Disclaimer is in chapter 1.

Xander was tired.

Ok, his routine was kind of heavy these days, but that really wasn't the problem. And he had a lot of new projects eating at his time, and mind, but that wasn't the problem either.

No, it was all the time he was spending trying to avoid Wednesday and Willow.

The two W's in his life were trying to drive him insane.

Actually, the more Xander thought about it, that might be EXACTLY what Wednesday was trying to do. He certainly wouldn't put it past her.

The girl's… girls'? Plan was sheer insanity, and not the sort of insanity he expected from the Addams either. Xander couldn't believe that Wednesday was placing herself at such risk, it was the sort of thing she and her family were the very antithesis of.

Whoo, Antithesis, go me for the big word, Xander thought wryly as he made his way through Sunnydale, trying to gather his thoughts.

The sun was descending into the sea, throwing oranges and reds across the town in spectacular fashion. Xander wasn't in the mood to appreciate it just then, however, as his mind refused to give up the imagery he'd been seeing in his imagination ever since reading the ritual details.

He was a teenage boy, after all, it was hard not to fantasize about it.

The ritual was a fairly straightforward power enhancing rite with a bit of a twist, from what he could read. The twist wasn't, depressingly enough, the slave part either. That was actually pretty common from what he knew of ritual magics, they had often been used to coopt free will and dominate others. No, the twist was in the blood element.

Virgin blood.

Rite magic was powerful enough on its own, combining it with blood magic and sex magic made for one hell of a trinity of powers converging.

The Arithmancy involved was intricate as well, he could tell that at a glance. Three magical schools, four sacrifices, one male, four females. Given the nature of the ritual all those numbers were potent.

The trinity, the singularity, and the four seasons.

It was a powerful rite, without question… but the consequences.

Xander shook his head.

Granted, the rite was not intended as a slave ritual. That was what happened if abused, however from his reading Xander knew that the old rituals had been abused so much that abuse was the norm, not the exception. Whatever the intentions behind it were, it was a slave rite.

What is Wednesday thinking?

Wednesday was bored.

That would normally be a good sign for everyone in the vicinity to abandon all hope, and any sense of decorum, and run for the hills… but just then, she was bored and preoccupied.

It was an odd sensation, honestly, being too bored to be bothered with trying to amuse herself wasn't something she'd ever been before. Her thoughts on what Alexander was going to do now had her uninterested in torture or mayhem for the moment, however, and so she just watched as Willow hyperventilated.

"Oh god, he's going to hate me isn't he? We shouldn't have done that, no, no," Willow paced and shook her head, "That was bad. We dropped too much on him, I can't believe you talked me into that and it's all your fault, but I still did it, oh my God what did I do?"

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, wondering if that color red was healthy on the young witch. It was hard to tell, on most people she suspected that it would be a sign of a stroke, but the particularly fair complexion Willow enjoyed, combined with the red hair, was such that she suspected the girl would redden remarkably easily.

Wednesday herself didn't, of course. Partly that was due to emotional control, but partly her genetics were less prone to… blood flow.

"Calm yourself," She said finally, growing tired of the show. "He is not angry with you, at most he's only mildly disturbed… and likely aroused, and confused. That's Alexander's normal state of mind, so it's hardly worth worrying about."

Willow turned to stare at her, "Aroused? Really?"

She suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at the redhead. While Wednesday did admire the girl's intelligence, that lack of confidence simply had to go.

Sunnydale wasn't the safest of environments at night, but Xander had been briefed on the more common threats so he wasn't too worried as he made his way back to the junkyard just after the sun had set.

Not worried and not ready, however, were two different things.

So when a pair of… well, things that simply stank of dark magic blocked his path about half a block from the junkyard, Xander's hand was already on his combat wand.

"You don't want to do this," He said, really not in the mood.

His issues with Wednesday and her plans were still taking up all his focus, and tangling with a pair of overeager blood suckers wasn't high on his list of things to do.

"Oh, I think we want to do this," The first said, grinning, "Don't you think we want to do this, Jack?"

The second nodded eagerly, "We definitely want to do this."

Xander sighed, drawing his wand from his belt but keeping it slightly masked and at his side. He was surprised that the pair were being this brazen, frankly, since his brief had said that the Hellmouth was waning and attacks were rare for the moment.

Great. Now I'm going to have to report this to the local Constables. Xander sighed, it was such a pain in the ass.

The leader made a motion, and 'Jack' lunged forward in response. Xander's wand flicked in response, his arm barely moving as he quietly whispered the incantation.

Lumos.

The pair fell back, screaming, startling Xander though he'd been expecting it. The basic light charm wasn't a full on replacement for sunlight, but it was close enough to drive a vampire back with no trouble and the pair broke and ran in instant later. Xander watched them go, annoyed at the pests that had distracted him from his train of thought, then shrugged and went on with making his way back to the Junkyard.

Should have taken my bike, would have been less of a hassle.

Sirius Black looked up from where he was working on his own motorcycle as Xander trudged in, noting that the young man seemed… well preoccupied didn't quite cover it, but was the closest thing he could quite call it.

"You alright?" He asked as Xander tossed off his jacket and slumped in a rolling chair near his own bike.

"Yeah, just annoyed. A couple vampires just tried to chew on me," Xander admitted.

Sirius blinked, "Really? I haven't seen any around."

"Just my luck I guess. Lumos sent them packing," Xander grumbled.

Sirius nodded at that. He'd have used something hotter, personally, but lumos was a good move for a kid. Vampires were an uncommon pest, but not really dangerous to Wizards as a rule, and they mostly left Muggles alone too with the various treaties and laws put into effect to keep them from being noticed by the population at large.

"Better tell the Aurors," Sirius said, "If there's a pair violating the masquerade, that's a problem."

"Yeah, I call them up," Xander said, "We were briefed on what to do cause of Sunnydale being a Hellmouth."

Sirius nodded, remembering the brief himself.

The local dark magic nexus was a nasty one, he had to admit. If it were in England, he had no doubt that the Ministry would have it under quarantine and probably guarded by Dementors. That was assuming, of course, that the Black family or one of the other Dark aligned families hadn't warded it off for their own uses centuries earlier.

Now THERE is a disturbing thought. Isn't that just something my ancestors would have done? Sirius shivered a little, wondering if that might not explain some of the old rites and such of the Dark families, and where their bouts with power had originated.

Something for another time, he supposed, if and when he managed to clear his name and get out of Exile. It would be nice to go home sometime, he thought, though honestly it didn't matter much as long as Harry was alright.

Maybe he can visit sometime, Sirius grinned to himself. There's a lot to be said for California.

Speaking of which, Sirius nodded to Xander, "The girls have been waiting for you, by the way."

Xander grimaced, surprising him.

"That's what I was worried about. I'm going to call the constables," He grumbled, pushing himself up and trudging off.

Sirius watched him go, perplexed.

Now what the bloody hell was that about?

"What is this place?" Harry wondered, looking around as they entered.

"The London seat of House Black," Andromeda said, grimacing slightly at the dust. "Welcome to Twelve Grimmauld Place."

"It's… lovely," Amelia said, sarcasm dripping from her tone in a veritable flood.

"Isn't it just?" Andromeda laughed, "However it's also exceedingly well warded, and as secure as possible for our conversation.

"It will do," Amelia sighed.

Honestly, she would have preferred her office, but bringing the Boy who Lived into the Ministry at the moment seemed contraindicated. There were too many factions and too many plots at play, and Amelia was well aware that she could only see a small fraction of them.

"Where did you want to start?" Harry asked after a moment of looking around.

"Let's begin with the events after the third task, shall we?" Amelia suggested.

"Voldemort's return," Harry said, noting the flight grimace on both women's faces as they heard that name. "He can't set up the Taboo right now, can he?"

"No, Mr. Potter, he cannot," Amelia admitted, "however old habits die hard, especially survival ones. I would prefer it if you avoided his name, however correct you are."

"Fine," Harry sighed.

"Now, tell me about his return," Amelia said, focusing intently.

Harry described the ritual, as best he could remember, as well as the fight that had ensued. He mentioned Moody's appearance, but Bones instantly waved that off.

"I've known Alastor for many a year, young man. He would not be involved in that."

Harry nodded, "The Headmaster said it was someone under Polyjuice. The real Moody was discovered in Hogwarts, trussed up in a trunk I guess."

Amelia almost lost her monocle at that statement, "He what? I am very much going to have a word with both Alastor and the Headmaster about this."

As controlled as she was, Amelia didn't show emotions, but even to the completely oblivious Harry she was clearly irritated. To Andromeda, who was both more observant and sensitive to people's emotions and knew Amelia personally, the head of the DMLE was infuriated.

Andromeda decided that she most certainly would not want to be in either the Headmaster's or Alastors shoes at the moment. Though, if Alastor was still recuperating that might buy him some forgiveness.

Amelia sighed, just keeping from ranting in front of the witness, and started to pace.

"I wish my Ministry budget covered a Pensieve, this would be far easier."

"Pardon," Harry blinked, "What's a Pensieve?"

"An artifact that allows you to share and view memories," Andromeda said, thinking about it herself, "They're quite expensive, however, and very rare for that reason. They require extensive work by a Rune Master to construct."

"Oh." Harry frowned, one of those sounded brilliant. He could just share his memory of Sirius and maybe that would be enough to have his Godfather declared innocent.

"I believe the Unspeakables have one," Amelia sighed, "however they won't admit the sky is blue if you corner them outside on a sunny day, so there's no chance of even getting them to admit they have one, let alone be permitted to use it."

"Old families sometimes have one," Andromeda said, shrugging, "however I don't know if the Black family ever owned one. Doubtful, my ancestors were not the sharing type… not memories or anything else."

"What about the Potters?" Harry asked.

"No," Amelia shook her head, "even less likely. The Potter family has been Aurors as far back as anyone remembers. If your family had a Pensieve, it would be known."

Andromeda tapped her chin slightly, considering it, "You know I believe that they did, and you're right, it was. I'm not sure, however. Do you have a list of properties and assets, Harry?"

"Gringotts gave me one," Harry said, "Is that what you mean?"

"Yes, that would be the one. We can check it later," Andromeda offered.

Harry nodded his agreement and thanks.

"All well and good, but let's remain on topic for the moment," Amelia steered them back, focusing on Harry, "Tell me about your second year."

He felt like a dead man walking.

A convicted man, taking that last long walk down the hall to the execution chamber.

Which was ironic, seeing as how he was pretty sure Wednesday HAD an execution chamber and he'd much rather be walking toward THAT at the moment. Xander sighed, told himself to buck up, and finished walking down the length of hall to where he had rooms under the yard.

As expected, Wednesday was waiting for him there, as patiently as she ever did… which was to say, not very. If Xander were a decent judge, he'd guess that she was just about ready to initiate a nice little game of 'is there a god?'. The almost imperceptible tick under her right eye gave away the emotion that the Addams scion habitually suppressed.

Of course, that tick MAY have been caused by Willow's near hyperventilating and high speed pacing as she babbled.

"Oh my God, he's going to hate us now, I knew I shouldn't have agreed to what you said but I didn't know what else to do and…"

"Willow!" Xander had to yell to be heard over her babbling. "Calm down. I think you're about to drive Wednesday to Willow-cide."

Willow threw herself at him, forcing him to practically catch her in midair as Wednesday closed her eyes and let out a deep breath of tension that visibly, to Xander at least, relaxed her body. She looked over to where he was holding Willow and glared at the back of the redhead's head.

"There was a girl at Summer camp once that was FAR less aggravating than that," She growled, "She only breaths today because she and her family MOVED before I could lay my hands on them."

"You went to Summer camp?" Xander blinked, his expression completely disbelieving.

"Do not ask," Wednesday grumbled, "I don't like to talk about it."

"Fair enough."

Xander wasn't stupid enough to challenge her when her tone was that frosty, particularly not just after she'd been pushed to near homicide by Willow-babble.

He might save it for later use, however.

Hey, Xander never claimed to be SMART.

"Slow down, Wills," Xander said, looking down at her, "I'm not mad at you."

"You're not?" Willow asked, looking up.

"No, I'm not," He reassured her. "I just don't understand why you both want this."

"I… I…" Willow looked a little confused.

"My reasons hardly matter, Alexander," Wednesday cut in, "only my desire does."

"No," Xander looked evenly at her, "Your reasons are the ONLY thing I care about. As things stand now, I refuse."

Wednesday's lips twitched upward, a dark glint glittering in her eyes as she met his gaze. "Oh really?"

"Yes, really."

Willow slipped back from Xander, nervously looking between the pair but not sure what she could add to it.

"Why do my reasons matter?" Wednesday challenged him, "The outcome is the same in any event, and what I seek doesn't affect your options."

"Damn it, Wends," Xander growled, "Of COURSE what you want matter! What everyone involved wants MATTERS!

She smiled thinly, "And that is exactly why I trust you and am willing, no am eager, to proceed with the ritual."

"Huh?" Xander blinked, confused.

"She's saying that one of the reasons is… it's you," Willow said, "Wednesday… Me… We, wouldn't do this for anyone else. Not anyone."

"But I don't want you to do it for me either," Xander whined, not that he would admit it.

"Have you looked at the benefits of the rite?" Wednesday asked. "The sacrifice involved is significant, both in blood and trust, but so are the benefits."

Honestly, Xander knew that he'd barely skimmed over that part of the ritual. The requirements and potential disasters had focused his mind quite neatly, in fact, so he shook his head.

"Take your time," Wednesday said, "We have until All Hallows for you to decide."

Xander sighed, "I'm not going to win this one easily, am I?"

Wednesday raised an eyebrow, "Easily? You speak as though you're going to win it at all."

Xander fixed her with a glare that she blithely ignored as she got to her feet, "Well now that you've managed to calm down the hyperactive pixy… foul things those are… I believe I will retire for the night. We can continue our research tomorrow."

Xander nodded, "Fine. Have pleasant dreams, Wednesday."

She shot him a dark look, "I'm already quite aware that you're aggravated with me, Alexander. No need to rub it in."

"Oh, I think we can safely say I'll be pointing that out for a while yet," He told her as he held the door open for her. "Just be glad I'm too scared of clowns to properly redecorate your rooms."

Willow stifled a giggle as Wednesday paled slightly, redoubling her glare only for Xander to ignore it just as easily as she'd managed his.

After she'd stepped out, Willow took a deep breath and suddenly turned almost as red as her hair as she realized she was alone with Xander after the conversation they'd had and the ritual they'd spoke of.

"I… I have to go home now to," She blurted, rushing for the door.

"Willow!" Xander called out, bringing her up short.

"Yes?" She cringed, not looking back.

"Do you have your wands?"

She nodded hesitantly, risking a look back now to see him looking concerned at her. "Yes."

"I saw a couple vampires in the streets earlier," He said, "Remember your lumos."

"Right," Willow nodded firmly. "Lumos."

Xander sighed as she retreated from the room, wishing he'd said more, but honestly what could he have said? Wednesday was certifiably insane, and now she'd dragged Willow into the depths with her.

Wednesday lightly closed the door to her room, then withdrew her wand and carefully threw up a few privacy wards before setting it down on the nightstand by the bed. She then clenched her fists so hard her arms started to shake, a low groan filtering out through her throat, as she vented her frustrations.

When she was done, she relaxed, then took a seat on the edge of the bed.

Well, She thought, that did NOT go as intended.

For all that she knew and trusted Alexander, he'd managed to surprise her once again. He was a boy, and a teenage one at that. He shouldn't have even blinked at what she was asking… no, what she was OFFERING.

She rather despised having her assumptions tossed out the window like so much trash, even when it sort of proved them more correct than she'd expected.

Minor tantrum passed, Wednesday threw herself back on the bed and stared up at the ceiling for a time.

"Alexander," She said aloud, "You almost impress me."

Amelia Bones didn't know what to make of the stories she'd heard the day before.

Dawn was rising in the East, and she'd spent more of the night awake and thinking about the Potter situation than she wanted to admit to. The things that poor boy had been involved in already in his young life were, frankly absurd.

The biggest issue, however, was the return of the Dark Lord.

With Potter's confirmation, she knew she had to prepare.

The Wards of the Ossuary would have to be updated, she knew immediately. They were fine for the average, Merlin even the above average criminal of the Wizarding World, but they would not stand up to the Dark Lord.

As long as the Ministry was pretending he wasn't back, Amelia thought that she might have the advantage.

He'll lay low, gather his power, She thought grimly. That's how he did it last time. While he's doing that, I can start pulling in some of the reserves for refresher courses. I'll make it look like normal certification requirements. It'll just take a little juggling of the paperwork, but I know just the clerks to handle that.

She couldn't actively recruit, of course, not with Fudge apparently digging his head in the sand, but that would only force the Dark Lord's hand anyway. New recruits would take at least six months to bring up to speed, and that was only if she were willing to drop standards to what they were at the end of the last War.

Amelia didn't foresee the Dark Lord giving her even that much time if he caught wind of the Ministry fortifying for a fight.

Instead she would quietly advise to all trusted Aurors that they beef up their home wards, maybe even slip a few undercover operations to help pay for it. Maybe they'd get a little lucky and trap some of the Death Eaters early on, turn the tables on once the ball dropped.

"Auntie?"

Amelia almost jumped, startled by the voice behind her, but managed not to as she turned to greet her niece as Susan approached, blinking sleep out of her eyes.

"Good morning, Susan."

"Morning," Susan replied, yawning. "You're up early."

"Have a lot of thoughts on my mind," Amelia admitted.

Susan took a seat and stared numbly at her for a long moment, "You went to see Harry yesterday, right?"

Amelia had to suppress a smile.

"I did."

"So, the rumors are right then," Susan sighed.

Amelia shrugged, "Some of them usually are."

"The Dark Lord is back." Susan said blithely, shocking her aunt.

"How did you…?"

Susan smiled weakly, "It's already started to circulate through the Slytherin families, Auntie."

Amelia sighed.

Of COURSE it was.

She nodded, "Yes, it seems that he's back."

"Shite." Susan Amelia Bones said simply.

"SUSAN," Amelia couldn't help but snap, "Language!"

The two stared silently at one another for a long moment before both burst out laughing.