Los Angeles...
It was only a matter of a few hours before everyone was ready to go. Xander had grown quiet as time went on. The others were beginning to wonder what he was thinking. They were a little worried. As time went by he had sat with Willow and begun to withdraw into himself.
It was Buffy that drew him from his thoughts. "Xander, what is it?" Xander looked up at her and she could see rage shining in his eyes. She gulped, she had only seen that look in Xander's eye a few times. Usually it meant trouble.
"I want the person responsible for this. I want them to pay for hurting Willow. For hurting all of us. Wes said the Council had something to do with this. Unfortunately they're all dead, but someone is still working this spell on Willow. I want them," he said coldly.
"We will get them," Buffy promised. She would not lose Willow. They had all come too far and fought too hard to get where they were. Xander had a strange and fascinating future waiting for him.
She had also been talking to the older wizard and he had thought there was a way to overcome Angel's curse. The last few hours had been spent waiting for the others to finish packing and talking to Angel.
She knew there was something between Angel and Xander that neither was willing to talk about. This last year had awakened her to what was going on around her. Including the undercurrents between her best friend and the man she loved more than life itself.
She knew it was cowardly, but she didn't want to know what it was between them. She knew very well that whatever it was, what she suspected it was, would make it impossible for her to go back to Angel.
Xander was surprised when Harry walked over to him and sat at his side, gently taking his hand. "It will be alright, you'll see. The Headmaster will find the answer, he always has before," Harry reassured him, thinking of the curse and the pain he had suffered the year before.
Unknown to those present the two dark haired young men had more in common than anyone could possibly forsee. Not even his best friends knew the trauma and the horror he had suffered through. Like Xander, he had kept many things to himself.
Severus and Spike had spent the last few hours talking. The subjects of their discussion were sitting side by side. Each was telling what they knew about the young men that they had found themselves sworn to. Both men were uncomfortable with the knowledge that their two young mates had spent entirely too much of their lives fighting for what was right and being preyed upon, by both their friends and by the enemy itself.
They realized that, while they were joined to the two boys, they had a long way to go to win the intimate trust that very few people ever got from the pair.
For a former Death Eater and a former soulless Vampire this seemed a momentous task. How do you win the love of two young men that represent everything you had once betrayed?
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Hogwarts.....
Xander walked through the doors of Hogwarts and froze with astonishment and wonder. He walked to the closest wall and began to run his hands over it. Anya cocked her head to the side and made a small sound. Buffy looked away from Xander's strange antics to ask Anya: "What's wrong, An?"
"Xander's touching the wall the way he used to touch me in bed," Anya answered bluntly.
Buffy blushed and Spike whistled. "Wow!" Draco said in wonder.
"This is the most beautiful building I have ever been in. Look at this, Buff, this building has to be ancient and it still looks like it's just a few years old. Whoever built this was a genius." Xander turned from the wall and ran over to the stairways. The paintings shocked the Californians by moving to keep Xander in sight. They had never seen anyone as interested in the building as Xander was.
Severus watched his young husband as he did a slow turn; his face had a look of love and rapture on it. "So beautiful," Xander murmured, entranced by Hogwarts itself.
He ran a hand up the banister in a soft caress and smiled in wonder. "This is like Disneyland and Christmas all mixed in one gift." Buffy giggled and walked to the enamoured Xander. He took her hand absently as he looked around him.
"Would you like a tour after you get settled?" Harry asked, amused and fascinated.
"Do I have to wait that long?" Xander asked, disappointed.
Harry laughed and shook his head. "I'll show you around now if you like. We can do the dungeons first, it's where we will probably be living now that we're promised to a vampire and Snape."
Xander nodded and allowed Harry to take his hand and lead him away. Buffy laughed and followed by extension, since he hadn't released her hand.
Giles shook his head and turned to the Headmaster and Severus. "Perhaps you could show us where we'll be bedding down, and take us to the infirmary to have Poppy check over Willow."
Albus nodded and proceeded to lead the group away. None of them knew that Hogwarts itself was listening, and falling for the dark haired mortal boy that had come home with the other raven haired youth that the building had bonded to. The only other person that Hogwarts had reshaped herself to comfort and protect. Harry Potter and Xander Harris were the only two direct descendants of Slytherin and Gryffindor and, in a twist of fate, their mates were the last in the lines of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.
Time and fate had twisted the vampire and the human into something beyond these traits, but before bitterness and cynicism had infected them, William had been a true Hufflepuff. While Severus still possessed the intellegence of a true Ravenclaw. the next generation of the founders had come together and Hogwarts intended to keep them this time.
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