"What you said from the start sounded rather strange."
Professor McGonagall frowned as she asked.
"A Wand's properties depend on more than its wood. The core matters too. So why did you seem not to care what the core was made of when you were choosing a Wand for Cedric?"
Cedric had been holding that question in for ages. As an orphan, he was not supposed to know such basic facts about the Wizarding World, so he had kept quiet. He had not expected Professor McGonagall to ask it for him.
"It wasn't an oversight on my part."
Mr. Ollivander stared at Cedric as though he were looking at a priceless treasure.
"It's simply that Cedric is quite extraordinary."
He went on.
"I never imagined a wizard could be so compatible with wand cores. Phoenix Feather, Dragon Nerve, or anything else—he's a match for all of them."
"But I wouldn't call those reactions friendly."
Professor McGonagall's voice grew grave.
"Those materials all seemed to reject him. What went wrong?"
"Nothing went wrong."
Mr. Ollivander shook his head.
"They really are compatible with Cedric. There's just one small problem—they're a little afraid of him."
Afraid?
Could lifeless materials be afraid?
Professor McGonagall found the idea absurd, but her manners and experience kept her from casually questioning someone in his own field of expertise.
Mr. Ollivander did not seem inclined to explain further. He lowered his head and thought for a while, then appeared to reach a decision.
"Perhaps this will balance out the core's fear."
Muttering to himself, he turned and carefully lifted a dust-covered box from the farthest corner of the shelves where the Wand boxes were kept.
The moment Mr. Ollivander saw the dusty box, nostalgia came over his face.
"I made this when I was young. It's been sitting here for decades, and I've never found the right owner for it."
He looked at Cedric.
"Don't worry about its quality. I may have made it in my youth, but in strength and craftsmanship, it surpasses most of the Wands I make now."
With that, he drew a Wand from the box that was impossible to look away from.
The entire Wand glowed faintly gold, with pale green patterns winding around its length.
"This is the one."
Ollivander cradled the Wand in his hands.
"Fourteen inches. A little long, but it should suit your build."
He paused.
"The core is..."
Ollivander hesitated for an instant before saying, his face tense,
"Its core is Unicorn Horn."
At that, Professor McGonagall could no longer hold back.
"Mr. Ollivander, are you certain you mean a Unicorn... Horn?"
"Yes, a Unicorn Horn. Not powder scraped from one, either. The core was shaped from one whole, intact horn."
Professor McGonagall drew a sharp breath.
Ever since unicorns had become endangered Fantastic Beasts, the Ministry of Magic, urged on by a group of wizards, had established several reserves and tightly restricted the trade in unicorn materials.
Parts that could only be obtained by killing a unicorn—horns, livers, and spines—were explicitly banned from sale.
But the law could not reach everywhere.
On the black market, a single Unicorn Horn could fetch tens of thousands of Galleons.
Worse, possessing one illegally meant that anyone caught was bound for Azkaban.
Professor McGonagall was already turning over ways to tactfully persuade Mr. Ollivander to turn himself in.
"Don't worry. This horn was registered with the Ministry of Magic back then. It's legal."
After explaining, Ollivander went on to talk about what he had done in his youth.
"I had my reasons for making a Wand like this. I was young then. I hadn't figured out how compatibility between Wands and people worked, and I didn't understand that the choice went both ways."
He paused.
"Back then, I had only one thought in my head—how to make a Wand more powerful."
"So I turned to rare materials. I asked around through several intermediaries and eventually tracked down a Unicorn Horn."
Mr. Ollivander gazed at the Wand in his hands, his eyes shining as though he had gone back to those younger days.
"Once I got hold of it, I set straight to work making what I believed would be the most powerful Wand."
"It wasn't easy."
He sighed.
"These days, I'd rather use Unicorn Tail Hair than touch a horn. It's easier to match with a wizard, for one thing. The other reason is that making a Wand from a horn is terribly difficult."
"It's the same for whoever uses it. Tail hair is gentler and bonds more easily with a wizard. A horn is far more potent, and its demands on the user are too high for it ever to become common."
"And there's more..."
Mr. Ollivander looked at the Wand he still held.
"Back then, I was obsessed with a legend, so I used a very unusual wood."
He raised his eyes.
"Elder Wood."