Disclaimer is in chapter 1.
Wednesday Addams raised an eyebrow when she entered the drawing room and found Xander wincing as he bandaged his hand.
Xander, looking up, noticed her and grunted, "Your dad's nuts."
She considered that for a moment, debating whether it was intended as an insult or a statement of fact, then shrugged. "Fencing?"
"Is that what you call it? I call it 'Stab Xander Time'."
Judging from the cuts and blood Xander was sporting, Wednesday had to admit that his appellation had merit. She sighed, shaking her head slightly.
"What?" Xander defended himself, "I'm twelve! I've never used a sword before!"
"The second is a reason, the first is not." Wednesday replied dryly, idly taking up a blade from the wall and swishing it through the air. "How is your hand?"
"It'll be ok. I've had worse just mucking around with Jess back home," Xander admitted.
"Good." She said, replacing the sword. "Did father show you anything more then how to bleed?"
Xander rolled his eyes, "He started on about footwork, and talked about lessons."
She smiled lightly, "Perfect. Pay attention to him, Alexander. Father is perhaps one of the finest swordsmen alive today."
"I believe it." Xander grumbled as he reached for another bandage.
"Ah! Alexander, I've been looking for you!"
Xander started as Gomez entered the room, "What for? Come to finish me off!?"
Gomez laughed, "Course not, my boy, I'll do that next lesson. No, I wanted to introduce you to Cousin Itt."
Xander stood up, turning around to say hi to this Cousin, and froze dead as he found himself staring at a walking, five foot tall, bundle of hair.
The hair suddenly jabbered something Xander couldn't hope to decipher in a fast machine gun burst of what Xander could only suppose was words of some kind.
"Quite right!" Gomez responded, "Well boy?"
"Well what!?"
"Bring out the pup, lad, you think Itt here has all day?"
Xander blinked, still confused.
Wednesday sighed, "Cousin Itt came to see Fenrir, Alexander. Remember?"
"Oh, yeah." Xander said slowly, still staring.
Itt chattered again.
"No, no, of course not. You look absolutely spiffy as always," Gomez assured the hair ball.
"Alexander."
The cold tone broke Xander out of his reverie and he shook himself, "What? Oh, yeah... sure."
He whistled once, and there was an almost instant reply as Fenrir bounded into the room while yapping happily. The hairball turned toward the dog and chattered again, causing the pup to skid to a stop and growl as his hackles came up. That didn't seem to perturb the Addams cousin, however, and Xander took a step forward as Fenrir began to circle around.
"It's alright, boy. Not gonna let him, er... it, hurt you." Xander said, causing Fenrir to relax and Itt to go off on another chattering spree.
"Itt, not it." Wednesday growled instantly, in a tone low enough that the other's didn't hear.
"Uh..." Xander blinked, staring at her.
"His name is Itt." She hissed as Itt produced a dog treat from somewhere and tossed it to Fenrir.
"That's what I said?" Xander offered weakly.
She gave him a glare that clearly showed how little she bought into that story, and he buckled.
"Sorry. I'll remember."
Wednesday nodded curtly, and Xander recognized the matter was closed. For now.
Meanwhile Gomez was listening intently to Itt as the furball chattered away.
"You don't say," Gomez said, sounding shocked.
Itt chattered on a little more.
"You don't say." Gomez replied, this time sounding amazed.
Itt nodded, more of a bob Xander noted, and went on again.
"You don't say."
By this point Xander had had enough, he wanted to know what was up with his dog.
"What? What is it?"
"He didn't say." Gomez shrugged.
There was a long moment of silence as Cousin Itt snapped around and seemed to somehow *glare* at Gomez while Wednesday delicately pinched the bridge of her nose as if to stave off a headache.
Gomez, for his part, grinned widely as if he'd just delivered the best punchline ever.
Itt sighed audibly and turned to Wednesday, chattering away.
Wednesday nodded in understanding and looked over to Xander, "Everything is fine with Fenrir."
Xander, distracted from glaring at Gomez, let out a sigh of relief. "Thank god."
"It seems he's made a Familiar Bond with you," She explained, "which has altered his aging to match your own. It's not precisely rare, but not terribly common either."
"So he's going to age as I do?" Xander asked, considering it. That didn't sound too bad at all.
Itt chattered again, then Wednesday nodded.
"Precisely. Cousin Itt says that he should be due for a growth spurt quite soon, as should you." She said, "though he mentions that there could be some unexpected incidents since Fenrir is a magical creature."
"Huh?"
Wednesday rolled her eyes, "Dire wolf, if you'll recall."
"That's not a normal breed of wolf?"
The Addams scion just rolled her eyes and sighed.
Draco Malfoy's mind was reeling as he tried to understand all the things his mother had laid out, knowing even as he did that there was no way his father would agree with even half of them. There was a cold logic to his mother's statements, though, a sort of certainty that he couldn't refute.
One thing that he found disturbing, though, wasn't the differing beliefs of his parents so much as the level of bitterness his mother seemed to hold. He'd never noticed it before, as she had always held herself as the perfect pure blood wife and mother. The way she spoke of the Black line, though, seemed to physically hurt her.
It did hurt him, though he wasn't sure why.
He was a Malfoy. The Malfoy heir even. To the Black line, if the family still existed, Draco was under no illusions of his importance there. If the family were still intact, he would be a moderately important tool and nothing else.
His mother's words still shocked him on that account.
"Muggle-borns have their place, Draco. Make no mistake of that," She had told him hours earlier. "Take yourself for example. As the Malfoy heir, no Matriarch of the Malfoy Line would permit you to be wed to a muggle born..."
Draco had been indignant in his reply, "I should hope not!"
His mother had merely smiled slightly, "A Matriarch of the Black Line, however, would indeed consider a match between you and, perhaps Granger, as a suitable... even desirable, match."
Draco still shuddered to think of his mother's words, even now unable to find any suitable way to respond to them.
She had, of course gone on, "As a member of a Cadet line of the Blacks, that would be your duty. Cadet branches exist to test unknown blood lines, and to filter out unwanted traits. Within a few generations, one of your get would, ideally, be bred back into the main line in the hopes of preserving the best traits of yourself and your wife."
Wife.
Draco shuddered, thanking merlin that he was the Malfoy heir and not some play toy of the Black line. The very IDEA of being married off to some mudblood...
It made him physically ill.
Narcissa laughed softly to herself, remember the look on her son's face from their earlier discussion.
Draco was many things, she supposed, but flexible was not among them. As a mother, she doubted she should take quite so much pleasure in his discomfort, but the bulge in his eyes at the mention of the muggle-borns name had been too funny. She had used Granger intentionally, of course, knowing from Draco's previous rants that, one way or another, her name would evoke an emotional response.
Narcissa wondered if Draco had quite realized yet how open he left himself when he allowed someone to affect him so deeply. Likely not. She wasn't sure if he harbored some hidden crush on the girl, or more likely just a deep envy of her intelligence. Likely the latter, Narcissa supposed, though the former was far from impossible.
The Malfoy Matriarch sighed as she fastened her cloak and made her way down the alley and into Muggle London.
She easily found her way to the hidden bistro buried deep in one of the city's back streets and walked in.
"Ah, Madam Malfoy." The Maître D' smiled warmly. "Your table is waiting, and Madam Tonks has already arrived."
"Thank you, Charles." Narcissa said, her voice polite but cool.
She walked past the man into the dining area and made her way through to the semi-private table where her sister was sitting.
"Ciss."
"Romy."
The two sisters smiled at one another briefly, then laughed softly.
"Your regular orders, my Ladies?"
"Yes, Charles. Thank you." Andromeda said as Narcissa nodded.
"Very well, it won't be a moment."
"Take your time, we have much to catch up on after all." Narcissa told him, her eye gleaming as she looked back at her sister.
Andromeda nodded in return, "Indeed."