mockeries | nell

[veronica giselle ollivander]

━ you have bewitched me, body and soul ━

early april 2027

IN THE LAST TWO YEARS of her ridiculously busy life...Veronica Ollivander had never visited the store her sister had opened in 2025. The faint memory of Eleanor discussing that she would be leaving her apprentice role for such a thing seemed laughable when the eldest looked back on it, especially since the younger Ollivander dreamed of creating her own area to work on her own craft, separate from family traditions. What a waste. Luckily there was just a bit of distance between the two, with Ollivanders stationed in Diagon Alley and Eleanor's...store was in Horizont.

Taking the time to leave the store during a quiet lunch hour - whilst relying on a new intern to handle things (and keep an eye on the whittling of wands that Veronica had charmed of course), the brunette walked, one careful foot in front of the other in the direction that many others had told her, where Eleanor's store was exactly. As the eldest Ollivander walked closer, she noticed the large sign that seemed to welcome customers and random tourists alike.

"The Queen's...Wands and Woodworks.." She read aloud, her tongue making a clicking noise while she shook her head. "What a..peculiar name." Knowing the slight bit of tension she was faced to eventually meet, a hand dug into deep pockets, pulling out a cigarette and a lighter. With a quick flick in both opening the lid and lighting the muggle item slotted between her fingers, Veronica took a few puffs, letting the smoke from the cigarette fill the air. Deciding that she would prefer to continue smoking, the Ollivander pushed at the door and stepped inside, the bell of the door letting out a quiet jingle - probably to inform whoever worked in the back (most likely Eleanor alone) that a customer was up front. But Veronica was...far from a customer.

| eleanor gwendolen ollivander |

[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

▲

Her store had survived two whole years of being open. Not much had really come in the way of it, aside from an incredibly slow start in which it took a lot of convincing customers that she also sold wands and that wandmaking was her primary job over self-rocking rocking chairs. Those things sold like hotcakes though, and there was almost always a half dozen on order to be made. Her woodworking and furniture was what ultimately kept her in business, alongside wand repairs, as the wands themselves were pricier and for those looking for more niche magical conduits. The plan was to eventually take custom orders for things like staves or walking canes. She could make virtually anything on demand, it was just that the customer had to understand she was a solo operation. But two years in, everything was moving along fine. Hiccups were bound to occur, like slow months of sales, but she always recovered. People always needed wands, and securing incoming first years was definitely a big part of that. They were already buying her wands at Ollivanders anyways, so there was literally no difference between there and here. She even made them the classic family way just for fun, with all the boring cores and woods. A nicely priced cherry wood with unicorn hair as a starter wand and priced accordingly brought in more parents than one would assume, and that was what made her different from the family shop.

Speaking of her family, she hadn’t expected to walk out her workshop to be greeted by Veronica of all people. That hadn’t happened at all in the two years since opening, and Nell’s immediate thought was that someone had died and Veronica had volunteered to deliver the news herself. Which she would never do, but that was beside the point. “Welcome…” Nell said hesitantly as she eyeballed her sister, immediately noting that the older Ollivander was smoking a cigarette inside the shop, which of course she was. She was going to break as many normal rules as possible to try and annoy Nell. That meant someone in the family hadn’t died, hopefully. “Did something happen, or are you just stopping by for a social call?” she asked cautiously. Her work smock was still on and shedding woodchips on her side of the counter. That was still better than the billowing cloud of smoke above her sister’s head.

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[veronica giselle ollivander]

━ you have bewitched me, body and soul ━

TAKING IN HER SURROUNDINGS OF her sister's store, Veronica hadn't expected for Eleanor to pop out so quickly at the sound of the chime. In Ollivanders, it always took the younger Ollivander a moment before heading to the front to welcome a potential client and get them what they needed. Regardless though, the response could mean various things. Point A being, Eleanor was slow on clients or customer orders as of present, or even point B, she had found a love in the work she was doing. A type of eagerness Veronica hadn't seen in a long while. Which was partially her fault of course.

As her sister welcomed her, Veronica took that moment to exhale the smoke she had been holding in, before raising a brow over at her sister. "You don't have an ash tray do you?" She questioned, initially ignoring her sisters question. Then came another quick inhale while Veronica browsed amongst the store once more, taking in the minor displays of wands, woodworks and furniture. It was all very intriguing to see, no doubt about that.

"Nothing happened by the way. All is well." She added then, hoping to reassure her sister. "I simply heard you've been open for two years now..So I came to visit." She added, looking over at the simplistic decor and interior before her eyes fell on her sister. "Congratulations. Has it been rough?"

| eleanor gwendolen ollivander |

[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

▲

Merlin, she hated the way Veronica was eyeballing her store. Nell knew that her sister was scrutinizing every single detail, from choice of wood on the furniture to the way she stacked her wand boxes on the wall. Obviously she was limited with space here and didn’t have the cavernous aisles that Ollivander’s did, but she made do. Probably worse was if there were stray wood shavings on the ground. She hadn’t managed to do a good sweep yet and that was bound to annoy Veronica. Instead of jumping into that though, she asked for an ash tray. Nell stared at her for a moment before flicking her wand over her shoulder. The sound of the door opening at the top of the stairs in the hallway that separated the store from workshop could be heard, a second wave summoning an ash tray that usually sat by the front window of her upstairs apartment. It zoomed down and landed in her free hand, Nell placing it down loudly on the counter without breaking eye contact with Veronica the entire time. She knew the cigarette wasn’t going to be put out, rather smudged enough so that it created a longer strand of smoke.

From the way her sister was talking, it sounded like she’d expected this venture to keel over and die before it even got started. Nell wasn’t gullible enough to think she’d be here for any other reason than to gloat, but it definitely sounded like a disappointed congratulations. “Thanks I guess,” she furrowed her brow as she was still trying to figure out what exactly Veronica wanted. “Not at all,” she answered in response to the difficulty so far. “Believe it or not, people want wands with some flavor to them. And those-” She pointed at a line of self-rocking rocking chairs, “Those rocking chairs are a huge hit for families with little kids. They basically sell themselves.” If she was going on total sales, her furniture outsold her wands almost every month of the year except in August and December. Business was far from being slow.

veronica giselle ollivander ● 349 ● American Pie by Don McLean

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[veronica giselle ollivander]

━ you have bewitched me, body and soul ━

SMIRKING AS VERONICA COULD HEAR the sounds of doors opening, her eyes watched as the ash tray landed in her younger sisters free hand. The eldest Ollivander found the tension between the two of them amusing, especially since she knew she could make Eleanor tense simply from the way she looked at her. As her eyes flickered down to where Nell placed the ash tray, Veronica's lips twitched upwards momentarily before she reached over, flicking her ashes into it. "Good to hear." Veronica replied firstly, before her brows furrowed at the continuation of her sisters' words.

"Some flavour to them?" She repeated in question, brow raising in question as Nell then pointed out the rocking chairs not too far from the two of them. "Hm." She added, placing the cigarette in the ash tray and slowly walking across the store, eyes browsing at all of her sister's creations. To the eldest Ollivander, the wood used for the rocking chairs looked firm but it could be seen as tacky.

Although her sister's wand creations were entirely different than the family's own typical creations. It was somehow refreshing but it also felt wrong to like them. "Is that it?" Veronica asked as she stopped where she stood, arms folding as she turned back to look at her sister.

| eleanor gwendolen ollivander |

[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

▲

What on earth was this about? Nell had started to wrack her brain to try and remember if she'd said something about Veronica recently that could have gotten back to her and caused all of this, but nothing popped up. She knew her sister better than most, and knew who to keep her mouth shut around. That didn't mean some busybody couldn't have overheard her though, and that easily was the most terrifying part. The other option was that Veronica was just being her typical vapid self and felt it particularly necessary to conduct an inspection today of all days. Nell seemed to convince herself it was the latter as her sister questioned the comment about the wands having 'flavor' to them. They technically did. No Ollivander in several centuries had touched a core outside of the common three, so what she was doing was like breaking free of a family that only used the worst kind of bread for toast.

Her sister's discerning glare at the chairs also wasn't that helpful, and Nell carefully eyed her every move. The silence irked her more than anything else, mostly because she knew Veronica was brewing up something. Or maybe she just wanted to watch Nell squirm. Which she did when she was asked if this was all of the shop's goods. "Errm...yes? I make the furniture as ordered, so I don't keep much spare stock around in shop like some do." She instantly regretted the way she phrased that too. Because that sounded like a slight towards Ollivander's, which it wasn't. The family shop was amazing, but a vast amount of wands could be stored in a smaller space than dozens of chairs could. So she was stuck working essentially in a perpetual state of making to order. Which didn't hurt too much, because if she was ever forced to shutter then she wouldn't be stuck with all of the excess furniture. And wands were easy to sell out of her apartment if necessary.

"My workshop is in the back and I live upstairs..." Nell added, though didn't exactly feel like it was an invitation. She really didn't want Veronica looking through her things. The workshop wouldn't be bad, but it would allow for criticisms about keeping a clean work space that she didn't need to receive in her own store. Everything about her sister was just exhausting and overbearing to the extreme. How Gideon managed to breathe around his mother was an art that Nell really needed to learn from her nephew.

veronica giselle ollivander ● 422 ● Song by Artist

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[veronica giselle ollivander]

━ you have bewitched me, body and soul ━

FEELING THE NEED TO JUDGE her younger siblings felt like a part-time job to the eldest Ollivander. There was never a time her judgements didn't feel right, despite the tension it caused between the siblings. But it was required. These family dynamics that snapped them into shape. Traditional and done correctly. That's all Veronica could truly ask for. Thus, conducting a sort of inspection in her sisters' shop was the last thing the eldest had planned for that day - besides coming in to congratulate on the fact that the store had managed to stay open for two years.

Listening to her sister's response only left Veronica's lips turned upright, into a small smile while a quiet scoff left her lips. Unwrapping her arms, Veronica stepped carefully, slowly weaving her way around the woodworks that were seemingly scattered around the store. "Like some..do?" She repeated, eyeing a particular rocking chair. The carving was impressive, Veronica could give her sister that...but there were still areas of detail that lacked. But the eldest was sure Eleanor was aware of that. "Dear sister I hope you're not trying to badmouth our families legacy..How disappointed would Father be to hear such a thing?"

At the mention that Eleanor lived upstairs above the shop, Veronica hummed quietly. "As long as the rent is affordable I suppose that's fine.." She somewhat muttered, before looking over her sisters shoulder, in an attempt to peer towards the workshop. "Show me?" She added. While it sounded like a mere request, Veronica didn't truthfully mean it to come across as one. More so an order.

| eleanor gwendolen ollivander |

[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

▲

Ollivander's was an eyesore inside. Covered in centuries old dust with mismatched and unorganized boxes of wands, impossible to find anything now that numerous family members had run the shop. She didn't doubt that her sister knew where everything was - just that level of chaos did not bode well for Nell at all. She loathed that part of the shop. Always had, even when learning how to first carve wand hilts when she was little. None of it made sense to her in there. The excess stock was so much that whoever was running the shop would never be able to sell out in their lifetime, and like the diligent workers they all were, each new wandmaker would simply add to the clutter. There was no reason for any of that. To make matters worse, the rigidity that the family had taken to only using three cores for almost two centuries now meant that a lot of the wands were vaguely similar. Unique still, of course, and made by many different Ollivanders who each had their own style and twist to crafting, but the amount of twelve inch cherry wands with unicorn hair cores was astounding. And that's just going by the known ones.

"I meant with my furniture," Nell clarified, though the damage was already done. Merlin she hated the way her sister weaponized everything. Showing her the workshop (or did she mean the apartment?) was only going to make matters worse. At least everything was clean and organized in the back. The required tools were kept in excellent condition and her organization of materials was impeccable. Even muggle safety inspectors would pass her with flying colors.

Hesitantly, Nell motioned for Veronica to follow her, heading through the small hallway that led to the workshop in the back. Hopefully she hadn't meant the flat above, because that was in an absolutely different state, and Nell didn't need Veronica eyeing all of her personal belongings. She'd done enough of that growing up. "Here it is," she relented, stepping to the side so that she could prepare for the next round of criticism.

veronica giselle ollivander ● 353 ● Song by Artist

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[veronica giselle ollivander]

━ you have bewitched me, body and soul ━

COMPARED TO OLLIVANDERS, IT SEEMED that her sisters' store was more..presentable. Well organised. The mess within Ollivanders had been mess curated throughout decades, mess that had been organised and dis-organised and had now been left alone. Despite the messy presentation to the eyes of the customer, it became rather impressive to them once Veronica pulled out a needed thing from a pile of mess.

"I'm sure you did." Veronica retorted, her feigned smile widening as she looked over at her sister. The eldest didn't believe it for a moment. Eleanor had itched and crawled her way out of the ties of the Ollivander legacy, so to bad-mouth any given part of the experience - or more so her upbringing - was bound to happen. Following her sister through the small hallway, Veronica's lips turned upwards again.

The size of the store wasn't anything to fawn over but the route to the back was off-putting. Veronica had meant for her sister to show her the flat she lived in, but the eldest decided not to comment on it. She was doing enough by being rather judgmental from the store front anyway. "Hm." She began, as if she was starting her own sort of inspection. The back was clean - beyond Veronica's expectations and kept in a good manner. Something the eldest Ollivander itched at for her own store. But one movement of something Father had placed down decades before was just an argument waiting to happen.

Swiping her finger against the countertops, Veronica was actually upset she could present anything disappointing. It sounded cruel, wanting to find some issues that her sister may of had, in order to judge and make her re-evaluate. But alas, Veronica was...impressed. "That's all." She said, turning to pass her sister and walk to the front of the store - passing through the tight hallway. "How much is the rent?" She asked, reaching for the cigarette she had left in the ash tray and relighting it.

| eleanor gwendolen ollivander |

[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

▲

Nell almost forgot to hold back her sigh. That had been a learned talent whilst training under Veronica. Sparing words and suffocating sighs. The less said the better, especially once the criticism began. There was nothing worse than digging her own hole for her sister. So she kept her mouth shut most of the time, too afraid to argue back. That was years of conditioning stopping her, after all. Thankfully there seemed to be very little for Veronica to say about the workshop itself. Nell prided herself on that portion of the building. Keeping everything in working order, organized, and clean meant that if someone did want to take a look, she actually seemed like the competent wand maker and woodworker that she actually was. It was a far cry from when she used to do custom requests out of her apartment too. The amount of wood shavings she found under furniture after moving out had been outstanding. Somehow they had evaded most of the magical cleaning charms she’d cast. Sneaky little buggers.

With the silent inspection seemingly complete, back to the front of the shop they want, her sister immediately returning her cigarette to her lips. Of course she wanted to know about rent. She probably wanted to purchase the building out from under Nell. That would probably the cruelest act Veronica could commit, save from actual murder of a family member. “It’s not bad,” Nell answered, trying her best not to actually give a real answer. That wouldn’t work for her sister though. It never did. “Renting the whole building netted a lower rent than what I was paying for my flat in London. Let’s just put it that way.” Veronica probably knew what the cost of that had been, as Nell had never been quiet in her lamenting about the cost of it. Thankfully magical folk could never really figure out what was considered ‘fair’ when it came to renting spaces. They were fine as long as they had a stream of galleons coming in.

veronica giselle ollivander ● 338 ● Song by Artist

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[veronica giselle ollivander]

━ you have bewitched me, body and soul ━

KNOWING HER SISTER'S VAGUENESS WAS probably to cover her back, Veronica rolled her eyes at Nell's response. "Typical answer.." She tutted quietly, inhaling from the cigarette once more while her free hand rose, biting at the hangnail that had bugged her that morning. Of course Veronica wanted to press on, to learn more just out of curiosity and whatnot, but she decided against it. Surprisingly.

"Interesting..so you rent this floor and the floor above? Like a flat?" Eyes wandered one more, noting on a few things that the Ollivander would change if the building belonged to her. "And the..mass of customer orders allow you to stay on top of payments?" Given the store was having an anniversary, it seemed to be working out in Nell's favour.

Although, there was no large amount of convincing that would bring Eleanor back to work at the store, considering the position she had held for the longest time, but Veronica needed to secure her place in their family hierarchy. Ollivanders would always stand first, and she would make sure of it.

| eleanor gwendolen ollivander |

[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

▲

Nell could feel her shoulders tense up more than they already were when her sister brushed off her response. Despite everything Veronica put her through during her apprenticeship, she had still paid well. And she clearly forgot that Nell had lived at home the first few years before deciding it was better to get her own place. Adding those on top of her private wand sales in between then and the opening of her store, and it wasn't too difficult to pay the rent. She had money (and old money at that). Veronica knew this, because she had it as well. It wasn't like their family was ever struggling financially. Having a built in and growing customer base yearly helped so much with that. Still, her sister's insinuations that she was struggling made her bristle. Hiding it was her best option, because she knew Veronica was looking for something, anything to latch onto.

"Yeah, it's a full apartment," Nell confirmed. She honestly wouldn't have it any other way at this point. The practicality of living right above her shop saved her on so much time commuting, even with apparition. Nell prevented herself from rolling her eyes at the subsequent comment about keeping up on her payments. Eventually she planned to just buy it out. That would solve any problems she might have in the future. Her landlord was a cantankerous old wizard, who liked bags of gold more than anything else. She knew she'd be able to entice him to sell one of these days. "Of course they do. The rocking chairs aren't cheap because of the charms used on them, and the wands aren't either." Part of the reason her wands sold for so much higher was because of the individuality of them. The different cores and woods used even surpassed the backlog that Ollivander's had. Of course collectors and the more niche careers would require wands that fit their needs. "I could easily stay open with just furniture sales if I wanted to," Nell bragged. Hopefully that would ruffle her sister a bit.

veronica giselle ollivander ● 345 ● Song by Artist

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[veronica giselle ollivander]

━ you have bewitched me, body and soul ━

IT WOULDN'T TAKE A GENIUS to figure out how much tension rose within the room following the eldest Ollivander's answer. Yet given how oblivious she was, she simply believed she was talking to Eleanor the same way she always had done. Perhaps it was her attitude and behaviour growing up, that inflicted such a belief into Veronica's mind.

But aside from the way she treated her siblings, Veronica was still a good sister. Or so she believed. She was a far better employer at least. Always paid on time and well if the job was done to her standards. "Hm..intriguing." She added, eyes wandering. She knew compared to other families it would be easier for them to set up base elsewhere, to follow ones independence.

But considering Francis was a part of their family, bringing down the image of the Ollivanders with his drunken mess and being a Squib..Veronica 'worried' at times. That and she also couldn't stand to see competitiveness in her family. To a younger version of Veronica Ollivander, she felt relieved, happy that her sister was becoming her own person, no longer needing to rely on her family..but to the present day Veronica...it was different.

"So how much does one cost? Or does it simply depend on the type of chair, the charm included?" She began questioning, recalling her own rocking chair she had used for Gideon when he was young. "And the wands customisation? Is it extensive? Woods or cores you avoid?" The Ollivanders were taught to predominately focus upon three cores while interchangeably use different woods, and while Veronica longed to experiment, she knew she could never stray away from tradition.

"Interesting!..It seems a lot of mothers or expecting mothers scurry on in I suppose. Excellent job Eleanor." Compliments from the eldest were not..particularly rare, but given the history between the siblings, this one felt genuine coming out of Veronica's lips.

| eleanor gwendolen ollivander |

[eleanor gwendolen ollivander]

▲

Nell didn’t see how being able to sustain herself on self-rocking rocking chairs was ‘intriguing’, but this was Veronica after all. Nothing ever truly made sense with her sister, and if it did, something horrible was brewing in her brain. So that was what Nell was currently trying to decipher. Was this actually a visit because Veronica wanted to criticize her, or because she felt like seeing how her only ‘competition’ was doing? The number of times Nell wished that there were other wandmakers in the alley that could function as a buffer for her sister’s ire, were too numerous to count now. It was just them and the rest of the family. Hopefully one day someone else would try their hand at it, and they could join forces for a mutual dislike of the new person. Not that Nell could actually hate another wandmaker, that wasn’t her. She didn’t even ‘hate’ her sister – just disliked her immensely.

“Depends on the wood and how difficult it is to source,” Nell explained. The more exotic woods cost money to import, after all. “Same with the wand woods and cores. Anything legal I can get my hands on, I’m willing to work with.” Nell was particularly proud of a cut of Japanese cherry wood she had received recently. While she was nowhere close to being as talented with the wood as Japanese wandmakers were, she wanted to experiment with it and see how much she could learn from it. Once upon a time there had been the dream of traveling there and learning their art from them, but that had to stop the second she started the shop.

Flicking her wand at one of the wand boxes, it zoomed across the room and into her hand, where she opened it and presented it to her sister. The trick here was that the wand was unfinished, its body already complete, and a long feather nestled right next to it. “My current project. Beech with Thunderbird tail feather. Took six months to go through customs.” Nell refused to tell her sister that she had spent the last week since it arrived trying to get the feather into the wand, but to no avail. This one was going to take a while. “I also sold a pine wand with rougarou hair. Don’t see that every day,” she boasted as she closed the lid to the work in progress wand.

Whether or not Veronica was being serious about her compliment on the chairs was…hard on Nell. There were points in time where she wished she had received positive reinforcement from her sister and didn’t get it. Was this one of those? “Thank you,” she answered stiffly, and unsure. “Just means we’ll have a lot of business in ten or so years, is all.”

veronica giselle ollivander ● 467 ● Song by Artist

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[veronica giselle ollivander]

━ you have bewitched me, body and soul ━

KNOWING THAT ELEANOR WOULD INWARDLY question most if not all of Veronica's intentions, she swiftly moved along, paying attention on the next item or two. It was fascinating, to see how her sister had created a name for herself aside from the creation and selling of rocking chairs, something the eldest would have far from assumed to be popular. But given the amount of children that attended Hogwarts and other magical schools year after year, there was always going to be an audience for even the finest of things.

"I see.." Veronica continued, wondering of how to implement such a thing to her own business standards. Ollivanders prided themselves on the usage of familiar woods and cores, but the conversation of maybe expanding - to stay within tradition while at least trial-running for the wider demographic was long overdue between her father and herself. "So vastly..customisable. Very appealing to even the most anxious of parents who haven't a clue on how to prepare for a magical child."

Watching as her sister used magic, a box appeared in front of them. With curious eyes, Veronica watched as Eleanor unboxed the wand, eyes lighting up at the craft. Perhaps she was rather..too cruel to her sister, restricting her severely during her apprenticeship at Ollivanders, as before her, she saw talent. Of course, the eldest Ollivander would not admit this, but her smile grew no less. "Incredible.." She muttered, thoughts processing in her mind rather fast.

"That's good no less. A true investment such as this place should be able to carry you for decades, centuries even if you plan to hand over the store to your next of kin, and keep the tradition going. Just like our store no less." Veronica had turned then, browsing her sisters' creations once more before deciding to add in. "Have you considered that yet?..Children and marriage?"

| eleanor gwendolen ollivander |