Dear reader,

It has come to my attention that my estimable colleague, Garrick Ollivander, has published his notes on many woods, and the three cores that he has deemed superior.

In his search for the superior cores which balanced strength and reliability he experimented with a plethora of core materials that he ultimately deemed unsatisfactory. He shared his results with me in private correspondence and I am now happy to relate them to you.

I have noticed that he has left several woods out of his published notes and I will do my best to relay his notes upon them as well.

On occasion I may make notes where I differ from Olivander in philosophy which will be explored in footnotes.

Sincerely,

The Other Wandmaker



Lilac Wood:

Lilac wands choose as witches and wizards those who are able to find wonder and beauty in the mundane as well as the extraordinary. Sometimes noted as producing the faint scent of lilac when casting spells, wands of this wood are dismissed by some as "flowery" or "showy" due to their general lack of strength in offensive or "bangs and smells" magic. But to buy into this fallacy is to betray one's crude consept of what "powerful" magic is. Lilac wands have often demonstrated positively extraordinary charm work, with a particular penchant for those which beguile the mind or produce magic of great beauty. As a result of this it is a favourite of professional obliviators, memory modifiers, and magical entertainers alike. This ought not to be equated with the mundane or frivolous however as the great dark wizard Wildrick Bellophontain wrought havoc in Paris in the mid nineteenth century where he and his lilac and Veela hair wand amassed a vast following with his charismatic and optimistic character (and liberal use of his masterful imperius curse) which he used to lead others into performing horrific atrocities while remaining nearly untraceable, leading a refined life as a gentleman of leisure and patron of several opera houses.

Often failing to grasp simpler spells without great effort, lilac wands require perseverance on the part of their wielder to reach the intricate and intoxicating spellwork that comes easily to these wands when performing advanced spells. This ease with advanced and theoretical magic leads lilac wands to aid their wielder in the creation of new spells. Lilac wands are drawn to enthusiastic and positive individuals who retain a youthful bloom of awe, excitement, and creativity throughout their lives. It has been my experience that owners of lilac wands are frequently underestimated as frivolous or idealistically naive, but shock those who challenge them with unexpected determination and endurance by displaying the remarkable ability to survive hardship without being jaded by it.

A shortcoming of lilac wands is that their enchantments are often overwhelmingly powerful when first performed, but fade quickly. Great effort must be put in on the witch or wizard's part to control their enthusiasm and maintain sufficient focus and determination to ensure that their spells produce more moderate and enduring effects. A wand safest in the hands of one who wishes to create beauty, not seduce with it.


Fwooper Feather:

Never popular in Europe due to the belief that, as the creature from which the feather comes causes insanity, so to a wand with this core heralds madness in the witch or wizard it chooses. This is nonsense however. During the period of my extensive testing, through which I determined the three superior cores, I notes that Fwooper wands selected those with a decidedly unique... even eccentric personality or perspective on the world. Often possessed of great creative or poetic intelligence and wisdom gained from unorthodox perspectives, I have found Fwooper wands to be drawn to those who become wizarding inventors and charm developers.

Revered among shamans in their native Africa, they believed that wizards who were chosen by Fwooper wands were likewise chosen by the spirits to receive visions, this may have contributed to the superstition that the wands indicate madness when Europeans cultures came into contact with this belief and misunderstood it.

I found Fwooper wands to produce magic of suitable power, somewhere between that of unicorn hair and dragon heartstrings. However it's spells possesses a curious "aging" quality, maturing and becoming more and more powerful the longer the spell remains intact rather than fading. While useful when enchanting objects or places, this peculiarity sometimes caused unforeseen results. The first wizard to bring this feature to my attention was perplexed when he returned from his six month stay in the Andes to discover that the locking charm that he put on his door had become nearly unbreakable, requiring the aid of three fellow wizards to break. This was made worse by the fact that the protection charm he had put on the house had fermented to the point that the building was completely unapproachable by foot, apparition, or flew powder. More serious incidents have also occurred, such as when a ministry obliviator erased a brief magic sighting from a muggle's mind. However, over time the muggle in question came to forget the entire day, and eventually had become confused with great chunks of her memory falling away, eventually forgetting who she was. It took a team of St. Mungo healers months of intensive work to undo the spell and return her memory, though they did say that she "will always likely be rather more dotty than she had been." While this feature could be as helpful as it is dangerous, depending on the spell cast, it was not this alone that compelled me to ultimately reject this core.

Fwooper wands seem to posses at least as unusual a perspective on the world as their wielders, often achieving the goal or spirit of the intended magic, but through highly unusual means. For instance, upon attempting to employ simple hover charms, instead of causing the object to levitate, Fwooper wands often cause objects to sprout wings and fly up to the desired hight. This has led to magic far beyond the Wizard's usual capabilities or intentions being displayed. For instance, one elderly gentleman could hardly light his fire with his wand without accidentally apparating to Bermuda (his wand clearly acting on his desire to have light and warmth). It takes much practice and focus for wielders of this wand to make them achieve results in the orthodox way and many simply came to accept their wand's own methods. I have witnessed at least one core "die" when it's wielder lost her sense of wonder and began viewing the world in a more conventional way.

Magic performed with these wands is often accompanied by unnecessary sparkles, flashes, and wisps of smoke in the colour of the Fwooper from which the feather came, side effects that tend to worsen the longer the wand is bonded to its wielder. Finally, I have not known of a single instance in which non-verbal magic has worked with a Fwooper core wand.*

Their allegiance is gained only by those who truly understand the wand, but once achieved they bond all the closer for it. Those without this understanding generally find the wands unusable and impossible to dominate. It has been said that Fwooper wands must be friends, not servants.

I ruled out using this enthusiastic but unpredictable core in part because it so rarely selected a suitable owner, but largely due to the unorthodox way in which the desired effects of magic are achieved. Though it must be admitted that Fwooper wand owners have critasised me greatly for my decision, swearing by their wands which they say are perfectly functional once acclimatized to, that they are able to perform unexpected magic of uncommon beauty, and that the wands are ever opening their wielders' minds to new ideas and alternate paths to attain the desired result.

*It has also been rumoured that the silencing charm cannot be cast with Fwooper core wands. It is my belief that this superstition grew out of Ministry of Magic regulations regarding the mandatory silencing charms cast on pet Fwoopers. However I have been told by several individuals that grew up with this wand that they remember the spell being particularly difficult to learn.



Griffon Feather:

Notably stronger than Dragon Heartstrings, Griffon feather cores have historically been prized for the immense might of the magic they produce. My grandfather used to say:

"The person chose by Griffon cores,
Safe hearth and home always insures,
But if their wealth you try to sieve,
You'll find that to it they will cleave."

I found that it is true that those with griffon cores value their home and family with strong maternal or paternal instincts and a powerful sense of kinship. Though I would go further than my grandfather's assertion that Griffon cores indicate frugality and miserliness to say that they are drawn to individuals with an eye for business, for I found that, regardless of birth, griffon wand owners generally die as very wealthy men and women (a correlation likely helped by the fact that Griffon wands spontaneously emit golden sparks when carried over gold deposits and buried treasure). Griffon wands are noted for producing exceptional protective and healing spells, as well as displaying frightening power with martial magic. Despite this they are generally not suitable for more subtle or intricate spellwork such as charms and transfiguration.

Griffon core wands bond closely with their wielder, though they may change allegiance if the owner is not sufficiently bold or noble of character.* In cases where such a wand changes into the possession of a witch or wizard without these qualities it will often backfire with lethal consequences. They will, however, remain loyal to a bloodline - passing through the hands of less accomplished descendants without backfiring, their true power remaining dormant only to reawaken in the hands of one of whom it approves.

The Griffon is half lion (king of beasts) and half Eagle (king of birds). Therefore it is unsurprising that griffon wands have a knack for choosing individuals who posses within them (regardless of their heritage) the potential for great leadership and a lordly bearing.

Unfortunately this wand core has a fatal flaw. Beyond being overly picky regarding potentially compatible witches and wizards, griffon wands posses a fundamentally conflicted nature. While they are adept at healing and protection and act as loyal guardians to their wielder, these wands require a firm and decisive master or they "act up" attempting to take charge by producing dangerously overpowered or misdirected spells. Witches and wizards without the strength and diligence required to wield this wand often end up dying young as a result. Thus I have determined that the benefits in power do not out-way the cost in loss of life due to its fierce volatility in the wrong hands. This said, one griffon wand owner assured me that before he received his wand he was weak, frivolous, undisciplined, and untrue to himself and others, but that by learning to master his wand he was able to master himself and bring forth his better nature which had lain dormant within. This, perhaps, in part explains why griffon wand owners often become more serious and cautious in judgement as they age, it is curious how both wand and wizard may learn from each other and help one another toward mutual growth. Though in this case I rather think that the potential cost of the lessons outweighs the benefit.

*Some have theorized that Goderic Griffindor had a Griffon feather core wand. This is a baseless belief that likely arose from his name alone. Just because my name is Olivander does not mean that my entire family and I possess olive wands (my own is Hornbeam). In fact, back when we still used Griffon feathers, I found that students who were chosen by Griffon wands were just as likely to be in Hufflepuff (or Slitherin) than in Griffindor.



House Elf Hair:

Very rarely used due to the widespread snobbery that has led people to view this core as lowly and that of peasant servants. This is unwarranted however. Wands made with this core obey their owner more readily than any other core that I have seen and willingly submit themselves to new spells. This leads students with this core to make exceptional marks as they gain flawless results from even clumsy and poorly executed spell work. There is a drawback to this however, for when these wands are used to perform magic which is simply beyond the ability of the witch or wizard (such as a first year attempting a patronus) then the wands will invariably backfire upon themselves, causing them to crack or splinter. It is rare that wands are irreparably broken in this way, though repeated attempts without care and repair have led to wands completely shattering. If this wand is the perfect servant, then it's wielder must be a caring, or at least a contentious, master.

Sadly they have been turned to the dark arts with great ease by their owners, though in at least one case the wand backfired and shattered to dust when it's new owner attempted to use it to kill the witch from which it had been won. While dark wizards have been matched with this core I found it rather rare as it seems drawn to those who have a desire to help, aid, or serve others. This quality can be amplified to a disturbing level when sealed within blackthorn.

The great wizard Bonifurus Klark had made it his life's goal to better humanity by discovering how to produce food using magic alone (which we all know is one of the five Principle Exceptions to Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration). A prodigious wizard in his own right, he worked for years toward his goal, eventually developing a spell which he believed would be successful. However his research ended in tragedy when he used his hornbeam and house-elf hair wand to attempt it. It is my belief that he developed a spell that was as close to efficacious as it was possible to be, for in the strain to cast the impossible magic the wand exploded with such force that the area for miles around was decimated and strange residual magic has lingered for years, making those who dwell there ill. Mass memory modification was required and the muggles were told that it was another example of their most terrible creation, the "atomic bomb."

There is another wand paring which I think is important to note. The son of an old wizarding family was matched with a wand containing a hair from his own family's house elf of whom he was very fond. In all his life he was never known to come across a spell that gave him the slightest difficulty and he had the singular ability to give the wand a command such as "change this cabbage into an owl" and the wand would comply without need of incantation or so much as knowing the desired spell. This is a fascinating example of where the mysterious magic of house elves meets the magic of man.

Despite the fact that these wands are capable of performing unsurpassable magic by even slipshod witches and wizards, I found them almost impossible to sell as those matched with it would often leave my store in an indignant rage. Their tendency to injure themselves when unable (or in very rare cases unwilling) to perform the requested magic also made them too costly for negligent owners who would need frequent replacement wands. Thus I ruled out making them, despite their great merits.

Addendum to the notes of Gerek Olivander, by The Other Wandmaker:
Due to the recent efforts of S.P.E.W. issues have arisen regarding the use of hair from a house elf (a magical being) as cores for wands (frequently sourced from magical creatures). It has been argued that this is a mark of anthrocentric notions of wand bearers vs. other magical beings. I have therefore written a small segment of some of my (largely disastrous and ineffectual) experiments using witch and wizard hair as a core. I believe (while ultimately rejecting human hair as viable core components) that should the Wand Ban be lifted and nonhuman people be allowed to carry wands in the future, my findings may in fact emphasize the superiority of other magical beings to humans, rather than denigrate them.



Basilisk Optic Nerve:

Only a handful of wands using this component have ever been produced, in part due to the extreme danger involved in procuring this rare substance making them impractical for general production, and in part because of the profound danger that the wands themselves pose. According to my father, and the writings of other wand makers, it appears that basilisk wands seek for their wielders those who have within them the desire, or the capacity, for murder. Almost all owners have gone on to be recorded as great dark wizards in English wizarding histories, and those who did not went down as great dark wizards in the history of other nations. For instants, Witherby Whorlhollow was a noted warrior in the second crusade who slaughtered countless "infidels" during his sojourn in Jerusalem, gaining great reverence in the West, but whose name is remembered with fear and dread further afield. It is rumoured that this wand is capable of producing a killing curse so potent that it can murder multiple people at once. In the case of Whorlhollow, chroniclers state that with a single wave of his wand entire armies fell and bustling cities grew still. While we must account for some poetical embellishments, this may be taken as some confirmation of this rumour.

Basilisk wands are reported to be almost worthless at all magic other than martial, utterly incapable of healing and more often than not killing the subjects of even innocuous spells. It is said that it will only accept a new master once the wielder has used it to kill. A dark wand core only available from the shadiest and most moraless wand makers, basilisk wands are deadly, as it were, to the core and I could never in good conscience produce one.

This said, there is an account of one wizard, Brian Fairblade, who is purported to have lived in the eighth century. Legend states that in the course of battle with a colossal basilisk that had wreaked terror since the time of Homer, Brian was disarmed of his sword and shield, and his wand was snapped. While he felt about for his wand on the ground with his eyes closed from the beast's deadly stare, the snake coiled about his waist and raised the hero to its gaping mouth. As he was lifted from the earth he grabbed a branch to anchor himself. The branch was raised with him and in one desperate attempt to save himself from the horrible fangs he shoved the branch before him, piercing the eyes of the beast, blinding it and causing it to release him. He then slew it by forcing the branch through the eye and brain of the creature. Then with the optic nerve and the branch which saved his life he had a new wand made. Perhaps it was the properties of whatever wood that was used which counterbalanced the cold bloodlust of his basilisk wand, or perhaps it was because it had been he who slew the creature from which the core was taken that did it, but legend tells that his new wand was completely mastered by him and that with it he was able to perform magic of great wonder and might, able to move mountains and reorder the very stars. Now much of this is likely fable and it should be noted that, as a professional monster slayer, a wand that is adept at killing would have brought forth many tales about Fairblade. But, if there is a grain of truth to it, I believe that since the wood of his wand had killed the creature from which the core came, it may have given the wand a sense of subservience unprecedented in such a core. My great, great uncle, however, proposed that Fairblade knew parsol tongue and that only spells spoken in this language would gain proper control over the core. Though experiments in this regard would be fascinating, I doubt that I will find someone who knows parsol tong, nor one willing to kill the multiple basilisks required to properly prove the matter one way or another.