Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 289 The Lovely Hufflepuff

Malfoy was completely out of sorts.

Before arriving at school, he thought this year would have an unprecedentedly wonderful start: his father had managed to get his hands on the founder's belongings as a birthday present, and his classmates who had witnessed the magic of those golden cups were all looking at him with envy. Even better, he had heard that Potter had fainted on the train.

He could already picture himself holding a golden cup and mocking Potter.

Professor White's performance was like a blow to his head: wasn't the cup in front of him a little too similar in function to his three golden cups?

Malfoy noticed that his companions were looking at him strangely. The attention he used to love now made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

He forced himself to remain calm, drank the pumpkin juice in the glass in one gulp, and then filled it with water. A miracle happened: the moment the glass was filled with water, the water turned into pumpkin juice.

Malfoy: ...

The sweet pumpkin juice turned bitter in his mouth. Feeling lost and helpless, he decided to send an email to his father after dinner, urging him to confront that damned Bokin.

The "gaze" that Malfoy felt was actually an illusion. Right now, all the young wizards in the Great Hall were amazed by the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Who had the time to watch Malfoy make a fool of himself?

Rice was also amazed by Helga: Isn't this magical effect a bit too outrageous?

Conjuring wine glasses and filling them with mulled wine for hundreds of students isn't difficult, but simultaneously applying a transformation spell to hundreds of glasses is quite outrageous. Finally, turning the water in hundreds of glasses into pumpkin juice and then continuing to "refill" them is truly heaven-defying magic. Even Rice himself couldn't do it; he didn't possess Helga's level of expertise in food magic.

But Rice absolutely refused to believe that Helga could turn water into pumpkin juice directly; she must have used some kind of trick.

Rice picked up the glass and examined it carefully. He quickly discovered Hufflepuff's trick: these conjured glasses were all made using a copying charm.

Hufflepuff first made a special copper cup, then used a replication charm to duplicate it hundreds of times. These duplicate cups functioned identically to the original, except that their shelf life depended on the amount of magic Hufflepuff provided.

As for what drink it can turn into, that's probably predetermined from the start. Even if no one in the audience shouts "pumpkin juice," Hufflepuff will still choose that option.

This explains it. While the level of magic required to do this is still frighteningly high, it's still within a understandable range.

If Hufflepuff could really cast such sophisticated food magic on hundreds of cups at once, then Rice felt she really didn't need to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts; teaching food magic would have been much better.

After a stunning opening speech, Hufflepuff returned to his seat and chatted with his future colleagues.

"What would you like to drink? I can conjure it up." Hufflepuff smiled at his colleagues, granting the professors the privilege of "ordering."

She had taken some classes and was familiar with most modern dishes and drinks.

Seeing that they could order freely, many professors were eager to try it. Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and asked Helga if she could have a lemon-flavored Perrier.

"Of course, please." Hufflepuff tapped Professor McGonagall's glass with her wand, and bubbly water overflowed from the bottom of her glass, filling it to the brim, with a faint lemon scent wafting in the air.

"Thank you!" Professor McGonagall raised an eyebrow, took the glass to her face, and savored it carefully—it was indeed the drink she had ordered.

"I'd like mead, and if possible, a bigger glass." Seeing that Professor McGonagall had gotten her wish, Hagrid quickly made his own request.

He's in a really good mood today and wants to have a couple of drinks.

"No problem, but you don't need to change the glass. Just pour the wine out." Hufflepuff tapped Hagrid's glass twice, and the liquid in his glass turned amber.

Hagrid picked up the glass and poured the liquid into a stemmed glass next to him. The stemmed glass was full, but the small copper glass was still empty.

Hagrid: !

Judging from its size, ten small copper cups wouldn't be enough to fill this goblet, but the result was unexpected.

"That's amazing!"

"This is magic." Hufflepuff looked at the other professors, wondering if they had any requests.

Professor Flitwick, somewhat embarrassed, said, "I'd like a glass of sherry juice mixed with soda on the ice."

Professor McGonagall glared at him: "Are you here to cause trouble? Do you really think this is a bar?"

Flitwick chuckled: It was an extreme test, he wanted to see where the limits of Professor White's magic lay, but he meant no harm.

This requirement is no challenge for Hufflepuff; all it needs to do is conjure up sherry juice and then soda water. As for ice cubes, they're just a piece of cake.

Dumbledore ordered a glass of ice wine with a syrupy texture and enjoyed it immensely.

Professor Sprout of Hufflepuff House watched the whole thing, completely mesmerized. It wasn't until Professor McGonagall nudged her that she snapped out of it and asked Professor White for a cup of tea.

When the steaming cup of black tea was placed before her, Sprout couldn't help but ask, "You seem to be very skilled in food magic?"

Hufflepuff nodded; she was indeed the most outstanding food magician in a thousand years. Her abilities extended far beyond conjuring drinks and using illusions to imbue food with rich flavors; she could also grant food special effects.

"Unheard of, unseen before," Professor Sprout exclaimed.

"It's probably been lost to time," Hufflepuff sighed. Indeed, none of her students had fully inherited her food magic.

However, she didn't just use food magic. She bought a huge amount of drinks in advance, and then summoned those drinks from her inventory whenever the other teachers wanted them.

Thinking of this, Hufflepuff glanced at Hagrid, who had already drunk three cups of mead, and silently stopped the spell in his cup. If he drank any more, her supply would be gone.

Fueled by the various drinks, the atmosphere at the teachers' table became quite pleasant. Everyone had a very positive impression of the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor.

The atmosphere at the banquet was excellent. The house-elves in the kitchen did their best to ensure that the young wizards, who had traveled a long way and were soaked in the rain, enjoyed a very sumptuous back-to-school feast.

Once the last piece of crème brûlée had disappeared from the plate, Dumbledore gave the order, and the opening banquet was truly over. The young wizards rose and returned from the Great Hall to the common room.

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 please wait a bit.

(End of this chapter)