I have forgotten entirely this important piece of writing that is meant to be at the top here:
I do not own Harry Potter, I never will nor do I make any claims towards the ownership of the franchise, the characters or the setting. I do hold claim and ownership to Mr Tyr Everell, his cousin I.F. Evenstar and all elements of the Legion of the Grey.
That about sums it up rather nicely. This chapter is late, because I was bored but I persevered to the end, so here it is, only 2 days late of schedule. Almost a record coming from me.
Chapter 3
The bell rang as they entered. Cramped and small, it was bustling full of other children. Strangely enough it was silent save for the soft voice of the owner, presumably Ollivander. It was almost a miniature audience for the recipient of a wand. Tyr and Balty waited at the back, Balty had a nervous expression on his face. He wasn't sure how to put it to the kid, that his family had very explosive reactions to wands. He could feel a thrum of magic from the implements as they reacted to Tyr. It didn't help that there were more victims- no, children in the establishment than usual.
After a half hour, the crowd had sufficiently thinned for Ollivander to notice them. He let out a slow breath and beckoned both of them forward. The crowd parted, with a few families indignantly complaining at the alleged favouritism. Addressing Baltimore, Ollivander said,
"Baltimore Fawley, you look quite worse for wear since we last met. Ash, unicorn hair, eleven inches and variably supple was it not?"
"Yes it is. No my wife left me recently, not as in we aren't still seeing each other, she just said she wanted to move out. I hadn't seen her in a while."
Ollivander gave him a considering look and turned to Tyr,
"Child, I do not know who you are, though your face tells me you are a relation of Daniel Evenstar."
Tyr looked into those moon-ish eyes and replied,
"Yes, he was my father. He passed away recently. He never spoke of you though."
Ollivander gave a small and merry laugh at that.
"No! I don't suppose he would have. Although we are related, the Evenstars always sought to distance themselves from the main pureblood lines. I did suspect Daniel was a father a few years ago when we last spoke. I am indeed sorry for your loss, he was a kind and decent soul."
Tyr nodded at that. He knew his father as a non-magical person, his parents never seemed to do any magic, only saying they could see the hoodie. When he had asked about them doing any magic, they said they didn't see the point since Cor had yet to do any. If he was non-magical then they would do a big reveal. Then they had died before Cor had done any supposed magic.
Ollivander had been speaking to Baltimore; he then turned to Tyr and said,
"I am afraid that this will not be a normal wand testing. Evenstars tend to have a volatile reaction to wands. Let's see… ah, here it is, rowan, dragon heartstring, sixteen inches and very bendy."
Tyr held it uncertainly in his hand. Baltimore said,
"Give it a wave lad."
The other children in the shop snickered at Tyr's ignorance. He felt a little silly and gave it a wave. There was an almighty crack as the air rippled in a pulse, releasing a shockwave knocking all the families back. Baltimore and Ollivander were somehow grounded against it. The other children had gotten up quickly in shock. Things were looking hostile before Ollivander commented offhandedly,
"Ah yes, your family traditionally caused a shockwave on their first wave. We're on the right track!"
The other families quickly got out of the shop; one shockwave was more than enough. Tyr watched them leave and timidly asked,
"Is it okay if the wand does that on the first go? You're not going to lose customers because of me?"
Ollivander gave a rare grin and said,
"My dear child, I think you are more like your cousin than your father. His first wand wave nearly blew the roof of the shop off. Ironically he never actually had a wand, preferring to do things entirely with his hands. He did come to me on occasions for coreless wands, to give an imitation of being a wand caster. I fear you may be the same."
"My cousin?! I don't have a cousin!" Tyr exclaimed.
Ollivander frowned,
"Daniel didn't tell you did he? Ah there's the rub, you think you are the last of the Evenstar line. Not quite, your cousin is the other descendant. He remains in hiding since the last purge."
"Purge?!" Exclaimed Balty and Tyr.
"Yes purge. My god, what are they teaching children these days! I suppose I can explain a little. The story is this: Long ago, there used to exist another side, neither Light nor Dark, they were a force of wizards who bridged the gap between wizard kind and Muggles, choosing to mix the technologies together. A more advanced form of muggle tinkerers, if you will. They took in outcasts from either side, almost a home for the oddball in society.
The Grey, as they were known, were quite peaceful, although the rest of wizard kind almost universally hated them. During times of war they were attacked by both sides, these raids became known as purges. Eventually, as the purges began to take extreme losses on the Grey, so they developed a military force known as the Legion of the Grey. The Legion were defenders of the rest of the Grey, who had become independent of the rest of the Wizarding world. The last purge however, occurred during the Grindelwald conflict. The Grey were annihilated down to your father and your cousin. Daniel Evenstar is now dead, so the last of the Grey are you and your cousin, I.F. Evenstar."
Tyr had been still during the account and Baltimore was sickened, this was almost genocide. Tyr then spoke,
"Mr Ollivander, is this common knowledge? I mean, are the Grey known to the rest of the Wizarding world?"
"I am afraid not Mr Evenstar. I fear that knowledge of the past has slipped through our grasp."
"Good," said Tyr, "I want people not to know about all this."
Baltimore looked shocked and asked,
"Why ever not boy? The people need to know about this! It's an outrage that this happened at all."
Surprisingly it was Ollivander, who replied,
"No Fawley, Mr Evenstar is right, the truth should not be revealed. If his parents were murdered, then surely the killers would know of the legacy Tyr carries. It narrows down the number of suspects considerably."
With a jolt, Baltimore realised that the boy's killers were out there. The Aurors may interrogate him if they found out he was descended from the Grey. He would have to conduct all of his findings in secret, confiding in only a few people. Balty then asked,
"You said I. F. Evenstar, Ollivander. Do you know his given names?"
"Sadly I was never told his name, he himself never gave it, always saying that his parents had a warped sense of humour. I do know that he is somewhere in Mongolia, having left the Isle altogether."
"This is all very interesting," Tyr murmured, "but is it likely that any time soon I would have a wand? It is a requirement to attend Hogwarts."
Ollivander's eyebrows rose above his hairline,
"My dear boy, you intend to attend Hogwarts? That is plain suicide for someone of your relation. Why Albus Dumbledore is the headmaster there and he is the leader of the Light!"
Tyr gave no answer, simply indicating with his hand to the wands as if to say get on with it. As he did so, a wand shot out of the back of the shop and flew into Tyr's hand. In an instant, there was no shockwave; simply a gentle glow filled the shop and swirls of silver shot out of the tip with the faint smell of live electricity in the air.
"I do believe, that the wand has chosen its wizard."
XXXXXXX
By this point it was very late afternoon, the sky had turned golden and the clouds were highlighted pink in the light of the fading sun. Tyr and Baltimore exited the shop and the last stragglers searching for a wand entered with gusto. They made their way to the Leaky Cauldron where Tyr asked if there was a room available. After his reservation was made, they sat at a table for dinner.
Tyr ordered a shepherds pie with water and Balty got toad in the hole with a strong ale. Before they tucked in, Tyr leaned over and whispered,
"You never did tell me who Harry Potter was."
Baltimore looked up in shock, realised he didn't and that the Boy Who Lived was also going to attend this year, it would make for foolishness if the boy went to school without knowing who he was. He replied,
"I'll tell you right after we eat."
Tyr just nodded and tucked into the food. When they were finished, Balty ordered another ale and said,
"Right. I did say I would tell you who Harry Potter was. It all started twenty years ago. A dark wizard rose up called… well, we don't say his name, 'twas too synonymous with death you know. We call him You Know Who. What? Who was You Know Who? Bloody confusing question that is, all right, all right! His name was... Voldemort, don't ask me to say it again. Eh? Was his real name Voldemort? The hell if I know, but I doubt it, probably not his real name. Anyway, in the seventies he started this war with his followers against Muggles and Muggleborns. Things were getting bad, it was a terrible time, families fled and the Muggleborns went underground. There was a resistance, something like Order of something or rather. Anyway, the gist of the end was You Know Who went to the Potter family ten years ago. Eh? Yeah, they were a powerful pureblood family, Light-sided. The Potters had a son called Harry who was just a baby. You Know Who killed the parents and he cast the Killing Curse at Harry. Now this is the strange bit, the Killing Curse has had not one survivor, no one can resist it, so when he cast it at Harry Potter it didn't work. It backfired and hit him instead- was it faulty? Ain't good to joke about these things boy. You weren't joking… well, I suppose he might've but I doubt it. Anyway, Harry Potter was alive and You Know Who died. All he got for his troubles was a scar in the shape of lightning on his forehead. So now he's called the Boy Who Lived. What? No, he's still Harry Potter, he's just got a title now, like a reverence or something. Why's that stupid? Hmph, don't go spreading those theories, he probably don't remember anything anyway. Just a baby."
"Why is it so important to know who Harry Potter is anyway? Its not like he's oh, I get it, he's going to attend Hogwarts this year isn't he?"
Enquired Tyr.
"Yeah," said Baltimore, "That's why you got to be extra careful, you can't have your conflict interfere with the Boy Who Lived, best to stay away from him. Just in case he ends up in trouble and suspicion gets vaulted on you."
Tyr thought this over; it would be more trouble than it was worth to get involved with the whole Light/Dark conflict. Then he remembered the Malfoys, they seemed quite rich and similar to this Voldemort figure. They were his allies! Oh god, he was allied with a Dark family, he was already stuck with this fight and they potentially knew who he was because that symbol was the signature of the Legion of the Grey! Bugger. He confided in Baltimore his suspicions.
"Bugger. You've got a point; it would be your saving grace if you could get the Boy Who Lived to like you. Just make sure to keep him out of trouble."
Tyr nodded and thought that may work. He then thought back to what Ollivander had mentioned, that he had a cousin called I. F. Evenstar. Dad never mentioned family but in light of the events, it was probably to protect him. Now that Dad was gone, it would be best if he could get in contact. He asked Baltimore about it,
"I dunno about a cousin. The Evenstars were close knit; there are more myth than truth about them anyway. Ollivander mentioned that he would have been in Mongolia. I don't know much about the Mongolian Ministry, but he's probably there illegally. You might be able to get in touch; then it would be a matter of him visiting you from Mongolia."
Tyr considered it. Having a relative who knew about the magical world would be dead useful, and he could find out more about his family. Dad had kept too many secrets, now Tyr had to rely on himself and new companions in a new world. He had been thinking before about getting a house, but he already had a flat in Paris and the room with Francois. There was little point in getting another house. He yawned and Baltimore noticed,
"Merlin's Pustules, you've done a half days worth of travelling and gone shopping for supplies in a full day. You must be tired and I'd best be off, my wife might actually be back for a visit."
Tyr just nodded sleepily but then jolted awake and asked Balty before he left,
"Just a thought Baltimore, what side were the Fawleys on?"
Baltimore gave a thought and chuckled,
"We didn't do much, my cousin took part and died but we went underground. I think we kept neutral in the whole war."
Baltimore left at that and Tyr went upstairs to find Blunderbuss and his trunk already there. He just gave a small smile, patted Blunderbuss and went to bed.
XXXXXXX
The early morning light filtered through the curtains. The child in the bed stirred and eyes scrunched as if to stay the dawn for a bit longer, as if to prologue his sleep. The owl was quietly snoring; rasping sounds echoing from its beak in rapid staccato. To the casual observer the room already seemed well lived in, a grey hoodie slung casually across the edge of a mirror and clothes left bedraggled across the floor. Spell books lay on the desk; pages already dog eared and small notes taken in the margins. A trunk was tucked away in the corner.
The boy finally began to wake up and stretched accordingly. His hand knocked a crafted piece of wood to the floor, which landed abruptly on the floor with a shock that caused every piece of furniture to jump an inch in the air. The resulting sound shocked the boy, jack-knifing upright and turned his startled face to find his owl's face staring back, mirrored shock in each other's faces.
He then turned to look down and see his wand on the floor. He picked it up gingerly in apology before laying it carefully back on the bedside table. Scratching his head absent mindedly, the boy called Tyr lazily got out of the bed and walked over to the shower before coming back into the room to fetch a clean set of clothes. He eyed the robes with mild suspicion, they looked a lot like a dress, how did you not trip over them when you walked. It was all a mystery but he didn't want to appear to be a git. Eventually habit won over appealing to the majority and he picked up a pair of slim jeans, a vintage tee and a comfortable set of trunks. He heard a tsk as he walked back to the shower but saw no one there.
After his shower and changing, he emerged and walked over to the mirror to fetch his hoodie before he heard a nasally voice,
"You don't want to be wearing those awful Muggle clothes dearie. I daresay you would look far more dashing in those dark robes."
Tyr was still a little tired so his reaction was to dart his head around before fetching his hoodie. It was a little worn now, and it smelled a bit. He should have known that continuously wearing the hoodie meant it would get dirty, though he remembered Randolf mentioning a command for it to clean itself. He looked back to his written notes of the various commands and the book itself. Eventually he found the command and almost burst into laughter, all that came out was an amused snort. Whoever made the hoodie had a brilliant sense of humour and Tyr put the hoodie on-
"How juvenile. You have no style at all young man. Tsk, tsk, that is a poor imitation of a robe and in such a dreary colour. Grey! I mean I ask you!"
The voice had come from the mirror! Tyr felt like slapping his forehead with his hand, of course the mirror would talk. There was a magic mirror in Sleeping Beauty, and that was magic so there would be something similar that was the original. This mirror was full of snark and snobbery though, what did it matter if you wore robes or not. It did seem to matter to the mirror though, so he just asked,
"Does it really matter if I wear robes or not? They look exactly like a sort of dress and they don't seem to look casual at all."
The mirror seemed to ruffle its imaginary feathers, the two upper corners shuffling as it replied,
"Of course it matters dearie, you are a wizard now, you can't be going around wearing Muggle clothes. You'll be wearing robes as your uniform so you might as well get used to it."
"I can get used to it now, or I can treasure the last few days wearing my favourite clothes before I start prancing around in black capes and dresses. Besides, I was just about to try out a command so if you don't mind…"
The mirror huffed as Tyr tried to recount the command to clean the hoodie. His eyes widened as he remembered and he said,
"I've got it! Get naked, luv."
The sound of outrage emerged from the mirror, which puttered away as the hoodie glowed slightly; the armpit stains vanishing, worn areas of cloth returning to mint condition and a fragrance of lavender entered the room. The proverbial "ting" echoed as the command's effect ended.
In an awestruck voice, the mirror asked,
"Where did you get that garment dearie? I've never seen an item of clothing do that before."
Tyr looked at the mirror and said,
"It sort of a family heirloom."
The mirror went silent in thought. Tyr packed up his books and dirty clothes into his trunk and turned to his owl Blunderbuss. Tyr had been thinking and had a secret mission for the owl. He walked over to Blunderbuss with a letter he had written and gave it to the owl. He whispered into its ear, opened the window and let the owl loose. As it flew away, Tyr whispered,
"Godspeed."
At that, Tyr walks back to trunk, putting the owl cage inside before returning to the bedside table to fetch his wand. Leaving a note on the bed for Tom, Tyr pocketed the wand and grabbed his trunk before flipping the hood over his head and murmured,
"I want to be a spectator."
A few seconds later, Tyr was back in his room and turned only to flinch in shock. Sofia was on the bed with a teenage boy who had his shirt off and were both kissing. The fact that they hadn't noticed him yet was a testament to how caught up they were in the act. He disappeared quickly and drifted downstairs to see the café was not very busy, the last customers were on their last cups of coffee. He slipped into the kitchen and appeared before walking to the bar. He then said from behind Francois,
"What? No welcome party or oh look, you're back! How was the trip?"
Francois jumped and turned, noticing Tyr and in a startled voice said,
"Where the devil did you come from?!"
"Rather rude reply, that there."
Francois just grinned at the mock pout from the boy and gave him a hug. Tyr decided not to mention the boy upstairs; he had just come back and didn't want to deal with any drama. Francois called for Sofia and after a few more calls for her; she finally came down, a little breathless. She gave a start at Tyr's appearance, smiled and gave a brief hug. He could smell the faint hint of cigarettes on her but said nothing. For now he was just glad to be back among friends and spent the afternoon and evening regaling them with stories of his adventure and the people he met.
Life wasn't bad.
Spoiler for Chapter 4:
The man turned away and almost inhaled the piece of fruit in his hands. Eyes a solid pitch black devoid of any other colour, he mused out loud,
"Fish! Pies! Dog nuggets! AND BISCUITS! God I feel special today."
