–– Observer POV ––
Clara Ali Ollivander had affected Gabrielle more than she ever thought possible. After she had returned to Hogwarts, something was wrong with her, she just felt wrong, missing the mana density of her pocket dimension.
She did not know that though, she just knew that she felt extremely ill, madam Pomfrey and her family having no clues as to why, so she forced herself through lectures and learning. It came to a point, where she no longer had fun while brewing potions, dragging herself from day to day, until the winter break finally came.
As tradition dictated, she boarded the stupid train, before trying to meditate through the journey, not interested in any small talk of her companions. And through this, she finally conquered the feeling which welled up inside of her.
She had no idea, what she did, why she felt better, but she was supremely lucky. She had subconsciously suppressed the formation of an ember of an aspect this whole time, similar to the Flammels. She was near failing naturally, as she was nowhere near their discipline, power and control, but she barely succeeded in the last possible nanosecond through sheer luck. Through her withdrawal of dense mana over the last few months, the aspect would have been affected. To be exact, it would be affected by her emotions, which were negative to the extreme. Her aspect wold have formed as something like Deprived Annoyed Longing Dense Mana, probably even worse.
But barely she succeeded in fixing her state of mind as she gained a smidgen of control over her bloodline, which was the cause of all this. She reined it in, her whole body feeling better instantly, the ember of an aspect forming the next instant, reduced to simple two words, which imperceptible left her lips in shock: „Longing Mana". A bare whisper, but it reverberated inside her mind again and again.
She had successfully manifested one of the rarer aspects, without a negative descriptor, though some would see longing as a negative one, but in this case they were wrong. It just increased her ability to sense mana by an extreme, together with a huge increase to her range, rapidly expanding, which gave her a splitting headache.
She fell unconscious, but slightly before that, she sensed something familiar, in her panic pulling on it, before disappearing with an ear breaking pop. The other students inside her apartment jumped, scared by the loud noise and disappearance of another person, before the most responsible of them rapidly rushed towards the compartment of the prefects.
–– Clara Ali Ollivander POV ––
I was leaving the shop of the ward grandmaster in Greece, starting to whisk away near instantly, before abruptly stopping, suffering a small backlash, a big cut appearing on my right forearm. Ignoring the amplified pain, I whipped out my wand and cast multiple spells at once, catching an unconscious Gabrielle, stopping her from falling on the ground.
I followed up with the few diagnostic spells I had to find out that she had nothing but a sudden bout of exhaustion. Shortly before I also realized that she had formend an ember of an aspect, which was curious to say the least as not even her sister, the next genius of her family, had done so yet. It was anything but uncommon, many people forming embers of an aspect even though they are neither adults nor a grandmaster in any subject, but not on the core earth due to some still unknown or undisclosed reason, which is also one of the many reasons and problems behind the divide between these two original identical worlds.
I did not waste anymore time and whisked away, having transferred the unconscious girl into my pocket dimension. Back home, I waited, shortly returning to my previous commitments as Gabrielle did not seem to wake up anytime soon.
As predicted, she did not wake up over the next few days, but five days later the acting head of house Delacour stood on my doorstep and even though many would not think anything about that, I saw behind his calm masquerade, saw him fuming, barely containing his rage behind his shell. He still was cordial though, speaking in a normal, maybe slightly strained, voice: „I request the save return of Gabrielle Delacour to her bloodline", the last word complicating this whole thing.
Bloodlines could manifest as familial magic or just as a singular talent, the Ollivander's the huge exception to this rule, as any bloodline gets shared with everyone if the familial magic so desires. Another exception are veela's and similar beings, as their bloodline is both familial magic, singular talent, race and more in one, which means that if your bloodlines mutate too much, you are technically no longer part of the familial magic.
Traditions of olden times dictate, that anyone with such a bloodline is banished, killed or enslaved. The still very innocent Gabrielle did not know that though and she was very lucky, that she had only met her close family over the last four years and not someone with enough power, control or senses to notice her mutated bloodline. In fact it was in no way normal to meet as many of these powerful ascended as I do due to their many restrictions and duties. Even inside of families or organizations who had such powerhouses it was a rare occurrence to meet such a person.
This consequently meant, that if I gave in to his demands, three things could happen. The best is, that he leaves after realizing this, officially banishing her from the family. Another would be the offering of the choice between death and servitude and the worst was straight up execution on the spot.
I responded, choosing my words carefully: „I respectfully decline to surrender her to your family", which implicated a few things. Her mutated bloodline, my knowledge of it, my knowledge of the olden ways and Delacour's application of those. He responded, his voice lowered to a threatening whisper: „You Ollivander's have no right to withhold her from us".
I replied, choosing my words carefully again: „Gabrielle Ollivander is under my protection d..", I was interrupted right then, realizing my mistake in wording a smidgen too late...
–– Observer POV ––
The acting head of house Delacour noticing her slip up and acted instantaneously, a huge greatsword appearing on Clara Ali Ollivander's neck with a speed, which she could not even track at this point in time. Only a small prototype ward reacted in time, though the feeble barrier was destroyed in less than an instant, not even buying enough time for Clara Ali Ollivander to notice what was happening. That the ward could even react at all was a testament to her skills.
Both of those were not noticed by her until something stopped the greatsword. Something so small, so inconsequential that it had no reason and allowance to block such a mighty swing. A slender crumpled pinky finger appeared, floating in place next to Clara Ali Ollivander's neck. Slowly an old man revealed himself: „Impressive ward you got there", he said. Had Clara Ali Ollivander not been so shocked by the current situation, she would have realized who that man was, but she was still clueless for a bit longer.
–– Clara Ali Ollivander ––
It happened so fast, that I did not even notice anything wrong, until a horse voice rasped directly into my left ear: „Impressive ward you got there".
I only saw a blur before a huge greatsword, which previously rested at my neck, flew away at the same incomprehensible speed.
„And who are you to protect her like that? Her bodyguard? I doubt it, not even the Ollivander's would do something like that. So, why does some powerless old man meddle in something like this?", he asked, the greatsword returning straight to his hands. The man responded, while his body slowly vanished into bloody particles: „Indeed, I am old. Powerless though?", he rhetorically questioned: „No, kid. I am anything but that". He sounded offended and I thought for a short amount of time, that he addressed me, trying to reassure me, but then one word echoed, before the world went deathly silent: „Domain!"
The next moment, the two of us appeared on a bloody sea, the same voice echoing again: „A lesson about lifeforce cultivation for both of you: If someone can sense your strength, you are doing something wrong". The next instant, we were back on solid green ground, standing before my small home. The previous landscape vanishing instantly, like it was only an illusion, though all of my senses told me that it was anything but that. The old voice sounded again, thundered even: „Leave, banish the girl and leave both alone in the future or I will hunt you down personally!" The acting head of house Delacour disappeared, a familiar old man appearing in front of me instead: „So, got any good tea on hand?"
I stared perplexed, not even the question registering in my shocked mind, as before me stood the same previously thought powerless man from the wardshop which was the original reason I had even settled here. This changed to more positive emotions, the man having complimented one of my wards, before I was finally sound of mind enough to respond: „Nothing for anyone of your stature yet, though I have a mortal blend if that is enough?", I cautiously responded. „Perfect! Let us chat a bit", he answered, opening the door into my house, ignoring my wards completely. I made a bit of tea, before returning to the dining table, giving the man one of the two mugs and sitting down opposite to him. The man tasted the still scalding hot water, sighing: „Not so bad. So, introductions are in order I guess. I do not mean any harm to either of you", he said, smiling reassuringly, though he focused his eyes on my ring: „and I am pleased to make your acquaintance once again. You can call me Marduk, guardian of Greece". I reciprocated: „Clara Ali Ollivander, pleased to make your acquaintance as well. So, what does someone like you want from someone like me?"
He answered: „Teach you my legacy of course". „I am not buying that for a second", I stated bluntly, not wanting to play any games: „So, what is the real reason?" Marduk looked thoughtfully, hesitating a bit: „Good, but it is actually half true at least. Most of my real legacy would be incompatible with you, but there are a few things I can teach you. Parseltongue for one and an exchange of our understanding of wards, though I am sure you know the implications of that. And before the next question is why", he interrupted me as I tried to speak: „I want neither favors nor anything else except understanding about wards in return, I will even sign a binding contract on that. It is a whim of mine, as I am terribly bored in my self imposed retirement. And hell no I am not telling you why that is and why I don't just straight up come out of my retirement you weird rude girl!", he jokingly yelled, having taken another question from my lip before I could even voice it. He continued: „Call it a curiosity over the heights you may achieve in the future as even I can see the genius in your designs, though they are still unrefined. And just to preempt another question, my understanding of wards is not that much better than yours, just different I suppose", he mused: „You could call it one of my retirement hobbies, as it has literally nothing to do with anything else of my legacy except parseltongue."
We promptly signed the contract, though the following was no grand year long learning journey. It was an exchange of understanding, both of us telling the bare minimum of knowledge, focusing on the foundation of our knowledge and why we used and created wards like we do, their positive and negative aspects and so on. It only took a few hours, after which he gave me a full lexicon and learning guide for parseltongue with the explicit permission to share it anyway I want if I deem it necessary and a few of his books over wards, though they were not included in our previous agreement. He left as abruptly as he came, vanishing into blood red particles, leaving me behind with my thoughts.
–– Observer POV ––
A being jerked, slowly opening his eyes, before closing them again, not even having opened them halfway. A scraping sound escaped through this action, overpowering the stillness of the vacuum around it, this single movement more than enough to „eradicate" most of the matter around the being.