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Chapter Thirty-Six
Surprises Later that night, Dawn met with Willow and Tara for one of her key training sessions. She cheerfully entered the room and sat down with a huge cheshire cat grin plastered on her face. “What did you do?” Willow asked suspiciously. “Nothing bad. Actually, it was quite of the good.” “Uh huh,” Willow said skeptically. “Let’s just say I helped some friends find the light so to speak.” “Ron and Hermione,” Tara said knowingly. Dawn nodded her head so hard it almost fell off. “Aren’t they cute?” “We were wondering how long it would take them,” Tara said with a smirk. Willow smiled and said, “Try to keep that good attitude after we tell you our news.” “What news?” Dawn asked curiously. “We’ve taught you everything we can about your Elven magic. The only thing that Tara and I can come up with for explaining why you learned it so quickly is because you already knew.” “Huh?” “We think that parts of Nerdanal’s memories are still in you and you just don’t realize it.” “Think about it Dawnie,” Tara said. “How else would you have known Elvish?” “We think that these sessions have given you access to these memories and that’s why you’ve picked this up so easily,” Willow finished. Dawn thought about it then nodded, “Makes sense. So I don’t need these lessons anymore then, right?” “Actually, no.” “What do you mean, no? You just said you’ve taught me everything.” “We’d like to give you opportunities to practice. We wouldn’t need to meet more than once a week,” Tara explained. “And we would also like to teach you how to use the key to open portals,” Willow said hesitantly. “Isn’t that dangerous and require someone’s death?” Dawn asked. “Glory didn’t know how to correctly use your power,” Tara said. “We read over your translation and you don’t need to use your blood to open a portal to a specific dimension.” “It’s real similar to doing anything else with your Elven magic. It just requires more concentration.” “Oh, well then, let’s give it a whirl.” “You need to visualize the dimension you want, dig into the power of the key, and then will the portal open.” “That’s it?” “That’s it,” Willow answered. “So which dimension do I want?” “Oh! How about the one where shrimp don’t exist,” Tara suggested. “Is it real?” Dawn asked. “Anya told us it was.” “There’s a reliable source,” Dawn muttered. “Ok. One portal to a world without shrimp coming up.” She closed her eyes and visualized the dimension she wanted. She quickly dove into her Elven powers and then went deeper to access the key. She knew she had found it when she was surrounded in a warm green energy. Druscilla had been right, it was pure. She found herself to be quite content to just be. “Dawn!” Came an urgent voice on the fringe of her awareness. “Dawn! You have to wake up!” She vaguely recognized the voice as belonging to her friend Willow. She didn’t understand why it was so important for her to wake up, she was quite happy floating in the green energy. “Please Dawn! You have to come back to us!” Tara’s voice said, a little stronger and more persistent than Willow’s had been. It had to be something important, otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered her. She regretfully pulled away from the key and opened her eyes. How did I end up on the floor? She thought. She looked up to see Willow and Tara looking down at her with frightened looks. “Thank goddess you woke up,” Willow said tearfully. “Woke up?” Dawn asked, clearly confused. “I just entered the key; I hadn’t willed anything yet.” “Dawn, you closed your eyes then suddenly fell over. We couldn’t get a response.” Tara explained gently. “We were about ready to get Dumbledore,” Willow said. “How long was I out?” “Almost twenty minutes.” “Twenty minutes? I swear I feel like I just closed my eyes.” “We’re not going to have you try that again any time soon. Not until we figure out what went wrong. How do you feel?” Tara asked. “Fine. Really relaxed actually.” “What do you remember?” Willow asked. Dawn explained what she did and how the key’s power felt. When she was finished Willow told her that that was enough for the night. When she had left the room Willow asked, “What do you think?” “She lost herself in the key. It’s too powerful for her yet.” “That’s what I thought.” ********* Buffy and Spike plopped onto one of the couches in the scooby common room after patrolling that evening. “That was boring,” Buffy lamented. “Nothing to slay?” Xander asked. “Not even a gross bug,” she answered flatly. “First, no demons in Sunnydale...” “Except for loony lady and the fake loony lady and bleach boy,” Xander reminded her. “The fake ones don’t count, they were just pathetic,” Spike argued. “And now no demons here,” Buffy pouted loudly, bringing them back to the point. “Did you say no demons?” Giles asked. “Just a rare one here or there, but nothing challenging,” Buffy said. “It’s like they’re packing up and leaving.” “Then Druscilla was right. He’s gathering an army of demons,” Tara said. “Seems like it,” Buffy said wearily. “All this for just one boy?” Xander asked. “Buffy, do you still think he’s planning on attacking the school?” Giles asked. “Yeah. My instincts practically scream it at me.” “I think he may be after more than just Harry. If he was able to use the demons to attack the school, he could us them as a distraction to allow his death eaters obtain their main objective,” Giles mused softly. “And that would be?” Xander asked. “To eliminate Harry and Dumbledore. Not to mention others here who oppose him. He would have them here at the same time. The kill two birds with one stone philosophy.” “But what about the protective charms put on this place?” Willow asked. “How will they get in?” “There are ways around that,” Anya said. “After all I’m here, Spike’s here. Oh! And the demons they’ve been bringing in for their training sessions.” “How did you do that?” Giles asked. Buffy shrugged. “Dunno. We told Dumbledore we were going to do it and we just bring them in with us.” “Perhaps the charms are not as strong as people generally believe. What about the vampires?” “You’re not using your head, mate. All it takes is an invite from one of the students who is a supporter and they’re all in,” Spike said. “Well we have the who, why, and where. Now all we need in the when and the what,” Willow said. “I’m not going to figure it out tonight. I’m going to bed, my head hurts,” Buffy said sleepily. “All that thinking will do that, luv.” “Shut up, Spike.” ******** A couple of weeks later, Dawn anxiously paced the platform they launched from for their quidditch games. They were suppose to play Slytherin that day. She was more nervous now than she had been for her first game. Before she had time to think too much on it, Harry called the team over for a meeting. “I know Slytherin in tough, but we’re tougher. I know they’re fast, but we’re faster. I even know they’re tricky, but...” “We got it, we’re trickier,” Dawn said impatiently. “Got to tell ya, cap, but this is not one of your better speeches.” He just grinned brightly at her. “Ok then, how’s this. Let’s go out there and kick some Slytherin ass!” “Harry,” Ginny chided. “What? Not good enough?” “Your language.” “I don’t know, seemed appropriate to me,” Ron said with a grin that matched Harry’s. During the laughter that followed, Harry pulled Dawn and Ginny to the side. “I know you two care for Malfoy, but please try to remember that he is the enemy up there.” “I’m not going easy on him just ‘cause he’s my boyfriend,” Dawn said. “We know our job and we’re going to do it.” “That’s right,” Ginny said with an emphatic shake of her head. On the Slytherin platform, Draco stood quietly off to the side as their captain, Montague, gave his own pre-game speech. The blond was only half listening until he heard him say, “And Draco, remember Potter isn’t the only seeker out there. Try to keep your eyes off your mudblood girlfriend long enough to find the snitch.” Draco narrowed his eyes and said, “I suggest you take that back.” “Or what? You’ll tell your father?” Montague mocked. “No, but I will tell my uncle and her sister.” “Your uncle?” Malcolm Baddock, one of the beaters, asked. “Yeah, my uncle. You know, Spike, our DADA professor?” He said casually. He couldn’t help but deflate their bubble, none of them had known. Color drained from Montague’s face. “The vampire is your uncle?” Draco nodded. “He also happens to be Dawn’s adopted big brother,” he added with a smirk. If possible, Montague paled further. “I take it back.” “Good.” Emma Dobbs announced the Slytherin team at that moment and they all mounted their brooms and took to the sky. Buffy and Spike were seated with the rest of the scooby gang in the professors’ section. They were lightly discussing the game. “So who do we root for?” Willow asked. “What do you mean?” Xander asked. “Gryffindor or Slytherin. Do we want Dawn or Draco to win?” She clarified. “Good question,” Giles said. “Spike and I have already figured it out,” Buffy told them. “I’m rooting for Gryffindor and he’s for Slytherin. That way we have both sides covered.” “Why don’t we root for whoever has the quaffle?” Tara suggested. “That’s my honey,” Willow said brightly as she hugged her. They turned their attention to the players flying in front of them. Once the players were in position, Madam Hooch released all four balls and the game began. Ron immediately grabbed the quaffle and made his way to the Slytherin goal. He narrowly ducked a flying bludger and then passed the quaffle to Seamus who easily got the ball past the Slytherin keeper, Thomas Nott, to score. “Ten points for Gryffindor!” Emma called. Graham Pritchard grabbed the quaffle and headed to the Gryffindor goal. Ginny knocked a bludger so it flew in front of his face. Startled, he pulled up and dropped the quaffle. Talan, one of the Gryffindor chasers, caught the quaffle and made her way across the field. She acted as if she was going to pass the ball to Seamus, but she scored again. “Another ten points for Gryffindor!” “It seems as if the Slytherin team forgot to show up today,” Spike said drolly to Buffy. “What do you mean? It looks like all seven are up there.” “Maybe physically, but not mentally. Gryffindor is playing like a team, they aren’t. They’re spending too much of their time arguing with each other.” As if to illustrate his point, Montague flew up next to Draco, who was scanning the field for the snitch. “What’d you do? Tell your mudblood girlfriend all our plays?” “I told you not to call her that!” Draco warned. “Besides if you want to blame someone, blame Nott. He hasn’t stopped a single goal!” Before Draco could further retaliate, a bludger came dangerously close to his head. He looked to see Malcolm grinning maliciously at him. “His own teammate just hit a ball thingie at him! Buffy said in horror. “Can’t they call a foul or something?” Tara asked. “The rules are really tricky, besides it didn’t hit him,” Spike said as he continued to watch the game. Meanwhile, Dawn sent Ginny a look and she returned it with a curt nod. They flew to opposite sides of the field and began knocking the bludgers back and forth. On one pass it hit the back of Worrington’s, a Slytherin chaser, broom and he lost the quaffle. Ron swooped down and caught it. He and Seamus passed it back and forth until they suddenly tossed it to Talan who then scored. Draco looked frantically about the field for the snitch as the Gryffindors continued to decimate the Slytherins. Out of the corner of his eye he caught a glint of gold hovering over the professors’ seats. He took off after it and he could hear Harry swiftly coming up behind him. They flew closely over the spectators’ heads as the snitch kept dropping dangerously close to them. It suddenly dove to the ground with Draco and Harry close behind. Draco felt rather than saw Harry pull away from the rapidly approaching ground. Waiting until the last possible second, Draco leapt from his broom and tucked in as he hit the ground. When he rolled to a stop, he stood to reveal the snitch in his hand. Harry numbly stared at him as Dawn raced up to Draco to hug him. He couldn’t believe it. Malfoy had caught the snitch before him! He looked up to the scoreboard to see that the Gryffindors had still won, 180 to 160. Previous Chapter The Slayer... Menu Next Chapter |
