summer of 1927, Hungary, Budapest

„Merlin’s bloody butt, this is hot!”

Reynard Corbitt grabbed the water jug and started drinking until it became empty. Then he coughed repeatedly and his eyes were full of tears. The others were watching curiously. After a few minutes Reynard finally stopped ’dying’ and straightened slowly but still looked terrible.

There were six of them around the table. Rowan Corbitt hit her twin brother’s back while she shook her head and pushed a few blonde lock of hair behind her ear. Neil Cleveland were watching around, trying to seem as a well-prepared auror with his 22 years and his leather coat which was too big for him (they were at a muggle place after all). Garrick Ollivander, member of the famous wandmaker family was waiting patiently to continue his speech which was interrupted by Reynard’s accident. Percival Graves, leader of the MACUSA (Magical Congress of the United States of America) was looked like a quite spectacular quest with his elegant and bossy appearance. But Perpetua Fancourt was even more conspicious than Graves as she mixed her water with some sugar and offered it to the wasps which were flying around them… and she still had her habit to paint her hair blue.

„You have to be more careful.” Graves said to Reynard while he was looking around but there were nobody near to them. They were the only guests at the restaurant and the waiters were away. „Don’t say things like Merlin in a place where the no-maj people could hear.”

„You know Merlin is well known both to us and muggles.” Rowan examined the sauce Reynard ate a full spoon with. „Wow, you were right, this is hot. It’s nothing more than hot paprika, maybe some salt added… How could you ate it without tasting first? You deserve the pain, Rey.”

„Thank you for your concern, dear sister.” Reynard coughed one more then looked at Garrick. „So you said before I nearly killed myself with this sauce of Hungarian devil that trees are like wizards: only one part of them is magical and has the ability to make wand from its wood. We learned something similar on the Ancient Magic class during our last year at Hogwarts.

„According to the wandlore, yes.” Garrick continued his speech. „Many wandmakers get the needed wood from others but I spent a lot of time searching the trees myself. Some are easy to find, some are pretty rare… for exampe elder. And beside that it’s really hard to work with, there are only a few who use it for wandmaking. Becouse of this I doubt you’ve met with an elder wand before.

„Actually I know someone who has an elder wand.” Rowan noticed. Graves’s gaze darkened a little, Reynard nodded with an anxious face, and even Neil and Perpetua looked a little gloomy now. Garrick was surprised.

„Well, that’s not impossible to happen but quite exceptional. Elder is a really strange and tricky wood. It take years if not a lifetime to master it… it can have a self-conscious behavior even toward its owner, not to mention its attitude to other wands…” he stopped talking for a moment, thinking on something. The others were watching him with interest. „It takes years to study this, to find the relationship between different wand woods. Sometimes I found that there are pairs… you know, when there’s an unique connection between two types of woods. It’s really interesting. For example -let’s stay at the previous topic- owners of elder wands always have a strong affinity for rowan.

There was a deep silence. Everyone except Ollivander looked at each other with an unreadable but quite funny face as they all noticed something behind the wandmaker’s words. Rowan blushed deeply, trying to pretend that she was ignoring what Garrick said.

„Well, we can say that’s true.” Reynard chuckled. Graves clenched his fists.

„You’re not entertaining, Corbitt.”

Garrick looked from one to another with a little confusion in his eyes then continued.

„Mr. Graves is right, it’s not funny, it’s a really interesting and serious topic.” he said. „If we examine the relationship of these two…”

Reynard couldn’t hold back his laugh.

„Enough!”

Graves made a harsh move with his hand like he was cutting something. Actually he did, both the conversation and a stack of napkins on the middle of the table as some uncrontrolled magic got away from his fingers. Rowan couldn’t help but chuckled for a moment. Neil looked a little frightned, seeing his boss like this; Graves’s firm tone and strict face was something which was well known for (and feared by) the employee of MACUSA, especially the aurors. Then Rowan took his hand and Graves realized that he’s not at work. He lowered his voice although his face was still so serious. „Excuse me. Could we change to a different topic?”

„Um… yes, of course.” Garrick nodded slowly looking at the others; Rowan were still blushing deeply, Graves looked angry, Reynard could hardly hold back his laugh, Neil was afraid and Perpetua put a lot of hot pepper sauce onto a slice of bread then took a huge bite. „Why do I have the feeling that there’s something in the air everyone knows but me?”

„Oh shut up Olly!” Rowan said. „It’s a long and boring story.”

„Yes it is.” Reynard grinned as he was watching Perpetua who ate the full slice bread with that sauce from the hell on it then started to prepare another for herself.

„This is delicious.” she said with enthusiasm, not paying attention on the frozen atmosphere. „I gonna take a bottle of this with me for our journey.”