Chapter 8: When the wand won’t choose the wizard…

The bell rang over the heads of Dumbledore and Dan, both men not even paying attention to the melody. The older preferred to find the store owner as quickly as possible, while the younger stared around with interest. This was becoming a recurring affair for the young demi-human… Enderman… hybrid… creature…

'Mhm… I need to get information about my race out of the bearded one. I'll give myself a bloody migraine otherwise.'

Dan was sure that Dumbledore knew a lot more about his appearance than he let on. He knew the language of the Enderman, what they looked like, and even knew an Enderman named Arwen. At least that's what Dan thought.

The store was filled with samples of wood, around which were piles of sawdust of various colors. All sorts of pieces of animals lay here and there, as if thrown on the floor when they were no longer needed. Teeth, bones, tufts of hair, vials of viscous liquids… still beating hearts, twitching muscles.

The store looked like the basement of a mad genius who was trying to create his own Pinocchio from wood and animal bits. The woodworking tools were stuck in a table that stood against the far wall, and directly to its left was a door, which was slightly ajar.

"Who's there?! We're closed today, go to hell!" An irritated voice came from deep within the store.

"I'm sorry, Burke, but that I cannot do. My student is in a dire need of a wand." Dan blinked, trying to remember where he'd heard that last name before.

There was a bang and a loud crunch of wood behind the door, followed immediately by the wizard's curses. The door swung open, hitting the wall, scratching it where the metal handle had made contact with the wooden wall. An unkempt-looking woman with straw-blond hair stood in the doorway holding a broken piece of wood in her hand. A very sharp piece of wood, I dare add.

"Jennifer, is your father in the shop?" Dumbledore asked, trying not to look at the weapon in the woman's hands.

"Albus," she greeted as if looking straight through his spells. "Father went to Turkey to gather more material, so he can't help you right now." Jennifer answered briefly and threw the piece of wood on the table. The girl was dressed in a jumpsuit – stained with a mixture of sawdust in front – under which she wore a plain gray shirt.

"Well, maybe it's for the best." Dumbledore mused. "Could you craft a wand for this young man?" He asked, pointing at Dan.

The woman only glanced at Dan and shook her head. "No, I still haven't finished my training under my father. Everything I can create now can't be called a full-fledged wand, only a prototype."

Dumbledore let out a quiet "Ah," in understanding. Wand-crafting was one of the hardest arts in the wizarding world, so he was little surprised to hear that Jennifer still hadn't gotten her Mastery in the subject.

"What about your father? When does he return to England?" Dumbledore tried again.

But Jennifer just shook her head. "He won't be back until January. I'm sorry, Albus, but you'll have to look for someone else."

Dan thoughtfully hummed, looking at the chaos going on in the store. He was a little disappointed that they had come here for nothing, but decided to ask something anyway. "Is there any way to determine the best combination of materials for a given wizard's wand?"

If Dan can't get a wand today, at least he'll learn something new.

"Oh, that's the easiest thing. The best wand for any wizard or witch is one made from the bone of their forearm and left eyeball." Jennifer answered easily and picked up the file from the table. Every wand-crafter knew this, even wand-makers knew this little "secret."

"Sorry, what?" Dan said in shock.

"You heard that right," she turned to the table and took a new blank from a pile of pieces of wood. "Bone from a forearm instead of wood, and a crushed eyeball for a core."

Dan stared at her like she was crazy. Who in their right mind would rip out their body parts to create a wand? Although, given that there are potions in this world that allow you to grow new bones in the place of the disappeared ones… Maybe it wasn't so crazy after all.

"Then why don't I see every wizard and witch with wands like that?" Dan continued his question.

"Oh, my naive friend, getting the ingredients for a wand isn't the hardest part of making one." Jennifer said with a laugh. "To create this particular type of wand, you will have to start and finish the whole process yourself. No magic, no third-party intervention. But the most important thing in creating such a wand is that it be your first in everything.

"The first magical artifact created with your flesh and bone, the first focus with which you will find a real bond with… The first attempt to create such a wand." She looked at Dan, who was hunched over to keep from banging his head against the ceiling. "When creating any wand, everything must be perfect, because even the slightest mistake can lead to its destruction. You shouldn't forget that you have only twenty-four hours to create this wand, after you have obtained the ingredients for it, otherwise they just rot."

Dan nodded slowly, not understanding why the crazy woman was telling him all this. He wasn't going to tear himself apart to create a wand, damn it!

"So not only do I have to pull out my own bones and eyes, but right after that, I'll have to start making a wand. With only one working hand and eye. Sounds terrible." Dan commented.

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But Jessica only laughed in response. "Oh, that's not all! You can't even use potions to numb the pain. That's why even masters like Ollivander and my father didn't even try to create wands like that. I'm sure someone besides them tried, but seeing that other than Albus and Voldemort haven't been very strong wizards lately, I highly doubt it." She finished and returned to her work.

Jennifer spoke with such confidence that Dan thought she spoke from experience. Not that he was going to ask about this sophisticated method of torture anything else.

Dumbledore just stood there, scratching his beard in thought. It wasn't the first time he'd heard of this method of making a wand, but after his first wand contacted him. He suspected that only the most insane and secret families prepared their children for this event. But now in front of him was perhaps one of the few people who wasn't a child and could theoretically create such a wand.

Of course, that didn't mean that Dumbledore would force Dan to do it. No one should go through such torture.

"I think it's time for us to go," Dumbledore decided. "The wand is an important part of any wizard, but we'll have to find it somewhere else."

---

They didn't, in fact, find it somewhere else, even in darker stores. Each stick just exploded in his hands. The shopkeepers weren't very happy with this reaction, but explained that his magic was too strong and aggressive for traditional wands and that he would most likely have to find something else to cast his magic with.

"What now?" Dan asked Dumbledore.

"Well, now I need to figure out how to explain your appearance to the rest of the professors at the school. Unfortunately, not all of them will be happy about your late arrival." He said disappointed. "We rarely accept students this late, many will be unhappy about it. Although given our situation, I think everyone will have other problems on their mind." Dumbledore was a beacon of honesty right now and Dan didn't like that at all.

"Really? What's going on right now that the professors won't pay much attention to my appearance?" Dan asked with interest.

And Dumbledore started talking about everything that was going on at the school, from Sirius Black's escape from Azkaban to the Dementors on school grounds.

Sirius Black was considered almost the right hand of Voldemort, who was thrown into the worst cell in prison for his crimes. The murder of twelve Muggles and Peter Pettigrew, breaking the stature of secrecy, being a part of a terrorist organization and being a reason that Lord Potter and his wife are dead. The last one wasn't a real charge, but people generally believed that he was the one to blame.

With the Dementors it was much easier, they were wardens in the prison where Black escaped from. These were creatures that fed on the positive emotions and souls of people. Terrible, twisted creatures sent to hunt down Black.

"And what idiot decided to send soul-sucking Demons to a school full of practically defenseless children?" Dan asked and raised an imaginary eyebrow. Lately, he's been annoyed that he has a face that can only scare people.

"The Minister of Magic decided this was the fastest way to catch the criminal." Dumbledore replied, ignoring the ridiculously accurate description of Cornelius Fudge.

"Huh." Dan tapped his long finger against his chin. "If I find a way to kill these creatures, will anyone try to stop me from doing the deed?" He asked more to himself than to Dumbledore.

"Unfortunately, the Dementors are the property of the Ministry, so you'll be charged a hefty vandalism bill," the old man answered anyway, more amused than frightened by the teenager's words. "But many will even thank you for ridding the world of these creatures. They took too many innocent lives in the past."

Dan looked at Dumbledore with an unreadable look for a couple of minutes. This was a man who had seen two wars in his long life and had long been preparing for a third. He may not show it, but killing all the Dementors will help a lot if Voldemort returns. The main thing is to know how many there are in the whole world, the rest is a matter of technique.

"Do you want to swap war stories when you have time?" Dan finally asked. "I remember enough about the collapse of the USSR to scrape together a couple of funny ones." Of course, these will not be his personal stories, but those that he heard from his grandfather and parents, but who can say that he is lying?

Dumbledore nearly tripped on the asphalt in shock, but eventually pulled himself together faster than anyone could see. "I don't think war stories are the right topic to talk about with teenagers."

Especially the Second World War. Dumbledore had no funny or pleasant memories of that at all.

"Why not? I think it's a great way to look at things from a different perspective. Usually, young minds are much more creative than old ones." Dan shrugged. "I'll hear how an experienced wizard fights, and you will hear how the flexible and creative mind of a child works." This is how Dan traded stories with his grandfather. Kurt told him about difficult situations in great detail, and Dan figured out how to get out of them with minimal losses. "And you still need to introduce me to the other Professors, when is the best time to do so, if not over a pint?"

Dumbledore chuckled into his beard. "Young man, don't tell me that you want to get my professors drunk to get dirt on them."

'That wasn't my first thought, but it's a good idea.'

"Of course not!" Dan responded quickly. "Compromising evidence is useless if I don't know what kind of person I'm dealing with. So, I want to get to know my professors better and get the best rumors and blackmail on them."

Both men laughed softly to themselves as they continued to walk through the crowds of Diagon Alley. They both knew how important it can be to have dirt on the right person, especially in turbulent times like this. No one even noticed when they disappeared with the quiet click of Apparition.

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