When they finished inside of Gringotts, they then went out into the street and started to gather the materials on the list. First stop they made was the robe shop and the lady, Madam Malkin was very considerate and took care of their needs. Then they went to the Apothecary and got the materials for the potions and scales. When Nova saw the scales he accepted the quality but knew he would probably not use them. But when he saw the cauldron, Nova was appalled at what they were selling. The quality was below what he was expecting and couldn"t understand how they were able to be of use. Nova decided that as soon as he found a suitable area, he would forge himself his own, but for now he spent the few silver pieces on the pewter cauldron.The next place they stopped was a place called Flourish and Blotts, a bookstore. When both Hermione and Nova saw all the books present, they were both amazed. Hermione immediately started to gather the books that were on her list and Nova started to go through the shelves looking for all the t.i.tles that interested him. As he went through the shelves, the stack of books got taller and taller. After a good long trip through all the rows, Nova went to the front and started to check out. The staff were amazed at the amount of books that Nova was getting and gave him a 15 percent discount on the final purchase. When Hermione saw the stack of books that he had she looked with envy at all the Nova was getting, but when she looked down at her own stack she was a little embarra.s.sed.
Nova happened to catch her gaze and noticed that she had a few extra as well, but it was only 2 or 3 books and could tell what she was thinking.
"If you want I can let you read some of the books that I have, since it might take me awhile to get through them all." Nova said.
"Really!! I mean, that would be nice." Hermione said but blushed immediately after when she realized how she acted.
Trying not to laugh, Nova responded, "Of course. I wouldn"t mind sharing at all. Especially with a girl as smart as you."
"Thank you" Hermione said. As they checked out, Nova stored a few of the books and had the rest of them sent to the school when the term started.
After leaving the bookstore, they stopped by a few more place, and while Nova considered getting a owl, he decided against it on account that all the owls looked like they were about to die from his presence. As they walked down Diagon Alley they stopped in front of a old looking building.
The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window. A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside.
"Good afternoon," said a soft voice. An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.
Nova a.s.sumed this man was Ollivander.
"First years for Hogwarts looking to buy their first wands I a.s.sume." Ollivander said as he took out a silver tape measure.
"Ladies first."
"Hold out your arm. That"s it." He measured Hermione from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard"s wand."
While Ollivander was talking he was moving around the shop pulling out boxes of wands. He came down and the tape measurer flew back into his pocket and gave Hermione a wand. As she took it into her hands, and tried to wave it, Ollivander took it back in a blink and said something about not that one. While trying to undersand what was happening, Nova tried to watch the proccess for this next round. He then observed Ollivander go to another box and opened it up and handed it to Hermione. This time a pillar of flames with some purple mixed in shot out of the wand and seemed to humm in excitement. What Nova saw was a dragon wrapped in grape vines twist itself around Hermione"s arm and breathed out a pillar of fire in acknowledgement before fading.
"Very good, very good. Quite the performance. Little miss it seems you have found your partner."
Ollivander then turned to Nova. As Nova looked at the old man he couldnt help but feel this man had a unique state of mind as he processed the event. Ollivander then took out the measuring tape once more and repeated the process. However thing were never able to go as planned.
"10in, oak and dragon." Ollivander said as he handed the first wand to Nova. But when Nova gripped the wand the wand trembled in fear and with a violent shake, snapped in two.
When the wand snapped, everyone"s eyes went wide. Ollivander went slightly pale as in all his years in making wands he had never seen such a thing.
"My apologies, sir. I do not know why that happened." Nova spoke.
Hearing Nova, Ollivander came out of his shock and replied, "It"s ok. Though I do not know what happened. We will just have to try again."
Ollivander then went and grabbed another, "11in, willow and unicorn. Flexible and graceful." As Nova watched this time more carefully than with Hermione, he saw the unicorn fragment in the want struggling in fear as the wand slowly approached Nova"s hand. Seeing this, Nova had an understanding of what was happening and removed his hand and took a step back. Sensing this the wand core calmed down and Nova could have sworn it made a sigh of relief.
"Mr. Ollivander. This wand seems to fear me." Nova said with a sigh. When Nova said this the group all gave a questioning face.
"Young man, what do you mean?" McGonagall asked.
"I can"t really explain it but the magic fragment of the creature inside of the wand that make up the core is trying to run away. So the only thing that I can attest that to is fear." Nova gave a small explanation.
After a few moments of silence, Ollivander spoke, "You mean you can see the fragments of the wand and see their content. What about these over here?" He then gestured to the other boxes of wands that were laying on the counter.
"Starting from the left: dragon, phoenix, unicorn,unicorn, and dragon." When Ollivander heard this he was amazed, not only was Nova correct but he didn"t even hesitate when he spoke. "Young man that is simply astounding! But nevertheless, this does pose as a problem if the wands are simply going to break in your hands. If you don"t mind I would like to finish with the young miss and then we can find a solution to your problem."
"Very well." And Nova watched as Ollivander collected 7 Galleons from the Granger and told them he would catch up with them later at their house. McGonagall look curiously at Nova before following the Grangers out the door.
Ollivander then turned to Nova and said, "Follow me." And quickly took Nova in to the back of the shop. He then look at how calm and collected Nova was before speaking.
"It seems to me like you will be a tricky customer the likes of which no wandmaker has ever seen. Now before you come up with some kind of story tell me what kind of creature are you. Since no human can see the souls of wand cores."
"What gave it away?" Nova asked for he wasn"t intending on hiding it anyways.
"Besides the obvious that I stated earlier, the fact that you can see perfectly fine in the dim and dusty workshop while wearing sungla.s.ses over your face."
Not too surprised that Ollivander just used this as a reason to deduct his nature, Nova just nodded.
"Lets just say for the sake of simplicity that I am a type of superior dragon able to take the form of a human." Nova told Ollivander, "And the reason I wear these is to keep people from looking into my eyes and having their souls destroyed."
When Ollivander heard this, he couldn"t believe what he just heard. He wanted to say that was impossible, but he sensed that this was far from it.
"Can you show me some proof? This is a little hard to believe." When Nova heard this he thought for a moment and then said, "Give me a mirror."
Ollivander then procured a large wardrobe mirror and stood it in front of Nova.
"Please stand behind me to the side and do not look directly into the center of my eyes." Nova waited until Ollivander was out of the way and took off the gla.s.ses revealing his eyes. When Ollivander saw Nova remove the gla.s.ses and saw his eyes he couldn"t help but to gasp and be in awe of the sight that he was seeing.
Nova then put the gla.s.ses back on, "So do you have any ideas or recommendations for what I should use for a wand?"
As Ollivander was coming backc to reality and heard what Nova said, he sat down and started to think about it. After some time, he got up and went to a small corner of the room and lifted up a section of the floor board and pulled out a very old, ornate box. When Nova looked at the box all he could see was lumps of magic energy radiating and pulsing from its center.
Ollivander came over and lifted up the boxes cover and laid it in front of Nova. Seeing Nova"s questioning glance, Ollivander started talking.
"This is a wand that my family found naturally growing in nature. My grandfathers grandfather said that he watched this wand come into being. He said that their was a teritory dispute between a small dragon and thestral. As they fought both of them inflicted a grievious wound on the other with some strange magic that neither creature can normal use. As they were dying a glowing bird that happened to look like a phoenix descended upon a yew tree and took pity on the two creatures. So the phoenix spread it"s wings and wrapped both dying creatures in it"s embrace. The phoenix cried tears on both creatures healing their souls. While both animals healing the phoenix started to sing, my ancestor said it was the saddest, most beautiful song that he had ever heard. Then with both dragon and thestral souls resting, the phoenix self immolated and engulfed everything with it. The tree, the thestral, and the dragon"s body. When the fire stopped, all that was left was a few notes of the phoenix song and a single branch of the yew tree. Amazed at what happened my ancestor went to the newly formed clearing and tried to pick up the wand but was unable to touch it with his bare hand. Unsure of what to make of it he lifted, the wand with a spell, and placed it in this box. After placing the wand in the box it glowed brightly and covered itself with magic making itself hidden from anyone that tries to study it. I, myself, have tried to study this wand but found that the wand has strong will and refuses to make it self present. But I think that you might be able to do something about it."
Nova look down into the box, after hearing the story, he was amazed. Nova would have never thought that a artifact would be able to manifest in this world, much less in a fashion like that. When he reached into the box, and picked up the wand, Nova felt a very calm and relaxed sensation wash over his soul. Nova then watched as the three shots of gold sparks flew out of the wand. A second later the wand, shot out the figue of a l.u.s.trious phoenix and it sang it"s song. When Nova heard the song, he couldnt help but shed tears as he remembered a distant memory of when he first met his wife. She had been sitting down next to a lake, under a tree, and the song she sang was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.
Now as the fragment faded, Nova was even more determined to find the fragments of his wife"s soul that were still alive. For this wand was a object that was made with a small fragment of her soul, this was a gift she had made for him. Nova then looked at closer at the wand, and saw that the wood was the same shade as that of a soft sunset with rosy reds, soft yellows, and ruddy oranges, all blending together to make a warm colored wood. The were also two lines of green and black that spiralled around the wand, which Nova guessed symbolized the thestral and dragon. When Nova looked into the core of the wand he now saw the two soul fragments resting against one another with a peaceful expression while wrapped in a golden glow.
Ollivander was sitting down, amazed at what just happened. When he saw the wand accept Nova as its master, not only was he shocked but when when he heard the song and saw the fragment he was even more amazed. But when he saw the tear of Nova and the fragment rest its wings around him, Ollivander knew there was more to the story of what was happening.
When it was all over, Nova said, " Thank you. How much do I owe you?"
Ollivander shook his head and said, "Nothing. Just listening to the song was enough."
When Nova heard Ollivander say that he just nodded his head in agreement, "Her songs were always the best and spread much happiness and comfort to all those who heard her sing."
After saying that Nova stood up and proceeded to walk out the way he came not waiting for Ollivander to see him out. When he got to the front counter Nova dropped a few stacks of galleons as appreciation towards Ollivander for the wand and grabbed his supplies and started to walk out the door.
As he was walking out, Nova heard a rustle and a, "Wait." When he turned around he saw Ollivander breathing hard as he had rushed out to catch Nova.
"Her? What do you mean her?" Ollivander asked in a slight frenzy.
Nova turned to look at Ollivander, "My wife." And then walked out the door, leaving a wide eyed Ollivander standing in the room.