Another chapter huzzah huzzah

The group of heroes strolled through Diagon Alley cautiously, they knew the dangers that the alley contained but they needed to get some more up to date information on what was going on. In war information was just as important if not more so than a good gun was. The group had entered the alley one at a time and slid past Ministry officials and Aurors easily. The physical changes in the three Gryffindors were enough to make people dismiss them as who they really were, anyone that did pay too much attention to them were distracted by Psylocke's abilities. Each of them had dressed in cloaks to go over their transfigured robes as they wandered around. Ron and Harry slowly but surely made their way toward the twins shop while the other four each found a spot on the street to take up guard positions.

The two boys entered the shop and frowned as they looked around. A year ago this place had been so much livelier with children wandering around and the hustle and bustle of people as they bought a variety of items. Now the place was so much more subdued and the noise of various toys and pranks going off was gone. The two boys scanned the room and noticed two wizards that were merely wandering around but were also noting everyone that went through the front and back doors. The pair were obviously here to watch the twins and to find out who was dealing with the twins. The pair headed towards Lee Jordan who was in charge up front and asked to see some of their shield cloaks. Harry placed a couple of galleons on the counter saying they were needed badly. The dark skinned boy nodded as he palmed the coins and motioned for a girl to escort the pair to the back room where the secondary merchandise was worked on.

The two noticed that the twins were hard at work in a corner and managed to convince the clerk to let them meet the designers of the marvelous cloaks. Ron contained an amused grin as the witch introduced him to his brothers. "An impressive set up you have here," Ron told them, "why you have just about everything that a person could ask for out here."

"Yes that we do," George said proudly, "we hope to open up a Hogsmeade branch for the joke part soon and are considering selling abroad to other Ministries with our other products."

"As long as you're not making bears turn into spiders I'm alright with it." Ron said while staring at his brothers.

The twins blinked for a moment before grinning at the figure. "You want us to show you around?"

"Sure," Harry said, "maybe you can tell me if the rumor of exploding toilet seats is real as well."

"We've been considering it, but haven't gotten too far beyond the planning stage at the moment." Fred admitted with a twinkle to his eyes that would have rivaled Dumbledore's had he still been alive.

"Claire you can go on back up front, we'll be okay." George informed the clerk who nodded before heading back towards the front. The twins then proceeded to give a tour until they arrived at what worked for an office waving their wands they made sure the office was clean before they turned to grin at the other two.

"Bloody-"

"Hell-"

"It's great-"

"To see you."

The pair exclaimed as they gave each of the boys a hug. "Good to see you as well Harry," told them with a grin.

"So what happened to you two?"

"Where's Hermione?"

"Yeah that's definitely a new look."

"Polyjuice?"

"Transfiguration?"

"Glamor Charms?"

"You might say it's a kind of Charms," Harry said, "though I think it's closer to ritualistic magic than anything we studied at Hogwarts."

"Yeah, but that's not why we're here." Ron cut in before his brothers started asking questions that they shouldn't be asking.

"Really brother dear?"

"And what might you be here for?"

"Information. We had to do something that had us out of touch and we were out of touch for a few weeks anything new happen while we were out?"

The twins got on their game faces which were only ever shown during a Quidditch match. "Things are bad and getting worse Ron. We still got people disappearing all the time. Snape is the headmaster, has in very own pack of Death Eaters at his call and command. The whole family is being watched for signs of suspicious movements. Mum and Dad have to be on their best behaviors though what with Ginny being stuck at Hogwarts. You-Know-Who's name is under taboo now."

"Taboo?" Harry asked them in confusion.

"Yeah, it means that if any one says his name he sends his people out after you. So whatever you do don't say his name." One of the twins warned their friend.

"He must have done that almost immediately after he took over." Ron theorized to the others, he then turned to Harry in realization. "It also explains how he was able to track us down after we disappeared from Bill and Fleur's wedding Mate! You probably said his name and they came after us like that."

Harry scowled angrily he didn't intend to go back to calling Voldemort You-Know-Who fear of the name brought fear of the being and he wasn't going to let fear of Voldemort run his life no matter how justified he would be in worrying. Besides he was Wolverine, and Wolverine didn't fear anything that the wizards could throw at him. He had to admit though with the magic available to them he wondered if it would be like fighting Proteus who could alter reality in anyway he wanted. Harry hid a shudder at that thought and focused back on the mission. "Okay, has Riddle done anything else?"

"Who?"

"That's his real name," Ron explained to his brothers. "Better keep it to yourselves though since we need you to hang around for a while."

The twins nodded though they did have thoughtful looks on their faces before they responded. "Not really, he's never seen but he does seem to be running things from the shadows for the moment."

"Yeah, dad reckons he's not quite ready to show himself yet for some reason."

"From the visions I've been getting that would make sense he's looking for something I just don't know what."

"You're still seeing what he's doing?" The twins chorused at him.

"Not anymore, I haven't had anything since Halloween night. I get the occasional buzz, headache and faint flashes but nothing more than that."

"Have you two noticed anything else?"

"Not really."

"Not unless you count that there are also a number of vampires, werewolves and every other type of dark creature has started to move around. It's almost as if they're preparing for something."

"Great," Harry complained, "as if our job wasn't hard enough already as it is. Now we have to add in supernatural creatures as well." They had actually been half expecting this but it was still bad to know.

"Anything else, people, things?"

"Fraid not," The twins apologized.

"So he's still busy working on his foothold then." Harry observed.

"That means that we should be able to work things fairly easy as they won't be bothering us unless we make them aware of our presence." Ron noted to the others.

"So where is Hermione?"

"Outside keeping watch," The two replied leaving out the fact that they now had three new partners that would be helping them in some of their mission.

"Will she be alright out there? Maybe it would be safer for her if she were to come inside." Fred said worriedly.

"Trust us they won't recognize her," Harry assured them, "what can you tell us about the Death Eater's and Ministry though?"

"Not a lot, dad is being kept away from anything important and at least half of the Order is dead from various methods. The only thing that we know for sure is that they're getting ready for something big with rituals and Magical creatures. Bill and Charlie were approached for doing jobs like containing and feeding dangerous creatures."

"That doesn't make any sense though why would they want Weasley's to work for them on something like that? Your brothers are known as being firmly in the Orders corner."

"We know-" Fred said nodding.

"We thought it a bit off as well." George finished off.

"What about them, what did they think?"

"Bill refused saying he had too much work at Gringotts right now to begin contracting work out right now."

"And Charlie?" Ron queried worriedly.

The twins looked a bit depressed at this. "He didn't have a choice Ron." They defended their older brother to their younger brother. "It was either that or head back to Romania and he wasn't about to do that anytime soon with the situation. He couldn't find work anywhere, the goblins don't hire wizards to care for the dragons and no one else needed or wanted him around."

"That's alright, we'll try and meet back up with you in a few days find out why they need a dragon handler though. It might be an interesting thing to know because they wouldn't hire either of them unless they were desperate."

"Or they were in need of people with skill," Harry suggested, "there aren't a lot of purebloods that can handle powerful creatures here. Not many English Purebloods want to deal with the dangers of Dragon Handling, they needed a pureblood and Charlie was the only one available. If you see him remind him to keep his head down and his eyes and ears open. It could be that something is going on there that we need to know."

The twins nodded as they realized that their brother was in a lion's den, and unlike their father he wouldn't have the support of anyone should things go off.

"Good. One last thing and then we're out of here, we need eight shield cloaks. We also need to know what it would cost for you to put the same spells on some dragon hide jackets."

"Performing the spell on dragon hide would take nearly an entire day because of its resistance too magic. Fred replied as he considered their request waving the offered bag of money away. "You don't need to pay for this." He admonished the two.

"Actually we do," Ron informed his brother, "if word gets out that you gave away a large shipment of your Auror class shield cloaks the Ministry would be on you in minutes. They would want to know who you gave them to and might force you to talk."

"We've been meaning to head out for a while anyways." The twins returned defiantly.

"No, we need you here right now. Fact of the matter is you guys are our contacts to the rest of the Order and the wizarding world. We need you here to keep us informed."

The twins glared at their brother for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Fine but we don't like it." George grumbled to the two.

"Alright get to work, we need to check a few things out and we'll be here at the end of the day to pick up our orders."

"How much is it all going to cost without the family and bank roller discount." Ron questioned his brothers.

"You have the jackets already?"

"Yeah we managed to pick them up from a dealer working outside the alley." Harry said as he took out his mokeskin pouch and brought out eight dragon hide jackets. They had actually purchased the Hungarian Horntail jackets while on the hellmouth but the twins didn't need to know that.

"Why do you need cloaks and jackets?" George questioned as he began examining the expensive jackets.

"We'll be bouncing between worlds for a while and cloaks are better at helping you disappear into a wizard crowd while jackets are better for disappearing into a muggle crowd." Harry explained to the twins who nodded in understanding.

"And once they have your shield charms on them you can't transfigure the cloaks anyways." Ron added for his friend.

"You two are getting good at this," George said sadly as he looked at his brother and his best friend with sympathy.

"We are who we are George." Ron told his brother clapping him on the back. The twins squashed their younger brother between them in a sandwich hug while Harry watched on silently. "Alright, we'll be back later now what do we owe you?" The twins looked a bit rebellious for a moment before muttering a large amount of gold to their brother. Ron raised his eyebrows at this before he tossed a sack of gold towards his brothers. "I am so in the wrong business," the boy joked to his brothers.

The twins nodded grudgingly as they accepted the gold. "It probably wouldn't cost so much normally but we're going to have to rush this stuff through to get it all done on time."

"Which means that the money is even more important," Ron said with a smirk reveling in getting a few jabs in at his brothers, "be kind of hard to explain why you were doing it otherwise." The twins chuckled at this knowing that their little brother had them as they looked at the bag of gold.

The duo left and walked around watching how people were treated. They also slipped into Olivander's and the Ice Cream shop and stashed some guns and ammo there in case they ever needed them. The chance of a fire fight happening in the alley was very possible. Wizards from all over England came here eventually whether it was to Gringotts or supplies. A fire fight in the alley was very possible and since the only way in was at certain spots as the rest of the area was warded against entering Hermione slipped in as night fell and collected the cloaks and jackets from the twins. She used her psychic powers to make them see her as she used to be not wanting to have to go through all of the motions that Ron and Harry had been forced to go through once in she had placed the jackets and cloaks in her handbag before she disappeared into the night. Leaving the two twins worried as they watched her disappear into the night.

"Well today proved a few things." Xander commented from his seat as he looked at the monitors that were guarding the various approaches into their primary safe house. "We learned that we three he said nodding toward the American girls, are capable of resisting the muggle wards which means that we can come and go as we please without an escort. Whether the same will apply for Hogwarts is debatable but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. So, where do we go from here?"

"Well the only confirmed place where we'll find Death Eaters and their followers will be the Ministry; I say we deal with them first." Ron began as he considered all of the variables that they were going to be up against. "There are probably records there that we can use to find out where other Voldemort and Pureblood supporters are. Once we have that information we can begin planning our missions and we need to work those missions around what we are also doing."

"I don't know mate, we already broke into the Ministry once for part of our other Mission Ron. You remember how close of a thing that was for us?" Harry asked his friend.

"Doesn't matter mate, we need to get those files so we know of the operating area, and of the various Death Eaters." Ron argued with his friend who was against heading into the belly of the beast and sneaking around till they managed to find the information that they needed. "Besides we are more likely to pull it off as long as you don't get it into your head to try another mass breakout or take important trophies that are on display for everyone to see."

"I did what I thought was right," Harry growled at his friend at the reminder at what he did on their last trip to the Ministry of Magic.

"No one's saying that you didn't do the right thing Harry, but you could have picked a better time." Ron returned to his friend. Harry nodded angrily before turning back towards the information that they did have of the Ministry complete with a crude drawing of the inside of the building that Harry and Ron had pieced together from their vague memories of walking through the place when they were younger.

"And who would have those kinds of files Ron?" Hermione questioned him in exasperation. "We can't just waltz in and wander around again like we did before. We were extremely lucky the last time we went in that place. I really doubt that we'll manage to get that lucky again."

"Which means that the front door is shut off to us, what other ways are there? There has to be another way in besides the floo and front door." Ron said as he looked the information over.

"Floo?" Willow questioned.

"Magical method of travel that allows a person to travel between certain fireplaces." Hermione explained to the others.

"Still not a way in though, it would shoot us out right into the main entryway." Harry told her before she got to excited at the idea of just flooing in somewhere.

"Unless we were to find the private floo address of someone who is connected to a floo within an office." Hermione noted to the others. "There is too much risk for that though even if we could find one.

"Well the Ministry is underground right?" Buffy questioned, getting a nod of agreement from the trio. "Can we tunnel our way in there?"

"No, there are too many wards on the outer walls that would stop us from tunneling in." Hermione told them. "Someone with a half a brain realized that there had to be some repelling wards or muggles might drill their ways into the Ministry by accident."

"So how do we get in then?" Harry questioned in annoyance. "It seems like the front door is surprisingly enough the only way in."

"The hunter teams," Willow said to them, "we knock one of them off and take their places, and then while we're in there we take out key officials and find the files that we need."

"A simple and elegant plant that might not take too much trouble planning."

"Where would we find these files?" Ron asked the others.

"Umbridge might have them, she did have files on all of the blood traitors and muggleborns." Harry suggested to them. "Other than that I can't think of a place in the Ministry that would have the kind of information that we would need."

"The department of registration is another such place." Hermione told her friend. "It's a department that keeps track of pureblood births, homes, licenses and everything else."

"So in other words the Ministries records department, where we can find everyone and everything that has to do with wizards and we can sift through their information as we please."

"So can we pretty much accept the fact that everyone in major seats of power are corrupt then?" Xander questioned the others.

"Yeah I'd say so, Auror seems to just be just a shorter word for Death Eater these days." Ron said while eyeing the other young man cautiously wondering what it was that he had planned.

"So if I was to take C4 to some of the higher ranking offices and blow them up nobody would care right?" Xander questioned as he looked all around them. "If nothing else it will make them scared to hang around the office."

"And on the plus side it will force them to rearrange their forces when the blasts take out who knows how many." Hermione said approvingly.

"You do that you'll have to make a quick exit." Angel commented. "There is a supernatural entrance for vampires and werewolves that we can use or there was a hundred years ago. Only thing is it detects exactly what you are so that they can determine how best to deal with you should you become a problem. Wouldn't want to have the purebloods rubbing elbows with the dark creatures now would we?" He asked them dryly.

"Did he just make a joke?" Xander questioned the others in mock surprise.

Angel ignored the other dark haired young man's sarcasm and went back to planning. "On the plus side though the exit isn't very well guarded and I could probably get one person out without any problems. Once the two of us get out we could meet the rest of you back here. It would only take a couple of hours if the sun is still up and we're having to go by the sewer system."

"Why not take out the guards that are covering Grimauld place? They report in all the time so they have to stop by all of the time." Ron asked now that they had a plan of escape and needed a way in.

"Grimauld?" Giles questioned for the first time.

"Our old headquarters we were forced to abandon it though." Harry responded to the Watcher. "It's protected by some of the best spells that have been thought up. Unfortunately they now about where it is and that takes away all of its advantages."

"The amusing part is that they're probably still watching the house though we could probably catch some of them before they realized that we were using the place as a hunting ground. We take them out and have Psylocke do her mental thing and find out where it is that they meet up." Ron suggested as a plan formed in his head.

"It's doable, and it's probably something that they won't be expecting. They're so used to being the attackers that they probably won't know what to do if they were placed on the defensive." Harry said with a feral grin aimed at the others. "We just have to take the guards out and once we have the information that we need we head back to the Ministry and head for the records." The other two magic users grinned in agreement with their friend, they would finally be getting some payback for the things that they had lost and been forced to go through. They wouldn't be reacting this time, they wouldn't be the victims.

The group set everything up with minimum work. The mission was so simple that some of them at first thought that it was a trap of some kind. The four wizards that had been guarding the place were each taken out. Buffy blasted two of the Death Eaters from behind with her venom blasts, while Harry slid his claws into the third's back, leaving a single survivor which Hermione did a quick mental scan and stole the apparition information from. The entire assault had taken less than seven minutes from beginning to end and most of the time had been spent getting into position.

"Thanks for the information Flint." Hermione sweetly told the Death Eater before she drove her palm upward they all heard the bone crunch and knew that the bone fragments from his nose were now lodged with his brain. They all watched coolly as the Death Eater fell down. The trio ignored the slight pang as they realized that this was someone that they had once known.

'Let's go,' Xander mentally called out over the psychic connection that Hermione had established between them. 'We need to go before someone realizes that they're not alive.' The wizards nodded as Hermione mentally showed the other two where to go before they each grabbed a Scooby and apparated to the Ministry.

The group noted four wizards but they were already moving. Punisher and Black Widow each threw a combat knife catching two wizards in the chest. Moon Knight finished the other two off with a pair of silenced guns that caught the wizards by surprise.

"Grab their wands and robes and let's go!" Wolverine commanded to his team.

The others nodded as they took the Auror's robes and wands. Hermione then transfigured them into wooden statues and then shrunk them till they were each about the size of a small walnut.

"Alright, we'll start with Umbridge's office and work our way up on any other offices that might have the records." Spiderwoman said from behind her mask. "Moon Knight, Black Widow, Punisher you know where you have to go get your missions done." The three nodded as they headed out they would check records elsewhere along with dealing with other items that were on their lists.

Psylocke, Wolverine and Spiderwoman left their friends and headed towards Umbridge's office to find what they could. The group nodded toward the people working at the desks Psylocke distracted them from noticing them as they passed and entered the rooms. There had been some rather obscure locking charms on the door but they had been easy enough for Psylocke to bypass. The spy scope had been taken down much to Wolverine's appreciation he knew that the former Auror would have hated it if his eye had become a permanent feature in the Ministry. He really ought to try and find it though, the eye could be useful in the upcoming fights it would give Mr. Giles a way to watch the way they were doing things or to case a joint. The more he thought of it the more he considered retrieving the eye. If he could find it that is he would have to talk to Hermione about that. If she could apparate them back to where she had taken them last time they might be able to find the tree that he had buried it under.

The three heroes quickly began going through the various files that were lying around the office looking for a record of good or acceptable purebloods. "Jackpot!" Psylocke muttered excitably as she checked the filing cabinet with all of the names of registered wizards. Not only were the ones that were being watched in the cabinet but also wizards that were in good standing with the Ministry/Voldemort. Hopefully the others would be able to find information that would help link the names to places that they lived.

"Alright we need to move out." Buffy told them looking at the clock as the pair stuffed Hermione's handbag full with all of the folders. "We need to find the others and get out, hopefully they've had the same sort of luck that we've had and are ready to make like trees and leave." The other two nodded and headed for the lifts that would take them to the main entrance where they were all meeting up. They saw both Moon Knight and Black Widow stationed and ready to leave. Punisher was off to the side and appeared to be leaving the room. The others ignored the retreating form of their friend and headed for the floo and disappeared from the Ministry this time leaving before they had been found as they had planned their escape much better this time than last time. The group flooed to the Three Broomsticks and then headed away from the bar nodding to the owner as they passed by. Once they were outside Psylocke summoned the Knight Bus which came and took them for a ride and dropped them off at Big Ben. After that the group took a cab to the tower of London once there the group side along apparated to yet another campsite effectively losing any possible tails that they might have picked up. They then side alonged again to the warehouse that they were using as a base.

"How long do you think he'll be?" Willow questioned worriedly as they finally entered the building.

"He's the Punisher, this sort of job won't be too much of a problem for him." Ron said shrugging not looking overly concerned.

"Yeah, this sort of thing is his bread and water we all know that this sort of thing is something that he does best on his own. You know that as well as the rest of us." Harry reminded the girl.

"But he's not really the Punisher he's Xander." The girl argued as if saying that meant that they would go and save the boy.

"They're right Will," Buffy said as she comforted her friend, "besides if things get too bad down there, there's always Angel to help out with his escape, and if he can't help him he would have come and gotten us so that we could go in and save him and bruise his manly ego by still needing us to save him."

"Fine, doesn't mean I have to like it though." Willow grumbled in annoyance. The young girl didn't look like a person with the memories of a super-spy at the moment, but more like a petulant teenager who didn't have things going her way.

"Well as interesting as this is, we have to start going over the files an figuring out just what kind of information there is on these things." Hermione said in a more businesslike manner as she began dumping the files out of her handbag.

"Yes your quiet right." Giles agreed with the girl, he too was worried about Xander but knew that there was nothing that he could do to help the boy for the time being. For the moment the best that he could do would be to help them find the information that they needed for whatever they decided to do next. He only hoped that whatever it was that the young man was doing it wasn't too stupid or dangerous. He really needed to get Buffy to get him more in on the loop on what was going on.

Xander sighed in boredom as he set the bombs off. You'd think that with everyone here being magical that setting this all up would have been a lot more difficult, but the truth was it was one of the easiest jobs he had ever done. The wizards were so sure of their superiority that they didn't think anything was really going to be a threat to them down here in the heart of their organization. He had waited till all sorts of key officials had arrogantly strolled into their offices before he finally pushed the trigger button on the remote for the bombs. Doors all over the place blew outwards as the C4 blew witches and wizards all over the place. The explosions shook throughout the various levels as explosions blew through the normally calm hub of the wizarding world. Smoke stung people's eyes and blood and body parts could be seen laying in office doors and hallways. The Punisher had visited the doors to each place and after listening to what people were saying had slowly but surely placed his bombs throughout the Ministry of Magic. Normally he would have rigged the explosions to go off when people entered the offices but there were so many people and he didn't want to chance being stuck here at night. So he had rigged the offices and blown them sky high. Taking out Umbridge's office was a particularly satisfying thing to do when you considered all of the heavy perfume and various cat plates that had been stored in there. Punisher had only left the elevators or lifts free as he wanted them to be willing repair everything but he had set up a large briefcase bomb near the center of the floo network hopefully he would take some of the fireplaces out.

Xander adjusted his jacket and strode off unconcerned about what had happened. The craziest part was that no one tried to stop him unless it was because they wanted to get out before he did. He quickly made his way down to the Department of Magical Creatures. He made a quick stop and added some makeup to make himself look pale before he slipped out through that exit without anyone being the wiser.

The old him would have stood out in the dark creature section but his very demeanor had him able to walk alongside Angel who seemed to exuding a dark vibe all of his own. A few of the vampires even bowed their heads slightly to the vampire causing Xander to wonder just what was up with that. It seemed that Angel still had some secrets about his souless days that he had yet to tell them if it merely meant a heightened respect then he couldn't argue with it. It was probably just a bit of a leftover from the days of Angelus who had been a legend and was still one today even if he did now work for the white hats though in their groups case he would say that gray hats would be a closer description.

Xander and Angel nodded to everyone as they finally entered the warehouse each of them were embraced by a pair of California girls who despite everything had been worried for their safety. After the hugs were done they held at arm's length and inspected to make sure that no damage had befallen either of them before they were allowed to come the rest of the way in.

"Everything go as planned?" Ron questioned the other boy.

"Yeah, with luck we'll find out just how well I did in the obituaries." Xander told the other boy. "Did we get what we needed out of there?"

"Yeah, we have records here for contact information for everyone here. Names of homes, hangouts, political feelings it's all here." Hermione said as she held up a file and flipped through it. "The only problem we're going to have is sorting through it all and get the kind of results that we want."

"A job that is going to be all that much more difficult without us though," Harry said grimly, "the three of us need to head back out on our mission. It's one of the things that we have to do to finish this war up and while this is important to we have to stick with our primary objective if we want to end this war anytime soon."

Buffy nodded in understanding she knew that this partnership was going to be sporadic at best and that their mission to deal with the Dark Lord's support system was secondary to the real mission which the other trio were working on. "Okay, I suggest that you rest up today then and tomorrow you head out unless you want to head out now or sometime tonight?"

"No we'll wait till morning, we have a few things that we need to get first." Hermione said to the group. "Ron, I want you to get any and all of the gear that you think we might need and store it in the tent we'll have to figure a way to move electronics without storing them in the tent since there's a chance that the magic may disrupt any equipment that we take with us."

"Right Hermione, I'll get right on it along with decent camping gear this time to." Ron said as he climbed to his feet and began working on the requested items.

"One of the nicer things about the possessions is that we probably won't starve going out in the woods anymore." Harry noted with amusement remembering that before they had gone to Sunnydale they had been eating whatever roots and vegetables that they could scrounge up. He hoped that they never had to worry about eating like that again.

"Alright, well we have to work on this so we'll let you do what you need to." Buffy told the wand wavers who nodded their thanks to the Watcher and three Americans. The groups spent long hours preparing themselves for their individual missions.

The next morning the group looked up as Harry brought in a copy of the Daily Prophet and tossed it in front of a sleepy eyed Xander. "Thought you might want to see the kind of results that your work had made bub. You did make the headlines after all even if they did get some of their information messed up. Not that that's something all that new and different when it comes to the prophet." Xander flipped the paper up so that they could all look at what the headlines read.

MINISTRY ATTACKED BY Muggleborns & Undesirables!!

By Rita Skeeter

In a completely unprovoked attack yesterday the Ministry came under fire from muggleborns who are resisting the recent crackdown on returning true wizards and witches magic to them. The illegal magic users had some sort of explosive charms or potions placed over forty pure and proud witches and wizards lost their lives in this attack. The Minister of Magic had this to say about the attack. "Many a good witch and wizard died due to this cowardly attack on the Ministry when these pretend magic users are found they shall be put to trial at once for their crimes against true wizarding people." This reporter can only hope that these so called magically born muggles can be put to a stop before any more magic users suffer needlessly at the hands of these dangerous individuals.

In response to this attack the Ministry is preparing a specially trained force of hit wizards who's sole duty will be to bring in the more dangerous elements of these dangerous criminals that threaten the very well being of our society. This special team shall be made up of some of the most powerful and terrible magical beings and wizards that can be found. In agreement with the hunting down of a force of killers we shall use our own killers and show them what it means to attack true magicals. Head of Ministry security Auror Dwalish said proudly as he brandished his wand in anticipation. These Muggleborns have drained our world nearly dry! It is time for us to reclaim and take what is ours by birthright. Madame Umbridge said after she congratulated the Minister on his choice for a swift reaction to this needless attack. If these so called muggleborn wizards and witches were truly natural born magic users then they would have no need to fear the Ministry which takes care of its own. The monsters that attacker the Ministry it seems are about to have a rude awakening when they realize that they have started a fight that they cannot hope to win. This reporter will be glad when these dangerous elements are found and the Wizarding world can breathe easier without having to worry about the dangers that are trying to force their way into making us change our ways and corrupting the natural order of the way that the world is supposed to work.

For More On the attack pg 7

For reactions to Attack pg 12

For More on the Hunting Team pg 8

Willow shook her head in amusement as Giles gaped at the newspaper article. "Xander, I do believe that you've gone and made several people very upset with those toys of yours that you left behind."

Xander grinned a bit as he looked at the article he then turned to look at the obituaries that held the lists of the ones that he had managed to take out of the game. "Well I think that I have their attention now." The teen commented the others nodded with their teammate watching him carefully none of them wanted him to go over the edge nor did they want him to feel guilt over what he had done. As the Punisher he had acted for the first time. This wasn't killing demons or merely being possessed. Last night had been the first time that he had done things that he might never have dared. Last night had been his test and he had passed it he really was as ruthless as the original Punisher was. Whether his test would leave marks on him was unknown and only time would tell.

"Are you saying that you did that Xander?" Giles finally questioned in shock as he gestured to the headlines on the newspaper. "Are you saying that you killed all of those people in cold blood?" The Watcher looked at the boy before him in disappointment. "Xander you cannot just go and kill people just because they do things that you disapprove of. Besides, the mission was supposed to be an information gathering mission not an assassination mission. If you continue like this the people of the world won't have any choice but to run you in. This is not your bloody comic book where people will turn their heads the other way and everything works out in the hero's favor real life doesn't work like that. They will find you and hunt you down and if you're lucky that's all that they'll do to you." Giles glared at the boy as he tried to get through to him the seriousness of what he had done. "They're more likely want to try and kill you though rather than catch you if you keep this up."

Xander returned the stare with a hard glare. "Giles this is a different war than what you were trained for and than the one that you were training Buffy for." Xander told the Watcher. "We don't have the luxury of knowing whether or not someone is good or evil like you do in the Watcher's Council Giles. We have to deal with what the humans are doing not what they are. For you it's fairly simple human good, demon bad. The fact that you work with a vampire is just something that just happened it doesn't really mean anything." Xander continued angrily as he began to build up steam at the man that he respected. "Come on Giles wake up and smell the Coffee already or at least the Early Grey! This is not the same war that you're used to fighting and we're not a reactionary force anymore either. You know these things we can see it in your eyes you've been around the bend enough times to know that the real world is like whether it has humans or demons, that you even understand. The only thing is something is holding you back from admitting the truth from accepting it for what it is. Now what is it?"

"It's because we're doing it isn't it?" Hermione questioned the Watcher intently as she sensed the guilt pouring off of the man. "It has nothing to do with what or why he's done it, but the fact that he was the one to do it. You feel like you've failed him."

"I have though," Giles returned stonily, "it's my fault that they and you are even like the way you are instead of being normal. if I had been paying attention Ethan would never have been able to perform that ruddy spell of his. I would also appreciate it if you would stay out of my head Miss Granger if I want you to know something I'll call out to you." Hermione blushed at that as she realized she had dug through his mind without realizing it again.

"If this, if that." Harry said to the man, he was not about to be distracted from the man's main problem. "You can't fix everything, and there are too many if's for you to be able to fix anyways. We got to live with what we wished we were not you."

"But…"

"Enough Giles." Buffy snapped at the Watcher.

"Alright, well as fun as this isn't," Ron deadpanned, "I have all of our gear ready and we need to get going if we're going to complete our mission. We'll try and get in contact with you lot in a few days." He told them.

"Alright, by then we should hopefully know what it is that we're up against and how we can best deal with them." Willow returned to the young man.

"Try and stay out of trouble though would you, it's a pain trying to get you out all of the time." Buffy shot at them with a grin.

"Like you're one to talk?" Harry returned to the Slayer with a smirk as his team headed to the doors where their packs were sitting waiting to be picked up. "You lot seem to find trouble just as much as we do."

"Details, details," Buffy said waving him off as if his argument was a minor thing. The group of magic users chuckled before they headed out. Buffy waited till they were gone before looking at her team. "Alright Giles talk to me, can you do this without losing it on us? I thought you understood what it was that we were doing and what it is that were becoming. That little performance of yours shows us that you may not be as ready as we thought you were though. Can you deal with us doing this or should we keep quiet about what it is that we're doing and just ask you to do research?" The other members of the team waited for the Watcher to make his choice. Angel and Xander kept their faces emotionless while the girls let their masks fall somewhat and let the Watcher see that his refusal bothered them more than they had told him.

"So what's it going to be Giles? You can't help us in a war if you're not willing for all of us to be taking that final step and you know it." Xander bluntly told the man that they all respected.

"I don't like it, but perhaps I shall have to accept it." Giles conceded to the teen as he wandered out of the room. He needed to be alone for a bit he had some heavy thinking to do at the moment on what it was that his students were now doing and what part he was willing to play in their lives.

"Okay, while he's getting his head screwed on straight we need to decide what house we want to hit on our own." Buffy told her friends trying to ignore the empty spot that Giles normally filled in these types of meetings his need to think things out and lack of support affecting her already. "What do we have Xan?"

"It's gonna be tough Buffster, there's almost nothing that we can do to the old family houses because of the wards on the houses. We can see them attack them if we want but we'll be fighting against the various protective spells that surround them. I mean we'll pretty much be fighting the ground itself. We might have a slight advantage with our non magical gear." He theorized to them. But that's because they don't really know what any of it can do except in its most basic form."

"That's if the house doesn't have some sort of mental shields on them." Willow told them. "If they have shields that attack due to intent we could be in a lot of trouble."

"Can we destroy the places from a distance?" Buffy questioned hopefully of her friends. "It would save us a lot of time if we could."

Willow shook her head in the negative at this sugestion. "No, the protective spells would keep the buildings safe from anything short of a bomb and might even stand up to that since wizards here are ignorant of how dangerous our weapons are from what Ron told us. When you consider the average life span of a wizard it would be impossible for most wizards not to be somewhat aware of them. That means that they probably have spells that kept bombs off them during the London blitz. Now that could mean that the notice me not charms work better than we originally thought they did and bombers completely ignored areas that had wizard buildings in them or the wards are enough protection against that sort of an attack. Either way it means that long distance attacks are useless on magical structures.

"So much for that idea," Buffy grumbled, "it would have saved us a lot of work."

"Yeah, and I doubt that planting C4 will work a second time either." Xander said as they scrapped one plan. "They'll probably have so many wards set up that they'll interfere with any kind of radio signals that we use. Meaning that they'll set off earlier or they won't go off at all."

"So I guess that means we shouldn't worry about the houses and stuff and worry about where there are bases or meeting places and take them out there?" Willow questioned thoughtfully as she placed the pile of papers with addresses off to the side.

"So who should we focus on first?"

"How about we let Angel go out tonight to get an idea of what is going on and wait and see just what it is that he says is happening on the vampire demon side of things? We should also check for any nests while we're out here anyways."

"Yeah, particularly since we can't teleport and have to plan each of our moves beforehand." Xander reminded them that their method of near instant transportation was now gone they would have to figure a way to get around the country. That probably meant a handful of various vehicles scattered around the country that would be on standby for them to use as they were needed.

"Alright, we keep investigating the paperwork and let Angel come and tell us where any big bads might be hanging their hats then." Willow said in agreement.

"I could do it." Xander offered to the others.

"Not this time Xander." Angel told him coolly. "You're not a supernatural creature like a vampire and I'm betting that things are a little tense here at the moment anyways since there's a war going on and the werewolves have already picked a side. It's better if I go alone if you have to come with me though you'll be waiting outside of the bars that I plan on going too. You might have the right mind frame to walk out of that place now but, knowing your alter ego you're more likely to blow up, or permanently kill our contact than talk to them."

"Punisher's way gets the answers we want and it does it fast though." Xander argued with the vampire.

"Yeah but they usually can't talk ever again after your done with them." Angel pointed out to the teen who finally nodded in acceptance. "I'll be back then," Angel told them as he left through the sewer entrance.

"And what do we do while we wait for tall, dark, depressing, and dead to get back?" Xander questioned the girls.

"Train," the girls said as they jumped off their seats and grabbed Xander by the arms and dragged him to the training room.

Angel sighed as he wandered through the dark alleys that were part of a demon controlled area. He knew that if he wanted the kind of information that would help the others then this was the place that he would have to go. There were a few bars here that were similar to Willy's that he could find everything that he needed. He slid into one such bar and looked around the place curiously. He hadn't really been on this side of the ocean in years vampires were only recently beginning to trust in the travel methods of the world and demons that did travel stayed away from vampires meaning that his reputation was probably still intact as Angelus if Spike's reactions to him were anything to go by. It seemed that only Sunnydale vampires knew about his curse which meant that he still had his reputation to use. He could also casually kill a few demons without too much worry.

He looked at the giant cage in the center of the room where cage matches were fought before heading toward the bar he wasn't going to get what he wanted from that cage the bartender and the patrons were the ones that would be able to help him. He needed to make choice though and needed to make it soon and it had nothing to do with his mission here but the ones who had given him the mission. Buffy and her friends were darker there was no denying it; they now had of the moral compasses of spies. He had on occasion been like that when he stopped trying to make the lines between himself and Angelus so clear. He admitted there was something freeing in behaving that way yet it also scared him he feared that if he stayed that way that one day he would become Angelus once again. The vampire with a soul though knew that if he was to continue helping Buffy though he was going to have to unleash the monster that was within. He was going to have to become what he wished and feared to be. Not Angel not Angelus but some sort of cross between them.

What'll be? The bartender asked.

Angel looked up and realized now was the time to make the choice he wasn't a monster but not was he a man but he was a vampire and it was time to start acting like it. It might mean that he and Buffy couldn't be together but it was time to be who and what he was. "Give me a shot of Irish whisky with some animal blood in it monkey if you have it."

"No monkey blood boss man. We do have dog, cat pig, horse, cow, chicken, a little bit of virgin, Yank, Australian, Italian French hedge witch, and some tiger though." The bartender listed off to the vampire wondering what it was about him that looked so familiar and gave him a chill.

"I'll take the tiger." Angel said having never had that type of blood and figured it might taste interesting and it wasn't likely he was going to get the chance again anytime soon. The vampire waited until the barman had placed his drink before he began talking. "Tell me where all of the main players in this town hang their hats." He commanded in a soft and deadly voice.

The bartender looked up at this. "Look I don't know who you are pal, or who you think you are but you want something you ask nicely and pay you don't give orders though. If you cause troubles then I have my boys deal with you and throw you out if they don't feel like dusting you that is."

Angel turned to look at the pair of vampires that had come up on either side of him. Angel pulled a pair of stakes from his hidden pockets and pulled his arms up and staked the vampires while keeping his eyes on the bartender. Now you want to talk? He questioned the man or do I need to do something else to convince you that I want that information?"

The bartender swallowed nervously the vampire hadn't even gotten up to stake his soldiers and each of them was over twenty years old how had he managed to do that? I" can find out for you. Um, there's the demon clans hanging out in uptown while the vampire clans have downtown. Something has caused some of the demons and vampire to pull up though something in uptown and downtown is making waves. A lot of the werewolves hang out in the magical sections of Sherwood forest. Rumor is that the Alpha of the wolves has been doing some heavy recruiting lately. Not smart if you ask me getting so edgy and all makes one wonder what he's up to you know? Now this particular werewolf has got a reputation for going after kids ten and younger usually. However he's going after adults lately, which means whatever he's been preparing for is soon. Word on the street is some sort of human magic users have decided to try and take over the world, not end it but take it over. Sounds like some kids story don't it?" Angel said nothing as he waited for the bartender to finish telling him what was going on. "Maybe this wolf is a part of that group. That's all I know, but the vampire masters seem to know a bit more than I do. Word is that there have been talks with something called Death Eaters."

Angel nodded before getting up and walking out a couple of demons tried to stop him but one had his arm broken and the other had a broken bottle shoved into his skull. "Anyone else?" The vampire with a soul questioned, as he looked around the room. When none answered and he heard his soulless name hissed out he figured that he would be able to walk out without problems. Angel ignored the looks of some creatures as he stalked out.

(I really need some suggestions on how to write Angel I'm trying to go for an attitude similar to when Darla and Dru were tearing up L.A any suggestions on how to do that would be appreciated.)