"How could you sully such a wonderful creation with money!" Madam Malkin huffed. "Free! Every uniform she gets from now on will be free!"
Edward and Audrey exchanged a glance. "Being good-looking really does come with privileges."
"Thank you." She smiled too. Compared with the compliments she had often heard back in Backlund, she could tell that Madam Malkin's praise was far more sincere.
The two picked up the pace after that. A cauldron, books, quills, ink and parchment-soon, only a wand remained.
Ollivander's Wand Shop was small and shabby. The gold lettering on the sign above the door had peeled away. It read: Ollivander, makers of fine wands since 382 BC.
In the dusty display window, a lone wand lay on a faded purple cushion.
"Oh, isn't this Mr. Edward? I remember you. Blackthorn, phoenix feather core, ten and three-quarter inches. Tough, powerful, suited to casting mighty magic. I'm certain you'll make a fine Auror someday." Ollivander was an old man with silvery eyes and pale skin.
In her Spectator state, Audrey quickly assessed him: the elderly gentleman was clearly confident in his professional expertise. His effortless recall of his customers and their purchases was not an attempt to show off his memory, but a way to strengthen his influence.
"As for this beautiful young lady..." He turned to Audrey. "I don't believe you bought your wand here."
"What a wonderful memory you have, Mr. Ollivander." Edward offered his customary compliment. "I'm here with this transfer student to buy a wand from you."
"Oh, welcome." Ollivander responded cheerfully, pulling a long tape measure marked with silver graduations from his pocket. "Which arm do you use for your wand, young lady?"
Audrey froze. She really had never considered that question. "I suppose my right hand."
"Excellent!" Ollivander deftly took measurements of various parts of her body. "A good wand must not only suit your nature and allow you to cast all kinds of magic, but also fit your body's proportions. After all, in a fight, drawing your wand even a second too late could mean your enemy has already struck you."
He turned to rummage through the cabinets piled with wands. "Now, let's see which wand suits you."
Chapter 8: Fuck This!
Ollivander moved deftly among the shelves, the long boxes in his arms steadily multiplying.
A few minutes later, he set seven or eight wand boxes on the table and took out a wand to hand to Audrey. "I imagine a lady as beautiful as you must be suited to this walnut wand with a unicorn hair core. Seven and three-quarter inches, perfectly matched to your proportions."
Edward had already explained how important a wand was to a Warlock, so she could not help feeling excited when she finally held one herself.
Before she could even wave it, however, Ollivander snatched it back. "Oh, no. You don't seem compatible with unicorn hair at all. I can't sense the slightest magical fluctuation."
Edward pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. Here we go again!
The old man, with his many years of wandmaking experience, knew every trick in the salesman's book. Under his careful staging, every young Warlock who came to buy a wand would be left with the illusion that they were unique-that they were the protagonist.
Then they would happily pay and leave, even adding a "Thank you!" on their way out.
He took out another wand. "Try this one, then. Dragon heartstring core, holly, very supple."
Audrey took the wand and gently waved it. It felt like an extension of her arm, and a pleasant breeze swept through the shop.
"Oh! Quite a good match!"
Edward was surprised. A match on only the second wand? Was Audrey old enough that he did not need to string her along?
But Ollivander did not stop there. He took out another. "Now try this one. Ebony, dragon heartstring, eight inches."
Audrey waved it as before, and another light breeze swept through.
"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful." Ollivander praised her repeatedly. "Might this one suit you too? Albizia wood, dragon heartstring, eight and a quarter inches."
The result was almost identical to that of the previous two.
Audrey then tried another seven or eight wands, all with dragon heartstring cores. Every one seemed a good fit.
Ollivander grew increasingly astonished. "Simply incredible! I've never seen anyone so compatible with so many different wands. Yet I still feel that none of them is the best one for you!"
Edward asked quietly, "Audrey, how did you feel when you waved those wands?"
She thought for a moment. "It was amazing! I felt as though they were amplifiers, magnifying both my five senses and my spirituality."
"Anything else?"
Audrey tightened her grip on the wand and carefully examined the sensation. "It seems... my powers of observation have also improved considerably. For example... I can see the guilt you're hiding in your eyes."
"???"
Edward instinctively turned his head to avoid her gaze, then feigned composure. "I... what do I have to feel guilty about?"
She said nothing more, merely watching Edward with a smile.
"Spectators really are the worst!"
Edward was not actually feeling guilty. He was simply hesitating over whether to take Audrey to see the modern city beyond the magical world.
Compared with Hogwarts Castle, which bore some resemblance to Loen, a modern metropolis would surely make a much greater impression on her.
Ollivander clambered out of a corner, holding a box coated in a thick layer of dust. "Found it at last! This is a wand I made out of curiosity when I was young."
He opened the box. Inside lay a translucent wand as lustrous as white jade, looking more like a work of art.
"Dragon bone and dragon heartstring, nine inches. I originally thought the Warlock who wielded it would be able to cast magic as powerful as a dragon's. Unfortunately, no one has ever earned its approval. Give it a try, young lady."
It felt cool in her hand, its texture far more pleasant than that of an ordinary wooden wand. If the previous wands had felt like extensions of her arm, this one felt as though it had become part of her.
Audrey gently waved it, and a fierce gale swept through the shop. Yet nothing inside was scattered as expected, as though the wind did not exist in reality.
"Wonderful! Wonderful! This wand was practically made for you!" The old man danced with delight, as though he had accomplished something extraordinary. Then, in the next instant, his tone changed, and he held out a hand to Edward:
"That will be ninety-eight Galleons."
Edward gaped and could not help raising his voice. "Ninety-eight Galleons? Isn't a new student's first wand usually only a few Galleons?"
Ollivander shrugged. "Those are made from ordinary materials. This wand uses a bone connecting a dragon's brow to its brain."
Edward gritted his teeth. "You swindler!"
Audrey gently poked him from beside him. "Once we get... get back, I'll repay you double."
He had almost forgotten. This young lady was genuinely loaded. Money was no concern for her.
Edward had just handed Ollivander a bag of gold Galleons when a faint tremor ran through the ground, followed by a roar that shook the sky.
The Warlocks in the street turned toward the sound. Several pointed at the sky and shouted in terror, "A dragon! It's a dragon! The dragon from Gringotts has escaped!"
In the distance, the Gringotts building was collapsing. An enormous dragon stood on its roof, roaring up at the sky.
"Holy shit! Didn't the dragon escape from Gringotts in the sixth or seventh book? What's going on?"
Edward was dumbfounded. "Right, in the first book, Quirrell went to Gringotts to steal the Philosopher's Stone on Voldemort's orders, didn't he? But... did he cause this much of a commotion?"
"Is that a dragon from your world?" Audrey was amazed. Most Beyonder creatures in her world lived in remote, uninhabited places, beyond the sight of ordinary people. Even Beyonders generally only saw small parts of them while preparing potions: eyeballs, nails, brain matter, and the like.
Ollivander clicked his tongue in wonder. "I always knew this day would come, but I never imagined it would be so soon. Those damned greedy goblins actually thought they could imprison a vicious dragon to guard their vaults. What a trampling of freedom, what an insult to a living creature! Tsk, they might as well kill it and give it to me to make wands."
Edward gave him a speechless look. You're hardly any better!
The dragon gave a powerful flap of its wings and took shakily to the air, smashing through more than a dozen rooftops along the way before slowly regaining its feel for flight and soaring upward.
Roar-
The dragon circled above Diagon Alley, letting out low growls, but never leaving.
"Isn't anyone going to do something?"
"Who would want to? The goblins consider that dragon their private property. Anyone who risks getting hurt to intervene might end up being extorted by them instead. Oh, the Ministry of Magic's Aurors are finally here." Like an old man who had finished watching the fun, Ollivander strolled back into his shop.
Several Warlocks dressed as Aurors began attacking the dragon. It took dozens of spells head-on before the pain finally became unbearable. Roaring, it spat mouthful after mouthful of flame, then soared away and quickly vanished into the sky.
The Aurors mounted their broomsticks and gave chase.
And with that, the spectacle came to an end.
The passing Warlocks buzzed with discussion, most of them gloating. They would have loved to see those goblins suffer even more misfortune.
"Edward..."
Audrey suddenly called to him in a quiet voice.
"What is it?"
"I keep feeling as though that dragon was looking for me." Uncertainty colored her voice. "But that doesn't make sense, does it?"
She looked down at the translucent wand in her hand. "Could it be because of this?"
After a moment of surprise, Edward thought of a possibility: perhaps it had something to do with the potion Audrey had taken. The Beyonder abilities of the Spectator Pathway had once belonged exclusively to dragons, and high-sequence Spectators gradually showed a tendency toward becoming dragons themselves. Combined with this wand made from dragon bone and dragon heartstring, it might have produced some strange reaction that had agitated the dragon.
Of course, all of that was mere baseless speculation. He smiled and said, "Don't worry about it. Maybe it was just your imagination."
"All right, we agreed to meet Fawkes at one in the afternoon. We've got an hour left to look around and find something to eat."
As he turned, Edward spotted a huge man in the distance approaching with a little boy, pushing a cart piled high with purchases. It was Hagrid and Harry Potter.
Edward immediately cast a Disillusionment Charm on himself, vanishing from sight.
Hagrid scratched his head in confusion. "Huh? Were my eyes playing tricks on me?"
"What is it, Hagrid?"
"I thought I saw a friend. He's one of the older students at your future school, and he loves fantastic beasts just as much as I do. Only..." Hagrid hesitated. "He likes them in a different way."
"I don't really understand."
"He prefers the way fantastic beasts taste."
Harry Potter: "???"
Once Hagrid and Harry had gone some distance away, Edward lifted the Disillusionment Charm. "That big fellow is a friend of mine, I suppose. He's warmhearted and straightforward, but we still have things to finish, so I won't stop to say hello."
Naturally, Audrey could tell he was not being honest.
Edward actually wanted to avoid too much contact with Harry Potter. He did not want to disrupt the plot too early and lose his grasp of the future. Once he became stronger, he could use that knowledge to make plans against Voldemort in advance.
That was what it meant to plan everything from behind the scenes.
For someone who had transmigrated, familiarity with the plot would always be one of the most important "cheats."
"Have you heard?" Just then, a passing Warlock spoke to his companion. "That dragon got out because someone broke into Gringotts and released it."
"Who would dare do something like that?"
"You'd never guess. We even saw him at the Leaky Cauldron earlier. Quirinus Quirrell, the fellow with bandages wrapped around his head. Apparently, he's going to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts next term."
"Impressive!"
"Impressive, my foot! When the dragon escaped, it stepped right on him. Crushed him to a pulp, with his brains splattered all over the ground. Ugh... what a horrible way to go."
"Hogwarts's Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers really are... cursed!"
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