Chapter 51: Keep a Low Profile, a New Golden Legend

Although the thought was strong, Silven didn't rush to act on the Whomping Willow. He only glanced at it from afar a few times before following Neville and Seamus back to the castle.

After that, he honestly attended classes, did his homework, and tried as much as possible to make up the points that had been deducted before.

He couldn't be impatient…

It hadn't been long since his wand had gone out of control and nearly torn the dormitory apart. Neither Professor McGonagall nor Dumbledore had completely shifted their attention away from him yet.

If he did anything out of the ordinary again now, it would be very easy to be discovered.

Silven had no confidence either, not knowing whether the punishment would still be this light if he broke the school rules again.

After all, the professors' patience had its limits. They might tolerate him once, but that didn't mean they would tolerate a second time in a row.

Wasn't that famous magical-creature expert, Mr. Newt Scamander, expelled just for keeping magical creatures?

Although Silven didn't know exactly what Mr. Scamander had done, or whether he really had only kept magical creatures, no matter how you looked at it, keeping the professors' "anger meter" low certainly couldn't hurt.

Just like that night, a big reason Professor McGonagall only deducted twenty points from Silven was that she had received in advance the wand with a core of her own hair.

She had seen Silven's work and knew he was doing something serious, not deliberately causing trouble, so she only symbolically deducted twenty points as a reminder to him.

Because of this, Fred and George were torn for several days.

They just couldn't figure out why, when Silven had smashed the dormitory to pieces late at night and woken up half the castle, the consequence was only a twenty-point deduction, not even a single detention?

When they had been caught sneaking around before, the punishment had even included detention!

So first impressions really were important. Silven decided to play it safe. The safest move right now was to keep a low profile and wait until things blew over.

Strangely enough, ever since Silven had set his sights on the Whomping Willow, he no longer felt the slightest bit bored while making wands—in fact, his efficiency had improved quite a bit.

That sense of anticipation was like finding a clear goal, and everything along the way seemed to brighten as well.

Over the next few weeks, Silven remained immersed in this enthusiasm, almost forgetting about the Whomping Willow entirely.

Since the red cap heart had given Tom an extra meal, Silven temporarily didn't feel much like going to Snape, so he simply used the big Christmas bundle of wand-core materials Hagrid had given him.

Mainly because Snape's temper had been getting worse lately. Sometimes, when he ran into a Gryffindor student in the corridor, he'd find ways to dock two points from them.

If that person was Harry, the deducted points would double.

Silven naturally didn't want to go looking for trouble.

Besides, the things Hagrid had given were all quite good; there was no need to keep clinging to the red cap.

During this period, pretty much everyone knew that Silven made wands in his spare time, and quite a few people specifically came to watch up close. Silven mostly didn't refuse.

Seeing wand-making up close for the first time, most people were very curious, but after spending some time around him, everyone got used to it.

From time to time, people would even bring along things they thought might be useful.

More than once, Silven had to explain to them that tree branches picked up by the roadside couldn't be made into wands—no matter how straight or good-looking they were.

Pet cat hair and owl feathers were also unsuitable as cores; their magical compatibility was too poor, far inferior to toads, which were also common pets. It was a pure waste of time and wand-wood materials.

Of course, if someone was willing to pay, Silven didn't mind making a souvenir for them.

Pet hair plus a rowan-wood wand body, three Galleons each, clearly priced—not cheap, but not expensive either.

Still, this kind of high-end "toy" seemed quite popular. Silven received a total of thirty orders and made a nice profit.

That very night, he placed an order for a batch of premium magical wood, including hawthorn from Devonshire, as well as vine and beech wood from the French Pyrenees region.

Not only did it replenish all the wand-wood he'd used up this term, it left him with quite a bit extra.

By this calculation, Silven's enthusiasm for making wands only grew stronger, and it lasted all the way until the Easter holidays.

……

Perhaps because exams were approaching, the professors had piled on a mountain of homework—so much that Silven had to spend large chunks of every day in the library doing it, and could only continue making wands in the evening.

"You really should take some time to memorize the key points." After dinner one evening, Hermione looked at Silven and couldn't help but remind him: "Yesterday in Herbology, you got the habits of the Leaping Toadstool wrong. You'll lose a lot of marks in the exam."

"Thanks for the reminder, but I really don't have the time." Silven scratched his hair.

The Easter holidays were even worse than Christmas. The mountain of homework alone was enough to leave Silven at his wits' end.

He wasn't like Hermione, who could finish extra homework and still have time to memorize the twelve uses of dragon blood, or practice wand movements.

He had other things to do—things far more important than memorizing key points.

"Maybe you could… um, make a few fewer wands?" Hermione tried offering a suggestion.

"That's not happening." Silven refused without even thinking: "Exams don't matter. First-years don't take O. W. L. s. As long as I can move up to second year, that's fine. But wand-making definitely can't stop."

After finishing that two-foot-long wand, Silven could clearly feel the change in himself.

Not only was his speed at carving magical runes much faster than before, even converting wand cores came more easily. This was exactly the time to practice extensively and take himself a step further—how could he possibly stop?

Seeing Silven's firm attitude, Hermione opened her mouth, then said nothing more.

After dinner, Silven returned to the dormitory and continued his work.

Soon, half of the Easter holidays had passed, and Silven received an unexpected pleasant surprise.

It was a pure-black wand, made in a single day.

【Ebony, Acromantula leg, eleven and a third inches】

【Status: Perfect】

【Properties: Binding: Leg-Locker Curse effect +5%; Petrificus Totalus effect +5%; Imprisonment Curse effect +5%】

Although it was only 5%, three spells with positive bonuses, all highly practical spells, was enough to count as a golden legend.

But after seeing this wand's effects, Silven inevitably thought of the Whomping Willow again—both had multiple legs (branches), and in a certain sense, they seemed to go rather well together.

More importantly, Hagrid had given him two Acromantula legs; he'd only used one, and there was still one longer one left.

At this point, Silven could hardly sit still. The thought he'd hidden away resurfaced once more.

He wanted to trim the Whomping Willow's excess branches.

(End of chapter)