Disclaimer: These characters aren't mine. I wish they were but it just hasn't come true. JK Rowling and Joss Whedon still own them.
And We're Off… (14/?)
Summary: Quickie Recap: Neville is Xander's cousin. Willow and Xander have gotten really close again. Harry tired to raise Sirius from the dead under the encouragement of the First Evil. Well, that all I can think of that's important.
Spoilers: Harry Potter books 1-5, Buffy 1-7 and maybe a couple of Angel references (sorry just happens) up to season 5.
Parings: Willow/Tonks, Xander/?
Rated: PG-13, still not sure yet, may get higher. It's only 13 for my tendency for having people curse and drink a lot.
Chapter Notes: So I know it's been awhile… but I have really good reasons. I know I said I'd have time over the summer but I was wrong. A few weeks into summer school I had to go into the emergency room and found out I would need surgery. Trying to prepare and keep my grades up took a lot of my time but I still made story notes in my journal. Once it was all over I finally finished typing it up and then brought it with me on a trip to do the first level of betaing. Once it was on the second level. i.e. my mother, her mother my grandmother went into the hospital and we found out she is dying. This left this chapter in purgatory for a while. Finally tonight I thought this had been sitting on my desk for too long, only part of this got level 2 beta'ing so forgive me.
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Chapter 14: Enemy of my Enemy…is still my Enemy
It had been a week since Buffy went back Italy but she was still the talk of the school. Xander smiled every time he overheard a conversation or was asked a question about his friend. Snape, however, seemed cheerful, well cheerful for him. Her visit was a good break from the depressing loom of the First cast over their lives. Willow, however, was still cursing herself for what happened, no matter how many times Xander reminded her in no uncertain terms that Amy's involvement with the first was not her fault.
Xander found it hard not to let the students know there was something bad going on. Xander understood why the student population shouldn't know about the First, but to him it felt like he was back in high school, keeping secrets from his parents. Being in a position of authority seemed to have no difference, he still had to lie and make excuses. But it's what he had to do.
Xander was just coming from lunch, Willow had barely eaten and left quickly to…well Xander wasn't sure, but he knew she'd beat him to class. As he went to his office he noticed that it was raining outside, so much for gym on the lawn. He'd have to get the indoor "gym" set up.
As he passed through the halls most of the students said hi to him, one of the perks of being one the favorite teachers. So when a group of Ravenclaw's turned turn away and avoided him. Xander stopped and turned back and watched them continuing to walk off, whispering to each other. Xander shook his head and continued on. 'Paranoid, much?'.
As he was getting close to his office door, Finch blocked his path. "Come with me, Professor Harris." He said, with an inflection Xander learned meant annoyance. He decided to give him a break and not put up much of a fight.
"What's up?"
----
Ginny looked down at her paper, trying to think of something to say. Snape hates me too, she thought, just like my brothers. She could swear some of her answers for her quiz were right, but if she went to him he's probably just take away points. Realizing she had sometime before gym, she decided to stop by for a second opinion; perhaps the only ones she thought would be understanding and helpful. She walked into the defense against the dark arts classroom, hoping to find her teachers their before they left.
She smiled when she heard voices inside the room but was shocked to see another man and woman in place of her normal teachers. They were at the teacher's desk, looking at the pictures that were up on the walls up. She continued to the front of the room until she was just in front of them.
"Hi." Said the woman, cheerfully. She was American, long brown curly hair, rather thin and was dressed in Muggle clothing. So was the man, he had brown hair and was tall.
Ginny stood there nervous but a thought crossed her mind. "It's not a glamour is it?"
"Us?" the man asked, he had a British accent. "No, no, Willow and Xander our just up stairs….they'll be done in a minute."
"Oh" She took a breath. "Maybe I should come back later.
"Nonsense, I'm sure they don't want us interfering with their teaching."
Ginny waited a minute uncomfortably before start small talk. "They have lots of friends don't they? Most of our other teachers don't seem to get many visitors."
"Ah, yes, Buffy was here last week." He told his companion. "Do you enjoy meeting her? I dare say she is probably different then any of the other visitors you've had in this class."
"Yeah she was different, but a lot of fun." The young girl smiled.
"How would you know?" asked the woman. "You never went here."
"I've heard stories, I did go to the Academy," he said pointedly.
"Oh, by the way, I'm Fred and this is-"
"Wesley Wyndam -Price." He shook he young girl's hand.
That's when Willow and Xander came down the stairs. "Hey, Ginny." Xander called out to her. "Something you need?" Xander went to her. When she nodded he took her to the other side of the room to help.
Willow went to Fred and Wesley. She was holding a rather hefty file in her hands. "Thanks guys this should be really helpful."
"Sorry it took so long. The London office wasn't being helpful." Fred admitted.
"They almost wouldn't let use take all of that out of the office without promising away our first born." Wesley joked.
"You didn't, did you?" Willow needed to be sure.
"Oh no. We made a call back to Angel. He threatened them with something."
"Yeah, maybe to send Spike out to hassle them." Fred joked.
"Spike?" Willow question. "He's dead."
"What about Spike?" Xander called from across the room.
"Oh, um." Fred stuttered.
"It's a long story." Wesley warned. He explained quickly about the amulet. "He doesn't want anyone to know."
"Mainly Buffy."
Ginny just looked confused. Xander, even though royally pissed, brought his attention back to his student. "Well, I'm not that good at potions but I'll have Will take a look at this. Come see us after class." Ginny smiled and nodded. "We'll see you later."
Xander left her and she headed for the door. She kept her ears open. "It must be great working for an evil law firm like this."
"Defending people like 'he who must not be named'? I'd admit it isn't the best job in the world." He joked in a dry tone.
"Well if we find something, maybe we can help."
Ginny, her mouth hanging wide open, quickly ran out of the room.
"Defending the bad does make us feel kinda dirty sometimes, makes happy to do stuff like this for you." Said Fred.
"Well all this information about Voldemort and his supporters should really help." Willow said. "Here's the file on Lucius Malfoy." She handed the file off to Xander. She picked up the file on Voldemort, it was actually 5 folders, all two inches thick. "This will take a while."
"Um, actually there's more." Fred said meekly taking another five files from her bag.
Xander looked pale, how many horrible things would they have to read about to find anything useful. "We don't have time now." Xander checked his watch to make sure. "We have a class in fifteen minutes."
"For a moment there I had a flash back to your high school days." Wesley admitted. "Of course, this time, your teaching." Brilliantly stated the obvious. "We'd better be going then-"
"You don't have too." Willow smiled. "You came all this way; you might as well stay for dinner."
"I must admit I would like to see more of this place." He turned to Fred. "Would you mind?"
"Are you kidding? This is a school for Wizards!" Fred exclaimed.
"You spent five years in a hell dimension and you work at a law firm now run by a vampire… a school for wizards is still exciting?"
"Well we are in a fairy tale castle." Fred smiled.
"So good you can come with us and help teach our next class." Xander said. "We could always use a few more victims…"
---
The 5th and 6th years all gathered up in the room that used to be the home of the dueling club. The windows were clouded by gray and rain only to light up with each flicker of lightening.
Xander looked up at the fogged windows. He was upset that the last days of nice weather were to be marred by rain but they would have to get used to having indoor gym sooner or later. Actually the room was set up for the "dueling" club, with a long runway stage in the center but it was perfect for today's lesson. The two teachers and two guests were followed by a floating bundle of swords.
All the students where huddled together, in their cliques. When the teachers and got up on the stage the students crowd around it. "Ah, it's Wednesday again." Xander smiled. "I remember last week we made a deal that we'd break up all this defense stuff and do something a little different. So we decided to do something different." He pulled out a sword from under his robes. Willow held out a hand and her weapon came to her.
"Granted you get the nice kiddy ones that won't hurt you, but we might as well show you how it's done." Willow smiled, then reached down and helped Wesley up onto the stage and handed him the sword. "Which won't be by me, thank the goddess. Our friend, one of two, who stopped by for a visit will be covering for me. This Wesley Wyndam-Price. And Fred is somewhere down there." Draco, who had been eying her since she walked in, gave her a helping hand up onto the stage. "Their our friends from L.A."
"You're the one that Buffy fired!" said one student. "Didn't you almost sacrifice Professor Rosenberg!" said another. Wesley started to laugh and Willow gave him a half hug to show the students there were no hard feelings.
Xander and Wesley engaged in a fake fight, but the swords clashed. Willow was now teaching and using the guys as the example, she remembered all the things she learned watching Buffy trained.
Now that the demo part was over Willow stepped back with Fred and watched a match. They made a quick bet even though Willow knew her choice was less likely to win. She'd bet on Xander any day of the week. As if there was any doubt Wesley won the match. He was much more experienced at fencing then Xander and Xander took the defeat well. Willow lost 5 bucks." "Anyone wanna take on the black night and defend my honor?" Xander asked the class. Most of the class eagerly raised their hands. Xander stepped back and let Wesley pick.
Colin Creevy nervously got up on the stage. Xander handed off his sword and gave him a quick pep-talk. Willow whispered in Wesley' ear. Wesley looked offended and quietly replied back: "I know." Willow shrugged.
Cheers from the students started when Colin was ready to begin. The fight started out slow. No doubt because Wesley was taking it easy on the kid, he needed to get comfortable. As the fight went on Colin became stronger and Wesley took his game a notch up.
They slowly started going faster and Colin was adapting very well. Xander was watching his student intently. So much so when Colin got distracted by something in an empty corner of the room, Xander turned his head to look. He couldn't see anything, just a blurry spot in his vision. It kept looking there for a long time; so long that he missed Colin stabbing Wesley in the stomach.
Wesley let out a cry of pain and fell to his knees. Willow, Fred and Xander run to Wesley who is holding his gut. Colin looked on terrified and the students started gathering in closer. The women take care of Wes and Xander tries to calm the crowd. "It's alright calm down, it's nothing." Then he says quietly to Willow and Fred "right?"
Fred nods as she and willow help him stand up. "I'm fine." Wesley said as he balanced his weight between them, he was holding his bleeding wound. Colin looked even more upset. "It's alright" Wesley said to him. "You didn't mean to."
"I'm gonna get him to the infirmary." said Willow. "Fred can you stay here and help out Xander?"
"Yeah sure." She said hesitantly. Xander helped get Wes off the stage. The students helped him and Professor Rosenberg through the crowd.
As Willow was leading Wesley out of the room, Xander continued on with class. He went to the bundle they had brought in with them. "This is why we'll be using fakes for the rest of class."
---
"Madame Pomfrey!" Willow called out as she sat Wesley down on an empty bed.
"Sword accident."
Pomfrey took one look at Wesley and the blood and got to work. "Take off your shirt and lay down, I'll be right back."
Wesley grimaced as the movement to unbutton his shirt was too much. Willow without a word helped out. She unbuttoned his shirt and gently took it off his arms and put it too the side.
"Thank you." He lay down and Pomfrey returned with a potion bottle.
"Oh this isn't that bad." she smiled as she waved her wand. The blood was gone and wound was clean she took a closer look. "No, not too deep at all, this shouldn't take long. She opened the bottle and poured some of it into a glass. "Now after you take all this down, you need to lie flat on your back so it heals properly. It should only take 30 minutes before it's completely healed."
"Thank you." Wesley took the potion.
The older woman smiled, and waited for him to finish drinking and took the glass. "Now, who are you?"
----
Wesley and Willow met up Xander and Fred at dinner. They ate quickly and then walked to Hogsmeade so they could catch the train back to London. "Is the only reason you came all the way out here to get us the files?"
"Oh, no." Wesley said. "My mother's birthday. It's been a longtime since I'd been able to come home." Wesley looked a little pained.
Fred lightened up the mood, "and I tagged along 'cause I've never been to England before and I couldn't pass up another chance to see you again." They didn't stay too long after dinner. Only long enough for Wesley and Sinistra to get into a fight about a dead demonic spell casting language and for Fred to eternally endure herself to Dumbledore.
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Something was off. Xander didn't know what, he didn't know why, but something was wrong. He couldn't pin down exactly what it was either. Every time he tried to describe his feeling the only adjective he could think of was "cold". The school felt colder. Granted this could have been the November chill coming in or the fact that "cold" was barely in his California vocabulary. All that made him do was add the word "creepy" to his feeling. Creepy and cold, the other teachers must thinks he was nuts.
It was the students, mostly. They all seemed disconnected from each other. They weren't as friendly. But maybe it was all in his head, because he was thinking the same thing about Willow. It was hard to feel normal and happy when your best friend has been acting strange. She spent most of her days attempting locator spells on Amy. He didn't think it was a totally bad idea, they didn't need that rat running around, but she was letting it consume her.
Xander was heading to the teachers lounge; Mike should be there around this time. Xander never realized how much trouble he had keeping friends until now. Mike was the one friend he was really starting to get close to but when the semester started he had barely seen him. He wasn't hanging out the same way. The truth was Xander was too tired and it was easy just to spend all his free time in his rooms with Willow.
Maybe that why you get so depressed, he thought to himself. Willow had a lot more going on than him, at least she was spending time with Tonks. He was with her or was alone. He needed to get out, spend more time with other people. That would be his birthday resolution: make friends. It would be a few weeks, but he decided to start early.
Xander sat and played cards with Mike and Hooch for at least an hour. He was having fun, he forgot how much it was. They weren't all doom and gloom. They were about to start another game when Willow came rushing in. "I need to talk to you," she grabbed his hand and pulled him up, "come on."
Xander was practically pulled out of the room without being able to say anything to his friends. Mike and Hooch were shocked. Not that Willow had needed him, but how rude she was about it. By the time Xander was dragged out his mood was back down again. "What?" he asked too harshly. Willow didn't seem to notice.
Willow opened the book she was carrying and showed him the page. "See these symbols… this is why we can't find Amy, she's hiding from us. These protect her, even from the locating spells. They're tattooed on her body."
"Oh…so?" still discontented.
"Hmm?" Looking up at him, surprised.
"Um…you found the symbols, now what?"
"Oh, it says there is a spell to deactivate it, I just need to find it."
"Okay then, get on it." Xander said starting to go back inside. Willow grabbed his arm to stop him.
"What's wrong with you?" Confused.
"What's wrong with you?" he threw back at her.
"Nothing." She defended herself. "I'm just trying to keep us on the winning side. Being proactive…unlike you." She added under her breath.
"Oh, hey, I'm all for it. But we've been here before, there is nothing to do." There was a moment of silence. "And why aren't we on the winning side? We're good right? We're winning right now."
Willow gave a haughty laugh. "You're angry with me cause I'm living in reality and you're living in a fantasy world?"
"Sorry if I'm trying to have hope!" he yells at her.
"Sorry that I'm actually trying to do something helpful!"
"You're saying I'm not trying to help?"
"I'm just saying that you just want to leave it up to me and have nothing to do with it."
"Maybe if I didn't have to worry about you going dark again I wouldn't mind it so much!" he yelled without thinking.
"Well you know what I think? I think you lost more then just your eye to Caleb. He took your spine. You just want to run and hide and play with your friends." She paused. "Who needs you anyway, I could have taken this job myself, would be so much easier if I didn't have to worry about you." Intentionally trying to hurt him, like he did her.
"Now you know how I feel!"
"Whatever, I'll do it myself!" Willow quickly walked away.
Xander stood in the hallway, face stoic. The rage was still building inside him, but he wouldn't run after her. She thinks she doesn't need me, and then she won't get me to push around.
Xander goes back into the lounge and plays cards with his…friends.
----
Xander tried to keep busy during the day when he didn't have classes to teach. He had barely spoken two words to Willow in the days since their fight. Willow announce that she would teach the 5th years and up and he would teach the 4th years, the down and next week they'd switch off. He agreed with a nod. They even avoided each other at meals. Xander pretended not to think about it. He filled a lot of his time with the students. He helped them with there homework as much as he could, but mostly he told stories and spent time with his cousin. Anything not to go back to the cold silence of his suite with Willow. They said some bad things to each other and he didn't want to think about them.
Xander looked around the halls… they were empty. He was surprised usually this hall was full of students, hanging out, working on projects. There was no Quiddich practice either; none of the students were at the field. Xander was surprised by another continuing trend: the houses weren't speaking to one another. He was desperate to talk to Willow, like nothing had happened … tell her his fears… but he could handle this himself, he lied.
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Xander didn't know what was going on. He asked the teachers but none of them thought too much about it. They were well into the semester, the students were busy, all the other teachers said. Xander knew it had to be something more. The past couple days he had managed to speak to a member of each house. No one said anything, but they all seemed off. Luna from Ravenclaw always seemed that way but he couldn't find a reason why she and Ginny were obviously avoiding each other. Dean couldn't get away from Xander fast enough, just like Cassandra from Hufflepuff. Even Draco seemed a bit different, but it wasn't as uncommon for the Slythern's to sequester themselves.
Xander was waiting out the clock in his office. At nine, Willow would be leaving their suite empty for him to go back and hang out. It was the dance they started, not spending time with each other. It made sharing a bathroom difficult. It needed to end soon or they'd both go nuts. He kept hoping that Willow would walk though the door, like nothing happened, but he knew he might need to be the bigger man in this case. Willow has always been stubborn.
"I might as well do it today." He said looking at the clock. It was just about dinner time; he might as well show up, as a gesture, it was better then eating in his office, alone, again. He was about to leave when there was a knock on the door. Neville was outside of it.
"Hey, Cuz, what's up?" Xander smiled, but that didn't seem to calm his very nervous cousin. "What's wrong?"
"It's Harry, I think… I think he's in trouble."
"Why?"
Neville bit his lip.
"Do I have to remind you again that you can trust me?"
"No…he's been talking to..." he faded out.
"Neville." He said sternly.
"It's just I don't… it doesn't seem possible. He's gotten everyone to believe him…" After a heavy breath he finally said: "Sirius."
"Shit! Where is he?"
"In our common room."
Xander was half out the door. "Go to dinner, I'll take care of this."
Xander ran and didn't stop until he reached the common room portrait. He used the teacher's password quickly and entered the room. They all turned to see their Defense Against the Dark Art's professor burst into the room. Xander looked around all the members of Gryffindor crowding around the table. At the center was Harry with Hermione and Ron flanking him.
"Harry we need to talk. Everyone else go off to dinner." Xander said firmly. His students just stared at him, no one moved. "Dinner. Now. All of you." He said with an angry tone, which his students were not used to hearing from him. They flinted at the sound of it. Then they slowly started to break apart. "I said: NOW!" Xander got impatient.
Harry was glaring at him. Hermione and Ron stayed at his side as the rest of the kids rushed out of the Common room. "You too. Go!" They quickly left, looking over their shoulders. Xander's eyes didn't leave Harry through all this. The rage in Xander's eyes was only matched with the annoyance that was in Harry's.
"What the hell do you think your doing?" Xander asked outraged.
"Nothing!" Harry screamed back, however he still sitting.
"You can't lie to me. I know you've been in contact with the First."
"So what if I have?"
"It's dangerous."
"It can't hurt me… it can't touch me. All we do is talk."
Xander sighed and then looked straight into Harry's eyes. The kid was way to calm. "What are you trying to do?"
"What I have too." Harry got up and walked around the room. Xander could tell, he thought he was in control of the First. He was acting arrogant but was distracted and trying to hide it. Xander wasn't sure why the First's presence was so obvious to him. He scanned to room and found a dark cold spot in his magic eye. It was a blur almost nothing but he knew it was evil.
"You can't keep doing this." Harry walked away and shook his head, not taking Xander seriously. "You might think your gonna get something out of The First, but your not, your just gonna keep hurting yourself."
"You don't know what you're talking about."
Xander was getting nowhere, he needed help… he needed Willow. "You stay here." He pointed at Harry. "You're in so much…"
He ran to the suite… Willow would still be there. He hated how big the school was and wished he could just call her. He found her just leaving the suite.
When Willow saw Xander coming she turned away. If they didn't see each other they wouldn't have to face their problems. She was shocked when he grabbed her arm. She turned her head and looked at his face. An intense expression across his face, well actually it was in his eyes. She knew it well; it was mixture of confusion, anger and focus. She knew this was bigger then the two of them.
"I need you." Was all he said.
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Xander explained what was going on, quickly. Maybe a little too quick he was starting to think. "What the hell is he thinking?" Willow finally spoke.
"He's thinking he's smarter then The First." Xander answered, leading them back to Gryffindor tower.
"That little… rank… arrogant…" Willow muttered, reminding herself of an argument she had with Giles.
Harry was no longer in the common room. Xander even ran up to the dorms to make sure. "I've really had it up to here with him." Xander told her. He couldn't even wait.
"He must have gone off to dinner."
They Hurried to the great hall, both DADA teachers felt an impending urgency to get there. They started to run when screams and shouts started echoing through the halls. When they pasted through the doors they're mouths dropped.
It looked like a riot all houses were involved. Food was thrown; tables were pushed around and broken. The students were fighting and pushing. Charms and spells were flying, especially from the teachers who were trying to break it up. It was chaos and people were getting hurt. McGonagall who was actively trying to break it up got punched in the nose. There were only a few students that were staying out of the fight, hugging the walks, Neville ran up to cousin. "I don't know what happened. When Harry got here, everybody just started going off on each other."
They looked around, but they did not see Dumbledore. "We got to stop this." Willow told him. Xander went in to attempt to break them up manually and mentally Willow went through any spell she could think of that would help. She only managed to get of one to save Xander from the students he was trying to pull them apart. There was too much magic flowing to be able to hit anything on target and with anything bigger people might really get hurt. But she might need to risk it.
Xander looked around, holding his injured arm to his chest. He felt so helpless as he watched the room. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted that cold, dark spot in his vision again. And again. There were three maybe four in the room. He knew what was going on. He quickly whispered in Willows ear.
Willow's eyes widened and she grabbed his hand. Xander started to feel funny; he realized she was draining all his magic out of him. He was only worried for a moment before he was overcome with his own feelings of emptiness and exhaustion. He fell down to his knees but he knew Willow was still holding onto his hand. Neville noticed his cousin go down and tried to help him.
She was gonna perform a dangerous spell she had discovered when they realized the First was back in their lives. She needed more power or else she risked being severely hurt. The First is not nice when anyone tries to challenge the First's power.
"Striga a amicabilis paludatus, tu revelo." Willow shouted in a loud voice over and over again.
The air in the room began to spin and the students involved in the fight began to look up. Someone shouted as a bright light came from the dark spots Xander had seen. He looked up weakly and saw that they were in the circle around the fighting students. As he looked he could see the human form that each of the spots had taken. He didn't know any of them. But the students did. The students stared, at one and then at the others. As Willow chanted the forms became clearer and clearer.
Xander looked up at Willow, her eyes had gone dark and there was a stoic intense expression on her face, but she was okay, he could feel it. She was still holding onto his hand.
The forms the First had taken on seemed to notice It was no longer hidden. In unison they turned to Willow. Together they screamed as they merged together into It's true form. Now all students screamed. It was the devilish beast Xander remembered coming out of Willow a year ago, when tying to use a locator spell on The First. The form cried out and dissipated over the heads of the now frozen students.
Willow and Neville help Xander back onto his feet. "Sorry," Willow apologized.
He looked into her tired eyes and said, "Its okay." He continued lean on both her and his cousin for support. He smiled when she kissed his cheek. The students still had not moved. The staff was fairing no better.
"Thank you, Miss Rosenberg." Dumbledore, surprising them all by his late presents. "And you Mr. Harris." He stood there, and Xander could see a change in the Headmaster. Everyone was looking to him for answers. "Everyone," he looked over all of them. "Those that are injured report to the infirmary. The rest return to your common rooms, you will remain there until further notice." No one moved. "Prefects please escort your houses."
Slowly people started to get up… assisting the others, who moments ago, they had been fighting with. Dumbledore went to Willow and Xander. "I think it's time we tell them…"
End Chapter 14
Next chapter: Willow and Xander take on the task of teaching Harry a lesson. Chanukah and Christmas are coming and so are some special guests.