Harry Potter and the Cursed Heart ~discontinued~

Chapter 5

Ollivander's was an odd place to put it lightly. For starters, the organisation was a mess and yet Mr Ollivander seemed to know where everything was. And now that Alice thought about it, she felt the shop represented the owner in that is was chaotic, disorganised, and yet the best at wands. The passion for his craft was clear and Alice could admire that about him, even if he weirded her out. Although that was becoming less of an issue as the growing pile of wands in front of her made it harder for her to see him. However, this didn't seem to deter him, but in fact make him more excited.

There was a pause, until Mr Ollivander came around the table and stood in front of Alice. "Young lady, I wonder if I might ask you something. When you see people, do you see a colour or a haze surrounding them?"

Alice was quite taken aback by the question; she had just assumed that all wizards could see it. And now with this revelation, she wondered if that's why people were surprised when she interacted with theirs. Perhaps that's why she had managed to even shock Snape. Weakly, she nodded back.

Mr Ollivander's tone took a serious turn. Rotating to address Snape, he asked him, "I assume you know that this information never leaves this room?" Out of the corner of her eye, Alice watched him nod back in a somehow more grave fashion than normal. He then swivelled back to Alice, "I want you to understand that this is a rare and sought after gift. Many will try to use you for it. It is also often paired with other natural skills like being an empath, or being a seer, or a range of others. But it is powerful and all sorts of evil people will try to take advantage of you. I want you to keep it a secret. For your own safety. What you have, it's called being a chosen and it is believed that those who have the gift are blessed by Lady Magik herself or some other equally powerful being. Do you understand what I'm saying and what I'm asking you to do?" He stared into Alice's eyes, searching her, until she managed to meekly nod; his close proximity and intensity of his talking and gaze off-putting and scaring her quite a bit. The change in mood was dramatic after this as he stood up straight and clapped his hands ecstatically. He quickly ran to the back of his shop, yelling about how marvellous it all was.

Alice looked up at Snape. "Is he quite alright?" She asked, trying her best to stifle a laugh at Ollivander's childish behaviour. Snape didn't respond, just stared at the girl, still trying to comprehend what he'd found out. Taking his quiet behaviour as a sign of agreement - because Alice liked to believe the best intentions of other people's actions, even if she knew that that wasn't the truth - she turned her attention back to where Mr Ollivander was still muttering about how exciting the situation was.

A few moments later, he returned with a plain white box in pristine condition. He handed the box to Alice and motioned for her to open it, taking a few precautionary steps back to avoid as much bodily harm as possible. Carefully, she opened up the box and removed the most beautiful wand she'd ever seen: it was rather long with a swirled carving at the end that seemed to fit perfectly into her hand. It was very dark, with elegant carvings towards the bottom, and runes cascading up the one side. She ran her finger up the edge delicately as she held it in her other hand. Pointing it upwards, she gave it a little flick and watched as gold sparks shot from the end and fell like a waterfall around the 3 of them in the shop.

Ollivander seemed to visibly relax at the sight and stepped forward again so as to explain the properties of the wand to her as he had done with all prior wands. "That, Miss Heart, is a very complex wand. It is one of the few wands, I'm ashamed to admit, that weren't actually made by any of the Ollivander's of the past. It was crafted at the beginning of the century by Quintana in America. He was known for making more unconventional wands. This was the last wand he ever made, sent here before his death. And all components of the wand are very potent. It has 2 cores: a thestral tail hair, and the spine of a white river monster. Except Quintana made a mistake when harvesting the spine, in that he took from the queen of the colony. She is said to have cursed the core so that only the true wielder may use the wand, else the spell backfire on them. Knowing that the wand would be powerful, he dipped it in basilisk venom and phoenix tears; both very strong on their own, but balance eachother. He then also dipped it in unwillingly given unicorn blood. When asked why, he said he couldn't explain it, just that he felt compelled to, just like he had when choosing the woods. Cherry, Aspen, and surprisingly Dogwood. While Cherry and Aspen are both very impressive in their own right, Dogwood was an unlikely choice as it is known to be mischievous and bring chaos. 13 3/4 inches, and loyal only to you it seems."