A/N: Another Chapter! Huzzah!
This one was scripted entirely by me (Mr. Darcy), and Lady Beatrice only proofed and edited. The next chapter will be the other way around, scripted by my lovely wife, and edited by yours truly. Just an experiment to see how it works. Let us know how you like it. This one will obviously be better but don't tell the Lady that I said that. :)
~~~~~~~~~~ September 16th, 1991 ~~~~~~~~~~
Hermione rolled over for what felt like the hundredth time as she desperately tried to get to sleep, hoping to speed the time to the morning. It was very troublesome trying to fall asleep when she was so nervous and excited! She and Jamie were finally going to get wands! Well… at least if they passed the test. They had been studying Magical Theory with Mrs. Wilkins for the past few months, and they couldn't be more prepared. Last year, she had been just a few days too young to take the test, but tomorrow she and Jamie were going together, and she wasn't going to miss it for anything!
Looking at the clock and seeing that it was after midnight, she decided that a glass of milk might help her relax and get to sleep. She would need to be well rested for her exam after all. Hermione got out of bed and put on her slippers. Bedlam, who had deigned to sleep on her bed that night, growled at being disturbed before padding out after her as she headed to the kitchen. She was surprised to find a light already on and Jamie sitting at the counter with his own glass of milk. Looking up at her, her brother smiled, "Fancy meeting you here, Mia."
"I could say the same for you, little brother," Hermione said as she poured herself a glass of milk. As she finished, Bedlam bumped her leg with his bowl, so she gave him some milk, too. Sitting down next to Jamie, Hermione took a gulp of milk before asking, "What has you up this early? Are you as excited as I am? Or was it… another nightmare? I didn't hear you tonight."
Jamie smiled. "A little of both, really. I managed to fall asleep, but then I got woken up by a nightmare, and I'm now too nervous and excited to fall back to sleep." Hermione leaned against Jamie and squeezed his hand in empathy.
"Was it the same nightmare as usual?"
Jamie chuckled, "Actually, for once, I think I had a regular nightmare like everyone else. I was being chased by a clown who kept throwing snakes at me, and none of the snakes were listening when I told them to stop attacking me. It was quite terrifying, though now it seems rather silly. But no green flashes of light and no women screaming this time. Just me, the clown, and the snakes."
Hermione chuckled at his description. "Well, at least you've proven that you can have regular nightmares like the rest of us." She paused to take another drink before changing the subject. "So, are you ready for tomorrow?"
Jamie rolled his eyes before giving his sister a deadpan look. "You know I'm prepared. After all, I've been keeping up with your ridiculous study schedule for the past month. Honestly, I don't think it will be hard at all."
Hermione humphed to herself. "Of course, the test is going to be hard, Jamie. This test determines if we've earned the right to use wands! It would be positively irresponsible if the test were easy."
"Well, we'll find out soon, won't we? Only…" Jamie paused and glanced at the clock, "about eight or so hours until we'll have proof."
Draining her glass, Hermione turned to her brother, "True enough. But I should be getting back to bed. It's late, and I'll be a wreck tomorrow if I don't get some rest." She got up and rinsed her glass before tapping her brother on the shoulder, "That goes for you too, mister. You need sleep, too."
"I know. I'll head back upstairs in a bit. Bedlam will make sure I don't stay up too late. Isn't that right?" The bobcat in question growled back at Jamie. "See?"
Mia sighed. Sometimes, she thought Bedlam actually understood her brother. "Well then, I'm holding you responsible for my brother, Bedlam. Make sure he gets to bed, or I'll have words with you in the morning." Bedlam's only response was a huff. "Goodnight, Jamie."
"Goodnight, Mia." At that, Hermione turned and started back to her bedroom, hoping to get a little more sleep before what promised to be a very exciting day.
~~~~~~~~~~ Later that Morning ~~~~~~~~~~
Jamie could barely contain himself as he and his sister walked with Mrs. Wilkins towards Uluru, the Great Red Rock of the Australian wilderness. Due to the powerful wards that fed off the innate power of the location, you had to walk to the entrance from an apparition point under powerful Notice-Me-Not charms. Only employees knew how to enter without the long walk. Mrs. Wilkins told them that the ministry insisted it was for security, but she thought they just wanted to make visiting the ministry difficult in hopes that fewer people would bother them. Mrs. Wilkins was almost always right.
As they neared the edge of the rock, Jamie couldn't contain his excitement any longer. He yelled at his sister, "Race you to the ministry, Mia!" before taking off in a sprint. "Hey!" he heard his sister yell behind him as she started running. He usually wouldn't have a chance against his exceptionally athletic sister, but he was no slouch either. The distance was short, and he could sprint slightly faster so he might manage a victory. He heard his sister's feet pounding behind him as she drew closer, so he put the last of his nervous energy into the remaining steps and reached out for the wall.
Unfortunately, he hadn't taken into consideration the spells on the rock, and as soon as he touched it, he was sucked into the wall at full speed. Jamie flailed as the magic preserved his momentum and threw him out onto the atrium of the ministry, landing him roughly on his back. Just as he caught his breath, the same wall that had recently disbursed him expelled his sister, who fell on top of him with a thump.
"Ouch!" Both siblings yelped as they collided.
Jamie groaned, "That's going to leave a bruise."
Mia rolled off her brother and rose to her feet, "Well, it's your fault for suggesting that we race, which I'd also like to remind you that I would have won without your unfair headstart." Mia stuck her tongue out at her brother.
"Well, you're just too fast for me. I have to take whatever advantage I can get if I want to beat you." Jamie stuck his tongue out back at his sister as she reached down to help him up.
Mrs. Wilkins calmly walked through the wall having done so many times before when she escorted her other students for their exams. "Thank you for waited, children. Now, if you can containing your excitement, we can get to the testing center."
At that, Mia quickly sobered up and started mumbling all sorts of magical trivia to herself as she followed behind Mrs. Wilkins. "Fluxweed and ashwinder eggs make an unstable solution when mixed. An extra half-turn on the disarming charm results in disarming yourself. The arithmantic sum of three and seven is thirteen on the full moon but only nine on the new moon."
Jamie put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. "Mia, calm down. We'll do fine," he said in his most reassuring voice.
"But what if I forget something?! I can't stand to wait another year!" Removing his hand and giving up on calming her down, Jamie continued walking with Mrs. Wilkins.
They arrived at the entrance to the testing center, and Mrs. Wilkins handed the paperwork for the two children to the woman at the desk. Without a word, the official stamped each form, which vanished and handed each of the siblings a runic placard before pointing over at the door to the waiting room.
Mrs. Wilkins escorted them to the doorway, "This be as far as I can going, children. As I tell you yesterday, tutors isn't allowed in the waiting room. I will waiting for you on the other side to escorted you both to the wand repository. I trusted you both behave yourselves until then?"
"Yes, Mrs. Wilkins." The siblings had gotten a lot of practice at saying that in unison. Entering the sparsely populated waiting room, Jamie glanced at his sister and was surprised to see a large '74' floating over her head in flaming letters. "Mia, you've got fire over your head!" Mia turned her head to look and was also amazed at the numbers floating over her head.
She turned to look at her brother, "Well, I'm not the only one. It seems you're number 75. These cards are probably causing the flaming numbers."
"The runes! Of course. Runes are so cool, aren't they, Mia?"
She rolled her eyes. "If you say so, Mr. 75."
After looking up at his own number, Jamie turned back to her with a smirk, "Well, looks like you'll be taking the test first, my dear sister. Think you can handle it?"
She turned up her nose. "Of course. I've studied everything we could possibly need to know."
"That's not what you were saying earlier." She blushed but said nothing in response.
"55 to test!" Came a voice from elsewhere in the testing center. A brown-haired girl on the other side of the room walked out a blue door, heading deeper into the testing center.
Jamie groaned, "I thought we'd gotten here early enough that we wouldn't have to wait long."
"Well, just think how bad it would have been if we hadn't gotten here this early."
"Yeah… I guess you're right."
"56 to test!" the same voice rang out again, and another child headed off to take the exam.
"That was awfully fast…"
"Well… Maybe that person failed? Maybe?"
"57 to test!"
"Two in a row seems to be a bit much… Perhaps you're right; the test is really hard, and everyone is failing?" Jamie started fidgeting a bit more in nervousness.
"58 to test!"
"Okay… This is ridiculous… How can they possibly be taking the test that quickly, pass or fail!?" Mia started pacing in nervousness. A couple of the other children overheard and snickered lightly, but none of them approached the pair.
"59 to test!"
Mia sat herself back down, "I give up on figuring this out. At least this means we won't have to wait very long."
"60 to test!"
Jamie could see his sister biting her lip, barely restraining herself. "At least we'll know our results quickly when it's our turn, right?"
"61 to test!"
"ARGH!" Jamie laughed to himself as his sister geared up for another rant.
~~~~~~~~~~ Ten Minutes Later ~~~~~~~~~~
Bathilda was standing outside the testing center waiting for her charges to finish. Given the numbers they got and the current time, she thought one of them would be coming out soon. The door opened, and a visibly upset Hermione stepped out. "I can't believe that pathetic...thing is the test I studied so hard for!" Bathilda chuckled to herself. She might have insinuated that the test was a bit harder than it truly was. "They actually asked which end of the wand the magic comes out of! I just barely managed to bite my tongue and answer instead of responding sarcastically!"
"Hello, Hermione dear. I assume you will pass?" Bathilda was barely suppressing her mirth at the girl's frustration.
"Of course! I don't think it's possible to fail if you have even half a brain!" Hermione sat there and stewed for a bit before her eyes widened. "You knew it was this easy, didn't you? Of course, you would! You've taken tons of students to this test."
"Well… I may had left out a few details hoped you and Jamie would studied. I doing it to all of my students." Bathilda chuckled thinking of Mel Cornish who had a similar reaction after taking the test last year.
Jamie came out of the room wearing a big smile and joined the pair. "I told you it would be easy, Mia."
"How can they be so irresponsible?! Have you read about all the incredible accidents that can occur with wands?"
"It's okay, Mia. At least you can rest assured knowing that we deserve wands." Jamie was remarkable at calming his sister down when she got riled up like this.
"I guess…" Mia calmed slightly and took a deep breath before saying, "Alright! Let's go get our wands!" Mia walked off following the signs for the Wand Repository with her brother close behind.
Bathilda chuckled to herself once more at their enthusiasm before following after them. Perhaps she wouldn't tell Hermione that if they got stuck, the proctors would have given them a hint to help them pass. After all, there was a lot of paperwork to fill out if a student failed, but little more than a stamp if they passed. Laziness was the mother of efficiency in this case, even if it meant that a few students who knew next to nothing about magic made it through every year.
~~~~~~~~~~ At the Wand Repository ~~~~~~~~~~
Because students got through the test so quickly, the line to get a wand was rather long, but by the time they got to the front of the line, Mia had forgotten all of her earlier frustration and only felt excitement.
"Next person!"
Stepping forward and into the available booth, she put her paperwork on the counter. "Hi. I'm here for a wand."
The man picked up the paper and put it into a magic machine, which glowed green, and then spat a form out onto the counter "First wand, right missy?"
"Yes, sir. I just passed my test."
He chuckled a bit. "Good for you, missy. Alright. Here's how we do things. Since you're an Australian witch, the ministry will loan you your first wand for free, but if you damage or lose it, you'll have to pay to rent any future wand. Note that your wand will also be automatically returned to the repository should it get too far from your magic. This both prevents wand theft and helps us keep a good stock for our citizens by returning all wands to the repository upon the death of the lendee. After all, Australia has to import all its wands! If you acknowledge and understand, just sign here," The man pointed to the bottom of the form, and Mia signed it. "Alright! Let's get you a wand!" The man placed what looked like a piece of pumice on the counter. "You put your hand on this stone, and it takes an imprint of your magic. We then launch it down this hall," He gestured to the long hall behind him. It was so deep that she couldn't actually see the end. It must have tens of thousands of wands! "and any wands that decide they like your magic will be attracted to the stone. Put your hand here and focus." Mia focused her magic on the rock in front of her. "Alright, that will do," Taking the now glowing stone back, he turned and called out, "Lucas! I've got another one for you!"
"Got it, boss." A man, presumably Lucas, ran up from the back, took the stone, settled it onto a pedestal, and sent it flying down the aisles at top speed with a touch of his wand. "Best job ever!" Mia giggled at Lucas's enthusiasm for his job as he ran to another station to repeat the process.
Based on Uluru's size, Mia thought it could take several minutes for it to make it all the way through the aisle, depending on how far the repository extended. However, Mia was surprised at how quickly her stone returned.
Lucas called out, "Heads up, everyone! We've got a big one coming!" At this, the desk agent, without batting an eye, pulled out and popped an umbrella.
'A big one? Whatever could that mean? And what good was an umbrella so far underground?' Mia pondered on this for a moment longer before a giant mass breached the shadows and sped towards her on a pedestal before coming to a sudden halt upon arrival. Wands flew everywhere, and Mia finally understood why the agent had put up an umbrella as the wands bounced off and clattered harmlessly to the floor.
Putting the umbrella away, the man looked at the pile and whistled. "Well, missy, I think this is one of the biggest piles I've ever seen. Having so many wands competing for you is quite rare! Let me get these organized, and then we can find out which one you like best."
A few moments later, Mia stood facing a rather intimidating collection of wands. Reaching out, she took the first one and gave it a solid swish, delighting in the shower of sparks that emitted from the tip. Mia then read the slip of paper wrapped around it and found that it had last been used by "Dorian the Dumb" about 100 years ago. 'Hmm… Perhaps not the best one for me, then.' Hastily returning it to the nice man, Mia reached for the next wand, mentally preparing herself for the long road ahead.
~~~~~~~~~~ About an hour later ~~~~~~~~~~
Jamie was pacing around outside, waiting for his sister. She was taking so long! He thought his selection had taken a long time, but Mia had to be setting a record! Mrs. Wilkins had settled down in one of the waiting room chairs with a copy of Australian Surfing Life and had been reading avidly for the past half hour, but Jamie just couldn't get into any of the magazines. He wanted his sister to hurry up and finish so he could show her his really cool wand!
Thinking back, Jamie remembered his disappointment the first time they'd sent his stone down the endless aisle. The agent had reassured him that the stones stopped working sometimes and had gotten a new stone and checked that it was in working condition. After charging it up, the over-excitable Lucas launched it down the corridor again. When it came back with nothing again, Jamie was starting to get worried that, perhaps, he might not ever get a wand. "Never mind," the man had said. "We've never had someone we couldn't match." He dug out a sheet of paper and called for his manager. They had whispered for a bit, and Jamie had strained to hear, but all he had heard was 'experimental.'
After more whispering, the manager nodded and signed off on the form before moving on to help the next clerk, who was picking up a scattered mess of wands. "Okay! One more time, young man. We're going to do something special with this one." Nervously, Jamie reached out his hand and charged yet another stone. Still smiling, the man turned back and yelled out, "Lucas! I've got one here for the experimental corridor!"
"Really! That's awesome!" Lucas ran by, grabbed the stone and the paper the manager had signed, and ran off with it instead of launching it from a pedestal.
"Now, Mr. Granger, let me explain what we're doing here while Lucas has his fun." The man gestured behind them. "This, as you know, is the Australian Wand Repository. Since our establishment in 1807 to help stymie the "Great Australian Wand Shortage," every wand owned by an Australian witch or wizard has been placed here upon their death. As a result, despite the absence of Australian wand crafters, we have the largest collection of unused wands in the world, ranging from the mundane to the exotic to the positively eccentric. Since about 100 years ago, apprentice wand crafters from across the magical world have begun coming here to study the wands in our collection.
"In exchange for allowing them to study our wands, the ministry requests that they leave behind all wands created during their time here, along with a wand of their choice created within the first year of becoming a Master. Most of these wands are fairly unremarkable, but a few are peculiar enough that we keep them aside in a separate area for safety… and to make them easier to study. Every few years, someone like you comes along and doesn't match any of the more traditional wands, so we let them have a try in the experimental section. Every single person we send there matches with exactly one wand. As a result, we're proud to say that we've never had anyone leave without a wand."
Jamie got progressively more excited as he listened, "So does that mean I could get some super cool wand like the fabled Elder Wand!?"
The man smiled patronizingly, "Sorry, squirt. Wands may have affinities that make them work better or worse with different witches and wizards, but all wands are created equal in the end. As long as it works for you, you'll be able to create the magic of your dreams... at least as long as you pay attention to your tutor." he finished with a wink.
"I've got one!" Lucas ran up and handed back the stone with a single wand attached to it as the agent had predicted.
"Well, here you are, Mr. Granger. Give it a swish to make sure it works, and you'll be on your way." Jamie did as requested, and black sparks shot from his wand, searing the walls slightly. "Looks like you got an enthusiastic one! Make sure to practice with it until it gets used to you. Now, here's the information on your wand. Make sure to show your tutor so they can help you control it." The agent held out a small sheaf of paper.
"Thank you, sir. I can't wait to tell my sister!" Jamie took the papers and ran out, leaving a chuckling agent behind him. Now, here he was, going mad while waiting for his sister.
At long last, she emerged from her booth, and she ran to meet her brother before hugging him. "We've got wands, Jamie! Isn't it amazing! Mine's ironwood with a jackalope horn core! What's yours?"
"Mine's jarrah wood with a core of a basilisk venom and rooster bone! And have I got a story to tell you about how I got it!"
"Me too!" As Jamie started trading stories with his sister, Mrs. Wilkins put down her magazine and started herding the children back home.
~~~~~~~~~~ Later that night~~~~~~~~~~
Finally getting home, Bathilda dropped into her squishy armchair with a long sigh. Jamie and Hermione were giant bundles of energy, and it was pretty hard for her to keep up at her advanced age. Starting tomorrow, Bathilda would teach them as much as she could, but it wouldn't be nearly enough. They needed specialist teachers with more energy and magical ability than her. She was a historian, for goodness sake! She knew next to nothing about dueling and even less about dark magic. It was time to write Albus again.
A\N: Thanks for reading. Hope to see you again next chapter.