Author's Note: I have no claim over Buffy and Co., nor over Harry and crew. They belong to Joss Whedon and JK Rowling, respectively. Please read and review!
Buffy stayed in the hospital wing for another two days, during which time Madam Pomfrey stuffed her full of chocolate. By the time she left, she didn't want to see so much as a chocolate chip cookie ever again. She returned to the Gryffindor common room where she met a very concerned Harry.
"Buffy! Are you ok? What happened? Nobody would tell us anything." Ron and Hermione were close behind him.
"Yeah, I'm ok, I just had a nasty brush with a couple of Dementors, that's all." Harry looked at her with sympathy. He knew first hand what Dementors could do. Over the next couple weeks, Buffy became more vibrant and involved. Her only defense against the terrors in her life was to push them down, but they never went away. Having shared her burden with somebody, even unwillingly, had been cathartic. The only trouble now was that she didn't know how to act around Professor Snape. He'd seen the most intimate and painful details of her life and she felt his compassion But Harry's potions class had become a game of hide and seek. She'd spend half the class praying Snape couldn't see her and the other half seeking him out. She felt like she was in the sixth grade again.
Snape had changed as well. He no longer swept around her like a vengeful bat during potions class, or making snide, underhanded comments from the side of his mouth. But he never really seemed to be far away either, although it would take a more observant eye than most of the students possessed to notice. He often glanced at her when he thought no one was looking or found some reason to hang around the corner where she sat, usually under the pretense of criticizing a nearby student's potion. Unfortunately for Harry, however, Snape had not changed so much as to stop badgering him. Eventually Harry said something.
"I don't know what you did to him Buffy, but couldn't you have asked him to stop picking on me too?"
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing, I guess. Things just seem different between you two now, ever since you ran into the Dementors."
"Well, Snape did help me out there. Things are a little awkward now because he saw some things I'd rather no one saw."
"What, like naked things?"
"No! I'm the slayer, Harry, I've got some pretty unhappy memories floating around up here," she said, pointing to her head. "You know a little about what that's like, don't you? Anyway, Snape and I are at a weird crossroads where neither one of us knows how to act, that's all." But Harry had a point. Finally Buffy couldn't take it anymore and she decided to go see him. During her time in Sunnydale, scary things had been her bread and butter but for some reason talking to Snape was scarier than Glory.
Now that she'd made up her mind, time seemed to speed up and before she knew it, dinner was over and the students were heading back to their dorms. While Harry played exploding snap with Ron, Buffy left to go to the dungeons. She was finally able to get around Hogwarts confidently and she quickly found herself in from of Snape's office. She only hesitated a moment before knocking.
"Enter!" Buffy opened the door and walked in. He didn't look very happy to see her. "Can I help you?" although he sounded like that was the last thing he wanted to do.
"Um, I just came by because I wanted to say thank you. If it wasn't for you, I'd probably be insane, lying in St. Mungo's or something. But 'hey thanks' hardly seems like enough, I mean, for what you did, but I had to say something. I know you don't like to be bothered but I wouldn't have come by if I didn't think it was important." Oh man, she was rambling. This was going worse than she though. Why hadn't she practiced a speech and why did he have to be staring at her like that?
Snape just stared at her for a moment, but Buffy was barely able to meet his eyes. "Whatever you think you know about me is irrelevant." His voice was cold. "And I can assure that it was not my idea. Legilimency is risky magic and could have gone terribly wrong for both of us. I did what I did out of respect for Dumbledore, not some misplaced affection for you. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of work to do." His eyes dropped back to the parchment in front of him.
"Oh, of course, I understand. I'm sorry." Snape was still staring at his desk when he heard the door close behind her, and he let out a sigh. He didn't need to be a legilimens to know he'd hurt her. And the funny thing was, he hadn't even meant it. It was an automatic reflex, like a sneeze. Being nasty most of the time and meaning it is a hard habit to break. But his feelings toward Buffy weren't nasty at all. He felt especially guilty knowing that so many people in her life had left her at one point. He had to admit to himself that his feelings for her had changed significantly. The things he'd seen in her mind touched him more than he could say.
In his experience, people were selfish and brutish creatures with the capacity to love only themselves. But Buffy had shown him a different side of human nature. Sure, she'd made mistakes and hurt people, but he'd never encountered selflessness like hers before. He hadn't known people like her existed. And now she'd hurt her and he'd have to make it up to her.
When Buffy returned to Gryffindor tower, Harry was just leaving for quidditch practice.
"There you are, I thought you'd forgotten. Hey, are you ok?" Harry said.
"Yeah, I'm just tired, that's all. Come on, let's go to the quidditch field."
Quidditch was something out of Buffy's comprehension. It was like something out of "Bewitched." People zooming around on brooms, balls trying to knock people off and "quaffles"? No thanks. She preferred to keep her feet solidly on the ground or at least near the ground. Harry clearly loved it, though. His whole face lit up when he picked up his broom. He tried to explain it to her once.
"It's just something I never had to work at, you know? Like I belong up there, I was meant to do it. Does that make sense?"
"Yeah, I can understand that," she said. After practice, the rest of the Gryffindor team had gone back to the castle but Harry stayed to work on some new moves. He was just coming in to land when Buffy noticed someone walking toward the field. As Harry touched down, she walked to meet whoever it was. To her amazement she realized it was Snape. What, had he come to degrade her some more?
"What are you doing here? Don't tell me you came to watch Harry practice," she said.
"No, I came to talk to you actually. I wanted—" but Buffy never found out what he wanted because at that moment Harry screamed. Buffy turned and ran automatically and Snape followed her. Harry was being manhandled by a grotesquely misshapen monster.
"What the hell is that?" she yelled as she ran.
"It's an ogre. It must have wandered out of the forest." Snape had his wand out but Buffy reached the ogre first. It dropped Harry and went for her, but she was too quick. All of a sudden, Snape rushed up from behind and brushed her aside.
"Snape! Don't!" but he wasn't listening. He tried to stun the monster but all it did was enrage it. Its arms swung violently and knocked Snape to the ground hard and he was still. Buffy took advantage of the ogre's confusion.
"Harry, throw me your quidditch robe! Hurry!" He whipped off his red robe and tossed it to Buffy, who leapt on the staggering ogre's back. She wrapped the robe around its neck and pulled as hard as she could until the ogre wheezed and fell to the ground dead, with a terrific whump. Harry was shaken but in one piece. Snape, however, was still laying motionless on the ground. Buffy couldn't see any serious injuries, nor could she feel any broken bones so she picked him up and carried him back to the castle with Harry in tow.
Later, after Snape was delivered to the infirmary, Buffy and Harry gave their full report to Dumbledore, who sent Hagrid to take care of the dead ogre.
"Thank you, Buffy, your services have been invaluable tonight. And I'm sure Severus will thank you in his own time," Dumbledore said.
"I'm not so sure about that, headmaster, but thanks all the same. I was just doing my job." Dumbledore smiled.
"Just so. Well then, I suggest you and Harry return to your dorms. It's late and no doubt Harry's friends would like to hear about his latest adventure." They left Dumbledore's office.
"God, Buffy, that was amazing! I've never seen anything like it. That ogre was huge and you killed it like some kind of bug! Could I learn to do stuff like that?" Harry was jazzed to finally see the slayer in action. Buffy wasn't quite as excited.
"'Fraid not, Harry. You could learn the martial arts, I suppose, but the strength and speed bit are part of the slayer gig. I'd stick with the magic if I were you," she said.
"Killjoy."
After Harry went upstairs, Buffy sat on her bed, but decided to take a walk instead. She found herself on top of the astronomy tower rehashing the day's events. How could she have been so stupid? She'd known what he'd been about, and there was no reason to think anything had changed. Just because he said he wouldn't leave her didn't mean he meant it. He probably just said that to get her to stop crying. And why would he come all the way down to the quidditch field? Apparently making her feel bad was just that important that it couldn't wait until class. She heard a noise behind her. It was him again. His gall was just incredible.
"If you think I don't know you're there, then you really don't know what a slayer is," she said with her back to him. Somehow he managed to make his shuffling sound shameful when he walked up behind her.
"I just wanted to apologize for my behavior. I'm accustomed to dealing with students with mush for brains and it's not often that one of them comes to thank me. What I said to you was totally uncalled for, and I'm sorry." They were standing side by side now, but neither one would look at the other, until Buffy slipped her hand into his.
