Twice Chosen | Esmerelda Potter

18. The Case of the Missing Wand

It must have rained last night, because the ground is all muddy this afternoon. All four of us are on our way to Hagrid's hut. My arm still hurts a bit, but it is better than yesterday. Madam Pomfrey assured me that I just bruised my elbow badly when I landed on it.

When we reach the front steps, Ron knocks on the door. Hagrid answers quickly and pulls us all in, then slams the door quickly. 

"Nice job on the Quidditch match, Harry and Esmerelda!" Hagrid says joyfully. "Are ye okay, Esmerelda? Ye took quite a fall 'esterday!"

I nod. "Pretty good. But Snape was cursing the broom!" I shout, suddenly angry.

"Woah, tone it down!" Harry speaks through his mind.

"Sorry!" I speak back.

"Snape is a Hogwarts teacher! He's not cursin' te broom. That's ridiculous!" Hagrid finishes. 

"We think that he's trying to get whatever's past the three-headed-dog!" Ron informs Hagrid.

"And Harry and Esmerelda are the only ones that can defeat him! So he wanted to hurt them!" Hermione agrees. "Besides, I know a jinx when I see one, I've read all about them, you've got to keep eye contact and Snape wasn't blinking!

"How do ya know about Fluffy?" Hagrid asks, forgetting about Snape.

"Fluffy? The three-headed dog? That thing has a name?" Hermione shouts.

"O' course 'e does! 'E's mine! Won 'em off at te pub. But an'way, Snape's not stealin' an'thing. And 'e wasn't jinxin' anything either! 'E is a Hogwarts teacher!" 

"But what's the dog guarding?" I ask.

"Nothin' ya need to know. It is strictly between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel." 

All four of us share a look. That could be useful...

"Uh...Hagrid, it's almost sunset, we need to go," I say, making the best excuse I could. "I didn't finish my Potions essay."

"Yeah," Harry and Hermione say. 

"Me neither," Ron says.

All of us run toward the castle after pulling open Hagrid's front door.

"Wait!" Hagrid shouts at us, but we are already out of earshot.

==========

It's been two hours since we've gotten to the library. We've looked in almost every book in the recent wizards section, but there is nothing anywhere about a wizard named Flamel. Harry, Ron, and Hermione have had even less luck than me, as I've found a book about a wizard who bred a three-headed-dog like Fluffy already, but no Flamel.

I pick up a book about dark wizards, thinking that Flamel might be a dark wizard. Flipping to a random page, I flip too far and land in the "G" section. But something catches my eye. My own name. 

"...great-great-grandparents of Harry and Esmerelda Potter."

Where did I hear that before? 

I know for sure I heard my great-great-grandparents mentioned at some point. But where? The train? Gringotts? Professor Mcgonagall?

It hit me. Ollivander's. His voice echoes in my head.

"...your wand shares the same feather as the one used to murder your great-great-grandparents."

I read through the whole passage on page 76. 

Eglyn Grindelwald, maiden name Miechley, one of the first female dark wizards. She was born  as a pureblood in Austria in November 1862, an only child. She met Alcott Grindelwald when she was only 18 at the Durmstrang Wizarding school and she gave birth to a child only two years later, at age 20. The child was named Gellert Grindelwald, a name taken from the middle name of the child's paternal grandfather.