13 July 1999
It's official Hermione is going to kill me after spending a week reading books from Garrick that I am not allowed to share with others (I plan to keep those a secret for my sake) we went to Hogwarts to gather what materials we could. We were looking for a wider range than he usually uses because while he prefers unicorn hair, dragon heartstring, and phoenix feather cores there are many others that "will do in a pinch." I learned more in one morning than I usually did in a term at Hogwarts, and that is not even counting the afternoon where he let me take the lead.
The first thing we did was head to the willows along the Black Lake. After bribing the bowtruckles we found in a particularly large one Garrick showed me how to select a suitable branch, remove it from the tree, break it into equal length pieces, and place to proper stasis charms on them. Yes those are the first few charms after my last real entry. Apparently they are all family secrets and those are the biggest reason why this book needed to be so secure.
While we were there Garrick decided to see if I had PTSD from the Tri-Wizard Tournament. I did learn a rather nifty plucking charm(will follow this entry) that we used to get some kelpie hairs, but I was not prepared for harvesting grindylow teeth. Garrick apparently has something against the creatures as his grin was almost feral as he pulled its teeth.
After the Lake we wandered into the forbidden forest. While it should have been expected I was shocked at how good Garrick was at finding useful components. It felt like every five minutes we were either bribing bowtruckles or he was spotting a unicorn hair that had been caught in the bushes. We even managed to get a few thestral hairs, which unfortunately had to be plucked. Yes he made me pluck them, and yes I was terrified they would attack even with the charm. Thankfully, Buckbeak was in the forest because I don't think any other hippogryph would have let me have some feathers. Garrick wanted some talons, but there was no way we were killing any of Buckbeak's heard.
We ended up having an unplanned lesson on animal harvesting as well. Apparently not all of the acromantula died in the final battle. It should come as no surprise to anyone that with my luck it found us. Thankfully a well place reducto to the head was all it took. It gave me a better idea how to cut open dead things, and I learned the spell to preserve the heart to practice making wands with after my trip. When I asked why he wouldn't use it himself he just gave me a look that clearly told me it was a dumb question… I still don't know why it was a dumb question.
On our way out I asked why we didn't harvest the Whomping Willow. He told me to try and find out what happens. I don't think he was actually expecting me to try because when I hit the knot at the bottom the tree wasn't the only one that froze. A few charms latter and we had more of the Whomping Willow in our bag than any other tree we encountered.
Unfortunately our lunch was cut short. The conversation went from how I knew how to freeze the Whomping Willow, to my end of the year adventures, to me getting dragged out of the Three Broomsticks with my meal only half eaten as Garrick practically ran down to the Chamber of Secrets. Apparently even 5 years after the fact a basilisk is a veritable goldmine. The teeth can be made into daggers, the hide is better than a dragon's, and the venom is worth a killing. That is in addition to the fact that the retina, scales, and heart make great wand cores. I think that is the happiest I have ever seen Garrick. He was positively giddy. (Side note he does not like to be called Giddy Garrick.)
So after a very intensive lesson on animal harvesting we headed to Dorset. Apparently Garrick really wants Hermione to murder me because our trip to Dorset was to meet Newt Scamander. Yes THE Newt Scamander. He didn't seem too happy to see us. Unfortunately he no longer kept the kind of exotic pets he did in his youth, but Tina did convince him to give us several occamy feathers and one from a thunderbird that he had saved. I think he agreed just to be rid of us, but either way the feathers will be helpful and more importantly I got to meet Newt Scamander.
Thankfully Garrick decided that was enough for the day and let me go home. That brings me to now sitting here writing in this stupid diary like a first year girl (too soon?). This should be my last entry for a few days. Now that I know how to gather and preserve components Garrick wants me to start traveling within the next week or so. He says he will give me a list of places to go, but as long as I get to them sometime I can pretty much go wherever else I want along the way. My plan is to talk to Fleur and see if we can visit her family in France and hopefully get some Veela hair and a guide through magical France. If that doesn't work I'll see about visiting Charlie on the reserve. I don't think they will let me to hunt their dragons, but I still need practice handling large creatures.