Dust sparkled like raw glitter as it was thrown asunder from the surfaces they'd once sat upon, the eight teenagers began sneezing in painful succession and several of them yelped in pain as even more boxes piled atop them.
Danger came and went so frequently during these travels, none of them ever rarely felt safe enough to stow their's a way, though in a place like this it seemed more prudent just not to misplace it lest they pick the wrong one up. They were in Ollivander's.
Remus' breath caught in his throat, only causing him to cough harder and hopefully hide the look on his face. The place looked exactly the same as the first time he'd stepped in here, right down to the spindly chair he'd accidentally exploded on his second unclaimed wand. By the fourth one he'd been in a panic, casting anxious looks at his father to please tell him this was all still going to work out, that he did deserve a magic wand, he just wanted one normal experience. His father wouldn't quite meet his eyes when Ollivander came back with the fifth box, not looking nearly as deterred as Remus would have thought. "Here we are then, let's have this a try. Cypress wood, 10¼", unicorn hair, nice and pliable." He'd been cold and stiff, this had been the most he'd been around others in so long, and they'd come here at the crack of dawn before most of the shops even opened so that they could be the first into each. Lyall Lupin hadn't looked him in the eye all day, he'd been too busy casting suspicious glances at everyone around him, his hand never leaving his son's shoulder.
Ollivander knew, he was instantly convinced of that from those perturbant eyes, but when he'd finally wrapped his fingers around the bulbous end, the grooves already perfectly fit to match his fingers, warmth shot straight up his arm. With a surprised smile and a bit of prompting from Mr. Ollivander, he gave a little twirl and laughed in delight as the shop's lights all flared brightly as the sun and flashed every color of the rainbow before settling back. He'd hardly let it out of his sight since then, afraid the Minister or any person really would point out the very obscure law of nonhumans having wands, and where exactly he fell into that category...
Sirius watched the indecision flashing across Moony's face, like he couldn't decide if he was happy to be back here or not as he held his wand protectively instead of for protection. He understood why of course, they all nicked each other's stuff countless times, but never that. He shuffled all the closer to him now, keeping a leery eye on Regulus, Longbottom, or even Evans in case any of them dared say anything about it now that they could possibly guess the same, keeping his own very obviously at his side, running his hand down the ruins engraved in it he'd still yet to decipher. Cedar and 12 1/4th'', dragon heart-string, very rigid for a wand of this wood. The words played back to him clear as day back in this place, it had been the first disappointment of his parent's magical life after all. They would have expected him to have possessed a wand of Elder or Larch, those woods associated with power. He scoffed now as he had then, vividly remembering Ollivander's delight he'd gotten young Sirius' wand on the very first guess as he caused the shadows to flicker on the wall with purpose, all enfolding each other in the shape of snakes and almost scaring little Regulus.
Regulus, of course, would have denied that now had he been so informed, but the shop remained as vastly silent as ever. Even their ruckus of entering without its shopkeeper couldn't permeate the sheer magic in the air, the infinity of the shop's endless wand cases. He couldn't help himself from exploring at once, if there was one person he'd have voluntarily pulled along for his experience it would have been Garrick Ollivander. The man had fascinated him upon their very first meeting, being able to perfectly recite both of his parents and his brother's wands, and as many generations back as Regulus asked. The wandmaker had seemed delighted by him, pleasing his parents immensely as they began making rather transparent comments about bringing their youngest back around for Ollivander to take under his wing. Regulus thought back to that day with feelings as mixed as ever, Sirius had already been showing a pension by that time for his troublemaking ways, unwilling to conform to what their parents expected of him. It had taken the master three try's to be given his own wand, "Apple, 13 1/3'', unicorn hair and vastly flexible to suit your needs," he recalled with perfect clarity. He'd gone home that night and looked up every bit of wandlore book his father owned and even sent out to their Uncle Alphard for more. He'd been pleasantly smug to find apple a rarer wand wood, no wonder his parents had left beaming, but the more he dug the more he began to wonder if even the great wandmaker of their time could make a mistake. After all, when he'd taken his extension to magic, smooth all the way to the end where it got the slightest of twists, there had been no gigantic display of magic as he'd once seen Sirius produce. All that had really happened was a sweep of wind blowing through the store, blowing robes and hair about sure, but nothing too memorable.
All the studying he'd done had said wands of apple went well to those who had high aims, but did not mix well with the Dark Arts. What other path was there that the two didn't mix?
Peter didn't feel the need to hide away from anyone anymore, but still he sought no one out for now as he stood looking over Ollivander's work station. He dared not touch anything, but inspected everything with intimate detail regardless. A wand was halfway through its shaping, the core still half shown in the top half yet whittled together, a bright phoenix feather-like his own, but of cherry wood instead of his red oak. His was also slightly shorter than this one was apparently going to be, and he had no way of knowing the flexibility of the wand, he wasn't even sure what his own meant yet. Malleable, something you could shape as you wish. It sure didn't feel as if he had any say in what he wished as of late. The design almost embodied his nickname, he noted ironically, the wood was weaved as if with the movement itself and had ringlets along the entirety of it.
What happened to it in this future? Had he lost it in his fight when he framed Sirius? Kept it to help resurrect the Dark Lord before returning that wand and then continuing with his own? The same wand he'd used to help him create his masterful disguise that had allowed his cowardice to be his life while hiding out at the Weasley's? A rat he'd gifted himself along with his friends help to aid Remus. He gazed miserably at his left hand, the one he'd accidentally made vanish from sight when Ollivander had taken six tries to give him his wand. He'd been too shy to ask at the time what the record was for how long it had taken him to find a matching pair, but he was sure his was up there, he was always an in-between it seemed.
Alice was growing quite weary of constantly finding herself alone and meandering around strange places looking for anyone else. If the goal of the book was for them to be getting real-life experience of how Harry was feeling, she'd say congratulations long before now. She still looked around with keen interest, as she'd actually never been here. She'd inherited her wand from her grandmother, and it suited her well, but even she hadn't gotten this wand from Ollivander himself, but overseas from Japan of all places. "Reed and 14'', with a unicorn hair. It's a steady wand for a steady hand now," she'd been warned upon her eleventh birthday. She'd heard from others it wasn't prudent to use another's wand, but it had always suited her fine, and she rather liked the almost candy cane design of the wand, though it dipped in a slight hook instead of inwards at the end. She wondered what Neville's was, the fond thought flitted through her mind as she continued walking past endless rows of yet unclaimed wands. From what little she'd heard of Augusta, she had managed to grow more stern with age, but surely even she'd managed a smile for Neville like he deserved when gifted a wand as well, possibly from this very shop? She certainly wasn't going to complain about the chance to look around regardless.
Frank stayed where he was for fear of disturbing any more dust and sneezing his face off next. The boxes and uncovered wands lay scattered around him, and he eyed at least five that happened to be pointing at him with exhaustion. He dared not move them away though, he didn't want the wands to think he was trying to claim them and causing something else to go wrong. Exhaustion was stopping him from moving away entirely, he hoped dearly they landed someplace they could kip down soon.
He wished he could get up and go find Alice, or even Lily, but remembered well his mother's warning about staying right beside her and getting lost, especially in this place. He already was though, so what was the harm? He nudged a wand with his foot as he began moving around, and it sparkled red in protest, so he slowly lowered himself back to his previous position and waited it out instead. "Apple, 12 1/4'', Phoenix, a very austere wand while I was creating it, but I'm sure you'll manage." Ollivander's words seemed to mock back at him now, his wand certainly did seem as strict with him as his own mother. It took intense concentration to manage even the simplest of spells, he didn't dare try it now when all his heavy-lidded eyes wanted to do was slide shut. Evans's voice, while uneasy giving poor Harry's accounts going through this, still had a charming, mellow sort of quality he was quickly nodding off to, only missing the warmth of Alice's hands to really help him relax.
Lily twirled her wand about in her hand, getting it caught between her ring finger and pointer and holding it like that for several minutes while reminding herself there was nothing to curse in here she should. No Charm she could utilize either to help. Just another surprisingly yet ill-received connection she felt to her son, over how lonely he felt. The way Sev had been freezing her out with increasing frequency lately to hang out with those others instead, well, he may as well have accused her of doing something she'd never do as well. Why was she the one being punished when she'd done nothing wrong?
Things had been so much simpler back when they'd just started school, they'd done everything together then, even here. The old man had smiled kindly at her starry-eyed gaze upon everything, it had only taken him his second try to fit her up. Willow, 10¼", unicorn hair*, a quite swishy wand upon development. It was her dream come true, the soft brown wood had intricate swirling designs like water inlaid in it, she'd taken him literally and began enthusiastically swishing it everywhere of course, and much as she'd imagined that first time in their grove, it finally happened as sparklers trailed after the end in a truly magical display, from her! She still remembered Ollivander giving such details to Harry when he'd come for his, a little Muggleborn like her had even been as memorable as all the others who came across this shop.
It made sense, of course, that when Harry was called for his wand to be inspected it was the best Britain had to offer to do it. She wondered what he thought of Harry now, had he and his wand lived up to the great things he expected of him? She still wished for him to have a more normal life than he was getting first.
James continued rummaging behind the desk, determined to find the bloody list. Surely the man had to have a list of all wands in this shop and keep a record of who he sold them too, there was just no way he simply memorized it all?! Evans had long since picked up the book and was reading it, he was too disgusted by the world Harry was living in to even consider it. Now his own son's friends were turning against him along with the rest of that mad school, thinking that kid would do this to himself? There was enjoying being the center of attention, and then there was his offspring, and he knew quite well which side of the line Harry stood on. Why wouldn't his best friend know that? 'No friends are perfect,' his own snide voice reminded him as he avoided looking at his own for now as well while he continued his solo quest.
Sirius and Remus were huddled up together and he had no idea where Peter landed. Seemed even this mad charade was giving them some breathing room for a few more moments, and he took to that while he could by continuing his search manually along the shelves now. He'd tried summoning it of course, with the very wand Ollivander had gifted him, mahogany, 11", dragon heartstring*, nice and supple. He'd even guessed right on his very first try, and the spurt of water that shot the man in the face was his reward as James ran from the shop in delight before his parents could even pay.
The reddish-gold wood that had an almost spiderweb-like pattern inlaid in it remained in his pocket for now though as he traversed the endless shelves, none of which were even marked, each box identical to the last. Only cracking one open revealed the wand inside, and he just didn't know enough about them to even guess at which could be Harry's, if it was even here. Merlin knew exactly when they were in this shop, Tom Riddle's could still be here for all he knew. He didn't even have a good excuse for why he was looking for it, just another way to connect to his son? As his days at Hogwarts grew more dangerous, and even cruel from the student body within, he wanted to punch Ron in the face more every second for not exactly being helpful when Harry needed him now more than ever, what with Sirius' insanity not exactly helping his son in their time.
The ones noted with an * are of my own decision, the rest is cannon. Hope you enjoyed!
Alice Smith* - Reed, 14'', Unicorn, Steady, thicker at the base and thinning as it ended in a hook with one deep groove spiraling the entire thing.
Frank Longbottom/ Neville Longbottom's 1st Wand* - Apple, 12 1/4'', Phoenix, Austere, a very plain wand with no extra designs except at the very base of the wand where small scratches marked it as if the wood were already peeling.
James Potter- Mahogany, 11", (Core Unknown)/ Dragon Heartstring*, Supple, spiderweb pattern inlaid across the middle of it.
Lily Evans- Willow, 10¼", (Core Unknown)/ Unicron*, Swishy, little water like waves etched into it in a dizzying pattern when twirled around.
Peter Pettigrew's first wand*- Red Oak, 11'', Phoenix, Malleable, ringlets along the entirety of it.
Regulus Black* - Apple, 13 1/3'', Unicorn, Flexible, smooth all the way to the end where it got the slightest of twists like a star about to burst
Remus Lupin- Cypress, 10¼", Unicorn, Pliable, bulbous at the end with finger groves only to the halfway point
Sirius Black *- Cedar, 12 1/4th'', Dragon heart-string, Rigid, ancient ruins etched in
Mine is: Hornbeam wood with a dragon heartstring core, 12 ½" and surprisingly swishy flexibility, and I like to think the design would resemble a turtles shell pattern.
Let me know yours?