When the Wand Chooses the Wizard?

After restoring the shop, which had been left in a complete mess from helping Tom choose a wand, Ollivander turned to Li Weide.

"All right, your dominant hand—left or right?"

"Right."

"Good. Please stand still while I take some measurements..."

What followed was the same familiar procedure.

Once the measurements had been gathered, Ollivander once again disappeared into the piles of wands.

When he emerged, he was carrying seven or eight wand boxes in each hand.

"Come to think of it, this is quite unusual. You two are remarkably similar... At least five of these were tried by that gentleman just now."

Ollivander set down the wand boxes and looked at Li Weide and Tom with great interest.

By then, it was Tom's turn to sit on the bench and eat ice cream.

Hearing Ollivander's words, he frowned again.

"What do you mean by that?" Tom asked.

"He means we share many similar traits," Li Weide answered.

"Exactly! That's why some wands suit both him and you." Ollivander smiled.

Suddenly, Li Weide asked, "Then... if I used Tom's wand, would it suit me as well?"

"Haha, perhaps it would suit you very well indeed!" Ollivander said cheerfully.

"No! It's my wand. Don't even think about it!"

Tom hurriedly slipped the Yew Wand he had been fondly holding all along into his pocket.

"Don't be so stingy, Tom. What if some special circumstance came up and I needed to borrow your wand? Would you really refuse to lend it to me?"

"Forget it!"

Tom covered his pocket, then viciously scooped up a huge spoonful of ice cream as if he were digging into Li Weide's skull.

"Haha, you two really are close. You remind me of old friends..." Ollivander said with a smile.

Tom glared furiously at Ollivander. "I'm not close with him."

"Mr. Ollivander, he's still sulking over the ice cream. We don't need to mind him," Li Weide said with a smile.

Ollivander remembered the matter at hand. "All right... Then let's try these five first. Your friend tried all of them just now."

As he spoke, Ollivander handed Li Weide a Sandalwood Wand.

"Buzz!"

The moment Li Weide tightened his grip around it, the wand erupted in a dazzling white light!

"Ah! Excellent! This wand suits you very well!" Ollivander said delightedly.

He had not expected Tom's wand selection to be so difficult, while Li Weide, whose traits were so similar to Tom's, succeeded with the very first wand he tried.

Ollivander had been prepared for a second grueling "battle."

Tom's mouth fell open as he stared fixedly at Li Weide's back.

Why had a wand chosen him so quickly?!

Without comparison, there was no harm. Remembering how long he had struggled before finally obtaining a suitable wand... Tom felt utterly displeased!

Yet there was not much joy on Li Weide's face. Instead, he examined the wand in his hand as though pondering something, which struck Ollivander as odd.

"...You've obtained the wand best suited to you. Why don't you look excited at all?" Ollivander could not help asking.

"Indeed... this wand seems quite good, but... I have the feeling it isn't the one best suited to me," Li Weide said, raising his head.

"Oh, if you say that, the wand in your hand might be unhappy. After all, it is the wand that chooses the wizard, not the wizard who chooses the wand." Ollivander's expression turned somewhat serious.

"No offense intended, Mr. Ollivander. I simply think... since wands choose wizards, shouldn't I give the other wands a chance to observe me as well? After all, as you said earlier, these wands are all quite suitable for me. It only depends on which one chooses me, doesn't it?"

Ollivander could not help nodding. "All right, that makes sense. In that case, let's try them all."

Ollivander had no objection to that. Since the wands had already been brought out, there was no harm in letting Li Weide try them.

Seeing that Li Weide actually wanted to try other wands, Tom curled his lip and finished the last bite of his ice cream.

He thought Li Weide was simply wasting time...

"This wand has a Black Walnut shaft, with Dragon Heartstring as its core..."

"Buzz!"

Before Ollivander could finish introducing it, the Black Walnut wand Li Weide had just picked up emitted a golden glow!

"Ah?" Ollivander's mouth fell open, and he forgot to continue his introduction.

He had never seen anyone trigger unusual phenomena with two consecutive wands while testing them.

After all, phenomena such as a wand glowing only occurred when a wizard obtained a new wand that suited them exceptionally well...

But how could there possibly be a second new wand that fit one wizard so perfectly?

"Mm... It still feels like it's missing something. May I try the third one?" Li Weide returned the Black Walnut wand to Ollivander.

"Oh... Of course, of course..." Ollivander hurriedly took out the third wand.

In truth, at this point, Ollivander also wanted to see whether a third wand would show something unusual.

As a result, he even forgot to introduce this wand.

This time, the wand did not glow.

However, at the instant Li Weide picked it up—

"Whoosh!"

A wand box directly in front of the wand tip turned into a squeaking little white mouse!

"Oh! Merlin! This wand is actually even more suited to you than the previous two!" Ollivander exclaimed.

Only then did he understand that Li Weide had not been exaggerating when he said those two wands were not the ones best suited to him.

"It's still a little off..." Li Weide returned the wax-yellow wand.

This time, Ollivander had no thoughts of objecting. Instead, he continued handing over another wand...

Sure enough, strange phenomena continued to occur.

Sometimes there was light, sometimes objects transformed, sometimes thick fog rose in the room for no reason, sometimes things in the shop floated up on their own, and sometimes even Li Weide himself floated into the air...

Everything was so bizarre and contrary to common sense that Ollivander could not recover for a long while.

Tom sat in the back watching the entire time. Seeing all the commotion Li Weide had caused, he suddenly felt that the Yew Wand in his pocket was not quite as appealing anymore...

No one knew how much time had passed, but a huge pile of wands had already accumulated on Ollivander's counter.

The constantly flashing lights made passersby outside think Ollivander's shop was full of thunder...

After a while longer, Li Weide held a reddish-brown wand and asked eagerly, "What material is this wand made of?"

"Oh... this one has a Beechwood shaft, a Dragon Heartstring core, twelve and a third inches long, and is very flexible..."

Suddenly, Ollivander stopped, because he realized in astonishment that the wand in Li Weide's hand was not displaying any unusual phenomenon at all!

Li Weide used the wand to tap the little white mouse that had been accidentally created earlier.

"Whoosh!"

The little white mouse instantly changed back into a wand box.

"This... How is this possible? This wand clearly showed no special phenomenon in your hand, but... but it seems even more compatible with you... No! It should be the most compatible one so far!"

Ollivander felt as though everything he had believed he knew had been thrown off...

"That's because it's a little shy... I can feel it." Li Weide handed over the Beechwood Wand. "I'll take this one."

"Ah... Of course, of course..." Ollivander seemed rather dazed.

"I'm sorry for making such a mess of your shop," Li Weide said.

"Oh, it's all right... It's all right..." By then, Ollivander was finally beginning to come back to his senses.

Tom suddenly asked, "Hey, didn't you say wands choose wizards? Why does it look like he's the one choosing the wand now?"

"...Sigh. It seems my understanding of wandlore isn't as thorough as I thought..." Ollivander sighed.

"Wands choose wizards..." Ollivander glanced at Li Weide before continuing, "and wizards choose wands as well... Merlin, I've never seen anything like this happen before!"