[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker":3,"chapter-hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-chapter-53":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Hogwarts: Don't Call Me a Wandmaker",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2292305,4482,"Chapter 53: The Impatient Weasley Brothers","hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-chapter-53",53,"\u003Cp>This mission was incredibly thrilling for Silven; he wasn’t sure if he’d heard voices shouting inside the castle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, it might have just been the wind, or some other sound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, Silven never encountered Filch or Professor Sprout, and returned safely to the Gryffindor common room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Next time, I’m telling the professors!” the Fat Lady said, threatening as she swung open the entrance to the common room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven pretended not to hear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Weasley brothers had already told him: the Fat Lady only talked big—she’d never report students for sneaking out at night, because that would only bring trouble upon herself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To Silven’s surprise, it was already past midnight, yet the common room was lit up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he realized it was Fred and George, sitting in armchairs, fiddling with a pile of junk they’d clearly scavenged somewhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were perfectly calm at his sudden appearance—they’d already known he’d be back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We were just saying you’d probably be returning soon,” Fred said, glancing over at Silven.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s that you’re holding?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A branch,” Silven said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You broke curfew, sneaked out of the castle in the middle of the night, just for a branch?” George didn’t understand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aren’t there branches everywhere? Why risk getting caught by venturing out in the dead of night?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This is a Whomping Willow branch,” Silven emphasized, walking over and sitting in the armchair across from them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s so special about it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It sells for three Galleons an ounce—twice the price of dragon’s blood by weight.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How much?” Fred and George both jumped to their feet, their voices changing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“An ounce?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are you sure you didn’t mean three Sickles, not three Galleons?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No mistake—it’s Galleons,” Silven nodded. “And even at three Galleons, you might not be able to buy it even if you wanted to.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven had asked his grandfather Garrick Ollivander: there was only one Whomping Willow in all of Britain, and fewer than ten in the entire magical world—its rarity matched that of the phoenix among magical creatures.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Currently, Fawkes was the only phoenix in Britain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So this stuff was genuinely expensive, and Silven genuinely couldn’t afford it—otherwise he wouldn’t have taken the risk.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As for applying to the headmaster for permission… if even his grandfather couldn’t manage it, how could Silven, a first-year student?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Professor Sprout held veto power over this matter—even Dumbledore’s word meant nothing, even though the Whomping Willow was planted here by him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, after receiving Silven’s confirmation, the Weasley brothers’ eyes nearly turned into Galleons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh…” Fred groaned, “what have we missed…”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They knew the school had a Whomping Willow, but had never given it a second thought—now it looked like a tree made of pure gold.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No, wait—if you calculated by three Galleons per ounce, even solid gold would need to be much larger to match its value.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They exchanged a glance, said nothing, and bolted out the door.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven didn’t even have time to react; by the time he snapped out of his shock and chased after them, they were already gone into the dark corridor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why the rush? At least let me finish speaking… Silven returned to the common room, uneasy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was no stopping them now—hopefully they’d be alright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven sat back down in his original spot, staring at the pile of junk on the table.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A chipped plate, a faded old tapestry, mildewed parchment… he had no idea where the Weasley brothers had dug up these scraps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After thinking for a moment, Silven moved to another seat and for the first time seriously examined his haul of the night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The leaf had withered instantly upon hitting the ground, leaving only a gray-brown branch—rough, hard, yet surprisingly light in hand, feeling about as heavy as oak wood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven measured it with his hand—it wasn’t long, roughly twenty inches. Perfect for one wand; two would be pushing it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Silven stared at it a while longer. Since he had no sleepiness at all, he decided to begin preliminary processing right there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>First, remove the rough bark. This time, Silven didn’t choose the Cutting Charm—he had a better option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Purify the impurities!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The tip of Silven’s wand glowed warm yellow, then a gentle breeze, like a living serpent, curled around the branch and spiraled forward. Where the wind passed, dust, pebbles, and tiny twigs were swept clean.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Unify as one!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This time, silver-white light shimmered—the rough bark seemed compressed by invisible force, gradually smoothing into evenness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The famed Eastern European wandmaker Gregorovitch typically stripped the bark from his wands, believing rough bark hindered magical flow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ollivander held the opposite view, and Silven naturally agreed—he believed complete integrity mattered far more than isolated advantages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Using magic to fully fuse the entire branch together was time-consuming and laborious, but absolutely necessary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Half an hour later, the Whomping Willow branch had shrunk considerably, its once-rough bark now smooth as marble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The first step was complete.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But before Silven could do anything else, he heard a rustling at the entrance to the common room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fred and George returned, heads drooping, dragging themselves in through the portrait hole.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yes—they crawled in. Their faces and clothes were caked in dirt; George’s robe had a large tear, revealing a filthy blue sweater underneath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As soon as they entered, they collapsed onto the floor, gasping for breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Its temper… is truly fierce… isn’t it?” Fred looked up at Silven, voice hollow. “You really should’ve told us sooner.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Who told you to run off like that? I hadn’t even finished speaking.” Silven shrugged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Who could resist?” George murmured. “Now I finally understand why Whomping Willow is so valuable… it’s even more terrifying than a dragon.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You should be grateful,” Silven said. “This Whomping Willow has been planted at the school and ‘coddled’ by Professor Sprout for over a decade—its aggression has long since faded. Otherwise, you’d already be fertilizer.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t say that,” George said, turning pale as if imagining something horrific—though more than fear, his face showed regret and disappointment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Actually, when that thing tried to smash my head, it broke off some branches—I saw them,” Fred sighed. “But the noise woke Hagrid.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Professor Sprout came too. We didn’t have time to collect anything—we had to run back.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait—you were spotted by the professors?” Silven couldn’t help asking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She didn’t see us,” George said. “Maybe she thought some animal angered the Whomping Willow.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I hope so,” Silven said—but he cleared the entire table in record time, grabbed the transformed branch, and headed for the dormitory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Professor Sprout might not have seen them—but what if she had? If ghosts started checking each house, staying in the common room would be far too risky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1107,"2026-06-20T04:03:11.805Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","c710ff938424492ade513279f5b13a1ad113b27fe3ba97dee0c4458fea579956","hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-chapter-54","hogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-chapter-52",149,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fhogwarts-don-t-call-me-a-wandmaker-cover.jpg"]