015 // MC bonds with his wand.

Sirius was sitting in a lotus pose in his room under the moonlight which was coming in from the balcony. He had instructed his trusty partner in crime, kint to wake him up if he fell under too deep somehow. With that, he dived into the memory of last night's dream again and again and again to access his core just like he had done accidentally last night but he got lost in his mind and woke up the next day with kint shaking him to wake up.

"Master Sirius, kint be waking you. It be near sunrise."

He woke up to Kint's murmuring and then stretched his body which had almost turned into a statue because of staying in one pose the whole night.

Huh, he didn't achieve what he was trying to do but it was alright.

If this was something easy, then many people would have already been aware of this. He needed to research that phenomenon. Maybe it only occurred because of that alchemical solution his father had given him. Or only because his core was going through change last night. Anyways, he would achieve it again, he was nothing if not persistent.

He did his usual training with his martial magic instructor and felt spells coming to him easier that day as well as he had superior control over his movements. His instructor already knew that he had his birthday yesterday that's why he didn't comment on my instant improvements.

After the training and a bath in a claw-foot bathtub present in his chambers, He got ready for the day. Kint laid out fancier clothes than usual meaning he was going to meet people today or go out. He didn't have his usual lessons today; he was going to accompany his father to the Diagon Alley.

They were going to get his wand today. He couldn't wait to get a wand. It wasn't that he couldn't do magic without it, he had his staff, potions, and wandless magic, but the wand was something he had grown up seeing used by all his family members and the magical portion of the staff.

Even Augustus had bought a wand when Mr Edward found him ready to begin his practical education. He had shown it proudly to everyone and all the younger children had oohed and ahhed seeing his brand-new wand. Cherry wood and kneazle whisker, 9 inches long and slightly bent, costing him 4 galleons as Ministry discount wasn't available to him.

Augustus was proud of his wand but still regretted missing the opportunity of attending Hogwarts after various people told him about their experience at the prestigious school. Not that his parents could've afforded it. Even if Muggleborns didn't need to pay fees, they still needed to buy the list of equipment on their own and with a currency value of 2.13 pounds = 1 galleon, it wasn't possible for them.

12-15 pounds or 5-6 galleons were the cost of basic low-quality equipment per year excluding wand, which has been standardized by the ministry for Hogwarts students only. Muggleborns weren't even allowed in Diagon alley until they or their guardians signed binding contracts with Hogwarts or in some cases, orphans with the ministry.

They would collect money from the parents and accompany the muggleborns or muggle raised children to an alley nearest to them only after the finalization of terms and conditions, where Floo was present for further travel. There were a few second-hand and charity shops available for folks in Turnaround alley, which ministry people preferred to use for muggleborns shopping.

Only wands were bought new at a first-time purchase base price of 3 galleons a piece from Ollivanders which was compulsory. If the wand cost more than 3 galleons, it was covered by Hogwarts as per the contract. Many people didn't bother in the case of the wand and just paid the full amount as the wand was the most necessary thing for mages.

Muggle Families who could afford were given the option of paying the full fees or some part of the fees for a lighter workload contract with Hogwarts for education or in rare cases were allowed to send their children to one of 2 trade schools in the British Isles, which accepted pupils from every background at very low cost with a different contract. They were not reputed enough for 'real' mages but were rather used for housing and teaching squibs basics of the muggle world till they turned 15-17.

The contracts were generally used so that the students would be obliged to pay for their board and food while receiving education by working at greenhouses, creature pens, farms, kitchens, laundry, or various other places in the school itself.

Hogwarts was as much as business as it was a school. It had about 1000-1500 students attending at any given time and only 20-25% of them were muggleborns but about 70-75% of the students had signed the working contract, which included several Half-bloods as well purebloods from weaker economic backgrounds. Hogwarts' work-study contract had many benefits as students learnt a few trades while gaining an education that would help them in the real world.

My letter didn't have an option for this as even Hogwarts staff knew who they were inviting, wizengmort families and families of ministry office employees were only presented with a work-study contract on demand, and they usually used it only if they were desperate. My grandfather would have probably razed the school at the insult if they had added the option of any kind of contract, even if they added a communication clause for 'just in case.'

Back to Augustus's case, according to him, his family barely had enough to eat 2 meals a day so even the cost of equipment was enormous for them. About 20 pounds per annum only for equipment were a lot for even a middle-class family and as he wasn't an orphan, the ministry orphan fund of a total of 10 galleons with a year-round contract (for 7 years) wasn't available to him. They had 7 limited slots for that contract and only if those slots were not filled till the last date of Hogwarts acceptance, they could be offered to muggleborns.

The Ministry representative had even offered his parents a modified contract which stated that if they were willing to give their child permanently to ministry, they would take him in exchange for zero communication and forget about ever having a child from then onwards. It was at that point Augustus's father had picked his butcher's knife, so ministry and Hogwarts representative had retreated marking it as a lost cause. They had those 2-3 times per year with muggleborns.

But Augustus's situation worsened after that, his family finally knew that their son was a wizard and worked him to the bone to suppress anything demonic in him. They were even debating to take him to church to exorcise him, he had listened hidden from them and was planning to run away soon. But then he was kidnapped, and he had decided not to go back after being rescued.

He existed in a sort of grey zone being a Muggleborn who was not attending Hogwarts. He could have gone to Hogwarts, but he would have to wait for the next academic session for that and till that came around, he liked having a job and financial independence, where he was learning magic as well.

Not that life as a black household servant was bad. He earned a total of 36G or 76.5 pounds a year (3G or 6.37 Per month) while side by side learning under various staff members. He had a post of houseboy, which was being an errand boy of staff members. As food and board were included in the employment contract, he spent most of the money he earned on his education, clothing, and entertainment.

Most employees preferred to be paid in half muggle money and half wizarding money as it was easier to spend without the hassle of going to the bank.

Sirius was curious one day when Mr Edward was handling the budget and he had peeked in some documents. Their household employed about 50-55 human staff which included both magical and squibs as well as they had 6 elves. He had asked Mr Edward about why they were employing such a high number of staff and he had said it was partly for appearance in front of muggles and partly to run the estate smoothly without overworking anyone.

Their family was an exception in this as most magical households overworked their elves, but blacks used elves more for business purposes, so they hired human staff under binding contracts. Blacks owned an elf breeding farm in Ireland which was a great source of income for them.

In the end, their household had a budget of approximately 4000 - 5000G per annum to maintain both residences along with grounds, gardens, and greenhouses. This was excluding other expenses like food, tutors, clothing, travel, equipment, entertainment etc. which was another 3000 – 5000 galleons depending on how many and how lavish balls, parties or get-togethers were hosted that year.

As the value of,

1 knut = 1 Penny

1 Sickle = 1 half-crown or 2 shilling/6 pennies

1 Galleon = 2 pounds/half-crown or 8 crowns/half-crown or 42 shillings/6 pennies

while there were,

1 shilling = 12 pennies

½ crown = 2 shillings/6 pennies

1 crown = 5 shillings

1 pound = 20 shillings or 4 crowns

In Gringotts terms, there were,

1 sickle = 29 knuts

1 galleons = 17 sickles or 493 knuts

So, the Black family was spending from somewhere around 7k – 10k galleons (15k to 21k pounds) yearly in just living costs. In the mid-19th century. He had been stumped after realizing that while Mr Edward who had been a staff member in various capacities for the last 90 years had just smiled at him and sent him away.

He currently had about 16k galleons at his disposal, as his personal/trust vault which a fortune to most had with 1k G with 1k G increment every year and another 4k G was in his mokeskin pouch taken from Murray's home/vault. There was also about 1k G he had gotten from various family members on different occasions growing up for one thing or other.

Sirius got ready for the day while thinking about Augustus who he was having trained in valet/butler/steward capacity under Mr Edward who has expressed the desire to retire soon with his wife now he was over 105 years old, even if he didn't look like it.

He had breakfast with his family after which he collected his hat, formal outerwear robe which had extended pockets and his mokeskin pouch. He looked at the Mokeskin pouch he was using for the last few years and decided that he needed a new one.

"Ready son?" his father asked donning his robe and hat.

"Yes, father" Sirius replied happily in anticipation.

"We would take a carriage today.' His father said they both left the house, and a coachman pulled a carriage for them.

A footman jumped and opened the door as well as put the stairs and the father-son duo boarded the carriage. Sirius noted that they were taking a Hippogriff carriage, which had 2 hippogriffs bound at the front, this was a general use carriage. He liked the abraxan or thestral carriage better as they were smoother but were used on different occasions and a thestral carriage was mainly used for intimidation by his grandfather. Eh, he was a spoiled young master, what could he say.

They reached London an hour later while his father gave him a lecture on how to deal with goblins. Every vault owner was expected to know the basic protocols of conducting business in goblin bank to avoid another goblin rebellion.

Last happened just about 65 years ago when a pureblood house had insulted goblins inside the bank and called them beggars for charging too much for every single service.

It had lasted a few months after that, the 8 generations old Colmer family became bankrupt as well as several allies faced heavy losses in business.

His father told him that Blacks maintained a balance of measly 1 million Galleons in various vaults at the British branch itself, which wasn't even 1% of their wealth and the rest of their wealth was secured in different branches of Gringotts in Europe as well as several dwarves run banks and a several muggle banks around the world.

They even had a highly guarded material vault as well in the bank for priceless jewellery, tomes, artefacts, official parchment scrolls, and other important things.

Every goblin run branch was run by a different clan, Britain had Gringotts while other countries had their clans responsible for their money. Only one thing was the same across the banks, that was the coinage system. ICW had regulated the coinage system in the late 17th century just after the statute of secrecy was enacted as wizarding folks were facing problems while dealing with money after separating from their muggle counterparts. Various banks had to spend years tracking down muggles who had somehow ended up with wizarding coinage. It had been the basis of another rebellion that had ended in strict regulation of distribution and circulation of money.

Gringotts in particular provided various services to its customers who had a certain amount in their vaults. They don't mention other services to those without ample balance in vaults.

The Black families had favourable dealings with goblins in the various countries as they were the provider of over 60% of meat and 30% of herbs to them as well as various other important things. They had their manager who was responsible for the dealings between blacks and goblins in Britain and likewise in different countries.

Sirius listened to his father carefully as this was an important aspect of life in the wizarding world. Money was something they had without bounds but if they couldn't deal with people handling their money, they won't survive for long.

They finally landed in a park specially reserved for carriage landing in one of the alleys. This reminded Sirius of another important thing.

While muggles didn't have aeroplanes right now, they would become common in about a century. And then satellites would be used for various things, and it would be impossible to hide their existence. He didn't know how they had hidden everything from muggles in harry potter's time, but he won't leave it on chance. He had ample time to work on it later.

They were in the horizontal alley, a rich offshoot of Diagon alley filled with expensive restaurants and other service providers for the upper echelon of society.

The father-son duo made their way to the main alley and came out near the middle of Diagon Alley. 'Their destination Gringotts was just a few paces away, but his father took him to wand maker first.

The shop was a narrow and shabby structure with peeling gold letters over the door of the shop read: Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.

They entered the shop, and the interior of the shop displayed a solitary wand lying on a blue cushion by the dusty window. The shop was tiny, empty except for a single, spindly chair in the corner. Thousands of narrow boxes containing wands were piled right up to the ceiling of the tiny shop, and the whole place had a thin layer of dust about it.

A bell jingled as they entered, and a man appeared behind the counter. He had long silver tresses of hair and silver eyes that looked as if they were peering in your soul itself. The man was wearing a navy-blue robe with a bronze pattern representing Ravenclaw, a house of Hogwarts proudly.

"Welcome Sons of the house of black." He greeted in a voice that had Sirius and Cygnus straighten at attention.

"Mr Ollivanders." His father greeted the man behind the counter and said,

"My son has recently had his magical maturity; he would like to buy a wand."

Mr Ollivanders peered at Sirius,

"Do you feel ready to bond a wand young Mr Black?" he questioned in a serious tone.

"Yes Mr Ollivanders, I am anticipating this moment for a long time," Sirius replied seriously to the wandmaker looking in his eyes.

An inch tape flew over them and started measuring Sirius.

"Very well. We at Ollivanders uses various combinations of wood and core suitable for young wizards such as yourself. Now, which hand would you prefer using?" Ollivanders asked Sirius while pulling various dusty boxes randomly from the shelves.

"My right hand is dominant, but I would like to learn to handle my wand with my non-dominant." He replied to Mr Ollivanders while staring at the inch tape measuring his fingers one by one. He got an approving nod from his father at his words.

"you're a sensible one, aren't you. Not many realise this and only learn later in difficult situations." Mr Ollivanders creepily smiled at him while presenting a wand to him.

"Here try this."

With that wandmaker started presenting him wand after wand which didn't react to him at all.

Mr Ollivanders was looking peeved at this.

"What are you using as a focus currently lad?" he finally asked when 10th wand refused to bond with him.

"I have a staff." He replied honestly as it wasn't something to hide.

"May I have a look?" Wandmaker requested and Sirius complied.

He summoned the staff out of his mokeskin pouch and presented it to Mr Ollivanders.

He examined the staff while humming something.

"5 foot 7 inches, made of Ebony, with dragon heartstrings core from 2 mated ancient dragons and obsidian as a stabilizer. Work of legendary 'Theobald of Pengarth'. Approximately crafted over 1300 years ago. Has faced many battles and turbulence of changing times, wielded by legends in their time." He murmured looking at the staff in reverence.

"Yes, this is a black family heirloom, which matched young Sirius's temperament Mr Ollivanders." His father clarified seeing that the wandmaker was lost in thoughts.

"Ah yes, yes. It is indeed an heirloom but suitable for Mr Black here." He said returning the staff to Sirius.

Then he went to the back of the shop and came out with 3 boxes which looked older than others.

"Here try this Mr black." He said presenting a very plain looking redwood wand to Sirius.

Sirius picked it up and felt a tingle go down his arm and then spread to his body while the wand shot out a few weak silver sparks.

"No not this. Close but not perfect." Mr Ollivanders said taking the wand from him and the gave him another wand which was similarly plain-looking but dark brown.

This time the wand connected to him instantly, but its response was only slightly better than the last one with few bronze sparks.

Mr Ollivanders took that wand back and then opened the third box and which had a white unvarnished wand, unlike all others.

He presented me with the box itself instead of the wand.

Sirius picked the wand from the box and felt an instant connection to the wand which let out a shower of golden sparks and bathed the whole shop with them. Mr Ollivanders looked revealed and said,

"13 inches, Aspen wood, with half a scale of last known slain chimaera and half a scale of a now-extinct ancient great white dragon, unvarnished and over 1 and a half millennium old crafted by my ancestor, who also crafted the wands which bonded with Rowena Ravenclaw and Salazar Slytherin in their time."

Sirius and his father didn't say anything for a few moments, staring at the wand which was apparently contained now extinct materials and was crafted by one of the celebrated wandmakers in history.

"Is this the only wand like this in existence?" Sirius asked the wandmaker, now holding unto the wand a bit tightly. He had felt like he found a missing part of his soul itself when he had bonded with it.

"That's debatable young black, my ancestor had used similar cores in 6 other wands with different woods and all of them had bonded over the years with worthy mages. The Last was sold some 700 years ago, this is the 7th and last one present in my shop but there might be other 6 still around. This combination was also popular in the Greek region in the last millennium." Ollivanders replied to Sirius in a lecturer's voice.

"Thank you, sir. How much I owe you for this?" he asked rummaging around his mokeskin pouch and looking around for galleons.

"13 galleons." Mr Ollivanders declared. It was expensive as hell for someone from the working class but still a tame cost for something so ancient that it was equal to a museum relic or family heirloom.

While Sirius pulled out a few gold galleons, his father had already moved forward and paid Mr Ollivanders for his ware.

They left the shop after 20 mins of entering it and Sirius couldn't be happier.

"I'm proud of you son, being chosen by such an ancient wand is no small feat." His father said to him patting his back.

"Thank you, father. I'd do this wand justice.' He said smiling sowing his wand to his father.

The father-son duo moved towards their next destination.

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A/N - Hello my Dear readers,

This is the longest chapter till now with major information dump and world building. Fell free to skip over conversation rates but a lot of research went into it. It was fun though. feel free to share your thoughts on various things stated here.

So, who would like to guess what Sirius would specialize in by knowing his wand wood and core?

Exhausted author who wrote this chapter in one day.

Toodles!!