On Monday, Ollivander tested Julian's current level of skill and, after deciding it was acceptable, chose to move on to the second-to-last stage of wandcraft, rune carving. "The runes most commonly used in wandmaking were selected according to three factors, power, efficacy, and efficiency. More precisely, how much strength they give the wand, how well they function regardless of the magic sent through them, and how smoothly they allow magic to pass from wizard to spell," Ollivander explained before writing out a set of runes on a sheet of paper that formed four separate words.
As a normal sentence those words would have made no sense at all, but as part of an enchantment they worked perfectly well. They were focus, spirit, small, and pull, at least when translated into English, which Julian knew because he could read them without any trouble. "Now, the key to carving runes is consistency and precision. Watch carefully," Ollivander said before splitting open a wand housing and taking up an engraving pen to carve those words into it with perfect care. "As you can see, each rune was carved to exactly the same depth and width. At this point I could place a wand core inside this housing and seal it to create a weak but functional wand, like this," Ollivander said.
He then took a unicorn hair from the jar sitting on the workbench and carefully laid it along the center of the housing before canceling the splitting charm so the wood closed up again. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but then Ollivander picked up the wand and flicked it toward a wood chip. Sparks burst from the wand's tip, and he gave a nod. "Oak, ten inches, rigid, and inclined toward charms. All in all, a usable wand," he said before handing it over to Julian so he could inspect it.
As Julian looked it over, he could not help being surprised by how simple it appeared while still clearly being anything but simple in reality. "I should mention that most wands actually have more runes carved into them than that, depending on the wandmaker's skill and research. My own wands, for example, never contain fewer than seven runes, and some of my more complex works go as high as thirty-four," Ollivander said proudly. "That sounds like a lot to fit onto such a small surface," Julian said honestly as he tried to picture it.
Ollivander nodded. "You would be right if the writing remained this size, but when a rune scribing technique known as minimizing is used, it is not nearly so much," he said matter-of-factly. "That has nothing to do with you for now, however. Your task at present is simply to place those four runes correctly onto a housing. Once you can do that well enough, I shall take you to the Ministry so you can receive your veritology license, which will allow you to legally sell any wands you make," the old man said with a smile.
Julian quickly discovered that carving runes into wood was almost the same as doing so on metal, except that the softer material was slightly easier to ruin. Because of that, he already had a decent grasp of the process and only needed two more days before he successfully created a wand using some of Steve's shed fur as the core. It was an elm wand measuring nine and a half inches, whippy, and best suited for transfiguration. Ollivander inspected it with a critical eye, but after finding no real faults in the workmanship, he declared it an excellent first wand and allowed Julian to keep it, since the first wand a maker produced always carried sentimental worth.
The following week began on a somewhat sour but unfortunately unsurprising note, as yet another town had been sacrificed. Still, the rest of that week was devoted to Julian refining his rune carving until he could consistently produce new wands. By Friday, Ollivander decided the time had come to get him licensed, and the timing was appropriate as well, since according to Ollivander the first years would begin arriving at the start of the coming month. Apparently his last real lesson in veritology would be learning how to match a wizard to a wand.
Julian could only laugh at the way the old man intended to turn the first years' wand fitting into a teaching exercise. Even so, the Ministry examination required to obtain a license for legal veritological work was actually quite strict. Julian had to craft a wand from scratch using only the materials supplied by the Ministry, all while being observed and evaluated by a team of three experts from the Department of Magical Creation. He took his time and handled every part of the process in a neat, orderly manner, which allowed him to complete the elder wood wand with a unicorn hair core without any trouble.