Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 112 The Dungeon and the Wish-Fulfilling Medicine

Rice's intuition told him that if Daphne's performance hadn't been so outstanding, Dumbledore might have actually had the nerve to award the House Cup to Gryffindor.

This guy is quite different from the Gryffindor he knew. He wanted to join Daphne in complaining about Dumbledore, but his attention was drawn to what Dumbledore said next.

"Miss Granger's achievements are certainly related to her talent, but they are inseparable from her diligence. Mrs. Pince told me that Miss Granger has spent more than a thousand hours in the library this year, and I think that is the reason why she has achieved such results. I hope that everyone can learn from Miss Granger and spend more time in the library."

Dumbledore's words made Hermione blush. She never expected that her actions could affect the outcome of the House Cup. Meanwhile, the other students in the Great Hall were in an uproar when they heard the words "perfect scores in all subjects" and "more than a thousand hours".

Keep in mind that students start school on September 1st and return home in mid-July, with a three-week Christmas break in between. The total time spent at school is no more than 300 days. Hermione spent more than 1,000 hours in the library in a school year, which means she spent nearly four hours there on average every day!

This data is outrageous—she still has seven classes to attend!

Rice raised an eyebrow: Over a thousand hours, that's really not easy. Even a book-loving Rowena couldn't do that, because she was also entangled in "mundane things" and rarely had time to sit down and read during the day. She had made some efforts to try to make more time for reading, but ultimately failed and caused quite a bit of trouble for some of her old friends.

And so, the closing ceremony ended amidst twists and turns. The students made the most of their last moments on campus, while Rice once again took Daphne into the dungeon.

Unlike before, Rice made ample preparations this time.

"I feel it's necessary to tell you the purpose of our operation before we begin today," he said softly. "I've come here today to save a fallen soul—this operation is extremely dangerous, and you can turn back at any time. This is not a test or a joke."

Daphne laughed, completely ignoring Rice's warning, and changed the subject: "That sounds familiar, he said the same thing when we went to rescue the unicorn together."

She pressed on, "Who is this person who needs to be saved? If it's dangerous, should we bring your giant snake and my nightmare along? If all else fails, they can hold us back a bit."

Now it was Rice's turn to laugh.

"No need. When facing that person, bringing more magical creatures won't be enough. As for who that person is—" Rice deliberately dragged out his words.

Daphne: ?

Stop keeping me in suspense!

"I can't tell you her identity. She'll have to decide for herself whether or not to tell you after she regains her senses."

Rice wanted to tell Daphne that their mission was to rescue Ravenclaw, one of the founders, but he held back. He suddenly realized that Rowena might also be hiding her identity from others, just like him. Besides, she wasn't in a respectable state like him—a barely clothed, dried-up corpse and a mad ghost—a stark contrast to her usual elegant and intelligent image. So, he decided to let her decide for herself.

After warning Daphne again to no avail, Rice took out a crystal bottle filled with an extremely dazzling purple mist: it spontaneously formed a small vortex inside the bottle, shimmering with starlight, making it look as if a star vortex had been contained inside the bottle.

"What is this?" Daphne was immediately drawn to it; she had never seen such a dazzling potion.

"This potion, made primarily from the previous 'Desire Demon,' grants the power to make your wishes come true," Rice patiently explained to Daphne.

"May all your wishes come true!" Daphne's eyes widened instantly—even in the magical world, something like a wishing bottle was far too fantastical.

"Literally, wish fulfillment." Rice explained further. The wish fulfillment potion utilizes the properties of the Desire Demon to materialize what is imagined in the mind. The larger, more complex, and more intricate the materialized object, the more potion is consumed. For example, materializing a three-tiered wedding cake consumes dozens of times more potion than materializing a cupcake.

"Come on, think of anything, and then use the method I taught you before to extract this memory." Rice gestured for Daphne to try.

Daphne did as she was told, using the tip of her wand to pluck an extremely thin silver thread from above her temple. Rhys opened the potion bottle, and purple mist gushed out. At the same time, the "silver thread" fell from the tip of the wand and was swept into the vortex.

Although the silver thread was only as thin as a hair, it acted like a powerful dye, turning the entire mist silver. Upon seeing this, Rice re-corked the bottle, and the amount of medicinal mist inside was reduced by a quarter.

Soon, the mist left outside materialized, and a chubby rabbit appeared before the two of them. It had gray fur and a pair of ruby-like eyes, and looked no different from the rabbits that often lay in Hagrid's pumpkin patch munching on pumpkin leaves.

The rabbit didn't seem very bright. It glanced at Rice, then at Daphne, and then squatted down and began grooming itself with its front paws.

"How amazing!" Daphne exclaimed. She tried to pick up the adorable rabbit, but startled it. The rabbit darted away quickly, but after only a dozen steps, it turned into a cloud of silver mist with a bang and quickly dissipated.

"The things created by the medicinal mist exist in relation to us and will dissipate when they are far away from us—the food created cannot actually satisfy hunger; it only deceives your brain and gives you a false sense of fullness."

Daphne hesitated, but Rice anticipated her thoughts and told her that using this thing to conjure food wouldn't work.

"Wouldn't this be a weight loss miracle?!" Daphne was overjoyed: she could simply use her wish-fulfilling potion to create a feast that would fill her stomach without making her gain weight. It was simply a dream potion!

"I think this small bottle could sell for at least fifty Gallons." Rice reminded Daphne to be a little more realistic. If she wanted weight loss pills, he could easily make some potions that would speed up metabolism and energy consumption—those kinds of things were cheap and effective, costing at most a few centimeters.

"The price is alright..." Daphne muttered softly, she was thinking of asking Rice to teach her how to make this potion.

Rice was already used to the girl's extravagant behavior; the Greengrass family had been like this since the time of her ancestor "Dragon Heart".

He used his wand to extract a sliver of memory from his temple and added it to the remaining medicinal mist.

This time, the purple medicinal mist didn't transform into anything concrete; instead, it turned into a cloud of sky-blue mist, which looked more solid than the purple smoke from before.

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)