Hi people, I updated!!
I am SO sorry that this is taking so long!! It's not intentional, I think my muse jumped out of a window or something. But I am NOT giving up on this story. It WILL be completely- hopefully soon. This isn't a very long chapter, but I beg you to bear with me. Any of you doing AS levels right now? Then you'll understand how much work I have. I'm already spending way more time on fanfiction than I shud be, but screw it. *grins* There might be a while between updates, but there will BE updates, I promise. Please don't give up on me!!
Ok, grovelling done…
All go read Becks89, witchlight, shooting star19's stories!! They rock. And… shameless plug!! Go read my other stories, especially 'it's all in the blood' as that's my current main story! (I actually update that one!! Shock horror)
And now on with the chapter. Sorry it is quite short, but hopefully sweet…?
Chapter 47
On Christmas Eve, they all piled into the Gryffindor common room, scoobies, slayers, Gryffindors, Draco and Blaise all included. Everyone was in too high spirits to really give that much of a damn that it was very unorthodox.
"You seen Hagrid lately?" Hermione asked Harry as they settled into the squashy chairs by the fire.
"Yeh… I think he was moping about not seeing Maxime for a while." Harry replied. Dawn giggled,
"I still can't imagine Hagrid being romantic." She said.
"Isn't he just too large to be like that?" Blaise asked. The trio looked at her sharply, but all saw, to their shock, that it was a totally innocent comment. Blaise was smiling, just joining in with them. Hermione cracked a smile,
"You'd think, huh?" She agreed.
"As long as he doesn't get the furry suit out again." Ron said.
"Furry suit?" Dawn gasped.
"Brown and furry. It was gross." Hermione said.
"Willow never minded furry." Xander said, overhearing.
"What?" Half of them cried. Willow flushed red.
"That was different." She snapped. "He was a werewolf."
"You dated a werewolf!?" Blaise cried.
"Yeah." Willow replied indignantly, "Cept on full moons they're just normal people!"
"But they're so dangerous!" Blaise argued.
"Professor Lupin wasn't dangerous." Harry snapped, "He was the best DADA teacher we've had."
Blaise nodded, quieting at his words, and sudden anger. Dawn frowned at Harry, who shrugged- he really didn't see why he should go out of his way to be nice to a girl who'd been at the centre of the Slytherin crew for years. He felt an odd jolt, and looked to his left, where barely a metre away sat Draco Malfoy, talking and laughing with the others. He shook off the odd feeling, to hear Buffy's input about even some vampires being ok, including present company. Spike grinned proudly. However Buffy went on to point out that Maya, (Faith's slayer vampire portrait door, who had joined them through another portrait) was a perfectly nice person. So Spike sulked instead, while everyone else laughed.
They spent the whole day just messing around. In the afternoon, the sky clouded over completely, and thick snow began to fall. By the time they'd finished lunch in the great hall, there were a couple of inches on the ground, and everyone wrapped up warm and headed outside. Even Spike was able to join them thanks to the cloud, though he didn't need to wrap up like the others. He stood watching the teenagers lob snow balls at each other, chuckling when they realised that Tara and Willow, who had joined in, weren't actually touching the many snowballs they were tossing. Spike stumbled forwards with a yell as an icy ball hit the back of his head,
"Bloody hell!" He cried, spinning. Buffy grinned cheekily, juggling another snowball between her hands. "Slayer." Spike growled.
"Bring it on." Buffy laughed, hitting him in the face with the next ball.
Dawn was having the time of her life; she'd rarely seen real snow. She threw another snowball at Draco, who dodged it, and threw one back at her. It hit her in the stomach, and she laughed,
"You are soo dead." She said.
"Oh yeah?" He taunted her.
"Yeah." She lobbed another frozen ball, but he dove under it and tackled her, knocking her over in the snow. She giggled hysterically as he landed on top of her, and began to tickle her. "No fair!" She cried. When he stopped, they just grinned at each other, lying there in the snow. Draco leant down, and kissed her. Dawn grinned wider. Then she heaved hard, and tossed him over, rolling them so he was beneath her. Then she leapt up, and ran.
Hermione, Ginny, Blaise, Faith and the wiccas had made themselves a low snow wall behind which they hid while chucking snowballs at the boys. Dawn legged it across the battlefield, and hurdled he wall, grinning wildly.
"Go Dawnie." Willow said, and they all knew she wasn't talking about the jump. Hermione peeked over the top, before quickly ducking again as a hail of snowballs flew over them. Blaise peeked too, and dropped quickly, turning her back against the wall and yelling,
"Fire fire fire!! They're charging!" The girls yelped, and whether magically or by hand threw as many balls as they could over the barrier. But the boys had made their decision. Harry, Ron, the Twins, Charlie, Draco and Xander ran hard towards the snow shelter. They simply endured the barrage of snowballs and kept going, yelling battle cries. Each had a supply of snowballs held against his chest, saving them for the right moment. Faith glanced over the top.
"Shit." She laughed, and jumped up. She'd only run a few steps when the boys appeared over and around the wall, pelting them with snowballs. Charlie raced after Faith, while Xander chased the wiccas (resulting in a Xander shaped snowman), Draco went after Dawn, Ron after Hermione, the twins just lobbed snowballs at anyone, and each other… and Harry ended up facing Blaise. They each dodged, threw and chased, Harry suddenly forgetting that she was even a Slytherin. She stumbled backwards as he hit her in the chest with a snowball. She tripped over, and felt flat on her back. Harry grinned, and raised another ball in warning, grinning widely. Blaise shrieked, and threw her arms in front of her face.
"Give up?" Harry teased.
"Never." She giggled. He released the ball, which she deflected with a hand.
"Give up?" He asked again, gathering one more.
"Ok, ok!!" She cried, peeking out from behind her hands. Her black hair contrasted stunningly with the pure white of the fresh snow. Her skin was rather pale, but shone pink from the game. Her eyes were midnight blue, and flashed cheekily as she grinned. Harry swallowed- he'd never really looked at Blaise before; she was really very pretty.
"Tough." He laughed, throwing the snowball. She cried out in irritation, and swung a leg to knock Harry's from beneath him. She leapt up as quickly as possible, gathering a snowball of her own.
The fight continued until hands were too cold to grip snowballs and everyone agreed that a cup of hot chocolate was in order. The group trudged back up to the school, the various couples huddling together against the cold. Buffy glanced at Spike, but she moved away, walking on the other side of the group. She didn't even complain when Draco wrapped an arm around Dawn. Hermione and Ron had their arms about each other, Willow and Tara, Faith and Charlie- the brunette slayer just couldn't help grinning when in her lovers arms and Xander and Anya walked side by side even though they were no longer together. The twins had run ahead to 'negotiate' hot chocolate from the kitchens. Only four people walked alone. Buffy avoided looking at Spike, while he marched ahead, knowing she would not seek him out. Harry walked a little aside, away from the group… away from Dawn and Draco. Blaise trailed behind the group, feeling left out despite her involvement in the fight. These were not her people.
The rest of the day was spent in the common room, before an incredible evening meal. Dawn invited Blaise to stay in the Gryffindor dorm with her, Ginny and Hermione, and would not take no for an answer. However, no matter how hard Hermione and Dawn tried, the boys would not invite Draco to stay. So at almost midnight, he and Dawn left the common room,
"I wish you could stay." Dawn told him. He smiled gently.
"Me too… but don't want to upset the super twins."
Dawn chuckled and socked him on the arm. Draco grinned, "I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yeah."
Draco kissed her softly, and turned away. Dawn watched him start down the corridor, biting her lip, then, "Draco." She called after him. He turned, a question in his eyes. Dawn smiled nervously, "I love you." She said. His face lit up in a smile no one had ever seen on this boy's face before.
"I love you too." He replied, though he'd told her before. Dawn grinned widely, and threw her arms about his neck, kissing him again.
"Merry Christmas." She murmured in his ear.
"Til tomorrow." He said. She just kept grinning, and still was when she climbed back through the portrait hole. Faith caught the expression, but said nothing as Buffy was right there too. Hermione Ginny and Blaise had little doubt about the reason for the grin and soon suggested that they should go to bed. Up in the sixth year dorm room, they all either cracked up or squeaked.
"Tell all." Hermione said. Dawn shrugged,
"Not much to tell."
"Oh bull." Blaise grinned.
"Come on!" Ginny whined, "Tell us!"
"He said it, didn't he?" Hermione guessed. Dawn smiled, and told her something she hadn't before,
"He said it a long time ago."
"Oh my god! You never said!" Hermione cried indignantly.
"I know… I …" Dawn sighed, "I didn't tell you cos… well… I didn't say it back." She said quietly.
"But now?" Ginny asked, not sure whether she was excited or scared to hear the answer. They could all see the radiance of the smile that now spread on Dawn's face.
"Oh my god." Blaise and Hermione gasped in unison. Then Hermione Squealed and threw herself on Dawn, hugging her, "Wow! I can't believe you told him… wow. Good for you, Dawnie. Good for you both."
"I gotta say that in all the time he was hailed as the master bastard of Slytherin, I never saw him smile like he does when he looks at you." She smiled, "For all it's worth… I know he loves you."
"Thanks." Dawn said. "Thank you." She looked round at the three girls, and felt a great swell of happiness. She'd been at Hogwarts just over five months, and known each of these girls less than four, and yet she felt closer to them now than she ever had to her friends back in Sunnydale. She smiled warmly, and suddenly realised that despite the awful things she'd seen and felt since coming here, she loved this place, these people… this was a second home.
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There ya go. Please review. More soon, I promise!! I do actually know some of the end… its just getting there that's the problem!! So any ideas are welcome!
-Sam