~Chapter 1~
The door knob was broken again and Holly didn't have the energy to dig her wand out from her under her numerous robes in order to fix it. It was the third time this week she had come home to find something broken.
She'd been leaning against the door to the manor for the past 5 minutes, head resting against the smooth wood as the rain poured down outside of the porch. "Ostium reparo," she said with a limp wave of her hand. The knob slipped back into its place, door swinging open after it. It took a slight hesitation and shiver for Holly to muster enough courage to step over the threshold.
As the door swung shut on the storm outside and the warm old fashioned coziness of the manor enveloped her, Holly's demeanor brightened. She walked through the house with
renewed purpose. Every room she passed lit up, fireplaces burst into life, and pictures waved at her furiously. The kitchen was her first stop after having left her cloak and hat in a large puddle in the front room. She'd clean it up later.
Her general routine after getting home from the shop in Diagon Alley, was to break out her starched white apron, with its large bow in the back, and begin cooking dinner. She cooked wandless, expect for levitating and turning on burners, the way her Great Aunt Harriet had taught her.
Aunt Harriet currently resided in the room she died in 20 years ago. A room she generally stayed in except for holidays and parties, or when she felt the need to impart some great wisdom on Holly as she cooked, such as "Fold the eggs into the batter dear. With all that swishing around you're doing with that spoon it'll turn to glue! That's a muggle contraption. It's used to stick things together. Oh! We should have a muggle arts and crafts party!" Aunt Harriet was a bit of muggle aficionado, considering that in her much younger years she'd been Professor of Muggle Studies at Hogwarts. She'd gotten a bit batty as the years went on however, and spent most of her time haunting the muggle T.V. Holly had bought for her.
Holly was elbow deep in flour when she heard a thumping on the stairs. A socked foot had reached the landing just outside the kitchen, and a head followed it, peering around the door.
"Good afternoon Cornelia. Did you have fun tearing up the house again today? I'm assuming it was you. After all, Great Aunt Harriet may be a ghost but she is and always has been a gentle soul." Holly leaned on the counter and smiled menacingly at the the sour looking ten year old that stood there.
The two were obviously related. They both had long copper hair, dark brows, sharp blue eyes, the same straight nose and the same furious expression. Except for the serious differences in wardrobe, age, Cornelia's numerous freckles, and Holly's glasses, they could be twins.
"I see you got in alright." was all Cornelia said.
"Well it was a pathetic attempt to keep me out Nel." Holly had turned back to the cake she'd been baking, but not before Cornelia had seen the subtle roll of her eyes. Not so subtle apparently. A light bulb in the chandelier in the hall exploded.
"Do you really want to play this game?" Holly's hands clenched the wooden kitchen table and she stared at Cornelia from under her brows. Nel looked scared all of a sudden.
"No. Not really." She turned and walked slowly into the living room and sprawled onto one of the sofas, "Big meanie."
Holly snorted from her place in the kitchen. After washing the flour from her hands she took a tray of tea into the solarium and sat down, staring at the rain pounding against the large glass windows. Cornelia followed soon after.
"I'm going to Hogwarts." Cornelia had slumped down on the floor and was leaning against the cold glass windows staring up at her big sister.
"No. Mother and Father expressly left instructions for you to be home-schooled, Nel. I can't go against that can I?" Holly's face looked pained as she thought of her deceased parents again for billionth time that week. The subject of whether or not Cornelia would attend Hogwarts or stay home and learn the family craft from her sister was a huge point of contention.
"I didn't go to Hogwarts and look at me! I'm 23, extremely successful and practically famous in the wizarding world. We could be famous together. The Ollivander Sisters! Internationally renowned as the best wand makers since the time of Merlin!"
"You're also a loner Holly." Cornelia's face lightened.
"You watch too much Muggle T.V. Nel... and I so have friends!"
Cornelia took a moment to respond, her face solemn as she studied Holly's anxious expression. "Aunt Harriet and I don't count. And neither does, what's his face, the owner of Flourish and Blotts. He's old too."
Her sister had done so much for her in the past. With the death of their parents a few years back, Cornelia had become Holly's responsibility, yet with the burdens of the wand shop already on her, Holly found herself severely hindered.
She was a veritable genius when it came to wand lore and craft. Her gift had helped to seriously rebuild and expand the family business in the years after the war. With their Great Uncle Ollivander sick for so long, and Holly being the only member of the family with any real interest in keeping up tradition, rebuilding took a while. She longed to travel the world and meet with different wizarding communities, learn their histories and their special techniques for making wands. She'd learned everything from her uncle's vast archives of information long ago. She wanted more, yet she had Cornelia to think of.
Hogwarts was a foreign concept to Holly. She'd learned everything needed from her family. Her mother and father had taught her the basics while Uncle Ollivander had showed her the ancient and mysterious stuff that so few Hogwarts students even knew existed. Her childhood was isolated with only her family for interaction, and it was most likely a miracle she turned out the way she did.
"Hogwarts... I could teach you so much more than they do there. I could culture you, take you on trips, you wouldn't get sucked into house warfare-"
Holly was in the middle of her rant when Great Aunt Harriet descended from the ceiling in her ghostly form, an elegant yet slightly irate expression on her face. "A rather strapping lad has just tumbled out from my fireplace via Floo Powder, along with a very pleasant red haired young lady. I would be most grateful, my dears, if you could take care of this rather unexpected visit somewhere other than my room. I was in the middle of a rather spicy episode of Jersey Shore. American T.V is nothing like ours my dears, let me tell you!"
Holly and Cornelia took one confused look at each other before sprinting for the stairs.