Halloween Echoes - pt 2
Xander huffed and rolled his eyes but didn't exactly object. There was nothing wrong with hard working Hufflepuff after all.
"Willow would work as a Ravenclaw," Cordelia said thoughtfully. "The only good one though is probably Luna even if she is whacky because of the seer stuff. She's blond so it would fit for you, Buffy, if you want to join the Hogwarts theme."
"Nah, she's too stuck on impressing Angel without doing her research so there's no way she would give up the dress monstrosity over there," Xander countered, waving towards the victorian dress.
"Xander!" Buffy said in outrage. "You know what maybe making you wear the Harry Potter costume will have you thinking about just how bad prophecies can screw with your life."
"Hey, now, wait a minute! I wasn't dissing the suck you've been dealing with," Xander protested with open alarm. "I just have a personal problem with a guy willing to look at someone who is more than twenty years younger than them without actually being an adult yet. If he weren't eying you and sometimes Willow I would have less of a problem with the guy."
"But not no problem?" Cordelia asked with a frown.
"His Sire killed Jesse," Xander said bluntly, knowing that anyone unaware of the dangerous part of the night life wouldn't get all of the context but the main message would still get across. "I couldn't get her before she left town and no one but us Scoobies believe it."
"Wait, he didn't run away... Oh, yeah, okay. At least you know for sure what happened to him and don't have to worry about the window visits?" Cordelia offered awkwardly.
Window visits were what the students called one of their friends being killed and rising as a vampire only to visit after dark and try to talk someone into letting them inside. It wasn't usually talked about but it was how some families just simply disappeared after a family member or friend died in Sunnydale.
"He tried," Xander said painfully. "I... stopped it that night at the Bronze."
"You.... Did you know about this?!" Cordelia demanded rounding on Buffy.
Ethan was obviously clueless as to what they were talking about as Cordelia and Buffy quietly argued about Xander dusting Jesse's vampire body in code and slang. Unfortunately, Xander could also see the flashes of recognition that the man quickly hid. This guy might not be as much of a civilian as he pretended to be.
"I don't care what freaky stuff you had to do that night!" Cordelia growled, distracting Xander from his shop owner watching. "You don't let someone stay alone with window visits being an option! You don't let them sleep at their own house for at least a week! Window visits are a valid reason for anyone to call for a night over with their friends or even one of the popular crowd in a pinch."
"Chill out, Cordy," Xander told her. "It didn't get that far. That's just how I got into the weapon research."
"Right, I'll make sure the rest of the school knows you found a way to deal with the window visits," Cordelia grumbled but backed off.
"It will make finding them easier," Xander agreed.
In the end they left with the dress, and five Harry Potter character costumes.
~~~
Xander happily ushered his minions along. Joyce, Buffy's mom, had dropped them all off at the school when it was time as a thank you for the costumes. She was going to the Mayor's Halloween party as McGonagall and had even put on the wig. Willow had decided to go as a version herself who had replaced Ron as Harry's friend. Dawn had opted for Hermione to Xander's Harry Potter. When Giles had been ceremonially presented his costume he had pretended to be offended but had accepted it anyway and put it on at their urging. Snyder had caught them and told Giles he expected better behavior if the man was going to be Severus Snape. That basically cemented Giles going as Snape for the evening.
"Earth to Xander!" Dawn said playfully, bringing him back to earth and his current task.
"Right! So, Munchkins! We have covered the first half of the chocolate route and you have done well," Xander declared dramatically. "You may now voice ideas on what else we should be hunting for!"
"Suckers!"
"Caramel!"
"Something that isn't candy!"
The voices overlapped but the one who asked for something other than candy got weird looks from basically everyone. Xander was only half amused to find the kid had dressed up as a real if tiny demon.
"At least you know better than to ask for actual blood or fresh meat. Humans don't usually eat raw meat and this is the night for hunting sugary goodness for small humans dressed as anything they desire. I don't know what clan you are from little imp but if you are going to play with humans on this night you need to stick with human manners," Xander scolded teasingly.
Dawn looked at the kid more closely and laughed when she realized that the mask was a little too accurate even if it really was a human kid under it.
"Onwards to Mrs. Mac's house!" Xander declared before leading them to the next house.
Ten minutes later Xander was distracted by the wave of magic that washed over the town. He turned, wand raised, as he heard the nice old lady scream. Xander and Harry weren't quite separate the way the magic was obviously supposed to work but they were both protectors. Mentally they shoved aside the brief wish to fight for dominance and moved.
"Stupify!" The teenager intoned, knocking out the small demon who had attacked and scattering the rest of the small beings in the group.
Old Mrs. Mac stared at him in open shock as she finally got the door shut.
"Wait until at least dawn before trying to come out again Mrs. Mac. I'll see what I can do to fix this," Xan-Harry called out with Hyena laughter cackling in the back of his mind from it's cage.
Xan-Harry ignored the shouts to go away long enough to put a temporary shield over the door and the windows he could see. It wouldn't be enough against anything even mildly determined to get in since he couldn't cover everything in twenty minutes without a major ward being placed. Thankfully it should only need to last long enough for him to hunt down whatever caused this. Turning he came face to face with a familiar yet unfamiliar witch in Hogwarts robes.
"Who are yo... Harry?" The witch asked, astonished.
"I'm Harry but also Xander, the magic didn't work quite right on me. I don't know if that's because of our Harry side or our Xander side but we have to get moving anyway. Who are you?" Xan-Harry asked as they started moving.
"Hermione, this is going to be a nightmare to fix," Hermione in this other girl's body said with a grimace.
"We can worry about the side effects afterwards. For now lets find who we can and try to stop this," Xan-Harry said firmly.
"Harry, your patronous might help!" Hermione suggested excitedly. "They are guardians but Dementors aren't the only thing that needs to be guarded against."
"Good idea, 'Mione," Xan-Harry said with a grin before casting. "Expecto Patronum!"
Three patroni appeared, Harry's Stag, a Dragon, and a Hyena.
"Oh dear," Hermione said, glancing at her friend. "Harry's normal one, the Dragon is for good leadership with fear and respect from enemies, and the Hyena stands for loyalty and cleverness with a sense of humor."
"Huh, it sees us as both connected and separate," Xan-Harry said. "That's probably a good sign. We are merged right now but we might be able to un-merge later. Let's head for the High School since that's where Xander's friends hang out and decide what monster they have to fight each week."
"Please tell me that you are joking?!" Hermione demanded even as she rushed to catch up with him.
"Nope," Xan-Harry said cheerfully.
The three partoni acted as the guardians they were as the pair moved through the town. The first sign that they weren't the only people from Hogwarts around was the cat patronous that ran right up to them and looked exactly like Professor McGonagall in cat form. Almost right afterwards they heard swearing in a heavy scottish brogue and saw the lady that must have dressed up as McGonagall.
"Students! Come here! This no time or place to a wandering!" The witch called, quickly approaching them.
"Who are you?" Hermione asked warily, wand raised.
"Who the bleed'n hells do you think I am child?" The woman demanded.
"Professor McGonagall possessing the body of our friend's mom, Mrs. Summers," Xan-Harry said calmly only for the two women to turn towards him for an explanation. "The magic didn't work right on me so I have access to most of both sets of current memories. After making sure that Dawn had really become Hermione it wasn't hard to put the pieces together. We're headed for the High School to regroup with anyone who can think to head there. If this happened to Giles then he probably thinks that he is Professor Snape and got pranked. If it didn't kick in with him then he is the local adult that helps with magic and demon fighting stuff. We can't assume anything we come across isn't a transformed person in a costume right now unless I remember them as a problem from my Xander memories. I've been sticking with stunners and the patroni, Professor."
"Aye, I can see that," McGonagall said thoughtfully. "Clever of you and glad I am that you were able to summon yours Mr. Potter... Or is it some other name for the night?"
"I will respond to Xander or Harry. Potter is fine and I would disown my Harris parents if I could," Xan-Harry said simply before he got them moving in the right direction again.
By the time they hit the High School they had a collection of people they had either rescued or had helped to fight various transformed people. Xan-Harry had kept leadership of the group by the virtue of knowing how to actually fight the monsters, how to adapt when standard counters didn't work, and an idea of what was actually going on. The rest of it came from Xander's experience with military type video games that his Uncle Rory let him play to keep him out of the way when his Uncle had to watch Xander but also run his business.
"Starfleet, you get to play guards along with the others that have military like costumes," Xan-Harry ordered. "I get that this is weird but main defenders have to have something like training for obvious reasons. Remember, go for a disable if possible but don't be stupid about it, kill if you have to. Magic users you are effectively glass cannons. If you are helping to defend then listen to whatever military type is commanding your area. Special Forces or equivalent, clear the way when we get to the high school, our target area to hunker down is the library. There is a sewer access tunnel and an external door as well as the main door into the library area. The weapons cage can be ignored unless we have to start pulling stuff from it as an armory. When we get there we expect at least one potential ally to already be present in the library. Try not to shoot him even if he curses you, figuratively and literally. We are probably going to need him for the next part of this mess."
"I'll send my patronous ahead to warn Severus," McGonagall chimed in, matching words to action. "It will reduce how likely he is to curse first and question later."
"Thank you, Professor," Xan-Harry acknowledged. "I gotta say it's weird that all my zombie apocalypse training plans are working."
"You're the only one here who can fight and knows where everything is, Dweeb!" Cordelia huffed in her ruined cat-girl costume. "Just be glad that you made Summers where some sort of dagger or she would be Lady Useless. Besides you got those two acting as your seconds."
Xan-Harry ignored that and had McGonagall charm the outside door to the library open.
"Severus Snape!" McGonagall snapped as she dodged a spell that looked nasty.
"Minerva?" Came a male voice from inside.
"Everybody in!" McGonagall called out, causing Snape to swear viciously but hold off on trying to curse anyone else.
Two Starfleet in Security uniforms, someone dressed as army, and another dressed as navy took point. The civilians or what passed for those unable to fight went next. McGonagall made sure that Hermione and Xan-Harry entered after that as she got the remaining military costumes to pull back into the library through the door in a careful orderly retreat. A sticking charm sealed the door for the moment as the group sorted itself out and McGonagall moved to talk to Professor Snape in Giles' body.
"Xander!" A familiar voice cried out and suddenly Xan-Harry had Willow shaped witchling in his arms crying.
"Calm down Wills," Xan-Harry chuckled. "The magic went the weird around me like usual before you ask so I'm both me versions."