19th August 2019

Lily Luna Potter

Lily held her mother's hand as they entered Ollivander's Wand Shop: Maker of Fine Wands Since 382BC. She definitely wasn't nervous - Lily Luna never got nervous – she just wanted a bit of reassurance.

"Why, hello Lily!" Mr Ollivander had just appeared through the darkness. "It's lovely to see you again. And you, Ginny. Now, Lily, I assume you are here to find your first wand?"

Lily nodded. "Yes, please."

"Wonderful. Now, if I could just get you measured up … wand arm out, please." He began bustling around, trying to find what he was looking for, and continued talking. "You're the youngest of all the Weasley-Potters, then?"

Inside, Lily sighed mentally but said, "Yes, I am. It's funny – everybody always asks that." If there was one thing Lily never liked, it was being the youngest. It seemed to be the only thing anybody ever knew about her.

"But of course, that's irrelevant," replied the wandmaker, waving the remark away with his hand. "What matters is what's inside you. And it's evident that you're a lovely person."

At this, Lily cheered up a bit.

"Now …" Mr Ollivander turned around, a wand box in his hands. "Try this … hawthorn, phoenix feather core … no? Well - maybe this, rather swishy, dogwood, twelve inches … or this? No … maybe …?"

It didn't take Lily quite as long as her brother Albus, and on her eleventh attempt Lily was presented with a rich coloured wand that looked very pretty.

"Black walnut, unicorn hair core, eleven and three quarter inches, quite stiff. Why don't you give it a wave?"

So Lily did, and on doing so she felt a delicious warmth seeping down her fingertips as silver and gold stars sparkled at the tip.

Ginny clapped her hands and grinned and the wandmaker said, "Well done, lovely. Now, blackthorn, which is a very unusual wand wood, has the reputation of being best suited to a warrior. This does not necessarily mean that its owner practises the Dark Arts (although it is undeniable that those who do so will enjoy the blackthorn wand's prodigious power); one finds blackthorn wands among the Aurors as well as among the denizens of Azkaban and Death Eaters.

It is a curious feature of the blackthorn bush, which sports wicked thorns, that it produces its sweetest berries after the hardest frosts, and the wands made from this wood appear to need to pass through danger or hardship with their owners to become truly bonded. Given this condition, the blackthorn wand will become as loyal and faithful a servant as one could wish."

Lily liked the sound of that. She smiled and thanked the wandmaker as he handed her the wand in a box in a bag and Ginny paid him the seven galleons that it always cost.

Before they left, Lily took a look around: yes, the shop may be dark and slightly dingy, and yes, Mr Ollivander could be a bit strange sometimes, and yes, the old place was full of dust, but it was the best place to buy wands in the country, or perhaps even in the whole world.

It always would be.

A/N: Well … there we go. This feels kind of weird, but I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading my stories, thank you for being so lovely in your reviews. You're great. Jasmine :D