I woke up the next morning a little nervous, but extremely excited. As promised, Dumbledore had placed a set of fitting muggle clothes in my room, which I dressed in. The blue jean fabric seemed so soft against my skin compared to the rough material my work clothes were made of. And the purple cotton top was almost like silk.

Pulling my hair into a ponytail, I put the bag of galleons into my pocket and walked out into the kitchens. Immediately, all the house-elves ran to my side, asking if I required anything.

"It's okay, you guys," I said, laughing. "It's just me."

Pinky's face lit up with a smile. "Carrie looks like one of the students," she said. "Pinky knows Carrie will do well in her classes." She hugged me tightly. "Carrie will bring her wand to show us when she returns?"

"I'll do my best," I said. "I don't know if Dumbledore will let a new student roam around the kitchens."

Rushing back to their duties, some of the kitchen-elves wished me luck in Diagon Alley.

Transportation to Diagon Alley was provided in the form of a Portkey. Dumbledore held the glowing pocketwatch wrapped in a handkerchief.

"You must be ready to return within two hours," he said. "The Portkey will beep when you have one minute left. Be sure to have it in hand soon after the beep, or you will have to find another way back."

I nodded my understanding and took hold of the chain. As Dumbledore let go, I was pulled along through a blur. Landing in Diagon Alley, I almost fell on my face.

"So that's how it feels to travel by Portkey," I said, laughing despite myself. "Alright, Ollivander's… Ollivander's…"

Turning around in circles, I walked around Diagon Alley for a good ten minutes before wandering up to the doors of Ollivander's Wand Shop. A bell dinged as I walked in the door.

"Hello?" There didn't seem to be anyone in the shop. All I could see around me were boxes and boxes and boxes. I assumed they all contained wands.

A loud whoosh came from the back of the store, and an older man flew around a corner on a ladder connected to the wall. "Hello there," he said. "I am Ollivander. You must be Carina." The man smiled at me brightly. "Dumbledore warned me that you would be coming in today."

Jumping down off the ladder, Ollivander came over to me, looking me over well. "I've never given a first wand to a sixteen year old, as I recall," he said, "but I will, as ever, do my best."

"Thank you," I said.

He rummaged around beneath the desk and pulled out a long white box with a blue striped lid. "Try this one for size," he said. "I'll run into the back and see if I can't find a few more for you to try out."

I pulled the lid off the box and gasped at the beauty of the wand. Slowly, I picked it up and swished it around a few times. It seemed like a good fit, length-wise, but nothing happened. When Ollivander came back to the desk, he seemed surprised.

"Usually, if a wand isn't right for you, it shows it right off," he said. "I can't tell you how many times I've had wand avalanches in here." He chuckled. "Here, try this one too."

The green boxed wand was a bit shorter, and it reacted the same as the other wand. Nothing at all happened.

"That is very unusual." Mr. Ollivander looked me over a few more times. "Maybe the core isn't quite right…" He pulled another box off a shelf on the wall. "If this one doesn't do it, I may have to make you a wand special." He laughed. "It's been a long while since I've had to do that."

I pulled the wand out of the blue box with a silver striped lid. Hoping this wand would work for me, I swished it around. But, like the other two, it didn't work at all.

"Maybe I just wasn't meant to be a witch," I sighed.

"If you didn't show potential, Dumbledore wouldn't have sent you here," Ollivander said. "Let me take some measurements, and I'll see what I can do for you. I'll be done quick as I can, but you won't be back in time to take the Portkey Dumbledore sent with you." He smiled. "Don't worry, I'll send him a quick note before I start on your wand."

After measuring my arm length, wrist width, and height, Mr. Ollivander wrote down a few descriptions of the coloring of my hair, eyes, and skin tone. Personality questions were next, and I felt I answered them as honestly as possible.

He shot off a message by owl to Dumbledore and had me sit down in an extremely comfy, yet threadbare chair in his office.

"I'll be back in a jiffy," he said. "I can't show you how I make the wands, or you might try to run me out of business." Ollivander winked to show he was just teasing, and rushed out the door.

I began counting the burn marks on the ceiling, sure that these were proof of wands gone wrong in the past. I had gotten somewhere in the thirties when Ollivander came back in, holding a wand out to me.

"Try this one out," he said. "I hope it works."

I took the wand, trying not to get too attached to the look of it before finding out if it worked for me or not. I swished it around, and to my surprise, the boxes of wands began rearranging themselves on the shelves. Ollivander smiled proudly.

"You, my dear, were a hard fit to make," he said. "I have never used a black unicorn hair as a core before, but now I have." Ollivander patted me on the shoulder. "The wood is spruce, the core is black unicorn tail hair, and it is surprisingly swishy for a twelve-and-a-quarter inch wand. May it serve you well."