Disclaimer: See chapter 1 (Spoiler, I own nothing in this story)

Tuesday, June 21st, Petfeld Cemetery, Slightly Before Noon, Sunnydale, California, USA

To many people and in most places, hanging out in the middle of a graveyard would be considered a sign of a disturbed mind. However, this was Sunnydale, and everyone Xander hung out with spent a significant amount of their free time roaming cemeteries. At least it was noon and not midnight. As it was, Xander was currently doing a one handed handstand between the resting place of Joel Campell and Freddy Krin as his training partner for the day watched on. Slowly, Xander extend his senses to drink in what the Force was telling him, just as his mother had taught him.

He could feel the insects first, for some reason they popped up first for him. Then the plants, grass, and trees, their steady life force a constant in an inconstant world. He suspected the reason wooden stakes worked on vampires was because trees are made up of sunlight, or at least a great deal of their life force comes from the sun. Next came the dark spots, the corpses in their coffins waiting to be raised as vampires. It had the same feel as a rotten potato left sitting on the floor for a week. Luckily there was only one that he could sense, and that one they knew about from the obituaries yesterday. Buffy was planning on waiting for him to rise tonight. Lastly was the human and other animals. He only had a range of about a hundred feet or so, so far, but it was steadily growing.

Slowly, Xander put his second hand back on the grass and pushed deeper into the meditative trance he was forming. He reached out to the Force, enticing it to fill him and accepting it when it did. He started to see flashes of images for a fleeting moment. His mother had said this might happen, so Xander concentrated on remaining calm and letting the images flow through him. A giant maze, a graveyard, a noseless humanoid demon.

They seemed to imply something, begging him to take action, but he had no idea what it might be. As suddenly as the flashes began, they were over, leaving Xander with more questions than answers. He would have to work more on his meditation if he wanted to get anything useful out of the Force Visions, but it was a start. His mother had only told him it was possible, she didn't expect anyone this early in training to actually get visions.

Still meditating, Xander raised his other hand into the air, resuming the one handed handstand while maintaining his connection on the Force. Another minute passed by before he was hit in the chest with a small rock, and then another and another. After a particularly sharp one hit his groin, Xander lost his balance and tumbled to the ground. His partner stood there with a fake innocent look, with their hands in a circle above their head symbolizing a halo. Xander only snorted at the antics.

"I thought I was supposed to be the jokester here," Xander complained.

"Not today, you told me that you needed to be done by noon, not how you wanted to be told. I decided to take some creative liberties," Joyce Summers responded. The other girls were busy touring the college campus and shopping, so Joyce volunteered to help Xander with his Jedi training. It mostly involved sitting in a lawn chair underneath a tree while reading the book she was currently working through, but there were a few times Xander needed a second person to help. After Faith decided that her art gallery would be the sole provider of artwork for all government buildings (including schools, universities, police stations, City Hall, and such), Joyce was able to take more time off than usual to spend with her family, blood or adopted.

"Yeah, yeah. At least I won't be late for the Franklin tutors. They get cranky when I'm late." The two wandered towards Joyce's car (the loan being paid off from a trust fund Xander had the goblins set up during his follow-up visit, without Buffy's knowledge) and headed back to the Summer's house (the mortgage being paid by the same trust fund, which Buffy must never know of; no surrogate mother of his would live in a home she didn't own while he had a gazbillion dollars). They knew that the Franklin tutors the goblins helped him acquire, for a fee, would arrive at 1:00pm sharp, would stay until 5:00pm exactly, and then depart for LA as quickly as they could. They had no desire to stay in Sunnydale any longer than absolutely necessary, which evidently was 4 hours a day, 3 days a week.

The routine was the same every time. They would comment on the homework he submitted from the previous session, have him demonstrate the practical spells that he should have been practicing, quiz him on the theoretical knowledge from previous sessions, and then start lecturing and/or demonstrating. Today it would be Potions, Herbology, Charms, and Alchemy. Thursdays was Transfigurations, Magical Creatures, and Arithmancy. They had scheduled Divination for Thursdays, but once they learned Xander had broken several unbreakable prophecies, they decided to make that an optional subject that Xander could peruse at his leisure. It didn't help that Xander laughed for five minutes straight when they told him they wanted him to read tea leaves. The dubious advantage of dropping divination was it give him more time to study Arithmancy, which was giving Xander an extremely difficult time.

Saturdays were dedicated to Ancient Runes, Ancient Studies, Magical Theory, and Magical History. Unlike the other days, the weekend sessions were designed to allow the rest of the Scoobie Gang to attend, since it didn't actually require having magic to learn. Giles and Wesley were especially eager to learn from moldy books and old parchment. While Xander pretended to be bored and hate listening, he was soaking up the history of the magical world as much as the two watchers. He was impressed with the Goblin Wars, their tactics and strategies to defeat foes that seemed stronger and more capable than themselves. He had already read four of the historical books the history tutors had recommended, and was eager to read more.

These weeks since he found his true heritage, Xander had studied more than his entire high school career. It wasn't his fault high school didn't teach magic or the Force, if it had he would have studied more and goofed off less. The mornings were dedicated to practicing what he learned about being a Jedi the night before with the holocron. The afternoons were for learning the magic of his father, either with tutors or on his own. Evenings were for slaying (though only an hour or two due to it being summer) or holocron learning. Sundays were his days off, to decompress, meditate, and relieve the stress of the week, or finishing assignments that were due the next week.

Performing wanded magic, it seemed, was much more difficult than he had hoped. His magic seemed too wild for most spells, requiring him to use one of the Franklin Institute's tutorial wands. It severely restricted the amount of magic that Xander could put into a spell, but it would help train his core to be less...explosive. He had gotten a normal magical wand of his own (and the fact that there was a magical wand that was "normal" was hilarious to him) the first tutoring session, and before the end of the day it had shattered. Two sessions and 3 wands later, they brought the tutorial for him to use. His time defending the hellmouth was not healthy for his magica, nor was his lack of magical training. The tutors seemed optimistic that a regular wand would be able to handle his magic by the end of summer, though.

Even after weeks of dedicated practice, he was still having a difficult time levitating a feather, and he had yet to master even the most basic of transfigurations. Potions and Alchemy were fun, and interestingly enough Mrs. Summers was able to help him study since they were mostly following recipes and discovering interactions. The best part of his high school chemistry class was learning how to blow stuff up, and potions was no different. At least with potions, his uncontrolled magic had little effect, unlike his other classes. He was intrigued with the Alchemical sunlight that was in the Alchemy textbook, but that would take much more skill, power, and control than he had to create. Unlike potions, alchemy required a significant amount of precise magical talent, and they had only gotten the most basic of theory covered so far.

Unfortunately, Herbology, Magical Creatures, and Ancient Runes were a bunch of memorization. Names and descriptions of hundreds of plants and animals, even magical ones, was more for encyclopedias than people, especially people like Xander. It was only with the aid of Willow and Giles that he could manage any progress in those classes. Likewise, he was getting nowhere with Arithmancy. It combined two subjects that seemed ridiculous to him, divination and math. He had talked to the tutors, and they agreed that he could drop the subject in a month, right after he learned the very basics (if possible). More than that would be a waste of time, but he needed to have the more rudimentary familiarity of the subject if he were to rule as Head of a major house in England.

The tutors didn't give grades, but he could tell they were frustrated with his progress, and if Xander was honest with himself he was frustrated too. He could tell he was progressing fast in learning the Force, though his mother wouldn't say it directly, but wanded magic seemed blocked for him. During a short break between Magical Theory and Magical History, he asked the tutor about what could cause it. The first thought was the tutorial wand was blocking his magic, but after some discussion and diagnostic spells they realized there was something else going on. He had an appointment with a magical doctor next week in LA to get an in-depth exam, so hopefully they could figure out what was going on.

The two arrived at the Summer's residence in companionable silence with 25 minutes to spare. That would give Xander enough time to shower, change, and gather his homework and reports that he needed to turn in. It should be Jessica Rivers and Joseph Milowski today, but they mentioned possibly bringing in Charms expert to kick his rather abysmal wandwork into shape. Considering how much of a taskmaster Jessica was, Xander didn't feel optimistic about meeting the new tutor.

Wednesday, May 31st, Malfoy Manor, 9:26 AM

Narcissa Malfoy née Black was busy ordering the house elves to prepare the manor for the arrival of the Head of her former house. The letter from Gringotts, delivered moments before, said that the Head will visit her per the Black family by-laws, due to some significant changes within the house. She could technically decline the visit, since she didn't technically belong to the family since she had given birth to a non-Black heir and had no child with the Black name, but then she would lose any claim to the fortune and name. That would be disastrous to her and her family, as Lucius had already earmarked the inheritance for Draco years before. The fact that the goblins refused her claim to the vaults made her uneasy, to say the least, due to the fact that she didn't have all the information she needed to make comprehensive plans. There were too many unknown variables floating about.

She had discreetly looked into the Black succession after that unfortunate encounter at the bank. She knew, of course, that Sirius had been disowned from the family, so he should not be the next Head. However, it seemed like the ministry had never gotten that message. Her contacts there said the inheritance and Head lines were still pointing to Sirius. Those lines should have been severed by the ministry when Sirius was convicted. She doubted he was guilty, but why were the lines never cut in the ministry records? Her contacts were still looking into it discretely since his escape almost two years ago, with no success.

Were Sirius disqualified from inheriting the Black fortune, then Draco would be the next in line to inherit. The other option she had entertained during her previous investigation was that Reggie was still alive, in hiding for some unknown reason, acting as inheritor and Head in Exile. That had been her assumption after her research, but with the activation of her cousin's will, it seems like he no longer lived. She indulged a minute in the memories of the past, before resuming her war on dust. The Malfoy Matron, along with her husband and son, were invited to the reading of the will, but were not required to attend. She would do her best to make sure the males were otherwise occupied at the time of the reading, whenever that would be.

She was uncertain who this Head was. There were several possibilities, and none of them filled her with enthusiasm. Should Reggie have met his end without a verified heir, then Sirius' disowning would be automatically reversed by Black family magic, since he would be the only male carrying the Black name and still be alive. Even a dishonorable Black was better than no Black at all, at least in the eyes of the Black forefathers. However, should there be an heir from Reggie, the new Head would be a complete mystery. A young mystery. A young, possibly suggestible mystery. A young, possibly suggestible mystery in need of council. She was certain that whomever it was would be powerful, the Black family magic never accepted anyone as Head unless they could handle it, but she could be the one to provide him with council. Plans started forming on how to gain control over the new Head, but first she needed to meet with him. She needed more information.

The letter gave no indication when the Head would be visiting, though, and that caused her some concern and was the source of her current panic. The manor would have to be spotless and remain spotless until the visit, however long that might be. She remembered her grandfather sometimes waited months to visit some of the more distant relatives when officially required to, and she knew nothing about the new Head. She predicted her husband would complain about the need for absolute perfection, maybe she could send him away to France for a few weeks, let him indulge in his mistresses and get him out of her hair while she did what needed to be done to ensure her family's future.

She just hoped the visit occurs before Draco arrives home from Hogwarts. As much as she loved her son and would do anything for him, she was not blind to his flaws. She had hoped his time at Hogwarts and growing up would help curb them, but Lucius' doting and indulgences had hindered any progress he had made. She would avoid her son meeting the Head as long as possible, and would be giving him extremely strict guidelines about how to act and behave. She prayed that he would follow her instructions, not doing so could sever their family from the Black line forever, and may cause a low level blood feud if Draco was exceptionally rude.

When there were no more house elves to instruct, all knowing what was needed before the Head's visit, Narcissa sat at her writing desk and pulled out her favorite quill, a wedding gift from an old friend. It had aged well, and still produced a crisp letter. She would have to call on her supposedly dishonored sister to discuss these developments. By now, she would have gotten a letter from Gringotts, so there would be no need to explain the importance of meeting and having an exchange of information. Only the most dull Slytherin wouldn't see an opportunity in this situation, and her sister personified the best of the Slytherin ideals. Nothing else was expected of someone raised a Black, even if she didn't marry a pure-blood wizard.