Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

The Room of Requirement.

Xander looked around, trying not to gap and failing miserably in the attempt. It wasn't so bad, though, Harry was pretty much doing the same while his little Elf friend grinned madly at them.

"Dobby do good, Oh Great Harry Potter, Sir?"

Harry was still gaping, like Xander, but he managed to nod. "Yeah. Dobby did good."

"I think Dobby did bloody brilliant," Xander said, slowly smiling, "To borrow a phrase from this side of the Atlantic."

The room had appeared as Xander envisioned when he paced in front of the wall according to the elf's instructions. It had formed a regulation dueling environment, paced out to fifty meters on the side with lines chalked out carefully on the ground. Xander walked the course carefully for a moment, noting that it was even better than the field he'd trained at back in Cali, obviously lifted straight from the book he'd read on Pride training facilities.

"This is some freaky room." He said, shaking his head. "Scary."

"Why?" Harry asked, coming up beside him.

"Man, I don't know about you, but I've been getting creeped out by mind readers lately." Xander said, sighing. "I've got no defenses to speak of, and I really hate the idea of anyone dancing across my brain pan."

"Mind readers?" Harry was confused.

"Legilimens," Xander said, "It's a magical technique used to read minds. Not common, but not rare either."

Harry shuddered, grimacing. "People just barge around in your head?"

"Probably happened to us already, I'd bet." Xander said, sighing. "You ever notice how the Headmaster just kind of looks at you and seems to know everything?"

"He wouldn't!" Harry blurted, shocked, "Right?"

Xander shrugged, "Don't know. Can't prove it. But if anyone in this school can do it, He's top on the list."

"What about the other professors?" Harry asked, thinking furiously. "Snape?"

Xander raised an eyebrow, then shrugged again, "Don't know. Anyway, we're getting off track here. The point was I get a little creeped out by mind readers now, even mind reading rooms."

Dobby, who had been looking back and forth between them as they talked, spoke up. "Oh, Come and Go Room not read minds, Castle does."

"And that is even creepier." Xander replied dryly, glancing down at the little elf.

"What do you mean, Dobby?" Harry asked gently.

Dobby pulled at his ears, debating what to say exactly, but finally went on. "Castle is old, very old. Older than Wizards know. Was here before founders, will be here after all today are forgotten."

"Before the founders?" Harry blurted, "How that possible? I thought they built it?"

Dobby shook his head wildly, still tugging at his ears.

"Huh. Cool." Xander said.

Harry looked over at him, rolling his eyes, "That's all you have to say about it?"

Xander shrugged, "Makes a twisted kinda sense, you know? Hogwarts is magical in ways that even Three Angels doesn't match, and that place is powered by some massive magical convergences. You can feel the raw power in California, dude, here it's damn near as powerful… but more refined I guess."

A thrum of power swept through the room, stiffening both young wizards for a moment.

Dobby nodded, "Castle agrees, asks please not to be telling people. Dobby wouldn't have told, but Castle likes Harry Potter Sir."

"Don't worry Dobby, we won't tell anyone." Harry said, smiling at the small elf before looking over to Xander, "Right?"

Xander shrugged again, "Who would I tell, and more importantly, why? Would probably get some historians excited, I guess, but other than that there's probably not a dozen people on the planet who'd care to be honest."

Harry scowled at him, "Even I know it's huge news, Xander."

"Yeah, but what use is it?" Xander grinned, "Dumbles might be able to make something of it, and maybe Mold in his Shorts. Past that? Name one person who would care beyond historical curiosity."

"Hermione. Wednesday." Harry listed two.

Xander flinched, "Ouch. You've got a point. Those two would flay me alive if they found out I was holding out something like this. You sure we can't tell them?"

A second, low toned thrum of power reverberated through the room and Dobby start dancing around from foot to foot.

"Alright, alright, I was just asking." Xander said defensively. "Yeesh. Old fart of a castle's got no sense of humor."

"And you seem to lack some rather basic notions of self-preservation," Harry countered, smirking.

"Says the guy who hears 'Sixty Foot Basilisk' and charges AT the damn thing." Xander muttered.

"I seem to remember someone else in the room being right there beside me."

"At least I had the sense to take backup."

"Hey! Ron was there! And, well, ok I'll give you Lockhart."

"I don't want him." Xander smirked, "Besides, You had Ron. Me? I had Wednesday."

Harry rolled his eyes, "They were both second years, Xan. How big a difference could there possibly be?"

"About the same as Snape compared to Lockhart, I'm betting." Xander replied, "Though I could be doing Wens a disservice there."

Harry rolled his eyes, "Yeah, sure. How about we get on with this, right?"

Xander shrugged, but nodded. "Alright. Let's see what we've got here."

He walked around the dueling facility the room had imagined up for them and was once more impressed. It seemed to be an internationally sanctioned ground, from what he could tell. To be honest, he couldn't be sure of that, but it seemed close enough. Chayton wasn't much of a dueler, or at least he hadn't shown that side of himself if he was. As a retired member of the Proud he'd focused more on pure combat tactics, especially since that sort of no holds barred model was easier to teach in a lot of ways, and Xander hadn't needed dueling anyway.

"This'll do." He said, nodding as he reached the center of the field and plopped down cross-legged. "Let's have a chat about how we're going to do this, Harry."

"Aren't we, you know, going to duel?" Harry asked as he walked over and took a seat.

"Soon enough." Xander nodded, "but you know, if it's dueling you want, you'll need someone who knows how."

"Don't you? You said you were taking lessons…"

"Sure, but I just started," Xander admitted, "And you need a pro. Ask Dumbles, he likes you."

Harry shook his head, frowning, "I don't think he'll teach me anything. He doesn't answer questions, why would he show me spells?"

Xander half nodded, "Alright. Well, there's Sirius if we can get you two in the same place without bringing every Auror in the country down on our butts… Or, well have you thought about Flitwick?"

"Professor Flitwick?" Harry asked, surprised.

"Yeah, even my teacher knows about him," Xander answered, "big time dueler. Champion even, won a few tournaments in his day."

That was a bit of an understatement, from what Xander actually knew. When talking about his schooling, Xander had been surprised by Chayton's open shock at Flitwick's name, and the Native American's clear admiration for the half goblin charm's master.

"I don't know, I've never talked to Professor Flitwick outside of classes…"

"You won't know until you try." Xander said, "But that's up to you."

Xander hopped up, drawing his wand. "Let's try a few back and forths, no dangerous spells, we'll keep it clean. Alright?"

Harry nodded and eagerly pulled his wand as Xander walked to one side, motioning him to the opposite.

"Ready when you are," Xander said from one side, wand in hand and waiting.

"Right." Harry nodded, taking a breath. A beat passed, then his wand snapped out, "Expelliarmus!"

Xander sidestepped, scowling.

"What the hell is that?" He asked, wand and hand out to either side.

"Disarming charm," Harry blinked.

"I KNOW that. I mean why are you opening with it?" Xander said, "Unless you think you're dueling a complete idiot you don't start with that… Unless you DO think you're dueling a complete idiot."

"What? No, I just…"

"Harry, that's a finishing move. You don't use it unless you're ready to end the fight," Xander said, quoting Chayton. "And I'm not quite that bad a dueler."

"Fine. What do you suggest?" Harry asked, exasperated.

Xander smirked, wand snapping up, "Stupefy!"

The red bolt crossed the grounds, startling Harry, who threw himself sideways to avoid it. Hit the ground in a slide, rolling over to his side, and brought his wand up even as another stunner flashed across the room.

"Protego!"

The stunner splashed against the shield, as Harry struggled to one knee, then a blue flash slammed into his shield before he could react and tore it down. Harry gasped, recognizing the bone splitter, and threw himself back the other direction as another Stunner crossed the air where he'd been.

He shoulder rolled his time, coming back to his feet, and brought up another Protego shield in time to intercept the stunner coming his way. He recognized the pattern Xander was hitting him with, and part of Harry's mind had to give the American credit. The Stunners were there to force him to shield or move, while the bone splitters followed up to take down his shield since Xander knew that Harry couldn't risk taking a hit by one of those curses.

True to form a bone splitter shattered his shield a second later, leading Harry to move again. This time, however, he dove forward and under the incoming stunner. He hit the ground in a roll, and came up cursing.

"Stupefy! Rictusempra! Stupefy!"

Now it was Xander who was defending and dodging, throwing up a shield only to have it burst almost instantly when Harry's stunner splashed on them. Xander gritted his teeth as he took the tickling charm, and then rolled back as the second stunner passed overhead. He came back up to his feet, Protego shimmering into existence, just in time to intercept another stunner.

Xander charged through his dying shield, wand dancing out the tempo of the stunning curse as he charged into Harry's position.

Harry flinched, falling back a step, then had to throw himself to one side as the first of the curses flashed by. His own wand danced, his lips casting ahead of his mind, and the red glowing stunners began criss-crossing the room.

Both boys somehow remained standing, more likely due to bad aim on their opponents part than their own ability to dodge, but in seconds the battle was at point blank range and the next barrage simply wasn't going to miss.

Harry got his spell off a split second faster, but Xander's was right behind, and in a flash both boys were struck in the chest and blown back and away from each other. Harry hit the ground skidding, light fading as Xander's spell surged through his neurons, disrupting them temporarily. Xander, on the other hand, flew back across half the room before landing in a heap, his own lights having been blown out before he landed.

A lone house elf looked at the two boys and debated possible actions. Finally he snapped his fingers and summoned three others.

"Gets them drinks and pillows. They's going to be hurting when they wakes up."

The next morning Xander found himself cradling his head as he dropped into his chair at the first Defence Against the Dark Arts class of the year. Whatever failings Harry had in his technique, which even Xander could see clearly enough, he more than made up for in in reflex, speed, and power. Three duels, Xander won two by the skin of his teeth after realizing that if he screwed around Harry would pulverize him.

By using every technique Chayton had shown him, basically cheating his ass off, Xander had managed to score two wins after the first tie. Xander wasn't sure he'd be able to cheat nearly good enough to keep it up.

Harry was an easy guy to hate, Xander had to admit. No one should be that good at dueling when they've basically never done it before. Xander didn't count Harry's mix-ups with Draco as actual fights since he was pretty sure Draco was holding back. Not that Draco wasn't trying to win those fights, but Xander has a suspicion that he was trying to do so without getting his ass thrown in Azkaban.

As Xander had seen last night, handicapping himself against Harry Freaking Potter was NOT the way to win a fight. It brought to mind what Chayton had told him about the Wizarding world, and more specifically the way Wizards were unofficially ranked.

Low Magics, or Squibs, were those who didn't have the magical prowess to complete, at a minimum, their Practical OWLS. The range for Squibs was pretty wide, though, with some unable to cast at all and some right on the knife edge of completing their OWLS.

Above them you had a graduating series of levels, with 90th percentile Wizards being in the OWLS range, but unable to complete their NEWTS. NEWTS Wizards generally were considered to begin around the Ninety Fifth percentile, which was the minimum requirement to receive a letter to Hogwarts, Salem, or any of the other premier schools.

From Ninety Fifth to Ninety Ninth there wasn't much differentiating the group. Some were just stronger Wizards than others. Xander knew that he himself was most likely Ninety Sixth to Ninety Seventh percentile, with a little room to grow. That put him so far above the majority of humanity in terms of power potential it was mind boggling, but Harry blew through his shields with ease.

Which to Xander's mind brought him to the last distinct category Chayton talked about.

The Ninety Ninth percentile.

Contrary to what it sounded like, it was based on a bell curve so you didn't get one person in a hundred in that slot. It was more along the lines of one person in a billion or so. Chayton had guessed that Dumbledore was either a very high ninety eight, or a ninety nine himself. Mold in his shorts was also a solid ninety nine. And really that illustrated the problem with Ninety Ninth percentile Wizards, to Chayton's view.

One of them could basically ignore any law or government they chose. Send a hundred Aurors after them, and you'd most likely get back a hundred bodies if you were lucky. It wasn't about skill, though that was a factor of course, no it was all about pure power… which made Xander wonder if he wasn't seeing another Ninety Nine growing into his power in Harry.

It would make sense, he supposed, given Harry's survival as a child. Especially if everyone was right and it had actually been Harry and not his mother or father who somehow pulled it off.

He shot a glance across the classroom at the inoffensive form of Harry Potter, trying to imagine the boy as an unstoppable juggernaut with a wand. He snorted involuntarily, attracting the ire of Alastor Moody.

"Something funny about the Unforgivables, Boy?"

Xander gulped as a few Gryffs snickered, then quickly shook his head. "No sir."

"Well, not that we've heard from the Slytherin Contingent," Moody rasped out, "What about the rest of you. Unforgivables. Name One…"

He looked around the class, then jabbed a finger at Malfoy. "You."

"The Imperius." Malfoy smirked.

"You would know that one," Moody replied wryly. "I believe your father claimed familiarity with it."

He whipped out his wand and pointed it at a spider on his desk. "Imperio."

The class laughed as the spider did a little dance, but were silenced when Moody scowled at them.

"Next… You, there, Longbottom."

Neville stuttered, barely managing to get the words out. "T-the Cru-Cruciatus."

"Yes, the torture curse." Moody said, instantly snapping his wand at the spider as he called out the spell. "Crucio!"

This time there was no snickering as some of the students even shrieked and most looked green as the spider writhed under the curse. The scene imprinted itself on Xander's mind, making him cringe even as part of him couldn't help but wonder at it.

' I didn't know Spiders could feel pain the same way people did… '

"I guess that leaves one more. Isn't that right… Potter?" Moody asked, looking at the Boy Who Lived.

Harry swallowed, but nodded, "The killing curse, Sir."

Moody nodded, then his wand flashed out as he incanted the curse, and in a green wash of light the spider moved no more.

"Unforgivable." Moody said, "Three spells, using any of them on a person earns you a ticket to Azkaban. One way, no return. Everyone has their own thoughts on which is worse, or which is more powerful, but by the law… it doesn't matter. Use one, use them all."

The class quietly accepted that, no one saying anything at all.

DADA, despite its peculiarities, was probably the high point of classes for Xander as he made his way through his schedule.

Arithmancy and Runes had been paired down by this year, bringing all the fourth years students to the same class so he sat between Wednesday and Hermione there. Potions was much the same as every year, still with the Gryffs, but mostly ignored by everyone up to and including the Professor. Charms and Transfigurations was mostly the same, though with better attentions from the teachers.

Since he was mostly ahead of the classes in all of those, Xander was able to keep up the work on his own projects. Not really surprising, he supposed, since his own projects were precisely WHY he was ahead of the curve after all.

He had a few ideas for improving his wands, but they were really nothing more than random guesses on his part. If any of them worked even slightly he'd count it as a huge win. His TV idea was gold, though, Xander figured. If, that is, he could figure out how to do it without blowing out a thousand dollar piece of electronics the first time he tried it.

Ah well, he supposed he could afford it.

Classes showed no sign of letting up over the next week or so, in fact all of them getting more and more intense. Xander found himself working more on homework than his own stuff, but still kept the two balanced.

Everyone was buzzing about the announcement from Moody by the end of the week, however, saying that they would be tested against the Imperious itself.

Even Xander was excited.

Ok, Imperious lessons sucked.

Xander was nursing the king of all headaches by the time the class had ended, probably the only reason he wasn't more embarrassed by being made to dance around the class like an idiot while under the curse. He slumped into his normal seat in the library and looked over at Wednesday, who was already there.

"You look like hell." She said, eyes coming up to study him.

"Better than I feel then." Xander grunted out.

She raised an eyebrow.

"Imperious lessons in DADA." Xander said tiredly.

Wednesday's eyes widened minutely, "Really?"

Xander nodded, "My Occlumency shields are never gonna get built if they keep getting torn up like this."

"Headache?"

He nodded, "Yeah."

"Poor baby." She said dryly, then returned to her book.

Xander muffled a moan as his head spiked again, ' Addamses. '

Harry had a lot of things on his mind, between the past week and the DADA class he was practically buzzing with energy and thoughts as he made his way back to the Gryffindor dorm. Dueling with Xander had been great, he'd never really had a real duel before.

Even against Quirrell, when the man had been possessed, it had really just come down to grappling until his mother's magic kicked in. A real exchange of spells wasn't part of the game, it seemed. That first night he'd lost twice to Xander, but the fights had left him feeling pumped up and ready for more. Since then they caught a few more times in the Room, and Harry felt he'd acquitted himself well.

In class this morning, he'd been tested by an unforgiveable and had been able to resist!

Harry wasn't sure if he should be happy about it, but somehow he felt like he could take on the world all the same. Even the pain in his scar seemed like a faded memory in the daylight, leaving him relieved.

The school year was looking to be better than before, in his opinion. For one thing, there was a decent DADA professor, only the second such in four years. For a second, he had someone who was willing to help him learn outside of class. Well, someone who would help him learn WITHOUT trying to kill him with books.

God knew he loved Hermione, but honestly she scared him more often than not.

Ok, the lack of Quidditch blew, but maybe the Tri Wizard Tourney would be fun to watch. At least he wouldn't be the target this time, so he could relax if nothing else.

Everyone was excited now, since the other schools were due to arrive soon, and Harry found himself as infected by the enthusiasm as everyone else.