Disclaimer is in chapter 1.
Sirius looked around his new flat, that is his new apartment, with satisfaction. The Goblins had dutifully transferred a portion of his funds to the American Branch, more than enough to see to his needs, and he'd settled on a nice one bedroom loft overlooking the main park in the center of Three Angels.
The magical energy that crackled through the area was amazing, he had to admit. He'd only felt it's like at Hogwarts, and Sirius would be hard pressed to say that Hogwarts was stronger. The Geomantic energies from the Ring of Fire location were immense, and he had to admit that the Americans had put it to good use.
Three Angels was dozens of times the size of the Magical Centers in London or Paris, both of which he was intimately familiar with. In fact it *wasted* more space than either of those places even had with its immense magical park that actually housed many magical creatures native to the region. Back home reserves like this would be cut out of unused land, not expanded Wizarding Space in the center of a muggle city!
He shook his head clear and went over the list of things he needed to get done once more. Finding Harris wasn't too hard, the kid had given him everything but his street address, and as it turned out the Ministry here had his Floo address listed in the public directory.
Next he had to see if he could get a hold of Harry, or rather the best way to do so. Owls across the pond weren't the best way to go, but at the very least he should be able to send a message back with Harris, assuming the kid didn't get kicked out of England for helping him. Either way, he had some work to do.
Xander rubbed his temples as he set his wand down, focusing on the identical devices he had crafted using brass fittings, old bronze trophies, and some gold coins he'd managed to get his hands on. They didn't look much like what he had envisioned when he started out, but just the same the little buggers looked pretty cool.
The Protean had been cast, twice, and he was feeling pretty much tapped out but happy all the same. Now all he needed to do was finish up the second phase of the project.
He set aside the two devices, content with the work so far and turned to the pile of Lego Technix he'd bought from Toys R Us, letting his mind clear as he worked with the mechanical blocks.
Occlumency was a bore, but sometimes he could just see what Thomas was talking about. Momentary flashes where Xander felt like he was able to see for the first time in his entire life, like the big picture was just in his grasp after a lifetime of seeing nothing but narrow flashes. Such moments were difficult to maintain, however and faded really quickly.
Thomas told him that as he continued to improve, he'd be able to hold those moments longer and once he began training in Legilimency, they would be even more intense. Xander wasn't sure he could handle *more* intense.
"Alex!" His mother called down. "Floo Call!"
Xander jumped up, moving before his mind had fully caught up to his body, and was halfway up the stairs before he realized he was moving.
Weird.
He shuddered, but kept moving. Sometimes the mental disconnect that was part of Occlumency training was disconcerting.
He waved to his Mom as he headed for the living room and pulled up a sofa chair as he leaned in close to the flame and smiled.
"Wednesday!" He called, "How are you? Did you get clear ok? Jeeze, it's been weeks..."
"I am fine." The Addams scion said with a hint of a smile, "And everything went well. Buckbeak is now happily roaming with a herd on one of the Addams' Clan habitats in Eastern Europe."
"Cool. Glad to hear it, so you didn't get into trouble?"
"My parents were pleased with my initiative."
Xander chuckled, unsurprised.
"May I come through?"
"Sure, come on," Xander jumped up and pushed the chair back.
The flames flickered for a moment, then roared out in a rush, and Wednesday stepped calmly through and idly brushed the soot from her clothes.
"It's good to see you," Xander gave her a quick hug.
Wednesday stiffened slightly, a look of momentary surprise floating across her face, but she returned the embrace quickly and nodded as they parted. "You as well."
"So," The girl went on a moment later, "Are you in trouble for your actions?"
"Nah, looks like I'm in the clear." Xander said, frowning slightly, "From what I've been told the Minister has dropped any complaints against me, at the request of the Malfoys."
That too surprised Wednesday as the two headed down to the basement, "I must admit to being surprised. Headmaster Dumbledore, I would expect perhaps, but not the Malfoys."
"I think it's Narcissa," Xander said thoughtfully, "Remember, she and I have been communicating through the Grimoire since first year, plus she really wanted to save Sirius."
"Oh?"
"Last of his blood line," Xander explained, "From the notes she left, he's the last of the main Black Family, and the only person left alive with the full measure of the Black's ability to sense Magic. Sirius was a Curse breaker for the Auror division back during the war."
"Impressive." Wednesday allowed, understanding the motivations of Narcissa Malfoy now. "She's trying to continue the line, then."
"Probably," Xander nodded.
"Still, be wary of the Malfoy's, Xander. We have not seen particularly worthy attributes in either of the two we have met in person."
Xander nodded again, "yeah. Don't worry I will."
"Good." Wednesday looked over the work table and frowned, "What is this?"
"You like?" Xander scooped up one of the objects on the table and tossed it to her.
"What is it?" She asked, turning the metallic object over in her hand.
It was a small box, perhaps the size of four match boxes glued together, with a metallic grill on one side. She thumbed the grill slightly and noticed that it flipped open, so she pushed it all the way up. Underneath it was a series of concentric circles with runes laid out evenly around them and, as she explored with her thumb, she found that the circles turned easily.
"Check it out," Xander said, picking up the other one and flipping it open. He twisted the circles easily, then thumbed down the rune in the center.
Wednesday was surprised when the one in her hand whistled softly.
"Put to your ear," Xander said, putting his own up.
She did as she was bade and was surprised when Xander's next words came from the metal grill.
"I call it a Spell Phone." he grinned at her.
Surprised or not, Wednesday groaned slightly and lowered the device as she pinched her nose. "You do not."
"Sure I do, why not?" Xander smirked.
"You are a simple little being, you know that right?"
Xander nodded in agreement, "Hey it was that or go with my original plan and call it a Kirk Special."
She blinked, then looked at the device again, and winced a second time. It was indeed clearly based on the communicators from the original Star Trek series, though the solid brass and bronze work, as well as the various additions, gave it a unique appearance all the same.
"Show me your work," She said after a moment, impressed with the design and detail of the construction, if not with its name.
Xander grinned wide and flipped open his note book, "It's not that tough. The hardest part was casting the Protean."
"It is NEWT level," She commented.
"Yeah, seriously. I screwed it up three times before I got the first one right. Four more times before the second one worked," Xander sighed, "Ruined seven 'home' runes."
"Home Runes?"
"The center rune," He explained, "it's what primarily identifies each phone. The protean only connects identical objects, right?"
She nodded. The Protean was based on the Similarity Principal of magic, so by extension only objects that were 'similar' were connected by the spell.
"Well the rings let you dial a specific phone," Xander explained, "Using the home rune as the keystone. That way we don't wind up with one huge party line."
"Impressive." Wednesday allowed, "You plan to make more?"
He nodded, "Yeah. One for you and one for Willow at least. These two are for me."
"Why two?"
Xander grinned, "That's the brilliant part."
"Somehow I'm now frightened." She told him blandly.
"I'll show you when I'm done. I guess we'll need one for Hermione too," Xander said after a moment, "And if her then Harry and probably Ron."
"You could sell them," Wednesday suggested, "Surely they'd be in demand?"
"Illegal." Xander shrugged, "Just owning one is kind of borderline in Britain. We're ok here, but we still can't sell them."
"Really? Why?"
"Not sure, but I found it out when I was researching the Protean." Xander explained, "The law reads kind of weird, but basically it translates into making most communications devices that use the protean or similar magic a legal grey area. Basically you can make them, but not sell them. Which really means that very few people can get them, cause it's NOT an easy spell."
Wednesday nodded, knowing from experience helping Hermione enchant Xander's Map that the spell was quite taxing, and very intricate. She was actually surprised that Xander had only destroyed seven Home Runes in his attempts to make two working devices. She wouldn't have expected him to succeed at all, the spell was that difficult. She looked closer at him, then realized something.
"You've changed."
"Huh?" Xander blinked.
"Something is different about you." She said, "You're... calmer."
"Oh, that. Occlumency lessons, I guess. Been meditating." Xander shrugged, then frowned, "You can really tell?"
She nodded slowly, "it's faint, but the traces are there. Your magic is more controlled now."
"Cool. I guess it's working."
"Why are you taking lessons?" She asked, though she did approve, both of the lessons and the changes they had wrought already.
"I'm getting some lessons in fighting from a guy named Chayton," Xander explained, then frowned, "Though my uncle keeps calling him Falcon."
"Chayton is Sioux for Falcon."
"That would explain that." Xander admitted, "Anyway, he says that Occlumency and Legilimency are key skills to have."
"Indeed." Wednesday said, considering.
Traditionally the Addams clan had very little use for Occlumency. Few were the fools who entered an Addams mind uninvited. Few were the fools who entered invited, for that matter. However, she had to admit that if only a short couple weeks of training had changed Xander visibly, whether the skill may have other uses than mere defense of the mind should be considered.
She would have to look into it, she decided.
"So, it's settled then?" Narcissa Malfoy said calmly, her voice firm.
"Yes, Dear." Lucius replied, gritting his teeth.
Few were the times that his wife challenged him, fewer still when she won, but honestly there was no sense fighting her over this. In truth, it was a good move for the family, but it went against his grain to do it just the same.
"Good. We'll extend an invitation for Mr. Harris to join us for the World Cup later this summer." Narcissa said with a calm smile.
"Xander?" Willow called as she let herself into the basement, working her way down the stairs, "Are you here? Your Dad let me in!"
"Down here, Wills."
Willow peeked around the corner, a little nervous about entering the basement for the first time since she and Xander had, well, blown it up and all. Her fears were unfounded, however, and she smiled when she recognized the extra person in the room.
"Hello Wednesday."
"Willow," The dark girl inclined her head slightly. "It is good to see you."
"You too."
Willow found herself liking Wednesday, which was kind of a new feeling for her. She didn't have any female friends really, just a few she occasionally studied with. In school the only people who would hang out with her were Xander and Jessie, and since Xander left Jessie had been spending more and more time with his friends and she was alone a lot.
Wednesday was smart, but in almost every other way Willow could imagine she and the Addams girl were polar opposites. Yet, somehow, they seemed to get along well. Or at least as well as Willow could tell, since Wednesday didn't give off many warm fuzzies.
"Have you been practicing?" Wednesday asked laconically, nodding to the wand Willow was retrieving from her pocket.
Willow nodded eagerly, "Oh yes, I'm through the third year books and have all the spells I could safely cast down. That was most of them, but I wasn't able to practice a lot of the Defense spells."
"No, third year is dedicated to dark creatures." Wednesday allowed with a slight wave of her hand, "While you have many of those here in Sunnydale, I would not recommend you look for them alone."
Willow agreed with that, and shuddered a little. She'd read up on Vampires and found that she really didn't want to run into any. Supposedly the low order types located in Sunnydale weren't much trouble for a Witch or Wizard, but they were really nasty just the same and weren't to be approached for no good reason.
"W- what are you up to?" Willow asked, looking at the duo.
"Xander was just showing me his..." Wednesday sighed, "Spell Phones."
Willow scrunched up her nose, "Spell Ph... Oh Xander... you didn't."
"What? I like the name." Xander grinned.
Willow groaned, but looked on interestedly, "So this was the super-secret project?"
Xander nodded happily, "Yeah, and it worked pretty well."
"You didn't just magic from cell phones did you?" Willow asked, knowing that Xander could have bought a couple phones if he wanted.
"No, I read up on all the tries on that sort of thing and magic just fries them." Xander shrugged, "I started from scratch and made these."
Willow caught the one Xander tossed to her, eyes wide, "Xander! You should be more careful!"
"Why? It's practically solid brass." Xander looked puzzled, "You could drive over that with a car and not break it."
"It looks like a Steampunk Communicator from Star Trek," She noted, half with distaste and half with the sort of bubbly fan awe that wanted to jump up and scream 'Awesome!' to the whole world.
"Steampunk?" Xander questioned, "What ARE you reading now, Wills."
"Never mind," She blushed a little, as she flipped the phone open. "Runic dials? What runes are these?"
"A bit a mixed bag," Xander admitted, "The runes are just identifiers, they don't do anything besides create a unique 'number' for each phone. If you want to contact another phone you just have to match your dial to the internal dial on that phone."
"I get it, good thinking," Willow praised, smiling. "You're making me one?"
Xander nodded with a smile, "Next one is all yours."
"Thank you." She said happily, sitting down. "Are we still allowed to work down here?"
Wednesday shot them a curious look at that question, eliciting a rueful grin out of Xander.
"We found out that Unicorn Tail Hair and Dragon Heartstring, not a good idea in a dual core wand."
Wednesday rolled her eyes, "Honestly. Very few creatures would mix well with Unicorn, Xander. Perhaps Phoenix Feather, but very little else. Unicorns are far too pure and tend to react badly to anything impure."
"Oh!" Willow blurted, wide eyed, "That's why it blew up!"
"Blew up?"
"Heh, yeah." Xander admitted, rubbing the back of his head as he grinned some more.
Wednesday just shook her head.
Sirius Orion Black found that apparating to Sunnydale was a bit more difficult than he'd been told. The American Coordinate system was a real pain in the ass to learn, but luckily it was still pretty new and they had conversion charts available for the old Latitude Longitude system.
Sirius thought ruefully as he looked around the dingy alley that made up Sunnydale's 'magical' community, such as it was. The place made Nocturn look respectable, Sirius thought as he moved quickly to the marked exit into Sunnydale proper, noting a pair of hags watching his movements.
The seedy bar that served as the entrance and exit point for the magical alley was just as bad, and made Sirius long a bit for the homey feel of the Leaky Cauldron. A rat faced man at the bar just stared at him as he walked past, and Sirius paused just outside the door as a chill crept up his back. He leaned back slightly, just enough to catch the rat faced figure marking something down in a book he kept behind the bar.
Sirius decided as he moved on.
For who was a bit of a question, he supposed, but given the location the man occupied he pretty much had to be reporting to the authorities. So likely the Aurors man in Sunnydale, or one of them.
It was good that the Ministry had an eye on things in Sunnydale, he guessed. He wasn't happy about being watched, mind you, but it was the bloody Hellmouth after all. Sirius checked the street name, then glanced at the map he'd gotten in LA and the address he had for the kid from the muggle's directory.
' I hope he can get ahold of Harry, there's aren't many ways to send mail across the ocean without it being monitored by the Ministry. '
Narcissa Malfoy grimaced slightly as her stomach twisted in her belly. She had very little taste for using long distance portkeys. The things were bad enough in close to mid-range travel, but moving a significant distance was truly nauseating.
The alley she'd arrived in was not helping matters either.
"I can't believe people live like this." She sighed in disgust, carefully avoiding putting her feet in something that looked suspiciously like human fecal matter. "Absolutely disgusting."
Things were hardly any better when she let herself out of the Alley and into the pub that guarded its entrance. The place was filthy, lacking even the low class comforts of the Leaky Cauldron. Narcissa eyed the sallow faced figure behind the bar as he stared at her a little too closely for her taste.
"Look at me one moment longer and I'll personally transfigure you into something those hags back in the alley would consider... a delicacy." She said in a soft, yet sharp tone.
The man gulped and swiveled away, looking carefully at the other side of the room. "Yes Ma'am"
"Harris. You know him?"
"Which one, Ma'am?" The rat of a man asked, risking a glance back at her.
"The younger, Alexander."
"The Wizard, yeah, I know him."
"His parents aren't magical?" Narcissa asked, remembering that her son seemed to believe otherwise, as did she, though she had assumed that his branch of the families had gone the integrationist route.
"They're low magic, Ma'am. Didn't get into one of the schools."
Ah. That explained a fair bit to her mind. Squibs then, but probably first generation, still in fairly close contact with the Families. She frowned thoughtfully, "Both parents?"
"Yes Ma'am."
Both parents were squibs, and the boy was a fairly strong Wizard. Unusual. Normally Squib lines went generations before rekindling the flame of magic, if they ever did. These two must be exceptionally compatible in order for them to produce a boy like Alexander. She was quite familiar with the numbers on the matter.
Perhaps one half of one percent of the world population was Magical. The exact number was a little confused due to the tendency of magical communities to hide, but it couldn't be much more than that. Around thirty million people, worldwide. America had a slightly higher percentage of Magicals than most places, due largely to immigration, but Britain was close as well because much of the old families had congregated there between 1000 AD and around 1700 AD.
The total magical population of the UK was about three hundred thousand people, perhaps as high as four hundred thousand. The last two wars had taken a chunk out of Britain's normally high magical population, but they still rode above the curve. Of that, schools like Hogwarts served perhaps twenty percent, which amounted to perhaps forty to fifty children each year when it was all worked out.
The rest, those who were not powerful enough to attend a school like Hogwarts were generally home schooled, attended community education facilities, or simply never purchased a wand.
In other words, for Alexander to be in Hogwarts at all, he had to be within the top twenty percent of a community that consisted of less than a half percent of the total population. For his parents to both be squibs, well something had gone gloriously right for the boy.
She looked around herself with some distaste.
Of course, he lived here. The boy was certainly owed something right in his life.
Narcissa sighed, and shot another glare at the man whose eyes had dropped south of her face, "Where does he live?"
"What?" The man jumped, startled.
"Alexander."
"Oh, uh..." The man stuttered and stammered through directions, leaving Narcissa to sigh and draw out her wand.
"Wait, I..."
"Shut up." She shook her head, laying the wand in her hand. "Point me, Harris Home."
The wand spun wildly for a moment, then settled on a direction and Narcissa gave the place one last look of distaste before striding out into the open air beyond.
Willy mopped his face with the rag he kept on the bar, "Lord, what a bitch."
He almost forgot to note her passing in his log book.