[rd][fic][Rise of the Guardians] Wandmaking

[sakon76]

Wandmaking
by K. Stonham
first released 11th January, 2019


Jamie Bennett gave an exhausted glare at the materials on the table before him, then swept them to one side and started steadily thumping his head against the flat surface.

Maybe he could jar some inspiration loose in his brain. Or give himself a concussion and pass out. Both sounded like good options at this point.

A soft, cold hand suddenly appeared between his head and the table. "Hey, what are you doing?"

His eyes still closed, forehead cushioned on Jack's palm, Jamie gave a low moan of frustration before saying "Failing."

"Failing at what?"

"My final." Jamie sat up and looked at Jack Frost. "Graduation requirements for Snaffleblumphs include making your own wand. And nothing is working for me."

At age eleven, just before he'd been supposed to start middle school with all his friends, Jamie and his mother had received a visitor. While Jamie had been absolutely delighted that he was eligible to attend a school for magic and become a real wizard, his mother had been less enthusiastic. Even after the man had convinced her that he wasn't a madman or a prankster, the West Virginia address of Snaggleblumphs Academy (named for its founder, Stanley Snaggleblumphs) implied that Jamie would have to board there, and being cut out of her son's life to that extent was plain unacceptable to Emily Bennett.

Jamie blessed whoever had invented Limited Access Floo Connections. The fact that he would be home on weekends ("All weekend, every weekend, I don't care how much fun you think you'll have learning magic, Jamie,") was the only way he'd finally gotten parental consent. That and the small trust fund that his grandparents had left for his education. His mom just hadn't thought they'd be touching it before college.

"Graduation requirements?" Jack asked, perching on the stool next to Jamie's. "I thought you wizard types just, you know, learned your spells and then went on with... life. Stuff. Whatever."

"Yeah, but I need to graduate, or I don't get my license. And I'm not interested in being locked up for practicing magic without a license."

Jack's face took on a considering expression. "I wonder if North has a license...."

Despite himself, Jamie snorted. Nicholas St. North had been a wizard before he had become a Guardian, and was entirely delighted that apparently Jamie was one too. "I doubt it. I mean, that was, what, three or four hundred years ago? And in a different country?"

"Yeah." Jack nodded. "Plus I kind of got the feeling that Ombric was more of a private tutor guy than a university guy. Anyhow, what's going wrong? This stuff usually comes easy for you."

"Ha. As if. I study my ass off. I just make it look easy." Jamie and Jack shared a grin before Jamie turned back to the table of wand-making materials. "I think I've got the wood right. The branch that Bunny helped me get off my mom's apple tree feels like it ought to work."

"So then the sticking point is...?"

"The core." Jamie frowned. "I've tried everything, Jack! Unicorn hair, dragon heartstings, manticore fur... nothing works for me. I'm stumped, my professors have looked over all my results and can't figure it out either... I don't resonate with anything!"

"Hey." Jack leaned forward and put a hand on Jamie's shoulder. "Don't worry. It'll come."

Jamie frowned. "I'm starting to wonder."

"Says mister midichlorians-off-the-chart."

Jamie rolled his eyes. "High mana levels aren't that uncommon for first-generation wizards, Jack."

"Don't disabuse me of my adoration of my favorite wizard."

"I'll tell North you said I was your favorite," Jamie threatened.

"Go right ahead. He says wizardry is less than two percent of what he does anymore." Jack's face turned thoughtful. His fingers drummed on his staff. "Hey, you asked him about your core problem? He might have some insight."

Jamie pulled a face. "I got a variation on the what-is-your-center speech. Not very helpful." Slumping onto the worktable again, he stared at the wall. "Maybe I should just give up and get some sleep. Maybe Sandy'll have some ideas for me."

"Never was there a wizard born with such a support team." Jack was silent for a moment, then said, "Give it one more try tonight, Jamie."

"With what?" Jamie asked, glaring at Jack. "There's nothing I haven't--"

Jack's fingers were in his own hair. He gave a quick tug then held out a strand of winter-white to Jamie.

"--tried." Jamie's voice stuttered to a halt. He stared, unbelieving of what he was being offered. "Jack, you can't do that. Sympathetic magic--"

Jack placed the hair in Jamie's palm, curled his fingers over it. Held them tight. "I trust you," was all he said.

Jamie swallowed, eyes first on his friend's, then on the hair he had been given. Jack definitely qualified as a magical creature, so theoretically using his hair as the core for a wand should work. And it was freely given, which was an aspect of white magic that Jamie was very careful to adhere to, thus his asking for Bunnymund's help with acquiring wood for the wand's body. But still....

A lot of very nasty things could be done with pieces of someone's body. Since his sophomore year, when further reading on the subject had earned Jamie extra credit for his Philosophy of Magic course, he'd been collecting all his hair and nail clippings and burning them. He had enemies, even if wizards and witches weren't any more likely to see spirits than non-magical people. Given that Pitch Black had already subverted Sandman's dreamsand to his own purposes... Jamie shuddered to think what might happen if the Boogeyman ever got inspired to try using sympathetic magic the way Toothiana did with children's teeth.

But he couldn't, in all good grace, refuse this gift without trying it.

Jamie took in a shaky breath before looking back up at Jack and nodding. "Okay. I'll try it."

Picking up his learner's wand--oak, eight inches, unicorn hair--he muttered incantation after incantation, concentrating, watching as his chosen wand levitated in the air. The hilt of the applewood blank swelled open, the woodgrain unfurling, cells shifting apart and leaving a tiny hole. The white hairs, all three of them, rose from Jamie's hand and threaded through the opening. As soon as they had slipped within, Jamie murmured another spell, one of closing and sealing. The opening in the wand twisted shut again, Jack's hairs as firmly ensconced inside as if the wood had grown around them while still a branch on the tree.

Jamie realized he was shaking by the time he was done. Too late of a night, too many late nights trying to make an impossible wand, too much effort and adrenaline and hope poured in....

But there it was, laying in the moonlight. A wand of apples and winters.

He didn't want to touch it.

"Pick it up," Jack said, voice soft.

"I can't. If it doesn't work...."

If it didn't work, Jamie was sure, something would break. Maybe him.

"Jamie." Jack's voice was as soft as snow. Right now, it seemed like there was nothing in the world except the two of them and the wand made from one of them, by and for the other. "Pick up your wand."

He couldn't disobey, not in this. Jamie put down his learner's wand and reached for the one he had crafted. His hand hesitated, then finally closed around it.

There were no fireworks, no levitation, none of the showy this-is-right magic that so often accompanied the first time a wizard held their wand.

Instead, as Jamie's eyes closed, there was silver frost creeping over the wood like the world's fanciest filigree. There was a cool breeze encircling him, ruffling his hair. There was the deep silence of a moon-bathed winter forest at midnight.

And deep within him, there was joy and love and laughter, flowering and unfolding in ever-deepening layers like a peony in full bloom.

The wand was his.

Jamie opened his eyes to see Jack Frost smiling gently, proudly, at him. "See?" Jack said. "I told you it would work."

---

A/N: I've long had the thought in my head that Jamie would be a wizard if I ever crossed RotG with the Harry Potter universe. (And, hey, North is canonically already a wizard in the Guardians books!) Jack's hair making a fine wand core only came to me recently, and pushed the story idea from musings to writing. But like so many Harry Potter fans, I have... issues... with how JK Rowling has expanded the universe. Given the comparative populations of the North American continent and Great Britain, there is no way Ilvermorny could be the only magic school in the USA. And given the great disparity in the respective education systems (something my British husband and I have discussed many times), I feel it likely that at least some of the schools that Jamie might go to would have set-ups more like the (flawed, I know) American education system. Also, the term "No-Maj" is just... clunky. I choose to believe it was acceptable slang in the 1920s, but has since faded mostly into obscurity. In short, I made stuff up, and made changes (like white magic, sympathetic magic, and issues of consent) that made sense to me within the context. I hope you enjoyed the read.

Comments

[tainry]

Awwwww! ::wibbles and rolls around in lovely fic:: This is beautiful! I fully accept and endorse your adjustments to the HP world and agree that "No-Maj" is awful. XD
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[lurkerlaine.livejournal.com]

This made me squee and kick my legs up in the air.