Dawn came earlier than Cyn would have expected, and she sat up groaning and rubbing at her eyes. Her door was cracked open and her mother peeked her head in, brown eyes kind.
"Come on Cyn, get dressed. We have to go to Diagon Alley," her mother commented.
Cyn groaned, moving to pull the covers over her head. Julia waved her wand and the covers were yanked away from Cyn and into a nice neat pile in her mother's arms. After a stern look from her mother, Cyn reluctantly crawled out of bed. She dressed slowly, putting on a black pleated skirt and a white collared shirt. She brushed through her ebony locks, pinning them into an elegant braided bun at the top of her head and slipped on a nice pair of heels. She headed to the closet, pleased to see that all of her cloaks had been placed in there already.
She grabbed her favorite cloak – when made of unicorn hair and clasped it around her shoulders. She hurried downstairs, unsurprised to find her mother waiting by the front door. Joining hands they Apparated away, appearing in the middle of Diagon Alley. No one gave them a glance at their sudden appearance except for, Cyn noted, a family of redheads. She glanced at them, eyeing their clothes which were either homemade or very cheap. Julia cleared her throat and Cyn whipped around hurrying after her mother.
The two walked slowly into Ollivander's, and Cyn clasped her hands together in trepidation. She felt so odd going into a wand shop when she was a sixth year and already should have a wand. The man behind the desk was old and seemed kind as he gave them a smile.
"Are you Ollivander?" Julia asked without preamble. Almost shyly, the man nodded his head. "My daughter needs a new wand – hers broke at school."
"Come closer dear," Ollivander told Cyn. He handed her a wand. "Cypress wood, phoenix feather, twelve inches, swishy." Cyn waved the wand and something exploded. "No, not that one then. How about this one?"
Wand, after wand, after wand she tried and yet nothing had seemed to work. Ollivander looked hesitantly toward the back. With a muffled sentence he disappeared, only to come back with a dusty box which held one of the most elegantly carved wands that Cyn had ever seen. She gasped, reaching out to grab it and her eyes went wide as a warm feeling entered her body. All of the glass that had shattered when she had tried new wands repaired itself without her having to do anything and she knew instantly that this was it. This was her wand.
"Elder wood, dragon heartstring, sturdy, 9 ½ inches." Ollivander murmured seeming like he was in a trance. "Very few wands have been made from elder wood as such they are extremely rare. Those with elder wood are often marked for a special destiny."
That was all he said on the matter. They paid for the wand and headed out of the shop. Cyn tucked her wand into the sleeve of her cloak, following her mother to Flourish and Blott's to buy her school books. Inside of the bookstore was the redheaded family, along with a boy with glasses and a scar, and a girl with hideously curly hair.
"Are you Harry Potter?" Cyn asked, narrowing her eyes at him and looking at the scar.
His pale face flushed scarlet and he nodded. She pursed her lips, staring at him a little more before Julia cleared her throat.
"Come along Cyn, there will be time to gawk at the Chosen One later," Julia reprimanded.
"Of course Mom," Cyn readily agreed, "my apologies."
"You are taking seven N.E.W.T. level classes Cyn," Julia reminded her daughter. "You must keep your grades up."
Cyn nodded her head obediently. Behind her she could hear an exclamation of "Seven N.E.W.T.S.!? But they only allow a maximum of five!" and she rolled her eyes. True, usually students were only allowed a maximum of five – and that was even with special consideration – but the Winters name still retained a fair amount of power, and by looking at her past grades it was easy to see that Cyn wouldn't fall behind. In preparation for moving to England and taking seven N.E.W.T. level classes, she had read through all of her other books memorizing the theory and practicing. After having bought her books the twosome wandered around Diagon Alley.
Cyn was left in awe by how different it was from America, and she couldn't believe how few people there were in Diagon Alley. When they passed several Wanted posters, warning about Death Eaters, Cyn realized why. She bumped into someone and the parcels that she was carrying dropped to the ground.
"I'm sorry!" She squeaked, flushing. "I wasn't watching where I was going."
Julia waved her wand and the parcels floated in the air beside her. "Honestly Cyn," she sighed, shaking her head.
"I'm sorry." Cyn apologized once again, peering at the boy whom she had bumped into.
He was attractive, she admitted. Pale hair, equally as pale skin and silvery eyes. The woman next to him was also pretty, and Cyn noticed many striking similarities between the two of them. Both people were staring at her with no expression on their face, although Cyn thought she saw something flicker in the boy's eyes for a moment.
"I'm sorry." She apologized once more, "I'm usually not so clumsy but I've never been to Diagon Alley before."
"You haven't?" The woman inquired sharply. "Muggle-born?"
"Heavens no!" both Julia and Cyn gasped. Cyn elaborated, "I used to attend a wizarding school in America, and we only recently moved to Europe. Father used to go to Hogwarts, didn't he?" Julia nodded. "Yes, so he decided that it was about time that I come to Hogwarts. We have family living here too." She smiled brightly.
"Your father?" The woman inquired. "What is his name?"
"Charles Winters the third, Order of Merlin Third Class." Cyn recited. "When he was in school he won a Dueling Trophy, and the Quidditch House Cup."
"I know your father. A pureblood isn't he?" The woman asked. Cyn nodded. "And your mother?" Another nod. "I'm Narcissa Malfoy, this is my son Draco. Pleasure to meet you."
"Pleasure as well," Cyn returned cordially.
"What house do you think you'll be in?" Draco finally spoke and Cyn was a little surprised to find that his voice was slightly husky.
"What houses are there?" She asked, a small smile gracing her face.
"Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin." It was clear from the pride in his voice when he said the last House, that he was a Slytherin.
"Hm…At Ilvermorny I was in Horned Serpent – it was the house that favored scholars. But three of the four Houses had chosen me, so I guess it's a tossup?" Cyn tried with a sheepish smile.
"Pity." Draco frowned. "Slytherin would be a good fit for you."
Cyn didn't answer, but a part of her felt thrilled that he thought so. She didn't know why, but a part of her craved his attention and approval. Banishing those thoughts, Cyn pulled the hood of her cloak up, so that it concealed her face.
"It was nice to meet you." Cyn said. "And…I hope that I see you at Hogwarts."
Then they Disapparated back to the cottage. Without saying a word to her mother, Cyn headed upstairs to her room. She grabbed a book about wandmaking and pulled it off of the shelf. She wanted to know what the properties of her wand meant – she didn't believe Ollivander when he had said that elder wood meant that she had a "special density". She was the least special person in the world – she wasn't very smart, she'd consider herself average and she wasn't extraordinarily beautiful either. She'd say that she was pretty, and cute in a doll-like way but she wasn't drop-dead gorgeous like Farrah or Kyra had been.
Elder
The rarest wand wood of all, and reputed to be deeply unlucky, the elder wand is trickier to master than any other. It contains powerful magic, but scorns to remain with any owner who is not the superior of his or her company; it takes a remarkable wizard to keep the elder wand for any length of time. The old superstition, 'wand of elder, never prosper,' has its basis in this fear of the wand, but in fact, the superstition is baseless, and those foolish wandmakers who refuse to work with elder do so more because they doubt they will be able to sell their products than from fear of working with this wood. The truth is that only a highly unusual person will find their perfect match in elder, and on the rare occasion when such a pairing occurs, I take it as certain that the witch or wizard in question is marked out for a special destiny. An additional fact that I have unearthed during my long years of study is that the owners of elder wands almost always feel a powerful affinity with those chosen by rowan.
Dragon heartstring
Dragon heartstring is a powerful wand with a lot of magical "heft". It is not the core you want for subtlety, but for sheer power it is definitely the best. Although it is the most common core among Dark Wizards, Dark Wizards are most certainly not their most common users. Dragon heartstrings are by far the most common wand core amongst Slytherins, but their power often bonds to Gryffindors and Ravenclaws as well. However, they tend to overwhelm the archetypal Hufflepuff personality.
Cyn closed the book with a snap. Apparently Ollivander hadn't been lying or embellishing – elder wood was rare and it typically meant that the witch or wizard was marked for a special destiny. Cyn shuddered to think what kind of destiny Fate had in mind.
