Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

Xander met up with the Malfoy's again as the crowd began to get cranked for the match, and they went as a group to the Minister's box. He had to admit that they were pretty good seats, given the sheer size of the pitch and stands, and he said as much.

"Of course." Draco said, smirking. "Only the best sit here."

"Speaking of." Xander couldn't help but smirk back as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley appeared, with kids in tow.

Draco's jaw about landed in his lap as he watched the troupe settle in, and he almost missed his father's snide comment.

"Good Lord, Weasley. What did you sell to get seats in this box?" Lucius asked, just loud enough to be heard, "Surely your house couldn't have fetched this much."

Arthur Weasley turned fire red, as did Ron, but he restrained himself and his Son as Fudge spoke up.

"Lucius here made a rather sizeable donation to St Mungo's, so he and his family... and guest, are here by my invitation, Arthur."

"How very... nice." Arthur smiled, obviously strained.

Fudge didn't seem to notice as he turned back to his other guests, including the Bulgarian Minister for Magic. "This is Harry Potter. HARRY POTTER..."

The Bulgarian didn't seem to understand, merely looking confused.

Fudge kept raising his voice, assuming that volume would bridge the language gap apparently, until finally breaking down, "Great Merlin, Man. You have to know Harry Potter. The Boy Who Lived?"

That seemed to break through to the Bulgarian, who pointed at Harry and started blabbering excitedly.

Xander thought it was all hilarious, but Harry didn't seem to think much of the attention and tried to curl up into himself. Narcissa noted the reaction with a concerned frown, but said nothing of it as the announcers came on and the opening ceremonies began.

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the Final of the Four Hundred and Twenty Second Quidditch WORLD CUP!"

The cheering about deafened them where they stood as the crowd surged in response to the words. When it had calmed moderately the announcer came back, introducing the team Mascots.

A sound of singing was overshadowed by Arthur yelping out the word 'Veela', and a sudden blast of lust and obsession roared through Xander's mind.

His reaction was instant, the same thing he'd learned in Sunnydale, his eyes dropping down to his feet as he threw up every shield he could manage, but all it did was mildly blunt the edge of the effect. Beside him he could see Arthur Weasley grab Ron and Harry as they moved to walk off the edge of the platform.

On the other side of him he could see Lucius' iron clad grip holding Draco in place, even as Draco stared down at the ground in much the same manner as he was.

Stop singing. Stop singing. Xander was chanting in his mind, the urge to dance off the edge and fly down to join the Veela almost overpowering. The allure of Marietta Addams only a vague shadow of this one. Just as he managed to order his arms to move enough to block his ears, the song stopped and he was released.

Xander slumped down in his seat, tuning out the world around him as he tried to rebuild his shattered Occlumency defenses. The Veela had traipsed through his mind like wrecking balls, leaving nothing intact in their wake, and it was all he could do to breathe at that moment. It wasn't until several minutes later that he felt himself nudged and managed to turn enough to see Narcissa looking at him in concern.

"Are you alright?"

He nodded slowly, feeling sweat pouring down his face. "Just. Not used to that."

"Few men complain about being enthralled by a Veela," She said with a teasing smile.

"Blew apart my Occlumency shields." Xander grunted out. "I'm wide open again. Just... need some time."

Narcissa's eyes widened, but she just nodded and slipped back.

Blew apart his shields? She couldn't imagine how that could have happened. Even if his shields were new they should have simply collapsed, not been destroyed which is what it sounded like he was implying. She kept an eye on him as the game progressed, and was both impressed and concerned when she recognized his pose as one of meditation.

That was advanced techniques, she knew, especially in a crowd like this. But why in Merlin's name was it necessary?

It was almost a half hour in before Xander opened his eyes again and relaxed, focusing again on the match. By that point the Irish were well in the lead as the play roared around him in a blur. The speed was at least twice that of a Hogwarts game, with every player on Firebolts and all of them pushing the brooms as fast as they could.

Xander was mostly lost through what remained of the match, mostly focusing on keeping the Veela mascots from pillaging through his meager defenses again right up until the final spectacular dive which ended with the snitch in the hand of the Bulgarian, Viktor Krum, and the match ended 160 to 170 in Ireland's favor.

He cheered with the rest, caught up in the moment, but was a little disappointed by having missed so much. Behind him the Twins were hitting up an older man over a bet, but Xander didn't pay much attention as the crowd slowly began to filter out.

Xander collapsed as soon as they made it back to the 'tent', happier than he should be to fall into a bed that early in the day. His shields were rebuilt, but still flimsy, and the internal damage was still raw and painful.

He didn't pay any attention to anything around him and simply closed his eyes.

When he opened them, hours later, it was to a ruckus coming from outside. He rolled off the luxurious bed and rubbed his eyes. Thankfully he felt tons better to say the least, and his head only had the mildest of aches. He pulled on his pants and boots, then fitted his wands into his belt loops as he through on a light shirt.

As he stepped outside, the sound of screaming and panic coming from a short distance away. He frowned, shaking his head.

"This is why everyone calls me an idiot." He muttered, hand closing around the cool carbon grip of his 'curse' wand.

He drew it in his right hand and moved down the path toward the screams. It didn't take long to find the source, where several men in masks were floating a terrified family around, shooting curses at them randomly.

Xander had always hated bullies, his entire life. Something about them just lit a fire in him, probably originating with how Willow and Jessie were treated when they all met. When the wizards began to spin the youngest of their victims, a boy maybe five years old, like a top and the crowd actually CHEERED, he lost his control.

Xander snapped his wand out straight with a sharp snap.

"Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"

The masked men spun around, casting shield charms quickly, but Xander hadn't been aiming at them. The four stunners slapped into the tormented non magicals, shutting them down like the proverbial off switch, and sending them into a blissful stupor.

With their 'toys' shut down the group muttered angrily and turned on Xander even as people ran up to his side.

"Xander!" Hermione gasped, "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." He said, eyes not coming off the masked men.

"Why did you curse the muggles?" She huffed, her wand in hand as Ronald and Harry ran up as well.

"Take them out of the equation." Xander said, his offhand yanking the Ollivander wand from his belt as the masked men simply let their victims drop.

"Mobilicorpus!" Her and Hermione shouted as one, catching the two who had been up high enough to get hurt, flicking them all to the side.

"Little children shouldn't play adult games!" One of the masked men snarled, striding in their direction.

"You guys are SICK!" Ron yelled, brandishing his wand threateningly, "Totally sick!"

"Where are the Aurors?" Harry asked, stepping into line with the others, his own wand at the ready. "Aren't they supposed to be here?"

"They're probably trying to keep the Irish from rioting over their victory," Hermione muttered.

"Teach them a lesson," One of the masked men ordered, his voice familiar to the children.

The others began to flick their wands, sending curses flying at the foursome. Xander strode out of line, his curse wand slashing the air as he snarled out his first spell.

"Difindo!"

Again, Protego shields popped into place automatically among the masked men, about half of them shielding the whole group. Xander's spell, again, wasn't aimed at them however. It slashed into the ground in front of him, opening a long gash that went over a foot deep.

"Leviosa!" he followed it up with a flick of his offhand, sheering a huge sheet of sod from the ground and lifting it up like a wave in front of him to intercept the inbound curses.

As they splattered harmlessly off the ground, the trio stepped up to join him where he was now kneeling.

"Bloody brilliant!" Ron muttered, "Where'd you learn this?"

"Standard opening move for a Pride team," Xander said, glancing around. "I can hold this easily, but I can't fire back much."

"Right." Harry nodded, "We can do that. Right guys?"

"Too bloody right," Ron grinned.

Hermione looked scared, but she nodded determinedly and moved to where she could get her wand around the sheet of soil. As Xander held the shield of earth in place with a simple first year levitation charm, the others fired all manners of curses back. Mostly they were nothing but annoying hexes and curses, stuff intended for use by school children, but the occasional stunner, splitter, and other nasty spells had found their way into the trio's repertoire over the years and they now used them with gusto.

Fighting from cover gave the children a considerable advantage, as they were able to hammer their opponents shields mercilessly and slide an occasional curse through when one fell, so it wasn't too long before more than half the masked were suffering from some spell induced ailment and all were angrier than Xander would prefer in armed men trying to curse him.

Because of that it was only a matter of minutes before the first angry scream of "Crucio!" split the air. Xander never saw the spell, but it blew a huge chunk of dirt over him, ripping open a hole the size of his head in the shield they were using.

Hermione gasped, "They're using Unforgivables!"

"Bloody hell!"

Xander shook the dirt off, trying to hold the shield, knowing that the situation had just gone from bad to 'run for your life'. Chayton had given him the rundown on the 'unforgivables', and none of it was good. He didn't stand much of a chance against any of them, Xander knew, even if the masked men were only using them to clear away the shield of dirt.

"Alright, time to get out of here." He called, "Hermione, Harry, Ron, start falling back!"

"What about you!?"

"I've got one more trick!" He snapped, "GO!"

The trio scrambled away as Xander flicked his curse wand, chanting the Leviosa incantation. It wasn't best at charms, but with both wands functioning Xander threw everything he hand into pushing the rolling wave forward ahead of him as he drove toward the men.

He heard panicked calls of Crucio and Avada Kedavra scream out and flinched lower as huge chunks were blown out of his shield, then cut the Leviosa and slashed his curse wand forward in a driving piercing stab.

"Depulso!"

The final spell in the first combo Chayton had taught him was the banishing charm, and it blasted the entire shield wall forward, turning the dirt and stones into projectiles that hammered into the men beyond. Xander had turned even as the spell ended, however, and was running hell bent for the trees.

Behind him the men were digging out as he reached the edge, and he could hear them screaming.

"There he is! Crucio!"

Xander dove for the tree line, hitting the ground in a hard slide as the sky lit up above him and screams roared out, this time screams of real terror. He could hear even the masked men yelling, sounding scared.

One of them pointed at the sky and screamed, "The Dark Mark! Run!"

Then, one by one they popped out as Xander rolled over and stared up at the ugly skull in the sky. He was pretty certain that it had just saved his ass.

"Xander!" Hermione and the others ran over to him, "Are you ok?"

"Just peachy." He muttered, shaking his head. "My mom and dad are gonna kill me. I didn't even make it to school this time before I get in a fight, and they were trying to KILL us!"

"Well that night sucked." Xander grumbled to himself as he let himself back into the Malfoy tent.

"Please do not tell me you were out in that," Narcissa sighed, looking at the mess he was in.

Xander plucked a leaf out of his hair and shook some more dirt off. "Uh... I wasn't out in that?"

The older woman shook her head, "And from the look of you, I take it you got involved."

"Dumb bastards were torturing people." Xander grumbled, "what kind of person does that, anyway?"

Narcissa sighed, but didn't answer.

"Then they start shooting off unforgivables at me," Xander went on, drawing her attention strongly.

"They WHAT?" Narcissa looked him over quickly. Obviously he hadn't been hit by a killing curse, and he didn't seem to be shaking. "Did they miss?"

"Shield wall absorbed them," Xander shrugged.

She raised an eyebrow, "The last time I checked, no shield could block an unforgiveable."

"Shield Wall." Xander corrected, "Basically a huge slab of dirt held in place by a Leviosa."

"Ah." She said, nodding slowly. Physical objects could generally block even the unforgivables, though generally that was a very advanced conjuration, or the use of handy objects in the immediate area. This sounded a little different, "I don't believe I've heard of that spell."

"Spell combo," Xander said, "Difindo to cut open the ground, Leviosa to lift the sod or slab into position, then when you're ready to move again you use a Depulso to shower it down in the enemy."

Narcissa had to admit, she was impressed. It was a well thought out defense that used two very easy spells to accomplish the majority of its effect. Only the banishing charm was moderately difficult, and that sounded optional to the defense, really. For a first and second year curse/charm combination to be used to block unforgivables was quite neatly done.

That said, she wasn't happy that her charge had been out in that. She had purposely kept Draco busy and away from the crowds for that very reason, but had mistakenly assumed that Xander would sleep through it all.

Sometimes her husband and his friends really had no common sense, let alone any idea of their limitations when drinking.

"You shouldn't have gone out there," She said finally, shaking her head. "However, what is done is done. Were you hit by any curses?"

Xander shook his head, then smirked, "Nope. But those masked men are gonna need some hexes reversed."

Narcissa raised an eyebrow again, "You landed curses on them?"

Xander shook his head, "Nah. I just held the shield wall. Harry, Hermione, and Ronald got em pretty good though."

Narcissa didn't know whether to be impressed, or to want to cry. Drunk or not, a group of several blooded Death Eaters had just been spanked by four school children. She would have to speak quite seriously with her husband about cutting out his drinking, at least with his former comrades. It was obvious that against any significant force they have been massacred, assuming Mr. Harris was telling the truth.

She sighed, shaking her head. "Get to bed, young man. The Aurors have settled things outside, so there should be no more issues."

Xander scowled, not being tired, but she cut him off.

"Get some rest, or do you perhaps need a visit to a Mediwitch to ensure your health?"

Xander grumbled, but got up and headed to bed. She watched him go, then sighed again and headed back to the back entrance of the tent. She crossed the field and entered into the Mulciber tent, where she knew her husband was likely located.

She found him, as expected, with several of his former comrades. And, also as expected, most were suffering from various degrees of spell damage.

Narcissa sighed, shaking her head.

"I hope you got that lunacy out of your system, Husband." She said, her voice chilled as she stressed the last word.

"Not NOW." Lucius muttered, removing a hex from Mulciber.

"Unforgivables? Really?" She ignored him, "Were you so inebriated that you lost your minds?"

"Shut up, bitch." Parkinson growled, glaring at her through eyes that could barely be seen. The massive swelling he was under looked nasty.

"So, did you get that from one of the fourteen year old boys, or the fourteen year old girl who resisted you?" She demanded acerbically.

Lucius, looking sober and worn out now, turned on her. "Are you hear for a reason, woman?"

"I thought you might like the know that the Aurors have arrived back from the Irish camps, and are beginning a tent to tent search." She said, "You may want to hurry up and finish fixing those nasty hexes you suffered from the fourteen year olds you so bravely engaged in mortal combat."

Mulciber glared at her, slurring drunkenly, "The Aurors will do what we tell them."

What my HUSBAND tells them you mean, you imbecile, Narcissa thought dryly. "That might have been true had you geniuses not begun firing unforgivables before one of you set off the Dark Mark. They'll be out for blood now."

"Tha wasn't us!" Mulciber protested.

"Oh, you didn't fire unforgivables are schoolchildren?"

"I meant the Dark Mark. We didna do that."

Narcissa pinched her nose, "So there's yet another genius running around out there? Lovely. I do hope that, should they get caught, they don't know about you lot. Get back to your tents as quickly as you can, and Husband? Sober up before you do. I'll keep them busy as long as I can."

Lucius nodded tiredly, the events of the evening having done enough to burn off his Firewhisky buzz that he didn't really need a sobering potion. Narcissa turned away from them and headed back to her own tent.

Sirius Black groaned a little at the pounding on the door of his flat, sorry, his apartment. It had been one of those nights, and the last thing he needed was that noise echoing through his skull.

"Coming, coming, please for the love of Merlin stop hammering down the door!" He managed to croak out as he pulled on his pants and stumbled to the door.

"Willow?" He muttered, confused as the redhead pushed past him. "What's up?"

"Oh lord." She scrunched up her nose, "You stink, Sirius. And put on a shirt."

"Sorry, wasn't expecting company this early."

"It's almost noon."

"Yeah. I know."

Willow closed her eyes, counting quickly to ten. She had learned early on that she was really better off treating Sirius much like Jessie, or like Jessie had been when he was eleven or so. Jessie had grown up a little since then.

"I had a call from Xander." She said, "About Harry."

That woke Sirius up, "Is he alright?"

"Put a shirt on."

"But..."

"Now, Mister."

"Fine." Sirius pouted, slinking away.

Willow could hear him grumbling about her keeping information about Harry from him, but ignored it. Her eyes flitted around the room, finally noting a brassier hanging over a chair. She winced and decided not to ask as Sirius came back, tucking a shirt in.

"There? Happy?"

"Ecstatic."

"Now what about Harry?"

"As Sir Harry he's an adult, right?" She asked.

Sirius nodded, "Of course. So, what about him?"

"As an adult he can be challenged to a duel, right?"

Sirius shrugged, "Sure I guess. Was he?"

"Not yet, but there is some concern."

"Why?" Sirius looked genuinely confused. "No one is going to challenge a kid to a duel without really good reason."

Willow stared for a moment, her jaw dropping. "Sirius! Boy Who Lived, remember? He's got more enemies than I would wandering around the streets of Iran!"

"Uh..."

"Jewish girl here?"

"Ok..."

Willow groaned, "never mind. We need to know how worried he should be?"

Sirius shrugged, "Well. You can't just challenge someone to a duel to the death for no reason. So even with enemies, Harry isn't going to be challenged lightly. He'd have to do something, or have a blood feud going with some house..."

"Does he?"

"As Sir Harry of Potter? No." Sirius shrugged, "As regent Black? Maybe, but I doubt any of the Black enemies would want to kill Harry Potter. He should be able to handle any minor duels he may become involved in, I'd expect his dueling training is at least that good."

Willow stared again, "Uh... He hasn't had any training."

"What!?" Sirius looked aghast, "But James was practically a master at his age!"

"Harry here, Not James." Willow said. "Sirius, I know this isn't my business, b... but you talk about him like he was your old friend. H-He's your Godson. They're not the same person."

Sirius looked like he'd been struck dumb for a moment, then slowly sighed.

"Maybe you're right. Ok, I need to call Harry."

"Wait a few more hours," Willow suggested, "Time difference."

Sirius nodded.

"In the meantime I have to go," Willow got up, "And you should see to your guest."

"Huh?"

Sirius followed the nod of her head to where the woman from the night before was leaning in the doorway and paled quickly.

Damndamndamndamn. He thought desperately. What was her name again?