Chapter 107: The Wand Apprentice (Edited)

Hermione opened the gift box Tom had given her and pulled out the gold-leaf bookmark inside.

"It's beautiful!" She held the bookmark to her eyes with delight.

"It's more than a bookmark." Tom proudly described the function of the bookmark and Hermione's mouth dropped open in amazement.

"It's amazing!" Hermione was amazed at what the bookmark could do.

"Hehe." Tom was very proud: he had killed an unknown number of hairs to do this, so of course it was impressive!

Hermione carefully put the bookmark back in the box and put it away.

"Whatever you're planning to do, I can help you with anything."

...

Relax, feel at ease and make yourself comfortable.

It had been a long time since Tom had been this relaxed, not having to think about anything, not having to worry about anything, not having to study magic, carve runes, practice spells day after day, all he had to do was lean against a tree trunk, watch the clouds go by, watch the lake sparkle.

Hermione was sitting next to him.

Tom's hand reached a little closer to Hermione's and took it gently. Hermione didn't avoid it, she shivered a little and then intertwined her fingers with Tom's.

Hermione's fingertips were cool, soft to the touch, and her hand felt a little thin.

Tom was a little sleepy: he had gotten up early this morning to meet with Professor Lockhart, and by now, he was a little tired.

Seeing that Tom seemed to be on the verge of falling asleep, Hermione wiggled her toes quietly, her feet a little restless.

"What's wrong?" asked Tom.

Hermione hadn't expected that, but Tom sensed this action, blushed and said nothing.

After a while, he said with a gnat-like buzz, "My sock slipped."

He hadn't realized that, as he walked, the socks had slipped a little, from his ankle to the sole of his foot.

It felt a little uncomfortable.

Hermione's face had turned red.

"Put your socks back on, it's no big deal." Tom had thought it was something, but it was such a small thing.

Hermione bent her legs, grabbed the heel of the boot and tugged gently on it. She pulled them off, exposing her bare calves and the gray socks that had slipped down to her toes, and gently lifted the warm, soft gray socks and put them back on.

As she did so, she angled her toes slightly, the socks framing the curves of her feet nicely. She lifted the sock a little after putting them on so they wouldn't fall off.

Then Hermione slipped her toe into the boot, slid her foot in, squeezed the top of the boot, kicked her leg and put the boot on.

Hermione's cheeks were very red when this was over.

"Um..." Hermione, who had never done anything like this before, was a little nervous as she quickly adjusted her shoes and then looked at Tom, who was wide-eyed and unblinking.

Forget it all, forget it all!". Hermione reached out and patted Tom's head several times.

But after a while, the two of them laughed together.

Happy times always go by so fast.

"Looks like it's time for lunch." Hermione noticed that it was noon before she knew it, and they stood up together, shook the dirt off their bodies, and walked towards the castle.

When they entered the Great Dining Hall, it was just about lunchtime.

The students were enjoying a hearty lunch, and Tom and Hermione were hungry enough to join the feast: barbecue, bacon, sausages, lettuce, stew, mixed vegetables, everything.

When Tom and Hermione came out of the Great Dining Hall after eating, Harry and Ron were right in front of them.

It had been a miserable week for Ron.

Wednesday had been Lockhart's car accident, and Thursday morning he had received a vociferous letter from Mrs. Weasley: although Lockhart had driven the car, Mr. Weasley had also committed a felony and had been summoned to the Ministry of Magic for examination. After all, it was inconceivable that Arthur Weasley, a member of the Office for the Prohibition of the Misuse of Muggle Articles and one of the main people responsible for the raids, would have a magically modified Muggle car in his house.

Even if the purebloods wanted to catch him, that's not a bad thing: Arthur deliberately left a loophole when he wrote the law: as long as he didn't intend to fly away with the car, the modification was legal.

So Mr. Weasley was in luck. He was expected to be under scrutiny for a long time. But fortunately, the main responsibility for this was taken by Lockhart, who solved the problem with gold galleons.

When Mrs. Weasley recovered, she gave Ron a hard lesson: a howling letter. Of course, if you have thick enough skin, that's not a problem at all.

But the next problem is deadly: the wand.

You can cope with a howling card, but a wandless wizard will have to resort to wandless spells. Obviously, Ron doesn't know how to cast spells without a wand.

Ron's wand broke in the accident and, with Lockhart's "help," snapped in two. Lockhart himself had no intention of repairing the damage, he simply altered Ron's memory and made him believe that it was all his fault....

So Ron had to borrow magic tape to repair his wand, but a broken wand is not something that can be fixed with ordinary magic tape, and his wand kept creaking and sparking from time to time even when it was bound together. Later, when Ron tried to transform a beetle in transfiguration class, his wand emitted thick, gray, rotten-egg-smelling smoke.

Even with this problem, Ron couldn't bring himself to write home to tell about it.

"This damn wand!" complained Ron, just after dinner, when Ron's wand emitted a shower of sparks that blew a hole in his robe.

"Really, write home and ask for another one." Harry gave the best advice he could.

"Yes, and get another howling letter..." It was too humiliating for Ron to receive another howling letter.

That was the brief conversation Tom overheard, but it was enough for him to understand what was going on.

But the wand...it wasn't really a problem for him.

He couldn't fix it, but he could try to temporarily fix it.

"Ron, what happened to your wand? I worked for Mr. Ollivander over the vacations, maybe I can help you" Tom said.

Ron's eyes lit up, "Really? Look at my wand, is it still salvageable?"

Tom and Hermione took Harry Ron with them to an empty classroom.

Tom took a good look at Ron's wand, and it was indeed hopeless. The core of the wand was damaged and part of the wood was missing.

Tom shook his head, Ron looked disappointed, but Tom pulled out a new wand.