Area 51

An Ordinary Wand

It occurred to Helena as she was waving her sixteenth wand that she could've fought harder to not let magic into her life. Waving wands willingly without a fight isn't exactly what she pictured.

She pictured more along the lines of tantrums in the stores they went to, and refusal to go to school at all, but that was when she thought Salazar was taking her. Now that Merlin had taken, it was a whole different story. She didn't want to embarrass Merlin. He was her favorite sibling, and she didn't wanna stress him out. He had been handling their dad leaving better than any of them, and she didn't wanna change that.

Still, she didn't want to practice magic. It seemed like it could be useful in daily life, sure. But what would she even use it for? Menial chores? She could do those in no time at all without magic. Except for a career, she couldn't think of how magic would be useful in her life.

Besides, she could always work in the no-maj world anyway. There were plenty of jobs she could learn to do, just pretending she had no magic at all, and no one would ever know.

But it was a bit late for that. They had already spent over half the money their mother had given them on the supplies she needed to go to school, and she definitely wasn't a squib. There wasn't an easy way to turn back now.

"Oak, dragon heartstring, ten and a half inches," Henderson said, handing her a wand. She didn't grab it as fast as she had grabbed some of the more interesting wands. But she did grab it, and she immediately felt a warmth in her fingers. But not just in her wand hand, but in her left hand as well. She glanced over at her hand.

Her hands were on fire.

"I had a feeling," Henderson said, chuckling. "I like to give people wand that'll suit whatever house they end up in. You, my dear, are a classic Ignis. Fiery temper, and devotion to anyone who you care about it. Fearsome protection. My own wife is an Ignis. She's got a fire in her, that woman."

Helena didn't say anything at first. She didn't expect to be told what her house would be so soon. She certainly didn't expect for her fingers to light on fire so easily either. She expected herself to be a Caeli from how she liked to watch the clouds, but she guessed not. It seemed off to her.

"But, Mr. Henderson, I thought you hardly ever used the three main cores," Helena said, her voice rising an octave with disappointment. He shook his head.

"You can't completely ignore wand cores, especially with how highly those three are. I use them about as much as I use any other cores. Dragon heartstrings belong to a fire creature. It's much easier to use for any Ignis, which I suspect you will be, my dear. Oak is one of the woods that burns longest in a fire, though I cast fireproofing charms on all my wands, as the users of my wands are around fire magic quite a lot. The wand fits an Ignis well, even if it doesn't seem very exciting to you," Henderson told her.

"I guess that makes sense. Thank you very much, Mr. Henderson," Helena said, placing the ten galleons it cost on the counter.

"Good luck in your first year, dear!" Mr. Henderson called to her, as her and her brother left back to the bus.

"It's alright, Helena," Merlin told her. "My wand isn't exciting either. It's unicorn hair and spruce wood. Terra's hardly get anything exciting, since trees are pants, and not many interesting magical creatures are purely ground dwelling."

"I guess, but there a ton of fire creatures, so I don't get why I couldn't have gotten some cooler wand," she said, as they got back on the bus.

"There's nothing to be upset about, I promise. As long as the wand works, it shouldn't matter," he said, sitting down.

"I just wish I could've gotten a more exciting wand, you know?" Helena asked.

"I guess so. It's just a wand though. You won't care a lot about what wand you have when you're learning all kinds of magic," Merlin said.

"Whatever, Merlin. You don't get it," Helena said, putting her head on her hands, and looking down. The bus sped off to the next station, which happened to be Reno. But the Reno station had a book store, which they didn't need to go to, so they headed to the next station, the Henderson station, to get their quills and ink.

Helena picked out a raven feather quill, and a goose feather quill. She picked out two large pots of black ink.

"Merlin? Can I get this ink?" Helena asked him, holding up a pot of invisible ink. "It says that it's completely invisible unless you cast a certain incantation."

"Sure. How much is it?" Merlin asked.

"Uhhh," she looked at the shelf it had been on. "It's one galleons and nineteen knuts."

"Sure. I'm gonna pick up this spell check quill, and this waterproof ink and paper. If I had a knut for everytime I spilled water on a paper while I was watering plants, and had to start over, I would be rich," Merlin said. He set down his stuff on the counter, then Helena set hers down too. They paid and left.

Finally, after all that shopping, they could finally head home.