#homenumwand

[lutraverselemonde]

Agatha Coraline Lorraine:  30cm. Siren-hair core. Elm wood. Rather bendy.

Agatha Coraline Lorraine

is Beauxbaton’s own wandmaker. She provides every new student (at the age of 10) with their own wand for free once they pass their entry exam. Testing their creativity, strength, endurance and motivation, she determines the best wood, length and core. You can buy a new one at any time, though they’re rather pricey and take a while to be made -- as each new wand is hand-crafted for you. It’s not uncommon that students upon graduating buy a new wand, or get bought one by their parents as a gift. She also tends to broken wands and generally helps adjusting students’ hands to their grip over the years. Lu, being the valedictorian of their year, was offered a new wand for free as a prize, but Lu declined. After all, it was this wand that had gotten them so far.

Siren-hair core

is not an unusual core in France. The rivers that cross the country are famous for being inhabited by sailor-luring sirens. They’re known for being both of great dignity and beauty as well as being fiercely ambitious. Wand-owners with that core are usually known to be similar. 

Elm Wood

“The unfounded belief that only pure-bloods can produce magic from elm wands was undoubtedly started by some elm wand owner seeking to prove his own blood credentials, for I have known perfect matches of elm wands who are Muggle-borns. The truth is that elm wands prefer owners with presence, magical dexterity and a certain native dignity. Of all wand woods, elm, in my experience, produces the fewest accidents, the least foolish errors, and the most elegant charms and spells; these are sophisticated wands, capable of highly advanced magic in the right hands (which, again, makes it highly desirable to those who espouse the pure-blood philosophy).” says Ollivander, and Lorraine would probably agree. 

Rather bendy.

This came to a surprise to most people who met Lu during their years at Beauxbaton. Lu was so fixed and stubborn on their goals, unbending and unwilling to give anything up to reach them, starting fights wherever it was needed, and refusing to ever sand down their edges, that they were quite famous for being unapproachable. There was no point in discussing things with Lu, or starting debates, Lu had their own set of truths and wrongs, and one either participated or one wasn’t Lu’s time. But Lorraine had not made a mistake with the wood, for when they had first met the little boy with the breaking voice and trembling fingers, she’d seen that all he was going to become, was going to be his choice. Each trait Lu chose to depict would stand in direct opposition to another truth within them, and for this they’d need a wood willing to adapt. Not to others, no, but to the conflict in their own heart.

[bristlybranwen]

Ollivander’s: 10 inches, rather rigid, Pegasus hair core, Hornbeam wood.

Age 7 

Bran began displaying magical abilities from a very young age on. By the age of seven, she was capable to channel her emotions -- usually one emotion: anger -- so well that anything that had previously just exploded, floated or burst into flames randomly could now become lethal for the person who had made her angry. (Fun fact: her wandless spellless magic used on the battlefield when “using her surroundings” are all things she taught herself before Hogwarts). So her father ordered she should be given her first wand. Back then, Bran thought this was because he believed in her to be ready for spell-work, years later however she realised it was solely to make her less dangerous. Remembering incantations were never her strong suit, and searching for it and making the desired spell happen usually distracted her so much that by the time she had it ready, the anger was gone. It effectively weakened her. 

The wand was a delicate and noble little thing, too. A Yaxley heirloom, dating back to the 17th century, the family crest carved into the handle. It had never been made with anyone specific in mind, just to work for those who expressed the Yaxley mentality: strength to those who know their roots. It didn’t know what to do with a young girl wanting everything but be complacent to existing traditions. 

Age 11

Like most, Bran bought her first real wand from Ollivander’s. Barely any of the wands responded to her, things exploded left and right, flowers were set on fire, books tore themselves into pieces;  Ollivander’s shop was in shambles by the time she left. There was only one wand that wanted her: rather small, rather rigid, rather plain. It rattled against its box the moment she entered and when she touched it, the world around her went quiet. A breath filled her lungs that made her feel calm, almost peaceful, and it was as though she could fly away now, be free. Ollivander saw the recognition in her eyes and smiled -- and Bran resented him for it. “Nay, not this one,” she said, and pointed at yet another one.

In all honesty, she chose the Blackthorn one (approved by her parents later on because it was such a noble wood) simply because it looked a bit like a broom and she was obsessed with Quidditch. “I’ll be a Quidditch Captain one day,” she said and Corban laughed. She punched him and her aunt bought the wand -- paying extra for the damage done by her sons and niece. No one noticed how Ollivander’s brows were knitted and how he carefully put the plain wand away, trusting that one day, Bran would come back for it.

During Hogwarts she kept her broom-wand. 8 inches, blackthorn wood, dragon heartstring core. It was an angry wand, a wild one, perfectly playing into who Bran wanted to be -- or perhaps thus became. Anyone who was at Hogwarts with Bran remembers that there was never a middle ground for her: she either excelled at a spell or painfully failed. The door either burst open at an unlocking spell, or the red remained red at a colour changing spell. There were never any glasses half turned into dice in Trasfig, and never any vague schemes recognised in Divination. It was all or nothing, and usually you could tell which it was gonna be by how Bran entered the class on the given day. Was it a proud strut, surrounded by brawlings friends, things were going to go well. Did she shuffle in with her hat drawn deep over her eyes, things were going to go badly. The only class she ever managed to be consistently okay at was Potions. Naturally, Ollivander could’ve told her that she drew her magic too much from her emotions, that her entire being depended on them and she needed to control them, but why would she have ever talked to Ollivander again? Well, fast forward to

Age 27

After Hogwarts, Bran was sent to France, then to all sorts of domestic management classes, then to nursing school, and finally to her uncle Burke, all of them in an attempt to ‘sort her out’. Little did her mother expect that at Burke’s she’d actually find something that pleased her. No, not the small talk with the clients as a sales woman, but the basement. There, where the cauldrons were crafted by Boris the blacksmith. There, where potions were brewed in the cauldrons to anoint them with magical properties, where the fumes were thick and the sweat always dripped from her forehead. There she reacquainted herself with potion-making, with the art of pacing yourself, of waiting, of following other people’s recipes -- of trusting the process.

She quickly realised her wand was not pleased with potioning, often over- or underperforming, and it took a year or two before she realised that most of the failed potions weren’t exactly her fault but the wand’s rowdiness. So finally, at last, she returned to Ollivander’s. He recognised her immediately and with a smile he brought her the plain wand he’d kept safe for all these years: Hornbeam, 10 inches, rather rigid.

Boris raised his eyebrows when he saw her enter the basement that day. She neither felt overly cocky nor particularly gloomy. She felt light. Easy going. And instead of a smirk or a grin, there was a real smile on her lips. No potion has failed since she began using the plain Hornbeam wand for it.

Interestingly enough, about a month after she bought this wand, she approached Alice Longbottom to join the Order of the Phoenix.

(Let it be known, though, that most usually she still uses her dragon heartstring broom-wand: [Here])