Harris residence, Sunnydale

October 30, 1997

Xander Harris was dreaming.

In his dream he was in a living room of some sort, torturing two people. He didn't know how he knew it, but nonetheless Xander knew their names were Frank and Alice Longbottom. Around him were three people he likewise had never met, but nonetheless knew were named Rudolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, and Barty Crouch Jr. He watched himself do horrible things, unable to prevent any part of it...

Still, once they were done torturing the Longbottoms, a group of people in robes - the word 'Aurors' appeared in Xander's mind - burst through the front door of the manor. The Aurors cast a spell - Petrificus Totalus, even though Harris had no idea how he knew that term. Once he hit the floor, after being paralyzed with the body bind spell -

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Xander woke up, cursing. He's been having dreams like this for some years now, ever since the family vacation in London – when his parents had told him that he was adopted. Needless to say, that was the last time the Harris family had ever had a decent holiday together...

Seeing the alarm clock, Xander cursed again. "AH! I'm gonna be late for school!"

He quickly got dressed, grabbing his backpack and throwing the books into it. Choosing to forego breakfast, he ran out the door, ignoring his parents – who were still passed out drunk on the couch watching TV.

Still, as luck would have it - when Xander finally got to Sunnydale High, he ran straight into Principal Snyder.

"Harris, you're late!" the balding principal said with a sneer on his face.

"Uh, I forget to set my alarm -"

"If you're late again, it's detention for you." He saw Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg in the corridor, and beckoned them over. Since the girls saw Xander with the Troll, they didn't try to run for it.

"Well, now that you're all here? Sign the volunteer form for this year's Halloween escort duty. You, Miss Summers and Miss Rosenberg will be taking children trick or treating." Snyder held out three pens.

"But, but I have carpal tunnel syndrome, and I can't hold a flashlight!" Buffy protested.

"And, and tomorrow night, my mom and dad want me to help sit Shiva for someone who just died," Willow announced hopefully.

"You two smell of lies," Snyder snarled at them. "Now sign, before I call your parents and/or give you detention until Christmas!"

Hearing this Xander sighed, before signing his name. Buffy and Willow soon did likewise as he thought to himself, { Darn. I was so looking forward to watching some really bad B horror films this year. }

"Good. Now get to class. And no running! I don't want kids running around the school." With that, Principal Snyder left muttering something like 'I hate kids' under his breath.

{ Snyder would make a great cave troll, } Harris thought to himself on his way to class.

Across town, Ethan Rayne had just opened up his costume store. The reason he'd come to Sunnydale was that he'd learned the town had its own Hellmouth to power the chaos spell he planned to perform tomorrow night. But there was another reason...

Ethan had a plan. He had a patsy in mind, and he had an idea to put the Death Eater robes and masks he'd acquired to good use.

Because Ethan knew that Xander Harris's real name was Alexander Lavelle Lestrange. Bellatrix's nephew….

In the garage basement of the Harris home, the Wizarding wand started to glow with chaos magic within its box.
Meanwhile, back at Sunnydale High, Xander entered the classroom, trying to sneak in since he was tardy. No such luck, of course.

"Nice of you to finally show up, Mr. Harris. Now take a seat," Mr. Stone said, with an annoyed look on his face.

Curiously enough, even though no one here knew it, Mr. Stone looked kinda like Mad-Eye Moody - but with two normal eyes, and no scars. Well, not that anyone would make the comparison to that guy, anyway. Not if they wanted to keep their reproductive organs intact.

Xander sat next to Buffy. Opening his backpack he took out his textbook, trying his best to forget about the dream this morning and losing that lame bet with Cordelia Chase.

Hearing the teacher order everyone to do it, Xander opened his textbook with a sigh.

He REALLY wasn't looking forward to cross-dressing for Halloween.