I've enjoyed some Hank-bashing over the years, I confess, but I never thought of it from this side of things. The moving overseas with his secretary and not giving his daughters a current contact number in season 5 didn't look great, but the Scoobies' efforts to keep Hank from finding out that Buffy was dead so he woudn't take Dawn away from THEM smacked of quite a bit of selfishness.

Willow and the others didn't want Dawn to move away because that would represent CHANGE, and they were so blindly focused on 'must put things back the way they were', including raising Buffy from the dead (without digging her up first) that they weren't willing to listen to any other input. Anyone who might've voiced objections or offered a counter-argument (like Spike, over the whole raising the dead issue) had to be kept completely in the dark, it seems . . . which is something I usually associate with people who know, deep down, that they're on shaky ethical ground and won't risk exposing their reasoning to the light of day.

And don't even get me started on the whole 'living in Buffy's house but not (apparently) paying rent, because Buffy will just have to get a job and pay the bills when we raise her from the dead' issue!

I remember reading a fic (though I can't remember where -- thought it was by talesofspike but it's not on her LJ index) where Dawn goes to L.A. to live with Hank after "The Gift", and Spike (keeping his promise to Buffy) goes along, to make sure that Dawn stays safe . . . which would've been healthier for Dawn in a number of ways than being told she has to pretend that nothing has changed and deny her painful reality.