All in the Family

CHAPTER TWO:
 
I wouldn't ever have noticed that Ollivander's existed if it weren't for my uncles taking me there. There, they left me alone to buy Terry a good-bye present.

The shop was old, really old. The only three walls it had were full of shelves full of small long boxes. On top of the moth-eaten table use as a counter was also piled high with more boxes. But besides that, the shop was completely empty.

The shop was completely quiet until suddenly I heard a thumping noise. There were several thumping noises followed by something being dragged across the floor. A grey-hair head appeared from behind one of the shelves and smiled at me with the few teeth it had left.

"Ah, Wood..." the old man approached me, using crutches to walk. "I was wondering what was taking you so long,"

I simply looked at him as he searched for a box from the thousands that he had on his desk.

"I have a wand exclusively reserved for your use from many years ago..." he took out the box from a pile and smiled. "12 inches, unicorn hair, ebony."

He made me take the wand in my right hand and wave it in the air. Absolutely nothing happened. I returned the wand to him and he stared at it surprised.

"How odd!" he exclaimed as he put it away again in it's box. "That was your fathers wand, I thought it might be of use to you."

My eyes, as my mouth and ears, opened completely. "Can I keep it?" my voice sounding so desperate it almost seemed to be an order. The man simply smiled and gave it to me.

"Let's see..." he dragged his feet, with the help of the crutches and started to take out boxes. For at least an hour I tried out different models of wands: 13, 11, 15 and 16 inches. In the end, with none of the magic wands had I been able to do magic. I wasn't even able to do 'ma'.

The boxes were strewn all over the floor and counter until the old man gave up and sat on a chair. Poor guy, he had been a whole hour up and about trying to look for the right wand for me. I combed my hands through my hair, trying to put it in place, and that was when he jumped up from where he sat. "Give me your hands!" he ordered me. Scared as hell, I gave them to him. He rearranged his glasses and observed my palms carefully. "Mmm..." he exclaimed as he looked them over. "How could I miss it?"

Amazingly, he ran to the back of the shop and I heard him throw several things to the floor. He came back with an old wooden box in his hand, beautifully decorated. He blew the dust from it and opened it.

"This wand has been waiting for you for 14 years." He took it out of the box and looked at it, as if admiring it. "I still remember when I made them..."

"Them?" I said confused. "But I only see one."

The old man smiled and stared on. "Two are one, Wood." He told me. "Two wands that merged together 14 years ago to form this magnificent work of art. Here," He gave me the wand and I took it with a lot of care.

I held it in my fingers and from the moment I touched it I felt a strange electricity coursing my body from head to toe. I looked at the old man who was grinning widely at me. I waved the wand for some seconds and it was a magnificent feeling; I felt like different forces in my body were freed after a long time. A soft wind started to make itself felt in the room turning into practically a tornado that enveloped me completely. My hair flew as I tightly held my wand in my right hand. Boxes flew around me, as did a bunch of papers and other things I couldn't recognize; I couldn't take my eyes off the wand, I felt like hypnotized...

The room was in perfect order when, a second later the wind stopped and I finally could see the old man once more. All the papers were firmly stacked on the desk and the boxes were neatly in their places on the shelves. He smiled without taking his eyes off me. "My biggest creation..." he whispered as he went to the registrar so I could pay him. "The biggest of all times..."

I paid him 20 Galleons for both wands (three, actually) and I exited the shop. When I opened the door, the sun blinded me for a few seconds until my eyes readjusted to the light in Diagon Alley. I was entering a completely different world...

 

* * * * *

 

Platform 93/4 was full of wizard with their children. The train looked splendid in the sunlight while I walked through the platform with my uncles behind me. Never before had I been to that place but thousands of times I had imagined it; though it was nothing compared to real life.

I said goodbye to Uncle Neville and Aunt Parvati and got on the train with Terry. I smiled at him and took him to a compartment where there were some first years talking and left him there, then, went to another one, farther away and completely empty. I closed the door behind me and sat on one of the seats. The families shared their last good-byes through the window as things like: 'Don't forget to owl!' and 'Bring me something nice!' were heard.

I opened my small carry-on bag and took out the wands. First I focused on my father's, it was really beautiful. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine him using it repeating over and over Accio. But for some strange reason I couldn't. Maybe it was because I knew him practically by photos. I only had few memories of my first three years, very few and very vague, but better that than nothing.

I remembered a smile, a beautiful wide smile; probably my mother's. I remembered blond hair and black hair. I remembered eyes, green ones. And voices, phrases... but they weren't very certain.

Thanks to the photos I knew I looked much more like my father than like my mother. She was blond with some freckles on her rosy cheeks an intense blue eyes. But I was just like my father, I seemed more his sister than his daughter: the same green eyes, black hair, ears, nose. Everything, I was a carbon copy of him only that a female version.

I put away his wand in its box and took out the other one. The ends were shining to bright for the little light that infiltrated through the window curtains. There was something in that wand, something that made me look at it to never again take my eyes off it. Something that drew me...

With a tremendous effort I put it away again in its box and looked at its drawings. I could clearly see a phoenix and right under it, in faded golden letters, I could distinguish some initials: TR & HP. I looked at it strangely. Where those the initials of those who had use it before? Well, those who had used the wands that had later on joined to form only one; the one she had in her hand at that moment.

The door opened suddenly and I put away the box in my bag. "Sorry..." said a young guy as he entered. "there were no-", he never finished his phrase. "You!" he exclaimed as he closed the door behind him. "I didn't think we'd see each other this soon."

I smiled; to my surprise he was wearing a Manchester T-shirt. He laughed and sat down, facing me. "They play next week," he said.

"Are there any TVs at Hogwarts?" I asked, no way was I going to miss the best game of history: Liverpool versus Manchester.

Steven looked at me surprised. "Haven't you ever gone to Hogwarts?" he asked me.

I shook my head no as I opened the curtain to look at the view. The train was going through a field, a forest could be seen farther back.

He looked even more surprised. "You're eleven?" he seemed too frightened.

"No, I'm 14." I answered. I didn't wait for him to ask me how could that be, I simply told him the whole story... well, not all of it. "My adoptive family thought I was a Squib, I had never shown any signs of magic before, until one day, I simply started to remember things, and... here I am!"

He looked out the window. "Almost the same story as Potter."

"What did you just say?" I asked.

"Harry Potter, you know him, right?" he looked at me unflinchingly.

"Yeah, I know him... but not the whole story," I answered. "What happened?"

"One day he woke up and got a letter from Hogwarts." He replied. "He didn't even know the school existed."

"How do you know about that?" I asked him, very intrigued. Different things those days had been leading me to Harry Potter and I needed to know what and why.

"My parents were his best friends..." Steven told me. "I never got to meet him, I was born two weeks after he died."

"When did he die?" I asked.

"31 de July... 14 years ago," he took something out of his pocket and stared at it.

If it weren't because I was sitting down, I would have fell over backwards. I think my mouth remained open for several minutes before I was able to process the information. 31 of July? 14 years ago? That was the day I was born!

"Are you ok?" he asked me as he put his hand on my shoulder. I blinked for some seconds before actually seeing him. "Yeah," I lied. "Sure."

Steven looked out the window. "We're almost there, so we better go change." He got up. "By the way, what's your name?" he asked.

It was true; I had never given him my name. I put out my hand and smiled. "Hannah." I said as he shook my hand. "Hannah Wood."

It was then that his smile disappeared completely from his face. He stayed there holding my hand tightly for a few seconds, without saying anything, just looking at me with his mouth wide open and without even blinking. "Hannah Wood?" he asked me, as if he couldn't believe it. "Daughter of Oliver and Emma Wood? Are you really Hannah Wood?"

"If you keep saying my name you're going to wear it out." I took my hand out of his with a sharp pull. "How do you know who my parents are?"

"Everybody knows about you," he said before disappearing behind the compartment door.

I stood looking at nothing for a couple of minutes. He knew who I was, who my parents were. How? I put on my robe and grabbed my bag.

 

* * * * *

 

I spotted McGonagall with the other professors as she approached me. I was alone in the throng of first-years and my head stood out from the rest. She came towards me and taking my arm guided me slowly to a farther corner of the Great Hall. "You wait here until I say your name." She told me, then turned around and left.

I was surprised to see three empty chairs at the Professors table. My uncles had told me some about the professors and I was able to recognize a couple of them. The first one I saw was Hermione, the woman who had talked to me at the robe shop. What did she say she taught? Transfigurations or Charms? Next to her sat a ghost, I knew he taught History of Magic. Then, there was an old man of black greasy hair and a sour face. My uncles had warned me about that guy: Snape, Potions Master. Better to stay away. Then there was an empty chair that I imagined was McGonagall's, since it was next to the High chair that must have been the director's...

Which was empty. Dumbledore wasn't there, now that was weird. Then, there was another empty chair after other professors I wasn't able to identify.

In front of the table there was a stool with an old frayed hat: the Sorting Hat. After singing his beautiful song, McGonagall took out a long scroll and started reading names. One by one the first-years stepped up and tried on the hat. He remained silent for several seconds before calling out loud the name of the House that the student should go to.

It was getting closer and closer to me... and I was more scared as the seconds passed...

"¡Wood, Hannah!"

The clapping and shouts from the Hufflepuff house died and I could feel all the eyes of the room looking at me. I remained as if frozen and felt that my head was about to explode from the nerves and the embarrassment. As I walked slowly to the stool were the hat was I could hear the whispers from the students.

"Did she just say Wood?" "The Hannah Wood?".

I sat down and the whole room went quiet. Everybody was waiting for the Hat to shout out the house...

McGonagall smiled at me and put the hat on my head, which covered my eyes completely. Inside it was pure darkness.

I swear I almost jumped and ran out when I heard the voice. But it calmed me down.

"Mmm..." said the voice. "I've seen a mind like this one before... two, in fact."

Two? As in the two that had joined wands?

"Difficult, very difficult." The Hat went on. "I see plenty of courage, eagerness to learn and kindness... however, I sense resentment and thirst for revenge. This is very difficult."

I closed my eyes and the Hat became quiet. Every second felt like an eternity. It had to shout, it had to shout, it had to-

"Gryffindor!"

I felt the Gryffindor table explode in shouts and applause. I don't want to sound self-centered, but it seemed as if they were actually very happy to have me there. But the Hat wasn't removed from my head, what was going on?

"And Slytherin!" the Hat shouted again.

The applause ended. The shouts couldn't be heard anymore and McGonagall took the hat off of my head, looking at me dumbfounded, as was the rest of the room.

"What?" I asked. My voice echoed throughout the whole building.

McGonagall's, the professors' and the students' mouths remained opened. McGonagall went to the High table and started talking to her colleagues. The students also started talking between themselves. The only one who didn't look surprised was Snape...

When McGonagall returned I felt the nervousness wash over me from my head to the tip of my toes. She came towards me. "Really Odd. Never before has the Hat chose two houses for the same person..." she made me get off from the stool. "I think you'll have to chose where you want to go. I leave it in your hands."

I looked around myself at the four Houses. Gryffindor or Slytherin? Slytherin or Gryffindor? "Gryffindor." I answered; my father had gone there.

She smiled at me widely. "Just what I expected."