Brother Wands

Before anybody could say anything, Ollivander brought a dust-covered box to Hadrian, gently lifted a wand from within and passed it to him to try.

With trembling fingers, Hadrian grasped the wand and seeing it up close, his heart once again skipped a beat.

He knew even before he brought it swishing down through the air, he could feel it calling to him.

A surge of swirling magic erupted from the wand as he finished the swish, enveloping him in a rush of bright, golden colours that combined above his head and the wand gave a long trill before the sparks slowly vanished.

The one magical artefact that had been with him throughout his journey in his last life - from the day he had rejoined the magical world to the day of his demise.

Once again, Hadrian Black the then Lord Potter and Lord Black and the now Heir Black had reunited with his wand - Eleven inches long, made of Holly and possessing a Phoneix feather core.

His wand had once again chosen him as its wielder.

Harry felt ecstatic and as he lifted his eyes from the wand in his hands, he accidentally locked gazes with Riddle.

He forcefully interrupted the visual contact and turned towards his mother with a happy grin on his face. After they paid the necessary Galleons, Hadrian almost bolted out of the shop.

Aima! Aima!

He wanted to put as much distance as possible between him and the other two-faced people inside the shop.

Ollivander with all his sublime, superb acting to make a place for himself in the Wizarding World.

Tom Riddle with his 'innocent, won't swat away a fly' facade to win over everyone and play with them like puppets.

Dumbledore with his 'genial grandfather, worried about everyone under heavens' mask.

Ha!

Hadrian wouldn't trust the latter two as far as he could throw them and mind you! And mind you, with magic, he could throw them for quite a distance.

Meanwhile, Mrs Black thought that her son's recent bout of running away from Ollivanders was just a natural reaction to his giddiness for acquiring his first wand. She shook her head at her son's antics.

It had been quite some time since she saw him behave so childishly.

Alas! If only she knew the thoughts running a mile a minute inside Hadrian's head.

-----Line Break-----

Tom Riddle had followed obediently behind Professor Dumbledore as they navigated through The Leaky Cauldron, Diagon Alley, Gringotts etc.

After getting over the initial shock of being told that he was magical 'literally', he was feeling defenceless and vulnerable around the man, but there was more to it than that.

It was as if the professor seemed to have a grudge or some preconceived notion about him. He himself didn't understand where he had slipped and had the man be so wary of him in a single meeting.

Still, he purchased the required objects on the list and only the listed ones, without a single word spoken between him and the professor.

All he could afford to buy or was even allowed to buy on his first trip to The Magical World were the things listed on the Student Requirements list.

Why?

The simple reason was that he was an orphan who had been left on the doorsteps of Wool's Orphanage by his mother and had never seen even the shadow of his father. Therefore, he couldn't afford all the books and Wizarding robes that he wanted to buy.

There were three irrefutable facts about his life that he would grudgingly admit, even if only to himself :

1st - He was an abandoned orphan. This ignited a fierce desire in him to find his parents and to see if he was as unwanted and unloved as everybody at the orphanage said.

2nd - He hated most human beings he came in contact with. Not because he felt himself to be superior to them.

No! He hated them because he never felt an ounce of warmth from them; neither from his peers nor from the caretakers at the orphanage who were supposed to give every child their due.

3rd - He was on a budget because he was a poor, poor child who had to borrow money from the so-called 'Hogwarts Funds for The Less Privileged' and he absolutely loathed his present circumstances.

As he followed Dumbledore into what was apparently, a wand shop, he saw a boy already trying to find a suitable wand.

There was a lady standing behind him - the boy's mother from the looks of it.

When the boy had turned towards him, Tom straightened his shoulders on reflex, neutralizing his expression into that of polite, distant interest.

However, the boy didn't seem to pay him any kind of attention - be it positive or negative whatsoever, and left shortly thereafter, with his mother, leaving him to grind his teeth.

The nerve!

They hadn't even exchanged pointless pleasantries, which he thought was the norm.

But whatever!

He didn't want to pay attention to others right now.

He was about to buy his wand and he couldn't contain the joy in his heart.

Soon he was going through hundreds of wands - waving them but was still at a loss to find his match.

"How strange," said Ollivander snatching yet another wand from Tom's hand.

"Another tricky customer for the day, " he commented, although it was clear that he became more cheerful as the pile of 'rejected' wands grew bigger.

However, Tom grew impatient and wary with each muttered 'no' and the negative shake of the wandmaker's head.

What if they said that it was all a fluke?

What if the wandmaker said that he wasn't magical enough to match and hence couldn't attend Hogwarts?

In that case, wouldn't they turn him away and ask him to go back to that mediocre, mundane life in the orphanage?

"I wonder," Ollivander suddenly murmured, pausing on his way to the shelves that contained the wands. He fixed Riddle with a piercing stare as if he trying to grasp his worth.

After a few seconds in which he intently studied the young boy, Ollivander seemed to find what he was looking for because he nodded to himself and, with a determined face, marched towards another shelf, opened a box and brought a wand which he reverently passed to him.

As soon as Tom touched the wand - an array of coloured sparks burst forth from the end of the wand as his fingers wrapped the handle, a bit different from the other boy who had gotten his own wand from Ollivanders earlier.

There was no accompanying trill along with the shower of colours and sparks from the wand.

He hoped that there wasn't anything wrong with him and his magic.

Maybe, hopefully, every wand reacted differently towards its owner.

The magic flowed across Tom's senses in a smooth purr. Almost as if he was an animal in his natural habitat and was completely comfortable with the situation he was in.

He couldn't help but smile at that feeling.

From the look of Dumbledore's expression, he assumed he needed more work.

Meanwhile, Ollivander kept on murmuring 'unbelievable' over and over again, which was getting on his nerves pretty quick.

"Excuse me, sir, but what exactly it's so unbelievable?" He questioned apprehensively and defensively.

Tom knew he shouldn't have asked and that he would come to regret his curiosity. Still, he couldn't help himself and voiced his question.

"Ah! Mr Riddle, you see your wand is Thirteen and a half inches long, its made from Yew with a Phoenix feather core."

Tom impatiently interrupted him, "and how is it unbelievable? Don't magical children pair up with either of these materials usually?"

"Ah! No, it's not that. It's just... I sold the Brother Wand to your own wand just a few minutes ago, Mr Riddle. You see, the young boy who has just left the shop also bought his first wand today and it can be considered as a 'twin' to yours. The only difference being the length and the wood used."

Ollivander's strange unblinking eyes remained locked to his own, as he nodded his head slowly and continued, "Powerful wands, the both of them. Curious how you both got it within moments of each other but then Lady Magic works in mysterious ways...Lets see what the future holds"

Tom was glad to have left that creepy man and his eerie shop shortly after that conversation and was escorted back by Professor Dumbledore to the steps of Wool's Orphanage.

Through it all and for the next few days to come, Tom Riddle would involuntarily think about that other boy.

He couldn't help but wonder about the insinuations made by the wandmaker and he could feel his pulse race quicker each time he recalled those words.

The only regrettable thing to the whole endeavour was that he still didn't know the name of the person who wielded the brother wand to his own.

Never mind.

He'll have the chance to satiate his curiosity once he was on the train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.