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Chapter Thirty-Seven
Galadriel’s Warning The students were so busy researching what Druscilla meant by the sand coming alive and for their own class work that the next several weeks passed in a blur. Another Hogsmeade weekend came and went along with Valentine’s day. The students hardly had a chance to enjoy either occasion without the thought that something dark was looming on the horizon. The scoobies hadn’t said anything specific but everyone could feel the tension that was building. Somehow Buffy and Spike were still able to find enough demons for their training sessions, despite the fact that the dark forest was nearly empty. The lack of action was more nerve-racking than if they had been attacked every night. It meant something was brewing, and it was never good when that happened. One Thursday night, after a particularly long day of research and training, Dawn fell quickly asleep. Only to wake up in a clearing of a beautiful forest. She looked down and noticed she wasn’t wearing her Tigger pajamas. Instead she was wearing a long flowy gown made of a silky blue material. She looked around and saw a tall beautiful blond on the other side of the clearing. Smiling she said, “Elen síla lúmenn’ omentielvo, Galadriel.” {A star shines on the hour of our meeting, Galadriel.} Galadriel smiled and said, “Mae govannen.” {Well met.} Dawn looked around in awe and asked, {Where am I?} {The woods of Lothlórien, in the city of Caras Galdhon} {Am I in Middle Earth?} Dawn asked, remembering the names from the book Hermione had given her for Christmas. {No. This is but a dream. However, this is the dreamscape I created for this meeting. I am pleased to see that you retained some of your Elvish memories, Amaurëa.} Dawn peered closely at Galadriel. She took in the woman’s ethereal beauty and something else. {You have pointy ears.} Galadriel smiled and said, {All of the Eldar have pointed ears.} The brunette’s mouth formed a soundless oh. {So what’s the what? I know you didn’t bring me here to chit-chat.} Galadriel raised an eyebrow at the strange wording and Dawn clarified. {Just to talk. What’s wrong?} The elf’s face turned grave. {A shadow of darkness grows not only in my world, but also in yours. You have to be ready.} Dawn nodded and waved her hand, {Yeah, yeah, yeah. We already know, we’re working on it.} {No, Amaurëa. You are the only one who can save them.} {Yeah, got that memo several months ago. Cute little Irish guy told me that.} Dawn said impatiently. A faint hint of a smile appeared on Galadriel’s lips before turning serious again. {You haven’t been allowing them to help you.} {Who help me?} {Your heart and strength.} {I don’t get it. They’re there, we’re connected. What do you mean I’m not letting them help me?} Galadriel shook her head. {You have to figure that out on your own.} {Yeah, yeah. I got it. You can show me the door but I gotta walk through it.} Again, Galadriel smiled softly. {I can show you the path to the door. You must find it and open it.} Her eyes hardened as she warned. {Someone will try to deceive you. Do not allow it to deter you from your path.} {Deceive me? Who? Who’s gonna trick me?} Then realization hit. {Wait, it’s one of those things I gotta figure out on my own. I got it. Can’t you tell me anything really helpful and not in riddles?} {I already have. It is up to you to decide how to use the knowledge.} Dawn turned her attention back to her surroundings. {I wish I could visit this place for real.} {One day you will. I look forward to meeting you in my world.} The brunette nodded sadly and said, {Dream is about over, huh?} {I only had a short amount of time. Remember that your heart and strength are there to support you. You need them.} Then Dawn woke up in her bed. ********** The next day during the scooby research session, Dawn recounted her dream of Galadriel. “So nothing specific, huh?” Buffy asked. She was a little weirded out that her sister was receiving the dreams and not her. “No, same old, same old. Darkness is coming, you’re the only one who can stop it. Yadda, yadda, yadda.” “Do you think the darkness on their world is related to the one on ours?” Giles asked. Dawn shook her head. “Nah. I think their troubles are different from ours.” With that, they fell into their usual research routine. The different couples grabbed some books and snuggled together on the couches. It was that night that they finally had a breakthrough. Ron excitedly called out, “I think I’ve got something!” Everyone looked up to him as he read. “A G’Noc’leth can only be raised on the third new moon of the year. A creature of sand created by the first dark wizard, Annias.” “It certainly sounds like our guy,” Xander said. “There’s more,” Ron said. “It was created to be Annias’ ultimate weapon against other wizards. It is impervious to all magic and weapons.” “Oh no,” Willow whispered. “The only way to defeat it is to force the particles apart and scatter them,” Ron finished quietly. They all looked around at each other in horror. Giles hurried over to the calendar and started making calculations. He looked up and said, “Oh dear.” “Oh dear?” Xander cried. “Oh dear! It’s never good when you say oh dear!” “The third new moon is in a week and a half on March the fifth,” Giles said softly. Ron, Harry, and Hermione looked at each other knowingly. “They’re coming here, aren’t they,” Hermione stated more that asked. Everyone looked at her. “What do you mean?” Willow asked innocently. “If he’s raising this demon to kill Harry, that means they’re coming here. They’ll be here on the fifth. Am I right?” Spike looked at Buffy and said, “Luv, we better tell ‘em. They’re smart. They’ll figure out what little they don’t know.” Buffy explained that her instincts had been screaming about the invasion since Christmas. She also told them they had already made some plans. “That’s why you’ve been having us train with demons,” Draco said. “You wanted us prepared when the demons got here.” Buffy mutely nodded her head and then looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s getting late, why don’t you guys go to bed? We’ll discuss this more in the morning.” The students wearily nodded their heads. They stacked their books on the table and headed out the door. Draco walked Dawn back to the Tower. They stayed in the hallway talking for a few minutes after the others had gone in. “It’s getting pretty serious, huh?” Draco asked quietly. Dawn nodded. “Yeah, it’s been a while since we’ve had to face a near apocalypse.” Draco looked at her with a serious face. “No matter what, Dawn. I will stand beside you.” She read the sincerity in his gray eyes and smiled in acceptance. He gave a her a quick kiss goodnight and headed to the dungeons. ********* Once Harry and Ron had got back to their room and into bed, Harry spoke softly so as not to wake Seamus and Neville. “I’m sorry, Ron.” “For what?” “Dragging all of you into this. I should have never come to school here.” “Don’t say that, Harry. Granted life would be a little quieter with out you but it also wouldn’t be as exciting. Not to mention we’d probably all be dead without you.” “What do you mean?” Harry asked. “Think about it. Our first year you-know-who would have gotten the sorcerer's stone. Or our second year, Ginny would have died so he could live. Without you, Harry, all sorts of things could have gone wrong.” “But Ron, it’s because of me a lot of this stuff has happened.” “So? Look at Buffy. She has this huge destiny as the slayer. While she may regret dragging her friends into it, she doesn’t let it hold her back from doing what needs to be done.” Harry pondered this for a while. He finally said, “I guess you’re right. It’s not stopping Dawn either, so I won’t let it stop me.” *********** In the girl’s prefect room, Ginny sighed softly in the dark. “What’s wrong?” Hermione asked. “I’m scared.” “Me too,” Hermione admitted quietly. “But I’m sure the scoobies will think of something. They’ve been alive this long for a reason. After all they faced a hell-god and lived to talk about it.” “Think anyone else is scared?” Ginny asked after a few moments. “I think everyone is.” ******** The next morning, Dawn arrived late for breakfast and she hurriedly sat next to Ginny. The redhead regarded her best friend with a smirk and asked, “Been busy snogging with Draco?” Dawn flushed lightly and said, “No, I haven’t seen him. I just woke up late.” “Then where is Draco?” Dawn looked over at the Slytherin table and did not see her boyfriend’s pale blond hair. She shrugged and said, “Maybe he slept in late, too. We were up pretty late last night.” Thinking nothing more of it, she began eating. ********* After breakfast, the scoobies gathered in Dumbledore’s office along with Professors Snape and McGonagall. Once everyone was seated Albus said, “I take it you have found something.” Giles sketched out what they had learned about the G’Noc’leth demon. When he was finished, Minerva said, “Oh dear. Albus we need to evacuate the students immediately.” Spike spoke up and said, “Wait. I don’t think that’s such a good idea yet.” “And why do you think that?” Snape sneered at him. The blond vampire rolled his eyes. “Because if we evacuate them now, Voldemort will know we’re on to him, and we may loose our chance to take him down.” “I suggest we wait until right before they attack to evacuate,” Giles said. “I don’t think we should tell the prefects until the day of. There will be less of a chance of it slipping out.” “We can easily come up with a reason why they’re evacuating,” Xander stated. “It could even be labeled as a drill.” Tara asked, “Is there someplace safe for them to go?” Albus nodded and said, “Yes. There is a secret chamber in the castle designed for that purpose.” “I think we should let those in our special training stay behind,” Spike said. “You mean to allow the children to fight?” Snape asked in shock. “Knowing them, they would sneak into the fight anyway. I would rather have them by my side than elsewhere hurt or dying.” “That’s fine, William. Knowing Harry and his friends they would find a way to help no matter the cost.” “I’ll owl Angel. We need to make arrangements for them to arrive at night so Angel doesn’t go all dusty,” Buffy said. “That’s not a problem,” Albus told her. “I will owl some friends of mine to have them secretly arrive the day before.” ********** Draco was conspicuously absent again during lunch and Dawn was beginning to worry. “Can’t you use your link?” Ginny asked. “I don’t know. We’ve never tried it over a distance. We were always in the same room before.” “Why not try it now?” Dawn closed her eyes and concentrated. She easily found Buffy since she had already arrived in the Great Hall. But every time she tried to reach Draco she hit a blank wall. She opened her eyes and said, “I can’t find him. But that could just mean we have to be in the same room.” Ginny nodded her head in understanding. ******** By lunch on Sunday, Dawn was near frantic with worry. Nobody had seen or talked to Draco since he had left her at the Tower Friday night. She felt Harry nudge her elbow and then pointed to the door of the Great Hall. A disheveled Draco mindlessly walked in. She was startled by his appearance. While lately he hadn’t been wearing his hair slicked back it was usually neat. Now it looked as if he hadn’t even brushed it. He hadn’t shaved and his robe was rumpled. ~Hey.~ She said. He jumped slightly before saying. ~Hey.~ ~Where’ve you been?~ ~Huh? I just slept late.~ ~For two days?~ Draco stopped and looked over at her. ~What do you mean? What day is this?~ ~Sunday.~ ~You’re kidding?~ ~No.~ ~Shit. Guess I was more tired than I thought. Sorry if I worried you.~ ~It’s ok.~ ~I’m starving. We’ll talk after lunch.~ She turned back to the food on her plate. She was halfway through her lunch when Neville sat next to Ron. “Have you guys heard?” “Heard what?” Hermione asked. “Draco got the death mark.” Dawn’s face paled as she dropped her fork. “No. He would never do that.” “That’s where he was yesterday.” Galadriel’s warning rang in her head. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” she told him defiantly. But as she looked over a Draco she wasn’t so sure. He was surrounded by his housemates. Normally they avoided him like the plague but now they were flocking to his side. She barely touched the rest of her food as she watched him. When he got up to leave, she wordlessly rose to follow him. She could hear him muttering to himself and he kept running his hands through his hair. “Hey,” she said softly when they reached a deserted hallway. He spun around and gave her a small smile. “Hey yourself,” he said as he opened his arms for a hug. Dawn easily melted into his arms. She always felt so safe and loved in them. As she pulled away she asked, “Let me see your left arm.” “Huh?” “Just let me see it.” He held it out and she rolled her eyes. “Roll up your sleeve.” “I don’t know what’s going on,” he muttered as he began rolling his sleeve up. He heard her gasp and he looked down to see the death mark tattooed on his forearm. Dawn felt the world spin out of control. He had betrayed them. She had told Harry once that she would never believe that Draco was evil until she saw the mark on him. This was the proof. Her eyes turned to steel and her hand was moving before she knew it. The fist connected solidly with his jaw and it knocked him to the floor. “You bastard! You used us. I was a fool to trust you, something that will never happen again. I suggest you never come near me again.” She turned and stalked off. She waited until she was out of earshot before she broke down into tears. She felt as if her heart had been torn from her chest and trampled on. She began having problems breathing. She collapsed to the ground. That was how Ginny and the others had found her. “Dawn, what happened?” Ginny asked softly as she knelt down next to her. “He betrayed us. He betrayed me. He’s a death eater,” she answered tearfully. “Fucking bastard,” Harry snarled. “Let’s go find him,” Ron said with venom in his voice. “No!” Ginny ordered. “Dawn needs us now. You can beat the shit out of him later.” “Ginny!” Hermione chided. “They can. He deserves whatever he gets, just look at what he did to Dawn.” The three looked to see Dawn staring blankly into space. They could all clearly see that she was devastated. “Let’s get her to her room,” Hermione said as she heard voices approach. They helped the catatonic girl to her feet and to her room. ********* Draco couldn’t respond to her accusations. He stared at his arm in mute horror. How did this happen? The last thing he remembered was going to bed Friday night. It was impossible for him to have the mark. It could only be applied to someone who wanted it. That was how Voldemort knew that all those in his ranks were loyal. He didn’t want it so how come he had one? This was bad. Real bad. Buffy had warned him about betraying them and it seemed as if he had. He was going to need help, and lots of it. Soon. Previous Chapter The Slayer... Menu Next Chapter |
