Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 509 Helga Sprout

Godric: Hmm?

He instinctively tried to pull Salazar back, but two men rushed up to him and interrupted him.

"Godrick, are you alright?"

"Did Rice do anything to you—"

Hermione and Ron appeared. The two rushed in front of Godric and shielded him.

It was as if if the two had arrived a second later, Godric would have been devoured alive by Rice.

While inwardly criticizing how utterly detestable his good friend was, Godric explained to the two kind Gryffindor classmates that Rice hadn't done anything to him.

"We were just chatting."

"Chatting?" Ron's emotions rose. "He's a naturally evil Slytherin, he's definitely plotting something wicked!"

Godric: ...

Even with his Gryffindor courage, he dared not accept those words, fearing that Salazar might overhear them and cause another major uproar.

"No, really not—" He tried to defend his good friend, but Ron glared at him and started listing all the bad things Rice had done before, which made Godric's fists harden.

"He did all these things, didn't you teach him a lesson?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Huh?" Ron and Hermione stared wide-eyed at the same time: Was this really the same Longbottom they knew? It was unbelievable that he would say such a thing.

"This, this... He may be a nasty guy, but—" Hermione broke out in a sweat. She felt she should calm Longbottom down to prevent him from doing something against the school rules.

"I've been thinking for a while that we should take action against that guy Rice!" Ron, as if he had found a like-minded partner, immediately began to devise a plan to prank Rice.

This time it was Godric's turn to be sweating profusely. He wasn't worried about Salazar encountering any danger, but rather about the young wizard in front of him.

If Salazar is really angered, that would be bad—in the school, only someone like him is qualified to make harmless jokes with Salazar.

"Let bygones be bygones. I think people should look forward. If we wait until he causes trouble again, we can deal with him then. S—I mean, now that Les Lint has become a prefect, maybe he'll mature a bit?"

Hermione blinked and nodded reluctantly. Although she didn't believe Lynt's personality would change just because he became a prefect, she could only pretend to believe Longbottom for now.

Ron's eyes widened in disbelief at what he had just heard.

Next, Godric had to patiently listen to the Weasley boy's incessant rambling on about Rice and his cronies' notorious past.

While Godric spent time with the Gryffindor lion cubs, Rice took the opportunity to patrol the train twice. Unfortunately, he didn't spot Helga and Rowena, or even anyone who resembled them.

This made him somewhat disappointed.

'Could it be that these two weren't sent over?' he muttered to himself. If that were the case, Zeus's expression would certainly be priceless.

As he patrolled to the back of the train, he saw Daphne and Astoria in a compartment at the rear, with Pansy chatting with them.

Rice couldn't help but stop and carefully observe Astoria's condition, finding that the little girl looked sickly and listless.

Sure enough, Astoria in the parallel world also suffers from the disease.

Rice instinctively reached into his pocket, only to find nothing. He paused for a moment, then remembered that he didn't have any of those precious potions with him.

Then we have no choice but to give up.

"Rice? Did you take care of that Longbottom kid?" Pansy noticed Rice outside the private room. She opened the door and warmly invited Rice to come in and sit down.

Rice naturally had no objections.

After casually exchanging a few words with Pansy upon entering, Rice steered the conversation toward Astoria's illness.

"During the holidays I... well, I found a magic book left over from the founder's era. It contains a recipe for curing blood curses, supposedly left by Salazar Slytherin." Rice casually made up an excuse and started rambling—and let me tell you, he'd used this excuse many times before, so he was quite adept at it.

As he spoke, he found a roll of parchment and wrote down the potion recipes that Astoria could use.

"I hope this helps." Rice rolled up the parchment covered in writing and handed it to Astoria.

Even in a parallel world, he hoped that the little witch could be healthy and well.

Of course, his prescription could only relieve the pain. If she really wanted to quickly and completely cure the blood curse, she would need a powerful wizard to perform "surgery" on her.

Given the current conditions, it would be very difficult for Astoria to find anyone.

Astoria and Daphne seemed somewhat skeptical of the prescription Rice offered, but out of politeness, they accepted it. While thanking him, Daphne said she would definitely find someone to help make the medicine.

As Daphne put the prescription into her bosom, Rice felt a strange, unseen rhythm, as if something had been disturbed.

This prompted Rice to think.

The rest of the journey was peaceful, without any unusual events. Rice ruthlessly abandoned Crabbe and Goyle, leaving them alone in the Greengrass sisters' compartment.

When the carriage arrived at the station, Rice, as the prefect, got off first and then cast an illumination spell at the dark night sky.

It is worth noting that when Rice took out his wand, he was surprised to find that he actually had two wands. One felt quite comfortable to touch, while the other made him feel uneasy just by touching it.

When he took it out, he found that his staff, which was made from the remains of a god, had also come with him, but it had shrunk by more than ten times and become the size of an ordinary magic wand.

After illuminating the dark station, Rice used a loud voice to make sure his voice could echo throughout every corner of the station.

"First-year students, please come this way, please follow Hagrid—Holy crap!" Rice was surprised to find that Hagrid, who used to always pick up and drop off first-year students at the station, had disappeared and been replaced by a face that he was very familiar with.

"If you may, please call me Professor Helga Sprout," Helga said to Rice with a smile.

Rice felt like a million unicorns were stampeding through his mind. He forcibly suppressed the urge to say something irrelevant and continued to direct the first-year students to move closer to Helga.

Those who knew Rice were stunned as they watched him diligently fulfilling his duties as prefect on the platform.

Hermione froze on the spot, while Ron said he must be trying to show off.

Regardless, the first-year students managed to assemble under Rice's command, with no one left out.

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.

Damn it, I wrote the wrong title for the last chapter, and now I can't change it.

Holiday is almost over...

(End of this chapter)