Chapter 153 The Magic of Being "Killed"
Chapter 153 The Magic of Being "Killed"
Chapter 154 The Magic of Being "Killed"
Garrick and Celan spent a whole week in a room full of books, and were scolded by the pictures in the books for a week, but they still couldn't find the reason why the wand failed.
It seems that the Ollivanders never used basilisks to make staff cores before.
There are snakes like the Neven and the longhorned water snake, and quite a few of them, but no basilisk. There is only one that is somewhat related, which was made by Ollivander in the 10th century using the tail feathers of a rooster that hatched a basilisk.
After that, there was nothing more about the basilisk.
For the next few days, Xiren was absent-minded and couldn't muster any energy for anything. "Perhaps the curse magic in the basilisk's eyes is too strong, and the basilisk tree itself is not long enough," Garrick comforted him.
The failure was likely due to insufficient snakewood length, but it was the most plausible explanation at the moment. Two weeks later, after failing to find any further answers, Xilun had no choice but to accept this explanation.
Every time Xilun thought about how the precious snakewood and the snake monster's eye had been turned into a useless failure, he felt his heart bleeding.
Garrick Olifander suggested taking him abroad to relax, to the Black Forest in Germany, the Glacier Forest in Norway, or the primeval forests of Albania.
These are some of the most famous magical forests in the world, each with its own unique scenery and magical creatures, making them well worth a visit.
However, Xilun wasn't in the mood, so she refused and chose to distract herself from her low spirits by doing her homework.
Hogwarts' holiday homework is of average difficulty, but there is a lot of it, almost the same as the homework for Easter.
Siren forced himself to focus on the spellbook, quill, and parchment, only then could he temporarily forget about the failed snakewood wand.
Xilun spent three days flipping through potion books and finally finished writing his paper on shrinking potions.
It was Snape again. Every time, he assigned the most difficult homework. But for the first time, Siron thought that it would be great if all homework was like Potions class, where you had to read the whole book carefully before you could find the answers in every corner.
At least when he was doing his Potions homework, he rarely thought about Snakewood anymore, and instead cursed Snape in his mind.
Time passed both quickly and slowly, and it was already the end of July.
When the owl delivered the letter from Hogwarts, Sirius was writing his final essay on the history of magic, entitled "The Fourteenth-Century Practice of Burning Witches at the Burning of Their Heads Is Utter Nonsense."
A true wizard can extinguish the heat of a flame with a simple, basic Fire Condensation spell.
As Siron was writing, an envelope was thrown in front of him. His hand trembled, leaving a noticeable ink stain on the parchment.
"Oh, you startled me—" Celen waved his wand, wiped the ink off the parchment, then looked up at the owl on the windowsill and said irritably, "Your work ethic will get you complaints."
The owl tilted its head, as if to say, "The owl knows nothing, just give me the nuts."
Instead of giving the owl nuts, Celen rudely shooed it away, listening to the owl's chirping as it flew away.
His mood suddenly improved.
"I'm such a jerk," Siron muttered to himself. "But it doesn't matter, what can I do? I'm a Gryffindor."
'
He opened the envelope and glanced at it. He had expected it to be the book list for next semester, but it wasn't. There was only a very short sentence on it.
A storm may occur in a month; please be prepared.
Your loyal Minerva McGonagall, a month later, the storm?
Xilun's eyes lit up; finally, there was something that could truly make him happy.
I'm really looking forward to it! What will his Animagus form be like?
A flexible feline would be great, and of course, one that can fly would be even better.
With these thoughts in mind, Xilun went downstairs.
When Garrick saw the envelope from Hogwarts in Siron's hand, he also assumed it was a school notification.
"The letter came really early this year." He walked outside, turned the "Closed" sign upside down, and took out last year's sticker GG sign, placing it at the entrance of the alley.
"Ding ding."
The door had barely opened when they encountered their first guests—well, not really guests, but Fred and George.
"I have good news for you." Fred winked at Celen as soon as he came in.
"You have absolutely no idea what I'm going to say."
"Let me guess—" Siron looked at him, "Mr. Weasley has won the lottery, your whole family is going on a trip to Egypt."
Is that right?
"How...how did you know?" George's eyes widened.
"Because I am a prophet," Siron said. "Remember? It's written on Lockhart."
"Come on, you must have read the Daily Prophet." Fred waved his hand. "My dad won the Galleon jackpot, a whole seven hundred Galleons."
"Mom is going to use all of it on this trip." George didn't continue acting and just smiled and shrugged.
"Let's leave tomorrow."
"Let's buy some necessities."
"I just wanted to drop by and see you."
The two men spoke with barely concealed excitement, clearly looking forward to their trip to Egypt.
"Oh, and we'll bring you a gift then."
"How about a mummy?" Fred said with a laugh.
"I have no objection," Celen said, "provided you can bring it back to England."
"It's difficult, but it's worth a try," George said seriously, though it was unclear whether he was joking or being earnest.
Well, it's probably a joke.
"I've heard that mummies are cursed," George said, becoming serious. "And this curse can even spread to the bandages. We need to plan this carefully."
"That's right, it would be best to find something to weaken the curse, so it will be much easier to bring it back later."
As the two were talking, they didn't notice that Siren's expression suddenly changed at a certain moment, as did Garrick Ollivander's.
They all seemed to be thinking of the same thing.
"I know, it's the curse of the snake's eyes!"
A sudden realization dawned on Siron; he finally understood why the wand had failed.
The curse of the basilisk's eyes can not only kill all living beings, but also erode magic.
Just like a ghost that the Killing Curse can't touch, it freezes under the basilisk's gaze.
Therefore, it was the core of the staff that "killed" the magic within the snakewood staff.
This explains why the magic imbalance occurred: the magic on the staff was "killed," which naturally caused the imbalance!
"That's right, that must be it!" Xilun shouted excitedly, then ran upstairs without looking back.
Garrick followed him upstairs, leaving only Fred and George, unaware of what was going on, standing there blankly at the empty counter in the wand shop.
"What's wrong with them?" Fred asked. "Also, what Siron said earlier was correct."
"I don't know either." George shook his head and said tentatively, "Maybe it's the way we handle mummies."
"Wait a minute—he doesn't really want us to bring back a mummy, does he?"
"Um, it's hard to say—"
"Why don't we just run away?" Fred suggested. "Let's pretend nothing happened."
"Good idea."
The two exchanged a glance, then turned and ran out of the wand shop.
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