Chapter Two - Myth? I Think Not

"Dawn, what do you mean you're going to stay?"

Dawn glared at her sister. "What? You think Giles can't take care of me?" Giles had come in from England earlier that week for reasons he would not reveal, even though Buffy suspected that Dawn knew something, but she hadn't voiced her suspicions. He had been staying at the Summers household camping out on the couch.

"No, it's just that." Buffy sighed and put her hands on her sister's shoulders. "I want to be able to keep my eye on you. Its not that I don't trust you - "

"It just that you don't trust everybody else. God, do you know how mom-ish you sound when you say that?" Buffy threw a pillow at Dawn, who giggled.

The doorbell rang.

"Who's - " Buffy was already out the door and halfway down the stairs before Dawn could finish.

She got to the front door and opened it.

"Buffy."

Buffy smiled. "Angel."

Buffy pulled Angel into a hug. She could feel his pulse beating in his chest. She put her palm over his heart.

"I thought it might have been a dream." Buffy said, tearing up.

"No. I thought the same thing at first. But.it's not. It's all very real." Buffy looked up at him and smiled. She pulled him into another hug.

"Awe." Buffy turned around and dried her eyes as a chorus of awes filled the room. Angel shifted his weight from foot to foot.

"I have to go upstairs and get my bags. I'll be right back." She gave him a kiss on the cheek and whispered in his ear, "I'm glad you're back."

Buffy bounded the stairs in twos.

"Only you could make her that happy Dead Boy."

"Nope, can't call me that anymore Xand. I have a pulse now, remember?"

"Oh.Damn."

Angel smirked.

"That has to be the happiest I've seen her in months. Only you could make her THAT happy Angel.Thank you."

Angel smiled shyly at Giles and mumbled, "Have you told her yet?"

"No. Dumbledore asked me to keep it a secret. He wants it to be a surprise."

Angel smiled. "Oh, she'll be surprised alright."

"Ready." Buffy came down the stairs, Faith trailing close behind.

"Hey Angel. Long time no see."

"Hi Faith." He said wearily.

Buffy gave both Giles and Dawn a hug. "We'll owl you as soon as we can, ok?"

"You'd better. I want to know all about how cool everything is." Dawn smiled.

She walked the group to the door with a chorus of hugs and "Byes."

They walked out and Dawn leaned against the closed door.

"So, do you think she knows Giles?"

"Nope." He smiled. "She doesn't have a clue." Dawn smiled back.

~*~*~

"Oy! Harry! Over here!"

Harry smiled as he caught sight of Ron at the end of the train - the last car, as usual.

Harry dragged his trunk along and Ron helped him load it into their car.

"Harry!"

"Oof!" Harry was smothered in a hug from Hermione.

"Ow - Hermione, you're cutting off my air supply."

"Oh, sorry."

"She did the same thing to me. 'Mione, I think you bruised my arm."

"Oh, I'll bruise your arm if you really want me to."

Ron grinned at Harry.

The three students got on the train and began discussing the upcoming year.

"Did you hear about the new teachers?" Hermione asked.

"What? You mean Defense Against the Dark Arts?" Harry asked.

"Not only that." Ron said smirking a bit. "There's this new class that everyone is required to take, even the first years, called Defense Against Muggle Attacks."

"I heard that two Muggles are teaching it! I hope they're good."

"Dumbledore wouldn't have hired them if they weren't good Hermione."

"Umm...Lockhart?" Harry said laughing.

Ron shrugged. "Point taken. I heard that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is a vampire."

Hermione shuddered. "Why on earth would Dumbledore have hired a vampire?"

"He hired a werewolf four years ago. Why not a vampire?" Harry asked.

Hermione sighed. "I guess you're right."

The door next door to theirs slammed, and they all jumped.

"Buffy?"

Buffy slid to the floor and buried her face in her hands crying.

"Buffy." Buffy looked up into Angel's concerned eyes.

"I can't keep lying. They all think they know.they all think they know." This sent Buffy into another fit of tears.

"I know Buffy. I know." Angel pulled her into his arms and she cried into his shoulder.

She whispered, almost inaudibly, "No, you don't."

Hermione, Harry and Ron were watching the scene from the doorway of their car. They looked at each other and mentally shrugged.

"What was that about?" Hermione whispered.

"I'm not sure." Harry said, continuing to look down the hall.

~*~*~

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The students in the Great Hall clapped as Sally Zenith was the last student to be sorted and Professor McGonagall put the Sorting Hat away.

"Congratulations First Years. I have a few announcements. As usual, the Forbidden Forest is, as the name suggests, forbidden. No student is to go out of the castle unaccompanied by an adult after class times. Not even to go visit another teacher who lives outside the castle."

Hermione, Ron, and Harry glanced at each other.

"I am happy to announce quite a few new arrivals this year, beginning with a new seventh year student. She is a transfer student from a Muggle school who won't so much be learning magic as observing it. She will be staying in the Gryffindor dormitory."

A tall girl with layered brown hair and brown eyes walked up to the professors' table. She smiled at Buffy's dumbfounded expression.

"May I please introduce Dawn Summers."

The room burst into applause and Dawn sat down at the Gryffindor table, grinning at her sister's absolutely shocked face.

"The rest are some of your new professors. Professor Summers and Professor Morgan will be teaching a new class which you are all required to take called Defense Against Muggle Attacks." Buffy and Faith stood up.

"A little young to be professors aren't they?" Hermione said. Harry just shrugged.

"Professor O' Flaherty and Professor Giles will be teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts." Buffy looked down the table, where she saw Giles seated next to Dumbledore. He beamed at her.

'No more surprises. Oh please, no more surprises.' Buffy thought frantically.

"And Professors Rosenburg, Harris, Harris and McClay. They will be assistants to any teachers who need their help. They will also be patrolling the halls at all hours of the night. Which means no sneaking around." He said this with a twinkle in his eye.

"Alright, enough welcoming for now - let's eat!"

~*~*~*~

"Dawn Marie Summers, I cannot believe you would do this to me."

Dawn laughed at her sister. "I got the letter from Dumbledore a week before you got yours. Giles explained the situation to me. Of course I said I wanted to come! So they made arrangements."

Buffy shook her head. "After all we've been through, you'd trick me like that Giles? And how do you know Dumbledore anyway? You seem pretty close to him."

Giles smirked. "Call it payback for all the things you've ever done to trick me. And I know Dumbledore from here actually. Hard as it might be to believe, I attended Hogwarts years ago when Dumbledore was still only a teacher. We've kept in touch over the years, and when he told me that he was going to ask you if you wanted to come here, he asked if.well.if, in your condition - "

"Yeh, I get it Giles. Let's not go there now, ok?"

"Agreed. Well, we should all get some rest. Who's rooming where then?"

"Umm.Willow and Tara are sharing a room, so are Anya and Xander, and me and Angel."

Giles quirked an eyebrow at this last pairing.

"What? Did you really expect something else? How naïve are you Giles, really?" She over dramatically rolled her eyes making Dawn burst into a fit of giggles.

"On that note, I am retiring to my room. Goodnight all."

"G'night Giles." Dawn said, still giggling.

"Dawnie, the Gryffindors are heading to their dorms. You'd better follow."

"Already on it Will. See you guys later. And yes Buffy, I know where to find you." She burst into a small fit of giggles and ran off to catch up with the other Gryffindors.

"I'm pretty tired myself. Angel, you coming?"

"Yeah. Who's patrolling the halls tonight?"

"Dumbledore gave us a list of shifts so we wouldn't have to figure it out ourselves." Anya said, feeling important. "It's the same every night. The students can't come out of the dorms after midnight. The first shift is me and Tara from midnight to two. The second shift is Xander and Willow from two to four, and the final shift is Buffy and Angel from four to six, when the students can start walking around again."

They all nodded. "Ok. Well, we're off to bed then. See you guys in the morning."

"Goodnight Buffy."

"Night Xander."

Buffy looked at Angel and they walked off to their room, holding hands.

~*~*~

"Check mate."

Harry groaned as he lost yet another game of chess to Ron.

"Alright, I give up. You win the bet." He handed Ron five galleons. Ron smiled from ear to ear.

"Hey, have you talked to the new girl yet?" Ron asked Hermione.

"Why? You fancy her Ron?"

"Maybe I do Harry. Why, do you?"

"No." He said blushing slightly. "I actually have someone else in mind." He glanced over to Hermione and Ron shook his head. "If you don't ask her out this year mate, I will."

"You wouldn't!"

Ron hit him on in the back of the head. "Not for me you nitwit!"

"Right. I - I knew that." Ron laughed at Harry's embarrassed expression.

Dawn sat on an armchair in the corner of the common room, reading a book Giles had given her. It was all about the First Slayer and the Key. Dawn wanted to learn more about the person who she was - and the person who made Buffy take her life in place of her own. A tear slid down her cheek at the memory, which she abruptly brushed away.

"Reading anything interesting?" Dawn jumped and slammed the book closed.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

"It's ok. You're Ron, right?"

Ron smiled. "Yeah. And you're Dawn. Are you by any chance related to Professor Summers?"

Dawn smiled. "Yup. She's my sister."

"I figured as much. Do all of you know each other? I mean, all of the new teachers seem to know each other."

"Yeah, they do. They all do actually. Xander - I mean, Professor Harris is married to.Professor Harris. And the rest of them know each other from school and college and stuff. I'm rambling aren't I?"

Ron laughed. "Not really. Hey Hermione."

"Hey Ron. Hey.Dawn, isn't it?"

"Yup, I'm Dawn."

"What are you reading?" Hermione asked, trying to get a look at the cover.

"Umm.it's a book.about." She quickly contemplated whether or not to tell them about the whole slayer thing. She figured there was no harm in it, so she finished with, "It's a book about the First Slayer."

"The slayer.you mean, like the chosen one slayer?"

"One and the same. You've heard of her?" Dawn asked, surprised.

"Yes. I've read about the slayer. But she's only a myth." She said matter- of-factly.

Dawn stood up, obviously slightly offended. "She's not a myth, I can quite assure you of that. Goodnight."

She picked up her book and walked off, leaving both Hermione and Ron lost in confusion.

"Was it something I said?"