Chap 8-Knockturn Alley Part One
Harry looked formidable in his new robes, every witch and wizard was giving him space to pass through, funny I thought I would have problems fitting in, thought a amused Harry.
Nothing had changed about the alley, since his last accidental visit to Borgin and Burkes, the alley was dark, dirty, some hags were roaming from here to there selling dubious potions, but none wanted to come near the stranger. He followed the path, which Mr. Ollivander had told him to follow, he even passed Borgin and Burkes and decided he might even try and visit once, if he had time left after finishing with his activities.
He noticed that even though there were hags here and there, knockturn alley was not giving him the feeling of a dark district, it was more like an area where the extremely poor segment of the population is situated, Diagon Alley was more posh compared to knockturn. There were people sleeping on the streets, road side vendors selling items which might be considered illegal, but they were just making money, sure if a rich posh gentlemen walked through the area he might get mugged, but then he would be asking for it, if he started showing off.
Only rich purebloods like Lucius Malfoy would be able to get away with showing off, that only because of their background, and his case his affiliation to Voldemort, but other light families might find this place below their standards, and thus they must have warned their children from not entering this district, and the whole process of the alley being named dark must have come from that.
So lost was Harry in his thoughts that he didn't realize that he reached his destination. There before him hung the board with the words "Boris's shops for Miscellaneous Items"
Wasting no time in standing outside, Harry walked into the shop. The shop looked not much of a wand makers shop, more like one where you could come and buy souvenirs and trinkets, except they would be more suitable for someone like Voldemort. There were skulls in glass spheres with the label for ritual purposes; there were snake fangs for earrings, daggers that were red tipped indicating they were poisonous, a whole rack dedicated to poisons. Harry's first impression was that he might have entered the wrong place. But the sign outside the door was the one, which Mr. Ollivander had recommended.
Preferring to be cautious Harry flicked out his wand from his wand holster in his arm. It didn't help that he was definitely in a shop selling dark items.
Suddenly the hairs on the back of Harry neck stood up, and he whipped around with his wand pointed to a man's face.
"Whoa hey watch where you point that thing, you could hurt somebody with that" the man who spoke was nearly 6 foot tall, around fifty, quite thin but healthy looking, a little bald on the top, and with a moustache on his face and he was smiling at Harry. Smiling why the hell is he smiling he has a wand pointed to his face, thought a wary Harry.
"Mr. Potter I assume?" spoke the man still smiling. "I have been expecting you"
Still keeping the wand pointed at the mans head, Harry asked "How do you know who I am, and why were you approaching me from behind"
The man started snickering and spoke "Sorry about that old habits, when you live in this alley for many years like me, you become quite paranoid with whoever enters your shop, I was just checking if it was you"
Then he said, "Before you ask how I know it was you, I recognized your wand, 11and a half inches with a Phoenix feather, it is Voldemorts Brother wand"
Harry was shocked that the man could recognize a wand by just looking at it, but first he had to confirm whether the person was friend or foe, "Fine, but you said you were expecting me, why?"
"Well Willy told me you would be dropping me a visit for a new wand"
"Oh" was all Harry said
"Where are my manners, I am Boris the owner of this shop" said Boris while extending his hand.
"Harry, Harry Potter" Harry shook Boris's hand; embarrassed that he was about to blast the man from his feet.
"Well now Mr. Potter since you have confirmed for me that you use your right hand for doing magic, you can follow me to my workshop where we will decide what wand will suit you" said a amused Boris leading Harry to is work room. The room was like a carpenters workshop, tools of various kinds were here an there, pieces of wood were on the table, there were jars on the side containing feathers, fangs, some red substance looking oddly like blood, and other materials which Harry couldn't identify.
"Now when Willy called I took out my wood pieces, I must tell you Harry that I haven't made a wand in quite a while, and it's a treat to be finally able to make one now. I was getting sick of selling stupid dark stuff to earn money."
"Why haven't you made a wand in a while?" inquired Harry. "If you don't mind me asking"
"Well you see Harry I sometimes use some questionable materials in my wands, which doesn't fall under the ministry guidelines, to put it bluntly, but before the guidelines were in place, me and Willy used to work together. But then when they were implemented I preferred to work independently than keep on reporting to the ministry my each course of action like poor Willy has to do". It was clear from Boris's answer that he didn't like the ministry much and he knew that he could trust him to make a wand which would not only be powerful, but at least will be effective against Voldemort.
"Forgive my rambling Harry, I promise you that the wand I make will be special, trust me. Willy wouldn't have sent you to me if he didn't think you needed another one, and one which he thought would suit you better." Harry nodded to that and waits for Boris to start.
"Now first Harry we must choose a wood type for you, on the table before you are some samples, pick one up at a time, and if you feel something different then tell me we will put it aside as your wand wood" after finishing Boris pointed to the table where the wood were present.
The wood were actually wands without any core in them, so Harry went to the table and picked the first one, he didn't feel anything, he then moved onto the second one, again nothing different, he kept at it till he picked up the last one where to his disappointment he didn't feel anything. Harry thought maybe he wasn't meant to have another wand, and was about to thank Boris for his help, but when he saw Boris looking at a cabinet at the other end of the room with a thoughtful expression.
Harry wondered what he was thinking, and realized he had been seeing a lot of people with that expression today, he was wondering if something special would be waiting for him in that cabinet. Boris got up and took out a key from his pocket and opened the cabinet. From it he took out an object, which was wrapped in velvet cloth and placed it in front of Harry.
"Many years ago, an ancient Chinese wizard came up to me, he was also a wand maker, though I don't remember his name now, anyways he was badly injured, and asked for asylum for the night. This is during the time when the war was raging against Grindlewald. People didn't know who to trust, and then this wizard comes up to me in the middle of the night asking for asylum, at that time I was a little wary that he could be a dark wizard injured in battle and looking for a place to rest and when he would regain his strength, he would kill me." Boris stopped for a second to recollect his thoughts then continued.
"Even though I was uncomfortable with the situation and against the wishes of my wife, I let him stay, gave him food, medicines, healed him up. We talked a lot the whole night, he told me about himself, that he was looking for his son who had come to England before the war started and hadn't been heard since. I obviously asked how did he get hurt, he told me that he accidentally ran into some dark wizards who were raiding a muggle family, though he tried his best he could not best them, and so he had to run away, but not without getting a few cutting curses here and there on his body."
Harry didn't understand the significance of this story and kept his eyes trained on the object wrapped in the cloth in front of him, but he knew at the end of the story there would be some significance, so sat and listened. "When he told me he was a wand maker in China, we had a very enlightening talk, he told me about a wood that he had found deep in the Himalayan mountains when he was young, he said that lightening had struck this magical oak tree, and this particular branch was glowing in front of his eyes while the rest of the tree was in ashes. He told me he took the bark home and worked on it to create a wood for a wand, though he said that he could never find a core suitable for it, but one night he casually waved the wand and his worktable caught fire. He tried to control the power of the wand but was never able to, he put many enchantments, magical jewels, runes, but the more he tried the more powerful it became, in the end the wand scared him. He tried to present the wand to many wizards, but the moment they touched it, it burned their hand, it was not compatible to any wizard that the old man had met." Boris had been speaking non-stop, thus he took a break to catch his breath, while Harry tried to digest what the wand maker was telling him.
Boris continued "The old man said that he was too old now to continue to find a suitable wizard for whom the wand would be compatible, so he gave it to me for safe keeping wishing me luck for finding a wizard for it. I myself have had my hand burned by it, the last thing he said before departing to search for his son was that, the wizard to whom the wand is compatible must pour some of his blood into the core so the wand can bond with him, which will make the wand only suitable for that wizard and no one else"
After finishing the tale he opened the cloth carefully to show Harry the most beautiful wand that he had ever laid his eyes upon, it was 12 inches, oak, with runes on the base running up to the middle of the wand, dragons were carved out on the wood, with emeralds being placed where the eyes should be. The base of the wand was made out of some kind of metal which was shaped like a snake coiled around, which had the runes on it, also emeralds were used for the snakes eyes. There was an emerald placed on the tip, which was mostly imbedded into the wood with only a little bit peeking out.
Harry had the sudden desire to hold the thing in his hand, and without asking Boris picked up the wand. The next thing that happened, both of the wizards on the room will never forget till the last breath would leave their body. The emeralds and the runes glowed with power, the cracks on the wand that we unnoticeable before seemed to start pulsing with light. It was as if the wand was given life, electric charges ran from the wand to Harry body, making his hair on the head stand up, and his emerald eyes glow, seeing Harry's eyes glowing like that Boris took a couple of steps back.
Harry couldn't explain it, the wand felt like an new extension of his body, it felt like he was reunited with a lost friend, slowly and slowly the electric charges receded back to the wand, and Harry's eyes returned to normal, and the wand stopped pulsing, but if one would be watching the wand very closely they would notice a short pulse after every few minutes where the eyes of the snake and the dragons would glow like a beating of a heart.
"Wow" was the only word spoken by Harry
Authors Note: Since I have my vacations starting from today, you will be seeing a lot of updates, I was also wondering if you people preferred long updates after a span of days or short updates per day or maybe 2 updates in a day if possible by me
Ashknight: Please continuereviewing I appreciate every one who reviews; it gives me ideas, as well as improves my writing
Athena Kitty: Next few chapters are going to be fillers, I need to build up a story, and there will be more gringott scenes and ancestor scenes as well, as for your other questions you have to wait n see ;)
Black Merlin: Not sure if he needs a pet rt now, I have other plans
I might finish with a couple of more chaps by the end of the day, if I am lucky, please read and review