Chapter 291 : Snakewood Wand
The text was written in Parseltongue. Only those who had truly awakened the gift of speaking with serpents could understand it. At Hogwarts, aside from himself, only Dumbledore—who had learned it later in life—and Harry—who could mimic it due to the fragment of Voldemort's soul within him—could speak it, but neither could read this writing naturally.
Be vigilant.
Phineas smiled to himself.
The message was clear: this was Slytherin's office.
Phineas, of course, knew where it was—behind the Slytherin statue within the Chamber of Secrets.
Now he suspected that the information about Slytherin's Chamber being located in the Slytherin common room had perhaps been leaked by his future self.
But why had he spread that rumor? The fewer who knew about the Chamber, the better. After all, it was not just a legend—it was Slytherin's secret escape route from Hogwarts. If too many people knew of it, its function would be compromised.
He couldn't understand his motives. Perhaps, as he had once suspected, someone else in Slytherin House had an agenda—someone who intended to use the Chamber for their own purposes.
In any case, now was not the right time to open it.
Phineas resolved to wait.
That night, he sat up in bed and retrieved a pocket watch from beneath his pillow. It was still early.
"Puff, coffee. No sugar."
He snapped his fingers.
"Right away, Master," came the house-elf's reply, her voice echoing in the quiet room.
Moments later, Puff appeared with a steaming cup of coffee and handed it to him.
"Your coffee, Master."
Phineas sipped it, then picked up a book and read by the window, the soft light illuminating his thoughtful face.
Puff, seeing nothing else was required, vanished—whether she turned invisible or left entirely, Phineas didn't know.
At midnight, it was time.
He left the Room of Requirement, avoiding Filch's patrols with practiced ease, and arrived at the abandoned girls' bathroom—entrance to the Chamber of Secrets. He spoke the command, and the entrance opened.
Everything went smoothly. What Phineas didn't notice was that a young wizard of his age had been following at a distance. The boy watched the entrance to the Chamber for a long moment after Phineas vanished into it, then turned and left without a word.
Deep in the Chamber, the basilisk Basque still slept, thanks to Phineas's earlier command. He stepped past the creature and into the secret study hidden within the Slytherin statue.
Just as the message had said, a small golden hourglass gleamed atop the desk.
The Time-Turner.
A rare and strictly regulated magical object, capable of sending its user back through time.
Phineas slipped it around his neck and began to turn the hourglass.
Each full rotation sent him back one hour. To return to two weeks ago, he needed to turn it 360 times.
As he turned the device, the world blurred around him. He felt himself rushing backward, wind howling past his ears, shapes warping into mist. He tried to speak but heard nothing.
Then, silence.
The world was still again. Phineas knew he had arrived.
According to the timeline, Sirius and the others would be attacked the next day. That gave him one day to prepare.
"Puff."
He snapped his fingers, and the elf appeared.
Puff was thoroughly confused. Only a short while ago, she'd served Phineas in the Room of Requirement. Now, he stood in Slytherin's Chamber.
But the bond of magic told her this was indeed her master.
"Master."
As a proper house-elf, she did not question it.
"Take me to Ottery St. Catchpole."
Ottery St. Catchpole—a quiet village on the banks of the River Otter. The Weasleys lived nearby, as did the Lovegoods. But that wasn't why Phineas had come.
A Black family property once stood here, later gifted to Dumbledore by Sirius to serve as Order of the Phoenix headquarters.
Phineas had learned that Sirius and several others had been ambushed near here. By the time help arrived, it was too late.
He intended to change that.
With a rush of air and the feeling of being squeezed through a tube, Phineas appeared in the village.
"Return to Hogwarts," he told Puff. "And remember—you didn't see me, and you didn't bring me here."
Puff nodded, clearly perplexed, and vanished.
Phineas found a small Muggle inn nearby. With a well-placed Confundus Charm, he secured a room.
The alley behind the inn was the site of the ambush.
Phineas didn't know all the identities of the attackers. But he did know Sirius had been gravely injured and Lisa—an experienced duelist—was killed.
So he began preparing.
Years ago, after a vampire attack, Phineas had planned to commission a unique wand. But he hadn't trusted Ollivander's materials to achieve what he needed.
Phineas had long been planning to use the system's wand customization service. After several years of careful accumulation, he had finally gathered enough gems to purchase both the service and the rare materials required.
In Phineas's vision, the wand's body would be crafted from snakewood. This rare material allowed spells to bypass traditional limitations on magical power, granting even the simplest transfiguration spells a deadly edge.
He also intended to incorporate material from a basilisk—just as Salazar Slytherin had once done. Slytherin's wand, known to be responsive to Parseltongue, provided a level of personal attunement and security that Phineas greatly valued.
However, he hesitated on which part of the basilisk to use: the horn, the feathers, or the nerves. After consideration, he planned to embed the soul stone he used for transmutation magic into the wand as well, so he wouldn't have to retrieve it separately each time he performed such spells.
After weighing his options, Phineas ultimately chose the basilisk's nerves as the wand core. Nerves, he reasoned, might retain some vestige of spirit or instinct. Fortunately, creatures generated by the system lacked previous memories and existed solely with the desire to serve him. That made the basilisk's nerves created through the system far more suitable than any harvested by conventional means.
With that decision made, and the final gem consumed, Phineas watched as the system produced the wand—crafted solely for him..
When the wand was completed, it measured thirteen inches in length. Its body, crafted from snakewood, was smooth and elegantly finished. Twining around the shaft was a delicate vine, blooming with violet flowers that gave the wand a haunting beauty.
The handle was unassuming at first glance, formed with a scaled texture. Yet Phineas had designed it so that, through Parseltongue, he could command the scales to protrude—making the wand unusable by anyone else.
At the base of the wand sat a round gem, encased in the wand's wood and glowing with a strange inner light. It was a fragment of Phineas's soul stone.
Of course, this was only a small piece. The larger portion of the soul stone had been fused into the wand's core—the nerve of a basilisk. As Phineas had predicted, the wand developed a form of consciousness. It was not complex—more instinct than thought—but it recognized and responded only to him.
While this feature offered limited practical use, it was still a satisfying enhancement.
That limitation came from the wand's ultimate destination: the Ravenclaw ring. Phineas had no intention of letting anyone else wield it.
After admiring his creation for a few moments, Phineas placed the wand into the ring.
As the wand vanished into the ring, the ring itself began to transform.
The original Ravenclaw emblem was replaced by the crest of the Black family—though not without subtle modifications. Where once two identical black dogs flanked the shield, now one was replaced by a black cat. The bare shield was now entwined by a massive python, coiled protectively around it.
In the center of the shield gleamed a small, raised red gem. Phineas instantly recognized it—the soul stone's material.
Was this the manifestation of his awakened bloodline?
The ancient Tengu bloodline of the Black family. His own Animagus bloodline—aligned with the black cat. And the Serpent bloodline inherited from Slytherin. Perhaps the red gem symbolized his Third Eye.
Whatever the case, the transformation of the ring was not unwelcome. Now, Phineas could use it to absorb wandering souls he did not wish to consign to the underworld—without needing to draw his wand at all.
Now, with the wand inside, he could use it directly through the ring.
He drew the wand and whispered, "Lumos."
Light flared at the tip. As he poured magic into the spell, the light expanded into a glowing sphere, illuminating the room completely. There wasn't a single shadow.
Where the light touched the walls, faint sizzling sounds could be heard.
So even a simple lighting spell, enhanced by enough magic and snakewood, could become a weapon.
"Nox."
Darkness returned.
The energy cost of the counter-spell hadn't increased, even though he'd channeled far more magic into Lumos. That suggested Nox didn't cancel the magic with equal force—it dismantled the structure of the spell itself.
A fascinating discovery.
He made a mental note to study it further once he returned to Hogwarts.
For now, he cast protective enchantments on the windows, then lay down to sleep.
---
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Someone knocked.
"Who is it?" Phineas called groggily.
A voice—male, unfamiliar—replied, "Good morning, sir. The inn has prepared breakfast. May I bring some up?"
A harmless question. But wrong.
The innkeeper and his wife were under his Confundus Charm. This voice wasn't one of theirs.
Why would the inn offer breakfast to someone who wasn't properly checked in?
The answer struck him cold.
This building—chosen as the site of the ambush—was likely controlled by the attackers. It was their base of operations. His presence had to be unexpected.
But if he acted like a clueless traveler, perhaps they would leave him alone.
"No, thank you," he replied lazily. "I've got a train this afternoon. Remind me then, would you?"
There was a pause. Then the voice responded, "Of course, sir."
Footsteps retreated.
Phineas let out a quiet sigh. He didn't want a fight. His mission was to save Sirius and Lisa, not pick apart an enemy stronghold.
That afternoon, suitcase in hand, Phineas left the inn and walked calmly toward the train station.
But behind him, cloaked in shadows, several wizards watched.
Just as Phineas neared the station, the suitcase he carried abruptly fell to the ground.