บท 104: Neal's third wand

"Do you know about this wand, ancestor?" asked Neal as he heard Slytherin's words.

Slytherin replied, "Obviously, every wand maker would recognize it. Acacia wood is generally known to be grown in Africa, well, at least back in my time.

I don't know whether to call you lucky or unlucky. After all, Acacia wands were very difficult to match with a wizard.

The wands made from Acacia wood will not be able to produce magic for anyone but their owner, but conversely, seemed to withhold their full power from all but the most gifted wizards. They were quite rare, I mean very rare.

As for its core, it appeared to be made from Nundu's whiskers. Ever heard of Nundu?"

"I remember reading about it." Neal went through his memories and recited, "it's an XXXXX category beast that resembles a leopard but is quite large in size. The breath of Nundu was so toxic and filled with disease so potent that it can wipe out an entire village of people in a matter of minutes. I heard that they were less in number and harder to capture than fully grown dragons."

"Yes." Slytherin agreed with his explanation and further added, "If it takes ten wizards to tame a dragon, it takes 100 of them to even capture one angry Nundu. The only other way to capture and tame them is to do it when they were cubs. It's indeed amazing that my student managed to obtain its whiskers."

"I wonder whether I can master this. Hmm…" Neal couldn't care less about his heroics of Merlin. At the moment, his entire focus is on getting stronger. He also plans on keeping this wand a secret, unlike his Basilisk wand.

As for why he didn't do it for Slytherin's wand, it is because he wasn't the one who found it in the first place. Edwards Fawley was the one who went to great lengths to obtain the wand, and as an agent of Dumbledore, it was already reported to him. Adding on top of that, Neal didn't have any proper backing at that time. He was just an 11-year-old who ran away from an orphanage.

But, right now, the situation is different. Not only he had powerful backing, but he also learned enough to know that the ministry isn't trusted. Who knows how many deaths eaters working there…

Anyways, back to the present, after placing the wand in his suitcase, Neal left the vault of the forest and returned to Hogwarts.

A few days later, around the evening;

Great Hall, Hogwarts;

After the dinner was finished and the tables were cleared by the house elves, the students of Durmstrang and Hogwarts continued to sit in the Great Hall on the last day of the semester. As for the students of Beauxbatons, they have long left with their headmistress.

The professors were sitting at the High table in silence as Dumbledore stood up and came forward to talk to everyone just like every last day of the year.

"Another extraordinary year has passed. Too bad that several things like Quidditch, the annual festival, and the very special Triwizard tournament have been canceled.

But, just like how one would often look for the light in the darkness, we too should look at positive things.

For example, your annual exhibitions are canceled. And all of you also get to interact with the students from other magic schools. I promise you that the next year will even become better, although you will have to wait for the event.

Anyways, let's go on with the House Championships. After calculating all the personal points, in fourth place, Hufflepuff with 485 points. In third place, Gryffindor with 530 points. In the second place, is Ravenclaw with 545 points. And in first place, Slytherin with 560 points.

Slytherin wins the house cup for the tenth time in a row. Congratulations…"

The Slytherins were happy while the others could only sigh as they look at the results. Perhaps, the only consolation here is the fact that the score gap is quite less between each house.

Fortunately, neither Harry nor Neal cares about it anymore as their thoughts are occupied by Voldemort and his followers. And now that both of them are also in the same camp, Malfoy too didn't bother trying to mock Harry. With Ron sitting in a corner and grumbling by himself, the matter of the House championship was over and out.

The next day morning, everyone boarded the Hogwarts Express. Roughly around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Neal and others got down at King's Cross station, London.

There, alongside Daphne's father, Neal saw Leon Avery and a couple of others waiting for them at the platform. Obviously, Lucius Malfoy or his wife wasn't present to pick up Draco.

Malfoy knew that but he still felt a bit sad because there is no one to pick him up. Looking at his dejected face, Neal patted his shoulder and smiled, "let's go, Draco."

Malfoy nodded while forcing out a smile.

***

Meanwhile, somewhere in United States of America;

On the top of the highest peak of Mount Greylock in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, there is a castle made of granite stone. Its front doors were adorned with marble statues of Sayre and Steward on either side. The entire place was concealed by several enchantments which sometimes looked like a wreath of misty clouds.

It is the Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, founded in 1627 by Isolt Steward (Sayre), who hailed from Sayre family from father's side and a descendant of Salazar Slytherin from mother's side (Rionach Sayre (Gaunt)).

Compared to Hogwarts, it is fairly a young school but in no way, its reputation is considered lesser and stands on equal ground with the top three magic schools in Europe, well, partly America growing up to be the strongest and wealthiest nation in the world is also responsible. When money flows in, automatically, there will be progress.

Coming to its housing system, it is copied after Hogwarts. The school was divided into four houses namely, Thunderbird, Wampus, Horned Serpent, and Pukwudgie, although the ways the students are chosen were slightly different.

The Thunderbird House favors the candidates with adventuring mentality.

Wampus House favors the candidates who were warriors.

The Horned Serpent House favored scholars while the Pukwudgie House favored Healers.

On the east wing of the castle lies the dorm of Thunderbird House, which is almost empty at the moment like the rest of the castle as the students were on a summer vacation.

And inside the office of the Head of the house, two men were talking about something.

"Professor Wallace, it's unlikely that Avery House and Dumbledore will let the boy come here," said a shoulder-length blonde-haired man with a scar over his left eye.

The other man, named Charles Wallace, a 92-year-old man and the Vice Headmaster of the school, spoke with a serious expression on his face, "It doesn't matter, Professor Clark. In case, it doesn't happen, I will send the twins with you to Hogwarts. This way, we can kill two birds with one stone. Make sure to confirm the killer of Professor Jamie Brown. To take approperiate actions, we need to know whether it is Neal Slytherin's accidental magic or if it is Dumbledore himself."