[Coakley’s Curios] Can't find what I'm looking for [Mer]

For Freddie this summer was very special. He had never before attended a summer camp or summer school and it was amazing that he had got this opportunity now – with full funding. His family would not have been able to afford it and if it hadn't been for his mother who had told him to apply for financial aid he wouldn't have gone at all. However, his mother knew him well and clearly was the most important person in his life. She understood that being at home all summer would not do him any good despite the fact that mother and son were longing to spend time together after months away at Hogwarts.

She had made this sacrifice for him and Freddie was grateful but also felt rather guilty. His mother did not go on holidays, did not do anything to enjoy herself. At first the boy had not been able to enjoy himself fully, always thinking of his mother and how he should have stayed with her instead of travelling but quite soon, after about a day and a half, he had realised that he would not do her or himself a favour if he didn't have a great time here.

The activities at the camp were great fun. Not being able to use magic was a challenge but clearly worth it. They'd discover a different life and maybe find out more about themselves too. Freddie tried to take part in as many things as possible, almost wanting a time turner so he could be at several places at once. Yet, making decisions was also something he'd have to learn. He soon realised that there was hardly a bad decision to make as everything he had tried so far had been an experience he didn't want to miss.

With every day at the summer camp the boy felt more light hearted and a wide grin was almost permanently on his face. He wanted to give some of this pleasure to his mother though. Upon his return he wanted to give her a present that showed the love and gratitude he felt for her. While he had no clue what kind of gift he could find for her he had stumbled into Coakley’s Curios. He had little money at his disposal but he assumed he could maybe get something he could spice up one way or another.

As he was looking around thoughtfully, touching a lot of things to examine them the shop employee kept an eye on him, tutting every so often when he picked up something fragile. Many of the items he discovered were things he had never seen before; truth be told, he didn't even know half of them, making this more of an adventure than he had anticipated.

The door of the shop suddenly swung open. Freddie startled and spun around, almost dropping the item he was holding. He smiled widely as he realised that it was a friend from Hogwarts who came in. “Meredith!” he exclaimed brightly, “Looking for souvenirs?”


@Meredith Emerson

How nice it was to finally be at a summer camp. Technically, Meredith didn't actually attend the previous year, but her cousin Jon sneaked her in for a day. It was enough to make her beg to her brother Leo to let her go this year instead. While she certainly missed working at the craziness that was Sugar & Spice and all of the beautiful and soft, cuddly animals that lived there, being in the United States of America was an amazing experience and she couldn't wait to tell the whole family about it, especially Jon and Frida (while she wasn't technically part of the family yet, she'd considered her future sister-in-law as an Emerson for a long, long time), as both of them loved travelling and adventures.

One part of being at SASI was driving her completely insane though. No magic allowed. Mer hadn't realised just how magic dependent she had become throughout her years at Hogwarts. Not being able to perform spells for really basic things for the entire time she was at camp felt insane and Meredith didn't think she could last the whole time. Of course, with her wand safely tucked away at home, she was basically a muggle anyway. And though she could use wordless magic on occasion, she felt she was still too unpredictable to risk using it. All of this gave her the brilliant and extremely somewhat crazy plan to make her own wand from scratch. The well-read Emerson witch had certainly read enough books on the subject, and had spoken to Mr. Ollivander himself enough to give her what she thought was fairly solid understanding of the intricacies of wand-making. She thought she could do it. The idea of it had intrigued her for a long time anyway, and what better way to learn than to do it herself?

And so, Meredith had wandered around the town for a little while looking for a shop that could help her with her little secret project. Of course, the dreamy girl got just a smidgen distracted by The Crescent Cafe but having satisfied her curiosity in that department with a tea and a croissant, Meredith had stumbled upon Coakley's Curios. Nearby the cafe was a beautiful willow tree with the most ideal bit of wood to use for her new wand, and it had (in her opinion) similarity enough to reed wood (which her own wand was made of) to maybe half work, and what she had collected was a similar length to her own. Now, theoretically, all she needed was wand core, which is what she hoped to find in the shop. The Ravenclaw student wasn't all that fussed about how common or rare it was as long as it worked, after all her own, excellent wand was a fairy wings core which was fairly rare!

As she opened the door and stepped inside she certainly wasn't expecting to hear her name. Looking up, she flashed a bright smile at the boy who was looking her way. Freddie was a sweet boy, if she did say so herself and she was glad to see him. Meredith didn't think it was likely that Freddie would tell on her about what she was up to, and she even decided to let him in on her little project. Perhaps, he'd even help. "Freddie!" She replied back, chirpy and cheerful as ever. "How lovely to see you."

She shifted around from one foot to another finding his question rather amusing whilst simultaneously trying to figure out how to answer it. "Ah... of a sort." She stammered, before smirking a little. "It will certainly be a good memento if I can get it to work... Don't suppose you've seen a wand core while you've been here?"

“It's lovely to see you too,” the boy echoed with a smile on his face. He was really glad to see a friendly face, someone who might even help him find something for his mother. He had spent quite some time here now and was just as clueless what to buy as he had been upon entering the shop. The only problem in asking Meredith for help was that she might point something out that he could not possibly afford.

Freddie raised his eyebrows as he saw how Meredith reacted to his question. There was something about her reaction that intrigued him. She was clearly up to something, maybe something that was forbidden, even dangerous? The boy stepped a little closer so they could continue talking quietly without the shop worker overhearing them.

“You want to create a wand?” He asked, eyes wide open. “That's… wow!” He didn't really know what to say. Wandmaking had always seemed to be a very complex matter and something that not everybody was capable of. Had Meredith done proper research on this? He wasn't even sure that the Hogwarts library offered anything helpful for that.

“A core...” he mused and looked around, trying to recall if there had been anything from a magical creature that might make a decent core.

“I've seen feathers back there.” He pointed in a corner of the shop. “Not sure if any of them is from a magical creature, though. We could examine them further?” he suggested with a little shrug.

Meredith smiled brightly at the Gryffindor, giggling at his shock a little. Freddie was so funny and nice, she was glad to have bumped into him. "Maybe I am, and maybe I'm not." Merrie teased, winking conspiratorially at him. "I, um," She paused, suddenly scratching at her forearms and avoiding eye contact, "I don't think you would but... please don't tell anyone what I'm doing." Mer looked down at him, pleadingly. "I know we're not allowed any magic, but I'm honestly really... struggling with that." Meredith smiled tightly, hoping that he wouldn't press that or ask her to elaborate.

She nodded at his suggestion and her eyes followed to where he was pointing. Feathers could definitely work. They weren't like fairy wings, so maybe the wand (if she even managed to make it work) wouldn't respond to her as well as her own wand, but it was worth a shot. "Hmmm... feathers will do, I guess." She replied, running her tongue across her teeth lightly. "Did you see any wings? They would have been perfect..." She sighed, shrugging to herself slightly. Dodgy magic was better than no magic at all.

"Lead me to the feathers then, oh kind sir," she laughed, putting on airs and graces like those actresses from her mother's old muggle telly thing. "If they don't have a phoenix feather, a thunderbird tail feather might be something to look out for too. I have my wand wood already," Meredith said, patting her small satchel, "so we don't need to worry about that."

"Of course not," Freddie was quick to reassure her. "This sounds like an exciting activity. If you need an assistant, you can count me in." While he'd prefer having a wand himself, Freddie could deal with the situation rather well. He wasn't as desperate as to want and to create a wand but, although the offered activities at the camp were great, something like that, a private little scientific adventure sounded quite intriguing.

"Yeah, it is a bit strange without a wand," Freddie admitted. "Then again, I'm not yet allowed to use a wand outside of school anyway. It doesn't make that much of a difference to me." He shrugged and smiled.

"Wings?" Freddie asked a little confused, thinking of Hippogriff wings or something along the lines of that. "Nope, I haven't seen wings." After a short deliberation he added, "but I've seen a stuffed owl or something?" He suspected that was not what she meant but he figured it didn't hurt to mention it anyway.

He took a bow and grinned. "Of course, Mylady," he said, offering his arm for her to take. "It's my pleasure to escort you to the place of feathers." He led the way to the back of the shop where, on top of a drawer, a wooden box filled with a collection of about a dozen different feathers was exhibited. "Not sure if those are of magical creatures," Freddie admitted with a shrug. "I suppose we'll have to take a closer look at all of them or... ask the shopkeeper for assistance." He wasn't sure if Meredith liked that idea, given that she clearly did not want to reveal what she wanted to do but why shouldn't they just be interested in the creatures the feather's were from?

It was good to hear him say he wouldn’t tell. Meredith never really thought he would in the first place, but the verbal confirmation was nice to hear. Mer hesitated for a second as Freddie offered to be an assistant. It was actually quite a splendid thought. “Having a second pair of eyes while I work would be great,” Meredith replied gratefully. She didn’t need his help particularly, but she thought it would be good to have him there just in case she accidentally created a wand that hated her guts or something. They were semi-sentient after all.

“Yeah,” Merrie began, her face falling a little, “I think I rely too much on magic sometimes.” She shrugged her shoulders as she chewed her bottom lip, debating whether to open up or not. “But when we moved to Hogsmeade a few years ago, the underage magic tracker didn’t apply so I could use my wand whenever I wanted. So I did.” Mer scratched her forearms sharply, frowning and taking a deep sigh. “Mum would probably be a little disappointed at that. There’s some things I just can’t do without magic now.” Mer admitted, lowering her eyes to the floor, praying Freddie wasn’t going to judge her.

“That’s a shame.” Mer said, as she shook her head slightly. “I was hoping for some fairy wings so I could have a similar core to my own wand... No matter.” Mer’s brow furrowed as Freddie mentioned a stuffed owl, and the animal-loving witch couldn’t suppress her shudder. That was so cruel. “Yeah, owls don’t have the magical properties I need. It’s a nice thought though.”

As Freddie offered her his arm, Mer laughed and gently placed her hand in the offered crook of his elbow. “Why, thank you!” She offered, with a twinkle in her eye. “Oh, there’s no need to trouble the shopkeeper,” Mer hastily replied. She didn’t really want to draw attention and have them listening in. They could even refuse to sell her the feather if they found out what she wanted it for, Meredith knew from her cousin that MACUSA tended to be stricter about these things than their own Ministry of Magic.

She stood in front of the box with the feathers in and smiled to herself. “I got an O in Care of Magical Creatures, so I’ll embarrass myself if I can’t identify most of these okay, if they are magical creatures.” Mer told Freddie. She didn’t mention her results in her O.W.Ls to brag, she genuinely wanted to make a little fun challenge out of it and have a study session in an unorthodox way. Just because they weren’t in school didn’t mean that they couldn’t learn. “Besides, it’ll be kind of fun to figure them out ourselves, don’t you think?”

She pointed to the first feather she looked at, a brown and rather plain one. “That looks like an eagle feather to me, so that won’t help at all.” Merrie said, already moving on to the next feather. The second was bright pink and orange and Mer instinctively stepped back and hugged her forearm. “Fwooper feather,” she muttered, “that’ll slowly drive you insane…”

The third feather she saw intrigued her, as she didn’t recognise it at all. “Do you recognise this one?” She asked Freddie, peering down at him slightly. “It looks magical for sure, but I’m not sure what it is. Must be a native bird from here.” It was at this moment that Meredith realised she had no idea what a thunderbird actually looked like, so it was possible that it could be a feather from the majestic species.

“Oh! Is that so? I'll need to try and convince my family to move to Hogsmeade then too,” Freddie said, grinning. “Either way, I think it's an interesting challenge to be without magic for once. After all, we know we'll be allowed to use magic when we're at school again. Or, well, you will allowed to use it whenever you get out of the camp.” He shrugged. He couldn't quite understand why Meredith felt that she couldn't be without a wand but it did not matter. It made for a fun afternoon to watch her pursuing the challenge of creating her own wand.

“I haven't seen fairy wings,” Freddie said, feeling like he was repeating himself. “Do you think that if you ever lost your wand and needed a proper new one you'd get one with a fairy wing core again?” He didn't know if that was how it worked and hadn't thought about it ever before. It was an interesting thought though. Did the core actually mean anything more than just that it was the magic ingredient of a wand? Did it maybe tell something about the wand's owner as well?

Freddie nodded when Meredith said that they needn't bother the shopkeeper but he wasn't sure what the problem was. After all, they wouldn't go to him saying that they were looking for a wand core but showing interest in feathers and asking which creatures they belonged to. Nothing wrong with that. Nonetheless Freddie just guided Meredith to the back of the shop, thinking that it was not his business they were tending to and if the Ravenclaw wanted it this way it was entirely her choice.

“An O?” Freddie said, putting up an impressed expression. “That's great.” He assumed that that was what Meredith had wanted to hear anyway. Grades never really were of a greater interest to him personally.

“Yeah, sure,” the Gryffindor did not think that it was particularly fun to try and figure out which creature the feathers belonged to but he could think of worse things to deal with as well.

He chuckled softly at the mention of the fwooper feather slowling driving people insane. “Are you sure? I mean, can this be laid out here then? And do you think it has ever been used for a wand core?”

As Meredith looked at the next feather he peeked over her shoulder and then took a step back. He shrugged. “Not sure. To be honest, I'm not entirely positive I can safely distinguish whether a feather is magical or not.” He pointed a long red and yellow feather though. “I'd say that one could be a phoenix feather… or that of a parrot. Who knows.”

Meredith laughed at Freddie's comment about moving his family to Hogsmeade. "It has some little perks, that's for sure. Though, I do miss London a lot sometimes..." She sighed, feeling a little homesick for Kensington all of a sudden. Living without magic for a while was certainly going to be a challenge, but it wasn't one Merrie really wanted to partake in anymore. "I know, it is probably rather lazy of me." She shrugged her shoulders, unable to really defend herself on that point. "I just think I will struggle, so I'd be comforted to know that I'll have a backup, just in case." She smiled at him, her head sort of flying up into the clouds.

He asked a good question though, and Meredith loved to be able to share her knowledge with others. It made her feel like the hours and hours of research she'd poured her heart and soul into whilst she was in her brother's library, the Hogwarts library and even questioning shopkeepers themselves, all worth it. It was going to be difficult to explain however, wands were notoriously complicated. "Honestly, I don't know. I'm not the same person I was when I was only eleven years old." She folded her arms as she thought about what to say next. "Has my personality changed enough though? Only the wands would know that." She shook her head and chuckled to herself.

"They're a tricky business, wands. You have to think about whether the core and the wood are compatible for a start, otherwise you'll have a wand that fights with itself and it will produce extremely weak or chaotic magic." She paused, checking to make sure Freddie was taking it all in. "Then you have to account for the wizard or witch's natural aptitude for subjects, which must coincide with the core and wood's own abilities." She started to move her hands in tandem with her speech, as she started becoming more passionate with her explanation. "Then, of course, there is the owner's personality and even sometimes physical characteristics... It really is impossible to say. But, I don't think I would end up with the same wood or core again. Hypothetically speaking, of course." She blushed, and looked away from her friend, a little embarrassed by her outburst. "Sorry, I've been interested in wand making."

"Thank you," Mer said in response to Freddie complimenting her on her grades. She didn't want or need the validation, but it was still nice to hear.

"The fwooper feather itself is perfectly harmless. When you access the innate magical properties of it in a wand, however, then yeah. Drives you to insanity. I read about it a few of my brother's really old books." She smiled, comforted by the her next fact. "They're very rare nowadays, no one wants to use them anymore."

"Oh, that's fair enough." She wafted a hand in his direction, nonchalantly looking at him and then back to the feathers. "I didn't find it the easiest study myself." She leaned in to the feather he pointed to, and rubbed her forearm. "Parrot?" She asked, not entirely familiar with all the non-magical birds. "Hmm... maybe we should ask about them, after all?" She suggested, nervously hopping about and scratching at her inner forearms.

“I don't think I'd miss my current home,” Freddie honestly admitted. Unfortunately a move to Hogsmeade would not mean a certain increase of wealth or else the boy would have immediately sent an owl to his mother, telling her to arrange the move. As it was it was just a daydream, some vision of a better life that would never become his reality.

The Gryffindor still didn't see why Meredith needed a wand so badly but he figured it might be because he still had the trail on him and couldn't perform magic out of school anyway. Maybe, once he'd be allowed to do so, he'd feel the same. He wouldn't yet know.

He listened closely to what Meredith told him about wandlore and nodded. “Well, it sounds like you have done quite some research,” he said not without admiration reflected in his voice. “I wonder, though, if you say that your personality changed in these few years and you think that, maybe, you'd find a different wand now – does that mean that the wand you got as a child will, at some point, stop working for you if your personality changed a lot? It does seem a little odd but wouldn't that be the logical consequence?”

He shook his head when she apologised for her elongated response to one of his earlier questions. “Don't apologise,” he said, “I find this really interesting and I'm amazed how much you know about wands. Have you ever considered becoming a wandmaker yourself?”

Grinning, Freddie nodded at Meredith's comment on the fwooper feather. “Alright, no fwooper feather for your wand then!” He began to wonder if there were more feathers that could be potentially dangerous as wand cores. Maybe their business wasn't so much fun, after all if it could end with insanity for one of them.

“I think asking the shopkeeper might actually be a really idea,” the boy admitted. Yes, he was a Gryffindor and Gryffindors were meant to be brave and daring but Freddie was sensible enough not to risk anything that was bound to backfire. It would be easy enough to shop interest in the feathers, maybe mention that they were looking for a souvenir, a feather of a regional magical creature… That wouldn't raise any suspicions or that was at least what Freddie thought. “Shall we pick a few interesting ones and ask the shopkeeper then?” he asked. It was Meredith's project and so she had to make the decisions.

“Oh, really?” Meredith asked, after a few moments of hesitation, wondering if she should really be asking such a thing. She knew that she had been very lucky, growing up with the family she had, the beautiful home she had, in the neighbourhood she had. Mer knew she had been very privileged to live her the life the way she had, murdered parents notwithstanding. It was difficult for her to imagine why Freddie felt that way about his home. “I’m sorry,” she hastily added, “I don’t mean to be so nosey.”

Merrie smiled bashfully as her Gryffindor friend sort of complimented her on her research. If the Ravenclaw witch didn’t know the answer to something then she wouldn’t rest until she knew every little titbit of knowledge about that subject that she could fit inside her head. Wandlore had always been an interesting subject to her since she was just a young child, and she had long since devoured all the books in the family’s library on that subject. “Actually, that’s exactly right!” Meredith beamed, nodding appreciatively that Freddie was asking questions and was clearly interested in what she had to say. “Sycamore wands, in particular, are renowned - at least in the books I’ve read - for just sort of… giving up in a spectacular fashion if their owners grow to be too… boring.”

Freddie made her smile again, as he seemed happy for her to just sort of dump the information she had learned on him. Not everyone appreciated her enthusiasm for such a complex and beautiful subject, and she really appreciated that he was taking the time to listen and, even better, actually finding what she had to say interesting. “Oh, thank you! I’m… really grateful. Not everyone likes it when I talk about this so much.” She ducked her head bashfully, feeling like she couldn’t make eye contact at that moment. “I’ve often thought about it,” Meredith began, as she clasped her hands together in thought. “I would enjoy it - I know I would - but I just like so many subjects! I can’t really decide what I want to do when I graduate…” Mer had been thinking about such a thing every day since the beginning of her fifth year but she still hadn’t figured it out yet.

Mer smiled in resignation as Freddie said that they really should be asking the shopkeeper. He was right, Meredith knew this, and it was illogical to be so nervous about asking the shopkeeper about bird feathers. As long as they say why they were actually looking for the feathers, then what harm could possibly be done? “Yes…” Meredith shrugged her shoulders with a sigh. “We probably should, you are right.” Mer sighed, glancing between Freddie, the feathers and where she last saw the shopkeeper.

“Yes, let’s pick now.” Meredith smiled at Freddie, turning back to the feathers and scanning them again. “I think that potential phoenix, or parrot, feather is a solid choice, and I am really curious about this one.” The Ravenclaw witch stated as she pointed to the third, currently unknown feather.

She moved away from Freddie, looking for the shopkeeper, and giving him a bright and polite smile as she caught sight of him. “Ah, hello!” Mer greeted, beckoning him over with her hand. “My friend and I were curious, what creatures do these two feathers belong to?” Mer asked the shopkeeper, as she pointed out the feathers to him. “We’re looking for a… memento of sorts to take home after the camp is over!” Mer smiled politely, waiting for his reply.

Meredith smirked to herself as her suspicions proved to be correct, as the shopkeeper informed them both that the mystery feather was, indeed, a feather from a Thunderbird, and that the other feather was also a phoenix feather. “Wow,” Mer breathed, a twinkle in her eye as she stared at the Thunderbird feather. The phoenix feather was certainly the safer choice, Meredith knew the properties of it well and had read about many wands with that core. The Thunderbird feather however would be an incredible specimen to learn more about, and if her wand didn’t work then she could always keep the feather itself as a memento. The Ravenclaw witch nodded to herself, resolute in her decision. She had to have that feather.

“I’ll buy the Thunderbird feather then, it is beautiful!” Mer smiled, her hand diving into her bag to remove her purse to pay as the shopkeeper removed it from the display. She beckoned Freddie to follow her, as they made their way to the counter. Mer’s eyebrows raised up a little as the shopkeeper asked her for 1 galleon and 7 sickles. She was surprised at how expensive a feather could be, but the Emerson witch had plenty of money at her disposal, and this was for experimental and educational purposes. Mer quickly fished out the change she needed and handed it over. “Thank you very much!” Meredith called out to the shopkeeper as she took the feather in her hand and twirled in her fingers. “It really is beautiful, isn’t it?” She asked her companion with a smile.

“Did you want to get anything while we’re in here?” Mer asked, as she gingerly put the feather in her pocket, secretly eager to get back to the cabin and begin working on creating her wand.

[out]

Freddie enjoyed listening to Meredith talking about her research on wandlore. It was quite obvious that his Ravenclaw friend had read a lot on the matter and knew more than the average student about it. Freddie himself had never been particularly interested in the topic and would probably never pick up a book to learn about wands but being told some facts like this was indeed quite interesting. It was easier for him to memorise things from a chat like this than from books. If he could connect the topic to this shop visit he'd be able to remember the information Meredith gave him a lot better than if he had just flipped through pages of a book.

The boy somehow admired that Meredith said that she'd enjoy being a wandmaker but would as well enjoy so many other subjects. He didn't have a clue what he'd do after graduation but not for the vast amount of ideas he had but rather because, so far, not a single job had come to his mind that he'd want to do. It had to be great to be enthusiastic about many things and be able to pick the one that was… most fun? Earned the most money? Made you famous? Fortunately the Gryffindor still had some time to figure out what he wanted to do. However, starting his fifth year now he knew that he'd get career's advice that year and take his O.W.L.s.

Pleased that Meredith chose to speak to the shopkeeper after all, Freddie followed the Ravenclaw as she approached the man. Of course the girl was right with her suspicions. Freddie wasn't surprised but he was still impressed. He kept in the background as Meredith spoke to the shopkeeper, looking around a little but figuring that there nothing in here that would make a nice and affordable gift for his mother. Either the things were rather pointless to give to her or they were way too expensive for the fifth year.

Meredith chose the thunderbird feather for herself and Freddie nodded, smiling at her. “Good choice, I guess,” he said.

The girl now asked if he wanted to buy anything himself and Freddie shook his head. “Nah,” he muttered. “I don't think so. I had been hoping to find something for my mother but I reckon I'll just take a painting class and, I don't know, paint her a picture of the scenery here? That seems to be more personal anyway.” He didn't want to say that his pocket money hardly was enough to buy anything nice from the shop.

He walked towards the door and held it open for Meredith, saying a friendly “goodbye” to the shopkeeper as he left the shop himself.

[out]