Chapter One

A/N- Sorry it's been so long since I've given you all an update on this series. Hopefully it won't be as long next time.

Disclaimer- I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Harry Potter or Charmed. If you recognize it, it's not mine. Just a few characters in this are mine and the main one of those is the boys' big sister, the precocious mini-slayer known as Laibah.

A/N-I know nothing about London or its outskirts, but there have to be huge estates somewhere, right? Consider this creative license and forgive, okay? *hopeful smile*

Xander picked Dawn up from the airport and drove her back out to the compound. The whole way he just kept thanking her, over and over to the point where it was driving her crazy.

"Xander!"

"What?"

"Seriously, stop, okay? You've thanked me enough already. I'm just sorry you had to wait for me to come out by plane."

"Dawn, you can't help it that you can't do more than two portals in a month. The fact that you're willing to fly all the way to Africa to help me take my entire freaky family, hyenas and all, to London HQ with the first one and send us home again with the second is a HUGE deal for me and I can't th-."

"Don't say it again!" The young woman raised her voice and glared at her one-eyed friend.

Grinning ruefully, Xander answered, "Okay, okay, I'll quit. For now."

When she glared again he laughed out loud, but true to his word, he quit thanking her and the two chatted about what all had happened since her last visit.

Dawn was in stitches over Xander telling her the story of how the pompous Watcher from South America had been put in his place by not only every slayer at the compound, but Jesse and Jimmy as well.

"Oh how I wish I could have seen that!" Dawn was wiping tears of laughter from her cheeks as he drove them back to the compound in the early morning light.

"That's not all," Xander told her.

Looking over in surprise, she asked, "It's not?"

"No. Get this, the wizarding community of Britain decided, in their infinite wisdom, to send their equivalent of two social workers out here to demand I get rid of the hyenas because they would be a threat to Jimmy."

"That's ridiculous," Dawn's tone was scornful.

"Oh, it gets worse, but first, do you remember the genbua litter Astrid inherited?"

With a frown of concentration on her face, Dawn asked, "Those hairless little guys that are so ugly they're cute and grow up to be about the size of a Cocker Spaniel, right?" She was remembering the story Xander had told her via Skype of how the tiny demons came to join the Harris household.

"Astrid and two other slayers stumbled onto some hilbonta demons working up to performing a blood sacrifice ritual to raise another, worse, demon. Astrid was the one tasked with trying to get the sacrifices out of harm's way that night. She didn't realize the mother genbua had been badly wounded and could have killed her for getting near her newborn litter, but Astrid won the old girl over before she even came close.

"My girl took out one of the hilbonta demons that had picked up one of the babies. When he threw the thing into the air as he died, she dropped her weapon, jumped and caught the little guy and then put him carefully back with his siblings. It didn't hurt that she then took out the guy holding the mother genbua's chain. The girls stood back and watched as the mother took out the last hilbonta and I'm just damn glad the genbua are empathic and could tell Astrid, Zenobia and Trish had all the right intentions toward them. The adults can be very dangerous, if provoked. Well, after the mother dealt with her last enemy, she was dying and knew it. When Astrid picked up from the altar the one baby the hilbonta had managed to sacrifice and with tears running down her face she laid it on the ground in front of Ramoth, as she'd named the mother right there on the spot. Ramoth made it quite plain she wanted Astrid to take the whole litter before dying in Astrid's arms herself."

Dawn remembered being told how the girl had brought the litter home wrapped up in her shirt and the other girls had taken turns carrying the mother so that she could be given a proper funeral. She also remembered being shown one of the tiny genbua and was charmed at how their little pawhands grabbed the extra small bottle to feed.

Xander nodded, "Yeah, them. Well, the kids and Astrid were playing 'hide and seek' all over the house and Astrid's "pets", as the other slayers call them, were playing, too. These genbua are smart, Dawn. I'm really wondering about their reported intelligence level, thinking the books have it all wrong and they're as smart as you or me."

"Really, they're that smart? I can't wait to meet them in person." She grinned.

Smiling at her now, he said, "You will. Anyway, I had no idea that Jesse and little Obi were hiding in my office when I'd led the officious and obnoxious Aingeru Flotts and his much smarter associate, Chandra Lichen, in there to wait on me while I dealt with a slayer issue."

Dawn interrupted briefly to comment, "The names these people have!"

Xander chuckled, "I know! Weird, huh? Dawn, I swear, I was only gone for three minutes, but when I got back all hell had broken loose in my office, as I heard long before getting back to the door. What happened was this; the jerk starts telling Ms. Lichen they're going to find me incompetent to take care of Jimmy, take him away and then Aingeru would be sure to put 'Harry Potter' with a proper wizard family to be raised with the 'right values'."

Dawn's hand was over her eyes for a moment before she dropped it and said, "Jesse heard all that, I take it?"

Xander nodded, "Oh yeah and you can bet he didn't like it. He came out from under my desk and yelled at the man that he wasn't taking his brother away and he was going to tell me everything. The man drew his wand and cast a spell on my son, making him forget what he'd heard," That last was said through gritted teeth.

Horrified now, Dawn gasped, "He didn't!" She was furious and wanted to strangle that man herself. She knew that if she felt that way, she was under no illusions concerning Xander's feelings on the subject and the way they ALL felt about playing around with someone's memory. And , knowing how protective he was of his family… That didn't even include the hyenas. They saw threats and just killed them, without remorse for any possible misunderstandings later.

"Obi, was on top of the bookshelf behind the visitors and launched himself at the man's arm, grabbing the wand and scooting under an end table with it before breaking it with his front hand paws and mouth. As soon as he did that, he started keening and man, did I not know how loud that could be from such a tiny thing as that. Each and every single other member of the litter converged on my office, kicking their speeds into a gear we had no idea they even had, running along the walls and floor like green/brown blurs and they ALL jumped the idiot."

Visions of the cute little demons ordered to be put down for the attack swam unwillingly through Dawn's brain. Before she could comment, Xander continued.

"Astrid, Laibah and Jimmy all came running first, followed by several other slayers, Whitney and me to see what all the yelling and keening was about. Well they mauled Aingeru good and the man is just lucky their teeth hadn't come in yet. As it was, he was seriously slimed and severely bruised. Apparently the little tykes have some wicked jaw strength. Well, Aingeru also got a bit clawed, but it was like being mauled by a bunch of less than half grown cats when the genbua are that size. He's just lucky the hyenas were all outside at the time," Xander trailed off with a wicked chuckle.

Dawn laughed and realized something, "What was Ms. Lichen doing through all of that?"

Xander grinned, "That's the best part, she'd been about to 'hex his arse into next week for obliviating a child, muggle or not,' as she put it, when the litter pounced on him. She was sitting in her chair, trying hard not to laugh."

His mirth faded before he spoke again, "That was until Jimmy heard what the man had done to his beloved big brother. He looked at the man and yelled, 'Someone ought to make you forget!' and suddenly the man was a babbling idiot without a coherent thought in his head. He got off lucky, that was the nicest thing that could have happened to him for what he had done and what he was planning to do to my boys."

Dawn rounded on Xander, "Jimmy's not in any trouble for that, is he?"

Shaking his head, he answered, "Nope, they classed it as 'accidental magic' and swept it under the rug."

"Thank GOD for stupid wizards," Dawn exclaimed. "So how's Jimmy doing with his lessons in magic school?"

Grinning with pride, Xander tells her, "Fantastic! The teachers all think he's more powerful than the rest of their students, except for his cousin Wyatt, of course."

Dawn's eyes grow huge, "But he's only four years old!"

Nodding as he watched the road, Xander said, "I know. I'm just glad there's a magic school to send him to so he can learn how to control it so early. He really didn't mean to make that guy lose all of his memory and it upset him after the fact. We've all taken turns reassuring him. You may be called on for that, too, I'm sure."

"Aw, poor little guy. I didn't think about that when you first told me and I should have. I'll do my best, okay," Dawn told him with a worried frown for the boy.

Xander looked at her with a quick smile before turning back to the road as he answered, "I know you will. He really looks forward to your visits and misses you terribly when you leave. All the kids do, really."

Dawn smiled, "I miss them, too." She turns slightly in her seat to face him as she tells him, "You know their sad little faces are so lethal, I dream about them for weeks after each visit and the guilt just builds until I can come back to see them again."

Chuckling now, Xander tells her, "I am so proud of my kids."

Dawn mock growls and playfully hits Xander on the arm.