Chapter 48: Dumbledore

The wand, which had taken him a full ten days to make, gave Silven a genuine roller-coaster ride of an experience.

After seeing the 【Backfiring】 trait, Silven felt the room go dark before his eyes and nearly fainted from sheer exasperation — a wand with a one hundred percent chance of "blowing up in the wielder's face." If word of this got out, he would absolutely become a laughingstock among wandmakers.

And it wasn't even a simple "blow-up" — it returned the spell straight back to the caster, completely closing every loophole; holding it upside-down by the tip wouldn't help either.

As for the second trait, 【Dullness】… if 【Backfiring】 didn't exist, Silven would have been overjoyed, because it meant he could fire Avada Kedavra the way one casts Lumos, launching what would truly be saturation bombardment.

Taken on its own, it was unquestionably the most heaven-defying wand trait Silven had ever seen — not even a golden legend, but a rainbow-rarity with special effects.

But unfortunately, paired with 【Backfiring】, every single offensive charm became unusable, and its usefulness plummeted.

Otherwise he'd only be able to hurt himself.

By this point, the wand was essentially half a failure — until the final trait, 【Iron Armor】, appeared.

Defensive charm effect +30%. Just as its description said: simple, brutal, and powerful — and it vaulted the entire wand right back to the top tier.

For wizards chasing raw power, this effect certainly couldn't compare to 【Dullness】 on its own, but from a different angle, the two could be considered evenly matched.

That angle was: ultimate auxiliary capability.

Silven narrowed his eyes, and quickly thought of a key charm.

The Shield Charm, which shared its name with the third trait — and a Shield Charm boosted by 30%.

Under the effect of 【Dullness】, a wizard using this wand didn't have to worry about incantations, wand movements, or any other factor at all — just mindlessly pour magic power into the wand, and an entirely new layer of Shield Charm would instantly refresh over him.

And then there was 【Backfiring】, which for now guaranteed the Shield Charm's stability, ensuring it wouldn't land on someone else due to panic, mistakes, enemy interference, or any other reason.

Besides, Silven remembered that this charm was originally meant to be cast on oneself — whether it could trigger the 【Backfiring】 trait and produce a double Shield Charm, however, remained unknown.

Beyond all that, there was also a hidden trait the wand's listing hadn't mentioned — he'd tentatively call it 【Solidity】.

The hard oak, combined with an entire troll spine, pushed the wand's weight to an absurd degree; holding it felt like gripping a solid steel plate of the same size.

And judging from the sorry state of the dormitory just now, one could easily imagine what would happen if someone got whacked by it.

Probably — Stupefy (physical edition)?

Silven patted his own cheeks, forcibly calming himself down.

He suddenly realized that he himself probably couldn't use this wand.

For one thing, it was far too heavy — lugging something like that around meant he could never catch anyone, and after a while he'd probably run out of strength first.

And then there was the fact that his own strength was limited, making it hard for him to bring out the wand's true killing power.

But someone could — and that someone was, you might say, a perfect match.

Hagrid — a half-blood giant!

A giant's tremendous strength let him easily lift this heavy wand, while his half-giant heritage gave him the ability to use magic.

Silven raised an eyebrow; it seemed he'd found his Christmas return-gift for Hagrid.

And given Hagrid's eleven-foot height, the wand would fit his hand perfectly; on top of that, a half-blood giant naturally possessed magic resistance far beyond that of an ordinary wizard — another layer of armor stacked on.

Wait!

Silven seemed to think of something and sat bolt upright, but soon shook his head in disappointment.

What was he thinking — a half-blood giant's innate gift wasn't magic in the first place, so how could it possibly count under 【Iron Armor】?

But even so, it was terrifying enough.

Just imagine: on a chaotic battlefield, a half-blood giant who could almost ignore magic comes charging at you at seventy miles per hour, swinging an "Avada Kedavra wand"…

Just picturing that scene would give anyone nightmares.

Silven couldn't help but shiver, and for a moment he even hesitated about whether to give it to Hagrid. What if one day Hagrid got impulsive and decided to tear down the Ministry of Magic?

When that happened, could the Aurors stop him?

Silven sat on the bed letting his thoughts run wild, feeling his eyelids grow heavier and heavier, and before he knew it he had fallen asleep.

When Silven woke up the next day, it was already nearly noon; he rubbed his forehead and groggily checked the time.

The very next second he was wide awake.

He was late… or rather, class would be over in another twenty minutes!

Damn it — this was the worst thing about a single dormitory: nobody would come wake him up for class.

Silven scrambled into his clothes and shoes in a panic, flung the door open, and made to dash outside.

"Good morning, Mr. Ollivander."

A gentle voice made Silven stop in his tracks, and he began to wonder if he was still asleep.

He must still be dreaming — otherwise, how could he be seeing Dumbledore standing behind his door?

"I can testify that you are, in fact, awake," Dumbledore said with a chuckle. "Would you care to join me for a cup of tea? After all, thanks to your little incident, I only got an hour of sleep last night before being woken up."

"Ah? But Headmaster, I still have class," Silven said instinctively. "I'm already late."

"That's something you needn't worry about at all," Dumbledore said. "I took the liberty of excusing you with Professor Flitwick — and it seems to have come in handy just in time."

"…All right then."

"Thank you. Oh, and do remember to bring that remarkable wand of yours."

With Dumbledore saying as much, Silven naturally had no further objections; he went back to the dormitory, hoisted the wand onto his shoulder, and followed him out of the Gryffindor common room, arriving at the Headmaster's office two corridors away.

This was Silven's first time in the Headmaster's office; he tossed the wand onto the desk, panting heavily, while curiously taking in the furnishings of the room.

After looking around, what caught his interest most was the silver instruments on the table, puffing out white smoke.

"At night I like to put a dose of Dreamless Sleep Draught inside them — it helps me fall asleep quickly. Of course, right now there's only ordinary Wakefulness Potion inside; Madam Pomfrey of the hospital wing gave it to me, saying it helps prevent flu," Dumbledore said. "May I see that wand?"

"Of course." Silven nodded.

"Thank you." Dumbledore walked to the desk, placed his hand on the wand, and lifted with all his might…

For some reason, his motion suddenly paused for a moment; then, with a slight flick of his fingers, the wand floated up steadily and stopped in front of Dumbledore.

Oh!

Watching Dumbledore's action, Silven smacked his forehead in frustration.

Damn it, how could I forget the Levitation Charm… It's not as if he didn't have other wands, so why did he have to lug this thing over here?

On the other side, Dumbledore stared at the wand for a while, then said softly, "It really is a wand, no doubt about it — what a remarkable skill."

"That's nothing special." Silven shook his head. "There are plenty of remarkable wizards in the Wizarding World. I've heard there's a very famous Auror recently who can transform into any appearance at will without even drinking Polyjuice Potion."

"Ah, I think I know who you're talking about." Dumbledore said, "Nymphadora Tonks — the only Metamorphmagus in five centuries. What an enviable gift."

"But you're not bad either." Dumbledore raised his head, his azure-blue eyes looking at Silven through the lenses perched on the bridge of his nose.

"I heard the core of this wand is an entire troll's spine bone — is that right?"

(End of chapter)