Albus Potter, Friends and Foes

Ch 19 Wands and Mates

Albus and Cleo accompanied Harry to church late Sunday morning, and Jesus and Ginny came along.

Ginny Wang looked at Jesus Rios and sighed. "If we have children, I probably ought to become a Christian. That will be just one more source of conflict between my relatives and me."

"The Christian moral code is good, if you practice it," Jesus noted. "I do not think enough Christians take it seriously, though."

Albus agreed. "My father says he goes to church to learn about good and evil. He also feels that praying is a good thing, and Christian praying is not magic, not as he says treating God as some great vending machine in the sky. We pray that we always do, to the best of our ability, the good thing, the right thing.

"For those of us in leadership roles Christianity, actually many religions, believing and praying should keep us humble."

*

Early that afternoon the four young Magi met with Aragorn and Elanor Zauberstabhersteller, their grandson Sam, and Sam's partner in teaching Charms, Olivia Ollivander. They met in a reasonably large workroom in the back of the Zauberstabhersteller's store, in an area of the workroom that was obviously set up for meetings and teaching. There were also a couple of Goblins and Elves in the meeting. Scorpius and Rose were not there, as they were busy working on translating the scroll that Rose's mother had given them, and a couple of other documents as well.

Aragorn Zauberstabhersteller explained, "The Zauberstabhersteller family and the Ollivander family have wand stores in Europe and the Americas. Most of the teaching of wandmaking is done here. There is also a Chinese family that runs a school, and wandmakers from Asia and much of Africa go to school there. We cooperate; the wandmakers guild is worldwide, but there is some tension between the two schools, not between the wandmakers as much as between others."

Elanor started out, "Wandmakers can trace the heritage of every wand back to the Elder Wand and the female wand that is wielded by the Pirate Witch Queen. We have a nice chart that lists every wand that has ever been used to make a wand."

Elanor waved her wand, and a very large chart appeared on a big blank wall in the tall room. She continued, "We never considered wands made by Galadriel's wand, or Thorin's, or wands made any other way.

"After examining a few of the wands from the chamber, and re-examining some other wands, I am reasonably sure that our nice chart is wrong."

"We are relearning how to make Elf wands," Galadriel jumped in with. "Elves without wands are seldom subject to Dementors, and Elves with wands are, so it is not an unmixed blessing. I think we gave up too much when we became slaves but having to make moral decisions is not easy."

"Just always do the right thing!" Ginny exclaimed.

"Like that is always easy to understand," Albus scoffed. "Sometimes your only decision is which is the least bad choice."

"Why learn how to make wands?" Aragorn wondered. "Elves can do enough magic without wands, and if using wands makes you subject to Dementors, why subject yourself to them?"

"A world of reasons," Galadriel replied. "We have been subject to many things, from being forced to do the wrong things by evil masters or owners, to our own illnesses and pains that we could not heal, to being sundered beings. Elves have not been true to whom God or the Powers that Be wanted and want us to be."

"Prophesies say that when there is a new king and queen of the Magi, that we Elves will reunite," Thorin added. "All the Elfish prophecy is forecasting that the time may be near. We are not true to who and what we are if we do not try to fulfil the prophecies and reunite the sundered beings."