After Snape learned the full story of what had happened, he took points from both Gryffindor and Slytherin since both sides had been at fault, but beyond that no further punishment was given. The students who had ended up buried underground, however, became far more cautious about provoking Julian's friends and started steering clear of them. Malfoy, on the other hand, lost a large amount of political influence within his house once word spread. He was not completely turned into an outcast, but aside from his usual lackeys Crabbe and Goyle, no one approached him anymore. Meanwhile, Daphne and Tracy both gained a noticeable amount of influence in Slytherin due to their connection to Julian.-
After leaving Hagrid's place, Julian and his friends spent time in his workshop, though this time they were careful not to touch anything. Most of them were talking among themselves or playing wizard's chess, while Julian was occupied with a silver band held in a vise, an engraver clutched in his hand. He leaned over his work with a jeweler's monocle fixed over his left eye. "What are you even doing over there?" Tracy asked with curiosity, but Julian did not bother glancing up as he answered. "I'm enchanting this ring with runes to test whether I can combine my own personal enchanting method with the standard one." he said while finishing the carving of the futhark word for water.-
"And what exactly do you think will happen if it works?" Luna asked curiously as she stroked Steve in her lap. "I don't think it'll work the first time. Actually, I'm fairly sure my first attempt is going to explode." he replied honestly as he loosened the vise, turned the ring to a fresh side without any carving, and secured it again. "Is that normal?" Daphne asked, worried for his safety. "Completely normal. You should see what happens to the bones I've tried enchanting. That's always a messy affair." he said as he began engraving the futhark word for cold.-
"Why in Merlin's stinky socks would you even try enchanting bones!? That sounds like dark arts stuff." Ron burst out in horror. Julian immediately scoffed at that. "It's not as if I had to rip them out of something still alive to get them. They're just materials, same as the snake fangs we use in potions or the dragonhide wizards use for gloves. They're not dark by nature, they can just be used for dark purposes the same way they can be used for good ones." he explained to Ron easily enough.-
"I guess that makes sense, but then why are you having trouble enchanting them if you can already make such amazing stuff?" Ron asked in confusion, and the others all looked equally interested. "Metal is dead material, so it doesn't have any natural preference for what sort of enchantment it will take. Organic materials like skin, bone, and wood are the exact opposite because they came from living things, so they definitely have preferences. My enchantment method works by infusing the chosen enchantment through the entire material, so when the material itself rejects it, bang." Julian explained with a sigh.-
At that, all of Julian's friends glanced at their wands in surprise, since none of them had realized the wood in them had its own preferences as well. "But how do you figure out what the material actually likes?" Harry asked, intrigued by the possibility that his wand might give him an advantage in certain fields. "Honestly, I haven't got the faintest idea. I've been trying to understand that since last year and I've had no success at all." Julian admitted frankly, sounding more than a little helpless.-
"What!?" Tracy cried out in complete shock. "I'm honored that you think learning everything comes easily to me, but it really doesn't." Julian joked, making Luna giggle. "The truth is, I genuinely have no references for the subject I'm researching, so I don't even know where to begin. Put simply, I'm throwing ideas at the problem until one of them finally works, and as you've probably guessed, that hasn't been going very well." he said while finishing the rune word and turning the ring once more so he could carve the word ice into it in futhark.-
That was the final word in the set, the one that would make the ring release a burst of ice once activated. "Why not ask Flitwick to help you?" Luna asked curiously. Julian let out a sigh. "I did, but he's just as stuck as I am because, as far as history goes, nobody has researched this subject. That means I have to build everything from the ground up. Still, his expertise in enchanting is incredibly useful when it comes to testing ideas I never would have considered myself." he explained honestly. At last he completed the enchantment on the ring, slipped it onto his pointer finger, and activated it, sending a burst of ice from the ring toward the wooden target he had "borrowed" from the old dueling storage room.