HAPPY FREAKING NEW YEAR

[Gaius Ollivander]

As fireworks boomed in the distance, Gaius sat on the floor of his apartment with a book in his lap.

It was a new year - 1884, how about that - and he was not any closer to marrying Rosalie or to achieving immortality. The year had been in many ways a success - he still liked himself and he had created some truly beautiful wands - but in terms of his life's overarching goal he had not gotten any further.

He flipped the page with his thumb. A wand with dark magic etched into its very being, just enough so that it was more powerful than anything else - like the elder wand of legend, except real and not cursed.

He was going to turn thirty this year.

He had to do something.

This year - he would make the wand, or make some progress on his attempts to avoid death, or finally get around to telling Rosalie that he loved her.

So without really intending it - and only vaguely realizing it, as his eyes scanned the page of his Alchemy book - Gaius made a resolution.