The Novelle Diaries & The Wampus Cub

Chapter 1: The Wand That Waited

The Novelles were a rather unusual family. The kind that garnered plenty of gossip in the little village of Hinxhill. With their strange, eccentric and secretive ways and their large, beautiful house that the family had made absolutely clear that they did not want visited by the locals, they had become quite the curiosity. Situated on a winding country road just outside the village, the Novelles had created a bubble to exist within, away from the rest of the world. They had become the favourite mystery for the locals imaginations to run wild with. Little did they know just how close some of their more outlandish theories were to the truth. For of course, the Novelles were a wizarding family and with their bloodline tracing back to French aristocracy, their influence was far reaching within the wizarding world. Though not deemed a true pureblood lineage, the centuries had earned them high respect amongst their community.

Even so, in this society where oddity was the norm, the Novelle's young daughter stood out as particularly abnormal.

Wren Novelle awoke with a start, her heart still hammering in her chest as she could feel the room around her shaking. The sound of objects falling off her nightstand and shelves in the dark brought her further out of her unrestful sleep. As she had always been instructed by her parents, she began to take deep, calming breaths to steady her heart beat and regain control. Slowly the shaking objects on the rooms surfaces ceased to clatter and all became still once more around the little girl in the night.

As Wren sat in the dark, her covers wrapped tightly around her, she could hear the familiar sound of her parent's door opening and the footsteps of her father walking down the hall towards her. The door opened slowly and a pool of lantern light illuminated the room in a warm glow, casting strange shadows over the walls and ceiling.

'Sorry,' Wren whispered meekly.
'Hush now,' her father shushed her as he came to sit on the bed next to her and pulled her into a reassuring embrace. 'Bad dreams again?' he asked her softly.

Wren nodded her head as she rested it on her fathers chest, breathing in the comforting scent of wood smoke, clean linen and the transferred scent of her mothers lily perfume. She clutched at his pajamered arm like a child far younger than eleven. Lyal Novelle could tell from just how tense his daughter's body still was that this nightmare had been a particularly harsh one.

'Would you like to tell me about it?' He coaxed kindly.

Wren took another centering breath as she recalled all the details of her dream. 'I was in the wand shop.' she began quietly. 'But every time I reached out for a wand it flew away from me as if it was afraid I would hurt it. Soon all the wands had fled the shop and Mr Olivander told me that there was nothing he could do. The wand chooses the wizard and none had chosen me.' Wren looked fearfully up at her father and she could see in the dim light that he returned her gaze with an intense sadness.

Wren Novelle had not had the easiest childhood in regards to her magic. Most children had a few magical occurrences as they grew. Parents prayed for them, as they were a sign that their magic had passed on to the next generation. But Wren had far surpassed the usual amount of outbursts. Where other children had two or three in their early years that only occurred in extremely heightened states of emotion, Wren's parents had lost count of these occurrences to the point where the whole family had come to normalise her 'Episodes'. Wren shook the objects around her when she was scared or anxious, made the crockery float around her when she was excited and blew a gale when she was enraged.

The Novelles had sought advice and cures for their daughter as she grew. St Mungos even queried that her strange nature may even be due to an obscurus but it was quickly discounted. It was concluded that Wren simply either had very little control over herself or that her episodes were caused by an unusually strong level of magic manifesting at a young age. All had concluded that her condition would dissipate once she came of age for a wand and began to practise magic at school. In the meantime her parents were simply advised to create an environment where Wren could grow up mostly away from the muggle gaze.