Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

"My, my, who have you been talking with?"

Narcissa Malfoy was surprised to see the shift in direction the young man had taken, moving away from practical spells into pureblood politics of all things. This was one of her areas of expertise, of her family only Andromeda had surpassed her in this field, and Andy had long since retired from this field to live with her muggle born lover.

In her mind she refused to consider the man as Andy's husband, he simple wasn't worthy of her sister, even if Andy had been stricken from the family lineage.

She noted some interesting observations in the notes, and was surprised that the boy seemed to grasp some of the less obvious effects the war had had on house lines. Given his relative ignorance of such things up to this point, it seemed obvious that he had acquired another tutor.

Narcissa made some notes in return, pointing out a few of the things she had determined over the intervening years, and corrected a few of his false assumptions. She hesitated when she noticed his notations on the Black family as it pertained to one Draco Malfoy in particular. He was under the impression that the Black family was, for all intents and purposes, dead.

Now that thought rankled, even if it was her son who was poised to take over the family in a few years. It especially rankled because it was true. Narcissa was a proud Black, and it maddened her to know how badly her family had fared in the war.

Oh, it was certainly no worse than many others, she could admit, but they were Blacks by God, they were better than that. Many of the Blacks had sided with the Dark Lord, many others had chosen the ministry. Sirius had stepped into line with Dumbledore, alone among his family.

The results for the male heirs of the family was uniformly consistent. They all died, no matter what side they chose. All save for Sirius, of course, who had turned out to be a traitor.

Narcissa hadn't believed it when she heard it, actually. It seemed impossible, Sirius was devoted to James Potter. If the Potter's had been a Noble Family, Narcissa had little doubt that Sirius would have sworn allegiance to them.

For him to betray them, well it was inconceivable.

However, after long weeks and months with no public trial, no scandal, no sound out of him whatsoever... well, even she had her doubts. If he had pulled off such a spectacular infiltration of the so called 'light', well she rather suspected that his mother would have been proud. For all the good it would have done the old bat, her sons both dead on the altar of that maniac's agenda.

Narcissa sighed and closed the book, not in the mood to make the usual corrective notes any longer. She remembered the days following the Dark Lord's defeat quite well. It had been a panicked time in Malfoy Manor, with Lucius constantly hosting meetings with the surviving Death Eaters and Ministry officials.

A huge chunk of the Malfoy fortune had vanished in those few weeks, but they came through it intact and still strong enough to rebuild, which was better than most. She had gained a respect for her husband then, recognizing that he was capable of great things when pushed. His adulation of the Dark Lord aside, Lucius Malfoy was an impressive individual.

Over the years, though, he had grown more and more bitter over the loss of destiny as he saw it. Muggle-borns were becoming more common, as squib births also rose among pureblood families. Narcissa closed her eyes, thinking of her second son and only daughter, two children who had mysteriously vanished when the standard magical tests revealed them to be squib born.

After the birth, and disappearance, of Morgana Malfoy, her third child, Lucius stopped coming to her bedchambers entirely. Their love life had never been what Lilly would have referred to as 'hot and heavy', but it ended then, with the second squib birth. She had never been able to get Lucius to tell her what happened to either of them, whether he'd sent them away or...

Narcissa closed her eyes and cried silently, as she learned to do a long time earlier.

The second term seemed to rush along, Xander felt, weeks passing in a blur as he attended classes and found himself actually trying to learn as much as he could for the first time in his life. Part of it was the fact that the classes were simply damned cool, in his opinion, but part of it was self-defense as well.

He wasn't really safe even in his own bed, he learned after some petty retribution from Malfoy left him in the infirmary for a few hours after a hex on his bedclothes left him with a bad rash. So advanced reading in defense put him around fifth in the class, behind Harry, Hermione, Wednesday, and Draco himself unfortunately enough.

Charms were cool, and he did pretty well there, second in his house year, but only eighth overall. His marks in transfiguration and potions were roughly in the same category, which meant that while he wasn't up for any honor awards, his scores were respectable.

Willow would be so proud.

That said, he filed Malfoy away as a minor pest, and returned his focus to the twins.

The Gryffindor/Hufflepuff Quidditch match was nearly on them by that point, and Xander decided that the time was set to spring his little trap. After a hurried conference with Tonks, who had held up her end of the bargain, Xander planted the goods in the Gryffindor laundry while the Elves were away, and ducked out to await the fireworks.

They hit the morning of the match, much to Xander's delight. He hadn't been able to exactly ensure the timing, so he'd hedged his bets a little with some extra work, and it seemed to pay off.

Breakfast was in full swing, the whole school turned out as they were eager to see the match play out and watched a good jump on the day. At the Gryff table the twins were making their usual spectacle when one of the pranks went off on Neville, leaving the boy sprouting feathers and attracting the attentions of the entire hall on their table as the Gryffs began to laugh.

It was the perfect cue for Xander and he drew his wand under the table, then carefully nodded to Tonks. She nodded back and they both cast the spell she had tutored him in until he had it perfect. It was really just a slightly more advanced version of the first year Finite spell, designed to cancel simple and unprotected charms and jinxes. This one was selective as well, letting them target a specific spell, as long as they knew it was there.

Which, of course, they did.

Half the Gryff table suddenly yelped as the other half were just as suddenly dressed in Slytherin Green. Ronald Weasley had somehow found himself wearing a large green foam finger with the #1 written on it in silver, and he wasn't the only one. As most of them stared at it, and the other similar touches in dumbfounded shock, it slowly penetrated into their heads and the roar of outrage began.

A roar that ended just as quickly when they realized that not everyone affected had been hit the same way.

Xander had considered leaving it at that, for about a second. Then he decided that merely returning the favor wasn't remotely enough. So he made special arrangements for two of the Gryffs.

The Twins were staring at each other in a strange mix of shock and delight, which Xander found kinda disturbing actually. The rest of the school, however, was just staring in delight as the laughter swelled.

Their robes had been replaced by green and silver, true enough, but the ultrashort miniskirts they now had on showed off two pairs of truly horrifying legs, and the stuffed shirts gave the twins more prominent chests than any girl in the entire school.

They, in unison, came to a conclusion and instantly drew their wands and pointed it at each other just as Xander had *dearly* hoped they would.

"Finite incantatem!" They yelled together.

The school gasped in total shock as their spells worked flawlessly, removing the spells on the Cheerleader outfits instantly. Unfortunately, since both outfits had been conjured by Tonks and not made from real materials, the Twins found themselves standing in front of the entire school in their underwear.

One had red shorts with blue polka dots, while the other apparently preferred blue shorts with red dots. Xander, very briefly, wondered which was which but really didn't care. He just smiled smugly and sat back as everyone else laughed their asses off.

Justice served.

"Merlin, Xander, that was perfect!" Tonks laughed, tears rolling down her cheeks as she leaned against the stone wall. "Forgive me for doubting you!"

"You're forgiven, but please not so loud!" Xander hissed, checking around the common room to see if anyone was near.

Tonks nodded, catching her breath, "Sorry. Though anyone here who hears you will likely give you a medal!"

"Maybe, but I'd rather the twins didn't get any idea who set them up, if you don't mind." Xander smirked.

"Yeah, that would be bad," She agreed. "Whatever gave you the idea of using cheerleader outfits anyway?"

Xander shrugged, "I've never liked cheerleaders."

Tonks raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment, "Well midget, if you need any more help, I'm you're metamorph."

"I'll keep that in mind," Xander grinned, "But all things considered I'm hoping to stay under the radar for a bit."

She laughed and nodded, heading for the seventh year girls dorms as Xander made ready to do some work while the rest of the school obsessed over Quidditch.

The Gryff's won their match despite the flaming red faces and general humiliation they went through over the next couple days. Their point lead in the race for the house cup was secured by the win, then lost the same night when Harry, Hermione, and Ronald were caught out after dark, which lead the Xander being on the receiving end of a long and bitter pity party when he met Hermione in the library with Wednesday.

He would have let it go, knowing that his friend did have some cause to wail, but he wasn't an Addams.

"Shut up."

Hermione snapped back like she'd been slapped, staring in shock at the other girl. "What?"

"I said, shut up." Wednesday told her. "You took the risks of breaking the rules, and now you suffer the consequences of getting caught. Have the strength of your convictions and accept the responsibility for it. Next time either do not break the rules, or do not get caught."

Hermione quailed under the flat glare sent her way, but shuddered at the very idea of a next time. "Next time? There won't BE a next time! I'm never breaking the rules again!"

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, "And you're sure you are a Gryffindor?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"There are times when you do what is right, not what it expected or required. That is having courage of your convictions," Wednesday told her, "tell me, was it worth it?"

"What? Was what worth it?"

"You were out after curfew for a reason. Was it a foolish reason, or did you have a worthy cause?"

Hermione hesitated, then chewed on her lower lip. "We had a cause."

"Was it worth a hundred and fifty points?" Wednesday asked, not caring what the cause itself was.

Hermione hesitated again, then nodded.

"Then congratulations, most would have lost those points for something stupid. So shut up and let's study." The dark girl said calmly, returning to her books.

That ended the whining for the evening in a single swoop, and Xander was glad of it cause he had been feeling a little guilty about having made his friends day a little harder with his counter-prank.

The end of term was upon them quickly after that, with days rushing by until the exams were looming in the near future, and Xander found himself worrying about his brown haired friend.

Put frankly, Hermione was acting pretty weird.

Even Wednesday had remarked on it in her normal laconic way.

Of course it might have been the stress of exams, since Hermione was one seriously scary person under stress, but somehow Xander didn't think that was it. He found himself watching her intently, and realized shortly that it wasn't just her, but also Harry and Ronald as well.

He hoped they weren't up to more of whatever it was that got them in trouble before, cause he figured that there was only so much even the lax Dumbledore would accept before kicking someone out of school, but was actually kind of relieved that it wasn't just his friend. She'd have someone to cover her back, at least, and would hopefully know to ask for help if she needed it.

Besides, he was having more twin problems himself.

"We know..."

"It was you."

The two red heads had cornered him after dinner sometime after the great green Slytherin cheer event and confronted him with that.

"What was me?" Xander asked, faking a bewildered look.

They leveled steady gazes on him.

"That little prank."

"Me!? How could I pull that off!?" Xander went into his prepared act, "I'm only a firstie, remember? Those spells were way beyond me!"

The twins sighed in unison.

"That bothered us too,"

"Until we decided that you simply recruited help."

The two glared at him then, "You hand out with Hermione, did you put her up to helping you?"

Ouch. Xander almost winced at that, then returned the glare.

"Leave her out of this, if you go after my friends I'll make that prank look like a tack on your chair!"

The two looked confused.

"What's a tack?"

"And why would it be on our chair?"

Xander groaned, shaking his head, "Never mind. I didn't recruit Hermione in any pranks, I wouldn't do that to her."

"You're a snake."

"Of course you would."

Xander growled, glaring up at the duo, "I'm warning you..."

The twins smirked, "ooh, the ickle firstie is warning us."

"So scary."

"We're just telling you we know."

"So watch your back, ickle Alex."

"We're Weasleys. We don't get even..."

"We get ahead."

After that conversation, Xander had spent the following days dodging minor pranks and jokes from the twins bag of surprises. Luckily in this matter he HAD recruited Hermione, and she fed him inside information on what they were cooking up. Or, at least, what they had cooked up.

The twins were, as he found out in short order, pretty impressive at potions and charms. He learned quickly to be careful what he ate, as the twins were good at packing tricks into food, and had some way of getting it on the tables even in the Great Hall.

That really only meant one thing, of course.

They had an in with the Elves.

Luckily they tended to test their concoctions on their fellow Gryffs, which usually let Hermione warn him about what may be coming down the pipeline. After the first bout of transfiguration at the table, Xander had quickly gone to the elves and asked them to remain neutral, but had been informed that they never took sides.

Of course, as Xander had already proven, they could be duped.

That resulted in a sudden interest in learning detection spells, after which Xander and the twins found themselves at a stalemate once more. Of course, no one else had any idea that there was any sort of feud ongoing, as Xander wasn't admitting to anything, and the twins sure as hell weren't going to tell anyone that they had been pranked by a firstie.

"How long do you intend to let them get away with this?"

Xander looked up as Tonks sat by him in the corner of the common room where he was studying for the exams that were beginning the next day. "Get away with what?"

She glared at him, "All the charmed food and stuff they've been sneaking onto the table."

Xander shrugged, "it's minor stuff, Tonks. If I shoot back it'll just confirm that I was behind the stunt they're really mad about. Then we'll have a real war on our hands."

"Scared of them then?" Tonks smirked.

"Honestly? Yes." Xander grinned back. "I'm not in their league, and next year you'll be gone. So let them have their fun. They'll soon get tired of it and start to think that they have the wrong guy, and that's when they better start looking over their shoulders."

Tonks smirked, "Damn. You are a snake."

"No, I'm Xander." Xander replied, extending a hand, "nice to meet you."

She snorted, "Almost makes me wish I wasn't graduating, should be interesting next year."

"If I come back." Xander shrugged.

"You're not coming back?"

"Don't know. This place isn't as bad as I thought at first, but it's kinda treacherous," Xander admitted, "I don't like having to check my bed for Malfoy's tricks, my food for the twins pranks, and my back for whoever else I may have annoyed."

Tonks nodded, "Yeah, I get that. Still, be a shame to lose you, midget. You've got potential."

"Thanks, Tonks."