Equilibrium

Of fire and fate

The wand shop is dusty, cold, and dark. The scent of polish and stale air pervades, strong but not unpleasant. Dumbledore mutters something about an errand and leaves. I stand, breathing in the silence, when a grizzled old man walks from behind the counter.
"Looking for something, young man?" He said in a soft voice.
"I'm, uh, here to buy a w-wand," I say, stumbling over the words.
"Ahh," he says, walking in front of me and eyeing my head to toe," then I believe you've come to the right place. Let me just..." he trailed off, producing a wand from his dark green robes. A tape measure shot out of the end of his wand with vigor and began measuring me of its own accord. Startled, I gasped. Within a moment his measurements were done, and he was walking behind the counter muttering to himself, sifting through piles upon piles of small, rectangular boxes.
"Quiet but not shy... strong, yes, certainly strong.... intelligent too, no doubt, so perhaps..."
He handed me a wand, and I took it gingerly. As I examined the wand, he said "dragon heartstrings, eleven and a half inches, fairly pliant."
I didn't know what he meant by "dragon heartstrings", but I waved the wand, mimicking what I imagined a wizard would do, and a small box in the corner caught violently on fire, which the man promptly put out with his own wand. Startled and embarrassed, I apologized profusely.
"No worries, no worries my friend, let me just..."
Again he hands me a wand, this time carved with a vine pattern.
I take it, more cautiously, and slowly wave it again. This time, a torrent of water flood from the tip of the wand with the pressure of a fire hose, flooding the shop with a few inches of water. After fixing the shop once again, he takes the wand and retreats to the back room, muttering once more.
He returns, this time with a box. The box is wooden, gilded with gold, and seems different than the others.
He hands it to me gingerly, and I receive it equally carefully. I open the box, and inside is a wand. The wand is beautiful, a lighter wood with patterned grain. It had stars carved in it, with a golden sun on one side and a silver moon on the other. I pick it up, and immediately I feel a shock of electricity run through me. I feel my hair stand on end and warmth spread through me, a smile coming auto,stoically to my face. The man, too, is smiling, and nods thoughtfully.
"How curious," he says softly, "curious indeed."
"What's curious, sir?" I asked.
Well, this wand is rather special. You see, a wand has several basic components, most importantly are the wood and the core. This wand in particular is made from a wood rarely used in wands - elder. It's powerful, but highly finicky, and is often too temperamental to be reliable. But what's truly unusual here is the core. Most wands use something like dragon heartstrings, unicorn hair, or some other magical component, depending on the temperament of the wizard. This wand, however, has two - dragon heartstring, for power, and the hair of a sphinx, for control. It's very rare that wands are made with dual cores, and even rarer that they choose a wizard."
"I'm sorry, sir, but did you say the wand... chooses?"
"Yes, my boy, the wand chooses the wizard. And the fact that this one chose you means that is is going to be a very, very interesting year for Hogwarts."