Chapter 7 - The Changed Wand

When the final week of summer began, Harry was once again hanging out in the headmaster office. It was a busy time as the professors made small adjustments to their syllabus as some changes were in the works. He wasn't included in the know and it suited him fine as Albus assured him it was good.

"Albus, I will be going to get my school supplies today and maybe get my wand checked out." Harry said as he stood up from his couch on the second level.

Dumbledore placed down his quill and looked at his apprentice. "I believe we were supposed to go shopping for it last week."

"We were but they had a Lockhart signing there and Lucius Malfoy tried to fight a vague and worthless bill Arthur passed. Don't get me wrong he might have good intentions but bad execution."

"Oh, how so."

"The bill is to protect non magicals from harmful artifacts, but truthfully I think he just stagnated our world more. Why should we care if someone charmed their radio or television with no intentions of selling or throwing it out. I believe it is the laws like this that have the majority of witches and wizards not looking at the muggles for ideas to improve or change our world." Harry sighed as he realized he was ranting. "I'm not saying go all mundane or something insane, but the worlds a big place and cutting out a large potain is dumb."

Albus just smiled at Harry as despite his tendency to rant and complain about the odd things. He does raise a good point from time to time. It would be interesting to see how Wizengamot would react if they hear his rant. He certainly doesn't hold his tongue on either side no matter if muggles or magicals.

"Try to be back before seven. I should have enough time to finish this and have a break so we can work on that ritual of yours." Albus said.

"See you later, Headmaster." Harry said before he vanished in a green flame in the floo network.

--

When Harry stepped into the busy Leaky Cauldron as it was around lunch time. He saw a lot of older students or parents doing last minute shopping. After giving Tom the owner and Bartender a small wave, Harry made his way to Diagon Alley. A scene he could describe as pure chaos.

Masterful and almost like a ghost, Harry weaved through the crowd of either excited or panicky parents. He made a quick stop at his vault, before he strolled through the stores fairly quickly stocking up on potion ingredients and his class books minus Lockharts. Why would he waste gold on a fraud after all.

Opening the door to Ollivander wand shop, Harry found the old wand maker behind his desk.

"Mr. Potter, what can I do for you?" The old man asked.

"My wand seems to be slightly off. I was hoping you could take a look at it."

"Hmm, there has been a slight change in your magic so I can imagine so. Well, come on back so we can solve the issue." The eighty two year old man waved him to the back of the store.

In the back of the store, jars and planks of woods covered the shelves and bookcases with a workbench against the back wall. On the desk Harry could see a half finished wand or what he assumed is half finished. The wand in question seemed to be chiseling itself out of a block with a rigid following a slight curve with a slight twist on the rest of the handle.

"Do the wands normally craft themselves out?" Harry asked slightly surprised. If so he might be interested in learning wandlore and crafting for a hobby. Expressially if he is going to be roaming the earth for a long while occurring to his death angel.

"Yes and no, Mr. Potter. What you are seeing is Ollivander family magic which is how I can fill the shelves. However for other wandmakers, when they make a wand after infusing the chosen core or cores. They have to focus on their block, basically talking to it as if it is a person as they slowly and meticulously carve out the wand. Since they should make a mistake the wand is either damaged or dead before it lived."

Quickly sorting through what he just learned, Harry now understood why there aren't many professionals or more well known wand makers around London. Should one acquire a wand from a shady or untrained proper wand maker it possible the wand will won't work or backfire. Which explained a few dark wizards he ran into with their wands backfiring, killing or seriously maiming them.

"So, let's get started on getting your wand fixed or tuned." Ollivander said.

"You're surprisingly not jumpy or energetic you usually are. Is everything ok?"

"I fell awkwardly on my back this morning. Should be good as new tomorrow or so. Now, I need you to cast a simple spell like Lumos and hold it."

Lifting his holly phoenix tail wand, Harry did as he was asked and silently casted a slightly bright blue light. Holding it there he could feel a slight sluggish feel in his magic as he channeled it through the wand. As he held it, Ollivander kept bringing over different jars before putting them back holding another.

After five minutes and slightly winded. He watched as the old man danced around his workshop with two small jars in his hands. It was only after he grabbed the third jar did he spin on his heel and faced Harry.

"Perfect, now I must ask you for your wand."

"Can I ask what's in the jars?" Harry asked curiously.

"Your going have a very unique wand. Hair from a Threastal, a handle of Deathwood, and a thin coat of ivory from the bone of a very old basilisk for the rest." Ollivander spoke with a slight surprise and amusement in his voice. "If I had to say you had a very busy year and I offer you a piece of advice. Be very careful who touches your wand as the wand will probably fight them and drive them bonkers so long as they hold it."

"I think it best we keep this to ourselves as the Daily Prophet will have a field day saying I am turning dark or something." Harry sighed as the old man nodded in agreement.

"Very true as they have less than stellar articles since Rita Skeeter joined."

The two chatted for a few minutes as his wand upgraded itself with the handle growing a few shades darker, a silver and a slight ivory white coated the rest. It still appeared to be the same beside its color change to a graphite scale themed on coloring as the tip was pearly white and the bottom purely black.

"Well I can safely say this was one of the most unique changes." The old man laughed as he carefully picked up the wand.

Grabbing the wand, Harry felt the wand instantly reconnect to him and it felt similar to the elder wand. It felt as if it could increase his spells fairly easily without drawing more magic from him similar to the deathstick.

"So how much is this going to cost me?"

"Due to the rarity of the components it is going to cost fifty-five galleons with a discount for allowing me to work on such a wand as yours."

"Thank you," Harry said as he pulled out the gold coins and handed them over. Heading out of the shop, he looked over to Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions "Now one last stop and back to the castle."

--

An hour later, Harry stumbled out of the firepit as his foot caught the rug in front of it. Looking around he saw the amuse smile Albus was sending him through his long beard. However he wasn't alone in the office as an overgrown man child was there throwing a fit. Snape who looked at who came just sneered.

"This isn't over." The man grumbled nastily as he stomped out of the room.

"I assume something happened?" Harry asked as he took a seat in front of the old wizard.

"Indeed since the news will be out soon so no harm in telling you. He has been removed from the head of house since Horace Slughorn agreed to come out of retirement. Minerva was also removed due to her own recommendation. She said something about not always being able to help her house out due to her Deputy Headmistress duties." Dumbledore summaries for him.

"That didn't happen last time around, but I am changing this just by being here." Harry shrugged as he didn't really mind much since he didn't know if it was good or bad.

Albus just nodded in agreement as he knew time was a fickle and dangerous thing for mortals to mess around with. "So since I finished ahead of time. Shall we begin on a certain project?"

A grin crossed Harry's lips as he easily agreed.