Disclaimers, etc, part one.

Author's Note: This chapter is really, really long for me. I promised that I'd get to Hogwarts this chapter, so I did. The shopping may seem a bit rushed. I could have done more, but I thought that it would be too indulgent.

For the purposes of this fic Snape is 39, as are Sirius and Lupin. McGonagall is 54.

.

.

.

… … …

.

The four of them met Buffy outside the bookshop. She was very pleased to see them.

"Please, please, you have to rescue Giles," she said.

"What's wrong?" Willow asked, immediately anxious.

"There are all these books," Buffy said. "Seriously, he and Dawn are, like, drowning in books. I can't get them out. I went after Dawn, and lost Giles."

Willow grinned. Xander looked worried.

"We'll need to get you the basic school supplies," Lupin told them. "At least to third year. Will you want your own copies? They're not too bad, and Dumbledore did consider them."

"It's probably a good idea," Xander said. "No one wants to share with Spike, and Willow will want to write in hers."

They followed Lupin and an agitated Buffy into the shop.

"Remus, good to see you," the assistant greeted him. "Are you teaching again?"

"No, just bringing some friends to buy school books. Robson, this is Xander Black."

Mr Robson brightened remarkably and grabbed Xander's hand.

"A pleasure, a pleasure. Dumbledore has explained the situation with your father, if I can help in any way," he added more quietly.

"Thank you," Xander said. He wondered how many people Dumbledore had influence over.

"What books were you after?"

Remus gave him the list of basic spell books for up to third year and a collection of Defence Against the Dark Arts, History and Potions books. Robson was only too happy to help them, loading them up with books. Xander grimaced. Willow had to resist sitting down in the middle of the shop to start reading.

Spike glanced around the headings above the aisles.

"Do you have anything about Vampires?" he asked.

"Last row," Robson said, pointing. "With the dark creatures books.

Spike stalked off, leaving Lupin to guard his books.

"Oh, oh, anything on Wicca magic?" Willow asked.

"Will, please, we'll be here for ever. You can come back, you know, later, when I'm at the ice cream shop," Xander pleaded.

Tara smiled apologetically as she and Willow followed Robson's directions to the magical theory section.

"See what I mean?" Buffy said. "Dawn's in magic artefacts and creation. Giles is looking up everything to do with the Slayer."

"He seemed such a sensible chap, too," Robson said. "Still, the sanest people get hooked on that myth, it's very evocative. A bit like Harry Potter, if you don't mind my saying so."

"Anya's in dark creatures, looking up the demon registers," Buffy said.

Xander left his books too, and followed Anya. Buffy sighed and shared a weary glance with Lupin. Robson turned to his new customers.

"Most people have the same reaction as Robson to the idea of the Slayer," Lupin said. "I must say I didn't believe Dumbledore when he said I would get to meet you."

Buffy smiled. "You can all look after yourself. Normally only the Slayer and her Watcher know who she is, and no Muggles have ever heard of me."

"There are some comfy chairs at the back, away from books," Lupin said.

Buffy smiled at him. "Thanks, I just kill stuff, Giles does the books."

They collected the books and left them at the counter before disappearing.

Xander found Anya scanning the shelves under a 'human demons' sign.

"Hey, Ahn," he said, sidling up to her.

"They don't like me, Xander," she said. "A found a couple of mentions of vengeance demons, but they just talk about how to avoid us. I'm in this one," she said, taking it off the shelf, "but there's just a list of the things I've done. There's nothing saying why they deserved it."

Xander really didn't know what to say. He put an arm around her and she leant into his shoulder.

"I did really bad things, you know."

"I know, I know. But that's not you now. You don't want to do that any more."

Anya shook her head.

"I love you. In this world I'm someone pretty important. And we're going to get married."

Anya nodded.

"This world's amazing, Xander. They know so much. And I could so run a shop here, conjuring powder is expensive, and I know the troll."

Xander chuckled. Anya was always able see how a situation could benefit her. She was proud of her place in the system. It seemed that she was becoming less pleased with her old part, and Xander wasn't really sure how he felt about that. It was kind of fun to see people's reactions when Anya told them what she used to do.

"Do you want any of these books?" he asked, gesturing along the shelves.

She glanced along the shelves, briefly. But in the end decided only to keep the one she had given to Xander. Xander held his arm out to her and they walked back to the front of the shop. The others were all already there. Giles and Willow both had several books each. Dawn had a slim volume called 'Mystical Orders of the World.'

Lupin insisted on paying for them all, arguing that they were a gift from Dumbledore and the Order for helping out. No one was really able to argue against him because they couldn't work out the money for themselves.

"Okay," Lupin said, once they had regathered outside. "We can get something to eat at the Cauldron and you can tell me about your shop. We'll need other supplies for all of you, including robes. Our port-key leaves at six, in time for the Halloween feast."

The gang agreed. They were able to leave their bags behind the bar with Tom and take lunch in a private room. Anya explained the workings of the shop to Lupin while Xander, Tara and Willow described the wand choosing to Dawn. Spike sat moodily in a corner with a glass of blood; Tom refused to serve human blood.

Giles sat next to Buffy at the end of the table. Ignoring the others he watched her. He'd had a little training in how to deal with young adults. And he knew what pain was like. Their relationship meant he could take a step back when dealing with Buffy, and not be the comfort she needed, so that she could work through things.

"Do you like it here?" he asked.

Rule one: have a different objective for the same information.

"England, this pub, or the world you went to school in?" Buffy asked.

Giles smiled lightly at her expression. "Any or all?"

"I haven't seen England, really. This pub is kinda dingy, but the food's okay. So far this world is strange, and they don't really need a Slayer. Why didn't you tell me about it before?"

"It had nothing really to do with the Watcher stuff," Giles said.

Rule two: always answer truthfully.

"My mother insisted that I be sent to Hogwarts. As fun as the magic was, it really was just school."

Buffy frowned. Giles watched her. She seemed comfortable, but not happy. He had a strange sinking feeling as thoughts began to add themselves up in his head. Pushing them away he put a hand on her shoulder.

"It was very strange learning about the Slayer as a myth when I knew I was going to be a Watcher," he said. "I wasn't allowed to tell anyone she was real, part of the whole secrecy thing. The Council and the Ministry like to pretend that the others don't exist. They manage it pretty well."

"So we'll be disrupting the Council's long laid plans?" Buffy asked, taking another bite of her sandwich.

"Yeah," Giles said.

"Good."

Lunch finished before Giles could get any further with his line of questioning. Willow and Dawn were particularly excited about the prospect of buying clothes. Even Buffy brightened. Spike and Xander were not impressed.

"If you want to learn to use your wands, you have to go to school. To go to school you need to be dressed appropriately," Lupin said.

He held out his arms to display his robes.

"I assure you that these are about the worst robes that you can buy. Madam Malkin has a very wide selection."

Spike was not at all pleased at being made to give up his jeans.

"You can wear them under your robes if you insist," the sales witch said eventually. "But why you'd want to, they completely ruin the fall of the cloth."

Spike shrugged. He really couldn't see what she was talking about. But he could robes in red and black and was reasonably happy. He was even happier when she hadn't reacted to the metal around his arm.

Xander was having less trouble. Anya had taken over his wardrobe, all he had to do was change in and out of the robes Anya handed him and occasionally twirl.

Tara managed to talk Willow into only buying four sets of robes. On turn Willow insisted that Tara also get four. Giles found the robes were an uncomfortable reminder of his school days.

In the end the trip was long enough for the keen shoppers, but too long for the others. Lupin was pleased to get them out of the shop without any of them punching another out.

The trip for potions ingredients went better, even considering the argument Anya had with the owner about the price of newts' eyes. By the time they made it back to the Leaky Cauldron it was getting close to six. Lupin was glad that he would get to leave the group. They were a bit intense, but he could see what Sirius liked in them. His friend had never really had a chance to grow out of being a Marauder.

"It'll be just as same as the trip to Heathrow," Giles said.

The Scooby gang had a little difficulty arranging themselves, their luggage and all their purchases. But they still had the ties. Lupin agreed to send anything that got left behind. He waved at the odd group as they were pulled out of the pub.

The teacher's room behind the great hall had three people in it when the group arrived, lurching slightly. At first they didn't notice that there were people already there. They just, all of them, stared at the stones and paintings in the room, even Giles had never been in the teacher's room.

"Wow." Dawn managed to speak first.

Xander waved back at one of the paintings, grinning.