Half-blood Prince’s tale (A hp fic)

The shop inside felt quiet. There was a pin drop silence which was broken by a voice next to me, “Good afternoon.”

I didn’t get startled as I had seen Ollivander staking out by the window. The windows were tinted but not opaque so I had noticed him.

So without flinching, I replied, “Good afternoon Sir.”

“Ah...so you are the young Prince…” he said before coming out to the open.

Ollivander more or less looked as described in canon. He had grey hair though not quite as much as he had in canon. 

“I remember your mother walking in here to get her wand you know….Maple and unicorn hair, nine a half inches, rigid.”

“Cool…” I replied unsure of what to make of that.

“Well then I assume you are here to get your wand?” he asked.

“Yes…”

“Right..let's get to it then.” he shuffled across the floor and began pulling out some boxes.

“What's your wand arm boy?” he asked, placing the boxes on a short stool.

“Um...right I guess.” I said.

“Alright give me your hand.” he asked and I complied. He stared at it for a few seconds and then made his way to the back of the shop leaving me to my own devices.

The silence was oddly uncomfortable so I began looking around the shop. The shop itself wasn’t massive and except the counter, the rest of it was disorganised with stacks of boxes everywhere.

I spotted a table with some sketches on it and went to take a closer look. They seemed to be rough sketches of wands and some formulaic things were written that I couldn’t understand.

I also saw some notes about wand cores with dates to use them. This made me wonder if Astronomy played a role in making things. I recalled that the animagus potion needed specific conditions to work so this seemed like a plausible idea.

As I was pondering, I heard footsteps approaching from the back of the shop. I quickly made my way to my previous location just in time for Ollivander to arrive with a stack of boxes that reached over his head.

Pulling out one box, he took a wand and handed it to me. 

“Ash, with unicorn hair, 11 inches stiff...give it a try.” he said.

“Okay.” I gripped the wand and gave it a light flick. A small spark formed at the tip and whizzled within a few seconds.

Before I could give it a try, he snatched it from my hand.

“No that definitely won’t do.” he pulled another wand out. “Here  try this, Ebony with an old Hungarian horntail core, 9 and a half inches, flexible.”

I held it once again and this time the wand had a slight curve to it and had a rubbery feeling. I gave it a harder flick.

A red light struck a vase in the direction I had pointed at and it exploded into pieces.

“Sorry?” I quietly handed the wand back to him. 

“Ah no worries my boy, this happens sometimes. It seems you are a tricky customer.” he said with a smile.

I felt that he was happy that I was a ‘tricky’ customer.

“Hmm...have a try at this. Elm, with a ukranian ironbelly core, 10 inches rather bendy..” he flexed it in his arm and handed it to me.

“Are you sure this will work?” I asked, not wanting to damage more things.

“Maybe it will maybe it might but the more wands you use, the more I can sense what kind suits you...so give it a try. Don’t fret as I am sure we will find something for you. In all my life, I haven’t had a customer who was walked out of here without finding a wand suitable for them.”

“Right here I go then.” I gave the wand a twirl this time and a strong gust of wind knocked some stacks of boxes over.

“Oh dear, this won’t do either.” he took the wand away and went back again. He soon came back with a few more boxes muttering something about unusual combinations.

“Right...I have a good feeling about this, here have a go.” he said and gave me another wand. This one looked like a typical wand with a black polished body but was the longest of all the others he had shown.

“Hawthorn, with phoenix core, 13 inches, rigid.” he stated.

I held the wand and immediately could tell that this was different from the other ones. It felt cool on my skin but I felt a warm feeling running up my arm.

I clutched it tightly and gave it a gentle flick. 

I had pointed in the direction of the vase again and this time a zap hit the pile of broken glass and they all started floating to each other. Within a few seconds, they attached and the vase was restored.

I raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Ollivander. He was sporting a curious expression.

“Well it seems the wand has chosen the wizard...but I must say it's quite an interesting combination.”

“How so?” I was curious to know about my wand. 

“You see...the feather of the phoenix used in the core was from a phoenix that gave it just before its burning day or in simple terms, its rebirth so to speak and as for the wood, it's a contradictory one.”

“I don’t use hawkthorn much but my rival who has more experience with regard to hawkthorn described it accurately.”

I listened with rapt attention. The word ‘rebirth’ had pulled me in.

“He said that hawkthorn makes for a strange, contradictory wand, as full of paradoxes as the tree that gave it birth, whose leaves and blossoms heal, and yet whose cute branches smell of death. It is a curious wand to say the least but it as they say, it is the wand that chooses the wizard and the wizard that puts it to use.”

“I see…” I replied absentmindedly. The wand was oddly ominous. From what I heard, I was positive that my ‘rebirth’ had made me get this wand and this was not Severus' wand in canon.

“How much do I owe you , Sir?” I asked already knowing the amount but I wanted to make sure it remained the same.

“7 galleons will do my boy. Nothing more nothing less.”

“Oh..how much does a wand maintenance kit and a holster cost?” 

“1 galleon and 7 sickles.” he answered.

I nodded and pulled out the required amount and handed it to him.

After getting the things packed, I left the store and was back into the buzzing streets. It was a bit jarring after that short period of absolute silence. 

…

I was so dazed and deep in thought that I didn’t even notice Eileen until she was right in front of my face.

“Did you get your wand Severus?” she asked, pulling a trolley behind her with a grey owl in a cage on top of it.

“Ah..yes, I got it.” I said, showing her my wand. 

She examined it and handed it back to me. “What core is it?”

“Phoenix, with a Hawkthorn body” I said, recalling Ollivander’s words.

“Oh..phoenix eh, quite rare from what I heard..good wand Severus.” Eileen said.

“Yes...so what did you name the owl?” I said pointing to the grey owl.

“Diana is her name. Do you like it?” 

I shrugged, “Sure..sounds nice.”

We walked around a bit and visited some other stores. I observed the shops in the alley and noticed that most were aimed at students as their main customers.

We bought some supplies for me like a telescope, quills and other miscellaneous items.

I saw many kids around my age and older roaming about dressed in robes and some even in muggle clothes.

It was Hogwarts season so naturally it was crowded. The queue around Flourish and Blotts hadn’t reduced so Eileen suggested another bookstore which wouldn’t have all the books I wanted but would have at least some.

I agreed to go there since I didn’t want to be in that long queue so I followed Eileen who led me to a small place called Obscurus books. 

She explained that Obscurus was a publishing company and had published many well acclaimed magical books.

They only had books published by their company so I couldn’t get some of the books I wanted but managed to get my hands on a few.

Newt scammander’s Fantastic Beasts and where to find them was a bestseller and still sold like cakes. I bought one to browse later on. The second book that I luckily managed to procure was a book about alchemy for beginners written by none other than the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore with afterword by Nicolas Flamel.

That was about the last place we visited. We left Diagon Alley and since I hadn’t had my breakfast, we apparated to Hogsmeade.

….

I had been visiting Hogsmeade for the past year so by now I was familiar with its shop and some of the locals even recognized me.

It was a quiet village with less people and they all seemed relatively friendly or polite. I quite liked coming here. We headed to Rosmerta’s inn as we decided to have breakfast there.

It was already midday so it was more of a brunch by this point. The inn had few people around and it was not as noisy as usual. The students and teachers were not present since it was holiday time for them.

“Hey there...look who it is.” Rosmerta said coming up to us.

“Done with your shopping?” she asked me.

“Yep~ got everything ready. Set me up something to eat, I am starving.”

She nodded and went to get me some food while Eileen went to one of the empty rooms above to keep all the things we bought.

Rosmerta came back with some typical breakfast and even brought a saucer with milk for Nyx who I let out of the cage.

“So...what are your plans? When are you going to move in?” Rosmerta asked.

“Well mum said she would put the house in cokeworth for sale so once its sold,we move into the family manor.Oh..I nearly forgot, I am an heir now” I said smugly.

“Heh...now I can brag that I know an heir to the folks around. Might get some customers too.”

Seeing her business mind, I rolled my eyes. I was an heir of a pureblood house but it was one in shambles so I didn’t think it was a big deal.

“So...got any new ideas?” she asked as I took a bite of the food.

Well I did have some but since things were going so well, I didn’t give them away.

“Well...I haven’t really had time to think of new ones but don’t worry if I got any, you will be the first one to know..”

Rosmerta smiled, clearly happy with the preferential treatment.

We kept talking for a while when a tall bearded man with grey stringy hair entered. He spotted Rosmerta and came over.

“How are you doing lass, go get me some of that sweet butterbeer.” he said.

Rosmerta sighed as she got up, “You know….I usually don’t say this but you have been drinking too much of it. At this rate, I won’t have enough for the others.” 

“Hey...I pay for ‘em” he answered before his sight fell on me.

“Whose this kid? He Eileen’s” he asked.

“Yes…” Rosmerta replied turning to me, “Severus...meet Aberforth, he is the owner of the less...successful Hog’s Head Inn.” 

I wiped my mouth and greeted him, “Hello.”

I was a bit surprised seeing him. Even though I visited Hogsmeade frequently, this was my first meeting with him. I had nearly forgotten he had existed. Aberforth Dumbledore, Albus Dumbledore’s brother.

“Aye..nice to finally meet the business prodigy, the names Aberforth Dumbledore kid and yes...I am related to Dumbledore.”

“Nice to meet you Sir, I am Severus Prince.” I greeted him back politely.

“No need to be so polite with me, just call me Abe or uncle Abe if you feel the latter is weird.” 

“Sure...Uncle Abe.”  I said testing the name out.

“There ya go, I knew your mother and this lass when they went to Hogwarts.”

“Really? How was mum like?” I asked.

“Well she was a shy dainty lady who drank ale like it was tea.” I was glad I wasn’t drinking anything when he said that.

I chuckled imagining a young Eileen drinking ale from a jar like it was tea. 

“What about her?” I said pointing at Rosmerta who was taking orders from another customer.

“Ah...she was a vile temptress. She used to bring some upstuck noble kids, play with them and have some drinks with them then she would bolt leaving the boys to pay for her.”

“She is still like that today...If I were you, I would be careful you know... She likes the younger ones from what I heard.”

“I see…” I said awkwardly. I didn’t know what to do with this information.

“So….if you have some good ideas, you can come to me…” he offered. Now I understood what he was trying to get at.

“Oi...trying to steal him right under me eh?” Rosmerta who was coming upto us with a plate and butterbeer said.

“..I was just showing him that there were other options besides you..” Abe said, flashing a smile at me.

“Right..” she said, giving him the stink eye. “Severus, you don’t need to go to him. You can just come to me if you have new ideas.”

I didn’t answer and just took a sip from my mug. Inwardly I was thinking about Abe’s offer. From what little I knew about him from canon, he was good at dueling and a strong wizard.

If I could convince him to teach me some tricks, my strength would double at the very least.

Once Rosmerta left, I turned to Abe, “I do have some ideas if you are interested….” I offered.

“Hoh...go on tell me, if you want we could go up to my place.”

“Well I can just write them down for you but I need some compensation. I can’t give them for free after all.” 

“Sure...I can pay you how much she pays or a bit more too if they work.” 

“I don’t need money right now so I want another form of compensation..” 

“What would that be?”

“Simple..I want you to teach me magic or more specifically dueling.I heard you are good at it so I want to learn from you.”

“I see….that's doable but I don’t have any experience teaching so it will be upto you to grasp what I show but first tell me your reason for wanting to learn. Be careful with your answer as if it doesn’t satisfy me, I won’t teach you.” Abe warned.

I could sense that he wanted to test me so I thought about my answer. I didn’t think I would be able to lie to him and I didn’t want to give some dark answer and be marked as a potential threat.

I thought about why I wanted to learn it, the answer was for power but that would make me seem like Riddle and might ring some warning bells in him. 

I thought harder about other reasons and I found one, that feeling of helplessness I had in the void made me want power but also I didn’t like being powerless.

When Tobias was abusing Eileen, I had frozen. I didn’t know what to do. If I hadn’t been lucky enough to use my magic instinctively, she would have been at his mercy.

I clenched my fists thinking about and answered, “I don't want to feel powerless….”

Abe stared into my eyes. “You must know about my mother by now I assume?” 

“Yes...I heard from her” he said.

“I hated not being able to do anything when he struck her...I don’t want to feel like that ever again. So will you teach me?” 

Abe stared harder. I didn’t know if he was proficient at legilimency as his brother but I could tell he was good at reading people.

“Very well…” he sighed. “I shall teach you what you want. We can start from tomorrow if you want. I can understand your reason, I too couldn’t save a loved one….”

His eyes went glazed as he seemed to reminisce about something, probably his sister I thought.

“Alright, we can start from tomorrow.” I agreed. I had got my wand too so I was eager to try it out.