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It was the twins’ eleventh birthday, but Severus felt as though he’d been waiting a hundred years to get his wand. He could barely contain his excitement on the way to Ollivander’s. Over the years, they had walked past the wand shop many times while shopping with mother. Severus had been asking to go inside since before he could remember.
He grasped his brother’s hand in excitement as they opened the shop door, and Silvanus turned and smiled at him. The man behind the counter seemed a bit peculiar, his hair a mess of silver-streaked brown waves and his eyes a bit too wide. Severus thought he was fascinating.
“Ah, the Snape twins,” he exclaimed when he saw them. “Been waiting for you boys.” He gave them a slightly unsettling smile and then hurried around the small shop, gathering what amounted to a tall stack of long lean boxes from a number of different shelves.
He set half of the boxes aside, then set the other half on the counter and opened each one. He laid them out neatly.
“Silvanus first,” he said. Severus’ face fell, and Silvanus squeezed his hand comfortingly before stepping forward to the counter. He stared down at the boxes of wands before him. Severus watched with eagerness.
“Go ahead, try one,” Ollivander encouraged. Silvanus picked up one to his left, and looked to Ollivander for instruction. Ollivander motioned as though he was waving an invisible wand, and Silvanus copied the motion.
A sliver of faint light trickled out from the tip of the wand, then dissipated.
“Hmm,” Ollivander said, hand on his chin, “not bad, but,” he took the wand from Silvanus, boxed it up and set it aside, “not quite the one, is it. Try again.”
The next one didn’t respond at all, the one after that made the whole shop go dark for an instant, and the fourth one made the floor beneath them shake.
“Best set that one aside,” Ollivander said, “not too fear, it can take more than a few tries sometimes. You’ve got to find the perfect fit, your one and only.”
Silvanus nodded, stared for a few moments at the remaining wands, then looked to Severus for guidance. Severus could feel his brother’s anxiety. He gave him a reassuring smile, putting aside his own agitation. Silvanus smiled back, then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. With his eyes still closed he made his next choice. He picked up a pale wooden wand, tapered with a thick uneven base and a slim rounded tip. He opened his eyes.
This time a burst of great silver and red sparks shot from the wand, glinting brightly in the dim shop. Severus saw their light reflected onto his brother’s startled smiling face. Ollivander began to applaud.
“Well done, you’ve found him!” he declared with satisfaction, “now onto your brother.” He boxed up Silvanus’ wand and handed it to him, then motioned for Severus to come forward. Silvanus stepped back, clutching the box with his wand in it, and beamed at their mother. She smiled down at him and pet his hair.
It was finally time. Severus walked with slow intense purpose toward the counter, the short distance feeling like an elongated pathway, marked by a gradually moving spotlight. He followed the imagined light to the counter, where Ollivander had laid out the other half of the wands he had had gathered.
Severus didn’t need to be directed. He had been preparing for this moment. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes like his brother had. He tried to listen for the call of his wand, but heard only the distant noise of the street. Severus was frustrated, he had been sure his wand would reach out to him right away. He shut his eyes tighter and wrapped his arms around himself. He focused on his breath.
Then he felt it. Something inside him was warm, a single spot at first, in his abdomen. Then it pulsed and seemed to radiate out in a burning spiral. He opened his eyes then, and looked down at the counter. Without thinking or trying, his hand moved to a sleek black wand that was waiting towards the upper right hand corner. When he picked it up it felt hot in his hand, and he felt that spiral of fieriness inside him travel down his arm and through his palm. He felt something click into place, and the power that had been scorching his insides seemed to calm and smooth over him. A spiral of gleaming green light was pouring from his wand, wisps of black smoke curling out from around it.
“Merlin’s beard, look at that,” Ollivander nearly shouted as he clapped, “first try!”
Severus didn’t want to let go of his wand for Ollivander to box it up, but reluctantly yielded. As their mother tended to the bill, the brothers beamed at one another, each holding tightly the box containing his new wand.
At home they examined each other’s new treasures, overwhelmed with excitement. Laying their wands beside one another, Severus had a belated realization.
“They don’t look the same at all,” he said a bit sadly. He had wanted them to match, or at least coordinate. It unsettled him that they were different in almost every way.
“No, it’s ok, brother,” Silvanus said, “look.” He picked up the wands and lined up their bases. Severus’ had two thick bands of ornate etchings at the handle, while Silvanus’ handle had the look of lumpy unfinished wood. But then Silvanus flipped his wand over so that their two wands pointed in opposite directions. He lined up the handles, and pointed his fingertip to a rough indentation in the helve of his own wand. Then he pointed to the smooth raised ridge between the two bands of engravings on the handle of his brother’s wand. He pressed the handles of their two wands together, and Severus could see that they fit like puzzle pieces.