What if Willow was lying?

[BuffyElevated]

So I'm rewatching "Gingerbread" and it occurred to me that Willow seemed very defensive when Buffy found the witch symbol on her notebook (the same one she had seen in the hands of the children in the park). Willow had been practicing magic with Amy, who we saw later on got into some very dark stuff. She told Buffy the symbol was part of a protection spell, but that doesn't fit because why would it be on the hands of those "kids"??
I'm not saying Willow and the others summoned the demon that was mascarading as those children but what if they did? What if this was the beginning of Willow's abuse of magic?

 

[Xin Rong]

I suppose anything's possible, either that or the demon was opportunistic.

I wouldn't call it an abuse of magic though, more an accident, like Xander in OMWF

 

[Still a Scoobie]

The demon picked that symbol, imo, because of several things: 1. If anyone tried to do that protection spell to ward off the trouble the demon was causing, they'd look very guilty and make people even more suspicious and angry. 2. Willow et al had that symbol painted huge on the floor, nice and easy for someone to find, I believe the demon knew this, due to some supernatural sensitivity to spells happening in the area, so he used that symbol knowing it was being used by local witches at that time. 3. Just because it can be used in a protection spell doesn't mean the symbol is intrinsically good, it may just be something that lends power to a spell, good or bad.

 

[Evil Angelus 95]

Symbols can hold different meanings, even if they're drawn or presented the same way. I think that was probably just the case here.

I don't think Willow was doing anything Dark at this point. Remember, when Anya tried to get her to do the spell in "Doppelgangland", she stopped.

 

[Blaze]

If anything, Willow was being used or it was accidental, no magick abuse at this point in my opinion.

 

[Lyri]

I like the theory, HM, and as a huge Willow hater, I'm inclined to just agree with it and be done, lol.

But I do honestly think that the demon picked the symbol in order to just increase the chaos it had created. It wanted to turn people against magic and witches - what better way than to turn a harmless protection spell that the local practitioners were using to protect the Champion of the town into something to be hated and feared?

Job well done, I'd say.