Chapter 28: The Only Thing Left
Annie cleared her throat and stood up from the couch. She clasped her hands behind her back and asked the wand in a serious tone, "Do you remember how we first met?"
"Of course, I do.", the wand answered, as if not understanding what she was getting to.
"Good! Because I want to state the obvious which is I don't think I'm a Muggle.", Annie said, "And I w-"
"Nope!", The wand interrupted her and said, "You are wrong! I didn't see any magic within you the last time I checked and I am a wand!"
"Oh, yeah? Then can you explain how I can hear your voice in my head? Huh?", Annie fired back.
Seeing that the wand turned silent, Annie crossed her eyes and smirked at it.
Witnessing the verbal battle between Annie and the wand unfold, Teddy put his head out of his blanket. It pulled out a gold coin from its pouch and bit it with its teeth while blinking at the two of them happily. He squeaked as if to say, "This is too interesting!"
"No answer?", Annie provokingly asked the wand who remained silent and said, "It's not just this one bizarre thing about me that makes me think that... somehow... I have magic inside me."
Annie continued, "The fact that all of the magical creatures I have seen are somehow enraptured and are calmed down near me or just by a single touch. Take the Horntail for example. It is regarded as a wizard killer by the Ministry of Magic. But..." She looked behind her at the giant dragon staring at her like a curious cat and said, "It's behaving like a docile creature not a violent one like it usually is."
"What about the fact that I can see everything that there is to see about any potion just by looking at it? And.. the most important thing is...", She took a pause and asked, "Do you remember the first time we met?"
"Yes," the wand replied.
"At that time, when the dark wizard attacked me with a spell, I could see the magic threads travel toward me and bind around my waist. And, there was this feeling I had that... I can't explain it yet. But, at that moment, I felt as if I needed to break the magic thread tied around my waist and I did that by focusing on that feeling or desire or whatever. Tell me, Mr. Wand. How could I break a spell? Even better, how could I negate a spell if I was a Muggle?"
The wand sighed again in defeat and said, "You can't. However, the fact still stands that I detected not even an ounce of magic inside you."
Annie sighed, shook her head, and said, "That's also true. I have tried to make a spell using you countless times and failed. But, I'm not quite sure what or how..., but there's definitely something... magic about me. Even you can't deny that."
"And, I won't. There is definitely something special about you.", The wand replied, "I realized that the moment I flew into your open palm."
"Good!", Annie smiled and said, "So, I thought.. what if.. just for one time.. you help me out."
"Of course!", The wand replied sincerely, "I would be very happy to help you in any way I can."
"So, what's the plan?"
Annie took a deep breath and revealed, "I want you to do a thorough search of my body and try to detect any magic that I might have, even if it's a teeny tiny one. I want you to reach out to it."
The wand paused for a few seconds and with a worried tone, said, "This is an interesting plan, I will give you that, but isn't this just a waste of your time and energy? I mean, I've gone through your whole body a couple of times already and still haven't found anything that I didn't already know ab-"
"Please.", Annie pleaded softly with a hopeful look in her eyes, "I need to make the potion-making spell and I need your help to do it."
"Fine!", The wand gave in to her pleas and said, "Fine! I will help you, but let me remind you, as I already have, there's absolutely not a speck of magic in you."
"Yeah, as if you haven't reminded me enough.", Annie said in a sour tone.
The wand did not say anything to give Annie a further excuse to be disrespectful. The girl needed to be kept at her place. Otherwise, if spoiled because of her uniqueness, she could become a very different person from what her heart had guided her to be so far.
Even the wand did not want to risk it. Not even a little bit.
So, it just said, "I want you to listen to me carefully Annie. I am going to go deep into your soul, as you said, and try to detect any sign of magical presence. If I somehow find it, that's perfect but if I don't.. well, you can guess what happens next."
Annie nodded. She tried to find a presence of anxiousness, any sort of worry about what she and the wand were about to do, but she was surprised to find none. All of a sudden, the tiredness had gone away from her. Now, she was calm. Collected. Concentrated.
Now, she only had to hope that this would go according to the plan. This was the only thing she could come up with.
However, this was a gamble and, even though it was far better than no plan, it wasn't without risk.