TITLE: Harry Potter and the Technomage
AUTHOR: Methos All things BtVS belong to Joss Whedon, Crusade and Technomagi belong to J M Strazynski, Harry Potter, Hogwarts and all that belong to J K Rowling... nothing is mine, only the extremely twisted idea...
Xander suppressed yet another mumbled curse as Harry trod on his foot yet again as the two made their way to the restricted area of the library under the cover of Harry's new invisibility cloak. Because of the limited space they had to work with, Xander had been forced to leave his staff in their room, leaving him feeling strangely vulnerable as he gripped his wand tightly in his right hand to reassure himself.
"This way." Harry whispered as he parted the front of the cloak and reached out with the lantern to light up the area they were moving through, they were nearly at the restricted area and had managed to find the way without running into any wandering teachers surprisingly, for once things seemed to be looking up for them.
"Lead on." Xander whispered as he followed as close to Harry as he could, his extra height brought the cloak up so it barely touched Harry's head or face, simply falling in front of him and allowing him to use one hand for the lantern and the other to grip his wand.
"This is it." Harry whispered as he unlocked the bolt to the large wooden door, he didn't see Xander's eye roll as he looked up to the large sign above which announced they were entering the restricted area. Pulling the bolt open and pushing the door they stepped through before closing it quietly behind them, "No use taking any chances." Xander muttered under his breath.
Pulling the cloak of themselves Harry quickly made his way to the historical section while Xander took the opposite side and started running his fingers along the book shelves, looking for anything that hinted at the name "Nicholas Flammel."
"Anything?" Xander whispered as he finished his quick run down the aisle and turned to Harry.
"One second." Harry whispered back as he picked a book off the shelf and opened it up; no sooner had he opened it than a giant ball off flame exploded out from the pages, coalescing into a shape of a dragon at it soared into the air.
"Not that one!" Xander whispered in a stern tone as he jogged over and slammed the book shut in Harry's hands, effectively cutting the 'dragon' off at the tail before it faded away into the darkness.
"Who's there?" A voice echoed in the library.
"Filch!" Harry whispered as he span round, grabbing the cloak off the table and knocking the lantern he had placed there onto the floor where it promptly broke as it hit the ground.
"Smooth!" Xander whispered after him as he ran after Harry, catching up to him and pulling him into one of the side aisles.
"I know you're in there, you can't hide." Filches voice came again as he entered the restricted area, holding and lantern up and shining it into all the dark corners.
"Quick." Harry whispered as he untangled the cloak and threw it over Xander before ducking under it himself.
The two started moving slowly out of the aisle, ducking back in when Filch turned the corner and shone the lantern directly at Xander's face. It seemed the invisibility cloak worked as advertised though as Filch just seemed to stare off into the distance, obviously still on the search for the intruder before turning round and walking off to the far end of the library. Xander took this moment to grab Harry's shoulder and lead him out of the library, closing the main door softly behind him as they stepped out into the hall.
As they closed the door and turned to the hallway they were interrupted by a small meowing, glancing around Xander noticed Filches cat watching them before it started to move towards them. 'Note for future use, invisibility cloak doesn't work on animals.' Pushing harry to a soft jog the two made it down the hallway before the cat managed to snag their cloak, turning the corner Xander had to stop himself from shouting out a curse as he came face to face with Snape who was holding Professor Quirril up against the wall roughly by his throat.
"You don't want me as your enemy Quirril," Snape threatened in a very low voice as Quirril seemed to just splutter vague noises.
"What do you mean?" Quirril finally managed to splutter out.
"You know perfectly well what I mean." Snape snapped in the same low and dangerous tone.
"What..." Harry started to whisper before Xander clapped his hand over his mouth, silencing the younger boy.
Unfortunately the damaged had already been done as Snape turned to where they were stood and reached out with his arm. Stepping back from Snape the two managed to only just miss having the invisibility cloak snagged by Snape's fingernails as he waved in the air around him a few more times before he seemingly discarded the thought and turned his quarrel back to Quirril.
"We'll have another little chat soon, when you've decided where your loyalties lie." Snape finished off, and Xander decided right then and there that Snape could give a master vampire a run for its money in the growling dangerous voice department.
The two were interrupted from continuing their argument however when Filch came around the corner, brandishing the lantern that Harry had left broken in the library.
Xander cursed his luck and sent a silent prayer to the heavens asking for help in getting out of this one and Filch explained the Snape and Quirril what he had found.
"I found this," He started, holding the lantern up for inspection. "In the restricted section, it's still hot. That means there's a student out of bed."
Snape seemed more disturbed by this than he should have been as he immediately took off running down the corridor, followed shortly by Filch and Quirril. Xander tool this opportunity to nod towards the door behind them, which Harry nodded in agreement too before they made their way over to it and carefully opened the door before stepping through.
"Subtle," Xander breathed out at he pulled the cloak off of his head with a flourish, gasping for the cool air of the fresh room.
"What was Snape on about?" Harry asked as he took a careful look around the room.
"Dunno, we can't exactly ask him can we?" Xander grinned as he followed Harry's gaze and looked around the room for any other ways out they could use to get back to their room.
"What's that?" Harry asked, nodding to what looked like a large ornate mirror that was propped up against the far wall, it looked in a serious state of disrepair with cobwebs hanging from it and the golden paint on the frame had peeled off in several places.
Xander just shrugged before making his way over to it followed closely by Harry. "It's a big ass mirror," He quipped as they approached it.
"What's it say on the top, I can't quite make it out?" Harry asked, squinting his eyes to see if he could make out the writing the arched around the top of the frame.
"No clue, looks like Latin but I can't make it out." Xander muttered before turning his attention back to Harry. "Hey, you alright?" He asked, snapping his fingers in front of Harry's face for a second.
"Hey, what gives?" Xander muttered as Harry took a few steps forward, staring at his reflection in the mirror intently.
"Ok, that's freaky." Xander muttered as he looked into the mirror and could vaguely see shapes moving about. Spinning round to make sure they weren't actually in the room with him he tried to get a closer look at them, squinting at the mirror as he tried to make them out.
"Mum? Dad?" Harry asked as he started into the mirror,
"Ok, crazy hypnotising mirror not of the good." Xander muttered before placing his hand on Harry's shoulder and bending down to look directly in the face. "Harry, they're not real, whatever you're seeing it's not real."
"My parents, they were stood right behind me." Harry explained softly.
"Freaky mirror, that's all it is. Come on." With a reassuring smile Xander let Harry away from the mirror and back to the dorm room.
"Mister Harris, might I have a word with you for a moment?" Professor Dumbledore announced his presence as he walked through the arch into Xander's room.
"Sure Professor, what's up?" Xander grinned as he closed his book on Herbology and swung around on his bed to sit up and face the professor as he pulled a stool over to sit on.
"I have been speaking to your teachers my dear boy, and they all agree that you have been coming on in leaps and bounds this year." Dumbledore smiled at him before continuing. "They all agree that you have much more you can learn from this school though, have you given any thought to coming back next year?"
In truth Xander had been meaning to speak to Professor Dumbledore about this for a few days, he knew how well his spells were coming along, but if he ever wanted a shot at really mastering the spells the implants were capable of doing, this was the place to do it. He'd also made a lot of good friends here, including some of the teachers and was reluctant to have to say goodbye to them in a few months. "I'd like that Professor." Xander grinned.
"Excellent, I thought you would. I do have one request though." Dumbledore paused, waiting to gauge Xander's reaction. "There was a student here, last year, she finished her exams and went on to start her Auror training. Her final piece of coursework for her Defence against the Dark Arts course was a set of essays on the Hellmouth, particularly dealing with Vampire's and Slayers."
Xander raised his eyebrow, wondering where this was leading. Why would anyone want to study the Hellmouth? Especially if they came from the wizarding community, his opposite number he thought with a grin.
"If you wouldn't mind, I'd like to ask for her to join you when you return to Sunnydale after the school year closes. She would then come back to Hogwarts with you and complete her Auror training here for the next two years under the supervision of a qualified Auror." Dumbledore continued.
"If that's what she wants, sounds crazy to me though." Xander grinned at the thought of some young wizard like Hermione wanting to go to the Hellmouth, hell; Hermione would probably get a kick out of it and want to go back again to finish asking Buffy what it was like to be a slayer.
"Wonderful," Dumbledore smiled and stood up. "Also, I wonder if you could tell me where I might find Mister Potter? I've seen him wandering the halls several times late at night but never seem to be able to find out where he's going."
'Busted.' Xander thought with a grin. "I think I know where he is Professor, allow me." He grinned and stood up. He'd warned Harry about going back to that mirror when he found him sneaking out the night after they'd found it. He reasoned that he wasn't Harry's guardian though so he couldn't tell the boy what he could and couldn't do. He just gave Harry a warning to be careful with it and not to spend too much time with it.
Fetching his coat and staff he followed Professor Dumbledore out of the room before showing him where they had found the giant mirror.
"Didn't I say to not get addicted to this thing?" Xander announced with a grin as he stepped through the door to see Harry sat in front of the mirror, gazing up at his reflection and whatever else was being shown in it.
"Xander, Professor Dumbledore." Harry whispered, sounding slightly betrayed as he stood up and turned to look at them.
"I see that you, as so many before you have discovered the delights of the mirror of Erised, I trust by now you realise what it does." Dumbledore stated as he walked towards harry, pausing for a moment as Xander started chuckling from behind him.
"Erised?" Xander asked as Dumbledore nodded slowly. "The Mirror of Desire," Xander grinned before letting lose a bark of laughter.
"It shows us what we want?" Harry asked, looking at Xander first and then Dumbledore.
"Yes, and no." Dumbledore gave another of those half smiles that meant he knew exactly what he was on about, but was going to take his time explaining it to everyone.
"It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desires of our heart. Now you Harry, who never knew your family, see them standing beside you. And you Mister Harris..." Dumbledore smiled as Xander shook his head with a solemn look on his face.
"No way, I've had enough of people telling me what my dreams or 'desires' are, I think I'll trust myself over a magic mirror Professor." Xander said with a grimace, taking a conscience step back from the mirror.
"Very wise, very wise indeed," Professor Dumbledore smiled at him before turning back to Harry. "But remember this Harry, this mirror gives us neither knowledge or truth; men have wasted away in front of it. Your friend Mister Harris has figured it out, trust in yourself," Dumbledore smiled as he pointed a long finger to Harry's chest where his heart would be, "and trust in your friends. That is all you will need."
"Yes professor." Harry nodded before turning to Xander and smiling.
"Tomorrow it will be destroyed; it has managed to corrupt too many young students over the years, as I feared it may have corrupted you." Dumbledore paused for a moment, wondering if this was the best solution to the problem with the mirror. "In fact," He turned to face Xander. "Would you mind, I've been told about your famous Expelliarmus spell, I would very much like to see it for myself."
"You sure professor?" Xander asked, thinking about all the damage that spell could cause if he missed at hit the wall with it.
"Quite sure dear boy, please, do an old man one favour."
"If you insist," Xander grinned as he walked over to where Dumbledore was stood and aimed his staff at the mirror, this time holding it out one handed and standing confidently. "This is going to be messy," he muttered under his breath before turning to Dumbledore one last time to see him nod back at him.
"Expelliarmus!" He shouted, and was rewarded by a giant blast of white light shooting out of the end of his staff which impacted the mirror with such force the glass exploded outwards and the frame shattered in seconds.
Xander and harry immediately ducked down to avoid the shards of broken glass that were flying their way from the explosion, Dumbledore merely stood tall and raised his hand out, muttering something Xander didn't quite catch. He then watched as the glass was turned to harmless sand as it drifted past them before settling of the floor.
"You'll have to teach me that one." Xander grinned up at Dumbledore as he stood back up.
"I see now how you were able to defeat the troll, use that staff with caution my boy, it may have more power than even you believe." Dumbledore smiled at the two before making his way out of the room, leaving Xander with his thoughts while Harry stared in shock at the staff Xander was holding loosely.
"Xander, I wanted to ask you something." Harry asked one night, looking up from the textbook he was reading as he relaxed on his bed.
"Shoot," Xander grinned, unplugging his head phones from the laptop and pausing the DVD.
"I picked up your book the other day for class by mistake," Harry confessed, waiting for Xander's reaction before he continued, he was so used to being shouted at by his uncle and aunt that he was briefly shocked by Xander's grin and quiet acceptance.
"And?" Xander prompted with a grin.
"Well, I read what you had written about the seven basic spells, the only two you had filled in were 'mist' and 'shield', are there others?" Harry asked, he'd been dying to ask about the spells that Xander had been working on ever since he flicked through the book in class, some of the spells Xander was thinking about casting sounded extremely dangerous, and some sounded downright impossible.
"Yes and no," Xander grinned, doing a passable imitation of Dumbledore. "There are others, but those are the only two I think should ever be used, the others are too dangerous, that's why I didn't write anything down about them."
"Have you cast them yet? The shield and mist spell I mean." Harry continued, eagerly wanting to see what sort of things Xander could cast, ever since Hermione had told him about the spells that Xander used to kill the troll and he saw what Xander did to the Mirror of Erised, he had found himself more and more fascinated by what Xander could do.
"No," Xander answered truthfully. In all honestly he was actually afraid of casting any of the postulate spells for fear that they would go horribly wrong, that was why he hadn't even dare think about what the spell of destruction could do in this world, in the books Galen could use it to destroy an entire spaceship, it basically pinched off a large sphere and separated it off into another dimension before closing and sealing itself off. Xander had so wish to ever see that spell cast in this world, and as he was the only one who could ever do it, he found himself in the same predicament as Galen, only he would never use the spell, he promised himself that.
"Not even the mist one?" Harry asked hopefully, he couldn't see the harm in casting a simple spell to create mist, it was taught in the school during their fifth year classes, so if Xander could do it already, maybe he could teach him how to do it so he could have a boost for the rest of his time at Hogwarts.
Xander just eyed him carefully, in truth the mist one was the one he'd been considering casting first, the shadow shield one sounded pretty scary, covering him in shadow skin. He gave a slight shudder at the idea of it, but the mist seemed pretty friendly, it wasn't as if it could actually hurt anyone. "You want to see me conjure some mist." Xander half stated half asked with a smirk as Harry nodded eagerly.
"Please." Harry looked over at Xander as he closed his book.
"Right, if we're doing this I want to talk to Dumbledore first, make sure that nothing goes wrong alright?" Xander grinned as Harry eagerly nodded. "I'll go and see if Dumbledore is free for an experiment, you meet me outside the main hall in ten minutes." He smiled as Harry rushed to put on his coat before dashing out the door. "Kids," Xander muttered under his breath before fetching his coat and staff and making his way to Professor Dumbledore's study.
"Ready Harry?" Xander grinned as he walked out into the soft snow, smiling as he heard the crunch of it under his heavy boot.
"Don't forget me!" Ron shouted as he ran out of the hallway to meet them, nearly colliding with Professor Dumbledore as he walked through the main arch.
"How could I? You two are inseparable." Xander grinned as Dumbledore gave a small smile. "Right, you understand that nothing might happen, my form of magic is a hell of a lot different to yours."
Ron and Harry nodded while Xander noticed that Professor Dumbledore had brought his wand with him just in case anything went wrong.
"Are you sure you want to do this my boy?" Dumbledore asked softly. He'd voiced his concerns several times before to Dumbledore as he found him in the library time after time, toiling over thick volumes trying to translate spells from incantations into his own language.
"Yeah, got to try them at least once, well the safe ones anyway." Xander grinned as he rubbed his hands together, still not used to the cold winters they had here but not wanting to do the spell inside in case it backfired causing damage to the castle.
"Do or do not, there is no try." Dumbledore offered sagely as Xander turned to stare at him with a grin.
"Star Wars Professor? Didn't picture you for muggle sci-fi." Xander grinned shaking his head at the thought of Dumbledore in a cinema watching Return of the Jedi.
"Whoever said George Lucas was a muggle?" Dumbledore asked with a twinkle in his eye that caused Xander to actually stop and think about the movies in a new light.
"Come on, it's bloody freezing out here." Ron complained, pulling his coat tighter around himself.
"Fine," Xander grinned at Ron before walking to the center of the snow covered area. "Keep back; I don't want you hurt in case something does go wrong." Xander shook his head, not quite believing he was going to go through with this. "Wand first, staff if it doesn't work alright?"
Dumbledore nodded to say that he thought this was the best course of action for Xander to take, and just as Xander was about to cast the spell he was interrupted by the sound of snow crunching underfoot from behind him. Spinning round he found himself facing Professor Snape, who was stood watching him with a curious look on his face.
"Came to watch as well?" Xander grinned.
"Well I saw you all out here in the freezing cold, so I thought it must be something of extreme interest to draw you away from the fires inside." Snape explained dryly.
"Just a new spell I wanted to try out, nothing really big." Xander smiled as Snape moved over to stand next to Professor Dumbledore.
"By all means then," He waved his hand in a 'get on with it motion'. "Continue."
"Fine," Xander muttered, bracing himself as he pointed his wand at the floor with a flourish. "Umbra Caliga!" a first nothing happened, then the wand seemed to grow hotter in his hand for a second before going cold again.
"Impressive." Snape sneered with his usual dry tone.
"Phase one, failure, on to phase two." Xander grinned as he put his wand back in his pocketed and braced himself with his staff, planting it firmly on the floor. "Umbra Caliga!"
This time the effect was almost instantaneous, the mist started to rise out of the snow before it seemed to roll in from all around them. The mist wasn't its normal grey colour though, it was a deep black that rolled along the snow, obscuring the crisp white floor as it snaked around the area, soon blanketing the entire ground with its deep, thick shadows.
"Interesting." Snape commented, bending down to wave his hand through the mist. "Textured as well, a true feat, you must explain to me how you accomplished this Mister Harris."
"That's spooky." Ron commented as he reached down, quickly pulling his hand back from the mist as he lost sight of it too quickly for his tastes.
Harry was just looking at the mist in amazement, it was nothing like the mist in the spell books, where as the mist conjuration they were going to be taught was pale and wispy, this mist looked like it had crawled out of the pits of hell, as Ron said, it was definitely spooky.
Raising his staff in the air, Xander brought it down sharply calling out "Expello Umbra" as the staff hit the ground. The mist seemed to roll back to wherever it had come from before seeping back into the snow and vanishing completely, leaving the area shining brightly with snow again. Once the mist had gone the area looked brighter, not just in light, but it didn't seem as tight or claustrophobic as it had done with the mist rolling along the ground.
"Very impressive my boy, your shield spell next I think?" Dumbledore smiled, nodding at Xander before he could voice any concerns.
"But..." Harry started to ask a question but was cut off by Xander,
"If Professor Dumbledore thinks it's safe, and we have both him and Professor Snape here to watch, I think it would be a good idea to test the shield spell as well." Xander smiled as Harry swallowed tightly and edged back towards Professor Dumbledore.
"What's he trying to do now?" Ron asked, still a bit shaken by the black mist that had been rolling around his knee's not five minutes ago.
"A shield spell, one of the spells he's been afraid to try so far." Harry whispered back, he'd told Ron about what he'd found in Xander's book before talking to Xander about it.
"Right, shielding one oh one." Xander grinned, deciding to forgo the wand this time and just use the staff, if the mist wouldn't work with the wand, then it made sense that none of the others would either. He was actually quite thankful that that meant, for the moment, he was the only one capable of casting these spells. Lifting his staff in the air, he spared a brief glance to Dumbledore and Snape, praying they would be able to stop the spell if anything went wrong.
Bringing the staff down sharply, he shouted the incantation. "Umbra Protego!"
Again, the effect was instantaneous. A thick oily substance started to ooze out of the staff, quickly covering his arm before moving onto the rest of his body. Within seconds it had grown across his chest and was making its way up his neck to his face. Forcing himself not to panic he looked over at Harry and Ron, who were looking a little pale and edging back towards Professor Dumbledore, Snape already had his wand out and was aiming it at Xander, he seemed to relax it a bit though when he met Xander's eyes.
Taking a deep breath Xander waited for the ooze to travel up his neck and over his face, in just a few short seconds he was completely covered in the thick oily shield, panicking for a bit he forced himself to calm down and attempt to breathe, finding that he could breathe normally through the dark shield surrounding him he moved onto the next test.
"I'm fine Harry." He grinned as he looked over at the group who visibly relaxed when hearing his voice.
"Now that's bloody creepy." Ron confessed, still stood behind Harry and edging slowly towards Dumbledore.
"You can actually see through that?" Snape asked, his tone was actually strangely neutral for once.
"Yup, speak, breathe, hear and see," Xander grinned, he probably couldn't eat or drink through it, but everything else was fine.
"Simply amazing my dear boy, simply amazing." Dumbledore smiled and clapped softly as he looked over at the thick oily skin that was covering Xander head to toe, it seemed to be shifting and dancing in the light with small grey patterns playing on the deep black surface.
"How strong is it?" Snape asked, his tone still neutral.
"Um, not sure." Xander confessed, he knew how strong it was in the books, but how strong it was in real life was a different matter completely.
"Well don't you think you should check before congratulating yourself too hard?" Snape sneered at Xander, his tone back to being slightly condescending.
"And how do you suggest we do that? You want to fire fireballs at me or something?" Xander snapped back, immediately considering it when Snape did the same.
"Would it hold up to an Incendio?" Snape asked, his tone now curious.
"Should do, if I got the right spell it should even hold up to an unforgivable." Xander confessed, drawing shocked looks from everyone.
"I think an Incendio will suffice, I wouldn't want the students to hear that I was firing unforgivable's off at students, it might give them the wrong idea." Snape gave a wry smile before brandishing his wand with a flourish. "Incendio!"
The fireball shot from the wand and Snape's aim held true, impacting Xander in the center of his chest where the black shield glowed red for a moment before returning to its normal black colour and the patterns seemed to grow stronger over the area that the fireball had impacted for a few seconds before it returned to normal.
"Well?" Snape asked, curious as to how this experiment would end.
"Felt the impact, no heat though, felt like I was being hit by a pillow." He grinned, even though he knew Snape couldn't see it.
Snape decided to up the ante a bit this time, with a flourish of his wand he fired another curse off. "Tardus Infirmus!" as the green light shot out of his wand and impacted the shield, there was even less of an effect than there had been with the fireball. The green light seemed to dissipate over the black shield before being soaked into the oily substance.
"Didn't even feel that one," Xander quipped.
"Sectumsempra!" Snape shouted with another flourish, this time a bright red light shot out of his wand, impacting the shield. This attack nearly caused Xander to stumble backwards as the red light played over his entire body for a second before being soaked into the shield.
"Ok, felt that one." Xander explained as he righted himself.
"I do believe that will be enough." Dumbledore put a stop to the experiment.
Xander raised his staff up again, bringing it to the floor with a shout of "Expello Umbra". The shield seemed to shrink for a second before peeling away across his body before actually being absorbed into his clothes. "Freaky," he commented as he shuddered before making his way over to where Harry and Ron were staring at him in amazement.
"That was bloody creepy Xander, how did you breathe in that thing?" Ron asked as Harry turned to him, his face showing he had exactly the same question.
"Just breathed, it was like the shield wasn't even there, I could see something in front of my eyes, but I could see through it fine." Xander grinned as the two boys nodded.
"A very effective shield, one that might even protect you from an unforgivable. A true treasure my boy." Dumbledore smiled before making his way back inside.
"Yes, very effective, perhaps you would be willing to share your secrets one day." Snape sneered before moving off after Dumbledore.
"That mist was bloody creepy though." Ron confessed as Xander led the two boys back into the main hall to fetch three mugs of steaming cocoa with little marshmallows.
"Definitely," Harry agreed, "nothing like the mist in the books."
"I thought it might be different, that's why I wanted Professor Dumbledore around in case anything went wrong." Xander smiled, he'd managed to cast two of the seven original Technomage spells. Aside from the one he would never cast, that left four for him to try and translate.
"Bet that mist would send even death eaters running." Ron smiled as they entered the hall and he jogged over to fetch his mug of cocoa.
"Death eaters?" Xander mouthed to Harry in confusion, receiving a smile in return.
The rest of the Christmas holidays went quickly, the weather started to warm and the snow melted away to show the fresh grass of a new year. Xander surprisingly actually found himself looking forward to when the rest of the students returned, as well as he got on with Ron, Harry and the teachers that were still in the school, the castle got a bit lonely with just them.
The school term started soon enough though and the halls were filled with the sounds of students again. The first lessons started and Xander found himself more at ease with the rest of the students now that he knew his limits and which spells had translations for him to work on and which didn't.
Xander, Ron and Harry were in the library one afternoon, trying to research something for Astronomy next period when Hermione came walking up to them before dropping a thick tome on the table.
"I had you looking in the wrong section, how could I be so stupid." Hermione said as she took a seat.
"New diary Hermione?" Xander said with a grin, receiving his customary glare before Hermione realised what she was doing and blushed bright red.
"I checked this out weeks ago for a bit of light reading." Hermione decided to ignore Xander and started flicking through the thick book she had just dropped on the table.
"Hermione, anything over five hundred pages doesn't qualify as light reading." Xander announced as Harry nodded.
"More like anything over two hundred," Ron corrected him as he stared in amazement at the thick book Hermione was quickly flicking through.
"Nicholas Flammel is the only known maker of the philosopher's stone." Hermione announced, pointing to the page on the book where it described him in detail.
"The what?" Ron and Harry asked in unison while Xander moved round the table to get a better look at the page Hermione was pointing to.
"The stone has astonishing powers, blah blah blah... whoa; it'll turn any metal into gold and produces this elixir of life that makes people immortal." Xander summed up the paragraphs as he quickly read through them. "Seems good old Nick here has the only stone in existence. Bet that's worth a bit." Xander grinned as he slammed the book shut with a thump.
"The philosophers' stone, that's what Fluffy's guarding on the third floor!" Hermione announced, bringing everyone up to speed with her thoughts. "That's what's under the trap door, the philosophers' stone!"
"Great, so there's a stone that brings immortality and riches to anyone who owns it, and it's hidden in a private school in England." Xander grinned at the situation he'd found himself in.
"Hogwarts is in Scotland, not England." Hermione corrected him.
"Whatever," Xander waved off her comment, it was all the same to him, one little island. "What now? Tell Professor Dumbledore that someone's trying to steal it?"
"Hagrid." Harry and Hermione announced together, sharing a smile afterwards.
"Back to the giant." Xander quipped with a grin as he started to pack up his books.
That night the four of them made their way to Hagrid's house which was on the edge of the school grounds by the forbidden forest. Banging on the door sharply Harry waited as Xander, Ron and Hermione stood behind him.
"Hagrid!" Harry grinned as Hagrid opened the door.
"Sorry, don't wish to be rude, but I'm in no fit state to entertain today, goodnight." Hagrid moved to shut the door but was stopped when Xander slipped his staff in between the door and the wall.
"We know about the stone." Xander said in a soft tone.
Hagrid opened the door again and seemed to regard them for a second. "Oh," He said simply before thinking about something before turning back to them. "Come in then."
"We think Snape's trying to steal it." Harry confessed as the four made their way into Hagrid's house.
"Snape? I thought you had talked these three out of that nonsense." Hagrid turned to Xander.
"You try, I've given up." Xander said with a smile as he sat down in one of Hagrid's amazingly huge chairs.
"Hagrid, we know he's after the stone, we just don't know why." Harry continued, ignoring Xander.
"See," Xander waved over at the three.
"Snape is one of the teachers protecting the stone, he's not about to go stealing it." Hagrid explained as Xander shot the three a grin that said 'I told you so!'
"Now if you don't mind, I'm a bit preoccupied today." Hagrid made a moment to move them all along out of his house so he could get on with whatever he was doing.
"Wait a minute, one of the teachers?" Harry asked, wanting to eliminate as many suspects as he could.
"Of course!" Hermione shouted. "There are other things defending the stone aren't there? Spells, enchantments."
"That's right. Waste of bloody time if you ask me, ain't nobody going to get past fluffy." Hagrid puffed out his chest proudly. "Ain't a soul knows how, except for me and Dumbledore."
Whatever Hagrid was going to say next was cut off by a rattling coming from behind him, turning round he reached down into a cauldron and picked out a large object before moving over to the table and placing it in the center.
"Lunch Hagrid?" Xander asked as he moved over to the table, it looked to be a giant egg on the table, a bit scorched from being in the cauldron but still a giant egg.
"Hagrid, what is that?" Harry asked, eying the egg carefully as it jostled about the table of its own accord.
"I know what that is!" Ron shouted excitedly. "But Hagrid, how did you get one?"
"I won it, off a stranger I met down the pub, seemed quite glad to be rid of it as a matter of fact." Hagrid seemed to pause for a minute in thought as the egg jumped about on the table.
"Uh, explanation please?" Xander quipped, standing back from the table slightly. He had to duck quickly as the egg cracked open, sending shards of broken shell everywhere. As he rose back up to see what had happened he was met with the sight of what looked to be a baby dragon sat on the table where the egg had been. "Ok, dragons, knew the existed, but seeing one? That's cool." Xander grinned as he moved closer to the table.
The dragon seemed to consider him for a moment as he bent over to come face to face with it. "Cute little thing, looks like an iguana." Xander muttered before reaching out and tickling its head with his finger.
"Uh, Xander, I don't think you should..." Ron was cut off by the weird sound of the baby dragon sneezing directly at Xander. He'd managed to duck in time to avoid the blast of flame that shot from the dragon's mouth, but it had caught his hair which was now still smouldering and burning close to his scalp.
"AHH!!!" He screamed, patting his head wildly for a second before Hagrid threw a goblet of water over him, fortunately for him the goblet was Hagrid sized, so Xander found himself on the receiving end of what felt like a bucket of cold water being dumped on his head. "Thanks." He managed to splutter out sarcastically as he shook his head off, his hair was practically burnt right down to the scalp with only the side and back remaining un-scorched.
Ron, Hermione and Harry were just looking at him in shock.
"Sorry 'bout that, must have given the little thing a fright or something." Hagrid apologized.
The group were interrupted by a noise coming from outside that sounded suspiciously like laughter. Cursing his misfortune Xander twirled round and ran for the door to see who it was that was spying on them at this time of night.
He got out of the hut just in time to see the blonde hair of Draco Malfoy run past the bushes and up the steps the too castle grounds. "Fuck!" He ground out, rubbing his now balding head with his hand and pulling it away as burns hairs started to fall to the floor. "I am going to kill that little shit!" Xander growled before running towards the castle, followed in hot pursuit by Hermione, Ron and Harry.
"Come here Malfoy!" Xander shouted as he ran through the arches of the castle entrance, looking from side to side down the corridors to see if there was any sign of him before making his way slowly down the corridor.
"Found him?" Harry asked as they caught up with Xander, hoping that they could somehow reason with Draco, but they doubted it.
"He's got to be about somewhere, can't have got far." Xander muttered, "You three check down there, I'll go this way." Nodding to the corridor on his right he watched the three wander off down it, checking the side passages as they went. Turning back to his corridor he started walking down it slowly again, purposely clicking his staff on the floor as he walked, hoping to unnerve Malfoy as much as possible.
Turning the corner of the corridor he came face to face with Professor McGonagall, who was comfortably dressed in a dressing gown and carrying a night light. Draco was at her side, smiling smugly.
"Aw crap." Xander muttered under his breath, realising what he must look like to his head of house.
"I understand you are a special case Mister Harris, but you must understand that nothing gives any students the right to walk about the school at night." Professor McGonagall as she stood in front of Draco and Xander in her classroom.
"Sorry." Xander ground out, though his full attention was on Malfoy who was watching him with a self satisfied smirk.
"And where are your friends?" Professor McGonagall asked, turning to Draco. "I was informed that Mister Potter, Mister Weasley and Miss Granger were with you tonight."
Xander turned to Draco with his best puzzled face. "Dunno Professor, I was just talking to Hagrid about something I read in a Magical Creatures book, I was thinking about taking it for my third year and wanted to get a head start on some of the research."
"All well and noble Mister Harris, but I cannot allow you to be wandering the school at night," Professor McGonagall levelled a glare at him. "You know how much Mister Potter and Miss Grange look up to you, it would be setting a bad example for both of them."
Xander at least had the good grace to look suitably chastised, even though inside he was plotting his revenge against Malfoy. Maybe that charm Snape had tested on his shield, the Slug Vomiting charm; he could hit Malfoy with that at lunch, that should do the trick.
"I will not be removing any points from you because if this, but both you will be serving detention tomorrow night." Professor McGonagall stated.
"Sorry, I must have misheard you," Draco piped up and Xander stifled a grin. "I thought you said both of us."
"No, you heard me correctly Mister Malfoy, for you were out of bed after hours as well." Professor McGonagall said, her lips twisting in a wry smile as Xander fought the urge not to laugh madly at Draco's face of disbelief.
The next day passed quite quickly, Potions, Herbology, Astrology and History of Magic. Harry, Ron and Hermione each thanked him gratefully for taking the punishment alone, then laughed when he told them he would be spending detention with Malfoy.
"Bet he's going to love that." Harry smiled, thankful that Draco finally got what was coming to him.
"They'd just better not leave me alone with the little snake, or Slytherin will be one member short." Xander groused out.
"What's Professor McGonagall set for your detention?" Hermione asked.
"Dunno," Xander admitted. "We're both to meet Filch by the main hall at sun set."
"Well better you than me." Ron muttered, and then received an elbow from Harry reminding them that it could have been them as well.
"So, what's the punishment?" Xander asked as he and Draco walked out of the castle following Filch.
Filch didn't say a word, he simply led them down the path towards Hagrid's hut where Hagrid was waiting for them. "You'll be serving detention with Hagrid tonight," Filch paused, looking at Xander before settling his gaze on Draco. "He's got a little job to do, inside the dark forest."
"Xander," Hagrid nodded to Xander with a soft smile. "Draco." He turned to Draco and the smile was gone. "Come on, we've got work to do." Hagrid paused for a second before turning to the forest boundary.
"The forest? I thought that was a joke, we can't go in there." Draco sounded suitably panicked and Xander grinned, maybe he wouldn't need to plan any revenge on Draco, by the looks of things this would scare him enough to keep him up for weeks.
"It's just a forest Malfoy." Xander grinned at him before striding after Hagrid.
Draco followed soon after, running to keep up with Xander and then staying close to him as they made their way into a clearing.
"Hey, Hagrid, mind if I shine a little light on things?" Xander called out, making Draco wince from the sound.
"Shh, they'll here you." Draco whispered.
"You're a moron, you know that." Xander muttered as Hagrid nodded.
Bringing his staff up sharply, he brought it down to the ground, impacting it perfectly to cover the sound as he spoke the "Lumos" charm. The staff tip lit up with an amazingly bright white light, shining up in the air as far as he could see.
"What? How?" Draco seemed even more panicked now, and Xander gave a smirk as he realized that his misdirection had worked and Draco had been too preoccupied with the staff to notice his incantation.
"Aye, that'll do just nicely." Hagrid grinned in appreciation of the extra light that now shone through the forest at the three made their way deeper and deeper in.
Hagrid paused for a moment in a clearing, bending down and dipping his fingers into what looked like quicksilver to Xander.
"Ewww, what is that?" Draco sounded suitably disgusted by Hagrid's actions as Xander bent down to look at the puddle closely. It seemed to look like a puddle of liquid metal, reminding Xander of that bad guy from Terminator two.
"Unicorn blood." Hagrid stated as he wiped the blood of his fingers onto his coat.
"Something's been killing unicorns?" Xander asked, outraged at the possibility that something would kill something that magical.
"Aye, found one dead a few weeks ago. Now, this one's been hurt bad by something."
Draco found himself immediately looking round the forest, squinting to get a better look through the dark trees to see if there was anything out there watching them.
"So it's our job," Hagrid continued, "to go and find the poor beast." Turning to Draco he levelled him with a glare. "You stick to Xander here like glue, got that?" Draco nodded as quickly as he could. "I'll go with fang here."
Turning to face the two boys one last time Hagrid headed off into the forest with the lantern, leaving Draco standing as close to Xander and his staff as he could. like all the other students, he'd heard the stories and rumours about what Xander was capable of with his staff, and really didn't want to be on the wrong side of him.
"Come on then." Xander muttered before striding off into the forest, Draco sticking to him like glue.
"You wait until my father hears about this," Draco complained as Xander turned to glare at him. "This is servant stuff."
"Malfoy?" Xander brought his finger up to his lips. "Shut up. There's something out here killing unicorns, if it's fast enough to catch one of them, then it's fast enough to sneak up on us."
That seemed to shut Draco up for a bit as he started looking around the forest with a panicked expression before he realized Xander had already headed off to another clearing, he quickly ran to catch up and spotted what Xander had seen that had stopped him cold.
"Is... is that..." Draco tried to stutter out something in a whisper.
Xander could see a black cloaked figure, bent over the unicorn. It had its head bend down to the unicorn's throat and looked to be drinking from it. "Evil cloaked figure, check, drinking blood, check, woefully under armed on patrol, check, no slayer nearby, check." Xander cursed his luck as the figure seemed to at last take note of them.
"Do something." Draco shouted, tugging his staff free and then tumbling to the ground with it.
"Aww hell!" Xander muttered as he watched Malfoy roll to the other side of the clearing, still clutching his staff in his hands. Digging his wand out of his pocket he raised it at the creature and tried to think of a spell he could use to do something effective.
"How the hell do you fire this thing?" Draco shouted, waving the staff around like an idiot and attempting to cast a dozen incantations at once.
"You can't use it," Xander shouted at him, cursing the boy's stupidity when he dropped the staff on the floor and decided on the best course of action, running for his life into the dark forest. "Coward." He muttered as the creature seemed to drift towards him in the breeze before coalescing into a solid form a few feet in front of him.
"Incendio!" Xander screamed, and was rewarded by a small fireball that shot from his wand and impacted the cloaked figure in the chest, it seemed only to anger it though as it kept coming towards him, its teeth snarling and dripping with the silver unicorn's blood that ran down his chin and stained the cloak.
"Don't suppose we can talk about this?" Xander tried as the figure seemed to consider him for a moment.
The figure snarled for a second before turning and flying off into the mists, leaving Xander trying to figure out exactly what had happened. By all rights it must have been a master vampire to fly like that, and it had him cornered, not to mention it hadn't been affected by fire.
Jogging over he picked up his staff and lit the tip again with the incantation, not bothering with the misdirection now he was alone. He shone the beam of his torch after the thing that had attacked him, hoping to make sure that it wasn't coming back to finish the job off.
"Xander, my god, you all right?" Hagrid called as he came into the clearing with Fang and Draco following him.
"Yeah, the vampire, or whatever it was flew off. Think it killed the unicorn though." Xander shook his head at Draco. "Moron," he muttered as he pocketed his wand.
"Just glad you're safe, come on, let's get you two back to the castle, I'd better have a word with Dumbledore if we've got vampires in the forest." Hagrid considered the possibility before leading the two students out of the forest, Draco was unusually silent the entire trip back to the castle, and probably in dire need of a change of pants.
"I'm telling you, it was some sort of master vampire or something." Xander explained to the trio as they sat around the fire in the main Gryffindor common room.
"There haven't been vampires near Hogwarts for years." Hermione stated with certainty. "Besides, a vampire would have been killed by your Incendio charm."
"Yeah, that did bother me a bit." Xander confessed. "But what else could it be?"
"What about... you-know-who?" Harry offered.
"Who?" Xander asked, still not used to the way wizards seemed to have strange words for completely normal things.
"Voldemort," Harry whispered.
"Why would he be drinking unicorn blood?" Xander asked, confused at how the conversation had gone from vampires to Darth Vader wannabe's in one turn.
"To stay alive, unicorn blood gifts the drinker with immortality, but he's weak." Harry explained his theory. "Snape doesn't want the stone for himself, he wants it for Voldemort."
"Not Snape again." Xander muttered, burying his head in his hands,
"Well who else?" Harry offered and Xander had to admit, there wasn't anyone else that would actually be brave enough to try and sneak past that monster of a dog.
"With the elixir of life Voldemort will be strong again, he'll come back." Harry seemed to visibly wilt before flopping into a free chair.
"And this is the guy that killed your parents?" Xander asked and Harry nodded in response. "Crap."
"If he comes back, you don't think he'll try to," Ron paused, visibly paling at his thoughts. "Kill you, do you?"
"Wait a minute, who's the one wizard Voldemort always feared?" Hermione asked the group.
"Merlin?" Xander offered, trying to lighten the mood, the it occurred to him, there probably was a Merlin somewhere, he would have been a real historical figure here.
"Don't be silly, Merlin died off years ago, Dumbledore!" Hermione stated. "As long as Dumbledore's around you're safe."
"Hey, you've got us as well, no way am I going to let some dark lord get his hands on you while I'm about." Xander grinned, he'd faced down a master vampire, killed Angelus, how hard could one wizard be. "Now, come on, we've got finals coming up and I think we all want to actually pass them?" Xander asked, looking round the group, only Hermione seemed at ease with the idea of her final exams on the horizon, Ron and Harry looked visibly shaken by the idea.
"Revision?" Harry asked, leaning over to his back to pick out his books.
"Revision." Xander said back with a grin as he did the same and motioned for Ron and Harry to do the same. "Potions. So Hermione, what exactly is Root of Asphodel?" He asked, causing Hermione to groan.