Chapter 12
The art of making magical foci was more than just the making of wands, Dudley was finding out. According to the introductory book that Mr. Olivander had given him; staffs, hair sticks, musical instruments (mostly pipes and flutes), canes, and many other things were all possible. Many of the different kinds of foci depended upon the culture of the people using them. For instance, witches in Japan often used special fans as foci, and in ancient times those fans had often used finger bones of magical animals as their cores complete with the claws, turning the fans into mundane weapons as well as magical foci.
Dudley was utterly fascinated, and had begun taking notes along with drawing pictures of different ideas that had come to his mind. The idea of carving a lady's staff or cane for Lady Longbottom had appealed to him just as much as making one of those fans for his own mum. He liked the idea of his mum having something she could use as a weapon to defend herself with. Or perhaps the other way around as a staff would be nice for her to have as Lady LaFey, sort of echoing the fact that she was the head of Morgana's House.
At the moment Dudley was done with his lessons for the day, (transfiguring matches in needles and back again, small blocks of wood into matchboxes, and an essay on the theory behind the spells), and he was looking over plans that he'd gotten from the Goodlife Center in London. They had an amazing number of skills that they taught there, among them woodworking. He'd already taken their introductory course on wood turning, a skill that was vital for wand making, and he was thinking about taking the spoon carving one as well.
Right now however, Dudley was deep in plans for his own workshop. The tools he needed to accumulate were not ones that he could get from the magical world. Magical tools would only interfere with the formation of the wand. He would need a manual lathe, one that worked by foot power, to turn wood blanks into the proper wand shape. That would be the largest piece in his workshop. For the rest, he would need hand tools such as carving knives, drills to make the proper holes to allow for the insertion of the magical cores, clamping brackets, and polishing stations. This was going to take so much of his allowance and he hadn't even gotten started looking into his supplies yet!
"ARGH!" Dudley groaned, pounding his forehead into his arms where they were folded on the top of the desk in front of him.
"Something wrong, Dudley?" Petunia asked, coming into his room. The two of them had been given connecting suites and she'd made a point of keeping the connecting door between their sitting rooms open.
"A woodshop is going to cost, and you've already told me that you're not going to be spoiling me anymore. How am I going to afford the tools, much less the supplies and then, where am I going to put it all?" he asked, throwing his hands up in the air.
"Well, that's a good question. The bad news is that there isn't any room for any of that at Privet Drive. The good news is that there might be room at Ravenclaw Keep," Petunia said.
"Ravenclaw Keep? There's a separate castle, not Hogwarts but another one that's just for the Ravenclaws?" Dudley asked excitedly.
Petunia smiled. "Yes, there is. Mind you, it's been kept under stasis spells for lord only knows how long, but it's there. It seems that each of the founders had their own keeps or towers before they built Hogwarts, and that's where they stayed when the school wasn't in session. According to Gringotts, it's a shell keep. What that means is that it is a tower, built on top of a mound or in this case an actual hill, with a circle wall made of stone around the tower. On the inside of the wall there should be some types of workshops, so with any luck you should be able to find somewhere to set yourself up.'
Dudley sighed in relief. "That sound great. I'm still going to need tools, but," he grabbed the plans for the foot pedal lathe. "It looks like I can build the lathe. Dad had tools in the garage. I think that I need to go through them, and maybe get some better wood than he had and a belt of some sort. That I think I can manage on my allowance."
"Well, they'll certainly do you more good than they did Vernon," Petunia said. Vernon had collected tools more as a part of his job than as something that he wanted to work with. He also had a collection of wood that he told people that he used - not that he did. "I have no use for them, so you may have any of them that you wish. For now, let's go check out Ravenclaw Keep."
Petunia POV-
Petunia handed Dudley his cloak and swung hers around her shoulders. Then she called for their house-elf, Daisy. She'd been one of the house-elves at Hogwarts, who had taken to following Dudley around during their days at the castle. Petunia had felt sorry for the small creature, who had told Petunia that all she really wanted was to have a family again. She'd been serving at Hogwarts for more than a century after her last family had died, and the Headmaster had told her that the only way she could have a family again was for her to attach herself to the Ravenclaw line, so she'd tried to show young Master Evans that she would make him a good elf as Petunia had been so busy sorting out the school.
Petunia had bonded with the house-elf on the spot. It infuriated her that the crap soaked idiot had played such a horrible trick on such an innocent person as she knew very well that Dumbledore had planned on ending the Ravenclaw line in favor of picking it up himself. Once she'd done that she'd taken Daisy down to Gringotts and had gotten their bond recorded as part of the Ravenclaw estate so that the estate would recognize Daisy as a Ravenclaw elf. That was when Petunia had found out about the Keep.
Other than their joint ownership of Hogwarts, the Keep was the only property their line had left. Even the LaFey line only had the vaults left, as every other property had either been sold off or destroyed over the last 500 years. The vaults however, had still been collecting royalties even though the lines had been 'lost' to squibs for centuries, which meant that they had money to deal with whatever state their small tower was in.
Daisy, now that she was an official Ravenclaw elf, knew where the Keep was and now took both of their hands and popped them to the Keep. As the site was under preservation spells she could only take them to the edge of the wards, but that simply allowed Petunia and Dudley to take in the grand scene.
The Keep was five stories in height, with a balustrade on the top and made of a deep grey stone. There were no windows or even arrow slits along the walls, although each story was delineated by a ring of white stone. The outer wall was also made of the same grey stone and was two stories tall with a moat at the bottom of the hill. Petunia, Dudley and Daisy were standing on the remains of a road, made with stone and gravel from the looks of what was beneath the grasses, leading up to a drawbridge with two small buildings attached to either side on the other side of the moat.
The drawbridge was up, but they could see a well maintained road on the other side of it leading up to the Keep. On this side, where the drawbridge would sit when down, there was a small standing stone, no larger than a modern day mailbox with a brick stand. It was very suspicious, so Petunia walked over to it and laid her hand with the Ravenclaw ladyship ring on the top. Instantly the drawbridge began to lower and just as an added precaution she had Dudley lay his ring on top of the stone as well. She remembered the sorts of things that Lily had told her that Hogwarts had as defenses. She had no wish for Dudley to be caught up in such things.
"Well, shall we go explore?" Petunia asked. Dudley grinned and nodded.
Dudley POV
Dudley was about ready to vibrate out of his skin. The drawbridge came down and he hurried across it, practically running up the road to the main gate of the Keep. That was another thing that he could do now that the eating curse was off of him. He'd taken to running outside on the paths around the Longbottom greenhouses every morning. He was never going to take for granted the ability to move freely. When he'd been fat it had taken a lot of effort just to move up and down a single set of stairs. Now he could run a full mile.
"Slow down," his mum called laughing.
"But Mum!" he protested, jiggling in place at the gate. He knew his ring could open it, but he waited until she had met him there.
"I have no idea how long this place has been placed under stasis, Dudley. It's still possible that even with the spells, some things have been damaged. So we stick together," Petunia insisted. Dudley sighed, but knew she was right. Still, there was a great chance that he would find a good place for his workshop, and maybe he could even find himself a flat of some sort like Harry had in his travel trunk. Castles had all sorts of rooms after all.
His mum laid her hand on the gate and it slowly opened. No matter that he really wanted to rush in, Dudley stayed behind his mum and followed as she slowly walked into the courtyard of the tower. The moment he stepped through the gate, Dudley could actually feel the magic of the place dancing over his skin. As they walked into the courtyard the magic began peeling away, the stasis charms finally giving way.
The first thing Dudley saw was a formal garden, with herbs and flowers. He was glad about that. His mum and Harry had the Evans family green thumb and they would need some place to grow their favorites. Then, along the wall as his mum had promised, he saw small buildings. He wanted to go and check them out, but his mum was going on to the tower first. He sighed, but gamely tagged along after her.
That was when Dudley saw the unicorns. They couldn't be anything else. They looked like they had been dozing just beyond the garden, in a field of wildflowers and they were just waking up. There were a dozen adults and three, no four colts? yearlings? Whatever it is you called baby unicorns. The one thing that really stood out about the herd though was that they were not white. They were all different colors.
"They bees here for protections. Being sleepys is better than being hunted. Bad peoples hunt unicorns and say these not real unicorns cause they not white," Daisy snorted. "That not true. They just being bad. Young master can use unicorn hair for his wands. To be asking though, not to be taking! Taking is bad." The elf actually shook her finger at Dudley.
"I know," Dudley said. "I promise not to take anything by force, but I hope they'll let someone brush their coats, manes and tails. That way I can get the hair without hurting them, and it should make them feel better to not have any snarls in their hair."
"Daisy be asking," Daisy said, but led them up to the tower door.
Once more the next door opened with a touch of his mum's hand, and they entered the Keep. The tower was a wizarding space, enormous compared to the outside. There was an entry hall with wooden benches under cloak pegs, and round logs that had been hollowed out for people to place their walking sticks in. There were even boot brushes and scrapers next to the benches to clean muddy boots on. Dudley took the hint and left his sneakers under one of the benches and hung his cloak on a peg.
Doing so sort of brought it home to him. This was home now. Dudley's family had owned this tower for over a thousand years. When his mum was gone, it would be his and his family's. Lord that was a lot of history to have fall on his head. After his mum had hung up her cloak, Dudley followed her into the next room, which turned out to be a combination kitchen on one side, and common area on the other. What surprised him not at all, was the fact that the entire common area had bookcases on every wall and they were all full. Not a single bit of stonework could be seen until the wall ran around to the kitchen area.
The kitchen area was appropriately sized for Daisy, as she proved when she began bustling about, checking out the shelves where pottery plates and bowls were kept and the black iron kettles and spits inside the gigantic fireplace. Seriously, you could roast an entire ox in that thing, and not one of the small ones either! Daisy poked her head into several small doors and piped up, "Pantry and cellar is full, Mistress! All ready for new peoples! Even has elf room for Daisy!" Then she paused and twisted her uniform skirt. "There be enough room and magic for more elves, Mistress. If Mistress be willing, Daisy could go courting."
That had been another lesson in House-Elf customs that Dudley had gotten. House-Elves were very much aware of how much magic a place or family had. More family meant more family magic of course, and family homes and estates had often been built on ley lines to increase the amount of magic available to all members of the family. That however, did not mean that all of that magic was available to the elves. They traded their help around the estate in return for their use of the family and ley line magic. They felt that, as that magic was there for the family to use, adding another elf to the family had to be approved by the Head of House for that family as that elf would be using more of that family's magic. They were sticklers for not being moochers.
"That sounds like a fine idea, Daisy. We'll need another elf around to help out with grounds and that herd of unicorns, as well as anything else that might be out there," Petunia agreed.
Dudley checked out the human sized door that led out of the common area. There he found a hall that had several doors leading off of it and a staircase at the end. He reported this to his mum and they checked out each of the rooms. They were guest suites. Three bedrooms with baths and a sitting room were in each suite, although the baths were of the Roman variety and what would be the jakes in any other ancient castle had magic to vanish the result.
"Let's check out the next floor," Dudley said and hurried towards the stair.
The next fourteen floors, expanded to the utmost limit according to Daisy, were the largest depository of books, scrolls and other types of written word that could be imagined. It seriously blew both Dudley and his mum's minds. "I thought that the Hogwarts library was big," he finally managed to blurt out as they reached the top floor, which was finally not a library. That final floor was filled with more suites, this time of a family nature as one was obviously a nursery.
"I think we need to talk with Madam Pince," Petunia said. "She has to know how to deal with this."
"Yeah," Dudley agreed. "Well, it makes sense I guess. Rowena Ravenclaw was known as the biggest brain around."
"Well, let's pick out our rooms, shall we?" Petunia asked.
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Severus sat impassively next to the bed as Draco suffered through the Purging Potion that he had just been given. They were in the Hogwarts hospital wing behind one of the privacy curtains, and Madam Pomphrey was supervising the procedure of stripping the foreign magics off of his godson. Every time he thought that he had come to the end of his anger or the end of finding a new reason to be angry at the color blind bastard, may he drown in dragon shite, something else cropped up.
This time it was the magics on his godson. Oh, Severus knew that the jackass of many colors, all of them clashing, had magicked his snakes from their very first feast at Hogwarts, but this was far too much. Draco should never have been sorted into Slytherin. The Hat had already let Minerva know that, should the students be willing, once they were Purged it would re-Sort them. More than just Draco had been forcibly Sorted into the wrong House, but in all honesty it was Draco that had Severus fuming.
Draco, it seemed, should have been Sorted into Griffindor. Severus was actually glad that Draco would be a lion now. The boy had no subtlety at all, and would do much better among those who wore their hearts out on their sleeves even if he would miss being able to keep a close eye on the boy. He wasn't worried though. Minerva would see to it that the new Head of Griffindor kept a close eye on those re-Sorted into her old House. Minerva had been reluctant to give up being Head of Griffindor House, but as the new Headmistress there was no choice. There could be no favoritism for one House over another, and Minerva was the first to admit that she favored her lions everywhere but the classroom.
The first of the new teachers were to arrive in the next week as Tuney was already interviewing a large number of people. Three had already been selected; Professor Acharya - the Parsal magic teacher, Professor Amble one of the new Care of Magical Creatures teachers, and Professor Oza who would be teaching Magical World History. Acharya and Oza were an engaged couple who were more than pleased to be doing the Patel family a favor and getting out of India at the same time. Severus suspected that there was a potential arranged marriage that they were avoiding, but that was just his suspicions. He had no actual proof of the matter.
"Uncle Sev?" Draco asked, finally sitting up on the bed.
"Take your time, Draco," Severus said, helping to steady the boy. "You were rather heavily potioned and cursed into being a brat and worse. It will take some time to find yourself again. It certainly has for me."
"He wanted us all to dance to his tune," Draco spat. "Dark family, dark core, follower of evil, no matter what we might want ourselves." Severus well knew that the one thing that Draco really wanted was to get his mother away from the evil that his father dished out. The boy was a protector deep down, not one who liked abusing others.
"Except that you do not have a dark core," Severus pointed out. "Your wand is hawthorn and unicorn. You cannot have a dark core and wield a unicorn hair wand."
Draco blushed. "I don't know why old Olivander gave me that one," he muttered. "It's not like everyone in my family isn't a dark wix."
"The Malfoy family, yes have all been dark leaning wix for hundreds of years, and the Black family has been dark leaning for just about as long as well, but not all members of the Black family have dark cores. Many of them have grey cores, and your core is grey as well. It means that you are more balanced than other wix. Your aunt Andromeda has a grey core and your cousin Sirius has one as well," Severus pointed out.
"I thought that you hated Sirius Black," Draco said, puzzled.
"That Gandalf wanna be, power mad imbecile, sugar rush addict put hexes on me as a First Year," Severus growled. "I am willing to admit that Black probably was under such things as well. It's not easy to grow up, Draco, but one of the things that you must do when you are an adult is to admit that as a child you didn't know everything. I know now that Black was badly abused by his parents. I didn't understand that as a child, and honestly I wouldn't have cared. Now, as an adult who has had to deal with many abused children, I understand a great deal more about what was driving Black back then.
"You see, Draco, childish rivalries are just that, childish. While there might be some truth to those rivalries that last into adulthood, most often it is simply kids not realizing what they are doing is stupid. As an adult you must look at people and see them for what they are as adults and forget what they were like as children, or at least attempt to," Severus said, attempting to articulate this part of the normal growing up process.
Draco sighed. "How much of my rivalry with Potter is Dumbshit's doing, or at least what Father has shoved down my throat, and I'm being stupid about?" He obviously did not want to ask, but he wasn't stupid, Severus knew. The correlation was as obvious as a dragon on the rampage.
"I think that you are going to have to find that out yourself," Severus said plainly. He wasn't going to help Draco on this one. He had a hard enough time himself where Potter was concerned, although in his case it was more that Lily's son was the sort of Griffindor that somehow got in the path of gigantic ancient monsters and he had no idea just how he was going to protect the boy now. He leaned in to whisper into Draco's ear. "The one thing that you are going to have to know now is that Potter is now Lord Slytherin, and as such you owe him fealty as the heir of Malfoy. That of course means that you must treat him as such."
Draco looked at him in horror.