Harry glanced around the ship's 'lounge' that Sirius had repaired, scoured and apparently expanded to the size of a basketball court. There were also a number of scattered couches that had obviously been salvaged and repaired from other ships as well as a couple of tables scattered around. "If you can do this in less than an hour, why did we have to clean up Number 12?"

Sirius shrugged. "Blame Mrs. Weasley, she thought cleaning up the place by hand would keep you busy. It certainly wasn't my idea."

Harry shook his head. "She's nice enough but way too determined to keep us out of harm's way including combat practice despite knowing that I had a dark lord after me."

Xander glanced away from where Willow was setting up her work bench so that she could build her prototype range booster. "That never ends well."

Dawn snorted. "Try being the Slayer's younger sister. You'd think she'd want to teach me to fight in case I needed it but nope; that would make sense."

"She's just a bit overprotective… or a lot," Xander admitted knowing that Buffy was nucking futs about the subject.

Hermione looked up from reading the first Harry Potter book. "Nothing says that we can't sign up for defense classes."

"That's an awesome idea and Willow could teach us magic and then Buffy would have to let me patrol with her when we get back…" Dawn trailed off as she realized that there was no way that her sister would let her help. "That's not going to work is it?"

Xander shook his head. "Probably not but learning to fight is still a good idea. I can teach you how to use an axe if you want, but you'd probably have more luck with a sword considering your build."

Cordelia said, "I'm decent with a sword, I can show you a couple of tricks."

Harry looked at Xander. "You can do magic?"

"I lit a book on fire with Latin a couple of years ago, it sort of spiraled from there," Xander admitted.

Willow turned and looked at Xander. "Wait, what?"

"Telekinesis to make myself more durable and to make sure I hit stuff when I needed to. You didn't think all of those 'lucky' shots were actually lucky, did you?"

Willow nodded. "Yes."

"I walked off a hit from a Troll God. I stepped in front of you on King's Man Bluff and I'm still here."

"We would have noticed…" She looked at Dawn. "Wouldn't we?"

Dawn shrugged. "He's Xander. He had such bad luck most of the time that the 'good luck' just seemed to be karma."

"I'll admit a lot of it was unconscious at first, coming up with plans, knowing that going left was better, knowing that I had to pick Dawn up early or when taking a shot was better than not." He shrugged. "I'm not exactly a combat magic user like Willow but yeah, I have magic. Healing hugs are a thing by the way."

Cordelia snorted. "The sad part is he's not even lying, much."

Dawn asked, "Much?"

Xander shrugged. "It might have taken me a while to get it under control but I got better."

Cordelia said, "His healing ability isn't instant healing, more a boost to someone's natural healing rate."

Harry shook his head. "We're going to have to trade stories at some point, it sounds like you have some interesting ones."

"We can share stories while we're training." She looked over at Sirius. "Can you conjure a couple of practice swords?"

Sirius pulled out his wand and conjured six wooden practice swords. "Of course."

Cordelia frowned slightly as she looked at the wooden practice blades. "We'll start with the proper way to hold a sword and the proper length for a blade."

Sirius shrugged. "I can adjust them."

"Good." Cordelia took charge and started running everyone other than Willow through some basic drills.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Harry looked up as Hermione slammed one of the Harry Potter books on the table. "Something the matter?"

"The fifth book was bad enough with you casting an unforgivable and failing, the sixth was shit with me not believing you that Malfoy was up to something, the sociopathic prick is always up to stupid shit and seriously Malfoy was supposed to be competent enough to fix a broken vanishing cabinet? How the hell does that work? I mean I can see complaining about unknown spells but yeah… the rest not so much and don't even get me started on the insanity of the seventh book."

Dawn asked, "What happened in the seventh book?"

"I'm guessing the author was on drugs or Harry and I got drugged via love potion because I can't see myself ending up with Ron Weasley and Ginny with Harry…"

Harry shook his head. "You and Ron? In what world does that make any sense?"

Dawn asked, "So Harry and Ginny doesn't make sense?"

"More than Ron dating Hermione, she'd kill him in a month, maybe two," Harry said, shaking his head.

Hermione muttered, "Less."

"Ginny and I are friends but I'm the guy that saved her from the Chamber, I'll always be her hero and she's Ron's little sister… if things had been different, I guess I could see ending up with her eventually but then I'd have to put up with Mrs. Weasley as a mother in law and that's just not happening if I can avoid it. Wonderful woman in small doses but there's a reason her two oldest fled the country."

Hermione snorted. "Also there's that whole naming your child after Snape that-"

Harry screamed as he looked at Hermione in complete horror, "What?!"

"Yeah, apparently he had an obsessive crush on your mother and that's why he wanted Voldemort dead. It wasn't that he was a nice person…"

"I'd have burned the books as useless if they said he was," Harry admitted.

Luna said, "At least we know he was actually against Voldemort."

Hermione nodded. "Voldemort killed Lily, Snape was going to burn the world if it meant getting vengeance for that."

Cordelia said, "You should see the Lily/Snape fanfiction."

"Or the Draco/Harry fanfiction," Dawn piped up with an evil grin.

Harry twitched as he tried to keep the contents to his stomach down.

Xander shuddered, "Remind me not to look at any fanfiction you suggest, ever."

Dawn snorted. "I shipped Harry/Hermione/Luna with the occasional Harry/Hermione/Luna/Gabrielle Delacour."

Hermione blinked, "How was that supposed to work? I mean we met Gabrielle once?"

Dawn asked innocently, "But you have no questions about a threesome with Luna and Harry?"

Hermione opened her mouth then shut it.

Harry got a far off look in his eyes.

Xander said, "Moving on, anything else insane about the books?"

Hermione snorted. "Most of the book was Harry and I running around various forests camping with Ron being a jealous idiot. Oh, and for some reason we had to wear the dark artifact that Sirius's brother stole from Voldemort rather put in an iron box and bury it somewhere so that we could come back for it."

Harry blinked. "We did what?"

"Yeah… apparently no one mentioned that the Ministry could stick a name under a curse that would break most defenses and thus saying Voldemort's name would trigger the curse. Rather than dig a hole and use mandrake root to kill anyone that showed up, we got ambushed a couple of times like idiots."

Sirius snorted. "Why didn't Ron point this out? He grew up in a wizarding house."

"Pure stupidity? Hell if I know. The Horcrux might have caused him to go nuts but that's really no excuse for not pointing out that there was an actual reason not to say his name."

Sirius sighed. "Remind me to shake some sense into Molly and Arthur if we ever end up back in our old world."

Hermione grumbled, "One of the worst parts is that Malfoy got off scot free. I mean he tried to kill Dumbledore, let a number of death eaters into the school and was an unrepentant jackass and got away with it because he'd seen the light or stupid excuse he used."

Sirius said, "More like he realized that Voldemort was going to lose."

Willow looked up from her project. "So you beat the bad guy but nothing really changed, right?"

Hermione muttered, "Except a lot of really good people were dead because we used stunners and they didn't."

Dawn said, "In other words, nothing was fixed?"

"Surface changes, nothing like overhauling the ministry or abolishing the house system at Hogwarts which would help. On the other hand, I found a couple of spells that I need Sirius to teach me."

Sirius shrugged. "Easy enough."

Harry picked up the Buffy game book. "So, now that we've looked over nightmare futures that should never happen, tell us about your lives."

Willow went back to working on the booster device for her cube sensing power as Xander explained how they'd met Buffy and what Sunnydale was like.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Dawn asked, "Do we have an actual plan for dealing with the various gangs?"

Cordelia looked at Sirius who was reading the Harry Potter series. "How good are you at disguise charms?"

Sirius looked up from the sixth book in the series. "I can change your hair color and make you look different but I can't exactly make you look like a specific individual without more work than it's worth. There's a reason wizards use polyjuice after all."

"I thought it was just because wizards are lazy," Dawn asked with amusement.

"That too."

Hermione said, "Joking aside, you have to change one feature at a time or the spells tend to blur together and look weird."

Cordelia shrugged. "I don't need it perfect, just different enough that people won't connect my temporary disguise to my normal face."

"Sure, I can do that. What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that Xander and I go for a walk near ABB territory and I'll look through minds."

"What happens if we run into trouble?" Xander asked warily.

Cordelia snorted. "Then you'll protect me. We're not going to be wandering around back alleys, just down the main streets."

Willow frowned slightly as she thought about her friends out at night in gang territory. "Let me cast a protection spell on your clothes, it might stop a bullet or two before failing."

"I'll take it." Cordelia was hoping that she didn't need it but she'd take the extra protection.

Xander said, "We need some personal defense shields."

Harry looked up from reading the Half Blood Prince. "Anything we can help with?"

Alex smiled coldly. "You and your girls can come with me to harass the Merchants."

Dawn asked, "Why do they get to go?"

"Because they're supernaturally tough which means the Merchants can't just shoot them unlike you and Willow."

Dawn looked at Willow. "I think you need to create a personal force field device."

Willow shrugged. "It's on the list after my cube finder and Cordelia's telepathy booster."

"Thanks."

Sirius looked at Dawn. "Look at it this way, it gives you a chance to look through the RPG stuff a bit more. Maybe you'll find some ideas."

"Hopefully." Dawn was hoping she could figure out a way to create portals to various locations so that she could get the gang home.

One of the Cordelias said, "Let's go before I change my mind."

Xander grinned. "Right behind you."

Luna turned and looked at Alex. "Ready?"

Alex glanced between Harry, Hermione and Luna. "No, we need costumes, up for conjuring some costumes?"

Luna grinned. "I've got a couple of ideas."

Hermione winced.

0o0o0

A heavyset Chinese man in his early twenties said, "I think the white bitch needs to pay a toll. What do you think Zheng?"

Zheng smirked as he absently played with a large knife as he looked the smoking hot brunette over as she walked down the street toward them with a white guy. "I think the girl needs someone to show her a good time."

Cordelia reached out and checked the idiot's mind and shivered as she was reminded of walking through a particularly nasty Sunnydale sewer. She reflexively sent a mental message to Xander complete with a picture of the beat up teenage redhead that had been their last victim, 'They're rapists.'

Xander twitched as his mind replaced Willow and Dawn with the image. 'In that case, time to put them in traction.' He glanced around the empty street, thankful that it was late, cold and dark which kept most people off the streets. He stepped forward with a cold smile on his face. "Hello fuck heads."

The heavyset guy blinked then pulled out a knife, "Are you crazy? This is our turf."

"Yours being the Asian Boy Buttfuckers?" Xander asked with a smirk.

The thug stared at Xander in disbelief then swung at him with his knife.

Xander reached out and grabbed the man's wrist then slammed his free hand into the man's throat hard enough to crush it. After fighting vampires for years a couple of thugs weren't anything impressive. Besides, divine resilience meant that he didn't have to care about a couple of knives. He pulled the man's arm straight then slammed his forearm into the man's elbow snapping it loudly. He kicked the man in the nuts as hard as he could as he went down for good measure.

Zheng stabbed at the man with his knife then screamed as Xander slipped inside his defenses and kicked him in the nuts hard enough to lift him off the ground.

Xander kicked the fallen man in the nuts twice more to make sure that he'd never use the equipment again. He brought his foot down on the man's left knee shattering it then did the same with the man's right.

Cordelia shouted mentally as Xander moved to kick the man in the head, "Enough, I need to get a location before you scramble his brain or kill him."

Xander pulled himself together mentally. "Fine, sort of hard to argue self defense after they're already down."

Cordelia snorted as she looked through their minds for information on the gang and any valuables they had as well as Lung and where to find him. 'I know where to find Lung and his second in command.' She reached out with telepathy and erased the last ten minutes of their lives so they wouldn't remember her or Xander. She wasn't sure they'd live but if they did she didn't want them pressing charges. She reached down and stole the wallet of the fat man and emptied it of cash and cards then grabbed the other idiot's cash and cards out of his wallet. 'I know it's not very heroic but we're poor and they don't need it.'

"No objection from me, they'd lucky I don't kick their teeth in as well," Xander replied as he glanced around the dark streets to make sure no one was running to help the two idiots.

She searched through the idiot's mind for his various passwords then grabbed his cell phone and dialed 911.

A male voice said, "You've reached 911, how can I help you."

Cordelia said in a high panicky voice, "My boyfriend and I were attacked by a couple of ABB gang members, you need to send a car for them."

"Are you alright?"

"My boyfriend defended us after they tried to stab us. They need medical attention."

"Where are they?"

Cordelia rattled off the street names. "I see a group of people coming, it's not safe." She closed the cell phone and dropped it on the fat guy's chest. "That went better than I thought, let's head back to the boat and plan."

Xander pulled a length of chain out of his pocket. "Here."

Cordelia reached out and grabbed the chain. "Beam me up Scotty."

Xander twitched as it felt like something grabbed them by the navels and pulled them through a tiny pipe.

0o0o0o0

Skidmark stared in shock and horror as he left the ruined apartment building he'd taken over and saw the four lunatics dressed like care bears that were beating up his minions. "What the fuck?"

Alex grinned as he charged forward and nut shotted one of the thugs sending him staggering back. Sure dressing up like care bears to beat up criminals was weird but the looks of shocked horror on everyone's faces was totally worth it. "Care bear belly bounce!" He jumped forward and hit one guy with his costume's gut which Willow had enchanted to magnify the distance he could bounce people. He grinned savagely as the man he hit was tossed twenty feet in a tangle of broken limbs. He shouted, "Care bear punch!" as he punched another minion.

Luna shouted, "Care bear stare!" then channeled magic through the tree on her costume's belly sending out a wave of magic to knock gang members to the ground as she spun around.

Hermione sighed as she went back to stunning the people Luna knocked down.

Harry raised his hand and grabbed the car that was flying at him out of the air with his telekinesis then tossed it back at the cape that had sent it his way. He winced slightly as the car crushed the man's head. He turned his attention to the suddenly hysterical woman shouting bloody murder at him. "Shut up." He picked her up with his telekinesis and brought her over to look her in the eyes.

Squealer shouted, "You killed him! I'll fucking kill you!"

Harry looked into her eyes and saw drug addiction and insanity but a touch of humanity left deep down. He pointed his right paw' at her which concealed his wand. "Stupefy."

Hermione winced as she turned and saw the mess the car had made of the man's head. "That escalated fast."

Luna stunned the last of the thugs. "Let's loot them then we can turn them into the police."

Alex laughed as he pulled off the paws of his costume so that he could grab things with his gloves. He glanced toward Hermione. "Can you teleport back to the base and grab our telepath while we steal everyone's cards and cash?"

Hermione looked at the stunned cape then over at the man without most of his head, "What about the capes?"

Harry reached out with his telekinesis and picked up Skidmark and floated him over. "I'll apparate to the PRT with them then back. If they try to hold me for defending myself I'll just apparate out."

"Be back in a bit." Hermione apparated back to the boat to grab one of the Cordelias.

Harry reached out and grabbed the two capes then apparated to just outside the PRT building to drop off the two capes.