Ancestry 35 - Having A Talk About Reality. by Voracity2

Ancestry 35 - Having A Talk About Reality.

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Ancestry 35 - Having A Talk About Reality.

The auror who worked with Harry walked up to where Buffy, Willow, and Spike were arguing. "Miss Summers." She grinned at him. "Auror's corps, ma'am."

"Bloody hell, we have a Ministry here?" Spike demanded.

"No, just the aurors and the MaCUSA, Vampire Weasley." He looked at her, handing over the memo from overseas. "From the British Ministry, who had someone listening over there to your former...bosses."

She read it over, grimacing and handing it to Spike, who groaned. "If they show up I'm going to punt them into the ocean. I doubt they can surf and I blew all my poker debts getting everyone cleared out of Sunnydale. I think Xander did too but if he handles it, it'll be a huge mess and I'll have to mop."

The auror smiled and nodded. "I understand why but we felt you needed warned. Those girls are fine?"

"Mostly. A few are kinda pouty. One forgot her stuffed friend."

"That's fine and normal for children. Let us know if we can help?"

"Can you warn Cleveland before we get there?" she asked with a grin.

"Of course we have, and all the other auror units, Miss Summers. We don't want to handle that sort of thing. Any of us."

"I know, which blows because that means I'm kinda alone."

He grinned. "You'll have backup someday."

"Maybe I'll live that long." She handed the notes to Willow, who scanned them and huffed, walking off muttering. "I think she's going to use the computer magic instead of regular magic." She stepped closer to him. "Any idea where Tara is?" she asked more quietly.

"With Mr. Dumass, being protected. They had to remove a lot of magic from her," he said quietly. "We got a report and agreed she needed to detox. Badly."

"I hope Tara's safe then." She stepped back.

"The Dumass house has unicorns moving back onto it," the auror said. "I'm told she has a lot of fun fussing at the foals."

"Awwwwwww!" She grinned at Spike. "Are unicorns soft?"

"Never petted one when I had the chance," he admitted. "Might ask Dru that."

"I might like a vacay to Brazil to sit on the beach but I doubt we'd hang out at the same place, Spike."

"Probably a good idea since slime demons don't like sand. Gooes up their horns." He looked at the auror, who grinned at that. "She's off having at it."

"That's not unusual for what we know of vampires, though we don't know many who cross species lines. Is that because of a vision?"

"No clue," Spike admitted. "She didn't tell me, just floated off." He waved a hand, looking disgusted.

"Fine. Do watch out, the Council wanted you removed immediately."

"Yeah, but he's handling problems so I don't have to be in three places at once," Buffy quipped with a grin for him. "Really, he is."

"We understand and agree fully with that decision, Miss Summers." She beamed. "We also looked at your mother's caregiver. Her doctors are excellent and not related to anyone on that side or magically."

"Are there things that could help cure her faster magically? Willow thought there should be."

"Not without doing something drastic," he admitted. "And slightly dark."

"Mom would hate that," she decided then sighed. "I'm worried she'll leave me."

"We all are. You having someone steady to lean on is good for you." He nodded at the woman walking his way. "Miss Chase."

She stared at him. "Auror."

"I am." He handed her the notes. She handed over hers. "Prophecy?"

"Visions suck." She looked at Buffy. "The commandos are going to try for your mom. The protections on her room will make them explode in the hallway in a lot of grossness. That's going to make people question why they were suicide bombing."

Buffy grimaced. "Can we stop them?"

"Stop the army?" she quipped back, looking at the auror.

"I can attempt that. Or at least let people know." He magically copied them and handed them back. "I'll let others know, Miss Chase." He nodded politely. "We're going to try to stop any watchers coming in." He left to go tell his bosses. His boss hated that project and thought Joyce Summers was a good mother who handled weird things with class and sense.

Buffy looked at Cordelia then at Spike. "Let me go calm the kiddies down. Let me know when you want me to come clean up a mess." She walked off with Cordelia.

Spike shook his head as he lit a cigarette. That slayer was so weird to him.

***

Xander looked at the goblin facing him. It wasn't the right one. "I know I translated the date correctly, I have a calendar and a special clock to tell me horde time." He stared at him.

"I'm his champion."

"Oh, so he's a woose. Okay." He nodded at that. "Then bring it, *champion*."

"You're injured," he sneered.

"Yeah, a bit, but that'll just make me pissed off at you so...." He shrugged but smirked a bit. "You can always admit I wasn't the reason he lost his honor and forced me to fight back against him."

"You outed it."

"Well, no, I just noted it loudly. If someone overheard and reported it to others, then that's your fault for making me note it loudly." He stared at him. "If you guys hadn't lost honor, then it wouldn't have been noted." He shrugged again. "Oh well. You did it and made me complain loudly. Did you expect us to just accept it?"

The dverger growled and lunged at him, with his sword out. Xander casually parried it and turned to kick him in the back then followed it up. Sure he was injured, that just put him into a bad mood.

Ragnok looked at Blackrock and his wife, who were sitting together since they were cousins. "He's proving his temper well."

Blackrock shook his head. "He's injured, my King. He's in a bad mood already."

"I can see that." He sighed as another one stomped in to help the dverger champion. "This is going to be messy."

"Yes it is," Blackrock agreed, nodding some. Then the bad thing happened, a young dverger screamed and ran down there to pounce Xander.

Xander pulled the kid off him to hold up by the back of his shirt. "What the fuck are you doing?" he demanded. The kid sneered something in their native language. "Who in the *hell* told the guy's kid to show up?" he demanded loudly. "Talk about no honor!" He stomped over to the king, handing over the kid.

"I think someone's mother or whoever brought him needs a firmer hand on their leash. There shouldn't be *any* kids here!" He stomped off again and went back to beating the other ones. Sure, he got more injured. And more mad. It just made him sneer more.

Ragnok waved a guard over to hand over the child. "He's right. The idiot's child should not see his father beaten." The guard nodded, walking him off to put him into a room. Ragnok looked over at the cheer but Xander had just defeated something that was coming through the door by throwing his battle axe to the being's face.

Xander walked over to yank it free and walked back. "Oh, let's do this," he sneered. The ones who jumped in, and were on the ground, shuddered. The champion was breathing hard but stood up again. Xander stared at him. "You can yield."

"That would rob me of my honor."

"Me killing you would rob your family of you. Is the one you're championing your spouse?"

"No," he snorted. "I owed his family a life debt."

"Well...." He used a spell to knock him out. "You paid it off." He made sure he was revived then stood up, looking at Ragnok. "I'm usually a fair asshole," he noted. "A very fair asshole."

"You are," Ragnok agreed, standing up. "You always have been, Dumass. We appreciate that about you. Is he alive?"

"Again." He smirked a bit, staring at some sobbing person. "I revived him. Because this wasn't his battle to be in." She nodded. He looked at the king again. "You know, I could hand over the other two scrolls."

"We are fixing it," Ragnok reminded him.

"Great. Where did the thing come from?" He pointed at it.

"We don't know but it's attacked a few young ones."

Xander sighed, walking over to pat him down then walked the stuff on him over to the king. "He's Taraka." He held up the ring with a smirk. "Someone's really mad enough to hire a demonic assassin." He went to take a picture with his phone. "I'll have Giles or someone identify him if you don't ask someone like Spike." He looked at Bill, who shrank down. "Well, he's your great uncle. You can ask him."

"He freaks me out, Alex," he complained. "Can we burn it?"

"No, I think it'll regenerate with fire." He sighed and cast a viewing portal, waving. "Just need an ID and killing instructions really fast, Giles." He pointed it at the being. "He was Taraka."

"Don't burn it, chop it into pieces. The liver's worth a ton of money to some chaos people," he said then sipped his beer in the pub. "Why is it there?"

"It was eating dverger young."

"Oh, then it's in heat as well. The testes may bring money as well."

"Okay, thanks. Have a good night off." He hung up on the portal and looked at the king, who nodded at that. "Anyone else?" Someone screamed as they lunged at him so he turned and kicked her in the face. "You're too young too!" he snorted. "You just proved it!" He walked over her, going to Ragnok again. "So?"

"You have fairly won," he agreed. "The honor debt is done with, the ones who proved they were without honor by adding themselves into the single combat... We'll talk with them when they're healed so I get true answers one way or another." Xander smirked and bowed then disappeared. Ragnok leaned back, sighing.

"Fuck this," he said quietly but enough heard him. "We are *still* showing off that we have no honor. I will *not* allow this to keep going on. If it does, I'll disband everything and turn it over to the humans!" He stood up to yell at everyone since they were all there and forced to listen. The last time he had yelled that way he was twenty and yelling at one of the guards who was training him about doing something without honor.

This time, more had proven it. The ones who knew they were the ones being yelled about bowed their heads and he stomped off to check on that child. He had to find their clan's guardian to *talk* to them as well. You did not bring a child to an honor duel, especially not one where their parent could have died. It was not done by any sensible being, no matter their species.

Blackrock looked at the bankers. "I believe we'll have a meeting in the morning to go over who has which accounts," he noted. The head of the bank looked at him oddly. "I have six accounts. One of my junior ones has nineteen."

"Yes, we need to distribute them better," he decided. "Plus see how many the king has to send to another horde." He looked over and nodded. "Yes, we will be. Then we'll have a meeting with the other departments after that." He stood up and his bankers stood in respect until he left. Blackrock followed to go over why he had made that decision. He had found a few other irregularities with who was handling some of the accounts, and it was going to keep looking bad on them.

***

Xander appeared in front of Buffy and Spike, hauling Buffy out of the way and spinning her around to put her down, then kicking her lightly on the ass. "Go." She glared at him. He pointed. "Go now." She glared harder. "Dear, that blue thing over there, it eats women," he said with a point. "Go!" She looked then groaned.

Spike looked over. "It's tasty." He shrugged, going to handle it.

"Want to borrow a sword?" Xander called, waving his.

"Nah. Don't need one. They're woosey," Spike complained. "And it'll smell like your blood."

"What were you doing?" Buffy demanded, waving a hand at him.

"Defending my honor from someone who complained that I had complained they had tried to steal from me." He shrugged. "Then more jumped in."

"Vampires?" she demanded.

"Um, no, dvergers." She blinked, looking confused. "Goblin's a slur, Buffy. That's their species name."

"Oh." She sighed, rubbing her forehead. "Why?"

He shrugged. "I found them stealing from me and the family. So I made a stink, got some of it fixed, and one blamed me for helping fix the mess. So I had to defend my honor by kicking his butt." He smirked. The demon roared but Spike had just gotten it in the stomach and was now snacking on his heart. He waved Spike back, pulling up the picture. "The bank in London has this thing's liver and testes. It's been eating young dvergers so someone said it's probably in heat."

Spike moaned. "A lot would like that."

"Talk to the bank."

"I can spread that." He sniffed him. "You smell good tonight."

"I smell fantastic every night," he said smugly then slapped his own ass. "And you're not getting a single juicy, sweet bit of me." He smirked as he walked off. "Gotta go shower. Before I draw something worse than Anya."

"Please don't," Buffy complained. "LA doesn't deserve that. Even with the mess of traffic and all the bimbos, LA doesn't deserve someone who's evil who wants you, Xander."

"Bite me, Buffy."

She huffed, looking at Spike. "Some days I really don't like him and I'm very confused by him."

"I think we all are. Nummy's cute and all but we all see the cover of the dork." He looked at her. "Wanna get back to the fight?"

"No," she sighed. "He totally broke my mood to kill you." She walked off shaking her head. "I'll try to stake you next week sometime, Spike."

"Fine. Looking forward to it with the way you flashed me a few times." She blushed, ducking her head, but continued her trudge back to the Hyperion. Spike smirked, watching her. What funny people came from Sunnydale.

***

Harry looked up as an older man sat next to him in the school's courtyard. "Your cousin is fairly nutty today."

Harry grinned. "I think that's many days and I'm not certain why but he usually mentions a few female names, Mr. Giles."

"True, and they're very good at it. I brought Buffy up to visit with Willow and you, if you'd wish." Harry looked confused. "She does rather fight for humanity, Harry. She's got some wisdom about the after battle times. If you'd like to talk to her."

"I don't mind. I have no idea about girl things. People are pushing me to date. I don't know why or how or who but many have suggested Hermione." He frowned. "I have no idea about any of that."

"We can do a seance to talk to your relatives," Giles admitted. "It won't harm them."

"I've talked to my dad once. He hasn't reappeared."

"Ah." He nodded, pointing at the ring. "You can meditate on the spirit in that to talk to them."

"He seems to really not like me. A lot, Mr. Giles. He's complaining a lot about how I do things." He frowned at his hand. "Arcturus' spirit is more even tempered."

Giles patted him on the shoulder. "Sometimes, old men complain about everything that they have no matter in, just to have something to complain about." Harry looked confused. "Have you seen people who complained about the weather?" Harry nodded. "The same thing. Were he your age he'd probably do things differently if only because he grew up differently than you have. Frankly, I believe you're doing just fine. Are you going to pass this year?"

"With any grace, yes." He nodded a bit, looking a bit hesitant. "I've been studying but I'm not sure if anything stuck. I'm not sure I can pass a single NEWT right now either."

"There's practice tests, Harry." He grinned at the shocked look. "They're usually harder than the actual written part of the test. They make whole books. Hermione should realize that if she's taking muggle classes because they make prep books for her A levels as well. The same as they do the SAT in the States." He patted him again then waved the blonde girl over.

"That's a unicorn," she said with a point. "A real unicorn. I thought they were myths!"

"Not likely," Giles said. "Xander's family was known to house a good sized herd. They even milked them for unicorn cream that they used in their tea."

She blinked a few times. "That's...weird, Giles. Really, really weird." She looked at Harry and grinned. "Hi, I'm Buffy, his slayer."

"Hi, I'm Harry." He waved a bit. "Xander's mentioned you."

"King Klutz is annoying that way and probably wrong." She sat beside him. "Sometimes Xander is really weird and he's been tripping over his feet for days again. I don't know why."

"He's injured probably. He had to take on some dverger warriors over an honor debt. They blamed him for finding out they were doing bad things to the bank."

She blinked a few times. "He did what?" she demanded. Harry grinned and nodded. "I'm going to beat his hiney when I see him again. He's normal, he can't do that." Giles cleared his throat. "Well he is!"

"He is not. He's not a slayer, but he's not normal, Buffy. The boy survived a lot of things that would make us horrifically dead." She rolled her eyes. "Truly." He looked at Harry. "Yes, she does fight, even though she's gone back into her airhead persona. Let me go get Willow. You two talk about being fighters for the light." He left them to talk.

Buffy shifted, giving him a shoulder nudge. "It sucks and people hate it."

"They're going to try to put me in jail for solving their war for them, which they demanded I do."

She blinked a few times. "Why would they?"

"They hate me."

She sighed but nodded. "I've seen that happen. People would've done the whole villager with torches thing if they knew that I was the one who was fighting the bad things. People freak out at the thought that something was going to eat them until I ended it."

Harry nodded. "Not so much of the eating, but definitely would've been killed because no one was actively really fighting back. They were all waiting on the prophecy to happen."

"Prophecies are another sucky thing," she said with a nod. "My first one said I'd die by the hands of the Master. And I did but Xander did CPR. So I lived, and it called a second slayer." She grinned. "Which the Council hates like heck and want to kill him for. I think he's mooned them at least once."

She patted him on the knee. "There's not many of us. And we each have our individual trials and stupid people to deal with. That's why we also have people like my mom. And I guess Xander and Willow. They're super supportive of me fighting but ....well, they're helpful. Most of the time. Willow's super support girl with me. But she's got problems."

"I've met her a few times," Harry agreed with a nod. "She horrified a few people telling them stories about Sunnydale."

"Yeah, unless you live there it is kinda freaky. Hellhounds at prom sorta freaky. But we survived and so did a lot of others because we were there. The same as a lot of people survived because you were there with your group." She patted him again with a grin.

"And then the nightmares start and you can't sleep for days so you have a movie binge and hair braiding thing with Willow but you eventually fall asleep and find out that Willow's arguing with the spirit that's haunting you but she's making sense and talking the First Slayer down out of her homicidal rage. So you can finally sleep again."

She blinked a few times. "Though there's always some nights when it's just not worth it. Then my mom makes great cocoa. We sit and watch old tv movies. Old movies are great about fantasizing about guys who have manners and guys who open doors for girls and wear nice clothes and hats. Modern guys just don't wear fedoras the same way Cary Grant did." She looked at him. "I know you've had those too."

"No movies in Hogwarts though. No electricity in Hogwarts."

She frowned. "How do you do anything? Even an alarm clock? Or a hair dryer?"

"No, we have hair drying charms and you can use a wind up alarm. The old kind that doesn't need batteries. Though I did grow up in a muggle house so I know what those sort of old movies are even though I never got to watch any."

"Your parents hated old movies?"

"My aunt and uncle weren't...fond of me doing anything with their stuff."

"I read that but I hoped she had blown it way out of proportion. In that case, can I ask a vampire to go eat them for you? Giles would probably complain but some people really do need to be eaten."

He grinned, shaking his head. "I'm not near them anymore. I don't care what they do but I never have to see them again. I do wish I had more family around...."

She leaned closer. "Sometimes you gotta make your own family, Harry. I had some friends who did that because theirs were really never there. Rich people are often not there with the family stuff. They grew up with nannies so they made their own families from their friends." She grinned again. "The saying about blood is thicker than water isn't the whole quote. It's actually the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."

"I thought I was okay with that but some things are...weird."

"Yeah they can be. Willow turned really weird with her magic addiction. She went from shy and nerdy to witchy and powerful and still nerdy but also scary. I used to be a cheerleader."

Harry frowned at her. "I've barely seen those in school."

"I did that. I cheered at our junior and high school's sports events and stuff." She grinned. "It's why I kick so much when I fight."

"You are very peppy," Giles said as he came out with Willow. He sat down on Harry's other side again. "She even cheered after becoming the slayer. Though it was warped by the hellmouth's circumstances as a witch wanted to relive her glory days through her daughter's life."

Buffy nodded. "Poor Amy the rat."

Willow sighed. "I'll work on getting her back to normal again when I get back."

"I'll see if someone like Minerva can," Giles said. He looked at Harry. "Yes, they've saved the world at least yearly for the last three years. If not four. Them with Xander and some others who have helped over the years. Cordelia."

"Oz," Willow added. "Now Tara. Angel." Buffy grinned at her for that.

Hermione came jogging out. "Oh, Harry," she sighed. "Thank goodness you're all right. Ron just did a spell and it said that you were in trouble." She sighed again, staring at him. "You are all right, right?"

"I'm good. Mr. Giles brought his slayer Buffy over to catch up with Willow and talk to me." He pointed at her. "This is my buddy Hermione, ladies."

Willow grinned and waved. "Hi again."

"Hello, Miss Rosenburg. Miss Summers, I've heard of you from Xander." She shook her hand. "I'll go tell Ron he botched it again. Last time he had Neville dying of his appendix in a few weeks." She walked off happier with that.

"That charm is not Ron's friend," Harry explained. "Or mine. It seems to be something that only those with divination do well."

Willow nodded. "Divination is a fun thing to study but not real exact."

"Though to be fair we have dealt with a lot of prophecy things," Buffy reminded her. "Then Xander gets involved and it changes for the better. Or else I'd still be drowned." Willow pouted at that. "He brought Angel to help me. Angel finally told me Xander did the CPR."

"That's good. Why didn't Angel?"

"He said he can't breathe."

"Bullshite," Giles complained. He sighed and did a scrying spell for them, showing them what had happened. Buffy moaned, rubbing her face. "Exactly." He cleared it out. "You two have been horrible to Xander over the years. Talk to him about heroic things, Buffy."

"Yes, Giles." She looked at Harry. "Your helpers are more important than you know, even if you put them down for not being you sometimes. Sometimes they'll put up with it but sometimes Xander will chew you a new one and make you cry." Willow scowled. "I earned it."

"Fine," she muttered.

Giles sighed loudly again, looking at Harry. "Treat your helpers better than she has at times. Or Xander will probably chew on you."

"I look up to Xander. He knows a lot that I don't. He's been there when I needed him."

"He is like that," Buffy agreed. "But I don't always listen to that. He's a guy, and a normal guy, so I don't always pay attention. Which usually means that I have a problem." Giles nodded at that. Willow huffed again. "I do, Wills, and you know it."

"Fine." She waved a hand in the air. It created sparkles. She looked at her fingers but ended the spell. Buffy sighed, shaking her head. "I'm not trying to use it."

Giles stared at her. "There's ways to end that problem."

"None of them are good for me," Willow shot back.

"They're not harmful," he said firmly. "You should be at that point already, Willow."

"I'm fine. I'm doing fine. Even Poppy said I'm doing fine."

Buffy looked at her. "Rehab is on an individual timeline according to a few girls I know who had to go. Sometimes it's faster, sometimes it's slower, and sometimes you end up needing a shrink instead of a support group like AA." She grinned at her. "You'll be okay soon enough. Not like we need a witch right now since we don't have a Sunnydale."

"What happened to it?" Harry asked. "A few people have asked if Xander had told me anything."

Giles cleared his throat. "Refer them to me, Harry. I can give a full report." He smirked a bit. "None of them scare me and I've laughed at a few aurors in my day."

"You went here?" Willow demanded.

"Yes, I was in Ravenclaw with Ethan, Willow. That's how we met." She slumped, staring at him. He nodded with a smirk. "I did do both types of magic. Including leaning towards black magic and having to get clean from it. You really and truthfully can leave the magic alone," he finished more firmly. She pouted but nodded. "Thank you, dear. We don't want to be scared for you."

"Like when you accidentally ended up over here and near the unicorn but had to dump all that magic before you hurt it," Harry told her.

"True, that did help and the magic over here does feel nicer than ours did." She looked over her shoulder at the sound of a neigh. "I'm not even over there," she complained loudly. "It's fine!"

Harry looked. "Hagrid, the magical moles are bothering the unicorns again!" he bellowed. Hagrid came out to get the moles out of the unicorn's pen. "They suck magic. Xander had to kick a few out of the family's home because they were breaking things."

"I have never heard of such things," Buffy said, looking at Giles.

"They're pests, like magical mice can be. You shouldn't have to deal with them and if they had shown up massively in Sunnydale I would've set out traps, Buffy."

"Oh, okay. I guess that's how you deal with moles, magical or not." She looked at Harry, who shrugged. "What did Xander do?"

"He put them in a big bag and brought them to the dark forest that protects the school."

She looked at the forest then at him. "Really? A dark forest?"

"Has all sorts of creatures. Including some other unicorns. Some centaurs."

"They're sour, horsey rumps," Willow told her. "Who like divination apparently. I got warned not to let my name be capitalized."

"Yes, there's a difference between being a redheaded witch and The Red Witch," Harry said dryly.

"Oh, that way. I didn't even think about that," she muttered, shrinking down again.

Giles smiled at him for that, but Buffy was trying to make Willow feel better by hugging her.

Hagrid stomped that way. "I don't know who sent the moles but they're 'nnoying," he complained.

"Xander had some at the family home but they were sucking on artifacts," Harry said. "They broke some."

Hagrid groaned but nodded. "Figures." He threw the mole into the woods again and went back to his house to fuss about them.

Buffy straightened up, looking around. "I feel like there's a vampire around here, Giles. I'm getting that belly cramp due to vampires again." She looked at him. "Why would I get that here?"

"Oh, probably Dru's present for winning the war," Harry sighed. Then he nodded. "She sent them through the mail. The owl was horrified that it wasn't prey to be eaten, and it had bitten her. Hagrid had to get some help healing the owl. We weren't sure why, he didn't tell us."

She hung her head, shaking it. "Only Druscila would make vampire mice as a present," she muttered. "Xander?" she called loudly. He appeared, blinking at her. "Are you still sick?"

"Is that why you summoned?" he asked dryly.

"Dru sent us some mice," Harry said.

"Which is probably why I'm getting that vampy vamp stomach cramp," Buffy said.

He blinked a few times. "Wooden hammer with a pointy bit, Harry. Just hit the chest and it'll probably stake them. Or throw them into the sunlight." He looked at Giles, who was cleaning his glasses while shaking his head. He sighed. "I'll go tell Minerva," he told Harry, who grinned. "Did she know?"

"It appeared over breakfast. Had bitten the owl."

"Yeah, that's Dru." He went inside, going to talk to her. He leaned into the transfiguration classroom. "Buffy just identified a vampire in the area and we think it's the mice Dru sent Harry?"

She nodded. "At least one was turned, yes."

"Wooden hammer with a pointy bit," he said. "Whack it in the chest to stake it."

"I hadn't thought of that."

"Or throwing it into the sunlight. Warn the house elves, they can't be turned but they can be made minions." He grinned. "Giles brought Buffy to talk to Harry about hero things."

She sighed. "I suppose that'll help him. Are you all right? You're sweaty."

"I had a battle. I'm fine." He winked and left to go talk to them. He ran into Draco on the way. "Hey."

Draco looked at him. "I'm going to make Granger pull you to the infirmary again."

"I'm fine. They're almost healed. I'm going to get Tara." He grinned. "Buffy's out there talking to Harry and Willow."

"I'm sorry for Potter?" he guessed. He walked off. "Let me avoid that."

"Fine. You could go save him."

"No thank you."

"Buffy's a perky blonde."

"Yes but she's a muggle. That is not in my plans." He took the stairs to the library.

Xander shrugged and went to get Tara, bringing her back to talk to them. That way they could supervise her with Willow.

"Oh, Harry," Tara sighed, coming over to hug him. "Are you all right? You look tired." She tipped his face up. "You look very tired."

"I was up studying last night but I don't think anything's sticking."

"Then you need to take a few hours to go so something else," she chided with a smile. "Go pet the unicorns. They could probably use it and I like doing that." She patted him on the cheek. "You're a good boy even if people are stupid poops." She sat down between him and Buffy, smiling at Willow. "Hi."

"Hi. You've been petting the unicorns?"

She nodded. "I can do that."

"How?"

"Well.... girl sex isn't penetrative," she admitted with a blush.

"Unicorns don't care about gay sex in any manner," Giles told her. "I found that out the easiest way, by having one stalking Ethan for a few weeks like he'd be the new mare." He grinned at Tara. "Are you well?"

"I'm good and Miss Kitty really loves the unicorns. I find her napping with them all the time. Or getting the pesky mice from the main garden so the vines don't have to hate them." She crossed her legs. "One nearly whapped a foal trying to get the mice out of it."

"Vines aren't that sentient. It might not have recognized the foal," Giles admitted. "Depending on the plant."

"It's a devil's snare I think."

"The on in the main garden? It is," Harry agreed. "And there's a whip vine of some kind or another. You'd have to ask someone like Neville. He does great with plants."

"That's cool. I need to finish planting my herb garden for rites." She patted Harry on the arm. "You should eat. You seem skinny."

"I had breakfast," he assured her. "I've always been a bit thin, Tara."

"I'm sure but I can help you put on that weight."

"She makes great cookies," Buffy told him. "I used to pout at her to get a few whenever she made them."

Tara nodded. "I usually made extra because Buffy eats a lot to keep up with the slayer metabolism."

Harry looked at her. "I'm glad we don't have that need. Though, Ron eats tons."

She grinned at him. "Food fuels what you do."

"I know."

She fussed at his hair. "I'll bake tonight. You can share a few with someone if you want." She looked at Buffy, who was pouty. Harry looked at her too, but he gave her an odd look instead. "I'll make you a few too, so you can share with your mom," she promised. Buffy beamed at her and nodded. "How is she doing?"

"We think she'll be okay. The treatments suck hard but we think she's getting better."

"Good. Give her a cuddle for me."

"Of course. Mom could use more cuddles." She gave Giles a pointed look.

"If she wants them from me, all she has to do is ask," Giles reminded her.

"I'll remind her of that. Sometimes Mom would like adult people cuddles instead of mine." She gave Tara a friendly hug and let her leave, making Willow pout. Buffy looked at her. "Haven't you been writing to her?"

"I have no idea how to get it to her without using magic, Buffy. Not like I have an address and access to a post office."

"The school has owls that take the mail," Harry said. "You could've asked someone to mail them for you." Willow looked horrified then groaned, shaking her head.

Buffy looked at her best friend. "I'm going to come out with a Xander-ism. You can't take on everything yourself. Because then you'll die."

Willow sighed. "I know. But it's so hard. Magic's even easier here."

Buffy nodded, patting her on the arm. "Yeah but that doesn't mean that you have to use it. Like drinking beer, there's time for beer and there's not times for beer. If you get the two confused, you go to AA meetings."

"I can't just stop using magic."

"Yes you can. I have," Giles said. "You can learn to not automatically suck it up, or hoard it, or any of that, Willow. Which you need to do to finish healing. If you ask, I'm sure Severus or someone would give you hints on how to do that."

"He hates me. Thinks I'm spoiled."

"We are," Buffy said with a nod. Willow huffed at that. "Is he around so we can talk to him?" Harry shook his head, looking down. "Like dead dead, Harry?"

"Yeah. He died defending the school," he admitted, looking at her. "Him and a few other teachers." Buffy gave him a hug too. "Thanks, Buffy."

"It sucks. A lot. It sucks tons. I hated that some kids died at graduation because we had no other choice but to defend the parents and visitors. So did Xander. Have you talked to him about that?"

"No. He's had some of his own problems." He sighed, looking at her. "How do you get over it?"

"You don't," she said. "Because that means you've lost everything, Harry. See, warriors and soldiers and I guess officers and firemen too, get something called PTSD. Post traumatic stress disorder. It means that something changed in their brains when something huge happened to them or around them or even because of them.

"Mom thought I should kick Xander's hiney over that too because she's sure he has some too." She shrugged a bit. "We all have a bit. We get nightmares, we let it seep into our daily lives. We deal with it and some of us are lucky enough to have help so we get to move on with it. I think that's why Giles brought me over."

He grinned at that. "But yeah, if you need to talk you can talk to me. I've handled a lot of bigger sitches that gave me nightmares." She ruffled his hair. "And I agree with Tara, you need to eat. You're too skinny. And you're pale. Though you don't get much sunny time I guess." She looked up then at him. "What's that feeling?"

He concentrated, then frowned. "I have no idea." He looked around, then up again once he had lowered his shields. "Oh, shit," he muttered. "Mr. Giles. I can feel dementors."

"Inside," he ordered, standing up. "You as well, Harry. Go warn others." He took the girls inside while Giles watched. Yes, there were two of them just over the top of the trees. "Bugger," he muttered, casting his patronus.

Harry ran into the transfiguration classroom. "Two dementors over the forest," he told her. "Mr. Giles is out there."

"Again?" she demanded, going to check on that then handle the emergency she supposed.

Willow came out to look at them. "Are they stakeable or beheading?" she asked.

"Neither," McGonagall said, looking at her. "They're driven off by a light spell called a patronus, which is based on who you are and partakes of your positive energies and memories."

"Oh, one of those sort." She nodded, looking at Harry. Who was touching his pendant. "We can do this without Xander."

"Maybe," he said. "But better warned than not. Has anyone told the others?" he asked. McGonagall went to do that since they weren't coming over yet. Which could be a good sign or a bad sign. Xander appeared and cast his own patronus at them, making them flee the owl headed, gryphon bodied being. "What is that?" Harry muttered. "I don't recognize it."

"It's a bit confused," Giles said quietly. "Xander?" he called, getting his attention. "Any others?"

"Yeah, just one that I can feel. They're following someone in the forest I think," he called back. He looked then changed his patronus, which made a few watching people swear at him being able to do that. He grinned. "Well, I have changed since it formed."

That one was going after the dementor in the woods. It flushed out a few people. Including the headmaster. Xander just stared at him until he ran off again. Then Xander shook his head. He hiked back up there. "We'll need someone to stop the dark magic ritual," he told Giles. "It's not yours or mine but I can feel it sucking."

"Oh, dear." He walked off, Harry following.

"Harry, stay clear of the magic grabbing you," Xander warned. He looked around then started a small fire to use floo powder in. "Auror Nymphadora Tonks," he said, getting her. "It's funny you're not here for once and there's suddenly dementors going after someone doing dark magic in the woods. Did you forget to stalk us today or is it your day off?" he asked with a grin.

"My day off," she said. "Be right there."

"Okay." He hung up, nodding at Ron and Neville. "The dementors fled but now we've got to cancel whatever that was drawing them." He walked off with a sigh. He ran into Giles and Harry. "I called Auror Tonks since she wasn't stalking me or Harry today," he quipped.

Giles looked at him. "Why were they stalking you?"

"I have no idea but she was always right there." He grinned when she walked over. "Weren't you?"

"I was assigned to guard you." She scowled at him. "You make it very hard."

"Thank you!" He grinned. "I'd hug you but you're not evil enough to be one of mine." He looked at the ritual area then at her.

She frowned as she stared at it. "What was it for?"

"Deal making," Giles said. "Calling on a few higher level demons."

Xander looked then pointed. "And a small shrine to Baphomet." Giles looked and groaned. "So we'll let the aurors take all their measurements to see who did it, and then we'll destroy it, Giles?"

"Indeed. Though I have no idea how. I can uncast it but it won't end the spot of black magic." Xander grinned at him. "I hate it when you have that look, Xander. Especially if you've been in the chocolate."

Xander laughed. "Not today unfortunately. I'll spam it with hellmouth energy." Giles flinched, staring at him. He stared back. "It still loves me. It agreed, the stepkid that got forced onto its back needed to be eaten." He grinned at Tonks, then pulled back in his patronus.

She blinked a few times. "Is that your normal patronus? It wasn't as silver as some others."

"No, but I have changed since I formed my first one," he said dryly. "That's the new one." He grinned.

She stared. "You can do that?"

"If you change that radically, can you change an animagus form?" Harry asked.

Giles nodded. "Indeed. It must be a true change however. Or something like head trauma." Harry nodded that he understood that. "We'll let you handle the figuring out who. The dementors drove out a few beings, including the headmaster."

"Just even better news, thanks!" Tonks said sarcastically but did call in help to handle that scene. She wasn't skilled in the investigative arts. Physical police work, yes. Magical CSI stuff, nope. Xander and Giles watched over it while Harry asked questions.

"There's still a dementor," Ron called while Neville fought it off.

Harry looked and added his patronus to Neville's, driving it away.

Xander looked. "That one's newer, so maybe they're having babies." He shrugged and zapped the thing with a freezing hex. That let the patronus end it. He grinned and waved at Neville. "You did great, Neville."

"Thanks." He looked at Harry. "What's going on?" he called as he walked over.

"We found the dementors coming after someone doing something dark in the woods," Harry complained. "Just off the edge where you can't see it. The aurors are looking it over."

One of the aurors looked at Giles. "Who're you?"

"Rupert Giles, formerly of the Watchers Council and watcher for the Slayer Buffy. She's inside. I brought her up to talk to Harry." He grinned. "And a former Ravenclaw. I went to school with your little sister, the nit who chattered."

"Oh, that sister." He nodded. "Definitely. Can you tell what this is for?"

Giles came closer and pointed. "That's a small offering to Baphomet, a personal shrine," he said. "The main area is calling on a higher level demon for aid in something. He's sacrificing a rabbit to be aided in something." He squatted down to get closer. "It looks like it's a plea offering but I can't make out the two marks there," he said with another point. "That would tell me who it's to."

Xander came over to walk over that way, staring down at it. "They drew them backwards. The whole circle is done in mirror image." He tipped his head. "And the naming marks are tilted to the right. Looks like Heldara." He looked at the aurors then grinned. "What was he requesting help to avoid?"

Giles stood up. "Are you certain?" He walked over to look. "Yes, doing it that way would mean you're pleading for help and protection against something. Which is probably what drew the four dementors or so." Xander nodded. "Could he have been sacrificing to get help keeping dementors from him?"

"There's charms but they're forbidden in the UK," Xander said. "Egypt had a few for the cursebreakers down there. We had a few tombs with some enclosed to protect them."

Tonks stared at him then shook her head. "Why?"

"No one's going to break into a tomb filled with a few hungry dementors," Giles told her. "If your path to the afterlife requires what you were buried with, what better way to stop robbers? They can hibernate if they're too hungry so I suppose they'd wake up when they found a soul nearby." He took his glasses off. "There's a great many nasty things in this world. This...is barely mild on that scale." He looked at Xander.

"There's two families with family curses to die by dementor attack," Xander told them. "Fiesman and Marchibald. Both trace back to the bad old days when they were putting the witch to death for her husband cheating on her." Tonks grimaced.

"Both women, who were about eighty years apart, cursed their spouse's family to all die by dementor attack. The same as the Prewitt family was cursed to die by the Hand of Strife if they did anything of note. Which is why most of them do very safe, very stable, very unnoticed things."

"I guess that explains why Molly and Arthur got together," Tonks said dryly. "Is there a listing of those?"

Giles nodded. "I've read it, many years ago in my fourth year. Unspeakable Tragedies of Families or some such."

"It reads like someone's college paper," Xander told them, getting a nod for it. Tonks stared at him. "One of the family's ghosts made me read it way back when because one of the women cursing others was related and she did a whopper of one by cursing her husband's family, and her own kids, to either be as Light as the Fairies that had left the world, or to be so dark that burned out the world.

"Which led to the family bed being blessed and all the kids not conceived on a bed that's at least tainted by the original one going dark. Melanorma was named after her. She also wasn't conceived on a bed tainted by the family's bed so she's just about as dark as Justinius is. And he wasn't conceived there either. We taint each kid's marriage bed with some of it and warn the spouse. I carried it in a charm with me so I could fool around a lot."

"That makes sense," Tonks decided. "Is the book generally available?"

"It's in the school's library," Giles said with a smile. He looked at Xander.

"We have a copy in the family library." Tonks nodded at that. "I have no idea if Harry's read that one yet or not. Usually the ghost of Aunt Allisandra warns the kids to read it. I know Mari did before she married. Her journal noted it and that she ran to tell her betrothed about it before he could do something stupid to curse their children."

"Huh," Tonks said then nodded. "You guys keep family diaries?"

"Many of them," Xander agreed with a grin. "The last generation has four of the seven kids having one. Philippe died too young, Justy kept his own, and Mel was never a writer that way. Alexander's is full of dig complaints." He grinned at her. "He kept a separate journal-like book for his off-time fun."

She shivered. "That has to be dirty to read."

He smirked a bit. "They're just listings of who, what, where, when...." She moaned and nodded, walking off again. He looked at Giles. "Harry okay?"

"I had Buffy talking to him about post-battle stresses and the like."

"That's great of her." He grinned. Then he looked over there. "Huh. That's an animagus. He glows in the sun." He tapped his pendant to send that to Harry, who bound that guy immediately. He shrugged, grinning a goofy grin.

Tonks looked at him. "What's your animagus form?"

"Sphinx." He beamed before leaving.

"The world's most underrated and misunderstood guardian," Giles sighed, rubbing his forehead. "That figures." He smiled at the aurors. "Need me for more?" They shook their heads. "Then let me know and I'll gladly uncast his rite when you're done. Or let Xander leak hellmouth energy all over it." He walked off to talk to Harry about that.

Hermione looked at him when he mentioned that book. "I read that. I have no idea why they'd blame the witch for her spouse going on a lusty spree of breaking his vows to her."

"It's still seen as the woman's fault if her husband isn't faithful. That she's obviously got problems or denying him such," Giles told her.

"Oh, that reason." She nodded. "Bugger that. If he cheats, that's his choice. He had to choose to pull his woody out of his pants and use it that way." She walked off. "Can I help?"

"No, dear. Someone was pleading to a lower deity to save them from what may be dementors."

She blinked a few times. "I read that section too." She grimaced. "That's got to suck. Not all of them were like that." She walked off shaking her head.

"Many generational curses are unfairly put onto the shoulders of later members," he told Harry and Neville. Who just moaned and shook his head quickly.

"So if it was the headmaster," Harry said quietly.

"Then he was hoping to break that curse," Giles agreed. "Xander said there's amulets of protection but they're illegal in the UK."

"Of course it is because they use them to threaten people," Harry said dryly. "Or send them after prisoners and let them roam around a school."

Giles patted him on the back. "Your anger speaks well of your soul but your temper is a bit out of whack, Harry."

"I know. The rings are complaining. Again." He glared at his hands, making them stop it.

Neville giggled. "Mine does that too, Harry." He clapped him on the arm before going back inside.

Giles looked at him. "Many of the spirits in those rings were chosen because they were forceful enough to correct an heir going sideways. It doesn't mean they give good advice."

"I've seen that." He grinned. "Xander leave again?"

"For now probably."

"That's fine. Being here brings back bad memories." He walked him inside to save Buffy and Willow from the kids in the Great Hall they were chatting with. Hermione had that book to go over it again. Willow looked over and came over to read it with her. The other kids let them be book nerds together.

McGonagall looked over. "What was it?"

"Dark rite to plead for protection from something," Giles told her with a grin. She huffed at that, looking up and letting out a few curse words in another language. "Indeed but hopefully he'll be fine." He shrugged, looking at Neville. "Are you the one that Xander said was so good in herbology?"

"I am," he said proudly. "Including the kraken tentacle you leant us to protect the doorway. It loves to pet some people."

"Yes, they do," Buffy agreed dryly. "Including some of Xander's former construction site."

"I still say we should drop a grenade into it," Willow complained. "To keep it from opening again."

"Magical grenades?" Harry asked her, looking confused.

"No, regular ones, Harry." She smirked a bit. "Xander could win some in a kitten poker game."

"Why? He can make them," Harry said dryly. She moaned. "Like your holy water grenades? Probably not that much different." She sighed and rubbed her face with both her hands as she leaned forward. He shrugged and looked at Mr. Giles again. "Are there magical hand grenades generally around?" He ignored Hermione's look in his direction at that question.

"Well....yes, I suppose they could be classified that way but there's magical bombs with curses actually." He smirked a bit. "Aren't there, Professor Flitwick?"

"Do *NOT* remind me," he ordered firmly. "Though they were amusing when Ethan used a few to stun the girls who wouldn't leave Mannat the Younger alone that day." He cleared his throat, looking at Minerva. Who just sighed loudly.

Giles smiled at him. "Nicely enclosed little curse bombs. Ethan put his in a bunch of little jewelry boxes to give out to those who irked him greatly." He smirked a bit. "Most everyone avoided him for months after that. Only one forgot about what it was and gave it to her mother. Who did open it but he had set it to the daughter specifically so the mother just got a faceful of flower petals. Ones to make you love someone." He tipped his head then considered it. "I think that's why that chit got a new sibling actually."

Harry looked at him oddly. "Is that usual?"

"No, but Ethan was never *usual*, Harry. That's why he's the high priest of Janus now."

Draco Malfoy looked over at him. "There's people who still worship Janus?"

"Yes. He's in London with one of the children here who was found to be summoning demons to train her not to do that. Her mother handed her to him to train." He smirked a bit. "There's many who follow the old ways, Mr. Malfoy. While in school we thought for *sure* that Professor McGonagall followed her namesake."

"Bloody hell no. I'm not some pagan to be dancing around under the stars," she complained, staring at him. "Is that why Miss Malacaster followed me about?"

"No, I believe she was trying to flirt," Giles told her. It made her blush. "I've seen her wife, she's adorably girlish and pretty. Just the most dollish girl ever without going all the way to the Lolita trend." McGonagall slumped, staring at him oddly. He nodded. "She's in Norway teaching in a muggle school while helping squibs but they're frankly adorable."

She sighed, just nodding as she sipped her tea. "I can see how she'd be attracted to that sort."

"Oh, no, that dear is actually a part time Domme, Professor." He smirked at her. "Quite well known internationally with magical dominatrix duties."

She hung her head and sighed again. "That figures." She finished her tea. "Any new news?"

"I told the aurors we'd remove the circle if they couldn't when they were done."

"That's fine. Better it be gone," she said with a hand wave. "Before someone innocent runs into it." She made herself more tea and stirred in the cube of sugar before taking a sip. She heard something yelp in the hallway and looked that way. "What was that?" she called.

"Stupid little mice!" a girl called back.

"Someone turned some," Harry said. "Xander said to throw them in the sun or hit them with a pointy bit of wood."

Buffy got up and went to find it. "Aww, it is a vampire." She leaned down to poke it then staked it. She grinned at the girl. "I've staked a number of vampy vamps but never a mouse one." She walked off.

The girl blinked at her then looked at the others staring at them. "Who is she?" she mouthed to one.

"That is the Slayer Buffy," Draco said as he came out. "Mr. Giles' charge. She came up to talk to Potter about hero things."

"Oh," the kids in the hallway said with a nod. They could avoid that. Though a few went to look up what a slayer was. It sounded like Potter only without the magic and female. Maybe they'd be good to help him.

Draco went to think about those who followed the *old* ways. Did Xander do that? Did Potter? He knew the witch that looked like she could be a Weasley did. She had sworn a few times at the Goddess.

***

Luna looked at Buffy. "May I interview you for my father's paper the Quibbler, Miss Summers? We have no idea what a slayer is, beyond the few who looked it up."

"I don't mind," she said, looking at Giles, who just sighed and nodded. "Are you guys like a major paper?"

"No. We're small and my father prints a lot of things that people don't understand or want to understand." She smirked a bit. "But a lot of it is hidden information."

"Then sure! I don't mind. Come sit with me and Harry,...what was your name?"

"Luna Lovegood." She got her quill and parchment, coming over to talk to Buffy and then Willow about their things. Then she got Mr. Giles as well. A former alumni, who had went darkish and then returned to the side of good? People would like to read that.

She flooed her father that night. "Daddy, I did some interviews for you." He smiled at her for that. "I talked to Miss Buffy Summers, one of the current vampire slayers that the Watchers Council lords over. She was up to talk to Potter about heroic things." He spluttered.

"I also talked to the witch we have doing rehab up here about her type of magic and how she had helped on the hellmouth in Sunnydale, and I talked to Mr. Giles about what he had done since he had graduated." She tossed through the parchment roll. "There you go, Daddy."

She beamed. "They're very nice people. But a bit scary. Miss Rosenburg is super powerful beyond what we are. She's closed the hellmouth." She hung up with a grin and a wave then bounced back to her room to go back to her studies. She couldn't get behind on them.

***

Greg finally came back to work, Emilia with him. They had went on vacation together to work out the whole 'real mate' thing she had going on and wanted but had denied herself for so long. Sure, it was like a honeymoon but it had been a lot of talking. He smiled at Jim Brass when he ran into him first. "We're back!"

"Where did you go?" he demanded.

"I took all that leave time that they demanded I use and used it," he said dryly. "After a bit of healing time I got an actual vacation for the first time in a few years." He smirked. "This is my mate, Emilia." He waved a hand at her.

"So it was a sudden honeymoon?"

"Not totally, no." He shrugged but grinned. "Let me go check in so I can introduce her to people." He walked her back to the meeting room. "People, I have returned after using all the leave time the city told me I had to use or lose." A few glared at him. He stared at them.

"This is my mate Emilia." He waved a genflucating hand at her. "Emilia, these are the people that I work with and a few friends. This is Hodges," he said with a pat of his shoulder. "This is Archie, Bobby, and Jacquai. This is of course my boss, Grissom." He pointed. "That's Catherine, Sara, and Nick. Warrick must have tonight off so I'll introduce you to him some other time."

She waved. "Hi, I'm Emilia. Greg's mate." She grinned. "Thank you for watching over him for me while I had to deal with things."

Catherine nodded slowly. "I've seen your picture somewhere."

"I work with diplomats to keep negotiations going smoothly." She grinned. "Greg and I nearly dated in our secondary schooling but things were a bit...odder than usual so we couldn't. But we've since given up on pining and are dealing with it for real now." She smirked. "I hope you all take good care of my Greggy while he's here."

"I'm sure we try," Hodges said. He stared at her. "I've seen his school picture of you in his apartment."

She grinned at him. "Yes, I'm in there. So are a lot of others he knows and we just caught up with again. It was great to get the group back together, even if we were problem solving for a few others. Someone was really trying very hard to get a few present students at our joint secondary school so we had to step in and stop that bullshit."

She grinned and shook his hand. "I know you two are close so you can pump him for info later." She winked at Greg then kissed him. "Let me go look at your apartment. Are we staying there? And do I have any closet room?"

"I have no idea. Figure it out and tell me?" he offered with a grin.

"I can do that." She kissed him again then bounced off to appear harmless to the others.

Greg grinned at them. "So, anyway, did I miss anything?"

"No," Catherine said, shaking her head. "But we apparently did, Greg. You just walked off?"

"No, I had put in leave papers before then but Grissom ignored them like he does everything else on his desk," he said bluntly, staring at him. "Twice. In a month." Grissom winced at that. "So I handed you the last set in person so you couldn't ignore it. But I'm now just under my full vacation time limit so they can't rob me of hours to pay me for working. We also talked to the sheriff about how I've done quadruple overtime many days. He was not amused. He'll fix it though."

"I've talked with him about that. So you went on your honeymoon?"

"No, we went to save the school and caught up and finally figured it out." He shrugged but grinned. "Then we went to a nice island and talked for a long time to finish working stuff out."

"Ah." He nodded. "So no wedding?"

"No. She doesn't want one." He shrugged. "I'm not going to force one on her. What we have is enough for her and us. I'll redo my legal contact paperwork tonight." He looked at Catherine again. "Am I your helper tonight or Nick's?"

"Nick's," she said with a nod. "I've been here for hours thanks to a case last night and I'm beat."

"I know that feeling very well. The green couch is more comfortable if you flip the cushions to the pink side. They're a bit more firm."

"I didn't realize that." She went to try that and it was more firm and comfortable. She laid down and let herself rest for now.

Greg grinned at Nick, who was blinking at him. "What? Shocked that I had friends in high school?"

"No," he admitted, shaking his head. "I figured you had a lot of them."

"About seventeen total in our group. Most of them are married or working in weird fields." He shrugged. "I think I'm the most normal one of the group. Which no one expected of me." He grinned. "Let me go change my shoes and I'll be right back for our case."

"Okay," Nick said, nodding like a bobble head. Greg walked off happier. He looked at Grissom, who was scowling. "He's happy. It's good to see him happy again."

"Emilia's pretty," Sara offered. "And apparently smart too."

"Probably," Catherine agreed from the couch. "She can keep up with a bouncy Greg, so that's great."

Grissom sighed, handing over assignments before going to find Greg to talk to him. Greg had avoided him to join up with Nick at the SUV so they could go on their first case of the night. So he'd get to talk to him later. If his new 'wife' didn't block it by bringing him lunch to eat with the others. He really did have to corner Greg to get him straightened out again. And to find out what that person who had done whatever to him had been trying to do. It made no logical sense.

***

Xander leaned into Gryffindor's common room that night. "Hey, Neville, where's my protege and his redheaded evil clone?"

"They're in their room, Xander." He blinked at him. "What have they done?"

"Oh, it's good," he said with a grin.

Neville noticed something but shrugged mentally. "I'll go get Harry."

"I can do that." He tried to come through the doorway and couldn't.

"I doubt that," Neville quipped, hurrying up the stairs. "Something or someone pretending to be your cousin is at the doorway," he told Harry once he had blinked awake. "He's not wearing the heir's necklace. Called you his evil protege and Ron your clone. Whatever that is."

Harry got up and put on his glasses, grabbing his wand and robe before going down there. He stared at Xander, then sighed. "Well, you're not nice," he decided, making the guy freeze. He tapped the pendant to share with Xander, who was flirting with someone in a bar nearby somewhere. Xander showed up a few minutes later to handle this. The being screamed as he was yanked off. "Need help?" he called after him.

"Nah. This little prick is done for." He smirked back at him. "Have a good night, Harry. You could use the rest." He waved and used the camp moving spell to move him and the prick with him to somewhere less important. He stared at him. The guy stared back. "Cute, really."

"But I'm Xander."

"You're not Xander and Xander's not fully Xander, dude. I'm Xander and more." He smirked. "We are a Dumass." The man flinched, stepping away from him. "Hmm. Might be a great idea. Or run. I could use a good chase through the woods." He stared at him as the guy backed off further.

Xander growled and followed, wand going into the holster. The guy tried to apparate to somewhere safer but Xander followed. He tried a few more places, no good to get away. Finally he ran to the Ministry and Xander casually followed, waving off the aurors.

"I'm Xander Harris," he told the auror he had pounced. "I really am! That's a mad man!" He pointed at Xander, who smirked and waved. "He's hunting me! Help me!"

"Oh, let him go," Xander said with a grin for the staring auror. "If he wants to be me so much he can take what the hyena taught me." He stared at him. "He really can. After all, I can." He smirked a bit. "Are you scared, little prick?"

The man slid behind the auror's body. "Sir," the auror said. "We need to prove which one of you is which."

"How would you like to do that?" Xander asked dryly. "Me remembering things? You wouldn't have my magical signature on file. You guys can't run DNA tests to tell relatives."

"Memories first," the auror said, hauling the guy from behind him. "Where are you living, boy?"

"California!"

"Not bad," Xander said. "But it's been in the news a few times." He looked at the staring older woman. "Do you still have that mole? It was fun to play with from what I remember."

She blushed, shaking her head. "Had it removed when I was nineteen. It kept swelling and getting hurt by my clothes," she said then cleared her throat. "The Dumass family are all cursebreakers. I know Alexander had more than one wand. Does the other one?"

"Wizards only need one!" he complained.

Xander pulled out his wand case to hold up and let her see them. "Those? That's my special charms one. That's my one to break curses in the blood related types. That's mine to break in bigger things because it's more sturdy when I need to blow up a house." He picked it up to look at then put into his pocket.

"I need to go do that to Justy's house. One of his kids needs helped according to the ghost aunts." He grinned as he rezipped it. "My patronus is on file as I had to defeat a major problem with it once. Making the dragon high off the energy worked fairly well."

"Let me look that up," another auror said, hurrying off.

Xander looked at the senior auror, shrugging a bit with a grin. "I have no idea who he really is or how he came to be here. I was going to hunt him down and beat him to death to find that out. But he ran here to take my fun from me. Can I have him after we prove who is who?"

"He should probably be in custody for impersonating you," she complained.

"That sucks," he muttered. "But that's fine." The auror came back with the file in question. Xander looked then shrugged. "I've changed since then but I can still produce that one. It changed again when my fiancée died way back when." He cast the first one, a full gryphon. Then he let it morph to his usual former one, the owl headed gryphon. Then his new one, which was a hyena bodied thing with a dragon head which had a beak and was blind on one side. He let it go, staring at the higher auror.

"I remember why it changed," she admitted. "Let's see his." The guy refused and whined about that. "So he's not the real Dumass. No Dumass *whines*."

"Unless we're sick and being forced to stay in bed," Xander quipped, rubbing the back of his neck. "But we'd only whine at the aunt doing the hostage keeping or the spouse doing it." He pulled his breaking wand with a grin. "Let's see who you really are." He broke the illusion on him, making him scream in pain as it ripped the marks off his chest. "Hmm. Interesting." He walked closer, checking him over. "So, who the fuck are you, little prick?" He grinned again. "I can cast a truth spell."

"You're an abomination!" the man shouted and lunged at him. Xander punched him in the face and then staked him a tiny bit. The man moaned as he hit the floor.

Xander stared down at him. "Really? You think I didn't learn a thing in Sunnydale? Really?" He smirked a bit. "I've seen newly risen vampires tougher than you."

"You shouldn't have jumped in!"

"I was put there. It was protecting myself. But you're welcome for still being alive since it was *my* plan that solved the ascension." He smirked a bit. "I've backed her up for years because I was there and it included me. Did you want me to be turned? We saw how that would've went when I was torturing Angel and calling him Puppy as the favorite child of the Master."

He smirked again. "I was so mean that half of Sunnydale was gone. And that was without the magic, which wouldn't have stopped me as I could just get a new wand to cast with. And I can use non-wanded styles." He grinned, leaning down a tiny bit. "It pays to be the book nerd cursebreaker of the universe sometimes. Doesn't it?"

"You'll still fall!"

"Awwww! Is the Council going to try to kill me again? Let them." He stared at him. "I can end that shit right here and now, dude. So many of you are Hogwarts trained and none of you have a clue about anything. Even Giles, who learned outside those walls.

"I mean, hell, I could cast wandless when I was a second-year. And did more than once to prank some bitches who were annoying." He waved his free hand and called a beer to him to sip. "So how are you going to do that?"

The man spluttered. "Eww, you're getting spit on me. Real men swallow." He finished the beer with a sigh. "That's nicer." He kicked him hard in the chest. "Get the fuck up!" The man tried to get away again but the aurors hauled him up and to the interrogation rooms. Xander sighed. "You're taking my fun."

"Yes we are," the junior auror with the file agreed with a grin. "Because we hate to see blood spilled in the office. It might draw something here."

"Why? Is Druscila Black or William 'Spike' Weasley back here?" he asked. "I know they broke up."

"The Scourges?" the junior auror demanded.

"Yeah. They were in Sunnydale. Druscila thinks Harry's sweet." He shrugged. "She's related to him. Spike's helped the team a bit recently. And Buffy's flirting with him since Dru lit off to go screw a slime demon in Brazil. Apparently she's into horns right now for some reason." He shrugged again. "Spike's pouting and letting Buffy flirt. Especially after Willow's will spell that made them nearly marry under a tree at sunset."

The junior auror blinked. "A what spell?"

"As in my will be done."

"We know nothing about that."

Xander clapped him on the arm. "You should learn about other forms of magic then, dude. It's really kinda fascinating. I had to learn about house elf magic for the job and it's fascinating. I learned a lot over the years." He grinned and disappeared.

The head auror sighed, looking at his junior one. "He's right, learning other forms of magic is fascinating but dangerous. As for that spell, she's rehabbing up at Hogwarts because she got sucked into black magic for a bit. The Coven up by Devon couldn't handle it because those Council assholes wanted to kill her for helping Slayer Summers. The same as that guy did." She cleared her throat. "If that spell works like I think it does, she made them controlled to her will over how they should be."

"Can we find a way to block that?"

"No. Wandless witches and wizards are a whole different thing. Some are weaker, some are stronger, some are purer, some are sweet and nice. Some get lost. Some are hags." She rubbed her forehead. "The coven up in Devon is full of hag class witches who lord over magic addiction healing.

"Dumass is giving shelter to a true worshiper of the Goddess and she's so pure she pets all the unicorns. The coven thought they were adorable but could barely get near them. Rosenburg accidentally transported herself from California to talk to Harris about something, thinking he was just across town." The auror tensed up, staring at her.

She nodded. "Yes, some of them are powerful. Some of them aren't. Like us, they have different levels, different specialties, and different ideas. A lot of them wouldn't allow a lesbian witch like Rosenburg to be part of their coven. Or her girlfriend the pure one. Many covens would be very enthusiastic about Tara helping them, because she is a purer witch."

"Are they powerful enough to use a wand?"

"They're more powerful because they don't need one. All they need to do is focus. Some need a full altar and ritual. Some slip sideways and only need to think about magic. Unlike us, if their herbs and candles disappear they're not helpless."

The junior auror nodded. "Can we learn more about that?"

"Please do. We could probably use that. They're growing in numbers as muggles rediscover it and it's prompted in popular media. So many teens find out they can float things like the ones on movies."

"Where do I start?"

"Ask Tara. Up at Dumass Glen. She was taught properly by her maternal relatives."

"I can do that tomorrow." He looked toward the yelling going on then at her. "Want me to go intervene?"

"No, he's got it." She walked off. "Let me know personally if you can get it to work."

"Yes, ma'am." He went to watch the interrogation. The wizard was trying to charm him but it wasn't working. He walked in and stared at him. "Quit trying to mind screw us before you're put into magic nullifying cuffs." The man shrank away from him. He nudged the other auror, who blinked at him. "You good?"

"Yeah, it just gives me a headache." He went back to his questioning.

***

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