Order Only: Letter from Charlie

[alt_molly]

I had passed along our question to Charlie concerning how difficult it would be to get dragon heartstring. It is difficult. Of course dragon heartstring is needed for wands, and dragons live for a long, long time. When one dies and a heart is harvested, it is a big event.

Our one hope, Charlie thinks, would be if we could get lucky on those rare occasions that a dragon manages to hide a clutch of eggs somewhere in one of the caves along the coast AND one of the eggs hatched is a runt who later dies, as they sometimes do within a day or two of hatching. Generally, the dam will quickly push carcass outside the nest, and then there might be a chance to retrieve it when she goes hunting. Of course, a runt's heart is much smaller, but it could still provide enough heartstring for a good number of wands. The dragons do try to hide their eggs--it's instinctive--but usually the dragon reserve handlers manage to locate the nests before the hatching. So that's another level of complication: we would need a situation where Charlie can locate the nest, but keep it a secret from the other dragon handlers.

He doesn't quite come out and say it, but I think it's an unspoken understanding in his letter between the lines: we would need to think very hard about whether we would be willing to kill one of the dragon hatchlings to get the heart, again, while the dam is away hunting. Specifically, if we can ask Charlie to do it. If he were caught, of course the repercussions would be terrible. There's no need for me to tell you that the very idea would revolt him; it's antithetical to everything he's doing as a handler, to safeguard the dragons. It would also be quite a practical complication for him to hide and dispose of the hatchling's body after he's harvested the heart, without anyone else in the reserve being the wiser.

I think he very much hopes that we'll not put him in that position. Maybe because we'll find an easier (and less dangerous) source for unicorn hairs.

Comments

[alt_kingsley]

There's another consideration, too. I wonder whether killing the dragon will have an effect, and not a good one, on the quality of the heartstring. Magic, as we all know well, is hugely affected by intent. I do not think that starting with a wand core that is obtained by murder--if you can call deliberately causing the death of a dragon, especially a very young dragon, a murder--would be an auspicious start to the future of that wand. It might then be only fit for performing dark magic. Which would be hardly what we want, especially if we're talking about wands for children.

[alt_bill]

I don't know much about dark arts, but that strikes me as a very good point. Do any of the rest of you who might have studied them more have an opinion?

[alt_sirius]

I was thinking much the same, Kingsley.

[alt_poppy]

Those are very significant concerns, indeed.

I believe we ought to exhaust all other avenues before asking a dragon handler to kill a hatchling.

We can at least experiment with other possible cores.

Meanwhile, Pomona and I have been discussing ways of obtaining unicorn hair. We plan a 'collecting' jaunt into the forest this weekend, and we rather hope to find some caught in brambles or snagged in a tree. Neither of us fancies being eaten or dismembered, so we shall take all due precautions and keep our wits about us.

If that fails, there are one or two medicinal applications for unicorn hair. Unfortunately, they are not the sort that are commonly necessary in a school--well, except for the ancient chastity poultice (so called), but I can't imagine telling Brutka or Grubbly-Plank, either one, that I require help obtaining a key ingredient for that! Pomona's been scouring experimental herbology resources, hoping to find something sufficiently plausible that she might lobby for help obtaining some.

[alt_sirius]

I read somewhere that previous generations of Ollivanders used to use all sorts of cores, even cores that were brought in by the client for the purpose of making a wand. But they never did work as well as the dragons or the unicorns. Or the phoenices.

Maybe we should ask Melisandra what she thinks the best other cores would be, besides the unicorn hair.

[alt_poppy]

Well, yes, that's also my understanding. But then, and not to put too fine a point on it, when one artisan family holds a near monopoly on the manufacture of something like wands, they develop their own notions about the craft and promote those notions and techniques as though they are absolute rules of magic. The fact that other cores 'do not work well' may be less fact than myth encouraged by the Ollivanders to elevate the perceived rarity of their product.

I'll be most interested to hear Melisandra's thoughts on the matter. If she's open to exploring possibilities, who knows what she might discover.

[alt_macnair]

I can think of several locations where you will find what you're looking for, however, they're all in or around centaur territory, so you'd best prepared to make sure that the hair you collect is actually from a unicorn.

Also, centaurs don't care for forest foragers.

[alt_poppy]

Truer words were never spoken.

I doubt our business would meet with the centaurs' approval, and I cannot claim to be on good footing with them. Not that I've had much truck with them ever, mind you, but what I have seen of them has left me wary in the extreme. (Which surprises you not at all, I'm sure.)

[alt_macnair]

It would be a good idea to seek out the colony and state your business. Bane is the leader, and he's not particularly good-natured. Neither is he violent. Tell him you're seeking medicinal and potion ingredients, but I'd not mention wands.

[alt_poppy]

Are we likely to encounter them if we keep to the nearer side of the forest? I hadn't thought we would seek them out.

But you have a deal more experience of the forest than either Pomona or I do, and I welcome your advice on this matter.

[alt_macnair]

Unicorns are more likely to travel deep in the forest, near the colony's territory. Better you seek the centaurs out than they stumble upon you.

There's a rock and stone formation located about 2 kilometres Northwest of the castle that centaurs can often be found near. It's located in a clearing, a circular pattern, you should know it when you see it.

[alt_poppy]

Thank you, Walden.

How does one properly hail a centaur? Or is there a formal greeting?