Sean shook his head.
Ollivander immediately understood and handed him a second wand.
"Ten inches. Redwood. Phoenix feather."
Sean tried again, casting the Levitation Charm.
This time it felt even more difficult than the previous wand.
He shook his head again.
"That's perfectly normal," Ollivander said patiently. "For a child, finding the wand that suits them isn't so simple."
"Try this one. Fourteen and a half inches. Chestnut wood. Unicorn hair."
Sean took it.
Then shook his head again.
"Try this one."
Sean shook his head.
"And this one."
Sean still shook his head.
After trying more than twenty wands, Ollivander finally spoke with a slightly awkward expression.
"You really are a picky wand owner."
Sean himself felt a little frustrated. At this rate, how many wands would he have to try?
Suddenly, an idea came to him.
He looked at Ollivander.
"Mr. Ollivander, you once said that it's the wand that chooses the wizard, not the wizard choosing the wand, right?"
Ollivander paused.
He had indeed said that many times.
He nodded.
"That's correct. The wand chooses the wizard best suited to it."
"Then… can I try something?" Sean asked.
Ollivander wasn't sure what Sean had in mind.
Sean stretched out his small hand, palm facing upward, and said,
"Wand, come."
It wasn't a real spell—just a phrase Sean said casually.
But within his palm, a complete magical framework was forming.
The framework of the Levitation Charm.
During the past five and a half years, Sean had no wand, so he could only study theory and magical frameworks.
Yet he had managed to master one spell without a wand or incantation.
The Levitation Charm.
In the wizarding world, wandless magic wasn't unheard of.
Nonverbal magic was even more common.
A wand was simply a medium that helped guide and coordinate the magic inside a wizard's body.
Without a wand, constructing the magical framework became several times more difficult.
As for the incantation, it mainly helped stabilize and coordinate the structure of the spell.
Ollivander was stunned.
What kind of talent was this?
A child capable of casting wandless magic at such a young age.
The Grylls family had produced a remarkable wizard.
At that moment, among the thousands of wands in the shop, one reacted to Sean's magic.
The wand trembled inside its box.
Then the box slid out slowly from the lowest shelf of the twelfth row.
As the box floated out, the surrounding wand boxes lost their balance and collapsed in a clattering cascade.
Ollivander didn't even blink.
This kind of thing happened all the time in his shop.
That was why the place was always such a mess.
What truly caught his attention was the wand that had flown out on its own.
The wand box hovered above Sean's palm.
Sean opened the box with his left hand and lifted the wand out.
The moment Ollivander saw it, he immediately identified its materials.
"Fifteen inches. Black walnut. Thestral tail hair."
"It's a powerful wand. Black walnut is far rarer than common walnut wood. It chooses owners with keen intuition and powerful insight."
"It also has a well-known quirk. It is extremely sensitive to inner conflict. If its owner deceives themselves in any way, the wand will lose its power instantly."
"But if it bonds with a sincere and self-aware wizard, it becomes one of the most loyal and impressive wands of all—producing spells of remarkable quality across every branch of magic."
Sean listened carefully.
Self-awareness?
So basically… you just had to be honest with yourself.
That wasn't hard.
But the Thestral tail hair surprised him.
If he remembered correctly, Dumbledore's Elder Wand also used Thestral tail hair.
"Thestral? You mean the creature that only people who've witnessed death can see?" Sean asked.
"You know about them?" Ollivander replied. "Yes. Thestrals were once believed to be an omen of misfortune. Some say that those who see them will suffer terrible disasters."
"But that is merely superstition. It does nothing to diminish the power of this wand."
Sean thought to himself that he probably counted as someone who had seen death.
After all, he had died once already.
He suddenly felt curious about seeing one of those mysterious magical creatures with his own eyes.
"Give it a try," Ollivander said expectantly.
Sean switched the wand from his left hand to his right.
Then he cast the spell he had practiced tens of thousands of times.
At the tip of the wand, an invisible magical framework rapidly formed.
The feather on the table floated up again.
This time, the process felt incredibly smooth.
It required only half the effort of his wandless casting.
Clearly—
this wand belonged to him.
Sean nodded and looked at Ollivander.
"I think this is the one."
"Ten Galleons," Ollivander said crisply.
Sean paid just as quickly.
Just as he was about to leave the shop, the Weasley twins pushed the door open and walked in.
"Hey, genius," one of them called out—Sean wasn't sure whether it was George or Fred.
Back in the Leaky Cauldron, Molly had praised Sean for being clever.
Apparently, the twins had wasted no time giving him a nickname.
Sean didn't mind.
It suited those two troublemakers perfectly.
"My wand's already taken care of," Sean said with a grin as he headed for the door. "Good luck, Troublemaker Number One and Troublemaker Number Two."
He walked out of Ollivanders.
"Hey, George," Fred said.
"I think Hogwarts won't be boring this year."
George watched Sean's departing figure and nodded.
"You're right, Fred. That's an interesting guy."
Sean had no idea that the casual nicknames he gave the twins had instantly earned their goodwill.
At Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, Madam Malkin hurried forward to greet Sean the moment he entered, even though other customers were already in the shop.
"The Boy Who Lived—Sean Grylls. Finally old enough for school."
Her announcement immediately drew the attention of the other customers.
They all turned toward Sean, whispering quietly to the people beside them.
Sean didn't bother paying attention.
He already knew what they were saying.
That his parents had been Death Eaters.
That the Grylls family were traitors.
He had heard it all before.
"Madam Malkin, we know each other pretty well by now. Any chance of a discount?" Sean asked.
Madam Malkin replied without hesitation.
"Ten Galleons."
Sean cursed silently.
That was just the original price.
And she had greeted him so warmly too.
At that moment, a little girl with long chestnut hair walked over.
Her skin was fair, her features delicate.
But what stood out most were her large blue eyes—bright and lively like stars in the night sky.
Her posture and bearing carried an unmistakable noble elegance.
After living in this world for so long, this was the first time Sean had seen a girl so beautiful.
For a moment, he even wondered if she had some Veela blood.
"Hello, Sean Grylls. My name is Christina crouch, but everyone calls me chris . I'm also a first-year Hogwarts student this year."
"Hello, Chris."
Sean found the surname familiar.
Crouch?
Wasn't that the surname of Barty Crouch, the senior official at the Ministry of Magic and current Head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation?
It seemed Chris was also a member of the Crouch pure-blood family.
"The Boy Who Lived," Chris said, pausing briefly before continuing, "one of them."
"I didn't expect we'd be in the same year."
"See you at Hogwarts."