Christmas

Harry had always felt that he knew enough about magic and wizards.

From the owl that could deliver mail to Hagrid appearing at the seaside hut, and then to Diagon Alley, Platform 9¾, and Hogwarts... Harry had become increasingly calm, believing he was gradually growing familiar with everything in the wizarding world.

But now, he suddenly felt he knew nothing about magic; he didn't even recognize a wand anymore.

"That was clearly a baseball bat, right?" After Silvan left the common room, Harry looked at Ron in a daze.

In a trance, he recalled what Silvan had said to him yesterday afternoon... "There's a two-and-a-half-foot wand that isn't finished yet, but I can accept an order."

So, was that it?

Harry felt that Silvan wouldn't joke with him about such a thing, and he had tried to associate the words "feet" and "wand," but he couldn't do it.

"I bet Silvan was just pulling our legs," Ron said.

Unlike Harry, he knew more about magic, and many of his perceptions had long since solidified into common sense.

In his view, wands were supposed to look like the ones they were using now, with the only difference being their length. Because everyone around him was the same, there were never any exceptions.

So, from the very beginning, Ron didn't believe that two-foot-long bat was any kind of wand, assuming Silvan was just teasing them.

"Want to play Wizard's Chess?" Ron asked after finishing the last bite of his roasted mushroom.

"Oh, sure," Harry said. His head felt a mess, and he needed to do something else to take his mind off things.

"But Ron, I've never played Wizard's Chess before."

"That's fine, I can teach you. It's very simple." Ron took out a tattered old chessboard and demonstrated to Harry how to make the pieces move.

It was just like Muggle chess, but the pieces were alive and had their own thoughts, which was very interesting; it felt like commanding an army in battle.

Harry quickly became obsessed with the game, but his skills were lacking. He lost to Ron every time, and eventually, even his own Queen couldn't stand it anymore. She swung her scepter and gave Harry's finger a hard whack.

"Ouch..."

Harry's finger turned bright red instantly, and the pain brought tears to his eyes, yet the Queen on the side kept scolding him furiously.

"Stupid, idiot, empty-headed Mountain Troll!"

That was probably the downside of Wizard's Chess; the pieces had such terrible tempers.

Meanwhile, Silvan had already arrived at Hagrid's hut.

He knocked on the door, but he didn't hear Hagrid's familiar booming voice.

"Is no one home?" Silvan waited for a while longer, but there was still no movement inside the hut. Only then did he confirm that Hagrid was indeed not home.

He was probably off drinking in Hogsmeade.

Hagrid had a habit of going to Hogsmeade for a drink, as did many of the professors. Today was the first day of the school holidays, and with the snow falling, it was a rare good day that Hagrid naturally wouldn't miss.

It was just a wasted trip for Silvan, having braved the snow to get there only to have to walk back to the castle in it.

He had originally wanted to make the wand today, but now he would have to wait until tomorrow.

Silvan chose not to use an unlocking spell to get inside, even though it was a small problem he could solve with a wave of his hand, and even though Hagrid wouldn't have minded if he knew. He still didn't do it.

The Christmas holidays had only just begun; he wasn't in a rush.

By the afternoon.

"Of course I'm in a rush!" Harry paced back and forth in Silvan's dormitory, looking out the window every few seconds.

"Tomorrow is Christmas, and I haven't prepared anything. If Hedwig doesn't come back, I'll only be able to give Ron a pack of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans."

"That's not bad either," Silvan said. "But where did you buy those beans? Did you get an upperclassman to bring them from Hogsmeade?"

"No, I bought them on the train," Harry said.

"The train?" Silvan asked, surprised. "The Hogwarts Express?"

"Yeah," Harry nodded.

"You still haven't finished the candy you bought at the start of the term?"

"Because I don't like the earwax-flavored ones, so I haven't eaten them since."

"Then you're really good to Ron," Silvan clicked his tongue.

"Of course... oh, no." Harry nodded subconsciously, then hurriedly corrected himself. "I didn't mean to give him Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans as a Christmas present. I wanted to give him a wand!"

"I know, you don't have to explain it to me," Silvan waved his hand. "But there's nothing I can do if Hedwig doesn't come back. You know that apart from the first few days of the term, the wand shop doesn't have much business."

"You can't expect my grandfather to just sit in an empty shop all day doing nothing, can you?"

"No, that's not what I meant at all," Harry shook his head quickly. "I'm just a bit anxious. Ron really wants a wand of his own."

"Don't worry," Silvan said. "Tomorrow is Christmas, there's still time. You should trust Hedwig."

It seemed he had no choice but to trust Hedwig now.

Harry waited until very late, tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep. He just wanted Hedwig to return before tomorrow morning, bring Ron a surprise, and then have a big meal and enjoy the day happily.

Harry waited until the early hours of the morning, but Hedwig still hadn't returned. He was too tired, his consciousness began to blur, and he drifted off into a dream.

The next day, Christmas arrived as scheduled.

Silvan didn't get up too early. It was nine o'clock by the time he crawled out of bed and started unwrapping the pile of packages at the foot of his bed.

There were quite a few gifts; Silvan counted them roughly, over a dozen in total, twice as many as last year.

He first set his sights on the largest paper package.

Thick brown paper, rugged wrapping, and flamboyant handwriting—Silvan didn't even need to look at the name to know it was from Hagrid.

There were many things inside, but the most eye-catching were a small bundle of long, silver unicorn tail hairs. Each one was over fifteen inches long, belonging to the highest grade of unicorn hair.

Silvan estimated that even his grandfather, Garrick Ollivander, might not have seen so many high-quality materials at once.

He wondered how long Hagrid had spent searching in the Forbidden Forest to collect this bundle.

In addition, two pitch-black legs were stuffed into the brown paper package.

Hagrid had brought these for Silvan before; they were Acromantula legs, but these were clearly longer than the previous ones. If fully extended, they would be at least ten feet long.

No wonder the package was so big... it wouldn't have fit otherwise.

However, with one leg being ten feet long, it was hard to imagine just how big the creature was when it was alive.

Silvan continued to rummage through the things underneath, but suddenly heard incoherent screaming coming from not far away in the next room.

"My god! A wand! Harry, you actually got me a new wand... I'm so happy... Is it really for me... This is the best Christmas present I've ever received!"