As they stumbled out onto the bright streets again, she reached into her jacket and pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to him without another word. She was still looking slightly green. He looked away before she could see him silently laughing and unrolled the piece of parchment - apparently, wizards had a thing for parchments - and started to read.
HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY
UNIFORM
First-year students will require:
1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)
2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear
3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)
4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)
Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags
COURSE BOOKS
All students should have a copy of each of the following:
·The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 5) by Miranda Goshawk
·The Wizarding World by Hermione Granger-Weasley
·Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling
·Two Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Neville Longbottom
·Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger
·Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander
·A Guide for Defensive Spells by Leanne Trisla
OTHER EQUIPMENT
Wand
cauldron (pewter, standard size 2) set
glass or crystal phials
telescope set
brass scales
Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad
PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED
THEIR OWN
BROOMSTICKS
At the very bottom of the parchment was a faint hurried scribble.
Mr. Di Angelo's acceptance letter is sent and is waiting in his room at this very moment. And I hope he wouldn't make any mischief using his wand once he gets his hands on it. Remember, di Angelo, this quest is confidential. No one is supposed to know.
Best of luck.
-H
"Huh," He muttered glancing at the letter. "Come on Aunt Allison, we need to do some buying."
The buying wasn't long, but the fact that he was ADHD and easily bored made it seem like hours to him as he and Alecto walked around. He already bought his robes, his cauldron and potion ingredients - which included bugs' eyes and animal insides, for some reason - and now, they only have to get his books before they go over to buy his wand which he hoped wasn't like the ones in the television with a star at the tip and spit out some glitter.
That would have been completely embarrassing.
They entered a small shop whose sign said Flourish and Blotts. In every corner were shelves stocked to the ceiling filled with every kind of books: gold, silver, bronze, leather-bound, ancient, new, and...carnivorous? He spotted some books in a cage that had blinking eyesand had teeth for pages. He was wondering if he should by one and send it to the Stolls when a man came in through some back door.
"Hello, may I help you?" He said.
Nico wandered away as Alecto spoke to the man. Usually he hated having someone accompanying him to anything, in this case, though, he was grateful. Alect o could do the talking and he'd just be wandering around.
He wandered towards the bookshelves at the back of the room under the section of Defense Against the Dark Arts which was pretty ironic. He is the Dark Arts, he wouldn't need anything to defend himself against himself but he walked towards a book with a fading spine. Pulling it out, he glanced at the cover. The cover was pure black with the letters in silver. He tried to decipher it. History of the Dark Arts.
It was old. The cover was burned and torn in places and had pages that were yellowing with age, but it was completely, perfectly readable. He didn't need to open it to find out what its contents were. He could sense strong, dark power inside it like it was filled with the worst things a book could possibly filled with. He scowled at it and was about to put it back on the shelf when someone snatched the book from his hands.
He whipped around to find a boy standing behind him. He was pale (but not as pale as Nico) and probably would be in the same year as him when he attends Pig - sorry, Hogwarts. His face was drawn up into a smug smile as he glanced at the rotting book in his hands.
"Good choice," He drawled, giving Nico a once-over. Then he frowned. "You're not from Hogwarts."
Nico frowned. "What made you think that?"
"You're American." The boy said bluntly.
"No Styx, Sherlock." He muttered, half-hoping the boy heard him swearing.
"Excuse me?" The boy said indignantly with an outraged look on his face. "Do you even know who I am?"
"No, but you don't know who I am either."
Nico watched the boy with an obvious look of amusement as he took a deep breath as if to steady himself. It was obvious the boy was taught to act like a superior and even feel like one. Nico could see it in the way he carried himself, in his posture and tone. Body language was something that was usually clearer than actual words. It was fairly obvious that the boy had a horrible case of superiority complex.
Then a whole sense of calm washed over him and a smug smile reappeared on his face. "I think we got off in the wrong foot." He said. "My name is Magnus Marle. And, in fact, I actually do know something a little bit about you. You're that American exchange student, am I right?"
Nico tried not to show his surprise. Word definitely travels fast. "Yes."
Magnus smirked. "My father has all the necessary resources to gather any information he would need. I just happened to catch that one when I was passing by his office." He chatted, almost calmly. "Hogwarts is an alright school, I guess, if you just ignore the other Houses besides Slytherin house. The others are just nuisances."
"And I'm guessing you're in that house?" He asked the boy, putting aside the question about what the word, Houses meant.
Magnus nodded. "How could you know?"
"Your superiority complex."Nico mumbled before brushing past him, ignoring his surprised expression, and walked towards Alecto who had been watching the two's exchange for a few minutes. Nico waved at him in a far from friendly manner before walking out the door with Alecto at his tail.
"Who was that?" She asked almost warily. "Don't tell me you're actually being friendly to anyone, honey."
Nico rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't be friendly with anyone who had that big a head anyway." He muttered, shuddering at the thought of the both of them being anywhere near friends. Besides, the boy gave off the kind of aura that made Nico want to stay away.
"Anyway, the last stop, wands?" He asked.
Alecto nodded and pointed at a shabby shack, with its walls almost rotting to nothing and a fading sign over the doorway. The only word he could make out was Ollivander's...unless he was wrong and it meant Oil Divas which just sounds wrong in every way possible.
With slight hesitation, he finally approached the old shop, slightly debating if he should actually go in. The poor place looked like it was ready to just go down if he even so much as touched it. It didn't collapse, thankfully. The only thing that startled him was a light tinkling sound that rang around the shop when he and Alecto stepped in.
It was a tiny shop filled mostly with shelves that reached the ceiling and were fully stacked with, not books, but boxes of varying sizes and length piled on top of one another until it reached the ceiling. There was only one table at one side of the shop with a tall chair in front of it. The very air tingled with more magic than he'd ever felt in a place. It was a mystery how the whole place hadn't burst yet at the amount of it. Everything seemed like it was filled with a whole lot of magical energy that made it seem different. It made the hairs at the back of Nico's neck, prickle.
He glanced slightly at Alecto who was surveying the whole room with a calculating look in her eyes as if wondering how best to destroy it. Well, she was no help. He sighed.
"Hello?" He called out, his voice echoing into the depths of the shop.
Off to the right, he heard shuffling, almost agitated footsteps and an old, ancient-looking man with a wispy, grey beard appeared from the shelves. He looked too old that Nico almost thought that he had, in a way, evaded death. He frowned inwardly.
The man took his eyes from the floor. "Yes, yes, yes, no need to shout. I might be an old man but I - " He paused midsentence as he caught sight of his two customers, wide, silver eyes widening even more. "Ah..." He seemed to be at a loss for words before regaining his composure.
"Excuse my slight...annoyed attitude please. Age is starting to catch up to me after all this years."
The man looked around before stumbling towards the table. Nico was turn between the urge to help him and running away as fast as possible. He didn't look like a monster, by the looks of him, but there was just something eerie about the man that made Nico want to run away. His silver eyes wanted to make him flinch.
The man took out a long, wooden cane that was leaning against the table, out of their sight before using it as he strode towards Nico.
"Mr. Di Angelo," The man said in a quiet voice as he limped towards Nico in a slow circle as if judging him. "I was starting to wonder whether you would show up here at my shop at all. And here you are!" The man gave a wide toothy grin that revealed two missing teeth.
Nico tried his best not to flinch. Old was a complete understatement if he was to describe the man. He was way past the time when he was supposed to pass away. His soul was almost restless but was anchored towards the living world. Realization hit the son of Hades. The man didn't want to keep on living, he needed to - for some reason. It seemed that he was actually waiting for something to happen before he could be released and something - or someone - was obviously helping him.
"How did you know I was coming?"
"I have my friends." The man said mysteriously.
Nico rolled his eyes. First the goblin, then that stupid, egotistical boy, Magnus, and now Ollivander. Was there anyone who wasn't expecting him?
Ollivander leaned towards Nico, his long crooked nose almost touching Nico's own. His silvery eyes locked with his own as if it was trying to draw out every single thought and memory he had ever hidden. Instinctively, Nico set up a mental barrier. It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to get into his head. Every once in a while, he'd sense a god in there ruffling. Mental barriers seemed to keep them at bay, why can't it be the same with wizards?
He didn't even flinch.
"Curious." Ollivander muttered before pulling back and leaning against his cane. "Very curious indeed. I had expected a half-blood but I didn't expect..." His voice trailed off as his hand slipped into his pocket He seemed to be looking for something. "Where is that blasted - ah! Here it is!"
Ollivander pulled out a long, thin, measuring tape and started measuring Nico. His height, the distance between his hips and the floor, his forearm to the tip of his middle finger, his ears, his shoulders, etc.
"What are you - "
"We, Ollivanders, have a tradition of measuring our customers before we let them try out our wands. Lessens the possibilities you know." He said casually waving the question away as if he had just said that the weather was going to be fair. "Now, are you right or left-handed?"
"Right or..."
Nico glanced slightly at his hands. He never held or even known about wands before, but he was ambidextrous in sword-fighting. He didn't write all that much but he did remember one time, long ago of his mother teaching him how to read and write Italian. He was using his left hand then...
"Left-handed." He decided, trying not to smile at the thought. He might not remember much about his mother but he did miss her, still. Just as much as he missed Bianca.
"Very good."Ollivander said before limping away.
The measuring tape was measuring Nico now, all by itself.
The shop owner turned to Alecto. "Excuse me, miss but you might want to - " He trailed away again.
He was staring at Alecto with wide, shocked eyes. Nico could have sworn that there was at least a tinge of fear in his eyes. He had his suspicions that this man, Ollivander, could see through the Mist as clearly as the modern-day demigod.
"My Aunt Allison."Nico quickly supplied. "My father insisted on bringing her. She's harmless." When I'm around, mostly. He added in his head.
"Ah, yes, Ms. Allison, of course." Ollivander muttered. "You might want to step backwards a little, that's it."
The door opened again and a man walked in. He was wearing a long, brown trench coat, unlike the robes that most wizards wore. He looked like he was in his mid-thirties and he had a long stick, probably a wand, sticking out of his back pocket. He had brown hair and constantly worried amber eyes. His fingers tapped anxiously against his pants when he realized what he was walking in on.
"Ah, so sorry to barge in on like this." He muttered, lips twitching.
"My boy, you haven't barged in on anything, but if that' what you call this, it would have saved an old man a lot of time if you 'barged in' earlier." Ollivander said, clapping the man on the back. "Now, if you would take some boxes at the back with..." His voice turned into a whisper as he leaned to the younger man's ear. The man bounded off to the shelves and disappeared. "My nephew, Robert Dunley. Nervous fellow but, ah, quick with the hands in his job, if I do say so."
"Ah, here we go, now..." He said as Robert came back with a bunch of boxes in his arms. Picking a wand up from one of the boxes, Ollivander handed it to Nico."Yew, eleven and a half inches.Spongy with unicorn hair as a core." He stroked it almost lovingly.
Nico gave Ollivander a questioning look as he took it.
"Well? Give it a wave, then!"
Nico stared at the wand, then at Ollivander - like he was crazy - then back at the wand. He barely even raised it when Ollivander snatched it up from his hand.
"No, no, no!" He muttered. "This will not do. Try this one. Oak, springy, and nine inches.Core of a phoenix feather." He handed it back to the son of Hades. "Wave it!"
He did. As a response, every window in the shop exploded one after another making almost all of them duck except for Ollivander who snatched it from Nico again before handing him another one. He waved it again but this one let out a loud, screeching sound before disintegrating in his hands.
"Oh dear..." Robert murmured.
Ollivander stared at the ashes with wonder. "We never had that reaction before...a shame. But no matter!" He snatched up another wand and handed it to Nico.
Nico didn't take it. He wondered why Ollivander still wasn't pushing him out the door and yelling at him that he was a freak. "Are you sure this is safe?" He asked.
It was a weird question for him. Demigods never had safe. They were never safe. It was a curse, always being attacked by monsters wherever he went but he didn't want any innocent people's death on his conscience. As much as Ollivander was creeping him out, Nico knew there was a reason for his abnormally long life.
The wand-maker just waved the question away. "Perfectly!"He murmured. "All this is perfectly normal. The wand chooses the wizard, Mr. Di Angelo and you will find yours eventually. All it takes is patience and a sturdy shop, eh?" His eyes twinkled. "Now give it a wave."
Nico wasn't reassured by that but it was the man's risk and choice.
And so they kept on, Nico waving wand after wand until the pile of wrong (surviving) ones went up higher and higher on the table. Ollivander had taken to just leaning on his cane and Robert as the runner handing Nico whatever wand Ollivander took out from the boxes. Robert winced every time something wrong happens.
Alecto had the right mind to escape the shop and 'take a breath of air'.
After what seemed to be fifty wands, multi-lingual cursing and a whole bunch of accidents, Nico was ready to call it quits. Time, he had a lot of, his patience, on the other hand, was running terribly, terribly thin. He was starting to hate all this. He felt like he was in the middle of a joke, a sick un-hilarious joke.
He wasn't aware of it but every shadow in the room was starting to swirl around him, reacting to his anger and frustration. His eyes darkened and his messy black hair flapped to non-existent wind. The air around the room grew colder and thinner the longer he pondered on his thoughts. The wand Robert handed him disintegrated before it even reached his hand.
"This isn't funny." Said Nico, turning to Ollivander, glowering. "If none of the wands here works for me, that's fine. Completely. My patience is running thin."
He turned to leave but Robert snapped his fingers. "Wait Mister! Er...Mr. Di Angelo!" He stuttered.
He turned around. Nico was still seething. He still felt like a joke but he reconsidered when he saw the man's face. He was almost trembling with excitement, a wild glint in his eyes so completely different from his previous anxious attitude.
"What?" He snapped.
"Just one last try...please." Robert said. Without waiting for an answer, he bounded off towards the very back of the shop and disappeared in the darkness. A few seconds later, he came rushing back from the depths of the shop with a single box in his hand. It was crimson-red with twin black sword crossed in an X embedded on one side. Ollivander's eyes lit up.
"Why, yes, of course." He murmured, more to himself than anyone else. "Now, why hadn't I thought any of that before?"
Robert flushed red and opened the box, offering Nico its content.
He glanced at it. The wand looked like a perfect mix of a familiar black wood, dark metal and stone with an elegant handle that seemed to be engraved by thousands of squiggly lines. He carefully took it out and a powerful warmth engulfed him. And he waved.
Every shadow in the shop came to life, bending and extracting themselves from the walls and the floor to swirl around him in a tornado of darkness, extending outwards for the whole shop, plunging it into a state of pitch-black. Nico didn't mind. He had an idea what the shadows were planning. By the time they were done, the whole shop was completely transformed from a shabby, dirty old shop into a newly-cleaned, well-organized one with a crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Every damage Nico had caused was fixed. The windows, cracked walls and ceiling were repaired and the floor was polished so much to the point that they could see their reflection on it.
"My, my..." Ollivander said as he surveyed his shop. "Restored back to its usual magnificence... I couldn't thank you enough, my dear boy."
Nico just shrugged as if he did it every day. "It's fine. I'm just sorry if I offended you or anything, though." He said, handing over seven Galleons to the wand-maker.
The man just nodded mutely and took the wand from his hands, looking at it as if concentrating. "Made by poplar wood and obsidian and...an unfamiliar,dark, absorbent metal."Ollivander gave Nico a pointed look as if he should know what it is. And he did. Stygian Iron. "The core is a Dementor's breath, my dear half-blood. I almost lost my life for that. This wand is as unyielding and very, very unpredictable. Especially at the wrong hands."
"This is a very dark wand Mr. Di Angelo and I do hope you handle it well. It is not easy to tame darkness - you of all people should know this. It take extreme patience and expertise to tame something dark for something good, so I bid you good luck.
Nico nodded and accepted the parcel-wrapped box as Robert explained how he always thought that the wand was not actually meant to be "here". He turned towards the door and bid goodbye to the two. Alecto was glancing darkly over at a dark alley when he saw her.
"So you came back in one place." She muttered in an almost disappointed tone.
"Don't be so disappointed, Aunt Allison." He said, smirking. "Either way you'll be seeing me and I'll be seeing you."
"Whatever, honey." She snapped. "Come on then."
He nodded and grabbed hold of her arm and together, they both melted into the darkness.
_____
Hey there! I hope this chapter is long enough for you guys...am I the only one who thinks the other chapters are a little bit too...short? If not, then, forget I said anything. I hope it wasn't too boring or whatever.
Nico: You're boring. *rolls eyes*
Me: Shut up! *shoves him* How did you get here, anyway! I wasn't going to put a skit!
Nico: You don't control me.
Me: Yes, I do.
Nico: No, you don't.
Me: Yes, I do. Want a demonstration, Death breath?
Hades: *sighs dramatically from the shadows and grabs Nico by the scruff of his collar* No, he doesn't. He's perfectly fine. And you're not going to do it unless you want to land in the Fields of Punishment the hard way. *turns to his son and whacks him on the head*
Nico: OW! *struggles and manages to get free* You're doing no such thing! *whispers loudly* She can make you become Aphrodite, you know.
Me: Good boy, Nico! And, yes, I can easily do that. *grins evilly*
Hades: *pales* Nah, I'm good, mortal.
Me: So you admit I control you?
Hades and Nico: *nods*
Me: Yayyyy! *turns to audience* And that, my pretties, is how you blackmail a god and his son. Peace!