Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 105 Dumbledore's Big Trouble

Daphne felt a little embarrassed when she saw the crystal ball fragments.

She whispered, "I didn't know how to release the nightmare inside. Voldemort was pressing me hard, and in desperation, I smashed it. It must have been very expensive, right?"

Expensive? Rice felt her forehead heat rising; this crystal ball was beyond expensive. But in the end, all her words turned into a sigh: What else could she do? She couldn't get angry at her, after all, she hadn't told her beforehand how to operate this kind of thing.

She felt she had to bear at least 80% of the responsibility, and for various reasons, she couldn't tell Daphne. If she kept it bottled up any longer, Rice felt she was going to get a fever.

So he planned to tell Daphne the origin of the crystal ball—although he didn't intend to make the child pay for it, he still wanted her to know what she had broken.

"This is a treasure left behind by Rowena Ravenclaw, one of the school's founders."

Daphne: ...

She was even more relieved that it was an unclaimed treasure. Otherwise, if this crystal ball were taken outside, with its unique background and the magical enchantments within, it might be comparable to the Sorting Hat left behind by Gryffindor.

She lowered her head in shame and began to study the pattern on her socks.

After putting some pressure on Daphne, Rice turned his attention to the wreckage of the crystal ball.

Perhaps Ravenclaw could fix it once she regained consciousness? The thought popped into his head, and then an absurd idea followed: the crystal ball should still be under warranty, right? Because he remembered Rowena promising that he could call her to fix it if it broke.

Isn't this what lifetime warranty means?

However, we can't rely on Rowena for everything. We can try it ourselves first. What if we can fix it? With this thought in mind, Rice pointed to the fragments of the crystal ball and tried a simple repair spell.

The fragments of the crystal ball suddenly came together.

"It's fixed!" Daphne looked up immediately.

Rice shook his head. He had only repaired the outer shell; the internal spell had been broken. The crystal ball might still be able to hold objects inside, but who knew what might happen next?

Suddenly, Rice felt one of his markings be activated. He raised an eyebrow, turned to Daphne, and said, "Someone's coming. You can leave now."

"Huh?" Daphne didn't understand what Rice meant.

"What I mean is, you should take him and that red-haired boy and get out of here as soon as possible." Rice pointed to Harry on Nightmare's back.

He figured the person who triggered his mark was most likely Dumbledore. He didn't want to see the current headmaster of Hogwarts at the moment, so he decided to hurry up and clean up the remaining traces at the scene.

"Okay." Daphne nodded blankly. As soon as she mounted Nightmare, Rice slapped Nightmare's butt.

Under the impact, Nightmare unleashed an extremely fast speed, almost throwing Daphne off its back.

As Daphne was about to leave the room, she heard faint, indistinct sentences behind her, barely audible due to the wind—

"Let me show you what real water magic is—"

After Nightmare led Daphne out of the room, Rhys pulled out his wand and slammed it into the ground. The ground began to shake.

Rice knew that this underground building was actually only a wall away from the Black Lake. He only needed to gently entice the lake water to cause it to overflow and submerge the classroom and the series of challenges.

Once it was filled with water, not a trace remained.

Forbidden Spell: Summon the Tide!

As the magic was used, the tremors spread from the ground throughout the room. Cracks began to appear on the walls, and swamp mud seeped out rapidly. Within seconds, a layer of water an inch thick had accumulated on the ground, and dirty water was gushing down the walls.

Finally, the walls and ground could not hold on any longer, large sections of stone bricks collapsed, and the ground erupted with large sprays of water like a volcanic eruption.

Boom! The lake water surged into the underground classroom like a giant dragon, sweeping everything away and obliterating it.

Glug glug glug—

A string of bubbles rose from the calm surface of Black Lake.

Pfft! Sizzle—

Rice emerged from the surface of Black Lake. He took two deep breaths of fresh air, recast an Illusion Charm on himself, and then rose from the lake, flying towards the castle.

The scorching summer sun and warm wind dried the water stains on his body, and by the time he returned to the school hospital, his clothes were completely dry.

……

Dumbledore is in trouble.

The Ministry of Magic did send him an email, but unlike what he had arranged, this email was extremely urgent—Minister Fudge's tone in the letter was almost tearful.

When Dumbledore hurried out of the school gates, he was very surprised to find Cornelius Fudge waiting for him outside the school gates.

Upon meeting, Fudge delivered a shocking piece of bad news to Dumbledore: Gringotts' unravelers had made a huge mess in northern Scotland.

The anti-curse breakers are wizarding employees of Gringotts, responsible for finding and excavating relics left by ancient wizards; they are, in a sense, the most adept at courting disaster in the magical world.

The incident originated from a discovery made by several senior Gringotts unravelers in northern Scotland.

They found a site that was very likely left by the founders of Hogwarts, and after years of persistent deciphering, they finally opened the entrance. Unfortunately, instead of the founders' treasure, they were met with a mindless monster—clearly, this site was a seal left by the founders.

By the time the Ministry of Magic arrived at the scene after receiving the news, all the anti-spellcasters were dead, and more than a hundred Muggle villagers had witnessed the battle.

This news was a complete shock to the Ministry of Magic.

After mobilizing all available resources, Fudge even went to Hogwarts to ask for reinforcements. He hoped Dumbledore could help them deal with the monster roaming outside.

Dumbledore realized the seriousness of the situation and immediately set off for the scene of the accident. This is why he was truly absent from Harry's "trial"—not because he was carefree or had great confidence in Harry, but because he genuinely couldn't spare the time.

Worse was yet to come. Dumbledore eventually found the monster that had escaped the seal, and after fighting it, he was surprised to find that the monster's strength exceeded his expectations. Moreover, it could use a strange domain-like magic, which allowed it to retreat unscathed from Dumbledore's presence.

At this point, Dumbledore's plans were completely disrupted. In his haste to hunt down the monster, Dumbledore could only send a message to Professor McGonagall using his Patronus, hoping she could take his place.

When Professor McGonagall received the news, she felt as if she had been torn apart.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

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(End of this chapter)