Being expelled from Ilvermorny had not been on this years bingo card. He should perhaps not have been as surprised by it as he was. The bigger shock was losing his wand. Granted, he had yet to learn many useful spells, charms, and other tricks of magic, but the smooth piece of wood had started to feel like an extension of himself. It was tricky to explain, but being without it felt wrong. The officials had enough sense not to snap it in front of him, lucky ducks. Not that he could have done much if that was the case. Instead he was simply relieved of it, and his treasured instrument was not seen again.
When it became clear where he would continue his schooling, there was no question on the matter: He needed a new wand. Thanks to deep pockets and a few friends in the right place, one was custom ordered for him. Made to fit him the best it could. Wood, core, flexibility and length, all somehow reflected an aspect of himself.

Yew is a wand wood often associated with extremes. It is drawn to individuals capable of shaping the world around them, for better or worse. Beneath the sarcasm and deliberate self-sabotage of Harvey, there lies someone with intelligence, determination, and potential. He is capable of many things, yet he spends so much of his life resisting that fact. A Yew wand would recognize what he could become.
Yew wands are frequently drawn to strong-willed owners. Harvey, although physically imposing due to his height, is not particularly brave in the traditional sense, but he possesses a stubborn refusal to bend. Whether facing authority, expectations, or his own fears, his first instinct is never surrender. When scared, he pushes back. When outmatched, he mouths off. There is defiance at the core of his character that matches a Yew wand well.

The core of the wand is dragon heartstring by Romanian longhorn, and it matches him well. He is set in his ways on many matters, and stubborn as few. That does not mean he is not flexible. When trying to achieve his goal, he will stop at nothing to reach it. He will adapt to the situation in any way he can, as long as it serves his goal.

It is said that wands with a core from Romanian Longhorn are bold, as well as stubborn and temperamental. This matches Harvey to a T. Fighting his own anger on a near-daily basis, and losing it more often than not. Stubborn as few, he refuses to back down from most things.

The wand was exactly 30 centimeters long. Right in the middle of typical length. It suits Harvey more than he would ever admit. Longer wands often choose lively wizards, or so the saying goes. It does not get much more lively than Harvey. A boy with a bit of a flair for the dramatics, and knows how to control a social scene. Loud, confident, and charismatic when he wishes to be.
But that is not all that Harvey is. Though extroverted, he likes his solitude and quiet moments. Time to spend refining his chosen skills and talents. He has an eye for detail, and often prefers a more refined approach to doing things.

The ability to adapt is said to be a good one. Unfortunately, it is not a skill Harvey has mastered. He can adjust, sure! Change his mind? Maybe. He is fluent and adjustable when casting magic. So much so that the flexibility of the wand surprised him at first. But it did not take much consideration before the choice was obvious.
When arguing about something silly, Harvey can almost easily change his mind and adapt. When it comes to his principles? He is steadfast as a boulder. A boy who has evolved into something out of necessity, something he is afraid of facing in the mirror, does not have much left to lose. His stance on not letting innocent people suffer the same fate as him, on that he will never yield. Unbending is the only fitting word to describe it.

From the moment that Akane's magic kicked in, Mr. Shimizu had started on a new wand for his daughter. The art of wandmaking had been passed down to him from his father, and to him by his father. It was no surprise; they lived in close proximity to the forest, the treetops just in sight. Though Akane was young, he already had an inking regarding what kind of witch she would become. On a broom, he flew to the top of one of the oldest cherry trees in the forest, and sawed off a neat and straight branch, ideal for wandmaking. The wood was currently now only a stick, but its degree of flexibility was carefully chosen by the wandmaker as well. Akihoto whittled the wood down to its light pinkish-brown center, carving elaborate lines and flourishes on the base. It was a beautiful shell, but without the core, it would still be simply a stick. From his workshop, he selected a slender, ivory-colored feather, the perfect fit with the wand itself. The main body of the wand was now finished. It had taken just a bit under a month, and all that was left was to refine the details.

Akane was very much a high achiever. Her schooling at Mahoutokoro played a role in that, for sure. From the moment she learned of the tiered system of her new school, she vowed to someday reach the highest level: gold robes. Her pastel pink beginner robes almost disgusted her, and she made a point to wear anything else whenever she could, outside of classes of course. Thankfully, it had only lasted a couple of weeks, and soon Kana was sporting a glorious navy blue. She was intent on maintaining it, but more so on upgrading further to gold. Day after day passed of eagerly checking her wardrobe in the morning to see if the change had happening, and day after day passed of being met with disappointment. However, the feeling was only short lived. Rather than stalling her progress, the failure only encouraged her more (studyholic?) and Kana kept on grinding for that sweet sweet gold. Along the way, she got better and better at her classwork. She got used to the pace of the academic life, combined with rigorous dueling practices. Instead of tiring her out, she was motivated by doing everything well, which in turn pushed her to be even more perfectionistic.
Her appearance and person was also mostly put together and neat. Akane's clothes were always devoid of wrinkles and imperfections, her sentences thought through, her handwriting neat, and her face always washed. She did not like to feel messy, because it made her antsy and on edge. It could ruin her mood for the entire day, so she tries very hard to avoid the feeling. Only on certain occasions, she just doesn't have time or else she would be late to class, she will skip whatever she intended to do. She prioritizes a pristine lack of absences on her report cards over a full face of makeup.
In a way, it almost became second nature. She simply knew what to do, as if on instinct, and as if she knew nothing other than perfection. It gave her control and made her content; it was something constant, especially when there was external turmoil. When she was a child, her schoolwork was dictated by her parents, and she was constantly under the gaze of their watchful eyes. Her academic success gave her almost a medium to express herself. Like an artist and her paintbrush, Kana and her line of O's going down the paper were going places. To her, the perfection was just so pretty, it was art and it was life. Imperfect grades were not even in her vernacular, but perfectionist certainly was. WC: 436

When Akane, Inaho, and Rinka were very young, they had come up with a game. An innocent one, created from the depths of a child’s bored mind. The premise was simple. Three girls on flying carpets, and whoever fell off first was the loser and had to eat a small soy sauce dish’s worth of straight wasabi at dinner. Natsuko, though she cringed at the idea, was mildly amused and wished to see what would go down. Akihito had similar thoughts, and wanted to see how competitive his girls could get. Thus neither parent put an end to the endeavor. They peeked from inside the house as their kids got on their carpets and took to the sky, preparing to watch the chaos ensue.
It started out easy. Akane won the first few games; rather, she did not lose. She guided her carpet high above her sisters, watching them tussle around. Later, though, they caught on, either flying at her same altitude or grabbing the tassels of her carpet and trying to bring it down. That was when she had her first L in the game. She had tumbled to the ground, quite a drop from the height, and immediately realized the consequence. She pinched her nose as the green gunk went down, and tried not to puke afterwards.
Kama learnt her lesson well. She began to get a knack for evading, especially since the punishment was still fresh in her mind and her taste buds (they were screaming for help). She learned to dodge out of the way in the nick of time, sometimes getting away in situations and making maneuvers even she did not believe she could manage. Somehow it was just a sense, almost an instinctive twitch of the muscles that generated moment and got her out of her way. Her competitive spirit was very strong, so at first she did not think too much of her newfound ability. It was only when she started the sport of dueling when it had started to come in handy. When it came to evading, she was better than most, especially for her age. Though Akane was tall, she was also very agile and quick on her feet. Maybe it was also due to her gangly limbs that she was able to bend and twist around to get out of the way of incoming spells. She simply could infer where the spell was going, and automatically know how and when to move out of the way. WC: 416

Observation was often the key to mastering a skill. Due to Akane's excellent time management, she was often done with her assignments early and had time to stroll over to the Mahoutokoro dueling grounds and watch others duel. No, it was not creepy and it was not stalking, no matter what Inaho or Rinka told her. Kana would sit on the sidelines with a textbook, notebook, quill, and wand, often staying for hours. She took notes once in a while, observing tiny details about how the senior duelists utilized each spell, each dodge, and even the piste itself to their advantage. Once everyone left, she would drag out practice dummies and train her spells on her own. Dragging out the dummies may have been even the hardest part, due to her lack of arm strength.
One skill seemed to elude her, time after time. It took her about a month to even muster up the courage to attempt it, for fear of messing up so badly her robes would instantly turn white. It was the practice of splitting a spell into two. She remembered the first time she saw it. Akane had rubbed her eyes, spotching ink on her shoes on the way. Thankfully it was not her robes. She was so sure she was seeing double, and needed to get her eyes checked, just to be sure, but no. The duelist she was spectating had simply had the sheer skill to somehow wrench apart the spell mid air, and direct it towards two seperate people. Kana was sure she would go either cross eyed or develop a lazy eye trying it, and thus was even more determined to not let a single soul see her first attempts. How could one look two different directions at once, that was beyond her. She already knew that it could happen by chance sometimes, out of luck, on an exceptional cast, but that would not satisfy her.
Kana placed two dummies, around a wingspan's length apart. She walked over to the other side of the piste, and took a breath. "FLIPENDO!" she yelled, thinking that the greater force she put into it, the better the outcome would be. Instead she simply looked like a lunatic, and her spell did not split.
She was likely haunting the dueling ground for weeks on end, hours at a time- she didn't know herself, as she lost track of time. She got lost within the thrill of learning something from scratch, her embarrassment at failing almost gone. It started with a weak spark, sometimes barely splitting from the main spell, but one thing about Kana was that she would not quit, even if she had to work her ass off to make even a fraction of progress.
The first time she managed the spell spread was exhilarating. It was extreme mental pressure, but watching her spell hit both dummies at once made it all worth it. With a small proud smile at the fruits of her effort, she would keep on practicing until she had it fully consistent. WC: 511

To anybody with eyes, it would be quite obvious that Akane was beautiful. She was the image of the perfect pureblood heiress: good posture, great manners, stellar academics... But perhaps it was not always fully that way.
Appearance had simply been a description trait for Akane, and her personality was her schoolwork. She would care for it, as one imperfection would undeniably affect the whole picture, but she had never noticed her potential before. It only happened one fateful night in her fifth year.
Akane had worked hard for the past five years- half a decade- at Mahoutokoro. She'd worked her ass off, day and night, chasing the seemingly impossible golden robes. Like a mirage in a desert, she was stumbling blindly towards an oasis that flickered in and out of sight. Not graceful at all, unlike what she'd like to be. Except, they weren't actually impossible, because she'd seen other real students with her real eyes wearing the real robes that she really wanted. She had not had a single grade under an O, ever, and she had even dabbled in leading a club, but her goal simply refused to be achieved. Kana had even turned superstitious, maybe even to an extent religious. She researched gods of intelligence and wisdom and manifested and prayed. There were gods across cultures, ones long forgotten and ones no one knew yet, but as the stupidly stubborn girl was falling asleep every night, she would think to herself: "please, please, whoever's out ther... zzzzz. zzzz." It was so stupid, and so futile, but mama did not raise a quitter. perhaps by sheer willpower, one bleak and cloudy morning, Kana ripped open the doors of her wardrobe to see beautiful, joyous, heavenly- gold. She screamed. Loud. A blood curdling noise of excitement. Perhaps her lack of professionalism was what had made them promptly turn back to navy only a week later.
She was infuriated. It was just one slip up?? Surely it was a cruel joke. But no, it was not. And so Akane felt that she was done with this. In front of a mirror, still teary eyed (though she would never admit it), she caught sight of herself. Yabai, she thought. What if I quit school and became an actress?? That was a joke, of course. She would never so something as frivolous, but it was at this moment that she realized her beauty. All the stares- she could always feel them at her back- it hadn't been because of her robe color or whatever crap about that. Robe color was but a social construct!
It was at the same time freeing and disconcerting. It was one more aspect to worry about, and she now was even more aware of the looks she sometimes got, and it made her think a lot, but at least the epiphany had gotten her to be less obsessive about her academics. WC: 485

Akane was pretty before, but as she grew up, it became evident that there was more to it than just looks. Entering her sixth year, she had grown a bit taller and stood at 170 centimeters, taller than most (girls, at least), and she was filling out her facial features more now, and gained a sort of confidence to her. She was self-assured before, yes, but it was more internal back then. In her younger years, she was more or less stuck in her own world of pretty O's and neat calligraphy. She invested in herself, and valued her progress more than anything else in her life, especially her social life. It explains why she has made very little friends, despite being a student at the Japanese magic school for six years. Somehow, amidst the classes and the studying, the time had slipped by and left her, in a sense, behind. And, if there was one thing Akane hated, it was being behind.
Sure, Akane was not well known socially, but she'd be damned if no body knew baout her academic prowess. Almost gleefully she imagined the look upon her classmates' faces whenever scores were announced, and it was seen that she was in the top few students.
She'd seen it in the glances people would give her sometimes. Awe, maybe, that's what Kana would have preferred it was. Maybe not admiration; despite being very self assured, she did not see herself as egotistical- alright, maybe a little. What she did not expect was that it would be her looks. Her way of holding herself while standing or even sitting was second nature, it did not strike her in any way as special, because it had been drilled into her as a child, and was more like a habit than obligation. She always had her back up straight, chin high, and walked soundlessly and gracefully. Recently, after her epiphany in fifth year, she had started to even experiment with slight makeup and some simple hairstyles; up until then, her only two choices were a low ponytail and nothing at all.
She found that she liked the attention, or rather the aspect of being known and being a distraction. It benefitted her a lot, coming close to what one would call pretty privelage. With her looks, combined with her good heritage from a respectable pureblood heritage and reputation as an academic and duelist, Akane Shimizu was a force to be reckoned with. WC: 411

Castra always felt as though people never lied to her about how they were feeling. She always seemed to have this odd little effect of people that made them feel... safe when they were with her. They always acted more relaxed, laughed real laughs, and genuinely had a good time when they hung out with her. Castra didn't know why, of course, but she was happy she had a trait, whatever it was, that made people happy, that drew people towards her. She loved nurturing and caring for others, helping them feel seen and heard. But she always did wish she knew why people were so comforted by her. Her father said she had a "gift" growing up. Now, at Ilvermorny, nothing changed. She was still just as warm, just as safe, and still just as confused. That was, until she was wondering about the library and found a book that had been left lying alone on a table titled "Calming Presence: Building a World of Zen" The title made her laugh a little, but she picked it up nonetheless, and began reading it, flipping through each of the pages. She read the textbook definition of "Calming Presence" but wasn't entirely convinced that it was her. Sure, she understood what it was and saw similarities in behavior ad how people react to her and people who have a calming presence, but it didn't really mean anything to her. The topic was still of interest to her, so she checked the book out and kept it with her to read or skim through whenever she had a little free time. She found the book to be very interesting, and as she read onward she realized that it was very similar to her "gift."
Then, one day, while at breakfast, a classmate of her got a letter. The boy's childhood cat had died, and the boy broke down immediately when he read the news of his deceased friend. Castra stood from her place and walked over, placing one hand on the boy's back and gently consoled him, and explained to him that life was a natural process, something that can't be changed. She continued to speak to him, comforting him and making sure he was alright. Castra continued reading the book she got, but whenever she did so, the boy always lingered in the back of her head. He seemed to be doing a lot better after Castra spoke to him. So... maybe she did have a Calming Presence.