Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

"Dude!"

Xander half turned, looking over his shoulder to see Jessie approaching with Jonathan and Warren in tow. He grinned, waving to the trio as they approached, "hey guys! Right on time."

The trio grinned and nodded to Xander as he turned with them and the group headed into Sunnydale's games and comics shop. Xander grinned as he looked around, nodding to the owner.

"Xan!" Michael Smith greeted him with a smile, "Haven't seen you in ages."

"Boarding school, same as last year." Xander replied, pausing to lean on the counter and chat with the man who had pretty much singlehandedly supplied him and Jessie with years' worth of comics.

"Doing well, I hope?"

"Not bad," Xander said, "I'm not going to take honor spots, but I'm doing pretty good according to some people."

"Good, good. Here for the comics you've missed?" Smith asked, grinning.

"Actually, these delinquents are trying to get me hooked on gaming now." Xander said, grinning back.

"Oh, excellent, those cost MUCH more than comics."

Xander laughed, but nodded, "Yeah, well I guess I better see what they're about then, huh?"

"You have any questions, just ask, I'm here all day."

"And most nights, as I recall." Melinda Smith, Michael's wife said as she walked over. "Hello, Xander."

"Hey, Mel." Xander nodded.

"Gaming now, is it?" She asked with a smirk.

"Hey, you told us that it was our duty to sucker... er, invite our friends into the fold," Jessie spoke up.

Mel rolled her eyes, "Subtle you ain't, McNally. Ok, what game are you interested in, Xan?"

"I want all of them," Xander smirked.

"What?" Mel blinked, noting with surprise that the others didn't seemed phased.

"Well, I want details on all the magic systems, spells, stuff like that." Xander amended. "So any books on magic, at least, plus the core rules I guess."

"Whoa. That's going to set you back a little."

"That's ok, for this I can afford it." Xander said, knowing that he'd basically sold the idea as 'educational' to his parents, so they weren't going to make a fuss over the money, even though they still had some control over his accounts until he was eighteen.

"Alright..."

The day was spent picking up core books and magic based sourcebooks for everything from AD&D to Gurps, from necromancy to Technomancy, and everything in between. The hit to his back account didn't quite break the thousand dollar mark, but only because they only stocked the more popular books.

Mel promised to find more uncommon titles, and even said she would check into older occultist titles if he was interested. Xander wasn't sure if those would be of much use compared to the books he could find easily in the Magical quarters, but he agreed anyway.

If nothing else, between Wednesday, Willow, and Hermione he was quite certain that any book he bought would eventually be read on way or the other.

He wasn't buying any of these titles to learn magic, of course, but rather because he thought that maybe he could learn new ways to use magic. There were some cool ideas in the Gurps book on Technomancy, if they could figure out why electronics and magic didn't mix of course.

Besides, it was really pretty fun reading, and more importantly it was something he and Jessie could get together and do to catch up. Xander wasn't sure he liked the way things were going in Sunnydale, from what he could tell Jessie and Willow were drifting apart, and he was worried about where that left his best gal pal. Wills had never been the sort to make friends easily, all through grade school it had really just been him and Jessie, no one else lasted.

Girls and guys alike were put off by her intelligence, Xander knew. So much so that Willow had gotten progressively shier as the years went by, her bubbly nature being buried slowly under more and more self-conscious fears.

Really, he worried about her.

Oh, not in the long run. Xander was pretty certain that Willow would eventually blow past anything the world left in her road, but in the short run she was hurt so easily. He knew she had to be hurting that Jessie was hanging around less, but he also figured that she was hurting because he wasn't around.

That really bothered him, because he didn't see any way around it. School mattered to him suddenly, but even so he'd throw it out for Willow, except that Xander knew she'd skin him alive if she did.

Shy and bubbly was one thing, but Angry Willow was a scary sight to see.

"Xander!"

Xander shook his head, looking up, "Huh?"

"I asked which game you wanted to try tonight?" Jessie asked him again, nodding to the stack of books laid out in front of them.

Xander forced a smile, pushing the thoughts aside for another time. "Let's just stick with your campaign, guys, at least until we read through these more."

And so the summer moved on, with Xander's time being split between his family and his friends. Sam had a contact that secured Xander an ample supply of graphite rods to play with, and even came up with another suggestion for them to pursue.

The former Seal knew a bit about high tech materials, though how and why Xander didn't know, nor did he press on, and had some suggestions to make on his own.

"So you're using graphite as blanks for making wands?" Sam asked, drumming his fingers on his chin as he considered what Xander had mentioned, "Interesting. Never heard of that before."

"Well, it was Willow's suggestion really."

Willow blushed, "It was nothing, just obvious I think."

"So obvious no one thought of it yet, at least as far as I know." Sam said with a smile, then looked pensive, "yeah, I think I can get you a supply. There's a company that does contract work for Darpa, supplying stuff like that, I know a guy. Have you thought about Carbon Fiber rods, though? Or Carbon rods?"

Xander looked blank, "Aren't they all carbon?"

Sam chuckled, "Sure, but Graphite is a naturally occurring crystal. You might want to figure out if it's the carbon that matters, or the molecular bond."

Willow's eyes lit up, "Of course!"

"Huh?" Xander shook his head.

"Diamond and Graphite are both allotropes of Carbon, they're not 'just' Carbon, Xander." Willow said in a rush, "We should try both of Sam's suggestions, and anything else we can think of that might work."

"Alright. So where do we get Carbon rods and Carbon Fiber?"

"Carbon rods are used in a lot of things, including nuclear reactors," Sam said pensively, "But they're not restricted, so we can get a hold of those easily. Carbon fiber rods are a bit rarer, but I know a guy at Lockheed. I'll make some calls."

So they got new materials and continued the experimentation, with Wednesday regularly coming through the Floo to join in. It didn't take long to determine that carbon rods worked fine, but didn't have the flex of graphite, which made them less suitable for charms but quite decent for curses. The common swish and flick motion that formed the basis of most charms movements was enhanced by a little flex in the wand, while curses required a strong steely anchor to properly cast.

Carbon fiber was a mixed bag, though, which puzzled the trio. Some blanks worked exceptionally well, rivaling Xander and Wednesday's matched wands in some areas, depending on the cores, yet others were completely useless and seemed to turn out dud wands as far as any of them could determine.

With continued experiments, though, they were able to start cataloging different results based on materials used.

Unicorn tail hair worked best with Graphite, particularly when they carefully aligned the hair along the length and fixed it in the precise center of the blank. The resulting wand was exceptional for charms work, and quite decent for transfiguration, but very poor indeed for curses.

Basilisk material showed promise when combined with pure Carbon rods, and was frighteningly good for curses, particularly the darker ones in Wednesday's repertoire. Xander suspected that a Carbon wand made with core material from Basilisk venom or powdered basilisk eye would be something terrible to behold, indeed. The material was, however, nearly worthless at charms work, and only moderately decent at some transfiguration spells.

Also, while the Carbon rods were tough, they were also somewhat brittle in the size and lengths used. Plenty of drawbacks when compared to their strengths, such that Xander couldn't see one being practical as it stood.

Still, they carefully documented each wand they made, and began to wonder about other core materials.

They finally had to go back into LA and look up some Wand crafters, just to ask their questions.

Phoenix Feather, they learned, was beyond rare. When Xander asked around in Three Angels, the response was unequivocal, phoenix core wands were generally only made once or twice a generation, and sometimes not at all. They were considered by many to be among the most powerful of wands, however, though it was probably more due to those who wielded them than the wands themselves.

Wendelyn The Weird, an exceptionally powerful witch from Spain, who Xander had learned about in History of Magic, was one. Benjamin Franklin was another, as was Nicholas Flamel. Albus Dumbledore himself was rumored to use a Phoenix core wand, though there was some dispute over than, from what the local Wand crafter had to say. Apparently during his battle with Grindlewald, the Arch Mage had indeed used a Phoenix core wand, the same wand he had used all his life up to that point. Afterwards, however, several historians had noted that he began using a different wand in public.

The most powerful wand, speaking of legends, was of course the fabled Elder wand. Made of Elder wood and Thestral Hair, it was one of the so called Deathly Hallows. Supposedly it made its wielder unbeatable in combat, though it's bloodied history of one dead wielder after another made Xander doubt the stories. It sounded rather Lord of the Rings, to him, with the so called all powerful artifact actually being cursed and not blessed.

Dragon Heartstrings were actually the most common of core materials, since one dragon's heart could supply the material for hundreds of wands. It was this, in fact, that led to Dragons being a protected species by Wizard Kind, since they had been hunted to near extinction by Wizards who wanted to turn their flesh into materials for spells, wands, and other magical artifacts. Even today, Xander learned, Dragon poaching was a serious problem in many parts of the world.

In the end, though, all their questions came back to one simple truth.

Any magical creature could donate material to create a wand core, some wand crafters had even created functional wands with human hairs from witches and wizards. The key was to take the material from as close to a creature's center of magic as possible. In many cases wand crafters had to settle for second best, however. In Unicorns the horn would be the ideal, however only the darkest of dark would craft a wand from that, and the consensus was that such a wand would never suit them. Dragon hearts were more potent, because that was the true center of the Dragon's power, while Phoenix feathers were probably one or two steps removed from the true center of the avians magic, which made the potency of feather core wands even more impressive.

What it came down to, Xander, Willow, and Wednesday decided was experimentation. They would have to acquire material from as many creatures as they could, within ethical bounds, and build wands to see what happened.