Hogwarts: I'm Harry's older cousin

Chapter 280, Chapter 278. You applied oil to it? No, I'm going to treat it!

When Dudley went up to the second floor, the wand testing experts had already arrived, along with several judges.

Dudley and Harry had already left, so Viktor and Fleur naturally couldn't stay there and followed them up.

"Please allow me to introduce Mr. Ollivander."

Standing next to Dumbledore was an elderly man, Ollivander, who had met Dudley and his companions once before. Ollivander was the only wand maker in England.

"He's going to check your wands to make sure they're in good condition before the match."

Ollivander stepped forward, glanced at Fleur, and politely said, "Miss Delacour, may you go first?"

Fleur walked gracefully toward Ollivander and handed him her wand.

The so-called wand test was actually Ollivander stroking the wand with his fingers, tapping and waving it around, and then casting a few small spells.

"Hmm," Ollivander put his ear to the wand and listened intently, as if listening to the wand's whispers. Then, like manipulating a conductor's baton, he twirled the wand between his slender fingers, causing it to spew out many pink and gold sparks.

"Not bad." Finally, Ollivander returned the wand to Fleur: "Nine and a half inches. Very strong. Made of maple wood and contains... a Veela hair."

"It's my grandmother's hair." Fleur readily admitted. The silver-haired girl smiled, her two rows of white teeth gleaming in the sunlight. She did not deny the fact that she possessed Veela blood; on the contrary, she was quite proud of it.

Half-breeds of magical creatures and wizards are still relatively discriminated against in the wizarding world, even worse than Muggle wizards. At least Muggle wizards are numerous, so criticizing one is equivalent to criticizing a whole group.

Mixed-race individuals, especially Veela, are often viewed as... well, treated as such by many male wizards, while female wizards are very unfriendly towards them, wary of them seducing their husbands, and even despise them.

For example, Dudley sensed that when Bagman heard that Fleur had Veela blood, his eyes involuntarily drifted towards her.

If Veela is hard to understand, you can replace it with a succubus-hybrid succubus, which is still female and destined to be treated unfriendly.

"A very nice design, perfect for you, Miss Delacour."

Ollivander, however, returned the wand to Fleur with a calm expression. At his age, he had seen all sorts of storms.

He had seen witches with one-quarter Veela blood, not just one-half or three-quarters Veela blood.

"Mr. Krum, it's your turn." Ollivander turned his gaze to Victor.

Victor walked forward with his toes pointing outwards and handed Ollivander his thick, heavy, black wand.

When the wand was placed in Ollivander's hand, he could clearly feel his body sinking down; Victor's wand was quite heavy.

After tapping his wand for a while, Ollivander said, "Grigovich's product. He's an excellent wandmaker, although I'm not entirely fond of his style."

"But she is very healthy."

It's hard to imagine anyone describing a wand as healthy, but that's Ollivander's style; in his eyes, wands and people aren't that different.

"Next, Mr. Potter."

Ollivander's gaze shifted to Harry, his light-colored eyes gleaming with excitement: "It all feels like it happened yesterday, I remember it perfectly. Quick, let me see how it is now."

Harry handed over the wand he had hidden in his sleeve; the wand gleamed and reflected a unique luster in the light.

"It's very well maintained, oh, it looks brand new."

Ollivander stroked Harry's wand as carefully as if it were his own wife's body, even taking a deep breath under his nose.

To outsiders, it seems a little bit abnormal.

"It seems you take good care of it regularly. Did you apply oil to it yesterday?"

"Uh, um." Harry was a little confused by Ollivander's question and answered reflexively.

He does regularly maintain his wand, but he didn't apply any oil yesterday.

Actually, you could call it oil, but it's just human oil; in other words, Harry's wand got shiny from handling it so much.

Ollivander returned the wand to Harry, and seemed to be in a very good mood, having found a good owner for his creation.

"Finally, it's Mr. Dursley."

Ollivander paused and turned his gaze to the last warrior.

"If I remember correctly, your wand should be made of ironwood, with Thestral tail feathers, and nine inches long."

He certainly remembered it vividly. The wand he sold to Dudley was his least favorite creation, yet now that Dudley had become a champion at Hogwarts with it, he was naturally even more curious about the wand's condition.

Dudley didn't hesitate and handed the wand to Ollivander.

"You modified it?" Ollivander stared blankly at the wand in his hand, which had changed so drastically. If he wasn't certain that this was the same wand he had given Dudley, he would have doubted whether he had made it.

"Oh, what a brilliant idea!"

Ollivander was a renowned wand master throughout Europe, and even though the manufacturing process was different, he still managed to discern some of the differences.

"The process of making it is also very interesting. You know, many works are born from a flash of inspiration. And this one came from my flash of inspiration."

Ollivander would never normally use ironwood, a very hard wood, for the body of his wand because it has very poor flexibility and ductility. He would also never use Thestral feathers for the core, as Thestral feathers are a very unstable material.

The only well-known wand to date with a Thestral tail feather as its core is the Elder Wand, one of the Deathly Hallows.

Under normal circumstances, Ollivander wouldn't even glance at these two completely mismatched materials.

One day, he suddenly went crazy and made one using these two materials.

"I originally thought it was the worst of all my works."

"I never imagined it was actually a half-finished product, waiting, waiting for someone to appear who could take it away."

Ollivander handed the wand back to Dudley: "And you've finished it."

"Although I personally don't like modifying the wand like this."

He was referring to the practice of embedding magic crystals into wands.

"But it was happy, and I was happy too."

Ollivander's attitude towards wands was no different from his attitude towards children. It wasn't that the wizard chose the wand, but rather that the wand chose the wizard. This was one of Ollivander's favorite sayings.

I wish you the best of luck in the competition.

(End of this chapter)