The Life Of Brian

By Echo

Part Three: All brave girls...

"I could kill you." Draco hissed in Dawn's ear as they stepped off the train at Hogsmeade Station.

She and Anya had kept him locked out of Creevey and Weasley's compartment the whole rest of the way there. They hadn't even come out to change into their school robes. Anya had accio'ed them to the compartment, nearly killing Draco with them. Get hit in the face with two sets of school robes is not the most fun you can have. He was ticked, but he had certainly not been about to return to Professor Snape without Dawn. So he had waited. Now he was walking along gripping the little American's arm with Anya, Weasley, and Creevey hurrying to keep up.

"You could kill me? Like I've never heard THAT before." Her eyes flashed angrily at him. "Take a friggin number and get in line, you manky git."

That took him aback. People wanted to kill her? And had she really just called him a manky git? Git yes. Manky no. Not even close.

"Leave her alone, Malfoy." The girl Weasley hissed.

"Or what, Weasley? You'll tremble at me?"

Dawn jerked her arm out of his grasp. "God! Keep your manhandling manhands to yourself, albino boy. Were you always this big of an asshole, or did you take lessons?"

Anya snorted. "He took lessons... because that's the kind of prat he is."

"You little-"

Ginny stepped in front of Anya. "Leave her alone too."

"Little weaselgirl has a spine... finally. You best back off Weasley before I'm forced to spank you."

Ginny flushed bright red.

"I've about had enough of you today. Back off or we'll kick the crap out of you." Dawn said.

"We?"

"The four of us. Me, Anya, Ginny, and Colin."

Colin looked shocked. "What? No."

Draco looked bored. "Four to one? That's hardly fair."

"Nobody ever said that life was fair." Dawn said in a trembling tone. "If life was fair, you'd keep your pointy nose out of my business. If life was fair, my mother and my sister would still be alive, and I'd be in Sunnyhell and not 'sodding' England."

No one spoke a word. What could they say about it? Draco felt a slight pang of something. Might have been emotion, he wasn't really sure. He stamped it back on down pretty quick though.

"Technically, Summers, we're in Scotland, not England."

Dawn glared and looked like she might throw a punch at Draco. Anya instinctively placed a hand on the other girl's arm trying to convey that this was not the time for a display of violence. Had she inherited Buffy's involuntary slayer hit defense mechanism?

"Where have the three of you been?" Severus Snape growled.

Ginny eeped in a way that reminded Dawn of Willow when she had first started hanging around Buffy.

"We were hanging out." Dawn said.

"I sent Mister Malfoy to find you."

"Yeah, we had to ditch him due to surly behavior on his part."

"Dawn..." He was just shy of gnashing his teeth.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you, Father."

He nodded. "You and Anya are to ride with Hagrid and the first years so that you can be sorted."

And as if on cue, a booming voice pierced the low hum of the students. "Firs years! Firs years! O'er here!"

And Anya got her first glance at Hagrid. "Holy fucking shit."

Draco laughed. Snape glared at her for her use of swears, despite the fact that he often muttered much worse under his breath when he was angry or surprised.

"Anya." Dawn hissed.

"Well, that one definitely ate his Wheaties. That's all I'm saying. Definitely not the runt of the litter there."

Dawn rolled her eyes and dragged Anya off in Hagrid's direction. Draco and Snape started heading off towards the carriages.

Ginny looked at Colin. "Did I completely freak out or did Dawn call Snape father?"

Colin just nodded 'yes' in shock.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hagrid had been quite impressed that Anya Bell and Dawn Summers had figured out how to make their boat go faster. Well, impressed and a little bit terrified. The two of them were doing speeding laps around the other boats until Hagrid hollered at them to stop. He asked Anya how she'd managed such complex charms, and her baffling reply was... "This ain't my first rodeo, cowboy."

The first years were staring at the two older girls. Especially when Anya stood at the front of their little boat, threw out her arms and screeched that she was queen of the world. She was saved from toppling headfirst into the murky lake by a giggling Dawn grabbing a handful of the back of her school robes and yanking her back. Hagrid eyed them curiously as they maneuvered their boat perilously close to his. They were having WAY too much fun with this. Snape raised someone that had fun? It was too strange.

"So yer Snape's daughter then?"

"I am. Well, he married my mom. So step father technically."

"That all right for ya?"

"We get along as well as any other teenage girl and her surly and sort of overprotective father might."

Hagrid laughed. It was a deep bellow that Dawn felt in her chest. Hagrid reminded her of a bear. A great, cuddly bear.

*~*~*~*~*

Severus watched with anxious eyes as Dawn entered the great hall with the first years. The wonder on her face was priceless. The wondering on everyone else's face was also priceless. The rest of the professors knew, not that some of them had believed that one of those girls was his. Narcissa Malfoy was seated next to him. Remus Lupin was seated on her other side and Sirius Black on the other side of him. Black had been flirting with her until she said her name. That too had been priceless. Shock wasn't the best look for him.

There was a murmur of voices when Anya Bell was called to the sorting hat. Not surprisingly Katie's younger sister was sorted into Gryffindor. She did the most bizarre dance in front of the stool and ran down to sit next to Colin Creevey.

Fairly soon Dawn Summers was called. She seemed quite tickled by whatever the hat was saying to her. Then, quite bizarrely, the sorting hat started singing.

You touch the fire and it freezes thee
You look into it and its black
Why can't you feel
Your skin should crack and peel
Key wants her fire back

Dawn yanked the hat off her head with a startled scream and backed away. She stumbled and fell on her backside but still kept scooting away from the offending hat.

"Dawn." Snape got to his feet.

"Miss Summers?" McGonagall made a move towards her.

Everyone was staring at her.

"All brave girls go to Gryffindor." The hat said.

Everyone was staring. Surely this was bizarre behavior for the sorting hat.

Snape was glaring at the hat. Put his daughter into Gryffindor, would it? He'd take a pair of shears to the damn thing. It needed to be burned anyhow, ratty old thing. He walked around the head table and gently pulled Dawn to her feet.

He gave her arm a good hard shake as he gently whispered in her ear. "It's all right. Go to your house. We'll speak of things later."

Dawn nodded once and rubbed her arm where he'd grabbed her as she walked to Gryffindor in a haze. She sat absently next to Ginny. The twenty paces rule was gonna be hard to enforce when Harry was only sitting a few bodies down from her.

Ginny took her hand under the table, and graced Dawn with a comforting smile. Anya was smiling at her as well. At least they were together. Dawn looked down the table and noticed Harry Potter was smirking at her. Not evilly, but mischievously... like he was planning something that her step father would not like. At all.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Ginny was quite pleased to be rooming with Dawn and Anya. The other girls she had roomed with had transferred or been moved. But Ginny was glad to have some real blood in her dorm this year. She'd never been friends with anyone in her year save Colin, but he always had to sleep in the boys' dorms. The closest thing she had to a girlfriend was Hermione, but when it came down to it, Hermione always chose Ron and Harry.

Anya yanked off her school robe and flopped on her bed, uncaring that her skirt had ridden up and her pink knickers were showing. Dawn sat on the edge of her bed. She seemed deep in thought. Ginny opened her trunk and began unpacking.

"Dawn, are you all right?" Anya asked.

Ginny stopped unpacking and looked at the girl.

"The hat was talking about Buffy."

Anya sat up. "Oh Dawnie..."

"Buffy?" Ginny asked.

"She was my sister."

"Was?"

"She died."

Ginny blinked. Hadn't she heard all the rumors flying around at dinner that Snape was her step father, and she was with him because her mother had died? But her sister had died too? How horrible. Come to think of it, Dawn had mentioned her mother and her sister being gone in her rant to Draco earlier.

"Dawn, I'm so sorry."

Both Dawn and Anya looked at her, and Ginny blushed under their scrutiny.

"Ginny, you are SO Willow right now." Anya said with a grin.

Dawn looked at Anya. "She is. I couldn't put my finger on it, but that's it."

"Is that bad?"

Dawn smiled. "No, it's good. Very good. Reminds me of home a little."

Ginny smiled. She had a feeling she would get on well with Anya and Dawn. Then there was a knock at their door. Both Anya and Dawn whipped out their wands. Ginny raised an eyebrow. Talk about being ready for anything. But it prickled her awareness as well. If her roommates were going to her on their toes, shouldn't she be as well?

Ginny yanked out her wand and crept to the door. "Who's there?"

"It's Hermione. Open up please."

Ginny tucked her wand away and motioned for Dawn and Anya to do the same. She swung open the door.

"Dawn, Professor Snape wants to see you downstairs."

Dawn nodded and brushed past Hermione. She made her way quickly through the common room, aware of how everyone was staring at her. As soon as she cleared the other side of the portrait door her arm was grabbed harshly. Dawn yelped loudly before the door could close.

Not that it had hurt or anything. No, her yelp was for the benefit of the nosy ones leaning towards the door to see if Snape said anything to her before it closed completely.

He started a fierce pace that she knew she was expected to keep up with. Dawn was glad for her long legs. They took many twists and turns through the castle. She tried to commit them to memory in case they were headed for someplace she'd need to know about later. Snape slowed when angry voices filled the corridor they were in.

"I'll not have you staying with them."

"Mother, I am seventeen years old. I have always stayed in the boys' dorms. I refuse to be set apart further by rooming with you!"

Dawn ducked her head down as she and Severus rounded the corner in the dungeon hallway. Yep, it was Malfoy arguing with his mom. Dawn chanced a peek at Narcissa Malfoy. She looked ready to blow. Her pale face was all splotchy and everything. It reminded Dawn of the fights her mom and Buffy had when Joyce Summers had first found out Buffy was the slayer.

They stopped as Dawn followed Severus past them. Draco glared at her. Dawn glared back.

"Aquilus medicamentum."

The door to his chambers, which was a large portrait of a huge, green snake with its dripping fangs bared. There was some sort of post-apocalyptic-looking fire burning in the background. Quaint. Very homey.

"Black magic?" Dawn asked.

Snape looked sharply at her. "You know Latin."

"A little. Most spells are in Latin. For some reason witches just love the Latin. If I ever create spells, I'm doing them all in Spanish with ingredients that you can find in your home... like toilet bowl cleaner and taco seasoning. No eye of newt or toe of frog for this witch. No siree. It's all about leftover packets of ketchup from fast food chains that sit in the bottom drawer of the fridge and dust bunnies on the lampshade."

Severus laughed at her one the door was securely closed behind him. Dawn had to marvel at his laugh. She knew there was no malice behind it, but he still sounded like he was plotting something very evil. Her step father had a very sinister chuckle.

"You know that medicamentum doesn't translate to magic per se, right? That'd be like magicus or magicum. Medicamentum is closer to medicine or potion." Dawn paused for a moment as it sunk in. "Oh. I see. Potion. You teach potions. Very clever."

Clever was right, but he was thinking her. How many fifteen year olds knew the roots in Latin off the top of their head? She's had an odd upbringing. It made her well able to handle his world though. Snape watched as she started snooping about his chambers. The girl was a notorious rifter. She dug through things subconsciously. Half the time she was totally unaware of it. Her eyes bugged when she came to his double bookshelves.

"Ohhhh. Look at all the spellbooks." She reached up to touch a spine and got zapped with a small bolt of blue electricity. "Ouch!"

"Protection from nosy girls who like to read things they ought not."

"But-"

"Maybe when you're older."

Dawn pouted.

Severus just smirked at her and went to sit in one of the high-backed chairs he had before his fireplace. "When you are quite through snooping, come and have a seat. There are things I wish to discuss with you."

Dawn immediately crossed the room and sat in the dark green velvet chair opposite him.

"I said when you were through."

"Snooping can wait. Talking with you is far more important than being nosy."

He cracked the barest of Mona Lisa smiles. He still could not understand how it was that the two of them liked one another. She meant as much to him as his own flesh and blood might. Already. Was there some working in her key magic that made sure she had at least one person who would guard her with their life? It was definitely something for him to look into. Not that he minded taking care of Dawn.

"So... you wanted to talk or just look at me thoughtfully all night?"

Snape glared. Dawn smiled at him.

"So Anya Bell is actually Anya from Sunnydale. And how did this phenomena happen? Because when I look at her I recall somewhere in the back of my brain that Katie Bell had a younger sister who was studying in America."

"We don't know. She doesn't even know. Somebody made her."

"Beg pardon?"

"They made her. Like they did me. She was created and inserted into life here. Like me... but she remembers being Anya in Sunnydale and Anyanka the vengeance demon."

"She remembers being a demon?"

"Pretty much."

"Perhaps we should contact someone from Sunnydale tomorrow and see if Anya there is missing... or if they even know who she is."

"That's what we were thinking."

"In the meantime she should keep up her ruse of being a fifteen year old girl."

"Shouldn't be too ruse-y. She has all these memories of being a Bell. She even has pics of herself and her big sister Katie."

"Well, she certainly doesn't have the mouth of any teen age girl I know."

"Remind me to introduce you to Faith sometime. She's not a teen anymore, but she is as she ever was. I learned almost every swear I know from overhearing Faith."

"She sounds absolutely delightful." Severus said drolly.

"Of course we'd have to go to a California state women's correctional facility to see her."

"This girl is in prison?"

"For murder."

"And you were just allowed to run around with her?"

"Well, she kinda went all crazy and dark side of the force for a bit, but then she got better. The first guy she killed was a total accident. She thought he was a vampire and staked him."

"What?"

"Faith is a slayer. Like Buffy was. Things just got all messed up. Sometimes that happens and you lose your way. And you're on this dark path... with no light. You forget for just a moment, and sometimes that moment is just enough so the darkness overtakes you."

She was rather insightful for her age. Perhaps that was why they got on so well. She understood darkness in a way few her age did. She knew sparingly about his dark past. She had never judged him on it. She merely stated that it had happened to most everyone she knew at one time or another.. a dark period, and you could not blame people for what their darker alter egos did.

"I suppose you want to talk about my being in Gryffindor as well?"

"Oh sod Gryffindor."

Dawn's eyebrow arched.

"That changes nothing between you and I. House rivalry is all rubbish now. I was wondering what that hat said that made you so upset."

"It said some things about Buffy."

"Ah. I see."

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