Fic: Call Me Conrad (6/16)
Sorry for the delay, I seem to be ill a lot at the moment :-(
Title: Call Me Conrad (part 6 of 16)
Fandoms: Buffy/Hollyoaks/Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Summary: There are excursions and alarums, in that order.
Josh splashed water on his face, looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror and allowed himself a moment of panic. What the hell did he think he was doing?
Compared to the others, he wasn't just a novice at magic, he was practically a baby. Mr Wells at least had studied magic for years, even if the only magic he had been able to do reliably was demon summoning. The wizards had been doing magic since they were eleven. He had been the chief druid here for not quite a fortnight, and he hadn't even believed in magic before that.
Yet people were paying attention to him and the crazy ideas he kept spouting as if he knew what he was talking about. It terrified Josh that people were relying on his guesses. His guesses combined with Mr Wells's research had been good so far, but they were still guesses. Worse, he was guessing about another style of magic, one that didn't work the same as the small amount of magic he was used to. Josh spent a moment praying to anyone who would listen that he wasn't going to get someone killed.
Taking a deep breath, Josh steadied himself and left the bathroom, nodding to Conrad who was waiting outside. To his surprise, Conrad didn't step into the vacated loo. Instead he looked nervously up and down the short hallway before starting to talk in a low voice.
"Can I... I mean, I'm really sorry to ask, I know I shouldn't... It's not... I don't..."
"Hey," Josh said gently, putting a hand on Conrad's shoulder to stop the flow of words. He still wasn't any too clear on what had happened to Conrad before he'd been rescued, but it was pretty obvious that it had wrecked his self-confidence. "You can always ask a favour," he said, picking the most likely thing he could think of for Conrad to be nerving himself up for. "You may not get it, but you can always ask."
Conrad sagged a little. "Can you fix Potter's wand?" he asked in that same quiet voice, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor.
Josh frowned. "I thought he had a spare one? He seemed to be doing OK in the Grove."
"I'm sorry," Conrad said. He shifted restlessly. "It was a stupid idea; I shouldn't have said anything. I'll go-"
"Hey," Josh interrupted again. "Look at me, Conrad." With great reluctance, Conrad raised his head until he was staring at Josh's chest. Josh sighed. "Con, I need you to know that I mean what I say here, and that means you need to look me in the eye." He waited until Conrad braced himself and looked up, trying his best to project calm reassurance.
"I'm only asking questions because I don't understand," he said gently. "I don't know anything about wands and how they work, so I need you to tell me when I'm getting it wrong. I guess I thought using a different wand was like playing a different guitar. I'd rather play my own because it's familiar and comfortable, but I could play any other guitar and get used to it in a few minutes. What am I missing?"
Conrad stared at him for a long moment. Whatever he saw must have satisfied him; he stood up straighter and said, "A wand is something that is fitted to a wizard. It's not just a tool, it's part of how magic works for you. It would be like... like playing a guitar that's a different size or shape."
"A different tuning, maybe?" Josh offered. "You can play it, but it's hard and you'll make a lot of mistakes. You do get used to it eventually, though," he added, thinking of his occasional experiments with dropped-D tuning.
"I'm not sure you ever get used to someone else's wand," Conrad said uncertainly. "Potter... what you saw was like Amy fighting with one hand tied behind her back. Two years ago, he was the one teaching the younger students how to duel."
Josh whistled quietly. "And you think he's going to need to be on top form?"
"The Dark Lord is powerful too," Conrad pointed out, "and he's had a lot more experience. Potter will need every advantage he can get."
"Right," Josh said, nodding. That was what they'd spent the last hour trying to drum into Harry after all. Then another thought occurred to him. "What happened to your wand?" Conrad looked down instantly, practically confirming Josh's guess. "Hey," he said quickly, "do I need to do the 'You are worthy' speech again? Because I will, you know."
Conrad managed the faintest glimmer of a smile as he made himself look up. It didn't last long though, and Josh could see how much of an effort this was for him. "She broke it," Conrad confirmed. He never said who this 'she' was, and out of respect Josh had never asked the others. "She broke it, and threw it on the fire, and made me watch while it burned. She wanted me to know it was over, that I couldn't go back."
Impulsively, Josh pulled Conrad into a hug. It was awkward, what with Conrad being so much taller than him, but Josh didn't care. His friend needed the comfort. "She was wrong, you know," he murmured. "You can go back. You're still a wizard, with or without a wand."
Conrad shuddered, and Josh realised he was crying silently. "I don't want to go back," he managed to say haltingly. "I was a bully and a coward, and I hurt people, and..."
"And now you've grown up," Josh finished for him. They had all done a lot of growing up in the last few weeks. "That's fine. Brilliant, even. I'm just sorry you got hurt so badly on the way."
Josh held on until Conrad stopped shaking, then gave him a gentle push towards the bathroom. "Go on," he said. "You clean yourself up, and Mr Wells and I will start talking about wands."
Not just Harry's wand, either.
******
Food, Xander reflected, was going to be a blessing and curse of his life from now on. A blessing because even when it was weird and experimental, Andrew's cooking was pretty amazing; a curse because he was going to be spending a lot of time grocery shopping, and damn but those bags were heavy. Still, at least the shopping trip had got Ste and him out of some extreme magic geekery. Andrew and Josh seemed to want to know every last detail of every bit of wizard magic that the assault team might encounter, which was way overkill as far as Xander was concerned. The talk had got so incomprehensible and rarefied that Xander had been just about ready to pass out from oxygen deprivation when Ron had asked when they were going to eat. The wizards had their own supplies in that TARDIS-tent of theirs, but Xander had leapt at the excuse of having a proper meal just to get out of the house. He needed Ste's help of course, because Ste knew which shops would be open, and not inconsequentially shared Xander's opinions on magic theory. So did Ron, apparently; at least he practically begged them to let him come along, and Xander didn't think it was just for the novelty of seeing non-magical shops.
It was dark by the time they left the only supermarket enterprising enough to be open on New Year's Day. Long winter nights were another of the things that the Californian didn't like about England, but he wasn't too worried; he and Ste both had stakes under their coats, and anyway vampire activity seemed to be almost non-existent around these parts. Hollyoaks's social life was dead, not undead. So Xander wasn't paying that much attention, was in fact busy describing the unobtainable joys of Twinkies and Oreos to a sceptical Ste and a spellbound Ron, when he felt something hit him.
"What the hell?" he demanded, stumbling slightly.
"What?" Ron asked.
"I felt something too," Ste said, looking round warily. "Like someone brushed past me."
"Felt more like an electric eel just goosed me," Xander grumbled. "Yow, and again."
"I didn't feel anything." Ron was looking round for trouble now, which was exactly what Xander would have told him to do. Apparently being the best friend of the Wizarding World's Great White Hope gave you the same survival skills as being the best friend of the Slayer.
"We need to find the cause," Ste said grimly. "With magic."
Ron looked startled, though not half as startled as Xander felt. "I don't know how," Ron admitted.
"We do," Ste said. Xander opened his mouth to object, but Ste cut him off before he could start. "We're outdoors, so we can manage without all the herbs and stuff if we have to, and there isn't time to argue about this any more. Keep us covered," he said to Ron, "this is going to take a while."
Ste was right, not that Xander was going to actually say so; they didn't have time to argue. Reluctantly he put his bags down, tried to ignore the weird twitching sensation and started reciting the very first druidic ritual he had ever done.
Casting the Sight with Ste turned out to be a very different experience to doing it with Andrew. With Andrew, Xander didn't need to think about what was going on. It was almost more like reacting to what Andrew did, running more on instinct than anything else. He didn't have that kind of understanding with Ste. They started off talking over each other, totally out of sync and getting nowhere. Then they hit on the idea of alternating lines, getting used to each other's way of doing things until they finally clicked.
When Xander opened his eyes, he discovered that the results weren't the same as when he and Andrew did it either. The colours weren't as sharp as normal, or as detailed; the whole thing didn't feel as powerful as he remembered it being. It did feel more stable, though, which kind of made sense. As far as he understood it, druidic magic was supposed to be done by groups of druids, and the more druids there were the easier and more powerful the spell was supposed to be. He and Andrew, like all the couples, effectively combined to make one super-druid, which got them the power but without the numbers to stabilise the ritual.
Of course he didn't need that much power to see the big green rope of light that started from somewhere around his navel and stretched off into the distance. Or the large blue hemisphere surrounding them, for that matter. Xander glanced over at Ron, who had his bags on the ground and his wand out. "Ron, have you done anything?"
"Um, I stuck up a quick warding, just to be safe. Why?"
"Just wanted to be sure what the blue glowy thing was. Now what the hell is this? Ste?"
"No idea," Ste said unhelpfully from where he was examining the rope close up. "I really don't like the way it goes right into you, though. Can you feel anything from it?"
"Just a slight tug sometimes. Whoah! Like that."
"It went taut for a moment there," Ste reported, "like someone was pulling on it. I do not like this."
"Me neither," Xander agreed, fishing out his phone and hitting speed dial. "Hey, Andrew, gather the troops. I've got some kind of magical line attached to me, and we're way under-armed to meet whatever's on the other end of it."
"Oh!" Xander heard the panic in Andrew's voice and gave himself a mental slap for not leading up to the problem more gently. He really did not need to be talking Andrew down from hysteria right now. Then he heard Andrew take a deep breath and say steadily, "Where are you?"
"Fuller Street," Xander said promptly, having caught sight of the conveniently-placed name plate. "I guess we're about ten minutes away."
"I could apparate us back," Ron offered.
"Would that work with whatever this is still attached to him?" Ste asked.
Ron frowned. "I dunno," he admitted.
"I don't want to drag this anywhere we care about anyway," Xander told the pair of them.
"Stay where you are," Andrew commanded. "We'll come to you."
A car turned into the road, reminding Xander of how very visible they were. "We need to get off the street. We're way too exposed out here if whatever it is finds us."
"Find an alleyway," Andrew suggested. He sounded a little short of breath.
"It's found us," Ste said quietly. "The other end of the magic is in that car."
"Crap," Xander said succinctly. "Guys, back away from the kerb, find as much cover as you can." There was a lot of magic in the approaching car, bright enough to Xander's Sight that he could tell there were just two people there, one of whom was gesturing vigorously.
"Thirty seconds, Xander," Andrew said desperately. Xander could hear him yell something about being out of time.
The car slowed down and pulled over, and Xander took a cautious step back from it. It was hard to see between the glare of the magic and the dull street lights, and he had no real idea who it was that was after him. The car suggested it wasn't one of Harry's Death Eaters, but that didn't narrow it down much.
"Are they waving?" Ron asked uncertainly.
The car doors opened, and Xander groaned into his phone. "Stand the guys down, Andrew," he said. "It's Willow."
"Hi, Xander," his oldest friend called. "Surprise!"
"She... I... What?" Andrew spluttered.
"I know exactly what you mean," Xander said tiredly. "I'll see you in a few minutes."
Kennedy stepped out of the driver's side of the car. "You OK there, Xand?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, pocketing his phone. "I'm just coming down off DEFCON 2, you know?" And he must be tired if he could remember that DEFCON numbers went down, not up. "Kennedy, Willow, I'd like you to meet Ste Hay and Ron Weasley."
"This is your friend?" Ste said, sounding very unimpressed. Ron didn't look any less on edge, either.
"Nice to meet you, too," Kennedy said with heavy irony.
Willow came round the car, but stopped short of hugging him like she usually did. "What's with the frowny face, Xander? I thought you'd be pleased I got your backup here early."
"I am, Wills," Xander told her. "I'd just be happier if I hadn't been freaking out about the magic that seemed to be attached to me."
It was Willow's turn to frown. "You felt my tracer?"
"Still feeling it," Xander said pointedly.
Willow eeped and made a little gesture. Xander sighed in relief as he saw the magic come apart and stop tugging at his insides. "How were you able to feel that?" she asked.
"We're druids, remember?" Ste said bluntly. Willow gave him a narrow look.
Xander was looking at her sharply himself. He hadn't missed the unspoken 'You've never noticed before' in her manner. He had always suspected that she kept an eye on him, not that she ever admitted it when he asked. There was no point bringing it up now, though. "Our guests are being actively hunted by a devious wizard. You can imagine what we thought." He paused, trying to get his irritation under control. He didn't exactly succeed. "Couldn't you have used the phone?"
"You turned your GPS off," Willow said promptly.
Because she had told him a hacker could use it to find his location. Xander sighed. "I meant actually calling me, like normal people do."
She gave him a weak, apologetic smile. "I wanted it to be a surprise for you."
Ron coughed. "Surprises don't go down well when someone's hunting you," he said, sounding a bit more relaxed now.
"Yeah, if you'd turned up a minute later, we'd have had a reception committee waiting for you, expecting the worst," Ste put in.
Xander nodded. "God knows what would have happened if we were still at Amy's place," he said. "Do I need to be having words with Giles about how much magic you're using?"
Willow looked thoroughly deflated. "I'm sorry, Xander, I didn't mean to worry you. It's just been such a long time since we've had a change to catch up properly, and once we got up here I couldn't wait, and I just wanted to do something nice for you and make you happy."
Xander looked at the puppy-dog eyes staring up at him, thinking that Willow probably didn't even realise she was making them any more. This was what they had done since kindergarten, that extra something to make each other smile. He couldn't fault Willow for that, not when he still felt the same.
"OK, c'mon," he said and pulled her into a hug. "Next time, phone ahead. And, uh, not wanting to sound insulting, but I was kinda hoping for more cavalry than just the two of you."
"We brought a bunch of girls along," Kennedy said, clapping Xander on the shoulder. "Left them settling into the hotel. We figured you might not appreciate having a dozen loud minis descending on you and your Slayer."
"We can be thankful for small mercies," Ste muttered. Kennedy gave him a mild glare, but didn't otherwise rise to the bait.
"Good plan," Xander told her quickly. "An even better plan would be loading our groceries into the car and getting back to Amy's place before they all die of hunger. You know we spent the whole afternoon researching without the aid of doughnuts?"
"No!" Will exclaimed, eyes wide with fake horror. "How did you survive?"
"We fled," Ron admitted, eyeing the car with fascination.
"We strategically withdrew and foraged for raw ingredients that Andrew will turn into a delicious meal," Xander corrected. "Speaking of, you might want to be ready with another apology when we get there. Andrew sounded pretty pissed off when we figured out it was you."
"Pshaw," Willow said dismissively. "I can handle Andrew."
Title: Call Me Conrad (part 6 of 16)
Fandoms: Buffy/Hollyoaks/Harry Potter
Rating: PG-13
Summary: There are excursions and alarums, in that order.
Josh splashed water on his face, looked at his reflection in the bathroom mirror and allowed himself a moment of panic. What the hell did he think he was doing?
Compared to the others, he wasn't just a novice at magic, he was practically a baby. Mr Wells at least had studied magic for years, even if the only magic he had been able to do reliably was demon summoning. The wizards had been doing magic since they were eleven. He had been the chief druid here for not quite a fortnight, and he hadn't even believed in magic before that.
Yet people were paying attention to him and the crazy ideas he kept spouting as if he knew what he was talking about. It terrified Josh that people were relying on his guesses. His guesses combined with Mr Wells's research had been good so far, but they were still guesses. Worse, he was guessing about another style of magic, one that didn't work the same as the small amount of magic he was used to. Josh spent a moment praying to anyone who would listen that he wasn't going to get someone killed.
Taking a deep breath, Josh steadied himself and left the bathroom, nodding to Conrad who was waiting outside. To his surprise, Conrad didn't step into the vacated loo. Instead he looked nervously up and down the short hallway before starting to talk in a low voice.
"Can I... I mean, I'm really sorry to ask, I know I shouldn't... It's not... I don't..."
"Hey," Josh said gently, putting a hand on Conrad's shoulder to stop the flow of words. He still wasn't any too clear on what had happened to Conrad before he'd been rescued, but it was pretty obvious that it had wrecked his self-confidence. "You can always ask a favour," he said, picking the most likely thing he could think of for Conrad to be nerving himself up for. "You may not get it, but you can always ask."
Conrad sagged a little. "Can you fix Potter's wand?" he asked in that same quiet voice, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor.
Josh frowned. "I thought he had a spare one? He seemed to be doing OK in the Grove."
"I'm sorry," Conrad said. He shifted restlessly. "It was a stupid idea; I shouldn't have said anything. I'll go-"
"Hey," Josh interrupted again. "Look at me, Conrad." With great reluctance, Conrad raised his head until he was staring at Josh's chest. Josh sighed. "Con, I need you to know that I mean what I say here, and that means you need to look me in the eye." He waited until Conrad braced himself and looked up, trying his best to project calm reassurance.
"I'm only asking questions because I don't understand," he said gently. "I don't know anything about wands and how they work, so I need you to tell me when I'm getting it wrong. I guess I thought using a different wand was like playing a different guitar. I'd rather play my own because it's familiar and comfortable, but I could play any other guitar and get used to it in a few minutes. What am I missing?"
Conrad stared at him for a long moment. Whatever he saw must have satisfied him; he stood up straighter and said, "A wand is something that is fitted to a wizard. It's not just a tool, it's part of how magic works for you. It would be like... like playing a guitar that's a different size or shape."
"A different tuning, maybe?" Josh offered. "You can play it, but it's hard and you'll make a lot of mistakes. You do get used to it eventually, though," he added, thinking of his occasional experiments with dropped-D tuning.
"I'm not sure you ever get used to someone else's wand," Conrad said uncertainly. "Potter... what you saw was like Amy fighting with one hand tied behind her back. Two years ago, he was the one teaching the younger students how to duel."
Josh whistled quietly. "And you think he's going to need to be on top form?"
"The Dark Lord is powerful too," Conrad pointed out, "and he's had a lot more experience. Potter will need every advantage he can get."
"Right," Josh said, nodding. That was what they'd spent the last hour trying to drum into Harry after all. Then another thought occurred to him. "What happened to your wand?" Conrad looked down instantly, practically confirming Josh's guess. "Hey," he said quickly, "do I need to do the 'You are worthy' speech again? Because I will, you know."
Conrad managed the faintest glimmer of a smile as he made himself look up. It didn't last long though, and Josh could see how much of an effort this was for him. "She broke it," Conrad confirmed. He never said who this 'she' was, and out of respect Josh had never asked the others. "She broke it, and threw it on the fire, and made me watch while it burned. She wanted me to know it was over, that I couldn't go back."
Impulsively, Josh pulled Conrad into a hug. It was awkward, what with Conrad being so much taller than him, but Josh didn't care. His friend needed the comfort. "She was wrong, you know," he murmured. "You can go back. You're still a wizard, with or without a wand."
Conrad shuddered, and Josh realised he was crying silently. "I don't want to go back," he managed to say haltingly. "I was a bully and a coward, and I hurt people, and..."
"And now you've grown up," Josh finished for him. They had all done a lot of growing up in the last few weeks. "That's fine. Brilliant, even. I'm just sorry you got hurt so badly on the way."
Josh held on until Conrad stopped shaking, then gave him a gentle push towards the bathroom. "Go on," he said. "You clean yourself up, and Mr Wells and I will start talking about wands."
Not just Harry's wand, either.
******
Food, Xander reflected, was going to be a blessing and curse of his life from now on. A blessing because even when it was weird and experimental, Andrew's cooking was pretty amazing; a curse because he was going to be spending a lot of time grocery shopping, and damn but those bags were heavy. Still, at least the shopping trip had got Ste and him out of some extreme magic geekery. Andrew and Josh seemed to want to know every last detail of every bit of wizard magic that the assault team might encounter, which was way overkill as far as Xander was concerned. The talk had got so incomprehensible and rarefied that Xander had been just about ready to pass out from oxygen deprivation when Ron had asked when they were going to eat. The wizards had their own supplies in that TARDIS-tent of theirs, but Xander had leapt at the excuse of having a proper meal just to get out of the house. He needed Ste's help of course, because Ste knew which shops would be open, and not inconsequentially shared Xander's opinions on magic theory. So did Ron, apparently; at least he practically begged them to let him come along, and Xander didn't think it was just for the novelty of seeing non-magical shops.
It was dark by the time they left the only supermarket enterprising enough to be open on New Year's Day. Long winter nights were another of the things that the Californian didn't like about England, but he wasn't too worried; he and Ste both had stakes under their coats, and anyway vampire activity seemed to be almost non-existent around these parts. Hollyoaks's social life was dead, not undead. So Xander wasn't paying that much attention, was in fact busy describing the unobtainable joys of Twinkies and Oreos to a sceptical Ste and a spellbound Ron, when he felt something hit him.
"What the hell?" he demanded, stumbling slightly.
"What?" Ron asked.
"I felt something too," Ste said, looking round warily. "Like someone brushed past me."
"Felt more like an electric eel just goosed me," Xander grumbled. "Yow, and again."
"I didn't feel anything." Ron was looking round for trouble now, which was exactly what Xander would have told him to do. Apparently being the best friend of the Wizarding World's Great White Hope gave you the same survival skills as being the best friend of the Slayer.
"We need to find the cause," Ste said grimly. "With magic."
Ron looked startled, though not half as startled as Xander felt. "I don't know how," Ron admitted.
"We do," Ste said. Xander opened his mouth to object, but Ste cut him off before he could start. "We're outdoors, so we can manage without all the herbs and stuff if we have to, and there isn't time to argue about this any more. Keep us covered," he said to Ron, "this is going to take a while."
Ste was right, not that Xander was going to actually say so; they didn't have time to argue. Reluctantly he put his bags down, tried to ignore the weird twitching sensation and started reciting the very first druidic ritual he had ever done.
Casting the Sight with Ste turned out to be a very different experience to doing it with Andrew. With Andrew, Xander didn't need to think about what was going on. It was almost more like reacting to what Andrew did, running more on instinct than anything else. He didn't have that kind of understanding with Ste. They started off talking over each other, totally out of sync and getting nowhere. Then they hit on the idea of alternating lines, getting used to each other's way of doing things until they finally clicked.
When Xander opened his eyes, he discovered that the results weren't the same as when he and Andrew did it either. The colours weren't as sharp as normal, or as detailed; the whole thing didn't feel as powerful as he remembered it being. It did feel more stable, though, which kind of made sense. As far as he understood it, druidic magic was supposed to be done by groups of druids, and the more druids there were the easier and more powerful the spell was supposed to be. He and Andrew, like all the couples, effectively combined to make one super-druid, which got them the power but without the numbers to stabilise the ritual.
Of course he didn't need that much power to see the big green rope of light that started from somewhere around his navel and stretched off into the distance. Or the large blue hemisphere surrounding them, for that matter. Xander glanced over at Ron, who had his bags on the ground and his wand out. "Ron, have you done anything?"
"Um, I stuck up a quick warding, just to be safe. Why?"
"Just wanted to be sure what the blue glowy thing was. Now what the hell is this? Ste?"
"No idea," Ste said unhelpfully from where he was examining the rope close up. "I really don't like the way it goes right into you, though. Can you feel anything from it?"
"Just a slight tug sometimes. Whoah! Like that."
"It went taut for a moment there," Ste reported, "like someone was pulling on it. I do not like this."
"Me neither," Xander agreed, fishing out his phone and hitting speed dial. "Hey, Andrew, gather the troops. I've got some kind of magical line attached to me, and we're way under-armed to meet whatever's on the other end of it."
"Oh!" Xander heard the panic in Andrew's voice and gave himself a mental slap for not leading up to the problem more gently. He really did not need to be talking Andrew down from hysteria right now. Then he heard Andrew take a deep breath and say steadily, "Where are you?"
"Fuller Street," Xander said promptly, having caught sight of the conveniently-placed name plate. "I guess we're about ten minutes away."
"I could apparate us back," Ron offered.
"Would that work with whatever this is still attached to him?" Ste asked.
Ron frowned. "I dunno," he admitted.
"I don't want to drag this anywhere we care about anyway," Xander told the pair of them.
"Stay where you are," Andrew commanded. "We'll come to you."
A car turned into the road, reminding Xander of how very visible they were. "We need to get off the street. We're way too exposed out here if whatever it is finds us."
"Find an alleyway," Andrew suggested. He sounded a little short of breath.
"It's found us," Ste said quietly. "The other end of the magic is in that car."
"Crap," Xander said succinctly. "Guys, back away from the kerb, find as much cover as you can." There was a lot of magic in the approaching car, bright enough to Xander's Sight that he could tell there were just two people there, one of whom was gesturing vigorously.
"Thirty seconds, Xander," Andrew said desperately. Xander could hear him yell something about being out of time.
The car slowed down and pulled over, and Xander took a cautious step back from it. It was hard to see between the glare of the magic and the dull street lights, and he had no real idea who it was that was after him. The car suggested it wasn't one of Harry's Death Eaters, but that didn't narrow it down much.
"Are they waving?" Ron asked uncertainly.
The car doors opened, and Xander groaned into his phone. "Stand the guys down, Andrew," he said. "It's Willow."
"Hi, Xander," his oldest friend called. "Surprise!"
"She... I... What?" Andrew spluttered.
"I know exactly what you mean," Xander said tiredly. "I'll see you in a few minutes."
Kennedy stepped out of the driver's side of the car. "You OK there, Xand?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said, pocketing his phone. "I'm just coming down off DEFCON 2, you know?" And he must be tired if he could remember that DEFCON numbers went down, not up. "Kennedy, Willow, I'd like you to meet Ste Hay and Ron Weasley."
"This is your friend?" Ste said, sounding very unimpressed. Ron didn't look any less on edge, either.
"Nice to meet you, too," Kennedy said with heavy irony.
Willow came round the car, but stopped short of hugging him like she usually did. "What's with the frowny face, Xander? I thought you'd be pleased I got your backup here early."
"I am, Wills," Xander told her. "I'd just be happier if I hadn't been freaking out about the magic that seemed to be attached to me."
It was Willow's turn to frown. "You felt my tracer?"
"Still feeling it," Xander said pointedly.
Willow eeped and made a little gesture. Xander sighed in relief as he saw the magic come apart and stop tugging at his insides. "How were you able to feel that?" she asked.
"We're druids, remember?" Ste said bluntly. Willow gave him a narrow look.
Xander was looking at her sharply himself. He hadn't missed the unspoken 'You've never noticed before' in her manner. He had always suspected that she kept an eye on him, not that she ever admitted it when he asked. There was no point bringing it up now, though. "Our guests are being actively hunted by a devious wizard. You can imagine what we thought." He paused, trying to get his irritation under control. He didn't exactly succeed. "Couldn't you have used the phone?"
"You turned your GPS off," Willow said promptly.
Because she had told him a hacker could use it to find his location. Xander sighed. "I meant actually calling me, like normal people do."
She gave him a weak, apologetic smile. "I wanted it to be a surprise for you."
Ron coughed. "Surprises don't go down well when someone's hunting you," he said, sounding a bit more relaxed now.
"Yeah, if you'd turned up a minute later, we'd have had a reception committee waiting for you, expecting the worst," Ste put in.
Xander nodded. "God knows what would have happened if we were still at Amy's place," he said. "Do I need to be having words with Giles about how much magic you're using?"
Willow looked thoroughly deflated. "I'm sorry, Xander, I didn't mean to worry you. It's just been such a long time since we've had a change to catch up properly, and once we got up here I couldn't wait, and I just wanted to do something nice for you and make you happy."
Xander looked at the puppy-dog eyes staring up at him, thinking that Willow probably didn't even realise she was making them any more. This was what they had done since kindergarten, that extra something to make each other smile. He couldn't fault Willow for that, not when he still felt the same.
"OK, c'mon," he said and pulled her into a hug. "Next time, phone ahead. And, uh, not wanting to sound insulting, but I was kinda hoping for more cavalry than just the two of you."
"We brought a bunch of girls along," Kennedy said, clapping Xander on the shoulder. "Left them settling into the hotel. We figured you might not appreciate having a dozen loud minis descending on you and your Slayer."
"We can be thankful for small mercies," Ste muttered. Kennedy gave him a mild glare, but didn't otherwise rise to the bait.
"Good plan," Xander told her quickly. "An even better plan would be loading our groceries into the car and getting back to Amy's place before they all die of hunger. You know we spent the whole afternoon researching without the aid of doughnuts?"
"No!" Will exclaimed, eyes wide with fake horror. "How did you survive?"
"We fled," Ron admitted, eyeing the car with fascination.
"We strategically withdrew and foraged for raw ingredients that Andrew will turn into a delicious meal," Xander corrected. "Speaking of, you might want to be ready with another apology when we get there. Andrew sounded pretty pissed off when we figured out it was you."
"Pshaw," Willow said dismissively. "I can handle Andrew."