New beginnings
Violet was lost for words as she stood there, a long winding path down the alley she would come to know as “Diagon Alley” in front of her. It was truly marvellous, like something straight out of a Tim Burton film. The girl watched as people, who she presumed were wizards and witches, flooded the vicinity. She saw many kids her age, mostly being led by their parent/s. Inside the shop windows lined along the walls contained broom sticks, magic guide books, potion bottles and other obscure items. It was all incredibly overwhelming.
Violet’s breath hitched to her throat. Watching the mess before her eyes. She glanced over at her mother expectantly. Not for some reaction, but an answer.
They had just teleported earlier! Seriously. All she did was stand inside an abnormally large fireplace, hold a handful of strange powder out in her palm, throw it on the ground and say the words, “Diagon Alley!” and here she was. The girl was starting to doubt everything she previously believed about magic’s existence.
Rosemarie snapped her daughter out of her rapid thoughts as she clasped her hand and started walking down the uneven brick road. Moments later the duo finally stopped in front of a rather petite store. It had two large signs wrapped around either side of the building, naming the place ‘Ollivanders’. Violet’s mother pushed the door open, a bell ringing to signalise their entrance. Still holding her mother’s hand, Violet hesitantly walked in through the open door.
The inside was quite peculiar, if she were to judge. Slim, petite boxes stacked one over another, shelves and walls of it. They piled so high and mighty that the owner himself had to migrate amongst moving ladders. With how small the store is, the walls caved over - giving the unwanted effect that it were to fall over you. The first step into this nook of a store was the thick smell of damp, smokey wood. A comforting scent that would assassinate your senses without mercy.
Compared to the overflowing streets of the main alleyway, Ollivanders appeared much more tame. No, not just tame. The atmosphere was empty.
The floor was vandalised with scrolls, boxes and more– I wouldn’t want to know. There was practically no floor to step on. No space for footing, unless you were willing to trample on the man’s scrolls and what not. But the old man disregarded everything spread upon the wooden floorboards - fusing with the ground below - and stepped across, crimping pages beneath his feet.
“Welcome, how may I be of assistance to you young lady?” The man approached them, looking like some mad scientist who had been caught up in an unfortunate accident. His voice was welcoming, contrasting his appearance.
“We’re here for Violet’s first wand, before she heads off to Hogwarts.” stated Rosemarie, “Do you think you’d be able to help us, Ollivander?” Oh, so this funny old man was Ollivander himself, the owner of the very store they currently stood in.
‘Ughhhhh the adults talk so much! Why can’t we just get a wand and get out of here?!’ Violet thought.
The sudden ringing of a bell, the one placed above the door, caused Violet to whip her head around. There stood at the doorway, a boy her age and an older man–presumably the boy's caretaker. ‘The kid looks foreign, perhaps from some country of Asia-? Violet had learnt about the other continents in her old primary school, there were Africa, Antarctica, Asia, Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America.’ All this thinking was giving her a mild headache, she shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind.
The girl looked back up, suddenly locking eyes with the unknown boy. His eyes looked empty–to say the least. They were chocolate brown coloured, there was no light to be seen in them, despite the many lanterns populating the room. He had dark brown slightly curled hair, his bangs just barely revealing his eyes. His skin was pale, dark eyebags slightly bruising underneath his eyes.
The boy noticed her analyzing his own appearance, and offered a small smile to break her from her thoughts.
“Hello there! You seem to be around my age, so I’d like to introduce myself! My name is Osamu Dazai.” The boy, Dazai, reached out his hand intending Violet to take it.
“I’m Violet Bellbottom. Nice to meet you Dazai.” She said casually. Dazai was almost definitely a foreigner, he had a slight accent, a Japanese one to be exact. It wasn’t too noticeable when he spoke, but you could hear it when he pronounced certain words and letters.
“Osamu quit scaring the poor girl with your creepy ass smile.” Violet hadn’t even noticed the shorter boy standing right by Dazai’s side, he had gingery-strawberry blonde hair and blue and brown heterochromia. He was surely Japanese as well, (you can tell from the accent) though his hair colour threw her off. Dazai’s own brown hair was odd too now that she thought about it.
“Oh, I’m fine, really. His smile is quite pleasant actually” Violet reassured the ginger. “Nice to meet you, uhm…”
“Chuuya, Chuuya Nakahara.” He said, uncrossing his arms and bowing slightly. Dazai pouted, turning his head away from Chuuya, who just ignored him.
The whole commotion had caused her mother to turn around, her face was relaxed, pleased her daughter was making friends.
“Uhm- Young lady-?” Right, they were still getting a wand. She turned back around to see Ollivander offering out a small slim box, presumably a wand laying inside. Violet unboxed the wand–now unsure of what to do.
“Well, go on, give it a wave!”
Violet nodded in slight agreement. She waved the ‘magic’ wand clasped in her hand, flinching slightly when little gold sparkles escaped out the tip of the object, giving Violet an odd tingly feeling in her arm.
“Amazing! The right wand on the first try, just splendid!” Exclaimed Ollivander. “Redwood, Phoenix feather core & 12 ½’-!” Rosemarie, who had been oddly silent, gave a small smile and plucked the wand out of Violet’s hand to pay.
Violet looked back around at her new friends and their caretaker–which she forgot to ask the name of, only to see Dazai with his hands resting on his cheeks, eyes widened, and mouth agape.
“WOAH!!! Chibiko, did you see that-?! It’s magic!!!” He exclaimed, pointing at the wand that was in Violet’s hand a moment ago, slightly over exaggerating.
“Yeah I know, I have these things called eyes, if you didn’t notice? Also don’t call me that, ya damn mackerel!” The odd nicknames being used by the two boys were enough to make Violet giggling slightly under her breath.
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After departing from the wand shop with a quick wave goodbye and smile to Ollivander, Chuuya, Dazai and their caretaker, which she had learnt was a teacher at Hogwarts by the name of Severus Snape, they were off to the bookstore to purchase all the textbooks needed for Violet’s first year. Upon stepping into the building, Violet was greeted by absurdly large shelves of all kinds of magic books, at least a thousand on each topic. In the middle of the first floor there was a grand staircase leading upwards, towards more and more books.
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A room of stunned adults, frozen in shock. The only two that seemed unfazed were the children. Dazai stood there casually while Chuuya grabbed a spare roll of bandages from his jacket and tended to his partner’s arm wound. His fingers moved with care and precision as if he had done this countless times before. Even the emotionless, cold Snape was left to collect his own jaw from the ground - subtly of course. The man could already feel his impending headache as his brows scrunched with concern.
After calming himself enough to continue, Ollivander spoke up, “Thank you, young man… the blood will do nicely as a core for your wand.” He was obviously still disturbed, the child had stabbed himself for merlin's sake! Turning to the shorter, ginger child, Ollivander analyzed him for a moment before running off to the shelves in the very back of the store. Chuuya watched as the man frantically searched the many shelves of wands, just moments later approaching the two boys again. “Here you are young sir! Give it a wave!” Ollivander encouraged, offering the wand over to the shorter of the two children present. Chuuya obeyed with a small nod towards the man, and flicked the wand in his right hand. Red-coloured fire bursted out the top of the wand, startling Ollivander. The flames were a vibrant red, opposed to the usual orangey yellow type colour fire. “So uh- old guy? What does that mean?” Chuuya questioned.
Ollivander blinked a few times, “Well, uhm… I’ve never seen red flames before, but fire overall is quite common. I’d say this is the right wand for you young man!” Snape glanced down at Chuuya, he gave a slight smile upon seeing the boy’s proud expression.
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Violet found herself wandering around the huge bookstore for what felt like hours, she had gotten so caught up in scrolling through magic storybooks that she completely forgot about her mother’s instruction-! The moment flashed through her mind, ‘Ok Violet, listen to me carefully ok? You have to go look for the textbooks on this list, you got that?’ Rosemarie had said, holding the list in her right hand and pointing at it with her left. She had handed the list to her daughter and dismissed her, reassuring that she had to go do something outside the store. Violet shook her quickly, bringing herself back to the present moment. She flinched, there was someone tapping her shoulder.
Violet whipped her head around immediately, two familiar boys stood in her view. “Pfft- she’s just as bad as you mackerel! Always spacing out at the worst possible times.” Chuuya laughed, nudging Dazai in the arm.
“Oi! Dogs aren’t meant to attack their owners! Must I remind you whose in charge in this partnership?” Dazai teased, smirking at the slightly shorter boy.
“...Uhm-?” Violet spoke up, breaking the two kids out of their bickering as they turned to face the girl once again.
“What are you doing here- Oh! Are you getting your textbooks too?”
Dazai snorted at that, looking down at the girl, “We are indeed, though it doesn’t look like you’ve been sticking to your task” Violet followed his gaze towards her hands, a list of books and a pen laid in her palm, not a single book was marked off. Chuuya held in a laugh, he didn’t want to be on the same low as Dazai when it came to proper manners.
“Don’t worry Vi!” The nickname caught Violet by surprise, did this mean they were officially friends now? “Chibi and I will help you! When we met you at Ollivander’s, I deduced that you were also attending Hogwarts. That means we have the same book list!” He said, grinning down at the girl with a toothy smile and hands clasped behind his back.
Chuuya was pleasantly surprised at the offer made by Dazai, the selfish, annoying brat he knew would have never offered to help anyone (obviously outside of work). He guessed this was because of the mission, Dazai and Chuuya were instructed to act as normal kids in the eyes of wizards and witches to avoid any suspicion. Before this mission, he knew of Dazai’s immaculate manipulation skills, but had never really seen it in action; every move, smile, tone of speaking and what he was saying were all carefully planned and picked. It was clear to him now how Dazai wanted him to act around Violet.
Violet made a small sound of agreement along with a nod to confirm her response. “Well, let us be off then~!” Dazai exclaimed, turning on his heel and waving his hand gesturing to Violet and Chuuya to follow.
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Snape hurriedly snaked about the tight path. The further he went, the fewer people there were. He paused, turning on his heels. Displayed on a rusty metal rack were shelves of magazines, newspapers, and information about the latest drama. Those cold, piercing gazes were glued to the headline of… the Daily Prophet. Startled, Snape lets out a small, shaky exhale. He takes a minute to calm himself, making sure no one caught onto his moment of vulnerability. The man turned his head away, eyes parting with the image he was staring so intently at. Steps began echoing off the red brick walls as a silhouette was seen fading into the distance. “You’re finally coming back…huh?”
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