Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

"Anyway," Xander shrugged, "So Dad figures we need a new place, and me... well, I figure he's probably right."

The weak smile he gave betrayed Xander's nervousness on the subject, he wasn't really sure about getting a new hose. It was weird, but the place they were in had become something of an anchor in his life. No matter what insanity he saw in the Magical World, or horror he experienced with the Addamses, home was always there and never really changed.

Stupid really, he supposed, but that was how it was.

The girls were nodding in agreement with his statements, however, and Xander shrugged off the feeling of regret.

"He's right," Wednesday nodded, "Believe me, as an Addams I am quite aware that neighbors can had the strangest reactions to things like losing their windows on a regular basis."

"Right." Xander couldn't help but smile, thinking of the time two years past when Gomez had opened his daily routine by sending golf balls arcing over the old walls of the Tower of London and out into the city proper.

The sounds of car crashes woke him up multiple times that particular vacation.

"Anyway," He said, laughing softly as he did, "For the moment we need a new place to experiment. Especially if we're going to be blowing stuff up."

"Well, I'd offer my basement, but you know my Parents would be even less understanding and I don't think bringing witchcraft to my very Jewish parents is a good idea so maybe we should look for something else, I mean we could try my place if you really wanted to..." Willow slowly turned redder and redder as she went on.

"I think we'll pass, Wills, but thanks." Xander smirked, "Actually I was thinking of a place."

"Really? Where?" Willow perked up.

"Jess and I used to go there a few years ago to break stuff with slingshots," Xander confessed, "The old Junkyard just out of town, you remember?"

Willow shuddered, "The one with the rottweiler?"

Xander smirked, "That's the one."

The redhead shook, her head and her body, "Oh bad idea, Xander. I really don't think I like this idea..."

"Relax." Xander said, "We'll be fine."

"Oh, this won't end well." Willow said mournfully.

"Jeez, Wills, you're starting to sound like Hermione."

"Starting?" Wednesday deadpanned.

"Come on, grab the stuff, we'll check it out and see if it's decent. Last I remember there was only one guy working that place, and he's always at the front."

"Charming." Wednesday said, shaking her head as she grabbed one of the satchels Xander had laid out. "You do know that we could simply Floo to my place, right?"

Xander paused, blinked, then grunted. "Never thought of that. We'll call that plan B, K?"

"Why is the sane plan, plan B?" Willow demanded, "The crazy plan should be plan B. Plan A should not be the plan that gets us eaten by a rottweiler."

"You haven't seen the Addamses place, Wills. The Crazy plan IS plan B."

"May I point out that you haven't seen my home either, Alexander." Wednesday countered.

"No, but I've seen your family. Can you honestly tell me that the Rottweiler isn't safer?"

Wednesday considered it for a long moment, then frowned, "Define 'safe'."

"We're going to the junkyard."

Sirius checked the street against his directions and nodded in satisfaction. Right Place.

He was making his way up the sidewalk when he noticed three teens leave a house ahead of him, the boy in the lead someone he recognized. He was about to call out to them when the whispered voice of a Marauder nagged at the back of his head and he piped down.

After all, it wouldn't hurt to check the kid out, right?

The trio made a left, heading purposely onward, and Sirius tagged along behind them.

The Junkyard was chained up when they arrived, surprising Xander.

"It's way too early for this place to be closed." He muttered, glancing at Willow.

"Don't look at me," She shrugged, "I'm not stupid enough to come here, remember?"

"Not *normally* stupid enough to come here," Wednesday corrected.

Willow shot her a dirty look.

"Right." Xander ignored the byplay, "No big. We were breaking in anyway."

"We were?" Willow squeaked.

"Well I wasn't going to go up to the front desk and ask if I could borrow the yard to practice making magic wands, now was I?" Xander challenged her as he led them around back.

"Well... No, I guess not." Willow admitted reluctantly.

He led them around the long fence to a spot in the back he was familiar with and kicked the fence a couple times. "Huh. They fixed it."

He shrugged, pulling out his wand, "No problem."

"Difindo." He murmured, slashing his wand along the chain links of the fence, cleaning slicing a line in the metal. Then he pulled it open and made a sweeping gesture with his arms, "After you, ladies."

The two girls stared at him for a moment.

"How gallant." Wednesday said dryly as she ducked and swept inside.

"Right." Willow scoffed, "Somehow I don't think true gentlemen invite ladies to commit criminal trespass first."

"Everyone's a critic." Xander sighed as Willow huffed past him. He glanced around, frowning slightly, then ducked through himself.

Sirius smirked as he watched the trio break and enter the old junkyard, remembering similar forays that He, Remus, James, and Peter had gotten up to. He'd built his bike in a place like this, though by that time they were actually permitted to be there. Kind of took the fun out of it, though.

He removed the disillusionment charm and made his way over to the fence a ways from where the trio had entered, calmly casting a shrinking charm on the chain links and walking over the miniature section of fence and into the yard. Behind him the fence returned to normal a moment later, obscuring the Wizard from sight.

He silenced his feet and jumped up on a stack of old cars, recasting the disillusionment charm as he did.

"Ok, we ready?" Xander asked, looking at the makeshift 'lab' they'd setup across the hoods of a couple old wreckers.

Willow nodded, "Materials are ready."

"I have the blank prepared." Wednesday confirmed.

"Alright," Xander flicked his wand, carefully intertwining the materials. "I've got it, Wills... step back."

Willow nodded and ducked out of the way as Xander manipulated the materials into a tightly wound spiral.

"You have the recorder?" Xander asked.

"Right here," Willow said, holding up a huge old tape recorder made sometime in the seventies and charmed to work with magic. She pressed down the record button, "We're recording."

"Alright," Xander said, "Dual Core Wand, take two. This is Dragon Heartstring and Basilisk muscle sinew in a Carbon Rod Blank."

He carefully guided the combined cores to the drilled out blank, and found that they wouldn't fit. "Wednesday?"

The Addams scion carefully cast a shrinking charm on the components, allowing them to slide easily in as planned. As soon as Xander had it in place, she canceled the charm and they watched.

"Core is in place, doesn't look like the expansion cracked the blank." Xander said aloud. "Sealing it now. Shields, please."

Wednesday and Willow both cast Protego charms, letting Xander duck behind them as he cast the final charm on the wand to seal it shut and kill the suppression runes they'd used to keep the materials from reacting until it was done. Xander and Willow both winced, remembering what happened the last time they tried this, but Wednesday just looked on in interest.

The wand shuddered slightly where it lay on the old car, then rattled a bit as it seemed to glow and bulge, and then it finally settled down and moved no more.

"Do you think it worked?" Willow asked, eyes wide.

"I think I'm scared to find out." Xander admitted, "To be honest, I sort of expected it to blow up."

"Then why did you do it?" Wednesday demanded.

"Well, Wills wanted to." Xander shrugged, "After the first time, I figured we'd blow up two or three more, call it a failed experiment, and stick with safer stuff."

"Xander!" Willow slapped his shoulder.

"What?" Xander shrugged, "How was I supposed to know your nutty idea might work?"

"It is NOT nutty!"

"I agree." Wednesday added.

"Yeah, so that's two votes saying it's nutty, one vote saying it's not." Xander muttered under his breath.

"Two votes?" Willow demanded, huffing as Wednesday raised a questioning eyebrow at the statement as well.

"Wills, if an Addams thinks it's a good idea, you KNOW it's not only nutty, but probably explosive as well."

"I'll communicate that to my father."

Xander snorted, "He'll proudly agree with me."

Wednesday glared sourly at him, but had no counter to that statement. Xander was almost certainly correct. She sighed, "What now?"

"I guess we try it." Xander grimaced.

"What's wrong?" Willow asked.

Xander looked at his hand, "I don't want to be known as 'Lefty' Harris, if you really MUST know."

Sirius frowned in puzzlement as he watched the children talk back and forth. They seemed serious about something, they'd been using Protego shields there for a moment, but he couldn't see what they were looking at.

Weird kids.

Of course, if it was anything like the Marauders they probably had something explosive there to play with. If that was the case, Sirius kind of envied the boy.

The Marauders never found girls who liked playing with explosives.

Well, not until they got out of Hogwarts, but most of those girls were really kind of scary. And that was just to look at.

Narcissa sighed, frustrated as she got herself blocked in another dead end.

Muggles were obsessed with squares. Everything was square or rectangle, and the layout was like some crossword puzzle in the Prophet. Her spell only gave her a straight line of travel to where she wanted to go, and the muggles had gone and put fences up *everywhere*.

She should have brought a broom.

' I don't have time for this. ' She glowered, double checking her directions before looking around for witnesses.

With no obvious ones in sight she disillusioned herself, and started casting spacial shifting charms in front of her. The Muggle fences became very cooperative of a sudden, leaping aside to let her pass as she began to walk in a direct line toward her goal.

Xander gripped the pitch black wand tentatively, letting out a slow breath. "Ok, guys, stand back ok?"

"Xander..." Willow spoke up, sounding nervous, "You don't have to do this..."

He smiled at her, "Hey, two of the brainiest girls I know say it's a good idea. That's good enough for me."

"I thought my 'vote' was for nutty." Wednesday responded dryly.

"Nutty doesn't mean bad, or stupid," Xander grinned. "I never said Addamses were either of those. Insane? Yeah. Stupid? No. Ok, let's see how this thing works."

He picked a rock in the distance and focused on it, flicking the carbon wand carefully, "Wingardium Leviosa."

The rock wavered, then slowly climbed into the air under Xander's direction. He nodded slowly, then eased it back down. "Not as good as my Ollivander Wand, but better than the previous carbon rod based wands. About as good as our Graphite and Unicorn tail hair, or almost anyway. It's an improvement."

Willow nodded, jotting down notes.

"We didn't expect much with Charms," Wednesday spoke up, "this is beyond expectations, I believe."

Xander nodded, "Agreed. Ok, moving on to curses."

He picked a car across the way from him and shifted into a fighting stance as the wand snapped out, "Stupefy!"

The red colored blast crossed the space in an instant and crashed into the wreck, blowing out what little glass was left in it. Xander blinked and relaxed, "Whoa. That's better than I get with my wand. What do you think, Wednesday? Twenty percent?"

"Perhaps more. A stunner isn't intended to do much against steel."

Xander nodded, "Right. Reductor then?"

"You know it?"

"Just learned it, as part of my GOTH package." Xander admitted.

"Goth?" Wednesday raised an eyebrow.

"Gone To Hell," He grinned, "Thomas doesn't want me using it much, but it's there if it's needed. It's more multipurpose than most of my curses."

Wednesday nodded, holding out his Ollivander wand. "This one first."

Xander nodded and lay the Carbon wand down on a nearby car hood and accepted his Willow one in its place. He shifted back to aim at the same target, and again relaxed into the shooting stance he'd learned from Thomas Chayton. "Reductor curse, Ollivander Willow and Dragon Heartstring. Reductor!"

The energy pulse lanced out at the target, the theory of the spell passing through Xander's mind as he focused on the target. Thomas had been quite clear on that, insisting on teaching him the concept behind each spell before Xander was permitted to practice with them.

The Reductor was actually a modification of the Reducio Charm, it's more nasty intent and effect earning it a place in the Curse category. During development of the Reducio it was discovered that many materials didn't react well to being shrunk, especially if certain safeguards weren't put in place. The Reductor eliminated those safeguards entirely, so when the spell attempted to squeeze every individual atom of the target into a smaller space the spell only held for an instant before letting them all snap back.

The atoms jumping back into place snapped chemical bonds, releasing power in similar proportion to explosive charges depending on the energy the caster threw into the spell. Not unlike what happened when you applied fast and hard energy to a superball, you got a bounce in proportion to what you put into it.

In the case of a Reductor target, the damage tended to depend heavily on the material. Rock took harder blows, tending to shatter easier than, for example, flesh. The human body was elastic and didn't tend to explode as readily, though with enough power it would do just that. Mostly, though, Reductors tended to cause severe bruising and internal injuries to Wizards.

To cars, however, like the one Xander had just struck, the effects were a little more spectacular.

The door exploded, rupturing the frame around it, and shaking the old hulk as the front tire blew out and it settled down. Xander and the girls waited for the dust to settle, but they were all pretty impressed.

"Whoa." Willow blinked, swallowing.

"Yeah, first time I hit a car with that. Mostly I just shoot dirt." Xander admitted.

"Impressive. Shall we try the new wand?"

Xander nodded, changing wands, "Yeah. Let's get this done before the noise brings people. Wills, Wednesday, start packing up."

The two girls dumped their stuff into the packs they brought as Xander took a break and shifted his aim to the back door of the old sedan.

"Reductor!"

The spell holed the door cleanly when it struck, and for an instant that seemed like all it did. Then the backseat of the car exploded, rupturing the roof and blowing out through the floor, lifting the old car off the ground. Xander's wand hand dropped with his jaw as the car turned over in midair and crashed back to Earth.

"Holy Shit."

"Bloody Hell!" Sirius cursed, throwing himself to the ground as the debris flew by over his head.

The kids were making WANDS!

And damned good ones, from what he just saw. The first Reductor curse was a little on the weak side, the former Auror curse breaker figured. He'd had to blow through plenty of hard cover before, and knew that the door on a muggle car wasn't all that tough. It should have done a bit more than it had.

The second, though, scared the hell out of him. Sirius had only seen that kind of force matched in a few spell casters in his day, and exceeded by only two. Dumbledore and Voldemort could do better, he knew for a fact, but that spell was easily on Master Auror level. Mad Eye, James, maybe a half a dozen others back in the day could match it.

Sirius rolled over, breathing hard, and yelped in shock as he fell off his perch and slammed into the next car down.

"Ow!"

Wednesday twisted, her wand flashing into her hand as the other two walked ahead of her to the fence. Xander felt her move and looked back, eyes narrowing as he too went for his wand.

"What is it?" He asked, looking where she was aiming.

"Someone is over there."

"We've got to get out of here." Willow urged, tugging at his arm.

"Yeah, she's right. Come on," Xander said, edging toward the fence.

Wednesday nodded and followed, moving sideways to keep an eye out for the source of the sound. They made it to the fence and pushed through, moving at a fast walk while looking over their shoulder.

"Ok, calmly. Look normal."

"We just blew up a car!" Willow hissed, "How normal is that?"

"You've never been to an Addams party," Wednesday replied coolly.

"Look normal for a non Addams, please." Xander said through clenched teeth. "I would rather we don't get arrested."

"Arrested?" Willow paled, "Oh. Oh! No. No, that's not good."

"I think we all agree on that, Wills. Come on, breath, stay cool."

"But I'm the opposite of cool! I'm so totally uncool, and we're going to get caught, and I'll get a record, and not get into a good college, and..."

The slap of flesh meeting flesh startled Xander into turning, and he stopped dead with the two girls in plain surprise when he saw Willow nursing a rapidly reddening cheek, staring at Wednesday in shock.

"Get a hold of yourself." The dark girl said coldly. "You were beginning to hyperventilate, and if you pass out Xander will be forced to carry you."

Willow nodded in stunned silence, "Right. Sorry."

"Breath."

While those two were working things out, Xander kept an eye around them, but didn't see anyone coming after them. He took a breath himself, "I think we're good."

Willow was looking better, and they started moving again, this time a little slower. As they moved past the front of the junk yard Xander noticed a sign he hadn't seen before, tucked up in the window of the main office.

For Sale.

"Guys, I don't think there's anyone working here now. Look." Xander nodded to the sign. "Looks like they went out of business."

"Someone was inside."

"Could be anyone, Jess and I weren't the only ones to sneak in there." Xander said, "Come on, let's head home."

They walked away, but Xander's eyes kept creeping back to the sign in the window.

For Sale.

"I think I need to talk to Dad, and Sam. Maybe Robert too..." Xander said thoughtfully as they walked.

Sirius' ears were ringing.

His back was hurting, and he'd also bruised his leg, but his ears were really bugging him. He shook his head, trying to clear it, and followed after the kids finally. He didn't think he had the focus to cast a Reducio on the fence, so he snuck out the way they came in.

Damn. Either that kid was packing some serious power, or that was one hell of wand.

Possibly a combination of both, he supposed.

Still, it was impressive as hell for a bunch of teenagers to *make* wands, let alone make good ones. Sirius uncrossed his eyes and made his way back in the direction of the Harris home, pausing only to scourgify the dust and dirt off his new clothes.

"Blast it to hell," He muttered, eyeing a tear in his pants. "I just bought these. Never a good sign when you have to reparo your pants the same day you bought them."

"Ok, we have a curse wand that's pretty darned impressive."

"You can say that again," Xander smiled at Willow, who had recovered her enthusiasm as they moved.

"Now how to make a charm wand?" She muttered, frowning thoughtfully.

"Given our current selection of cores, that is a... tricky issue." Wednesday frowned. "Unicorn tail hair won't react well with anything we have."

"And Phoenix feather is almost impossible to get," Xander sighed, "But I'll ask around, see what I can find."

"In the meantime, perhaps if we try something other than Unicorn tail hair?" Wednesday suggested.

"Hmmm..." Xander nodded, thinking.

"Like what?" Willow blinked.

Xander smirked, reached out, and plucked a hair from Willow's head.

"Ow!"

"How about Hair of a Redheaded Genius?" He smirked.

She scowled at him, "Very funny, smart guy. Do you think it'll work?"

Xander shrugged, "Safer than what we've been doing. Who knows?"

"Agreed," Wednesday said as they arrived at Xander's place, "It's likely also time to begin trying as many core types as we can, and begin classifying them according to their strengths."

Xander nodded, opening the door, "Right."

"Oh! We can make a database!" Willow blurted, "I can set it up and..."

She paused, causing Xander to blink and turn as he looked into his kitchen.

"Hello, Alex," His Mom said, smiling, "You have a visitor."