When Dawn awoke… again, she felt a whole load better. She rolled over, checking on the others, to see that Harry was gone, and Faith was propped up on one elbow, looking out of the window.
"Faith." Dawn said with a sigh of relief. The slayer turned stiffly.
"Hey, kid." She replied, a cheeky smile showing that this was for the sole reason of annoying the younger girl. Dawn just smiled,
"How you doin'?"
"Y'know me. Five by…" Dawn shot her a withering look. "Ok, about two." She said resignedly. Dawn smirked.
"Erm, did you see where Harry went?" Dawn asked. Faith frowned, then looked over her shoulder at the empty bed.
"Oh. The other kid? Yeah, he was allowed to leave this morning. But … Harry?"
"Yeah, he survived." Dawn grinned.
"Wicked cool, Dawnie. You saved his life."
"No more 'n you did for me." Dawn replied quietly.
"Hey, ditto." Faith said.
"Nu-uh, that doesn't count. See, that was only cos you'd only gotten hurt on account of me. You'd saved my life before that too, from Voldemort. So you saved me twice." She looked very proud of out-doing the slayer. Faith laughed,
"What ever." Then gasped, "Ouch. Note to self: laughing= bad." She lay back down, one hand on her stomach.
"Still hurts, huh?" Dawn asked sympathetically. Faith nodded. Dawn went quiet, causing the slayer to look over at her. The silence wasn't just the sort where you can't think of anything to say- Dawn felt guilty.
"Whoa, kid. How the hell is this your fault?" Dawn's head snapped up,
"An' Hermione thought I was good at readin' people."
"Dawnie, This is Voldemort's doin' one hundred percent."
"But Buffy…"
"She did it first time, yeah, when we were fightin' to the death! I'd poisoned Angel, it was my fault this happened, not hers!" Dawn smiled softly, and nodded, but still seemed sad.
"Things got so screwed up."
"That goes without sayin'." Faith laughed, and winced.
"Buffy did go to see you y'know." Dawn said, slightly hesitantly. Faith frowned. "When you were… 'asleep'. No one knew about it, 'cept me, and I know I wasn't actually there, but still. Whenever she felt lonely, or somethin' like that, she went to see you. She sat there and just talked to you, as if you were still there in the way you used to be. She went to you when Parker used her, she asked your opinion on stuff… I followed her once, cos I wanted to know where she went, and she caught me, of course. She said she knew it was dumb, cos you couldn't hear her, but she was scared for you. She didn't know whether she wanted you to wake up or not, and she knew the others wouldn't understand her going to see you, cos they'd never felt the connection between the two of you. She told me that she couldn't have defeated the mayor without you, so she owed you that much. She owed you company, even if she couldn't give you anything else." Dawn just said it all, finding that it was easier just to continue once she'd started. Now she looked at the slayer to find tears in her dark eyes. Faith sniffed and turned away, still hating to show weakness. Dawn could think of no more to say. Madame Pomfrey took the opportunity to cut in, bustling out of the office towards Faith.
"Let's get a look at you, eh?" She said softly to Faith, raising her pyjama top to survey the wound. The witch frowned and looked up at Faith,
"This was a spell, wasn't it?" She asked. Faith nodded absently. "Do you remember the words?" Faith sniffed again, and thought hard,
"Something about… letting pains past manifest in the present… I don't remember it all… I just know that it reopened the wound, pain from the past, now, in the present." Madame Promfrey raised her eyebrows, and lifted the shirt further so that both girls could see Faith's midriff. It was perfectly smooth, and undamaged. The faintest of scars showed, but even that was fading. "How?" Faith gasped.
"If it truly was the spell of which you speak, then it didn't mean physical pain, my dear. It meant internal pain, it would have taken the most painful feelings you've had in the past few years, and manifested it in the way your mind found fit. A wound like this can only heal when that pain subsides within. Only when you have accepted, or forgiven, and allowed the pain to pass can the physical wound be fully closed." Faith swallowed, and Dawn bit her lip, thinking of the words that had just passed between them. Then Faith shrugged,
"Whatever." She murmured. Dawn couldn't help but smile, and shook her head at Madame Pomfrey, telling her not to worry about it. The old witch sighed, and left.
"Heya lit'le bit!" The blonde vampire exclaimed as the group entered the hospital wing. Faith looked up to see who was using her nickname for Dawn, and frowned. Dawn was beaming.
"Spike! Hey."
"Spike?" Faith exclaimed. Dawn nodded,
"You've heard of him?"
"We've met." She said, her eyes not leaving the vampire, her frown not fading.
"I don't think we have." Spike said. Faith just raised her eyebrows.
"Anyway, Spike helps us now." Buffy said, trying hard to keep the coldness out of her voice. "Hello Faith." Buffy greeted.
"B." Faith said, nodding. Then she looked behind the other slayer, and greeted each of her once-friends, "Xander, Will, …Tara, right? And… Anya?" The two latter girls nodded in confirmation, and Xander and Will tried their best to smile.
"So, how do you feel?" Buffy asked her sister.
"I'm fine!" Dawn replied excitedly. Spike smirked,
"Only a Summers could be that hyper less than two days after what you went through." Dawn smiled proudly, but added,
"I got nothing compared to Faith." The dark haired slayer was shocked; she'd been prepared to be over looked now that the Scooby gang had arrived. She was even more surprised to see genuine sorrow in Buffy's eyes,
"Are you ok?" Buffy asked.
"Been better." Faith shrugged. "But I will be." Buffy smiled softly, her eyes flickering over the small patch of blood still showing on Faith's shirt. She quickly averted her eyes,
"Erm, Dawnie, we've been talking to Dumbledore, and he said it was up to you whether we stick around or not, cos this whole sitch isn't really our deal."
Dawn shrugged,
"Surely you're needed more in Sunnydale."
"But with Voldemort…" Buffy argued.
"Buffy, like you said, Voldemort isn't exactly your area of expertise, plus there's so many witches and wizards around anyway... I'll be fine."
"But you weren't fine, Dawn! They need a fighting arm!"
"Well, Faith could stay." Dawn suggested. The room temperature dropped dramatically.
"Faith?"
"Yeah, why not? She can't go back to prison, cos Voldemort could get at her so easy. He's gonna be majorly pissed with her… you," Dawn added, bringing Faith in, "So what better place is there for you to be than here?" Faith swallowed, knowing Buffy was not going to be happy with this.
"Dawn," Buffy said, trying to keep calm, "I really don't think that a school is the best place…"
"Jeez, Buffy! She saved my life!"
"Dawn, its ok." Faith said quietly. "I understand. B's right."
"Faith!" Dawn exclaimed, "You let Voldemort do all those things to you rather than join him, and then you saved my life…twice!! I don't care what you did years ago, I've seen how you are now. And Buffy, you're standing next to your trusted friend Spike, a vampire for gods sake!!" She let out a breath, and Spike smirked.
"Go Dawnie." Xander muttered, earning himself a sharp look from Buffy.
"I agree." Anya said. They all looked at her, just waiting for her reasoning. "Well Spike used to be a killer til he got chipped, and I was a demon, and Xander summoned that singing demon, causing half the town to sing until they burned, and you forgave all of us. So why not Faith too? All she did was kill a couple of people and then try to kill you guys too. And hey, Spike has tried to kill you many a time, I actually did technically kill you all in another dimension, the singing thing nearly got us all killed, and even you nearly killed people when you thought you were crazy!" The last was aimed at Buffy. Faith raised her eyebrows, the only one who'd barely followed any of that. Spike was holding back hysterics. He'd never seen Buffy look so put out. Buffy came to a decision,
"Then I guess its up to you." She told Faith, "And Dumbledore, I suppose."
"Whoa, whoa, you're askin' me to decide? I'm meant to be in prison for at least the next like, 23 years, people."
"So? It's not like there isn't enough people to deal if you even if you did freak again." Dawn said it so simply that no one could argue, for a moment at least.
"It's still a school, Dawnie." Faith said eventually.
"Well I trust you." The teenager replied.
"It's really up to Dumble-thingy anyway." Faith shrugged, "He's the principal, right?"
"Headmaster."
"Right. England." Faith winced over dramatically.
"Hey, it's not that bad!" Spike said.
"So you'll stay?" Dawn squeaked, "If Dumbledore lets you, you'll stay?"
"If that's what you want." Faith agreed.
"Yey!" Dawn cried. Buffy still frowned, but agreed to go talk to Dumbledore.
It was several days before Dawn was allowed to leave the hospital wing, and still longer before her Gryffindor friends got a chance to talk to her alone. She'd been dreading the confrontation, and welcomed the business of sorting out arrangements with Faith and seeing the Scooby gang for the first time since she come to Hogwarts. However, the next Sunday evening, she returned to the common room to find them the only people left in there. She sat with them, and mock-grimaced as they greeted her normally, but kept looking as if they really wanted to say something.
"Just get it over with." She said. Hermione laughed, still loving the way Dawn could read people.
"Where do we start?" Harry sighed.
"How about, why didn't you tell us your sister is the freakin' slayer!?" Ron blurted. The others all laughed.
"I'm sorry, ok?" Dawn said, "It's just that, well, you know slayers are supposed to be secret."
"But all the things she's done!" Hermione exclaimed, "They told us a little, but I got the feeling there's loads more where that came from."
"Well, I told you about the vampires." Dawn replied.
"What!?" Both Harry and Ron cried. Dawn winced, Hermione shrugged,
"Girl talk."
Harry shook his head, he'd decided he would never understand girls.
"So… you've seen all sorts of weird stuff?" He asked. Dawn nodded,
"Demons, vampires, magic- well Wicca…"
"Like you used to save me?" Harry asked. She nodded.
"But that's nothing. Willow and Tara can do some wicked stuff…"
"Willow? Your sister's friend? She's a witch… Wicca?"
"Yup. Real powerful. And Spike is a vampire…"
"A vampire!?" The others
exclaimed. Dawn sighed, this was gonna be a long night.