Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 257 Muggle Magic

"You're Abdullah Ali?" The staff at the business class check-in counter frowned as they looked at the young man.

Rice: ...

He forced a smile and answered, "Yes."

Staff member: You're telling me you're eighteen?!

Seeing the staff's suspicious expressions, Rice knew he couldn't delay any longer.

He stared into the middle-aged man's eyes and said, "Yes, I am Abdullah Ali. I hope I can sit with Miss Aisha and Miss Lysa."

While trying to confuse airport staff, Rice also complained: What kind of weird names are these? Anyone would be suspicious!

Fortunately, the confusion spell was powerful enough that the staff member's eyes immediately became unfocused. He mechanically typed a few words and printed out three plane tickets.

Not wanting to linger, Rice grabbed the tickets and headed to the gate with Daphne and Astoria. At customs, Rice used the same trick again, employing a Confusion Charm to help Daphne and the others through. After that, they encountered the checkpoint the driver had mentioned, called "security checkpoint."

As Rhys watched the Muggles place their belongings one by one into a strange alchemical artifact, a sense of foreboding rose in his heart: even their personal handbags had to be put in there?!

Judging from the appearance of those Muggle guards, it seemed they could see the contents of my luggage through that alchemical artifact. Would they be able to see through my little bag? Or rather, what kind of sight would they see? A small bag "crammed" with a huge pile of potion ingredients?

He was immediately intrigued, which was why he ultimately chose to travel by Muggle plane. Unlike most wizards, Rice wouldn't refuse to learn about Muggle society; he would find ways to investigate Muggle technology and life, instead of burying his head in the sand like modern wizards.

Having just walked this path, Rice felt as if he had become a Muggle who had entered a "magical world": the Muggle society of a thousand years later was terrifyingly unfamiliar, and Rice, a wizard who had rashly intruded, was met with obstacles at almost every turn. Those gaps in common sense could not be filled by reading one or two books published by Muggles.

For example, he knew that Muggles had airplanes, but he only realized how complicated the steps were before boarding after he went there himself.

What Rice saw and heard at the airport even gave her the urge to leave Hogwarts and live in Muggle society for a few years.

As expected, an unexpected incident occurred when Rice and his two companions' small package went through the security scanner: the machine could not display the contents of the package.

"Is something wrong?" The Muggle guard muttered as he walked over, only to be fooled by Rice's Confusion Charm once again.

After the three of them sat down on a bench outside the boarding gate, Astoria couldn't help but sigh, "This is complicated... We've finally made it this far..."

Daphne didn't reply; she was still immersed in the novel sights and sounds of her journey. Having grown up in a magical world, everything that had just happened was completely unfamiliar to her.

Rice, on the other hand, was observing travelers shopping at the airport duty-free shops. He noticed that modern Muggles no longer seemed to use metal coins for payment; instead, they used colorful pieces of paper and small cards.

"Is this the currency that Muggles use now?" Rice recalled the "information" he had learned from his conversation with Hermione: Muggles and wizards use different currencies.

He hadn't inquired about the details of the coins at the time, but now, seeing them with his own eyes, he was truly shocked: Why could customers exchange a piece of paper for the merchants' goods? Was the paper worth more than gold? Weren't they afraid that such things could be counterfeited?

Thinking about this, Rice suddenly realized a problem.

"Do you have any Muggle money?" Rice asked Daphne and Astoria.

Daphne, Astoria: ...

"I forgot."

"Why not Galleons?"

Rice sighed, stood up, and strolled around the waiting area. Then they had Muggle currency.

He, Daphne, and Astoria huddled in a corner of the waiting area, studying the colorful pieces of paper.

"It says '5' on this one, so it's definitely smaller than the one that says '10'."

"So, does that mean the coin with '50' on it is the biggest?"

"Probably, since it's metal currency."

"But I saw that Muggle exchange a piece of paper for a lot of these coins."

The two sisters argued and bickered, and they didn't reach a conclusion until boarding began.

Once on the plane, it was a completely new experience.

Daphne and Astoria were completely baffled as to why pressing a button would turn on the lights above their heads. Was this some kind of "Muggle magic"?

The combination of "Muggle" and "magic" is incredibly magical, yet their appearance on this magical plane feels perfectly natural.

Rice observed coldly, thinking that the Muggles must have mastered a new way of using energy over the past millennium.

Its essence is the same as magic, or it is simply another manifestation of magic.

Perhaps I should write a letter to Hermione, or have a long talk with her after school starts—these are things only a little wizard from a Muggle family like her could understand.

Even after the plane landed in Egypt, the novelty of the flight had not worn off for Daphne and Astoria.

In the end, the two of them decided that they must take the Muggle Studies elective next semester.

"And ancient runes, I strongly recommend you take that course; it's extremely useful."

Hearing Rice's words, Daphne blinked: "But isn't that the knowledge of the Norse false gods? What would we do with it?"

Rice gave her a disappointed look: "Those false gods of Norse mythology may not be good, but the runes they left behind are the real essence. There's no harm in learning them."

He would never forget the scene of Odin, the king of the gods, tearing their realm apart with runes. If any of the Norse gods had even a 70% understanding of runes as Odin did, the outcome of that battle would have been rewritten.

Rice would definitely report ancient runes. He wanted to see what progress the magical world had made in rune research a thousand years later—though, to be honest, he was very pessimistic about it.

Wizards have even lost their signature technique of mana flow, so why would they bother studying the knowledge of their defeated adversaries? Rhys had a vague intuition that ancient runes might truly only have literal meaning left in the modern magical world.

The three of them discussed course registration for the next semester as they walked out of the plane. As soon as they stepped off, a wave of heat hit them.

Egypt in summer is terribly hot! But the three of them, Rice, are not afraid at all - their wizard robes are all high-end products, with temperature-regulating spells on them, which can ensure that they can stay cool in the hot summer.

What's even better is that wearing robes in Egypt is not at all out of place; people can wear them without any hesitation.

Stepping out of the airport, Rice narrowed his eyes: the journey to find Hufflepuff had officially begun.

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.

Update delivered, goodnight everyone.

(End of this chapter)