Jack Smith and the Theory of Charms: Chapter 2: Diagon Alley: Part 5

"As I was saying, the wand chooses the wizard, and it will let us know when you hold it for the first time."


Jackson stood there, briefly holding wand after wand as Ollivander pulled them from boxes and gave them to him. "So," Jackson said, trying to get his attention between wands, "there's only one wand for each wizard?"


"Oh, no, of course not," Ollivander replied, yanking a long whitish wand from Jackson's hand and replacing it with a short black one. "No, then what would you do if your wand broke? Oh, no, no. More than one wand can choose the same witch or wizard, and the reverse is also true. A wand can pass from one owner to another, and it may accept the new owner. However, if you are ever forced to use a wand that doesn't recognize you as its master it will not perform nearly as well as your own wand."


"So, does it really matter what wand I get, other than that it chooses me?"


"Yes, and no," Lucy said. "Different wands can be better at different spells, but I've never heard of a wand that could do anything unique, or that couldn't do what others could."


"You'd be surprised," Ollivander said, putting a thick dark brown wand into Jackson's hand. "Among wandmakers, that kind of thing is well known. I prefer to make more standard wands however. Making specialized wands takes a lot of time, most witches and wizards prefer to have a good wand they can use for anything they need over a wand that is very good for a special set of spells and less trustworthy for others." He looked at Lucy, "Don't expect to be learning that kind of thing from me next summer."


Lucy nodded, and Ollivander went back to giving Jackson wands and yanking them away again.


"So," Jackson looked at Lucy, "what is your wand?"


Lucy reached into her coat and pulled out a good sized blueish wand. "Eight inches, blue spruce with a phoenix feather," she said grinning. "Uncle says it's a good wand for a wandmaker. His first wand was blue spruce as well."


Jackson smiled at her. Then he suddenly felt a cold rush as Ollivander placed another wand in his hand. Jackson looked at it and saw a blue glow surrounding the wand. The glow spread around Jackson and he felt invigorated as he clutched the wand tightly.


After a few seconds the glow faded and Jackson could see the pure black of the long skinny wand. Ollivander took the wand back and placed it in the box it had come from before handing the box to Jackson. "Ten inches, ebony, with a heartstring from the oldest dragon I've ever come across."


"Dragon heartstring?" Jackson asked.


"Uncle makes wands with three different types of cores," Lucy explained. "Phoenix feathers like mine, unicorn hairs, and dragon heartstrings."


Ollivander nodded. "Yes, and of the three, only one requires the death of the animal that it comes from." He shook his head sadly. "I only take heartstrings from dragons who have died from... natural means."


"What do you mean natural means?"


"Dragons are immune to all but the worst magical diseases," he said. "And they can live for over a thousand years, but most of them don't live for more than twenty." He frowned as he said, "This is partially because of dragon hunters, but it's mostly due to fighting with their own kind." He shook his head sadly. "Usually all I need to do when I need more heartstrings is go to a sanctuary. They always have one or two that have recently been killed by the others." He ran his hand lovingly along the box containing Jackson's wand. "This dragon however wasn't in a sanctuary. If the word tame could ever be applied to dragon's it wouldn't apply to the ones in the Arctic. Their heartstrings are always particularly potent, so I went up to a den I knew of. I found dozens of dragons, their bodies torn to shreds. There were only three survivors that weren't at least wounded, and they looked young enough that they probably stayed out of the worst of the fight. Some of the dead were so bad there weren't any heartstrings I could use."


"What happened?" Jackson asked.


"The same thing that always happens," Ollivander replied. "Just on a larger scale. One of the younger dragons challenged the leader. Probably some of the other young ones tried to help the challenger, and there were also some who tried to defend the leader. Probably happened the day before I got there. In the end the leader won, but he was wounded so badly that he died minutes after I found him. He was ancient. His black scales had turned almost completely grey." He shook his head at the memory. "The look in his eyes though. He was still alert. And clever! Oh that was the smartest dragon I've ever heard of. That's how he lived so long. How he managed to survive all the challenges he must have faced over the centuries."


"When did that happen, uncle?" Lucy asked. "I don't remember dad telling me about you going to the arctic."


"This was years before you were born," he replied. "In fact, I think your dad was about your age."


Jackson was having trouble wrapping his head around the age difference between Mr. Ollivander and Lucy's dad. Mr. Ollivander saw this and said, "Lucy calls me Uncle, but actually I'm her father's uncle. Her grandfather was my brother.


"As I was saying," Mr. Ollivander went on, "This wand is the first wand I've ever given out with a heartstring from that dragon. The fact that it chose you likely means it recognizes similarities between you and the dragon it came from."


Jackson couldn't help but smile at being compared to an ancient, clever dragon. Lucy smiled too. Jackson then paid for the wand and went out to find his parents.