“That would be Sirius Orion Black the third, Heir Apparent of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.”
Ted Tonks gaped at that. Whatever names he was hoping for, it sure as hell wasn’t the name of the traitorous Sirius Black. For goodness sake the man was responsible for the death of two wonderful people, who were as close as relatives to Sirius, orphaning their child, killing another close friend and also twelve muggles. This man who had come in, Nova Arcanum, seemed fairly confident about his facts.
“Are you trying to tell me Sirius Black is innocent? And that he wasn’t even given a trial to prove it?”
“Yes, that is exactly the point I am trying to drive home, Mr Tonks. Sirius Black was framed. The true traitor is Peter Pettigrew, the person who everyone thought was killed by Black.”
"What do you mean by that? Even if, just for arguments' sake I believe Sirius Black to be innocent, Peter is dead, killed at the hands of Black in full view of several witnesses."
"According to the information I possess, James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew were unregistered animagi. And guess what!? Peter Pettigrew was a rat animagus. If my speculations are right, he escaped that day after accusing Sirius and blowing up the street on that day.
Have you ever seen a blasting hex being used, Mr Tonks? I assure you, the use of a blasting hex would never leave a neatly severed finger behind. There would be blood, organs and bones all over the place; not one measly finger. This was a ploy by Peter to escape under the radar and pin the blame on Black."
"Oh my God! Are you sure about all this? I mean, it all seems convincing and rational but if it's true, that means an innocent man was condemned to that hellhole for over a decade."
"Of course, it's true. I wouldn't have come to you otherwise. And if you remember the start of our conversation, I had stated that Sirius Black was never given a trial. It's going to reflect badly on the ministry when this comes out and Fudge won't like that. I will speak to the one person in the ministry who could help us get the case into the courtroom. You need to focus on every scrap of information you can find about what happened on that day."
"Alright, you can entrust that to me. Let me know when you have spoken to your ministry contact, so that I know when I'll have to appear in court."
"I will do that. Thank you for your time. You may forward the bills for your services to Gringotts. They will handle the payments for me."
"Your most welcome. It would be most gratifying to participate in such a high-profile case aside from the fact that we would be trying to set an innocent man free."
Darius left the shop and headed out. The next order of business would be to talk to Madam Amelia Bones, head of the DMLE (Department of Magical Law Enforcement), a truly fair woman and one who would be able to help bring this case to the light of day.
Darius sent off a letter to Susan Bones, requesting for a formal meeting with Madam Amelia Bones, in her capacity as the head of DMLE, at a place and time of her choosing. He supposed he would have better luck getting a meeting with her if he gave her the opportunity to decide the time and place.
The letter would take some time to reach and then he would need a letter back with the date and time of the meeting. So, it would not be possible to hold the meeting today at least.
The next one was an exploratory mission. Before the term ended, he came across one of the most ancient books he had ever seen in the RoR. It may even have been there since the founding of the school. It was an old book, still held together only due to the strong enchantments on it. The old English was nigh unreadable, but thank Merlin for translation spells.
The book exposed some rather startling secrets and he had been troubled since he read them. The book, titled Magical Steps, was a basic book about the process of learning Magic, as it was in those days.
To Darius' utter shock, he found that the magicians of today, at least the European ones are heavily shackled and restricted in their magical abilities. Repetitive Dark Lord uprisings, power hungry morons, paranoia, ignorance and later the MoM has obliterated crucial knowledge from our history and we are all the weaker for it.
The first was the classification of magics. What is known today as wandless magic and wand magic were known as natural magic and focus magic respectively. We are magical creatures ourselves, why would we need foci made with bits and pieces of other magical creatures to cast magic. The only purpose that serves is to teach us to focus our magic. In fact, it is more difficult to use magic through a wand than naturally, as we do not need to send the power through a different sort of magical signature to do so. The problem is, we grow so dependent on our foci i.e., our wands that we are not able to use magic properly without it and wandless or natural magic becomes a rarity, rather than the norm.
Darius had done some research by contacting some ICW outposts and as a matter of fact, only European and American magicians were as dependant on wands. Magicians from African, Middle East, Eastern Asia and other parts of the world were not nearly as reliant on foci. Who would want to be reliant on a thin piece of wood that may be broken anytime. In the middle ages, Russian mages actually had the tradition of breaking their own wands on their 14th birthday, as they were considered old enough to not rely on wands anymore. Wands were more of crutches than actual casting aides.
They also allowed monitoring of magic cast by the individuals. The Trace which tracked underage magic did so via wands. Each premade wand had the Trace, which would allow the ministry to pick up on underage magic. They also weakened the magicians natural magic as the pre-made wands are not perfectly attuned to the magicians. That is why the richer and more well-informed families preferred custom made wands, which would resonate better with them.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Ollivander's wand, the one he was so proud of, was holding Darius back. The wand was not exactly growing more powerful, he was slowly adjusting his own magic to it and releasing more of it. That would be detrimental in the long term and hold him back from achieving his full potential.
By this time Darius had reached Knockturn Alley. He still had his glamour rune on an he silently headed deeper into the dark lane. The place was just as crowded as Diagon Alley. They were witches and wizards bustling all over the place but also many dark creatures. He was pretty sure he had seen a dhamphir skulking in one of those lanes. He finally made it to his target, Magica Altum.
He stepped into the shop and blinked at the brightness. This was nothing like Ollivander's dinghy little shop. It was brightly lit and with all the glass cabinets looked more like a shop for jewellery than wands. Nonetheless, he stepped forward and rang the tiny bell on the counter.
A few moments later, an extremely lazy looking blonde man stepped in from the door in the back and approached the counter. His hair was dishevelled and he looked as if he had just woken up from a nap, which judging by his yawn, he had.
"What do you want? Ah sorry, stupid question, and I ask it every time. You here for a custom wand then? Look a bit older, to be honest. My name is Ater Caelum and I am the owner of this fine establishment."
"I am older than the usual clientele you must have. I only recently got to know the advantages of custom wands over ready-made ones and was looking forward to and upgrade from my current wand."
"Excellent!! Someone who has been enlightened and taken the steps to rectify the situation. Alright, come over here to this first cabinet."
Darius stepped over to the first glass cabinet and looked in through the glass. There were at least twenty metal boxes there but they were covered and their contents could not be made out.
"Now, place your wand arm over the glass and slowly move your hand over all the boxes. They contain a variety of woods treated for being used in wands and you have to tell me the one which reacts to your magic the best."
Darius closed his eyes and ran his left hand over the boxes slowly as he extended his senses to the maximum. He had decided to learn to be as adept with his left hand as with the right last year. He would use his right free to wield his sword and the left to cast spells. It was on the eighth or ninth box that he finally felt a strong reaction and said so. Ater immediately wrote down something on a piece of parchment and took him to the next cabinet and asked him to do the same again. He had to do the same exercise a total of four times before he was done.
"Hmm. An interesting combination. I may not have a Sight like the Ollivander family but even I can tell the contradictory nature of your essence here.
Your wand's wood is Yew. It has been associated with death, rebirth, change and regeneration.
The handle is that of white pine. It is a symbol for peace, healing, warding and spirituality.
The core is a unicorn hair which represents purity, light, cleansing and healing.
The focus crystal below the handle is a cursed lapis lazuli. This particular gem shows vision, darkness and death.
You have a contradictory life and death essence and the wand should be ideal for you."
Darius liked this procedure way more than Ollivander's. He hadn't even held his wand and could somehow tell that it would be better suited to him.
"Thank you. I would like to commission this wand. When can I have it?"
"I will have it ready by tomorrow. The wand will cost 20 galleons and has to be paid upfront. For another five, I can knock off that pesky trace we are supposed to put."
"Here is 25 galleons and I will be back tomorrow for the wand."
That was time well spent. Darius looked forward to trying out his new wand.
He had decided to get the wand despite all the drawbacks in the book for one single reason. He wanted to reach the level of Novo. None of the greatest magicians, Merlin, Morgana Le Fay or the others used wands. They either used staffs of natural magic. This was because they went through magical Novo. The ritual could be done when one's magical core matured, usually near the age of seventeen. The wand of the ritual caster is places in the same tree the wand is made off, in my case, yew, and the ritual is started. If successful, the entire tree is condensed and magically reinforced into forming a staff around the initial wand. The staff is nigh indestructible and allows the owner to use very powerful magics.
There is no way Darius would let so much prospective power out of his grasp. Of course, he would have to use the wand for the next few years but no one said that he could not practise natural magic at the same time. If he was unsuccessful he could just revert to natural magic permanently after that. He was planning to do the customary world tour after his graduation anyways. He could see the sights around the world and maybe even pick up on some of the more exotic magics.
Darius returned to his apartment after that. It had been a long day and he had got through a lot of work. His mother just smiled and told him to have his dinner. She trusted him and let him do whatever he needed to and he loved her for that. He would have told her about natural magic and magical Novo but she was too set in her ways for that. That required magic practice since a young age and it was impossibly difficult for a focus magic user past their twenties to become even a moderately proficient natural magic user even if they use a couple of decades.
He ate dinner and returned to his room to practice his inner magic channelling. The reason he had come across Novo was because he was searching for information on his technique. It seemed to be unique to him and he couldn't reconcile with the fact that over centuries of magical history, absolutely no one had come across that technique. Granted, they didn't have the advantage of an adult in a child's body but still it was something worth looking into. He came across the Novo reference then and found his particular technique. It's true name was Vertentes, an auxiliary method to increase magical power; to give children higher chances to succeed in Novo.
He engaged in Vertentes for the entire night and got up bright and early in the morning. It was while he was having dinner with his mom that the owl flew in. It was a handsome tawny and was holding an official looking letter in its talons. He took the letter and slid across a strip of bacon to the owl before it flew off. He opened up the letter to have a look.
Mr Darius Icarus
I am agreeable to a meeting at noon today in the leaky cauldron. I will have a private booth reserved for our conversation. I have heard only positive things about you from my niece and look forward to meeting you. But I have a lot on my plate and will be only able to give you a half-hour out of my schedule. Looking forward to meeting you.
Sincerely,
Amelia Bones
It was short and to the point. Darius preferred it that way. It was easy to schedule the morning. He could go to Ater Caelum for his new wand an hour earlier and then head to the Leaky Cauldron for the meeting. A half-hour was pretty short but he was sure she would stay for longer when she heard what he had to say.
It was going to be an interesting day!