Xander Harris

Alexander Harris was born in Sunnydale in early 1981 and grew up in blissful ignorance of what went on around him in the “one Starbucks town” he lived in. While growing up, his mother showed him the love a typical mother would show a child, but his father was always strangely distant to him. Although only a kindergartner, Alexander (who was always called Xander except when his mother was really, really ticked) knew that his father’s temper grew or shrank in direct proportion to his drinking.

Growing up, he struck up a friendship with another youngster, Willow Rosenberg. They even started “dating” until the five-year-old Xander stole her Barbie (he did return most of it). Although they broke up, they still considered each other bosom buddies, Xander showing his support when on the first day of kindergarten, Willow broke the yellow crayon and didn’t know what to do (Grave). When he was seven, the house next door caught on fire and Xander thought for a few years that Willow had set it to have the Fire Department show up because he’d wanted a fire engine for his birthday. However, Xander was to have another “woman” enter his life on the first day of the next school year, when he saw a girl named Cordelia Chase. So struck was he by her beauty that he stumbled and wiped out three desks and a hamster cage (Road Trip: Duet). When he offered the feeble excuse that he’d tripped over his shoelaces, Cordelia thought he was a dweeb. In response, Xander and Willow formed the “We Hate Cordelia Chase Fan Club,” of which Xander was Vice-President and Treasurer (Innocence). He secretly kept his crush on her, going so far as to leave her flowers in her locker during fifth grade (Kitty’s Tale).

As they grew older, Xander and Willow’s relationship grew stronger and by the time they entered high school, the two were all but dating. Willow had a crush on Xander but Xander only thought of Willow as his best friend (and maybe a sister). Xander’s crush on Cordelia might have died had things changed even more than they did during his first day of sophomore year. He saw a new crush enter the picture and promptly wiped out off his skateboard. He picked up the stake belonging to Buffy Summers, but she shook it off, stating that it was all the rage in LA (Welcome to the Hellmouth). Xander was in love. However, during a trip to the school library, he overheard Buffy and the new librarian, Mister Giles, talking about vampires and something called a Hellmouth. When he met Buffy that night, he sarcastically mentioned vampires to her and she couldn’t tell him they didn’t exist. The sharper than you might expect young man realized that his life had suddenly gone from “pop quiz” to “end of the world” type stuff (Welcome to the Hellmouth).

Xander followed Buffy to the cemetery where they found Willow and Jesse there with so-called dates. His friends’ respective “dates” turned out to be vampires that Buffy and Giles had been talking about earlier that day. As they were being herded into a crypt, Buffy found them and began fighting the vampires. A BIG vamp showed up and fought Buffy to a standstill but Xander, Willow, and Jesse escaped, only to be separated in the darkness. When Xander and the others figured out that Jesse had been recaptured, he accompanied Buffy to rescue him. However, they were too late, as Jesse had been turned into a vampire himself.

Dealing with the loss of his other best friend, Xander was adamant that he, Willow, and Giles help Buffy stop a ritual called the Harvest. While Buffy fought the powerful Luke, he confronted Jesse who told him that he wanted Xander to join him in undeath. As Xander tried to gather the courage to do what had to be done, someone accidentally pushed him in their rush to escape the melee, pushing Xander into Jesse and driving his stake into his former best friend’s heart. Jesse dusted and Xander realized what he’d done. But the loss only steeled his resolve to continue the fight (The Harvest, Dating Blues).

Over the intervening weeks, Xander and Willow willingly joined Buffy and Giles in the fight, because they couldn’t let their friend fight alone, believing that they were a team (The Witch). Xander hoped that he’d get Buffy to date him but even after giving her a charm bracelet, she only considered him a friend. Over the course of their sophomore year, Xander still held out hope only to have his hopes dashed repeatedly. In his own right, he suffered more than some others at Sunnydale High, being possessed by a hyena spirit (The Pack) and falling for a substitute Math teacher who turned out to be a praying mantis lady (Teacher’s Pet). While Xander was pining over Buffy, his best friend was pining over him. Buffy tried to get Willow to gather up the courage to ask Xander out to the Prom but to no avail. Xander asked Buffy to go with him, but with Buffy falling for the vampire Angel and knowing that Willow had a crush on him, she turned him down (Prophecy Girl).

Xander found himself teaming up with Angel and the two descended into the Hellmouth chamber to help Buffy against the Master. The boys found her face down in a pool in the chamber and Xander proceeded to give Buffy CPR. His efforts were successful (or so it was believed at the time) and Buffy was revived. They went to the library and Buffy managed to kill the Master (Prophecy Girl). After the school year ended, Buffy left for Los Angeles to stay with her father while Xander and Willow spent their vacation working for an amateur Shakespeare company that turned out to be vampires (How I Survived My Summer Vacation, Volume I).

When they got ready to begin their junior year, Xander was on the verge of figuring out how Willow truly felt about him. They were about to share a kiss when they were attacked by a vampire. Buffy arrived on the scene, just having returned and gone out looking for them. Buffy staked the vamp, but Willow’s big chance was ruined. The reunited Scooby Gang learned of a plot to resurrect the Master and the team managed to foil the plan, despite Buffy’s rotten attitude toward them (When She Was Bad).

As the year progressed, Xander remained loyal to the team and still hoped that Buffy might notice him. His ego suffered a blow when he tried to defend Buffy’s honor and had to be bailed out by her. They made up quickly enough when Buffy hit him with the Killer Pout at Ethan’s Costume Shop. Xander found some old Army fatigues in the bargain bin and to complete his costume, bought a toy M-16 rifle. When he took his kiddies out for trick or treating (offering them advice on tactics like going back for seconds by using the “you forgot me” trick), Ethan cast his spell and suddenly Xander was transformed into Private Harris. He found himself in a hostile situation and was quickly found by Willow, who tried getting through to him that they were suffering some form of amnesia.

He understandably doubted her until he saw a picture of Willow, Buffy, and himself at the Summers residence. He helped to protect Buffy from Pirate Larry and Spike, although their escape attempt was doomed to failure. When Spike finally cornered and prepared to kill the Slayer, Xander and Angel broke free and Willow enthusiastically told Private Harris that he could shoot Spike. He brought his gun up but it was at that moment the spell was broken by Giles (in a classic example of British timing). Thankfully, Buffy managed to kick Spike around like a hackeysack and drove him off (Halloween).

When the Order of Teraka arrived in Sunnydale to try and kill Buffy, Xander found himself teamed up with Cordelia and searching for the Slayer. While Xander looked in Buffy’s room, Cordelia let in a man claiming to be a makeup salesman. When he was revealed to be composed of worms, Xander and Cordy ran to the basement of Buffy’s house, where they barricaded themselves in the hopes of staying alive. When they got into another one of their typical arguments, Xander’s long-buried crush for Cordelia came back full force as he laid a smacker on her lips (cue love scene music from What’s My Line Part 1). Once they came to their senses (or so they hoped), they escaped once they figured out Mr. Phister was gone (What’s My Line Part 1). When the existence of a second Slayer was revealed, Xander helped out as best he could to prepare Buffy and Kendra for their rescue operation (although his dislike for Angel was made plain by him). When all was said and done, Cordelia and Xander swore to each other that they would never, ever reveal what happened in Buffy’s basement. The promise was sealed by another Xander/Cordy liplock (cue love scene music from What’s My Line Part 2).

The two kept their relationship (although neither was totally sure it qualified as such) secret (mostly because Cordelia didn’t want to be known as the woman dating the biggest dweeb in school) for several weeks until Buffy’s birthday came up. Xander invited Cordy to join them for Buffy’s surprise birthday party while Willow was asked by Oz. When the situation with the Judge became known, Xander and the others went to the library to start researching how to defeat the demon. It was while sharing lip action in the stacks that he and Cordelia were discovered by Willow, who blasted him for wanting to be with someone he hated rather than be with her (Innocence). However, with the Angelus/Judge situation taking precedent, Xander came up with an idea to destroy the Judge and prevent him from wiping out humanity.

Xander, Cordelia, Willow, and Oz drove to the Sunnydale Armory where Xander and Cordelia bluffed their way past the sentry when Xander performed a textbook military rifle inspection. When Cordelia asked him how he did that, he admitted that he had retained everything he knew from his Soldier Boy experience on Halloween. He picked out the stuff he needed and headed back to the library, where Buffy was waiting. Xander jokingly referred to the rocket launcher as her birthday present from him (Innocence).

Over the following two weeks, Xander and Cordy became more open in their relationship with the team, although it seemed that Willow had trouble accepting it while Xander had problems accepting Willow dating a musician. When they were attacked at the Sunnydale version of Lover’s Lane, Xander was the first to suggest that it might be a werewolf they were dealing with. When he mistakenly thought it was Larry who had been bitten, Xander approached him to talk to him about his “problem.” To his surprise, Larry wasn’t the werewolf. When the team understood it was Oz, they made arrangements to help him out every month (Phases). One important side note in these three days was Xander explaining to Buffy just how important she was to Sunnydale (and her friends) before saving her life from a friend who’d been turned by Angelus.

When Willow was rescued by two mysterious men in early February, Xander recognized the casing from a bullet they’d fired as something used only by Special Forces troops. When Willow found something on the Internet from something one of the men had said, Xander explained to everyone that these men were likely to be deadly military fighters. He outlined a plan of escape for the meeting arranged by Willow and Steven St. Wolf, using the military knowledge he’d retained from Halloween, revealing to Oz that when he’d asked about the fatigues he’d worn, they had belonged to a former Green Beret. The next day, Xander was among those who readily endorsed Buffy’s offer to Steve to join the team after learning about Buffy’s Immorality. He helped out with the planning stages of the battle to take out Angelus and his cronies and in the end, he was glad that the team’s future was suddenly looking brighter (New Beginnings).

Over the next three weeks, Xander joined the team in learning the fighting arts Steve and Buffy had to teach them, although his soldier memories gave him a leg up on the rest of the Scoobies. During this time, his girlfriend faltered behind in the training until she summoned Artemis, Greek Goddess of the Hunt. After she walked up to him and kissed him on the lips in front of the entire school, Xander suspected something was wrong. He was relieved to find out she was the woman he’d had a crush on for years, but one who now knew she was only cheating him and herself by hiding their growing affection (How Cordelia Got Her Amazon Groove).

Xander’s thoughts turned toward doing something nice for Artemis but Cordelia taking him to the Motor Lodge and reserving a room soon occupied his mind. Ever the honorable one, his first thought was to get a condom but Cordelia revealed that she’d been on the pill for months. After making sweet love for the first time, Xander and Cordelia joined Willow and Oz on patrol to let Buffy and Steve have the night off for their first date. Later that night, they had to explain everything to Joyce once she witnessed Buffy being stabbed by a madman and healing in front of her eyes (Dating Blues, Dating Sunnydale Style).

Xander and Cordelia’s relationship grew even stronger over the next few months (during the events of Kitty’s Tale, Midnight Visitations, and How Buffy Got Her Sword), and Cordelia’s fears that her father wouldn’t like Xander were put to rest when Charles Chase and Xander got along famously. In July, Xander was in the thick of the action in Los Angeles when Katherine Plantagenet tried to raise Throlog. In the final assault on the Forum, Xander operated a heavy sniper rifle, taking the lives of many demons and impressing the legendary Hannibal Smith and his A-Team (Calling Out The Clan). Before this, he and Cordy helped bail out Kendra and a child Immortal named Alison by shooting the tires of a car belonging to two Immortal headhunters. Xander got an “assist” in Stalker’s duel Quickenings by kneecapping one of the hunters while Stalker took care of the other.

When Section One and Quentin Travers’ hired mercenaries attempted to wipe out the Scooby Gang, Xander performed with his typical bravery (in the process making quite an impression on John Franklin, Tex Ritter, and Juan Sanchez), but it didn’t avail him when he suffered a near mortal wound during the three-way firefight. Xander was just as worried about Cordy’s injuries and in the aftermath of defeating Reginald de Brachy’s vampire and demon army, Steve ordered him and Cordelia to seek counseling from Sydney Greene to deal with their feelings and mortality (Libyan Assault/War of the Sections). As the team continued their summer vacation and prepared for their senior year, Xander continued to mature, although it didn’t dampen his love for jokes. That was only enhanced when Robin Goodfellow joined the team on Oberon’s orders and the two struck up a fast friendship. Part of this was because Xander himself had kicked the shit out of Samuel Zabuto for attempting to kill Kendra when the newly empowered male Slayerettes, Jarod, and Mulder paid a “courtesy call” to the Council of Watchers before Travers (who was missing at the time) launched his assault (Council At War).

When school started, Snyder shanghaied Xander into escorting a new student around the school. When the exchange student made some verbal slips, he became suspicious. However, his keen mind also saw that she was somewhat lonely and he offered her his friendship. Although she turned him down, she left open the possibility that they might get to know each other later. When the circumstances surrounding her became even more suspicious, Xander realized that Angelus was back in town and informed Giles. When Shaw Hunter revealed the truth about herself, Xander realized that despite being right about her (the not human part anyway), when he looked at her side of things he accepted her as one of the good guys and tried to make her feel a little more welcome.

When the prophecy came to pass, Xander led one of the groups in an assault on the mausoleum leading to the Hellmouth chamber. He also let Spike go because of an agreement between the vampires and the Slayerettes. In the aftermath, Xander was one of the first to welcome the new team member (after Robin and Willow) (Born to Raise Hellmouth), taking it upon himself to offer Shaw his advice on certain areas of pop culture such as television, books (outside of her fantasy novels), and other teenager things the girls might neglect to show to her. Although he was glad to help her, he didn’t expect her to get hooked on wrestling or do the Zorro trick on him in a sparring match (Slayer in Black).

When the team went to San Francisco to keep the ashes of Dracula from being animated, Xander took part in the firefight against Black Mages at Buckland’s Auction House. He acted as a rear guard, preventing Derek Rayne from getting wasted by holding him back. He performed his usual roles in the battle and the team came out victorious (Witch Hunt).

When they returned, Xander was the first to board the jet in pursuit of a teammate under the effects of a Dark Quickening. When they got back, he did his best to support her in her recovery efforts (Hunter in Dark). Shaw later returned the favor when Xander met his vampire double from an alternate reality. After Vamp Xander had his soul restored, Xander reached out to him and the two started getting along quite easily. When they journeyed to the Wishverse, Xander and Vamp Xander stayed close together during the big battle, channeling Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan in fighting The Three, the vampires who had been responsible for turning Vamp Willow two years earlier. After the Master’s minions had been destroyed, Vamp Xander gave Xander the keys to a Ninja bike he’d used to get to Sunnydale. Xander gratefully accepted the gift and took Cordy for a spin on it, although with the miniskirt she was wearing, she wasn’t as thrilled as he’d hoped she would be (Be Careful What You Wish For).

The team celebrated Christmas day by exchanging presents and Xander received clothes from Cordelia and some information on the Forgotten Realms from Shaw (Best Served Cold). The next morning, he set out for LA and San Francisco to hand out some late “Xmas gifts” to some of their allies in the form of healing potions crafted by various members of the team. Xander found himself the target of an Immortal headhunter who routinely worked for the forces of Darkness, who saw Xander as the weak link in the chain of Section Seven. The Immie was being paid to bring Xander’s head to his employer so that Xander’s brain could be picked for data on all of Section Seven. Xander proved just how strong a link he was by using all of the skills at his disposal (from his empowerment, soldier memories, the hyena spirit, and a lot of old fashioned hard work) to take the Immortal’s head and use the information he got from the man’s Quickening to get back at the man by using his money to start some accounts he would later use to finance people in Sunnydale who suffered from the supernatural (Road Trip, Road Trip: Duet). He then returned home to celebrate the rest of the kids’ Christmas vacation with Cordy.

When the new year began, Xander was one of those Slayerettes who journeyed to Atlanta to deal with Kakistos’ rising vampire army. He met the new Slayer, Faith, a native of Boston, and like he had with Buffy, Robin, and Shaw, made the newest member of Team Scooby feel at home with his easygoing personality (Faith’s Story). Shortly after the Atlanta mission, a new threat in the form of an Immortal-hunting demon came to the Hellmouth. While looking for the Silerwor, Xander was brutally attacked by his father, who was in turn threatened by Patches, Xander’s Spirit Guardian. Members of the team evacuated Xander to the hospital, where his mother later showed up with Xander’s things and the information that Xander’s real father was not Mister Harris, but rather a man named Nick Fury.

Willow took it upon herself to email Fury and barely a day later, Fury and some men from his covert ops unit showed up to verify the mail and DNA evidence Willow had supplied. Despite an initial cold reception for his natural father, Xander soon came to see that Nick wanted to know his son. Xander dealt with this knowledge and being thrown out of his home by talking to Sydney and having Cordelia help him talk with Nick (Another Run). Shortly after this mission, Xander was among the Scoobies kidnapped by the terrorists trying to aid a woman whose brother was killed by Section Seven last July. When Cordelia killed her after he was wounded, Xander was the first to offer his support to the guilt-wracked Cordy (Drake’s Play).

In April, Xander was amongst those sent through rifts in the space-time continuum by a foiled spell cast by a group of Black Mages. Since he had been holding Cordy at the time, they managed to stay together. They found themselves in a bleak alternate future where a demon called Kahad had managed to destroy Section Seven nearly 200 years earlier and impose his own rule on this particular Earth. Xander and Cordelia helped the local resistance cell (composed of an ogre, an alien/demon hybrid scientist, and two cloned soldiers (one cloned from Duncan MacLeod, Connor MacLeod, and Amanda, the other cloned using DNA from all three known Halliwell sisters) fight off some vampires in the ruins of what was once Weatherly Park. Despite the constant jokes about being the “Old Farts,” the lovebirds found out how the history of the Mustoverse differed from their own reality; Robin had never given the males their equalizing empowerments, he and Shaw had never joined the team, Spike and Dru had never had their souls restored, and Faith died in Atlanta during the final battle. Despite the lack of an empowerment, the Xander of this reality had managed to survive until the middle of the first decade of the 21st century; he and Cordelia died when they were cut off from the rest of their team during a failed attempt to close the doorway to Hell that Kahad’s troops entered this plane from. Knowing they were going to die anyway, Xander and Cordelia triggered a nuclear device they’d brought with them, destroying that planar doorway and killing a full quarter of Kahad’s army. This bought humanity another twenty years to solidify their Resistance to Kahad’s rule. When Xander realized part of the reason the demons continued to gain strength, he and Cordelia arranged for their new allies to go on a raid in Colorado, to an abandoned military base. There they found the StarGate used by that reality’s SG-1. The General of the Resistance for that section of North America, having had some experience with StarGates, understood the significance of gaining allies from an unexpected source. But first, she dialed up a planet she refused to name, summoning an alien she called a Time Lord to arrange for Xander and Cordy to be returned home to their proper time and place.