Jimmy was a proud Horned Serpent in his years at Ilvermorny and in his youth, certain habits helped him more than others. He had already mentally labeled himself as the fun uncle who gifts his nephew with knowledge and cool nick-nacks. And Harry, whether he liked it or not, was his first nephew! It was all rather exciting and he had spent days figuring out what kind of uncle he would like to be. He already started his master plan by gifting Harry books and giving him a mini-lesson on the oddities of the magical world. He was still trying to work out what would be the best nick-nack to give Harry. The room that Cosme gave Harry was probably amazing, but Jimmy thought that Harry might feel better if he had something in the room that was just his.

Of course, Jimmy also made a concentrated effort to make sure that his adoptive nephew didn't lose any of his birth culture hence his new obsession with British fairy tales. It was his Plan A to bond with Harry. Jimmy was going to teach Harry about being a proper British wizard. However, he had spent the week researching and the more he found out, the more he thought that Harry might benefit from being an American wizard more than a British one. The fairy tales he found were all grim and didn't seem proper for a small child! Five different British wizards recommended The Tales of Beedle the Bard and they all seemed to be utterly mad. One of the stories ended with a wizard tearing out his beloved's heart and then cutting his own heart…how was that a children's story? There was exactly one good story in that entire book and it was Babitty Rabitty and her Cackling Stump, which Jimmy already told Harry three days ago.

Either way, Jimmy knew that bonding was important so he was going to go to Plan B. It probably would have been polite to send Cosme a letter ahead of time alerting him to his visit, but Jimmy forgot yesterday and it would be easier just to pop in. It was the first weekend with Harry and Jimmy was going to make sure it was a fun one. He planned to meet Harry on an even playing field. So far, Jimmy has been clearly an adult and one in a position of authority, but children connected with their equals better so Jimmy was going to approach him as an equal. Plan B was going to be asking Harry to teach Jimmy about whittling. It was a genius plan, or at least Jimmy thought it was.

Apparating to the outside of Cosme's shop was easy enough, but as he stood locked out, he realized that he might not have thought this plan through. Fortunately for Jimmy, Cosme's wards told him that he had a guest. Cosme thought about why his visitor didn't use the floo, but he found his answer when he found Jimmy outside. Jimmy hated using the floo and he would rant to anyone who listened about how it was evil and definitely a ministry plot to steal your spare change, which Jimmy claimed to have lost every time he took the floo.

"Oh hey, Cosme! What a pleasant surprise"

"...it's a surprise to find me at my house?" Cosme was more amused at Jimmy's antics than irritated, but he was unimpressed with Jimmy's attempts at being casual. No one should be this bad at lying.

"...Yep! What a pleasant surprise. Y'know what I could go for right now? I could go for a good cup of coffee. Oh, wait, maybe something like the coffee that you have." Jimmy said that with a big smile as if he wasn't inviting himself over to Cosme's house in a particularly rude fashion.

"Uh-huh, Jimmy, would you like to come inside? Harry and I are eating breakfast right now and I am sure Milly has made enough for you too."

"That would be awesome! Thanks, Cosme." Jimmy had to restrain himself from shouting with glee, but he was quite pleased that phase one of his plan was a success.

Cosme walked Jimmy through the shop and into the kitchen where Harry was eating the last of his pastry with a glass of milk. He had a snake wrapped around his wrist and a cat in his pocket. The sight was not complete until Jimmy noticed a bird sitting cozy in Harry's hair. On any other person, it might have looked silly, but it just made Harry look cuter.

"Hey, Harry! How did the rest of your day go after we left?"

"Good morning, Jimmy! It was brilliant! I think I am getting better at guessing the wand woods but wand cores make no sense. What are you doing here? I didn't think we had another wizarding-world lesson today?"

Jimmy plopped down on his seat while a plate of food showed up right in front of him and just as he hoped there was a cup of coffee. Jimmy took a sip and sighed in appreciation for the roast, "Well no, no lesson today, but I was hoping that I could join you with whatever you had planned."

"...uh, I was planning on doing more whittling. Cosme keeps saying that he won't teach me about wand-making until I finish making more wands with my technique. I already warned my wand ahead of time so hopefully, it won't be jealous again"

Cosme was more focused on eating his eggs so he didn't acknowledge Harry's hints of irritation about not learning about wand-making yet.

Jimmy was surprised by how well his plan was going, "Great! I'll join you then."

That one sentence took both Harry and Cosme off guard. Harry looked vaguely hopeful that Jimmy was going to teach him wand-making and Cosme was showing his first true sign of irritation that day.

"No, Jimmy! We all agreed that we wouldn't show or teach him our wand-making technique until we saw his wands."

"Cosme, I'm not an idiot. I meant that I would join him with whittling!"

This time both Cosme and Harry were staring at him like they weren't quite sure what to make of him.

"...you want to learn how to whittle?"

Jimmy smiled widely, "Yeah, I am hoping that it will only be a whittle difficult… ha! Get it? A little difficult, a whittle difficult?"

Harry at first stared at Jimmy, shocked that he would make such a childish joke, but burst out into laughter so loud that it shocked all three of them. The sound of the laughter startled Linden who then flew through the window.

Cosme shook his head in mock disappointment, "Oh mon dieu, your jokes just keep getting worse and worse. Hopefully, one day your jokes will be as tree-rific as mine."

After Cosme's comeback, all three of them descended into giggles and chuckles.

"Well, it is good to branch out and try new things. I only have two knives to whittle with, but I am sure it will be fine. Once you're done eating, we can go upstairs to whittle. Is that okay, Cosme?"

Cosme thought it was brilliant, "it sounds like a perfect way to start the weekend!"

Jimmy smiled and then started shoveling food in his mouth at a rate that alarmed both Harry and Cosme.

"Jimmy! You don't need to rush, I don't want you to choke on your food. I am sure that even if you take another hour, we'll still have time to make at least two wands, maybe more."

Jimmy slowed down his shoveling, but he still ate at a relatively quick pace. Harry sipped at his milk, taking his time. Once the two of them were done, they both stood up. Harry led Jimmy to the Arboretum. Harry already had his sticks picked out, but he figured it might give better results if Jimmy picked out his own. He wasn't sure why he thought this, but he was sure it was right.

"I don't have specific things that I am looking for when I pick my sticks, and I usually just pick up a couple and keep the ones that feel right."

Jimmy nodded and immediately started picking up sticks from the ground. He had already gone through training to be a wand-maker so he was sure that he knew what Harry meant. Sometimes picking the right wand-core and the wood was more about feeling and intuition and less of the logic behind the choices.

The trees closest to him were a mixture of oak, elm, and maple. It was an unusual combination since Cosme didn't use two of the trees in his wand-making, but when Jimmy chose a stick from a maple tree, he thought Cosme perhaps had the right idea of having them. The stick was long and would need to be trimmed down.

Jimmy held his prize out for Harry's inspection and once Harry nodded in approval the two walked inside, up the stairs, and into Harry's room. He took a stop at Silas' and Jewel's tank. He unwound the snake from his wrist. The snake quickly found its way to the water basin. Harry then walked across the room and put his kitten in the middle of a ray of sun. It mewed but then settled into a loaf position purring. While Harry was doing that, Jimmy was taking in the sight of his room and all of the changes that Harry had made to it. Satisfied that they were taken care of, Harry moved to the workroom.

Harry stepped into his workroom and pulled out his wand. He laid the wand along the wall at the back of the desk so it could watch but also be far away from him on the off chance that it got angry at Harry.

"Very nice set-up you got here. So what kind of stick do you have?"

"I love it here and I think the one that I am going to use today is from an elm tree. I have a bunch though. So what do you know about whittling?"

"Literally nothing! Let's start at the very beginning."

Harry nodded as if he already suspected Jimmy's inexperience. He pulled his two knives closer and after some thought, he handed the larger one to Jimmy. He first showed Jimmy how to hold the knife.

"So what we are going to start with is peeling the bark off the wand. Do you know what shape you want your wand to have?"

"Um, I was thinking of something simple but with a few bands grouped at the top and the bottom of the handle."

Harry pulled out a pencil and his notebook and opened to a blank page. He sketched a vague outline of a wand. He was thinking about having a round handle wider at the bottom and flowing into a teardrop. At the peak of the teardrop which would also be the transition between the handle and the rest of the wand, there would be a small bead-like circle. He pushed a paper to Jimmy.

"So I think I like the idea of sketching out my ideas before I try to take the knife to the wood. You don't have to if you don't want to though."

Jimmy peeked over at Harry's sketch and decided that he had nothing to lose. He sketched out a plain-looking wand and then drew three lines where there would be band-like grooves at the top and bottom of the handle. To give himself enough room for the bands, Jimmy figured that his wand should be fairly long.

Once they both finished their sketches, Harry pulled out the gloves that he was given by Cosme. After putting them on, he started cutting the bark off. Jimmy watched him do it a couple of times and then started doing it himself. His thumb was on the back of the knife and he tried cutting the shavings of the bark rather thin. There were times when he would unintentionally lift the knife and his shavings wouldn't be the length of the stick. Eventually, they both had the bark gone from both of their sticks.

"We should probably sharpen our knives."

Harry pulled out his strop and took off his gloves. He then rubbed some more polish on the strop. "So you have to hold the knife at this angle and move it like this," Harry sharpened his knife and then passed it over to Jimmy. He put his gloves on but watched Jimmy to make sure that he was doing it right. Once they both had sharpened their knives, they both continued smoothing their wands out to make their handles.

Harry was conscious of the fact that he needed to leave a chunk at the beginning of the handle to be turned into the bead-like structure, but kept peeking over to Jimmy to see his progress. Jimmy had planned a much simpler wand so Harry wasn't too worried. However, Jimmy asked Harry to teach him and he was going to do his best.

"Last time I made a wand, I was thinking about what a magic wand could do because I thought that focusing on my goal would help the magic work. I still haven't tested whether that is true or not, but I am going to keep thinking about it until I know."

"That makes a lot of sense. I guess I'll do the same on the off chance that it is important to the end product. Do you also think about who would wield the wand?"

Jimmy was thinking about how different woods favored different users and would reject anyone they didn't think was worthy. The question was not one that Harry had thought about. He had thought about what kind of abilities the wand should have but hadn't thought about what kind of person should wield it. It was an interesting thought and it made sense. A wand was not only a unique creation but the person who wields it would be unique in their way.

"Well I thought about what the wand should be but I didn't think about who would wield it. The last time I made a wand, I created my own wand. It can do anything, but it doesn't seem to like anyone else but me. I am not sure if that was because of me, or because of some other hidden things. Cosme said that since I bled on it, it is closer to me than other things that I might create. I am still testing to see if I can make a wand for someone other than me and still have it work like a wand should. You guys were able to use my first wand so I am sure that it will work."

Jimmy thought now was a good time to begin Phase 2, sharing vulnerability as a form of bonding. "I am a fairly decent wand-maker, but every single person has something that they struggle with. For some reason, I have never been able to get spruce wood to work with me. Something about that wood just hates me, so it would be pretty amazing if I could finally get spruce wood to work using whittling."

Harry thought that seemed a bit odd, "How can a wood hate a person?"

"Uh…so the thing is if a wood doesn't like a wand core sometimes they get a little…violent. I once tried to get spruce wood to accept a dragon heartstring and it blew me across the room! My ears were ringing for three days after that. Garrick says I need to learn better communication with the wood, but I think the wood is doing it on purpose. They have all conspired against me!" Jimmy seemed embarrassed when he started talking about his difficulties, but by the end, he was waving his arms dramatically.

Harry laughed at Jimmy and soon both of them were drawn back to their whittling project.

The main shaft of the wand was plain for both of the wands that they designed, so they both focused on that. The handles were the more effortful part of the wand so Harry chose to focus on that second. They cut long strips off the wand until the end was pointed but not too narrow. Harry drew two lines at the point where the handle would start. The first line would be the top of the bead and the second one would be the bottom. He would then widen the wand from the bottom of the drop. Harry decided to work on the bead-like circle because that would decide the thickness of the handle.

Jimmy was looking at his wand at his progress and felt quite pleased with himself. He had whittled the main shaft of the wand and even shortened the wand to a length that felt right. The band detail was all that was left. He also used a pencil to draw the guidelines for the grooves. He struggled with the spacing, but once he was satisfied, he picked up the knife again. He cut at an angle along the line then rotated the wand and repeated the process. Jimmy did it until there was a groove around the whole wand. He then flipped the direction of the wand to cut at an angle toward his groove creating a V-shaped groove. Jimmy then moved to the end of the wand and repeated the process creating a second groove.

Jimmy peeked over to see Harry's progress. Watching the kid whittle, he could see obvious signs of experience. Each cut was confident and his progress was speedy. The way that he seemed to instinctively know where to cut next to create the desired shape was awe-inspiring.

"Wow, you look pretty comfortable whittling."

"Really? The gloves are slowing me down. They feel awkward. I don't know if I like it."

There was a moment of silence when Jimmy thought about that. That was what Harry looked like when he was slowed down? That was surprising.

"Are you nervous about whether the wand is going to work without your blood?"

Harry paused his whittling to think about it, "Hmm….not really. The way I see it, my cat is still a cat and I didn't bleed on it so there is no reason why the wand shouldn't. I am a little nervous to see if it can do everything that your wands can do though."

"Your second wand," Jimmy nodded his head in the direction of the wand still sitting on the desk, "it performs exactly how a wand should so that's a pretty good indication that it can work."

They both continued their whittling with unspoken agreement. Jimmy was smoothing out any parts that he thought felt weird, but for the most part, he was done. He had tried to think about the wand and its abilities like Harry said he should, but he wasn't sure if it worked or not. At this point, he was pretty nervous. He had started the wand with the idea of bonding with Harry, but now he realized that he also wanted to be able to be a part of this new wand-making technique.

Wand cores were considered an essential part of the wand, but what would it mean for the magical world to create wands without cores? Would wizards embrace them or would they reject something so new and different? They had been making wands with cores for hundreds of years. Then again, there was a precedent for coreless wands. Typical staff didn't have a core, but they did have a gem focus. So it wasn't too far-fetched to have a 'mini-staff'. Then again, they didn't have a gem focus so maybe that would still be too odd for them. Wizards, especially British wizards don't make a lot of sense to Jimmy so he didn't think that he would be able to predict their behavior.

Thoughts of what the magical world would think left his mind once he finished his wand. There was nothing left to shape and any further whittling would only ruin the finished project.

"I think it's done. What's left?"

Harry looked up from his own project where he had finished the handle and so only needed to smooth out some of the rough edges.

"Can you feel anything from the wand? My first wand didn't feel like anything but my second wand felt warm every time I held it."

Jimmy closed his eyes to try to focus on the wand to see if he could feel something. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be able to feel anything from the wands that he created unless they were a match. After a few seconds, he opened his eyes and shook his head.

Harry held out his hand to hold the wand and Jimmy handed it over. As soon as Harry held the wand, there were sparks and then the wand flew out of his hand across the room. They both watched stunned until Harry broke the silence, "Guess it does have magic and it doesn't seem to agree with me."

Jimmy chucked at the understatement. He went to pick up the wand and then remembered that there was a much simpler way to test the wand.

"Yikes, I should just try casting. That's a much easier way to test the wand. Lumos" the tip of the wand immediately lit up. "That's incredible! I did it! I made a wand with no core."

Jimmy immediately left the room to go show Cosme leaving Harry smiling. That was exactly what he felt after making his wand and he was glad to see that Jimmy felt the same way.

Harry looked down at his own wand and decided that it was probably as complete as it was going to be. He took a deep breath and put down his whittling knife. What exactly should he do to test out whether it worked? It didn't seem to like him the way that his wand did, but maybe it was a lack of compatibility. Harry decided to just wave it and see if it did something.

He waved. Nothing happened. Feeling a little silly, Harry decided to try the same spell that Jimmy did, Harry whispered "Lumos" and just as it should, the tip of the wand lit up but unlike Jimmy's spell the light quickly sputtered out.

"Hmm guess this wand doesn't care too much for me." Harry grabbed his own wand and walking at a far more sedate pace, Harry went downstairs to show Jimmy and Cosme. On his way out of the room, he was stopped by a small meow by his feet. He bent down and picked up Duchess. Putting his wand in his pocket, Harry held Duchess in his hands and pet the top of her head. He continued walking down the stairs.

"It's incredible, isn't it? I made a wand by just whittling and it has no core! Here, you test."

Harry followed the sound of Jimmy's voice into Cosme's workshop. Jimmy was in the process of handing the wand to Cosme. Cosme cast a few spells while the other two just watched. Each spell works exactly as it should. Harry was in awe watching all of the magic. He tried remembering the spell and what it did as he watched, but he wasn't sure how well he managed. Harry stepped further into the room and with the hand that was petting Duchess, he took out his newly created wand.

"Cosme, can you test my wand too?"

Cosme grabbed the wand from Harry and ran it through the same process as the first one.

"It is strange, I can hardly notice the absence of the core. It channels magic as it should. I wonder what a whittled wand with a core would be like."

The thought caused all three to take a moment to think about it.

"Wait! Why don't we just find out? Why don't you try adding a core to a wand that is already whittled? You can use mine to test it."

"Hmm, that is a pretty good idea. The only issue is that we told Garrick that we wouldn't teach you any wand-making until we establish the limits of your technique." Cosme argued, but a part of him really wanted to test it. "How about this: I will send a letter to Garrick to come here tomorrow and by then you will hopefully made enough wands for us to learn about your technique. Waiting one day won't be too bad."

Jimmy complained, "Ughh, why are you so logical? I guess I can come by tomorrow because there is no way that I am missing out on that. Back to the workshop! You told me that I could make two wands today."

"Wait! Don't you dare disappear into that workshop before eating something for lunch. Harry is a growing boy and shouldn't skip meals."

"Sorry, Cosme. I didn't realize how late it had gotten. We'll eat lunch and then head back to the workshop!"

Harry smiled, "Now that you mention it, I am rather hungry and I could go for a bite to eat."

The three walked to the kitchen and sat at the table. Duchess was placed on a nearby cushion that was set on the floor for her. Milly had prepared something that looked like a sandwich but with some of the ingredients out of order. The top of the bread looked like it had cheese and egg with a ham on the inside.

Jimmy looked closer at his sandwich. "Uh, Cosme. What is this?"

"Quelle chance! Croque monsieur." without hesitation, Cosme cut a bite and ate it.

Harry and Jimmy exchanged glances. They were both puzzling over the oddity of eating a sandwich with a fork and a knife, but the sandwich was creamy and it looked like it would be messy. Harry, not one to waste food, grabbed his fork and knife and cut himself a bite.

After that first bite, Harry no longer hesitated and ate eagerly. Reassured, Jimmy dug in. He frequently ate in the Leaky Cauldron so he was slowly becoming acclimated to British food, but he only ever ate French food with Cosme. Jimmy didn't consider himself picky, but he still needed to brace himself to try new food.

In between bites, Jimmy asked, "So what exactly am I eating?"

Cosme laughed, "It is not anything unusual. Ham, cheese, butter, béchamel sauce, and Dijon mustard. Relax it's not like I am feeding you snails."

Jimmy knew that Cosme was teasing him but he still closely inspected the sandwich for anything suspicious.

There was light conversation, mostly about what they had done that morning. Jimmy described the whittling process to Cosme and Cosme talked about his trials of combining Veela Hair with different woods. He had success with all four kinds of wood, but there were some near misses where the hair almost rejected the wood. Harry wanted to ask about how a core or a wood can reject one another, but he refrained knowing that he wasn't going to get an answer.

Once lunch was over, they eagerly went their separate ways. Each of them wants to continue their work. Cosme went to send the letter to Garrick and Harry (with Duchess in his pocket) took Jimmy to the Acajor Arboretum to get another stick (this time he grabbed an elm stick). They then both went back to the workshop. Settling down in the same way when they started earlier that day.

Jimmy grabbed the paper that he designed the first wand on and flipped it to draw a second design.

"Usually the wand decides its appearance, so I'll admit I am not really used to this."

Harry was surprised by the tidbit that Jimmy shared. He wanted to ask more questions, but he knew that Jimmy was technically not allowed to tell him.

"Oh, I didn't know that. That's pretty cool. How about instead of planning it out before, maybe we should start whittling and see where it takes us. More of a creative process and less of a planned-out approach."

Jimmy was so relieved to not have to plan out another wand that he didn't notice that he let out information that he shouldn't have, "That would make things so much easier!"

Pulling out the strop, they sharpened their knives and began whittling. There were some things that stood out to Jimmy about the experience. Every time he sharpened the knife, he couldn't help but marvel at how much of a difference it made. Jimmy knew that there were runes that could be applied to knives to keep them sharp all the time, but he wasn't sure if they would interfere with the process of wand-making. He made a mental note to buy Harry a few whittling knives with the rune to see if they would work just as well as his current ones.

Focusing on his wand, Jimmy focused on feeling the personality of the wood and not so much on what he was doing while making cuts. Part of his mind was aware that he was thinning out the stick into a wand while still keeping the original shape. Jimmy didn't feel much of a pull to do any ornate designs and for a few minutes, he thought that the wand wouldn't desire any. Soon though, Jimmy realized that he was adding one groove that wrapped gently around the wand. It wasn't very deep and reminded Jimmy of a lazy river cutting through a grassland.

Harry was whittling away and he knew that this wand would not be an easy one to complete. The wood was easy enough to even out to be somewhat even, but when he made efforts to smooth it out, Harry knew that he should do something different. It felt like the wand yearned for a more humble design. It did not want to look too different from its original bark. Listening to the desires of the wand, Harry used the tip of his knife to cut grooves along the wood grain. He started from the handle and worked to the tip of the wand. Carefully, following each grain of wood from handle to tip. The process was tedious, but Harry knew that the wand had strong feelings about it.

Both were so zoned in on their task that they did not notice time passing by. The pile of wood shavings was sizeable and resting on the floor. Neither of them noticed the mess nor did they pay much attention to the sun moving from the top of the window to the bottom. They seemed oblivious to Milly lighting a small army of candles. At one point, there was even a small meowing sound that went unheard. It was only once they were both done and had completed their wands did they seemed to be pulled from their trance.

Blinking a couple of times, Jimmy straightened out his back and looked around, "Whoa, when did it get so late? Ugh, my back does not appreciate my decision to sit here without moving. I am not old, but I sure do feel like it right now."

Jimmy's words pulled Harry further into the present moment. He clenched his hands a couple of times to alleviate their cramping, "I feel like we've been sitting here for ages. Do you think it's time for dinner?" He looked around taking note of all the signs of time that went by. He saw the pile of wood, the sun's new position, and the candles that he was certain he had never seen before.

"Eh, even if it isn't I think we should get something to eat. Time really flew by." They tucked their wands into their pockets and went downstairs. Entering the dining room, Cosme was sitting at the dining table with a book open.

"Perfect! I was just about to send Milly up to get you two. Were you two able to finish another wand?"

Jimmy and Harry took their seats and their food appeared. Harry immediately started eating so Jimmy answered, "Yep, we took a different approach this time and I feel like it turned my brain into goo."

Cosme looked vaguely alarmed and examined the two closer. Before Cosme could comment on their condition, Harry tried to reassure him, "We started whittling without any direction and it felt like all I could focus was on the wand. I didn't even realize how much time had passed until I was done."

Shoulders relaxing, Cosme sat back in his chair. He instead puzzled over their states. They looked like they were seeing the sun for the first time all day, all dazed and confused. The sight added to a suspicion that Cosme had about whittling a wand compared to a spell that combined wand parts.

The warmth and flavor of the food brought Jimmy even further to the present and he paused mid-bite and looked at his food. "Thank you for the food. Eating here twice in one day is going to spoil me."

Cosme laughed, "Oh please, I have already spoiled you and I did it knowingly. I have said it before and I will say it again, you are more than welcome to join me for meals. However, what would be appreciated is perhaps more of a heads-up in the future."

Jimmy would have said more but his mouth was full so he instead shrugged sheepishly.