Nikolas was writing down everything the professor had said and some of the things he had said were a bit confusing. Especially about the length of the wand. He didn't answer the cores question because everyone had already answered it.

And about the wand woods. He had something in mind, raising his hand he said "Does the wood and the cores have a relationship with how they perform magic? Like certain type of wood reacts better with an specific type of core?" Probably. And that was the only idea he had about wand woods.

Vashti's quill flew over her parchment as fast as possible as she tried to take down notes while Professor Scabior talked. And he talked quite a bit, so there were a lot of things she had to write down. Her hand was starting to cramp by the time he asked another question and she was finally able to set her quill down. She flexed her fingers, trying to get the soreness out of them, while she raised her other hand to answer.

"I've read that bowtruckles often live in and guard trees that can be used for making a wand," she said. "So a wand can't be made out of just any old tree that you happen upon. It's not that easy." Seemed like a dangerous and tricky job, being a wandmaker. You had to find a tree that a bowtruckle live in, and then you'd have to distract the creature somehow so you could take some of the wood, and then you have to go and make a wand out of it, and yet you had no real idea whether anyone would actually buy it because people liked being all exclusive. It was an interesting job, certainly, but Vashti didn't think she could be one.

Of course there was hope for Tori Bunbury. She was a BUNBURY, after all, and was therefore going to become a History of Magic genius, just like her cousin-in-law. Tutttt.

"Well there's lots of types of wand woods," Tori answered slowly. "Like... oak, mahogony, zebrawood... and wand trees are often inhabited by those little woodlice eaters... um... bowtruckles?"

Yeahhhhh.

Kurumi sat quietly, wondering if she should even really bother answering since this had been two times in a row that the professor had ignored her answer. She hadn't even gone off in great length this time! She had kept it to one sentence...twice.

She sighed a bit as she thought about wand woods before raising her hand. "Each wand wood is also better suited for different types of spell work. Some examples are mahogany is known to be a good wand wood for transfiguration, whereas willow is better suited for for charm work."

August sat there and listened intently as Professor Scabior talked and talked and talked about Wands and their cores; hsi quill moving across his parchment as fast as he could take notes. He hadn't known any of this stuff and then the Gryffindor was thinking about how much he ahd just taken his newly acquired wand for granted.

Now being Muggleborn he really didn't know much about wand woods but he had learned a few things since being in the Wizarding World these past four months. "Well Professor I know that there are certain types of wood that are used for wands like Holly, Willow, hawthorne, etc. And that all woods are not always acceptable." He nodded and then continued. "Also the wood doesn't necessarily have to be completely brittle either. The flexability is a key factor in a wand's identity." There he had exhausted his little bit of wand knowledge.

Alyssa raised her hand and answered:

"Professor, could it be that the way the wand behaves for it's owner is determined by the core and the type of wood used? Like for example, the wood seems to be able to sense the characteristics and abilities of the handler and will either reject or accept the person as it's owner based on what the wood's qualities are and whether it will complement or counteract the owner's qualities. Most wand woods look for similarities in the characters of the person it serves."

Alyssa hoped that she was making sense.

Marilyn's eyes widen at the answers being shouted.

Hmm...

Raising her hand, "While I'm not sure there is much I can add to the conversation...Perhaps there is less about the wand's wood that allows the wand to choose who it might go to...It's being suggested by the celtic calender that we'd basically get whatever wood might coincide with our day of birth. What are your thoughts on this, sir?"

"Well said! On it's own, the simple wood of your wand, is just that. Wood. But with the core it is transformed into our wands." Yes good point. Ravenclaw...he should have expected it.

Still on this? What a person might be capable of? He sighed. Really...it wasn't a WRONG answer so..."Well..in a way..yes. The wood does symbolize what a person might be capable of..yes.." Now his brain was turning..itching to open up some books and find this theory.

"Exactly, perfect." He didn't need to say anything else. She was a Ravenclaw, clearly she knew everything, and even knew what he would say next.

"Right! In different parts of the world because they have different trees, some types of wand woods are more common than others." And the Bowtruckle fact! Oh Slytherins, so smart. "Correct! Bowtruckles are the best sign of a tree which would be perfect for wands."

"They do have a relationship but the wood doesn't exactly react better with a certain type of core. They all react..differently one doesn't react better than another." The wording was just different. Yeah.

He nodded. "What you read was correct. It does tend to be hard making a wand out of any old tree, however if you are an expert wand maker you do have the capability to make it work."

Of course there were lots of types of wand woods. There were lots of trees. "Correct." She had started the obvious..and she was right.

Wow. She actually didn't go on and on! "Yes. Because the wand holds the personality it very well might be the part of the wand which decides what subject it is best at." He nodded. Scabior didn't know for sure though.

"Correct. Yes. And we shall talk about flexibility soon enough. Hold on." Yeah. Don't move ahead kid.

It took a few seconds before what she has said mades its way to his brain. "If..you are saying what I think you are saying then yes. You are absolutely correct."

His thoughts? Woaah."Well...I am no expert." Scabior shrugged. "But sometimes the celtic calendar does determine what wood your wand will have." It did for him at least.


------------------

"There are many types of trees out there. All of them can be used to make a wand. Now, the type of wand that makes up your wand works with the core, to essentially pick the wizard or witch." It was as easy as that basically. "Since the core is the part of the wand that makes it magic. The wood is the part that adds personality. When these two are combined, the wand obtains it's own personality or a certain one that matches the wizard of it's choice. He held up his wand. "Every type of wood has a personality. Although I will not go over them all now." THAT would bore everyone to death. Including him. And he quite liked his life. "If you wish to know your specific wand personality tell me at the end of class and we will arrange something."

"Moving on" There was a LOT of information to cover. "There are a few fundamental laws which govern the ownership of wands. The first, which many of you know is that the wand chooses the wizard. I want to speak about another law however. The change of allegiance in a wand. Who knows when this happens? When and why would a wand suddenly decide to leave its original owner for another?"

Crraaap. They back on a topic that Sky wasn't as knowledgeable about. Still, she decided to take a crack at it. "The wood interacts with the core once it's activated to help produce the spell one's trying to cast," she answered. She hoped that was correct.

Sky had her hand up immediately after the next question. "If one wizard kills or disarms another, the wand will usually change alleginces. Probably because the wand senses that the winning wizard is stronger somehow than the defeated wizard," she replied. She really hoped that made sense.

Oh he was ahead of the game on the flexability part of the lesson then? He had heard Professors liked that. He was on fire then! He looked around the room at the other students, yep he was.

Hmmm so more on the personality of the wand. He again thought of his own wand and decided he was going to ask the Professor about it when the lesson was over like he had just suggested. It was always good to know about the wand you depend on now.

Change of allegiance? THAT CAN HAPPEN!? Auggie suddenly became fearful. What if his wand didn't want him anymore? "Professor how does that work? Can your wand see another witch or wizard and decide it chose wrong and leave its original owner?" he sure hoped that never happened.

Amethyst gently raised her hand and spoke softly. "The core is the connection to magic, just as electricity is the connection to internet

"The wood is what holds the magic together?" She said with her hand raised. She had hoped that her answer made since.

Jez hurriedly took down all the information. If she wanted to be a wandmaker when she left Hogwarts, she'd need it. Jez raised her hand. "The wood used has to match with the person who owns the wand. If the wood used is springy, it might say something for the person's character. Also the Celtic wood calendar might be used to match a wand with the owner. The Celts were some of the first people to use wands in their religious practices, and they believed your 'wand' wood needed to match you, so they developed a calendar to match a person's birth date to the type of wood used for their wand." Although that method couldn't have been used for Jez's matching, since her birthday didn't coincide to her wand wood ... hmm.

Merlin! Who knew there was so much to know about wands? And Scabior wasn't even covering the half of it! Tori made a little note on her parchment about asking the professor her wand's personality at the end of the lesson.

"Well you have to disarm someone or effectively 'win' their wand's allegiance to you. Sometimes you can win it by killing them, but I think a simple 'expelliarmus' spell is much easier."

Tori nodded. Wands didn't just up and leave you like a bad lover one day.

Kurumi had always found the bond between a wizard and their wand to be...interesting. She wasn't sure if that was the right word to describe it, but it reminded her of when her brothers and her were trying to decide which puppy to chose. One of her brothers had picked the most energetic one because he wanted to play with it a lot, but the puppy hadn't been very pleased and nipped at them all repeatedly. Kurumi had sat on the ground, waiting for a puppy to approach her, and when one did, that was the one that they took home.

SO...wands were kind of like loyal dogs. That thought brought a smile to her face, but she didn't say it out loud. Professor Scary Face would probably have a few words with her about such a metaphor.

"I think that a wand changes its alliance when another wizard forcefully removes it from its original owner. This could be done by either physically wresting it from his hand or using a Disarmament Charm," Kurumi said after raising her hand. "Professor, if a wand has a strong enough bond with a witch or wizard, is it possible that it won't switch its allegiance?"

Amethyst raised her hand, "A wand can suddenly leave its original owner for another when the original owner's personality changes dramatically and the wand wants out?" She questioned her own answer.

"Whew!, the Professor is definitely on a roll now. He's going through the lesson so fast, that it's hard trying to keep up with him. But keep up is what I must do, "Alyssa told herself trying to jot down everything the Professor said but at the same time figuring out what the next answer to his question was.

Alyssa raised her hand and answered:

"The wand would change it's allegiance when it's owner has been disarmed by another. The wand then accepts the disarmer as the more powerful of the two and accepts the person as it's new master. That could be one reason when it would change allegiance. But is is possible that the change of allegiance could also depend on the type of core inside the wand. Of the three popular cores used, dragon heartstring seems to be the core that is adaptable and will change allegiance easily. Maybe if the core was Phoenix feather or Unicorn hair, it would be harder to win over the allegiance of the wand, even though the person is now the new owner."

Nikolas continued writing down everything, because there was a lot of stuff he didn't knew since he didn't like to read. Hehe. Okay so ohh...he knew the answer of this question.

The fifth year raised his hand "When the owner is disarmed or killed, the wand changes owner and belongs to the person who defeated his previous master." he replied.

Wow!!

This class had been sooooo...full of interesting info so far. Yet since he did know very few about wands and how they worked and length, core, woods and stuff, the Gryffindor just remained silent and watched everyone from where he sat, blinking around.

Wow...

It was, the wand, directly related to who one was in general then. Did that mean the old duelling expert man also learned who he was when he examined his wand? So, did the lady at Ollivanders know who he was when she had handed his wand to him six years ago?

Woow...

All curious to know further, Josh unholstered his wand of Hazel wood and Salamander scale core and just...stared at it. Yes yes, surely he wanted to know his specific wand personality. But that had to be at the end of the class, apparently he had to wait.

Okaaaaay...

And it was time for him to speak up a bit, despite the fact that he did not know much about this stuff, was not it?

''Well...should we like...impress the wand so we can convince it that we would make a better master? Like beating its owner. Or simply and naturally be more powerful than the previous owner?''

Seriously, how would a wand be able to tell the difference though?

A bit reluctantly, Vashti picked up her quill again and took down a few more notes. Then she set her quill back down, relieved that her hand didn't feel quite as cramped now. When a wand changes its allegiance... She'd read a bit about this too, so she raised her hand once more. "Doesn't it usually change when its owner is defeated or killed in a duel? I don't think it completely changes its allegiance if its owner is only defeated or disarmed though, if the owner retrieves their wand and continues to use it after, and I think there are some wands that won't change their allegiance at all because of the type of wood that's used." Because there was pretty much always an exception to any rule.

Harvey had sort of briefly read about this somewhere so he put up his hand "A change in allegiance would happen when the wand's previous owner is conquered this is the time the wand would decide to change its allegiance. Such as when Draco Malfoy disarmed Albus Dumbledore, the allegiance of the wand transferred to him. But then Harry Potter snatched it out of Draco Malfoy's hands and thus the wand changed allegiance once more. So the owner must be conquered or disarmed for the wand to change allegiance. Or even if the wand were snatched the way Harry Potter snatched it, the wand would change allegiance. BUT this only lasts if the original owner does not come back to reclaim his wand." Harvey hoped he was right in some way or another.

Ashley wrote down some notes, then raised his hand. "A wand can change allegiance if its owner was killed or disarmed... but some wands don't do that, right? Or it's very hard to get them to change, even if something happened to the owner? They're very, very loyal." He'd heard that, anyway.

Mina kept writing as people around her offered their answers. She was going to keep quiet this time around and allow everyone else their time to talk. Besides, she was kind of interested in what most of her classmates had to say.

Thinking back about another previous History of Magic lesson, she reached for her bag and pulled out a bundle of parchments ties with a ribbon. There was something about wand alliance in her notes from her first year and she thought they might be of some use later.

Marie sat there listening to everyone go on about how a wand changes allegiance from one person to another. If all they had to do was disarm someone then that meant she should be the owner of Cousin It's wand.

Hmm...

Hand in the air Marie just had to ask. "So Professor, if you disarm someone in a duel that you are clearly the winner of, does that mean the other person's wand will be loyal to you then?" She then looked over at Marilyn.

'Yeah, I'm talking about you and your wand.' The wand the short dude picked up and gave back to Marilyn when apparently he should have been handing it over to Marie.

Do wands succumb to power or are they forced to obey another master they don't choose? If one wizard disarms another, then that one wizard will have mastery over his opponent's wand, so it seems like wands are obedient to whoever is most powerful. Of course, they had to be forced out of their original master's possession, so it wasn't like they had chosen the most powerful wizard, they were forced to. Hmmm, after a short while contemplating, Eino raised his hand. "Could it different for different wands, Professor? Could certain wands be more loyal to their masters than others?"

"Exactly. The wand does not sense that the winning wizard is stronger however." No. That was wrong. Completely wrong. "I think that has only been the case for the Elder wand."

Dash chuckled. "No, no. It doesn't work like that. I'll explain though Mr.Goldstein."

"Exactly. Perfect. Killing and disarming causes the owners bond with the wand to break." Either way you were removing the wand from the owner.

"That is correct. Physically wresting a wand from its owners hand allows causes it to chance its alliance." Scabior expected the Prefect to end there but when she went on to ask him a question his eyes widened a bit before he broke out in a grin. "Well no. Not exactly. I'll explain I'll explain."


"No. Not exactly." Scabior guessed that it was a good guess, but it ddn't work that way. [B]"Lots of people change their personalities. It's a part of life, growing up, and going through different stages, that doesn't mean however that the wand can just up and leave them.

"You are correct but the wand changing owners has nothing to do with the core. We already went over the properties of the core." Something else.

"Right. Good job." Yes, simple and correct.

"While it does have to do with beating the owner it has absolutely nothing to do with impressing the wand. The wand leaves the owner because the disarmed wizard's wand leaving the owner is one of the laws of wands."

"You are right. It has to do slightly with the wood but not exactly. I'll go over it more." Nod.

"You are right. However some wands never return to their original owners." That would be sad but true

---------------

"The idea of a wand changing of allegiance in a wand is a really simple one. Most of you know it but for those who don't? Listen up." He pointed his wand on the board writing two words down. "A wand will leave it's owner if it's owner is disarmed, or killed. This is called change of allegiance and it is called one of the subtle laws in Wandlore. It is a fact and should work for all wands but sometimes it does not." He paused, letting them all soak in the information. Heh, he was teaching a lot today wasn't he?

"Now the reason why some wands do not leave their original owners or why some leave their owners really quickly is due to the wand flexibility." Yes. It was true. "Wand flexibility or rigidity is the willingness to change and adapt of the wand-and-wizard pair." Pause again. He liked to let things sink in. "In normal people terms, that means; your wands loyalty and how well it works, depends on how flexible it is. Usually when you get your wand the wand maker will give you a slight note of the flexibility. I'll use my wand again as an example." He picked it up again, showing it to the class. "When I got my wand, the wandmaker distinctly said that my wand was supple. Which basically means that my wand would be pretty willing to adapt and change its allegiance to its new master, If I was disarmed. If someone were to have a wand that was..let's say..unyielding that would mean it would resist going to the new owner." There were more types of flexibility but Scabior wasn't going to go over that. "Keep in mind though, that as wands and wizards grow together, it might not matter how supple or unyielding it was at first. If you treat your unyielding wand bad then it might quickly chance owners the first chance it gets." And clearly that would be bad.

"Now we have discussed wands. What they are made up of, and how they work. And there is a saying that some of you have said in this class that many wizards and witches seem to take to heart. And that saying is, wands of elder never prosper. I want you all to keep that saying in mind. Think about what it means and what it's deeper meaning is. And keep it in mind for our next class." He looked down at his watch on his hand. Yeah. That was enough.

"You lot are dismissed. No homework for this class but your final will be up on the noticeboard soon. Keep a look out." Nudge, nudge. By soon, he meant SOON. He wanted to give them time to work on it.