"Xander Harris! Get your feet off of that tome! Do you realize it's nearly a thousand years old? Good Heavens." Rupert Giles, Sunnydale high's resident librarian, looked scandalised.

Xander rolled his eyes and pulled the heavily booted feet to the ground with a loud clunk. "Sorry, G-Man. Kinda hard to concentrate tonight. Graduation's coming up!"

Xander was elated to be finally getting his ass out of this hell hole of a town. Unlike most who exaggerated when they commented on living in a hell whole, Xander was honest-to-vampires serious. He had the unfortunate luck to have grown up on an honest-to-Merlin Hellmouth.

Giles merely sighed and shook his head, returning to his office and cup of strong (imported from Great Britain) tea. It had been through his contrivances that Xander Harris had been secured a place on Hogwarts' list of incoming Graduate Students. It was a new program that was to be put into effect around many of the top European schools this coming year.

"It's okay, G-Man! I'm late as it is." Xander gathered up his school bag and headed towards the library doors, "Enjoy of the research, Buff. See ya later for patrolling." And he walked out.

Willow was waiting in the Chem lab when Xander showed up and chucked his bag on a spare table, "You're late, Harris."

Xander shrugged, "I know. Research mode."

Willow nodded and handed him his cauldron. See, Willow Rosenburg wasn't actually an 18 year old, red-blooded American gal. She was a 27 year old witch on loan from Hogwarts. She worked in the "AP" department of Sunnydale High. In Sunnydale (despite what a large chunk of the PTA may think) AP did not stand for Advanced Placement – it meant Amazingly Proficient, particularly in the realm of magic. Xander Harris was a member of the Sunnydale Magic Community, or rather what little there was of it.

Willow rolled her eyes at the boy, "Alright, set up. We'll start when you're simmering nicely."

Xander nodded, suddenly in school mode. He started to pull small vials from his bag, placing them all around the cauldron that was bubbling merrily on its Bunsen burner. "Now…" Xander glared at the ingredients as he pulled out his wand, "You're gonna get this right, you sons-of-bitches."

Willow chuckled and watched the boy start combining. Vamp dust, mould from the library, various night dwelling insects and night blooming plants. The boy had done his work.

Xander was most definitely in-the-zone. Willow could tell when he stopped lazily throwing one-liners and directions at her. This was what she was waiting for. She came up behind Xander who, unlike most potion masters, didn't wear heat protecting gloves and instead charmed his hands not to burn. She took his hands in her own and placed them around the body of the cauldron.

"Xander, close your eyes and concentrate…" Her voice was smooth and calming as she took a few paces back from him. The boy's wand was lying forgotten somewhere on the counter. "Concentrate, Xander. Concentrate on what you want."

The bottles continued to move of their own accord. The phials would uncork themselves, empty a portion of their contents into the pot and, after recorking themselves, put themselves away. The wand floated into the air at Xander's unspoken summons and began to stir the concoction.

Willow, smiling at their success, walked out of the room, knowing that he would be there for at least another hour in perfect concentration.

"Is everything going alright, Ms. Rosenburg?" Giles lifted an interested eyebrow at the young woman.

"Perfectly so. Xander's zoned out and soon the Chem lab's going to be the new home of, what hopefully, will liberate Buffy from this hell pit."

"Sweet!" The blonde grinned at her Watcher and Willow, "Anything that gets me outta here is okay in my book. Even if it means more voodoo for Xander."

Xander had eventually finished his test potion, covered it, and passed out on the counter. Everyone figured he was just pulling an all-nighter and knew not to disturb his zoning.

Angelus, however, had walked in about six hours later to find the brunette asleep on a notebook that was half filled with experimental ideas and a dusty looking potions book lying open beside him, "Should've picked the potions book to pass out on, it's got more pages, it'd be more comfortable." The vampire laughed wryly and walked over to him, shaking his shoulder gently, "Xander, wake up…"

Large, sleep-drenched eyes opened onto the vampire who stood in front of the youth. Xander smiled brightly and launched himself at Angelus, enveloping the man in a giant bear-hug, "Angelus! I didn't know you'd come back yet! I thought you were still in France!"

Angelus laughed and hugged the boy firmly, covertly checking him for bruises and/or cuts, "Giles managed to get a hold of me and explain about the mayor and your attempts to bind the Hellmouth. He thought some moral support would be helpful." He pushed the boy away and held him at arm's length, "You've grown a good inch since I was last here and your hair is most definitely what would be called European Fashionable." He brushed the long, brown curls away from the boy's face.

"Tends to happen… when one leaves for two years, Liam." Xander reached down to the desk he'd so recently been slumbering on and grabbed a hair band, deftly pulling the shoulder-length locks back into a ponytail. "You must've gotten here uber-fast, Giles only found out that I was trying to bind the Hellmouth about two days ago."

Angelus nodded, with only a slight mutter about the usage of his 'proper' name, and a look of fatherly pride graced his dark features as he watched Xander. He was growing into a fine, young man, despite his unstable home life.

Angelus had taken Xander from his European father's care when he was just a little more than four years old. He'd been instructed to take him to America, hide him, keep him safe. He had ended up in Sunnydale on the suggestion of a friend who had said that Jessica and Andrew Meyers were looking for a child and would be great parents.

Angelus had met them, decided that his friend was right and they were steady people. This was made all the better by the fact that they wanted a child since Jessica was barren. They accepted the baby and named him Alexander Lavelle Meyers. Angelus left soon after.

He returned five years later to find a broken and beaten boy in the body of what had once been a happy, giggling baby. Angelus had learned that Andrew had died, leaving Jessica with next to nothing. It was then that her salvation had stepped in, in the form of Tony Harris. He was charming, he was gorgeous, he was relatively wealthy and he was wonderful with Xander. They were married quickly and lived happily for more than a year before things went downhill and Tony began drinking, taking his anger of his own business mistakes out on the child who tip-toed around the house, attempting to remain in his attic room as much as possible. His name had been changed to Harris when his mother remarried in an attempt to make Tony feel more like the father he wasn't. It hadn't worked.

Angelus had been aghast at the boy he now saw. He had arranged to meet the boy, win his trust, and attempt to take him away from Tony and Jessica. Well…two out of three ain't bad. Xander spent many nights at Angelus' flat, getting to know his two unruly children.

Drusilla had dubbed Xander 'Kitten' and decided that it was her duty to take care of him whenever the bad man left pretty colours upon him. Spike taught Xander to stand up for himself, fight if need be, and how to keep from getting hurt too badly when it was unavoidable. They became family.

Angelus travelled a lot, taking him away from Sunnydale for anything from a week to several years at a time. He laid Xander in Spike and Dru's care, entrusting them with his most precious treasure. Xander's real father would never forgive him if he ever found out that the boy had been beaten into a hospital or was permanently broken on account of Angelus' own oversight.

"What's up?" Xander looked at the glassy eyes of his surrogate father, wondering what he was thinking about, "You've got that look…you know, the one that says you're thinking about something from 'a long time ago, in a country far, far away.'" The boy snickered at his own joke. Wizard or not, Xander Harris was geek to the core.

The joke went over Angelus' head because he had been in Egypt when Star Wars premiered and missed it entirely. This is all not to mention that fact that, unless the movie was a classic or included Tim Burton in the credits, Angelus hadn't seen it. "Why don't you take a break? You still have three days to finish the potion…" He was worried about Xander getting enough sleep.

"Don't worry too much, Old Man." Xander chuckled, "Once graduation is over I can sleep until September."

"You'll be returning to your home country in September."

"Sweet huh? I'll finally be able to meet daddy." Xander smirked wickedly.

Xander didn't remember much about his real father. He'd been brought to Sunnydale by his Godfather, Angelus, when he was five years old. He could remember the circumstances under which he had learned about his actual identity.

"Ang? What's up?" Xander had just started his freshman year and wasn't expecting Angelus to return to Sunnydale until at least Christmas.

"I need to talk to you." He smiled at Willow and Buffy, "It's alright. He'll get home safely." He took the young man's arm and pulled him towards the flat he kept in Sunnydale.

When they got there both Spike and Dru were out for the evening, giving Angelus the peace he wanted to talk to Xander.

"Xander," Angelus looked at the boy in whom his father was so evident, if you knew what to look for. "I think that it's time I told you about who you are. I know that you know a little bit, but only that your Mother was the witch Narimor Malfoy and she died when you were a baby. What do you remember about the four years between then and your adoption by the Harrises?"

Xander stared at him, although he wasn't really seeing the vamp who sat there. He was seeing images and picking emotions out of his memory which he relayed to Angelus, trying to explain exactly what he remembered. "He was sad…always sad, but I remember that he loved me. He always loved me, no matter what I did. And then I remember leaving, I don't know why…"

Angelus listened patiently while the boy attempted an explanation or things that, to him, were really just images and feelings. He then reached inside his jacket and pulled out a black and white wizard photograph, handing it to the young man who sat across from him, "Xander, this is your father. His name is Severus Snape."

Two days later the group was preparing for Graduation and the Mayor's Ascension. Xander had finally worked all the kinks out of his potion by creating something between the Draught of Sleeping Death and a large-scale explosive.

"Xander!" A voice yelled behind him, "Xand!" A rather diminutive (in all but lung capacity) blonde was looking for him.

Xander sighed, his concentration broken once again, "'m in here, Buffy!"

The blonde ran in and looked at him, "You need sleep." She then crossed her arms and began to tap a foot on the ground as if that simple comment would (or even could) draw him away from putting the finishing touches on his potion. This was the same potion he'd been re-making and refining for three days. This was his sixth try and if it didn't work perfectly, he was out of time.

"Let me finish this first and then I'll come." Xander glared at her slightly, "It needs to sit overnight or it won't be powerful enough and you'll never get off the Hellmouth!" Buffy shrugged, which was the most she'd concede that he was right and she would do anything to see something more of the world than California.

"Okay, come get me when you're done and we'll give you a ride home." She jogged back out of the room to beat something up. She had way too much pent-up energy in anticipation of the fight that would, most likely, take place the next day.

Xander grunted slightly and turned back towards his potion, placing his hands on either side of the warm cauldron, and closing his eyes. He began a near-silent mantra of the word "petrificus" and concentrated completely on his potion, its ingredients, and its purpose. If ever this was going to work, please let it be now.

You see, magic is strong. You take your wand and wave it and you can do all sorts of things with the right intentions. Wandless magic, however, is deeper, stronger. It's the only magic that most muggles can perform. Of course, they never realize that they're using magic because modern science has attributed it to adrenaline. A woman cannot lift a car on her own to save her child. However, if the need is strong enough, and if she's focused enough, she can perform a feather-light charm without realizing it; one that will last until the child is safe. Witches and wizards need to concentrate extremely hard to perform this magic. It's very difficult to make your innate magic, your deep magic, do what it is you want it to do without a wand, particularly when a VW Bug isn't about to fall on your pride and joy. When managed, however, this magic is stronger and more binding than any that can be done with a wand.

This was something that Xander had studied since coming to Sunnydale high. He was only ever able to do it when he was making potions because that was the only time he was concentrating enough. Sometimes that meant that his pencil would fly into his fingers, or start making notes for him, and sometimes that meant that he was able to infuse his potions with more magic, wand type magic only stronger.

Two and quarter hours later, Xander left the chem. lab. In the corner, under an old dishtowel, was his potion, faintly glowing blue, and bubbling (sans burner) merrily.

That evening Angelus had taken Willow out to dinner as was their custom whenever he returned from a long trip. It was his way of getting all the juicy, inside details into Xander's life without having to ask. Anyway, they had a lot in common and he like just sitting and talking with the witch.

Angelus grinned across the table at Willow, "So, how've things been going for my Xander?"

Willow arched a ruddy eyebrow at the vamp across from her, "You took me out to talk about the children?" She affected a melodramatic sigh, "Oh! We really are getting old!"

Angelus managed to keep a straight face for about 3.7 seconds before cracking up. Willow followed soon after, "You know what I mean. I missed prom; I almost missed graduation; things just aren't peachy on the Xander-front."

Willow nodded her understanding, sipping wine and waiting for her salad, "He's actually doing very well. It's probably a good thing that you missed the prom, though." A wicked smirk slaps itself upon her lips and refuses to be unstuck.

Angelus looked worried and eyes Willow, "Why? What happened at prom? Did Spike get bored and crash it?"

Willow shook her head slightly and reached out a hand to the vampire's, "Want me to show you?"

A quirked eyebrow tells Angelus that this is a show worth seeing and he nods. His eyes close and suddenly the show is playing out before him, from Willow's point of view:

Xander smiled wickedly around the room as he walked in. He was wearing perfectly tailored black pants and a pearl coloured silk shirt that was partially unbuttoned. On his left arm was a striking blonde; on his right was a bewitching, raven-haired beauty. The room gawked at him.

Now, it must be said that this wasn't one of those sweet and innocent crowds that gaped for a moment, realized what they were seeing (and that they were staring), and then looked away. Oh, no. Sunnydale High's social elite were not used to being shown up, especially not by the 'Loser' who was Xander Harris. They might have retracted their gaze if he hadn't made sure that he was going to be the centre of attention for the rest of the evening (and the centre of conversation for the next month) with his next action.

Xander grinned, "Time to play." He dropped the blonde's arm and slid it around the waist of the dark-haired woman. She moulded her body against his, giving him a long, lingering kiss. You could practically see her tongue call his out to play before he pulled away.

Then, he turned to the blonde and repeated the action, only more firmly. He pulled his partner against him, feeling the willing body shape to his own as they duelled fiercely for dominance. Xander pulled away from the blonde and looked at the two before executing a short bow, "Dru. Spike." He addressed his companions, "Do you think you could…" he seemed to be searching for the right word, "amuse yourselves for a little while whilst I go see Buffy, Willow and Faith?"

The two smiled at him and Dru took Spike's arm, forcing him to lead her to the dance floor, "Come, my love. I want a dance!" She licked a fiery path across the blonde's ear. He would follow her from there to kingdom come, but the dance floor was a welcome alternative.

Xander strode meaningfully across the room, finally feeling the attention of the entire room. Eyes followed both him and his siblings, perusing the beauty that was placed before them, wondering what had happened and how the fuck they missed it.

Angelus suddenly howled with laughter as the scene ended and Willow dropped his hand. He got reproving looks from the other patrons (mostly demonic in nature, although it wasn't unheard-of for the occasional magical couple to attempt a romantic evening at this particular locale) and he hushed up a little, "I cannot believe he actually did that!"

Willow nodded, grinning, and began eating the salad that had just arrived, "It's been all the talk at school. Nobody can figure out where the real Xander Harris went to. Alien abduction is a popular theory this week, though." Her eyes sparkled with amusement.

Angelus chuckled again, "I'll bet. Hey, you never actually explained to me how you're able to do that…that mind meld thing."

Willow looked up, almost guilty, "I didn't…oh. I guess that now is as good a time as any." She put down her fork and took and inordinate amount of time to fold, and then refold, her napkin, "Ok, you know that I'm a witch."

Angelus nodded, completely confused as to why this seemed so hard for the young woman.

"Well, there's a reason I was sent to the Hellmouth. I can control magical energy, I just don't have enough of my own to make it worth working with. Have you ever seen or read X-Men?" At his nod she continued, "It's like that. You might say that I'm the Rogue of the Wizarding world. I don't really need contact though and I can work with anything or anyone. The only reason I was able to get through Hogwarts was by siphoning power off the castle to practise with."

"So…why were you sent to the Hellmouth?"

"To look after Xander, or at least help, and to work on developing the practise of wandless magic. See…I can only do it when I concentrate enough, and Dumbledore thinks that any witch or wizard could have that ability if it was only cultivated. Xander can do it…but he's kinda the only one."

The vamp nodded in understanding, finally, "Alright…so you're kind of like me. You look like one thing, but really you're something else." The vamp chuckled. He'd been living under the ruse that he'd been cursed with a soul for more than a hundred years already. It was the only way to keep from being hunted down anymore. The idea was so settled in the minds of the Watcher's Council, though, that it didn't really matter anymore. They no longer made him prove it.

Willow nodded; the whole Scooby gang knew that Angelus wasn't really Angel. They knew he had no soul. They really could've cared less because it didn't matter to them as long as he wasn't wreaking havoc.

The two finished their meal, talking amicably and just enjoying the company. It wasn't often they got to do this. Angelus dropped her off on his way back to his flat and said good night.

When he got home, he noticed that he could smell Xander's scent trailing up the stairs and into the apartment. He smirked; Spike must've brought him straight back here instead of home. He would know that Xander needed a good night's sleep before the morning's battle. A quick peak into one of the bedrooms confirmed the fact and, finally at peace for a little while, Angelus himself went to sleep.

Xander sat on the lawn, which was more than slightly scorched, and panted. Buffy was lying beside him, more than slightly worn out. Faith was lay down not too far away with Willow nursing a small cut on her forehead. And Giles, well nobody had seen Giles for about fifteen minutes.

"We should go find him." Xander didn't even bother to look around.

Buffy nodded. Nobody saw. So she spoke, "Yeah. Why don't you do that?"

"Why me? I did all the hard work! All you did was hit things!"

Buffy chuckled, "Hit things? Is that what you call it? Spike! Back me up here!" She looked around, realized that Spike wasn't there to back her up, and shrugged, "Spike'd agree with me. It was more than just hitting things."

Xander flopped onto his back, "I'm sure. But it still only took physical strength. Do you have any realization about how tapped out I am right now? My magical fuel tank is on empty."

Willow grinned at his analogy, "Imagine living like that, Harris. It's an interesting experience." She turned her attention from him and back to the other brunette who was nursing a nasty cut over one eyebrow.

Xander shrugged, "Whatever. Faith - how's you're head?"

"Well, the demon snake-thing took quite a bash at me before I hit the ground…so, pounding like a bitch."

Willow smacked Faith's arm, "Stop moving! You're making this impossible for me to heal." During her time on the Hellmouth, Willow had had about enough medical experience treating the children's wounds to make her a full-fledged medi-witch.

Giles walked towards the quartet and looked at them, "Well…you did it, the Mayor is defeated and we are leaving in August. Are you happy now, Buffy?"

The slayer whooped.