Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 30 (Formerly) The Most Popular Professor Binns

"Sorry, I was too presumptuous—wait, what?" Daphne was ready to apologize for her recklessness, but then she heard Rice agree to teach her the spells.

The unexpected good news overwhelmed her, and by the time she came to her senses, Rice had already gone back to her dormitory to rest.

Back in his dorm room, Rice didn't rush to sleep after lying on his bed. Instead, he started planning his next dungeon adventure. As the saying goes, "If you're prepared, you'll succeed; if you're not, you'll fail." This applies to everything.

……

The young wizards of Gryffindor and Slytherin are fortunate, as they have no classes on Monday mornings and can leisurely sleep in until they naturally wake up—while the first-year students of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw are miserable, as they have to attend two Potions classes on Monday mornings.

On the first day of school, the first class was Potions taught by Professor Snape. The person who designed the schedule knew that hardship comes before reward.

However, not everyone can sleep until they naturally wake up; Daphne was woken up by her roommate.

"What's wrong? I remember I didn't have class this morning." Daphne yawned, still half asleep, and looked at her roommate Tracy with a confused expression.

"Go see Potter! I was too nervous during the sorting ceremony yesterday and didn't get to see him much."

Daphne was speechless.

"What's so interesting about Potter? You can see it every day from now on—hey, should I wear this butterfly hair clip or choose this forsythia headband?" Pansy Parkinson was quite disdainful of Tracy's behavior and felt that there was no need to join in the fun.

"I'm going to eat." Daphne, who had been woken up, couldn't fall back asleep. She got out of bed and prepared to go to the auditorium for breakfast.

"Wait for me!" Pansy called out quickly, not wanting to eat breakfast alone.

After getting dressed up, the girls walked out of the dormitory together.

As soon as she entered the Great Hall, Daphne's eyes were drawn to a figure at the Slytherin House table: Rice was sitting in the corner enjoying a hearty breakfast: stewed beans, bacon, sausage, fried eggs, and delicious pudding and cupcakes. Rice seemed to be making up for all the calories she had burned during her night out.

"Only one class today, that's great. I wonder what they teach in History of Magic. Have you heard? Our History of Magic teacher is a ghost named Binns." Daphne sat down next to Rice and started chatting with him casually.

When Rice heard the professor's name, he paused, putting down his knife and fork.

"Bins Cuthbert?" He couldn't help but confirm the professor's name with Daphne.

After receiving an affirmative answer, Rice clicked his tongue: He knew this professor.

Binns Cuthbert was the professor of the history of magic that Rowena brought in when Hogwarts was founded. Even after Rowena left, he remained at the school to teach.

To his utter surprise, when he returned, he was still the professor of history of magic! It's like the principals come and go, but the professor of history of magic remains a constant.

Rice guessed roughly why Binns had been able to remain a professor for over a thousand years: he probably died on duty and then became a ghost wandering around Hogwarts, continuing to fulfill his duties from his previous life.

Did Hogwarts pay Professor Binns in his ghost form a salary? This strange thought suddenly popped into Rice's mind.

However, ghosts don't use the currency of the living; they have their own means of exchange. If they are still paying wages, Hogwarts will have to go to great lengths to find a way to obtain the ghosts' currency.

"I wonder what the legendary Ghost Professor's classes will be like." Daphne's eyes shone with anticipation, while the older students around her gave her strange looks.

No one stepped forward to shatter the little girl's illusions; they felt she should witness Professor Binns's teaching quality for herself. After one class, those who understood, understood.

"I feel it's going to be very exciting, something to look forward to." Rice recalled the magnificent scene of Professor Binns's lectures back then: as lunchtime approached, the students reluctantly left Professor Binns's classroom, each one looking very excited. The four founders' courses gave them their first glimpse of the wonder of magic, while Professor Binns's history of magic filled the children with endless imagination about magic.

Professor Binns was one of the most popular professors at Hogwarts, and students loved his classes.

Suddenly, the upperclassmen around them all lowered their heads in unison.

The History of Magic class was held on the second floor of Hogwarts Castle, not far from the Great Hall. As class time approached, the first-year Slytherin students would emerge from the Great Hall and their dormitories and head towards the History of Magic classroom.

When Rice walked outside the History of Magic classroom, the first-year students of Ravenclaw were already waiting there.

Rice saw Hermione; she was carrying a brown leather shoulder bag that looked like it contained several books.

"Rice!" The little girl greeted Rice as he approached.

"Good afternoon. How was Potions class this morning?" Rice had already learned from the casual conversation at breakfast that the new Ravenclaw students had already taken Professor Snape's Potions class. He was very curious about the quality of the course, after all, it was Potions, one of Slytherin's specialties, and Slytherin House itself was known for producing masters of Potions.

If a Slytherin headmaster is not good at potion making, then he is certainly not a true Slytherin.

Hermione's expression was slightly complicated. She glanced at the Slytherin students around her and finally chose to be more tactful: "What I teach is quite interesting, but I'm a bit strict with the students."

He was more than just strict! If the Hufflepuff freshmen were to rate Snape, they would definitely give him a "flood of negative reviews." If Hogwarts had a professor rating system, Snape would be at the top of the list of worst-rated professors for years to come.

In the morning class, Snape nearly deducted Hufflepuff's points to negative, Neville Longbottom was almost scared to tears, and even Hermione from Ravenclaw lost five points because she was sitting close to Longbottom but couldn't stop his foolish actions.

Rice sensed something amiss in Hermione's words. He raised an eyebrow, stopped dwelling on the topic, and went into the History of Magic classroom, finding a seat.

Hermione was about to sit next to him when a silver-haired girl suddenly appeared, sat down in the empty seat next to Rice as if no one else was there, and then looked up and greeted her with a bright smile.

"Oh, Hermione, good afternoon!"

Rice was quite looking forward to Binns's class. He had already read "The History of Magic," but the text in the book only showed the tip of the iceberg. If a teacher could elaborate on it, he would definitely gain more.

What's even more amazing is that this professor has "lived" from the Middle Ages to the present day, making him a veritable walking history book. Rice believes he will definitely benefit greatly this afternoon.

……

Half an hour later, Rice suddenly shuddered, pulling himself out of the dream, looking completely bewildered.

I encountered something extremely bizarre and ghostly.

Rice's middle name is Chala Sa, and then it was automatically changed to Cha LS for me. Unbelievable! I wouldn't have noticed if it weren't for reader feedback, because it was still displayed in Chinese in the backend...

Okay, then let's change the middle name to Chasala.

(End of this chapter)