Return
The final day before Lirum would return to Hogwarts had arrived but the Weasley's still had not. Lirum walked around the main shop floor as they reorganised the wands after most of this year’s first year students had come through and found their wands by now. They cleaned and familiarised themself with all of the wands' new locations. Sycamore and Laurel had been the most popular this year and needed the most help reorganising.
They looked over their shoulder to the back room where Percy’s new wand laid finished on the work desk. They’d placed it carefully in its box and wrapped it nicely after presenting it to their grandfather to make sure there wasn’t anything they could have done better. He’d told them as much, it was as good as any wand on the sales floor. In fact he’d said it was probably better then a fair few of them considering the special attention that had been paid to it making sure that its curves flowed naturally with its grain to ensure the smoothest finish. But they still stood anxiously.
Was there anything they could have done better? Anything they could fix before he picked it up? Would they pair? What if he didn’t like it? Or the wand didn’t agree with him? What if they’d had an incorrect image of Percy this whole time and the wand could see it, and refused to pair with him?
They knew those thoughts were rubbish. Though it’s true wands have the final say if they’ll pair with a wizard, people special order wands all the time. They find which woods and cores work best with them and measure out what length feels right in their hand and place orders based on that and unless they’re unrealistic with themselves and who they truly are they usually pair amazing. Though that’s usually only something people with enough money not to worry if the wand will agree with them do.
They where snapped out of their thoughts by the sound of the bell above the door ringing, and as they stepped out to greet the new customer they saw it, six redheads extra freckled from their summer in the sun. Ron led the group sheepishly clearly there to replace his old broken wand. He was followed by his parents, little sister, Fred and George and finally Percy. Lirum’s attention was immediately set on the cage George was carrying, Grayson looking tired as ever fluffed up angrily inside.
“You’re back! Oh I missed you!” Lirum said, rushing toward their friends.
“Lirum!” The weasley kids cheered, ready and waiting for their green haired friend with open arms.
“You never sent me any letter’s back! Decided to steal my owl, did you George!” Lirum said, hugging him and taking Grayson back.
“Not my fault blame Fred and Mum!” He said pointing to them. “I took good care of him, just like you asked!”
“Thank you again, for both Grayson and your gift.” Lirum said, giving him one more half hug before setting Graysons cage on the counter. “Wait, Fred I told you about your time limit several times in my letter what did you do that meant they couldn’t owl me?”
“I couldn’t come up with the right words?” He said awkwardly, while Lirum looked at him as if he’d grow another head. “You insisted that I only had two weeks to write the letter and I couldn’t write the perfect letter in that amount of time!”
“Fred, since when have your letters ever been perfect? Every letter you’ve ever written to me looks like you’re passing me a note in class?” Lirum teased, walking closer to give him his welcome back hug, but he grew red.
“I think they’re pretty good though, aren’t they? You don’t dislike my letters do you?” He asked a bit shyer than they were expecting.
“Of course not it’s silly, but endearing- are you alright you must still be burnt from Egypt.” Lirum said, looking closer at his bright red face. They reached up to push his now longer hair out of his face, and thought they must not have had time to cut it over the summer.
They were snapped back to reality by someone clearing their throat though. They pulled back and turned around to see Percy, his freckles Lirum had always adored, now more prevalent than ever; he proudly wore his head boy badge in his jumper and smiled warmly at them. Lirum couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face. He was never happy to see them overly friendly with the twins but he was still too excited to see them to truly be upset.
“Did you think I forgot about you? Come here perce.” Lirum laughed, pulling him tight. “Head boy! You must be so proud and I made something just for you! I spent all summer making sure it was perfect. I have complete faith I’ve paired you perfectly!”
“Paired me? What are you even on about? Are you having heat stroke?” Percy said, looking down slightly to catch Lirum’s eyes.
“No, it’s my secret summer project. I made something just for you! I knew you were going to be head boy, and how big of an achievement that is, and that your birthday was this week, so it’s going to be your two in one present! I would normally get you two but I feel like this one is big enough you’d be upset if I got you two!” Lirum explained, brimming with excitement. “I just really hope you like it.”
“Y-You didn’t need to do anything special. If it was from you, I would have been happy with anything.” Percy said not letting go of them. Ron and Fred fake gagged, reminding Lirum everyone was still there.
“O-oh um, did you need any help?” Lirum offered, awkwardly. Mr. And Mrs. Weasley waved them off.
“No dear, you finish up your welcome party.” Mrs. Weasley said, beaming clearly still over the moon with winning the draw and then Percy getting head boy.
“And I think I’d rather not after that.” Ron grumbled before turning down one of the Isles of bookcases .
“Well then why don’t I go get your present?” Lirum said, resting a hand on Percy’s shoulder, but as they went to pull away he stopped them.
“Where’s your badge?” He asked sadly. “I thought you said you’d also been chosen as a prefect this year?”
“Prefect?” Fred and George echoed behind them.
“Oh, I did. I've just been keeping the badge in my pocket. I'm still working after all.” Lirum answered shyly, before pulling their blue and silver badge out of their pocket. A sigh of relief left Percy.
“Oh how lovely dear, you got chosen as a prefect too?” Mrs. Weasley said overjoyed.
“Yes ma’am.I’ll be one of the fifth year Ravenclaw prefect’s.” Lirum said, a bit embarrassed.
“I bet you wish you’d tried for prefect now boys!” She snapped turning toward Fred and George.
“I’ll just go get you present.” Lirum said, awkwardly. They stepped into the work room with and grabbed the neatly wrapped box. Taking one more long deep breath readying themself to give it to him. “Please work.”
When they stepped back into the showroom they locked eyes with Percy. His eyes darted from their face to their hands confused. He took the box from them carefully before opening it. When he pulled it out he looked as though he might cry.
“You made this, for me?” He asked softly.
“I told you last year, the reason you were struggling with charms and wand work was because you and your wand weren’t a good match it it was fighting stubbornly against you.” Lirum gestured for him to test the wand, and when he did it came far easier than the one before. Relieved, Lirum spoke again. “I made it with you in mind everything from the wood to the core to how long it is- you have rather large hands for being so tall so I made sure the grip of the handle was a bit longer to accommodate that. I hope it feels alright I-“
Before they could say another word they were pulled tightly into another hug. It felt like Percy was holding onto them for dear life.
“You spent all summer making this for me? Because you knew-you believed I could do it?” He asked into their shoulder.
“Of course I did? You deserve it, you’ve worked so hard! You deserve a wand that’s gonna work just as hard as you do, and one that’s going to last with you through all of it.” Lirum explained reaching a hand up to his hair.
“Lirum, I-you are-“
“I think I’ve found it!” Ron yelled, running out of the shelves holding up a particularly long wand waving it around in the air. His pounding footsteps grabbed everyone’s attention, seemingly even Lirum’s grandfather who made his way down stairs at the yelling.
“Ah I see you’ve made it and you’ve already found what you were looking for while you were here.” He chuckled making his way to the till. “A good choice for you fourteen inches, willow wood, and a single unicorn tail hair.”
“That’s right and no family and friends discount this time we won the draw you know.” Mrs. Weasley insisted happily. “Oh and congratulations on Your grandson get chosen for prefect, this is our second head boy!”
“What?” He asked, confused, staring at her for a moment before looking over to Lirum. They had only when the Weasley’s arrived pulled out their pin for the first time.
“I was chosen to be a prefect this year.” Lirum explained realising they’d been so frustrated with the wording of the letter they hadn’t thought to tell anyone the news unless they’d asked.
“Why didn’t you tell me that’s wonderful news!” He said coming over ti hug them.
“I guess I just got distracted. I got the letter the same morning the daily profit broke the news about Blacks escape from Azkaban. It must of slipped my mind.” Lirum explained.
“But that means you didn’t celebrate at all! You should have noticed there was no celebration!” Percy argued.
“I’ve never really liked the extra attention so I guess I just counted myself lucky?” They joked awkwardly. “I’d really rather do something small”
“Then come back to the leaky cauldron with us tonight, we’ll do all our shopping then go back there since we’re staying the night and we can celebrate being head boy and prefect.” He beamed, Lirum didn’t think they’d ever seen him so happy.
“Don’t forget us Percy, we'll be there too.” Fred cut in moving to stand next to Lirum.
“Yeah, after all you get a specially made new wand and try to steal our friend I think not.” George said, taking his place next to Fred.
“He’s not stealing me from you. I can’t just be stolen, idiot.” Lirum teased. “But as for whether or not I can come, that's up to grandpa.”
“Please Mr. Ollivander we promise to be good?” The twins asked in harmony.
“I’ve learned never to trust that.” Mrs. Weasley said from behind then. “But myself, Arthur, and Percy will be there, and Lirum is obviously responsible enough to have been chosen as a prefect,”
“You’ve already got your trunk packed for the morning right dear?” He asked from across the room.
“Of course, I could never wait until the morning of! Can you imagine how much I would forget?” Lirum asked, shocked.
“We’ll take him with us in the morning.” Mrs. Weasley insured, earning another odd look from Lirum’s grandfather.
“I don’t see anything wrong with it, you can bring your trunk over when you’re done shopping.” He said before finishing the sale with Mrs. Weasley.
“Come on, Lirum!” The Twins chorused picking them up and crafting them outside.
“Hey-You put them down!” Percy shouted after them chasing them outside.
“Another year if this is it?” Ron started disgusted.
“It’s quite romantic I think!” Ginny said, rushing after them. Making Lirum flush so hard their hair was probably bright pink.