Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 474 There's a really amazing reward here, but guess who isn't qualified to claim it—

Daphne, Astoria, and Rice's actions won the favor of many people, such as Cedric.

He strongly disapproved of these people's actions, so when Daphne made her move, he was the first to stand up and applaud.

"Good job, well done!"

With Cedric taking the lead, the other Hufflepuff students naturally followed suit. A round of applause, though not loud, rang out from the Hufflepuff stands.

With Hufflepuff students leading the way, the Gryffindor and Slytherin students naturally wouldn't just stand by and watch. Soon, the arena was filled with applause and cheers.

Hearing the applause behind him, Dumbledore smiled.

Very good, the children made the choice that he was most satisfied with.

He watched Daphne dominate the field, relentlessly pursuing her opponents, a hint of satisfaction flashing in his eyes.

This child is very good, almost unlike a Slytherin.

Sitting in the audience not far away, Godric openly exclaimed, "This little girl wasn't sorted into Gryffindor? The Sorting Hat needs a good beating, ha!"

His voice was so loud that even Rice, who was standing some distance away, could hear it.

Upon hearing Godric's words, his face darkened. However, looking at Daphne, who was engaged in battle, he seemed unable to utter a rebuttal.

Could the root of the problem lie with me? Rice even began to examine himself. After all, teaching one Adrian could be considered a coincidence, but teaching two students with such personalities was hardly a coincidence.

However, when his gaze swept over Astoria, who was standing helplessly in the lake, Reston immediately felt relieved.

It's definitely not her fault! Otherwise, why would little Astoria have the personality she has now? It's all Adrian's bloodline's fault!

Rice had read the Muggle Encyclopedia and had heard of Mendel and his peas, so he thought the differences in the Greengrass sisters' personalities were likely a matter of dominant or recessive expression of the "Adrian gene."

After a while of lost in thought, a whistle suddenly blew from the referee team.

"Alright, the match time is up. All competitors, please proceed to the referee's area!"

Daphne stopped her pursuit of the enemy. What stopped her was not the enemy's resistance, but the whistle signaling the end of the match.

She excitedly went to the judges' table, handed over her completion treasure chest and trial treasure chest together, and passed the certification. Behind Daphne were her sister Astoria and Rice, whose expression was calm but whose spirits seemed somewhat low.

When they discovered that Rice had only obtained one completion treasure chest, Daphne and Astoria could not hide the shock in their eyes.

However, since they were in the public eye, they couldn't very well ask Rice any questions. They could only silently tell themselves that Rice might have other ideas and that he would tell them when the time was right.

The two of them were overthinking it. Rice didn't have any "deep planning" at all; he simply didn't need the trial reward.

After the last contestant completed his verification, Mr. Henry stood up and announced the result of the match.

Thanks to the efforts of the hunters and Daphne, many people were eliminated in this competition. Only 53 people passed the test and obtained the treasure chest from the mermaid. Among them, only 19 people completed the advanced trial.

Of these fifty-three people, the majority were students from the eight great magic schools—with Durmstrang being an exception, of course. Thanks to Daphne, they now only have Krum left.

"Contestants, you have one week to prepare. The second stage of the competition will officially begin in one week. The difficulty of this stage will be greatly increased. The treasure chests and trial rewards you have will be important aids for you to pass the competition and even save your lives." At this point, Mr. Henry's expression became unusually serious.

He earnestly told the contestants, "You must take good care of yourselves and prioritize your own lives."

Mr. Henry's words added a touch of solemnity to the atmosphere.

It's a matter of life and death! Who wouldn't be cautious about this?

Godric, standing to the side, lowered his eyes, his face showing no emotion whatsoever.

When the first stage of the competition ended, all seven of the club's young elites he brought with him disappeared, causing quite a stir at the time. Now, the event organizers are emphasizing safety again... How interesting.

He didn't think the disappearance of those seven people was accidental; someone must be targeting the Secret Society in secret.

But it doesn't matter. The so-called elites within the organization are just targets he brought along. Let that mysterious powerhouse take the hits; it's just a matter of losing a few men. As long as it doesn't hinder the execution of the plan, it's all worthwhile. In fact, the entire Secret Cult was established for this plan.

"The mysterious powerhouse who appeared at the Quidditch World Cup finals, the person who secretly hunted down the Secret Order monks, the guy who created this kind of arena... I want to see how much more Hogwarts and the wizarding world I don't know about." A series of figures flashed through Godric's mind, and then he turned his gaze to Dumbledore, who was standing in front of him.

"Albus Dumbledore, was all of this your doing? You deliberately act like an unreliable, old man, but secretly..."

After reminding the contestants to be careful, the competition officially came to an end.

The familiar competitors returned together to prepare for the next stage of the competition.

"Neville, Luna, how did you do that?" Harry caught up with Neville and Luna and asked the question that had been bothering him for a long time.

He considered himself the best Seeker at Hogwarts, so how come these two could catch fish faster than him? This puzzled him greatly.

Do they also have fishing skills like Cedric?

"Just tell the fish, and they'll automatically come to the basket—I've promised them I won't hurt them, and I'll release them once I pass the trial." Luna began speaking in a way that was incomprehensible to everyone.

Harry initially thought there was something wrong with his ears.

"You mean, uh, you used some kind of spell?"

"No, that's not it." Luna shook her head seriously. "These little fish can communicate, just like you and I are communicating. I'm just asking them to come to my fish basket."

Luna said that she only said a few kind words, and the little silver fish voluntarily entered her fish basket, helping her pass the mermaid trial.

Harry didn't understand, but he was deeply moved.

He felt as if he couldn't communicate with Luna, as if she wasn't speaking English at all.

"Neville, what about you?" Harry swore that if Neville was also into communicating with fish, he would go back to the common room and get a good night's sleep to get rid of the hallucinations caused by excessive stress.

Fortunately, Neville's answers were much more normal, and it seemed that he didn't understand what Luna was saying either.

"I used the flow of magic to catch those small fish and put them into the fish basket."

"Magic flow?" Harry heard a very new term.

"Hmm... this concept is a bit complicated. It was taught to us by Professor White; it's a technique from ancient wizards."

Harry immediately understood, and considering that Cedric was also from Hufflepuff, Harry felt he had guessed what methods Cedric had used.

Sure enough, after he described Cedric's behavior, Neville also said that Cedric was a fish caught using magic.

Harry thought the flow of magic might be an ancient version of the Summoning Charm, which could be cast without a wand.

I must say, it's actually quite convenient.

At that moment, Rice and his two companions also passed by them.

"You should hurry up and open the trial rewards; they'll be very helpful in the upcoming matches," Rice said to Daphne and Astoria. When he saw Harry and the others, he nodded to them as well.

"Congratulations, it seems you have all passed the trial."

"Rice, you—" Harry started to say, but then stopped himself.

There were six people present, and Rice seemed to be the only one who hadn't received a trial reward. Wasn't it too hurtful to ask him why in front of everyone?

Daphne and Astoria looked at Harry together, secretly grumbling to themselves why he didn't continue asking; they wanted to know the reason too!

"Are you asking why I didn't participate in the mermaid's trial?"

"Yes." Seeing that Rice had said it himself, Harry simply admitted it.

"Because my spell is about to expire, I need to get some fresh air on the lake." Rice gave a reason that sounded reasonable, but to those who knew him, it sounded ridiculous.

Daphne and Astoria couldn't help but blink.

The curse is about to expire? Please, even if the fish in the lake drown, you'll be fine!

However, this explanation successfully fooled Harry and Neville.

The group returned to the castle, chatting and laughing – in any case, they had passed this round of assessments in the best possible way, and could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

As for the next stage of the competition, that's something I need to worry about a week from now. For now, I just need to relax!

After a hot lunch in the auditorium, the athletes felt that they had fully recovered the energy they had lost in Black Lake.

As Rice left the auditorium, she felt someone was watching her.

He stopped and looked back, only to find it was Luna.

"What is it?" He had plenty of patience with this girl who had a hint of Ravenclaw about her.

"Just now outside, I felt like you weren't telling the truth."

Luna's straightforward words made Rice laugh.

"Would you believe me if I said I was just too lazy to collect the trial rewards?"

I believe you.

Rice was genuinely surprised; he couldn't quite see through the young witch in front of him.

"So you followed me here just to expose my lies?"

Luna shook her head.

"I just wanted to ask you a question. When the ancient mermaid kingdom was mentioned, you seemed to really dislike those mermaids? Why?" Luna phrased it rather tactfully. She initially wanted to use the word "gloating," but she ultimately restrained herself.

During her years at Hogwarts, her personality did not remain entirely unchanged.

"That's it?" Rice raised an eyebrow; he thought Luna had something important to tell him.

"I'm a Slytherin, Luna. Isn't it normal for me to hate these merfolk? After all, our common room is right below the Black Lake. If the merfolk are really powerful, then the Slytherin students won't be able to get a good night's sleep."

Although the Mermaid Kingdom was destroyed by Rowena Ravenclaw, Slytherin House was the one that had the most conflicts with the Mermaid Kingdom among the four houses of Hogwarts.

After all, both the mermaids and Slytherin felt that this neighbor was really an eyesore.

Rice's words made Luna think deeply; her intuition told her that Rice was not lying.

"If there's nothing else, I'll be going now." After answering Luna's question, Rice waved and quickly left.

Luna tried to stop Rice, but it was too late; Rice had already disappeared into the bustling corridor.

She sighed softly; she actually had another question.

When I saw him at the competition venue that day, were the things he said true?

But Luna felt that Rice was unlikely to answer her question. She had a feeling that what Rice had done in the arena was something that ordinary little wizards like them could only dream of.

Shortly after returning to the common room, Daphne and Astoria brought news that the reward for passing the Mermaid Trial should be collected in the Hogwarts greenhouse.

Rice's reaction was extremely cold. The word "greenhouse" alone made him understand what the reward was.

Sure enough, it was still the same fruit from that same tree; not getting involved in the trials was the right choice.

Driven by curiosity, he still set off for the greenhouse with Daphne and the others. He wanted to see what kind of fruit would recognize their worth.

When the three arrived at the greenhouse, there were already quite a few contestants gathered inside.

It's clear that everyone cares a lot about the rewards, since they're related to the difficulty of the upcoming competition.

However, most of the contestants here have passed the Mermaid Trial, and it is extremely rare for someone like Rice to fail and still come to join in the fun.

Shortly after Rice arrived, Professor Sprout appeared with a large flowerpot. Inside the flowerpot was the transformation fruit tree that Rice, Rowena, and Helga had painstakingly researched.

Helga handed it over to Professor Sprout and asked her to distribute the trial rewards on her behalf.

This made Rice quite happy, because if Rowena had been there, she would have definitely mocked him afterwards and said things like, "Everyone here has passed the trial, how did you end up here?"

"Children, welcome! You have all passed the mermaid trial. Now I will award you your prizes—the fruits from this tree!"

Upon hearing this, the contestants exchanged bewildered glances, unsure of what the professor was up to.

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~

See you at midnight as always!

(End of this chapter)