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Chapter 16: Waiting list
🕑 Added 2025-08-29 02:24:11 +0000 UTCRyan, realizing he was sharing a compartment with two girls deeply absorbed in their books, had an idea.
Why not start promoting his second invention right now?
The speed-reading glasses. He had only made three units so far, but he could already begin selling them directly at Hogwarts, no intermediaries needed. With just one sale, he would likely recover his investment in the frames and lenses. And from there, he could keep building both his capital and his reputation as an inventor.
Without lifting his eyes from his book, Ryan slid a hand into his robe and pulled out a black leather case with golden edges. Discreet, elegant, distinct from the rest of his things.
He opened it with measured slowness. Inside rested a pair of sober, thin-framed glasses of good taste. Just the frame and lenses alone had cost him seven galleons, though at first glance they looked like nothing more than elegant, ordinary glasses. The runes were barely visible, etched so subtly in black that you’d have to examine the frame carefully to notice them.
Ryan put them on with natural ease and returned to reading. And then… his pace shifted.
His reading speed accelerated. His eyes moved with surgical precision, and he flipped the pages at a rhythm that would make any casual observer think he was faking it. But he wasn’t. He was reading, comprehending. Only faster. Much faster.
Pandora noticed first. She narrowed her eyes slightly, lowering her book a few centimeters. For the first time in many minutes, her attention was fixed on him. She spotted the glasses. They weren’t the same dark sunglasses Ryan wore to play at being mysterious in the sun. These were different: sober, elegant, thin-framed, blending seamlessly with his features.
Emmeline was watching too. She didn’t say anything, but she paused her reading. She observed carefully, the movements, the rhythm of the pages… the glasses. Her mind began to process.
Ryan kept his expression neutral, but inside, he was amused at their stares.
'Ah, look at that. So this does impress them?'
“Is there something on my face?” he asked casually, not lifting his eyes. “It’s a little uncomfortable trying to read while two lovely ladies stare at me in silence.”
Pandora gave a soft snort.
Emmeline didn’t react to the compliment. Not even a flicker of vanity. She only asked, in her usual tone, as though it were just another observation, “Why do you turn the pages so quickly? Is it…?”
“Oh, I see you’re perceptive, Vance. As expected of you. Yes,” he nodded as he removed the glasses with a deliberate gesture, “these glasses let me read faster. Twice as fast, to be exact.”
“Since when do glasses that increase reading speed exist?” Emmeline asked finally, bluntly, though with a note of skepticism in her voice.
“They didn’t… until I created the first pair,” Ryan replied, as though he hadn’t just said something extraordinary.
He let the silence stretch for a moment, enjoying it. Both of his companions were watching him, weighing the truth of his words. They weren’t looking at him like a charlatan. They looked at him as if unsure whether he was telling them an incredible truth… or a brilliantly crafted lie.
“I got bored this summer,” he added lightly. “You know, I’m an Ollivander. Magical craftsmanship is in my blood.” He twirled the glasses between his fingers. “The Ollivander method. Family secret. Don’t bother asking how I made them, I won’t tell.”
Without another word, he offered them to Emmeline.
“Try them. Two minutes. With your book. If they don’t work, you can insult me with elegance for the rest of the trip.”
Emmeline hesitated for only a second, then accepted the glasses without a change in her expression. She examined them first.
'Runes?' she thought, noticing the faint, refined inscriptions along the barely visible frame.
She looked at Ryan for a moment, then put them on.
She opened her Defense Against the Dark Arts book and began to read.
Ryan and Pandora watched her in silence.
The change was immediate. Her eyes began moving faster, and each page she turned was done with a steady, consistent rhythm. There was no confusion in her gaze. No frustration, no signs of overload. Only concentration.
Two exact minutes passed.
Then, with the same composure, she closed the book, removed the glasses, and handed them back to Ryan.
“They work,” she said simply.
Ryan raised an eyebrow.
“And?”
“I read exactly twice as fast. And I understood everything,” she admitted, without dramatics.
Ryan smiled. “Thank you for the validation.”
Without another word, he turned to Pandora and held the glasses out to her. “Want to try?”
Pandora looked at him with a hint of distrust… but also with a spark of interest she didn’t often show.
She took the glasses, examined them, and noticed the runes as well, her expression briefly flashing with surprise.
'Runes?' Pandora thought, frowning.
Ryan Ollivander inscribing runes to achieve that effect? That wasn’t a simple enchantment. It required technical mastery, delicate craftsmanship, and knowledge not taught at Hogwarts. She was enrolled in Ancient Runes, and they didn’t teach practical applications, only translations of alphabets, ancient scripts, and theory.
She began to read. Her eyes moved with smooth rhythm, and after only a few pages, she already understood how it worked.
In less than two minutes, she closed the book and removed the glasses.
“They’re not fake. They work,” she said, handing them back. “I was able to read faster and comprehend the same. I tested it on a complex passage.”
Ryan accepted them with a slight nod at the positive review.
“Are they legal?” Emmeline asked suddenly.
Pandora turned her head toward her, not expecting that question.
“I mean it,” Emmeline continued. “On an exam or during study… some might consider them a form of cheating. Someone who reads twice as fast has an advantage, don’t they?”
Ryan smiled, as if he had been waiting for that exact question.
“No, it’s not cheating,” he replied clearly. “The glasses don’t comprehend for you. If the text is beyond your level, all you’ll do is waste time faster. They don’t solve problems, don’t give you the answers, don’t turn ignorance into knowledge.”
He looked at both of them.
“They only improve your reading efficiency. They save you time. You can use that time to study more… or not study at all. That’s up to each person.”
Pandora continued watching him, serious. Emmeline maintained her usual neutral expression, never fully revealing what she thought.
“Besides,” Ryan went on, settling back into his seat, “with many complex texts, even if you read quickly, you’ll still have to go back. Reread pages, review concepts, cross-check ideas. Because understanding doesn’t always happen on the first pass. Sometimes you need to think about it, reflect on it, for it to make real sense.”
He shrugged simply.
“The glasses don’t replace the process. They just make it faster. Not easier.”
Pandora nodded lightly, understanding. Emmeline did too.
A few seconds of silence passed before Emmeline spoke.
“I suppose you’re going to sell them.”
Ryan glanced at her sideways, smiling faintly, amused. “And why do you think that?”
“Because you gave too much of an explanation,” Emmeline replied without hesitation. “If you didn’t want others to have them, you wouldn’t bother justifying their use. Or showing them. Or letting us try them. If they were only for you, you wouldn’t have done any of this.”
Ryan let his smile widen a little. Sharp, no doubt.
“There’s more,” Emmeline added. “A few weeks ago, quills began appearing in shops on Diagon Alley that write in the air. Not with ink, but with light. Each quill has a set color, and they work as if the air itself were paper. I saw a demonstration at Perks. Quite impressive.”
'Old Perks is doing his marketing job well,' Ryan thought.
Emmeline paused briefly before continuing. “It seems too much of a coincidence that you show up now with another equally useful invention. A new magical quill… and now glasses that let you read twice as fast. So I’m betting those quills are yours too,” she concluded.
Pandora turned her head toward Ryan, surprised. He let out a small, genuine snort, more real than his previous smirks. He was genuinely impressed.
“What a sharp mind you have, Vance. Yes, the quills are mine,” he admitted naturally, as if he’d just confessed to baking a cake. “Did you buy one?”
Emmeline looked at him for a second longer. Then, as if there were no point in denying it, she nodded.
“Yes.”
Ryan tilted his head with a satisfied expression, a crooked smile curving his lips. “Good. I’m glad to know one of my first clients was someone with good taste.”
“It wasn’t about taste,” Emmeline clarified. “It was about functionality. Though I’ll admit, they’re stylish.”
“That’s a compliment. I’ll take it as such,” Ryan replied.
Without another word, Ryan slipped the glasses back on, opened his Advanced Transfiguration book, and resumed reading with complete naturalness, as if nothing that had just happened deserved further attention.
Pandora watched him sideways, in silence.
It was Emmeline who broke the quiet a few minutes later. “When are you going to sell them?”
Ryan didn’t lift his eyes.
“Oh… so you want to buy them?” he said in a mocking tone, as though he’d been waiting for this from the very beginning. “Didn’t see that coming.”
Emmeline slowly turned her face toward him. Pandora, who had been watching the whole time, let out a barely audible sigh.
But of course, Emmeline didn’t flinch.
“Yes. They’re useful. Though I’d need a longer session to confirm the accelerated reading holds comprehension for an hour or more. But if that proves true, I’d buy them. I’m not prideful. If something is useful, I acquire it. Especially with O.W.L.s ahead.”
Ryan closed the book softly. His expression grew a little more serious.
“The creation process is longer than for the quills,” he explained. “I only have this unit with me. I can put you on a waiting list, but the price… I don’t have it fixed yet.”
Both girls’ eyes were on him.
“But just so you have an idea,” he added, “they’ll be more expensive. Much more. The basic quills went for ten galleons. These will cost… considerably more.”
Emmeline didn’t hesitate. “Put me on the list.”
Ryan nodded, a very faint smile forming on his face. “Congratulations. You’re the first. You’ll have your glasses in a few weeks.”
A second of silence. Then Pandora’s voice rose calmly from her corner.
“Me too. Add me.”
Ryan turned slightly toward her with a crooked smile. “Done. Second on the list.”
He already had two buyers waiting.
And then an idea struck him.
“Although, come to think of it…” he said suddenly, as if the thought had just come to him, “you could try reading for a full hour right now, couldn’t you?”
Emmeline looked at him cautiously, though with interest. “Right now?”
“Yes. The trip is long, we’ve got hours left. It would be an excellent real performance test. And since I only have one unit, I’ll rent them to you for an hour. One galleon,” Ryan said in a serious tone.
Pandora looked up, blinking. “You’re going to rent your glasses?”
“Yes, why not?” Ryan replied with a shrug.
Pandora stared at him with a mix of amazement and resignation.
'This guy is unbelievable,' Pandora thought. He didn’t even seem greedy in a bad sense. More like… calculating. Professional.
Emmeline narrowed her eyes, thoughtful. “One galleon for an hour?”
“Yes. Besides, if you’re going to buy them eventually, it makes sense to test their extended performance,” Ryan nodded.
There was a silence of three seconds.
“I accept,” Emmeline said at last, pulling out the galleon without hesitation and handing it to him with elegance.
“A pleasure doing business with you,” Ryan replied formally, handing her the glasses.
He knew the Vance family had money. A pure-blood family with good lineage and, of course, plenty of wealth. They weren’t part of The Sacred Twenty-Eight, but Ryan never really took that list seriously, it had been made by a classist author with purist ideals.
Pandora let out a small sigh. She found it amusing, but at the same time she felt she was witnessing the birth of something more than just an inventor: a natural-born salesman with sharp instinct.
Emmeline calmly put on the glasses, opened her book, and without another word began to read.
Ryan pocketed the galleon with a satisfied smile, leaned back against the seat, and returned to his book at normal speed.
That was when Pandora broke the silence.
“Sorry to interrupt your reading,” she said softly, “but… I was curious about what Emmeline mentioned. The enchanted quills that write in the air. Do you have one? Could I see it?”
Her voice carried that mix of sincerity and curiosity Ryan liked. She wasn’t trying to feign disinterest or hide it. She simply asked, like someone who valued knowledge above everything else.
“Of course,” Ryan replied, rummaging through his trunk.
After a few seconds, he pulled out a case. He opened it, and inside was an eagle feather quill. It was slim, elegant, with a body of deep wine-red color.
“As you already know, it lets you write in the air, no ink required. This one is violet,” Ryan said as he wrote his name in the air.
“The words last up to four hours before disappearing. If you want to erase something, it’s simple, you just touch the written word with the tip of the quill, and it vanishes,” Ryan explained, demonstrating as he erased his full name.
“Try it,” Ryan said, handing her the quill.
Pandora took it delicately, fascinated. She moved the quill lightly through the air and watched as a line of floating light appeared, firm and precise—suspended as if the air itself were an invisible parchment.
“Do you still sell these?” Pandora asked, turning the quill between her fingers. “I mean, if you’ve already sold several…”
Ryan nodded.
“Yes. I still have a few. How much are you offering?”
Pandora hesitated for a second. She knew she couldn’t offer a fortune.
The Rosemarys were a pure-blood family, yes, but not ostentatious. Their name was somewhat old, but they lived like many middle-class wizarding families: hardworking parents, steady income, no excessive luxuries.
“Five galleons? I saw an enchanted quill for faster writing priced at that,” Pandora said, watching Ryan to see if that was enough—or far too low.
Ryan agreed without much thought. “Deal. I don’t have many colors left in stock. What’s your favorite? Maybe I still have it.”
Pandora thought for only a second. “Dark blue. Not shiny. One that won’t distract.”
“Maybe still have one,” Ryan said, rummaging through his trunk. In a few seconds, he pulled out another case, opened it, and confirmed the quill was a dark blue that met Pandora’s request. He handed it to her.
“As long as you don’t toss it off a cliff or leave it out in the rain, it’ll last you at least a full year,” Ryan commented.
Pandora nodded, pulled out the five galleons, and handed them over without another word, examining the quill with interest. Then she carefully stored it in her trunk.
“Thanks,” she said softly, just enough, no more.
“To you,” Ryan replied, this time without theatrics or a smile. The transaction had been simple and quick. He liked that.
