Chapter 462 - 13: Cat Wand

Chapter 462: Chapter 13: Cat Wand

That rear-end collision had not been ruled a foul, and Gryffindor won the match.

Slytherin students booed loudly. They insisted Harry had won dishonorably by smashing people with an iron broom. But criticizing Harry’s equipment would amount to criticizing Malfoy for getting onto the team with those expensive brooms, and everyone had clearly seen Malfoy deliberately move in front of Harry to block him.

Whether a metal broom should count as illegal equipment was still under discussion. This was not an international Quidditch match, after all.

Quidditch certainly injured players fairly often, but the point of the sport was not to imitate Muggle rugby. If Malfoy had not cut Harry off like that, he would not have been hit at all; the metal broom behaved just like an ordinary flying broom. Yet if such brooms were allowed, any accident that did happen would be made far worse.

"You know, that still wasn’t this broom’s top speed," Harry was saying.

"If you’d been going at top speed, Malfoy would’ve suffered a lot worse than broken ribs, Harry. If you want to pursue Quidditch after graduation, you can’t bring that thing into an international match." Hermione was not particularly interested in hearing him show off the steel-wire broom.

She glared at Harry and gave Ron one for good measure. "When Ron had that suspicious wand, you were on my side. Now both of you practically reek of metal!"

Ron raised an eyebrow. "So now you admit it’s a wand?"

"You two..." Hermione was about to continue, but stopped herself when she saw a fully recovered Malfoy emerge from the hospital wing.

After what had happened last time, Madam Pomfrey had regrown Malfoy’s bones overnight and then immediately thrown him out, lest he keep occupying a bed just to milk everyone’s sympathy.

"Hey! You looked amazing blocking Harry on the pitch!" Ron had endured enough of Malfoy’s mockery and naturally was not about to let this opportunity pass.

"Keep your lackey under control, Potter." Malfoy shouldered past Harry.

He had just been chewed out by the Slytherin team captain, who hadn’t gone easy on him despite his family supplying the team’s brooms. His mood could hardly have been worse.

But then he seemed to remember something. He turned back, slipping into his usual sneer as he looked at Hermione. "A certain Mudblood had better pay one last visit to her beloved teacher. Maybe that half-baked hack will have packed his bags and cleared out by tomorrow... Oh, and perhaps before then you’ll get killed by a snake."

Then he turned and left, certain Ron would not dare smash him over the head like last time. He was right. Ron pointed the rebar wand at Malfoy’s back, but Harry pressed his arm down.

"Ignore him, Ron. You two are my best friends. He’s just being obnoxious to bait you into making another mistake!" Harry restrained Ron while trying to calm him.

"Didn’t you hear what he said? Professor Lockhart might be fired!" That was the only part Hermione was anxious about.

That earned Ron another glare when he muttered, "Honestly, isn’t that the one piece of good news here?"

Ron hurriedly changed the subject. "He mentioned that snake just now. Do you think he could be Slytherin’s heir?"

Harry, who knew Malfoy rather well, shook his head. "If it were him, he’d be desperate for everyone to think it was him. But who’s to say he isn’t connected somehow? I still think he was behind the Bludger. He was the only one who stood to benefit."

...

After the match, all of Hogwarts had been talking about what happened. Yimi had watched too, sitting beside McGonagall. But she understood absolutely nothing about the rules. She had merely stared fixedly at the Golden Snitch as though it were some brand-new cat teaser.

"Turn to page 157." Snape stood at the front of the Potions classroom. Today’s lesson was for Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff first-years, but the students’ attention was not on their textbooks.

Reaaach~

Snape took out his wand and expressionlessly tapped Yimi’s hand just as she reached for his cauldron.

"Mm."

Yimi rubbed her little hand and reached for the cauldron again. This time she pulled back before Snape could tap her. Then she reached again, dodged again, and repeated the process twice more.

Someone among the students seemed to laugh.

Snape’s face darkened as he glared at the student who had laughed. "Five points from Hufflepuff."

Then he threw Yimi out.

Yimi had grown impatient. She wanted to use Riddle’s knowledge to brew a potion that could attract snakes, but the hateful greasy-haired teacher refused to lend her a cauldron even though she had offered to smooth his hair for him in exchange.

She had not come away completely empty-handed, however. After working her way through nearly ten pages of Magical Me with the help of a dictionary, she had finally realized that the book did not seem to contain all that much actual magic, so she decided to look for another book.

Well, the reason Snape had not thrown Yimi out immediately was that she had reached the classroom before he did. Unfortunately, Yimi had not found any usable cauldrons.

But while rummaging through a storage cupboard, she was lucky enough to find an old copy of Advanced Potion-Making that someone had left behind. In the spirit of fairness, Yimi left her copy of Magical Me there in exchange and decided to see how this textbook was formatted.

Though she did not know whether Potions counted as a magic book.

Yimi sat in the Great Hall and opened it. She saw a handwritten note: This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince.

"Meow?"

Before she could turn to the next page, an owl carrying a long package flapped into the Great Hall and set the parcel down in front of Yimi.

"Mm?"

Yimi picked it up and saw the words "A gift to Miss Yimi of Hogwarts" written on it.

She opened the package and found an eleven-inch white wand. It was finely made, with a smooth surface, and had been made quite straight according to Yimi’s preferences. It was obviously much better than the branch she had picked up herself.

Compared with other people’s wands, Yimi’s was slightly on the long side. While estimating her arm length, Ollivander had also taken into account how much she would grow. Children this age generally grew very quickly.

A letter was included as well: Eleven inches, cedar wood, with a cat-hair core. I believe it will suit you. Please remember to use it under Professor McGonagall’s supervision. If the wand proves unsuitable, write back to me, though I do not believe that will happen. If you know how to contact the maker of that metal wand, please contact me at the only wand shop in Diagon Alley, or send me a letter.

"Meow~" Yimi waved the wand, which had taken several days to make, through the air twice. It felt very good in her hand, certainly much better than the one she had made herself.

This Ollivander was a very nice person.

Yimi put away the Half-Blood Prince’s textbook and grabbed her new wand, intending to find Grandma Cat and show it off. But when she reached a window, she saw Lockhart standing outside the castle in front of a group of people, looking rather unhappy.

"I don’t think Hogwarts can allow someone who cannot even cast a spell properly to remain a teacher, can it? Unless age has finally addled you as well, Albus." Lucius stared expressionlessly at Dumbledore.

As a member of Hogwarts’s Board of Governors, he still had some say in matters. At the very least, this time he had a legitimate point.

"Cannot even cast a spell properly? You really ought to read my books, dear Mr. Malfoy." Lockhart’s expression was awful.

"I do not deny Professor Lockhart’s excellence. Perhaps he could demonstrate it." Snape pursed his lips. He seemed to smile, or perhaps he did not.

He had clearly still been in the classroom only moments ago. It was almost as if he had come outside specifically for this.

Snape had disliked Lockhart for a long time. With a mocking tone, he trotted out an argument that probably only students believed. "Perhaps he could investigate this ’Chamber of Secrets’ that has been all the talk among the students. After all, he has always excelled at adventure and investigation."

Yet aside from rumors, there was not a single incident that proved the Chamber of Secrets truly existed.