Here's another chapter. I know that the story seems to be going slowly so far, but the main idea behind the story required a few setup chapters for the storytelling. (Combine that with this being my first 'ever' attempt at storytelling and you can understand why this is taking this long and why there are any errors or any shortcomings in it). I urge you please to review this if you read it and find something wrong, as it would help me tell the story better. I am not afraid of criticism, although I do find flames counter-productive. (If you wish to say I got something right and sing my praises, that is also, of course, acceptable) In any case there will be some more development from now on, as I have given the basics of the story, and the game is afoot. Especially (and in danger of spoiling the story) in this and the following chapter you will become aware of what the true cost of pushing back Voldemort was, and what this story is all about.

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Don Wescot got up slowly from his bed and went over to the window. He stared at the giant behemoth of steel, glass and concrete that had deprived him of the view that had been one of the reasons they had decided to buy that house. The offices were mostly closed at this hour, but there were still some late workers as the lights shone like tiny little golden specks in the distance. One the top floors there was a cluster of offices that were still working close together and the flickering of the light from their windows reminded him of something he hadn't seen in over a decade.

A golden snitch.

The idea came unbidden, but as he remembered the flying little winged ball flying over a quidditch field, the memories he keeps pushing away came back to him with a vengeance as they did many times, not as often as earlier on but often enough, usually after he woke up in the afternoon after a night shift. He remembered the whole story, but not as a linear thing, with a beginning, middle and end, but in flashes, images that materialized in front of his eyes. The increasing panic of the magic world, the attack on Dumbledore, the culling of the Hufflepuffs, the Order of the Phoenix disbanded, his and Hermione's first time together, the night after her parents were killed by Deatheaters, the destruction of Diagon Alley. The night it all came down. So many were lost.., His father, Charlie, Bill, Fleur, Parvati, Luna, Neville….

Harry.

He tries to shut out those last images, as they hurt too much to remember, but he doesn't manage, he remembers the pain, the anger, the despair, the fury. If only….

The funny part was that after all that happened, he remembers thinking that it was finally over, that after all the losses, before they learned about the greatest tragedy, they had finally earned the right to be at peace. That was funny.

No, wait. That's not funny at all.

He mused again about the circumstances that drove them into hiding. He remembers getting issued a new name and history by the muggles. He remembers the last time he saw George. He remembers Hermione telling him she was pregnant. The notion that his daughter will grow up as a muggle had hit him before, and at times harder then it did now, but he still felt a lump in his throat knowing that he can never tell her what she could have been, what her heritage is. But he knows he can't and never will. His darling Xenia was a muggle now, just like him.

He shook his head to clear out the memories of yesteryear. He put on his robe and walked down the staircase to the kitchen to start the coffee.

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The girls were dumbstruck about their discovery. "A … magic wand?" said Xenia incredulously.

"What else could it be?" said Jo "To cause sparks fly like that?"

Xenia looked totally disbelieving. "It could have a secret mechanism, like a nano engine."

"Don't be thick. NASA only announced Nano engine prototypes a year ago. And none of the nanogines I read about could do that-that…" Jo waved her hands around "light show. They work too slowly for that" said Jo. "Besides, these things have been in your grandmothers' house for years" she added ""And what would someone want to use nanogines to make this?"

"Nanogines are a still a better explanation then MAGIC Jo! Please, come on!"

"Maybe, but think about this" continued Jo, "this is a wooden stick, Nanogines are metal."

Stubbornly defiant a bit before. Xenia now looked like she was thinking about it.

"I know it sounds incredible Zee, but what if it's true?" Jo pressed on. "Your family must have had a magician in it, and it was his stuff we found!"

"No way, Dad would have told me about anything like that, wouldn't he?" said Xenia, by that time she had partly accepted that it just might be true. After all they had found the stuff in a trunk in his parents' home. Xenia felt a bit annoyed towards her father for not telling her about something like this. "I'll ask him tonight—no, he's working tonight. I'll ask him tomorrow morning."

"Having a magician in the family would be so cool Zee."said Jo, her eyes wide with excitement.

Xenia frowned slightly. "We don't know that I do have a magician relative yet, maybe they just bought this stuff at a flee market, second-hand, as costumes, and never even knew they had real powers, that they could do this. After all, we waved that wand dozens of times this week, and nothing happened then, did it?" she offered.

"Hmm, you're right" said Jo, appearing skeptical. She had caught a hint of Xenia's annoyance. "Maybe our dad didn't even know about it." she said in a pensive tone.

"What do you mean, how could he not?" said Xenia.

Well, maybe it wasn't your dad's stuff, maybe it was your aunt or uncle's, maybe it was their trunk we opened, couldn't it? In fact, they might be the ones to tell us more about this wand and the robes."

Xenia, who had been genuinely bothered about the possibility that her father was hiding something from her, grasped at this idea at once. "You, know that's very possible. Aunt Ginny lived at that house a long time after Dad left."

"What about your uncle?" asked Jo.

"My uncle is a bit too serious to have anything to do with magic" replied Xenia, remembering her father's brother. "But we can ask him about it as well, if we visit Aunt Ginny. They work together, so he'll be there"

"Great", said Jo, who looked up towards the door of the hall where the party was still going strong. "Hey, my mom is here already!" she said spotting her in front of the building. Xenia looked at the time, and saw that the time they had agreed for Mrs Allington to take them trick-or-treating had come. She looked over at her friend's mom. "I didn't even notice the time"

"Time flies when you're having fun, doesn't it" said Jo, with a grin.

Mrs Allington was leaning on her car, looking at the doors, clearly not having seen the girls standing to her left.

"Lets not tell your mom about the wand, Jo" said Xenia as they started walking towards her.

"Why not?"

"Because she'll probably tell my mom and dad, and I know they will freak. they might even take the wand away. My mom would definitely go crazy if she knew I had a stick that can spit fire," said Xenia, with an image of her mother ready in place. "So, I bet would yours"

"You know," nodded Jo "come to think of it, my mom would probably react the same way. Ok then, we keep it quiet, and we decide what we are gonna do tomorrow. We'll meet in the morning at my house."

"Deal" said Jo.

The two girls reached Mrs Allington who was startled to see them coming from her right, they all got in the car and drove off.The girls' minds so full of questions and possibilities about what had happened that they didn't even think about saying goodbye to the kids back in the hall.

Mrs Allington had already planned a route for them to take. She left them on the corner and waited for them in the car at the other corner, while the girls took turns ringing doorbells and taking goodies. Afterwards, when they reached the car they emptied their bags in it. The people were nice and they had gathered a lot of candy in a short amount of time. An very old man, who was short, dwarfish even, and maybe a bit funny in the head looked at their costumes and was completely delighted, giving them at least 2 pounds of chocolates each, as well as awarding them points for a fine appearance. The girls were having fun, however the whole affair would have been a lot more enjoyable if they weren't both thinking about the light that had come from the wand. Jo fingered the handle of it in her pocket a few times, but stopped cold at the thought that it might start again and set her on fire. Xenia lost herself in thought about what might be the mysterious origin of the wand a couple of times, but didn't reach any conclusions she liked. She still thought that things like magic were impossible, but she couldn't find a possible solution to what happened earlier that night.

The next morning, Mrs Wescot was home in the morning. She wanted to get Xenia to talk about her Halloween fun, but Xenia was in such a hurry leave that her mother got annoyed.

"Whats so important that you can't take time to talk to your own mother?" Not wanting to get in trouble, or worse, make her mom suspicious that something was going on, she went back and told her, in broad strokes, the events of the previous evening, neglecting to mention anything about luminenescent wands. After about half an hour, Xenia took her bike and rode it quickly to Jo's house. She found Jo waiting for her in front of the kitchen door. "Come on, lets go upstairs, mom isn't here, she went to the market" The two girls rushed up to Jo's room, where Jo pulled the latch on it.

Xenia, her face flushed from racing all the way, asked, "Where is it?"

"Here" Jo said, picking up the wand from the table. "I have been trying to get it to do something all morning. No luck."

"Let me try." said Xenia, eager to get a chance at it. She grabbed the long piece of varnished wood that seemed quite different to her, now that she knew what it could do. She carefully waved it at chairs,tentatively pointed at the desk,then the ceiling, then did twirls and 8's in the air, she jabbed imaginary swordsmen with it pointing front, and finally held it up as they had held it the night before.

"Nope. Nothing. Not even a glow. " she said sadly.

"Well that settles it. That thing wont work unless it wants to apparently." said Jo miserably. "Maybe it will help if we find out more about it."

"Yeah, I think it will." Said Xenia, putting the wand down and sitting on the bed. "Unfortunately, aunt Ginny is out of town. I asked dad this morning and said that she wont be back till next Thursday."

"So we can't go visit till next Saturday then." Said Jo, frowning," I don't want to wait a whole week"

"Neither do I, but there is nothing we can do" said Xenia, glumly.

"Cant we go, and ask your uncle if he knows anything?"

"Well we could, but then if we come up empty, then we'll have to go again next week too, and mom and dad would start asking why we're going there all the time" said Xenia.

"Point taken." sighed Jo. "So we wait."

She got up and took the wand and replaced it in its case, which she had taken with her. Then she nearly dropped it. "Oh my god"

"What?" said Xenia startled.

"With all the excitement we forgot what Monday is!"

"What is it ?" said Xenia, not able to think of anything. Then she remembered.

"Mrs Atkins' review test!" the girls shouted in chorus. "Mom will ground me for a month if I fail." said Jo.

"Then lets make sure you wont fail, why don't we? I need my partner in crime this month"

And with that they left the bedroom for the study, both of them giggling.

The next week went along pretty normally. Even though the girls spent some time discussing what could Xenia's aunt tell them about the wand, they spent most of the first half of the week studying as the 1st trimester reviews were due at school and both wanted to do well. On Thursday, Xenia called aunt Ginny to ask if they could visit, and she got an emphatic yes, as she half-expected, as her aunt was younger and was close to her as she was growing up. So the girls knew they would have a hard time till Saturday came and the mystery of the wand would be solved.