Summer couldn’t possibly have been any longer, ever. Daesung was positive that there had never been a single summer in recorded history that could compare in length to this one. When his letter came he was so excited and so the very next day, August the 10^th, he and his parents made their way down to Diagon Alley to get his supplies.

The books and the robes were exciting, but not as exciting as they could have been since he went shopping with his mother often. What he was really excited for was the wand. He couldn’t wait to make his way down to Ollivander’s wand shop, but he was so terribly afraid as well. His parents both tried to reassure him, but he was still very uncomfortable as he walked through the front door to the shop, and waved to his parents who had decided to wait outside (it was a cramped shop and they didn’t want to influence anything).

A small bell chimed somewhere in the back of the store as Daesung entered and proceeded to stand uncomfortably in front of a small spindly chair by the door. A nervous smile plays across his face as he hears movement coming from somewhere in the back behind the cramped rows of shelves, packed to bursting with wand-boxes.

“Coming! Coming! Be right there!” An excited but still somehow quiet and genial voice called out, just before a head came into view; popping out from behind the farthest shelf to the right.

Daesung nodded politely, his nervous smile becoming fixed as he watched the man come toward him. He wasn’t anything like Daesung had pictured. When he was younger, his parents had told him about Mr. Ollivander, described the way that he looked and even the way that he talked. The man coming down the aisle toward him now was definitely not the same man; tall and thin, the man had a full head of dark blonde hair that fell to just below his ears. His eyes were a bright and piercing blue, and his voice was definitely chilling (one of the few things that were actually similar to his parents’ description).

“Sorry about that, young man!” He says, stopping behind the desk quickly, grabbing what looked like a tape measure and a piece of string. Daesung was back to his awkward smile, which had slipped slightly as he watched the man come forward.

“It’s, uh, okay.” He manages to say, his voice just slightly above a whisper.

“You can call me Roland. I will be helping you today; and who do I have the pleasure of working with?” Roland wasn’t smiling outwardly, but you could hear it in his voice.

“Daesung, sir.” Daesung replies, barely managing to keep the waver from his small voice.

“Ahh, Daesung, hm? Well, let’s see then!” Roland held out the hand that was holding the tape measure and Daesung watched as the small metallic object umped to life with a flick of the older man’s wand. Dancing up into the air, the tape measure extended and began by measuring between Daesung’s eyes before moving to the distance from his chin to the floor.

Roland was no longer paying attention to Daesung, however, and had wandered off to the nearest shelf. The tape measure kept whizzing around Daesung’s body taking random measurements as Roland slowly and carefully dragged his fingertips along a row of wands. His hand suddenly stops in front of a box, and his fingers drum in the air as if trying to decide what to do next. Daesung watches with interest and only slight apprehension as the fingers finally decide what to do and grab the box.

“Yes, let’s try this one, hmm?” Roland says, dropping the lid of the box onto the counter and pushing another wandbox out of the way to make room. Moving back to Daesung and waving the tape measure out of the way, Roland lifts the wand out of its box and holds it out.

Grabbing it, Daesung wonders briefly what he’s supposed to do. As if he could read the young boy’s thoughts, Roland makes a dramatic sweeping gesture with his arm, and then indicates for Daesung to copy him. With a rather hesitant swish of the wand, Daesung manages to knock down the shelf directly behind front counter.

Snatching the wand out of Daesung’s hand and dropping it back into its box, Roland grabs another box off of the shelf above Daesung’s head. “Ah yes, maybe not Dragon heartstring then! How about a lovely holly and Unicorn?”

Daesung takes the wand as it is offered to him and with a nervous smile he waves the wand. Roland was barely able to duck before the jet of red sparks streaked toward him and ended up hitting the shelf behind him. Plucking that wand out of Daesung’s hand, Roland drops it and its box onto the counter before moving along behind the it to grab a box that had fallen to the floor.

Three more unsuccessful wands and Roland decides that they need a break.

“Hmm, I will have to think about this one. I love a tricky customer!” Though his facial expressions don’t seem to agree with his words, his enthusiasm is audible, so the still shaky Daesung is calmed enough that he can sit in the spindly chair that Roland pointed him toward.

“What about…” Daesung starts before stopping himself out of embarrassment.

“What about what, young sir? Come along, speak up!”

Half-terrified by the exuberance in Roland’s voice, Daesung sits shocked for a moment before he is able to unstick his jaw and respond. “I was just going to suggest the wand on the counter…its ust been there the whole time so why…not?”

Roland pauses mid-search, swaying precariously at the top of a rickety ladder. He looks down at Daesung before climbing quickly down and searching through the opened wandboxes that he had thrown rather carelessly along the counter; finding the one that he was looking for, Roland pauses briefly before looking up at Daesung.

“Hmm, it won’t hurt to try…” Roland says softly, his face moving from unnecessarily blank to slightly curious.

Daesung reaches out tentatively, his nervous smile still plastered to his face, and takes the wand. Almost immediately, lovely green and purple puffs of smoke began to puff from the end and twirl around him in lazy circles. Startled, Daesung’s face relaxes into a real smile of delight as he watches the colorful smoke dance around him. Roland smiles, his first real facial expression of the session, and reaches forward to take the wand back.

“Ahh, how lovely: a Pear wood wand! Not a very common wood, but not entirely uncommon. You do look like a rather likable fellow.” Roland says as he places the wand back into its box and Daesung pays for it.

As he steps out into the warm summer air, Daesung is relieved; he got his wand, and he was finally out of the shop.

“Oh! Unicorn hair and Pear? That’s very unique, sweetie!” Daesung’s mother says as he pulls it out of the box to show them.

“Wonderful, let’s head down to get a treat…” His father says, ushering them away from the shop and in the direction of Florean Fortescue’s.

As they chatted and made their way into the shop, Daesung couldn’t help but notice three rather rowdy boys who couldn’t have been much older than him, as they made their way through the crowd filling the streets of Diagon Alley. It seemed as though they were in their own little world, not even noticing the crush of people. His mother seemed to notice them as well.

“Honestly,” she says, a small smile playing on her lips as she watches the shortest one break out into a short dance in the middle of the street, “boys. Just have so much energy! Maybe you’ll meet them at school!” As she says this she turns toward Daesung, a bright and happy smile on her face. Daesung can’t help but to return it.