Ch 19 Wands and Mates
Albus and Cleo accompanied Harry to church late Sunday morning, and Jesus and Ginny came along.
Ginny Wang looked at Jesus Rios and sighed. "If we have children, I probably ought to become a Christian. That will be just one more source of conflict between my relatives and me."
"The Christian moral code is good, if you practice it," Jesus noted. "I do not think enough Christians take it seriously, though."
Albus agreed. "My father says he goes to church to learn about good and evil. He also feels that praying is a good thing, and Christian praying is not magic, not as he says treating God as some great vending machine in the sky. We pray that we always do, to the best of our ability, the good thing, the right thing.
"For those of us in leadership roles Christianity, actually many religions, believing and praying should keep us humble."
Early that afternoon the four young Magi met with Aragorn and Elanor Zauberstabhersteller, their grandson Sam, and Sam's partner in teaching Charms, Olivia Ollivander. They met in a reasonably large workroom in the back of the Zauberstabhersteller's store, in an area of the workroom that was obviously set up for meetings and teaching. There were also a couple of Goblins and Elves in the meeting. Scorpius and Rose were not there, as they were busy working on translating the scroll that Rose's mother had given them, and a couple of other documents as well.
Aragorn Zauberstabhersteller explained, "The Zauberstabhersteller family and the Ollivander family have wand stores in Europe and the Americas. Most of the teaching of wandmaking is done here. There is also a Chinese family that runs a school, and wandmakers from Asia and much of Africa go to school there. We cooperate; the wandmakers guild is worldwide, but there is some tension between the two schools, not between the wandmakers as much as between others."
Elanor started out, "Wandmakers can trace the heritage of every wand back to the Elder Wand and the female wand that is wielded by the Pirate Witch Queen. We have a nice chart that lists every wand that has ever been used to make a wand."
Elanor waved her wand, and a very large chart appeared on a big blank wall in the tall room. She continued, "We never considered wands made by Galadriel's wand, or Thorin's, or wands made any other way.
"After examining a few of the wands from the chamber, and re-examining some other wands, I am reasonably sure that our nice chart is wrong."
"We are relearning how to make Elf wands," Galadriel jumped in with. "Elves without wands are seldom subject to Dementors, and Elves with wands are, so it is not an unmixed blessing. I think we gave up too much when we became slaves but having to make moral decisions is not easy."
"Just always do the right thing!" Ginny exclaimed.
"Like that is always easy to understand," Albus scoffed. "Sometimes your only decision is which is the least bad choice."
"Why learn how to make wands?" Aragorn wondered. "Elves can do enough magic without wands, and if using wands makes you subject to Dementors, why subject yourself to them?"
"A world of reasons," Galadriel replied. "We have been subject to many things, from being forced to do the wrong things by evil masters or owners, to our own illnesses and pains that we could not heal, to being sundered beings. Elves have not been true to whom God or the Powers that Be wanted and want us to be."
"Prophesies say that when there is a new king and queen of the Magi, that we Elves will reunite," Thorin added. "All the Elfish prophecy is forecasting that the time may be near. We are not true to who and what we are if we do not try to fulfil the prophecies and reunite the sundered beings."
"Who will be this next king and queen of the Magi?" Olivia scoffed. "I do not see any new king and queen!"
"Albus and Cleopatra," Galadriel reconfirmed, "if Cleo gains possession of her great-grandmother's wand."
"Cleopatra cannot even control herself!" Olivia snapped. "How is she going to rule others?"
Cleo looked down, obviously ashamed. The more advanced the magic had become, the odder her way of doing magic had become. She did not exactly have a hard time controlling most magic, but some magic was hard for her to control.
Cleo really did not want to rule over people, and she didn't think she could.
There was silence for a painfully long period.
"I'm tired of fighting battles," Albus finally interjected. "Like Galadriel, like all of us I think, I would like the battles to be over with. I do not want to rule it over anyone. It is just that we, Cleo and I, we have been fated to be and do some things, and we are going to do our best to be good people, fight for what is good not what is easy, and do what we are fated to do."
Olivia had a sour look on her face but did not say any more.
The group went back to examining a large group of wands and trying to understand which wands created which wands.
The few wands of the Magi were as confusing as the wands of the Elves. Some were created by wands other than what the Magi wandmakers thought were the first two wands, and Elanor was sure that some of the wands of both the Magi and of the Elves were in some way ancestors of some of the current wands of the Magi.
Eventually Aragorn asked Galadriel and Thorin, "How did Goblins get wands if they are a patriarchal society and not partners with their females? At least Magi wandmakers need to be not only a couple but a married couple, and partners as well. We have stories where couples do not get along, and if they do not get along, if the soul bonding in the wedding ceremony is absent, they cannot make wands, and if the soul bonding is weak, if they descendent into fighting, the wands are inferior."
Thorin replied, "Goblins have saved wands, because they could not make new ones. Then we have Dwarves. We call them Metal Working Dwarves because they do much mining and metal working. Some of them are Goblins but some are and have been mixed beings, with females as partners like Elves. It is very complex, with disagreements and conflict hidden from Magi, going back through recorded history. Some newer wands were made for us by Dwarves. So, Goblins have traditionally looked down on Dwarves but have needed them as well. There is at least one family of wand making Dwarves, but for the last five hundred years they have only made a few wands, and then only very secretly. Elves, the old subservient house elves, do not make wands. The small wands that Magi know nothing about, and that Elves have had to use at times are not full fledge wands, just aids for the few cases where Elves need help in some magic.
"The whole subject is complex, and mostly hidden from Magi. Much of the history is not well known by Elves, by old fashion house elves, by Goblins, or even by most Dwarves. We are learning our history, and it is a painful history."
Olivia Ollivander had been sitting in the meeting scowling, and she seemed to be getting more and more upset. "How did Magi make Galadriel's wand?" she finally snapped.
"Magi did NOT make this wand," Galadriel insisted. "Much of our history is unknown or contentious, but there is almost universal agreement that this wand," and she showed the wand that looked like it was made of a silver looking metal, "came from elsewhere, and is the first wand."
"What is it made of?" Olivia wondered.
Galadriel tried to explain, "The best translation we have is of a mythical metal called 'Mithril.' We only use that word because it begins to describe what this metal is. The word itself is new, invented by an English author. We do not think this Mithril corresponds to any metal in this world."
"Mithril, bah. How did Magi make Elves?" Olivia argued.
"Elves and magical creatures that have the magical Alpha and Omega genes are not naturally of this world," Galadriel insisted. "We do not know where we came from, but that we came from somewhere else is clear. It is also becoming clear that Elves made the Magi."
"I cannot accept that," Olivia insisted. "I will be damned if I will be subject to a bunch of uppity house elves."
Olivia looked around the room, before shouting, "IT IS NOT FAIR! I cannot make wands by myself. I must marry and then it's not justME anymore. And as a female I'm the one who must suffer through nine months of pregnancy, and then we witches are expected to nurse our babies, and the teachers of wand making tell us that bearing babies and nursing babies is a little like birthing a wand, and wizards do not have to go through all that, and IT IS NOT FAIR!"
Cleo looked at Olivia with amazement, before shyly volunteering, "I don't think it is fair that we witches get to be pregnant, and experience making a new life, and then have the pleasure of feeding our babies, and our partners just have to watch. I think we have the best part. We are the life givers! Wizards contribute and help, but we witches are the ones who give birth to the next generation."
"Family is a couple verb, not masculine or feminine or neuter, in Elfish," Thorin added. "I think that by rediscovering the subtleties of the original Elfish we ae rediscovering what it means to live in a loving society. I have been fated to be a warrior Goblin." Thorin looked at his sword. "That is not all that I am, though. What I am at my best, I think, is Galadriel's partner. And magic came from the original Elf Queen, we think. The best wands of the female Elves, the life givers, are more powerful."
"Are you saying that Elves are more powerful?" Olivia muttered, her face still in a big scowl.
"I think," Galadriel suggested, "that that if Elves try to dominate Magi, like Goblins tried to do during some of their wars, that is wrong, and if Magi try to dominate Elves, like they do in owning house elves, that is also wrong. We are only what we should be if we are partners. Willing and even loving partners."
"But females dominate?" Sam Zauberstabhersteller wondered. "I know that one of Olivia's problems is with what she sees as male dominance."
Galadriel sighed, frustration all over her face and bearing. "No one dominates!" she exclaimed. "Elf females have a place of honour, especially after they become mothers. We Elves, even the Goblin wives, carefully distinguish what you might call a virgin from an Elf who has a mate. Even Magi rules in the most repressive cultures have not been able to force Elves to mate with more than one partner, until we are parted by death. Taking a mate is a matter of contract. There is still another series of words and phrases for Elves who have at least one child. It is expected that almost all Elves will take a mate, and have at least one child, and usually more.
"Having a child, or children, is a matter of securing the future. No children no future. Elves owe it to all future Elves to mate and create a future. And it is not just the female! It is not just the couple! It is the family. It is Elfish society."
"You are a teacher!" Cleo exclaimed, glaring at Olivia. "Don't you like children?"
"Everything I have ever believed is turning out to be wrong," Olivia cried. "The superiority of witches with pure blood, wrong. The superiority of witches over house elves, wrong. The history of wand making, wrong. Everything I am learning about magic from the way Cleo is doing it is challenging what I always knew.
"I think I see now that some of my classmates didn't fall in love and then pair up, but paired up and worked together, and then, I guess, fell in love. Or at least they married and seem to love each other. I guess I may have been waiting to fall in love, and even that is being challenged."
"Who are good partners has little to do with that giddy 'falling in love' emotion," Cleo insisted. "I can sense if a couple is a good couple, and the giddy emotion is the least dependable sign of being good partners. Being able to be partners, being able to talk, a commitment to love each other, to work on loving each other, that is far more important."
"Falling in love, and people choosing their own partners, is actually fairly recent in human history," Albus added. "For most of human history family chose partners for their children. In societies where this still sometimes happens the people married because the family chose the partner seem to be as happy as couples who chose each other. Love in a marriage seems to be far more a matter of choice to love one's partner than any giddy emotion."
"So, you can be in love without falling in love?" Olivia wondered.
"If you like someone, and think that they would be a good partner," Cleo suggested, "and in talking about being partners you agree, that is a good start. Is that person one you could be comfortable living with? That is far better than having someone who you think you love but that you would have a hard time living with.
"Once you sign the wedding contract, and have the soul bonding ceremony, and then sleep together, share each other's bodies, then you work at being in love and staying in love."
Olivia looked cautiously at Sam. "I'm comfortable with Sam," she sniffed. "I even enjoy it when we are dancing. I just never thought love could be comfortable and quiet and practical."
"Oh, that is the best kind of love!" Cleo exclaimed. "When I am all worked up or frustrated, and Albus can calm me down, that's love!"
"That is Elf love as well," Galadriel elaborated. "Not the sharing of bodies part: that we Elves do very sparingly, but the comfortable and quiet and practical parts of being committed partners."
"And having a child is important?" Cleo wondered, looking right at Galadriel.
"Our daughter is with my parents right now," Galadriel admitted. "Covid has not really separated the descendants of the High Elves, because we have not become sick with this illness. I do regret that the other commitments Thorin and I have had have caused my parents to be more parents to her than we have been, but Elf families have always shared raising the young."
Galadriel looked at the assembled Magi. "I cannot tell you how pleased Elves have been when Harry Potter and Bill Weasley introduced Elves to the idea of maternity leave. Having to have a child raised almost totally by others has been one of the Elves great sorrows. I did take a couple of months off to mother our daughter, and," she sighed. "It is just difficult when you are so busy, and have so many responsibilities.
"This Covid illness has kept us separated, Magi and Elf, so there are a world of things that have happened to and between the descendants of the High Elves that you do not know of yet.
"But yes, in Elfish society an Elf who is a mother has a place of honour, as the one who makes the next generation."
Towards the end of the day six more beings came into the meeting. There was a long and heated discussion, partly in Elfish, partly in Gobbledygook, with some English words thrown in. Finally, Galadriel announced, "I want to introduce Mr. and Mrs. Willy and Wally Wandmaker, the two Goblin couples who are beginning to make wands. I would ask you not to talk about their Goblin names. In addition to Goblin wandmakers being in direct conflict with some of the treaties Goblins and Magi have signed, their status as equal beings in Goblin society violates all the norms and language of the Goblins.
"Magi, we descendants of the High Elves have our own problems, serious problems.
"Joe and Mary are the names we are going to use for the Dwarf Wandmakers. They are as much Elves as they are Goblins, maybe more, but as you all know, I think, Dwarves occupy a very odd and uncertain place in the hierarchy of Goblins and Elves."
Albus wondered, "Do any of you have a better idea of which wands made which wands? There seems to be a major conflict between what the Magi thought they knew and what our examination now is showing us."
Joe, the Dwarf, spoke first. "We can help, but I seriously doubt if we will ever recover a totally complete and accurate record of every wand that has been used to make wands."
Cleo wondered, "My wand," showing her unique wand, "and this wand," taking out the other bamboo and sandalwood wand from its metal tube, "seem to be related. My wand has something to do with Magi procreation, and this seems to have something to do with Elf procreation."
All the Elfish beings looked warily at the two wands.
Galadriel sighed. "We think the troubles started when the Magi outbreed the Elves. Elves caught up, because having children for Elves is not a matter of not being able to control our emotions, but a choice. Still, there were and are issues.
"Please put that wand back in the tube and keep it away from us."
"Why is Cleopatra so eager for all of us to marry and breed?" Olivia wondered. "Is it that wand?"
"I think," Galadriel pondered, "that I do not have a simple or easy answer to that question. I think her grandmother and great-grandmother have something to do with it, and there are things going on at Hogwarts that contribute, and the wand, and just her own personality."
"I am trying to control it," Cleo said in a small voice.
Galadriel told the assembly, "Tomorrow only the Wand makers and specialists are going to be meeting. Thorin and I have to be elsewhere, and I do not think Cleopatra and Albus need to be in a meeting concerned with wand lore and the like."
Jesus looked at Ginny and shook his head. "Most of this was totally outside our knowledge and interest. I for one will be glad to leave wandmaking to others. I'm not even sure why we were in this meeting."
"Because you were there when the wands were found," Elanor responded. "We did not realize that you two," pointing to Jesus and Ginny, "were outside the chamber making sure the doors stayed open all the time, and never entered the chamber or gathered wands."
2021