Ollivander's wands must have been the most out-of-place store Iris had ever seen. Where the rest of the alley had tall, imposing buildings made of granite or brick, the wand-maker's shop was an earthy wooden structure that looked like it was plucked straight from a medieval German village. The rest of the Potters didn't bat an eye though, so she figured that this must have been normal. Iris would admit to being a little disappointed.
"Wait one moment" James said, pausing outside of the door to the wand shop. "I almost forgot to warn you, Ollivander is a dryad, so make sure you're on your best behavior." Danny stood up a little straighter, mildly paling.
"Dryads are some of the oldest and most dangerous magical creatures," he said, turning to Iris, "they mainly spend their time making wands for us humans with their nature magic. They don't see it like that though, they are extremely prideful."
"Yeah," James said, "they really don't like being given any reminders of their place in the world. Their nature magic makes them extremely dangerous, so they feel the wizards they serve are much weaker than them, and don't deserve their service. Don't say any"
Seeing the ashen faces of all the Potter children, James sighed, and ran a hand over his face.
"I'm… I'm not saying we're gonna get chopped up an eaten, guys, I just wanted to educate you so that the worst doesn't happen. Hundreds of thousands of young wizards and witches in Occidentia get their wands from Dryads each year, and nothing bad has happened yet. Things will most likely be fine, just don't do anything foolish, and we'll all be safe."
"Any encounter with a Dryad will go fine if you remember to address it by the proper titles, give it a respectful space so it knows you aren't trying to hurt it, and don't ever question it if it starts acting strange: they can only speak in riddles and half-sentences, so it can take a minute to figure out what they're trying to say. Just follow my lead in how I talk to it, and everything will go fine."
"Also," Miriam said, "they've always been very shifty on what sympathies they had during the last war. They haven't ever said, but most people think they're sympathize with the pagans and dark creatures, because of how much they resent serving wizards. It wouldn't surprise me, that's why most creatures rebel and turn towards dark magic."
"Now I'm not saying that's necessarily true," she said quickly, sending a worried glance towards Ollivander's shop, "and I'm not saying that they practice dark magic or anything, but I still want you to be careful. Creatures don't have the same type of morality we do, they live on the law of the jungle. Just… just be careful."
Confused, and more than a little terrified, Marietta stopped her mother before she could follow James into the shop. "Hey mum… I… I know you said that everything should be fine, but... but why do we take that chance? If they have the potential to be so dangerous, why do we let them make our wands? Surely it would be safer to have other wizards make them?"
"Well," Miriam said, "you have to remember sunflower, that every species of creature has a place in the hierarchy of nature, and even if that creature is dangerous, God has a reason for ordaining them to provide valuable services for witches and wizards. Denying them that place is bad for us, because we lose out on that valuable service, and also cruel to them, because they're denied fulfilling their God-given purpose in life."
"Think of the Goblins. Would you trust a goblin to give you a haircut, or take care of a baby?"
"No!" Marietta said, laughing slightly despite his lingering anxiety.
"Well, you wouldn't trust a goblin to do that, but you'd trust them to take care of your finances, wouldn't you?"
Marietta nodded.
"Well, that's just it! Goblins aren't designed to take care of wizarding children, or give haircuts, so you don't trust them to do those things. But they are designed to manage money, so you should feel perfectly safe handing over your galleons to them."
"It's the same thing with dryads. They aren't designed for conversation or interaction, so it can be dangerous to do that with them, like we were saying. What they are designed for is making wands, so they're the best at it, even better than witches and wizards. Do you understand now?"
"Yeah… I think I do…" Marietta said, all the Potter children looking to have calmed down.
"Excellent!" Miriam said. "Now, dears, let's not keep your father waiting, and head inside!"
Iris looked around. The room she was in was a little smaller than the living room at Privet Drive, with a set of eight or so chairs opposite a small counter. Surprisingly though, despite the shop's purpose, she couldn't see a wand in sight, or even a wand-maker.
"Hello Ms. Iris and Mr. Danny Potter, I've been expecting you."
AAH! Iris whipped around, almost elbowing a snickering Marietta in the face. Where on earth was he hiding!
The man who had snuck up behind her was very old-looking, with unfocused eyes, white skin that was just a little to shiny to be flesh, and, strangely enough, a tangle of roots and leaves instead of hair. Eventually, he stopped staring at them, and spoke in English: "Ah yes… James Potter, and Miriam McClellan… Cedar, with phoenix feather and dijiang fur, and cherry, with shangyang feather and sphynx fur, if I recall correctly…"
"Ah… yes, Great Dryad" Miriam replied, "thou art right in thine assumptions. Although, my name has been Miriam Potter for ten years, I tell thee."
"Yes, yes, of course… Now I suppose all of you are here to craft wands for the young twins here? Iris and Danny Potter, how interesting…."
"G-great dryad, sir… what is interesting, if I may ask that of thee?"
"Oh nothing Mr. Danny Potter, nothing at all…."
"Um… alright then."
"Well!" Ollivander said, his glassy eyes returning to his customers, "it seems as if right now, of course, is the time you two have come to get your wands…. Now, going first, will be… Danny Potter, will it not?"
Ollivander moved around to face Danny, as James discreetly gripped his wand, and Miriam shifted just a little closer to her husband.
Nervous, Danny nodded his head, causing Ollivander to sharply turn towards the door in the back of the room, and motion that Danny follow him. Taking a moment to gather his Gryffindor courage, Danny followed, and stepped through without looking back once.
The whole shop was silent, none of the Potters wanting to speak, until around twenty minutes later, when Iris started as felt a great amount of… something fill the air. Around a minute after that Danny walked out clutching his new wand, beaming.
"How curious…" Ollivander muttered, following him.
"What dost thou find curious, G-Great Dryad?" Danny asked, still quite obviously unnerved at the old wandmakers presence.
"You have a very curious wand indeed… Cedar with Thestral tail-hair and crushed Amit scale… Mr. Danny Potter, I believe… I believe fate has great things in store for you."
"What… what is thine meaning, Great Dryad?", Danny asked, as his father's gaze sharpened behind him.
"This wand… it is a wand of strength, of justice… of self-confidence, of moral righteousness and unyieldingness… how curious indeed."
"I-if… if thou do not mind me saying so… I cannot see as far as you, Great Dryad, how is it curious? That describes me pretty perfectly as the Boy-Who-Lived: strength, justice, and morality…"
"Oh yes, Mr. Danny Potter, and that is precisely why… This is the wand of a champion, of one marked by fate… You will do great things I'm sure…"
"Well yeah, I– I mean yes Great Dryad, I now understand. I am the Boy-Who-Lived, and as thou know, doing great things sounds… sounds… right up my alley." James cringed at the idiom.
"Yes, perhaps…. perhaps indeed…"
Feeling that Ollivander wasn't going to give any useful information, and secretly, that 'perhaps' or 'curious' might be some Dryad code-word to signal an attack, James spoke up.
"Wait! Ah… wait, Great Dryad, did thou say my son hath a wand of Thestral tail-hair?"
"Why yes Mr. James Potter, that was… certainly one of the two cores which called to young Danny. Indeed, that Thestral had only given one other tail-hair to me… How… peculiar… Yes, certainly peculiar…"
Turning away from Ollivander, Danny started bouncing excitedly. "Yeah dad, when I poured my magic into the divining rod, I felt this huge pull right towards it right away! It was like the rod was trying to leave my hands!"
"Danny…" James said, frowning, "a Thestral is a very dark creature, so dark that the Death Eaters used it in the last war. It's the polar opposite of a unicorn, the lightest creature on earth."
Danny blanched.
James turned to Ollivander, worry overcoming his innate dislike. "Oh Great Dryad, dost thou know of any meaning to that core? Does my son have darkness in his future?"
"DAD!" Danny said, horrified, "you know I'd never–"
"I know son, I know, I'm just… I'm just asking questions. There's got to be a reasonable explanation for that being your wand core! Wait… ah, Great Dryad , thou did say a moment before this that there was one other who received a core from this same Thestral? Who was it, if I may ask of thee?"
"Mr. James Potter," he said, somehow having moved to stand right next to Danny, "the tail-hair was given to form… hmm… yes, it was given to form the same wand that caused this… right here…" He pointed to Danny's scar, as the whole room—even Iris—gasped.
"M-marked as his equal…" James whispered, causing the whole room to look at him in confusion.
At first James looked relieved at that explanation, but very quickly, his face paled, a different type of worry entering his eyes. He shot a glance to Ollivander, and seeing that the Dryad was off in his own world, muttering, he explained his thoughts.
"Danny… I think I understand now. You defeated You-Know-Who, you're connected to him through fate. If…Dumbledore is right, and he's still out there"—Iris was the only one who gasped this time—"o-of course you're going to have part of your core be from the same animal as his, it's a sign of your f-fate… To… To defeat him once and for all." Miriam let out a sob at the words.
"Besides," he said, voice straining to take on a more carefree tone, "your other core is from an Heart-Eater, and Amit, and that's one of the lightest creatures around!"
Danny's shoulders, along with those of the rest of the non-Iris Potters, slumped in relief, as they accepted James's explanation at face value.
"Well…" Ollivander said, "it seems… I shall now take back young Ms.… Iris?... Yes, young Ms. Iris Potter…"
James spoke up, bowing to Ollivander. "Thank you Great Dryad, for thine explanations, and thine crafting of my son's wand. Yes, if it is within tine kindness, please craft a wand for my daughter as well…"
Still a little shaken from the rapid emotional her brother had gone through in the shop, Iris followed him without comment.
Hurrying Iris inside and closing the door, Ollivander turned and stared directly at Iris with his vibrantly blue eyes, his gaze suddenly piercing. After about a minute of staring, he turned around abruptly, and motioned for Iris to follow him.
"I wouldn't listen to what your father had just told you", he said, talking while he gathered together a series of various material samples, "we dryads really are quite harmless, have been and probably always will be, especially now. I won't kill you for insulting me, or asking a question, or whatever nonsense he'll have just said. Forget all that 'Great Dryad' nonsense, and the speaking like you come from an 11th century monastery, I haven't seen where that comes from, but it really is quite ridiculous. And yes," he said, not even turning around to see Iris open her mouth "I can indeed 'see the future' in a certain sense."
"H–"
"How? Well Ms. Iris Potter, what you must realize is, the future is not set. It is my duty and curse to see the vast weave and web of fate, and follow along it as the actions of others hurl me to and fro between the strands."
"Nothing is set in stone, I can merely see all probabilities, for all people, and all time, all I have to do is look in the right place. I can see the timelines where you're sorted into Gryffindor, just as easily as I can see the ones where you're sorted into Slytherin."
His eyes grew glassy for a moment "No, it isn't 'peeping', as you'll put it, and there'd be no reason to use such language. You really don't ever change, do you?"
"Oh! Ms. Iris Potter, I apologize, I was lost in the web of time for a moment there. You were saying?"
"W–"
"Why am I being so much more talkative and candid to you than I was with your family? Less 'flighty', as you may have put it, if you'd known the word, but didn't because you decided to go to sleep thirty minutes into your aunt and cousin's watching of 'Chicken Run', instead of forty?"
"Well, Ms. Iris Potter, I've been preparing for this encounter with you for quite a while, it's a rather large node in that weave, as it were. I am not, as your father had liked to be saying, 'acting mysteriously', because unlike the majority of my conversations, this is an important one, and so I've turned away most of my attention from the future to focus on the time I'm speaking, which for you is right now."
"…"
"Why you, and not Danny, or someone else? Well, you must understand that there isn't any force that controls the timelines, there's no 'reason' for things to happen the way they do. Things simply happen, which causes other things to happen, and that's it."
"However, if you're asking as to the effects of this little meeting, I don't tell you anything about that. All I can say is that certain events will end up happening, rather than others, thanks to you having the type of conversation you are, with the type of so-called 'creature' that I am."
"Be glad," he added with an expression that could pass for the smile on the face of a member of any other race, "that this isn't the timeline where Hevfassera is the one crafting your wand, I assure you, you would've been more confused with them than you will have been with me. They're being a bit 'out of it', as they'll say, even by Dryad standards."
He suddenly straightened. "Now, this is around all I'll have said, so I do apologize, but I'll have to go back to acting 'barmy', as it were. While it is interesting to meet certain personalities while they're with me, the infinite future is just so more interestingly vast than anything you could expose me to. Also yes, to answer that question nagging at the back of your head, I indeed am immortal. Well, as close to it as you can get, anyways. Time works very differently for me than it does for you."
Finishing his speech, his eyes slowly lost their focus, as he went back to staring at whatever far-off place he was staring at before.
Ollivander stood and waited for around five minutes while Iris reviewed and dealt with what had happened, and then turned and grabbed a strange-looking wooden device shaped like a Y. Around two seconds later, Iris blinked rapidly, finally done processing the formerly soft-spoken man's verbal barrage.
"This", he said, holding out the device, "is my wand-divining rod. Ms. Iris Potter… please, take hold of it… Pour your magic in. We shall see which wood and core you are drawn to… Oh? Or even wood and cores… perhaps… no… yes?"
Iris reached out and grabbed it from his hand, but paused. "S-sir? I'm not entirely sure how to pour my magic into it."
"Hmmm…" Ollivander said, looking at her again with that unfocused stare. "How strange… Has there really been no point in your childhood… Ms. Iris Potter, would you say that there was ever a time when you did something unexplainable? No, of course not… This certainly is… certainly is…
Suddenly, his eyes snapped back into focus, seemingly looking away from whatever unfathomably distant object held his attention. "Oh my, this certainly is curious, I wasn't expecting this at all. Yes, I've prepared for this conversation, but only very rarely does it happen. Things are quite certainly being curious now! I haven't been this present in a conversation since I told young Mr. Riddle that I wouldn't be this present in a conversation for almost seventy years!"
"It seems as if all your childhood magic was poured into your healing and self-preservation, or otherwise, you'd have already gotten some idea of how it feels to truly channel it. No turning wigs blue, no… oh my accidental apparition? Incredible! Regardless, it isn't, wasn't, and never will be, so it seems that burden now falls to me. You had felt it thought, earlier, didn't you? Yes, you're being very sensitive to it indeed. Exceptionally strange, really."
"Yes Ms. Potter," he said, turning around, cutting off the half-formed question in Iris's head, "I indeed could know everything about you, including all the sordid details of your childhood, but you are only one mage, and my focus is not nearly so wide as to encompass even a whole country's worth of lives, let alone a whole earth's. Even if it was, I could do nothing for you, so I will not apologize."
"Now, let us find your magic together, and teach you how to access your powerful core inside you! This is a rather old technique, I think, and…"—his eyes unfocused for a second—"yes it is indeed the technique that Merlin himself used to come into communion with his magic. You'll like that, I know, you'll always have liked Merlin. Sometimes, most likely after this, you'll have also liked Morgana."
He held out a knife. "Now, I'd like you to let a small pool of your blood fall into this bowl. Don't worry, you most likely don't bleed out. Now, I'd like you to take a bit of myrrh"—his arm extended with a cracking sound, and he grabbed a pile of leaves he'd placed on a shelf a few feet away—"and burn it, and then place it in the blood. Once you do that, all you need to is meditating. A Buddhist monk came to your church when you were five and taught you how, if you can remember."
Iris, slightly more able to cope with the suddenly-cheerful Dryad's wave of information, did as he said, still curious as to the purpose. Wait, she remembered something, didn't James say that blood magi–"
"Oh yes, it is indeed classified as 'dark magic' by the ministry and mages like your father, Ms. Iris Potter, but don't let that worry you. You could find in the coming months that all that 'dark magic' talk is nothing more than the beliefs of a particular philosophical position, and not any sort of natural or magical law. In fact, after this, you're now almost certain to. Also, will you be accepting my offer to leave the honorific on your name? Yes? Excellent then, Iris Potter."
"I won't tell you much, that would up to your charming friend and your mentor, but I'll say that my wand-divining rod was created using a ritual, a 'complex' one, as he'll say. Additionally, all my wands, even those for the Newest of New Mages, are created using blood as a binder, and the ministry doesn't care one whit, because it's useful. Rituals are by far the oldest, most versatile, and most powerful form of magic: there are very few things even the weakest of mages could not design a ritual for, if the sacrifice was appropriate."
"And in the rare case that you do care about the legal ramifications, they also don't apply to me. As a dryad, I'm really the only source that most mages have for their wands, so I could get away with almost anything, and after this most likely will, depending on the Southeast Asian political climate of 2274."
"Wait, you can see that far into–"
"Oh-ho! That one's rare! Yes, I can indeed, but no, I cannot change it. Only mages who lack the blessing and curse of the sight, Iris Potter, think of the future as being subject to change based on the—wait sorry, they don't end up doing that hand gesture to mean sarcasm—'free will' of its occupants. I don't do something different because I haven't done it; I can only do what I've already done. It'll always be that simple."
"Now Iris Potter, you're most likely ready to finish talking and find your magic, so on to the ritual! Take the bit of myrrh you have, and burn it. Excellent! Wait sorry…"
Iris burned the myrrh, using a muggle lighter that was lying on the table right next to her.
"…Excellent! Now, focus on the blood you pooled, focus on the life you can feel flowing inside of it."
Iris closed her eyes, letting the scent of the burning Myrrh. She thought she could feel what the Dryad was talking about, she felt the blood was… tingly, for lack of a better term.
Ollivander's tone began to take on a dulcet, soothing quality, relaxing Iris. "Focus on that life in your veins. Don't focus on your personality, or your physical looks, or even your core beliefs, just try to find that same living energy within yourself."
Iris could definitely feel it now. That pool of blood felt electric, like would be shocked just by touching it. She'd never felt anything full of more energy in her whole life.
"Focus further, downward, past even the force and direction given to your magic by your soul, down to the churning, purposeless magic within you."
Iris thought she could feel it within her, the vague stirrings of a tingle on her skin, making her hairs stand on end: it felt a lot like the pool of blood felt. Was this it? Did she do it?
"Focus on the life you can feel thrumming through your veins, the spirit swirling in your chest. Find that energy and dive into it, surround yourself in your magic, bring it up through your whole being."
Iris tried to imagine swimming in the tingling sensation, trying to go deeper and deeper to find the source. She felt it getting quite a bit stronger, now, she could swear her hair was standing on end. Was this it? Wait, she was starting to feel like it was rushing up to her, like something was–
…
Oh.
Oh.
This felt good.
Iris felt strong, she felt powerful, she felt free. She felt like she understood every single part of herself, and could harness it for whatever she needed to do. Right then, Iris's hatred for James Potter truly crystalized. He tried to keep her from this incredible force, this singing in her blood? She'd show him, she'd become the best mage he'd ever seen, embracing this incredible feeling and letting it propel her up past Privet Drive, past Potter Manor, even past the clouds themselves!
With this vibrant force at the center of her being, she could do anything! She felt like she could run faster than the fastest muggle racer, climb higher than the greatest mountaineer! She could bore through Mt. Everest, change the flow of the amazon with nothing but her will! She could turn oceans into deserts, she could swap around the continents, she could–"
"…–otter, Iris Potter, come back to me. You'll probably have been feeling it now, you can–"
"Holy SHIT!"
"…"
"…yes, that does occasionally happen."
Iris just realized what she said, and who she said it to, and her face and hair turned a bright, fire-engine red.
"I-I mea–"
"Yes, it's always rather intense your first time, isn't it? You have powerful magic. To answer your question, my dear, that is your magical core, reaching out to you for the first time. You'll most likely ask your mentor about that state, and you'll learn that returning to it, under the right conditions, can give you some powerful advantages. Yes, you will, won't you"
"Also," he said, "I know you're thinking that's a rush, but you'll probably be seeing otherwise later, almost certainly. I don't say if it's soon or not, but it almost certainly will happen… Yes, this one's turning out to be quite good!"
"Wh–"
"Like I said Iris Potter, you've had powerful magic. That's all I've said on that, usually, so let's not 'shoot into the brown', as they'd said, and call a wand together for you."
Learning from experience, Iris didn't speak this time, and just thought about what she could have said, if she'd wanted to.
"Being smarmy could serve you well, Iris Potter, but I don't appreciate it currently. Yes though, you'd have been absolutely correct, just call up that feeling again and pour it into my divining rod. Preferably not as intense as the last time though, or else you'd have never gotten anything done. And it's unlikely, but if you end up curious, I call it my divining rod because it's made up of the wood from my body. And no, that would've been incorrect, this isn't it. Dryads keep our true bodies elsewhere. And it's very unlikely, but if you do wish to know my true body's birthday so you could buy me a present, don't bother, I have no need for gifts."
Bemused, and starting to find the old mage's quirks more than a little bit charming, Iris did as he suggested, careful not to dive into her core like she did last time.
Almost immediately, Iris felt the rod tugging at her hands, almost jumping out of them. Her previous excitement at finally getting a wand had returned, and she scampered in the direction she felt the pull from, holding the divining rod out in front of her as far as her arms could stretch.
The first item she came across was a pure white hair, that almost seemed to shine, even in the dim light of the shop. Completely enraptured, she very carefully picked it up, and handed it to Ollivander.
"What… what is this. It's beautiful…"
"Ah yes Iris Potter, that's almost always it. Unicorn tail hair, a material symbolizing healing, personal development, inner strength, and freedom. I believe that it will suit you well."
"Now," he said, holding up a small bowl, "place it here, and go find your next material."
Placing the tail hair down with incredible care, Iris picked up the divining rod again, and felt it give a jerk in a different direction, to a sample placed only a few slots away from the tail hair, a finely-crushed beige powder that seemed to glint with a hidden power.
"Ah, yes, the powdered sphynx claw, a rather curious material. It is the symbol of both the keeping and uncovering of secrets, as well as wisdom, cunning, and hard-earned truth. I suspected that this would be happening, here is truly curious indeed, especially after this!"
Iris once again placed the jar of powder into the bowl, and grabbed the divining rod, eager to find her wood and complete her wand. She was once again pulled to a sample only a few sections away from the Sphynx Claw, one of the only woods on that shelf. Picking it up, she felt a tingle of warmth in her fingers, as she eagerly handed it over to be formed into a wand.
"Ah yes, here we are, you've found the pine. Pine is a curious wood, working well with the unicorn hair. Alone, it symbolizes new beginnings, growth, healing, and protection, and the symbology of the unicorn hair only amplifies those. A most fascinating wand indeed, truly one appropriate for one such as yourself!"
"So, uh… what next? How long will it take to make my wand?"
"Only a few minutes Iris Potter, but first, I'll need some of your blood to bind the wand together, no more than a small cupful. Here you go, just like the meditation."
Guiding her still-weeping palm over the small jar Ollivander had held out, Iris filled the jar almost to the top, until it was suddenly yanked away, as Ollivander pulled out a wand, and waved it over her palm in a lazy swish. Fascinated, Iris watched as her flesh mended together, and her blood dried up, until it looked as if she'd never been damaged.
"Will… will I ever learn to do that, Mr. Ollivander?"
"Hmm… No, I'm afraid I don't say, I'm sorry."
Iris was a little disappointed.
"Now Iris Potter, while this conversation has certainly been interesting, you'll excuse me as I turn my gaze back to the weave of fate, and craft your wand…. Hmm… yes, curious…"
His muttering speech patterns returned, Ollivander hurried back through a door Iris hadn't seen before, one that looked to be made of solid iron. Before Iris cold look inside the room, he closed and locked the door with the loud clang of a deadbolt falling into place.
A minute later, Iris felt that same surge she had felt when Danny was getting his wand crafted, of what she now recognized to be powerful magic. A minute after that, and Ollivander pried open the heavy iron door, holding a gleaming new wand on a cloth, made from the same pine wood she had picked out.
"Here you are… Iris Potter… your wand… Take it now, for you may bind it to yourself… yes, like all the others, you will be the first to hold this wand, it's true wielder…"
Mentally rolling her eyes at what she now knew was Ollivander ignoring her, Iris approached him where he stood, muttering, and slowly reached out for her wand.
She picked it up reverntly, and felt a poweful shock run through her whole body, as the wand seemed so send a jolt straight down into Iris's core. It wasn't nearly as intense as her dive down into her raw magic, but she could still feel the echo of that same thrilling power, making her hair stand on end, ready to be called upon.
Smiling widely at the heady feeling, Iris made her way out of the back room, and to her waiting family, who all seemed bored out of their minds.
"Finished, Iris honey?" Miriam asked, smoothing down her dress as she stood up.
Before Iris could answer, Ollivander spoke up. "Yes, you are finished… now… Iris Potter… A curious wand indeed…"
The whole family, minus Iris, blanched, remembering what happened with Danny's wand.
"O-oh Great Dryad, what strikes thine endless curiosity, if I may enquire of thee?" James said, mentally preparing himself for some great revelation.
"Oh, Mr. James Potter… yes well… Pine with unicorn tail-hair and sphynx claw… a combination for growth, healing, wisdom, and secrets… it is truly the wand of one bound for interesting times… one destined for great deeds…"
Relaxing at the lack of any materials from a 'dark creature' or connections to Voldemort, James, turned to Iris, smile only slightly forced. "Ya' hear that Iris, you're gonna be a great healer some day! Or maybe even a researcher, or an unspeakable, with the whole "uncovering secrets" thing!"
"Yes," Miriam added, "I have sphynx in my wand too, and it's a very good thing! Seems like we're pretty similar people!"
Iris withheld a grimace.
"Yes… truly, there are those great things out there… they could be there for you… Iris Potter…"
Stifling a shiver, James pulled out his coin-purse, and moved towards the register. "How much do I owe thee for these wands, Great Dryad?"
"Ah yes… hmm… oh, Mr. James Potter… you owe thirty galleons… never more, never less…"
Reaching into his purse and paying, James dragged his family out of the shop as quickly as he could.
"Dryads, my god—sorry honey—my gosh! Did anyone else feel scared? If they weren't the only way to get wands, I'd say we shove them all off to some dark corner of the world and forget about them!"
Beside him, Danny nodded eagerly, while Miriam frowned.
"Honey, you know…"
"Yeah, yeah, natural hierarchy and all that. Still doesn't mean they're not creepy as all get out!"
Idly curious, Iris turned to Danny. "So how was Mr. Ollivander with you?"
A slight shiver ran through Danny's body. "It's just like dad said. Facing a dryad is like staring down a real creepy and mysterious lion. It barley said anything, and just kept looking at me with those weird glassy eyes, saying how 'curious' I was. I swear, it looked like it was about to eat me. What about you?"
"Oh yeah," Iris said, hiding a smile, "it was the same. Dad was right, dryads are real creeps." Iris didn't know why, but she really liked the thought of her meriting the confusing Dryad's full attention, when her brother barley merited only a glance away from the webs of fate.
AN: Well, we're finally through with the first trip to Diagon. I had originally planned for the Alley to only be one chapter (and one of the shorter ones at that), but when I started writing, I just couldn't stop. There was so much stuff I could do to set things up for later chapters!
Don't worry guys, Iris will meet her friends soon, it's coming!
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About the "out-of-place" comment. Diagon Alley in my universe is designed with the architecture of a wide Victorian street: you can find the model I'm using on my profile.
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I've always liked the custom, personal feel of many of the wand-creation scenes in Powerful!Harry fanfiction, so I wanted to make that the default wand-making method in my fic.
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I like to imagine my Ollivander as a 13 y/o playing X-Box, giving half-coherent responses when their mom asks them to clean the kitchen.
If you want more information on Dryads, look into the guide to sacrifices on my profile, at the sections for True Dryad-Wood and Dryad Shell-Wood. Dryads aren't beasts, they're just another race of mages, so you won't find them in the Bestiary.
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If you're wondering what happens in Southeast Asia in 2274, it involves Ollivander trying to focus on controlling too many shell-bodies at once, and so getting distracted when designing the ritual to create a new wand-diviner. He ends up accidentally using the entire Singaporean island of Pulau Ubin as a sacrifice, sinking it, and reforming it into a massive volcano that continually spurts out molten centaur-blood instead of magma.
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Remember form Chapter 2, Voldemort didn't actually give Danny his scar in this universe, Dumbledore did. Yes, Ollivander (obviously) knows this, he just didn't see himself correcting them. That was something that would be revealed on its own.
The only thing that matters when making a wand is the symbolism of the parts, not the physical sources of the parts themselves, so there's no mysterious higher reason that Danny and Dumbledore have tail-hairs from the same Thestral. It isn't some sign of fate, it's just that Thestral tail-hair is a rare wand core, and Ollivander only had two in stock. The only "connection" between Danny and Dumbledore is that they're both have incredibly high opinions of themselves.
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Yes, the word "flighty" is indeed used by Mel Gibson's character between the thirty and forty minute-marks of the movie 'Chicken Run'. 35 minutes and 47 seconds in, to be exact.
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The sensations Iris describes here are different from the ones Lily describes in Chapter 2, that's because Iris was reaching for her own magic, while Lily was connecting to the Wild Magic of the earth through her pagan ritual.
