Darkness

Day Twelve, Part Three

         "Blimey, a member of the Triliate Council!" Hagrid was saying as we walked into Ollivander's Wands. Kurama was the only one who thought to question him further, the rest of us curious about the shop. Surprisingly, even Hiei had acceded to try once. Only Kurama and me declined. Hagrid left us though, saying he had errands to run.
         "Now, I suppose I should tell you that the wands chose you and not the other way around," the man said.
         "Um... we were not planning to use individual wands for a long time, Mister Ollivander. We were wondering if you had just plain wooden wands we could use?" I asked him.
         He smiled. There was something in his smile that told me we had a little surprise. "Principal Dumbledore told me that you would be coming and that you would want practice wands. Here, there are several types of woods here; cypress, cedar, rosewood, pine... Perhaps you and the teachers would like to try ones of your own?" he said. He took out several boxes with wands of various sizes, labelled according to the corresponding woodtypes.
         Hiei moved away from us as the rest scrutinized the boxes. Suddenly, his hand shot out and he picked up a box. Inside the box was a wand about three-quarter the length of his arm. He moved with it, using it not like how he would use magic, but like a swordsman. None of us paid any attenion to it at first, but we gradually grew aware of a powerful force building up inside the small shop.
         "Ah, now there's a rare wand," Ollivander said, having spied the box where the wand once lay, "Made of baobab, a short tree, but one of the most hardy from Africa. It's very durable and dependable, even though it may be thorny on the outside."
         Every one of us tried very hard not to laugh. It was so apt of Hiei he blushed. My sister took pity on him and quickly drew attention away from him by picking up a wand from one of the boxes. It was about 9 and a half inches. "What about this one, Mister Ollivander?" she began, but sparks flew from the wand, and instantly, I knew what type of wood she had chosen.
         "Rosewood? Hmm... This would make a very fine wand, especially if you were musically inclined," which my sister was, "And I must admit, that I was not quite truthful with you. These are no ordinary practice wands, but they are plain wands, rather. They do not need any enchantments but their own, and they are bonded to the wielder in such a way that no one else but the designated heir may use them. These wands show what you truly are," he said, pointing to the wand my sister now held.
         It had undergone a drastic transformation. At first it was just a plain rosewood, but now it was inlaid with gold silver and bronze. Sukina turned and looked at me, and I heard her thoughts. See how they intertwine ith each other? Gold for me, the colour of my hair. Silver for you, guardian of the fair. Bronze for Aniki, his fire surpassed only by his care. Aniki... Sukina's step-brother, and in that way, my elder brother as well. Both of us loved and protected Sukina in our own ways; with me being near and him being far and distant. Bronze... the fiery glow suited him well.
         As each of them picked up a wand, it changed to reflect their personalities and their strengths. Peter's was purple, the colour of vanquishing evil. It was a little odd, since strictly speaking, Peter was a son of evil, as vampires are. However, the training he received from Father Karasu gave him the power to mix both of them and to vanquish evil for the sake of good. Gon's was touched with dust that did not fall to the floor. The purple dust was amethyst, which formed the basis of most of the Scared Stones used by GhostSweepers in Japan. Mixed with the South African Diamonds, particularly the ones from the DeBeers Mines, it was very potent. On its' own, when grounded to a powder and mixed with the essence of a wood, it was one of the rarest types of wands found. In Gon's case, the wand was meant to complement his talent with animals.
         Kirua's had three drops of dragon blood, fierce and at times, ruthless. While examining it, Ollivander exclaimed. It was quite rare that dragon blood appeared on its own within a wand, even more rare to find three full drops. He also said that the blood was not of the Western Dragons, which were often fierce and ruthless, but rather, the blood of the Eastern Dragon, long thought to be benelovent and kind. We could help but look knowingly at him. He grinned at us. Clapika's on the other hand, had a red ruby inset. It was unbelievably red and bloody. Gon and Kirua remarked that it was the colour of his eyes, but as far as we could see, his eyes were as far from red as Alpha Centauri from Earth. We wondered why they said that, and I made a mental note to check out the literature on the Kuruta Tribe about it. All I knew was that the tribe had been massacred and Clapika was the lone survivor.
         Shuura's was a bit of a confusing wand to Ollivander. According to him, the wand, although it appeared menancingly enough, was actually rather innocent. It was supposed to have a feather from the wings of an angel. @_@! He asked Sukina in a loud voice (although he was a demon) what an angel was. Sukina took him aside to explain it, and I noticed, for the first time perhaps, how gentle my sister was with him, even though he was supposed to be 16 years old like her. The wood was oddly enough, cherryblossom, also known as the sakura tree. The sakura flowers were my sister's favourite.
         I shook my head at Yokoshima's transformation. According to the wand, it did not have a special attribute like the others, but Ollivander took out a tarot card instead. It was the card of the Fool, young, foolish and believing that he was invulnerable. He told us that there were rumours that some witches and wizards did not need to use wands, but they used Tarot cards instead. Most of them only used one though, and this reminded me of the X-Men Gambit, who used playing cards as mini explosives. Yokoshima, apparently, was one of them.
         I really liked Botan's wand. It had a soft touch of pink. Pink was said to encourage openness in ourselves and others. I thought that was exactly what Botan was. She was kind, openhearted and gentle. Ah... What a woman! :p We left the shop to head to the pet store after that. :p