Chapter Six

The Salem Institute

Saturday July 8

"Darryl, it's so nice to see you again," as she kissed both of his cheeks.

"Hi Mandy, these are the folks I told you about. Emma and Hermione Granger and Harry Potter; I'll see you tomorrow morning at the shop."

"Hello, I'm Amanda Finizio and I'm your tour guide today. Please call me "Mandy", I have a mastery in and teach Charms and Enchanting at the school. It's a pleasure to meet you all. Let's hop into my car and we'll be off. This is a driving and walking tour, the major buildings are spread around the city. We do have a concentration of buildings and several dorms hidden in plain site on the Salem University Campus and that will be our first stop. It's a short drive from here."

Harry opened the door for Emma and Hermione and climbed in. It's nice to have no reaction to my name, he thought.

"This is Riley Plaza, once a roundabout, but now it's even crazier with the new traffic patterns and signal lights. But you find that several of the area restaurants have hidden top floors that are magical only. Here's a guide pamphlet that shows you the places. Like across the street, there is the Derby Restaurant, caters to tourists, but the side entrance for the hidden top floor is a great Magical Pub called Three Sovereigns. And Across the street is a Mexican Place called the Howling Wolf. It's very popular, a joint maj, non maj place and a Were is the chef and owner. Makes the best Fajitas in town." His staff keep it open on the full moons."

As Harry and Hermione looked on, they both noticed that there wasn't a robe in sight. The people who they were looking at looked like people; some of them had the ability to wield magic and some didn't. They were just people.

"The main campus admin buildings are in the Salem University North complex. We have nice space that is adjacent to Meir Hall and the Library. The no-maj's think it's an admin office for a private school. We have a deal for access to the Uni's "Commons" or causal dining hall, Library and Sports Complex with the student's Salem Academy ID cards. The building at the other side of the library is our non magical class room building for the youngest students. Four floors and small café on the ground floor. This is our first stop. We will meet Anne Chambers, she's the director Student Life, Housing, and Transportation. She's a tough one, a Brit like you folks."

"Welcome, please call me Anne. I'm mostly an administrator now but have my masteries in Charms, Enchanting and Transfiguration and still teach on a limited basis to the older students. Now let me give you the h'penny tour," with a laugh.

"This is the main administration building. We have about 30 buildings all told. Some are student housing, the rest are class room. We have shared space in non-maj buildings and we offer the non wanded non magical classes there. We also have the use of some of the Uni's facilities. Let's talk about student life first. We try very hard to keep the children integrated into non-maj life. We leverage the Uni's dining facilities and mandate lunch in either the main dining halls or the satellite dining quick and go's. This way they are always, for part of the day around non-maj folks.

"We are all year round with Fall, Spring and Summer programs. Fall and Spring terms also have part-time evening programs. I have housing for about 2,500 students of the 3,500 that are enrolled full time. You have the choice to board or travel in every day. The rest travel in and out, some live off campus in apartments with friends, a real mixed bag. Most part-timers are day students but there are a handful of exceptions for Graduate Studies."

Looking at the visitors she verified that she still had their attention. "We have four main building complexes where we have class. All four have a portkey arrival zone and floo access in secure areas. All buildings including student housing have secure areas for arrival and departure also. This makes it easy to move around the city to the various venues. Once you arrive you pass through a security zone. Your student or staff ID is also your portkey or floo access. We take security very seriously. I have a security staff of more than 40 to keep an eye on the children.

"We serve all of North America, with about 5 percent international students, but the bulk of our students are East Coast from Florida through the Canadian Maritime provinces. We provide "Middle School" in a half day school format for ages 7-9 for about 300 students. We find getting them in a classroom and teaching some magic is helpful. This helps immensely in preparing them for the full-time school. Then we have regular school 10 thru 17. It is very similar to what you have in Britain. These students are day only for the first two years and then have the option to board. Then we have graduate studies for those who want to go onto a masters.

"We have options for a largely non-magical and largely magical course load. If you want to go for a mastery you can be ready, or if you want to go to Uni you can be ready. Good academic performance is stressed. We have all the basics, Languages including Latin, French, Italian, German and Chinese, Math, basic through Calculus & Geometry, Arithmacy, Runes, Science, Biology, English Grammar & Literature, Non Mag & Wizarding Culture, Transfiguration, Agriculture, Chemistry/Potions, Enchanting, Offensive and Defensive Magic, Charms and probably 50 electives and almost the same number of clubs.

Anne continued "Through extensive use of electives, a student can finish with a 75/25, 50/50, or 25/75 percent ratio Hogwarts/nonmagical high school education. It's not practical to earn twelve NEWTs and still be prepared for nonmagical University in only seven years. It is possible to get six or eight OWLS, a couple of NEWTS and be fully prepared for any University, or conversely have a core high school level of knowledge and get a handful of NEWTS.

"We have classes and help for students to learn how to study, do essays, and assimilate. For the most part, most magical folks in North America are integrated and living right across the hallway from the non-maj students and in plain site. You will find few all maj communities in North America. When you graduate from Salem, you are equipped to function in magical or non magical society alike and take the next steps on your life journey."

She concluded, "OK, here are the mock ups of the student housing. We have standard quad rooms. Each student has a bedroom with wardrobe, desk and opening onto a common living room with a bathroom and small kitchenette. Here is a double room, difference only in that it's occupied by two instead of four and only available to the Graduate Students. Finally, we have a single. A bedroom, living room, bath and kitchenette. This is available to floor monitors, student advisors and mastery candidates in their last year. All rooms have electricity and are wired for cable and Internet service."

"So you have no problems with magic and electricity?" asked Emma

"No. Everything is shielded and works with little to no issues. It's relatively simple to shield electronic devices."

Hermione and Harry looked at each other and Harry just raised a single eyebrow, thinking, Which pureblood thought up that excuse and fed it to everyone as fact? "You have kitchens, so students are allowed to cook?" asked Harry.

"Yes, they are but mostly use it to heat things in a microwave or make tea or things like a cup of noodles."

… - …

While Harry and the Grangers were enjoying their tour, Daryl was writing yet another firm but politely worded rejection to a request to get some European students trained. He thought, The Gringotts executives obviously have their reasons and were willing to pay to have it their way. A deal is a deal. There was the Master Wandmaker in Bucherest. They could approach him.

… - ...

Back at the tour, Anne concluded her presentation, "It was wonderful to meet you and now Mandy will take you to the University O'Keefe Sports Complex, where you'll meet Jorgina St. Genovese. She's the department head for Offensive and Defense magic and all games and sports."

A short drive later they were entering the building and took a door that was to the right once you were in the main entrance that was marked Salem Academy only that became a stairway to an upper level.

"Hello; I guess you're my tour group? I'm Jo," as she shook hands with everyone. "I run this department, Defensive and Offensive studies, plus all sports and games. I've my masteries in Offensive Magic and Charms and am working towards another one in Administration. I've been at this game for about 15 years."

Harry stared at her. She was tall and willowy with long air of indeterminate color, streaked in varying fluorescent colors, and tied in a cornrow style that hung down to the middle of her back. It was tied with a black ribbon. She had pierced eyebrows and had tiny silver pumpkins for earrings. She was dressed in blue jeans, a simple white shirt and a leather vest. He could feel her magic swirling off around her.

"I like your hair;" exclaimed Harry who immediately blushed. Emma laughed. It broke the ice, and everyone relaxed.

"I like the cornrow look;" she replied.

Hermione smirked at Harry and winked. She slid over and took hold of his hand.

"Welcome to the Uni Sports Center. Our students have the full run of the complex. It has an ice rink, tennis, squash and racquetball courts, swimming pools, weight training rooms, exercise rooms, locker rooms, steam and sauna, a bowling alley, and recreation center with pool tables, ping pong, juice bar, music, etc. Up here on the second level I have class rooms and practice areas for physical education, sports (quidditch, broom racing and the indoor BQ intramural league, open only to my D&O students."

"What's the BQ and what are D&O?" stammered out Harry.

"Sorry, D&O stands for Defensive and Offensive Magic and the BQ is the Banish the Quaffel League. It's played on a regulation soccer filed. You have two teams of 12 on the field at a time including a goalie. You use your wand to banish and or levitate the ball to each other with the object to try and get it into the net. No hands, or feet, and no rough stuff."

"Is PE required?" asked Emma.

"Yes we have core curriculum for each age group, plus structured intramural leagues for Soccer, Basketball, Track and Field, Swimming, Cycling, Quidditch and we have numerous electives."

"Talk about Defense please, how is it done?" asked Harry.

"We teach everyone how to defend themselves, starts with PE, you need to be in shape, situational awareness, strategy (better to dodge than shield, run away, etc) and knowledge how to handle creatures and bad situations. Everyone has basic health, non- maj first aid, and basic healing. Then we also have basic unarmed self defense. Those who want can continue at the club level in Boxing, Karate, Judo, etc. Some of these compete against local schools.

"Would anyone like to try our awareness obstacle course? It's a urban environment with pop up targets and you need to make split second decisions on what to do."

"Well.."

"Come on Harry, I heard that you are accomplished. A little bird told me you can cast a Patronus. Come on let me see," said Jo as she hopped up and down like Dobby on high sugared drinks.

"Expecto Patronum," rang out and Prongs exploded into view and trotted around and went to Hermione and bowed.

"Show off!"

Harry laughed. "I think I'll pass on the obstacle course, but can we see the bowling alley and try that?"

"I'll make a deal, you check out my target shooting class which is still going on and try it and then we can see the bowling alley. On the way, I'll show you the centers facilities."

They went downstairs below ground and into a shooting gallery. There are nine shooting stations here. "We teach archery, rifle, shot gun and pistol shooting as electives. For D&O I teach target shooting with your wand. Each station has cardboard targets at different distances from 25 feet to 75 feet. The last two stations the targets move left to right, up and down etc. You're allowed three shots at each target. As you can see the class is almost over, this is a group of summer students, all 14-15 taking D&O and shooting electives. They had a competition today, and this is the final shooter. According to the board she has to hit 22 out of 29 to win. She also has to do it under one minute thirty seconds. Each five seconds over she losses a point. Let's watch her."

The girl was on the far left and would move left to right. A bell sounded and she fired three paint ball spells in a row and moved laterally to the right to the next window and fired. She moved quickly but deliberately to the side, acquiring the target and firing as fast as she could.

The bell sounded as she fired her last shot and her score rang up, 24 out of 29 with no time penalty!

"Well done Michelle!" The entire class was clapping.

"Wow, we never see that kind of spirit at Hogwarts," whispered Hermione to Emma. Harry looked intensely on assessing the situation.

"Hey Harry, Hermione do either of you want to try?" asked Jo.

Hermione shook her head no. "Go ahead Harry."

"I hear you're pretty good Harry," said Jo. Perhaps a little wager? You try to beat Michelle's score. You do, I'll give you tickets to a Harbor Boat ride tonight. You lose I give you the tickets anyway and you give me a half hour teaching my class the Patronus charm?"

"Go ahead Harry," whispered Emma, "Show them what you can do."

"OK, deal. But either way I'll work with your students."

Harry stood in front of the first window. He ejected his wand from its holster into his hand and stood still, took a deep breath. He nodded his head. "I'm ready."

A moment later the bell rang and Harry answered the call, his hand came right up and he silently cast three paint spells in a row in less than one second and was moving as soon as the third spell left his wand and without even looking. He quickly stepped to the next window casting on the move, shoot and move, shoot and move rapidly down the line to the next to last window with the first of two moving targets. He cast a wide area paint spell that sounded like a cannon shot and blasted the paper target off its holder and covered 95 percent of the rear wall in paint. He hit the last window and fired three spells in quick succession hitting all targets dead center. The timer stopped at 23 seconds and the score flashing at 29/27.

There was nearly a minute there was stunned silence and then all the students were cheering and yelling, "Well done!" along with the occasional muttered, "Holy shit."

"Yes Harry, well done. You hit 29 targets with 27 shots in less than half a minute. No one has been under one minute."

"Please give the tickets to Emma and let's try and teach your class how to cast the Patronus."

… - ...

An hour later Jo thanked them. "Emma, Hermione and Harry, thank you. It was pleasure showing you around and I really appreciate the demonstration today. My students loved trying to learn the Patronus. You have a nice style and manner with the students. Many of them produced a heavy mist. I'm amazed. I hope we meet again. If you're ever in the area with free time drop in please. Now off you go with Mandy to the next stop."

… - ...

Mandy traveled through the parking lot onto Canal street and towards the Central Campus.

"Canal street stretches for about a mile and has lots of bars, small restaurants, pubs, and dance clubs. It really caters to the college crowd. There are two under 18 dance clubs.

"The North, Central and South Campuses are within walking distances. The Central Campus was an old General Electric industrial site. We have an entire building at the rear of the property. We hold most magic classes in that building. It also has one of the three main dining halls for Salem Witches. We will have lunch there and then I'll show the classrooms to you."

The café was like a food court with multiple stations for custom orders and food ready to go. Hermione and Emma were fascinated by the Salad and Soup Bar. Harry had his first grilled hamburger with sides of "Chips" and onion rings.

After their quick lunch, they toured the building. "This is the Chemistry and Potions lab. To actually brew, you have to take the Agriculture track class, Ingredient Preparation. It teaches you how to identify, harvest, prep and store potion ingredients. The lab is state of the art with stone counters, vent hoods, water, sinks, gas supply at every station. There is an emergency eye wash station and first aid cabinet.

"That completes the Salem tour. We are now going to take the floo to a nearby city called Essex, where we have the Agriculture Campus classrooms and the Greenhouses.

"We have ten classrooms and ten greenhouses. There is a track where you spend time in class learning theory and then into the green houses for hands-on experience."

A few hours later they were back at their hotel freshening up for their harbor tour.

… - ...

Sunday July 9

Back at Gringotts, Barchoke announced, "The Wandmaster reported an unexpected development."

Ragnok asked, "What is it?"

"The silk strand from the acromantulas that the half giant has bred can be used as an almost perfect wand core. The elf Dobby told Whitehorn that there were thousands of them in one of the sections of the forest."

"That might explain the deaths of the ten students at the end of June."

"With a little innovation, Potter could have enough web strand to make wands for all of Europe within a few years."

Ragnok asked, "Where did Hagrid originally get them?"

"Borneo in Indonesia. No one would think to look there. They're too colloquial."

"He'd do better finishing the wand than selling the raw strand. We could broker the sale from Britain and get some of our invested gold back, eliminate most of our financial risk and act as the facilitator of who gets their wands first. That might still achieve much of our plan and we'd be held blameless by the other countries."

… - ...

After breakfast that Sunday, Dobby and Winky walked up to Hermione and announced, "We will be gone for the day. We have elvie things to do."

A bit later, Harry asked, "Where's Little D?"

Hermione replied, "Dobby and Winky mentioned something about doing elvie things. Where do you think little elves come from?"

"Very funny but I suspect they had something else in mind."

Sure enough, they had popped back to The Wand Shop. Winky reminded Dobby, "You not have permission to cut those up."

If elves could pout, Dobby was there. Slowly a smile crept onto his face. "Dobby knows where a big white okie tree is. Hold on."

She did and they popped away. "Former bad master had two trees in his yard that Harry Potter sir needs." There was a huge black walnut in the back garden. Soon the tree was down and there were two eighteen inch trunk sections. While Winky was vanishing the unwanted pieces, Dobby moved the trunk sections to the shop. A half hour later there were also three large white oak sections in the shop.

They looked at the sections. The largest was thirty-six inches across at the bottom and thirty at the top. The smallest was thirty and twenty-eight. Winky said, "You should be slicing smallest one today. Save other four and ask Master Harry Potter before doing anything to walnut tree."

As he had in Salem, Dobby levitated the section onto the saw horses and carefully looked at both ends. Starting at the smaller end, he sliced the length of the section, the rotated it and made the other three slices, forming a perfect rectangle. Soon they had several thousand blocks to stack. They had looks of delight on their faces when they were done.

When they returned to Salem, Emma heard Winky say, "Dobby does a very good job."

"Winky put everything in best places. Dobby is very happy."

Emma walked to the refrigerator, opened the door to let the cool air hit her face and burst out laughing.

… - …

Gringots Bank, Ragnok's office

"I received a letter from Dr. Granger, Director. It's a summary of the Salem campus tour, She thought we might be interested."

"Anything interesting, Barchoke?"

"Yes, she's quite impressed. The Institute is in plain sight nestled right in with a no-maj university. They even share some of the facilities. She mentioned several people they met on the tour."

"Amanda "Mandy" Finizio teaches Charms and Enchanting, She was about 30 and very competent. Everyone that Emma encountered had earned or was working towards multiple masters accreditations.

"Then she mentioned the Defensive and Offensive Magic and Physical Education teacher, a Miss Jorgina St. Genovese. Emma says we should consider her for an interview for Head if Professor McGonagall ever decided to return to teaching.

"She also mentioned an administrator, Anne Chambers. She's the director of Student life, housing, and transportation. She's a British ex-pat. She's mostly an administrator but has masteries in Charms, Enchanting and Transfiguration and still teaches on a limited basis to the older students. Emma says she's very Charismatic and organized and could be a good resource for information on housing alternatives.

"Finally, she mentioned a George Watson Everett. He teaches Agriculture and Potions. She was very impressed how he ran his class room with respect to safety."

"In summation, she has pointed out that the staff at Salem all have multiple qualifications and additionally had taken coursework on the art of teaching and transfer of knowledge.

Ragnok replied, "It will be good to talk with her again when she returns. I expect that it would be easy to be impressed with Salem, as it is so much larger than Hogwarts and loosely associated with a non-magical university. She could also be enjoying the summer weather. It will be years before Hogwarts or its successor has 500 students, let alone 3,500 or the 20,000 total students there. The humans seem so intent on killing each other for little real reason."

"True. Salem may have felt familiar to the university where Dr. Granger received her own education. Harry and Hermione may have observations of their own."

Ragnok added, "There is also the matter of funding. The tuition for the day students at Salem is 750 galleons per year. Hogwarts charges 500. By the time you factor out the cost of feeding the students for ten months, Hogwarts is charging about 200. They simply don't charge enough to fund the proper staff or any extras. Essentially it is a mindset issue as to what is the value of a proper education."

Barchoke asked, "Who sets the rates?"

"Given the demise of the house assistance plan whereby the Traditionalists funded tutors exclusively for their group and the demise of the Board of School Governors, Minister Bones could do it on a unilateral basis, or it could be run through the Wizengamot."

Barchoke observed, "Between our voting block along with the elves, it would be a simple matter for Amelia to convince a few others that investing in the children is almost always a good idea. It will be interesting to see how much, if anything that Minister Bones asks for in a year."

… - ...

Amelia's plan to equip the aurors with cell phones was an inspired leap ahead in aiding the department's basic charter – to protect and serve. Compared to sending an owl, it was light years ahead.

Auror Nymphadora Tonks had many fine qualities in addition to her unique ability. She was highly skilled as diffusing tense situations and was among the best in the department at nonmagical first aid.

One area where she needed improvement was apparating to a coordinate. She'd never come close to mastering it and Kingsley Shackelbolt, her manager doubted that she ever would. She compensated for it by going to a lot of different neighborhoods in London as her dad Ted, drove her around. They would get out and walk for a minute and Nym could easily apparate there afterwards. Since the Great Wandout, she had worked on her wandless apparation and could reliably travel twenty-five miles in a jump.

This morning she had been reassigned from London, which she knew well, to Surrey, which she knew nothing about. To make matters worse, her dad was busy with his own work today and hadn't been able to drive her around yet. Tonks had never heard of Little Winging. She had never been on Privet Drive and didn't know that Wysteria Way even existed.

Arabella Figg owned a telephone. She also had read the notice to call the Auror emergency number if needed. Late in the evening of July 8, there was an emergency at her home. A man had broken in and was on the first level of her home. Arabella's bedroom was on the second level and she quietly call the Auror number.

She couldn't use the nonworking floo to escape, nor did she have a portkey. She didn't own a firearm to protect herself. Her cats were outside hunting mice.

Nymphadora got lost trying to reach her home. By the time she got there, Arabella Figg had been murdered in her bedroom.

… - ...

Monday July 10

"Moony, we have to chance it. Kreacher died when my mother's house burned down. We need to get some money."

"Sirius, it's not a good idea."

"I never said it was a good idea; it's the only idea. The only upside is no one has any wands that can be used against us."

"True. I still don't like it."

Black replied, "OK. We'll drive around until we find a close parking spot. You'll walk me through the Cauldron. No one will notice us. We'll head directly to the teller. You'll ask for Sneerwell. We'll go directly to the vault. We'll grab the metal briefcase with the cash inside and a bag of galleons, If we're truly lucky, there will be a wand in usable condition. Ten minutes later, we're out the door. Worst case, we make a mad dash through the alley and into your car."

… - …

There is a saying that no battle plan survives first contact.

… - …

They found a parking spot five cars down from the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron Sirius changed while Remus hooked him onto a red leash. Remus opened the passenger door and Padfoot hopped out. They stopped for a moment when they reached the door. They took a deep breath and stepped through the door. One step, three, five – two more to go.

"Hello Professor." It was Dean Thomas.

"Er, hello Dean. I'd stay and visit but I'm late for an appointment."

"OK. Cool dog."

"Thank you, I really must be going,"

"OK. Have a good summer."

"You too, Dean."

They parted ways and were walking to the bank when they encountered a large crowd trying to do business with two boys who Remus recognized. One waved at him. Mercifully, there were a dozen people between the two and Remus and Padfoot kept walking up the marble steps. One of the guards was about to say, No animals, when Sirius changed and they stepped through the doors.

Barchoke was just walking in from behind them, saw Black change and said, "Mr Lupin, perhaps you and your companion would be better served in my office."

"Er OK." They reluctantly followed him. As the two armed guards followed behind them, Lupin didn't see any other options. They reached Barchoke's office, were invited in and Barchoke closed the door behind them.

Sirius said, "It's good to see you again, Barchoke. It's been too long."

"I am glad to see you alive and well, Sirius Black I cannot say that the years have been kind to you but you appear to be in acceptable health. I assume that you need to quietly visit your vault? I will arrange that you you. Do you need anything else?"

"Information about my godson, Harry Potter. I'd like to find him."

"That will be difficult. He left Hogwarts and arranged an apprenticeship in the United States." Barchoke didn't lie but Harry hadn't mentioned Black and he didn't want to accidentally cause any problems for the teen. He added, "Should he owl me, I'll mention that I saw you both. If you allow, I'll cast a mild obscuring charm on your hoods to make your getting around easier."

"Please."

"Blindeye will take you both to your vault. Good luck with your endeavors."

It was a short trip to Black's vault. Remus stayed in the cart while Sirius took his key out and handed it Blindeye who opened the vault.

Sirius walked passed the shelf with the heir and lordshop rings and found his metal briefcase. He opened it to verify that the stacks of large denomination bills from various countries were there. He also grabbed four thousand galleons and closed the door behind him.

Four hours and one stop for fuel later, they reached Lupin's old hunting lodge where they'd been staying since Black's mother's home burned down in June. Black wrapped most of the galleons and a few of each of the bills in a heavy plastic bag and buried it next to the large beech tree. When they finished, Sirius asked, "Are you sure that you don't want me to replace your old car?"

"No. It runs fine, people don't notice it and it's legally registered and insured. Where to?"

Sirius replied, "St Ebb. It's comfortable, the people are tolerant and I like the view."

"OK. We'll leave in the morning. An apprenticeship; what do you think of that?"

"Maybe after the stress that he was under this year, he felt that he needed a change."

Remus wondered, "I suppose. I wonder how long he's been planning it?"

"All year, I'd guess. I can't imagine that something like that would just pop up."

… - ...

On their second Monday, Darryl asked, "What questions are there from last week?"

Emma replied, "Last week Dobby and Winky brought some, I believe it was referred to as Nasty Fang Juice. Recognizing that it may not be suitable for generics, if you were to use it, would you allow it to be absorbed into the wood, or seal the canal before adding it?"

Daryl replied, "I would allow it to soak into the wood. My concern for leaving it if it were still in liquid form and the wand was used in a seriously overpowered situation for any length of time, the wand would minimally crack and split open, or possibly burst. That said, if you ever decide to use your basilisk venom, I would absolutely lightly seal your canal first, wear gloves while shaping and sanding it and apply three coats of varnish. If it were a match, I expect that you would have a ridiculously powerful wand."

Hermione asked, "If a country, such as France, didn't have a herd of unicorns, what might they use for their wand-cores? I believe they have thirty thousand witches and wizards like Britain."

Darryl asked, "Are you asking in general terms, or specifically France?"

"Both."

"The traits you're looking for in core are; 1) something that you have a lot of, 2) can be used by a large percentage of people, 3) isn't likely to kill you while attempting to collect it and 4) if possible, isn't going to kill the donor. Frankly, I'm surprised that there haven't been twenty reports of deaths from your monster spiders. Let's consider some possibilities;

"Phoenix feather – Half of the people who try it would have fantastic results. Even if you had one as a friend, you wouldn't get two hundred feathers a year.

"Dragon heart – most people could use a wand made from one. Dragons are already rare in the world. By September, they may be gone. Aside from that, it's a solution for two or three years from now, not one for today due to the time needed to allow the tissue to dry.

"If I lived in the Arctic, I'd look for musk-ox. The qiviut hair would work but without it, they would freeze in the winter. You'd need to collect it in late April and May.

"In France, pixies are a possibility but they're hard to catch unless they want to be caught. In short, they simply do not possess 30,000 wand cores.

"Hermione, to circle back to your question, I see four possibilities;

1) Britain manufactures and sells a lot of generics.

2) Britain harvests and sells a lot of strand.

3) Britain exports a few pair of acromantulas.

4) Wandsmiths return to making blood wands.

"None of these are perfect solutions and there are some serious constraints. The reality is, it might well take four years to get everyone workable wands and a decade if they want premade or custom."

He continued, "Not everyone has to have a wand to function in the magical world. When it's working, Britain's floo system is functional, if inelegant. Reuseable two-way portkeys are the best. A house powered by voice activated runes only needs a single person using magic to charge the runes. There are nonmagical stores and old-family homes can be retrofitted to use electricity, running water, plumbing and gas heat. A handful of potions masters can make enough potions for Britain. It can be done.

"Getting back on track, the two of you could work slightly different hours and get in a fourth gluing. You could make or buy additional glue tables – you'll figure it out but eventually it all comes down to wand-core. If you only have core to make ten thousand wands a year, your developing a process to make them in ninety days won't change your core limitation. Nor would it matter if you sold the strand to another licensed wandcrafter or made them yourselves."

Hermione asked, "What about exporting some acromantula?"

"Long-term, that's a possibility. Have you seen the film Jurassic Park?"

They all nodded. Harry loved the movie but understood the point Daryl was trying to make.

"Essentially, that is what your Hagrid has done and as for the why is it working, it's a mystery to me. Perhaps something is keeping them in place."

"Centaurs," replied Harry. "They're strange beings."

"That makes sense. Short of buying an island that's full of animals to eat, I can't imagine any country allowing them to be imported."

Harry and Hermione gave each other a knowing look. Hagrid tended to view dangerous creature laws more as guidelines than laws.

"What other questions are there from last week?"

Harry replied, "We're good."

"OK. Your project for the day is to make a copy of your own wands. Emma, here is a specification that I'd like you to try. Except for your phoenix feather, which you already have, the materials are all in the supply boxes. I'll be back in an hour. When you have your wands in the clamps, I'd also like you to shape and finish the ones in this box."

Harry wrote in his notebook - Ask Dobby for a trunk of holly, vinewood, swamp alder and elder.

… - …

Monday July 10

Daryl had arranged for Emma to attend a workshop on regrowing teeth for the morning. One of the teaching assistants had offered to be her escort for the day.

After she had been picked up, Daryl brought them into the classroom, grabbed an Orange Crush and said, "We should talk a bit about some of the realities of being in the wandcrafting business. Sooner or later, someone is going to kill someone using one of your wands. As the gun owners here in the states say, guns don't kill people; people kill people. Hopefully you're going to read about it in the paper, exhale a deep breath and move on. Most people have a right to purchase a wand. How they choose to use it is their decision. I'll probably come back to this. You can't let a person's bad choices eat you up inside."

Hermione saw Harry nod at his words. She knew that more than anyone else that she knew, he understood the impact of other peoples' bad and malicious choices.

Daryl continued, "People are going to insist, beg, guilt you, and offer bribes to make custom wands. Your contract essentially states that except when you are in my class, you cannot make anything but generic wands until you have sold 30,000 generics.

"The same thing is going to happen for people trying to jump the line and get theirs early. Your best strategy there would be to let the goblins handle that.

"I'm 99 percent certain that you're not doing this simply for the money. That said, if you look at your contract again, my belief is that they agreed to fund your expenses for three years. If your friends cut the lumber, created the blocks and eventually sliced them for you, your actual capacity would be how quickly they could be glued and how long you spend with each customer. Whereas you will be selling your generics for five galleons, you can ask the moon for custom wands.

"That said, you'll want to go collecting wood as soon as your time allows. Have your friends cut it into blanks and stack them so they can dry properly. You can always lease more space if needed.

"Unfortunately, either you or Hermione would have to do the actual fitting and selling, since you are the only licensed wandmakers in Britain. With a minimum five minute appointment, that's only 12 an hour. At 75 a day, you could sell them from noon to just after 6."

Hermione asked, "How many do you think the five of us could make in a day?"

"It's really three and two, not five. You can have all the help that you want up until the splitting of the wood. After that, it's considered wandcrafting. You have to be a journeyman for five years and successfully complete a masterworks project before you're considered a master and can take on an apprentice. That five years begins in three weeks for you. It doesn't matter if you've made fifty wands in those five years or fifty-thousand, as you two probably will. It's an international licensing regulation."

… - …

Back in her room at the Inn, Hermione was certain that there was more to Whitehorn's words than what he was saying. He was obviously trying to imply that they could make wands at a faster rate than they would be allowed to sell them in accordance with Ragnok's contract.

From what I heard, it's not just Britain, It sounds like all of Europe

Thirty thousand; they could probably sell a hundred thousand! Thinking further, she concluded, for a lot more than five galleons.

… - …

Back in Diagon Alley

"Sonny will you take silver items in trade for your tinned food and fire sticks?"

"Sure, let me see what you have Mrs...?" asked Mr. Creevey.

"I'm Mrs. Nott," replied the older witch who looked quite the worse for wear.

Mr. Creevey looked at his sons and they both told him loads with a slight shake of their heads.

Mr. Creevey took a lupe out and inspected the silver flatware. "Hmmm, it's not Sterling as it's just marked at 900 fine. Very hard to sell as it's not as pure as it should be. Best I can give you twenty-four muggle pounds per pound of flatware Ma'am."

The old women sputtered. "That's like five percent of the value, cheater!"

Bob Creevey's voice turned to ice. "I did not insult you. I'm not cheating you either. I made a fair offer, take it or leave. Go to the goblins see if they will even offer you anything, or go the muggle world and try to sell it. I don't need your business."

"No, the Goblins have no pounds to trade; they told me to come back next week. I'll starve, you must. I'll take your offer."

"OK, you can have the last stove, two boxes of firesticks, the last can opener and the last twelve tins of beef stew for the flatware set and tea service."

She handed over the set and loaded the items into her expanded bag and walked away.

When she had walked out of earshot Mr. Creevey asked his boys: "You shook your heads. Did you know her before today?"

Colin answered. "Dad, her son's a bully; he's older than us and always trying to push us around with Malfoy and his cronies."

He nodded and told his boys: "Right. OK pack up and put the table and chairs in the van. I'll bring the takings to the vault. This wraps it up, very little traffic today. I'd say you made enough for the both of you to pay for school for the next two years plus some spending money. Good thinking lads. Mom will be proud of you both."

… -

Friday July 14

"Daryl, I have a question. So far, we've only considered tree trunks. My question is, Why not branches? I'd expect that on most trees, there's as much or more wood on the branches than on the trunk."

He replied, "If memory serves me, your wand, Hermione comes from Vinewood, which comparatively has a very short trunk and is mostly branch. Harry, have you ever tried casting with it?"

"No."

"Hermione would you be willing to let this young man cast a charm with your wand?" Winking at Harry, he added, "Granted, he's a bit scruffy but I think we could trust him."

She handed him her wand as their fingers touched.

"Expectro Patronum."

A white stag came out of her wand. Emma and Daryl were impressed and bathed in the warm feeling. While it was quite bright, it wasn't what Harry expected.

Expecting Harry's reaction, Darryl suggested, "Harry, please give Hermione her wand back and try the same spell with your wand."

"Expectro Patronum."

Prongs lept out of his wand. It was as bright as a searchlight and looked solid. It nuzzled Hermione and Emma and they could actually feel it. When it walked over to Daryl, he swore that he heard faint hooves on the terrazzo floor. Jesus kid. Prongs looked him in the eye for a moment then Harry dropped the spell.

Daryl admitted, "That was some show of magic."

"Harry used it once to drive off a hundred dementors. He was thirteen."

"I believe it. If you would, try the same spell with one of the generics."

"Expectro Patronum."

While it was still brighter and more solid than anything that Daryl could produce on his best day, on a greyscale it would be measured as three of four shades darker than when Harry was casting using his own wand.

Daryl commented, "I'd rate those at 90, 100 and 80 percent respectively. Since Garrick spent so long fitting your wand, my guess is that for most people, the strand core generics will perform at ninety percent compared to their old wand, depending on how good of a fit their original was. If they were reusing a family wand, the generics could easily perform better than their old one."

Harry nodded; immediately thinking of his friend Neville.

Daryl observed, "Garrick had a large variety of wands and typically spent a long time searching for an excellent fit – especially for people who he knew. Harry, at two wands a minute, he must have spent the better part of an hour finding your wand."

"He did."

"Circling back to your question, Hermione, wands made from branches vary more. Branch wood has more knots, more hairline cracks and more hard spots than trunk wood. It could be a great fit or a dud. Hermione, please cast your patronus."

Her otter flumped out of her wand and looked around.

"Cast with the generic please." She had similar results; perhaps a shade grayer. "Try another one." Almost identical results. "One more please." Identical results.

As she sat down, Harry handed her a 7-up. She smiled at her boyfriend as Daryl continued, "My guess is that you could try all fifteen generics and get virtually identical results – about ninety percent of your good fitting premade. If you were to make four wands from vinewood, my guess is that you'd get one great fit, two similar to yours and one dud. Given your very finite supply of tail hair, you simply can't afford to have twenty-five percent of your wands be duds."

She replied, "I understand. Thank you."

"We're going to bring in students from one of the classes and essentially try three experiments;

"One student will throw a stunner at Hermione using all fifteen wands. I fully expect your shield to hold."

She nodded with a determined look in her eye.

"One wand selected at random by Emma will be tried by all twenty-five students."

Emma nodded.

"After that, Harry will attempt to match a wand to the first fifteen people in line."

… - ...

When they had finished, Daryl asked, "Emma, what did we observe?"

"Twenty three students were able to use the first wand to cast a stunning spell at Hermione. Her shield never wavered." He nodded.

"The second student was able to get some reaction from all fifteen wands. She had success with two of the lengths and struggled with one of the lengths."

"Good observation. What else?"

"Harry quickly found that the surest way to get a good match was to ask the students how long their old one was was and present them with one of similar length."

"Good. Everyone, what did we learn?"

Hermione remarked, "Prior length is a good indicator of a match with a generic."

"I've always found that my magic is largely about belief," remarked Harry. "My guess is, if we used the same wand in two tests – selecting one and stating, This should be an excellent fit, would provide better performance than somehow instilling doubt about it before having them try it. Think of your beginning broomstick lesson."

Hermione gave him the fake pirate eye at the memory.

Daryl asked, "Emma?"

"Don't be last in line when someone is handing out free stuff. Seriously, they both had excellent points."

"I agree. Length is an easily understood variable and also provides them with a feel that they're used to with respect to balance. Handing them a wand that feels normal to them is more likely to inspire confidence. After the first fifty or so, the teens will quickly acquire and present the attitude that they know what they're doing and their projection will instill confidence to the client. That will do it for today."

Emma asked, "Daryl, what did you learn today?"

"Having a large supply of strand available will all but guarantee success in your task. I can't think of another semi-common core that has such universal acceptance."

… - …

"Mr. Podmore! What are you doing?"

He stood up and blushed. "Oh my, I had hoped you didn't notice, I'm just getting some water from your hosepipe."

"You don't have to sneak around you know."

"Well, I'm embarrassed you see. I've no water at my house."

"Did your well go dry?"

"Well, you say? Err yes, yes it has gone dry after many years of faithful service. We never connected to the city, I mean council supply."

"Well you need to call the council they can make arrangements for a connection."

"Oh my, I don't know how. I've no fellytone."

"I think you mean telephone. Don't be so nervous Mr. Podmore. I don't bite," smiled Mrs. Crumb. "Your house does seem a bit under the weather. You have neglected to keep it up lately."

"I'm a simple man with simple needs."

She smiled at him. "I do miss my old Harold. He's been gone for five years. He would know how to handle this. Why don't you come inside Mr. Podmore and have tea and some biscuits while we sort you out."

"I thank you for your kindness."

… - …

Saturday July 15

Daryl and Emma drove to Logan airport to collect Dan while Hermione and Harry were back at the Inn enjoying the pool and each other's swimsuits. After the usual hugs and kisses, Dan asked the question, "Why are the goblins going to all of this effort?"

Daryl replied, "When I was first contacted, I thought long and hard about it. I'll answer on two levels. On the macro level, for some three hundred years Britain has had a standoff of sorts between the human magicals and the goblin nation; not so different than the relations between the two Koreas."

Dan nodded, appreciating his use of apt analogies.

"On a cultural level, they possess an unmatched ability to be presented with a situation and quickly recognize long and short-term implication and opportunities – like situational awareness if you've ever spent time in uniform. Their planning horizon is measured in quarters and years while for most people it's a week from Tuesday, or a month out."

Dan nodded.

"June 24 came along and their long-time advisory suddenly and utterly unexpectedly is totally disarmed. What are their options?"

Dan replied, "Subjugate them or completely annihilate them."

Daryl admitted, "Those came to my mind too. Instead, they developed a plan to rearm their opponents in such a way that the faction that was actively working against them was systematically disadvantaged - A social experiment if you will."

"On a micro level?"

"They perceive that they owe Harry a tremendous debt. They're setting him (and by association, Hermione) up in a business that should, minimally net 375 thousand pounds over the first twelve months. The second year could be two to three times that. My point is, it's not some glorified lemonade stand."

He continued, "They bought him a building along with top-of-the-line tooling. All this at a point in time when every witch or wizard in Britain needs his product. As start-up businesses go, I couldn't imagine a better situation."

"What's your part in this?"

Daryl replied. "I've been paid a ridiculous amount of money to exclusively train up these two (and by association yourselves) and provide business guidance in the form of helping them with tooling specifications, product selection, to develop the best configuration based on material availability and compatibility that matches most user's requirements."

Dan considered his words, nodded, and asked, "Other than the obvious, why exclusively?"

"Have you ever seen a dragon?"

"Only in pictures."

"Unlike Harry, I haven't found myself up close with one either. My point is, with very few exceptions, magical creatures are incredibly rare. Unicorns, thunderbirds, phoenixes, flying horses – animals possessing enough magic that they can be used as a wand core are all nearly extinct. Harry has access to a comparatively larger supply than any, no all of the other wand makers in Europe; possibly the world. It's not unlikely that they'll end up supplying wands to most of Europe."

Dan nodded. Suddenly having the latest magazines in his waiting room didn't seem like such a big deal.

"So what would you like to do for the next fourteen days?"

"Learn what I can. I have done my share of home woodworking."

Daryl stated, "We'll catch you up. In the next few days, we'll be making the consumables of wandcrafting – glue, shellac and sandpaper. Then we'll make some more wands."

They arrived at the Inn. Daryl parked his car, took out Dan's luggage and said, "You've had a long flight and should catch up. Emma, I'll pick you up tomorrow morning at five and get you to check-in at the airport. Be certain that your wands are in a checked bag and you have your export/import paperwork on your person. You do not need to declare them since you made them. Dan, please tell Harry and Hermione that class will start tomorrow as usual. It was nice meeting you and I'll see you tomorrow."

… - …

Emma was looking through The Times that evening and saw something that caught her eye.

Weird Sisters

By ET Vashon

One of the extreme pleasures I have as an entertainment journalist is the occasional stumbling across of a musical enigma. Music these days can all feel recycled, borrowing from past genres with twists here and there. On a rather typical Tuesday night, I found myself at The Half-Wolf Club, a quirky dark pub in a somewhat dodgy corner of London, that brings in indie groups striving for discovery. As I cozied up with a pint of Electric IPA by Brixton Brewery, I found myself rendered speechless as the evening's act, "The Weird Sisters" took to the stage. This is a band truly like no other; I've never heard anything quite like it in my life, to the point that it's almost difficult to describe. Allow me to set the stage for you - the band consists of lead guitar (Kirley Duke), bagpipes (Guidian Crumb), the lute (Herman Wintringham), bass fiddle (Donagham Tremlett), and wooden frame drums (Orsino Thurstin). As they play, I'm entirely enamored and frankly quite gobsmacked…so is the crowd, who was totally going wild. "The Weird Sisters" enchanted the audience with instant hits such as "What You Do is Magic", "Let's Fly Tonight", and their latest release, "This Potion's for You". As I looked around the pub, everyone was up on their feet dancing the night away, having themselves a jolly good time. I fly back to the merch table in the middle of the set to have a gander; if they didn't have CDs, I'd be gutted…these blokes are bloody brilliant. To my delight they have vinyl for sale, so I snag one and promptly resume dancing with the rest of the crowd until the show is over. I'd be remised if not to mention that after the two wicked encores, I saw Ronnie Grimlock, A&R manager/talent scout, saunter over to chat up the band after the show. Keep your eyes peeled for this group, mates… "The Weird Sisters" have arrived, introducing London to the latest and greatest musical genre, fantasy rock. Did I mention these blokes are bloody brilliant?!

She asked, "Hermione, isn't this the group that played at the school dance?"

She looked at the page for a minute and replied, "Yes. That's really smart of them to cross over like that. The Diagon Alley clubs are all closed, so they must have been looking for a new venue."

… - …

A/Ns

My daughter wrote the Weird Sisters review for me. Years back, she talked me into reading Book One just after Book Two had come out. I was glad that she was so insistent.

Tom wrote the Campus Tour and Sturgis Podmore tale of woe.

Recently, I was looking at a story from a lessor-known writer that you might enjoy. It is called Verum Genus by Un-Serious Writer. The writer is posting the tale at quite an active rate.

… - ...