The smell of wood and cheers of excitement could be heard even as Lux entered a shop called Ollivanders, the only wand shop available in Hogsmeade. Lux noticed several students his age, or at least close to it, who were waving around different wands with a variety of results. One girl, who quite literally was one of the prettiest girls Lux had ever seen in person, waved her wand that exploded a nearby picture frame, causing her to giggle and apologize. The wand-maker waved her off and went to fetch another option.

“To explain a few things,” Robert said, pulling Lux off to the side of the store away from the crowd watching the young girl trying a different wand, which resulted in a loud trumpet noise this time. “Choosing a wand is an art form. Very few wizards have the knowledge or experience as the Ollivander family does. Their descendants have been making wands for over 2,000 years.” Lux whistled in response.

“Mhmm, it is quite impressive, even more so now. As our population has decreased, the demand for wand makers has increased.”

“How come?” Lux asked, thinking it would be the opposite.

“Well, since our magical ability has decreased, we have tried to make up our deficiencies with stronger and more powerful wands. They grow stronger with their owners, true, but certain wands are just more powerful and likely to succeed than others. Due to this, the craft of wand making and procuring the resources most commonly used has become difficult, to say the least.”

Lux nodded, following along with the logic. “So what should I look for, if I’m looking for a powerful wand?”

Robert smiled apologetically. “For you, I’m afraid, will have to make do with some of the cheaper options… the school’s budget for you is quite limited for your first year.”

Lux frowned. “Will I get to choose a new wand if I get a part-time job or something?”

“Yes, in theory. You would have to find a pretty lenient and well-paying job though, unfortunately. You don’t know yet, but you will be shocked at the amount of time you will spend learning and practicing magic. Plus there are duels to be had, quidditch to participate in, and the yearly tournament for your class. The job would have to be pretty flexible with your hours and trust me, there are more important things to do than to earn a few extra galleons your first year.”

Lux sighed and nodded in acceptance. He already got the low down about the wizard currency system. The biggest issue being a muggle-born is the lack of having any wizard money what so ever, and even if he did have money from his non-wizard world, the exchange rate wasn’t very high. Not for the first time Lux wished he had a random pile of money hidden in some vault he didn’t know anything about. That would definitely solve some of his problems.

“Hi there Robert.” A woman said as she walked toward the two. She was in her 40s, with dirty blonde hair held high in a ponytail. She had bland robes on which were stained in different spots. She wore thin gloves on her hand and a thick apron over the front, kind of like what a blacksmith would have worn back in the day. A tool kit hung off the side of her hip, half of the instruments Lux didn’t even recognize.

“One of yours?” She asked politely while smiling at Lux.

“One of mine. Thanks, Linda.” He replied, repeating the earlier charade of code Lux witnessed at the bookstore.

“Let’s head back to my room.” She took them to a space not too far away from the wand section, off to the side that had the words “Private” written on the door.

“Let’s take a seat.” She motioned to the two available chairs. In the room was a small table, and one large shelf that took up a whole wall at the far end. It was lined with cardboard boxes in the shape of long rectangles, which Lux assumed housed wands in each container.

“Can I ask you a few questions, Lux?” She asked nicely. Her voice was soft and was very soothing to listen to.

“Sure.”

She looked in his eyes for a moment, gazing over him. “Do you have any siblings?” she asked.

“No, just me.”

“Any pets?”

“Nope.”

“If you were to have a pet, what would you choose?”

“Uh… a dog, I suppose.”

“What kind of dog?”

Lux thought for a moment. “A lab, probably. Chocolate.”

“Why?” Linda asked.

“Well, I had a friend from school who had one, and he would make cute faces toward his hologram and played up the whole ‘cute dog’ routine to the class. Just seemed like a fun dog to have.”

She replied with a hum of approval and walked toward the wands, gazing at the descriptions of the boxes. She turned back toward him, “If you had to choose between wealth or grand adventures, what would you choose?”

What the hell kind of questions…

“So are you a therapist or something?” Lux asked.

“For wands, yes.” She replied earnestly, not laughing at what Lux thought initially was a joke.

“Are wands… alive?”

“As alive as you and me my dear boy.” she replied.

“Alright Linda, quit with the wand ethics and philosophy, you’ll confuse the kid.” Robert interjected.

“Come now Robert, you know just as well as I do that wands are intelligent, and have been for centuries now.”

Robert chuckled. “Intelligent, sure. Alive? Like you and me? That’s probably a little much.”

Linda shrugged. “To each their own.” She directed her gaze back at Lux who looked a little lost. She waited for him to answer.

“Wealth.” he said confidently.

“Why?”

“You never said I couldn’t have the other option if I chose the alternative choice. If I had a lot of money, I could do whatever adventure I wanted. Now if I had chosen to the opposite, that wouldn’t necessarily be true.”

She chuckled in approval. “Excellent answer. Next question, if you were to save me, or Robert, from dying right now, who would you choose?”

Lux blinked a few times in shock. He looked over at Robert, who didn’t retort her question. “You seriously want me to answer that?”

“Answer please.” She said, her look never wavering. Lux glanced back at Robert again, who nodded his head toward the woman and shrugged as if to say ‘it’s her show’.

“Uh, well no offense, but I don’t know you like I know Robert at this point. He also has helped me a lot so far… so I guess I would choose Robert.”

“Even though I am one of the most important people currently in the wizarding world? One of the leaders in magical research regarding wand-making?”

Lux shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “Well, I didn’t know all that…”

“So you change your mind then?” She questioned.

“I mean… no, I don’t think so.”

“Interesting.” she said, gazing over the wands. She dusted off one and took off the lid, revealing its contents. The wand was about as long as a ruler and had a predominately beige hue with darker brown streaks highlighted in the inner workings of the wand. The handle was simple, just a small wooden ball as its handle with simple grooves where the grip would be.

“Ash. 28 centimeters. Unicorn hair for its core. Fairly rigid, offering only slight flexibility.” she said from memory as Lux held the wand in his hand. “Give it a wave… but point toward the wall over there, if you could.”

Robert and Linda each backed away from the direction she pointed toward. When he looked at the empty wall, he just now noticed a variety of scratch marks or indentations in the thick wooden wall. Lux waved and flicked the wand, trying to mimic what he saw the pretty girl from earlier do. A slight spark shot out from the wand… well, shot might be giving it a little more credit than it deserved. More like it fell out from the wand, like a slow stream from a faucet, not even reaching the wall on the other side.

“Hmm, good response, but maybe we need a little more...oomph.” Linda took the wand and put it back onto the shelf and pulled another out.

“Let’s try this. Cedar. 30 centimeters. Unicorn hair. Rigid.”

Lux took the wand from the case and tried to mimic the same motion. He was a big fan of gathering data and analyzing, so he tried to not change any variables. Same motion, same target, same thoughts. The result changed, no sparks this time, but the wand flew out of his hand straight back to the box it had come from.

“That seemed like a pretty strong no.” she chuckled and placed the wand back.

“Next, English Oak. 29 centimeters. Unicorn hair. Fairly flexible.”

This one responded better, back to the sparks, but still not a lot of ‘oomph’, as Linda had put it. There was also no overwhelming feeling of belonging to Lux. No deep connection that the two wizards said he should feel. It was better than the ash, the sparks at least reaching the wall, but he didn’t feel any overwhelming sensations stirring within him.

This unfortunately continued for a dozen or so wands. Linda became increasingly frustrated, not toward Lux, but toward herself, it seemed. She had asked Lux a series of more questions, with no luck. “I don’t understand,” she said, turning back toward the two. “The best choice you have so far is the English Oak, but even that, you should still have felt something. You’re sure?” she questioned toward Lux.

“No… nothing. Sorry.” He said, feeling like he was disappointing her somehow.

She scoffed. “Please, you have nothing to be sorry about. If I just had access to more options…” she said, trailing off.

“We can’t.” replied Robert solemnly.

“Yes, yes, I know… still. It shouldn’t be this way.” She said, sitting down at the table across from them.

“Agreed. But it is. For now anyways…” he said, garnering looks from Lux to the two of them.

“Mind filling me in now?” Lux said expectantly.

Robert sighed and looked at Linda. “Is the room still enchanted?” She nodded in the affirmative and he turned back toward Lux. “When you referenced muggle-born wizards being discriminated against. You were right, and I explained to you some of the reasoning… however, the situation is a little worse than that.”

Lux cocked his head and raised his eyebrows, waiting for him to explain.

“Currently, there is a not-so-secret war being played out against the Purists and muggle-borns and the people who support them. The war started out as words… maybe the occasional shunning of job opportunities or bullying in the schools. Lately, however, the movement has grown… well, it has grown violent.”

“Violent? Surely they aren’t killing anyone over this?” Lux looked at Robert and Linda to ease the sinking feeling in his gut, the fear starting to make his hands clammy.

“Right?” he asked, again being met with silence.

“Right???”