Time to find out more about the fact that HOGWARTS appeared, don't you think?
One Month Prior
The North, Enchanted Forest
They trotted in beneath the archway of the castle and jumped off their horses in the courtyard. The windows above them were all as dark as the sky above their heads, making them feel uneasy.
"How is this even possible?" Chris asked as they led their horses to the stables. "The others all said that Hogwarts didn't exist."
"Well, maybe they couldn't see it", Tessa suggested. "Indira said that the map had told us of a quarry and some ruins in this location; that's sort of what Rowling said that Muggles would see if they stumbled upon the school."
They found enough stalls for all of their horses and fresh hay waiting for them, as if they had been expected. Silently they unsaddled their animals and gave them a quick brush, before walking out of the stable and up the grand staircase. The castle was not exactly like how it had been depicted in the movies, but they were all sure of what it was nonetheless; this was Hogwarts.
The large oak doors opened without any resistance, letting them into a grand foyer. Fires magically lit up around the walls as they entered.
"Stay together", Indira ordered and drew her wand. The others did the same, moving silently through the room. Stairs and doors led in all different directions, but to the right were a large pair of double doors; the doors that, according to the books about Harry Potter, led to the castle's Great Hall.
"Alohomora", Catriona whispered at the lock and the doors slowly swung open, revealing a large room shrouded in darkness. However, once they all walked across the threshold fires blazed around the walls and wax candles floating through the air caught on, illuminating the entire room. It was truly like how the hall had been depicted in the stories they had read.
The difference? There were no long tables visible, only one small, round one covered in an old brown cowhide.
"That's slightly disappointing", Filipi said.
"And that was an understatement", Maryse muttered as they walked inside the hall. Rowan was the first to reach the cowhide and he quickly waved at them to come closer.
"Guys, look at this."
They all hurried up to him, circling the table and studying the inked pattern in surprise. In the centre of the hide was a large star with fifteen points. Each point was, in turn, pointing at a smaller, inked symbol.
"Hold on", Miranda said and pulled out the leather-bound book from her satchel, "those are the same symbols."
"What on Earth are they?" Clarissa breathed. Miranda flipped through the yellowed pages.
"I don't know how it's written", she eventually sighed. "I thought it might be from oldest to youngest, but apparently that's not the case, as the first two people with symbols in the book are a boy and a girl, not two girls."
"And it doesn't work in reverse order either", Rachel sighed and leaned against one of the chairs.
"Shouldn't we be looking for Ollivander instead?" Jade asked.
"No need."
The soft voice coming from behind them caused everyone to jump and spin around, with Toby letting out a startled squeal, wands at the ready. In front of them now stood an old, very familiar man.
"Ah", he said as his lips widened in a smile, "I did not recognize you from behind, but now..."
He touched his finger to the tip of Maryse's wand and she dropped it with a curse, flicking her hand as if it had burned her.
"Yes, these I do recognize", Ollivander continued. "I must say, I am very surprised to see you all."
"Why is that?" Indira asked.
"Because you and these wands all belong in another realm, where I sent you."
"No, you sent us here when we last met you", Chris replied. Ollivander frowned slightly.
"I have no memory of doing such a thing", he admitted. "When did I do that?"
"Almost a year ago", came Rachel's answer. Ollivander looked slightly taken aback.
"Ah", he said and turned, moving up the stairs to where the high table would have been standing. There he pulled out his own wand and flicked it, causing a chair to quickly move forward from behind a statue.
"I have been nowhere else but in this castle for the past eighty years", he then said as he sat down, sighing in relief. "It was where I fled during my exile, as it is protected from the likes of fairies and sorcerers."
"Eighty years?" Catriona said, lowering her wand slightly. "How's that possible?"
"Oh, the magic kept me young for quite some time", Ollivander responded.
"No", Toby said, "I think Cat means how is it possible that you haven't left this place but we are all sure we met you a year ago?"
"Now that's the question, isn't it?" Ollivander said and leaned slightly forward, his gaze travelling from one person to the other. "That is one of the most important questions that we need to find an answer for."
He leaned forward even further, resting his arms on his bony knees and clasping his hands.
"Although I will be the one asking questions. Wands away, if you please."
To prove that he was sincere he threw his own wand on the floor to his right, out of reach for him. The fourteen others looked at him and then at each other, before slowly putting away their weapons; not throwing them away like he had, but still. It seemed to please him.
"Now, my first question is how you all got back here."
"What do you mean back?" Clarissa asked. "We've never been here before... have we?"
"You were when you were all young newborns", Ollivander responded, frowning at them. "I see none of you know the story of that."
"The story of what?" Toby asked.
"Over the course of the years, since before my exile", Ollivander begun, leaning back in his chair, "I have aided many poor families who found themselves giving birth to a child of magic. Such children are always in danger of falling into the Dark One's clutches and so I was visited by many and asked to find a way to send these children to safety. Newborns, they all were, and I have no doubt that it must have been a terrible decision to make for the parents, but I promised them that their children would be safe. When the fairies found out about this other business of mine they were furious and caused my exile."
"I thought you making wands for humans caused that", Miranda said. Ollivander shook his head, sending his bushy, white hair flying.
"No, no, that's what the fairies allowed others to know. The wands were no real problem to them, at least not the ones I made back then. The ones you hold, however, might cause some disturbance among their ranks."
"But what happened then?" Tessa asked.
"Ah, they sent me away, exiled", Ollivander responded. "Here, to the North, they exiled me and I built myself a home next to the Giant's Axe. To my surprise families with children of magic kept showing up and I decided that I needed to do something else besides send them away. They had to be safe from everyone else with magic in order to focus their gifts, so..."
He gestured at the stone walls surrounding them.
"I built this. Hog's Castle, I named it, and it would have been a school for children of magic if it wasn't for the Dark Curse. Three years before it hit I knew of its existence and I knew it wouldn't reach this far, and neither would the counter curse cast by the Queen of Hearts, which froze half the land in time."
He leaned slightly forward again.
"And that was when I saw it."
"Saw what?" Arianne asked.
"The star", Ollivander answered. "The fifteen pointed star. No other star had ever been so clearly defined up in the sky, but this one; this one was exact. And I knew its nature; it was a prophecy that needed to be written down, one that I would play a part in. A minor part, but a part. I saw that fifteen of the children of magic would be needed in the battle to come, a battle between light and dark, and to fight it they needed the most powerful wands I had ever created. They also needed one other thing."
He flung his arm out in the direction of the table with the cowhide.
"Connections."
He waved at them, telling them to walk over there while he remained seated.
"With the Dark Curse approaching I tracked down all children of magic in the realm, finding the fifteen that I knew would be destined to do exactly this. It was risky, as I constantly had to avoid being recognized, but eventually I found them all."
"Us", Rachel stated. "You found all of us. We're the children of magic that you tracked down back then."
Ollivander smiled.
"So we have family in this world?" Filipi asked.
"You do, or you did, depending on what happened after I sent you away. Wars were raging at the time and many innocent men and women died during those battles."
"And now we're back, to fulfil this prophecy of yours?" Rowan asked.
"Yes, which brings me back to my first question; how did you all come back?"
"We fell through a portal", Jade responded. "It appeared right after we'd met you and you'd given us our wands and then we found ourselves here, meeting fairytale characters and fighting the Wicked Witch of the West."
Ollivander blinked.
"Zelena", he sighed. "I should have known she would be the one to pose this new threat."
"You know her?" Clarissa asked.
"Knew", Ollivander corrected. "She's a child of magic, just like you all are; awfully skilled. But her mother refused to let me send her away to safety; instead she left her out in the forest and a portal cyclone took her, bringing her away. Many years later I found out that she had figured out the truth and wanted to claim what she saw as rightfully hers; what her sister, Regina, got instead. It would seem she now prepares to enact whatever she has been planning to do."
"We have to stop her", Indira said. "The people we've met have already been through enough; ending up as victims of some green Witch is not what they deserve."
"Then who are your allies, may I ask?" Ollivander said.
"Those who were once victims of the Dark Curse", Rachel responded, "led by Snow White and Prince Charming."
Ollivander's eyes widened somewhat before he broke into a grin.
"Then I hear you have already found your family."
What? What? What?