I came back for you, and now we take you with us."
"Too… heavy… catch you…"
"No! Buffy is here. She's fighting the death-eaters. We can get away. Now shut up and stop doing the tragic martyr thing!" She looked the older girl up and down. "I'm sorry if this hurts a little." She tried to pick her up, but failed. Draco pushed her aside, using his wand to cast a feather-light charm, enabling them to lift her easily. Dawn floated her broom and mounted it, Draco helping her to seat Faith behind her, though she nearly flopped off sideways. Dawn bit her lip in thought, then carefully pulled the slayer's arms around her, using conjured ropes to tie her hands in front, forcing her to hold on. Draco didn't seem happy.
"Will you be able to hold on?" He asked.
"She weighs nothing... literally. It'll be fine."
"Ok… Keep that weird shield of yours up, and I'll fight them off if I need to." He ordered. Dawn nodded, and they set off once more.
Buffy saw her sister leave the forest again, the limp form of the other slayer leaning against her. Something within Buffy twisted, but she forced herself to concentrate on the fight.
Thanks to Buffy and Wes, Dawn and Draco had little trouble escaping again. When they set down the brooms in Hogwarts for the second time, they saw a small group, including the headmaster, McGonogall, Madame Pomfrey and several scoobies. McGonoagll kept repeating,
"Oh lord! Oh lord!" while Dawn untied Faith's hand, and laid her gently on the grass. Faith's breathing was shallow and ragged, her pulse even weaker than before.
"Madame Pomfrey?" Dawn begged, ignoring everyone asking her if she was alright. Madame Pomfrey looked the slayer over, removing the feather light charm and conjuring a stretcher beneath her.
"We must hurry." She said, turning and heading back up the lawn, the stretcher floating close behind. Dawn raced after her, barely even hearing the insistent questions.
"Dawn!" Spike yelled eventually, followed by,
"Miss Summers!" By both McGonogall and Dumbledore.
"Huh?" She replied, turning
"Are you ok?" They all repeated.
"Erm, yeah." She looked down at the tattered dress, covered in splodges of blood.
"You bleeding?" Spike said frowning. He could see the blood, but it didn't smell like hers.
"No. It's not mine." Dawn answered, glancing back towards Faith.
"But what happened?" Willow gasped, "Where's Buffy?"
"Right here." Buffy said, dropping off her broom with Wesley at her side. "We took some of them down, but there were plenty left to report back, they just kept coming!" She winced as she tried to move normally after the long stint on the broom. "Dawnie!" She cried, embracing her sister, "Thank god you're ok!"
"No, actually." Dawn said, wincing under her sister's grip on her bruised body, "Thank Faith. She saved me."
"What did he do to you?" Buffy asked quietly, pulling back to see the young girls bruised face and arms. Dawn shrugged, meeting none of their eyes,
"Asked me questions, wanted to know who I was and how I had this power."
"Voldemort never just asks questions." Draco said quietly. Only the scoobies didn't understand what he meant.
"Oh god, Summers…" McGonogall gasped. "Go to the hospital wing. Malfoy..." She indicated for him to take her. Dawn did not protest; her strength was draining now that she had nothing to concentrate on. The memories, the pain, everything was catching up with her.
As she entered the hospital wing, she saw Faith on one bed, Madame Pomfrey working quickly over her, but past them, she saw two people watching confused from where they sat by another bed, with another patient.
"Harry!" Dawn cried when she saw him. If he was in the hospital wing…
"Dawn!" Hermione answered, her eyes going wide as she leapt from the chair, sweeping her friend into a hug. "We didn't know what to think!"
"Where'd you go off to?" Ron said accusingly to Draco,
"Oh, y'know- saving the day." He shrugged. Dawn gave him a withering look, then turned to Harry.
"He's…?"
"Yeah, he's alive." Hermione finished. Dawn grinned widely,
"I thought… when Voldemort…he's gonna be ok, then?"
"Yeh. He survived." Draco confirmed, only grimacing a little. "Again."
Dawn realised that they were all looking at her curiously,
"What?"
"That force shield you used when we were flying… it wasn't any normal charm, was it?" Draco said. Dawn took a deep breath, and shook her head.
"It was Wicca." She told them. Hermione's smile widened,
"I knew it!" she cried. "Wow! How, though?"
Dawn shrugged.
"When I knew Voldemort was gonna kill Harry, I knew there wasn't any wizard spell to deflect it, but I figured there was nothing to lose by trying, right? Willow taught me a protection spell ages ago… so I tried it… I thought it hadn't worked."
"Well it did." Draco smiled, "You saved Potty's life." With everyone relatively safe, Draco slipped back into taking the piss, just to lighten the situation. He got two elbows in the ribs, one from each girl.
"Right, Summers." Madame Promfrey said, "Let me get a look at you child. Oh, lord you're freezing!" She bustled Dawn towards a spare bed, pulling curtains round. When Madame Promfrey re-emerged, she shued the others off, much to their annoyance.
Dammit, couldn't find anywhere for an interesting cliff-hanger! Sigh, oh well! Review please!!