Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 533 Rice: I want to focus my energy on correcting the atmosphere of the academy.

Daphne's thoughtless action almost threw Rice off balance.

However, Rice quickly recovered and reaffirmed her conviction. Daphne also realized that she seemed to have done something wrong, and hurriedly put the fork back in its original position with an embarrassed smile, then poked the fork at Astoria under her disdainful gaze.

This time, under Daphne's control of the force, the fork was not bent.

Daphne exclaimed in surprise, "Wow! Four forks couldn't be bent! That's the power of unity!"

Rice fell silent.

To be fair, Daphne did grasp the spirit that the fable was trying to convey quite well, and that's exactly what this form of expression was all about...

It always gives the impression that its head was kicked by a hippogriff.

The child was quite bright when he was young, so how did he turn out like this as an adult? What kind of parenting did Henry do?

Ok?

Rice suddenly realized that Daphne seemed to be spending more time with him, and a horrifying thought popped into Rice's mind: Could it be the problem with me?

But after glancing at Astoria, who was standing obediently to the side, Rice felt that it probably wasn't his fault.

It's possible that she spent too much time with Godric before and was infected with the "Godric Plague," and then this symptom was passed on to Daphne, just like the corruption of Rowena by the underworld.

Rice felt that the problem either lay with the ancestors of the Greengrass family or with Godric, and in any case, it had little to do with him.

"Very well, now it's time to get on the train." Rice took the fork from Daphne and then led the two of them onto the Hogwarts Express.

After boarding the train, he walked toward the sergeant's private carriage, which he knew quite well.

Having rehearsed the exercise beforehand, Rice knew exactly what he should do.

After entering his private carriage, Rice found a comfortable and pleasing seat and sat down, then quietly waited for the prefects to arrive.

Unlike regular student carriages, the prefectural class compartments resemble first class on a Muggle train, with seats that look like comfortable sofas, greater spacing between seats, and individual small tables.

Each college has three male and three female prefects. With four colleges plus the student council president, there are a maximum of 26 people. Therefore, the prefects' private rooms are extremely large, almost ten times the size of ordinary rooms. However, it must have been enchanted with a seamless expansion spell, because you can't tell how big the room is from the outside.

Rice even found a snack cabinet in the corner of the private room, filled with snacks and desserts that would be sold from trolleys. Next to the snack cabinet was a separate cabinet for drinks.

"You know how to enjoy yourself." Rice took a pitcher of chilled pumpkin juice from the cabinet, then frowned: It's such a shame there's no ice cream here.

At that moment, a box exuding an enticing vanilla aroma was presented to Rice.

Rice turned his head and saw Astoria holding a box that was emitting wisps of white steam.

"I made it myself; it's vanilla ice cream," Astoria said with a faint smile.

"Well done!" Rice gave her a thumbs up, took the ice cream and took a bite. The texture was silky smooth, and the flavors of milk and vanilla were quite rich. It was a very good ice cream.

That's right, these are the students I've taught!

Rice's mood became excellent.

A box of homemade ice cream was quickly emptied, and the prefects began to arrive at the prefect's carriage one after another.

Rice noticed that, due to his absence last year, the prefect who would be Daphne's classmate in the sixth year of Slytherin was Draco Malfoy.

Upon entering the private room, Malfoy's face showed an unnatural expression when he saw Rice, but he still forced himself to come in and found a corner to sit down.

Once the lords had all arrived, Ras gave Hermione a wink, signaling that she should say something.

Hermione nodded slightly, then walked to the middle of the carriage and began to explain their responsibilities and duties to the prefects. After she finished, she glanced at Rice, wondering if he had anything to add.

"President Granger's words are very good; just follow them. However, I want to emphasize one point: the prefects represent the school's trust in you," Rice's eyes narrowed slightly. "I hope you will not betray this trust and will not abuse the privileges you hold."

Rice's voice was soft, but none of the prefects in the carriage dared to ignore it. Malfoy's face stiffened: he knew Rice was referring to him!

Unlike previous student council presidents, this one is truly formidable in combat, with verifiable battle records. Class leaders who haven't mastered a specific skill level don't even have the right to raise their voices at him.

Coincidentally, there are only two class leaders with expertise in their respective fields, and both of them are his students.

Even more coincidentally, the last student council president with such prestige was also a Slytherin student, named Tom Riddle.

After warning the prefects in the carriage, Rice waved his hand, indicating that everyone could leave—Hermione had assigned the work so efficiently that he didn't need to do anything extra.

Hermione, Daphne, and Astoria did not rush to leave.

When the other prefects went out to work, they gathered around and asked Rice what had happened last year.

Rice had mentioned something about what happened last year to Daphne, but not in a systematic way. Now that he had some free time, he shared his previous experience with the three of them.

"So you went down one, one—"

"A timeline where fate has been altered." Leslie Hermione found the right descriptive words.

"That's so cool!" Daphne swung her fist.

Astoria, on the other hand, was still shaken: if it weren't for Rice, she would probably still be battling the disease now.

“That’s true. I really wanted to be sorted into Gryffindor at first,” Hermione said quickly. “Back then, all I knew was that Gryffindor was the best house. Sly—it wasn’t until Rice explained the four houses to me in detail that I realized my previous opinion was wrong.”

Rice nodded, confirming that Hermione was right.

But there's one detail that Rice can't get over: after saying Gryffindor is the best, did you mean to say Slytherin is the worst?

He could hardly refute this point, because the mark Voldemort left on this school was far too terrible. The school was filled with the descendants of Death Eaters, and the lingering poison of pure-blood supremacy continued to torment the students of this school.

For eleven-year-old Hermione Granger, Slytherin was indeed the worst place to go.

"If it weren't for Rice, I probably would have gone to Gryffindor, because the Sorting Hat respected my choice back then," Hermione said, adding that the events in that timeline felt quite realistic.

The group gathered together and continued chatting about the interesting things that happened in another timeline.

When Rice told them that he had killed Fudge, captured Azkaban, and then thrashed the Ministry of Magic, the three reacted in different ways.

Hermione: Rice, you seem to be going a bit too far.

Daphne: This battle sounds so awesome!

Astoria remained silent, but she understood that what Rice was doing here was no less serious than what he had done in the other world. It was just that his methods here were gentler.

After a while, Daphne and Astoria also went out to inspect the train.

Hermione, on the other hand, looked at Rice with a strange gaze.

"Aren't you going on patrol? After all—"

"That's the prefects' job, and we're the student council presidents." Rice wasn't going to do those things! He had already decided to dump all the work on Hermione and the other prefects.

He needs to focus his energy on correcting the atmosphere in the college!

Hermione opened her mouth, but hesitated to speak.

She felt like something was wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

Shouldn't the student council president work even harder and set an example for all teachers and students?

However, Rice shut Hermione up with a single sentence.

"I need to correct the bad atmosphere in Slytherin. Compared to this, patrolling is just chores."

Hermione nodded sincerely, agreeing with what Rice said.

To be fair, Slytherin House is starting to become a "scourge" of Hogwarts, and it really needs someone to keep it in check.

Normally, the dean of the college should take on this responsibility, but is Professor Snape a normal person?

Just as Hermione was about to ask Rice how he planned to correct the school's atmosphere, the carriage door was pushed open.

Daphne and Astoria walked in excitedly and told Hermione that they had met someone in the compartment at the back of the train, someone who would definitely surprise them.

"Who?"

"Diggory! He's back! He says he's become Professor White's graduate student."

Hermione jumped to her feet. She had thought that after Cedric graduated, they would never see each other again, but she never expected him to return as a graduate student!

I should have thought of that earlier. How could Cedric not be admitted to those three types of graduate programs that were exposed?

However, Cedric kept the news very secret, not mentioning a single word to his friends.

Rice followed the three little witches out of the prefectural box. He also planned to see Cedric and congratulate him on becoming Helga's graduate student.

However, reading it as "graduate student" and writing it as "labor force" is perfectly fine.

Rice knew what wicked scheme Helga was plotting when she saw the major Helga offered. She was trying to find cheap labor to help her complete her doll orders.

A completely unscrupulous mentor. A bottomless pit, enter at your own risk!

Following behind Hermione and the others, Rice arrived at the back of the train.

After pushing open the door and entering, Rice found that besides Cedric, there were other people in the carriage, including a young girl named Cho Chang from Ravenclaw.

Rice didn't have much of an impression of her, only that she was the team's Seeker and that Daphne had once lent her her Firebolt.

Seeing so many people come in all at once, Qiu Zhang's cheeks flushed. She stood up, lowered her head, and quickly walked out of the carriage.

Cedric gave a helpless smile, then called over his good friends.

After exchanging a few words, Cedric turned to Rice and said he had something to give him.

Rice: ?

Am I that close to Cedric? Why is he even giving me a gift? Hmm—?!

Rice suddenly had a very bad feeling.

His premonition came true. Cedric took an envelope from his pocket and handed it to Rice.

"My teacher asked me to give this to you personally," Cedric said, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes.

He didn't understand why the teacher didn't use an owl to send Rice the letter. If it was for security and confidentiality, then the letter had been delivered to his house by owl!

Although somewhat confused, Cedric obeyed the teacher's orders without question.

Rice solemnly opened the letter that Helgato Cedric had given him.

Sure enough, Helga stated in her letter that she had decided to make an exception and admit Les Lint as her graduate student.

Rice's face turned pale.

"Congratulations, Rice!" Cedric was genuinely happy for Rice after reading the contents of the letter.

A professor's graduate program isn't something you can just decide to pursue.

The technology of creating automated combat dolls is incredibly lucrative in today's world, almost like printing money. If this spot were available for sale, there would be plenty of wizards willing to pay 10,000 Galleons for it.

"If it's fate, then accept it gladly," Rice sighed before putting the letter away.

He already has a way to deal with it.

The group chatted for a while, and then it gradually got dark outside. The train was getting closer and closer to Hogwarts.

There were no unexpected incidents along the way. This train is now fully qualified to compete for the title of the safest place in the world.

When the train arrived at the station, Rice mingled with the crowd and got off. Hagrid, as always, was gathering the first-year students on the platform.

After casting an Illumination Charm to help Hagrid share the burden, Rice and Daphne went to an open area near the station and boarded a Thestrals to head to Hogwarts.

However, Rice actually preferred to go to Hogwarts by boat rather than by carriage, as it would evoke memories of his past.

As the wheels of the carriage rumbled, Rice fell into deep thought: Why did he feel as if his old friends were conspiring to "mess with" him? Was it just his imagination?

Rice felt they should observe further.

The opening ceremony proceeded as usual, but this year's sorting caps were exceptionally clean, with even the patches repaired, making them look almost brand new.

Perhaps because Godric was standing right behind him watching, the Sorting Hat's song was louder than usual, and the section on Gryffindor was significantly longer.

Most of the young wizards in the audience weren't paying attention to the Sorting Hat and its songs; they were all focused on this year's new headmaster: Godric Gryffindor.

Who would have thought that Dumbledore's successor would be this person? Or rather, who could have imagined that fate would play such a joke on everyone, that the school's founder would become the headmaster a thousand years later?!

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~

See you at midnight tomorrow night!

(End of this chapter)