A Companion and getting a wand

The next day Solus was woken up by the shriek of what at first looked like a normal Cuckoo clock, but instead of a bird coming out of it, it was some kind of weird mix of a cat, a dog, and a mouse.

Solus still a bit sleepy, got out of bed yelled at the clock to shut up, which it promptly did, and went to the bathroom. After taking a shower and drying himself he looked in the mirror. 

There looking back at him was an 11-year-old boy with golden hair and striking golden eyes. One could already tell that he would grow up to be quite handsome in the future.

What struck him the most though, was not his new appearance, but the purplish black tattoo on his right hand and arm. Indescribable, almost illusory looking patterns and symbols extended from the point where he had touched the wrumpler the night before, outwards, all the way up to his biceps. After which the tattoo gradually became fainter and finally disappeared completely at his shoulder.

'What in the world...', Solus didn't think the wrumpler had done anything bad to him, but he still needed to know what exactly this tattoo was. 

He quickly got dressed and went back to his room looking for the little furry creature.

He found it standing on his table, in front of it a bunch of ants and small spiders. The wrumpler wore a headband around his body/head and seemed to act as a radio workout instructor for the ants and spiders. Every exercise it performed they replicated.

Dumbfounded by this view, Solus almost forgot why he was looking for the creature.

"Hey, sorry to disturb you during your exercise session little guy, but I need to know what you did to me last night", he held up his right hand to show the wrumpler his weird tattoo. He didn't really expect an answer, especially with the furball's apparent lack of a mouth, but it couldn't hurt to try.

The wrumpler stopped its activity and looked at him. It sat down in a position that reminded him of the famous statue 'the thinker' from his previous life. Then it snapped its fingers and seemed to concentrate.

Suddenly Solus received an image in his mind. Two hands that were engaging in a handshake and had a red band tied around them, connecting them firmly.

"A pact?"

The wrumpler nodded franticly. Another picture appearing in Solus' mind. This time the two hands aged rapidly until only bones were left. The red band still binding them as firmly as ever.

"So, we are bound to each other for life?", Solus guessed. "Why did you pick me then?"

The wrumpler nodded again and conveyed a series of images which seemed to represent itself, the concept of being fond of something and the concept of uniqueness.

'Hm, I think I get it, wrumplers seem to be naturally drawn towards unique things. And what could be more unique than a person with a soul that came from another world', Solus hypothesized and nodded. He was actually really happy with how things turned out. He would have to experiment to find out the precise workings of the pact and his tattoo but having a pure magical creature as a bond and being able to communicate with it, will definitely be very helpful to his future experiments and projects.

He had decided to call the creatures that only he and his family could see, 'pure magical creatures'.

Solus let the wrumpler ride on his shoulder and walked downstairs to meet his family and eat some breakfast. 

"By the way", he said "what's your name? I can't just keep calling you 'the wrumpler' in my head all the time".

 After a few seconds he got a picture conveying that the wrumpler wished to be given a name by him.

"All right, then from now on your name shall be Ib. To a successful partnership". Ib seemed to like that name very much and shook a strand of his hair as if he was shaking the hand of his new employer.

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"Hey", Luna smiled at him in her usual dreamy manner "have you slept well?"

"Yeah, I was knocked out the entire night" Solus smiled back at her and sat down to get some much needed food.

He watched Ib jump down from his shoulder and wander around the table, inspecting every food item with what seemed like some kind of magnifying glass.

"That reminds me, last night you said Ib led you to my room. How did you know he was a wrumpler, and what even is that?"

"Ib?", his twin sister asked while raising an eyebrow.

"Uh yes that's the name i gave him", Solus showed her the tattoo on his hand and arm "I somehow entered some kind of pact with him yesterday, even very rudimentary communication is possible now."

Luna looked at him a bit surprised, "I have never heard of someone having a wrumpler as their familiar. But to be honest, I only know about them because grandma told us about them once. She said they like rare things and are normally seen together with other animals or magical creatures."

Solus recalled the radio exercise session he witnessed this morning 'Seen together with other animals or magical creatures? Is Ib able to communicate with other living creatures? Maybe even control them to an extent. I'll need to run some tests on that.'

If his assumption was correct Ib would be invaluable to his future research. Highly dangerous experiments like analyzing the biology of many, more aggressive magical creatures would be much easier and accessible for him.

He spent the rest of his morning eating his breakfast and chatting idly with his newly acquired twin sister about all kinds of creatures. Apparently, the glowing eyes in the corner he saw when he woke up last night, were called one-eyed cornerstalkers. According to Luna they were harmless and only ever watched their surroundings.

She unfortunately did not know the two creatures that were dancing and gathering moonlight on his desk back then.

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Diagon alley was packed with people and much crazier and more magical than Solus had imagined when reading the books during his last life. They travelled here by Floo Network shortly after Xenophilius had finished settling some matters about the Quibblers next edition.

After stepping onto the big market like street, that was Diagon alley, Solus once again was awed by what he saw. Wizards and witches of all kinds were going about their business and visiting the vast array of stores. There were stores for pretty much anything you could think of. Magical candy, magical clothes, sunglasses, brooms, magical animals, non-magical animals, there even was a store for all kinds of magical toothbrushes. The 'Yellow teeth no more 3000' was boldly advertised as the newest and most revolutionary model.

He even saw some pure magical creatures. What looked like some grouped dots swirling around peoples' heads, seemed to be especially common.

"Ugh so many wrackspurts", Luna commented.

Xenophilius nodded, "But no worries I anticipated this and brought wrackspurt repellant necklaces for each one of us"

He handed Luna and Solus each a yellow necklace with what looked like two baby feet attached to them.

Luna happily accepted the weird looking necklace and put it around her neck. "Thanks daddy, you're the best. "

Solus was much more skeptic and interested in how two baby feet are supposed to keep those creatures away from his head "Hey dad, how exactly do those necklaces work? They don't seem enchanted and I don't see any inscriptions on there either?"

Xenophilius smiled widely in response "Ah, I'm glad you're interested in their workings Sol, but you've got the wrong idea. There is nothing magical about those necklaces, except the transfigured baby feet of course."

Solus raised an eyebrow 'nothing magical? How does that work?'

"You see, I noticed that wrackspurts would only fly around people's heads and not their feet. So, I thought to myself, why not put feet around your head to confuse those pesky little things. Feet hats would probably work even better now that I think about it.", Xenophilius laughed in self-satisfaction.

'This... It seems really dumb at first but makes sense the more I think about it', Solus thought to himself dumbfounded about his 'father's simplistic approach.

"I guess that makes sense, thank you dad ", He put the necklace around his neck not minding the weird looks people around him gave him. He had never been someone too concerned with his image, not in his past life and not in this one. The only thing he really cared about were the results of his research. 

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After that little intervention the father and children trio made their way to Ollivander's wand shop.

Entering the old shop with dusty windows, Solus saw packaged wands everywhere. Some stacked on top of each other until they almost hit the ceiling, others chaotically stuffed into the many shelves and cabins everywhere. Ollivander himself, however was nowhere to be seen.

"Excuse me! Mister Ollivander?" Xenophilius shouted into the dark depths of the dusty shop.

*crash* "AH, DAMN IT" The sound of something falling and crashing to the ground sounded from what seemed like much farther away than one would initially assume the shop encompasses.

After a few more curses and a bit more rumbling an a bit disheveled looking, skinny old man appeared.

"Ahh mister Lovegood, welcome. I still remember outfitting you with your, wand when you were young, like it was yesterday. I see your style of clothing has not changed over the years", Ollivander rambled.

"Ahem", Xenophilius smiled and lightly coughed "yes yes, I too remember that time well. But today we are here for my children. If you were to be so kind to fit them their wands Mr. Ollivander,"

Ollivander scrutinized both Luna and Solus for a few seconds and said, "let's start with little miss Lovegood shall we?" He began to rummage through his shelves, took out a black wand with red accents and handed it to luna, "Here try holding this one."

Luna took the wand and after one wave, accidentally caused a small explosion, destroying one of Oleanders' lamps.

"I see, so no cherry wood. Hmm maybe this one...", Ollivander kept on rambling to himself and gave Luna a few other wands to try before eventually settling on an oakwood wand with unicorn hair as its core.

With Luna happily receiving her wand it was now time for Solus to get his own.

Solus had not been paying attention at all while his sister was getting her wand. He was entirely focused on watching Ib scale one of the wand towers to his left, together with some random small spider.

The small creature wore climbing gear with ice picks in both of his hands and acted as if he was currently making the first ascend of mount Everest. Solus was not really worried that Ib would somehow topple the instable wand tower, as, from what he could tell, Ib had no weight.

Ib, or any pure magical creature Solus had met until now for that matter, all shared one characteristic. They were creatures made up purely of magic, or some kind of magical energy.

"Well then, young mister Lovegood. How about we get you a wand too now?", Oleanders' voice sounded from beside him, snapping him out of his trance. Ib had just reached the top after a very emotional and dramatic climb. His eight-legged companion couldn't handle the 'cold' near the peak of mount wandrest and Ib tragically had to leave them behind, tackling the last portion alone but all the more convicted.

"Uh yeah sure", Solus was still a bit shaken by the play he just witnessed. But then he felt a mental tug by Ib, trying to get his attention and pointing at the wand package he was currently standing on.

'He wants me to try that one? Did he think it was the most compatible for me or does he have some other reason? Well trying certainly won't hurt.'

"Actually, mister Ollivander could I maybe try that one there?", Solus asked while pointing to the very top of Mt. wandrest.

Ollivander looked at him a bit surprised, "A wand has caught your fancy already? This… this certainly is curious. Hm of course let me see which wand you chose little Lovegood."

The old man conjured a big ladder and picked up the wand Ib chose. "Hmm Hornbeam, with a dragon heartstring core. Interesting. Hornbeam wands are one of the most conscious ones, and tend to adapt themselves to their chosen master very strongly. Most of the time they become so personalized that it would be impossible for anyone else to use them to cast even the simplest spell." 

He took the 12 inches long intricately crafted wooden stick out of Ollivanders' hands and wanted to wave it around a bit. But then Ib jumped onto his hand and touched his hands to the wand. Solus felt his tattoo heating up and noticed it slightly glowing in a golden color. Simultaneously, a few of ibs soft white hairs started extending and wrapped themself around the now also golden glowing wand. 

As suddenly as the phenomenon had started it stopped again and Ib immediately fell asleep on his Hand. The wand now had a few thin golden streaks running through it and responded warmly to Solus' touch.

"Wow", Luna whispered surprised and impressed. His father also looked at him quite shocked.

"Haha, the wand emitting golden light is a pretty common occurrence when good compatibility is established", Ollivander chuckled at their shocked faces. He was not able to see Ib and the wands transformation after all.

'I guess Ib is even more mysterious than I previously assumed. I'll have to study my dear companion thoroughly once we arrive in Hogwarts and I can get some alone time', Solus thought to himself.

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A/N

Hey guys, second chapter done. I think this one was pretty interesting.

Tell me what you think about little Ib and his adventures. 

Also, I think I tend a bit to over describe things, so if you think something is too long and it slows the pace too much, please tell me and I'll kick it up a notch. Of course, if the opposite is the case then tell me as well. 

I already commented it under one of your guys' reviews but my plan for uploads currently is to release one chapter (2-3k words) every two days. Although the actual upload rate will probably fluctuate a bit depending on my motivation and time. (exams will be upon us in but a month after all 💀)