“Strictly speaking, I didn’t blow up Flourish and Blotts, Mr Ollivander,” Eric said.
“It reopened for business almost immediately.” That was true.
It had only lost all its windows.
Tom spoke up from beside him.
“Ollivander, we’re here to buy this young gentleman a wand.” Ollivander didn’t even look at Tom.
Instead, he circled Eric twice, clasped his hands together, and stared at the boy with shining eyes.
“Remarkable.
Truly remarkable.” “It’s been a very long time since I’ve met a wizard as gifted as you, Mr Clapton.” Eric looked at him.
“You know my name?” Ollivander let out an exaggerated laugh.
“Oh!
Nearly every shopkeeper in Diagon Alley knows it by now.” “You can thank Mercer for that, although I suppose he ought to thank you as well.” “After the two of you left yesterday, his shop was absolutely packed.” “I’d wager he made more money yesterday than he normally does in an entire week.” Eric smiled.
“So witches and wizards enjoy a spectacle too?” “Of course, of course.
The magic you used was certainly spectacular enough.” Ollivander chuckled.
“I vaguely remember sitting here in my shop when there was suddenly an enormous crash in the distance.
The shock nearly reached my shop as well.” He stepped forward and, with complete familiarity, took Eric by the arm and guided him towards the counter.
“Now then, let us get down to business.
Choosing a suitable wand for a wizard of your extraordinary talent…
I daresay this will be one of the most important decisions of your life.” “Which hand do you write with?” Ollivander drew his wand and lightly tapped the counter.
Eric watched him with interest and raised his right hand.
Several long measuring tapes immediately flew out from behind the counter.
They were all different lengths, and as Ollivander moved his wand, they fluttered towards Eric and began automatically measuring his arms and various other dimensions.
After a while, Ollivander seemed to sense something.
He turned sharply, strode towards the shelves packed with wand boxes, and pulled one out.
“Aha!
Here we are.
Try this one, Mr Clapton.
Oak, with a unicorn hair core.
Fairly common materials, but particularly well suited to magic associated with the natural world.” Ollivander handed the wand to Eric and watched expectantly.
Eric accepted it with considerable interest and gave it a few experimental waves.
The next instant, a strange and beautiful melody suddenly filled the shop.
It sounded as though someone had begun playing chords right beside his ears.
Notes both high and low echoed throughout Ollivanders, the tempo growing faster and faster in time with Eric’s movements.
From the cracks between the wooden floorboards beneath his feet, tiny shoots suddenly broke through.
Flowers and grasses began to sprout.
From somewhere deep within the shop came the faint sound of birdsong.
Eric waved the wand several more times, carefully feeling the changes within it, before slowly coming to a stop.
The instant his hand stilled, the music ended on a powerful final note.
Then silence returned.
The plants growing from the floorboards stopped as well.
“This…” Ollivander and Tom stared at Eric with wide eyes.
They had clearly heard the extraordinary music, and the transformation of the shop around them left both men momentarily at a loss.
“Magnificent!” Ollivander suddenly shouted.
“The wand has chosen you, Mr Clapton!
It must be fate!
Never in all my years have I seen a wizard find his wand so quickly!” Ollivander threw his hands into the air as though he had just witnessed a miracle.
And to him, that was exactly what this was.
A wizard he had never met had walked into his shop, tried a single wand, and somehow immediately found one perfectly suited to him.
The odds were extraordinarily small.
Ordinarily, when Ollivander fitted someone for a wand, it took at least three or four attempts before he could accurately identify the connection between wand and wizard.
Someone like Eric, who found the correct answer on his very first attempt, was something Ollivander had never encountered before.
But what Eric did next almost made him wonder whether he was hallucinating.
With a smile, Eric held the oak wand back out to him.
“This is certainly an excellent wand, Mr Ollivander.
But I’d like to try some others.” Ollivander wasn’t the only one startled.
Even Tom, who had merely been watching from the side, nearly jumped.
What is he doing?
Unless they had both completely misunderstood what had just happened, Eric had actually rejected the oak wand.
Tom blinked and looked again, just to make sure he hadn’t imagined it.
That extraordinary melody was still fresh in his memory.
Before meeting Eric, Tom had accompanied plenty of Muggle-born children while they purchased their school supplies.
And, frankly, the spontaneous magic Eric had produced the instant he took hold of that wand was the most spectacular wand reaction Tom had ever witnessed.
He knew Ollivander felt exactly the same way.
Even as mere observers, they had both been able to sense the change the moment Eric took the wand in his hand.
It had almost seemed as though wizard and wand were becoming one.
Tom stared at Eric’s back, unable to keep an absurd thought from crossing his mind.
Is this what it’s like when a genius decides to be difficult?
Even a wand with perfect compatibility isn’t good enough for him?
Ollivander, meanwhile, stared in disbelief at the wand Eric was offering back.
For a moment, his feelings were almost identical to Tom’s.
He even felt faintly insulted.
What Eric was doing amounted to questioning a thousand years of Ollivander family expertise.
To put it less politely, it was a slap in the face to a wandmaker.
No wandmaker could witness such a magnificent reaction between wand and wizard and then calmly accept the wizard rejecting it.
Ollivander forcibly suppressed his anger.
When he spoke, the words were almost squeezed through clenched teeth.
“Mr Clapton, perhaps I failed to explain myself clearly.
Perhaps you also don’t understand what that reaction meant when you took hold of this wand.” “I give you my word upon the honour of the Ollivander family, this wand is absolutely suited to you.
You may try any number of others, but none will suit you better than this one.” “Remember, the wand chooses the wizard.” Ollivander fixed Eric with an intense stare.
“And this wand has chosen you.” He looked at Eric as though he were staring at a particularly brainless troll.