Chapter 456 - 7: Allergy

Chapter 456: Chapter 7: Allergy

"For a moment, I thought you were insulting me, Professor Snape."

Garrick Ollivander, proprietor of the only wand shop in Diagon Alley and one of the three greatest wandmakers in Europe, had gone red in the face as he glared at the gloomy man before him with greasy hair and cold eyes.

"About seven years ago—perhaps eight—a young half-blood fellow came into my shop. He actually told me you could take any wooden stick, put some tissue from a magical creature inside it, and use it..."

"Really?" Yimi looked up at Ollivander.

Ollivander shook his head. "No, child. What I mean is that I can almost accept what he said now, because back then I never imagined that a few years later someone would solemnly bring me a scrap hacked off some piece of furniture and ask whether it was a wand!"

"Believe me, Mr. Ollivander. When I saw Weasley use this thing to turn a metal box into a mouse, I was even more shocked than you are. I do not believe the boy is capable of wandless magic." McGonagall placed the piece of rebar in Ollivander’s hands. Ron had unwound an old sock and wrapped a strip of cloth around it as a grip.

"And he used it to attack a student from my House," Snape added coolly, his eyes sliding toward Yimi as though the little thing were the true culprit.

"That ’attack’ had nothing to do with the wand’s function, Severus." McGonagall instinctively reached out as though to shield Yimi, then remembered that she could not make a child feel too secure while questioning her.

At that, Ollivander finally became much more serious. He used the object to cast a Levitation Charm on a writing brush lying on the table and found, to his surprise, that it handled extremely well.

The corner of Ollivander’s mouth visibly twitched. He raised the rebar wand in front of his face and examined it carefully. "I think you had better tell me where this came from. I mean—regrettably, I have never seen anything like it either."

After he said that, McGonagall fixed Yimi with a stern look.

"I got it, from a gacha draw," Yimi said.

"Then I would dearly like to know what shop is so generous. Were you drinking Felix Felicis when you entered this drawing?" McGonagall was clearly not satisfied with the answer.

"The System drew it." The kitty had always been very honest.

"Him again?" McGonagall frowned deeply.

"I believe what she ought to explain is why she gave this scrap—this wand, I mean—to a student and traded it for a broken wand," Snape said.

Yimi looked at him. "I wanted to see, how wands are made. Then make one, myself."

"Then why not simply use the finished one, Miss Yimi?" Snape’s voice was low and cold, as though he were interrogating a genuine criminal.

"It’s too ugly." Yimi took a step backward and pointed at Snape’s head. "Why don’t you wash your hair?"

"..."

Snape’s expression seemed to darken even further.

At the same time, some sort of noise came from a corner of the room.

"If this wand was custom-made, I would say its owner must at least be a man built like Professor Snape." Ollivander had drawn the conclusion from the rebar’s dimensions, though its weight had factored into his judgment too.

Then he stared straight at Yimi. "If you can introduce me to the wizard who made this wand, I can fit you for one free of charge..."

Yimi shook her head. "I already know, how to make one."

The kitty was a hands-on sort.

Out of thin air, she produced a branch only about ten inches long. It was a straight stick she had picked up in the previous world, half of which had already broken off. The moment she brought it out, Ollivander snatched it from her hand.

"Oh, where did you just take that from? And is there anything else I don’t know about?" McGonagall glared at her sternly.

Ollivander inspected it closely. Even at first glance, he could tell it was something not even a third-rate wandmaker would have produced.

"Cherry wood? You used the branch directly without even polishing it? Terrible workmanship. And the core... what is this? Cat hair?"

Because Ron’s wand was so old that its core stuck out of the end, Yimi had assumed that was simply what wands looked like. When she made her own, she had left part of the core sticking out too.

"My hair." Yimi planted her hands proudly on her hips.

"My heavens..." Ollivander studied it closely. He did not laugh at Yimi for combining a branch with her own hair, even though this object that could barely be called a "wand" looked utterly dreadful to his professional eyes.

But as he stared at the exposed bit of wand core and then examined Yimi again, his expression slowly froze. "Forgive me for asking, child, but what species are you? I mean... are you human?"

McGonagall did not look pleased. "You may go now, Mr. Ollivander. I will compensate you for making the trip."

"I only meant that she does not seem... Very well. Please forget my lapse in manners today, Professor McGonagall." Knowing he should not pry into another person’s secrets, he forcibly suppressed the curiosity crawling through him and turned back to Yimi.

"To apologize, I can improve this for you free of charge. I mean, I can keep the original core and use a different wood to make the wand."

"I believe she is still too young to attend Hogwarts, and this broken wand is not what we are discussing," Snape emphasized.

"Broken!" Yimi glared at him angrily and copied the adults by putting both hands on her hips, making certain everyone knew she was furious.

The wand had taken the kitty a full six minutes to make, and he had insulted it!

"If you mean the rebar, Professor, then in my judgment there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is perfectly safe. Of course, that is exactly what puzzles me most. Can you imagine using Transfiguration to turn a bird into a frog, only for the frog to kick its legs and fly away through the air? That is what this feels like..."

"Safe?" Snape’s mouth turned down noticeably. He very much seemed to have hoped something would be found wrong with the wand that had cracked Malfoy’s head. Then he would have another excuse to deduct fifty more points from Gryffindor because of Ron.

Ollivander left. After estimating Yimi’s height and arm length, he took some of Yimi’s hair with him and apparently did not care much about the age issue.

Snape swept his robes around and strode out as well.

"Hey, does that mean I’m getting my wand back?" Ron asked delightedly from a more distant corner of the room. He and the other two were hiding beneath Harry’s Invisibility Cloak.

The three of them had nearly given themselves away earlier when Yimi told Snape to his face that his hair was greasy. He was a professor, certainly, but what was he going to do to a child who had not even enrolled?

"Stop talking. Let’s get out of here first." Hermione was not very happy. They had not sneaked over here for Ron’s new wand; they had come because of the giant snake Yimi mentioned.

That was a separate matter. Hermione really was touched that Ron had hit Malfoy for her, but the fact that both boys suspected there really was a giant snake in the school still bothered her. Lockhart had already said there was no snake.

Yes, Lockhart was her favorite teacher, but not because she liked his class. It was more like the way a fan adored an idol. Hermione could even get full marks on a test made entirely of questions about Lockhart’s preferences and events from his autobiographies.

Whatever else one might say, Lockhart’s books were genuinely engaging, and he was quite handsome.

"Why can’t you just ask Hagrid whether there are snakes? How trustworthy can a little kid’s story be? When I was her age, I believed the tooth fairy would leave me money too," Hermione muttered again once they had gone farther away.

"Who’s Hagrid?" Yimi asked in confusion.

"He’s the gamekeeper for the Forbidden Forest. He’s a very good person," Harry answered.

Harry immediately noticed the expressions of both companions stiffen slightly. Even beneath the Invisibility Cloak, it was perfectly obvious.

"..."

Harry looked back and saw Yimi tugging at his Invisibility Cloak.

* * *

"I think even if Hogwarts is enormous, there shouldn’t be anywhere to hide the snake you’re talking about. Also, how did you see us while we were invisible? We weren’t showing our feet, were we?" Hermione stepped over the pumpkins Hagrid had planted while watching Yimi’s little legs, making sure the tiny girl did not trample anything and make Hagrid unhappy.

"Smell," Yimi answered.

"Did you really see that snake? When? Where?" Harry asked, clearly concerned.

"Saw it. In Riddle’s memories." Yimi stared fixedly at the pumpkins, because they were larger than her entire body.

"Riddle?" Ron found the name vaguely familiar, but he was unlikely to remember anytime soon that it belonged to the owner of an award he had polished during detention the previous day.

Yimi continued, "Grandma Cat also said, he’s ’You-Know-Who.’"

"What?"

All three of them stopped.

"Voldemort," Harry said the name aloud.

Ron glared at him in complaint. "Bloody hell, can you not say that name?"

The name itself was the embodiment of terror. Merely saying it sent chills down people’s backs, so people now used "You-Know-Who" in place of Voldemort.

"Voldemort?" Yimi’s eyes lit up. "Where? I’ll go kill him."

The kitty did not mind completing a Side Quest while she was at it.

"You too! Don’t say that name, and definitely don’t let any Death Eater hear what you just said!" Ron was practically scolding her.

Little kids boasted without ever thinking about the situation.

"Memories. You mentioned memories just now?" Harry caught the important point.

"Harry, haven’t you figured out she’s just a little kid who talks big? I’m starting to wonder whether bothering Hagrid over this is even worth it." As she said that, Hermione knocked on the door of Hagrid’s hut.

Hagrid opened the door, his enormous body almost filling the entire frame.

He looked surprised, then stepped aside to let them in. "Oh, what are you lot doing here? And this late?"

"Hagrid, we want to ask you about snakes." Harry walked inside.

The other three followed. The hut felt very warm because Hagrid had a fire going.

Yimi took off her hat and turned her head from side to side first.

"Snakes? Th-That..." Hagrid stared at Yimi in horror.

"Achoo!"

Then he sneezed. The sneeze was so violent it seemed to shake the room, and a long string of snot flew out with it and landed across Ron’s face.

"Oh no!" Ron broke down completely. At the same time, he looked at the cat ears Yimi had exposed and remembered something Hagrid had mentioned back in first year.

Hagrid was allergic to cats.