The Boy-Who-Lived had been trying to ask Dawn why the man they had met at the car had talked of them like they were food when everything changed in an instant, starting with the stranger’s face.

He transformed in much the same way a witch or wizard would when changing into animagus form. There was a rippling of skin and a shifting of the bones underneath. But when the changing was done, there wasn’t an animal left behind, but rather something far scarier. Something that reminded Harry vaguely of that trip into the Forbidden Forrest back in their first year, when he had found what remained of Voldemort drinking unicorn blood to survive. Several things flowed together in Harry’s mind in that first instant after seeing the man’s face change. He remembered what he’s learned about those who drank unicorn blood. That they were cursed with a half-life. Draco had commented that Dawn’s throat was bare. Dawn had pointed out that her chopsticks were wooden. They all added up to one thing in Harry’s mind. Vampire.

Just as he thought it, he heard Hermione say it. “Vampire!”

“Thanks for pointing out the obvious, Granger.”

Harry looked at Draco as he spoke. His tone had shown that he was not at all surprised. And his stance . . . Malfoy had been nearly unrecognizable before, but the boy that now stood in Malfoy’s shoes was someone that Harry had never seen before. Gone was the scared little boy that didn’t want to go into the dark forest. Gone was the first year that had run from the Great Hall and the announcement of a troll in the castle. He wasn’t even the fifth year boy who had confidently believed that no mere girl could ever hex a Malfoy.

Instead, there was a young man with a determined look in his eye. A man that didn’t run from the monster facing them. A man who stood his ground, who had taken up a protective stance in front of four Gryffindors, seemingly ready to offer up his life to keep theirs safe.

All of this had happened in the blink of an eye, and Harry would later be amazed at his own ability to understand the situation that quickly. But in that moment there was too much going on to think about it.

Ron was behind Harry, having put a protective arm around each of the girls, both of who were wide-eyed and shaking with fright. Harry looked at his hand and discovered that he had already drawn his wand, much to his own surprise. There was a clicking noise that caught Harry’s attention, and he turned his head in that direction. Dawn now held a small crossbow, and the sound had been her releasing a bolt. The arrow met its target, the vampire exploding into dust as Ginny screamed. Harry turned towards her, thinking that the unusual sight of a vampire expiring had caused her shout. Instead, he saw that they had been ambushed from behind by two more vampires while they had been distracted, and they had each grabbed a girl, Ron having been no match for their strength.

“You didn’t think he came here alone, did you?” the female vampire, who was holding Ginny, sneered. She eyed the pile of dust distastefully. “He might have been stupid enough to get surprised and dusted by a little girl, but he wasn’t stupid enough to confront Angelus on his own.” She ran her nose up the side of the neck of the girl she was holding, sniffing her. It made Ginny shiver in terror.

“You won’t dust us as easily as you dusted Kyle.”

Dawn was standing stock still, knowing that if she tried to use the crossbow again that they would see her, and would be able to kill the girls without a second’s thought. They had lost the element of surprise.

“You planning to use that little twig to dust us, boy? It looks like a baby stake.” The male laughed at the wand in Harry’s hand, licking Hermione’s neck as he did.

Harry glanced down at his wand. The vampire hadn’t seemed to realize what it really was. Perhaps they still could surprise them. The wizard began to move his arm to stun the vampires, trying to decide who to take out first, when he wand was unceremoniously snatched out of his hand.

“You ever use magic in an unwarded place, I’ll kill you myself, Potter. Dawn and I can get us out of this without magic.”

Harry turned and glared at the very unMalfoy-like Draco. A Malfoy wanting to solve a situation without magic? After all, it was legal for Harry to use magic outside of school, now that he was seventeen. Something very strange had happened to Malfoy in his time away from Hogwarts.

“Oh, I don’t think that you, or your little girlfriends here, are going to get out of this, boy. Not even magic would help, even if I did believe that any of you were witches,” the male snarled. He then looked as if he was about to sink his fangs into Hermione’s neck.

The sight drove Dawn out of her frozen state, spurring her to move forward. She dropped the crossbow, and held her hands up in the air. “Wait just a minute. Can’t we talk about this? Strike some kind of a deal?”

“I doubt it,” the vampire stated, though his head had raised from his captive’s neck.

“Well, we have Angelus’s car, right? We know him, obviously. Maybe if you agree not to kill us, he’d come here and let you have a go.” With every word she spoke, Dawn took a step closer to where Hermione stood in the arms of her captor. “Or you could always trade Hermione for me.”

“Why would I do that?” he snarled.

“My sister is Buffy Summers. Which means that I have slayer blood in my veins, no? At least partially. And you guys like that, right?”

Dawn was now so close to the vampire that Harry had a clear view of her back and arms. She had raised her arm as if being confronted by the police, trying to show the vampires that she was no longer a threat, now that she didn’t have a weapon. Now she dropped her arms, resting her hands on her head. But if you were looking close enough at the back of her head, you could see that the was surreptitiously removing one of the chopsticks from her hair and concealing it in her palm, so that the vampires couldn’t see it.

At the same time, J.J. was busy looking for a way to get the female to let go of Ginny. The boy caught her eyes, and saw fear in them. But there was also a healthy amount of courage and determination in them as well. The kind of things that she had displayed playing Seeker for Gryffindor in his fifth year.

The fleeting thought gave J.J. and idea. He hoped that she’d understand his meaning and do what he intended for her to do at his signal. He just had to wait for the right moment. The former blonde tried to send assurances to her with his eyes. The vampire holding her looked over to its companion, allowing J.J. to step closer to the pair.

“Slayer’s blood, you say?” She caught the eye of the other vampire. “Go ahead and try her, Matthew. But if she’s right, and she does taste like slayer, save some for me.”

Matthew, as she had called him, licked Hermione’s neck, then shoved her away, reaching for Dawn while telling the English girl, “Don’t worry, sweetie. You’re going to be next.”

He drew Dawn towards himself, and J.J. could see the chopstick in her right hand, and knew that it was time to make his move. He took a last step forward, praying to the Gods that Ginny would do what he needed her to do.

“Hey Weasley! Pull a Wronski Feint!” he shouted. Miraculously, she deciphered what he wanted and suddenly buckled her knees, dropping her weight, and forcing the vampire to nearly let go. J.J. had what he needed.

He saw out of the corner of his eye the moment when Dawn dusted Matthew with her chopstick as he had pulled her in for a taste.

J.J. used the distraction to step in and drive his own chopstick into the female’s heart, Ginny now no longer blocking the target. Her support having turned to dust, Ginny started to drop the small remaining distance to the hard pavement, but J.J.’s hands stopped her fall and pulled her back to a standing position.

It was suddenly silent again, and Harry could only hear the beating of his own heart, and the harsh, laboured breathing of those around him.

They all just stared at each other in complete silence, unable to speak with the shock of what had just happened.

What was even more shocking, though, was that when the silence broke, it was broken by sudden, near hysterical, laughter.

“That was bloody brilliant thinking Sunshine! No, take me, take me! Way to be all self sacrificing.”

“What about you, J.J.? One ski faint??? What the hell does that mean?”

Ginny, having recovered the ability to speak, answered for him “Wronski feint, Dawn. It’s a quidditch move.” She sounded flabbergasted.

The incredulousness of her voice only made Dawn laugh harder. “You saved her with a quidditch move?” she asked J.J., perplexed.

“Hey, I’m just glad she knew what I meant!”

“Me too!” Ginny exclaimed, causing the pair to laugh all the harder.

“We so kicked that ass!”

“We certainly did Sunshine.”

Dawn stepped forward and gave J.J. a high five, her laughter beginning to trail off. “I can’t believe that that guy wanted to take on ‘the great Angelus’”

“That vampire did say Angelus!” The exclamation came from Hermione, and all the teens turned to look at her. The girl’s eyes were lit up in the way that meant she was trying to solve a problem. Then her face suddenly blanched, and her voice dropped low, so low that it sounded as if she were talking to herself, and the others had to strain to hear her. “Dawn said that the car should have Scourge of Europe written on it . . .. that vampire said Angelus . . . that it was Angelus’s car . . . “ Hermione snapped her gaze to lock with Dawn’s, shock and terror on her face. “You were driving us around in a vampire’s car!”

“Yeah, and?” Dawn turned her back on Hermione and went to pick up her crossbow. The curly-haired Gryffindor followed behind her.

“And you never thought that you should mention it?” Hermione demanded.

“Why? So you could over react, like you’re doing right now?”

“No! Because that car nearly got us killed!”

Dawn returned her weapon to her bag, and spun around to face the other girl. “It wasn’t the car, it was the dumb as dirt vampires! Besides, you think that was nearly getting killed? And here I was, thinking that you guys were tough.”

Harry shot a glance towards Draco at Dawn’s words, wondering what the Slytherin had told her about them. After all, he was the only one she knew who could have. Harry remembered that the boy had taken his wand, and he’d have to ask Draco to return in. But the two girls were still fighting, and Harry thought that he would wait for a quiet moment to make his request.

“There were three vampires! Three!” Hermione pointed out, as if Dawn had been unaware.

“Yeah Hermione, three. Against five witches and wizards, and me. I’ve been fighting vampires practically my entire life!”

“Yet you drive around in their cars without a problem!”

“Not that it’s any of your business, Hermione,” Dawn spat, the other girl’s name sounding like a curse, “but yes. Thins aren’t as black and white as your professors at Hogwarts would have you believe.”

Harry glanced at Draco. Here was a boy who had been a bitter rival, but tonight had put that aside and saved Ginny. The action made Harry see that Dawn had a point.

“Besides, it’s not just any vampire’s car, it’s Angel’s car,” Dawn pointed out.

“Angel, Angelus, he’s the same vampire, isn’t he? It’s just a different name that he chooses to go by,” Hermione sneered. “Those vampires didn’t seem to care.”

Dawn stormed up to Hermione, looking as if she wanted to hit the other girl. “Not that I have the time to explain, but Angel is not the same as Angelus.” Now Dawn was leaning in Hermione’s face. “Those vampires were lucky to not have found who they were looking for. Angel would have done more than just dust them. He would have punished them for touching his car, first!”

The teens had been so engrossed in the argument, J.J. now standing beside Dawn, that they had failed to notice that a man had approached them until they heard him speak.

“Well, I may be too late for the killing, but it looks like I can still punish you and J.J. for touching my car.”

Dawn and J.J both paled at the voice, looked at each other, and turned to face the person who had spoken.

The others looked as well, seeing a handsome man step from the shadows as if he had been wearing them as a cloak. His clothes were all dark and expensive, and not a brown hair was out of place on his head.

“Oh bollocks!” J.J. hissed.

“Hi Angel!” Dawn exclaimed, waving her fingers at the newcomer in greeting.

“Angel?” Hermione asked.

“Yeah,” the man confirmed.

“As in Angelus? Scourge of Europe Angelus?”

“You wouldn’t be entirely wrong,” he told her.

Harry couldn’t have said who was more surprised, the newcomer or the teens, when Hermione’s eyes rolled back and she suddenly dropped to the pavement.

The Boy-Who-Lived sighed. It was going to be a long time before he got that moment of quiet he needed to get his wand back.