Chapter 68: Dragon

Silven was troubled; last night he had slapped his forehead and made a bold decision—to build a new home for the poor fragment of Voldemort that could shield it from wind and rain.

In other words, he wanted to turn this fragment of Voldemort into a wand core.

Silven knew this decision might be dangerous; a single slip could land him as lunch for Dementors, but what if it worked…

Silven had entertained this idea long ago—probably when he was seven, the first time he discovered he could craft wand cores from many impossible materials, and then he thought of Voldemort, and one day, while basking in the sun after a full meal, another question arose.

Is Voldemort, before his resurrection, a wizard or a magical beast?

This had merely been a question invented to kill time; Silven never expected to find an answer.

But now Silven suddenly realized the chance to test his hypothesis had arrived—he had obtained a fragment of Voldemort.

Who could resist this?

Besides having considerable skill and insight in crafting wand cores, Silven had another advantage.

He was a student at Hogwarts.

Yes, this identity nearly every wizard had once held was now his greatest backing and advantage.

If he failed, he would immediately confess to the Headmaster—Dumbledore could hardly watch a first-year student get dragged off to Azkaban by Aurors.

It was a bit shameless, but if it worked, even expulsion was better than becoming a neighbor to Dementors.

Besides, if he succeeded, he would have found another way to destroy Voldemort—this would be a contribution to the Wizarding World.

So after hesitating for one-third of a second, Silven made his decision and began selecting a suitable wand core material.

But once he actually began, Silven realized this step was far more difficult than he had imagined.

He first wove a net from unicorn tail hair, suspended the fragment inside it, then arranged various wand core materials around it.

The next morning, he woke to find every single core material destroyed—the Whomping Willow included—either frozen solid or withered and corroded by the fragment's influence.

Silven was heartbroken; that was the last remaining piece of Whomping Willow branch, and though too short for a standard wand, its destruction still pained him deeply.

Fred and George had nearly been killed trying to get it.

As a result, while everyone else talked about Harry's heroic deeds the next day, Silven sat alone, gloomy and silent.

Someone had leaked the full account of Harry's battle with Quirrell in the underground classroom, and within a night, the story spread throughout Hogwarts.

Even during yesterday's Quidditch final, many spectators had ignored the match, instead passionately debating with friends how Harry defeated Quirrell.

No one mentioned his earlier deduction of two hundred points anymore; people rushed to the hospital wing with gifts and sweets.

Ron had become the center of attention too—he repeated at least eight times a day how he won that chess game, and he never grew tired of it.

"I just don't get what's so impressive about any of this."

When Ron launched into another grand retelling in the common room, Fred and George, recently discharged from the hospital, couldn't help walking over to Silven and saying, "I've heard five versions already, each more exaggerated than the last—as if those chess pieces were thirty feet tall."

"Mm-hmm…" Silven murmured noncommittally.

"What if I try snake wood?" he thought, but still couldn't bring himself to decide.

Voldemort claimed to be Slytherin's heir; Slytherin's wand was made of snake wood… from this perspective, the fragment and snake wood were indeed a perfect match.

But this was only Silven's speculation… snake wood was extremely rare, and unlike the Whomping Willow, which was right here at Hogwarts—even if hard to obtain, as long as he wasn't expelled, he'd have chances.

But if he wasted snake wood, finding a second piece would be nearly impossible; even the one he received was only twelve inches long, and cutting even a half-inch for testing required careful deliberation.

And most importantly, snake wood might not withstand the fragment's natural cold.

"Maybe I should ask a ghost how to solve this?" Silven muttered under his breath.

"You just said you wanted to ask a ghost what?" Fred asked, frowning at Silven's muttering.

"Oh, nothing," Silven shook his head. "It's just—when you pass through a ghost, you feel freezing cold, so I was wondering if there's a way to fix that."

As if recalling something, the Weasley brothers shuddered simultaneously.

They had once passed through a ghost during class—the sensation was terrifying, like being plunged into the Black Lake on a snowy day, as if their blood would freeze solid.

They had even invented a Cold Air Cloak because of it, but sales were dismal—even in the hottest summer, wearing it made you shiver uncontrollably.

"Don't even think about it," George said. "That's just what ghosts are like. Even a warming charm doesn't work. The best solution is to put a blazing fireplace right inside them."

"So they'd get warm?" Silven asked.

"No," Fred chuckled, "they'd become way more noticeable. That way, you see them from far away and run the other way."

Noticeable… fireplace… wait.

Silven suddenly stood up, dashed past the Weasley brothers, and raced back to his dormitory.

He suddenly remembered—he had his own "fireplace," one that could be placed around a ghost.

"Found it!"

Five minutes later, Silven finally dug out from the very bottom of his trunk a specially preserved piece of wood.

A thousand-three-hundred-year-old Dragon's Blood Wood—one of the gifts from his grandfather Garrick Ollivander before term began, which Silven had never dared to use.

Voldemort's fragment's uniqueness made it nearly impossible to find a wand core material of matching affinity—so why not choose a completely opposite one to balance it?

Dragon's Blood Wood, grown in dragon nests, had essentially been nourished by dragonfire; it was naturally repelled by ghosts—that was precisely why Silven had never taken it out.

Hogwarts had plenty of ghosts; if he carried this around, he'd become their public enemy.

But now he didn't care anymore.

First, the basic compatibility test: Silven snapped off a piece of Dragon's Blood Wood and placed it beside the netted Voldemort fragment; after a moment's hesitation, he also cut off half an inch of snake wood and placed it on the other side.

Then Silven rubbed his hands and left the dormitory.

If this still didn't work, he'd have to consider having the unicorn charge again, to try reducing the "Voldemort" content within the fragment.

…

(End of Chapter)