Thanks for all that reviewed.

Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. I wish they were but they just haven't come true. JK Rowling and Joss Whedon still own them.

And We're Off (title may change)

Summary: Post- Chosen, Willow and Xander have been invited to teach at Hogwarts. The two best friends one a new mission to teach teenage witches and wizards the finer points of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Xander discovers something important about his past. (won't be for a while and i don't want to give it away)

Spoilers: Harry Potter books 1-5, Buffy 1-7 and maybe a couple of Angel references (sorry just happens).

Parings: Willow/?, Xander/?

Rated: PG-13, still not sure yet, may get higher. It's only 13 for my tendency for having people cruse and drink a lot.

Chapter Comments: Well, a few things. 1. I read over this 5 times trying to correct spelling/grammar, if it's still bad I'm hopeless. 2. I know what pairings I'm planning to come up with. The main focus on this fic, however, is the Willow/Xander Friendship. 3. Yes they will actually get to Hogwarts. I thinking that will be chapter 5. Oh and the Kennedy thing, I don't hate her so I got her out the nicest way I thought possible.

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Chapter 3: St. Mungos

They would be leaving in five days and there was much to get done. Willow was excited, they would have a few days in London before they would report to the school for their 2 week orientation. Dumbledore wanted them to be well acquainted with the school before the students arrived. Their first stop would be at St. Mungos, to do something about Xander's missing eye. Willow thought that the hospital should be their first stop in case they ran into complications.

With the help of Buffy and Dawn, they had completely moved out of the apartment in a day. Giles had offered them room in the house to store their extra thing they would not be taking with them. It was also going to nice spending their last three days at the house with they're friends. Buffy had even gotten together a going away party for them the night before they left. It was filled with hugs, dancing and a little bit of molt liquor.

"I'm really going to miss you guys." Buffy hugged them both together, tears in her eyes. "I'm never going to get to see you anymore." The party was ending very early because Willow and Xander needed to be up early to take the portkey.

Willow looked at Xander and rolled her eyes. "It's not like we're going to prison, Buffy. We're just going to a school England. We're allowed to leave." Willow stressed.

"And you're allowed to visit." Xander added.

"I know." She said breaking the hug. "It's just that you won't be here, anymore. You've always been there. We've been together for 7 years and now you're going away. You're my best friends and I'm going to miss you."

The other Slayers said they're goodbyes too but they were much less emotional. Giles was going to wait to say his goodbyes, until the morning. He was the only one planning on waking up early the next morning to see them off. Dawn was the only one not saying anything. She sat in the corner and didn't talk to anyone, she looked very upset.

Xander left Willow and headed over to Dawn. "Hey, Dawnie, don't you want to say goodbye?"

Dawn didn't look at him. "No." she said grumpily.

"Why not?"

"You know why." She wiped her eyes, pretending he couldn't see her.

"What is with you Summers women?" He shook his head and took the seat next to her. "we're not dying, we're not disappearing and," He whispered in her ear, "don't tell your sister but Will and I are working out a plan for you to come out to see us during winter break."

Dawn smiled and gave him a hug. "Good luck, the kids are going to love you, and remember don't give out to much homework. They don't like that."

"Thanks. But you really need to worry about Willow and the homework. I'm just the eye-candy." He joked.

"I won't give out too much work." Willow insisted. She had wandered over when she saw the hug. Dawn quickly gave Willow a hug too. "I'll write you all the time. We can start a correspondence chess game. I'll just assume your going to lead with your knight." Dawn nodded. "We better be going to bed."

"It's only ten." Dawn whined, upset they were going to be leaving so soon.

"We have to get up early, tomorrow is gonna be a long day."

"It's only going to be half a day, Willow. We're losing some hours."

"I know, and I don't know what they're going to do to you at that place so I want you to be rested." She patted him on the back.

"Well MOM has spoken." He gave Dawn a kiss on her forehead. "I better listen."

Willow and Xander left the party together. "You know, I'm going to miss everyone but this feels right, don't you think?"

"It sure does, Wills." Xander smiled as they went to their rooms.
---

Willow and Giles waited for Xander to get back. They had minutes before they were to leave and Xander said something about wanting to go to the bathroom one last time in the good old USA. When Xander came back in the living room Giles was helping Willow put things in her backpack.

Xander rubbed his hands together. "Let's get this show on the road." He smiled then frowned when he looked around. "Um, what happened to all our stuff?" he asked. Their trunks and duffle bags had been scattered about the room, but now they were gone.

Willow lifted up the bag. "There all in here. We're going to be popping in, in the middle of London, we don't want to have to drag them along with us. Plus you know the heavy factor."

Xander looked inside the bag. "Cool. You shrunk 'em." He closed the bag. "Want me to carry it?"

"No it's okay." She quickly pulled the straps over her shoulders.

Xander frowned and turned to the Watcher. "Giles, why is she treating me like I'm dying?"

"I'm not." Insisted Willow. Xander glared at her and she shrugged. "I'm just worried." She gave in, "Do you want to hold the bag?"

"No it's okay. Don't really want to carry anything." He shrugged.

"So are you both ready to go?" Giles asked.

"Yep, got everything." Willow said giving him a big hug.

"Passports? You'll need them if you want to take a plane back."

"Yep. Got it, Xander's too." She stepped back.

"The key to the Gringotts account? Oh and some pounds just in case."

"In my wallet. And I got a credit card if there are any problems."

"Okay, good." Giles turned to Xander next. "Do you"

"Willow is taking care of everything." Xander shrugged. "If I got involved I would just mess it up somehow. Anyway, all I have to do is ask and she tells me exactly what to do. It takes the pressure off."

"Xander." Giles glared.

"Actually, I'm just nervous and her being overprotective is keeping me from worrying too much because I know she's worrying enough for both of us."

Willow just smiled wide and linked arms with Xander. "We have to get going. Give Giles a hug and we have to go." She said proudly, she liked ordering him around.

The guys did as told and Xander turned back to Willow. "You know this whole taking orders thing isn't going to last much longer. The minute I get settled..."

"I know, I know, I'm just doing it while I've got the chance." She said then held out the small business card Dumbledore had left them. "Now hold onto it and in a minute we'll be transported to London."

"Cool." He grabbed half the card in his hand. "Beam me up, Scotty."

"Have a safe trip." Giles called to them, "Willow, call when you get there. And if you need anything"

"We know." They said together. Willow looked at her watch then turned back to Xander. "It's time."
-----
Xander was confused, he wasn't sure what was gonna happen. All of a sudden he felt something in his stomach, it was almost sickening. Willow pulled her free arm around him as he started to feel like he was being pulled. He immediately closed his eye. He thought if he didn't see all the swirls around him, he would feel as sick. It didn't work he was still being twisted but he was grateful Willow was holding onto him so tight. When it was over his feet hit the ground hard, he fell back into a brick wall. She fell into him and he instinctively held her close to him so she wouldn't hit the ground.

Xander opened his eye and had to quickly adjust to them being outside, in an alley just out of sight from the street. "You okay?" he asked as he looked out on the busy city street. He was still continuing to use the wall for support.

"Yeah." She said breathlessly. "You?"

"Good." He said slowly letting her go, making sure she could stand on her own. He never wanted to do that again if he could help it. "Are we in London?"

Willow straightened up and brushed herself off. "Um" she walked a little bit the end of the alleyway. "Yep, looks like it." She smiled and went back to him. "St. Mungos is only a few blocks away. Tell me when your ready get moving." She stood at the very edge of the alley looking out into the street.

"'Kay, just give me a minute to get used to the fact that a second ago we were in Cleveland and now in this lovely city." He was standing on his own and moving closer to the street. Willow took out her cell-phone and quickly called Giles. The conversation was very brief. The street was very crowded. He quickly remembered it was the middle of the day here. He finally settled waiting next to Willow, who was checking her map. "I'm ready to go. As long as I don't have to that again for a while."

"Don't worry I'm not in a big hurry either. I don't think be using portkey's too much, it was just the safest for coming from so far away. Plus if you learn to teleport, we can just use that. Or brooms. We can learn to fly brooms."

As they walked Willow pointed out little things to him about the city. She was all cocky feeling like an expert, but Xander didn't mind. He had never been out of the country before and was having trouble believing that they just weren't in an old part of town. Other factor that added to his confusion is he swore he saw a Starbucks on every other corner.

"They're very popular here. Giles complained about it a lot." She said checking the map again. She tried to hide the map, she hated looking like a tourist but she really needed it. When she finally saw the abandoned looking red-brick building she felt victorious.

"That's the hospital?" Xander asked as they approached it. He read the sign: 'Purge & Dowse ltd' "Looks like a department store."

"Yep. It's doesn't want to attract Muggle attention. Come on." She took his arm and led him up to the window which encased an ugly old dummy. When Willow started talking to it, Xander looked to see if anyone was giving them weird looks. "Xander." She said his name getting his attention back. "We need to walk through the glass." She grabbed his arm tightly, "It's nothing just follow me." She said as she practically pushed him through the window.

They arrived, on the other side, into a busy reception area. Xander turned to her, "You know if you don't have to baby me. I adapt to these situations quite quickly now. Compared to that portkey, this was nothing."

"I know, sorry, but you seemed a bit out of it." They looked around and were lost in a sea of wizards and witches. He looked at his clothes compared to theirs. They were as casually dressed as he was. Willow stood out a lot more with wearing the suit she usually wore for job interviews. A long brown jacket with matching pants and a deep red shirt. Before they left Willow had told him they dress differently but for the most part he didn't see it.

Xander looked around the room as he walk, he saw a little girl, no more than six, with a wand protruding through her hand, her mother was yelling at her for playing with father's wand. A Witch in lime-green was helping them. "I think the ones in the green robes are the doct- Healers. They're called Healers here."

"That makes sense." Xander said as he looked around at the signs. "Where are we going?"

"Um, not sure." Willow looked around confused.

"There's an 'Enquiry' desk over there." He pointed and started towards it.

As they waited in line the read over the floor guide. "Wow, Will, Artifact Accidents, Creature-Induced Injuries, Spell Damage we could of used a place like this back in Sunnydale."

"Yeah, to bad Wizarding hospitals are provided by the Wizarding state. Closest thing Sunnydale had, was us." She laughed.

"Yeah." They were the next in line, when the wizard in front of them was help, the older blond witch behind the counter called them forward.

"Let me guess, an eye replacement." The Welcome witch said taking one look at Xander.

"Yes, Alexander Harris." Willow said with authority. "Dumbledore sent us ."

"Ah, Americans." The Witch hurriedly took out a clipboard she ran down the list with her finger.

"Ah, Mr. Harris," She said, "Right on time. You and your wife want to go to Healer Palidrona's office, it's right on threw those doors, on the right." She held out a piece of paper.

"Thank you." Willow said taking paper and then Xander's arm. The Welcome Witch was very busy and there was no need correct her. They walked through the doors and kept of look out for Palidrona's office. Xander looked down at the paper Willow had taken. "It's just a visitor's pass." She said and they passed an injured wizard in the hall, looked to be a very old age. They guessed he had been hurt during a broom accident because the broom was still clenched in his rickety hand as orderlies tried to remove it.

"Still want to learn to fly a broom." Xander joked quietly. He stop in front of one of the doors and pointed to the sign. "Is this it?"

"That's it." Willow said and Xander knocked.

"Enter." Said a loud voice from inside. The office older and homier than they had expected. Dark wooden furniture, books lining the wall, moving pictures of the doctor's family. It looked like a normal doctors office, just a very old one. It had reminded Xander of 'Doc's' the Glory worshiping demon that bleed Dawn. The man behind the desk however did not. "Mr. Harris?" said the short grey hard wizard. He was dressed in grey slacks and a white dress shirt, muggle style, his lime-green robe was flung over his chair.

"Yes and please call me Xander." Xander smiled and shook his hand.

"Alright, Xander, you can call me Berry. Please have a seat. And you to"

"This is Willow." Xander introduces her as he takes his seat.

Berry Palidrona shook her hand and she took the seat to the left of Xander. "It's good to met you both." He sat down and continued talking. "I wish I could say Dumbledore had explained the situation to me, but he didn't. He just told me to make this appointment for one of his new teachers and it was concerning a damaged eye." He popped up and went over to Xander. With his wand in hand ask if he could have a look. Xander removed the patch, Willow turned away. "Let's see. Usually I get these fresh." Berry waved the over the eye socket. "Well the bone structure and musculature seem to have healed nicely." He waved his wand again.

Xander couldn't tell what was happening when he did waved the wand but he could tell there was a different color glow coming from his eye. "Well the eye itself will need be replaced." He waved his wand again and the glowing was gone. Berry went back to sit behind his desk. He took out his quill and started to make notes on Xander's chart. "I'm surprised this wasn't taken care of before. How long ago did it happen?"

"Back in April." Willow replied for him and started to go into her backpack. She didn't Xander to have to think too much about how it happened.

"I'm surprised you waited and came all the way out here, the America healers could have taken care of this very easily." He said pleasantly waiting for them to offer the information.

"We lived on a Hellmouth until it was destroyed." Willow pulled a folder from her bag.

"Oh." He seemed to understand. "I read about that in the Prophet. No wonder you lost an eye, living in a place like that you could have lost your lives." Willow tried to smile. "So you sought muggle treatment." Willow nodded holding the chart; he took it with a smile. "I haven't seen these in a long time. Not since I drop out of medical school, thought I'd do much better work in this world. I'm a muggle born too, you see." He looked over the chart then lined out the best plan of action. "If it was a few months ago we could have re-grown the eye but now we have to replace it. It will take a few hours to conjure up a new one, make it look just like the other, and then we'll pop it in. You'll have to spend the night but if everything goes as planned you should be ready to go by tomorrow afternoon." He smiled.

"Really?" Xander was excited and he turned to Willow who was smiling too.
---

"Willow, don't go." Xander pleaded with her grabbing onto her arm. He had been moved to his own private room to wait for them to make the replacement eye. Willow had decided that she should go check into their hotel and drop off their bags.

"Xander, it won't take me long. I promise I'll be back before they start anything, and I'll stay with you the whole time. It's gonna take them three hours to conjure anyway. I'm just going to go to the hotel and I'll be right back bugging you in no time." She promised. "And if something goes wrong just call me." He gave in, finally, letting go of her arm. She kissed him on the forehead then head for the door. "Take good care of him while I'm gone." She told Berry as she left.

Berry smiled as he brought a stack of papers to Xander. "I must say that Mrs. Harris is a very endearing woman. She has a lovely smile."

"Huh oh you mean Willow, she's not my wife." He explained nicely.

"Sorry, I just assume, since you were going to be teaching together, and you just seemedwell then she is an excellent girlfriend."
"We're not dating. She's just my friend, my best friend. I think we've known each other since before we could speak."

"Well that explains it then. You seemed very close and she seems like a great friend to have." He smiled amending his complements of Willow to fit the truth.

"Yes she is." Xander agreed.

Berry handed Xander the papers he had been carrying. "These are just the formalities I just need you to read over and sign before we began. Wavers and information you should read before we began." Xander internally groaned. He was excited to be getting his depth-perception back, but the inch thick pile medical forms just made his stomach churn. He was sure if Willow was here she could do all this for him.

----

Willow had returned on time as promised, well before they would as Berry so eloquently put it: "Pop it in". Xander would have been much happier to see her, however, she had returned with a bag of new books from Flourish & Blotts. "What happened to coming right back?" He grumbled. Willow had brought him a pair of his pajama to wear during the procedure. He changed and went back to sit on the bed.

"Well the Leaky Caldron wasn't that far away and it took very little time to check in so I decided to hit the bookstore. The class book list goes out soon and we need to choose a text for our students to get. I picked up some options." She showed him the three new books. She had pulled her chair right up next to his bed so he could see her better.

He took them from her and started flipping through them quickly. "They're all okay I guess, but what are we gonna focus on?"

"Well it actually different books for different ages. There is a progression of learning and I've picked already picked out the books for the younger years. I did that before we left Cleveland. There really weren't too many options there, I didn't think you'd mind." Xander shook his head, no. "It the 6th and 7th years where there are more options. I was thinking we should teach what we know."

"What 'Fighting Apocalypses 101'?" He joked.

"Basically yes. I like this book the most." She said pointing to the center one. 'Desk Reference to Demons, Vampires and the Forces of Darkness' "It's more of a reference guide but it has the most complete information. Methods of death and habits. The rest we can fill in, it's not like we haven't faced most of these things. Actually, I'm thinking of picking up an extra copy and sending it to Dawn."

"She'll love this." He smiled going through it. "Especially since all the pictures move. I think it should work."

"Oh, yeah, I called Giles, again, told him what was going on. Buffy sends her love. So does Andrew."

---

Xander woke up with a rush of panic. He didn't know where he was. His head felt heavy and his stomach was cringing. He looked around but the very dark room was spinning. Slow things came to him. He remembered going to a hospital but not sure why. Warnings from the doctor about the something he was given, a potion. He moved his hands to rub his eyes but one of his hands brushed up against a bandaged he quickly brought his hands down. He remembered being warned not to touch it to much, but again he wasn't sure why.

Other memory clicked in his head. "Willow." He called out in his confusion. There was no response, she should have been there. She would explain everything to him. He turned his head to the chair next to him but it was empty. It wasn't a chair anymore it was a cot. He forced himself to sit up and called her name again. All he could think was that he had to find Willow. He forced himself to his feet and headed for the door. He could see the light from hall around the door and used it as his beacon as he stumbled out of his room.

The hall was bright but he kept moving. He thought he saw Willow go through a door at the end of the hall, so he followed. The hall was spinning too but he kept going forward, he didn't want to be alone in this new place. He turned to where he had seen her turn; there was nothing but stairs going up. He wasn't sure how he managed it, feeling so weak, but he kept climbing them. When he could go anymore he walk onto the nearest floor, he almost fell to the ground but managed to hold himself steady near the wall.

He stopped his head started to spin again and he couldn't remember why he came up here. He looked around and remembered: Willow. He saw a figure down the hall. His vision was so blurry he could only make out that it was a woman. "Willow!" he called out fumbling forward. His head started floating, and his legs gave out. He fell to the ground on this hands and knees. The women continued to move towards him, he knew now it wasn't Willow.

Alexander His own name rang in his head. He looked up it was coming from her.

-----

Willow woke up in the darkroom, a book draped across her chest. She couldn't count how many times she woke up that way in the past. She checked her watch, she was waking up ever hour to check on him, not on purpose, it just seemed to happen. She yawned, sat up, pulling the sheets of her legs. When she had started falling asleep the chair automatically changed into a bed, complete with sheets and a pillow.

She stood up and walked over to Xander. He was sleeping soundly. There was no reason he shouldn't be with the potion cocktail they gave him. As she stood there she realized why she had awoken at this hour and ran off to find a bathroom.

Willow couldn't have been away that long but when she returned Xander wasn't in his bed. She quickly looked around the room but he was no longer there. She ran back out into the hall and turned around a full circle, she could have passed him by and not realized it. She didn't see him anywhere around, the hall was very empty. Willow quickly ran down to the Night Duty Wizard.

He didn't seem too alarmed about one of the patients wandering off and asked the nearest portrait to look for him. Willow waited impatiently, making snide remarks about what would have happened if she hadn't been there to know he was gone. The young Healer, must have had this happen a lot because he ignored Willow completely while they waited. When word came that he was on the fourth floor, Willow ran up the stairs in an instant. The healer slowly after her.

Upon reaching the forth floor she saw Xander immediately. He was on his hands and knees next to an older woman who was touching his face. She looked like a long term patient pale and thin. A Healer from the ward was running out to collect her as Willow approached them. "Xander, are you alright?" Willow asked going down to him, as the Healer helped the woman off the floor.

"Come on now, Mrs. Longbottom, you know you shouldn't be leaving the ward." Said the kindly old Healer. She looked to Willow, as she led Miss Longbottom back to the ward. "Will you be alright with him, dear?"

Willow nodded as he slumped against her. He was out cold.

"Are you sure?" She waited as Willow tried to gather him up.

"Yes, the other Healer should be here in a minute." She said nicely.

"Okay, well if you need my help, I'm just passed the door." She smiled ushering her patient back in the ward.

Willow sat down on the floor and laughed softy as Xander curled up to her knee. "Now you fall asleep," She says softly patting his head, "you could have waited 'til after we got you back to bed."

End Chapter 3.

end notes: Next time: Diagon Alley.