บท 13: Choices
Unaware of the politics being played amongst the Sacred Twenty-Eight, Ian was elated at the results of his hard work.
The pendant was ready. Just a day before the big event, and his uncle was more than pleased with the result.
He didn't know about the anti-curse ability of the pendant but the dark magic sensing ability of the pendant was more than enough to make him satisfied.
As for now, Ian was more focused on quickly completing the task at hand which involved memorising and acting out a lot of greetings and goodbyes.
And going through massive blocks of texts about mannerisms. Quite tiresome but equally benefitting for the future.
<Basic Royal Etiquettes: 70%>
His progress was already at seventy percent, which honestly wasn't too bad. The bar kept moving faster than the time with Occlumency, but it was understandable. Occlumency required him to build complex magical shields whereas with this task he only had to learn and act out a few tasks.
However—
"The reward for this task is… quite interesting to say the least."
<Reward: Warlock's Charm Potion Recipe>
Charm potions have been used in the world of alchemy for a very long time. Ian had read stories of old wizards using them on younger women to make them fall madly in love with them.
He didn't know how it compared to Amortentia, which was said to be the strongest love potion in the world. But he knew that even if he got the recipe, he was more than likely to never use it.
"Forget it." He sighed. "I have more important matters to tend to."
And that he had. Getting prepared for his birthday event was one of his biggest concerns. However, there was something else that he needed to look into.
He was about to be ten and he was certain that a few months after his birthday, he would be going to a magical academy. And when he would, he would require a wand.
"Let's see…"
Opening his drawer, he found a book that he had borrowed from his uncle. The book was fairly simple to understand with information about wood and core materials. He wanted to build his own wand, which he could thank to being an Ollivander. However, he still had to get supervision from his uncle which compared to the benefit of making his own wand, wasn't too bad.
"There is a lot to cover…" He liked what he read about the materials, the benefits they provided and the unique effects that they had. However, he didn't have any experience working with the materials, which meant he couldn't be sure how a material would react with another material.
For that, he needed his uncle.
Making it his second priority, he focused on finding wood types that might suit him. And there were way too many to consider. There were at least a dozen of wood types from each letter of the alphabet and going through all of them was tiring.
But he did.
`Sycamore: The sycamore makes a questing wand, eager for new experiences and losing brilliance if engaged in mundane activities. It is a quirk of these handsome wands that they may combust if allowed to become 'bored'. However, as long as the user can prevent the wand from getting bored, they can perform almost all spells within seconds.`
This wood was dangerous as it could potentially harm the wizard if he didn't use it continuously for adventurous quests. However, Ian knew that someone as invested in learning new spells as him didn't really have to worry about the 'wand' potentially getting bored.
And the quick casting feature was a massive advantage for him. Being able to cast various spells in a matter of seconds would come extremely handy in duels.
Another interesting wand wood that he found was Yew.
`Yew: Yew wands are among the rarer kinds, and their ideal matches are likewise unusual, and occasionally notorious. The wand of yew is reputed to endow its possessor with the power of life and death.`
Ian found the fact that the wand users were mostly criminals quite intimidating. Yet, the benefit of it providing the user with the power of life and death meant he could potentially tread into some uncharted and interesting territories.
Moving onto the core types and excluding the three supreme cores that his uncle often used, he found two interesting cores.
`Horned Serpent's Horn: This wand core was used by Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry founder Isolt Sayre. The wands made from this core were exceptionally powerful. They were also sensitive to Parseltongue and warn its owner of danger by emitting a low musical tone.`
A very interesting and possibly powerful core and the best part was that it wasn't common which meant the opponents would have a hard time figuring out the weakness of the wand.
But the other core fascinated him even more.
`Basilisk Horn: Only one wand is known to have used this core. It was made by Salazar Slytherin for a wand of his own making.`
He had heard of Salazar Slytherin, one of the founders of the Hogwarts school and he knew that the man was very powerful.
"A strong wizard, especially one who founded Hogwarts, wouldn't use a core that was weak."
Salazar was a cunning and devious wizard which made Ian refuse to believe that the man might make a mistake with choosing his wand core.
"So… for now it's either Sycamore or Yew for wood and Horned Serpent's Horn or Basilisk Horn as the core." However, he was a bit sceptical about the last one. "It will be a nightmare to find a Basilisk Horn."
After all, these things were near extinct due to the banning of their breeding.
…
…
Unknownst to the heirs, The Malfoy and the Nott family had a serious dent in their relationship. The adults of the family made as little contact as possible without making it obvious to the world or their children about their current situation.
But the heirs of the two families didn't share the same sentiments as the adults, Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott were just as good friends as always.
"Do you think we would receive better wands than those muggles, Theo?" The blonde hair's dislike of muggles was well known in his friend circle.
Which was relatively small, comprising three others. Theodore Nott, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle.
And in all honesty, if one would ask Draco if he considered Crabbe and Goyle his friends then the immediate answer would be a hard no.
To him they were his sidekicks, underlings to be precise. They were there because they could benefit from his title as the Malfoy heir and he could benefit from them as they wouldn't mind slaving away their energy and time for him.
"I guess." Replied the heir of the Nott.
Unlike Draco, Theodore just didn't care. It didn't matter to him if they were muggles, half-bloods or purebloods. If they weren't worth his time, he wasn't interested in talking to or about them.
His father, while being a firm believer of pure-blood supremacy, also didn't bother investing time where he couldn't benefit —even for pure-bloods.
"You guess?" Draco was someone used to being showered with attention and respect, which made it a tad bit irritating for him when his friend didn't seem much interested in the talks he made.
"Wands choose the wizard, not the other way around." Theodore sighed. "My father told me about it and if we are capable enough, we will get good wands and if we aren't… then we won't."
Theodore was proud, even he didn't want to accept that there was a possibility that they might receive wands worse than muggles, but he wasn't as stubborn as Draco —so he revealed what he knew, begrudgingly.
Draco frowned, he didn't know if his friend was telling him the truth but he knew that Theodore only lied where it profited him and Draco couldn't think of any possible reason that Theodore would lie here.
So, the heir of Malfoy nodded. "I see…"
As they talked, Nott remembered something that his father told him about.
"Are you going to the birthday of the Ollivander heir?"
Draco paused as he had completely forgotten about the event. "When is it?"
Nott chuckled. "Tomorrow"
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