Heya people, Merry Christmas!
First of all… Where'd so many people get the idea that I had the whole story written out!? I sed at one stage I had the next chapter written, but I don't have the whole story. In fact, (shock horror) I have very little written following this post! I would usually not give ya this when I have so little more written, but I thought it was mean to not post now when I'm going away for Christmas!
Aneeka- to answer ur Harry/Dawn query, just keep reading!! J
Am I the only one that finds it amusing that I started writing this story before the summer, and its now Christmas, yet in the story, which starts later on in the year than I started writing it, they still havent't quite got to Christmas!? If that made any sense at all…
Oh well!
Read and enjoy!
Merry Christmas!
Chapter 46Dawn looked up, wide eyed, at Dumbledore, who smiled back.
"That's why you invited Buffy and the others- you knew they had to come."
Dumbledore nodded. "How the hell do I go back in time?" She then asked. Dumbledore stood, and picked a large hourglass off a shelf.
"This is how- a Time Turner."
"That's what T.T meant! Hermione told me about those…" Dawn said, intrigued, "But I don't wanna live the whole of the last month over again!"
Dumbldore chuckled,
"You shan't have to. This is a different type of time turner, one that can take you back much further, but only for a limited time. Once you are back to the precise time and date, you will stay only a set length of time. Stay longer than this, and you will automatically return to the moment you left."
"Wicked cool. Confusing, but very cool." Dawn said. "So… what date was it?" She asked him. Dumbledore smiled again,
"Thankfully, on receiving this letter, I recorded the event and time in my journal for this precise reason."
"I knew there was a reason I liked you." Dawn said. Dumbledore realised then how bad the vision must have been. Dawn had not smiled even slightly since entering his office. Not even just then, when making amusing comments. She was deeply troubled, and would be until this business was dealt with. She took the time turner from him, while he looked up the time and date. "Oh. I'm gonna need the ingredients and stuff for that teleportation spell for when I…" Dumbledore gave her a small bag of herbs and a book. "That include the voice changey thing?" She asked. Dumbledore nodded. "Thanks." She said. "Well then, wish me luck."
Dumbledore helped her to set the timeturner, and said,
"You shall have five hours. Good luck."
Dawn smiled bravely, and disappeared.
Less than a second later, so quick that if he wasn't watching intently Dumbledore wouldn't have noticed her absence, Dawn was back. She was smiling, looking excited but sheepish.
"Did it work?" Dawn asked immediately.
"Well, you're here, I'm here, and I don't remember Harry dying, so I would say yes." Dumbledore replied. Dawn squeaked, and hugged Dumbldore. She actually hugged the headmaster. When she realised what she was doing, Dawn removed herself and smiled awkwardly,
"Sorry professor." She said. At that moment, the rest of the group burst through the door- the force field had dropped when Dawn skipped back in time.
"Dawn!" many of them cried.
"Heya guys." She said nervously, knowing that all of them would be confused, irritated or both.
"Are you ok?"
"What are you doing?"
"Why didn't you answer us?" Several people asked in unison, with some other questions thrown in too.
"Do calm down." Dumbledore said. "I believe Miss Summers is going to be just fine, however she needs rest. If she wants to tell you what she just did, I have no objections, it is, however, up to her, and I would beg you not to pester her." Dawn glanced at the old man, and smirked, seeing that he was clearly happy to be very much in charge again, and the only one who knew what was going on. Dawn thought the slayers annoyed him a little, with their forceful ways and knowledge that they were the leaders. Draco stepped forwards, taking Dawn's hands,
"Are you alright?" He asked. Dawn smiled,
"Yes, I'm gonna be fine." She replied. Draco pulled her into a hug, and she gratefully returned it, taking comfort in his warmth. Hermione glanced at Harry, and though he looked very unhappy, she saw that he was not scowling.
Dawn spent the rest of the day, and most of the following one, in bed. When she finally ventured down to the common room in the late afternoon, she was greeted warmly, and was very surprised to find Draco playing wizard chess with Ron. Ron's only explanation, much to Harrys irritation, was,
"He's better than Harry-I needed a challenge." The trio, Draco, the rest of the Weasleys, and Faith (because she was with Charlie) were the only people in the common room. But after all the greetings, and queries into how Dawn was feeling, there was an awkward silence, while the group tried not to stare at Dawn. She sighed, knowing it was explanations time again. She had gathered from Draco how much the others had heard, and knew that if she was going to be entirely truthful now, then there was great chance of her friends never looking at he the same way ever again.
"Dawn…"Hermione began, knowing how hard this was going to be on her friend.
"No." Dawn said, "Don't. Just let me… It easier if I just tell you."
"About yesterday? Or about your 'power'?" Ron asked in an amazingly Cordelia moment.
"Bravo, Mr tact." Harry murmured. Dawn smiled sadly.
"Both, if that's what you want."
"Dawnie…" Faith said, warning in her voice.
"They deserve the truth." Dawn replied. She looked around at the people who had been her friends for months now, and prayed that they really were. "I'll start with…" Dawn was about to say 'yesterday' but knew that if she didn't get it done right away, she would never regain the courage to tell them of her origins. So she sighed, mid sentence. Draco sat beside her, and took her hand comfortingly. "Ok… my power." She said, "You all know that I was called on as a witch very late on. I never really gave you a decent explanation for that… truth is, I wasn't bought here when I was eleven, cos I…" She faultered, "Cos… I wasn't alive at eleven." She paused, but not long enough for any of the utterly bewildered listeners to speak. "Technically, I have only been alive about a year and a half. All my memories, and my family and friends memories of me, are fake, implanted by a spell a group of monks cast when they made me human. Before that, I was… well, basically a ball of energy, known as the Key. The Key had the power to rip a portal between hundreds of different worlds- it could destroy the world. The monks changed it into me, using my sister, to hide it from a hell goddess called Glory," Hermione's eyes flew wide, remembering the name from the care of magical creatures lesson when Dawn had let it slip. Dawn nodded at her, and continued, "She wanted to use that portal to return to her hell dimension." Dawn glanced up at her friends- until now, apart from the nod to Hermione, she had been starring blankly at the ground to avoid their eyes.
"If Glory is a god, how did she not figure it out?" Harry said, his voice croaky and stiff.
"She wasn't an all powerful kinda god, but she did eventually figure it out. By that time Buffy had also worked out that I wasn't originally her sister- one of the monks told her what I was, and that I had been sent to her for protection. The only way to ensure the safety of the world was to… to kill me. But Buffy refused, and Glory got me. The prophecies said that the portal could only be opened at one specific time, in one place, and it was opened by the …essence… of the key."
"Your blood." Hermione said in a hoarse voice. Dawn nodded.
"Even though Buffy was holding Glory off, she had a backup- this demon guy. He managed to cut me, at the right time, right place… Spike tried to stop him, but… so the portal opened. Buffy got to me, killed the demon… but the portal could only be closed when the blood stops flowing…"
"When you're dead…" Charlie gasped. Dawn nodded stiffly.
"Buffy wouldn't let me jump into the portal. She realised that because I was made from her, our blood was the same. We were… interchangeable…"
"Oh god…" Hermione gasped, "That's why she died… she jumped instead."
"Yeah." Dawn replied dryly. The group were silent, trying to digest what had been said. Eventually, it was Ginny who spoke,
"But if your sister died…?" She managed.
"Willow bought her back. She and Xand, and Tara and Anya thought that Buffy might be in some awful hell dimension cos of the portal… so they bought her back with magic." Harry studied Dawn very closely when he detected a little bitterness in that comment. The tears in her eyes, and the knowing look Faith told him enough.
"But she wasn't." He said. Dawn looked at him, surprised. "She wasn't in hell, was she?" He said. Dawn shook her head,
"No. Buffy was in heaven." She said. Again, silence descended on the group. Faith desperately wanted to comfort Dawn, or else yell at all of the others for not comforting her. But deep down she knew that they had to come around on their own- shouting wouldn't help in the long run.
"So… you were made from the … 'Key?" Charlie said.
"Yeah… well, no… I am the key, or at least, the key was transformed into me. There isn't some bit of it left floating around somewhere, it is me, I am it. Cept it doesn't open anything anymore. I am the 'Child of the Key'… that's what McGonogall called me. An' that's why I'm magical. That's where my power comes from."
"That's why you can do wicca easily too." Hermione stated. Dawn nodded, looking nervously round at her friends, terrified to meets their eyes.
"Are you even human?" Ron asked, "Sorry, I know how that sounds…"
"It's ok… but I am. I didn't used to be, I didn't start off human… but someone once told me that its what you become, what you are now that counts, doesn't matter how you start off. I am human." Ron nodded, and they were quiet again, all of them clearly thinking it over. Tears rolled down Dawn's cheeks as time past with none of them saying anymore. She felt that they were drifting further away from her with every second.
But eventually, someone spoke. George looked up suddenly, a grin on his face,
"Wicked cool." He said. Fred looked at him, grinned, and nodded,
"It is pretty cool." He agreed. The others all looked at them, Dawn smiling slightly through the tears, and Faith gaining a new respect for the pranksters. But they were not Dawn's main worry. She looked to Hermione and the other two. Hermione stood, crossing to stand before Dawn. She tugged on Dawn's hand, making her stand. When their eyes met, Dawn saw that Hermione was smiling wryly.
"You, Dawn Summers, are a dumbass." She said. "What the hell kind of a friend would I be if I turned my back on you for that?" And she pulled Dawn into a tight hug. Dawn hugged back, new tears, now of happiness, streaming down her cheeks. When they parted, Dawn saw that Harry, Ron and Ginny were standing right there, and also embraced her, even Ron, though awkwardly. Harry was last.
"We'll never abandon you." Harry said, gripping her tightly. "Never." Dawn felt her heart melt, knowing how close they had been to losing Harry. She knew by now that he loved her, and that though in other circumstances she might have, she could not return that love. She felt suddenly as if this was the end of something, as if he was finally letting go, accepting that they were not to be. Everyone noticed that the pair hung on for a moment longer than the others had. When they parted, everyone looked at Charlie. Faith was feeling a horrid dread, for she knew that if Charlie rejected Dawn now, she would not be able to accept that. She would hate him instantly, despite the fact that she (though she would not admit it) had grown to love him. But Charlie smiled,
"Makes sense that power would run in your family." He said, "Even if you're not really… na, too complicated." He sighed, "You're powerful, Summers, just know that there is no one on this earth who will support you more than this one." He nudged Faith. "You're lucky to have such devoted friends." He looked around at the assembled group, smiling widely, "I guess you must be ok if all those idiots have so much …" He chuckled, "So much faith in you."
"I think that was a compliment." Faith translated, ignoring the play on words. Dawn grinned, and nodded. Faith stood suddenly and took Dawn in a bone crushing hug, "Ya did good kid."
"I'm not a kid." Dawn protested.
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