Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 379 The Internet and Homework

The Encyclopedia Britannica was Hermione's Christmas gift to Rice. This was no small gift; the entire set consisted of twenty books, and the little girl must have gone to great lengths to bring them from the non-magical world to Hogwarts.

However, considering that Ravenclaw should have already taught her how to manipulate magic, Rhys believed that Hermione wouldn't be foolish enough to carry them by hand, right? Using magic to lift them would be much less strenuous and wouldn't violate the Statute of Secrets.

The encyclopedia Hermione sent contained so much information—too much, in fact, that Rice was almost at a loss for words when she first received it.

Fortunately, she sent the latest edition. Due to strong feedback from many readers, the latest edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica includes two new index volumes. Although even the index volumes are over a million words long, they will ultimately help Rice quickly grasp the content of the entire book.

After quickly skimming through the two volumes of the index, Rice determined the order in which to read the book in a very short time.

As for philosophy, religion, humanities, and the like, Rice felt they could really take a backseat; he was more interested in Muggle technology. He was eager to understand just how far Muggle technology had progressed.

Then, while browsing through the index, a word caught Rice's attention: "Internet".

"The internal network? What a strange name." Rice's curiosity was piqued by the odd word.

Driven by curiosity, he followed the index to find it.

"TCP/IP? What's that? And what's ARPANET?" Rice felt he knew most of the words in the book about the Internet, but when these words were put together and two abbreviations were added, he was completely confused.

He only knew that the Internet seemed to be a novel invention of the United States, which had developed extremely rapidly in recent years. Muggles could quickly and conveniently obtain various types of information through the Internet, such as news, academic materials, and entertainment content. They could also use the Internet to send emails, transfer files, and log in remotely.

Rice had difficulty understanding the meaning of the phrases in these paragraphs.

In his understanding, the internet seemed to be a magical medium through which Muggles could learn about events happening in other parts of the world—provided that those places were also connected to the internet. Places like Hogwarts, which weren't connected to the internet, meant that others couldn't learn about Hogwarts online.

This both reassured and worried Rice. He was reassured that the wizarding world hadn't been exposed to the Muggles, but worried because he didn't know how the internet had connected. If it could connect without Hogwarts's permission, then the wizarding world's exposure was only a matter of time.

"The Muggles are developing so rapidly..." After imagining a few uses for the Internet, Rice couldn't help but marvel at the power of the Muggles.

Just think, the editors of the Daily Prophet don't need to print newspapers. They can simply move their fingers in the editorial office and let the young wizards at Hogwarts see today's news. And not only the young wizards at Hogwarts can see it, but foreign schools such as Durmstrang and Beauxbatons can also see it immediately—according to the encyclopedia, this information spreads at the speed of light.

The same applies to file transfer. With such a network, Durmstrang professors can teach Defense Against the Dark Arts to Hogwarts students, and most books in the Hogwarts library can be copied and uploaded to the network, allowing one to carry away thousands of years of Hogwarts' accumulated knowledge in a single bag.

This is just a simple application of a Muggle creation called "the Internet." Muggles, you're amazing.

Rice tried to learn more about it, but was surprised to find that it brought up a whole bunch of concepts he had never heard of before, just like a mandrake pulled from the ground.

He watched for half an hour, but still couldn't fully understand the principles of the Internet or what it actually was.

The encyclopedia Hermione sent was of great help to Rice in gaining a deeper understanding of Muggle society, but the more Rice learned, the more alarmed he became.

He knew that many pure-blood wizards held Muggles in contempt, believing they could easily trample and enslave them if they so desired. The current clear distinction between Muggles and wizards was entirely a gift from the wizards.

Rice felt that this perception was completely wrong.

Muggle society has gained an overwhelming advantage over wizards in terms of size and technology; it is by no means the dilapidated house that people imagine would collapse with a single kick.

Of course, wizards aren't helpless victims. Their ability to hide is unparalleled; if they're determined to conceal themselves, Rhys believes Muggles won't be able to find them. More importantly, wizards are far from defenseless. In a full-scale war, spells like the Imperius Curse, Apparition, Killing Curse, and Explosion Curse would prove invaluable.

Not to mention that these remnants of the old era are still alive. Rhys can ensure that his magic will leave a very deep impression on the Muggles, but he hopes that day will never come, because once those spells are used, there is no turning back for wizards.

After bringing his wandering thoughts back to reality, Rice decided to wait until the end of the holiday to have a proper chat with those young wizards from Muggle families and learn about the Internet from them.

Rice felt that although connecting the wizarding world to the Internet was extremely dangerous, it was a technology worth trying to learn. Perhaps he could successfully replicate it and build such a system within Hogwarts.

But there's no rush. There's still a long Christmas holiday ahead, so he can take his time to look at the encyclopedia Hermione gave him.

True to his word, Rice's routine became extremely regular during the following Christmas holidays. After getting up early, she would have a quick breakfast and then take Daphne and Astoria to Helga's to work on parts. With Cedric joining them, Helga's progress accelerated considerably.

When Cedric saw Rice and the other two, his expression was quite interesting: he never expected that there would be three heirs to Slytherin, and why the three of them would come to assist their teacher?

When he later learned that it was for the purpose of learning, Cedric felt a sense of respect for his three junior classmates.

They're different from the other Slytherin students! These three are decent people.

According to him, Rice and his two companions were students who "truly inherited the spirit of Slytherin."

Cedric's praise elicited rather strange expressions from Rice and Helga, but Daphne and Astoria were genuinely delighted. They even congratulated Cedric on defeating the Slytherin Quidditch team and lifting the Quidditch Cup.

This blessing left Cedric completely bewildered.

This conversation is really strange. One Hufflepuff says that the other two Slytherins have inherited the Slytherin spirit, and these two Slytherins then wish the Hufflepuff Quidditch team would defeat the Slytherin team in the game. It's strange in every way.

"Why? Aren't you Slytherin students?" Cedric was completely bewildered. In his eyes, the three people opposite him were the heirs of Slytherin, shouldn't they be the most loyal supporters of Slytherin? Why would they support another house in a Quidditch match?

"It is the heirs of Slytherin who would oppose those guys." Daphne quickly complained about the oddball students in Slytherin House, making it clear that a true Slytherin would not spend time and energy on the skill of flying.

Rice, who was standing to the side, wanted to stop her from continuing to expose her family's dirty laundry, but considering that Malfoy and his gang had already revealed almost everything about the academy, he didn't stop her.

How could someone who has studied at Hogwarts for five years not know what Slytherin House is like now?!

Helga barely glanced at Rice's expression before she almost broke down; she knew all too well the old viper's current state of mind. With such a group of people lingering in his academy, ruining his reputation, he probably needed potions to fall asleep now.

Cedric remained silent.

After a while, he managed to squeeze out a dry "okay," and then went back to making parts.

At noon, the group would put down their work, have a hearty lunch, rest for a while, and then start making doll parts until sunset, when dinner time would arrive. In the evening, back in the lounge, Rice would also take some time to read the encyclopedia.

With three and a half dedicated assistants, Helga's progress accelerated dramatically, completing nearly a third of the orders during a single holiday.

By the night before school started, although she still had a lot of unfinished orders, it wasn't so urgent anymore.

However, the four of them, immersed in the world of dolls, forgot about something very important.

"I'm going to mail out the finished doll. I hope it arrives before the start of the semester." After assembling one of the dolls, Helga led it out of the office.

She wanted to send the doll out before the sun went down.

After Hufflepuff left, Rice frowned: Helga's words had stirred up his memories, vaguely reminding him of something he hadn't accomplished.

"Hey, Daphne, have you done your homework?" Rice's question was like a thunderbolt, freezing the three people in the room in place.

Daphne: !

Astoria: !

Cedric: !

"Oh no, we forgot!" the three shouted in unison.

These days have been so fulfilling that they've completely forgotten about their homework.

A dangerous glint flashed in Rice's eyes: "Since there's no time to lose anyway, why don't we..."

"Looks like I'll have to stay up all night tonight," Cedric said with a serious expression. Unlike his three junior classmates, he was a fifth-year student preparing for the OWL exam, and the academic pressure was immense, with an unusually large amount of homework assigned by the professors.

Daphne gave Rice a pitiful look: time was tight and the task was heavy, so there really wasn't time to help Rice with his homework.

To finish two holiday assignments in such a short time, I'd probably need to use time magic to borrow more than ten hours.

Looking at the pitiful Daphne, Rice sighed: It seems Daphne is out of the question this time. But he certainly won't do the homework himself…

Rice reached into his pocket and pulled out the automatic writing quill he had painstakingly made, tossed it onto the parchment, and the quill began writing the paper automatically.

Cedric, who had just summoned his backpack with a Summoning Charm, was dumbfounded—was it really okay for his junior, Rice, to do this?

But when he saw that the pen had generated a two-foot-long treatise on the history of magic in less than five minutes, Cedric was intrigued.

With the help of such a pen, not only will I not have to stay up late tonight, but I can also go to bed earlier... Thinking of this, Cedric's breathing became a little heavier.

Rice took it all in, his mind racing with calculations.

"I feel that there's no need to do the Defense Against the Dark Arts homework anymore." Rice's statement was agreed upon by Daphne and Astoria. Although Cedric didn't say it, his expression showed that he also agreed.

I've been working hard for three weeks already, can I be exempted from the homework?!

The four of them tacitly put their Defense Against the Dark Arts homework at the very bottom, deciding to wait for Professor White to return and check on it.

While the group was chatting, Rice had already finished writing her quill homework for the divination class.

Daphne couldn't sit still any longer. She immediately stepped forward and asked Rice to bestow a magic pen to help her finish the mountain of homework.

Rice had no objection, but everything has a price. The price of using this pen was to polish the articles written with the quill pen.

Daphne naturally had no objections and, after making the promise, received the right to use the quill pen. Most importantly, Rice completely expanded the scope of the quill pen's use this time, allowing it to be used for homework in any subject.

He didn't want his students to spend too much time on these assignments, even important courses like Transfiguration and Charms.

Seeing Rice and the other two use this amazing tool to finish such a huge pile of homework in one go, Cedric couldn't sit still any longer.

"Hmm... Rice, this quill pen—"

The office door was suddenly pushed open, and Professor White strode in, smiling as he said to Rice, "You've all worked so hard. Well, it's getting late, so go back to the lounge and rest. Oh, and considering you've been here all Christmas holiday researching Defense Against the Dark Arts, your Defense Against the Dark Arts assignments will be waived."

Judging from Helga's expression, Rice felt that this guy had probably been standing at the door for a while, and now he was barging in because he didn't want Rice to lend Cedric the quill.

Without hesitation, Rice, who understood the unspoken message, led the Greengrass sisters away from Helga's office, leaving Cedric standing there, hesitant to speak.

The Christmas holiday ended in a chaotic mess.

The next day was the day the students returned to school. Rice didn't know what time Cedric had been writing until yesterday, but judging from his dark circles, it was easy to tell that Cedric had probably accomplished a miracle last night with just a pen and a lamp.

When Daphne and Astoria encountered Cedric, they couldn't help but gasp: thank goodness they had borrowed Rice's automatic writing quill, otherwise Cedric would have ended up like them, or even worse.

Rice intended to go over and say a few words to Cedric and give him an energy potion, but he stopped after taking just one step because Hermione appeared.

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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Two chapters combined into one long chapter of 4200 words~

(End of this chapter)