Harry Potter and the Technomage

As Xander lay back on the seat he glanced around the carriage, it was old, not really old just out of place with the modern day technology he was used to in good old Sunnyhell, but then again, he wasn’t in Sunnydale anymore.

He let his staff fall softly from his hands into his lap, and enjoyed the warmth he felt tingling up his hands whenever he touched it, he’d been given quite a few strange looks when he’d been caught stroking it, but he just shrugged them off, it was part of him now. A living extension of his own body, when he was without it... It felt like he was missing a limb or something, hard to believe six months ago he didn’t have it, didn’t have any of it.

Reaching up with his hand he started to run his fingers through his hair, it was growing back, not as fast as he would have liked it to, but in a month it had gone from bald to short, spiky and generally unkempt, a far cry from his old style that would hang around his eyes, but it was getting there.

He was brought out of his musings by the door to his carriage opening, and three children stepping into the room. A girl and two boys, they seemed young, a lot younger than him, but he’d been warned about this by Giles and that other man, professor something or other. He knew he would be surrounded by younger people than him, that didn’t bother him, he just didn’t want them to treat him like an outsider or anything because of what had happened to him.

“Sorry, we couldn’t find anywhere free, do you mind?” The young girl asked, pausing in the doorway as the two boys bumped into the back of her.

“Be my guest.” Xander said, smiling as best as he could as he pulled his long black coat even tighter around himself, Giles had told him it would be cold here, Scotland in the summer was still a hell of a lot colder than California in the winter, it was colder than anything he had ever felt in his life.

He watched the trio file into the carriage, closing the door behind themselves and putting their luggage in the holders before they all took a seat opposite him, he looked at them each in turn, ignoring their obvious curiosity about himself, if they wanted to know, they could ask.

The girl was young, maybe thirteen or fourteen, she reminded him of Willow when she was that age, she had that fierce intelligence in her eyes that no one else saw in Willow but him. Then he turned to the two boys, one had bright red hair and the other dark brown and glasses.

“Harry, don’t stare.” The girl said, elbowing Harry he guessed. Smiling he laughed softly.

“It’s alright; I’m used to it by now.” Xander said, a bit sadly. Truth was he was used to the staring, after Halloween he’d tried to fit back in, go back to his old life, to ignore all the changes that had happened to him, but no matter how hard he tried, whatever he tried to do to make everything alright again, he couldn’t fit back in. It wasn’t his friends fault, Buffy, Willow and Giles had done everything they could to help him, but there was nothing more that they could do, Sunnydale just wasn’t his home anymore.

“Are you a new Student?” Harry asked, pushing his glasses back up onto his face as they had fallen off while he was staring at the staff that lay comfortably across Xander’s lap.

“Yeah, you three?” He turned to each of them in turn, ignoring the quick look of shock that passed their faces.

“First time for me as well, I didn’t even know about this place a month ago.” Harry was the first one to reply with a smile.

“Same here, Giles, my friend told me about it after... after something changed.” Xander replied, trying to smile and reassure the kids sat opposite him. “Seemed like a good idea to come here, I didn’t really fit in with anyone else back home anymore.”

“Where was home? You’re accent’s American.” The girl pointed out before receiving an elbow to the ribs from the red headed boy on her left. “Sorry, I’m Hermione Granger; this is Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley.” Hermione introduced the boys with a smile as Xander nodded to each of them in turn.

“Xander Harris.” He smiled by way of introduction. “And home was California.”

The train jerked as it left the station and silence dawned on the carriage again, he took the time to actually take note of the three people he would be sharing the train ride with for the next few hours. All of them seemed nervous, the boy Harry in particular, he had an awkward scar above his eye and was frequently trying to cover it up with his hair.

As his shoulder tingled again he reached up to massage it, ignoring the pain that shot through his muscles as he felt the cold hard surface of the implants beneath the leather coat. He massaged the area around the implant softly before wriggling his shoulders a bit, as if he was trying to get comfortable in his own skin again.

Six months, Six months ago he was normal, everything was alright. He glanced down at the back of his hand, even through the pale skin he could see the cold filament of the implants weaving in and out through his veins and muscles, it almost looked beautiful if it wasn’t the thing that had turned him into this freak.

He traced one of the patterns with his finger for a second before looking up and seeing Harry stare at his hand with wide eyes, a pure look of shock on the young face. Xander smiled up and rested his hands in his lap, covering them up with the long sleeves of his coat as his hands started stroking his staff again. ‘So much for fitting in here,’ he thought to himself as he watched Harry look at him while he took his wand out of his pocket. Wands, that still made him laugh, he knew he had his in his suitcase; he’d left it in the wooden case after the guy, Oliver, Olivander? Had made it for him, he’d probably never use it; he had no reason to, but when in Rome...

He rested his head back on the cushion and let his thoughts drift, closing his eyes he could almost imagine he was back home, where he didn’t have three children staring at him as he tried to rest. He let his thoughts drift back, drift back to that one night that changed everything six months ago, as the memories came back to him he felt a strange sense of calm, he continued stroking his staff as it lay on his lap as the calm sensation washed over him.

=/^=

“Come on Xander, you’d look great as him.” Willow grinned as she held the coat up against Xander’s frame.

“I don’t care what you say Willow, I’m not shaving my head for anyone.” He grinned as he ran his hand through his hair.

“You don’t have to, it’s a skull cap type thing, like a wig but no hair, makes you look bald see?” Willow held up the cap for him and placed it on his head before turning him to the mirror that was fixed to the wall on his left.

That was it; bald was definitely not the look for him. It made his eyebrows look unreasonably large and his pale skin made his dark eyes look even larger on his face. “Willow...” He started as she wrapped the jacket around him, fussing at him to get his arms into the sleeves.

“Come on Xander.” Willow practically whined. “You promised you’d dress as him this year, and this is an amazing costume, they have the staff and everything.”

The two had been watching Crusade ever since it had started, Xander had always been a big Babylon 5 fan, so when Crusade started on TV he immediately became hooked on it, and Willow had followed soon after.

“I don’t think that cap is quite you’re colour.” A British voice came from behind him causing both Xander and Willow to turn round to see who had spoken. “I think I have one in the back that might be more your tone, one second.” The man didn’t even bother with an introduction as he headed off into the back room.

“Owner?” Willow turned to Xander as she asked.

Xander just shrugged as he took a closer look in the mirror, sure enough, now that it had been pointed out to him he could definitely see the change in colour from the skin to the cap, admittedly it wasn’t fixed on properly, and was just hanging loose on his head with hair sticking out from under it, but you could imagine what it would look like when it was on properly.

“Here we go, this one will look better.” The man came back out of the back room with a smile and carrying a cap that looked exactly like the one he was wearing, but a bit paler.

Taking the cap from the man Xander took the one off his head and placed the new one on loosely, it was definitely a better colour, it was practically his own skin colour.

“I assume you know the character?” The man asked with a voice almost dripping with disdain, truth was he’d had five or six people try on the costume already, and they had all thought it was someone else, someone had even thought it was Dracula or Jack the Ripper.

“Sure, it’s Galen from Crusade, the Technomage taught by Elric.” Willow babbled out, she’d just finished reading the first of the Technomage Trilogy books and had found herself quite enamoured with the character Galen.

“Thank god, you’re the first person who actually recognised the costume for who it is supposed to be. I’m the owner of the shop and I hate it when people mess things around, it’s not a simple thing you know, to sort all these out and find the right one for each customer.” The man grimaced as he saw another group of boys heading for a light sabre stand, ever since the new Star Wars films had come out, all anyone wanted to buy was light sabres, he’d already sold nine Darth Maul double sabres, all enchanted of course.

“How much is it?” Xander asked hesitantly, he only had twenty dollars in his pocket and he was sure that this elaborate costume would be worth more than that, he’d been planning on going as a simple soldier when Willow had reminded him of the promise he made to her when she saw the costume, a bout of puppy dog eyes later and he was here, trying the costume on. He had to admit it looked damn good, one of the best costumes he had seen.

“I’m sure we can come to some arrangement, I want to make sure that everyone has the perfect costume this year, I want them to make the costumes come to life.” The man said with an elaborate flourish as he turned around. “My my, haven’t we found the hidden princess.”

“It’s gorgeous.” Buffy breathed in as the man took the costume off the stand and held it up in front of her to see in the mirror.

“Meh, too bulky, I prefer my women in spandex.” Xander said with a grin as Willow slapped him on the arm with a smile.

“I could never afford this.” Buffy said with a pout as she moved away from the burgundy dress.

“Nonsense, I feel quite moved to make sure you three have the perfect costume for tonight.” The man smiled as he carried the dress to the counter and then came back for the rest of the Technomage costume. “If you promise to take care of them, and tell everyone where you got them from, I’ll let you have them for fifteen dollars each.” He barely contained his smile as Xander and Buffy’s eyes lit up with excitement.

“Are you sure? I mean...” Buffy started as she ran her fingers over the elaborate dress in front of her.

“Quite sure, the best advertising you can get is word of mouth, and I think these costumes will be perfect for you two.” The man smiled as he started bagging everything up, ignoring the large black staff for the moment as he folded the costumes up and placed them in separate bags.

“Wow, thanks.” Xander said with a grin as he picked up his back and handed across the money.

“Yeah, I can’t wait to see Angel’s face when he sees me in this.” Buffy exclaimed with a faraway look in her eye, imagining the perfect romantic evening that they could have once they had finished with Snyder’s trick or treating.

“Yeah, right.” Xander snorted with a grin and followed the girls out of the store, ignoring the dirty look that Willow was sending his way as he carried the staff through the door, it was too big for a bag so he’d have to carry it normally, but he didn’t mind, if felt nice in his hands, natural somehow.

=/^=

“So are you transferring or what?” The girl spoke, breaking Xander out of his memories.

“No, first year for me.” Xander quipped, ignoring the shocked stares again. He’d been expecting a certain amount of animosity from the students, he must be at least four or five years older than the year that Professor whatshisface and Giles had agreed to put him in, they’d both said that since it was his first year practicing magic it would be best if he was placed in the first year of school, if he was placed in the year with the rest of the students his age, he would have trouble keeping up with the advanced nature of their classes.

“Didn’t you go to a magic school in America then?” The girl asked again, the two boys seemed perfectly content to sit and watch the interaction without asking any questions of their own.

“Regular school, I didn’t even know about magic until six months ago.” Xander explained, a bit of a white lie, but he didn’t fancy explaining all about slayers, vampires and chaos mages on his first meeting with people.

“I was raised by muggles as well.” The brown haired boy finally spoke, Harry was it?

“Muggles?” Xander tested the new word on his lips, must be a British word he figured.

“You know, people without magic.” The boy continued.

“Ah right, yeah, my parents were definitely muggles then.” He said with a grimace, he was still a muggle technically, he could do magic, that much was certain, but it wasn’t the same as what these people could do. It had the same end effect, and the same method of thinking, but the origins of the magic were two completely different things.

“Do you at least have a wand?” The red haired boy finally spoke up.

“Yup, got it yesterday with the rest of my supplies, the guy had to have it specially made.” Xander said, thinking about his trip to Diagon Ally.

=/^=

“Yes? Can I help you?” The man behind the counter spoke up as Xander entered the shop, pushing the door open with his staff and resting the several brown packages of his shopping on his shoulder as he pushed his way through the door.

“Uh, yeah, I’m here to get a wand apparently, been told I’ve got to have one for school.” Xander explained as he placed his parcels down on the floor and walked over to the counter.

“A wand? But I sense no magic in you, what good would a wand do a muggle?” The man spoke up; his tone wasn’t dismissive, merely curious.

“Guess you could say I’m a different sort of witch, or wizard, sorcerer? Sorry, haven’t quite got the language down yet, anyway...” Xander trailed off as he held his hand open and repeated the incantation that Giles had taught him after his first accident with magic softly under his breath.

“Aguamenti Spheris.” His eyebrows pushed down on his eyes in concentration as he felt the familiar tingle running through the implants to know they were working. He opened his eyes again and looked up to see the shop owner looking at his as if he’d never seen magic before, the spell had worked perfectly, there was a globe of water quite happily hovering in his hand, the light played on his silvery surface as it rippled in the air.

“Well... yes...” The man seemed quite shocked and his white wiry hair seemed to be sticking up a bit more than it had been when he had entered the store.

“Dimitto.” Xander muttered and the sphere of water blinked out of existence with a flash of white light that reminded him of a tiny camera flash. “I was told to come here by... oh what was the name again, Abus? Albert? Argus?” Xander trailed off as he tried to remember the name of the professor that Giles was good friends with.

“Albus?” The man behind the counter offered.

“That’s the puppy.” Xander grinned as he looked up. “Albus Dumbledore.”

“Well, I’m not quite sure which wand would be suitable; I mean I’ve never come across someone who can use quite that much wandless magic before.” The man explained as he walked off into aisles of the shop and started looking through the shelves.

“Don’t look at me, if it was down to me I’d use the staff and nothing else.” Xander muttered as he ran his hand down the black staff he was holding, the warmth filled him as he let his fingers trail over the intricate golden inlay that ran down the entire length of it.

“Yes, well, try this one, ten inches of Oak with a Unicorn hair.” The man explained, handing the box over to Xander.

Xander didn’t quite know what to do, it looked like a long thin twig with a slightly thicker handle at the bottom, he couldn’t deny that the craftsmanship that had gone into creating it was of the highest order, but somehow it didn’t feel right to him. Picking up the wand he raised it to his eye to get a better look.

“Well don’t just stare at it, give it a wave.” The man said, standing out of the way so that Xander could test it out.

“Ok, but I gotta tell you, feeling nothing here.” Xander muttered as he gave the wand a slight wave, there were a few sparks coming out of the end of the wand, but nothing overly spectacular happened.

The man moved out from behind the counter and took the wand, that sort of reaction obviously wasn’t what he was expecting. “Guess not,” he muttered before returning to the stacks and hunting down another wand.

“I just don’t think the wand thing is for me, I mean I’ve got the staff,” Xander punctuated the comment by banging the thick staff on the floor, sending the echo vibrating round the empty shop. “Why would I need a wand as well?”

“Try this one.” The man had ignored his comments and returned from the stacks with another box, this one white. “Eleven inches, Ash, with a dragon heart string core.”

Xander just shook his head and retrieved the wand from its case, placing the first wand on the counter. It was of the same high quality of work but its grip was slightly thicker, holding the wand gingerly he waved it in a lazy circle in the air, this time he got red sparks coming from the wand before it fizzled out.

“Humph.” The man grunted and moved off back into the stacks.

“Guess not.” Xander muttered, placing the wand on the counter next to the other one before leaning up against the window and taking a look outside, he was still amazed at how busy Diagon Ally seemed to be, it was a hub of magic activity with children running about getting their school supplies for the new year and adults walking after them carrying all their packages with a satisfied smile on their faces. They all seemed to be very proud that their children were finally going off to magic school, a lot different from the world he came from that was for sure.

He pushed down the thoughts of Sunnydale and the friends he had left behind along with all the shameful memories that bubbled up with them as the man came out of the stacks once more, this time carrying quite a few wand boxes.

“We shall find the wand for you, I have been in this business over sixty years, and I have never seen a child leave this shop without the perfect wand.” The man said as he placed the boxes on the counter, steadying them with one hand and picking the top one off the pile and handing it to Xander.

As he opened the box he looked inside before retrieving the wand, it looked just like the rest, maybe slightly darker than the first one he tried. “Here goes...” He muttered as he waved it in a lazy flick of the wrist.

Nothing, not even sparks this time.

“Humph.” The man grunted again and picked the next box off the pile and handed it to him as he retrieved the wand from his hand. “This one?”

Half an hour later the floor was covered in wand boxes and a pile of wands lay on the counter, each one had had slightly different effects, from doing absolutely nothing to a small shower of sparks where Xander waved it in the air. “I just don’t think wands are for me.” Xander muttered as he picked up another one, waving it in the air.

This time he was rewarded by a soft cracking sound and he looked down to see the wand had cracked in half along the center revealing the core of the wand. “Sorry.” He muttered as he handed the wand back to the owner.

“I must say, this is extraordinary, you seem to have a complete aversion to magic, most wizards would at least have found something with all the wands we have tried, something to point me in the right direction, but you? Nothing.” The man slammed his hand down on the counter, frustrated with the boy in front of him.

“What do you make the wands out of anyway?” Xander asked, he’d heard the man mention unicorn hair and dragon heart strings as he handed the wands over, along with a various assortment of sizes from seven inches to fifteen inches, each coupled with a different type of wood, some of which Xander had never even heard of before.

“The wands are made from wood, I have wands made from every type of tree in the world here, and the cores are made from either Unicorn Hair, which you first tried, Dragon Heart String, or Phoenix Feather, which was the one you just cracked.” The man seemed put out as he moved to retrieve his wand from his pocked to repair the cracked wand that was showing its core.

“Can you make the cores out of anything? Or does it have to be one of those three things?” Xander asked, intrigued with an idea forming in his head.

“Oh yes, anything magical, those three are my speciality though, but I have done custom work before, I made one about two years ago for a fellow, yes, core of a grim. I don’t know where he got the hair from but it seemed to work perfectly for him.” The man explained with a smile, thinking back to the craftwork obviously.

“How long do they take to make?” Xander muttered as he moved over to the wall where he had rested his staff while they were trying to find a wand for him.

“About an hour, why?” The man asked, raising his eyebrows in anticipation of a challenge.

“This might not work, but I figure it’s worth a shot after going through all those wands.” Xander muttered as he picked up his staff and muttered the joining incantation to link with it. He felt the warm glow flood through his body as he sent the command for the top to open for repairs.

He’d looked inside the staff quite a few times, the first time just to check that he wasn’t dreaming and it was all real. Willow had explained to him how Elric had made the staff for Galen using the remains of his chrysalis, that was how it was joined to him so symbiotically. Reaching inside he took hold of one of the long golden filaments that ran from the chrysalis to the technology that made the staff work, Willow had tried to understand it, but even the scientists in the books couldn’t quite understand how the Technomage technology worked. It wasn’t technology as such, but it helped Xander to think of it that way, it was more organic than technology, but worked in the same way.

Pulling at the golden strand he retrieved it from the staff before sending the command for it to close back up, the felt the strand in his hand, it felt warm and wet, and vaguely alive. “Will this do?” He asked, holding his hand out for the man to take the golden strand from him.

The man seemed interested by it; he reached into his pocket and retrieved a small monocle, muttering something under his breath the monocle extended into a sort of microscope. Magic Xander guessed as he smiled. “Yes, this should do, may I ask what it is, I have never seen anything like it before.”

“If I knew, I’d tell ya.” Xander muttered with a grin, the man didn’t seem to hear him as he reached behind the counter for a measuring tape and a few weird metal instruments.

“Right, well I’ll just go then, I’ve still got to pick up a cauldron and some books, half an hour you said right?” Xander muttered as he fetched his parcels and staff.

“One second.” The man almost shouted after him, “I still need to measure you for the wand itself.” He didn’t bother with the pleasantries this time, he simple walked up to Xander and started measuring various parts of his body with the tape measure and some metal instruments that looked vaguely like tools for torturing someone.

He measured Xander’s hand, thumb, wrist and arm before moving up to the neck, chin and strangely space between his eyes. Jotting all the measurements down on a piece of parchment before moving back to the counter where he stood in silence, obviously calculating the measurements in his head.

“Right... I’ll just... you know...” Xander muttered before picking up his belongings again and moving out of the store when the man made no move to stop him.

“Strange man.” Xander said with a smile as he got outside the store, fetching the piece of paper out of his pocket that Giles had written for him, he looked at the list of supplies he needed, mentally checking off those which he already had along with the wand. “Cauldron, books and a familiar,” he muttered. By the word ‘familiar’ Giles had written something else, ‘cat, bat or owl’.

Glancing around the ally he saw a shop that he’d first dismissed as a livestock shop, but now he was looking at it closer it seemed to have a various assortment of animals in small cages, ranging from owls to some sort of rodents, he even thought he saw a chipmunk or two in cages inside the door. “Here goes,” He smiled as he walked towards the shop and moved through the door, holding it open for a man who was easily three times his own height.

“Beg ya p’rdon sir.” The giant said as he looked down at Xander before moving back and holding the door open for him. In one hand he had a cage with a white owl inside; next to him the owl looked like a tiny ball of feathers.

Shaking his head Xander just smiled up at the huge man before easily walking under his arm that was holding the door. “Never get used to this.” He grinned as he walked into the busy store; looking around the shop he noticed animals of all sorts, cats, bats, rodents, and reptiles... even ferrets.

He was about to make his way to the owl collection when he felt something rub up against his leg, looking down there was a small ginger kitten purring as it nuzzled between Xander’s long black trench coat and his leg. “Hello,” Xander smiled as he bent down to start petting the animal, it made cute purring noises as it nuzzled his hand so he reached down and scooped it up into his arm.

The small bundle of orange fur seemed to consider Xander for a second before wriggling to find its footing and jumping up onto Xander’s shoulder and making itself comfortable. “Guess you’re happy there then.” Xander chuckled, he was going to get an owl, if it was good enough for that giant who left when he came in, then it was good enough for him, but for some reason this small kitten had won him over. It seemed quite content to sit there on his shoulder, curled up in a little ball as he walked towards the counter.

“I see the animal has chosen you instead of you choosing the animal.” The woman behind the desk smiled as she glanced over at him while finishing a transaction for a small blonde boy. The boy’s father who carried a large black cane with a serpent motif on top sneered at Xander before walking out the door.

“Draco, come.” The man said as he walked out onto the street where people parted in front of him.

“Yes father.” The boy shouted as he picked up his cage with some sort of fierce looking owl inside, an eagle owl according to the cage, looked just as friendly as he did.

As Xander watched the young boy hurry out of the store after his father, Xander shook his head, he could spot a bully a mile off, he’d learnt that trick in high school. At least he was still quite a few years older than them, so he wouldn’t be picked on physically, but he suspected in a world where magic and wands was the normal, physical bullying wasn’t going to be the worst of his problems.

Shaking his head he gathered his thoughts and turned back to the shopkeeper who was smiling at him. “Right, sorry, what were you saying?”

“I was saying dear, that sometimes the animal chooses the wizard, rather than the other way round.” The woman explained as she reached over and started petting the kitten on Xander’s shoulder.

“Yup, this one seems quite content there.” Xander grinned as he craned his neck to get a better look at the kitten, which seemed quite happy to just lie on his shoulder and receive attention from the woman.

“It seems you’ve found your familiar, though I am surprised you don’t have one already, most children would already have had one for several years by your age.” The woman said softly, her voice not accusing or disdainful.

“It’s a long story.” Xander grinned as he pulled open his jacket and reached inside the pocket for some more of the gold coins Giles had given him, Giles had tried to explain wizard money to him a few times, each time less successful than the last. All Xander knew was the gold ones were the most expensive, and the silver and bronze ones we worth less.

As his jacket came away from his chest, the cat on his shoulder seemed to sense something and immediately jumped to its legs and ran down his chest before disappearing into one of the many pockets inside Xander’s coat. Even the women behind the counter seemed surprised at this as the kitten vanished into one of the smaller pockets, wriggling for a moment to fit in the small opening before vanishing inside a pocket that should in no way hold something, even something as small as the kitten.

The woman just turned to him with a surprised look as he grinned back. “Magic?” he offered by way of explanation. The woman just laughed back at him before shaking her head and accepting the money he handed across. “Does he, she? Have a name?” Xander asked before leaving the store, quite confused as to where the kitten had gone because he couldn’t feel the weight of it moving around inside his jacket.

“She, and yes, Pixel.” The woman filled in with a smile.

“Pixel,” Xander tried the name on his lips, it sounded perfect to apply to the small ginger fur ball that was somewhere inside his jacket running around. “Thanks.” He smiled and with a wave of his hand walked out of the store.

“Right, cauldron and text books, and then back to the wand shop.” Xander said with a grin as he looked inside his jacket again, half expecting to see the kittens head peaking out of the pocket watching him. The pocket was still empty, he tapped it just to make sure and it flattened against the outer lining of the coat. “Weird,” he muttered as he decided to let it slide for the moment, he’d sort out the mystery of the kitten or his coat later, first he had to get all this shopping before the train tonight.

The cauldron and tech books were quite easy to find, a size two cauldron seemed to be what all the children were buying, so he guessed it was required by the schools. As he was leaving the book shop, several books in hand he bumped into something in front of him, assuming it was the door he reached out with his staff and pushed it, he was quite surprised when whatever it was pushed him back, sending both him and the object sprawling to the floor as he staff pulled it down with him.

Glancing around the mess he had made with books strewn everywhere he looked over to see a girl lying on the floor opposite him, her hair was bright pink with a black choker tied around her neck, her eyes seemed to flash red for a moment before she caught sight of him staring at her and giggled at him.

“Wotcher.” The girl said with a smile as she stood up and helped him up.

“Sorry... I didn’t mean... Xander... that’s me.” Xander stuttered out, causing the pink haired girl to laugh and her eyes to sparkle as they changed to a bright green colour.

“Tonks.” She said by way of introduction as she started picking up the strewn books.

“Right, Tonks, sorry about that.” Xander said with a grin as he started picking up his books with her and placing them on a pile.

“You know, they would be easier to carry with a simple shrinking charm on them.” Tonks explained as she picked up the last of his books and placed them on the pile he was now carrying awkwardly.

“If I knew how to do that, I’d have probably done it in the first place.” Xander grinned, it seemed these people used magic for everything, and why not he thought, it seemed to make life so much easier.

Tonks just fished out her wand from her pocket and with a simple wave spoke the word “Reducio.” The books seemed to shrink in upon themselves until they were each about the size of a Zippo lighter; now holding the once huge pile of books in one hand Xander looked at them in amazement.

“I think they’re going to be quite hard to read at that size.” He muttered, causing the pink haired girl to laugh at him again.

“Just use your wand and a growth charm to return them to their normal size.” Tonks explained slowly.

“Right, and that charm would be?” Xander asked, not wanting to come across as a complete idiot to the beautiful girl in front of him.

“Engorgio.” She said slowly without her wand this time.

“Engorgio, right, thanks.” Xander grinned as he put the tiny pile of books into his pocket. “Got to go and get my wand now, thanks.” He smiled at the girl who winked at him as she moved off to continue on her path into the book store. “Man, hope there’s girls like that at the school.” He grinned as he started walking back towards the wand store.

Outside the wand shop there was the giant again, tapping on the window and holding the caged owl up to show whoever was inside. He smiled as a small boy came out of the shop and they both moved off before Xander could get a better look at whoever the boy was, but he did notice that everyone around was looking at the boy as if he was some sort of rock star. Shrugging his shoulders he decided to ignore it for the moment, if it was that important he’d probably be told about it later. Pushing the door open he walked into the wand shop before blinking at the sight that welcomed him.

The shop looked like the bomb site, paper and card were strewn everywhere and there was shattered glass from a window that looked like someone had shot a nine mil through it. “You ok in here?” Xander called as he closed the door and looked around. The place was a mess, wands and boxes were strewn all over the floor.

“Yes yes, can I help... oh yes, Mister Harris.” The man called a smile on his face as he came out of the stacks.

“What happened here? Looks like a bomb hit your store.” Xander asked, picking up a few empty wand boxes off the floor and placing them on the counter.

“Oh nothing of the sort, just a few misfires while the young lad was testing out wands, nothing to worry about, I have your wand ready, just a moment.” The man smiled as he made his way into the back of the store before returning with a black wooden box.

“Wow.” Xander breathed in as he looked at the box as the man handed it over.

“Thirteen and a half inches, pure ebony with the core you provided. A most interesting thing as well, as soon as I sealed up the wand, things started happening.” The man smiled, obviously happy about his craft.

Opening the box Xander placed it on the counter and picked out the wand from inside, it was pure black, the colour of a night sky with what looked like gold circuitry running along the entire wand. He could feel the warmth running from it, it wasn’t as powerful as the feeling he got from his staff, but it felt similar, just as perfect to him as the staff was.

“The gold motif just started appearing, and I could swear it grew in front of my eyes.” The man explained as he compared the wand and the staff, they looked perfectly alike, but whereas the staff had a vaguely metal shine to it, a sort of ‘unnatural’ finish, the wand looked like a perfect blending of nature and whatever it was that he had used for the core. He’d tried to experiment on the core, but nothing he did received any reaction, he even tried a geminio charm on it to create a duplicate so that he could use the filament to create another wand, but the gold strand seemed particularly resistant so any sort of magic used on it.

“It’s perfect, thank you.” Xander breathed as he placed the wand back in its case.

“You’re not going to try it out?” The man asked, sounding vaguely disappointed. He’d tried to get the wand to work using various charms, but nothing he did could produce any reaction from the wand, he was about to write the thing off as useless when he put the pieces together and they started glowing and the gold motif started appearing on the wand in a golden fire.

“If you’re sure, I was going to try it out somewhere a little more open, didn’t want to break anything.” Xander said, he could already feel the power of the wand even though it was still in its case. If he had the same reaction when he joined with it, it could feasibly be as powerful as his staff.

“Just give it a soft flick, nothing too powerful.” The man said, standing out of the way just in case anything did go wrong.

Retrieving the wand from its case again Xander paused before mentally joining with it, he was sure this isn’t how normal wizards do things, but Willow had explained that the staff was more like a computer component than an object, he had to ‘join’ with it to power it up, and he guessed the wand would be the same.

Waving the wand in a lazy circle he felt the familiar rush of power as the wand seemed to burn hotter in his hand for a second before tracing a circle of blue fire in the air. He pulled the wand backwards sharply, afraid that the fire would burn the wand, but the fire followed the tip of the wand, seemingly bending the air as it moved.

“Beautiful,” The man cried out. “I have never seen any wand react so perfectly to a wizard in all my years, a perfect match.”

“It feels natural, like its part of me.” Xander explained as he put the wand back in its box and moved to fetch the money out of his pocket to pay the man.

“As all good wands should do.” The man smiled as he totalled up the cost of the wood and took the money from Xander, ringing it through the till with a sharp ringing noise that echoed through the shop.

“Thanks, one last thing; do you know where to catch the Hogwarts Express train from?” Xander fished out the piece of paper from his pocket and looked at what Giles had written on it. “It says platform nine and three quarters, is that right?”

“Yes, you want Kings Cross station, platform nine and three quarters is reached trough the barrier just before platform ten, you could always use the floo network to get there instead, save you a trip all round London to find it.” The man suggested, motioning to the fireplace at the end of his store.

“Floo network, right.” Xander muttered as he followed the man to the fireplace.

“Just shout ‘Kings Cross’ as you stand in the fire place and throw the floo powder on the floor.” The man explained, taking pity on the boy who had obviously never used the floo network before.

“If this is some sort of joke...” Xander trailed off as he tucked his entire luggage under his arms and ducked the staff under the fireplace entrance before standing up inside and grasping a fist full of the ‘floo powder’.

“Kings Cross then throw the powder on the floor.” The man explained again slowly.

“Here goes.” Xander paused before closing his eyes tightly. “Kings Cross.” He shouted before throwing the powder on the floor, there was a sharp noise he suddenly his field of vision went completely green.

“You’d think the boy had never seen a floo before.” The shop owner muttered as he walked away from the empty fireplace shaking his head.

“You alright?” The red haired boy shook him out of his musings as the door opened and a woman poked her head inside.

“Anything off the trolley dears?” The woman by the door asked, pushing a trolley full of sweets and other goodies.

“Oh, don’t suppose you’ve got any Twinkies there do you?” Xander asked, his face lighting up at the thought of actually finding some of his favourite snack cakes.

“You think this is a muggle cart or something?” The women asked, her voice showing a bit of disdain for the question she’d been asked.

“I’m good.” The red haired boy said, holding up a bag of something that looked like mashed up sandwiches.

“We’ll take the lot.” Harry said with a grin as he fetched out a pile of gold and silver coins from his pocket. The woman seemed surprised at this, but simply took the money and started unloading the trolley onto the free seat next to Xander.

Soon the trio of children were tucking into the various sweets they had bought, Ron was lazing about on the chair pulling a jelly snake apart with his teeth while the girl, Harmony? Just watched with a look of curiosity on her face.

“Berty Bots every flavour beans?” Harry asked as he picked up a box and started opening it.

“They mean every flavour; my brother swears he even got a bogey one once.” Ron explained.

“Sounds like something to avoid to me.” Xander chuckled as the group smiled at him. The group of children seemed to be more at ease with him now; Harry had even passed him over some of the chocolate that he had bought from the trolley. The girl still seemed to be a bit on edge whenever she looked at him, but he figured that was just because he was so much older than them.

“These aren’t real frogs are they?” Harry asked, picking up a small pentagon shaped box.

“Honestly Harry, it’s just a charm.” The girl spoke up finally as Harry opened the box and a chocolate coloured frog leapt out and started bounding around the room before settling on Xander’s lap.

“Good thing my friends not here, she’s terrified of frogs.” Xander said with a chuckle as he looked at the frog on his lap, suddenly he felt something move inside his jacket. Opening his jacket slowly he was almost surprised when the ginger face of the kitten poked out of his pocket before it jumped out and attacked the frog with vigour.

“That’s wicked, where did he come from?” Ron asked as he watched the kitten devour the frog that was still twitching as it was being eaten.

“Pixel, and he’s a she. She disappeared in my pocket after I bought her, haven’t seen her since.” Xander muttered, reminding himself to see if it was his coat or if the kitten had some sort of enchantment on her to disappear into seemingly tiny spaces.

“This is scabbers.” Ron said, holding up the rat that was currently nestled on his lap fiddling with an empty sweet box.

“I’ve got an owl.” Harry spoke up, nodding at the cage over head where his owl seemed quite happily asleep.

“Have you tried any magic yet?” Ron asked Harry, then turning to Xander when he shook his head.

“Just a few small things.” Xander muttered, most of which had exploded in his face or gone completely wrong in one form or another, but no need to tell the kids that, he was already more of an outcast than he wanted to be.

“Well I’ve only tried a few simple ones, but they’ve all worked perfectly for me of course, for example ‘Ocular Reparo’.” The girl said, pointing her wand at Harry’s glasses where they were held together with some tape in the middle.

“Now that’s cool.” Xander grinned as he watched the glasses knit themselves back together and the tape fly off before disappearing in a flash of light.

“We’d better change into our robes anyway, we’ll be arriving soon.” The girl said, standing up and moving to the door. “You’ve got dirt on your nose Ron, did you know?” The girl paused at the door as Ron started to rub at his face.

Xander just smiled as waved at her lazily as she walked off. “Where did you two meet her?” He asked with a smile. She seemed nice enough, and reminded him of Willow, if a bit high strung for her age.

“We were looking for a place to sit, and she was looking for a frog, someone called Neville lost one, she decided to tag along with us for a bit when she found out who he was.” Ron explained, nodding at Harry.

“Strange girl.” Xander grinned as he fetched his bag down from the overhead compartment that held his robes and wand. He watched the two boys do the same before they started to get changed into the robes, Xander left on his hard jeans and black jumper, folding his long leather coat up and placing it in the bag gently as he shrugged his robe on.

“I wonder what house we’ll be put into?” Ron mused out loud as he changed into his robes. The rest of the train journey was spent in random conversation as the two boys started talking about the school and what it was going to be like, it seemed Harry was in the same boat Xander was, completely new to all of this. He kept looking over at Xander and smiling, Xander got the feeling he’d made a friend already, especially since they were both equally confused and amazed at some of the stuff Ron spoke of.

As darkness fell, the train pulled into the station with a lurch, the two boys and Xander started clearing up their mess from all the sweets they had eaten on the journey and placing them in a bin under the chair, they stood at the doors as they watched a long stream of students move past as they got off the train, each wearing identical robes.

“Weirder and weirder.” Xander muttered as he got off the train, remembering what Giles had told him about this place and his friend that was going to look after Xander.

=/^=

“Xander, what is the matter?” Giles asked as he answered the door and Xander walked in with an agitated run.

“Giles, you’ve got to help me.” Xander said, turning to face him.

It was then that Giles noticed Xander was still wearing the same costume as he had on last night; he was still carrying the staff and was still bald. “Xander, it’s six in the morning, can’t this wait until school?” He asked, covering up a yawn as he closed the door. “And why are you still wearing that costume.”

“Costume, right Giles, only it isn’t a costume anymore, look.” Giles watched as Xander started running his hand over his head, trying to pull the bald cap off.

“My word.” Giles exclaimed as he moved over to take a proper look, Xander was now effectively bald, the start contrast between the pale skin of his head, and the dark hair of his eyebrows was now even more pronounced by the lack of hair on his head.

“That’s not all, check this out.” Xander shouted as he shrugged off his coat and pulled the black and purple jumper over his head, revealing his back to the older man.

“Bloody hell, what are those?” Giles muttered, moving in for a closer look. All along Xander’s back were dark black blotches underneath the skin, surrounding these were golden strands that looked like veins moving in and out between the black objects and his bone and muscle.

“Xander, are these...” Giles trailed off as he jumped back as one of the objects moved slightly, seemingly settling into position before pushing through his skin and settling into a hardened surface of what looked some sort of mechanical implant, but with a vaguely biological nature.

“Yeah, they’re real, as is the staff, and to top it all off, I’m bald.” Xander screamed the last part as he let his jumper slide back down on his back

“My word, I... I don’t know what happened, I know you were all turned into your costumes last night, but I thought the effect would be temporary, nothing as permanent as this.” Giles said in amazement as he tried to understand what the young boy must be going through.

“You gotta help me Giles, what is all this stuff?” Xander shouted, panic setting into his voice.

“Calm down Xander, what exactly was the costume you went as last night?” Giles said, now fully awake and running through situations in his head to explain what might have happened.

“Galen, he’s a Technomage from a TV show.” Xander explained as he started pacing, picking up his staff he carried it with him as he paced around Giles’ living room impatiently.

“A Technomage?” Giles asked, unfamiliar with the term.

“Yeah, this guy uses technology, or something to simulate magic, or uses technology and magic at the same time; it was never made clear because the guys that invented the implants were so advanced it could have been either.” Xander muttered, still pacing around the room, his staff making small clunking noises where it hit the wooden floor as he walked.

“And you can use magic now?” Giles asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t know,” Xander exclaimed with a panicked voice. “I just saw those in the shower this morning and panicked. You gotta help me Giles.”

“Calm down, firstly we need to ascertain if you have in fact gained everything from this character or if it is just the implants that you received.” Giles explained as he walked over and grasped Xander by the shoulders.

“Huh?” Xander questioned, looking up at Giles’ face.

“Try some magic first, if you have only received the implants then it should be a simple procedure to remove them, they don’t look so deep, and if we can’t remove them then there is a simple glamour that could cover them up so that you can live a relatively normal life.” Giles said patiently as he tried to calm Xander down.

“Right, try magic first before panicking, should have thought of that myself.” Xander paused for a second before turning to Giles again. “How?”

“Right, well there are several forms of magic, I’m guessing from the way you carry that staff it’s something like wanded magic in oppose to wandless magic.” Giles explained thoughtfully.

“Yeah, the staff feels important, like its part of me.” Xander muttered as he traced the golden pattern that ran down the entire length of the staff.

“Now, where did I put it...” Giles muttered before opening a desk draw and fishing out what looked like a long smooth twig. “I practiced wanded magic when I was younger, before my father forced me to become a watcher, I dare say I was pretty good at it.”

“Magic? Go Giles.” Xander chuckled as he eyed the wand with a smile.

“Right, this is a simple fire spell, repeat after me.” Giles paused, waving his wand in the air. “Flagrate.” As Xander watched Giles’ swirled the wand in the air, leaving a flames where the wand ran, kind of like a giant sparkler, only the flames stayed hanging in the air instead of moving with the wand.

“Here goes.” Xander muttered, raising his staff up in one hand and attempting to mimic Giles motions with his larger staff. “Flagrate!” He shouted, and immediately regretted it as a giant gout of flame shot out of his staff and exploded through the window in Giles’ wall on the opposite side of the room.

“Aguamenti!” Giles shouted, pointing his wand at the now burning wall and a small torrent of water shot out of his wand, not unlike a super soaker pistol Xander thought to himself. He paused when Giles was having trouble putting out the giant fire and looked at the staff he was holding.

“Aguamenti!” Xander shouted, pointing his staff at the flames, he was almost shocked when a giant plume of water shot out of his staff and vanquished the flames much like a fireman’s hose.

“I think we can safely assume it’s a type of wanded magic.” Giles muttered, glancing at the now scorched and soaked wall. “Though I must confess I’m at a loss as to how you are able to channel so much power though a simple charm.”

“Sorry.” Xander shrugged apologetically with a small smile.

“No problem.” Giles smiled, waving his wand at the wall and shouting “Repario”.

Xander just watched as the window pieced itself back together and the scorch marks and water seemed to disappear in front of his eyes. “Useful.” He muttered.

“I suggest you stay here today, I will speak to Principal Snyder soon and then make a few calls to a friend in England, he might be able to help you train as a wizard, maybe even teach you some control over your magic.” Giles smiled at Xander, trying to reassure him with his eyes. ‘Dumbledore’s never going to believe this one.’ Giles thought to himself as he tried to remember the last time he had seen Professor Dumbledore at his graduation ceremony from Hogwarts, it had been nearly thirty years since he had seen his old friend, not since the last war with You-know-who.

“Thanks Giles.” Xander smiled as he sat down on the couch.

“If you just wait here a moment, I’ll go and get dressed and then we can see about calling in some old favours.” Giles smiled as he pulled his dressing gown tighter around himself before walking back up the stairs. ‘Well I’m not trusting the American magical schools with that amount of power,’ Giles thought to himself, shuddering at the thought of what the American schools would teach him. ‘If he has to be taught magic, then there’s only one place for it’.

Giles paused as he entered his room, his owl was still in its cage, he let ‘bono’ out from time to time to get some exercise, but hadn’t used the owl for messages in so many years. “Yes, I think Dumbledore is definitely going to get a kick out of this.” Giles smiled at the thought and then chuckled at the thought of his old classmates, the images of James, Severus and all his old friends came back clear as day. He allowed himself a brief moment of reminiscing while he got dressed, thinking back to his friends and wondering what they were doing now, were they all still happy in the muggle world, or had they found their own place in the wizarding community.

=/^=

As the two boys walked off the train Xander followed, there was a giant of a man giving instructions to all the students, shouting for first years to follow him. Xander paused as Pixel got comfortable on his shoulder again, snuggling into the loose robes before purring contentedly. “He’s huge.” Xander muttered as they walked over to where the man was asking first years to stand.

“Hagrid.” Harry said with a smile.

“Hello Harry.” The giant beamed down.

“Whoa!” Ron exclaimed as he looked up at the giant.

“I’ll see your ‘Whoa!’ and raise you a ‘wow!’.” Xander laughed as he stood behind the boys.

“Hagrid, this is Ronald Weasley and Xander Harris.” Harry introduced them all.

“This way to the boats, come on, follow me.” Hagrid shouted before walking off.

“Don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.” Xander muttered before falling in line with the two boys in front of him, he could hear the other children commenting about him and laughing, but he just ignored it for the moment, figuring that he was the new one in a new school, there was bound to be talk.

“Are you a giant too?” one of the boys asked him as he tugged on his robes.

“Nope.” Xander grinned back and tapped his staff on the floor, saying the incantation for light that Giles had taught him softly under his breath, he was rewarded when the tip of his staff lit up sharply and bathed the area in a soft orange light.

He smiled to himself, his control was definitely getting better, the last time he had tried that he almost blinded everyone in the library. Ignoring the rest of the chatter from the children as they gazed at him and his staff, he continued to follow Hagrid, jogging slightly to catch up with Harry and Ron.

After a short walk they reached a shoreline where a few dozen wooden boats waited for them, eying the boats curiously he raised his eyebrow to Hagrid.

“Why don’t you an’ Harry ride with me.” Hagrid smiled as he watched the rest of the children get into their boats before they started drifting off across the black waters.

“Hogwarts.” Harry said under his breath, his voice filled with amazement and wonder.

Xander followed his gaze to see what he was looking at, he’d barely been able to take his eyes of Hagrid the entire time, his brain was trying to figure out how the small wooden boat could handle the three of them and all their luggage without sinking, in the end he’d just put it down to magic, but that didn’t really reassure him that much.

Looking up he saw what had caught Harry’s eye. Their destination was a castle; well castle was like comparing one of these boats to the Titanic. It was huge, the mist covered the water around the edge of the cliffs where steps were cut into the rock and lights bathed the entire area with a soft warm glow. “Now that’s cool.” Xander breathed out, he knew it was a magic school, but he didn’t expect the entire place to look... well, so magical.

Looking around he could see all the other children’s faces were filled with the same look of awe, whatever this place was, he could almost feel the magic tingling along his skin, and it was amazing. There was no place like this back home, that was for sure. As the boats docked Hagrid helped them onto the land then led them all up their steps to the main castle entrance.

Walking in though the main entrance, the entire castle seemed alive, the stairs and banisters were made out of some sort of white marble and there were giant pillars on every corner with a soft fire on top that made the place seem even more magical than it already did. “Gotta admit, I didn’t expect this.” Xander muttered to harry, smiling when Harry shook his head back. To be honest he hadn’t known exactly what to expect, but this definitely wasn’t on his list.

As they came to the top of the stairs, a woman stood in front of two huge doors, she looked about forty, the same age as Giles Xander roughly guessed. She had a tall black witch’s hat on and long black robes with simple embroidery around the neck. “Welcome to Hogwarts,” The woman stated with an air of authority. “In a few moments you will pass though these doors, but before you do, you will have to be sorted into your houses.”

Xander just looked at Harry and Ron with a quizzical look, Ron had spoken about houses before, he had said something about wanting to be in Griffin or something.

“They are Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.” The woman finished off looking around the group of children before her eyes set on Xander with surprise. “Now while you’re here, your house will be like your family. Your triumphs will earn you points, any rule breaking and you will lose points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup.”

The woman was interrupted by a shout of “Trevor!” from one of the students before he darted through the group and picked up a frog that he had spotted on the floor by the woman’s foot. He gazed up at her for a moment, drawing chuckles from the rest of the children before returning to his place in the crowd.

“The sorting ceremony will begin momentarily.” The woman finished off before walking off.

“It’s true then.” A shout came from another student, causing Xander, Harry and Ron to twirl round and face him. “What they were saying on the train, Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts.”

Whatever that meant, it obviously meant something to the rest of the students as they all started whispering his name.

“And you are?” Xander asked, standing behind Harry. He remembered the boy from the pet shop; this was the one whose father had dismissed him so casually. He remembered thinking this boy was trouble, and hoping he wouldn’t be in the same school as him, it seemed the Harris luck was running true to form.

“Draco Malfoy.” The blonde boy introduced himself. “This is Crabbe and Goyle.” He nodded to the two boys flanking him.

Xander just shook his head, if he was the same age and size as the rest of the kids then he would have probably been worried about being bullied by them, but as he was at least two foot taller than them, and a good four years older, he watched as they shrunk back from his gaze.

Xander smiled as Ron snickered at the boys’ name, causing the boy to walk over and get in front of Ron’s face.

“No need to ask for your name, red hair, hand me down robes, you must be a Weasley.” Draco spat the name out as if it offended his lips even speaking it.

“And what if he is?” Xander asked, drawing the attention back to him.

“And you are?” Draco asked, looking up at Xander.

“Xander Harris.” He introduced himself, “And Ron and Harry are my friends, so piss off!” He didn’t want to alienate anyone on his first day of school, but he’d put up with enough bullying at Sunnydale, there was no way he was going to stand by and watch this blonde idiot bully two of the people he thought of as friends.

“Never heard of you.” Draco said, shrinking back from Xander and turning to face Harry again. “You’ll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, I can help you there.” He held out his hand as a sly form of friendship to Harry, obviously expecting him to take it and turn away from his friends already, that alone told Xander all he needed to know about Draco Malfoy, he thought of friends as interchangeable pieces that were there to help him.

“I think I can tell the wrong sort for myself thanks.” Harry said, ignoring the hand and stepping back in line with Xander and Ron.

Xander just smiled to himself as the woman came back behind Draco and tapped him on the shoulder with a roll of parchment. “You,” She started, pointing to Xander. “Will go directly to see Professor Dumbledore after the sorting ceremony.”

Xander nodded, expecting to be singled out by the teachers on arrival, he was just hoping that it wouldn’t have been in front of everyone like that.

“We are ready for you now, follow me.” The woman said before leading the way through the giant doors and into a huge room that was already filled with students. Candles seemed to hang in the air attached to nothing and the ceiling looked completely see through and showed the night sky above them, complete with stars, moon and wispy clouds.

Xander felt as if all eyes were on him as they walked through the room following the woman who hadn’t introduced herself yet. His staff made short clicking noises on the stone floor which caused everyone to look at him, grimacing his hefted the staff up and carried it silently by his side as the group of first years walked through the great hall, watched by all the other students.

“It’s not real, the ceiling, it’s just bewitched to look like that...” The girl that had sat with him on the train ride interrupted his musings as he stared up.

“It’s still cool.” Xander muttered, cutting off whatever she was going to say. Ron and Harry just snickered at that as they continued walking to the front of the class. “Seems everyone knows you.” Xander muttered as he watched everyone staring at Harry with amazement.

“You mean... you don’t know?” Harry whispered back as they came to the front of the hall. Whatever else he was going to say was cut off by the woman who was leading them stopping and instructing everyone to stand at the front of the hall.

“Professor Dumbledore would like to say a few words before the sorting.” The woman said, stepping aside so that everyone could see the large table at the front of the room where the teachers were sat.

“Now, before we begin, I have a few start of term notices I would like to announce.” A man with a long white beard said as he stood up. “For the first years, please note that the dark forest is strictly forbidden to all students.”

‘Yeah, dark evil forest, and I’d want to go exploring there why?’ Xander mentally added to the note.

“Also out caretaker, mister Filch, has asked me to remind everyone that the third floor corridor, on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone that does not wish to die a most painful death.” Dumbledore continued.

‘Painful death, check, stay away from third floor right corridor.’ Xander added again, seemed like a straight forward rule to him, if you don’t want to die, stay away from the corridor. If all the rules were as simple to follow as this he could grow to like it here.

“Thank you, and if Mister Harris would care to join me in my study after the sorting ceremony,” His eyes rested entirely on Xander, making him squirm under the gaze. “That will be all.” With that he sat down peacefully again.

‘Sure, singled out twice in under an hour, Harris luck holds true to form.’ Xander’s brain filled in as he could feel every pair of eyes in the hall come to rest on him.

The women who led them into the room came back and unrolled the parchment in her hand, reading from it she addressed the room. “When I call your name, you will come forward and I will place the sorting hat on your head.” She paused, picking up the brown hat that was on a table beside her. “And you will be sorted into your houses.”

‘And how exactly does that work?’ Xander wondered, the hat just looked like a slightly older and more worn version of the hat the woman was wearing, but then again, this was a magic school, not everything was exactly as it appeared. Xander reminded himself of the boats and decided to just go with the flow of things for the moment.

“Hermione Granger.” The woman said first, causing a sigh to come from the young girl that was stood behind Harry, the same girl that had sat with them for some of the train journey and who had tried to explain the ceiling to Xander.

She moved forwards muttering something under her breath as she sat on the chair at the front of the room. The woman placed the brown hat on her head and then stood back, apparently waiting for something to happen.

“Right, here we go...” The hat started to speak, causing both of Xander’s eyebrows to shoot up to his hair line. “Gryffindor!” The hat shouted, causing a cheer from the rest of the hall.

The rest of the students were sorted after that, Draco was next who was sorted into Slytherin much to his apparent glee. The rest of the students seemed to be mixed between the four houses, every time a student was sorted into Gryffindor or Slytherin though the entire hall seemed to cheer. It would seem those were the two most popular houses to be in, and they seemed to be at odds with each other completely from the way people cheered and booed whenever someone got sorted into one of the houses where everyone thought they should be in the other one.

“Xander Harris.” She called out, causing Xander to break out of his musings.

“Here goes.” Xander muttered as he walked up to the chair and sat down.

The woman had to stand on her tip toes to place the hat on Xander as he was so much taller than the rest of the students she had sorted. As soon as the hat rested on his head he could hear in mumbling.

“Difficult, difficult... no, not Hufflepuff, not Ravenclaw...” The hand continued, seemingly moving of its own accord as it tried to figure out which house to put him in.

“Gryffindor?” Xander offered n a shy voice.

“Gryffindor?” The hat said, more of a question but everyone seemed to take it as an answer, the woman picked the hat off his head and before he could argue shoed him away from the seat towards the Gryffindor table.

“Right, whatever.” Xander muttered as he took his seat to a small round of applause, it seemed no one on the table really knew how to accept him. He felt weird, sitting here surrounded by children as he towered above them. He was about four or five years older than the rest of them, though some towards the other end of the table seemed to be more his age, he guessed the table was sorted by age, oldest towards the doors and first years towards the front. Made sense he suppose, it didn’t make him feel any better though.

“Gryffindor!” The hat shouted again and Xander looked up from his musings to see Ron with a relieved smile on his face leave the chair at the front of the room and come and sit next to him.

“Harry Potter.” The woman said, and the entire hall fell silent, even the table of teachers seemed to be paying special attention to this edition of the sorting ceremony.

As Xander watched the hat seemed to be having a conversation with Harry, everyone around the hall seemed to be watching with interest. Even though he couldn’t make out what either the hat or Harry were saying, he could guess by Harry’s facial expression that he was pleading not to be put into Slytherin just as he had done.

“Gryffindor!” The hat shouted and Xander’s entire table erupted in applause, even the teachers seemed happy with this result.

Xander still didn’t know the full story behind Harry Potter yet, or why everyone seemed to treat him as if he was a rock star. He was racking his brain, trying to remember if Giles had said anything about anyone called Potter as Harry walked over to the table and sat next to Ron. “Nice one.” Xander grinned at Harry as Ron slapped him on the shoulder. It was nice that the two boys he had already made friends with on the train were in the same house as him, it didn’t make him feel as alone as he had when he first sat at the table with all eyes watching him, now all eyes were on Harry. Stranger and stranger, shaking his head Xander just plastered a smile on his face and watched as everyone congratulated Harry on the hats choice.

After the sorting ceremony finished, Professor Dumbledore stood up and announced the feast was to begin. Xander looked around at all the empty plates and cups, wondering what was going to happen when all sorts of food started appearing on the plates, meats of all different sorts were there along with about six different types of potatoes along with a few things Xander didn’t recognise. He knew since he was in England that the food would be different, but for the moment he decided to stick with things he knew, loading his plate up with chicken drumsticks, beef and a large pile of chips.

While he was eating he let his thoughts focus on everyone at the table that he could make out, memorising their faces so he would know who was in his house and who to ask for help as such. He saw Harry talking to one of the older boys while Hermione was chatting to several of the girls that she had moved to sit with. Glancing around there weren’t that many girls in this house, and none that particularly grabbed his attention, looking around the rest of the hall he tried to see if the pink haired girl from Diagon Ally was here, but if she was he couldn’t make her out.

Xander was shocked out of his thoughts when Ron shouted in surprise and a vaguely transparent head popped through the pile of chicken drumsticks and introduced itself to the group.

Xander just shook his head, friendly ghosts that were welcome here. He noticed none of the older students seemed surprised at this, so he assumed it was normal before looking around and noting there were about a dozen ghosts now flying around the room and walking through the tables, taking their time to introduce themselves to the people on the table before passing off through the walls or ceiling.

As Ron and Hermione started talking to the ghost that had introduced itself as ‘Nearly Headless Nick’ or Sir Nicholas, Xander just smiled and continued eating, after about twenty minutes he was stuffed, but the pile of food on the table never seemed to go down, no matter how much the students ate. Shaking his head again at the obvious magic involved he smiled before noting that Professor Dumbledore was stood at the end of the table.

“Professor.” A few of the students saw him first and jumped up off their seats to say hello. Xander was about to pass this off as him welcoming all the first years when he turned to him in particular and smiled.

“If you’d like to follow me Mister Harris.” The professor said before he turned and smiled at the rest of the group, motioning with his hands for them to sit back down.

Xander just swallowed, his throat now felt amazingly dry even though he had only just finished off another goblet of orange juice. He smiled at the professor before nodding nervously and stood up, retrieving his staff from where he had placed it against the wall he followed the professor out of the hall up towards his office.

“Nervous?” Professor Dumbledore asked as they approached a giant spiral staircase.

“I’ll go with yeah on that one.” Xander nodded as they started climbing the stairs towards the Professors office.

“Don’t be, we’ll be done in no time and then your house prefect can show you to your room where your friends will be waiting, I took the liberty of moving you along with Ronald and Harry to a private room, I felt that would be best for you and I believe that you have made some good friends there.” Dumbledore continued as they reached the top of the stairs and he walked through a large metal door, closing in behind Xander as he walked in, numbly nodding at the room.

“Thank you.” Xander muttered as the doors shut behind him, the sound sounded awfully final to him as it echoed throughout the small room.

“Now, I think we need to have a chat about Mister Giles.” Dumbledore started as he moved to take a seat at his desk.

...

Xander was possibly even more nervous now around Professor Dumbledore than he had been around the giant of a man Hagrid. The aura of power coming from the seemingly aged professor in front of him was almost tangible, it filled the air with a sort of static charge, Xander was half tempted to try his implants again to see if he could quantify it, see if he could verify its existence or if it was just him being more nervous than normal.

He’d tried accessing the implants a few times before, in Sunnydale and once on the train ride here, each time he’d met with a little more success than the time before, which still wasn’t much more than a vague tingle in the implants when he activated them. From what he knew of the character, Galen wasn’t limited to using his staff for magic, he could do it with just a wave of his hands, the first time Xander had tried that he almost fell unconscious from the way the implants responded to him.

Willow had tried to explain it, the way the implants were grown for Galen, they were rigid and grown to the way he thought about doing things, and the way he did spells, which was nothing like the way Xander was currently doing them. Galen used mathematical formula to do spells, he had all his spells neatly organised in progressive rows where each one was a slight evolution of the one before, a strict orderly mind according to the books and TV show, something that Xander sorely lacked.

His mind just didn’t work like that, his imagination was constantly firing ideas and images into his head, the way he saw it, if he wanted to do magic, he had to first visualise what he wanted to happen, and then use the incantation for it to work. So far it had worked with the staff, and with his new wand, but he’d only tried it once with the implants, and that hadn’t really gone according to plan...

=/^=

“Come on Xander, concentrate.” Willow explained again as they both focused on the book on the table, with his staff and a simple ‘Wingardium Leviosa’ charm Xander could easily send the book up towards the ceiling and further, without the staff it was a different matter though.

Buffy was out with Angel somewhere, looking out for The Judge with Spike and Drusilla. Xander and Willow were trying to get his implants back on line and Giles was doing research in the back, over all everyone was busy and the library smelled of stale pizza from their meal that was forgotten on the table.

“Wingardium Leviosa!” Xander shouted again at the book, motioning with his hands, this time he got a slight wobble from the book but nothing like he should have received.

“See, the implants just have to retrain themselves for your way of thinking.” Willow smiled as she hugged him. “Just keep trying and I’ll be back soon.”

“Where you going Wills?” Xander asked, turning to her as she walked to the door of the library.

“You know...” She blushed a bit as she danced a bit with her feet.

“Right, bathroom.” Xander smiled as he shook his head and Willow ran out the door, some things never change. Standing up he stretched for a moment before he walked through to the back room to see how Giles was doing. “Hey G-Man, any progress?”

“Xander, as you are now a magic user in your own right, do you think you could hold some decorum and actually call me by my name instead of that god awful moniker you insist on attaching to me?” Giles said, not even breaking concentration as he turned a page in the book.

“Was that brit speak for don’t call me G-Man?” Xander quipped with a grin.

“God help us all.” Giles muttered as he slammed the book shut.

“Sorry.” Xander had the good sense to at least look admonished, he was really thank full to Giles for all the help he had given him through this tough time, and even though he didn’t show it often enough, he thought of Giles as more a father to him than his own, and should probably respect him more, but his jokester side wouldn’t allow it for too long.

“It’s alright Xander, I know you’re just trying to lighten the mood, how and you and Willow coming along with your implants?” Willow had explained Xander’s trouble to Giles, and even though he didn’t really understand the nature of the biological technology, he could grasp the idea that they weren’t used to Xander’s mind yet, and that it would take time for them to adjust.

“Good, I managed to get a book to wobble.” Xander half heartedly grinned; it was progress, not much but progress none the less.

“That’s good; it shows those things are actually learning from you then.” Giles smiled, he’d seen what Xander was now capable of with the staff, they had tried most of the incantations that he knew with his wand, and had translated them into movements for Xander’s staff. Though it appeared the staff was still learning as well, as they discovered last night when Xander tried a simple ‘Lumos’ charm that should have resulted in the end of Xander’s staff glowing softly, the result was a bit more violent than that and had bathed the entire library in a bright white light, blinding everyone for about fifteen minutes after the light had been extinguished.

“Yeah, it’s tough work though, I’ve only been at it about half an hour and I feel like I just ran a marathon.” Xander muttered wiping his brow, for some reason trying to get the implants to work was actually hard work, they seemed dormant, asleep almost, and it took every bit of his energy to get them to wake up and actually do what he wanted. It was becoming easier though, the first time he tried accessing them to do something it wiped him out completely for the rest of the day, even then he couldn’t do anything with them, only get them to tingle as they awoke.

“I received another letter from Professor Dumbledore yesterday, I explained your predicament to him and he agrees with me that it would be best if you actually attended a magic school of such.” Giles explained the contents of the letter, watching Xander carefully, gauging his reaction.

“He’s the teacher of one, this Dumbledore guy right? He teaches as a magic school, the one you went to?” Xander asked carefully, actually thinking about what he was planning to do with his future, being around people that didn’t scorn him, and having to constantly hide his new ‘implants’ from them would definitely be a bonus.

“Yes, he is the headmaster, the principal if you will, of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland; it’s the best in the country, possibly one of the best in the world, no finer place if you actually want to learn about magic.” Giles puffed out his chest in pride, ever since Xander had come into his abilities the memories of his time at Hogwarts had come flashing back, he could barely go a day now without thinking of his old friends, James and Lilly, he was the best man at their wedding, that was just before his father had him shipped off to the Watchers Academy. Part of him knew that his father pushed him away from that world because of the war between the ministry of magic and you-know-who and that his father just wanted him to be safe. Another part of him would never forgive his father for tearing him away from his friends, his new family, just to follow in his footsteps.

“Xander!” A shrill cry from the next room broke Giles and Xander out of their musings, breaking into a flat run Xander made it out from the back room followed shortly by Giles, the lights were out in the main library and the room was filled with the glow of the lamps from Giles’ office. In the middle of the room Willow was being held by Angel, who had his hand wrapped around her neck tightly, his other hand held Xander’s staff.

“Let her go overbite!” Xander snarled, edging towards Angel before stopping as Angel made a sudden movement with his arm as if to break Willow’s neck.

“Right, droopy, whatever you say.” Angel snarled back, it was then than Xander noticed that Angel was in full vamp mode, he actually looked like he would kill Willow, and had his teeth dangerously close to her neck. “I’ve seen what you can do with this thing, thought I’d better not risk it.” He stomped the staff on the floor, causing the sound to echo through the library.

“Let her go now Angel.” Giles stated coldly, his arm extended where he had his wand pointed directly at Angel.

“That’s not Angel, is it?” Xander said, almost with a feral grin at Angel. “It’s Angelus.”

“Point to the boy, maybe he isn’t as stupid as he looks,” Angelus snarled back at Xander, “Still looks like he’d fail the entrance exam to an American college though.”

Xander shook his head, not sure whether that was actually an insult or not, but he wasn’t about to let Angelus know he’d got one over on him. “What do you want?”

“To dance in your entrails droopy, bathe in the watchers blood, and drain red here ‘till she’s dry as the Sahara.” Angelus snarled out, leaning down into Willow’s neck to bite her.

“Expelliramus!” Xander shouted, pointing both hands at Angelus and Willow, he wasn’t sure if it would work, he was even less sure of the effect it would have without his staff, but it was the only spell that came to mind that wouldn’t hurt willow if his aim was off.

He was actually surprised when the implants did activate, the tingle rushed through his body, amplified by the adrenaline and he felt the spell rush through his hands as a bright white light shot from his hands sending both Willow and Angelus flying back into the wall with tremendous force.

“Willow!” He breathed out, running over to her now slumped form after she had impacted with the wall with enough force to leave an imprint. Angelus was likewise out cold, blood ran from his head where he hasn’t been as lucky as Willow to land against the wall, he had hit the metal book cage with the full force on the spell, Xander’s staff was rolling on the floor where Angelus had dropped it and both him and Willow were completely unconscious.

“Willow!” He shouted again as he cradled her head in his lap and tears started running down his face.

“Control Xander, magic is always about control.” Giles shouted as he made his way over to Willow’s unconscious form and started waving his wand in complicated movements in the air.

=/^=

“Lemon drop?” The absurdity of the question broke Xander out of his memories.

“Uh, yeah, thanks.” Xander accepted the small yellow sweet he was offered with a smile, unwrapping it carefully he popped it into his mouth and sucked on it for a moment in silence as Professor Dumbledore seemed to inspect him.

“I have to say, from the way Rupert described you, you’re not quite what I had imagined.” Dumbledore started with a wry smile. “But then, nothing ever is what you imagine, is it?”

For the second time Xander was left at a loss for words as the Professor seemed to switch gears so quickly. “I suppose not.” Xander quipped after decoding Professor Dumbledore’s comment in his head, it still didn’t make much sense, but he figured it would make sense at a later point, or drive him mad for the rest of the year trying to figure it out.

“Rupert explained what had happened to you, and the events surrounding your leave from Sunnydale, I must say I believe you’ve made the correct decision in coming here, we can all help you coming to terms with your new power. Now, while you are a lot older than the rest of the people in your year, don’t let it put you off making friends with them, as I said before, Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter are two good people to have as friends, I noticed you defending them outside.” Dumbledore continued, popping another lemon drop into his mouth.

“Yeah, the age thing is ok, Giles, Rupert that is,” Xander caught himself just in time. “Explained it to me, I want to learn control and it seems best to start at the beginning.”

“As everything is.” Dumbledore agreed as he stood up from his chair and moved to inspect Xander’s staff. “Do you mind?”

“No, please.” Xander smiled, holding the staff out for Dumbledore to take.

“Now Rupert explained that you can use this as a wand, as well as having your own... abilities,” Dumbledore paused as he tried to remember exactly how Rupert had described Xander’s source of power.

“I have a wand as well.” Xander said with a smile, fetching the wand out from his pocket where he had stashed it before the house elves started taking his luggage away with everyone else’s. He held the wand out for Dumbledore to take, and smiled when he held it against the staff to compare.

“Simply amazing.” Dumbledore smiled as he passed both items back to Xander. “Now, while you are on school grounds I must request that you only use the wand, I understand that the staff is part of you, Rupert said you wouldn’t go anywhere without it.” He paused as he watched Xander nod in agreement. “But I must ask for the student’s safety, please restrict yourself to the wand in classrooms and on school grounds.”

“That’s fair enough.” Xander nodded as he relaxed a bit, he’d had frightening thoughts that they would want to take his staff away for the year, after the way Giles had yelled at him after the last spell he did with the staff, he didn’t know how anyone could trust him with it.

“Am I correct in the fact that no one else can use the staff as a conduit for their magic?” Dumbledore asked, considering the staff again.

“Giles, sorry Rupert tried and he couldn’t get anything to work, you’re welcome to try though if it would make you feel safer.” Xander offered the staff again and was surprised when Dumbledore refused it with a shake of his head.

“No my dear boy, I trust Rupert when it comes to these matters.” He smiled and clapped his hands twice, the doors behind them opened and a boy about Xander’s age walked in.

“Yes professor?” The boy asked respectfully.

“Ah Ian, would you please show Mister Harris to his room in the tower please, he’s bunking with Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley.” Dumbledore explained with a smile.

“Certainly, this way.” The boy who was introduced as Ian smiled at Xander as led him out of the room as Xander pocketed his wand again and held the staff tightly to his side.

“One last thing Mister Harris.” Dumbledore interrupted them before they had left the room. “Could you at least try and fit in with the school uniform, trousers, shirt and tie please, you may forgo the robes for your own coat though, I understand how cold Scotland must be coming from California, but the rest of the uniform has to stay.”

“Sorry,” Xander muttered as they continued out the door and Ian closed it behind them. He’d been intentionally avoiding putting on the school uniform he’d bought in Diagon Ally; he was more comfortable in his black jeans and sweater. The thought of having to wear dress shirt and tie all day just filled him with dread. “Don’t you get sick of wearing the same things every day?” Xander asked his guide as they started down the stairs and across the long corridors.

“You get used to it, it isn’t as bad as it seems, and since everyone dresses alike, no one can complain about the types of clothing you wear.” Ian explained as they came up to a large open room. “We’ll cut through here; this is where the duelling club normally holds its meetings.”

“Duelling?” Xander’s ears pricked up. “With swords and stuff?” he’d seen old movies with duelling in, and it was always swords or guns, figuring the school wouldn’t let students play with guns he assumed it would be swords, kind of like a fencing club he thought.

“Wands.” Ian practically read his mind. “One of you stands at one end of the pads and the other stands opposite, you duel until there is a clear victory, which isn’t normally very long. Come on, if we cut up these stairs we should catch up with the group that are being shown around, you’re in Gryffindor right?”

“Yeah.” Xander mumbled, a bit amused by the paintings he was passing that seemed to be alive, at least he hadn’t seen anymore ghosts yet, that was a definite plus.

“This is the most direct route to the dormitories, where you’ll be sleeping.” Ian explained at Xander’s quizzical look. “Watch out for the stairs, sometimes they move about.”

“What? They move? On their own?” Xander said, looking up. The entire tower stretched up for as far as he could see, up above he could see a few flights of stairs that were actually moving as they spoke. Glancing down he could see a group of students separating into two sets, each set looking equally bemused and amazed at the sight before them. “Right, stairs that move, check, weirder and weirder.” He muttered the last as he saw one of the groups moving towards a flight of stairs towards where he was stood.

“Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley, please follow me.” Ian shouted at the group of students being led by another older boy as they came up the stairs opposite him. He waited for the two students to look over and recognise Xander before they made their way across.

“It’s bloody amazing isn’t it?” Ron asked as they approached Xander and Ian.

Xander just nodded, smiling at the two younger boys. They watched the other older boy lead the rest of the Gryffindor away before Ian motioned for them to follow him. “Professor Dumbledore has put you three in the tower room above the main Gryffindor common room, if you’ll follow me I’ll show you how to get in.”

“Lead on Macduff.” Xander quipped, causing Ian to give him a strange look before he moved off up some other stairs and across another hallway.

“The paintings are moving.” Harry said out loud as they passed by a particularly large painting with a battle scene going on live in the painting.

“Yeah, I spotted that, weird but cool.” Xander grinned as he looked at the painting.

“Keep up you three.” Ian shouted as he came to a stop in front of a large painting of some sort of blonde warrior amazon.

“Password?” The painting asked.

“The paintings can talk too?” Xander asked in amazement.

Ian just nodded, smiling at the amazed faces on the trio before turning to the painting. “Hyena,” He said the word simply and the painting swung open. “Now remember your password, without it you won’t be able to get into the room.”

“Who chose the password?” Xander asked with a groan.

“Professor Dumbledore set it for you,” Ian explained with a curious smile. “He said it would mean something to you, but didn’t explain what.”

Ron and Harry just turned to Xander, curiosity plastered on their faces.

“A long story for another time.” Xander smiled as Ian led the way into the room. “Another time being never hopefully.” He muttered as he followed the younger boys into the room.

“Beds are though there, and this leads down to the common room.” Ian pointed to the painting. “The password is the same for the main door.” He smiled as all three students nodded. “I’ll leave you to unpack then; your belongings have already been brought up and placed on your beds along with your schedule for tomorrow.” Ian nodded to each of them before making his way out of the room and closing the painting behind him.

“Weird day,” Xander muttered as he made his way through the arch to find two single beds and one double bed, he assumed the double was for him since it had his belongings placed neatly on it. Around the room were wardrobes and draws with enough room for him to fit all his things, there was a large window on one side, and a small grassy area beneath it where grass and mud seemed to be growing out of the stone. On the grass was Pixel, seemingly quite content and pawing at the floor. “And it just keeps getting weirder.”

“I thought we’d be in a dorm with all the other boys.” Ron explained as he moved over and sat on the bed where his belongings had been placed. “Yeah, why did Dumbledore put us in a room with you? Not that there’s anything wrong with you of course.” Ron asked then hastily added the last part making Xander and Harry laugh.

“He didn’t say, only that he saw me defending you to that Draco kid outside and thought we could be friends, it was either that or me alone up here, and if it’s all the same to you I’d prefer the company.” Xander grinned as he started fetching things out of his suitcase, placing his coat on the hanger first of all then bundling his robes up and forcing them back in the suitcase.

“Well I think it’s brilliant, if it’s just us three then no one can tell us what to do.” Harry exclaimed, jumping on his bed and pulling out his belongings from his bags.

“Sounds good to me.” Xander grinned as he started putting things in their right places, he left a load of comic books on the bed and moved across to stuff his clothes in the draws, ignoring the fact that he was crumpling them up as he forced them in.

“Cool, comics, my dad would love to see these.” Ron exclaimed.

Harry smiled and moved over to see what Ron was leafing through, and old issue of Superman. He smiled and picked on an issue of Green Lantern before flicking through the rest, there were Supergirl ones, Green Lantern, The Flash and a few he didn’t recognise like Tomb Raider and The Darkness.

“Yeah didn’t know if I’d be able to get them over here, so I thought I’d better pack a load for reading if I get bored.” Xander smiled at Ron’s amazed expression as he flicked through the comics. “Your dad a collector then?” He asked.

“Nah, never seen one before in my life.” Ron exclaimed as he put down the Superman one and started flicking through an issue of Green Lantern.

“Then why would your dad love them?” Xander asked, intrigued and trying to figure out where he actually stood with the two boys, Harry seemed to have accepted them as just comics and moved back on to packing his stuff away, but Ron was treating them as if they were solid gold.

“My dad loves muggle things, the pictures, they don’t move or anything.” He said in amazement, tilting the pages every way he could and watching for a reaction.

“Nope, they’re just normal comics.” Xander chuckled, it made sense though, if their paintings moved, maybe the wizard comics did as well, like TV in comic book format. He shook his head as he tried to figure out how that would work before putting the idea aside for the moment and moving back to his unpacking. “Um, where’s the plug socket?” He asked, holding his clock radio up with a universal adaptor in his other hand for the plug.

“Electricity doesn’t work in Hogwarts, no technology does.” Ron explained as he put the comic down carefully and moved back to finish putting his things away.

“No electricity, right.” Xander started making a mental note of everything he had that would use electricity and trying to figure out how he could find non-powered versions of them all. “Have to get some shaving cream and a razor in town then, where’s the nearest town?”

“Hogsmead, across the lake where we got off the train.” Ron filled in, it was obvious he was the one to go to with any questions about this place; Harry just looked as amazed as Xander did about the whole ‘no electricity’ thing.

“Right, have to ask one of the teachers about that then.” Xander muttered, running his hand over his chin where he could already feel the stubble growing. He was at the point where he needed to shave about once a week, maybe twice now. It wasn’t getting a major problem, but he didn’t want to be singled out from the rest of his year any more than his age and height difference did already.

After the boys unpacked they immediately set about talking about the day, about all of the amazing things they had seen on their first day here. Harry was just in amazement of it all as Xander was, apparently he came from a muggle family as well and had only found out about magic recently, Ron on the other hand had been raised in the magical community and was a wealth of knowledge about everything magical but found the simplest normal things that he and Harry took for granted as being amazing.

They were a weird trio, but somehow it worked for them. After a long conversation about the day they each decided to call it a night, looking out of the window across the lake Xander finally felt at peace, it was peaceful here, not a sound in the night. The lake was calm and he was finally getting used to the cold air, he turned and saw Harry get out of his bed, Ron was still tossing and turning in his sleep so Xander just smiled and waved Harry over to where he was stood by the window.

“Can’t sleep either?” He whispered as Harry put on his glasses and moved to stand by him, looking out the window with a faraway look in his eye.

“It’s just all so...” Harry trailed off as he looked out the window.

“Yeah, nothing like this where I come from either.” Xander muttered with a smile. “We’ll get used to it; I guess it’s like this for a lot of the new students.”

“I guess.” Harry said with a smile as he looked up at Xander. “What are those?” He asked and Xander cursed himself.

He’d gotten so used to sleeping in just boxers that he hadn’t bothered with a T-shirt again, he was stood by the window in just some long jogging pants with his arms wrapped around his waist, all his black implants and gold patterns under his skin were even more visible in the moonlight than they were by daylight. “It’s a long story.” He offered, hoping that Harry would get the hint and leave it along for the moment.

“The gold’s pretty, this one looks like a dragon.” Harry pointed to the one on Xander’s shoulder where the gold filaments traces around his collarbone and arched down across his chest under the skin.

Xander craned down to see it, but couldn’t exactly see what Harry was referring to; all he could see was the black and gold implants that singled him out as a freak from everyone else. He couldn’t see them as pretty, or as abstract shapes, all he saw were disfiguring implants that, at the moment anyway, were useless.

Harry just smiled at him before stroking his owl for a moment before heading back to bed, Xander stayed up for a bit longer, before lying on his own bed in silence for a while before he was joined by Pixel and the soft purring sent him back to sleep.

=/^=

“Fk, we’re late!” Xander shouted at the two boys that were following him as they ran down the corridor, skidding round a corner they came face to face with a giant door.

“Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall.” Harry read off his slip of paper to make sure they were in the right place this time; the trio had already burst in on one classroom by mistake, thinking it was the right one before being pointed in this direction.

“Is this it?” Ron asked, his voice a bit panicked.

“Looks like it.” Xander smiled reassuringly as he pushed at the door. “Only one way to find out anyway.”

As Xander opened the door and walked in, the two boys followed him and the entire class turned to watch them. Xander had to blink twice to make sure he wasn’t imagining things, it looked to him as if the class was being taught by a small black and gray cat.

“Let’s just sit down and be quiet before she gets here.” Xander muttered as the two boys nodded in agreement, he scanned the room quickly then realised with horror that the only three empty seats were at the front of the class. “And it’s not even lunch yet.” Xander groaned as he jogged to the front of the class followed by the Harry and Ron.

Xander skidded to a halt when the cat leapt off the front desk and changed form into Professor McGonagall in front of his eyes before turning to face them.

“That was bloody brilliant!” Ron shouted out and Harry laughed while Xander just slapped his face with his hand. ‘Brain before mouth Ron’, his brain was screaming at him to tell Ron, but he knew he was exactly the same, and in truth the change of cat to human was ‘bloody brilliant’ as Ron put it.

“Quite, I assume none of you have pocket watches or alarm clocks?” She asked, looking at each of the three in turn.

“Neither watch or clock works.” Xander offered, holding out his wrist to show the professor his digital watch that was displaying crazy figures on the screen.

“We got lost.” Harry said by way of explanation.

“Then perhaps a map? I trust you don’t need one to find your seats?” Professor McGonagall stated before returning to the front of the class.

“Brilliant, first lesson and I’m already in the dog house, by a cat as well!” Xander muttered as he moved to his seat followed by Ron and Harry who were chuckling under their breath at his comment.

“What was that Mister Harris?” Professor McGonagall asked, her tone of voice indicated that she had heard precisely what he had said.

“Nothing Professor McGonagall, just excited to get on with the class.” Xander said, plastering a fake smile on his face as he sat down and propped his staff up against the wall before fetching his wand out of his coat pocket and placing it on the desk in front of him.

“Very well.” Professor McGonagall said with a smile as she watched the trio sit down. “Introduction to Transfiguration, please open your text books to page five and we will begin.”

Xander just smiled and opened the text book, the page he opened to showed various incantations and words that didn’t mean anything to him. He recognised a few of the words as being Latin, but that was about it, the rest of it was filled with pictures about how to wave your wand and what to do if you wanted to turn a cat into a hairbrush and back again. ‘Why would you want to turn a cat into a hairbrush?’ His mind asked, if you have a cat with you, chances are you’re going to have something else that you can use instead of a cat.

“Now, to transfigure the human form you must do one of two things, can anyone tell me what they are?” Professor McGonagall asked the class, and made a disappointed sound when only one or two hands appeared.

“It’s going to be a long first lesson.” Xander muttered as Professor McGonagall picked one of the students and they rattled off the correct answer.

=/^=

“Well at least we’re on time for this one.” Harry noted as they were the first to enter, they moved to the front of the class and took their seats waiting for the rest of the students to come in.

“Was it just me, or did that last lesson seem to go on forever?” Xander asked, transfiguration had been a nightmare, he’d learnt one or two things, but also had managed to turn an entire row of desks into a snake, which had promptly disappeared into the walls of the castle.

“I don’t think Professor McGonagall likes you.” Ron said with a matter of fact tone.

“I’ll say again, I didn’t mean to turn her into a chair; I just wasn’t watching where my wand was pointing when I read the incantation.” Xander explained for what felt like the fifth time today.

“Yeah, but you didn’t have to turn her into a sofa before turning her back to a person.” Harry stated.

Xander just shrugged his shoulders, it had worked hadn’t it? He took the time to actually look around the classroom, there were small cauldrons on each table, and the layout of the room reminded him of the chem labs back at Sunnydale high with small Bunsen burners on each desk. He smiled when the rest of the students started filing in and taking their seats, for some reason they seemed to be staying well away from Xander, Harry and Ron this lesson.

After a few minutes of the class group chatting amongst themselves the door opened with a loud bang as it crashed against the wall and a large man with flowing black robes stormed into the room.

“Good entrance.” Xander muttered as the man made his way to the front of the room.

“There will be no wand waving or foolish incantations in this class.” The man stated as he stormed up to the front of the class and stood facing the entire group. “As such, I don’t expect many of you to appreciate the subtlety that is potion making. However for the select few who possess the disposition,” The man paused, looking directly at the blonde boy who was sat directly in front of him. “I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses.

“Then again,” The man paused, turning to face Harry who was noting down everything that he said. “Some of you may come to Hogwarts in possession of such gifts that you believe you do not have to pay attention.”

Both Xander and the girl sat on the other side of Harry elbowed him at the same time, causing him to put down his quill and look up at the teacher.

“Mister Potter, our new celebrity,” He paused, turning to face Xander this time. “And Mister Harris, our resident American, I don’t suppose either of you have even brewed a potion before, have you?”

“I make a good coffee, does that count?” Xander quipped causing the rest of the class to snigger in response.

“No Mister Harris it does not.” The teacher turned to Harry again. “Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered Ashwood elm to an infusion of Elmwood?”

The girl besides Harry’s arm shot up while Xander, Harry and Ron all looked at the teacher bemused.

“You don’t know?” The teacher asked in a less than surprised tone. “Well let’s try again, where Mister Harris would you look if I asked you to find me a beasle?”

“Behind the couch?” Xander offered. “Everything I lose always ends up there at some point or another.”

The class sniggered again and the girl lifted her hand in the air for a second time.

“And what is the difference between monkswood and wolfsbane?” The teacher asked again in an even less hopeful tone.

“Ah, I know this one, Wolfsbane is used to banish werewolves, and it’s also used as a poison, or was.” Xander explained.

“And you know this how Mister Harris?” The teacher’s eyes were firmly set on him now making him squirm in his seat.

“We had a werewolf in high school, or a student was a werewolf. Our librarian knew about Wolfsbane to treat the cage he was locked in during the full moon, it kept him from breaking out.” Xander explained as the teacher nodded along with him.

“Very good, I see you might actually have a slim chance of passing this course after all.” The teacher smiled a wry grin before returning to the front of the class.

“Now, for your first lesson we will be distilling the various forms on Wolfsbane into three different mixtures, please pay close attention to the black board at the front of the class and write down everything I do, if you follow my instructions carefully there is a chance that none of you will have to visit the infirmary after class.” The teacher snapped at the class again before moving to the chalk board and starting to write on it.

“Intense guy.” Xander quipped as he opened his lesson book and started to copy down everything the teacher was writing.

“That’s Professor Snape,” Ron filled in for him. “He’s been potions teacher for the last ten years, but everyone knows it’s the Dark Arts he’s after.”

“Snape, gotcha.” Xander quipped before shrinking in his chair as Professor Snape levelled a glare at him.

Post Edited:2007-12-26 11:36:34

“Lunch, finally.” Xander grinned as the group of students entered the lunch room and sat down.

“Snape was a bit intense wasn’t he?” Harry asked as he sat down next to Xander and Ron.

“Yeah, guy needs to get laid, desperately.” Xander grinned as the two boys looked at him in confusion. “He needs to have sex.” He explained.

“Ewww, Snape having sex.” Both Ron and Harry shuddered at the words causing Xander to chuckle.

“Never mind.” He grinned and fetched out his note book from potions, surprisingly he was actually quite good at it, and it seemed a constant annoyance to Professor Snape that he was actually showing competence with the potions they were making, admittedly it was only the first lesson and the potions were extremely simple, but he felt like he was getting on with it surprisingly well.

“What’s Seamus trying to do to that mug of water?” Harry asked Ron, breaking Xander out of his concentration as he looked down to the table to see one of the other students flicking his wand at a goblet on the table and muttering something.

“He’s trying to turn in into rum.” Ron explained.

“Wait, we can do that? Turn water into wine sort of thing?” Xander asked, considering the goblet of water in front of him and how much he’d like a can of coke.

“Sure, if you know the right incantation, otherwise...” Ron trailed off as a bright flash came from down the table along with a soft pop followed by the sound of metal scraping on stone.

“Gotcha.” Xander grinned as he looked down the table and saw the blackened face of the student where the spell had literally backfired in his face. He wasn’t that desperate for a coke, at least not yet.

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’ve got a free period next, so I want to go and have a chat to Professor Snape, I couldn’t work out some of what he was writing down, I just want to ask him about a few of the simple things.” Xander explained with a smile before excusing himself from the table.

“Wait, you’re going to see Snape? Voluntarily?” Ron asked, a little shocked at Xander’s words.

“If I can get this potion right, one drop should be able to turn a piece of fruit into a Twinkie, if I’ve got it right that is, I want to ask Professor Snape about it before I actually try it, don’t want to let loose another snake on the school grounds or anything.” Xander grinned before making his way out of the lunch hall while munching on an apple he made his way down to the potions room.

“Mister Harris, either come in or close the door.” Professor Snape called from the front of the classroom where he was writing something down on some parchment.

“Right, sorry sir.” Xander apologised as he made his way into the classroom again. “I wanted to ask you something about this potion, I think I’ve got the ingredients right, but I wanted to make sure with you before I tested it out.”

“You’re not trying to make a smoke bomb or anything else so simple and childish are you?” Professor Snape asked as he stood up, almost surprised when Xander shook his head at him. “Well that is a surprise; most of the students I teach think potion making is only good for practical jokes and the occasional annoyance.”

Xander just smiled, not knowing exactly what Snape wanted him to say.

“Well what is it boy, don’t just stand there all day, show me the potion you are attempting to create and I will poke the holes in your simple plan.” Snape sniped out, causing Xander to grimace as he fetched his book out of his bag. Would his potion be full of holes as Snape suggested, he thought he’d got all the ingredients right, and mixing in the incantation for transfiguring matter should work like... well, work like a charm really.

“Sorry sir, it’s a potion that will hopefully transform a piece of fruit into a snack cake.” Xander explained as he opened his book to the right page and handed it over.

“A most novel idea, one I don’t believe has been attempted before, which means it will probably fail.” Snape explained before he’d even looked at what Xander had written.

“If you could just tell me if I’ve got the ingredients right, that’d be a big help.” Xander grinned as Snape looked down at the book at raised an eyebrow in interest at what he had written.

“Certainly a novel idea,” Snape’s tone had gone from condescending to curious now. “I don’t know if it will work, but the ingredients are correct for what you have in mind. Am I correct in assuming you are on a free period now, or are you simply avoiding another class to come and speak to me?”

“Free period sir.” Xander grinned at Snape’s smile, he was amazed he’d actually got the ingredients right, his first even custom potion, this was definitely something to write home to Willow about.

“Well let’s see if it works shall we? I assume you have your wand, if you start collecting the ingredients needed I will clear a space for you to work.” Snape said before moving off and clearing a space on one of the desks at the front of the room and lighting one of the burners to warm the cauldron up.

“Right, ingredients.” Xander muttered before shrugging off his coat onto one of the desks and moving to the store room to fetch the ingredients he’d written down.

Five minutes, and a lot of bottles later he came back to the table where Professor Snape was waiting and watching him. “I was just admiring your staff,” He said by way of explanation. “Professor Dumbledore explained your situation but I didn’t quite believe it myself.”

“Sorry to say it’s all true.” Xander said with a grin as he started laying out the ingredients in a first needed closest to the cauldron basis.

“And you use this instead of a wand?” Snape asked again, hefting the staff into the air and examining in close up.

“Actually I use a wand as well now, but I can use either, the staff just takes a bit more control or the results... well, they’re a bit random.” Xander explained as he finished laying out the ingredients and fished out his wand from his pocket.

“May I?” Snape asked slowly as he held his hand out for the wand.

“Um, sure?” Xander said half heartedly as he handed the wand over.

Professor Snape took the wand, and after examining it for a brief moment aimed it at the floor and shouted “Incendio!” A small bolt of fire shot out of the end of the wand, impacting on the floor and dissipating quickly on the stone slabs. “A nice wand.” Snape conceded as he brought it back to examine it again. “Now show me with your staff.”

“Are you sure? I mean, I don’t want to blow up anything or well, anyone.” Xander grimaced, if the wand could create a fireball, the there was no telling what the staff would create.

“I would not have asked you if I wasn’t sure, now the same charm if you will.” Snape’s voice had taken on that condescending tone again, so Xander figured it was worth a shot.

Picking up the staff he angled it so it was pointed at the floor, connecting with the staff quickly he mumbled a quick prayer before closing his eyes. “Incendio!” He opened his eyes just in time to see a nice sized fireball, maybe two or three times the size of the one the wand had created, impact the floor before dissipating on the stone flooring as the smaller one had done.

“Very well.” Snape didn’t look particularly impressed, neither did he seem dismayed at the show the staff put on, he simply returned the wand and moved back to the cauldron. “Now, we will work on this potion you have concocted, if you start adding the Whovian herbs I will watch and stop you if anything goes wrong.”

Xander just picked up the herbs he needed and turned to Professor Snape to make sure he had picked up the right ones.

“I will stop you if you are wrong, I will not hold your hand throughout this entire exercise, now, three grams of Whovian herb followed by two pinches of wormwood.”

=/^=

“You really spent the entire free period with Snape?” Rod blurted out as Xander collapsed on his bed after the afternoon lessons.

He’d had Mythical Creatures followed by Charms and Curses in the afternoon, and that much reading had really worn him down, he wanted nothing more than to sit down in front of the TV and watch an episode of Star Trek or something, anything to help him unwind.

“Are you stark raving mad?” Ron continued on as Xander flopped back down on the bed after throwing his coat on one of the hooks on the wall.

“No, I just wanted my Twinkie!” Xander snapped back jokingly.

“The food here isn’t that bad,” Harry said with a grin, “and at least you didn’t have any more accidents like in transfiguration.”

“That’s true.” Xander had to agree, aside from his mishaps in Transfiguration, the rest of the day had actually been quite smooth, he found he actually enjoyed most of it, but it was a lot harder work than school was last year, at first he put it down to a different education system, but now he was thinking it was something else. Maybe there was a bit more of Galen’s personality left over in him because he didn’t hate school quite as much as he used to, it might just be the fact that he was learning something cool and enjoyable, but there was that niggling doubt in his mind that there was something else at work here.

“What about that Hermione? She was always answering the questions before anyone else; I barely got a word in half the time.” Ron continued on as Xander and Harry looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Ron was definitely the chatterbox of the trio, half of the time they couldn’t get him to shut up.

“She was a bit of a know it all.” Harry conceded, remembering how she answered every question in Charms perfectly.

“Reminds me of an old friend.” Xander smiled as he thought back to Willow and Sunnydale, wondering how they were doing back in America.

“So how did the potion go?” Harry asked, moving the conversation away from Hermione and onto Xander’s persistent hunt for his Twinkies, whatever they were.

“Didn’t work, but Professor Snape thinks it was the incantation not the potion, he suggested I go and talk with Professor McGonagall about it, but she was busy today.” Xander had conceded defeat, for today anyway. He’d return to the hunt in the morning, there had to be a way for him to turn something into his beloved snack cake, especially with all the magic around here, someone must have attempted it at least once before.

“So what now? I mean, no more lessons tonight, fancy a bit of exploring?” Ron offered with a smile.

“You two go ahead, I’m beat.” He smiled when he received the customary confused look that meant he’d said something American and had to translate it to brit speak. “I’m worn out, want to rest then sleep.”

“Gotcha.” Ron smiled, he was getting the hang of the way Xander spoke, but every so often Xander would drop a new one on them sending them right back to the beginning.

“I’ll come, I need to find the library for tomorrow, I need some books for Defence against the Dark Arts.” Harry said with a smile, that was the class he was actually looking forward to.

“That’s tomorrow?” Xander said, perking up. He’d heard things about that class; it was supposed to be the most exciting class in the school.

Ron and Harry both nodded at him before making their way out of the room and leaving Xander to his own thoughts as he was resting on the bed. “Well at least I’ve got you for company.” Xander grinned as Pixel came up and started nuzzling him.

Sleep came easy for him that night, he didn’t even hear the two boys come back into the room late at night after their exploration of the castle, the next day was sure to be as wearing as this one, and so he got at much sleep as he could. Waking only once or twice in the night to Pixel’s purring in his ear he slept quite soundly, finally getting used to the cold air in the castle.

=/^=

“You wished so see me Mister Harris?” Snape’s voice echoed through the potions lab as Xander walked in.

“Uh, yeah, how’d you know?” Xander asked as he made his way into the classroom.

“It is a relatively small school, and rumours are always quick to find their way back to the ones they concern.” Snape said by way of explanation as Xander reached the front of the class where he was stood. “Well?” Snape’s dry tone was making Xander even more nervous than he already was around the guy, for some reason the man just sent shivers down his spine, but he was the only teacher that actual treated him like ‘just another student’, rather than someone who needed special attention or someone to keep away from.

“I need to ask you a favour.” Xander bit out, hoping not to get shouted at if his request was turned down.

“A favour?” Snape turned and seemed to regard him in a new light, students never came to him for things like that; they would always go to Dumbledore or one of the other more ‘friendly’ teachers. “Pray tell, what would you ask of me?” Snape’s voice had taken on that mocking tone that Xander heard so often when he was talking to Harry, to be honest it was starting to grate on him, the man reminded him more and more of Snyder ever day, if Snyder could kill you with a flick of his wrist and a simple word that is.

“I need a razor.” Xander mumbled out as he lowered his head, he hated coming to a teacher with stuff like this, but since he didn’t know his way around the area, and had no clue where to find the simplest of shops, he had to go to a teacher.

Snape let loose a bark of laughter, at first Xander wasn’t sure if it was directed at him or the situation, which he had to admit was a bit on the funny side. “You need a razor; didn’t you bring one with you?”

“I used to use an electric.” Xander bit out causing Snape to laugh again. “All the other teachers have beards, stubble or avoid me whenever I see them in the corridors.” He muttered out, trying to explain that Snape was the only one he could turn to.

“Did it ever cross your mind that we don’t actually use razors here?” Snape asked, his tone not really condescending, just full of sarcastic humour. “Well, most people don’t, I personally like using one.”

“You use one?” Xander’s mind was running at two hundred miles an hour. The other teachers didn’t use razors, what did they use then? Magic to shave as well, did they use it for hair cuts as well? Did these people use magic for everything?

“Yes, I believe muggles call them a ‘cut throat razor’, though I must confess I don’t know exactly why.” Snape confided as he explained what he used.

“Right, the old flick knife razor, Giles used to use one of those.” Xander remembered, he’d seen one of those in Giles bathroom a few times, he’d just assumed it was a British thing rather than a wizard thing.

“I will be heading into Hogsmead tonight to retrieve some things from the apothecary; I assume you would like to join me?” Snape’s tone this time seemed dry, but not condescending, merely curious.

“Thank you.” Xander practically exploded out how grateful he was, it had been nearly a week now at the school as his stubble was starting to really irritate him.

“I have just one request, on our walk to the town, you will answer any questions I pose to you with complete honesty.” Snape said before turning to leave the room with a flourish of his robes. “Is that acceptable?”

Xander paused, weighing up the options. He’d explained more about his situation to Dumbledore, but he knew that Dumbledore would keep his secrets, he didn’t know much about Snape, but he knew that he did need a razor or he’d be forced to grow a beard or resort to hunting down another teacher and facing the embarrassing prospect of asking them to teach him the spell for shaving. “That sounds fair.” He finally conceded.

“Meet me in the main hall at seven o’clock tonight; do not be late as I will not make this offer again.” With that Snape left the room leaving Xander alone with his thoughts and the smell of the potions lab.

“Great,” Xander looked around the room for a clock then had to do a double take at the time it showed “Fk; I’m late for Boom Class.” Running out of the room he skidded down the halls, using his staff for leverage as he ran round the corridors and out onto the center green area.

=/^=

“Welcome to your first flying lesson.” The women at the front of the class was addressing everyone when Xander skidded out of the main hall and nearly fell on the gravel path before making his way slowly over to the group of students where they were stood with broom sticks to their side. “Ah Mister Harris, so nice of you to join us.”

“Sorry Miss, I was with Professor Snape.” Xander explained as he jogged over and took the only place left next to Hermione. The rest of the students groaned when he mentioned Snape’s name and even the teacher seemed to look at him with pity.

“Very well, now that everyone is here, please step up to the left side of your broom stick.” The teacher commanded and Xander watched as all the students stepped forward.

“This is not going to end well.” Xander muttered as he followed in step and walked up to the position everyone else had.

“Place your right hand over the room and say up.” The teacher said, watching the class with interest.

“Great.” Xander muttered again as he tried it once. “Up!” to his great surprise, absolutely nothing happened, not even a wobble. Looking around a few of the students, Harry included, had managed to get their broom to fly up to their hand on the first try. Shaking his head he glared down at the broom, as if it was its fault and tried again. “Up!” again, nothing.

He attempted it a few more times, with absolutely no success so he glanced around the class to see if anyone else was in his predicament, even Draco had managed to do it by now, he was being outdone by that snivelling, annoying little git. He even let loose a snigger when Ron called too hard and the broom shot up and smacked him in the face. Shaking his head he looked back to his own broom and tried it a few more times. “Up! Up! UP!” no success, the rest of the students were watching him now with interest, all of them now holding their brooms tightly.

“Is there a problem Mister Harris?” The teacher commented as she walked over to face him.

“I just don’t think broom stick flying is the way for me to go.” Xander conceded defeat.

“Yes, professor Dumbledore thought as much, he seemed to think you would have more success using your own methods, but I thought it best to see if you could actually use a broom as well.” The teacher smiled at him before placing retrieving his staff from the grass where he had dropped it and replacing the broom with it. “Would that help?”

“Well, I don’t think I’m going to ride my staff, but it’s a definite start.” Xander grinned as he held out his hand and joined with the staff in his mind, causing the staff to shake a bit on the floor before jumping up to his hand.

“Interesting.” The teacher commented as she watched him with a smile, even Draco wasn’t smirking anymore and the rest of the students were watching him with interest. He’d caught on to the fact that there were already rumours flying round the school about him, one of the most interesting one was that he was an aura sent to keep an eye on Harry Potter, though what an Aura was, or why they would send one to watch Harry was beyond him, as with all the rumours surrounding him, he just ignored them and carried on with his day. “You can fly this way?”

“Not exactly fly, but I think it should work for me.” Xander grinned as he thought of the right spell to cast, he’d been working on mixing the magic that was being taught here with the magic that Galen used, while he found that he could do most of the things that Harry and Ron could do, there were things that he simply couldn’t do because the magic wasn’t in his body, it was in the implants, and similarly the reverse was true. There were things that he could do, that amazed Harry, Ron and even some of the teachers.

Bracing himself for a second he muttered the incantation under his breath as he pictured what he wanted to happen, “Pulpitum Leviosa!” then smiled as he felt the solid transparent platform under foot where there used to be soft grass.

“Well, I have to say I was expecting more than that Mister Harris.” The teacher actually looked disappointed; she’s obviously heard the rumours about him as well and was expecting to see something special.

“Oh, it worked.” Xander grinned at the teacher as he motioned up with his staff. To the teachers great surprise he started lifting slowly off the ground, he started gaining speed then stopped in the air about six feet up, where he promptly sat down on the transparent platform that was holding him up and smirked down at the rest of the students.

The teacher was just looked at him, half in surprise and half amusement as the rest of the class, Ron and Harry included were looking up at him slack jawed in amazement.

“It won’t do for Quiddich, but that’s bloody brilliant.” Ron was the first one to voice his amazement; even Draco seemed suitably impressed as Xander seemingly just hung there in the air, looking just as comfortable as he was on a chair or his bed.

“Yes, I believe that will do Mister Harris, could you please come down now.” The teacher grinned up at him.

“Will do.” Xander smirked back and lowered himself to the ground until he was sat on the grass, where he simply dissipated the platform and stood back up.

The teacher just grinned at him and he finally noticed that her eyes were bright yellow, almost vampire looking. It unnerved him a bit but she was out in daylight and seemed quite a perky person, so that reassured him enough to just smile back as she walked back to her position at the front of the class.

Harry turned to him and smiled, Ron was still looking at him in amazement when Hermione just tutted and muttered “show off” under her breath. He took the time to glare at her to let her know he’d heard her before she turned back to listen to what the teacher was saying.

“If you are all finished gawking at Mister Harris’s little display, I want you all to mount your broom, grip it tightly, we don’t want you falling off.” A few of the students seemed unnerved at this while the rest giggled.

Shaking his head Xander just watched as the rest of the class mounted their brooms and held them comfortably between their legs. “Still sounds rude, no matter how you say it.” Xander grinned at his own joke and got another glare from Hermione for his trouble, feeling a little childish he simply stuck his tongue out at her and pulled a face, she seemed suitably annoyed by that and went back to staring at her broom.

“When I blow my whistle I want each of you to kick off from the ground hard. Keep your broom steady, hover for a moment as Mister Harris did, then lean forward slightly and touch back down.” The teacher gave full instructions and Xander watched as all the students were looking thoughtful about it.

“On my whistle.” She paused for a moment, looking around the class to make sure that they were all ready before blowing the whistle sharply.

Neville was the first one to actually get off the ground; he was about four feet in the air by the time the teacher had walked over to him. “Looks like he’s got the hang of it.” Xander muttered with a grin as Neville seemed to be panicking in the air a bit.

“Mister Long... Mister Longbottom!” The teacher tried to get his attention as he lifted further and further off the ground before taking off across the green on a sharp curve taking him about fifty feet off the floor.

“Guessing that’s not quite what he had in mind.” Xander grinned as the teacher shouted after him; he was rewarded by another glare from Hermione for his efforts to lighten the mood.

Looking up in the air Neville was obviously having trouble keeping his broom steady, he was weaving and waving all over the place and gripping onto the broom for dear life. He seemed to rebound off the castle a few times before arching down towards the floor, just when Xander thought he was going to crash into the ground and embed his broom in the soft soil he pulled up and started heading towards the group of students at full speed.

The teacher was the first one to dive out of the way, followed quickly by a few other students, with a sharp shout of “Fk!” Xander dove out of the way as well, narrowly missing the broom as it shot over head making his coat flap about in the back draft.

Neville seemed to then steer his broom through one of the arch ways before shooting back up to the top of the castle where he flew along the roof for a moment before turning round one of the turrets where his robes got snagged on one of the statues, pulling him off his broom. Xander watched at the boom, now without it’s rider arched to the ground and impacted the soil much like a javelin, impaling itself about three feet into the soil.

Neville’s robes we stretching up on the statue and Xander could hear them tearing. Muttering the incantation again he quickly felt the platform appear underfoot and he took off from the ground at his best speed arching up to where Neville was snagged on the statue. “Hold on!” He ground out between his teeth as his flew towards Neville as best he could. He was met with a shout when Neville’s robes finally tore, the boy started falling to the floor to Xander changed his speed and direction, arcing down to where Neville was falling. Taking note of the metal spiky ornament on the castle wall that could easily impale the small boy Xander sped up, not wanting to see a death this early in the school year, Jesse was enough, there was no way he was going to let another boy die when he could help stop it.

Speeding up he was just about to intercept Neville’s fall when he jumped off the platform, catching Neville in mid air before tumbling to the grass on the other side of the gravel, his staff fell to the floor as he wrapped his arms round the boy, trying to shield him from the impact as best he could.

“Fk that hurt!” Xander screamed as a tumbled ball of him and Neville rolled along the ground, his coat and Neville’s robes getting tangled up as he heard the shouts of the teacher and the rest of the class running over to see if they were ok. “You alright?” Xander was the first to recover, leaning down he could see the boy was in pain.

Neville just whimpered a bit cradling his arm and Xander could see that his ankle was bend at a position that was completely unnatural. Scooping the boy up in his arms he stood up, grimacing when he felt his back click from the fall. “Remind me not to do that again.” He muttered to the boy in his arms as he walked over to meet the teacher and the rest of the students.

“Are you both alright?” The teacher shouted out as she reached them, her voice filled with concern for the two students.

“I’m good, bit of a graze that’s all. Think he’s got a sprained wrist, maybe a broken ankle.” Xander grimaced as the boy finally noticed his ankle and whimpered more.

“Give him here.” The teacher ordered and Xander handed the boy over into her arms. “That was good flying by the way.” The teacher whispered to him before turning back to the class.

“Everyone is to keep their feet firmly on the ground while I take Mister Longbottom to the hospital wing, understand?” The class all nodded in unison while Xander made a fervent prayer never to leave the ground again. “If I see a single broom in the air, the person riding it will find themselves out of Hogwarts before they can say Quiddich!” The teacher strode off into one of the archways surrounding the green, leaving the students to mumble amongst each other as Xander sank to the floor and relaxed on the grass.

“Did you see his face?” Draco snarled out.

“Ugh, why did I have to be in a class with that idiot.” Xander muttered before sitting up to see what was going on.

“Maybe if the fat lump had given this a squeeze,” Draco paused, holding up a gold and silver ball that Xander didn’t recognise. “He would have remembered to fall on his fat arse.”

“What’s that?” Xander asked Hermione as she walked past to avoid the group.

“It’s a Remeberall; Neville got it in the post this morning.” Hermione filled in, “That was really brave of you though, stupid, but brave.”

“Thanks.” Xander bit out dryly, taking the back handed complement with a pinch of salt.

“Give it here Malfoy!” Xander was interrupted from his lazing about when Harry’s voice filled the courtyard and the rest of the students seemed to shrink in on themselves going as quiet as possible.

“No, I think I’ll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find.” Draco paused, sparing a glance at Xander with a smirk before stepping up to his broom and taking off slowly in a swirl around the students.

“Not again.” Xander muttered as he clambered to his feet and got ready to cast the spell again, Draco actually seemed in control of his broom however and he could always fly up and get the ball after lesson had finished.

About twenty feet up in the air Draco stopped and turned to the students again. “What’s the matter potter? Bit beyond your reach?”

“Harry.” Xander let the one word be a warning as Harry mounted his broom and kicked off from the ground.

“They’re both going to get expelled.” Hermione muttered and Xander had to nod in agreement.

“Great, I can’t catch two of them.” Xander said as he walked into a clearing and cast the spell, feeling the platform beneath his feet he quickly took off and aimed himself at where Draco and Harry seemed to be arguing in the air.

Harry shouted something to Draco that Xander couldn’t quite catch before his raced at him, Draco was quicker though, spinning in a three sixty roll on his broom he avoided Harry quite easily before shooting off across the green.

“Have it your way then!” Draco shouted with a grin as he stopped and threw the ball towards one of the castle walls.

Harry seemed to hang in the air for a moment before shooting of at a speed that even impressed Draco. Xander quickly had time to duck to the platform, laying flat on his chest as Harry shot over head to catch the flying ball.

“Ugh, idiots!” Xander shouted out, not bothering to right himself in the air he simply changed direction and shot off after Harry.

He quickly found however that Harry was going a lot faster than he was capable of, he was racing at the wall at a speed Xander couldn’t even hope to match, and for a second Xander grimaced as he thought Harry was going to smash into one of the glass windows he was heading for.

As Harry approached the windows he pulled a sharp turn reminiscent of a hand break stop in the air and easily caught the golden ball that was flying through the air. Xander breathed a sigh of relief when he started heading slowly for the ground and he turned to make sure Draco was doing the same.

“Nice flying.” Xander grinned as he flew over next to Harry and slowed himself down so he could stand up from his laying down position on the flying platform he’d created.

They were both met by cheers as the entire group surrounded Harry and started congratulating him on his flying and for standing up to Draco.

“Harry Potter!” A voice called out over the green and Xander whipped round to see Professor McGonagall walking across the grass toward them.

“This can’t be good.” Xander muttered as the rest of the class fell silent as Professor McGonagall approached.

“Follow me.” Professor McGonagall asked sharply before turning and walking into the school, followed by a dismayed looking Harry.

“If he gets expelled,” Xander paused, glaring at Draco with all the hatred he could put into his eyes. “I will personally kick you out of this school, your ass and my boot, got it?” Xander paused as Draco swallowed, looking more than slightly nervous at the threat.

Walking away from the group of students Xander took his position laying down on the grass again and waited for the teacher to return, hoping none of the other students were stupid enough to try their own flying lesson. He’d had quite enough air time for one day, and he didn’t fancy any more jumps and loops on his platform trying to stop a stupid student from imminent death.

=/^=

“Seeker, nice one Harry.” Xander grinned as he caught up to Harry and Ron on the central outside area on their way back to the common room.

“Go on Harry, Quiddich is brilliant.” Ron shouted, he certainly seemed enthused about Harry being on the team.

“I’ve never even played, what if I make a fool of myself?” Harry asked, turning to Ron then to Xander for guidance.

Xander just shrugged, it had come to his attention that Harry was looking up to him, turning to him more and more lately like he saw Xander as a big brother to him. It was kind of nice, reminded Xander of the way Willow would turn to him for things back in Sunnydale.

“You won’t make a fool of yourself.” Xander spun around to see Hermione on his other side, obscured from the other boy’s vision by his long coat. “It’s in your blood.”

“Huh?” Xander questioned as both Ron and Harry looked just as confused.

“Follow me.” Hermione said with an annoyed tone before taking off down one of the corridors, not even bothering to look back to see if they were following her.

“Reminds me of another friend back home, bossy, strong willed,” Xander paused for a second imagining the havoc that Hermione would cause if she would be called as a slayer.

“What is it?” Harry asked as they started jogging down the corridor to keep up with Hermione.

“Random scary thought.” Xander grinned at the two, “I’ll tell you later.”

Hermione had stopped in front of what looked to be a trophy cabinet, though Xander didn’t recognise any of the names of the sports involved, there were more than a few just dedicated to Quiddich alone. Must be the wizard sport of choice, Xander mused.

“Whoah!” Ron exclaimed as Hermione pointed out one of the names on the Gryffindor house trophy. “You never told me your father was a seeker too.”

“Famous dad, that explains it.” Xander muttered as he noticed the name on the trophy, that had to be why everyone was treating Harry as if he was a rock star or something.

Harry just turned to Xander with a questioning look, as if to say ‘what are you on about?’ He then turned back to the trophy and muttered “I didn’t know.”

“Ok, not the famous dad theory then.” Xander muttered, causing both Hermione and Ron to look at him this time.

“What?” Xander asked, feeling as if this was some private joke that everyone except him knew about.

“You don’t know, do you?” Harry asked, turning to look up at Xander.

“Ain’t got a clue.” Xander confessed. He’s often wondered why everyone treated Harry so different, most of the school treated him like he was the second coming, while a select few seemed to shun him because of it and acted like they hated everything he stood for.

“Come on, I’ll explain it on the way back to the common room.” Harry said with a smile as the group started walking.

=/^=

“So your parents were killed by this guy?” Xander asked as Harry finished the story and they walked through an archway to the main stairway room.

“Yeah, and I grew up with my aunt and uncle, didn’t even know about magic until Hagrid came to find me.” Harry finished off with a sad look in his eye.

“Damn kid, you’ve had a worse life than me, and I grew up on a Hellmouth.” Xander conceded as the steps started rumbling while they were walking up them. “What the hell?” He shouted, getting ready to cast whatever spell was needed and grabbing onto the stone banister with all his strength.

“The staircases change, remember?” Hermione filled in, though her voice wasn’t quite as know it all and annoying as usual.

“Still freaky.” Xander shouted above the rumbling of the stairs and the grating sound of stone against stone.

“Let’s go this way.” Harry pointed to a door at the top of the stairs and started walking towards it.

“Anything to get me off the stairs that can move of their own accord.” Xander muttered, taking a last look at the stair way before jogging up the stairs to catch up with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

Opening the door at the top of the stairs, the group stepped through as Harry looked around first.

“Creepy.” Xander gave a shudder as he looked around. The entire hallway didn’t look like it had been cleaned for years, and grotesque statues hung on every corner making the corridor feel less inviting than a master vampires crypt.

“We’re not supposed to be here, this is the third floor.” Hermione explained.

“The place to stay away from, unless you want a grizzly, horrible death that is?” Xander quipped back, remembering Dumbledore’s words on his first day.

Hermione just nodded as Xander stopped in his tracks. “Right, back to the freaky stairs then,” He grinned before taking a large step back as one of the stone pillars ignited on the top casting the entire hallway in flickering orange light. “Even freakier by light,” Xander muttered, turning around to see a small cat with red eyes walk through the door.

“It’s Filches cat.” Hermione explained as Ron and Harry took off running down the corridor into the darkness.

“Sure, run into the darkness on the corridor that promises death, and the Hellmouth was less scary why?” ignoring his brain for the moment he turned back and started running down the corridor, easily catching up to the three younger students. He was more than slightly disturbed by the fact that the stone pillars seemed to be lighting up with fire as they ran down the corridor. “Well that’s going to make it easy for him to find us.” He muttered as he skidded around a corner and came face to face with a giant wooden door.

“Hide in here.” Harry shouted before he started to pull on the handle. “It’s locked!”

“Oh move over!” Hermione shouted before pushing Harry out of the way and brandishing her wand at the door. “Alohomora!” She shouted and a click came from the door.

“Is there anything you don’t know?” Xander quipped as he opened the door and they all ran in, closing the door behind him be pulled on it and held it in place for a bit to make sure it would stay shut.

“Standard book of spells, chapter seven,” Hermione informed him with a smile, he smiled back and nodded. Sounded like a useful book to read, but not one he owned. ‘Wonder if the library’s got a copy’ he idly wondered as he let go of the door handle, content that the door would stay shut.

“Um, Xander...” Ron whispered, tugging at his coat.

“Yeah?” Xander replied, not taking his eyes of the door, ready to cast a holding charm if he saw the handle start moving.

“Xander...” This time it was Harry tugging at the other side of his coat. Turning round he saw Hermione first, staring out into the room with wide eyes, all the blood had drained from her face and she looked like she’d just seen her first master vampire.

Ignoring his brain for the second time in ten minutes, he looked up to see what everyone was staring at, and immediately wished he’d stayed ignorant. In front of them was a dog, or at least it looked like a dog, or dogs. It had three heads and each of them was larger than Xander, his brain idly wondered if its teeth were about the size of his arm, he quickly banished the thought as his imagination decided it didn’t want to know how big its teeth were. “Right...” Xander honestly didn’t know what to say, there were no swearwords he knew that could explain how he was feeling at this moment.

As the middle head yawned, Xander’s imagination got its wish and saw the dog’s teeth were easily the size of him arm, perhaps bigger. “Not good!”

“Ya think?” Ron shouted back at him, causing all three heads to fully wake up and look at him.

The dog then stood up to its full height, and Xander wondered how much clean underwear the group would need to get them through the nightmares tonight. His answer came when the three children screamed in unison, the pitch deafening him as he ran to the door and opened it, holding it open for the Harry, Ron and Hermione to run through before he slammed it shut and locked it.

“What the fk was that?” Xander shouted out as they ran down the corridor back to the freaky stair room.

“What the hell do they think they’re doing, keeping a thing like that in a school?” Ron asked as Hermione closed the door behind them and they all gripped the banister of the stair way in shock.

“Didn’t you see what it was standing on?” Hermione asked at they started jogging down the stairs and taking another route back to the common room.

“Feet weren’t as interesting as its teeth.” Xander admitted, a giant three headed dog coming at him, his field of vision narrowed to the things that could kill him quickest, that was its teeth, all of them.

“It was standing on a trap door,” Hermione informed them as they walked along the corridor towards the common room.

“So, what, it’s a guard dog or something?” Xander briefly considered the notion, it was a good idea, and no one was likely to get in to whatever that thing was guarding.

“That’s right, now I’m going to go to bed, before you,” Hermione shouted, poking Harry in the chest, “Or you,” poking Ron this time. Xander briefly glared at her, daring her to try it with him. “Come up with another idea to get us killed, or worse expelled.”

“Being expelled is worse than being killed?” Xander asked in amusement as they watched Hermione walk down the corridor to the common room while they stopped in front of the painting that let to their room.

“She’s got weird priorities.” Ron noted, Harry and Xander could only nod in agreement before opening the painting and walking through the arch to their room.

“Now, are you two going to be safe while I go out with Professor Snape tonight, or do you want to come with me?” Xander asked, already knowing the answer as the two boys shook their head in horror at the idea of spending any more time with Snape than humanly possible.

“I’ll be back later alright.” Xander smiled at the two before pulling his jumper, no sweater, damn brit speak, over his head and then putting his long coat back on. “Try to stay away from dogs that can swallow you whole alright?” He grinned at the two who visibly swallowed before making his way out the door and down towards the main hall.
Post Edited:2007-12-26 11:35:31
Post Edited:2007-12-26 11:35:49
Post Edited:2007-12-26 11:36:14

...

“Do hurry up Mister Harris, we haven’t got all night you know.” Professor Snape called out over the hall as Xander entered from the side hallway.

“Sir,” He acknowledged the man’s presence before jogging over.

“Are you alright, you seem a bit shaken.” Snape snorted, looking him over as if he was inspecting him.

“The stairs decided to change on the way down, caught me off guard.” Xander explained, he’d been thinking up an explanation if anyone asked, but all he could picture was that giant dog and the teeth that could have torn him in two easily.

Snape just nodded before walking out the doors. “We will be taking a route through the forest, so try and keep up.”

Xander just nodded in reply, he’d heard Ron talk about the forest that was on the edge of the Hogwarts grounds, each story Ron had was scarier than the last, werewolves, vampires, according to Ron every scary thing he could imagine lived in that forest. At first he’d put it down to the kids overactive imagination, but living in a wizarding community he didn’t want to dismiss anything that easily.

As the two walked out over the grass and headed past a small hut on the edge of the castle grounds Xander found himself striding faster and faster to keep up with Professor Snape, half of the time he was practically jogging to keep up when Snape stopped suddenly at the side of the forest.

“Stay with me at all times and you will be safe, do not wander off in here, there are creatures roaming these tree’s that even your paltry imagination couldn’t even conceive.” Snape explained before striding off into the forest.

“Dunno, I’ve faced down some pretty scary things.” Xander muttered before jogging to catch up with Professor Snape, he could easily see him from the lantern he was carrying as he made his way through the forest without breaking stride. “Do you mind if I shine a light as well?” Xander asked, he was now used to asking someone for permission whenever he used his staff for anything, the teachers didn’t seem to mind it, some of them found it quite funny that he preferred a staff to a wand.

“By all means,” Snape said dryly as he stopped and turned to Xander to see what he was going to do.

Muttering the short ‘Lumos’ charm under his breath, he stomped the staff on the floor sharply, wincing as the sound echoed through the forest. He wasn’t disappointed though as the top of the staff lit up brighter than the lantern Professor Snape was carrying and shone what looked like a torch beam several feet into the air.

“Impressive,” Snape conceded before turning back to his path and striding off.

Most of the walk through the forest was made in silence, with the occasional comment from Professor Snape about the sorts of creatures that live in the forest, whenever Xander heard something he’d spin his staff round and aim the torch light at wherever the sound came from. Once or twice he was sure that he saw something moving in the forest, once something dark that looked like nothing he’d ever seen, and then a white horse. He saw the white horse a few times but never managed to get a proper look at it but it did seem to be following them through the forest and keeping the other creatures away from them.

“Do they normally follow people?” Xander asked Snape as they paused by a tree for a second.

“Do what normally follow people?” Snape asked as he turned to regard Xander.

“The horses, there’s a white one following us.” Xander explained, then took on a look of puzzlement at Snape’s sharp bark of laughter.

“A unicorn, there are several in the forest, they mean us no harm, come on.” With that explained Snape took off through the forest again. Xander kept an eye out for the unicorn but only managed to catch glimpses of it as he ran through the trees.

Shaking his head at the sorts of things these people took for granted he smiled, he wondered if there was a picture of a unicorn somewhere that he could send back to Willow and Buffy, they’d definitely get a kick out of it. After about ten more minutes of walking they passed through the edge of the forest and were out onto a clear field with a gravel path stretching out into the distance.

“Now we can talk,” Snape announced at they started walking along the gravel path across the field, heading to where Xander guessed the town was. “Professor Dumbledore has told me many things about you Mister Harris, most troubling of all is that you grew up on a Hellmouth, is this true?”

“Yup.” Xander grinned, he enjoyed seeing people’s reactions when he told them where he had grown up, a few people even mad the sign of the cross as soon as he mentioned the word ‘Hellmouth’.

“And you survived using your staff for protection I assume.” Snape continued as he strode along the path, causing Xander to start jogging to keep up.

“Nope, didn’t have the staff until about a year ago, before then it was just me and some friends.” Xander confessed, though he did wish he’d had the staff when Buffy had first come to the school, especially during the Harvest, maybe he could have saved Jesse’s life if he’d had it back then.

“Interesting, and your friends, they are wizards too I assume.” Snape asked.

“Nope, well Giles is but me and Willow were just normal.” Xander explained, omitting any mention of Buffy, it wasn’t a lie if he didn’t mention it he reasoned.

“Very well, and how is Rupert?” Snape asked, causing Xander to stumble over the question.

“Fine, Giles in the one that helped me figure all this out, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him.” Xander conceded, he really did owe Giles a lot more than he thought.

“I was under the impression that he joined the Watchers Council,” Snape paused on the path, turning to face Xander and gauge his reactions. “Does he have control of a Slayer in Sunnydale?”

Xander paused, not sure how to answer this without breaking his promise to Giles to keep it secret, or to break his word to Snape about answering everything truthfully.

“Well?” Snape prompted him dryly.

“Can I choose not to answer? I don’t want to lie, but I can’t break my promise to Giles.” Xander conceded defeat as he looked at Snape who actually seemed happy with his answer.

“And that tells me that you hold your word as bond even though you told me more than you intended to. It also tells me that you hold Rupert in the same high regard that he holds you.” Snape turned and continued on the path to the village. “Do not break his trust, it my experience Rupert does not hand out trust lightly.”

It took them about another half hours walk through the night to reach the village, and while Professor Snape was in the apothecary Xander went in the shop that Snape pointed out to him and started looking at razor’s. Unfortunately they only had the cut throat type, and several jars and bowels along with brushes to prepare and apply the shaving cream with.

“Don’t suppose you’ve got a Gillette razor or some shaving cream in a squirty tin do ya?” Xander asked the man who seemed amused by his question before shaking his head. “Course not, that would make things to easy.”

Wandering back to the shelf he picked up a blade that looked sharp enough to cut his fingers off, along with a bowel and brush before heading back to the counter, picking up a bag of ingredients to make the shaving cream with. “I don’t suppose these come with instructions do they?”

“Of course not, but I will explain to you how to prepare the cream tonight before you go.” Snape explained from behind Xander, causing him to whirl round to face him.

“You know, sneaking up on people is an easy way to give them a heart attack.” Xander quipped as he handed over several of the gold coins to the shop keeper then pocketed the silver and bronze change.

Snape didn’t say anything in response, he merely sneered at the shop keeper before they both left and the man closed the door behind him.

“Not really a people person are you?” Xander asked as they walked through the town and Snape paused in front of an old looking tavern.

“People are idiots in my experience; I rarely trust them anymore than I already have to.” Snape explained. “Now, I am going to have a drink in here before we head back, are you going to join me or are you heading back to the school on your own.”

“Uh, I’ll join you.” Xander said after a moment’s hesitation, he didn’t fancy walking back through the forest on his own, especially not at night.

“Very well, but please try and keep your inane comments to yourself.” Snape asked before opening the door for them and walking through.

The tavern seemed like something out of a historical drama, there were wizards and witches everywhere, all enjoying what looked like mugs of some sort of beer. Snape made his way quickly to the bar where he was met with a smile from the women behind it.

“Two butterbeers.” Snape ordered without even glancing at Xander to see what he would like. He simply motioned to a table at the back of the room where Xander walked over and took his seat. A few minutes of all the patrons watching Xander, Snape managed to make his way over to the table and placed the mug of butterbeer down in front of him before taking a mouthful of his own.

Not wanting to seem ungrateful he picked up the mug and was surprised to find the beer was warm, none of the beers his dad drank were ever warm, in fact he would hit Xander if there wasn’t a cold beer in the fridge when he got home from work.

“What is it?” He asked curiously as he sniffed it, it smelled sweet, sort of like the sweets that Willow used to buy.

“Butterbeer, this pub is famous for it.” Snape explained before nodding at Xander’s beer. “Drink it before it cools down.”

Throwing caution into the wind Xander took a mouthful of the beer, holding it in his mouth for a second and enjoying the sweet warmth that filled him before swallowing it. “Tastes like toffee’s,” He grinned.

Snape just looked at him as if to remind him about keeping his inane comments to himself before drinking some more of his beer. After a while he turned to Xander and started asking things again, at first they were simple, what sort of creatures he had come across on the Hellmouth, what sort of things had he fought against. What had he expected of Hogwarts and how did it compare to the schools in America.

Answering the questions as truthfully as he could, he was somewhat surprised when Professor Snape moved back to the bar and came back a few moments later with two more butterbeers, two apples and a knife and fork.

“Not really hungry, but thanks.” Xander grinned as he drained the last of his first butterbeer.

“Your wand.” Snape asked, holding out his hand without saying any more.

Xander just shrugged before fishing the wand out of his inside pocket. He’d got used to storing it there, it wasn’t as if he needed to grab it for anything if they were attacked, he could always just use his staff to a greater effect. He’d just got used to carrying with him at all times, much like the staff.

“Watch carefully.” Snape insisted before waving the wand carefully at the apple before speaking an incantation. “Meus pectus pectoris votum,” As Xander watched the apple seemed to shimmer slightly before turning into a plate with a rare cooked rump steak on it. “This incantation will turn the object you use it on into the object you most want, as you can see I missed my meal tonight. Now you try.” Handing Xander back his wand Professor Snape started to slice up the steak before eating it.

“Weirder and weirder.” Xander chuckled before mimicking Snape’s movements with the wand and reciting the incantation. “Meus pectus pectus votum,” He was quite shocked when the apple just seemed to shrink in on itself before exploding and covering both him and the professor with apple juice and bits of apple skin.

“No,” Snape said dryly as he picked a piece of apple out of his hair and glared at Xander. “Meus pectus pectoris votum. Not ‘pectus pectus’.” Moving back to the bar Snape returned with another two apples. “Again.”

Moving one of the apples in front of him he moved his wand precisely and uttered the incantation exactly as Professor Snape had pronounced it. “Meus pectus pectoris votum.” Smiling to himself he watched as the apple shrank a bit and then changed shape into the familiar shape of a Twinkie. “Now that’s magic I can get behind.” Xander grinned as he picked up the Twinkie and sniffed it first before taking a large bite.

“After three potions designed to create one of these snack cakes you so often talk about, I thought this incantation would save you the trouble, and save me some ingredients.” Snape explained as he looked thoughtfully at the second apple. “What are they?”

Xander just grinned and waved his wand at the second apple. “Meus pectus pectoris votum.” He smiled as the incantation worked perfectly a second time and a second Twinkie was created where the apple once was.

Picking up the Twinkie, Professor Snape sniffed at it a bit cautiously before taking a small bite.

“It’s a snack cake; don’t know if you have them in England.” Xander explained as he finished off his own Twinkie, relishing the taste before taking a gulp of the fresh butterbeer.

“Sweet and creamy, I imagine things like this do wonders for your teeth.” Snape bit out sarcastically but finished the Twinkie off in three bites.

“I like them.” Xander grinned as he watched Snape drain his butterbeer so he did the same.

“Time to head back and I will show you how to adequately prepare the shaving cream before bed, you have levitation tomorrow am I correct?” Snape asked as they made their way out of the bar into the cold night where Xander pulled his leather trench coat tight around him and fastened it before pulling the hood up.

“Yes, isn’t that the same as flying on broomsticks?” Xander asked, it was bothering him, why have two classes for flying, wouldn’t one suffice? He didn’t fancy having to chase down any more students from the skies when they lost control of their brooms.

“Yes, I heard about your adventures with Mrs Hooch and the broom sticks,” Snape said with a wry smile. “Levitation is about using your wand to make things levitate, not levitating yourself.”

“Gotcha,” Xander grinned from under his hood as he muttered the “Lumos” incantation and stomped his staff on the ground to create the light.

“Why do you do that?” Snape asked, his tone genuinely curious.

“What? The light? So we can see?” Xander answered truthfully.

“Not the light,” Snape waved off the comment with the practice of ages. “The distraction, I clearly heard you mutter the incantation both times, but you feel it is necessary to bang your staff on the ground to draw attention away from your spell. Why?”

“You said it yourself, distraction. If someone believes I can do the spell without saying it, then they have misjudged my abilities. Keeps people off balance around me.” Xander explained honestly, though not entirely. The misdirection was something he’d picked up from Galen, who always used misdirection in his spells to keep people off balance and to allow him to work where people would shun him for using technomancy.

“A wise choice.” Snape nodded as the two walked out of the village and started on the gravel path back to the school.

=/^=

“One of a wizards most rudimentary skills is levitation.” The teacher at the front of the class explained from his perch on a table and several books so he could be seen. At first Xander wondered if he was an elf or a goblin or something, but in the end he just accepted it as being another magical creature he was going to learn from. It seemed you could be any race in the wizard world and they would all treat you with the same respect, he wished it was true for the entire world. “Or the ability to make objects fly.”

“Do you all have your feathers?” The teacher asked and Hermione on the right of Xander waved her feather at the teacher.

“Now, don’t forget the nice wrist movement we’ve been practicing,” The teacher continued bringing a snort of laughter from Xander. Hermione glared at him for some reason and Ron and Harry just looked at him quizzically.

“Later, when you’re older,” Xander whispered at the two with a grin. ‘Much older’ he added in his head.

“A swish and flick, everyone,” The teacher paused as everyone imitated his actions as they had been practicing for the last few days. “Good. And enunciate, Wingardium Leviosa.” He paused; looking around the class to make sure everyone was ready.

“Whatever,” Xander muttered at he picked up his wand and twirled it in the air. “Wingardium Leviosa.” He then had to duck quickly as the feather shuddered slightly then flew towards him, quill first and embedded itself in the wood on the desks behind him. Reaching back to pick it out he put it back on the desk before turning to Ron. “People always said the pen was mightier than the sword, I don’t think they had feather missiles in mind though.” He grinned for a bit before attempting it again, fortunately no one else in the room seemed to be having any luck either.

“Wingardium Leviosar!” Ron shouted at the feather before waving his wand manically at it.

“Stop, stop,” Hermione reached over to stop him. “You’ll have someone’s eye out like that.” She paused glancing at Xander carefully. “And besides you’re saying it wrong. It’s Leviosa not Leviosar.”

“You do it if you’re so clever then.” Ron huffed at her as he slammed his wand down on the desk.

“Fine.” Hermione took the challenge and picked up her wand, with a swish and a flick she aimed it at the feather on her desk. “Wingardium Leviosa!” She then watched at the feather floated up to meet where her wand was pointed before floating up to the ceiling.

“Smooth.” Xander grinned as he tried it again. “Wingardium Leviosa!” This time the feather shot up to the sky quill first, impaling Hermione’s feather on the way up before pinning it to the ceiling as it embedded itself it one of the wooded struts. “Not what I had in mind.” He grinned as the teacher used his wand to float over two fresh feathers for the pair.

“Show off.” Ron pouted and rested his head on his pile of books.

Xander was in the middle of trying it a second time where he was interrupted by a bright flash and a loud bang coming from further down the table where Harry was sat. Leaning forward to get a better look he saw Harry was sitting there with a shocked look on his face while the student next to him had a charred face and the feather in front of him was burnt to a crisp.

“Holy exploding feathers Batman!” Xander quipped as Harry requested another feather.

“It’s Leviosa not Leviosar.” Ron mocked Hermione as the group made their way out of the class on their way to lunch.

“Uh Ron,” Xander started to interrupt him.

“She’s a nightmare, honestly, no wonder she hasn’t got any friends.” Ron continued to mock Hermione, oblivious to the fact that she was behind him. A few seconds later the girl in question stormed past, elbowing Ron out of the way as she stormed through an arch and turned the corner.

“Smooth,” Xander grinned. “Very smooth man, though it was better than my first attempt at flirting with Buffy.”

“She heard you.” Harry said, blatantly stating the obvious as Xander finished laughing.

“Do you ever plan on getting a date Ron?” Xander asked as he ruffled the boy’s red hair before jogging off to catch up with Hermione and apologise, as he got round the corner though she was nowhere in sight. “Man, we’re talking flowers, chocolate; maybe even jewellery to get her to forgive you for this.” He laughed again as the group caught up with him and Ron paled at the thought of giving Hermione gifts to appease her.

The rest of the day passes relatively smoothly, though they didn’t actually see Hermione in class, which all of them thought was strange but shrugged it off as her avoiding them. That night they all made their way down to the main hall for the evening meal and found the decorations had changed drastically. Where there were once candles floating in the air and the illusion of a peaceful nights sky there were not jack-o-lanterns floating around the hall and the view above had changed to a stormy night complete with thunder and lighting.

“Now that’s how to celebrate Halloween.” Xander grinned as he looked up as they made their way over to the Gryffindor table and started piling the food onto their plates. The meal passed quickly enough with Xander gorging himself on turkey and mash potatoes piled high with gravy, he had to admit a growing likeness for the food here, and with the charm Snape had taught him he could enjoy the food from home whenever he wanted it. Ron and Harry had been quite amazed last night when he’d managed to transform a cushion into a twelve inch deep pan meat feast pizza for them all to share as a snack before bed.

With a wave of his hand Dumbledore changed all the food on the tables to the desert course, which was quickly becoming Xander’s favourite part of the day. Immediately pulling an entire lemon mirage pie over to himself he set about slicing off several large pieces for himself before returning the pie to the middle of the table.

“Where’s Hermione?” Harry finally asked, it was unlike her to miss a meal; admittedly it was even more unlike her to miss classes.

“Patelle said that she wouldn’t come out of the girl’s bathroom.” Neville explained to Harry.

Hearing this Xander let his head fall to the table with a thump before sitting back up again and smacking Ron round the head.

“She said that she’d been in there all afternoon, crying.” Neville finished off.

“Man, are you in the s#!t.” Xander grinned at Ron after smacking him round the head a second time. Xander laughed again, barely containing the hilarity of the situation while his brain was planning how to get Hermione to forgive Ron when the doors slammed open and Professor Quirril ran into the hall screaming.

The entire hall fell silent so they could hear what the bumbling teacher was shouting about as he reached halfway down the aisles. “Troll in the Dungeon!” He shouted finally as all the teachers got up from their table. “Thought you ought to know.” Professor Quirril slipped out before feinting to the floor.

“That guys the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher? He’s a moron!” Xander asked, his tone dripping with contempt as it echoed round the hall causing him to duck down when he realised everyone in the hall had heard what he said.

The room seemed to still for a moment, even the thunder went quiet. Then chaos broke out with everyone screaming and running from table to table.

“Silence!” Professor Dumbledore shouted from the head teacher’s desk causing the entire hall to go quiet again.

“Man, he must have some banshee in him somewhere.” Xander muttered pushing his finger into his ear to mime deafness.

“Everyone will please not panic. Prefects will lead their house back to the dormitories; teachers will follow me to the dungeon.” Dumbledore ordered the students before making his way to the door in the side of the hall.

Xander paused, gripping his staff tightly. He wasn’t sure what to do, follow the teachers and see if he could help out, or stick with the students so he would be there in case anything happened on the way back to the dorms. His choice was made however when Snape fixed him with a glare and pointed him towards where the rest of Gryffindor was leaving the hall. He nodded slowly before Snape turned and left by a different door. “Trolls, what’s next, vampires on campus?” He muttered while jogging over to catch up with Ron and Harry.

“Gryffindor’s keep up and stay alert.” The prefect ordered as he led the group of terrified children through the hallways back to the common room.

“How did a troll get in?” Harry asked Xander as he caught up to them.

“Not on its own,” Ron answered for him. “Trolls are really stupid, probably someone playing a joke.”

Instead of answering back Harry grabbed both Xander and Ron and pulled them out of the line they were walking in.

“What?” Xander asked, looking down at Harry’s panicked face.

“Hermione, she doesn’t know.” Harry explained to them both before turning to head to where the girls bathroom was located.

“No you don’t.” Xander grabbed both of them by the shoulders. “You two back to dorm, I’ll fetch Hermione and meet you there.” Xander’s tone left no room for disagreement.

“But...” Harry started to argue, but fell back from Xander’s glare.

“Go.” Xander ordered the two before twirling them round and pushing them back towards the group. “Damnit!” He shouted, realizing that he’d left his staff in the main hall. Running back through the corridors he skidded through the main hall, snatching his staff from where it was propped up against the wall without even stopping, he carried on running through the hall and out the other side before turning another corner and skidding to a halt as he heard some ominous footsteps coming towards him.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” Xander bit out as he dove into an alcove, poking his head round the corner he watched the troll walk directly into where the girl’s bathroom was located. “Come on, what’s a troll want in the girl’s bathroom? He had a particularly bad curry last night or something?” Shaking his head in disbelief at the situation he waited until he heard the large doors slam shut before running down the hall and slipping into the bathroom behind the troll.

Looking up at the back of the troll Xander didn’t quite know exactly what his plan was, he could see Hermione on the other side of the troll who was looking up at the troll with something akin to the faces he saw on students when Snape gave them detention, pure horror. The troll was easily about fifteen feet high, a sickly green colour with a brown leather waist coat on along with a sort of improvised loin cloth.

He watched Hermione made a sudden move back and duck into one of the toilet cubicles before the troll swung its giant club back and crashed through the cubical walls sending splinters off wood everywhere. Sending a panicked look down he noticed that Hermione had hit the floor just in time, she was covered in wood but otherwise unharmed.

“Move!” He shouted when he saw the troll make another swing to demolish what was left of the cubicles, unfortunately this attracted the trolls attention who swung wild, demolishing the top half of the cubicles as it span around before impacting the club into the wall, sending plaster flying everywhere and shaking the wall to its foundations. “Not the smartest idea.” Xander muttered as the troll glared down at him.

“Incendio!” Xander shouted, aiming the staff directly at the troll’s chest, hoping to just keep it busy while Hermione found somewhere else to take cover. A giant gout of flame shot out of the staff, impacting the troll directly in the chest and sending it stumbling back several feet where it crunched the remains of the toilet cubical underfoot.

Xander spared a glance around the room while the troll was off balance to check that Hermione was somewhere else, thankfully she’d managed to hide under the sinks on the far side and was looking at Xander with shock and what looked like admiration.

“Petrificus Totalas!” Hermione shouted to Xander, and then repeated it when he looked at her in puzzlement.

Throwing caution into the wind and trusting Hermione’s greater knowledge of spells he decided to give it a go. “Petrificus Totalas!” for a moment nothing happened and Xander feared that it was yet another spell that he couldn’t do, just as he was about to cast the fire incantation again the end of his staff glowed brightly before sending a flash of blue light which impacted the troll.

For another moment nothing happened, then the troll seemed to snap to attention before falling to the floor. Beckoning to Hermione to come to him quietly he kept an eye on the troll as she ran past it and hid behind Xander. “How long will that hold him for?” He asked.

“Not long enough.” Hermione said in a panicked tone.

“Fine,” pointing his staff to the troll and muttering a prayer that this worked he said the incantation he swore he’d never use again unless it was in a dire emergency, and by his reckoning this counted. “Expelliarmus!”

The bright white light shot out of his staff again, impacting the troll and sending it skidding along the floor where its head impacted with the wall sending blood and other things Xander didn’t even want to consider flying everywhere. The spray covered the wall and mirrors, coating Xander completely in blood while Hermione got off with only a little spray while she hid behind Xander’s coat.

“I don’t think that’s supposed to be that powerful.” Hermione commented, standing out from behind Xander and using his coat to wipe the blood of her face.

“Wouldn’t know, only used it twice.” Xander grimaced before letting out a short laugh at the situation. The bathroom was destroyed completely, none of the cubicles were still standing and water was spraying out of the pipes on the walls where they had been ripped off by the trolls club.

Most of the mirrors were shattered and a few of the sinks hung off the wall at odd angles where the force of the club impacting the wall had shaken them free. Leaning up against the wall Xander started to laugh, Hermione looked at him as if he was crazy for a moment before taking the scene in herself and joining in with the laughter. As they both sank to the floor laughing Xander let his staff drop to the floor where it rolled along the floor and came to rest in a pool or troll blood against something he didn’t even want to imagine what it was, or what it used to be.

“Oh my goodness!” Professor McGonagall called out as she ran though the entrance to the bathroom to find Xander and Hermione sat on the floor in fits of laughter. “Explain yourselves, both of you!” She demanded taking in the scene followed by Professor Snape and Professor Quirril.

“I’m my fault Professor McGonagall.” Hermione started but was interrupted by Xander.

“No way,” He breathed out as he forced himself to stop laughing. “Hermione was in the toilet during the meal when Professor Quirril came in; she had no idea about the troll. When we were all sent to our rooms I didn’t want her wandering the halls with this thing on the loose.” He nodded to the troll body and the three teachers poked their head round the corner to see the bloody mess of the room.

“Without Xander, I’d probably be dead now.” Hermione confessed going a bit pale, as if she’d just realized how much danger she had actually been in.

“Be that as it may, did you have to use such lethal force?” Professor McGonagall asked Xander, levelling a glare at him. “I know you come from the Hellmouth, but that is not how we do things around here.”

Hermione just looked suitably chastised so Xander took the time to brace himself against the wall and stand up properly. “Would you rather I waited until it killed Hermione so I could find a way to capture it alive?” Xander snapped out at the teacher as he stormed over to pick up his staff. “Or maybe I should have left it alone to blunder through the halls while you were all looking for it, it could have got to god knows how many dorms by then!”

“Mister Harris, you will watch your tone with me.” Professor McGonagall snapped back at him.

“Well? What would you rather I did?” Xander turned to each of the teachers. “Would you rather a troll dead, or two of your students?” He muttered the last under his breath.

“Twenty points will be taken from Gryffindor for your reckless behaviour!” Professor McGonagall snapped out. “Each!” With that she turned to storm out of the bathroom.

“You do realize how lucky you are?” Professor Snape stated, turning to Xander in particular. “And I am curious which spell you used to kill a mountain troll.”

Professor Quirril seemed equally interested to hear the answer to this and Professor McGonagall even paused at the door to hear the answer.

“Expelliarmus.” Xander muttered, waiting for the outcry from the staff.

“You expect me to believe a simple Expelliarmus charm took down a mountain troll?” Professor McGonagall asked in amazement.

“You used your staff, correct?” Snape asked, his tone daring Xander to lie.

Xander just nodded in agreement, hanging his head.

“Ten points to Gryffindor for Mister Harris’s use of a third year spell while still in his first year.” Snape stated, ignoring the glare that Professor McGonagall sent at him. “Now, back to your dorms, both of you!”

Professor McGonagall escorted the duo back to the dorm rooms, pausing in front of the entrance to the main Gryffindor common room.

“That was very brave of you, thank you Xander.” Hermione smiled as he stood up on tip toes to kiss Xander on the cheek before running into the common room and up the stairs.

“I believe that girl is developing a crush on you.” Professor McGonagall stated with a smile as she led Xander up the stairs.

“Oh god no, I have enough with vampires, preying mantis ladies and demon mummies, I don’t need an eleven year old girl crushing on me as well.” Xander buried his head in his hands before he realized what he had done, removing his hands from his face he could feel the sticky reside of the drying blood on his hands which he had now plastered all over his face. Looking down at his uniform and coat they were equally coated in blood and other matter, and white plaster from the walls stuck to him in a fine powder making him look like an extra from a bad horror movie.

“You lead an interesting life Mister Harris; I only hope the rest of the school year will be quieter than these last few weeks.” Professor McGonagall smiled as they reached the painting that led to Xander, Ron and Harry’s room. “You might want to consider a shower tonight; if you leave the clothes on the chest by the end of your bed the house elves will clean them ready for tomorrow.” With that last piece of advice Professor McGonagall took her leave and strode off down the corridor.

“It was quieter on the Hellmouth.” Xander muttered before turning to the painting and muttering the password before entering.

“Bloody hell, what happened to you?” Ron was the first one to see him enter and Harry just looked at him in equal parts of amazement and disgust.

“Tomorrow.” Xander simply said as he held up his hand to stop any further questions. “Right now I need a now shower and a cloth to clean this goo off me, after than I want to sleep and forget this night ever happened.”

He turned to Ron and levelled him with a glare. “You owe me big for this, Hermione may forgive you yet, but I don’t think she’ll let me off that easily.”

“What? Is Hermione ok?” Harry asked, moving to stand besides Ron, concern evident in his voice.

“She’ll be fine, a little less stickier than I am, but fine.” Xander explained as he moved off towards the shower area they all shared. They’d come to a simple agreement with the shower area, no one else came in while one of them was taking a shower. That way each of them could be afforded their peace while they cleaned up and Ron and Harry didn’t have to worry about Xander walking in on them.

“Than what...” Harry started to ask but was waved off by Xander.

“Later,” Xander simply said before walking into the bathroom and turning the showers on before dumping his coat and staff on the floor by the basin. “Much, much later.” He muttered as he started to wash the drying blood off his staff.

=/^=

At breakfast the next morning the room was awash with rumours about what had happened last night, there were even a few going around that Xander had killed the troll with his bare hands after it threatened Hermione. Of course all the rumours were being denied by Hermione as she sat at the table trying to avoid eye contact with Xander, who was trying to do exactly the same thing.

“Good luck today Mister Potter, remember you are playing against Slytherin.” Snape turned to stare at Xander for a second, regarding him for something before moving off down the aisle.

“Is it just me or is he limping?” Xander asked, leaning back on his chair to watch Snape walk away.

“I’m telling you, he’s up to something.” Harry whispered to him. “Maybe Snape let the troll in last night, so he could get past that dog, and he got bit, that’s why he’s limping.”

“Hold on a sec,” Xander interrupted Harry with a grin. “Firstly, why would Snape try and sneak past that thing? And secondly, if that thing bit you, I think you’d have a bit more than a limp, you saw its teeth, I think you’d be more missing a leg than limping.” Xander laughed as Harry grudgingly agreed. “He probably just caught his leg on something, or a potion blew up in class, happens all the time.” That was true, in all his potions classes at least two cauldrons had exploded each lesson, Ron was the cause of at least three of them.

“The day I was a Gringotts with Hagrid he got something out of one of the vaults, said it was Hogwarts business, very secret.” Harry continued on with his conspiracy theory.

“So you’re saying...” Hermione started.

“That’s what the dogs guarding.” Harry stated.

“Fine, the dogs guarding something, I can see that. I can’t see Snape trying to break in though; he’s a teacher here, why would he need to break into anywhere?” Xander stated, poking more holes in Harry’s theory.

They were interrupted from any more theory talk by the hooting of an owl, looking up Xander could see one flying through the top window on the far wall carrying some sort of parcel. The owl soared down over the tabled before dropping the parcel into Harry’s hand.

“Bit early for mail isn’t it?” Hermione asked, turning to each of them in turn and then blushing when she reached Xander’s eyes before turning away quickly.

“Let’s open it.” Ron said excitedly.

“Well I can tell you what it is.” Xander grinned, looking at the shape of the present as it lye on the table.

Harry just looked at him with a questioning look.

“Oh come on, look at the shape of it, it’s a broom for god’s sake.” Xander chuckled before reaching for another goblet of orange juice as the three children unwrapped the present.

“My god! It’s a broomstick!” Xander exclaimed in mock shock as they finished unwrapping it.

“That’s not just a broomstick Harry, that’s a Nimbus two thousand.” Ron exclaimed, causing both Xander and Harry to look for the distinctive mark on the broom marking it as the fastest broom around.

“Well you kept going on about it, looks like someone finally took you seriously.” Xander chuckled. Harry had been on and on about this broomstick ever since he made the Quiddich team, now that he finally had one maybe he’d shut up about it.

“Did you?” Harry asked, turning to face Xander.

“Nope, not me, just follow the owl.” Xander said with a grin, nodding to the teachers table where the white owl that had delivered it was perched next to Professor McGonagall.

Harry followed his gaze and smiled over at the teacher who smiled back with a brief nod. “Are you all coming to watch the game?” Harry asked, receiving enthusiastic nods from the rest of the table but was disheartened when Xander didn’t meet his eyes. “You’re not coming?” he tried his best not to sound heartbroken, but he’d got used to Xander being there, a sort of surrogate big brother watching out for him.

“Sorry, I’ve got a ton of work to catch up on in Charms and Curses, I thought I’d grab the library while everyone was at the game, catch up on it all.” Xander confessed, truth was he still didn’t understand the complicated game and he could use the extra time to brush up on some of the spells that he was still misfiring.

For some reason he found that a lot of the spells he was being taught didn’t have a translation in to the Technomage language. He could easily use the basic spells, but the more advanced ones, like Expelliarmus, led to unpredictable effects, especially when used with his staff. He was going to use the time in the library to see if he could decode some of the more complicated spells and translate them to his own spell language, he didn’t want to do this in front of everyone in case it led to any dangerous spells being discovered. Hopefully by using his wand for them instead of his staff he could limit the fallout, but just in case he’d rather do it in an empty area where there were no students.

“I’ll catch the next one, I promise.” Xander promised Harry who was still looking up at him with hope. Harry nodded back reluctantly as they all carried on with their breakfast.

=/^=

The game seemed to be fully underway and even in the library well away from the fields he could hear the cheering of spectators. Turning away from the window he turned his attention back to his book, the hardest spell he’d found to translate was a shield spell, for some reason it just didn’t have a translation that his implants could use.

He’d brought down the Technomage Trilogy books with him and was leafing through them, comparing the notes Galen made in the books along with the spells from the book he’d fetched from the library shelves. “This would have been a lot easier if I got the memories along with the implants,” He muttered as he started writing down the spell for a simple shield in his book.

From the way the books explained it, Galen had problems with shields as well, he could barely hold one on his own until the last book where he found the spell for a shadow shield. Writing this down in his book Xander noted that there were seven basic spells that Galen used, and all the rest of them spiralled from there. The problem was that Galen’s spell language was drastically different from his own; he had been training the implants to work with incantations and movements, much like the rest of the students and wizards in this world. His language had absolutely nothing in common with the mathematical equations that Galen used for spell casting.

“Shadow shield,” Xander hovered his quill over the words for a second before stepping up from the table and fetching another book from the shelf, this one called “Protection for Beginners.”

“Shadow shield, shadow shield, shadow shield,” Xander continually muttered under his breath until he came across a spell that looked like in produced the same effect. He’d come to the conclusion that he wasn’t actually using the same magic as the rest of the wizards after all, the spells looked the same because that was how he was visualizing them after being taught.

It made sense that the implants were taking the spells that they already knew, and translating them across to whatever Xander was attempting to do, but like the broomsticks, he couldn’t actually use the magic because he wasn’t a wizard himself. “It’s not magic, it’s technology.” He muttered under his breath.

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic dear boy.” A voice came from behind him, startling Xander out of his thoughts.

“Professor Dumbledore.” Xander exclaimed as he span around to see the tall professor clad in his customary flashy robes stood in the entrance to the library. “Is the game over?” He looked around; surely he hadn’t been researching that long, but the piles of books strewn around him told a different story.

“Yes, it finished several minutes ago, Harry Potter won the match for Gryffindor.” Professor Dumbledore announced as he moved over to sit with Xander.

“I’ll never understand that game.” Xander confessed with a shake of his head as he started packing away books and placing the library ones back on the shelves.

“It’s really quite simple, but I fear you are not the type to enjoy the game for its own sake.” Professor Dumbledore smiled at him as he leaned over to read what Xander had been writing. “I’ve been meaning to talk to you about the incident with the troll, quite unfortunate I think you’ll agree.”

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Xander apologized quickly and turned to face the Professor. “I didn’t mean to kill it, or I did but I didn’t...”

“My dear boy, you aren’t in trouble about the death of the troll,” Dumbledore interrupted him. “I came to talk to you about why your spells seem to be that much potent when you use your staff, but I see you have already come to a conclusion of your own.”

“Yeah, it’s not magic.” Xander confessed, praying that Professor Dumbledore wouldn’t ask him to leave the school now that they had figured it out.

“Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Just because the origins are different doesn’t make the result any less magical does it?” Dumbledore posed the question that Xander had deliberately been ignoring.

“I can do the same things, sometimes,” He confessed as Dumbledore nodded. “But other times I can’t do anything like what everyone else is capable of doing.”

“Yes, I assumed as much, but life would be so dreadfully boring if everyone was the same wouldn’t it?” Dumbledore smiled at him.

“It’s like the shield, there’s a spell here that might work, but so far none of the shield spells I’ve tried have worked for me.” Xander sat down again on the bench in frustration. “Everyone else can at least muster a simple spell to block basic attacks, but I can’t even do that.”

“And if you’re new spell works, what will it accomplish?” Dumbledore asked, glancing at the cover of the first book of the Technomage Trilogy, intrigued by the design of the Babylon 5 station on the cover.

“According to the book it will cover me with a sort of shadow skin, capable of withstanding all attacks aside from the spell of destruction.” Xander confessed and pointed to the area where he had jotted down the spell of destruction, but hadn’t written anything next to it as a translation for him to use.

“And you have tried this shield spell?” Dumbledore asked, pausing when Xander shook his head. “Perhaps you should try it before you dismiss it, but first I believe young Mister Potter could do with seeing you, he does look up to you you know.” Without waiting for an answer Professor Dumbledore stood up of the bench and walked out of the library at a speed a man of his apparent age had no right to possess.

“Why whenever I talk to that guy do I leave with more questions than I started with?” Xander asked under his breath with a grin as he finished cleaning the books away and then jogged out of the library to meet Harry, Ron and Hermione, who had taken to hanging around with them more and more, she’d even forgiven Ron’s ‘slip of the tongue’ and was quickly becoming friends with the two boys. Xander still found her attentions a bit weird, and she would refuse to look him in the eye when he was watching, but several times he’d caught her staring at him in classes and lunch, she’d blush and duck her head whenever he caught her though. Sometime he’d have to have a talk with her, maybe set her up with Ron or Harry, someone more her age, someone who wasn’t him.

=/^=

“Heard you won the match,” Xander said with a grin as he caught up with Ron, Harry and Hermione as they were walking through the courtyard.

“You should have been there, it was bloody brilliant. Harry did this thing at the end where he was stood up on his broomstick to catch the Golden Snitch, it was amazing.” Ron explained excitedly.

“Next time.” He grinned and patted Harry on the shoulder. “Where you heading now anyway? Free period, don’t you normally spend it in the common room?”

“We need to see Hagrid, Snape tried to put a curse on Harry while he was flying.” Ron explained causing Xander to stop where he was. “Snape? Not this again.” He muttered before jogging to catch up with where the trio had finally caught up with Hagrid.

“Nonsense!” Hagrid's short reply echoed Xander’s own feelings as Ron told Hagrid about the match and how Hermione had had to set Snape’s robes on fire to distract him from completing the curse. “Why would Snape put a curse on Harry’s broom?”

“Who knows, why was he trying to get past that three headed dog on Halloween?” Harry blurted out and Xander found himself slapping himself in the forehead again, doesn’t anyone know how to keep secrets around here? Especially if you were where you weren’t supposed to be, you don’t tell anyone, simple.

“Who told you about Fluffy?” Hagrid asked, looking down at the four students. Xander forced himself to keep a straight face as he imagined anyone trying to call that beast Fluffy.

“Fluffy?” Ron obviously couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

“That thing had a name?” Hermione neither it seemed.

Hagrid just looked at Xander expecting him to make a comment as well, Xander just smiled and shook his head, Ron and Hermione had already voiced enough disbelief for him.

“Of course he’s got a name, he’s mine, bought him off an Irish fellow I met down the pub last year.” Hagrid explained causing Xander to laugh whole heatedly.

“Let me get this right. You bought a giant three headed dog of ‘some fellow down the pub’?” Xander asked and when he received a nod from Hagrid that just sent him into fits of laughter again.

“Then I lend him to Dumbledore to guard the... wait, shouldn’t have said that.” Hagrid paused as Xander’s fits of laughter came back. “No more questions, that’s top secret that is.”

“But Hagrid, whatever Fluffy’s guarding,” The name of the dog sent Xander into fits of laughter again as Harry glared at him before continuing. “Snape’s trying to steal it.”

“Codswallop!” Hagrid stopped in his walk and turned to face Harry straight on, dwarfing the younger boy. “Professor Snape is a Hogwarts Professor.”

“Hogwarts teacher of not, I know a spell when I see one. I’ve read all about them you’ve got to keep eye contact and Snape wasn’t blinking.” Hermione leapt to Harry’s defence.

“Look, Snape’s a potions professor right?” Xander asked and waited for the nods from the trio of younger children. “Why would he use a curse instead of treating the brooms of the Gryffindor team with a cursed potion? Surely that would be more his style if he was ‘evil’” Xander finished off by making air quotes around the word ‘evil’.

“Finally, some sense!” Hagrid shouted with a smile at Xander. “Now you three listen to Xander here, he makes sense. You’re meddling in things that ought not to be meddled with. What that dog is guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicholas Flammel.”

“Who?” Xander asked, causing Hagrid to stumble over his words before he nearly repeated the name again.

“I shouldn’t have said that.” Hagrid admitted again causing Xander to start laughing again.

“Look,” Xander said with a grin in-between laughter. “Why don’t you write down everything you’re not allowed to tell us and give me the paper, that way I’ll remind you if you’re ever going to say something that we shouldn’t know about.”

“A good idea, I think I’ll do just that.” Hagrid smiled at Xander and slapped him on the shoulder, nearly pushing him head over heels onto the floor before striding off.

“Nicholas Flammel.” Harry repeated the name as Xander sat down on the grass trying to catch his breath from laughing so hard.

“Oh man, I needed that.” Xander grinned up to the trio of younger students.

“You don’t suppose he’ll really do it, do you?” Hermione asked, still not looking Xander in the eyes but focusing on his staff instead.

“I don’t know, but it was fun to try.” Xander grinned as Ron and Harry tried to work out exactly what he told Hagrid to do.

=/^=

The next few weeks flew by, with Xander’s new understanding of the way his implants translated the ‘magic’ spells into the ‘technology’ spells that he was using, he was coming along in leaps and bounds in most classes.

He was still having a few problems in transfiguration, he could manage the smaller stuff, or create an illusion that he had accomplished the work, but he couldn’t really transform anything larger than a chair into anything else, and trying to transform anything living into another thing wiped him out completely. The only time he’d ever managed it was that first lesson where he’d transformed Professor McGonagall into a chair by accident, but after that he could barely transform a rat into a book.

Christmas was nearly here and the rest of the students were getting ready to go home for the Christmas holidays, Ron and Harry were staying in the castle for the holidays like him, but Hermione was heading home for the holidays. So while everyone else was packing up to leave they were in the main hall while the gnomes decorated the giant Christmas tree that had taken center stage in the great hall.

Ron and Harry were quite happily playing wizards chess on one of the tables while he was sprawled out on the table itself reading through some old comics that Willow had sent over in the last post run along with Christmas presents from herself along with ones from Buffy, Giles and most surprisingly of all Buffy’s mom.

It was nice and quiet in the hall as Hermione walked in, clad in her now usual long winter coat and the Gryffindor coloured scarf wrapped round her neck, she seemed ready to go out and brace the snow, unlike Xander who was freezing even in his jeans, t-shirt, shirt and sweater.

He watched as Hermione made her way over to the table they were all sharing and smiled at them all in turn, she’d actually managed to meet Xander’s eyes a few times recently, but whenever they were left along together she’d make up some excuse and leave the room quickly, at first Xander found it funny, but this crush of hers was starting to get annoying, a lot of the other students had spotted it and started laughing whenever they saw the two together. There were even a few rumours going round about the pair that Xander stopped whenever he could.

“That’s totally barbaric!” Hermione exclaimed as Ron took another of Harry’s pieces off the board, he’d won the last three games, and after a while the sight of the pieces moving on their own and their own funny ways of destroying the piece they took had lost Xander’s interest. It was fun to watch at first, but Xander would have still preferred a TV with his old selection of DVD’s.

“That’s wizard’s chess.” Ron explained with a satisfied smirk. “I see you’ve packed.” He nodded to the large suitcase that Hermione was dragging behind her.

“See you haven’t.” Hermione shot back.

“Change of plans, my parents decided to go and visit my cousin in Romania, he’s studying dragons.” Ron explained.

“Dragons? Cool.” Xander perked up, he was still amazed at how hidden the Wizards world was from everything else, each time he thought he’d seen everything something new would pop up and surprise him.

“Good, you can help Harry; he’s going to go in the library, to look for information on Nicholas Flammel.” Hermione prompted.

“Oh you three aren’t still on that are you?” Xander groaned as Ron voiced his own complaints. “Look, it’s probably just a friend of Dumbledore’s, I doubt he’s anyone famous or these two,” He nodded and Ron and Harry in turn, “would have found something by now. It’s been two months, give it a rest.”

“Not in the restricted section.” Hermione whispered before picking up her suitcase again and moving the leave the hall. “Happy Christmas,” She called as she walked back down the aisle to the main castle exit.

“I think we’re a bad influence on her.” Ron confided in Harry and Xander.

“Think you’re right there.” Xander grinned back.

=/^=

“Harry wake up!” Ron shouted through the room as he was the first to wake up on Christmas morning.

“Ugh!” Xander moaned and hid his head under the covers, pulling a pillow on top of his head to blanket the noise out.

“Come on Harry, wake up!” Ron shouted again and Xander realised that he wasn’t in the room but downstairs in the main common room area. They’d since discovered that they were the only three students in Gryffindor still at the school over the holidays, so they normally left the painting to the main common room open so they could wander in and out as they pleased.

“He’d better have a mug of coffee or I’m going to shoot him.” Xander groused as he sat up on the bed and pulled the covers around him.

Harry just laughed, picking his glasses off the table by his bed he quickly ran down the stairs.

“I swear, one day I’ll pay Dumbledore back for pairing me up with two kids like this.” Xander muttered under his breath as he made his way down the stairs, pulling his quilt around his shoulders and wearing it like as cape as he traipsed down into the main common room.

“Happy Christmas Harry, Happy Christmas Xander.” Ron announced as the two walked into the main area. Harry sent the greeting back but Xander just grumbled something before flopping into one of the larger chairs and pulling the quilt tighter around him as he pulled his legs up to snuggle into the chair properly.

Even Pixel was still asleep; she’d taken to sleeping down here by the fire lately instead of on the grass by the window where cold air blew in from the cold outside. Xander smiled at her soft purring before reaching down and scooping her up before depositing her softly in his lap on the quilt, she pawed at the quilt for a bit before settling down and letting Xander stroke her back to sleep as she purred contentedly.

“What the hell are you wearing Ron?” Xander asked, taking a minute to clear the sleep from his eyes as he yawned before fully taking in Ron’s appearance. He was stood in his pyjama bottoms and some sort of woollen sweater with a giant ‘R’ emblazoned on the front.

“Oh, my mom made it for me, looks like Harry’s got one as well.” Ron nodded to the small pile of presents that were under the tree, a few of them had been partially unwrapped by Pixel with torn wrapping paper strewn over the floor leading to where she had been curled up.

“I’ve got presents?” Harry seemed a bit amazed at this fact.

“Yeah!” Ron grinned as Harry sat down in front of the tree and started to sort through the small pile.

“This one’s for you.” Harry grinned; passing a small box shaped one up to Xander before finding one addressed to him, which he tore into quickly revealing a jumper like Ron’s but in red and yellow instead of Ron’s soft brown and cream.

“Cool, now if I just had a DVD player.” Xander muttered as he unwrapped his present to find the complete set of ‘Crusade’ on DVD from Willow.

“What’s this?” Harry paused, picking up a larger, thicker one that obviously weighed quite a bit from the way he was holding it.

“Dunno,” Xander conceded as he tried to make out what it was shaped like. It was addressed to him but he couldn’t see who it was from.

“This was attached to it.” Harry smiled and passed over the card, watching as Xander tore the envelope apart and threw the paper into the fire before opening the card.

“From Willow, Buffy and Giles,” Xander read aloud from the card. “Hope this finds you safe, Giles explained to me about the lack of electricity in the school that he had forgotten to mention to you, so we both worked on enchanting this to work for you.” He stopped reading aloud as the letter, obviously written by Willow, went into more personal details of the trials that’s the group had been going through lately.

“So what is it?” Ron asked as Xander finished reading the letter and folded it up with a smile before placing it on the arm of the chair.

“She didn’t say, one way to find out though.” Xander grinned as he tore into the present, throwing the wrapping paper on the floor where Pixel lazily batted at it for a second before returning to her warm spot on Xander’s lap.

“Whoa!” Harry exclaimed as Xander finished tearing the paper off.

“What is it? Some sort of book?” Ron looked confused but Harry had immediately recognised it for what it was.

“It’s a laptop computer,” Xander smiled, mentally thanking Willow, Giles and Buffy for being so thoughtful. “Obviously enchanted by Giles to work in Hogwarts, so I’m guessing the battery doesn’t need charging,” he smiled again as he lifted the screen up and ran his fingers along the keyboard.

“What does it do?” Ron asked, still confused as to what a ‘laptop computer’ actually was.

“I’ll show you later, get on with opening your own presents.” He grinned and lent over to lift another one off the pile. “This one’s for you.” He grinned and threw the soft parcel over to Harry who caught it easily.

Harry carefully picked the card off the top first, unfolding it to read it aloud. “Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well.”

“Nice and cryptic.” Xander commented with a grin as Ron just shrugged.

Unwrapping the present carefully Harry gazed in puzzlement at what was revealed. It appeared to be some sort of dark multicoloured cloak with blacks, gold, silver and bronze colours running across the slightly see through fabric.

“Bit old fashioned for my tastes.” Xander quipped as he picked up another parcel from the set, this one from Mrs Summers he noted before tearing into the wrapping paper.

“Well, let’s see then, put it on.” Ron commented from his perch on the couch and Xander shuffled the chair round so that he could see as Harry pulled the cloak on.

“Whoa!” Ron exclaimed first.

“Ok, I take it back, that’s cooler than the laptop.” Xander commented as he looked over at where Harry’s body used to be.

“My body’s gone!” Harry exclaimed as he looked down.

“Yup, brings a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘I can see right through you’.” Xander grinned as he moved his head round to see if there was any distortion like a Predator Cloak from the movies.

“I know what that is!” Ron shouted. “That’s an invisibility cloak.”

“Kinda got that from him being invisible you know.” Xander quipped with a grin so Ron would know he was only joking, the two boys had gotten used to Xander’s sense of humour by now, and even though some of the things he thought were funny were a bit cutting at the time, they both knew he meant them in good nature.

“I’m invisible?” Harry asked, spinning around under the cloak to get a better feel for it.

“They’re really rare.” Ron stated as he stood up to take a closer look. “I wonder who gave it to you?”

“There was no name.” Harry said as he picked up the letter with his ‘invisible hand’ and moved it over to Ron.

“Still cool.” Xander grinned as he watched the letter float over where Ron seemingly plucked it out of the air.

“It just said ‘Use it well.’” Harry finished off as Ron took a closer look at the letter.

“Well, don’t think we’re all going to fit under there if you plan on using it to sneak into the library.” Xander offered. “I’ll stay here and you two go.”

“Nope, I need you to help with the books on the top shelf, makes it easier if I don’t keep having to move a stool along whenever I need it.” Harry explained.

“I knew you two would ask me to get you some top shelf stuff one day,” Xander paused looking mock thoughtful. “Didn’t think it would be for a few years though.”

Harry just laughed while Ron looked confused again.

“Muggle thing.” Harry explained to clear things up for Ron.

...

Xander suppressed yet another mumbled curse as Harry trod on his foot yet again as the two made their way to the restricted area of the library under the cover of Harry’s new invisibility cloak. Because of the limited space they had to work with, Xander had been forced to leave his staff in their room, leaving him feeling strangely vulnerable as he gripped his wand tightly in his right hand to reassure himself.

“This way.” Harry whispered as he parted the front of the cloak and reached out with the lantern to light up the area they were moving through, they were nearly at the restricted area and had managed to find the way without running into any wandering teachers surprisingly, for once things seemed to be looking up for them.

“Lead on.” Xander whispered as he followed as close to Harry as he could, his extra height brought the cloak up so it barely touched Harry’s head or face, simply falling in front of him and allowing him to use one hand for the lantern and the other to grip his wand.

“This is it.” Harry whispered as he unlocked the bolt to the large wooden door, he didn’t see Xander’s eye roll as he looked up to the large sign above which announced they were entering the restricted area. Pulling the bolt open and pushing the door they stepped through before closing it quietly behind them, “No use taking any chances.” Xander muttered under his breath.

Pulling the cloak of themselves Harry quickly made his way to the historical section while Xander took the opposite side and started running his fingers along the book shelves, looking for anything that hinted at the name “Nicholas Flammel.”

“Anything?” Xander whispered as he finished his quick run down the aisle and turned to Harry.

“One second.” Harry whispered back as he picked a book off the shelf and opened it up; no sooner had he opened it than a giant ball off flame exploded out from the pages, coalescing into a shape of a dragon at it soared into the air.

“Not that one!” Xander whispered in a stern tone as he jogged over and slammed the book shut in Harry’s hands, effectively cutting the ‘dragon’ off at the tail before it faded away into the darkness.

“Who’s there?” A voice echoed in the library.

“Filch!” Harry whispered as he span round, grabbing the cloak off the table and knocking the lantern he had placed there onto the floor where it promptly broke as it hit the ground.

“Smooth!” Xander whispered after him as he ran after Harry, catching up to him and pulling him into one of the side aisles.

“I know you’re in there, you can’t hide.” Filches voice came again as he entered the restricted area, holding and lantern up and shining it into all the dark corners.

“Quick.” Harry whispered as he untangled the cloak and threw it over Xander before ducking under it himself.

The two started moving slowly out of the aisle, ducking back in when Filch turned the corner and shone the lantern directly at Xander’s face. It seemed the invisibility cloak worked as advertised though as Filch just seemed to stare off into the distance, obviously still on the search for the intruder before turning round and walking off to the far end of the library. Xander took this moment to grab Harry’s shoulder and lead him out of the library, closing the main door softly behind him as they stepped out into the hall.

As they closed the door and turned to the hallway they were interrupted by a small meowing, glancing around Xander noticed Filches cat watching them before it started to move towards them. ‘Note for future use, invisibility cloak doesn’t work on animals.’ Pushing harry to a soft jog the two made it down the hallway before the cat managed to snag their cloak, turning the corner Xander had to stop himself from shouting out a curse as he came face to face with Snape who was holding Professor Quirril up against the wall roughly by his throat.

“You don’t want me as your enemy Quirril,” Snape threatened in a very low voice as Quirril seemed to just splutter vague noises.

“What do you mean?” Quirril finally managed to splutter out.

“You know perfectly well what I mean.” Snape snapped in the same low and dangerous tone.

“What...” Harry started to whisper before Xander clapped his hand over his mouth, silencing the younger boy.

Unfortunately the damaged had already been done as Snape turned to where they were stood and reached out with his arm. Stepping back from Snape the two managed to only just miss having the invisibility cloak snagged by Snape’s fingernails as he waved in the air around him a few more times before he seemingly discarded the thought and turned his quarrel back to Quirril.

“We’ll have another little chat soon, when you’ve decided where your loyalties lie.” Snape finished off, and Xander decided right then and there that Snape could give a master vampire a run for its money in the growling dangerous voice department.

The two were interrupted from continuing their argument however when Filch came around the corner, brandishing the lantern that Harry had left broken in the library.

Xander cursed his luck and sent a silent prayer to the heavens asking for help in getting out of this one and Filch explained the Snape and Quirril what he had found.

“I found this,” He started, holding the lantern up for inspection. “In the restricted section, it’s still hot. That means there’s a student out of bed.”

Snape seemed more disturbed by this than he should have been as he immediately took off running down the corridor, followed shortly by Filch and Quirril. Xander tool this opportunity to nod towards the door behind them, which Harry nodded in agreement too before they made their way over to it and carefully opened the door before stepping through.

“Subtle,” Xander breathed out at he pulled the cloak off of his head with a flourish, gasping for the cool air of the fresh room.

“What was Snape on about?” Harry asked as he took a careful look around the room.

“Dunno, we can’t exactly ask him can we?” Xander grinned as he followed Harry’s gaze and looked around the room for any other ways out they could use to get back to their room.

“What’s that?” Harry asked, nodding to what looked like a large ornate mirror that was propped up against the far wall, it looked in a serious state of disrepair with cobwebs hanging from it and the golden paint on the frame had peeled off in several places.

Xander just shrugged before making his way over to it followed closely by Harry. “It’s a big ass mirror,” He quipped as they approached it.

“What’s it say on the top, I can’t quite make it out?” Harry asked, squinting his eyes to see if he could make out the writing the arched around the top of the frame.

“No clue, looks like Latin but I can’t make it out.” Xander muttered before turning his attention back to Harry. “Hey, you alright?” He asked, snapping his fingers in front of Harry’s face for a second.

“Hey, what gives?” Xander muttered as Harry took a few steps forward, staring at his reflection in the mirror intently.

“Ok, that’s freaky.” Xander muttered as he looked into the mirror and could vaguely see shapes moving about. Spinning round to make sure they weren’t actually in the room with him he tried to get a closer look at them, squinting at the mirror as he tried to make them out.

“Mum? Dad?” Harry asked as he started into the mirror,

“Ok, crazy hypnotising mirror not of the good.” Xander muttered before placing his hand on Harry’s shoulder and bending down to look directly in the face. “Harry, they’re not real, whatever you’re seeing it’s not real.”

“My parents, they were stood right behind me.” Harry explained softly.

“Freaky mirror, that’s all it is. Come on.” With a reassuring smile Xander let Harry away from the mirror and back to the dorm room.

=/^=

“Mister Harris, might I have a word with you for a moment?” Professor Dumbledore announced his presence as he walked through the arch into Xander’s room.

“Sure Professor, what’s up?” Xander grinned as he closed his book on Herbology and swung around on his bed to sit up and face the professor as he pulled a stool over to sit on.

“I have been speaking to your teachers my dear boy, and they all agree that you have been coming on in leaps and bounds this year.” Dumbledore smiled at him before continuing. “They all agree that you have much more you can learn from this school though, have you given any thought to coming back next year?”

In truth Xander had been meaning to speak to Professor Dumbledore about this for a few days, he knew how well his spells were coming along, but if he ever wanted a shot at really mastering the spells the implants were capable of doing, this was the place to do it. He’d also made a lot of good friends here, including some of the teachers and was reluctant to have to say goodbye to them in a few months. “I’d like that Professor.” Xander grinned.

“Excellent, I thought you would. I do have one request though.” Dumbledore paused, waiting to gauge Xander’s reaction. “There was a student here, last year, she finished her exams and went on to start her Auror training. Her final piece of coursework for her Defence against the Dark Arts course was a set of essays on the Hellmouth, particularly dealing with Vampire’s and Slayers.”

Xander raised his eyebrow, wondering where this was leading. Why would anyone want to study the Hellmouth? Especially if they came from the wizarding community, his opposite number he thought with a grin.

“If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to ask for her to join you when you return to Sunnydale after the school year closes. She would then come back to Hogwarts with you and complete her Auror training here for the next two years under the supervision of a qualified Auror.” Dumbledore continued.

“If that’s what she wants, sounds crazy to me though.” Xander grinned at the thought of some young wizard like Hermione wanting to go to the Hellmouth, hell; Hermione would probably get a kick out of it and want to go back again to finish asking Buffy what it was like to be a slayer.

“Wonderful,” Dumbledore smiled and stood up. “Also, I wonder if you could tell me where I might find Mister Potter? I’ve seen him wandering the halls several times late at night but never seem to be able to find out where he’s going.”

‘Busted.’ Xander thought with a grin. “I think I know where he is Professor, allow me.” He grinned and stood up. He’d warned Harry about going back to that mirror when he found him sneaking out the night after they’d found it. He reasoned that he wasn’t Harry’s guardian though so he couldn’t tell the boy what he could and couldn’t do. He just gave Harry a warning to be careful with it and not to spend too much time with it.

Fetching his coat and staff he followed Professor Dumbledore out of the room before showing him where they had found the giant mirror.

=/^=

“Didn’t I say to not get addicted to this thing?” Xander announced with a grin as he stepped through the door to see Harry sat in front of the mirror, gazing up at his reflection and whatever else was being shown in it.

“Xander, Professor Dumbledore.” Harry whispered, sounding slightly betrayed as he stood up and turned to look at them.

“I see that you, as so many before you have discovered the delights of the mirror of Erised, I trust by now you realise what it does.” Dumbledore stated as he walked towards harry, pausing for a moment as Xander started chuckling from behind him.

“Erised?” Xander asked as Dumbledore nodded slowly. “The Mirror of Desire,” Xander grinned before letting lose a bark of laughter.

“It shows us what we want?” Harry asked, looking at Xander first and then Dumbledore.

“Yes, and no.” Dumbledore gave another of those half smiles that meant he knew exactly what he was on about, but was going to take his time explaining it to everyone.

“It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desires of our heart. Now you Harry, who never knew your family, see them standing beside you. And you Mister Harris...” Dumbledore smiled as Xander shook his head with a solemn look on his face.

“No way, I’ve had enough of people telling me what my dreams or ‘desires’ are, I think I’ll trust myself over a magic mirror Professor.” Xander said with a grimace, taking a conscience step back from the mirror.

“Very wise, very wise indeed,” Professor Dumbledore smiled at him before turning back to Harry. “But remember this Harry, this mirror gives us neither knowledge or truth; men have wasted away in front of it. Your friend Mister Harris has figured it out, trust in yourself,” Dumbledore smiled as he pointed a long finger to Harry’s chest where his heart would be, “and trust in your friends. That is all you will need.”

“Yes professor.” Harry nodded before turning to Xander and smiling.

“Tomorrow it will be destroyed; it has managed to corrupt too many young students over the years, as I feared it may have corrupted you.” Dumbledore paused for a moment, wondering if this was the best solution to the problem with the mirror. “In fact,” He turned to face Xander. “Would you mind, I’ve been told about your famous Expelliarmus spell, I would very much like to see it for myself.”

“You sure professor?” Xander asked, thinking about all the damage that spell could cause if he missed at hit the wall with it.

“Quite sure dear boy, please, do an old man one favour.”

“If you insist,” Xander grinned as he walked over to where Dumbledore was stood and aimed his staff at the mirror, this time holding it out one handed and standing confidently. “This is going to be messy,” he muttered under his breath before turning to Dumbledore one last time to see him nod back at him.

“Expelliarmus!” He shouted, and was rewarded by a giant blast of white light shooting out of the end of his staff which impacted the mirror with such force the glass exploded outwards and the frame shattered in seconds.

Xander and harry immediately ducked down to avoid the shards of broken glass that were flying their way from the explosion, Dumbledore merely stood tall and raised his hand out, muttering something Xander didn’t quite catch. He then watched as the glass was turned to harmless sand as it drifted past them before settling of the floor.

“You’ll have to teach me that one.” Xander grinned up at Dumbledore as he stood back up.

“I see now how you were able to defeat the troll, use that staff with caution my boy, it may have more power than even you believe.” Dumbledore smiled at the two before making his way out of the room, leaving Xander with his thoughts while Harry stared in shock at the staff Xander was holding loosely.

=/^=

“Xander, I wanted to ask you something.” Harry asked one night, looking up from the textbook he was reading as he relaxed on his bed.

“Shoot,” Xander grinned, unplugging his head phones from the laptop and pausing the DVD.

“I picked up your book the other day for class by mistake,” Harry confessed, waiting for Xander’s reaction before he continued, he was so used to being shouted at by his uncle and aunt that he was briefly shocked by Xander’s grin and quiet acceptance.

“And?” Xander prompted with a grin.

“Well, I read what you had written about the seven basic spells, the only two you had filled in were ‘mist’ and ‘shield’, are there others?” Harry asked, he’d been dying to ask about the spells that Xander had been working on ever since he flicked through the book in class, some of the spells Xander was thinking about casting sounded extremely dangerous, and some sounded downright impossible.

“Yes and no,” Xander grinned, doing a passable imitation of Dumbledore. “There are others, but those are the only two I think should ever be used, the others are too dangerous, that’s why I didn’t write anything down about them.”

“Have you cast them yet? The shield and mist spell I mean.” Harry continued, eagerly wanting to see what sort of things Xander could cast, ever since Hermione had told him about the spells that Xander used to kill the troll and he saw what Xander did to the Mirror of Erised, he had found himself more and more fascinated by what Xander could do.

“No,” Xander answered truthfully. In all honestly he was actually afraid of casting any of the postulate spells for fear that they would go horribly wrong, that was why he hadn’t even dare think about what the spell of destruction could do in this world, in the books Galen could use it to destroy an entire spaceship, it basically pinched off a large sphere and separated it off into another dimension before closing and sealing itself off. Xander had so wish to ever see that spell cast in this world, and as he was the only one who could ever do it, he found himself in the same predicament as Galen, only he would never use the spell, he promised himself that.

“Not even the mist one?” Harry asked hopefully, he couldn’t see the harm in casting a simple spell to create mist, it was taught in the school during their fifth year classes, so if Xander could do it already, maybe he could teach him how to do it so he could have a boost for the rest of his time at Hogwarts.

Xander just eyed him carefully, in truth the mist one was the one he’d been considering casting first, the shadow shield one sounded pretty scary, covering him in shadow skin. He gave a slight shudder at the idea of it, but the mist seemed pretty friendly, it wasn’t as if it could actually hurt anyone. “You want to see me conjure some mist.” Xander half stated half asked with a smirk as Harry nodded eagerly.

“Please.” Harry looked over at Xander as he closed his book.

“Right, if we’re doing this I want to talk to Dumbledore first, make sure that nothing goes wrong alright?” Xander grinned as Harry eagerly nodded. “I’ll go and see if Dumbledore is free for an experiment, you meet me outside the main hall in ten minutes.” He smiled as Harry rushed to put on his coat before dashing out the door. “Kids,” Xander muttered under his breath before fetching his coat and staff and making his way to Professor Dumbledore’s study.

“Ready Harry?” Xander grinned as he walked out into the soft snow, smiling as he heard the crunch of it under his heavy boot.

“Don’t forget me!” Ron shouted as he ran out of the hallway to meet them, nearly colliding with Professor Dumbledore as he walked through the main arch.

“How could I? You two are inseparable.” Xander grinned as Dumbledore gave a small smile. “Right, you understand that nothing might happen, my form of magic is a hell of a lot different to yours.”

Ron and Harry nodded while Xander noticed that Professor Dumbledore had brought his wand with him just in case anything went wrong.

“Are you sure you want to do this my boy?” Dumbledore asked softly. He’d voiced his concerns several times before to Dumbledore as he found him in the library time after time, toiling over thick volumes trying to translate spells from incantations into his own language.

“Yeah, got to try them at least once, well the safe ones anyway.” Xander grinned as he rubbed his hands together, still not used to the cold winters they had here but not wanting to do the spell inside in case it backfired causing damage to the castle.

“Do or do not, there is no try.” Dumbledore offered sagely as Xander turned to stare at him with a grin.

“Star Wars Professor? Didn’t picture you for muggle sci-fi.” Xander grinned shaking his head at the thought of Dumbledore in a cinema watching Return of the Jedi.

“Whoever said George Lucas was a muggle?” Dumbledore asked with a twinkle in his eye that caused Xander to actually stop and think about the movies in a new light.

“Come on, it’s bloody freezing out here.” Ron complained, pulling his coat tighter around himself.

“Fine,” Xander grinned at Ron before walking to the center of the snow covered area. “Keep back; I don’t want you hurt in case something does go wrong.” Xander shook his head, not quite believing he was going to go through with this. “Wand first, staff if it doesn’t work alright?”

Dumbledore nodded to say that he thought this was the best course of action for Xander to take, and just as Xander was about to cast the spell he was interrupted by the sound of snow crunching underfoot from behind him. Spinning round he found himself facing Professor Snape, who was stood watching him with a curious look on his face.

“Came to watch as well?” Xander grinned.

“Well I saw you all out here in the freezing cold, so I thought it must be something of extreme interest to draw you away from the fires inside.” Snape explained dryly.

“Just a new spell I wanted to try out, nothing really big.” Xander smiled as Snape moved over to stand next to Professor Dumbledore.

“By all means then,” He waved his hand in a ‘get on with it motion’. “Continue.”

“Fine,” Xander muttered, bracing himself as he pointed his wand at the floor with a flourish. “Umbra Caliga!” a first nothing happened, then the wand seemed to grow hotter in his hand for a second before going cold again.

“Impressive.” Snape sneered with his usual dry tone.

“Phase one, failure, on to phase two.” Xander grinned as he put his wand back in his pocketed and braced himself with his staff, planting it firmly on the floor. “Umbra Caliga!”

This time the effect was almost instantaneous, the mist started to rise out of the snow before it seemed to roll in from all around them. The mist wasn’t its normal grey colour though, it was a deep black that rolled along the snow, obscuring the crisp white floor as it snaked around the area, soon blanketing the entire ground with its deep, thick shadows.

“Interesting.” Snape commented, bending down to wave his hand through the mist. “Textured as well, a true feat, you must explain to me how you accomplished this Mister Harris.”

“That’s spooky.” Ron commented as he reached down, quickly pulling his hand back from the mist as he lost sight of it too quickly for his tastes.

Harry was just looking at the mist in amazement, it was nothing like the mist in the spell books, where as the mist conjuration they were going to be taught was pale and wispy, this mist looked like it had crawled out of the pits of hell, as Ron said, it was definitely spooky.

Raising his staff in the air, Xander brought it down sharply calling out “Expello Umbra” as the staff hit the ground. The mist seemed to roll back to wherever it had come from before seeping back into the snow and vanishing completely, leaving the area shining brightly with snow again. Once the mist had gone the area looked brighter, not just in light, but it didn’t seem as tight or claustrophobic as it had done with the mist rolling along the ground.

“Very impressive my boy, your shield spell next I think?” Dumbledore smiled, nodding at Xander before he could voice any concerns.

“But...” Harry started to ask a question but was cut off by Xander,

“If Professor Dumbledore thinks it’s safe, and we have both him and Professor Snape here to watch, I think it would be a good idea to test the shield spell as well.” Xander smiled as Harry swallowed tightly and edged back towards Professor Dumbledore.

“What’s he trying to do now?” Ron asked, still a bit shaken by the black mist that had been rolling around his knee’s not five minutes ago.

“A shield spell, one of the spells he’s been afraid to try so far.” Harry whispered back, he’d told Ron about what he’d found in Xander’s book before talking to Xander about it.

“Right, shielding one oh one.” Xander grinned, deciding to forgo the wand this time and just use the staff, if the mist wouldn’t work with the wand, then it made sense that none of the others would either. He was actually quite thankful that that meant, for the moment, he was the only one capable of casting these spells. Lifting his staff in the air, he spared a brief glance to Dumbledore and Snape, praying they would be able to stop the spell if anything went wrong.

Bringing the staff down sharply, he shouted the incantation. “Umbra Protego!”

Again, the effect was instantaneous. A thick oily substance started to ooze out of the staff, quickly covering his arm before moving onto the rest of his body. Within seconds it had grown across his chest and was making its way up his neck to his face. Forcing himself not to panic he looked over at Harry and Ron, who were looking a little pale and edging back towards Professor Dumbledore, Snape already had his wand out and was aiming it at Xander, he seemed to relax it a bit though when he met Xander’s eyes.

Taking a deep breath Xander waited for the ooze to travel up his neck and over his face, in just a few short seconds he was completely covered in the thick oily shield, panicking for a bit he forced himself to calm down and attempt to breathe, finding that he could breathe normally through the dark shield surrounding him he moved onto the next test.

“I’m fine Harry.” He grinned as he looked over at the group who visibly relaxed when hearing his voice.

“Now that’s bloody creepy.” Ron confessed, still stood behind Harry and edging slowly towards Dumbledore.

“You can actually see through that?” Snape asked, his tone was actually strangely neutral for once.

“Yup, speak, breathe, hear and see,” Xander grinned, he probably couldn’t eat or drink through it, but everything else was fine.

“Simply amazing my dear boy, simply amazing.” Dumbledore smiled and clapped softly as he looked over at the thick oily skin that was covering Xander head to toe, it seemed to be shifting and dancing in the light with small grey patterns playing on the deep black surface.

“How strong is it?” Snape asked, his tone still neutral.

“Um, not sure.” Xander confessed, he knew how strong it was in the books, but how strong it was in real life was a different matter completely.

“Well don’t you think you should check before congratulating yourself too hard?” Snape sneered at Xander, his tone back to being slightly condescending.

“And how do you suggest we do that? You want to fire fireballs at me or something?” Xander snapped back, immediately considering it when Snape did the same.

“Would it hold up to an Incendio?” Snape asked, his tone now curious.

“Should do, if I got the right spell it should even hold up to an unforgivable.” Xander confessed, drawing shocked looks from everyone.

“I think an Incendio will suffice, I wouldn’t want the students to hear that I was firing unforgivable’s off at students, it might give them the wrong idea.” Snape gave a wry smile before brandishing his wand with a flourish. “Incendio!”

The fireball shot from the wand and Snape’s aim held true, impacting Xander in the center of his chest where the black shield glowed red for a moment before returning to its normal black colour and the patterns seemed to grow stronger over the area that the fireball had impacted for a few seconds before it returned to normal.

“Well?” Snape asked, curious as to how this experiment would end.

“Felt the impact, no heat though, felt like I was being hit by a pillow.” He grinned, even though he knew Snape couldn’t see it.

Snape decided to up the ante a bit this time, with a flourish of his wand he fired another curse off. “Tardus Infirmus!” as the green light shot out of his wand and impacted the shield, there was even less of an effect than there had been with the fireball. The green light seemed to dissipate over the black shield before being soaked into the oily substance.

“Didn’t even feel that one,” Xander quipped.

“Sectumsempra!” Snape shouted with another flourish, this time a bright red light shot out of his wand, impacting the shield. This attack nearly caused Xander to stumble backwards as the red light played over his entire body for a second before being soaked into the shield.

“Ok, felt that one.” Xander explained as he righted himself.

“I do believe that will be enough.” Dumbledore put a stop to the experiment.

Xander raised his staff up again, bringing it to the floor with a shout of “Expello Umbra”. The shield seemed to shrink for a second before peeling away across his body before actually being absorbed into his clothes. “Freaky,” he commented as he shuddered before making his way over to where Harry and Ron were staring at him in amazement.

“That was bloody creepy Xander, how did you breathe in that thing?” Ron asked as Harry turned to him, his face showing he had exactly the same question.

“Just breathed, it was like the shield wasn’t even there, I could see something in front of my eyes, but I could see through it fine.” Xander grinned as the two boys nodded.

“A very effective shield, one that might even protect you from an unforgivable. A true treasure my boy.” Dumbledore smiled before making his way back inside.

“Yes, very effective, perhaps you would be willing to share your secrets one day.” Snape sneered before moving off after Dumbledore.

“That mist was bloody creepy though.” Ron confessed as Xander led the two boys back into the main hall to fetch three mugs of steaming cocoa with little marshmallows.

“Definitely,” Harry agreed, “nothing like the mist in the books.”

“I thought it might be different, that’s why I wanted Professor Dumbledore around in case anything went wrong.” Xander smiled, he’d managed to cast two of the seven original Technomage spells. Aside from the one he would never cast, that left four for him to try and translate.

“Bet that mist would send even death eaters running.” Ron smiled as they entered the hall and he jogged over to fetch his mug of cocoa.

“Death eaters?” Xander mouthed to Harry in confusion, receiving a smile in return.

=/^=

The rest of the Christmas holidays went quickly, the weather started to warm and the snow melted away to show the fresh grass of a new year. Xander surprisingly actually found himself looking forward to when the rest of the students returned, as well as he got on with Ron, Harry and the teachers that were still in the school, the castle got a bit lonely with just them.

The school term started soon enough though and the halls were filled with the sounds of students again. The first lessons started and Xander found himself more at ease with the rest of the students now that he knew his limits and which spells had translations for him to work on and which didn’t.

Xander, Ron and Harry were in the library one afternoon, trying to research something for Astronomy next period when Hermione came walking up to them before dropping a thick tome on the table.

“I had you looking in the wrong section, how could I be so stupid.” Hermione said as she took a seat.

“New diary Hermione?” Xander said with a grin, receiving his customary glare before Hermione realised what she was doing and blushed bright red.

“I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading.” Hermione decided to ignore Xander and started flicking through the thick book she had just dropped on the table.

“Hermione, anything over five hundred pages doesn’t qualify as light reading.” Xander announced as Harry nodded.

“More like anything over two hundred,” Ron corrected him as he stared in amazement at the thick book Hermione was quickly flicking through.

“Nicholas Flammel is the only known maker of the philosopher’s stone.” Hermione announced, pointing to the page on the book where it described him in detail.

“The what?” Ron and Harry asked in unison while Xander moved round the table to get a better look at the page Hermione was pointing to.

“The stone has astonishing powers, blah blah blah... whoa; it’ll turn any metal into gold and produces this elixir of life that makes people immortal.” Xander summed up the paragraphs as he quickly read through them. “Seems good old Nick here has the only stone in existence. Bet that’s worth a bit.” Xander grinned as he slammed the book shut with a thump.

“The philosophers’ stone, that’s what Fluffy’s guarding on the third floor!” Hermione announced, bringing everyone up to speed with her thoughts. “That’s what’s under the trap door, the philosophers’ stone!”

“Great, so there’s a stone that brings immortality and riches to anyone who owns it, and it’s hidden in a private school in England.” Xander grinned at the situation he’d found himself in.

“Hogwarts is in Scotland, not England.” Hermione corrected him.

“Whatever,” Xander waved off her comment, it was all the same to him, one little island. “What now? Tell Professor Dumbledore that someone’s trying to steal it?”

“Hagrid.” Harry and Hermione announced together, sharing a smile afterwards.

“Back to the giant.” Xander quipped with a grin as he started to pack up his books.

=/^=

That night the four of them made their way to Hagrid’s house which was on the edge of the school grounds by the forbidden forest. Banging on the door sharply Harry waited as Xander, Ron and Hermione stood behind him.

“Hagrid!” Harry grinned as Hagrid opened the door.

“Sorry, don’t wish to be rude, but I’m in no fit state to entertain today, goodnight.” Hagrid moved to shut the door but was stopped when Xander slipped his staff in between the door and the wall.

“We know about the stone.” Xander said in a soft tone.

Hagrid opened the door again and seemed to regard them for a second. “Oh,” He said simply before thinking about something before turning back to them. “Come in then.”

“We think Snape’s trying to steal it.” Harry confessed as the four made their way into Hagrid’s house.

“Snape? I thought you had talked these three out of that nonsense.” Hagrid turned to Xander.

“You try, I’ve given up.” Xander said with a smile as he sat down in one of Hagrid’s amazingly huge chairs.

“Hagrid, we know he’s after the stone, we just don’t know why.” Harry continued, ignoring Xander.

“See,” Xander waved over at the three.

“Snape is one of the teachers protecting the stone, he’s not about to go stealing it.” Hagrid explained as Xander shot the three a grin that said ‘I told you so!’

“Now if you don’t mind, I’m a bit preoccupied today.” Hagrid made a moment to move them all along out of his house so he could get on with whatever he was doing.

“Wait a minute, one of the teachers?” Harry asked, wanting to eliminate as many suspects as he could.

“Of course!” Hermione shouted. “There are other things defending the stone aren’t there? Spells, enchantments.”

“That’s right. Waste of bloody time if you ask me, ain’t nobody going to get past fluffy.” Hagrid puffed out his chest proudly. “Ain’t a soul knows how, except for me and Dumbledore.”

Whatever Hagrid was going to say next was cut off by a rattling coming from behind him, turning round he reached down into a cauldron and picked out a large object before moving over to the table and placing it in the center.

“Lunch Hagrid?” Xander asked as he moved over to the table, it looked to be a giant egg on the table, a bit scorched from being in the cauldron but still a giant egg.

“Hagrid, what is that?” Harry asked, eying the egg carefully as it jostled about the table of its own accord.

“I know what that is!” Ron shouted excitedly. “But Hagrid, how did you get one?”

“I won it, off a stranger I met down the pub, seemed quite glad to be rid of it as a matter of fact.” Hagrid seemed to pause for a minute in thought as the egg jumped about on the table.

“Uh, explanation please?” Xander quipped, standing back from the table slightly. He had to duck quickly as the egg cracked open, sending shards of broken shell everywhere. As he rose back up to see what had happened he was met with the sight of what looked to be a baby dragon sat on the table where the egg had been. “Ok, dragons, knew the existed, but seeing one? That’s cool.” Xander grinned as he moved closer to the table.

The dragon seemed to consider him for a moment as he bent over to come face to face with it. “Cute little thing, looks like an iguana.” Xander muttered before reaching out and tickling its head with his finger.

“Uh, Xander, I don’t think you should...” Ron was cut off by the weird sound of the baby dragon sneezing directly at Xander. He’d managed to duck in time to avoid the blast of flame that shot from the dragon’s mouth, but it had caught his hair which was now still smouldering and burning close to his scalp.

“AHH!!!” He screamed, patting his head wildly for a second before Hagrid threw a goblet of water over him, fortunately for him the goblet was Hagrid sized, so Xander found himself on the receiving end of what felt like a bucket of cold water being dumped on his head. “Thanks.” He managed to splutter out sarcastically as he shook his head off, his hair was practically burnt right down to the scalp with only the side and back remaining un-scorched.

Ron, Hermione and Harry were just looking at him in shock.

“Sorry ‘bout that, must have given the little thing a fright or something.” Hagrid apologized.

The group were interrupted by a noise coming from outside that sounded suspiciously like laughter. Cursing his misfortune Xander twirled round and ran for the door to see who it was that was spying on them at this time of night.

He got out of the hut just in time to see the blonde hair of Draco Malfoy run past the bushes and up the steps the too castle grounds. “Fk!” He ground out, rubbing his now balding head with his hand and pulling it away as burns hairs started to fall to the floor. “I am going to kill that little s#!t!” Xander growled before running towards the castle, followed in hot pursuit by Hermione, Ron and Harry.

“Come here Malfoy!” Xander shouted as he ran through the arches of the castle entrance, looking from side to side down the corridors to see if there was any sign of him before making his way slowly down the corridor.

“Found him?” Harry asked as they caught up with Xander, hoping that they could somehow reason with Draco, but they doubted it.

“He’s got to be about somewhere, can’t have got far.” Xander muttered, “You three check down there, I’ll go this way.” Nodding to the corridor on his right he watched the three wander off down it, checking the side passages as they went. Turning back to his corridor he started walking down it slowly again, purposely clicking his staff on the floor as he walked, hoping to unnerve Malfoy as much as possible.

Turning the corner of the corridor he came face to face with Professor McGonagall, who was comfortably dressed in a dressing gown and carrying a night light. Draco was at her side, smiling smugly.

“Aw crap.” Xander muttered under his breath, realising what he must look like to his head of house.

=/^=

“I understand you are a special case Mister Harris, but you must understand that nothing gives any students the right to walk about the school at night.” Professor McGonagall as she stood in front of Draco and Xander in her classroom.

“Sorry.” Xander ground out, though his full attention was on Malfoy who was watching him with a self satisfied smirk.

“And where are your friends?” Professor McGonagall asked, turning to Draco. “I was informed that Mister Potter, Mister Weasley and Miss Granger were with you tonight.”

Xander turned to Draco with his best puzzled face. “Dunno Professor, I was just talking to Hagrid about something I read in a Magical Creatures book, I was thinking about taking it for my third year and wanted to get a head start on some of the research.”

“All well and noble Mister Harris, but I cannot allow you to be wandering the school at night,” Professor McGonagall levelled a glare at him. “You know how much Mister Potter and Miss Grange look up to you, it would be setting a bad example for both of them.”

Xander at least had the good grace to look suitably chastised, even though inside he was plotting his revenge against Malfoy. Maybe that charm Snape had tested on his shield, the Slug Vomiting charm; he could hit Malfoy with that at lunch, that should do the trick.

“I will not be removing any points from you because if this, but both you will be serving detention tomorrow night.” Professor McGonagall stated.

“Sorry, I must have misheard you,” Draco piped up and Xander stifled a grin. “I thought you said both of us.”

“No, you heard me correctly Mister Malfoy, for you were out of bed after hours as well.” Professor McGonagall said, her lips twisting in a wry smile as Xander fought the urge not to laugh madly at Draco’s face of disbelief.

=/^=

The next day passed quite quickly, Potions, Herbology, Astrology and History of Magic. Harry, Ron and Hermione each thanked him gratefully for taking the punishment alone, then laughed when he told them he would be spending detention with Malfoy.

“Bet he’s going to love that.” Harry smiled, thankful that Draco finally got what was coming to him.

“They’d just better not leave me alone with the little snake, or Slytherin will be one member short.” Xander groused out.

“What’s Professor McGonagall set for your detention?” Hermione asked.

“Dunno,” Xander admitted. “We’re both to meet Filch by the main hall at sun set.”

“Well better you than me.” Ron muttered, and then received an elbow from Harry reminding them that it could have been them as well.

=/^=

“So, what’s the punishment?” Xander asked as he and Draco walked out of the castle following Filch.

Filch didn’t say a word, he simply led them down the path towards Hagrid’s hut where Hagrid was waiting for them. “You’ll be serving detention with Hagrid tonight,” Filch paused, looking at Xander before settling his gaze on Draco. “He’s got a little job to do, inside the dark forest.”

“Xander,” Hagrid nodded to Xander with a soft smile. “Draco.” He turned to Draco and the smile was gone. “Come on, we’ve got work to do.” Hagrid paused for a second before turning to the forest boundary.

“The forest? I thought that was a joke, we can’t go in there.” Draco sounded suitably panicked and Xander grinned, maybe he wouldn’t need to plan any revenge on Draco, by the looks of things this would scare him enough to keep him up for weeks.

“It’s just a forest Malfoy.” Xander grinned at him before striding after Hagrid.

Draco followed soon after, running to keep up with Xander and then staying close to him as they made their way into a clearing.

“Hey, Hagrid, mind if I shine a little light on things?” Xander called out, making Draco wince from the sound.

“Shh, they’ll here you.” Draco whispered.

“You’re a moron, you know that.” Xander muttered as Hagrid nodded.

Bringing his staff up sharply, he brought it down to the ground, impacting it perfectly to cover the sound as he spoke the “Lumos” charm. The staff tip lit up with an amazingly bright white light, shining up in the air as far as he could see.

“What? How?” Draco seemed even more panicked now, and Xander gave a smirk as he realized that his misdirection had worked and Draco had been too preoccupied with the staff to notice his incantation.

“Aye, that’ll do just nicely.” Hagrid grinned in appreciation of the extra light that now shone through the forest at the three made their way deeper and deeper in.

Hagrid paused for a moment in a clearing, bending down and dipping his fingers into what looked like quicksilver to Xander.

“Ewww, what is that?” Draco sounded suitably disgusted by Hagrid’s actions as Xander bent down to look at the puddle closely. It seemed to look like a puddle of liquid metal, reminding Xander of that bad guy from Terminator two.

“Unicorn blood.” Hagrid stated as he wiped the blood of his fingers onto his coat.

“Something’s been killing unicorns?” Xander asked, outraged at the possibility that something would kill something that magical.

“Aye, found one dead a few weeks ago. Now, this one’s been hurt bad by something.”

Draco found himself immediately looking round the forest, squinting to get a better look through the dark trees to see if there was anything out there watching them.

“So it’s our job,” Hagrid continued, “to go and find the poor beast.” Turning to Draco he levelled him with a glare. “You stick to Xander here like glue, got that?” Draco nodded as quickly as he could. “I’ll go with fang here.”

Turning to face the two boys one last time Hagrid headed off into the forest with the lantern, leaving Draco standing as close to Xander and his staff as he could. like all the other students, he’d heard the stories and rumours about what Xander was capable of with his staff, and really didn’t want to be on the wrong side of him.

“Come on then.” Xander muttered before striding off into the forest, Draco sticking to him like glue.

“You wait until my father hears about this,” Draco complained as Xander turned to glare at him. “This is servant stuff.”

“Malfoy?” Xander brought his finger up to his lips. “Shut up. There’s something out here killing unicorns, if it’s fast enough to catch one of them, then it’s fast enough to sneak up on us.”

That seemed to shut Draco up for a bit as he started looking around the forest with a panicked expression before he realized Xander had already headed off to another clearing, he quickly ran to catch up and spotted what Xander had seen that had stopped him cold.

“Is... is that...” Draco tried to stutter out something in a whisper.

Xander could see a black cloaked figure, bent over the unicorn. It had its head bend down to the unicorn’s throat and looked to be drinking from it. “Evil cloaked figure, check, drinking blood, check, woefully under armed on patrol, check, no slayer nearby, check.” Xander cursed his luck as the figure seemed to at last take note of them.

“Do something.” Draco shouted, tugging his staff free and then tumbling to the ground with it.

“Aww hell!” Xander muttered as he watched Malfoy roll to the other side of the clearing, still clutching his staff in his hands. Digging his wand out of his pocket he raised it at the creature and tried to think of a spell he could use to do something effective.

“How the hell do you fire this thing?” Draco shouted, waving the staff around like an idiot and attempting to cast a dozen incantations at once.

“You can’t use it,” Xander shouted at him, cursing the boy’s stupidity when he dropped the staff on the floor and decided on the best course of action, running for his life into the dark forest. “Coward.” He muttered as the creature seemed to drift towards him in the breeze before coalescing into a solid form a few feet in front of him.

“Incendio!” Xander screamed, and was rewarded by a small fireball that shot from his wand and impacted the cloaked figure in the chest, it seemed only to anger it though as it kept coming towards him, its teeth snarling and dripping with the silver unicorn’s blood that ran down his chin and stained the cloak.

“Don’t suppose we can talk about this?” Xander tried as the figure seemed to consider him for a moment.

The figure snarled for a second before turning and flying off into the mists, leaving Xander trying to figure out exactly what had happened. By all rights it must have been a master vampire to fly like that, and it had him cornered, not to mention it hadn’t been affected by fire.

Jogging over he picked up his staff and lit the tip again with the incantation, not bothering with the misdirection now he was alone. He shone the beam of his torch after the thing that had attacked him, hoping to make sure that it wasn’t coming back to finish the job off.

“Xander, my god, you all right?” Hagrid called as he came into the clearing with Fang and Draco following him.

“Yeah, the vampire, or whatever it was flew off. Think it killed the unicorn though.” Xander shook his head at Draco. “Moron,” he muttered as he pocketed his wand.

“Just glad you’re safe, come on, let’s get you two back to the castle, I’d better have a word with Dumbledore if we’ve got vampires in the forest.” Hagrid considered the possibility before leading the two students out of the forest, Draco was unusually silent the entire trip back to the castle, and probably in need of a change of pants.

=/^=

“I’m telling you, it was some sort of master vampire or something.” Xander explained to the trio as they sat around the fire in the main Gryffindor common room.

“There haven’t been vampires near Hogwarts for years.” Hermione stated with certainty. “Besides, a vampire would have been killed by your Incendio charm.”

“Yeah, that did bother me a bit.” Xander confessed. “But what else could it be?”

“What about... you-know-who?” Harry offered.

“Who?” Xander asked, still not used to the way wizards seemed to have strange words for completely normal things.

“Voldemort,” Harry whispered.

“Why would he be drinking unicorn blood?” Xander asked, confused at how the conversation had gone from vampires to Darth Vader wannabe’s in one turn.

“To stay alive, unicorn blood gifts the drinker with immortality, but he’s weak.” Harry explained his theory. “Snape doesn’t want the stone for himself, he wants it for Voldemort.”

“Not Snape again.” Xander muttered, burying his head in his hands,

“Well who else?” Harry offered and Xander had to admit, there wasn’t anyone else that would actually be brave enough to try and sneak past that monster of a dog.

“With the elixir of life Voldemort will be strong again, he’ll come back.” Harry seemed to visibly wilt before flopping into a free chair.

“And this is the guy that killed your parents?” Xander asked and Harry nodded in response. “Crap.”

“If he comes back, you don’t think he’ll try to,” Ron paused, visibly paling at his thoughts. “Kill you, do you?”

“Wait a minute, who’s the one wizard Voldemort always feared?” Hermione asked the group.

“Merlin?” Xander offered, trying to lighten the mood, the it occurred to him, there probably was a Merlin somewhere, he would have been a real historical figure here.

“Don’t be silly, Merlin died off years ago, Dumbledore!” Hermione stated. “As long as Dumbledore’s around you’re safe.”

“Hey, you’ve got us as well, no way am I going to let some dark lord get his hands on you while I’m about.” Xander grinned, he’d faced down a master vampire, killed Angelus, how hard could one wizard be. “Now, come on, we’ve got finals coming up and I think we all want to actually pass them?” Xander asked, looking round the group, only Hermione seemed at ease with the idea of her final exams on the horizon, Ron and Harry looked visibly shaken by the idea.

“Revision?” Harry asked, leaning over to his back to pick out his books.

“Revision.” Xander said back with a grin as he did the same and motioned for Ron and Harry to do the same. “Potions. So Hermione, what exactly is Root of Asphodel?” He asked, causing Hermione to groan.

...

“That was a nightmare.” Xander commented to the group as they left the main hall where they had just sat their final astrology exam.

“You’re telling me.” Ron whined in agreement.

“Well I for one think I did rather well.” Hermione announced with a pleased smile. “I’d always heard that Hogwarts end of year exams were frightful, but I quite enjoyed that.”

“You’re a sadist, you know that.” Xander turned to Hermione with a grin.

“What are you three up to now then?” Xander asked as he paused by the main arch way to the school.

“Well I’m heading to the library, our main potions exam is tomorrow and I want to brush up on a few ingredients.” Hermione voiced her decision before looking at Ron and Harry.

“We’ll be with her.” They announced in unison.

“Thought so.” Xander grinned. “I’ll be in the room, want to brush up on Herbology for Friday, I’m alright with potions, but I just can’t get head around all these plants.”

“Ok, we’ll see you back there.” Harry waved before the three moved off towards the library.

It had been a tough school year, but quite a rewarding one Xander thought to himself as he made his way up to his room. He’d seen so much, he was even getting used to acknowledging the ghosts as he walked past them in the corridors, he’d even caught himself chatting to Nearly Headless Nick on his way to class once. Every once in a while though, something would happen to surprise him though, like when he saw a tree on the school grounds actually eat a bird, that was slightly un nerving and he’d resolved himself to stay away from any trees that look like it in the future.

“Hyena.” He muttered as he approached the painting that led to his room, causing the painting to swing open. “Still some surprises left after all.” He muttered to himself with a smile as the blonde Amazon on the painting winked at him as he passed through.

“Like that.” He announced as he entered his bed room and found a girl with bright pink hair laying on his bed, leafing through one of his comics and tickling Pixel’s stomach with her other hand. He could swear he’d seen her before somewhere, but couldn’t place her. She wasn’t wearing a school uniform, so she wasn’t a student, and she looked about his age, if a few years older, as well. “You know, finding beautiful girls in my bed is normally a sign that I’m dreaming.” He quipped as she turned to see him enter.

“Wotcher!” She grinned with her customary greeting. “Who did your hair, looks like you’ve been wrestlin’ with a fire giant or something.”

“Bit of an accident with a baby dragon.” Xander grinned as his brain finally placed where he knew her from. “Hey, you’re the girl from the book store.”

“And you’re the one who’s taking me to America.” She grinned as she span on the bed to sit up, knocking his books off his bedside stand in the process and getting herself tangled in the sheets. There was a soft yowl from Pixel as she managed to roll on his tall before falling off the bed in a tangle of sheets as Pixel shot past Xander and ran out of the room.

“You know, it’s normally me that makes introduction like that.” Xander grinned before walking over and helping her up, trying to untangle her from the bed sheets he only managed to find himself tangled in them with her before she managed to trip over something, sending them both falling onto the bed.

“Ah good, I see you two know each other then.” Professor Dumbledore decided to announce his presence from where he was stood in the archway at that exact moment, and Xander found himself with Tonks lying on top of him with the bed sheets pulling her tight against his body.

“Nymphadora Tonks! What are you doing?” A woman’s voice came this time and Xander blushed bright red as he turned to see who it was and spotted a tall woman with soft brown hair standing beside Professor Dumbledore.

“Mum!” Tonks whined at the full name, causing Xander to blush even harder.

The woman, now identified as Tonks mother, simply waved her wand at the bed, causing the bed sheets to untangle, dumping Xander unceremoniously on the floor as Tonks managed to somehow stay lying on the bed.

“That could have gone better.” Xander muttered as he slowly stood up and faced Professor Dumbledore.

“Mister Harris, might I have a word with you in my study for a moment please.” Dumbledore smiled at him as he made his way over, apologizing to Tonks on his way past and sliding past her mother, carefully making sure he didn’t meet her eyes.

“Professor, that wasn’t... I mean we weren’t... I mean...” Xander stuttered out, anxious to defend what he knew it must have looked like he and Tonks were doing.

“Relax dear boy,” Dumbledore smiled at him. “Nymphadora was just as clumsy when she was here as a student not so long ago.”

“That can’t have made a good impression on her mom though.” Xander muttered as he followed Dumbledore up the spiral staircase to his study.

“I am sure Andromeda will see things as they are once Nymphadora has explained what happened, don’t worry about it.” Strangely Dumbledore’s words did little to comfort Xander.

“Hope so,” Xander smiled slowly. “So she’s the one that wants to visit the Hellmouth? Weird.” He grinned as Dumbledore opened the doors to his study revealing a man already waiting for them.

“Ah Ted, I’m glad to find you here, I assumed you did as I requested?” Dumbledore asked, nodding cautiously to the man who was petting some sort of red coloured bird on a perch at the edge of Dumbledore’s study.

“Of course,” The man smiled as he strode over and shook Dumbledore’s hand. “Is this the young gentleman from America?”

“Yes, Mister Harris, direct from the Hellmouth as it were.” Dumbledore made the introductions. “This is Ted Tonks, Nymphadora’s father.”

Suddenly the room felt a little smaller to Xander, and his hands got a little hot. He knew that Mr Tonks couldn’t already know about the incident in the bedroom, but that didn’t make him any less nervous to be around him. “Pleasure,” Xander squeaked out before coughing and shaking the man’s hand.

“All mine,” The man smiled. “Albus has told me all about you, including some of your adventures on the Hellmouth. I must say, it sounds like an exciting place.”

“Yeah, monster of the week,” Xander grinned. “It’s alright, nothing like Hogwarts though.”

Mr Tonks just laughed. “Of that I’ve no doubt.” He then turned serious for a second. “Albus informs me that your friend, Rupert, has kindly offered to put our daughter up for the duration of the summer holidays,” Xander turned to Dumbledore and watched him nod in response to Mr Tonks statement, “are you sure you are alright with showing her around the Hellmouth?”

“Yeah, if that’s what she wants to see, might not be exactly what she expects though.” Xander grinned, wondering what sort of adventures Buffy, Willow and the gang had been having while he was in England.

“I’m sure she’ll love it.” Mr Tonks said with a smile.

“If you’ll excuse Mister Harris, he was in the middle of revising for his final year one exams,” He turned to Xander with a raised eyebrow. “Potions I believe is tomorrow, and we have a lot to talk about.”

“Yes,” Xander smiled. “Thank you.” He waved at Mr Tonks before practically running out the doors and closing them behind him, before jogging down the stairs and heading back along the corridor to his room, where now he had to face Tonks and her mother, hopefully Tonks had managed to calm her down a bit by now.

“Xander! Come quick!” His musings were interrupted by Harry’s voice as he jogged around the corner of the corridor up ahead, followed by Ron and Hermione.

“What?” Xander asked, running up to meet them.

“Dumbledore’s gone!” Harry exclaimed. “Professor McGonagall said he just left with someone on his way to the Ministry of Magic on urgent business.”

“And?” Xander prompted for more information; surely someone like Professor Dumbledore went away to the Ministry plenty of times over the school year. “That was probably why Mr Tonks was there.”

“Snape knows how to get past Fluffy, he’s going to try and steal the stone, tonight!” Harry explained, ignoring the comment about Mr Tonks as he turned before running off down the corridor followed by Ron and Hermione.

“Doesn’t he ever stay still for more than five minutes?” Xander muttered before running off after the trio.

=/^=

“Are you three ready?” Hermione whispered as she made her way up the common room stairs into their bedroom.

“Sure, going to face a three headed dog, why not.” Xander muttered as he picked up his staff and the four made their way back downstairs to go through the main common room.

“Are you four sneaking out again?” A voice called from behind them as they tiptoed through the common room on their way to the hallway.

“Neville, listen...” Harry tried to appease Neville quietly.

“No, I won’t let you!” Neville stood firm. “You’ll get Gryffindor into trouble again.”

Xander raised his eyebrow; they hadn’t been in that much trouble this year, had they?

“I won’t let you... I’ll... I’ll fight you!” Neville called, putting up his fists in a boxing motion.

Xander fought the urge to laugh at him and raised his staff to put a sleeping charm on him; Hermione beat him to the punch though. “Petrificus Totalus!”

Neville instantly snapped to attention before his body took on an almost frozen appearance before toppling to the ground and hitting the wooden floor with a sound that echoed through the common room.

“That is a useful one to know,” Xander grinned at Hermione, causing her to blush bright red.

“Come on.” Harry whispered before leading them out of the common room and along to the main stairway hall where they could reach the third floor from.

The four students ran along the corridors, quickly ducking into side passages whenever they heard someone else coming along, it took them a while but they finally made it up the stairs to the third floor passage.

“This is it, have you got the spell?” Harry asked, turning to Hermione.

“Ready.” Hermione stated, and before anyone could change their minds Harry pushed open the door and walked in.

“Wait, shouldn’t that be locked?” Xander asked as he peered into the room.

“Where’s Fluffy?” Ron asked, glancing around the room they could see it was completely empty, even the harp that was there when they had encountered the giant dog before had gone. The room had been dusted and thoroughly cleaned.

“Ok, where’s the trapdoor then?” Xander asked, looking around the floor of the room for the trapdoor that Hermione had seen.

“They must have moved it.” Hermione said in disbelief.

“Moved the trapdoor?” Xander asked and Hermione nodded, whistling under his breath he had to admit, that was some powerful magic, to move an entire room would take some serious power.

“Well, where else could they put it?” Harry asked.

“Somewhere close to Dumbledore, where he could keep an eye on it no doubt, somewhere they could keep Fluffy as well, without any students wandering in on him.” Xander tried to think of places in the school where you could hide a giant dog, but none immediately came to mind.

“I know, there’s a full map of the school in the book, Hogwarts; A History. I have a copy in my room, we can check in there to see where Dumbledore could have moved it to.” Hermione offered, and Xander had to admit, it was the only plan he could think of that made any sense.

“But it’ll take us weeks to go through all that, this place is massive.” Ron complained.

“Why don’t you get three more copies from the library then tomorrow, we can check over the plans tomorrow night.” Xander looked at each of the group in tern to see if they had any better ideas, when none came to light he opened the door again and led the way back out into the hallway.

“I suggest we all get back to bed then, Professor Snape won’t like us falling asleep in his exam tomorrow.” Hermione reminded everyone that they still had exams for the rest of the week, even if they had other things to do as well.

“Can’t we face the giant dog before the potions exam?” Ron whimpered, causing Xander to chuckle as they made their way back to their room.

=/^=

Actually the potions exam wasn’t that bad, the first half of it was written work, which Xander groaned at but actually did surprisingly well at. It seemed the brushing up on Herbology had helped him here as well. The second half was practical work, and perhaps even more surprisingly, no one had any accidents or blew up their cauldrons. Even Snape seemed surprised when the end of the exam rolled by and no one had destroyed their work.

“Come on, it wasn’t that bad.” Xander grinned as the four made their way out of the exam towards the main hall for a late lunch.

“Not that bad? I would have rather faced the giant dog with just a tooth pick than go through that again.” Ron complained, Xander was starting to get the feeling that Snape wasn’t a suspect because he’d done anything wrong, but rather because the three hated his class, even Hermione didn’t look as excited about the prospect of a potions exam as she had done with the rest of her exams.

“We can face the dog tonight; I’ll even bring a toothpick for you alright?” Xander grinned as Ron scowled at him. They were interrupted from their chatter when Harry groaned, pressing his hand to his head.

“You alright harry?” Hermione asked as the three stopped to check on him.

“My scar, it’s burning.” Harry explained.

“Right, you two go and fetch the books; I’ll wait for you with Harry in the room.” Xander offered, Hermione and Ron nodded before moving off towards the library. “You alright?” He asked, looking at Harry who seemed visibly shaken.

“I think it’s a warning.” Harry groaned out.

“Better than an alarm clock,” Xander grinned, causing a slight smile to appear on Harry’s face as he led Harry back to the room. Back at the room the scar seemed to be burning stronger, Harry looked in obvious pain about it but there was nothing that could be done. “Just rest up ok, we’ll be done soon.”

Xander was resting on the bed, keeping a watchful eye on Harry when the painting that functioned as their main door opened.

“About time you two got here,” Xander grumbled. It had been nearly an hour since Ron and Hermione had gone to get the books, he’d been getting a little worried about them.

“Ahh!” Harry groaned loudly, pushing his head into the pillow.

“Sorry, Professor Quirril, what can I do for you?” Xander asked, finally turning to see who it was. “Headache,” He muttered, nodding to Harry. “Think the potions exam was too much for him.”

“Pr... Professor Dumbledore wo... would like to see both of you in his st... study for a mo... moment.” Quirril stuttered out.

This seemed to break Harry out of his pain, for a moment at least. “Dumbledore’s back?” He asked before pressing his hand to his temple again.

“Y... Yes, he asked to see y... you two as soon as he go... got back.” Quirril explained with a small smile.

“Think you can manage to Dumbledore’s study Harry?” Xander asked, turning to regard him for a moment.

“Wh... why don’t you help him? I’ll ca... carry you’re st... staff.” Quirril offered, picking Xander’s staff up from where it rested on the wall and examining it for a moment.

“Sounds fair,” Xander grinned as he helped Harry to his feet. “Come on; don’t want to keep Dumbledore waiting.” With that he pulled Harry’s arm around his waist and followed Quirril out of the arch, who courteously shut the painting behind them.

As the two followed Professor Quirril into Dumbledore’s study it surprised both Xander and Harry that Professor Dumbledore wasn’t in his usual seat behind his desk, nor was he anywhere in the study that they could see. The pain had started to fade from Harry’s head on the walk to the study and now he was quite capable of walking on his own.

“Where is he?” Xander asked, turning to regard Quirril with a raised eyebrow. From what he’d seen of the man in their Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons, he was a complete idiot, but surprisingly good with offensive charms and curses when he demonstrated them to the class.

“Do... downstairs.” Quirril pointed to the stairs on the opposite side of the room that Xander had never noticed before, they had to have been there of course, it was a large spiralling staircase with ornate stone work built into the wall, he’d just never seen it before.

“Come on then.” Xander smiled, holding his hand out for his staff and then frowned when Quirril passed by him to walk down the stairs without giving it to him. “Weird guy,” He muttered before he followed Harry who had already started his way down the stairs following Quirril.

Taking one last glance around the study, making sure he hadn’t missed any other stair cases or passages out of the area, Xander shrugged before making his way down the stairs to follow Harry and Quirril who were probably already at the bottom.

The staircase was quite long, longer than the one they’d used to get up into Dumbledore’s study, Xander mused that it must have passed the floor they originally started on and was making its way down the floor below, but that didn’t make sense, because the floor they’d came from was on the ground, they went up one level to Dumbledore’s study. If this went down two floors, then they were heading down underneath the school.

“Hey, you two alright down there?” Xander called out, waiting for a moment to see if he could hear any footsteps on the stairs. No footsteps and no reply. “Anyone?” He called out again, no reply. Even though the stair case was well lit somehow, it was beginning to feel quite creepy on there, not quite as spooky as The Master’s cave where he found Buffy’s drained body, but close. Picking up the speed he started to jog down the stairs, smiling when he actually found the bottom and Quirril was stood in front of a large arch, Harry wasn’t anywhere to be seen though.

“Hey, where’s Harry?” Xander asked, pausing for a moment at the stairs. He could see his staff; it was a few feet into the arch way where he could just make out a green wall of energy, like a wall of thin glass, in the archway.

“Right here.” Quirril shouted, spinning round to show Xander he had Harry by the throat pulled in close to him, his other hand pointed a wand at Harry’s neck, a wand that looked suspiciously like Harry’s own, pressing it into the soft flesh.

Pulling his wand from his pocket he aimed it at the pair, snarling at Quirril. “What’s going on?”

“Harry here was just kind enough to tell me how to get past this barrier; it seems Dumbledore put it up to protect the stone.” Quirril spoke, only now he didn’t have the stutter and his voice seemed different, deeper somehow.

“Dumbledore put the stone in there?” Xander motioned to the barrier, where he could see two bodies lying on the ground, a few feet from the door. Their robes identified them as Slytherin, but aside from that Xander couldn’t make out who there were. “But why do you want to steal it?”

“He’s...” Harry started before Quirril pushed the wand further into his neck, silencing him and causing him to wince from the pain.

Looking at Harry he got all the confirmation he needed when he saw the hate burning in his eyes. “You’re Voldemort?” It was all Xander could do to stop laughing. Everything he’d heard about Voldemort put him as some larger than life demon, with powers that no human could imagine.

“No, I am not Voldemort, but you must be exceedingly brave to even speak his name, brave or foolish.” Quirril shouted.

“And you can’t get the stone, why not?” Xander asked, trying to put all the pieces together in his head.

“Because only a muggle born can pass through the arch,” Harry bit out, wincing as the wand got pressed into his throat again.

“Yes, a rather ingenious idea of Dumbledore’s. I was told, by a reasonably reliable source, that those two students were muggle born.” Quirril explained.

“Malfoy,” Harry bit out through clenched teeth.

“Yes, he does have a wonderful hatred of all things muggle or not pure blood doesn’t he?” Quirril sneered at Xander. “I knew you two were a danger to me from the beginning.”

“Wait; let me get this right, you’re behind everything that’s been happening this year? The troll?” Xander asked, trying to get his head around the fact that this teacher was responsible for everything that had happened.

“A distraction so I could steal the stone,” Quirril admitted. “Snape interfered though, while everyone else was dealing with the troll, which you so happily killed by the way, he headed to the third floor to protect the stone.”

“Bet he saw right through you.” Xander grinned, vindication for Snape, finally.

“He never trusted me again, meddlesome incompetent.” Quirril snarled, obviously annoyed that his plans had been broken by a potions teacher. “He never left me alone, he doesn’t understand, I’m never alone.”

Xander fought the urge to laugh again at the mumbling coming from the man holding Harry hostage, even Harry looked a bit confused as Quirril started mumbling to himself. “So you need a muggle born to fetch you the stone so you can live forever, and you’ll kill Harry if I don’t help you, that about the size of it?”

“Perceptive as always, I thought someone with your natural talent for all things magical would be able to find a way through there. I watched as you blasted the Mirror or Erised into as million pieces with a simple spell. If you can’t get through the barrier, then you could always make another hole in the wall.” Quirril sneered at him.

“Could do, if my staff wasn’t on the other side of the barrier.” Xander muttered, he was reasonably sure he could pass through the barrier, he was of course muggle born, or still a muggle technically, but why tell Quirril that.

“Don’t play me for a fool boy!” Quirril shouted. “I checked Dumbledore’s files on you; there has never been a wizard in your family as far as the records go back. You’re about as pure blood muggle as their can be.”

“And yet, using magic, so I guess the records are wrong.” Xander quipped, trying to keep Quirril off guard while he figured out a way out of this so he could save Harry and the two boys in the chamber.

“I must confess the exact nature of your magic eludes me, but I will figure it out.” Quirril bit the last few words out in determination. “Now, you will fetch me the stone or I will kill Harry Potter.” Quirril spat out Harry’s name as it offended his lips to even speak it.

“Fine, whatever,” Xander muttered as he put away his wand and made his way to the arch way, pausing for a moment and placing his hand in first, watching in amazement as green energy played over his hand before he stepped through completely. Picking up his staff first he made his way to the pedestal in the middle of the room, where a small box stood undisturbed on the top.

“Bring me the stone or Potter dies!” Quirril’s shout echoed through the hall.

“Keep your knickers on.” Xander mumbled as he reached for the box, jumping back when red lightning seemed to play over the surface where he was going to touch it. Breathing in sharply he lifted the lid of the box, breathing a sigh of relief when nothing happened and it revealed what looked to him to be a giant ruby inside. Turning around he could see Quirril getting anxious as he twitched his wand against Harry’s throat.

“And what’s to stop me destroying the stone right here?” Xander bluffed.

“Because I will kill your friend, and then you.” Quirril shouted before turning his head to look up at something.

“Let me talk to him.” A voice whispered through the halls.

“But master, you’re not strong enough.” Quirril said, seemingly on speaking terms with whoever was causing the bodiless whispering.

“I am strong enough for this.” The voice came again, hissing through the silence of the halls.

Quirril seemed to pause before pushing Harry away from him where he fell against a wall, taking his time to sit down he watched as Quirril started unwrapping the purple turban he had on his head, as he pulled the last piece of cloth off with a flourish Xander had to wince.

The guy had someone else’s face growing out of the back of his head, in all his time at Sunnydale he didn’t think he’d ever seen anything quite as disgusting as that.

Quirril turned to face Xander so the other face was facing Harry, his want was pointing directly at Xander, twitching for an excuse to use it.

“Harry Potter, we meet again.” The face spoke in a whispering, hissing tone.

“Voldemort.” Harry exclaimed under his breath.

Ok, evil sorcerer guy can live inside other people, why does no one tell me these things? Xander’s brain was running at double speed, trying to figure out a way to distract Voldemort so Harry could escape, then he could deal with Quirril before getting the two boy’s by his feet out of here.

“Yes, you see what I have become; see what I must do to survive.” Quirril span round so that he was facing Harry with his wand aimed at his head. “And you,” The hissing voice continued as he spoke to Xander, “You interrupted my feeding.”

“That was you then, outside, drinking the unicorn blood.” Xander put everything together.

“Yes, unicorn blood can sustain me, but it cannot give me a life of my own, I am reduced to a mere parasite, living of the life of another.”

“So you need the stone,” Xander threw it up in the air, snatching it as it fell back to his hand. “Or you’ll live like that forever.”

“Don’t be a fool,” Voldemort hissed. “Both you and Potter will suffer the worst death imaginable unless you hand that stone over now.”

“Now you see, we have a problem,” Xander grinned, trying to think of a way out of this one. “I have the stone, you can’t get it. You have Harry. Let him go, you’ll still have me and I’ll give you the stone.”

“Brave, foolish but brave,” Voldemort hissed as Quirril’s wand twitched in Harry’s direction, blasting a stream of energy out at him which threw his head back into the rock wall, rendering him unconscious immediately. “Give me the stone, or Potter dies!”

“Harry!” Xander shouted, “You want to kill me, fine, bring it on.” Xander shouted, walking outside of the barrier and dropping the stone on the floor in front of him where it fell with a chink.

“You fool, none can stand up to me,” Voldemort hissed as Quirril pointed his wand at Xander. “No mere wizard can stand up to me. You could have been great, ruling the world at my right hand, and you threw it all away for this boy!” The wand twitched again as Voldemort hissed “Avada Kedavra.”

As soon as Xander saw the twitch he started his shield incantation. “Umbra Protego!” he watched in horror as the sickly green energy that signified the killing curse built up and flew through the air, impacting his shield in the chest and sending him stumbling back several feet.

“Yeah, well, that’s what friends are for.” Xander quipped, causing Quirril to gape at him.

“How did you defeat the killing curse? No wizard alive can withstand its effects!” Voldemort hissed.

“Yeah well, I’m not a wizard,” Xander stepped forward menacingly, raising his staff to the air. “I’m a Technomage!” with the shout he brought his staff down on top of the Philosophers Stone, cracking it first as a bright white light shone out from inside before the stone exploded, throwing both Xander and Quirril to the floor.

As the wall impacted his back he saw Harry looking at him in amazement, he’d obviously regained consciousness while he and Quirril were fighting. As the darkness started to swim in front of his eyes he turned his gaze to Quirril, who had fallen to the floor, a shard of the stone embedded in his neck where blood was flowing freely.

As he started to lose consciousness, and blood started to trickle down over his eyes, he could have swore he saw some sort of mist raising from Quirril’s body and floating up the stairs, his last sight before he lost consciousness was Harry, crawling over the stone to where he was laying. “That hurt,” He managed to whisper out before the darkness finally claimed him.

“Is he going to be alright Professor?” Harry asked, as he stood watch over Xander in the hospital wing. Ron and Hermione were with him and Dumbledore stood at the foot of the bed watching them all.

“He’ll be fine, just fine my boy.” Dumbledore reassured him with a smile as Xander started to stir.

“What the?” Xander muttered in a panicked tone.

“It’s alright dear boy.” Dumbledore placed a hand on Xander’s arm, comforting him, “Madam Pomfrey had to bandage your eyes when they started to heal on their own. You possess quite a resistance to magical healing don’t you know.”

Harry smiled as he started to slowly unwrap the bandage from Xander’s eyes, causing him to wince as the bright light of the hospital room flooded his vision.

“Damn!” Xander shouted, bringing his hand up to shield his eyes, they were tingling and the light was making them burn, they felt even more sensitive than normal.

Harry spotted it first, letting out a surprised shout before Ron and Hermione noticed it. “Your eyes, they’re blue.”

Xander was still blinking, trying to adjust his vision to the light. He could just about make out Harry, who had a bandage around his head, as well as Ron and Hermione who were stood on the other side of the bed.

“Yes, your eyes started to change when Madam Pomfrey tried to heal them,” Dumbledore explained what had been happening. “They seemed to take offence to being healed, so we decided to leave them for your own healing powers to take care of.”

“Thanks,” Xander said, rubbing at his eyes where they itched before fetching a mirror of the stand. As Harry said, his eyes were now a piercing blue instead of the deep brown they were before. His hair still wasn’t growing back on the top of his head though; it seemed only to grow on the sides and back to just above his ears. “Must be something to do with the implants, they have their own healing system.”

“I thought as much,” Dumbledore smiled. “You’ve had quite the collection of visitors,” He nodded to the bed next to him where it was laden with flowers, chocolates and candy of all shapes and sizes.

“Ugh,” Xander groaned, trying to sit up in the bed. His muscles complained which told his he’d been in the bed a while. “How long was I out for?”

“Just over a week my boy, I’m afraid you missed your birthday.” Dumbledore smiled as he nodded to the other bed where a small pile of presents we stacked with Pixel curled up in a ball at the base of them, obviously guarding them.

“That sucks.” Xander grinned despite the pain he felt.

“What happened between you and Professor Quirril in the catacombs is the most private of secrets,” Dumbledore smiled with a twinkle in his eye. “As such, the entire school knows about it.”

Xander groaned, sitting up properly made him feel better so he swung his legs over the side of the bed and touched his feet to the cold marble floor.

“You and Mister Potter are most fortunate, though Mister Flammel mourns the loss of his stone; he wishes to thank you personally for your bravery in keeping it from the hands of Voldemort.” Dumbledore smiled, passing Xander his staff to help him stand. “It is not every first year that can stand up to Voldemort and live to tell the tale.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll be happy if I never have to see that creep again.” Xander groused as Harry passed him his coat, he definitely felt like an old man now, leaning on his staff for support as he shrugged his coat around his shoulders, not even bothering to thread his arms though the sleeves. “Is he gone? You know, for good?”

“Alas there are other ways he can return.” Dumbledore stated gravely. “But you needn’t worry about that; this moment is yours my boy. This came for you while you were unconscious, I took the liberty of opening it in case it contained anything that needed to be attended to urgently.” Dumbledore smiled with a twinkle in his eye as he handed over a scroll of parchment to Xander.

“It’s from G-Man!” Xander exclaimed as he sat up in the bed straight so he could read the letter carefully. As he scrolled through it he noticed the lack of mention about Buffy or Willow, in fact the letter seemed written in a completely business fashion with no sense of emotion in the wording whatsoever. “The house has been sold.” He finally said solemnly.

“Indeed,” Dumbledore paused as he took the parchment back off Xander and watched as he slumped down in the bed. “The money from the sale of the house has been moved into Gringotts and an account opened for you, you can access the money anytime you wish and withdraw it in either muggle currency or wizard currency.”

Xander wasn’t listening though, he was just staring out of the window, his mind drifting back to the night he had actually faced up to his parents, and how they had left, leaving him the house to do with as he pleased.

“You still carrying that stick of yours boy!” Xander’s father shouted at him as he made his way through the front door and downstairs to pack ready for Hogwarts. After the arguments with Buffy, Giles had got in contact with Albus and arranged for him to start this year instead of after he’d finished school.

Ignoring the comment be started to make his way down the hall and towards his bedroom. He was in no mood for another fight tonight, the argument with Buffy still had him riled up inside and he could feel his agitation being echoed by the tech implants inside him and feeding back in a never ending cycle.

“Don’t you ignore me!” The man shouted, slamming his fist on something causing Xander to jump slightly and stop in his tracks. “Now come here and face me like a man, if that’s what you are.” He slurred out at he made his way to the doorway that separated the living room from the hallway.

“Sorry,” Xander muttered as he turned around to face his father.

“Don’t give me that,” Tony was drunk as usual, his mother was stood behind him sneering at Xander. “Why you still carrying that stick of yours around.” His tone stated that he didn’t really expect an answer to the question as he stumbled over and snatched the staff from Xander’s hand before throwing it down the hallway.

As Xander moved to go and retrieve it, his father grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up to face him.

“You’ll never amount to anything, I don’t know why you even bother going to school, to see that slut friend of yours Willow probably.” He slurred out, pushing Xander away from him and into a wall.

“Don’t talk about Willow like that.” Xander said slowly. His anger was getting the better of him, amplified by the tech and he couldn’t afford to lose control, not again, not tonight, but his anger was surging through him. The tech echoed his anger back to him and felt like it wanted to be used, to do something to stop this threat it perceived from his father.

“Or what? You actually going to grow a pair, stand up for yourself for once in your life?” Tony sneered at him, stepping up to get right in Xander’s face.

Xander took a deep breath to calm himself and avoided looking at his father, he’d begun to see Giles as his father more and more recently anyway, this man was just another bully making his life hell.

“Come on, take a swing, show me what you’re made of. Show me my son isn’t the useless pile of shit I think he is.” Tony pushed him again, ignoring the low growl that came from Xander’s throat as his back hit the wall. “Go on; show me you’re not a complete waste of space.” Tony sneered again, pushing him into the wall again.

When Xander’s head hit the wall his tech had obviously decided enough was enough, his arm reached out and the staff flew into his hand where he grasped it tightly. “You want to see what I am?” He shouted, his anger quickly conjuring an illusion of darkness surrounding him. “You really want to see what I’m capable of?” He conjured a small platform in front of him, pushing it forward to slam his father in the gut, doubling him over. Another platform under his chest pushed him back up to standing up right before Xander started walking towards him. The darkness behind him now a tangible thing as it grew to encompass the entire hallway.

“I killed a master vampire tonight,” He shouted, another platform came into existence, pushing his father back into the wall and pinning him there. “And don’t give me the crap of no such thing as vampires, you can’t be that stupid.” Another platform pushed his mother back to the wall, pinning her in place by his father. “You think after that, you would be any problem for me?”

He saw his parents visibly pale as the illusion of darkness now filled the entire hallway, blacking out everything but them and Xander. He watched as his father struggled to get free from the invisible platform that was pinning him tightly to the wall. “You don’t like it, do you?” He sneered, releasing his hold on his father momentarily before slamming him to the wall again. “Being bullied like this, you’re used to being the big man. So tell me, big man, how’s it feel to know I could do anything, I could keep you like this forever, it wouldn’t bother me.” The darkness now seemed to emanate from Xander as he leaned in to get right in his father’s face. His hood had fallen over his head and holding his staff he looked like a spectre of death surrounded in the darkness.

He sniffed, something smelt off, he looked down in disgust and saw his father had actually wet himself in fear. “Get out.” He shouted opening the door so the light coming from outside was the only thing they could see in the eternal darkness that surrounded them. “Next time I won’t be as forgiving.” Releasing the platforms that held his parents in place he watched as they ran out the door, terrified of what Xander was conjuring in their house.

As another of his platforms slammed the door shut behind them he sank to the floor, still clutching his staff as the darkness around him seemed to shrink back to wherever it had come from. He watched the door with tears welling in his eyes, the anger which held him strong through the entire fight had gone now, leaving him cold and feeling empty inside. His implants tingled from the use they had been given and seemed anxious for more magic.

He simply sat, not crying but tears running down his cheeks. He wasn’t sure if it was relief or anger as he just waited, waiting for the door to open again and his parents to come back and start yelling at him again. They never came, he waited for hours before finally finding the strength to stand and walk over to the telephone numbly where he called Giles to come over so he could explain what happened.

The next day, after a long nights talk with Giles he waited at the breakfast table, drinking a mug of coffee that his father had forced him to start drinking a long time ago, it was just a routine now though. His parents didn’t come back. He waited all day, ignoring the telephone when it rang, probably Giles to see why he hadn’t come round for his talk about going to Hogwarts. Every time I heard someone walk by the house he flinched, expecting his father to storm in the door any minute. They never did.

“Thanks,” Xander said, trying to force a smile onto his face as he turned to Dumbledore and got out of the bed, wincing as his bare feet met the cold stone floor. His mind was racing, trying to figure out what this meant for him to actually go back to Sunnydale over the holidays.

“You mustn’t jump to conclusions my boy,” Dumbledore smiled at him. “Things are rarely what they appear to be, even the most obvious of things.”

“I knew you were going to say that.” Xander grinned slightly, his mood lightening somewhat as he saw how all of his friends were looking at him concerned. Forcing a smile on his face he walked round the bed, petting Pixel as he made his way to Dumbledore and Harry. “Thank you,” He smiled at Dumbledore before bending down to look Harry in the eyes. “Thank you.”

Harry just grinned before embracing him in a tight hug which Ron and Hermione followed suit with. Soon the bunch were laughing as Dumbledore watched from his seat on the bed, they certainly were an interesting group, Rupert had been right, nothing would ever be the same with Xander at Hogwarts.

“Wotcher!” Tonks grinned from the hallway entrance to the group’s bedroom.

“Hey,” Xander grinned from his position on the bed where he was just finishing off packing for tomorrow. “You all packed.”

“Nope,” Tonks grinned back at Xander’s puzzled look. “Slight change of plans, I ain’t coming with you, seems my mum’s decided to join me on the trip, so we’re going to the Cleveland Hellmouth instead.” She smiled before making her way over to sit next to Xander on the bed as her mum came in, followed by Professor Dumbledore.

“Mister Harris,” Mrs Tonks announced as she made her way over to the bed where Xander and Tonks were sat. “I assume Nymphadora has explained our change of plans to you?” She smiled as Xander nodded.

“It was very kind of you to offer, but I feel it would be best if we did the holiday as a family, that way Nymphadora will be able to return to her Auror training as soon as she returns to London.” Andromeda continued, causing Tonks to smile and nod.

“Sounds cool,” Xander smiled, looking over at Tonks who grinned back, causing him to blush. “So, I'll be going back to good old Sunnyhell on my own then?” He smiled as he looked around the room, checking that no one else wanted to come with him.

“Well I did have one thought,” Dumbledore started to say with a wry smile. “I believe your friends would like to ask you themselves though.” Dumbledore let out a small chuckle as both Harry and Ron came into the room.

“What?” Xander asked, raising an eyebrow at Harry first, then Ron. Surely they didn’t want to come with him, to visit the Hellmouth. Hell, part of him didn’t want to go back, he was happy here, finally coming to peace with himself. “You two don’t want to come? Do you?” He asked, his eyes showing the concern for their safety that his voice didn’t.

“If you’ll excuse us Professor,” Andromeda smiled at Xander. “Mister Harris,” She nodded as Tonks stood up next to her. “We should be going; we have a long trip back to London ahead of us.”

“Of course,” Dumbledore smiled, “I'll escort you out.” He nodded at Xander, his eyes twinkling with knowledge as he turned and ducked out of the archway following Andromeda and Nymphadora.

“So?” Xander turned to where Ron and Harry were fidgeting nervously. “Look, I don’t think you two would be safe on the Hellmouth, that’s all.”

“What?” Ron burst out, his eyes widening after Xander’s explanation of what he thought they were going to ask. “No,” He waved his hands anxiously. “I’m all for staying away for Hellmouth’s.”

Harry smiled, nodded at Ron’s emphatic denial of what Xander had said. “Bit of the opposite really,” Harry grinned.

“My dad, he wants to meet you,” Ron explained. “I told you he loves everything muggle, well, he wants to ask you some stuff, learn more about the muggle world, all that stuff.”

“Fair enough,” Xander nodded, he could stand up to an interview about normal life he supposed. “That’s it? He just wants to ask some questions?”

“I told him you were going back to Sunnydale today,” Ron explained, fidgeting again. “He asked if you’d like to come and stay with us instead.” Ron asked the last hopefully, in the last year he’d become quite close to Xander, not as close as Harry, but they were becoming close friends, especially after Xander had been defending him to Malfoy for the entire year.

“Spend the summer in the magic house?” Xander grinned. “Seriously?”

“It’s not huge or anything,” Ron stumbled out. “But its home, Fred and George are away for the summer, spending it with their girlfriends, you could have their room.”

“What about Harry?” Xander asked, looking directly at Harry.

“I can’t,” Harry said, sorrow tingeing his voice. “The Dursley’s are expecting me back.”

“We’ll keep in touch, I'll owl you every day,” Ron said with a grin. “So,” He turned back to Xander. “What do you think?”

“Sounds like fun,” Xander grinned. He didn’t really have anything back in Sunnydale to go back for, not after the way he left. “Are you sure?” He asked, watching Ron carefully to make sure he was being truthful about it all.

“Yeah,” Ron nodded. “My dad really wants to meet you, he’s got tons of questions about stuff, how they work and everything, his major ambition in life is to figure out how muggle airplanes stay in the air.”

Xander had to laugh at that one and was joined in by Harry who was snorting with humour. “Don’t know if I can answer that one,” Xander grinned. “But I can try and explain it.”

“You really know?” Ron asked, amazed at this bit of knowledge.

“It’s not exactly a secret,” Xander smiled as Harry nodded. “I'll try and explain it to your dad.”

“So you’ll stay?” Ron asked hopefully.

“Yeah,” Xander grinned. “Sounds like it’ll be a laugh.”

“What about your friends?” Harry asked, happy that Xander had said yes to staying, but not sure about why. “Don’t you want to see them over the holidays?”

Neither of the boys recognised the shadow of sorrow that passed over Xander’s face as he thought back to how he had actually left Sunnydale, and the argument that had led to him coming to Hogwarts just over a year ago.

“You killed him?” Buffy shouted, outrage dripping from her voice.

“Would you rather it me? Or Willow, or Giles that was dead?” Xander shouted back. “How many people have to die so you can keep your boyfriend.”

“Shut up, you don’t know what you’re talking about!” Buffy shouted back before storming out of the library.

Xander had left Angelus alive that night in the library, he was about to stake the bastard, and would have gone through with it as well, when they had been interrupted by Buffy. She kept claiming that they would find a way to put the soul back in, to turn him back to Angel. For two weeks they’d kept him locked up, two weeks where they’d taken turns watching him. Two weeks until Spike and Dru broke him out of the cage where they kept him in the mausoleum.

Angelus had gone too far though, last night he kidnapped Willow and Giles after killing Ms Calendar. They’d gotten cocky, thinking with a slayer and Xander on their side Angelus wouldn’t dare try anything. They were wrong though.

Xander had found Willow and Giles, tied up and bleeding badly in Angel’s mansion while Buffy was still in the library, moping over her boyfriend killer and trying to find a way to ensoul him again; despite how many times Giles had told her that the magic’s had been lost.

He’d gone into the mansion in a fit of rage, incineration vampires wherever he saw them, Angelus didn’t stand a chance. He saw him bending over Willow, ready to bite her, to kill her. That had been the final straw. He didn’t even know what spell he’d used, he just wanted Angelus dead.

Angelus had charged him and Xander had fired this red beam from his hand, it was like nothing either he or Giles had ever seen before. It struck Angelus in the chest, burning through him like he was paper before exploding out the other side and burning a hole clean through the wall behind him.

He then watched as Angelus looked at him in disbelief before turning to so much ash.

That night they’d told Buffy, and she’d cried for hours. She didn’t want to speak to any of them, let alone Xander, and had even avoided Willow and Giles at school the next day.

“What was that spell?” Giles asked quietly as Willow ran out the doors after Buffy.

“I don’t know, it didn’t even feel like a spell. I didn’t even had to use the staff, it was weird Giles, like I didn’t even have to cast it, it was just there, ready for me.” Xander tried to explain, he’d tried to cast the spell again, but with no success, whatever it was, however he’d done it, he couldn’t replicate it. “She ever going to forgive me?”

“In time, all things are forgiven in time.” Giles smiled as Willow walked back into the room with Buffy following her.

“I want you gone Xander.” Buffy stated simply.

“Buffy...” Xander started.

“You can’t just...” Giles tried but she just held up her hand.

“He goes, or I go.” She said before turning on her heels and leaving the library, Willow watching her with tears in her eyes.

“What?” Xander asked, turning to Giles. “What do I do?”

“You don’t have to go anywhere.” Giles stated firmly. “I’ll talk to her.”

“I don’t know Giles, she seemed pretty pissed.” Xander muttered, sinking into his chair. “What about that school? You know, the wizarding one you went to?”

“Hogwarts?” Giles asked, raising his eyebrow. They’d talked about Xander going to Hogwarts a few times, but hadn’t thought of him going there until he’d graduated Sunnydale.

“Well, if Buffy wants me gone,” Xander frowned, never thinking he’d hear those words coming from his lips. “Hogwarts sounds like the place to go.”

“Are you sure? I mean, Albus will take you of course, but leaving Sunnydale...” Giles didn’t want to continue, he couldn’t believe Buffy was being so selfish about all of this.

“I’m sure.” Xander stated, his version of the resolve face in place as Willow hugged him, tears swelling up in her eyes. “I’m sure.” He whispered as he hugged Willow back.

“I'll see them next summer,” Xander plastered on a fake smile as he looked at the two boys, shaking himself out of his memories as he stood up.

“Brilliant,” Ron grinned, his smile nearly splitting his face in two. “I'll owl dad, tell him you’re staying, he’ll meet us in London when we get off the train.” Smiling at Xander and Harry, he moved quickly over to the desk and started furiously scribbling a note.

“What about you?” Xander asked in a low voice, turning to Harry. “I get the feeling your holiday isn’t going to be as much fun.”

“I'll be fine,” Harry tried to reassure him with a smile but it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “It’s only a few months, and I'll have you two owling me to keep me company.”

The smile did little to reassure Xander; ever since Harry had confided in Xander how the Dursley’s treated him he’d been more and more protective of him, like an older brother would be. “If they give you any problems, just owl me, and I'll be there as soon as I can.”

Harry grinned, his spirits soaring. This was the first time in his life he had friends who actually cared for him, friends that would go out of their way to help him. Hogwarts was his true home, not back with the Dursley’s.

“Thanks Xander,” Harry smiled, nodding his head at his friend as he had seen Xander do so many times over the past year as a sign of respect.

“Yeah, whatever,” Xander grinned, waving it off and pulling Harry into a tight hug. “We faced down Voldemort, gotta stick together haven’t we?”

“Yeah,” Harry nodded, pulling himself out of the hug that was an uncharacteristic show of emotion for Xander. “You did all the work though.”

“And I couldn’t have done it without you two,” Xander smiled, nodding to Ron who was carefully tying the note he’d written to his owl and carrying it to the window. “You know if either of you need anything, just ask alright?”

“Thanks,” Harry smiled before standing up and moving over to his bunk to make sure he was fully packed for the train leaving in a few hours.

“You think we’ll actually get a quiet year next year?” Xander asked rhetorically as he set about checking all his drawers to make sure he’d packed everything.

“With you two around?” Ron snorted with good natured sarcastic laughter. “Somehow I doubt it.”

...

sorry about the huge text dump, but i'd been meaning to post that for ages... just kept forgetting about it...

now i'm working on the sequel to it, i thought i'd better post it before i forget again lol

M

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I havent read all of it yet but so far! OMG BUFFY AND HARRY POTTER MY TWO FAV THINGS look forward to reading the rest!

I like it so far. Reminds me of when i started my own HP fanfic and the main character started school late as well. Glad I'm not the only one to do that :-P

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Its good man. I just read the whole thing.

Wow... Just read it straight through. Very well done Methos. I can't wait for more.

Xander smiled to himself as he jogged down the stairs to the kitchen, the summer had flown by, and while at first he thought he would have been bored at The Burrow with Ron and the rest of the Weasley’s, he found it an amazing experience, with new things to learn about magic and the magical community. Mr Weasley, or Arthur as he kept reminding Xander, was always asking him about muggle things, even the simplest thing, like a rubber duck, had kept Arthur amazed for hours.

Several times they had gone into London for ‘family outings’ as Molly liked to call them, which were basically trips to the Ministry of Magic so she could see Arthur at work while Ron and Ginny showed Xander around London during the day, he had even bought a digital camera, something that amused Arthur as he tried to get Xander to accept magical camera’s instead, but Xander insisted that the up to date technology of the digital camera’s fit more with him, and who he was than the magical variants.

As he ducked his head on the low beams at the bottom of the stairs he walked into the kitchen, the smell of breakfast already cooking even though everyone else was still in bed, it has amazed him the first time he had seen it, the sight of breakfast cooking itself while everyone else slept. Then the kitchen cleaned up after itself and did the washing up, something he wished his house had done back in Sunnydale when he was growing up.

His thoughts stumbled at the memory of his parents running out the door in fear flooded back to him, fear of him, they were afraid of him, of what he had become, of what he could do now if he lost control. He’d spent a lot of time this summer trying to regain control, on one of the trips into London he had stopped at a local muggle bookstore, Waterstones, and picked up several books on meditation and centering yourself. Ron and Ginny loved it; they spent hours running around the muggle book store, amazed at the books on muggle witchcraft and ‘new age medicine’. Xander just had to laugh at the things that were simple and every day for him, they had a strange newness and shine when he was explaining them to Ron and Ginny.

Ron didn’t get the meditation thing of course, sitting on a hillside in the fresh air for hours at a time, just clearing your mind wasn’t the sort of thing he enjoyed doing, but he understood it was something that Xander needed to do, and helped him with it as best as he could. Hermione had visited several times over the holidays, her family only lived a few hours drive away in Kent, but since she used the ‘Floo Network’ it was easy for her to visit just for a few hours or so to check up on Xander.

Walking over to the fridge he pulled out the jug of milk, still amused at having fresh milk in the fridge after all the time, the summer was nearly over and he was still finding things in this house that amused or astounded him. Hermione’s crush still hadn’t dissipated though, she still blushed and giggled whenever she was left alone with him, but it had gotten better over the time they had spent together.

The only person missing from their group was Harry, and his absence was something that puzzled him more and more as the time moved on. They’d written to him dozens of times, using both owl messenger, and the muggle post system, something that amazed Ron as he couldn’t work out how the letter would reach Harry in time, but after an hour or so of Xander explaining how the post office worked, he hoped that Ron had quite a good grasp of muggle post now.

Holding his hand out he closed his eyes, concentrating for a moment before opening them as he spoke the charm he had been working on for months now. “Accio mug!” He had been practicing this for months, and the smile flooded his face as the mug flew across the air from the holder on the wall into his hand. He’d managed to get it working now for the last fortnight, at first the strain was a bit too much for him, mugs made it halfway across the room before the charm fizzled out and they fell to the floor, smashing on the heavy tiles that covered the kitchen. Arthur just smiled at him though, using a simple ‘Reparo’ charm on the mug so that Xander could try again.

It had been hard work, training his implants to work without the staff, but he had the basics down now, anything more complex needed the staff though, and his wand was still hit and miss with most spells, allowing him to perform some of the normal wizarding charms but others resulted in wild and unpredictable outcomes.

Congratulating himself silently he walked over to the kettle and flicked it on, opening ‘his’ jar of coffee from the window ledge above the kitchen sink and scooping some into his mug. He was amazed that the Weasley’s didn’t actually drink coffee, he’d gone without it at Hogwarts, just assuming that it wasn’t accepted for children to drink coffee at a young age, he’d then found out that it was a wizard thing, and that most houses did in fact have coffee for their morning drink. He’d bought a large jar in London, and on another trip had decided to pick up three more large jars to take to Hogwarts with him the following year.

Arthur had reminded him that he could always just ‘charm’ one drink into another, but despite living in the wizarding community now, he felt as strong as ever about doing things the old fashioned way, not relying on magic for everything. His hair had grown back over the summer, and had actually grown out longer than it had been originally. Molly had offered to cut it for him, or to charm some scissors to cut it for him, but he’d just laughed it off and gone to a barber’s in London to have it trimmed back to his now comfortable short spiky style.

“Xander, you down there?” Ron’s voice echoed from upstairs as Xander filled up his cup from the now boiled kettle and added the milk.

“Yeah,” He grinned as he shouted up to him. “Just having a coffee, you ready?” They were both planning on going to visit Hermione today, her parents had gone away for the week before Hermione was due back at Hogwarts and she was complaining about being lonely.

“Nearly,” Ron’s voice came back. “Can’t find my jumper.”

“On the back of the chair.” Xander shouted back, shaking his head at Ron’s absentmindedness. “We’ve got time, it’s only eight.”

“What?!?” Ron shouted back in disbelief. “You promised you’d let me sleep in.” Ron grumbled as he started his way down the stairs to the kitchen.

“I did,” Xander grinned back as he took another mouthful of coffee. “I didn’t wake you up; you did that all on your own.”

“Because of you,” Ron grumbled as he pulled open the fridge and retrieved a glass for his morning pumpkin juice, despite the prodding from Xander, he still couldn’t get a taste for coffee, none of the Weasley family could, though Arthur was amused and intrigued by the drink and kept stealing some to taste it, Xander had even found him licking his finger and dipping it into the jar of instant coffee to taste it one time, it wasn’t something he did again though after going through two jugs of pumpkin juice to get rid of the taste. “You’ve been waking up at seven every day, it’s the holidays, you should sleep in, that’s what they’re there for.”

“Yeah yeah,” Xander grinned, waving off the grumbling, they’d had this argument a dozen times throughout the holidays, Molly and Arthur loved the fact that Xander was always up and about first thing in the morning, it gave them someone to talk to around the house while the rest of their children were still sleeping the day away. Xander had just attributed it to some of Galen’s personality that was left over, the same reason he enjoyed reading now, he could often be found, huddled up in one of the stuffed chairs next to the fire, thick book in hand while the rest of the Weasley family went about their normal day.

“No post this morning then?” Ron asked, the same he did every morning, hoping for some word from Harry, he’d even started coming up with strange scenarios as to why Harry hadn’t written back to them.

“Some for your dad, that’s about it.” Xander said sadly, he was missing Harry too, and couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t be writing back to them. It was something that had worried him for a while but he did his best not to let it show.

“He’ll be down soon,” Ron noted, hearing the movement from upstairs as he spoke. “You got any further with your, what did you call them?”

“Postulate spells.” Xander said calmly, he’d been trying to work them all out, reading back and forth through the Technomage books and jotting down everything he thought was significant about the spells. He’d found he was actually mistaken, and that the mist spell he had performed earlier in the year wasn’t actually one of the postulate spells, going back through the books he’d managed to identify four definite postulate spells, but the others were only hinted at.

“Right, that’s them,” Ron nodded. “So you have the shield,” Ron started ticking off his fingers. “The one you won’t tell anyone about,” He carried on, oblivious to the shadow that passed over Xander’s face when he mentioned that one. “Ok, that’s two, what are the others?”

“Right,” Xander sat down at the table, ready to explain this properly to Ron again. “All my spells come from six basic spells, they are all progressions of those, or that’s how it’s explained in the books.”

“Still think that’s freaky,” Ron smirked. “Getting all your powers and knowledge from some muggle book.”

“If only,” Xander grinned and shook his head. “If I’d got the memories and knowledge as well, then I wouldn’t have to go to school to learn all this, would I?”

“Suppose not,” Ron conceded the point. “So, there’s only six? But you had seven last year.”

“I was wrong,” Xander said simply. “I thought the mist was a postulate spell, not a progression spell.” He’d been puzzled when he’d figured that out, it wasn’t as if his spells were lined up in neat rows like Galen’s were in the books, his spells were more chaotic in nature and were more based on imagination and what he thought he could accomplish, rather than how Galen knew what he could accomplish but rarely used his imagination to think outside the narrow lines of the spells he already knew. “So there’s the shield, you’ve seen that one.”

“Yeah, freaky.” Ron shuddered, remembering how he had felt when he saw that thick, black, oily skin start moving over Xander’s body last Christmas.

“Then there’s the sphere, the one I'll never use or practice.” Xander had taken to just calling it ‘The Sphere’. Galen’s name of ‘The Spell of Destruction’, always capitalized, wouldn’t go down well, it was too dramatic and if anyone came across his notes, or heard him talking about it, they might get the wrong idea about what it was or what it was capable of. He didn’t even know if it would work in this universe, the spell worked by pinching off a section of the universe inside a sphere, then collapsing into another universe, taking whatever was inside the sphere with it. It was one he swore he would never use.

Galen had been nicknamed ‘The mage who carries the secret of destruction, the secret that must never be used’, and now Xander found himself in the same predicament, only where Galen had failed and used the spell, he swore he would not; it was the one spell he would never use. Other wizards in the community had their ‘unforgivable’ spells, spells that could torture or kill with words; he had this one, a spell that was the worst thing imaginable, the one he would never use under any circumstance.

“So,” Ron carried on, braking Xander out of his thoughts, “What are the others?”

“Invisibility, that one’s the basis for all the illusion spells, the sort of beginning if you want, all the others come from that one.” Xander explained.

“Sort of like an invisibility cloak then?” Ron asked, trying to put Xander’s spells into spells he could recognize from normal magic.

“Kinda,” Xander agreed. “But without the cloak part.”

“Wicked,” Ron nodded. “What else?”

“Communication,” Xander continued. “That was a biggie for Galen to figure out, the spell for the Technomages to communicate with The Shadows, their masters.” Xander added the last, he kept forgetting that Ron didn’t know anything about the Babylon 5 universe, or any muggle sci-fi, it was weird, but explaining it out loud like this to Ron, helped him figure out new things himself. “I’m guessing that one’s going to be pretty useless here as the Shadow’s don’t exist here, or I hope they don’t anyway.” Xander shuddered, hoping that the Shadow’s didn’t exist here, he had enough problems as it was, he didn’t need eight foot tall invisible spiders running around, killing people and trying to destroy the galaxy.

“Have you tried it yet?” Ron asked, curious about any of Xander’s spells; they were so different to the ones he could do that they just spoke out, like something for him to aim for, even if he could never do the spells himself, he might be able to replicate their effects one day. Hermione thought the same and had been working on trying to translate some of Galen’s spells from the books across into wizarding spell language, so far they had had no success, but the fact they were trying made Xander feel like less of an outsider, so it was worth the effort if nothing else.

“Nah,” Xander waved it away. “The Shadow’s don’t exist here, so why bother trying to communicate with something that doesn’t exist?”

“Maybe the spell will do something different?” Ron suggested.

“Doubt it,” Xander shrugged. “Maybe when I’ve finished school here, then I'll start researching my spells more.”

“Fair enough,” Ron smiled. “Next?”

“Interfacing with technology,” Xander ticked off another finger. “I didn’t think this was a postulate spell until I read the books again, Galen uses it to communicate with alien technology, I use it to communicate with my staff or wand, it’s a pretty basic one but I think it will allow me to ‘join’ with any type of technology and use it.” Xander put air quotes around the word ‘join’; there was no other way to describe how Galen used it in the books.

“Right, so now you’ve tried two of them,” Ron nodded, keeping track of these. “What’s the last one?”

“Some sort of red beam weapon,” Xander explained, shaking his head at the memory of him using it to dust Angelus. “This one’s the weird one, I’ve used it before, but it didn’t need a spell, or an incantation, or anything really, I’m guessing it’s the basis for all my offensive spells and it’s pretty strong, but I have no idea how to use it.” He shrugged, getting up from the table and putting the kettle on to boil again for a fresh mug of coffee. “It’s not like a fireball or anything like that,” Xander muttered, closing his eyes for a second and muttering the incantation he’d been practicing. “Incendio Spheris.” He smiled as he held up his hand for Ron to see, where a fireball about the size of his mug was dancing around in his hand, ready to be used. “See, the fireballs are different for me, for you, or wizards I guess, you just aim your wand and shout the charm, then the fireball shoots out of the wand to where you were aiming, right?”

“I guess,” Ron shrugged, still not taking his eye off the fireball that was hovering a few inches above Xander’s skin.

“It’s the same if I use the ‘Incendio’ charm with my wand, or my staff, but if I concentrate I can use this one as well,” Xander smiled as he hefted the fireball up in the air and caught it again.

“It’s wicked!” Ron exclaimed, staring at the fireball as it flew into the air before Xander caught it again. “Doesn’t it burn or anything?”

“No, well, yes, it burns other things, but it doesn’t burn me,” Xander tried to explain it, magic was weird, and his form of magic was weirder than most. “I think it’s the implants, they created the fireball, so it can’t hurt me, or something like that.”

“Makes sense,” Ron nodded, finishing off his pumpkin juice. “What other spells can you do without your staff or wand?”

“Not much,” Xander confessed, staring at the fireball and wishing he’d practiced the ‘quenching spell’ more before he’d cast this one. “Fire ball, water ball, which is pretty cool, it’s like having an endless supply of water bombs.” He grinned, thinking of that practical joke aspect of that one.

“Morning Xander, Morning Ron.” Arthur’s voice echoed through the kitchen as he came down the stairs to enjoy his breakfast before work. “Xander, I’ve asked you before, no fireballs in the house.”

“Sorry,” Xander blushed; having been too caught up in his explanation about his type of magic to Ron to think about what he was going to do with the fireball now he’d conjured it.

“Outside, now,” Arthur pointed out the open window to the field where Ron had been practicing his broom flying while Xander was meditating, Ron had been doing it for hours, ever day he could be found there, practicing flying, swerving, ducking fake bludgers and just practicing for the game. He so wanted to be like Harry it was amusing, Xander was sure he’d find his own way one day, he just had to find something that was his instead of trying to be like other people.

“Right,” Xander grinned, moving to the open window and throwing the fireball as hard as he could outside, then watching as it flew over the grass and impacted the field with a solid ‘thump’ noise as dirt was thrown up in the air from the resulting impact.

“I’ve told you before how dangerous those things are,” Arthur shook his head in amusement, “Only outside alright?”

“Sorry,” Xander apologized again, nodding his head along with what Arthur was saying.

“Well, have you been practicing your illusion spells like I told you?” Arthur smiled as Xander nodded enthusiastically, jogging over to the wall where his staff was propped he picked it up and moved back to the kitchen for the test, ever since Arthur had found out about Xander’s illusion casting ability he’d been pushing him to the limits, trying to see how good his illusions really were, he was about seventy thirty on spotting them now, maybe more on a good day, but the constant practice had brought Xander’s illusions up to a whole new level. “Come on then, I haven’t got all day you know.” He smiled good naturedly to show he was only kidding, over the summer he had come to think of Xander as another one of his children, and this was his way of helping him practice his magic and control.

“Right,” Xander grinned, picking up a bottle of water that he had bought in London a few days back from the side table where it had been left. Holding it out for a few seconds he reached behind his back and concentrated for a second on the illusion, giving it form and colour exactly the same as the bottle of water in his hand. Holding that ‘spell’ in his mind, he concentrated again, placing one of his ‘platforms’ inside the illusion then shaping it to fit the illusion perfectly. After about twenty seconds of concentration he thought he was happy with the effect and brought his hands round so that everyone could see the two bottles. To his eye they looked identical, even down to the half filled water inside. “Ready?” He asked, smiling when Arthur nodded so he threw the bottle of water and the ‘illusion’ up in the air slowly towards Arthur, watching them swirl around each other until he lost track of which one was the illusion and which was real.

“Right,” Arthur smiled as he reached out and caught one of the bottles of water, happy that he’d found the right one until the other one hit the floor with a thud instead of disappearing like Xander’s illusions normally did. “Which one was it?” He asked, looking at the bottle of water in his hand and then at the one on the floor.

“Dunno,” Xander grinned before clearing the spells in his mind and laughing as the bottle of water in Arthur’s hand faded from view, leaving the one on the floor as the real bottle.

“You made it solid?” Arthur asked, amused and proud of what Xander had managed to do.

“Not really,” Xander shrugged. “I gave it a platform so it felt solid, it was still fake though.” Xander grinned, happy that today was another point to him. “I thought that would throw you off, you said on Monday that you saw the illusion pass through the light as I threw it, so if I made it solid it would look more real.”

“Good show,” Arthur smiled, picking up the bottle of water from the floor and putting it on the table. “I can see I'll have to keep my wits about you.”

“Could you do that with other stuff?” Ron asked. “Like platforms you use to fly, could you make them look like a carpet or something?”

“Probably,” Xander shrugged, not having thought about it.

“There’ll be none of that,” Arthur said sharply as he sat down at the table with his plate full of kippers for breakfast. “Flying carpets are outlawed for a reason, and I don’t fancy having to explain to the Ministry that it was only an illusion, not a real carpet.”

“Right,” Xander grinned with a nod. “No flying carpets, what about couches? Sofa’s?”

“Be gone with you,” Arthur laughed, waving them away with a smile. “Heathens, weren’t you two going to be visiting Hermione today?”

“Yeah, we’re heading off in a bit dad.” Ron smiled as Xander walked into the living room and started stroking Pixel who had taken to sleeping by the fire when she was around, though she still had an amusing habit of disappearing into Xander’s coat when she wanted her privacy, something Xander still hadn’t figured out.

“Just remember, no magic, Xander might be over age, but you are not.” Arthur pointed out. “You don’t want your mum shouting at you after hearing from the Ministry do you?”

“No dad.” Ron said softly.

“I'll even leave the staff here,” Xander said as he came back into the kitchen. “No wands, just me and Ron.”

“Why doesn’t that reassure me?” Arthur said with a chuckle and a grin that matched Xander’s. “You two are getting as bad as Fred and George, which reminds me, they’re coming back tomorrow, I’m sure you’d like someone your own age to talk to, and they’re very interested in meeting you Xander.”

“The two pranksters?” Xander asked, smiling when Ron nodded. “Great,” He grinned, thinking of the mischief they could get up to as a group. “I’ve still got to get them back for those toffee’s they left me.”

“We did warn you.” Ron laughed at the memory.

“I was blue!” Xander complained. “For a week!”

“Go,” Arthur waved with his fork that still had a bit of kipper stuck on the end. “Be gone with you; let me enjoy my breakfast in peace.”

“Come on,” Xander waved, putting his staff back against the wall where it had found a nice home. “Hermione should be up by now.”

“She’s nearly as bad as you are,” Ron grumbled. “Early morning people, you’re all crazy.”

“Whatever,” Xander waved the complaint away, pulling on his gray jumper from the chair next to the fireplace. “You first,” He nodded to the fireplace where Ron already had a handful of floo powder.

“See you there,” Ron smiled, stepping into the fireplace and bracing himself. “One fourteen Oak Street!” He shouted before throwing the floo powder on the floor by his feet and vanishing in a flash of green fire.

“So theatrical,” Xander laughed as he picked up a handful of floo powder and mimicked Ron’s shout, even going so far as to try and imitate his accent. His laughter echoed through the living room for a few seconds after the flames had engulfed him, moving him to his destination.

“Ron?” Xander asked out loud as he emerged from the fireplace, this was definitely Hermione’s house, he recognised it instantly from the pictures of her and her parents on the wall along with the framed certificate that her father received when he became a dentist. “‘Mione?”

“In here Xander.” Ron’s shout came from the kitchen to the right of the living room where the fireplace had been built, it was still quite new, only having been built in the past two or three years, since Hermione’s parents were muggles he guessed they had built it for her and her friends to use.

“Right.” Xander smiled, making his way into the kitchen where Hermione and Ron were sat at a breakfast table. “What ya want to do today then?”

“It’s Harry’s birthday today.” Hermione said simply.

“No it isn’t,” Xander argued back. “Harry’s birthday’s on the...” He paused, counting it off in his head. “It’s today.” As his dates agreed with Hermione’s he shrugged before he slumped into one of the chairs by the table and stared at them. “Right, presents then?”

“Already got mine,” Hermione said proudly, tapping the brightly wrapped present on the table.

“Guess we need to go shopping then,” Xander said, smiling at Ron who had come to the same conclusion. “Where?”

“London?” Ron said helpfully. “The joke shop in Diagon Ally would be perfect, as long as you’re with me, I won’t get into trouble for being there.”

“Right, Diagon Ally for magical gifts, then muggle London for normal gifts, you up for it ‘Mione?” Xander asked, thinking about getting Harry something he could use, something normal instead of the magical things he would be getting from the rest of his friends.

“Sure,” Hermione beamed at Xander for being invited. “Let me get my coat then we’ll go.” With that she ran off out of the kitchen and started up the stairs.

“She’s still got a crush on you,” Ron pointed out in a whisper.

“I know,” Xander muttered, resting his face in his hands as he leaned on the table. “What should I get Harry?” He asked, brushing aside the problem of Hermione’s crush for the moment and trying to figure out what Harry would like. Maybe some books, or comics, clothes? No, that was too much of a parent thing.

“He did like your Technomage books,” Ron pointed out.

“Right,” Xander smiled, snapping his fingers at the memory of catching Harry reading through the books several times over their first year at Hogwarts. “Think he’d like his own copy of them?”

“Sure,” Ron smiled. “I’m going to get him some...”

“Well I got him a book on Defence Charms,” Hermione interrupted as she came back into the kitchen, her long brown coat neatly fastened up. “And a box of chocolate mice.”

“Real mice?” Xander asked, eying the box carefully in case it started moving or squeaking.

“Just muggle chocolate mice,” Hermione smiled cheerfully. “I wonder what he’s doing today.” She mused out loud as she led Xander and Ron back into the living room and the chimney.

“You know,” Xander paused, regarding the fireplace and floo connection curiously. “Do these things go internationally?”

“No,” Hermione informed him with a smile before moving back into what Xander called her ‘lecturing mode’. “The only access to the international floo network in through the main fireplace in the Ministry of Magic, entrance is strictly regulated; all other floo gates can only travel within the United Kingdom.”

“So they can, but there’s only one in England that does?” Xander simplified it down then smiled when Hermione nodded at him. “Cool, that’ll save time for when I do go back to Sunnydale,” He’d been putting a lot of thought into that over the summer, and decided that it would be time for him to go back to Sunnydale over the next holiday, he needed to clear the air between him and Buffy, even if she hadn’t forgiven him yet, he needed to do it for his peace of mind. “Let’s go then.”

“Diagon Ally.” Hermione shouted as she threw her floo powder on the floor before she vanished in the familiar green fire.

“Go on,” Ron smiled at him, nodding to the fireplace.

“Diagon Ally.” Xander followed suit, smiling at Ron as he threw the powder on the floor and vanished.

The shopping trip was pretty successful, after a quick stop off at Gringotts for Xander to get some Wizard money, since he’d split the money he had from selling his parents house into two accounts, one in Gringotts and the other in a normal bank, he has quite happy just leaving it there until he finished school. After that they’d been round Diagon Ally a few times, Ron had picked up quite a few joke gifts for Harry and Hermione was just happy to be spending the day with Xander.

After an hour or so shopping they’d all decided to relax at the ice cream parlour for a while before making their way into muggle London so Xander could pick up the books that he had decided to get for Harry’s birthday, Ron was still excited about going into the muggle world, it was always the same with him, something new or exciting that Xander took for granted, Hermione seemed to be the link between them, having lived in both the wizarding world and the muggle world her entire life she was just as comfortable with both.

“Do you think we should call him, say happy birthday?” Hermione asked out of the blue while they were sat around the table, enjoying their caramel sundaes. “You know, so he doesn’t think we’ve forgotten?”

“I’m still trying to figure out why he hasn’t written back,” Xander said with a shrug.

“If we call him, we could ask.” Hermione added, bringing a smile to Xander’s face.

“That we could,” Xander grinned. “Good idea,” He smiled as Hermione beamed from the praise she had been given. “Get my presents for him, then we can use a pay phone and call him to wish him happy birthday.”

“Don’t you need to know his, code?” Ron said, stumbling over the last word as he tried to remember how Xander had explained muggle telephones worked.

“Number Ron, and we can get it from information, Harry lives at number four Privet Drive in Surrey,” Hermione rattled off the information.

“That’s the place we’ve been sending letters to anyway,” Xander nodded. “Harry said he was staying with his Uncle Dursley

“Yeah, don’t think he was too happy about that.” Ron added, remembering how sad Harry looked when he said he had to stay with them the entire summer.

“How far is it? You know, to Surrey from here?” Xander asked, turning to Hermione for the information as he always did.

“Thirty miles, maybe less,” Hermione said, trying to work it out in her head. She knew roughly where Surrey was, it was on the south border of London between Kent and the main city. “Harry said it was near the motorway, and that there were always planes waking him up, so I guess it’s near the airport.”

“Right,” Xander smiled, it wasn’t that far then, so a trip wasn’t out of the question. “Come on; let’s get the rest of the shopping then head back.”

“What are you thinking?” Hermione asked, finishing off her sundae before putting her coat on.

“Me?” Xander grinned at her, trying to look innocent. “Nothing.”

“Right,” Hermione nodded in disbelief. “I don’t want you getting us into any trouble.”

“Trouble just happens naturally around me,” Xander said with a shrug. “You should know that by now.”

“I do,” Hermione agreed with a smile. “But you shouldn’t go looking for it anyway.”

“I promise,” Xander smiled, holding his hand up in a Cub Scout fashion. “I will not go looking for any trouble.”

“Good,” Hermione smiled, appeased by this. “Then we can finish shopping, there are some things I want to get before we go, and London is the perfect place.” With that she smiled before leading the group off back to the Leakey Cauldron where they could get back into muggle London to finish their shopping.

“Thanks,” Xander smiled as he hung up the pay phone, grabbing the receipt for his books off the top of the payphone that he had hastily jotted down Harry’s number on. “Got it,” He grinned as he turned to where Ron and Hermione were waiting for him. Checking the time it was nearly lunch, so he figured now would be the best time for him to call and say happy birthday.

“Go on then, call him.” Ron said, happy to be able to finally talk to Harry, even if it was over a muggle telephone, it was better than nothing.

“Yes,” Hermione nodded. “I want to know why he hasn’t written to us, and wish him happy birthday of course.” Hermione blushed at the way she had worded that, but the intentions were the same.

“Alright, I'll call then you two can talk to him alright?” Xander smiled; dialling the number he had gotten from information before dropping some change into the phone box. He’d kept a few coins aside, knowing that Arthur would get a kick out of them when he gave them to him tonight, he was always on the lookout for muggle things, and was amazed by the simplest of things, like when Xander automatically bought a new light bulb for the one in Ron’s bedroom before he realized that it was a magical one and he just didn’t know how to use it. The spare light bulb was now one of Arthur’s prized possessions, which he kept in a box in his bed room along with various other ‘muggle artefacts’.

“Hello?” He said in his best voice as someone picked up the phone after a few seconds of it ringing. “Is Harry there?”

“Harry who?” A snide voice came back over the telephone.

“Harry Potter,” Xander replied cautiously. “Information gave me this number; this is 4 Privet Drive right?”

“It is,” Came the voice again, pride seeping into it as he confirmed the address. Then another voice came over the phone as it was handed over to someone else, this one sounded more like an adult. “Hello? Who is this?”

“Xander Harris,” Xander replied automatically. “Is Harry there please?” He asked politely.

“No he isn’t,” Came the sharp retort. “He’s not allowed to use the telephone.”

“Alright,” Xander drawled, not liking the sound of this at all. “Can you at least ask him to send me a message with his owl, we’re worried about him.”

“You’re one of his freaky friends from that school of his, aren’t you?” The voice replied with a dismissive tone. “He’s not allowed to use his owl to speak to you and that is that, I don’t want your freaky culture infecting our home any further than it has been already, good bye.” With that the phone was slammed down, causing Xander to pull the receiver away from his ear in pain before the dial tone echoed back on the receiver.

“Right,” Xander muttered, hanging up the phone slowly. “I think I just talked to Harry’s uncle, and from what I can tell, he’s just as bad as Harry said he was.”

“Did he say why Harry hasn’t written back?” Ron asked, cautiously as he noted the anger dancing around Xander’s eyes.

“No,” Xander said simply. “But I intend to find out.” Pausing for a second he pocketed the receipt then handed the bag with Harry’s presents in over to Ron, who took the bag and stared at them for a moment.

“Oh no you don’t,” Hermione interrupted. “You said you wouldn’t go looking for trouble.”

“I’m not,” Xander replied simply. “You two go home, I’m going to have a little chat with Harry’s uncle about being polite to people.”

“But, how are you going to get there?” Ron asked, picking up his coat and following Xander who was already walking towards the door. “You can’t apparate and there isn’t a floo gate for miles near there.”

“The old fashioned way,” Xander explained. “Train to the airport, then taxi from there.”

“Then we’re coming too.” Hermione stated simply.

“No, you aren’t.” Xander cut her off before she could argue any more. “No wands, no magic, and no trouble. You two go home, I'll meet you back at your place.” Xander nodded to Hermione.

“Just make sure he’s alright,” Ron said, not worried about breaking the rules himself if it meant checking up on Harry. “And say happy birthday from me.”

“From us,” Hermione said begrudgingly, knowing she wouldn’t be able to talk Xander out of this, she could never hold a grudge against Xander for anything anyway.

“Right, so you two will go straight back home?” Xander asked, staring at them to make sure they didn’t lie to him.

“I'll go with Hermione,” Ron said, wilting under Xander’s stare.

“Good,” Xander smiled, happy that that had been resolved. “Now, which train to Surry?” He muttered, looking around for the nearest train station and smiling when he saw Paddington Station on a street opposite them. “I'll see you later alright?” He smiled when Ron and Hermione nodded at him before he checked the road and jogged across into the train station, looking back over his shoulder once he was on the other side and smiling as he saw Hermione leading Ron back to the Leakey Cauldron. “Right, Surrey,” He muttered, wandering over to the information kiosk and wondering how to phrase this, he had Harry’s exact address, so he just needed to figure out which station was closest to it and then find the train.

“Eighteen, sixteen,” Xander counted down the houses as he walked down Privet Drive. The train ride had been surprisingly simple, only about an hour’s travel from London and about half an hour’s walk from the train station in Langley. There were a few children playing about in the street, he’d spotted a few more in the park at the start of the road where they were playing on swings and roundabouts. He’d walked through the area to see if he could spot Harry playing there, but when he asked, none of the children even knew who Harry was, they knew someone called Dudley who lived at the same address, a bit of a bully apparently, but no mention of Harry whatsoever.

“Ten, eight,” Xander continued to count as he got closer, his hands thrust into his pockets as he smiled good naturedly at the people he passed in the street and those who were tending to their gardens at the front of their houses. It seemed like a nice enough neighbourhood, something reminded him of the ‘burbs back at Sunnydale, with the houses all neatly stacked together and set out with little gardens at the front next to their drives.

“Four,” He said out loud as he came to a stop in front of the house he’d identified as Harry’s. It looked surprisingly normal, pretty much like Hermione’s, he guessed it would have, since Harry’s uncle and aunt were muggles like Hermione’s parents. No matter what he tried, all he could think about was the voice he heard over the telephone, telling him that Harry wasn’t allowed to use the telephone or his owl, that ‘he’ didn’t want magic, or Harry’s freaky friends invading ‘their’ home. Burying his anger at this prejudice for the moment he strode up the drive, ignoring the flash company car that was sat in prime view in the drive way, obviously just cleaned from the shine on it. He paused at the door, looking for a doorbell or a knocker for a moment before rapping his knuckles sharply on the door several times before stepping back and waiting for a reply.

“Yes?” The door opened after a few moments, revealing a chubby boy, maybe twelve or thirteen, he guessed about Harry’s age. The boy seemed stunned for a second to see someone at the door he didn’t know, who he instantly had to look up to see. Xander had grown a bit over the holiday’s, he was now a comfortable five foot eleven, at his meditation and exercise in helping out around The Burrow had helped him put on an extra bit of muscle that filled out his grey woollen jumper than Molly Weasley had made for him perfectly.

“I’m here to see Harry.” Xander said simply, staring down at the boy as he realized this was the first voice he had spoken to on the phone, so this must be his cousin, and putting together what the other children in the park had told him, this would be Dudley, the bully of the street with the same IQ as a dead rat and all the charm to match.

“Dad!” Dudley called out as he backed away from the door, unable to meet Xander’s gaze. “Someone’s here to see Harry!” The way he said Harry’s name was filled with disbelief, as if he couldn’t believe that someone would actually want to talk to Harry instead of him or his father.

“What?” Another voice came from further inside the house, one that Xander identified as the man he spoke to a few hours ago on the phone; so this must he Harry’s uncle. “Who’d want to see Harry?” Again, the voice dripped with disdain at even mentioning Harry’s name and Xander felt his anger grow again.

“I spoke to you on the phone,” Xander called out, ignoring Dudley for the moment who looked outraged at being talked over. “Since you said Harry wasn’t allowed to use the phone, I thought I’d come and see him in person.”

“Xander?” Harry’s voice rang out and Xander stepped back a few paces to see Harry leaning out of the window above him, a huge grin plastered on his face.

“Close that window boy!” The man shouted up the stairs as he came to the door to deal with Xander himself, he seemed astounded at Xander’s age. He was a large man, fat instead of muscle, with a large bushy moustache that covered his top lip, and from what Xander could see, the man had absolutely no neck whatsoever. “What do you want?”

“I came to see Harry,” Xander said, wondering if he was supposed to be afraid of the man’s intimidating presence, but couldn’t quite manage it as he just looked like another one of the bullies he had faced down several times in Sunnydale. Facing down a master vampire and then facing down a man like this kind of put things in perspective really. “So, are you going to invite me in, or is Harry going to come out to talk to me?”

“Neither,” The man said simply, dismissing Dudley with a wave of his hand as he got ready to slam the door in Xander’s face. “I won’t have you, or your kind,” He said snidely, distain dripping from his words as he looked Xander over. “Interfering with this family, Harry,” He spat the name, as if simply speaking it was offensive to him. “Is not due back at that school of yours for two weeks, until then he will stay in his room and there is nothing you can do about it.” With that the man slammed the door in Xander’s face and locked it shut.

Xander just stood there, a bit astounded at what had just happened, he blinked a few times as he heard several locked being bolted shut on the door before a curtain was drawn across it, blocking his view of the man inside. “That guy’s an asshole,” Xander muttered, walking back a few steps onto the front lawn and glancing up to where he could now see the man in the room Harry had shouted from, where he slammed the window shut and pulled the curtains across it. There were a few raised voices coming from the house, nothing he could make out clearly before everything went silent. “You know, I don’t think I like that guy,” Xander muttered to himself. “Harry, you alright in there?” He yelled up, waiting for minute or so he didn’t receive any response so he just shrugged and sat down on the grass so he could figure out what to do next.

“Harry?” He shouted up again after a few moments. “I’ve got nowhere else to be, so I can stay out here all day.” He shouted with a grin when he saw the man come to the main window to the left of the front door, he waved at the man with a smirk before watching as the man closed the curtains with a snarl. “Serious attitude problem,” Xander muttered. “Right, let Harry come out and talk to me, or I start invading your house with magic.” He called out as loud as he could, he figured that from the state of the garden and the shiny car that was parked on the drive, even though he could see the garage was empty, status meant everything to these people, so having a crazy man sat on their lawn, shouting about magic, wasn’t going to be something they’d put up with for long.

After a few moments he smirked as he heard the bolts being unlocked from behind the front door, the curtain was pulled back and the same man from before stepped out before slamming the door behind him. “You’ll do no such thing; I'll have none of that nonsense in my house.”

“Really?” Xander grinned, standing up from where he was sat and staring the man directly in the eyes. “And who are you? Harry’s uncle right, Mister Dursley?”

“That’s right, and you are just another one of those freaks from that school of his.” Mr Dursley spat out the word ‘freaks’ as he got right up in Xander’s face. “You will leave, now, or I’m calling the police.”

“Really?” Xander smirked. “Might want to call the fire department first.” He smiled as Mr Dursley looked confused, bringing his hand around to where the man could see it, he muttered the spell he had been practicing. “Incendio Spheris,” He then could hardly keep his laughter contained as the man looked like he was about to wet himself. “Seriously, do I look like a student?” He grinned as he walked forwards, making Mr Dursley step backwards anxiously until he was backed up against the door. “Do I look Harry’s age?”

“N... no,” Mr Dursley spluttered out as Xander waved the fireball in front of his face.

“See, I don’t even need a wand, I could burn your house down, incinerate your car into a puddle of metal, and there would be nothing you could do about it.” Xander snarled at the man, quenching his laughter down as deep as he could as he put on his best ‘game face’. “Now, are you going to invite me in so I can talk civilly with Harry, or shall I burn my way in?” To make his point he threw the fireball at the grass behind him where it impacted with a thump, throwing dirt and grass up in the air where it showered down around them and all over the nice shiny car.

“You... you can’t do that!” Mr Dursley finally stammered out, unused to being out of control like this. “The Ministry won’t let you!” He finally shouted, happy to finally have some use for those magical fools.

“And you call us thick,” Xander shook his head. “Do I have an English accent?” He smiled as Mr Dursley shook his head to the negative. “So why do you believe the Ministry would have any control over an adult magic user from the states?” He bluffed the last, unsure as to exactly what the laws were but he was willing to bet that if he didn’t know them, Mr Dursley wouldn’t either.

“I'll... I'll send him out.” Mr Dursley spluttered out after a moment’s thought.

“I'll be waiting,” Xander muttered, stepping back onto the grass as he watched Mr Dursley open the front door and storm back inside the house, slamming the door shut behind him. “What is he, twelve?” Xander muttered, the usual bully he assumed, if he can’t have it his way then it won’t happen. He was used to dealing with people like this, but the bigotry and hatred of anything magical was something new to him, he couldn’t believe people like that still existed this close to the twenty first century. “Don’t keep me waiting.” He shouted out, reminding everyone inside the house of his presence.

Finally the door opened, but instead of Harry walking out, it was the boy who had first opened the door. “You can’t talk to my father like that!” He said in a petulant tone as he stared at Xander.

“Really?” Xander said in amusement. “Let me guess, Dudley Dursley right?” He smiled as Dudley nodded with a proud smile. “Man, bet you get picked on at school, what do they call you? Dumb Dudley?” He grinned as Dudley went a deep shade of red. “Dunceley?” He grinned again as Dudley fumed.

“No one ever calls me that!” Dudley shouted as he stormed over to Xander.

“Really, that’s not what the kids in the playground said,” Xander bluffed, knowing he was finally getting somewhere. “And I’m guessing you bully Harry just as much at home because he’s not there for you to torment at school.”

“He’s a freak, why would you even want to talk to him, all you wizards are freaks.” He spat the words out with venom.

“Aguamenti Spheris,” Xander muttered as he conjured a water ball in his hand before throwing it at Dudley, who shrieked as the cold water exploded into him, soaking him head to toe. “Cool off Dunceley, I’m here to see Harry, see, Harry’s a friend of mine, and if I hear that you’ve been bullying him next year, I'll come back, and it won’t be water the next time,” He lent down so he was face to face with the dripping wet Dudley. “Believe me; I have much worse up my sleeve than a water ball, so play nice.”

As the door opened, he smiled as Harry appeared and Dudley actually waited patiently, dripping on the step for Harry to walk out of the door before he ran inside and slammed the door behind him.

“Like father like son I guess,” Xander shrugged as Harry ran over and hugged him. “Happy birthday kid,” Xander grinned as he pulled away from the hug and ruffled the young boy’s hair. “Nearly a teenager now, only another year until your thirteenth.”

“You shouldn’t have done that to Dudley,” Harry said in a mock chiding voice.

“Yeah, probably not,” Xander grinned. “But it was fun.” He laughed as Harry tried to keep a straight face. “So, not allowed to send letters, not allowed to use the phone, do they even let you outside to play?”

“No,” Harry shook his head sadly. “I haven’t been outside since I got here.”

“That’s just wrong,” Xander shook his head, staring at the main window where he could see Mr Dursley steaming at the window and glaring at him, while a woman was towel drying Dudley off further into the room. “You’re eating right though? I mean, you’re skinny as ever, if fact, I think you’ve lost weight over the summer.”

“I’m alright,” Harry shrugged it off. “I eat maybe every two days, maybe three if Dudley’s too hungry.”

“Wait,” Xander said, holding his hand out to stop Harry before he went any further. “You eat Dudley’s leftovers?” He snarled as Harry nodded.

“You mustn’t do anything though,” Harry said, seeing how angry Xander was. “You’re not allowed, you’re...” He then stopped as he realized, Xander was allowed to use magic, he was seventeen now, and of age to use magic. He still wasn’t sure how Xander’s magic worked, but the teachers had said last year that it wasn’t the same as ‘normal magic’, so he guessed that the Ministry wouldn’t be able to detect it either.

“What?” Xander asked, puzzled when Harry had broken on his rant early. “Never mind, I think me and your uncle need to have a little chat, go upstairs and fetch your things, you’re coming back to The Burrow with me.”

“But...” Harry started to argue then trailed off as he saw Xander was serious. A smile broke out across Harry’s face for a moment before he turned and ran inside the house, leaving the front door open as he ran up the stairs to pack.

“Right,” Xander cracked his knuckles imposingly as he strode inside the house, turning a sharp left as he walked through the front door and slamming it shut as he walked into the living room and came face to face with Mr Dursley, Dudley and someone who he guessed was Harry’s aunt.

“You can’t do this!” Mr Dursley shouted, striding over to pick up the phone. “I’m calling the police!”

“Shut up,” Xander dismissed the threat instantly. “Incendio Spheris,” He muttered as he conjured a fireball and launched it at the phone, where it impacted there was a small explosion which left a scorch mark on the wall and a melted pile of beige plastic with Mr Dursley holding the receiver in shock, the wire trailing down to his leg where it hung freely in the air with a small flame licking at the end. “Seriously, I think we need to have a talk about how you’ve been treating Harry.” He paused, looking around the room where Dudley was sat on the couch, shivering from either the cold water or fear, either one worked for him.

“Let me get this right,” Xander started as he strode around the room, his hands emphatically gesturing around as he walked around the couch, he nearly broke out in laughter as Mr Dursley nearly wet himself as one of his hands glided across to point at him. “You feed Harry, a good friend of mine and powerful wizard in his own right, Dunceley’s leftovers, right?”

He snarled as Mr Dursley nodded meekly.

“You don’t let him go outside, you don’t let him talk to anyone, you don’t let him send letters or use the phone,” He continued to tick things off of his fingers as he walked around the couch again before coming face to face with Mr Dursley. “Hell, I’m surprised you even let him have his own room, I half expected him to be living in a closet under the stairs or something.” He then frowned as Mr Dursley looked away from his gaze.

“I did,” Harry’s voice came from behind him where he was his suitcase beside him and was carrying his owl cage with the snowy white owl inside. “Up until last year, I lived under the stairs; Uncle Vernon only gave me Dudley’s second bedroom because Aunt Petunia asked him too.”

“Aunt Petunia?” Xander asked, coming face to face with the skinny blonde woman, who looked like a rake with a face as she nodded. “So, you gave Harry Dunceley’s second bedroom, how kind of you. I might not burn this house to the ground after all.”

“Please don’t,” Harry asked in a small voice. “Let’s just go, please?”

“You sure?” Xander asked, whirling around to face Harry. “It wouldn’t take much, few fireballs; we could be done in five minutes.”

“No,” Harry shook his head to his uncle and aunt’s amazement. “Let’s just go, I want to see Ron and Hermione again.”

“You’re call,” Xander shrugged with a grin. “They both say happy birthday by the way,” He smiled at the way Harry’s eyes lit up at that. “Hold on,” He turned back around, looking around the room. “No birthday cards, no presents, they all in your room?”

“I didn’t get any,” Harry shrugged. “I think for my tenth birthday I got a coat hanger and a pair of used socks.”

“Go and wait outside Harry,” Xander snarled without turning to face Harry. “This is going to be messy.”

“Leave it Xander,” Harry said, opening the front door. “Let’s just go.”

“You walk out that door don’t even think about coming back!” Mr Dursley shouted, seemingly oblivious to Xander’s presence until Xander shook his head, bringing the attention back to him.

“He’s staying with me now,” Xander said coldly. “Or do you want to argue with me about it?” He snarled, getting right up in the man’s face, daring him to make a move.

“Take him, good riddance,” Mr Dursley spat at him in anger.

“Come on Harry, we’ll stop in London for something to eat,” Xander smiled, ruffling Harry’s messy hair as they both walked to the door. “Seriously,” Xander called back in a warning tone as he stopped in the doorway. “Don’t bother reporting this, it just means I'll have to come back and finish the job.” With that he shut the door quietly, smiling at the stunned silence from the living room as he led Harry up the street and across the main road to the train station, both of them wearing big grins at the way the day had turned out.

“That was the best birthday present ever!” Harry exclaimed as they reached the end of the street, causing Xander to break out in loud laughter that echoed up and down the street.

“I can’t wait for you to see The Burrow,” Xander said as he watched Harry dig into his third hamburger, they’d stopped at the first fast food place they’d found in the train station in London, which happened to be a McDonalds, so Xander quite happily paid for the meals before Harry started insisting he would pay him back when they got to Gringotts. “Ron’s been worried about you, we all have, and Ginny won’t stop asking me about you.” He laughed thinking of the young redhead he’d come to see as an annoying little sister, she was fun to be around though, with a thirst for knowledge that would match Willow or Hermione, and freckles to match Ron as well.

“What’s your summer been like then?” Harry asked, in-between mouthfuls of fries and burger.

“Good,” Xander nodded as he polished off his own chocolate milkshake. “Mr and Mrs Weasley are cool, good people, I haven’t met Fred or George yet, but Percy seems cool, keeps to himself though.”

“And they won’t mind me staying until school starts again?” Harry asked, worry seeping into his voice.

“Shouldn’t do,” Xander smiled. “I'll explain to them about how the Dursley’s were treating you, though we might want to do some food shopping first, I think I’m eating them out of house and home already, two of us might be a problem.” He grinned as Harry finally noticed how much he had eaten as he polished off his last burger. “Finally sated?” He grinned as Harry blushed and nodded.

“Thank you,” Harry smiled across the table. “I meant it; this is the best birthday ever.”

“Wait until next year,” Xander grinned as he stood up from his chair and dumped the waste in the trash. “See if we can get you out to California for the summer, beach, babes, maybe we’ll finally get a tan on that pasty skin of yours.” He laughed as he led Harry out of the restaurant and they both made their way to the Leaky Cauldron. “We’ll grab a few bags of shopping, then its back to Hermione’s to fetch Ron, then back to The Burrow in time for supper.”

“Sounds good to me,” Harry smiled. “Are we catching the train there?” He asked.

“Nope,” Xander grinned. “We’ll use the floo network, easier and faster.”

“Floo network?” Harry asked in puzzlement.

“Just wait and see,” Xander grinned, happy that he was the one that would get to show Harry how to use the fireplaces, it was weird the first time but he knew Harry would trust him on using them.

“Wow!” Harry gasped as he stumbled out of the fireplace. “Ron, Hermione!” He smiled, dropping the bags of shopping he was carrying as he reached out to hug them.

“Harry, where’s Xander?” Ron asked as he looked at the food shopping that was tumbling out of the carrier bags onto the floor of Hermione’s living room.

“He’s...” Harry paused as the fireplace erupted in green flames again before Xander stepped out carrying Harry’s suitcase under one arm and his owl cage in another, “Right there.”

“Sheesh,” Xander grinned as he put the suitcase down on the floor and placed the bird cage on top of it. “You get the light bags and you drop them all over the floor, useless.” He grinned to show Harry he was only joking.

“Funny,” Harry quipped as he started packing the bags again before pushing them off to the side.

“You wouldn’t believe it,” Xander said as he started picking up the shopping with Harry while Ron and Hermione looked on in amusement. “They wouldn’t even let him outside, the Dursley’s, Hitler’s more like, feeding him his cousin’s leftovers, he wasn’t even allowed to use the phone or anything.”

“That’s terrible!” Hermione exclaimed.

“Too right,” Ron shouted. “I hope you gave them a piece of your mind.”

“He nearly burnt the house down,” Harry stated, obviously trying to keep the laughter out of his voice. “He soaked Dudley and blew up the garden.”

“You didn’t!” Hermione shouted, turning to glare at Xander.

“Wicked!” Ron laughed. “That’ll show them to treat people properly.”

“Will Harry be alright to stay at The Burrow until school starts?” Xander asked, avoiding Hermione’s gaze to look at Ron.

“Definitely,” Ron stated firmly. “As long as dad agrees that is.”

“I'll talk to him,” Xander smiled. “Besides, we got some shopping as well; to refill all the stuff I ate over the summer.”

“Good,” Ron smirked. “I swear, he’s got a dragon or something in his stomach, I don’t know where it all goes, he can eat more than my dad.”

“Hey,” Xander looked mock offended. “I’m not the one that polished off three hamburgers and two large fries for lunch.” He grinned as he watched Harry blush from the attention. “Not the usual birthday meal I'll grant you, but I think he enjoyed it.”

“Oh, happy birthday Harry.” Hermione said with a smile before she darted into the kitchen to get her present for him.

“Yeah, happy birthday mate.” Ron smiled as he picked up the parcel that he and Hermione had wrapped while Xander was fetching Harry.

“Presents?” Harry asked, astounded by the fact there were gifts for him.

“This one’s from me,” Hermione smiled as she thrust the wrapped gift into Harry’s arms.

“I haven’t wrapped mine yet,” Xander muttered as he sat down in one of Hermione’s parent’s chairs, enjoying the soft feel as he pushed his back against the cushions.

“We wrapped them,” Hermione said proudly. “I had some paper left over from mine, so we wrapped Ron’s then yours.”

“Sweet,” Xander grinned, relaxing in the chair. “I'll get it in a minute, those things are heavy.” He muttered, nodding to the suitcase and cage on the floor.

“This is all...” Harry stumbled, too amazed to say how much this all meant to him.

“Here,” Hermione picked up another present from by the fireplace. “This is from Xander.” She then watched and smiled as Harry tore into her present first.

“Wow, Defence Charms for Beginners.” Harry stared at the book in amazement before placing it on the floor beside him and picking up the box of sweets. “And chocolate mice, thank you.” He smiled over at Hermione who smiled back.

“And from Ron we have...” He laughed as her tore the wrapping paper away. “Chandler’s Chortles,” He frowned for a second before turning the box over and reading what the box contained. “One hundred and one of Chandler’s Chortles, guaranteed laughs for anyone, for age’s nine to two hundred and nine.” He laughed as he put the box aside. “Thanks Ron.”

“Anytime,” Ron laughed. “Just don’t use them on me, and stay away from the toffees, Xander can tell you about those.”

“That’s where they came from?” Xander laughed, pointing at the box. “I looked like an Oompa Loompa for a week.” He smiled as Harry and Hermione laughed at the image that Ron didn’t quite get, but he’d seen it in person so he could guess what it meant.

“That just leaves Xander’s,” Harry said with a smile as he tore the wrapping paper off of the present that had been handed to him by Ron. “The Technomage Trilogy, by Jeanne Cavelos.” He smiled over as Xander as he put the books aside for later reading. “Thank you, all of you; this is the best birthday ever.”

“Well, I caught you reading them a few times,” Xander shrugged. “Thought it’d be easier if you had your own copies.”

“Thanks,” Harry laughed over at him while Ron and Hermione leaned in to hug him.

“We’d better get all this back to The Burrow,” Xander said, looking at the time it was nearly six. “Your dad will be home from work soon, and I promised I’d show Ginny some more magic tonight.” Xander smiled as Ron nodded in agreement.

“What about Hermione, are you coming?” Harry asked as he stood up and started putting his presents into the shopping bags that had space.

“Yeah, come on ‘Mione, I think we’ve got enough food,” He grinned as even Ron nodded to that one. “Come for a meal, it’d be nice to have the gang all together for a bit over summer.”

“Alright,” Hermione beamed at Xander, happy for the invite so she could spend more time with him. “I'll get my coat.” She then jogged off up the stairs to her room.

“I take it she’s still got a crush on you,” Harry whispered at Xander while they were packing things up.

“Don’t remind me,” Xander muttered with a grin as he shook his head in amusement.

“She even has ‘Hermione 4 Xander’ scrawled on some books by her mirror,” Ron informed them. “There were some letters underneath as well, I D S and T, whatever that means.”

“Oh god, I’m doomed.” Xander muttered as he pulled his hand down his face in amusement at the situation.

“When did you see her room Ron?” Harry asked in amusement, trying to deflect the attention from Xander.

“We did the wrapping up there, she wanted to show me some of the new spells she’s been practicing, really complicated stuff, she’s way ahead of any of us this year.” Ron complained, a bit weirded out at the fact that Hermione had spent the summer practicing school work rather than relaxing and playing.

“You’re doomed.” Harry said with a grin as Hermione came down the stairs.

“Ready?” She asked in a cheerful voice.

Looking good man. I see you deleted the old summer stuff, so I take it he no longer betrothed?

nope... i couldn't get a Xander / Tonks relationship right, so i rewrote a ton of it...

M

thanks :D

M

Well I really enjoyed both versions. Good job

“Really?” Ron asked; his face a picture of amazement as Xander nodded.

“Yup,” Xander grinned around the table where everyone was sat, it was nice to have the gang together again, with Molly and Arthur Weasley sat at the head of the table, Arthur shaking his head in amusement at Xander’s story while Molly looked like she was struggling not to laugh. Percy was sat next to Arthur, his face showed that he was interested in the story but other than that he didn’t show any emotion, it reminded Xander of Oz’s stoic approach to life somewhat.

“So we were stood on stage when the curtain came up, Buffy was holding Sid the dummy in one hand and an axe in the other, I’m holding onto this guillotine cable and Willow is just staring at the demons head that is rolling across the stage, I don’t know what the audience thought we were doing but that was the last talent show we ever had to put on,” Xander smiled as Ron, Harry and Hermione burst out laughing. “Thankfully,” Xander added in a whisper while everyone was shaking their heads in amusement.

“It sounds like you had an eventful first year,” Arthur smiled as he took a mouthful of tea.

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, memories of Sunnydale, Buffy, Willow and Giles flooding back into his mind. “It was fun, if you discount all the running for our lives and demons trying to kill us every week.”

“Well, there’ll be none of that here,” Arthur smiled, banging his hand on the table. “The rest of your school years will be normal I’m sure.”

As Xander looked around the table he could see that Ron, Harry and Hermione were all as doubtful about that as he was. “I think ‘normal’ is a matter of opinion.” He grinned as he nodded to the sink in the kitchen where the dishes from their meal were already being scrubbed and dried by clothes and towels that seemingly moved on their own.

“That is normal,” Ron said with a smile, but they all knew what he meant.

“I think it’s brilliant,” Harry said with a grin, leaning back on his chair and looking around the house, he couldn’t get over it, magic was everywhere, after a boring summer with his hated Aunt and Uncle, coming to a house like this, with his friends, was like a dream come true.

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, he knew where Harry was coming from; he had been like that for the first few weeks staying here, seeing all the magic, out in the open, was just amazing.

“I can’t wait to go back to Hogwarts,” Harry said with a smile, he honestly couldn’t, to see Dumbledore and Hagrid again, to be around all that magic, to feel safe again in the ancient castle walls where the magic seemed to soak into everything, it was his favourite place in the entire world.

“Yeah,” Xander nodded with a smile. “I’m with you on that, only a month to go, speaking of Hogwarts; Ginny’s starting this year right?”

“Yes,” Molly nodded with a proud smile. “And I’d appreciate it if you could all keep an eye on her this year.”

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, he’d become pretty protective over the young girl over the summer, he’d got used to seeing her run about and asking questions about his magic and what Hogwarts was like. “Where is she anyway?”

“She had her tea in her room,” Arthur smiled knowingly. “She said she didn’t want to intrude on you and your friends, but I think she had another reason.”

“Ahh,” Xander grinned, catching on. Ginny had been talking about Harry all summer, asking when she was going to meet him, asking what he was like and what sort of things he liked, it wasn’t surprising that now he was here she was a bit nervous about meeting him. “She’ll be about later then.”

“Speaking of,” Arthur trailed off for a moment, looking around the table until his eyes fell on Harry. “Harry, might I have a word please?” He asked as he stood up from the table and brushed himself off. “You as well, Xander.” Without explaining anymore he started walking into the living room away from the table, pausing slightly at the doorway so that he could see that Harry and Xander were following him.

“Guess he reported me then,” Xander muttered with a sigh as he walked into the room and closed the old wooden door behind him so that he could get the yelling over and done with. He knew he’d done the right thing, getting Harry away from those people, he wished someone had done the same for him and his parents back in Sunnydale, things might have turned out a lot different if someone had cared enough to help him out.

“Now, I wanted to talk to you about what happened this afternoon at The Dursley’s,” Arthur started before Harry interrupted him.

“It was my fault sir,” Harry bowed his head. “I should have just asked Xander to leave it alone, is he in trouble?”

“No, no nothing of the sort,” Arthur smiled, putting the young boy at ease and puzzling Xander even more. “Now, correct me if I am wrong, but you are seventeen now, aren’t you Xander?”

“Yeah,” Xander nodded slowly, trying to figure out where this was going.

“That makes you an adult in the wizarding world, and as an adult you have certain responsibilities and, powers for lack of a better word.” Arthur continued with his explanation.

“Wait, so I’m not in trouble for the magic I used?” Xander asked, confused at the turn of this conversation.

“There was magic used?” Arthur paused; he hadn’t heard anything about that at the Ministry. “As far as I am aware there was no magic use detected in the area, but I always assumed that you’re magic is different from ours, this only confirms the fact.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Xander shrugged, he figured out during his first year that it wasn’t magic he was using, more of a futuristic technologies approximation of magic, that was why he couldn’t do some of the things that Ron, Harry and Hermione could do but he could do things that they couldn’t.

“This really does warrant further investigation,” Arthur carried on his train of thought. “Would you mind, next week, maybe Wednesday, coming into the Ministry with me to show you’re magic to some friends of mine, I believe it might help in figuring out exactly what spells you are capable of casting now, as you have shown, you can perform complex spells without the aid of a wand or your staff.”

“Well, not complex,” Xander explained. “Incendio, Aguamenti, Expelliarmus at a push, but that is unstable.”

“It’s the implants,” Harry piped up with a smile as his eyes lit up, remembering what he had read in the Technomage books. “Hold on,” With that he opened the door and darted back into the kitchen to retrieve the books that Xander had bought him for his birthday. “They need training,” Harry explained as he came back into the room.

“Yeah, I went through this with Willow, it just takes time for them to get used to me, I mean, I’ve had them nearly two years now, and I still can’t use them right.” Xander explained with a shrug, he’d gone through the books a dozen times to see if there was some way of ‘resetting’ the implants so that they could learn from him quicker. As they were designed for Galen to use, they were trained to his thought patterns, not Xander’s.

“No, no,” Harry shook his head, opening the first book and flicking through it to find the chapter with the initiation ceremony in it. “See, the implants are made from the chrysalis,” Turning to Arthur he started to explain. “The chrysalis is what the wizards use to train new wizards, like a school, or like a school hat I think, and then the implants are made out of it because it’s already trained to think like you are.”

“Makes sense,” Xander shrugged. He hadn’t actually thought about the chrysalis before, he’d always gone straight to information about the implants and spells. “So it is just a matter of retraining them then?” He asked out loud, actually happy to be able to talk about this with someone who understood it like he did.

“I think so,” Harry said before he realized that Arthur was still standing there with a confused expression on his face as he watched the conversation. “Sorry.” He smiled sheepishly.

“Quite alright, I believe I will have to read those books myself some time, muggle writing, I can’t wait.” He smiled as he moved off back into the kitchen, the earlier discussion forgotten for the moment.

“So, you’re happy with the books then?” Xander grinned as he looked over to Harry who was still flicking through the pages of the first book in the trilogy.

“I love them,” Harry smiled happily up at Xander. “Thank you,” He smiled, his eyes showing the gratitude he couldn’t put into words.

“Hey, you’re my little bro,” Xander grinned, ruffling Harry’s messy hair again.

“Get off,” Harry laughed, pulling away from Xander and moving to follow Arthur Weasley back into the kitchen to see his friends again.

It was getting late, Ginny had already gone to bed for the night as Xander, Harry, Ron and Hermione sat in the living room with Arthur and Molly Weasley, the noise of the fire crackling loudly behind them and Pixel’s purring filled the room as everyone realized how late it was. Ginny had been unusually quiet, and a lot clumsier than she normally had been over the summer Xander noted, she also seemed to be stealing glances at Harry whenever she got the chance, something Xander had been laughing at the entire night. They had been so engrossed in talking about the holidays and the upcoming school year, with Arthur and Molly giving them hints on how to pass their classes and stay out of trouble, that no one had bothered to check the time.

“Good grief, it’s nearly midnight.” Arthur exclaimed as he looked over at the old muggle clock that was perched on the mantle above the fire. It was an old thing that he’d rescued from his department, some wizard had laid an enchantment on it so it would never tick and never stop running, they were simple enchantments, nothing irreversible, but still not something that the Ministry wanted falling into muggle hands. “Hermione, would you like to stay here tonight?”

“Are you sure?” Hermione asked, really wanting to say yes immediately but too shy to jump at the opportunity.

“Of course,” Molly smiled as she stood up and stretched. “It’s far too late to be going home now, and your parents are away, so I’d feel better if you stayed the night.”

“Go on Hermione, a sleepover would be wicked!” Ron exclaimed, happy that the gang could have another day together tomorrow. “We could practice Quiddich properly tomorrow on the field, when Fred and George get home we’ll have enough for a team.”

“Yeah,” Xander and Harry nodded at the same time. “I'll just watch,” Xander grinned, he was fine with it, he couldn’t fly on brooms like the rest of them, but having a summer with Ron had brought the younger boy’s love of the game over to him, and now he couldn’t wait for school to start so that he could see his first game.

“I don’t have any clothes or my broom though,” Hermione said, trying to think round it.

“We’ve got spare ones,” Ron exclaimed. “And she could borrow some of Ginny’s clothes tomorrow, right?” He smiled, looking up and his mum and dad for their approval.

“I suppose,” Arthur nodded in agreement. “We’d have to find you some pyjamas though; I don’t think Ginny’s would fit you.”

“She can use one of my T-shirts,” Xander said with a shrug. “It’ll probably drown her,” He smiled, looking at Hermione who had grown a bit over the summer but not much. “But it’ll keep her warm.”

“Then it’s settled,” Arthur smiled, oblivious to the look of joy that shone over Hermione’s face. “You can throw some pillows on the floor if you like,” He waved around the room. “But try not to make too much noise in the night; you might wake up the ghoul.” With that he waved to the group of friends as he put his other arm around Molly and they both headed upstairs for the night.

“Xander,” Ron whispered and poked Xander for the third time, trying to wake him up as Harry leaned up on the sofa and stared out of the front window. “Xander!” Ron hissed again, poking him hard in the ribs with his wand. “Wake up!”

“Wha..?” Xander groaned as he rolled over to see Ron knelt down next to him while Hermione was peeking around one of the big chairs in the corner, obviously trying to see something out the window. “What is it?” Xander asked, rubbing his face as he tried to wake himself up.

“There’s someone outside!” Ron whispered in a frightened tone.

“Three,” Hermione whispered; “No, four.”

“Black cloaks,” Harry added. “I can’t see their faces though.” He whispered as Xander now found himself fully awake.

“Go get your dad,” Xander whispered to Ron as he pulled the blankets off of himself. He quickly looked around the room, trying to figure out where his Staff was before realizing it was in the kitchen behind them. Glancing to the door he could see it was open a bit from where Ron had crawled through to go upstairs, but not enough for him to see in and see if anyone was there. “Harry,” He whispered, “Who are they?”

“Don’t know,” Harry grimaced. “I woke up when my scar started hurting, and then I heard something outside and woke Ron and Hermione up.”

“Well I’m guessing they’re not wizard burglars,” Xander frowned at the bad joke. “Only four of them?”

“I can’t see any more,” Hermione whispered back. “They seem to be waiting for something.”

“If they’re waiting, that gives us time,” Xander muttered as he started edging backwards on his hands and knees, looking over his shoulder to the kitchen door while staying as low as possible. “Scream if they start coming closer.” He whispered as he backed into the kitchen and crawled over to get his staff once he was at the bottom of the stairs he frowned as he heard movement upstairs, then voices he realized were Ron and his parents. Grabbing his staff he quickly lowered it down to his level, careful not to make any sound as he slowly crawled back into the living room, stealing a quick glance out the kitchen window to make sure there was no one there.

His time was up though as he finally made it to the kitchen door before hearing Hermione scream from the living room, jumping up off the floor he burst through the door to see three men in black cloaks burst through the other door into the main house. “Expelliarmus!” He shouted, pointing his staff at the men as he bright white light shot out of the end of his staff, bowling the three men over as if they were empty coke cans.

“Avada Kedavra!” Another voice shouted and a bright green burst of energy shot over the three men as they were trying to get up and narrowly missed Xander before impacting into a chair and sending a plume of feathers into the air.

“Upstairs,” Xander shouted; “Now!” He barely had time to think as another curse, purple this time, flew past him as Harry and Hermione bolted for the kitchen to get upstairs. “Incendio!” He shouted, aiming the blast of fire at the men then frowning when he heard a shout, he couldn’t quite make out the words but it obviously had the intended effect as the gout of flames passed over the men harmlessly though setting several towels on fire and scorching the back door.

“Avada Kedavra!” Two voices shouted it this time, as Xander ducked he realized the curses weren’t aimed at him as they soared over head into the kitchen where he heard them impact the wooden stairs with two thumps as he could hear multiple people running back up the stairs and one person inside the kitchen.

“Relashio!” Xander shouted, aiming his staff at the men by the door as he backed up the check on the people in the kitchen. He then frowned as his staff fired out what looked to be a stream of fireworks that shot towards the men in question, making them dive to the floor. It wasn’t his intended spell but it worked none the less. He then had to dive to the floor again as two shouts of “Avada Kedavra!” came as the green energy shot over head before a different voice shouted "Crucio!"

“Those are Unforgivable’s!” Hermione’s voice shouted as Xander found himself backed against the wall of the living room with the door to the kitchen to his left where Hermione was poking her head out. “Killing curses,”

“Yeah,” Xander grimaced as another flurry of curses shot his way. “I remember.”

“Your shield!” Hermione shouted.

“Won’t protect you or the others,” Xander muttered. “Get Mister Weasley!” He frowned as Hermione ducked back into the kitchen then he heard her run up the old wooden stairs. “Umbra Protego!” He shouted, happy now that Hermione was out of harm’s way, he shivered involuntarily as the oily black shield crept over his skin, he still hated this spell, but it was the only shield he had that could stop what they were firing at him. “Expelliarmus!” He shouted again once the shield had covered his body completely, now stepping out from his hiding place and aiming his staff at the three men.

He didn’t stop this time, moving quickly forward across the room as the men ducked from his magical assault he quickly pressed the advantage, moving over to them and attacking them physically with his staff, using it as a weapon to double one over as he thrust it into his stomach with all the force he could manage before swinging round and catching another one in the head with it.

The obviously weren’t used to this sort of attack as they quickly floundered in close combat, obviously used to using their magic to get the job done instead of actually dirtying their hands with actual violence.

“Enough!” The shout came from behind him as he was about to follow through his attack with another blast of flame now that he had them occupied, spinning around he saw another one of the cloaked figured, holding Hermione by the throat with one hand, his other wand pointing the wand, pressing it into her tender flesh on her neck.

“Let her go!” Xander snarled, stepping away from the men who were now lying on the floor, obviously completely taken off guard by the physical conflict.

“Where is Harry Potter?” The man spat out, pressing the wand further into Hermione’s neck as he edged around the room, forcing Xander to do the same as they switched places.

“Why do you want him?” Xander snarled out, his eyes never leaving Hermione’s as he saw the man press his wand into her neck sharply, causing her to cry out in pain.

“That is of no concern of yours, boy!” The man spat at him.

“Let her go!” Xander shouted out, anger dripping from his words like a palpable threat in the air as he felt movement behind him as Harry, Arthur, Ron and Percy came out of the kitchen, wands drawn as they all faced the man. He nearly missed Hermione mouthing something to him that caught him by surprise, when his brain deciphered what she had said he shook his head at her, then snarled as she cried out in pain again as the man pressed his wand into her neck again.

“What do you want?” Arthur shouted as he came over to stand next to Xander. His wand flicking between the man holding Hermione and the three men who were now getting to their feet and picking up their wands from the floor where Xander had disarmed them.

Xander paused as Hermione mouthed the words to him again, her eyes showing pure fear as she winced as the man pulled her roughly back towards him by the neck while he pointed his want at Harry; “Him!”

“Now!”; Hermione shouted as she kicked the man who was holding her in the shins and broke free of his grasp, tumbling to the floor she looked up at Xander, her eye’s pleading for him to trust her as she tried to crawl towards him as quick as she could while the man seemed torn between taking his wand off Harry and aiming it at her.

Time seemed to crawl to a halt for Xander as he saw the man make up his decision and aim the wand at Hermione; he saw the hatred in the man’s features as his mouth snarled as he bit out the first syllable of the killing curse. Hermione would never survive it, she was too close for it to miss and he’d never get between them in time. Summoning up all the courage he could, he started saying the spell even before he raised his staff at the man. The spell came from his lips as a curse; all the hatred for the man he felt went into those two simple words. Two words that he swore he’d never use; the two words that could mean the end.

“Umbra Spheris!”

The man stopped in his curse, a look of almost puzzlement passed over the features that Xander could see under the skull mask. Then the room darkened, it wasn’t a normal darkness, not the same as the night outside where the stars and moon lit up the area. This darkness was complete; it surrounded the four men with a purple reddish haze as energy seemed to fill the room. The pressure surrounded Xander, almost crushing him from within until it exploded outwards, engulfing the three men as the entire room seemed to warp around them. The first man screamed something, probably a curse, but the sound was stretched, twisted as it reached them as the sphere around them became fully formed. It’s red and purple energy crackling around the room as it stopped expanding, now it had all four of them inside, their faces tinged purple and the darkness hiding their faces completely as the spell neared completion.

Then, with an almighty crack, the sphere shrank in on itself before completely disappearing, and the room seemed to snap back to normal, even became lighter than it had been before as the deadly energy dissipated back to wherever it had come from. Xander couldn’t believe he’d used it, he just stood there, looking in shock at the three pairs of smoking boots that were on the floor, the blood pooling around them as the tops of their ankles had been completely severed from their body, the cut cleaner than any blade could have made. Smoking strips of cloth lay beside them, from where bits of their cloaks had been outside of the sphere when it collapsed. Now these remains were all that was left of the attack on the Burrow.

“Xander...” Hermione whispered, standing up to see what had happened and then shrinking back from the smell of burnt flesh and the sight of the smoking feet and cloth.

“Percy, take the children upstairs.” Arthur said in shock, his eyes never leaving Xander.

“But...” Harry tried to interrupt but then stopped when he saw the look on Arthur’s face.

“Please Harry, just go upstairs with Ron and Hermione, and check on Ginny and Molly.” His tone was polite and asking but there was an undercurrent of steel in his words that showed why he was working at the Ministry, even though it might not be the most respectful of positions, it was still working for the Ministry of Magic, and that said a lot about Arthur’s inner strength.

“Harry, please.” Xander said softly, nodding when he saw Percy lead everyone upstairs until the room was empty, leaving just him and Arthur in the room with six smoking feet that were oozing blood all over the wooden floor. “I shouldn’t have used that.” He whispered softly, letting go on his staff then grimacing as it hit the floor and the sound of metal meeting wood echoed through the room.

“Was that the...” Arthur whispered out, disbelief, at the amount of power Xander had just shown, on his face as he looked at the remains of their attackers.

“The Spell of Destruction,” Xander nodded as he whispered the name. “Hermione, she must have read my notes, I don’t know how she knew it.”

“Could she...” Arthur trailed off, his face showing the fear that his words were dripping with.

“No,” Xander shook his head before he sunk to his knees, his eyes never leaving the remains across the room that were slowly cooling off, the smoke slowly whisping away from them now. “I’m the only one that can use it I think,” he added ‘thank god’ in his mind, not daring to imagine what would happen if a dark wizard got his hands on that spell.

“That’s good,” Arthur said, relief colouring his words as he walked up behind Xander and put his hand on the younger man’s shoulder. “You saved her.” He said simply. “The Ministry will want to talk to you about that spell, but since no one else can use it, I don’t think you’ll be in any trouble.”

“I killed four people.” Xander whispered out in horror.

“You did,” Arthur said. “And they would have killed us, they were using Unforgivable’s and wanted Harry, I believe they were Death Eaters.”

“Voldemort.” Xander said calmly, remembering what Harry and Ron had told him about Voldemort and his followers last year.

“Go upstairs,” Arthur said, pulling Xander to his feet. “I think you all need to rest; I'll send a message to the Ministry.”

“But...” Xander tried to interrupt, looking at the remains that had now stopped smoking completely and just stood there, like some macabre Halloween decoration.

“Go,” Arthur nodded to the kitchen behind him. “I'll take care of this.”

The rest of the week was quiet, even around The Burrow, which was extremely unusual. Everyone acted like everything was normal, but they all know everything had changed. Harry had been attacked, openly, by Death Eaters, one fact that couldn’t be ignored. Xander had used his ‘Spell of Destruction’ with devastating consequences, another fact that couldn’t be ignored. Together these two facts filled up the rooms wherever anyone was, making any sort of conversation awkward, like they were all trying their hardest not to talk about what was really on their minds.

Xander had spent the last two days out on the fields, alone, and everyone understood why. They couldn’t help it, they looked at him differently now, after what he had done, they all knew what he was capable of. They were all capable of a Killing Curse, but the spell Xander had used was something different, something much worse, and they all knew it.

Ginny barely even left her room; Hermione went home the next day and hadn’t been heard from since. Harry and Ron still tried to act like everything was normal, but when Fred and George returned they could tell that something big had happened. The Ministry had requested Xander to come and speak to them today, after Arthur had explained to them what had happened, even though they all seemed to scoff at the idea of Death Eaters attacking Harry openly like that, they were all scared after hearing what Xander had done to protect his friends and their family.

As Xander shuffled into the kitchen he could feel everyone’s eyes on him. The meeting was today at noon, it was not just past nine in the morning and he hadn’t slept a wink all night. “Morning,” Xander tried to put a cheery face on but failed miserably as he saw Arthur and Dumbledore sat at the table. “Professor, what are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you my boy,” Dumbledore smiled. “I will be at the meeting today also, I came to reassure you that nothing bad will come from this meeting; They only wish to talk to you about what happened.”

“I can show them what happened,” Xander muttered, he’d been practicing illusions even harder than before over the past few days, anything to get rid of the burning agitation that was tearing through his implants, daring him to use the spell again. He’d tried everything, fireballs, illusions, flying, everything just seemed to make the agitation worse, but he’d found he had quite a few new tricks up his sleeve after a few days of constant practice, nothing of real value, but something that could help him here.

“What do you mean?” Dumbledore asked, squinting over his half-moon glasses as he stared at Xander.

Xander concentrated for a second, holding his staff in one hand, he rarely went anywhere without it now, it was always within arm’s reach, he even slept with it in the bed with him now. Opening his other hand he concentrated on the memory, pulling up the image of the man holding Hermione by the throat and then forcing his implants to recreate the image. There was a small puff of smoke in his hand before a little fireball erupted, leaving behind the image of the man holding Hermione, exactly as it had been three nights ago. The image was a little translucent, not perfect but it was good enough to see exactly what was happening. There was no sound though, that was something that Xander was still working on, he couldn’t figure out how to give his illusions the voices they needed to be perfect, but for the moment, this was good enough.

“Amazing my boy,” Dumbledore smiled as he watched the scene play out, then his eyes darkened as he saw the image of the Spell of Destruction being cast before Xander closed his hand and the image disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. “Well, as I said, they don’t mean to expel you,” Dumbledore smiled as Xander let out a sigh of relief, that had been his biggest fear, not being allowed back to Hogwarts. “But you must promise me, you will never use that spell again.”

“I promise!” Xander practically shouted; the conviction in his voice evident for all to hear. He’d already made that promise to himself a thousand times over, if he could erase the knowledge of that spell from his mind somehow, he would do it in a heartbeat.

“Good, good,” Dumbledore smiled. “You should get ready, it does take some time to navigate the Ministry corridors during the lunch hour, and you wouldn’t want to be late now, would you?”

“Yeah, right,” Xander smiled, feeling a bit better than he had been before. “Wait, what should I wear?”

“Your Hogwarts uniform should do the trick,” Arthur smiled. “Remind them that you’re a student and you want to learn, that’s always a good idea when dealing with the Ministry.”

“Yeah, good plan, thanks.” Xander nodded before running back up the stairs, his morning coffee forgotten.

“Nervous?” Arthur asked as they walked into the living room with Dumbledore, ready to use the Floo Network to go directly into the ministry. They’d spent the morning preparing Xander for the sorts of questions he might be asked and how he should best answer them.

“Yeah,” Xander nodded.

“Don’t be my boy,” Dumbledore smiled reassuringly at him. “It will all work out for the best, you’ll see.”

“Professor Dumbledore’s right Xander,” Arthur smiled at him. “They just want to talk, that’s all.”

“Yeah,” Xander nodded, not really reassured by this. “Talking to the guys that run the magic for the entire country, no big deal,” He tried to joke but the laughter died in his throat as they reached the fireplace where the Floo powder was.

“You first Albus, then Xander and I'll follow.” Arthur smiled as Dumbledore nodded before taking a handful of the powder and stating his destination clearly and then vanishing in a blast of green flames.

“Go on,” Arthur nodded as Xander hesitated by the fireplace.

“The Atrium!” Xander shouted as Dumbledore had before throwing the Floo powder on the floor and vanishing.

“Wow,” Xander had to breathe in as he stepped out of the Floo gate on the other side where Professor Dumbledore was waiting for him. “That’s cool.” He grinned, looking around the hall they were stood in.

There was dozens of chimneys lined up and down the hallway; each of them seemed to have a queue of people waiting to use them. The floor was a dark polished wood and the walls and ceiling were tiled in a dark aquamarine colour, the entire hall was finished off with gold statues that were tasteful, not gaudy as he would have expected gold to look. The entire hall spoke of power and majesty in an almost palpable presence.

“I remember my first time in these halls,” Arthur smiled as he stepped out of the floo gate. “I’d never seen anything like them.” He smiled again, obviously thinking back to the memory.

“What...” Xander trailed off as what looked like a dozen paper airplanes flew overhead before making impossible turns in formation and heading down a different corridor. Around him he could see every manner of magical creature, witches and wizards were walking the halls, talking to goblins and other magical beings he hadn’t even seen before.

“Come,” Dumbledore smiled, leading the way off to one side. “We mustn’t be late; the Ministry doesn’t take tardiness well.”

“Sounds like my old principal,” Xander muttered as he took off down the halls, following Professor Dumbledore to the elevator that would take them to their meeting.

“Level nine.” Arthur said out loud as he closed the door on the elevator that had emptied for them. “Now remember, be polite and just answer any questions they ask.” He smiled reassuringly again but all this served was to make Xander even more nervous.

“Sure,” Xander did his best to smile while his hands played up and down at staff. “Nothing to worry about,” He muttered, taking deep breaths as he watched the walls go flying by in every direction from behind the bars of the elevator. He then had to smile as Dumbledore placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, that simple gesture doing more to reassure him than any of Arthur’s phrases could.

“Here we are,” Arthur smiled as the elevator came to a halt and he opened the cage door. “I'll be waiting here,” He nodded to a waiting area by the side of the elevator door that had several couches and some books to read.

“Wait, you’re not coming in?” Xander asked; the panic flooding back to him now.

“I can’t,” Arthur said sadly. “The meeting is between you, Professor Dumbledore and Minister Fudge.” He smiled as he took a seat on the couch and watched as Professor Dumbledore led Xander away to the room that had been set aside for their meeting.

“Not what I expected,” Xander muttered as Dumbledore held the door open for him. First they’d had to go to this weird room where the doors span around the room too fast to see, it had been making him dizzy until Dumbledore had reached out and opened the correct door. Now he found himself in what looked to be a modern office room, it had a simply furnished table in the center with three comfortable looking chairs, in the middle of the table was an ornate glass jug filled with what looked like water, three goblets surrounded it, each in front of their respective chairs. “Not what I expected at all.” Xander mumbled as Dumbledore smiled at him before moving over and sitting on one of the chairs and holding out his arm, motioning for Xander to do the same.

“Cornelius will be with us shortly,” Dumbledore smiled as he poured the water out into two of the goblets and handed one to Xander.

“What is this place?” Xander asked, looking around as he took a mouthful of the water. It didn’t seem to fit in with anything he had seen in the wizard world before, aside from the goblets they were drinking out of, the room would fit perfectly in with a modern office block.

“This is a,” Dumbledore paused as he searched for the right words. “Room of requirement,” He finally said with a smile. “It is always here and always takes the form of what you need most, I believe this room seems to blend our ways with your ways nicely, and it is comfortable.” Dumbledore added the last with a smile as the door opened again and someone stepped through.

“Albus,” The man smiled, he was short, maybe a foot or so shorter than Xander, with short gray hair that went well with the grey moustache. It was his clothes that drew Xander’s eye, instead of the normal wizarding robes underneath his black dress robe; he had on a dark grey three piece suit with a dark green tie the matched with the old fashioned hat he was holding in one hand with a stack of papers in the other.

“Cornelius,” Dumbledore smiled as he stood up and moved to shake the man’s hand. “This is Alexander Harris,” Dumbledore shook his head in amusement as he remembered Xander’s preferred name. “He prefers Xander though.”

“Xander?” Cornelius nodded as he reached over and shook Xander’s hand firmly. “Arthur has told me a lot about you.”

“All lies,” Xander joked, then forced a laugh as neither Dumbledore nor Cornelius found his sense of humour. “Right,” He muttered, berating himself mentally for looking like a fool in front of the Minister of Magic.

“Arthur has explained to me about the spell you used, so please, allow me to be frank with you.” Cornelius started as he moved to sit down opposite Xander. “The curse you used has significant potential to be abused, in the wrong hands it could be a very dangerous weapon indeed.”

“It can’t be,” Xander said firmly. “No one else can cast it, I’m sure of it.”

“You’re sure?” Cornelius asked, his tone sounded to Xander as if it was merely curious but with a hint of disappointment buried in there.

“Sure,” Xander said firmly. “The spell,” He paused, taking his hand away from his staff so he wouldn’t cast it accidentally. “The spell is Umbra Spheris,” He took a deep breath, as that was the first time he’d said those words since that evening. “You can try it if you want, but nothing will happen.”

“I believe Mister Harris,” Dumbledore said, bowing his head slightly. “His spells are quite different from our own, as we can do things that he cannot, I believe the reverse is true with this spell.”

“Well, you don’t mind if I test it, do you?” He asked, turning to Xander as he brandished his own wand.

“Go ahead,” Xander muttered, steeling himself in case Cornelius did actually manage to cast the spell.

“Umbra Spheris!” Cornelius shouted, pointing his wand at the corner of the room. Everyone waited for a moment, holding their breath as Cornelius tried again. “Umbra Spheris!” When it became apparent that nothing was happening, Xander let out his breath in a whoosh of air as he finally relaxed. He’d been sure that no one else could use the Spell of Destruction, but to have it confirmed was a weight off his shoulders.

Xander wanted to say ‘told you so’, but his brain was telling him to keep quiet, there was something about Cornelius that bugged him, it was probably nerves he thought, just because he’s meeting the most powerful man in the magical community, that had to be it.

“Very well,” Cornelius said, putting his wand away as he sat down. “Now, the problem remains that you can cast this spell, and it could be a dangerous weapon if you ever lost your temper.”

“I'll never cast it again.” Xander forcibly interrupted Cornelius. “I promised Arthur, I promised Professor Dumbledore and I promised myself, I will never cast that spell again.”

“Yes, and that is all well and good, but it shows how much potential you really have,” Cornelius actually smiled at him for the first time in the meeting. “It is my understanding that you are due to start your second year at Hogwarts soon.”

“Yes sir,” Xander nodded, wiping his hands on his robes to get rid of the sweaty, sticky palms from the nervous sweat.

“And you plan to complete your education at Hogwarts before returning to,” Cornelius paused, glancing down at his papers. “My word, The Hellmouth, you come from Sunnydale?”

“Yes sir,” Xander nodded again, not surprised that the Minister had access to that sort of information.

“Well then, I believe that your education in the magical arts is more important than ever,” Cornelius paused, taking out a piece of paper and laying it on the desk in front of Xander. “If you agree, I would like you to sign this agreement saying that you will complete your full education at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore will of course sign it as well and will be acting as you’re, well, advisor shall I say.”

“Professor?” Xander asked, turning to Dumbledore who nodded with a smile.

“You will be safe,” Dumbledore nodded. “The agreement is between you and the school, stating that you are there to learn under the Minister of Magic’s consent, after that, no one can remove you from the school without mine and the Minister’s signatures.”

“But if I want to leave...” Xander trailed off, it didn’t seem likely, but he had to ask.

“Then you shall be free to leave at any time,” Dumbledore smiled. “This is just a precaution in case someone attempts to remove you from the school against your wishes, I do not believe it would ever happen, but it is best to be prepared is it not?”

“Yeah,” Xander nodded in agreement, staring at the parchment in front of him.

“Also, I believe you are staying with the Weasley’s at the moment, correct?” Cornelius asked, watching Xander carefully for his response. “As is Mister Potter?”

“Yes,” Xander nodded, not taking his eyes off the parchment.

“Also, I received word that Mister Potter left his place at the Dursley’s unexpectedly, might I assume that you had something to do with that?” Cornelius asked, now watching Xander’s eyes as closely as he could.

Here it comes, Xander thought. He’d nearly got away with it, but here was the punishment. “Yeah,” Xander nodded slowly. “But they were torturing him, well, not torturing, abusing. They fed him scraps off his cousin’s plate, sometimes he went days without eating. He wasn’t allowed outside, or to use the telephone or owl...” Xander trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

“I see,” Cornelius said in a thoughtful tone of voice. “While that will be taken into consideration, there are, events that have been put in motion by Mister Potter leaving the Dursley’s early.” He paused, looking to Dumbledore who shook his head nearly imperceivably. “But that is something I will have to discuss with Professor Dumbledore at a later date.” He shuffled his papers before standing up sharply, nodding when Xander did the same even though Xander towered over the older man. “Please, look over the agreement but it must be returned to Professor Dumbledore before you start the new school year.”

“Right,” Xander nodded, smiling at the minister who nodded in response.

“Albus, might I have a word in private?” Cornelius asked as he made his way to the door.

“Yes, of course,” Dumbledore smiled, patting Xander on the shoulder. “Go back to the Burrow with Arthur; I shall see you when school begins anew.” With that he moved to the door and opened it, motioning for Xander to leave them.

“Right, yeah,” Xander smiled. Picking up the parchment along with his staff, his mind racing as he tried to keep track of the discussion he’d just had and what sense, if any it actually made to him. “Thanks,” He smiled at the Minister before turning to Dumbledore. “Thanks Professor.”

“Anytime my boy,” Dumbledore smiled. “I shall see you soon, and I look forward to see Genevra at the sorting ceremony, it will be nice to have another Weasley in the great hall.” With that he smiled as he motioned to the door and smiled when Xander walked out, closing the door behind him.

“Ok,” Xander shook his head as he found himself out in the dark corridor again. Looking down it he could see the waiting area where Arthur would be waiting for him, ignoring the weirdness for the moment, as it had become as much part of his life as anything could have, he just shrugged it off and walked down to meet Arthur and explain how the meeting had gone, even though he was still trying to put it together in his mind.

“Are you alright?” Arthur Weasley asked as Xander stepped out of the Floo gate a few seconds after he did. Xander had barely said a word on their trip back to the Leakey Cauldron, something that was becoming more and more worrying as Xander seemed to retreat in on himself.

“Huh?” Xander pulled himself away from his thoughts and put on his best smile for Arthur, nodding slowly. “Yeah, just a bit stunned, guess I’m just trying to put it all together.”

“Understandable,” Arthur nodded, returning the smile. “Why don’t I put on a spot of tea and you can tell me all about it?”

“Thanks,” Xander smiled, pulling off his robes and tie. While it did feel good to be back in the school uniform, the robes just weren’t him, he guessed they never would be. Pulling the Gryffindor jumper over his head he dropped it on the couch along with his tie and robes before untucking his shirt and feeling a bit more like his old self. “I guess it’s finally starting to hit home, I mean, what I did.”

“They would have done the same to you,” Arthur’s voice came from the kitchen as Xander pulled on his grey woollen jumper than Molly had knitted for him, ever since she had given it to him it had become his favourite jumper, it was warm and fit him perfectly, and it reminded him that these people actually did care about him.

“I know, I just wish...” Xander paused as he made his way to the kitchen and placed his staff on the table in front of him before sitting down. “I’m not sorry they’re dead,” He paused again, knowing how that must sound. “They would have killed me and you and everyone else, I just wish I hadn’t used that spell.”

“Ah,” Arthur nodded, finally seeing where Xander was coming from. It wasn’t the fact that he had killed, Xander was very practical, he’d found that over the summer to be one of Xander’s more admirable traits. He saw the world in shades of grey and wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty if it meant saving good people.

“They’re not dead you know,” Xander said quietly. “The spell, it didn’t kill them.”

“What?” Arthur turned, lowering his wand from where it was pointed at the worktop. “I thought you said it killed them?”

“No,” Xander shook his head softly. “Anything in the sphere, anything caught in the spell in pinched off to somewhere else.” Xander tried to put what he knew about the spell into magical terms Arthur would understand. “They’re in another universe, or a pocket universe, I’m not sure which, or if there’s a difference, but wherever they are, it’s not a nice place.” Xander shuddered as he remembered what was said in the books about the spell, it was never actually explained where things caught in the sphere went to, but even the Council of Five, the ruling body of the Technomages, had thought it wasn’t a nice place, if it was a place at all.

“So, you’re not upset about doing what you had to, but you’re upset you had to resort to your spell to do it.” Arthur said, sitting down opposite Xander and placing a cup of tea in front of him before taking a sip of his own.

“I knew it would happen,” Xander said simply, trying to organize his thoughts as he spoke to Arthur. “It happened to Galen, as soon as he cast the spell; the implants want to cast it again. It’s like they’re alive, well they are, I guess, but they want chaos and destruction. It’s like my emotions are feeding the implants, which doubles back to me and feeds them more.” He paused, taking a mouthful of the cup of tea before sighing and sinking into the chair. “That’s why Technomages’ don’t get on together, it’s always anger and fighting, it’s the implants, they’re designed for chaos and fighting, it’s what they were built for.”

“You can fight it,” Arthur said simply, reaching over and placing a hand on Xander’s arm. “You’re stronger than you know; I believe you can fight it, just as you have been doing.”

“The meditation helps.” Xander admitted with a smile. “If I can cast enough smaller spells, it helps quiet the implants so I can think, then I just try to keep my head empty while keeping the spells going.”

“Something I’ve been meaning to ask,” Arthur smiled as Xander looked at him, curious what question Arthur had been pondering. “How do you cast spells?”

“Same way as you,” Xander smiled lopsidedly as he pulled out his wand from his pocket. In a vague imitation of his goblin teacher for levitation last year he waved his wand about in the practiced manner. “A swish and a flick.”

“But without the wand, or the staff, when you use your implants, how do you visualise it?” Arthur paused, hoping he’d got the words right.

“I imagine it,” Xander smiled. “I just imagine what I want to do, and then say the incantation and it happens. Sometimes it’s hard, but it’s getting easier with practice.”

“Do all techmages do it like that?” Arthur asked, not realized he’d got the word wrong.

“No,” Xander laughed, ignoring the mangled word, after three months in the Weasley household, he’d reached a level where he could decode rudimentary Arthur speak. “Galen used science equations; Fed used dots and lines in his head, Isabelle...” He frowned, thinking about Isabelle in the books. She had died because Galen hadn’t used the Spell of Destruction to save her, Xander wasn’t in that position, he hadn’t hesitated. Somehow that made him feel better. He was different to Galen, all this time he’d been concentrating on their similarities, but they were different, very different. “Isabelle used hand gestures.” He smiled, for the first time since that night; he smiled and let the relief rush through him. “Hold on,” He smiled, pausing for a second as he let go of the staff and ran up the stairs, feeling a lot lighter than he had in a long time as he pulled the first book of the Technomage Trilogy off the shelf in Ron’s room and ran back down the stairs. “Here,” He smiled, placing it on the table in front of Arthur. “Read it, I think you’ll enjoy it.” With that he smiled, finishing off his cup of tea before putting the mug in the sink and smiling as he looked out the window to see Harry and Ron with Fred and George, flying high on their broomsticks above the field opposite The Burrow.

“I think they’ll be happy to see you,” Arthur smiled, looking over at Xander to see what he was looking at.

“Yeah, I’m feeling more myself now,” He grinned, grabbing his staff from the table and jogging towards the door. “Thank you,” He said with a smile and a nod towards Arthur before he ran out the door and jogged over to the field. As he jumped over the small stone wall that separated the fields he stopped, looking up to see the four boys swooping around over head on their broomsticks, over in the corner of the field was another broom stick, obviously meant for Hermione if she came over along with several jumpers and a small bowl of fruit. Concentrating on the broom for a minute he created an illusion of one next to him, making sure it looked exactly like the one leaning up against the wall.

“Perfect,” He grinned, kneeling down next to it and placing his staff on top of the pile of jumpers before turning back to the illusion and closing his eyes as he concentrated, putting a flying platform inside of the illusion and shaping it so it was the perfect size before he linked the two ‘spells’ in his mind, as he had done with the bottle and the platform. It was harder doing it without his staff, it required more concentration to get the desired effect but he was finally happy with it when he picked it up and mounted it, laughing quietly to himself before directing the platform to take off into the air, carrying him with it as he soared up to where Ron and Harry were throwing balls to each other while Fred and George tried to intercept them.

“Xander!” Harry shouted as he was the first one to spot him. Nearly falling off his broom from the shock of seeing Xander ride a broom up to where they were playing. “How are you... I thought you couldn’t use a broom.”

“I improvised,” Xander grinned over as Ron, Fred and George flew over and came to a stop beside him.

“So how was it?” Ron asked. “The meeting I mean.”

“Alright,” Xander nodded with a smile. “There are some things for Dumbledore to sort out, but it went alright.”

“That’s not one of our brooms.” Fred said, pointing to the one that was still propped up by the wall. “So how...”

“Are you doing that?” George finished off.

“Magic,” Xander grinned as he moved off away from them and held out his hand to catch the ball Harry threw at him before pocketing it. “So, practicing flying then?” He laughed as they all nodded. “How about avoiding things?” He smiled, remembering what Ron had told him about the Bludger balls and how you had to constantly avoid them to keep from being knocked off your broom.

“We can’t use real balls,” Fred explained.

“In case they get loose and go over the village,” George finished off with a nod over to the small village that was just beyond the trees. “So we just try and intercept...”

“Each other’s balls, the most interceptions win.” Fred finished off for his brother this time.

“Aguamenti Spheris,” Xander muttered as he hefted his hand that now carried a water ball in it. Keeping one hand around the ‘broom platform’ so he wouldn’t lose his balance, but he was quite comfortable up here, it was a strange feeling, flying this high up and knowing if he lost his balance he could just stretch out the platform so he didn’t fall. As Fred and George eyed the shining ball of water in Xander’s hand they both grinned.

“Brilliant,” Fred laughed as Xander threw the ball at him which he quickly ducked, swerving round on his broom so he was upside down one minute before righting himself.

“Oh no!” Harry laughed as Xander turned to him, conjuring another water ball. “No way are you catching me.” Harry laughed before taking off across the field as fast as he could.

“Tag, you’re it.” Xander laughed as he turned to Ron and launched the water ball at him, missing narrowly as Ron shot up in the air a few feet.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” Ron laughed as he came to a stop in the air about ten feet further up from where he started.

“I guess you’re all pretty agile on those things,” Xander nodded to the brooms they were all riding before concentrating and stretching the platform out and dissolving the illusion of the broom as he stood up on the platform.

“That’s...” Fred started.

“Weird.” George finished off as they stared at Xander who was just standing there, hanging in mid air without anything to support him.

“I’m faster like this,” Xander grinned. Holding out both hands, more comfortable now he was standing up on something solid he conjured two water balls, one in each hand. “And I get my practice in as well, while helping you duck things.” He grinned as he launched the two balls of water at Fred, who managed to avoid one before the second hit him in the back, soaking him through.

“That’s freezing,” Fred shouted, shuddering.

“Don’t get hit then.” Xander laughed as he conjured another two before launching them at George before taking off towards Harry, conjuring another two as he moved through the air.

The sounds of laughter and shrieking soon filled the air over the field as everyone unwound, the events of the week so far forgotten for the minute as Fred, George, Ron and Harry ducked and swerved in the air, trying to avoid Xander’s water balls that were flying through the air with surprising Agility.

“Come on,” Xander grinned over at Ginny as they loaded their luggage on board the Hogwarts Express. The day had finally come for them all to go back to school, and Xander never thought he’d say this, but it was the most exciting time of the year. “There’s plenty of room.” He smiled, remembering his first trip on the train where he was comfortable stretched out in the carriage with Ron, Hermione and Harry all sharing the other side.

“But...” Ginny started to object, she had got a lot more comfortable with Harry over the last month or so where he had been staying at The Burrow, but spending the long trip to Hogwarts in a train cabin with him was still a nerve racking thought.

“No buts,” Xander grinned, if he could get Hermione to think more about the budding romance between Harry and Ginny, that might give her a ‘pet project’ to take her mind off him. “Go on, get on board the train, I'll get these away.” He smiled, taking the suitcase off her and pushing it into the luggage cart where Arthur was doing the same for Ron’s.

“Take care of her, won’t you?” Arthur said with a smile as he watched Ginny board the train with Hermione, Ron and Harry.

“You got it,” Xander smiled with a nod. Ginny had become like a little sister to him now, bugging him with questions about Hogwarts and Harry while answering his own questions when Ron wasn’t around about growing up in the magical world. “It’s going to be a nice quiet year, I can feel it.” He smiled as he pushed his own luggage into the cart.

“I hope so,” Arthur smiled, patting him on the shoulder. “Well, good luck, and write. You know how fond Molly is of you, she’d love to hear from you from time to time.”

“I will,” Xander smiled over the platform to where Molly was waving through a window to where Fred and George were sat with their friends before moving further down the train to see where Ron and Ginny were sat.

“Well, you’d better get on board,” Arthur smiled, looking at the clock on the station wall as the conductor came around and started fastening down the luggage cart.

“Yeah,” Xander nodded as he walked over to the carriage entrance where Harry and the others has boarded, carrying his staff in one hand he quickly patted down his coat, making sure he had his wand and enough money to see him through the trip. He had kept his rucksack separate, which had his laptop in it with a few CD’s and books for the journey, just in case he wanted some quiet time while the rest of the group were talking about other things. “Take care,” He smiled, shaking Arthur’s hand with a smile as he stopped at the steps.

“And you my boy,” Arthur smiled back, shaking his hand briskly. “Try and keep them out of trouble this year, alright?”

“I'll do my best,” Xander laughed. “I don’t really go looking for trouble...”

“Trouble just finds you,” Arthur finished off the sentence with a laugh, he’d heard Xander state it enough times and it seemed to really fit the young man. “Go on,” He smiled, nodding towards the carriage window where he could see Ron and Ginny waving to Molly.

The class was as boring as ever as Xander and Hermione propped themselves up on their desk, listening to Professor Binns drone on and on, reading directly from the textbook, no imagination. He barely even looked at the class half the time; he just floated around the front of the class, being a ghost he occasionally floated through desks or the chalkboard as well, while he droned on about the facts of magic.

Magic had never seemed so dull to Xander.

The lecture had been going on for about an hour and Xander was seriously considering breaking his own fingers so he would have to go and see the nurse, just so he could get out of this lesson, he was spared however when Hermione actually put her hand in the air to ask a question. "Miss... Err?"

"Granger,” Hermione answered with a smile. “What exactly is the Chamber of Secrets?" Hermione asked, actually grabbing Xander’s attention for the first time this year with her question.

Everyone in the classroom obviously thought the same as the entire class turned to stare at Hermione as if she’d grown another head or something, it wasn’t that they didn’t want to know, ever since the incident with Filch’s cat last week people had been avoiding Xander like the plague, even going so far as to run away from him in the corridors.

"My subject is History of Magic," he Professor Binns stated firmly. "I deal with facts, not nonsense like the legend of the Chamber of Secrets." He coughed lightly before continuing on with his lecture about some ancient wizard who first invented some charm or other.

“Nice try,” Xander grinned to Hermione. “Just look it up in the library or something if you want to know.”

“I can’t, all the books have been taken out, everyone wants to know about the Chamber.” Hermione whispered back before she put her hand in the air again. "Don't legends always have a basis in fact, sir?"

"Well Yes, I suppose you could say that," He looked at Hermione now in interest as Xander shrugged. "The legend of the Chamber is a sensational tale though; I doubt it even has one word of truth in it..." He tried to trail off but everyone was now watching him. "Oh, all right," He smiled, happy to see the students actually paying attention in his class for once.

"The Chamber of Secrets... Well, you all know that Hogwarts was founded by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age, Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin."

“Huh, so that’s where the house names come from,” Xander smiled, jotting that down on his bit of parchment, that was actually useful information, those guys must have been powerful magic users to have founded the school on their own.

“But after a while a rift began to grow between Slytherin and the others,” Professor Binns continued, oblivious to Xander’s musings. “Slytherin wished to be more selective about the students admitted to Hogwarts. He believed that magical learning should be kept within all-magic families, and there was a serious argument on the subject between Slytherin and Gryffindor, and Slytherin left the school."

“Whoah, so Gryffindors’ and Slytherins’ never got along then,” Xander whispered to Hermione who shook her head vigorously. “Wonder if it’s some sort of curse on the houses,” Xander mused, trying to figure it out while Professor Binns continued.

"The story goes that Slytherin had built a hidden chamber in the castle; according to the legend no one would be able to open the Chamber of Secrets until Slytherin’s true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic."

“And I’m guessing that means muggle born,” Xander muttered, sighing when Hermione confirmed it for him. “You know, all I wanted was a quiet school year, finish my exams, have some fun, you know, the usual?”

“This is the usual here,” Hermione smiled at him. “Don’t you remember our first year?”

“What, homicidal professor, stone of immortality, all that, no completely forgot.” Xander grinned as Hermione stifled her laughter as Professor Binns carried on.

"Naturally, the school has been searched many, many times by the most powerful witches and wizards. It does not exist. A tale told to frighten the gullible."

“Works for me,” Xander smiled, if it was just a myth then maybe they would actually get the quiet school year he had been after but Hermione's hand was back in the air ready for her to ask another question.

"Sir - what exactly do you mean by the `horror within' the Chamber?"

"That is believed to be some sort of monster, one that only the true heir of Slytherin can control," Professor Binns explained, causing the entire class to go silent and look at each other wide eyed.

“But it’s all nonsense, a myth I tell you,” Professor Binns stated firmly "There is no Chamber and no monster, it is all just a myth."

“Maybe you are mythtaken?” Xander grinned as Hermione groaned at him.

“That was terrible, even for you.” Hermione muttered as she rolled her eyes at Xander’s joke.

“Hey, that was class A Xander humour,” Xander grinned as the Professor had gone back to teaching his usual class, the myth of the Chamber of Secrets now on everyone’s mind as people were trying to jot down everything that he had said.

For the next few days the entire school was settling into a subdued state, no one dared even roam the corridors after sunset and everyone was sticking with the largest groups they could in an effort to stay together. No one knew exactly what had happened to Professor Flitwick, and Xander was remaining tight-lipped about that night, even to Ron, Harry and Hermione, who kept asking him questions.

Classes had settled back down though, with Professor McGonagall taking over the charms lessons for the moment and, much to the Ravenclaw house student’s disappointment, Professor Lockhart had taken over as their head of house until the end of the year. After two weeks, and no further attacks, the school was settling back into a moderately normal routine, with Quiddich and Duelling clubs reinstated; and to resume the following week, while Xander, Hermione, Harry and Ron were getting closer to actually perfecting their polyjuice potion in the privacy of their room.

“How do you think the match is going?” Hermione asked, looking out the window for the third time and trying to see the Quiddich pitch on the far side of the school grounds.

“Dunno,” Xander shook his head as he concentrated on adding the bits to the potion before stirring it four times clockwise, as specified in the book. “Slytherin still has those fancy brooms, but we’ve got better players, could go either way.”

They’d decided that during matches was the best time to do the potion, after Professor Snape had come to ask them about ‘mysterious smells’ coming from their room, and Xander covered it up saying he was trying some small spells out. Now they were even more careful, keeping the window wide open to allow air to flow freely around the room while they took their time over the potion.

“Are you coming to duelling club tonight?” Hermione asked, pretty much out of the blue as she sat on Xander’s bed and watched him add the last few touches to the potion for today.

“Don’t think I’d be welcome,” Xander laughed, remembering how their last, and only so far, duelling club meeting had gone. “Something tells me Lockhart isn’t going to forget that.” He knew that for a fact, Lockhart had done everything he could to make Xander’s Dark Art’s classes unbearable for him, asking him questions that he knew he couldn’t answer and trying to humiliate him in front of the class.

“Well you did drench him in front of the entire school,” Hermione stated in a tone that was as neutral as she could make it. “He’ll forget it sooner or later though.”

“Maybe,” Xander shrugged, blowing out the small fire that Hermione had cast for them. “I'll come to watch,” He smiled as Hermione beamed at him. “No duelling, just watching.”

“Lockhart might ask you to demonstrate again,” Hermione giggled at him.

“Doubt it,” Xander laughed. “Shouldn’t have thrown that fireball at me anyway,” He frowned, he still didn’t like the fact that Lockhart was being so aggressive towards him, something wasn’t adding up and he was sure he’d get to the bottom of it sooner or later. “Go on,” He nodded to the window. “I'll clean up here; you go and see how the match is going, you could catch the last half hour or so.”

“Are you sure, I mean...” Hermione started, she didn’t mind staying to clean up, these evenings spent with Xander while they worked on the potions were now the highlight of her week.

“Go on,” Xander laughed, pointing to the door. “Harry’ll be annoyed if we both keep missing his games, tell him I'll make the next one.” He smiled as Hermione nodded at him before jogging out of their room and closing the door behind her.

“What’s ACDC?” Hermione asked as she relaxed on Xander’s bed, waiting for the others to return from their ‘mission’. They’d gone over the potion three times now and the only thing that was different about Xander was the fact he had the implants, which Hermione reasoned must have interfered with the potion somehow, their biological nature somehow incompatible with the polyjuice potion.

“Huh?” Xander asked, eloquent as always as he put down the Technomage book he was flicking through and looked up to see Hermione leafing through his CD collection. “Oh, music, rock band,” Xander explained off hand, surprised that she hadn’t heard of them before. “You know, ‘Back in Black’? Anyway, I think I’ve figured out what went wrong,” He muttered, handing over the book to Hermione and pointing out the paragraph he’d found. “Organelles, the implants make them, sort of an immune system for Technomage’s that can heal others.” He paused, trying to understand how the book described them. “They seem to act like nanobots, or something similar anyway, but you need something to direct them, to tell them what to do if they’re outside of your body, or rather my body I guess.”

“Useful,” Hermione nodded as Xander jotted that bit of information down in his notepad, trying desperately to stifle a laugh as Hermione growled as she tried to sit down on the bed and caught her tail by accident. “So now we just need to figure out why you turned into Catwoman.” He grinned as Hermione glared at him.

“Well, I thought that was obvious,” She pouted. “Millicent Bulstrode must have a cat, that’s what the hair belonged to, not Millicent.”

“Ahh, gotcha,” Xander nodded as he stood up and wandered over to the mirror and pulled his hair back tightly, “I look like Spike,” He growled in disbelief as he stared at his reflection.

“Spike?” Hermione asked as she put the notebook away, interested now that Xander was finally bringing something up about his past. “An old friend?”

“Hardly,” Xander snorted. “Vampire; somewhere past a hundred, one of the worst of the worst.”

“You’ve met him?” Hermione asked in awe, the thought of meeting an actual vampire now making her completely forget about her current condition. “What was he like? Was he like Dracula or something?”

“Unfortunately,” Xander grinned at her. “He’s probably dust by now though, so don’t hold up hopes for an interview, nothing like Dracula really, I don’t think there really is a Dracula, Giles would probably know though.” He paused, glancing around the room for the clock and trying to gauge how long they had left before Ron and Harry were due back, they can’t have that long left before they turn back he figured, so they must be on their way back by now with the information they needed.