A week later, in the Alchemy Room of the Great Manor House, Ivan threw aside a badly damaged piece of wand wood and said, "Bring me ebony, Hermione … and the potion should be ready by now …"
Hermione, who was reading a book, nodded and got up to get to work. She took out the ingredients one by one and placed them in Ivan's hands.
Ivan concentrated on the task of trimming and grooving the wood of the wand, soaking it in the active liquid he had prepared, and working on the next batch of ingredients.
It was not until half an hour later that Ivan removed the treated wand wood, pulled off a strand of hair, and carefully placed it in his wand. He then cut his finger and used his blood to fill the gap in the groove.
Ivan breathed a sigh of relief when he was done. Crafting a wand was a difficult task, especially when it came to the fusion of the wood and core. If anything went wrong, everything would have been for nothing.
Magical objects were different from ordinary objects. Once they were damaged, they could not be repaired simply by chanting a Restoration Charm. Unless one had a Hallows like the Elder Wand to increase one's magical power, one would have to craft a new wand.
Perhaps due to his inexperience and the complexity of his powers, Ivan had failed more than ten times in a week.
It was partly due to a mistake in the crafting process, and partly due to the mismatch between wand wood and core that resulted in wands that simply could not be used.
Fortunately, the wand in front of him did not seem to have any messy problems.
Ivan picked it up, pointed it at the practising dummy and waved it vigorously.
"Split up!"
A blinding beam of magic flew from the tip of the wand and struck the wooden dummy, shattering it into pieces.
Ivan was pleased with its power. He had almost used a Split Charm to produce the same effect as an ordinary Blasting Charm, which was more powerful than his original unicorn wand.
[Magical Item: Unstable Wand ( Ebony, Wizard hair, twelve inches and a quarter long)
Magic: Strong
Magic Word Circuit: Increase in Magic (to some extent, increase in Magic Power)
Compatibility: 100%
Explanation: This wand is an experimental product of the Master Alchemist Ivanhars. While it is powerful, it also causes the wand's stability to plummet. No one knows when the wand will strike, perhaps in the intervals between spells.]
Unfortunately… Ivan shook his head in disappointment as he read the instructions in the system column. An unstable wand could never be used, no matter how strong it was. After all, even the slightest mistake in a high-intensity battle could result in a direct reversal of the situation.
However, this proved that he was right. His body's tissues could indeed replace magical materials as the core of a wand, but the hair that had been soaked in blood and treated with it was too strong, so almost no wood could carry its power perfectly.
Ivan had tried a dozen different kinds of wood before using ebony… and even the most mysterious of them, osteochromia, showed signs of instability when added to the wand core.
The other thing that Ivan found strange was that the new wand was significantly more powerful than the previous unicorn wand, but the system's evaluation of its magic remained the same.
Where exactly is the line between the two?
Ivan rubbed his chin in thought. Over the years, he had created a number of magical objects with his own hands, but there was only one that the system considered to be extremely powerful — the Philosopher's Stone!
However, it could not be used for comparison. After all, the Philosopher's Stone was made using thousands of years of Hogwarts magic, and its core material was an extremely precious stone.
While Ivan was thinking, Hermione asked curiously, "Was the wand successful, Ivan?"
"I wouldn't call it a success. I'd say it's accumulated experience," Ivan replied with a smile, regaining his composure.
Creating a wand comparable to a Deathly Hallows was no easy feat, and Ivan considered asking Ollivander, a wandmaker, for advice.
After a long morning of hard work, the finished product was finally finished, and Ivan had no intention of continuing with it. A work-life balance was important.
"By the way, Hermione, did you finish those books I gave you?" Ivan asked, glancing at the books on the table, suddenly remembering.
"Not yet, not so soon…" The little witch sighed, looking frustrated. Alchemy was even more esoteric than she had imagined, and even though Ivan would give her lectures in his spare time, there were simply too many difficulties.
Yvonne frowned, thinking no, then slapped herself on the head, turned, and opened the drawer. "It's my fault. I forgot to give you something."
Bewildered, Hermione watched as Ivan retrieved a beautiful crown from his drawer and approached her.
"This is Ravenclaw's diadem?" Hermione asked in amazement.
"Of course, you've seen it before, haven't you?" Yvonne teased as she placed the diadem directly on Hermione's head, pushing back her fluffy brown hair.
The touch of the cold iron on her forehead caused some discomfort to the little witch, but then she felt her mind suddenly clear, and many questions that she had not understood before were answered.
"God, I feel like I'm getting smarter…" Hermione clutched her diadem, her surprised tone somehow endearing.
"You haven't forgotten the legend of the Crown of Ravenclaw, have you?" Ivan asked with a smile.
"Grow wisdom?!" Hermione paused, immediately realising this, and then asked curiously, "But didn't Ron wear one the other day?"
"That's why Ron was unlucky. I still hadn't found the spell to activate it that day," Ivan replied with a shrug.
Ravenclaw's diadem was not bound to him and could be used by anyone, and he had no use for it in his experiments, so it would be a waste to leave it lying around.
(PS: There have been a lot of chapters laid out recently, so please be patient. Angels usually insert clues into mundane over-chapters and then decrypt them, as is the custom…)