Disclaimer: See chapter 1 for full disclaimer and notes.
Thanks to my reviewers from ff.net and Twisting the Hellmouth. CinnamonGrrl - I've fixed the pants mistake. Thanks for pointing that out! I'm glad you guys like the story so far. The next chapter should be up next weekend.
Chapter 10: A Chance Meeting
"Can I ask you a sort of personal question?" Tara asked Harry as they sat by the fire.
Ron and Dawn were currently engaged in their fifth chess game, with Ron in the lead. Dawn was catching onto his style pretty quickly, however, and was proving herself to be a worthy adversary.
Harry looked at Tara warily. "Only if I can refuse to answer."
"Of course."
"Okay then. Ask away."
"Why don't you like Professor Snape?" Tara asked after a moment's hesitation. "I mean, I know he can be intimidating, that's obvious from the few conversations I've had with him, but why specifically?"
For a moment they both fell silent. The only sounds in the room were the crackle of the fire and the tiny war being fought, quite literally, on the chessboard.
Tara finally decided she must have overstepped her bounds. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I just-"
"It's okay," Harry interrupted with a weak smile, "I was just trying to remember what it was."
Tara waited patiently for him to finish.
"I guess it was the first time I met him," he finally continued, "he said something obnoxious about me being a celebrity, and I could just tell that he despised me. I get the impression it's got something to do with my parents."
Tara studied him for a moment, before nodding and smiling, deciding to let it go before she really did overstep her bounds.
An hour later, Tara tiredly said her goodbyes to the group and left the common room after making Dawn promise that she would soon follow. She figured she should wait up to make sure Dawn did as she promised, but she honestly wasn't sure she could stay awake that long.
Tara rubbed her eyes and turned a corner, stopping suddenly to look around.
"Oh no," she said, scanning the nearby paintings, "this isn't right."
If she were in the right hallway, the painting on her left would be a group of friendly looking elderly witches, not- was that a goat?
"Brilliant," Tara muttered, trudging slowly down the hall, mulling over the idea of asking one of the portraits for directions and wondering how strange her life had to be if this seemed a normal option to consider. She stopped to look out at the large moon that bathed the grounds in a pale unearthly light. As she looked toward a small hut that sat on the edge of the forest, a sudden movement caught her eye. She squinted and leaned forward, trying to keep her breath from fogging up the glass as she peered out at the landscape. The movement came again, and she could just make out a large figure walking across the grounds, away from the castle. She wiped at the glass with her arm and tried to track the nearly invisible creature. Just as it reached the woods, a throat was cleared behind her.
Tara jumped back in surprise, hitting her funnybone on the window and wincing as sharp needles of pain shot up her arm. She turned to glare at her intruder, who was revealed to be a smirking Professor Snape, standing across the hall with his arms crossed in front of him.
"You're good at that," Tara said, shaking her arm to get the pain to stop,
Snape raised an eyebrow at the comment.
"The sneaking up thing," Tara added.
Snape continued to stand where he was, not looking away from her face.
"Er," Tara stammered, growing nervous under his gaze, "I saw something outside. Um, an animal I think. It was walking away from the castle." She motioned half heartedly toward the window.
Snape crossed to it, studying the silent landscape, and glancing slightly at the moon. "Many creatures live in the forest," he said, turning back to her, "though they generally don't wander too close to the castle, for fear of being caught by Hagrid."
"Who is he?"
"The groundskeeper," Snape replied.
"Hermione mentioned him earlier."
Snape snorted, "Yes, well, you should be getting back to your rooms," he said, obviously dismissing her.
Tara looked at him thoughtfully. "I'm not one of your students," she replied, challenge in her voice.
"Of course not," Snape said, causing her to relax somewhat, "but it can be dangerous to wander these halls alone at night."
"Oh," she answered, feeling a bit stupid at being so defensive around him. "Well, I would, but." she trailed off, glancing toward him sheepishly.
He sighed with frustration at their unnecessarily lengthy conversation.
"But what?" he finally asked.
Tara's face turned pink with embarrassment. "But I seem to be lost."
Snape looked at her incredulously, then sighed again. "This way," he said, and swept down the hall, robes billowing.
Tara jogged to catch up, now considerably more awake.
As she began to think that Snape was leading her in circles, they rounded a corner and stepped into a hallway that she finally found familiar. She let out a breath that she didn't even know she had been holding and slowed her pace. The professor slowed along with her. She looked up at him, words of thanks forming on her lips, which quickly turned into a scream as cold water drenched her from above.
"Peeves!" Snape bellowed, loudly enough to make Tara jump again.
She was becoming certain that this place was going to give her a heart attack before the students even came back. She began to shiver as the cold water lowered the already freezing temperature to an almost unbearable level. Snape muttered something at her, and the water vanished, leaving her clothes dry, if a little wrinkled.
"D-did you do that without a wand?" Tara asked, her teeth still chattering slightly.
Snape answered by revealing the tip of his wand, which was concealed in the arm of his heavy robes.
Tara gave him a small smile. "Xander likes to hide stakes in his sleeves, but he usually takes so long to get them out that the fights are already over."
Snape didn't reply.
Tara sighed. "Thanks for drying me. Um, I think I can go the rest of the way on my own."
As she turned to continue her trek back to her room, Snape's voice stopped her.
"Why are you so jumpy?"
She turned back to him. "Training, I guess. I've been through a lot of bad stuff the last few years."
Snape nodded.
Tara studied him for a moment before heading to a nearby bench and taking a seat, motioning for him to take the seat next to her. He just looked at her, standing on the opposite side of the hallway. She frowned, but continued.
"Um, well, where Dawn and I are from, we kind of always have to be on guard. Sometimes I think it would be better to be one of the oblivious ones, but I know that I'd probably be dead by now if I were." She stopped when Snape crossed and sat next to her.
Neither spoke, Snape studying a nearby painting, and Tara pulling at a loose thread on her skirt.
She looked up as she heard the man mutter again, though this time it sounded suspiciously like "Merlin help me".
He stood again, offering a hand up to Tara, who looked at him suspiciously as she took it.
"You have nothing to fear at the moment, Miss Maclay," he told her, motioning for them to walk in the opposite direction of her room.
She followed him in silence, casting curious glances his way during the walk. Finally he stopped in front of an ordinary wooden doorway. He opened it and motioned for her to go ahead of him inside. As she entered, torches along the walls lit up of their own accord, revealing a small room containing a few bookshelves along the walls and several small wooden tables surrounded by plush red chairs.
"A reading room of sorts. Seldom used, I assure you." Snape replied to her unspoken question. "It seemed more appropriate than the middle of the hall."
Tara nodded, and took a seat facing the door. Snape sat across from her, leaning back in the chair, and looking more comfortable than Tara thought possible for him. He looked much less imposing when he was not looming over her. At the moment, he seemed almost ordinary.
"Um, I guess you wanted to know about the jumpy thing, right?" Tara asked, suddenly feeling compelled to talk about it.
Snape smirked at her. "I'm not here for my health."
Tara smirked right back at him, "why do you want me to tell you? You don't exactly seem the school counselor type."
"I find you.intriguing," he answered her, in a silky tone that almost made her understand how some girls could find dangerous men attractive.
Tara quirked a brow at him. "I don't see it," she said.
"See what, exactly?"
"Why the students are so afraid of you."
Snape smiled, with a glint in his eye that reminded her of Spike when he was in the midst of verbally sparring with Buffy, and was winning.
"You haven't seen me teach," he replied.
Tara almost laughed out loud. She could just imagine the look on Harry's face if he could see Snape actually teasing someone. Then again, Harry would probably take his words at face value.
Tara shifted into a more comfortable position, pulling her feet under her and hugging her body with her arms.
"My mother was a witch. She was the one who told me about your world," she began. "My father wasn't. He didn't know about my mother's.abilities.until after I was born. He didn't take it well."
Snape nodded, waiting patiently for her to continue.
"He convinced me that my mom was part demon, and that's why she had power. Really, he was just scared of her. Long story short, I was convinced I was part demon and that my new friends, my only friends really, would find out. Dawn and the others, I mean. I did a spell that went wrong and almost got them killed, but they accepted me anyway. They saw my dad's story for what it was. Something that had been made up to keep the women in my family from going off on their own and having their own lives. The Scoobies, um, that is Dawn, Anya, Mr. Giles, Buffy, Riley, Xander, and Willow-" Snape noticed Tara flinch as she said this last name and filed that information away to ponder later, "and Spike sort of, they became my new family. And it was good for awhile."
Tara pulled her feet out from under her. "And then the whole thing with Glory happened. I did something stupid. I got in a fight and went off on my own and Glory found me."
Snape's sudden intake of breath was loud enough in the empty room for Tara to hear it.
"Yeah," she said, "but she wanted to send a message, so I didn't die, just had my sanity stolen from me." She stopped, shuddering as she remembered sitting on a park bench on a beautiful sunny day, in the midst of a happy crowd, and being the most scared she had ever been in her life. Even the pain of a broken hand had not distracted her from her fear for an instant.
Snape cleared his throat, bringing her out of her memories.
"If you would like to stop here-"
"No." Tara interrupted him forcefully, give him an apologetic look as surprise flashed across his face, "sorry, I just think it'll help to tell you all of it. I've never really."
She knew he understood, even if she didn't say it.
"Willow brought me back. She faced Glory and risked her own life to bring me back. She did more for me than I ever thought-" she broke off again, this time with tears threatening to spill. "Anyway, once Willow touched that kind of power, she couldn't let it go. She got power faster than she learned control. And less than a year later she started using her power to try to fix everything that she considered wrong in her life, including me."
Tara's voice had died down to a near whisper as she spoke this last part.
They sat in silence, the only sound a far off howl.
Snape stood, again offering Tara his hand. This time she took it without hesitation.
She smiled, wiping a stray tear off of her cheek. "Thanks for listening."
Snape nodded.
"I've never talked about Willow with anyone, even Dawn, though I know she wishes I would tell her what's going on. I feel like I can trust you."
Snape removed his hand from hers, his expression darkening.
"Don't." was all he said, before ushering her out of the room.
Thanks to my reviewers from ff.net and Twisting the Hellmouth. CinnamonGrrl - I've fixed the pants mistake. Thanks for pointing that out! I'm glad you guys like the story so far. The next chapter should be up next weekend.
Chapter 10: A Chance Meeting
"Can I ask you a sort of personal question?" Tara asked Harry as they sat by the fire.
Ron and Dawn were currently engaged in their fifth chess game, with Ron in the lead. Dawn was catching onto his style pretty quickly, however, and was proving herself to be a worthy adversary.
Harry looked at Tara warily. "Only if I can refuse to answer."
"Of course."
"Okay then. Ask away."
"Why don't you like Professor Snape?" Tara asked after a moment's hesitation. "I mean, I know he can be intimidating, that's obvious from the few conversations I've had with him, but why specifically?"
For a moment they both fell silent. The only sounds in the room were the crackle of the fire and the tiny war being fought, quite literally, on the chessboard.
Tara finally decided she must have overstepped her bounds. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I just-"
"It's okay," Harry interrupted with a weak smile, "I was just trying to remember what it was."
Tara waited patiently for him to finish.
"I guess it was the first time I met him," he finally continued, "he said something obnoxious about me being a celebrity, and I could just tell that he despised me. I get the impression it's got something to do with my parents."
Tara studied him for a moment, before nodding and smiling, deciding to let it go before she really did overstep her bounds.
An hour later, Tara tiredly said her goodbyes to the group and left the common room after making Dawn promise that she would soon follow. She figured she should wait up to make sure Dawn did as she promised, but she honestly wasn't sure she could stay awake that long.
Tara rubbed her eyes and turned a corner, stopping suddenly to look around.
"Oh no," she said, scanning the nearby paintings, "this isn't right."
If she were in the right hallway, the painting on her left would be a group of friendly looking elderly witches, not- was that a goat?
"Brilliant," Tara muttered, trudging slowly down the hall, mulling over the idea of asking one of the portraits for directions and wondering how strange her life had to be if this seemed a normal option to consider. She stopped to look out at the large moon that bathed the grounds in a pale unearthly light. As she looked toward a small hut that sat on the edge of the forest, a sudden movement caught her eye. She squinted and leaned forward, trying to keep her breath from fogging up the glass as she peered out at the landscape. The movement came again, and she could just make out a large figure walking across the grounds, away from the castle. She wiped at the glass with her arm and tried to track the nearly invisible creature. Just as it reached the woods, a throat was cleared behind her.
Tara jumped back in surprise, hitting her funnybone on the window and wincing as sharp needles of pain shot up her arm. She turned to glare at her intruder, who was revealed to be a smirking Professor Snape, standing across the hall with his arms crossed in front of him.
"You're good at that," Tara said, shaking her arm to get the pain to stop,
Snape raised an eyebrow at the comment.
"The sneaking up thing," Tara added.
Snape continued to stand where he was, not looking away from her face.
"Er," Tara stammered, growing nervous under his gaze, "I saw something outside. Um, an animal I think. It was walking away from the castle." She motioned half heartedly toward the window.
Snape crossed to it, studying the silent landscape, and glancing slightly at the moon. "Many creatures live in the forest," he said, turning back to her, "though they generally don't wander too close to the castle, for fear of being caught by Hagrid."
"Who is he?"
"The groundskeeper," Snape replied.
"Hermione mentioned him earlier."
Snape snorted, "Yes, well, you should be getting back to your rooms," he said, obviously dismissing her.
Tara looked at him thoughtfully. "I'm not one of your students," she replied, challenge in her voice.
"Of course not," Snape said, causing her to relax somewhat, "but it can be dangerous to wander these halls alone at night."
"Oh," she answered, feeling a bit stupid at being so defensive around him. "Well, I would, but." she trailed off, glancing toward him sheepishly.
He sighed with frustration at their unnecessarily lengthy conversation.
"But what?" he finally asked.
Tara's face turned pink with embarrassment. "But I seem to be lost."
Snape looked at her incredulously, then sighed again. "This way," he said, and swept down the hall, robes billowing.
Tara jogged to catch up, now considerably more awake.
As she began to think that Snape was leading her in circles, they rounded a corner and stepped into a hallway that she finally found familiar. She let out a breath that she didn't even know she had been holding and slowed her pace. The professor slowed along with her. She looked up at him, words of thanks forming on her lips, which quickly turned into a scream as cold water drenched her from above.
"Peeves!" Snape bellowed, loudly enough to make Tara jump again.
She was becoming certain that this place was going to give her a heart attack before the students even came back. She began to shiver as the cold water lowered the already freezing temperature to an almost unbearable level. Snape muttered something at her, and the water vanished, leaving her clothes dry, if a little wrinkled.
"D-did you do that without a wand?" Tara asked, her teeth still chattering slightly.
Snape answered by revealing the tip of his wand, which was concealed in the arm of his heavy robes.
Tara gave him a small smile. "Xander likes to hide stakes in his sleeves, but he usually takes so long to get them out that the fights are already over."
Snape didn't reply.
Tara sighed. "Thanks for drying me. Um, I think I can go the rest of the way on my own."
As she turned to continue her trek back to her room, Snape's voice stopped her.
"Why are you so jumpy?"
She turned back to him. "Training, I guess. I've been through a lot of bad stuff the last few years."
Snape nodded.
Tara studied him for a moment before heading to a nearby bench and taking a seat, motioning for him to take the seat next to her. He just looked at her, standing on the opposite side of the hallway. She frowned, but continued.
"Um, well, where Dawn and I are from, we kind of always have to be on guard. Sometimes I think it would be better to be one of the oblivious ones, but I know that I'd probably be dead by now if I were." She stopped when Snape crossed and sat next to her.
Neither spoke, Snape studying a nearby painting, and Tara pulling at a loose thread on her skirt.
She looked up as she heard the man mutter again, though this time it sounded suspiciously like "Merlin help me".
He stood again, offering a hand up to Tara, who looked at him suspiciously as she took it.
"You have nothing to fear at the moment, Miss Maclay," he told her, motioning for them to walk in the opposite direction of her room.
She followed him in silence, casting curious glances his way during the walk. Finally he stopped in front of an ordinary wooden doorway. He opened it and motioned for her to go ahead of him inside. As she entered, torches along the walls lit up of their own accord, revealing a small room containing a few bookshelves along the walls and several small wooden tables surrounded by plush red chairs.
"A reading room of sorts. Seldom used, I assure you." Snape replied to her unspoken question. "It seemed more appropriate than the middle of the hall."
Tara nodded, and took a seat facing the door. Snape sat across from her, leaning back in the chair, and looking more comfortable than Tara thought possible for him. He looked much less imposing when he was not looming over her. At the moment, he seemed almost ordinary.
"Um, I guess you wanted to know about the jumpy thing, right?" Tara asked, suddenly feeling compelled to talk about it.
Snape smirked at her. "I'm not here for my health."
Tara smirked right back at him, "why do you want me to tell you? You don't exactly seem the school counselor type."
"I find you.intriguing," he answered her, in a silky tone that almost made her understand how some girls could find dangerous men attractive.
Tara quirked a brow at him. "I don't see it," she said.
"See what, exactly?"
"Why the students are so afraid of you."
Snape smiled, with a glint in his eye that reminded her of Spike when he was in the midst of verbally sparring with Buffy, and was winning.
"You haven't seen me teach," he replied.
Tara almost laughed out loud. She could just imagine the look on Harry's face if he could see Snape actually teasing someone. Then again, Harry would probably take his words at face value.
Tara shifted into a more comfortable position, pulling her feet under her and hugging her body with her arms.
"My mother was a witch. She was the one who told me about your world," she began. "My father wasn't. He didn't know about my mother's.abilities.until after I was born. He didn't take it well."
Snape nodded, waiting patiently for her to continue.
"He convinced me that my mom was part demon, and that's why she had power. Really, he was just scared of her. Long story short, I was convinced I was part demon and that my new friends, my only friends really, would find out. Dawn and the others, I mean. I did a spell that went wrong and almost got them killed, but they accepted me anyway. They saw my dad's story for what it was. Something that had been made up to keep the women in my family from going off on their own and having their own lives. The Scoobies, um, that is Dawn, Anya, Mr. Giles, Buffy, Riley, Xander, and Willow-" Snape noticed Tara flinch as she said this last name and filed that information away to ponder later, "and Spike sort of, they became my new family. And it was good for awhile."
Tara pulled her feet out from under her. "And then the whole thing with Glory happened. I did something stupid. I got in a fight and went off on my own and Glory found me."
Snape's sudden intake of breath was loud enough in the empty room for Tara to hear it.
"Yeah," she said, "but she wanted to send a message, so I didn't die, just had my sanity stolen from me." She stopped, shuddering as she remembered sitting on a park bench on a beautiful sunny day, in the midst of a happy crowd, and being the most scared she had ever been in her life. Even the pain of a broken hand had not distracted her from her fear for an instant.
Snape cleared his throat, bringing her out of her memories.
"If you would like to stop here-"
"No." Tara interrupted him forcefully, give him an apologetic look as surprise flashed across his face, "sorry, I just think it'll help to tell you all of it. I've never really."
She knew he understood, even if she didn't say it.
"Willow brought me back. She faced Glory and risked her own life to bring me back. She did more for me than I ever thought-" she broke off again, this time with tears threatening to spill. "Anyway, once Willow touched that kind of power, she couldn't let it go. She got power faster than she learned control. And less than a year later she started using her power to try to fix everything that she considered wrong in her life, including me."
Tara's voice had died down to a near whisper as she spoke this last part.
They sat in silence, the only sound a far off howl.
Snape stood, again offering Tara his hand. This time she took it without hesitation.
She smiled, wiping a stray tear off of her cheek. "Thanks for listening."
Snape nodded.
"I've never talked about Willow with anyone, even Dawn, though I know she wishes I would tell her what's going on. I feel like I can trust you."
Snape removed his hand from hers, his expression darkening.
"Don't." was all he said, before ushering her out of the room.
