The Simple House of Duffrey

(35) The Two-Headed Serpent

Thanks to the help of cautious teachers and our reprieve in the library, the isolation that had hit Stephen was very bearable. We also had our friends which now more than ever definitely included Kendra. I also had decided to partner with David during Astronomy since only his effusive words could keep me from dozing off early after the nightly feast. He also had fairly-readable notes from which I felt I had caught up enough to easily pass the owl. He told me himself that he was expecting or rather hoping for a top score in it. This was probably why others had not been keen on being his partner for the moment, but I still owed him.

It was time for the Hogsmeade visit again though as fifth years we had less supervision now. On appointed days, we like the upperclassmen could go into town as we pleased. Most however still had the habit of waiting in the courtyard for the teachers who were escorting the third and fourth years. Today I noticed that Prof. Vestra was on duty along with Prof. Mopsus, the blind seer who taught Sam's divination course. Neither of whom I really fancied a conversation with. I also wondered how Mopsus got safely in and out of the tower everyday but that wasn't my business.

Stephen appeared wearing a thick teal sweater above his vested uniform. I myself had on a blue pea coat over mine. I did however envy the fact that he was wearing pants. Spring still had a bit of chill occasionally. We headed off together down the usual path with some casting unfriendly eyes our way because of the slander. Looking back at them I took his hand to which they all rather looked affronted. Many of these were younger wizards who had no concept of standing outside of expectations yet. Of course, I never would have explained our secrets in order just to convince them.

Leaving ahead of the pack it was much easier to get directly to where we wanted to go. The shop we wanted was at the crook of High street not too far from where Mary's Malarkey had opened. As we walked we caught sight of Ambrosius Flume hurrying to put his now discounted Peppermint toads on the wagon bed in front of Honeydukes. He gave us a friendly wave and flipped his sign to open, expecting the horde of sugar crazed students a few minutes up the road behind us.

The Olivander's shop in Hogsmeade was a smaller storefront which mostly dealt with repairs rather than selling. It was run by some younger members of the family but the current patron was an affiliate of Mr. Olivander, Robert Algren. He was an odd old man with many visible tattoos and a long beard which he preferred to wear in oriental style. He was however implacably British, despite this oddity. We entered together directly from the street making sure to close the door behind us. Inside the room was only illuminated by paper lanterns floating near the counter. I noticed there was no bell to ring.

"All right out with them" came the voice of the elderly man behind the counter. It almost seemed like he had been expecting visitors even though the store windows were blacked out from sunlight to preserve the wands. "...you too, if you have questions". Reluctantly I removed my wand from the hidden pocket above my heart. I noticed Stephen kept his lower to his center, nearer I imagined to the liver. For a moment, our wands simply stood in the emptiness but as our hands drew close I could have sworn I saw the air around them vibrate.

"A set of paired wands" He said looking at our out stretched hands. He had a toothy smile that showed his age and lack of proper hygiene possibly. "The Tiger and the Dragon, such perfection!"

"What do you mean by paired wands?" we both said in unison. Each of us made to retract our wands but he tapped the countertop in front of him expectantly. So, we laid them down for his inspection.

"Forgive me my specialty has always been the exotic cores and thus that is where I heard the most tales surrounding this type of thing in my youth" he was quite honestly observing them though they were doing nothing now. At least that was what it looked like to regular wizard eyes.