TITLE: Harry Potter and the Technomage
AUTHOR: Methos If ya want to host it somewhere else just tell me where ya putting it ok? ;)
DISCLAIMER: All things BtVS belong to Joss Whedon, Crusade and Technomagi belong to J M Strazynski, Harry Potter, Hogwards and all that belong to J K Rowling... nothing is mine, only the extremely twisted idea...
SUMMARY: It was a Halloween like none other, and something had changed Xander, now he just had to find some way of learning about what had changed...
FEEDBACK: Love it :) Either here or to my email addresses.
RELATIONSHIPS: None for a while, might change later on...RATING: FR15
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 it's case, placing the first wand on the counter. It was of the same high quality of work but it's 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.
"Hmph." 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.
"Hmph." 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 send 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 filements 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, 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, who seemed quite happy to just lay on his shoulder and receive attention from the woman.
"It seems you've found your familier, 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 furball 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, 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 color.
"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 it's 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 would had obviously never used the floo network before.
"If this is some sort of joke..." Xander trailed off as he tucked all his 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 mushed 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 trolly. 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 a 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 it's 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, rasing 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".
Xandr 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.
"Hargird." 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, 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 quizicle look, Ron had spoken about houses before, he had said something about wanting to be in Griffin or something.
"They are Gryffindore, Hufflepuff, Ravelclaw 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 who's 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 celieng 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 celing, 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 celing 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. "Gryffindore!" 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 Gryffindore 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.
"Gryffindore?" Xander offered n a shy voice.
"Gryffindore?" 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 Gryffindore 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.
"Gryffindore!" 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.
"Gryffindore!" 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 celing.
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.