From Azkaban to Hogwarts.

"A magic wand?"

Ron was a little puzzled, but he still answered honestly, "Fourteen inches long, willow wood, and the core is, well, unicorn tail hair."

Although wizards don't reveal information about their wands before a duel, Ron still remembered the details of his wand perfectly.

I knew it…

William glanced at Ron's wand, then took out his own and looked at it again. He instantly understood everything—unicorn tail hair was the least suitable core for casting dark magic. He had even modified his best spells several times to make them easier to cast.

Even though it wasn't particularly suited to dark magic, his wand still worked hard to complement his spells. While it didn't offer any advantage in dark magic, it did its best to demonstrate its power in other spells—this is what's known as the mutual enhancement between wizard and wand.

“The problem is quite serious,” William glanced at his wand and put it back in its place. “You’re not in a position to communicate with it properly right now. Even adult wizards need to have a certain level of confidence in their abilities before they can learn to adapt their wands to them. As things stand, you can’t learn dark magic by using your wand.”

“Unicorn Wand… I guess you had a very negative impression of dark magic before.”

Ron paused for a moment, then said with a hint of frustration, "Yes, Professor."

A dark magic genius who can't use dark magic—it's like fate is playing a cruel joke on him.

But William was thinking. Although Ron couldn't communicate with his wand right now and was basically unable to use it to learn the basics of dark magic, he had other methods besides learning with a wand...

"Therefore, the problem we are facing now has become simpler."

William looked at Ron and laughed. "First, you'll have to make your wand like you more in the coming days..."

???

Ron looked at William—to make the wand like it more?

What kind of talk is this? He had never heard such an education at Hogwarts.

"The Unicorn Wand prefers pure and stable spells. You have to let it adapt to your spellcasting before you can slowly and completely master it. Don't try to use dark magic anymore; it doesn't like it."

Although William himself did not use such techniques, he was still very clear about the related things—it was passed down from his master, and he, probably because of that Horcrux and his own talent and strength, skipped this step.

"As for your learning of evil curses, I think we should explain it from another perspective."

As William spoke, he took out several straw dolls from his pocket and placed them on the table. “Witchcraft dolls are products that lean towards curses—they can also be used to cast dark magic occasionally. We’ll use them to learn until you’re in seventh grade or until you can communicate with a wand.”

-

First, there was the black magic that couldn't be cast, and then there was the knitting doll…

Looking at the less than twenty pages of materials and the five-page assignment he had received, Ron felt as if he had truly been locked up in solitary confinement.

The situation was so outrageous that he simply couldn't accept it.

Honestly—the older students all say that Professor William has a very cool skill in wandless spellcasting and will occasionally teach it to outstanding students, but what about him?

Only ugly voodoo dolls, woven from straw or rope, ugly in a unique style!

Even more outrageous was that, as instructed by the professor, in order to reach a level of communication with his wand more quickly and effectively, he needed to use his wand to perform continuous and pure spellcasting—specifically, the Ironclad Charm—for about half an hour every night before going to sleep…

"Solitary confinement is nothing more than this..."

The thought of having to endure the Ironclad Curse for half an hour every night, and having to disband and recast it every minute, filled him with a deep sadness—wouldn't people give him some nasty nickname?

He was somewhat resistant to this, but he couldn't refuse—to him, Professor William was the only professor who praised him for his extraordinary talent, and the professor's reliability had been demonstrated extensively by his three older brothers.

"Give it a try...weaving voodoo dolls...according to the professor, it would take me more than half a month to learn just this..."

He looked at the pile of materials he had brought back in despair, gritted his teeth, and buried himself in making voodoo dolls.

-

"Has Ron recently become obsessed with knitting dolls?"

In an empty classroom, while a group of students were chatting, the twins overheard this news.

"Are you serious? Ron is in his dorm right now, knitting straw dolls as soon as get out of class is over?"

Fred and George looked at the student who had tipped them off with surprise.

What's going on? A new way to decompress?

Are fifth graders starting to use this to relieve the stress of their OWLS year? They only spent a little time researching whether the principal might retire, and they're already being swept away by the tide of time?

"Could you be a little more specific about the topic—it's not some kind of riddle with a special meaning, is it?"

Fred looked at his classmate, with whom he had lost many points over the years, and asked with a hint of confusion in his eyes.

"There's no other metaphor; aside from dating, classes, and team training, he would go back to his dorm and try to weave all sorts of straw dolls..."

"Is it for a girl?"

Fred and George exchanged a glance—Ron had so little pocket money that this was all he could do?

"I don't think so..." the person who leaked the information said uncertainly, "Although there are many styles, those dolls are really, really ugly..."

"That's strange... He wasn't bullied for no reason, was he?"

The twins were completely bewildered—could they have been bullied and forced to do something so stupid? It was true that the two of them often bullied Ron, but if anyone else bullied Ron like this, they would have to warn them.

But as soon as they asked the question, the twins noticed that the other people were looking at them very strangely, as if it wasn't Ron who had suddenly become stupid, but the two of them.

?

The two were stunned for a moment before realizing their problem—Ron was now a prefect.

The other houses may have their own hidden stories, but Gryffindor is different. In Gryffindor, it's only the prefects who bully others—at least that's what those of them, who have been caught by the prefects many times, think.

"Never mind, he's completely betrayed Gryffindor's spirit of freedom. Let him make up whatever he wants..." The two grew angrier the more they thought about Ron; prefects were simply not meant to be with them.

"Oh right, it seems like they did this after he went to Professor William's place for solitary confinement..."

The whistleblower added insult to injury.

"He's so stupid to put someone in solitary confinement... He must have infuriated the professor!"

The twins drew a firm conclusion—they'd completely forgotten about it; heaven knows how guilty they were when they were told they'd be in solitary confinement that day! They spent a full half hour trying to figure out which thing had suddenly given them away!

-

"You know Ron, the prefect of fifth year in Gryffindor, right?"

"How could I not know? What's wrong?"

"He's knitting a doll and playing with it."

That's how schools are; even the slightest rumor spreads like wildfire—especially gossip about the class leaders of various colleges, which immediately becomes a hot topic.

"That's the class monitor!"

"What's wrong with the prefect—but, is he planning to sell those dolls as lucky charms by making them up?"

In the year of OWLS, Hogwarts often had all sorts of random items for sale. Some shameless upperclassmen would use titles like "brain tonic" or "lucky charm" to sell their goods at inflated prices.

In theory, this is the prefect's responsibility; the person selling it would be caught, sent to solitary confinement, and all their belongings would be destroyed.

Ron himself is a prefect—the prefect position is a good guarantee.

"Maybe it really works?"

"But I heard it's extremely ugly..."

"Ah...then..."

Similar conversations circulated among many students, but Ron was so engrossed in weaving voodoo dolls that he had no time to carry out the prefect's tasks.

'This looks like it might be barely acceptable…'

Ron picked up the latest finished product—he was in a very strange state now.

That is, the craftsmanship wasn't great, but after weaving a few, I completely understood how to do it.

It's like he's memorized the move list perfectly and has a general idea of ​​what success is, but he just can't seem to execute it—yet magic keeps pushing him to be more perfect each time, bringing him ever closer to success.

This visible progress felt like a progress bar had suddenly appeared, and with each voodoo doll he wove, he felt closer to success—an experience he rarely had in his other courses.

Moreover, his learning progress was much faster than Professor William had predicted. In just about ten days, he felt that he could weave a successful and usable voodoo doll.

It was a different kind of experience—although he still didn't know what the finished product could do, it didn't stop him from feeling the existence of what he had woven.

'That's...that's amazing...is that all?'

He glanced at the finished product and felt that if he wove one or two more, he could successfully complete his first voodoo doll...

'I still have to go on a date…'

Ron suddenly felt a strong urge to skip the date, but quickly banished the terrible thought from his mind—how could he do that?

'Pack up, I'm going right away…'

"Boom boom boom!"

There was a knock on the door. Ron and Harry, who was reading, exchanged a glance, and then Harry used magic to open the door.

Are you all here?

Hermione's voice came through the doorway. She glanced inside, then said with a hint of delight, "It's good that the rest of you aren't here—the prefects asked me to come talk to them about those voodoo dolls…this is really…"

She was just about to step inside when she saw Harry and Ron exchange a glance, then simultaneously look up. "Hermione, wait a minute!"

Before Hermione could answer, the door slammed shut with the help of her wand.

"Hurry up!"

Harry put down his Potions textbook, Ron pulled out his wand, and the two of them quickly began casting spells on everything in the dormitory—not to mention their own, they also had to protect the innocence of their other roommates!

The two exchanged a glance and silently cursed the school's rules—why can girls freely visit boys' dormitories?

Chapter 529 Voodoo Dolls and the Storm

"Voodoo doll?"

After Ron explained to his two friends with great seriousness that he neither intended to make straw dolls nor to use this gimmick to create lucky dolls to cheat other students out of their money, the two looked at the table full of ugly, uniquely styled voodoo dolls and had countless associations.

"Is this thing related to a curse?"

Harry grabbed one casually, then seemed to remember something and pulled his hand back. He put on the dragon skin gloves, sighed, and picked up another one.

"I don't sense any dark magic here—Ron, can it be disassembled?"

"Because it's not finished yet."

Ron blushed slightly—actually, he planned to share this with Harry after he succeeded, and he always felt a little embarrassed to show his friends a work that hadn't been done. "But if you want to take it apart, feel free to do so."