Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 408 The Highest-Ranking Person in the Secret Society

Astoria instinctively wanted to stop George. Even in Slytherin, she had heard of the twins' "bad reputation": good-for-nothing, idle, and fond of pranks and tricks.

What they handed her was absolutely suspicious—if there was nothing wrong with it, Astoria would bet ten of her sisters that the candy Fred handed her was definitely problematic.

But Astoria thought again, who was Rice? Trying to trick him with such a small trick was simply wishful thinking.

So she shut her mouth and stood silently to observe how things were going.

Fred glanced quickly at the two little witches standing to the side and noticed that while Daphne seemed uninterested in them, Astoria was staring at them intently, clearly showing great interest in their prank candy.

This is a good sign.

If they could gain the approval of the Greengrass sisters, their prank products could penetrate Slytherin House and tap into this unprecedented blue ocean market.

Fred and George didn't particularly like Slytherin students, but they had no aversion to the Galleons in the pockets of Slytherin students—two stacks of Galleons, who could tell which pile belonged to the righteous Gryffindors and which to the evil Slytherin?

Galleon treats everyone equally!

Rice tore open the toffee wrapper and popped the candy directly into her mouth.

"Hmm, not bad, the flavor is very rich—" Rice nodded repeatedly, then his words suddenly stopped. His tongue began to grow rapidly, breaking through his lips and rushing out within seconds.

Astoria: ? ? ?

How could Rice fall for such a simple trick? Did he have some deeper meaning in doing this?

Astoria's brain began to work rapidly, trying to uncover the true meaning behind Rice's behavior.

However, without any real intention, Rice simply swallowed the problematic candy without hesitation. He wanted to see what effect the candy, enchanted by the twins, would have, and he even allowed that small amount of magic to take effect on his body.

Now he knows what effect Fred's toffee had.

The feeling of the tongue elongating is quite interesting.

Rice slightly manipulated her magic to stop the tongue from growing, reducing it to only three times its normal size, just enough to extend a short distance from her lips.

Then he raised his hand and gently stroked the tip of his tongue, and his tongue transformed into the shape of a snake's tongue, long and forked at the end.

Fred's breath caught in his throat when he saw Rice's tongue suddenly stop growing. By design, the Fat Tongue Toffee was meant to make the user's tongue grow almost indefinitely; even the Weasley twins didn't know the maximum length—their own internal tests showed it was three feet, but there was still room for it to grow longer.

At this point, Rice's tongue stopped growing after reaching a foot in length. Is something wrong?

Just as Fred was about to approach and resolve the issue, Rice's actions froze him in place.

Daphne, who had just been focused on breakfast, looked up and was immediately drawn to Rice's new look.

"Rice, your tongue is exactly like a snake's!" she exclaimed in surprise.

"Right?" Rice also found it extremely amusing, even flicking his tongue like a snake. The candy Fred and George came up with was really quite interesting.

Fred and George fell silent together.

These Slytherins really know how to play tricks!

The two couldn't help but sigh.

"Fat Tongue Toffee, which can make your tongue stretch infinitely—Rice, how did you do that?" Fred introduced Rice to their new product, and then couldn't help but ask another question.

"It's just a simple little spell, nothing particularly profound."

Fred wouldn't believe a word Rice said.

"Do you have anything else good?" Rice asked, retracting his tongue after he'd had his fill of playing with it. He wanted to see what other surprises Fred and George could bring him.

"Of course, we still have plenty of amazing stuff!" The two rummaged through their pockets and pulled out a number of strange little gadgets, such as a fake magic wand that would squeal and turn into a rubber animal when touched, chewing gum that could make people roar like a lion, and nougat that would make your nose bleed uncontrollably if you ate it.

"If Mom hadn't searched us before we left, we could have gotten even more fun prank toys," Fred and George lamented regretfully.

They had originally hoped to make a fortune by selling small commodities during the World Cup finals.

"Knowing how important it is to use the Seamless Expansion Spell," Rice replied with a smile.

Mr. Arthur, who was not far away, immediately put down the match in his hand and solemnly instructed the children that the use of the Unmarked Expansion Charm must be reported to the Ministry of Magic, otherwise it would be a violation.

"Yes!" Fred and George answered loudly.

While Arthur continued studying how to start a fire with matches, the two of them lowered their voices and winked at Rice, saying, "But it's only illegal if you get caught, isn't it?"

Rice nodded with a smile.

In his view, many laws actually set a price for certain improper behaviors.

For example, the fine for stepping on the grass is one gallon, which means that as long as you are willing to pay one gallon, you can walk around on the grass.

However, he wouldn't say that out loud, otherwise Slytherin's reputation would be ruined again.

"Name your price, I'll buy all of these." Rice was very satisfied with Fred and his friends' prank products and planned to buy them for Rowena, Helga, and the others to play with.

The two parties reached a deal very smoothly.

"We could consider doing more innovation. For example, with that Lion's Roar chewing gum, you could develop different animal sounds for different colleges, like badger, eagle, snake, etc. You could also make some animal sounds, like lynx, snow leopard, fire dragon, etc."

Fred and George nodded repeatedly.

Although I failed to impress the Greengrass sisters today, it's good that I piqued Rice's interest.

After completing the transaction, the two returned to their family camp to help their father light the fire.

"Pretty interesting little gadget, isn't it?" Rice casually tossed the fake wand to Astoria, and the fake wand turned into a moving snake in the girl's hand, startling her.

Next up is breakfast time.

While the group was having their meal, several important figures from the Ministry of Magic passed by from time to time. Almost everyone would come up to Daphne and Astoria, chat with them for a few words, and then leave.

Ludo Bagman, the director of the Department of Magical Sports, wanted to get Daphne and Astoria into his betting pool, but under Rice's watchful eye, both of them simply placed a Galon bet on Ireland to win.

"Kid, do you have a team you want to support?" Bagman was somewhat disappointed to see that the Greengrass sisters were only willing to bet on one Galon. After quickly registering their choices, he turned his gaze to Rice, who had been standing by and watching.

"Let me do a divination," Rice thought to herself, deciding to try her divination skills.

"Oh?" Ludo became interested, but just then Fred and George came over and pulled him aside.

Rice knew his tea divination skills were extremely poor, so he divided the divination content into several parts.

He first consulted the oracle about his luck for the day and found that he seemed to be doing quite well, perhaps even gaining something unexpected during the crisis. Then he consulted the oracle about the condition of the two teams and found that they were evenly matched.

Rice thought for a moment and roughly understood. Just then, he heard Fred's voice—

"Ireland wins—but Viktor Krum will catch the Golden Snitch."

An interesting and very bold way to place bets.

Bagman was also taken aback by Fred's betting method. Before he could react, the boy named Rice came over and said that he had decided to place the same bet as Fred and the others, except that he would only bet one Galleon.

"Fine." Bagman shrugged, thinking that since they were willing to spend money like this, he had no reason to stop them, but he verbally promised to give them a very high odds.

Once Ludo had written the three names down on the parchment, the betting was complete.

Watching Fred hand over his newly earned money, plus all their savings, to Bagman, Astoria couldn't help but ask after Bagman left, "This is all your savings. Is it really a good idea to gamble it away on such a high-risk game?"

"How can you make more money without taking some risks?" Fred uttered a very Gryffindor-esque statement.

Astoria struggled to suppress the urge to roll her eyes. In her view, it was a waste of money.

Perhaps guessing what the little witch was thinking, Fred took the initiative to explain.

"We've made this decision after careful consideration. Krum is a rare talent, and his chances of catching the Golden Snitch are extremely high. However, the Bulgarian team is far weaker than the Irish team. Without Krum, they have virtually no chance of winning. Therefore, we believe that the Irish team also has a high probability of gaining an overwhelming advantage. Combining the two factors, Ireland will win, but Krum will be able to catch the Snitch."

"We don't have as high a chance of losing as it seems. On the contrary, I think I have at least a 50% chance of winning." Fred shrugged, indicating that although they were very bold, they were not mindless brutes.

Astoria: ...

She wanted to argue, but then she felt that Fred's words made a lot of sense, and she didn't know what to say.

As the afternoon passed, the entire camp was gradually enveloped in excitement. When night fell, everyone dropped their pretense, and all sorts of magical traces sprang up like mushrooms after rain, with the "Law of Secrecy" completely forgotten.

On the way to the stadium, every few steps, vendors would appear out of nowhere, carrying trays and pushing carts, selling trinkets to tourists: glowing rose-shaped badges; miniature flying crossbow bolts; miniature player statues that seemed to walk in the palm of your hand...

The Galleons of Rice vanished like water, replaced by all sorts of small commodities. Daphne and Astoria were astonished and couldn't help but buy quite a few more things.

When they arrived outside the competition venue, all three of their small backpacks were filled with all sorts of trinkets.

"Come on, our seats are on the top floor, the best box." Daphne took out her tickets and quickly headed upstairs with her sister and Rice.

Many important figures also flocked to the top-tier boxes, which Rice observed with a detached eye: there were the British Minister of Magic, Burns, and the Bulgarian Minister of Magic, the Malfoy family, and Henry was also there. The Weasley family and Harry seemed somewhat out of place. Their presence was rather unexpected.

The match started quickly.

……

Voldemort stood in the woods, coldly gazing at the half of the sky illuminated by the lights of the Quidditch Grand Final.

Aries stood behind him, head bowed and silent. Beside her, Taurus, who had disappeared during the resurrection ritual, reappeared, his face extremely pale, devoid of any color.

According to him, he used Apparition to leave the cave that night when he saw that things were not going well, but he was still seriously injured and only recovered a few days ago.

Aries verbally said she believed him, but inwardly she was in turmoil: she knew Taurus was lying because they had cast an anti-Apparition spell on the cave, making it impossible to teleport away.

But she dared not expose Taurus in front of Voldemort. Her intuition told her that there was something seriously wrong with Taurus, and that Voldemort harbored ill intentions towards her. Every time he looked at her, there was an undisguised greed in his eyes, like a snake looking at a mouse, which made her very uncomfortable.

Taurus's suspicious behavior goes beyond just lying; he also disobeyed orders, allowing Voldemort to operate independently for a period of time. This is a very serious dereliction of duty, and if the organization finds out, he could lose his "Taurus" title.

All of this heightened Aries's vigilance, making these past few days extremely agonizing for her.

Fortunately, all of this is about to end, because the highest-ranking member of the Secret Order is meeting Voldemort tonight. I can take this opportunity to apply for a transfer and then report the problem to the organization.

Just then, a voice rang out behind the three of them—

"We've finally met, Mr. Voldemort."

The three of them turned their heads in unison. Taurus's eyes remained expressionless, while Voldemort's face was filled with disbelief—he hadn't sensed that person's presence at all before they spoke. A glimmer of hope appeared in Aries's eyes: That voice...it's that person!

She turned her head and saw a tall man wearing a long robe, whose face was covered by a hood and a cow bone mask.

Sure enough, the highest-ranking and most mysterious figure in the secret society, Polaris, arrived.

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~

(End of this chapter)