Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 466 Dance Partner Competition

Rowena took a deep breath and closed her eyes.

In fact, when Sarah came to his door, she suspected that he was there for the Christmas ball, and she did indeed play a role in pushing him to the edge.

It was her persuasion that convinced Dumbledore to follow the tradition of the Triwizard Tournament, holding a ball at Christmas and having the contestants who had passed the first stage lead the dance.

Her goal, of course, was to see Salazar go up and dance. Little did she know, she would end up getting herself into trouble.

Rowena was unwilling to give up and continued to struggle.

"I'm not really good at dancing either. Why don't you go find your two students? They're from the Greengrass family, they're sure to be good at singing and dancing."

Rice gave Rowena a strange look.

"Don't you think there's a contradiction between the Greengrass family and the phrase 'singing and dancing'?" He couldn't help but retort to Rowena.

Four years have passed, and he hasn't seen any artistic talent in his two students. Daphne, in particular, seems like a promising candidate for swordsmanship.

Rowena gave an awkward smile.

"Royna, be my dance partner. With your intelligence, you should understand that when Dumbledore decided to let the contestants lead the dance, you had no other choice," Rice said in a chilling tone.

He'd figured it out; he might as well take Rowena down with him!

Want to make me uncomfortable? Then you can't stay out of it!

Rowena sighed: she had shot herself in the foot.

She had now realized that Salazar must have sensed something and was therefore approaching her with the intention of trading one for another. As for why he didn't approach Helga, it was because he didn't have any leverage over Helga, and Helga wasn't necessarily obligated to cooperate with him.

I felt like an eagle hunting a venomous snake, only to be bitten in mid-air and die from the poison, while the snake also died from falling from the sky.

"Alright, whatever you say." Rowena knew she had no other choice but to agree.

Rice left Rowena's office satisfied, while Rowena, with a bitter face, took the antidote Rice had concocted to Dumbledore's office to prepare for the next phase of the match.

Dumbledore was somewhat surprised when the door was pushed open again.

He initially thought it was Professor White who needed more Phoenix Blood, and just as he was about to advise her to let Fox take it easy, he discovered that the person who walked in was Professor Arius.

"You're here too? Is there something you need? Let's get this straight, Fawkes can't have his blood drawn for a while." Dumbledore first invited Professor Arius to sit down, then told her with a smile that if it was for the phoenix's blood, she could go back.

"I don't need the phoenix's blood for now; I'm here for this." Rowena placed the box full of the antidote on Dumbledore's office.

"For the next stage of the competition, I hope the contestants can bring these antidote potions with them before entering the alchemy world. However, these potions cannot be given to them directly; they must pass a test first."

"Alright, I'll contact Henry and have him make the arrangements." After accepting the box, Dumbledore asked Rowena a question: "Did something happen inside?"

Rowena didn't respond, but Dumbledore had already seen through everything from her attitude.

"I suppose that person went in to clean up the mess?" Dumbledore thought.

After that day, Dumbledore had a question in his mind: why did he get involved in this children's game?

Putting himself in their shoes, Dumbledore felt he had no interest in getting involved. They weren't stupid, nor were they the type to act impulsively or recklessly. Therefore, there must be a deeper meaning behind this action.

Professor Arias's attitude today proves that his prediction was accurate.

"I've delivered the medicine; I'll head back now." After handing the medicine over to Dumbledore, Rowena prepared to leave.

As if suddenly remembering something, Dumbledore posed another question: Why do you and Professor White both need the blood of the phoenix?

Rowena stopped, her face beaming with the joy of a bountiful harvest, and shared their latest research findings with Dumbledore.

A glint of light flashed in Dumbledore's eyes.

He sat up straight and asked seriously, "No species restrictions? Any magical creature, just by pouring its blood on it, can reap a fruit with the ability to transform?!"

Rowena nodded.

Dumbledore couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

He keenly perceived the immense significance of this fruit to the magical world. To put it bluntly, this fruit could greatly enhance a wizard's combat abilities.

Professor Arius only mentioned the phoenix and the dragon, but Dumbledore knew very well that there were far more powerful magical creatures than just these two.

The gigantic, ferocious eight-eyed giant spider; the venomous leopard whose breath could destroy a village and required hundreds of wizards to subdue; the basilisk monster whose gaze could kill instantly; the bloodthirsty and powerful chimera beast; the human-headed, lion-bodied, scorpion-tailed beast...

If a wizard were to transform into one of these magical creatures, Dumbledore had no doubt that they would gain immense power.

Fortunately, the blood of these magical creatures is extremely difficult to obtain. However, the unfortunate part is that, according to Professor Arias, successfully consuming the fruit requires a high compatibility with these magical creatures.

A wizard who can have a high degree of compatibility with magical creatures like the Chimera and the Sphinx is probably not a good person.

A sense of anxiety rose in Dumbledore's heart, but when he saw Professor Arius's calm eyes, he immediately calmed down.

"A great invention, a brilliant idea." Dumbledore praised it lavishly, but at the same time, he subtly pointed out that this kind of magic should be more strictly controlled to prevent it from falling into the hands of malicious and inherently evil people.

'Salazar has already been used,' Rowena thought to herself.

Although he was inwardly complaining, he repeatedly agreed, saying that there was absolutely no problem.

After Professor Arias left, Dumbledore closed his eyes and fell into deep thought.

Meanwhile, Helga was writing a letter. Beside her lay a copy of *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*, clearly having just gained considerable inspiration from it.

She felt that several magical creatures were compatible with her or were very powerful, and she planned to try them out one by one. However, the blood of these magical creatures was not easy to obtain, and she was using her connections to search for it.

In terms of connections, Helga, who sells automated combat dolls all over the world, has the best network, even surpassing Rice by a few points. Buying some magical beast blood wouldn't be difficult for her at all.

After writing and sending out dozens of letters, Helga relaxed.

Next, all you have to do is wait for a reply.

……

Rice walked along the castle corridor, enjoying the rich Christmas atmosphere, his face beaming with contentment.

He's been exhausted these past few days.

The repeated time rewinds and intense research had kept all three of them in a state of high tension. Now that things had come to an end, they could finally "let their hair down and relax," as Professor McGonagall had described.

However, after taking only a few steps, Rice remembered something: the doll was still operating in his name, and he had to stop it as soon as possible.

Following the new instructions from Rice, the doll began to move towards the rarely visited corners of the castle.

In an abandoned classroom, Rice finally saw the doll he had been waiting for, but to his surprise, the doll had two little tails following behind it.

"Rice, you've finally appeared!" Upon seeing Rice's true form, Daphne and Astoria both breathed a sigh of relief, then tensed up again.

Both of them understood that the "final moment" had arrived.

"I was busy with some things and have been out for a while, but I finally have some time now." Faced with the sudden appearance of the Greengrass sisters, Rice began to search his mind for a reasonable excuse to explain why he had been missing for more than half a month.

After thinking it over, he felt he could tell the truth. Whether it was the antidote or the transformation fruit, these were things the two of them could know.

However, to Rice's surprise, Daphne and Astoria didn't care at all where Rice had gone before, and the two asked the same question in unison.

"Rice, may I be your dance partner at the Christmas ball?"

After asking the questions, the two looked at each other, and the air seemed to thicken with tension.

Rice blinked: Why haven't they found dance partners yet? No way...

He couldn't help but smack his lips.

"I've already found a dance partner, I'm really sorry," Rice said apologetically.

Hearing this answer, Daphne and Astoria were both a little disappointed, but at the same time they both breathed a sigh of relief.

"May I know who your dance partner is?" Daphne asked again, still somewhat unwilling to give up.

"Professor Arias."

Daphne, Astoria: Huh?!

This answer baffled them. Why her? Is it allowed to invite school professors to a dance?!

Seeing the two women's confusion, Rice patiently answered their questions.

"Of course you can invite a school professor; anything not prohibited by the rules is permissible. As for the reason for inviting her..." Rice narrowed his eyes, "It has nothing to do with any other reason; it's simply because I want to get revenge on her."

As he spoke, Rice shared the whole story of the ball with the two of them, and said that he couldn't allow the person who came up with this bad idea to stand on the shore and watch them all flounder in the water; he would have to pull her into the water with him.

Daphne couldn't help but glance at her sister. She really wanted to ask how the Christmas ball idea, which she thought was great, had become a bad idea.

"Were you two waiting for my reply? I'm so sorry, I've already found a dance partner." Rice felt a little embarrassed after realizing that she might have delayed the two students in finding a dance partner.

But I'm sorry, causing trouble for your Aunt Ravenclaw is the most pressing matter, the top priority. Even if time could be turned back, and Rice were given another chance to choose, he would still make the same choice, only this time he would inform his two good students in advance.

However, Daphne and Astoria did not show much disappointment on their faces; they seemed more relieved.

"It's alright, I didn't fancy anyone else anyway," Daphne replied, and Astoria nodded gently beside her.

"You two..." Rice sighed, at a loss with these two stubborn girls.

He extended his index finger and tapped each of their foreheads before putting away the dolls and walking out of the abandoned classroom, leaving the two behind.

"Sister, do you have a dance partner you like?" Astoria asked softly after Rice's figure disappeared from sight.

"They're gone now, little sister, what about you?"

"I don't have any either."

The two looked up, their eyes meeting in mid-air.

"Can you be my dance partner?" the two asked in unison, then smiled and reached an agreement.

Rice hurried down the stairs to the lobby on the first floor. Students from various schools were crowding the place, making the originally spacious lobby overcrowded.

Rice struggled to push through the crowd when someone called his name. Rice turned around and saw that the person who called his name was Fleur Delacour, the Beauxbatons contestant he had met in the Alchemy World.

"What's wrong?" Rice had just stopped when he suddenly felt a spell coming towards him.

Given the crowd around, Rice didn't use the Ironclad Charm to deflect it. Instead, he used his magic to envelop the weak spell, causing it to hover in mid-air.

After a quick analysis, Rice discovered that the source of the spell was Fleur, who was not far from him.

"Rice, have you found a dance partner?" Fleur was completely unaware that her spell had been intercepted; she even thought she had successfully launched a sneak attack.

As soon as the question was asked, Reston immediately understood what the spell was. It was either a Confusion Charm or a Imperius Curse, or perhaps a Veela's innate magic. However, considering that the spell didn't seem that powerful, Reston ruled out the Imperius Curse.

Rice casually slapped the spell onto Malfoy, who was passing by.

Just as Fleur was about to press her advantage and take down the mysterious and powerful player, Rais Lint, Rais winked at her and gave her a strange smile.

"It seems someone wants to talk to you. I won't disturb you any longer. Goodbye!" Rice parted a gap in the crowd, slithered in like a snake, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Fleur was stunned for a moment, and then realized that she had messed up, because Draco Malfoy from Slytherin appeared in front of her and asked her in a loud voice if she would like to go to the Christmas ball with him.

Fleur was completely stunned. She stared at Malfoy as if he were a sea cucumber, unable to utter a single word. The people around them also stopped in their tracks, their gazes darting between Malfoy and Fleur.

Pansy Parkinson, standing next to Malfoy, was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and she bristled with anger.

A few seconds later, Malfoy was freed from Hibiscus's charm effect, and when he realized what had happened, he felt like the sky had fallen.

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~

(End of this chapter)