Disclaimer: See chapter 1 for full disclaimer and notes.

Thanks to my reviewers from ff.net and Twisting the Hellmouth. The next chapter should be up next weekend.

Chapter 14: Mixing Signals

Tara stifled her laughter as over a dozen pairs of eyes glanced her way with curiosity. She took a seat in the back of the classroom and made a big show of organizing her skirt and then her supplies. Just as she got her pen to be at an exact ninety degree angle to her spiral notebook, muttering to herself about picking up too many Willowisms, the classroom door flew open and the children around her shrank back as their professor strode in.

His double-take was almost invisible to the naked eye, but Tara was waiting for it, so the split-second hesitation did not go unnoticed. Less than a minute into the lesson, she was already amused at his drastically different teacher persona, albeit a persona that was probably somewhat subdued by his recent injuries.

Professor Snape loomed over the brave, or just unlucky, students in the front row, explaining the potion of the day in excruciating detail. Tara was too busy scribbling notes and comparing the current potion to ones she knew to notice the professor's frequent gaze toward the back of the room. By the time he had finished his lecture, Tara was certain her hand was going to fall off. She was also eternally grateful to Buffy for sending a box of ballpoint pens. How the students managed to take notes for all their classes with a quill and parchment was beyond her.

The blonde girl flipped back through her pages of notes and shook her hand out, regaining circulation, as the students heated up their cauldrons and began working on the assignment. A shadow passed over her desk, and she lifted her head to see a very imposing and suddenly very tall Professor Snape looking down his nose at her, one eyebrow raised in either curiosity or challenge.

*Knowing him, probably both,* Tara thought, giving him a lopsided grin.

"Miss Maclay," Snape said, in a low voice, "may I see you outside for a moment?"

She briefly wondered what he would do if she said no, before nodding and closing her notebook. She dropped her pen on top and followed him out into the hallway.

"I wasn't aware that you would be sitting in on one of my classes so soon," said Snape, the moment the door had shut behind them, "I only informed Albus of my decision this morning."

Tara smiled at him sheepishly, "I was excited about learning potions. Or, er, doing something outside of my room in general."

A flicker of a smile appeared on the professor's face, and Tara relaxed, now knowing that he wasn't angry, just surprised.

"I'm sorry if I disturbed you. I didn't mean to be rude."

Snape sighed, running a hand through his lank hair. "Yes, well, perhaps Miss Summers should have taken a lesson from you before she assumed herself into this morning's lesson with the Weasleys. As if two of them weren't enough," he muttered this last part to himself.

The smile on Tara's face changed into a smirk. "If it's any consolation, I think my appearance made your students extra tense today."

Snape now seemed to be wrestling with a full-on grin.

Encouraged, Tara continued, "I don't know about the whole Ravenclaw equals smart assessment."

"And why is that?" asked Snape, once he had managed to get a half scowl back on his face.

"Not one of them thought to just ask me what I was doing here." Tara said, furrowing her brow. "Maybe I intimidate them. Am I intimidating?"

Professor Snape snorted, and turned back toward the door, narrowing his eyes at the muffled conversations that could be heard from inside. He raised an eyebrow at Tara, who simply grinned back at him. After taking a moment to place a scowl securely on his face, he slammed the door open and stalked back into the classroom, Tara on his heels. Her smile went unnoticed by the students, who were now scrambling to look busy and avoid the professor's wrath.

~-~-~-~-

Since Snape appeared to have his hands full with a group of Hufflepuffs who had managed to spill their potion all over their workspace by the end of class, Tara decided to talk to him at the end of the day. She left the classroom and headed back to her suite.

She entered the common room to find a brunette and two redheads huddled in front of a roaring fire, talking quietly. Tara cleared her throat and tried to imitate Professor Snape's scowl as all three heads turned sharply in her direction.

"Bloody hell," one of the redheads stage whispered to Dawn, "is she secretly related to Snape?"

"Ew!" Dawn exclaimed, slapping the twin on the arm.

Tara couldn't hold onto the stern expression any longer, and it changed to an amused frown as she took a seat next to the silent twin on the sofa.

"He's not so bad, you know," she said, closing her eyes and letting the fire warm her.

When she opened her eyes, three people were staring at her in incredulous shock.

Rolling her eyes, Tara turned her attention to Dawn, "why are you shocked? He didn't kick you out of class this morning, did he? And you didn't even ask him if it was okay first."

The three teenagers grumbled their agreement.

"Anyway," Dawn spoke up after a moment, her irritation instantly forgotten, "Fred and George here have invited us to sit with them at dinner tonight."

Dawn gave Tara puppy dog eyes and elbowed the twin next to her, who tried to imitate the pathetic look to some success.

Tara laughed. "You don't have to bribe me, Dawnie. You can go if you want. You're not a prisoner here."

"I know," Dawn said, a satisfied grin on her face, "I just wanted you to come along. We have to face the students together. Like a united American front."

"Muggle American," the twin next to Tara corrected.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Dawn replied, still looking at Tara expectantly.

Tara feigned serious thought for a moment, finally letting Dawn off the hook and agreeing to go.

Dawn squealed a bit, much to everyone's dismay, and dragged the twins out of the room, presumably to wreak more havoc on the unsuspecting school. Though, judging by the way everyone talked about the Weasley twins, Tara thought that the school might be suspecting by now.

Just as she was getting used to the wonderful silence of the Dawnless room, the portrait opened and Giles entered.

"Hi Mr. Giles," Tara greeted him as he took a seat in a nearby chair.

"Good afternoon, Tara," Giles replied, taking his glasses off to clean them.

"Did Dawn ask you about dinner too?"

Giles smiled, "ah yes, but of course, I already had lunch in the Great Hall."

"Oh." Tara frowned, "I guess Dawnie and I were just a little worried about everyone's reaction if we just forced ourselves in and expected the students to deal with it."

Giles looked at Tara curiously.

When he didn't say anything, Tara began to fidget. Finally she couldn't take it anymore. "What?"

"I don't think Dawn is having much of a problem in that respect," he replied, trying to soften his gaze a bit, "but then, she is the same age as some of the students, so she can almost pass for one of them."

Tara shrugged, "the ones I've met have been nice enough, I'm just not really enthusiastic about making new friends here."

"Understandable," Giles said, nodding, "you are older than them, and you do have your own problems to wrestle with at the moment. Just remember that the students aren't the enemy. Most of them are simply children who have a certain gift."

Tara studied him for a moment, "Most of them?"

Giles blinked, thinking back over his words, "Er, I suppose I'm just as wary of them as you." He grinned sheepishly, "one mustn't be too careful just because one happens to not be over a hellmouth at the time."

Tara smiled and hugged Giles, who patted her head affectionately.

"You'll be fine. Just be yourself, and the time will pass easily."

~-~-~-

By the time dinner rolled around, Tara had convinced herself that she could get through it unscathed, even though it meant being the center of attention - very large attention - for the entire meal. She reasoned with herself that after a few awkward meals, she, Dawn, and Giles would become regular fixtures in the Great Hall, and eventually blend into the background just like everything else. This logic almost got rid of all of her nervousness. Almost.

She put away the spellbook she was in the middle of studying as a loud knock sounded on the door. It was followed by enough little knocks to drive her insane before she finally pushed the portrait open, almost knocking down the entire group waiting outside. She gave an irritated look to the twin who was nursing his bumped head, before motioning for them to all come inside.

The new arrivals stood around nervously as Tara disappeared into Dawn's room to inform her that it was time to go. When she got back to the common room, the quiet conversation died off.

Tara smiled nervously at a boy and girl she didn't recognize, before turning to one of the twins and giving him an expectant look. He just looked back at her confused, until the girl elbowed him in the ribs.

"Ow! What?" he said, irritated.

The girl scowled at him and motioned to Tara.

"Oh!" he said, his face turning red, "Erm, I suppose introductions are in order?"

The girl rolled her eyes and smiled at Tara, extending a hand, which Tara shook lightly.

"I'm Angelina," the girl said.

Tara smiled back at her, "Tara. Pleased to m-meet you."

Inwardly, she cursed herself for being so nervous around people that were Dawn's age.

The boy stepped forward and introduced himself as Oliver. Tara greeted him, and then the room lapsed back into uncomfortable silence.

"Um, so, " Oliver said, in an obvious attempt to lessen the awkwardness, "Fred here said that Dawn's interested in learning about quidditch."

"Oh," Tara replied, "um, I guess. I haven't really talked to her about that."

The silence descended on the room once more.

Tara almost breathed an audible sigh of relief when Dawn finally joined them. The younger girl didn't seem to notice the awkwardness of the situation as she loudly greeted her four new friends, before the group left to make their way down to the Great Hall.

Tara couldn't help but feel relieved that Dawn had made friends so easily. The group was boisterous in a way that only a group of happy school friends could be. They were joined by numerous Gryffindors on their way to dinner, including Ron, who greeted Tara with a large smile. The quiet blonde began to relax as no one in the group looked at her strangely, seemingly accepting her at face value despite her lack of school uniform. By the time they had reached the Great Hall, she was laughing along with them, finally feeling a part of something.

She managed to keep herself from staring at the floor as she entered the hall behind Dawn. All eyes were on them, and the chattering died down significantly. Dawn went off to the side to join the twins at the Gryffindor table, motioning for Tara to follow. Tara took a seat toward the end of the long table, near the raised teacher's table, at which sat Giles, chatting animatedly with Professor McGonagall.

The students began passing plates around, grabbing the items they wanted and digging into their meals. No one was staring at the new arrivals anymore, their curiosity overridden by their hunger, to which Tara was grateful. She started eating, listening to the conversations going on around her.

"So what's up with that Flitwick guy?" Dawn asked one of the twins, motioning up toward the small man who was seated at the professor's table.

"What do you mean?" the twin asked, grimacing as Dawn insisted on chatting with half-eaten food in her mouth.

"Is he like a hobbit or what?"

Harry almost snorted pumpkin juice through his nose as Tara tried in vain to suppress her giggles.

"Dawn!" she said as sternly as she could through her laughter.

"What's a hobbit?" asked the twin.

Tara shook her head and continued on with her meal.

~-~-~-

She was finished in record time, due to just listening to the conversation, rather than joining in. She drank down the last bit of her juice and sat back for a moment, observing Dawn, who was now having a loud argument with one of the twins' friends. He had been introduced earlier as Lee, and looked just as devious as the twins themselves. The argument stopped suddenly as Dawn gazed over at a table across the room. Tara followed her gaze to a group of students in Slytherin robes.

"Hey Harry," Dawn said, getting the attention of the younger boy, "who's that little blonde kid who keeps sneering at you?"

Harry looked over at where she was indicating to see the boy throw another glare his way.

"That's Malfoy," he said, rolling his eyes.

Behind him, Ron started making gagging noises.

Dawn looked at the blonde student thoughtfully. "Doesn't 'mal' mean like 'bad' or something in Latin?" She turned back to Harry. "Is he evil?"

"Yes."

"Oh," Dawn replied, shrugging, and jumping back into her argument with Lee, leaving a slightly startled Harry in her wake.

Harry looked over at Tara, who shrugged, just as confused with Dawn's conversation jumps as him. He shrugged in return and continued with his own conversation.

Tara said goodbye to Dawn, who waved at her distractedly, and got up from the table, making her way to the teacher's table and stopping behind Giles, who gave her a welcoming grin.

"So was it as bad as you thought?" the former librarian asked her, motioning for her to take the seat that had been vacated by Professor McGonagall.

"No, it was fine," she said, perching on the edge of the chair for a moment, "I had a pleasant meal, actually."

Giles nodded and smiled, patting her on the arm. She smiled back at him, before standing back up and heading down to the end of the table to a solitary Professor Snape.

"Professor?" she said shyly, waiting for him to turn around.

He looked up at her, slightly startled.

"Miss Maclay," he replied, his expression now unreadable.

"Um, I was wondering if I could sit here for a moment and talk to you about the lesson that I observed today."

Snape frowned, "I don't think that is such a good idea."

"Why not?" Tara asked in a confused tone.

Snape stood up abruptly, almost knocking Tara over. He grabbed onto her arms, steadying her, before dropping his hands quickly, as if he had been burned.

"I have important matters to attend to." He said, in lieu of an explanation, sweeping past Tara and out of the Great Hall.

Tara watched him leave. As she looked away from his figure disappearing out the door, she realized that everyone was again staring at her, this time not trying to hide their curiosity at all.

"Crap," Tara thought, following the Professor's lead and hurrying out of the hall.

As she turned the first corner back to her rooms, she almost got knocked down by the formidable professor a second time.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed, this time gaining her balance without assistance.

Professor Snape said nothing, studying her face for a moment.

"You may meet me in an hour for your first lesson, if that is agreeable with you," he told her, still studying her.

"Okay," she said, too confused to be embarrassed by his gaze. "Um, why did you have to tell me out here?"

Snape closed his eyes for a moment before answering. "There are things."

She waited patiently for his answer as he seemed to be gathering his thoughts.

He scowled and began again, "I would prefer to keep our relationship strictly professional."

Tara's eyes widened, "of course! I never-"

He cut her off with a shake of his head, his hair flying up around it for a moment, "I can teach you potions to pass the time, but we should not become friends."

Tara nodded, more confused than ever. He studied her for a second longer before turning and striding down the hall toward the dungeons.

He stopped just as he reached the next corner. "Don't be late," he called out, before disappearing from view.

Despite her confusion, Tara couldn't help but smile.