The Rampaging Wand

For a wand, the choice of core is vital, but Silvan felt he had chosen the wrong one.

This core, made from troll spine, was not only incredibly hard but also abnormally sluggish in its reaction to magic. It seemed to have inherited all the flaws of a troll, making the embedding process extremely difficult and the efficiency outrageously low.

According to Silvan's original plan, he would have finished making the wand in two days at most, leaving him plenty of time to complete the holiday assignments set by the professors.

But now... the entire Christmas holiday had been sacrificed. Furthermore, to avoid falling behind in class after the term started, he had been sleeping only two hours a day and eating one meal a day recently. Whenever he felt too exhausted, he would go to the school infirmary and ask Madam Pomfrey for a bottle of Wit-Sharpening Potion to keep going.

Yet even so, the core did not fully fuse into the wand body until the early hours of the first day of the new term.

In an instant, the previously separated wand body merged into one and began to vibrate violently on the table, emitting a roaring sound as loud as firecrackers.

Silvan instinctively took a step back, fearing it might suddenly explode.

But the next second, he realized something even more terrifying... it was one o'clock in the morning, the time when most people were fast asleep.

The roaring sound woke everyone up. They walked out of their dormitories, cursing and swearing, each with undisguised anger on their faces, vowing to drag out the person who had disturbed their sleep and settle the score!

This was not difficult; the direction of the sound was too obvious, and everyone locked onto Silvan's dormitory immediately.

Someone stepped forward to knock on the door, shouting loudly for Silvan to stop making noise.

But there was nothing Silvan could do now. He opened the dormitory door and gestured for them to try it themselves.

No one went in, and everyone even took a step back in unison.

Are you kidding?

Inside, a two-foot-long, wrist-thick wooden rod was spinning like a windmill, and the sturdy table had turned into a pile of splinters in the blink of an eye.

The beds and bookcases did not escape either; they shattered at the slightest touch, as brittle as freshly baked corn chips.

If that thing hit someone, they would be covered in bruises.

"Gulp..."

A clear sound of someone swallowing hard came from the crowd, and everyone retreated further, terrified that the thing might run out of the room.

Silvan was also hiding in the crowd, shuffling backward... he was scared too.

Fortunately, at this moment, McGonagall arrived.

She was wearing her nightgown, clearly having been woken up as well.

Seeing a crowd gathered together, she was nearly driven mad. "What on earth are you doing! Do you want to wake up the entire castle?"

Everyone simultaneously distanced themselves from Silvan, the implication obvious.

McGonagall naturally saw it too, frowning as she said, "Ollivander? What exactly are you up to!"

Silvan did not speak, but led her into his dormitory.

Then, McGonagall fell silent as well.

"You say that thing... is a wand?" She pointed at the rampaging club in the room and rubbed her eyes hard.

"That's right."

"Not a beater's bat?"

"No, it's a wand. I just finished it."

McGonagall stopped talking again.

She kept trying to convince herself that her eyes had deceived her, but she failed. She knew she was wide awake now, awake enough to see at a glance that the club was at least two feet long.

Consequently, McGonagall decided to disperse the crowd first.

"Go back to your dormitories!" she shouted sternly.

Although everyone was incredibly curious, they reluctantly returned to their dorms under the stern gaze of McGonagall.

Some of the bolder ones pretended to close their doors, then peeked out through the cracks.

McGonagall ignored them and simply waved her wand forcefully.

It seemed as though something enveloped Silvan's dormitory, and then, the other Gryffindors could no longer hear the roaring sound, and the castle returned to silence.

"You..." she glanced at Silvan, "can you make that thing stop?"

"I'll try."

With McGonagall by his side, Silvan felt a bit more confident. He plucked up the courage to walk into the dormitory, slowly reached out his hand, and whispered a complex incantation.

It seemed the wand was tired from its rampage; after spinning two more times, it fell with a thud onto Silvan's hand... and then the floor.

It was too heavy; Silvan couldn't hold it.

McGonagall's pupils contracted, and the corners of her mouth twitched uncontrollably.

Was this thing really a wand?

McGonagall took a deep breath, struggling to calm her emotions before saying, "Because of your recklessness, twenty points from Gryffindor. Remember to restore this place to its original state!"

With that, she hurried away from the dormitory corridor.

By now, McGonagall had lost all desire to sleep; she just wanted to find out as soon as possible if all of this was normal.

As the culprit, Silvan's words could not be trusted, and given his age, he probably couldn't explain it clearly... but the President of the International Confederation of Wizards, who knew countless secrets, certainly could.

Passing the common room, McGonagall looked up at the time... it was nearly two o'clock. She hoped the Headmaster wasn't asleep yet.

Downstairs came the sound of the Fat Lady's portrait opening and closing.

No sooner had McGonagall left than Fred and George snuck over. Seeing the mess in the dormitory, both of them gasped.

"Looks like a Gringotts vault that's been robbed by a Niffler," Fred said.

"Nifflers aren't this messy," George said. "What on earth did you do?"

"I don't even know how to explain it," Silvan said, pointing his wand at a pile of wooden fragments.

"Reparo!"

Oh, so that was a bed...

"Don't just stand there, come and help," Silvan said, turning his head. There were quite a few things in the dormitory, and even with magic, it would take him a long time to fix everything alone.

"This... alright." Fred and George shrugged and joined in.

Together, the three of them took less than half an hour to restore the dormitory to its original state.

After finishing, the Weasley brothers prepared to leave.

Then Fred stepped forward and patted Silvan on the shoulder. "I think you'll need some time to think things over."

"Think about how you're going to explain to the Headmaster tomorrow why you dismantled the dormitory," George added.

The two walked out of the dormitory, laughing, and helped shoo away the others who were peering in at the door.

Only then did Silvan finally have time to look at the wand still lying on the floor.

[Oak, troll spine, 32.5 inches]

[Status: Perfect]

[Traits: Backfire: Spells will be reflected back to the user (Stupid trolls always hurt themselves.)

Sluggish: Records the first spell cast by the wizard. Thereafter, regardless of the incantation or gesture used, all magic will automatically convert into the initially recorded spell (A troll's brain can only hold one spell, and so can its spine.)

Ironclad: Defensive spell effects +30%]