There was a reasonable argument to be made that opening a wand shop months before any excited first years would flood Diagon Alley, school supply lists in hand, was a bold decision.  And it likely didn't help that Bardigan's Wands ("Classic and Exotic Cores and Styles!  Custom Wands Available—Inquire Within!") was located in scenic Knockturn Alley.  But as a long morning of no customers drifted toward an afternoon of no customers, Silas finally took the hint, hung up the "Back Later" sign, and went for an errand with a sigh.

Locking the door behind him with a wave of his wand, he set off toward the end of the alley, deliberately looking past a shop window featuring a jar full of eyeballs and what he was fairly confident was a young Acromantula's leg.  Silas took the cobblestoned path toward Gringotts, looking up with a bit of trepidation as he thought of the pitiful collection of coins in his own vault and the number of Galleons the bank had loaned him.  Surely someone would need a wand soon, someone with enough gold for a wand but not quite enough for Ollivander's...

As he rounded the corner into Diagon Alley, his icy blue eyes drifted of their own accord toward the master wandmaker's shop even as his feet carried him onward.  Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.  Wondering if his own wand shop would make it even to a year that ended in a "2", Silas didn't notice a loose brick until it caught the toe of his boot and he stumbled, hopping awkwardly until regaining his balance.  Clearing his throat, he looked down at the offending brick, jutting up from its fellows, then pointed his wand at it.  "Evanesco."

The brick vanished, leaving a hole in the sidewalk.  Nodding in satisfaction, Silas stuck his wand back through his belt and strode on.

Normally he would have worn a coat, but it was a pleasant enough day for the season, and it would be a lot of needless effort taking the coat on and off to try on robes, so he had left it behind and proceeded from his shop only in trousers, boots, a nondescript white shirt with loose sleeves, and a blue vest with a wave pattern which cinched his shirt snugly to his lithe frame.  Running a hand through his hair as he arrived at Madam Malkin's, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.

"Huh," he said, mostly to himself.  "Hasn't changed much in thirteen years."

It was a steady day in the robe shop as professionals and stay at home moms wondered in and out. A typical work week flow while the hoards of students were tucked away inside of Hogwart's castle. Maddy liked it best when there were customers to help but not so many that she couldn't take the personal time to get to know the person in order to find the perfect outfit. She was putting new robes onto hangers when the front door opened. She glanced over her shoulder  to see a man in a blue vest  walk in. She liked the wave pattern that seemed almost painted on. She hung up the last robe, picked up the box and headed over to the guy.

"The decor and quality has stayed the same but the threads have changed," She said with a grin. Maddy herself was wearing one of the sleeveless robes in aquamarine over jeans and a tee shirt.

"Can I help you find anything? We have a great selection of robes and casual wizarding ware. It can be tailored to fit if you need or if you'd like I could set you up an appointment with the designer and she can custom make you anything."

Taking in the room he remembered from his youth—he had visited even before he had gone to Hogwarts himself, towed along by his mother for Athena's robes—Silas hadn't noticed the shop assistant until she spoke.  Starting slightly, fixing his eyes on her, he gave her a half-smile back.  "I don't need to keep up with all the trends," he admitted.  "Just some basic blacks should do.  Mine've...er...been through a bit."

Having had it pointed out to him so recently by his parents and both his siblings, Silas could hear the way his once-distinct Yorkshire accent had gone quite far afield, but trying consciously to fix it only made it sound more bizarre.  He had resigned himself to the fact that it would take some time to readjust.

"Oh, I do that," he said, smile brightening before he realized she might need a few more words to follow his train of thought.  "Custom designs.  Not robes," he clarified.  "Wands.  I'm a wandmaker.  Silas Bardigan."

Extending his hand, he thought to add after a moment, "I don't need custom robes, though.  Just black."

The man appeared to be a dreamer. Maddy watched as he gazed around the store as if he were remembering something. Probably the other times he'd been their as a child. It seemed that every young witch or wizard came here to buy their first robes. It was like a right of passage.

"I'm hard on my robes too. I always ended up singing them in school. We have a new fabric that's harder to set a flame and they don't tatter as quickly." She said as set the empty box on the floor, and used her wand to make it disappear into the store room.

The man had a nice smile. It made him look younger and he was almost giddy as he talked about his work. So he made wands. Custom? Fancy stuff. Wait, new wandmaker. He was that guy who opened the new place in Knockturn. Someone had told her about it a couple of weeks ago. Thought he was crazy for opening another wand store in the alley, especially when school was already in session.

"You must be the brave soul that is challenging Ollivander's. It's nice to meet you Silas, I'm Maddy," She said shaking his hand in a firm grip.

"Any particular style of black robes you're looking for?"

"I had that happen last year," he commiserated.  "Norwegian Ridgeback set my last set of robes on fire.  Healers patched me up.  Nothing they could do for the robes, though."

He watched her Vanish the box, but his eyes lingered on the wand, indifferent to the magic.  "Cedar?" he guessed, then hastily added, "No, not rich enough.  Chestnut?"

Briefly diverted by her comment, Silas groaned lightly.  "Yeah, that'd be how everyone else has described me too, except not everyone's been polite enough to say 'brave'.  How about we go with 'complementing Ollivander's'?" he suggested.  "He's a master, no doubt about it.  You'll never hear me deny that.  But I'm trying some new things, too, things Ollivander doesn't try."

Looking back at her wand, his blue eyes alight with obvious interest, he extended his other hand, robes apparently forgotten.  "May I?"

"Nothing can stop dragon fire," She pointed out. How'd this guy come into contact with a dragon? And he lived to tell the tale. It probably was a good story too. How could it not be? He was close enough to a dragon that his robes caught on fire. Maddy wanted to see a dragon. They were marvelous creatures with their elegant wings and nasty personalities. One had to be on their toes around dragons.

Maddy was day dreaming about riding a dragon when Silas said something. Maddy nibbled on her bottom lip as she wondered what question he'd asked her. He was staring at her wand intently.

"Oh sure," She said handing over her wand. She was curious to what he'd say about it. She thought she remembered that wands could tell you something about a person.

"Is it true that you can tell what kind of person someone is by examining their wand?" she asked titling her head to the side slightly.

Silas took the wand eagerly as Maddy offered it, running the fingertips of his right hand down the shaft, eyes half-closed as he considered it.  After a moment, he shifted the wand to his dominant hand and swished it, conjuring up a glass which he caught with his left hand.  Filling it with water from Maddy's wand, he took a sip, smacking his lips together for a moment with a thoughtful expression.

"Dragon," he said at last, smiling in a satisfied sort of way.  "Chestnut and dragon heartstring.  Maybe a Ukrainian Ironbelly?  They tend to give that peppery taste...  Nice grip on it, too."

When she asked about the personality of the owner, Silas cocked his head to one side, looking thoughtful.  "Now that's an interesting question," he replied after a moment.  "Wand woods have...I guess you'd call them characteristics?  You expect this from this wand wood, that from that wand wood.  And what they're paired with matters too."

Drawing out his own wand with his free hand, he said, "Pine and phoenix feather.  But it'd be a different story if it was pine and unicorn hair."

Tucking it back in his belt and balancing Maddy's wand on both his palms, Silas added, "But as a rule?  If I had to guess, your favorite subject at Hogwarts was either Herbology or Care of Magical Creatures.  Maybe played Quidditch?  Chestnut's kind of a flyer's wand, and dragons obviously fly too.  And chestnut and dragon heartstring together..."

Silas trailed off, looking a bit guilty as he realized where he was going with that analysis; even he sometimes had enough presence of mind to self-censor, and better late than never.  Offering her the wand back, he noted, "But the wand learns from its master.  This isn't the same wand you bought when you were eleven.  So if I really examined it, I probably could tell more about you, or at least your style of magic.  A career Healer's wand won't be much good for Dark magic, say."

It was fascinating watching the man work. He looked like a little boy at Christmas as he eagerly took her wand. Maddy smiled slightly as she watched. This was a person who truly enjoyed his work. Who took pride in it. He was also an interesting character. He looked at the wood like some men looked at pretty ladies. Maddy raised an eyebrow when he summoned a glass of water with her wand and drank out of it. Did drinking water made from her wand actually tell him something? Weird! But cool.

She let out a little gasp of excitement when he said he correctly named her wand. She grinned at him in wonderment. This guy was something else and her eyes grew bigger as he talked. He'd named her two favorite subjects at school and she had played qudditch.  She wanted to know what chesnut and dragon hearstring meant together but he trailed off and before she could ask him about it he kept on talking.

"This is really interesting. Care of Magical creatures was my favorite subject. And this isn't my first wand. I had a freak accident during OWLs and dropped my first wand in the poition that I had accidentally turned into acid. It still worked but not well and then I fell down the stairs with it in my hand and snapped it. My brother believes my wand committed suicide just to get away from me...." she trailed off as she thought about the horrible story she just told. He probably thought her careless or stupid. She destroyed her first wand.

"I haven't hurt this wand." She hurriedly assured him.
"So black robes. Do you want sleeves that can be held up by a button? They stayed rolled up instead of having to push your sleeves up with your hands. They are perfect for people who use their hands for stuff."

Silas smiled slightly when she confirmed her background, trying not to look too pleased with himself.  He could still hear both Tamir and Kalpana drilling wand woods and their properties into his head.  When Maddy regaled him with the fate of her first wand, Silas tried not to look too aghast, though his mouth was hanging open in dismay by the end of the story.

"Well, the uh...the wand does learn from the witch," he offered, trying to reassemble his expression into a weak smile.  "That's not exactly what we hope they learn, but..."

As she assured him about her chestnut and dragon wand, Silas gave it a protective, concerned look, but then nodded gamely.  "That's, er...good."

"Black robes!" he agreed bracingly; probably best not to dwell on traumatic wand memories. 

"The buttons sound useful," he agreed, waving one arm in the air so she could see his loose sleeve swaying.  "I like keeping my arms free."

His warped accent didn't like free at all; it came out frehh.

Crap. Maddy nearly scared the customer off with her wand story. Note to self don't mention how you destroyed your first wand to a wand maker. They won't find it funny at all. He looked like she told him she killed her kid. Not that she was old enough to have kids. Wait she was actually. But she'd be a young mum and that's crazy. Merlin's beard he probably thought she was crazy. Oh well. Nothing to be done about that. Besides, everyone makes mistakes and it wasn't like her wand actually committed suicide it was an accident. Now she had a new wand and it was lovely and liked her. Maddy took her wand back. She wondered if the wand heard their conversation and was now wary about doing magic with her? Wands did learn from witches. He kept repeating it.

"I'm not a wand killer. I promise. Just misread the potion list and it turned into acid...It was quite the sight though.  It smelled like burning cabbage. It was the worst potion the OWL examiner had ever seen before." She said with a bit of pride in her voice. Her motto was if you're failing fail wonderfully.

"Don't worry, I'm much better with clothes than I am with potions," She said with a grin as she led the way to the back corner of the store where there were a large selection of black robes.

"Where did you live before you opened the store? Or have you always lived in England?" She asked curious about his accent. Maddy examined the rack of robes and shifted through the hangers, grabbing a few different styles, making sure they all had buttons so he could secure his rolled up sleeves.

"Do you prefer pull over robes, or button closed?" She asked holding up one of each. 

Silas tried to imagine dropping a wand into a cauldron full of what was essentially acid, and his bright eyes widened slightly.  "You're lucky it didn't blow up," he notes.  "I mean, it's not bomb, it's a wand.  You can snap one in half and it won't do anything but break.  But sometimes cores...er...don't react well to other magical substances."

He almost reflected in silence, but, thinking it might put her more at ease, he added, "When I was learning, I accidentally set off a dragon heartstring with a charm.  It sprayed fire from both ends, then withered.  Almost set the wand shop on fire too."

As he looked through the robes, appreciating the different styles while noticing some so flamboyant he would never wear them and others he would love to own but wouldn't be affording any time soon, he winced at her question.  "The accent, right?  My sister was on me about it.  Department of International Magical Cooperation.  She works there, I mean.  What was I saying?"

"Oh!  Right, abroad.  Yeah, I've been abroad the last...what is it, 2011?  Almost thirteen years.  Little time in Egypt, few years in Iran.  Asia, the Americas, Africa...I've been around.  Saw lots of stuff.  Got quite a few exotic wand cores," he thought to add—every little bit of marketing helps, as his father reminded him just last Sunday.

"Oh, button closed," he noted when she presented him with the options.  "Got to be able to pull them off in a hurry if...well, you know, if...anything happens."  It sounded a little lame to his ears, but surely less dramatic than if I get into a duel or have to fight a dragon.  Not that the former is out of the question in Knockturn Alley, but hopefully things like that aren't going to be regular occurrences in England.

"How have things been around here?" Silas asked.  "Knockturn Alley seems...er...a bit better off than it was when I left in '98."

Maddy let out a sigh when Silas told her she had been lucky it hadn't exploded. She realized that she had escaped the situation with only minor damage. It could have been ten times worse than copious amounts of smoke, a ruined cauldron and a very mad examiner.  Before the situation could get entirely out of control the QWL  examiner had swooped off the raised platform like a Vampire Bat spells firing as the woman contained the damage. In a matter of minutes her smoking cauldron had vanished and in it's place was parchment and quill. The examiner had hastily written a note, telling her to leave.  It wouldn't have mattered if she' been given another chance since there had been no way she'd have been able to make the potion in the last fifteen minutes of the exam. That's what she got for rushing.

Silas story about fire erupting from dragon heart string made her feel a little less like an idiot and she smiled at him in share companionship. She wasn't the only person who messed up and ruined stuff. Magic could be volatile. She just wished her father understood that. He hadn't been pleased that she'd failed potions. Her Uncle had been a famed potioner and her Father was pretty adept at them too. And here she was failing at an intermediate potion, not even getting an acceptable OWL in it.

Maddy's brow furrowed a little when the man winced at her question. She thought his accent was charming. It was a bit hard to understand a few words but it wasn't too bad. She was curious about how one got an accent like his. What languages did he know? She longed to travel around the world exploring both magical and muggle cultures. She hadn't been out side of Great Britain.

"Wow thirteen years? I wish I could travel that long. I've never been out of Great Britain. My parents are homebodies. I've always wanted to go to Egypt. So much history and stories to hear," She said wistfully, pausing in her search for the best set of black robes as she imagined herself exploring the pyramids.

"Making wands sounds dangerous. You never know if you have a bad tail," She pointed out helpfully as she pulled out several black robes that were secured with buttons. One of the robes just had one button and was meant to be worn over regular clothes, and another had four buttons evenly spaced.

"Here, you should try these on. I think they'll do nicely." She said holding them out for him to take. She pondered his question. How were things here? He'd left so long ago.

"Knockturn alley is  being gentrified, especially the shops closer to the Diagon. The terrorist attack on the leaky cauldron has some people spooked. It came out of no where," She said her voice softening in sadness.

"Anyways, there is a dressing room right over there," She said pointing to several little cubical like areas off to the side.

Silas wondered what that would have been like, living in Britain all his life.  But even as a child it was an alien idea.  "We traveled a lot when I was a kid," he replied.  "Mum for the Ministry and Dad with the Cleansweep Company.  Being at Hogwarts was actually the first time I was in Britain for seven years straight."

"Egypt..." he mused as she paused, looking a bit daydreamy.  "Well, definitely a lot of history, and fascinating wand history.  And phoenixes live there.  I got a couple feathers.  Sphinxes too, though, that wasn't as fun.  One of them ate my first master.  Got a braid from her for a wand core, though."

Looking at the robes as she pulled them off the rack, Silas felt his look of professional interest stealing back over his face.  "Well, it's not so much a bad tail.  I used to think that, but then my second teacher told me there are no bad cores, just bad wandmakers.  But sometimes the wood...er...doesn't like the core.  Phoenix feathers are tricky to place.  Siren hair too.  And I have one core that kept burning the wood I encased it in.  Took me ages to get it right."

Silas thought of his special box of "exotics", wondering which witch or wizard would be chosen by each of those wands.  Some were only "exotic" to Britain, of course, their cores staples elsewhere.  But one or two were definitely special.

He took the offered robes, one in each hand, but listened to her thoughts on the area as he pulled the one-button robe on.  "I heard about that," he agreed in a sympathetic tone.  "Montgomery mentioned the cleanup.  That's my brother.  Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes.  Though I bet the Aurors have been about too?"

He waived off the bit about the changing room as he draped the robe properly.  "Nah, no need, I'll only be wearing it over clothes anyway.  What do you think?" he asked, spinning in a circle, waving his arms to test range of motion.

This man was fascinating. He obviously was well traveled and seemed open to talk about his experiences. He told good stories. She hung on his every word as he talked about Egypt. Her mouth dropped open when talked about seeing a Sphinxes. Too bad about his master but she was envious. To have seen such a rare and impious creature was a once in a life time opportunity. Maddy had a love for all animals that bordered on the suicidal. The higher the danger the more she wanted to see such a beast. It was a character flaw.

"One day can you please tell me the story how you survived such a magnificent beast with a braid?" She asked her eyes lit with excitement.

Maddy's excitement about the sphinx faded when they talked about the attack. "Yes they have. My dad's an auror," She pointed out not sure what else to say. How did one talk about such an event without sounding like a gossip or insensitive?

At his question Maddy walked around him carefully examining how the frabic laid about his body. She'd gotten the size almost right.

"How does it fit in the arms? Enough room?" She asked as she mused over whether to hem the length just a tad. "Do you like the length, I can quickly hem it a half inch if you'd like? I think the cut fits nicely, do you like it?"

Silas smiled, feeling a bit more relaxed as she reacted enthusiastically to the discussion of sphinxes.  "Took a leaf right out of The Monster Book of Monsters," he replied.  "That was the required Care of Magical Creatures text when Professor Hagrid was teaching.  Odd bloke.  Friendly, mind you, but not the best professor.  But yeah, it did what sphinxes do—asked me a riddle."

He beamed.  "Sometimes it's good to be a Ravenclaw."

Rolling his shoulders, he nodded easily.  "Plenty of movement."  Looking down at his ankles, wondering whether he might trip if he stepped down on the hem, Silas nodded.  "Couldn't hurt.  And if you could draw it just a bit closer across the chest?"

Apart from his loose sleeves, the rest of Silas's clothes were closely tailored to his body, and he liked them that way.  It was another lesson he had learned the hard way—loose garments had a tendency to snag.

"So your family is Ministry too, then?" he asked as she went about her work.  "I never knew much about Level Two.  Got some classmates there, but we haven't been in touch since...'98, I guess, after the Battle of Hogwarts."  It seemed like such a long time ago.

"Did your family want you to go Ministry after Hogwarts?  My mum and my sister did, for me."