Sherlock Holmes at Hogwarts

“Sherlock……”

Touched by the scene, Ron couldn't help but sniffle.

He immediately turned his head to the side.

He couldn't let Sherlock and Harry see him like this.

Then he saw Sherlock's father, Mr. Holmes, leaning against the door, smiling at him.

Ron: (／▽＼)

This was a bit awkward.

“Young man from the Weasley family, quickly take out your wand, don't keep this old man waiting.”

When it comes to dealing with people, Mr. Holmes is obviously much better than Sherlock.

Noticing Ron's awkward situation, he immediately spoke to ease the tension.

“Oh… ah? Okay, okay!”

Ron glanced at Mr. Holmes gratefully, and took out his worn-out wand as he spoke.

“I remember every wand I've sold.”

Ollivander took the wand, gently stroking the worn handle, a deep sense of nostalgia in his eyes.

“Ash wood, twelve inches, unicorn hair, originally quite flexible…”

Speaking of which, his eyes suddenly sharpened: “When you usually use it to cast spells, you should feel a slight sense of stagnation, right?”

“That's right! You're absolutely right.”

Ron nodded emphatically.

There hadn't been any customers for a while, so Mr. Ollivander opened up once he finally encountered someone buying a wand.

“Just as I expected—it seems that the wizard chooses the wand, but in reality, the wand is also choosing its wizard.

Unicorn hair is the most loyal wand core, and ash wood is the most loyal wood, so a wand made from the two combined…”

“Loyal?”

Ron was a little confused.

“Loyal!”

Ollivander said very definitely:

“In this case, even if the wand's new owner is a blood relative of the previous one, it will be difficult to control.

Or rather, if you weren't the first wand owner's younger brother, you probably wouldn't even be able to cast the most basic spells.”

Hearing Ollivander's evaluation, Ron's eyes widened in surprise.

So that was the reason!

“I can only say, thank goodness Mr. Holmes discovered it in time, otherwise it would have affected your progress in learning and casting spells for a long time.”

Ron's eyes welled up again.

However, when he looked towards Sherlock, he found that the latter had already left at some point.

Ron couldn't help but smile.

That's Sherlock's style.

There's nothing else to say about what followed.

After a while, a fourteen-inch willow wand chose Ron.

It is worth mentioning that the wand's core material was still unicorn hair.

According to Ollivander, unicorn hair can stabilize the casting of spells, while willow is suitable for wizards with great potential within them.

In short, two words:

Loyal!

Ollivander had just handed the packaged wand to Ron when Sherlock happened to come back.

“Sherlock, what's this?”

Looking at the pile of things Sherlock was holding, Harry couldn't help but ask curiously.

“Some materials for future use.”

Harry: |(*′口`*)

That was as good as saying nothing.

But Harry also knew that since Sherlock had given this kind of answer, it meant the time wasn't right.

When the time was right, he would naturally tell him the truth.

Having known Sherlock for so long, Harry had long been used to convincing himself.

As for Ron, who had obtained a new wand, he couldn't wait to try out the feel.

The result was a silky smooth experience.

The Levitation Charm, which he had never succeeded at in Charms class, worked on the first try.

This made him extremely excited.

Even after returning to Sherlock's house from Diagon Alley, Ron was still eager to try.

Unfortunately, according to the regulations of the British Ministry of Magic, young wizards are not allowed to cast spells outside of school.

“There's no such restriction at home…”

“Section 3 of the 'Reasonable Restriction Law for Underage Wizards' states that intentionally using magic in front of Muggles in a Muggle residential area is a criminal act.”

Sherlock recited the specific content of the regulation as if he were familiar with it.

“This is a Muggle neighborhood, as soon as I cast a spell, the Ministry of Magic will immediately be able to locate my house.”

Harry and Ron exchanged glances, what kind of restriction law was that?

They had never heard of it.

But the two of them didn't doubt the accuracy of Sherlock's words at all.

After all, he was Sherlock Holmes.

“That's a bit boring,” Ron sighed, “If only I had brought back the wizard chess… no, even if I brought my grandfather's set, Sherlock's house doesn't have…”

“No, I do.”

Sherlock said, taking out two sets of wizard chess.

Harry, Ron: Σ(っ°Д°;)っ

“Sherlock, when did you…”

The two of them were shocked.

“Bought it in Diagon Alley today.”

“Sherlock, you're the best!”

Ron jumped up and gave Sherlock a big hug, then started playing chess with Harry.

As for whether using wizard chess in the Muggle world was against the rules?

Sorry, they didn't know, anyway, if Sherlock didn't say it was, then it wasn't.

In fact, Sherlock knew very well that he was skirting the edge.

Because Hogwarts would only sign the Trace agreement with these young wizards during the summer vacation.

But as he had just explained to Ron, this was a Muggle neighborhood after all.

Playing wizard chess wasn't a big deal, presumably the Ministry of Magic already knew that Harry Potter was at his house, so they would give him that much face.

But once he used magic, the nature of the matter would be different.

Sure enough, nothing happened after several games of chess.

This also allowed Sherlock to verify his judgment, pointing the way for future actions.

The rules of wizard chess are the same as those of Muggle chess, except that all the pieces are alive.

Once one's own piece eats the opponent's piece, it will knock it over and drag it off the board.

So playing chess feels more like commanding an army in battle.

Although both of them were using new chess sets, Ron didn't take long to familiarize himself with the pieces, smoothly making them obey his commands.

On the other hand, 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 horse?”

“Send it, it doesn't matter if it sacrifices itself.”

“Dare to kill my horse!”

Harry's chess skills were originally not as good as Ron's, and he was even more dizzy from being disturbed by these pieces.

As a result, after several games, the whole process was a rush, exhausted.

Unsurprisingly, he was defeated by Ron, losing his helmet and armor, and his army was utterly routed.

Fortunately, Mr. Holmes saw injustice and drew his sword to help.

Only then was he able to stop the decline and turn the tide.

When Mr. Holmes, a Muggle, first took over Harry's black pieces, these pieces ignored his instructions or questioned them.

But as the game progressed, those unruly pieces became more and more obedient.

By the time a game of chess was over, they had almost reached the point of being as easy to control as Ron's white pieces.

The situation in the game against Ron also changed from one-sided to back-and-forth.

Looking at the high-spirited Ron and his father, Sherlock was not surprised at all.

This was originally within his expectations.

He turned to Harry: “Harry, in a couple of days we'll go to 4 Privet Drive.”

“What?”

Harry was stunned, looked at Ron and Mr. Holmes who were immersed in wizard chess, and asked in a low voice: “Just the two of us?”

“My mother will drive us there then.”

As for why not his father…

He should let him play chess with Ron.