Disclaimer: Am I Twentieth Century Fox? J.K. Rowling? Mutant Enemy? (Grr. Argh.)? Warner Brothers? Kuzui Enterprises? Scholastic? Joss Whedon?
I didn't think so. Therefore I own nothing but the keyboard I typed this on.
A/N I: The story and the author's note immediately following contain spoilers for Goblet of Fire and Season 5 of Buffy. If you don't want to be spoiled for either, turn back now . . . .
I know the years of Season 5 of Buffy and Goblet of Fire don't really match, but I'm pretending that they do. Using airdates as if they were the real dates, "Blood Ties," when Dawn found out she was the Key was February 6, the Second Task was February 24, "The Body," which was about Joyce's death was February 27. I know, Buffy found Joyce's body on February 20, but it works better to have her die on February 27.
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Harry watched as Cedric walked up to the auburn-haired young woman who was, evidently, the one person he'd miss most. "Do I know you from somewhere?" He asked.
"Dawn Summers? Sunnydale, California?" She asked hopefully. "Ring any bells?"
He shook his head slowly. "No, that's not it . . ."
"This is what I was afraid of. Dum - something. Dumbwaiter?"
"Dumbledore?"
"Yeah. Him. He couldn't figure it out, either." She shrugged.
Cedric suddenly realized what one person would be more important than his friends, or family, or Cho. He looked deeply into her green eyes. "You can't be." He paused then added, "But it's the only thing that makes sense."
Dawn watched him as he stood silently for a while, wondering what he was thinking. Cedric was lost in his memories of being visited by his uncle Vaclav, who had told him about the importance of the Key to the fate of, not just humanity, but their entire dimension.
The Order of Dagon had needed to use an untrained wizard as a power source for the ritual that would protect the Key from Glorificus, and during the testing, his uncle had slipped and told him how they were going to hide the key - by incarnating it as a human being and reworking the memories of everyone around her, including the key herself, so that she would be indistinguishable from other human beings.
Obviously, having this kind of knowledge, it was no wonder that Dawn, if she was in fact the Key, had been chosen as the one person that he'd miss most. Friends, family, girlfriend, all paled in comparison. Without Dawn, there'd be no friends, no family, no girlfriend to care about.
He was brought back to reality by the voice of Harry Potter, asking, "Can't be what?"
Damn Potter! First he tries to take my place as Hogwarts champion. . . "Nothing. Nothing at all." Cedric insisted as he directed Dawn away from the rest of the group.
Harry watched as the Hufflepuff led the Californian teenager away from the group, but was kept from following when the Delacour sisters descended on him.
"Dawn? Does the name Order of Dagon mean anything to you?" Cedric asked her urgently.
Dawn debated whether to tell the truth before answering, in a tentative tone. "No."
"How about Knights of Byzantium?"
She shook her head. "Nope."
Cedric sighed. "I'm going to have to send an owl," he said half to himself.
"An owl?"
He nodded. "You don't know much about witches and wizards, do you?"
"I know two witches."
"But they don't communicate by owl?"
"Not that I know of."
"How odd. We'd better get going."
They hurried to the owlery, where Cedric took a piece of paper, wrote Has your key gone missing? If so, I think I've found it. on a piece of parchment and tied it to the leg of one of the school's owls.
"A key?" Dawn asked, panic rising in her eyes.
"That doesn't ring any bells either?"
She broke eye contact with him, looking at the owl-droppings-strewn floor then back up at him. "'Fraid not."
"I sent that note to my uncle. He and his brothers are involved in something vitally important, and it involves . . . a key. The only reason I knew about it is that they needed a young untrained wizard for the ritual, and tested me to see if I was untrained enough. Turns out I wasn't." He said in a disappointed tone.
"Well, there's nothing for it now but to wait for an answer. We'd better stay somewhere safe, like the Hufflepuff common room." He said as they left the owlery and ran directly into Harry.
"What're you doing here?" Cedric asked suspiciously, placing himself between the Gryffindor and Dawn.
"Just wondering where the two of you ran off to." He said, craning his neck around to see Dawn more clearly. Behind his back, Dawn gave Harry a dazzling smile, and Harry couldn't help but smile back.
"Well, here we are. So you can just . . . run along now." Cedric grabbed Dawn's shoulder and steered her down the hallway towards the Hufflepuff Tower. Dawn looked back at Harry, never breaking eye contact until they were around the next corner.
Harry walked back outside. "I've got to see her again." He said to himself.
"See who again?" Ron asked brightly.
"Did you see that girl?"
"You mean the little one? With the brown hair?"
Somehow, Ron's description didn't seem to even come close to capturing Dawn's beauty, but he nodded, a distant expression in his eyes. "Yeah. Her. Dawn." He lapsed into silence again.
"Hello? Harry?" Ron asked, waving a hand in front of Harry's face. "You there?"
"Yeah. I'm here. I'm just trying to figure out how to get her away from Diggory so I can talk to her."
"Talk? Are you sure that's all you want to do?" Ron made smooching noises.
Knowing that he'd be lying to say that the thought of kissing Dawn held no appeal for him, Harry settled for throwing his best friend a venomous look. "Are you going to help me or not?"
Ron grinned at his friend and then sank into silent thought for a moment. "Neville!"
"What about him?"
"He's friends with Justin Finch-Fletchley, right?"
"Yeah?
"So I bet he could get Finch-Fletchley to get Diggory to come out to talk to me."
"Why you? Wouldn't I be the one he should talk to?"
Ron rolled his eyes and said in a patient tone. "He'd be talking to *me* because *you* will be wearing the invisibility cloak, and then *you* will sneak into the Hufflepuff Tower while his back's turned."
A slow smile spread over Harry's face. "Great plan!"
Ron preened. "I thought so."
Harry and Ron went to Neville, who blithely went along with their request to contact Cedric, and soon they were standing in front of a portrait waiting for the Hogwarts Triwizard champion.
With a click, the portrait swung open and Cedric stepped into the hallway, followed closely by Dawn.
As Ron engaged Cedric in conversation about how he figured out the clue for the Second Task, Harry walked silently to Dawn's side. "Don't say anything," he whispered to her. "You want to get away from him for a while?"
Dawn nodded silently.
"Good." He whispered. "Follow me." He grasped Dawn's hand gently and tugged lightly. He threw off the invisibility cloak as they broke into a run.
"Potter!" Cedric yelled, turning to follow them. "Bring her back! You don't know . . ."
"Aceite!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at the floor of the hallway between them and Cedric. Almost immediately, a slick liquid formed on the floor and Cedric slipped on it.
As he and Dawn made it to the stairs heading downstairs, he heard Cedric yelling at Ron. "You let them get away! You idiot!"
Harry didn't hear any more than that, for soon he and Dawn were running down the main corridor, past the Great Hall, and out into the afternoon sunshine.
"Thank you!" Dawn said, trying to laugh, but having a hard time catching her breath from their escape. "I've been just desperate to get away from him! I couldn't believe that I'm actually at a school for witches and he didn't want to let me look around, just wanted to keep me all cooped up!"
"You want a tour?" Harry asked.
Her eyes lit up. "Really?"
"Yeah. Really." He smiled back.
They started out with a circuit around the gardens, Dawn marveling at the plants she'd never heard of. On their way around, they passed Hagrid.
"Hi, Hagrid!" Harry smiled.
Dawn gasped at the sight of the half-giant, reaching out and grasping Harry's hand for reassurance.
"Dawn Summers, this is Rubeus Hagrid, Professor of Care of Magical Creatures." Harry introduced them soberly.
"Pleased to meet you," Hagrid smiled at Dawn.
"Me, too." Dawn said, Hagrid's amiable smile making her feel more comfortable.
"Well, we're on a tour of the grounds." Harry said, eager to have Dawn to himself again. "See you around, Hagrid."
"Enjoy your tour, Miss Summers." Hagrid called out as Harry and Dawn left, still walking hand-in-hand.
They skirted the Forbidden Forest, and Harry regaled her with tales of his ventures into the Forest. She responded by being properly amazed at his bravery, clutching his hand more tightly.
As they walked from there to the Quidditch pitch, he asked her about her life in California. She told him that she was daughter of Hank and Joyce Summers and sister of Buffy Summers, and a student at the Muggle high school in Sunnydale. She mentioned that she had two friends who were witches, but carefully omitted the detail that her sister was the Slayer.
They then passed the Quidditch pitch. He explained the rules of Quidditch, downplaying the importance of his role as Seeker, though something about her wide-eyed amazement made him feel like the sports hero he truly was.
They returned to the castle, then, since it was time for supper. Harry almost wished he hadn't abandoned his invisibility cloak in the hallway outside the entrance to the Hufflepuff Tower, since he could have concealed Dawn in it, and she could have eaten supper with him at the Gryffindor table.
Dawn loved the way she felt when she was with Harry, just like any other fourteen year old girl, not some thing to be used or destroyed -- just another kid with a limitless, human, future ahead of her.
As they stopped outside the Great Hall, she procrastinated in order to extend the feeling of normality. "I had a really nice time, Harry." Dawn's smile warmed him to his toes.
"So did I. Say, can we keep in touch? I can send you an owl once in a while. I could even get you your own, so you can write to me when you feel like it."
"My own owl?" She said hopefully, but her expression soon fell. "I'm not sure what my mom would say about that."
"Well, ask her and if she says it's all right, I'll send your owl with my second letter to you. All right?"
"Yeah. I'd like that."
They stared at each other moonily for a moment, then Dawn stood up on her tiptoes, and pressed her lips to Harry's in a chaste kiss, which they held for several seconds.
They separated as Dawn saw the irate Cedric Diggory approaching her. "Well, I guess I've got to go."
"Yeah. I'll write soon. OK?"
"That'd be nice." She smiled at him again as Cedric dragged her off to the Hufflepuff table, reprimanding her for escaping.
Ignoring the catcalls of his fellow students, who had seen Dawn kiss him, Harry walked to the Gryffindor table, where Ron nattered on for several minutes about Cedric telling him about some key that his uncle had lost or something. Harry wasn't listening. All he could think of was that he hoped that Joyce Summers would let her daughter get an owl of her own. Otherwise, Hedwig would come to hate him in the next few years.