A little over two months later Arthur unsteadily landed on his feet with a small thud in the middle of the street, and would most likely have fallen over if Dylan hadn't been quick enough to steady him. Not that Arthur would ever admit that of course, no matter how nauseous he felt after Dylan apparated them both all the way into the Diagon Alley. For some reason Arthur always felt ill when he was apparated a longer distance, but he supposed he was at least lucky Dylan didn't bother to tease him about needing help after a long-distance apparition. N-not that Arthur had needed any help in the first place, of course! He could have taken the train into London and bought everything he needed for his first year at Hogwarts by himself! (An idea his brothers outright laughed at when he told them, asking him how it would look if they let an 11 year old take the train into London by himself. Arthur refused to admit they had a point.)
"Ready?" Dylan asked with an almost amused voice.
"Of course!" Arthur snapped and shook his arm out of Dylan's hold.
Dylan began to walk towards the gigantic white building which towered over them and the nearby little shops, which in turn made Arthur hurry after his oldest brother before he was left behind. Gringotts was the only wizarding bank in Britain and was in an impressive snow-white, multistoried building made of marble. Arthur read somewhere it was also considered the safest place in the world to store anything you wanted to keep safe, except perhaps for Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This time, however, they were on their way to make a withdrawal, and Arthur looked forward to finally be allowed to see the family vaults.
They left the shy sun who partly hid behind the clouds outside and walked past the burnished bronze doors and the bowing goblin. This led to a pair of doors in silver, engraved with an ominous warning towards those insane enough to try anything similar to robbery. After two more bowing goblins they then found themselves in a gigantic hall of marble, where around 100 goblins sat on their high chairs behind a long counter doing various tasks. There were so many doors leading away from the hall Arthur couldn't hope to count them all, and although Arthur had been here a few times before he still couldn't help to be just as fascinated each time he was here. Besides, this time he wouldn't need to wait in the hall while one of his brothers visited the vaults. No, this time Arthur would also be allowed to follow Dylan all the way and see how it looked!
Arthur only snapped out of his thoughts when he realised he and Dylan already reached the counter and Dylan was talking to a goblin.
"Good morning," Dylan began. "We're here to make a withdrawal from my personal vault."
"Name?"
"Dylan Kirkland."
"May I take a look at your wand for identification then?"
Dylan nodded, handed over his wand made of English Oak (For some reason Arthur's other brothers thought this was hilarious since Dylan was from Wales) and let the goblin examine it.
"Yes, everything seems to be in order. Someone will take you down to your vault in a moment. Is the boy going to accompany you down to the vaults?"
"Yes," Dylan answered easily.
The goblin nodded and handed back Dylan's wand before he turned around to call out to another goblin somewhere behind him. The goblin in question turned out to be rather old, who with a polite "this way gentlemen" quickly began to lead both Arthur and Dylan out through one of the many doors of the hall and into a narrow stone passage only lit with torches. Arthur decided to take the opportunity to talk.
"I thought we were going to the family vaults?" he half-asked with a frown directed towards his oldest brother.
"No, thank you. I don't know about you, but I don't want to spend the next three hours just to get past the security we have on those vaults," Dylan answered with a scoff.
"Fine," Arthur grumbled, not sure if Dylan exaggerated the time it would take or not.
However despite the fact Arthur tried to hide his disappointment something in his voice must have given it away.
"Chin up, I don't see why you want to see what is inside those old things. Trust me when I say you'll thank me later when we don't have to go even further on those small carts anyway," Dylan said with a smirk.
Arthur was on his way to ask what Dylan meant when Arthur heard the goblin whistle and then saw a cart come hurtling up towards them on the little railway tracks in front of them. With dread in his stomach Arthur climbed in after Dylan and the goblin. Something told Arthur his brother wasn't joking, and without warning they suddenly went off.
The nausea Arthur felt after Dylan apparated them to Diagon Alley turned out to be nothing compared to the seemingly endless rollercoaster down the maze of twisting passages. If Arthur was in lesser control of himself he could have kissed the floor when the small cart finally stopped next to a door in the passage wall after 13 minutes and 47 seconds ride. (Arthur kept count). As it was Arthur only threw himself off the cart the moment it stood still and leant against the wall for a while. His legs were not shaking, damn it! He just had to catch his breath a little, that's all. Really.
"Are you alright there, Arthur?" Dylan asked with an amused voice, tinted with just a hint of worry, when he walked over to Arthur.
"I'm fine," Arthur muttered annoyed, took a deep breath and straightened up. The bastard was apparently unaffected by the ride.
Dylan rolled his eyes. "I will only believe it when your face and eyes are not in the same colour any longer."
Arthur cursed Dylan under his breath, but deemed it not worth it to answer and instead chose to focus on forcing his stomach to calm down. When the nausea was down to a bearable level Arthur turned towards the goblin who patiently waited for them beside the door to the vault. Dylan seemed to remember something then, because he took a step forward with an "oh, right!" and placed his left hand on a seemingly random spot on the door in front of them. To Arthur the door looked blank with no keyhole or handle to be seen, so to be honest he wasn't sure how his brother was going to open the door, but then Dylan began to mutter something Arthur couldn't hear.
It must have worked too, because Dylan's hand soon began to glow in a mix of blue and green light and with a click the door swung open. Arthur grudgingly admitted for himself it was (a little!) impressive. Yet nothing could have prepared Arthur for what he saw when he noticed what was on the other side of the door, and Arthur could only gape at the great mountains of gold, silver and bronze coins in the vault.
"Impressive, isn't it?" Dylan commented with a smug voice.
"This…" Arthur stuttered out. "Is this really only your personal vault?"
"Yes, of course."
He couldn't even begin to imagine what it meant for the family vaults if this really was just Dylan's personal one.
Dylan clearly took pleasure in Arthur's flabbergasted expression too, even though Arthur's expression soon turned annoyed instead.
"Then why haven't any of you hired a chef? We wouldn't have to risk getting poisoned every time it was time to eat lunch or dinner!"
"Shut it, our food isn't that bad and I don't want to hear anything from the one who almost burnt down the house when he tried to make scones!"
"I'm only 11 years old! Besides, my cooking is still a thousand times better than your lots' food!"
"Watch your mouth, or you'll find all of your clothes striped in bright pink, blue and yellow," Dylan warned grumpily.
Arthur wisely shut up at that, because he knew it wasn't an empty threat, and instead gave a huff of annoyance while he watched Dylan walk into the vault to fill a pouch with a lot of golden Galleons, silver Sickles and bronze Knots.
"That should be enough," Dylan eventually said with a nod and went back to Arthur, closing the door on the way.
With a click the place where Dylan had his hand when he opened the vault glowed in purple for a few seconds before it faded away, and the goblin showed no reaction towards the brothers' previous conversation when he asked if they wanted to visit another vault or if they wished to go back. Dylan told the goblin they wished to go back, and Arthur felt stuck between happy because they wouldn't have to go even further in the cart (he hated the fact Dylan had been correct about that), but dreaded the fact they still needed to use the small cart to reach the surface again. Dylan must have taken notice and decided to take pity on him - not that he needed any, mind you - because he fished up a small bottle filled with a suspiciously dark grey liquid from a pocket in his jacket and showed it to Arthur.
"Drink it to stop the nausea."
"You had this all this time and didn't think of giving it to me until now?" Arthur asked him in disbelief.
Dylan shrugged. "I usually don't need any, so I only took it with me just in case. Didn't know you would be so sensitive."
"I'm not sensitive!" Arthur denied red-faced in a mix of embarrassment and anger.
"So do you want it or not?"
Arthur quickly snatched the small bottle from Dylan's hand and soon downed the content of the entire bottle in one gulp while he refused to acknowledge Dylan's knowing smirk. In addition to this Arthur then almost spit it out again the moment he felt the taste, and gagged while he tried to ignore it long enough to keep it down in his stomach.
"It tastes worse than shit, but at least it works. Jump in," Dylan agreed, as if he read Arthur's mind, and climbed into the cart where the goblin already waited for them.
Arthur was thankful when they once again could climb out of the cart, but he had to admit the potion worked as it should and he didn't feel nearly as nauseous the second time. Soon enough they were once more met with the almost sunny June weather, though Arthur noticed more clouds were beginning to close in.
"Well, I suppose we should get your wand at Ollivander's first, since it's the one who is most likely to take the longest time," Dylan commented and began to follow the road on the right side.
Arthur didn't complain since he had looked forward to buy his own wand for a long time and quickly followed Dylan down the road while he listened to what Dylan said next.
"Since Ollivander is at the end of Diagon Alley we can work our way through the shops backwards and then finish the day with a late lunch at The Leaky Cauldron. How does that sound?"
"Whose turn is it to cook dinner today?"
"It's William's turn," Dylan answered with a shudder.
"… The Leaky Cauldron it is then," Arthur quickly agreed.
They slowly made their way through all the shopping people and eventually reached the end of alley. At one point Dylan slowed down a little to walk on Arthur's left side and let his hand lightly clasp Arthur's shoulder while he steered them through the people who were outside doing their shopping. It annoyed Arthur a little Dylan seemed to think he could get lost here. Since it was in the middle of June there were not even many people outside, unlike how it would be in a month or so when everyone else would come to buy the things they needed for Hogwarts.
When they finally reached Ollivander's it looked much smaller and shabbier than Arthur had imagined it would, however Dylan didn't hesitate to enter the door with peeling gold letters, so Arthur assumed they were at the correct shop. Arthur's first thought about the inside of the shop was about how tiny it was, but then he also noticed the dust gathered on thousands of dark grey narrow boxes piled on each other on the shelfs in the shop.
"Good morning," was suddenly softly said, and Arthur snapped around to look at the old man who now stood in front of them behind the register.
"Hello, we are here to buy a wand for my younger brother," Dylan replied calmly.
"Yes, of course. I had a feeling I would see someone from the Kirkland family this year, " Mr. Ollivander said with a knowing nod and turned to face Arthur.
Mr. Ollivander was a kind looking old man with white hair and wide, pale eyes - but no matter how much Arthur tried to disregard the feeling he also felt a bit… creeped out by those unblinking silvery eyes who were now solely focused on him. From the corner of his eye Arthur could see how Dylan walked over to the corner of the shop and sat down on the spindle chair while Mr. Ollivander continued to talk.
"I assume you are Arthur Kirkland, the youngest of the Kirkland brothers. I must say, you look a lot like your brother Merlin Kirkland. In fact you look almost exactly like a younger copy of him."
"Did you know him?" Arthur asked in surprise and now fully focused on the old man in front of him.
"I briefly met him many years ago when he came into my shop and asked me to check up on his wand. Pine, 13 inches and had a core not even I have ever seen before.
It was a very old, but powerful, wand in perfect condition," Mr. Ollivander acknowledged with a soft smile.
Dylan cleared his throat from the chair in the corner before Arthur could ask more, which in turn also seemed to remind Mr. Ollivander about why the two Kirkland brothers were in his shop in the first place. Mr. Ollivander then took a step back and fished out a long measure tape from his pocket.
"Now then, please show me your wand arm, young Mr. Kirkland."
Arthur quietly showed Mr. Ollivander his right arm and then waited patiently while Mr. Ollivander measured him, everything from shoulder to finger and around his head. While Arthur was measured he could only bring himself to half-listen to Mr. Ollivander's explanations about wands, since Arthur's own head was busy filing away the new information about Merlin Kirkland.
Arthur didn't know a lot about his dead brother since the rest of the Kirkland brothers always looked uncomfortable whenever he tried to ask about Merlin, but Arthur supposed he couldn't blame them, so he stopped to ask those questions many years ago. Unfortunately this also meant the only things Arthur knew about Merlin almost only came from what was written in books, so each time Arthur learnt something new about his dead brother Arthur filed it away in a mental folder he a long time ago named 'Merlin Kirkland'. When Arthur returned from his thoughts it didn't look like a lot had changed either. Mr. Ollivander still talked about wands, how each of them had a powerful magical core and what kind of cores Mr. Ollivander himself used for the wands he made. He also made sure to point out to Arthur how all the wands were unique, just like all magical creatures were unique from each other even if they were of the same species. The only real change since Arthur lost himself in his thoughts was how Mr. Ollivander sometime during the explanations left the measure tape to measure by itself while he moved around the shelves, taking down boxes.
"That will do," Mr. Ollivander finally said, and let the measure tape crumple into a heap on the floor just as Mr. Ollivander walked over with an open box for a wand.
"Right then, young Mr. Kirkland. Try this one. It's made of Maplewood and unicorn hair, 10 inches (ca 25,5 cm)."
Arthur accepted the wand Mr. Ollivander handed over and gave the wand a little wave. The windows behind them exploded with a bang and Arthur dropped the wand in shock as the glass rained down on the floor at the same time as he heard how Dylan jumped up from the chair and swear loudly in welsh.
"I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it to happen!" Arthur stammered with wide and panicked eyes.
However Mr. Ollivander just waved it away with a chuckle and bent down to pick up the dropped wand.
"Don't worry, things like this happens from time to time."
Luckily enough the next wands Arthur tried weren't nearly as dramatic, but he still managed to make a mess in Mr. Ollivander's small shop. The more wands he tried the happier Mr. Ollivander appeared to become though, and Dylan easily restored the shop to how it originally looked each time Arthur made a mess. Yet as the pile of wands Arthur had tried only continued to grow Arthur couldn't help but to begin to worry there might not be a wand which wanted him as a master. Because just as Mr. Ollivander said earlier it was the wand who chose their master, not the other way around. Even so, if there was no wand for Arthur... would he even be able to learn any magic at Hogwarts at all? Arthur's fears about not being able to find a wand seemed to come true when Mr. Ollivander suddenly stopped the onslaught of new wands to try and paused to take a look at him with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Mr. Kirkland," he directed towards Dylan, but didn't let his eyes leave Arthur. "I do not think any of my normal wands will suit your younger brother."
Arthur's inside turned cold in fear.
"However," Mr. Ollivander continued, "with your permission I would like to let your younger brother try some of my more unusual wands."
"Go ahead," Dylan replied with a shrug, as if he didn't care Arthur might not be able to find a wand. "I suspected it would be needed anyway."
Mr. Ollivander nodded in acknowledgment to Dylan's answer and then hurried to the very back of the shop where neither Arthur nor Dylan could see him. Considering the noises Mr. Ollivander made he just opened a cabinet or a locker though, and it didn't take long before Mr. Ollivander was back in front of Arthur with five pitch-black, narrow boxes with a beautiful stamp of two crossed wands in silver on each one of them.
"What will happen if none of the wands choose me?" Arthur blurted out before he could stop himself.
"Nonsense," Mr. Ollivander chuckled merrily. "Some people are harder to find a wand for than others, but I will make sure you have a wand before you walk home today."
Although Arthur wasn't sure if he felt reassured by Mr. Ollivander's words or not he still decided to give the new wands a chance.
"Now, these wands are extremely powerful and dangerous if handled incorrectly, so you can't just wave them around to see if any of them will choose you," Mr. Ollivander explained in a sudden serious voice. "So what I want you to do is to close your eyes and breathe deeply."
It was an odd request, but Arthur decided to do as he was asked and closed his eyes.
"Now, Mr. Kirkland, I need you to focus on your magic. Try to feel how it flows in your very blood."
Arthur did as he was told and began to feel a pull, as if his magic wanted him to reach out to something.
"Do you feel the pull? Follow it," Mr. Ollivander now told him in excitement, as if he could read Arthur's mind.
"Alright," Arthur muttered back in reply and felt his right hand raise as if it had a will on it's own. He tried to move his hand slightly to the right, but the pull wanted him to go left, so just as Mr. Ollivander told him to Arthur followed it. Unbidden Arthur then felt his hand gently grab what he assumed was one of the narrow pitch-black boxes, and so he opened his eyes. He was correct, and in his right hand he now held one of the boxes while Mr. Ollivander turned around and laid down the rest of the boxes on the counter behind him.
"Open it!" Mr. Ollivander said in eager anticipation.
Arthur did as he was told and carefully opened the lid to the box and found himself looking at a beautiful dark brown, almost black, crafted wand with one thin gold and silver line swirling up from the handle up to the top of the wand. The wand was simply… beautiful. Arthur couldn't help but to stare wide-eyed in awe at it while he took hold of the wand and unconsciously handed back the now empty box to Mr. Ollivander.
"Holly, 12 inches. Special in the way it has not only one, but two, cores. Unicorn hair and Phoenix feather. Try it," Mr. Ollivander told him, but it sounded muffled and far away.
Still in awe of the beautiful wand in his hand Arthur once again did as he was told. When the sudden warmth was felt in his fingers Arthur instinctively gave the wand a trying swish and to his surprise nothing exploded or went wrong. Instead it felt like his very own magic hummed in happiness and in answer the wand shot out a stream of gold and silver sparks into the air which soon transformed into what looked like a roaring lion.
"Bravo young Kirkland!" Mr. Ollivander cried out in happiness. "Magnificent!"
Arthur felt a giddy happiness blossom in his chest, which only spread through his body. He finally had a wand. Arthur allowed himself to smile widely and didn't even jump in surprise when he all of sudden felt a hand pat his left shoulder. When Arthur looked up he was met with Dylan's warm and smiling face.
"About time. It appears like you finally got your own wand, Artie."
Arthur didn't even bother with a retort at the hated nickname and only gave back the wand to Mr. Ollivander with the wide smile still stuck on his face while Mr. Ollivander put the wand back into the box and wrapped it up in brown paper.
"It's curious," Mr. Ollivander commented happily as if Dylan hadn't said anything. "I remember every single wand I have ever sold, young Mr. Kirkland. Yet so far I have only heard my father once sell a wand with more than one core."
Mr. Ollivander handed over the now wrapped box to Arthur's waiting hands with glittering eyes.
"This is one of the most powerful wands I've ever made. I think we can all expect truly great things from you, young man."
Arthur got the odd feeling Mr. Ollivander knew something he didn't, but the feeling was quickly forgotten when Dylan paid for the wand and Arthur followed him out from the shop. Compared to how long it took to buy the wand the rest of the shopping went by relatively quickly, with the exception of when they went to buy Arthur the books he needed in Flourish and Blotts. Dylan was more or less forced to drag Arthur away from the section about magical creatures before they could buy the last of the things they needed, but at least Dylan was nice and bought Arthur a wonderful book about fairies on top of all the books he would need for his first year at Hogwarts. Just as promised Dylan and Arthur then finished their day with a late lunch, on the borderline to early dinner, at the Leaky Cauldron before Dylan apparated them home again.
This was one of the best days in a long time, but Arthur couldn't wait until the first of September.