Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

Xander's summer had turned into a hectic one, and he often found himself almost literally running from one activity to the next. Still, by the end of July, Xander realized that for all the running around he'd been doing there were some things on his list that he'd forgotten.

That led to a shopping excursion in Los Angeles' magical district with Willow and Sam.

Three Angels block was a section of LA cut directly out of the city by several advanced Ward schemes that were powered by the geological Ley lines that existed all up and down the West Coast. The trio took Sam's 1952 Chevy from Sunnydale and arrived in LA a few hours later.

To access three Angels they drove up to a barricaded alley were Sam stopped the car and leaned out the window.

"Do you see that?" Willow asked, staring ahead of them.

Xander nodded, "yeah."

Willow twisted around the car, looking behind them, "why can't anybody else see that?"

Xander grinned, "magical sensitivity wards. In Europe they call them Muggle wards, they're designed to hide the area from people who don't have enough magic in them to see through them."

Willow's eyes widened, "oh wow."

"If you like that," Sam grinned as he as he straightened back up, "you're gonna love this."

Willow squealed at Sam put the gas petal down in the old classic surged forward directly into the barricade.

"Oh my God! We're going to -"

Her squeals were cut off as the car effortlessly penetrated the barricade, actually seeming to be swallowed up as they drove on through. They broke out into three Angels a moment later, bright sunlight from above beating down on them at Sam guided the old Chevy through the immense park they found themselves in.

"Shopping district is over that way," Sam said nodding in the direction he was turning.

"Wha – but how?" Willow stared around in shock, "but we were in LA!"

"Still are little lady," Sam grinned. "Three Angels is a magically expanded area. It started as a single city block back around 1850, but as the city boomed the magical population grew as well. The Ley lines in the area offer a lot more power than most places get, so they were able to engineer some pretty impressive wards and magical effects."

Even Xander, who had seen Diagon alley in London was awed by what he was seeing here.

"There are only three cities in the states within a significant magical population," Sam explained, "New York, San Francisco, and LA. Most of the rest of the Americas are spread out pretty widely, for a lot of reasons. LA and New York are immigrant towns, while San Francisco tends to draw in all sorts because the city itself was built on multiple Ley line nexus'. You kids will have to visit San Fran sometime, I'm a squib and I can feel the air tingle up there."

As Sam spoke they were approaching a congregation of people and buildings that looked like the shopping district he mentioned. The two kids were surprised to note that Sam's car wasn't even remotely out of place. In fact, neither of them saw a vehicle that seemed newer than the late 60s. When they brought it up, Sam just laughed.

"No electronics." He said by way of reply, "any magically dense area will blow any electronics you bring into it. Don't know why, just the way things are."

Willow frowned, the idea of losing your computer just by driving through a magical area not sitting well with her. "No one's done the research to find out why?"

Sam laughed again, "lots of people done research, no one got any answers. There is always some bright young genius, usually from a non-magical family, crusading to find the answer but it's apparently hiding pretty well."

Xander, unsurprised by the response, just shrugged. Willow, however, seem to take it as a personal insult, or challenge. Xander just grinned as she ranted under her breath, knowing that their little research group had just picked up another project.

Before she could get much steam up family pulled the car over to a stop in a nicely shaded parking lot near the shopping district.

"Alright come on kids," the former Navy seal said as they climbed out of the vehicle. "You have your lists?"

The duo nodded, so Sam led the way to the shops.

Willow wanted a wand more than anything, unfortunately they had found that since she wasn't on the list of approved magical school she couldn't legally buy one. Xander had been racking his brains, looking for an option, but had yet to find one. To date, the best he'd found, was to get Willow a tutor as soon as possible.

Without her parents' consent and knowledge, however, the earliest easy time would be when she turned 18.

He hoped that they'd find another option, but in the meantime the redhead had laid claim to the graphite wands they had crafted, saying that they were better than nothing. Xander didn't mind, of course, though it did mean that he needed more graphite blanks to continue experimenting.

He was distracted from his reverie by Willow's squeal as the redhead spotted the bookstore.

Sam chuckled to himself as his nephew was dragged bodily but a girl a fraction of his weight, and decided to wait for them at the Starbucks across the road.

Xander found himself at the center of a whirlwind as Willow dragged him from stack to stack, all but drooling over the wealth of information she found herself surrounded by. The redhead quickly tapped out her own budget, picking up copies of the standard book of spells grade 3, and other books recommended in Xander's supply list. Xander had already handed over his books from first and second year, along with many of his notes since most of what felt was valuable was stored in the coven grimoire, or his research notebooks.

Even so, Willow ran out of money long before she ran out of books.

Xander's budget, was somewhat larger however. His new bank account, while far from inexhaustible, was more than sufficient to the task of buying all but the most rare and expensive research tomes. So when Willow's list was done, the two of them turned their focus to books that might have answers, or even leads, for the projects they were working on together.

So it was that by the time they were finished Xander was quite certain his new library would rank quite respectably, even in the eyes of the likes of Hermione and Wednesday.

From the bookstore the two made their way across the promenade, waving to Sam when they saw him outside the Starbucks, chatting up a woman they didn't recognize.

"I can't believe they have a Starbucks." Willow said shaking her head.

Xander shrugged, "Money is money. I'm surprised there isn't a McDonald's."

Willow made a horrified face, shaking her head, "at least there are some standards here."

Xander chuckled, "I wouldn't say that until I looked around a little bit more, if I were you. We did just get here, there could be a fast food strip right around the corner."

Willow groaned, but was quickly distracted by the sights through the shops front windows. There were, of course, brooms and Quidditch equipment, cauldron and potions ingredients, and all the things Xander come to expect after seeing Diagon alley. There were also the oddities and unidentifiable objects that he had also come to expect after seeing Diagon alley. These were all mixed in with a smattering of more common non-magical items the two of them were far more familiar with.

Xander for his part, quickly located a letter and hide working shop and made his way in that direction.

"Why are we going in here?" Willow asked, puzzled.

"I made a promise." Xander said as they walked in.

"May I help you?" A man asked from behind the counter, as he laid down an awl in strip of leather.

"Yeah, you guys make boots?" Xander asked with a halfway smirk.

After Xander made his order, the rest of the day progressed fairly quickly and without incident. The trio returned to Sunnydale that evening with bags of shrunken goods fueling the boisterous good moods of the two children.

"That was so cool!" Willow gushed.

Xander nodded, "definitely awesome. I never realized there was such a large magical community this close."

"Nature of the beast," Sam replied as they walked into Xander's house.

"What's the nature of the beast?" Anthony Harris asked from the couch as they approached.

Sam dropped and the couch beside his brother, snagging an unopened beer right out of anything hands. "Secrecy and magic."

"Hey!" Tony growled, grabbing the beer back. "Get your own, you moocher!"

Sam grumbled, starting to get up off the couch, but was stopped when Willow jumped up.

"I'll get it for you," she said in a rush as she ran for the kitchen.

Sam settled back down smirking at his brother, "I could get used to this."

Anthony just rolled his eyes, "so why the talk about secrecy and magic?"

"I was just saying that I was surprised that there was such a large magical community so close to us."

Tony nodded, twisting the off his beer and taking a drink, "yeah, three Angels. Been a while since I've been there, would have liked to join you today if I didn't have to work."

Xander shrugged, smiled, "it's alright dad, we just did some shopping anyway."

Sam nodded, "spent most of the afternoon drinking coffee."

Tony shrugged, "yeah I guess. As for secrecy, three Angels has to hide from 12 million people right on the doorstep. Not too hard to imagine why we never hear of it here in Sunnydale."

Xander nodded, knowing that it made sense. He'd only known about the magical world going on three years now, and most of his experience in it was halfway around the world. It was plainly obvious that there was a lot to see, much closer to home.

"You get all your shopping done, son?"

Xander looked up, shaking from his thoughts, then nodded after a moment. "Unless they change the books on us again this year, but no big deal if they do. I'll be able to pick up what I need in Diagon."

Tony grunted, "go back to Hogwarts then?"

"I think so," Xander said. "I've got friends there now, and I'm doing pretty well in my studies. No reason to change it now."

Tony nodded reluctantly, "just don't like the stories coming out of that place."

"What stories?" Sam asked as Willow returned with his beer.

"Petrification of students, and the boy here being involved in some fight with a basilisk." Tony responded.

Xander grimaced, "they told you about that?"

"Damn right they did." Tony said crossly, "something you should have done when you got home."

"Wasn't a big deal." Xander shrugged, "it's not like I was a target anyway."

Sam leaned forward, "target? Would you mean target?"

"Professor from Salem seemed to think that they have a terrorist problem over there." Tony answered, "probably the same group from 15 years ago."

Sam settled back, closing his eyes as he thought back that far. "Death eaters then. They've been quiet since their Dark Lord got himself roasted by a baby, what's bringing them out now?"

Xander rolled his eyes, "you remember the baby's name?"

Sam snorted, "hard not to. Every wizard on the planet knows his name, so if you've talk to one of them in the last 13 years, you've heard it. Potter. Harry Potter."

Xander nodded, "you want to guess who's in my year?"

"Jesus." Sam cursed, "you mean to tell me those dipshits have been trying to a 13-year-old?"

"And failing miserably." Xander responded with a grin. "Since he was 11."

"Fuck."