Part 8 Research
Willow walked into Professor Snape's dungeon classroom as his last class for the day filed out. She had been the only one willing to come and talk to him. Fred was still a little frightened by him, and Faith was afraid she'd kill him if she had to talk to him for any real length of time, so here she was having to talk to the unsmiling one.
"Do you want something?" He asked without looking up from the piece of parchment in front of him.
"I want to know about Lord Voldemort," Willow walked over and sat at the edge of his desk.
"Must you say that name?" Snape snapped at her.
"Don't see why not. Hell, if I didn't say the name of every scary thing I met I would be using pronouns all the time."
"Could we by any chance discuss this later?" It had been a long day, dealing with inept students and having to talk to the overly cheerful American was not something he wanted to do right now.
"We could but I'm not leaving until we do," Willow smiled and began wandering the room.
**********
Fred made her way to Gryffindor Tower after getting the password from Mcgonagall. Still glad she didn't have to talk to Snape. She quickly gave the portrait the password, still marveling at the talking portraits and photos here, climbed through the opening, and entered the common room.
"Professor Burkle," Hermione greeted as soon as she saw her, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to talk to you, Harry, and Ron," Fred smiled at the girl.
Hermione called her friends over, they had been playing wizard's chess, while she studied.
"Hi, Professor Burkle," The boys greeted her as they pulled chairs over and sat down.
"Hi, I need to talk to the three of you. We need some information about Voldemort," Both Ron and Hermione gasped at the name; "It's not that we don't think we can fight him, Faith and Willow have fought much worse, but we don't know anything about him."
"What do you want to know?" Harry asked, "He wants to rid the world of muggles, and have only pure blood wizards left. He killed my parents because of some stupid prophecy about him and me, we thought we killed him in June, but now apparently we didn't."
"Professor Mcgonagall thinks he's after you again Harry," Fred said, "Has he contacted you, she also said you could feel when he's active through your scar. Has it been hurting?"
"No sorry, I haven't felt anything. No weird dreams, no pain." Harry absently rubbed the lightening shaped scar on his forehead.
"I realize this is a long shot but you don't know where it was Dumbledore went, when he left to search for him do you?"
"Sorry," Harry shrugged.
"If you need help with any research or anything Miss Burkle we'd be happy to help."
"Thanks Hermione, nothing I wanted more than for you to offer to send us to the library," Ron muttered.
"Thanks," Fred smiled, "For now just let us know if you think of anything or Harry if you have any dreams or you scar hurts."
Fred stayed and answered a few questions Ron had, after he had written home telling his parents that they had a muggle teacher.
**********
Snape sat at his desk still trying to read the parchment in front of him, and trying to ignore the red headed girl wandering his classroom, stopping occasionally to pick up a jar and look at it. He was just putting the parchment away when the room was filled with her panic screams.
Looking up from his desk, he saw that she had opened one of the supply cabinets and there were now two of her standing there. The one he had been trying to avoid for the last week or so, and another with black hair and eyes, and dressed entirely in black. He watched as the red headed Willow backed away from the other darker version of herself.
"N-no, this isn't. you can't be." Willow was muttering backing up until she hit the wall.
Snape realizing it was obviously a boggart, and that Willow did not know how to kill it or even what it was, moved quickly around his desk attracting it's attention. As soon as the boggart changed form into the dark mark of Lord Voldemort he raised is wand, muttered the spell, and watched as it vanished.
He turned his attention back to the girl on the floor crying, not sure exactly what to do with her. What he really wanted to know was why she was afraid of herself, or was it the change in hair and clothing she feared.
"Are you all right?" He asked impatiently, normally being the one to cause the crying, not the one to offer comfort.
"I-it's gone?"
"Yes, it was just a boggart."
"Boggart?" Willow asked, coming to her feet, but still shaking from the fear of seeing that part of her return.
"Yes, they take the form of your worst fear," Why was she still shaking, he reached for her pulling her to a desk and forcing her to sit, "Care to explain your fear?"
"That was me, um, a little over a year ago," Willow said, "I.my uh, girlfriend was killed, I was a little vengeancy, and the magic kind of got out of control."
"Out of control?"
"Yeah, that was the whole flayed and incinerated instance I told Malfoy about. I wanted to make him pay. But then I couldn't. the dark magic was so strong it."
"I'm sorry Miss Rosenberg; I'm just having trouble seeing the very cheerful person wandering around this school as having ever had a bad experience let alone fall into the dark arts so completely."
Willow was looking back at the cabinet the other her had emerged from and saw the pensive in it.
"Really," Willow walked over and took out the pensieve, "How do you use this, I'll show you. You can see what I put in there right?"
"Yes, But I don't think."
"Look you're the one that thinks I had a super peachy life so I'll show you."
Sighing Snape explained the process to Willow, and watched as she carefully pulled several thoughts from her mind and placed them in the bowl. When she had finished she motioned him over.
"How do we do this?"
Following his instructions Willow felt both of them fall into the bowl and back to her memories.
"They can't see us right?" Willow asked having no desire to freak out her friends by letting them see a future her.
"No where are we?" Snape asked looking around the dark room.
"The Bronze, it's a teen age club in Sunnydale," Willow explained, "This is at the Harvest."
Willow took his hand and led him over to see Jesse attack Cordelia and Xander come up behind them.
"Both of those guys, Xander is the human, Jesse is the vampire had been my friends since we were five years old."
Snape watched silently as Xander and Jesse argued ending with Xander putting a stake in his friend's heart. Before he could comment, they were pulled to another memory.
This time they were watching as Angelus attacked Willow at the high school.
"Is that Angelus?" Snape asked, "I've read of him."
"Yeah, he was Buffy's boyfriend until he lost his soul." As she finished talking, they were moved to the hospital and Snape watched quietly as Willow performed the Spell to re-soul Angel, and Willow whispered that her spell had worked but Buffy had still had to kill the vampire.
Before he could comment they were now watching her graduation ceremony as the Mayor began his ascension, he didn't comment as the students all pulled weapons and began attacking the giant demon.
Next, they were watching Willow's dream the night they had defeated Adam, which quickly changed to Willow standing helplessly as Glory put her hands into Tara's head.
"What?"
"The scary one was Glorificus, a hell god," Willow explained, "She fed on the matter that made human brains cohesive, the other was my girlfriend."
They were now watching as Willow, Xander, Anya, and Giles approached Buffy's body after she had closed the dimensional portal.
Now they had moved again to Willow holding Tara after she had been shot. Then they moved to the Magic Box as Willow absorbed the magic in the books. Snape watched in silence as Willow tortured and killed Warren. He watched as she tortured Giles and watched as Xander comforted her after she tried to end the world.
As the last memory faded, Snape pulled her out of the pensieve and stood staring at the once again crying girl.
"I had.How can anyone be so cheerful after experiencing," He waved his hand at the bowl, "That?"
"It wasn't always bad," Willow wiped her eyes with a still shaking hand, "We always had each other, Xander, Buffy, Giles, and I. You were just questioning whether I knew anything about dark arts. So I gave you the hi- lights."
"Yes, but you are what nineteen, twenty?" He asked, for one so young she had been through so much.
"Twenty two," Willow replied, "Can we talk about Voldemort now, or better yet what the hell was that thing the boggart turned into before you killed it."
"That was the Dark Mark, it's the sign Voldemort burned into all Death Eater's so he could call us to him by touching just one of us."
"Us? You worked for Voldemort?"
"Yes. I left him and began spying for the Order before he killed Potter's parents."
"So you know more than anyone here about him." Willow stated she was still shaking from reliving the worst of her memories.
"Are you cold?" Snape asked, eyeing the trembling woman, "You're trembling."
"Yeah, well I just relived my worst memories for you remember?"
"I'm sorry I said."
"It's okay; you let the bad things make you miserable, how could you know that not everyone does."
"Not everyone is like you." Snape snapped he did not need a lecture from her, "Not everyone was popular."
"I wasn't popular, not by a long shot. I just had friends I could count on."
"Not everyone has those either."
"That's just," Willow stopped and looked at him, he wasn't looking at her anymore, he was staring straight ahead, "well, sad."
Willow walked up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. She tightened her grip when he tried to pull away.
"You really don't have any friends?"
When he didn't answer, she moved around in front of him and sat on the edge of the desk. She had never had a wide circle of friends but she always had Xander, and Jesse, then later Buffy and Giles too. She couldn't imagine how lonely it had be to feel that alone.
"If you." Willow reached out touching his face, "If you ever need a friend." She reached down and kissed his cheek, then stood and left the room.
She wanted to know more about Lord Voldemort but now didn't seem like the right time to do it. She would talk to him in a few days.
Willow walked into Professor Snape's dungeon classroom as his last class for the day filed out. She had been the only one willing to come and talk to him. Fred was still a little frightened by him, and Faith was afraid she'd kill him if she had to talk to him for any real length of time, so here she was having to talk to the unsmiling one.
"Do you want something?" He asked without looking up from the piece of parchment in front of him.
"I want to know about Lord Voldemort," Willow walked over and sat at the edge of his desk.
"Must you say that name?" Snape snapped at her.
"Don't see why not. Hell, if I didn't say the name of every scary thing I met I would be using pronouns all the time."
"Could we by any chance discuss this later?" It had been a long day, dealing with inept students and having to talk to the overly cheerful American was not something he wanted to do right now.
"We could but I'm not leaving until we do," Willow smiled and began wandering the room.
**********
Fred made her way to Gryffindor Tower after getting the password from Mcgonagall. Still glad she didn't have to talk to Snape. She quickly gave the portrait the password, still marveling at the talking portraits and photos here, climbed through the opening, and entered the common room.
"Professor Burkle," Hermione greeted as soon as she saw her, "What are you doing here?"
"I came to talk to you, Harry, and Ron," Fred smiled at the girl.
Hermione called her friends over, they had been playing wizard's chess, while she studied.
"Hi, Professor Burkle," The boys greeted her as they pulled chairs over and sat down.
"Hi, I need to talk to the three of you. We need some information about Voldemort," Both Ron and Hermione gasped at the name; "It's not that we don't think we can fight him, Faith and Willow have fought much worse, but we don't know anything about him."
"What do you want to know?" Harry asked, "He wants to rid the world of muggles, and have only pure blood wizards left. He killed my parents because of some stupid prophecy about him and me, we thought we killed him in June, but now apparently we didn't."
"Professor Mcgonagall thinks he's after you again Harry," Fred said, "Has he contacted you, she also said you could feel when he's active through your scar. Has it been hurting?"
"No sorry, I haven't felt anything. No weird dreams, no pain." Harry absently rubbed the lightening shaped scar on his forehead.
"I realize this is a long shot but you don't know where it was Dumbledore went, when he left to search for him do you?"
"Sorry," Harry shrugged.
"If you need help with any research or anything Miss Burkle we'd be happy to help."
"Thanks Hermione, nothing I wanted more than for you to offer to send us to the library," Ron muttered.
"Thanks," Fred smiled, "For now just let us know if you think of anything or Harry if you have any dreams or you scar hurts."
Fred stayed and answered a few questions Ron had, after he had written home telling his parents that they had a muggle teacher.
**********
Snape sat at his desk still trying to read the parchment in front of him, and trying to ignore the red headed girl wandering his classroom, stopping occasionally to pick up a jar and look at it. He was just putting the parchment away when the room was filled with her panic screams.
Looking up from his desk, he saw that she had opened one of the supply cabinets and there were now two of her standing there. The one he had been trying to avoid for the last week or so, and another with black hair and eyes, and dressed entirely in black. He watched as the red headed Willow backed away from the other darker version of herself.
"N-no, this isn't. you can't be." Willow was muttering backing up until she hit the wall.
Snape realizing it was obviously a boggart, and that Willow did not know how to kill it or even what it was, moved quickly around his desk attracting it's attention. As soon as the boggart changed form into the dark mark of Lord Voldemort he raised is wand, muttered the spell, and watched as it vanished.
He turned his attention back to the girl on the floor crying, not sure exactly what to do with her. What he really wanted to know was why she was afraid of herself, or was it the change in hair and clothing she feared.
"Are you all right?" He asked impatiently, normally being the one to cause the crying, not the one to offer comfort.
"I-it's gone?"
"Yes, it was just a boggart."
"Boggart?" Willow asked, coming to her feet, but still shaking from the fear of seeing that part of her return.
"Yes, they take the form of your worst fear," Why was she still shaking, he reached for her pulling her to a desk and forcing her to sit, "Care to explain your fear?"
"That was me, um, a little over a year ago," Willow said, "I.my uh, girlfriend was killed, I was a little vengeancy, and the magic kind of got out of control."
"Out of control?"
"Yeah, that was the whole flayed and incinerated instance I told Malfoy about. I wanted to make him pay. But then I couldn't. the dark magic was so strong it."
"I'm sorry Miss Rosenberg; I'm just having trouble seeing the very cheerful person wandering around this school as having ever had a bad experience let alone fall into the dark arts so completely."
Willow was looking back at the cabinet the other her had emerged from and saw the pensive in it.
"Really," Willow walked over and took out the pensieve, "How do you use this, I'll show you. You can see what I put in there right?"
"Yes, But I don't think."
"Look you're the one that thinks I had a super peachy life so I'll show you."
Sighing Snape explained the process to Willow, and watched as she carefully pulled several thoughts from her mind and placed them in the bowl. When she had finished she motioned him over.
"How do we do this?"
Following his instructions Willow felt both of them fall into the bowl and back to her memories.
"They can't see us right?" Willow asked having no desire to freak out her friends by letting them see a future her.
"No where are we?" Snape asked looking around the dark room.
"The Bronze, it's a teen age club in Sunnydale," Willow explained, "This is at the Harvest."
Willow took his hand and led him over to see Jesse attack Cordelia and Xander come up behind them.
"Both of those guys, Xander is the human, Jesse is the vampire had been my friends since we were five years old."
Snape watched silently as Xander and Jesse argued ending with Xander putting a stake in his friend's heart. Before he could comment, they were pulled to another memory.
This time they were watching as Angelus attacked Willow at the high school.
"Is that Angelus?" Snape asked, "I've read of him."
"Yeah, he was Buffy's boyfriend until he lost his soul." As she finished talking, they were moved to the hospital and Snape watched quietly as Willow performed the Spell to re-soul Angel, and Willow whispered that her spell had worked but Buffy had still had to kill the vampire.
Before he could comment they were now watching her graduation ceremony as the Mayor began his ascension, he didn't comment as the students all pulled weapons and began attacking the giant demon.
Next, they were watching Willow's dream the night they had defeated Adam, which quickly changed to Willow standing helplessly as Glory put her hands into Tara's head.
"What?"
"The scary one was Glorificus, a hell god," Willow explained, "She fed on the matter that made human brains cohesive, the other was my girlfriend."
They were now watching as Willow, Xander, Anya, and Giles approached Buffy's body after she had closed the dimensional portal.
Now they had moved again to Willow holding Tara after she had been shot. Then they moved to the Magic Box as Willow absorbed the magic in the books. Snape watched in silence as Willow tortured and killed Warren. He watched as she tortured Giles and watched as Xander comforted her after she tried to end the world.
As the last memory faded, Snape pulled her out of the pensieve and stood staring at the once again crying girl.
"I had.How can anyone be so cheerful after experiencing," He waved his hand at the bowl, "That?"
"It wasn't always bad," Willow wiped her eyes with a still shaking hand, "We always had each other, Xander, Buffy, Giles, and I. You were just questioning whether I knew anything about dark arts. So I gave you the hi- lights."
"Yes, but you are what nineteen, twenty?" He asked, for one so young she had been through so much.
"Twenty two," Willow replied, "Can we talk about Voldemort now, or better yet what the hell was that thing the boggart turned into before you killed it."
"That was the Dark Mark, it's the sign Voldemort burned into all Death Eater's so he could call us to him by touching just one of us."
"Us? You worked for Voldemort?"
"Yes. I left him and began spying for the Order before he killed Potter's parents."
"So you know more than anyone here about him." Willow stated she was still shaking from reliving the worst of her memories.
"Are you cold?" Snape asked, eyeing the trembling woman, "You're trembling."
"Yeah, well I just relived my worst memories for you remember?"
"I'm sorry I said."
"It's okay; you let the bad things make you miserable, how could you know that not everyone does."
"Not everyone is like you." Snape snapped he did not need a lecture from her, "Not everyone was popular."
"I wasn't popular, not by a long shot. I just had friends I could count on."
"Not everyone has those either."
"That's just," Willow stopped and looked at him, he wasn't looking at her anymore, he was staring straight ahead, "well, sad."
Willow walked up behind him and put her hand on his shoulder. She tightened her grip when he tried to pull away.
"You really don't have any friends?"
When he didn't answer, she moved around in front of him and sat on the edge of the desk. She had never had a wide circle of friends but she always had Xander, and Jesse, then later Buffy and Giles too. She couldn't imagine how lonely it had be to feel that alone.
"If you." Willow reached out touching his face, "If you ever need a friend." She reached down and kissed his cheek, then stood and left the room.
She wanted to know more about Lord Voldemort but now didn't seem like the right time to do it. She would talk to him in a few days.