Chapter 3
Hardly any one showed up funeral for Christopher and Shannon Potter. Andrew expected since Christopher was from an old pure-blood family that many of the light side relatives on the Potter side of his family would attend but the only one was James. Professor Dumbledore attended as well. But other then that, it was limited to some distant muggle cousins and a couple of muggle friends. Vernon and Petunia didn't attend at all. The only thing Andrew found worth while about attending was that he learned from Professor Dumbledore why Christopher "ran away". It was because of an argument over an outcome of a Quidditch match that escalated into a fight over all the other ridiculous things they had disagreements on and ended up yelling a lot of hurtful things to each other.
Andrew found getting used to his new life a little hard. He had want he always wanted: a family that treated him like a person. But the trade of was that his two closest friends, Ron and Hermione weren't even born yet. Since James and Lily lived in Godric's Hallow and the real Andrew used to live in Appleby, Andrew couldn't see the real Andrew's friends without risking braking the statute of secrecy. Just about everyone his age were students at Hogwarts and wouldn't be home except for during the holidays.
"You should go to Hogwarts Andrew. If you want to marry a witch close your age, you need to be enrolled. All the good looking ones get taken by the middle of their 7th year. Though theres nothing wrong with muggle girls though the paper work just to start a romantic relationship with one is a pain as Padfoot found out the hard way..." James told Andrew in a pointless attempt to convince him to go. Andrew more or less had already made up his mind, he would go. After being banned from Quidditch for most of his 5th year at Hogwarts, it would be good to play again even if it means having to wake up 6 in the morning and practice in pouring rain. Since Andrew wasn't 17 yet, James and Lily would have to sign the enrollment papers and the Hogsmeade permission slip but they wouldn't be able to do that until Andrew got the scores from the real Andrew's OWLs.
One of the advantages of being home schooled was that you take your OWLs before everyone else so Andrew didn't need to worry about having to take them again since the real Andrew had already taken them. Andrew felt that knowing everything the real Andrew knew was sort of cheating when it came to some subjects because Andrew really never took those classes or know he did horrible on the OWL for them. While he waited for the for those scores to arrive, he decided to try to get to know the parents he had in his old life and their friends.
It was now the end of June. James and Sirius had decided to try and teach Andrew some of their prank spells or at least Andrew hoped.
"Now Andrew, make a circular motion with your wand and say lapinius verto. Make the in nice and long or it won't work properly," James explained.
"What does it do?" Andrew asked cautiously. He knew James and Sirius were pranksters and hoped that this was a real spell and not something like the one Ron was told that would make what he thought was a rat yellow.
"Just try it and you'll find out," Sirius replied sounding a little anxious which made Andrew nervous.
"OK... Lapinius verto!" Andrew commanded as he did the circular motion he was told to do. However, the wand he was using, which belonged to the real Andrew went flying out of his hand in a way that reminded him of what his friend Ron's wand did once during charms after it broke. Andrew panicked when he realized it was going to hit the front window.
The window shattered as soon as the wand made contact and landed somewhere outside. Andrew was glad they were living in the wizard half of Godric's Hallow otherwise, he would be in trouble with the ministry who had to come up with some kind of cover story for a wand that flew out of a window.
"That wasn't supposed to happen..." James said concerned after what seamed to be an eternity.
"What was that... Which one of you boys broke the window?" Lily accused as she walked into the room and saw the broken window.
"Andrew did but it was an accident. We were trying to teach him that spell that conjured a few dozen green rabbits and instead his wand went flying out the window..." Sirius replied.
"Do you smell something burning?" James asked.
"It smells like a wand burning... I know that smell... My idiot brother when he was 7 once got his hands on some friend of the family's wand. He put a little too much power when casting a spell like that and it made a smell like that... The wand was ruined and our parents weren't happy. It was the only time I remember Regulus getting punished..." Sirius said thinking.
"Do you suppose..." Andrew started to asked before being interrupted.
"That its your wand we're smelling?" Sirius finished for him. "Lets go find out..."
After the four of them searched the yard for a minute, Lily found the wand. The tip of the wand was blackened. Andrew tried to do that spell Ollivander once did that conjured a bunch of birds with it to see if it still worked and all that came out was smoke.
"Looks like it needs to be replaced..." Sirius said.
"Well, I needed to go to Hogsmeade tomorrow. We're running low on floo powder and there's a sale this week at Lorry's. 50% of everything when you buy floo powder. Dumbledore's friend Caradoc Dearborn has a wand shop around the corner," Lily replied.
"Why not go to Ollivander's?" James asked.
"Remember, last week when you bought wand polish he said he was going to be a way due to a family emergency. He doesn't expect to be back until mid September," Sirius answered.
"Oh yeah... It seems odd for him to leave his shop for so long with nobody to run it. I don't remember him ever doing that and my parents were good friends with him," James replied.
Andrew found that odd as well. He remembered hearing from the adults in the future that people would sometimes disappear. He wondered if his presence in the past had caused something to happen to the creepy, elderly wand maker.
The next day him, James, and Lily went to Hogsmeade. After Lily bought some floo powder and what Andrew thought was the most ugliest vase he had ever seen. From judging from the expression of James' face, he found it ugly as well. It looked like some lost their lunch as coated the vase with it. In addition it had looked like four upside down human feet attached to its rim. At its base it had three chicken feet. When they left the store James spoke up.
"Why would you pay 100 galleons for that thing? I wouldn't pay a knut for that thing!" James complained.
"After what Petunia said when we last saw her, I thought I'd buy it and put a confundus charm on it to convince her and her husband that it would look like something that would be appropriate to put in their dinning room. I just wish I would be there to see the faces of any guests they have... I would have bought a couple weeks ago when I saw it but thought 200 galleons was too much money to spend on revenge." Lily said smirking.
"Sirius and I are a bad influence on you." James said chuckling as they walked into the wand shop.
The wand shop run by this friend of Professor Dumbledore seamed a little more creepy then Ollivander's. It seemed dark with cobwebs and bones almost every where you looked. An tall man with salt and pepper hair and a mustache walked up to the front counter.
"James and Lily Potter, a pleasure to see you outside of Order headquarters. I apologies for the decor. I lost a bet with my brother and have to put up with this for a year... You must be Andrew. Sorry to hear about your parents... Caradoc Dearborn if don't know." Caradoc introduced himself.
"Andrew had an accident with his wand. It flew out of his hand when he went to go do a spell and will only produce smoke when he tried to go use it..." James explained to Caradoc and Andrew and Caradoc shook hands over the counter.
"It only broke a window. I was scared it would cause the house blow up or something." Andrew continued.
"That's interesting. Just out of curiosity, where did you buy your wand?" Caradoc asked.
"Ollivander's."
"He knows what he's doing when he makes wands so that rules out defective components... How long have you had your wand?"
"Since I was 11." Andrew replied thinking about when the real Andrew bought that wand from Ollivander's.
"I never heard of a wand burning out on its owner like that... Did you have any problems with it before?"
"Not that I can remember. It was the first time I used it since my parents died. It wasn't damaged when I was hit with a spell and fell to the ground."
Caradoc seemed puzzled.
"Let me check your magic out. That spell may have done something to your magic... Please step away from the counter and stand on that black spot on the floor so I can get a full view." Caradoc said after a moment.
Andrew complied and Caradoc pointed his was toward Andrew. Andrew recalled that the real Andrew was rated around 8.1 on the AMP scale, about a powerful as Dumbledore who was asked by the real Andrew's parents to perform the spell. Caradoc muttered some spell and suddenly a big multi colored sphere surrounded him. It almost went out room and the bottom part of it went through the floor. Caradoc's eyes got big with amazement.
"Your sphere... Its easily twice as big as Albus Dumbledore's. I would rate you as being around 9 on the AMP scale. I don't think there has been a person rated 9 in history... I believe I have to make you a wand since I definitely don't have any wands that would work properly for you. Like Ollivander, I have a supply of wands for people with a rating around 8 even though they are rare but I never anticipated a person with your rating being a customer..." Caradoc said shocked when the sphere disappeared after about about 20 seconds.
Andrew wondered why he would have a rating of around 9. If what the real Andrew learned was correct, the AMP scale was set up so that the next "level" was twice that of the previous level with muggles having a rating of 1, and the lowest power level a witch or wizard could have being 2. Most witches and wizards rated between 3 and 5. Most of those who didn't have a rating between 3 and 5 had a rating between 2 and 3. People who had ratings above 7 were rare but obviously not unheard of. Andrew was puzzled. He wondered if this had something to do with him merging with the real Andrew's body.
"Actually, come to think about it, the first owner of the Deathstick or Elder Wand as it is sometimes may have been a 9 it was located by Gregorovitch in Bulgaria earlier this century. It was confirmed that the wand was designed to handle that much magic running through it. A wand's first true owner, that is, the person who it chooses, has a power level identical to that of the wand. It may gain the allegiance of people who are more powerful or less powerful through fights its owner looses and will always work like it did for its original owner." Caradoc explained.
"I see..." James replied.
"Well, Andrew, why don't you head to my work area and see what comments choose you and I'll make a wand out of them." Caradoc said to Andrew. As they headed to the back of the store, Andrew thought about what the story Christopher Potter told the real Andrew about the Elder Wand and the other two items which were collectively called The Deathly Hallows. It wasn't the story that was in Tales of Beetle the Bard. It was the story that was written in their distant ancestor Ignotus Peverell's note book. It told of how they were made and how two of them were stolen leaving only the cloak in the family which was passed down to who ever was the heir of the family. Andrew suddenly realized that Dumbledore gave him in the original timeline was that cloak. That cloak was over 1,000 years old. He wondered why Dumbledore didn't tell him that but then he recalled that it was an unofficial rule nobody in the family told non-family members that the invisibility cloak was one of the Deathly Hallows. They were afraid someone might steal it, not because it was an invisibility cloak, but because of its cultural significance and try to sell on the black market for a fortune.
Once Andrew fallowed Caradoc to the back of the story into an area where there was a work bent, various tools, jars of filled with different kinds of liquids, a bucket with some pieces of wood, and a second bucket with assorted things.
"Now, Andrew, move your hand over the bucket, but don't touch any of the wood and focus on any warm spots you feel," Caradoc instructed.
Andrew moved his hand over the bucker of wood. He felt two warm areas and focused on them. Suddenly two narrow pieces of wood from obviously different species of trees shot out of the bucket and hit his hand behaved like balloons that had hit the ceiling.
Caradoc looked surprised.
"I never heard of more then one piece of wood choosing a person like that... This is going to be a rather interesting wand... Now do that with the other bucket," Caradoc said as he removed the wood and set it on the bench.
Andrew did the same with the other bucket. This time, three things shot out. One was red and gold feather, another a fang from some creature, and the last one was a long black hair. Caradoc started looking concerned.
"An interesting is not quite right. Bizarre is more like it..." Caradoc said, clearly concerned as he put the feather, fang and hair on the bench.
"Now for the crystallizing agent. Touch each jar below where it is filled too. Tell me which one, or ones, that feel warm," Caradoc continued to say. Andrew noticed that when Caradoc said "or ones", that he sounded a little worried.
However only one jar felt warm to Andrew. It was jar filled with a translucent silvery liquid. Caradoc looked absolutely horrified.
"That will be all... You can go back to front of the store... I'll have your wand ready shortly..." Caradoc said nervously before muttering about how such a thing is possible.
Andrew head back to back to the front of the store where James and Lily were waiting. He could hear Caradoc doing something to the wood as he walked.
"How'd go?" Lily asked.
"Weird. Mr. Dearborn seamed rather scared when a jar of some silver crystallizing agent chose me..." Andrew replied.
"I don't see why he would be scared of something like that choosing you unless he believes in some nonsense stuff..." James said shaking his head a couple times at the end.
Five minutes later, Caradoc came back to the front of the store. The wand looked strange being made out of three different types of wood. He had a concerned look on his face.
"Give it a wave." Caradoc said as he handed the wand to Andrew.
"That has to be the strangest looking wand I've seen..." James said as he looked at the wand.
Andrew gave it a wave and red and yellow sparks filled the the room. The wand felt a lot warmer then the holly and phoenix tail feather wand he used to have. When the sparks subsided, Andrew saw Caradoc shake his head.
"This has to be the most unique wand in the world. Not only can it compete with the Deathstick, but it is made out of the most unusual combination of components I've ever heard of. If it wasn't so powerful, I would write a paper about it for the annual wand maker's convention... I don't want to make the same mistake that Gregorovitch made. Grindelwald broke into his house and made what Gregorovitch said was big mess while trying to find the wand," Caradoc explained looking concerned.
"What's is so unusual about its components?" Lily asked.
"It looks like it is made out two types of wood..." James partially answered.
"That is correct. Its made out of holly and yew. Its core is just as unusual. Phoenix tail feather, thestral tale hair, and that basilisk fang Dung forced on me during the last Order meeting. The most disturbing thing was the agent to crystallize the core: phoenix tears mixed with unicorn blood... If you know wand lore, you'll see what I mean." Caradoc explained.
"Ollivander said all that stuff about what makes up a wand is a reflection of its original owner is nothing more then just stories that don't have little or no basis in fact. He only pretends to believe that stuff because it creeps out his customers and he finds their reactions amusing." James responded, rolling his eyes.
Caradoc looked rather offended by James' comment but didn't say anything. After paying 20 galleons, James, Lily, and Andrew left the store and headed back to Godric's Hallow.
Chapter End Notes:
Sorry for taking so long with this chapter. Things have been hectic in my life... I still need some people to check over my work for me as I can't be trusted with catching all my mistakes. I suffer from see-what-you-wanted-to-say-rather-then-what-you-actually-said syndrome.
Also, this is something a friend of mind brought up. She pointed out to me that Harry is sinking into Andrew's mind and thinks he is and isn't Andrew. Well, why he thinks he is and isn't Andrew is mostly because I believe having two sets of memories would be quite confusing and could cause an "identity crisis" of sorts. I will talk about this in the story later on in a future chapter.
Anyways, that's all for now.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
