“So, Seamus, what did you blow up this time?”
Near noon, Ethan came out of the library and ran into Harry and the others, who had just finished Charms.
Looking at the pitch-black right side of Harry’s face and the explosive hairstyle Seamus was sporting in his limited-edition unlucky version, Ethan’s mighty frame trembled slightly, and the corners of his mouth would not stop rising.
I feel like I’ve seen this scene somewhere before.
“It was the Fire-Making Spell.
Seamus used too much force when he waved his wand at the wooden strip, and the whole thing exploded into charcoal.” Hermione stood to the side holding a stack of books and shook her head helplessly.
“I was right there telling him not to rush…”
“Well, unexpected, but somehow perfectly reasonable.” Ethan shrugged.
“Good thing Flitwick didn’t have you practice with candles.
Otherwise, you and Harry would at least have ended up with first-degree burns.”
If a candle had exploded instead, that would have come with splash damage.
Newly enrolled young wizards simply could not tank that.
Wait.
Maybe something like that really had happened before, which was why the teaching prop had been changed to wooden strips.
No, he could not think too deeply about this.
“Well, thanks so much for that,” Seamus said with his blackened face drooping, immediately starting to drag someone else down with him.
“At least my stick caught fire.
Ron didn’t even manage to make a single spark for the whole class.”
Ron’s face flushed red, almost the same color as his hair.
“That’s called storing up strength for one big breakthrough.
Next class, I’ll definitely be the first one to light it.”
The air around them immediately filled with cheerful laughter.
“All right, I’m going to the library to study now,” Hermione said seriously.
“I hope you don’t secretly practice in the dormitory and set the entire Gryffindor Tower on fire.
Goodbye.”
With that, Hermione turned and entered the library.
“Sometimes I really do think the way she talks is irritating,” Ron said indignantly as he watched Hermione leave.
“No offense, but don’t you think she’s a bit too… self-important sometimes?”
“Top students are all like that.
I actually think she really was kindly reminding you to stay safe.
It’s just her wording… sigh.
How did she even get by before coming to Hogwarts?”
Ethan clicked his tongue helplessly and followed Harry and the others through the corridor and onto the Marble Staircase.
“Oh, right, Ethan,” Harry suddenly asked.
“Where did you go this morning instead of class?”
During the morning Charms class, Ethan had handed Professor Flitwick a leave note and gone straight to the library to look up information on Isidora, so he had not attended class with Harry and the others.
After all, with the talent Ethan had shown, the first-year curriculum really could not teach him much anymore.
On top of that, Ethan’s stated reason was that he wanted to go to the library to research and further improve his Charms foundation, so Professor Flitwick had agreed very readily.
But clearly, the library did not have any information on Isidora either.
It was as if someone had deliberately covered all of it up.
He had found quite a lot of information on the Ashwinders, though.
It was a Dark Wizard gang that had first become active in the Middle Ages.
They burned, killed, looted, and committed every crime imaginable.
Their crimes were infamous from the Irish Highlands to Godric’s Hollow.
These bastards were also obsessed with poaching all kinds of Magical Creatures.
Once, they pulled off something big and stole an egg from an Atlantis Scaled-Horned Dragon.
They had not even run fifty meters before the mother dragon noticed, and one fireball nearly wiped them all out.
Their most recent major disturbance had been a century ago, when they helped Ranrok, the leader of the goblin rebellion at the end of the eighteenth century.
After Ranrok disappeared, they vanished without a trace as well.
Who knew whether they had been sacrificed, or had simply gone back into hiding to prepare for another big move?
What he really could not understand was this.
Why would humans help goblins rebel against humans?
No wonder the Ashwinders had felt familiar.
The goblin rebellion was covered in the History of Magic textbook, and it mentioned this bunch of troublemakers.
“I went to the library to study,” Ethan said, vaguely brushing over what he had actually done.
“Study?
A new Charm?” Neville, the curious baby, asked.
“Yeah, a new Charm.
I’ll show you something nice when we get back to the dorm.” Ethan gave a mysterious smile and said no more.
Back in the Gryffindor common room, Ethan drew his wand from his sleeve and lightly pointed it at Seamus and Harry.
“Scourgify.”
All the charcoal-black soot from the explosion vanished from Seamus and Harry’s faces.
“That’s brilliant, Ethan.
No wonder Professor Flitwick approved your leave.”
Harry touched his now clean face, then took off his glasses and looked at the sparkling lenses in delight.
“Nothing to it.”
Ethan held out his hand to Ron.
“Ron, give me your wand.”
“Huh?” Ron looked completely confused.
“What do you want my wand for?”
“Less talking.
Let me have a look at your wand.”
“Oh, right.
Here.”
Ron pulled out his wand without understanding why and handed it to Ethan.
Ethan took Ron’s wand and turned it over and over in his hand, studying every detail.
It was a very old, worn wand.
In some places, the finish had already peeled off, and the tip was badly worn down, flashing with white light.
That was the Unicorn hair serving as the wand core.
The end had already been exposed.
“Tch… worse than I thought.
If this next spell doesn’t work, then it’s completely beyond saving.”
He placed Ron’s old wand on a small table in the corner of the common room, touched it with the tip of his own wand, and softly said, “Magicum Reparo.”
The old wand emitted a silver glow.
Under the light, the chipped finish automatically filled itself in, and new wood slowly grew over the badly worn tip, wrapping around the exposed Unicorn hair core.
“There.
Try it.
It still isn’t the wand best suited to you, but after being repaired, it should at least work better than the battle-damaged version you had before.”
Ethan sounded slightly tired.
That spell just now had actually been mixed with a little ancient Magic, which had cost him some energy.
With the earlier Cleaning Charm as cover, Harry and the others probably would not notice anything strange.
They would only think he was gifted.
Ron picked up his newly restored wand and gave it a light wave.
Red sparks burst from the tip and exploded into brilliant fireworks in midair.
“Bloody hell!” Ron cried out in surprise and delight.
“How did you do that?”
“Basic operation.
Keep it low-key.”
Ethan waved it off casually, plucked a thread from the tassel on the table, placed it on the tabletop, and used a Transfiguration Spell to turn it into a short wooden strip.
“Try casting the Fire-Making Spell again.”
“All right.” Ron pointed his wand at the wooden strip and gave his wrist a light flick.
“Incendio.”
Whoosh.
A bright orange flame flared up at the center of the wooden strip.
“Looks like it worked pretty well.” Ethan smiled faintly as he watched Ron fondle the wand like he could not bear to put it down.
Right.
He definitely should not mention that he had actually used Ron’s old wand as a guinea pig for testing.