Chapter Seven
180 Proof Alcohol
Sunday July 16
Mundungus Fletcher was born in 1930 to muggleborn parents who both worked as healers. They were killed in 1941 when the original St. Mungos was bombed. For several years in the summer, he lived in his parents' home in Aylesbury until it fell victim to a badly aimed V1 buzz bomb intended for London in 1944. Fortunately for the young lad, his parents had prepaid his Hogwarts fees.
Having been swindled out of some of his parents' savings, by the time that most of his classmates were studying for their OWLS, Young Dung had earned his NEWTS in the school of hard knocks. Young Dung and Ragnok shared a common trait – they could look at a situation and quickly envision probable outcomes. Being much older, Ragnok had much more experience at it but when the Great Wandout hit, Fletch as he preferred to be called, saw plenty of opportunity.
When on June 25, word had gotten out that all of the former death eaters had disappeared and those with life stones had seen the worst, he was at the Lestrange estate – cleaning it out. He'd walked out with a big bag of quality jewelry that should have netted him a hundred thousand galleons, as well as a stack several inches thick of Pound notes that they'd stolen from their victims. Due to his lack of proper documentation his options on where to sell the jewelry were limited and he ended up with half of that. 50,000G wasn't a princely sum but in contrast, Arthur was making 510 galleons a month before he was let go.
Fletch was among the first to conclude that it was a Europe-wide situation. He also knew a bit about a lot of subjects. One of those was estate law; he could envision the plight of those widows who had not been named in their husband's will and would not inherit. As such, when word got out that some of the students (heirs) failed to return home on the buses, Fletch was visiting with Mrs. Nott, who he had seen making a fool of herself at the hands of some teenage boys.
"You won't inherit and it will only be a matter of weeks before you are booted from your home."
"She asked, "What should I do?"
Fletch suggested, "Sell your jewelry and go to Gringotts before they close your accounts. I could sell your jewelry on your behalf at a good price and only charge a third. The more that I can get for it, the better off we'll both be. Deal?"
Still feeling like she'd been swindled in Diagon Alley, she readily agreed.
He asked, "Would you prefer galleons or pounds?"
"Galleons, of course... er, could I get some of each?"
"I'll take care of it. Let's see what you have to sell." Thus, he had among the first to be selling at the nonmagical second-hand shops. His success with Nott led to being invited to assist Mrs. Flint, then Mrs. Crabbe and Goyle.
… - ...
On Sunday after Emma had boarded her flight back to Gatwick airport, Daryl was back in the classroom. "For the next few days we'll be briefly discussing and making the three most commonly used consumables in wandmaking. They are casein glue, shellac and sandpaper."
Dan asked what he thought was an obvious question, "Why wouldn't we just find a brand that we like and go buy it?"
Daryl asked, "Hermione?"
"The residual presence of iron would tend to diminish the wand's ability to act as a conductor and transmit magic. The tools that we use are made of non-ferrous metals. I'd speculate that some sandpapers are made from iron oxide or aluminum oxides. Using the wrong one could ruin dozens of wands containing in some cases irreplaceable cores."
"Harry?"
"These are materials that we use loads of. Even if you could find a brand that was acceptable, they could be made in iron vats or the like and we'd never know it. Looking back in history, you couldn't just go to the big Home Depot store like the one down the street from us and buy all those things. Besides, it gives us something to do while waiting for the glue to dry, or on slow days."
"True. So essentially we're making these to avoid infusing iron and avoiding accidentally bonding to a wand that you intend to sell."
Hermione asked, "When you're referring to avoiding a magical bonding, are you referring to making the wand using materials or methods that are unlikely to infuse any of the crafter's magic into the wand which would make it more likely that the wand would unintentionally bond to the crafter, or make it harder for the wand to bond to another user, or both?"
"Both. Excellent thinking. If Harry were to craft a wand using a sanding charm, he would be leaving magical imprints, fingerprints on the wand. In a generic wand, you might get away with it most of the time but like our discussion about using branch wood, you would be introducing unwanted variables into the process. As we noticed, the spider strand core wands take a bit of time, or more likely, the user intentionally hoping for a bond for it to happen."
"In contrast, you have the phoenix feather that Harry was given last week. From it he made a wand that was practically singing to him to bond with the wand. When Garrick originally made that wand he would have had to consciously not want to bond with it as he was shaping, sanding and finishing it."
Harry remarked, "Ollivander would always say, The wand chooses the wizard. Another wizard using the wand would never get such good results."
Daryl nodded.
Dan added, "From a non-magical perspective that implies that wand somehow has sentience."
Daryl suggested, "It would seem that way, though magical compatibility might be a more precise selection of words. If one looked at it from a percentage points perspective, we concluded that a well-made generic wand might offer eighty percent of the effectiveness of a well matched wand. Polluting the wand in the crafting process might lower it to be only seventy percent effective. Come to think of it, a chemical bonding might be a more apt analogy."
They all nodded in understanding.
Daryl continued, "What you have to keep in mind is that few people are using a wand that is truly a hundred percent effective for them. If a given area had a bad wand-fitter and the population was walking around using wands that were only sixty percent effective, your giving them a wand that was eighty percent effective would seem like a real improvement."
Harry decided that he would craft his friends Neville and Luna a pair of great fitting wands.
"Circling back to components, we're making sandpaper using sand, paper and glue because using a sticking charm might accidentally personalize the wand."
Dan asked, "Specifically what are you using for the backing?"
Daryl replied, "Excellent question. You want to use a backing that will last at least as long as the adhesive. Here, ideally I'd use 100 percent rag content 60 pound paper but the treasury department uses 100 percent rag to print their currency and takes a very dim view of other people having it, so we have a poor substitute in class. Here is a case where you'd have a true advantage. If you could talk the Hogwarts professors into saving old homework and giving them to you, the parchment that's used would be ideal. Your friends could bleach it and the end product would be extremely durable at no extra cost."
Harry quietly asked Dobby and the little elf was off doing his task.
… - ...
Harry read the printed recipe before watching Daryl demonstrate the actual process. He hoped that whoever would be teaching potions at Hogwarts next would have a style more like Daryl's than Snape.
Casein Glue
Skim milk powder.
Water.
White vinegar.
Baking soda.
1. Dilute skim milk powder as per packet instructions to make 100 ml. Put into a pan. Add 15% vinegar (15 ml for 100 ml of liquid). [For information: vinegar is 5% acetic acid]
2. GENTLY heat and stir. As soon as it curdles, remove it from the heat. If you heat too much it will ruin the glue.
3. Pore the liquid and curds through a paper filter. You can use a funnel and a paper towel
4. Wash the casein to remove traces of vinegar.
5. Add 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda to the curds and carefully stir with a small flat stick. Add water one drop at a time while stirring, until you reach a typical glue-like texture.
The quality of the glue depends on low fat and acid content. This is why you start with skimmed milk and why you wash the vinegar away. Bi-carbonate of soda is an alkali and of course will neutralize the vinegar.
When they had tried making a quantity suitable for a class demonstration purpose, Daryl requested, "Since you'll be using gallons of this on a weekly basis, I'd like you to revise the recipe to a quantity more appropriate to a commercial use."
Dan asked, "How long would you estimate the shelf life to be?"
Daryl replied, "For the liquid glue; a month or longer. A few years ago, I made some and put it into five gallon plastic buckets. It was still fine after two months. I've rarely kept glue any longer; it's too easy to make and in my purposes, made for demonstrations. If you get into full production, you easily could be using ten gallons a week You'll probably want to make it in your break room and have your ventilators on. When we get into it tomorrow, you'll certainly want to do the same thing when making shellac."
He pointed to a plastic bucket that said Instant nonfat dry milk powder that came in five gallon plastic buckets. Dan looked at it and noticed that it was very inexpensive. The packaging indicated that an unopened container would be good for years. Dan quipped, "Years back it must have been a more labor intensive process."
Harry wrote in his notebook;
30 pounds of skim milk powder
50 gallons of distilled water
20 gallons white vinegar
5 pounds of baking soda
… -
Dobby returned with a thump as the hay-bale sized bundle that he was carrying hit the floor. Daryl asked, "What did you bring, Dobby?"
"Old Whiskers was friends with Ollie Vander. He'd asked Whiskerface to save old study papers like you was telling Harry Potter sir about. There be whole classroom in castle filled with study papers that Nobby was having little elves clear off. Cat Lady says take as many as we wanting, so I bring this to you for helping Harry Potter sir. Now we can be making proper sandy papers."
Daryl knelt down and carefully shook Dobby's little hand while Winky looked on in happiness.
He got up and said, "Here are two plastic buckets of sand. The first is ordinary beach sand. It's easy to find, in Salem at least. The second is silica sand. The beach sand makes a more coarse sandpaper, whereas the silica sandpaper is a finer grit. Essentially all we do is squirt some glue onto the parchment, then use the squeegee to get an even, very thin coat. Then sprinkle on a handful of sand. Avoid tossing clumps on as you'll end up with bare spots. Wait five hours or so and tap the edge of the parchment to put the excess sand back into the pail. Repeat with the other sheets and let it sit overnight. I use a rack like this with 24 shelves to save room. I believe you'll have three racks so you can make quite a bit at a time without taking up a lot of space.
"Once it's dry, you can stack a bunch of it in the shelf on your workbench or in your store room. It can be cut into whatever sizes are most useful. Dobby, thank you very much for bringing this, They will last me a long time."
They all made a half dozen sheets using the parchments. Hermione picked up one that was about three inches and observed, "This one was probably one of Ron's." Harry smiled at the all-too-true comment.
They placed the sheets on the rack and cleaned up the sand while Daryl said, "This looks like a good spot to break for lunch. I'll see you in an hour."
… - ...
"Dad, we're going to get a slice of pizza. Do you want to come?"
"No thanks. I'll be fine. See you in a bit."
"When they had left, Daryl asked, "How long have they been dating?"
Dan replied, "Four years, or a month; it's hard to tell. They've been pals since she was eleven. She's never spoken much about the people at that nuthouse, only the spells or the We went for a ride on a flying horse letters. Britain has some funny laws; we can send her to school for ten months a year but we can't see what she's doing. That's about as clubby as you can get."
"We have similar laws; at least from the 50,000 foot point of view. It would never be a good idea to have an eleven year-old sitting in the park, levitating rocks but kids here can do magic in their homes. This should be an interesting summer for you She'll be able to do all sorts of magic at home and this class will give you a lot of common material."
Dan asked, "What do you think about Harry?"
"It's like a fifteen year-old version of Merlin stepped into our lives. He just doesn't know it yet. I'd never bet against him. As the saying goes, may you live in interesting times."
… - …
When they got back, Daryl brought in a large box of empty plastic fishing line spools. He said, "Earlier in the week, we were talking about different ways to store acromantula strand. I came up with two ideas. One is to fill a plastic spray bottle with the same alcohol that we'll use in making shellac tomorrow. What I did here was take some strand and wind it on this plastic spool. Now I spray it with the spray bottle and the strand comes off easily, like six pound monofilament fishing line."
Dobby and Winky had been paying special attention to his words as these were steps that they would likely be doing.
"The second thing I tried was taking two sticky strands and rubbing the last inch of both strands together and make one long piece out of it. I can then spray them like we did a moment ago and the two ends have fuzed together. This could be done in the forest as you're collecting it, or back in your shop, whichever is easier. The small reels will hold about two hundred feet, the larger ones, five hundred feet. They would be reuseable. There should be at least a hundred of each type in the box."
Winky looked ecstatic. She hadn't liked traveling with the long wooden crates.
"I tested a couple and the sprayed strand and the unsprayed strand each perform identically in these two wands that I made."
Both Daryl and the Brits were delighted with their gifts.
… - …
After class had ended, Winky and Dobby popped back to The Wand Shop in London for some elvie business. The interior had been completed, and still smelled like fresh paint.
The storage room was about a fourth full with ten 76 inch long sections of white oak tree trunk standing on end. Immediately, Winky said, "These are not being enough tree trunk. Harry Potter is needing eight more; ten would be better."
Dobby replied, "There are other trees to be here soon."
"Winky understands that. Other kinds of trees will be here next week. Master Harry will be needing more white okies. Winky Knows."
"There are enough here for making 30,000 blocks and a few extras."
"Darryl was telling Harry Potter that other countries will be needing his help. Harry Potter will be needing oak trees sooner than Goblins can be cutting trees. Goblins can't be cutting trees for wands when sappy is shifting. Harry Potter will be making 50,000 wands by May. Winky Knows. Sometimes Winky is good at Seeing future things. We slices these trees into blocks now and find new ones next Sunday early in morning. You be slicing. Winky is better at stacking."
Dobby saw some big trees in book Daryl had. "We can be slicing big tree sections and pop them back to Wand Shop, slice them up and be back before Daryl opens door for Harry Potter and Grangies."
… - ...
Monday July 17
Harry read the notes that he'd made to the formula that Daryl had just demonstrated for shellac.
20 pounds of shellac flakes (Blonde or light-golden color)
10 gallons distilled alcohol (no additives) stored in 1 quart resealable glass bottles
Step 1 - Measure Mix. Make sure to measure your mix so the ratio of shellac to alcohol in pounds, known as the "cut." One pound of shellac flakes to 1 gallon of alcohol is a 1-pound cut. Two pounds of shellac flakes to 1 gallon of alcohol is a two-pound cut.
Step 2 - Make the Mix. You need to use a glass container with a lid. Stir or swirl for two minutes. Let sit for three hours
Step 3 - Filter the Mix. Not all of the flakes will dissolve. Use a brass or copper strainer or strain through a cotton dish towel.
For the best finish, cure coated object with UV light – you can use UV lights or sunlight.
Daryl said, "Given the abundance of sunshine in London and the likelihood that your windows will not be large, I asked that your building be fitted up with several rows of UV lights in one area of the shop which should also be well vented. Three coats will be plenty."
Hermione asked, "Aside from the color, what's the difference between the blonde, the light-golden and I assume there are darker shades?"
"The functional difference is the wax content. Let's go back to basics for a moment. Your mission isn't to fashion thirty thousand museum-quality wands over your lifetime. Your mission is to quickly get thirty thousand functional wands out the door."
"Harry, if you would, go to the table and get one of the unfinished wands and try your spell."
"Expecto Patronum."
Prongs danced from his wand and looked quite bright.
Daryl handed him another saying, "This one has three coats of shellac. Go ahead."
"Expecto Patronum."
There was about easily a shade of difference.
"Dan, what do we have as a trade-off?"
"The shellac that you're using acts as a finish and waterproofer of sorts. I'm guessing that you also have made wands and used varnish instead. I'm just guessing but I wouldn't think that the tung, linseed or camellia oil would cause a problem, nor the orange essence, or turpentine. I'm guessing that the carnauba wax in the varnish acts as a filter."
"In more general terms?"
Dan added, "Apparently the wax in each of these finishes is a double edged sword, giving you on one side of the scale, appearance, perception of quality and durability. On the other side, the unfinished wand straight out of the shop clearly had better performance."
Daryl asked, "Harry, what's so funny?"
"At the beginning of the tri-wizard tournament, they had what they called a wand weighing – an inspection if you would, I remember one of the contestants handed his wand in to be inspected, saying, "I just waxed it last night. Sounds like he didn't do himself any favors."
Daryl reflected, "Probably not. So in your case, you have plans to use a core that produces very acceptable results. You have a fledgling business with no reputation to stand on. Every coat of finish that you apply gives you a better looking wand that will stand up to wear better; though at the cost of a percent or two of performance. You can't sell naked wands; they wouldn't last and doing so would damage your reputation. You can't sell wands with ten coats of varnish; people wouldn't be able to get them to perform very well."
Hermione said, "So you're suggesting three coats of blonde shellac as the best compromise?"
"Exactly. On a different subject, if you believe that you'll be making a significant percentage of rod style wands, you might want to start with a ½ inch block of wood. You'd have a lot less sanding to do. ¾ inch works fine in a classroom but every minute you can save per wand is to your advantage. I'm certain that your friend can make both and they're visually distinct."
"That's a great idea, thanks."
… - ...
Friday July 21
Hermione and Harry were out having pizza with some students that they'd met on the campus tour. So Daryl and Dan decided to go out and get a burger.
After their food had arrived, Dan asked, "So how did you get here? You were born in Britain."
"My older brother Dhani and I grew up in West Sussex. After Hogwarts, I decided that I was interested in wandcrafting. I talked Ollivander into letting me work at his shop and eventually picked up enough to get a journeyman license. Not to speak ill of the dead; his philosophy was to make every combination under the sun – thinking that sooner or later someone would come along that can use it. Needless to say, I acquired an interest in the concept of generics."
Daryl continued, "In 1977, I was at this carnival with Dhani and his son Devlin. Devlin was about twenty at the time; eight years younger than I was. We got attacked. Dhani got killed. The civil war with Voldemort was heating up. The short of it is, I left to come here and Devlin stayed and fought Death Eaters. He went into crafting broomsticks and made a good go of it.
"I came here and did my masterwork relating to finding a universal core. I concluded that thunderbird feather would work well. It did. I made a 98 percent wand and it worked for almost everyone who tried it. Well, it was good enough for a master's certificate but it turned out to be a commercial failure."
"How come?"
"Have you ever seen or heard of a thunderbird?"
Dan admitted, "No."
"They're about as common as the phoenix that seems to have taken a liking to Harry – that is to say, mystically rare. I've only seen a few in Arizona and Nevada."
"Dang."
"It's OK to dream but sometimes practicality has to weigh in. I'd have needed to somehow make some sort of fish farm, so-to-speak for thunderbirds. My idea ended up equipping my poker buddies with wands – Harry's will likely outfit all of Britain and Europe."
Dan asked, "Why are there so few wandcrafters?"
"Most people don't have the aptitude for it. I don't mean the desire; more the ability to See magic. Harry will become good but in all honesty, Winky is the best that I've ever met. She will be able to See someone walk in the door and be able to pick a wand out of a box of random wands and know that it will be the best match. That took me twenty years to learn; I expect she was born with it.
"Ollivander didn't have the eye. Thus his strategy to make thousands and most of the time get close after a dozen attempts. He didn't have the eye, but he was a heck of a good craftsman. In terms of construction, his wands were flawless.
"To circle back to your question, the other reason is the fees. The start-up costs to get properly kitted out are massive. The ones who try it on a shoestring invariably fail. Hermione and Harry getting properly set up and trained from the start is like winning the lottery."
Dan checked his watch. They'd been visiting for several hours. "It's been a fun evening. I appreciate your insight. I'll see you tomorrow."
… - ...
Saturday July 22
Minerva was happy to receive the visitors. Eight goblins and two house elves had arrived at the front gate as Ragnok had mentioned. She recognized Barchoke from their earlier meeting. He saw her and said, "Greetings, Headmistress McGonagall. We are here to do a partial sheering of the hippogriffs and thesterals as discussed last week to be used as wand core for the wandcrafters. Can you show us where they are?"
"Heavens no. Hagrid will be happy, well more than willing to assist you. I'll send a patr.. Here he is now. Hagrid, please show Barchoke and his associates where the thesterals and hippogriffs are and offer them any assistance required."
"Yer not here to kill em?"
"No, Hagrid, simply to trim some of their tail hair for making replacement wands."
Visibly relieved, he said, "Let's go find the thestrals first."
McGonagall said, "Good day, gentlemen. Thank you, Hagrid."
Hagrid walked down the rocky the grounds to where his hut used to be and said, "Me home used to be there but it burned down the night of the tournament and caught the edge of the forest on fire. Good thing it started to rain."
They walked carefully. Most of the trees were still standing. Some were partially burned, others stood like burned match sticks stuck in the ground. There was no wildlife to be seen. Hagrid said, "A lot of these old trees will drop pine cones that will begin to grow in a year is so. They're logepole pines, see and the heat opens the pine cones and drops the seeds. This area will be meadow for twenty years or so. By then, the trees will be fifteen feet tall and they'll start crowding out the light for the flowers. Nature's like that."
After a half hour they found the thesterals. Hagrid asked, "Yer not gonna cut their tails off are ya?"
"No, we were told to trim half of the hair now and the rest in October."
"Er, that would be a good idea. They could still use em to brush away flies and by spring time they'll be mostly grown back again."
Barchoke called Hagrid over and quietly said, "Harry Potter and Miss Granger send their greetings."
"Yer know 'em?"
"I'm Harry's account manager. We communicate on a regular basis. He asked me to thank you for assisting us."
"'es a great lad, gonna be a great man. She's as smart as they come. I'm glad that they found each other."
Barchoke replied, "I quite agree with you. How did the thestrals come to be here. I wasn't aware that they were native to Britain."
"Well you see, I had this idea one time..."
Meanwhile Dobby and Winky had found the acromantulas, quietly led four of the goblins there to stand guard and they had taken down three of the larger webs, wound them on the reels that Daryl had given them and come back to the thestrals.
Dobby and Winky brought the box to the back of the wand shop. Blackeye the guard unlocked to garage size door and the elves carried the reels inside and set them in to the storeroom. They popped back to the forest just as Hagrid was finishing his story.
The hay bale size burlap sack was full when the crew had finished with the thestrals.
Winky popped it back to the shop and proceeded to sort the strands by length. When she had a bundle of 100 equal sized hairs, she carefully tied them together with a black ribbon. She hadn't had so much work to do in years and counted herself as a very lucky elf. An hour later, Dobby returned with the equally full sack of hippogriff hair and started on his task. They looked at each other and giggled in delight. Harry Potter was the best master ever.
… - ...
The next day Hagrid went out to check on his garden. Where his hut used to be now stood a twenty foot tall brick building with a pitched tile roof. It had a ten-foot high solid oak door and three large windows. Inside was a single bedroom, bathroom and an open area greatroom. The ceiling had hooks and ropes where he could hang his various treasures that he was so fond of collecting.
The kitchen area had a wood stove, a working sink, a cold storage box and a row of oak cupboards. There was a Hagrid-size scrubbed oak table, two chairs and four wizard-size chairs. On the table was a note that said,
For Hagrid,
We hope you enjoy your new home,
Love,
Harry and Hermione
He pulled a tablecloth sized handkerchief out of his summer coat pocket, wiped the tears that had leaked from his eyes, blew his nose and thought, Great man, Potter, Great man.
… - …
Sunday July 23
Three years ago, when Harry first laid eyes on the Burrow, he had wondered to himself how it was even standing and surmised that the mass of additions that had been put on over the years as the house that was fit for a young couple added an extra bedroom, than an extra level and finally two others was, in fact held together far more through sticking charms than nails. As the charms that had normally been renewed each Sunday morning had grown weaker, the house had taken to giving settling noises – the occasional creak or a crack in the plaster.
It had been six weeks since the sticking charms had been re-applied. Prior to this, the longest that they had gone without re-applying the charms had been four weeks when they had won the drawing at the start of Ron's third year.
As they were outside having lunch, the home gave an ominous groan, followed be an almighty Crack!
Uh oh, thought Arthur, mentally doing a headcount and verifying that everyone was present or accounted for.
The house gave another groan, followed by an extra loud creaking sound. Suddenly there were a series of crashes as the tiles slid off of the roof and broke when they hit the ground.
"Stand back," commanded Arthur as the fourth floor fell into the third, which fell into the second, which fell onto the first, due to the force of the material falling. A cloud of dust consisting of bits of plaster blew outward from the force.
Then there was silence.
No one said a word for minutes, as aside from a few shirts and unmentionables fluttering in the air or hanging on the clothes line drying, everything that they had owned had been destroyed.
… - …
Back in Salem, Harry and Hermione were in the shop, making sandpaper while Dan walked into the breakroom visiting with Dobby and Winky.
Dan asked, "You have a fantastic selection of different wood here. If I might ask, how did you find it all?"
Daryl replied, "Honestly, I had a lot of help. How many trees are in your back yard?"
"Two."
"OK, so getting wood from your home probably isn't in the cards."
"Harry owns an eighty acre section in Gloucester. We've never been there."
"The short answer is you're either going to find a tree on public land someplace or find one and attempt to purchase it, be given it by a friend, or steal it. Are you thinking of getting into lumberjacking?"
Dan replied, "Not a chance, So if I hear you right, you're always at least passivity looking for materials?"
"Correct. Due to their vastly superior mobility, I expect that's something that Dobby and Winky will want to do for Harry. Because it would certainly help him."
Without saying a word, both men made eye contact and nodded; knowing that they'd been overheard.
… - ...
Dan, Hermione and Harry had put away all of their wands, including the one that Daryl made for his nephew. After they had cleaned off the workbenches and resharpened all of the tools, Daryl asked the three of them to have a seat in the classroom. He signed their Journeyman wandcrafter licenses and handed them to the teens who carefully put them into their notebooks
Dan went to the refrigerator, grabbed a Sam Adams for himself, a cream soda for Harry, a water for Hermione and an Orange Crush for Daryl. He held up his bottle and said, "Cheers."
Daryl said, "I wanted to mention a few things. Magical Britain is going to be in a real shit-storm when you return. A lot of the magical businesses will have shut down and the so-called wizard homes that ran on constantly re-applied charms won't be functional. Most wizards and witches live in regular homes with running water, plumbing, furnaces, air conditioners and a hundred canals on TV. More witches and wizards live in a home where at least one of the couple works in a nonmagical business. Where I'm going with is this, Gringotts specifically funded the effort to train wandsmiths to re-supply Britain with functional wands. They'll have some sort of prioritized plan for the distribution; probably based on who they like or don't. You are honor and contract bound to follow their terms. You can give away any of the wands that we made here as you see fit. After that, you have to live by the rules."
"As I mentioned, the Nation is highly skilled at envisioning outcomes. Hermione, by the time you had stepped onto the jetliner to come here, they had certainly estimated how many wands that you would be able to make before Britain's supply of core ran out. I'm not saying that they set you up to fail but unless your friend Hagrid has a larger herd than anyone would have estimated, or some private citizen had a clandestine herd in their back yard, it is unlikely that there would have been enough core to make wands for everyone all at once. Sooner or later, you would have been dragged into crafting blood wands.
"The acromantula strand was completely unseen. It's barely even referenced in the wandcrafter books. It is a game changer, as it appears that you have plenty of it. Instead of running low of core material at fifteen thousand and running out at twenty thousand, I expect you'll spend years crafting wands for most of Europe. The people who had caused the Nation so much trouble over the years will eventually receive their wands. When is not your concern."
He paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. "Your contract has two elements – the manufacture of thirty thousand wands is one element. You have full control over the type of wands that you make. My suggestion is to make at least two thirds of them out of acromantula silk - much more if you can and as much as possible, try and conserve your supply of the tail hair. When Britain gets to the point where everyone has one, perhaps half are going to want to purchase a replacement. They'll pay whatever you ask."
"That brings me to my second point. Along the way, you or your friends should be gathering materials. Dragon hearts have to dry an absolute minimum of two years to be able to pull apart in strings – three is best. When you come back, I'll show you both how to do that. That's assuming that you'll even be able to find any. Remember, all of Europe is going to be scrambling to find useable core material. The same applies to wood. You'll want to start collecting different varieties and get them split into wand blanks, so they'll dry faster, though some will warp. In a few years, you'll just cut them into planks and let them age that way."
They nodded.
"Circling back to your contract. You'll be within the terms if you finish making the thirty thousand in eight months and go on to making some premade wands even though you haven't yet sold all thirty thousand.
"Last and not least, everyone and their mother is going to attempt to jump the line. You'll have friends that haven't spoken to you in years telling tales of their brother who is starving and so on. Point out that Gringotts sets the priority and you are bound by your contract. Gringotts is spending a shipload of gold to improve the country. I wish them every success."
They all nodded in agreement.
"So how many are you bringing back?"
Harry replied, "I made a copy of my own wand, the first one we made, six for specific friends and six generics."
Hermione answered, "Two for teachers, my first, a copy of my wand and four generics."
Dan replied, "My first and four generics."
Daryl said, "I made this for my nephew. Could you see your way to get it to him and send him two hundred feet of acromantula strand?" He handed Harry a telephone number. He also handed them export/import paperwork for the extra wands. "Last, but not least, your license should get you both around any underage magic restrictions."
"That's excellent. I'll call him in a week."
"Thank you. When you come back, we'll make multi-core wands, a staff or two and work with non-wood wands. Take care of each other and I can truly say that it was a pleasure to meet each of you as well as Emma and your friends. Keep your phones. Gringotts bought them for you each to have."
They each thanked him and they had a group picture taken, alongside a cardboard cutout of Emma.
"OK. I'll pick you up tomorrow morning at six and get you back to the airport."
"Cheers."
… - …
Monday July 24
The KLM DC10 touched down at 6PM local time, As Daryl had suggested, their wands were carefully packed away in their hard sided luggage that he'd applied mild, notice-me-not charms to. Clearing customs, they had nothing to declare except a handful of t-shirts each.
Outside customs, they met Emma, who suggested that they have a light dinner and make it an early night. There would be plenty of time to catch up in the morning.
… - ...
A/Ns
It was sad writing the end of the burrow.
Daryl is a fun O-C.
