Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 100 Cooperation again
Snape left right past Siren, which allowed Siren to hear what he said clearly.

Could Snape not break the Slug Curse on a second-year student?

Professor McGonagall didn't even bother with that; after exchanging a few more words with Hermione, she simply left.

This is quite interesting. One is the headmaster who is most biased towards Slytherin students, and the other is the strict and fair vice-headmaster who treats all students equally. Perhaps for Snape and Professor McGonagall, they could easily break the Slug Curse by simply waving their wands.

However, the two reached an amazing understanding on this matter: neither of them waved the wand, and they both pretended not to see it.

So even after Crabbe and Goyle dragged him away, Malfoy was still spitting out slugs, and he kept saying things like "I'm going to tell my dad" and "You just wait," so he spat out even more.

Now even Crabbe and Goyle were starting to dislike him, supporting his arms while tilting their heads back as far as possible, as if trying to avoid something unpleasant.

Meanwhile, Harry and his two friends, despite losing even more points and being put in solitary confinement, showed no signs of sadness on their faces.

"See that? Did you see my Slug Curse?" Ron said excitedly. "I've wanted to do that for a long time."

“You actually…” Hermione started to say something, but then stopped herself and said instead, “Yes, it’s a very difficult curse.”

Just then, Harry spotted Siren not far away and his eyes lit up. "Hey, Siren, what brings you here?"

“I ran into Nick the Headless, and he said the Gryffindors and Slytherins were fighting by the Black Lake, so I came to check it out.” Siron looked at Harry, raised an eyebrow, and said, “I didn’t expect you to be so quick.”

He suggested Harry beat up Malfoy yesterday, and today he did it.

“No, no, you’ve misunderstood.” Harry quickly waved his hand. “I didn’t mean to cause trouble for Malfoy at first. He was the one who kept complaining about not being able to use the Quidditch pitch and said a lot of nasty things.”

"Hermione thinks both houses are responsible for that incident, and he called Hermione... well, anyway, he's the one who provoked us first."

“I can pretty much guess,” Celen said, glancing at Hermione.

She probably hasn't fully grasped the meaning of the term "Mudblood" yet, because Hermione didn't seem very angry. She even seemed to be in the mood to review the battle that had just taken place.

"My knockback spells are still not good enough; Crabbe almost got here."

“No, you did a great job,” Harry said. “We won because we hit Crabbe in the head at the crucial moment, and when he stepped back, he knocked Goyle down.”

“Harry, that punch of yours was beautiful too,” Ron said with a grin. “Malfoy was stunned, spitting out snot and screaming in pain.”

“Don’t say that, I didn’t think that much at the time…” Harry glanced at Siren subconsciously, “I just thought that since we used a spell, we would definitely be severely punished, so I might as well punch him a few more times.”

Although it felt good to beat up Malfoy, Harry was also quite apprehensive about the punishment he would face afterward.

He had even thought about the possible punishments he might receive: a 200-point deduction, a ban from Quidditch, or even expulsion from school.

To his surprise, Professor McGonagall only deducted 30 points from them, which was 10 points from each person. Compared to what they had gained, this punishment was practically a reward.

If losing ten points meant you could beat up a Slytherin student, I bet there would be tons of Gryffindor students vying to do it... They might even be competing to answer questions in class for extra points so they could beat them up a few more times.

But this is different from what Xilun said before. They used magic, but the punishment was painless.

Siren noticed Harry's gaze and guessed what he was thinking.

They were simply lucky to have seized this rare opportunity. If Malfoy hadn't called him a "Mudblood," Professor McGonagall certainly wouldn't have only symbolically deducted thirty points, and Snape wouldn't have been so lenient.

“It means we’ll still be locked up by Snape,” Ron suddenly sighed. “He definitely won’t let us go.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it. After all, Malfoy is his favorite student, and things are already pretty good as they are,” Harry comforted him.

“You’re right.” Ron glanced at his wand and carefully wiped away a tiny speck of dust. “It’s a shame your admirer Colin isn’t here. It would be great if we could take a picture of Malfoy.”

Harry was slightly taken aback, and actually found Ron's words to make a lot of sense.

The news quickly spread throughout the school.

The Gryffindor students cheered as if they were celebrating Christmas early. Except for Percy, no one cared about the thirty points that were deducted. They would just pat Harry or Ron on the shoulder and say "Well done."

“Malfoy’s father is a school board member, so maybe all three of them will be expelled!” Percy said, but his words were quickly drowned out by cheers, leaving no trace.

Because the headmaster of Hogwarts is Dumbledore, even the board of trustees cannot expel students without his approval.

What is there to worry about?

Harry was also very happy, and couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the sincere compliments.

More importantly, he hadn't seen the annoying Malfoy for many days. If it weren't for the occasional class he would attend with Slytherin students, he would have thought Malfoy was no longer at Hogwarts.

Without the other party's added sarcasm, Harry felt more relaxed than ever before. Even when he played the snowman in Defense Against the Dark Arts class on Monday, he enjoyed it and performed with extra effort.

“Your snowman looks really convincing,” Xiren said sincerely. “Better than a werewolf.”

“That’s right.” Ron also gave a thumbs up. “And he worked very well with Hermione. I thought it was really a Stunning Curse just now.”

The group left the classroom chatting and laughing, heading to the auditorium for lunch.

As they stepped into the cool foyer, a voice rang out, “You all look very happy, don’t you? Potter, Weasley, and Granger…”

Snape walked toward them with a stern face. "I may have to say something unpleasant, but the three of you will be staying in solitary confinement tonight."

The three of them immediately stopped laughing.

They've been so happy these past few days that they've completely forgotten about the lockdown.

“What are we to do, Professor?” Hermione asked, nervously clenching her hands. “Go find Filch and clean the prize room,” Snape said. “No magic, just hand cleaning. If you’re diligent enough, you should be able to make it to the first class tomorrow morning.”

Hearing this, Ron breathed a long sigh of relief and whispered to Hermione, "I've done this before. Three people can do it quickly; it won't take that long at all."

“Three people? I think you must have misunderstood something, Mr. Weasley.” Snape suddenly laughed, a laugh as cold as a venomous snake, sending chills down one’s spine.

"You two, come to my office at nine o'clock tonight. I have a special gift for you." Snape raised his eyebrows. "Remember, nine o'clock tonight. Don't be late."

Harry and Ron walked into the Great Hall dejectedly, and Cyrus stood beside them, unsure how to comfort them.

The gift Snape prepared certainly wouldn't be the kind that hangs on a Christmas tree.

Hermione was relatively better off. Although cleaning the prize display room by herself was a lot of work, it was still the best job among the three of them. At least she didn't have to face the fear of the unknown.

At the dinner table, Harry and Ron wondered what Snape had prepared for them; even the ham and potato pancakes made their mouths water.

As it approached nine o'clock, their expressions grew increasingly solemn, as if they were heading to a dragon's lair rather than Snape's office.

At 8:30, Hermione was the first to leave the common room. Even though she was in solitary confinement, she still maintained the habit of arriving early.

Fifteen minutes later, Harry and Ron also dawdled and set off.

“I’d rather play the snowman a hundred times…” Harry said, his voice quickly fading behind the passageway.

"What do you think awaits them?" Fred asked curiously in the common room.

“I don’t know.” Siren shook his head. “But something that can make Snape prepare for two days is likely something they’ll never forget.”

“I’m starting to feel sorry for Ron,” George said, but he kept chuckling to himself.

“Don’t say that…” Ginny looked worried, but whether it was because of Harry or Ron was hard to say… it could easily affect the relationship between the Weasley siblings.

After the two figures completely disappeared, Fred realized something, sat up and looked at Siron, "Something's not right, why didn't our future Transfiguration master go to the library today?"

Few Gryffindors enjoy spending time in the library; besides Percy and Hermione, Siren is the third. Moreover, his sudden fascination with reading after the start of the school year was an unusual change that inevitably caught the attention of Fred and George.

They couldn't understand why, after being best friends who went out at night and broke school rules together last year, they suddenly wanted to study hard this year.

At first, they thought Xilun was just putting on an act, perhaps planning some new trick, but after secretly observing for a while, they realized that wasn't the case.

Siren was indeed reading books, and they were all related to Transfiguration. A few days ago, an owl even delivered a book to him called "Intermediate Transfiguration Guide," which is only used in third grade.

"Were you kicked out by Mrs. Pince too?" George teased.

“Of course not,” Celen said. “I just have something I’d like to discuss with you.”

"Looking for us?"

Fred sat up straight, and George also left Lee Jordan and came over.

"Just say it."

"As long as it doesn't mean we have to go to the library with you."

“Otherwise, Mrs. Pince would have kicked all three of us out.” George finished speaking and chuckled to himself.

“It’s something else,” Celen said. “Do you guys remember the wand stickers from the holidays?”

“Of course, we bought more.” Fred took out his wand and pointed to the Niffler sticker on it. “I’ve been wanting to ask you this, why it stopped moving after school started.”

“Ah, that’s not important,” Celen said vaguely. “Later I made a slight upgrade to this sticker, and now it looks like this.”

Siren took out the prepared Dean's series stickers, including a silver Dumbledore and a golden Lockhart.

"This is……"

Fred and George's eyes lit up simultaneously. The moment they saw the sticker, a thought popped into their heads: this thing would definitely be all the rage at Hogwarts.

It's hard to say elsewhere, but at Hogwarts, the Headmasters' stickers are definitely more popular than the magical creatures.

“So you want to cooperate, right?” Fred asked.

“That’s right.” Xiren nodded. “As you know, I’m going to the library, so…”

“Leave it to us!” George said immediately before Siren could finish speaking. “You can simply entrust this to Weasley’s Magical Tricks Shop and we’ll sell it on your behalf.”

"The Weasleys Wizarding Arts Studio?"

"What do you think of a name for our future store?" George asked with a smile.

“That sounds great.” Xiren nodded.

“Thank you for the compliment.” Fred gave an exaggerated bow. “Alright, let’s get back to the point. If you agree to entrust this to the Weasley Wizarding Arts for sale, we guarantee that it will appear on the wand of every student at Hogwarts within just a few days.”

“I have no doubt about that,” Siren nodded. “So, what is the price?”

"Well," Fred and George exchanged a glance and chuckled, "It's still early, we can discuss it properly."

(End of this chapter)