Area 51

Mr. Henderson

Their next stop was the Sparks station, which was home to the wand shop. The man who owned the shop, Hector Henderson had just taken over the shop the year before, but no one had noticed a decline in the quality of the wands. Everyone said he was just as good at wandmaking as his mother had been, and even better at customer service.

Helena was going to be the first in her family to get a wand that he made, and that made her pretty excited. He was known for using some crazy cores in his wands.

"You know, there's one kid who came into school last year with a coral core wand," Merlin said distastefully, as if he thought that was entirely ridiculous.

"Did it work?" Helena asked, as they walked off the bus.

"Well...yeah, but it still seems a little weird, doesn't it?" he asked her.

"I guess, but if I works, I don't see the problem," Helena said as they walked in the shop. Two kids were in line ahead of them. They looked to be twins, a boy and a girl, both with straight brown hair, and bright green eyes.

The girl had already gotten her wand, but her brother was still getting his wand. Helena guessed it was her impatience that led the girl to talk to her.

"Hi, are you a first year too?" the girl asked Helena.

"Yeah, I'm Helena. What's your name?"

"I'm Mary, and that's my twin brother Phillip. I just got my wand. It's cedar wood, and it's got a snallygaster heartstring core. Mr. Henderson said it got it from the reserve in Maryland. Whenever a snallygaster dies from old age, they let wand makers come to collect parts of it for wand cores. Isn't that cool?" Mary was definitely excitable.

"Yeah, that is super cool! Do you think I'll get a cool core too?" Helena asked. Mary shrugged.

"Probably. He works mostly with them. He hardly ever uses the three usual ones," Mary told her.

"It looks like Phillip's done," Helena pointed out, and Mary turned around around and saw that he was.

"Hey Mary! I got a poplar wand with a hippogriff feather in it!" Phillip said, sounding super excited.

"That's super cool! We should go find Dad now," she said, then turning to Helena, she said. "It was nice meeting you. I hope I see you at school!" Mary and Phillip left through the front door. Helena guessed they probably lived there. Either that, or their dad was apparating them to the next place.

Helena stepped up the the front desk and got a better look at Mr. Henderson. He was a tall ginger, with hazel eyes and a kind smile.

"How can I help you today?" he asked her.

"I'm here for my first wand," she told him.

"Hmmm," he mused, then turned towards Merlin. "Tell me about your sister." Merlin was taken aback.

"How did you know-"

"That she was your sister? The resemblance. The protective stance you're in over her. It's quite obvious to anyone observant enough to notice. So, I'd like you to tell me about her," the wandmaker said.

"Well, she's very kind to everyone she meets, unless they upset her, then she gets red hot with resentment. She can hold a grudge like nothing else. She really cares about everyone, but she sometimes gets tired of having to care so much, and goes into solitary mode, and climbs up on to the roof to think. Is that helpful?" The wandmaker nodded his head.

"Yes. That will suffice," he said, before disappearing into the back for a wand. Helena looked over at her brother in confusion.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"What?" Merlin asked.

"She goes into solitary mode. Really?" Helena questioned.

"What? It's true, isn't it?"

"I guess so. I just didn't know you thought about all of that," she told him.

"Of course I do. You're my little sister, and I care about you," he said. Helena was about to tell him how sweet that was, but then Mr. Henderson came out from the back carrying about ten boxes in his arms. He said the boxes down with a grunt.

"Let's try this one out first. Applewood, wampus cat hair, nine and a half inches long," he said, handing it to her.

Helena took the wand in her hand, and waved it. Nothing happened, and the wand was quickly snatched out of her hand, and placed back into the box.

"Try this one. Sycamore and kelpie scale, eleven and three quarter inches,"

This one she waved too, making the lights flicker for a second. This wand too was taken by Mr. Henderson pretty quickly.

The time went by slowly as each new wand was presented before her, it was yanked away. In this way, her magical journey was the same as any witch or wizard in basically any other country. Hardly any young magic found their perfect wand on their first try, or even their second or third.

Helena remembered reading an interview of Harry Potter in some newspaper. In that interview, he said that when he was getting his wand at Olivander's, he went through shelves of wands before he found his legendary wand that defeated Lord Voldemort.

Somewhere in her head, she couldn't help but think that if the legendary Harry Potter took forever to find his wand, maybe they weren't so different.

And maybe, just maybe, she would go on to do great things with her wand too.