Title: Rebellion
Author: Wildecate
Email: wildecate@hotmail.com
Summary: Draco Malfoy rebels.
Notes: Set post BTVS S7 and post ATS S4 and definitely post OOTP.
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine.

Harry Potter was, Dawn decided, a pretty nice guy. He was cute and reminded her a little of Xander, making her laugh at his silly jokes. His girlfriend, Hermione Granger, was cool too. She and Harry had taken Giles and the others’ appearances calmly, Harry ignoring the fact that Giles had been a Slytherin, instead focusing on the fact he was a Watcher and questioning him on it. Giles answered Harry’s questions but Dawn noticed he was being a little vague with his answers. He had not mentioned anything about Willow being a magic user or Dawn having powers as well. He had spoken briefly about Angel and Spike and Harry had wanted to know all about Buffy, Faith and the rest of the Slayers.

Willow ate her meal quietly, her senses tingling. She could feel the dislike in the room, dislike and fear. Harry had a great deal of power. Willow eyed the scar on his forehead. Oh yes, that was the sign of a dark curse all right. Willow longed to touch it, to feel the magic prickle against her fingertips and flood into her mind. The pull of the magic was immense but she ignored it, and instead, she listened to Hermione telling Dawn about her job, something at the Ministry of Magic. She, Harry and Ron worked together as a team, putting together ways that people could defend themselves against Voldemort, not to defeat him but just to give them enough time to get away to safety.

Hermione. Yes. She was another one with some hefty power. Willow would like to see what this girl could do if tested. She reminded Willow of herself when she had first met Buffy. Smart, intelligent, definitely the brains of the outfit. But there was something else here, something Willow recognised. Fearlessness, courage and bravery. Willow stirred her dinner idly, wondering if Hermione would have been as impulsive as she had been, if she would have been as ready to embrace the Dark Arts if something happened to Harry. Willow decided not.

Ron Weasley was the third person who had joined them at dinner. He was much more of an unknown quantity. His red hair was cropped short, his freckles stood out on his nose, his blue eyes sparkled with good humour. Willow watched him out of the corner of her eye and realised something. Ron was in love with Hermione. And Hermione was completely oblivious to this. Ron liked Hermione, Hermione liked Harry – Willow stifled a smile – this sounded familiar. Willow liked Xander, Xander liked Buffy, Buffy liked Angel. Willow felt sorry for Ron and hoped that he would get over Hermione who was, quite obviously, very much in love with Harry.

Arthur and Molly Weasley sat at the other end of the table, eating in silence. They would head back to The Burrow after tea and leave Giles, Willow and Dawn with Harry and his friends. Arthur was deeply unhappy about this and it was only the fact that Dumbledore himself had sent him an owl, emphasising his trust in Giles, that he was even allowing them in the house.

Hermione noticed Dawn’s eyes slide to the wand that sat by the side of her plate. Hermione, Harry, Ron and Ginny had not been told anything by the Weasleys, only that their guests were in need of a safe place to stay for another few days until they could get back to America. Hermione assumed they were muggles as they were using muggle transport. She smiled at Dawn and asked her if she wanted to see a trick.

“Sure” said Dawn enthusiastically.

Hermione made her glass dance across the table, the fork and knife spinning around them and then transfigured her cup into a rabbit which sat fatly on the table, chewing at some lettuce that Ron had fed it.

“Why do you need to use a wand?” Dawn asked “Can’t you do magic without it?”

Hermione shook her head “All witches and wizards have wands. Wandless magic is practically unheard of. You have to have immense control and power to use magic without a wand. Not even Professor Dumbledore could manage without one.” Hermione missed the look that Dawn and Willow exchanged when she said this. Willow was stunned. Giles had not mentioned this to her. She had never known she was supposed to use a wand, perhaps if she had done, the magic would have come easier in the early days. She remembered how, day after day, she would practice to levitate a pencil until finally she could make it fly up into the air on command. The power flowed easily through her now and she hardly ever had to focus to control the power. Willow wondered what she would be like with a wand, how much easier her learning curve would have been.

“May I?” Dawn asked and Hermione held her wand out to Dawn. Dawn took the wand, running her fingers down the wood, swishing around experimentally. It felt funny in her hands as she twirled it through the air.

“It’s eleven inches, ash, with unicorn hair. A good all rounder I was told.”

“I wouldn’t know what to do with it” Dawn said but Hermione could tell that she wanted to try. Hermione showed her the swish and flick and told her the words to the first charm she had ever learned at Hogwarts. Hermione slid a spoon in front of Dawn and smiled encouragingly. She had no hope of the girl actually managing to levitate it but it was still worth a try.

“Wingardium Leviosa” Dawn said and flicked her wand at the spoon. It slowly lifted into the air and hung before her. Dawn smiled excitedly, not noticing the surprise on the Weasleys’, Harry and Hermione’s faces. She moved the wand from side to side and the spoon moved with her.

“Cool” she breathed out. “Hey Willow, check this out.”

“You’re a witch?” Harry said, confused “You didn’t say.”

“I didn’t know” Dawn said, still pre-occupied with her spoon flying, making it zoom around the table.

“I don’t understand.” Hermione looked at Willow in consternation. “Can you do this too?”

“Um…” Willow looked to Giles for help. He had been listening and had half hoped that the conversation would have stopped well before this. He met the panicky eyes of his protégé and knew that anything he said now would be closely listened to. He suspected Arthur had guessed who Willow was and was incredibly angry with him for bringing her to this house. He inclined his head to Willow and left it to her to make the decision.

“Can you?” Harry asked, backing his girlfriend up, watching the redhead looking worriedly at Rupert Giles who was obviously wishing that they could get out of this.

“Yes” Willow said quietly “I can.”

“Try the levitation charm” Hermione urged and Dawn passed her wand to Willow who held it uncertainly before looking up at Giles, a mute appeal for help in her eyes.

“Just as Hermione showed Dawn” he said “swish and flick, and the charm is Wingardium Leviosa.”

With much trepidation, Willow moved the wand awkwardly and mumbled the charm. Some black smoke poured out of the end of the wand but the spoon did not stir from the table and Willow laid Hermione’s wand down thankfully. She had not wanted the spell to work and she was relieved that it hadn’t. All the same, the black smoke from the end of the wand worried her. The same thing had happened when she had used Giles’ wand.

Hermione picked her wand up and stared at it and then at Willow.

“It’s never done that before. I thought you said you were a witch as well?” she questioned.

“It doesn’t always work” Willow said “I’m not that experienced.”

Hermione turned to Giles who had taken a gulp of his tea which had gone down the wrong way as Willow had spoken.

“Are you alright Mr Giles?” she asked in concern.

“Fine” he choked, his face turning red.

Willow carried on with her dinner, glad that the moment had passed. The chatter around the table commenced again but Willow was aware she was being watched. She looked up and found the eyes of Arthur Weasley on her. She gave him a smile but he did not smile back but instead glared at Giles.

Dinner finished quietly, Molly Weasley clearing the table with a swish of her wand. Willow took herself upstairs, needing to be alone. All her confusion and hurt that had faded since Tara died had come flooding back and she couldn’t deal with being sociable at the same time.

Dawn had disappeared with Ginny and Hermione so they could show her some more tricks with Hermione’s wand.

Giles was about to leave the kitchen when the door slammed shut in front of him. He turned round and Arthur Weasley was standing at the other end of the room, the table between them. He was angry, bright spots of colour standing out on his cheeks. Giles sighed when he saw this. Arthur angry was never a pretty sight and never a good thing. When roused, he had a temper that rivalled Lucius Malfoy’s and he was angry now.

“It’s her, isn’t it?” Arthur said quietly, his temper under control for the moment. “You brought her here.”

“I didn’t plan on it Arthur. There’s no need for you to be angry.”

“No need to be angry? You bring the witch who nearly brought the world to it’s knees, into this house?”

Giles sighed. He should have expected something like this. “Willow is not the person she was. She has not touched the Dark Arts for over a year now. She has herself well under control.”

“Under control? You call that under control?”

“The spell did not work Arthur.”

“You bring a woman like that into this house, you put us all in danger! How could you be so thoughtless. You know how important Harry is to this cause!”

“Arthur” Giles’ voice was calm but carried a threat of menace. Arthur Weasley was forcibly reminded of why Rupert Giles had managed to scare the hell out of him when he was younger. “Willow is not going to lose her mind, nor is she going to become Voldemort’s new plaything. The three of us will leave on Thursday to go to Heathrow and we will fly back to the States. You need not see us again.”

“I don’t know why you came here in the first place” Arthur Weasley grumbled.

“I believe you were waiting to see me?” Severus Snape materialised in the fireplace amid green flames and stepped out, shaking his robes. He gave Arthur Weasley a disdainful look but held his hand out to Giles who shook it firmly.

“Ripper.”

“Sev. It’s good to see you again.”

“I must be brief. I cannot risk being found away from the school at the moment.” Severus Snape sat himself down and Giles settled himself opposite him. Molly and Arthur Weasley took seats at the table as well, signalling their intention to hear what was going on.

“I hear your little one has been getting herself into trouble, Ripper.” Sev met the green eyes of Rupert Giles who sighed.

“You’ve seen Ethan then?” Giles answered and Sev nodded.

“Just for a moment or two, he stuck his head in to let me know what was going on. But I thought you might care to enlighten me as to what actually happened.”

“What was going on?” asked Molly Weasley “you did say that Willow had stayed out of trouble?”

“She has.” Giles ignored the question and instead spoke to Snape. “Did everything go according to plan?”

“It did” Snape confirmed, smoothing his black hair off his face. “Ethan left them at the gates to the house and apparated away as they were coming round.”

“What happened?” Arthur insisted “You must tell us.”

“No Arthur. I mustn’t anything! I don’t have to tell you a goddamned word OK? If we had a choice we wouldn’t be here but this is the safest place for Dawn and Willow and I’ll be damned if I’m going to put them in any more danger. What happened to bring us here is none of your business.”

Arthur sat back in his chair, stunned by this outburst from Giles. Molly tugged gently at her husband’s arm.

“Come on dear. He’s right. This really isn’t any of our business. I’m sure Rupert will tell us anything we need to know.” She stared hard at Giles who nodded back at her. The Weasleys left the room, leaving Giles and Snape alone at the table.

“If I ask what happened, am I going to get my head bitten off as well?” Snape enquired dryly.

Giles sighed. “Dawn saw Draco and Lucius and inadvertently led them back to Ethan’s place where we were staying. Willow managed to obliviate both of them. But not before I saw that Draco had taken the Mark” Giles said sadly. “I failed him. We all did.”

“I can keep an eye on him for the moment” Snape said. “You’re not to worry about him.”

Giles paced restlessly around the room. “How can I not worry about him? He was so close. So bloody close.”

“It wasn’t your fault. You can’t save everyone” Snape said. He rarely offered comfort but he felt a little sorry for Rupert Giles.

“I can try.”

“Why don’t you come with us to Diagon Alley with us tomorrow?” Ginny asked. “We could get you a wand.”

Dawn thought back to Giles’ stern admonition that they would not be leaving the house. She could be recognised. They couldn’t take the risk. She shook her head regretfully to a chorus of “oh why nots” from the girls. How could she tell them? Giles had made it plan that he was not popular with these people, neither were the Malfoys. Dawn had decided not to mention Draco’s time with them in LA. Nor would she mention exactly how she felt about Draco, how her heart had leapt when she had seen him, when he had kissed her in the kitchen. He wouldn’t remember that kiss.

Hermione was saying something to her but Dawn hadn’t been listening to her. She jerked back to reality and focused in on what Hermione was suggesting.

“Giles has said I’m not supposed to leave the house.”

“Why?”

“Because we need to keep a low profile. I can’t go anywhere that I might be recognised.”

“Who would recognise you?” Ginny asked.

There was silence in the room for a moment until Dawn raised her bright blue eyes and looked at her new found friends. Giles’ words rang in her mind. ‘They won’t understand’.

“I can’t. I just can’t. OK?”