Chapter 19: Chapter 19: Wand Chooses The Wizard? You Sure About That?
After young Ollivander had restored the shop to its original state from the mess created by helping Tom pick out his wand, he turned to Wade.
"Alright, it's your turn. Is your dominant hand left or right?"
"Right hand."
"Okay, please stand still, I'll take your measurements..."
Then, the familiar process began again.
After collecting the data, Ollivander dove back into the wand pile.
When he came back out, he was holding seven or eight wand boxes in each of his hands.
"Speaking of which, it's quite strange, you two are very similar... At least five of these are the ones that gentleman just tried."
Ollivander placed the wand boxes down and looked at Wade and Tom with interest.
At this point, it was Tom's turn to sit on the bench and eat his ice cream.
Upon hearing Ollivander's words, Tom couldn't help but frown again.
"What do you mean by that?" Tom asked.
"What he means is that we share many similar traits," Wade replied.
"That's right! So, some wands are suitable for both him and you," Ollivander said with a smile.
Suddenly, Wade asked, "So... if I use Tom's wand, would it suit me as well?"
"Haha, it might suit you very well!" Ollivander said cheerfully.
"N-No! This is my wand, don't even think about it!"
Tom quickly shoved the Yew wand he had been holding tightly into his pocket.
"Don't be so stingy, Tom. What if we find ourselves in a special situation and you need to lend me your wand, are you really not going to lend it to me?"
"Dream on!"
Tom covered his pocket and fiercely dug a big scoop of ice cream, as if he were digging into Wade's skull.
"Haha, you two really get along well. This reminds me of a good friend of mine..." Ollivander said, smiling.
Tom glared at Ollivander angrily, "I'm not familiar with him."
"Mister Ollivander, he's still sulking over the ice cream issue, so we don't need to pay attention to him," Wade said with a smile.
Ollivander remembered the matter at hand and nodded. "Alright... then let's try these five first. These are the ones your friend just tried."
With that, Ollivander handed Wade a rosewood wand.
Buzz!
As soon as Wade gripped the wand, a dazzling white light burst from it!
"Ah! Very good! This wand suits you perfectly!" Ollivander said with joy.
He hadn't expected that, after Tom had such a difficult time choosing a wand, Wade—who shared similar traits—would succeed on the very first try.
Ollivander had already planned for another round of difficult "battles."
Tom opened his mouth, staring at Wade's back in disbelief.
'Why did he get chosen by the wand so quickly?'
Without comparison, there is no harm. Thinking back to how he had struggled for so long to finally get the right wand, Tom couldn't help but feel frustrated!
However, there wasn't much excitement on Wade's face. On the contrary, he was examining the wand in his hand, seemingly lost in thought, which made Ollivander feel a bit confused.
"...You've got the perfect wand, so why do you seem so uninterested?" Ollivander couldn't help but ask.
"Well... This wand seems quite nice, but... I just feel like it's not the perfect fit for me," Wade said, looking up.
"Oh, if you say that, the wand in your hand might not be pleased," Ollivander's expression became somewhat serious. "After all, it's the wand that chooses the wizard, not the wizard who chooses the wand."
"No offense, Mister Ollivander. I just think... since it's the wand that chooses the wizard, shouldn't I give other wands a chance to observe me as well? After all, as you just said, all these wands seem quite suited for me, so it's really just about which one chooses me, isn't it?"
Ollivander couldn't help but nod, "Well, you do have a point. Since that's the case, let's try them all."
Ollivander didn't mind, as all the wands had already been brought out, so letting Wade try them wasn't an issue.
Tom saw that Wade wanted to try other wands and couldn't help but roll his eyes, finishing the last bite of his ice cream.
He thought Wade was just wasting time...
"This wand is made of black walnut with a fire dragon heartstring core..."
Buzz!
Before Ollivander could finish his introduction, the black walnut wand that Wade had just picked up suddenly emitted a golden light!
"Ah?" Ollivander opened his mouth in surprise, forgetting to continue his sentence.
He had never seen someone experience a phenomenon with two wands in a row during a wand trial.
To be clear, such phenomena—like glowing—only occur when a wizard picks up a wand that is an extremely good fit for them...
But how could there be a second wand that perfectly matched a wizard?
"Hmm... still not quite the right feeling, may I try the third one?" Wade said, handing the black walnut wand back to Ollivander.
"Oh... of course, of course..." Ollivander hurriedly took out the third wand.
At this point, Ollivander was also very curious to see if the third wand would show any unusual signs.
By now, Ollivander had forgotten to continue his usual introduction of the wands.
This time, the wand did not emit any light.
However, the moment Wade picked up the wand: Whoosh!
The wand's tip pointed directly at a wand box, which suddenly turned into a squeaking little white mouse!
"Oh! Merlin! This wand is actually more suitable for you than the previous two!" Ollivander exclaimed.
Only then did he realize that Wade's earlier statement—that the first two wands weren't quite right for him—wasn't an exaggeration.
"Still not quite right..." Wade returned the wax-colored wand.
At this point, Ollivander had no objections. He simply continued handing over another wand.
Indeed, the phenomena continued to occur.
Sometimes it was light, sometimes it caused objects to change shape, sometimes it made fog appear out of nowhere in the shop, other times things floated by themselves, and once, Wade even started floating in the air himself...
All of this was happening so strangely and illogically that Ollivander couldn't recover for a while.
"..." Tom had been sitting in the back, watching.
As he observed the series of strange events caused by Wade, he suddenly felt that the Yew wand in his pocket was not as appealing anymore...
It was unclear how much time had passed, but soon a large pile of wands had accumulated on Ollivander's counter.
The constant flashing lights had caused passersby outside to think that Ollivander's shop was experiencing a thunderstorm...
After a while, Wade, holding a reddish-brown wand, eagerly asked, "What material is this wand made of?"
"Oh... this one is made of beechwood, with a dragon heartstring core, twelve and one-third inches, very flexible..."
Suddenly, Ollivander paused, as he realized in shock that the wand in Wade's hand was showing no signs of unusual phenomena at all!
Wade, holding the wand, pointed it at the little white mouse that he had accidentally transformed earlier.
Whoosh!
The little white mouse instantly turned back into the wand box.
"This... how is this possible? This wand, in your hands, didn't show any special phenomena, but... it seems to be more suited to you... No! It's the most suited one so far!"
Ollivander felt that his previous understanding had been completely overturned...
"That's because it's a bit shy... I can feel it," Wade said as he handed over the beechwood wand. "I'll take this one."
"Ah... of course, of course..." Ollivander seemed a bit absent-minded.
"I'm sorry for making such a mess here," Wade said.
"By Merlin's beard, it's no problem... no problem at all..." Ollivander finally began to regain his composure.
Tom suddenly asked, "Hey, didn't you say the wand chooses the wizard? How come now it looks like he's the one choosing the wand?"
"...Sigh, it seems my understanding of wand lore isn't as thorough as I thought..." Ollivander sighed.
"The wand chooses the wizard..." Ollivander glanced at Wade again and continued, "The wizard also seems to choose the wand... Merlin, I've never seen anything like this before!"