From a treatise on Artifice and Alchemy dictated by Ronald Weasley and scribed by Hermione Granger
The Mystery of Magic Materials
That's always the question, isn't it? What makes something magical instead of mundane. it's a big question, because what if a muggle used a magic plant in a medicine or a magic metal in their technology?
And of course, the answer is complicated. Because despite what we were always taught, it doesn't take magic to interact with magic.
Except when we make it that way. Which, isn't always the right way to make a thing. Sometimes, a muggle or a squib needs to use something magical, so it's up to us to makes ure they can, right?
But what makes something innately magic versus innately mundane is pretty simple: does it have magical properties of its own, or does a witch or wizard have to do something magical to make it so?
Most of the time, magic materials or plants or creatures make themselves known because of how they interact with the world; they are affected by ambient magic, they do something magical, or they do something that violated what muggles call natural law or scientific law.
A dragon, for example, shouldn't exist. Evolution has no room for creatures the size of power of a dragon, but they exist. Ashwinders make no sense. Runespoors. Some things you might be able to explain away, like doxies or bowtruckles, but that would be pretty hard.
See? I do pay attention when muggle science gets explained!
Magical Plants & Animals
Materials from magical plants and animals used as materials in potions, artifice, alchemy, and enchantment.
Well, they alreayd have magical properties, and what we make with them will have a magical property we want it to have, so we use a material from a creature or plant that will let us access that magic.
Potions are more complicated, of course, because of reactions and such, but the principle is the same. For a potion to be more than an herbal cocktail a muggle or squib could make, it has to have a componenet that comes from magic.
The more magic a thing has - dragons, for example, or Phoenixes - the stronger the effect will be.
Crafting armor or clothes from dragonhide gives it the durability and magically reflecting properties of dragon hide.
(That is why most dragonhide stuff is handcrafted and not made by magic.)
Magic metals
There are actually a lot of magic metals and magic minerals. They look an awful lot like the mugggle stuff. They just aren't.
Magic metals usually occur because of ambient magic where the metal formed, but that isn't a guarantee of anything. Like any other rare metal, it appears when and where it appears. There are some spells to figure out if a material is magic or not, but mostly - it's about working with it.
Some of it is just being magic. Magic people can tell when something is magical; we know what to look for, and it has kinda an energy around it, you know?
It's also not easy for muggles to work with. They can melt it down and make a circuit or a wire out of, but it won't work for them. It won't conduct electricity - it's one way to know it's magical. Because it doesn't do what muggles say it should do.
Mining
Magical metals are either found real close to the surface, or seriously deep under it. The places where most mining takes place for muggles will have a very low chance of magic metals appearing or being found. It can happen, but it doesn't usually happen.
Magic metals are found very deep - mostly dwarves and goblins mine it and work with it.
Imbued vs. naturally ocurriing
Those are strange words for it. But okay.
Most magical metals are made magic. Such as, an Alchemist or an Artificer can make mithril out of rhodium and iron, but a muggle can't.
Raw mithril is rare, because rhodium and iron have to occur in the same place and be exposed to the right kind of ambient magic at the right time, over a period of time.
Celestial bronze comes from space rocks - asteroids - that fell a long, long time ago and ended up in a place where ambient magic was strong. It's super rare, and that I have had so much of it to work with has been a blessing.
Who knew folk like Harry needed it so much?
Making Magic Materials
You really want me to get all complicated, don't you? Fine.
So, we make magic items all the time. Mum's favorite pot is magical. It's magical because it was made to be used by magical people. It works well with spells, right? Cooks even. Stuff never sticks to the bottom, it's easy to clean with a bit of hot water and soap, and it never rusts.
It was, at one point, a really well made stewpot that some wizard enchanted a bit. Of course, that magic will wear off after time and has to be re-added. Bill is really good at this, and so are you, Hermione.
But eventually, that magic will fade, and have to re-applied. But if the pot has been used too much, it isn't the same quality it was before, then the magic won't be as effective. Eventually, it won't be anything but a regular stewpot, no matter how much magic you use on it.
The same kind of thing applies to invisibility cloaks. Eventually, the magic fades, and no matter how much you do to it, it won't work as well.
But something an artificer or an alchemist makes? It's different, because the magic isn't applied to a thing or used to turn a mundane thing into a magical thing.
The magic is part of it, imbued into it, and we don't need magical materials to make it so. If I make a magic stewpot, that magic is there forever.
Everyone thinks of raw mithril as this amazing stuff - and it is! But raw mithril isn't the same as alchemical mithril, because it was made naturally. Eventually, it's magic will fade. Alchemical mithril, made by an artificer or alchemist, will never fade. It's powers will remain for eternity.
The best part is it that it's easy for us. It's harder for one of us to make a mundane item, because our very natures lend to us making anything we make into magic. We put magic into what we create without trying. There is no effort involved unless we're going for something really, really specific. And sometimes, if we're practiced enough at it, that's easy, too.
And we can make as much of it as we want, because we know how to make rhodium and we know how to make iron, so if we run out, we can just add a few steps to the process and make some nice mithril ore we can use to forge whatever we need.
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