"Sherlock..."
Moved by the scene, Ron couldn't help but sniffle.
He then turned his head away.
He couldn't let Sherlock and Harry see him like this.
Then he saw Mr. Holmes leaning against the doorway, watching him with a smile.
Ron: (／▽＼)
This was rather embarrassing.
"Weasley boy, quickly take out your wand. Don't keep this old man waiting."
When it came to social skills, Mr. Holmes was clearly much more adept than Sherlock.
Noticing Ron's embarrassing situation, he immediately spoke to help him out.
"Oh... ah? Yes, alright!"
Ron looked at Mr. Holmes gratefully and took out his worn and battered wand.
"I remember every wand I've sold."
Ollivander took the wand and gently stroked the worn handle, his eyes showing deep nostalgia.
"Ash wood, twelve inches, unicorn hair, originally quite flexible..."
At this point, his gaze suddenly became sharp: "Speaking of which, when you use it to cast spells normally, you should feel quite a strong sense of resistance, shouldn't you?"
"Exactly! You're absolutely right."
Ron nodded vigorously.
There hadn't been any customers for a while, so having someone come to buy a wand was rare, and Mr. Ollivander opened up the conversation.
"Just as I expected—it appears that wizards choose wands, but actually wands also choose their wizards.
Unicorn hair is the most loyal wand core, and ash wood is the most loyal wood. A wand made from combining the two..."
"Loyal?"
Ron was somewhat puzzled.
"Loyal! Faithful!"
Ollivander said with certainty:
"Under these circumstances, even if the new owner is a blood relative of the previous owner, it's difficult to master.
Or rather, if you weren't the younger brother of the wand's first owner, you'd probably have trouble casting even the most basic spells."
Hearing Ollivander's assessment, Ron's eyes widened in surprise.
So, it really was this reason!
"I can only say, fortunately Mr. Holmes here discovered this in time, otherwise it would have affected your progress in learning and casting spells for a very long time to come."
Ron's eyes moistened once again.
However, when he looked toward Sherlock, he found that the latter had somehow already left.
Ron couldn't help but smile.
Right, this was Sherlock's style.
The rest did not need to be explained.
After spending some time, a fourteen-inch willow wand chose Ron.
Worth noting was that the wand's core material was still unicorn hair.
According to Ollivander, unicorn hair could cast spells stably, while willow was suitable for wizards who contained great potential within themselves.
In summary, just two words:
Loyal! Faithful!
Just as Ollivander finished packaging the wand and handed it to Ron, Sherlock happened to return.
"Sherlock, what's this?"
Looking at the pile of things Sherlock was carrying, Harry asked curiously.
"Some materials for future use."
Harry: |(*′口`)
That was like saying nothing at all.
However, Harry understood clearly that since Sherlock gave this kind of answer, it meant the time wasn't right.
When the time was ripe, he would naturally tell him the truth.
Having known Sherlock for so long, Harry had long gotten used to convincing himself.
As for Ron, who had gotten his new wand, he couldn't wait to try out how it felt.
The result was like buttery smooth—it was pure enjoyment.
The Levitation Charm, which he had never successfully performed in Charms class, worked perfectly on the first try.
This thrilled him immensely.
Even after returning to Sherlock's house from Diagon Alley, Ron was still eager to try more spells.
Unfortunately, according to British Ministry of Magic regulations, young wizards weren't allowed to perform magic outside of school.
"Obviously there's no such restriction at home..."
"The Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery Act, Section Three: Deliberately using magic in Muggle residential areas in front of Muggles constitutes a criminal offense."
Sherlock recited the specific content of the regulation from memory.
"This is a Muggle neighborhood. As soon as magic is performed, the Ministry of Magic can immediately locate my house."
Harry and Ron looked at each other. What kind of restriction act was this?
They had never heard of it.
However, neither of them doubted the accuracy of Sherlock's words.
After all, this was Sherlock Holmes.
"That's rather boring then," Ron sighed. "If only I'd brought wizard's chess back... no wait, even if I brought my grandfather's set, Sherlock's house doesn't have..."
"Actually, I do."
Sherlock said while taking out two sets of wizard's chess.
Harry and Ron: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ
"Sherlock, when did you..."
Both looked shocked.
"I bought them today in Diagon Alley."
"Sherlock, you're amazing!"
Ron jumped up and gave Sherlock a big hug, then immediately started a game with Harry.
As for whether using wizard's chess in the Muggle world counted as violating magical regulations?
Sorry, not sure, but since Sherlock didn't say anything, it must be fine.
In fact, Sherlock knew very well this was pushing boundaries.
Because Hogwarts would only put the Trace on these young wizards during summer vacation.
However, just as he had explained to Ron earlier, this was still a Muggle neighborhood after all.
Playing wizard's chess was fine—presumably the Ministry of Magic already knew that Harry Potter was at his house, and they would give him that much face.
But once spells were used, the nature would be different.
Indeed, several games of chess passed without incident.
This also confirmed Sherlock's judgment and pointed the way for future actions.
The rules of wizard's chess were the same as Muggle chess, except that all the pieces were alive.
Once one's own pieces captured the opponent's, they would knock them down and drag them off the board.
So, playing chess felt more like commanding an army in battle.
Although both were using new chess sets, Ron didn't take long to familiarize himself with the pieces and successfully get them to obey his commands.
In contrast, Harry's pieces didn't trust him at all and kept giving him various suggestions:
"Don't send me there, can't you see his knight?"
"Send him instead, it doesn't matter if he's sacrificed."
"How dare you kill my knight!"
Harry's chess skills weren't as good as Ron's to begin with, and being further disturbed by these pieces left him dizzy and confused.
As a result, over several consecutive games, he was constantly running around, too busy responding to keep up.
The outcome was predictably being beaten by Ron until he was in complete disarray and utter defeat.
Fortunately, Mr. Holmes saw the injustice and came to his aid.
Only then could the tide be stemmed and the situation salvaged.
As a Muggle, when Mr. Holmes first took over Harry's black pieces, these pieces wouldn't obey his commands or questioned them.
But as the game progressed, those unruly pieces actually became increasingly well-behaved.
By the end of one game, they had almost reached the same level as Ron's white pieces—responding as naturally as his own limbs, completely at his command.
The situation against Ron also changed from one-sided to back-and-forth exchanges.
Watching the high-spirited Ron and his father, Sherlock wasn't surprised at all.
This was exactly what he had expected.
He turned to Harry: "Harry, we'll go to Number 4 Privet Drive in a couple of days."
"What?"
Harry was stunned and looked at Ron and Mr. Holmes, who were absorbed in wizard's chess, then asked quietly, "Just the two of us?"
"My mother will drive us there."
As for why not his father...
With such a rare opportunity, let him enjoy playing chess with Ron properly.
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