Chapter 87: The Transforming Lizard Pouch, and Another Use for Dragonblood Wood

That half-transparent, air-dried transforming lizard had always been kept in a box, and when Silven took it out, it looked exactly the same as it had that night—no change at all.

Held up to the sunlight, one could still see the faint, Rune-like patterns along its back.

If used as a wand core, it would certainly make an outstanding Transfiguration wand—even if not as dazzling as Silvermane, it would be no worse than Professor McGonagall's hair. Of this, Silven had no doubt.

But Silven had no intention of doing that; for him, this transforming lizard had a far more important use.

Silven sat by the window, took out the Mandrake juice he had just bought from next door at a steep price, and carefully dripped it into the transforming lizard's mouth.

Like ink dropped into water, the grey-brown Mandrake juice began to spread rapidly, and in the blink of an eye it had covered the lizard's original half-color.

At the same time, its shriveled body began to swell, and after a few seconds it drifted lightly down into Silven's hand. By now it had completely changed appearance—the wrinkled, grey-brown surface had no sheen at all, looking no different from a candy wrapper.

Ah… and the use was about the same, too.

Transforming Lizard Pouch (rough-processed version)—a very practical Magical item in the Wizarding World. From the outside it looks like a small pouch, but it can hold a considerable number of items, with very strong storage capacity.

Later, a wizard, basing himself on this property, invented the famous Extension Charm.

This is only preliminary processing; it can only store things. If one could find a reliable alchemist to help, one could have them draw out the transforming lizard's innate sensitivity to magical power.

When that was done, only the owner himself could take things out from inside, making it second only to a Gringotts vault in security—basically a portable vault.

But just as Gringotts can be robbed, the transforming lizard pouch is not absolutely safe either; if someone could forcibly break the pouch, they could still take the things inside.

Still, that depends on the alchemist's skill.

Silven currently didn't know any good alchemists, and he didn't need this function either—as long as it could hold things, that was enough.

He already carried quite a few wands on him, and there might be even more in the future; he couldn't just shove them all in his pockets.

Not only was it a hassle to find them, but walking around they clinked and clattered, which was very inconvenient. With a transforming lizard pouch, this problem could be solved nicely.

Silven hung the newly made transforming lizard pouch at his waist, and with a heave lifted the troll wand from the table and placed it on top.

Without any resistance, the two-foot wand was simply tucked into the fist-sized pouch. Silven tried moving around, and even the weight seemed to have been greatly reduced.

Nice stuff.

Silven dumped all the other wands from his pockets into it as well, keeping only the Silvermane he used often. Though the weight hadn't lessened by much, he just felt much more at ease.

Taking them out was also very convenient, because one's hand shrank when reaching into the pouch, so Silven only needed to remember where each wand was, and he could pull them out in the shortest possible time.

After a morning of practice, Silven was already using it skillfully—a swipe of his hand across the pouch, and he could switch wands.

Too bad the pouch's shape still wasn't the most convenient; it would be even better if he could wear it directly on his hand.

Thinking this, Silven instinctively looked beside the table—at a circular bamboo ring.

This was the Fengwei bamboo wand body he had prepared earlier for the transforming lizard; his grandfather Garrick believed this kind of wand body was best suited for casting Transfiguration.

If the transforming lizard core could retain its inherent property, Silven could wear it on his wrist in the form of a wand.

But after hesitating all night, Silven ultimately gave up on the idea for now.

A wand's properties couldn't be predicted, and without absolute certainty, Silven didn't want to take the risk.

This was another reason he wasn't looking for an alchemist.

Natural Mandrake juice wouldn't affect the transforming lizard's later use as a wand core, but if it had been alchemically processed, that was another story.

By the next day, Silven went and bought a roll of magical tape, and under his grandfather's puzzled gaze, carefully stuck the transforming lizard pouch inside the wide cuff of his school robes…

"Is that really necessary?" the old wandmaker didn't understand. "You're starting school soon—are you expecting to run into some kind of danger there?"

"Hard to say." Silven shook his sleeve. Not bad, stuck on pretty firmly.

"But you don't use any other wands normally."

"Just not right now—who knows, I might need them later."

"Oh, by the way, I've been meaning to ask—was that transforming lizard really something you just picked up?"

"Of course it was." Silven said, "Something this valuable—no one would just give it to me for free."

"I still find it hard to believe." Garrick's eyes were full of doubt.

He had lived in Diagon Alley for decades—how come he had never picked up a transforming lizard? He hadn't even picked up a single silver Sickle.

"Don't worry, I really did pick it up in Knockturn Alley," Silven said casually. "Isn't the Ministry of Magic cracking down on dark Magical items these past few days? Plenty of pure-blood families have gone to Knockturn Alley to sell things—maybe one of them dropped it."

"And what if they come looking for it?"

"Absolutely no one is going to come looking." Silven said without hesitation.

"Unless those six people all made Horcruxes too," he added in his heart.

But Garrick clearly misunderstood; he thought Silven meant those pure-blood wizards didn't dare let anyone know they had been to Knockturn Alley.

"Fine, you're starting school soon anyway." Garrick sighed. "Here's what you asked for—it was delivered just an hour ago."

He set a brown paper package on the table.

Silven couldn't wait to open it; inside were a dozen or so pieces of Dragonblood Wood of varying sizes.

"What did you want me to buy this stuff for?"

"To make wands, of course—surely not just to burn in the fireplace." Silven said. He picked up a piece of Dragonblood Wood and looked it over; judging from the grain at the cut, it was over fifty years old, and the rest were about the same—no shoddy substitutions.

"But Dragonblood Wood isn't suited for making wand bodies." Garrick said. "It's too active; in battle it tends to develop intentions completely opposite to the wizard's—that's a fatal flaw for a wand."

"That can also be its advantage." Silven said, pulling out a book, "Magical Pairings of Potions and Wands," and flipping to one of the pages.

"It says here that under specific conditions, the wand body can guide the wand core's magical direction."

"No, 'suppress' is the right word." Garrick blurted out.

"Not entirely." Silven said. "Just as unicorn tail hair is best suited for casting healing spells, and dragon heartstring has a particular fondness for Fire magic—these traits aren't something the wand body can suppress."

"But that way, a wand with a dragon heartstring core can only cast Fire spells." Garrick asked, "A wand that can only cast one type of spell—isn't that a failure?"

"It is… but it isn't, either." Silven said with a smile. "At least not for me."

He raised his arm and glanced at the transforming lizard pouch snug against his wrist.

……

(End of chapter)