Godric's Hollow is located west of London. James carried Gary from London and quickly soared into the clouds.
It was Gary's first time riding James's broom. One major reason he disliked Quidditch was his fear of heights; he always imagined falling when looking down from high places.
For example, now, he was gripping James's robe tightly, his eyes squeezed shut, not daring to look down at all.
James was shouting excitedly, clearly delighted with the new nimbus.
Thankfully, he was mindful of Gary and the stack of books hanging from the broom's tail, so he didn't attempt any difficult acrobatics. Otherwise, Gary couldn't guarantee he wouldn't throw up on him.
Two hours later, James controlled the broom in a dive, and Gary felt the wind like sharp blades cutting his face.
He squinted his eyes, vaguely seeing the lush Godric's Hollow beneath the clouds.
Ten minutes later, James landed steadily, dismounted the broom, and reached out to pull up the weak-limbed Gary.
Gary finally stood on solid ground. He ran a hand through his hair, finding it as messy and sticking up as James's.
James evidently noticed this too, pointing at Gary's hair and laughing.
They now looked like black-haired twin brothers.
Gary quickly smoothed his hair a couple of times to make it look a bit tidier, then, with James, hurried home, carrying their things.
There were quite a few people in the village, and he didn't want his disheveled appearance to be known by everyone.
Mrs. Shafik wasn't home, likely working overtime at the magazine office. Gary carried the bags upstairs and sorted the contents.
James retrieved his old broom from the downstairs storage room. With his new love and old favorite together, James was quite annoyed by his old broom.
Gary placed the books and the wand box on the first shelf of the bookcase, the scales and cauldron on the second, and the telescope at the very top.
After tidying everything, Gary went down to the kitchen. James and his two brooms had already left. Gary took the milk from the refrigerator to heat it, then ran to the bathroom for a shower.
By the time he came out of the bathroom, the milk was perfectly heated. He re-toasted the bread slices on the table and ate his lunch with the milk.
After lunch, he cleaned up the dining table, then went back to his bedroom for a good nap.
When he woke up again, the sky was already dimming. The setting sun cast an orange glow, slanting onto the bookcase. Cardy in her cage was nestled inside, napping, her wings covering the light.
Gary rubbed his face. His head ached, a side effect of magic exhaustion. He lay on the bed, resting for a while, before finally getting up.
He saw his wand box lying quietly on the bookshelf, its dark black casing glowing faintly red in the sunlight.
Recalling the strange behavior of the wand this morning, Gary thought carefully, then walked over and opened the box.
The vine wood wand lay in the groove of the box.
Gary swallowed, made up his mind, took the box out of the house, went to his small garden, and then reached out and grasped the wand.
There was no reaction, nor did it stick to his palm again. The dragon's nerve he had sensed before showed no reaction either. Only the wand's touch was somewhat cool.
He held both ends of the wand with both hands and pressed down slightly. The wand did not bend at all; the hardness of the vine wood was somewhat beyond imagination.
He thought for a moment, then bent down and picked up a stone from the garden soil. He aimed at the window glass of his room on the second floor, firmly planted his right foot on the ground, bent his legs to generate power, moved his waist, transferred the force to his arm, and threw the stone with all his might.
The familiar "crack" sound came again. Gary had smashed a fist-sized hole in the glass, and the damaged area around it had turned into a web-like pattern.
Gary nodded with satisfaction, then took the wand back into his room.
He recalled his mother's wand movements and words when she repaired the window that night.
After silently repeating it three times in his mind, Gary cleared his throat, raised his wand, pointed it at the broken glass, then gently pressed down, enunciating clearly.
"Reparo!"
He felt the magic within him being mobilized again, flowing down his right arm into the wand. White light streamed from the wand tip, striking the glass, then covering the entire pane.
The amount of magic draining from his body was considerable, but Gary was still trying to maintain his magic output.
Something was wrong. He was very sensitive to the amount of magic he channeled, because ever since he was a child, he knew exactly how much magic his magic outbursts drew from him and how much power they generated during explosions.
Now, the magic he was channeling into the wand shouldn't be insufficient to repair even a small piece of glass.
Gary was a little flustered. Perhaps there was an issue with his spell, but the white light emitted by the wand was no different from what Mrs. Shafik used.
Time passed minute by minute, and the situation grew worse.
Normally, the glass should have been repaired by now, but the white light still covered the glass, showing no reaction.
The wand continued to absorb Gary's magic. Once the magic entered the wand, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, disappearing without a trace.
All the magic Gary had recovered that afternoon was drained again, and the energy mass he had seen in the morning flowed out from his heart once more.
The skin on Gary's chest aged again. His already thin and flat chest began to slightly sink inwards. The flesh beneath his skin seemed to have vanished, leaving only a layer of skin loosely clinging to his ribs.
The energy flowed rapidly along the same path as the magic had before. Gary had initially thought this energy mass would stop when it reached his fingertips, just like in the morning.
But this time, the situation was different. The energy passed through his shoulder and arm, rushing into the wand without any obstruction!
It was over. Gary had only intended to test the wand, but now he had to pay the price for his curiosity.
He even saw the skin on his bare forearm rapidly wither, the skin sinking, and his already scarce flesh seemingly vanishing.
His head also suddenly became heavy, and the skin on his cheeks also sunken.
Without anyone needing to tell him, Gary knew that his life force had severely depleted, and he didn't have much time left.
Gary saw that after the energy entered the wand, it stood at the center of the wand, which was the wand's core, the dragon's nerve.
It was activated again, causing the wand to tremble like a living creature, devouring the energy mass bite by bite.
The energy was not substantial; it was swallowed by the dragon's nerve in a few bites, which then flickered with joyful red light.
This time, there was truly a heartbeat sound. Gary's ears clearly heard the frantic thumping of a heart, beating faster and faster, making Gary feel a surge of panic.
Gary saw a horrifying scene. The wand pressed hard against his palm, piercing his skin. His body was severely aged, and the wand nearly pierced into his hand bones before blood slowly flowed out.
The blood flowed down the wand, even strangely flowing into the wand itself.
Next, he saw the dragon's nerve within the wand, as violent as a giant dragon, suddenly surge, coil around the blood, and swallow it in one gulp!
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