Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 296 Hufflepuff: Come! Salute, Slytherin!

"Eat up," Hufflepuff said with a kind smile, urging the group to eat like a grandmother urging her grandson to eat.

"Thank you, Professor White."

"It smells so good!"

The two unsuspecting girls picked up their knives and forks and prepared to eat, while Rice, who was sitting to the side, showed no intention of doing so.

He looked at Hufflepuff with a smile: "I won't pick up the cutlery until you reveal what ingredients you're using."

He knew his old friend too well. Helga was fairly normal when she was young, but as she entered middle age and her culinary skills became more refined, she started to let herself go. She loved to cook with all sorts of strange and unusual ingredients and then trick others into eating them—even Rowena had been fooled by her several times.

However, although the raw materials are unconventional, Hufflepuff's principle is "to make delicious food," so the dishes she serves are definitely delicious, safe, non-toxic, and rich in nutritional value, which is why he brought Daphne and Astoria with him.

He believed it wouldn't hurt to let them try Helga's cooking; the only thing they had to do was overcome their psychological barriers.

Hufflepuff saw through Rice's thoughts. She calmly leaned back in her armchair and asked Rice why she wasn't touching the fork.

Daphne and Astoria both stopped what they were doing, and for some reason, a faint unease rose in their hearts: Why hadn't Rice started eating? These three dishes were so delicious!

"Did you go to the Forbidden Forest?" Rice answered Hufflepuff's question with a question.

Hufflepuff nodded slowly.

Rice thought for a moment, then forked a piece of carrot from the salad—he was sure it really was a carrot.

Hufflepuff sighed: she understood now; the old viper wouldn't start eating until she explained the dishes in detail.

Where is the trust between people? Isn't it just because I tricked them into eating some rare ingredients?

In Rice's eyes, Helga's reputation in the culinary world was only slightly better than Rowena's. Perhaps she should reflect on why her longtime friend had absolutely no trust in her.

"This is a vegetable and cheese salad. The vegetables are ones I grew myself—I used a little magic to ripen them, and the cheese is also homemade. It tastes pretty good."

Under Rice's intense gaze, Helga finally revealed what kind of milk was used to make the cheese.

"You make cheese with unicorn milk?!" Daphne accidentally dropped her fork on the ground.

Unicorns are magical creatures that many wizards have never even seen in their lives, yet I'm actually eating cheese made from their milk? And who exactly is Professor White? How does he even manage to get his hands on unicorn milk?

"I'm pretty good at interacting with magical creatures," Helga told Daphne. The secret to dealing with magical creatures is to be bold, careful, and thick-skinned.

Rice observed coldly, feeling that the same statement applied to hunting.

"The blood of unicorns carries a curse, then..." Unlike her sister, Astoria was more concerned about food safety. She was worried about the legendary curse of unicorns.

"Don't worry! I had the unicorn's permission! There was no killing or torture, it was all a voluntary offering, and the materials obtained under such circumstances will not be cursed."

While Helga was comforting the Greengrass sisters, a strange thought arose in Rhys's mind: If I use magic to control the unicorns and make them "voluntarily" offer themselves, would the materials obtained be cursed?

He thought about it and felt that the key point was whether or not the unicorn was killed.

"This soup is cream of mushroom soup. The mushrooms are wild mushrooms I picked from the Forbidden Forest, and the cream is extracted from unicorn milk."

Professor White's introduction whetted Daphne and Astoria's appetites, and they wished they could eat several more bowls.

Kreiss wasn't fooled by appearances; his attention remained focused on the rather suspicious plate of meat. Judging from its color, it seemed to be some kind of seafood, but he couldn't be sure.

Especially after learning that Hufflepuff had ventured deep into the Forbidden Forest, he had a bold conjecture.

"As for this..." Hufflepuff paused for a second when talking about the third dish, then told the girls that it was the legs of a hairy, shell-less land crab.

"Oh, is that so? It's a magical creature I've never heard of before!" Daphne's interest grew even stronger, and she ate several pieces of "crab meat" in a row. She found the "crab meat" to be incredibly crispy on the outside and sweet and juicy on the inside, a rare delicacy.

Rice knew the true nature of the "crab meat" on the plate just from the name. Astoria, sitting next to him, took a moment to realize it, and then she stopped touching the plate of fried meat.

"You should have cleaned it properly, right?" Rice showed no disgust or aversion towards the giant eight-eyed spider; in his eyes, it was just a cute little creature. However, just to be on the safe side, he still had to ask Helga if she had properly disposed of the spider's venom sacs.

High temperatures cannot remove the toxicity of the eight-eyed giant spider's venom; it must be combined with specific magical potion ingredients.

"Of course, I only took the leg meat."

"What about the rest?" Rice suddenly thought of something.

"Throw it away."

Rice: ...

Hufflepuff: ?

Rice raised an eyebrow: he decided to tell Helga the news; he was eager to see her reaction.

He picked up his fork and, to Astoria's astonishment, took a piece of "crab meat" and put it in his mouth to chew. And let me tell you, it tasted absolutely amazing.

"Oh, by the way, Professor White, did such magical creatures as the eight-eyed giant spider exist in your time?" Lester brought up this topic as the dinner was drawing to a close.

"Never heard of it." Helga shook her head, but now she knew what the giant spider she had killed was called.

"I see. It's a magical creature bred by wizards over the last few hundred years. The venom extracted from its venom sac is very valuable; a pint can sell for a hundred gallons, and it's still in high demand." Rice, like a science enthusiast, gave Hufflepuff a "kind" science lesson.

Hearing Rice's words, Helga was struck dumb, frozen in her seat, and it took her a while to recover.

"What happens to this venom after it leaves the spider's body...?"

"They'll kill it. If you want to collect it, you'd better be quick." Rice dashed Hufflepuff's hopes.

Hufflepuff's mood immediately soured until the end of the dinner.

After the last scraps of food were gone, Hufflepuff stood up, holding a wine glass in his hand.

"Before this wonderful dinner concludes, please allow me to offer a toast to a great man, the great Salazar Slytherin! I heard from Flitwick that he invented the Restoration Charm, making it possible to completely eradicate werewolves. What a great man he was!" Helga said, glancing at Rice. Seeing his smile freeze, she felt genuine joy, and her previous bad mood vanished instantly.

Rice: ? ? ?

"Let us raise a toast to Slytherin!" Hufflepuff raised his glass. "To the great Slytherin!"

Daphne and Astoria were confused, but the atmosphere had already been built up, so they began to say, "Homage to the great Slytherin."

Rice: ...

He finally managed to squeeze out through gritted teeth, "Homage to the great... Slytherin!"

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.

Here's the second update, goodnight everyone~

The next update will be at midnight tonight (〃'▽'〃)

(End of this chapter)