The shortened winter hours at Ollivander's were definitely not short enough.
Todd Ollivander was folding pieces of parchment into highly technical paper helicopters to pass the time during the four-hour shift, throughout which not a single customer had entered. After painstakingly attaching the paper rotor blade to the top of his little contraption, he tapped it with his wand, and the blade began to spin rapidly. The paper helicopter slowly lifted up and began to whizz around the dusty wand shop, to Todd's delight.
He'd recently earned his father's trust to the point that he could man the shopfront during the offseason, but Todd was beginning to learn that this was not quite the bestowed honor that he'd hoped.
He watched the aircraft circle the shop room briskly, and as the shop door opened, it smacked the largest man Todd had ever seen directly in the face.
'Sorry Hagrid!' Todd stammered, recognising the Hogwarts gamekeeper. 'So sorry about that!'
'Er, not ter worry,' Hagrid said, bewildered, as the parchment helicopter sputtered jerkily to the ground.
'How can I help you today?' Todd said, straightening up eagerly, excited to finally do some actual work in the shop.
'Erm...' Hagrid began slowly, fumbling nervously for something in his pockets, '... I was wonderin' if I could speak ter yer dad... again. I thought I'd ask him, if he'd... reconsider... repairin' my wand.' He unfolded a handkerchief on the counter that Todd was standing behind, and Todd drew in a sharp intake of breath as he looked down at the three broken pieces of a clearly snapped wand.
'He hasn't offered to sell you a new one?' Todd asked, concerned, as he picked up one of the wand pieces and examined it with dismay.
'Er... no...' Hagrid said, shifting his weight awkwardly. 'See, I – I was expelled, in me third year...'
'Ah,' Todd said quietly, understanding. 'So they snapped it.'
'Yeah,' Hagrid said, abashed. 'So, it's understandable, fer yer father ter refuse ter repair it. Those are the rules, when yeh get expelled, I know. It's just... it can be real tricky, sometimes, to make yer way through the wizarding world without a wand. Even just gettin' into Diagon Alley –'
'Tapping the bricks,' Todd murmured, nodding with a soft frown as Hagrid spoke.
'Right. I've always got ter ask someone ter tap the wall for me,' he mumbled, not looking Todd in the eye. 'It's not like I'd go wavin' it around everywhere I go, o' course, I'm not supposed ter have one, after all. But, it's just that I've bin withou' a wand fer almost me whole life, and... I... I...' Hagrid sighed, faltering. 'Ter be honest, I'm not even sure why I came today. Yer dad wasn' exactly on the fence about it, he was real firm when I spoke ter him... Says the law is clear, and there's nothin' he can do. I – I should go, sorry fer wasting yer –'
Todd held up a finger, not looking up. He'd been carefully examining all three of the pieces as Hagrid spoke. He glanced at the wand shelves for a minute and made his way toward them without a word to Hagrid.
'I – I would like ter keep the pieces, though, if yeh don' mind,' Hagrid said, sounding a bit alarmed to see Todd walking away with his broken wand. Todd said nothing, craning his neck up at a wrought-iron spiral staircase, listening to the sounds of the crew on the floor above him. They were talking and working loudly enough. He could do this, if he worked quickly.
Todd frantically scanned the back of the room, suddenly seizing upon a flowery pink umbrella in the corner that he was pretty sure had previously belonged to his ex-girlfriend.
Todd returned to the counter. He was still silent, staring intently at the umbrella, his eyes boring into it while Hagrid looked at him as if he was seriously regretting his decision to take this up with Mr Ollivander's clearly deranged son.
'Right. Mr Hagrid, I'm terribly sorry,' Todd said briskly, 'but for me to repair a wand that had been officially snapped by the Ministry of Magic would be highly illegal.' Todd took off his glasses to stare closely at the edges of Hagrid's wand pieces before replacing his glasses and aligning the pieces together on the counter. 'Laws exist for a reason, and magically society would simply dissolve into chaos if we didn't follow them.' Hagrid looked a bit crestfallen, but his expression turned to confusion as Todd continued to work, his actions quick and deliberate. The tip of Todd's own wand glowed hot as he began to solder the pieces together, carefully uniting the dragon heartstring back together before he reconnected the wood as well.
Todd twiddled the reformed wand in his fingers experimentally, a few scarlet sparks emitting from it, and to Hagrid's amazement, Todd waved it with a quick flick, and a sprig of some sort of leafy branch burst from the tip. Todd pointed the wand at an enormous, leather-bound ledger book at the counter, and was able to levitate it several feet in the air with ease. Finally, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath, a small smile playing on his face, before he pointed the wand and said in a clear voice, 'Expecto Patronum.' A misty hawk burst from the tip, beating its wings to stay in place in the air.
Todd, looking satisfied, turned to the umbrella, and lined his own wand to the back of it, holding the two objects as one as if it were a shotgun. A bang (not unlike that of a shotgun, in fact) suddenly went off, and Hagrid saw that the umbrella's handle was now hollow. Todd carefully inserted Hagrid's wand into the handle of the umbrella, and it seemed to fit perfectly.
He wielded the umbrella like a fencer's foil, and frowned when it didn't seem to respond to the non-verbal magic he was performing.
'You see, Mr Hagrid,' Todd continued, opening and closing the umbrella a bit erratically, 'magic is a privilege, not a right, and people have to face consequences when they abuse that privilege.' The umbrella finally emitted a few sparks, but Todd, still unsatisfied, began to loudly hit the umbrella against the counter while Hagrid looked positively alarmed.
'You can't –' BANG! '– expect us –' BANG! '– to give you –' BANG! '– special treatment –'
Suddenly, Todd stopped, pausing as if he'd heard something settle into place. He pointed the umbrella into the air and muttered, 'Avis!' An enormous flock of starlings burst from the tip, and Todd grinned widely.
'So, while it pains me to say it,' Todd concluded, rearranging his features into a stern expression, 'I'm afraid there's nothing we can do for you here. Please, don't ask us again. Oh, and here you are, don't forget your umbrella.'
Hagrid blinked. 'Th-thank yeh –' he stammered.
'There's nothing to thank me for, I haven't helped you in any way at all.'
Todd smiled as Hagrid nodded shakily, taking the umbrella from him. Hagrid stood there for a moment, at a loss for words, and finally, with a quick, grateful nod, he turned and left. The bell jingled as he squeezed through the door.
'I hope I don't get into trouble for that,' Todd said to himself, drumming his fingers thoughtfully on the counter.
A/N: Thanks for reading! If you liked Todd, you may enjoy my regularly updated story, 'The Wandsmiths'.