Chapter 69: The Blue Unicorn Outside the Window

At that evening's year-end banquet, to everyone's surprise, Gryffindor, which had been dead last in the points ranking, made a late surge and snatched the House Cup right out of Slytherin's hands.

Because Dumbledore counted everything that had happened in the underground chambers, he first awarded one hundred points to Silven Ollivander, for recklessly endangering himself to lure the rampaging three-headed dog out of the castle, thereby protecting the lives of most of the students.

That single award alone pushed Gryffindor straight from last place up to second.

Then Ron, Hermione, and Harry each received fifty points for fearlessly protecting the Philosopher's Stone.

Neville also got ten points for standing his ground, but that hardly mattered, because by the time Harry's points were added, they had already overtaken Slytherin and claimed the House Cup.

Gryffindor partied hard over it deep into the night.

Which suited Silven just fine — for certain reasons, his dormitory was simply too cold, and it was far more comfortable to stay in the warm common room.

It wasn't until the small hours, after everyone had gradually drifted off, that Silven finally returned to his dormitory, his heart still racing with excitement.

Good news: after all this time in contact, the dragon bloodwood had not been affected at all by the Voldemort fragment — it was the most suitable choice for a wand body.

But how to put it… it seemed almost too good.

While the exhausted students were still sunk in sleep, waiting to greet the upcoming holiday, they were instead greeted by a shrill explosion.

With a tremendous boom, at least a dozen or so windows were shattered, and Hogwarts Castle in the pre-dawn hours was instantly ablaze with light.

Then, the first few Gryffindors to wake up suddenly saw outside the window a unicorn radiating blue light all over its body — and a face they couldn't make out at all.

Merlin above, this is the eighth floor — where on earth did a unicorn come from!

But by the time they came to their senses and tried to get a better look, the unicorn was gone, leaving only a scene of utter wreckage.

A few minutes later, the professors arrived too.

But because the disturbance appeared suddenly and vanished again in an extremely short time, they couldn't figure out exactly what had happened.

All they knew was that it was near the Gryffindor common room, since that was the area hit hardest — nearly every dormitory window there had been shattered.

Ravenclaw came second, with half its windows broken.

Hufflepuff and Slytherin dormitories were in the dungeons, so they escaped unscathed.

Professor McGonagall, still in her nightgown, arrived at the common room and immediately turned a suspicious gaze on Silven.

There was nothing for it — Silven had a record. That two-foot wand he'd made last time had woken up half the castle.

This time it was even more outrageous — practically every student and professor in the whole castle was woken up!

Faced with Professor McGonagall's questioning, Silven simply opened his dormitory door.

There was nothing inside. The desks, chairs, bookcases and the rest had suffered damage too, but it was all about the same as in the other dormitories.

Professor McGonagall pressed her lips together. Her instincts told her this was absolutely connected to Silven — and what made it even more suspicious was that a few students kept glancing at Silven, whether deliberately or not.

Though a look in someone's eyes couldn't count as evidence, Professor McGonagall still noted it quietly to herself. At least until she caught the real culprit, she wasn't going to set aside that suspicion.

Perhaps because Hogwarts was about to go on holiday, the professors didn't dig deeper. They took a few older students along, restored the dormitories to their original state, and then left.

The castle stayed noisy and clamorous, and it was a full hour before things gradually quieted down again.

But that didn't mean the matter was over.

The next day, when the students set off in groups for Hogsmeade Station, they were still discussing the mysterious blue unicorn.

On this matter, however, opinions clearly split into two camps.

"Unicorns aren't blue, and they can't fly either." Cedric Diggory of Hufflepuff felt the Gryffindors were exaggerating and couldn't help giving them a little science lesson on unicorns.

But the Gryffindors insisted they had seen it.

At first this claim was treated as a joke, until several Ravenclaws stepped forward and said the same thing.

Unlike the famously bold Gryffindors, Ravenclaws rarely told tall tales — let alone the fact that this time as many as twenty or thirty of them came forward.

"I know it sounds absurd, but I really did see it — with my own eyes." Second-year Cho Chang was one of the most adamant Ravenclaws.

The unicorn had happened to sweep right past her dormitory window. She had never seen such a beautiful creature — its deep-blue body seemed draped in starlight, and the image seared itself into her mind in an instant.

So upon hearing Cedric's words, she stepped forward without hesitation. "If you didn't see it with your own eyes, don't be so quick to deny it. And this is Hogwarts — magic can make anything possible, right?"

"Mm… sorry…" Cedric was talked into a corner and could only offer an apology.

In fact, once the Ravenclaws came forward to testify, he too began to feel a little uncertain.

Could there really be blue, flying unicorns in the Wizarding World?

Happily, once Hogwarts let out for holiday, he could go and ask his father, who worked at the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures.

Meanwhile, in a certain corridor on the second floor.

"It was you, wasn't it!" Fred and George found Silven as he was heading downstairs and pressed him aggressively.

"What did I do?" Silven blinked innocently.

"The unicorn last night, of course." Fred stepped forward.

"You've been acting all mysterious these past few days — barely even leaving your dormitory."

"The same thing happened once during the Christmas holiday."

"And then your dormitory got smashed to bits."

"And now it's happened again — you dare say it has nothing to do with you?"

Their tone was utterly certain, as if they were dead set on pinning this on Silven.

"We're not as easy to fool as the professors." George added.

If it had been before, Silven would probably have thrown his hands open, admitted it straight out, and added — "So what, are you going to run off and tell the professors on me?"

But today he really wasn't in the mood. He tossed the Weasley brothers some offhand excuse and slipped past them.

Fred and George, however, seemed to notice that Silven wasn't in great shape — that pale-faced, listless look of his was barely any different from Harry's when he'd been sent to the hospital wing.

So they didn't press the matter further, only saying they'd come find Silven to hang out during the holiday.

Silven had mentioned before that he lived right above Ollivanders Wand Shop on Diagon Alley — easy to find — and for anyone connected to the Floo Network, it was no different from having him as a neighbour.

……

(End of chapter)