Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 252 Sell Me, You Rat!

"Rice, you're planning to go to Egypt this summer, right?" Daphne asked this question very seriously on the Hogwarts Express back to London.

Daphne was in a hurry because if she didn't ask soon, Rice would be separated from them!

She still wanted to spend the long summer vacation with Rice, and learn some new and interesting magic from him. She was particularly interested in the "magic of creating dolls" that he had mentioned before, and felt an urge to learn it.

Rice hesitated for a moment, somewhat undecided. Mainly, this expedition was intricately connected to Hufflepuff, which implied a great deal of uncertainty; he couldn't say what awaited him in the ancient ruins of Egypt.

It might be empty, or it might be like a dungeon with a crazy Hufflepuff inside.

Daphne pondered for a moment, then offered what she considered a very tempting bait for Rice: "Okay, forget about that—Rice, what are some ways humans can fly?"

Daphne's leaps in thought slightly puzzled Rice, but it was clearly a very simple question.

"Flying brooms, flying magic, flying carpets, and Portkeys count, right? And all sorts of magical flying creatures—hippogriffs, Thestrals, and dragons all count."

"Do you know how Muggles fly?" Daphne's next question made Rice fall silent for a few seconds.

If this question were posed to Rice, who had just awakened two years ago, he would have been completely baffled—how could Muggles possibly fly? But now, after cramming on a lot of knowledge, Rice knows that those seemingly ordinary Muggles really do have the means to fly!

"I heard they have an alchemical creation called an 'airplane' that can carry hundreds of people at once. It's an unimaginable sight."

A gleam of anticipation flashed in Daphne's eyes: she sensed the fish had taken the bait.

"It seems the British Muggle government and the Egyptian Muggle government have quite a history, so there are many direct flights from London to Cairo. What do you think of the idea of ​​flying to Egypt? It's a great opportunity to explore the flying creations of the Muggles. If you'd like, I'll have my dad get you one right now." Daphne, who grew up in a wizarding family, had limited knowledge of the Muggle world, so she only had a superficial understanding of many things. However, she could indeed use her family's influence to arrange for people to travel by plane.

Believe it or not, Rice was genuinely tempted.

Daphne's meaning was very simple: she could get plane tickets for Muggles for Rice, without any strings attached—knowing Rice as she did, she believed this was the most efficient way.

"Let me brew a cup of tea first." In the end, Rice decided to use tea leaves to divine the fortune of this trip.

If the divination results are bad, he absolutely will not bring Daphne along, even if it means shamelessly accepting the plane tickets that others have arranged for him—he has already made up his mind to fly to Egypt.

Although divination is greatly influenced by talent, Rice believes that the strength of the soul affects the accuracy of divination, especially in the success rate of short-term divination.

Regarding this hypothesis, Rice even designed a simple experiment: he made a twelve-sided die, then divined the result of the roll before rolling it, and found that the accuracy was significantly higher than the mathematical expectation.

However, Ravenclaw also criticized Rice's experiment. She believed that Rice had used psychological suggestion on her, causing him to unconsciously roll the desired number, and therefore she thought Rice's hypothesis lacked sufficient evidence.

Despite not having Ravenclaw's support, Rice still believed in his hypothesis, thinking that the results of his divination were somewhat reliable.

Rice took out a small crucible and quickly brewed a cup of tea. He then drank the tea as fast as he could, and after swirling the teacup a few times as instructed in the book, he began to observe the shape of the tea leaves.

The tea divination results were quite optimistic, and Rice believed that the trip would at most be "wonderful but safe".

"Let's book two tickets. Are you also thinking of going to Egypt?"

"It's three!" Astoria immediately pressed on, seeing that Rice was softening her stance.

"Would Mr. Henry agree?" Rice frowned slightly: No matter what, he was just a child of about ten years old. How could Mr. Henry allow three children to travel abroad together?

"Of course," Daphne and Astoria replied in unison.

Mr. Henry trusted Rice implicitly, and they were confident they could persuade him. Besides, they had some important news they hadn't yet revealed to their father…

Seeing this, Rice agreed.

He comforted himself by thinking of it as taking the kids to summer camp.

At the same time, he secretly warned himself that he would not take on any more apprentices in the short term; the two children were already enough of a worry for him. If he were to take on more students, he probably wouldn't have the energy.

As the train arrived at the station, students filed out and surged toward the platform.

A large cluster of red in the corner of the platform caught Rice's eye: it was the complete Weasley family.

Judging from their attire, the Weasleys and their two graduated children were present, along with two people who looked like reporters standing nearby.

Ron and Fred had just gotten off the train when Mrs. Weasley called them over.

"Percy, Ginny, and the three of you, come here right now!"

After the bewildered group of five walked past, Mrs. Weasley immediately began to "arrange" the family, having them line up in a row. Subsequently, the Daily Prophet's photographer took this somewhat hasty family portrait.

"We just had an interview with the Daily Prophet—you know, your dad won the lottery, and the newspaper wanted to do a follow-up interview to ask us how we're going to distribute the prize money." After taking a family photo, the interview was over. Mrs. Weasley then began explaining to the children what they had just been doing.

Ron, clutching his pet mouse, grumbled in annoyance, "So that photo will be in the newspaper? Why didn't you say so earlier?! I should have kept this guy hidden away."

The mouse, Spotted, didn't react much to these words. It simply rolled over lazily in Ron's arms and curled up its paws.

Percy, standing to the side, frowned as well: "Isn't this too rushed? How can you tell we're planning to go to Egypt from just one group photo?"

The Daily Prophet reporter smiled and ignored them.

Choosing to conduct the interview in London was obviously to save trouble; did they expect them to come all the way to Egypt?

And so, a large group of people squeezed past Rice and his two companions, and Ron accidentally stepped on Rice's foot.

"Ah, Rice, I didn't mean to!"

"It's nothing... Hey? Ron, wait a minute."

Ron stopped and looked at Rice with a puzzled expression.

"Sell me, you rat!"

Rice's words left him speechless.

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.

This is the second update. The next update will be tonight, so come back early to check back!

(End of this chapter)