Self Made [Harry Potter fanfic]

“How much.” The words escaped my lips before I could even think about them. My mind worked at its maximum output as I dove into arithmancy calculating multiple factors and possibilities. It took less than a pair of seconds for me to realize this is what I needed for my wand, its core. 

 

“Sorry miss but this piece isn’t for sale.” I couldn’t accept that. How rare is the offspring of two species that avoid each other like the plague. It isn’t like they are mortal enemies. Instead it is a matter of compatibility. One is more representative of beauty and life. The other is a friend of death that prefers to be hidden.  

 

“I am sure we can come to an agreement.” Father came to my rescue. I was ready to use my life force into brainwashing the poor sod consequences be damned. The clerk instantly became tense, I am sure that dealing with father is way above his pay grade. 

 

“I-I will go tell the manager, I am afraid I don’t have the authority necessary for this discussion.” Once my father gave him a small nod the man fled like a dementor wanted to give him a sloppy kiss. A while later he came back with a fat man who gave the impression of the typical sleazy merchant. 

 

“Ah! Lord Malfoy, my employee has told me you have become interested in an item that has already been sold. I am sure there are other things you would be interested in.” Father wasn’t amused, not in the slightest. I am sure he has dealt with this kind of person many times in his life. 

 

“How much?” Father didn’t even bother with the man’s attempt. I for my part was ready to play mind tricks to make the whole thing go as smoothly as possible. It would probably cost me anywhere between a month to a year of life. I really need to come up with a proper measuring system.     

 

The sleazy merchant’s smile became a little crooked as he tried to wiggle himself out of this one. I wouldn’t let him, using the spell I had ready I instigated his greed. I couldn't mind control him… I mean, I could but it would make the cost of the spell skyrocket. Instead I opted to use what is already there for my benefit. 

 

“The buyer offered a hundred galeons I could… “loose” the material in an “accident” for let’s say three times that amount.” I could tell the man was lying. The original price was much lower than what he had just sayed. Not like it mattered, father had that much money as pocket change anyway. 

 

“You have a deal.” After that father literally took a small pouch out of his robes before handing it to the sleazy man. The thing probably had a minor expansion charm to fit all the coins inside. Once the man made sure every single galeon was accounted for we left the shop with a box containing what would become my wands core. 

 

After that we went to a few more shops before going back home. I wasn’t stupid and I knew my father wasn’t either, Draco… let's not talk about him. Once we were back home Draco left for his room, I acted as if I was leaving as well though it was just to distract my brother. Once he was out of sight I turned back walking to father’s office. 

 

Once inside I saw father waiting for me behind his desk. His expression as blank as ever broken by the ever so slight tilt of his eye brows into the tiniest of frowns. Yeah, I could tell this conversation was coming from a mile away, father did too. The original plan was to get our wands then leave right after. The fact father took the initiative to entertain us was an obvious distraction tactic for Draco. 

 

“So?” Now was my time to explain. He already knew about the wand issue thanks to Ollivander’s explanation. What he wanted to know was how my hand remained almost unharmed despite the explosion and how it healed almost instantly right after.  

 

“When I was six there was an incident.” I decided to weave the truth with some lies.

 

“Ever since I have noticed that I don’t feel much pain. I am harder to wound and heal faster… however.” I stopped and bit my lip to sell the act. 

 

“I… feel like I need to drink blood to keep healthy.” Father’s expression darkened. His face remained unmoved yet I could see his eyes hardening with anger. 

 

“I have been escaping at night to drink blood from the critters in the woods. If I don’t drink blood I start feeling lethargic and my body starts to hurt all over.” That last bit was a lie but I needed to sell my condition in this way to make things better for myself. 

 

“How long?” That was all father asked as his gaze tried to see past me into the immaterial or something, at least that is how it felt. 

 

“At most, a week or two.” I answered understanding what he had asked. He wanted to know how long I could go without drinking blood. In reality I could go for as long as my vitality reserves could take me. I wouldn’t say that though, I needed to sell the lie like this. If I had to reveal some of my secrets I might as well get something out of it. 

 

Father continued staring at me for a long time. I could see the gears working inside his head. As a pureblood family something like vampirism could destroy our reputation. Afterall, both vampires and werewolves were denounced as beasts by the purebloods. Yet, here I am, someone that is in theory a vampire yet passes as a human just fine. 

 

“How did this happen?” Finally father spoke without breaking eye contact. I could understand that the question was both meant to be answered and not. He wanted to know if I knew the reason behind it. He was also just asking for the sake of airing his reluctance towards the situation.      

 

“I don’t know.” I continued with the act, answering with a good amount of reluctance in my voice as well. We kept silent for a while, father probably wondering how to deal with the situation while I made plans for different possible outcomes. 

 

“Not a word about this to anyone. Not your mother, not your brother, no one.” Father’s gaze hardened as he gave me the order. This was a good outcome. I wasn’t planning on airing out my secret to everybody willing to hear it so this worked just fine for me so I gave him a nod. 

 

“Tell me everything you know about your condition.” Once father finished I began feeding him information that would benefit me. I told him that the fresher the blood the better. I told him about my enhanced physical attributes as well as senses. I told him that this “curse” was the reason for the wand rejection. In the end he told me he would make arrangements for my “feeding” which was great. This would mean I would be able to gather far more vitality in this month before going to Hogwarts. 

 

“Hogwarts will be a problem.” Father’s said while rubbing his forehead. Here, at home he could easily make arrangements for my “feeding” Hogwarts was a different beast altogether. He could tell the headmaster about my condition and the old man would probably make accommodations for me. The problem is that father is from the dark faction while the headmaster is of the light faction. 

 

“Don’t worry father. I can easily get prey in the forbidden forest.” That was the plan anyway, no reason to hide it now. Father looked me in the eyes trying to find something in my gaze. It looked like he was satisfied with what he saw. 

 

“Be careful, the forbidden forest is forbidden for a reason. I will be testing you to make sure you will have no problems surviving there.” With that father dismissed me after handing the box with the thestral/unicorn hybrid’s hair. I should probably give it a better name as saying thestral/unicorn hybrid is a mouth full. How about, unithral… Yeah, yeah, I know not very creative but whatever unithral it is. 

 

Now that I had a core for my wand I could start experimenting with making the thing. I had already been working on the necessary runes and glyphs I would be using. The results have been… less than ideal. I am thankful for the discovery I made when making the doctor’s concoctions back in the day. 

 

You see, one time I was making one of the concoctions and made a mistake, the thing began to bubble uncontrollably and I knew it would explode. In panic I shoved the vial inside my pocket dimension. A moment later I realized what I had done and wanted to cry believing I had messed up all the other stuff I had in there. It was a nice surprise to find that everything in there was untouched while the vial and concoction had indeed exploded. 

 

Some experimentation later I found out that anything I place inside my pocket dimension is separated from anything else. In other words, objects that are stored separately can’t interact with each other there. Because of this I have been using my pocket dimension as a way of disposing of about-to-explode material. Since time keeps running inside my pocket dimension I just shove whatever is about to explode in there, wait for it to go boom and take out whatever is left. 

 

Like this I have been disposing of my many failed attempts at combining runes and glyphs. Thankfully after my last failure I think I finally have found a stable combination. I haven’t tested it yet but no better time than the present to try. With that in mind I took a piece of wood for experimentation. This piece of wood is ash wood, a small plank no bigger than my palm. 

 

Carefully I took a carving tool and began inscribing the different runes and glyphs I would need. I might not have been a big computer nerd in my past life but I still understood the basics. This, the act of writing using glyphs or runs to create an effect felt like programming. If I had to guess this would feel like having to write a program that would work with both windows and IOS at the same time. 

 

After an hour of hard work I finished the inscription. With both excitement and trepidation I fueled the enchantment using a bit of my mana/vitality mix. As the rune/glyph formation began glowing brighter and brighter I prepared to shove the piece inside my pocket. Just as I was about to do that the formation stabilized and the glow became dimer. I had made it. 

 

“Hell yeah! I made it!” I shouted in celebration as I danced with the piece of wood on my hands. Now all I had to do was inscribe the bloodwood casing I had carved before with the necessary formation. High with emotion I got to work right away. 

 

The blood wood, unlike the ash, was harder to work with. Its many baths with blood had made it mutate into a weird thing. When held it feels just like wood, tap it and it sounds just like wood, yet apply some pressure to the thing and it will deform momentarily as if you were pressing down on a piece of flesh. This property makes carving on the thing feel like carving flesh instead. 

 

The wood is a deep crimson red with many black vein-like structures on it. I could swear I have seen the entire thing pulsing like a heart more than once. It is, to put it mildly, creepy. Not like I care, the wood feels just right in my hand if others find it disgusting is not my problem. 

 

Once I finished craving the formation I checked it for any mistakes a total of five times. With that done I sprinkled some bone powder made from my sternum, don’t ask how I did it, it was very painful, on the craving making sure to fill it up. That done I carefully placed a total of three hairs from the Unithral on the grooves prepared for them. Finally I canceled the spell that was used for splitting the wood. 

 

As the wand became whole once more I felt it waking up. It called to me like a lover waiting for its love. Not wasting any time I took the wand in my hand and it felt just right. Inspecting my work I couldn’t help the mad grin that spread across my face. thirteen inches, blood-infused bloodwood, Unithral core, unyielding.   

 

As both its creator and user I could tell its properties. Funnily enough, despite its evil looks my wand had no inclination towards either dark or light spells. Instead it leaned heavy into anything using vitality. I didn’t mind, I very much liked using my type of magic. Unfortunately there were some consequences from my actions. My wand just like my natural aura would be extremely uncomfortable for anyone else. 

 

In other words, I wouldn’t be able to pull my true wand willy-nilly inside Hogwarts. The feeling it would give everybody else would be oppressive and it would easily be confused with that of dark magic. I would still need to use the borrowed wand for most things. Now that I have two wands I should probably name them for convenience sake. After pondering about it for a while I took my borrowed wand on my left hand and my true wand on my right. 

 

“You will be, Leech.” I said while looking at the wand on my right hand. I could swear I saw the thing wriggle in happiness. 

 

“You will be, Cherub.” I said while looking towards the wand on my left. Unlike the creepy energetic kid on my right hand, Cherub gave me a sense of acknowledgement and a bit of happiness.  

 

With a nod I stored both in my pocket before going back to work. There is something I want finished before my second year at Hogwarts no matter what. As a matter of fact, I would very much want it finished before even entering the school. You see, puberty is a bitch and menstruation is even more of a bitch. I had dealt with the latter in my past life using glyph craving.  

 

I am very much willing to risk my life if I don’t have to deal with menstruation after. Feeling like you are getting stabbed once a month is no fun and I very much will do anything in my power to escape that fate. I already have the glyph formation ready and revised using the new formula I have made. It’s not perfect because time is ticking and I don’t know when puberty and its respective problems will decide to appear. With that in mind I made some last minute checks on my work before settling for what was sure to be another harrowing experience.