Title: Stranger than Fiction
Author: Jinni (druscilla@cox.net or jinni@moonlitpaths.com)
Rating: R
Pairing: W/Sirius
Genre: BtVS/HP Crossover
Disclaimer: All things BtVS belong to Joss Whedon, et al. All things Harry Potter belong to JK Rowling, et al.
Distribution: NHA, WLF, WLS, BMP, Aislin, Serena. If I’ve given you a ‘blanket permission’ to archive my fics, you can have this one as well. Anyone else needs to ask.
Author’s Notes: BtVS – This will contain very generalized stuff. It takes place sometime during Willow’s college career and there was no Tara. Oz is long gone. For HP – spoilers for all books so far, with the rest being made up by me since we’re still waiting for the last 3 books to be published.
Notes2: Thanks to my Beta for the review!!!!

 ~*~Part Three~*~

"So where would you like for me to begin, my dear?"

Willow shrugged dejectedly and looked up into the kindly face of the Headmaster. He had held her while she cried, offered her his own handkerchief to wipe her face with. He had been nice enough to offer the few reassurances that he could, such as that he had a job for her if she wanted it and it included room and board here at the castle. She didn’t have to worry about making a living, that was already taken care of for her. She could teach Muggle Studies.

But there was so little she knew about this world outside of what had been in those books. She had seen the first two movies, too, of course. But these people looked different from the ones that ‘played’ them in the movies. For instance, Dumbledore stood a little taller, and his hair and beard wasn’t nearly so bushy. She had told him about herself in between sobs and whimpers – but now it appeared to be her turn to do the question asking, and she couldn’t help but be a little eager.

"I suppose it would be good to start with – assuming the books are really telling this history of this reality – how long ago did the fourth book take place?"

Dumbledore nodded to himself. It seemed to be the question that he was expecting.

"The events of that ill-fated Triwizard Tournament happened a little over two years ago. Harry Potter and the rest of his class are now entering their seventh year."

"Wow." The red haired witch shook her head. "We’ve been waiting over two years just for the fifth book to be published – and here it’s already happened. That’s sorta wiggy."

"Wiggy?" Dumbledore questioned.

"Um. . . weird, odd, something like that."

"Ah." He smiled. "Go on with your questions, I know that you have more in that bright young head of yours."

Willow blushed, grinning just a little as she began to warm up to both this man and the idea that she may be stuck here. It didn’t have to be all bad. This was a land she had always dreamed about living in, after all.

"So – Harry Potter managed to make it all the way to his seventh year, huh?" She giggled at the knowing look in the Headmaster’s eyes. "His escapades are legend in my reality, you know. The Boy Who Couldn’t Stay Away From Trouble. So – is. . . he, you know – ‘You-Know-Who’ – is he still around?"

Dumbledore smiled.

"He was killed at the end of last term. By none other than Harry Potter."

Willow raised an eyebrow.

"Really? That must have been wonderful. . . Did everyone make it through things okay?"

The Headmaster smiled gently, his eyes sad.

"We did lose a few Aurors and also the Defense teacher for that year. Certain students lost their parents to either death or Azkaban for their participation in the plans of the Dark Lord."

"The Malfoys?" She questioned hesitantly, wondering what the answer would be. She remembered Lucius Malfoy s well from the books – the hateful, Muggle-hating pureblood that thought it was amusing to torture Muggles and Muggleborns.

"Lucius Malfoy was caught in the crossfire and never saw the downfall of Voldemort. Narcissa is currently spending the rest of her days in Azkaban for her part in these last dark years."

"That’s so . . . awful." Willow concluded, shaking her head.

"And Draco?"

"Having read through the book that came with you, I can understand why you would speak his name in that manner, but please give young Mister Malfoy the benefit of the doubt. He turned on his parents one month before the Final Battle and gave us much needed information."

"Really?" She couldn’t hide the shock in her voice.

"Yes, it would seem that Draco fell for one of the Gryffindor girls pretty hard – and she showed him the paths of the Light."

"A Gryffindor?" Willow asked, completely intrigued. "Which one? Unless it’s a secret. . ."

Dumbledore chuckled, shaking his head in negation.

"I am afraid that they display their affections to each other far too publicly for it to be any type of secret. He is currently dating Miss Virginia Weasley."

Willow had to bite her lip to keep from squealing aloud. One of her favorite ‘ships, right there and in person. She sighed happily, wearing a secret smile.

"And, you know. . . Sirius Black. . . he’s here and a Professor – you said he caught me, right?"

"Helped catch you," he corrected gently. "Professor Lupin helped as well. And Severus slowed your descent until they could reach you. It was a team effort."

Willow giggled.

"So – Professor Black’s name got cleared?"

"In Harry’s fifth year, as a matter of fact. Peter Pettigrew was not nearly cautious enough. He grew entirely too cocky in his position with the Dark Lord and apparated right into a trap complete with Aurors when Sirius sent him an owl to finish things ‘once and for all’."

"Well that’s good. I always felt bad for him in the books. Running around, always looking over his shoulder for Dementors. Not getting enough to eat." She shivered. "And being thrown in jail for a murder he not only did not commit, but that must have hurt him greatly! Did Harry get to live with him and away from those awful Dursley people after that?"

"Unfortuntely, no. Staying with Sirius just wasn’t safe for him at the time. He did, however, get to experience the joys of a Dursley-free life this past summer."

"Good for him!" She grinned, triumphant. "Those people were awful, at least in the books.

She yawned, covering her hand with her mouth and giving the Headmaster an apologetic smile.

"Sorry, guess that whole traveling through portals thing wears a girl out."

"That is quite alright. You should be resting now, anyway – before Poppy comes in and has my head. I assume, however, that you will be taking up my offer of the Muggle Studies position."

She bit her lip, thinking it over one last time.

"Yes. I would be honored, in fact. Its just. . . I haven’t really tried to do any magic since I got here. . . and we don’t use wands where I come from. . . what if I don’t have it in me anymore?"

"Why don’t you try and see?"

She shrugged.

"Afraid I’ll try something and then fail at it."

"Ah," he murmured, looking at her from over the top of his spectacles. "The age old philosophy that it is better to never try and never know than to try and fail?"

Willow sighed.

"I guess, when you put it like that, it does seem sorta coward-like."

She gave him a weak, but brave, smile and raised her hand, palm upwards, concentrating on the words she was murmuring under her breath. She felt a twinge within her and then power was coursing through her veins, as if all this time she had been living on only a fraction of her true abilities. Or maybe it was that magic felt, and worked, differently in this reality. Either way the flame she had been attempting to conjure at her fingertips blazed to life, shooting high into the air before dimming down under her startled mental command.

"Well," Dumbledore smiled encouragingly, looking a little ruffled himself. "I think that answers your question satisfactorily?"

"Yes, Headmaster." She grinned. "And I would love to take that Muggle Studies position. When do I start?"

"A week from today. We have canceled those classes for this week in anticipation of you needing to prepare. Sleep well, child. Perhaps Poppy will release you tomorrow and we can find you a room?"

Willow smiled, watching as he swept out of the infirmary in a swirl of red cloak. She leaned back into the pillows of the bed, shutting her eyes tight. The sadness of never being able to return to her own reality weighed heavily in her heart – but, on the other hand, she was here and there were things to see, teaching to be done.

And she was going to get to meet the infamous Harry Potter.

Not to mention Snape, Lupin, Black. . .

The list went on and on, following her into a sleep filled with dreams that were no longer just dreams, but a reality she would soon be living.

~*~Part Four~*~

It was the next morning when Willow was greeted with her first curious
visitor. She was sitting on the infirmary bed, knees tucked up to her chin,
just staring at one of the blank, white walls, when the doors opened slowly,
two wizards peering in hesitantly.

"Oh! You’re awake! Good!"

She blinked in surprise, shocked to be addressed at all, while her brain
tried frantically to come up with names for who these men might be. The
first of the two, the one that had spoken, was handsome in a way that Willow
could only describe as down to earth – brown hair and what looked like warm
eyes. The second was a bit wilder looking, with long black hair and dark
eyes. He looked nervous to be around her, whereas the first man just looked
excited.

She favored them with a small smile.

"I guess. Was hard to sleep. I’ve been up for hours."

The first man nodded. "That’s understandable. You’ve been through a lot."

Willow giggled. "Not really. All I did was get sucked up by a dimensional
portal and spit out in a land that I know of only as fiction. I didn’t
actually ‘go through’ very much at all."

The second man snorted, his face breaking out in a wry grin for the first
time since the door opened. They took up seats on the bed across from her,
watching her through curious eyes.

She blushed, averting her eyes from the two men.

"I’m sorry, guys. You know who I am – but I don’t have the slightest clue
who you are."

They gave each other identical grins of pure mischief, and if they had been
red haired she would have assumed she was talking to the Weasley twins. But
they weren’t. And they were far too old to be the twins, anyway. But that
still left her no clue as to whom they could be, and they were apparently
enjoying it very much.

"She doesn’t know who we are, Moony. I’m disappointed."

Willow gasped, eyes widening with surprise. If that was Remus ‘Moony’ Lupin
then that meant. . .

"You’re Sirius Black and Remus Lupin!"

"See! Dumbledore said she was a smart little thing." The one now identified
as Sirius grinned, giving Remus a smirk. "And you said she wouldn’t be able
to figure it out."

"I daresay she got the clue when you called me ‘Moony’, Padfoot," the brown
haired man chuckled.

Willow couldn’t help it, she was bouncing up and down on the bed, absolutely
awestruck. It had been one thing to meet Dumbledore, and Madam Pomfrey, but
here were two other major characters from the books, sitting there – just
chatting with her. Certainly her heart would burst if too many more
impossibly wonderful things kept happening.

"We’re here to show you your choices for your room – if you’re up to it."
Remus continued on, grinning indulgently at the red haired witch.

"I don’t think we could keep her still if we tried," Sirius laughed.

"You mean She," her eyes darted towards Madam Pomfrey’s office. "Is going to
let me out of here?"

Sirius stifled a laugh with the back of his hand.

"Don’t worry about Poppy. I believe Dumbledore has already spoken with her."

"Ah," Willow sighed, nodding her head. She gave them a grin and slid off the
edge of the bed, stretching arms and legs that had been too long without
ample movement. "So – show me my choices? Oh! And can I see those moving
staircases?"

~*~

An hour later she had seen her three choices for lodging. The first was
situated near Gryffindor tower, a nice suite of rooms that she knew would be
anything but quiet if the raucous nature of the Gryffindors was anything
like it was portrayed in the books. The second of the two choices was in a
tower, towards the back of the castle. It was a cozy set of rooms, thought a
little more removed from the main castle than she would have preferred.

And so it was that the third suite of rooms, as unlikely as it was, turned
out to be the best out of all of the choices.

Though her choice immediately drove Sirius up a wall for its close proximity
to one other Professor at the school.

"The dungeons?" He cried, turning in the hallway, arms outstretched as if to
ask ‘why would you want to live here’? And then, as if his gesture wasn’t
clear enough, he said it out loud. "Why *here*. You know about this world.
You know about Severus. . . why would you choose to have him as your closest
neighbor?"

Willow rolled her eyes, favoring the ruggedly handsome man with a stern
look.

"I like it down here. It’s nice and quiet. And yes, I know about this world.
I know about a certain Potions Master, but I haven’t met him yet so I won’t
be forming any judgments. If he’s as evil as the books made him out to be
then I’ll just ignore him. But the dungeons seem so peaceful. And I’m going
to need that. Peace and quiet."

Remus laid a warning hand on Sirius shoulder.

"I think it is a fine choice, Willow. A little on the dreary side, for my
tastes, but I am sure you will make them your home in no time at all."

Home.

She fought back the urge to cry that came up at the mere mention of the word
‘home’. Her home was a little place called Sunnydale, in a world where Harry
Potter, Hogwarts and the entire wizarding world was just a story.

But this was to be her home now?

She sighed, giving her companions a weak smile. If they could see her pain
they did not let on to it.

"Come. We’ll show you some more of the castle," Sirius offered, dropping the
topic of her room choice for the moment. She could always be convinced to
change later, of course, once she realized the dungeons were no place for
her.

~*~Part Five~*~

She wouldn’t have her first class until the following week, starting on the first Monday after her arrival at Hogwarts.

And, as far as Willow Rosenberg was concerned, that was fine by her. She slept that first night in her new rooms, scared and terrified of what had happened to her. That fear alternated with bouts of excitement, though; and she was sorely tempted to go wandering the castle. Only thoughts of poltergeists, ghosts and other creepy crawlies kept her firmly in her room. She knew that there was little truly to fear within the castle walls. . .

But there was always that chance.

So she sat in her room, staring into the fireplace, thinking of the home she would likely never see again. This had happened for a reason, though. She had to believe that or else nothing would ever be right for her again. Her Goddess had to mean for her to be here for some reason. That was the only excuse.

Of course, that didn’t make things any easier.

She slept fitfully that night, images of home breaking through any sweet dreams that may have begun.

When morning came she found herself caught up in the same thoughts she had went to bed with, except new ones had joined in, as well. Thoughts of clothes and books, a wand and the ilk.

That was all solved before too long, though, when the Headmaster came to her rooms, a house elf with breakfast following along after him.

"I thought you could use something to eat when you did not join us in the Great Hall for breakfast."

Willow blushed, staring down at the tray. "I’m sorry. I didn’t realize it was that late already. Please. . . don’t fire me."

The Headmaster waved her off with a smile. "My dear, it will take much more than that for me to fire you, I assure you. He sat down in one of the worn chairs near her fireplace, gesturing for her to do the same. "Now. . on the subject of your salary."

The red head paused, the toast she had halfway to her mouth staying right there, in her trembling hand.

"I am assuming that an advance on your first month’s salary would be a good thing?"

Now she could take a bite of that forgotten toast, and she did so, nodding her head emphatically and mumbling a ‘thank you’ as soon as she had swallowed.

"Very well, then. Here is the key to your own personal vault, complete with your first month’s salary and a welcoming bonus, if you would." He cut her off before she could even open her mouth to protest, giving her a look that was both stern and kind at the same time. "Do not argue, child. There are many things you will need to get started in this world. And I do like to see my staff happy and well taken care of."

"Thank you, sir. From the bottom, and top, of my heart – thank you." She could feel tears coming to her eyes and blinked them away. Kindness was something she had been too far without in recent years spent away from anyone she could call ‘friend’.

"You are most welcome. Severus will be along to collect you shortly for a trip to Diagon Alley. I pray you take use of his expertise when it comes to the most basic of supplies you will need and not allow those books to prejudice your thoughts. Having only read the one you brought with you, I can see already that they are horribly unfair to him."

"Of course. I would never presume to judge him without having met him. He seemed very noble in the books – to me, anyway." She left out the part where she had read numerous ‘fanfics’ painting him in both favorable and unfavorable lights; and had made up her mind that she would like him no matter what. Of course, that was easier said that done now that she was here and would actually be meeting the man himself very shortly.

"Good, good." Dumbledore smiled, rising from his chair. "I’ll leave you to finish eating then. He should be by within the hour."

Willow nodded, giving the Headmaster a wave as he left the room before tackling the breakfast that had been laid before her. Dinner the night before, spent in the company of Sirius and Remus, seemed so far away now. It had been memorable, though, if she had to say so herself. The two men had told her about themselves, relating stories of the Marauders that hadn’t been in any of the books she had read. It was funny, and a little wiggy, to hear things from the mouths of the ‘characters’ that had lived them.

Not to mention the fact that both men were pleasant on the eyes. Though Sirius was much more handsome than Remus, if she had to choose one over the other.

"Which it would appear that I have," she laughed softly, wiping her crumb-laden hands on the cloth napkin that had come with her breakfast. "Who would’ve thought I’d turn out to be a Willow-Sirius ‘shipper?"

She giggled at her own joke, blushing as she realized that yes, indeed, she wanted to get to know the former Azkaban inmate better. He was intriguing and handsome in a dark and rugged sort of way.

Salty goodness, as Cordelia would have said.

There was a knock on her door, startling Willow from her lusty thoughts of a certain Dark Arts Defense teacher. She swallowed a sip of the juice – pumpkin, she noted – and crossed the room, opening the door wide.

And there he was.

Severus Snape.

She swallowed, hoping it wasn’t as audible to his ears as it had been to her own. He looked so much more formidable in person than she had ever imagined him from the books, much more so than the actor that played him in the movie made him look, even.

"H-Hello." She murmured, backing up a step instinctively.

He raised an eyebrow at her and she felt like melting. It was just like a fanfic. She was standing in front of the surliest Professor in the school, the man that had dabbled in the Dark and come out on top. He was *right there*, raising his eyebrow at her like she was some sort of child to be punished.

And all she could think of was how much she would enjoy the punishment if that’s what he wanted to give.

"The Headmaster has asked that I accompany you to Diagon Alley to procure your school supplies."

Though he looked dark and scary, he spoke like one of those radio personalities that made you shiver with delight. She gave him a small smile and a hesitant nod.

"Yes, Professor Snape. If you do not mind, that is."

It was said so contritely, so demurely, that she could only hope it would elicit the reaction she was looking for. She wanted to know this man inside and out, to be his friend.

And the small smile that quirked at the corner of his mouth?

Well, that told her she had succeeded in the first step of her goals.

~*~Part Six~*~

"Perhaps she went out for the day?"

Sirius rolled his eyes at Remus, hardly giving his old friend the benefit of the doubt.

"And who would she have gone with, Moony? We’re the only two out of the entire staff that she’s spent any time with." He hid a smile, reveling internally at the idea that they had had her all to themselves pretty much since her arrival. She had not taken a single meal in the Great Hall yet, leaving her still much of a mystery to the staff and students.

"Well, she is an adult. Who is to say she didn’t go out by herself?"

Sirius froze, his mind whirling. Who was to say that she hadn’t. . . Nah. She wouldn’t have just wandered off by herself, would she?

"She doesn’t even have a wand. . . she wouldn’t have gone far – not for too long." He murmured aloud, grateful to hear Remus agree, albeit reluctantly he noted. What was it about this little ghost of a woman that was so intriguing to him? The way she smelled was not of this earth, though that could possibly be expected considering she was, well, not of this earth.

He had been forced to field questions from his Godson and the rest of the student body about the ‘mysterious woman’ who had fallen in from a portal during their Welcoming Feast. Rumor had already spread about where she had come from, but he was not at liberty to discuss it. Dumbledore had made it abundantly clear that it would be Willow’s and Willow’s decision alone to tell the students her tale – if and when she decided to do so.

So he had told Harry, Hermione and Ron when they came to see him the night before that he couldn’t tell them.

Which, of course, meant that they had pouted and made sad puppy-like faces at him until he had given up the entire story.

Well – what did Dumbledore expect?

Like *he* could even say no to Harry when Harry was determined.

"So, are we going to wait outside of her room all day?"

Sirius shrugged, running a hand back through his long, unbound black hair. "You really think we’ll have to wait that long?"

Remus sighed and left, wandering off down the hall and leaving Sirius to stew over the red haired witch in question all by himself. She was attractive and new, two things that Sirius most liked in a woman. But Remus knew better. Just as he had known better all of those times in the past. Sirius would get over her quick enough once the newness wore off. She’d be lucky, at that point, to find a friend in the man also known as Padfoot.

Sirius was, to put it lightly, a womanizer.

The only question in Remus’ mind was whether or not to warn the newest Hogwarts professor or to see if she had what it took to withstand Sirius’ overly enthusiastic efforts.

Well – he never had been the type to betray a friend.

~*~

Sirius watched until Remus disappeared around the corner, frowning. He knew what Remus was thinking. He, the ever-ready lover of the wizarding world, was going to make a play for Willow Rosenberg.

Well, that was the truth.

But he didn’t plan on leaving her heartbroken the moment something better came along.

No. . .she was no Debbie. Or Electra. Or Jasmine. . .

Or. . .

"Bloody.. . ." He cursed softly, his frown deepening. Perhaps his wild days of youth had spilled over into his adulthood at some point when he wasn’t watching? How many women had he been with since he was officially pardoned. For that matter – how many had he been with *before* he was pardoned – while he was still on the run. It was truly amazing how many witches were willing to allow a ‘dangerous’ escaped felon into their homes for a quick shower and shag.

But they had all meant something to him.

Right?

Just like Willow was starting to mean something to him – right?

His internal struggle was so great that he didn’t notice the time flying – though that was an easy feat being down in the dungeons. He didn’t notice the stares of the students that would wander by, mostly Slytherin, each one curiously looking at him before meandering down the hallways.

In fact, he had decided not to make a play for the newest professor at all when he heard two voices that he recognized very well.

And never expected to hear together.

"Severus – you must show me that shop sometime! I can’t believe we missed it today."

"Rather remarkable, I must admit, considering you drug me in the other thirty-nine stores in Diagon Alley."

"Don’t forget the five in Hogsmeade. Butter beer really doesn’t get its dues in the books, I must say. I don’t think I’ve tasted anything that heavenly in my entire life."

Sirius turned towards the voices. They had yet to round the corner, and he couldn’t truly believe his ears. It wasn’t until the individuals in question, still chatting quite amiably with each other, came into sight that he was able to believe it.

Willow Rosenberg, the shining pixie that had fallen straight from the heavens, was talking with that Greasy Git.

He snarled, hands clenching into fists.

"Seems someone left a mutt in the halls. . . again. I have warned Dumbledore about permitting animals in the castle."

Sirius saw Willow raise an amused eyebrow and felt his anger go up another notch. How dare Snape taint her with his vileness? She was a thing of light and beauty and he was interacting with her as if he actually deserved a moment of her time! It was ludicrous, absurd – practically obscene. The git in question smirked, and that said everything that Sirius needed to see. Snape had claimed Willow as *his* friend.

Well that just wasn’t going to work.

She couldn’t be friends with *both* of them.

It dawned on him, staring into those dark pools of ink that Snape called eyes, that the other man could possibly be working his own way into Willow’s affections.

And that wasn’t to be allowed, either.

"Snape. . ." he growled, taking a step forward.

"Really, Sirius. You’re acting like a child." Willow scoffed, rolling her eyes. She laid a hand on Severus’ arm, catching his attention. "Thank you for taking time out of your day to assist with my purchases."

"It was a pleasure." The silky words were meant to incite something within him, Sirius knew, but he was powerless to stop it. Despite his earlier decision that he would be nothing more than a friend to Willow, Sirius found himself throwing caution to the wind. If the choices were himself or Snape, surely Willow would have to choose –him-.

And wasn’t he doing her a favor by keeping her away from that former Death Eater?

Sirius smirked as the door to Willow’s room closed behind her, a soft good day registering in his ears.

"You can’t have her."

"Have her?" Severus raised an eyebrow in disdain. "I was merely helping her obtain her supplies for the upcoming year. Surely you don’t begrudge her that much?"

"You can’t fool me." Sirius snipped. "She’s too good for you. Too good to be your friend or ‘pal’."

"You have finally lost your mind. Too much time spent in mutt-form, no doubt."

Sirius seethed as Severus pushed past him and down the hall, struggling to come up with a retort that was worthy of the situation.

By the time he did, though, Snape was long gone. And Sirius was left to ponder just how he was going to keep Willow away from Snape.

~*~Part Seven~*~

Keeping Willow away from Severus proved to be a harder task that Sirius could have imagined. It seemed that the red haired witch had taken quite a liking to the surly Potions Master, enjoying talking with him about the events that she had never had a chance to read about back in her reality. And, for some odd reason, Snape didn’t seem to mind telling her about them.

In fact, he appeared to enjoy it.

It would end, he assured himself, once she saw the true Snape.

But seeing the Potions Master startle and terrify his students did little to sway Willow’s new friendship with the man.

And Sirius was livid.

How could she be a friend to a man that was only one step away from being a traitor? For Merlin’s sake! He had betrayed the good side and taken the Dark Mark! Who cared if he had then turned around and helped them destroy the Dark Lord? Hadn’t he fallen from grace? What gave her the idea that Severus was the type of person she should even give the time of day to. It was bad enough that he had somehow convinced Dumbledore that he was harmless, now he had weaseled his way into Willow’s good graces as well?

Sirius growled, kicking a stone that was in the path. It clattered away, skimming over the ground until thunking into the trunk of a tree.

Even now she was with Severus, getting her lesson notes prepared for her first class in between getting some instruction from him in the nature of various curses and hexes.

Had she come to *him*, the co-Professor of Defense Against the Dark Arts, for that?

No.

Had she gone to Remus for that?

No.

She had gone to Snape.

It was unthinkable.

Tomorrow would be her first class and she was choosing to spend all of her time with that greasy git instead of spending one moment with him!

Unthinkable.

~*~

"You think he’s stewing over it?"

Severus looked up from the lesson plans his current guest had submitted to him for review, a devious smile creeping across his face.

"I can only hope."

Willow laughed, clapping her hands together in delight. "That’s just too funny. I never would have imagined that Sirius Black would get so jealous that I’m, you know, friends with you. It’s just funny, I guess. This whole situation is hilarious."

Snape smirked and went back to looking over her lesson plans. They were good. Not the type of thing that a polished Professor would come up with, but then again she had never truly taught a class before, so he did not expect perfection.

Still, it was close, and that bolstered his belief that she wouldn’t fail at this task the Headmaster had set before her in the name of ‘giving her a chance in the world’.

He could almost hear her thinking over the problem of Sirius Black within her sprite-like head. Of course Sirius was jealous. Black had made it quite clear from the day she woke up that he had designs on the newest member of the Hogwarts staff. There was no one else in the building that he would tolerate to become good friends with her, most especially not himself. Sirius hated him above all else.

He had no intentions on Willow, no matter what Sirius Black had gotten into his head. Friendship with her was a bright spot to his life, but he did not wish for more than that. The fact that being friends with her irritated Black to no end only further served to make his time spent with her worthwhile. She knew, as well, that Sirius was agitated with their friendship, and it both annoyed and amused her.

The sound of quill on parchment filled his room as she filled a sheet with the questions she had on this reality’s brand of magic. They would go over them together before she left, after he was done reviewing her lesson plans.

"Should I answer their questions?" She asked suddenly, her green eyes meeting his with all earnesty. "The students, I mean. On Monday when I start class – should I answer all the questions they’re going to have?"

He paused, quill poised over her plans, ready to make a slight correction.

"That will have to be up to you, of course," he began slowly. "Though you must know that not answering anything will only spur them to take measures to find out for themselves."

Willow nodded, biting her lip in thought.

"I guess I should, then. Tell them about my reality. . .about the books. They’ve heard rumors already, I’m sure."

Severus smiled, tilting his head in acknowledgement. There were rumors running rampant all over the school, for that matter. Everything from Willow being an alien straight from space to the truth, that she dropped in on them from another reality entirely. Some were amusing, very few were demeaning or cruel.

"That would be for the best," he counseled. "Now – let’s see what questions you had, shall we? I would like to get some rest before it is time to wake up for classes."

~*~Part Eight~*~

Willow swallowed and wiped her hands nervously on the front of her robe. The
first class of the day had been easy enough – filled with curious
Hufflepuffs and intellectual Ravenclaws in their sixth years.

They had asked hesitant questions about where she was from, what her reality
was like. But they hadn’t pressured her for information. They had maintained
a healthy distance between themselves and their teacher, not intruding upon
what was undoubtedly her personal life. She had enjoyed that class,
introducing them to what they would be covering for the term in the fun
world of Muggle studies.

And it appeared that they were actually interested in what she had to say.

Surprise, surprise.

That class had been the only one for the morning, and she had spent the
remainder of her time before her next class readying her notes and eating a
sandwich.

During which time she was paid a visit by none other than Sirius Black
himself.

"Hey," she warmly at one of the few people she could call ‘friend’ in this
strange world. "Don’t you have a class to teach?"

Sirius chuckled. "One of the Gryffindor third years set a cage of sprites
loose in the room. The house elves are cleaning up the mess."

"Ah," Willow giggled. "Yet another reason for me to be glad I’m teaching
something as tame as Muggle studies. We can hardly get into any sticky
situations with the ‘history of the modern appliances’ lecture."

He was laughing with her and she felt a warm sensation in the pit of her
stomach, the same one she was always feeling around him these days. She didn
’t want to admit what it meant, that feeling of butterflies dancing
uproariously within her, but her heart had already made its decision for
her.

She had a crush on Sirius Black.

No one knew. Not even Severus who had been kind enough to lend his ear more
than once during her so far brief stay in the castle. And she couldn’t
really see herself divulging that information to him, either. As much as he
enjoyed speaking about Sirius when it was in regards to joking or torturing
him, she didn’t think the Potions Master would be happy to know she had gone
and done something so stupid as to fall for him.

She had been trying to avoid the ruggedly handsome Defense Against the Dark
Arts teacher for that, among other, reasons. He made her heart pitter patter
and her stomach do the most annoying flip-flopping. And he was unaware of
it, of course; because you could take Willow out of Sunnydale but you couldn
’t take the Sunnydale out of Willow. She would forever be the studious one,
the research girl. Never would she be the pretty one that men fell head over
heels for.

And so she avoided him, playing it off on her friendship with Severus and
the other man’s deep need to royally piss of Sirius.

"My Godson will be in here for your next class." Sirius broke through her
thoughts with one of the last things she wanted to hear this afternoon. Of
course she knew that the infamous Harry Potter would be in here next period.
How could she not have known with a roster sitting on her desk, his name
glaring up at her? He was the hero in books she had fawned over in her own
reality. He was a fictitious character that had captured the hearts of both
young and old where she came from.

And he would be in her next class.

"I know. I’m – looking forward to it." She managed to stammer, berating
herself for her inability to think, let alone talk, coherently when she was
nervous.

"He’s just another seventeen year-old kid, Willow. I know in your reality he
was the hero of some books – hell, in our reality he is a hero, too. But he’
s still nothing more than a seventeen year-old student. I’m sure he’ll be
more in awe of you than you are of him."

Willow laughed.

"Somehow I doubt that, Sirius, but that you for the encouragement."

"Anytime, pretty lady," he drawled, grabbing her hand and kissing the back
of it before she could stop him. A warm flush spread through her body,
sending tingles all the way to her toes. She blushed, averting her eyes from
his lest he see how caught up she was in his flirting. Flirting which, she
was happy to say, seemed to be sincere enough for those butterflies that
were doing the clog in her stomach.

"Would you like to have dinner together tonight? Somewhere other than the
Great Hall?" Sirius asked suddenly, dropping her hand. "I can have the House
Elves pack something. . . "

"That would be lovely," she nodded, cutting him off before he could go into
a babbling torrent that she was sure would rival even her own. He was taking
an interest in her. It was unbelievable, mind-boggling, unheard of. It wasn’
t the type of thing that would have ever happened back home, of course. And
here it was, plain as day, happening to her right at that very moment.

She could die a happy woman, she was sure of it.

"Great," Sirius grinned wolfishly. "I’ll come by your rooms around six
then?"

Willow nodded, unable to find her voice to speak as he said his goodbyes and
left, stopping only to place one last kiss on her cheek.

~*~

Sirius smirked as he left the classroom, a skip in his step. That had gone
better than he could have hoped for. Whatever evil magic Snape had worked on
the lovely Willow obviously hadn’t taken full hold if she was still willing
to spend time with him.

Alone.

With him.

The smirk turned into a genuine smile. Willow was definitely a treasure to
be held and cherished by any man lucky enough to capture her heart.

And he was hoping to be that man.

~*~

"So. . . I know you all must have tons of questions. . . " Willow began her
next class hesitantly, her eyes flitting over faces that could have been
taken straight from the descriptions out of one of the books she had read so
often. Sure, they were all a little more grown-up now. But they were still,
well, them.

The one that she knew was Hermione raised her hand, daring to be the first
in their class to broach the newest Professor at Hogwarts with questions.

"Yes, Miss Granger."

"How does this world differ from the one you are originally from?"

Willow grinned. "That’s a very good question. I don’t think anyone has
worded it to me in that way before. Well. . . let’s see. . . I guess the
best place to start would be – in the reality I fell from, Harry Potter and
your entire world is nothing more than stories thought up by a very clever
writer of children’s books. She has only published up to year four, though.
So I’m working at a bit of a disadvantage from that point on. Also, in my
reality there is no wizarding society, no Minister of Magic – nothing like
that. There are very few witches and wizards and we pretty much don’t band
together for any purpose that I’ve come across yet.

"So – you know all about what happened during our first four years?" This
from the one she recognized as Harry – not so much by his looks, but by the
scar on his forehead.

"Indeed, I do, Mister Potter," the red haired Professor teased playfully. "I
probably know much more than you would like me to, in that regard. For
instance, something about a Polyjuice potion during your second year." Her
eyes met those of Harry before alighting on Hermione and Ron in turn.

"Yes, well. . . " Hermione stammered, her eyes darting over to the Slytherin
side of the classroom. It was clearly a pleading look, as the trio had
obviously not come clean on that little debacle with any of their friends,
staff or enemies.

"Any other questions for me?" Willow asked, changing the subject lest she
get the trio into trouble. What was in the past was, after all, the past. No
need to dredge it up.

"Has anyone told you about everything that happened since the year of the
Tri-Wizard Tournament?"

This came from Draco Malfoy, Willow would have known his face anywhere.
Those steely grey eyes, that platinum blonde hair. If she hadn’t already had
her sights set on Sirius (and was just a little younger) he would have had
her fawning over him for sure.

"Some parts of it, yes." She nodded. "I haven’t taken time to fully quiz the
staff on their knowledge of the last few years, if that’s what you’re
asking, though. I do, however, know that not all of you turned out to be
what you seemed. Some for the better, other for worse. Don’t worry that I
will be judging you on who you were when you were still young and naïve in
the ways of the world. I will gladly listen, outside of class hours, should
any of you wish to recount your own side of those years."

Draco smirked, tilting his head in agreement. "I think I would enjoy that."

"As would I, Mister Malfoy." She grinned from ear to ear, blushing despite
herself. He was just too handsome for his own good, damnit! "In fact – if
any of you would like to meet here tomorrow night, we can all tell tales –
me of where I’m from and you all about this land, culture and history. Sound
like a plan?"

There were some nods and she felt her heart rise. She would get the hang of
this teaching stuff, she was sure. But the trick was to capture the interest
of her students. Which didn’t look like it was going to be too hard.

"With that in mind, let’s turn to page three in the text. . . I have a busy
term planned for you all. . ."

~*~Part Nine~*~

The first day of classes went off without a hitch, with Willow getting out of her last one a little before dinner time, around five. She walked back through the school, nodding in greeting at some of the students she had met that day. They were all friendly enough, if not a little reserved since they did not know her that well. Just as she was trying to learn about them, they were still trying to feel her out as well. And they would be quick to make decisions in their youth, whereas she was slower to judge.

She walked back through the dungeons, smiling to herself, knowing that in only one hour she would be having her dinner date with Sirius Black. The same Sirius Black that she had read about time and again, indulging herself in flights of fancy at times over what he was really like. Now that she had met him she was happy to say that he was just as interesting as she had always imagined he would be. But that didn’t mean he was perfect or that she would forgive him his numerous faults.

But she was trying to overlook those right now, in favor of spending a nice night with a man that found her attractive. He didn’t like Severus, one of the only friends she had made since coming to this reality, but not many people –did- like Severus, and that was pretty much expected. He didn’t want to be liked, after all. Fear went a lot further than friendship in this, and her own, world.

"My world," she whispered, shutting the door to her room behind her. She paused, tears clogging the back of her throat. Was time passing at the same rate back in her reality – or had months or only minutes passed since she came to this strange place? Had anyone even noticed she was missing yet? It wasn’t as if Buffy and Xander had been on close terms with her at the time she was sitting in her room, reading a book that would, inevitably, lead to her being where she was at that moment. Had Giles sought her out for research only to find that she was missing? Or had time passed and her absence not even noted.

She had mulled over the possibility that one day she would find a way back to her own reality. After all, if there was a way to get here in the first place, logic would stand to reason that there was a way to get home, even if it took her a while to find it. But would she want to go home if she ever found that way? And more and more she found herself thinking that no, she would continue to remain in this reality and blow off the life she had led back there, in a world where the lack of care from her friends and family had slowly been sending her into a state of reclusiveness.

A pair of slacks and a button-down shirt later she was ready for her dinner date, with a half hour to go until Sirius was scheduled to be there, assuming that he was on time anyway. For some reason she got the feeling that he wasn’t so much of a stickler for being on time as she was. He had that air of wild abandon about him. Muggle cosmetics, purchased one afternoon when she begged Severus to accompany her into London, brought out the color in her face and made her eyes sparkle. Or at least that was what she told herself.

When a knock came on her door, at still twenty minutes to six, Willow chastised herself silently for ever thinking that Sirius wasn’t the type of man to be on time. She wiped her hands lightly on her pants before opening the door, a bright smile on her face.

"Headmaster!" She chirped, mildly shocked. "How can I help you this evening?"

"Good evening, Professor Rosenberg. I was just wandering the halls and wanted to check in on you. We haven’t had much time to talk lately. May I come in?"

"Yes, of course," she smiled, stepping back to allow him entrance to her room. They sat down next to the fireplace, the warm crackling noise popping brightly in the background.

"How was your first day of classes, dear?"

"It was great, wonderful," she brightened considerably at mention of her first day of teaching. "The students seem to like me so far."

"Yes, I believe you made quite the impression on young Mister Potter’s class. And dare I perpetuate the rumor that I heard that Mister Malfoy was flirting with you?"

Willow laughed. "He’s just a sweet kid, sir. I think flirting is probably second nature to him. I doubt he realized what he was doing."

Dumbledore shook his head. "Never put it past Draco Malfoy to not only know exactly what he’s doing, but the effect of his actions, as well."

The red haired professor snickered. "Well it was flattering, really, being flirted with like I was something to be swayed or won."

"And when do you not feel like that?" The Headmaster smiled gently, eyes twinkling. "If I am not mistaken, you have a dinner engagement tonight with one of my Defense professors."

Willow blushed. "Yes, well. . . Sirius is a nice guy."

"That he is, Miss Rosenberg. He had been thought a lot during his lifetime, just as you have in your own."

She smiled, nodding to herself. The Headmaster had asked, understandably, for her to provide as much information on her life before coming to this reality as was possible. This had ended up being in the form of a pensieve full of her thoughts and memories of past events, from her childhood to the moment she had been sucked into the portal to land in the Great Hall.

"It was a life, Headmaster, nothing more or less. There are students at Hogwarts who probably had a more eventful life than me."

The Headmaster chuckled, rising from his chair to give her a friendly smile. "You will see for yourself when you meet with them tomorrow, my dear. Have a good evening with Sirius. Try not to be too hard on him. He has carried some prejudices with him for a very long time."

Like those against Severus, it went unspoken, but she heard it loud and clear.

"Yes, sir. I’ll try to be understanding."

"I didn’t doubt you for a moment." He smiled, letting himself out of the room.

~*~*~

The food the house elves prepared for a picnic near Hagrid’s hut, at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, was scrumptious. Pastries filled with meat and a light brown sauce, some steamed vegetables with their own creamy dipping sauce. There was a magically sealed pitcher of the pumpkin juice she had already grown quite fond of.

"So – classes today. . . ?" Sirius prompted once the food was laid out on the blanket and they had served themselves. He passed her a glass of juice.

"Class was wonderful. Everyone was exactly what I thought they would be. . . Harry was bright and smart. Hermione was a genius. Ron was a troublemaker and Draco was a flirt."

"Yeah – I heard about Draco’s attempt at winning you over." He smirked. "Do I need to be on the lookout for him to be stealing my woman?"

"Your –" Her heart caught in her throat, a lump of emotion that was thick.

"My –" Sirius began and then stopped, a sheepish look on his face. "Damn. I didn’t mean to say it like that."

"Yeah, because asking me to be your girl would be so much better than telling me flat out that I’m your girl." She quipped with a grin that took the edge off of the words. She didn’t mind being called his girl. She didn’t mind in the least. But he definitely wasn’t a master of smooth words.

"So – do you mind?"

Was that nervousness in his voice when he said that?

She flashed him a smile and swallowed another gulp of juice before answering.

"Yeah, I think I can handle that."

~*~Part Ten~*~

Willow looked around at the students that had gathered in her empty
classroom, their faces eager and excited. Each of them had a story to tell
about the events of the previous two years, and each wanted to know about
Willow and the world she had come from. It was a give and take event. She
would give of herself, of her private life, and they would tell her the
story of their own lives. She had made up her mind not to pry, even if her
own curiosity got the better of her.

"Well – welcome to you all," she began with a smile. "There are cookies and
juice over there – the house elves were nice enough to bring it up when I
asked them. Cute little things, aren’t they?"

She saw Hermione’s face tighten into a scowl and stifled a grin of her own.
Apparently the bushy haired Gryffindor never quite got over her position on
House Elf Rights, even if said house elves didn’t care what their ‘rights’
were. During the brief time Willow had been at Hogwarts she had seen that,
no matter what Hermione Granger may believe, the house elves were perfectly
happy where they were doing what they were doing. If she had found otherwise
she would have hopped right on the ‘free the elves’ bandwagon – but she hadn
’t and thus she had to laugh, albeit silently, at Hermione’s devotion.

The petite red haired Professor took a seat on the edge of her desk and
looked over the students. Most were faces she knew right away, students she
had read about in very intimate detail. Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley, Ginny
Weasley, Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger. There was also Lavender and
Parvati, along with her twin Padma. Neville and Seamus.

Then there were the ones she didn’t see. Some of which she knew about, and
some she didn’t. Neville had, unfortunately, been killed during the final
conflict between a band of Death Eaters and some students that had been
caught unaware. The Aurors had arrived in time only to see the Avada that
killed the clumsy boy. Crabbe and Goyle, as well as numerous other Slytherin
students, would never again set foot within Hogwarts, or any other wizarding
establishment. For that matter, many of them were in Azkaban – locked away
for the rest of their lives. They had been found guilty as Death Eaters,
inducted by the same parents that either died at the hands of Aurors or were
locked up as well.

It was an entire, sad, family affair.

There were stories that she had only heard glimpses of, as well, that she
hoped to hear more of tonight. Like what became of Percy Weasley. She had
heard only snippets of the ‘great shame’ of the Weasley name. And what had
happened with Draco Malfoy? She had only been able to glean from Severus
that the boy had undergone a series of events that had left him a changed
person, though what those events were, Willow hadn’t been made privy to.

But she wouldn’t pry, that was a fact she had to keep reiterating to
herself. These events may evoke excruciating levels of curiosity in her, but
they were her students’ lives and she wasn’t willing to beat the story out
of them.

"Are we ready to begin?" She asked as the final students took their seats,
cookies and juice procured. "This is how our little session is going to go.
You guys may ask me a question. But – for every question you ask me, someone
has to tell me something that’s happened in the last two years. And I don’t
mean little, insignificant events. I’m talking big ones. Life, death,
intrigue. Those type of things. Are we clear?"

There’s a round of ‘yes’ that circulates through the room and then we’re
off.

"Is it true? About you being from another reality?" This comes from
Hermione.

"Yes." I nod emphatically. "I come from a reality totally unlike this one.
In my reality you guys are characters in a series of very popular children’s
novels. Novels which, I might add, have only gone up to the fourth year of
Harry Potter. In fact, the books are based around him and his circle of
friends – namely Ron and Hermione. Thus the reason I want to know what’s
happened in the last two years – those books haven’t been released yet."

"In my world," she continued. "There is no wizarding society. Witches are
few and far between and the Supernatural is a dirty secret kept between
those few of us that know about it. Now – your turn. Who wants to tell me
something I wouldn’t have had a chance to read about yet?"

The students looked back and forth between each other, as if they were each
trying to decide who would go first. Who would reveal the secrets of their
lives to this woman they had all really just met?

It was Ron who raised his hand first.

"I guess I could go." He offered quietly. His face had already turned
pinkish in color, and it was more than apparent that this was costing him
something, to tell his part of this story.

"Very well, then, Mister Weasley. I look forward to hearing what you have to
say."

He snorted. "Don’t say that ‘til you’ve heard it, Professor."

She nodded slowly. "As you wish – proceed."

"I’m assuming you have at least heard of my brother Percy. He was head boy
here during one of those years you would have read about."

"I remember reading about him, yes. He was the third oldest in your family’s
massive horde of children."

He spared her a small smile, which she took as a personal victory, before
continuing on. "Well – we found out. . . over the summer break between my
fifth and sixth year. . . that Percy had joined the Death Eaters."

Willow gasped. She couldn’t help it. Percy had always been so straight-laced
in the books, a true man of the Ministry. Someone that lived for rules and
guidelines.

"Yeah," Ron chuckled mirthlessly. "It came as a shock to the rest of us,
too, when he was unmasked during a raid on a Revel by a band of Aurors. Mum
and Dad were heartbroken."

Out of the corner of her eye Willow could see Ginny Weasley rubbing at her
face. Of all the things she had expected to hear, this was not one of them.
Percy Weasley, a traitor?

"Seems good ole Perce just couldn’t handle the idea of being nothing more
than a second-rate Ministry worker for the rest of his life. Not when there
was someone out there offering him power and glory."

Willow licked her lips, her face soft with compassion. "I am truly sorry to
hear that, Mister Weasley. Your family has my deepest sympathies."

"Thanks." His eyes were on his desk, face flushed with the embarrassment.

"Wow – what a way to start things out, huh? K – Next question for me?"

"Are you really dating that miserable git of a Defense teacher?"

The red head turned slowly towards Draco Malfoy, her eyebrow raised in shock
that he dared ask something so crass to one of his Professors.

"Of all the things you could ask me, Mister Malfoy, and that is the one you
choose?" She smirked, desperately attempting to hide her amusement. "Yes, I
am dating Sirius Black. Not that it is any of your concern – or anyone else’
s for that matter. And don’t talk like that in my classroom again or I’ll
deduct house points." She paused, a grin lighting up her face. "I’ve always
wanted to say that – did it sound all mean and threatening?"

The class laughed with her, even Draco.

"Well – Malfoy wasted your question on something frivolous, but that doesn’t
change the rules of our little session – so who would like to tell me about
what’s been happening next?"

The entire class turned to look at Draco as one, as if to say – you wasted
our turn, now you tell her what she wants to hear.

"Bloody hell." He grumbled, leaning forward so that he was resting his chin
on his hands, elbows on the desk in front of him.

"Mouth, Mister Malfoy." Willow warned him again.

"Right, right." He sighed. "Fine, then. I guess you’ll want to know all
about me. Since, as I remember it, I was still being a royal prat around
year four."

"You are –still- a prat, Malfoy." Ginny smirked.

"But you know you love it, Weasley." He shot back at her, lips curved into a
sly grin. Willow watched as the girl blushed before ducking her head,
thoughts of Ginny/Draco ‘shipp-iness floundering through her brain.

"Can we get back to the story, Draco?" Willow prompted with a knowing smile.

"Right – the story of my ‘undoing’ as mother calls it. Well, it all began
with my father, really. I will assume that you, like everyone else, knew or
at least assumed that the idiot was a Death Eater."

Willow nodded her assent.

"Well, the thing is, he wanted me to grow up to be just like him. And, after
a while. That got sort of old. I mean – who wants to grow up to serve a
miserable excuse for a Dark Lord who was defeated first by a baby, then by a
first year, again by a second year, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera."

"As I remember it, you had pretty big words in year four when Voldemort was
back amongst the ‘living’."

There was a collective gasp from the students when she said the name, and
she giggled. "Sorry, guys. Where I come from a name is just a name. Nothing
more, nothing less."

"That’s alright, Professor," one of the quieter Hufflepuff girls spoke up.
"He’s long gone now. Dead an’ scattered to the four winds. We just. . ."

"Get a little touchy about it. The name, and all." Her desk-mate finished
for her, patting her arm comfortingly.

"Understandable." Willow smiled gently. "As you were saying, Draco – you
started to lose faith in everything you had always been taught."

"Yeah." He shrugged, leaning back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest.
"And from there it was just a downhill slide. My father forced the Mark on
me on my sixteenth birthday. I ran to Dumbledore the next night."

"You became a spy. . . like Severus?"

"My godfather, in case you didn’t know." Draco smirked.

"Well, again with the ‘wow’." She smiled faintly. "So much happened – and I’
ll never even get to read the books!" She stuck her lip out in a fake pout.

"Yeah, but now you’ve got the real thing." Malfoy responded haughtily. "And,
seeing as how those books were about Potter, I can hardly see how you’re at
any real loss."

"Stuff it, Malfoy."

Willow shook her head, smiling to herself.

At least that part hadn’t changed.

~*~Part Eleven~*~

She had just finished a quiet afternoon, honing her potions skills with Severus’ aid, when all Hell finally broke loose.

Willow turned the corner of the hallway, her face down in the notes she had taken with Severus that afternoon. She smiled, remembering the fun she had experienced while first preparing the ingredients, and then mixing the actual potion. There was something calming about the entire thing, just mixing and chopping, grinding and cubing. She enjoyed it.

And Severus had made it that much more the fun for her, pointing out the different uses for the various ingredients. He showed her variations on the potion, including quite a few that she just knew she would find useful at some point in the future. He was a good friend, and she was glad that she had been privileged enough to meet him, instead of taking the books she had read at face value. Sure, in class he was just about the biggest jerk she had ever had the honor to meet, but outside of class he was well worth getting to know – provided you weren’t a student and showed that you had at least minimal intelligence.

She looked up from her notes as her foot collided with something unyielding, an ‘oof’ escaping from her mouth. Unthinkingly, she braced herself for an impact that never came, strong arms catching her before she could collide with the stone floor. She opened her eyes, staring up into dark eyes.

"Hey, Sirius."

"Hey, you. Something interesting?" He gestured to the papers she clutched tightly in her hand.

"Just notes from the brewing I did with Severus today."

She couldn’t mistake the disgust that passed across her boyfriend’s face for anything other than what it was. ‘The Prisoner of Azkaban’ had given her background on the hate-hate relationship between Sirius Black and Severus Snape, but it went far deeper than that. For all that he could be a good guy, Sirius also was very stubborn and unable to admit when he was wrong. Severus, for all that –he- could be a good guy, was unforgiving at even the best of times, especially in extreme circumstances.

Like those he had experienced with Sirius Black.

In other words, there was no hope for the two of them. She didn’t expect them to be friends, and didn’t even try to make overtures to get them to be so. As long as the two of them remained civil she didn’t see any reason to get involved in a dispute that had raged between them for a little longer than she had even been alive.

Trust today to be the day that Sirius took civility and threw it out the window.

"You know –" He began, helping her to his feet before standing up himself. "Snape –"

"I don’t want to hear it, Siri." She sighed, shaking her head and mumbling the password to her private rooms. She gestured for him to come in without even turning her head back to him.

"I was just going to say –" He started again.

"And I don’t want to hear it – as I already said." Willow’s eyes were bright, hot with emotion, when she turned back to him. "He is my friend. Just as you are my boyfriend. I refuse to be in the middle of it."

Sirius’ mouth twisted into a grimace of displeasure, his own eyes lighting up with anger.

"Willow –"

"Sirius –" She warned, her mouth set in a rigid line of ire. "Don’t go there."

"He’s bad for you, Willow. You’re too good for him."

She stiffened. "No, Sirius. I’m not nearly good enough for him. He is a war hero. A brave man that could have died trying to make this world a better place."

Sirius frowned. "He was a Death Eater, Willow!"

She exhaled sharply. "You like to take the worst thing in someone’s past and bring it out into the open, don’t you? That’s real brave of you, Sirius Black."

"I didn’t want to do this – but you give me no choice. I forbid you to see him anymore."

Willow gasped, her face paling and then reddening, as if she had been slapped. She drew herself up to her full height, not very impressive, she knew; and glared at him with the full force of her anger behind it.

"You ‘forbid’ me?"

"Yes."

"Get. Out." She snarled.

"Wha—" Obviously Sirius had not expected this kind of anger, and his confusion might have been genuinely amusing had she not been so terribly upset.

"You heard me. Get. Out."

"Willow –"

"I have nothing left to say to you, Sirius. Either get out of my rooms or I will show you out myself."

As if to illustrate her point, she threw open the door of her room with the force of her magic alone, the heavy wood banging back into the wall with a loud clattering sound that echoed through the room and out into the hallway. She pointed towards the open space without another word, raising her eyebrows in a direct challenge for him to disobey her wishes.

He gave her a sad look, still filled with some of that same anger he had been directing at her only moments before, and left the room.

Leaving her by herself – once again alone and sad.

~*~STF: Part Twelve~*~

The sun had already set when Willow finally emerged from her rooms, face tear-streaked and eyes red. She turned away from the main corridors, moving instead outside. She walked the back paths of the school, past the Herbology greenhouses, past the forsaken little tower that Trelawney held her classes in. She wandered sadly, eyes to the ground, not even noticing where her feet were taking her until she arrived.

The lake was dark. Murky black waters glimmered under the light of a moon that was nearly full. Severus had mentioned he would be brewing the Wolfsbane potion for Remus tonight – or else she might have been in there talking with him about her woes.

Woes that he was a very integral part of, though he probably wasn’t aware yet.

She sat down on the grass, a good three feet from the shore of the lake. Everyone knew the squid under the water was relatively harmless, but something about a giant animal she couldn’t see, with tentacles that could reach up and grab her – well something about that made her nervous. She leaned back, daring enough to stretch her legs out in front of her, and tilted her head up to the sky. Dinner was being served by now in the Great Hall, but she didn’t feel hungry enough to join them.

It was still difficult to fathom in her mind that Sirius had actually had the nerve to say that to her. To ‘forbid’ her to be friends with a man that not only wanted her friendship, but deserved it. She knew relatively little about the whole tragic tale of Sirius and Severus, only what had been revealed in the books up to the point she left home, but that was enough to let her know that the two of them just needed to go on and get over it. How long would two grown men continue to carry a grudge from a stupid, near-fatal, childhood prank?

Of course, the near-fatal part could be the thing that was complicating matters.

Still . . . Sirius had no right to tell her what to do and if he thought he did he needed to just get used to not having her in his life. She wouldn’t abide by that. Too much in her life people had tried to tell her what to do, how to dress, who to be friends with. And she was over it now. This was a new world for her, a chance to start over and make her life better. And she intended to do just that.

She heard the footsteps in the grass before whoever was about to intrude her solitude spoke.

"He’s sorry, you know."

The red head turned to look the speaker in the eyes, shaking her head. "Harry – don’t get involved in this."

He shrugged, plopping onto the ground next to her. "Can’t help it. He’s my Godfather."

Willow sighed and gave another shake of her head. "I don’t want you in the middle of this."

"Well – tough."

If she had thought better of it, she would have at least taken points from him for speaking to a Professor like that, in a tone that brooked no discouragement. But she was so taken aback by his firmness that she lost rational reasoning.

"He likes you a lot, Sirius does," Harry continued on, in the silence that her shock had allowed him. "He just doesn’t want to see you get hurt."

"I am a grown woman, Harry Potter. I lived on a place literally known as the Mouth of Hell. I fought demons and vampires, ghosts and goblins – all the bad things your mind can think of. And he’s worried about me getting her?" She snorted. "He just doesn’t want me to be friends with Severus."

"They have some history between them –" The seventh year offered, clearly trying to win her back to Sirius’ good side.

"I am well aware of their history. But that is not excuse. Sheesh! Carrying grudges for years and years? Decades? It’s beyond silly. In fact, I think he’s being a child about it all."

Harry gaped at her, mouth opening and closing like a fish. He reached up to brush a lock of his shaggy hair from his forehead, revealing the scar that Voldemort had given him not too long after his birth.
"It’s not like Severus goes out of his way to harass Sirius. In fact, Severus is much happier if there is an entire school’s worth of distance between the two of them – but ‘no’, Sirius just has to keep with it. Making snide remarks, not so nice comments, and now this. How dare he forbid me to do ‘anything’!"

Harry flinched. "He’s only worried about you," he repeated softly. "Professor Snape wasn’t always a good guy."

Willow raised an eyebrow at the boy next to her, a sad smile trailing along her face. "Yeah – well here’s a secret, Harry. I wasn’t always a nice girl. Maybe that’s why me and good old grouchy-robes get along so well?"

She stood, brushing off the back of her robes, and wandered off before Harry could ask anything else. It wasn’t really his business, after all; and she had said more than she really intended. Dumbledore may not care what her past was, but she didn’t want the whole school to know. She sighed, almost sadder now than she had been when she first left her dungeon room. Already she missed her time with Sirius, but she could not forgive him for what he had said.

Not yet.

Maybe Severus could use some help with the Wolfsbane potion. It wasn’t as if she had anything better to do tonight.

~*~Part Thirteen~*~

Harry really didn’t want to see his godfather, not after speaking to Willow anyway. It was obvious that the pretty new teacher was really upset by what Sirius had done.

And Harry couldn’t say as how he really blamed her.

She was independent, and likely always had been. Why would she want someone in her life who scarcely knew her trying to tell her who she could and couldn’t see? It made no sense to him, therefore he was sure it made even less sense to Willow herself.

He sighed, rounding the corner of the main hall, ready to just head back to the Gryffindor dormitories for the night; and slammed right into someone.

"Hey! Watch it!" The dark haired boy growled, glancing up to look into the face of the person he’d collided with.

Sirius.

He swallowed.

"Sorry. Had my mind in the clouds, I guess."

The smile Sirius gave him was half-hearted, as was the soft chuckle.

"That’s okay, Harry. You shouldn’t be out wandering right now. Don’t you have homework to do?"

Sirius knew very well that he had homework to be doing – he and Remus had been the ones to assign a good majority of it.

Harry nodded. "Sorry. Had a lot on my mind, I guess. Needed a walk to air out my thoughts."

"I know what you mean. I was about to go for a walk myself – join me?"

The last thing Harry wanted was to go anywhere with Sirius right then. He was mad at him for being such an idiot when it came to women, or even just friendships. This was nothing he wanted to say to his godfather, of course. Sirius could live forever not knowing the disappointment that Harry felt at that moment. For a few brief moments it had almost been as if Sirius had finally found someone to share his life with – someone that would adore him in return.

And he had screwed it all up.

"What’s eating at you?"

Harry shook his head, probably a little too forcefully. "Nothing, really."

Sirius wasn’t buying it, though. "C’mon, Harry. You can talk to me about anything. You know that, right?"

It wasn’t Harry’s imagination that told him that Sirius wasn’t wholeheartedly into having this little chat.

"It’s nothing, really."

"Well, I think it is." Sirius stopped them, right there in the hallway. He turned to look at Harry, dark eyes curious but with a pain that belied his own recent hurts. "What happened?"

Harry gritted his teeth together and took a deep breath. "Why’d you do it, huh? Why’d you have to go and piss off the one good thing that’s happened to you since getting out of Azkaban? Why?"

"Harry . . . "

"Don’t ‘Harry’ me!" The eighteen year old growled angrily, hoping he sounded much more intimidating than he normally did. "You just couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you? Couldn’t let her have her own friends. Well – guess what. Now she can have her friends, but you aren’t one of them."

"It’s not that simple. You know Snape isn’t a good person. He doesn’t deserve her friendship." Sirius sighed, not bothering to lecture Harry on how he should speak to a Professor. They weren’t teacher and student right now. They were godfather and godson, family. And, between family, anything that needed to be said should be said.

Harry frowned. "To hear her tell it, Sirius, she wasn’t always a good person, either. She said something like that to me, at least. Maybe they do deserve to be friends with each other. Whatever they both did – it’s in the past. And I think it should stay there. We wouldn’t all want to be counted for things we did when we were younger and stupider – would we?"

Harry turned, leaving his godfather to mull over that little bit of information. He could make of it what he wanted, but if Harry knew him well enough – he knew that it would lead him to just one place.

Back to Willow.

He would want to at least know, as Harry did, what she had done that was so bad that she counted herself as once not having been a ‘good person’.

~*~*~

Sirius wandered through the halls of the school, replaying the conversation he had with his godson over and over again. Willow had told him she wasn’t always a good person?

Well he found that a little hard to believe.

What had she done?

Stolen a bit of sweets when she was younger? Maybe returned a library book late?

He chuckled at his own little joke on the fact that he perceived Willow as, if nothing else, a naïve young woman. There was no way she had done anything awful or horrible in his life. Nothing like Severus. Nothing that would make the two of them good friends for each other.

His steps inevitably took him towards the dungeons, and before he knew it he was standing outside of her door. He blinked at the heavy wooden entrance, surprised that he had come to this of all places.

The door swung open before he could gather his thoughts about him – and there she was.

There were tear streaks on her cheeks, and her eyes were red and puffy. The moment her eyes landed on him he was treated to a scowl to rival that of even Snape.

"I –" He began, unable to put into words exactly what he was really feeling. He wanted to say he was sorry, but the truth was he wasn’t entirely sure he was. She was friends with a man that he hated more than anything on the face of this earth – and he didn’t know if he’d ever be able to reconcile having a girlfriend like that.

"Did you need something?" She snapped, folding her arms across her chest. "I was on my way next door."

‘Next door’ really meant down the hall and around the corner. That was Snape’s room, Sirius knew. He felt anger rise up in his chest, like bile in the back of his throat. She was taunting him with her words, baiting him on to make an even larger arse of himself than he already had that day. Whether she was saying it because it was the truth, or just to get a rise out of him, though, he wasn’t sure; but it definitely broke his quiet moment.

"Is it true? What you told Harry? That you weren’t always a good girl?"

She raised an eyebrow at him, her expression of disdain never wavering, though her eyes told another story – one of the hurt he had inflicted upon her with his actions. "Go see Dumbledore. Tell him you have my permission to look in the pensieves I filled for him before he hired me. It’s all in there. Every tantalizing drop of it. Go – and if you still want to talk afterwards, you know where to find me."

She pushed past him, her robes billowing around her as she stalked off down the hall, towards Snape’s rooms. Sirius took a deep breath, forcing himself to remain calm. He would do as she had asked –

What could he possibly see in there that was all that bad?

~*~Part Fourteen~*~

He didn’t remember taking the steps that led him through the halls to Dumbledore’s office. All he could think of was Willow, her eyes cold and hard, refusing to give him any clue as to what her true emotions were. If she were hurt by this entire situation it was a true mystery to him. He had expected her to be crying over what had happened. In some way he really expected that she would come to him eventually and make nice. In some parts of his mind he could even imagine her saying that she would give up her friendship with Snape if it meant them getting back together. But, no. Go look in the pensieves, she said. It was as if she had given him permission to look into the very history of Willow Rosenberg.

Which, in a way, she had.

The pensieves, he knew, had been made by Willow for Dumbledore before he had finalized the job offer. They told of her life and times, back in the dimension she came from and had been a sort of assurance that she was who she said she was and had no intentions to cause trouble to anyone within the school – that she wasn’t a danger, in other words.

He paused once inside the office, unseeing, thinking of all the things he could possibly see within her memories. But nothing he could imagine in relation to the red haired witch screamed ‘bad’. She just wasn’t that type.

"She told you to look, did she not?"

Sirius turned, mute, to nod at the Headmaster.

"Very well, then." The Headmaster’s normally twinkling eyes were hard. "But I warn you, Sirius Black. The information in there is private and you are not to go sharing it with anyone. Not even your beloved godson."

The dark haired Professor licked his lips, wetting their parched dryness. "I understand."

"You may begin."

Sirius looked at the pensieves that Dumbledore gestured to. Two shimmering containers filled to the brim with the mysteries of Willow. With a hand that was trembling just a bit, he reached forward to the first of the gold-hued containers –

~*~*~

"Willow! A B? On your test? Have we done something wrong? What happened? Where did we go wrong, Sheila?"

"She’s merely showing her rebellion, Ira. It will be fine. Her grades will improve."

"She’s seven. I hardly think this is rebellion already."

"Children rebel earlier and earlier, dear. You remember that conference we went to – the one in Boston on early childhood episodes? Remember what Doctor Peters said. . .

Sirius looked around the room, eyes alighting on the child in question. It was obviously Willow, even though she was much, much younger. She looked so stricken, so heartbroken. Her face was firm, though; locking away the emotions she dare not show to her parents – people who seemed to want nothing more than perfection.

~*~*~

She was older when that memory cleared, giving way to a teenage version of the woman he now knew. She walked down the hall of what looked to be a school, books in arms and eyes to the ground. She was shy, it struck him very suddenly. Not that different from the woman he had fallen in love with, although somewhere along the way she appeared to have gotten the courage to defend herself.

Which was not something she had during this memory.

"Willow – did your mother pick out that shirt for you?"

The red head winced, and from where Sirius was standing, in the shadow of the memory, he saw the hurt in her eyes before she continued down the hall, pointedly ignoring the girl that had spoken – a bully and nothing more. But words hurt, no matter what anyone said. And he could see Willow’s pain even with her back turned to him, in that shuffling little walk and the way she didn’t look up. Just keep walking, her posture said. It’ll all be okay.

He sighed, moving on to the next memory.

~*~*~

"Have you heard about the new girl?" A dark haired teen grinned, plopping down next to Willow.

"What new girl?" Her forehead was creased in confusion, lunch forgotten for the moment. There was a gentle smile on her face, coupled with an innocence that Sirius couldn’t remember seeing before on her face.

"Don’t know her name, but she is definitely hot." A second boy chimed in, getting a high-five from his friend.

Sirius saw the longing look that passed fleetingly across Willow’s face as she glanced towards the first boy.

"Xander – don’t you have school work to do?"

Xander. . . that was his name. He had heard Willow mention Xander before. He was one of the friends that Willow had had a falling out with at some point before coming here.

The dream shifted.

~*~*~

"Where’s Jesse?"

"He’s still down there!" A petite blonde cried out, frustrated. Her arms and hands were scraped up, dirty; and she was limping a little as she made her way towards them. "I couldn’t get him out!"

"We have to go back!" Xander insisted, Willow’s steady grip on his arms holding him in place.

"It’s too late. . ." The blonde whispered.

"No –" Willow sobbed, and Sirius could feel her pain, her anger. This was not supposed to happen. She had seen something that night that wasn’t even supposed to exist.

And now her friend was gone, presumed dead.

Her safe little world was shattered.

Innocence destroyed.

~*~

"Vampires. . . demons. . . everything supernatural that you thought to be nothing more than a fairy tale – it all exists."

Sirius saw Willow shudder, her eyes closing briefly. She was remembering her lost friend, Jesse. The one that would never come back.

"This seems so. . . not real." Xander muttered, dropping his head into his arms on the table.

"I know what you mean," Willow whispered. "Who would have thought. . . "

"Yeah."

~*~*~

Sirius snapped out of the pensieve – those and a thousand other memories of her early years flooding his brain. He held a hand to his head, trying to block out her memories and regain his own. She had been through a lot before she even made it to adulthood – but none of that explained why she thought of herself as not having always been a ‘good girl’. So far as he could see she had experienced a lot of unfortunate things, but she hadn’t caused any of them.

"You need to see the rest to understand her."

The animagus nodded, not even turning to look at the Headmaster. The next pensieve, he already knew, would have the answers he was seeking.

But was he ready for them?

~*~Part Fifteen~*~

Willow slipped out of the Potions lab that Severus used for his own private brewing, wiping sweaty hands on her jeans. They had been in there for nearly three hours, and the potion still was not complete. When he had said making Wolfsbane was difficult – he hadn’t been kidding! She felt as if she would never be warm again, working in that cramped, dingy little room for so long without a break – just sitting there, stirring the delicate mixture with slow, even swishes of her wand.

She turned, strolling quietly through the dungeon halls. It was already after hours, and for all purposes students would be in their dorms, if not in their beds. This left the halls clear for her melancholy meandering.

Had Sirius gone to look into the pensieves yet? Would he at all? She was half-tempted to go to Dumbledore’s office just to see if he was there or had been there.

The other half of her, however, said screw it. He wanted to be one great Neanderthal, then let him. She wasn’t about to swoon and follow his every command, no matter how much he had come to mean to her. He could kiss her a--

"Far too sad a face for such a lovely Professor."

The red head blinked and stopped in mid-thought, watching Draco step out of the shadows at the nearest hall intersection. He was still dressed in his robes for the day, and had some books under his arms. No doubt coming back from late night studying in the library. At least, that’s what she chose to assume. It was better than thinking he was out making trouble, wandering the halls after hours. Then again, he was a prefect and had more right to be out in the halls than any other students did.

"Not much to be happy about tonight, Mister Malfoy." She murmured, watching warily as he approached. No matter how hard she tried it was hard to reconcile herself completely with the fact that Draco Malfoy was on the side of the light. He had been such a horrible child in the books – and now he was a strikingly handsome picture of model wizard behavior.

Okay, she wouldn’t take it *that* far. He was passably nice. Not at all rude to teachers – and she had yet to catch him playing a prank or screwing up anyone else’s work. In fact, when it came to her and her class, he seemed to be on his best, if not most flirtatious, behavior.

"Black still being an idiot?"

"H-How. . ." She stammered, face flushing.

"It was all over the school after the evening meal. You should know by now how rumors travel here."

Willow sighed, fighting back the urge to scream and cry. This was awful. Horrible. Sirius would not be happy to know that their fight was public knowledge.

"I never thought I’d say this – but he thinks he’s doing what’s right. Even if its wrong." Draco continued on, leaning against the wall.

"Yes, well. He has no right to order me about."

"True. Believe me – I agree. Women should not be forced to do things they don’t want – only makes them angry." The scowl on Draco’s face said all too clearly that he had been on the receiving end of a woman’s wrath more than once.

"Right. It makes us angry. You know that. Other people know that. But not Sirius frickin’ Black. Oh no, he thinks that he’s the Goddess’ gift to the female species. Destined to make us giggle all girly-like and throw ourselves at his feet."

Draco mock-frowned, eyes alight with amusement. He tossed a wink her way, the frown turning into a smirk that was far too sensual for his barely eighteen year old self to be using so flagrantly. "He’s horribly mistaken, then. That little description pertains to me."

Willow bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing, remembering more than one fic that she had perused involving the ‘Slythering Sex God’ himself.

"Of course. Any women currently throwing themselves at your feet?" She joked.

"There’s one. Another red head. I think she has promise, even if she doesn’t know it yet."

Ginny Weasley, Willow’s mind supplied with a little happy dance of ‘shipper joy, momentarily overshadowing the pain she was feeling at her own recent heartbreak. She fought to keep the smile on her face once those thoughts came rushing back, but the moment was in vain.

Draco noticed.

"He’ll apologize soon enough."

"Yeah, right."

"Why wouldn’t he? Because you want to stay friends with Professor Snape? That would be a stupid reason to keep this up."

Willow shook her head. "No. Something much worse. I’m letting him look at my memories. The things I did in my past."

"Steal a bit of sweet when you were young?" Draco laughed. "C’mon. What could you have done to make Sirius Black think less of you? He’s a bloody idiot!"

She didn’t reprimand him for what he said, even though Sirius was, in fact, a Professor and, as such, should not be spoken about in such a manner. She turned to Draco with haunted eyes, shaking her head slowly.

"What did you do, then?" He prompted quietly.

Willow gave a short, bitter laugh. "Let’s just say that me and the Dark Arts go way back. Bosom buds and all that crap."

Draco had not expected to hear that – it was as clear as the open-mouthed shock on his face. "You. . . dark. . ."

"Yeah, little old me. The shining example of innocence and virtue." She met his eyes, as if seeing him for the first time, and shook herself from the melancholic reverie. "Don’t tell anyone, k?"

"I wouldn’t." He agreed, slowly. "We all have secrets. I still think he’ll forgive you."

She smiled sadly. "I don’t think he’ll like me very much at all by the time he’s done."

Draco reached out, tilting her chin up until her eyes were once again meeting his own. Green to silver – like the very colors of Slytherin house themselves.

"Then he’s an even bigger prat that I gave him credit for."

Willow laughed softly. "Be nice, Draco. He’s your teacher."

"And he’s a bloody moron, if you ask me." The young man insisted. "You keep me in mind if he decides he’s too good for you? I’ve been around the Dark a bit, you know. Can’t see myself tossing you out because of it. Or because you’re friends with my godfather."

She smiled and leaned in to brush a kiss across his cheek before backing away, down the hall she had come from.

"If only you were a couple years older, Draco."

As she turned, she could have sworn that she heard his own soft reply, whispered into the empty halls.

"If only."

~*~Part Sixteen~*~

Sirius stared at the pensieve as if it were a snake that could bite him at
any moment. He had been warned by Willow, and also in a way by Dumbledore
himself, that the memories that he would find would be far from pretty. And,
even though he couldn’t imagine a single thing that Willow could have done
to make him think badly of her, outside of being friends with Snape, he
found himself slightly apprehensive. What if there really was something. . .

No, there couldn’t be.

Not from her.

She was too. . . sweet. Innocent, even. She didn’t have what it took to have
done anything bad or even remotely wrong. That just wasn’t in her nature.

He reached out, touching the pensieves swirling, glowing strands of pure
memory without a second thought.

~*~

"Wills – you don’t have to do this."

"Yes I do."

Sirius leaned against the wall of what looked like a library, watching the
scene with mixed emotions. There she was again, in all of her young,
slightly nerdish glory. Still just as beautiful and radiant as she was now,
only in a younger ‘go-straight-to-Azkaban-if-you-touch-her’ kind of way.

"But –"

"C’mon, Buffy," Willow sighed with a shake of her head. "I’m up to it,
really. And we all want Angel back."

"Xander doesn’t."

The red head frowned. "Yeah, well, Xander. . . it’s just that –"

"He killed Jenny." Buffy offered.

"Yeah, he did." Willow nodded. "It might take a little while for everyone to
get used to the idea that he got his soul back and is Angel again – but they
’ll come around."

Sirius watched as the blonde smiled, a bittersweet expression that seemed to
be holding back tears that she hadn’t shed yet and may never have a chance
to shed.

"Kendra will be here with you – I’m going to go out and see what they’re up
to – just in case this doesn’t work."

She left, and the library was empty for the moment, save for himself and
Willow. He took that time to walk up to her in the memory, fully aware that
she wouldn’t be able to see or hear him. He paused, standing next to her to
look at the piece of paper that she was staring so intently at. His heart
leapt into his throat, choking him slowly as he read the words written upon
it.

Willow, sweet little Willow, was attempting a soul restoration. He shivered.
That was borderline magic. Neither white nor black – a shade of grey that
he, personally, wouldn’t want to come near. Anything dealing with blood or
souls was touchy work, one slip here or there and you’d forever loose
yourself to the magics.

And she was about to do it – at an age that couldn’t be more than sixteen,
maybe seventeen though he doubted it.

Merlin, what had she been thinking?

~*~

The memory faded out, replaced by something new. She was older now, and a
woman sat next to her.

"You’re using magic t-too much," the blonde stammered with a shake of her
head. "For everything, Will!"

"I do –not- have a problem."

The blonde crossed her arms angrily, glaring at Willow. "You used magic to
get dressed this morning. To do your makeup, your hair. You did it all
without even thinking about it. I r-remember when you used to think twice
just to do the simplest little spell."

Willow frowned, and Sirius could see where this was going. The blonde was
trying to do an intervention. She felt that Willow was getting in over her
head with magic. That was understandable. Many witches and wizards used
magic to the extent that it ran or ruined their lives.

"I don’t need this from you, Tara."

Without another word Willow was gone, out of the room and presumably out of
the house.

And the memory left in a flash.

~*~

"Goddess. . . I feel. . ."

"Good? Great? Powerful?"

Sirius shivered. The man that Willow was with in this memory seemed like the
lowest of the low. Scum, pure and simple. His clothes were muggle in nature,
though not the smart styles he had seen before on the streets. These were
more casual, as if he did nothing but lie around all day. He had a glimmer
in his eyes that was oddly disturbing, though Sirius felt as if he’d seen
evil and weirdness before.

"It’s wonderful." Willow breathed, her eyes glazed over and dazed. Sirius
stepped closer, looking more closely. There was almost no color, no white,
left to her eyes. They were filled with blackness. He had only seen that
look once or twice before – from junkies. But there was no way that Willow
was – "How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing, sweets. Just bring me another book from the Old Man’s collection
next time you come in, k?"

Willow nodded, wiping her palms absently on the form-fitting pants she was
wearing.

Sirius closed his eyes, praying that that was it – the bad thing that she
said she had done. If this was it he could still forgive her.

If there was more –

And just when he thought he would be freed from the memories, they shifted
again.

~*~

"Willow!"

"Don’t ‘Willow’ me, Xander! I can feel it – all of it! The pain, the
suffering. I can feel it all." Red hair was replaced with black. Her eyes
were of the inky darkness of the blackest Hell. Veins stood out on a face
that was deathly pale in its lack of coloring. She looked like a corpse, to
be honest. Sirius wanted out. Now. He didn’t want to see this. The entire
memory reeked of the darkest of evils – the blackest of Dark Magic.

"So you’re just going to end it all? The entire world?" Xander took a step
forward, hand out like one would appease a frightened animal. "What about
me? And Buffy?"

Sirius looked behind the witch he had thought he knew so well, at the statue
that seemed to rise from the very earth itself. She had raised that, he knew
without having to relive that portion of her memories. It was ancient and
demonic; a shrine to a goddess of destruction.

"I’ll still love you."

She flinched, and Sirius thought he could see her eyes flicker back to green
for a second, as her best friend’s words rang out for a second time.

"Do you hear me, Wills? I still love you. Always will. You want to end the
world – do it. I’ll be right here by your side."

Sirius gasped, throwing himself out of the memory with a very physical
lurch. The force of his movement sent him stumbling back, over a chair. He
landed with a thud on the floor of Dumbledore’s office.

"She –"

The old man nodded. "Yes, she did."

"But –"

"Oh, do not worry. She didn’t finish the spell. In fact, her friend, Xander
I believe his name is, saved her entire reality with his selfless acts."
Dumbledore paused. "Of course – you left her memories before you saw the
end. The months of recovery she went through trying to rid herself of the
cravings. The abandonment she faced from her friends."

"She –" Sirius was at a loss for words. Of all the things he could have
imagined – this didn’t even make the list. It was utterly and completely
astounding. She had not only dabbled in the Dark Arts, but had been
submerged in it.

Her friendship with Snape made something like sense to him at that moment.
She had found a kindred spirit. Not someone else that was mired in the Dark
Arts – but someone else who would be forever recovering from them.

"I think you should go speak with her now." Dumbledore offered benignly.
"She’s been waiting up to see if you would come by."

Sirius nodded, accepting the hand up that the Headmaster offered him.

"I’ve been an idiot." He muttered, stumbling out of the office.

Dumbledore chuckled, shaking his head in amusement. He waited until he heard
the click of the gargoyle sliding back into place before commenting to
himself –

"You always were an idiot when it came to the opposite sex, Sirius Black."
~*~Part Seventeen~*~

She didn’t know why she waited up, the hours ticking by, for someone that might never show up at her door. Sirius, for all she knew, had decided that she was better left as a creature of the dungeons than as his girlfriend. Willow frowned down at the book she had been attempting to read, realizing that in two hours she had read no more than three pages – and of those three she could remember nothing.

It was pointless.

He wasn’t coming.

The book shut as a dejected sigh escaped her lips. Even though she was still quite angry with him, she had hoped they could somehow reconcile their differences. It was a futile hope, she now realized. The world was black and white to Sirius. Nothing in shades of gray like she had learned for herself so many years ago. Those who lived in the black and white couldn’t see the grays, they were too busy categorizing every person, place, action and thing that they came across into one of two categories – ‘good’ and ‘bad’.

Just like Sirius.

She waved the book towards the shelf across the room with a small tendril of power, levitating it gently into place alongside its brethren. Her studies would have to wait for another night when the pain from this apparent loss was not so great. She was ready to forgive him if he was sorry – but now he didn’t seem to want to talk to her at all.

The sheets of her bed were cool to her bare feet, and she was suddenly very glad that she had worn long, flannel pajama pants to bed. They were a special purchase made during her one and only trip into Muggle London since arriving in this strange dimension. What was going on back home, in Sunnydale? If anyone had even noticed that she was missing she would be surprised. Even if they had noticed, she doubted they cared.

"I’ll never know," she sighed with a shake of her head, laying down and closing her eyes. Perhaps sleep would come quickly tonight and rid her of the oppressively sad thoughts that were running rampant through her head one after another.

~*~*~

The halls of the school were dark and deserted by the time Sirius wandered back in from the cool night. He had taken a walk to think and clear his mind, though it had ended up doing less of that than he wanted. He knew so much about Willow now – about the girl she had been and the woman she had become. Her life had not been. . . easy.

Still, though, she had used and abused the Dark Arts. She was tainted forever – of that there was no doubt. You couldn’t just walk away from the Dark Arts and expect to live a normal, clean life. She wasn’t the paragon of virtue that he had assumed.

And that was his own fault.

He sighed, stopping in the middle of the dungeon hallway he had unwittingly wandered down. From the moment that he had met Willow he had assumed that she was exactly what she looked like – an innocent young girl that was horribly out of place in a world she had thought was only fantasy. That couldn’t have been farther from the truth, he knew now.

So she had instinctively, perhaps, made friends with the one person in the entire school that would understand. Severus Snape. The only man that Sirius could personally claim to know that honestly shook off the allure of the Dark and had spent most of his life trying to make amends for it.

Wandering feet took him closer and closer to the room of the witch he once called his own, until finally he stood outside of her door. He hadn’t a clue what time it was, but no light peeked out from beneath her shut door to indicate that she was awake. Indeed, if the rest of the castle appeared to be asleep, it only stood to reason that she was, too.

Yet, still he knocked.

The seconds ticked by slowly, making only a minute seem like an eternity as he waited for any sign that she had heard and would answer. Finally he heard a stumbling, shuffling staccato of feet and then a tired voice muttering – though the words themselves were unintelligible.

When the door swung open at last it was all he could do not to laugh at the sleepy-eyed witch on the other side. She was wearing the pink and white flannel pajamas he had helped her choose once while out shopping in London, and they made her seem even more of a child than she normally did. Her hair was tousled, and there was a crease on one side of her face from the pillow she had been lying upon. She blinked at him, mouth half-open as she fought back a yawn.

"Wha’re you doin’ here?" Speech was not one of those things on the top of Willow’s list when she first woke up, he knew from previous experience.

"We need to talk."

"Nope," she shook her head. "Waited up. You didn’t come. Now is sleep time. Not talk time. Buh-bye."

He held a hand out, catching the door before it could close. She hadn’t even noticed, he saw right away as he proceeded into her room and shut the door behind himself. Already half-way back in bed, Willow looked up at the clicking of the door as it shut.

"You’re still here."

"Yes, I am."

She pondered him for a moment with tired green eyes. "Fine. But I’m sleeping."

"Alright." He nodded. "Can I talk while you sleep?"

Willow shrugged. "Don’t care as long as you whisper."

Sirius sat on the edge of the bed, pulling the covers up to her chin. The fire in her hearth had gone out at least an hour or more prior and the room was beginning to get chilled.

"I –" He whispered, stopping when he realized that if he could hardly hear himself it was doubtful she could hear him at all, especially since she was trying so hard to just go back to sleep. "Nevermind – we’ll talk in the morning."

"Morning good." She mumbled, eyes closed. One arm was tucked under the pillow, the other clutching the blanket to her chest. "You get in and we sleep, ‘kay?"

Sirius stared at her in surprise. "Are you sure?"

She shrugged, crumpling her pillow with the effort. "Don’t care. Talk tomorrow. Get in or get out."

He didn’t need to be told twice. Well, not a third time, anyway. Tossing off all but his undershirt and boxers, the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor slid into the bed next to her, wincing at the crisp coldness of that unused side of the bed. He laid still for a few long minutes, listening to the sound of her breathing and waiting for any second when she would surely remember that she was mad at him and then kick him out of her bed and, perhaps, life.

But the moment never came and slowly he relaxed until, at last, he just rolled over, spooning against her warmth.

They would talk in the morning.

~*~Part Eighteen~*~

When she woke to warm arms encircling her waist, it took a long few minutes for Willow to remember what had happened the night before. Sirius had come to her, wanting to talk. And she had told him she just wanted to sleep. She had told him to get in bed with her.

She gave a mental sigh, shaking her head at her own silliness. Why even act like you’re mad at someone if you’re going to ask them to jump in bed with you the first time they show up at your door?

"You’re awake."

The red head jumped slightly, startled by the voice in her ear. She hadn’t even realized that Sirius, too, was awake.

"It would seem that way," she murmured coolly. "And, so are you, so I guess we can talk now."

"Yeah."

But neither of them said a word. They just laid there, in each other’s arms, without knowing what to say. She wouldn’t apologize for being Severus’ friend and she wouldn’t break off that friendship, either. And he. . . Well, he had even more to deal with than she did. He had viewed the events of her life as seen through the pensieves.

"I watched them, you know."

She nodded. It was as she had expected. He had jumped at the chance to view her life as it had happened in a dimension he would never truly understand.

"You –"

"I was a bad person," she interrupted him, squeezing her eyes shut to stave off tears that had already started to form. "I did horrible, awful things. I abused the trust of people that cared for me. And I have repented over and over again – tried to live a good life. . . But that won’t ever make up for what I did, Siri."

He sighed, the gust of breath rustling the hairs on the back of her neck, causing her to wiggle deeper into his embrace. An embrace, she was happy to say, that he did not break or move away from.

"I saw. You tried to end the world."

"That I did. The black magic overtook me, made me into what it wanted. . . They, my friends, tried to ‘fix’ me by dosing me up with good magic – but that just made things worse. Suddenly I could feel the pains and heartaches of the entire world. And all I wanted was for it to end. All of it. The black magic part of me was all like ‘hey – it would end if everyone died’. . . and thus me trying to end the world."

"Your friends tried to stop you?"

"Long before I got that bad," She nodded, still not turning to face him. She wouldn’t be able to stand it if he looked at her the way he looked at the Dark Arts users he spoke about or came into contact with at times. "Tara, you might have seen her, she was one of my closest friends. We did magic together. She knew I was getting in too deep. She tried, over and over again, to make me stop. But, once you start, it’s hard to just give it up. I wasn’t that strong."

She felt him pull her even closer towards him. "You did stop, though. In the end."

"Yeah – Xander talked me down. He saved the world with just the love in his heart."

And then he had abandoned her, she reminded herself silently. He had given up on her when she wouldn’t pull herself out of the depths of despair her own actions had put her into. Not that she blamed him. She had brought it on herself, after all. First by getting in over her head with the magic, then by not allowing them to help her when she was falling deeper, and finally by trying to end all life as they knew it.

Yeah, it was just one big old pit that she had dug herself into.

She heard Sirius sigh again, this time it was different. He didn’t have any more question – now he had something to say.

"I can’t pretend that I like this." He began slowly. "Knowing you did those things. . . that you were a user of the Dark Arts. . . it makes me. . . ."

"Icked out, huh?"
He chuckled. "Yeah ‘icked out’. But. . . Dumbledore wouldn’t let you be here unless he really believed you were a good person underneath it all."

"You say that about me," she blurted out, wincing at the harshness of her own words. "Yet you can’t believe it about Severus? Who has done nothing worse than me, and in some ways far, far less."

"Willow –"

"No, Sirius." She rolled over now, green eyes sparkling with tears. "You can’t tell me not to be friends with him. You can’t try to protect me from all of the things you think are big and bad in this world. Believe me when I say I’m not some maiden in her tower, screaming all ‘help me, help me’ like and waiting for a Prince. I’ve seen bigger, badder things than you can imagine. Hell, I was one of those things. I won’t put up with it. Maybe women in this world like men telling them what to do, protecting them when they don’t really need it – but I’m not from this world and I don’t like it."

She held her breath, searching his face as her angry tirade ended. His dark eyes met hers steadily, no indication of what he was thinking lurking in their depths.

"Okay," he nodded after two long minutes that Willow could swear took an hour apiece.

"Okay?" She repeated.

"Yes. I can’t make you do things you don’t want to do. I can’t warn you away from him when the two of you are, as much as I hate to admit it, kindred spirits. And I can’t condemn you when I’ve had these weeks to see you for who you are – not who you were."

"Really?" Her eyebrows rose straight up to her hairline. "You mean it?"

He laughed, pulling her against his body. "Definitely. Just. . . give me some time to get used to it all. I can’t promise we’ll be right back as good as ever right from the start."

And she wouldn’t have expected it, she knew. Anything less than ‘working through it’ would have been very un-Sirius like and completely against his nature.

"That’s fine." She paused. "No more telling me not to be friends with Sev, then, right?"

His face took on a pained expression, mouth opening and closing as though he were fighting himself. "Right."

Willow laughed, snuggling her face into the crook of his neck. He was holding her so tightly, in a way that she hadn’t been held in a long, long time. For the first time in forever she felt. . . safe. Safe from the world, from the secrets she had hidden and from others.

And, she decided, closing her eyes to doze back off, she liked that feeling.

~*~The End~*~