Title: Second Chances

Author: starlinshadow

Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy characters, nor do I own Harry Potter characters. People a lot richer than I have that honor. Also I have read a lot of crossover fanfiction, so if I accidentally borrowed something from someone, I probably didn't know it, but the premise and the story I have written are mine! The characters are still not mine.

Warning: Beware of out-of-character characters and an angsty Sev, both of which I love to write and read.

Time Frame: Okay, this is really an AU. For Buffy it is after season five, but Tara never existed, Glory was defeated, Buffy never died, and season six didn't happen, but Spike has his soul. I think he got it to prove to Buffy that he was good enough, much like he did in canon. For Harry Potter all you need to know is that Voldemort was defeated. It is AU completely. It might make vague references to things that have happened, but since Potter had graduated and the golden trio is not there anymore, I don't really plan to add them. The only real characters from Harry Potter that are in this story are Sev and Albus. Remus is mentioned, but the important characters are Sev, Albus, and well I supposed the Death Eaters. Others may come, I don't know. Okay, now onto the story.

S

There was snow in the ground and stressed out students in the Hall. Exams were mere weeks away and it was almost Christmas break. There was perhaps a month before the end of first term. This term had been very different than previous terms. They, of course, had a new DADA teacher. The thing that was the most different was that there was no Voldemort. Harry Potter and his trio, along with Dumbledore, Professor Snape and some other key order members, had defeated the dark wizard during the summer after his seventh year. That was also a difference in this year: no Harry Potter, no Gryffindor trio. It was understood that when Potter graduated the university, he was going to be allowed to come back to Hogwarts and teach in the DADA position if he so desired. The new teacher was only going to be there for four years or so, unless she changed to a different position. But given her age, it was probably best that she not be expected to stay trapped in this dark prison of a school. Professor Snape sat at the table with the rest of the Hogwarts Professors coyly glancing at the newest professor, a Miss Willow Rosenberg, from Sunnydale California (a Hellmouth no less). She was very interesting to Snape, though he would never admit it to anyone. She was nice to everyone she spoke with. She had cheerfully said hi to him when they first meant but he had snubbed her as he did everyone—it was better to be alone right?

But watching her out of the corner of his eye he could see her cheerful chatter as she explained something to one of the professors. She radiated energy and light. She was a wandless witch, something practically unheard of in the wizarding community. Her power, her control…It was something that Snape was drawn to: her beauty and her passion. It was obvious that she cared for the students. She was very intelligent, and she was beautiful. Snape hated that he felt drawn to her. However, what he hated most was that he didn't know what to do about it.

Sometimes he wished he had been nicer to her that first day, because now she avoided him. Not outwardly, but he knew she wouldn't want to talk to him; no one really wanted to. Dumbledore was glad that he had been a spy and helped the Order but other than that no one really wanted him around. The students hated him, of course that was mostly his own doing… The students loved her. She told them wonderful stories about slayers and vampires and good triumphing over evil.

Snape, in route to Dumbledore's office had passed by her classroom and over heard a bit of an interesting tale.

"To defeat Adam, we had to join forces. All of us Buffy, Xander, Giles, and me, together we used our energy to call on the power of the first Slayer. The point is sometimes the greatest weapon you have against a dark force is a united front of good. Sometimes your friends are the ones that help you the most. Even when you think that there is no hope. Nothing is cut and dried. Many times we had to rely on each other. Buffy's identity was supposed to be a secret, but somehow people just kept finding out… Next time we will talk about the highs and lows of keeping a secret identity."

Did she even realize how rare a support system like that was, he thought. He had never had such a thing in his childhood. People had made his life a living hell. As an adult he had made some wrong choices. He thought that he had found a family of sorts--somewhere that he could be accepted. He didn't realize what he was getting into. Sometimes he felt so tired. He wished he had someone to share his pain with--to share his past.

His gaze once more drifted back to Professor Rosenberg, Willow…

S

"Good morning class, how are you all today?" Willow greeted her class cheerfully. After Oz had left and the Initiative had been wiped out and then the Scoobies kicked Glory's ass, it had been time to move on. Her powers had reached a place where learning more control was absolutely necessary. The invitation issued to her through Giles was a Godsend, now she could use her experiences and learn more about control. All the people here were so nice—the students were brilliant, for the most part, and they loved her class, they didn't complain too much about any other class with one exception, Potions with Professor Snape in the dungeons. Snape, she shuddered. He was the only really scary person she had meant here. Pain and control just radiated off of him—and anger, that was all that most of the students saw, the anger. He hid behind it. She expected that he was very lonely, but the one time she had approached him to say hi, he deliberately ignored her, refusing to acknowledge even her presence. Well, if he was going to be so grumpy, then fine—opps, she thought, she had been daydreaming, time to start class.

"Okay, we have been talking about vampires for the past couple of weeks, and I have just been informed that my request to bring in a real vamp has been accepted, my friend Spike also known as William the Bloody will be coming in a week. He will be talking to you about being a vampire on both the good and evil side and also give you another perspective of working with the Scooby gang. But since Spike is coming next week I think that we will switch around the lessons and discuss vengeance demons, and why they are BAD NEWS. I am going to start with a story about the first time I meant a vengeance demon and the chaos they exude."

Willow went on to explain about Anyanka. She then explained that the wish can only be counteracted by the vengeance demon herself, or by striping the demon of their powers there by essentially creating the human that once was.

The truth was that as much as Snape scared her, she thought that he was still a very interesting person and Willow found herself thinking about him a lot more than she would like.

S

He wished he could tell her how he felt, Snape thought as he walked down the hall towards his potions classroom, but he knew that he could only expect rejection. Like everyone else, she would look at him in horror. Not that Snape really knew how he was feeling. With the war over, he thought that he would have more freedom in his life, yet it seemed he was still trapped. He was trapped by this school and the past.

"You expect us to expect nice to that?" Snape could still here the words from Potter's mouth, when Lily had asked him to be nicer to Snape. He had never been good enough when he was young. Now he was old, a good 20 years older than her—than Willow. He could only imagine—no he didn't dare imagine that she would speak to him, let alone allow him to touch her. His façade in place he stalked into his potions class ready to take his frustrations out on the students.

One night while patrolling in the Astronomy Tower he looked out over the night and he saw her walking outside in the dark, she was walking with Remus. He hated Remus the same as Remus hated him. Many times in their childhood had lead to this hatred, but it seemed that once again Snape would not be the winner. Not that he was ever in the game, but hell, Remus was the same age as him and Remus was part werewolf. He watched from the shadows of the balcony, her red hair shimmering in the moonlight, her arm curled around Remus'. She was laughing at something he had said. Severus knew that he could never make her laugh—he didn't have a right to try with all the terrible things he had done. He was trying to make amends—trying but he knew he never would. His soul had burned away, and now no one could save it—who would even want to try anyway; no one wanted to be around him—ever. With that he turned away, but something called him to take one last look at her laughing in the moonlight—he had to go now; he had to finish the rounds.

S

Willow checked her cell phone and saw that Buffy had left a message she had charmed her cell phone so that she could still make calls to Buffy and the gang. She knew that she had made the right choice in leaving, but she also knew that she could never refuse to help them at any time. They were the Scooby gang and she knew that they would end up together no matter what. She ducked into an unused classroom to make the call. After she finished teaching here she would return to Sunnydale, she had always known that, she just didn't expect it to be so soon…

"What do you mean he just left? He isn't supposed to come here until next week!" Willow exclaimed.

"Wills, I don't think that he left, I think that he was kid..er..vampnapped."

"But who?"

"I went to Willy's to get some info, cause you know after the soul and everything I know that Spike was serious about loving me, so we started a relationship and everything had been going well. He just didn't show up for our date last night. And that is just not like him. You know Spike—he's loyal to those he cares about. Anyway, I went to Willy's and I heard some disturbing things. Willow…I think that the Initiative is back, and I think that they've got Spike…"

"Well what are we going to do? And what do you mean they're back? Like they are trying what they did before? Or they are trying something new…"

"I don't know! It took all of us before to infiltrate their headquarters and that is when they were going down the tubes. What are we going to do? We can't leave Spike there!"

"Buffy, if they do have Spike, are you sure that he's…well…still alive?"

"I don't know, Willow I need you here, with your magic and your mind."

"Buffy I can't just leave in the middle of the school year…look I'll figure something out. You just sit tight, okay? I'll call you back tomorrow."

Willow hung up the phone. "It looks like research girl is back in the game."

Snape was walking to his office when he heard voices coming from one of the smaller classrooms that were never used. As he crept closer thinking to find some annoying students out of bed he recognized Willow's voice.

"Buffy I can't just leave in the middle of the school year…look I'll figure something out. You just sit tight okay, I'll call you back tomorrow. It looks like research girl is back in the game…"

She's leaving, he thought. No she can't leave. I haven't had the chance to…To what, Severus? To do nothing you know she wouldn't date the likes of you anyway. She's twenty years your junior!

"Who's there?" Willow peered into the hallway. Then she saw his shadowy figure, lurking by the door, like the great bat that the students dubbed him. "Oh, Professor Snape…um" She stood there for a moment looking at him and biting her lip. She knew that she needed help to deal with this problem. She wondered if Snape was someone she could trust. She seemed to come to a decision. "Do you know if there is way to do magic from long distances?"

Severus looked at her stunned for a moment. "Magic from a distance? What do you mean? Like what kind of magic?"

"Um, a locator spell. I've done them but only in the same town as the person I was trying to locate, but I need to do one for a person that is in America. Perhaps in Sunnydale, but we are not even sure that he is there."

Here's your chance Severus, old boy, you can help her be her knight in…wait he?

"He?" Snape asked.

Willow gave him a long thoughtful look as if debating on what to say. Then she looked at him, "The Scooby gang needs my help. Sit down this may take awhile." And Willow proceeded to explain to him about the Sunnydale crew and a brief overview of some of their adventures.

"So, you need to help the slayer save a souled vampire?"

"Well, yes, but it's more than that. The Initiative is bad news. Almost three years ago now, the government tired to create the Initiative to figure out how to get a leash on the overwhelming demon problem. Only the creator wanted to do more than that she wanted to create a super-being, one that she named Adam, she couldn't control it and it killed her, but not before it took over the Initiative. A lot of people got hurt. After we defeated Adam, supposedly, the Initiative was destroyed, but if they are back there is no telling what could happen. What's worse they don't discriminate. My ex-boyfriend was captured by them and they ran experiments on him, just because he was a werewolf. They didn't understand that he was a perfectly normal teenager except for a few days out of the month…"

Severus stood there shocked for a moment, trying to grasp the concept of this sweet girl going out with a werewolf. That may have explained her friendship with Lupin, whom she had met when he had came to Hogwarts to talk with the Headmaster about Harry. Like maybe if she could live with something like that then she could live with some of the things that he's done…no, he shook his head. "Well I suppose we could try to do a locator spell from here, but it would take more than one person."

Why do you want to help her? Severus thought. It's not like there is anything that you are going to gain from this. She only asked you because you were here and because you have magical ability, not because she likes you or anything…

"Okay well what kind of map will we need? Usually I just use a town map, but I am not sure if that will work from way over here."

"If he's in the town it will work. Even though we are over here, we are still searching that particular town, so if you have a town map that would be best."

"Well I'll ask Buffy to send one. I'll send an owl over. Do I need anything else of his?"

"Well since he is a vampire something of his would be useful, we can't locate the life force of someone who is dead. But you said had a soul, so we could look for his soul, but it would all be a lot easier with a personal artifact of his."

"Okay, no problem, Buffy and Spike are dating now, so I would guess that she'd have something of his around, he would want her reminded of him, and not Angel. So when are we going to do the spell, tomorrow? I can call Buffy back tonight and send the owl for her to send the stuff."

"Professor Rosenberg, what are you going to do if the Initiative is back?" Severus asked, wondering why he asked even as he uttered the words. He didn't want her to leave. At least while she was here he could watch her and imagine…but all the way over in Sunnydale, she would be out of sight as well as out of reach…

"What can I do? I have obligations here. I have already told them that I am coming home for Christmas break and also, summer of course, but the Big Bad does not wait until then. First priority is to find out where Spike is. After that Buffy will find out if indeed the Initiative is back and what they are up to. The bad thing about it is that the Initiative knows about Buffy being the Slayer, thanks to her little love fest with Riley the commando. I want to do some research, but I haven't had time to work on getting my computer to work here, let alone the Internet. Have you had any luck charming electronics here? It is awfully difficult."

"I have no use for such things, in fact I really don't know of what you are speaking."

"Ah I see, grew up in a wizarding family, eh? Well, I didn't understand that people here actually didn't use electronics, but I guess it makes sense, you have your owls and your magic and all of that, but there is nothing like the Internet to research current Big Bads, not to say that Giles' texts weren't the most useful for demon research. However the Initiative, probably isn't going to be in one of those, unless of course there is a prophecy or something equally disturbing."

Just then they were interrupted by Professor Dumbledore. "Ah Severus, Willow, just the two people I wanted to see."

"Yes Headmaster? What is it you wanted to see us about?" Willow asked. She couldn't think of what he needed to talk to her about. He didn't know about the problems with the Initiative, or anything really. He looked like a man who was sweet and all, but really didn't have a clue.

"If we could just go to my office, there is some rather urgent news that we must attend to right away."

The trio walked to the Headmasters office. Albus sat down at his desk and Severus and Willow sat in the chairs in front of his desk.

"With the fall of Voldemort, as you know, there has been a lot of unrest in the wizarding world. The Ministry rounded up most of the death eaters, but it has become apparent that a few have gotten by without the proper punishment. The ministry just didn't have enough proof against any wrong doing on their part. It has come to my attention that some of the death eaters have left the country. It is also come under some scrutiny that they have went to America and joined forces with a government agency. Usually that would not be any of our business, seeing as the American wizarding community should take over the watching of this, however being as most of them at one time or another attended Hogwarts, it would be best if one of us checked it out to make sure everything is normal, and no attack, that the wizarding world is most assuredly not ready to take on right now, occurs."

"Um, two questions," Willow tentatively said. "Who is Voldemort, and what is a death eater?"

Severus just stared at her for a moment. How could she not know about the Dark Lord and his followers? If she didn't know about them, then she didn't know about him either, the thought crept through his brain. She didn't know, he could be a normal person around her…but that thought was banished quickly, when Albus began the tale of Tom Riddle and ended with the ultimate demise.

"Wow, so you worked undercover?" Willow looked at him amazed. "That was really brave of you, to be a spy for that long. But," Willow said turning to Dumbledore, "what does all of this have to do with us. I can see why he should go and see about these rouge death hunters, he knows them, but why me? What am I doing here?"

"Ah funny you should ask, the government agency that is in question seems to be stationed in Sunnydale California."

"The Initiative…" Willow took a deep breath. "Okay so what are we going to do?"

"Well you and Severus will be taking a trip to Sunnydale."

"I guess I'd better call Buffy and tell her to expect company."

TBC