Disclaimers:

These are obviously not my characters, I'm just borrowing them from Joss Whedon, Aaron Spelling, and anyone else who owns them.

If you have issues with people of the same sex loving each other, or live someplace where that's illegal (in which case, consider moving) please move on.

I got this idea from a long-ago TWOP forum poll about who should be the new Magic School director. Set in early S7 of Charmed and about a year after Buffy's finale.

Pairing: Willow/Phoebe, eventually Xander/Paige

Willow Rosenberg rested her head on her left hand, scrolling through the webpage currently on her screen. She wasn't getting anywhere on this latest threat, and she'd been searching for hours. Finally she stood up, stretched, and walked down the hall to Giles' office.

She walked through Giles' door, but halted when she realized he was on the phone. She leaned against the doorframe and let her thoughts wander, trying not to eavesdrop.

It had been three months since she had come to work for Giles and the new Council in London, after her ugly breakup with Kennedy. The job was interesting enough, if a little boring. And hey, it gave her something to do, and of course she didn't mind working closely with Giles again. She'd missed her mentor.

"Willow!" the redhead looked up, startled out of her reverie by an amused looking Giles.

"Uh, sorry, I was just thinking, guess I drifted off." She grinned at the older man.

"Sit down, Willow." He leaned back in his chair and took off his glasses as she sat down in a chair facing his desk.

"Uh oh, you're cleaning the glasses, what's wrong?" she asked warily.

"Why do you automatically assume something is wrong? Perhaps I simply have some dust on the lenses." He argued.

"Giles."

He sighed. "It's nothing wrong, per se. Willow, are you happy here?"

"What? Of course I am, why wouldn't I be."

"I don't know, I just feel as if you are restless. I wouldn't blame you, after all those years of constant action, now to be here in a desk job must be a change."

Willow paused. "Well, yeah, okay, that's true, but I'm fine Giles, don't worry about me, I like helping out."

"I just received a call. There's a magic school in San Francisco in need of a director."

"A magic school?" Willow's eyes lit up as they did now again whenever magic was mentioned. "And they want you to direct it?"

"Er, not exactly. They wanted me to find a director. I was thinking about you." He waited for this to sink in.

"Me?? You want ME to be the director of a magic school?" her eyes widened.

"Yes. I think you'd be perfect, actually. My contact is also concerned about the non-magical areas of education, apparently those have been falling behind even before the director was killed. The old headmaster was an elder, albeit a rogue one, and he was pressuring the faculty to drop the non-magical studies. A Charmed One has been keeping it open since his death, but it's in jeopardy of closing if they can't find another headmaster. As far as I know it's the only school of its kind in America, and this would be a tragic loss."

"The old director was killed?" Willow asked suspiciously.

"Apparently it was unrelated to the school. The story is that he had become delusional and decided that a son of one of the Charmed Ones was a risk. In trying to kill the boy he was killed himself."

"Whoa. Wait the Charmed Ones, you mean the Halliwell sisters?"

Giles nodded. "I see you've heard of them."

"Well yeah, I've been doing research on witchy things for years, how could I not? They're like the most powerful witches on earth right now."

Giles gave her a look. "You do realize that most people would put you quite close to the top on that list." He said quietly.

"Oh no, not anymore, not me." She shook her head, whipping her hair around.

"Willow. You permanently changed the slayer line. Besides, I actually think that your earlier mishaps might serve you well in this capacity. Some of these students are there because there is concern about which side they will choose. It's important that they choose the side of good."

Willow's eyes went wide. "You think I can help them do that?"

"You understand the temptation." He said bluntly. "Willow, I will always regret that I did not do more to help you resist the dark side, because I also understood the temptations. Instead I tried to pretend my past had never happened. You can never change your past, but maybe something good can come out of it."

The redhead sat, stunned, at Giles's words. Could she really do this?

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