Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 377 Christmas for Three Old Fools

Faced with the blessings of her two old friends, Rowena nearly lost control of her facial expressions. The reason was quite simple: although she was much stronger than ordinary ghosts in her ghost form, even able to touch physical objects, she was still ultimately a spirit. Forget enjoying food, she could barely smell anything. Even the tea and snacks served to guests were obtained through magic—her earlier boasts to Salazar about "being able to smell" were just empty words. In reality, her sense of taste was almost completely gone. Before her death, she had focused most of her energy on preserving her magical power; she hadn't given much thought to things like taste.

It's like a patient who can't eat after surgery, and then her two close friends each bring a family bucket of instant noodles to her bedside and show off.

Rice glanced at Rowena's face and knew what she was thinking. Then he chuckled and told Rowena that he had recently come up with some interesting little gadgets.

"Memory potion!" He reached back and pulled out a crystal bottle that emitted colorful light.

"Oh?" Rowena's brows relaxed. She knew that Salazar could most likely solve the problem of the ghosts not being able to smell anything; he wasn't one to make baseless accusations.

"All we need to do is extract the memories of tasting the food, add them to this potion, and then apply it to your body, and you'll be able to experience the aroma of the food!"

Rowena: ...

Helga: (。-ω-)

Rowena felt something was off, but being able to smell the aroma of food again was her top priority, so she deliberately didn't think about it too much.

Rice pressed his wand against his temple, retrieving a wisp of silvery memory from his mind.

With a flick of his finger, the stopper of the crystal bottle popped open, and a small clump of liquid floated out.

The liquid, radiating multicolored light, floated in the air, taking on irregular shapes under the combined influence of gravity and magic, appearing both fantastical and eerie. Those unaware of its true nature would surely feel a profound awe upon seeing this scene, but in reality, it was simply a "ghost feeder."

The silvery-white memories combined with the multicolored droplets, and after a burst of dazzling light, transformed into the colors of tequila sunrise, as blended by Rice. Just one glance from Rowena was enough to make her feel as if she were witnessing the rising sun.

"Want to try my cocktail?" Rice waved his hand, and droplets of liquid floated toward Rowena.

Although, as Salazar said, Rowena could sense the scent contained within the spirit by applying the droplet to any part of its body, she still manipulated the droplet to float towards her mouth on her face, so that the droplet would come into contact with her lips.

The next moment, Rowena read the memories carried within the droplet. A long-lost tremor arose from the depths of her soul, causing a slight change in the color of her spiritual body.

After savoring the moment with his eyes closed for a long time, Rowena opened them, looked at Rice, and said, "Salazar, brilliant!"

Rice raised an eyebrow: "Of course, I'm the best potion master in the world."

Neither Helga nor Reina refuted Salazar's boastful remarks, as they were simply stating facts.

Of course, not refuting doesn't mean not adding fuel to the fire; Helga was determined to take the opportunity to give Salazar a "blow to the head."

So she deliberately asked, "Really? That's wonderful! Sir, the world's number one potion master, could you make me an elixir of immortality?"

This was no problem for Rice. He readily agreed, adding that the lady should bring her own potion ingredients; he didn't need much, just a Philosopher's Stone would suffice.

He would immediately make her an elixir of immortality for free, provided she provided a magic stone.

Rowena stood to the side, quietly watching her two old friends bicker. This scene vaguely reminded her of the old days. Back then, the two of them always liked to pick fights with each other like this.

"Another one, please." After the lingering feeling from the memory faded, she couldn't wait to order another Tequila Sunrise.

"I really don't know how to describe your invention. The name 'Memory Potion' is just awful." After taking the second "cup" of Tequila Sunrise, Rowena began to think about whether to give Salazar's invention a new name.

"Look, the way this liquid floats up looks just like a bubble, and it contains memories. Why don't we name it Memory Bubble?" Helga suggested, and Rice and Rowena's eyes lit up—it was quite a good name.

"That's it!" Rice made the final decision, naming the mixture of the memory potion and memories "Memory Bubble".

After that, Rowena couldn't wait to order several other flavors of rum, including the spirits Helga provided, as well as some food served at Hogwarts during the Christmas feast.

"Happy!" After consuming more than a dozen Memory Bubbles and "enjoying" several dishes and drinks, even the usually deep-hearted Rowena couldn't help but praise his old friend's invention.

"For ghosts, this is simply the number one invention. If wizards outside knew about this wonderful thing, I'm afraid even more people would choose to become ghosts!" Rowena remarked after drinking his third "cup" of Tequila Sunrise.

In fact, every wizard can achieve immortality in some sense—except for those who create Horcruxes, which is to turn back instead of boarding the vehicle to the afterlife when death comes.

When the souls of the deceased return to the mortal world, they automatically become ghosts, able to wander in the places they frequented in life, and even talk and chat with the living.

This is actually another form of immortality. Helena and Barrow both "lived" from the era of the Big Four to the modern era in this way.

So what is the price? One of them is never being able to smell food again in this lifetime. Ghosts even need to deliberately let food spoil so that they can smell even a little bit of it. That rotten smell is something that any living person would avoid at all costs, but ghosts long for it.

What's even more terrifying is that choosing to become a ghost is a path of no return; once you embark on it, there's no turning back. You can't simply reincarnate as you wish; you will forever remain a ghost that is neither alive nor dead.

After witnessing the true living conditions of ghosts at school, virtually no wizards were willing to choose this path.

However, if Salazar's invention were to be widely adopted, it might make the "become a ghost" option extremely tempting.

Rice shook his head, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Rowena's remark.

Stop kidding me! Do you really think this potion is easy to make? Ghosts have no money, so why would a potion master specially make this potion for them for free? Do you really think potion masters are all philanthropists?

More importantly, most ghosts are different from Rowena; they cannot touch real-world objects. So, can they expect someone to feed them every time?

Rice appears to offer a solution, but in reality, just like the cancer drugs that cost Muggles millions of dollars per injection, it only serves a few phantoms.

Given Rice's personality, he could only provide memory potions to three ghosts at most: Rowena, Barrow, and Helena. He wasn't familiar with the other ghosts and simply didn't have the patience for it.

Moreover, this potion might become extinct, because the last ingredient in this potion is the Compass Grass, a herb that Helga gave to Rice that had been extinct for thousands of years.

This plant was essentially extinct before Rome split into East and West. The reason Rhys was able to make potions with the compass grass in modern times was because he accidentally brought Helga from a thousand years ago.

If Rice's plan to revive the compass grass fails, then every drop of this potion Rowena drinks will be one less available.

But there's no need to tell Rowena these things, lest it spoil her fun.

Over the next half hour, Rowena sampled almost every kind of food and wine, and the potion in the crystal bottle was nearly empty.

After another sip of Tequila Sunrise, Rowena squinted: with each dose, the awe-inspiring sensation from the memory bubble was gradually fading, almost like numbness.

Rice noticed the change in Rowena's expression, and at just the right moment, he took out a bottle of forgetfulness potion.

Is it because you've taken it too many times and it's not as impactful anymore? Then just forget you drank it, right? It's like drinking the beverage all over again.

Moreover, this particular one from Rice was specially made for a powerful wizard like Rowena.

When the potion was handed to Rowena, a look of surprise immediately appeared on her face. She inserted the droplet into her head, then gathered all her memories of the agave sunrise and allowed the forgetfulness potion to absorb them.

After the last trace of memory was absorbed, droplets of the medicine flew out of her spirit body, carrying a strong aroma of alcohol, and landed on the ground. Rowena had already forgotten the taste of that cocktail.

It's a completely new experience!

Rowena became happy.

This year's Christmas was truly wonderful.

After a hearty meal, Rowena chatted with her two old friends. Then, she learned a shocking piece of news from Helga: Salazar had awakened a second time.

Rowena: !

However, she wasn't too surprised, because even before she died, she felt that among the four, she or Salazar would be the first to experience a second awakening. It was perfectly normal for Salazar to experience a second awakening after becoming a child with his memories intact, given his tender body.

Because a vibrant physical body brings about a completely different psychological state, under the influence of this physical body, the awakening of the realm once again is relatively simple.

As for older figures like her and Helga, a second awakening would be extremely difficult. Their domains had become an integral part of their souls, almost like organs, making a significant qualitative change very challenging.

However, this did not stop her from being curious about Salazar's domain after his second awakening, wanting to know what form her old friend's domain would take after his second awakening.

Rice explained it to her simply, basically that before, the scope he included was only "water," but now it includes all liquids.

"Wow, Salazar, you're amazing!" Rowena exclaimed in amazement at Rice's progress, while also having some ideas of her own. Her old friend's second awakening had given her some inspiration and a clue about her own second awakening in her field.

"Hey, by the way, Salazar, how did you manage to achieve a second awakening?" While having a flash of inspiration, Rowena was also very curious about how Salazar did it—it couldn't have been an automatic second awakening after just one night's sleep, could it?

Rice: ...

Helga: Pfft.

Rowena: ?

A puzzled look swept across the two faces, and a few seconds later, a look of sudden realization appeared on Rowena's face.

"I see... Pfft." She couldn't help but laugh out loud.

She was willing to bet that Salazar's second awakening was definitely related to Godric. Considering her old friend's condition and Godric's continued disappearance, Rowena felt that the root of the problem most likely lay with his young apprentice.

Salazar had introduced her to him before, and Rowena's impression of that little girl was very "Adrian," so she was probably a case of Salazar and Adrian combined.

"What are you laughing at? What's so funny!" Rice roared. "Now that magma is also within my domain, my students still follow my lead."

Rowena and Helga: Hehehe.

Salazar's behavior is like a wife giving birth to a child with dark skin and then going out and tanning her own skin – it's nothing but self-deception.

"So that's why—" Rowena's smile suddenly froze halfway through her sentence.

"You just mentioned lava?" she suddenly realized.

Rice: Hehe~

"That's right."

The smile on Rowena's face vanished at a speed visible to the naked eye.

What Salazar meant by that was...? A terrifying possibility suddenly occurred to her.

"Your student has awakened the magma realm???" she exclaimed in disbelief.

It's no wonder Rowena was so surprised; the news was simply too astonishing—how old was Greengrass?! How could he have awakened a realm already?!

"without."

Salazar's words relieved Rowena, but before she could calm down, Salazar added, "She's only just touched the threshold of the field."

Rowena: !!!

It's true! Salazar has quietly cultivated his student to this level! Considering her own almost laissez-faire attitude towards Hermione, Rowena felt a sense of urgency.

Fortunately, Helga hasn't taken on any students yet, so at least she's not at the bottom of the three... she thought to herself with relief.

However, the perceptive and wise Ravenclaw quickly noticed something was amiss: Helga's emotions were too stable! And she seemed to know about Salazar's students' exploration of the realm even before she did.

Rowena remembered that Helga had shown a strong desire to take on a disciple last time, which was quite strange.

Based on Rowena's understanding of her old friend, if Salazar's students had already reached the chapter on the domain, but she hadn't even taken on any students yet, and there was an extremely important competition next year, then Helga's behavior would be truly abnormal.

Without hesitation, Rowena Ravenclaw asked directly, "Helga, your student must be an earth-elemental expert, right?"

"Haha, of course—" Caught off guard, Helga blurted out the truth.

Rowena: !!! !!! !!! !!! !!! !!!

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.

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(End of this chapter)