Chapter 5 Blinding Revelations

Many of you have asked ifmjimeyg is still writing. I don't know, they don't want to be contacted. I, for one, am waiting with bated breath to see if they update 'Death's Little Brother' which is one of my favorite fics of theirs. I've read it more than I've read the original of this one.

DaughterOfIris23 and Dashti-the-dramione-shipper are the betas for this chapter.

HP-BTVS-HP-BTVS

"Oh, don't be silly," Joyce said with a smirk. "You know exactly who I mean. Well, maybe not Xander."

"You cannot be talking about Salazar Slytherin," Minerva gasped, glancing quickly at Dora, who took another shot of firewhiskey.

"Of course, I am; who else would I mean?" the embodiment of Hogwarts replied.

"Now, I know what you told me, and that this Salazar was one of the co-founders of the school, but why are these guys freaking out?" Xander asked as he watched the magicals of this world have mild panic attacks. He had only seen reactions like this when that Voldyshorts guy was mentioned.

"They believe the rumors that Sally was an evil man. I did my best to stop those, but they grew beyond my borders and nothing I said was taken as truth. It's one of the reasons I went to sleep the first time. I couldn't stand the fact that they made him out to be such a horrid person. I thought of the founders as my adopted children, and to hear such drivel made me mad enough to sleep," Joyce pouted. She hated that one of the men she thought of as a son was so vilified that no one would take her word as proof of his innocence. They said she was biased, and wasn't seeing the bad side of him, which was ridiculous. She saw Buffy's faults, after all, didn't she?

"Well, if it makes you feel better, Joyce, I believe you," Xander offered, seeing how much it hurt the woman who was once like a mother to him.

"How did the shopping go?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Well, you see, I kinda spent most of our time at the bank setting things up. I'll have to go back soon. Maybe we'll finish shopping when things settle down there," Xander replied sheepishly. "Gringotts has a good system set up, so there was little change there. However, I had to spend all day with Harry's account manager, and the former King. I wanted to set up some investments in the non-magical world and get rid of some that were losing money. Things may not be the same, but investing is a gamble anyway, it just happens to be legal. That, and I needed to understand just what running my new kingdom entailed. I don't want a rebellion to start when the whole point was to stop one."

"Did you at least get a wand?" Joyce asked with a knowing smile. Like she had a secret that she wasn't sharing.

Xander slouched and folded his arms over his chest. "We tried," he pouted. "That crazy man kept putting wand after wand in my hand. The problem is most of them worked. Just not good enough for him. Then he did some spell on me and said I didn't have a core."

Harry giggled, since he had gone through a similar experience. Ollivander was just plain creepy. He still remembered the dire words he received from his time in the wand shop.

"That's ridiculous, of course you have a core. You would not be able to perform magic without one," McGonagall stated firmly. "I don't know what Ollivander is thinking. No core indeed."

"Do me a favor, Minerva, run the spell over his whole body," Joyce said slyly.

The other women of the group gasped when the spell showed that Xander's core was in his head.

"The-One-Who-Sees?" Xander growled. "I really hate that title," he added mulishly.

"Sorry, Xander, you are who you are. It was given to him by a madman, and I'm sure he doesn't like to remember the day he lost his eye. The man who took it was a zealot who worshipped a great evil. I wasn't there at the time, but I learned it from that Whistler fellow. When I died, he showed me scenes from the future, so that I knew it would all work out. Not happily at times, but in the end, it was good," Joyce explained to those that didn't know.

Xander pouted, she was right he didn't like to remember that day.

"Think of it this way, Xander, this gives you something more in common with Harry. He hates his 'Boy-Who-Lived' title as well," she said, patting the grumpy man on the arm.

"That's bloody awful," Dora slurred, swaying a bit as she tried to give the man a one-armed hug.

"Don't worry about it," Xander said, setting her up right. "I've dealt with it."

"Dora, you've had enough," Minerva stated, zapping her with a sobering charm and retrieving the bottle.

"Aw, you're no fun," the pink-haired woman pouted, then she turned back to Xander. "How do you expect to perform magic without a wand?" she asked. "I mean, I've heard that only powerful wizards could do wandless magic. You're cute and all but you don't look all that powerful." She blushed a bit at that, pleading with her eyes that she wasn't trying to insult.

"Nay, I get it. Here, let me prove to you what I can do," he said with a grin as he caused a small ball of fire to appear in his right hand.

"Cool!" Harry exclaimed as Hermione, Tonks and Minerva gasped in shock.

"That's what I've been trying to explain," Joyce said, pointing at the fire as Xander closed his hand and snuffed it out. "Magic goes peculiar around him. He once had a witch cast a love spell for him to get his ex-girlfriend back. The whole town's female population, including myself, fell in love with him for the afternoon." She blushed a bit remembering how forward she had been with the then teenage boy. It had been awkward for weeks following that incident.

"That wasn't the creepy part. No, the worst part was when Drusilla, the crazy vampire lady, started calling me her kitten," Xander confessed with a full-body shudder. Searching for a change of subject, he observed Harry looking very hard at his hand. "Harry, try something simpler, like a Lumos."

"All right, Xander," Harry agreed.

"Minerva, can you cast the same detection spell on Har… Shit!" Xander, and everyone else, shrieked as Harry succeeded in creating the light.

Harry quickly doused the light, but the damage was done.

Hermione immediately panicked. Dora felt along the couch, and upon finding her pulled her into a hug while the adults remained calm.

"Can anyone see?" Xander asked, moving his head as if that would help him see.

"I can," Harry and Joyce answered.

"Figures," the older man laughed, turning himself towards Harry's voice. "Harry, run and get Pomfrey. Joyce, can you be our eyes?" he said to the room.

"Yeah, I'll hurry," Harry stated as he got up and ran from the room. As he ran, he contemplated the last week. He knew from his reading that Xander's conquering of the goblins gave him the upper hand. The older man now commanded an army of vicious warriors. That was great. If Voldyshorts ever came back, then Harry wouldn't have to stand alone like he had done his whole life.

The Dursleys were cruel and spiteful, and Harry was their favorite stress release. He had spent most of his free time reading in small corners of the school and in the town library. He had learned a lot there. One thing he knew for certain was that knowledge saved lives. And the knowledge that Xander had imparted this last week was going to do just that. All he had to do was sit and learn from the man, and he'd never have to be afraid again.

"Potter!" came a voice that he really was starting to hate.

"Yes, Professor?" Harry answered politely.

"What are you doing, running about the castle so close to curfew?" Severus Snape's silky voice asked as he stopped in front of Harry.

"I'm on my way to get Madam Pomfrey," Harry answered as he tried to edge away.

"And why would you need her? Have you been into mischief? Did you hurt one of your little friends, or perhaps your bodyguard?" came the snide inquiry.

"No… well, yes, but it was an accident."

"Your friends will suffer the consequences of being friends with such a stupid boy. You will come with me, and I will escort you to your dorm," Snape said, grabbing Harry's arm and dragging him back the way they came.

"But it's an emergency, sir!" Harry stated loudly, pulling the opposite direction with all his might.

"I highly doubt that a first-year student could do such harm as to call anything an emergency," Snape said as he pulled the much lighter child along.

"Lumos!" Harry cried, and suddenly a bright light filled the corridor.

Snape screamed in surprise, giving the boy the chance to pull away.

The preteen ran to the infirmary and yelled, "Madam Pomfrey! You've got to hurry. Everyone is blinded. It was an accident."

"Oh dear," she said, grabbing her emergency kit, which was needed at least three times a year, and followed the running boy out the door. "Tell me what happened along the way," she instructed.

They ran into Snape arguing with a suit of armor, who was holding the recently blinded man captive. But said suit would not let Poppy treat Snape, and Harry said that they needed to hurry along. She gave the Potions Master a bit of a glare, knowing that if the castle's protections were preventing him from treatment than he must have done something very wrong.

Back in the apartment, Joyce was fuming. "Minerva, you have to do something about that Snape!" she said angrily. "The portraits just told me that he accosted Harry and wouldn't believe him when he said you sent him to the infirmary! His jealousy is getting out of hand," she said in exasperation.

"Is Harry all right?" Hermione asked worriedly, her eyes vacantly staring ahead.

"He's fine. He escaped Snape by blinding him like he did you all. He's already on his way back with Poppy," she assured her with a pat on the arm.

"Oh dear, this could be bad. Severus might try to get Harry expelled," McGonagall stated, fidgeting a bit.

"No, no, this is actually good news. That means Harry will do well under pressure," Xander grinned. "Besides, until Dumbledore gets back, you're in charge. You can make sure to investigate and see what the witnesses, like ghost and portraits, say. I trust you, Minnie."

"I would prefer it if you did not call me that," the elder woman sniffed.

"Sure, I'll stick with Minerva," Xander conceded, for now.

A few minutes later, Pomfrey and Harry entered the room. Seeing everyone except Joyce staring blankly at the wall, she quickly made her way to the youngest. "Joyce, what is going on?" she asked as she shined a light in Hermione's eyes. She hummed a bit and looked through her emergency bag.

"Harry was trying to do some wandless magic and accidently blinded the room," Joyce said with a smirk as she ruffled the young boy's perpetually messy hair. "We're going to have to work on your control," she added to the blushing boy.

"I see, well, let's try and keep the accidents down to a minimum," the matron lightly admonished the worried-looking child.

"I'll try," Harry said quietly.

"Poppy, do you perhaps know Joyce? You seem very familiar with each other," Minerva said in mildly clipped tones as if annoyed to be the only one, besides the children, who hadn't met the woman in the past.

"Simply put," Joyce explained while Poppy handed Hermione a potion, "I have found, over the decades that I have been awake, that it is much easier for me to get to know the on-duty medical personnel. That way, if I arrive with a student that requires attention, I don't have to keep explaining who I am. I used to do it all the time before I went to sleep."

"And the reason why none of this is ever mentioned to the staff in charge?" the transfiguration teacher inquired in a put-upon voice.

"Oh, well, I just help them think that it's unimportant," Joyce answered slyly.

"Wait a cotton-picking minute here, you created a Sunnydale Syndrome?" Xander asked with a bit of awe.

"Wot's the Sunnydale Syndrome," Tonks asked as she waited patiently for Poppy to heal her.

"Let me see if I can explain. Basically, what it did was make people believe that the demon activity was caused by gangs hopped up on PCP. Which is a hallucinogen where I'm from. This did make it a bit difficult for us when people believed Buffy to be the leader of that gang, but it kept the people from panicking. On the other hand, it made the citizens of the community victims, since they didn't watch out for things that went bump in the night. So, it had its good points, and bad," the one-eyed man explained, and he blinked to wet his eyes. They were a bit dry from trying to see.

"Kind of," Joyce confessed in a mildly frustrated voice. "I hate that it seemed to control what I was thinking. I know it interfered a lot when I wanted to help. Remember MOO? I can't tell you how frustrated I became after dying to realize that I missed so much of my daughters' lives because of that… spell… curse… whatever," she huffed.

"Yeah, I remember. I didn't like it either," Xander commiserated.

"Though I prefer to call it the Summers Syndrome," she added smugly.

"I can see!" Hermione exclaimed happily as she blinked rapidly.

"Any spots in your eyes?" Poppy asked as she tended Dora.

"No, ma'am," the girl said respectfully.

"I'm sorry I blinded you all," Harry said contritely.

"No worries, Harry," Xander assured him, blinking now that he too could see. "You wouldn't believe how many times my friends and I accidently hurt one another. We got over it and still loved each other," he added with a sympathetic smile.

"Well, I'm all done here. I suppose I should go and fix Severus," Poppy stated, wrinkling her nose at the prospect of having to treat the vile man.

"Just a moment, Poppy. I'll join you. I need to have words with that man," Minerva said firmly, getting up from her seat. "Joyce, could you please have Severus brought to the Headmaster's Office?"

"Not a problem," the blonde woman stated joining the other women at the door. They left to deal with the Potions Master, while the rest just stared after them.

"Well, this has been an interesting day, but I've got an early morning. Harry, it was wonderful to see you again, and I will see you soon to start your lessons," Dora stated as she and Xander got up.

"Wait," Xander said, stopping her from going to the fireplace, "we might need a cop. Let's join the others. Harry, Hermione, you guys do what you want until bedtime. Why don't you go see how your friends are doing? I'm sure Neville would be glad to see you," he said as he passed the two children. "It's better than sitting here. And I'm not sure I want you unattended."

"Okay, Xander," the kids said together, then giggled at one another as they headed for the door.

Instead of following the adults, they turned toward The Gryffindor dorm. They found Neville sitting with the other first years and went to join him. The rest of the Gryffindors saw them come in and started to ask some questions they couldn't with Mr. Harris around.

Questions like, "How did he lose his eye?" and, "Is he single?"

Harry and Hermione gave what information they could and told the whole of Gryffindor about their adventures since the man had arrived. Many of the young Gryffindors had their doubts, and it wasn't until they were asked to prove that Harry could cast a blinding Lumos that Percy called a halt. He took the Harry back to the 'house within the castle' and stayed with him until Mr. Harris returned.

Hermione went straight to her room. She told Neville that she'd see him in the morning. She knew if she stayed down in the common room that the questions would never stop. She pulled her curtains and started her homework.

Hpbtvshpbtvs

While Harry and Hermione were undergoing their interrogation, Severus Snape was being dealt with in the Head's Office.

"I want that brat expelled. He assaulted a teacher, and that is a punishable offence," the greasy-haired man ranted as he paced in front of the room.

Poppy had fixed his eyes and returned to the infirmary.

Joyce and Dora were sitting beside Minerva, watching the man rant, ready for when the Deputy Headmistress would lay into the petty man.

Xander was standing guard at the door, his eyes narrow and his arms crossed. He too was ready to jump in at any given moment. For right now, he was willing to let the others deal with it.

"And just why did he feel the need to assault you, Severus?" McGonagall asked in a very frosty voice. That left know room to doubt that she was blaming him and not the child.

"He was running through the hall close to curfew. Celebrity or not, he should not be able to break the rules without consequence. He gave some lame story about needing to get Madam Pomfrey," came the silky answer, appearing to miss that everyone there was not on his side. "As if a child his age could do enough harm to warrant such an emergency."

"I, for one, can tell you that first-years can, and do, cause untold damage," Minerva stated with a bit of force. "You, as a professor, should know this. I know for a fact that you send many children to the Hospital Wing every year for exploding potions," she stated as she raised an eyebrow, daring him to refute her claim.

"Just because they cannot read simple instructions, it is no fault of my own. That is neither here nor there, that child needs to be punished," Snape insisted as he whirled around to face her. "I will not have this derail into an argument about my teaching habits," he snapped. "This is about that spoiled child and not myself. However low you may think of me."

"We could always use Veritaserum," Dora suggested slyly.

"Yes, that will get to the heart of the matter. I will be more than happy to open my stores to you. You are not as big of a dunderhead as you were in school," the Potions Master claimed.

"We'd be using it on you," the Junior Auror stated firmly. "The Ministry doesn't allow its use on children. You're the one who'll have to prove your complaint. We know Harry was out for a reason. You're the only one stating he was breaking the rules."

"We'll forego that route for now," Snape said quickly, paling a bit at the thought of undergoing questioning.

"Too late," Dora chirped with a vindictive smile. "You just admitted having a Ministry controlled potion in your stores. So, I'm going to have to report you."

"It'll never stick," Snape said snidely. "Albus will get me off."

"Yes, but in the meantime, you will be out of my castle," Joyce said sweetly.

Snape tried to storm out of the room, only to be confronted with an angry Xander.

"Take a seat," the one-eyed, muscle-bound man said calmly, pointing to the chair in front of the desk. "Hey, Dora, can you get someone in charge here?" he asked, never taking his eye off the greasy-haired man as he watched him throw himself into the indicated seat.

"Yeah, I'll call Kings, he's my trainer," Dora said with a smile as she headed toward the Floo.

"Minerva, you might want to find a new Potions Master. I'm not letting this man back into my home," Joyce said viciously. "I never liked you, Snape, and now you have given me a reason to throw you out of my home. I can't thank you enough," she added sweetly.

"This will be difficult," Minerva said fretfully, glancing around the room as if trying to convey just how troublesome it was going to be. "Severus is the best Potions Master in the United Kingdom. It is bad enough I have to find someone for History."

"What really has you worried," Joyce asked, laying a hand on the poor woman's shoulder.

"Finding two teachers at such short notice will be almost impossible. I do not even know where to look. These positions have rarely ever been empty. We do not even have anyone in the back files. If this keeps up, we are going to have a whole new staff come New Years," McGonagall complained. "Albus has never kept old applications. Except for Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Can't you hire from abroad? Or, I could ask the goblins," Xander suggested, throwing a smirk at Snape.

"The Board will never agree to that," Snape smirked back. "Nor will Albus," he added smugly, as if he knew something they didn't.

"Well, we'll just have to work around both of them," Joyce said snidely. This would go nicely with their plans anyway. Get competent professors in here, and then add new classes. Yes, this could work.

"I have a question," Xander stated, glaring venomously at Snape, who paled again. "Why didn't you just toss him out like you did Dumbledore?"

"Well, it's politics mostly," Joyce confessed with a heavy sigh. "While I am here in spirit, and can interact with anyone within my area, I can't just throw people out without just cause. Not without a lot of political ramifications. I can assure you that making Albus take a break, will have repercussions. That, and, I don't really have the power to make it stick. Most people don't know I'm here."

"So, why now?" the confused man asked.

"I didn't have any power until now. I could have just tossed everyone out, but then the Founders dreams would have died. However, now, you can be my hands outside these walls. You can make the Ministry understand that we won't tolerate lawbreakers, as many have in the past. You can make sure that everyone knows that the education and safety of the children are our number one priority," she tried to explain.

"Yeah, but…" Xander started, only to be interrupted by a bright green flash of the Floo.

Any further discussion was halted by the arrival of Dora, and the man they assumed was 'Kings.' Introductions were made, and the events of the night were told.

"We can take him in for questioning, but we'll need permission from the Board to search the dungeons," Kinsley warned, knowing that without evidence the whole thing would get thrown out.

"You don't need the Board, Xander can give you permission. He owns the school," Joyce offered with a smug look.

"He does?" the other occupants of the room, living and portrait alike, exclaimed.

Xander's eyes bulged. "I do?"