Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 177 Raindrops and Eyeballs

Squibs are considered incurable in the wizarding world. The so-called "Squib training classes" advertised in various tabloids are basically all unscrupulous scams designed to swindle money. So when Rice said there was a possibility of a cure, the impact on the two of them was extremely profound.

Rice's long-standing reputation convinced the two that he wasn't just spouting nonsense, but genuinely had a cure.

"Then if you..." Astoria meant that if Rice taught Filch how to manipulate magic, wouldn't he be able to regain his magical abilities?

If Filch were to shed his Squib identity, would he become more easygoing and less strict with his students? After being reborn, shouldn't he focus his energy on studying magic?

Rice and Daphne glanced at Astoria in perfect unison, then Rice looked at Daphne again, sensing the difference between the two.

Astoria is well taken care of by her sister and father!

"Sure." Rice thought for a moment and answered decisively, "But I don't have that much energy. I can only teach two students right now. You and Daphne can discuss it and see who will stop coming to my classes."

Astoria shut her mouth.

She wouldn't mind helping Rafelch as long as it didn't harm her own interests, but if it came at the cost of her place studying with Rice, she would definitely stand by and do nothing.

What Rice didn't tell the Greengrass sisters was that even if Filch regained his spellcasting ability, his potential was locked. No matter how hard he tried, he could only become a mediocre wizard, because the inherent flaws of a Squib could not be compensated for by teaching methods.

"Even if I could restore his spellcasting ability with a wave of my hand, I wouldn't do it," Rice said seriously.

Rice couldn't trust the Squirts' mental state. They might have gradually become psychologically twisted or even perverted due to prolonged repression, and their behavior after suddenly gaining spellcasting abilities would be unpredictable. Such people could be surprisingly destructive to the magical world.

Rice believed that hiring a Squib as a doorman was wrong, but as he said before, Dumbledore was the current headmaster, and he was willing to respect Dumbledore's choice.

If he, the founder, had to interfere in every little detail, then Hogwarts would truly be doomed. He wasn't so afraid of future generations making mistakes; what he feared was that they wouldn't dare to do anything—of course, he also didn't want them to cause too much trouble, as there were some things he couldn't handle.

"Yes, Squibs are dangerous, Astoria, don't have any strange sympathy for them," Daphne warned her sister from the side.

"Hoo..." Rice leaned against the railing, stretched his hand out of the window, and let the raindrops drip into his palm.

"There's really no difference between people and raindrops. Look, the rain falling from the same cloud, some fall into the Black Lake and merge with the trillions of other raindrops; some fall on the eaves, roll down, and are absorbed by the walls halfway; and some raindrops fall into the grass, become filthy, and become part of the mud... A very few lucky little ones are caught by me and fall into my palm." Rice pulled his hand back from the window, and the raindrops that fell into his palm gathered into a ball, slowly rose, floated into the air, and changed shape at will under his control.

"Look, it's all rainwater, but the final outcome is completely different due to the tricks of fate." The water ball above Rice's palm turned into a crystal-clear piece of ice, and then into a snake flicking its tongue.

Rice waved his hand, and the ice serpent exploded into thousands of fragments, which quickly disappeared into the air.

"But there are always some people who can decide the fate of others, just as you can decide the fate of these raindrops," Daphne replied to Rice with a smile.

In her eyes, she was the luckiest raindrop, perhaps destined from birth. And in the future, she was destined to become the one who would decide the fate of the raindrops.

"It's not determined at birth," Rice said softly, as if she could read her mind.

"Some water droplets, even if they fall into the mud, can still make themselves noticeable through their own efforts—" Rice reached out and "grabbed" a few raindrops from the castle courtyard not far away.

"Incredibly ingenious magic! Arriving near Hogwarts, you project your magic into the clouds, creating tiny 'clusters' of magic. Then, you let these clusters drift with the current, and as the rain falls, the water droplets imbued with your magic silently descend into the castle. What a brilliant and creative method!" Rice looked at the seemingly alive water droplets chrysalis-like in the water in his hand, deeply impressed by the intruder's ingenuity.

This requires extremely high magical control and a strong sense of perception, so either the spy and something inside the castle can "resonate" with each other, or the spy's personal strength is exceptionally high. Considering how it infiltrated the school, Rice leans towards the former.

Are they divine remains from the same origin?

If the divine remains are taken from the same deity, then it is perfectly normal for them to resonate with each other.

Rice decided to help the child and artificially speed up the process.

Under Rice's influence, the rain outside suddenly intensified, and the magically imbued water droplets fell at an even faster speed near Hogwarts Castle.

The water droplets that Rice had collected earlier had merged together and were now attracting other water droplets.

Rice first cast an illusion spell on himself, Daphne, and Astoria, then stood aside and watched as the crystal in front of them gradually grew larger and gradually took the shape of an eyeball.

Once the eyeball was fully formed, it started to spin around, and then several small tentacles grew out from below.

“Eh…”

"Tsk."

Daphne and Astoria both showed expressions of extreme disgust.

By this time, Rice was certain that this was a spy from the Secret Order using the power of the divine remains to spy on Hogwarts. The "eyes" in front of him had a very familiar feel to them, very similar to the divine remains that Sagittarius had exploded out of.

"Come on, let me show you a special skill." Rice decided to show Daphne and the others what she could do.

"This intruder used a specific method to send one of his eyes into Hogwarts. This served as a great reconnaissance tool, but it also exposed his weakness, making it a perfect attack medium." As he spoke, Rice took out his wand, revealed himself, and pressed the tip of the wand against the eyeball.

When the tip of the cane was placed on the eyeball, bulging bubbles appeared on the surface of the eye, as if the liquid inside was boiling.

With a slight exertion, Rice's eyeball exploded into fragments with a soft "pop." At the same time, a wizard sitting in a corner of the Hog's Head tavern in Hogsmeade, completely wrapped in his burqa, let out a scream. This wizard had only one eye; where the other eyeball should have been, there was only a dark, empty hole. At that moment, a large amount of blood gushed from his empty eye socket like a fountain. After a short while, the man collapsed to the ground, lifeless, only his limbs twitching occasionally.

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.

Hey hey, here comes the second update!

Here's a picture of Luna from Beauxbatons!

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(End of this chapter)