Dresden Academy

Who: Leland and Pepper
When: BACKDATED, beginning of last summer
Where: St. George's Way
What: Leland buys a new wand.W
Rating: SFW


Leland was furious that he had to get a new wand. Sure it had partially been his own fault by picking fights with an older and more experienced dueler and then getting into shit he couldn't finish, but he had a way of putting the blame on the other kid and on his wand. He looked at the broken pieces, what he had been able to scavenge from after the duel and growled. "Fucking Benedict Arnold."

"Leland! Come on! We have to replace that wand of yours!" his aunt called from downstairs. He stuffed the broken fragments into his pocket and slumped down the stairs. "Are you ready sweetie?" she asked brightly.

"Yeah," he grumbled, walking past Aunt Maria and out the front door. She was quick to join him in the car and tried to poke and prod him into conversation the whole ride from Glens Falls to Lake George. Finally as they nears St. George's way she turned to him and sighed. "Do you want me to go with you or is this something you would prefer to do by yourself?"

He kept his eyes glued out the window and gave his shoulder's a little shrug. "S'fine, I can take care of it myself. You probably have other things to do, don't need to waste your time with weirdos like me all day."

Maria sighed. "You're not a weirdo, you're a wizard," she put her hand over his and gave it a little squeeze. "If you want me to come with you I will."

Leland was torn. He sort of wanted her to go with him but at the same time he wanted to go it alone. He felt like wand pairing was one of the more personal aspects of wizarding, and a muggle couldn't quite understand the importance of having your own wand. He didn't think she fully understood why he was so upset when his 10 inch aspen and erumpent hide wand had blown up. It wasn't just that his wand had broken, it was that he felt like a piece of him had exploded and shattered to pieces. "It's okay," he said, his voice softer. "I didn't mean it like that, I know you're not like her."

"She'll come around some day Lee," Maria said of her older sister. "She always does."

"Doubt it," he said dismissively. "Whatever, I've got you and Uncle Tomos and Emili."

She pulled the car to a stop and looked over at him seriously. "Call me when you're done okay," she said.

"Will do."

"Lee," she said as he opened the car door and stepped into the street.

"Yeah?"

"You're right about me and Tomos, you'll always have us. You know that right?"

He smiled, despite himself and nodded. "Yeah, I know. Thanks Aunt Maria."

"Alright, see you in a while. Love you."

"Love you too," he said quietly before shutting the door and heading off down the street. It was hot, too hot to function, Leland did the math, noting that he had only been living in New York for one year and he was already loosing his resistance to heat. He made his way to Stark's Wand shop after stopping for a frozen lemonade. After dumping his empty cup in the bin outside he swaggered into the shop. He poked a few boxes and looked around the quiet shop. Magical crafting had been one of his more solid classes at school and he was definitely interested in learning more about wands and wandmaking. He looked at the artistry and construction of the wands on display, admiring the work that went into them. He idly wander if he would be able to create the same sort of wands himself some day. He was lost in his thoughts, a little dream world of his own making.

Pepper cleared her throat from her spot at the counter near the back of the shop. Usually she was the first thing people noticed coming in from the street, but she was wearing her usual garish attire. It was an experiment forced on her by her father. "Try it for one afternoon, Pru," he said in the salesman tone that had people buying more wands than they needed.

She tried it and thus far had been mistaken for wall dressing. One individual entered the shop and left without even saying a word to her. She picked at the pale, frilly blouse her mother had pushed out of the back of her closet. It was a gift from one of her well-meaning aunts and it had remained in the back of her closet from the moment it was given to her. The slacks didn't help, awful khaki colored things that had no life, no color, no pop, and absolutely no verve.

The experiment was finished. She picked up her own wand and tapped her shoulder. A stunning emerald corset with black lace ties replaced the plain and silly blouse. A tight black skirt with eyelet details appeared in place of those awful pants. Three inch high heels sprang up on the heels of the penny loafers her mother loaned her; the leather melted away to reveal shiny black patent with peep toes and an open heel. Even her hair obeyed the command of her wand and curled itself up into a tangled coif that was much more her style.

She smiled at the young man who poked around so trepidatiously. His aura jumped out so strongly she was already looking for a match. It didn't appear as though she had anything for him up front. Maybe a semi-match, but nothing that would zing. If he was even here for a wand; he might be killing time on a lazy afternoon. "What can I do for you?" she asked, pushing down her usual suggestiveness when asking such a question. It had gotten her a few dates, but this one was too young for that line.

Leland jumped when he heard another person's voice. He looked up at her nervously and then digging in his pocket he retrieved the busted wand. He held it out to her, guilt coloring the look on his face. "Damn thing exploded in a duel," he knew it was impossible to fix it but replacing it was the last thing he wanted to do. Though honestly, it was his only option.

Then he finally looked at the other person in the room, his eyes went a little wide. He had to wonder how he had not noticed her when he first walked into the shop, she was bright and colorful, and looked perhaps a touch insane. He rubbed his head and looked around the shop, suddenly trying to avoid eye contact. "I guess I need a new wand," he sighed.

She took the bits of wands and examined them with a touch of reverence and a hint of sadness. "Aspen, erumpent hide." The aura of the fragments fought tenaciously to show her just how excellently matched this boy and his wand once were. She clicked her tongue. "Shame really, you were so well matched." She frowned because her chances of making a match half so well were limited. Her father didn't work with erumpent.

She frowned at the boy a moment. "What's your name?" she asked a bit briskly, perhaps more briskly than she'd been aiming. She was on her feet and already thinking through the possible cores that were similar to erumpent hide without the explosive tendency. She didn't have much out front and her father's filing system for wands was questionable.

"I know," he grumbled. It was the first thing that he had really owned, the first thing had ever made sense. He hated loosing it. "Never been good with anything else," he grumbled almost incoherently. He looked up again when she asked his name. "Leland Rivera Sykes," he answered. "I never been here before," he said looking around. "I got my wand in Cali."

She nodded with no judgement. Dresden Academy had a surprising number of students who weren't locals. She didn't get to match as many students as she would have liked. More often than not she did replacement work instead of first time matches. "Leland, Leland," she repeated quietly, almost like a mantra. There were a few wands that might work, one she found under the counter, two others stacked high on a shelf, and one that was out back still sitting on her father's workbench, though he had finished the wand days ago. None of them would be as good a match as his first wand, but they each had qualities she thought Leland needed.

She passed him the first wand still in the box. He'd been through this before; she figured he'd know to give it a swish and see what happened.

Leland took his time examining the wand she placed in front of him, plucking it from the box he held it for a moment. It didn't feel quite right and it certainly didn't feel like his wand. He gave it a little swish and stumbled back a few inches from the force of the wind he accidentally whipped up. "Shit!" she said putting it back in it's box carefully. "What the f... what was that?"

She laughed at his reaction, though not unkindly. "That was not what I was hoping for," she replied. A little too much doxy wing and not enough griffin feather. It was a bit of an odd match and she had a feeling she'd never find a good recipient for this wand. She passed him the second wand also in its box. "Give this puppy a try." She took a step back, not sure what to expect. This one had a simple dragon heartstring core, but Leland was not a simple boy and the wand might have any number of reactions to him.

He laughed at himself for once, feeling silly about it. Taking the wand with a slight air of caution he examined it quickly. Giving it a simple flick, he watched as the box floated up in the air then smashed up into the ceiling. He flinched as it came crashing down to the counter and he looked at the wand incredulously. "Do you think... do you think the wands know I don't want a new one?" he asked not exactly looking at her. He felt foolish for asking.

Oh she liked this one. He thought of wands as implements which were capable of more than just being swished. They worked with a user and often had their own personalities. At the very least he sensed their displeasure with his reaction to the process. She smiled brightly at him and tapped her nose as if to say you hit the nail on the head. "I think they might," she replied. "You can always ask them not to take offense, let them know your last wand was important to you." She didn't know if she needed to imply that he could do this without words, but if he was bright enough to figure out that the wands were just as wary of him he should certainly be bright enough to know how to channel his energy to them better.

She tossed him the third box. "Give this bad bear a swing," she said with a little bit of an uplifting giggle.

Well he certainly felt better about that. Taking a deep breath and closed his eyes and picked up the last wand. He took a little more time to channel his energy into this one, took the time to let his feelings be known. It's nothing against you wand... He grinned but he was beginning to get the feel of the wand. It felt comfortable in his hand as he held it and when he swished it a gentle breeze flowed through the room. He felt like he could work with this. He flicked it again and the box that he become slightly crushed fixed itself, taking on the shape that he had once been. He gave a satisfied little smile and held the wand out to the red haired woman.

"What's this bad boy?" he asked. "Worked pretty good, huh?"

"It's chimera scale fragment," she answered, though hardly not all there was to the wand. "Pine. 12 inches. Rigid." She had a thought then. She took the wand from him and set it next to the one her father had recently made. That one wasn't the wand she wanted to try out anymore. Chimera scale would work as a core for this boy. "Give me a sec," she said all chipper and clopped off toward the backroom.

It took her a small ladder, eight minutes, and several tossed boxes of wands meant for storage or ones that simply hadn't made it out to the floor yet. The closer the stacks were to her workspace the more sense and order their storage made to her. She found it under a pile of wands with fire crab cores. Her father had an old supply of chimera scales to work with, though it was slowly whittling down. They only had three wands in the shop with this core, one of which was certainly going to walk out the door with Leland this very afternoon.

She emerged with one, unable to find the other. The subtle choice of wood, length, and wand quality could shift the wand just enough that it would be a better match for him. "Last one. I promise." She passed him the box and waited expectantly.

He nodded. He had heard of chimera scale fragment, it was something that his previous wand maker had tried to match him with before selecting erumpent hide. He waited patiently as Pepper fumbled around in the back looking for a better match. When she brought out the wand he was impressed by the look of it, there was something about it that had more umpf. He picked it up, feeling a slight resistance, a sturdiness he hadn't felt with the other wand. It would be a challenge, he already knew it.

Leland felt like he had better control over this wand, he felt like it was stronger and more like his first wand. It was a better fit but it was hard, just like his thick head. He had to put a lot of effort into it but the results were better. "This one is gonna drive me nuts," he smiled a bit ruefully. He knew he had to respect the instrument in his hands and he did, but at the very least he was being honest. "It challenges me, makes me work harder."

"Dogwood. 10 inches. Inflexible the way you work together." It might have leaned toward sturdy in the hands of another. "Same chimera core." She could see the difference in his outlook to it. He was up to the challenge and once won this would be his wand just as the previous one had been. "I won't bullshit you, that wand will be hard, demanding work. But it will be worth it. It won't bend to you as much as you'll bend to it." And you need to learn how to bend, but that bit remained unspoken.

He looked at the wand with a sense of wonder and awe. He looked up when she talked about bullshitting him and grinned at her. "I always like a challenge," he chuckled. He knew he was bound to get frustrated with it though. "What happens if I accidentally blow this one up?" he joked.

"I'll make you a new one myself," she promised solemnly. "But, you know, try not to blow it up. At least not before you've given the wand a shot." She looked at him a bit bemused. "Do you want the box?" she asked already starting to ring him up. Wands were rather expensive purchases, but people always managed to pay for them one way or another.

He laughed, looking down at the counter. "Yeah, I'll try not to," he promised. "I'll take the box," he nodded. "You can never be to safe cautious right?" He hadn't meant to break his last wand and he had no intention of having to get attached to another wand and breaking that as well.

She passed it to him so he could set his own wand inside. He didn't seem like he'd want it all wrapped up in brown paper as she often did for first time buyers. As for being too cautious, she felt that one could venture into that realm, one she aimed to avoid at all costs. She shrugged happily. "I wish you luck Leland."

"Thanks..." he realized then he didn't even know her name. Rubbing the top of his head a bit awkwardly he grinned. "I never caught your name," he admitted with a little grin.

"Oh. It's Pepper," she answered.

He smiled. "Thanks Pepper," he said setting the wand inside the box carefully. He was sure that he would see her sooner or later, but hopefully not to replace the wand he was about to pay for.