Of Wands and Tea

The day had turned out to be longer than Calista thought when she left home that morning. Many of the shops that she went to were familiar, but the purpose with which she had visited most of them was exciting enough to provide a feeling of some new discovery at every step.

She was finally starting Hogwarts, a moment the girl had been waiting for from the time she was old enough to comprehend the idea. She was a witness to magic every single day of her life but never having the power to perform any herself. Now though she had the chance to learn everything she wanted.

With a soft grin that has been on her lips for almost the entire day, the young girl set herself and her purchases for the new school year at one of the tables and ordered a drink from the waiter that approached her.

Being left alone to wait was the perfect moment that the future Hogwarts student had been waiting for almost a whole day, a moment to look over her most prized possession again. With a gleeful expression Calista reached into one of the bags and extracted the piece of mahogany that would now be serving as the vessel of her magic.

Axel walked into the store, swinging his bag of supplies back and forth with childlike eagerness. He only just now realized that it wasn't the bookstore he was looking fore, but instead a little tea shop. He really needed to remember to start reading these signs on the buildings.

His eyes caught a younger girl with a wand, and the boy broke into a grin, recognizing the face of someone school shopping for the first time. He strode over to her, "Hi there," He noticed many of her books were written in English, and his smile widened, "Are you going to Hogwarts? You're a first year, right? My name's Axel."

There was something truly magnificent about the piece of wood that was held in the girl's hand. The possibilities that it held were far beyond even her own imagination.

Fingers gliding reverently over the wood, Calista's mind was far too focused on the the wand to notice the boy approaching her. She jumped, startled, as he spoke, clutching her wand in a tight grip and causing light gold sparks to fly from it as her eys finally focused on the newcomer.

"Hello," she greeted the boy with a small smile, slightly hesitant, but nevertheless glad to meet someone her own age.

"Yes, I am!" she answered his questions with a wide grin. "Are you a first year too?" she asked with excitement.

"Oh, my name is Calista, by the way. Calista Rastaban." the pure enthusiasm was practically radiating from the young girl.

"Wow," Axel breathed, gazing at the golden sparks as they fell to the floor, "Your wand responds to you so well." He looked back up at the girl with the brightest of smiles, "I bet you'll be really good at magic."

"I'm going to be in the second year by the end of the summer," The boy said, his chest swelling a little with pride at finally being a little bit older than someone else. He smiled again, and extended his hand to Calista, "Nice to meet you. My name's Axel Volkov."

"Oh, thank you," Calista couldn't help but blush slightly at his compliment. "It's really not that hard. Don't everyone's wands do that?" she asked. From what her parents had told her, the girl's own selection of a wand was no different from what usually happened.

She smiled brightly at his pronouncement, giggling slightly as the boy puffed his chest up slightly. Likewise, Axel. Oh, please sit down! How rude of me!" she exclaimed, hands flying to her cheeks as she realized that she had kept the boy standing for a while.