Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 125 Dumbledore's Enlightenment

Rice was completely stunned.

Before leaving for Hogwarts, he left Rupert a sum of money to cover her rent and living expenses, and to support her continued mission with the Secret Order. To his utter surprise, Rupert used the money to open a pastry shop, and judging from the size of the shop, her business seemed to be doing quite well.

Seeing Rice's sudden change in expression, Lupert also became nervous. She quickly explained, "It's too conspicuous for me to live alone in the Leaky Cauldron, so I rented a room in the alley."

But the rent here is really high, and it's not good to just sit around and do nothing. I happened to have learned how to make desserts and bread during my time wandering in France, and I also remember that you really like desserts, so I took the liberty of opening a dessert shop, mainly selling all kinds of cakes, desserts, bread, and chilled drinks—if you're not satisfied, I'll close it down immediately.”

Lupert nervously explained her actions, afraid of saying something wrong that might anger Rice and bring punishment upon herself. Although she said she would close the shop immediately, deep down she didn't want to. She had poured so much effort into this place; it was her first truly comfortable home, and she was reluctant to give it up.

Rice raised an eyebrow: You know what, you really do know, living upstairs from a dessert shop is quite satisfying for him. He can just ask Lupet to make whatever dessert he wants for him in the future.

He was increasingly grateful for the decision he had made back then.

After hearing Lupert's explanation, Rice smiled from the bottom of her heart: "I'm very happy that you have a new life. Congratulations."

Seeing Rice's stance, Lupert breathed a sigh of relief, putting his heart back down.

Then she remembered something and quickly pulled a small notebook out of her pocket.

"This is the account book for the past year, recording my profits and expenses. You—"

"Keep it yourself," Rice waved his hand, not bothering to even look at it.

While Slytherin may not be the wealthiest man in the world, he would never covet a little wolf girl's business, even if she donated the initial capital to start her business.

"The best way to repay you is to do what I asked you to do well."

When it came to getting things done, Lupert's expression froze: it wasn't that she hadn't done anything, but that the Secret Order hadn't assigned her any tasks this year!

All she had to do was subscribe to a few newspapers, compile and summarize the news, and then mail them out by owl. Ten gallons would then be deposited into her account precisely at the end of each month. This made Lupett feel like she was actually a paparazzi for some newspaper.

"If there's no new action, then we'll wait patiently. We have plenty of time." Rice had ample patience. Dealing with a reclusive organization like the Secret Order requires patience, like fishing, waiting for the right opportunity.

In time, the secret society will naturally take action.

"Come on, let me show you your shop." Rice waved his hand, pushed open the door with the "Closed Today" sign, and walked into Lupert Dessert Shop.

The shop wasn't very large. Apart from the side with the entrance, the other three walls each had a transparent glass display case several meters long and one meter high. In a corner of the room was a cashier's counter, next to which was a door leading to the kitchen where desserts were made.

Judging from the price tags on the display cases, the left display case sells various cold drinks and chilled juices, the right display case sells French bread, and the middle display case is the dessert section. Rice looked closely and found that Lupert's desserts included éclairs, Napoleon cakes, waffles, cheesecakes, tiramisu, mousse, etc., most of which are common desserts in the Muggle world.

The desserts that are bestsellers in the magical world are nowhere to be found at Rupert's place.

After asking for the reason, Rice understood that because of her werewolf identity, wizards and pastry chefs in the magical world refused to accept her. Only Muggle pastry chefs who knew nothing could take her on as an apprentice. Therefore, all the desserts that Lupert could make were non-magical.

However, things turned out unexpectedly well. Few dessert shops in the wizarding world specialize in selling desserts for Muggles. Rupert's appearance filled this gap, and she quickly amassed a group of loyal customers, mainly wizards of Muggle blood who frequented Diagon Alley, as well as some single male wizards.

After all, dessert is dessert; it won't become less delicious because of its origin.

"The second floor is the bedroom, right? I'll go up and take a look first."

"Oh? I've booked a room for you at the Leaky Cauldron—"

"Let's cancel the reservation; it's more convenient here."

Ignoring Lupert's advice, Rice went straight up to the second floor of the cottage and arrived at her place—Lupert rented a two-story house with a basement. The first floor was a dessert shop and kitchen, the second floor was her residence, and the basement was used to store dessert ingredients.

Due to the sloping roof of the house, the layout of the second floor is much more cramped compared to the first floor. Most of the space is occupied by bedrooms, and the remaining small part is a rather cramped bathroom.

The bedroom was cluttered. A pile of blankets and a few pieces of clothing were on the bed, along with a bunch of black and white stockings. The shoe cabinet in the corner was crammed full of various shoes and boots. The wardrobe next to the bed was also filled with clothes, both clean and dirty.

Next to the shoe cabinet was a desk, on which lay two thick stacks of tattered newspaper clippings and a half-finished scrapbook. It was clear that Lupet had been diligently carrying out the tasks Rice had assigned her.

Seeing the room in such a mess, Lupert felt a little embarrassed and quickly went over to tidy up the clutter piled on the bed.

She hadn't expected Rice to insist on staying here instead of at the Leaky Cauldron—she had seriously underestimated the allure of desserts to Rice.

"If your customers see what the second floor looks like, you'll probably lose a lot of customers." Rice took out his wand and helped Lupert sort out her clothes, then neatly put them into the wardrobe.

Lupert chuckled awkwardly: "Some customers have very strange quirks. Last Christmas, a customer asked me if he could put desserts and bread in his stocking."

Rice said he had never seen anything like it before.

After Lupert finished tidying up his clothes, Rice waved his wand and cast a seamless expansion spell on the room, making the originally cramped space much larger, three times its original size, and creating a wall to partition off a separate bedroom for himself.

"We are wizards, and we must learn to solve problems with magic."

"It's illegal to use the Seamless Expansion Spell without permission, and besides, this spell is just too difficult..."

Rice: ...

No, why is the modern Ministry of Magic meddling in such matters?

……

Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office

After the Hogwarts Express departed, Dumbledore finally had time to attend to his own business. He took out the strange remains and placed them on his desk.

Judging from its reaction, it must have had a deep entanglement with Gryffindor in its lifetime, and it is very likely that Gryffindor was the one who killed it. However, Gryffindor does not seem to have completely killed it, so that a thousand years later, when the seal was broken, it escaped and wreaked havoc on the world again.

Looking at the remains, Dumbledore recalled the strange magic it had used, magic he had never seen before.

"It looks somewhat similar to the vaguely described 'domain' in ancient texts. If that is a domain..." Dumbledore recalled the details of his encounter with the remains that day.

Meanwhile, the temperature in the principal's office gradually rose, and finally, a flame suddenly burst from Dumbledore's fingertip.

Fox, perched on a sycamore branch behind the door, immediately began to squawk loudly.

Dumbledore abruptly raised his head, shifting his gaze from the remains. The flame on his finger went out, but in the pupils of his eyes behind his crescent-shaped spectacles, it seemed as if two flames were still burning.

"A domain...?"

Dumbledore's whispers echoed in the office.

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.

Second update delivered, goodnight everyone. The next update will be at the usual time~

By the way, I used AI to create a photo of Lupert. What do you think?

Going back to work, ugh.

I'll keep writing and hope to maintain a consistent update schedule this week.

(End of this chapter)