Chapter II – The Magical World
"Time seems to be sneaking up on us!" his dad said while preparing their breakfast. "Classes start next week and we still haven't bought any of your material!"
Eco had noticed, but his eagerness to look for school materials was as great now as his eagerness to attend, or as his willingness to swallow a cup of blended fat.
"It's been some time since we got internet access," Eco said while examining the milk carton next to him, ignoring the subject of school materials.
"Yeah?"
"I haven't gotten a message from mom yet."
"No?" His dad poured coffee into both cups, but didn't turn to Eco as he offered him one. "It's not something to worry about. She's probably just caught up in another project, or is traveling somewhere with even worse reception than here."
"Probably…" Eco agreed. "I thought maybe she had sent you something."
"No, not yet. But don't worry. Here, eat well. It's going to be a full day."
Eco took the piece of bread his dad was offering, and tried not to think of what was to come.
"It must be around here somewhere."
Eco looked up at his father while he watched the name of the streets passing by. Muggle buses were dirty and crowded as a rule, but they had managed to choose an hour when they could even get seats.
"Isn't there a Knight bus we could call?" Eco asked.
"The Brazilian ministry has promised to make one available by the end of their term. Or perhaps that was the previous administrations? Either way, there is something like it, but it's too expensive for us."
"Why not floo powder, then?"
"There are very few fireplaces around here, and their use costs hundreds of galleons per person. But don't worry, we're… Oh, shoot! That was our stop!"
Eco's father hammered the stop button nearest to them, but considering the lack of response, it might have been broken. He stumbled to his feet then, and almost fell as he tried to reach the next button.
"Driver! Stop!" Eco's dad shouted in his heavily accented tone.
"Sorry, pal," the conductor called from behind the magazine he was reading. "We cannot let people off outside bus stops."
"Oh, bother!" dad cursed while trying to keep his balance.
Eco didn't get up during this exchange, and waited for minutes as the bus traversed bridges and roads and several curves before the next bus stop. Only then did Eco followed his father bumbling down the large steps down to the street.
Retracing the way the bus back to the last bus stop was even harder than finding the right bus to board in the first place. The bridges had no sidewalks for people to walk through, and some of the roads had metal fences to keep pedestrians from crossing. Neither his father nor Eco quite remembered the way back, so almost a full hour of trial and error went by under the scorching sun walking the burning asphalt before they managed to reach the place they thought they should have disembarked.
"Now… It was somewhere through here…" his dad said.
"Are you sure you can't do any magic to find the right place?"
"No, I can't." Eco's father passed his hands through his hair, and Eco could hear the attempt to keep his frustration from his voice. "Can't you use your gadgets to find it?"
"You haven't gotten mobile internet for me yet," Eco pointed out. "Our wi-fi only works at our house."
"Oh," dad said, sweating profusely. "I had forgotten you needed that. Muggles can be so peculiar."
As peculiar as charging hundreds of galleons per person when using floo powder? Eco thought best not to comment.
In truth, despite all his misgivings, Eco was both abbreviating and dreading his first contact with the local wizard community. He watched the vandalized buildings as he walked along with his father, taking note of all people who looked out of place enough that they might be part of their wizardry community. There were loads of individuals fitting the peculiar bill, to the point that Eco wondered if he should assume they were all wizards, or if maybe the haggard appearances and dirty clothes belied a different reality than the magic one.
"Do you know how their Diagonal Alley is like?" Eco asked. "What is it called?"
His father hesitated, looking at a particularly out of place old man who was muttering at nothing. His father took Eco's hand and dragged him away from the murmuring man. "I haven't seen it yet… But if I remember it right it's called… The Diagonal Boulevard?"
There was a long minute of silence.
"Really?"
"I'm pretty sure, yes."
The Diagonal Boulevard…Eco wasn't sure what to make of it. Should he assume that it was just like back home, but wider? Or should he rather assume that they were trying to sound grand in spite of reality?
"I think it's here…" Dad said.
Eco followed his father's gaze to a point in the nearby crumbling wall. It too was covered in graffiti, but one particular drawing seemed to have been painted with particular care. Eco couldn't quite tell what was represented at first, but as he kept staring at the colorful lines, they seemed to merge in what he supposed to be a cauldron.
"Is that supposed to be a black hole?" Dad asked, peering at the graffiti.
"I think it's a cauldron," Eco said, though now that the question has been asked, he was no longer sure. "How do we open it? "
"Well…" His father pulled a letter from his shirt pocket and muttered as he went over it. "I guess…" He stepped closer to the wall. "Since the headmaster told me of the location, I expect it will show up at any moment now… Oh."
Just as his father stepped beside the wall, it started to change. The opening of the cauldron (or black hole) enlarged in straight and ungraceful lines to the shape of a small door, which then completely failed to enlarge any further.
"Is this it?" Eco asked, unimpressed.
"It seems that way…" Eco's dad pushed the door forward. It creaked and groaned, but it did swing inward. Eco's father hunched his back and almost squatted as he squeezed himself through the door. "It's a stairway." He sounded mildly surprised. "The light here isn't very good. Watch your step, Eco!"
As Eco followed his father through the passageway, he had to agree about the light. There were only two glowing torches on each side of the walls even though the stairway seemed to stretch downward a long way. It was hard to judge with his father blocking most of the path, crouching to avoid the ceiling and casting huge shadows back on Eco.
They descended slowly, and Eco actually found himself surprised that the air didn't smell stale. Here half expected the lights to be actual fire rather than magic and the confined space to be filled with carbon monoxide, but for everything unmagical Eco had found so far, at least in this the local wizards had no fault.
"Here!" his dad called excitedly.
He must have reached the other door, as there soon was more soulless creaking before they could walk again. His father crossed and several of his joints cracked when he stood straight again. Eco followed to have his first glimpse of the Diagonal Boulevard.
At first, he assumed they had ended up in a shop like the leaky cauldron. There were several different wares distributed in shelves close to the door they had just gone through. There were books, notebooks, pens, but before Eco could see much more, his eyes were drawn to a big sign on the opposite walk. It was written in Portuguese, as expected, and said:
The Diagonal Boulevard
The best place for all your magical needs.
Exit floor: paper articles, portion ingredients and miscellaneous items.
-1st floor: Pets and sports articles.
-2nd floor: Wands and entertainment.
-3rd floor: Food, drink and banking.
The Diagonal Boulevard was a department store?
Eco looked around. He assumed books and writing utensils qualified as paper articles, but he had expected more variety. There were no more than four bookshelves, another shelf with scales, miniature cauldrons and potion ingredients, then one more with what seemed to be gossip magazines and newspapers, a shelf which the writing utensils shared with what seemed to be home décor, and all other seven shelves were dedicated for the mysterious miscellaneous items.
For a long moment, both Eco and his father just stood in silence.
"Good morning, sir!" A shop clerk approached Eco's father in quick steps. "Can I interest you in fake Phoenix quill sets? They're 15% off, just today! "
"Wha—" In his unfamiliarity with the language, Eco assumed that the clerk has spoken to fast for his father to process the words. The woman didn't allow the silence to longer, though, and her smile didn't falter as she continued.
"How about a Potter sticker album for your smart boy? We only have five left in stock!"
The clerk smiled at Eco, making him instantly recoil.
"Wa… wands," Eco's dad managed to say.
"Oh. Those are at a different for. But I'm sure there are also things here to interest you, hm, sir?"
"Th-thank you, but no." The language was evidently making his father flustered. His cheeks grew rosier and puffier. Eco didn't like to see them like that.
Eco's father finally managed to disengage the clerk, walking a circle around the room before finding stairs going up. There were no elevators, apparently.
"Listen, Eco," his father seemed to have recomposed himself, which was good. "I'll leave you choosing your wand while go to the bank. It should be quick."
It should. That didn't stop anxiety from creeping into Eco's stomach in that unfamiliar, undesired place.
"A wizard doesn't choose his wand," Eco declared. "The wand chooses…"
"I know, Eco, I know. And you know what I meant. Don't worry, if anything happens, just scream for me."
That would be the one use of such a small store, then.
Eco's father did look around the wand floor with him. This one had piles and piles of small boxes lying around, but no shelves. The only person inside was the shop clerk, who was considerably less enthusiastic than his companion from the exit floor, asleep at a desk surrounded in stacks of wands.
"Excuse me," Eco's father called. "My son is in need of a wand."
The clerk jerked awake with an exclamation that might have been a welcome. Eco and his father exchanged a look.
"Call me if you need anything…" His dad murmured to Eco.
Eco didn't doubt that he would need help, yet he said nothing. His father continued upstairs just as the clerk approached, rubbing his hands together.
"So…" he said, smiling. "You are in need of a wand, boy? Is it your first one?"
"Yes…" Eco didn't like the look of the sales clerk. He had always pictured wand shops as mysterious, ethereal places. However, the smiling man in front of Eco looked too much like a business person. It was unlikely that he was the wand manufacturer.
"Very well! You've made a fine choice, coming to us. We only use national ingredients, mind you, so our wands have a very strong sense of national pride."
Eco's stomach sunk. As out of place as he felt, national ingredients definitely wouldn't be what he needed.
"National ingredients? You mean like Brazilian unicorns, and phoenixes and dragons…"
"Oh, goodness, no!" the clerk interrupted. "We don't limit ourselves to a few ingredients like some other manufacturers I could mention. Besides, there are no Brazilian unicorns or phoenixes. And just the one dragon, that might actually just be an Animagus. Still, she did gift us a couple of teeth over the ages, but there's only one left here in stock…Anyway, we have a big variety of other materials such as fire snake skin, lion monkey mane, pink dolphin's heart… Not to mention our wood variety."
Eco felt sick. Why hadn't they bought a proper Olivander's before leaving London?
"Are you looking for a cheap wand or an expensive one?" the clerk asked, without batting an eye.
"Excuse me?"
"The price range, chap. You look as if you can afford a suitable wand."
"But…" Eco felt light headed. "The wand chooses…"
"Oh. I see. In that case, we better start experimenting. Let me just take some measurements…"
The clerk did so, but by this point, Eco was already sure nothing would be right. As the clerk excused himself to bring a few likely wands, Eco felt his legs trembling. He looked around for a chair, but instead found a boy about his age standing next to the stairs.
For a long moment, they just started at each other.
"Hi," the boy greeted.
"Hello," Eco replied cautiously.
"Are you the clerk? "
"No, I'm a customer!"
The other boy nodded, and Eco could see he was relieved. That smarted Eco a bit, and he wondered how relieved the other boy would be once he saw the actual clerk.
"I'm sorry," the other boy said, as if he could guess what Eco was thinking. "It's just that I've never bought a wand before, so I'm a bit nervous."
He did look nervous. He was fidgeting with his hands in front of his body, and his eyes darted all around the room. His black hair was very smooth, though, poking out of an orange woolen cap (despite the heat). His reddish skin made Eco assume the boy was of native descent, and he was probably proud of it, since a bundle of colorful feathers dangled from one of the boys ears. There were tribal patterns in his clothing as well, but they were otherwise unremarkable.
"It's my first wand too," Eco said, stepping closer to the other boy. "I'm Eco, by the way."
"Hello there, Eco," he greeted again. "I'm Gabriel. Gabe, really. Are you from somewhere else? You sound a bit funny."
Eco wasn't a big fan of the statement, considering that Gabe's voice wasn't quite right either. It sounded squeaky, as if he were trying and failing to reach a falsetto. Then again, Eco wasn't from Brazil, and it was silly to think he'd have been able to speak like a native so soon after arriving.
"Yes. We're from London. My father and I, I mean. You seem like a local kid, though. Are you Muggle-born?"
Gabe's face contracted as if Eco had just pointed a knife at him. "Is that a problem?" he asked in a defensive tone.
"No, I was just…"
"Well now aren't we busy today? Are you looking for a wand as well, friend?"
The clerk deposited a stack of battered boxes by Eco before continuing towards Gabe. Eco looked down at the boxes, but since the clerk said nothing, he assumed he should just try them all.
"Yes," Gabe said. "My first one, actually."
"Are you looking for a cheap wand or an expensive one?"
By then Eco had already unpacked the first wand out of a box. It was reddish and glossy, but acted like nothing more than a stick as Eco waved it around.
"I'm not sure," Gabe replied. "Perhaps a medium one?"
Though Eco felt like he had offended Gabe with his question, he still felt like he could mend the situation.
"You shouldn't choose a wand," he said. "The wand chooses you!"
The clerk's smile looked positively hostile as he turned to Eco. "How is that working out for you?"
Eco had tried three wands so far, and none had acted at all different from each other.
"That one is Brazilwood with a core of trickster pipe."
Eco tried it, but it did nothing. He passed it over to Gabe, who got the same result.
Together, they went through the entire stack the clerk had brought Eco, and then the next one. By then, Eco had been in the shop for a full twenty minutes, and started looking around to see if his father was coming down. The clerk had long ago lost his patience and was just bringing them the closest stacks he could find.
"Perhaps our wands simply haven't been made yet," Gabe suggested, glancing uncomfortably at the annoyed clerk.
Eco doubted it. He was sure that at Olivander's both of them would have left satisfied ages ago.
"Perhaps there's a different material we haven't tried?" Eco asked the clerk.
"You have tried every core I have in stock except for the one with the dragon tooth!" the clerk replied quickly. Then he paused with a musing expression. "I guess…"
The clerk left again, and Eco exchanged a look with Gabe.
"I think I'll just buy a simple wand," Gabe said as if trying to mollify Eco. "I'm not really picky."
"You can't!" Eco insisted. "It's dangerous to use a wand that hasn't chosen you! Spells backfire all the time, and they're never very powerful."
Gabe shrugged, but Eco felt like he was just trying to be agreeable.
"I'm sorry about before," Eco said. "I'm from the U.K., so I didn't know my question would offend."
"It's alright," Gabe said mildly. "It's just that people don't usually discuss their heritage. You should avoid asking. "
"Noted," Eco said, relieved. "It seems kind of silly, though. There's nothing wrong with being Muggle-born. My father is mugglelogist."
Gabe seemed to be trying to decide if Eco was bragging or not. Before he had reached a consensus, though, the clerk returned with a battered looking box.
"Here it is!"
He offered the box to Eco. He opened the lid to find a rather cool looking red wand. He reached for it.
Before he had the chance to touch it, though, the wand flew away from the box. Eco looked around, thinking he had dropped it, but found the wand standing in the air beside him as if suspended by a thread, right in front of a rather astonished Gabe.
"Well, that never happened before…" the clerk said, his voice weak. "The wand usually attacks whomever tries to touch it."
"Try it!" Eco urged, though he felt a pang of jealousy that the coolest wand had jumped at the other boy.
Gabe gingerly touched the magical artifact, and as his hands closed around it, all lights went out.
"Okay, don't panic!" the clerk squeaked. "That's a good sign!"
The lights came back a moment later, revealing a very pale, trembling Gabe.
"It's a wand for the Dark Arts!" Gabe said, holding it away from his face.
"Nonsense!" the clerk said. "It's the wand for you. What you'll do with it, though…"
Eco was shaking as well, but he tried to hide it. "At least you managed to find a wand. I still have nothing."
Gabe tentatively smiled at Eco, but the clerk paid him no mind.
"That's the rarest wand we have in stock, sir," he said smugly. "It'll be a thousand tapus. We can divide that in up to twelve payments—"
"There's no need," Gabe interrupted. "I was told I could transfer the money directly between accounts?"
"You can, sir!" The clerk's voice instantly became softer. "Indeed you can…"
Eco stood forgotten while Gabe and the clerk went over his payment. He tried a few more wands nearby, but after Gabe's show, it felt kind of pointless. He guessed he had misjudged the other boy in more ways than one. Eco would never have thought Gabe could readily afford that sum of money.
"So that's settled," Gabe said. "Thank you…Eco was it?"
"Yeah," Eco smiled at him. "See you at Hogwarts, Gabe? "
The other boy smiled. "See you at Saciscola," he corrected. "Good luck with your wand."
Author's Note
Thank you for reading the second chapter of All Beyond the Sidelines!
I hope things didn't feel too rushed, but I was eager to get to the actual school. In this chapter we met another one of the main characters: Gabriel. He's the boy standing closest to the "camera" on the cover picture. I added more details to his description in the chapter because I wasn't satisfied with that design, so I might update it later on when I have some spare time.
One of the challenges of revising the story will be giving Gabe some more screen time in later chapters.
As before, I'd be thankful for any criticism that you can offer, and I hope to be back next Saturday with the third chapter. I haven't decided the stopping point for it yet, but it probably will give us our first glimpse of the Brazilian school of wizardry.
Also, since I don't have Gabe's appearance ready yet, for this week I uploaded my sketch of Eco's dad on Deviantart: art/Eco-s-Dad-649209079.
If you imagined him differently, let me know.
Thanks for reading!