Chapter 1

"That's a Dark spell boy – sinking to my level are you," Voldemort screamed at him through the swirling vortex of magic.

Harry ignored the taunt and continued chanting – stopping the spell wasn't exactly an option at this point.

"You damn yourself! This will exile you from this dimension forever; is that what you want?"

He didn't, but what choice did he have? There were only a handful of his year mates left alive now but he'd rather face the unknown magical exile than see one more life lost to this madman.

All around them a battle raged – the last battle: Witches and Wizards flinging spells and screaming, the thunder of the Giants rampaging across the field, werewolves snarling and howling.

The spell was almost done – Harry could feel the web tightening, the magic constricting around them.

"You damn your brother Harry – your twin brother!"

The last syllable of the spell past his lips as what Voldemort said sunk in.

Green eyes went wide and spell detonated.

Harry groaned – his head was killing him.

"Shhh," someone hissed in his ear making him freeze. "There are very bad people outside that want to hurt us so you need to be very, very quiet. Understand?"

Harry nodded.

The other male moved away but stayed within reach.. Harry cautiously sat up, rubbing a hand over his aching head. He blinked, trying to bring the room into focus before realizing he must have lost his contact lenses somewhere. The dim glow from the window was no help either.

"Where are we," he asked the dark lump he knew was his companion.

"No idea," the other whispered. "One minute I'm in sunny California, and the next I'm here."

"How long was I out?"

"Well… I think we arrived at the same time so… about eight hours, give or take. What bothers me is that it was dark before, and it's still dark now. The sky hasn't gotten any lighter."

"It's cold," Harry said rubbing his arms.

"Yeah, there's snow on the ground outside – lots of it. The only lights I've seen are the street lights, the houses are all dark. There's a kerosene lamp on a hook over there but I've been too worried to light it. I'm pretty sure we're in somebody's attic but I don't think anyone's home."

"And the bad people?"

Silence.

Then, "Do you believe in vampires?"

"Yeah, met one earlier this year."

The man moved closer, probably trying to figure out if Harry was joking or not, and he could just make out his features – features pretty similar to his own.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Oh… well I think there's a large gang of vamps outside – but I've never seen vamps like these before… I'm Xander by the way, Xander Harris."

The other man turned his head and Harry saw that instead of the shaggy hair covering Xander's face – there was an eyepatch.

"Harry Potter."

"Nice to meet you Harry."

"You to Xander."

Harry shivered and Xander grabbed a blanket, "Turn towards the window – we can take turns keeping an eye on things."

"I can't see very much – I've lost my contacts."

Xander snorted, "Turn around anyway and I'll watch. I swear – one good eye out of four – there's got to be a joke in there somewhere."

Harry chuckled silently and faced the window. Xander sat beside him and they arranged the blankets around them so they could conserve their heat.

"So you said you were in California before… before here?"

"Yeah. I was… with some friends. I blinked and I was in this room with you out cold at my feet. It was like… magic."

Harry dropped his head, "Do you believe in magic?"

Xander turned and studied him again before nodding.

"I-I think this was my fault," Harry said staring out into the fuzzy blackness beyond the window."

"How's that?" Xander's voice was neutral.

"Well… I'm a Wizard."

Xander snorted again.

"It's true, I really am one."

"Oh I don't doubt that – I'm just Fate's butt monkey is all. Hell you were probably just trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat and poof – here we are!"

"Not exactly."

"Ok, so tell me."

"I was banishing the most evil Wizard in about a hundred years from that plane of existence but the price of the spell was that I got banished too. I was fine with that but near the end of the spell Voldemort said I had a – a twin brother and that he'd be banished too a-and I guess you're him."

By this time Xander was staring at him – hard.

"You don't look much like me."

Harry shrugged, "He could have been lying – he was evil after all, but then why did you show up at the same time as I did?"

Now it was Xander's turn to shrug, "Why would the spell affect your twin anyway?"

"The spell was Soul Magic – I had to use it even though it was considered a Dark Spell because Voldemort had split his soul into several pieces. I had to be sure they all got destroyed and the spell would pull all the pieces back together. I his case it either obliterated him completely or sent him on to the after life… the book was little confusing about that part. Either way he can't influence or access that dimension anymore. The spell used my existence to power it so my place in that world was erased and I got shunted here. You got pulled along for the ride because twins share a soul… I'm really sorry about that… If I had known I would never have-"

Xander waved him off. "Don't worry about it. It's not like things were going so well for me there anyway; although I'm not sure if this is any better."

"Do you think it's like this everywhere, or did we stumble onto something?"

Xander grimaced, "Just depends on how bad our luck is."

"I have pretty bad luck," Harry murmured.

"That's the confirmation then – we are twins."

Harry elbowed the other man.

"Help," someone cried. "Somebody please help me!" The woman's yells were like gunshots in the dark.

Harry started to rise but Xander grabbed his arm.

"We have to help her," Harry whispered.

"Wait! This place was crawling with vamps just a few hours ago. Something's not right."

"Right – a few hours ago. She's a survivor! We have to help!"

"How? We have no weapons – you can barely see and we don't even know where we are. For all we know that might not even be a person down there!"

Harry stopped trying to pull away but ran a hand over the wand holster on his left arm finding it empty.

"Was there a stick with me? A wand?"

Xander shook his head and looked back out the window, "Nothing. I even patted you down for weapons in case you tried to kill me later."

"Shit."

"Wand pretty important?"

"Yeah – have to have it do most spells."

"Figures."

"Yeah."

"No – I meant outside."

"What?"

"Well you can't see it but there are vamps on the roof tops across the street, their following the woman… their using her as bait."

"How can you tell?"

"She keeps looking up – she knows they're there."

"Shit."

"Yeah."

Harry clenched his fists but sat back down and pulled the covers around him, "This dimension sucks."

"No arguments there."

A few hours later, or so it seemed, the pair quietly made their way downstairs. Moving slowly and staying close to the floor they made their way to the kitchen and collected a variety of canned goods, a can opener, some silverware and, luckily, several store bought gallons of water. They made use of the bathroom, not flushing of course, but gathered up a bucket, toilet paper, and an empty two liter soda bottle from the trash.

The necessities covered, Xander went back down to scavenge anything else useful and to take a gander out the different windows of the house – which didn't show him much; narrow alleys ran down both sides of the house with a wider one out back across about six feet of snow covered lawn. There were lots of foot prints in the snow of the back alley. He didn't get too close to the front ones but the devastation he could see didn't bode well for them.

Juggling his finds he returned to the attic.

"Anything useful," Harry asked.

"Depends."

"On what?"

"On what kind of vampires we're dealing with. I found a shotgun," he held it up, "and shells – but my vampires shrug off bullets like they're nothing. I brought a couple fo the larger kitchen knives, a few flashlights, lighter, hairspray-"

"Hairspray?"

"Hairspray plus lighter equals flame thrower."

"Ah."

"Found a first aid kit, a crucifix, and a watch but that's about it." Xander put the items down and rejoined Harry in their nest of blankets. "Glad you remembered that warming charm – and that you could do it without your wand."

"Just sucks that we can't make it warmer in here."

"Yeah – but we don't know if they can see heat – some demons can."

Harry nodded, "so we keep it warm enough not to die but not hot enough to draw attention."

"And to keep the toilet from smelling."

Harry scrunched up his nose, "Ew."

Xander laughed quietly, "So, you gonna tell me about this evil monster Wizard of yours?"

"Only if you tell me about your friends and how you know so much about demons."

"Deal."

Six days later they were in the middle of a blizzard – and they both had cabin fever.

To stave it off they were exercising – what they could without making a lot of noise – and learning from each other.

Currently Harry was doing sit-ups while alphabetically naming the demons Xander had taught him, their distinguishing features and the known methods of dispatching said demons.

Xander was holding his knees, having already done his sit-ups and recited a rather impressive list of potions ingredients and their properties – Snape was probably spinning in his grave.

A creak pierced the quiet and both men froze.

Xander released him and slowly crawled to the trapdoor, grabbing up the shotgun on his way.

Harry fumbled a bit in the dark but found the lighter and the hairspray.

Footsteps sounded below them.

Whispering.

A dull thud and a scrape.

The trap door started to lift…