Within the Apple Ch13B

*****

Xander hit himself with a notice-me-not and a muggle repelling charm as he dropped out of the clouds over the section of the city he’d been directed to. It was a rundown neighborhood, but far from the worst in the city. In it’s day, he suspected that it had been a respectable working man’s place. Now, well it was bordering on the more unsavory sections of town and threatening to become one of them.

He landed outside the address and checked to be sure that his spell was working. With no one looking in his direction or paying him any mind at all, Xander walked casually up to the door, dropped the spells, and knocked.

He could heard footsteps from within, muffled voices, and felt a steady vibration as the steps approached. The door opened up to reveal Danny Hebert, looking frazzled. His eyes were wide as he looked past Xander, darting around a bit before stepping aside.

“Come in before someone sees you,” He said urgently.

“Relax,” Xander said as he walked in. “I used a notice-me-not and a muggle repelling charm when I arrived. No one saw me.”

Danny just looked confused as he closed the door.

“Notice me not?” Taylor stared from across the room, eyes wide. “Is that what it sounds like?”

Xander smirked, “You’d probably know it better as a SEP field, and you’d be close enough to the truth.”

“Holy shit!”

“Taylor! Language.”

“But, Dad, a real SEP field!”

Danny just sighed, “Just as long as he doesn’t pull out an Infinite Improbability Field, I’ll be happy.”

“That’s not a spell that exists, not to my knowledge anyway,” Xander admitted, “though Felix Fortunus does dabble in the area. Now, what happened?”

Taylor looked down, seemingly ashamed, “I blew up my lamp.”

“Not too bad, I can fix that no problem…”

“And my computer…” she winced.

“That I can’t do much about,” Xander sighed. “Magic and technology can be… finnicky. Especially electronics, they don’t like being interfered with. The tolerances on electronics are way too high.”

“What? All electronics?”

“Hardened stuff lasts a bit longer,” Xander admitted, “but given time you’d fry even stuff built to survive a nuclear strike.”

“No computers? Tv?” She slumped a little, “Well… I guess I’ll always have books.”

Xander snorted.

He’d have lost his shit if he thought he’d lost TV at her age, but Hermione would have considered a more than fair trade. Taylor was reminding him of her already.

“I can show you how to build some gear that will allow you to access modern technology through cutouts,” He promised. “Now, let’s see the damage?”

“It’s upstairs, my room,” Taylor admitted, gesturing.

“Ah,” Xander held up a hand, looking to Danny. “With your permission?”

Danny nodded slowly, eyes glinting, “Go ahead.”

Xander gestured and Taylor lead him up the stairs. The room was small but comfortable, and he took a moment to survey the damage.

“Reparo,” He said, gesturing widely to catch everything. All the damage reversed itself before the shocked and wide eyed stare from Taylor.

“I thought you said you couldn’t fix the computer,” She said, nodding to the pristine looking machine.

“The external damage? Child’s play, literally,” Xander said, “but while I likely did fix the damage you did to the chips, I also almost certainly damaged them again in the process. You might be able to pull data from the hard drive, but you might not too, I’m sorry to say.”

Taylor winced, but then just shrugged, “I keep everything important backed up. Hopefully some of it will be recoverable.”

Xander nodded, leaning back against the wall, “So… want to talk about it?”

She looked at him, startled, “Talk about what?”

“Accidental magic like this is a response to strong emotions, usually anger or fear,” He told her, glancing around. “I don’t get the feeling that you were scared. Your and your Dad don’t have that vibe, so… what pissed you off?”

******

Taylor stared, wide eyed and uncertain. She didn’t want to tell him about the argument with her father, but didn’t really see many other options.

“Taylor found out about your little fight with Hookwolf,” Danny said, appearing in the doorway, face stern. “She was excited about you teaching her…”

Magus nodded, tossing a sidelong glance over to Danny, “And you don’t like the idea.”

“I do not.”

“Fair enough,” Xander acceded. “Worried about retaliation, I’ll assume?”

“Of course.”

“Where I went to school we had a group that wasn’t unlike your little Nazi gang,” Xander said, laughing sharply. “Pretentious blighters called themselves Death Eaters. Cowards, most of them, like all Racists are in their core…”

“Cowards? Bastards they are,” Danny said, “but some of the Empire show up to Endbringer battles. They’re not what most would call cowards… twisted, sadistic, fools even…”

“If they’re not cowards, they’re not Racist, they’re just pretending,” Xander said confidently. “Racism is cowardice. If you’re actually superior, why bother caring about what your inferiors do? You only let that kind of hate fester if you know deep down how inferior you really are, and you’re terrified that everyone else will figure it out. The Death Eaters? They were true believes, cowards to the core because they knew they were inferior and the new blood was going to replace them.”

“Not really sure where you’re going with this…”

“Cowards only fight when they think they’ll get away with it,” Xander said. “Not even only when they think they can win… if they think they’ll get a bloody nose, they’ll run like the cockroaches they are even if victory was likely. You can’t keep your head down and hope they’ll go away. All you can do is beat them over the head with whatever rock they crawled out from under until they go right back where they belong.”

He sighed, “There’s nothing more destructive than someone who hates themselves so much they have to fight the world to prove that they’re not the thing they hate.”

“That’s all fine and everything, but there’s a world of difference between standing up for yourself and my daughter getting caught in the crossfire you seem intent on bringing down on your own head,” Danny snapped. “I’ve heard it all before. Might even be right… but you know what happens to the first person who stands up for themselves?”

“They get beat into the ground,” Xander answered, directing a pointed look in Taylor’s direction. “Unless they know how to beat back.”

*****