Disclaimer: See chapter 1 for full disclaimer and notes.

Thanks to my reviewers from ff.net and Twisting the Hellmouth. (shout out to mary) The next chapter should be up next weekend.

Chapter 12: Harbinger

Tara tried to ignore the curious stares she was receiving as she wandered toward the Great Hall in search of Dawn. She was stopped suddenly by someone stepping directly into her path. She almost fell over as she tried to keep herself from plowing into the figure.

"Miss Maclay," a surly Professor Snape said, reaching a hand out to keep her from falling backward into some nervous looking fourth years, who quickly scampered off when the Potions Professor threw a scowl their way.

"Professor Snape," Tara acknowledged, once she had regained her balance.

He took his hand off of her arm and motioned for her to follow him to the side of the hall and out of the main flow of loud laughing students, eager to see each other after the long holiday break.

"Albus came to me earlier today with an interesting request," Snape said, the scowl still plastered to his face.

"Oh," Tara replied, growing more irritated with the curious glances from the passing students every second, "I was planning to talk to you about that, but I haven't seen you."

Tara could have sworn that Snape flinched at this last statement, but if he did, he recovered quickly, his expression become slightly less severe.

Tara glanced around at some passing students, a scowl to rival the Potions Professor's beginning to appear on her face.

"What is wrong with you?" Snape hissed at her, grabbing her shoulder and forcing her to face him.

Tara's eyes widened for a second, as Snape looked at her, waiting for an explanation. "Sorry, I'm just not used to people staring at me."

Snape continued to study her.

"Kinda like you're doing now," she muttered, avoiding his gaze.

Finally, Snape let go of her shoulder, clearing his throat. "I apologize."

Tara shrugged, "it's okay."

They were interrupted by a loud shout from the end of the hall that caused most of the hall's occupants to stop their conversations and look around quizzically.

"Tara!" the source of the shout exclaimed again.

Tara spotted Dawn walking quickly toward her, an entourage of redheads in her wake.

"Hey Dawnie, hi Ron," Tara greeted them when the group reached her.

Dawn gave her an enthusiastic greeting in return, but Ron's was more of a mumble, due in part to his apparent concentration on avoiding Professor Snape's notice.

"This is Fred and George," Dawn told Tara, motioning to the identical boys behind her.

Tara studied them for a moment, a serious expression on her face. "You two look like troublemakers," she said, ignoring Snape's sudden coughing fit behind her.

The two boys changed their expressions to mock outrage.

"She thinks we're troublemakers, Fred," the one on the left said.

"I'm appalled," the one on the right answered.

Tara tried to keep the serious expression on her face, but she couldn't hold onto it any longer. She finally broke into a grin.

"The Headmaster told me about you two," Tara said, causing Dawn to look surprised, "or should I say, warned?"

"You probably should, at that," the one on the left, who was probably George, replied.

Dawn began to pout, "How come Dumbledore didn't say anything to me?"

"The warning included you," Tara replied, still grinning.

She jumped as Snape cleared his throat, making her realize that he was still waiting to talk to her.

"Oh, sorry. Hey Dawn, I have to talk to Professor Snape for a minute."

"That's cool," Dawn replied, "We were gonna hang out in the rooms for a little while."

"Okay, I'll meet you back there," Tara said, smiling as Dawn waved and dragged the boys along behind her.

"So, um, it's okay, right?" Tara asked Snape as she turned her attention back to him.

"I don't believe that spending time with the Weasley twins is ever okay."

"No, I mean." Tara trailed off as she realized that Professor Snape was teasing her, a smirk on his face. She smirked back at him. "I was hoping to maybe sit in on one of your classes, if that's not a problem."

"Why?" Snape asked, the smirk leaving his face as quickly as it had appeared.

Tara frowned, "I, um, want to get a feel for your teaching style. I did it with a few classes back in Sunnydale when I didn't know the professor."

The smirk was back on Snape's face as he nodded in understanding, "Yes, well, I can assure you that my teaching style around these.children" this last word carried a note of disgust, "is completely different from teaching someone who is even the least bit competent."

Tara laughed, "was that a compliment?"

"I shall discuss this idea with Albus a bit more and get back to you," Snape said with narrowed eyes.

"Okay. I better get back to my rooms before Dawn does some serious damage."

"Good day," Snape said, stalking off toward the Great Hall, his robes billowing behind him, students giving him a wide berth.

Tara watched him disappear around the corner, before heading in the opposite direction.

~-~-~-

After a long day of curious stares and less than subtle gossiping surrounding her, Tara decided to take advantage of the fact that she wasn't a student, and therefore didn't have a curfew, and headed outside the school for a walk around the grounds. She was having trouble sleeping, contemplating the letter calling to her from her desk drawer, begging to be opened. She already knew exactly what it would say, but knowing and reading were two different things. She could tell herself a million times that Willow needed to be by herself for a while in order to get a grasp on her powers, but if she had to read a letter full of assurances and pleading, she wasn't certain that she wouldn't hop on the next plane back to California.

She sighed and pulled her jacket tighter around her, breathing in the frigid night air. The only sound was the wind whipping through the trees of the nearby forest. She headed down to the lake, trying to ignore the large willow tree that she could see in the distance.

"Just a tree," she mumbled to herself, turning her back to it, and therefore not noticing the dark figure that passed under it, seemingly disappearing into its depths.

She stopped when she reached the shore of the lake, taking a seat on a nearby rock. She was immediately lost in thought about Dawn's situation and life in Sunnydale in general. The figure standing behind her finally had to clear his throat to get her attention.

Tara jumped in surprise and quickly whipped around, relaxing when she saw who it was.

"Mr. Giles, you scared me."

Giles smiled apologetically, taking a seat next to Tara on her rock after she motioned to it. "So sorry."

Giles studied Tara for a moment as she stared out across the lake, watching the surface change as something moved around just beneath it.

"What's wrong, Tara?" the Watched finally asked, turning to her with a concerned expression.

Tara gave him a weak smile, "nothing really, just worried about Dawn and." she trailed off.

"Willow." Giles filled in the rest of the thought.

Tara nodded, sighing.

Giles patted her hand, "Willow's strong. She's made it this far, I'm sure she'll be okay. I worry about her too, but I think you did the right thing by leaving. She needed something like that to realize that she had a problem. I tried to talk to her about it so many times, but she never really heard me. I couldn't get through to her like you did."

Tara's expression brightened a little. "Thank you. I know, I just worry. I can't help it."

Giles put an arm around her, and they both turned toward the lake, watching it in silence as they became lost in their separate thoughts.

The sounds of a struggle coming from the direction of the forest pulled them out of their reverie. They were both on their feet in an instant, running toward the sounds with speed and stealth learned through years of practice on a hellmouth.

Giles held up a hand and Tara stopped behind him as they both peered into the trees, trying to locate the source of the sounds. Giles motioned to Tara, and they slowly headed in opposite directions, still peering through the trees toward the barely visible scuffle.

As Tara walked past a particularly large tree trunk, she had a clear view of two people fighting. She couldn't see the person on the gorund, but the person still standing turned toward her long enough for her to get a good look at his face. His ugly, bumpy, most definitely vampiric face.

*You can take the people out of Sunnydale.* she thought to herself, fighting the urge to laugh at the ridiculous ability of a Scooby to attract a vampire, even when thousands of miles from home.

She looked around on the ground by her feet for something wooden and sharp, panic growing as she found nothing but twigs. Out of the corner of her eyes, she caught movement, and seconds later Giles burst through the trees across the way and grabbed the vampire, throwing him into a nearby branch, using the element of surprise to gain the upper hand. Tara hurried into the fray, grabbing a smooth length of wood that looked solid enough to penetrate the demon's chest. She turned it over in her hand, realizing with surprise that it was in fact a wand, and glancing over at the form that lay on the ground, unmoving. She couldn't see any details, as his back was to her, but she realized, with growing dread, that it could only be the Potions Professor. As she began to contemplate how a wizard had been taken down by a mere vampire, her attention was dragged back to the fight at hand by Giles's shout for help.

Just as Tara reached him, Giles was thrown backward into the same low branch that he threw the vampire into moments before, hitting his head and falling to the ground. Tara used that moment to lunge at the demon, driving the wand into his back and falling face-first onto the hard ground as the vampire's body disappeared into a cloud of dust.

She groaned and rolled over, coughing as a handful of the dust settled in her throat. Grimacing, she pushed herself into a sitting position, resting for a moment to regain her breath and make sure all of her limbs were in proper working order. She jumped back as a hand appeared in front of her face.

Tara looked up to discover a bedraggled Professor Snape frowning down at her. She grabbed his hand and smiled gratefully as he helped her to her feet. He let go of her and went over to check on the now unconscious Watcher.

"He will be fine, I think," he said, after checking for a pulse and examining his head wound.

As Snape was standing back up, Tara noticed him sway a bit on his feet. She managed to reach him right before he fell to the ground, slowing his descent as best she could before he too lost consciousness.

Tara looked at the two men at her feet and sighed. "Well, this is fun."