"Goblin Elder?"

"Yes?" She looks over her shoulder at the youngster as she looks over the room of scrolls and other items they'd just found at Hogwarts.

"There. . .there is a man who looks like Mr. Rogers in Lord Starkweather's office in Eureka. He says his name is Jonathan Storm." Minerva and the Goblin Elder exchange looks over the boxes of scrolls that bear his name.

"No doubt why this newest area opened." She sighs as she follows the youngster to the floo. Meanwhile Andromeda and Madam Bones are trying to comfort Minerva, who is devastated that one of her former students had been held at the castle for a couple of years and nobody had even noticed she was missing. Did the Prefects or head boys and girls not do rounds on the train on the way home as they do on the way to school? Did her parents not wonder where she was?

Back in Eureka Nathan sighs. "I have the feeling you telling your story just opened another hidey-hole of Dumbledore's at Hogwarts." The door opens and Xander brings in something. "And why aren't you using your cane?"

"It makes me feel old."

"One, you're only 22. Two, your leg was broken in two places and you're still undergoing physical therapy on it. You need your cane . . .at least for a while. Have you talked to Henry about a new vehicle yet?"

"No, I don't feel comfortable with huge monthly payments since I don't have that much saved for a down payment. Silly me, I didn't think I needed a different car when I went into Portland that day."

"Have you heard about a court date for your case?"

"Not yet, the guy's lawyers are trying to lowball me for a settlement. What they offered wasn't even blue book value for the car. I'm suing for the blue book value of the car since it was totalled, pain, suffering, my medical bills, and lost wages. It's nowhere near enough for a car but it's good towards a downpayment when I can finally drive again."

A voice at the floo has their attention going back there as Xander heads back out.

"Mr. Storm, Mr. Stark, Lord Starkweather, Mr. . . "

"Reed Richards Ma'am." He's not familiar with the Goblins but he knows age and power when he sees it and manners are always good.

"Mr. Storm, are you aware of how you came to be?"

"Yes Ma'am, my mother told me when I was old enough to understand. It was shortly before I received my letter to the New York School and she was killed."

"Albus was keeping an eye on you after your mother escaped with yourself and your sister. It was his intentions to capture you and either use you as a weapon or try to find a way to recreate your abilities as he tried to recreate Mr. Roger's abilities. Or. . .I am saddened to say destroy you because he did not see you as a human being, rather a golem type creature he had created."

"I'm not surprised." Johnny snorts. "May he rot in hell."

"Undoubtedly. He did not see people as anything more than his personal plaything, everything he did he could explain away as for the 'greater good' No matter how many people he hurt."

"A classic sociopath."

"As the mental healers and those who have gone into the non-magical world tell us. Nobody saw what he was doing thanks to his mask of geniality. Nobody wanted to see what he was doing."

Xander gets in the passenger seat of the smart car he's been using since the cast was removed and goes home, finding Dawn putting a casserole in the oven.

"How was work?" she asks.

"Annoying, a scientist ended up setting his lab on fire five times today doing the exact same thing."

"Lemme guess, it shouldn't have done that, let me try it again?" Dawn snorts.

"Exactly. Anything in the mail?"

"A letter from dumbass's lawyers, an elf brought a letter from Giles and Spike, a letter from Willow's mom. . ."

"I'll take that to the Sheriff's office in the morning, it's probably more of her hate spewing because she's a miserable human being and can't admit that she might have pushed her daughter away with her neglect."

Xander shakes his head in disgust as he reads over the latest offer. "Do they think I'm as stupid as their client?"

"They're thinking you're a young kid and will accept a low offer because you've never seen that much money before." Dawn says, working on homework at the kitchen table. The dishwasher is running and the rest of the kitchen is otherwise clean. "They don't realize you've got a lot of people behind you who are more than happy to help you screw him over for what he's done."

Jo shakes her head when Xander drops off letter at the office.

"Xander?" Fargo asks when he limps into GD and signs in.

"Sorry I'm late, I got a letter from Mrs. Rosenberg yesterday and dropped it off at the Sheriff's office. Jo's going to read it and if it's anything good she'll give it back to me. If it's not, it's another count against her in prison."

"Good, you're using your cane." Nathan says from the doorway.

"I woke up in the middle of the night with a leg cramp."

"The others did tell you that would probably happen. Did you take the extra potassium?"

"I did."

"But he wasn't hurt that bad." The defendant yells in court. Xander and his lawyer from GD had gotten a court date in the middle of May, nearly seven months after the accident.

"Keep a civil tongue in your head or I will find you in contempt of court and order you removed. This is a courtroom, not a circus." the judge snaps. "Mr. Harris's leg was broken in two places, he had three broken ribs and five cracked, as well as a sprained wrist and numerous bruises. If that's not 'hurt that bad' I'd hate to see what you call bad hurt."

"But I wasn't hurt." he whines.

"Drunk drivers are notorious for surviving the accidents they cause without a scratch because the alcohol relaxes them and the people they hit are tensed because they know they're going to be hit." The judge says dryly.

"But the car wasn't that badly damaged." He tries to get the case thrown out again.

"Mr. Harris?"

"My car was totalled your honor, I had to be cut out of it with the jaws of life." he hands over pictures of the accident and the police reports.

"Yes Mr. Brigham, the plaintiff's car was totalled in the accident. Do you have a car now Mr. Harris?"

"No your honor, I'm currently without a car while I'm saving money for a down payment."

"I can afford a second car, yours was a piece of shit." the defendent sneers, then blanches when the judge glares at him.

"It might have been a POS car but it was paid for. Any other car I'd be stuck with payments for at least three years. Even a used car. Longer if I want the payments halfway reasonable. Of course that means tons of interest."

"Did the defendant contact you with a settlement offer before the court case Mr. Harris?"

"Yes, but it wasn't a good one. It didn't pay my medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and only offered me a token amount for my car." He hands the letters to the bailiff who takes them to the judge.

"So you had your lawyers try to lowball him with a settlement that wasn't even the blue book value for his car?"

"But he's just a kid, he'll just blow the money."

"Yeah, on paying my medical bills, replacing the money I lost when I wasn't able to work for nearly three months, and putting money aside for a down payment to buy a different vehicle since you destroyed mine." Xander says in disgust.

"Mr. Harris, are you back to work full-time?"

"Only part time your honor. I'm still attending physical therapy for my leg. The doctors don't expect me to be back to work full-time until this fall."

"Do you have family Mr. Harris?"

"My all but sister your honor, but she's younger than I am and still in high school."

"How did you handle being in a wheelchair?"

"With a lot of help. Neighbors filled the freezer with casseroles we just needed to put in the oven when they weren't cooking meals and filling the shelves with groceries. They set up a schedule so I wouldn't be alone in the house while Dawn was at school, a neighbor who's a home health aide helped me get up in the morning, got me bathed and dressed, and helped me in bed at night while keeping a full-time job himself."

"What do you do for a living Mr. Harris?"

"I work for a company that has ties to the Defense Department, my last assignment we were working on lighter plastic and chemical fuels that could be used in long-term space missions." The defendant whimpers. Nope, this isn't a kid he can just roll roughshod over and his threats to sue his insurance company had been laughed at by the company.

"The case go well?" Sheriff Carter asks, leaning against the door of a car in plain clothes. He'd volunteered to take Xander into Portland for the court date. The lawyer from GD nods and heads to his own car. He's got other stops before returning to town.

"Yeah, I got everything I was asking for and then some, the judge was disgusted with his trying to lowball me so much because I'm just a kid and had an old car. He also didn't like that I'm still recovering from the accident, undergoing physical therapy, and only back to work part-time. The defendant was bleating I couldn't possibly have been hurt that much. . .until they showed pictures of the accident."

Xander gets in the passenger seat and they drive back to Eureka. He gets out of the car after thanking Sheriff Carter for the ride. Dawn hands him a letter when he arrives home.

"Huh, never thought I'd see any of this."

"Payment towards the money Mrs. Rosenberg owes you?"

"Yeah, money is coming right out of her wages from her prison job and going to the victim compensation fund since she won't willingly pay her judgment."

"No, she's better than everybody else in the world . . .or at least she was until Mr. Rosenberg divorced her and left her with nothing. She's lost her license, all the money was in his name. . .she's looking at working menial jobs for minimum wage once she gets out of prison. She can't go back to writing books and lecturing, everybody knows she's full of shit and nobody would believe her, she lost her publishing contract and her books aren't selling anymore."

"And she's still blaming everybody for Willow not bowing, scraping, and kissing her ass while obeying her every little whim." Xander snorts. He signs the back of the check to deposit tomorrow and puts it in his wallet.

"Now, how did the court case go?"

"Good, the judge threw the book at the guy who hit me, he really didn't like his attitude and claims that I couldn't have been hurt bad, he wasn't. My car wasn't that badly damaged, three hundred bucks should cover everything. He didn't know it had been totalled and I didn't have a car now, he could afford a second car and mine was a piece of shit anyway."

"What a miserable human being."

"Yeah, he's whining about how much he has to pay me and he's still looking at serious jail time. He's finally getting punished for everything he used to get away with before and he doesn't like it."

"Are you going to be looking at a new car?"

"In a few months once I'm a little more steady on my feet. I can use a car from the GD pool if I need one before then. Anything I brought would need work to come up to Eureka standards and I can't afford the monthly payments and the cost of work on it. Even if GD would work with me on it and the money would be coming out of my paycheck. Including the car payment."

"A much smaller bite over 52 weeks rather than 12 payments." Dawn says. She'd been taking care of the house's finances as part of her math tutorial.

Xander leaves early the next morning, depositing the check into his account before heading to GD and signing in. "Where do you want me today?" He asks Fargo.

"Go over to section seven, all the research you did with Giles will help out there." He nods and walks to the elevator, running his pass through the key card slot before walking in.

"Do you have any experience with research?"

"I worked for years with a school librarian who used to work for the London Museum. Research is a good chunk of what I did."

"Good, here's what I . . ." Xander follows him to a table and settles down to work.

Xander looks around Hogwarts castle a couple months later, then at Dr. Stark. "Why am I here? I can understand Harry, he would have been graduating with the others."

"Headmistress McGonagall wants you and Dawn to have copies of the books the school uses so you have a good selection, Harry got them for last year and this year also since his godfather got a set for him while he was over here taking care of the Black and Potter fortunes. The Department of Mysteries would like to talk to you about working with a Slayer and what it's like living on a Hellmouth, while the goblins want to talk to you about your parents."

"The Harrisses? What for?"

"From what I understand," he says slowly smiling as he sees Johnny Storm, Steve Rogers, and Tony sitting in a corner talking about . . .cars. "Jessica Harris is the last descendant of an old wizarding family that sent their squib children away and were wiped out in the wars that followed, leaving the vaults just sitting there. As her son, you are the last of the family."

"But I was adopted and I'm not an heir."

"I do not believe it matters to the Goblins. If you had been magically disowned they wouldn't be talking to you but you were only disowned in the non-magical world."

"Who's the guy with the white hair and dark robes talking to everybody?"

"Aberforth Dumbledore, your great-uncle. He never got along with his brother, they parted on bad terms after their sister died. He blamed Albus for her death. He's been talking to the kids that we can find to apologize for his brother. He never believed Dumbledore's Leader of the Light and anything is forgiveable as long as it's for the greater good persona. He was looked down by the so-called light because he owns and operates the Hogs Head, a bar in Hogsmeade. Now that everybody knows the truth about Albus, they're looking at him a bit more favorably."

"Oh dear, this will not be good." Headmistress McGonagall moans as a sneering Draco comes over to the group that has enlarged to include Bucky, Clint, and Hermione. He starts saying something and is waved off. Angrily he grabs his wand only to have it grabbed by Bucky. Pulling it from his grasp he tosses it aside and pulls him over his lap. Holding him in place with the bionic arm he pulls up his robe and proceeds to spank the hell out of Draco, leaving the younger man sobbing after his threats to tell his father do nothing but make Bucky hit harder. He ends up being told to stand in the corner until he wasn't a brat and is dragged off by Severus who's quietly swearing about the fool boy.

"Did you see what he did?"

"Beat your ass for being a little brat. You came up there strutting like the cock of the walk and the roosters showed you who really ruled the henhouse. What were you thinking?"

"When my father hears about this . . ."

"He's going to tell them they should have finished the job, he doesn't need you. He's got a heir that's he's going to make sure doesn't grow up as stupid as you. You still have a year of schooling left that your father won't be paying for so you'll be working for the goblins to earn money to go with the money from the scholarship fund to pay for your last year. Your father told you not to screw around and do two years in one, if Granger could do it so could you. You didn't and now you have to pay the consequences. For Slytherin's sake, even that oik Weasley pulled his bloody head out of his arse and started concentrating on his studies. He's got high marks on the Egyptian OWLS and plans on taking the NEWTS in a couple summers."

"But my father has to pay for my schooling. Granger's parents are poor, that's why she did two years in one. To save them money. . .they went to the Goblins for a loan. . ." he whines.

"They went to the goblins to help with the financing to buy a second practice, they are by no means poor. They doubled their business practically overnight thanks to the Goblins."

"But Granger's going to be working!" he bleats.

"Many people do, it's only the useless who sit on their ass all day sneering at the others. You'd best get used to the idea of working for a living, you're not going to have the Malfoy fortune to fall back on. And the rest of the world stays rich by working hard and making good investments. Even if you somehow get back in your father's good graces you would be expected to make business choices to increase the Malfoy wealth. Potter's godfather might be an imbecile Gryffindor but he just increased the Black and Potter holdings here in Europe by a good ten percent by taking over several businesses that were faltering, giving them more money to work with, and bringing in new people to operate them." He looks at Draco with a sneer. "Interestingly enough they were former Malfoy properties. Lucius was quite put out when he found out they were making a profit and tried to sue claiming he'd been cheated, not even his normal barristers would take his case. His complaints to the Ministry and the Goblins went nowhere as well."

The next morning Draco whines when he reads the letter from his father the owl had left, everything Professor Snape had told him was true. His father wasn't going to pay for his last year of school, unless he somehow passed his NEWTS this summer he'd have to sign up for the scholarship fund to pay for his last year of schooling. And he wouldn't have the summer to pretend to be studying, he'd be working. . . for the Goblins. How could his father do that to him. He rails at the world until he's hexed and chucked in a compartment on the train with his trunk being tossed on top of him.

Arthur looks around the Burrow a couple nights later. What had always seemed like a small house with all his children around now seems so large. . .and incredibly empty. How can families like the Malfoys rattle around in their great big manors? The floo comes to life and a laughing Ron comes flying out, hugging his Dad and going upstairs to put everything away.

"I wasn't expecting you home." Arthur says. 'Not that I mind' he thinks, the burrow already feels so much better.

"The Goblins are letting me stay here to work and take classes this summer." Ron says as Missy the house elf puts the food on the table. "I might have to do some travelling, but by portkey I won't be gone more than a day or so unless something goes seriously wrong at a site. Then I'd be heading home immediately since I'm not trained." Arthur nods in satisfaction.

"Have you heard from Hermione?"

"Yes, she's doing the same thing I am, working, taking classes, and living at home. I know I'm not ready to take classes at a non-magical university but the Goblins have copies of textbooks in many major areas I can read in my spare time, she's already making plans for finding a place to live while she's taking classes this fall."

"And Harry?"

"He's got another year of high school until he graduates, then he'll be doing the same. He has a friend who is going through the same thing, she transferred from a bad school too and had to go back a couple of years. You met her at graduation, Dawn Summers?" Arthur nods, remembering the teen girl. "She should have been a juneyar. . .?" Ron stumbles over the unfamiliar word.

"Junior." Percy corrects, coming into the room. "Sorry to drop in unexpected Dad, a late meeting at the Ministry and I didn't feel like going home right away. It means she would have been a sixth year Ron." Ron nods. "I met the young woman in question when she was waiting for her friend at the Ministry a couple days ago, she would have been a fifth year when she moved to Eureka but went back to the fourth year because her school was so far behind. Remus Lupin is tutoring her in magic since she's had no magical training before now, just watching a wandless sort that dabbled according to her." Arthur shakes his head.

"Is Draco Malfoy settling in with the Goblins?"

"No, they've already hexed his voice gone once because he wouldn't stop insulting them or whining about how he had to work. . ." Arthur looks at him. "I know, I know, I was just as bad a couple summers ago when I started working. I learned, he'll learn." He looks at Percy. "How is Ginny settling in?"

"She had a hard time adjusting but she's settling into working and studying, the goblins and ministry agreed to split off a percentage of what she's earning and putting it in a new account for her future. She's got over eight years on her sentence yet before the Goblins take over her care, in a few years she'll be taking classes to learn about the muggle job she'll have, she can't expect to be scrubbing floors and doing laundry all her life."

"Ron, what classes are you taking this summer?"

"Language classes, computers since the entire world runs on them. . ." Percy nods. "Oh Dad, are you going to Eureka again this summer?"

"Yes, when I can get the time off. The classes are interesting and Charlie and Bill have offered to put me up a proper workshop this summer."

Percy nods. "They talked to me about it a couple days ago, I'm handling having the supplies delivered to the Burrow."