Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 383 Helga: The Magical World Would Be Doomed Without Me

"Helga, do you know what you're saying?" Rice stared at Helga with displeasure, expressing strong dissatisfaction with her words.

"I know." Even though she could see that she had ignited her old friend's anger, Helga's expression did not change at all, as if what she had just said was a natural truth like "the sun rises in the east and sets in the west."

"Oh? Tell me then, how did I become a Gryffindor?" Helga's attitude fueled Rice's anger, but after his anger reached a certain point, Rice calmed down.

He bluntly stated, "Helga, since you say I'm like Gryffindor, then convince me. If you can't convince me, then don't blame me for losing my temper."

"Because you chose the most Gryffindor solution." Hergabiles remained calm and began to analyze the consequences and impact of his actions.

"We can analyze this problem using a dichotomy. First, we can divide it into two scenarios: the Muggle satellites have already discovered the magical world, and the Muggle satellites have not yet discovered the magical world."

If it's the former, then the fact that Hogwarts hasn't been razed to the ground yet means that Muggles consider wizards harmless or even beneficial; their attitude is clear: Muggles want to coexist peacefully with wizards. Destroying all the satellites now will only damage this relationship and bring annihilation to the wizarding world.

Helga's detailed description eased Rice's anger slightly, and he decided to continue listening to Helga's analysis.

"If Muggles haven't discovered the wizarding world yet, there are two possibilities: either their satellites can't detect us at all, in which case you don't need to consider destroying the satellites; or their satellites have the ability to detect us, but the Muggles haven't realized it yet."

"I'm talking about the last scenario—" Rice interrupted immediately when he heard Helga mention the second scenario, adding that even if Muggles couldn't find Hogwarts with current technology, they would eventually be able to find it as technology advanced.

"That's where you're like Godric. I bet he'd want to destroy those satellites in the sky as soon as possible."

"He can't destroy it," Rice said confidently.

Godric's domain is [fire], so it won't be of much use in this matter.

Helga: ...

She forcibly resisted the urge to cast a silencing spell on Salazar and continued her analysis for him.

"So what if you can destroy them? Won't doing this alert the enemy and the Muggles? After all, so many artificial satellites in Earth's orbit would be destroyed at the same time..."

"So we need to take advantage of the meteor shower as cover, otherwise we could just use the domain to send a bunch of rocks up there right now."

"Even if you destroy all the satellites, the Muggles will believe it was an accident caused by a meteor shower. Then they can just launch new satellites into space, right? I read in this book that satellites are involved in many fields, and the Muggles won't give up."

Of course, if you're suggesting we wait until they launch their new satellite and then blow it up with a "meteor shower," I think that's treating Muggles like idiots.

Rice: ...

"If there's enough debris from various satellites, it will create a junk belt in low Earth orbit, preventing Muggles from launching new satellites," Rice offered his answer. This was a concept he had read about in a book.

Even Muggles themselves believe that as space debris increases in low Earth orbit, future satellite launches will become increasingly difficult. He simply accelerated this process.

Helga: ?

"How many satellite debris would that require? Hundreds of thousands, millions? Could it really have any impact?" Helga was skeptical.

Rice choked for a moment.

Upon closer examination, he realized that this didn't seem very reliable after all.

The Earth's circumference is 40,000 kilometers. Low Earth orbit can be considered a circle with an even larger radius, meaning its circumference would only be larger. More importantly, this orbit isn't a line, but a surface. How much space debris would it take to completely fill that area?

Rice felt this might happen sometime in the future, but definitely not now. Humanity has only been launching spacecraft into space for a few decades; how many have been launched in total? Even if he and Helga went all out and destroyed them all, how much space would they occupy?

However, Helga offered him a new idea: fire one and then blow it up. This idea seems worth a try.

Since Muggles are unaware of the existence of the magical world, they won't suspect them. Instead, this could be used to sow discord between Muggle nations...

Helga was speechless after hearing Salazar's new idea.

"Go ahead and worry about it if you want, I'm not going to play along—and haven't you realized what's going on yet? Think about your conversation with me just now. You act on whatever comes to mind without considering the consequences, and then come up with another new, unreliable idea after being dissuaded. Don't you think this kind of person looks familiar?"

Rice fell completely silent.

Hearga's remark made him realize that his behavior was indeed somewhat similar to that of Gryffindor.

"Admit it, Salazar, Godric has had a tremendous influence on you. This influence didn't disappear even after you left Hogwarts and slept for a thousand years. On the contrary, it became even more pronounced because your body has become younger." Helga revealed a good-natured smile and said something Salazar would never normally accept.

She had long suspected that Salazar's personality had changed considerably after his rejuvenation. She initially thought it was due to physical rejuvenation, but after today's events, she realized that after decades of being with Godric, Salazar's personality had been "infected" by Godric.

Previously, his original personality had suppressed it, so it wasn't very obvious. But after sleeping for a thousand years, the traces of the lion in his heart were finally exposed.

This is perfectly normal. Godric is that kind of man; he exerts a subtle influence on everyone around him, just like the sun shining brightly.

Fortunately, I stopped him; otherwise, who knows what terrible things this guy, whose personality had a hint of Godric but whose essence was still Salazar, would have done.

Salazar's actions could be extremely extreme in order to protect what he cherishes.

Without her, the magical world, the non-magical world, and even the entire world would be doomed! Because only she could control Salazar, this extremely dangerous wizard.

Rice: ...

After thinking about it for a moment.

Rice: !!!

"Helga, what nonsense are you talking about! I've just... just experienced a change in the hormones in my body. This can indeed change a person's personality. If you don't believe me, look in the book, it's there! This is the drawback of my method of immortality, haha..." Rice defended himself while rummaging through the remaining encyclopedias in his small leather pouch.

"Okay, it's a hormone issue." Although she didn't really understand what hormones were, Helga still said she completely believed Salazar. Indeed, she completely "believed" him.

It must be a coincidence that your first student possessed a field related to Godric's, right?

Seeing Helga's reaction, Rice intensified his search for the book. He was determined to find the encyclopedia about hormones and show Helga how wrong she was.

"Huh? So why are you reacting so strongly to the Muggles' satellites? Is it because you're afraid of them?" Helga had intended to provoke Salazar with these words and tease him, but to her surprise, Salazar's hand stopped moving.

After thinking it over carefully for a while and examining his own heart, Rice sighed.

"Although I hate to admit it, I am indeed a little afraid of them; their development speed is too fast."

Helga was stunned.

Am I still half asleep? Is this something Salazar Slytherin would say?

She believed her other old friends would be just as shocked as she was to hear Salazar's words.

"A hundred years ago, the skills used by Muggles were still within my comprehension, and the magical world was only slightly behind them. For example, the Hogwarts Express was the mode of transportation for Muggles at that time."

But just fifty years later, the world of Muggles had changed dramatically, and they had taken control of the sky, the earth, and the sea.

On land, they have cars and trains for transportation. Two places hundreds of miles apart can be reached in a day by train; they have advanced communication methods that allow them to talk across tens of thousands of kilometers; they can fly into the sky for long-distance travel, transportation, and even attacks; their performance at sea is equally impressive, with ships and submarines making the sea their domain.

If we look back another twenty years, their reach will have extended to the cosmic level.

Today, in just one hundred years, Muggle technology has advanced to a level that we cannot understand, and catching up with them has become almost impossible.

I dare not imagine what the world will be like if they develop for another hundred years.

Why do you think I'm afraid of Muggles? If you knew them as well as I do, you'd be afraid too.

Now it was Helga's turn to fall silent.

Salazar's words made her realize the terrifying nature of the Muggles. Their pace of development was astonishing. Salazar's reaction was more intense than hers because he understood Muggles better.

In this situation, his only thought was to destroy the Muggles' satellites so that Hogwarts could be better hidden, which was already extremely restrained.

If it were the old him, he probably would have already recklessly restarted his research from back then—those massive, sustainable spells that the three of them had blocked.

"Replacing the textbooks for Muggle studies is an urgent matter." Helga stopped dwelling on the topics of "being afraid of Muggles" and "you are like a Gryffindor" and began to think about solutions.

Now, she and Salazar face two very urgent matters: revising the textbooks for Muggle studies and updating the school's defensive magic.

"You're right." Rice's anger had completely dissipated, and even his attention had been successfully diverted by Helga. He no longer stared at the Muggle satellites, thinking about how to quietly destroy them.

Rice and Helga put the previous topic aside and began to seriously consider the two questions.

After a moment of contemplation, Rice had an idea.

"I think there are two main things to pay attention to if we want to stay hidden. First, we need to drive away any Muggles who wander into this area—we've done a very good job of that. Second, we need to prevent Muggles from observing us remotely."

Helga sat quietly opposite Rice, wanting to hear his thoughts.

In Helga's view, Salazar, who had read extensively, knew more about Muggles than she did, so he would be more professional than she was in how to better hide Hogwarts.

"Muggles have many ways to conduct remote observations, and satellites are just one of them. But I've summarized them, and they seem to be nothing more than light, heat, and sound."

Light, whether seen with the naked eye or through a telescope, is achieved through the aid of light.

The heat is detected using a special instrument. Helga, you see, the temperature of our bodies is very different from the temperature of a fireplace, and also from the ambient temperature. This difference is detected by machines developed by Muggles, which then determine where people are in the room and where there is a fire.

Sound can also be used to detect objects; Muggles call it sonar or radar, seemingly inspired by bats.

I believe that by addressing these three aspects, we can effectively conceal Hogwarts.

Helga blinked: she only understood a small part of what Salazar said. But it seemed that as long as a wizard awakened the abilities of sound, light, and heat, Hogwarts could be perfectly concealed?

Unfortunately, neither he nor Salazar's domains were closely related to these three aspects. Godric was connected to light and heat, but he had disappeared, and it was even uncertain whether he was still alive. Only Rowena seemed capable of playing a role in [sound].

"You're right, but we're not entirely without options." After hearing Helga's idea, Rice also shared his own.

"We can expand the range of the Muggle Expulsion Charm so that they leave before they can get close to Hogwarts. Then, Helga, you can think of a way to change the terrain around the school so that people walking in this area will unconsciously increase their physical exertion. This will discourage as many Muggles from wandering into the vicinity as possible. As for the gazes from the sky, I can create a large cloud over the school. The thick cloud will be enough to block the Muggles' detection methods."

Helga's eyebrows furrowed when she heard the second half of the sentence.

"So, does that mean there will never be sunlight over the school again?" Helga felt depressed at the thought that the sky above Hogwarts would always be gray in order to hide it.

With foggy and overcast skies every day, who can stand it?

Rice: ...

You're so fussy!

However, this does seem to be merely a stopgap measure.

"Should we create a super-large magic circle to envelop the school? Outside, Muggles will only be able to observe the magical illusions, while inside the magic circle, the weather will be normal?"

Helga's eyes lit up: This is a great idea!

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.

Update is here!

Wishing everyone good luck on the college entrance exam! When I was in school, the exam lasted two days. I wonder if you've finished yet?

(End of this chapter)