Wandlore, or in Which Oleandra Almost Loses an Eye

Standing at the counter to Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C., Oleandra was really looking forward to owning her very own wand. She had been deathly jealous, watching Daphne waving her wand around. Nothing but colourful sparks had come out, mind you, but it was far sight from her own disappointing performance.

As she was waiting for Ollivander to show up to the counter, she glanced across the room. Every available nook and cranny of the place was haphazardly occupied with shelves, and each shelf was crammed full with boxes containing wands. 

Upon noticing the precarious state of some of these boxes, something peculiar caught her eye. Tendrils of light darted across the room. As her eyes adjusted to the sight, she couldn't help but notice that each box was connected to a translucent strand of light. Taking a step back, she finally came to the realization that the entire store was in fact, covered in these filaments of slowly pulsating light, much like a spider's web.

Oleandra gulped.

"Mother, what are all those lights?" she asked, very much concerned.

"What lights, dear?" Iris Greengrass responded unconcernedly.

At that moment, a crash was heard from the backroom, followed shortly by the sounds of steps, as Ollivander had finally showed up to the counter.

"Good day," he said in a soft tone. "Why, if it isn't the Greengrass family again." Usually, Ollivander would have inquired about every member present's experience with his wands, but he dispensed with the memory exercise, as it had only been one month since their last visit.

"Good day to you as well," responded Iris. Even for one as exalted as the head of the noble and most ancient house of Greengrass, it didn't hurt to stay polite with the British Isle's foremost purveyor of wands.

"The young lady Greengrass. Oleandra, wasn't it?" he said. "I thought I might be seeing you soon. There is no guarantee that twins will be chosen by similar wands, but we'll have you the perfect wand in no time. Which is your wand arm?"

After being exposed to such a strange sight, Oleandra was a bit reticent at the idea, but becoming a powerful witch was her dream, so there was no helping it. She raised her right hand in response.

"Let's start with this one," he said, pulling out one of the boxes. "Yew, with a core of unicorn hair, like your sister's."

Oleandra gripped the wand firmly and looked blankly back at the man.

"Well, give it a wave!" said Ollivander gently.

Nothing happened. Oleandra's heart sank like a stone. This was starting to get awfully familiar.

Ollivander took back the wand and handed her another. "Try this one out, beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Quite flexible."

Another dud. "I'll find you an owner one day," he murmured to himself.

And thus, three hours passed, with no results. Nearly every box in the store was strewn haphazardly across the floor. Iris, Maxwell, and Astoria had left ages ago to get ice cream.

"Are we absolutely sure you're magic, dear sister?" drawled Daphne with a smirk. So far, every wand had responded either with silence, or angry red sparks. One even released a foul odour, though that might have been one of the improperly resealed potion ingredients festering in her bag due to the sweltering early August temperatures.

Oleandra shot a mean look at her sister, but didn't dignify her with an answer.

Meanwhile, Ollivander was at the ends of his wits. "I don't understand," he said softly. "Unicorn hairs, Phoenix tail feathers, dragon heartstrings. From Alder to Yew, nothing's worked. How truly perplexing."

There were two wands left in his inventory, though he was loath to let go of them, as they weren't Ollivander originals. Rather, one of them was a Gregorovitch wand he had obtained in his youth, for research purposes, and the other had been purchased quite recently, an American creation, also for research purposes. Not that Ollivander wands weren't already the best on the market, mind you. It was just to keep watch on the competition, he had told himself.

"Go on," he said sharply. "Try this one. Whomping willow wood with a thunderbird wing feather."

The moment she grabbed hold of it, the wand emitted an electric discharge, causing her to let go of it with a yelp. The wand flew up into the air, whereupon it swung back at her, apparently intent on putting one of her eyes out.

Luckily, Ollivander snatched it out of the air on time, and put it back in its box. And then he secured the box with an entire roll of Spellotape.

Wordlessly, he handed her the very last wand. Oleandra gingerly reached out for it and lightly gave it a shake. Jade-green sparks flew out gently.

"Cherry, with a core of unicorn hair. Eight inches. Quite rigid. Should be an all-around decent wand. That'll be seven gold Galleons. Thank you very much. Now it's way past my lunch break, so if you wouldn't mind…"

And so, Daphne and Oleandra were unceremoniously ousted from the shop. They promptly rejoined the others, and quickly went into Eeylops Owl Emporium. Iris and Maxwell were about to be very late for a very important meeting, and could not be delayed any longer. Five minutes later, Oleandra had been forced to pick out the first owl she saw, a cute little pygmy owl. In a rare moment of wit, Oleandra named her owl Pyg the owl, and off they were back home to the Greengrass domain.

Meanwhile, Ollivander was mentally reorganizing his knowledge of wandlore, trying to make sense of what he had just witnessed. 

Everyone knows that wands are a conduit of magic, a focus through which a witch or wizard brings about changes through spells. Any magical object could do the same, but no one uses them since wands are superior in every regard.

Wandless magic is leagues above in difficulty, not to mention weaker. The reason for this is that wands are actually sentient. Every young wizard is told that the wand chooses its owner, but they soon forget and ignore this tidbit, either from lack of interest or due to incredulity.

"Why," thought Ollivander. "Wands may even cast spells on their own if they were so inclined."

Indeed, not only does the wizard learn as much from the wand as the wand learns from the wizard, so do wands learn from each other, which explains why one could utter an incantation without knowing what it is for, and still achieve a result!

In any case, the spellcasting process is similar to the three D's of Apparating. Destination, Determination, Deliberation. There must be an end goal, a will to commit to the magic, and an action. Wands help move this process along, by helping the wizard to complete the steps, wherever they might be lacking. The swishes, flicks of the wrist and incantations tell the wand which spells to draw from its database, and the wand fills in the gaps.

Wands have a symbiotic relationship with wizards, and it is due to this relationship that they have dominated the magical world. But at the same time, magic has been so dumbed down that less and less archmage level wizards appear each century.

Compared to the glory days of the Atlantean God-Emperors, the Summoner High Priests and Pharaoh Alchemists of Egypt, the Shaman Kings of the Americas, the Golem-makers of Prague and Israel, the Dark Lords of Greece, the Chinese Immortals (of which none remain, ironically), the Onmyo of the Japanese, and the Runesmiths of the North, the only modern contenders in Europe are Albus Dumbledore, Grindelwald, Nicolas Flamel, Aleister Crowley (recently deceased), John Dee (deceased 1609), and perhaps just barely, You-Know-Who.

"My wands choose their owner based on who would make the best use out of them," thought Ollivander. "Whereas Gregorovitch wands do not care so much. Yes, that must be the case. She must not have been up to my wands' standards, yes. There's no other explanation."

How could Ollivander have possibly known! There are two reasons why the selection of wands had failed. The first, was Oleandra's unique disposition for the magic of the stars, and the magic of runes. And the second was that her past and recent experiences with wands had left her with a deep aversion towards wands. The wand chooses the wizard, but the wizard also reserves the right to reject the wand!