"Let's see…we've got the uniform sorted, and the books, and the cauldron…I think there's something else, but I just can't think what it might be!"
"Daddy! You know what it is!"
"Hmm…is it perhaps…potions ingredients?"
"Daddy! It's my wand!"
"Oh yes," Harry said with the air of a man who had just discovered something truly unbelievable. "Your wand. How could I forget?"
"Silly Daddy," Lily said, shaking her head.
"That's men for you, isn't Lily-Loo?" Ginny said conspiratorially.
"Men!" their daughter huffed, sounding exactly like Hermione at her most exasperated with Ron. Harry caught his wife's gaze, then hurriedly looked away. It would not do for Lily to think she was being laughed at.
"Come on, this way," Ginny said, steering them down Diagon Alley. Lily skipped on ahead, but when they reached Ollivander's wand shop, she slowed, lingering in the doorway.
"Come on," Harry said encouragingly, pushing the door open.
Lily slipped her hand inside her mother's, and Ginny shrugged at Harry behind her back. By the time they had made their way over to the counter, Harry was already conversing with Mr Ollivander. "Ah, so this is the young Miss Potter," he said, peering at her over the top of the counter. "A pleasure to meet you."
"Hello," Lily said in a small voice.
"We were hoping to find Lily a wand today," Ginny said brightly. Lily squeezed her hand. "May we make a start?"
"Of course, of course," said Mr Ollivander. "Come here, child, and let me measure you." Ginny stepped forward, prepared to accompany her daughter, but Lily squared her shoulders and let go of her mother's hand. Mr Ollivander drew out his ancient tape measure and asked her to extend her wand arm. "How are your brothers' wands working? Well, I hope."
"Um, yes," Lily said. "They're…good."
"Excellent, excellent," said Mr Ollivander. "Of course, I would expect nothing less from an Ollivander product. And I am proud to say I now have your entire family. Hmm…" He wandered away, and Lily eyed the tape measure, which was continuing to move around her body. "Yes, young James and Albus, and of course both your parents—your mother a year later, of course, but that could not be helped…" Lily threw a questioning glance at her mother, who just shook her head. "And your father's parents, and your mother's parents…many years ago, of course," Mr Ollivander continued vaguely. "I remember every one, naturally. But I think…perhaps…this one!" he finished abruptly, thrusting a wand at Lily. She jumped, but took it from him.
"Um…" she said, for the tape measure was now trying to measure the length of her eyebrows.
"Enough!" snapped Mr Ollivander, and it fell to the ground. "Now, just wave that around, go on."
Lily tried to remember what her parents looked like when they were performing magic, and swished the wand through the air, producing a few red sparks. Harry and Ginny exchange startled glances: it had taken at least twenty different wands before James had managed so much as a single spark, and they had been in the shop over an hour with Albus. But before either of them could say anything, Ollivander had whipped the wand from her hands, and was already insisting she try a different one.
The next few wands produced little to no reaction in Lily, but the seventh, when waved, gave off several bright green sparks. "Oh!" Lily said, looking delighted, as her parents clapped and cheered, but Mr Ollivander shook his head again and took it off her.
"Not quite, not quite…" he muttered, and Lily looked at her parents in consternation. They shrugged, growing still more mystified when wand after wand produced some kind of reaction in Lily's hands, but the wandmaker still seemed unconvinced. "I think…this might be the one," he said eventually, once the pile of used wands in front of them had grown well into double figures.
Lily had begun to look quite bored by this point, but obediently took it, and gasped at once. "It's…warm?" she said. Mr Ollivander looked smug.
"Go on then, wave it," he said. Lily waved the wand, and an immediate shower of sparks, all colours of the rainbow, danced through the room. Harry and Ginny exchanged wide-eyed glances, whilst Lily shrieked with delight, waving the wand in front of her like a sparkler and spelling out her name with the many different colours. "Oh, bravo, bravo!" Mr Ollivander said, looking as happy as Harry had ever seen him.
"Mummy, look! Look, Daddy, look!" Lily cried, waving it around again. Ginny whooped and cheered, and Harry clapped his hands for her.
"That's pretty impressive," he said, and Lily glowed.
"It's willow, nine and three-quarter inches, with a unicorn hair," Mr Ollivander said. "An interesting choice." Lily looked up, and the sparks stopped. "Yes, very interesting. We have a family proverb that says, 'he who has furthest to travel will go fastest with willow', and I certainly find that willow wands select those with greatest potential. You must be a remarkable girl, Miss Potter."
"Can I buy it, please?" she asked him.
"I think it would be criminal for me not to let you take it away," he said. "But, after everything your family has done, there is no need for you to pay, you can—"
"Lily, why don't you and Mummy go to the Ice Cream Parlour and get something nice to eat? I'll get your wand, and meet you there soon," Harry said loudly. Lily was initially reluctant to part with her wand, but Mr Ollivander assured her he had to wrap it in its own special box, and Ginny promised her her choice of ice cream, and so they left the shop.
"Do I have great potential?" she asked, as the door closed behind them. "What for?"
"Everyone has potential," Ginny said. "You could potentially become a great anything."
Lily considered this. "So, what did Mr Ollivander mean? And the thing about travelling quickly?"
"Well, wandmakers have always had lots of folklore about the things they use to make their wands. Each wand wood is supposed to be good for different things, or select a witch or wizard who is well known for having a particular talent," her mother said. "So, in the past, it would seem that he has noticed that people who use willow wands have a lot of potential, and maybe it helps them on their journeys. I don't really know."
"You don't know?!" Lily asked, sounding amazed.
Ginny stifled a smile. "I don't know everything," she said. "Mr Ollivander certainly knows more about making wands than I do. But also, wandlore can be quite vague. It's a bit like Divination. You can make a prediction, but whatever you predict doesn't affect people's free will. It still might not come true, because a person might chose not to do a certain thing that the prophecy said they would."
"So I don't have a lot of potential?" Lily blinked.
"I didn't say that," Ginny said. "But, I think everyone has potential. It doesn't matter what your wand says—or doesn't say—about you."
"Huh," said Lily.
"Choose an ice cream," Ginny advised, for they had arrived at Fortescue's. They both ordered ice creams and took seats in a booth, digging in without waiting for Harry to arrive.
"Mummy, what did Mr Ollivander mean about you getting your wand a year late?" Lily asked.
Ginny swallowed a large piece of ice cream, considering her response. "You know how Gran and Grandad Weasley didn't have very much money when your Uncles and I were growing up?" Lily nodded. "They couldn't afford to buy me a wand for my first year, so I had my Great Aunt Agatha's, who had died the year before I went to Hogwarts. Then, at the start of my second year, we won the Daily Prophet's grand draw, which is when we went to Egypt. And there was enough money left over to buy me and Uncle Ron new wands. He'd had Uncle Charlie's old one."
"I thought you said the other day that everyone should have their own wand for it to work best?" Lily asked, confused.
"I did, but in a pinch you can make another's wand work," Ginny said. "And I didn't know any different, when I was using her wand. When I got my own…well, it was almost as impressive as you were in the shop!" Lily was still frowning. "What's up?" her mother prompted.
"Mr Ollivander wanted to give me my wand," she said. "Daddy helped him, during the war, didn't he? I remember you saying…"
"Yes," Ginny said slowly.
"But Daddy doesn't like people giving him stuff for free," Lily continued. "That's why he made us leave, so he could force Mr Ollivander to take the money, I reckon."
Ginny stifled a smile. "You're a very perceptive young lady," she said.
"Yes, well, Daddy and us—we've all got lots of money," Lily said. "We don't need free stuff, but people always try to give us free things. And you didn't have any money at all growing up, and no one gave you free things, but you really needed them. That's not fair!"
Ginny bit her lip. "It's not," she agreed. "It's not fair. But also—do you really think Gran and Grandad would accept something for free?"
"You took them the tomatoes from the garden the other day," Lily pointed out. "You didn't make them pay."
"No," her mother agreed. "But Granny often gives us eggs from her chickens. That's an exchange. It's not charity. You can offer someone help, but you can't insist they take it. Some people don't like charity, because they think it implies they're not good enough to look after their own family or their own home. But not everyone—some people are very grateful for it."
"That's silly," Lily said, frowning. "Everyone should be able to afford what they need and if they don't they should get help. If they want it. I'm going to make sure of it."
Ginny laughed. "Sounds like you're going to be a politician!" she said. "Maybe that's your great potential."
"What's going on?" Harry had joined them.
"Lily is considering a career in politics, working to right the wrongs of a system that offers free stuff to those who don't need it and not to those who do," Ginny said.
"Ah," said Harry. "Sounds like a good morning's work, at least."
"Do you have my wand?" Lily asked, bouncing up and down in her seat.
"I do," Harry said. "All present and correct—and paid for."
"Yay!" Lily said, taking it out and waving it around to produce more rainbow coloured sparks. She frowned in concentration, then waved it again, and only red sparks came out. She smiled in satisfaction.
"Very impressive," Ginny said. "You'll be outmagicing your brothers in no time."
Lily looked delighted. "They're not allowed to use magic in the holidays!" she said gleefully.
"Neither are you," Ginny said at once, frowning at her husband to back her up. Harry, who had been stealing some of her ice cream, swallowed hastily.
"No," he said, "I mean, yes. No magic. Not until you're of age."
"But, Daddy, I don't know how to perform magic," Lily said blinking. "I only know how to make sparks. So there's nothing I could do to them that they can't do to me."
Harry opened his mouth, then closed it again. "I think your mother's right, you are going to be a politician with that tricky attitude," Harry said.
"Is that bad?" Lily asked.
"Nah. You can be whatever you want to be," he replied.
"Can I be a Professional Ice Cream Eater?" Lily asked.
"No," Ginny said, having stolen her own back from her husband. "That's my job!"
"You can have it whilst I'm at school," Lily said magnanimously, her attention already focussed purely on her new wand. Harry and Ginny looked at each other, and smiled.
If you look on the Pottermore wand wood list, a lot of my headcanon for Lily Luna matches up with that of Willow wand owners :)