Chapter 10: The Selection of the Wands
Severus and Lily were keener than ever before when the summer rolled in across Cokeworth. They were beyond thrilled when Eileen, Rose and Trevor agreed mutually to take them shopping for the remainder of their school provisions and because Eileen's parents helped the Evans family become connected to the Floo Network, they found the trip would be quicker and have no tediously long drive to and from London.
The Prince and Evans family were getting on more and more, and the news spread across the Ministry of Magic and therefore, to the whole Wizarding World without that Septimus Prince, a well-renowned Pure blood wizard had close friendly relations with a Muggle family. This news intrigued some most pleasantly, and disgusted others most unpleasantly. Septimus was ridiculed by other pure blood families such as the Malfoys and the Blacks whenever he was within one of their sights, and the Goyle family had the gall to send him a Howler, which he dismissively incinerated with a flick of his wand before the head of the Goyles could utter a single piece of harsh profanity from his equally harsh letter.
Septimus was dismissive because he truly didn't care. His reunion with his daughter had provided relief in him that he hadn't lost her forever, and mixed with Desdemona's gradual teaching of common sense, he was a much-reformed character.
"If it wasn't for the Evans family, I would still have had a terribly old-fashioned and disdainful outlook on Muggles, though, I must admit." he admitted to Desdemona and Eileen. But this didn't surprise them very much, as Septimus' primary example of a Muggle was in the form of Tobias Snape.
Severus and Lily were also very keen to get to Hogwarts in a few months. Petunia was keen too. She wanted desperately to visit a wizarding area aside from Diagon Alley, and she found the idea of a hidden platform in King's Cross impossible and therefore, most exciting. She also wanted desperately for Lily and Severus to get a confirmation from Dumbledore if their plan could possibly be put into action. She still had doubts considering the last meeting she had with him, but thanks to her sister's encouraging optimism and her own good fortunes with her new friends and her ongoing education, she remained hopeful.
Soon, the sweltering heat of June passed on to July, and many residents of Cokeworth were paddling in their pools, sunbathing in their gardens or sharing picnics in the grassy park. As promised, Eileen, Trevor and Rose arranged to take Lily and Severus to Diagon Alley to collect their supplies. Petunia decided to go too, as her two new best friends were either on holiday in Greece, or away for the day at a theme park with family. She also wished to see how wand selection worked and fancied a Fortescue ice cream or two.
Petunia's excitement only increased when she was invited to go through the Floo Network accompanied by Eileen. She dressed in older clothes that she wouldn't mind throwing away in case she damaged or dirtied them beyond saving. Lily was to escort Rose and Severus would go with Trevor. Rose looked worried about spinning through a burning fireplace. Lily squeezed her hand encouragingly.
Petunia was also nervous and clung to Eileen's arm to the point that the latter worried she would lose circulation if she didn't get Petunia through to the Leaky Cauldron post-haste.
"Ready then, Petunia?" she asked politely.
"Yes…as ready as I could ever be." replied Petunia hesitantly.
Eileen declared "Diagon Alley!"
Petunia was spun and it was all she could do to keep hold of Eileen until after what seemed five minutes or more, they fell through into the Leaky Cauldron. Petunia coughed and spluttered as she had inhaled ash into her mouth as she yelped in the spinning foray of green flames.
Lily soon followed with Rose, whose white complexion was now tainted with green.
"I…don't think…I can…do that…again!" she wheezed as she struggled to stand up straight.
"One gets used to it." said Eileen kindly, rubbing her friend's back with the hand that wasn't temporarily numbed by Petunia's falcon-like grip.
Finally, Severus came through with Trevor, whom unlike his wife and daughter laughed in ecstasy.
"What a ride! What a thrill!" he practically cackled with delight.
Everybody in the pub looked at Trevor with amused expressions. They were a jovial looking bunch, unlike the company one would expect to see in the Hog's Head, Severus recalled with a twinge of regret, as he remembered the setting of the place he had unintentionally doomed his original love.
His attention was restored to his current reality when Eileen led them to the back of the pub and opened the walled opening to Diagon Alley.
The six of them strolled onto the familiar street and looked around keenly as before. They went to Gringotts first to collect enough money to buy the wands, the cauldrons and the various supplies included in their letters. The goblins looked slightly more pleasant as the party was being led by two heirs of the Prince family, and they went to their respective vaults, though Petunia and Rose, still shaken and slightly ill from their Floo travel elected to wait in the main reception area whilst Eileen and Trevor took their kids to collect their money.
Severus and Lily decided to take out enough money to spend on the Hogwarts Express as well, so took a few extra Galleons out of their vaults.
Half an hour later, Severus and Lily were buying their pewter cauldrons, whilst Petunia looked around in Flourish and Blotts for any other books that might benefit her in the future.
Eileen had the sense to shrink the two cauldrons, not small enough to lose them, but enough to slip them into the shopping bag that held their ingredients for Potions and then, after Petunia exited with a book on cooking with certain wizarding plants, came the moment they had all waited for: the visit to Mr Ollivander's wand shop.
They entered and found boxes upon boxes of wands all over the place. Some were stacked by the windows, some in compartments behind the desk, and some piled on top of one another on the floor close to the walls. Behind the desk was a wispy, white haired man with a very disturbing expression, and he leered at the sight of his new customers.
"Two new buds prepared for the first petal?" he said eerily.
"Y-yes?" replied Lily.
Rose gave her and Petunia protective squeezes on the shoulders. She decided upon first impression that she didn't like Mr Ollivander much, even though Eileen had described him as a genius in wand lore and that no-one produced any better wands.
"Now, before we select the perfect first wands, we'll need to take your measurements now, won't we?" said Ollivander. He grabbed his measuring lines and made them sentient with a flick of his own wand, which was straight as a pencil and stiff as a board. It was also as grey as his hair.
"Ladies first." he said.
Lily nervously stepped forward but maintained herself after catching Severus winking at her with encouragement. She was measured all over, particularly on her arms, and she had to point out that her right arm was the dominant one.
"Okay now!" said Ollivander. "Perhaps we should start off with this."
He went behind the counter and instinctively pulled out from its box a wand with a bend in it, that reminded Severus eerily of the wand belonging to the previous universe's Bellatrix Lestrange; only this one had a brighter shade.
"Twelve inches, dragon heartstring, elder wood, fairly pliable." said Ollivander cautiously, handing Lily the wand in question.
Lily wasn't sure what to do with it.
"Give it a wave." said Ollivander, in a tone of impatience.
Lily flinched and did so, but the wand seemed to snap itself out of her grip and flew to Ollivander's awaiting hand.
"No, clearly not." he said thoughtfully, placing the wand back into its box and scanning the shelves with concentration.
Eventually, he fished out a second wand after much deliberation and a few glances back at Lily.
"Ten and a quarter inches, unicorn hair, willow wood and very swishy." he said.
Severus smiled. He remembered vaguely from one of his memories that this was Lily's wand in the other universe, but would it be the same this time?
Lily gripped the wand and it glowed and emitted some red sparks.
"Perfect partnering." concluded Ollivander. "I'll just box that up again and then there will be the matter of your payment. Six Galleons and Seven Sickles in total."
Lily paid for the wand, surprised at the expense of such a small stick. If it weren't for the craftmanship clearly endowed upon it, she could easily have mistaken this wand for a stick her neighbour's dog would have found in the garden.
She looked to her parents, who looked delighted at her finding a wand so quickly as Eileen had remarked that some witches and wizards take up a lot of time finding the right wand. Eileen clapped cheerfully, and Severus winked and smiled at her proudly. Then she looked over at Petunia, whom was looking longingly at a wand box in the window sill beside her.
Lily went over to her sister and hugged her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't think what coming here would do to you." she whispered.
"I chose to come. I wanted to experience what wand selection was like. But now I've seen it. So at least I got to witness it." replied Petunia, fighting to keep her tone positive and dismissive of any negativity, but her face betrayed her.
Tears were shining and her eyes were avoiding Lily's and staring fixedly in the direction of the wand on the shelf, which she knew she could easily just grab and run off with…but she knew from everything Severus had told her, that taking the wand and trying to use it would be of no use.
The wand chooses the wizard, he said. It made little sense to her, but from what she had witnessed today with Lily, she now understood that any wand would realize that she had no magic to offer it, and therefore no wand would choose her, and she hung her head low in rejection once more.
Lily and Rose decided to take Petunia to Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour for some cheering up. Severus was slightly saddened by this, because he wanted Lily to see him get his wand. But he knew what Petunia's feelings meant to Lily, so he nodded understandingly and waved the three Evans girls off as they exited through the door.
Ollivander turned to Severus.
"Ah, now. Let's see." He repeated his measuring of the boy and seemed to hum in a thoughtful sort of way at intervals.
"Right now." he said, fetching out a wand. "Try this. Fourteen inches, oak, dragon heartstring, stiff and true."
Severus looked at the wand presented to him. He recalled this wand most vividly. He had mastered this wand on the first go the last time he came to this shop in his first life, and it remained with him until the day he died. He felt a sense of reunion with the wand but quivered slightly as it was the wand that he used to kill Albus Dumbledore and maim others in his Death Eater days with his own Sectumsempra curse.
"Don't be shy, boy. Give it a go!" said Ollivander hastily.
Severus took the wand but to his surprise, it didn't glow and spark, it warmed up in his hand to the point he had to drop it.
"Seems to not agree with you very much at all!" said Ollivander with surprise, recollecting the wand and putting it back on the shelves.
Severus was most surprised of all. In this world, the wand he had been destined with before disapproved of him severely. Was it because he was a different person now? Was it because he had no ambition to join the Dark side this time?
"Try this." said Ollivander.
He had to say those two words another three times, before producing the sixth wand to test.
"Unicorn hair, hornbeam wood, ten and a half inches, loyally stiff."
Severus took it doubtfully. Wands with unicorn hair indicated that its user would be strongly affiliated with the Light. Severus may have changed, may have been to Heaven, but he still wasn't certain he was a good person, good enough to be a part of the Light.
But as soon as he held it and gave it a wave, the wand glowed and its sensation flooded his body, creating a sense between wizard and wand, of belonging.
Eileen clapped delightedly, whilst Ollivander smiled approvingly.
"Most surprising combination." he said absently.
"Why?" asked Severus.
"Oh." Ollivander sounded slightly embarrassed. "Well, I remember your mother, Mr Prince. I have never known a Prince heir or heiress to be able to master a wand with unicorn hair. And the hornbeam wood also indicates that this wand will never abandon its owner, hence showing a strong destiny bond between itself and yourself, Mr Prince. A wand that loyal on first acquaintance shows that you have great morality, young sir."
Severus understood why this was. The wand sensed the desire to change, the desire to make amends in this new life. And this wand had just shown to him that it was willing to aid him on this lifelong quest.
"Thanks, I guess, Mr Ollivander." he said after a pause.
After paying seven Galleons exactly, Severus took his boxed wand and he, Eileen and Trevor made their way to Fortescue's.
Lily and Petunia had just finished their ice creams, but couldn't resist indulging in another one each when Severus went to order his. Lily went alone to buy both hers and Petunia's ices, as she had the Galleons, and so that she and Severus could show off their wands to each other in privacy, without upsetting Petunia any further, whom had cheered up slightly with her ice and some comfort from Rose.
Severus put on the act of expressing excitement at seeing Lily's wand for the 'first time' and she was all the more ecstatic when he showed his wand to her and explained all that Ollivander said about it.
"Maybe it's a sign that you will play a role for the light, helping fight that Voldemort loser!" she suggested.
Severus thought upon this and looked down at his new wand. Maybe Lily was right. Maybe this was a symbolism of his future battle against Voldemort, and he knew that with Lily and hopefully Dumbledore by his side, he will not fail, though he didn't wish to show to Dumbledore his slightly advanced knowledge about the weaknesses of Voldemort. It could raise too many questions about Severus' secret past, and due to Dumbledore's flawless Legilimency, Severus knew he would have to avoid the Headmaster a lot. And that in itself was sure to bring up some suspicion from the observant old man. Severus knew that this particular part of the upcoming fight against the Dark Lord was going to be very difficult, and he was now starting to wonder if his second life at Hogwarts was really going to be as easy as the first time after all.
That's Chapter 10! Sorry it's shorter than previous chapters, but I think the next few chapters will compensate! Chapter 11 coming soon! Please review, and thanks for reading!