Legacy Of The Fathers

Legacy of the Fathers

Notes: Once more, as usual, apologies for the delay on this chapter. I finally got my little dissertation thing out of the way - 11,760 words - and then my brain shut down and refused to write a thing more. I'm just getting back into the writing thing after a week long break. P.S. Alexander is going to become Xander in this chapter - I'm more familiar with him that way.

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With the Scooby Gang scattered from the library to attend their classes, only Xander remained in the library with Giles, Ethan Rayne, Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, Angel and Draco, two of whom were treating him like glass, the two more like a poisonous snake and the fifth...

Well, the fifth was making paper broomsticks out of twelfth century manuscripts, while their owner was distracted, and was tossing them across the room, aiming for the bin that stood next to one of the bookshelves.

There were at least a dozen brooms scattered on the floor already.

"So you've never had any inclination to use your magic?"

Xander scowled up at Angel, drumming his fingertips on the tabletop. "Again with the no," he replied, his eyes flashing with annoyance. "But you're kinda making me change my mind."

"You know," Draco Malfoy added with an amused look from vampire to young human and back, still folding yet another broom. He tossed it, punching air when it landed in the bin. "I think that's a hint to shut up."

"I-I still can't quite understand this," Wesley stammered. He had taken the seat as far as possible from Xander and looked like he was contemplating the distance to the door, lest he needed to flee. "If Voldemort had an Heir..."

"Surely the Council and Wizarding world would have shared the information about it?" Giles cut in, removing his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "Yes, we have covered all of this, Wesley. Xander's mother didn't want her son taken by Voldemort, so she concealed him here with aid from Ethan."

Wesley looked faintly from Xander to the two older men, then back at the sullen teenager. "Voldemort's heir..." he whispered, shaking his head. "On a Hellmouth... absolutely dreadful... must inform..."

"You say 'inform the council'," Giles snapped, pinching the bridge of his nose before looking at the younger Watcher. "And I will take great pleasure in finding Buffy's bluntest stake and introducing it to your arse!"

Wesley went white as a sheet, but Draco snickered. "I think you need to work on a little something called subtlety, Giles," he suggested with a half-grin. "Unless you make it your life's pursuit to make younger watchers piss their pants in terror. In that case, you really are rather good at it."

Green eyes flashed in caution at Draco, who raised his hands, still smirking. "It is imperative," Giles said coolly. "That the council does not learn that Voldemort had an heir. If they did, I believe that the repercussions would be... unpleasant."

"Translation?" Xander asked quietly, watching the shadows his fingers were casting on the surface of the table.

"I-I-I'm not certain..."

Dark brown eyes rose. "Giles."

"You... you would most likely be perceived as a serious threat," the watcher said haltingly, studying the glasses in his hand intently. "As you are a human being, it would violate the Watchers' code to harm you, but there is a team who... well, they remain unmentionable."

"And they do the council dirty work?"

"So I have heard," Giles cautiously admitted.

Xander's hand curled into a fist on the tabletop. "And if they found out about me and who I am, they wouldn't mind sending these unmentionable guys to pay me a visit, even if I'm backing you guys up?"

"That might not be..." Giles trailed off uselessly at the teenager's raised eyebrows, spreading his hands. "I don't wish to sound discouraging, Xander, but I am afraid that you would be in grave danger."

"Yay. Another day on the Hellmouth... only worse."

"Which is why," Ethan said with a cold look at Wesley. "This stuck up little ponce isn't going to breathe a word about any of it. That is, if he wants to keep his face in it's current shape and location."

"Ooh! Threats! Do it again! I like them!" The excited exclamation from Draco drew four pointed stares. He stared back, blinking. "What? Do I have to keep on telling you that I'm not nice? Why does everyone assume that because I lower myself to Snake's level, because he's going to help me take over the world, I'm a nice bloke?"

Xander's lips rose in a faint smile. "It's the hair, Ferret. Anyone with as many hair care products as you can't be a real big bad. You'd spend way too much time in front of the mirror."

"At least I make the effort, Snake," Draco countered with a grin. "Which is much more than I can say for you."

Raising a hand, the dark-haired teenager half-heartedly swatted his friend. "You're a jerk, Ferret."

"Yes, but I'm a damnable sexy one."

Ethan chuckled, shaking his head. "Malfoy, you're incorrigible."

Draco beamed at the commendation. "Thank you, Rayne."

"Giles," Xander's voice, shaking and deadly serious, overlapped his friend's. Brown eyes rose to Giles from the table again. "If the Wizarding world knows about me now, wouldn't they tell the Council?"

The Watcher's face paled. "I-I didn't think to check..."

"You think that old Stone would let slip about this?" Draco demanded, shaking his head. "You obviously didn't pay much attention to the man, Giles. He's the one who keeps the Council up to date on things and I suspect he liked Snake a little too much to want to get him in that kind of trouble."

"Yes, but he's not the only one who knows about me, Ferret," Xander corrected, his voice laced with anxiety and exhaustion. " A lot of people saw me admitting to being Voldemort's son. Any one of them could slip up and mention it to the wrong person, who could mention it to someone else."

Giles rubbed his forehead. "Yes... yes... that is a possibility," he admitted. "But if we make absolutely certain no one on this end spread the word, at least we can contain your location and identity a little longer."

This was all said with a sharp look in Wesley's direction.

Pressing the heels of his hands against his forehead, Xander's face creased in pain. "I didn't want any of this," he whispered, his voice shaking. Draco glanced sidelong, at a lamp on the table, which had started rattling. "Any of this..."

"We know, Xander," Ethan said softly. "No one wanted this to happen to you. If your mother could have stopped it, she would have."

The rattling of the lamp grew more violent, but Draco appeared to be the only one who had noticed.

"But it happened, didn't it?"

"Er... Snake?"

"Don't start lecturing me, Ferret! I don't need you giving me speeches as well!"

"Um... right..." Draco jerked his head towards the lamp, which was bouncing on the table, then slowly slid off his chair, aware that he was on the receiving end of a funny look from both Giles and Ethan.

"Xander, it's too late to change things now."

"I know!" Xander's voice rose to a shout and Draco hunched his arms over his head beneath the table. "Don't you think I don't know that? Do you think I would be this crazy if I knew I could change things and bring my mom back? Do you think I wouldn't kill him sooner?!"

The blast of the lamp was muted by the sound of every window in the whole library exploding outwards simultaneously, glass spraying everywhere, tinkling as it rattled on the floor, sharp curses sounding from the four men by the table.

Edging out, Draco immediately moved to Xander's side, the dark-haired teenager staring around in horror at the demolition he had caused, apparently oblivious to the shards of glass embedded in his face.

Giles had apparently ducked in time, sprayed with a fine shower of fragments, while Ethan was lying on the floor beside the counter, a few cuts dashing his face. Wesley had been seated beneath the nearest window and had been covered liberally in sharp needles of glass. Worst, though, was Angel, who was picking large splinters of the lamp from his torso.

"Snake?"

"Oh crap... oh crap, oh crap, oh crap..."

"Snake, can you hear me?"

"Oh, crap... I didn't mean to..." His head was snapped round by a feeble punch on the jaw and he blinked, looking up to find Draco hopping from foot to foot, clutching his fist in pain. "F-Ferret?"

"Good. You're still with us mentally... sort of," Draco said firmly, rubbing his knuckles. "You've not gone all catatonic on us. I've seen that before and it's really not the best way to spend an afternoon."

"I...I did this."

The blond nodded around, an impressed look on his face. "Yeah," he observed, taking in the vacant windows and the fragments that covered the table and floor. "And it was a very thorough job as well."

"Are... I-I don't get it... you guys..." Xander looked at Giles and Ethan who had just struggled back to his feet, panic on his face. "Giles, I don't know what happened. How did I do it? I did do that, right? I... oh God... you're bleeding..."

Giles' fingers came to his face, touching a narrow cut that was flecked across his cheekbone, bleeding slightly. "It's nothing, Xander," he said gently, taking a step towards the teenager. "Are you all right?"

"I-I did this... me... with magic..."

"Yes, yes you did," Giles said, firmly but gently. "But that doesn't matter now. Are you all right?"

Xander nodded nervously, licking his lips and looking around. "What happened?"

"You were angry, Snake," Draco said, laying a hand on Xander's shoulder. "I don't blame you. You just never learned how to control your magic when you're angry and this is what happened because of it."

"Oh God... will it happen again?"

"Not if you try and stay calm when you get angry, Xander," Ethan added, brushing glass from his hair. "I know I got into a lot of trouble at school because I kept losing my temper and blowing things up."

"And if he can't stay calm?" Angel's voice interrupted coldly. The vampire pulled a shard of metal from his shoulder, wincing. "What if someone else is standing where I was this time? Someone who isn't undead?"

The colour drained from Xander's face. "Shit..."

"Don't worry, Snake," Draco shot a venomous look in the direction of the vampire, his hand lightly squeezing Xander's shoulder. "I'll stick around and if you look like you're about to blow things up, I'll smack you on the head and let you spend a little while passed out on the floor." He flashed a gallant grin at Xander. "It'll make you feel better."

Angel looked doubtful, but Xander nodded. "Thanks, Ferret."

"And on that note," Draco said, straightening up and grabbing Xander securely by the arm. "Snake and I are going to go for a little walk and maybe find some nice little bimbos to kiss him better."

"Ferret..."

"Oh, shut up, Snake. Humour your charming guest and find him some pretty people to keep him busy," Draco tugged on Xander's arm, but Xander gave him a look, remaining exactly where he was. "Oh, come on, Snake!" he whined. "I want to go and have some fun with some people who aren't actually starting to decay already! It's never going to happen with all these old farts around."

"You'll have to give me a better reason to leave with me in this..."

"Alex," Draco's voice turned serious. "You want to stay here and get more angry? We need to find somewhere for you to let off some steam, all right?"

Xander flashed a quick look up at him, then slowly nodded, pushing his chair out from the table and getting to his feet. "We're going out," he said with a vague wave in the direction of the door. "Don't know when we'll be back."

Giles nodded at once. "You will take care?"

"Don't I always?" Xander replied, a little sadly. "See you guys later. And sorry."

Draco waved, walking backwards, as they started towards the door. "And if we're not back by midnight, check the news! You might hear something about our takeover of the rest of the States!"

"Ferret, you're crazy."

"Snake, you're... well... there are simply too many insults about you, your sexual preference, your hair colour, your clothes and so on to choose from. I would hate to rupture your tiny brain with the overload, so just pick the worst and deal with it."

Xander's shaking laugh rang back to the adults present a moment before the doors swung closed behind him and Draco.

As soon as he was sure his Godson was gone, Ethan all but fell into one of the seats, uttering a curse under his breath. "This really isn't a good sign, is it, Ripper?" he said, picking shards of glass from his hands.

"Apparently not," Giles agreed grimly.

"I would say that was a statement of the obvious," Angel said, his voice bitter, a hand on his shoulder to stave the bleeding. "If you don't mind, I'll go for now. I'll need some blood and I don't think you have any here."

Giles nodded, removing his glasses and placing them on the table. He ran his hands through his hair. "I'll let Buffy know," he said quietly. The vampire nodded once, then seemed to simply merge into the shadows, out of sight.

A brief silence hung on the air, the only sound the birdsong outside the room, until Wesley gained his voice.

"And you're saying that boy isn't dangerous?" Wesley's voice seemed to have risen several octaves. "For God's sake, man, he blew the library to pieces and you just let him walk out of here, as if nothing had happened!"

Giles gave the younger Watcher a look. "Would you have stood in front of him and ordered him to remain here, in that state?" Opening and shutting his mouth several times, Wesley finally shook his head. "And you will not be informing the council of this situation. Do I make myself clear?"

"They wouldn't harm..."

"Wesley, do try to think before you speak," Giles said impatiently. "Use your head! Of course, they would harm him. He has more power than most wizards alive today, uncontrolled and only intensified by the Hellmouth. Do you honestly believe the Council would allow him to roam free?"

"But they are..."

"They seem respectable and decent," Giles corrected, his tone gentling somewhat, his voice weary. "Believe me, Wesley, they would do whatever they deem necessary to be rid of any threat and Xander now qualifies as one."

Wesley looked like he wanted to argue, but nodded. "I won't inform them," he said, but added pointedly. "Unless something else of this kind happens. If he becomes a danger to us..."

"Then, by all means, they can try to contain him, but that boy will never be a real threat to them," Giles said in a confident tone. Only Ethan could tell that he was lying through his teeth.

***

"All right, then. Park yourself," Dropping down onto the bench obediently, squinting in the morning sunlight, Xander winced as Draco started tugging bits of glass from his face and neck. "You all right?"

"Sure."

Draco raised his brows. "Snake."

Xander exhaled a breath. "Okay, maybe not so much with the all right, then," he replied, closing his eyes. "I don't want this. I don't need it. If you want what I have, take it. I just want to be normal again."

"Something tells me you were never normal, Snake." Xander opened his eyes to see a look of sympathy on Draco's face. "You've always had this power, you know. You just never had the inclination to use it."

"Do I have to keep it?"

Draco's expression twisted slightly, as if he couldn't believe someone would want to give up their magical abilities. "As far as we know, there's no way for magic to be removed from a person. The best thing you can hope for is learning to control it."

Shaking his head, Xander shivered violently. "What if... what if I turn into him?"

"You could never do that, Snake. I've known you what? A month? And I know for a fact that you're nothing like him."

Xander laughed, a harsh, hollow sound. "You're wrong," he said, a distinct tremor in his voice. "I... I wasn't joking when I said that I killed him. They think I'm the only person who was strong enough... stronger than him."

Draco's pale face seemed to drain of any trace of colour, going a strange shade of grey. Sitting down heavily on the bench beside his friend, he stared at Xander. "You... you're telling me you killed Voldemort?"

"Yeah," His hands caught between his knees, hunched over them, Xander squeezed his eyes shut. "I-I went to Azkaban before mom died... saw him... spoke to him... he... he was bad... I had the chance to stop him ever hurting anyone again, I knew it. I-I had Ethan's wand... just said the words and he was gone... I killed my father."

Unsure what to say, Draco touched Xander's shoulder reassuringly. After a moment of silence, he sighed.

"You had good intentions, Alex," he said gravely. "You did what you had to for the right reasons. If you'd left him there, he would have come back again and would have kept on coming. You stopped him."

Xander made a nearly-incoherent whimpering sound in his throat, his expression tightening in pain. It was the expression of one struggling hard, trying to keep tears under his control.

"S'all right, Alex," Draco said quietly, squeezing Xander's shoulder. "You can let it out, if you want."

In the middle of the High School's quad, cheerful sunlight mockingly stroking over him, accompanied only by one of the former allies of his father, the Dark Lord, Xander Harris buried his face in his hands and wept.

***

"Yes, sir, the explosion was here. Yes, yes. We released the information that there was a gas leak. Where? In the library. Yes, I'm sure, sir. Something blew the windows out, but we aren't sure what. I would say that Summers was involved, but she was in class at the time."

The voice on the end of the line fell silent for a moment.

"Sir?" Snyder inquired cautiously.

He heard the Mayor chuckle on the other end. "Be sure to let me know if anything else suspicious happens, Mr. Snyder," he said in a unctuous, jovial voice. "After all, we wouldn't want any of those crazy little kids of yours getting in any kind of trouble, would we?"

"O-of course not, sir," Snyder stammered. "I-I'll keep you informed. I'm sure everything will be all right."

The Mayor's laugh was cool, unnerving, and sent a prickle of unease down the back of Principal Snyder's neck. He shivered. "Oh, I'm certain everything is just gonna be perfect, Mr. Snyder. Just fine."