Chapter 5: Chapter 5 - Diagon Alley
Ollivanders, Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C.
The name of the shop was written in gold letters. Alder saw a wand resting on a cushion in the display before entering the shop. Behind the door, a bell rung with door's opening.
In the shop, an old man was sitting behind the counter. The man looked at the entrance with the sound of bell.
"Welcome to Ollivanders, always pleasant to see a new face." said the old man.
"Hello, Mr. Ollivander. I'm Alder Gray."
"Garrick Ollivander, pleasure to be of your acquaintance young man." said Ollivander softly.
"Likewise, Sir."
"Now, which arm do you use for spell casting Mr. Gray?"
"I'm right handed." said Alder, extending his arm towards Ollivander.
A tape measure started flying itself and started measuring Alder's arm.
"Hmm, 10 inches would be good…" muttered Ollivander and after pulling out a couple of boxes gave Alder a wand.
Alder took the wand and before even do anything; Ollivander snatched the wand from him.
"No, not this one. Try this." He gave Alder another one.
This time Ollivander didn't snatch it immediately but observed. Even after waiting for a minute, nothing happened.
"A picky customer, I see." muttered Ollivander. One would think he would get annoyed because it only meant more work. But challenges were more fun to a man who truly enjoys what he does.
Thus he started giving Alder wands one after another…
…
Approximately a fifty wands later, Hagrid was so bored at the back he was about to fall sleep on the floor.
…
Seventy six wands later, boxes were already piled up on the counter. Alder even thought about stacking and building a house with them to pass time.
But it seemed the seventy seventh was the one. This time, the wand started emitting a white light. For some reason Alder felt a warm feeling in his right arm. He lightly swung the wand to a chair, almost as an instinct. This action caused the chair to almost turn into a brown feathered owl, which had the same colors as the chair itself. But before Alder took a proper look at the owl, it quickly changed back to the chair before.
Ollivander clapped at the back. "Wonderful, truly wonderful. Hornbeam wood, thunderbird tail feather core. I don't normally use thunderbird tail feather as a core as it is not a material I am familiar with, but my friend Shikoba Wolfe told me to give it a try."
Alder inspected the wand he was holding. It was 10 inches long, smooth gray colored and had lines that stretching from its handle to its tip. While he was holding, he could almost feel the wand itself was sentient.
'Wandlore is truly magical…'
Alder felt a new respect towards the old man; he sounded like it was only his experiment, but he could only guess how many hours the man has put into this so called experiment.
"Thank you, Mr. Ollivander. You really create the finest wands." said Alder with a smile.
Ollivander nodded and said softly "I'm also happy that the wand has found itself a partner. You see, wood of my wand is also Hornbeam; it selects passionate or more likely, witches and wizards with a vision. I think the wand may be our first supporter in our passion.".
"But, I don't think I have any passion." said Alder puzzled.
"It may be like that. Or maybe you have not found it yet. Which would make it truly your first supporter, isn't it, even before you yourself." said Ollivander mystically. "It will be seven galleons." he added.
Alder was not sure if what Ollivander told is right, for he sounded like a prophet.
Hagrid didn't give Alder any chance to say anything before he patted his shoulder, as if saying I got it, and payed the bill for Alder.
After that Hagrid took Alder to all kinds of places. They bought his uniforms, name tags, gloves and cloaks at Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, got a screech owl at Eeylops Owl Emporium. After taking care of miscellaneous things like cauldron, telescope and potion materials, lastly they came to Flourish and Blotts.
Alder thought they would quickly take care of the books and leave but when he entered the bookshop, an amazing sight came before his eyes.
Some of the books on the bookshelves were gleaming. He looked around them and noticed that only he could actually see the gleam of those books. He checked some of them and others those not shining, noticed nothing unusual.
He didn't say anything in the process of buying his first year books, thinking this might be about the system he had. But he checked if any one of the books he got is shining, to his surprise almost all of them were glowing. Only the book 'A History of Magic' had not a gleam.
He couldn't talk much on his way back, most of his thoughts were focused on the books, eager to check if there is anything to discover.
He only came to himself when they came into his room on the first floor of Leaky Cauldron. Hagrid gave him a pouch, which had ten galleons in it, saying that it's his allowance. Hagrid even told Tom to take care of Alder's owl, which Alder named it, Atlas.
Alder didn't exactly know how much all of these costed. But in the books Ron had to use all kinds of second-hand stuff from his brothers, so it wasn't hard to see how much effort and money Hogwarts had put into him. It was probably not much if you compare it to a whole castle and foundation of British Wizarding World, but you can see their efforts to try not to create a second Voldemort. Probably a single good wizard is invaluable compared to mere galleons.
After he bid farewell to Hagrid, Alder retreated to his room. He lied to his bed and took out the book A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. It didn't take long for him to delve into it.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
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