Enter Hermione

A/N: Disclaimer's in the first chapter

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July 17, The Cottage

Morning brought Hedwig with a reply from Hermione even before they'd all gathered at the breakfast table, although Xander would be the first to admit that they had not exactly gotten off to an early start, after the late night they'd all had. Spike, of course, was sound asleep and would remain so until close to noon. He could hear Sirius and Remus moving around upstairs, getting ready to come down as he got breakfast started.

Harry petted Hedwig with one hand while he stole a still-hot bit of bacon fresh from the pan with the other. "Hang on just a second, Hedwig. It needs to cool a bit." He told Hedwig.

Xander restrained an amused snort at Harry chatting to Hedwig like she understood. From the way Hedwig was preening his hair and generally fussing over Harry, Xander would not be at all surprised to discover the owl was sentient.

Once the bit of bacon had cooled, Harry gave it to Hedwig, who munched it down, nibbled Harry's fingers gently, and then 'walked' down his arm before taking off. Harry then turned his attention to the roll of pa ... whoops, parchment, Xander reminded himself ... Hedwig had brought him.

From the look of things, Hermione had had a lot to say. Xander couldn't see the writing, but the roll was pretty darn long. Two or three pages worth, he thought. Eventually, Harry lifted his head.

"She's pretty upset." He said. "Wants to come over right away." He sighed. "This is going to be hard on her. She's kind of attached to following the rules and obeying authority, you know? Or, well, she used to be." Harry grinned. "Me'n Ron have kind of corrupted her over the years, but she still frets about it." Still had a tendency to do as she was told and trust authority figures. Like Dumbledore.

Xander gave a bit of a grin. "Yeah, I know how that goes." Willow had authority figure issues too. "Pick her up after breakfast?" Xander suggested.

Harry nodded. "Probably a good idea. Who all's going to go?"

"Not you, Harry. Sorry, but you going to your best friend is a bit too predictable for my comfort." Xander said.

Harry sighed, but nodded. "You've got a point. Better send Remus then. She knows him. Sirius going just has disaster written all over it." Another sigh. "He kinda hates the whole having to hide thing."

Xander snorted. "Harry, we'll do everything we can to help Sirius. If all else fails, he can come work with the Watchers. He'd get diplomatic immunity that way. Might not allow him to walk around bold as brass in the wizarding world, given how little most of your world knows of us, but it would enable him to move in the muggle world ... and he'd be able to do magic still. Would be encouraged to use it, actually." He grinned. "And no one would be able to do a thing to him."

The look of relief on Harry's face made Xander want to hug the poor kid. God. Xander had every intention of making sure Sirius and Remus lived through whatever happened with this Voldemort character. They were the only family the kid had left, and Xander had seen just how badly Joyce and Tara's death had hit Buffy. Friends were good, but nothing beat a loving family, even if it wasn't a 'blood' family. Especially when you had the weight of the world on your shoulders. Xander'd seen that over and over again, with Buffy. Harry had been deprived of that support pretty much his whole life, which was a recipe for disaster. Just ask your average Slayer pre-Scoobies.

Remus and Sirius tromped down just then, Sirius looking more asleep than awake. Xander piled the food on plates, giving all three of them a rather pointed look. None of them was exactly in good condition. Harry was too thin from years of neglect, Sirius was verging on skeletal from whatever they'd done to him in jail, and Remus had the drawn, thin tiredness of someone used to privation in general. Xander made snarky mental commentary about how the wizarding world treated werewolves. So Remus got a little furry a couple nights a month. So what?

"Remus, would you be willing to go pick up Hermione? She's rather wanting to come be with Harry, and she's going to need trained too, same as him. She seems to have a penchant for following Harry into trouble." Xander asked.

"You can say that again." Sirius said with a grin, clearly remembering the adventure of escaping the dementors at the end of Harry's third year. Then he turned to Harry. "What about Ron?" He wanted to know.

Harry sighed. "I dunno, Sirius. He's given me an awful lot of grief. And I don't know that he could keep his mouth shut. You know how Mr. and Mrs. Weasley are about Dumbledore."

Sirius grimaced. That was all too true. Ron and the Weasleys might be innocent of wrongdoing or ill will, but if he told his parents anything, it'd go straight to Dumbledore.

"I think we can at least tell the twins, though, even if we don't bring them here. They'll keep mum." Harry grinned. "Especially if I bring the Marauders into it. They sort of hero-worship them." He gave Sirius and Remus a deeply amused grin.

One that Sirius returned. "They don't know yet?"

"Nah. Been waiting for the ... how do they say it? ... opportune moment." Harry's grin widened.

"Well, that's something to think about in the future, certainly, but in the meantime, Hermione will do for starters. And after we get her caught up to speed, tomorrow the training begins." Xander put in. "For all of you."

Xander was rather surprised that there were no overt objections, just groans of dismay from both Harry and Sirius. Remus looked uncomfortable, but willing to endure. Xander figured he was so used to holding himself away from everyone and everything that general physical contact was a bit of a foreign concept, nevermind sparring.

Remus left shortly after breakfast by apparation, and returned about ten minutes later with a highly agitated bushy-haired girl at his side. Said girl launched herself at Harry the moment she saw him.

"Harry! What on earth is going on? I've been so worried! Who are these people? Why did they bring you here? What do they want to teach you? I can't believe Dumbledore used blood wards. He's got to have known how dangerous they are! And all those tracking charms! What was he thinking?"

Xander couldn't help it. He started snickering. Hermione sounded so much like Willow just then. A bit more coherent, though. Willow tended to be all but indecipherable when she was stressed. "You must be Hermione Granger." He said, offering a hand as she swung around to study him. "Harry's told me a bit about you. My name's Alexander Harris, but everyone calls me Xander."

Hermione looked him up and down. "Are you really going to help Harry defeat Voldemort?" She demanded.

"Oh yeah. Voldie's going down. He just don't know it yet." Xander told her.

"And do you really work with the Slayer? And a vampire? Aren't vampires dangerous?"

"Yes, yes, and yes." Xander answered. "But Spike is a special case. One of two, actually. Very long, complicated story, but the short of it is that Spike doesn't hunt humans anymore, and works with the good guys. He also saved the world a few years back."

That seemed to satisfy Hermione for the moment, and she reached out and shook the offered hand. "I have so many questions!"

Xander had no doubt.

They headed into the main room, and Remus led Hermione upstairs. It was only when they'd gone that Xander realized there was no sign of luggage of any kind. He shrugged. Maybe she wasn't staying? He started laughing again when the duo came back downstairs and he saw that Hermione had two books, a ream of paper/parchment, quills and ink. He also made a mental note to ask about luggage, since she sure hadn't had any of that in her hands on the way up.

She looked at him in confusion, and a little bit of hurt. "What?"

"You remind me a lot of my best friend Willow, that's all. I could so see her dragging books, notebook and pen to take notes with in this sort of situation." Xander told her.

That got him a somewhat relieved looking smile. They all arranged themselves on the furniture, and Xander grinned across at Hermione. "Let the inquisition begin."

She blushed a bit, but soldiered on, setting everything up. Once she was ready, she looked over at him. "Ok, so ... Dumbledore used a blood ward on the Dursely's house. And the tracking charms. And goodness knows, he's done nothing to train Harry!" She looked rightly pissed about that. "And Harry said something about something very nasty being attached to his scar? What?"

"We have no idea. Yet." Xander admitted. "Willow's gone to do some research, both to figure out what it is and to get rid of it."

"And why is Harry wearing a necklace of crystals?"

Xander grinned. "Because earth magic leaves a ... residue, for lack of a better word. The more magic done, or the stronger it is, in one spot or on one person, the bigger the residue and the more it lingers. With 'good' earth magic, that's not a problem ... that's how you get consecrated ground and suchlike things. But when it's dark magic ... " Xander made a face.

"And blood magic is really dark."

"Yeah. Those crystals speed up the dissipation of magic residue. Willow left bigger versions scattered all over Privet Drive, otherwise it'd probably be a couple decades before the place was 'clean' again. With the crystals there to help, it'll shorten the time considerably. Same for Harry. They're absorbing the last remnants of blood magic residue from him ... and keeping the dark magic radiating from that whatever-it-is under his scar to a dull roar."

"Wait, consecrated ground? You mean like in cemeteries?" Sirius asked.

Xander nodded.

"But that's ...oh, merlin, what's the name ... cath-something."

"Catholics? Yeah. But, back in the day, early Catholics stole great chunks of traditions and suchlike things from the so-called pagan religions whole-cloth ... mostly without realizing what, exactly, they were stealing. Most of the pagan religions got their start worshiping nature under the guise of a god or goddess, or quite a few of them, and a lot of their priests or priestesses were practitioners of earth magic." Xander explained

Hermione blinked. "And when the Catholics stole from those religions in an effort to get believers to convert to Catholicism ... they tapped into earth magic as well, without realizing it."

"Give the lady a prize." Xander said with a grin. "It doesn't matter to earth magic who, exactly, you're worshipping, so long as you get the necessary words, motions, or potion ingredients right and you have some scrap of magical ability in you somewhere. And in the case of consecrated ground, at any rate, there was an extra added impetus for the practice to be picked up and maintained."

"Vampires." Hermione said.

"Yep. Vamps and 'good' earth magic do not play nicely at all. And as much as normal people don't 'see' vampires or demons, they have some sort of sense that there's monsters under the bed, and because of that, the practice of consecrating burial grounds continues."

"So you're planning to teach Harry some of this Earth magic, then?" Hermione asked.

Xander shook his head. "Nope. For one, I can't do earth magic to teach it to him. For two, I really don't think magic is going to end up being the answer to offing Voldie."

"So, what will you be teaching me?" Harry wanted to know.

"Xan's gonna teach ya what he does best, shrimp. Stomp the stuffin' out of baddies despite not bein' the biggest badass in the fight."

"Gee, thanks Spike. And here I was worried my ego would get out of control." Xander said, voice completely deadpan despite the tolerant grin on his face. "Good thing I keep you around, isn't it? Don't have anything to worry about."

Hermione twisted around to look at Spike, eyes going wide when she realized he was in full sunlight. "I ... vampire ... but ... sun ... what ... how?"

"Necro-tinting on the windows, ducks." Spike said, clearly enjoying her confusion.

"Nec ... what?" She sputtered, still not quite processing.

"A special film that filters out the part of sunlight that makes vamp go all dusty." Xander explained. "Though that necklace he's wearing is something Willow cooked up to allow him to walk around outside during the day."

"Really? How did she do it? What spell did she use? Did the necklace have to be made of special materials?" Hermione asked, as rapidfire as her first volley of questions had been, clearly getting back on track now she had something to investigate.

Xander and Spike both laughed. "Whoah, whoah. Time! I can't answer those questions for you. You'd have to talk to Willow. And yes, I can get you in contact with her."

"Bird's a chip off the old block, isn't she?" Spike asked, looking highly amused, before heading into the kitchen.

"Right, anyways. What I'll be teaching. Physical fighting stuff. Punching, kicking, tackling. I've been getting the feeling that stuff like that would be rather a bit ... unexpected." Xander said.

Sirius and Remus both nodded. "Yeah, it would be, especially against purebloods, and that's all the Death Eaters. Provided you can get close enough to hit them before they start hexing."

"Which is where teaching you guys to handle knives and daggers comes in." Xander said. "I already started working with Harry on learning to throw a knife to disarm someone. I'll be teaching you other tricks as well." Then, he gave the group a very serious look. "What I won't teach you is how to shake a finger at these people and go 'bad wizard! Stop or I tell your mommy!'. Where I come from, you hit fast and you hit hard as hell, or you get dead. From what you two told me of the first half of this war." He motioned to Sirius and Remus. "Voldemort and his groupies raped, tortured, and murdered their way through the island. Bastards like that don't deserve mercy, and if you try to give it to them, they'll turn around and kill you. That little disarming trick I showed Harry will be an 'appetizer', so to speak. A starting point. Not his sole means of defense."

Sirius and Remus looked grim. "Dumbledore is not going to like that one bit. He insisted, right from the very first, that we use stunners and the like against the Death Eaters." Sirius said.

Xander blinked. "You're shitting me."

"Sadly, no." Remus sighed.

Xander regarded both of them. "Either of you going to have issues with what amounts to a scorched-earth policy?"

"Not a chance in hell." Sirius' voice was a near-snarl. "Those bastards cost me ... us ... almost everything. I've got no problem whatever making damn sure they don't get a second chance at it." He looked over at Harry. "I failed once. I bloody well refuse to fail again." Beside him, Remus was nodding in agreement, eyes more hazel than brown and expression grimly determined.

"Excellent." Xander said.

Spike came in then, having eaten his liquid breakfast, and slouched into one of the remaining seats.

Hermione and Harry did not look quite as sanguine about the situation. "I ... do we have to ... kill them?" Hermione sounded completely horrified.

Xander blinked. "Oh, no. God no. I wouldn't ask that of you, either of you." He looked more than a bit contrite. "Wherever possible, you two aren't going to have to deal with these assholes. In your cases, I meant that knocking people temporarily unconscious and leaving it at that isn't going to be the sort of thing I teach you. In order to stop anyone trying to hurt or kidnap you permanently, you're going to have to really hurt them. Break their arms so they can't wave a wand around. Break their wands, if you can get your hands on them." That got a flinch from all of the wizards, making Xander blink. "Break legs or whatever so they can't run away to do it all over again another day. That sort of thing."

While Hermione looked a tad uncomfortable still, she also looked much relieved. Harry just gave a grim nod.

"You guys have the rest of today to kick back and relax. We'll start the training in earnest tomorrow." Xander told them. Then. "Oh, that reminds me. Ummm ... anyone know where Dobby's at?"

Dobby popped in. "Mister Harris sir is asking for Dobby?"

Xander blinked. "Just call me Xander, Dobby." He said. "And yeah, I was. I was wondering if you'd be willing to cook and clean for us? We're going to be really busy ... and they." He pointed to the wizards. "Are going to be way too tired to manage cooking and cleaning on top of training."

Dobby looked like he'd been given the keys to the world. "Dobby will be most happy to help the great Harry Potter and his friends! Dobby is most willing to look after them!" His already rather high-pitched voice was pushing dog-whistle level in his excitement, and he was bouncing up and down.

Xander grinned at the little guy's excitement. "That's great Dobby. We appreciate it."

"Dobby." Harry said before the little guy could disappear. "What did you tell Dumbledore last night?"

Dobby got a wicked grin on his face. "Dobby is telling him he is hurting Harry Potter sir. And acting like Dobby's old master. Dobby is not letting anyone hurt Harry Potter sir! He is making Dumbledore sir realize he did bad!"

"Way to go, Dobby. And thank you." Harry said.

Dobby actually blushed before he popped back out of sight.

Hermione glanced over at Spike, and Xander nearly started laughing again. He'd seen that look before. And from the mildly alarmed expression on Spike's face, he recognized it too.

"Can I ask you a few questions?" She asked Spike. "It's just that there's very little known about vampires in general because mostly, anyone that gets close enough to talk to one gets eaten, and I have so many questions! Why have you stopped hunting people? How? I thought vampires HAD to drink human blood or else?"

"Oh bloody hell." Spike whined. "You really are another Red." He gave a very put-upon sigh, then pointed at her. "M'not gonna tell you everything. Most of it, you got no need to know about. But if you're anything like Red, y'won't stop houndin' me until I answer some of it, so I will." With that, he sat back and began answering her questions.