December 29, 1890 — Ollivander's Wands

The ash wand wasn't working anymore.

It didn't matter what spell she tried to cast, it simply refused to perform. If it weren't for Father's insistence that Naeva and her sisters learn wandless techniques, she would've been just as without magic as she had been during that dreadful fog. Even so, she wasn't particularly talented with it, and had been forced to do most things the muggle way.

Not that she would ever admit that to her father, or any of their relatives.

The issues were so severe that she had finally come to Ollivander's to have the wand replaced, chaperone in tow in the tiny space. She kept her hood up as she drew the wand from the pocket of her coat and laid it on the counter. "Pardon me," she said, "but I am in desperate need of a new wand."

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Gideon Ollivander
Outfit in unpatterned cream, trimmed with light brown fur over an appropriate robe.

  

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Gilded beauty by MJ!

Gideon was expecting today to be rather quiet, now that he'd weathered both the rush of students returning from Hogwarts who needed to refurbish or replenish things after a semester of hard work and the pre-Christmas rush. He still opened, but was already making plans for what he might do with Billie if business was slow enough that he felt inclined to close up early. The bell, then, surprised him, as did the urgency of the young woman who'd entered.

"Desperate need? Dear me," Gideon said sympathetically. "What's befallen your old wand?" Sometimes a wand really was broken beyond repair, but often when people thought their wands were broken there was still something to be done about it. Whether or not the owners of the wands could afford the expense to, for instance, recase their core in a new wand wood was another matter — but judging by her appearance he doubted money would be much of an issue, so perhaps she'd be interested in trying something of the sort. It wasn't as though a repaired wand would work any better than a new one, but — people were sentimental about wands, and Gideon understood why. Owning a wand was like having a pet, or a family member — replacing them just didn't feel right, in many cases.

  

"It isn't working anymore," she said simply. "It's an heirloom wand, never quite liked me in the first place — but recently, it simply stopped functioning at all." She picked the wand up again, twisting it in her fingers. The ash wood shone with a freshly-cleaned gleam, faint carved patterns of insectoid wings decorating its surface. "Ash and Doxy wing. I think it was my aunt's."

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Gideon Ollivander

  

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Gilded beauty by MJ!

Gideon held his hand out for the wand as soon as she brought it out, but even before getting a chance to hold it he knew the problem was not one that would be remedied. Ash was one of those wand woods that was very particular about who it chose, and it was no wonder that it had refused to function for someone it hadn't. Paired with doxy wing, too — a fickle core if ever there was one — it was honestly impressive that it had worked as long as it had.

"Is this the wand you've had since you were a child?" he asked as he took the wand from her. He ran his fingers over it quickly, then removed his own wand and gave a quick tap on the hilt. Nothing happened. He waited a moment, then tried again; again nothing.

"Merlin," he said, shaking his head. "I believe your doxy wings have died. Probably due to stress. Ash can be very — well, nevermind. The point is you're right; you do need a new wand. Tell me, Miss, what sort of spells do you most often use your wand for?"

  

As he took the wand from her, she sighed. She'd hoped the wandmaker would understand that, no, it wasn't just her mind fracturing, her wand was actually failing to work at all, even for a simple light spell. "It is," she admitted. "It always took an extra attempt or two to produce anything from it, and the problem simply kept progressing." Naeva deliberately did not mention her father had also been teaching her wandless magic; she wasn't that good at it, anyway.

She watched as he tapped it with his own wand twice, before he informed her of the problem. The core had died. "Well, that would explain it." Wringing her hands together for a moment, she took a deep breath, and smiled. "Daily household magic, I suppose, would be the best way to describe what I tend to use. That and Transfiguration work. I never have to worry about running out of a color of embroidery thread." Embroidery was nothing to be ashamed of being good at, and it was beautiful. Especially done by hand.

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Gideon Ollivander

  

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Gilded beauty by MJ!

Gideon nodded; that type of spell work was what he heard most frequently from ladies in her social standing. Magic was almost unnecessary for someone who had money and servants, where it was an essential for someone who needed to work to make their way in the world. Not that he was judging either way. Some wands would be just as happy changing colors on stitches as they would dueling or saving lives, so it would be up to him to find her one.

"Something delicate, then. Let's start with... elm and unicorn hair, I think," he said, moving towards the shelf containing the elm wands and peering at the labels before selecting one. "And then we'll go from there, Miss — I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name?"

  

It sounded like it would be a good wand, for certain. Unicorn hair was, after all, a delicate core — the animal it was from, not so much, not all the time. Naeva had never taken Care of Magical Creatures, but she read. One could learn just as much from books as they could from —

Oh. She hadn't even given her name. How rude of her. "Lécuyer," she informed, stepping up just a hair closer. "Naeva Lécuyer." Not to be confused with her elder, now married, sisters. The one that married properly and the one that eloped, and worse, beneath her station. She offered him a polite smile. Hopefully he wouldn't hold it against her that she hadn't promptly introduced herself.

Delicately, she took the wand from him. It felt...different. That was the most she could say about holding it. The wood was smooth, after all, unlike the ash wand. Taking a deep breath, and feeling rather foolish, she flicked her wrist.

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Gideon Ollivander

  

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Gilded beauty by MJ!

Gideon hardly even registered the delayed introduction. It wasn't as though they were being introduced at some society event, after all; she was a customer and he was a businessman, which made their interaction rather impersonal. Of course, choosing a wand was decidedly more intimate than buying groceries or selecting a new quill, but even so — with many of his customers he wouldn't see them again for months, years, or maybe ever. A belated introduction would not make much difference, in the grand scheme of things.

She gave the wand a flick, and a few of the wand boxes on the nearest shelf rustled — as though they'd been summoned to do something but were a bit reticent to follow through. It was more of a reaction than she would have gotten with her current want, but it wasn't what he would call a happy match. "Hm," he muttered as he moved to select another. "I think we can do better than that."

He chose a wand box from the shelf, then went and retrieved a second before returning to where Miss Lecuyer stood. "Rowan and kneazle whisker," he said as he removed the lid from the first wand. "A very homey wand. Kneazle whisker is well-suited to household magic, in my experience. And this — unicorn hair with willow, and a sight more flexible than the first you tried," he explained. He took the elm wand from her and replaced it in its box, setting it aside while he waited for her to pick another wand to try.

OOC: Feel free to state what the outcome of the wand waving was in your post! That way we can kind of pick the wand together ^^

  

It certainly didn't feel happy, that much Naeva would be able to say. If asked, anyway. Not that Mr. Ollivander had asked her opinion. Clearly he could see, and thus he opted to take the elm from her and present not one, but two afresh. Rowan — a lovely wand, certainly, but it didn't really call to her. The willow piece he presented, however, was beautiful.

Still, she picked up the rowan piece first and gave it a wave. What happened was, admittedly, unexpected — a box shot out at her from a shelf, aimed directly for her nose! "Oh!" she squeaked, ducking out of the way just in time for the box to clatter into the door-frame. There was simply no way that wand liked her at all. She carefully handed it back to Mr. Ollivander, before taking up the willow.

This wand felt much more right in her hand, as she raised it to eye level, studying the shape and grain. She didn't even notice the floating lights that were trailing after it, so immersed was she in the wood...

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Gideon Ollivander

(I hope I didn't take TOO much liberty in the reaction with the rowan & kneazle wand! xD)

  

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Gilded beauty by MJ!

Miss Lecuyer seemed rather taken aback by the wand box flying towards her, though it was hardly the most dramatic wand reaction Gideon had seen. All the same, it was safe to say this wand wasn't for her. Matching a wand to a witch or wizard was like matching two people. There wasn't necessarily a good or bad wand, objectively speaking (at least, he hoped he wasn't stocking any bad wands), but rather wands that were or weren't suited to certain individuals. With some customers, such an enthusiastic and energetic reaction might have been an indication of a good match. With Miss Lecuyer, it clearly lacked the finesse she was looking for.

The willow wand had a much more elegant response, which made Gideon smile. "It seems well suited to you. What do you think of it?"

  

His words shook her out of her enamor with the grain and color of the wood, enough to notice the floating orbs. "It feels...right," she admitted, giving it a twist before gently flicking it, casting the simplest light spell to ignite the tip. Another flick, and the light was extinguished. It was natural, perfect, like a tailored dress. "Much better than the ash ever did — not that the ash is the bar to which all wands shall ever be compared."

Carefully, she took a half-step closer. "How much?

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Gideon Ollivander

  

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Gilded beauty by MJ!

Gideon nodded at her explanation. He could tell that the wand was happy with her from the moment she'd picked it up, but the responsiveness to the short spell she tried was also a fair indicator that they were well matched. He replaced the boxes for the other two wands she'd tried, feeling pleased with himself. He was always a little self-satisfied when he managed to match a wand with a customer in less than five tries, though it might have more to do with the witch in question than with his skills. He told her the price — with some special exceptions, he tried to keep every wand in his shop to the same reasonable standard. Occasionally he would use a wood or core that involved some additional expense, but on the whole he thought wands should be affordable for any witch or wizard, and tried to do what he could to make that a reality. Extra expense came with all of the optional bells and whistles, which he launched in to after telling her the basic price.

"Now, I don't carve wands like your ash one. In some cases, it can affect the integrity of the wand, so it's best avoided, in my experience," he explained. "But if you'd like more of a unique look or feel, you can add a handle to the wand and we can carve that with anything you like. There are silver or pewter handles, too. And if you prefer a custom wand box with a velvet lining rather than just the cardboard box, that can be arranged as well."

  

The base price was reasonable enough, but then he started getting into details of embellishments. A handle, which could be carved or made of metal. Now that sounded like the perfect thing to showcase. "May I see what options you have available in silver?" she inquired, giving a half-smile.

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Gideon Ollivander

(Sorry it's so short >.<)

  

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Gilded beauty by MJ!

"Of course," Gideon said with a smile. He'd guessed by her attire and the way she carried herself that she might be interested in something more than just the same basic wand any first-year might have in hand to head off to Hogwarts. Adults in general tended to want to invest more in their wands, too — they knew, perhaps, more about how important they were and how they intended to use them.

Gideon reached down to open a long, shallow drawer and removed a tray from within. On a small cushion of black velvet several prototype handles were laid out, with cylindrical holes where the wand would go. "These are examples. You can slide them over the wand itself to see how they would look, or hold them to see how they feel in your hand. Once you've made a selection I would fit it to your wand and it would be ready to pick up tomorrow. The wand would have to stay here, of course, until then," he explained. Pointing to a few different handles on one end of the tray, which ranged from a simple, straight sleeve to highly ornate decorative swirls, he continued, "These are the standard silver options. If you've something particular in mind, there's also custom designs — though they do take longer and are a bit more expensive. But I've done things like animal figures at the hilts, or family crests, just to give you an idea of what sort of things are possible."

  

Looking over the options, Naeva plucked two from their positions — one etched with a swirling pattern, another simple, with a spherical pommel to it. Carefully, she took the etched design in her left hand, testing the feel of it, before shaking her head, returning it to its position, deciding it too straight, and the pattern uncomfortable. The other was more curved, as if designed to suit one's grip.

"This one," she decided, turning the item in her fingers to hand it back over. "Thank you very much for your help, Mr. Ollivander."

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Gideon Ollivander

  

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Gilded beauty by MJ!