Harry was baffled. He wasn't sure that he knew what was happening so he decided that it was probably best to ask. "An apprenticeship? What's that?"

Garrick was the one to answer, "I am an expert in wand making and there are very few of us still alive. An apprenticeship will allow you the opportunity to learn from Masters in their field"

Jimmy rolled his eyes and held in a scoff. Garrick could not be more obvious with his disrespect. The emphasis was on the fact that Garrick was the expert. He was clearly excluding Jimmy from that.

"That sounds brilliant! So you can teach me more about whittling?" Harry was still confused by some of the things in the books about whittling so he knew that he had a couple of questions.

Garrick looked a bit taken aback. He obviously forgot that Harry wasn't just a wandmaker, he was also a whittler. "Well… not really. I want to teach you the delicate art of wand making."

Harry felt strong emotions coming from the wand still in his hands. It felt a bit like anger and fear but there was another emotion that he wasn't sure what to name as. The emotions from his own plus his confusion resulted in a frown, "How do you make the wand into the right shape if you aren't whittling?"

"Spells and the wand itself create the shape of the wand. Every part of the process is done with magic to create a magic artifact."

"Oh… but I don't." Harry held up his wand as if reminding Garrick that it existed. Harry felt the wand preen in pride. Its existence clearly proved that Harry had nothing for him to learn, or at least that is what the wand thought.

"No, and I am not sure if that is what makes your wand so unique." Garrick's voice got quieter at the end of his sentence and he seemed to be gazing off into the distance. The mystery of the boy's unique wand-making technique was something that he wanted to experiment with immediately! The wand decided that the wistfulness in Garrick's voice was a good thing. Maybe the wand would be okay with Harry talking to Garrick.

Jimmy couldn't take listening to Garrick for a minute longer, "Now wait just a minute! That's a bit misleading. There have been other wandmakers who didn't use spells and magic for every part of the process."

This time it was Garrick's turn to roll his eyes. "Well, every decent wandmaker has done it with spells."

Harry didn't notice the unintentional insult but the wand heated at the words. It takes it back, the wand would NOT be okay with Harry talking to Garrick!

Jimmy couldn't believe the audacity of Garrick Ollivander and he was almost gleeful at correcting the man, "That may be true here in Europe but on the American side, it isn't! James Steward was an amazing wandmaker and he didn't use a bit of magic to create the wands since he was a no-Maj! His wands went beyond being workable and are even recorded as being of 'exceptional power'".

Garrick scoffed at what he thought were fanciful tales to tell children, "Pshh those are just stories."

Jimmy went from being amused at Garrick's misinformation to irritated, "STORIES?! Pshh you British are so close-minded."

Cosme felt it was time that he tried to diffuse this situation "Actually Garrick I need to say that I am with Jimmy on this. I have heard of John Steward and I have seen one of his wands myself. I went to America once to learn about alternative wand cores and a wandmaker there had one of James Steward's creations. It was spectacular!"

The wand thought that it might want to meet the other wand. Another wand created by hand might be as spectacular as the wand believed itself to be.

"Cosme! I believe that Jimmy would be deceived by simple tales but you? I thought you were better. What kind of hack were you talking to that made such outlandish claims? Also, you are putting ideas in the boy's head. The best wand-making process uses the spells. We have done so for centuries!"

Ignoring the insult against his person, Cosme decided that logic was the way to go "Surely, you of all people know that just because we have done so for centuries doesn't mean that it is the best way. After all, you have disregarded tradition and created and then advocated the Supreme Cores! That isn't tradition! If we were still doing the traditional way then people would still be bringing in their own wand cores!"

Garrick didn't seem to argue with that and tilted his head in acknowledgment.

Jimmy was starting to feel ignored, "Yeah about that." He turned to Harry, "Garrick said that there were only three wand cores: Dragon Heartstring, Unicorn Hair, and Phoenix Feather. However, he was the one to choose those three. Technically throughout history and even to this day, many wandmakers used different cores from different magical items. And those wands worked perfectly fine!"

"They did not!" Garrick decided to chime in. "They were unrefined and many are inferior to the Supreme Three! Why I remember someone once brought a troll whisker for my father to put in his wand! A troll whisker!"

Harry couldn't help but think that Garrick's hair was starting to puff like an angry cat. Jimmy knew that this was a hill that Garrick was willing to die on so he didn't bother addressing the troll whisker.

Harry watched the three strange men debate. It was very funny to watch but he was also nervous about the noise that they were making. They are awfully loud and the Dursleys would surely wake up if they continue like this.

Cosme seemed to notice the boy's anxiety and ignored the other two for a bit. He still remembered all of the warning signs and he didn't want the boy to become wary of them.

"What's wrong? You seem upset. They may seem like they hate each other but they argue like this every time we have a convention. They both have ideas about how wand-making should go and neither is willing to concede that the other may have a point."

Harry was surprised that the man seemed to notice his emotions, "Oh, it's not that. I am just a bit nervous about you waking my relatives."

Cosme nodded, Harry's surprise was another tally for abusive relatives, "Ah that makes sense. You have nothing to worry about. I cast a privacy spell as soon as they started talking about wand-making theory. They get into arguments often enough that I knew that they were going to do this."

Harry was surprised that he didn't notice Cosme cast a spell. He was usually much more aware of his surroundings. The wand felt that Cosme was the superior of the three wandmakers, he was the only one to think about Harry as a person. The wand tried to send positive feelings to Harry. Unfortunately, for the wand, Harry was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. The wand's rapidly changing emotions and the new information from the three wandmakers were a lot to experience in one day.

Cosme knew that with the boy's behavior, he was going to have to do something rather dramatic today. He wasn't quite sure what but there were a couple of ideas floating around in his head. It all depended on how Jimmy and Garrick were going to behave. It was NOT normal to fear disturbing his relatives. Be nervous about it, sure, but not to fear disturbing them.

Cosme knew that Garrick could not be the only one in charge of Harry as his teacher. Accepting an apprenticeship was a big deal in the magical world and it would have implications far beyond just teaching him. A Master who takes an apprentice can not only act in the absence of a guardian but can claim guardianship and even adopt their apprentice if there is a good enough reason.

Cosme had never used these laws that protect the Master-apprentice relationship but he knew that they existed and that no one dared change the laws. The laws had been a part of the magical world long before the witch trials. Though the witch trials were the peak of their usage. They had not been used as much these days because many wizards didn't think they were necessary and that they were a bit archaic. However, at one point, having an apprenticeship was a great honor.

Garrick and Jimmy were still arguing about the different wand cores. Jimmy was talking about combining a Dittany stalk with Snakewood for a wand best suited for healing. Meanwhile, Garrick was sputtering about the difficulties of snakewood and how it would be much more suited for unicorn hair instead. Harry was still watching in awe at the fact that there was a debate about mythical creatures happening in front of him.

Cosme knew that their debate wouldn't go anywhere so he wasn't too bothered about the rudeness of interrupting,

"Gentleman. We have once again become distracted. We were discussing an apprenticeship. I think I may have a solution. Why don't we all take Harry as an apprentice?"

Harry looked intrigued by the idea but at the same time, Harry wanted to learn about whittling and wand-making. But their technique of wand-making was very different from his. Harry was thinking about asking them about this but Garrick was quicker.

"That's never been done before. It has always been one master and one apprentice. Could the magic even accept that?"

Cosme had already thought about that before suggesting this solution, "Well, I don't know why it wouldn't. Technically we can do three different bonds. There have been cases in the past where an apprentice trains in multiple subjects and has multiple masters because of it."

"Yes, but those were different subjects and therefore different masteries. The bond may not allow it because of the protections for masters."

Harry wasn't sure what they were arguing about but he was intrigued by the idea of the different subjects. What other subjects could be taught? Was it like school where you would learn math and English, as well as learning about wand-making?

Jimmy was also confused, "Wait, what are you talking about? Which protections? I don't think I am very familiar with the intricacies of a formal magical bond."

Cosme felt a bit embarrassed. Jimmy wouldn't know about it as an American wizard and he definitely wouldn't as a muggle-born, "Oh, I'm sorry Jimmy. Have you never seen an apprentice-master bond?"

"Well I have heard of the bond but not really any of the specifics."

"And you were here intending to accept an apprentice without any knowledge of the bind?" Garrick was baffled by Jimmy's words and gaped at him.

Jimmy couldn't help but feel defensive, "It is not as bad as it sounds! I wouldn't have created the bond without knowledge. You do know that I can accept an apprentice without the formal magical bond!" Jimmy wasn't an idiot and he didn't appreciate Garrick making him feel like one.

"The bond is what makes an apprenticeship so useful for both of the parties involved!"

"Just stop with the insults to my intelligence and tell me, please."

Cosme was the one to answer and Garrick murmured something that sounded like 'what intelligence'. Jimmy huffed at Garrick but listened very closely to Cosme's words. He refused to be thought of as a fool.

"The master-apprentice bond is magic that protects them both from each other and from outside influences. For example, the master in the bond can be confident that the apprentice isn't going to steal family secrets and use them against the master and the apprentice can be sure that the master is teaching them without any secondary schemes. It was created because there were too many issues of saboteurs who trained under one master and then spread their family magick with others." Cosme's mini-lecture was very informative and even Harry felt like he might understand what was going on.

"Well, that sounds dead useful. Why the hell isn't this used by everyone?" Jimmy hadn't entered a formal apprenticeship bond just signed a contract when he was working on becoming a Wand-Making Master.

Garrick rolled his eyes. American wizards were quite ignorant of some things, "Well some individuals were concerned about having their free will taken away and more wizards started keeping family magick secrets more and more private."

Jimmy didn't know what to say about that so he didn't say anything. Instead, Cosme decided to speak up.

"The magic will tell us if we cannot do a bond with multiple masters of the same subject so we should choose which of us should go first and they will be the primary master in charge of teaching Harry."

Harry decided it was about time that he spoke up, "Wait, but what about my whittling? And what about my family? I want to learn but I don't think my aunt and uncle would like the thought of me learning magic at all! They hate anything that isn't normal and magic is not considered normal to them."

Jimmy felt like face-palming. They were debating what would teach Harry and none of them were even talking to Harry about who he wanted to learn from!

"If you agree to an apprenticeship then your aunt and uncle can't do anything about that. The apprenticeship would protect you from their disapproval." Jimmy hesitated for a moment. He had a feeling that something was wrong but he didn't want to ask directly. "...if it was needed, an apprentice would sometimes live with the master. To make it easier for them to learn."

Harry couldn't help but be filled with hope. Could this be the answer to all of his problems?