Prologue: The Letter From Mom

Disclaimer: All things HP belong to JKR and all things Buffy/Angel belong to Joss
Title: Granddaughter
Author: Kate R.
Rating: FR13 to Teen I guess
Pairing: None right now
Summary: the Continuation of Letter Home. After the things Joyce hinted at in the letter come to pass, Dawn goes to her grandfather.

Dawn Summers sat alone and surrounded by silence. No one saw her, no one heard her. No one but Spike and Giles noticed her and they were just so tired from the fight that she didn't want to bother them. And they fought every night, slaying demons and vampires now that Buffy was no longer here. And they were just so tired afterwards that Dawn didn't bother them. Not when Ethan could barely get them into bed.

A popping noise had her letting out a little scream and she stared at what was now in her room. One thing was a letter from her mother laying on her bed, the other was some things her mother had set aside for her as she remembered Buffy bitching about her leather jackets vanishing as well as Mr. Pointy and several pictures. Also was Mr. Gordo but that was fine because Dawn had been sleeping with Mr. Gordo since Buffy had . . . died.

Dawn picked up the letter from her mother and sat on the bed, carefully opening it.

"My Dearest Dawn," it read.

"If you are reading this then what I saw has happened and Buffy and I have both left you. I know your heart is hurting and you likely feel betrayed by both of us right now and I'm sorry for that. We both are as I know Buffy would have been pained to leave you. But I made arrangements for you before I died and I've contacted someone to come for you or for you to go to. Someone I trust implicitly: Your Grandfather Filius. I know you've never heard me mention him but that was because it took me along time to understand something he did when I was little. Now I see that what he did he did because he loved my mother and I a lot. Maybe more than he loved himself. And I know he'll love you, too.

He is a good man, Dawnie. A strong, caring man who would give anything for those around him. I sent him the first owl he'll have gotten form me since I was ten right before I died. I want you to give him the wooden box that's with what I charmed to appear now. It has everything I never sent him that I wanted him to have. He'll give you all the care he can, Dawnie, and you'll find that life goes on, no matter how it hurts.

If I timed this right, someone will be coming to take you to him soon. Trust me, Dawnie, and go. He will care for you even better than Spike could.

Love Always,
Mom."

Dawn swallowed hard and packed. She didn't know how this was going to go down but her mom seemed sure these people or person was coming for her so she figured she'd best be ready.

"Nibs?" Spike asked coming in to her room. "What are you doing?"

"Getting ready to go," she told him. "Mom set something up so I'd go to her father if she and Buffy both died. They're supposed to come for me soon."

"You've got a Gran'pa?" Spike asked. Dawn nodded and gave him the letter. He looked at her and she saw the pain in his eyes but he swallowed hard and started helping her pack.

"Your mum puts a lot of faith in this guy," Spike told her. "We should too. Your mum never steered us wrong."

They'd just finished packing, Spike including pictured of everyone that Dawn wanted, when the doorbell rang. Giles opened it and just stared.

"Lupin?!" he started.

"Giles," the man replied. He was a soft spoken man with sad blue eyes. There was another man with him, small in stature, and a woman.

"We’re here for Dawn Summers," the woman said. The small man did not look like he was able to speak right now. There was heavy grief in his eyes.

"Why?" Giles asked.

"Joyce asked her father to come for his granddaughter if she and Buffy should both die," Lupin told him. "The Grandfather is question is Filius. We came with him for moral support."

"Oh," Giles began. "But . . ."

"It's okay, Giles," Dawn's soft voice came. "Mom sent me a letter. I'm ready to go and I'm not going to fight this. I need him, too. We both lost a family."

She approached the group slowly and then knelt so she was on her grandfather's level.

"Mom sent me a letter," Dawn told him. "She knew it was going to happen."

He nodded, eyes tearing, and Dawn hugged him, desperately, as if he were the last sane thing in her world right now. "Don't leave me."

"I won't," he told her. "I promise I won't."