He could tell you how many steps were in his muggle home. He could recite all of the authors that had books on the shelf in the Ravenclaw commonroom. He could tell you how many potions he messed up during his fourth year. He could recite all spells starting with the letter 'r'. He knew the color of the sky on any given day, he knew how many times girls would giggle as he and his friends passed, he knew the exact date, time, and temperature when his little sister was born. He could tell you how many telephones his muggle father had sold on July thirty-first of last year and what he had worn on his fifteenth birthday.
And he could do it all from memory.
His memory was nothing short of extraordinary. He didn't forget, he just kept adding things to his mind. Things people said, what they did, how many times they broke any given rule during any given week- he could tell you. This was part of the reason why Archibald was such a good student. He rarely ever forgot the material they were studying or that there was homework. Naturally, he had been prefect and Head Boy during his Hogwarts years, but they were now over. He was going off into the world, trying to find a job. So far, it wasn't working out to well.
Arch was a tall, thin, brown-haired perfectionist who preferred the comfort of his mother's home to anywhere else. He had small, square-shaped glasses that rested on the tip of his nose, making him look much like a young librarian. However, there were no jobs available at any good bookshops, so that was off his list. He didn't like robe shops or potion stores, and that one muggle novelty store was just ridiculous. He needed a job by next week to help pay the rent of the flat he and his friends were staying in. Of the rules they had established, one was that they would split the rent equally and then pay it. If not, you were gone.
He wandered, pretty much aimlessly, through the streets of Diagon Alley. Arch wasn't looking for anything in particular, just something that gave away the fact that someone was hiring. Gringotts could be seen off in the distance, set against a perfectly blue sky. He looked around. There weren't that many people around, probably because it was a Sunday. Then he spotted it- a small, hand-written sign that said, in red letters, 'Hiring'. He checked the building and, to his surprise, it was Ollivander's. He had never known the old man to need anyone else to work there. Intrigued, he stepped inside.
No one else was around, just dust and stacks of wand boxes. "Er… Mister Ollivander?" Arch called out hesitantly. "It, er, says you're hiring…"
"That I am, Mister Sinclair." He jumped. The old, silver-eyed man had appeared almost out of nowhere, walking out from behind a shelf. "Tell me, what day did you buy your ten inch, cedar and dragon heartstring wand?"
"August fourteenth, six years ago." It was only after he had sad it that Arch realized he probably didn't mean the exact date, he wanted to know how many years ago. He felt very stupid for a moment, until the man's face lit up. It was kind of an eerie smile, it made him feel a little uncomfortable.
"Tell me- are you interested in working here?"
"Er, yes."
"Then I'll see you tomorrow, bright and early in the morning. Eight should do." Mister Ollivander smiled, which was somewhat strange, and then went back behind the shelf, muttering something. Arch blinked. Just like that, he had a job. He didn't even know what he was doing, but it would give him money, and that was all he needed. Suddenly, his day was brighter. He left the shop and practically sprinted down to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, more than eager to tell his friend the news.
"Fred?" He called, opening the door. The shop was pretty empty. "Fred, I got a job."
"Liar, no one would hire you, Baldy." Fred Weasley II, slightly shorter and stockier than Arch, came out carrying three brown boxes with various labels. He put them down and opened the first one, which apparently carried trick wands.
"Ollivander did."
"He what?!" Fred looked up, slightly shocked. Before they left Hogwarts, Fred had said that if one of them was never going to get a job, it would be him, Arch. Everyone found themselves in favor of that. Arch pushed his glasses up and beamed.
"Yeah… He asked me when I bought my wand, then gave me a job."
Fred shook his flaming red head and sighed. "Of course, wonder boy remembered when he bought his first wand. He probably remembers the day he learned to eat solid food, too." He put some wands on the shelves. "He really hired you?"
"Yes, Fred," Arch said, tried of repeating himself.
"I didn't think the man ever hired. I guess that means all of us have jobs now, eh?"
"Yeah… Fred, why aren't you using magic to do all this?" He had been wondering the entire time, but only asked when the magenta-clad boy had started opening the second box. Fred had gone into the family business that his father and deceased uncle had started many years before. He'd even perfected some of the items they sold and developed new ones that he planned to put on the market before the school year began.
"Dad took away my wand yesterday, saying that he didn't care if I was of age, I was going to get to work on time from now and other stupid stuff. Here, have a daydream charm, you'll need it when you start work. What'll he have you do, anyway?" Fred tossed his friend one of the patented charms, which he put in his pocket. He was wearing a sweater that his mother had made him and khaki-colored pants. Arch shrugged.
"He didn't say. Have you seen Will or Neil?" He asked, helping him unload the WonderWitch products. Fred shook his head.
"I know that Neil works on Sundays, but I don't know about Will… You can tell them later, y'know. We should go out and celebrate. We've all got lives now!"
"Yeah, that's just exciting," Arch said, now looking at a pygmy puff. "Maybe I should get Laurie one for her birthday…"
"Is she a witch?" Fred asked, now on the third and final box.
"She got her letter last week." His little sister had been more than overjoyed when she found out she was going to Hogwarts. Her mother and father were also pleased.
"Archie, now I get to go to the same school as you!" She had screamed happily, bouncing around.
"I'm out of school, Laurie," Arch had told her, wiping the smile off her face. She became a lot less happy after that.
"Oh. Right." She had sat down on the couch, staring blankly at her letter.
"But you'll still have fun," he pointed out, trying to cheer her up. Lauren Sinclair had nodded, smiled, and then asked if he would help her shop for everything on her list. He had agreed.
"Yeah, you told me about that," Fred muttered, finally finished. "I'll meet you back up later, alright? I've got at least a dozen more boxes back there."
"You sure you don't want help?" Arch asked, slowly walking backwards to the door.
"Nah. I figure that when dad sees me, he'll take pity on me and give my wand back." The two of them laughed, and Arch went out the door.
Archibald Sinclair, Fred Weasley, William Jinks and Neil Setzer will all in different houses during their Hogwarts years- Ravenclaw, Gyffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin respectively. However, they all had sat together on their first train to Hogwarts, and had stayed friends after the longest speech about house unity that anyone had ever heard. Now they all were staying in a flat on Diagon Alley, all starting their own lives, as Fred put it. It was both exciting and horrible.
He saw a few people he knew on the street, mostly those who were a year below him, and some that had graduated the previous year. The supply shopping season hadn't officially started yet, but places were becoming much more vibrant and noticeable, advertising sales and special offers. Arch thought about Lauren, who would walk through these streets for the first time, hopefully feeling the exact same feeling of joy that he had so many years earlier. He could see her now, her long, black hair out of order, her brown eyes filled with wonder as he and his mother took her down the streets, looking at every window and store. She was a really nice girl, though talkative, and wanted nothing more than to spend time with her brother.
This could get very annoying after a while, but he took it in stride.
It was late morning by now; the sky was still a brilliant blue with no clouds in sight. He thought about his new job, but had no idea what he was going to do. He took out his own wand. It was exactly as Mister Ollivander had said, cedar, ten inches, with a dragon heartstring core. He had no idea, though, how it was made, where it came from, or anything else about it. Only the maker knew that. Only Mister Ollivander knew.
Arch had become suddenly interested in how wands were made. He didn't know anything about it, and he was pretty sure no one else he knew did either. Wandlore, he had heard, was a difficult subject, involving complicated magic and spells. He didn't know if that was true or not, but still began coming up with a bundle of questions to ask his new boss.
Maybe, he thought, maybe this whole moving out and moving on experience wouldn't be as bad as he had previously said it would be.
Whoo. This is really fun for me to write. Oh, and I'm sorry if I've got the timeline wrong. I'm going by the assumption that George married and had kids a good few years before the trio did. I'm pretty sure there's a timeline somewhere... Anyway, I don't own anything that JKRowling does. Reviews are loved.