Godric and Lila

Silvan had never known Ron's voice could carry so far. You could hear him perfectly from several dormitories away.

Hedwig had clearly lived up to Harry's expectations and flown back in time for Christmas.

That meant Silvan could accept the seven Galleons Harry had given him with a clear conscience.

Strictly speaking, this counted as Harry's second wand, so it wasn't eligible for a discount. But since Ron was the one using it, Silvan hadn't made an issue of it. He'd only mentioned it in his letter to his grandfather, asking him to put the wand down under Ron Weasley's name.

That would also make it easier to claim the wand subsidy from the Ministry of Magic.

They weren't losing out either way.

Five minutes passed, and Ron was still shouting excitedly in the other room. Silvan ignored him and continued opening his presents.

The second long box was from his grandfather. Inside was a piece of wood striped yellow and brown, its surface covered in brown, netlike scales that made it look just like a snake's skin.

Silvan picked up the branch in surprise. Cyathea Wood, also called Snakewood. Though it looked like a tree, it was actually a kind of fern.

For that very reason, it was almost impossible to find Bowtruckles on Snakewood. Only one or two trees, through a rare stroke of luck, might earn their favor and become magical wood suitable for making a wand.

It was worth noting that Salazar Slytherin's wand had been made of Snakewood.

And since his grandfather had sent it as a Christmas present, it obviously wasn't ordinary Snakewood.

Silvan rubbed his chin. It looked like his grandfather had found something good while he was away at school.

Once the school holidays began, he'd have to find another excuse to visit the storeroom.

As he thought this, Silvan opened the third package...

It was a big bag of sweets from Hermione. They weren't the sort from Honeydukes, but Muggle candies, in five or six different flavors.

Harry had also given him five Galleons. (What a plain but sincere gift.)

Ron had given him a quill, Neville a Chocolate Frog Card, and Seamus some dried fish treats for pets. There was a cat drawn on the packaging. (Silvan suspected Tom wouldn't touch this kind of rubbish.)

Professor McGonagall had sent him a present too: a full twenty issues of Transfiguration Today.

Silvan was baffled as to how the professors managed to return gifts so precisely.

He hadn't given Professor McGonagall the wand as a present in advance, yet she'd returned the favor. She was also the only professor who had sent him a gift.

A house-elf? Or Name Magic?

Silvan didn't dwell on it. He grabbed a magazine and walked out of the dormitory.

Outside, Fred and George were making a fuss, trying to get their younger brother to put on a dark purple-red sweater. They were wearing matching ones themselves, only theirs were blue, with two letters on the chest.

George had a yellow "F," while Fred had a yellow "G."

Mrs. Weasley had probably designed them that way to tell the twins apart.

But clearly, the design was useless. They'd deliberately put their sweaters on backward.

Silvan walked past them and entered the common room. He planned to check whether anyone was at Hagrid's first, then head to the Great Hall.

But just as Silvan descended the spiral staircase, he suddenly stopped short, staring in disbelief at the bespectacled middle-aged man sitting in an armchair.

For a moment, Silvan thought he hadn't slept well the night before and was seeing things. How else could his father be sitting in the Gryffindor common room?

This had to be fake...

"Hey, Silvan, what are you standing there for?" The man waved with a smile.

"No, it's real!"

"What's real?" Garian Ollivander smiled and pushed his glasses up. "What, surprised to see me?"

"Very surprised," Silvan said. "Wait, if you're here, then my mother must be..."

"She's being kept in the girls' dormitory," Garian said with a smile.

"Right..."

Silvan drew a deep breath. It took him a while to accept that his Christmas present was the sudden appearance of his parents at school. Then he went over everything he'd done recently in his mind. Only after making sure there was no chance his parents had been summoned to school over some trouble did he finally relax a little.

"What brings you here?"

"Let's call it making up for missing the start of term," Garian said. "We don't get back to the United Kingdom often, so of course we had to come see you. Since you're staying at school for the holidays, we figured we might as well come here. Oh, your mother's here too."

As he spoke, Silvan's mother, Lila Ollivander, came over from the girls' dormitory and gave him a hug as soon as she saw him.

"Darling, don't mind what that old-fashioned grandfather of yours thinks." Lila kissed Silvan on the forehead. "I asked around, and Gryffindor is a pretty good house too."

She still remembered the letter Silvan had sent at the start of term.

"'A house full of reckless fools who act before they think'—that was ages ago. Not everyone is Godric Gryffindor. Does that mean Minerva is reckless and thoughtless too?"

"My grandfather doesn't really mind that much," Silvan said, trying to defend him a little.

"But how did you get in?" Silvan couldn't help asking what puzzled him most. "I thought parents weren't usually allowed to come and go from Hogwarts as they pleased."

"They aren't, but we have another way," Garian said. "We've been friends with Pomona Sprout for years. We're visiting an old friend for Christmas, and Dumbledore certainly wouldn't turn us away."

"And we get to see you while we're at it," Lila said. She glanced around the common room, then leaned toward Garian and murmured, "You were right. This place is a billion times worse than Beauxbatons."

"I heard that," Silvan said, the corner of his mouth twitching.

Before he'd decided to attend Hogwarts, his schooling had been the focus of arguments across the whole family.

His grandfather had obviously supported Hogwarts. His mother, Lila, believed Beauxbatons was the best school and had recruited Garian and Silvan's grandmother to her side, making theirs the largest faction. Then there was his aunt, who supported Ilvermorny.

Whenever the three sides brought up the subject, they would argue endlessly. In the end, Silvan chose Hogwarts himself, putting an end to this bloodless war.

"I've already started school. It's not like I can transfer to Beauxbatons now," Silvan said with a shrug, unwilling to continue the conversation.

Just then, several of the Weasley children and Harry came into the common room.

They were just as surprised and puzzled to find Silvan's parents there.

But the clever Weasleys didn't ask a thing. Fred and George even greeted the couple warmly and offered to show them around.

Garian and Lila turned down the offer, though. Instead, they brought out the Christmas gifts they'd prepared in advance for everyone.

A dried Bubotuber pod.

Once it hit the ground, it bounced and rolled uncontrollably, like a magical bouncy ball. It was a fairly fashionable toy among wizards.

Silvan's Christmas present was a bouncy ball too. In that respect, they were pretty even-handed.