Draco Malfoy had never dreamed that he would ever want to switch places with Boy-Who-Lived Harry Potter. After he had become J.J. Summers, the young man had thought it even less likely that he would ever want to be in the shoes of the golden boy.

Then again, he’d never before been in front of Angelus, waiting for a reprimand. Angelus, who was the most violent and sadistic of the four vampires who had once been the Scourge of Europe. The vampire that had taught Spike to be the vicious, sadistic killer that he had become to earn his nickname. J.J. had never thought that he’d be sitting in front of the one vampire who actually scared others of his kind, waiting to be lectured for driving his car.

A car that, in Spike’s own words, “the pouf values even more than his nancy-boy hair gel.”

Yes, J.J. had never ever wanted to be Harry Potter. Not even when he caught the snitch from under Draco’s nose in a Quidditch match. But now, when J.J. was faced with a glowering, pacing, legendary vicious vampire angry about his most prized possession, and Potter was safely ensconced in Wesley’s office with an ex-watcher, a bubbly physicist, and a street fighter who had a hidden love of ballet, J.J. Summers thought that maybe it really wouldn’t be so bad to switch places with the Gryffindor.

They’d been sitting there for five minutes already, waiting for the vampire to say what ever it was that they had been hauled in his office to hear. But he seemed determined to just pace and glower at them.

J.J. cast a glance over to Dawn. She was sitting in her chair with her arms and legs crossed, her right foot kicking impatiently back and forth. Her fingers were drumming against the upper arms where they were resting.

When she caught J.J.’s eyes, she rolled her own at him, and threw an exasperated glare at the vampire.

The former Slytherin had seen that look in her eyes before, and he almost felt sorry for Angel. Almost. Because the vampire had kept them waiting for their reprimand, making J.J. anxious. J.J. didn’t like the feeling.

“Okay, Angel, we get it. Dark, brooding avenger. About to dole out our punishment. Yeah, yeah, we understand. Just get on with it already!”

Angel swung his full attention to the teenaged girl, a look something akin to shock on his face.

“Oh, get over it! Buffy’s my sister. She kicked your ass to hell and back, and I still talk back to her. Just get with the lecturing, k?”

Angel schooled his face into whatever his usual expression was, but it still looked very much like a scowl to J.J. The vampire pulled out his chair and sat at the desk the teens were sitting in front of, and propped his elbows on its surface, tenting his fingers together. He sighed unnecessarily.

“Dawn,” Angel said, the first word that had left his mouth since telling them to sit down as soon as they had entered the office. “You really are more like your sister than you’d ever want to admit to.”

J.J. hadn’t been expecting Angel to say that. He’d only ever met the vampire on one other occasion, the day that they had moved into the Hyperion Hotel. From what he’d heard of Angel, he was stern and broody. He didn’t have a sense of humour, and he certainly didn’t smirk, something the vampire looked like he was now trying very hard not to let himself do in reaction to the expression on Dawn’s face.

“Fine, I’m Buffy.” Dawn uncrossed her arms and waved a hand dismissively at Angel. “Yell at us about the car, already. Or just let us go home. I have to take a bunch of English witchy-people to their first day of normal California High School tomorrow.”

“Dawn . . . “Angel warned, almost growling.

“Fine, say whatever it is you want to say,” Dawn acquiesced

“First off, how did you get my car in the first place?”

“You keep it at the hotel, remember? With the keys available, in case anyone has to move it. You don’t trust the W+H motor pool with your baby. Although, after getting a glimpse of all the other cars around here . . . “ Dawn trailed off as Angel glared at her menacingly. “Sorry.”

“Maybe I should have asked why it was that you were driving my car. After all, you should have known better. And something tells me that Buffy didn’t let you take it.” He pushed himself out of his chair and walked around the desk to lean on the edge near where they were sitting, and glared at them. “Nearly every vampire in this town knows what my car looks like. They tend to try to play tough when they see it, try to challenge me. That’s why I had a vampire detector put on it.”

So that was how he had known to show up at the parking lot. Of course, he could have shown up sooner. And why didn’t he? Wolfram and Hart was really close, as J.J. had learned on the ride from the mall, and that vampire had looked like he had been standing at the car for a while. Why hadn’t Angel jumped in to help?

“They were waiting for me, Dawn. You’re both supposed to be protecting those kids, not dragging them into danger!” The vampire seemed dangerously close to yelling, but J.J. had the feeling that Angel never yelled, that the low, disapproving growl was far worse than any yelling could have been. “Those vampires could have killed those kids! And Cordelia’s vision was given to her so that we could keep them safe. She’s my connection to The Powers, and important enough that we’re getting her visions even though she’s not awake to tell us about them. So, this is pretty damned important. And instead of protecting them, you two risked their lives to look cool to J.J.’s school friends? To show off with the car? And then again with those vamps?” Angel got up and started pacing again, Dawn glaring at him as he returned to his spot behind the desk.

J.J. was about to protest the term friends when Dawn spoke up first, standing from her chair in anger. “One, they aren’t his friends.” She started counting on her fingers. “It’s obvious they don’t know him at all. Two, we didn’t take the car to look cool, we took it to blend in. Three, the van may be safer, but it’s wicked conspicuous with the blocked out windows. Four, I needed J.J. there, so I lured him with the car. And I’m glad that I did. Those boys are awful to him, and he should have got something out of the trip.”

By this point, Angel had stopped pacing and had turned to look at Dawn. She really was very much like her sister.

“Besides, if we hadn’t been there to fight them, which wasn’t showing off, by the way, or if they hadn’t been waiting there to ambush you in the first place, then they would have been draining shoppers dry all over the parking lot!” She stopped her rant and looked sheepish, the fact that she’d been yelling at Angel, vampire and CEO of Wolfram and Hart finally sinking in. She sat abruptly in her chair at the realization.

“These kids need to be protected at all costs, Dawn. They are obviously extremely important to The Powers. You shouldn’t be putting them in any unnecessary risk. Especially just to get some adrenaline rush from driving my car and dusting some vamps. You should have run.”

J.J. knew it wasn’t a smart thing to do, but his patience had been wearing thinner and thinner since picking up the others at the airport. And seeing the look of embarrassment on Dawn’s face had broken the last of it.

“I wanted to take the car, not her. Don’t you dare blame her. It was the only way that I would go, and she thought it was a good idea that I be there. Besides, we would have been home before dark, before anyone tried to make a name for themselves by attacking the great Angelus, whose car we so happened to be driving. But it was Buffy that suggested otherwise.” J.J. stood from the chair and leaned on Angel’s desk, glaring at the vampire that stood stiffly on the other side. “Buffy trusts us to be able to take care of ourselves, and, more importantly, to take care of the Gryffindor four, even if you don’t. She knew we were in your car, and, other than the fact that we really should have asked, she didn’t care. Don’t you dare yell at Dawn and pretend I don’t exist. We were both there!” He leaned further forward on his arms, becoming angrier. “Besides, those were just regular vamps. We didn’t dust them for an adrenaline rush, we dusted them because that’s what we do. Moreover, they were nothing compared to those things we spent the last year fighting in Sunnydale. They were child’s play. Of course, seeing as you didn’t bother to stick around for the last fight, you wouldn’t really know that, would you?”

J.J. took a breath, trying to calm himself, and stuck his hands in his back pockets, remembering Harry’s wand when he found it there. He withdrew the weapon and threw it on Angel’s desk, flinging himself back into his seat as he did so, his anger nearly spent. “You want to talk unnecessary risk, you should talk to the golden boy and his groupies. Scarhead nearly used his wand tonight. I know that he and I are legal wizards now, but I’m sure that that little fact won’t stop my father from having someone at the Ministry tracing the magic that comes from that wand, and the wands of the others, just like he’d be tracing mine. If any of them uses magic outside of the protection of Willow’s wards, we’ll be tracked. I don’t want them found, because if they get found, I get found. Talk to them about risk and protection. It’s magic more than anything that will get us killed. Maybe if you don’t want them dead, or me, you should tell them not to use their wands in public unless it’s a last resort. They shouldn’t be using wand magic until every member of Champion Industries that they are with is dead.”

Angel leaned against the back wall of his office and examined J.J. closely.

It was no wonder that Spike had called this boy his son. J.J. was every bit of what his name implied, Spike’s junior. His words, his actions, and his mannerisms, were all Spike. Even the fact that he managed to think things through in a crisis, a trait that Angelus had never possessed that Spike had acquired over the years, was present in the boy. He even physically resembled Spike, if more so before he had dyed his hair.

The teens looked almost like twins, their hair streaked in every natural hair shade. Angel didn’t need to ask to know that J.J. had done it to erase the reminder of Spike every time he looked in the mirror. Ironically enough, it was just the kind of rash thing that Spike would have done out of grief. Dawn had done it out of solidarity for someone who Angel was sure that she thought of as a brother. He was curious as to why they had gone with the colours they had chosen, but the kids were mad, and now was not the time to ask.

Perhaps Angel had overreacted about the car. The kid had had a point. He’d had several, in fact. Not the least of which was that these two kids had fought in the final battle against the First Evil, while he had simply listened to Buffy and returned to Los Angeles, leaving her to fight alone.

“You’re right, J.J. Getting caught by the people that are looking for Harry, and for you, would have been worse then getting attacked by those vampires. They were obviously something you could handle.”

The way that Angel had said the last made J.J. think that Angel had in fact gotten to that lot in plenty of time to take out those vampires. But he had chosen to let Dawn and J.J. handle it. Had he wanted to test them?

“I’ll be sure to have Buffy talk to them about it, alert them to the consequences if they use their wands here.” Angel walked forward and leaned on his desk again, looking at the teens. “Speaking of Buffy, you should go get the others, and I’ll have Wes and Gunn take you back to the Hotel while I call her.” He picked up Harry’s want and threw it at J.J. “I’ll let Buffy know about that,” he nodded at the wand. “I’ll let her deal with it. But give him his wand back. Chances are, if he doesn’t have it, he’ll need it.”

Dawn looked at Angel, the shock evident on her face. “You lecture us, but you’re not even going to say a word to them? How fair is that?”

Angel leaned further over his desk to look at them. “Harry and those kids are Buffy’s mission now, her responsibility. Legally, you two may be hers as well, but morally is another story. Spike thi . . .” Angel almost slipped, forgetting that the teens had no idea that Spike was haunting these very offices, in all probability watching them at that moment. “Thought of you two as his. Which, in my world, makes you my family, and my responsibility.”

The teens could see by the look in his eyes that he was serious, and J.J. was strangely touched by the gesture. Spike may not have liked the other vampire, but he had always respected the familial ties they had had. J.J had discovered this when Spike had asked Faith about his Grandsire’s health. Of course, he had called him the Great Pouf. But that was just covering, and all of them had known it.

“Now go,” Angel told them. “You have school in the morning.”

Dawn and J.J. stood and headed for the door. “One more thing, you guys,” he paused till they turned to look at him, his next words confirming J.J.’s suspicions about his presence at the fight. “That was some nice slaying. You two reminded me very much of Buffy and Spike.”

J.J. started to smile at the thought, but Angel’s next words stopped him. “Being like Spike isn’t always a good thing, J.J. He was rash, and he always wanted to be the guy in charge, either the villain, or the hero.”

“As opposed to you, who suffers through your good deeds, like it’s a job instead of a calling? And who was the one that gave up the amulet?” J.J. spat. “Who was the one that gave up the champion position? And who was the one that took it, and the amulet, and used it to save the world?”

“His taking it got him killed, didn’t it?” Angel returned, the fact that Buffy had chosen Spike as her true champion still a painful thorn in his side.

“Least he had the balls to do what needed doing.” With that, J.J. turned and talked angrily towards the door, muttering words that he knew Angel could hear. “Spike was right. You are a pillocky git!”

Dawn shot Angel an apologetic look for J.J.’s words, even if at the moment she couldn’t fault the boy for them. She turned and rushed after her friend, closing the door softly behind her.

Angel slumped back in his chair, not daring to hope that the exchanged hadn’t been listened to.

“He’s right, you know. You are a pillocky git.”

“How did I know that you were listening, Spike?” Angel closed his eyes, wondering when this day would be over.

“Don’t go to sleep on me now, you big ponce. You have a phone call to make.”