7. The Hangover and the Wandmaker.

Adam surfaced; bright light battered at his closed eyelids, an annoying thumping seemed to clash with the pain inside his head. He sat up in bed, sickness rolling around his stomach. His eyes hurt, and he hadn't even opened them yet. Again, the banging seemed to amplify the pain in his head. He moved to the edge of the bed, his head and stomach rolling in protest. He took several deep breaths, trying to fight back nausea and the inevitable headlong rush to the toilet.

Finally, he opened his eyes, pain seemed to drill into his brain. He realised he was still dressed, his jacket lying on the floor where he must have thrown it. Then he noticed he was in his flat. Memories creeping back in from the night before, great beer, strange people, great beer, someone smoking, great beer, and wands. Another round of banging threatened to send him over the sickness thresh hold until he realised someone was banging on the front door.

He walked across the room, using the wall for support, until he got to the door. Opening it, he found Tony shaven, no bags under his eyes, two large beverage cups in his hands, steam rising from them. Tony pushed past him without saying a word, entering the kitchen. He dropped the two cups on the work surface before filling a separate glass with water. He then took a small bottle from his pocket and held it out to Adam.

"Drink, now." Was all he said.

Adam took the bottle, struggling with the little cork stopper, his hands trembling as he held it to his lips. He closed his eyes and tipped the contents into his mouth. Adam made an involuntary shudder and groaned in surprise, as it felt like someone had poured a cup of cold water over his head. He was sure he could feel it run down his neck and chest. He opened his eyes, the headache, nausea, the weakness in his legs, all gone. He took a deep breath and realised he felt great. He looked at Tony in surprise.

"I don't do hangovers." He said, smiling at Adam, holding the cup of water and coffee out towards him. "Water first." He instructed.

"I haven't felt this well for years," Adam said, smiling. "What the hell is this?" He asked, looking at the small bottle.

"It's a potion I make. It won't last. In a couple of hours, you will feel a little deflated, tired." He held out his hand, took the bottle, and slipped it into his pocket.

"Please tell me. Did I dream about magic and a hospital?" He asked, knowing the answer, but hoping for something different.

"Not for one moment. You have far too much of a liking for the Leaky Cauldrons special brew. I've seen seasoned wizards fall over drinking less."

"One of the best brews I've ever tasted, and I've tasted a few in my day."

"The Cauldron's brew is excellent, but it's not the best."

Adam's eyebrows rose at this news. "What are our plans for today?" He asked, ready to get going, full of boundless energy. "I need to check on Gwen."

"Already done so. She had a comfortable night's sleep and is none the worse for what happened to her. The matron demanded she stay for at least two days, to make sure there are no relapses or other problems."

"Why would she demand that?" He asked as Tony reached down and picked up the two pieces of metal that made up his vaping tube, slipping them into his pocket.

"I don't know, and I'm even less inclined to ask why." He said as they walked into the living room. "I checked your flat over last night, but I may have been a little worse for wear. Can you see anything out of the ordinary?" Tony asked.

"No, but considering what I know now. I don't see how we could find anyone who could use your method of transport." Tony had pulled his wand out and was waving it around the room, stopping at certain points.

"This is where they apparated into the flat." He said, pointing at the open area in front of the couch. "I'd say they searched the flat. What I don't know is whether they were here before or after your wife arrived. She could have surprised them."

"No. One thing Gwen isn't is quiet. I would guess most of the building heard her arrive." Tony tried to picture the woman he found yesterday on the floor being loud. He couldn't. "The problem is that the way your lot travel, no one would have seen them arrive or leave, even though there are CCTV cameras all over the building."

They both went quiet until Tony looked up. "While you were talking to Botilda yesterday, I contacted the Ministry about the dead people your police found. Hopefully, somebody at the Ministry can give us some background on their movements recently."

"How would you track movements like that?"

"Apparition isn't the only way we travel. There's the Floo network, which is monitored. The Knight Bus is also monitored. Port-key again monitored. So if they used them, we might be lucky." He thought for a moment as Adam's mouth hung open, not understanding a word. "They could be using brooms."

"Piss off," Adam said, looking at him with a bemused look on his face.

"Honestly, we can travel quickly by broom, but it's the most uncomfortable form of transport. Kids love it. There's an entire sport based on broom flying."

"Seriously, you fly a broom. I do not believe you."

"It's taught in the first year at Hogwarts."

"Rubbish?" Tony nodded again as he saw the incredulous look on his face. "You allow eleven-year-olds to carry dangerous wands around and allow them to fly on fucking brooms. How stupid do you think I am?"

Tony laughed. "I swear it's true. The first time was the most exciting thing I had ever done. I remember my first attempt, flew straight into a wall at speed. I ended up in the infirmary with bruises in places I didn't know you could get bruises and an enormous lump on my head. Luckily, no broken bones." He paused for a moment. "If I remember rightly, three students broke bones that week." Adam noticed that there were none of the guarded responses from Tony as if he was more than happy to talk all day about his world.

"I do not believe a word of this. What did their parents say when they found out then?"

"I don't think they ever did. They wouldn't have bothered, anyway. The infirmary at Hogwarts can repair bones in minutes; they've had centuries of practice." Tony laughed again. "Health and safety would have a field day at Hogwarts." He paused, remembering his days at school. "In our potions classes, we made lethal poisons that could kill hundreds of people in the most horrible ways imaginable. We made liquids that could remove the skin from a body in seconds, drafts that could ensnare and destroy the mind, love potions, all before lunch."

"Sounds like utter fucking madness," Adam said, leaning back on the couch, a smile still plastered across his face.

"The worst parts were the holidays." A note of sadness had entered his voice. "I had to come home to my parents and keep all I had learnt a secret, pretend I went to a special school for the gifted. I lost all my friends. My holidays were very lonely." Tony paused for a moment.

"I assume your sister isn't like you?"

"It's the reason we haven't talked in over fifteen years, apart from hello and goodbye. In her position, I would have done the same thing. I was a bit of a twat." Adam didn't know what to say to this admission.

"I remember coming home for my first Christmas. I was shocked to see the whole wide world had become boring and mundane, and somehow very small." He paused for a moment, memories flitting over his mind. "I explained this to my sister in great detail." He paused again and looked around at Adam. "I think the reason your wife was hexed is that someone is trying to get to me through you."

"Could they be getting to me because I work for the police?" He allowed him to change the subject, as the memories, he could tell, were not very nice.

"Could very well be. Either way, they know we're investigating on both sides, so we are both in danger."

"Can you kill with a wand?" Adam asked.

"Yes." He said after a moment, holding his hand up to stop Adam from asking more questions. "However, while at school, all students are taught to use defensive spells only. I've been trained, since leaving school, to do a lot more than your average witch or wizard." He paused and looked at Adam. "All the murders we're investigating were killed by wands."

"So the locked rooms are nothing special. Someone apparates, is that the word?" Tony nodded. "Into a room, kills the victim and scarpers the same way?"

"Pretty much."

"So, the murderer is like you, an Auror."

"Why would you think that?" Tony asked, looking at Adam in shock.

"You said witches and wizards are trained in defensive use only, Aurors are trained to kill."

Tony, was stunned at Adams thinking, as he realised he was not explaining himself very well. "I can teach another wizard to use a wand, teach him the things I know if I wanted. A gifted individual can make his own spells and potions. So it could be anyone."

"For a moment there, I thought I had just narrowed the list of suspects down."

"I wish it was that simple," Tony said.

"So we're looking for someone good with a wand and clever." Tony nodded. "Well, we should take another look at the evidence we have with a new set of eyes. Things have changed since yesterday."

"We need to visit the wand-maker in Diagon Alley first. I had a message this morning, asking me to see him."

"The wand-maker, isn't that the giant we saw in the bar last night?"

"Yes, but he's not a giant. They're much bigger, he's just a big Viking." Adam's mouth had opened at Tony's comment about giants. He closed it again, deciding he didn't need to know.

"What will he tell us?"

"Someone tried to get a wand to us yesterday and decided that neither of us was capable, so they sent it to Pinne instead."

"And this means?" He asked as Tony stood up, gesturing for Adam to do likewise.

"Wait and see, take my arm." Reluctantly, Adam placed his hand on Tony's forearm. A moment later, he felt himself being pulled into the suffocating darkness again.

He stood in the strange alley again; the shops closed and silent. Tony banged on the wand maker's door, while Adam grabbed a lamppost to stop himself from falling down. He looked around at the shadows, amazed at how sinister the Alley seemed this early in the morning.

A window opened above them.

"Hell's teeth Garratt, have you seen the time?" Bellowed a voice from above, followed by a brief pause. "What do you want?" Tony breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the humour in Pinne's voice.

"Sorry, you have something for us."

The window closed with a thump that rattled the glass on most of the windows nearby.

The door opened a few minutes later, Adam stepped back a pace as Pinne looked down on them both. He moved aside, leaving just enough room for them both to enter the shop. Adam remembered him from last night, sitting at the bar in the Cauldron; somehow, he looked even bigger now they were in this small shop.

"Saw you last night, you're a Muggle." He said bluntly as they entered the shop.

"Is it that obvious?" Adam replied, holding his hand out. "DCI Adam Croft." He felt his hand engulfed for a moment. His eyes kept travelling around the strange shop, at the floor-to-ceiling shelves full of hundreds of narrow boxes.

"Pinne Byquest. I meet dozens of Muggles at the beginning of each term, when they come to buy their child's wand, or when they are older, replacing a broken wand." He looked at Tony, who looked at Adam.

"I broke three wands during my school years." He explained.

"Four wands. I didn't make that thing you are carrying. Isn't it time you replaced it with something better?"

"Your brother made me that."

"I know." He replied, taking a small box from below the shop counter. He pulled a carved wand from the box. "One of mine again, only this one is different."

"How do you know it's one of yours?" Adam asked, looking at the engraved smoothed wood.

"I know every wand I have made. Spruce, phoenix feather, ten and a half inches, flexible. The wand's owner is still alive. His name is Ramsey Arn." He looked at them. "Have you ever been to Lykkeligdal?"

"Yes, I used to go there on the weekends while I was at Durmstrang." He looked around at Adam. "It's a village on the Swedish and Norwegian border?"

"I was born there." Said Pinne proudly.

"What made you come here?" Adam asked, trying to keep himself in the conversation, realising where Pinne's accent came from.

"My father and brother are both wand-makers. A village the size of Lykkeligdal doesn't need three wand-makers. It doesn't need one, but with a school nearby." He shrugged. "I was told about 35 years ago, Olivander, the wand maker who used to own this shop, had stopped making wands. Apparently, someone kidnapped and tortured him, and he never made another wand. The students attending the school, for several years, had to go quite some distance to get a wand. This is easy for witches and wizards, but Muggle parents were having serious problems. We all know the wand chooses the wizard, so buying one unseen will cause problems for the user."

"You make it sound like the wand is alive?"

Pinne smiled down at Adam. "I received a letter from a Hogwarts Professor, suggesting I come here, as a ready source of wands was required. I was here two weeks later, with every wand I had made, just before the beginning of the school year. I signed a long lease with Hogwart's help. The Shop was a wreck, but it was full for several weeks."

"So your father and brother are still in this village?"

"My parents, yes, my brother now works at the school near the village. He makes wands to order for the students like Tony and members of staff." He had leaned over towards them while talking. He straightened up, his head brushing the ceiling.

"Now. to business. This wand is different, it was made by me, but I made this wand and sold it to Ramsey Arn while I was in Lykkeligdal."

"Where was the wand found?" Tony asked.

"Lying on the Charring Cross Road near the Leaky Cauldron."

"Muggle side?" Pinne nodded.

"Who sent the wand?" Adam asked.

"I don't know." He pulled his huge wand from the front pocket of his overalls.

"Is it normal for someone to send a wand like this?" Adam continued. "Is it something to do with the case?"

"It must be." There was a doubt in Tony's voice.

Pinne pointed his wand at Ramsey Arn's wand. Pictures appeared from the end of it, one after the other.

"What are you doing?" Adam asked, wondering what they were staring at so intently, as he could see nothing.

"Those were the spells this wand has been used to produce. The spells he uses most are Protego Totalum, Lumos, Incendio, Tergeo, Dissolusient charms and Invisibility spells. The last spell he cast was Pack."

"And what the hell did all that mean?" Adam asked, feeling very much out of his depth. "What can you see I can't?"

"It's magical, so you're unable to see it. Sorry." Pinne said almost apologetically. "Standard spells for someone living in an inhospitable environment and working as a Drake Hanterare." Pinne handed the wand to Tony.

"So, nothing out of the ordinary then, except for the last one, Pack."

"Explain, please?" Adam asked, annoyance in his voice.

"Pack a bag. It would suggest he didn't leave in a particular hurry. He had time to pack."

They went quiet for a moment, thinking.

"Didn't you say a wizard was found dead somewhere in Norway?" Adam asked, looking at Tony.

"Yes, he was found in Torkel, one of Lykkeligdal's inns, locked in the room he was renting."

"I didn't know this. You can use the Floo to get to Torkel from here." Pinne gestured towards the large man-sized fireplace that dominated one wall of the shop. He reached under the counter, pulled out a large stone pot, and thumped it onto the table. Adam peered in and saw it was full of grey dust. "Unless you want to apparate? That's if you can apparate that far."

Adam was looking back and forth between them both as if they were talking in a foreign language again.

"I'll use the Floo first. I'll come back for you in a few minutes." He said to Adam, smiling before he turned to Pinne. "What's the weather like at the moment?"

"It's summer, so no snow; you'll find the locals in tee shirts. Does rain a lot at this time of the year, so you might need a coat."

"Northern Sweden or Norway, I'd expect snow," Adam said.

"No, it's pleasant at this time of year. The Drakes are resting; the days are pleasant as long as it's not raining."

"What have ducks got to do with the weather?" Asked Adam still confused, frustration showing in his voice.

"Drake does not mean duck, and before you ask, you don't want to know." Adam closed his mouth.

"The bar's owner is called Tor. Tell him where you have come from and he'll get some wet weather clothing ready if you need them. Don't expect to get a room for the night; he has quite a few customers at this time of year."

Tony grabbed a handful of the grey powder from the pot and walked into the fireplace.

"Tor and I are old friends. Torkel." Tony announced before throwing the powder at his feet. Green fire engulfed him. Adam moved forward in alarm as the flames fizzled out and Tony had gone. He looked at Pinne, who was smiling down at him.

"Scary isn't it." Adam nodded back, dumbfounded by what he had seen, and hoped he wasn't expected to do the same thing.

"As you are going into some dangerous places with Mr Garrett, I think you need a little protection." He held out a small necklace he had taken from below the counter, made from many small colourful pieces of wood, locked together with delicate metal links. "This is of my design. It's made from the same woods as my wands. The pieces were soaked in the various potions and tinctures I used for my wands. Also, I have added some protection charms. It's not much but will act as a shield to protect you from some nastier spells you might come up against. Wear it out of sight, under your shirt. It's not much, but it may help to save your life."

Adam took the item and inspected it. "You made this?" He asked, marvelling at the intricate detail as Pinne nodded. He pulled it over his head and slipped it under his shirt. It felt warm against his skin. "Thank you." If someone had told him to wear a necklace for protection a couple of days ago, he realised, he would have walked away in disgust, thinking the person was a lunatic. "What would my chances be against a wizard or witch?"

"Truthful?" He asked and Adam nodded. "None, even with your guns."

"That's what I was thinking."

He was about to talk again as Tony snapped into existence in front of them.

"Are you ready, Adam?"

"No. I'm not going into that fireplace." He stepped back from Tony's outstretched hand.

"Don't worry, I'll get us there without the fire. Trust me." He reached out and took Adam's arm before nodding at Pinne.