A Revolutionary's Wand

After Lisandro finished speaking, he confidently flipped over his cards.

Three Kings.

The highest hand aside from three Aces.

It was not that Lisandro did not want Vasco to help him get three Aces; there were only two Aces in his pile.

Even so, he had already secured his victory, because his opponent could not possibly put together a hand higher than three Kings.

At the same time, Murphy flipped over his own cards.

"Impossible!!" Lisandro shot to his feet. "You cheated!"

Spread out before Murphy were the highest possible three Aces.

Lisandro furiously spread out the rest of his cards. "I have two Aces here! There is no way you could have gathered three Aces!"

Murphy glanced at him. "Why don't you take another careful look at your cards? Are you sure you have two Aces?"

Lisandro looked down and froze.

Where were my Aces? Where were my two huge Aces?!

Every suit and number could be seen among the cards spread before him, except for Aces.

This was impossible!

He had calculated it when dealing the cards: two Aces on each side.

Did I mess up the sleight of hand?

Cheating!

His opponent had definitely cheated!

But the wands were in the notary's hands, and Murphy had not touched the cards throughout. How had he done it?

"I won," Murphy said. Before Lisandro could argue, he took another twenty Galleons from his pocket, placed them on the table, and pushed them over.

"What do you mean?" Lisandro was baffled.

"A game is only for making a friend. Fairness is not important, and winning or losing is not that important either, right?"

Lisandro hesitated for a while before finally pocketing the coins.

"Tell me. What do you want me to help you with?"

"Can we speak privately?"

"No need for all that trouble!" Lisandro rose, took both wands from the notary, and swept his gaze over the tavern patrons. "The tavern is closed. Get the hell out, all of you!"

Before long, aside from the bartender, only Lisandro and Murphy remained.

Lisandro held Murphy's wand without returning it. Instead, he asked, "How exactly did you cheat?"

"It wouldn't be interesting if I told you." As Murphy spoke, he reached out and gripped his own wand.

"This is my territory!" Lisandro warned.

Murphy looked at him. "Do you want to win, or do you want money?"

The two glared at each other for a long while before Lisandro finally loosened his grip.

"Can you tell me your purpose now?"

"I want potion ingredients. A lot of them. I will buy your ingredients at ten percent above the price you pay the apothecaries. I will take however much you have. If you can gather all the ingredients on the market and leave the apothecaries in Diagon Alley with nothing to use, I will give you another ten percent on top of that."

Draco Malfoy wanted to mess with him. Wouldn't it be impolite not to cause him a little trouble in return?

Lisandro looked uncertain. "How much capital do you have?"

Murphy smiled. "More than enough."

A quarter of an hour later, Murphy left Siren's Song.

Lisandro sat silently beside the gambling table for a while. Then he suddenly looked at the bartender. "Master, should we agree to his offer?"

The bartender continued polishing his glass. "Why turn down money?"

Lisandro nodded. "I understand."

After saying that, he could not resist reaching out and flipping over Murphy's cards in one sweep.

Then he froze.

They were more than twenty Aces, all of them.

"How... how did this happen? Magic? Wasn't his wand taken away?"

After polishing the last glass, the bartender took a skull-shaped decanter from beneath the bar, poured some scarlet liquid into the glass, lifted it, and took a small sip.

"Idiot. Who said a wizard could only carry one wand?"

Cheating was like a magic trick. It looked mysterious, but once exposed, it was nothing worth mentioning.

After leaving the tavern, Murphy put the wand he had taken from the bald wizard back into the conspicuous spot at his waist.

His own wand, meanwhile, was hidden in an easy-to-draw pocket inside his left sleeve.

It had been a precaution against being disarmed, yet its first practical use had unexpectedly come at a gambling table.

Earlier, while Lisandro was too occupied controlling Vasco to spare any attention, Murphy had used the wand hidden in his sleeve to cast a Summoning Charm and a Transfiguration Spell on both Lisandro's cards and his own.

After locating the Aces in Lisandro's pile with the Summoning Charm, he transformed them into other ordinary cards, eliminating the evidence of his cheating.

At the same time, he transformed all his own cards into Aces. That way, no matter what Vasco chose, he would choose the highest cards for him.

With everyone believing his wand had already been confiscated, and with Lisandro's eye-catching performance serving as cover, no one had actually noticed his cheating.

It also gave Murphy his first taste of the advantages of carrying an extra wand.

Using the bald wizard's wand came with certain risks, but this was Knockturn Alley, where old wands were everywhere.

Before long, he sold the bald wizard's wand and bought several secondhand wands in fairly decent condition as spares.

Come to think of it, his own wand had been bought by the original Murphy at Ollivanders, and Ollivander remembered every wand he sold.

It was like a registered firearm. If he committed a crime with it, it might be traced back to him.

Was that good?

That was not good!

After thinking it over, Murphy returned to Toad Cellar and bought a bottle of Shrinking Solution. Then he went to Diagon Alley, found a corner, and downed the potion in one gulp.

A moment later, a black-haired boy walked into Ollivanders.

"Hello? Is anyone here? I want to buy a wand."

Ollivander poked his head out from behind the shelves. "Who wants to buy a wand?"

"Me," the boy answered.

"Oh, how old are you?"

"Eleven. I'm going to Hogwarts next year, so I want to buy a wand."

"Of course, of course. What is your name?"

"Murphy Darkholme."

Ollivander was visibly stunned for a moment. "Darkholme... ah, but, but..."

He studied Murphy for a long time. "Yes, I remember you, Murphy. Your wand was made of cedar, twelve and a half inches, with a unicorn hair core. A beautiful wand, as striking in appearance as you are... but how did you..."

"Are you getting senile?" Murphy said. "I've never bought a wand before. Pick one out for me."

Ollivander looked confused, apparently unable to understand what was happening before him. Still, under Murphy's urging, he eventually began selecting a wand for him.

"Try this one first. Cedar, unicorn hair, twelve and a half inches, just like your original wand..."

Bang!

Before Ollivander could finish, Murphy gave the wand a flick, and a small crater exploded in the floor.

"Oh! Oh... well, that one won't do!"

"Then try this one..."

After trying five or six wands in succession, Murphy finally found one that felt right in his hand.

"Oh, this one is very good. It seems it chose you." Ollivander took Murphy's wand again and stroked it. "Aspen, fourteen inches, phoenix feather core... yes, I remember this wand. This combination is unusual, exceedingly rare... It possesses both immense power and versatile control. This is a wand suited to challengers and revolutionaries..."

"Extraordinary, Mr. Murphy. Once you truly begin using this wand, you are certain to accomplish something remarkable."

"Oh? Are you saying I'll become a hero?"