"Only the best kinds of dogs," Gideon responded quite seriously, as though to allay any fears or hesitation that might arise from having a wand constructed from strays. It was difficult to keep a straight face at the boy's question — what did he think the wood in his hands was, a clever transfiguration? An optical illusion? Gideon maintained his composure just long enough to see Mr. Fletcher's reaction, then smiled and shook his head. "It's only a name for a kind of tree," he assured him with a chuckle.

"It seems to like you," he pointed out; the wand had taken on a subtle shine in the boy's hand, unnoticeable except to the trained eye. Gideon glanced at Billie to see if she'd noticed, though he thought there was little chance she had. Formal title aside, she had shown no particular inclination to grow up and be a wand maker — not when Quidditch and broom racing was more exciting, anyway. Her position in the shop was nine parts pretence and one part cleaning work, honestly, but she didn't seem to mind since it gave her plenty of freedom to run amok around Hogsmeade.

"Why don't you give it a wave and see what you think?" Gideon recommended, though he was already brainstorming other possibilities if this didn't end up being an ideal match.

  

Billie pulled a face at Jimmy and tilted her head in a 'wouldn't you like to know' way. It seemed she was going to keep her wand escapades a secret, unless he ended up needing further cheering. She might make an exception in that case. "Maybe I'll show ya after you get yours. Gideon let me pick it, sorta." Her last sentence was followed by a proud smile. She didn't think she'd ever amount to anything extraordinary such as a wand maker, but she was very pleased with herself that she had been able to tell which wand felt best.

Moving out of the way so Jimmy could try out some new wands, she snorted, hoping that Fletcher didn't really think the wand was made out of dogs. She, somehow, stifled most of her laughter, even though Gideon's remark made her want to dissolve into a fit of giggles.

"At least someone likes you, Jimmy" she chirped out, sarcastically, unable to help herself, but her expression was one of interest and hope that the boy had finally find a match. She was much too busy cracking jokes to really peer too closely at the dogwood wand, so she didn't notice any sort of shine to it. Instead, she found herself watching Fletcher, expectantly.

  

---

MJ, yet again working her magic.  <3 <3 Thank you

Mr. Ollivander seemed to find him funny, or be making fun of him (which would give Billie leave to do the same), but Jimmy just shrugged. Admittedly, he had not thought his question very far through: but he stood by it. It was a weird name for a wood, whether or not it had anything to do with dogs. There was a bit of a dragon heart in this one, so who knew. Maybe dogs liked to pee on that kind of tree or something, so there was dog piss in this wand. If that was true he would have liked to be warned before he touched it, ya know?

Especially if they were trying to give him a useless wand and Billie had gotten to pick an extra special extra powerful one. How was he gonna duel the other boy one day if that was so?

But they were long past that, because this wand felt different somehow, almost warm to the touch - he waved it a little nervously, expecting disaster - but there was no blowing up in his face this time (thank MERLIN), just a shower of sparks.

That was a good sign, right? “It does, doesn’t it?” He said excitedly, managing to control his excitement enough not to jab it at Billie again in case he was wrong about it. “It does like me, yeah?”

---

  

---

"It certainly does," Gideon agreed, grinning widely. A well-matched wand always put a smile on his face. "I'll get everything boxed up and we'll settle the bill over there," he said, indicating the area of the back counter where money was exchanged and where they kept the ledger of accounts for their wealthier customers, who never carried coins themselves and simply sent their housekeeper out twice a month to settle all their debts. Gideon left the wand in the boy's hands, but took the empty box with him and went to fetch a small container of wand polish and a rag, which he sent home with every new purchase to try and incentivize his customers to take good care of their wands once they had them.

"Now, if you want you can take it out a few times before you go off to Hogwarts," he suggested. "Hold it in your hands, give it a flick or two, maybe polish it. Give it a chance to get to know you a bit and get used to you. But you mustn't try to do any real magic until you get to school and have someone to teach you," he continued, with a severe look. "Otherwise you and your wand will learn all sorts of bad habits — and you might burn your house down, besides."

  

The shower of sparks was what a lot of people seemed to produce when the wand was right for them, so her smile grew, despite the urge to toss more sarcastic comments in Fletcher's direction. "Yeah!" She agreed, right along with Gideon. Billie wouldn't admit it, but she had been growing a little worried that Jimmy might not find anything. It wouldn't do if they couldn't head off to Hogwarts together.

"Yeah, don't roast your poor Great-Granny. She don't deserve to be turned into a Christmas roast or nothin'," she warned with a waggle of her finger, attempting to mimic Gideon's severe look, but it just ended in a laugh. She wasn't the chastising type unless the situation truly warranted it. Not to mention, it usually came in the form of her calling the other person an idiot.

Billie waited until Gideon seemed busy enough before she dropped her voice to a whisper, "But if ya do figure out a good spell. Show me, okay?"

  

---

MJ, yet again working her magic.  <3 <3 Thank you

Jimmy nodded along in near-seriousness at the instructions to get to know it before school began, as well as the thing about not actually doing magic that he probably wouldn’t have heeded if not for the burn-your-house-down. After the trials and tribulations in the wand shop alne, Jimmy wasn’t convinced that even a wand that liked him wouldn’t be tempted to blow up in his face.

He ought to have thought up a good comeback to Farrow’s joke about roasting, but he couldn’t help himself, and there he was, grinning a big toothy grin at his arch nemesis.

Well, that wouldn’t do. Making sure his voice was super low so he wouldn’t get caught making threats again - and no wand-flicking, either, he was being as careful with this stick as if it were the world’s biggest diamond - Jimmy leant over. “Don’t worry, maybe I’ll even test it out on you.”

With another grin - and a slight fear of retaliation - Jimmy scampered over to the counter to settle his debts (and make sure his new wand was not confiscated before he made it out of the shop).

---

  

---