Ollivander

I am in search of a new one of these and used some time this morning to conduct a bit of research and do a little shopping around. I walked into a local art supplier's store and was greeted by the hearty smell of oil paint and canvases. But my mission is a brush for watercoloring so I steered myself to the left side of the first aisle and began picking up brushes and feeling their weight in my hand. Eventually I asked the portly sales associate a question and he came over to show me a thing or two.

I wanted an experience like his when he chose his wand in preparation for entering the world's best school for witchcraft and wizardry. I wanted to walk into a little shop where the wise owner was bustling about before I prodded him with questions and he helped me select the perfect wand. I wanted it to choose me.

So I watched as he picked up a brush in his hands and filled it full of water. He proceeded to flick the brush in demonstration and my might was illuminated with delight. "Swish and flick!" It was almost too good to be true. The beautiful sable hair came to a fine point and he painted a few lines with water on a colored page. Then he walked back behind the counter and took out a slender, red, satin-lined box. It contained a stunning brush. If I were set on my medium and perhaps came into a great deal of money, I would have purchased that little gem then and there. But the cost equaled what I have to pay towards tuition, so I left a piece of my heart in the box and he put it back in the glass case.

I think I found my brush. Not the glass-case wonder, but an almost equally as beautiful one that whispered my name as it was flicked through the air by a man who strangely resembles Ollivander.