Ancestry 12 - Tying Things Together To Choke Them. by Voracity2

Ancestry 12 - Tying Things Together To Choke Them.

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Ancestry 12 - Tying Things Together To Choke Them.

Hermione watched the most astonishing, in a bad way, thing going on and sighed. She looked at Neville, who was shrugging. "Go find Ron, see if that's something Bill could deal with," she ordered quietly. He ran off to find Ron in whatever place he was hiding during his study hall today. She walked forward, tapping a watching Ravenclaw on the arm. Most of them were her house. "Let's move people," she ordered quietly.

"I have the feeling when that bursts we're all going to need to duck." She nodded and got the others cleared with Hermione. She watched the fighting going on inside the shield bubble then just sighed and looked at Ron as he came running. "Can we interrupt that or should we just duck?"

He stared, backing away. "Bill went home yesterday, 'Mione. Ducking and evacuating part of the school might help."

"Flitwick?" she suggested, watching as it kept going. It wasn't so much a fight, it was Harry casting against something.

"Yeah." He ran off to find him while she monitored it. He didn't want to end up in the infirmary due to that problem. She could have it all to herself. He ran into the room. "Professor, Harry's trapped in a huge bubble fighting and throwing curses in it." The diminutive professor ran to go figure that out. Ron followed more slowly after locking the classroom door to keep those kids safe, it was the first years in Hufflpuff and Gryffindor and he knew from experience no first year Gryff had sense.

Flitwick ran into where it was, finding Hermione watching. "What started this?" he demanded.

"Harry opened that package this morning and a little dew drop formed on his hand," she said. "He was complaining it made his hand numb." Flitwick stared at her oddly. "Then he ran into Goyle and the thing came up suddenly around them. I think Harry's trying to get free. I have no idea though so I had the hall cleared."

He nodded. "That's going to compress when it's opened. You should move, Miss Granger. Where's the thing he opened?" She pointed at his bag, which had a thing trying to wiggle out. He looked. "That is an artifact," he said. He cast a curse at the artifact but it soaked it up and glowed, making the shield seem stronger. He swore in goblinese. "All right then. Mr. Weasley, is your brother at home?"

"Left for Egypt last night," he admitted. "Want me to do the thing he showed me to push on a shield?"

"No, that could hurt them." He waved a hand for attention and pointed at the artifact, making Harry pick it up so he could look it over. Then Harry got bitten and threw it at the ground. Goyle stomped on it a few times. The thing weakened the shield at least. "Potter, cast the charm I taught you last year in February," he called. "The one that gave you that black cloud. The cloud will eat magic so aim it at the artifact." Hermione pulled out some paper to write a sign and hold it up.

Ron frowned, casting at the thing. It hit the shield and not the artifact. "We've got airflow around the bottom edge," he reported. "Get me a lever, 'Mione." She got him a spear from a nearby suit of armor. Ron leveraged it up to help Harry cast at that thing. It finally gave up and brought down the shield. Both boys heaved a sigh of new air. "Who gave you that thing?"

"It was listed as a present for the new heir," Harry said, panting some. He looked at Goyle. "I didn't hurt you, right?"

"No, Potter. Not in the least. Even when it rebounded slightly I had a shield up." He stared at him. "You know, the Dumass clan used to be known for cursebreakers." Harry gave him the oddest look. "Cursebreakers have weird things happen to them. That's how they tell who's got the gift."

"I've often wondered if I should sponsor him into that program," Flitwick said, picking up the artifact. He transfigured a nearby bit of stone he knocked off to surround it. "Are you both fine?" They nodded. "Mr. Weasley, twenty points for keeping a calm head and finding that air breach plus helping handle it.

"Boys, you both get ten points for not panicking and trying to problem solve." He looked at the statue then at Potter. "I'll slip you some notes about shielding and spells to help when you run into an artifact, Potter." He walked off with a sigh. Once he got back to his classroom he called the bank from his office to talk to them and hand it over. The banker looked confused when he called him.

"This got sent to Mr. Potter this morning as a present for a new heir. It created an impermeable shield around him and another student. Fortunately that didn't link into the ground. Shooting magic at it made it stronger." He handed it through the floo. "We have no idea who sent it."

"We will look it over and then render it just pretty so he can have it back." He hung up, taking it down to the cursebreaker's area so they could look it over.

Hermione looked at Harry, shaking her head. "We'll see if we can figure out who sent it. Want the infirmary or my granola bar for a snack, Harry? I have two if you want the other, Goyle."

"No thank you, Granger. I'm fine. I just stood there letting Harry try to defeat it." He left, going to make sure he was fine in the bathroom then back to class.

Hermione looked at Harry, who shrugged. "Can I have the granola bar, please?" he asked. She smiled and handed it over with a nod. "Thanks, 'Mione. Thanks, Ron."

"Welcome, Harry." They walked off together since it was nearly the next class. They ran into McGonagall, who was scowling. "Harry got trapped by an artifact. Flitwick just got him free."

"I saw that." She looked at Hermione. "Thank you for clearing the students."

"It's what should be done," she said. "We're going to our next class."

"Fine, children." She checked on Flitwick between classes, and he was having a bit of a tipple of whiskey. She joined him and went back to her own classroom to handle her next class of eager little darlings. Or whatever they were pretending to be today.

***

Ron got the letter back from Bill a few days later, handing it down to Harry. "He said to read those two. They're recommended for all junior cursebreakers because of them getting drawn into trouble." He gave Harry a pointed look. He nodded, going to the library to find them.

"Where is he going?" the headmaster demanded.

"The library," Hermione said. "As a responsible student he should be spending time in there, like we all do." She got back to her dinner. The one taping was still there. They weren't going to be lax about it. She looked at Neville. "Can you proof my paper for Defense?" she asked. He nodded so she handed it down. "Just sometime soon please, Neville?"

"I can do it later. I've got mine done." He tucked it into his bag. "What's the letter, Ron?"

"Books to help with Harry problems." He smirked a bit. "Natural cursebreakers get into trouble. A lot. Bill suggested he read those two."

"That could help," Neville agreed happily. "Before we get another cursed artifact in this school."

"Third floor east wing," Ron quipped with a grin and a point. "Portal."

"Oh, charming." He went back to eating. Hermione was doing the same thing.

The headmaster was seething and when Harry came back he glared at him. "Not studying after all?"

"I am, I'm just studying how to handle the next thing that gets sent to me." He sat down, looking at Hermione. "I had someone threaten me if I didn't give back their family's artifact. I had to point out I had no idea about any familial artifacts." She snickered at that. "Then I referred her to the cursebreakers to figure out where it was if one of them had gathered it." He grimaced, going into the book about shielding. The headmaster was still seething.

"Harry, Ron said there's a portal on the third floor?" Neville asked.

Harry looked at him, shrugging. "No clue. I haven't went up there since Fluffy had been up there, Nev."

"Oh." He nodded at that. "Do we think it's dangerous?"

"We'd have to go look," Hermione said. "It could be a familial portal. Hogwarts A History said that a few families were granted the right to do that so they could send their kids to school here. It didn't mention where they were."

"So no train in those days?" Ron guessed. She shook her head. "Huh." He sipped his water and got back into dinner. He was sure his family didn't have one. "Things like that can only be opened by family, Hermione."

"I realized that."

"I doubt my relatives had one," Harry said. "But if I find one I'll let you know where I end up." She nodded, smiling at that. Harry got back to his reading. This could be really important and useful. He felt something moving behind him and spun to capture it magically in a net, staring at the thing. "What are you?" he demanded. "And why were you hovering around my back?"

"Um, Harry, isn't that a goblin?" Ron asked.

"That's a slur word, Ron," he told him. "And no, it's not." He stared at it. "Well?" It lunged at him but Harry floated it off the floor so it couldn't get traction to lunge again. "Well? An answer?"

Flitwick came down to look at it. "Very nice capturing spell, Potter." He stared at the being. "That is a cursed one. I'll call someone to come figure that out and who did it." He went to make that call from his office, bringing a few bank guardians. Harry was waiting outside the Great Hall, getting a nod for that. "Potter captured him behind his back."

"I have no idea what this is about," Harry said.

"That's someone who cursed himself," one of the guards said. "A few felt so dishonored that they did that and went after the ones who dishonored them."

"How would I have done that?" Harry asked.

"You found out they had dishonored their families and clans by finding the problems," Flitwick told him. "Let him go." Harry did that and the guardians captured him. "Are there others coming?"

"We've heard rumors of two more made but we know one's in the bank's vault areas and the other's somewhere," the other guard told him. "I don't think either would attack Mr. Potter." They carried the former banker off struggling.

Flitwick looked at him. "They're fairly rare and it's like making a ghoul, Mr. Potter."

"Okay. Well, I'm glad I could stop him."

Flitwick smiled. "Also, thank you for noting the slur."

"I only learned about that this summer." He frowned a bit. "I try not to."

"We all do, though some have earned that name." He walked him back inside. "The cursed being was taken care of by their own people." He got back into his own seat while Potter sat down again. He looked at Minerva. "The guardians said two more got made but he doesn't think they're coming this way."

"We'll be aware just in case since the dark arts wards failed yet again," she said. "I wonder if the things ever worked."

"I have no idea and no idea how to check it as I'm not in the wards," Flitwick quipped back. "The only warding specialists I know of are employed by the bank in France."

"Maybe we should look into having one look," she told the headmaster, who was glaring at her. "None of us know how to figure out why the dark arts wards are broken." She sipped her tea and got back to her dinner. "Did someone give Mr. Potter a suggestion on shielding?"

"Oh, yes." Flitwick smiled. "Bill did the sensible thing and told him to read the two books we hand to junior cursebreakers who have that problem."

"Excellent of him. I'd give him points but he's not here." She ate another bite.

"No student needs those," the headmaster sneered.

She snorted. "I'm sure Mr. Potter could learn an advanced lesson in them to stop some of the things that happen around him." She went back to her dinner. "And dueling," she said as an afterthought. She looked at Flitwick, who smirked at her. "Mr. Potter, you should look at your family's history of dueling as well," she called.

"I found that picture in my cousin's house," he said with a grin back. "He explained it to me, ma'am. I wouldn't mind learning if someone was going to restart the club."

"It might be a good idea," she decided, considering it. A few teachers nodded to back that up. "The girls could use it to learn to defend themselves better."

"Girls don't do such!" the headmaster said loudly.

She glared at him. "I was national all around champion two years non-consecutively. Want to find out if I'm still in practice?" He looked horrified. "I dare say girls do need it more to protect themselves from men who have *ideas* that aren't good for our well being." He spluttered and stomped off again. She looked at Hermione Granger, who was grinning up at her.

"Yes, we should restart that club. I need to look up the current regulations again too. I may want to get back into competitive shape." She ate her final bite of dinner and put her fork down properly then rinsed her mouth with the rest of her tea. The others were doing the same thing. "Severus? Would you like to help us restart that dueling club?"

He grimaced. "I could see the uses of it but I can also see the misuses when we're all bothered by senseless duels for honor or some such." He finished up and put down his utensils too. "We don't need that."

"Most of those are taken up on the walkways to the library," she said. "It's safer and we won't have to monitor it."

"I had one try to start one in my classroom over one of the other students ignoring them picking on them. They're a second year however."

She grimaced. "So they were feeling slighted by not being engaged in their bullying?" He nodded. "Did you fix their attitude?"

"Indeed." He stared at her. "I believe the others have decided if their mouth gets them into trouble they won't go to their aid as well."

"That can happen." She watched the students finish up and Harry take his new books with him to go do homework. She shook her head. "I wonder if he'll have the same problem Bill Weasley did with that gryphon."

Flitwick moaned. "Don't remind me. That's why I referred him to the training program the bank has." He rubbed his forehead as he finished his dinner.

"He's not the only one showing those traits," McGonagall noted. "We do have Mr. Goyle that got involved in that artifact incident and a few others." Snape sighed but nodded. "Does he realize?"

"I've talked to him about that and the shielding exercises." He got up to go run his detention for the night.

Every time they had people who had gifts towards curse breaking or making, things went very wrong around the school and it would only get worse with Potter finally coming into his adult magic. They'd have many weird things going on soon, but hopefully no victims that didn't deserve it. Flitwick looked down at the new headmaster and decided perhaps some people had deserved whatever they got.

***

Harry called Xander a few weeks later, sighing as he answered. "I know it's late for you."

"I've only been back for like ten minutes, Harry. What's going on?" he asked, sitting down.

"I had a baby dragon show up earlier to nuzzle me and Ron to death."

Xander blinked a few times. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah. Hagrid has it. It's a steamer but not dangerous. It *loved* me and Ron."

"If Ron's like his brother, that makes a whole lotta sense," he said with a grin. "It's up to you if you want to take the lessons from the bank. Or you could apprentice yourself to a cursebreaker to learn from them. Which would keep you partially away from the bank."

"Is that a bad idea?"

"Yes, both are," he said with a nod. "But it could be worse." He saw Harry's head tip to look behind him and then lashed out to get Willow down and out, then Buffy too. He sighed, looking at him. "Nosy people. Yay." He grinned at his relative. "It's up to you. I can send you a few books." Harry held up the two he had checked out.

"Good places to start. I'll forward a list of other resources. Though two you'll probably have to go raid the family library to get. Allisandra wrote one that's good and it can teach you how to earth sense. Or her ghost can I guess. But don't do it near the school. Only learn how to do that somewhere pure and not evil." He gave him a pointed look. "That way leads to being greatly tainted and then not living long."

"Can I do that to Voldemort?" he asked bitterly.

"No. He'd have to connect himself. And connecting him to something like the hellmouth here would make him really powerful if he could figure out how to use it or channel it. Since that mark you described is blood magic from Egypt...." Harry winced but nodded. "Anyway, go talk to Allisandra's ghost about earth sensing, which will help you find big spots of wrongness going on. There's one in London called Knockturn. The next biggest spot would actually be a day school in Devonshire. The third should be him."

"I hadn't thought of that. He would read as a wrongness," Hermione said as she walked behind Harry's back. "The headmaster's coming. He's on a new rip about magical artifacts."

Xander grinned. "It's not." He waved a hand and the mirror went dark. Harry put it back on the wall. Then he called Giles on the mirror and pointed. "Again. Broke in through the kitchen while I was talking to my cousin."

"I'll come gather them," he sighed.

"I could stake them outside in the garden. It's got non-disclosure and is probably safer."

"Do not do that, Xander," he ordered. "I'll be there in a moment." He hung up with a groan, going to gather his errant students.

Xander looked and bound them both from wondering about his real family, this home, and anything magical near him. He was finishing up when Giles got there. "Binding the nosiness."

"Isn't that excessive?"

"I didn't bind her away from magic totally." He smirked a bit. "I could find a way."

"Please don't yet." He got the boy's help to float them out to the car and shoved them into the minuscule backseat then got in to drive them back to Buffy's house. Xander locked up and got something to drink that night. He had forgotten about the thing that drew problems to cursebreakers. It looked like that shield around him was wearing out more quickly than he had expected since that was leaking through. That made him giddy and happy in an evil way.

***

The headmaster stormed in. "I know we have magical artifacts we're using," he said with a glare at Harry.

"It's a mirror." He pointed. "No more magical than any other mirror." He shrugged. "My cousin called to check on me." No one in the house was going to say a thing against that story.

"Who is that cousin?" Neville asked.

"Xander." He grinned. "The Dumass family heir."

"Oh." He nodded once. "Wow."

"Yeah, but he's a pretty nice guy. He's working with a slayer."

"Oh, dear. Isn't that dangerous for him?"

"Yup. Which is why I wasn't allowed out of the house when I was sent there by that healer." He shrugged. "They have a lot of vampires around there apparently."

"Charming!" He nodded once then shuddered. "Better there than here."

"Definitely," a few of the younger kids agreed. The headmaster was working himself into a good, old fashioned fit so a first year cast a calming charm. Just like her mother did to her toddler nephew when he had a tantrum. The headmaster spun to yell at her so other kids did the same thing and it ended up knocking him out.

"That's dangerous," Harry told her with a grin. "But nice work. Hermione, can she have points?"

"She can have ten points for that calming charm," she promised, smiling at the girl. "And if McGonagall overrules me, let me know."

"I will." She ducked her head when their head of house stormed in. "He was having a fit so I did what my mum does to my toddler nephew because his face was scary and red and he looked like he was going to pass out, Professor."

She looked at her then at the other students, who all nodded. "Hers wasn't strong enough so a few of us did prevent him from having a heart attack," Hermione agreed. She smiled at the professor. "I'd never want to see anyone dying that way."

Professor McGonagall stared at her. "You're being a smart arse, young lady."

"No I'm being honest. I hate seeing people in pain, hence me wanting to be a doctor. If he has a heart attack I'd feel it necessary to help him and I don't think I can unemotionally do that with that man with the way he's treated us."

McGonagall sighed. "Fine." She floated him off and up to the infirmary. Where Pomfrey sent her on immediately so she didn't have to deal with him. McGonagall sent a note to the school board's public floo so they'd know. And probably call Miss Granger out for that. She checked the points but let it go this time. The child hadn't been being malicious. It was appropriate to reward her for thinking of his health.

***

Snape looked at Hermione. "What meant you gave points last night, Miss Granger?" he demanded in the middle of class.

She carefully put down her knife and wand, then looked at him after checking for the safety of her potion. "One of our house cast a calming charm at the Headmaster last night when he stormed into the house to complain someone used a mirror to accept a call. She thought he was going to have a heart attack."

"I see. Do you consider that appropriate?"

"She was looking out for his health. He did have that red face and signs of an impending heart attack from his blood pressure, Professor Snape. Why wouldn't I reward her for thinking of the welfare of others?" He blinked at that, still staring at her. "Professor McGonagall didn't seem to see a thing wrong with it as she didn't overrule it."

"I see." He crossed his arms over his chest, staring her down. "Is that really the truth?"

"Yes." She smiled and nodded. "I don't try to lie to you as we all know you have legimens skills, Sir. Why bother?"

He scowled. She stared back. "You are an annoying young woman."

"I suppose some people see me that way but I don't really care," she admitted then smiled. "I'm the woman I have to be and am meant to be. We all grow into the adults we're meant to be if we're lucky enough to grow up." He huffed and stomped off. She got back to her work. The one at her table side-eyed her.

She calmly kept chopping. When someone pounded on the door, she looked at it then at the others. "Safety rules," she snapped at a few who were moving. They made their potions safe in case of an explosion and so did she. Though her self stirring spell was still going.

Snape came out to see what was going on. The auror out there said something quietly so he smirked at her. "Miss Granger, they're here for you."

"Why? I haven't done anything recently." She looked at the auror. "For what reason?"

"The Ministry wishes to talk to you about your ideas, young lady."

"Unless you have an arrest warrant I refuse to go anywhere with an auror as I had to defeat one or two this summer that tried to harm me," she said bluntly. Snape choked at that. "Including in Diagon." She stared at him. "So whatever you wish to say to me we can say in front of Professor McGonagall or a few students if you prefer them. Or Professor Flitwick, he seems to be immune from whatever's going on." She put her things down and gathered her bag, going up the hall in front of him.

"We are not evil, Miss Granger," the auror said.

She turned to face him. "Then I wouldn't have had to defeat one in my family's home that threatened to kidnap and auction me off." He spluttered. "As that did happen, and a few other attempts to take me out happened, I doubt I trust a single one of you as far as I can vomit you. So therefore I doubt I'll ever go anywhere with any of you. Singly or a group of you."

"We're not here to do evil but a few have wondered if you may be turning that way."

She laughed. "No, I fully plan on going into medicine to help people. Besides, there's much more for everyone in the muggle world. Even if I do have to hide doing magic at home." She shrugged. The auror glared. She stared back. "And if this was the headmaster trying to have me declared *dark* for sticking up for myself and others, to be blunt, up his."

The auror choked at that. The defense teacher came out to glare at her for interrupting class. "This auror wanted to talk to me, Professor. I'm sorry he decided to stop me outside your classroom to protest their innocence when it's a lie." She looked at the auror. "Anything else you wished to share?" she asked sweetly. "I do have his class next."

"We will be talking, Miss Granger."

"No we will not. My family has an attorney and unless I'm under arrest I suggest you talk to them. They can pass on any messages." She stared until he moved to grab her by the hair so she kicked him then moved to hex him.

The defense professor gaped then stunned the auror. "Where did you learn that?" he demanded.

"Reading over Harry's shoulder?" She shrugged. "Comes in handy I suppose."

"Yes, it does." He stared at her oddly. "Well, Miss Granger. I'd like to see how good you actually are."

"A woman must have secrets according to my mother, Professor." She smiled. "Especially if it'll save her life someday."

"Point. I'd like to know what he's studying."

"Ask Harry. I haven't read over his shoulder in a few days."

"I can do that. Go sit, Miss Granger." He pointed. She went in there. "Do not let the students leave."

Hermione closed the door. "The professor said to stay in here even if there's a change bell," she ordered. "The auror out there is a bit stunned." She sat down with a huff and used the charmed parchment she had to warn Ron and Harry. Then she wrote her mother a letter so she knew she had invoked her rights. She banished it at her mother's desk then sighed in pleasure when she felt it hit her on the head at home.

The professor came in and went to his office to call someone at the Ministry, who he worked for. They all knew he wasn't a retired auror, he was a present one. He came out to stare at her. "Madam Bones said that there is not an arrest warrant for you sticking up for yourself and you were correct to stun him because he was going to take you to have you corrected by the headmaster and others like him."

"And I know what a final strike spell is," she said bluntly, making him choke. She smiled. "I've read fantasy novels for years, Professor. I may not have figured out a good one yet. There's a few options I've run into though."

He nodded once. "You're very dangerous, Miss Granger."

"Sometimes we must be to protect ourselves." She waved a hand at the class. "And them."

"Yes, that's important. We're going to move your class towards that soon actually." He let the kids go once the auror was cleaned up. He barely heard the 'hoo-yah' she let out quietly and shuddered. He knew that she had just quoted a movie, and a soldier in a movie. He was a half-blood, he had seen a few muggle movies with soldiers.

***

Hermione smiled at the mirror that activated. "He's not in here right now," she told Xander. "He's in detention with the defense teacher. It'll probably be an hour."

"What did he do?"

"We have no idea but the teacher wanted to have a private talk so put him in detention." She shrugged. "Earlier I had to protect myself from an auror so maybe he's telling Harry to calm me down again. It'd be about the third time he'd been told that this year so far."

"Nope, I got that this time," Ron called, looking back at her. "What the hell, 'Mione?"

"He pulled me out of potions. To 'talk' to me." Ron shuddered. "It turned out he was like the headmaster. Or the one I handled in the house this summer." She grimaced and looked at the mirror again. "Were you here?"

"No comment," he said with a smile. Harry came in looking pissed off. "Bad detention?"

"The teacher's thinking we're wrong to move ahead."

"Yes, it's because we never see a back in front of us," Hermione told him. "Which I'm sure most thinking people would see as bad as most thinking people see children fighting for our lives as a bad thing."

"That's what I told him and he's sulking." He sighed, looking at the mirror. "Is there any way to stop all that?"

"Have someone end the curse on the school?"

"There's a curse on the school?" a few kids asked.

"Has been for years. At least as old as a few of you are probably." They groaned. "There's more than one curse on the school. I know there's one on the defense position. There's a few others. The dark arts wards supposedly can hold them down."

"We had a teacher with a ghoul on the back of his head. Do they work?" Hermione asked.

"No, probably not," he admitted. "Any other incidences?"

"Someone let a troll into the school," Ron said, coming over. "Are you his cousin?"

"I am and you must be Ron. He told me about a few of you guys." Ron nodded with a grin. "How did a troll get in?"

"Same teacher," Harry said dryly. "Through the dungeons."

"There's no way. The books that lists the wards show a few that would've kept such things out. Them and Banshees."

"Had one of those for show and tell in Defense," Hermione quipped with a grin for him.

"Huh. So they broke the wards. Interesting." He nodded at the man storming in. "Dinwiddle," he said with a nod. The man spluttered. "You look just like the one identified in a family's painting, Mister Dinwiddle." He looked at Harry again. "Think that auror of yours would help with the shields around here?"

"Yes! Please! We've heard that you're going to have problems."

"Huge ones actually. We've not only had a prophecy but a vision." Harry winced at that. "Yeah. Charming. I need ideas."

"With the way things happen out there according to Harry, think like a fantasy novel or a movie," Ron quipped.

Xander stared then smirked a bit. "Not a bad idea." He looked at Harry. "Going to talk to the ghost?"

"We're locked into the school. We can't even go to town," Harry said dryly.

"You're all grounded for being improper students!" the headmaster said loudly. "You're not ever allowed to leave the school."

Xander stared at him. "You can't keep a proper heir from doing his duties. That's illegal." He smirked and touched his own heir's mark. "As he's the heir second of the house of Dumass.... He has duties to do."

"They're all dead," the headmaster sneered.

"And yet, here I am," Xander quipped back, moving the necklace to show it off. "The head of the House of Dumass." The man flinched back, shaking his head. "And Harry's my heir. As well as the ones he wears."

"Is there some way to learn how to do all that stuff?" Hermione asked. "We had to get help with some formal letters."

"You can ask a family ghost to teach him," he said. "They all taught the other heirs." He looked at Harry, who grinned at that. "Please do. I hate things like paperwork. It peeves me to the point where I destroy things." He sighed. "But that's a young man's foibles."

Hermione giggled. "It can be but some of us just have teenager anger problems for good reasons."

"True, I have many at vampires." She shuddered. "It happens." He looked at Harry. "Go ask Allisandra. She can tutor you and do it at the school. She can probably also find out all the curses and maybe figure out why the wards are down. I know there's at least six curses on Hogwarts that're being held down by the dark arts wards. The book on the wards there is pretty decently written.

"Not very informative on how they were created, where they're stashed, or who made some of them, but they do list them and their uses and some history on each type." Hermione pulled out some paper so he gave her the title and author, letting her go find it. He looked at Harry. "If you marry that one, she can use the family's library too."

"I'm not even ready to think about girls yet, Xander," he sighed, shaking his head but smiling. "I had to send back letters saying I wasn't going to marry some heiress."

Xander blinked a few times. "It's rude of them to send those. Which families?" He summoned that folder from his trunk to let him read them. "They're all very rude. I'm hoping you were rude back?"

"The girls made it tactful and one copied them in good handwriting," Ron said with a slight nod.

"Ah. Well, the next one you get, roast their asses for being so rude, Harry. You do not court that way and the Dumass clan does not approve of arranged marriages even when it would've ended a war. Or else Allisandra would've been married off twice to stop ones that she somehow got involved in." He grimaced.

"The Potter family wouldn't have let that happen either. They were very much free choice within limits." He blinked a few times. "The others...the Black family is the only one that had arranged ones and that was to keep down the inbreeding problem as far as I heard. So yes, they were rude. Be rude back."

"I can remember that if I get more than one," he said, grinning at him. "How rude can I be?"

"You can write a nice, snippy letter saying that the Dumass clan, where you are heir secondary, and the Potter family, both believe in free choice of mates after courting. Trying to climb into your panties for breeding purposes is distasteful and rude."

"We can have the girls put that in kinder language," Neville said, looking at him. "You do look like the picture my grandmother has of her wedding when one of your uncles showed up to gift them with a shed unicorn horn."

He grinned. "It's written in the family's journal and that would make you a Longbottom or a Mercator."

"I am Neville actually," he said with a grin.

"Well met, Neville Longbottom." He grinned. "Your family had some very interesting people in the secondary heirs. The ring made all the main ones a bit more uptight thanks to the spirit infecting it, but the secondary ones." He whistled. "A few.... One of them was supposedly looking at alien things to find proof that Atlantis was real. And drowned doing it while funding it by being a pirate."

Neville snickered. "I read his journal!" He nodded. "Some were quite fun." He looked at Harry. "He seems like a great cousin to have."

"I try," Xander quipped with a grin for Harry. Who smirked back. Hermione came back with the book, letting him see it. "Yes, that book. Though it's very short so it's probably got a magical seal."

"Did you attend here?" the headmaster sneered.

"No, I'm on a hellmouth so I self taught out of the family's books," he said with a smug look back. "With an emphasis in decoding the base layers of magic. To defeat the hellmouth it's rather necessary to deconstruct magic." The man looked horrified and backed up shaking his head.

"It's really the foundation of cursebreaking works but being over here I had access to the family's library from all of the cursebreakers more than the regular books. We are known for it. And raising unicorns." The man fled for his life. He smirked at Hermione. "What a douchebag!"

"Who banned women from sports for having monthlies as it'd hurt our fertility," she said dryly. "And banned us from going to class if we're bleeding."

Xander stared at her for a moment. "Be the woman you need to be, and if you start the civil rights movement, invite me to your version of Woodstock, dear."

She giggled. "I've only heard of that music festival but it may be fun." She left them to talk to go read that book.

He looked at Harry. "I'll add to the list I'm sending you tonight. Which'll come to you via Dobby. He's come out here a few times to check on me because he's bored."

"Sorry?" Harry offered.

"No, it's nice. Beats my friends, who broke into the house." He grinned and waved then hung up.

The painting over the door opened and McGonagall stomped in. "What is going on now?" she demanded.

"Nothing, ma'am. Xander just called to tell me he's sending the list of books to help me shield myself better and talked to Hermione since I was with the defense teacher." Hermione had hidden that book by sitting on it. Another kid did an obscurus quietly over it. "We talked a bit about the wards on the school and the curses he heard were on it."

"There are not!"

"He said that the wards held down about six," Hermione said. "And that there's one on top of the defense position?"

McGonagall stared at her oddly. "There are not!"

"Can we have someone like Bill Weasley check?" another girl asked. "Just in case? It could be why the headmaster looked like he's about to pass out again before he fled from Mr. Dumass knowing his family thanks to a portrait."

McGonagall looked at her then at Harry. "He called him a Dinwiddle," Hermione said. "Said he looked like a relative in a portrait from something the family had."

McGonagall blinked a few times. "Their house burned."

"There's another family home," Harry told her. "Some things were in the bank as well."

"Oh. I see." She nodded once. "That figures. The Clan Dumass were strong before they all died out."

"Yes, Xander said a flu like epidemic and then the curse that hit Alexander." She blinked at him. "He said it was."

"Oh, I wasn't aware."

"Bill was there and survived it," Ron said.

"A bit after my family got attacked," Harry noted. She flinched at that. He stared at her, then smiled a bit. "Which came out at the trial." She nodded and left, not looking like she was hurrying. He looked at Hermione, who let him have the book to see. He settled in to go over it and let her help him with that so they could both have notes. That Ron would borrow to send to Bill.

***

Xander was sitting in front of the first healer that had helped Harry, the one who had done the referral to the specialist. "I know I have a curse on me. It's holding a shield over me. Which are separate but linked by the one who sent them both."

"I've seen that. I don't know that I can end it."

"I think it'll take a healer. It definitely won't work for me but it has weakened because I'm starting to draw trouble again as a Dumass."

The man stared at him. "I've heard rumors of that curse."

Xander smiled. "Yes but you have your discretion laws. Thankfully."

"I do," he said, examining it. "Oh." He cast against it. "No, I can't break that."

"Who could?"

"A healer with different gifts but I'm not sure if they would. It's very old."

"Yes, I know." He stared at him. "It hit me when I was five."

"Who did that?"

"He's no longer teaching students," he said dryly. "And not in the US."

"That's good, then I don't have to report him."

"Oh, he got reported. And put on trial."

"Dumbledore?" Xander nodded once. "Why? You would've have bothered anything of his."

"I'm the last Dumass, outside of Harry, and now a few other kids that got found. He's the one that cursed Alexander." He shrugged. "The magic that was noted was white magic, gathered from Stonehenge at summer solstice." The healer winced but nodded. "And I'm relying on your discretion and the fact that I blocked that scrying spell the aurors are using, to note that I was there."

"You.... Oh!" He backed up a step. "How?"

"It wasn't a death curse. It was a deaging curse. Then he put a shield over me and sent me at the drunks in Sunnydale."

"Oh, shit," the healer said, slumping.

"So it looks like I need to be myself again because I've got to help the cousin."

"We both know...."

"Yeah I know and so does Harry. Cousins are easier and less weird."

"Point." He looked at it again. "I can't break it. And it could be detrimental. Your energies are warped thanks to Sunnydale and that hellmouth."

"Oh, I know. But I also know how to get around all that. I've spent a decade breaking the magic. I can decreate a lot of it. And a lot of other things. I just can't do that shield."

"Let me get my partner. He'll complain that it may be dangerous."

"Me being without my magic for so long has been dangerous. I've had to learn a whole lotta new things."

"That figures." He went to talk to his partner, who came in to look at it.

"It has been on a very long time."

"I was five," Xander said with a nod. "I've had to learn magic around it but it's endangering my life and I live in Sunnydale. Which means I'm drawing things that can see the shield. Since I'm working with the defense team.... Do you know how often the girls nag me about things coming for me?"

The older healer looked at him. "Why are you there?"

"The one who put the curse on me sent me there." He shrugged. "I'm the last Dumass heir." That got another wince. "They got me after they got Alexander, who I was named after."

"Oh." He checked it again then nodded. "It could strip you of magic."

"No, I have magic. It's penned it up and twisted it to the right. It's also leaking greatly as it's weakening. Do I have three years to wait? And do you think Summers can do it on her own if I die?"

"I...." He grimaced. "I don't like that implication."

"Last month there was a biker gang of demons who tried to kidnap me to party with me because they could feel the magic shield around me. I'd be safer even if it does strip my magic completely. Please."

"It's not really something we should handle."

"It's you or I go to a swamp granny sort." The older healer winced at that. "I need to be safer to help save everyone's collective hind ends. Especially with an ascension this coming graduation apparently."

"Oh, dear," the younger healer muttered, shaking his head. "We're sure?"

"About eighty percent. Giles is still looking."

"Charming. Who?"

"That I don't know. We know there's one. I've been tracking all the deaths recently and found a lot of sacrificial moments then looked up what could've caused them. So I'm ninety percent sure."

"You're not said to be bookish, Mr. Harris."

Xander grinned. "I'm a Dumass. We have a family library. It's in the ancestral home."

"Oh." He swallowed then nodded. "The British ministry is not aware of this?"

"Oh, they've seen me. I had to go defend my cousin Harry. And sue Dumbledore, including for putting this shield on me to kill off my family's line. Thankfully Alexander had a few kids he didn't know about."

"Shit," the younger healer muttered, shaking his head. Xander grinned and nodded. "Do they know?"

"Yeah, they do now. It came out when we found out about Cousin Harry and then the trials." He looked at the older healer. "I don't care if it strips my magic completely and I'm left a squib. It's safer for me and others to not draw that sort of attention to myself.

"Which means that it doesn't come near Rosenburg, who is stealing books," he told the younger healer. "Ones from Ripper's old days." That got an odd look and he looked up that name. "And the slayer herself," he told the older healer. "Do we want them eaten? I mean, both of them are in Sunnydale right now."

"How are there two?" he demanded.

"Buffy got drowned. I did CPR. It was long enough."

"Oh, dear."

"Yeah, the Council hates that. Oh well!" He grinned. "I'm already living dangerously. They're not worse than the vampires. Especially with Buffy dating one."

The healer shook his head. "I should not."

"You should because leaving me vulnerable means that I have to pull some amazing things and use the hellmouth itself to protect myself. Do we want someone to magically use the hellmouth as a battery? Rosenburg's doing that enough already."

The younger healer gave him a horrified look. "She's what?"

"Yeah. She's full of it. Giles knows. I had to show him he was spelled to hell and back recently. Again."

"Oh, dear. We need to check on that." He looked at his partner, who shook his head and stepped back. "It would be safer for everyone if he's not vulnerable to being taken. What happens if he's turned?"

"We'd lose our magic."

"No we don't," Xander said with a head shake. "Darla, Angelus' sire, had magic. The Master had magic. It's what penned him in there until he died." He shifted. "The wands' focus is often light sided so they go after the dark energies.

"That's why the tradition states that if they find a wand on a new vampire they snap it. It doesn't mean they can't be refitted with something with a darker core." The older healer looked ready to cry. "We've had a few vampy vamps that had magic. Including Druscila Black. She's just a seer but does unconscious magic still."

"I should not remove it. It's too dangerous to you." He left them alone.

"Fine. I'll get someone else to do it." He looked at the younger healer. "By the way, I helped move the unicorn from the hellmouth when one traveled that way by accident. It's in Seattle."

"I'll tell the aurors. Can they? A curse breaker?"

"No, it's a healer's one, not a cursebreaker thing."

"Shit." He considered it then wrote down a name. "See if they can." Xander nodded, going to check out and send himself to see that healer in London. That one freed him and it was good. So much better. He made notes for the aurors to let them know what was going on, but not who that one actually was.

***

In Hogsmeade, a tiny bell rang and Albus Dumbledore stared at it then sighed. "This is not good," he decided, trying to find that person but they had already shielded themselves. He did find a trace of them at the school, which he expected. It's why he had kept Severus on. A Dumass would have access to various magics, though Severus had never went searching the way he had hinted.

So he'd have to deal with a real Dumass apparently. And his son.

***

Xander did the cleansing rite on the old family's lands, then sighed in pleasure. He looked at the unicorn staring at him, then walked over to pet her. "I know," he soothed. "But the idiot put me on the hellmouth." The unicorn nudged him with her nose then walked off. "Don't tell the others. I'm not back yet. I have things I have to handle before the world ends."

He looked at the remains of the house then bowed to it. "I'm a true Dumass. We will protect this world if we must," he intoned. "We will do as we must to protect the family and it's people. And if that means we go to war, we go to war." Around him tinkling sounds went off and he bowed to them.

"I know, I need to back up Harry. He needs trained but I'm leaving it to the one who trained me, Allisandra. Before then I have to save the fucking world so we don't all die from being eaten by a giant worm." He sighed and let the magic fill him. A thing fell at his feet so he picked it up to put on. It was his father's ring, and he assumed he had been buried in it, but oh well. He hadn't wanted it then but now and then he needed the cautioning of the older generations.

The ring's spirit was telling him about the family that was still around. He took it off to look at it. "Why did you skip me?" It told him why. "No, I'm still myself. And the true heir. If you want Harry, go to him." He bounced it a few times but it didn't move itself.

"You sure? Because I don't need that shit, Grandfather. You were a jackass to everyone but Justinius and look how he turned out." The ring went silent so he put it into his pocket. "Sure. We'll handle that." He went to do the last rite he needed to do as the family's heir, which set the family's older lines on fire mentally.

They all knew he was back, and he was angry. That he was going to live up to his old names and reputations. He bowed to the family's altar at the newer home. "Long live Carnage," he whispered, smiling as it lit up. "All that'll come for me will know of my true nature."

He let the elven fire go out and disappeared back to the family home in Sunnydale so he could head to classes. It was late but oh well! Not like he cared if he passed Sunnydale High. He had already taken the SAT and done good. He had taken his GED and gotten it years ago. He could quit handling the issues trying for him if he wanted to. And it'd mean he'd quit having to deal with Willow.

***

Harry looked at his pendant since it was glowing and he had heard the heir's vows being said, then smiled at the end of it. Xander was okay and apparently himself again. That was good for him. He deserved that. He let the pendant go and went back to classwork he was staying up late to do.

Neville had seen that and was staring at him. "New heir born?"

"No, family ritual completed by one of the cousins." He grinned. "The bank found a few that Alexander hadn't known he had."

"Wow. Including that one Xander?"

Harry grinned at him. "Yeah." He nodded. That was an easy lie. "One just made a vow to protect the family."

"That's good. Are they around here?"

"No." He shook his head. "There's only one in England that I know of." That got a nod and a sigh. Harry got back to his own homework. It had to be done. Even if half the school was going to be walking out in a few days over that headmaster's problems.

***

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