Harry pulled out his wand as he quietly walked up behind the child vampire that seemed to be supervising a whiny work party of rather stupid vampires digging in the dirt with their smoking hands. 'What type of idiot vampires don't use shovels when they're digging on consecrated ground?' He briefly considered not asking then realized that the lack of answer would bug him for longer than just asking would take. He smiled slightly as he noticed at a rather cute red haired vampire girl had been smart enough to wear gloves as she dug in the dirt. He levitated the group of vampires in the air, "Excuse me, this is a no vampire town."

One of the vampires looked around wildly trying to spot whoever asked them a question, "What is going on?"

The boy glared in Harry's general direction, "Do you know who I am?"

"Nope, that's why I'm asking." Harry said.

"I am the Anointed One, I shall restore the Master."

Harry said, "Oh, I've heard about him, he was an ancient vampire that lived in an underground church like a rat."

"He shall rise from the ashes."

Harry reached out with his magic and lit the child vampire on fire. "You sound like a fanatic." He smiled as the vampire turned to ash.

Absalom looked in the general direction of the voice, "What do you want?"

Harry looked at the ugly and scared dark skinned vampire and asked, "What are you digging for?"

"The Master's remains."

"He actually left more than ash?" Harry didn't recall vampires in this world leaving bodies, apparently the books were wrong in some cases, he was going to have to grab the body to show Hermione.

"He left bones behind when he dusted."

"Weird, anyways I have a one time offer for one of you." He pulled out a notebook and a quick quill. "Whoever can tell me where the most other vampire lairs are gets to live."

Absalom said, "We won't tell you anything."

Harry looked over the vampire's clothing and decided it wasn't anything worth saving. He twisted his wand and ripped the man's pockets out before lighting him on fire. He waited for the vampire to crumble into a pile of ashes, "Now you have one less vampire to compete against."

One of the other vampires asked, "How do we know you'll keep your word?"

Harry said, "I suffer from an ancient curse, I can't lie and have to answer any question asked of me. Of course that means that I'll likely kill you then answer your question or answer your question then kill you if I don't like your question." He wasn't sure if any of them were stupid enough to buy the ancient curse bit but most of them had been digging in consecrated dirt without shovels so there was a chance.

"I see..."

The rather cute dark red haired teenage looking vampire girl with decent sized breasts said, "I know the location of plenty of lairs."

Several of the other vampires glared at the girl before they started spilling details in an attempt to save their lives.

Harry spent the next ten minutes collecting numbers and locations before he robbed all of the male vampires then lit them on fire. He looked the female vampire over, "How long have you been a vampire?"

She gulped, "A few weeks."

"Have you killed anyone?"

The girl shook her head, "No, please don't kill me." She knew the only reason she hadn't killed anyone personally was that she was too low on the totem pole to get fresh blood.

"Did you lead anyone to their deaths?"

"Just a couple of college guys that thought the idea of taking advantage of an innocent schoolgirl was too much fun to pass up. I mean seriously I'm fifteen. You're supposed to kiss girls, pat their bottoms, run your fingers over their breasts and tell them how cute they look. You're not supposed to talk about fucking them stupid or the rest of the stuff those idiots said as I was leading them to their deaths. Brian wasn't that bad, best camp counselor ever. Ah... sorry, shutting up now."

Harry wasn't sure if she was lying or not but figured having a guide was better than not having a guide. Besides, he wanted to check if Mohra actually brought vampires back to life like the book claimed. "I don't understand idiots like that either. If you don't run and you don't try to kill me, you might actually live to see tomorrow."

"Okay." She really didn't see the point in running from something that she couldn't see and could apparently effortlessly levitate a whole pack of vampires off the ground then light them on fire at his leisure.

"Your first job is to pick up everyone's wallets and valuables and put them in your purse."

"Really?"

Harry smiled, "Really, really."

"You're the best... just don't kill me." She said nervously.

Harry thought, 'You'd already be dust if you weren't a cute red haired girl with magic potential.' He figured he had enough time to hit a couple of vampire hideouts before he had to meet Willow and Xander back at the mansion.


Xander checked the caller ID then picked up the phone, "What's up?"

Willow frowned as she looked at herself in her bathroom mirror, "Have you noticed any side effects?"

Xander felt a shiver down his spine as he asked, "Side effects?"

"I shot up like two inches overnight..." She muttered, "and a whole cup size."

Xander said, "I didn't catch that last part."

"My breasts got bigger. There are you happy?"

"Is that a trick question? I got a little taller or at least I think I did. I don't want to have to raid the garage for the measuring tape. You might want to call the number on the back of the card. They can probably tell us if we're supposed to get taller."

Willow blushed as she asked, "Did your breasts get larger?"

Xander felt his breasts, "No, hell no. Now you're scaring me."

"I see, it's okay if my breasts grow but not yours?"

"We're back to, is that a trick question?"

Willow decided that asking if his penis grew would be too embarrassing even over the phone, "What am I supposed to wear for my date tonight?"

Xander said, "Some shorts or a skirt, I mean it's summer Willow. You're going to a decent but not extravagant restaurant and a movie. You're allowed to dress casual or at least that's what Jane said." He wasn't going to add that girls were weird so maybe she expected Willow to dress up more than that but he doubted it. He was just glad that his clothes were as lose as they were. It helped hide the fact that he had grown two inches himself. At least no one would freak out too much about them growing a couple of inches over the summer. Thankfully his parents were clueless otherwise it might have been more of a problem.

"Fine, I'll see you at the mansion after the movie."

Xander said, "See you then." He waited until Willow hung up then he called the number on his card for the people that had given him the ability to fight back against vampires.


Thea looked away from the old boarded up fraternity house and whispered, "This is a horrible idea. They're going to kill me."

Harry whispered, "Relax, all you have to do is get them to open the door. I'll take care of the rest."

"Are you sure?" Thea adjusted the short skirt of the Girl Scout outfit that her mysterious 'friend' had conjured for her.

"Have I let you down yet?"

Thea brushed her red hair out of her face and adjusted her hat, "Not yet."

"Then relax and move your cute behind over to the door and knock on it."

Thea walked over to the door and knocked on it.

A large ugly guy opened the door, "What do you want?"

Thea said, "I'm selling Girl Scout cookies."

"Are they made with real Girl Scouts?"

Thea stepped back and to the side, "Nope."

Harry twisted his wand and pulled the vampire out into the lawn, ripped his pockets out then cut his head off with a couple of different charms. "See, wasn't that fun?"

Thea grabbed the next vampire that came to investigate and used a judo throw to send him sprawling into the lawn so that her new 'friend' could kill the vampire more easily. Sure, maybe she couldn't kill people without her new 'friend' killing her but this was fun and the looting was better. Humans tended to use banks, vampires not so much. She was just glad that the vampire that killed her had buried her rather than leave her to be declared dead. Not that she had much money but it was still better than not having an account. Besides, she'd have money once the realtor sold her grandmother's house. She ran away from the door, vampire strength might be partially mystical but there was a physical component to it and besides, she was only a couple of weeks old as a vampire.

Harry flicked his wand and cut the vampire's clothes apart so that the contents of his pocket would fall out.

The vampire rolled to his feet and looked down at the rags he was suddenly wearing, "What the hell?"

Harry smirked as he used a cutting charm to cut the vampire's head off as a fat female vampire rushed out of the house with a blonde vampire walking out of the house calmly.

Dav said, "That wasn't cool."

Thea pouted, "He didn't want to buy my Girl Scout cookies."

Sunday snapped, "What are you five?"

Harry made a slashing motion and cut the fat vampire's head off.

Sunday stared at Thea in surprise, "What the hell?"

Thea raised her hands like she was going to cast a spell or at least like she had seen some of the various cartoon or fictional characters casting spells. "You're next unless you tell me where to find more vampires to kill."

Sunday snorted, "You think you can beat me?"

"Ah..."

Harry flicked his wand and cut the blond vampire's head off.

Thea smirked, "Nope but I don't have to. That was awesome boss."

Harry smiled, "You did good. Give me a second to check the fraternity then we'll see what we can find for loot."

"Okay." She briefly considered running away then decided not to. Maybe he would kill her eventually but until then she was having fun looting other vampires.

Harry used his x-ray vision and made sure that there weren't more vampires in the fraternity. "Okay, it's clear. Let's go looting." He figured he had enough time to look over some of the contents of the fraternity before he had to get back so that he had enough time to bring Thea back to life before Willow and Xander got there.


Jane glared at the skinny leering man blocking their way. She had just gotten through with an excellent date with Willow, a nice steak dinner and a movie and now a sleazy looking reject from the seventies was trying to ruin her night. "Can't you find someone else to bother?"

The man smirked as he shifted to his vampire face, "You look delicious."

Jane pulled her wand and lit the vampire on fire before she really processed the fact that Willow didn't know she could use magic. "Oops."

Willow stared as the vampire crumbled to dust, "You lit it on fire..."

Jane asked sheepishly, "I don't suppose you'd believe that I used a pen flare?"

Willow shook her head as she stared at Jane's magic wand, "You're so busted."

"Drat."

Willow asked, "What else can you do?"

Jane said, "A bunch of stuff actually, I went to a magic school for the last couple of years though you probably shouldn't tell people that. Technically speaking, it's supposed to be a secret."

Willow said, "I've got so many questions."

"Did you at least have a good time on our date until the vampire interrupted?"

"Yep."

Jane smirked then leaned in and gave her a quick kiss, "Great."

Willow blushed, "Hey that doesn't mean I like girls..."

Jane snickered, "You wouldn't be blushing if you didn't." She leaned in and whispered, "Besides, your nipples are telling a different tale."

Willow crossed her arms over her breasts, "I don't have any bras that fit anymore..." She trailed off as she realized that she really didn't want to go into why her bras didn't fit anymore. "I can't convince you that they're just cold can I?"

"Nope, not in this weather and you probably can't convince me that your breasts didn't grow a lot over the last couple of days either, at least not without a fair bit of kissing."

Willow said, "Let's go watch Xander blow up some aliens while we discuss magic."

"I still think that stupid game is rigged." She smiled as she took Willow's hand and headed towards home.


Alex asked, "Is there a reason that you're levitating a chained up and gagged naked red haired vampire girl in front of the Mirror of Opposite alignment?"

Harry said, "Yep, I'm running an experiment."

"You're trying to create a good vampire?"

"Sort of. I'm going to create a good version then swap the good and bad demons so that she's not stuck with a good demon in an evil host then I'm going to see if I can summon her soul back. Then I'll probably use some Mohra blood on her."

Alex asked, "Why?"

"Because she's cute, smart and has magic potential. It seems a shame just to dust her. She's only been a vampire a couple of weeks and hasn't done anything completely horrible yet."

Alex asked, "How are you going to swap the demons?"

"I found a body swapping spell in the witch's house that we looted."

"Ah, that reminds me, we should make sure that Amy doesn't go down a dark path like her mother, maybe invite her to our gaming sessions and introduce her to Jonathan."

Harry said, "That actually sounds like a good idea. That would give us enough people to run two different groups or one really large monster hunting mob. If we can talk her into playing."

Alex looked at the mirror then at the vampire, "You do realize that vampires don't have reflections right?"

Harry said, "I'm aware, one of the vampire books from Ariel's world has a spell to charm a mirror so that vampires can see their reflection."

"I guess that shouldn't surprise me. Let's see if it works."

Harry moved Thea in front of the mirror and smiled when a gagged and chained copy of Thea fell out of the mirror. "It worked." He could tell that the 'good' version of Thea was less dark than the more evil version though they were both using necromancy to animate a corpse.

Alex flicked her wand and levitated the copy of Thea so that she couldn't wiggle over and attack the bound Thea. She gestured with her free hand and covered up the Mirror of Opposition with its cover. She was a little less worried about the mirror once they realized that invisible people didn't create duplicates. "I'll chain the girls down if you want to grab the essence swapping spell."

Harry said, "Thanks." He floated the chained Thea back to the ground then turned and left the room to grab the spell book he needed to swap the demons.

Alex concentrated and used her magic to summon Thea's shade.

Thea's shade giggled as she appeared, "Hi."

Alex looked over the misty ghost like girl standing before her, "You can see me?"

"I'm dead, you summoned me, you're a little faded around the edges but yeah, I can see you."

"Huh, good to know. I wanted to ask you a question."

"Okay."

"How long have you been dead?"

Thea pouted, "A couple of weeks."

"We've got a way to make your vampire body human again, would you want to come back?"

"Yep, you bet."

Alex asked, "Really?"

"Do you have any idea how boring waiting in line is when your number to be helped is 789,453?"

"I guess I can see where that might be a problem." Alex wondered if things were different in this world or if spirits only stopped wanting to interact with the living once they were processed and had a chance to settle into their proper afterlife. Either way she didn't have a problem bringing the girl back if that's what she wanted.

Thea's shade asked, "Do I get to keep the vampire upgrades or anything?"

Alex laughed, "I'm sure we can figure something out."

Harry walked back in and stared at Thea's shade, "Oh, right, the stone." He'd sort of forgotten that she had all of his abilities.

Alex laughed, "I figured I might as well ask her if she wanted us to put her back in her body."

Harry asked, "Do you?"

"Hell yeah. I want to rid the world of vampires or at least put a large dent in them."

"In that case, we'll swap the good and bad demons then put you in with the good demon in the good body then bring you back to life."

Thea's shade shrugged, "Sounds better than being dead to me."

Harry got to work setting up the ritual to swap the demons.


Xander looked over at Willow as she walked into Harry's living room where they were playing video games, "How was your date?"

Willow blushed, "It was nice until the vampire jumped out at us."

Xander looked at Jane, "That's crazy talk..."

Jane laughed, "We already knew about vampires."

"Oh good... wait how?"

Jane said, "We're magic users. Vampires are covered in Defense Against the Dark Arts in school."

Xander blinked, "They have magic schools?"

Hermione looked up from where she was shooting aliens on X-com. "They're hidden but they have them."

Xander looked around at the rest of the girls that didn't seem surprised by mention of magic or vampires, "So everyone?"

Puck snickered, "Yep, we're all witches, well other than Harry."

Luna giggled, "He's a wizard."

Xander said, "Cool, what can you do?"

Jane said, "Lots of things. Tell you what, let's play a game."

"What type of game?"

"Strip magic." Jane snickered at the looks on Willow and Xander's faces.

Xander's smile turned rather goofy, "That sounds fun."

Willow glared at him, "Xander."

Jane said, "Yep, it's a fun game, you or Willow take off a piece of clothing and I show you a magic spell."

Xander blushed, "Okay, I'm not sure I like this game anymore."

Hermione laughed, "Relax we'll show you spells even if you don't play Jane's game."

Jane pouted, "Ruin my fun." She smiled, "You can relax, I was mostly joking anyways."

Willow asked, "Mostly?"

"While I want to see you naked, I'm perfectly happy showing you spells without requiring you to strip, now magic items on the other hand..." She snickered as she sat down on the couch and patted the seat next to her while giving Willow a large smile.

Puck said, "Rats, it sounded like a fun game."

Hermione said, "Take a seat and I'll give you the overview on magic and what you should know."

Willow blushed as she took a seat on the couch with Jane.


Harry absently fiddled with one of the telepath necklaces as he asked, "How do you feel?"

Thea sighed as she glanced around the rather bare bedroom, "I'm not sure, I'm naked and tied to a bed which is all sorts of kinky or at least it would be if the sheets weren't pulled up around my chin like my Grams used to do when I was a little kid. I can feel my pulse if I put my fingers together just right. On the other hand, it's a bit like waking up from a nightmare. I remember being dead, I remember running around luring nasty jocks and idiot college students to their deaths, it's tragic but I can see her twisted logic. They weren't nice people. I also remember being stuck in that stupid long line while I waited to go to wherever I was actually supposed to go. I've also got a voice in my head telling me that it will be all right and that we'll get through it. At least I'm not stuck with the evil demon, is she dust yet?"

Harry said, "Not yet, I turned her into a playing card."

"You can do that?"

Harry chuckled, "I brought you back to life and you're surprised by a little bit of transfiguration?"

Thea said, "I guess when you put it that way, I shouldn't be all that surprised."

Her demon mentally said, 'I guess that counts as destroyed.'

'Yep. What do you think of Harry so far?'

'He's cute.'

'Yep.' Thea asked, "So what's next?"

"A medical exam and then you're free to go."

Thea asked nervously, "Can I stay here?"

"Why?"

"I never really knew my parents and my grandmother died when Darla grabbed me. We weren't all that close, she's religious and I'm not... I know that sounds weird coming from someone that was dead but I didn't see any wings or horns on the people working the counter. I didn't see any pearly gates or pits of hellfire. My grandmother didn't show up in the waiting area with me so maybe she moved on. Either way, I can't really afford to keep the house long term, I'm not looking forward to ending up in a foster home..."

Harry was glad he had the telepathy necklace as it let him know that she found him and Alex attractive and that she was telling the truth about things. He said, "I'm sure we can work something out."

"I can clean and cook."

"Do you like cleaning or cooking?"

Thea said, "I like cooking a lot, cleaning not so much."

Harry said, "You're welcome to stay either way but we could use more cooks around." He wasn't willing to subject Thea to the foster care system if he could help it.

Thea asked, "When are you going to untie me?"

Harry asked, "Do you want to be untied?"

Thea giggled, "Only because I have to use the bathroom."

Harry laughed as he caught a couple of naughty images running through Thea's mind. "I think you're going to fit in just fine." He reached down and gently tapped her cute nose with his finger then started untying the leather straps they had used to secure her until they could make sure that she wasn't a monster in human form. "Are you going to need help?"

Thea sat up which let the blankets fall to her lap, "I'm good. Can you get my feet?"

Harry used a touch of magic to release the leather straps that were securing her feet. "There."

Thea said, "Thank you and thank you for saving me from being a vampire." She carefully twisted sideways so that her legs hug over the side of the bed, "Okay, my legs feel okay, my arms work, let's see." She stood up, "I was half expecting to be wobbly." She smiled as she walked toward the door that led to the bathroom, "Are you coming or not?"

Harry blushed as she caught some of the images dancing through Thea's mind. "Ah..."

Thea said, "I'm an exhibitionist, it's one of the reasons why my grandmother and I didn't see eye to eye, that and the fact that I like girls and don't believe in her god." She walked over leaving the door wide open and sat on the toilet, "Don't get me wrong, I like boys too but that was less an issue for her as I'm more of a look but don't touch type of girl."

Harry found himself staring as Thea relieved herself of some of the water that Alex had her drink without a care that he was watching her use the toilet or that she was naked. 'She's going to be fun to have around.'


Xander stared as a naked unfamiliar hot red haired girl walked into the living room with Harry and Alex. "Oh..."

Willow blushed, "Clothes?"

Alex said, "She was a demon victim, she needed a little patching up."

Harry said, "Her clothes didn't make it."

"No real loss." Thea wasn't going to complain about losing her clothes when she had gotten her life back. Besides, Alex had said that they could go clothes shopping later and that it would be her treat which was totally awesome.

Ginny smiled as she let her gaze travel over Thea's body, "Can we keep her?"

Luna giggled, "I like that idea."

Harry said, "She's staying for a bit."

Thea looked at Ginny, "Which means that you can keep me for a while if you walk me every day."

Alex looked at Willow, "You were asking about medical spells earlier, I figured this was the perfect chance to show off a diagnostic spell."

Xander pulled his gaze to the girl's face rather than on the girl's breasts or between her legs where he had been staring, "Sorry."

Thea snickered, "It's okay, I like the attention just don't get grabby without permission."

Alex pointed to the end table, "If you could lay on the table, I'll cast the diagnostic spell that I want everyone to eventually learn." Mostly she was doing it this way because she wanted to get Willow and Xander more comfortable with nudity.

Thea climbed up on the table and lay down. "Like that?"

"Spread your legs a bit."

Thea winked at Xander as she spread her legs like Alex asked.

Willow spared a glance at Xander then looked at Thea's naked body then looked over at Jane who looked like she was enjoying the view. She looked back at Thea, 'Purely for research, that's bullshit and you know it. Damn it. We're going to have so many crazy stories for Buffy when she gets back. Not that she'll believe us.'

Alex waved her wand over Thea's body, "Ostendo."

Xander asked, "What does that do?"

"It should reveal any medical problems she has as I move my wand over her body."

Harry said, "I don't remember that spell from my many visits to the infirmary."

Jane said, "I don't either."

"You wouldn't, it fell out of favor because it requires the subject to be naked."

Willow asked, "Then why use it?"

Alex said, "It's the best general diagnostic spell I've ever heard of, there are a couple of spells that are more specific and give slightly more information but none of them are as easy to cast." She finished waving her wand over Thea's body, "Physically you're in good health." She wasn't going to comment on the girl's mental health after everything she had been through.

Thea sat up and grinned at Alex, "Fantastic."

Hermione said, "That's a useful spell though I can see why they wouldn't use it at Hogwarts."

Harry glanced over at Willow, "Let's get back to blowing up aliens on the computer."

Thea smiled at Harry then asked, "Can I play?"

Harry gestured to one of the empty computers, "Yep, we've got plenty of computers."

Willow asked, "When did you pick up more computers?"

Harry said, "We actually used magic to duplicate them. It was cheaper, Jane changed the network settings and got everything working earlier today."

Willow stared at Harry, "In that case, can I have one?"

Hermione laughed, "It's in the closet. I know how much you liked the system when you were helping us pick it out."

Willow said, "You're the best."

Jane snickered, "Let's break some aliens."


Kreacher looked at the human ringing the doorbell, "Who are you and why are you disturbing us?"

Giles frowned slightly as he noticed the house elf sitting on the top of the wall looking down at him, "I'm Mr. Giles, I'd like to discuss a couple of books that Miss Potter purchased recently." He was really hoping that this didn't turn into a large problem. Some of the books had a perfectly legitimate reason to be in a young magic user's collection and some of them didn't.

"Kreacher will show you the way." He used magic to open the gate for the human then apparated down from his spot on the wall. "Follow Kreacher." He started walking down the path.

Giles tried not to show a reaction when the door closed behind him. He sighed as he followed the disgruntled house elf down the trail and around the back to a courtyard where Xander, Willow and a group of teenagers were practicing fencing with an adult that looked in his late twenties. "Willow? Xander?"

Willow stopped and turned to look at Giles, "Giles?"

Xander said, "Hey Mister Books."

Kreacher said, "A Mr. Giles to see Miss Potter." He apparated away now that he had delivered the guest.

Giles glanced around at the various students then back at Willow, "Fencing?"

Willow backed a couple of steps and set the point of her wooden blade down, "The hellmouth is quiet, it seemed like a good time to learn to defend ourselves."

Xander took a couple of steps back and said, "It seemed rather crazy not to learn to fight."

Alex turned to look at Giles after disarming Puck, "I'm going to have to have a chat with the clerk about not sharing names or contact information. I'm Alex Potter. Since you're already here and Willow and Xander seem to know you, how can I help you?"

"Several of the books that you purchased are dangerous."

Alex said, "Magic is incredible and fantastic and often times dangerous. That said, I've been buying books all summer, you'll have to narrow it down."

Giles sighed, "On the Nature of Vampires, it supposedly has a ritual to bring back a vampire."

Willow gulped, "That's bad."

Alex nodded, "I remember it, the ritual seemed rather dark and somewhat questionable."

Giles asked, "Can I ask why you were looking into such dark magic?"

Alex said, "I blame Harry."

Harry laughed as he walked away from where the others were practicing with their swords, "Sure throw me under the bus. It's actually fairly simple. I recovered some vampire bones from a nasty group of vampires." He didn't see a reason to mention that he had dug them up after dispatching most of the vampires. "They claimed that they were going to use the bones to bring him back from the dead."

Alex said, "I grabbed the book to see if it was actually possible."

Harry said, "I'd rather not have vampire masters walking around causing trouble."

Giles asked, "What did you do with the bones?"

"They're in a box warded against vampires. I was just going to shatter them into pieces and scatter them into the ocean but I wasn't sure if there was a reason that someone hadn't already done it before so we boxed them and warded them until we checked into a couple of things."

Giles sighed in relief, "So you're not planning on bringing him back?"

Harry laughed, "Hell no, Xander would kick my arse if I tried to bring a vampire back to life."

Xander said, "I'd try."

Giles said, "Sorry about presuming the worst."

Alex shrugged, "Don't worry about it. Fighting the dark arts often requires knowledge of them. Actually, if you're interested I can show you the rest of the books. I have some proper tea if you'd like." She figured this was a decent chance to drug his drink with a dose of the elixir of life so that he would stop getting older.

Giles smiled, "That would be delightful Miss Potter." Crushing the Master's bones to dust and tossing them in the ocean might be a better plan than leaving them in the ground where vampires could get them.

Sirius said, "Take a break girls. I'm like to discuss a few things with Mr. Giles."

Ginny said, "Thank you."

"To the computers!" Luna giggled as she ran off towards the computers.

Puck snickered as she followed Luna.

Xander said, "That sounds fun."

Thea and Harry followed Xander.

Giles said, "From what I could tell you're quite good at fencing."

Sirius said, "It's one of the only things that I liked that my family encouraged me to participate in when I was younger. I'm Sirius." He offered his hand.

Giles shook Sirius's hand. "Nice to meet you." He felt like there was something he was forgetting but figured it would come back eventually.

Hermione followed Sirius, Alex and Giles as they went to have some tea.


Willow held as still as she could while Alex painted symbols on her with a silvery ink, "Are you sure that I have to be naked?"

"Yep." Alex smirked as she finished painting the last arcane symbol on Willow's body. "I have to paint the symbols everywhere if we're going to get the most use out of the ritual to temporarily supercharge your mana pool."

"You just want to see me naked."

"That and I want you to have a nice sized supply of clean magic to use in the loops because we're going to be working you and Xander hard."

"At some point the trickle of clean magic we can grab from the Earth isn't going to be enough to do much of anything."

Alex shrugged, "I'm hoping we can figure out a way to filter it. Either that or maybe you'll learn better ways to gather your magic. Either way, I'd rather you have a decent grounding in magic before you start drawing magic on the hellmouth."

Willow sighed, "You and Harry aren't going to always be around to top us off."

"You're right but that doesn't change the fact that I'd rather have you working with pure magic while you're starting than the tainted crap in this town. Magic addiction isn't a joke, Giles has horror stories about it. The books are also fairly blunt about what happens to hedge mages that abuse dark magic."

Willow said, "Thanks. I know you're trying to help it just feels like I can go faster."

Alex said, "We'll fly like the wind once we push a bunch of clean magic into you then have Harry start the time loop. I'm also planning to fill up a couple of gems with magic for you and Xander to play with, that should give you plenty of magic for training. Magic training in the morning then sword and martial arts training in the afternoon. After that we'll hit the town and learn it's secrets before resetting things. A couple of weeks of advanced magic training and you'll be ready to take it slow."

Willow laughed, "I'm not afraid of hard work."

Alex laughed, "Just remember you said that."

"Are you going to ogle me all day or are you going to do the ritual to increase my magic reserves?"

Alex said, "Sorry, you're just so cute."

"I'm really not."

Alex said, "You're a little short for my taste but you're close to five seven and you're probably still growing thanks to your Smurf friends."

"At least it happened in summer."

"I have to say I like your breasts."

Willow blushed, "Just start the ritual, please."

Alex smiled as she started the ritual that would supercharge Willow.


Xander glanced at the wall that Willow was behind, "How much silver paint do you have to put on me?"

Harry said, "Just a couple of designs on your chest, back and temples."

Xander sighed in relief as he realized that he didn't need to strip or anything. "Wait, how come Alex said that we'd probably have to strip?"

"Alex wanted to see Willow naked."

"So they're fake?"

"Nah, they're real enough. It's just that neither of you have nearly enough capacity to require more than a couple of basic symbols at this point. At the rate we're planning on pushing things, you'll probably need to have Alex painting the symbols on your whole body for this while I paint the symbols on Willow's body in a year. Mostly because by that point you'll probably need them all over your body and I'd rather paint Willow than certain parts of you."

Xander laughed, "Same."

Harry pulled out his brush, "At least the symbols don't have to be perfect at this stage."

Xander asked, "Am I crazy for wanting to train my magic abilities?"

Harry shrugged, "I'm a wizard, I happen to love magic."

"What's the difference?"

"Officially hedge mages don't have cores which means they rely on outside magic to use magic. Wand users have a core which continually refills which means that we can do more with magic or at least that's the official party line. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Willow has a magic core though it's sort of blocked. You've got a magic core but it seems to be tied up in keeping you alive. Giles doesn't have much of a core and he's turned his back on anything more than basic magic which means that he isn't pulling magic in which means that his reserves are empty."

Xander said, "I'm still surprised that Giles can use magic."

"He's a watcher, apparently a fair number of them are hedge mages."

"Does that mean that wand wizards are better?"

Harry shrugged, "Even if it wasn't discouraged in the wizarding world most of them don't have a talent for hedge magic. They consider hedge magics no better than hags and try to ignore them unless they're causing problems." He started painting the symbols he was going to use to supercharge Xander's reserves.

Xander said, "That seems like wasted potential."

"There are some bright wizards and witches, like Hermione and Sirius but for the most part the wizards and witches in the wizarding world are ignorant bigots that got lazy and have been stagnating for centuries or at least that's the case in Europe."

Xander asked, "Why the hellmouth?"

"The nexus or hellmouth puts out a lot of dark magic, it makes tracking people or magic use from outside the city nearly impossible."

Xander asked, "You're running from someone aren't you?"

Harry shook his head, "I'm not really running from anyone in particular. Back home the government is filled with corrupt people. They're so afraid of a dark wizard coming back that they try to gag anyone that is willing to speak up about the fact that he really is back."

"I'm guessing you spoke up?"

"Yeah. Hermione does the story more justice. At some point, I'll pop over there and destroy the items that are keeping the dark wizard from dying but for now I'm rather disgusted with them for breaking my wand in a sham trial."

Xander said, "I don't think I'd be all that happy either."


Willow adjusted the blindfold that Alex had put on her so that she couldn't see the ritual Harry was using to create a temporal fold, "This isn't fair."

Jane snickered, "I love you but you're a witch and you love playing with magic."

Alex said, "We'd rather you not try something this dangerous for a while." They weren't going to show her how to cast the time loop until they were sure that she could cast it and that she wouldn't go overboard with it.

Xander covered Willow's eyes to make sure that she wasn't looking. "No peeking Willow. You're barely levitating pencils and I'm barely lighting candles. Let's agree to leave the time magic alone for a couple of years."

Giles scowled, "Or decades. This is advanced magic and you're not there yet."

Willow giggled, "But I'm full of magic, I want to do something with it."

Giles sighed, "That's why you need training and I apologizing for not realizing it sooner."

Willow said, "It's okay, we're getting training now."

While Giles agreed with Sirius about them needing training especially on a hellmouth he wasn't sure that he was the right person to teach them about using their magic responsibly as he hadn't used his all that responsibly in his youth. He could have done without the wizards pumping him full of magic so that he could help train Willow and Xander.

Alex said, "Wait until after Harry finishes the loop, that way you'll start the loops bursting with magic. This will let you get in a lot of practice without worrying about how much magic you're spending."

Harry finished the ritual to start a twenty four hour time loop. "Okay, I'm done."

Willow took her blindfold off and looked at the table with a red and a green rod sitting on the table. She was a bit disappointed that she couldn't find any other materials for the time loop. She asked, "Now what?"

Harry pulled out his wand, pointed it at the wall to the living room and shouted, "Reducto!" The blast destroyed the wall.

Thea hid behind Alex and Tonks, "Eep!"

Willow stared at the hole in the wall, "Are you crazy?"

Puck scowled at Harry, "A little warning next time."

Luna giggled, "Again."

Hermione said, "That was quite enough."

Giles said, "I agree."

Tonks, "Yes."

Harry reached down and broke the red glass rod which caused the wall to be instantly restored and Willow's blindfold to once again cover her eyes.

Willow pulled the blindfold off and realized that the wall was restored, "Oh..."

Giles said, "Good lord."

Harry picked up the green rod and put it in his pocket, "I always like to check that the loop is working before we do crazy things."

Hermione said, "Now that we know the loop is working properly, it's time to do some crazy magic training. After that we'll eat some lunch then we'll move on to combat training. If anyone dies in combat training we'll reset things then start over with magic training. If we get tired of combat training we'll move on to exploring the city and finding more vampire targets."

Ginny said, "I'd like a couple of hours a day to get caught up on muggle studies."

Luna said, "That would be nice."

Harry looked at Giles, "Does that work for you?" He was glad that Giles had decided to help train them in hedge magic because he had a feeling that it was going to be fun and yet painful.

Giles smiled slightly as he realized this was an excellent chance to give Willow and Xander some of the more useful watcher training while skipping the less useful aspects. "I'll help get everyone caught up with history and English if Willow wants to help with Sciences and the dread machines. I'd like to sneak in some language training as well."

Xander groaned.

Alex laughed, "Actually I've got a couple of language candies that should make learning languages a breeze. Basically all you have to do is eat them then practice the language for a couple of hours and you'll have it. The more you practice in that time the better your understanding of the language."

Giles looked at Alex in surprise, "That would have been really useful back at the academy."

Xander said, "Now that is language training I can approve of."

Willow said, "Sign me up."

Harry said, "I'll be right back." He teleported to the hidden safe so he could store the green rod.

Giles asked, "That didn't look like normal teleportation."

Alex shrugged, "It's not. How do you want to start?"

Giles said, "We have candles set up in the living room, let's go light them until we can do it every time and without an undo amount of effort or magic then we'll move on to the more exciting things."

Alex said, "You heard the man."

Thea said, "Lighting candles sounds fun."

Willow said, "Okay." She was just glad that Alex had explained the need to practice until she wasn't wasting magic. The less magic you wasted the more you had for later which could make all the difference in the world in a fight.


Harry had lost count of how many days he spent playing with wandless magic and refining his technique while Xander and the girls worked on their magic and combat skills. He was fairly sure that it was about twenty 'days' which was probably closer to thirteen or fourteen actual twenty four hour periods but he could be wrong. Some days Giles would reset things after only an hour of hard practicing while at other times they would work through the magic exhaustion and then the physical exhaustion of Alex's grueling workouts. Mixed in with the pain and suffering were a bunch of life skills as well as guitar lessons.

Harry was using most of his free time to either check on Voldemort's horcruxes or work on the ritual that let him turn magical items into permanent powers. He was getting good enough that he could use the lightning glove to give someone the power to toss lightning half the time without some type of horrible side effect. He figured that more practice would probably help. Worse case he could empower a couple of people, check to make sure it worked then end the loop. Then do another time loop and empower another couple of people then end the loop. The rest of his free time was spent checking on Voldemort's Horcruxes. He was a bit annoyed that he couldn't actually find the cup as it wasn't in Bella's vault.

Alex looked over at where Harry was drifting, "Knut for your thoughts?"

Harry said, "I'm just thinking about Voldemort. I can't find the cup which worries me a bit."

Alex said, "We should probably collect what we can find and destroy the soul fragments before too much time passes, I'd hate for something to happen that causes him to move the rest of them."

Harry said, "That's a good point."

Alex whispered, "We should probably look into looting the council at some point."

"They probably have hideous magical defenses."

"Giles would probably help you if you mentioned that you can copy books and that no harm would come to the originals."

Harry laughed, "You're probably right."

Alex asked, "How much longer do you think we're going to be stuck training?"

Harry shrugged, "I'm not sure. Probably another month or two. Giles wants to go over some more history lessons with Willow and Xander as well as get them more familiar with meditation and ways to draw in clean magic."

Alex said, "I'm glad that we recruited him for their training."

"I'm just glad we took a chance on them. Speaking of taking chances, Sirius wants us to finish our Animagus training."

Harry said, "I'm looking forward to it though I'm admit that I've been considering summoning a shape changing monsters to steal power from just so we have a wider selection of shapes available."

Alex laughed, "That sounds promising."

Harry said, "Either way, I'm having fun getting to know everyone just a bit better."

Alex laughed, "Willow's coming out of her shell which is nice."

"She's also getting frightfully good at street fighter."

"She's been playing it enough when we aren't playing with magic, practicing combat or learning something else Sirius or Giles wants to teach us."

Alex said, "It's been interesting, I'm sort of ready for school to start though."

"I'm glad that everyone has been working through some of the school work so that we can get caught up but you're right, I'm ready for school to start."

"In that case, let's plan for only one or two more loops. We should be able to sneak in a couple of rituals to empower people with lightning. If we can nail that on a couple of people and steal the horcruxes that we know of, I'll be happy to be done with the loops for awhile."

Harry said, "Agreed."