Master Xander

Chapter Five

'Opening Day'

"Come, come my dear," Arthur Wesley implored.

His wife, Molly shook her head amused by her husband's antics. She hadn't been in Diagon Alley in a while with her husband and although she wouldn't admit it out loud, it gave her quite a thrill being out on the town with her man. The children were in the exploring the candy and joke shops, so the two adults had a few moments for themselves. Arthur's quiet, snappy, and totally inappropriate jokes whispered in her ear made her blush uncontrollably. She thanked Merlin that the children weren't around. But she loved his innuendos which was probably one the many reasons why there were so many little Wesleys running around in the first place.

The children were about to go back to school, and she had acquired their secondary supplies for them. With so many of their children in school, it was a strain on their meager budget, but they survived, with a little money left over to splurge and spend a day out together.t. That meant that she and her husband could breathe a bit.

Harry Potter was with her son Ronald and knowing them they were at Honeydukes, spending their last coin on chocolates in preparation for the train ride to Hogwarts. Molly and family adored Harry and she treated him like one of the family. She suspected that Headmaster Dumbledore somewhat encouraged this, but she really didn't care. She was a mother by nature and she naturally gravitated towards Harry anyway.

In all honestly, she was worried about poor little Harry as much as any of her other children perhaps more so. He was so thin, and she idly wondered why his relatives skimped on the food for a growing boy. Maybe they couldn't afford enough to properly feed themselves and she make a mental reminder to ask Dumbledore about that when she next saw him.

Meanwhile, her husband was steadily coaxing her towards his intended destination. The store was already in sight and Molly frowned a bit. It looked out of place somehow as if it didn't fit.

Xander's Magic Shop and Curiosities.

Strange name, she thought. Who would name their child Xander?

This Alexander her husband was so excited about knew they were coming. He was at the front of the shop, looking intently at her and Arthur while they approached. Her husband was beaming, and she couldn't help but smile at the joy radiating from him. Grabbing his hand, Arthur shook it vigorously.

"Good to see you again!" the man said as he now pointed towards his wife. "This is my wife, Molly."

She actually curtsied a bit to Alex's surprise. Alexander smiled warmly and shook her hand.

She took a moment to quickly access him. Alexander looked to be in his late thirties, more likely early forties, maybe a couple of years younger than she. The streaks of gray in his hair gave him a more mature look. He appeared very healthy, and his lazy somewhat goofy smile somehow endeared him to her, none of which hid the quiet power that radiated from him. Very handsome. But that shirt! What in the name of Merlin was it?

Shaking her head, she dismissed it as an American quirk. No one in their right mind would wear such a thing… except Dumbledore. That was a meeting that she hoped to avoid for the sake of her mind and the safety of her eyes. "So," she asked, "how long have you been in England?"

That seemed to be the safest way to start a conversation with this stranger her husband spoke so much about.

"Off and on about four months," he answered. "I had to get my home set up. Then I spent time at the Ministry and Gringotts getting the paperwork done. I've spent a little more than two months in London getting things together for the opening here."

"You lived among them?" she asked, surprised that he dared do such a thing.

"Yep. I don't have a problem living with normal people. It's quite nice, in fact."

She nodded and pushed away her surprise that he would live among muggles and do so comfortably. She did understand his challenges with the Ministry, having an idea of how much went into opening a store in Diagon Alley. She wondered how he managed to do it at all considering the competition and the Ministry's antics. Plus, he was American, so it had to be hard for him to have succeeded unless he had some very powerful connections which would not have surprised her in the least. But her curiosity was peaked as to how he managed to do it. He was a foreigner in a strange land.

"How do you like wizarding England so far?"

Alexander had to think for a second. "It's so–Nineteenth Century," he finally said.

"It is lovely, isn't it," she beamed.

Alex prompted gently, and she and Arthur entered the shop. To her utter surprise, the twins, Ron, and Harry were already there, trying to examine everything. How they got their first, she couldn't figure out. Probably, it was her husband's fault she didn't notice them heading towards the store because he kept whispering naughty little nothings in her ear.

Harris half closed his eyes. "Yeah, lovely. Real state of the art," he muttered in a somewhat perky manner as he followed them into his store.

"What is this?" exclaimed Arthur the moment he stepped into the shop. The book he spied seemed to call to him.

"That is a book about trains of the world. Every non-magical society has their own version all of which perform different functions. This book examines the different trains, where they travel and how they work. If you want to know how they work and their different purposes, then this is the book for you," Harris said.

Arthur thumbed through the book. "So many kinds! They actually work?"

"Like magic," the American hummed.

Arthur's eyes widened with every page he turned. the paper fascinated him, it being glossy and having such a strange and exotic feel when compared to the parchment he was used to. And the images weren't detailed paintings! They were so lifelike and in superb color. It seemed like he could almost able to reach through and touch it. and it was a non-magical item! He turned a page and saw a set of schematics of the internal workings of a diesel engine train. How did the no-mags create such beautiful images and such complex machinery without magic of any sort?

"It's more complicated," he whispered. "Much more than I imagined. How can they understand, let alone build something like this?"

"Years of experience, success and failures, like everything else," answered Alexander. "This book shows how they work, why they work and their uses. Amazing, isn't it?"

"Quite," answered the stunned Wesley. "I thought they used wood or maybe petrol. I mean all of the smoke had to come from wood or petrol of some kind. But non-magical controlled lightning?"

Alexander refrained from trying to slam his head on the nearest countertop. The pain wouldn't have helped anyway. "You should buy the book," he suggested. "It has a lot of information you'll find very interesting and informative. If you have any trouble understating thing which you will, I can answer some of the question you will come up with…mostly."

"Mister Harris, do you by chance have any books on Aeroplanes and how they can fly and not fall to the ground?" he asked hopefully. "I still can't believe that those contraptions use only use one pair of wings! I thought they needed two,"

He looked so earnest and hopeful that Harris couldn't help but to laugh his heart out. "Haven't you looked in the sky. Planes are all over the place."

"Well, they can't see us through our wards, and we can't see them through the wards. Our magical community is self sufficient and most of us have no need to interact with the outside world."

"There's no need to…" mused Alexander.

"Isn't it like this in magical America?"

"In some places, it is." Admitted the thoughtful younger man. "Change of any kind is hard," he quietly muttered too softly for Arthur to here clearly.

"Sorry, I didn't hear you."

"I was just agreeing with you. America is in some ways as closed off as you English. But it's not important. Back to the subject at hand. Yes, I have some large bound books that shows you most of the modern planes as well as the older stuff. It'll help you catch up. And, call me Xander. All of my friends do?"

Arthur looked up in shock. "Thank you, Xander. I would be honored to be your friend and please call me Arthur."

"Okay, Art."

Arthur blanched and his demeanor changed as he looked at Alexander in utter horror. "Please, please, don't call me Art in front of Molly," he begged looking in the direction of Molly who had wondered off to look at an item that had caught her attention. "She hates that name. She says it makes me sound like I'm a child."

Again, Xander laughed. It wasn't malicious, just a gentle acknowledgment. "a friend of mine used to abuse names just for the fun of it. it got old when people did the same to her. I promise to never call you that in front of your wife." In fact, he promised himself no to do it at all. Buffy made a lot of enemies doing that very thing when they were younger. He vowed not to repeat that mistake, unless it served a purpose, like pissing someone off.

"By the by, how much are these two books?" he asked. He wasn't the richest person in the world he assumed that these books are very, very expensive.

"For my friend, these two books are three galleons each." Arthur looked at him, astonished and more than grateful. Such quality merchandise should cost ten times as much just for the picture alone. "I would prefer payment in British currency, but I don't think you have any of that kind of money."

"The family doesn't use it that much," he confessed. "We don't interact much with the mug–sorry, non- magical world so we really don't have a need for it. But I know we have some somewhere in the house. If you want to wait, then when I return home, I'll see if we have some lying about."

Alexander just smiled. "Don't worry about it," he said. "Your money's good here, whatever kind. I know that the goblins cast the coins, so I assume they're the ones who are responsible from keeping your money separated from the Land of Tweed. But whatever works..."

"You don't agree of our way of doing things?" asked the curious wizard.

The American shook his head. "I understand why the goblins do the things that they do. Their money is tamperproof and copy proof. But to rely on the goblins so much makes you dependent on them. The wizarding community are human. What I don't quite agree with is what your desire to separate yourselves so completely from the rest of the world. I understand your fears, and I can see it as a very strong justification for isolating ourselves. But I think that you kind of overdid it. Your isolationism is your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness. But hey, it's just me, a simple American."

"I've had thoughts about that as well. But it's just the way things are. I would love to have more interaction with non-magical people, but it just doesn't happen."

Alexander nodded in agreement. "Too much isolation is a bad thing, at least in my personal opinion. There are forces in your community that are not helping the situation. As I said before, there are wards all over, making sure that non-magical technology doesn't work in the magical community." He was silent for a second, letting the words and implications sink in. "It seems that there're some people that really like it the way they were and have no intention of changing anything for the next few centuries, if then."

"Arthur smiled at the younger man. "That sounds pretty harsh. But it also makes me wish to see what it was like in California with both of our people mixing freely without us being afraid of being the stake."

"I admit that we have a few people that would have if they could have. People are people, and prejudice is everywhere, and we don't change easily. What can I say? But most people had a lot of bigger problems to deal with," he added. He didn't elaborate but the way he said it made Arthur shiver. "But enough of that. Bring your books to the counter. Then I have a few things I'd like to show you."

While her husband was otherwise engaged, Molly Weasley was busy examining the strange, what had to be, stove. It was a beautiful design. It was a beautiful blend of black and silver. But it had so many knobs! Eleven of them!? Where did the wood go, or what type of magic was used to work the thing?

The (very) high-end stove was indicative of the store itself. It made her feel as if she had stepped into a foreign country. The look was different from anything she'd seen before. yes, she had been to wizarding France years ago, but this store was completely different. First of all, of course, it was decorated American style. The seating, tables, the paint on the walls wasn't like any English store she'd ever been in, not that it was bad, just different. Alexander Harris had tastefully combined a magical-muggle blend of store, apothecary, and restaurant. He was even using regular lightbulbs instead of magi-candles. She had no idea how he was able to do that. Most likely, the light bulbs were magical. That was the most logical explanation that she could come up with although she'd never seen one.

The Paintings (or were they some type of photographs?) were strange but beautiful. They didn't move not a bit. But they were so lifelike that she couldn't help but be impressed by the quality. The pictures caught the attention of others in the store as well.

The pictures were of four women, one blond, two brunettes, and a red-haired woman who could have easily most strikingly been mistaken for a member of the Weasley clan. Two of them looked to be related. But all of them shared the same eyes and if the eyes were the mirrors of the soul then all of them had seen their share of danger, grief, and power. Each one of them exuded a commanding presence. Each of the thirty-somethings looked for than confident. They had to be powerful American witches.

Alexander had just finished serving American pizza to the kids and some of the other customers. For the children, this was the first time that any of the kids had ever had sausage and cheese pizza, and they, like most of the customers were surprised and delighted by the taste. One of the things Alexander discovered was that the wizarding world rarely tasted food from outside of their own community. He decided that they should be introduced to American-style pizza. As he knew it would, this turn out to be a wise decision. He was making a nice profit from customers eager to taste this new unique food from America. Fred and George were delighted by the taste. Ron was busy trying to eat his pizza as fast as possible because he knew his older siblings were planning something. Fortunately for him, Alexander stopped the antics immediately. Apparently, the twins were unaware of the simple truth, that what goes around comes around. It also helped that if anything happened to Ron's food, the twins would be banned from his store forever and ever. Alex meant it and they knew it.

Arthur and Molly were absolutely mortified by the open rebuke that Alex had growled towards their children. They were embarrassed by the twins' antics and added further threats that made the twins back off in horror. Needless to say, they never bothered Ron's food again.

Other things were still fair game, though.

"Hi Mrs. Weasley, I see you looking at my girls, well, women now. Those were taken about five years ago."

"They're very beautiful," she said. Relatives?"

"No. Friends I grew up with. The blond is Elizabeth 'Buffy' Summers. Her sister, Dawn Summers-Jackson, Faith Lehane Janowski, and Willow Rosenberg. I haven't seen them in a long time. I hope they're doing okay."

Molly looked confused. "You can't portkey and visit? I assume they are in Colonies."

"Nope," he answered. "They're far away. "Maybe one day, I'll go and visit when I'm able. For now, England is the place where I want to be. I have a store to run now and things to do."

"Well, I hope your store will be a success here," she warmly said.

"I believe it will," he answered. "And it will give me a chance to see your husband more." He looked around at the store and the incoming customers and window shoppers. "I think we'll like this place, my cohort and partner that is."

Molly rolled her eyes. "With all of these strange gadgets here, I may never see him anymore." She tried to look angry, however she wasn't very convincing due to the smirk that kept threatening to explode across her face. "Please don't corrupt him with muggle, or as you say no-magical contraptions. I'll never hear the end of it," she sniffed. Her smile made it clear that she wasn't really that annoyed.

Alexander just took it in stride. There was something however that disturbed him, and he changed subjects as his curiosity got the better of him. "Can I ask you a question, Mrs. Wesley?"

"Please call me Molly."

"Molly, why is Harry so thin? He looks worn."

She looked at him perplexed as she had noticed the same thing. "I don't know. I think his relatives were terrible cooks, or perhaps they are poor. No, that makes no sense. The Potters were rich. They should have plenty of money. She made a mental note to ask Dumbledore the next time she saw him because she was certain that the headmaster had placed the boy around her children for a reason other than being the Boy-Who-Lived. "I don't know much about them or no-mag culture," she answered. "He really does look a bit thin. That's why I've been trying to fatten him up when he comes over. Hogwarts feeds him well. It'll do him no good if he's too thin at this age. And the medics there will make sure there are no serious problems since he is a growing boy. The school is very serious when it comes for the safety and care of its students. They'll feed them to death, speaking of which, I would one day have you to dinner. All of us would love to have you come over one day."

Alex nodded. "Thank you very much. I would be delighted," he said in his best English accent, which made the matron laugh at his antics. "You Americans are so terrible."

"We try," he told her with an innocence no one with eyes would believe for an instant.

What Molly didn't notice was the dark glance he gave Harry. Suspicion at what was happening to the boy triggered old memories. The' One Who Sees' had a good idea of what was happening at the boy's home. Maybe he would look into it later when things calmed down.

There were quite a few customers coming into store's door, but Alex's head snapped around while he was still speaking to Molly. His smile lit the room as a woman walked in. Her very presence had cause everyone to momentarily stare at her. She was as tall as Alexander. Her hair was long and almost black. She was several shades darker, because of constant exposure to the sun guessed Molly. She looked extremely exotic and Molly couldn't even begin to guess from what part of the world she came from. But it was her eyes and ears that really caught her attention. her eyes were deep brown and her ears were almost pointed at the tips. Fred and George nearly had heart attacks just staring at her. As for Harry, he stole the occasional glance typical of any second year of that age. Ginny looked vaguely jealous.

"Arthur!" she yelled. "Close your mouth!"

He promptly did and began staring at the 'Military Jets and History' Alex had given him even harder than ever.

"Ceraine," Alex said moving to kiss her on the cheek. "You finally made it back. I was getting worried."

"Hey Xander," she answered smiling with those perfect teeth. "I got the package," she said, giving him the wrapped package. "The Onxanda tree trolls were very happy to sell it and promised to supply us with whatever we need within forty-eight hours, twenty-four or an extra fee." She pulled out a deep green wand and conjured a chair and immediately flopped down on it.

Molly noticed that she even flopped with style. If Ceraine was an example how the women were in that part of the world wherever it was, this woman came from she resolved to make sure that her husband never went there.

Alexander smiled as Ceraine conjured the chair. She, like him was a little stiff when it came to wand usage. But the illusion had to be maintained for as long as possible. Both of their weird movements were chalked up as the American way of doing things, a falsehood that worked well so far.

At Molly's curious look, he decided to introduce the woman. "This, Mrs. Wesley is Ceraine Delane, the co-owner of this shop and one of my closet friends."

'You have a lot of women friend, Alexander' Molly thought. What was he, a lightning rod for women judging by those pictures on the wall?

"She's the go-to part of the store. With her connections anything you want, she can get."

"I'm impressed," Molly said. "A lot of people will be interested in getting their items within two days a great convenience. Did you know Alexander's friend?" she asked as she glanced at the pictures on the wall, to Arthur's chagrin. He loved his wife, but she had all the subtly for a bull in a china shop when it came to asking questions or expressing her displeasure as Ron had discovered.

Ceraine and I met at College," he explained. He wanted to get it out now because he knew it would come up again in the future. And besides, he didn't mind telling her or Arthur–without telling them the full story. "After I returned from my Africa tour, I did a lot of carpentry and construction work. That went on for a couple of years before I received an invitation to attend an exclusive university. All expenses paid, full tuition and support, the works. That's where I met her and her sister. I was older but the offer was too good to ignore. I checked it out. School and the reasons why I was picked, I couldn't pass it up."

Ceraine smiled and added her two cents. "Twelve students were selected for the six-year term and one of his friends wanted to attend but was rejected." The glee in her voice was hard to ignore. "She believed it a personal insult that Xander was selected to attend and hot her."

Alexander shook his head at that little understatement. It took a while, but Willow almost went crazy at his acceptance, but not hers. She wasn't invited as the 'board members' rejected her because of her attitude and yes, the darkness she held under such tight control. Despite being his best friend he knew that Willow had a selfish, vicious streak. He was young and he forgave her, but the fact was, she tried to end the world because she was hurt, she was mourning her loss. She didn't care about the world only herself. She was the one who planned to kill everyone and everything so that she could stop hurting. Whether he liked it or not, that selfishness was always with her. No matter what good she did, it was always there lurking in the shadows straining to get out. The 'board members' weren't interested in cultivating one such as her. Her actions had come back to haunt her, and that decision and others made the board flat to out reject her.

It didn't help matters any when she tried to force the issue. As powerful as she was, the 'board members' were in another class altogether. Alex remember pleading with them not to strip her of all her power and her life. Out of what they considered mercy, they merely limited her ability to gain knowledge of their style of magic and for daring to attack them, she was mystically crippled.

Willow never fully learned her lesson, her innate jealousy always compelled her to compete with Xander, always tried to get him to show her the secrets that she so desperately wanted to know.

And Ceraine blocked her at every turn, doing what Xander could not, not until he matured.

Needless to say, the two women outright hated each other. Even after a decade they barely tolerated each other.

"Was this an American version of Hogwarts?" as ked Fred as he was listening intently to their conversation as he was closest to the adults.

"In some ways. It's a small school and you would not have heard of it."

"What's the school called?" asked Fred.

"The Vishanti Southern California University of the Mystic Arts. That's where Ceraine and I received our Master's in the Mystic Arts."

"Mystic arts?" Fred frowned. "Shouldn't it be called the magical arts?"

Ceraine laughed gently. "You can say that the 'Powers That Be board members' liked that name better."

"What do they teach?"

"I'll tell you later, but who knows? Maybe you and your brother will receive an invitation to the school and when you graduate, you'll receive the class emblem, if you are worth." Ceraine answered, touching Fred's hair. The boy almost swooned. Ignoring his male antics, she showed him a weird looking pendent that she wore as a necklace. Alexander had one as well which he used as a belt buckle. Ceraine thought that his doing so was fairly scandalous.

"Is it magical?"

"Oh, yes," Ceraine answered. The Agamotto amulet is a gift for only those who complete the courses and are worthy."

"What does it do?" the young man asked.

"It helps you to see the truth," she answered. Among other things."

"ANYWAY," Alexander interrupted. It really didn't matter. These people didn't know what the Vishanti were, not on this world. But they'd find out later when he was ready to tell them. "Back to our original conversation. If you need a magical ingredient for potions, she can get it. that's a guarantee."

"That's going to make some of the other stores around her dislike you, to say the least."

He bowed extravagantly. "I will enjoy their annoyance and subsequent competition. We'll have things they'll never have or have access to, so to keep the peace, I will have a catalogue of the products for potions and the latest tools of the trade for making them. Traditional is nice but sometimes people may want to make use of other instruments."

Molly sniffed. "We're very tradition. I don't believe your new instruments will make much of an impression to the shoppers."

"You may be right, but we'll see. Here, let me show you some of the non-magical seasonings we'll be selling. These are very popular in the US."

"Are they safe?" she asked. She was weary of using them because, non-magical ingredients might be toxic to normal people like her.

"Of course and everything is described in detail in the catalogue." He paused for a moment. "You do know what a catalogue is?"

"It is a booklet that carries images of your different products for sale?"

"Yes, Ma'am," he confirmed. "Right this way. Let's check them out and you can judge for yourself."

He was half flirting with her, or so Molly believed. She smiled at the thought. She was too old for him, of course. And there was Arthur. Even so, it did warm her heart just a tiny bit.

These Americans…

Their uncivilized disregard for their place in the natural order of things was probably the reason why he was surrounded by so many beautiful women friends. Thank Merlin Arthur didn't that gift, she'd be cursing him every other day.

It was a beginning of a great friendship between Alexander and the Wesley family.