Wand Hopping ; D.M.

𝑂𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟

Elsie Granger

I, just as every teenage girl, have dreams and goals for myself, though recently they've been quite high. Summer was about half way over with, though it only felt like a week. I've decided what I want to study for my seventh and final year of Hogwarts as well as afterward.

Wandlore.

Ollivander's wand shop is the only one left in Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, both of which are popular hotspots for shopping. Ollivander is probably set to retire about ten years ago, so I would like to take over his shop.

Norah and I have talked this through and are going to Diagon Alley to talk to Ollivander later this afternoon. I'll talk to him about exactly what I'd like to do, and Norah is meeting Neville for some butterbeer.

So far during summer, I've done some reading, played games with Norah, and I've been writing to Draco nearly everyday.

The reason we decided to not see each other this summer is because of what happened when I was at his house, though I haven't told him. It's a bit more complicated than that to be truthful.

Norah and I stood from our seats on the sofa and approached the fireplace. It's been ages since I last used floo powder, so I don't imagine this going perfectly.

She grabbed a pinch of it and stepped inside, "Diagon Alley"

I followed behind her, doing exactly as she did. The flames that shoot up in front of your eyes are always the part that gives me a startle.

We landed in DIagon Alley, a place familiar to most wizards and navigated our way around. Norah and I split to go to our destinations.

The lights inside the wand shop displayed that it was open, so I carefully entered. The aroma of wood seeped into my nose and then my veins. Mr. Ollivander stood behind the counter of the shop, arranging some of the thousands of boxes along the shelves before I interrupted, "Excuse me, Mr. Ollivander."

His head turned around slowly, probably due to his old age or the fact that old age came with insomnia, making him exhausted. He let out a mumble, "Yes."

"I came here to talk with you about something, I'm interested in studying wandlore and pursuing it." Saying it outloud to somebody other than Norah was a bit embarrassing for a lack of better words. I knew that he didn't see it as an embarrassment. He was more excited than anything.

Mr Ollivander was born into a long family line which specialized in wandmaking, making him the best person to talk to about this. Everybody born in his family made some career around wandlore, except for a few, but Mr Ollivander had no children to take over the shop. He was probably waiting until somebody else could take his spot so he could retire. It would be a tragedy if Diagon Alley was stuck with no wandmaker.

"I never thought this day would come." A smile shot across his face which was out of the ordinary, "I've been putting off my retirement until I could convince somebody to follow in my footsteps."

Talking to Mr Ollivander was like talking to the smartest man in the entire country, or continent even. The way he spoke was proper, but in order to socialize with young people, like myself, he taught himself slang which he tried to toss in.

Our conversation took off almost immediately as he started rambling on about the basic things I would have to do as a wandmaker and shopkeeper.

"But I'll still have a few years until I have to do all of that, right?" I questioned.

"I don't know if I'll make it much longer," his tone went from bright and cheery to depressing. "I have an illness, I have the galleons to cover treatment, but I'm always too busy here to have time to get treatment. I can give you one year of training, and then you can take over."