The Thing Living in His Ear

"Hmph, Harry, don't listen to him. We were the first to see the troll. Does that mean we let it out?"

"Ron, the first person to see the troll was... Professor Quirrell!"

"Him? He's barely braver than Neville. His legs went weak the moment he saw the troll. It couldn't have been Professor Quirrell!"

"Oh, right. Professor Quirrell's scared of his own shadow. But why did he follow it to the bathroom?"

Hermione's question left Ron speechless and Harry deep in thought. "Then let's put Professor Quirrell on the suspect list for now. We'd better hurry, or Neville and Seamus will eat all the sausages!"

That night, in the Slytherin dormitory!

Draco returned dressed as a ghost in white robes, carrying a pumpkin lantern.

The long cloth bag had barely touched the table when a few mischievous sweets tumbled out and landed with a series of thuds!

He picked them up and put them back. The wrappers rustled in his hands, making him freeze. He listened for a moment, but no scolding came. Puzzled, he looked toward his roommate!

His roommate sat with knitted brows, glaring bitterly at... a wand whose tip glowed fluorescent green!

"What happened to your wand?"

The sudden voice startled Luo Bin. He turned and found himself face-to-face with a terrifying version of a Sunny Doll's head.

Its huge dark-blue eyes were streaked with dark red, and strips of brownish-red flesh were painted between its jagged teeth. It was both frightening and disgusting.

Did he really have to take dressing up as a ghost this seriously?!!

"What happened to your wand?"

Was it broken?

Good. Tomorrow's class required a wand. Just imagining his roommate making a fool of himself made Draco snicker!

"Draco Malfoy, didn't Crabbe tell you I just killed a troll?"

Draco's eyes widened. He slunk away, too frightened to care about the dignity of Wizard Nobility, and crawled under the covers without even taking off his ghost costume.

Luo Bin glanced at the mound beneath the blanket and scoffed, then went back to studying his half-length wand!

After the feast, Luo Bin hadn't wanted to play the childish game of dressing up as a ghost to beg for sweets. He had gone straight back to the dormitory. Once he had washed up, he'd been about to give his wand a thorough wipe when he noticed its tip glowing fluorescent green!

At first, he thought troll blood was still stuck to the tip. He washed, scrubbed, rinsed, soaked, and brushed it in turn. Not only did the green refuse to come off, it grew brighter.

Now he could see that the green glow came from the wand itself. That made the problem much harder to solve!

He thought back over The Complete Guide to Wand Repair, A Thousand Secrets of Wands, The Great Ollivander, and the other books he had read. None of them mentioned a wand turning green on its own.

The more Luo Bin thought, the more his head hurt. With a long sigh, he decided to find time to speak with Dumbledore tomorrow. After all, Dumbledore knew a great deal, including many of Luo Bin's secrets!

Luo Bin tossed and turned until four in the morning before falling asleep. Before eight, he had to get up again. The first thing he did was check the wand beneath his pillow!

Huh? The fluorescent green had faded, and the wand seemed to have grown a tiny bit—about two millimeters. If he didn't handle it dozens of times a day, he would never have noticed!

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

The moment Luo Bin spoke the incantation, Draco floated weightlessly into the air. As the wand moved, he flipped through a full 360 degrees. "Luo Bin, put me down! Put me down now!" he cried in terror.

Before Draco could burst into tears, Luo Bin flicked the wand downward, and Draco landed safely on his feet. "Luo Bin, I haven't done anything to you! Why did you cast a spell on me?"

The slightly longer wand was far more responsive and precise than before. Luo Bin nodded in satisfaction. "Draco, see those copies of Window to the Soul and The Complete Guide to Reading Minds on the shelf? I didn't read them for nothing! Last night, you saw something was wrong with my wand and sat back to wait for me to make a fool of myself, didn't you?"

Veins bulged on Draco's wrist. At a loss for words, he snorted and turned away to mind his own business!

Tch. A sapling growing crooked could still be straightened with enough pruning. Luo Bin left him alone, packed up, and rushed to class!

That evening, outside the Headmaster's Office!

When a weary Dumbledore returned, he found the black-haired youngster peering through the window. His round head turned left and right like a Quaffle.

"The match is coming up soon, little fellow. Shouldn't you be training? What brings you here?"

Luo Bin pulled back from the window and turned around. "Mr. Dumbledore, I have a few questions for you. They're about my wand!"

Dumbledore nodded knowingly and tapped his Elder Wand to open the office door. After listening to Luo Bin's explanation, he put on his Half-moon Spectacles and carefully examined every part of the half-length wand.

More than ten minutes later, Luo Bin broke the silence. "Mr. Dumbledore, have you found anything?"

"Oh, I have an inkling. Perhaps... we should run an experiment first!"

With that, he opened a safe and took out a glass bottle!

Inside were three dark-brown grains that looked like sand. He picked one up with tweezers, placed it on the tip of the half-length wand, then added a drop of water!

What happened next was extraordinary!

The wand's tip glowed fluorescent green again. The green light and the water rushed into the grain, which rapidly swelled to the size of a mung bean. Suddenly it moved. Its pointed end slowly turned upward, and with a pop, it split in two.

After a dazzling flash of green, a Flower Fairy the size of a mung bean stood on the wand's tip!

The little fairy looked much like a human, but her translucent green wings gave her an ethereal beauty.

Her hair, eyes, and clothes were all green, though each a different shade. Her hair was the pale green of new grass after spring rain. Her eyes were a clear crystal green, with faint gray lines radiating from the center if one looked closely. Her short skirt was a fresh mint green.

Hands on her hips, the Flower Fairy rattled off a string of words Luo Bin couldn't understand. When he failed to respond, she stamped her tiny foot, fluttered her wings, and flew into his... ear canal!

"Mr. Dumbledore, I need a pair of lighted tweezers!"

The more Luo Bin tried to dig her out with his little finger, the deeper she went. He was at a complete loss!

"Don't worry. The Flower Fairy has accepted you as her master. She won't hurt you!"

"But she can't make a home in my ear canal!"

He couldn't actually feel anything in there, but the thought still bothered him!

"Oh, there's no rushing this. Fairies can be very stubborn, you know. Once you learn how to care for a Flower Fairy, I'm sure you can coax her out. Now, let's discuss your wand!"

The word "stubborn" reminded Luo Bin of Dobby the House-elf from the original story. Every one of Dobby's reckless antics had been meant to protect Harry Potter. His intentions were good, but his methods made you want to give him a thrashing!

Luo Bin took back his wand and wiped away the water. "What did you discover?"

"A Flower Fairy requires an immense amount of life force to develop. As you know, wands are made from things that are no longer living. A wand's choice of wizard and master is influenced by magnetic fields and magic factors. But the wand in your hand is different. I can't identify what it's made of, yet I can sense tremendous life force within it. It's like an elm that looks withered on the outside but will put down roots and sprout when spring comes. Perhaps the Mountain Troll's blood stimulated it, causing it to reveal a little of its extraordinary magic."