Cousins 4

"I've gone by many names over the years," the old man told him. "Rides-an-iron-horse is the one I'm using for the moment. So call me Horse."

"Nice to meet you, sir," Xander said as politely as possible.

"I said call me Horse, not sir," he corrected. "I can see you're partially attuned to our furry brethren. So, I'll start your training off simple. We're going to go to the Sunnydale Zoo and introduce you to all the animals."

"Couldn't we start off small, like with a petting zoo?" Xander asked hopefully.

"All zoos are petting zoos, unless you're a pussy," Horse replied, starting up his bike. "Meet you there."

Xander watched the old man ride off and shook his head. Turning to the blonde girl he gave her a quick hug. "It was nice meeting you, Tara. Hopefully if I survive we'll meet again."

The dark skinned woman chuckled as Xander left. "Well, let's take a look at you. Long, smooth limbs, good hips, decent breasts, and a very nice back end," she said while circling the young witch like a shark.

"Pardon?" Tara asked blushing heavily.

"Just seeing what I have to work with," she replied. "You have potential. I'll be working you hard the next few months, be prepared to give it your all."

"Training me?" Tara asked confused.

"Yes, the old man called in a favor I owed him to have me train you," she explained.

"I didn't volunteer for any training," Tara said.

"No, you didn't," the woman agreed. "However, I'm paying off a favor and that requires me to train you, so train you I shall."

Tara's demeanor changed in an instant. She'd left her family and traveled halfway across the country to live the life she chose. You didn't do either of those things, much less both, without some iron in your veins, and she was showing that iron now. "I'm not going to be forced to do anything by anyone," she said resolutely, her magic bubbling to the surface in response to her will, forming a bright aura around her.

The woman laughed with a voice that made one think of tinkling bells and babbling brooks. "You act as if you had a choice."

The two vanished in a flash of light, leaving a twenty foot circle of asphalt and concrete steaming and bubbling in the cold morning air.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"I don't have the best memories of this place," Xander admitted as they sat in the parking lot so Horse could have a smoke before they went in.

"Well we can't go to the San Francisco Zoo and the San Diego Zoo would take too long to reach," he replied, "So try and man up a bit."

"I'm very manly," Xander protested, "I have the heart of a lion." Xander puffed out his chest for a second before looking at the zoo and shuddering. "Why can't we go to the San Francisco Zoo?"

"Because I have the heart of a grizzly, also its liver," Horse said casually, "So I'm persona non grata with the zoo at the moment. By the way, lunch is on me today."

Xander closed his eyes and nodded to himself, this was all Giles' fault; one of his wishes that Xander knew what he put up with had obviously come true.

"We'll be visiting most of the exhibits and I'll let you choose the order," Horse said, dropping the smoking nub of his cigarette and crushing it beneath a booted heel.

"Let's start with the butterfly house," Xander said, figuring on something easy to start with.

"Really? Well, you're the boss. I would've gone with something easier like the lions, but you will learn more this way," Horse said cheerfully.

Xander nodded, wondering why he suddenly felt nervous.

"You'll have to feed them, and get them to come to you, but I've got a knife with me, so no worries on that account," Horse assured him, slapping him on the back and heading for the entrance.

"Damn you, Giles," Xander cursed before following the old man.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"I wonder what he's like," Harry said.

"What who's like?" Ron asked.

"Alex, my American cousin," Harry replied.

"Well he's from the colonies so probably a bit like Hagrid," Ron guessed.

"What?" Harry asked wondering where Ron had gotten an idea like that from.

"Well, stands to reason, doesn't it? The colonies aren't all that old and I heard they've got huge sections of it that still aren't tamed. Malfoy was bragging about how his father and his friends went on a big game hunt there bagging a Sasquatch and two jacko-somethings. He said they found Chupacabra tracks near their camp and were forced to pack it in a bit early," Ron explained. "A place that dangerous is bound to take men like Hagrid to survive."

"Oh," Harry said, his image of Alex as a California lifeguard, from catching glimpses of Baywatch while Dudley was watching it, fading away to be replaced by a Hagrid like man.

"Dumbledore left his pensieve here," one of the twins said, looking up from the parchment the pair were working on.

"And?" Ron asked, hoping this wasn't another one of their pranks, which he always seemed to end up the butt of.

"And they were watching a memory of your cousin," the other twin replied.

"What's a pensieve and how do you watch memories?" Harry asked curiously.

"Pensieve's a bowl with a bunch of runes cut in it," Ron said. "You get sucked into it when you lean over it and then pop out a few seconds later, having seen whatever memory was in it."

"I can't think of a simpler explanation than that," one of the twins admitted to the other.

"That's it in a nutshell," the other agreed. "So, want to see what your cousin is like?"

"Yeah," Harry agreed eagerly hoping his cousin was indeed more like Hagrid than Dudley, because he'd love to have family that was ... family.

"I'll get it," one twin said.

"I'll distract mom," the other agreed.

"Excuse in advance?" they chorused.

"Found it and were curious?" Ron suggested.

"How about the truth?" Harry asked. "I was curious and asked you to get it for me."

"Now that's sneaky," Ron said in awe, while the twins looked surprised.

"No one's said we can't look at it, and it's not locked up or anything, right?" Harry asked.

"Confuse them with the truth," one twin said.

"I like it," the other twin said. "Back in a minute."

The twins departed and returned not two minutes later carrying a large stone bowl that they set on the living room table.

"She said yes, and even showed us how to use it," the first twin said.

"We are definitely going to involve you in planning pranks from now on," the second twin added.

"Thanks," Harry said confused.

"OK, everyone lean over," one twin said, leaning over the bowl.

The four leaned over the bowl and were sucked into the memory of a large group of students listening to a speech by an older gentleman on a podium.

"He's somewhere in the crowd," one twin said.

"Mum said he'll be directing the students," the other replied.

"Directing them to do what?" Ron asked.

"She didn't say, just that it'd be obvious who he was if we watched," a twin replied.

"Damn, there's a lot of good looking birds," the other said looking around.

"Why are they all wearing robes and those strange caps?" Harry asked, distracting one of the twins from trying to unsuccessfully feel up a blonde.

"No idea," the twins chorused.

"This guy looks sick," Ron said as the Mayor shuddered and began to transform. "Merlin's balls!"

"That's him," Harry said suddenly as battle broke out and they watched the life and death struggle of the Sunnydale High Graduating class.

"What's the grey stuff around him?" Ron asked.

"The dead," Harry said, wondering how he knew it. "They're telling him what to do."

"Why are the vampires attacking?" Ron asked.

"Those aren't vampires, they're demons," one of the twins said.

"How can you tell?" the other twin asked, surprised his brother knew something he didn't.

"Look at the faces," he pointed out. "Real vampires don't go all bumpy like that."

The four watched the battle, shocked at the amount of bloodshed and death on both sides, when the order was given and the school exploded.

The four were suddenly sitting around the bowl again in the Weasley's living room.

"He's definitely your cousin," Ron said.

"Huh?" Harry asked, still trying to deal with what he'd just seen.

"Yeah, the way he threw himself into battle with just a sword is all you mate," one twin agreed.

"Hey, can we see you fight the basilisk?" the other asked.

"We can share other memories?" Harry asked surprised.

"Yeah," one twin said, using his wand to remove the memory in the pensieve and place it in a crystal vial, "It's how we got the pensieve, we said we wanted to share some memories of classes you've missed."

"After removing the memory that was in the pensieve already," the other added.

"I thought you told mom the truth?" Ron asked.

"We did," the twins chimed.

"We said we wanted to show him some memories of classes he missed and some family activities he'd never experienced," one twin began.

"And we promised to remove the memory that was in the pensieve first," the other finished holding up the vial with a grin.

"But you don't have the same classes as us," Harry pointed out.

"That just means you missed them all then," one twin said.

"Including some very memorable ones," the other twin finished.

"Wanna see a class where one of the Slytherins screws up his potion and dissolves the tops of all the fifth years in class?" the twins asked in stereo.

"Yes, yes I would," Harry and Ron both chorused back, as if they'd been practicing, causing the twins to burst out in laughter.

Typing by: Stephenopolos