Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 138 A Strange Encounter in the Library

Mrs. Pince was horrified when she saw Granger come to the library to read on the first day of school.

She forced a stiff smile and said to Hermione, "Little girl, working so hard on the first day of school? Aren't you going to spend a couple of days hanging out with your roommates?"

Hermione looked thoughtful after hearing Mrs. Pince's words.

"You're right."

Hearing Hermione say this, Mrs. Pince was overjoyed: as long as this little girl is engrossed in playing games with her roommates, she won't come to the library to mess with her precious books, right?

"I'll bring them here next time to read together."

After saying this, Hermione walked straight into the depths of the library, leaving Mrs. Pines standing alone in place, like a stone statue.

What Mrs. Pince didn't know was that the little girl was extremely nervous when she spoke to Hermione, fearing that Mrs. Pince would check her backpack—which would then require her to explain how she got those dozen or so spellbooks marked with the Hogwarts symbol.

She wandered among the bookshelves, taking out the counterfeit books one by one from memory and replacing them with the genuine ones from her bag.

She quickly returned most of the books, except for one titled "The Wizarding Ruins." Fortunately, a few minutes later, she found the replaced fake book at the bottom of a bookshelf.

Hermione broke out in a cold sweat: Mrs. Pince had actually reorganized the bookshelves right after the start of the semester! Luckily, she hadn't noticed the problem with "Wizarding Relics".

Just as Hermione was about to put the counterfeit books she had collected into her backpack, she caught a glimpse of blue out of the corner of her eye, and she froze on the spot.

She slowly raised her head and saw a middle-aged witch in an exquisite blue wizard's robe smiling at her. Judging from her appearance, she seemed to be about the same age as Professor Sprout, the headmaster of Hufflepuff House, but she was better maintained and had a more refined demeanor.

The blue-robed witch looked somewhat familiar, but Hermione couldn't recall where she had seen her before.

Hermione: ...

For the first time, she experienced what it meant to be "overwhelmed by fear." Her mind went blank, and she had no idea what to say or do.

Although she didn't recognize the witch in front of her, she was clearly a professor at the school. She had discovered her actions, and now she was in deep trouble.

The blue-robed witch beckoned to Hermione, signaling her to follow. Hermione followed stiffly behind her, her expression blank.

The witch walked deeper into the library, and after turning past several bookshelves, led Hermione to a small room that resembled a study room.

The room was simply furnished, with only a long table, seven chairs beside it, and a whiteboard for writing. On one side of the study room, there was a closed side door, its destination unknown.

This was Hermione's first time here; she had never even noticed before that there were study rooms like this in the library.

"Please sit down."

This was the first time the Blue Witch had spoken to Hermione, and her voice was gentle, like music. Hearing such a beautiful voice, Hermione inexplicably felt less nervous.

"Why did you do that?" The blue-robed witch pointed at Hermione's bag.

"It's like this..." Hermione told the witch about the book-borrowing problem she had encountered last semester, but omitted the part about Rice.

"Did you turn the parchment into the shape of a book?" The blue-robed witch posed a very difficult question for Hermione to answer—telling the truth would betray Rice, while lying would deceive the professor before her.

Ultimately, Hermione chose to insist that she had conjured it up herself.

The blue-robed witch smiled and said, "Your transformation skills are quite high."

Hermione pursed her lips.

"Let's leave this topic here. The school's library management system does have problems; it's a result of the rule-makers' lack of consideration. However, I hope you will remain sincere in the following conversation."

Hermione's face flushed slightly.

"You seem to really enjoy spending time in the library?" The blue-robed witch casually started the conversation as if they were having a chat.

"Yes, there are many books here, and I love reading."

"Me too. Books are the most precious legacy left to us by our ancestors." The blue-robed witch seemed satisfied with Hermione's answer, and then she asked a crucial question: "You love reading so much, you must be a Ravenclaw, right?"

After receiving an affirmative answer, a "I knew it" expression appeared on her face—only Ravenclaw Academy would have such book-loving children.

"You are very similar to the founder of Ravenclaw."

"I dare not accept such praise..."

"What's your name?"

This question immediately made Hermione nervous: Wasn't that the end of the topic? Why are you asking my name? Is she going to complain to Professor Flitwick or Professor Dumbledore?

"Hermione Jane Granger." Despite her inner turmoil, Hermione gave her the truthful name.

Upon hearing Hermione's name, the blue-robed witch began to play with her long, black hair that reached her shoulders. She curled, loosened, and then tossed and turned it, fiddling with her hair like a kitten playing with its tail.

Her doing this means she is thinking.

The witch's few seconds of silence terrified Hermione. Fortunately, the witch did not express any intention to punish Hermione in her next words. Instead, she asked some unrelated questions, such as how long Hermione had spent in the library last year, how her grades were, and whether reading various books had affected her studies.

Hermione nodded and told her that she had spent more than a thousand hours in the library, and that she would come to the school library to read whenever she had free time. Her grades were pretty good, and she was lucky enough to get a perfect score in all subjects once.

"Perfect scores in all subjects?" The blue-robed witch was somewhat surprised.

This mysterious blue-robed witch is none other than Ravenclaw, or rather, a phantom created by Ravenclaw's magic. If Hermione were bold enough to touch the witch's body, she would be surprised to find that the witch is just an illusion with no physical form. She had not touched any physical object outside the "study room" either.

This "study room" is her private classroom inside Hogwarts Castle, similar to Rice's "Secret Room".

At the end of the previous school year, after Ravenclaw regained consciousness, she managed to send a wisp of magic to the ground and used it as a key to activate her backup plan that she had left in her private classroom.

Using the magic circle left in the secret classroom on the surface, she forcibly opened a special passage in the seal, allowing her consciousness to pass through the seal and descend upon the magical phantom formed in her own private classroom.

Due to the seal, her illusory form was extremely limited, unable to even leave the library—it would "lose signal" if it strayed too far from the secret classroom, but it was still a breakthrough from nothing to something.

Of course, if Rice knew, he would definitely be unhappy, because Ravenclaw's actions were undoubtedly a breach of the seal.

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.

First update delivered, second update coming later~

(End of this chapter)