The trees grew thick and dense, their dark flesh glistening with the dew of the morning that never dried. No light dappled the ground, and Eve doubted that it would even in the sun as she raced through the wood, Danny in tow behind her. They were hardly twenty steps in when the sounds of the celebrations behind them were lost to the blackness and the eerie silence of the forest. The only sounds now were those of the humming of the crickets and the occasional hoots of the sleepy owls; occasionally Danny heard a foot stepping behind them, crunching on the leaves and twigs his own foot had just crunched, and hurried his pace to stay behind Eve.
Every once in a while, Eve would spot out of the corner of her eye a small dot of bright flame between the trees; she would blink and it would be gone, as if it were just a figment of her imagination. In the night the shadows of the forest seem to move, and the wind whistling through the high boughs of trees, which shook like arms to its touch, echoed like distant flutes through the forest. In the rustling of the branches they would hear sounds like conversations, muted and long forgotten, whispering about them as they walked, now slower, more tentatively, through the dense wood.
Danny was now clutching Eve's arm in terror as the shadows seemed to move in closer, closer, closer, until he could feel their breath on his neck, and then fled away, only to draw nearer again as they moved deeper into the forest. "I don't think we should be here," he whispered, terrified, into Eve's ear.
"I agree- let's turn back," she whispered back, clutching him as he clutched her. They swiveled around in the woods, their feet crunching the leaves louder than ever, the branches like hands reaching out to grab them and hold them there until their breath passed, misting, from their bodies and into the forest, trapping them there forever under the skeletal boughs. "But…" she faltered, "which way did we come from?" Danny had no answer for her, and they stood there a moment, their breaths trapped in their throats, neither of them making a sound.
All of a sudden, bursting from the thick, syrupy darkness of the trees and the silence came a short giggle, echoing in their ears. Danny and Eve swiveled around furiously, back-to-back, fear making their hands clasp one anothers' and their lips tremble. Suddenly, a burst of smoky wind thrust them apart, and both were thrown to the ground, Eve crying out in fear and surprise, Danny gritting his teeth and a rock sank its teeth into his knee.
A small figure, one legged, bouncing excitedly and seeming to be made of nothing but smoke, paused before them, its giggle still faint in their ears as each turned to face it. Eve stood slowly, and Danny limped over to her, both keeping their gaze on the ethereal creature. An orange light bathed their faces with a comforting, secure light from the lantern the creature held in its hands, and as it waved it back and forth, their eyes followed it and its warmth.
And, just as it was there, the creature was gone, hopping on its leg into the darkness again, moving with such incredible speed that only the light of its lantern could be seen through the bends of the trees in the forest. Danny looked to Eve frightfully, and found her looking back; they decided without words to follow the thing, and ran off after it and the comfort and safety of its light, tripping over rocks and roots as they dashed through the forest. The darkness of the trees and their eyes rushed by in a blur as frigid air stung their faces as they ran, dashing between boulders and trees, which seemed to grow thicker with every few yards.
Up ahead, the lantern could barely be spotted turning behind a tree or ducking beneath a fallen moss-ridden log; sometimes the creature seemed to know that it was following them, and turned sharply, zigzagging violently through the claws of the trees despite their hot pursuit. The trees were so dense, now, that they could hardly take two steps in the same direction; the light glimmered in the distance, and although the trees raked and tore at them, both Eve and Danny ran with the same speed that they had when they first set off, keeping pace with one another.
In the next instant, two things happened. One was that the light glimmered one final time, as if in regret and goodbye, I'll see you again sometime soon, don't forget to say helot o your family for me, before dodging off unseen into the night. The other was that Eve and Danny simultaneously tripped over the same thick root, both crashing to the ground with a hefty "oof". Danny yelped in pain as his knee was grazed again, and Eve moaned, clutching her stomach and turning over.
It took both of them a moment before they turned over to realize that they had stumbled upon a small clearing, a small area of soft grass, mossy boulders firmly rooted in the center. Eve opened her mouth to speak, asking if Danny was alright; he hushed her, placing his hand over her mouth and pointing to the center of the clearing. Standing in front of one of the smaller boulders, blocking most of it from view, was the last woman wearing the light blue robes, her blonde hair still tied back in a sleek ponytail, looking no different than she had when she entered the forest. She glanced to her right, then her left, and reached out to the boulder; in an instant, she was gone, vanished, as if she had never been there. Danny blinked in confusion, and slowly pried his fingers off of a struggling Eve's mouth.
"Who was that?" she asked in amazement, spitting out the taste of Danny's hand into the grass.
"How should I know?" he snapped back, frustrated, tired and sore.
"Do you want to check it out?"
"I'd really rather not do anything involving-" But she was already gone, heaving herself up with a sturdy push and walking over to the boulders on shaky legs. "Eve!" Danny cried out, "What the hell are you doing?"
"Well, hey, would you rather be stuck over there by the forest or over here with me?" she called back from behind the rocks. He shivered, and scrambled away from the forest, which stood like some sort of stone-silent and dark sentinel. He limped over to the boulders, throwing his pack alongside Eve's; he hadn't noticed that they were both still carrying them, and felt a great relief as the weight was lifted of his shoulders. He found Eve sitting on one of the rocks, lying out on the moss, looking up at the now-clear skies with a sort of transfixed stare.
"Are you alright?" he asked hesitantly. She started, and looked to him as if brought out of a trance.
"Yeah," she said sheepishly, winking, "I'm just tired, is all." She scooted over, patting the boulder, inviting him to sit beside her. He did, lying down so that her head rolled onto his shoulder, and they looked up at the sky together. The clouds had succumbed to the breath of the wind, leaving in their wake an ocean of stars. Here, so far away from any civilization, the cloudy blue of the galaxy lay behind the stars like a blanket, and wrapped in its folds was nestled a sliver of a moon, so thin it looked as if it were hardly there at all. Red and ocher planets rested lazily between the stars, shining with a queer light of their own, blinking at Danny and Eve as they blinked back, their mouths slightly open with the sense of awe that filled their hearts. "Is that Mars?" Eve asked, pointing to a particularly bright red planet.
"Yeah," Danny answered. "I think so. It's bright tonight."
"Yeah." They lay there a moment longer in comfortable silence, their breaths misting and frigid in the night air. "You know, in the movies, this is when the two main character realize that they're in love."
"You mean, when they're stranded in the woods after stumbling across a freak show and following people who can disappear and a moving light?" They laughed a moment, and realized it hurt to do so, returned back to their moment of comfortable silence.
After that moment Danny let his head fall to the side, letting them close as exhaustion wrapped his body in its cruel web. But, just as they began to close, and his vision began to blur, he spotted the glint of something in the tender starlight, something half-buried and forgotten in the grass.
"Do you see that?" he asked Eve, gesturing to the object. She nodded furiously, and looked at him, both of them sitting up in alert. After their night, they were nervous to anything that seemed out of the ordinary. "I think we should go check it out. You know- make sure it's not dangerous." Eve nodded slowly, and both of them slid off the boulder and crept over to the object, reflecting the starlight with an almost blue glow in the grass.
"Is that a hanger?" Eve asked, almost laughing at their needless caution. It was, indeed; the hanger was bent and rusted over in some parts, the light glinting off of it with a taunting wink.
"Yes, it is," Danny responded, his voice heavy with suspicion, "but what's it doing in the middle of the woods?" Even looked at him, and he knelt by it, putting his hand out slowly, reaching for it carefully, as if it might rear up and bite him like a snake.
"Danny," Eve said, stopping him. "Remember the apple." He thought a moment, his hand retracting a few inches as he swallowed heavily. Eve found her hand out as well, moving as if to grab the thing herself, or else to stop Danny's hand from inching any closer to it. Their eyes were locked in a state of battle, Eve's in nervous warning and his in nervous curiosity.
"What if it hurts us?" Eve raised an eyebrow.
"It's a hanger," she responded, looking at him plainly. He shrugged.
"And we're stranded in the middle of the woods after stumbling upon a freak show and following a moving light," he replied promptly, an edge in his voice. She lowered her eyes, but not so much that she couldn't see his hand; as it moved towards the hanger, so did hers, and they both touched it in the same instant.
As their fingers brushed the rough metal, the wind seemed to stop blowing, the crickets stopped chirping, the world stopped rotating. For a half of a moment all that there was in the world was Eve's breathing, Danny's breathing, and their eyes as they locked onto one anothers' in fear. It felt like a hand reaching into their chest and picking them up; in a moment they were lifted in to the air, and then the world was spinning again, too fast, nothing but a blur beneath their feet as they rose higher and higher, above the forest, until all they could see was a dense grey.
They both grasped desperately onto the hanger as the began to spin, not knowing anymore what was up and down, their heads reeling from the force of being battered around by a ferocious wind, both of them having vertigo, not knowing where was up or down, just flying or falling, neither knew which. They felt like they were spinning, but all around them everything was a vortex of grey, and then they felt like they were falling. A scream burst from Eve's lips, and Danny let loose a ripped cry as he shut his eyes, feeling bile rising in his throat as they spun faster and faster, being battered and hammered at harder and harder, until in a sudden moment, it all stopped, and the world had colour again, and Danny and Eve collapsed onto the floor, grasping their stomachs in pain, Danny rolling over and retching, Eve weakly crying out before doing the same.
The hanger clattered against the floor with a loud clang, and Danny groaned and fell to the now, somehow, incredibly hard floor, starting in the flashing pain of it, and began drifting in and out of consciousness. It was a long while before he was brought to by Eve weakly pulling at his arm.
"Danny," she coughed. He groaned, his eyes firmly shut. "Danny," she said again, this time more forcefully. He groaned again, turning over on the cold floor to face her. "Danny, wake up."
"What?" he groaned, wincing a the pain his leg and throbbing head. He opened his eyes to find her face in his, beaming, seeming to be fully recovered. Eve stood up, grunting, and pulled his hand, forcing him to his feet. He cried out in pain, and she said her hurried sorry's while he got oriented. She knew that for him, the world was still spinning; he was never even good on roller coasters, far less whatever that was.
The pair now stood in the center of a great hall, the floors and walls made of cold, grey stone, silent stone, lifeless and dead. Nothing stirred, not even the air, though here it seemed more frigid than ever, Danny collapsing into Eve for either support or warmth. She rubbed his shoulders comfortingly while her eye studied the graceful curves in the sunken architecture, the columns swirling gracefully into the high ceiling, four gargoyles, some beautiful women, others hideous demons, adorning every pillar. There were rugs on the walls, once, but they now hung ratty and frayed, lost to time and wear. The room was filled with long tables, many of them, row after row, low benches as to sit on beneath them. Once they may have been beautiful, the wood dark and polished, but now a thick layer of dust had settled over the, and they lay in disarray around the vast room.
The only light was the soft light of the night that seemed to fill the room with a cold luminescence, streaming in from the many great stained glass windows, some broken, others dirty. On one end of the hall was a great window depicting a scene of what seemed to be two men in robes with wands, one young and thin, with glasses and a thin scar on his forehead, the other tall and pale and gaunt, sparks flying from the ends of them at one another while the skies behind them roiled in fury. Above Danny and Eve the ceiling was like a cathedral, high and ornate, intricate carvings and designs spread over the vast space, several broken and dilapidated chandeliers hanging down over their heads.
Danny moved suddenly, and Eve backed up in disgust as he retched again, collapsing onto his bruised and bloodied knees again and the bile spurted from his mouth. He coughed, and stood again, shakily, wiping his mouth on his sleeve in disgust. "What happened?" he asked, his voice thin and wavering.
"You found a portkey," a voice from behind them said aloud. Eve swiveled around to face the speaker. He was tall, and thin, his dark, nearly black hair grown out neatly to his shoulders, framing his thin, but young and handsome, face. A plaid cloak was tossed over his shoulders, and he wore on his fingers several shining rings. "I am Howl; welcome to Pronghorn."
Eve turned to face the man, her arms crossed firmly over her chest in suspicion as Danny stood shakily behind her. "What, may I ask, is a portkey, Mr. Howl?" she asked, accusation in her tone. Howl attempted a disarming smile but Eve's gaze did not even flicker. He laughed a little halfheartedly.
"A portkey, my dear Eve, is an object which, when you touch it, transports you to another place instantly, no matter that distance." Eve's face, covered with an uncommon frown, grew even graver and her voice took on an unusually aggressive tone.
"How do you know my name?" she asked, one arm stretching out protectively in front of Danny. Howl laughed.
"Oh, I have been expecting you two for quite some time. Though I must admit you surprised me. I had anticipated you would wait at least until receiving your acceptance letters. Still, enthusiasm is something we encourage in our students." Reaching deeply into his pockets, more deeply that should have been physically possible, Howl pulled out two pristine envelopes, both made out of carefully folded parchment. He stepped forward, intending to hand the letters to the pair, but Eve, still fully in mother-bear mode, growled at him, warning him to stay away from her and her wobbly friend. "They're just letters." he assured her. "They won't hurt you." Again he moved closer and Eve snatched them from his outstretched hand. Watching him warily from the corner of her eye Eve broke the seal and opened the letter, her eyes falling to the flowing, dark script. The letter read thus:
Miss Eve Breckinridge,
I am most pleased to inform you that you have been selected to attend Pronghorn PronghornPFinishing School for Young Witches and Wizards of Great Potential and Magical Ability. At this exalted institution you will polish your bubbling talent into a functional force and will develop the skills necessary to survive in the cutthroat world that the wizarding community is today. Your acceptance is, as per usual, mandatory and we look forward to your arrival on school grounds, and the arrival of your tuition fees, listed on the back of this letter.
Sincerely and dearly yours,
Howl, Dean
Head of the Society for Magic of Questionable Morals , Member of the Order of the Old Book, Author of the best selling auto-biography Bewitchingly Beautiful, Charmingly Chiseled, Keeper of Elmirici's Flame and Winner of the Sorcerer Extraordinaire Lifetime Achievement award thirty-two years running.
Eve had to squint to read the fine print on the bottom of the page. "Neither Howl nor any of the Professors or the Institution itself are liable for any harm that may befall the recipient of this letter during the course of their time at the school. Any issues with such terms should be taken up before the student steps onto school grounds by contacting L. R. Prewitt, wizard attorney and dentist." She read aloud. Turning to Howl incredulously, her finger clenched around the letter, tearing the edges. "What the hell is all this then?" she asked bewildered. Howl smiled.
"Yes, young witches and wizards are always so shocked to find out they have been accepted to such a prestigious magical university." Danny paled visibly.
"You must be crazy! We can't do magic!" It was Howl's turn to look suspicious.
"Nonsense! If you were Muggles you couldn't have gotten into the World Cup, let alone on the school grounds. I charmed them myself!" he sniffed, insulted.
"What are Muggles?" asked Eve, supremely confused and desiring nothing more than to run away from this crazy man. Howl's face began to slacken with the realization that neither she nor Danny had any idea what he was talking about or really what was going on in general. He sighed, muttering to himself.
"I always knew it would be troublesome to bring Americans into the mix. Damn those new 'equal magical opportunity' laws the Grand Council passed." Turning to the pair he grumbled. "Have a seat." Chairs appeared where there had been none and Danny and Eve toppled into their very own plush, gilded armchair. "This is going to take a long time to explain."
"Will someone tell me what is going on?" Danny cried out weakly, collapsing into his chair in relief, sinking into the plush with a satisfied sigh. Eve snapped a sharp glare at him; he looked away guiltily, and both of them turned their attentions to Howl, who seemed to be looking over them with a sort of disgusted curiosity.
"You know, the students from Hogwarts never give me trouble like this," he muttered. "Arriving in the middle of a term like this, and at this time of night…" he trailed off a moment, and then seemed to remember that they were there, and cleared his voice. From inside his cloak he pulled a long, thin wand, which he waved over Eve and Danny's heads; from the tip of it burst sparks and confetti, and a loud whooping noise echoed through the vast hall. "Congratulations," he said halfheartedly. "You're wizards.
"Well, a wizard and a witch," he added after a moment.
"What do you mean, wizard?" Danny said, leaning forward in sudden intrigue.
"And a witch?" Eve added, leaning forward also. Danny looked at her, rolling his eyes at her blatant feminism; she shrugged, and turned back to Howl, who had stood up and was looking down at them with a flashing eye. His robes swirled around him as if he were standing in the wind, and the rings on his fingers twitched as he began to speak.
"As you can see," he said, prodding at their acceptance letters with his wand, "you have been accepted into the grandest, most renowned and private magic university in the world. Usually, only the most exquisite students from the three primary wizarding institutions- Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang- are accepted here. To have two Muggle-born and completely inexperienced students here is nearly unheard of. In fact, I'm not sure at all why you were even considered for admission." Howl paused a moment, stroking his clean-shaven cheek and thinking a moment.
"Hmm. Yes. Anyway. Here at this school it is our duty to instruct students in the more experienced paths of magic and set them on a course for a much greater destiny. You see," he said plaintively, "most wizards who graduate school simply end up working for the Ministry of Magic, or freelance wizards who work in the Muggle world. Or else, they don't work at all. Magic seems to provide everything we need."
"But what's a Muggle?" Eve asked again. Before the question had even escaped her lips Danny burst out eagerly.
"What's the Ministry of Magic?" Danny asked excitedly.
"What's the Mini-?" Howl shouted, before breathing a moment and remembering who he was talking to. "The Ministry is sort of like the wizarding government. It's been through a rough spot lately, but seems to be coming out of it with the newest Minister. They have records of every wizard on the record, all of the history, and they help run the bank."
"Bank?"
"Gringotts. It's in Diagon Alley- but I guess you'll see that soon enough," he winked at Danny, who, despite his confusion at the man standing before them, reddened. "And, like I was saying-"
"And what in hell is a Muggle?" Eve cried, cutting him short.
"A Muggle is someone of non-wizard blood. Their world and ours are kept completely separate- can you imagine the chaos that would ensue if they discovered us? No, no, must be kept a secret. That's a lot of what the Ministry does, too.
"Anyway, the two of you present a problem. Usually, students who come here have gone through several years of intensive magical training, and are already full, legal wizards. You, on the other hand, are both eighteen, so, in our world, legal, and yet know nothing about the wizarding world," Howl said at length. "You have been enrolled here, who knows why, and, as is stated on the letters, acceptance is mandatory. It is the middle of the term, so we'll have quite a bit to work out- housing and whatnot- as well as classes."
"But what does it mean? I mean- that we can do magic?" Danny asked.
"It means that whenever you say a spell, something will happen. For example," Howl said, flourishing his wand again and pointing it at Danny, "Episky." A small white light dashed out of the tip of the wand at raced to Danny's knee; in an instant, the gash there was healed. Danny leapt back in shock at the sight of the unbroken flesh. "It means that, once you learn, you can do anything you want to- the world is yours, Daniel." Howl had a dark look in his eye as he whispered the words. And Danny stood transfixed until Eve spoke, breaking the smoky darkness that swirled in Howl's suddenly vicious gaze.
"How does it all work?" Eve asked, scoffing, still, somehow, in adamant disbelief. "Magic, I mean."
"Yes, girl, I know what you meant," Howl snapped, before suddenly turning back into a charming gentleman, his tone changing from sharp to soft in an instant. "And it is really very simple. The first thing we'll have to do is go and get you your wands; that'll take us to Diagon Alley. I'll explain everything once we get there."
"How are we getting there?" Danny asked tentatively. "Not another one of those portkey things?" He breathed a sigh of relief as Howl shook his head. The man extended his ahnd, inviting Danny and Eve to grasp it. They did, and found it surprisingly soft to the touch.
"No, no- we'll Apparate." Before Danny could ask what that was, a white light like smoke swirled up around his feet, and around Eve and Howl's, as well; suddenly he felt as if the world was spinning around him again, and instantly his forgotten feeling of nausea came rushing back. Eve heard Howl humming as she felt a pull on her body, and in an instant there was a flash, and they felt their bodies being warped and twisted into knots as the light grew brighter and brighter, blindingly bright.
And then, with a crack like thunder, they were standing in the middle of a cobblestone road, all feelings of nausea gone, their bodies twisting out of their knots as Howl led them by their hands in a confident stride. "Welcome," he said to Eve, ignoring Danny, who was already staring around him, his mouth open wide, "to Diagon Alley." He gestured wide around him, and stepped to the side as to grant her a full view of their new surroundings.
The road was wide, and the bricks laying it were designed in a swirling pattern that led the eye down the street to a massive white marble building. From the roof of this building gargoyles watched the passersby as they approached, growling and crawling along the rooftop. "Gringotts," Howl explained. "You could buy the world with all of the money kept there. It's also one of the safest places in the world; it would take a damn fool to try and break in, of course, but things've happened." All around them, people bustled, all of them as queerly dressed as the people at the World Cup. Most of them walked with a skip in their steps- "happy times," Howl explained- and called out greetings to one another on the street. Children with eager, shining eyes gathered ins tore windows and gawked with hungry hands at the wonders in the storefront windows that lined the alley.
Danny and Eve swiveled, trying to take in all of the sights and the sounds at once. Eve's eye were just as bright and shining at Danny's as she beheld the bright flashes of magical instruments the likes of which she had never seen. In windows, barrels and jars were labeled all sorts of things, like Eel Hearts and Bat Spleen, and stacks of books were piled carefully beneath odd telescopes and globes of strange planets. Danny read all of the signs of the shops as they passed in wonder, while Howl waited for them patiently. Here was Eeylop's Owl Emporium; screeches and racket could be heard from inside of the open door. There was Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions; a child, no more than eleven, stood in the window, arms out to his sides, a prudish old woman poking at him and measuring him while he squirmed. They passed by the entrance to Gringotts; the great, heavy doors were propped open wide, people pushing in and out of them and avoiding the dragon statues outside of the entrance, which growled at anyone who got too close.
"Ah," Howl said finally, stopping in front of a dilapidated old shop tucked away behind Gringotts, "here we are. Ollivander's." The sign in the window was shabby, and read Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. In the window was a shabby display, a faded purple cushion laden with dust propping up a single, intricately carved wand. "The best of the best in wand-making," Howl commented, ushering Danny and Eve in the door. "This is our first stop. We need to get you two wands."
The shop, inside, was dusty and dilapidated, just as its façade was. There was a small waiting space, two broken chairs and a splintered coffee table the only decoration in front of the small counter. Behind the counter stretched endless rows of ceiling-high shelving, all of it filled with countless long, thin black boxes. A man stood behind the counter, whittling furiously at a small branch; he looked up with half-moon eyes at the visitors as they entered, and leapt from behind the counter, surprisingly nimble for a man of advanced age, bowing deeply to Howl.
"Howl!" he cried. "Willow, 11-and-a-half inches, a core of veela hair, good for charming, I think." Howl smiled a little, a nodded, producing his wand so that the man could examine it. "You've kept her in good shape; that's good. She's one of the few wands of veela hair I've ever sold. They tend to be untrustworthy, you know," he said, winking at Eve and Danny.
"I've got two new students to the university here," Howl said, placing a hand on their shoulders and pushing them forward. "Muggle-born, never even went to Hogwarts. American." The old man's eyes lit up in sparkling delight as he came up to shake both of their hands furiously.
"I'm Ollivander, good to meet you both, oh, so very, very good!" he said as he shook their hands, grasping them firmly with both hands and looking them squarely in the eyes. "Muggle-borns, eh. Never even had a wand." He looked over them a moment. "I remember every wand I've ever sold, you know. Every single wand. And, as you can tell," he gestured with a knobby hand to the sign, "I've sold quite a few." He chuckled before darting back behind the counter and pulling out a measuring tape. "So then, which one of you will go first, hmm?"
Danny, who had been growing more and more excited with every step down Diagon Alley, cried out in delight and rushed over behind the counter to where Ollivander waited for him. Eve chuckled, and turned to see that Howl was sitting, and joined him. Ollivander bade Danny to hold out his arms; he did, and the old man proceeded to run the tape from the tips of his fingers to his armpit, form his elbow to his fingertips, and from his wrists to his shoulders. He then measured across his shoulders, and the length of his torso, as well as his height.
"Hmm, yes…" Ollivander muttered to himself as the measuring tape snapped back into its tiny silver cube and he hobbled off, his fingers brushing along the boxes as he disappeared down one of the many aisles of shelves. He returned a moment later, carrying a long, black box. He opened it, and Danny's eyes widened; inside, nestled in a velvet cloth, was a long wand, straight and nondescript. "To get us started," Ollivander explained. "Eight-and-a-half inches, mahogany, pliable. A core of phoenix feather."
"What do I do with it?" Danny asked, dreading the thought of having to perform a spell, since he didn't know any. Ollivander chuckled.
"Why, simply pick it up and tell me if you feel anything. You see, you will not choose your wand. Your wand chooses the wizard." He did, and held the wood delicately. It felt heavy and leaden in his hand, as if it were struggling to get away from him. He shook his head, and placed it back in the box. The wrinkles around Ollivander's mouth grey deeper a moment as he bustled off, disappearing again into the back of the shop. "Perhaps this one," he said a moment later. "Eleven inches, cherry, very springy. Core of unicorn hair, very good for charms."
This wand had a reddish tint to it, and as Danny picked it up, he felt nothing. He took it in his hand, and held it up to his eye, looking at the intricate carvings on the handle and shaft of the wand. "I don't feel anything," he admitted. "It's so beautiful, but…"
"Try flicking it," Ollivander encouraged. Danny hesitated a moment- what if it didn't work, and he wasn't a wizard?- but he raised it slowly, and flicked it at the wall. Sparks erupted from the end of the wand, leaving smoldering marks on the brick. Ollivander cried out and snatched the wand away from him, shuffling off again and leaving Danny dumbfounded, brushing away the ash on the wall and looking at his hands in amazement.
Yew, twelve inches, core of dragon heartstring, stiff, yielded nothing, nor did oak, nine inches, core of unicorn tail hair, rather bendy. The lines of crinkling frustration in Ollivander's voice grew deeper and deeper with every passing wand, and Danny began to feel bad for Eve, who sat alone in the lobby with Howl. He grew more and more impatient and his swishes with the wands became more and more violent as his fingers found beech, ten-and-a-quarter inches, core of phoenix feather, springy.
"I wonder…" Ollivander said, frowning in thought as he disappeared again into the endless rows of wands. He returned several minutes later with a dusty box, looking like it had not been disturbed in years. "I should warn you," he said, before offering the box to Danny, his voice grave "that I did not make this wand. It is one of the few fine wands made by the great wand-maker Gregorovitch, may he rest in peace, passed onto me at his rather untimely death. He did not believe that such a wand should go to rot in his shop." He moved as if to offer it; but before he did, and as Danny reached for it, he quickly grabbed it away again. "I do not know this wand well. I do not know of its power, but it would do you well to be careful."
He opened the box, and slowly began to unfold the ratty velvet cloth wrapped lovingly around the wand. Ollivander whispered its description, as if fearful: "ten-and-a-half inches, hawthorn, a core of dragon heartstring, supple." Ollivander began to talk very hurriedly, very hushed. "It was told to me that this wand has a brother, somewhere, that the dragon who gave its heartstring for this wand gave another as well, and that Gregorovitch sold that one to a young wizard many years ago, just before he retired from wand-making altogether. Maybe making this pair drained all of the energy out of him."
He revealed the wand with a flourish, and Danny's eyes, though they had begun to sink with forgotten exhaustion, opened wide and bright once again. The wand was thick, and tapered; the wood was ashen, as if it was once white but had faded with age. But, however old the wand was, it was still very strong, and Danny slid his fingers around the smooth carved handle, dug out to be a delicate grip from the overall roughness of the wand. It looked as if it had been cut from the tree, and none of the roughness of the bark carved away, save for the bone smooth handle and the taper of the shaft.
The wand was curved at the handle; it may have been over ten inches, but it seemed more like nine as he lifted it out of the box. It was light, for looking so heavy; he balanced it easily between his thumb and forefinger, allowing his index finger to rest over it and feeling a flood of warmth race down his arm. Ollivander leaned forward in anticipation as Danny raised it above his head. The shaft extended straight forward, and Danny closed his eyes at the warmth of the feeling racing throughout his body.
He sighed in delight as the feeling faded, and opened them again to look at the wand, satisfied. Ollivander frowned deeper yet, for a moment, then smiled. "A match!" he exclaimed. "Curious, to be sure, but still. A wand for a wizard!" He looked up at Danny, who replaced his new wand in its box, blowing the dust from it and caressing it lovingly, beaming. "Now then," Ollivander went on to say, ushering Danny behind the counter and back into the lobby again, "that will be seven Galleons."
"I'll take care of that," Howl said from behind Danny, smiling and reaching into his pocket, pulling out seven gold coins and placing them in Ollivander's hand. "Galleons are wizard money, Danny," he explained, pulling out more coins of various colors and sizes. "The gold are Galleons, the silver Sickles, and copper Knuts. There are seventeen Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle." He nodded to Ollivander, who bowed again, and then took Danny by the arm and led him back to the lobby. Eve waited on them, and smiled, cocking her head in curiosity at the sight of the long box nestled in Danny's hands. Seeing the grin plastered on his face, her eyes widened and she leapt to her feet.
"Come now, girl. It's your turn," Ollivander called. Eve sulked a moment, sad not to see Danny's wand, but still raced off to the counter, letting the old man measure her while Danny sat with Howl.
"So then. What is yours?" Howl asked in a lighthearted tone. Danny told him everything Ollivander had said, his eyes shining. He handed Howl his wand, who held it in his hands, turning it over, looking at it, examining it with an expert eye. "Hmm. That is curious. Brother wands are very rare indeed. I wonder who yours is. And besides that, the combination in the wand itself is rather odd. It's sturdy, yet pliable- the more bendy the wand, the better for charming and lighter magic; the sturdier, the better for transfiguration and manipulative magic. It seems you've got a good balance of the two. The wood makes me think of innocence, of love and raw, honest emotion, of long life, yet dragon heartstring is typically for wizards who are feral and instinctive." He handed the wand back to Danny handle first. "A curious wand, indeed."