#41 - Hagrid's Invitation
Learning is like carving out the core of a wand; as long as you advance a little each day, you will always gain something.
This is the conclusion that Muen has drawn from two consecutive days of carving wand cores.
In order to ensure that the magical properties of the wand wood are not destroyed, the core must also be seamlessly inlaid according to the original grain of the wood.
Fortunately, Muen's sense of touch in finding the grain has been trained and strengthened.
This time, there were only five more flames in the fireplace, and a perfect wand core hole was carved out.
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Poof~
Gently blowing away the wood shavings, Muen admired his latest work in the light that streamed into the room.
After confirming that he had not damaged any fine lines, he rubbed his eyes and looked into the distance to relieve fatigue.
Today is Wednesday. Two days have passed, and the pitcher plants that Muen brought from Xilin have also adapted to the environment of Hogwarts.
A total of seven or eight flowers in the two flower pots have opened their lids, as if demanding food.
"It's time to find some food for these carnivorous flowers."
Thinking of this, Muen carried the two flower pots out of the castle and walked towards the Forbidden Forest.
He brought these carnivorous flowers to Hogwarts to see if they could help Hagrid solve the problem of bugs eating the pumpkins.
......
Seeing Hagrid again, Muen directly explained his intentions.
"You say these flowers eat bugs?"
Hagrid's big hands had already taken the flower pots, and his eyes were curiously staring at the plants in his hands.
"That's right. In my hometown, they are often placed in the kitchen to clean up mosquitoes and bugs. I just don't know if the bugs in the pumpkin patch will fall for it."
"I think they should, after all, these small flying insects are similar to flies and mosquitoes."
Hagrid didn't doubt it much. After he finished speaking, he led Muen to the pumpkin patch behind the house.
After a week, the pumpkins in this vegetable garden were already the size of footballs.
The dark green skin of the melons had not yet hardened, but the fragrance of the pumpkins had already attracted many flying insects to steal and eat them.
Hagrid followed Muen's instructions and placed two pots of pitcher plants on both sides of the field.
Then, he and Muen quietly observed from the side.
The buzzing of the surrounding flying insects was like triggering the switch of the pitcher plants.
These white flowers began to open the lids on top one by one, and a strange smell began to spread around.
This smell was the pitcher flower's weapon for attracting insects. At this time, Muen could already see flying insects gathering around the flowers, having been tricked into coming.
These flying insects, attracted by the fragrance of the flowers, lined up and crawled into the pitcher plants.
"Wow, this is much better than the insecticide I bought in Knockturn Alley."
Seeing that the pitcher plants had directly trapped more than a dozen flying insects in just half an hour, Hagrid exclaimed happily.
"Knockturn Alley?"
Muen looked at Hagrid curiously. He had read in books that this seemed to be a place that specialized in selling dark wizard supplies.
"Oh, you know, there are always some powerful but cheap things there."
Hearing Hagrid's explanation, Muen couldn't help but become suspicious.
"Guarding such a large Forbidden Forest, you shouldn't be short of money, right?"
Muen remembered the unicorn tail hair that Hagrid had given him last time. Just a handful of it would definitely be worth hundreds of galleons outside.
"Don't say that. The property in the Forbidden Forest belongs to Hogwarts. I am only responsible for guarding and collecting it, and I don't have the right to dispose of it at will."
"Then the unicorn tail hair you gave me, won't it cause you trouble?"
"How could it? The one who arranged this matter was..."
Hagrid suddenly closed his mouth tightly, then looked at Muen: "There are many every year, one more or one less doesn't matter."
"Okay."
Although Muen could see that Hagrid was hiding something, he didn't plan to ask further, after all, that handful of unicorn tail hair had really helped him a lot.
As the sun set, Hagrid called out to him again as Muen prepared to say goodbye.
"I know your carving skills are very good. Can you help me make the pumpkin lanterns for Halloween this year?"
"Pumpkin lanterns?"
Muen, who had never experienced Halloween, didn't know the importance of pumpkin lanterns for this festival at all.
"Of course, this is the highlight of Halloween, and everyone will be looking forward to it."
Halloween is a month away, and Muen's progress in making wands is now at the final stage.
If you add the time he spent in Xilin, then he has two months to make a wand.
It won't delay anything to take a few days to help carve pumpkin lanterns at that time.
Of course, it is also very likely that by that time, he will have made a real wand in Xilin.
"Okay, I will come to you then."
Muen readily agreed, and then returned to the castle with a basket of snacks that Hagrid had prepared for Fang.
......
After the Potions class on Friday, Muen finally perfectly embedded a unicorn tail hair into ordinary wood.
After completely gluing the divided halves of the wooden stick together with plant glue, there were no gaps in the entire wooden stick.
Having done this, Muen has also completed all the previous experimental steps, and next he will have to practice on those three big trees.
The three big trees outside the greenhouse seemed to know their fate, and they had gradually stopped growing this week.
Muen stretched his hand towards the grape vines covering the greenhouse glass without any pity.
About two meters of magical wood should be enough for him to practice about seven times.
The holly tree next to it had magical properties appearing in one branch, and the usable range was about one meter, which is three practice opportunities.
As for the last willow tree, it is also three times.
But that belongs to the final decisive game.
On Friday night, Muen sanded all the magical wood into wand blanks.
Then, on Saturday all day, he locked himself in the greenhouse.
It is quiet enough here, very suitable for him to create with peace of mind.
First is the grape vine.
Split, failure!
Split, failure!
Split, failure!
Muen discovered that the grain of wood with magical properties is more delicate, and each of their lines seems to be full of magical energy.
When the blade splits the grain, it will inevitably disrupt the energy inside, which in turn will disrupt the force of the knife.
All morning, Muen wasted five grape vines and two holly branches.
After eating lunch at noon, Muen chose to go back to the dormitory for a nap to give his brain a full rest.
When he came to the greenhouse again, Fang also followed.
The eighth willow wood, Muen successfully split it open.
But he failed again when he was hollowing out the core groove.
Fang's arrival seemed to dispel the bad luck.
The ninth grape vine, the tenth holly branch, and the eleventh willow branch were all perfectly split.
Now all that's left is to put the unicorn tail hair in!
......
"Why is this happening?"
The difficulty of embedding unicorn tail hair is not high, but when Muen was embedding it into the grape vine and holly branch, they both spontaneously combusted.
This gave Muen a bitter feeling that he was about to reach the end, but was tripped.
There are only two chances left.
Muen took out the wand he bought from Ollivander and observed it carefully.
As he observed the wand, he couldn't help but recall the scene when he bought the wand.
"Remember, it is the wand that chooses the wizard."
After this nonsensical sentence jumped into Muen's head, it could no longer be driven away.
Thinking of this sentence in his mind, Muen also began to embed the core into the willow wood.
When the long gap was closed, Muen came out of his trance.
