章節 2: Expectations from an Heir
In the evening of a cold winter, a boy sighed as he walked through an empty candle lit corridor. He was young, nine-ish years old with smooth black hair and an above average height for his age. He treasured a set of azure blue eyes —courtesy of his mother— and a small mole under his left eye.
"A month and still no success."
It was a bit chilly as the winter breeze managed to seep inside through the windows. He wondered what was the point of having them open under such conditions, given that they barely received any sunlight through them.
But it was not his decision, he was merely a child incapable of implementing the rules of the house. Especially when the decision was made by his uncle, the current lord of the family and the only member alive other than him.
"Come on Ian, you cannot always keep failing." He reminded himself.
Over the past two years, Ian Ollivander had learnt a lot from his uncle. From the lore of ancient wands to the tales of the sacred beasts. His thirst for knowledge surpassed even Garrick and this was something that the old lord was proud of.
"It's far more difficult than I expected."
The nine-year-old had formally started his magic training under his uncle. However, he was unable to train in the offensive magic or receive a wand because of the wizarding laws. The law stated that an unsupervised person cannot own a wand or that they have to be attending a magic school to obtain it.
Due to this, Garrick decided to teach him the mind arts —Occlumency.
'A wizard's strongest weapon is his mind.'
Those were Garrick's words and Ian agreed with him.
Occlumency was a mind art developed to shield a person against Legilimency, which was the art of reading a person's mind.
There were countless forms of Occlumency with the most basic one being the clearance of a person's thoughts. Garrick explained to him that if the thoughts didn't exist to begin with, there would be nothing for the wizards to read.
This wasn't too difficult for Ian, but it was just the basic version of Occlumency.
There were far more complex versions of Occlumency, like the creation of a fake memory layer, creating a mental barrier or duplicating the very memory of another person.
Creating a mind barrier prevented people from directly prying inside a person's memories while creating a faux layer made them see a memory that was completely false.
Emptying his thoughts came easily to Ian as despite being greedy for knowledge, he knew his limits and when necessary, he could devoid his mind of unnecessary thoughts. But creating a faux layer required far more complex procedures as well as a constant magic input.
Despite his average magic, he could supply a constant magic flow. But the difficult part was constructing a barrier using that magic.
Currently, there was not much that he had to hide. Yet that would soon change as he was the heir of the Ollivanders. With time there will be countless that would try to pry inside his head to figure out the secrets of their ancient house.
After all, he was part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight.
The term Sacred Twenty-Eight made him laugh. The fact that some wizards were considered superior just because of being pure blooded or inbreed made him scoff.
He had heard countless tales of half-bloods or muggle borns being far better at magic than pure bloods.
Even the dark lord Voldemort was a half-blood yet he was one of the most feared beings in the wizarding world.
He never took the name Voldemort as his uncle instructed. He didn't know the reason but suspected that it might not just be fear that prevented people from taking his name, there might be something more.
Something that he didn't know.
"Young Master."
Ian heard an aged voice calling him from behind. Turning around, he saw the head maid Lydia standing behind him.
"Ah, Lydia."
The old maid nodded as Ian smiled.
"Master is expecting your presence." She said.
Ian widened his eyes at the statement. "What is the time?" He asked hurriedly.
"It's well past six in the evening, young master."
'Shit!' Ian cursed in his mind, something that if he did aloud, he would be scolded for.
He was supposed to be in front of his uncle by five but he was an hour late.
"I will be there in an instant." Saying this, he rushed through the corridor.
Today was November 23rd, the birthday of Pansy Parkinson.
She was turning seven this year and as she was an heiress of one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, her birthday was a big deal.
He didn't know her personally and all he knew was that she was two years younger than him. But that didn't matter.
As a member of the Sacred Twenty-Eight, maintaining the friendship between the other families was part of his duties.
That friendship came in the form of business. And while he was too young for business connections, the kids of the Sacred Twenty-Eight were encouraged to build their friendship with the hopes of the adults profiting from it.
A shrewd strategy but an effective one.
Garrick never forced Ian on such a thing but Ian knew as one of the dying families, he had to do something.
Quite a lot of people called him mature for his age but he thought that the others were just too childish.
Ian was a curious child. Reading books was his hobby and that included reading countless psychological books as well. This helped him learn about human emotions and how people can lie through them.
He was no expert but he could discern truth from lies.
Only from kids though. He was not at the level where he could read an adult. For that, he had to learn legilimency.
And even if he did, it was difficult for him to understand them and their views.
He passed through many rooms and came in front of an oak wood door with many engravings of mythical creatures over it. This was the room of Garrick Ollivander, his uncle.
He lightly knocked on the door, letting the current lord of Ollivander know of his presence.
"Come on inside."
Following the command, he walked inside to see an aged man with a trimmed beard sitting in front of a pile of documents. Ian knew that most of them were either about wands or about finances.
"Pardon my tardiness, uncle." He said, giving the lord a slight bow.
"Punctuality is one of the most important qualities of a wizard heir, Ian." Garrick Ollivander voiced.
Ian knew he was in the wrong so he kept his head low.
"But I was told that you were training your occlumency." The man surprisingly showed a smile. "So, this time I am allowing it but from next time do not be tardy for any reason."
"I won't, uncle." Ian expressed confidently.
Garrick nodded and stood up from his chair.
"You should know why I summoned you here." He said, making Ian nod. "The Parkinson heiress's birthday is a shroud, the true reason is a party organised for the alliance formed between the Parkinson and the Greengrass families with the hopes of the Malfoy family supporting them both." Garrick sighed as he revealed the truth without an ounce of a lie.
Similar to Ollivander and Parkinson, Greengrass and Malfoy were also part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. And they were just as strict about blood purity as the Parkinsons.
However the Malfoys, unlike the others, refused to practice inbreeding as they were aware of the genetic disorders such an act could cause.
"Is their alliance bad for us, uncle?" Ian asked curiously.
While their family was not directly supporting anyone, they had good relations with most of the sacred twenty-eight. But this also meant that they were not directly backed by the families either, since they took a neutral stance on the political affairs and only focused on the business side of things —the Ollivanders were distant from most of the alliances.
"After the war, quite a few of the sacred twenty-eight met their demise and in order to maintain the power and social hierarchy, the alliances have been forming rapidly." Garrick said. "We are neither in their support nor in their opposition so they won't target us."
Ian trusted his uncle's words. The man had seen far too many power struggles and still managed to keep his family from disappearing completely.
Even during Voldemort's attack.
"Are we going to stay on the sidelines?" Ian asked and he believed that he knew the answer.
But he was wrong.
"No."
This answer shocked him. His uncle never got involved in power struggles but his current answer made the young boy confused.
"Pardon?"
"I am too old to be part of this power struggle and as much as I hate involving you in all this." He clenched his fists and stared into Ian's eyes. "Our family does not have many members left, Ian. You and I are the final pillars of this family."
Ian knew of this very well. He was bad at political talks but he was well aware that their family was behind the rest of the families due to the lack of members.
After the war where Voldemort had killed his parents, his cousins and his relatives —he and his uncle remained the only surviving members of the Ollivander family.
This resulted in a lot of pressure for his uncle as he had to look over every aspect himself. Business, politics, and relationships were all shouldered by him.
"The rest of the families are trying to build relationships and alliances through their children. Children are good at making friends and those friendships indirectly lead to alliances between the families. That's what the Parkinsons, the Malfoys and the Greengrass families have been doing."
Ian understood Garrick's words.
"I am sorry that you have to attend such noisy events, Ian." Garrick seemed pained. "But for the sake of this family's survival, you have to step onto the stage. And things will only start getting more hectic once you turn ten."
This was a lot for a nine-year-old to take in and the rest of the families mostly kept their children in the dark while making them believe that they were actually making friends. This was done because children were bad liars.
However, there were exceptions. Heirs like Ian were expected to be good at social events from a young age and having a fake persona was important for such times.
Ian was young and wasn't at the level where he could fool the cunning adults, but he was smart enough to be able to lie to the rest of the heirs without much trouble.
And this ability was what made Garrick reveal so much to Ian.
"Forgive me, nephew." Garrick showed a sad smile but Ian immediately shook his head.
"It is alright, uncle." In turn, the heir showed the old man a proud smile. "I know whatever you do is for our family's sake."
Garrick felt proud of his nephew. Ian was the hope of the Ollivanders and if he continued in this way, Garrick knew that Ollivanders' future was bright.
Ruffling the youngster's hair, Garrick smiled. "I am proud of you, Ian."
Ian kept his smile as he asked.
"So, what do I do?" He wondered if he had to deal with something difficult. But his uncle assured him.
"Do not worry much." Garrick announced. "All you have to do… is make some friends."
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