Chapter 9

TITLE: Harry Potter and the Technomage: Book 2

AUTHOR: Methos (ianblyth2005@btinternet.com)

DISCLAIMER: All things BtVS belong to Joss Whedon, Crusade and Technomagi belong to J M Strazynski, Harry Potter, Hogwarts and all that belong to J K Rowling... nothing is mine, only the extremely twisted idea... you’ll have to read the first story in this series to understand what’s going on, find it here...

http://www.tthfanfic.org/Story-15037/Methos+Harry+Potter+and+the+Technomage.htm

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“What’s ACDC?” Hermione asked as she relaxed on Xander’s bed, waiting for the others to return from their ‘mission’. They’d gone over the potion three times now and the only thing that was different about Xander was the fact he had the implants, which Hermione reasoned must have interfered with the potion somehow, their biological nature somehow incompatible with the polyjuice potion.

“Huh?” Xander asked, eloquent as always as he put down the Technomage book he was flicking through and looked up to see Hermione leafing through his CD collection. “Oh, music, rock band,” Xander explained off hand, surprised that she hadn’t heard of them before. “You know, ‘Back in Black’? Anyway, I think I’ve figured out what went wrong,” He muttered, handing over the book to Hermione and pointing out the paragraph he’d found. “Organelles, the implants make them, sort of an immune system for Technomage’s that can heal others.” He paused, trying to understand how the book described them. “They seem to act like nanobots, or something similar anyway, but you need something to direct them, to tell them what to do if they’re outside of your body, or rather my body I guess.”

“Useful,” Hermione nodded as Xander jotted that bit of information down in his notepad, trying desperately to stifle a laugh as Hermione growled as she tried to sit down on the bed and caught her tail by accident. “So now we just need to figure out why you turned into Catwoman.” He grinned as Hermione glared at him.

“Well, I thought that was obvious,” She pouted. “Millicent Bulstrode must have a cat, that’s what the hair belonged to, not Millicent.”

“Ahh, gotcha,” Xander nodded as he stood up and wandered over to the mirror and pulled his hair back tightly, “I look like Spike,” He growled in disbelief as he stared at his reflection.

“Spike?” Hermione asked as she put the notebook away, interested now that Xander was finally bringing something up about his past. “An old friend?”

“Hardly,” Xander snorted. “Vampire; somewhere past a hundred, one of the worst of the worst.”

“You’ve met him?” Hermione asked in awe, the thought of meeting an actual vampire now making her completely forget about her current condition. “What was he like? Was he like Dracula or something?”

“Unfortunately,” Xander grinned at her. “He’s probably dust by now though, so don’t hold up hopes for an interview, nothing like Dracula really, I don’t think there really is a Dracula, Giles would probably know though.” He paused, glancing around the room for the clock and trying to gauge how long they had left before Ron and Harry were due back, they can’t have that long left before they turn back he figured, so they must be on their way back by now with the information they needed.

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Xander groaned as he let his head slip down to the desk in front of him, his chair creaked as he scuffled back under his weight as he rested his head on his hands with a thud, nearly knocking over the pile of books on the table in front of him.

The entire incident with the polyjuice potion had been a bust, they hadn’t learnt anything useful and Hermione had had to go and see the nurse after the potion hadn’t restored her to her normal form after the hour was up, as it had done for him, Harry and Ron. They had learnt two things, Draco was just as much in the dark about the supposed ‘Heir of Slytherin’ as they were, and that Draco’s father was in the castle for the foreseeable future to help with the defence, this was against Dumbledore’s request apparently but Draco’s father had some powerful friends according to Ron.

And the bad news just kept on coming, there had been another attack last night, someone close to them, it brought the feeling of danger much closer to home now that someone they knew had been petrified. Ginny Weasley, Ron’s younger sister who was in her first year now had been found in the girls toilets. They’d all rushed to see her, to check and see with their own eyes. Ron and Harry had taken turns sitting between Hermione and Ginny, even though there was nothing they could do, but Xander had taken it harder than any of them.

He was the one that Arthur had asked to take care of Ginny, he was the one that should have been looking out for her, and he was the one that had failed. The agitation got worse the more he thought about it, the endless cycle between him and the implants just fed the anxiety back to him and it went on and on until he was seething with anger over the helpless feeling and wanted to last out at something, anything.

During classes he’d set himself mundane mental exercises to keep his mind off of the helpless feeling. Cataloguing every student in the classroom who was in his house, then arranging them in alphabetical order, then age, then every student whose name began with a vowel, every male who was in more than two classes with him. The list went on and on and he tried to focus on the names and burn the faces into his mind, anything just to keep his emotions in check.

“Xander!” Harry whispered to him, elbowing him hard in the ribs and making him look up sharply to see what was going on.

The first thing he noticed was the library was silent, even more than usual. Normally it was quiet but there was always a hum of whispers or noises from books or people moving, but the entire hall was silent now. As he looked up he saw the problem, it was a teacher he’d only seen in passing before. Her wild hair and thick ‘fish bowl’ glasses made her pretty distinctive, she was normally full of life, or she was whenever he’d seen her around the school muttering things as she passed him, but now she was stood at the front of the library, staring over at him in silence and her eyes had fallen black as coal.

“Hey,” Xander waved, seeing if he could snap her out of it. Everyone in the library was watching him as if they expected him to work a miracle over it, none of them had actually ever seen a prophecy taken place before and more than a few of them were shrinking back from the bottomless black pools where her eyes used to be. “You ok Miss?” He waved again, this time he got a reaction as her face snapped over to him and her glare intensified.

“The Oncoming Storm!” Her voice even sounded different, it was darker somehow, grainer and echoed through the room like ice sliding down someone’s spine. “He comes for you, Puppet of the Shadows!”

“Um, what?” Xander asked after swallowing loudly, glancing around he saw people were now looking across the room at him in fear, they were already cautious of him and Harry, giving them both a wide berth in the corridors and classrooms, but now there was a palpable look of fear in their eyes.

“The Oncoming Storm!” Trelawney repeated, “He comes for you; he needs your help though he knows it not. You will save the flower of London or all will be lost!” As she said the last word she sagged slightly before dropping to the floor in a heap.

Everyone stayed silent for a moment, waiting for her to get back up, but she stayed on the floor motionless. Xander didn’t know what to do, a quick glance at Harry showed that he was scribbling down the prophecy quickly on a spare piece of parchment, and then everyone was muttering at once, the unconscious teacher forgotten for the moment as they all starting guessing as to what the prophecy meant.

“Someone get Miss Pomfrey!” Xander barked out, making everyone turn and watch as he moved to the front of the hall and checked Miss Trelawney’s pulse. “She’s still alive,” He whispered thankfully before looking up and glaring at the room. “Anybody?! The nurse!” He barked again, this time everyone seemed to pay attention as they all grabbed their things before darting out of the library and running down the corridors. There was a slight push through the stacks before they could all leave but soon it was just Harry and Xander left in the hall with the unconscious teacher.

“I think that was meant for you.” Harry whispered as Xander moved Miss Trelawney over so she was lying on her back and conjured a flying platform to elevate her head.

“You think?” Xander shot back with a grin, though it never reached his eyes, he was too busy thinking about the ‘Oncoming storm.’ That was a bit too much like ‘Great and terrible storm’ predicted by Elric in the Babylon 5 series, the quote was running through his head like fire. “There’s a storm coming, a black and terrible storm,” he whispered making Harry look at him questioningly, but Elric had meant the Shadows were coming, they couldn’t be coming here, they didn’t exist here, of that he was sure, nearly sure anyway.

“She called you a puppet of the Shadows; I don’t think that can apply to anyone else here.” Harry muttered, obviously he hadn’t caught the sarcasm in Xander’s voice.

“That’s me,” Xander admitted darkly as he looked down at Miss Trelawney’s eyes as the inky black darkness seemed to be slowly edging away and her normal blue shining through, the effect was magnified by the huge glasses that were still attached to her face, making the black seem like a living liquid as it slowly crept back behind her eyelids. “There’s a storm coming, a black and terrible storm,” He muttered the quote again and felt a shudder run down his back as the words sank into the air of the empty hall, making the quote sound almost like a prophecy itself.

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The rest of the classes for that day were filled with speculation, it seems the rumour of a new prophecy in the school had spread even faster than the rumour that Harry Potter was attending Hogwarts last year. Everyone was clambering for the truth and so many people had their own interpretation of the prophecy and were trying to see who it could apply too.

Thankfully only the people who were in the library seemed to know it was directed at Xander, but now all of the teachers knew, he could see it in their eyes in class as they stared at him. People were now giving him an even wider berth than before, making him feel that much more estranged from the other people in his year, now that Hermione was with the nurse for another week, and with Harry and Ron spending as much time with Ginny and Hermione as they could, it was just hard and he could go for hours without talking to a single person.

With the classes winding down for the Christmas holidays a lot of the students had gone home, leaving only a few of them around now, with the school practically empty Xander was feeling more alone than ever before as he wandered the halls like a ghost.

“Is she going to be alright?”

Xander spun around, surprised at the voice that had asked him a question out of the blue. He was so used to the silence that walked with him through the corridors of the school now that hearing someone else’s voice came as a bit of a shock. As he turned he saw a small blonde girl stood behind him, he hadn’t heard her walking with him but there she stood with her wand tucked behind her ear and she strangely didn’t appear to be wearing any shoes.

“I’m sorry?” Xander replied, a bit shocked as he asked her to repeat the question.

“Ginny,” The petite blonde said by way of explanation. “Is she going to be alright?”

“She’ll be fine,” Xander said reassuringly, though he wasn’t sure if he was reassuring the girl or himself with the words. “She was just petrified; she’ll be fine as soon as they fix her.”

“That’s good.” The girl smiled and nodded at him. “She was nice.”

“She was,” Xander nodded, catching the slip in time. “She is.” He repeated in a firm voice to show his belief that all of the petrified people would be fine as soon as the potions were finished that could restore them. “You were a friend of hers?” Xander smiled and the expression felt foreign on his face, it had been so long since he had smiled that it felt almost forced.

“I knew her, she helped me sometimes when my things went missing.” The girl replied with a smile as she walked up next to Xander. “I’m Luna, Luna Lovegood.”

“Xander,” He said by way of explanation but from the way she laughed he guessed that she already knew this, his staff and long hooded coat made him a pretty easy figure to distinguish from the rest of the students in the school.

“I know,” Luna smiled. “I haven’t seen you in the hospital wing before, I was just wondering why?”

“I’ve just been busy,” Xander lied and he could tell by the look on her face that she didn’t believe him.

“Maybe you should go,” Luna smiled as she walked off. “I’m sure your friends miss you, it might even help.”

“Why would me being there help her?” Xander asked as he watched the strange blonde girl move off down the corridors.

“I didn’t say it would help her.” Luna said with a laugh that sounded like little bells chiming as she turned down a corridor and walked away from Xander quietly.

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Xander frowned as he walked up the stairs to the hospital wing where he would find Hermione and Ginny, he knew Harry would be in the main hall for lunch now, and where Harry was Ron was almost certain to be as well. He thought it best if he did this on his own, that way he could say what he needed to to Ginny without having Harry or Ron question him about it.

The hospital wing was empty as expected; the only sign of life in the room was Hermione as she sat on her bed reading some text books. All the other students were in the beds, petrified, still in exactly the same position as they were when they were found.

He walked past them all, looking down at them and taking in every detail, anything that could help him figure out what had happened and why, people weren’t just frozen like this for no reason, something had to have done it, and he was guessing it was something pretty powerful. He only wished one of them would wake up so he could ask them what, or who, did it. The implants echoed his agitation, his wish for action, making him pause for a second in the middle of his step and quiet his mind so that he could focus on what needed to be done.

“Xander!” Hermione said breathlessly as she saw him approach; a smile graced her now almost human features. The whiskers and fur had since receded back into her skin but her elongated ears and tail still poked out awkwardly as she walked over to him and embraced him in a tight hug. “Where have you been? I kept asking Harry and Ron but they said they hadn’t seen you.”

“I’ve... I’ve just been busy,” Xander lied awkwardly with a lopsided smile. “How is she?” He asked, obviously changing the subject quickly as he averted his eyes from her gaze towards Ginny’s statue like figure.

“She’s been petrified,” Hermione stated as if that explained everything, she quickly continued when Xander stared at her, his eyes almost demanding more information. “She’s frozen, it’s like a hibernation, they can’t feel anything, see anything... she’s fine.” She said finally, placing her hand on his shoulder trying to comfort him.

“What did this?” Xander said slowly as he reached down and brushed a few strands of hair out of the small redhead’s face. It was strange, seeing her like this. Over the summer he’d got so used to seeing her so alive, so vibrant, so full of questions and life. Seeing her like this, almost dead... it was just wrong. “What did this?” He asked again slowly, his voice carving out the words in the silence of the hospital wing.

“I... I don’t know.” Hermione finally admitted after a moment’s silence. “It could have been a dozen things, a spell, a curse, a potion... anything.”

“It wasn’t a potion,” Xander said firmly, that he was sure of. If it had been a potion or anything like that someone would have said something by now. “She was found in the girls toilets, what’s in there?”

“The girls...” Hermione started to repeat his question before trailing off as the thought hit her. “Of course, Moaning Myrtle, she must have seen everything.”

“Moaning Myrtle?” Xander repeated. “A student?”

“A ghost,” Hermione explained, “She died in there, years ago, now she haunts the cubical where she died.”

“What killed her?” Xander asked, unwilling to go into a situation where he didn’t know what he could be facing.

“I... I don’t know,” Hermione stated, almost embarrassed at her lack of knowledge for once. “You could always ask her though.” She smiled when Xander spluttered out a surprised laugh at that.

“Don’t think that would make for a good introduction Herm,” Xander grinned. “Maybe another time though.” With that he kissed his fingers before laying them softly on Ginny’s forehead, completely missing the forlorn expression that passed over Hermione’s face as she watched. “I think it’s time I met a ghost.” He grinned up at Hermione before standing back up and moving towards the doors.

“Will... will you come back?” Hermione asked in a small voice as she watched him walk towards the doors. “Soon, I’ve missed you.” She added when she saw Xander smile back at her.

“Expect me when you see me,” Xander grinned over his shoulder, not even breaking step as he strode through the main doors, his long coat billowing out behind him as he marched on, finally something for him to do, something to help him feel like he was actually doing something instead of just going about his normal day while people were being hurt.

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“Xander!” Harry shouted at he saw Xander marching out of their dorm room; he had his staff in hand and looked like he was a man on a mission now. The look of concentration he was used to seeing on Xander’s face was now replaced with one of intense determination. “Ron, come on,” He grinned as he jogged down the corridor to keep up with where Xander had moved round a corner.

“Bloody hell,” Ron blew out as he ran to keep up with Harry who was now running after Xander at full pace.

“Xander! Wait!” Harry yelled as he turned the corner to see Xander about to disappear into the main stairwell of the castle. He smiled over when Xander finally stopped and turned to acknowledge them. Jogging over he waited for Ron to catch up before he started with his questions. “Where have you been? We haven’t seen you in ages, and what’s with the staff, you’re not going down to the lake again are you? I thought Dumbledore told you to wait until Christmas was over.”

“I’m not going to the lake,” Xander said with a smile as he nodded at Ron who returned the gesture. “And I saw you at lunch.” He grinned as he got one over on Harry.

“At lunch on Monday,” Harry pointed out. “It’s Thursday.”

“Huh,” Xander muttered with a soft smile. “Doesn’t time fly?” He grinned when he noticed neither Harry nor Ron was buying his humour. “I’m... I’m just going for a walk.”

“With your staff?” Harry asked with a raised eyebrow, obviously not buying this explanation either.

“It’s dangerous out,” Xander said firmly. “You two should know that.” He finished the sentence deadpan as he stared at Harry.

“As should you Mister Harris,” Snape sneered down at the trio as he came around the corner to see them. “And what do you three think you are doing wandering the corridors alone?”

As Xander went to answer Snape silenced him with a glare making him look away and noticed the two large bags on the ground next to him.

“Students are not allowed to walk the corridors without a prefect or teacher present, while I must admit that Mister Harris’ magic is...” He paused for a moment, sneering as if he didn’t want to say the next word, “formidable, rules are rules, and you are all expected to follow them.”

“Yes sir,” Ron and Harry mumbled softly.

“Back to your dormitory, all of you,” Snape paused, noticing Xander’s attention towards his bags. “Is there something of interest in my belongings Mister Harris?”

“No, no sir,” Xander shook his head after snapping it back up to face Snape’s sneer.

“Then I expect you to lead Mister Potter and Mister Weasley back to your room; perhaps you will amaze me in the fact that at least one of you can obey the rules.” Snape stared at each of them in turn, smirking when Ron and Harry turned away from his gaze but then frowning when Xander held it for a few moments before leading them off. “Interesting,” He mumbled to himself softly before picking up his bags and continuing to the main door to the school, his brain working overtime as it tried to fit Xander Harris into his plans.

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As the new term started there were a few things that immediately put Xander on edge, well, more so than he was already with the thoughts of what was going on already in his mind. Happily Hermione was out of the hospital wing and no worse for wear after her polyjuice incident, though with Ginny still petrified the group were still spending a lot of time in the company of Miss Pomfrey.

The major thing that was off with the large school was the fact that all the ghosts had ‘left’ Hogwarts; he was so used to seeing Nearly Headless Nick in the corridors that it seemed strangely silent without him. The great hall seemed just as empty without the various ghosts floating around.

Secondly was the fact that along with Lucius Malfoy patrolling the school at nights, there were maybe a dozen or so more wizards that he had not seen before patrolling the school. Classes were rife with rumours about these new arrivals but the only thing that anyone knew for definite was that they were all here against Dumbledore’s wishes but he had been overruled by the Minister of Magic.

The third shock came as Xander and Hermione walked into their potions class, expecting the usual silence from the room as Snape taught the class with his usual manner. This time as they approached the room they could hear cheering along with something that actually sounded like muggle music coming from the room.

Exchanging a quick puzzled glance they pushed open the door slowly, not sure as to what exactly to expect on the other side. The first thing they noticed was the fact that Professor Snape was nowhere to be found in the room, there was a new teacher at the front of the class, one dressed surprisingly as a muggle. He was dancing around a table at the front of the class, flicking his wand violently in time with some new age rock band and sending ingredients flying into a cauldron, not to mention all over the table and floor.

“Are you sure we got the right class?” Hermione whispered to Xander as they both froze and stared at the spectacle at the front of the room.

“Yeah,” Xander said but his tone indicated that he had been thinking exactly the same thing. “See,” He motioned to the front of the room where Ron and Harry actually seemed to be enjoying a potions lesson for once. “Come on,” He whispered before moving quietly down towards where Ron and Harry were sitting.

He could hear the teacher singing along to some random song but couldn’t really make out the words, most of the students seemed to be enjoying the ‘muggle’ music but he could see maybe a quarter of the class were scowling heavily towards the teacher, not surprisingly they were all Slytherin.

“And you two are late,” The teacher stated firmly without even turning around.

“Um, sorry sir,” Hermione answered first shyly as she placed her bag gently on the desk next to Harry.

“Where’s Professor Snape?” Xander asked with a smile on his face as he placed the song as one of the Lacuna Coil tracks that he’d caught on the radio a few times when he was back in Sunnydale. He had instantly warmed to the teacher because of the broad American accent; it was nice hearing it again after being surrounded by English accents for so long.

“He’s in London, dealing with something or another for Professor Dumbledore,” The Teacher stated off hand as if the information wasn’t that important. “So you’re stuck with me for the remainder of the term, I assume that is alright with you?” He drawled out.
With this the teacher seemed to actually evaluate Xander, looking him up and down with open curiosity. “Aren’t you a bit old to be in this class? I thought this was second year potions.” With that said he started digging around in his pockets for a moment until he pulled out a crumpled bit of paper that almost resembled a school timetable if it had be washed several times and had several pots of ink and various other liquid spilt on it.

“It is,” Xander said with a wince at being singled out before he’d even had chance to sit down. “I’m in this year.” He answered vaguely, figuring that Dumbledore would have filled in the teacher if he wanted him to know anything.

“And an American,” The teacher said with a grin, “You from the Medusa Academy in Nevada, then?”

“No sir,” Xander shook his head, taking the time to place his bag on the table to get ready for the lesson.

“Good, you might actually learn something here then,” The teacher laughed, waving Xander away and indicating for him to sit down. “Right, now that you are all here, I’ll introduce myself. It’s Todd, don’t bother with the professor stuff, I don’t answer to it half the time anyway. You’ll learn potions along with various other things here, I’ve taken a few... liberties... with what Snape left for you to learn, seemed a bit boring to me, so I’ll be spicing it up.”

He paused for a moment as there was a small cheer from the class; Xander just smirked as he turned to see Draco along with Crabbe and Goyle glare towards the teacher who just seemed to smirk back at them.

The teacher smirked around the classroom, staring at all the students in turn as he seemed to try and memorise their faces before he lit a cigarette and started walked around the room and throwing papers on the tables in front of students. He was wearing black leather engineering boots Xander noted that made a loud clump whenever he took a firm step. The baggy black pants along with a dark blue t-shirt made him seem almost as intimidating as Snape, the final piece of the teachers ‘ensemble’ was a black biker jacket that pretty much singled him out as a muggle instantly.

The scruffy unshaven look along with the dark pony tail pulled tightly back that seemed to move of its own accord as the teacher moved around the room just finished the look off perfectly.

“Um, sir,” Hermione started, raising her hand as she glanced at the paper in front of her.

“Todd,” He barked back ignoring the question for the minute. “No Sir, no Professor, none of that, I’m not here for you to respect me or like me, I’m here to teach you, pure and simple.”

“Todd,” Hermione said finally, the thought of calling a teacher by his first name a completely foreign concept for her as she puzzled over his manner. “You can’t be serious.”

“I’m always serious,” Todd answered firmly, the cigarette perched on his lips flicking about as he strode over to Hermione’s table and leaned over to look at the paper he had given her.

Xander finally tore his attention away from the teacher and looked at the paper in front of him; it was neatly typed out A4 paper, not the usual sort or parchment he had come to accept using in Hogwarts. This paper and its title looked like they had been neatly printed off of a modern day laser printer. It was the two titles however that nearly made him fall of his stool in laughter.

“But sir...” Hermione started again as she glared at Ron who was doing his best not to laugh by clenching his jaw and covering his mouth with his hand.

“Deaf, Granger? Drop the sir,” Todd glared down at her firmly. “Read it out so the rest of the class can decide whether they have a problem with it then,”

Hermione paused, looking around the classroom as everyone’s eyes turned to her as the teacher beckoned for her to stand up. His now usual smirk plastered on his face as he folded his arms with a creak of leather as he leaned up against one of the posts stretching from the floor to the ceiling.

Hermione took a moment to look at Xander and Harry before she started to read the paper out loud. “You have a choice, eighteen inches or two sides on either of these topics. Choice one, the potential ramifications of illegal polyjuice consumption or...”

“Yes Miss Granger?” Todd stared at her, waiting for her to finish the sentence.

“Or... or why Professor Snape is a git.” Hermione blushed, not believing that she had actually uttered those words during a potions lesson.

“Finally,” Todd grinned as he clapped softly, the sound echoing through the strangely silent classroom. “Now, I will be at the front of the class going through and...” He paused, searching for the right word. “Improving,” He smirked. “Professor Snape’s syllabus for the rest of this year, you have one hour.” Without saying anything else he turned sharply and started marching back towards the front of the room where he sat on the large desk at the front of the room and started pulling out various reams of paper. “Well?” He asked, flicking his head up to see the class staring at him. “Make your choice and get on with it. Fifty nine minutes and counting.”

Xander didn’t know what to say, he just turned to look at Harry, Ron and Hermione who all looked as shocked and amused by this new teacher as he was. Taking the safe route, just in case Professor Snape ever did read these papers he started work on the Polyjuice assignment, cringing over what he knew about Polyjuice and the ramifications of using it like they had done over Christmas.


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AN: Sorry this took so long to get through, my muse really didn't want to write it...

M