Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

Xander met up with Wednesday that night, two among the many students who had elected to see what the new 'Dueling Club' was all about. They made their way to the appointed place, noting the crowd, and took over a section in the corner away from the worst of it.

"This should be cool."

"I hope it's not some inane club intended to promote Professor Lockhart," Wednesday said dryly.

"Nah." Xander shook his head, thinking about the Defense Professor. "The guy's a coward. No way he'd put himself at the end of anyone else's wand."

"People do strange things in pursuit of obsession."

Xander was about to respond when he noted the door open and his stomach dropped as none other than Lockhart himself came prancing in.

"Crap."

"Indeed."

The two of them sat through the Professor's normal long winded introduction of his favorite person, himself, their expectations dropping by the second. He finally nodded across the hall with a flash of a smile, "And just in case things get out of hand, I've invited the school nurse to be here to help out. Please, a little polite applause for Madame Pomfrey."

The entire room applauded, considerably louder than the sparse reception Lockhart had received, which earned a frown from the toothy professor. He shook it off quickly though, inviting the school nurse up to the front.

"Now, perhaps we should show the children what we'll be practicing," he bowed with a flourish as the matronly woman stepped up, lips puckered in a frown, then winked at the students. "Have no fear, you'll still have your nurse when we're done."

Xander rolled his eyes, then did a double take and rolled them again when he noted Hermione staring with a glaze in her eyes as she watched the Professor. Wednesday watched his gaze and nodded minutely.

"Yes. She's still infatuated with him."

"Still?" Xander blinked, "How long has that been going on?"

"Boys." Wednesday muttered, shaking her head. "If you weren't so tied up in your own little games, you would have noticed it at the beginning of term."

Xander frowned. That long?

"Wow." He finally said, then frowned, "Why?"

"I'm sure I have no idea."

They were distracted then as Lockhart and Pomfrey stood across from each other on the platform, wands out.

"On three then," Lockhart chuckled, waving his wand around carelessly. "One... two... three!"

They both snapped their wands forward, snapping out the incantation in sharp tones.

"Expelliarmus!"

Jets of light crossed the platform, striking each of the adults, yet while Lockhart's arm snapped out wildly and his wand flew across the room, Pomfrey managed to hold onto hers. There was a quiet moment, then Lockhart smiled widely.

"There you have it, children. The disarming curse, and I kept my word you see... took it easy on the lovely lady. Thank you so much for your help, madam."

He poured on the charm and the nurse blushed a little in response.

"Not at all, professor."

"Alright, into pairs then." Lockhart said, "practice the spell as you saw, curse to disarm ONLY!"

Xander glanced at Wednesday, who nodded practically imperceptibly, and the two of them cut a bit of space out for themselves. They were soon tossing the curse back and forth, with varying degrees of success, as they practiced the spell. It wasn't long before a disturbance across the room distracted them, and everyone else, however.

"I said disarm only! Disarm only!"

They stopped, glancing over as Lockhart rushed into the middle of what looked like a brawl between Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy. As he broke it up, Draco said something they couldn't hear from across the room and Ron turned ever redder than his hair.

Ron snapped his wand out, yelling, "Take this you turd!"

The spell charged through the Gryff's wand, but something went wrong as it had all session and the wand misfired. A sparkling pulse of magic exploded out the side and drove straight through the crowd and at Xander. He snapped his wand up in response, barely able to think, "Protego!"

A thin, barely formed shield pulsed into being, intercepting the spell before it could hit him, but the power of his shield was too little and it burst an instant later. It had the effect, however, of deflecting the spell to one side and directly into the unusually surprised face of Wednesday Addams.

The Addams Scion gasped in shock rather than anything else as her head snapped back, raven hair haloing around her as she staggered back a step and went down to one knee. Xander lunged in her direction, sliding to his knees at her side.

"Are you ok!?"

Wednesday glared evenly at him and Xander grimaced to see her nose had grown several times it's proper size. Several people were giggling madly around him as Madame Pomfrey pushed through.

"It'll be fine, my dear, I'll have that fixed in just a..."

"I'm fine." Wednesday said coldly, waving the nurse aside. The giggling stopped as several people, including Pomfrey, gasped as her nose visibly began to shrink again. In a few seconds the enlarged nose had returned to normal and the nurse was stammering to explain it.

Wednesday ignored her, however, as did Xander. The duo focused on Ron, who was staring with an interesting look of horror on his face as the terror of the Ravenclaw second years and a Snake stalked in his direction. Before they got halfway there Harry had moved in beside Ron, stepping a little forward to protect the red head.

"It was an accident."

"Accidents happen a lot around him lately." Xander growled.

"It's not my fault!" Ron blurted, "My wand..."

"Should be replaced." Xander ground out.

Ron flushed, "I... I haven't been able to get to Diagon Alley and..."

"Need I remind you that accidents can happen... to anyone?" Wednesday asked darkly, causing several people around her to pale.

Hermione, swallowing, stepped in between them. "He didn't mean it, really..."

"He's a menace, Hermione." Xander muttered, then shook his head.

Wednesday glanced at him and seemed to come to a conclusion. "Indeed. Come, Alexander. I think we've learned what little there was to learn here."

The two turned and marched out of the room as people moved out of their way.

Harry looked over at Ron and let out a sigh, "You need a new wand, mate."

Ron just looked a little sick, but didn't argue. Hermione looked torn for a moment then looked back at her friends. "I have to go for a minute."

She rushed off, leaving them confused.

"Girls." Ron muttered, shrugging.

That evening, after the dueling club had let out with no further incidents, Ron and Harry were making their way back to the Gryffindor tower when a shadowed form stepped out into their path and stopped them. Both went for their wands as they recognized Xander.

"You want trouble, Harris you snake, we'll give it to you." Ron threatened, his wand wobbling a little as he shook it.

"Weasley, the safest place in this entire school is staring down the business end of your wand." Xander countered, rolling his eyes.

Ron flushed his hand shaking even more, but before he could do anything Xander through something at him. He caught it on reflex, dropping his wand in the process, then winced as it hit the ground.

"Yeah. That's not a great reflex either, Weasley." Xander rolled his eyes. "Might want to work on that."

Ron flushed, then glanced down at the object Xander had thrown him. "What's this?"

He shook it, then his eyes widened as he recognized the sound of Galleons rattling inside. He looked up, confused.

"I want to buy your wand."

"What?" Ron blurted, "Why? It's broken!"

"Exactly. I want to find out a bit on how they're made," Xander said, "And I'm sure as hell not going to take *mine* apart. Yours is already broken, you need a new one, I need one I don't care about. There's fifteen galleons there. That should cover a new wand."

Ron swallowed, looking down at the money pouch. "I..."

Xander just waved off what he was saying, already moving to leave. "Think about it. When I get back from the holidays you either give me my money back, or you give me your old wand. I don't *really* care which, but if you 'accidentally' curse Wednesday or Hermione again I'm going to take it out of your hide as if you did it on purpose."

Ron didn't get another comment out before Xander was gone. He looked over at Harry, face confused. "What do I do, mate?"

Harry was torn, uncertain what to say. His best friend was notoriously uptight about money, something Harry had yet to find a way around. If he accepted this from Harris, well all the better in Harry's opinion. Harry didn't want to make it seem like he was trying to encourage Ron to accept charity or anything though.

"Well, fifteen galleons is probably a little above market for a broken wand," Harry allowed after a moment.

"Yeah," Ron mumbled, sagging a little.

"On the other hand, I haven't seen too many around." Harry said, thinking about it. "What do wizards do with broken wands anyway?"

Ron seemed a little surprised, "Well... throw them out I suppose. Doesn't happen a lot, though. Most wizards take good care of their wands."

"Well, then it wouldn't be easy for him to get even a broken wand, would it?" Harry said reasonably. "I think he knows it's a bit over the top for price, but I expect he doesn't care."

Ron nodded sourly, "He got all that money, right? Rumors are all over school."

"Not what I meant, mate." Harry corrected, "You hit his friend with a curse..."

"That was an accident!"

"I know that, mate," Harry said placatingly. "The point is, what would you pay to protect Ginny? Or Hermione?"

"You think he doesn't really care about the broken wand?" Ron asked, a twisted look on his face.

"Probably not a lot," Harry admitted, "But who knows? Now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind figuring out how a wand is put together myself."

Ron looked at his friend like he was a little batty, "it's a wand, Harry. What's so special about it?"

Harry sighed. Sometimes he really didn't understand people who were raised in the magical world. "Ron, just cause you don't care how it works doesn't mean others feel the same."

The school's fall session ended shortly after that and Xander met Wednesday at the train as they had agreed.

"Ready?" She asked him as he approached.

"For another holiday with your family? No, but I'll muddle through," Xander grinned.

The dark girl almost smiled at that, not quite giving away her amusement. The Addamses were not as oblivious as it often appeared to outsiders. She, and they, knew that their way of life was far from the accepted norm. They mostly just didn't care. They lived as they chose and would not apologize for it, even by way of explaining themselves to outsiders.

Few such outsiders voluntarily exposed themselves to further contact after the first, however. She was impressed that Xander was coming, even though she knew that his options were limited. International portkeys weren't cheap and, while he did have money now, she didn't think it had quite settled in to his way of thinking.

Still, he could stay at Hogwarts easily enough, yet she had a distinct feeling that he wanted to come with her. The year before he had honestly seemed to enjoy his time, mostly, and he seemed to be looking forward to more.

She just shrugged, "Father is meeting us in London. Apparently the headmaster asked him not to come to the school again... he scared Mr. Filch."

Xander snickered. It figured that Filch would be scared of anyone who seemed to agree with the caretaker's own suggestions concerning the ancient torture devices he was constantly jabbering about.

"Well then, let's catch that train." Xander said with a smile, "We wouldn't want to strain poor Filch's heart any more by missing the ride and making Mr. Addams come fetch us."

"Certainly not." Wednesday agreed solemnly as they made their way to the train.

Xander almost would have sworn he heard the tiniest hint of a giggle in her voice. Almost.