Disclaimer: See chapter 1 for full disclaimer and notes.

Thanks to my reviewers. Two nice reviews from Mary-thanks Mary! The next chapter should be up next weekend.

Chapter 6: The Past Comes Rushing Back

"How much longer until we admit defeat and send up flares?" Dawn asked as the two girls rounded what seemed to Tara to be the hundredth identical corner and entered the hundredth identical hallway.

"I don't want to use a spell around here. I don't know how it would react." Tara replied, sighing. "Plus, um, I don't know one to use," She added.

Dawn smiled slightly, stopping in the middle of the hallway to look at a particularly pretty painting of an empty ballroom. As Tara joined her, two women in elaborate white dresses entered the painting from the right.

The girls took a reflexive step back as more figures entered the painting and began to dance in slow circles to nonexistent music. Tara and Dawn leaned forward to peer closer at the dancers in the back, who had taken seats at table and were waving and smiling at them.

"Can I help you?" asked a voice from behind them.

The girls jumped and a scream escaped from Dawn as they spun around to see who had spoken.

Tara took a deep breath and tried to slow her racing heart as she looked the man over. He seemed to be around Giles's age, although she suspected that he was perhaps a bit younger and had simply, like Buffy, Xander, and Willow, aged faster than the people around him. His tentative yet curious smile confirmed her suspicions as the years dropped away and she decided that he was probably closer to forty. Though, now that she thought about it, Giles himself was probably a lot younger than he seemed. Life on the hellmouth tended to turn human years into cat years.

Dawn nudged Tara, breaking her out of her thoughts and back to the man in front of her. His robes, though a bit tattered, led her to believe that he was probably a professor at the school, and therefore, hopefully, they were saved without needing to conjure some flares.

"Um, we're a bit lost," Dawn finally answered for them, "we were looking for the Headmaster."

The man's smile grew. "Ah, you must be the guests Minerva was telling me about before she left for break."

Tara smiled back at the man. If Professor McGonagall was friends with him, then perhaps he was okay. She was tempted to try to read him, but Dumbledore's warning still echoed in her mind. She wasn't about to invade someone's privacy like that. Just the fact that he was in the school probably meant he was safe to be around. Tara was beginning to suspect that the threatening people of this world wouldn't be anywhere near Dumbledore. Which was probably smart, considering the power she'd glimpsed when she'd met him.

Tara finally spoke up, "I'm Tara and this is Dawn."

"Professor Remus Lupin," the man replied, shaking hands with each of them, "pleased to meet you. Perhaps I can help you find the Headmaster."

They each looped an arm through his and he turned them around, heading them back down the hall.

"If I may ask, how did you end up here by yourselves in the first place? This isn't the safest part of the school to get lost in, though it isn't quite as bad as the dungeons."

Dawn's eyes widened. "There are dungeons here? Like real live 'lock 'em in the dungeons' dungeons?"

Tara and Remus both smiled at this. "Well, I've never personally been locked in them, but I'm sure they were used in such a way at some point."

"See Dawnie, at least Sunnydale High didn't have any dungeons," Tara said to the still wide-eyed Dawn.

"Yeah, just the big gapin' mouth o' hell. Something to look forward to when they finish rebuilding." Dawn answered, rolling her eyes.

Remus was looking between the two girls with a mixture of amusement and confusion.

Dawn shook her head at his inquiring look, "don't worry about it, it's a whole big thing."

Remus just nodded. Tara was a bit surprised that he let it go at that, but then she considered some of the things he must have seen living in the wizarding world, and suddenly life in Sunnydale didn't seem so peculiar.

"So back to my original question," Remus said, leading them around another corner that looked to Tara like the one they had rounded just moments before, "how did you happen to find yourselves in that hallway?"

"Oh, we were getting a tour from the ghost guy-"

"Sir Nicholas," Tara interrupted.

"Whatever, anyway, he said he had to go do, well, ghost type stuff I guess, and asked if we could find our way back. We said yes."

"We were wrong." Tara finished for Dawn.

Remus laughed, "well, just be glad you didn't run into Peeves. He tends to occupy that hallway during the break."

Dawn looked at the older man questioningly.

"Peeves is a poltergeist. He likes to wreak havoc on unsuspecting residents of the school. I don't believe guests from America are exempt from this."

Tara shuddered at this thought. Sir Nicholas had been perfectly friendly, but the whole ghost factor had made her uncomfortable, whereas Dawn just thought it was cool. She couldn't imagine how she would have reacted to Peeves' practical jokes. She supposed it was ridiculous for her to think that way, after all, she was different from regular people herself, but the noncorporeal element was a bit much. Even though Sir Nicholas was the friendliest person she had met in the school so far, he still gave her the wiggins.

Tara realized that she must have shivered involuntary, because Remus cast a worried glance her way and gave her a reassuring smile.

She smiled back, but still didn't feel entirely comfortable. The man was friendly and had an easy going look about him, but something was off. She got the impression that he was more complicated than he looked at first glance. But then, most everyone she had met in the past few years was.

They finally arrived at an open hole in the wall behind a large statue, and Remus led them up a winding staircase to an empty office as the wall closed behind them. Dawn had no problem with ghosts or dungeons or magic castles in general, but she had already voiced her complaints about some of the room entrances. She confided to Tara that all of this 'climbing through musty old walls' was stupid. Apparently her pants were being slowly ruined by the dirt. Tara hadn't noticed any dirt spots yet, but she was getting annoyed with having to hike her skirt up to get into half of the rooms they were shown. She imagined that if she were to stay her for longer than a day, she would be switching to jeans.

Remus motioned for them to take a seat on a comfortable looking green sofa that rested on one side of a fireplace, and he disappeared into an adjoining room. As they waited for him to come back, Giles and Anya appeared in the doorway through which the two girls had just entered.

They took seats at a small couch on the other side of the fireplace, nodding at Tara and Dawn, who nodded their greeting back. The former demon was holding two large books that appeared to Tara to be about a thousand years old. *About Anya's age,* Tara thought, sitting back farther on the comfortable sofa, *My life is odd.*

The adjoining door opened and Professor Lupin returned, followed by Dumbledore.

"Ah, our esteemed guests have all returned," the Headmaster said as Remus took a seat in a chair near the main door.

Before Dumbledore could continue, a loud banging sounded from somewhere outside the comfortable room.

"Albus!" someone shouted from the hallway, "You've changed the password again!"

"Let go of me! I'm not a threat to your precious school!" came another voice, which caused Anya to jump up from her seat next to Giles.

Dumbledore motioned for her to sit back down as he disappeared down the stairs to greet the new arrivals.

Everyone looked questioningly at Anya, who was smiling and staring anxiously at the door. A moment later, Dumbledore appeared with two people trailing behind him, making quite an interesting site.

Tara almost laughed out loud as a very imposing man in all black stumbled in, holding the arm of a not-so-intimidating looking woman wearing an outfit that would look at home on a female version of Giles. That is to say, a female librarian. The white button up shirt and - was that actually tweed? - brown skirt were deceptively sweet, only discounted by the angry look on the woman's face. Tara wanted to sink back further into the couch, but Dawn put a reassuring hand on her arm and gave her a brief smile.

Anya jumped up from the couch again, and ran to hug the furious woman, whose anger waned as soon as she spotted the ex-demon. The man who had been holding her still had a scowl on his face, but he eased a bit at the familiarity between the two women.

"What are you doing here?" Anya asked the woman.

"I wanted to catch up before the wedding, and D'Hoffryn gave into my request for time off. Not that I'll be totally off duty." The woman replied.

Tara looked sharply at the new arrival. She had heard of D'Hoffryn in her past reading. She thought he was Anya's old boss, in a demon kind of way. Which meant that this woman must also be a vengeance demon. No wonder the scowling man who was now observing from a shadowed corner was irritated about her arrival.

"Perhaps some introductions are in order before Severus decides to exact some justice of his own." Dumbledore said from the seat he had taken behind the largest piece of furniture in the room, an enormous wooden desk covered with various magical items, and, Tara noted with some curiosity, an empty birdcage.

"Of course, Albus," the woman replied, smiling at the old man and taking a seat in a chair next to Professor Lupin. "I'm Hallie, and I used to work with Anya before her tragic downfall."

Anya rolled her eyes.

Hallie continued, not noticing, "I looked for her in Sunnydale, but her fiancé-" she said this last word with more than a little disdain- "told me she was away on business. So it took a little while, but I eventually tracked her to the school. Imagine my surprise when I apparated to the gate and ran into this moody fellow." She finished with a gesture to the man still lurking in the shadows.

"Imagine my surprise when you apparated on top of me," he retorted in a low threatening voice.

Dawn started to giggle, which caused him to shoot a venomous glare in her direction. At this, the tension in the room broke and everyone else burst into small fits of laughter. Tara just frowned. She would normally have found the story amusing as well, but the man who was trying to be imposing seemed deeply embarrassed to her. She had had her fair share of uncomfortable embarrassment in the past, and though it seemed something to be laughed at and dismissed to most, to her it was the kind of moment she used to dwell on. She noticed that the man stepped further into the shadows as the conversation resumed around her, but his gaze drifted to her face and seemed to look right through her for a minute before shifting over to Remus. She shook her head and focused on the conversation.

"Halfrek is in the wedding," Anya was saying, "we need to discuss the bridesmaid dresses since Xander is refusing anything traditional. Too demony my ass."

"Ah yes, congratulations on the marriage," Dumbledore told Anya, "I'm sure with Halfrek there it will be most interesting. And if all your friends are as exuberant as her, I daresay it may be the party of the century."

Giles looked from Hallie to the Headmaster and back again, "You two know each other?"

"Of course, Rupert," replied Dumbledore, raising an eyebrow in Hallie's direction.

Hallie sighed, "Yes, well, a few years ago I tried to perform some justice in the wizarding world. Here at the school, in fact. It turns out wizards can usually come up with better justice for their uncaring parents than I ever could. Of course, if Anyanka would return to the fold and reconsider her whole 'evil men' focus, she could probably be of some use in this world."

"Thank you, but I'm happy with Xander," Anya replied, hugging her friend again.

"Yes, well, if you ever change your mind. Oh, and I was also supposed to tell Dawn that Buffy says not to come back to Sunnydale yet."

"What?" Dawn asked.

Tara stopped her subtle observation of the man in the shadows and was drawn fully into the conversation. "Why not?" she asked.

"Oh, something about a threat to her life. She wrote it in a letter." Hallie said, as Tara noticed the sealed envelope in her hand.

She handed it to Dawn and sat back down in her chair. Dawn ripped the envelope open and pulled out a short letter written very hastily in Buffy's bubbly script.

Everyone sat in silence, waiting for her to finish. Finally, Giles cleared his throat, a worried expression on his face. "Perhaps you could give us a brief synopsis?"

"I-" Dawn began, tears forming in her eyes. She was starting to shake and couldn't seem to finish the reply.

Tara gently took the letter from her hand and gave it to Giles, who had left his spot on the sofa to stand by Dawn. He quickly skimmed the letter, and his face visibly paled as he reached the end.

"Oh dear," he said. "Doc."

Tara thought for a moment, "the man that Buffy.." she trailed off, not knowing how to finish the statement without disturbing Dawn further.

"Yes." Giles replied, kneeling by Dawn and patting her arm in a fatherly way as the tears began to fall silently down her cheeks.

"What about him?" Tara asked, in a whisper, dreading the answer.

Giles removed his glasses and finally looked up at her. "He's back."