August 30, 1969:

"Happy birthday, Liselle!" Liselle Smith's mother smiled down at her. "All grown up now, eight years old!" Her father smiled from his seat in the corner and added his congratulations, and little 'Xander piped up too, saying "Happy burtday Zelle!" She went over and tickled him, and he giggled. "No tickle, Zelle! No tickle!"

She laughed. Alexander, or Xander as they all referred to him, was in the cute stage at a little over three. He grinned up at her. "Zelle? Why you no look like mummy? I looks like Daddy, why you no look like mummy?"

Her eyes widened. She'd never really thought about it before, but she didn't really look like either of her parents. No, that wasn't quite right. She had her father's nose and eyes, but her hair was far too blonde for any branch of the family. Grandma Lucille was the only blonde in recent pictures, and she was a dirty blonde, not platinum like Liselle. She turned to her parents. Her father looked resigned and sighed, and her mother stared straight into her eyes. She felt the little tingle in her mind that meant that her mother was checking on her. The next words surprised her.

"She's old enough, Paul. And Alexander will understand."

"I know, Rhianne. She was old enough to know two years ago, but it still hurts so much."

"I miss her too, Paul. Would you prefer that I explained?"

Pallinus Smith sighed and bowed his head. "Please," he whispered.

That whispered "please" shocked her. Her father used the word, of course, he was a proper pureblood and had good manners, but this sounded almost like begging. Smiths did not beg, did not plead, and never kneeled.

Their mother (was she their mother?) turned to them. "Liselle, Alexander, listen carefully. When your father and I were in Hogwarts, we were very close friends with another girl. Ariella Malfoy. She and I both were in love with your father, and we were as close as sisters. He couldn't choose which one of us he wanted to marry, so we chose for him. And he married Ariella."

Liselle gasped, but Xander merely nodded.

"The wedding was beautiful, a Christmas Eve wedding, and I was the maid of honour. She got pregnant almost immediately after…with you, Liselle."

At this point, Liselle's eyes were starting to tear up. Xander looked solemn, and Pallinus was crying. He was sobbing, great sobs. Xander went over to him, crawled into his lap, and gave him a hug. "Daddy, she still loves you, and Mummy, and Zelle, and me too, and she's happy. She be more happy if she still here, but she happy." Ignoring Rhianne's shocked look, he cuddled further into his father's embrace. No one else seemed to notice.

Drawing a deep breath, Rhianne continued. "A few days after you were born, Liselle, she got sick. She was still a little weak from the childbirth, and the Healers couldn't figure out what was wrong with her, and she…she…" Rhianne broke down herself. Liselle rushed to her and they sobbed against each other.

Xander piped up. "She go behind the Black Curtain." Suddenly his voice changed, sounding older somehow. "The funeral was pretty, and she looked so peaceful holding those white lilies. She watches you still. She's happy for you. She loves you."

Tears forgotten, Rhianne rushed to Xander and stared into his eyes, so like her own, shining emerald green. "Xander?" she whispered. His voice returned to normal. "Yes, mummy?"

"Do you remember what you just said, Xander?"

"Yes, but it not me saying it. No, it me saying it, but not me. I cofused"

"Confused, Xander. Confused."

"Comfused."

Liselle and her parents watched Xander carefully for the next few months, but he showed no further signs of either possession or the Sight, and so they let it lie and forgot it within a year. Xander, however, remembered.

September 1, 1972

"Don't want you to leave, Zelle!" Six-year-old Alexander Smith controlled himself from crying as he hugged his sister hard. There weren't that many places more public than Platform 9¾, and Smiths were not allowed to cry in public. It wasn't proper, and it implied a poor upbringing. The Smith children were brought up quite properly.

Liselle hugged her little brother back just as hard. "I'll miss you, too, Xander, but you want be to get a proper education, don't you? If I don't go to Hogwarts, I'll have to go to some school farther away, or I'll never be allowed to use magic." She leaned down and whispered conspiratorially, "Besides, Mum will miss me enough that she'll spoil you more, little brother." As they smirked at each other, he let go of the hug. Impulsively, she ruffled his hair, pulled him back into the hug, and kissed him on the forehead. "I love you, Xander," she whispered.

"Love you too, Zelle. Have fun. Get Cousin Sirius back for pranking me at my birthday?"

She chuckled. "Oh, I will. I'll get pictures, and send them to you."

"You're the best, Zelle." Suddenly his voice changed in a very familiar way. "Liselle, whatever you do, don't trust Regulus."

Liselle Smith stiffened. After the episode on her eighth birthday, she'd done some research on the Sight. This power that now had shown itself in her little brother twice was almost certainly a manifestation of that obscure branch of magic, but what form of it was not certain. She'd have to do some research. The Hogwarts library was almost as extensive as the one at Raven's Croft, and somewhat less restricted. She'd figure it out. In the meantime, this warning was one she'd keep in mind. "Anything else I should know?" she asked respectfully of this…Power.

"Redeem Slytherin." Xander slumped. "Sorry, Zelle, he's gone." The voice was her little brother's again, as was the diction. "You'd better get on the train." He hugged her again, and then stepped back. "Good luck, Zelle."

"Does luck exist?" The question slipped out before she could stop herself, and Xander just shrugged sadly. She sighed, and got onto the train.

She found a nearly-empty compartment. The only people in it were a pair of boys about her age that she thought she recognized. She racked her memory, and got a name for the brown-haired one, Longbottom. The other one's name was slipping her mind, but she'd definitely seen him before. She opened the door. "May I sit with you?"

The two boys looked up. Longbottom's face lit up, "Sure!" The black-haired boy merely shrugged and gestured at the seat next to him. She lifted her trunk easily thanks to the extremely powerful lightening charm on it and put it up on the rack. Longbottom smiled at her. "So, should we all introduce ourselves? I mean, I know we've met before, but…"

"Yes." The black-haired boy nodded. His expression still hadn't changed. "If you do not mind, I will begin." He paused, and neither objected. He drew himself up and put on what was described in pureblood circles as "formal countenance." "I have the honour to be Nergul Asmodeus Zabini." A semi-formal introduction delivered in formal mode. That meant no discussion of bloodline was necessary.

Longbottom grimaced at the formal countenance, but assumed it himself as the Zabini introduced himself. He sighed. "I have the honour" (he rolled his eyes) "to be Franklin Jason Longbottom." Dropping the formal countenance, he sighed again. "Please call me Frank."

Liselle merely smirked at him before assuming her own formal countenance. "I have the honour to be Liselle Morgana Smith." Just as she said her name, the door opened and a girl with long dark red hair stuck her head in. All three of them recognized her instantly, and said her name together with varying degrees of enthusiasm. "Alice Potter." Liselle sighed it, Zabini said it neutrally, and Frank grinned as he said it, leapt up, and pulled her into a hug.

Liselle and Alice really had nothing against each other. Their only point of disagreement was Alice's older brother James, who picked on Liselle and Xander almost as much as their Cousin Sirius. Alice, however, hero-worshipped him. The fact that each desperately wanted the other's hair colour didn't help matters. "Hello to you too, Frank. Hallo, Zabini. Hallo, Zelle. Can I sit with you? Only all the other compartments are full, except the one with those bloody Lestranges in it."

All four of them rolled their eyes in unison. The Lestrange twins were, for lack of any better term, nasty. No one liked them. They were worse than James Potter, Sirius Black, and their two other friends. At least most of that lot's pranks were harmless and funny to everyone but the victim. The Lestranges were just vicious. The only people who tolerated them were the Black parents and Regulus. Sirius hated them with a passion, as did his cousins the Black sisters. That train of thought led her to poor Andromeda, disowned for marrying a Muggle. Liselle didn't understand either act, the disowning or the marriage. Why on earth would a pureblood marry a Muggle? Not that there was anything wrong with Muggles, but you didn't marry them. Nonetheless, if she married a Muggle (she shuddered mentally at the thought) her parents wouldn't disown her. They probably wouldn't speak to her for a year or two, but they wouldn't disown her.

On the other hand, there was poor Narcissa, betrothed to that awful Lucius Malfoy. Liselle decided, then and there, that she would rather marry a Muggle than a man like Lucius, especially since he was her first cousin. Even if they ignored the proximity of blood, though, he was probably what the Lestranges wanted to be when they grew up. She shuddered again at the though of marrying one of the Lestranges.

"Liselle?" Alice was giving her a concerned look. "You look like you drifted off for a moment there."

She gave the other girl a shaky smile. "Sorry. I was lost in thought. It was a rather convoluted pathway."

"Do I want to know the high points?"

"I was thinking of…Andromeda."

Nergul nodded. "Which would have led you to Narcissa Black, and from there to Lucius Malfoy. Good enough reason to shudder in my opinion."

"And what exactly is your opinion worth?" There in the doorway stood Regulus Black, flanked by the Lestrange twins. "Not much I'd say."

"And hello to you, too, Cousin Regulus." Liselle spat the word at him. "Your opinion is much less valued by us, seeing as it's your mother's and not your own. Out of my duty as a relative, I shall give you fair warning. Watch your back, dear cousin, or you may get it stabbed by those you think support you. Now leave."

"At least, dear Cousin, you have the decency to mingle only with those whose blood is pure. Watch your own back. Mummy and Daddy aren't here to protect it anymore." He turned to leave.

"Oh, go bugger yourself, Regulus Black!" Alice Potter shouted at him. "Or better, go bugger the Lestranges, they might enjoy it!" The twins turned and snarled at her simultaneously, then slammed the door on their way out.

Frank looked somewhat shakily at the other three, then managed a somewhat tremulous grin. "Exploding Snap, anyone?"

As it got later in the evening, Frank asked the question asked by so many Hogwarts students before him on their first trip. "So what Houses do you think you'll be in?"

Liselle answered first. "It's practically a family tradition to end up in Ravenclaw. No one will raise a fuss if I end up in Slytherin or Gryffindor, though. I'll probably be in Ravenclaw or Slytherin. I don't see myself as a Gryffindor. Don't mind them, well, except for Cousin Sirius and his merry band, but I'm not cut out for one."

Frank nodded. "I'm likely to be Gryffindor or Hufflepuff. No family traditions or anything, but Dad was a Gryffindor and Mum was a Hufflepuff, and, well, what you said about Gryffindor for you goes for me when you're talking about Ravenclaw and Slytherin, although Mum says that Slytherins have gotten nastier recently. I'd bet you the Lestranges end up in Slytherin, and Regulus Black with them."

Everyone nodded. Nergul, however, frowned. "Not all the Slytherins are nasty, mind. Narcissa Black's never been anything but nice to me, and I've met several others who I liked who ended up in Slytherin. Just because this bloody Dark Lord was a Slytherin, all his followers want their children in his house." The venom in his voice as he spat the words "Dark Lord" were the most expression they had seen on the solemn boy's face. "Still, I'm likely to be a Ravenclaw. I really don't see myself elsewhere. Slytherin's a distant second possibility, I suppose, but I really don't see anything but Ravenclaw coming from me."

Alice shrugged. "I'm Gryffindor, through and through. You lot know that."

"Oh, yes, Alice, we know that." Liselle grinned at her, then started giggling. Alice giggled with her, and Frank let out a great booming laugh. Nergul gave them all a slight smile. Liselle sobered up for a moment. "I…I don't want House rivalries to prevent us from being friends. Can we…"

Alice nodded solemnly. "We're friends. House doesn't matter."

"House doesn't matter," the other three chanted in response, and thus their eternal friendship was born.

She mostly ignored the Sorting Hat's song. She knew all about it of course, although her parents hadn't told her. The library at Raven's Croft contained quite a lot of information about Hogwarts, including a general idea of what the Hat did. She didn't pay much attention to the sorting beyond those names she already knew as they were called out by Professor McGonagall, the new Deputy Headmistress. Regulus Black was sorted into Slytherin, as were the Lestrange brothers. She watched this, and remembered her brother's words. "Don't trust Regulus" was a no-brainer, but how was she to redeem Slytherin? Frank was sorted into Gryffindor. The only way she could redeem Slytherin was to…be a Slytherin, to prove that Slytherins didn't have to live up to the reputation that was developing. The only way to do this was by being cunning, ambitious, and great, but fair, trustworthy, and right. Alice was sorted into Gryffindor too, and she sat next to Frank. Liselle took a deep breath. She could handle this, as long as she had her friends. She looked at Frank, and Alice. They'd understand, she hoped. She turned to look at Nergul, standing next to her. He nodded. "Even if they don't, I will." Her eyes widened, then narrowed. "Don't worry. Just do it." Her name was called.

Well now, a Smith, are you? Difficult one though. What's this? You want to be in Slytherin to repair its reputation? Far be it from me to work against unity. You will be great. Concerning your brother's advice, listen to him. Always. And now, it's time to announce that you are in SLYTHERIN!

The Slytherin table clapped, but Regulus and the Lestranges glared at her. It was rather amusing actually. Sirius was giving her the exact same look as his brother, and they hated each other. Frank and Alice frowned, but nodded at her. And Nergul…Nergul was smiling.

She nodded politely to the Bloody Baron, who smiled at her from beneath his hood. "Best of luck, youngling," he rasped at her. Nergul was the last to be sorted, and was put, as predicted, into Ravenclaw. The meal was excellent, but she went through it in somewhat of a daze, hoping that she'd done the right thing.

July 31, 1974

Xander Smith was not happy. It was his birthday, after all, but no, they had to have a wedding instead. To add injury to insult, it was Lucius and Cousin Cissa's wedding. Not that Narcissa looked happy about it either. He glared at Lucius' back from across the great lawn. He was about to turn to his Cousin Trixie, who was watching him, when he felt the great peace and detachment that the Power gave him when it spoke through him. This would make the fifth time, but only the third time to anyone else. It seemed to want him to go tell Liselle, so he walked over there, Bellatrix in tow. He walked calmly up to Liselle, in front of her three friends. The voice that spoke out of his mouth was not his own. "She won't be happy."

Liselle nodded. She'd done some research on this, and Xander definitely was a Seer of some sort. It seemed that he only spoke for the Powers when it was needed for someone to do so. "So what do we do?"

"Nothing. It's necessary."

Bellatrix seemed to have recognized what was happening too, as had Nergul, but Frank and Alice seemed confused. Still, it was Trixie that spoke up. "Why is it necessary?"

"I can't tell you much. Their son will be important. You won't be happy when this time comes for you either. It's not necessary, but I don't know how you can avoid it."

The Power left Xander as Trixie sighed and Nergul opened his mouth. Nergul closed it again, and then spoke. "It's gone, isn't it, Alexander?"

"He is." At Nergul's odd look, he elaborated. "I think of him as male."

Nergul nodded as if they were making perfect sense. Alice and Frank were looking at them as if they were anything but. "I don't understand. What just happened?" Frank, of course.

Nergul beat Liselle to the punch. "Unless I'm much mistaken, Alexander has a rare form of the Sight. Namely, a Power speaks through him occasionally. This probably doesn't happen to you often, does it, Alexander?"

"He's spoken through me three times in my life. I don't talk about it much."

Nergul nodded. "Should we do something?"

"You lot shouldn't. On the other hand, if I approach Cousin Sirius in the right way…" Xander smirked. Nergul gave that little half-smile of his, Frank and Alice grinned, and Liselle and Trixie smirked back.

"Hey, Cousin Sirius, Cousin Sirius!" Sirius Black and James Potter were quite happily glaring at Liselle and her friends, who now seemingly included Bella, and therefore did not want to be interrupted by her little brother. They waved him off and told him to go find a toad or something. Xander smiled internally. That was good inspiration. He reached up and ever-so-carefully filched his second cousin's wand from his back pocket, which was almost too easy. He pocketed the wand and skipped away, presumably to go toad-hunting.

Ten minutes later, he spotted Sirius and James switching their glares to Lucius. He smirked, and sneaked up behind them, then surreptitiously pointed the wand at Lucius. He didn't know any appropriate spells, but he knew magical theory, and a wand would make directing 'accidental' magic a little easier. He reached for his magical core, forced a bit of magic out through the wand, and concentrated on making something bad happen to Lucius.

POP! Lucius Malfoy was turned into a giant grey-white toad, and Xander slipped the wand back into Sirius' pocket before saying loudly, "Cousin Sirius, why did you do that?"

The pandemonium was instantaneous, and Xander was forced to control a giggle as Sirius' mother swept over to them. "Sirius Black, did you Transfigure the BRIDEGROOM?"

She didn't wait for a response before turning to Xander and putting on a sickly sweet voice. "Did he, dear?"

Xander slowly nodded, throwing a faked guilty look Sirius' direction. He let his eyes widen. "Yes, Aunt Juno, he did. He was glaring at him real hard, and then he pulled out his wand and played with it a bit, then he pointed it at Cousin Lucius and glared harder and then Cousin Lucius got turned into…into…a toad." He finished that last in a whisper. Inwardly, he grinned. Payback was sweet. He got Lucius, Sirius, by implication James, and he made a bright spot for Narcissa. He glanced over at her. She met his eyes, gave the tiniest of smiles, and threw a wink. Yes, it was worth it, even if Aunt Juno didn't believe him.

Fortunately, she did. She went into a twenty minute tirade at the top of her lungs at Sirius. Xander wisely escaped and sat on the edge of the lawn. A small snake was sunning itself there, and he smiled at it. He liked snakes, some of them at least. He whispered to it. "Sometimes I wish…"

The snake looked up, startled. "Sometimes we all wish, youngling. What is it that you wish?"

Xander's jaw dropped. He'd understood the snake, which meant that he…was a Parselmouth. Looking around nervously, he saw that no one was paying attention to him. He lay back and whispered again, and this time he realized that he was not speaking English. "Sometimes I wish that the world was a better place for all."

"Many wish that. Those that do have two choices: to accept that there is already good in the world, or to make the world better. I choose the first. Is it not a beautiful day? The sun is warm, the prey is plentiful, the rock feels good against my scales. There is good in the world. You must simply find it."

"There is not yet enough good for my kind. I will find it and bring it forth for them. My nest-sister does as well."

"Then I wish you luck. May the luck of all the Speakers before you go with you, Speaker."

"May your prey always be plentiful, my friend."

"Xander!" Trixie was calling him, so he trotted over and followed her over to where his sister and her friends were giggling as Sirius' mother slowly transfigured Lucius back to his normal self.

The Power gave the ethereal equivalent of a smile as it left the snake to go about its business.

September 1, 1974

Xander walked next to Cousin Bellatrix as they moved from the Muggle train station onto the platform. Liselle was up ahead, walking far closer to Nergul Zabini than was entirely proper, but studiously not looking at him. Xander nudged Bellatrix lightly and nodded towards them, and the two exchanged a smirk. He was much closer to Trixie (a name she insisted he never use) than any of his first cousins, much less his other Black second cousins. The Ambrosiuses just stuck up their noses at him (he snubbed them right back), and he only had one cousin on his father's side, who was seven years older than Xander and somewhat in disgrace because he was in Hufflepuff. He was going to miss his favourite cousin. Impulsively, he gave her a hug and stood on his tiptoes to give her a quick peck on the cheek. "I'm going to miss you, Cousin Bellatrix. Write to me?"

She smiled down at him. "I'll miss you too, Xander. But you'll be coming with us in just three more years. Maybe we'll be in the same House!"

He smiled. "Only happen if you're in Ravenclaw! I'm not going anywhere else! So you better try!"

She looked around cautiously, then leaned down to whisper, "Aunt Juno wants me to be Slytherin, but I'd rather Ravenclaw myself. So, with any luck, we'll see each other there." She pecked him on top of the head, before clambering onto the train, turning around, and waving at him. "Bye, Xander! See you at Christmas!" she exclaimed before hurrying into the train. Xander controlled himself from tearing up. It was almost as hard as when Liselle had first left two years before, and he had the nagging suspicion that Bellatrix was hurrying for the same reason.

"Hello." Xander turned around to see a pretty girl about the same age as Bellatrix with red hair and the same eyes as his mother looking at him. "Um…are you lost? Because you look younger than most people here…"

"No, no. I'm not at Hogwarts yet. Not for another three years." That last came out in a slight whine, and he controlled himself. "I'm here to see off my big sister and my cousins."

"Oh. Is everyone in your family magic then? Only I'm…what is it they called it…Muggle-born. I have two big sisters, but only the one is magic. Petunia, the oldest one, is quite jealous, and she's always picking on Lily. I just ignore her. My name's Rose. Rose Evans."

Xander nodded. "Yes, everyone's magic in my family. You might not want to tell people you're Muggle-born. Some people don't approve of Muggleborns getting taught. I think it's nonsense, of course, and so do my Mum and Dad, but some of my cousins are a little more prej… prej… what's the word I'm looking for?"

"Prejudiced?" The girl was frowning at him a little worriedly.

"Yes, that's the word. Don't worry about it. Just don't make a big deal about it either." Seeing her still a little scared, he decided he needed to calm her down a little. "If you want, you can write me about all the silly little things that the purebloods all know. You know, like when to bow, and how to introduce yourself formally, and a few other things like that. Oh, I didn't introduce myself, did I? I'm Alexander Smith. Everyone calls me Xander." He grinned up at her. "You'd better get going or else you'll miss the train. Go ahead and write me even if you don't have anything to ask. I'm rather bored at home sometimes."

In a place beyond human comprehension, two beings chose to exist in such a way that communication between the two was simple. In a manner of communication that no mortal will ever begin to understand, they exchanged concepts of contentment. Their side of the board was set. One spoke, although speech is merely the closest approximation that mortals understand. "Their move." The other sent a concept of uncertainty, tinged with worry, hope and pride. The darkness was gathering. The storm was coming. The final game had truly begun.