Thousands of red-eyed mice, scratching at the door
Don't let the curtain catch you, cause you've been here before
The chair is an island darling, you can't touch the floor

@cyrus - outfit

Her morning had been unexpectedly pleasant. She normally never had social calls at home, not unless it was from a distant cousin of some sort. Even then, ever since she started coming to the shop more, those had stopped. They could see her here anyway, right? All Ollivanders were somehow popping in and out of the shop at some point. It was an ancient family hubbub and she had been absent for a while, but that didn't mean that she wasn't involved at all. She was a wandmaker also and since there was only so much space for working Ollivanders here, she had been thinking about eventually getting an own little place. Branching out. It would be nice, it would give her a workshop outside home to go to every day. It would give her many cousins somewhere else to work as well. They couldn't all fit here and there were five of them that still had to complete their education. No doubt they would also start working in the family tradition, however.

Still, sometimes the shop was mostly empty. They didn't have all that many clients during the year. Only during the summer did sales pick up quite a bit, obviously because of all the children coming to get their first wands. Still, there were a handful of dozens of people that broke their wands every year that needed new ones. The letters from Hogwarts hadn't been delivered yet, though, so things were mostly empty. She brought a book along, usually, and sat in her own chair to the side for a while. For some reason, sitting behind the counter was never something she was comfortable with. Like this, she was just out of sight but close by enough to hear the bell whenever someone entered. Gal was working in the back on something, Ophelia had stepped out some time earlier, and Gerry had gone off somewhere. Maybe to find something in that jokeshop so many of them liked. She hadn't been yet, but she'd seen it from the outside. The owner was a friend of Gal's but it was too loud and filled with running children for her to feel comfortable going there just yet. No, today she would take it easy and just read her book. Now, if no one were to step in-

The bell rang. Gael had probably jinxed it. With a soft sigh under her breath, she closed her book and set it on one of the shelves beside her before stepping out into the no longer empty shop. There stood a young man, Hogwarts age, perhaps, or Gerry's age. Maybe he was here looking for her cousin. Then she noticed she'd been quiet a bit longer than was acceptable and smiled shyly. "Hello, sorry. Welcome to Ollivanders. Are you looking for something in particular?" Coming a bit closer, she stood behind the counter and looked up at his face. He seemed pleasant enough. She very much hoped he wasn't one of the many purist children running around lately. It would be strange, anyway, since it was broad daylight outside and the streets were crowded with shoppers. Forcing herself to relax further, she stopped fidgeting with her rings and tried not to call for Gal. It was true that she didn't work here, but she was just as much an Ollivander as the rest of her kin.

Ship To Shore

Do You Read Me Anymore

This Line Is Bad And Fading

Honestly... he was probably being a little optimistic if not stepping way out of his boundaries to be doing what he was about to do. This was something he'd always wanted but then that didn't mean he had actively been planning on making it a reality so soon. That just wasn't who he was. He was more the 'plan it thoroughly so you have at least three backup plans' kind of guy. Today though he was winging it. Cyrus wanted to put it down to the fact that Dennis had been home a lot more recently and his brother's outlook and approach to life had rubbed off on him. Out of pride he had told him what he was planning on doing and like any sibling in this world would do, Dennis had turned around and cast doubt on it to see whether he'd rise to the bait. And he had. It hadn't taken more than a brief snort and a 'yeah, okay mate' and he'd been grabbing his jacket to leave, to show him that he had the guts to do what he said he was going to.

Now he was wishing he hadn't even opened up his mouth. In hindsight, maybe he could have owled Rosa to ask her for advice or even for her to try and pull a string for him... but the older witch still intimidated him somewhat so he hadn't considered the notion for more than a moment before he'd discarded it. He had said he'd do this by his own drive, off his own back, and that meant that he had to follow it through not or he had about as much oomph about him as a snail travelling over grass. If he wanted to be respected as a young man in his own right instead of a young boy then he had to take the initiative this time. Had to take the bull by the bollocks.

If only he felt as confident about his choice now as he had when he'd first left the house and apparated to the Leaky, walking out through its back door with his head high. The further through Diagon he had gone however the less certain he'd become. It was very possible that they could just laugh at him and turn him away. Had he been smart he could have looked to have his internship at a wandmakers. Unfortunately, he'd been too wrapped up in his studies and in Lily to even consider an internship that would take him away from either or both. Sure, he'd enrolled into Lufkin's wandmaking course immediately and had been accepted in on the prerequisite of his exams... but the university term didn't begin until September so he didn't even had the basics yet.

But he wanted them. Dear Merlin, how he wanted them. He wanted it all. Against all odds he wanted to find out if Ollivander's would take him on as an apprentice or the like so he could learn from the source, from the shop that had started this dream for him. He loved the smell, the dedication and thought that went into making absolutely each and every wand. The different cores were fascinating. But he didn't really know any of the Ollivanders. He'd met one, the old Wizard who had given him his wand when he was eleven, but he highly doubted that the man would really take him under his wing at his age. But then there was more than just him. He'd seen them as he walked past the shop in the years since. Call him a dreamer but he wanted to believe that at least one of them would hear him out. 

Stifling his nerves as best he could, he finally pushed open the door and heard the familiar bell ring above his head as he stepped in, breathing in the smell of polished wood. A witch not much older than him- or at least, he assumed not- was standing at the counter as he approached. The silence dragged a little as he came to a stop, swallowing hard and trying to think of how best to phrase this, but she cut through his thoughts with a pleasant greeting and a smile and he had to grin in response, looking down at his hands for a moment. He was about as giddy as he'd been when he had first dared to ask Lily out on a date to Hogsmeade. Hopefully, however, this situation wouldn't play out anything like that horror show had. He didn't think he could take that kind of rebuttal.  "Hey, aha, no worries. Um..." he faltered, the back of his knuckles tapping into his palm as the nerves surged. Why was this such a problem for him? It was a simple yes or no question. He'd get his answer. All he had to do was ask. "I uhh... I was looking to speak to the owner, or someone close to? Erm... I've... I've enrolled in a wandmaking course at Lufkin and I um... I was wondering if there was someone I could talk to about a potential form of apprenticing? If possible."

Here it came. He could almost feel a refusal coming at him as he finally managed to look up, drawing his bottom lip into his mouth and biting down on it. "If that's not a thing or the spaces are full or anything, that's fine. I wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone." He was rambling and he knew it, but now it seemed like he couldn't shut up from digging himself a bigger hole to bury himself in. "It... it's just kinda important to me. What I want to pursue as a career. Um I... It would mean a lot if I could speak to someone, or if you could direct me to someone else..." At this rate he'd be bagging groceries at the local shop let alone even in University. Why had he let Dennis get under his skin. He held her gaze for as long as he could before he took another step forward, offering his hand.  At this point, he couldn't really do much worse. "I'm Cyrus, by the way. Cyrus Lee." And he was cyruslee hoping against hope that he came out if this without being utterly mortified at himself, walking out with a face like a belisha beacon. Somehow, asking himself 'what's the worst that could happen?' didn't feel all that comforting anymore. If anything it made him feel even worse, as he stood there, hand proferred, heart hammering ten to the dozen.

TAG: @ Gael | WORDS: 1097 | NOTES:

MEL @ ADOXOGRAPHY

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“Thousands of red eyed mice scratching at the door”

[attr="class","character-spring-1d"]    Gael wasn't good in social situations, she really wasn't and she admitted that freely. It wasn't all completely her fault, it didn't stem all from her lengthy isolation. She rather thought that she hadn't been all that sociable even before she was taken out of school. At the same time, she knew that it had just been a case of her being silent, of her being somewhat introverted. She'd not been socially anxious back then, she'd not dreaded being spoken to by strangers. It wasn't as if she was terrified of a little social interaction, it just threw her off sometimes. Most of the time. It made her slightly uncomfortable, she just tried to be as polite and pleasant and helpful and then hoped that they would be satisfied with it. That was all she could offer, really. There were people who were confident in themselves, who were secure and outgoing and liked joking about. People who liked going out, or even people who might not do that but handled themselves alright. She didn't think she'd ever be that, admittedly. It didn't bother her all too much, it was just slightly frustrating sometimes. She needed to be able to talk to people and when it was about her work she seemed to manage just fine. That was because she knew what people expected from her in those cases, she knew what they needed to know or hear, what details she could expect to be asked. It was better. This? She didn't know how to do this, she didn't work here. If the boy had wanted to know anything about his wand or anything like that, she could have helped, but the barrage of words pointed rather to questions better directed at Gal.
    "Well... Gal is out at the moment, I don't really know much about the apprenticeships. I do know that Gerry is doing his apprenticeship right now, I think another of my cousins as well. It might be a bit crowded, though I don't know how many positions there are in total..." She offered an apologetic wince. In all honesty, she didn't even work here. She shouldn't be behind the counter but everyone was busy at the moment and she was as good a wandmaker as any of them. It was really unfortunate because- well, she could tell that whoever this was really cared about the apprenticeship. Truly wanted to do one, especially if he was looking for it even before he graduated from Lufkin. That was a very telling thing, really, and she was sorry to have to ruin his hopes. "I guess Gal will be back in an hour or so if you want to talk to her yourself? I'm not exactly sure where she went off to, and Ophelia needed to step out on an errand. You could have some tea?" It's a terrible offer, but it's all she can do, really. What else could she offer, to put in a good word for him? She didn't know him, this- "It's nice to meet you, Cyrus." Alright, so now she knew him, but she knew nothing about what kind of person he was, other than apparently a very nervous one. Nervous and dedicated.
    Could she really do nothing, though? She- she was a wand maker as well, right, so that meant that she could have an apprentice of her own. She even had a workshop in her cottage, where she made wands purely out of a sense of experimentation and enjoyment. Seeing what worked and what didn't. What was more or less attuned to what kind of magic. In a way, this shop was a way to gain practical knowledge, but her own workshop was a place to keep learning. Most of those wands never made it to the shelves of Ollivander's, since they were experiments, but the ones that did were always very high quality. She brought them here because there was really no reason to keep them around the house, gathering dust. Still, just because she could offer the boy that position didn't mean she should. She was terrible company at the best of times, she was quite certain that she would be just as terrible a teacher. Offering Cyrus to mentor him would be something of madness, yet she couldn't say that she wasn't considering. That was, of course, forgetting to think about the fact that he might not want to at all. Well- should she offer or not? She wasn't really sure. He looked like a good kid and few people with dark ideologies came to Ollivander's to look for an apprenticeship. For that they could just go to the Bulstrode woman working as a wandmaking professor, she was dark enough for their tastes. "Uhm... I'm a wandmaker too? I mean, I don't work here. I work from home. I've never had an apprentice before, but- if you like...?" She shrugged, fingers fidgeting on the desk before her.

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