Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 232 Professor Flitwick's Prize

Preparing Christmas gifts can be a bit of a headache.

A thousand years ago, things weren't so particular. People focused their energy on the grand feasts during the festivals. According to the rules of the Muggle Church, a nearly month-long period of fasting was required before Christmas, followed by twelve days of revelry on Christmas Day.

Feasts, balls, festivals, clown shows… though far less entertainment than in modern times, people still tried their best to have fun. After all, these were some of the few joyful times for ordinary people throughout the year. It's just that this lifestyle of first asceticism and then indulgence wasn't very healthy.

Gifts were much simpler back then. Godric liked all kinds of armor, weapons, and protective gear; Helga preferred recipes and rare ingredients; Rowena was content with books; and I myself had no particular preferences, accepting any gift that came my way.

After careful consideration, Rice also prepared corresponding gifts for his friends.

Daphne and Astoria went without saying; Rice gave Astoria a snake-shaped bracelet with the same enchantment as Daphne's necklace. When it came to providing self-defense tools for his students, Rice was never biased.

The Christmas gift Rice prepared for Daphne was a quill pen with an automatic Latin error correction function. The Latin manuscript that Daphne had translated last time had left such a deep impression on Rice that she felt it was an urgent matter to give her such a quill pen.

He simply didn't have the energy to give the little girl any more Latin grammar lessons, so he decided to give her a quill pen to correct her mistakes!

Hermione, the child accepted by Ravenclaw, naturally received a gift as well. Rice bought her several fairy tale books from the wizarding world, hoping that she could relax a bit between her studies.

Last night, Rice tried to have a heart-to-heart talk with Harry, and he was also preparing to give him a gift—a broomstick maintenance kit, which he believed Harry would love. As for whether Harry's broomstick would unleash even greater performance after being carefully maintained, and then dominate Slytherin in a Quidditch match? Rice thought it was none of his concern; they couldn't possibly win anyway.

For the other young wizards he knew and was familiar with, Rice also prepared corresponding gifts, making sure to leave no room for error.

However, a certain lonely old ghost trapped underground is destined not to receive Christmas presents, because even if Rice sends an owl delivery, the unfortunate owl cannot cross the dungeon's seal. Rice is sure Rowena will understand; after all, they haven't exchanged gifts much before!

It was late at night when the last gift was sent out by the owl. Rice returned to her bedroom and drifted off to sleep, filled with anticipation.

Rice was quite looking forward to what gift she would receive: who could resist the temptation of tearing open a gift wrapping?

The next morning, Rice sat up in bed and his eyes were immediately drawn to the pile of gifts under the Christmas tree. He wasn't short of money, and the gifts were dispensable to him, but the joy was in receiving them.

Rice unwrapped the gifts one by one, then put them away with a smile. The gifts prepared by Daphne and Astoria were placed at the very bottom.

Astoria's package looked bulging, and Rice knew as soon as he touched it that it was probably clothes or something similar.

When I opened it, I found that the little girl had actually knitted a scarf for herself.

Although the scarf doesn't have any special patterns, the stitches are neat, and the silver and green color combination is quite nice; it's clearly a piece of work that took a lot of thought.

Rice happily tried on the scarf and found it quite comfortable. He immediately decided to wear it as everyday clothing.

The last package was for Daphne. Her package was round and plump, and after picking it up, Rice couldn't help but squint: Could this be—?

After opening the package, a misty crystal ball actually rolled out of it.

Rice: ?!

To be honest, he was quite startled at first. He thought Daphne had managed to fix the broken Ravenclaw crystal ball!

However, his reason quickly told him that this was impossible, because even with his magical skill, it was a huge undertaking with a very low success rate. If Daphne could repair the crystal ball in half a semester without him knowing, he would definitely take his wand and block the headmaster's office, demanding that Dumbledore hurry up and step down.

After carefully examining the crystal ball Daphne gave him, Rice was quite surprised: although it was far inferior to Ravenclaw's, it was still quite exquisite.

The crystal ball was enchanted with a seamless expansion spell, and then a model of Hogwarts castle was placed inside.

"Your mastery of the Seamless Expansion Spell is becoming increasingly refined." From this crystal ball, Rice saw Daphne's progress.

After carefully collecting all the gifts from his friends, Rice left the bedroom.

Just as Rice stepped out of the bedroom door, she heard a gasp of surprise—

"Professor Flitwick's prize is this?!"

Rice looked toward the source of the sound and saw Daphne standing in the bedroom doorway, looking bewildered, holding a long, thin package.

Her hair was loose, she was barefoot, and only wearing pajamas; she had clearly just woken up and gotten up to unpack her gifts. The package in her hand was half-open, and a broom head was sticking out from inside.

"Isn't this just being sarcastic?!" Daphne shrugged, exclaiming helplessly, "I'm really not good at riding brooms!"

The prize for winning two consecutive duels is a flying broom!

The young wizards on the Quidditch team must have been very envious, but for Daphne, it was a complete waste, even a bit of a joke – flying on a broomstick was her worst skill.

"Let's open it all and see." Rice suppressed a laugh and advised Daphne to open the whole package first, maybe it wasn't as bad as she thought?

After completely removing the outer packaging, a broom that even Rice had to admit was very beautiful and aesthetically pleasing appeared before the two of them, along with a letter.

[Dear Miss Daphne Greengrass, I hope you like the broom in the package. It's the latest model developed by a broom company owned by a friend of mine, said to be the best performing broom on the market, and not yet available for sale. He gave me one, and I've decided to give it to you as a prize for a duel. In return, you won't get any prizes for winning duels in the future, haha! — Felius Flitwick]

Daphne: ...

Rice burst out laughing.

"You can take advantage of Christmas to practice your broom riding skills; these brooms should be quite stable."

Rice offered his own suggestions.

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! Goodnight.

The next update will be at midnight.

(End of this chapter)