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Chapter 8: Connections
The rest of the week went by at Hogwarts, similar to Buffy's the first day. Snape was fairly nasty to her in DAD though, but had lightened up as the Slytherins were slowly tolerating her more. She had learned quickly how the inner workings and politics of Slytherin worked. She realized they interacted much differently from all the other houses. It was very political and they weren't always nice to each other, but they always stuck together. And it involved constantly proving yourself to the other members. Most of the students in Slytherin were raised to think they were better than others, and to be tough. They had a very us-against-everyone-else attitude and never were supposed to show weaknesses. Buffy could play that game easily, she was used to having to put on a tough façade, not that she wasn't tough.
The Gryffindor trio she sympathized with for some of the stuff they've been through, but she thought they had it easy comparatively and they were starting to get on her nerves. They were such hypocrites, judging her based solely on the fact that she was Slytherin and then claiming Slytherins were the intolerant house. Ginny Weasly she liked though. She had run into the girl in the library and she helped Buffy find some books she needed because despite the amount of time she spent in the library in Sunnydale, she wasn't very good at navigating it. The Hogwarts library was nothing like Sunnydale's. Buffy had to go to the library often, as she was so far behind. As weird as it sounds, she actually took some comfort being in the library. It made her think of Giles, Willow, and Xander. And even Angel. Anyways, Ginny was a fun person and easy to talk to. Blaise was cool and all for accepting her and in turn paving the way for Buffy's acceptance with the rest of her House, but sometimes Buffy needed to talk to someone who was less full of herself, although Blaise wasn't as shallow as she sometimes pretended to be, much like Buffy wasn't as ditzy as she pretended to be, and they both recognized that in each other. Pansy was a pain most of the time and Millicent was a female equivalent to Crabbe and Goyle. Draco was mean but Buffy had fun verbally sparing with him. Plus, he was kinda cute and she had a feeling he was not as mean as he let on.
Transfigurations was going along slowly, and she still hadn't gotten a tutor. Charms was also moving along fairly slowly, not as much though. When Buffy got angry or something it tended to work easier, but the control wasn't there yet. Hagrid's class was always fun for Buffy, and it was funny to watch some of the other students shy away when Hagrid brought in large or bitey creatures. Is bitey a word? Divination was a joke as Blaise had said and Buffy found out that Trelawney predicted death for other students too, Harry most often. In fact, Harry was the only one who got it as much as Buffy and that made Buffy slightly uncomfortable. DADA was Buffy's favorite class by far. She was a natural at it and was only behind in the spell work of it, and they hadn't worked on that much yet. And Snape wasn't nearly as mean as Snyder.
Buffy bounced on her toes impatiently. She hadn't killed-slayed she corrected herself- anything since she'd been here. She was planning her first trip into the Forest tonight, now that she had read up on which creatures in the Forest were good. But first, she wanted to go send her mom and the gang a letter, since these people apparently didn't know what phones were.
"Hey Blaise. Where do we go to send the mail?"
"It's the Owlery tower." Blaise gave her a 'duh' face.
"Oh right. Of course. Why didn't I think of that? The Owlery tower," Buffy said sarcastically as she followed her map to it. When she got there, she was in for a shock, as not much mail had been delivered yet since it was the 1st week and she hadn't seen the owls delivering letters.
"What the...?" Buffy was at a loss of what to do. She just wanted to send her letters! Why was everything so complicated in her life!
Buffy didn't notice the Hufflepuff girl delivering her own mail. The girl noticed her though. She watched as Buffy huffed in frustration. She clearly wasn't used to the wizard mail system.
"Y-you tie your letter t-to the owl," she said ducking her head. Buffy looked up at her. She smiled.
"Thanks. God, this is crazy here. I thought Sunnydale was bad. I mean, Sunnydale is bad, a lot more bad, but in a different way." She tied her letters to an owl and watched as it flew away. "Thanks though, really. I'm Buffy by the way. You're in my year, aren't you? What's your name?" Buffy noticed the Hufflepuff's extreme shyness and fear. She tried to be as nice as possible. She was like Willow when Buffy first met her, only even more shy and with a stutter instead of Willow babble.
"I'm T-tara. Tara." Tara was shocked at how nice Buffy was being. Slytherins were never nice to her. Then again, most Slytherins weren't muggle raised. Was that why Buffy was being nice to her?
"Nice to meet you. Well, I guess I'll see ya around." All that to deliver a letter. It would be so much easier if they had phones or something. Buffy paused before she left, and then turned around. "You're American too. I thought I was the only one. What are you doing going to an English school?"
"M-my mom. She was English and went to, to Hogwarts. She, she moved to America a-after marrying my d-dad. She was a-a witch too. My dad didn't know at the time. She ma-made sure I also came here, to Hogwarts. When, when she, when she died, my dad let me keep coming. He doesn't know th-that it's a wizard school. He wouldn't let me come if h-he knew. He's happy because me going here keeps me out, out of his w-way." Tara was surprised at herself for sharing all that. She normally didn't go into that much detail about a subject that personal to her. Then again, nobody ever asked. She looked at Buffy, waiting for her to laugh or something.
"Oh, wow. I'm so sorry, that's awful. My dad's a jack ass too. Not that I'm saying yours is, unless he is," Buffy saw that Tara wasn't upset at her for calling her dad a jack ass. It sounds like there was more to that story, but she wasn't going to pry. Not now anyways. The man did sound like a complete asshole though. "After my parents divorced, he kinda stopped caring. He never visits or calls or writes. Last time I visited him, he thought he could get away with just buying my affection. He barely paid me any attention. I like shopping, but I would have liked spending time with him even more than shopping. I needed him, and he wasn't there. When did your mom die?"
"She died my dur-during my second year." Tara didn't elaborate any more on her life and Buffy didn't ask. Buffy decided it would be her job later to help bring Tara out of her shell. Tara had it rough.
"That's rough, I really am sorry. If you ever need to talk, just let me know. I know I'm Slytherin so I'm all evil and stuff, but I'm sure I can find time between killing babies and worshipping the devil. I gotta go though. Nice meeting you." Tara couldn't help but smile at Buffy's sarcasm and the way she didn't take the Slytherin stereotype seriously.
"You too. B-bye."
Buffy's letters.
Giles,
Hi. It's Buffy, obviously. Hogwarts is everything you said it would be. I'm doing fine even if the classes are hard and it's been hard fitting in. I'm in Slytherin by the way, if that means anything to you. I wanna thank you for sending me here, it's nice getting away from Sunnydale, I think I needed it. And I'm really sorry about everything. Things just got hard for me. Oh, how's the new girl? What's she like? I'm totally the better Slayer right? You don't like her better do you? If anything goes wrong or if she's having trouble handling the Hellmouth, let me know and I'll come back in a heartbeat. I do miss home some already. But don't worry about me, I'm fine. I miss everyone. And make sure Mom gets my letter. Xander and Willow too. Oh, and I haven't done any Slayage yet, although I found a great weapons store in Diagon Alley and I plan on patrolling the forest tonight. And no, I won't be careful. Kidding!
Love,
Buffy
Xander and Willow,
Hi! I Miss you guys so much, I wish you were here. I'm sorry about how I was in Sunnydale. Know that it had nothing to do with you, and I shouldn't have been such a bitch. That's Cordelia's job. (I'm just joking, Cordy, if you read this, which you probably won't.)
Hogwarts is sooooo cool! You both would love it. Giles probably already told you it's a castle, but you really have to see it to believe it. Everything's magic and amazing. They even fly on brooms! How's Angel doing? Tell him I said hi and, and I don't know what else. Tell him something for me... I miss you guys, and I know I already said it but I can't say it enough. Be nice to the new Slayer, what's her name anyways? And give Snyder a hard time for me. I love you both! And don't go out and do anything dangerous. I plan on going on my first patrol here tonight, so wish me luck!
Buffy
Mom,
Hi. I miss you. Not too much though, don't worry sending me here was the right thing. It's a really nice school, which I never thought I'd say about a school, much less a boarding school. I'm a little behind on the work, but they say I have potential. Me! I promise I'll do better here, which I know I said that at Sunnydale, but this time I really will. I don't wanna be a disappointment to you anymore, Mom, and I'm gonna try. It's beautiful here but I can't wait until winter break when I can come home and visit. I'm working hard already and stuff. Take care and don't over work yourself. I love you!
Love,
Buffy
P.S. Like I told you before, please be safe and you can go to Giles if you are ever worried about anything. I trust him, you can too. So, please be careful. I love you.
Remember to review! And for the people who don't want any BTVS being brought in, I'm sorry, but I like Tara, and good job those who guessed it. And I don't know how big of a role she will play. I don't plan on bringing in any of the core Scoobies.
