CHAPTER SEVEN: CHILDISH FEARS

Willow couldn't stop laughing. "Evil?" she managed to sputter out a few times between chuckles. She finally calmed down, placing her hand over her racing heart, waiting for it to calm a little before approaching the topic.

"Tara, you are possibly the least evil person I have ever met," Willow said, trying to explain her outburst of laughter.

Tara knew that she was blushing fiercely. She couldn't believe Willow's reaction. Instead of the fear, the loathing, the hatred that she'd been expecting, Willow had nearly wet herself with laughter.

"B-but, the magic…"

"Not a trait of a demon," Willow replied. "I've read so much about demons, and what they're capable of. Violence, painful gruesome deaths aplenty. Not a lot of magic. 99.2 of demons couldn't even float a pencil if they tried…not that they'd want to float a pencil. I mean, they might, really, who am I to say that a demon wouldn't want to float a pencil, but generally speaking, I wouldn't think they'd ever really need to. Not that anyone really needs to float a…"

Tara's eyes were wide.

"Rambling?" Willow asked. "Sorry. Oz usually stops me when I do that."

Tara couldn't help but smile.

"But, oh, I had a point. Somewhere. Oh! The magic. Tara, magic is used, for the most part, by humans. Some of them aren't so good, but Tara…your intentions are what determine that," Willow said. "Just because you can do magic, it doesn't make you evil. Or a demon."

Tara faltered a little. She desperately wanted to believe Willow, but eighteen years of being told that she was an evil demon were a little hard to erase.

"Is…is that what you think?" Willow asked. "That you're some kind of demon because of the magic?"

Tara shrugged and nodded self-consciously.

Willow reached across, laying a hand over Tara's, squeezing gently. She couldn't imagine trying to come to terms with the thought of being evil. No wonder Tara had been so frightened of Buffy!

"Y'know…I think I may have someone you'd like to meet," Willow said. "He knows a lot about demons, and well…he might be able to convince you a little better about this whole thing than I can."

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"You're father told you…" Rupert Giles trailed off, unable to voice the rest of his incredulous sentence. He couldn't fathom the thought of growing up in a household where you were taught that magic was a demonic trait, and needed to be suppressed.

With a shake of his head, the Watcher took a seat beside the gentle Wiccan. He noted the way that she ever so slightly flinched away from him, and he made certain not to make any sudden movements towards her.

"Tara, I can assure you, I have yet to come across a single demon that can manipulate magics," Giles said. "Vampires on the other hand, are more than able to. But, as you came through broad daylight to get here, I can safely say that you are not a vampire."

Tara couldn't believe this. She had to admit that Giles certainly sounded like he knew what he was talking about. Then again, that could have just been the accent.

But she wanted desperately to believe he was right. That would mean so many things. She could stop living in fear! She could…she could stop acting like such a freak in front of Buffy.

"You're c-certain?" Tara asked.

"Completely," Giles assured her. "If you'd like, I can find the relevant texts to show you. There are even simple tests that can be run to determine whether or not someone is demonic."

Tara licked her suddenly dry lips. "What kinds of t-tests?"

"Completely non-invasive I assure you," Giles replied. "In fact…if you'd like to settle this, I can guide you through one now."

Tara glanced at Willow, who smiled at her in support. The blonde Wiccan found herself nodding, wanting to know for sure if she was what she'd been taught to believe.

"Well, in that case, it's a very simple potion," Giles said, moving across the apartment to a trunk that carried a small supply of magical ingredients. He found the herb he was looking for and took a pinch of it back to the table.

He placed the herb in a glass and went into his kitchen to measure out a half-cup of water. He returned to the living room and mixed the water and the herb until it had dissolved, leaving nothing but clear liquid once more.

"Alright…it's ready. All we need is a single drop of fluid from you Tara," Giles explained. "Blood or saliva will work."

Tara breathed in deeply. She wanted to know what was about to happen before she added anything to the mixture.

"What will it d-do?"

"Oh…of course, how thoughtless," Giles muttered. "This concoction will change colours for different types of people. For example, any magic practitioner will make the water turn pink. A demon will turn it black. A Slayer would turn it gold. A regular human will have no effect on the water at all."

Tara nodded and shifted forward in her seat. She licked her pinkie finger, and hovered her hand above the glass. At the last moment, she closed her eyes as she plunged her finger into the glass.

There was no sound from either Willow or Giles.

"Tell me," she said quietly.

"See for yourself," Willow whispered, her voice quiet, but not tinged with fear.

Tara opened her eyes and chanced a look at the glass. The water was swirling a beautiful light pink. Tara breathed a sigh of relief and blinked back tears. She swallowed the lump of emotion that had risen in her throat, unable to believe that it had truly been as simple as that.

She took her finger out of the water and watched as the liquid turned clear once more. And still the doubt remained.

Willow noticed that her friend still wasn't a hundred percent convinced. She licked her own finger and put it into the glass, watching as the water turned a lighter shade of pink than Tara's had.

"See," Willow said quietly. "Not a demon."

"I'm not a demon," Tara whispered, the sentence she had told herself over and over for years, but had never truly believed.

She looked up, her confidence completely bolstered by the thought that she was just like everyone else. Except that she could use magic. But that didn't matter! She wasn't a demon!

Willow couldn't help but smile at the look on her friends face.

"You maybe want to go find Buffy?" Willow asked slyly.

Tara could only grin.