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.

Draco left Hogwarts on the first day of the school holidays and was glad to leave its empty echoing hallways. His father, predictably, had been proud when Dumbledore had written to him to let him know that Draco had been chosen to take part in this exchange scheme. It was seen as an opportunity to get in touch with other wizards who might be loyal to Voldemort and Draco had been sent several letters by his father, lecturing him and saying that if he proved himself at this task, he may well find his standing with Lord Voldemort massively improved. Draco had shown these letters to Dumbledore who had smiled at him benignly and told him not to worry. This was expected and would be dealt with.

It was with mixed feelings Draco presented himself in Dumbledore’s office on that day. His trunk was shrunk to fit into his pocket, his broomstick under one arm and a small bag on his shoulder. On the advice of Snape, he had worn what he mentally termed as “muggle” clothing which Snape had obtained for him. To Draco’s surprise, Snape announced that he would be accompanying him to introduce him to his hosts. This trip and all it entailed, the decisions that he was now having to make, had come too soon for Draco and he still wasn’t sure quite what was supposed to be achieved by him making this trip.

He stepped out of the fireplace, making room for Professor Snape who followed him seconds later, brushing soot from his robes. Snape took in the occupants of the room and held his hand out to one of them.

It was a tall man, broad shouldered with a calm expression. He had short hair which now more grey than brown, the eyes seemed to be green and his skin was tanned by the Californian sun. He looked tired, as if he had seen too much too soon. Draco, never one for intuition, realised that this was not a man he wanted to see angry.

“Giles.”

“Snape.”

The two men shook hands hard and briefly before Snape turned his gaze on Draco.

“Draco Malfoy, this is Rupert Giles. He’s an old friend, an ex pupil of Professor Dumbledore’s.”

Draco masked his surprise at Snape ever admitting to having any friends and shook the hand of the now introduced Rupert Giles. The name seemed familiar and had done ever since Snape had first mentioned it but still he couldn’t quite figure out where he knew it from.

“You remind me of your mother, even if you look like Lucius” Giles told him as he squeezed his hand hard. Draco stared at him and then at Snape.

”You told me no one would know me.”

Snape shrugged one shoulder carelessly “I lied. Rupert Giles is one of the few people who would be able to take a Malfoy in without caring, hence your presence here.”

Draco glared at him but Giles’ sudden outburst of laughter distracted him.

“Oh yes. He’s definitely Lucius’ son. As if I had any doubt.” Giles abruptly sobered and then gave Draco a thoughtful look. “The question is, how much?”

“Isn’t that what I’m here to find out?” Draco answered the question, even though Giles had not expected an answer.

“Yes indeed. This is Angel.” Giles introduced the other occupant of the room “You may know him from your studies as Angelus.” Draco shook the hand that was held out to him and realised the man’s skin was cold. He looked up into the brown eyes and saw a wary, untrusting expression. Someone else knew who he was as well, obviously.

“Angelus? The vampire?” Draco questioned and Angel nodded once, not bothering to speak.

“Angel has a soul now.” Giles said simply as if it explained everything. “And now Mr Malfoy, I’ll thank you to keep any thoughts you may have regarding muggles and their inferiority to pure blood wizards to yourself. The people in the other room range from Slayers, to an incredibly powerful witch, to muggles who have faced down more evil than your father. They won’t take kindly to your prejudices here.”

Draco nodded and said “Don’t call me Malfoy.” He was unsurprised by this, both Snape and Dumbledore had warned him a little of the situation he was going into. Offending Slayers was not a good idea and since there was a vampire around, Draco decided not he would not be putting a toe out of line for a good while.

“Fine Draco. I assume you have your luggage on you?” Draco pulled his trunk out of his pocket, took his wand out and gave it a little wave, until the trunk grew back to its normal size.

”I’m not sure if there’s anywhere you’ll be able to ride that” Giles nodded to his broomstick “but we’ll see what we can do.”

“I need to get back to the School” Snape said “If you need to contact me, let Giles know and we’ll arrange it. The others believe you are here for your own protection, which up to a point is true. Take your time, enjoy yourself. Learn how they live. And most of all ask yourself this. Are you ready to become the one thing you have hated for so long? Or are you ready to join us and fight against Voldemort? The second you make that decision, the minute you choose, there is no going back and it is likely that you will suffer badly at the hands of your family and Voldemort if you do decide that.”

Snape nodded to Giles and then stepped back into the fireplace, taking a handful of Floo powder from the container Giles held out then dropped it at his feet, calling out “Professor Dumbledore’s office” leaving Draco alone.

“Right then, I suppose we better get you introduced to people and settled in.”

”Why do so many people live here?” Draco asked.

“It’s a long story, one which I don’t think anyone is really ready to tell at the moment. But the battle we have just fought claimed an entire town, all of our homes and loved one’s lives. Angel is kind enough to give us shelter until we decide what we’re doing next.”

Angel opened the door and Draco followed. Giles pulled a wand out of his pocket and muttered under his breath, moving Draco’s trunk along in front of him. He hadn’t lost his touch.

The office opened out into a large foyer, light and airy with the sun streaming down on to the marble floor. Draco could see the remains of what looked like a pentagram inscribed on the floor. Nice. There were some people grouped together at what looked like a large cupboard and his eyes caught the sparkle of sunlight on metal.

“This is not a R’bina axe, Wes” insisted a girl who looked like Barbie. She was tiny, her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail and her features typically American, tanned skin, hazel eyes and a big smile. She flourished the axe easily as she spoke.

“And how, pray tell, would you know that?” the English accent immediately caught Draco’s attention. It was a man, in his early thirties by the look of him, brown haired with vivid blue eyes. He took the axe from the girl, inspecting the blade.

“Because you use R’bina axes to kill Polmora demons and I killed one of those about two weeks ago and I didn’t use this!”

“What did you use?” Wes asked sardonically.

The blonde girl hesitated for a moment, skimming through the contents of the cupboard and the weapons in front of her before triumphantly pulling another axe from the pile at her feet.

”This one” she said smugly.

Wes took it from her, holding them out before him, before shaking his head and handing them both back to the girl.

”They’re both R’bina axes, Buffy. We have more than one.”

Her smug expression fell and the others laughed before turning to see Giles, Angel and Draco coming across the floor to join them.

“Hey Giles, did you know we had more than one R’bina axe?” the girl asked.

“And more importantly, who’s the hottie?” one of the other girls spoke, and Draco’s eyes went straight to her in amusement.

Giles sighed in annoyance, something Draco would learn that he did regularly, giving the girl who had spoken an irritated glance.

“This is Draco Malfoy, he’s my godson.”

Draco gave Giles a sharp look. He had not been told that before but Giles continued without giving Draco a chance to say anything. Draco decided he would take it up with the man later – it sounded like they had a fair amount of talking to do.

“He’s over from England for a short time, under our protection. Draco, this is Wes Wyndham-Pryce” Giles indicated the man who had won the axe argument, “Buffy Summers, my Slayer” Buffy was the girl with the axes and she juggled them into one hand so she could shake his, “Faith, another Slayer” the stunning brunette who had called him a hottie gave him a little wave, “Charles Gunn”, a dark skinned man who was sitting cross legged on the floor, sharpening a sword nodded at him, “and this is Dawn Summers, Buffy’s sister.”

Holy mother of god. Draco couldn’t breathe for a moment. She was tall, taller than the two Slayers, slender, with long loose brown hair, laughing eyes, pouty lips and creamy skin. Godamn it, she was hotter than all the girls at Hogwarts put together.

“Hey” she said.

“Hey” he answered, unable to frame a coherent thought.

“You any good with weapons Draco?” Buffy asked hopefully but Giles interrupted her.

“I'm just going to show Draco to his room, perhaps you would like to order some food, pizza perhaps?” Giles obviously knew the best way to divert Buffy and she gave a visible jump at the idea of pizza.

“OK. We’ll just finish sorting these out.”

“Don’t put them in alphabetical order again” Angel spoke for the first time, his accent lilting slightly and Draco remembered that he was originally Irish.

“How else are we supposed to find anything?” Wes argued.

“It doesn’t make any difference” Charles Gunn said from his seat on the floor “All we usually do is grab the first sharp thing anyway. What does it matter what the name of it is?”

“Because this happens to be the only thing in the world that’ll kill a Polmora demon” Wes said stiffly, taking an axe from Buffy.

“Not the only thing” Buffy grinned “because we have two of them.”

Draco couldn’t help but smile at the Slayer’s quick humour and neither could anyone else, except for Giles who tutted, rolled his eyes and began to head towards the stairs. Draco followed him quickly, catching up with him half way up the stairs.

“I’ve put you in the room next to me” Giles explained as he and Draco walked down the carpeted corridor.

“Are they always like that?” Draco asked.

“Nope. Usually they’re worse. God alone knows how we manage sometimes” Giles shook his head but Draco could tell he had real affection for the group downstairs.

He stopped at a door with “17” on it and pushed it open.

“Dawn cleaned it up for you.” Giles said and at that Draco felt his stomach contract. That gorgeous creature downstairs had done that? She had been thinking of him?

”Tell her thank you” he managed to get out.

“You can tell her yourself later” Giles said, his long years with Buffy and her friends making him sensitive to boyhood embarrassment with girls. “I’ll leave you to get settled. Come down whenever you’re ready. What kind of pizza do you like?”

“Pizza?”

“It’s an Italian dish” Giles began, reminding himself that Draco had grown up in a different world. One that might not contain pizza. Draco’s eyes flashed in annoyance and Giles reminded himself that he was a Malfoy as well.

“I know what it is. We’ve holidayed in Rome. I like spicy food. “Chicken preferably.”

Giles raised an eyebrow at his tone but Draco carried on.

“And while we’re talking…. god father?”

Giles frowned at him. “We’re going to need some time to talk about this Draco. But I suggest we leave it for the moment. Perhaps tomorrow we can spend some time together but for now, settle in, meet the others and get to know them.”

“But….”

“Tomorrow.” Giles’ tone brooked no disagreement and reluctantly Draco nodded his assent.

“Spicy chicken it is. You’ll be popular with Fred. That’s her favourite as well.”

Giles left the room, leaving Draco to mull over his words. Then something stuck up its hand and waved a mental flag at him. Didn’t he said Fred? Wasn’t that a girl’s name?