The Life Of Brian

By Echo

Part Seven: Detention...

Dawn showed up for detention dragging. She was just about to fall asleep. She barely made it through her classes. Anya, Colin, and Ginny kept having to nudge her awake. She was gonna put the big hurt on whoever cursed her. Madam Pomfrey said it was a fatigue hex. No lie! Dawn could not remember ever feeling so tired.

She was the first one there. Dawn sat down at one of the desks and put her head down on it. She heard the door open. Dawn raised her head slowly. Malfoy. Great.

So why did her stomach flip flop at the sight of him?

"Bloody hell, Summers."

"What?"

"You look like shit. Didn't you sleep at all last night?" He knew that she had though. He'd snuck in the infirmary and checked on her again.

"Nice mouth. You kiss your mom with that thing?"

"Oh bugger off." He snapped as he dropped into the seat next to her.

Dawn was just so tired. She'd never felt so tired. Not even after Buffy's funeral when all she had wanted to do was sleep for the rest of her life.

"Summers?" He sounded like he was under water to her. "Summers."

"What?"

"Maybe you shouldn't be here."

"Oh bugger off yourself, pal. I have as much right to go to this school as you do. Just because my family hasn't been wizards for like twelve generations or something doesn't mean-"

"No. Not here at Hogwarts, stupid cow. Here at detention. You can barely sit up straight."

"Bite me."

"Charming."

"And you'd know all about that, huh?"

He was about to retort again when the door opened and Professor Snape breezed in, his robes billowing out behind him the way they tended to.

"Well, you two see the cauldrons in the sinks. Get to scrubbing. No magic."

Dawn and Draco both rose slowly with groans. Dawn stumbled a bit, and Draco's hand shot out to steady her.

"Professor, perhaps-"

"I'm fine." Dawn snapped.

Draco let her go. Dawn scrambled to catch herself. She was breathing heavy and looking up at him with her hands braced on the desk. Draco would have smiled, but he didn't want to egg her on. She was one tough girl. He watched as she pushed herself upright and stalked to the sink.

Though he was staring intently at the scrolls he was marking, Snape was watching them. He was completely aware of all that was going on. Draco knew this. The man didn't just have eyes in the back of his head. He had them everywhere.

Dawn had filled the large sink with hot soapy water. She had already discarded her robe and rolled up her sleeves. She was scrubbing her first cauldron. Draco took off his robe and his gray school jumper before rolling up the sleeves on his white shirt and grabbing a cauldron.

*~*~*~*~*~*

After they were about five cauldrons each in, a house-elf came with a note from Dumbledore. Snape glared at them.

"I trust you both can behave and keep your hands to yourselves until I return?"

Dawn nodded enthusiastically. Draco glared.

They scrubbed in silence for several minutes after Snape had left them alone. Dawn's eyes drooped, and her head nodded.

"Don't fall in. I'd hate to have to save you from drowning."

Dawn's head snapped up and she glared. "Like you would. You'd let me drown. One less mudblood, right?"

"Don't call yourself a mudblood, Summers."

"You did."

"Right. Sorry."

Dawn stopped scrubbing and stared.

"Don't stop, Summers. I'll not take up for your slack. Get to washing."

"I just... you... are you a Dracobot?"

"What?"

"There was this guy that made a robot of my sister. It was so like her, but... off. It wasn't her, but your brain refused to wrap around that it wasn't her. You know?"

"I don't think I do."

"You're being different. Makes me think you're secretly plotting my demise."

"Oh I am." Draco smirked.

"Oh!" She splashed at him with water.

He splashed back.

Dawn splashed him again. Draco splashed her back. In no time, they were both hollering and dripping with water. Dawn was laughing, and rather uncharacteristically, Draco was smiling.

The next set of events would be thought upon for many moons to come.

Dawn stepped towards him. Her shoe slid in a puddle of water, and she slipped with a very loud shriek. Draco lunged forward and caught her. Dawn's blue eyes stared widely into his gray ones. She seemed frozen in shock. Her lips parted slightly. Tiny droplets of water clung to her eyelashes. A larger drop fell from the end of her chin. The long brown hair on her head hung in wet strands, and the bra under her very wet and now see through white shirt was pale blue.

Draco leaned in. His tongue flicked out and lashed at her lips before his closed over them.

Dawn's hands gripped his shoulders. She had never kissed anyone before, but this was somehow familiar. She couldn't exactly put her finger on it, but this was very VERY familiar.

Draco seemed to regain his senses and shoved her away from him. Dawn smacked against a table near the sinks, barely catching herself with her hands. Draco was disturbed by the fleeting thought that if she had not been able to catch herself, he would have caught her. She was breathing just as heavily as he was. That damned blue bra straining against wet shirt. What in the hell was the matter with him lately?

He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

Dawn's eyes narrowed. How DARE he! He was the one that started it. Yeah, so she had kissed him back, but he had kissed first. Dammit!

Her anger flared and she stepped forward. Draco didn't even see the slap coming until his head had already turned with it. The loud crack reverberated in the dungeon classroom. He turned to face her with a look that made Dawn take an involuntary step backwards.

Draco's hands shot out grabbing the girl. Dawn squeaked in surprise. She squeaked again when he pulled her tightly into his embrace and buried his face into her neck and wet hair.

"I despise you." He murmured against her throat, placing soft kisses there. "And at the same time, I can't seem to draw myself away."

Dawn was scared. Violently so. He was intense. Way too intense. Like Spike intense... Angel intense, and she was SO not looking to play the role of Buffy in the romance department. God, if this was even half of what her sister had felt when she was with Angel, no wonder she had held on so hard. Everything had gone spinning wildly out of control. It was nice. It was dangerous. It was confusing.... and heaven, hell, the gods, and everything else help her, she sort of suspected that she wanted it.

He stepped away and went back to washing the cauldrons as if nothing had happened. Dawn was trembling. She moved back to the sink slowly and started washing again. She had not a clue how to proceed here. Could she seriously be developing a crush on the meanest and nastiest boy in school? This was FAR worse than her little passing 'like' on Spike. She'd already been calling herself Dawn Malfoy in her head.

Draco was scrubbing viciously. He was more than a little angry with himself. He'd been so careful to keep all his emotions tightly reigned in. What in the hell had THAT been? He could not COULD NOT go about fancying skinny mudblooded twits. He'd touched her intimately. Well, not INTIMATELY, but that thing with his kissing her neck had certainly not been casual touching on any scope of the scale.

Snape stepped back in, glared at the two of them then went to his desk. he was midway sitting when he just stopped.

"What in the bloody hell happened to the two of you?"

"Well, we certainly weren't making out!" Dawn practically shouted.

Draco looked at her in horror. Dawn's mouth was hanging agape as if she had just realized what words had broken free and in what order they had escaped. Snape raised one eyebrow ever so slowly at the both of them.

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

It was very late in the night when Snape had Draco escort Dawn back to Gryffindor Tower. She'd tried to argue it, but her step father had been adamant, especially in light of her attack. The two students had not spoken a word since Dawn's shouted denial. After scrubbing the cauldrons, Snape had performed a drying charm on their damp clothing and had them mop up the watery floor - the muggle way.

Dawn had been deep in her thoughts anyway. She was having that sensation Willow called 'too many thoughts'. Everything was swirling in her head like water in a flushed toilet. One with the blue water... so you could really see those swirls.

She muttered the password to the fat lady, then froze as she was about to step in the door. Dawn turned to look at the eerily-quiet Malfoy. She moved back to him, placed a hand on his chest, stood on her toes, and placed a soft peck on his pale cheek.

"Good night."

Draco blinked after she disappeared and the door closed. The fat lady was grinning at him.

"Oh bugger off." He turned at stalked back to the dungeons.

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

Narcissa looked up from her needlepoint when Draco stormed into their rooms. He struggled almost comically out of his school robe and tossed it violently to the floor when he finally managed to escape the offending material. Narcissa ground her teeth not to giggle.

"Something vexes thee?" She asked quietly without looking away from her sewing.

Draco glared at her. She knew it bothered him when she did things the muggle way. It had certainly bothered Lucius. That man hadn't even been bothered to dress himself. He'd magicked his robes on his body. Nice body that it had been, Narcissa could not be bothered to truly miss that evil bastard. He had nearly ruined her son.

But it looked as if the boy was coming around. Lucius Malfoy would have never stomped about like a dragon with a ingrown toenail.

"Do you want to talk about it, Draco?"

"No!"

"I could make you some tea. Would that be to your liking?"

"What I would like is for you to stop being so bloody affable!"

Narcissa tossed her embroidery aside and was on him in a flash. She wadded his shirt around her hand and yanked him to her eye level.

"You are not lord of this manner." Her voice was like ice. "If you wish for me to treat you as high-handedly as your father did, I can certainly oblige you, Draco. But never forget for a second that I am also a Malfoy. I play the game much better that you, dearest. More practice. I can be nastier than you on your best day."

Draco actually shivered. He'd almost forgotten what his mother had been like when his father was still around. In that instant, he knew if it ever came down to a fight between the two of them, no matter her slight form, he would lose. Narcissa Malfoy was a survivor in the strictest sense of the word. She'd had to be.

"I'm sorry, Mother."

She smiled at him. "Sit. I will make us tea, and you will tell me what has you so troubled."

Draco sank on the couch wearily, wondering what in the hell he was going to tell his mother. He certainly couldn't tell her that he suspected he'd gone toe up for a mudblood and had very nearly been caught snogging her by her very scary and not known for being stingy with the hexes step father. Draco actually shivered again with the thought of what would have happened if Snape had walked in on his nuzzling the girl's neck.

"So..." His mother said, sitting next to him. "The water's been put to boil. What has you so upset?"

Draco frowned.

"Come on then. Whatever it is, just out with it. You can talk to me about anything, Draco."

He was fairly certain he couldn't though. Not everything.

"Snape's a git. He made me wash cauldrons the muggle way."

"That all?" She asked with a raise of her eyebrow.

"Well..." He shot to his feet and started pacing. He ran a hand through his hair in agitation. "Well, I sort of.... oh I can't talk to YOU about this."

"Do you need to talk to a man about it? Would you rather I go get Severus?"

"NO!"

Gods, no! Snape would kill him. Yes, sir, the problem is I'm visualizing your daughter naked and writhing under me in my head. I've also kissed her twice, once without her knowledge, and nuzzled her in an intimate manner. How do I stop that from happening?

Death is the only answer. Die Malfoy die! You won't lay one ferret-y digit on MY daughter!

"Draco?"

"Sorry, I..."

"Draco, does this have anything to do with Dawn?"

He paled visibly, which was quite a fete considering his complexion to begin with.

"Draco, what happened?"

"Just... no." He stormed off to his room. "I can't talk about it. Stupid little mudblood with her huge blue oceans for eyes and kissable pouty pink lips!"

He slammed the door violently. Narcissa smiled as her tea kettle started to whistle.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Dawn was lying awake. She should have fallen asleep the second her head hit the pillow, but she was too alive just now to sleep.

Draco Malfoy would have to be noted as her first kiss.

Her first real kiss too. What ever had possessed him to kiss her? He didn't even like her, right? Right? Oh great. Maybe he did like her. She vaguely recalled all the fighting and making up Xander and Cordelia had done when they had gone out. She had not really been there but remembered it anyway. She needed home. But this was home now, wasn't it? She needed something of Sunnydale.

Dawn got out of bed and grabbed a quill, ink, some parchment, and her wax sealer set that Severus had bought for her. She hurried down to the common room and sat at one of the tables. Dawn noted that Neville Longbottom had fallen asleep on one of the couches with his potions textbook. She'd wake him on her way back.

Dawn pressed the point of her quill to her tongue, thinking. The direct approach would be best. She dipped the quill into the ink blotter and scrawled but a handful of words across her parchment before signing her name. She folded the parchment and scrawled the address on the side with no folds. Dawn held her red wax close to the burning candle on the table until the wax softened. She pressed it to the folded parchment, then pressed her seal into the wax. She stared at it until it cooled. The seal was neat. Her step father had it made special for her.

A heart with a stake through it.

She made her way silently out of Gryffindor Tower towards the owlery, the words she had written burning into her very soul. Dawn really hoped she knew what she was doing.

*~*

Angel,

I need you. Please come. Bring Spike.

Love,
Dawn

 

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