Ollivander's boss was a man of many amusements. After explaining the special nature of his wand to Ryan, the old wizard expressed his desire to purchase it. He even offered one of the keys to the Ollivander family vault in exchange for it, as the knowledge contained in it was unparalleled for a wandmaker.
"If you're interested, I have a granddaughter—she's a few years older than you, but perhaps you..."
At this point, Ryan ruthlessly refused. However, facing the bereaved old wizard, Ryan still had a point. "Perhaps I'll come to Diagon Alley sometime, and then I might ask you to look at this wand again." He offered this primarily because Ollivander was a kind man and indeed a true expert in wands.
Also, Ryan was deeply concerned about this wand.
Ollivander and Professor Flitwick both believed it was a wand passed down from his ancestors, but Ryan knew it was crafted specifically for him by his four teachers. It was indeed forged using blood magic—the Four possessed the blood of their own disciples. But this wand, crafted specifically for him by the Four, lacked a core, which was unusual.
Ryan wondered if the four teachers had encountered some difficulty crafting the wand, or perhaps the wand held some other secret. In any case, he would likely return to Ollivander's to confirm. Then, he and Flitwick left Ollivander's Wand Shop under Ollivander's eager gaze, his voice echoing as if he'd come home often.
"Professor, where are we going next?" Ryan put the matter of the wand aside for the moment, eager to try.
"Oh, the Crucible," Flitwick glanced at Ryan, his words trailing off. "Perhaps in your vault..."
Ryan's wand was still fresh in his memory, and he needed to confirm whether the mysterious Elias Family had left Ryan anything. Only after Ryan confirmed that the family vault contained neither the Crucible nor the necessary materials for the upcoming admissions did Flitwick then take Ryan on his real "shopping" trip to Diagon Alley.
Cauldrons, wizard robes, ink, and quills... Ryan made no secret of his wealth, purchasing only the finest quality learning supplies. He also bought an owl at Eeyore's Owl Shop. The owl had distinctive black and red feathers, and a slender body completely different from the white owl at the Silver Lime Tree Orphanage.
"It's an eagle owl, known for its loyalty and swift flight, but perhaps a bit arrogant—and this one might even have magical beast blood!" said Emerida, the owner of the owl shop, confidently. "After all, black and red eagle owls are rare, aren't they?"
Ryan named the owl "Monday," well... because today happened to be Monday!
All in all, the journey went smoothly until Flitwick and Ryan arrived at their final shopping stop of the day.
"Flourish and Blotts, we'll buy your textbooks here," Flitwick said to Ryan enthusiastically. As a professor of Ravenclaw, his love for bookstores was natural. But when they walked into the bookstore, they saw a mess— all kinds of magic books were flying on the ceiling and chandeliers of the bookstore.
If you looked closely, you would find that what made the books fly were actually feathers hanging from the books, and they had a pair of small wings on the end of their pens. Various pages of books kept falling from the sky, making the whole ground filled with the unique smell of ink from paper books.
"Oh, damn..."
And a very young-looking wizard was flying left and right, waving his wand anxiously, trying to knock those books down. Ryan still remembered him—when he first came to Diagon Alley today, he saw him chasing a flying magic book.
He remembered the man's name as...
"Professor Flitwick!" While Ryan was still trying to recall the man's name, the wizard had already spotted Flitwick. He was as if he had been granted amnesty, "Mr. Professor, quick! Please help me—these books..."
Ryan saw a tangible flicker of helplessness cross Flitwick's face. "Mr. Irel, you've only graduated a year ago... You're a Ravenclaw, you can't have forgotten how to cast spells, right?" Flitwick pulled his wand from his sleeve and pointed it at the books on the ceiling, "Finite!"
The flapping of the quills on all the books paused briefly. But soon, they began to beat even faster—some of the little wings even left afterimages!
"Huh!?"
Even Flitwick was briefly surprised, his brow furrowed. But soon he waved his wand again, an even more powerful magical force surging from him.
"Finite Incantatem!"
The Head of Ravenclaw demonstrated with his actions why he was the Charms professor at Hogwarts. Finite Incantatem was a powerful breaking spell, often requiring the combined efforts of several wizards. But Flitwick, with his profound mastery of spells, was able to cast this powerful spell alone.
And so, the books flying from the top of the bookstore immediately stopped flying and fell. But with another wave of his wand, the books stopped falling, landing gently on the ground in a heap.
"Oh, thank you so much... Professor Flitwick!" Seeing this, Julius Irel, a clerk at Flourish and Blotts and a former Ravenclaw who had graduated just a year earlier, hurried over.
"What's going on, Mr. Irel?" Flitwick asked softly.
"These are Floating Quills—magic products from Germany. The manager, on some advice, decided to give them away as a way to boost sales... You know, the new batch of young wizards is about to start school," Julius said awkwardly.
"Clearly, this promotion isn't a good idea," Flitwick commented sharply.
Judging by the fact that he had to use the Finite Incantatem spell to break them, the spell and magic on these quills must be quite powerful. Are German magic products that popular these days?
Julius clearly agreed, and since they hadn't seen the old Headmaster for a year, the two quickly struck up a familiar conversation.
"Actually, things were going well this morning. Sales were pretty good—and by the way, I even saw Senior Quirinus Quirrell. It was the first time I'd seen him since graduation..."
"Yes, he looked quite nice, though he was wearing a turban for some reason. I even saw him talking to Mr. Malfoy—he'd come to the bookstore to buy a set of textbooks. I heard he's the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year."
"I chatted with him for a while, but the bookstore was in chaos soon after he left—and by the way, this little wizard is a new student..."
Only then did he look at Ryan. After getting Flitwick's confirmation, he patted his chest and promised, "Don't worry, I'll definitely get you the latest textbooks!" Then, he saw a smile on Ryan's adorable face.
"I'll leave it to you, Senior," Ryan said, taking the opportunity to speak cordially. "I want all the books in the bookstore."
"...What? All?" Julius was visibly taken aback.
"Yes—I heard Flourish and Blotts offers an owl mail service." Ryan's smile was bright, but to Mr. Irel, the laborer, his words sounded like the words of hell. "I hope to buy every available book from Flourish and Blotts and have it mailed to my address—um... here's the address, please keep it."
Ten minutes later, with Julius's feeble farewell, Ryan left the bookstore contentedly. Although many of the books were damaged due to the chaos at the bookstore today, Julius enthusiastically offered to mail Ryan brand new books from the warehouse.
This pleased Ryan greatly.
"Books are the carriers of knowledge, and knowledge is the crown of magic," His teacher, Rowena, had once admonished him.
Returning to the magical world after a thousand years, he had witnessed the changes in the world today and urgently needed to understand the changes over the past millennium. Nothing could help him understand these things faster than reading.
As he left the bookstore, Flitwick ran into another familiar face. In fact, as a professor at Hogwarts, England's only wizarding school, most wizards were considered acquaintances. And this time, the people greeting him were again Hogwarts students—they had nearly identical features and red hair. Behind them followed another little boy, also red-haired and freckled.
"Mom and Dad went to Gringotts to get some money—"
"—So, we're taking Ronnie to buy textbooks,"
The two boys said in unison, grinning and in perfect sync.
Hmm... Based on the sorting criteria Ryan had worked out with the four teachers, he judged these two to be Gryffindors.
---
Author's note
Shoutout to Oleg Shayko and Max who have become the new members of the Patreon community! Thank you for your support!
If you want to read more chapters of this story, please visit patreon/achmz . You can read this story up to chapter 26! Thank you for your support!