Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

Xander was torn, actually, concerning the coming year. Returning to Hogwarts wasn't really something he had looked forward to, though he did have brief flashes where he considered a given. Moments where he thought about studying with Wednesday and Hermione, nailing the twins to the wall, maybe even talking more with Daphne about pureblood politics.

The journal rested on the bed beside, and he realized that it too was a sign that he had expected to return, on some level. Of course, what else could he expect? He didn't know Salem, had no clue about any other school for magic THAN Hogwarts. To some degree, he supposed, he'd never really considered going elsewhere.

He took a breath and nodded. He supposed that was settled then.

"You want to go back?" Jessica asked softly.

"Yeah, Mom," Xander smiled, "I've got some friends there, and Wednesday is going back too."

"I'll call Miss Berkeley."

"Thanks."

Xander found himself feeling nervous again, just like last year when he was getting ready to go, but this time found the sensation to be a bit more thrilling than frightening. He was going to learn more magic, it just didn't get any cooler than that, unless you counted the fact that he got to do it with friends.

If course he was leaving Wills and Jessie again, and that really sucked, but they'd have a great summer and another one next year. He wished that Willow's parents had let her attend magical school, but then Jessie would be alone and that wasn't cool either.

There were so many things he wished were different, but the world didn't respond to wishes and he'd learned a while ago that making them was futile. Oddly, though, after he'd given up wishing for things, some of them started coming true. He was magical, special, that was an old one, a wish he'd had since he was old enough to read comics. Every kid wanted to be superman or Spiderman, or something, and he got to live the dream. A more important dream, one where his parents got along a bit better, seemed to be coming true too. His dad didn't drink so much now, and his mom seemed more... here than she had before.

He wasn't sure it was something that would hold, but in the meantime he had to admit that it felt pretty good to think of his parents as a combo rather than two separate individuals.

The rest of Xander's summer proceeded at an ever increasing pace, making him feel like he was riding an accelerating train. The days flashed by, crammed with everything he could think of doing with his friends before he had to leave them, but it wasn't long before he could see the end of summer looming and knew that their time was short.

Oddly, his Uncle had taken a bit more of an interest in Xander's magic work in addition to his physical training, which resulted in a strange conversation toward the end of the holidays.

"Hey kid, what are you up to?" Sam asked nonchalantly, leaning against the stairwell as he watched Xander practice.

"Pretty good, I think I've got this 'Protego' shield charm almost right." Xander said, demonstrating the spell with a powerful shout of 'Protego!'.

The shield shimmered into existence between them, an iridescent bubble that slowly firmed up as Xander focused on it.

"Neat," Sam said, pulling his keys from his pocket and whipping them at Xander.

Xander jumped, the shield flickered and burst like a bubble as the keys struck it then went on to bounce off his forehead.

"Ow!"

"Stay focused kid," Sam said, walking into the room. "A shield is no good if you can't keep it up."

Xander rubbed his forehead, glaring at his uncle. "Yeah, yeah. Jeez, did you have to throw them so hard?"

"No," Sam answered, then smiled, "I wanted to."

Xander grumbled, but went back to work.

"They teach you shielding spells in first year?" Sam asked, looking over the book Xander was working out of.

"Nah, I think it's like fourth or fifth year, but it's COOL." Xander grinned, "hard as it is to believe, I'm doing homework I don't have to do yet."

"I think that one might be a bit ahead of you, kid." Sam chuckled, shaking his head. "Just remember what I said about magic, ok kid?"

Xander nodded seriously.

"And, on that note, I was wondering kid... can you make any more of that potion I borrowed?" Sam asked, his expression hopeful.

"Why?" Xander blurted, then remembered 'the talk' with his dad and shivered, "You know what, never mind. I don't want to know. Uh, yeah, I kept notes so I wouldn't try the same thing twice..."

Xander picked up his potions journal and frowned, flipping through the pages until he found the one marked as 'utter failure, do NOT mix again' and handed the journal over to Sam. "That one, copy it if you want, but leave the original there. I don't want to accidentally mix that again."

"Sure, sure, kid," Sam said, pulling out a pen. "Whatever you say."

Sam then ignored Xander as he went back to practice his spells, preferring to focus on copying the page contents as perfectly as possible.

"Hey bro!" Jessie called as he and Willow came into the house.

"Guys," Xander grinned, "I thought we were meeting up later?"

"We thought we'd have a little celebration, dude, we did miss your birthday you know."

Xander smiled hesitantly, "That's ok, guys, I mean I wasn't here."

Willow ducked her head, "We wanted to."

"Come in," Jessica said, coming into the room with a big cake, surprising Xander. "Is everyone hungry?"

"Yes ma'am!" Jessie grinned, bolting for the table.

Xander looked around, a little lost, but Willow tugged him to the table and he followed willingly.

"Guys, Mom, I don't know what to say... thanks."

"Looks like you figured it out easy enough," Jessie grinned.

Xander grinned in response as Willow stepped to his side and pushed something into his hands.

"What's this?"

"What's a party without presents?" Jessie asked from the other side of the table, a big slice of cake halfway to his mouth.

Xander glanced at Willow, who had reverted to her shy self.

"It's not much or anything, I just... kinda thought it would come in handy."

Xander grinned, then opened the package. He was surprised when he saw the lovely pen set inside a hardwood box, both because it was a rather elegant style that he'd never seen before, but also because of how much he actually appreciated it. A year ago, he knew, he would be disappointed not to have a toy or something similar.

"I told her we should get you a TV or something, but she insisted," Jessie apologized from across the table.

"It's ok isn't it?" Willow asked, her voice suddenly worried. "I mean, it's not disappointing to you or anything, right?"

"Willow." Xander said softly, cutting her off. "It's great. Thank you."

Willow beamed at him, "It's a really fancy fountain pen, so you might have some trouble at first, but I thought, you know, with what you told me about the school it might kinda fit in."

Xander blinked, pulling the silver pen out and looking at it carefully. Willow was right, actually, the nib of the pen looked very much like the quills they used at school. Some of the muggle-born kids had the foresight to bring ballpoint pens with them, especially the older years, but such things were frowned on by many of the teachers. Snape, especially detested them and wouldn't grade any work done with one.

He experimentally scratched out his name on the wrapping paper and was both shocked and pleased to see it write almost exactly like the quills, only much smoother and easier to work with. He mentally compared it to how quill work looked and was pretty sure it was almost identical.

"This is perfect!" he blurted, gleefully examining the pen closer, and noticing several refill cartridges.

"There's a book on calligraphy too," Willow said helpfully.

"Oh, just brilliant, Wills, Jess... it's great!"

"Careful, your inner nerd AND inner brit is showing, dude." Jessie said, mock mournfully, "My best pal, lost to the whims of the nerdy British. It's horrible."

"Yuck it up, smart guy," Xander scowled playfully at his pal.

"I will," Jessie grinned.

Xander grinned then, and looked at his two best friends on this side of the Rockies. "Thanks guys. You're the best."

After the impromptu party, the trio went out to the movies and spent the rest of the evening in the Bronze. Despite all the warnings he'd had about the dangers of the hellmouth, Xander had yet to see a vampire and he was actually a little disappointed, though not by too much. Even Gomez Addams had referred to the local vamps as 'Distasteful', which either meant they were sun loving pacifists, or seriously freaking scary.

Given the fact that they were, after all, Vampires, Xander figured for number two. He'd already wrung a promise out of Willow to not go out alone or with someone she didn't know, and to make sure Jessie did the same. His parents and Sam had also said they'd keep an eye on the duo, but Xander was seriously going to break the law just as soon as he could provide some good proof to Jessie and get away with it.

Sam had told him that most vamps don't grab younger kids, though, cause it attracted too much attention. Xander had felt better after that, but Sam had then gone on to say that in Sunnydale the attention tended to die out pretty quick, and that teens were considered primo targets cause of how often the run away.

Xander figured that he had a couple years, tops, to figure out a way to break it to Jessie without getting himself in deep with the Magical Law Enforcement types.

He would worry about it more, except that he'd been looking every time they were out after dark, and the town seemed dead at night. If it wasn't for everyone agreeing, Xander would think they were pulling a joke on him or something.

As it was he just pushed it aside, and trusted that everything was under control. After all, if the vamps and dangerous types weren't anywhere to be seen, it should be pretty safe.

Right?

"Xander, you're port key is here!"

Xander clomped down the stairs, running over to where his mother was taking a letter from a post owl and grinned. "When's it set for?"

She checked the note, and one eyebrow went up. "Five minutes. Lord they cut things close, don't they?"

"I've got my stuff, mom." Xander grabbed the handle of his school truck to show that he was serious, and reached out for the key.

The portkey turned out to be an actual key, he found as his mother handed it to him and Xander examined it for a moment curiously. "Looks kinda beat up."

Jessica smirked slightly, "Wizards like to use old things for portkeys, it cuts down on the odds of the wrong person picking it up. They probably got this out of a lost and found tray."

Xander chuckled, and his mother gave him a quick hug.

"Behave at school, try not to get into too much trouble, and don't forget you're Great Aunt Lavelle is going to meet you at Salem for a chat. Be polite."

"I will, mom." Xander promised.

Jessica pulled back, checking her watch. "Almost time, hon. I'm going to miss you."

"I'm gonna miss you and Dad too, Mom," Xander said, just a tiny bit surprised that he was telling the truth.

"Are you coming home for the holidays this time?"

"I... I don't know yet. I'll let you know, ok?" Xander asked hopefully.

Jessica smiled softly, "Alright."

Xander started to say something else when he felt a tug at his navel, and the world whirled around him, and he was gone.