WHO: Abby Moore (though any of her companions could have witnessed this, if they tagged along) WHEN: Whenever the Florida crew goes to Universal Studios π WHERE: Harry Potter World, specifically Ollivander's Wand Shop SUMMARY: Abby finds her wand. WARNINGS: None!
The first thing that Abby did when they rounded the bend that led from the Jurassic Park to Universal Studios's recreation of Hogsmeade was stare up at the castle of Hogwarts, her heart seeming to both strain and warm at the sight. To a casual onlooker, they might have thought that she was an excited fan that was seeing it for the first time. To Abby, though, she was just Ginny Weasley and she had simply missed the sight so very much.
The second thing she did was buy a pumpkin juice. After five months of pregnancy cravings, it tasted better than anything she'd ever ingested.
Those tasks completed and Abby found herself able to actually appreciate everything around her. She hadn't known how she'd feel about walking the would be streets of Hogsmeade or Diagon Alley, knowing that they were as fictional as ever in this world, despite how real the world was to her in another life. There were differences, of course, but that didn't stop her from half expecting Molly Weasley to come bustling out of one of the shopfronts, scolding her for wandering off when she needed to get her robes fitted.
Eventually the sun started to get to her, the true downside of being in Florida during August. Leo had been wonderful as always, bringing her water when she needed to sit to let her swollen ankles rest and just simply being the supportive husband she knew him to be. It was in search of shade and a brief respite of air conditioning that had brought them to Ollivander's, the line into the building being cast in shade from the other buildings as the sun shifted. Once inside, Abby would have been perfectly content just standing in the corner for several wand shows; she had a feeling that she wasn't the only one.
Abby smiled to herself as the actor began to go through the spiel of the show, idly wondering just how many times he had repeated this script. She remembered when Ginny got her wand, escaping a hand-me-down by sheer luck of there not being a wand to be handed down to her. She had been excited, nearly bouncing on her feet as they tried wand after wand, finally landing on the one that chose her: 13 inches of yew, dragon heartstring, reasonably supple. Though the actor was clearly not Mr. Ollivander himself, she couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia.
"We are all here to witness a wand pairing -- a very special time in a wizard or witch's life. I am the wand keeper andβ¦" The actor looked around, scanning the crowd before his gaze stopped on Abby, seeming to size her up. Whether it was because he didn't see a kid cute enough or he just felt sorry for the heavily pregnant woman, she would never know, but he pointed at her with a smile. "You. You are here for your wand, are you not? Tell me, young lady, what is your name?"
Abby played along, giving her name and standing just where he indicated, holding out her arm as he took her measurements and addressed the crowd to explain the work that went into the different wands, the sorts of ingredients used in the core. Abby was barely listening herself, choosing instead to send a glance and a wink back to her companions.
Soon enough, she was being handed different wands to test out. Abby smiled as the first made the drawers open and close and the second making the shelves drop, the mechanical workings of the room doing its work to recreate the illusion of magic. It was charming in a way that made her appreciate the details; if she didn't dream about this place during the night when they got back to their hotel room, she'd be very surprised.
"You see," the actor continued, taking away the wand that clearly wasn't meant for Abby and turning to look at the shelves once more, "the best results always come when there is the strongest affinity between a witch and -- and the wand." Abby glanced over her shoulder once more, smiling as the drama began to rise, the actor picking out a dusty wand box that was sitting under the counter. It wasn't until he took the wand from the box and she caught sight of it for the first time that the amusement from the situation drained away.
Abby had already seen the so-called recreation of Ginny's wand. It had been the first she'd looked for when they had gone into the gift shop near the front of the park, unable to help herself. Though it was a beautiful piece of wood, it wasn't quite as Abby had remembered it. The coloring wasn't quite right, nor was the carving of the handle. It was too polished, too obviously mass produced, and not at all the weight that she had come to know.
As she stared at the wand the man was pretending to examine in front of her, though, Abby recognized it. "A wand of yew," he said, her heart starting to race in her chest. "13 inches, reasonably supple and with -- ah, yes! Dragon heartstring core."
He held out the wand and Abby hesitated for just a moment, trying to determine if this was really, truly happening. She could see the imperfections in the wood, so unlike the one that they were selling as recreations of Ginny's wand out in the main part of the shop. She could see the little groove in the wood, left there from the time it had fallen from her bag during her first year and one of her classmates had stepped on it. Though the wand thankfully hadn't broken in two, it had left a mark that reminded her to be more careful.
Abby swallowed, catching the look on the actor's face as he raised an eyebrow, clearly wondering if he had chosen the wrong person out of this crowd. Murmuring half an apology, she reached out and took the wand from him.
As expected, the light from above was turned on, illuminating Abby as the wand chose her as per the ceremony. The actor grew excited, telling everyone about how the wand had spoken, but she wasn't listening. All she felt was the warmth that emanated from the piece of wood. The sense of rightness that Ginny had felt when she was eleven-years-old and being paired with her wand in a shop so very much like this one. The small spurt of nearly transparent golden sparks that flew from the end.
The actor didn't seem to have noticed the sparks, so caught up in his memorized lines, and Abby thought that her body might have shielded the spectacle from most who saw it -- or that they would simply just think it was another fun effect that the theme park had figured out to really sell the experience. She hardly noticed herself, though, as in that moment she realized that all of the strange happenings (the cups of tea that should have gone cold after sitting too long and yet were always warm; the ketchup stain on her favorite sweater disappearing moments after she just knew it had been created; the glass she'd dropped to the wooden floor that bounced instead of shattered) that she had dismissed as coincidence in the past several months might not have been as coincidental as she'd thought.