Chapter 4
The Magic Trio all grinned, or in Lukas' case, just looked at them. The others looked in every direction, taking everything in and they ushered them out of the archway, which slowly began to close on them.
"WHOA ZHIS IS AWESOME! NOT AS AWESOME AS I AM, BUT STILL AWESOME!" Prussia yelled and started to dash to the nearest shop that read 'Cauldrons - All Sizes - Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver - Self-Stirring - Collapsible' from a hanging sign from over the shop. Cauldrons of varying shapes and sizes were stacked outside the shop. Vlad tried to go with Gilbert but were both intercepted by Lukas who yanked them both by the ears and told them we had to get money first, then they could explore.
They led the others through the crowd until they reached a very tall, snowy white, marble building that gleamed brightly in the sunlight.
"One thing before we go in," Vlad said with utmost seriousness, "we need to show you something." The others started in confusion as Arthur's eyes became blue and his hair became pink, Lukas' eyes went red and his hair went brown, and for Vlad, his eyes became blue and his hair blond.
"Sestra, WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!" asked the scared Russian.
"Don't worry, Ivan, we can change our appearance at will, so it looks similar to our 2ps, however, we don't really act like them except on Samhain Eve where they take over our bodies completely," said Arthur, not sounding annoyed for once and kinda sounded like Italy.
"Oh, we do act pretty similar personality-wise, you're just understating it." said a bored sounding Vlad to a grinning Lukas. "Like the fact that Arthur hasn't frowned or sworn once."
"Okay, we might act a little like our 2ps more than we let on when we do this," said the high looking Norwegian.
"Zhis is awesome and all, but can you please tell us what the fuck a 2p is because zhis is too weird."
"We'll explain after we get home, don't worry, we won't stay like this the whole day," said the still smiling Lukas.
They walked up to the massive burnished bronze doors, they saw a little... thing in a scarlet and gold uniform.
"Yes, that's a goblin," said Vlad while the other two of the three members of the Magic Trio was talking about random crap with Gilbert and laughing about it, while he was still looking a bit unsettled because he was used to grumpy, old man Arthur and the emotionless wall that was Lukas, and a hyper Vlad, not this. They saw a second pair of doors that were much smaller and silver this time, with words engraved on them:
Enter, stranger, but take heed
Of what awaits the sin of greed,
For those who take, but do not earn,
Must pay dearly in their turn,
So if you seek beneath our floors
A treasure that was never yours,
Thief, you have been warned, beware
Of finding more treasure there.
"You'd be insane to try to rob it," casually remarked Vlad.
"They also have dragons to protect the more valuable treasures as well!" piped up a hyper Arthur.
"Eyebrows, calm the fuck down, it's unsettling to see you like zhis."
He scowled even though it looked like he was more pouting than it normally does. Inside, they arrived at a vast marble hall and saw hundreds of pointy-faced spindly-limbed goblins weighing stacks of coins or observing precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count, leading to who knows where, and even more goblins leading people in and out of those doors. The gaggle of children walked towards the counter.
"May we withdraw some money from the joint Popescu, Bondevik, and Kirkland vault, please?" said to the goblin at the counter.
"Sure, if you have the key."
"Just wait a second," and he turned to the group. "Oi, which one of you has the key?"
The others started rummaging through their pockets and brought out a lot of random stuff such as part of a fish in Lukas' pocket, a few toffees and mint humbugs in Arthur's pockets which he offered around everyone, random pieces of wood in Vlad's pocket until they found it in one of Lukas' pockets and handed it to the goblin who promptly took everyone to a very rickety old cart.
"Hop on in everyone," said the goblin who was smirking evilly. "And hold on tight."
The others certainly did hold on tight, and unsurprisingly, Gilbert was whooping and enjoying the ride along with Lukas, and Arthur, Natalya, Ivan, and Vlad holding onto the cart so tightly, that the metal underneath Ivan's hand was slowly crumpling under the superpower's strength. The cart went deeper and deeper underground and it kept getting progressively colder until there was a blast of heat which everyone swore was a dragon until they reached vault 617.
When they entered the vault, it wasn't as large as the others would have thought. It was filled with a decent amount of coins and the others thought it might contain more than this since a former pirate, now the seventh richest nation in the world (of 1991), a former Viking, and just Romania. They took enough coins for the six of them and went back on the cart to go back up. Once they got there, Ivan and Vlad looked green and the other four looked as hyper as the Awesome Trio usually did, and walked out of the bank where the Magic Trio changed back to their regular appearance. To test if they were back to normal, Gilbert made a joke that previously had two-thirds of the Magic Trio giggling. The same two-thirds glared at him disdainfully, while the other started to howl with laughter.
"Good, they're back to normal, that was unsettling as fuck," said Gilbert shuddering, and the same sentiment was shared by the others as well.
(The 2p! Universe - Crack, skippable -)
"If we kill 32 000 people, it'll save as much oxygen as--"
"FUCK, OLLIE, WHY ARE YOUR EYES GREEN AND YOUR HAIR NOT PINK?!" Allen yelled at Oliver who was sitting next to him.
"ZITTO, ALLEN YOU'RE BEING A DUMBASS AGAIN. MIO DIO, HE'S RIGHT! OLIVER WHAT HAPPENED?!"
"STOREBROR HAS GONE WEIRD TOO! HE'S NOT TELLING ME OFF FOR CALLING HIM THAT!"
"Something weird happened to Marius (Romania), he called me a dirty brown cow!" wailed Reka (Hungary) while almost having a breakdown.
The Magic Trio knew what was happening and wisely decided to stay quiet. The others were confused when Oliver started acting like a boring old man and not a highly poisonous and cannibalistic hyper cupcake? Since when has Sigurd (Norway) not shown much emotion and not been an overactive pyromaniac? And since when was Marius a restless Hungarian-hating man instead of the cold, scheming mastermind that everyone knows and hates. On top of that, their appearances looked weird. Oliver has dark green eyes and blond hair, instead of the usual electric blue eyes and pink hair. Sigurd has pale blonde hair, bordering on silver and very deep blue eyes, contrasting with the norm of *glittery* red eyes and brown hair. Marius had brown hair and red eyes that shone with innocent mischief which was hard to find around here, instead of the cold, hard, blue they were used to seeing, accompanied by his blond hair.
"EXPLAIN THIS TO US YOU THREE." said the terrifying Italian.
Instead of Marius answering as he usually did, Oliver spoke up.
"Some magic shit has been going on and it sometimes changes our personalities and appearances, even though we don't know why we do know that it goes back to normal in quite a bit."
The entire room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, while Allen (America) had a silent breakdown in the corner and eventually yelled, "OLLIE, DID YOU JUST FUCKING SWEAR?"
"Oh shit, apparently I did. Well, I did say it changes our personalities a bit."
Suddenly, they turned back to normal, and the entire meeting went on as usual, but there was a silent agreement never to speak of that occasion again if in the presence of the Magic Trio.
(Back to the normal Universe)
"Partner up you lot, if we split up we can get more done quicker, meet up at Ollivander's wand shop in about two hours."
Of course, Gilbert partnered with Vlad and was off through the crowd even before many of the others had even teamed up, yet they had immediately gone to Zonko's Joke Shop Natalya paired with Lukas and they set off towards Flourish and Blotts to get their school books which left Ivan and Arthur together, who went off to Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions to get their school uniform.
With the red-eyed children
"Come on Gilbert, I know a place that has the best pranking supplies EVER!"
"Shouldn't we get our school stuff first?"
"Let's do that after since it gets busy later, c'mon, it's right here!"
"Okay, but we need to go soon."
"Fine, fine, but we're here now!"
Romania pulled him into the store and watched his eyes widen in awe of all of the jokes and tricks that were stacked high on shelves where he reminded himself they didn't have all day. They set off into the store and they only emerged out of the shelves fifteen minutes later holding armfuls of various pranking equipment.
They paid for their five galleon purchase and were leaving the store, talking amongst themselves on how they would prank people with all this stuff when they bumped into two red-headed boys.
"Ahhgh, sorry about that."
"Hey George, it's two little squirts with a very good taste in parking equipment."
"Really, let me see, Fred."
"Hm, wet start fireworks, long-lasting hair dye, boil and wart potions, a few joke wands, and fake mice."
"You both have excellent taste in pranking equipment and by what a good way of exciting them. How would you like to be our pranking apprentices if you get sorted into Gryffindor?" they asked in perfect synchrony that it was almost terrifying.
"Can we ask a few questions first," Gilbert said seriously. "What are your names and where can we sign up for this?"
"Our names are Gred and Forge, but it's actually Fred and Geroge, but it works better like this. You can only sign up once you get sorted, but we can give you an apprenticeship offer for now."
"We accept your offer and look forward to working with you." the other two said while smirking intensively.
They all left the joke shop and the red-eyed children went to go get robes.
With Ivan and Arthur
"Where are you taking me, Arthur?"
"Robes for school, I'll bet a knut that Madam Malkin will think that you're at least third year."
"And I bet she'll think that you're too small for Hogwarts."
"Oh, bugger off, I'm not that short. Anyways, we're here now."
When they entered, a bell tinkle, signalling their arrival and a squat, smiling witch dressed on all mauve hurried up to them.
"Hogwarts, dears?" she asked.
Before they could speak, she said, "We've got a lot of them today, come follow me, we've got two here already!"
They moved into the back of the shop where a boy with a pale, pointed face was getting his robes fitted, talking to another boy sitting there. They were talking about something called Quidditch, but it quickly transitioned into a talk about houses.
"Well, no one really knows until they get there, but I'll know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family has been -- imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" the pale boy said.
At this point, Arthur got quite pissed off at this point and said, "Come on, Hufflepuffs aren't that bad, they're usually extremely loyal and cheerful people, which Slytherin is clearly lacking."
"Who do you think you are?" said the boy incredulously.
The witch that was fitting his clothes told them all to be quiet, so he then asked, "Were your parents one of our kind?"
"Yes, they were both magical," he answered shortly.
"What about that giant oaf of a boy behind you?"
Before Ivan could respond, Madam Malkin told them, "That's you done, dear," and he stepped off his footstool. "I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose."
The boy that the snooty young man was talking to was immediately recognized by Arthur. This boy was Harry Potter, the boy who lived. He looked exactly like James, almost perfectly, but he had Lily's eyes, and the lightning scar on his forehead that signalled the demise of the Dark Lord. He stopped staring and started a conversation with him, explaining what Quiddich was after Harry had expressed that he didn't really know what it was, and started properly explaining the rules. He got quite interested in the subject as was Ivan who happened to also be listening. He also asked where Ivan was from because he was clearly not from the British Isles. He said he was from the Russian SSR (It also happened to fall the same year on December 26th, 1991, and the Philosopher's stone takes place in 1991.) He got curious about what was going on in the USSR, but before Ivan could answer, the witch said she was done with Harry's robes.
The witch fitting Ivan has asked, "Are you sure that you're not transferring in year three from Koldovstoretz?"
When Ivan confirmed, she started to fit Arthur. "Whoever feeds you clearly doesn't feed you enough, you're so short and skinny!"
They finally got out of the clothing shop and walked back into the crowd after paying a knut to Ivan.
Flourish and Blotts with Natayla and Lukas
"Wow, that's a lot of books!" exclaimed the awed Belarusian, scanning the endless shelves of books, eyes glinting with fascination and joy.
"I didn't think you were one to read books, you seem more like a physical person."
"Well, I like crime, thriller and horror, more than most, but I do enjoy fantasy novels as well because they just seem so unrealistic, but I'm not really sure anymore," she said, gesturing around her.
They both walked around the store until they found a section full of school books and picked up the textbooks and went to go pay, but ended up getting sidetracked by the Foreign Magical Creatures section and Thriller and Horror section respectively. Lukas browsed through the books looking for something on the lesser-known magical beasts of Scandinavian mythology, such as the Gullinkambi or Fossegrimen, until he found an extraordinary old book that had a lot of myths and legends that neither of them had seen from many countries of the world, including a sizable chunk of Scandinavian folklore. Meanwhile, Natalya was looking through the horror books and found that most of them were either childish and could barely be classified as horror, or extremely gory, gruesome, or just plain dark, and quite often depressing. They described gore in a way that can only be known by someone who's killed before and had the regret that it has on first-time murderers was so accurately described that she got concerned for the writer's health but ended up taking one of the books out of morbid curiosity. She also looked at the crime section but there wasn't anything really worthwhile. There were other than a few interesting books about serial killers that had a decent amount of gore, a lot of torture, and a very, very uncertain ending. She couldn't really find anything good in the thriller section, so she went off to search for the Norwegian boy who was supposed to be accompanying her. She eventually found him pouring over an extremely old book full of folklore and stood behind him silently attempting to read what was written on the page before she gave up and asked him. She had the pleasure to see him startled for once before she asked him to read about some of her own country's folklore. She was an inquisitive person and really enjoyed it, and to a point believed it.
"Please read to me about Baubas, big brother."
"I'm not your big brother, why would you call me that?"
She looked flustered and apologized, "Sorry Lukas, I'm just not used to having anyone around me other than big brother and sister and that our matryoshka told us this story. I remember we got scared, but I forgot the story over time," she ended sadly.
They read for a good ten minutes until they remembered they had to do other things and quickly purchased the twenty galleons worth of books and left to go finish their shopping.
Time skip
"Right, you all have your necessary school supplies?" Arthur said, glaring suspiciously at the one extra bag the two red-eyed children had between them, but didn't think about it too much and told them to get into the narrow and shabby shop with peeling gold lettering over the door that read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine wands since 382 BC, and only a single wand on a faded purple cushion on display through a dusty window.
"Zhis shop is older than almost every nation! It's definitely older than me for sure!" Prussia remarked in amazement.
"Yes Gilbert, this family has been making wands since the time of the Druids, and of course it's colder than us you moron, we're eleven, remember."
He seemed to have gotten the message and headed inside to hear a bell tinkle somewhere in the shop, only for Gilbert's and Arthur's hair to become immediately wilder then they already were, making the rest of them crack up. Norway smirked knowing Arthur's hair does this when he enters an extremely magical place. While they laughed, some random sparks flickered from Vlad's hand and landed on the floor causing the floor to get mildly burnt before Ivan put it out by stepping on them. Ollivander, who was watching the chaos unfold, chucked. The others finally noticing his presence all profusely apologized.
"It's fine, that isn't the first time that's happened and it certainly won't be the last. Many young witches and wizards' magic goes haywire because of all the magical energy. However, that was quite strong accidental magic, whoever did that, please come up."
Vlad nervously walked up and was measured from all angles with a magical tape measure while Ollivander bustled around the shop muttering to himself, "Strong magic needs strong wands."
He returned with multiple wands and started handing them to Vlad.
Yew 12 inches, unicorn hair - Didn't do anything
Aspen, 11 inches, phoenix feather - burst into flames
He continued the cycle of not being able to find a suitable wand, most of them didn't do anything or blew up. Instead of getting frustrated, he got more excited since difficult customers were rare. After what felt like an eternity later, he went back into the depths of the shop and came out with a few more boxes. These had extremely dusty covers and looked much older. He handed one to Vlad, "This really should work. It's a dual-cored wand: Dogwood, 12 inches, dragon heartstring and vampire blood core, quite temperamental and excitable. Good for charms." When he held it in his hand, the room was illuminated by a bright light to see a small dragon made of sparks sitting on Ollivander's head and started to preen itself; it didn't disappear like these pieces of magic tend to do.
"This wand is exceptionally powerful," Ollivander remarked. "use it well."
He called up Ivan next and went through a similar trial and error phase, but instead of them not giving any results or blowing up, they froze or refused to move. On a whim, he decided to try using the dual cored wands.
"Fir, 14 inches, Thestral hair and dragon heartstring core -- hard to tame but very loyal, good for transfiguration and curses."
Ivan lifted the wand and the room was suddenly filled with shin-length deep dry snow which Ollivander quickly cleared away, but not before Gilbert could throw some at Vlad's face.
"This wand is possibly more powerful than the last, you must control it. I can tell you're able to as well."
"Thank you, Mr Wandmaker, I will tame it."
He then invited Natalya up to get her wand and the cycle repeated except a few times the wands dissolved or wouldn't move. Ollivander (being the smart guy he is) decided to try the dual wand core wands much earlier to avoid any more damage to his shop. At first he picked up one that had unicorn hair as its core but somehow felt that it wouldn't be right so he gave him a different one.
"Hawthorn, 13 inches, Thestral hair and phoenix feather. I honestly don't know what this could do but it's an exceptionally rare combination so I have a feeling that it's extremely powerful. Hawthorn is a wood full of paradoxes so I'm not sure what it does exactly, but I do know that it's closer to spirits."
She waved the wand. All the spirits (not ghosts) became visible to everyone for a moment before becoming invisible again. Ollivander, in a moment of pure confusion screeched, "BY GRINDELWALD, WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"
After he managed to collect himself, he said, "Girl, this is probably the most powerful and dark wand I have ever sold, you must not let it take you over. By God, this has never happened in my lifetime, and I doubt it ever happened to my fathers!"
Belarus had a determined look on her face and said darkly, "Don't worry, I will make this wand obey me"
Ollivander wasn't very reassured but carried on nonetheless.
He beckoned Lukas towards him and decided to only try a few single cored wands for the next few because he didn't want the wands to keep breaking and time being wasted. Besides, he could feel the strong magical pulse from these children, stronger if it was aided by a wand than many of the most powerful wizards were at this age. Surely enough all the single cored wands either broke or didn't do anything at all. He instinctively picked a wand with a part troll whisker core, for a reason he didn't know or care to find out about. When he brought it over to Lukas, it started glowing, cementing the fact it would suit him.
"Vine, 12 inches, troll whisker and valkyrie feather. This wand is centuries old, and I'm surprised it still works and hadn't found its owner in that time."
He checked the box to find out it was made in 969 A.D, the time of the Vikings. He tried the wand and it created a life-sized mountain troll from magic. The magic felt older than the majority of the room and some previously unseen runes on the side gleamed and then faded once more.
"This is over millennium years old and made from Norse wandmakers and cores from that time, but I can tell by the feel of the magic it's powerful, so be careful with it." Ollivander examined the wand again and saw a few Norse ruins scratched into it, none of which he could make out and handed it back to the awestruck Norwegian.
He called Gilbert up this time and gave the Albino child only three normal wands, in which one of the crystallized and broke apart, before moving on to the dual cored wands. Again. He picked up another Dogwood wand and gave it to the boy.
"Dogwood, 11 inches, phoenix feather and double-headed eagle feather core, an eagle that my grandfather caught in the dutchy for Prussia in the 1700s."
The others could tell Gilbert was about to explode but managed to calm himself enough to take the wand. It glowed and created a double-headed eagle out of magic which sat on Gilbert's shoulder and allowed him to pet it before disappearing into thin air.
"Boy, this wand is mischievous and fun, much like the wand of your friend over there," he said pointing to Vlad, "don't think it is weak though, it has amazing capabilities in the realms of charms and transfiguration."
The ending part was directed at both Vlad and Gilbert.
He finally asked Arthur to step up and get his wand. He once gave four single cored wands to him, none for some reason containing unicorn hair, and then handed him a blackthorn wand.
"Blackthorn, 11 inches, kelpie and valkyrie hair. This wand is also probably old since kelpie and valkyrie hair were popular wand ingredients over a millennium ago."
He once again checked the box and told him. This wand was made in 1021, so it's a bit younger than the other one and this one also has ruins carved into it but are sadly too old for me to understand. This wand would most likely be good for transfiguration and curses."
Arthur lifted the wand and the runes started to glow like Lukas's wand had done. It created a model of his old pirate ship out of magic. This magic along with Lukas's felt old and powerful. He stared longingly at the ship, clearly missing his glory days, seriously confusing Ollivander and scaring Gilbert since he has seen that ship many times and has large amounts of his crew lost to that same ship. After the ship had vanished, They had paid seven galleons for each wand and started to leave when Ollivander yelled, "All of you, your wands are dual cored meaning their magic is stronger than most, and two of yours are about a millennium old, two of your are extremely easy to do dark magic with, and the other two are mischievous. So the one who have the dark wands, make sure you control them, same goes for the old ones, I'm not sure what they're capable of and the other two, don't do stupid things with the wands."
Just as they left, Harry Potter walked in with Hagrid looking for a wand.
'This is going to be a long day' thought Ollivander.
It certainly was.