36 Research

I spent the first week of summer doing my homework. Why? Because I'm a good boy. No, because I knew if I didn't do it first, I wouldn't do it.

My plans for summer consisted of a lot of research and getting ready to implement some plans. First, I wanted to finish my research on the runes Dumbledore had inscribed on my Walkman; next, I was to read Maryann's journal to see if she wrote how she got or made the violin. If there were no clues, I would search for wand-making tomes.

Last was what I dubbed the Carter collection. It was a series of grimoires written by my ancestors; these books pre-dated Hogwarts, back when wizards had a master apprentice and way of teaching, and these books were created to teach the family. It seemed that each head of the family would write one; when they assumed control, it acted as a guide to teach their children and as a guide to which spells were permitted to be used by the family. It gave me a look into my ancestor's ideology, which spells they deemed worthy family of knowing and use.

I also restarted my routine of running and exercising. I couldn't practice magic, so I didn't cook unless asked; I cleaned the house daily. Mr Malhook's heart attack made me realise just how old my foster parents were, and I did my best to help out. They had been fostering kids for a long time, too, 35 years. I didn't know most of my 'foster brothers and sisters'. Most had gone on to make their own families, and they had sent birthday cards over the years, but apart from my Janet, I didn't know any of them.

Janet was 11 years older than me so when I came to the Malhooks when I was 5 she was already 16. She treated me like a little brother but still I was 5 and she was 16, we didn't have much in common then 2 years latter she whent to uni and apart from the occasional visit I didn't see much of her. The Malhooks told me Janet would be coming home for a week; she had been working in London and met someone. Mrs Malhook was excited; Mr Malhook was too old to be overprotective, but he still kept saying, "I will know if he's good enough for Janet when I meet him."

I didn't know what to really think, Janet was special to me, she had really treated me as family, but she was also older than me so, it's not like I could have any say. Another thought was on my mind about her visit: was I allowed to tell her? So, the night I got the news about her visit, I wrote to the ministry to the Department of Muggle Affairs for clarification. The response I got was unhelpful. Basically, my guardian and their relatives could know. That didn't answer my question because Janet wasn't adopted; I didn't know if she was a relative. After explaining the problem to my foster parents, the Malhooks left the decision with me.

So, after a week, I had done my homework and got started on my research. Before I left school, I had worked out which runes designated the size of the Faraday cage. I was working through the runic numbers; they looked like tallies strikes but were placed in certain directions. Really, now I would just have to draw it onto the speakers and then trace the runes with my wand using a spell.

The runes had to be perfect, so I practised writing the runes over and over till my penmanship was correct. My plan was to swap out the dimensions with the new ones and keep all the other runes the same. I didn't need to know how that part works, but it does work. This was all theoretical at this point because I could do the spell; the trace was on me now.

After I was done with that, it was almost August; it's funny how time flies when you're having fun. I started to read Maryann's journal; she was an incredible witch, went to Hogwarts as a Ravenclaw, and discovered her musical talents in her 3rd year. It wasn't till she left Hogwarts that she started on the path of a minstrel, as she called it.

She had an accident and damaged her violin. The repair charm wasn't working properly, and the sound was all wrong, so she took it to a craftsman. A muggle named Samuel Finch apparently had a brief romance over their love of music.

Maryann wrote how Samuel would talk about the instruments' souls and how each was unique because of their wood and the craft and care that went into each of his works. That got Maryann thinking about her wand, wondering if she could mix the two.

Journal didn't say how she did it but that she had crafted it herself with Samuels's help. She did write that after she created it, she felt a pang of great sadness because even though she had unlocked an aspect of her magic, it was untrained and malnourished, and if she could, she would have done this in her schooling days, so that it could grow.

That is why she enchanted her violin so her nephews and their descendants could activate this magic if they could. Maryann has never married and has never had kids. She was loved by the family, tho, her older brother, especially, who named his daughter Mary after her.

I had two weeks before janet arrived and I had 5 weeks before going to school, I just received my second year book list aswell.

I was tapping my desk, thinking Maryann had crafted her violin. If I wanted my own instrument I would need to craft one myself, to me the instrument I wanted and craved was a guitar. I knew of a guitar, Smith; it was in Partington, which is near Manchester. So next day I dressed in jeans and a band shirt and caught the knight bus to Gordon Smith's Guitars.