5 Excavating a Treasure

Ian stared out of the window at the pouring rain, wondering why the rain was so prevalent in their region. He didn't like the rain much, the only times he liked it was when he was under his blankets in the morning or when he had a cup of tea in his hand. 

"England's weather is not something we can be proud of." Garrick said as he noticed the unhappy face of his nephew. "But don't sulk so much. We are finally going there."

After the party, Ian was tired and crashed onto his bed. He was able to make Hannah Abbott an acquaintance and Garrick praised him for it. But for him, those were all secondary.

As he knew today was the day he could explore to his heart's content. The glutton for knowledge inside him made it impossible for him to be satisfied with the books in his library. He wanted to make this the chance to look for ancient knowledge. 

"Before Gringotts became so popular, the wizarding families had their own property where they stored their precious belongings." Garrick revealed. "Most families have since then transported all their valuables to the Gringotts, however a few families still have at least a bit of those belonging stored in their ancestral lands."

"And we do too."

Garrick smiled at Ian's deduction. 

"Indeed." He agreed. "And unlike those families, we have quite a major portion of our valuables stored in those ancestral lands."

Ian was getting more and more interested in the story. 

"And as you wished, we are leaving to that place." Garrick laughed. "There are items, books and treasures that even I don't know of."

This was it. 

Ian's excitement was through the roof as he heard this. The chance of peeking through the pages of those unknown books and revealing the story behind the ancient artefacts excited him. 

"So, when are we going?" He asked in excitement. 

Garrick smirked. 

"Now."

…

…

When Garrick said they had ancestral lands, he didn't expect it to be at Colchester. The place wasn't too big, being just over 31 square kilometres. 

"The land isn't that big but it is enough to store the necessary belongings while also being away from the public eye."

Ian didn't comment instead kept looking around the street. They had taken an interesting turn with far less people than on the other streets. There weren't many houses, nor many life forms but he sensed a lot of magic in the air. 

"England is filled with magic, however only us wizards and witches can sense it. So do not worry, that place isn't so easy to find." Garrick said as if reading Ian's mind. 

The heir nodded. 

They walked for a long time without stopping. Ian's legs were getting tired but his uncle promised that they were close by.

The rain had increased the humidity of the region, and if there was something Ian hated more than being wet… it was being sticky. 

He was about to ask for a little break, but just then Garrick said that they had arrived.

"A bookstore?" The destination was a bookstore, which Ian found funny. "This is the location?" 

Garrick didn't say anything and casually walked in. Ian was confused but had no choice other than to follow his uncle.

But the inside of the bookstore was not what he had expected. 

It was empty with just one more door that possibly led people out of the store. 

"This… my dear nephew is ancient magic."

Ian was confused once again. 

"During the time of King Arthur, one of our ancestors learnt a magic that forms two separate spaces. One that the owner can visit and the other that the rest can." He explained. "If a normal person would have opened the door, they would have been led to the bookstore however… as the current lord of the Ollivander, I was led here."

"And where is this?" Ian questioned. 

Garrick didn't say anything and instead walked towards the second door and placed his hand over the doorknob. 

"This is our ancestral storage, Ian." Saying this he opened the door, revealing a massive open space filled with shelves and chests. "This is the Ollivander's Treasury."

…

…

There was gold.

There was jewellery.

There were diamonds.

There were pearls.

But Ian looked at none of those. Money meant nothing to him. 

What he looked at were the wands, the weapons, the books and the portraits. 

The place was massive but it was still a room, a dimly lit room. Filled with paintings and valuables. 

"Be careful." Garrick warned. "Even I don't know about everything in here. Somethings might be cursed so be careful."

Ian knew how deadly curses could be, so he took his uncle's word and moved very carefully. 

He slowly walked forward and looked at the artefacts that were preserved inside the treasury. He walked past a bunch of old pots and made his way toward a vase.

"That vase is of the Qing dynasty." Garrick said. "An old and expensive piece, but nothing magical."

Ian nodded. He didn't sense any magical energy from the vase and as much as he loved history, he wasn't particularly interested in vases. 

Not bothering with the vase, he walked towards a mannequin which had a gown on. 

The gown was unique —albeit a bit torn and dusty— but nothing like he had ever seen. And he knew for a fact it wasn't English. 

"Egyptian?" He questioned. 

"Queen Nefertiti's to be precise." Garrick affirmed. "It was sold to our ancestor by a grave robber."

"Nothing magical either." Ian deduced and Garrick nodded. 

Ian once again carried on with his exploration as Garrick began dusting the items that hadn't been cleaned in a long time. 

Continuing his search, Ian walked in front of a robe collection. Each seemed uniquely made out of varying materials. 

"What are these robes, uncle?" 

Garrick looked behind at his nephew and smiled as he saw him standing in front of the robes. 

"Those are the robes worn by our ancestors." He answered. "Your great great grandfather was the last to have stored his robe in there and I am contemplating if I should have the other robes transferred here or have these ones transferred to the Gringotts."

It was for his uncle to figure out and thus he didn't comment. Instead, he was impressed by the expert craftsmanship of the robes. However, robes were not the only thing that was around there. 

His interest was quickly drawn to the massive glass chamber kept to the far right of the robe collection, inside which were—

"Wands…"

His eyes shone as he saw the most precious weapon used by a wizard being displayed inside the glass box.

"Do not touch." Garrick warned. "Some of those wands were crafted by our forefathers with security measures installed in them. If someone other than the owner touches those, it might cause a fire hazard."

"What?"

That spooked Ian a little. He didn't expect his forefathers to be this maniacal, but it did make sense. They were a family of traders and wandmakers. Their wands were thus the most precious items to them and hence such extreme measures were taken to keep the wand secrets hidden. 

"Especially that purple tipped one." Garrick frowned. "It was made by Richard Ollivander using some of the most unholy materials. The wand was used to curse and control beings, especially the beings of darkness."

"How was that allowed?" 

Ian was shocked. In current times, such a wand would be immediately seized.

"It wasn't." Garrick corrected. "Even during his time, the wand was deemed too unorthodox and dangerous to be allowed in the hands of a wizard and thus it was seized by the ministry. Later it was recovered by Angelo Ollivander when he became part of the very same ministry. However, he was made to promise that none of the future generations would use the wand, which he agreed to."

"That's… interesting." He was astonished by the long journey of the wand. "Is that why the wand is protected by an extra layer of glass?"

"Yes." Garrick confirmed. "It's enchanted glass that prevents the magic of the wand from interacting with any of the other wands."

Garrick shook his head and chuckled. "But forget it. It's not like anyone will be using it ever again."

Ian agreed. "It's better to keep such a wand away from those dark wizards."

"Mhm." Garrick continued. "And remember you are not allowed to take anything from here."

"Anything?" Ian sounded a bit sad at which Garrick chuckled. 

"Okay, maybe a few books but nothing else." He continued. "Only as many as 'you' can carry."

Garrick knew that books were what interested Ian the most and he was certain that if he went to Hogwarts, he would be immediately sorted into Ravenclaw.

"Alright!" Ian was ecstatic and rushed towards the bookshelves. 

"Careful, don't hurt yourself."

But Ian was too lost in his exploration to hear Garrick. He has seen the markings on the shelves denoting the genre of the books, this allowed him to skip some of the less interesting genres and move towards the more interesting ones, specifically 'Magic.'

'Magic of the Mind', 'Soul Magic Chronicles', 'History of Arcane Magic.'

There were countless books and while most of the books with magic spells were hidden and stored separately, the books that were available for him were still far too many. 

He knew what he needed the most was mind magic like Occlumency and legilimency. So, he picked 'Magic of the Mind', 'Guide to a Clear Path' and 'Tranquil Thoughts' books.

But he wasn't done. If possible, he would have taken all the books however that wasn't possible. So, he tried taking the ones he could carry. 

There were more books he was interested in but he had to be wise with his choice. He was only nine and the books were massive. At best he could carry another book and it was already a stretch. So, he decided to look through the names and pick something that interested him. 

He went through the covers. Some were colourful and some were dull, but he was smart enough to know that every shiny covered book was not interesting. What he mostly focused on were the titles. 

Keeping the books he picked in a corner, he started to read the covers of the rest. There were many interesting ones. 

'Legend of the mythical creatures', 'Tales of the ancient warlocks', 'Lost stories of Britain' amongst many others. 

However, as catchy as the titles were, he was looking for something else… something a bit unique. And that's when he stumbled upon it. 

A book. Black with red and purple engravings. Old enough to appear antique and thick enough to seem like a dictionary. 

The book was named—

"Book of the wise?" 

Ian was amused. The title was arrogant. This made him wonder who the author was but to his surprise, it had no name written on the cover. 

"We don't have much time, Ian." Garrick called. "Have you found anything interesting?"

Ian answered, "Yes, uncle. A book cal—"

But as he opened the first page of the book, he froze mid sentence.

"Named?" 

Ian froze for a second before blabbering a random name. 

"Guide of Primary Occlumency." He lied but Garrick bought into it. 

"Ah, a book on Occlumency. That's a good choice." Garrick said. "And if you are done, let's leave. It will soon be dark."

"Yeah…" Ian agreed. "Let's go." Holding tightly onto the book.

As he said that, he stared deeply into the first page of the book. 

It read— "Merlin says, 'Do not reveal about the book'."

Ian, without realising, stumbled upon something far more interesting than anything that he could have ever wished for. 

`This book has been written by Merlin`