Chapter 15
Mag had to admit she was shocked to discover that her parents and Severus were once childhood school chums. Of course she'd known there was some sort of history between them but to learn it was such a close one was more than she'd expected. Once the fact of the former close friendship at last sank in, however, she saw it as an opportunity. Perhaps if she could help her parents and Severus sort out their issues and renew their friendship, she could have a more constant connection to him. When it came to how to go about it, though, she knew she needed more information. Over the next few weeks, she asked her parents various questions about their friendship with Severus and what he was like growing up. "What do you think Severus enjoyed the most," she asked Raislen one afternoon when she'd roped him into a discussion about his school days. The two sat together in the library while Mag's mum was out shopping for summer clothes.
"Books, definitely," Raislen said with a chuckle. "I used to joke that Severus had many lovers and all of them had pages! When he came to visit me, he fell asleep in this very library so often that your Grandfather WestCraven eventually just put a cot in here for him to use!" Severus had slept right here in her own library? This was a beloved room to Mag as well, and it had just become even more special.
"So he and I share a deep love for books," Mag said with a pleased smile.
"Indeed," Raislen agreed. "He, your mum and I all bonded on our love for books and knowledge, especially of the obscure and arcane variety."
Mag had a sudden idea that filled her with a surge of excitement. "What books have we acquired in the past eighteen or so years that you think he'd like the most," she asked. Of course anything before that, he'd have already seen if he visited the WestCraven home frequently.
"Oh any of those on Egyptian curses for sure," Raislen answered without even having to think. Mag was excessively pleased by her father's ready response. It gave her something to share with Severus, not to mention the fact that ancient Egypt was such a fascination to her that she had a private altar set up in her room to Set and Thoth. Before term started up again, she'd gather all the books on Egyptian curses and bring them to Severus to borrow. He'd obviously love that and it'd give them something to talk about with more depth than school work! Mag spent most of the summer working on a concept she was developing for making wands out of gemstones rather than wood. As quartz crystal amplified power, she believed a wand made of quartz crystal that she enhanced would be double the strength of a wooden wand. With other gemstones added, each wand would have different additional properties such as citrine for focus and success or jet for protection.
Either of those could be excellent for dueling and the citrine should improve most spells in general by enhancing the caster's focus. Before she could put any of these concepts to the actual test, she needed to go stone shopping for the proper shapes and sizes she'd need to assemble each wand. Any witch or wizard interested in working with gemstones for any reason knew that Gringotts was the best place to go for quality as well as variety. She headed out for Gringotts one morning with a long list of stones she was looking for and ended up spending the entire day in their gems and crystals vault with Griphook. The goblin was very helpful and he was impressed with how well Mag knew her stones. He even helpfully referred her to a goblin jeweler when she explained how she pictured the wands construction. The large central stone, a crystal, would have smaller stones attached with gold or silver or copper.
The trouble was that she had no way to do the metal smithing on her own. She was dreading the process of seeking out a jeweler that she could trust to do the proper work involved. The idea of working with a goblin set her mind at ease. Goblins understood and respected the magic of gemstones. Therefore, their skills could only add to her own rather than disrupting them as a jeweler without a proper knowledge of stone energy may do. As any good crafter of magical items should, Mag made the first wand for herself. If one didn't test their products personally, they had no true idea of how it actually worked. Sometimes one's intention didn't carry across in the actual finished product and only using said product would allow a person to know exactly how their true intention had manifested itself.
While looking over the stones she'd selected from Gringotts to decide just which ones she liked best for her own wand, Mag was struck with an idea that excited her to no end simply because like her crystal wands, it was something that she didn't think had been done before. Like many of her practical ideas when it came to the use of magic in general, she didn't see why as it seemed so much better and more convenient. Her idea was for a wearable wand. Most people would just take it for pretty jewelry and wouldn't even guess it was a wand if she didn't want them to. Not to mention if one's wand hung from a chain about their neck, they were never at risk for dropping it. The wand she designed for herself had a twelve centimeter clear quartz crystal as the base. The stone was a natural six sided quartz, willowy and wand like in shape. In the stone books she'd gotten on vacation two summers back she'd learned about the body's seven chakras and the stones that best corresponded to each.
Chakras were energy wheels in the body that connected to physical organs as well as emotions which Mag found to be very fascinating. Wizards from India had even gotten some Muggles to understand the import of keeping their chakras well balanced. She felt having a chakra wand would provide her magic with balance as well as her person when wearing it. The stones that worked with each chakra had similar medicine to what the chakras themselves connected to. The first chakra was red, and connected to one's sense of safety. The stones that worked best with that were red jasper, garnet, or black tourmaline or obsidian. She chose red garnet for her first chakra stone. The second chakra was orange and worked with one's creativity and sexuality. She chose carnelian for this. The books recommended carnelian and she agreed with the books on this matter. She didn't always come to the same conclusion the books did about the stones and their medicine, so she was pleased to find she agreed with all of the chakra recommendations. Citrine corresponded to the third chakra for releasing and cleansing, green aventurine to the fourth, the heart for joy and love, blue sodalite to the fifth, the throat, for clearly communicating one's true intention, amethyst for the sixth for intuition, or ones third eye, and moonstone for the seventh, the crown chakra, representing one's higher knowledge and will.
She chose small stones for the seven chakras, each about ten millimeters around, and each a different shape from the other. The wand would have the seven chakra stones going down the front of the crystal's length. For that part, she would need the assistance of the jeweler Griphook had recommended. When she looked up the shop address that Griphook had given her in Knockturn Alley, Mag felt a mix of excited and nervous. Excited to finally have her ideas put into a finished product and nervous that the goblin wouldn't want to work with her. Often goblins weren't ones to do business with, or even trust witches and wizards. Mag had a letter of reference from Griphook, though, and the reassuring feeling of that bit of parchment in her hand provided her with the courage she needed to enter the shop with confidence. The goblin behind the counter had blonde curling hair piled atop her head, and a prettily made up face. She wore a dark red silk dress and had large sparkling black diamond earrings in the lobes of her elegantly pointed ears. Rings of sparkling ruby, sapphire and tourmaline covered her slender fingers and she wore an impressively heavy necklace of cut garnet and white topaz.
"I'm here to see Glima," Mag said, presenting her letter from Griphook.
"That would be me," the pretty goblin said, tone not nearly as bright as the rest of her as she scanned the parchment from Griphook with slightly arched brows. "If that owl leaves droppings in this shop it will be sorry," she added, giving Nightshade a look of suspicion as he sat on Mag's shoulder. For his part, he merely blinked, giving the goblin what he had coined years ago as his dumb owl look. He believed the look kept people from seeing even a glint of intelligence in his eyes.
"He won't," Mag assured. "I need a pendant made, and eventually many more pieces. Some will not be jewelry because they will be larger, but it will involve having stones set together in the way one would do with jewelry." She handed over the velvet pouch in which she'd placed the crystal along with the seven chakra stones that she wished to be added to it. "I included a note of instructions, so that you know which color goes in what order because it matters," she explained. "The crystal should have a setting on top so that I might wear it as a pendant and the stones in gold down the front."
The goblin nodded. "Come back in three days. It'll be ready then as will my fee." The price she quoted was shockingly low. Mag was excited. At this rate, she'd be able to afford to have many wands made if hers turned out as she hoped. In three days she returned and paid for the finished product. It was lovely! It now only required her to personally enhance each stone. That part took less than a day to complete. She remained shut away in her room so there would be no distractions and worked steadily, only breaking for lunch before beginning again. The crystal and all seven chakra stones were enhanced before it was time for the family to share their evening meal. Mag tested her new wand out by levitating a stack of books from her desk to her bed. It was far easier than with her wooden wand. So much so in fact that the books nearly overshot the bed. Mag gave a whoop of glee! She'd done it! She'd made her first wand! Even better, it was double the strength of a wooden wand just as she'd expected. The amplifying quality of quartz hadn't let her down.
/Go Mags,/ Nightshade congratulated in his Nightshade way.
Mag didn't usually like it when he called her Mags, but this time she was too happy to be bothered. "Thanks," she said. Flinging open the door to her bedroom, she tore down stairs to show her parents and Mira. This was the first her family had heard of her ideas for wand making. If it hadn't worked, she would be the only one to be disappointed if she kept it to herself. Boosting everyone's eagerness for a stronger wand only to fail to produce it hardly seemed decent, so she hadn't mentioned it in case she was unable to make it work as she'd planned. Mira was properly impressed even if elves didn't have a use for wands, and her parents were over the moon.
"What a fascinating idea," Raislen said, hugging his daughter and swooping her off her feet for a twirl around the room.
"Really exciting," Heather agreed. "Are you going to make ours next?"
"Of course," Mag readily agreed. "Would you prefer pendants or ordinary sized wands?" Both of her parents opted for larger wands. She promised to spend the rest of the evening deciding which stones would suit their individual personalities and begin work on them the very next day.
"I think once they're completed, we should cast illusion charms on them so they'll look like our old wooden wands," Raislen said, the pride and joy at his daughter's accomplishment fading momentarily to be replaced with a serious expression. "At least until Voldemort is dead. The last thing we need is for him to discover that you can make stronger wands."
Heather nodded in agreement. "Indeed. He and his followers would be all over that."
As that definitely sounded reasonable, Mag willingly agreeed. She chose clear quartz crystal and garnet for Heather's wand and jade and crystal quartz for Raislens. The next morning she took the stones for both to Glima's shop and asked for bands of silver to be put around the middle to hold the two stones that made up each wand together. Her next project was to make a wand for Severus, only Gringotts didn't have the black obsidian she wanted to complete it. Griphook had to order it and he wasn't sure when it would come in.