Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

Sunnydale.

Xander shivered as he made his way up the drive to his home, the feeling of his hometown was like the opposite of Hogwarts. The old castle was cold, drafty, and damp in many ways, but despite all that it seemed to wrap itself around you like a warm hug from your mother. Sunnydale was warm on his skin, the sun beating down in a way that felt incredible compared to the cool Scottish weather he had endured all year, but beneath that, to his magical senses that were now awakened the town froze his blood.

He shook it off, knowing the reason, and forced the chill out as best he could as he opened the door to his home.

"Mom, Dad?" he called out, "I'm home."

He came up short, though, when he found himself face to face with a group of people, most of whom he'd never seen before. His mom and dad were there, but other than them his Uncle Samuel Ruiadri Harris. His Uncle liked his name about as much as Xander liked his middle, though, and generally just called himself Rory, or if a full name was required, Sam Axe. Xander never could figure out where the 'Axe' came from.

Four other people, however, were total strangers to Xander but it was easy enough to identify them as magical. Their sense of dress was just skewed enough to make it clear that they weren't used to keeping up with fashion, though Xander wondered how dumb you had to be to screw up mens fashions, cause as far as he could tell they hadn't really changed much in a few hundred years unless you were a teenager with more money than brains.

His thoughts on the strangers was interrupted when his mother spoke up.

"Alex, honey, these are representatives of your father's and my families."

"Thank you, Jessica," One of the men spoke up, "I'll take it from here. This is Alex is it?"

"Xander, Sir."

"Pardon me?"

"The name, it's Xander." Xander told them, "not Alex. Alexander if you're pissed with me, I guess, but I'm just Xander."

The man raised an eyebrow, then shook his head, "Hardly an appropriate name, young man. Xander is meaningless, Alex and Alexander have a sense of power behind them. They have weight."

"I'm twelve, Sir. I can't carry much weight." Xander replied dryly.

Rory chuckled loudly, earning him a glare that he cheerfully ignored.

The speaker rolled his eyes, staring at Rory, "For goodness sakes, Anthony, why did you invite this fool?"

"Sam is family, Marcus." Tony said stonily, neither warm nor rude in the ways Xander might have expected from his dad. "And really, I don't trust you."

Marcus snorted, "Really, and this *squib* is going to do what to protect you from me?"

"Other than cut your heart out before you can pull that stuck from the hidden holster on your left thigh?" Rory asked idly, a knife appearing in his hand as he calmly used it to pick his fingernails. "Get on with it, Marcus. I've got a date in LA with a hot momma who's gonna want her Lincoln back."

Marcus sighed, eyes not leaving the knife for a moment, then turned back to Xander. "We are here about you, boy."

So much for names, Xander figured, "Oh yeah? What about me?"

"You're a scion of the Harris and Lavelle lines, despite your parents... conditions, that entitles you to a place in the world. With that place comes responsibilities, child. We are here to ensure that you are prepared to meet them."

"Oh lord," Xander groaned, looking over at his mom, "this is more pureblood bullshit, isn't it?"

Rory started laughing again, but his mom and dad flinched, though they both nodded.

"Boy, watch your tongue..."

"Marcus Harrison. Enough."

The room fell silent as one of the two women Xander didn't know rose up and stood across from him, "I am your Great Aunt Jessica Maeve Levalle."

Xander's eyes flickered to his mom, and she nodded slightly. Xander nodded to the woman, remembering his lessons from the book and nodded slightly to the woman, bowing from the waist. "Aunt."

A flicker of a smile passed across her face even as frustrated annoyance marred the expression on Marcus'.

"Very good, child. You understand some of the properties."

Xander shrugged a little, "I was sorted into the unofficial pureblood superiority house at school. It was learn to fit in at least a little, or get a knife in the back."

"I'm sure you're exaggerating," His mom said, smiling hesitantly.

Xander smiled a bit, "A bit, mom, most purebloods wouldn't know how to handle a knife."

Rory near split a gut laughing, again drawing irate glares from the Marcus and the other man Xander didn't know. "Sounds about right, kid. You ever want to learn to use a blade in a real fight, just ask."

Xander grinned, much to his mother's disconcertion. Rory had, like many of the squib members of the families, including Tony Harris, joined the service to escape the influence of the families. Unlike Tony, Rory had chosen to make it a career and stayed in for his full twenty, serving fourteen of those years as a SEAL. The idea of him teaching her son how to use a blade was more than a little worrisome.

"Rory, I'll thank you not to give my son bad ideas."

"Sorry, Jess." Rory smirked, then winked at Xander.

Xander just grinned back.

The Lavelle Matriarch just sighed tolerantly, but kept her focus on her young great nephew. "I understand that you've spent the year in Hogwarts."

It wasn't a question, but Xander nodded anyway. "Yes, Ma'am."

"Our family once held a seat on the board there," She said, then glanced back at Marcus and nodded, "both our families did."

Xander hadn't realized that, "Really?"

"Yes. The British branch of the family, arguably the trunk branch really, died out over a century ago for the Lavelle's. I believe that the Harris line ended during the War?" She glanced back, and received a nod from Marcus.

"What, with that Mold in his shorts dude?" Xander asked, eyes rolling up as he wracked his brain to remember the Overlord dude's name. For the life of him he could never quite remember it.

Jessica raised an eyebrow, but easily decoded his meaning. "No. I mean the War. Grindlewald's uprising, and the Second World War."

"Who's Grindlewald?" Xander blinked, suddenly interested. The Second World War had some personal meaning to him, as it had deeply affected Willow's family, and he knew that his Dad had family who had served with the US Forces abroad then.

"Grindlewald was a Dark Wizard, a true Dark Lord in fact, who led an uprising across Europe's Wizarding world. The fallout of his reign of terror spread into the normal world, both directly and indirectly allowing for the rise of Adolf Hitler." She told him seriously, "A great many of the old families were crippled or destroyed then, in the chaos of the aftermath the one calling himself Voldemort rose and inflicted even more damage across the pureblood families. The European trunk lines of many great families were destroyed by those two madmen."

"Whoa." Xander said, nodding dumbly. There was a lot more to the history of the world than he knew, apparently. "Grindlewald was behind the Nazis then?"

"Not precisely, young man," Jessica said, taking her seat again and carefully crossing her legs. "The National Socialist Party were entirely founded by normal humans, however there were several Wizards who pushed it into the direction it went. Don't mistake me, Hitler was hardly a nice person... nor one that I would want in any level of power, but many of the excesses of his followers were not precisely at his command. He fired them up, then unleashed them on Europe. I truly doubt that he ever really imagined what he had done until it was too late to do anything about it. Whether he would have done something to stop it, or not, is lost to history now. Grindlewald and several of his followers took the war machine Hitler had begun to forge and used it to their own ends."

"How?"

"Everyone knows about the six million Jews they killed," Jessica said pensively, "Few, though, even in our world know that they also rounded up over one million squib families, dozens if not hundreds of poor wizarding families who refused to join Grindlewald's forces, and also nearly wiped out the Vampire clans, Veela Enclaves, and many other demi-human communities across Europe. Today, France is the only place in central Europe where you can find any significant Veela population. The underground hid them, you see. Vampires have retaken many of their old haunts, however there are large swathes of Europe where the Lycans still hold sway, notably Paris."

"This is ancient history, Madame Levalle," Marcus muttered, "And entirely over the boys head. You're wasting your time, and ours."

"My time is my own, Marcus Harris, and you are free to leave." She retorted icily.

Marcus grimaced, glaring at her, then abruptly rose up. "I've had enough. The boy is obviously unfit to take on family responsibilities. I will reconsider him when he graduates. Good day, Anthony."

Ignoring everyone else, Marcus and one of the women that Xander had not been introduced to, left in a huff as Rory snorted.

"Good riddance you old bastard."

"Rory!" Jessica Harris snapped.

"Sorry, Jess." He gave her a lopsided grin. "You know I can't stand the folks."

Jessica Lavelle stayed silent for a long moment, then rose. "For the moment, I have to concur with Marcus, Jessica. Teach him of the family history, I will speak with the boy again before he begins the new school year."

"Yes, Lady Lavelle."

Xander raised an eyebrow as Jessica Lavelle swept out of the house, her motions as graceful as Marcus' had been abrupt.

"That was fun," Rory smirked.

"You don't have to wind him up like that, Rory." Tony said, sighing tiredly. "You know Marcus is a bit of a stick."

"He's a bit of a stick like I'm a 'bit' of a womanizer." Rory retorted. "He's the stick up the families ass, and you know it, Tony. Why you let him come here at all is beyond me."

"The family asked." Tony responded, then burst out, "Damn it, Rory, it's the first communication we've had with the family in over thirty years! Don't you miss it? Any of it?"

"Of course I do, you know that," Rory responded, irritated. "Walking away from the magic, even for a squib, is like cutting your own heart out. But I did it, and I'm done with it. I'm not going back, Tony. You shouldn't either."

Tony just sighed and said nothing in response.

Xander was arranging his room a little later when Rory knocked at the door.

"Hey kid, mind if I come in?"

"Sure, Uncle Rory."

"Call me, Sam, kid." The retired Navy man grinned, "You survived the family gauntlet down there, you deserve the use of my name."

Xander grinned, "thanks, Sam."

"So how was school?"

"Was ok..." Xander said hesitantly.

Sam chuckled, "You loved it, right?"

Xander smiled slowly, "Yeah."

The older man nodded, "Yeah, I still remember magic, kid. It's a whole other world, though I've seen enough of the normal world to know that there's some amazing stuff here too."

Xander nodded, though he wasn't really sure what Sam was talking about.

"Don't forget the real world, kid. Magic is fun and really damned awesome, but the world the families live in is really small too." Sam told him seriously. "Learn to live in both, and you'll love life a lot more."

Xander nodded, "I will."

Sam smiled, then moved to leave but was stopped when Xander spoke up.

"Hey, Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"You serious about showing me how to use a knife?"

Sam eyed him for a minute, "You're not planning on killing a schoolmate, are ya?"

Xander chuckled, but shook his head, "No, it just sounds cool."

Sam hesitated a bit, considering, "not a real good reason, kid, but in this town it may not be a bad idea. They told you about Sunnydale, right?"

"Yeah," Xander frowned, "If it's so dangerous, though, how come my parents moved here?"

"Land's dirt cheap, lots of ways to make a buck, and your folks are both squibs."

Xander looked confused, "huh?"

"Squibs, you know what they are, right?"

"Sure, non-magical people born to magical families, right?"

Sam shook his head, "Naw, kid. Squibs are *low* magical people born to magical families. Your mom and dad both have some magic, just not enough to cast spells. They've got full internal stores, though, and that makes them just about as tough as you are."

Xander blinked.

"You never noticed that it takes one hell of a wack to seriously hurt you?" The Navy man asked, chuckling.

"I never thought about it," Xander confessed.

"Well, trust me, you're tough. Your magic will heal you fast too, given a chance, and you even put out a low level defense against most supernatural types." Sam told him, then waved a hand, "Don't get me wrong, kid. It won't stop a vamp or much else, but it will encourage them to look for another meal, given the option. Squibs are the same, so your folk are pretty safe from most of the trash around here."

"Oh." Xander nodded, considering. It made sense, given what he'd seen in school. Hell, Harry alone offered enough proof on that matter, come to think of it. He should have been killed for a couple of the stunts he pulled on the Quidditch pitch alone.

"Yeah, that's why a lot of us, Squibs that is, join the forces." Sam said, "We're tough, strong, and hard to kill. Plus the military is a good way for a kid who's never lived in the normal world to ease into it. When you start in the service they tell you how to do EVERYTHING. Right down to how to properly soap your ass, if you get the right... or maybe that's wrong, Instructors."

"That makes sense."

"Anyway, I'll show you a few tricks, and hang around town a bit to give you some pointers on the night life, k kid?"

"Sure, thanks Sam."

"No problem," Sam told him, "but not tonight. Tonight I have a date."