Chapter 43: Gallian and Leila (Please add to your reading list)

Before this, Silven had never known Ron's voice could be so penetrating — he could hear it clearly even from several dormitories away.

It seemed Hedwig had not let Harry down, having flown back in time before Christmas.

This way, he could accept Harry's seven Galleons with a clear conscience.

Strictly speaking, this counted as the second wand Harry had bought, so he couldn't enjoy the discount price, but since it was for Ron's use, Silven didn't fuss over it. He only mentioned it in a letter to his grandfather, asking him to put this wand on Ron Weasley's tab.

That way it would also be easier to claim a wand subsidy from the Ministry of Magic.

Either way, they weren't getting the short end of the stick.

Five minutes passed, and Ron was still shouting over there. Silven paid him no mind and continued unwrapping his own presents.

The second long, thin box was from his grandfather — inside was a length of wood, tawny brown mottled with darker streaks, its surface covered in a brown, net-like layer of scaly fuzz that, at a glance, looked just like a snake's scales.

Silven held the branch in his hand, surprised. Silver-fern wood, also called snake wood — although it grew like a tree, it was actually a kind of fern.

Precisely for this reason, it was almost impossible to find Bowtruckles on snake wood; only a very rare one or two might, by some stroke of luck, earn their favor and become wand-quality magical wood.

Worth mentioning: Salazar Slytherin's wand was made of snake wood.

And what his grandfather would send as a Christmas gift could naturally not be ordinary snake wood.

Silven rubbed his chin — it looked like during his time at school, his grandfather had found something good again.

Once the school holidays came, he'd need to find another excuse to visit the warehouse.

Thinking as he went, Silven unwrapped the third parcel…

It was a big bag of sweets from Hermione — not Honeydukes' kind, but Muggle candy, five or six different flavors.

And five Galleons from Harry (truly a plain, unadorned, yet thoroughly sincere gift)

Besides those, Ron gave a quill, Neville gave Chocolate Frog cards, Seamus gave dried fish jerky for pets, with a cat drawn on the packaging (Silven suspected Tom wouldn't touch this sort of junk food).

Professor McGonagall also sent a gift — a full twenty issues of Transfiguration Today magazine.

Silven was very curious how the professor had managed such a precisely reciprocal gift.

When he'd given Professor McGonagall a wand as a gift, he hadn't given any advance notice, yet she had reciprocated — the only professor to do so.

House-elf? Or Name Magic?

Silven didn't think too much about it, casually pulling out one issue of the magazine and walking out of the dormitory.

Outside, Fred and George were egging their little brother into putting on a dark magenta sweater — they themselves were wearing the same style, only in blue, with two extra letters on the chest.

George's was a yellow "F", Fred's a yellow "G".

Presumably Lady Weasley had designed it that way specifically to tell them apart.

But clearly, the design was useless — they had deliberately worn their sweaters inside out.

Silven walked past them and arrived at the common room. He planned to head to Hagrid's first to see if anyone was there, then go to the Great Hall.

However, just as Silven had stepped down the spiral staircase, he suddenly froze, staring in disbelief at the bespectacled middle-aged man sitting in the armchair.

For a moment, Silven thought he hadn't slept well last night and was seeing things — otherwise, how could he possibly be seeing his father in the Gryffindor common room?

This had to be fake…

"Hey, Silven, what are you standing there gawking at!" the man said with a smile, waving his hand.

"No, it's real!"

"What's real?" Gallian Ollivander laughed and pushed his glasses up. "What, is it that strange to see me?"

"Very strange," Silven said. "Wait — if you're here, my mother wouldn't also be…"

"She's over at the girls' dormitory," Gallian said with a smile.

"Alright then…"

Silven took a deep breath. It took him a good while to accept that his Christmas gift was suddenly seeing his parents at school. Then he couldn't help but mentally replay everything he'd done recently, and only after confirming there was no chance he'd been called in for a parent-teacher meeting did he let out a small sigh of relief.

"Why are you two here?"

"Consider it making up for it — after all, we weren't here when you started school," Gallian said. "Since we're back in Britain for once, we had to come see you. Since you're not going home for the holidays, us coming to school is the same thing. Oh, your mother came too."

As he spoke, Silven's mother, Leila Ollivander, also came walking over from the direction of the girls' dormitory and gave Silven a hug the moment they met.

"Darling, don't pay any mind to your grandfather's old fogey ideas," Leila said, kissing Silven's forehead. "I've looked into it — Gryffindor is perfectly fine."

She still remembered that letter Silven had sent at the start of term.

"Saying it's a college of reckless hotheads — that was ages ago. Not everyone is Godric Gryffindor. Is Minerva also a reckless hothead?"

"My grandfather doesn't actually mind that much," Silven offered in his defense.

"But how did you two get in?" Silven couldn't help but voice the part he understood least. "I remember Hogwarts generally doesn't allow parents to come and go freely, right?"

"It doesn't, but we have other ways," Gallian said. "Pomona Sprout and I have been friends for many years. Coming to visit an old friend at Christmas — Dumbledore certainly wouldn't refuse."

"Of course, and we can stop by to see you along the way," Leila said. She glanced around at the common room's layout, then turned and muttered quietly to Gallian: "You weren't wrong — this place is just a tiny bit worse than Beauxbatons."

"I heard that," Silven said, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Actually, before he decided to come to Hogwarts, the question of his schooling had always been the focus of debate for the whole family.

His grandfather was firmly for Hogwarts; his mother Leila considered Beauxbatons the best school and had rallied Gallian and Silven's grandmother, forming the largest faction; and finally there was his aunt, the Ilvermorny supporter.

Every time the three sides brought up the topic, the argument would go on endlessly. In the end, it was Silven himself who chose Hogwarts, putting a stop to this war without smoke.

"I've already started school — I can't exactly transfer to Beauxbatons now," Silven said, spreading his hands, not wanting to continue the topic.

Just then, several of the Weasley children and Harry also arrived at the common room.

They were equally surprised and puzzled by the sight of Silven's parents in the common room.

But the clever Weasley asked nothing. Fred and George enthusiastically greeted the two and offered to act as tour guides.

However, the offer was declined by Gallian and Leila, who produced the Christmas gifts they had prepared and handed them out to everyone.

A dried Blibbering Bubbler pod.

The thing would bounce and roll uncontrollably when it hit the ground — a magical version of a bouncy ball, and quite a fashionable toy among wizards.

The Christmas gift Silven received was also a bouncy ball — in this respect, they were quite even-handed.

Got on the recommendation list, want to run a few more rounds, asking for follows

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(End of chapter)