Luna was clever, however, and she seemed to figure it out very quickly. She deliberately shifted so that she was standing in front of a wand resting on the counter behind her, then suddenly reached back for it in a sneaky attempt to catch Julian off guard, only to be stopped anyway. Her ability only worked when she had a clear line of sight to the magical energy she was trying to read, so if someone stood in front of the source, it blocked her from sensing it properly. That rule, however, clearly did not apply to Julian. For all that she usually came across as odd and airheaded, her mind was exceptionally sharp.
Both Ollivander and Xeno watched the exchange in silence, because it was fairly obvious to them what was happening. In the end, though, Julian tricked Luna into picking up the wand that had been trying to get her attention the entire time, which completed the match and left the girl visibly annoyed. If her expression had to be compared to anything, it was like a child having an especially fascinating toy taken away. "You can settle the payment with Mr. Ollivander and continue with the rest of your shopping," Julian said with a chuckle.
"I'll win next time," Luna declared with a determined look. "You're welcome to try. I'm not usually all that difficult to find," Julian replied, alluding to the fact that he was generally in the workshop whenever he was not attending class. Luna then angrily dragged her father out of the shop after paying for the wand. "You really are full of secrets, aren't you?" Ollivander said with a broad smile. Julian only shrugged and said nothing, because there was no need. At this point, even a blind man could have seen that Julian was a very unusual sort of wizard.
Even so, despite how antagonistic the whole interaction had been, it was perfectly clear to Julian that he had enjoyed teasing the blonde girl. 'Her reactions are simply too good not to,' he thought with a smirk. Luna had obviously never learned to hide her emotions very well, so if one ignored the odd things she said and did, she was almost an open book. Unfortunately, Julian ended up missing the perfect chance to snatch the diary because he was working during the Weasleys' confrontation with the Malfoys. It was a little strange that Lucius Malfoy was still willing to go through with his plan after everything involving Julian freeing Sirius and removing Peter from the board.
It was possible Lucius simply never imagined the plan could be traced back to him, since his part in it was basically just abandoning the diary and hoping for the best. Unfortunately for him, he had clearly failed to account for just how much his house-elf hated him. The books had made it very clear that even though house-elves were forced to show loyalty to their masters, they were still entirely capable of indirectly striking back at those same masters.
Dobby had done it repeatedly in the second book, and Sirius's house-elf Kreacher had essentially exploited Bellatrix's connection to the Black family in order to pass information to her purely to spite Sirius. The lesson there was simple. If they wanted to, house-elves absolutely could ruin your plans, so the best approach was to treat them well enough that they would never want to. Julian lived by that rule with Dotty, who was given good food and was never punished for anything that was not his fault. Hell, Julian even paid Dotty ten galleons every two weeks to use however he liked.
Admittedly, that had taken a great deal of convincing, along with repeated assurances that the elf was free to spend the money on the household if he wanted, which was exactly what he did nearly every single time. Using that money, Dotty had restocked the pantry at Ravenclaw Manor and had slowly begun adding small magical decorations throughout the place that honestly made it feel far more alive. Julian had no idea how, but the house-elf had even somehow found a supplier of ore and magical timber and was gradually filling one of the empty rooms with both, even if only in small amounts for now.
Business slowed down during the second week of the month, so Julian returned to practicing wandmaking from start to finish under Ollivander's stern supervision. Yet another town was sacrificed without much real fuss, and Julian's skill in wandcraft was improving by leaps and bounds now that he had moved beyond the rough novice stage. The only thing he truly disliked was that he still was not allowed to experiment with the runes carved into the core of a wand in an effort to improve the strength of his creations as the summer holiday slowly approached its end.