Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

Exams ended with Slytherin in the lead for the House cup, and the common room was pretty happy about it though Xander didn't really see the point. The cheating for points had reached a level so blatant that he was surprised it hadn't been curtailed by the professors. It was one thing to bend the rules a little, or even tread right over them, if you got away with it unnoticed but the sheer staggering arrogance of cheating had been stunning, even to an eleven year old.

House points were forgotten for a brief moment, though, when rumors began to burn wildly through the entire school about Harry Potter and hi two friends. When the first of them reached Xander's ears he bolted for the hospital wing.

Madam Pomfrey had it barred off, but he was relieved to find his friend well and waiting.

"What happened?"

Hermione looked over at him, her expression a little tired and perhaps even desperate. She hugged at him and he hugged her back.

"Oh Xander! Harry and Ron are hurt, we have to beat all these traps to find the philosopher's stone and then it turns out that Professor Quirrell was really Volde... Voldemort... or something..."

Xander let her go, pushing her back so he could see her as he frowned questioningly, "That Dork lord dude? I thought he was dead?"

She shook her head, "Just his body."

"That usually means dead, Hermione."

"We're magical, Xander, remember? He must have done some ritual to stay alive."

"Lovely. Bad guys who won't stay dead, I knew this place felt like a comic book." Xander drawled, rolling his eyes. "Are Harry and the Twit ok?"

She slapped his arm lightly, "Don't call Ron that! He's not that bad, he beat McGonagall's giant chess set by sacrificing himself to get us through."

Xander raised an eyebrow, "Giant chess set? *Wizard* Chess?"

She nodded.

He was impressed despite himself, "Alright, that earns him his name back. Are they going to be ok?"

She nodded hesitantly, "I think so. Ron was just a little battered, but Harry was pretty bad."

"He took on a professor turned evil overlord, that's to be expected. They have Quirrell chained up somewhere?"

"No, he died."

"He *killed* an evil overlord, even better," Xander cracked a grin, "Bonafide superhero stuff."

Hermione rolled her eyes, but didn't correct him.

They waited together until Madam Pomfrey came out and shooed them off, telling them that Harry would be fine. Relieved they both left, however reluctantly Hermione was, passing the headmaster on their way out. When he was out of earshot, Xander shook his head and leaned in to Hermione.

"What the heck is a Philosopher's stone anyway?"

"Honestly, Xander, weren't you listening to Wednesday when she told us about Nicholas Flamel!?"

Xander frowned, "um... no?"

She growled at him and proceeded to lecture him, in detail, on the stone and its history.

To Xander it felt a lot like home.

The morning after Xander was seated with the rest of the Slytherins when Harry and the others showed up to breakfast and he breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know Harry much, and while Ron had earned his name back Xander still didn't care much about him, but they were both friends of Hermione so that made them important to him too.

The hall was draped in Slytherin green, and Xander could feel the smugness around him as he turned his focus on the meal once again. As he'd felt earlier there was no glory in winning something when everyone KNEW you'd cheated to get it, so he just let it be.

Then the Headmaster began his speech, and over the process of less than two minutes, destroyed the Slytherin's winning streak with the dispensing of a hundred and sixty points to Gryffindor. Around him the Slytherin's began crying out in outrage, but were drowned out by the cheers from the other three quarters of the school. Xander just rolled his eyes and went on eating.

"What's wrong with you!?" Draco shoved him, "They just stole the cup from us!"

Xander looked up at the blond and shook his head, "So?"

"So? It's the CUP, it's OURS."

"Draco, if everyone knows the game is rigged, the prize ain't worth squat." Xander replied, having seen enough of rigged games in Sunnydale. The teachers there always favored the rich kids, and that was just the way things were.

"What are you talking about!?" Draco was turning red as he ranted.

"Draco, how many points did you get unfairly from Professor Snape? How many did he steal from the other houses?" Xander shrugged, "The points are a joke, most of the other kids know it. In the library they were joking about the 'snakes' winning again, cause they know it's meaningless."

"What!? But..."

"Look around, the Claws and the Puffs aren't happy for the Gryffs, you know. They're just glad WE lost." Xander shrugged.

"But... that old muggle loving fool cheated, he gave them points for..."

"Saving an artifact from the Dork Lord Mold-in-his-Shorts." Xander finished, "Or something like that. Yeah, probably not a school thing, but still pretty impressive. Still, yeah, he cheated. No one cares except you and the Gryffs. The Puffs and the Claws didn't expect to win it anyway, the older students told all their first years that Slytherin cheats to win and the professors don't care. If the teachers don't care, why should they? The cup is worthless, Draco."

Draco slumped back, pouting, but fell silent so Xander returned to his meal in peace.

Until Daphne leaned over, her face barely composed, "Mold in his Shorts?"

Xander shrugged, "I can't remember his real name."

School let out and the children found their way to the train, breaking off into the small groups of friends that had formed over the school year. Xander found himself sharing a berth with Wednesday, Hermione, Harry, and Ron as they headed back toward Platform Nine and three Quarters. Ron pointedly ignored the 'snake' in the room, while Hermione split her time between her two groups of friends. Wednesday in return ignored Ron as insignificant, save to ask him if he knew how to play 'is there a god?'. That question sent him as far from her as possible, and gave Xander a comfort zone as he talked and joked with Hermione and Harry.

School was out, and despite his initial concerns, Xander had to admit he rather enjoyed the year overall. He wasn't certain what was going to happen for the next year, but it had been cool and he'd learned a lot of neat stuff. In London they disembarked, and milled around until finding their families and minders.

Xander watched as Hermione was met by a pair of nice looking adults and he smiled when introduced, nodding to each. The Weasley family was impossible to miss, unless someone had set fire to the crowd, and Xander snickered as Ron was nearly smothered by his mother. Harry, though, walked off to a fat, red faced man, who looked like he wanted to explode just standing there.

Xander had seen that look before, and felt a cold chill as he watched Harry walk toward it. He was no real friend of Potter's, not really, but they weren't enemies either. He grimaced, "hey Harry!"

Harry paused, turning around, "Yeah?"

"You going to be ok?"

Harry hesitated, but nodded. "Sure."

Xander didn't know what else to say, and could only watch as Harry left with the fat man. He was pulled along into the American group a moment later when the professor from the Salem Institute caught up with him.

"Come along, portkey to Salem in three minutes."

Back in the states they were given one more class for the year, a short briefing on their rights as Magical Citizens of the Northern Americas.

Xander was somewhat surprised to find that the borders of the magical communities weren't the same as the borders of the Nationalities. In fact, the US, Mexico, and Canada were part of the same Magical 'Government', such as it was. It was really more of a group of departments within the federal governments of each nation, who all more or less agreed to follow the same set of magical rules.

It all sounded horribly complicated, so Xander just focused on what he was allowed to do, which had been broken down into much simpler terms.

He was permitted to use magic at home, but violations of the Magical Secrets Act of 1803 were punished severely, beginning with stiff fines and moving up to forcible relocation to an all magical community until he'd served his sentence. Extreme breaches were punishable under criminal law, which seemed worse.

As a newly active 'Wizarding Home', his parents could apply to be hooked up to the national Floo network, and have wards erected as they chose. His teacher had slipped him a pamphlet on Gringotts USA Warding services, telling him to give it to his parents. Xander just nodded and pocketed the pamphlet, uncertain on whether they could afford anything like that.

Still he was pretty glad to be home and, as far as he could tell, so was Wednesday who was almost hopping with excitement. Well, for her at least.

"Hey, looking forward to the Summer?" Xander asked, smiling.

"Yes." She replied, her tone flat as she looked over at him. "We haven't played wake the dead in a long time."

"Yeah." Xander didn't really need any more information on that than what he already had. "Well, I've got permission from the teachers to go shopping before they send me home, the local magic district in Sunnydale is supposed to be kinda dangerous."

"Really?" Wednesday asked, sounding interesting. "The Hellmouth sounds very... interesting."

Xander shrugged, "boring to grow up in, but I guess there are things I never saw."

"Indeed."

"Anyway, I want to buy some potions stuff," Xander said.

"Why?"

"I've got some of the twins gag stuff here," Xander grinned, "I want to try and figure out how they made them."

"Ah," Wednesday *almost* smiled. "Enjoy. Would you, perhaps like to visit?"

"Sure, that'd be cool. Are you guys hooking up to the Floo?"

She nodded, "You?"

"I hope so. We have a fireplace, but I don't think it's ever been used." Xander admitted, then looked a little glum. "I hope we can afford it."

Wednesday didn't say anything, merely rubbed the beak of her familiar, "I'll send Odin with our Floo address when it's ready."

"Cool. Thanks." Xander grinned, hefting Fenrir up so the pup could bark at Wednesday and Odin. Oddly the pup had barely grown in the nearly ten months since Xander had picked him up, but Xander wasn't complaining. Fenrir was fun to hold and play with as is. "We'll be seeing each other then, right?"

"Of course."

The two friends split ways shortly after that, Wednesday being picked up by the family butler. Lurch, not being much of a conversationalist had merely groaned at Xander when he greeted the big guy, then groaned again when Xander and Wednesday exchanged awkward goodbyes.

After that he'd gone out to shop in the Salem District, picking up a small cauldron and a book on identifying magical spells cooked into potions and foodstuffs. The twins had come up with some really cool stuff, and he was really hoping to give them a surprise or two on the off chance they met again.

Salem was apparently ready to accept students again, however, so Xander wasn't counting on seeing the two red heads soon, but he'd see to it that their work lived on in America.

After he was done with shopping, Xander was led to the portkey terminal and sent off in a whirling cyclone for Sunnydale.

Home sweet home.