Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 418 The Dark Lord of the New Era and the Blood Domain

With two piles of minced meat as witnesses, Bagman readily settled the bet owed to Rice and the Weasley brothers.

With Rice present this time, Bagman naturally couldn't pull any more tricks. But he never stopped trying to persuade the three to invest the money in his betting scheme to earn more profits.

"You don't need to do anything, just wait for your dividends..."

Rice interrupted Bagman.

"I have no intention of participating in your investment. As for the two of them, it is their freedom to participate if they want to."

Rice knew perfectly well that Bagman was not related to him and that his true identity had not been revealed, so why would he be offered such a good deal of money?

Fred immediately replied, "Thank you for your kind offer, but we had no such intention."

He was a smart man; seeing that Rice wasn't interested at all, he simply gave up on the idea.

Bagman wanted to say something, but Rice glanced at him, and those dark eyes reminded him of the unfathomable Black Lake at Hogwarts.

He shuddered and shut his mouth.

By the time Bagman came to his senses, Rice had already led Fred and George into the shadows of the woods.

"His terms seem alright, actually? The profit split is quite reasonable..."

"Then why don't you go back to him? I promise I can get you right to him."

Rice's words left Fred speechless.

"Mr. Bagman seems to still owe the fairies money; those short-legged vampires were here to collect the debt," Rice continued.

"How could a bookmaker like him lose money?" George frowned, feeling confused and puzzled.

The dealer makes money by taking a cut, and even considering the variables of him, Fred, and Rice, Mr. Bagman should have a hard time losing money.

"Is it possible that he owed the fairies a large sum of money before he organized this betting game?" Rice felt that the fairies approaching Bagman had nothing to do with his betting game tonight.

"Doesn't that mean—"

"Has Mr. Bagman's funding chain completely collapsed?"

Fred and George immediately came to a conclusion. Thinking about it, they both broke out in a cold sweat: if they hadn't joined Rice in cornering Bagman tonight, they were destined to lose everything.

The attitude of those fairies has made it very clear that Bagman's current financial deficit is beyond his ability to fill.

Feeling lingering fear, the two returned to the camp with Rice.

"What are you guys doing?" Harry asked curiously.

"Check, please." Fred's face was beaming again. Opening a prank shop had been his and George's dream since childhood, and now was the closest they could get to realizing it.

The two groups present were acquaintances, and after chatting for a while, they simply gathered together for tea and a late-night snack—the skillful Mrs. Weasley had prepared a super lavish meal for her husband and children.

"So after this job, you'll have saved enough money?" Rice asked in a low voice.

Fred glanced at his father and saw him discussing the events of the evening with Bill and Charlie—Percy hadn't come to watch the World Cup final at all, supposedly on a top-secret mission for the ministry—Fred believed his brother must have gone to investigate the smuggling of the flying carpet.

Seeing that his father wasn't focusing on him, Fred quietly told Rice that he and George were actually a little short of funds to open a shop.

"If you want to open a shop in Diagon Alley, you need at least a thousand gallons, and no less than eight hundred, otherwise your cash flow will be in great danger. We obviously can't open a shop in Diagon Alley—Knockturn Alley is cheaper, but Mom will come and smash our shop to pieces when she finds out." Fred was giving Rice a serious business analysis.

The two placed a total of 42 Gallons, 15 Sickles, and 3 Nats with Bagman. Bagman promised them extremely high odds of 1 to 10, so they later received a substantial return of 428 Gallons.

But this amount of money was clearly not enough for the two to open a shop in Diagon Alley.

"However, the reappearance of the mysterious figure tonight may cause panic in the market, leading to a drop in Diagon Alley rents—"

"Stop dreaming," Fred rolled his eyes at George. "We can't pin our hopes on something like this. Besides, I've heard that the mysterious man was driven away by another mysterious person. I don't think there's anything to panic about."

After refuting George's fantasy, Fred added, "Then we thought of Hogsmeade Village, which is obviously a good option, but the rent there isn't cheap..."

"How much of your budget are you short?" Astoria, sitting next to Rice, interjected.

"If we're talking about opening a shop in Hogsmeade, it'll cost at least seven hundred Galleons—"

"I'll pay for it. Four hundred Galleons, and I only need 30% of the shares," Astoria stated her terms.

Fred's heart suddenly started racing: the beautiful and wealthy girl had made her move!

Astoria's terms were fair. Although she contributed nearly half the money, it was reasonable for her to take only 30% of the shares since she was not involved in the operation and the merchandise in the joke shop was all Fred and George's idea.

With Astoria's investment, Fred and George could even open a shop now. He had originally planned to save money with George at school for two years—their prank products were quite popular at Hogwarts, and saving up a hundred Galleons by graduation shouldn't be a problem.

Fred was immediately smitten.

He didn't really want to continue studying at Hogwarts. He and George had already earned their OWLs certificates, so not taking the NEWTs exam wouldn't be a big problem.

"Okay, it's a deal!" Fred and Astoria reached a verbal agreement.

"Where are you planning to open your shop? Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade Village?" Daphne joined in the interesting conversation.

Fred hesitated. Originally, he lacked funds and could only find a way out in Hogsmeade. But now, with Astoria's investment, he could consider opening a shop in Diagon Alley.

Compared to Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley has higher rental costs, but significantly higher foot traffic...

"I have an idea." George turned to the side and whispered something in Fred's ear, which made Fred's eyes light up: George's idea was really good!

"Let's open it in Hogsmeade," Fred decided.

Astoria didn't care; she had no intention of interfering with the operation of the joke shop anyway.

"I'll put up 200, and you can give me 15% of your 30% stake~" Daphne also wanted to invest, so she started to target her younger sister.

"Sure." Astoria naturally had no objections.

A group of people gathered around the campfire and chatted until late at night.

There were quite a few people queuing at the campsite, hoping to get a door key and go home as soon as possible, but Rice and his friends, as well as the Weasleys, weren't in a hurry. They planned to camp here with their friends for a while.

The next morning, Sirius moved his tent over, right next to the Weasleys' tent. Cedric and Hermione also decided to stay there, and the group camped together in a lively atmosphere.

"Look, this is how you use a match."

Early in the morning, Hermione was patiently teaching Mr. Weasley how to use matches, while Sirius, who had just set up the tent, stood to the side, yawning.

"Mr. Black, would you like to learn how to strike a match?" Hermione turned to Black and asked if he wanted to learn something new.

Sirius laughed as if he had heard something very funny.

He didn't take the matches from Hermione, but instead pulled a box of antique-style matches from his pocket. Holding the box in one hand, he bent a match with his thumb, pressed it against the box, and with a flourish, lit it. [Note]

Although it was flashy and not very practical, it was a million times cooler than the way ordinary matches were lit, and Mr. Weasley, sitting in front of the fire, was stunned.

"One-handed matches are popular with Muggle gangsters because you can light one with just one hand, leaving the other free to hold a weapon." Sirius winked at Hermione. "Also, just call me Sirius. Mr. Black makes me feel like I'm sixty years old."

Hermione raised her eyebrows.

"Sirius has been playing with all sorts of Muggle items since his school days," Harry explained to Hermione.

Sirius even had a Muggle girl poster on his bedroom wall, which Harry found astonishing. To put something like that up in a family that believed in pure-blood ideology and wizarding supremacy—Sirius was really something.

Mr. Weasley took the matchstick from Sirius with great anticipation, and sure enough, burned himself and cried out in pain.

While the others were playing with matches, an owl landed in front of Rice and offered him a copy of today's Daily Prophet.

Rice eagerly took the newspaper from the owl's beak and unfolded it impatiently. But when he saw the headline, he froze.

The Demon King's throne changes hands! A mysterious figure returns only to be brutally beaten and flees in disarray.

Rice rubbed his eyes, glanced at the headline in the newspaper again, and then made sure he wasn't seeing things.

The second half of the sentence is a statement of fact, which I can accept, but what does the first part about the Demon King's throne changing hands mean?!

I am a wizard, not some dark wizard!

To be honest, Rice didn't feel happy about having that title pinned on her; she only felt insulted.

Daphne and Astoria sidled up, and after glancing at the headline in the newspaper, they couldn't hold back any longer.

"Rice, you mentioned yesterday that you were trying to save Slytherin's reputation? How did you do it? Did you steal the title of Dark Lord from Voldemort?" Daphne asked Rice, her face flushed as she suppressed a laugh.

Rice felt his blood surging in his chest and his head buzzing.

Astoria, barely suppressing a laugh, took the newspaper from Rice's hand.

Unlike Rice and her sister, she took a serious look at the contents of the newspaper report.

The account was largely accurate, but what was surprising was that the reporter seemed quite courageous, actually going to the top-floor VIP box of the stadium and filming the battle that night.

The scene of more than ten Death Eaters exploding at Rice's single action was captured by a reporter and repeatedly played in the newspaper as a GIF. Upon seeing this scene, Astoria felt a stirring in her heart, and she vaguely sensed something.

She was actually there that night, and her angle was much better than the reporter's.

Astoria began to carefully recall the scene she had witnessed. As she recalled it, she felt her heartbeat growing louder and louder, as if her blood was constantly pounding in her eardrums. She could even hear the sound of her blood rushing.

Astoria tossed the newspaper onto the table and tiptoed back to her tent. She lay down on her bed, closed her eyes, and entered a state of selflessness, her mind filled only with the rushing blood in her veins.

Rice and Daphne did not notice Astoria's unusual behavior.

"This is going a bit too far," Rice said, dissatisfied. "How did I become the new Dark Lord in the eyes of these reporters?"

Daphne hesitated for two seconds, then told Rice that even Voldemort had no record of killing so many wizards in one go.

If you want to find a historical example, you have to go back several decades to the time of Grindelwald, when the Dark Lord killed more than ten Aurors of the Ministry of Magic in one go.

Rice: ...

"But they're Secret Order monks... Well, you're right." Rice was now thankful that he had been calm enough not to leave any identification. Otherwise, his peaceful life would have been impossible to continue.

He then discovered an even more regrettable fact: Slytherin's reputation seemed to have been further entangled with dark magic and dark wizards because of his actions.

"It shouldn't be that bad, right?" Daphne didn't seem to care much after hearing Rice's worries: "You were already tightly bound by Voldemort, so your actions didn't reinforce the stereotype."

Rice: ...

"Hey? Rice, did you receive today's Daily Prophet?" Hermione remembered what Rice had said last night, so she temporarily shifted her attention from the matches and asked Rice if the newspaper had arrived.

"No." Rice didn't hesitate at all, lit the newspaper in his hand, and casually stuffed it into the stove next to him.

"Alright." Hermione didn't see Rice's little trick. She shrugged and went back to dealing with Mr. Weasley.

"The road to restoring the academy's reputation is long and arduous..." Rice sighed.

It was only then that he realized something was wrong: Where had Astoria gone?

Rice looked around and then smelled a faint scent of blood near their tent.

"Hmm?" Rice's expression shifted, and she strode into the tent, only to find Astoria lying on her bed, covered in blood.

Rice was overjoyed: he was familiar with this scene, and Astoria had also explored the edge of the field!

He immediately turned around and saw Daphne fiddling with the fire preparing breakfast. Rice made a snap decision and immediately closed the tent entrance, sealing the place off.

When one awakens to the realm of enlightenment, no interference is permitted.

---

Update delivered, goodnight everyone~

Note: This is what the matches Sirius Black used to show off looked like—

The advantage is that it can be lit with one hand, which looks cool; the disadvantage is that it's easy to burn your hand, and the matches themselves are quite soft.

(End of this chapter)