Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 386 Rice: There's no need to save a piece of trash.

Comparable to Asgard...

Helga voiced her dissenting opinion. As a wizard who had witnessed firsthand the entrance magic circle to Asgard and fought Baal, the god of light who guarded it, she felt that while Hogwarts's invisibility magic circle was top-notch, it still fell short of Asgard's.

At least one god-level gatekeeper is missing here.

However, seeing Salazar covered in sweat, she decided to keep those words to herself so as not to dampen her old friend's enthusiasm.

"Helgar, if you choose to guard the gates of Hogwarts, you'll be more powerful than any magic circle in Asgard."

Helga: ...

"Thank you so much!" she managed to squeeze out through gritted teeth.

"You're welcome, it's my pleasure." Rice waved his hand, gathering all the sweat from his work and casually tossing it away.

"But setting up such a large magic circle is quite a hassle... You should ask the Ministry of Magic in the future if they have any intention of adding new concealment spells." Rice's brows furrowed as he said this. He suddenly realized that just as there are more wizarding communities in Britain than Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, there is more than one magic school in the world than Hogwarts.

There are seven schools that can be considered comparable to Hogwarts.

"There are still many magic schools left..." Rice pondered for a moment, then decided to let them fend for themselves.

Building a protective magic circle for the school would be a thankless and arduous task. Aside from Hogwarts, which magic school they themselves founded, which one would want them to know its exact location? They wouldn't even reveal their location to outsiders, let alone tamper with their learning magic circle.

Moreover, even if you build it for them, they might not appreciate it and will expect you to provide them with a lifetime warranty or something. Even after they pass away, they might still cling to Hogwarts.

When Rice thought of this, he gave up the idea of ​​helping other schools build magic circles—if other magic schools were willing to spend a lot of money in the future, he would write a guide for them and let them do it themselves.

"Let's go back to school. We can deal with the perimeter tomorrow," Rice said to Helga.

"Hmm." Helga nodded, took two steps forward, and stretched out her hand into the air, only to be stopped by something.

"Very good, the railings are completely invisible." She praised Salazar's magic.

"That's right, don't you see who did it?" Rice's face was full of pride.

The two chatted as they passed through the illusion.

The moment the two crossed the barrier, Hogwarts Castle appeared before their eyes.

Rice first cast an illusion spell on himself, and then he and Helga crossed the meadow back to the castle.

When they returned to the castle, it was dinnertime. After Rhys materialized, he went straight to the long table in Slytherin and sat down next to Daphne.

"Rice? Where have you been? The sun seemed to flash for a moment just now." Daphne was delighted to see Rice, and then immediately told him about the "big event" that happened at sunset.

"It's related to the sun just now." Rice didn't rush to answer Daphne's question. Instead, he first scooped a portion of Caen stewed tripe from the plate in front of him, then took a few slices of garlic-roasted mini baguette. Finally, he picked up a large piece of succulent, juicy smoked beef brisket.

It must be said that after Helga returned to Hogwarts, the food served in the school cafeteria became increasingly sophisticated—the proportion of British cuisine in the main courses decreased rapidly, while the proportion of French cuisine increased, significantly improving the quality of the school's food.

"Tell me what happened!" Daphne's curiosity was immediately piqued, and Astoria put down her knife and fork and sat quietly to the side to listen.

However, the other students seemed oblivious, as Rice's anti-eavesdropping spell was in effect.

Anyone who tried to eavesdrop on his conversation with the Greengrass sisters would only hear a buzzing noise. The spell was so effective at keeping secrets that it allowed them to discuss confidential matters even in public.

"Professor White and I added a 'sleight of hand' to the school, which I call the 'magic tent'." Rice explained the effects of the magic tent to the two girls, who were dumbfounded.

"But why go through all that trouble? Hasn't the school already cast a powerful enough Muggle exorcism spell?" Daphne couldn't help but ask, not understanding why Rice and Professor White would do this.

"Is the threat from Muggles stronger?" Astoria thought for a moment and came up with a reason she wasn't entirely sure about.

"That's how it is." While finishing the food on her plate, Rice explained to the two sisters the technologies that Muggles have been developing in recent years.

Satellites capable of seeing the ground from hundreds of miles away, networks that can communicate across tens of thousands of miles, and various transportation devices capable of conquering the sky, land, and sea...

If these messages hadn't come from Rice, Daphne and Astoria would have assumed they were excerpts from "The Quibbler."

"How have the Muggles made such great progress?"

"What should we do if this continues?"

Faced with their questions, Rice simply shook his head. He didn't know what the magical world should do either. If he had awakened a century earlier, perhaps there would have been a solution. Now, he even had to carefully consider revealing the true situation to the outside world. Given the enormous disparity, he worried that some wizards might suffer mental breakdowns.

However, judging from Daphne and Astoria's reactions, they didn't seem to have developed the emotions they were most worried about.

You can be afraid, you can worry, you can question, you can even be jealous and angry, but you cannot surrender, you cannot collapse and give up. This is the bottom line that Rice has set for modern wizards.

If the entire wizarding world were to completely collapse and give up after learning of the technological advancements made by Muggles, then Rice would not hesitate to take the wizards he respected and retire into seclusion—even though he possessed the power to cause mutual destruction, these scoundrels were not worth saving.

"What do you think we should do?" Rice threw the question back at him verbatim.

He was eager to hear what Daphne and Astoria had to say.

The two began to think about it seriously, while Rice took the opportunity to finish off the beef brisket on his plate.

After finishing a whole piece of beef and three slices of garlic butter bread, Daphne gave her answer.

"I feel it's worth trying to reach out to Muggles and see how they feel about the wizarding world—starting with the Muggle nobility, I think that would be more effective. To be honest, the stories of Muggles persecuting wizards in the storybooks go back hundreds of years, and modern Muggles might not be persecuting us anymore."

Daphne was optimistic. She thought she could try communicating with the Muggles and maybe they would accept her. Besides, they had so many classmates from Muggle families. Was the relationship between the two sides really irreconcilable?

After listening to Daphne's idea, Rice glanced at her but did not offer any opinion.

"Professor Rice and Professor White did the right thing. For now, we should uphold the secrecy law and hide so they don't find us. Then I have a very important question: if wizards and Muggles really go to war, who will win? We've seen the pinnacle of magic before, and even Muggles would be wary of spells of that power, right?" Astoria asked another question after speaking for a while.

"It's very complex, depending on how you define victory, but I can only guarantee that wizards are not without a chance to fight back. A full-scale war is almost impossible, but I believe that if that day ever comes, victory will belong to the wizards." As his understanding of the international situation deepened, Rice felt that the so-called war between the magical and non-magical worlds was actually nonexistent.

The magical world is not a monolithic entity, and neither is the non-magical world.

The possibility of non-magical communities uniting to attack the magical world is practically zero, because it's a game of strategy. Wizards are a strategic force, especially when other countries don't have them. Any government with a sound mind and leaders with average intelligence should understand that their own country's magical community is actually in a cooperative relationship with them—if they didn't have wizards protecting them, who would defend them against the Imperius Curse from enemy wizards?

Therefore, once the wizarding world is exposed, it may not trigger a war, but it will lead to a loss of independence. They will find it difficult to live as freely as they do now. Muggles will likely try to control them and infiltrate their ranks. The conflict between purebloods, half-bloods, and Muggles will likely become even more acute.

"Is that so…" Astoria blinked, a thoughtful glint in her eyes. "Then we can indeed deal with them and see how the Muggle leaders react."

"If all else fails, if they insist on destroying us..." A fierce glint appeared in Astoria's eyes: "Then we'll kill those leaders first, and then replace them with people who are friendly to us. If necessary, we can use the Killing Curse and the Imperius Curse."

Rice looked at Astoria with admiration, thinking the girl's strategy was brilliant.

"That's right, and we can go even further and go directly into their government to nip the possibility of the magical world being exposed at the source," Rice casually recounted his idea.

Completely adhering to the Secrets Act would be utterly foolish. The wizarding world should keep it a secret from most Muggles, allowing only a very small number of key Muggles to know.

"Alright, let's hurry up and eat. If we don't start now, there will only be dessert left." Rice removed the anti-eavesdropping spell and gestured for Daphne and Astoria to hurry up and eat.

After dinner, he sent a letter to Mr. Henry and began tinkering with a magical gadget he had designed based on inspiration drawn from Muggles.

"Muggles believe that sound is transmitted in the form of waves, and waves cause vibrations, so sound can be transmitted by conducting or replicating vibrations." Rice plans to use this to create a remote communication device specifically for wizards.

Henry Greengrass also received a letter from him while Rice was designing the Magic Phone.

Henry dared not neglect the letter from that lord and prepared to deal with it as soon as possible.

So, he went to the Minister of Magic's office early the next morning.

"Mr. Greengrass, what brings you here?" Burns was somewhat surprised by Henry's arrival, because the guy had been quite busy lately, attending meetings everywhere, working tirelessly on the Quidditch World Cup final and subsequent matches.

"There's something I'm curious about." Henry didn't beat around the bush and went straight to the point: "Secretary Burns, do you communicate and maintain contact with the Muggle ministers?"

Bones frowned, then his eyes widened suddenly.

"Oh no, I forgot about that! But it probably doesn't matter, right? We only contact you if something really serious happens here—"

"So you really maintained contact with Muggles?!" Mr. Henry asked in astonishment.

Borns: ...

After a moment of silence, she glanced at the office door to make sure it was tightly closed before revealing the truth to Mr. Henry.

The Ministry of Magic has a tradition of contacting the Muggle Prime Minister.

When major turmoil occurs in the wizarding world that may affect Muggles, the Minister of Magic will go to 10 Downing Street to communicate with the Muggle Prime Minister and cooperate with them.

Most recently, former minister Fudge went to inform Prime Minister Sirius Black that he had escaped from prison and, with the Prime Minister's help, issued an arrest warrant among Muggles.

Henry: ? ? ?

"For Sirius, Fudge even contacted Muggles?! I mean, is it really necessary to tell Muggles about this? Or rather, is it really necessary to let Muggles know we exist? And what's the point of issuing a warrant in the non-magical world?" Henry felt his head buzzing.

Fudge is beyond words; allowing someone like him to remain Minister of Magic for so long is a dereliction of duty on everyone's part.

Clearly, Burns also found Fudge's actions difficult to accept. So even after becoming Minister for Magic, she didn't activate the top-secret passage to contact the Prime Minister. After all, nothing major had happened in the wizarding world, right?

"So every Muggle prime minister knew about the existence of the wizarding world?" Henry felt suffocated just saying this.

He thought he was already incredibly audacious by sending a Squib relative to manage the family's vineyard. But the Ministry of Magic's direct contact with the Muggle Prime Minister was a blatant disregard for secrecy laws—and that was the Prime Minister!

"Not every one of them..." Borns replied guiltily.

In Muggles, there haven't been as many prime ministers lately. The current prime minister has been in office for four years, and the previous female prime minister served for eleven years. Burns isn't very clear about those before that.

Fortunately, the prime ministers have remained silent about the existence of the magical world, both during their terms of office and after they have left office.

"Resign?" Henry felt his blood pressure soaring.

"Oh!" Borns realized, "After the prime ministers step down, we will erase their memories and make them forget the existence of the magical world."

This is finally good news; the Ministry of Magic has been reliable for once.

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 delivered, goodnight everyone~

I'll try to schedule the next update for tomorrow morning.

(End of this chapter)