"I am very sorry." Draco said, "Expelliarmus."A light shot out of Draco"s wand knocking Gregorovitch"s wand away. Before Gregorovitch could react Lucius shot a binding spell knocking him down on the ground.
"So do we do it?" Lucius asked.
Draco kneeled on the floor looking at Gregorovitch who was staring back at him with fear and anger. Even though his body couldn"t move and he couldn"t speak, his eyes told everything Draco wanted to know.
"Don"t worry, I won"t kill you." Draco said, "But I will at least do you a favor, so don"t feel too bad about it."
Draco stood up and nodded at Lucius who shot an Obliviate spell on Gregorovitch changing his memories. While that was happening Draco cleaned up the place quickly, fixing the hole in the wall and returning the place back to how it was 3 days ago before they came here.
"It"s done." Lucius said.
Draco looked back at Gregorovitch who was still on the ground, using a floating spell he moved the unconscious Gregorovitch to the sofa. Both of them packed up and left Gregorovitch house.
"I don"t understand, why you want to send him to the US." Lucius said, "I mean, he is already retired and with the spell, I am sure we can leave him alone as he is no threat to us."
"I am repaying him for my wand." Draco said vaguely, Lucius seeing that Draco didn"t want to tell the truth, didn"t ask anything further, he grasped Draco"s shoulder and both of them apparated out of the place.
Draco knew Gregorovitch would die sooner once Voldemort rises to power and he goes on a goose chase for the Elder wand, so with this, he could at least let Gregorovitch die in peace after he is grown fully old. With him in the US, Draco didn"t need to worry about Voldemort finding him. Along with this, he planned on transferring some money to Gregorovitch so he could enjoy is retirement fully.
"So with this, the wand is done, but I am still wondering what would happen to your other wand." Lucius said along the way since they were quite far away from home they needed to take a wizarding train back to London. "Honestly all this wand lore is really confusing... no wonder there aren"t many wandmakers and people who want to be a wandmaker."
Draco nodded, staying these past days with Gregorovitch has been a really good experience as he learned a lot about wands. Being a wand-maker wasn"t that difficult, as all one needed to do was become an apprentice to one of the existing certified wandmakers, the difficult part was understanding the wand lore itself. As Gregorovitch said to him, every wandmaker has their own signature lore they follow but finding the one that fits you among all the existing one was the most difficult part. Getting enlightenment on the lore was extremely important in being a successful wandmaker, Ollivander has his own path where his goal is to make a wand to suit the person, Gregorovitch, on the other hand, believes in power rather than suitability. Even though Draco felt like he understood a lot about wands but thinking it now carefully trying to put pieces together, he was left with nothing but confusion.
After a couple of hours of traveling, they finally reached home.
"Why can"t you stay home in peace for a single day?" Narcissa complained, "Ever since the holiday"s started out, you"ve been running out every single day."
"Don"t worry mother." Draco tried to console his mother, "It"s okay since I would rather stay out and visit other places, rather than stay home. Also this time it was out of necessity."
After a couple of minutes of consoling, Narcissa finally let him go as the twins woke up from their sleep and started crying again.
"So are you really going in there?" Lucius asked, "As far as I am concerned, I will be happy as long as you don"t go in there your entire life."
"I need to." Draco said, "I can"t tell you why right now but I will tell you the answers sooner or later."
Lucius sighed, "So do you want me to send the letter today? I am sure that he is going to make up some excuses."
"Talk about the vow." Draco said, "It"s not like he"s going to back from it and this is his last job anyway, after this as long as he doesn"t open his mouth carelessly, he"s a free man. To get him attracted let"s throw in a bit of support."
"You mean..."
"Yes, act like all his deeds were misread by us and we"re in full support of him." Draco said, "Instead of threatening him with the vows directly, lure him with sweet talk and with his intelligence, I am sure he is going to get hooked. Let"s let him believe that he has the upper hand among us."
"Sigh... sure, go and rest, after I get a reply, I will send an elf to your room."
Draco nodded and went back to his room. On top of his table, there was a letter, Draco walked up to it and picked it up. It was none other than Hermione"s letter. Draco sat on the edge of his bed and opened the letter, reading it.
The letter was short, and all she asked about in the first half of the letter was his actions back in the bookstore and the other half included her talking about their club, suggesting Draco different ideas and approaches to the club.
Reading the letter, Draco felt a bit light-hearted since it seemed like Hermione wasn"t completely under Lockhart"s charm due to Draco"s rise in fame, she probably didn"t put that much importance in it. Draco took out his phoenix quill and sat down replying to the letter. He didn"t mention much about Lockhart but talked about the club instead and apologized for freaking her out that day. After writing the letter and sending it, Draco went back to his suitcase checking on the animals and started practicing magic with his new wand to get comfortable with it.
Using magic between both the wands wasn"t that different any longer, as far as Draco knew both of them felt the same and his magic worked the same, the difference on the power was the same but what was obvious was the mana consumption. After trying out different spells in turn, Draco was getting tired. Draco was about to give up when suddenly a sudden urge of mana coursed through his entire body. It wasn"t like before, the feeling felt similar but the mana didn"t, for some reasons it felt pure and denser than ever before. Renergeized Draco quickly shot an explosion spell. Draco felt a large amount of mana quickly pa.s.s through his body towards the wand and shot towards the empty s.p.a.ce where the wand was pointing at.
*Boom* The explosion sounded. Draco was surprised to see the deep hole that was left on the ground. The explosion was the biggest he had ever produced, Draco was sure that even Dumbledore would have a hard time making an explosion of that level. Draco was about to head towards the site but the moment he walked a step forward, his body gave out. Draco fell on the ground huffing. He knew he had run out of mana again and this time he was drained empty but before he could worry, Draco felt mana coursing through his body again, this time not so fast but it was still quicker than before. The mana wasn"t as dense as before but was the same as the one he was used to. As his mana regenerated Draco slowly stood up and tried an explosion spell again. This time the aftermath wasn"t as grand as the previous one but was similar to the one he was usually capable of.