January, day after Buffy's seventeenth birthday.

'As if things can't any worse.' Xander thought. 'Willow's acting like me liking and kissing Cordy is a betrayal of some sort, Spike and Drusilla are assembling a supposedly unkillable demon and Angel has left the building, leaving only Angelus. And I want to say I told you so, so badly. Soul or no soul, he was still a vampire and I knew that fact was going to bite us in the ass at some point. Why am I the only person who saw it coming? Giles told us all vampires are demon animated corpses. He of all of us should have known this was always possible. And why are he and Buffy blaming Me. Calender? So her family cursed him, instead of just dusting him in the first place. And so she kept that secret from us. I still think Giles keeping Eyghon secret was a bigger deal. But both Ms. Calender and Giles should have realized the curse could have been broken. He's blaming her for his own screw up. Why? Is he that determined to support Buffy that he can't see both her and his mistakes?'

"I'll refrain from saying I told you so." Xander said. 'Yeah, so I'm immature and just had to get a dig in, sue me, I'm seventeen, as in not yet mature.' He thought. "But I have a plan for how we can deal with the Judge."

"Something I can help with?" Willow asked.

"I'm going to need Cordy's help on this one." And he explained his plan

A mulish look crossed Willow's face and then she said. "No problem, I'll get Oz. He has a van." She said it like she thought it would upset him somehow. 'Willow really wants me to return her crush.' Xander thought. 'Really wish she could understand that's not happening. I like Cordy and I'm working on getting over my crush on Buffy. It's time she got over her crush on me, because she and I are not happening any more then me and Buffy is.'

Later, after the Judge had been blown into pieces by the grenade launcher he and Cordy had stolen from the National Guard Base outset Sunnydale.

'She let him go!' Xander internally raged. 'She let a vampire go on purpose. I get that she loves Angel and I get that Angelus basically is Angel's evil twin, but she had a chance to end it and she refused to take it. It's just going to get worse, not better! And she's going to hate herself for it, I just know it. How many will have to die before she's finally able to do something?'

Valentine's day.

'Cordy dumped me. In public.' Xander wanted to just be angry, but he couldn't. Oh he was angry. But he was also hurt. 'Bad enough she broke up with me, but to do it publicly? Am I that much of an embarrassment to her? We seemed to be doing okay or was I just clueless? She hurt me and I want to hurt her back. And it doesn't help that Willow's practically gloating.' Xander was so morose he hadn't realized the classroom had emptied and then he saw something. Amy, using Magic on the teacher. He didn't stop to think things though, just acted on impulse and grabbed Amy's elbow and dragged her into an empty classroom.

"Excuse you." She said. "What are you doing, Xander?"

"Here's the thing. You do Magic."

"No I don't."

"I saw you, you do Magic like your mother did. I won't tell anyone if you help me with something." He looked at Cordelia and Amy turned to look as well. Eager to test her abilities, it never occured to her to say no.

Which is why they were currently sitting in a different empty classroom as Amy cast a spell on Cordelia. One that would backfire spectacularly.

'Should never have done it.' Xander thought later. 'It was stupid and why didn't I realize it sooner? Why didn't Amy just say no? No, don't blame her for your own screw up.' Xander berated himself. 'You're the one who impulsively decided to get even with Cordelia for dumping you, publicly on top of it. Whatever her reasons for dumping you, it doesn't justify that spell and you know it! It was like rape, one of the many things you always swore you'd never do and you went and did it! You'll be lucky if any of the girls ever speak you to again. And Giles is pissed too. Although, he used to summon Eyghon for the same reason for a long time so he really can't through rocks, but that doesn't change the fact that you know it was wrong and you should have stopped before it ever got to that point! Do you want to turn into Tony Harris 2.0? Keep making stupid decisions like that and you will!'

"Jean?" Scott asked softly, she was crying. "What's wrong?"

"Something's happened that's making him hate himself."

The next day Cordelia just as publicly chose to dump her popularity and choose Xander as she had previously publicly chosen to dump him.

"Now he's feeling hope." Jean told Scott.

"So something bad happened, but things are improving, at least in the short term." Scott said.

"Hopefully longer then that, but yes, things do seem to be better for him right now." She agreed.