alphafoxxy: Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoy this chapter! :)
Tori,
I wish you hadn't just disappeared like this. I wish you were home.
I'm hoping this letter finds you in good health and out of trouble. A lot of people are worried. Even writing this letter now, I don't know if you'll answer.
My mum is probably the most worried about you. She's been asking nearly every day if I've heard from you.
Write me when you can, just so I know you're alright.
I miss you terribly.
Ren
Tori folded up the letter and placed it back into the envelope she had received from the Weasley boy. Letting out a sigh, she leaned back against the cool stone wall behind her and closed her eyes.
The bar scene around her was rolling on as if nothing odd was happening in the world. She had been stopping there every so often as she moved around and avoided death eaters. The barmaids were kind to her and gave her free butterbeers when they got to talk with her long enough. She guessed it was because it wasn't very often that another woman stopped by the bar. The men always cast her wanting looks, but after one had tried to make a move and she jinxed him, they all knew better than to attempt anything further.
"Long day, Hewey?" one of the barmaids asked, wiping off a table next to where Tori was sitting.
"Indeed," she muttered back as her hands gripped the letter a little tighter and she stared off into space.
"You know you should really stop by tha' shop down Diagon Alley. Weasleys' somethin' or otha'," the woman suggested. "Might get yer spirits up."
"I'll check it out one of these days, Mary." Tori shot a smirk of thanks as she took another swig from the beer next to her.
She found Mary's suggestion ironic considering where she had just come from.
Tori remembered the Weasley twins fondly from school. They were in the same year, although not the same house. She was a Ravenclaw and took that title to heart. When she had the following of being Garrick Ollivander's granddaughter, she had immense shoes to fill and much to learn if she was going to take over the shop one day.
Charms had been her favorite subject. In fact, that was the reason she had a friendship with Fred and George in the first place. It always happened to be that one of the twins would partner with her in class for some lesson or another. They switched off so often she'd get their names mixed up. After a while, it was easier to just collectively call them 'Gred' and 'Forge' whenever she came to class. She even called them that when she ran into them on school grounds.
Part of her felt bad for the way she had treated Fred back at the shop. It wasn't his fault that he had stumbled upon her by accident. But at the same time, it was a good thing.
…wasn't it?
Without him she wouldn't have received her letter from Ren. On top of that, she may have found someone else that could help to keep her secret.
A friend.
Tori tossed a few galleons on the table for Mary to find once she cleaned up Tori's glass and slipped out of the bar without much notice from anyone. Pulling her cloak closer to her, she walked silently through Knockturn Alley.
She had learned that in a place like this, it was best to keep your head down and only interact with someone when you wanted to. "Shake off anyone else that wants your attention," one of the barmaids had told her. Most people were greedy and vile in this place. Some wanted to cheat you of your riches and some wanted to simply make as much trouble as they could.
The first few weeks were rough. A new face in the alley meant a lot of inquiring minds and a lot of attempts to get under her skin. Tori's bar reputation started to follow her, so some people had started to lay off.
Maybe she had been accepted as one of their own. But even that left a sour taste in her mouth.
After walking a ways down the alley, she turned a corner sharply and ducked into an alley behind an old building. The front held various shops that sold knick knacks that Tori had learned better than to ask about. The owner was an old man that always had better things to do than fuss over Tori and had shooed her out a few times on sight.
As she approached the end of the alley, she faced the building. The building looked normal aside from one brick that was sticking out a little more than the others. At a passing glance, one would never notice it. One day when Tori was hiding out from some Snatchers, she had leaned on the wall as she tried to collect her thoughts. She immediately fell through, stumbling upon a dark room that seemed to be tucked away from the rest of the building.
When she first walked in, she had wondered if it had been a safe place for someone else at the time, or at any time prior. To her left was a small fireplace with floo powder sitting in a container on the mantle. In front of her was a small desk that faced the door that had a small lamp sitting on it. Parchment was scattered in pieces on it, as if whoever was here had to quickly leave and just grabbed what they could. An inkwell was knocked over and had soaked the quill thoroughly in blue ink. Curtains were hung to cover the windows overhead, but they were tattered and dirty. As she walked down a small hallway to her right, she could see a small curtain drawn up to cover a bed. A small bathroom with the necessities were located in a room across from the bed.
It wasn't much, but it would suffice. Her first week she waited in anticipation to see if anyone was going to come back to that place. When no one did, she immediately put up whatever spells she could think of to protect herself and called this new hideout "home".
She stumbled into her living space and walked towards her bed, tossing her cloak onto it. Immediately the noise of shattered glass came from it and Tori cringed. When she first started her journey, she had bewitched her cloak with an extension charm so that she could carry all of the thing she needed with ease. Glass items may not have been the smartest things to put on that list.
Tori had been on the run for months. In all honesty, if it hadn't been for Fred putting a time stamp on her disappearance, she really wouldn't have known how long she had been gone for.
When her grandfather had gone missing and Snatchers had started to mention the Ollivander name in nearby towns, Tori had known what her grandfather had been taken for. The Elder Wand was a prize that many wizards and witches had vied for, but her grandfather had always confirmed it be a myth. Tori could see past her grandfather's twinkling old eyes that he knew of the wand, and she was sure that at one time or another he had been fortunate enough to handle it.
It was her dream to take over the shop one day from him. She was obsessed with wand lore and the stories he'd share with her when she was a child. She wanted to learn how the cores and woods worked together, how to tell what a wand was made of by feel, and how "the wand chooses the wizard!" There was almost never a time during holidays where she wasn't at the shop dusting or organizing the tools, inventory, or materials that her grandfather had hidden away in Diagon Alley.
She was fortunate to have spent so much time in his shop. It was almost like a gold mine of knowledge and magic — a new lesson to be had every time she went. During lulls in customer visits, her grandfather would tell her great stories of the different witches and wizards that had come through. She knew all about Harry's first visit and had even heard about the twins' disastrous attempts at finding their first wands. He told tales of famous wizards, like the Minister for Magic and the Dumbledore family, and he would always gush at how excited the younger magic folk would be knowing one day, they too would be able to finally practice proper magic with their new companion.
+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+.+
Later that night, Tori sat on her bed eating her dinner. Her plate had a piece of chicken and a few vegetables with some potatoes that had been smashed by a spoon. She had made a kind of makeshift kitchen near the fireplace and got by on what she could find that was edible in Knockturn Alley. Some days she'd adventure to nearby towns to get more ingredients, but with shops closing each day it was getting harder to find food.
She was rereading Ren's letter for what must have been the 20th time. What was she supposed to find? Some secret message telling her how to get out of this mess? Part of her felt frustrated because she desperately wanted to do just as Ren said: come home and be with people who cared about her. But it was much too dangerous. Things were different now. Nothing was going to be simple anymore.
Tossing the letter on the side, Tori couldn't help but feel as if something wasn't right in her tiny home. She looked up slowly and scanned her living space with narrowed eyes. The only light source she had left on was the lamp near her bed which casted many eerie shadows around her. A chill ran down her spine and her heart started to pound a little harder.
She reached for her wand and whispered, "Homenum revelio," pointing in the direction of the front door.
Nothing happened, thankfully, but she couldn't shake this feeling deep down in her gut.
Setting down her plate on a side table, Tori stood up and walked towards the fireplace. Her wand was at the ready, not knowing what she was going to run into.
Her footsteps creaked with every step and her heartbeat was echoing in her ears. She had started to sweat. Her hands were trembling against her will.
As she stood in the darkness of the main area, she had forgotten to breathe. It was the first time since she had come to this place that she felt so scared — so helpless. Her eyes searched frantically in the dark for some movement or some misplaced feature. Her bed and the lamplight seemed so far away.
"I know you're here," she declared to the darkness. "Show yourself."
She was greeted by silence, the grip on her wand so tight she knew the grooves would leave a mark on her hand.
Tori turned to face the doorway and suddenly her heart leapt into her throat. Where she had hung her coat after showering she could see a faint glow from behind it. It certainly wasn't from anything she had stowed away in her pocket.
Walking towards it, she pointed her wand to the light. It seemed to get brighter with each step she took, her breaths getting shallower as fear started to grow in her chest like a balloon that was threatening to explode.
When her wand made contact with the coat to move it out of the way, the light leapt out at her. Tori panicked and fell backwards. She scrambled on her hands and feet to move away, cursing herself for losing her wand in her scare.
"Accio wand!" Tori shouted as she held her hand out towards the darkness. The wand immediately flew into her hand in time for her to send a spell towards the light that was creeping towards her. To her dismay, it was unphased. Something shattered behind the figure as Tori's spell missed. Her eyes widened slowly as fear started to wash over her features.
The light moved towards her little by little. It stalked her, as if making any sudden movements would cause Tori to disappear.
She was pushing herself backwards until she hit the back wall. She was breathing quickly, wand still held out in front of her.
In a few moments, the light started to take a form. It shrank down in front of her and to her surprise, she found a fox.
It stared her down, unwavering in its stance. Her heart was racing at a million miles a minute. She was too afraid to move. What was this—this thing?
"Number 93, Diagon Alley."
Turning her head slightly to one side, her face scrunched together. Did this fox just speak to her?
"Number 93, Diagon Alley," the fox repeated. As the words emanated from it, its light glowed a little brighter. Its mouth didn't move, as the sound seemed to be coming just from whatever power was giving the fox its form.
"Wha-what-what about it?" she asked timidly.
The fox didn't answer, but again repeated the address before disappearing into thin air.
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With Love,
sparrowlina
