30-Wands

At the next meeting of the club, he could tell about his experience with the other wand-maker. Hermione nodded as if his method was more to her liking. Harry only listened attentively. Dylan still adhered to his plans.

That meeting they only practised ways to prepare the wood. They did it at Longbottom Manor since this was not something they could do at the church. Although, according to the book, shaping and polishing the wands was done manually, the children saw no reason not to do it by magic. It was much easier and much faster and they had better control on their magic than on any manual tool. Harry suspected that professional wand makers may have feared to contaminate the wands with their own magic. Since the club members would be basically working on their own wands, that posed no problem. Hermione also thought that since they used no wands in the process, there was much less chance of magical contamination.

The blank wands – just nicely shaped pieces of wood – that the children prepared – were indeed a show of perfect workmanship. The children decided to keep them as toys for Halloween.

Dylan didn't rush with the wands. He made sure that the children also kept brewing potions to stay in top shape on that subject. He also let them exercise their casting and especially their mind shields. It was just as important to keep them in perfect functionality.

He didn't bother with either Arithmancy or Runes. After giving them the introduction the previous year, it was clear that these subjects should wait for them to mature a bit.

All along, he let the children learn how to prepare the various cores, how to embed them in the wood and how to finish it all, creating a powerful, beautiful, and comfortable wand.

By mid-winter, they mastered all the steps. It was time to try to make some wands for real, although Dylan wasn't sure how legal that would be. Children were not allowed to buy wands, and they were not going to buy any. Children were normally forbidden from using wands, yet every magical parent had stories about his children finding a wand and casting unsupervised. That was a law that could not be enforced. And then, each of the children in the club already owned a dummy wand. Each of the children could do great things wandlessly. It didn't matter if they had wands. It would change nothing in practice.

Just to be on the safe side, he consulted with Amelia. "You know that I've been teaching the children about wands. I was wondering if I could let them try to make a real wand for each. I believe it isn't specifically forbidden, although it may be frowned at."

"As is most of what these children do at the club," she commented. "It would change nothing, I think. Susan is doing all sorts of high-level magic without a wand. I don't think a wand would change much for her. I don't even think she'd use it much, except to test it."

"So you don't object? It won't be illegal?" he wanted to be sure of her position.

"I suggest you warn them against using a wand in muggle areas. The underage magic detectors may detect magic cast by a wand. Luckily, they don't seem to detect the wandless magic, or the club couldn't be able to function at all."

With Amelia's approval, Dylan could go on. The next time, he brought all the materials one would normally need for making wands. Most of them were also used in potions, so he could bring them from the family business. He didn't bring some of the rare and exotic materials. Hopefully, none of them would be needed.

The children tried to replicate the process that the wand-maker used for Dylan. Hermione even suggested to start by trying to fit Dylan with a wand. He cooperated, ending up with the same material choices and only a slightly shorter wand length. The children considered it proof of doing the process right. One by one they then went through the process, finding the right materials. It proved a really interesting experience. Harry ended up with two kinds of wood and three cores; Hermione also found she needed two kinds of wood and three cores, but not the same as Harry; Neville was fitted with a single wood but four cores. Dylan wondered what that might mean about his magic. Luna ended up with three kinds of wood and two cores. She was unsure about the way of combining them. The others needed a single wood, but most still used two cores. The majority of them also needed a gem at the tip. Dylan wondered if that meant that most people needed a more complex wand than sold by Ollivander, or only that this group was very special. He suspected it was a combination of both.

Even that initial step took much longer than normal meetings. They put aside their chosen materials to work on at another meeting.

That evening, the children talked about wands, but not exactly about their work.

"I think we should also test Angie for the right wand when she visits us next time," Harry suggested.

"Her wand is not the best fit, so she said. I'm sure we can give her a better one," Hermione agreed.

"Maybe test Lora too? Just like us, she may never feel a need for a wand, but it's good to know she could have one ready, in case she ever needs one," Harry said.

"Sure. We'll ask her the next meeting."

\/\/\/

Although some of the wands were relatively easy to make, it still took them a few meetings before even one was ready. It was Colin's and he felt quite proud of creating it.

"One of the simplest spells with a wand is 'Lumos' and you can already do it silently and wandlessly. Now try to cast it the regular way and see how your wand reacts," Dylan told him.

Indeed, they could all make their fingers emit light and could control how strong the light was. In many ways, this was better than the spell.

Colin concentrated, holding the wand tightly in his hand. He then said "Lumos!" The tip of his wand lighted like a small but powerful light bulb. Dylan found it almost as powerful as his own with his new wand. He had never achieved such levels with the old one.

It took a few more meetings before the most complex wands were ready, including one for Angie and another for Lora, although none of them was present at that meeting.

Luna was the first to try her wand. It took her more than one meeting to come with the right form of combining the three kinds of wood into a single wand and she felt proud of her achievement. Her wand also seemed to fit her quirky nature, having a thick handle that quickly tapered down to a very elegant and quite unique wand, that looked like it was moving in a tight spiral and not a straight line, although it was straight when one tried to touch it. Her Lumos was more powerful than most, on par with Dudley's, who had finished his wand a week earlier.

Next to try it was Neville. His Lumos was visibly more powerful than Luna's. This made Hermione hesitate. She knew that she was measured as much more powerful than Neville. Just to be safer, she squinted her eyes, ready to close them completely if the light turned too blinding.

Her caution was proven in place. Her wand lighted very brightly, surprising the other children. It took a few minutes for their eyes to readjust after she turned it off.

"Maybe it's safer if you look the other way?" Harry suggested at his turn. Dudley and Luna turned around, as did Neville. The others just held their hands up, to block any blinding light. Harry closed his eyes, as did Dylan, and cast.

Dylan felt like he was suddenly lighted by the sun. He could see red through his eyelids. There was no doubt that Harry's Lumos was the brightest by far. Harry cast Nox to stop the light. The children stayed silent for a while. They then came closer and congratulated Harry. "I knew you were more powerful, judging by the measuring charm, but it took this demonstration to make me understand," Dean told Harry.

Neville shook his head incredulously. "I knew you were powerful, but I thought I was almost as powerful as you. Now I know I'm wrong. The only person close to your powers is Hermione. You two really fit well together."

Dudley clapped Harry's shoulder. "That was one hell of a demonstration, cousin. I'm really proud of you."

Only Luna seemed unfazed. "It's all just as it should be," she said dreamily.

Dylan thought it was the right time to make the children more aware of reality. "I'm proud of the talent and knowledge you've all demonstrated in making these wands. You created very fine tools, each tuned to its owner and capable of handling the most demanding situations. With that said, I urge you to put the wands aside and not use them unless you really need their extra help. I recommend that you buy your school wands at Ollivander's, as expected, when the time comes, and use them for all your schoolwork. They should do just fine for that. We shall later make wand-holsters for you to keep the wands hidden and ready, just in case. I still believe you can do very well with your wandless magic, in emergencies, and not need any wand at all. It's still good to have one handy." He hoped he made his message clear enough, without explicitly talking of attacks or war. He couldn't envision a situation where their wandless magic would not suffice, but it was good to have another alternative too.

\/\/\/

Harry approached Dylan during the break. "We've been looking through some books and found a spell that could be useful for communication. It's the 'Patronus' spell, but we don't seem to do it right."

Dylan didn't need to ask. Harry was talking about Hermione and him. He remembered them trying it two years earlier, when they were really too young for it. "Can you show me?"

Harry concentrated and a silvery cloud appeared, looking roughly like a four-legged animal, but too indistinct to see any details or to even identify it.

"Try using your hand to focus on the spell," Dylan suggested, lifting his arm with the index finger pointing forward.

Harry tried that. The silvery cloud that came out of his finger looked like a young stag but was not fully formed. It was still a tremendous achievement for such a young boy.

The silvery animal attracted the attention of the others and Hermione came to Harry's side. "Can you do the same?" Dylan asked her.

Hermione lifted her arm and a silvery otter came out of it, not fully formed either.

Dylan gave it a thought. "Do you have your wands here?"

Both children shook their heads. Hermione added, "I only brought the blank one. I thought I could work on it to make it look nicer."

Dylan wasn't sure it would help. Still, it was worth trying. "Why don't you use it as your focus? It's not a proper wand but it just may help."

Hermione took the wand and cast. A solid looking silvery animal came out of it, circled the room and then disappeared.

She didn't wait for Dylan to say anything. She just gave the wand to Harry. He cast, producing a solid silvery stag that bowed its head in front of Hermione as if expecting to be petted. She moved her hand reluctantly. "It feels like a real animal," she said, sounding surprised. "It's even warm like a live one."

A few seconds later, the stag faded away. Dylan, as much as he felt inadequate in front of such a display of magic, still needed to act as an adult. "That's fantastic. Few adult wizards can master this spell, and certainly none can do it wandlessly. This is an extremely advanced spell that no child your age is even expected to know about, much less try to perform. I suggest you give it a rest for a while and just try to exercise your focus better. Putting your finger forward or using that stick didn't change your power, it only helped you focus better. Once you learn to do it without external help, you would be able to master this spell even wandlessly."

Harry didn't seem convinced. Hermione whispered in his ear and he smiled, nodding his head. Dylan felt relieved. He feared he would soon be unable to help these two. Well, it looked like he could still help them some.

\/\/\/

Angie visited regularly. It turned out that she had a free period on Thursdays, coinciding with the club meeting. She was unable to take part in creating her own wand, but Harry, Hermione and Neville did that for her. "It works much better for me than the one I bought, but I shouldn't use it in class. I can actually do all the classwork using wand and incantation and I can barely refrain from doing it all wandlessly. With that wand, I may attract too much attention, and that may cause problems. Even while trying to hold back as much as possible, I'm second in my class. Have I not held back, I would have been first by a large margin. That would have made the teachers and the headmaster suspicious."

She had some good news of personal nature. "I'm now a close friend with Alicia and we're both getting closer to the Weasley twins. They can no longer confuse us about who's who. They're Quidditch fans and we both seem to get interested in Quidditch due to them."

Dylan thought there was some more to that friendship. Maybe pranking, but her shields were too strong to check.