Ollivander's Son

Chapter 2

10 Years Later (1990)

Laughter filled The Leaky Cauldron as Hagrid, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts, narrated a rather amusing story to any soul who'd listen. Noah stayed for half the story but soon left sneakily. He walked through the bustling crowd of the Diagon Alley with his large mug of butterbeer firmly grasped in his left hand. His curly hair was a deep blue and his eyes were the colour of a fizzing glass of firewhisky today. Competing with himself for queerness on that day, he felt he had broken his record. This combination was the maddest till date and he was receiving far too many odd stares from the people at the Diagon Alley.

Suddenly, someone sent sparks whizzing past his head. Startled, he watched as the sparks transformed into a dance of fireworks; he laughed, at once knowing who was the sender and turned around to find her grinning up at him "Maggie! It's great to see you!" with that he took the tiny blonde into a crushing hug.

"Stop it you!" Noah heard a smothered reply from Maggie and let her go. "Grown quite tall haven't we?" she patted Noah on the back and started walking, motioning him to follow, "Broke my blithering wand for the sixth time, got to buy a new one, this one's a joke wand I bought from back there, she signaled towards Gamboland Jape's Joke Shop and continued speaking, mum's going berserk, though, if only that fat cow Darla hadn't sat on my good old one."

Noah smiled to himself; this was why they were the closest of friends. Noah was just as bit as crazy as Maggie was and it made up for their age gap. Margaret Samantha Black was a bubbly, rebellious and clever second year from Hogwarts. When Noah was 4, he was hypnotized by Maggie's blonde curly hair and was often berated for trying to make it go 'BOING' by yanking at it. His 4 year old self loved her round and red tomato like face and her ability to gain candy from anyone, anywhere by tricking them (possibly the reason for her to be in Ravenclaw). He was frustrated by the fact that he was a victim to this more frequently than he would've liked.

Now, she was his connection to Hogwarts and everything that happened there. Stories from Hogwarts never failed to excite him. The Great Hall with its elegant decorations on Christmas, the various ghosts at Hogwarts who oozed out of the walls without warning, the talking paintings, the mysterious staircases that had a mind of their own - there seemed to be endless opportunities for fun at Hogwarts.

"Did you meet Hagrid outside? Seems to be in a jolly spirit, he does." Noah said.

"Drunk, by the looks of it, pointed his pink umbrella at me and said 'I'll take your word for it sir! YES I WILL! Dumbledore's a great man, I'm tellin' ye' " She sighed, too much firewhisky doesn't do anyone any good, I'll tell you that.'

Noah and Maggie were giggling away when Mr. Ollivander opened the door, in response to their knocks. It was past closing time and Mr. Ollivander's scraggly snow white hair was tied back into a short pony tail and his blue eyes as always were lost in some distant realm. He looked straight down at them and a mock frown drawn on his face spoke ''What's so funny, you two?"

Both of them looked sheepishly at each other until they heard a low chuckle from Mr. Ollivander.

His eyes crinkled at both ends as he smiled down at both of them, he shifted to one side of the door and amicably invited them inside.

''Papa, Darla Fritz sat on poor Maggie's wand again, so she needs a new one." Noah spoke and Maggie put on her best damsel in distress expression.

''Ah Ms. Fritz, dragon heartstring, Oakwood, 12 inches, quite supple-" Mr. Ollivander began.

"Pa." Noah looked at him sternly and placed his butterbeer mug on top of the sole stool empty of wand boxes that he could find.

"Oh, well. Wands are a compelling facet of the wizarding world Noah and you must know them, for this shop will be yours and you must follow the Ollivander legacy. As for you Ms. Black, your antics don't fool me like everyone else, known you since you were but a little baby the size of Scruff here," he said pointing to a rather gloomy looking owl. ''What little prank did you play on poor Ms. Fritz, eh?" Ollivander spoke teasing.