A Sorta Fairytale

Note by the Author: I wanted to write a Harry Potter/Buffy cross over and thought of Hermione and Dawn. I thought the pair would make for some fun easy slash, but was surprised by what I found when I started writing.


//and i'm so sad/like a good book/i can't put this day back/a sorta fairytale with you/a sorta fairytale with you// (Tori Amos)

“Anything you say is going to sound like goodbye.” (Dawn Season 7)


She seems tough. Talks tough. Knows all the right things to say, this is her world after all, her rules, her school. She’s a smart girl, and she knows it. Knows when the fighting goes down she’ll be there. When we came, that first day. When they haled us all up in the front of the room where all the kids could see us, I notice her right away. Pretty girl, dressed in the funny uniforms they all wear, long brown curls, eyes that bored into you, she already thought she was tougher then the rest and maybe she was.
I wondered what she saw, a girl her own age, skinny, straight brown hair, freckles, and long legs. In my jeans, blue sweater, and denim jacket, standing up there with the professors and teachers, sandwiched between Giles, Faith, and Dumbledore. I wondered what they all thought a kid, a muggle as they call them, come to teach them. I thought standing up there, feeling more acquired and freakish then I had the first day of high school back in California, I have nothing to teach them.
That first class I was afraid. We were teaching how to protect yourself with a sword against demons Giles had conjured up an illusion of a lesser demon and sent student after student against it, and they’d all failed. Finally with a sigh he had turned to where I sat on the sidelines with my sword.
“Alright Dawn”
He’d pointed at me
“You have a go at it.”
I had been shaking when I walked up and Giles said the words to conjure the demon, afraid I’d make a fool of myself in front of all those kids who already probably hated me anyway. Don’t think of it as an illusion, I told myself, think of it as a real demon and the worlds going to end if you and Buffy and the rest don’t get the job done, you’ve done this all before. Then it was easy, maybe a little too easy. I was fighting for my life, and we where back in Sunnydale, and I had no magic, no superpowers, just me and the sword and the hope that it would be enough. For a moment after the final thrust when the image disappeared I just stood there, staring at the place it had been, trying to bring my head back to reality. Giles strode across the room and put his hand on my shoulder before turning to face the other students.
“And that, lady and gentlemen”
He told them his voice soft and calm
“Is the way it’s done”
I finally looked up, towards the student all grouped at the of the room, and saw her looking at me.
“What kind of magic do you use?”
I turn to see her coming towards me down the hall, those funny robes flying around her.
“What?”
Inwardly I kick myself for sounding so stupid in front of her.
She puts her hands on her hips
“What magic do you use? I have to admit I was surprised to see you with that team they put together to teach defense against the dark arts, but when I saw you fight in class I realized that you must have some very powerful magic. So what is it? What school of thought do you follow? And is this some of that new experimental spells I’ve hear they’re practicing in America now?”
She looks at me expectantly and I see that up close her eyes are hazel with flecks of gold. I realize she’s just the kind of girls I’ve always hated and always envied.
Finally I answer “no magic”
I tell her
“I don’t do magic, I don’t know how and I’m not gifted in using it like Giles or Willow or you.”
She just stares at me and I can’t think of anything to do so I turn and walk away.
The next time I talk to her, is in the girls bathroom, while I am getting ready for bed. It is late we are the only ones there.
“you said you don’t use magic”
She has her hands folded across her chest and is standing next to the sink where I am brushing my teeth.
“I can’t understand that. You fight like the others, you fought demons and other magical creatures in America. They all use magic of one kind or another, a lot of it I don’t understand, but you have to use some kind. You have to be different in some way, you have to be special. You teach here!”
It all came out like an accusation, like I didn’t belong, like somehow I had tricked them all into letting me come here. I look at her, all these thoughts running through my head. What does she want me to say? Tell her that I am special, that I am different. That I wasn’t born like normal people but made. A key to a door that doesn’t exist.
I look at her and see how magic has always been the answer. It’s what has made her special, made her different, made her smart. It’s save her life, save her friends lives, she can’t imagine a question where magic isn’t the answer. In California I was the weirdo with the crazy sister. The child who wasn’t, where not even my memories were real. Here I am an outsider because I’m too normal, I’m here in this insane wizards school without a magical bone in my body, ironic because my body was made by magic.
Freak, Freak, Freak, Freak, Freak, and doubly damned.
Open my mouth, to tell her, I don’t know what to tell her, but instead I lean forward and kiss her.
She tastes, of rosemary, and toothpaste, her lips are soft and part slowly. I expect her to draw away, maybe even push me, but instead her hands reach out and draw me closer.