Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

Xander spent the rest of the night settling in and getting permission to use the basement for some of the homework and potions projects he'd decided on for the summer. He couldn't practice some of the defense spellwork down there, at least not until he was at a higher level and could reinforce the basement with some structural charms, but it was perfect for most everything else.

His dad helped him clear it all out, and Xander found himself enjoying the time spent with the old man for the first time in a long time. He hadn't realized just how much of the bitterness his father had shown throughout his life had been aimed at the family who had abandoned him, or passively forced him out. The way they treated people left a lot to be desired, in Xander's opinion, and he privately swore he wouldn't do that to anyone.

The next day Xander set out early, heading for Jessie's place first.

"Hello, Mrs. McNally, is..."

"XAN!"

"Jes!" Xander grinned, ducking under the sweep of his friend's arm and coming up behind him. He gave Jessie a light push, sending him stumbling out onto the doorstep, then closed the door.

"As I was saying, Mrs. McNally, is breakfast ready?" Xander asked with a wide grin as Jessie started hammering on the door.

Sarah McNally chuckled, but shook her head, "You just missed it."

"Nuts." Xander snapped his fingers, stepping clear of the door.

Jessie scowled at him as he let himself back in, "So not funny."

"Was pretty funny on this side of the door." Xander countered.

"True."

"MOM!" Jessie howled, "Don't encourage him, alright!?"

"How have things been, man?" Xander asked after the laughter died down.

"Boring!" Jessie complained, "Without you, Willow is out of control!"

Xander blinked, "Are we talking about the same girl? Red head, timid, scared to say boo?"

"Except when it comes to study!" Jessie countered, "She's insane, Xan!"

"Jessie's grade went up over ten percent across the board," Sarah interjected proudly from the kitchen.

"MOM!"

Xander chuckled, "Well, you know in that case, I met another girl just like Willow. If you want I could introduce them and..."

Jessie paled, looking horrified, "Don't you DARE!"

Xander found himself again laughing at his friend, "Relax, I doubt that Hermione is going to come over here from England just to drive you nuts."

"Alright, alright, you got me again. So come on, dude, how was it?"

"School was pretty cool, actually." Xander answered, wanting to say more, but knowing he couldn't. Jessie didn't know about magic, and the law said it had to stay that way. Willow knew, at least some, so he could talk to her about it, Xander figured, but even there he knew he had to be careful. "Scotland is bloody cold, though, let me tell you."

"Bloody?" Jessie smirked. "You sound all British."

Xander rolled his eyes, "You try living with a bunch of em all winter and not have some bad habits sink in."

"I'm sure it was a great educational experience," Sarah said as she reappeared with a tray of cookies and a pitcher of milk. "Here you go boys, enjoy."

"Thanks, Mrs. M." Xander grinned, grabbing a glass and a couple cookies. "You have no idea how much I've been craving milk."

The two looked at him oddly.

"They don't have milk in Scotland?" Jessie asked, skeptical.

"They do, but it doesn't taste the same, and really pumpkin juice is way more popular," Xander shivered a bit. "It's not bad, I guess, but it got kinda sickening real quick."

"Pumpkin juice? Oh gross." Jessie made a face.

"Jessie! Don't judge other people like that, you weren't the one over there."

"But mom! Pumpkin juice!"

Sarah McNally sighed, shaking her head. "Eat your cookies then get outside and blow the skink off you, but be back for dinner! Xander would you like to eat here?"

"Sure, thanks Mrs. M, I'll let mom and dad know."

She smiled nodding at the young man, then went back to her daily activities as the two boys made short work of the snack before heading out.

"Oh my GOD! Xander!" Willow squeaked, staring in surprise. "You're back!"

"So I am!" Xander grinned, "good to see ya, wills."

Willow abruptly stopped smiling and slapped him on the shoulder.

"Ow! What the hell?"

"That's for no phone calls, no letters, no..."

"Hey, chill..." Xander held up his hands, placating her, "No phone there, Wills, and the place is like, really isolated."

Willow's eyes widened, "Really?"

"Really."

Jessie frowned, "Man, no phone? That's nuts."

"No TV either man." Xander said, sighing theatrically.

Jessie stared at him in undisguised horror. "Oh God, you're not going back, right? Tell me you're not going back!"

Xander grinned, "probably not. But there's a school on the east coast that I might be going to."

Jessie sighed, wiping his brow in mock relief, "At least they will have TV. No way there's a place in the states that sick."

"Not having TV is NOT sick," Willow lectured, "It probably results in better grades..."

"And a lot of practical jokes." Xander added.

"There, see... wait, what!?"

"Trust me, bored people with time on the hands in an old Scottish castle equals some really nasty gags," Xander grinned, "I think TV would distract some of em."

Willow glared at Jessie, then sighed and smiled at Xander. "It's good to see you back, Xander."

Xander grinned back, then hugged her, "It's great to be back and see you."

He looked over at Jessie and pulled him into a one armed hug that rapidly turned into a headlock.

"Both of you."

"Hey! Let me go!"

The vacation was off to a great start as far as Xander was concerned, even if he didn't get any work done for the first few days as nearly every waking moment was spent with Jesse and Willow. By the end of the week, though, he was squeezing in a couple hours here and there to practice his magic and work on the potions project he had set himself. Hopefully he'd have some stuff to surprise the twins with, if he ever saw them again.

Willow had surprised him by sitting in on many of these study sessions, mostly cause Xander never really considered them studying and he could distinctly remember that Willow often ducked out of anything he considered fun in order to study. She was, however, fascinated by what he had learned and he showed her a lot of the basics.

Unfortunately she didn't match well with his wand, and with none of her own there wasn't much she could do until she found him working diligently on his private potions project one day.

"What's this?"

"Potions." Xander said, carefully cutting up some of the supplies he'd bought in Salem. "I'm trying to figure out how the Twins made these things."

"What things?"

"Huh? Oh," Xander nodded to the pile of candies and such the twins had taken to spiking his food with at the end of the year. "Those. They're spells in food form. You eat one and all kinds of weird things can happen."

"Like?"

"Like body transfiguration, delay cast charms, some jinxes and even a hex or two." Xander said, "There's one there the twins call Ton Tongue Toffee, for example, it makes your tongue grow so big it rolls out of your mouth and across the table."

"Ew! That... so wrong."

Xander shrugged, "That's the twins. They're twisted, but pretty brilliant."

"So how are you working out what's in them?" Willow leaned over his shoulder.

"I got an identification spell from my journal," Xander said, "and I've been trying to break down the results. Here, see?"

He showed her a page of notes he'd made, and Willow read it with a scrunched up face as she tried to work out what it all meant.

"This is just colors and stuff." She said finally.

Xander nodded glumly, "Wizards haven't moved into the digital age yet, Wills. Identification spells are all based on auras, and you have to interpret what they mean."

Willow looked around, "Do you have references?"

Xander grinned and nodded to the small bookshelf he'd setup, "Yeah, there's a book there on basic aura reading and common spell components."

Willow grabbed the book instantly as Xander turned back to his work, "I think the twins have worked to disguise their work, though... either that or they're using some really rare components, cause some of the auras don't match up."

"Ummm hmmm..." Willow mumbled from where she was reading, already oblivious to him. Xander just smiled and turned back to his potions experiment, laughing internally at his redheaded friend.

A few days after that, while coming back from a movie with Jessie and Willow, the three of them were treated to an odd sight.

"Dude. Check out your dog."

Xander turned to see where Fenrir was running around his yard, being dive bombed by a raven. The black bird would swoop in, let out a loud caw, then Fenrir would leap up almost five feet in the air as he took a swipe at the bird.

"I didn't know a dog that small could jump that high." Jessie said in wonder.

Xander just grinned, "Odin!"

The two looked at him like he was nuts, but the raven broke off from its play and zeroed in on Xander instantly.

"Dude!" Jessie ducked away as Willow too squeaked and dropped to a crouch.

Odin swooped around, settling in on Xander shoulder with a triumphant caw, its eyes gleaming as he watched Fenrir run up. Xander chuckled at his two friends.

"Relax guys, this is Odin. He belongs to a friend from school, she trained him as a passenger pigeon of sorts."

Jessie slowly straightened up, eyeing the bird with awe, "He came from SCOTLAND?"

Xander laughed, "No, she's from the States, out on the East Coast."

"Still, X, man, you mean to tell me he flew across the *country*?"

Xander nodded, fishing some theatre snacks he'd saved for Fenrir from his pocket and offering them to the bird. "Here you go, boy. Let's see what you've got for me."

Odin patiently let him take the note, then cocked his head questioningly and cawed once.

Xander checked the note briefly, and shook his head, "It's cool, I don't need to send an answer. I'll call her later."

Odin cawed loudly, then jumped clear and flew off.

"Man." Jessie breathed, "That is one well trained bird."

As soon as Jessie and Willow left for the evening, Xander went straight to the fireplace. They'd managed to get the Floo hooked up, but it was for communication only. He lit it with a barbeque lighter that was there and tossed the Floo powder into the flames.

It flashed bright green as Xander called, "Number One, Cemetery Lane."

Across the country, in an old and decrepit looking home, the fireplace roared to life and exploded out into the living room. When a face appeared in it shortly thereafter, no one deemed it remarkable and Lurch walked slowly over and groaned.

"Hey Lurch," Xander grinned, "Is Wednesday around?"

Lurch moaned again, then nodded and turned away.

"Cool. I guess I'll just wait then." Xander grinned.

"Alex, my boy," Gomez grinned as he approached, "How are things out in... Sunny California?"

Xander grinned as the dapper man shivered as he said those last two words. "Oh, you know sir, nothing like a Hellmouth to keep things interesting."

"Hellmouth?" Gomez leaned forward, "You don't say? Wednesday didn't mention Sunnydale."

"You've been here, Sir?"

"Fourth honeymoon, young man," Gomez smiled, puffing on his cigar. "Lovely time. It's just too bad about all those Sabbat breeds, distasteful creatures, those. No sense of soul, you know?"

"Not really, but I'm learning, Sir."

"Ah, excellent."

"Hello, Xander."

The two twisted, looking around to see Wednesday approaching. Gomez smiled and rose up, "Well I'll see you another time then, my boy. Enjoy your chat."

"Wednesday." Xander said, his tone almost matching hers, then he grinned wide. "Good to see you."

"And you as well." She replied, "I see Odin made it to you with no problems."

"He's on his way back now," Xander said, "Sorry I couldn't send him back through the Floo, but our connection doesn't handle transport. Costs too much, and I guess it has to be warded heavily for security, and those cost a lot too."

"That's fine. Odin is a perfectly capable bird." Wednesday said, "He'll be fine."

Xander nodded in agreement, "Oh hey, our address is Sunnydale Harris Home."

"I will remember. How have your holidays been?"

"Pretty good, been working on my potions project, and getting some practice in too. You?"

"Much the same, Gram mama is helping me with potions, though."

"Cool. Hey, can you ask her how to identify potions ingredients? The twins seem to have obscured their work," Xander griped.

"I will ask," Wednesday promised, and the talk quickly moved along into other subjects, including what each family was up to. Xander decided that whatever else was true about the Addamses they knew how to have an interesting time.