The Ollivanders Secret

Family magic, generational talents and personal talents are far and few between, coming and going with time, people, magic cultures and many more factors. Even after such a long time, it happens quite often that a new power is „born" for the lack of a better world and even while the ollivander's don't go chasing after them, they still get fresh „blood" quite often. On the other hand though, it is countable on the fingers of one hand, that a new talent is born into the family.

Now in the week after Clara's birth, the family found out 2 inherited talents and 1 family magic, which Clara manifested. It is a hell of a combination, being occlumency which helped improving cognitive abilities and so much more. The second being legilimency, while being frowned upon as mostly harmful in magical britain, is actually more about the intricacies of the mind, its memories and traumata. And her manifested family magic being empathy complemented this as a golden trio.

The huge problem that followed after that, was the realization that the 2 talents wouldn't lead to complications but would actually help with the problem the family magic brought with it, being a purely passive ability which can only be controlled after very long strenuous and hard training, also depending on the „purity" or strength of this „gift". This meant that from they very start of her yet to be very long life, Clara was exposed to constant sound - for lack of a proper word - of the emotions of nearby family members, familiars, even the smallest of animals and plants though the family discovered this way way later.

The moment the family found out about this, they procured a dampener for her powers, as sadly there was no way to suppress only 1 out of 3 powers little Clara got. What followed was the degradation of a pretty sharp mind of the yet one week old toddler to a very average one. This meant that the sentience which had already formed in the little girl was snuffed out, oppressed by these magical „cuffs" and replaced with the sentience of a relatively normal human being.

Alas even the oldest family of Gaya knew nothing of this, as this was followed by a lot of screaming, crying and many many tears of the little one, which could not be stifled by any normally used spells. Following this were harrowing weeks, then months for her parents as while they tried to help in any way possible, they couldn't do anything as they didn't see where we problem could stem from. Getting close to her first unofficial birthday Clara slowly mellowed out, seemingly leaving these events behind.

What followed was a nice but small birthday party at the 28. February. Naturally with a lot of presents, absolutely in to ratio to the actual attendees of the party. There were sweets, practice wands, little trinkets, lifetime abos for various newspapers, catalogues and magazines, toys - some for her age, others not so which swiftly got confiscated by her parents, who also went on a rant about some of these gifts the next time they met their givers - and a small little rock, which went mostly unnoticed and had no name on it. Most of these things were stored in a room for later use, while the real important, dangerous or even pricy stuff was stored in a vault at gringotts.

Now why would they still use gringotts?

Because no one even comes close to the handling of metal, especially money, if they are compared to goblins. And while in the past there was a supposedly theft in gringotts, well … the thief didn't even have a body left to burry, just 1 small little piece of nail which through some unexplainable miracle survived. Similarity to Clara's family the goblins were pretty reclusive, not as much but still very little was known about them. Like one little details: Rebellions were seen as little more than a century game for them, coming from an instinct their already died out ancestors gave them. Warring orks, well … loved wars apparently?

And after that very fulfilling birthday party a time of peace and quite came into the house of Clara. No more wallowing, crying or screaming except the average amount supposed for toddlers. Shortly after her birthday she also started to crawl and soon after even standing and walking. Climbing also followed suit right after these and Clara started exploring her house with unending fervor, which also kept her parents constantly on edge, as she was very prone to injury. Leaving her parents at a loss however, was her inability or perhaps even refusal to start speaking, nearly making no sound at all. Though her parents double and tripple checked most normal reasons, they couldn't confirm any cause, again…

Soon after her second unofficial birthday came and went, with a ginormous amount of presents, most useless sadly. In between money, sweets, toys, practical things for the future, clothes and even wearables like a small little necklace was another small rock with no apparent originator. The only difference between the 2 rocks of both years being the color, the first being black, the second being white. There were also a few books, which taught how to write and read and even though writing was way out of Clara's league, reading she did. At first her parents tried to stop her, even locking the small kids library in the house out of concern that Clara was wasting her time trying to read and they were mostly correct. At the start she understood next to nothing, a few pictures maybe and nothing more, but even with her more than inconsistent reading she could read most starting books for kids a few years older than her after merely 6 months. After these few months though, then little tensions escalated as her parents pretty much put all books behind lock and/or bars. This was a precursor for what followed 2 months later, after being denied reading material for the nth time, Clara's first accidental magic happened. After a very long and tiring day, Clara through very rudimentary sign language asked her parents to give her a book, which they denied as they were afraid of her „reading" to much or as they saw it, wasting her and their time. After that one sided pretty loud argument Clara left the kitchen and stomped to the library, trying to unlock the door and after that went pretty much as expected, with no clear result, the whole corridor exploded. Or well the wand to the library got pretty much disintegrated and bricks and woods flew through multiple other walls and some even out of the house, while being an impressive feat in itself, as the house is warded within one inch of being impenetrable, it also had a devastating outcome for little Clara. Pretty much all books were damaged beyond repair, even magic was hopeless. Also, Clara ended up at a doctor, pretty much ollivander's in house/world hospital, being in a 1 year coma with over 200 bones being broken or pulverized, massive damage to her toes and fingers and also to her vocal cords, which were already in disuse before this disaster happened.

The parents, understandably devastated, tried to figure out what happened for 6 months, before realizing that it could possibly be accidental magic. Even then they thought it highly unlikely. Luckily a friend of the family was a staunch supporter of this theory which sent her parents into self pity and sorrow for the foreseeable future, as they were the probable cause. This friend was Andy Ollivander and to Clara he would be somewhat of a grand grand grandfather. His words were taken so „readily" - with very much indignation and complaints - as his passion was exactly that. Understanding accidental magic or better wandless magic and as accidental magic was a pretty rudimentary form of the letter he is very knowledgable about it.

While Clara was in her "self induced" coma, her third unofficial birthday went by. This time with a lot less presents, most being rare storybooks and another small rock without any identifiable source, this time being a prism which could show any color at the same time. While still being in a coma, her parents still decided to follow through with the families self reflection ritual, which started the process of finding Clara's very own passion.

Another 8 months passed by in the flash, for Clara at least, while for others - her parents - it was pretty much hell on earth. Clara, after awakening from her coma got right back in her favored routine, which was only possible as her body already healed in this one year, trying to spend as much time reading as possible, as if to recoup her lost time and while her parents were very reluctant to help her in this endeavor, they still supported her. Clara now had (unrestricted) access to the families private library, which still numbered in the thousands of books and even though it was seen as a small library. Still pretty much enough for the next year(s) to come.

11 months went by in a flash and everyone thought the ordeals of the past were forgotten, buried, settled or done with, until one month before Clara's birthday. On that rainy day she gave her parents a handwritten note, though with very bad handwriting, titled „Bday wish" with only a single one on that list. Clara wished for an instructor in the mid arts, which only became clear after a lot of signaling which ended with a pointed finger on a paragraph in a book, as her writing was not really recognizable for anyone except maybe doctors and teachers, bless them. Her parents debated if this was really a good idea, until they jointly decided to ask Andy for help, as he seemed to have more knowledge about their own child then them and he placated their worries and told them he would see to it, that it was not just an instructor for the mid arts but also a mind healer as well. What he didn't tell them though is that it was someone from outside the family, actually a friend of his and that Clara would go live with him for a year, as he was pretty sure this was not going to be as easy as her parents thought. And how right he was with that.

Another month later, on her first official birthday and fourth unofficial one there was another party, though Clara was notably absent most of the time, as she spent it reading in peace in the library. There were a lot of gifts, as if to make up for the missed ones last year. Between all that, another rock. This one being black and white, applied in a ying-yang shape and a gift card for the mind instructor by Andy. Another week went by until Andy came around with his friend. After speaking about everything important with Clara's parents and finalizing the whole thing, he went to speak with Clara. Alone.

— Friends perspective —

I opened the library door, to find a young 4 year old girl sitting in a comfy chair next to a fireplace, brooding over a book on fairytales named „The Tales of Beedle the Bard".

I carefully knocked on the door, to get the child's attention, which was subconsciously ignored. After I tried another 4 times i slowly and carefully walked into the room and silently closed the door behind me and sat on the chair opposite to hers. I waited for another 10 minutes, until she suddenly looked up and seemed to notice me. Interestingly enough she didn't flinch, she didn't even move any muscle, just looked at me.

After an awkward silence I decided to introduce myself: „I am Henry Flacks, master of occlumency and legilimency and also a friend of Andy Ollivander. He told me you wished for an instructor in the mind arts as a birthday present." Another few seconds go by, until she slowly nods and starts to stand up, motioning me to follow her. After she safely put back her book, she led me into her room, which was pretty barren except a few shiny rocks in a frame on the wall. There she went to a piece of paper, located on a small table and gave it to me, motioning to read. On it stood in barely readable writing: „I want an oath of silence, safe passage and security if she were to work with me". So i asked her: „Do you actually know what you want me to do?" And she just nodded before i even finished speaking. So I asked again: „So why would I accept these outrageous conditions?" As answer to which she went to an old looking book, opened it to pretty much halfway and pointed on a paragraph talking about standard oaths which were mostly used B.C. but are still viable nowadays.

The only problem with these vows was, that they were three way vows, which meant there needed to be a third person. „So who should the third person be?" I asked her: „One of your parents?" To which she just shook her head. She went to her desk and wrote barely recognizable with the help of her signing: „U agree?" And I just answered defeated: „Yes, Andy wanted a favor from me and I owe him a lot." She then went on to get a trunk out of one of her cabinets and walked out of her room, down the stairs and into the living room. Once there, she just pointed at Andy until I realized her probable meaning and asked her: „You want Andy to be the third party?" To which she nodded and after I explained it to Andy he readily agreed, while her parents seemed to age by quite a lot.

Why? To be honest, I have no clue. Then and there, with Andy as witness i swore her oath of silence over everything doing with her to anyone else, except Andy in emergencies, safe passage and security, which basically meant I won't harm her in any way and protect her in my own home if the need arises and out of an inspiration just in that second an oath that I won't hold anything back while teaching her. And at that moment, I saw her surprised for the very first time, though it was more elation than anger.

After that, she just walked out of the room, the front door and waited there for me, while I stood awkwardly between her and her family. After a quick and weird goodbye I went to join her and Andy helped us get out of this spatial pocket. After a short explanation to Clara about what I was about to do, I side apparated her to my home.