Chapter Five

Unexpected Magic

Tuesday July 4

While Daryl was demonstrating how to indent a groove channel into both halves of the wood to accommodate the wand cores. Ragnok and the account managers were discussing their plans for the eventual distribution of the wands.

"There were thirty thousand magical humans in Great Britain. Whitehorn estimated that between the two of them, they could produce an average of fifty functional wands a day, with a range of twenty-five to ninety," reported Barchoke.

"Why such a wide range?" asked Snotnose. He was an excellent appraiser but possessed few social skills and disliked variables.

Barchoke countered. "We have promised very little with respect to August deliveries. My thought is that we let them get ahead by a week or two and distribute fifty a day to start with. If we set a proper priority list we can get basic services going, then have them distributed to those who we want to help first and make life very difficult for those others by placing them at the end of the list. Depending upon their output, we can always adjust the distribution quantities."

Several others offered viewpoints, some worthwhile. Others obviously intended to favor their specific clients. Some suggestions were clearly punitive and grouped those who had wronged or verbally abused them to the back. There was clearly more input about who should be at the end of the list than the beginning.

Ragnok responded, "In broad brush terms, we need to allow the human magicals the ability to get their emergency services going – St. Mungo's, their aurors and their public transportation would be first in line. Next would come the shops in the alleyways, students and the muggle-born."

Sneerwell suggested finding a way to make the wand only work for the person who bought it.

Ironrod replied, "The wandsmiths would spend far too much time selling and personalizing them. One of our original goals was to remove their trace, which highly disadvantages the newbloods. We'll issue them a Wand Purchase Permit card that states that the wand cannot be sold, gifted or loaned to anyone else and can only be sold back to us for a period of five years."

Ragnok responded, "I hope that we see conditions improved for the remainder of our lifetimes. As for the weekly quantity sold and the days and hours of their business, we need to leave that up to the wandsmiths. We already owe them too much to be placing undo conditions on them. Our actions need to remove obstacles from their pathway, not create detours. We will issue a notice that the priority groups can purchase their wands, subject to supply beginning on the date that we agree with the wandmakers. After that we will create another group of cards and issue them in a week at a time. The next week we'll send out another batch. What we will not do is pander to those who silently supported the dark one."

Crackjaw suggested, "We should keep the Daily Prophet off of the Diagon Alley merchant list. Far too long they have been in the pocket of Malfoy or his ilk. The crazy man's daughter is the subject of betrothal negotiations with one of Potter's friends. Perhaps Lovegood could be encouraged to hire a legitimate writer. If he had a nine month readership lead on the Prophet they might be muzzled, or put out of business."

They all nodded in agreement. Ragnok asked, "What of those who worked to murder the newblood children?"

Rockcrusher remarked, "The key to finding them would be to get a Ministry department employee list by year since 1950. That was the first year where the number of notations in The Book of Births began to significantly increase – essentially since the parents of the students who are now in school were infants. It's likely that there were a handful of employees involved over the years. I know someone who could help us."

When the others had left, Barchoke commented, "Wick does excellent work."

"Dueling champion is an excellent cover."

… - ...

After the meeting with the account managers, Ragnok reviewed the tooling list that Daryl had sent him. He was impressed that the wizard had thought to include exact dimensions and clear photographs that the tool smiths could easily use.

Whitehorn had also included a list of furniture for the office and break room along with photos, suggested brands and quantities. He was a very easy person to work with. The only difference is that the Nation would be crafting their tooling using hardened mitheril silver which would remain in like-new condition for Potter's grandchildren to use a century from now.

… - …

At the Greengrass estate, things were getting dire.

"Dad, when are we going to eat?" asked Astoria.

"Dad, there's no hot water in the bathroom. How do you expect me to take a shower?"

"I don't need your whining, you two!"

"We're not whining, Dad."

"Hippy! Come here," demanded Cyrus Greengrass.

The bedraggled Greengrass elf popped in. "What's can Hippy be doing for Master?"

"When will you be serving Tea?"

The little elf wrung the end of her tea towel with her hands and cringed as she replied: "Hippy already told Master there was no food and no food means no tea today."

Cyrus' face turned red with anger. "This is the second day with no food! Why is there no food in the manor? I told you to go shopping this morning."

"Master told Hippy, Only go to McDuffy's Greengrocer in Diagon Alley. McDuffy's had no food for galleons. McDuffy's only take pay in muggle money now. McDuffy say no more on account. No muggle money, no fruit and vegetables. You only give Hippy wizard coins," replied the now crying and cringing elf.

"I visited the Davis's and they had food," said Daphne. And good thing too; I had a great sandwich there."

Astoria was glaring at her sister.

"Davis family go to muggle world to get food, Master forbid me to buy muggle food. You say no filthy muggle stuff in your house," cried the elf.

Cyrus started towards the elf but Astoria stepped in between. "Father, just order her to go to the muggle world to get the food."

"I don't have any muggle money. The Gringotts exchange rate is terrible and they are limiting you to a hundred muggle pounds a day. The little creatures are a bunch of cheats. I refuse to do business with them."

Demi asked, "What of the funds the herbology import business brings in?"

He stared at his wife and ground out, "Funds have dried up; The plants that we import all require wands to grow or harvest."

"So you'd rather have us starve, dear husband?"

Cyrus feared that tone of voice. It only means pain he thought, pain of one kind or another. He tossed a bag of coins to the elf. "Go to the bank and get pounds and buy food in the Muggle world. Ask the Davis's for help if you need too. And don't come back without food."

Hippy bowed low, nose almost hitting the floor to hide her smirk. "Yes Master, Hippy won't return without food," as she popped away thinking, nasty master did not give me a time limit.

… - …

Wednesday July 5

The morning lesson started out looking to be quite easy.

Daryl said, "We'll be creating the wand-core channel in the wands. You create the channel by making an indent into the wood that will run almost the length of the wand. You don't want your wand core sticking out of the tip or the heel of your wand. Currently our block of wood is fifteen inches. The wands that we will be making today will be twelve inches, so we'll have to make a decision on which end of the block will be cut."

Harry suggested, "We should look at the inside face of the blocks that we cut yesterday and verify that the wood is clear, without any imperfections. If we see one on either end, we should cut it off.

Daryl brushed the hair out of his eyes and replied, "Precisely. It's critical that the orientation of the wood doesn't change, get reversed, inverted or the like. Your wand will not work if that happens."

Hermione asked, "Can we mark them?"

"Yes. An easy way is to use your sharpie on an area that will be shaved off. Just make a dot on both blocks like this. You want to make it on the front edge of your wand, so you don't accidentally trim into your wand core."

"Now carefully measure your block to 12 and ¼ inches and using your hardened silver saw, cut the block."

They did and used the sandpaper to smooth off both ends.

Emma asked, "Are we going to use cutting or slicing tools to trim the wand into shape or sandpaper?"

Daryl replied, "It will take a bit longer but as novice wandcrafters, you are more likely to make a working wand if you sand it using actual sand paper made of sand as your abrasive. Never use sandpaper made with iron oxide or tools that contain iron, such as steel." They had another note for their notebooks.

"Remember, your core will already be in place and you don't want to sand into it and expose your core. Alternatively you can use a hardened silver file to start your shaping. That's for tomorrow. We need to get the channels indented."

He continued, "We talked yesterday about different cores and Harry's friend Fawkes left us a feather that we'll use later. In the very simplest case, we can create a single channel. The cores that you'll be working with are all comparatively thin. The acrumantula silk that we're working with today is the thinnest core that you're likely to work with. Hermione?"

"Since this core material is so thin, why do we need to create an indent? Couldn't we just set it in the middle, tack it in with two dabs of glue then glue the two halves back together?"

"Emma, what do you think?"

"In this specific case, we could possibly get away with it but at the same time, you're trying to teach us best practices, processes and procedures. Spider strand is ever so thin and I can't speak to thesterals or hippogriffs, but I know that horse hair is much thicker. You apparently don't want to squish the core material, so the channel offers the wood room to fit the core without creating gaps that couldn't easily be fixed when we glue the two halves back together."

"Harry?"

"The same question will come up when we get to thesteral hair which my friend Hagrid has shown me. It's way thicker than the hippogriff hair that I found after Hermione and I flew on one. We probably could get by with a 1/32 inch channel on one side for the hippogriff one but we'd need a 1/16th for the thesteral and we don't want to make unbalanced wands."

"So for the acromantula one, we'll make a 1/64th indent on one side. We'll do the same for the hippogriff hair wand, except use a 1/32 channel and for the thesteral or larger, we'll make the indents on both sides. Does everyone agree?" All the heads nodded.

"OK, you should write that into your notebooks. It's a standard practice."

"Next, use your ruler to find the center of the right block and carefully mark it."

"We'll start the indent an 1/8th of an inch from the tip and end it 7/8th of an inch from the heel. Your core will be one inch shorter than your wand."

When they had completed their channels, he walked around and offered a compliment and a bit of constructive advice for each. Objectively, the lines were all straight, though not perfectly aligned. He'd seen far worse first efforts that still functioned.

"The next step has it's own challenge as the material is sticky. We normally would cut the core to size then set it into the channel. In this case, we're going cut the strand a bit long – twelve inches." They did and carefully walked back to their workbenches; each desperately hoping that the strand wouldn't curl back onto itself like a piece of cellophane tape.

"Now set the edge of the core that you're holding into the front tip of the indent." With a bit of work, they did. "Measure and cut the core to eleven inches. An eighth of an inch either way will do for your first effort. Be sure not to break the strand or let it curl up onto itself. In the future when that happens, discard it and get a new strand."

Everyone had managed to get their strand into the channel.

"Now, as Hermione suggested, we're going to apply a bit of glue to both ends of the core and give it five minutes to tack up. It's time for a quick break."

He went over to Dobby and Winky who had both been watching intently and said, "When we get the two halves glued and clamped, we're going to try the task that you two will he responsible for."

They nodded solemnly.

When they were standing outside for a minute, Hermione observed, "Could you imagine how popular potions class would have been if we'd had an instructor like Daryl? If Snape had been teaching wandcrafting he'd probably just paste a picture on the wall and say, "Go make it, dunderheads."

"Best school in the world my eye – McGonagall must have been listening to Dumbledore's Greater Good tripe so long that she believed it and started selling it to others as fact."

They walked back in and Daryl had his own blocks ready to glue. As they gathered around, he poured a generous amount on the face of both blocks, set them onto the gluing stand and began turning the screws on both sides the clamp together at the same time. When the edges of the clamp had just made contact with the wood blocks, he gave the knobs another half twist each and the glue came out of the seams. He wiped it off with a rag and did the same on the bottom.

Emma asked, "How long does it take for the glue to dry?"

Daryl replied, "With casein glue, we can take the clamps off after four hours. That said, I'd wait and let them dry overnight before sanding them."

Harry observed, "So procedurally, we'll want to stay couple of days ahead with the glued blocks. This clamp table looks like we could glue four or five at a time. Is this what Gringotts is making for us?"

"Similar. Your setups should hold ten. If you glue a set when you get in, you should be able to put on another set by lunchtime and a third set before you leave. Without too much effort, you could make sixty a day – eighty if you put in excessively long days. Actually, I wouldn't recommend long days. You're not in a sprint to get to five hundred. It will be a marathon to get to thirty thousand and you can't sprint for an entire marathon."

Harry asked, "By your guess, how much would an extra glue table cost?"

"Ten thousand US would get you a good one. It's easily the least expensive tool that you'll be using."

"Seriously?"

"Absolutely. An ordinary hardened goblin silver set of tools like this would run fifty thousand galleons. The mithril silver set that they're crafting for you two is beyond measure. They're literally investing a king's ransom in this project of theirs. They're looking for a certain output to influence a change in attitude and government structure. You wouldn't be doing them a favor if you doubled your output without telling them. Ask them and they'll give you the guidance that you request. Let's break for lunch."

… - ...

Barchoke stood on the steps between the two door guards and looked at the frenzied mass of purebloods surrounding a table in front of the newly constructed but still unoccupied wandcrafter building. Two young muggleborn wizards; really just children had set up a folding table and had a sign painted on fluorescent orange posterboard.

"SPECIAL TODAY!" SURVIVAL EQUIPMENT!

Magical Firesticks 2G Magic Can Opener 3G Camp Stove 15G

Camp Stove Solid Fuel 2G Water Jug 10G Canned Stew 2G

Colin was on a step stool hawking the products. "Step right up. Get your survival kitchens here. Special Morrisons' Tinned Beef Stew and Dumplings. Needs no refrigeration. Opens with the magic can opener, fully cooked, just open, heat on the stove. Supplies limited! The boys had a line of purebloods watching the demonstrations, oohing and clapping at the quick strike matches. With a 500 percent markup, they expected to have their Hogwarts fees paid in a week. They only wished that they could have brought more than four shopping carts of product with them.

Barchoke was tempted to shoo them away but was having far too much fun watching the traditionalists part ways with their gold.

… - ...

Back in Salem, when the students came back after lunch they were surprised to see three 76 inch lengths of a white oak tree sitting on pairs of sturdy looking saw horses. The students carefully examined the tree trunks. Emma went to her workbench and brought back her tape measure and carefully measured the length, wrote it down, then measured the width on each end several times and wrote the numbers down. Seeing her do that, Harry and Hermione worked together and measured one of the others.

Daryl asked her what she'd discovered.

"Three things. With quarter inch saw cuts, this is a perfect length to turn into fifteen inch wand blocks. Second, as I'd have guessed, the diameter isn't the same in the top and bottom half. Trees are thicker at the bottom. Finally, and this is the part that I never really thought about; this trunk isn't perfectly round."

"Very observant. Our goal is to get the largest equal-sided rectangle that we can get. Does anyone have any idea how we can do that?"

With a slight push from Winky, Dobby said, "Dobby knows how to make wood just as you described, Daryl sir."

Having expected this, Daryl replied, "Please show us, Dobby."

Dobby walked around the huge section of tree for a minute or two and announced, "Dobby is ready, sir."

"Go ahead."

Dobby said, "Please moves a bit off to the sides." They did. With his left arm, the little elf rotated his hand a quarter-turn anti-clockways. The tree responded in kind. He waved two fingers from this right hand and the top section of the tree bark was perfectly sliced off. He flicked his two fingers and neatly set the sliced piece of tree bark onto the floor. He rotated the tree until the sliced piece was on the sawhorses, flicked his two fingers and the top section of the tree joined its fellow on the floor. Two other flicks and the sides were also cut and stacked.

Daryl examined the precision of the slices. They were as clean as anything that he could manage. He didn't bother with the measure; he was certain that it was within a sixteenth of an inch. He announced, "Excellent work, Dobby."

The little elf beamed with pride and replied, "Dobby is always wanting to be helping Harry Potter sir. Can Dobby finish the task now?"

Daryl replied, "Please."

Looking a bit like an orchestra conductor, Dobby began waving his hands and gave tiny flicks to his little finger. In no time at all, there were two thousand perfectly cut and sliced wand blocks stacked in perpendicular rows three feet high.

Emma all but squealed in delight. She rarely saw real magic, positive magic, being performed. McGonagall turning a table into a pig a few years back was a cheap parlor stunt. This was useful and beautiful. She applauded when he had finished and went to hug Dobby and Winky.

"Outstanding," remarked Daryl. Elves were remarkably rare in the US. He'd never seen this task performed in the time that it took to finish his bottle of Orange Crush; let alone by students.

He directed, "Please insert the wand cores in two more wands each on the other benches, glue them and we'll be done for the day."

While the three were at their task, he took Dobby and Winky around the classroom and talked with them about various trees. It was acceptable to make these generic wands, effectively using raw wood but one day they'd want to use aged, wand-quality wood. Daryl was certain that these two could provide a sufficient supply so when Harry and Hermione were done making their contracted 30,000 wands, they would have the material ready to begin crafting custom wands and some better quality premade wands in their spare time. They could also get a head-start on collecting a wider variety of core materials.

… - ...

Without the use of his wand, Carl, the head printer at the Daily Prophet could set just over a page of lead monotype by hand – on his best day, not sixteen. That was completely ignoring the fact that the press itself was powered via constantly applied charms.

As much as Barnabas Cuffe, the editor disliked the actual printing facet of the paper, he respected that it was a necessary aspect of the business. Over the years, the owners had directed him to cut costs wherever possible. It had been far easier to eliminate the assistant pressman positions than writers or photographers as it was the stories and photos that sold the newspapers.

The short of it was until they had wands, the reporters couldn't get around to report. The printer had no written words to set type for. The copy editor had nothing to check over. The owls had nothing to deliver, though they cost just as much to feed when they were grounded as when they made a dozen deliveries a day.

Even with the doors temporarily shuttered, the business was burning cash.

… - ...

Thursday July 6

Harry and crew arrived at nine on Thursday. The first thing they did at Daryl's request was to indent another five wands each, insert the strand, apply glue and put them into the clamps.

Darrel told them that they would get used to forming, shaping and finishing the wands and that it was always better to use the real thing in their class.

He held up a wand. "This one has a common wand shape referred to as the screwdriver or if you prefer the conductor's baton. It has a defined handle and a thinner shaft; usually of consistent dimension with either a squared off or rounded tip. If you're starting with a ¾ inch wand blank, very little material is sanded off, as the handles are typically 4 or 5/8th of an inch thick and typically have a 2 or 3/8th inch thick shaft. If you prefer to think in metric, you can make the conversions and write them in your notebook. It is far and away the most popular style for your over-ninety crowd, though they talk the longest to make. If you want a little thicker handle, you might start with a one inch thick block but you would have more shaping to do with your file."

He held up a second wand. "This is another popular shape. It's referred to as a drum stick shape; a thin point but is essentially as thick as a handle for the back 3/4th of the wand. They're exceptionally durable and are very popular with construction workers and the like."

He held up a third wand. Essentially it was a 3/8th inch thick wooden rod with no defined handle and a slight narrowing at the point to make it easier to see which end was the front. "This is referred to as the rod and is very popular with younger users and law enforcement due to being so easy to conceal. Sometimes they are made with a slightly thickened handle but nowhere near as thick as the screwdriver. Depending on the user, this one is commonly held like a pencil, a chopstick or as a baton. If you're going to make a lot of these, you would want to start with a 7/16th block of wood, to minimize your sanding. Effectively, you'd mostly just be rounding the corners." Harry made a note in his notebook. That sounded like the quickest one to make and he liked the shape.

"This morning you'll be shaping and finishing your first wand. Only one can be your first, so I'll have you choose what shape to make. Try and finish the shaping in 45 minutes, then we'll apply some shellac and try them out after lunch."

Harry was immediately attracted to the rod shape. He set his caliper to 7/16th to do his rough sanding, then would reset it to 3/8th for his finish sanding. It took a surprisingly short time to round out the corners of the white oak. He was careful to leave a bit in the back unsanded until he was done rounding off the front, so he could differentiate the front from the back.

Meanwhile Hermione went with the baton style and was having equal success. They both were glad they there had been no knots or other imperfections to have to worry about sanding out. Both were finished within thirty minutes.

Seeing the direction that the others went, Emma went for the drumstick, partially because she thought it would be be hoot to have on her desk in the office and partly with the sad realization that she would never actually get to use it. She set hers down the same time as the teens.

Daryl saw that they are finished and said, "The last step will be the application of the shellac. You'll notice several little holes toward the back of your workbench top. They are used to hold the tip or base of your wands while the shellac dries. You can apply two or three thin coats. The operative word is thin as you absolutely don't want the shellac to sag on you."

"As you finish, you can shape two of the other wands. Try the other shapes to get a bit of practice. Somewhere along the way, give your first wand another coat. Try and finish the three wands before it's time to leave."

… - …

Friday July 7

It was a little known fact that the building that Ragnok was having set up for the Potter wand shop was on the Nation's property. The back of the building had a secret single garage door size door that was especially useful for accepting larger deliveries, such as parts of tree trunks. Such a delivery took place in the early hours of Friday morning. Ten large sections of tree trunks were neatly set on the store-room floor.

Daryl had sent Barchoke the layout to the building that he used with the addition to another room walled off in the shop that was designed to be the sales area. This resulted in a three-workbench setup, as opposed to the six that he used for his classroom.

They also delivered the workbenches but left the precious wandcore material in their vaults pending the return of the Wandcrafters and the official turnover of the building. In the meanwhile, two guards kept a close eye on the building without being seen.

… - …

Macmillion Renovations had been in business for a generation, renovating (nonmagical) older homes. They had an old-school charm to them in that they only used traditional materials and equipment – hand saws, miter-boxes, hammers, chisels, saw horses and the like.

John Macmillian, father of Ernie and Beth who would be starting at Hogwarts this term prided himself that when his projects were completed, his customers were always delighted. His claim to fame in the remodeling business was the speed at which he completed his jobs.

There was just one problem - prior to June 24, John had never swung a hammer in his life. He'd never sawn a board, let alone made a precision 45 degree cut. His tools were all charmed to work by themselves. When he'd had his wand, John normally directed them all while his tools acted in harmony. The only tasks that he personally did were to match shades of wood stain and paint the edges near ceilings and trim wood.

Fortunately he'd just finished a project when the Great Wandout occurred, so his methods weren't discovered. That said, he'd have to postpone his upcoming jobs. Without any money coming in from his business, he and his wife would be very hard pressed to send their two children to Hogwarts in seven weeks.

… - ...

Back at Salem, it was time to test their first wands. Daryl had inspected them and had proclaimed them fit for service. Hermione gave hers a wave and sparks flew from it. The wand functioned and clearly would work for her nearly as well as her vinewood one. Harry tried his. He gave it a wave and sparks flew from it. The wand worked. Emma was about to give hers a wave for luck when they heard;

Crash!

Dobby had been stacking blocks higher than he could reach and they all came tumbling down. Out of the corner of his eye Darryl saw sparks but his attention was on the little elf who was flat on the floor looking like he was seeing stars.

Harry cried, "Dobby! Are you OK?"

After a minute, the little guy admitted, "Dobby not tall enough to get the last row of blocks stacked."

Harry gave his friend a hug and said, "I'm always happy to help you, Dobby. You just need to tell me when you need help with something." With tears of happiness in his eyes, Dobby hugged his friend back.

… - …

Saturday July 8

They arrived at nine on Saturday morning. Emma recognized the music playing on the boom-box as her favorite cello player performing The Swan.

Daryl said, "Your project for the morning is to plan out and replicate what your normal morning start-ups will look like. There are blocks in your clamps from yesterday that should be pulled and a new set put in."

"Your operation in London will be focused on batch processes, as opposed to crafting one wand at a time start-to-finish. If you arrive at eight and want to start selling by nine, you'll have time to change out the dried blocks at the glue stations, insert core into your ten blocks at the glue station, or in your case twenty. Then you'll want to glue them and get them back into the clamps before you get your sales table set up. So your task for the morning is to document your plan and execute it."

Hermione took to the large white board like she'd been born with one.

8:00 Unclamp blocks – stack them handle-end out on the rack

8:10 Insert strand into the blocks – they had previously been indented. Tack glue.

8:20 Glue blocks

8:30 Clamp Blocks

8:40 Finish

Daryl asked, "OK, that's what one person is doing. How about the other?"

Harry replied, "It depends."

"On?"

"How many people are going to do fitting that day. If one person sells, it would take them the better part of the day to get through fifty people – let alone seventy-five. We don't know how the appointments are going to work. If the wand cards read, Come on Tuesday, I assume everyone would line up half eight, probably earlier in case they think we might run out. That's a long time to stand out in the rain and I really don't want fifty people standing in the sales area, staring at me every morning. We'd go to the WC for a minute and half of the wands would be gone when we came back."

Darryl said, "Speaking of which, you might want to go out and buy a hundred empty shoe boxes. You could mark them Oak/Strand-12 Rod, Oak/Strand-14 Baton etc and have them on the shelves behind your counters. You'll have to decide if you want to stand or use the height adjustable shop stools. Personally, I think it would be a long day standing, but that could be the years talking. What you don't want is the setup that Garrick used with every wand in separate boxes in a back room. You'd be back and forth to and from the storeroom two-hundred times a day. My advice would be to make a set of blanks on display that the person behind one one that you're fitting could try on for size. When they get to you greet them, immediately ask them what size their old wand was and pull out a choice or two – better yet, pull one out and ask them to give it a wave."

Harry could easy visualize exactly what he was suggesting and nodded.

Darryl continued, "If you want to get to seventy five a day, you'll have to average five minute appointments. The fact is, with practice, you may be able to sell a generic in five minutes but you can't make one that fast. You can't be selling seventy-five a day very long if you're only making fifty. Making decent wands in no more than fifteen minutes should be your first milestone; ten minutes would be better, with eight as your real goal. The quicker you can streamline your fitting and sales process, the more time you'll have to spend on the crafting side."

Bringing her back into the discussion, he added, "Hermione, you were right – the choke point in your process is gluing. You need to decide and stick to your schedule, so something doesn't come up around noon, you get behind and can't make your four PM afternoon gluing. In terms of timing, that step allows the least flexibility."

Emma observed, "It would be best for your customers if you both did the fitting and got them done in the morning. People will mentally double the time that they were waiting. What are they going to say if handfuls of them really did have to wait five or six hours every day?"

After they had finished their tasks and tightened the clamps Darryl said, "We'll come back to this. In the mean time, I arranged a tour of the campus."

… - ...

A/Ns

My apprentice for the story, Tom, wrote the Creevey brothers scene and the Cyrus Greengrass arc.

… - …