Snowball Fight

Garian and Lila did not stay in the common room for long; they prepared to leave after about half an hour.

They did not even attend the Hogwarts Christmas feast together.

"We have an appointment with Pomona at the Three Broomsticks," Lila said with a look of anticipation. "I can hardly wait... for the special mulled mead brewed by Madam Rosmerta."

Watching her expression, and the hurried pace at which she left the Gryffindor common room, Silvan had to seriously consider a certain sentence she had said earlier.

"...to visit friends, and to see you while I'm at it."

Silvan had reason to suspect that this was likely the unvarnished truth.

After Garian and Lila left, Silvan went to the Great Hall with the others.

"Your parents are really interesting," Fred said, walking up beside Silvan. "How did they get in?"

"Probably through Professor Sprout," Silvan said.

Silvan did not find it strange that they knew the Hufflepuff Head of House.

There were not many wizards in the United Kingdom who studied magical plants, and even fewer who had published professional papers. With such a small circle, they were certainly no strangers to one another.

However, upon hearing Silvan's answer, a flash of disappointment crossed Fred's face.

He had initially thought the two had come in through a secret passage from Hogsmeade.

Parents of students breaking the rules to sneak into the castle—what a familiar style; it was exactly like them.

Moreover, they happened to have a magical map that clearly marked several secret passages leading from Hogsmeade into the castle.

So, when they saw two adult wizards in the common room earlier, Fred and George had even suspected they might be the creators of the map—that is, two of Padfoot, Prongs, Moony, and Wormtail.

They had whispered about it for a long time, trying to reasonably assign those nicknames to the two of them.

As it turned out, they were actually the law-abiding type who walked right through the front door.

It was quite disappointing... well, at least the dried, specially-prepared Bubotuber pods were still interesting.

The group walked into the Great Hall together and was immediately enveloped by the rich aroma of roast chicken. Even though few students stayed for the holidays, various delicious roasts, fried potatoes, and tasty sausages were still piled up like small mountains.

Walking a few steps along the dining table, one could see piles upon piles of wizard crackers, which contained all sorts of fun trinkets; if one were lucky, one might even find the latest model of broomstick.

Of course, getting a broomstick was just a legend; no one had ever actually opened one.

Silvan unwrapped a few at random and ended up with a quill that wouldn't leak ink, a brooch, a pack of flashing balloons, three biting coasters, and... a piece of dried pufferfish?

Silvan did not understand why such a thing would be in a wizard cracker.

Cat treats?

He tried tapping the table with the dried fish; it made a thud-thud sound, just like Hagrid's rock cakes.

Well, it wasn't entirely useless; at least if thrown, it could give someone a nasty bump on the head.

The Christmas feast began, and all the students, regardless of house, sat together at one table. Silvan was not particularly interested in holiday staples like roast turkey, but the roast beef sandwiches and the flaming Christmas pudding were quite good.

By the afternoon, Fred suggested that everyone go outside to the grounds for a snowball fight. Harry and Ron were the first to respond. Percy, being the oldest, felt it was childish and was initially unwilling to participate, but he was half-dragged out of the castle by the twins.

Silvan watched as Hagrid and several professors left the school, and after a moment's thought, he joined them.

The group played in the snow all afternoon. No one used magic; it was fun, but the result was that by the time they ran back to the common room, panting and breathless, their clothes were all soaked through, and they could only huddle by the hearth to warm up.

"Wait, where's Silvan?" Harry, who was playing Wizard's Chess with Ron, looked around and suddenly realized they seemed to be missing someone.

"Don't know." Fred also scanned the room.

"Was he there this afternoon?"

"He was!" Ron said, his tone certain, while rubbing his shoulder. "I remember clearly, the snowball he threw had a rock in it!"

He was likely the only one who had been injured during the snowball fight; he had almost had his head cracked open by a flying snowball, but luckily he had slipped just at that moment, and the snowball had hit his shoulder instead.

"Silvan definitely didn't do it on purpose," Harry said quietly, but his tone was firm.

"How do you know?"

"Because that snowball... was actually one I packed." Harry suddenly felt guilty, then immediately explained, "You never mentioned it, so I thought it was fine, but I really didn't know there were rocks in that spot."

Ron stared at him for a while and let out a long, hollow sigh. "Forget it, it's fine."

"If you're talking about that first-year student, he went to find the gamekeeper," Percy suddenly spoke up from the side.

"You know?"

"I saw him," Percy said. "About an hour ago, after the professors returned from Hogsmeade, I saw him go find the gamekeeper to say a few words, and then they left together."

"The gamekeeper... that's Hagrid," Harry said.

"That's right, Rubeus Hagrid, that's the name," Percy nodded.

"Strange, what's he looking for Hagrid for?"

"What else could it be? It must be related to wand making; he's obsessed with that," Ron said with conviction.

"But today is Christmas," Fred said, not understanding. "Everyone would want to have a good time all day long."

"Not Silvan," Ron said. "He's absolutely obsessed with wand making; he doesn't even rest on weekends or holidays. Anyway, I rarely see him outside the dormitory on weekends."

Fred and George exchanged a look.

Is wand making that exhausting? Not even a holiday?

They thought back to the Guide to Wand Making and Usage they had borrowed from the library a while ago, and for some reason, they suddenly didn't feel like reading it anymore.

It had to be said, Ron had guessed correctly this time. Silvan was indeed making a wand, but he didn't find it exhausting at all.

In the hut by the Forbidden Forest, Hagrid sat by the hearth, drinking hot tea while watching Silvan sit there fiddling with a white "hemp rope" the thickness of a finger.

Hagrid pursed his lips tightly.

Every time he saw this scene, he felt it was truly incredible from the bottom of his heart.

Because a month ago, this "hemp rope" had been a bone two feet long and as thick as a bowl.

Over the past month, he had watched with his own eyes as that troll spine slowly turned into what it was today.

How on earth did Silvan do it?

Hagrid had asked this more than once, and Silvan hadn't hidden it, telling him it was a key step in turning materials into a wand core, called the Wand Core Fusion Charm. But Hagrid couldn't understand it; even after seeing the whole process with his own eyes, he still didn't get it.

He had always thought that making a wand just meant finding a way to put a unicorn hair into a whittled wooden stick.