Nothing.
John felt stupid.
He peaked up at Ollivander, who shared an equally bemused face.
Well this was embarrassing .......magic stick John's ass...
John shook his head, suddenly found himself with an idea.
His magic wasn't the same as theirs, but John still had magic of his own. Maybe if he tried.......
He looked back down to the gray wand, his face switching to a slight determination.
Gripping the stick tight, he felt an energy coil around it.
Alright then.....maybe if he added a little 'oof' into it!-
"Lumos!-"
SNAP
"-Whoah!"
John dropped the stick by instinct, whipping his hand away as if it burned to the touch.
The mage glanced to his chaperone.
To his surprise he was dumbfounded.
"Uhh........Sorry?"
In John's defense, magic was unpredictable.
"Interesting.........Ah-Don't you worry my boy, this kind of reaction, while not specifically, happens quite frequently."
John couldn't help but look slightly relieved that he wouldn't he held accountable for an accident that he was only slightly involved with.
"Now know this, the wand chooses the wizard Mr. Constantine. It must be a positive reaction on both sides for the relationship to work."
If only John got that advice his senior year.
The old wizard chuckled, "Why do you think I brought over these? But I do wonder....not many have reacted so physically....as in..to..snap in halves."
Alright Johnny boy, tone it down bout eight notches...
Ollivander picked up the broken wand lying on the counter, placing the halves back into their box and off to the side.
"Alright, let's try the next one hm?"
John watched as he the man sorted through the four boxes before choosing the last one on the right.
"Here we are-Blackthorn with a Dragon Heartstring core, a beautiful wand."
Ollivander pulled out a sleek black wand, ominously shiny to the eyes.
John would be lying if he said that it didn't look cool as hell.
The wand was placed in his palm with the same cautious manner.
Understandable at this point.
John took his time examining it this time, he didn't care for the other last time-and look where that got him.
The wand was long, maybe 7-7 1/2 inches.
Whether that was long for a wand, John sure as hell didn't know.
A dark handle spun and coiled around the stick's end, appearing almost like a dark brown.
Ok.
Let's take it slow this time.
John feed bits of his magic through his hand and to the wand, to his surprise John felt something there.
The energy met, nether peaceful nor volatile, each just swirling with acquaintance.
John breathed in slow and deep, mumbling to himself lowly.
"Let's give this a go...."
He lightly flicked the wand again.
"Lumos."
CRACK
BOP
John's hands flew up to cover his head as half the store's lights blew out, the one above him showering him in shards.
"Oh my..."
Ollivander moved to checked his other lamps and light bulbs, trying to determine what conditions they took.
After laying the wand on the counter, John brushed the glass off him, the bits and pieces sounding akin to chimes as they met the wood floor.
He winced as a few bit into his hands and fingers.
He ignored them to finish off cleaning himself, then lowering to the floor to pick up bigger chunks.
"Tck, don't bother Constantine."
He rose up to meet his professor,
"Why not?"
Snape rolled his eyes.
"You don't need to bother physically picking up your mess."
He plucked his wand out of seemingly thin air, waving it to one side of the room.
John watched as the pieces of glass, big and small, lifted themselves up and hovered to a bin in the corner.
A trash can.
His eyes flicked down as there was new movement in his face.
The large bits floated out of his hands and followed the rest.
Huh.
Handy.
Easy ass way of dealing with confetti John'll tell you that much.
As the show was over, John turned back to the counter, leaning over it again.
Unfortunately John was still stuck with the ones in his hands, ones in which he started remove as he waited.
Ollivander was content with knowing that they wouldn't need to replace the lights on the back.
Another negative reaction.
Curiouser and curiouser.
A picky thing young Mr. Constantine's magic is.
He had never heard of the last name Constantine....there wasn't one name that the wand master didn't remember coming into his shop, not even the very first day he opened.
His magic was strong, that much was definite, but hopefully like Mr. Potter and Mr. Riddle, he could find the right one to tame and pair with him.
John felt his eye twitch as he finally grabbed hold of the stubborn shard and yanked it out of his palm's skin.
"Well...I think that it's going rather well."
John said this absentmindedly, mostly to himself really.
"Oh I think so!"
Ollivander strode back to the stores front, putting the black wand and its box to the side as well.
He grinned as he went to look at the remaining boxes, as if he was excited to be donned a new challenge.
He gingerly ripped open the lid of the blue box in the middle.
"This, might fare better than the last.
Fir wood. Phoenix Feather. A powerful wand for those like it."
This wand had the lightest shade he'd seen so far, a light brown with the creases of an old tree. On its end, a thick, dark brown handle was attached.
The stick was slightly......oddly shaped...curved but not curved....bent but not...moral of the story was that the wand wasn't straightened out but it didn't look out of place either.
John frowned, he wasn't having a very good streak-and he didn't wanna end up going through half the store's products for a solution to an impossible cause.
The only thing he could do was keep going for now.
He'd try to tell them that he was in fact, not one of them, but John already knew that the word of a child-a child knowing nothing of their culture, wouldn't be par when it came to adults.
So that left John with experiment #2- or 3 was it?
This time, John grabbed the wand himself.
Pushing himself a bit faster than the second attempt but without the ignorance of the first, he felt the magic again.
He took his time to examine the magic, to recognize and copy its flow of movements.
Once he felt a tad bit confident(not that it would work, but that he could keep the damage at a minimal), he attempted to flow his magic more fluently.
"Lumos."
At the wand's tip, a little ball of magic started to form.
The ball grew larger, and brighter too.
He hear Ollivander laugh in triumph and Snape groan about how he finally found something without it breaking.
That made John's eye twitch as he felt his button being pushed.
It's not like he wanted to break the old man's things!
Crack
John cut the magic off as the wand's end made itself a clean crack halfway down the center.
He frowned.
"Shoot.......I thought I had it..."
Ollivander looked confused as well, not for the same reasons of course.
"Hhmmm.....I thought so as well...I do suppose it off to the next one my boy."
He fished the wand from John's small grasp.
"This one held itself together much better than the last two...perhaps we should experiment with more like this?"
He grabbed the other boxes of broken wands and went to the back, mumbling back and forth, "Fir Wood, Fir Wood, Fir Wood-"
John couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.
He thought he had the flow of energy under control!
This was stupid.
John didn't even use a wand! It was mostly hand movements, verbal incantations and different items used.
He looked down to his slightly mangled fingers.
Maybe he was saying or preforming the spell wrong as well.
Well, he could just not be compatible with any stick ever crafted in this dusty place.
Maybe he could replicate the spell himself.
John closed and opened his palms, making sure he was breathing slow.
He'd try out a few things:
Attempt number one-Without Movement(no twirling or flicking).
Attempt number two-With Movement.
Attempt number one.
John narrowed his eyes, just like any other spell he preformed, he needed concentration.
"Lumos."
Deja vu huh?
Well I'd say I'm sorry, but I ain't.
Anyway-Jesus this was probably the longest chapter so far! I could've-hell I wanted to go farther, but your authors gotta keep stuff spaced out.
Next chapter shouldn't take too long now, 'member-I'm updating more this week.
🎃It's Spooky Season y'all!🎃