I'm a staunch Buffy/Angel fan so he will be given his credit in this story. I couldn't imagine not having Angelus appear. Whether Harry finds a girl in Sunnydale or Hogwarts or at all, I'm not sure. It really isn't the point of this story. Harry will know the truth about the Scooby Gang, I don't Giles would keep that from him, however it will not be readily revealed that Harry is a wizard.

Chapter 2: Revisiting the Past and Explanations

"You're not my father," Rupert Giles cried as he tore for the door to escape the Potter house and the recrimination of his stepfather. "I don't have to listen to this."

The outraged twenty-one year old was not interested in hearing how he had disgraced his family. His mother, Arlene Giles Potter, and his stepfather Edward Potter, did not understand the constant pressure weighing on him, didn't understand the birthright that Jayson Giles, his birth father, had left him with. A man he had never met, had managed to determine the sequence his life would take. If they knew what he would be called to face nightly, that he'd lead a young girl into that same danger with him, they would have drunk themselves pissed too.

"Rupert, darling, please be reasonable," his mother tried to sooth, intercepting his retreat vector. Her hand came up to caress his cheek. "You know Edward loves you as though you were his own."

"I'm not though am I," Rupert snapped, his hazel eyes flaring with anger. There was the crux of Rupert's problem. He did not fit into this world of wizardry, not like James did. The only world he fit in to was the one where he had his guitar held snug under his arm and he could sing out the unrighteousness of his lot.

Yesterday they had buried their first corpse, the neck had been pierced with two puncture holes and the corpse had been, even in death, an unnatural white, devoid of all its blood. There had been no family for the young girl, a Vampire Slayer, no one to mourn her death save perhaps her Watcher. And it was to this destiny that Rupert's soul was bound to and not the music of his heart.

He swallowed against the emotion that clogged his throat. "I'm going to Ethan's," he muttered, once again attempting to make his escape.

"No you are not," Edward forbid. "Not if you want to keep your scholarship to Oxford. Any more of this unseemly behavior and you will be booted." Edward's face was a mixture of frustrated concern and utter loathing. "There is something devious about that Ethan boy."

"He's my best mate," Rupert was livid.

Edward didn't seem at all moved by this statement. "Then perhaps you might reconsider who it is you acquaint yourself with. We will not go through this again."

Rupert wasn't about to let go of his anger, he clung to it tenacious as a panther to its latest kill. At least then he could block out the dread and the fear. "You're right, we won't," he ground out between clenched teeth. "I'm moving over to Ethan's flat. Then you won't be burdened by the disgrace."

The young Watcher-in-Training had expected Edward's anger to rise, to have the argument draw out longer until they both stumbled out in a rage, so when his stepfather's face morphed to one of quiet and saddened disbelief, Rupert did not know how to react. "This is what you want?" the wizard asked, failing in keeping his voice even.

"Of course it isn't," Arlene interceded before Rupert could answer, delaying the inevitable departure of her oldest son for just a little longer. "He's upset, you both are. I think once we've had dinner everything will be put in to sorts." His mother's forced cheerfulness was almost too much for Rupert to take. "Come dear, it's your brother's birthday. Let's all try and make it a special day."

His mother used emotional blackmail stunningly, knowing how much Rupert adored his younger brother. "Fine. I'll be in my room."

He trenched up the stairs, conscious not to stomp up them, past the hallway full of moving photographs, a great deal of them him and James waving enthusiastically, and slammed the door behind him. He nearly set his guitar of the stand that sat in one corner of the room, along with an increasing stack of sheet music. His un-made bed was covered in assignments still awaiting his attention. Pushing the papers aside, he flung himself onto the bed and closed his eyes, wishing he was anywhere but here.

Just as he was drifting to sleep, Rupert heard his door creak open. "Hey, Ripper, you awake?" James's changing voice shot through the tiny break.

"Yeah," Rupert shot back quietly. "You going to pot yourself there or come in?"

James pushed the door open and closed it behind him, a look of feigned indignation touching his boyish features. He wasn't exceptionally tall for his age, but he was lanky, with black hair that matched his father's perpetual mess and eyes the same brown/green mix of their mother's. Rupert nudged the rest of his papers off the bed and rolled to a sitting position.

Before sitting next to his older brother, James picked up one of his note books and thumbed through the pages. "You actually understand this?" he asked, rumpling one of the corners to shove it into Rupert's face.

"Not much too it really," Rupert said. "It's like studying bedtime stories, each with their own underlying meaning." 'Each liable to get you killed,' he thought unforgivingly.

"Mental," James whispered before throwing it on the top of the disorganized heap. "I heard that you and Dad had another row."

"I don't want to talk about it," Rupert decreed. There was an awkward pause before he continued. "It's your birthday, let's have some fun. Where's Sirius and those other lag-abouts? I say after dinner I take you all out for a night on the town."

James eyes perked up. "Muggle London?"

"Course, don't want my brother getting too Wizard sappy do I?" Rupert teased, messing James's already incurable hair. "You can't always point that wand at everything. So what's it to be? Sneak you into a pub?"

"Sirius would love that," James said wryly.

"He'd probably hit on the waitress," Rupert agreed "What about Mooney and Wormtail? They in the mood for some bird chasing?" This time Rupert waggled his eyebrows up and down suggestively.

James laughed. "Not that any girl would look twice with you around."

"Alright not the pub," he agreed. "Think on it. We'll have a bloody fantastic time or die trying."

"Rupert, James, dinner," Arlene shouted from below. "James your friends are here."

"Best get down there," James said, noting Rupert's hesitation. "Try to be civil."

Rupert nodded, following his brother down the stairs. Edward was the only father he had ever known and he loved him. Surely they could work out these differences.

Tears coursed down Arlene Potter's eyes as her eldest son closed the door behind him. It was the last time she would see Rupert save for a brief moment years later. He was really gone. It cracked her heart, allowing her blood to spill freely. Edward wrapped his arms around her from behind, holding her as she shook with each sob.

"I'm sorry, Arlene," and she could tell from his voice that he truly was. "He's been dabbling in black magic. I couldn't allow him to continue with James still in school. You know how he looks up to him, right idolizes him. That magic, with no wand to channel its properties is too haphazard." She felt the slight thump of tears hit the coif of her hair and fall to her scalp. "He or someone else is going to die unless we shake some sense into him."

"I'm afraid for him, Edward," she huffed between breaths.

She felt him nod above her. "I am too."

Arlene was grateful that James was off to school with his friends, away from the trauma of his older brother's decline. She would have to owl him she knew, sooner or later. But right now she consoled herself with allowing it to be later.

"He left."

Sirius looked up from his plate of bangers and mash and frowned. "Who?"

"Ripper," James answered. He took the latest letter from his parents and handed it to his best friend. Thankful that the Great Hall was as boisterous as usual he leaned closed to both Remus, who was on Sirius right, and Sirius. "He's been using Dark Magic."

"But how? He's a Muggle," Remus asked

"Mum didn't go too much into it did she," he replied angrily. "He used some sort of Muggle way, calling on a demon or such." James ran a hand through his black hair.

Remus was taken aback and took to concentrating on his food. Sirius snapped his eyes on James. "There's no need to snap at Moony. It's not his fault your brother is a delinquent."

It was a rare occasion when James and Sirius argued, but when they did, Hogwarts seemed to all go in to the dunk and cover position. James snapped up his wand intent on making his best friend take back such a nasty comment. "My brother isn't a delinquent."

"You gonna curse me, Potter?" Sirius asked, half way amused, half way enraged.

Remus looked between his two best friend, knowing well the signs of a duel between the two. He stood up and placed himself between Sirius and James. "This isn't the way to show James our support."

"He's the one who turned his wand on me," Sirius argued.

The werewolf gave his friend a pleading look. "James please"

For several long moments, James just stood there fuming, his chest rising up and down in ragged timing. Finally, he shoved his wand into his robes. "I'm going to class."

But James didn't go to class, he skived off and headed for the Gryffindor Tower. He muttered the password walked over to his trunk that sat at the foot of his bed. Prying open the lid, he took out the photograph of him and Rupert taken just before he'd left for Hogwarts for his first year. Rupert's dark brown hair lay neatly against his scalp, but his t-shirt and jeans gave him a much more wild appearance.

Looking at his seventeen-year-old brother, he couldn't imagine how much had changed in four years. He looked so happy there, his arm draped over James' shoulder, each of them pulling faces that had made their mother and father laugh. But after Rupert had graduated Muggle secondary school and started University he'd begun to change. He got angry quicker, started hanging out with that Ethan fellow, and hulled himself up in his room forever playing that bloody guitar.

James had tried his best to understand the changes his brother was going through, but he knew that Rupert's was a world that he could not quite comprehend, just as Rupert did not quite fit into his.

Below he heard the sound of footsteps mounting the stairs. They stopped just before the door. "It's alright Padfoot, I'm not going to curse you," he called out to Sirius, knowing that his best friend had come to apologize.

"Like you could, Prongs," Sirius quipped back shutting the door behind him. "Really, James, I am sorry. I shouldn't have been, what did Remus call it....so callus."

James looked back down at the photograph in his hand before ripping it. "It doesn't matter. He's not my brother any more."

It was James, but it wasn't. Still the very sight of his nephew, caused Rupert Giles to feel as though he had been blasted twenty years into the past. Considering his latest adventures on the Hellmouth, he figured that wasn't too drastic a possibility. But there were differences. He didn't have the same green/brown eyes that had been one of the few links between the brothers. Instead they were a vibrant emerald. His nose was more aquiline then James' had been and a strange lightning bolt marking sat on his forehead, behind messy bangs.

Giles removed his glasses and began cleaning them on the tail of his shirt, unable to reconcile the years. "When did this...I mean... I didn't know. Hello, Harry." Not the most eloquent greeting.

"Hello," Harry said tersely.

"Shall we sit down," Remus cut in, saving Giles from any further embarrassment.

"Hm? Yes, of course, please," the Watcher gestured to his table of books and began staking them in a corner. "Sorry the library isn't up to its usual standards. You can just nudge those books out of your way."

Remus picked up Kinchk Book of Demonic Prophecy. "Big project, Rupert."

Giles took it from the werewolf's hand. "Yes." He looked over at Harry, who for the first time was showing an emotion that wasn't disgruntled frustration as he looked over Giles collection of text. "You told him about what I do?"

"He knows you are a Watcher," Remus affirmed.

"Discreet of you," Giles retorted facetiously.

"It's not as though I published it. There are still so few in our world who know of the defense your Council gives," Remus defended. "Besides if he's going to be living with you, he needed to know the truth."

Giles had to agree with Remus' reasoning until he realized what the werewolf had said. "Living with me?"

Sagely, Remus nodded. "Is there somewhere we can speak?"

"My office," Giles answered.

The werewolf turned to Harry. "Can I trust you not to run off while I'm explaining things to your uncle?"

"I don't understand why I can't come live with you or stay at the Order," Harry argued. "I don't even know him."

A stern expression fell over Remus' haggard features. "You know how I'm looked upon inside the Ministry. They would never approve of me adopting you, as much as I'd like, especially when you still have family remaining." He gave Harry a gentle smile. "America should be an adventure."

'You have no idea,' Giles thought wryly.

"You'll stay," Remus persisted.

Harry nodded mutely and Giles lead the werewolf to his office and shut the door behind him. Lupin spun on his as soon as it was closed. "Let's get a few things straight. I didn't want to bring Harry here. If it weren't for the Ministry and that bumbling idiot Fudge, he wouldn't be. But the laws of our world are clear, Harry must stay with relatives unless none no longer exist."

The Watcher wasn't about to backpedal away from the enraged werewolf. "Even if the relative is a Muggle?" he spat back.

"Harry has been living with his Muggle aunt for the past fifteen years," Remus answered some of his previous fortitude wavering. He suddenly looked very ill and slumped into Giles' desk chair. "Unless you refuse him, we have little choice."

"That's why you came, is it? To get me to disown my own nephew," Giles growled.

Remus shivered and reached to pull a cloak, that wasn't there, around him tighter. "The thought had crossed my mind, Rupert. But no, I won't try and take Harry away from you. He needs a place he can truly feel safe and have a little stability."

"What has happened, Remus? James is dead. I would assume that Lily died with him, and you mentioned an aunt that can no longer watch after Harry," Giles started ticking off the points. "Clearly, there is a danger."

"James never did give you credit for your deductive reasoning." Remus shook his head. "A few years before Lily and James were married, a Dark Wizard began to make his presence known. He called himself Lord Voldemort.and he started to make things difficult, not just for wizards, but for Muggles as well. He killed all that he found unworthy and gathered followers to him to help him in his cause. Many did so out of power, but still many were forced, either by fear or magic."

"The Imperius Curse?" Giles asked.

"Yes. When James and Lily married they were already members of an Order who set out to stop Voldemort and his cause, as were I, Sirius, and Peter. It was a dangerous time, many of our friends were tortured and killed. We soon learned after Harry's birth that James and Lily were targeted. They went into hiding, but they were betrayed by a friend. Peter had been working as a spy for Voldemort and betrayed James and Lily's location."

Remus took a breath, as though he were suddenly short of breath. "Voldemort came to the house and James rushed to face him, trying to hold him long enough for Lily to take Harry and run. But when he wanted you dead, there was not escape. Lily made it as far as Harry's nursery and used her body to shield Harry."

"Harry?" Giles asked, catching that his brother and sister-in-law were almost an afterthought, a obstacle.

"That was perhaps our biggest mistake. When Voldemort targeted James and Lily we initially thought it was because they were a member of the Order. Only one of the members knew the truth. That is was Harry, Voldemort truly wanted to destroy." Giles followed Lupin's gaze to his nephew. "There is a prophecy that claims that only Harry can possibly kill Voldemort. That neither of them can live fully until the other one is gone. There is much more to it and thankfully, Voldemort did not catch the full of the prophecy. When he went to kill Harry he used the killing curse, but unlike James, and Lily, and hundreds more, it did not kill Harry. It rebounded and struck Voldemort, temporarily incapacitating him."

"Who did he loose?" Giles asked, watching the boy thumb through one of his books.

"James named Sirius Harry's godfather; Sirius died protecting him from Voldemort a month ago," Remus answered.

Giles removed his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "This may be the safest and most dangerous place for him to be."

"Why dangerous?" Remus asked, reflecting the same sort of disbelief Buffy had shown when he'd explained that Sunnydale was not as it appeared to be. That something dark lurked beneath the surface, waiting to break through and swallow them whole.

"Boca del Inferno," Giles answered.

"I'm not a linguist, Rupert."

"We stand on the Mouth of Hell, Remus." Giles wished he'd had more time to prepare for this. That Harry had been given to him right after James had been murdered, giving him more time to explain the dangers of this life to Harry. "Vampires, Incubi, Succubi, even werewolves, they're attracted here by it. It's a concentrated mind field of everything that goes bump in the night."

A light seemed to go off in Remus' mind. "That's why you were sent here?"

"That and the fact that the Slayer is located here," Giles answered.

"The Buffy you mentioned?"

"She's the most unusual Slayer in history, but she would be well put to use in guarding Harry," Giles explained.

"Can she be trusted? Is she mature enough to handle such an assignment?" Remus asked.

Giles opened his mouth to answer when he hear the double doors to the library being shoved open and a petite blonde girl, wearing black jeans and red tank top bustled in. "Giles!" she cried.