Hogwarts: Don't call me Wandmaker

Chapter 121 The Marauder's Map, Changes Inside the Castle

That evening, the Weasley brothers actually delivered the letter, and as Siron had requested, the recipient was Rita Skeeter.

They also helped refine many details, such as how Shiren found the Chamber of Secrets under the guidance of fate, and his feelings after learning that he was the heir to Slytherin.

Xiren had seen their finished product, and it was practically indistinguishable from the real thing, full of emotion and logical reasoning... If it had a different name, Xiren might have actually thought it was a memoir of the Slytherin heir.

“After you graduate, you can consider working for the Daily Prophet; there’s definitely a lot you can do there,” Celen said sincerely.

“We’ll consider it,” the two said with a smile.

Do you think they'll publish it?

“It should be fine.” Xiren thought for a moment and said, “Nothing major has happened recently, and this matter involves Salazar Slytherin from a thousand years ago, which happens to be what they are most interested in.”

"That's good." Both of them showed expectant expressions.

“When school starts, we’ll tell everyone that we made up the contents of that letter, and that you never said those things,” George suddenly chuckled.

What do you think they would do then?

“They’ll pretend they didn’t see it,” Celen said. “By the way, did you write the specific time in the letter?”

“Of course, it’s all written down, I guarantee there won’t be any problems,” Fred said. “The secret room has been opened, and you will completely destroy everything inside the night before school starts.”

"That's good." Xilun nodded.

"But is it really necessary?" Fred asked. "That statement doesn't seem to add much credibility."

“If you ask me, you might as well write about your dreams about Salazar Slytherin,” Fred said, clearing his throat and adopting a very old voice.

"Slytherins are a bunch of idiots. They don't deserve to be in my house. Only Gryffindor can find the people who truly inherit my will!"

“This is so fake.” Xilun looked at him with disgust. “If you actually added that sentence, people would immediately know it was fake, and it definitely wouldn’t be published.”

"There are definitely Slytherin graduates in the Daily Prophet, and they wouldn't let you smear Slytherin like this."

“Rita Skeeter understood this very well. She said plenty of things about Dumbledore being an old madman and made fun of the school’s professors, but she never mentioned the House.”

"I know, I was just saying." Fred pursed his lips.

However, his expression didn't seem like he was just saying it; he genuinely wanted to write it that way.

"Oh, and you can borrow this too." George took a tattered piece of parchment from his pocket and handed it to Siron.

"Didn't you want something that would allow you to know what the people in the castle are doing from your dorm room?"

“Perfect timing, we actually have something like this,” George said smugly. “Come on, Fred, let’s open the eyes of our Slytherin heir.”

“No problem.” Fred took out his wand, gently placed it on the parchment, and whispered, “I solemnly swear that I have not done anything good.”

In an instant, fine ink lines spread out like a spider web, connecting with each other and extending to every corner of the parchment, eventually forming a complete map of Hogwarts.

At the very top of the map are large, green, cursive font characters:

[Introducing, gentlemen of Moonface, Wormtail, Bigfoot, and Prongs—the Marauder's Map, a tool to aid magical pranksters!]

This map covers every corner of Hogwarts Castle, from the entrance hall to the eighth floor, to the Astronomy Tower, and even the grounds and greenhouses.

Furthermore, there are many small black dots moving on the map, with their names labeled in tiny print next to them.

Sheron could see that Hermione had just come out of the library, and if she walked further down this corridor, she would meet Filch coming down from the third floor.

“Great Moonface, Wormtail, Bigfoot, and Forkhead—I don’t know who they are, but I salute them,” George said, unusually serious. “They helped us a lot.”

“Like a teacher, and also like a friend,” Fred said.

"Hopefully this will help you too."

“It will definitely work.” Xilun took the parchment, looked at the name on it, and chuckled.

……

Soon, half of the holiday had passed, and on this day, the letter that the Weasley brothers had sent out finally appeared in the newspaper, on the front page just like last time.

According to sources, Ollivander, a second-year Gryffindor student, admitted to opening the Chamber of Secrets and promised to completely destroy it before the holidays ended.

I learned about this a week after school started. That day, I saw Salazar Slytherin in the castle. He told me the location of the Chamber of Secrets and said that I was destined to inherit his consciousness...

Rita Skeeter directly altered the original contents of the letter, making it appear as if Siren had said it himself...

Young Ollivander considered it a great honor and boasted about it at the Christmas dinner, completely ignoring the doubts of others.

He confessed during a conversation with a friend that he felt a lot of pressure as the heir to Slytherin, and whenever this happened, he would release the monsters from the Chamber of Secrets to attack people, which gave him a sense of pleasure...

After the secret was exposed, young Ollivander was forced to decide that he would join Albus Dumbledore in destroying the Chamber of Secrets the day before school started.

……

“That’s not what we said at all,” Fred said loudly, looking at the newspaper. “It’s all made up. We never said you were under pressure, let alone that you would release the monster.” “Of course, I believe you,” Siron said casually. “For Rita Skeeter, these are basic operations. If she really wrote this article according to your ideas, I’d suspect you used a Imperius Curse on her.”

“But that doesn’t look funny at all,” George muttered.

What they wrote was the story of a Slytherin heir sorted into Gryffindor who rushed to the Chamber of Secrets every day after school to have tea with his fanged servant.

But after Rita Skeeter, the story becomes one where Siron's identity is exposed, leaving him with no choice but to destroy the secret chamber. This is far from their original intention and is not a story at all.

However, Xilun said he didn't care because he had already written down what he wanted, and the rest didn't matter.

Anyway, he's in Hogwarts, and there are hardly any people there, most of whom are his friends. Even if the newspapers call him the second Mysterio, it doesn't matter; it won't affect him at all.

Furthermore, his parents and grandfather were not in England and therefore did not have access to The Daily Prophet, so it didn't matter to him.

The only problem is that there have been a lot of messages these past few days. So far, they are just regular messages, but I'm afraid that soon there will be more shouting messages among them.

But this was easy to solve. That very evening, Xilun went to the kitchen and asked a house-elf named Gulu for help.

This was inspired by Harry.

Harry once said that during the holidays, Dobby stole all the letters without his knowledge.

If Dobby can do it, then other house-pocket creatures should be fine too.

Helen went to the kitchen and told them his request. The elves immediately agreed and stuffed his pockets full of cakes and cookies as they left the kitchen.

Then, the next day, Xilun really didn't receive a single letter.

Everything returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

Every day, Siren continued to carve runes on his staff, occasionally going out to play chess with Harry to relax, and taking a moment to glance at the parchment beside him.

It was as if the two reports in the Daily Prophet had nothing to do with him.

A few more days passed, and on the morning before returning to school, a loud explosion suddenly came from the dormitory, startling everyone.

The people in the common room rushed upstairs and saw Xilun standing at the dormitory entrance.

His hair was all standing on end, his face was covered in dust, and his once intact robe was blown to pieces.

“Silen, you…”

"It's nothing, nothing, just a small mistake." Xilun touched his face, still feeling a little shaken.

Luckily he ran fast enough, otherwise he wouldn't have given the troll wand to Hagrid. But it's even more of a pity that he wasted a three-headed dog's whisker.

The others were equally frightened. They knew that Xilun had a habit of demolishing dormitories, but they didn't expect it to escalate to blowing up dormitories this year.

If things continue like this, by the time Sheron graduates, the Gryffindor Tower might not even exist anymore.

"Do you need any help?" Harry glanced cautiously into the dormitory and said, "We can help you."

“It’s alright, I can handle this little thing by myself,” Xiren said.

"You really don't need it?"

"No need."

After seeing everyone else off, Xilun returned to his dormitory to clean up the mess. Fortunately, the explosion of the dragon bloodwood was not very powerful, and even the table that was blown in two could be repaired with a repair spell.

"If only I had a wand with a healing spell," Siron thought to himself, and took a piece of parchment from the pocket of another robe on the ground.

It was the Marauder's Map that the Weasley brothers had given him; thankfully, it hadn't been destroyed in the explosion.

Xilun glanced at it subconsciously, and his hand suddenly paused... In just one night, there were obvious changes on the map.

Several unfamiliar names suddenly appeared in the castle.

First, at the very edge of the map, Hagrid should have just returned from Hogsmeade, but right next to him is another person's name: Rita Skeeter.

On the second floor of the castle, Siron saw Colin Crevey and Cedric Diggory, both of whom had chosen to go home for Christmas but had returned to school early.

And it wasn't just them; there were also several unfamiliar names, probably older students, who had returned early.

Just as Siron was stunned, Luna Lovegood appeared on the map.

The gaze fell on the underground classroom, where Snape, who had disappeared for the entire vacation, also appeared, right next to his office, in what should have been his private storage room.

Not far away, in the Slytherin common room, which previously had no names, there was now a Draco Malfoy.

But strangely, Crabbe and Goyle, who were always by his side, were not with him this time.

……

(End of this chapter)