Herido woke with a start and rolled out of bed just in time to avoid the axe. How on Earth had Grandmamma manged to make it past his locks, wards and booby-traps? He obviously still had a lot to learn.

He grabbed his machete from under the bed and slid hard to the right, whispering a word and sliding straight through the wall and down a dark tunnel. He knew someone would be waiting at the bottom, so he gathered his magic to his palm and waited. As soon as his feet knocked open the little exit he closed his eyes and pushed every bit of magic he could summon into a blinding light. He didn't have much control and couldn't do much with magic yet, but the shock of the bright light did succeed in briefly blinding uncle Fester for long enough for Herido to start running. When he glanced back to see the guillotine hanging over the place he'd exited, he realised he was damn lucky his uncle hadn't let go of that rope in shock! At least now he knew he couldn't use that escape again.

He heard a roar behind him and ducked down behind some tall, dying grass. He watched silently as Kitty Cat and Fang ran past, chased by Wednesday aiming a dragon throwing axe high above her head. He was shocked for a moment, until he noticed that Thing was riding Kitty Cat's mane, and was relieved to see his sister taking her time in aiming. Thing was wearing a knuckleduster that had curved nine inch blade.

As soon as she'd passed, he leapt out and lunged for her midsection, only to have his blade met with the edge of Wednesday's axe.

"Nice try." She looked less than impressed even as she spoke. Heri noticed a flash of metal in her other hand and quickly pushed her back and ran towards the cemetery for cover.

He ran quickly and paused behind the mausoleum to catch his breath, only to have his father flip down before him from the roof and call 'en guarde'. He managed to bring up his machete in time to block Gomez' sword and they fell into a short sword fight. As he rolled away from his father to get to a better angle of attack, he was distracted by the angry growling of the crocodiles and wondered idly who had fallen into the swamp.

He looked up to see his father standing over him, ready to swing down his sword, when he was saved by the distant sound of his mother calling everyone to breakfast. Gomez grinned.

"You've the Devil's luck, son." He said as he extended a hand to help Herido to his feet.

"Of course, I'm an Addams." He replied as he dusted himself off and began to walk back to the house, meeting up with the others along the way. His teachers moaned that he didn't try hard enough in physical education, but he'd argue that he got quite enough at home. As soon as he saw Wednesday he had to look away in an effort to hide his shock and amusement. It was Wednesday who'd fallen into the swamp! And judging by the smug smile, Pugsley was responsible! His brother was going to have to start sleeping with both eyes open.

This mad chase had been a pretty typical morning routine for going on a month now. It had started when Wednesday had heard someone on the TV saying the phrase 'the early bird catches the worm'. Add this to what she'd heard about worms – that if you cut one in half you got two juicy worms – and she'd decided to get up early to try and cut Herido in half. That morning they had ended up fighting with samurai swords in the yard. Fester had come upon them and declared that he should join in too, because he was an expert in cutting people in half, although he never had managed to successfully put them together again. All too quickly it had descended into a game that involved most of the household chasing each other around the yard trying to cut each other in half. Nobody had won so far, which was why they were still playing. Early Bird was a great game, but Heri imagined that everyone would get bored of the game before anyone did win. It gave the cats a good morning run anyway and pet care was important in the Addams house.

This year, Herido had finally started to learn how to use magic. His accidental magic had saved his life more times than he could count, but he couldn't wait to have the ability to harness it at will, to know it was there when he needed it, instead of constantly living on a prayer.

He'd learnt so much already. At first he couldn't stop using it, constantly going around lighting and dowsing candles and levitating small objects (this was all he could do in the first two weeks), but Wednesday had become more and more jealous. She was absolutely furious that she couldn't learn yet. She still participated in the sacrifices to build up her power and understanding of her magic, as the children had done for years, but she was still too young to harness it without the risk of killing herself or losing her magic completely.

Heri had tried to curb his magical displays so as to not to rub it in, but she continued to seethe until finally she acted.

He'd momentarily forgotten all his physical training in favour of studying his magic and in a rare victory, Wednesday had him in iron chains, and at the bottom of the fish tank. He crawled like a worm to the edge of the tank. It was only because of the metal cuffs hitting the glass as he desperately tapped out an SOS in Morse Code that someone had heard his plea and he'd been rescued before he'd had to divert his magic from flaring out around him (to dissuade the piranhas from attacking), to trying to keep him alive without oxygen somehow. It had been quite the thrill.

Not long after, it became apparent that Wednesday had run away from home. She even took her spider, Homer, with her. The whole family was out looking for her all day, until eventually, he and uncle Fester had found her in the Police Station, where she said she was more than happy to come home. Apparently, the policeman had threated to send her to a social worker, who would sing and tell her fairy tales and all sorts of dreadful things.

Since then she'd stopped complaining, but Heri noticed that her eyes still narrowed slightly every time he used his magic. Often he was using it just to set her off.

The Addams house was constantly playing host to someone or other, both muggle and wizard. Many of them left the house in fright. There were a lot of strange people in the world, but muggles in particular seemed to get upset over the smallest things. There were some wizards who acted ridiculous too, such as one he'd seen throw up a hasty shield when his mother had simply offered the man a cup of henbane. And, of course, it was always amusing when a muggle and a wizard visited on the same day, as every other wizard Heri knew avoided muggles like the plague (an odd expression in itself). Gomez and Morticia had been threatened for years to stop associating with muggles and Gomez had been in court several times to defend his children going to a muggle school. In the end though, the authorities had given up and let it go, as there was no evidence of any breach in the Statue of Secrecy and nobody wanted to seriously anger a family as powerful as House Addams even as they continued to blatantly ignore Rappaport's Law.

Regardless, the family were always developing new interests and hobbies that required outside assistance and his parents often had people coming to seek financial or political support.

Gomez often gave money to various political causes, but never really got involved personally. The closest he'd got was when Mr Horne had come to visit.

The Hornes were a prominent political family and Mr Horne was very high up in the Magical Congress of the United States of America, many would say he was the man who had the President's ear.

The man had come to try and convince Gomez to start using some of his considerable political sway in Congress. It seemed that the government was starting to lose support and if they wanted to accomplish half of what they'd set out to, they needed Gomez backing.

It was a task doomed to failure.

"I beg you to see reason, Lord Addams. We stand at a critical time in our history. Your actions now could affect our great country for generations to come!" The man looked very sincere and knowledgeable in his impeccable business robes and sharp politician haircut. Sharp hazel eyes bored into Gomez', but it was all in vain.

"All the more reason not to get involved." Gomez declared with a wide smile that Mr Horne was beginning to find aggravating.

"But it would be so easy for you to…" Gomez held up a hand to cut the man off. They had been taking a while now. Mr Horne was wonderfully tenacious.

"I'm sorry old man. Not only am I not interested in claiming any power I may have, but working in government would take me away from home. My heart is already shattered, what with Pugsley away for most of the year, I couldn't lose out on the time I have left with my younger two!" Mr Horne bit back a snarky retort and instead tried to bargain:

"I'm sure they wouldn't even notice you were gone. You could come home when they come home from school…" Both Addams parents turned sharp eyes to him, and he felt the temperature of the room drop. Or was that just his blood? He swallowed the lie and amended quickly: "I mean, I'm sure we could make a special effort to have you home by three every day." He fought the urge to gulp. It didn't really make sense for him to feel so nervous about lying to the Addams', but he did. He tried to shake off the feeling, as it truly was ridiculous, but he couldn't deny the relief he felt when Morticia spoke up.

"Maybe he's right, Gomez. You could just walk out of the office when it was time to come home and leave them to their chattering."

"Ah but querida," Gomez turned adoring eyes to her and gently took her hand in his as though it were some sacred thing, "how could I leave you every day. To spend so many hours away from you, day after day… why Tish, it would reduce me to a very beast of a man. To be denied your beauty would be torture. To not hear your voice would drive me to madness…" Morticia smiled and stroked his cheek. "Cara Mia." He whispered.

"Mon Cher." She returned and Mr Horne buried the distaste he felt at such a public display and simply turned away, trying his best to ignore the sounds of such passionate kissing. Maybe it would be best to just lose the next election. He also couldn't stop thinking that maybe Gomez had a point when he said that life at Congress would be boring. It certainly seemed he had more interesting things to do here.

He let out a minute sigh as the Addams' attention returned to him. This was going to be a long day.

In May, the children went to school only to be greeted with shocking news. They were being made to perform in the end of year production! They had gotten away with not participating for years now, but the principal was putting her foot down and saying they would have to perform or fail the year.

Herido was casually strolling around back stage as they prepared for the auditions – which he and Wednesday could skip – when he heard a familiar voice. That little girl, Emily, from Wednesday's class if he wasn't mistaken.

It seemed she had regained a little bravado over the last year. He stopped to listen.

"…can't believe they are performing. I mean, what are they going to do? Bite off a bat's head? She's just trying to steal all the attention for herself! Or maybe this is practice for the freak show! She…" Her words faded as she finally noticed Heri watching. The girl paled instantly and swallowed loudly, but otherwise tried to stay bold. He gave her a sly smile as she raised a shaky chin in defiance, before turning and walking out at a pace that was too slow, as though she was overcompensating for the fact that she was forcing herself not to run. Heri wondered how many seconds it would take for her to realise that if she wanted to audition she'd have to come back, and how many more minutes it would take her to gather the courage to do so.

When the time came, it turned out that participating in the show wasn't too bad. He and Wednesday had colluded to perform their own unique version of Hamlet which had left the first three rows soaked in what the audience hoped was stage blood. The Addams never did anything by half.

It was clear to see who out of all the parents attending had had dealings with the Addams family before and who hadn't. Those that hadn't looked at the family with rude, judging eyes and disgusted scowls, or else were overly friendly and unassuming in chatting to them. Those who knew the family were also split into two groups. The first group stayed as far away from them as they could, trying to avoid eye contact or pretending not to hear if one of the family called them over. The other, much smaller group, consisted mostly of Gomez' business associates, who all made an effort to be polite.

Heri watched graciously as Emily took to the stage in her tutu. He'd heard her saying that she was going to be a ballerina when she grew up. He knew that a lot of girls made that claim and that very few were able to achieve it. Even so, knowing that it was something she cared about was enough.

As the dance began to wind up, he took Wednesday's hand and gave her an evil smile, and she watched as his whole face seemed to darken as he looked back to the stage.

Everything seemed to happen so quickly, Emily landed wrong and twisted her ankle, falling to the floor with a moan. As she held the injured joint, one of the stage lights came crashing down from above at an angle altogether uncanny and slammed straight into her other, unguarded ankle. She let out a horrific screech as the curtains closed and the staff rushed to help.

The ankle was surely crushed. Emily would never dance again.

A/N

Nine year old Heri is becoming a little vindictive. Ah well, children will be children!

I guess America doesn't have Lords and such, but in my story all the oldest wizarding families in America kept the titles when they immigrated.

Also, I felt bad for stealing Pugsley's place in the school production, so gave him a rare one-up on Wednesday. I just had to add another scene of crazy Addams silliness, as there will only be one more chapter until things start to get a little more serious at Hogwarts.

xx