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Chapter 31: The Marauders (1)
🕑 Added 2025-09-14 20:15:06 +0000 UTC“There he is,” said James Potter, pointing with his chin as he shifted the broom on his shoulder, “Ryan Ollivander, the castle’s fashionable merchant.”
The Marauders were standing on the grass beneath a tree. Sirius had his boots unlaced, Remus was half-reading, and Peter was shielding his eyes from the sun with one hand.
“He’s not a merchant, James,” Remus replied without looking up from his book, “He’s a maker.”
“Technically he’s both!” Peter jumped in, a bit too quickly, as if he’d been waiting for a chance to speak. “He makes the quills and sells them!”
Lupin glanced at his friend, surprised not by his usual nervousness, but because he was actually right.
“Do you really want to buy one?” Sirius asked lazily. He didn’t see much use for them. Studying? He did it when lucky, only in the classes he liked.
“They’re more useful than they seem,” said Lupin, closing his small book. “I saw one in the library. A Ravenclaw girl was using it to take notes. The letters floated above her desk, glowing lilac, as if she were writing on air.”
“Yeah, yeah, I saw one with red letters,” Peter added. “No parchment, no ink wasted. What you write floats in the air, neatly, for up to four hours. Then it dissolves.”
Lupin nodded, a little more serious. “I heard even Flitwick couldn’t figure out how he did it after examining a third-year’s enchanted quill.”
“How much did he say they cost?” asked Peter.
“I think eight to ten galleons,” said Lupin, not entirely up to date.
Peter swallowed hard. He had seen them often, but ten galleons was still steep compared to a regular eagle-feather quill.
“All right, let’s go, I want to buy one,” James said, convinced after that little strategic talk with his friends. But they stopped when they saw a well-put-together group of girls walking toward Ryan, who was sitting like a lord, relaxed on a stone bench.
“More customers?” James muttered.
“They’re in his year. I think they’ve already bought from him. Alicia the prefect was one of the first,” said Lupin.
The four of them waited, watching Ryan, who never stood but spoke calmly in front of five beautiful girls. Peter felt respect, he could never do that.
At one point four of the girls left, and the one who remained had nearly white-blond hair and piercing eyes. She sat down beside Ryan.
“Is that…?” Peter began.
“Marlene McKinnon,” Lupin replied in a lower voice. “I think they dated last year.”
“Really?” James asked, intrigued.
“I said I think so, but judging from this, yes. Not for long, but… it was obvious. They say she was the only one who could wake him up so he wouldn’t be late, otherwise Gryffindor would’ve lost more points.”
“Whoa, Lupin, I’m impressed,” said Sirius with a crooked smile. “I didn’t know you kept up with so much upper-year gossip.”
Lupin shrugged, unfazed by his friend’s remark.
From where they were, they couldn’t hear a thing. But they could see the gestures. The way Ryan leaned in slightly, speaking without arrogance, almost humbly.
“Looks like he’s not such an idiot when he wants to be,” murmured Sirius, surprised by the lack of sarcasm in Ollivander’s body language.
Lupin raised an eyebrow at him. He agreed with the comment, of course, but it was Sirius Black who was saying it.
“Look at that,” Peter pointed.
Ryan handed Marlene something: a small dark case. She opened it, pulled out a quill, and wrote something in the air. Yellow letters, glowing. They couldn’t read them from so far away, but they did catch Ryan’s grimace.
As if something had stung his pride.
Immediately, he snatched the quill from Marlene with speed. He put it away, rummaged on the other side of his robe, and pulled out a second case, far more elegant. He opened it, showed her the contents, another quill, and handed it to her.
“This isn’t a sale…” Remus said quietly.
“A gift?” asked Sirius.
“Yes… Isn’t that a griffin quill? The same one he gave another girl in his year on the first day,” Peter said, squinting his eyes.
“Yeah, with a bargain price of 250 galleons…” said James with a strange smile.
“And he’s giving away another?” Lupin asked, astonished. “Is this his way of flirting, with his inventions and money?”
“And it works…” Sirius muttered with a grimace.
“Yeah. And it’s not just that he gives things away, it’s how he does it. Sitting there, unhurried. To his ex-girlfriend. Not showing nerves, but catching every gesture. Disgusting.”
“Do you think they’ll get back together?” Peter asked nosily.
“Maybe yes, maybe no. But if not, it doesn’t look like he’ll be short on options…” Sirius said, stroking his chin.
Inventor. Name Ollivander. Good looks. A rebel. And now pulling good grades and even earning points for his House. A rare combination at Hogwarts.
Marlene stood up. She said something to Ryan, held his gaze, and walked away with steady steps.
“All right. Let’s go,” James said, taking a step forward. But none of them followed immediately.
They stayed there standing, as if they needed a few more seconds to brace themselves. They didn’t know exactly why. Maybe because what they had just seen didn’t feel like a simple conversation. Nor a transaction. Ryan wasn’t acting like a student selling things. He had the demeanor of someone granting favors by selling his creations.
At that moment, Ryan put on his black sunglasses. The same ones that had already earned him a warning from McGonagall. He didn’t seem to care.
From his robe pocket, he pulled out a galleon. Tossed it lazily into the air, caught it, tossed it again. He repeated the motion with studied slowness. As if playing with his time. Like James with his golden snitch, but instead of a Quidditch relic, Ryan played with money.
“Seriously?” Sirius muttered.
The galleon slipped from his hand and fell onto the grass, but Ryan didn’t flinch. He didn’t bend down. Didn’t even glance at the ground. He simply pulled out another galleon from his pocket and tossed it into the air again.
James frowned. “That’s too much.”
“What is?” asked Peter.
“The nerve of losing a galleon and acting like it’s grass. And doing it with style.”
“And the worst part…” added Remus, eyes fixed on the scene, “is that it doesn’t even look like he’s pretending.”
“This is passive intimidation,” Sirius said with an amused smile. “And I’ve no idea if he learned it from his mother, from a strategy book, or if it just comes naturally.”
“But if we’re going to buy a quill,” James said, folding his arms, “we’re going to do it like we don’t care at all. He can’t see desperation or he’ll charge us more.”
He said it with conviction. Because yes, James Potter could be competitive, impulsive, and arrogant… but stupid, he was not. He was already a starting Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, used to attention. But when something caught his interest, like these damned enchanted quills, he wasn’t about to be ripped off with a smile.
“Sure, of course,” Lupin said dryly, “As if we weren’t all still processing the fact that the guy plays with galleons like marbles.”
“Are we going or not?” James pressed, still not moving.
“Let’s go,” the other three said in unison, walking toward Ryan.
They crossed the patch of grass separating them. Ryan had already noticed them, of course. He didn’t raise his head. He only shifted his eyes just above his sunglasses as the second galleon traced a slow arc in the air.
This time, he didn’t even try to catch it. It fell onto the grass. He simply let it fall.
He watched them approach as if he already knew why they were coming. He had noticed them watching.
'The famous Marauders…' Ryan thought. Finally, he would interact with them. This would be fun.
“Oh… if it isn’t our famous Seeker,” Ryan said calmly, with a cordial hint of irony, “James Potter in the flesh.”
James lifted his chin, satisfied. “I see you keep yourself well informed,” he replied, folding his arms.
“It’s part of my job,” Ryan answered, tilting his head slightly to the side with a half-smile.
Then his gaze shifted to Sirius. Those gray eyes shone faintly behind the dark lenses. The famous uncle of Harry.
Then to Lupin, the werewolf, and the future Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. And finally, his eyes landed on Peter Pettigrew.
His smile didn’t change. But inside, a cold spark lit up. The traitor.
But that was another story.
“I suppose you came for the quills, didn’t you?” Ryan said, more a statement than a question.
James nodded, arms crossed, a little surprised by the precision. “Yeah. We’ve heard good things.”
“Whoa, quite a reputation I’ve built in… what, eleven days of school?” Ryan said with a faint crooked smile.
He didn’t wait for an answer. “The price is ten galleons, as you know… How many do you want?”
James turned his head toward his friends. “Peter?”
“I do,” Peter answered at once, with an anxious energy that was almost uncomfortable. “I did the math. If you’re buying one, I’m buying one too.”
Ryan looked at him. Barely. A strange impulse ran through his body.
Is this the feeling bullies get when they see their victims? That inexplicable discomfort that makes you want to shove him against a locker just to see how he reacts?
He shook off the thought.
“All right. Sirius?” James asked.
“I don’t need one,” Sirius said honestly, though without arrogance. “Not for studying, at least. If I used it, it’d be more for style than anything else.”
Ryan looked at him for a second, as if weighing him. Then he gave a crooked smile.
“Well, quills aren’t just for jotting down homework. Picture this, Black… A midnight trip to the Forbidden Forest. You’re alone, or with your group. The moon’s hidden, the risk is high. But as you go, you leave floating marks in the air. A word, an arrow, a warning. They last four hours. On your way back, you know exactly where you’ve been.”
“Mmm, tempting. Any other less-than-ethical uses?” Sirius asked, thoughtful expression on his face.
“You could write floating insults aimed at Slytherins in high places around the castle. They glow. Everyone sees them. Hard to reach to erase. Very practical.”
“All right, I want one,” Sirius said with a wide grin.
All eyes turned to Remus.
He lowered his gaze for a second before speaking.
“I… it’s good. Very useful. But I can’t,” he said calmly, without giving explanations. “I’ve got some galleons saved up, but not enough for that right now. Maybe later.”
Ryan nodded naturally, without surprise.
“All right,” he replied in a neutral tone, “but I don’t like leaving someone out just because of that. I’ll let you pay in three installments: four, three, and three. You pay four when you receive it, and the rest month by month. No interest. And if one month you can’t, let me know and we’ll work something out.”
The gesture caught Lupin off guard. “You’d really do that?”
“Yes, take it as a benefit of us being in the same House,” said Ryan.
“Then… I accept,” said Lupin.
“Perfect,” Ryan said, satisfied. “I’ve got a small backlog. Two clients before you. So, at most, I’ll have them ready in two days.”
“Nothing already made?” asked Sirius.
“Only one, but it’s yellow. Any of you want yellow?”
The four of them looked at each other and shook their heads almost in unison.
“Nah, I’ll pass,” said James.
“Definitely not,” Sirius added.
Ryan muttered to himself as he closed the case. “Yellow’s not very popular… curious. Gold does sell more.”
“So then, the colors?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Dark blue,” said Sirius.
“Fire red,” said James, almost automatically.
“Forest green,” added Peter, as if he’d been thinking about it for days.
“Soft silver, if possible,” said Remus with a faint smile.
Ryan nodded, pulled a small parchment from his robe, a normal quill without enchantments but with ink, and wrote the colors down by name. He had too many things in his head; it was better to be cautious.
After noting them, he rolled the parchment and tucked it back into his robe. Then he looked up at the four with a more relaxed, almost… generous expression.
“On second thought, since this is the first time I’ve received a group order at Hogwarts, I’ll give you a small discount. Eight galleons each. That was the original price when I sold them during the first days. Consider it wholesale.”
A small silence followed. Not hesitation… but quick internal acceptance.
“Seriously?” James asked, only slightly surprised, lowering his arms. “Well, that’s great, thanks.”
James was a Potter. Spoiled, yes. His monthly allowance was close to twenty galleons thanks to the good family name and his parents’ indulgent affection… but even so, spending ten at once on a quill hurt. If he could save two galleons, all the better.
Peter smiled. His allowance was modest, six galleons a month. Buying this quill at ten equaled almost two months of allowance, leaving him with two galleons to spare. Now he’d have four left. Since he had savings, he could pay it all at once.
Sirius nodded with a brief gesture, almost grateful. Rare for him. On the outside, it could look like he swam in galleons, but the truth was different. His family kept him on a tight leash, and he did nothing to mend the relationship. His mother sent him a small sum out of legal obligation, and his uncle Alphard, the only decent Black, sometimes sent him something… when he remembered. He estimated ten to twelve galleons a month, with luck. Eight was a considerable expense. But acceptable.
Remus, for his part, remained still. The new number ran through his mind with practical calculation. “Three, three… two,” he muttered under his breath, almost to himself. “Yes, I can handle that much better.”
“Perfect. At most, in two days you’ll have them. I’ll let you know in the hall or the common room,” said Ryan, standing up.
The two galleons he had dropped were still there, faintly gleaming in the grass.
Without hurry or the slightest shame, he bent down and picked them up with the same calm as someone tying their shoelaces.
He wasn’t a squanderer. His personal savings were large for a student, very large, even for magical workers like Aurors: more than 1,600 galleons. But he wasn’t stupid. He didn’t burn money. He only played with it.
“See you, Marauders,” he said with a lazy farewell gesture, lifting a hand without fully turning around.
And he walked away at an easy pace across the grass, the sun at his back, tossing a single galleon into the air again, spinning it between his fingers.
James watched him until he disappeared behind some trees.
Finally, he was the one to break the silence. “Well? What do you think?”
