Written for Alchemy Assignment 11 at Hogwarts. Also, written for the November event: Male appreciation month. This is also written for Gringotts wizarding prompt bank.

Prompts used: (word) Monkey, (word) Potential, (object) Crossword Puzzle, Began, Breathed, Sighed

Words: 715

Keeping the business in the Family

Gervaise Ollivander's PoV

I sighed as the witch left, the bell tinkling.

My technique to make wands while experimenting with different cores meant that I got strange requests many a times. Even if I hadn't tried that before I somehow always find myself taking it up as a challenge.

The witch who just left had bought a horn of her pet clabbert. The clabbert was a cross between a monkey and a frog. Frog was just marginally magical and that too a hybrid. The wand wouldn't have much potential with spells requiring more power or it would be harder to channel the magic, at least.

I looked towards my twelve year old son, Garrick who was sitting quietly in a stool solving a crossword puzzle.

"Garrick," I began. "Would you please come here?"

He was still learning wandlore. He had trouble with choosing wand-cores which went with a wand wood assigned. But he had an excellent sense of woods that went with a given core.

He quickly put down the Prophet as he made his way to the table.

"Could you tell me which woods will be ideal for this core?"

"Yes, dad."

He picked up the wand and the parchment with the measurements and calculations on it. This parchment had been in our family since generation. The tape measured the wand arm to determine the wood length whereas the other measurements were there to calculate the personality of the witch or the wizard by taking ratios and multiplying.

"This is a clabbert horn, and not clabbert fur which makes it more resilient. It would go with strong, unyielding woods. While fir would be good, it would prove too strong for such a horn, the frog's properties would counteract against it. Larch could also be a good match but the length of the witch's arm was unmatched, it would not make an ideal partner for Lady Rowle, though the wood and the core are evenly matched. Rowan wood can be good but according to the arithmancy calculations on the parchment her personality wouldn't be able to match it. Hmm, can it be a vine wood? No, no vine is too yielding. Can it be ash, dad?"

"You are right as to the other woods, as to why you would want reject them. But you must remember the rhyme 'rowan gossips, chestnut drones, ash is stubborn, hazel moans'. Ash would prove too stubborn for the horn, and not for the fur if we used it. No, here it would be best if we used sycamore. Can you tell me why it would be an ideal fit?"

Garrick looked up at me in wonder, surprised I got the answer so quickly. I felt pride in my chest as I looked at my boy standing there with his eyes light up. I was glad that he had the same fascination and interest in wandlore as others in the family before him.

"Of course," he breathed. "Dad, that's brilliant. Sycamore is curious, vital and adventurous similar to a monkey. It has a capacity to adapt and learn like a frog. And as Madam Rowle is a Charms Mistress, her wand would never be bored."

I ruffled his hair, as I picked him up. "That's right. Sycamore it is, then." I made towards the back room.

As I put him down, he scrunched up his face, "But dad, if she used unicorn hair which is more suitable for her, her wand would work better with the sycamore."

I sighed, "Of course, my dear. But you see she is attached to her clabbert. It is all she has except for her son who is at Hogwarts."

Garrick had been going on about this for months, on why we didn't use the three strongest magical cores there were and match the personalities and other things according to the wood. He couldn't yet understand why we didn't correct the wizards' opinions. I promised him, in reassurance, that he could use only the cores he wanted to use when he took over the shop.

Then I went to the work-bench to start picking a wood of appropriate lenth and to carve it with runes as he went back to his crossword.

Won't you review? Pretty please? Unusual characters used but let me know what you think.