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

Saturday Morning, September 2, Gringotts Bank, London

Narcissa waited patiently outside the bank for Lord Black to arrive. While not ideal, the reading had been satisfactory enough. The new Lord was much more independent than she would prefer, but that authoritative air would make dealing with the ministry idiots easier. She was confident that she could gain his trust and establish herself as an advisor. He may have played the part of aristocratic Head, but she was almost certain that he was just playing the part, it just wasn't part of him. She wasn't sure why she came to that conclusion despite the formidable presence he resonated. But somehow she just knew. And she also knew with certainty that he had absolutely zero idea what he was walking into. She could play off of that inexperience, while still bolstering his natural charisma to protect against a meddling ministry or Dumbledore.

He exited the bank with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. It was significantly different from what she saw earlier, and reinforced her observation that he was still training to be the Head of House. He was far in his training, but not yet finished. He bowed to her, smile still on, and she inclined her head in response a slight smile of her own, and they made their way to the cafe nearby. It was nearly deserted, just another family of four enjoying the day out shopping. The couple's young daughter looked like she would be attending Hogwarts soon, while the toddler enjoyed painting his head with his food.

While they enjoyed their food as well (sans head painting), Xander quizzed Narcissa on what she knew of the Black family situation in England, the local politics that Xander could not know from the United States, and Narcissa quizzed Xander about Satele, the woman who won the heart and fortune of her cousin. He learned of more details surrounding Sirius' alleged crimes and about his relation with the Potters, about Bellatrix and her actual crimes.

By mutual unspoken agreement, the topic of Voldemort's potential return did not come up, merely his first rise and fall over a decade ago, though she could sense Alexander wanted to know more. That conversation/argument was for a more private setting, not an open cafe. When asked about her son's school, Narcissa was a bit more, hesitant. Well, not hesitant as much as careful in her words.

"You will find this out anyways, but I wanted to have full disclosure when it comes to Hogwarts. I do not agree with many of the practices and beliefs of Headmaster Dumbledore. He is a good educator, there is no doubt of that, but he often oversteps his bounds and the school suffers for it. That is one reason, but not the only one, Hogwarts is under extreme scrutiny this year from the Ministry. Some on the school board want to increase the quality of education, while others want to play politics with our children's future, but the entire school board wants Dumbledore to change the way he runs his school. He has a distinct bias against pureblood customs and families that don't agree with his ideas. Labels us as 'Dark', and his followers as 'Light', as a way to unconsciously bias the muggleborn against us. He doesn't allow us to teach them our customs and let them decide for themselves." She shook her head in disgust.

"Is there any truth to the label of dark?" Xander asked with his Force senses fully extended.

"I suppose, depending on your viewpoint." she confirmed unexpectedly after a moment of consideration. "We tend to hold to tradition more strongly than most. That includes a more … forgiving attitude to which spells and artifacts are acceptable for use. Some of the families labeled as 'Dark' are blood supremacists, which is a stigma that is applied to all of the families that disagree with Dumbledore. So many of these families that could or would speak out against the Blood supremacists and Dumbledore remain silent so as not to attract undue attention to themselves and their families. We are a people caught between two extreme points of view, and there is little middle ground to tread."

Xander absorbed her words and took a long moment to think of them before responding. "I get the general idea, but what specifically does a blood supremacist believe?" Xander questioned. He had read about them in several books about Magical Britain, but wanted to hear how Narcissa Malfoy, Matron to a supposed Dark family, explained it.

That, and he was trying to decipher something odd he was feeling through the Force.

"They believe that only those who can track their genealogical history back to keep on finding witches and wizards are superior to those who do not have such history. Those born to wizarding families are better than those born to one or two muggles. There is data to back up their beliefs, but Dumbledore doesn't trust the studies they frequently cite and has provided no evidence or studies to the contrary." Narcissa took a sip of her tea while she composed her next move. Xander continued to listen while coming to a decision about the Force prompting him to do. "I have no doubt you will have similar conversations with the rest of my family, particularly Sirius. Forgive me, our family. Sirius was always close to Dumbledore, so you might be best served by asking them 'Why?' when the topic of Light, Dark, and families come up. He never listened to me in school, but perhaps if the question came from you, he will consider it."

Xander pondered her advice for a moment while drinking his tea. When in Rome, and all that. "I think that is good advice, regardless of the circumstances. Now, I think I will get some dessert at the ice cream place next door, would you care to join me?"

Narcissa snorted in mirth." I will pass, but thank you for the offer." She continued with her tea while the Head of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black went to indulge in the childish treat, her conversation with him replaying in her mind while she shook her head almost imperceptibly.

The new Head of Black was quite the intriguing mystery, full of contradictions and inconsistencies. It felt like she was missing a key aspect to him, some Rosetta stone that would allow her to unravel his secrets. Until she found it, though, she would continue to observe, catalog, and prepare.

Xander wandered towards the ice cream shop, but stopped just outside the door. He had a little business to deal with before dessert, and stepped into an alcove that hid him from view from the rest of the street. Using the Force, he summoned one particular bug to his hand, holding it between his forefinger and thumb with slight pressure.

"I don't know who you are, but believe me when I say I will give you exactly 15 seconds to explain why you are listening in on my private conversations before I squash you." It was delivered with no emotion nor intonation, using his best impression of Darth Revan that he could.

He had heard of animagus in his tutoring sessions, but had not encountered one before. And this one's presence in the Force had felt peculiar and out of place. Like a bad note in a symphony you couldn't help but overhear. And with the Force he was quick to zero in on the source. He let the pressure off and let the bug transform into a disheveled older blond woman. She adjusted her glasses before sneaking a glance around, as if to see if she could escape.

"Ten seconds," Xander growled, pushing a bit of the Force into his voice to add a sense of danger and menace to his presence.

It certainly provoked a quick and flustered response.

"Oh fine, I'm a journalist who can't get a job anywhere, and I was trying to get an interview with Sirius Black, but that was before I learned that you are the new Head of Black. I heard he would be at the Will reading, and followed his cousin. Naturally, I tried to get a scoop by listening in." She seemed to stop, uncertain about why she revealed that last bit, but jerked when her target gave a sharp laugh.

"So, you're a reporter who wants a story?" Xander laughed again. After dealing with vampires and demons, a greedy and fame-hungry reporter would be easy. "Meet me in front of the bank in 30 minutes for your story. If you get near me in your bug form again, I will step on you." He left it ambiguous whether he was being metaphorical or literal, and entered the ice cream shop.

All thought to inheritance, the reporter (who he didn't even get the name of), or family vanished when he saw the prize before him. Twinkie Flavored Ice Cream. When he bought every last carton of it, they were even nice enough to shrink the package and cast a freezing charm on it. That was one of the many spells he was having problems with. He hadn't gotten around to getting a new, non-tutorial wand, but his tutors mentioned there was an excellent wandmaker here in London that he could go to.

Leaving the store (he swore the owner was about to cry), he made his way back to the cafe to say his farewells to Narcissa and to schedule another appointment with her to talk. He found it easy to trade information with her, but had no doubt she got much more out of it than he did. It was a matter of him working against her natural talent and experience, but he did glean from her some good ideas and research topics to give to Giles. He was ten feet away from her when the Force screamed at him, spurring him into action.

Time seemed to slow, almost to a crawl, as Xander opened himself up to the Force completely.

Dropping his package without a thought, he summoned his lightsaber into his right hand while several loud pops were heard around the alley. A dozen figures or so appeared in the immediate area around the ice cream shop and café as well as the side streets leading to and from Diagon Alley, wearing some sort of giant mask on their heads, and each one reeking of the dark Side of the Force…or its magical equivalent. The masks were like giant dunce caps, or Klu Klux Klan hoods, except they had large owl eyes painted in front.

These were creatures that needed to be put down, permanently.

The lead one raised his wand and pointed it at the family at the cafe, just waiting to pay the bill. The boy, no longer covered in food, began to cry, sensing the fear his parents and sister radiated. Pure evil concentrated around the invader's wand, and Xander dove into the Force to react.

Igniting his lightsaber, he threw it halfway between the family and the masked man, the blade humming as it spun with a tone unfamiliar to any but Xander. Green light shot from the wand, but hit the blue spinning blade and rebounded towards the one who produced it, hitting him squarely in the chest. Without a pause, Xander summoned his lightsaber from midair into his right hand and drew his tutorial wand to his left.

Deep in the grip of the Force, he felt his senses extended to cover the entire alley and immediately he was assaulted by a dizzying array of emotions. The people around him were only beginning to respond to the sudden assault. Blinding panic and sheer terror were prominent among them, but so to was a sense of…familiarity? These people recognized an attack was in progress, and in their panicked state, any hope of active resistance they might have had against the masked terrorists evaporated.

Xander pushed that aside and focused on the task at hand.

Jumping the twenty feet needed to place himself in the center of the attackers, Xander lashed out with a blasting curse at the farthest one. Once he landed, another silent confringo spell shot out at the same target, hopefully the two blasts would be enough to take the one man down, if not at least to keep him distracted so that Xander could deal with his friends.

While his left hand threw spells, his right swung up and away from him before arcing around, neatly severing three arms and two heads from four attackers. Not waiting for a reaction, Xander slid on his knees under the arms of another masked man, lightsaber cutting him from hip to shoulder. He continued the slide, using the Force to propel him towards another cluster of masked terrorists, before swinging his lightsaber and ending the threat they posed.

With a quick burst of Force power to his muscles, he sprang to his feet and ran towards the larger cluster of remaining hostiles, while casting his own personal favorite spell, Ambustium, creating a 10 foot diameter fireball (super effective against vampires) at a smaller cluster farther down the street. Sure, it was an explosive fireball that caused massive damage in the blast radius, but he usually only used it in graveyards. Because Xander practiced it so much, it was pretty much the only spell that he could cast with the tutorial wand and have it be full strength.

Two more fireballs erupted before Xander reached the last remaining group (his fireballs taking out two more attackers).

As the closest lost his head while he was raising his wand, the remaining four faced the Jedi wizard with fear and bewildered confusion. Xander took complete advantage of it to transition to a more offensive lightsaber form.

Tossing his wand in the air both as a distraction to the wizards and to free up his left hand, Xander Force-Pushed two of them into a nearby wall, where they collapsed in a heap with what would later be diagnosed with 26 broken bones and severe internal bleeding. Xander recalled his wand with the Force before pressing his attack. Dodging the frantic spells thrown at him by the remaining pair, red and green in color, Xander conjured a beam of sunlight directed in their eyes, blinding them temporarily.

Drawing up the Force, he levitated several large pieces of rubble lying in the street and threw them at two more attackers who were late apparating into the alley. Xander doubted they even saw what smashed into their chests, killing at least one of them and severely wounding the other.

This gave him the time to run up to the ones he had blinded earlier, severing their arms off at the forearm and knocking them with a Force push into the side of the shop and into blissful unconsciousness. Keeping his senses extended, Xander noted that the Dark Side presence was fading, no more of them were lurking around. They were either dead or immobilized. There was plenty of fear radiating from the bystanders, most of it now redirected at him as they tried to process just what they had witnessed. But there were no injuries or deaths of innocents, so that was a win in his book. He would have a tough time trying to explain this to a bunch of panic stricken civilians to calm them down.

Mentally centering himself, he quickly reviewed his actions. In all the fight took seven seconds, Revan was going to yell at him for being so slow. Xander was not looking forward to his next combat practice session, Revan would not go easy. Opening his eyes, he saw Giles making his way towards him and sighed. This was going to be fun to explain to the authorities.

A glint entered his eyes as he thought up a plan to avoid the police. He quickly bound over to Narcissa, who had stood and had her wand drawn while the fight was still occurring, and quickly apologized.

"I do hope my actions did not disturb you. I hope to pay you a visit tomorrow, or the day after at the latest. Is that acceptable?" After the adrenaline rush of being in combat it was hard to play the aristocrat, but he managed to not make a fool of himself. Narcissa nodded, numbly while staring at him as if he were a ghost, Xander noted and he suppressed a wince. This was all the response he was going to get out of her. "Very well, I shall see you then."

He picked out several golden coins from his pocket and tossed them to the family, still seated and the youngest still crying.

"My apologies for ruining your lunch."

When he went to recover his ice cream, though, he knew the horrors of war. A stray spell or perhaps a piece of flying debris had smashed his package, the frozen goodness smeared across the street. Xander felt the compelling urge to shake his fists, drop to his knees, and scream "NOOO" to the sky, but barely resisted it. Knowing there was nothing to do over his lost treasure, and knowing his Auror-free time was dwindling, Xander motioned for Giles to follow him towards the bank.

Once Giles opened his mouth, he knew that this was going to be a heated discussion, but he felt completely justified in all his actions and decided to play with Giles a bit. This definitely was an interesting introduction the Lord Black was making to the British wizarding world, and he silently wished the day to be over already.

Sadly, he knew he had much more to do before he slept.