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Classes began again, and the rumour mill continued to expand. The students who had gone home for the holidays came back to hear about Buffy’s identity and even more owls were sent out. The amount of anonymous Howlers that Buffy had received had been too immense to count. She hadn’t opened a single one of them, Giles having told her to ignore them. He’d actually given her permission to burn every single one that she received so that no strange spells or hexes were released onto her.

Hermione had told Buffy about the undiluted Bubator pus that she’d received in a Howler when Rita Skeeter had announced to the entire wizarding community that Hermione had broken Harry’s heart by dating Bulgarian Quidditch player Viktor Krum. Buffy was more than happy to burn each and every howler, but she was quickly getting sick of having to do it.

Students avoided her when she walked down the corridors. They went silent when she entered a room, and they spoke about her behind her back. But Buffy acted as though it didn’t phase her.

Giles, however, knew better than that.

He couldn’t help but notice that Buffy was becoming more and more introverted, bordering on sullen and depressed. He couldn’t blame her for it. She’d gone from being one of the most popular girls in school to being someone that people spoke of viciously. It wasn’t an easy transition and there was nothing that could be done about it. Giles was just grateful that Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco had stuck by her side through it all.

Buffy was spending more and more time in the library. It was quiet in there, students only going in there when they absolutely had to. Plus, it kind of reminded her of the Sunnydale library, and she needed something familiar in her life.

When she wasn’t training in a room that Giles had set up for her to stay in shape, she was curled up in a corner of the library, reading whatever books she could get her hands on. If anything good came out of Buffy’s forced exile, it would be that she was very widely read.

Buffy stretched her legs out in front of her. She was seated in ‘her’ corner of the library. It was towards the back where no one would think to look for her, except those who knew her very well. It was the first place anyone looked if they were trying to locate her.

Buffy sighed and stood up, having finished going through a spell book that was meant to be for grade seven. She’d finished reading through the sixth grade book the other week, and was glad to have finally made it through the seventh grade book. She wandered through the stacks, replacing the book on its rightful shelf and skimming the other book titles. Not paying attention to what she was doing, she moved down the aisle and bumped into something. Or someone. She’d sent them crashing to the floor.

Buffy winced when she saw the other girls eyes go wide with fear. Buffy held her hand out to help the girl get to her feet. The girl, who Buffy recognised as Neville’s partner from the Yule Ball, hesitated but finally accepted Buffy’s help.

“Sorry about that,” Buffy said quietly, remembering that they were in a library where the librarian actually liked the quiet.

“I-it’s okay,” the girl stuttered out nervously.

Buffy looked at the books that the girl was cradling in her arms.

“Potions assignment?” Buffy asked, pointing at the girl’s books.

The girl nodded. “I k-know it’s a little e-early, b-b-but…Snape is uh…very…”

“Scary?” Buffy finished for her.

The girl nodded, her cheeks flaming red.

“I bet he’s just a regular puppy dog under the scowl and the greasy hair,” Buffy said. “Way, way under it all of course, but…somewhere in there. He can’t be all bad, right?”

“P-probably not.”

Buffy noticed that the girl was practically shaking. She sighed and leant back against the bookcase, thankful that they were fairly sturdy.

“I’m making you nervous, aren’t I?” Buffy asked.

“N-n-no!”

Buffy just raised one eyebrow and the girl went an even brighter shade of red. She bit her lip and eventually nodded.

“A little bit,” she conceded.

Buffy nodded and lifted herself away from the bookcase.

“I’ll leave you to it then.”

The Hufflepuff girl looked at the departing figure and saw an immense sadness around her that was unusual. In a daring move, she called out to Buffy.

“Wait!”

Buffy stopped and turned, not allowing herself to be too hopeful.

“Y-you’re pretty g-good at potions, r-right?”

Buffy nodded. “Yeah. It’s a pretty interesting subject.”

“M-maybe you could help me out.”

Buffy grinned and the other girl couldn’t help but smile. She’d managed to take away the sadness just by offering her a hand in friendship. Buffy led them towards a table, not particularly wanting to be so out in the open, but knowing that the shy Hufflepuff girl probably wouldn’t want to be cornered in with her.

“So what’s your name anyway?” Buffy asked curiously.

“Tara,” she replied. “Tara Maclay.”

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