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The Life Of Brian By Echo
He avoided her like the plague. At first Dawn thought she was imagining things. Then she actually saw him do a one-eighty in the hall when he saw her coming after lunch. Had she done something wrong? Was she so terrible a kisser that Draco Malfoy couldn't stand to be near her? Thank goodness that fatigue hex had finally run its course. Dawn had been getting sick and tired of being... well, tired. Now all she had to do was worry about why Malfoy was avoiding her... and why she even cared that the git was. "Dawn?" She looked to see Narcissa Malfoy standing beside her. "Ms. Malfoy, hello." "Please, when other students aren't about, you may call me Narcissa." Dawn smiled. "Walk with me? The afternoon is nice." Narcissa offered an arm to the girl. Dawn took it. The two of the moved through Hogwarts until they were outside the castle and by the lake. Narcissa was speaking in hushed tones about the final battle with the dark wizard Voldemort. She told of Draco, things Dawn never would have imagined. But mostly Narcissa told of herself. Things Dawn wasn't so sure the woman ought to be telling her. In turn, Dawn shared with her. She shared her mother, her sister, Spike, the Scoobies... all of it. Even her true nature. For some reason she knew Narcissa Malfoy was very good at keeping secrets. Hell, the woman had kept that fact that she was a spy for Dumbledore from everyone save Dumbledore and herself for YEARS. Her husband had not known she was one of the ones betraying him until it was far too late. Narcissa said that turning on Lucius Malfoy was the hardest thing she had ever done... because she had loved him. Deeply, despite his evil ways. It had pained her when she realized she could never bring him to the light. Dawn felt her pain. She knew what it was like to love someone so much and not be able to save them. She had two of those. One lost to nature, the other lost to HER nature. Dawn cried again when she spoke of Buffy. Why did her sister's death still burn her inside-out? It just killed her to see that perfect swan dive in her head. Before she knew what was happening, Narcissa Malfoy was holding her in a manner worthy of any mother and stroking her hair. "Dawn, if you ever need to talk woman to woman, I am available. I know there are some things that might be difficult to discuss with Severus, things a girl just might need another girl for." The teenager took up the offer at once. Dawn toed the dirt and grass before her. "What... what does it mean if a boy... kisses you, then he runs away... and, uh, gets all avoid-y?" Narcissa gaped. It was Draco. It had to be. She had a moment of pure joy. Her son was acting like he was alive again. Then it faded. He'd run off. He was acting like a git. Typical. Lucius had been the same way at Draco's age. Severus too. Severus even more so. Lucius was violently irritated that he was attracted to her, despite her fortune. He'd had his eye on Morag Rosier at the time. She'd been richer. Narcissa was prettier, but her dowry had not been as abundant as Morag's. But to Lucius's horror, he was inexplicably drawn to Narcissa. So much so that Morag's impressive wealth did not matter in the end. It was Narcissa he asked to be his wife... and not just because she'd seduced him, and he'd gotten her pregnant. He had been in love with her... in his own way. "Dawn, let me let you in on a little secret... most men, especially boys at your age, are deeply stupid." Dawn laughed aloud. "Corner him, and ask him why he's acting like a chicken shit." Dawn blinked. She wouldn't be talking like that if she knew she was speaking of her own son. Dawn was also a little shocked that there was an adult who'd swear around her on purpose. Most of the other swearing she heard was by accident. Even Spike watched his mouth around her... unless he was upset. The giant lake squid was waving a tentacle at them. Dawn saw one eye peeking up from the surface of the water, so she waved back. The tentacle waved even more enthusiastically after that, so Narcissa let out a lighthearted cackle - because it certainly was not a giggle - and waved at the squid as well. The two of them found a large boulder by the lake to sit upon and spent most of the fading daylight hours waving and making hand signs at the giant squid. *~*~*~* "Have a nice chat with the heir to the greasy git?" Narcissa spun around. Sirius Black was walking up to her. Well, stalking actually. The man had such an arrogant swagger about him. He was a handsome thing. As different from Lucius as night was to the day, but it mattered not a bit. Sirius Black was all rough edges where Lucius was smooth lines. Her husband had been pale and blonde. This man was a bit ruddy and had hair like a raven's wing. Lucius Malfoy had been ice. Sirius Black was most definitely fire. "Can you not let go of your past, Black? Can you not see how Dawn is not her step father? Not that it's any of your affair, but I had a lovely chat with the girl. She is in desperate need of a mother figure just now. I have happily volunteered my services." "What could you teach her? How to hang well on a Death Eater's arm?" Gods and saints, what had made him say that? He didn't mean to bait her so. And he paid. Dearly. Narcissa slapped him. He even saw it coming. He didn't even bother to stop her. He could have. He could have caught that delicate wrist in his large hand, but he deserved her anger. What a horrible thing to say. "How DARE you..." She hissed. "Narcissa, I'm sorry. I don't know why I..." "You know 'why' you. You look at me, and all you see is Lucius. You see his wife, his trophy. But that's not the whole truth, you see. He didn't win me. I won him. I thought he was what I wanted. What a foolish little girl. His ornament, hmm? What you don't see is his judge, jury, and executioner. Oh I could teach that girl things... like how to suffer silently for near twenty years. How to appear apathetic. To swallow her bitterness and hide her true nature..." "I..." "You what?" Narcissa snarled, stepping up to him. Sirius almost took a step back. Narcissa Malfoy was scary as hell when she was ticked. She was also a bit beautiful with her blue eyes flashing fiery anger and her face framed by wisps of white blonde hair that had escaped the loose bun she wore it in. He recalled her as perfection, never a hair out of place. When had she become different? "I am sorry I insulted you." He said quietly. "Sometimes my emotions get the better of me." She smiled then. "Mine are always firmly in check." He blinked. "Habit." He smiled then. "Well, I should be going." "Is Professor Lupin all right?" "What?" "He hasn't been about... I was... worried. Is he all right?" "You know what he is, correct?" "Yes." "Is doesn't bother you?" "Does it bother YOU?" She looked away. "You should toss out any preconceived notions you have of me, Sirius Black. Lucius Malfoy's wife is not who Narcissa Malfoy is." He gaped as she stalked past him. "And you would do well to treat Dawn a little nicer." "I'm not afraid of what Snape'll do to me for it." She spun about. "It's not him you have to worry about." Sirius blinked as she spun on her heel again and stormed off. What a hellcat. He never would have figured her for so much fire. She'd always seemed like such a cold fish hanging there on Lucius Malfoy's arm. *~*~*~*~* Draco was already in the classroom when Dawn showed up for detention. He glared at her. Dawn stuck her tongue out at him before dropping into the chair next to his to wait for Snape. "Coward." She hissed. "Excuse me?" He turned sideways to face her fully. Dawn turned sideways too. "You can't deal. I did something inside here..." She poked the center of his chest quite hard. ".. and you can't take it." "You're deluded." "And you're afraid of a fifteen year old girl." "I am not afraid of you." "Not only are you afraid, but you lie like crap too." "I am NOT afraid of you!" "Liar." "I'm NOT." "Then why are you being all avoid-y, huh?" Dawn folded her arms across her chest and leaned back a bit. "A what?" "Avoid-y, Malfoy. I come walking, and you take off running the other way." "I did not run." "You ran." "I walked away... briskly." Dawn rolled her eyes. Draco let out a frustrated growl and jumped up. His chair toppled over. He did not right it. Instead he started pacing rather furiously. "You drive me insane!" "Right back at ya, psycho pacing boy." "It doesn't make any sense to me, and I hate it! I hate YOU!" "You don't hate me. Not really." He stopped pacing in front of her and placed his hands on the desk. He leaned over so that he was right in her face. "I certainly don't LOVE you, Summers, if that's what you're getting at." "A good friend of mine said this really great thing. He has theories about love. He also has theories about deep-fried, blooming onions, but that's besides the point." Draco glared at her. He was still leaning on the desk. "He says this... love isn't brains. It's Blood. Blood screaming at you to work its will." Draco blinked. That was one of the best things he'd ever heard. It made total sense to him. Who was this friend of hers who said things like that? It was sort of cool. "I'm not in love with you though." He blinked. "What?" "That'd be really ridiculous. We just met, and hello, I'm fifteen." "Yes, that would be ridiculous." He was going to kiss her again. Dawn could feel it humming in the air between them. The problem was that she wanted it. He was bad mannered, obnoxious, and arrogant... and she liked that about him. Oh God. She liked Draco Malfoy. This was bad. He could see all this stuff reflecting in her eyes. All these emotions. He never knew a person's eyes could tell so many tales. Draco leaned forward and pressed his lips to hers. She came up out of her chair and started crawling across the desk. Draco helped. He grabbed her waist and gave a mighty pull. Dawn had a hold on his shoulders. Their lips never parted. Well until Dawn's step father yanked them apart with the most menacing growl Dawn had ever heard on a human. "Dad! Don't!" "I'll wring your neck!" Severus hissed. "Dad! Father! Snape!" Dawn was clinging to the arm he was holding Draco's pale throat with. The boy's feet were dangling. The door banged open. Dawn saw a blur of movement and the next thing she knew, they were all on the floor. Draco was lying on his back choking, free of Snape's strangling hand. Dawn was on hers having heart palpitations. Her hand was even on her chest as she sucked in air. And Narcissa Malfoy was sitting on top of Severus Snape. "Now I can't allow you to strangle my only son, Severus." "Am... am I interrupting?" They all looked. Remus Lupin was standing in the doorway, looking very bad indeed. He was pale and sickly. Narcissa scrambled to her feet. "Remus, dear, are you all right?" "I... uh..." Snape managed to get to his feet and helped Dawn to hers. "He's after the potion I've been brewing. He'll be well enough when the moon starts its wane." "Oh." Narcissa said in understanding. Snape tried to assist Draco to his feet, but the boy batted his hand away. Snape supposed it he would have done the same. Man tries to choke you for groping and snogging his daughter, you don't accept his hand to help you up. Narcissa was watching them suspiciously and helping Remus to a chair. Severus walked over to a cauldron brewing next to his desk and checked it. "A few minutes." They all shifted in the uncomfortable silence. Draco rubbed his throat. "Are you all right?" Dawn asked. She reached up to touch the reddened skin. Severus grabbed her hand. Dawn jerked her arm away. "We weren't doing anything wrong." Snape raised one eyebrow. Narcissa and Remus watched silently. "He just kissed me. That's all." "What?" Draco hissed. "Well you did." "Excuse me. You kissed me as much as I kissed you." "Well, what was I going to do? Just stand there?" She put her hands on her hips. Draco moved around to tower over her. "You're laying the blame all on me." "No, I'm not." "You say... he kissed me... like it was all just like that. You fail to mention that you kissed back." "Hey, no one forced you to lean in." "And I notice you didn't lean back when I did." "Well, I didn't want to be insulting." "So you kissed me back so as not to be in bad manners? Oh that's comforting." "Listen, hormone, I am not here to stroke your ego... or anything else for that matter." "I never..." Draco looked at Snape. "I swear I never..." He looked back at Dawn. "You're just trying to get him to kill me!" "You're the one making a big deal here!" "Well, you're casting me in the role of the seducer!" "Aren't you?!" "No! That'd be you about the blood and screaming!" "What?! I never said anything about that! You're high!" "You did. That thing your friend said! About love not being brains. About love being blood screaming at you to work its will! It was the most intoxicating thing I'd ever heard!" "Well, you two definitely have the screaming part down." Narcissa said drolly, while Draco and Dawn paused to let their nostrils flare in anger. Remus was watching with interest. It was one of the oddest arguments he'd ever heard, yet one of the most fascinating. And right in front of their parental figures and another teacher. It was like they didn't even realize they other three people were in the room with them. Lily Evans and James Potter used to have rows like that. One minute shouting, the next snogging. The two of them were just volatile. Perhaps Dawn's friend was right. Love wasn't about being logical. It was about passion. It was about force of nature. But could two people so young really know love so well? Certainly. They may not recognize it as such, but they could know it. The recognition came later. James had once told him he knew he adored Lily in their fourth year when she'd spit in his face. Spitting, can you IMAGINE? James always was a bit of an odd duck though. He found himself fancying a girl who'd had the gall or the anger to actually spit on him. But he'd known. Potter had known there was something between himself and Lily right then. Something quite beyond love or hate. He just had not realized what it was... not until later. "It was all quite innocent. No harm done. Professor Snape just overreacted." Narcissa said. Snape snorted. "Draco, I think you had better do detention with someone else tonight. I heard McGonagall saying the owlery needed cleaning." Draco gaped at his mother. "Go on." "You want me to shovel owl poop?!" "Too good for it?" She said in a haughty tone. "Certainly not!" He stormed out the door in a swirl of robes. Narcissa looked at Snape. "I'd swear he was your son if I didn't know for certain he was Lucius's." "Eww!" Dawn said. "Cos then I'd be kissing my brother! And he SO does not kiss like one of those guys who's like a brother. You know, you're not actually related, but it's all icky and just WRONG." Snape glared. "Kissed a lot of people, have we?" "No. Just one. But I heard Buffy talking about it once. Buffy's so funny about dating stuff. She has the worst luck with guys. See, she'd kissed Xander and..." Dawn froze. It had just hit her that she'd been speaking about Buffy.... speaking about her as if she were still alive. "Dawn?" Narcissa said quietly. And she broke down again, flinging herself at Narcissa. "I miss my sister. She'd know what to do about this thing. She gave really good boy advice. She just couldn't follow it herself. I want to ask her what to do, but I can't. She's half a world away and under six feet of dirt... and I don't even have my mom to make me feel better about it. I miss her rubbing my tummy and calling me little pumpkin belly. I miss Giles. And Willow and Xander and Tara. And oh God, I miss Spike. I miss it all so bad it hurts." Narcissa just petted the girl's hair and looked at Severus and Remus. Both men were frozen in heartache. They didn't know what to do about this. Most men didn't. Especially men who didn't have teenage daughters. "I think no detention tonight. I think Dawn needs rest." No one argued as Narcissa led the girl away. *~*~*~*~* "Dawn?" She looked up at Anya. The ex demon and Ginny were staring at her with worried expressions. She'd been mopey for the past five days, and presently, she was picking at her dinner plate but not eating. Draco was being avoid-y again, and her step father was walking on eggshells with her. He had her do nothing tasks for detention, like rearrange his potions stores or mark first year scrolls. Draco was given over to McGonagall for the rest of his detention. It was making Dawn a bit crazy. "I'm ok... I just..." Miss fighting with Malfoy? She was about to say more when I bunch of noise outside the great hall was taking everyone's attention. Dumbledore rose slowly. That's when she heard it. Faint-like, but she heard. "Dawn." The doors to the great hall slammed open, and all the professors went to their feet. "Dawn!" "Could you make more of a scene?" Another voice said. Dawn rose slowly. Her skin was prickling with something electric. She'd almost forgotten. "DAWN!" Ice blue eyes landed on her. Finally. "Spike." She whispered. And she ran. So did he. They crashed like some horrible fleshy car accident. Dawn was sure she'd have a bruise or two later, but she hardly cared. Spike had both arms about her and had lifted her off her feet to twirl her around in a tight hug. She squeezed her eyes shut and wrapped her arms around his neck. Spike was smelling her hair. She was smelling him as well. Leather and cigarettes. A bit of whiskey too. And something of Spike. Something of dead flesh and male. Perhaps the faintest scent of blood and peroxide. "Missed you, niblet." "We can see that. Think I can get a 'hello' in sometime tonight, Spike?" Dawn looked up. "Angel!" She untangled herself from Spike and threw herself into the arms of the other vampire. Angel 'oofed' in surprise and hugged her back. "I can't believe you're both here." "Yeah. Me neither." Spike said looking around. "And everyone's staring." "They've just never seen vampires up close before." There were several gasps. "Oh knock it off. They're good vampires. Well, Angel is anyway. Spike, well, we're not sure about him. He's good when it suits his purpose." Anya said as she stalked up to the trio. "Demon girl? Bloody hell! Where have you been? Here all this time? Why didn't you tell us? Chubs has been tearing up soddin' Sunnyhell since you disappeared. He's getting very annoying, and... half a mo. There's something different about you." Anya placed her hand on her hips. "Yeah, no shit, Sherlock." "Why do you smell like fifteen year old virgin?" "Spike!" Angel hissed. Anya rolled her eyes. "I wonder." "Fuck... me..." "Spike!" Angel and Dawn screeched simultaneously. "Being a fifteen year old virgin, that would be highly inappropriate if I went to shagging vampires who were just shy of a hundred and thirty." "Anya!" Dawn hissed. "Fuck..." Spike muttered again, looking at Anya like she was a cherry tart and he was having the worst sweet tooth. "Spike..." Angel growled. "What?! I'm a bit flummoxed here!" Dawn gave him a baleful look. "Stop cursing." Anya gestured to the tables. Spike noticed the room was just bursting with minors. "Oh." Then he made a face. "Wait, I'm evil. I can curse if I want to." "Do it, and I'll find a place to put this." Dawn was holding her wand. "And it won't be up your nose." Spike placed a hand on his butt. "Niblet, that's just sick. Who have you been hanging about with to get such dirty ideas?" "That would be me." Snape was standing next to them. Everyone looked sort of disturbed. "Not about the dirty, the hanging. She's been hanging about me. I would never... with the wand..." Angel raised an eyebrow. Dawn's eyes were scanning the room. She locked gazes with Professor Black. "Ha! Angelus, the Scourge of Europe-" "Dawn!" Angel said looking offended. "And William the Bloody AKA Spike. I told you I knew vampires, Professor Black!" Dawn looked at Angel. "He didn't believe me. He also said it wasn't possible for a vampire to have a soul." Spike snorted. "The wanker's all soul-having. Trust me. Annoying to boot. Quite the do-gooder." "I'm sorry, who was that who wouldn't tell Glory who I was and let her torture him but good? Who swore to Buffy he'd protect me? Who nearly got himself permanently damaged trying to get me off that tower? I forget." It was Spike's turn to look offended. "Shut up. I'm evil." Dawn squealed and did a little dance before hugging him again. "I have missed you SO MUCH. I just love it when you say you're evil. It's so cute." Angel was smirking at him. "Oh yeah. You're bad to the bone." "Piss off, you hair-gelled nancy vamp." "Nancy vamp? I'm not the one who writes poetry." Spike growled. There were several gasps from those near enough to hear him.
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