Knowledge is Power

Chapter 15

Mag had to admit she was shocked to discover that her parents and Severus were once childhood school chums. Of course she'd known there was some sort of history between them but to learn it was such a close one was more than she'd expected. Once the fact of the former close friendship at last sank in, however, she saw it as an opportunity. Perhaps if she could help her parents and Severus sort out their issues and renew their friendship, she could have a more constant connection to him.

When it came to how to go about it, though, she knew she needed more information. Over the next few weeks, she asked her parents about their friendship with Severus and what he was like growing up.
"What do you think Severus enjoyed the most," she asked Raislen one afternoon when she roped him into a discussion about his school days.
The two sat together in the library while Mag's mum was out shopping for summer clothes.

"Books, definitely," Raislen said with a chuckle.
"I used to joke that Severus had many lovers and all of them had pages! When he came to visit me, he fell asleep in this very library so often that your Grandfather WestCraven eventually just put a cot in here for him to use!"
Severus had slept right here in her own library? This was a beloved room to Mag as well, and it had just become even more special.
"So he and I have that in common," Mag said with a pleased smile.

"Indeed," Raislen agreed.
"He, your mum and I all bonded on our love for books and knowledge, especially of an obscure and arcane variety."
Mag had a sudden idea that filled her with excitement.
"What books have we acquired in the past eighteen or so years that you think he'd like the most," she asked.
Of course anything before that, he'd have already seen if he visited the WestCraven home frequently.
"Oh the ones on Egyptian curses for sure," Raislen answered without even having to think.

Mag was pleased by her father's ready response. It gave her something to share with Severus, not to mention the fact that ancient Egypt was such a fascination to her that she had a private altar set up in her room to Set and Thoth. Before term started up again, she'd gather all the books on Egyptian curses and bring them to Severus to borrow. He'd obviously love that and it'd give them something to talk about with more depth than school work!

Mag spent most of the summer working on a concept she was developing for making wands out of gemstones rather than wood. As quartz crystal amplified power, she believed a wand made of quartz crystal that she enhanced would be double the strength of a wooden wand. With other gemstones added, each wand would have different additional properties such as citrine for focus and success or jet for protection. Either of those could be excellent for dueling and the citrine should improve most spells in general by enhancing the caster's focus.

Before she could put any of these concepts to the actual test, she needed to go stone shopping for the proper shapes and sizes she'd need to assemble each wand. Any witch or wizard interested in working with gemstones for any reason knew that Gringotts was the best place to go for quality as well as variety. She headed out for Gringotts one morning with a long list of stones she was looking for and ended up spending the entire day in their gems and crystals vault with Griphook. The goblin was very helpful and he was impressed with how well Mag knew her stones.

He even referred her to a goblin jeweler when she explained how she pictured the wands construction. The large central stone, a crystal, would have smaller stones attached with gold or silver or copper and she had no way to do the metal smithing on her own. She was dreading the process of seeking out a jeweler she could trust to do the proper work involved and the idea of working with a goblin set her mind at ease. Goblins understood and respected the magic of gemstones so their skills could only add to her own rather than disrupt them as a jeweler without a proper knowledge of stone energy may do.

As any good crafter of magical items should do, Mag made the first wand for herself. If one didn't test a product personally, they had no true idea of how it actually worked. Sometimes one's intention didn't carry across in the actual finished product and only using said product would allow a person to know exactly how their true intention had manifested itself.