Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters ._.
"No, no, definitely not," he mused, seemingly unalarmed that an expensive-looking globe in his shop was obliterated for the seventy-second time.
Ollivander gently eased the offending wand out of Arisa's hand, placing it back into its box. The two girls who stood before him intrigued him, possibly due to the presence of Albus Dumbledore behind them. He wasn't sure what it was that could have drawn the great wizard's interest in these two, but that wasn't the problem. The problem was that almost all the wands had rejected these two. It wasn't that they lacked talent, either. They seemed above the average new student, if only slightly, based on the reaction that most of the wands gave.
On their part, Arisa and Suzuka flinched every time they destroyed something in the store. They very much found everything believable, after the incident two years ago when they found out Fate and Nanoha had a secret life involving magic very much beyond their comprehension at the time. They watched Ollivander scrunch his eyebrows in thought and mutter to himself, though Suzuka was unable to understand the English.
"Japanese, hmmm? I suppose…"
The elderly man vanished into the back of the shop through the shelves, leaving them to wait. Dumbledore, the one who had found them stumbling into the Leaky Cauldron out of curiosity, took the opportunity to repair the globe with a flick of his wand. Arisa and Suzuka began an exchange in Japanese.
"I wonder what Nanoha and Fate would think when they find out we're learning magic," Arisa snickered.
"If they find out," Suzuka corrected. "Didn't this Dumbledore person say it was illegal to reveal anything to outsiders?"
At the sound of his name, albeit distorted by the Japanese language, the old wizard glanced at them curiously.
"Don't call him that!" Arisa whispered. "From what I heard, he's apparently the greatest wizard alive right now."
"Oh. Well, good thing he doesn't understand Japanese, right?" Suzuka laughed nervously. Arisa had to fight the urge to slam her head onto the counter.
"Still," the Japanese girl continued. "It is kind of hard to believe all of this completely. At least Nanoha's magic is from… you know… another planet."
"I suppose that's true," Arisa agreed. At this moment, she noticed that the wand maker had returned to the counter with two small boxes and was patiently waiting for them. She switched back to English.
"Sorry about that," the blonde apologised.
"It's quite alright," Ollivander reassured her. He opened one of the two boxes and pulled out yet another wand. "Japanese cherry, with a core of dragon heartstring, eleven inches. For your friend here."
"Sakura," Suzuka breathed, completely taken in by the beauty of the wand.
The moment she laid her eyes on it, she knew it was sakura. The moment she gripped it, she knew it was the right one. A stream of blue light swirled around inside the shop, steady and graceful like its wielder. Ollivander had seen many wands reacting to their chosen owner over the years, but never quite something like this. He took a moment to shake himself out of his wonder and offer the other wand to Arisa.
"As for you, young lady. This is just a hunch, but… acacia and dragon heartstring, eleven inches."
Arisa took it from his outstretched hand, causing a stream of red light to intertwine with the blue swirls of Suzuka. Slowly, the light faded and so did the dreamlike state which seemed to have covered the store.
"Incredible," Ollivander commented.
"What?" Arisa asked.
"It's almost unheard of for twin wands - that is, wands with the same core from the same source - to find their masters simultaneously," Ollivander explained. "The dragon heartstrings inside those two wands come from the same dragon. Do you two, perhaps, have some kind of connection?"
"W-well, we're best f-friends," Arisa lied unconvincingly. She was clearly uncomfortable with sharing, so Ollivander decided not to press the issue. She hastily changed the subject. She turned to Dumbledore.
"Is there anything else we need?"
Dumbledore spoke up for the first time since they entered the store hours ago.
"No, I believe that is it. You have the train tickets I gave you earlier?"
Arisa nodded.
"Very good. Then, I must be on my way. I shall see you in a week, I trust?"
He disappeared on the spot without even leaving time for Arisa to reply. Suzuka tugged on her sleeve.
"Come on, Arisa. We should get home. You know how our parents are, even if they know what's going on right now," the purple-haired girl reasoned.
Arisa let out an exasperated sigh.
The atmosphere of the entire building changed the moment they stepped in. Every pair of eyes in the room converged on Arisa and Suzuka, and some people seemed to act extremely nervous. To the opposite effect of those was a single man, who approached the two. He looked completely ancient to both of them and seemed to radiate authority with his very presence.
"Excuse my curiosity, but are you two perhaps lost?" he asked politely.
Suzuka looked at Arisa nervously, unable to understand English. Arisa translated.
"He's asking us if we're lost," she said. "What should I say back to him?"
"Yes? No? I don't know, just say yes!" Suzuka squealed, hiding slightly behind the blonde.
"I guess I'll just tell it like it was," she declared, turning back to the old but imposing man.
"We were just a bit curious," she said to the man, a little bit more defensively than she intended.
"Curious?" the man replied, running his hand through his beard. "How so?"
"Well, um…" Arisa trailed off, not sure if she would be considered crazy if she spoke of what she and Suzuka saw. "The outside looked broken and abandoned at first, but then everything seemed to, I guess, repair itself?"
"Most interesting," he almost whispers.
"Was that magic?" Arisa asks boldly. She was not prepared for everyone else in the building to suddenly burst into cries of anger and shock, with some calling for the two girls to be 'obliviated' by 'Dumbledore'. The blonde didn't know what 'obliviate' meant, but it definitely didn't sound good. The elderly man straightened up and shouted, power in every etching of his voice.
"QUIET!" he rumbled, silencing the crowd immediately. He turns his attention back to the Japanese pair.
"It appears you two have an aptitude for magic, despite coming from what I presume is a non-magical background."
Arisa remained silent, not sure where he was going with this.
"Would you be interested in learning magic?" he asks. "I am Professor Dumbledore and I run Hogwarts, a school which teaches aspiring wizards and witches to use and control magic."
Suzuka sensed the shift in the conversation, though she was still confined to waiting for Arisa to translate afterwards.
"This… isn't a joke, right?" Arisa said, wide-eyed. Dumbledore smiles warmly.
"No, I'm afraid not. I admit, it might be a bit much to take in. How about I speak with your parents and we can come to a decision together?" he suggests. "Of course, if you should turn it down, I will have to wipe any knowledge of us from your memory. Secrecy laws and such."
He waits patiently as Arisa translated a summary of the entire conversation to Suzuka. By now, most of the people in the bar had stopped paying attention, none willing to incur the wrath of the greatest wizard alive. The aging headmaster was quite surprised at how well the two girls were taking the news, as most other muggle-borns tended to accuse him of being a crackpot and attempt to have him placed into an asylum.
"So? What do you think?" Arisa asks Suzuka in Japanese. "I mean, Nanoha and Fate are already, you know… so this wouldn't be impossible, right?"
"I guess not, but what about our parents? And didn't we already plan out our futures?" Suzuka insisted
"That was before we found out about magic, though," Arisa countered. "Fate and Nanoha looked pretty cool, and even if this isn't the same thing, it might still be interesting, right?"
"Maybe we could try a year and see?" Suzuka suggested. Her partner nodded in agreement.
"Let's take him to our parents, then. This vacation to England sure wasn't boring," she commented dryly. Her green eyes swivelled back to meet Dumbledore's.
"We'll do it, but our parents might take some convincing," she answered, swapping back to English once more. Dumbledore let out a chuckle.
"Most of them do," he said. "Very well then, let us be on our way."
"I suppose we should tell Nanoha and Fate that we're going to school here, shouldn't we?"
Suzuka nodded, but neither girl moved to pick up the phone. They weren't sure how their two best friends would take the news. After all, none of this was even slightly expected and now they had agreed to go to a secret magic school for at least a year.
"Maybe we should just tell them a half-truth?" Arisa suggested. "Not tell them about the magic, maybe."
"Mmmm," Suzuka says noncommittally.
They sat by the window of a rather large room, overlooking a very large courtyard. The entire mansion belonged to Arisa's family. Originally, Fate, Nanoha, Suzuka, and Arisa were all going to spend the summer here, but something had turned up for the former two from the TSAB. It was three in the morning in England, which meant eleven in the morning in Japan. Steeling her resolve, Arisa picked up her phone.
"Well, here it goes," she mutters.
The Takamachi household was seemingly empty, with everyone save Nanoha and her pet ferret having woken up and left the house already. The cell phone in Nanoha's bed rang, filling the once-silent room with an absurdly loud noise. On a basket that was laid on top of the mage's drawer, Yuuno muttered in his sleep.
"Mmmm, I'm not… a pet ferret… Stupid Cactus..."
Groggily, Nanoha answered the phone while still half-asleep.
"Wha…?" she mumbled.
"You're still not up yet, Nanoha? Geez…"
The White Devil's eyes snapped open at the sound of the voice.
"Arisa-chan? Aren't you in England? Shouldn't you be sleeping right now?"
"Yea, well Suzuka and I were talking about something yesterday and um… well, the thing is… we're gonna spend a year trying out a school in England," the blonde said hesitantly.
"Eh?"
Arisa waited.
"EHHHHHH?!" Nanoha yelled. "You're not coming back to Uminari?!"
"Uhhh, well not this year, anyways. If it doesn't work out then we'll come back. We just wanted to tell you and Fate. Speaking of which, is she around?"
"No, she's not," Nanoha lied, all the while staring at the sleeping form of Fate still lying under her blanket. Arisa's response was kind of dejected after a slight pause.
"Oh. I see. Well, at any rate, Suzuka and I will be back next summer for sure. We'll see you then."
"R-right…" the brunette replied through a yawn. "I'll tell Fate-chan when I get the chance then."
"We'll send letters, don't worry!" Suzuka shouted from the background on the other end of the line.
"Letters? Can't you just cal-"
"Ah, well we're staying inside the school and t-they don't allow phones, ahahaha," Arisa interrupted awkwardly.
Nanoha stared at the phone, even though she couldn't see Arisa's face through it. Maybe it was just her imagination, but Arisa was acting a bit weird.
"Anyways, Suzuka and I need to go sleep now. Bye bye!"
The call ended with a hasty click. Nanoha contemplated the conversation for a few more moments before falling back asleep beside Fate. They were both still exhausted from their latest work with the TSAB. However, their rest was not to last, as both of them were woken up minutes later.
"I'M NOT A FERRET!"
A/N:
After struggling with writer's block on my other works for several months, this idea randomly popped up in my mind. Not much to say about it, really. The inspiration for this probably came from my frustration with how little focus there was on Arisa and Suzuka from the MSLN series, especially after they get trapped in the Book of Darkness barrier despite it being impossible (I think?) that non-magic users can't enter barriers.
Hope you guys enjoy! :D
