Disclaimer is in chapter 1.
Xander sat up on the hill over the Manor, his guitar in his arms. He tuned it slowly, thinking about what he'd seen over the past few days. He'd never identified himself as a thinker or studier, they weren't part of his self-image, but since he'd learned about magic his old way of thinking was completely out the window.
How could he do any different, though?
Magic was everything he'd ever dreamed about as a kid. As a Wizard he was the closest thing to everything he ever wanted to be that he could possibly be. A Superhero. A Jedi. Everything he'd ever idolized while wasting his youth in the theaters and in front of the tube.
Everyone who knew him was surprised by how he had focused on his school work, how far ahead he worked. His mother and father were quietly stunned, though they thought they were hiding it from him. Willow slipped once in a while too. She was happy he was studying, of course, but now and then she slipped and admitted how shocked she was by his knowledge.
Xander knew that she was a little worried, his Wills had always been insecure and he knew she was worried that she was falling behind him. He was glad that Sirius was willing to tutor her, cause Willow deserved better than to be left behind because her dad was too closed minded to realize that she had more potential than anyone had even begun to realize about her.
For him, though, what else could he do but throw himself into magic like he'd found Nirvana?
Xander started to pluck at the guitar, the tune flowing out was a light and airy sound that brought a smile to his face as he started to gain confidence in his finger motions. It had been a long time since he practiced, and he'd never been all that good to begin with, but while he didn't know music he did know the chords.
"That's an interesting tune."
Xander paused, jolting a little as he noticed Narcissa approach from behind him. "Hey. You gave me a start there."
She shrugged, but didn't apologize as she glanced at his guitar. "I don't believe I've seen an instrument quite like that."
"This? It's just a guitar." Xander frowned, puzzled.
"I'd gathered that much, but it's far larger than most I've seen."
"Just a normal two hundred dollar acoustic guitar," Xander admitted. "Never seen a magical one."
Narcissa nodded, "I think they use compression charms to make them smaller."
"Probably," Xander said, glancing down at the instrument in his hand. "You know, I bet you could make a great sounding guitar with wizarding space charms inside to give you a fuller sound."
"Likely what they do." Narcissa said as she looked out over the manor from where she was standing. "What tune were you playing?"
"No tune, not really." Xander said.
"Seemed like one to me."
"It was a Wingardium charm." He admitted after a moment.
Narcissa looked at him sharply, "Excuse me?"
"The Arithmantic breakdown of a Wingardium," Xander said, "Most spells seem to be in a three meter beat, it applies itself to being played."
"Really? I hadn't known that. Does the magic of the spell break through?"
"I don't think so," Xander admitted after a moment's thought, "But I hadn't thought about it either. I guess it doesn't matter, though. Who needs to cast a spell through a guitar?"
"Might come in useful for compulsion charms," Narcissa mused, "charming a crowd, for example."
Xander looked at her in surprise, "You are one sneaky lady."
"I was a Slytherin, Alexander." She replied with a smile.
He had to give her that, and gave some serious thought to what she was suggesting. Other than the moral implications he could see at least one realistic issue with the concept.
"The guitar makes a poor focus," He said after a moment, "I think... I think you'd have to have a lot of power to make it work. Enough that it would be kind of useless."
"Pity."
"Of course, there's also the possibility of talent." Xander said a moment later.
"Oh?"
"Someone whose magical strengths lie somehow in music or creativity," Xander guessed aloud, "Actually, that might explain why some of the best musicians can affect crowds so powerfully."
"Interesting idea." Narcissa smiled. It had been years since she'd had conversations like this, just over fifteen years to be precise.
"Yeah." Xander said, letting his guitar hang from its strap as he got up and fished out a notebook and ballpoint pen. He quickly jotted down a note before putting the pad away.
Narcissa just looked at him with an eyebrow raised.
"Just making a note to check the beat of some popular songs," Xander said, "to see if they match the Arithmantic formula of any charms."
"Muggle-borns." Narcissa smiled, then corrected herself, "Or, in your case, Muggle raised."
"What's that got to do with anything?"
"Lilly was much like you are." Narcissa said, waving her hand airily, "Oh, she was more intelligent... don't take that badly, Lilly was remarkable in that way..."
Xander smiled crookedly, "I know the type."
"Yes, you do don't you?" Narcissa asked rhetorically. "You have a better imagination than she did, however, and a work ethic easily on par with hers... and you are intelligent enough to borrow the genius of others. Those attributes will serve you well."
Xander nodded thoughtfully.
"At any rate, I came up here to tell you that the ceremony has been scheduled." Narcissa said, "Given the seriousness of the situation, we're going tomorrow."
Xander blinked, "That fast?"
"It seems that people on the Muggle side are interested in young Mr. Potter."
Xander nodded slowly, "Well. That's par for the course when we're talking about Harry."
Narcissa spared him a slight smiled, "Perhaps. Let him know, if you please?"
Xander nodded, pulling out his spell phone. "Got it."
"Thank you." She said, turning away. She paused for a moment, "And Alexander?"
"Yeah?" He stopped dialing out the runes and looked up at her.
"Keep practicing, your play shows promise."
Harry stared at the Grimoire where it sat, closed on his makeshift writing desk. He'd been writing in it so much, so fast, that his hand was cramped and he'd destroyed all the spare nibs he had for his quills.
His mother.
Whatever piece of her was in that book, it was a numbing experience to be able to speak with her in any form. He'd always felt more connected to his father, really. James was the one that everyone had stories about, well everyone who would talk to him about it anyway. He looked like this father, barring his eyes. Basically, everything Harry had was somehow linked to his Potter ancestry and he knew nothing of his Evans side.
To be honest, he hadn't cared to explore it. It reminded him too much of his Aunt.
The piece of his mother in the book knew her family, though, in ways Harry could only envy. It was what she knew beyond that, however, that puzzled and even frightened him.
How could she know about things that happened after she left school?
Oh, her recall of those things wasn't perfect. Not like she could recite events from her school days or before. But sometimes she'd be talking and something new would slip through, seemingly surprising even the echo in the book. Like she was remembering things she'd forgotten, or things she never realized she knew.
It was creepy, sometimes. Like when he was talking to her about her own childhood, and she got distracted part way through, reminiscing about taking care of him after he'd been born. When he confronted her on it, however, the echo seemed as startled and surprised as he was.
Magic sometimes just gave him the creeps.
He was still gnawing on it in his mind when his spell phone whistled softly from where it was resting on his desk. Harry casually flipped it open, "Yeah? Hello?"
"Hey dude." Xander's voice came through. "We're on for tomorrow. You got your armor shined up?"
Harry rolled his eyes, "hard to shine a suit, Xan."
"Hermione might find a way."
Harry mumbled something in response to that.
"What was that?"
"She's not talking to me right now."
"What? Why?" Xander asked, confused.
"I don't know, alright. All I said was 'Potter Out' before hanging this thing up."
Xander snorted, then broke out laughing.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Sorry, sorry..." Xander's snickers came back clearly over the spell phone. "I can see why she might be a little miffed, but not talking to you is a little extreme."
"Well..." Harry grimaced, "I might have not answered her call afterwards."
"What? Why?"
"Cause the way she was screaming when I hung up I KNEW she was just calling to yell at me!"
Xander had evidently had enough since for several long minutes all Harry could hear coming through the spell phone was laughter.
"I'm so glad you're enjoying my misery." He said when the sounds finally quieted down.
"Oh hell yeah, this is hilarious." Xander replied, voice obviously strained from laughing. "Would have been less painful to just let her yell at you in the first place, mate."
"I'm starting to realize that, thanks so much."
"Hey, at least it's just Hermione. She's not likely to do more than hex you." Xander said, still snickering.
"Hex me? Isn't that enough!?"
"Hey, I hang around Wednesday Addams." Xander said, "She has ways of... hurting people."
"Right..." Harry said slowly, his voice obviously doubting what Xander was saying.
"You'll learn if you ever spend time around Wednesday." Xander pronounced ominously, "In the meantime, get ready. Tomorrow's another big day."
Harry sighed, but nodded. "Got it."
"Alright. See you then," Xander said, pausing for a moment before coming back. "Harris Out."
The connection went dead as Harry stared at the phone for a long moment, caught between confusion and annoyance.
The Limo pulled up in front of the house on Privet drive, as it had a few days earlier, but with one difference this time. Two flags fluttered on the hood, flying the royal emblem were what caught the eyes of the looky loos in the community this time. Inside Narcissa, Hermione, and Xander waited as the driver got out and walked around to open the door.
Narcissa stepped lightly out as the door of the house opened and Harry stepped out.
"Mr. Potter." The Driver said, bowing his head as Harry approached.
"Uh, yes. That's me."
"Yes Sir."
"Are you ready, Mr. Potter?" Narcissa asked seriously.
Harry nodded, "Yeah I think so."
"Good. Then let us be going." She said, stepping aside to let him in.
Harry nodded, climbing in before Narcissa followed and the driver closed the door behind them. Inside he saw Hermione and Xander and smiled nervously as Hermione crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared at him.
"Uh, Hi Hermione." He said weakly.
"Harry." She replied curtly.
"I, uh, didn't think you'd come."
Hermione sighed, ducking her head, "Just because I'm angry with you doesn't mean I'm not going to show up when you need help."
Harry was quiet for a long moment, then nodded, "Thanks."
Hermione just nodded in return.
"Oh for crying out loud," Xander rolled his eyes, "Herms, you do realize that Harry has never even seen a single episode of Star Trek, right?"
"What?" Hermione looked up, shocked.
"Yeah, kinda blew my mind when I realized it myself." Xander said, shaking his head, "He was just copying me when he said 'Potter out'."
Xander half smirked, "Honestly, though I hate to admit it, I think it's funnier when he does it. I'm going to need a new signing off line, can't let myself be out shined like that."
Hermione wasn't really listening to him as Xander prattled on, and he knew it. He was just talking for the sake of filling the silence while Hermione put things together in her head.
"He's never watched any TV, has he?" She asked slowly, a horrified look on her face.
"That would be my guess," Xander shrugged, "How about it, mate?"
Harry shrugged, "I've seen some, mostly through the crack in the cupboard door and over Dudley's shoulder while he watched stuff in his room. Lately he watches a lot of..."
Harry looked sharply at Hermione and started to blush.
"A lot of wha... Ohhhh..." Hermione blinked, then flushed as well.
"Oh Dude," Xander grimaced, "I've seen your cousin and that's an image of him I really didn't need."
"What on earth are you all speaking of?"
"Uh... well, you see, my cousin likes to watch... umm..." Harry stammered, then took a deep breath, "Adult entertainment."
Narcissa raised an eyebrow, "He is your age, isn't he? Shouldn't he be giving up children's things?"
"Not that kind of adult." Xander sighed, just wincing as he tried to think of how to explain it. "There HAS to be an equivalent in the Wizarding World, but I don't know what it's called. Harry's saying that his cousin watches a lot of... sex, alright? Porno tapes."
Narcissa frowned quizzically, not because she didn't understand the term, but had never really equated sexual entertainment in the way they were speaking. Certainly it existed in the Wizarding world, but generally speaking it involved live shows of some sort. There was print media as well, with some moving pictures, but the language they were using didn't seem quite fitting with either of those.
"He hires people to put on a display for him?" She finally asked, "I hadn't realized that the Dursleys were quite so wealthy."
Xander, Hermione, and Harry's eyes widened like a shot and they stared at Narcissa in shock.
"No, I'm guessing from your expressions that's not it." Narcissa said, now genuinely curious.
"Ah, well it is sort of." Xander said after an awkward silence. "Non magicals record... uh... plays. Sort of like Wizarding pictures, but a lot longer and with sound."
"How long?"
Xander shrugged, "As long as they want."
"And they use it for this... Adult entertainment?" Narcissa asked disdainfully.
"Well, no," Xander said, glad to be able to shift back on topic, "They use it for everything. Which is my original point. Harry's missed out on, well... basically a hundred years of pop culture, almost. No Star Trek, No Star Wars..."
"Actually, I sort of saw some of that one." Harry said, frowning, "But Dudley shut it off less than halfway through and binned the tape. He thought it was boring."
"WHAT!?" Xander exploded, "That lard assed piece of..."
"Xander!" Hermione snapped, cutting him off.
"Sorry." Xander winced.
"Yes, well, despite his over enthusiasm, I have to agree with the sentiment." Hermione muttered, shooting glares at Xander. "Harry, you're cousin is an imbecile."
"Not arguing here."
"That said," Hermione sighed, "I suppose I can't blame Harry for making that horrid Captain Kirk joke either. It was obviously Xander's fault for corrupting his mind."
"Right." Harry agreed, a bit too fast in Xander's opinion. "It was his fault."
"Hey, I'm not the guy who told him to ignore your call afterward." Xander spoke up.
"That is true," Hermione glared at Harry again.
Harry looked stricken, glaring at Xander, "What'd you do that for!?"
"You were pretty quick to feed me to the wolves, dude." Xander snapped. "If I need to climb over you to get out of the pen, so be it."
"But..."
Hermione rolled her eyes, "That sterling example of friendship aside, I suppose I can forgive you both this one time. Xander was merely being Xander, acting the fool... and Harry was merely being Harry, being the naive, gullible, and unfortunately ignorant person that he is."
"HEY!" The two cried out together.
Hermione just smirked at then, her features obviously challenging them to challenge her. The two boys sighed for a bit, then both settled back down. Xander figured he was already in deep enough, all because he had decided to give Harry a hand, and Harry was just happy to be forgiven... such as it was.
Narcissa, for her part, thought the whole thing was hilarious from her point of view, but she was a little more interested in this muggle technique for capturing images. She had heard of Motion Pictures before, of course, mostly in offhand comments dropped by Lilly and other Muggle-borns. The thing was, she had always equated them to something more akin to magical photography, which had a spell limited time period of only a few seconds.
Unlimited length pictures, with full sound, was impressive. The closest thing in the Magical world was the use of a Pensieve, though the overall effect sounded different.
She would have to see one of these motion pictures, she decided.
The car slowed to a stop as that thought entered her mind, and the four were distracted as the car pulled up to the Tower of London, again heading directly for the Magical Entrance.
"Hold up a moment, Mr. Potter." Narcissa said as they walked into the tower. When Harry paused she drew her wand, "Just going to clean up the wrinkles, your suit obviously wasn't prepared correctly."
As she waved the wand, pressing the suit on his frame, Harry sighed.
"Sorry, I don't have a closet, just my school trunk."
Narcissa nodded, "I should have expected as much. Don't worry about it, I will tell you the same thing I told Mr. Harris... Failure is not something to be feared, failing to do your best, however, is. You obviously folded it and kept it clean as best you could under the circumstances. Do as well in the future, while always endeavoring to improve, and you will never have cause to regret."
"Uh... right. Thank you," Harry said as she finished up and he checked himself out as best he could.
She was right, it looked a lot better than it did. He nodded gratefully to her, and they were moving again, though the magical entrance of the Tower.
They were led to a room that Xander hadn't seen in his earlier visits, a huge chamber of a room that had to be smaller than it appeared, though Xander supposed that if they had used magic anything was possible.
It was a gathering place, room for hundreds or more, and the stone floor was bisected cleanly by a brilliant red carpet that led from where they stood, all the way to a throne.
"Oh wow." Xander mumbled quietly.
Hermione's jaw was open a little, her eyes wide, as she stared down the long length of carpet and recognized the person sitting on the throne in the distance. She peeped once, then went deathly silent.
Harry, for his part, just looked a little lost as they began the long, yet slow, walk along the carpet.
About halfway up they were joined by a ghostly figure that rose up from the floor, taking the time to examine them carefully.
"Oh, Xander, good to see you again." Anne said, "This is quite the occasion. A new Mage Knight. It's been the better part of eighty years or more since the last was Knighted."
They didn't pause in their step, and the ghost of the former queen floated along with them.
"Did you watch that one too?" Xander asked softly, eyes flicking between Anne and the current monarch, looking for annoyance in the one yet living.
When he didn't see a flicker, he relaxed marginally and focused a bit more on the spirit at his side.
"Oh yes, among the very rare instances of entertainment around here." She said, "Other than sneaking out to the closest theaters."
Xander barely muffled a snort of amusement, "You can do that?"
The spirit started to nod, but that caused her head to wobble and almost come loose. She recovered quickly, holding it in place as she too shot a look at the Queen on the throne they were approaching. It wouldn't do to look foolish in front of the monarch, even for a spirit.
"Oh yes," She said after a moment, her voice dropping. "Wouldn't miss the shows, either the live ones or the filmed ones. They make the afterlife so much more pleasant."
Narcissa just had time to sourly reflect on the fact that a spirit was better versed in common muggle facts that she was when they came to a stop.
A man stepped forward, standing stiffly at attention, and the four unconsciously matched his stance as best they could.
"Presenting Her Majesty, The Queen."