InsaneJournal

A Series of (mostly) Un-Apocalyptic Events--pt 7/? BtVS/HP
full header & previous parts:
an unexpected meeting || unusual conversations || un-imaginary friends and places, really || unlikely coincidence || unplanned vacation || unsanctioned dragon(s) pt 1 || unsanctioned dragon(s) pt 2



~unhappy dragons and people~


Ron didn't know what was snarled at him in what he assumed was the T'bori language before the line went dead. He was to meet Kafu at Gringotts in one hour. And only that long since it would take a bit to gather up their camp and supplies. One T'Bori potions master, one German Wizard, one Canadian Wizard, one Australian Muggle woman, one Seer and one Goblin.

International portkeys were possible but took an immense amount of paperwork and power, though if they were going to go from Gringotts Cairo to Gringotts London or even hopscotch through several smaller Gringotts branches then that was likely more than do-able, and a way around any fussing on crossing borders by portkey at non-designated places, bypassing of customs, and whatever else. Gringotts had it in it's charter that if they allowed someone to use their banks in that manner then that equated official documentation. Of course, that was a little known fact, and one Ron only knew from Bill who had done the portkey hop through several banks for his job, especially since he had moved back to England and he'd been sent on short assignments Merlin only knew where. Ron wasn't certain Fleur did at times. No government in their right mind was going to argue with that because the Goblins would close their banks and the Goblins hadn't been known to use it for anything other than bank employees or official business in the past.

But if there was a Goblin in Xander's group of whatever they were and whatever they did, then perhaps that was why.

He took a deep breath and eyed the second number Xander had given him and dialed it.

"Hello, Rupert Giles speaking, may I help you?"

"Yes, hello. My name is Ron Weasley. I'm an Auror with the British Ministry of Magic."

"Oh Dear Lord. Has some bloody idiot managed to unleash a demon or is it Xander?"

Ron blinked and stared at the telly-phone a moment. "It's Xander. He's all right, there is a bit of a misunderstanding but his mentor Kafu is on his way to take care of that I think. He asked me to call you and tell you to check the telly-phones and com-pew-ters because Willow put spells on his pocket telly-phone that er--hijacked his calls and redirected them to her? And some sort of Wicca tracing spell that's making him ill. He wants you to make her stop, and honestly if she's doing dangerous spell work it might be grounds to arrest and extradite her and let the American Wizarding Congress' International Incident Division deal with her, or even the T'bori High Council since Xander's T'bori educated. Might not be able to do anything on this side of the ocean but she's out of bounds and according to Xander some of the spells on his phone potentially dangerous in attracting dark creatures of some sort."

"Bloody hell, I'll deal with her, tell Xander to call as soon as he possibly can."


*
*


"WILLOW!" Giles bellowed even as he hung up the phone. He stormed out of his office startling Cecily. "Do you know where Willow is?" he asked the Wicca-turned office manager.

"I'm not certain."

"Bloody hell," Giles snarled.


*
*


Xander groaned at what sounded like a pissed off train, then the train noise roared. "Yay, the 'rents are here for the runaways." he muttered. He dumped out what was in the satchel in a pile on the end table, a lot of it now full of claw and teeth marks. He carefully put the two still sleeping babies in the bag. This was gonna be fun, not.


*
*


Well, that had to be Xander's group of friends, Ron decided more than a little daunted by the oddness of the group for some reason he couldn't quite put his finger on, beyond the fact they were just bloody odd. The T'bori Potions master was about six foot ten, what looked to be muggle-style combat boots only made of dragon hide on his feet and to Ron's surprise jeans and a multi green shirt that he thought Hermione called camouflage pattern a dragon hide belt and vest and Ron thought the knife holster strapped to his leg was dragon hide as well as the satchel slung over his shoulder. Except for the fact one of the weapons strapped to him was a wand he didn't look all that much different than any other soldier in some civil war or other Ron had seen on the telly-box news when he'd been at his in-laws. Two other men both in top shape and probably closer Bill and Charlie's ages than Ron's own dressed similarly. Muggle jeans and button down shirts dragon hide boots, belts and satchels. The woman was tiny, barely five foot with jeans and what Hermione would call a "tank" top frizzy carroty hair pulled back in a pony tale and her visible skin sun burnt and covered in freckles. The goblin was dressed much the same as the others, in little muggle-style jeans and a long sleeved t-shirt.

"You need to wear your hoodie or not around here, Digs?" the woman asked.

The goblin snorted.

The final member of the group was tall and slender and downright otherworldly. He had white-blonde hair tied back in a braid. Dark glasses--sun glasses Ron was pretty sure what they were called--unnaturally, almost vampirically pale and he was tall. Not as tall as the T'bori but still a good three or four inches past six foot. Dressed similarly enough to the others in jeans and dragon hide muggle-style boots and an olive green t-shirt.

Ron steeled himself and mad his way over to the group. "You Xander's friends? I'm Ron Weasley."

"I'm Natalia. That's Medraut, Digger, Henry, Wolfgang and Kafu. Where's Xan?"

"He's in Hogsmeade at my brother's flat.." Ron considered a moment. "Think you could get a portkey or make one? They're not my specialty.."

"I can," Henry said quietly with a glance toward Kafu who nodded.


*
*


"Oh...Bloody hell," George whispered, pale and shaky as the flames dissipated and it was obvious the shield spells Bill and Charlie had cast had worked. Xander was there unburnt, a little singed maybe but alive.

"He's baiting the bloody dragon!" Bill gaped.

*

Xander glared up at the dragon. "HEY! DUMBASS! THE BRATS ARE FINE!"

Norbert lowered his head with a snarl.

"See babies are sleeping. They came on their own. You don't need to go frying people's asses cause you weren't watching close enough and they snuck off!"

Xander vaguely heard Charlie's shouts not to hold the stunners just yet at people on broomsticks.

Hatchlings?

Xander lifted the flap of the satchel and moved forward. "See, brats are fine. Sleeping and should sleep all the way home.

Norbert brought his head clear down sniffing the satchel and eying the contents.

Mine

"I sure hope you mean them and not me! Take them home." Xander grumbled and hooked the satchel over a massive bottom fang in the far too tooth-filled mouth inches from him. If he didn't get chomped he was going to have to beg Malaka for a new satchel, being chomped might almost be the preferred alternative. Malaka would have a lot to say about dragons. And she would undoubtedly say it loudly, probably waving her wooden spoon and thwacking him with it a couple times. "They should sleep the whole way as bad as they wore themselves out. They're going to hurt themselves trying to go so far on their own. Sit on their little butts better."

Norbert huffed and launched himself into the air.

"WATCH OUT FOR RADAR AND LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT!" Xander called after Norbert. He didn't want to imagine the chaos that could be, and somehow, someone would find a way to blame it all on him he was sure.

*

Charlie ran towards Xander. "You all right, mate?"

"Little scorched around the edges but okay." Xander sighed weaving a little on his feet.

Charlie reached and steadied him as George and Bill rushed up.

"Bloody insane as Delacroix too." Bill muttered.

"Yeah, uh huh, sure." Xander agreed as his headache hit full blown ears-ringing, seeing-spots, hyper-acute senses all out freaking migraine

"Are you CRAZY!" a heavily accented voice bellowed that sent Xander's head nearly ready to explode.

"Easy, Stan!" Charlie said. "Xander, this is Stanislav Grinkov."

"Uh huh hi. He's going home and taking the brats with him." Xander managed and gratefully leaned into George who had put a steadying arm around him.

"He's a Drakkentongue. Snape found him again. Hagrid followed Snape." Charlie said.

"The idiot could have been killed!" Stan bellowed in his heavily accented English.

"I hear that a lot," Xander mumbled.

George snorted weakly, still a bit queasy from the sight of his friend literally engulfed in flames. "Wonder why."

"Hey!" Xander shot back. "You and the saber-toothed hello kitty look have no room to talk." He winced at the series of ~CRACKS~. "Sure, now the cops show up." he muttered. At least that's what Xander guessed the dozen or so with matching over-robes were. The robes matched the ones George's brother Ron had been wearing.

~CRACK~

"Oh yay, Kafu glarey-face. I'm just gonna pass out now, kay?" Xander murmured as the world grayed around him.


*
*


It took three full hours to find Willow. She'd gone into the village with a couple of the older girls grocery shopping.

"WILLOW!"

"Not now, Giles, I've got to take care of something, something's wrong.." Her spell wasn't working she couldn't get a fix on Xander. She'd excused herself to the car and let Marnie and Julie take care of the groceries and the location spell was failing repeatedly, as was the spell monitor on Xander's phone. It was like the phone had been destroyed with the repeated buzzing of the Xander alarm on her own cell.

"YOU WILL NOT DO A SINGLE SPELL! YOU ARE DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO BEING BROUGHT UP ON CRIMINAL CHARGES AND AFTER THE INCIDENT ON THE BLUFFS OUTSIDE OF SUNNYDALE NO ARGUMENT COULD POSSIBLY STAY YOUR EXECUTION!"

Willow stopped and stared. "What?"

"I demand all spells removed from every bit of council equipment right this bloody instant. The Devon coven can recast any necessary spells. They've already been informed, as has Robin in Cleveland and the various Slayer teams. NOW, Willow! If you don't and don't start reigning in some of your unacceptable behaviors let go as harmless in the past as of right now I don't know that I can protect you from the consequences. I don't know if I bloody well even should!"

"What are you talking about?"

Giles opened his mouth absolutely no sound came out. "BLOODY HELL!" he spat out a few moments later. "Willow! The treaty geis --I can't tell you. Suffice to say you are endangering every last Slayer in existence as well as the council and have put Xander's well-being in immediate danger."

"Xander's in danger? I've got to--"

"YOU'VE GOT TO STOP! YOU CANNOT TRY TO LOCATE HIM! YOU CANNOT ATTEMPT TO! WILLOW HAVE YOU HEARD A BLOODY WORD IVE SAID!"

"Xander's in danger we've got to do something!"

"Something is being done AND YOU ARE THE ONE WHO IS PUTTING HIM IN JEAPORDY!"

"I AM NOT! I WOULD NEVER!"

"YOU ARE AND YOU ARE BEING A BLOODY IDIOT, GIRL!"

"I would never hurt Xander--"

"Intentionally no, but you are. You need to stop trying to locate him, remove whatever monitoring spells you have cast, and remove every bloody bit of magic from every last bit of council property you have ever cast. Phones, computers, the bloody satellite reception! ALL OF IT!"

"But why?"

"I am not at liberty to say obviously. The geis would only stop me from saying so."

"If Xander is in danger--"

"Xander's team is handling it. Kafu is in a far better position to aid Xander than any of us."

"Some bush witchdoctor from Africa who--"

"WILLOW! LISTEN! TO! ME!"

"You say Xander is in danger then tell me I can't even try to find him"

"Xander is in danger because you put him there! YOU!"

"I DID NOT!"

"YOUR INTERFERENCE! YOUR SPELLS ON HIM TO KEEP HIM UNDER YOUR BLOODY THUMB BY TRYING TO KNOW EVERY LITTLE MOVE HE MAKES!"

"I'M PROTECTING HIM!"

"Your magic is what is endangering him, you stupid, stupid girl!"

"HOW!"

Giles stared at her in disbelief. "You honestly don't think there aren't beings anywhere that are able to notice your magical signature or the traces left on whatever magic you've placed on Xander's gear."

"Xander doesn't take any gear with him! He always leaves behind the replacements and new things I get him."

"Smart boy." Giles muttered. "Willow, if you do not stop and remove the spells from council property, and from Xander then you will--you would have been executed when you attempted the Rite of Prosperexia if not for the Council--"

"By who!"

"If you do not do as you are ordered, you will be fired, and that will negate any protection the Council and it's treaties have managed to afford you. The first bit of proven un-Council sanctioned magic, of which there has been a countless amount, you will be facing dire consequences, and quite probably me along with you! I'd rather not be executed because you're a stubborn willful little brat who considers Xander your personal bloody toy!"

"I DO NOT!"

"THEN ACT LIKE IT!"

"You tell me Xander's in danger then expect me to sit back and let some quack with chicken feathers who knows how to find his way through a jungle take care of it."

"Kafu is far better equipped to deal with the situation than you or I, and you are the one who has endangered Xander."

"I am not! I would NEVER!"

"Willow." Giles grated out.