Chapter One

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’d going on, find it here...

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

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Xander smiled to himself as he jogged down the stairs to the kitchen, the summer had flown by, and while at first he thought he would have been bored at The Burrow with Ron and the rest of the Weasley’s, he found it an amazing experience, with new things to learn about magic and the magical community. Mr Weasley, or Arthur as he kept reminding Xander, was always asking him about muggle things, even the simplest thing, like a rubber duck, had kept Arthur amazed for hours.

Several times they had gone into London for ‘family outings’ as Molly liked to call them, which were basically trips to the Ministry of Magic so she could see Arthur at work while Ron and Ginny showed Xander around London during the day, he had even bought a digital camera, something that amused Arthur as he tried to get Xander to accept magical camera’s instead, but Xander insisted that the up to date technology of the digital camera’s fit more with him, and who he was than the magical variants.

As he ducked his head on the low beams at the bottom of the stairs he walked into the kitchen, the smell of breakfast already cooking even though everyone else was still in bed, it has amazed him the first time he had seen it, the sight of breakfast cooking itself while everyone else slept. Then the kitchen cleaned up after itself and did the washing up, something he wished his house had done back in Sunnydale when he was growing up.

His thoughts stumbled at the memory of his parents running out the door in fear flooded back to him, fear of him, they were afraid of him, of what he had become, of what he could do now if he lost control. He’d spent a lot of time this summer trying to regain control, on one of the trips into London he had stopped at a local muggle bookstore, Waterstones, and picked up several books on meditation and centering yourself. Ron and Ginny loved it; they spent hours running around the muggle book store, amazed at the books on muggle witchcraft and ‘new age medicine’. Xander just had to laugh at the things that were simple and every day for him, they had a strange newness and shine when he was explaining them to Ron and Ginny.

Ron didn’t get the meditation thing of course, sitting on a hillside in the fresh air for hours at a time, just clearing your mind wasn’t the sort of thing he enjoyed doing, but he understood it was something that Xander needed to do, and helped him with it as best as he could. Hermione had visited several times over the holidays, her family only lived a few hours drive away in Kent, but since she used the ‘Floo Network’ it was easy for her to visit just for a few hours or so to check up on Xander.

Walking over to the fridge he pulled out the jug of milk, still amused at having fresh milk in the fridge after all the time, the summer was nearly over and he was still finding things in this house that amused or astounded him. Hermione’s crush still hadn’t dissipated though, she still blushed and giggled whenever she was left alone with him, but it had gotten better over the time they had spent together.

The only person missing from their group was Harry, and his absence was something that puzzled him more and more as the time moved on. They’d written to him dozens of times, using both owl messenger, and the muggle post system, something that amazed Ron as he couldn’t work out how the letter would reach Harry in time, but after an hour or so of Xander explaining how the post office worked, he hoped that Ron had quite a good grasp of muggle post now.

Holding his hand out he closed his eyes, concentrating for a moment before opening them as he spoke the charm he had been working on for months now. “Accio mug!” He had been practicing this for months, and the smile flooded his face as the mug flew across the air from the holder on the wall into his hand. He’d managed to get it working now for the last fortnight, at first the strain was a bit too much for him, mugs made it halfway across the room before the charm fizzled out and they fell to the floor, smashing on the heavy tiles that covered the kitchen. Arthur just smiled at him though, using a simple ‘Reparo’ charm on the mug so that Xander could try again.

It had been hard work, training his implants to work without the staff, but he had the basics down now, anything more complex needed the staff though, and his wand was still hit and miss with most spells, allowing him to perform some of the normal wizarding charms but others resulted in wild and unpredictable outcomes.

Congratulating himself silently he walked over to the kettle and flicked it on, opening ‘his’ jar of coffee from the window ledge above the kitchen sink and scooping some into his mug. He was amazed that the Weasley’s didn’t actually drink coffee, he’d gone without it at Hogwarts, just assuming that it wasn’t accepted for children to drink coffee at a young age, he’d then found out that it was a wizard thing, and that most houses did in fact have coffee for their morning drink. He’d bought a large jar in London, and on another trip had decided to pick up three more large jars to take to Hogwarts with him the following year.

Arthur had reminded him that he could always just ‘charm’ one drink into another, but despite living in the wizarding community now, he felt as strong as ever about doing things the old fashioned way, not relying on magic for everything. His hair had grown back over the summer, and had actually grown out longer than it had been originally. Molly had offered to cut it for him, or to charm some scissors to cut it for him, but he’d just laughed it off and gone to a barber’s in London to have it trimmed back to his now comfortable short spiky style.

“Xander, you down there?” Ron’s voice echoed from upstairs as Xander filled up his cup from the now boiled kettle and added the milk.

“Yeah,” He grinned as he shouted up to him. “Just having a coffee, you ready?” They were both planning on going to visit Hermione today, her parents had gone away for the week before Hermione was due back at Hogwarts and she was complaining about being lonely.

“Nearly,” Ron’s voice came back. “Can’t find my jumper.”

“On the back of the chair.” Xander shouted back, shaking his head at Ron’s absentmindedness. “We’ve got time, it’s only eight.”

“What?!?” Ron shouted back in disbelief. “You promised you’d let me sleep in.” Ron grumbled as he started his way down the stairs to the kitchen.

“I did,” Xander grinned back as he took another mouthful of coffee. “I didn’t wake you up; you did that all on your own.”

“Because of you,” Ron grumbled as he pulled open the fridge and retrieved a glass for his morning pumpkin juice, despite the prodding from Xander, he still couldn’t get a taste for coffee, none of the Weasley family could, though Arthur was amused and intrigued by the drink and kept stealing some to taste it, Xander had even found him licking his finger and dipping it into the jar of instant coffee to taste it one time, it wasn’t something he did again though after going through two jugs of pumpkin juice to get rid of the taste. “You’ve been waking up at seven every day, it’s the holidays, you should sleep in, that’s what they’re there for.”

“Yeah yeah,” Xander grinned, waving off the grumbling, they’d had this argument a dozen times throughout the holidays, Molly and Arthur loved the fact that Xander was always up and about first thing in the morning, it gave them someone to talk to around the house while the rest of their children were still sleeping the day away. Xander had just attributed it to some of Galen’s personality that was left over, the same reason he enjoyed reading now, he could often be found, huddled up in one of the stuffed chairs next to the fire, thick book in hand while the rest of the Weasley family went about their normal day.

“No post this morning then?” Ron asked, the same he did every morning, hoping for some word from Harry, he’d even started coming up with strange scenarios as to why Harry hadn’t written back to them.

“Some for your dad, that’s about it.” Xander said sadly, he was missing Harry too, and couldn’t figure out why he wouldn’t be writing back to them. It was something that had worried him for a while but he did his best not to let it show.

“He’ll be down soon,” Ron noted, hearing the movement from upstairs as he spoke. “You got any further with your, what did you call them?”

“Postulate spells.” Xander said calmly, he’d been trying to work them all out, reading back and forth through the Technomage books and jotting down everything he thought was significant about the spells. He’d found he was actually mistaken, and that the mist spell he had performed earlier in the year wasn’t actually one of the postulate spells, going back through the books he’d managed to identify four definite postulate spells, but the others were only hinted at.

“Right, that’s them,” Ron nodded. “So you have the shield,” Ron started ticking off his fingers. “The one you won’t tell anyone about,” He carried on, oblivious to the shadow that passed over Xander’s face when he mentioned that one. “Ok, that’s two, what are the others?”

“Right,” Xander sat down at the table, ready to explain this properly to Ron again. “All my spells come from six basic spells, they are all progressions of those, or that’s how it’s explained in the books.”

“Still think that’s freaky,” Ron smirked. “Getting all your powers and knowledge from some muggle book.”

“If only,” Xander grinned and shook his head. “If I’d got the memories and knowledge as well, then I wouldn’t have to go to school to learn all this, would I?”

“Suppose not,” Ron conceded the point. “So, there’s only six? But you had seven last year.”

“I was wrong,” Xander said simply. “I thought the mist was a postulate spell, not a progression spell.” He’d been puzzled when he’d figured that out, it wasn’t as if his spells were lined up in neat rows like Galen’s were in the books, his spells were more chaotic in nature and were more based on imagination and what he thought he could accomplish, rather than how Galen knew what he could accomplish but rarely used his imagination to think outside the narrow lines of the spells he already knew. “So there’s the shield, you’ve seen that one.”

“Yeah, freaky.” Ron shuddered, remembering how he had felt when he saw that thick, black, oily skin start moving over Xander’s body last Christmas.

“Then there’s the sphere, the one I'll never use or practice.” Xander had taken to just calling it ‘The Sphere’. Galen’s name of ‘The Spell of Destruction’, always capitalized, wouldn’t go down well, it was too dramatic and if anyone came across his notes, or heard him talking about it, they might get the wrong idea about what it was or what it was capable of. He didn’t even know if it would work in this universe, the spell worked by pinching off a section of the universe inside a sphere, then collapsing into another universe, taking whatever was inside the sphere with it. It was one he swore he would never use.

Galen had been nicknamed ‘The mage who carries the secret of destruction, the secret that must never be used’, and now Xander found himself in the same predicament, only where Galen had failed and used the spell, he swore he would not; it was the one spell he would never use. Other wizards in the community had their ‘unforgivable’ spells, spells that could torture or kill with words; he had this one, a spell that was the worst thing imaginable, the one he would never use under any circumstance.

“So,” Ron carried on, braking Xander out of his thoughts, “What are the others?”

“Invisibility, that one’s the basis for all the illusion spells, the sort of beginning if you want, all the others come from that one.” Xander explained.

“Sort of like an invisibility cloak then?” Ron asked, trying to put Xander’s spells into spells he could recognize from normal magic.

“Kinda,” Xander agreed. “But without the cloak part.”

“Wicked,” Ron nodded. “What else?”

“Communication,” Xander continued. “That was a biggie for Galen to figure out, the spell for the Technomages to communicate with The Shadows, their masters.” Xander added the last, he kept forgetting that Ron didn’t know anything about the Babylon 5 universe, or any muggle sci-fi, it was weird, but explaining it out loud like this to Ron, helped him figure out new things himself. “I’m guessing that one’s going to be pretty useless here as the Shadow’s don’t exist here, or I hope they don’t anyway.” Xander shuddered, hoping that the Shadow’s didn’t exist here, he had enough problems as it was, he didn’t need eight foot tall invisible spiders running around, killing people and trying to destroy the galaxy.

“Have you tried it yet?” Ron asked, curious about any of Xander’s spells; they were so different to the ones he could do that they just spoke out, like something for him to aim for, even if he could never do the spells himself, he might be able to replicate their effects one day. Hermione thought the same and had been working on trying to translate some of Galen’s spells from the books across into wizarding spell language, so far they had had no success, but the fact they were trying made Xander feel like less of an outsider, so it was worth the effort if nothing else.

“Nah,” Xander waved it away. “The Shadow’s don’t exist here, so why bother trying to communicate with something that doesn’t exist?”

“Maybe the spell will do something different?” Ron suggested.

“Doubt it,” Xander shrugged. “Maybe when I’ve finished school here, then I'll start researching my spells more.”

“Fair enough,” Ron smiled. “Next?”

“Interfacing with technology,” Xander ticked off another finger. “I didn’t think this was a postulate spell until I read the books again, Galen uses it to communicate with alien technology, I use it to communicate with my staff or wand, it’s a pretty basic one but I think it will allow me to ‘join’ with any type of technology and use it.” Xander put air quotes around the word ‘join’; there was no other way to describe how Galen used it in the books.

“Right, so now you’ve tried two of them,” Ron nodded, keeping track of these. “What’s the last one?”

“Some sort of red beam weapon,” Xander explained, shaking his head at the memory of him using it to dust Angelus. “This one’s the weird one, I’ve used it before, but it didn’t need a spell, or an incantation, or anything really, I’m guessing it’s the basis for all my offensive spells and it’s pretty strong, but I have no idea how to use it.” He shrugged, getting up from the table and putting the kettle on to boil again for a fresh mug of coffee. “It’s not like a fireball or anything like that,” Xander muttered, closing his eyes for a second and muttering the incantation he’d been practicing. “Incendio Spheris.” He smiled as he held up his hand for Ron to see, where a fireball about the size of his mug was dancing around in his hand, ready to be used. “See, the fireballs are different for me, for you, or wizards I guess, you just aim your wand and shout the charm, then the fireball shoots out of the wand to where you were aiming, right?”

“I guess,” Ron shrugged, still not taking his eye off the fireball that was hovering a few inches above Xander’s skin.

“It’s the same if I use the ‘Incendio’ charm with my wand, or my staff, but if I concentrate I can use this one as well,” Xander smiled as he hefted the fireball up in the air and caught it again.

“It’s wicked!” Ron exclaimed, staring at the fireball as it flew into the air before Xander caught it again. “Doesn’t it burn or anything?”

“No, well, yes, it burns other things, but it doesn’t burn me,” Xander tried to explain it, magic was weird, and his form of magic was weirder than most. “I think it’s the implants, they created the fireball, so it can’t hurt me, or something like that.”

“Makes sense,” Ron nodded, finishing off his pumpkin juice. “What other spells can you do without your staff or wand?”

“Not much,” Xander confessed, staring at the fireball and wishing he’d practiced the ‘quenching spell’ more before he’d cast this one. “Fire ball, water ball, which is pretty cool, it’s like having an endless supply of water bombs.” He grinned, thinking of that practical joke aspect of that one.

“Morning Xander, Morning Ron.” Arthur’s voice echoed through the kitchen as he came down the stairs to enjoy his breakfast before work. “Xander, I’ve asked you before, no fireballs in the house.”

“Sorry,” Xander blushed; having been too caught up in his explanation about his type of magic to Ron to think about what he was going to do with the fireball now he’d conjured it.

“Outside, now,” Arthur pointed out the open window to the field where Ron had been practicing his broom flying while Xander was meditating, Ron had been doing it for hours, ever day he could be found there, practicing flying, swerving, ducking fake bludgers and just practicing for the game. He so wanted to be like Harry it was amusing, Xander was sure he’d find his own way one day, he just had to find something that was his instead of trying to be like other people.

“Right,” Xander grinned, moving to the open window and throwing the fireball as hard as he could outside, then watching as it flew over the grass and impacted the field with a solid ‘thump’ noise as dirt was thrown up in the air from the resulting impact.

“I’ve told you before how dangerous those things are,” Arthur shook his head in amusement, “Only outside alright?”

“Sorry,” Xander apologized again, nodding his head along with what Arthur was saying.

“Well, have you been practicing your illusion spells like I told you?” Arthur smiled as Xander nodded enthusiastically, jogging over to the wall where his staff was propped he picked it up and moved back to the kitchen for the test, ever since Arthur had found out about Xander’s illusion casting ability he’d been pushing him to the limits, trying to see how good his illusions really were, he was about seventy thirty on spotting them now, maybe more on a good day, but the constant practice had brought Xander’s illusions up to a whole new level. “Come on then, I haven’t got all day you know.” He smiled good naturedly to show he was only kidding, over the summer he had come to think of Xander as another one of his children, and this was his way of helping him practice his magic and control.

“Right,” Xander grinned, picking up a bottle of water that he had bought in London a few days back from the side table where it had been left. Holding it out for a few seconds he reached behind his back and concentrated for a second on the illusion, giving it form and colour exactly the same as the bottle of water in his hand. Holding that ‘spell’ in his mind, he concentrated again, placing one of his ‘platforms’ inside the illusion then shaping it to fit the illusion perfectly. After about twenty seconds of concentration he thought he was happy with the effect and brought his hands round so that everyone could see the two bottles. To his eye they looked identical, even down to the half filled water inside. “Ready?” He asked, smiling when Arthur nodded so he threw the bottle of water and the ‘illusion’ up in the air slowly towards Arthur, watching them swirl around each other until he lost track of which one was the illusion and which was real.

“Right,” Arthur smiled as he reached out and caught one of the bottles of water, happy that he’d found the right one until the other one hit the floor with a thud instead of disappearing like Xander’s illusions normally did. “Which one was it?” He asked, looking at the bottle of water in his hand and then at the one on the floor.

“Dunno,” Xander grinned before clearing the spells in his mind and laughing as the bottle of water in Arthur’s hand faded from view, leaving the one on the floor as the real bottle.

“You made it solid?” Arthur asked, amused and proud of what Xander had managed to do.

“Not really,” Xander shrugged. “I gave it a platform so it felt solid, it was still fake though.” Xander grinned, happy that today was another point to him. “I thought that would throw you off, you said on Monday that you saw the illusion pass through the light as I threw it, so if I made it solid it would look more real.”

“Good show,” Arthur smiled, picking up the bottle of water from the floor and putting it on the table. “I can see I'll have to keep my wits about you.”

“Could you do that with other stuff?” Ron asked. “Like platforms you use to fly, could you make them look like a carpet or something?”

“Probably,” Xander shrugged, not having thought about it.

“There’ll be none of that,” Arthur said sharply as he sat down at the table with his plate full of kippers for breakfast. “Flying carpets are outlawed for a reason, and I don’t fancy having to explain to the Ministry that it was only an illusion, not a real carpet.”

“Right,” Xander grinned with a nod. “No flying carpets, what about couches? Sofa’s?”

“Be gone with you,” Arthur laughed, waving them away with a smile. “Heathens, weren’t you two going to be visiting Hermione today?”

“Yeah, we’re heading off in a bit dad.” Ron smiled as Xander walked into the living room and started stroking Pixel who had taken to sleeping by the fire when she was around, though she still had an amusing habit of disappearing into Xander’s coat when she wanted her privacy, something Xander still hadn’t figured out.

“Just remember, no magic, Xander might be over age, but you are not.” Arthur pointed out. “You don’t want your mum shouting at you after hearing from the Ministry do you?”

“No dad.” Ron said softly.

“I'll even leave the staff here,” Xander said as he came back into the kitchen. “No wands, just me and Ron.”

“Why doesn’t that reassure me?” Arthur said with a chuckle and a grin that matched Xander’s. “You two are getting as bad as Fred and George, which reminds me, they’re coming back tomorrow, I’m sure you’d like someone your own age to talk to, and they’re very interested in meeting you Xander.”

“The two pranksters?” Xander asked, smiling when Ron nodded. “Great,” He grinned, thinking of the mischief they could get up to as a group. “I’ve still got to get them back for those toffee’s they left me.”

“We did warn you.” Ron laughed at the memory.

“I was blue!” Xander complained. “For a week!”

“Go,” Arthur waved with his fork that still had a bit of kipper stuck on the end. “Be gone with you; let me enjoy my breakfast in peace.”

“Come on,” Xander waved, putting his staff back against the wall where it had found a nice home. “Hermione should be up by now.”

“She’s nearly as bad as you are,” Ron grumbled. “Early morning people, you’re all crazy.”

“Whatever,” Xander waved the complaint away, pulling on his gray jumper from the chair next to the fireplace. “You first,” He nodded to the fireplace where Ron already had a handful of floo powder.

“See you there,” Ron smiled, stepping into the fireplace and bracing himself. “One fourteen Oak Street!” He shouted before throwing the floo powder on the floor by his feet and vanishing in a flash of green fire.

“So theatrical,” Xander laughed as he picked up a handful of floo powder and mimicked Ron’s shout, even going so far as to try and imitate his accent. His laughter echoed through the living room for a few seconds after the flames had engulfed him, moving him to his destination.

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“Ron?” Xander asked out loud as he emerged from the fireplace, this was definitely Hermione’s house, he recognised it instantly from the pictures of her and her parents on the wall along with the framed certificate that her father received when he became a dentist. “‘Mione?”

“In here Xander.” Ron’s shout came from the kitchen to the right of the living room where the fireplace had been built, it was still quite new, only having been built in the past two or three years, since Hermione’s parents were muggles he guessed they had built it for her and her friends to use.

“Right.” Xander smiled, making his way into the kitchen where Hermione and Ron were sat at a breakfast table. “What ya want to do today then?”

“It’s Harry’s birthday today.” Hermione said simply.

“No it isn’t,” Xander argued back. “Harry’s birthday’s on the...” He paused, counting it off in his head. “It’s today.” As his dates agreed with Hermione’s he shrugged before he slumped into one of the chairs by the table and stared at them. “Right, presents then?”

“Already got mine,” Hermione said proudly, tapping the brightly wrapped present on the table.

“Guess we need to go shopping then,” Xander said, smiling at Ron who had come to the same conclusion. “Where?”

“London?” Ron said helpfully. “The joke shop in Diagon Ally would be perfect, as long as you’re with me, I won’t get into trouble for being there.”

“Right, Diagon Ally for magical gifts, then muggle London for normal gifts, you up for it ‘Mione?” Xander asked, thinking about getting Harry something he could use, something normal instead of the magical things he would be getting from the rest of his friends.

“Sure,” Hermione beamed at Xander for being invited. “Let me get my coat then we’ll go.” With that she ran off out of the kitchen and started up the stairs.

“She’s still got a crush on you,” Ron pointed out in a whisper.

“I know,” Xander muttered, resting his face in his hands as he leaned on the table. “What should I get Harry?” He asked, brushing aside the problem of Hermione’s crush for the moment and trying to figure out what Harry would like. Maybe some books, or comics, clothes? No, that was too much of a parent thing.

“He did like your Technomage books,” Ron pointed out.

“Right,” Xander smiled, snapping his fingers at the memory of catching Harry reading through the books several times over their first year at Hogwarts. “Think he’d like his own copy of them?”

“Sure,” Ron smiled. “I’m going to get him some...”

“Well I got him a book on Defence Charms,” Hermione interrupted as she came back into the kitchen, her long brown coat neatly fastened up. “And a box of chocolate mice.”

“Real mice?” Xander asked, eying the box carefully in case it started moving or squeaking.

“Just muggle chocolate mice,” Hermione smiled cheerfully. “I wonder what he’s doing today.” She mused out loud as she led Xander and Ron back into the living room and the chimney.

“You know,” Xander paused, regarding the fireplace and floo connection curiously. “Do these things go internationally?”

“No,” Hermione informed him with a smile before moving back into what Xander called her ‘lecturing mode’. “The only access to the international floo network in through the main fireplace in the Ministry of Magic, entrance is strictly regulated; all other floo gates can only travel within the United Kingdom.”

“So they can, but there’s only one in England that does?” Xander simplified it down then smiled when Hermione nodded at him. “Cool, that’ll save time for when I do go back to Sunnydale,” He’d been putting a lot of thought into that over the summer, and decided that it would be time for him to go back to Sunnydale over the next holiday, he needed to clear the air between him and Buffy, even if she hadn’t forgiven him yet, he needed to do it for his peace of mind. “Let’s go then.”

“Diagon Ally.” Hermione shouted as she threw her floo powder on the floor before she vanished in the familiar green fire.

“Go on,” Ron smiled at him, nodding to the fireplace.

“Diagon Ally.” Xander followed suit, smiling at Ron as he threw the powder on the floor and vanished.

=/^\=

The shopping trip was pretty successful, after a quick stop off at Gringotts for Xander to get some Wizard money, since he’d split the money he had from selling his parents house into two accounts, one in Gringotts and the other in a normal bank, he has quite happy just leaving it there until he finished school. After that they’d been round Diagon Ally a few times, Ron had picked up quite a few joke gifts for Harry and Hermione was just happy to be spending the day with Xander.

After an hour or so shopping they’d all decided to relax at the ice cream parlour for a while before making their way into muggle London so Xander could pick up the books that he had decided to get for Harry’s birthday, Ron was still excited about going into the muggle world, it was always the same with him, something new or exciting that Xander took for granted, Hermione seemed to be the link between them, having lived in both the wizarding world and the muggle world her entire life she was just as comfortable with both.

“Do you think we should call him, say happy birthday?” Hermione asked out of the blue while they were sat around the table, enjoying their caramel sundaes. “You know, so he doesn’t think we’ve forgotten?”

“I’m still trying to figure out why he hasn’t written back,” Xander said with a shrug.

“If we call him, we could ask.” Hermione added, bringing a smile to Xander’s face.

“That we could,” Xander grinned. “Good idea,” He smiled as Hermione beamed from the praise she had been given. “Get my presents for him, then we can use a pay phone and call him to wish him happy birthday.”

“Don’t you need to know his, code?” Ron said, stumbling over the last word as he tried to remember how Xander had explained muggle telephones worked.

“Number Ron, and we can get it from information, Harry lives at number four Privet Drive in Surrey,” Hermione rattled off the information.

“That’s the place we’ve been sending letters to anyway,” Xander nodded. “Harry said he was staying with his Uncle Dursley

“Yeah, don’t think he was too happy about that.” Ron added, remembering how sad Harry looked when he said he had to stay with them the entire summer.

“How far is it? You know, to Surrey from here?” Xander asked, turning to Hermione for the information as he always did.

“Thirty miles, maybe less,” Hermione said, trying to work it out in her head. She knew roughly where Surrey was, it was on the south border of London between Kent and the main city. “Harry said it was near the motorway, and that there were always planes waking him up, so I guess it’s near the airport.”

“Right,” Xander smiled, it wasn’t that far then, so a trip wasn’t out of the question. “Come on; let’s get the rest of the shopping then head back.”

“What are you thinking?” Hermione asked, finishing off her sundae before putting her coat on.

“Me?” Xander grinned at her, trying to look innocent. “Nothing.”

“Right,” Hermione nodded in disbelief. “I don’t want you getting us into any trouble.”

“Trouble just happens naturally around me,” Xander said with a shrug. “You should know that by now.”

“I do,” Hermione agreed with a smile. “But you shouldn’t go looking for it anyway.”

“I promise,” Xander smiled, holding his hand up in a Cub Scout fashion. “I will not go looking for any trouble.”

“Good,” Hermione smiled, appeased by this. “Then we can finish shopping, there are some things I want to get before we go, and London is the perfect place.” With that she smiled before leading the group off back to the Leakey Cauldron where they could get back into muggle London to finish their shopping.

=/^\=

“Thanks,” Xander smiled as he hung up the pay phone, grabbing the receipt for his books off the top of the payphone that he had hastily jotted down Harry’s number on. “Got it,” He grinned as he turned to where Ron and Hermione were waiting for him. Checking the time it was nearly lunch, so he figured now would be the best time for him to call and say happy birthday.

“Go on then, call him.” Ron said, happy to be able to finally talk to Harry, even if it was over a muggle telephone, it was better than nothing.

“Yes,” Hermione nodded. “I want to know why he hasn’t written to us, and wish him happy birthday of course.” Hermione blushed at the way she had worded that, but the intentions were the same.

“Alright, I'll call then you two can talk to him alright?” Xander smiled; dialling the number he had gotten from information before dropping some change into the phone box. He’d kept a few coins aside, knowing that Arthur would get a kick out of them when he gave them to him tonight, he was always on the lookout for muggle things, and was amazed by the simplest of things, like when Xander automatically bought a new light bulb for the one in Ron’s bedroom before he realized that it was a magical one and he just didn’t know how to use it. The spare light bulb was now one of Arthur’s prized possessions, which he kept in a box in his bed room along with various other ‘muggle artefacts’.

“Hello?” He said in his best voice as someone picked up the phone after a few seconds of it ringing. “Is Harry there?”

“Harry who?” A snide voice came back over the telephone.

“Harry Potter,” Xander replied cautiously. “Information gave me this number; this is 4 Privet Drive right?”

“It is,” Came the voice again, pride seeping into it as he confirmed the address. Then another voice came over the phone as it was handed over to someone else, this one sounded more like an adult. “Hello? Who is this?”

“Xander Harris,” Xander replied automatically. “Is Harry there please?” He asked politely.

“No he isn’t,” Came the sharp retort. “He’s not allowed to use the telephone.”

“Alright,” Xander drawled, not liking the sound of this at all. “Can you at least ask him to send me a message with his owl, we’re worried about him.”

“You’re one of his freaky friends from that school of his, aren’t you?” The voice replied with a dismissive tone. “He’s not allowed to use his owl to speak to you and that is that, I don’t want your freaky culture infecting our home any further than it has been already, good bye.” With that the phone was slammed down, causing Xander to pull the receiver away from his ear in pain before the dial tone echoed back on the receiver.

“Right,” Xander muttered, hanging up the phone slowly. “I think I just talked to Harry’s uncle, and from what I can tell, he’s just as bad as Harry said he was.”

“Did he say why Harry hasn’t written back?” Ron asked, cautiously as he noted the anger dancing around Xander’s eyes.

“No,” Xander said simply. “But I intend to find out.” Pausing for a second he pocketed the receipt then handed the bag with Harry’s presents in over to Ron, who took the bag and stared at them for a moment.

“Oh no you don’t,” Hermione interrupted. “You said you wouldn’t go looking for trouble.”

“I’m not,” Xander replied simply. “You two go home, I’m going to have a little chat with Harry’s uncle about being polite to people.”

“But, how are you going to get there?” Ron asked, picking up his coat and following Xander who was already walking towards the door. “You can’t apparate and there isn’t a floo gate for miles near there.”

“The old fashioned way,” Xander explained. “Train to the airport, then taxi from there.”

“Then we’re coming too.” Hermione stated simply.

“No, you aren’t.” Xander cut her off before she could argue any more. “No wands, no magic, and no trouble. You two go home, I'll meet you back at your place.” Xander nodded to Hermione.

“Just make sure he’s alright,” Ron said, not worried about breaking the rules himself if it meant checking up on Harry. “And say happy birthday from me.”

“From us,” Hermione said begrudgingly, knowing she wouldn’t be able to talk Xander out of this, she could never hold a grudge against Xander for anything anyway.

“Right, so you two will go straight back home?” Xander asked, staring at them to make sure they didn’t lie to him.

“I'll go with Hermione,” Ron said, wilting under Xander’s stare.

“Good,” Xander smiled, happy that that had been resolved. “Now, which train to Surry?” He muttered, looking around for the nearest train station and smiling when he saw Paddington Station on a street opposite them. “I'll see you later alright?” He smiled when Ron and Hermione nodded at him before he checked the road and jogged across into the train station, looking back over his shoulder once he was on the other side and smiling as he saw Hermione leading Ron back to the Leakey Cauldron. “Right, Surrey,” He muttered, wandering over to the information kiosk and wondering how to phrase this, he had Harry’s exact address, so he just needed to figure out which station was closest to it and then find the train.

=/^\=

AN: Woo hoo, after the rewrite of the end of my original story, I've finally got around to starting 'book 2' :D

Hope everyone enjoyed this, not much action for the moment, just setting the scenes for me to continue on with the series.

I now actually own and have read most of the Harry Potter books, so I have more information than just the movies to go on, as usual, if you spot any glaring errors, let me know and I'll sort them out :D

M