Chapter 85: Conflict

That afternoon, Silven ended the queue work three hours early, but still generously gave everyone five Sickles.

In any case, eight or nine out of ten people in the queue at that point were his own people, so there wasn't much point in continuing.

Once the numbers thinned out, the remaining work could be handed off to his grandfather Garrick to help with, while Silven himself left the wand shop and came to the main street of Diagon Alley.

The signing event at Flourish and Blotts was still going on, with a large crowd still gathered at the door — and they were all genuine customers.

"Young Harry came to Flourish and Blotts today, only wanting to buy my autobiography…" As Silven passed the door, he just happened to hear Lockhart's smug voice drifting out from inside.

"I'm willing to give him this book for free… including a precious, my very own pure-gold wand sticker…"

The crowd applauded and cheered, all praising Lockhart for his generosity.

Silven outside the door joined in the applause.

Lockhart really was generous — the custom gold stickers and ordinary stickers combined had earned Silven over a hundred Galleons in total, so he was quite willing to play the atmosphere crew for once.

Silven clapped while observing the situation inside the shop.

Harry was taking a photo with Lockhart, with people from the Daily Prophet taking pictures; not far away, two people with identical platinum-blonde hair had just walked into the bookshop,

Draco Malfoy looked at Harry in the middle of the crowd, and his expression instantly turned ugly.

It seemed he had arrived just in time.

Silven breathed a quiet sigh of relief.

Earlier, when he had seen Jin Ni Weasley inside the shop, he had suddenly realized that something very important would happen today.

Voldemort's first Horcrux — that all-important diary — would be brought to Diagon Alley by Lucius Malfoy today.

Silven had come precisely for the diary.

He didn't care about some all-answering spell encyclopedia; the things he wanted to know, Tom Riddle couldn't answer either.

For example, how to craft a wand that could surpass the Elder Wand, or how to make a directional wand…

Would Tom Riddle know these things?

He definitely wouldn't.

Of course Silven didn't care about that either; what he cared about was Voldemort's soul inside the diary.

There was half of Voldemort's soul in there — whether in quality or quantity, it was nothing comparable to what a unicorn could pull off.

Silven had it all planned out.

Before term started, let the unicorn split up as much of the soul in the diary as possible — keep half for backup, use the other half to search for other wand-body materials that might work.

Silven wanted to know whether that one-time-use nature of the wand was caused by the core or by the wand body.

If it was the core, would choosing a different wand body produce a change?

After all, Voldemort was called the Dark Lord, and he nearly overturned the British Wizarding World; the lethal magic he mastered couldn't possibly be just one Avada Kedavra — it was simply that this curse was the easiest and most convenient to use.

When the time came, carrying a dozen or twenty different two-inch wands on his person, even if Voldemort really came back to life, he might not be able to do much to him.

Silven thought this to himself as he squeezed his way into Flourish and Blotts.

What happened next was just as he had imagined: Draco Malfoy deliberately picked a fight with Harry and Ron, and the atmosphere around them began to grow tense,

Then the adults from both sides entered the fray, and the tension in the air reached its absolute peak.

But the two families were hereditary enemies; nearly every time they met they would snidely mock each other for a couple of lines, and neither could gain the upper hand verbally.

So Lucius took a different tack, turning his spearhead on Hermione's parents, attempting to use their Muggle status to disparage the Weasley family — but that kind of heartfelt disdain and contempt made even Silven frown; pureblood arrogance was on full, vivid display on Malfoy.

"Look at the friends you've made, Weasley… I thought your family had already hit rock bottom."

"So you're mocking William the First?" Silven couldn't help but interject, immediately drawing everyone's gaze.

Most people found it baffling, not understanding why Silven had suddenly brought up William the First.

Lucius was also looking at Silven, but unlike the others, his eyes suddenly turned icy.

"What did you say?"

"William the First — surely you know him?" Silven shrugged.

"Oh, perhaps you know one of his Muggle friends… no, should be Muggle subordinate, who happens to also share the surname…"

"Shut up!"

Lucius suddenly let out a hysterical shriek, the piercing scream drowning out the rest of Silven's words; before people could collect themselves, he lunged at Silven like a madman.

"How dare you, how dare you…!"

At that moment he completely tore apart the carefully maintained mask of the pureblood aristocrat — elegance, decorum, none of it existed anymore; the platinum-blonde hair hung in disarray over his forehead, and his pale face was contorted with rage.

Even Draco Malfoy beside him was startled, not understanding why his father had suddenly flared up so violently.

But before Lucius could get close to Silven, another person threw themselves onto him.

When Lucius was disparaging the Granger family, Arthur Weasley had wanted to make a move, but had been interrupted by Silven butting in.

Now the emotion hadn't dissipated, so he could just continue.

And the reason was ready-made: Lucius Malfoy had gone mad in the street, attempting to harm a young wizard, and he had stepped in to stop it in time.

Lucius was struck; Draco Malfoy instinctively tried to lay hands on Mr. Weasley, and then Ron also joined the battlefield as naturally as could be.

Then there were Fred and George, who feared neither heaven nor earth falling into chaos, and Harry, who tried to break it up but accidentally stepped on Malfoy three times.

The entire Flourish and Blotts instantly descended into utter chaos.

And the cause of all this was simply that Silven had mentioned William the First.

But most people had already forgotten about that — like Mr. Weasley, they all thought Lucius had simply gone mad.

"Stop it — gentlemen — please stop —" the shop clerk called out helplessly as he watched bookcase after bookcase being knocked over.

Then a booming voice drowned out all the others: "Break it up, gentlemen —"

Hagrid strode in over books scattered across the floor, and in the blink of an eye had separated the tangled heap of people on the ground.

Lucius had one eye blackened, his lip split, and his hair a bird's-nest mess.

Draco was no better off, and there were several obvious footprints on him as well.

The Weasley family, by contrast, was in much better shape — with a five-to-two absolute advantage, they were only slightly disheveled.

"Who are you?!" Lucius asked coldly, staring at Silven.

"What a coincidence — someone asked me the exact same question not long ago, and you even know that person." Silven thought of the wraith of Voldemort, who had been butted by a unicorn; back then, just like Lucius, he had furiously demanded Silven's name.

Only this time, Silven had not only refused to answer — he hadn't even looked at him.

"Silven Ollivander. We've met before, though you clearly don't remember." Silven said with a smile. "If you have any doubts about what I just said, I can offer concrete proof — for instance, the eleventh-century wizard registry."

"Ollivander…" Lucius's face cycled through shades of green and red, then he ignored Silven and turned his head sharply toward Arthur Weasley on the other side.

Mr. Weasley craned his neck and stared back. "What do you want?"

Lucius said nothing; he simply picked up a battered Transfiguration textbook from the floor — the very book that had just bruised one of his eyes.

He flung the book into the empty cauldron in Jin Ni's hands, venting his spite; the force was so great that Jin Ni lost her grip for a moment, and the cauldron clanged onto the ground.

But Lucius didn't spare it a single glance.

"This isn't over. We'll see!"

He shot Silven another look, beckoned to Draco with a wave, and stormed out of the shop.

The Daily Prophet reporters immediately began pushing toward the exit as well — they were dying to know why Malfoy had suddenly gone mad.

Even Hagrid's record-breaking bulk couldn't intimidate them into abandoning their pursuit of the truth.

"Where are you going? Come back, come back at once…" Seeing the front-page scoop about to fly away, Lockhart could sit still no longer; he grabbed the short photographer and was dragged all the way to the door.

With that, the scene once again descended into chaos.

"Let's get out of here quickly." Hagrid frowned, and the suggestion won the others' agreement.

"Let me help you with that." Amid the chaos, Silven found the cauldron Jin Ni had just dropped.

"Thank you." Jin Ni thanked him politely.

But when she stepped out of Flourish and Blotts and reached to take her cauldron back, she saw Silven standing motionless at the door and asked instinctively:

"What's wrong with you?"

No one answered.

Silven stood holding a battered Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, staring blankly into the empty cauldron — there was no diary.

Apart from that Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, there was nothing else inside.

……

(End of chapter)