Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 538 You have a friend whose life has come to an end

The power of fate.

Rice had thought he would never have the chance to deal with it in his life, but today he felt its power again during an ordinary divination class.

Was it because of that stone? Rice narrowed his eyes.

As the four people who were transported to a parallel world line by the Wishing Stone, Rice and the others inevitably became tainted by the energy of the Wishing Stone, even if it was involuntary.

As a spark that brings magic to the earth, the power of the wishing stone is beyond imagination. Just a trace of its essence is enough to bring prophetic power.

'Isn't this just another way of taking a starstone?' A thought flashed through Rice's mind as he stared blankly at the smoke.

He then shook his head: I never imagined that in the 20th century, there would still be people who could gain magic power by consuming star stones.

Most magic can be acquired through learning. Even magic flow and domains can be learned by accumulating sufficient talent or effort.

However, there are also some kinds of magic that are innate and cannot be compensated for by later efforts, such as prophecy.

In the presence of a true prophet, the lifelong efforts of a soothsayer or diviner seem like a joke.

Rice now feels that he may have "stolen" a sliver of the prophet's power.

The moment the smoke rose from the Rice stove, Professor Trelawney turned around, a look of confusion flashing across her face.

She seemed to have just sensed a subtle fluctuation, which, according to the Trelawney family tradition, was a hint from the "Heavenly Eye."

Thinking of Tianmu, a hint of sadness appeared in Professor Trelawney's eyes.

Tianmu, Tianmu, ah...

If only I had a third eye, I wouldn't have had to endure the hardships of the first half of my life and the fear and anxiety of the second half.

Trelawney knew she didn't actually have any real skills; what she relied on for a living wasn't her "third eye," but her "tongue."

Her original plan was to avoid any further interaction with that Les Lint during this class. She had already exhausted her intellect by using "death and rebirth" to gloss over that flawed prophecy; she didn't want anything more to go wrong.

The events that had just occurred at the table on Coles's desk still held a strong attraction for her, drawing her over involuntarily.

Ultimately, she wasn't entirely a fraud; the blood of the prophet flowed in her veins, and in her youth, she even strived to carry on the prophet's work.

Professor Trelawney walked to Rice's table and waited quietly for the herbs in the small stove to burn to ashes.

Once the last spark died down, Rice poured the herbal tea he had prepared onto the chicken-snake beast's femur, which had been charred black by the flames.

The Cockatooth is a mythical creature with a similar origin to the Basilisk. It hatches from a rooster's egg, possessing the body of a lizard, the head and feathers of a rooster, the wings of a bat, and a second head on its tail. Its gaze can turn enemies to stone, and its bones can be used to reveal the future.

Upon being stimulated by the liquid, the animal bones emitted a cracking sound, and several cracks of varying lengths appeared on the surface of the bones.

Upon seeing this, Professor Trelawney immediately took out a small brush from her bosom and very gently swept away the ash from the surface of the bone, then carefully lifted the bone up.

Rice saw a large crack running the length of the bone, with three larger cracks and several smaller fissures branching out from it.

It looked normal, just like an ordinary, charred bone.

Rice noticed that one of the three secondary cracks seemed to have failed to fully open due to insufficient heating, giving the impression that it stopped abruptly.

Trelawney's gaze also fell on the crack, and then she gasped.

Rice: ...

"An ominous sign?" he asked tentatively.

Professor Trelawney nodded solemnly.

"Poor child, one of your friends has already passed away..." Professor Trelawney said with a sorrowful tone. "Spend more time with her, and don't upset her in the last days of her life."

Rice lowered his head.

He had a vague idea of ​​what Trelawney had predicted. Trelawney, on the other hand, left satisfied.

She hadn't forgotten what that little girl from the Greengrass family had done to her! Today, she'd take the opportunity to give her a death prophecy so she could vent her anger.

Trelawney regretted it after only a few steps outside.

She was afraid that Daphne Greengrass would come after her again after hearing about her prophecy.

But she just couldn't control her mouth; she couldn't help but want to utter malicious prophecies! It had become as instinctive for her as eating, sleeping, and breathing.

"Calm down, Trelawney, calm down! You're the professor, she's the student, she can't act recklessly... This is Hogwarts!" After reassuring herself, Trelawney successfully suppressed her surging emotions and went to another table to interpret the prophecy.

Astoria narrowed her eyes, her eyebrows gradually rising. After a moment, she spoke, her voice as cold as the winter wind.

"Why can't Professor Trelawney learn her lesson? She already angered my sister badly before, and now she's provoking her again..."

Astoria truly couldn't understand why anyone would enjoy repeatedly flirting with danger.

Last year, Professor Trelawney's death prophecy about Rice angered more than just one Greengrass. However, Astoria was better at controlling her emotions than her sister and could calmly face "unexpected events," but that didn't mean she had no opinion about Trelawney.

However, Professor Trelawney seems to have failed to learn from the lessons of fire and lava, making this death prophecy once again today.

This made Astoria wonder: what might Professor Trelawney have learned from Hogwarts after the West Tower is gone? Perhaps, for example, how to manage one's mouth and tongue.

"Calm down. Don't tell your sister about what happened today. Professor Trelawney wasn't referring to her." Rice's mood was unusually calm.

He was arguably the most superstitious of the four when it came to prophecy and divination, which explained his extraordinary patience with Professor Trelawney. More importantly, he had just truly felt the ripples of fate, indicating the high reliability of the divination results.

"Not my sister? Could it be me, Hermione, or Cedric?"

Rice shook his head.

Those three cracks do not refer to these children.

"Have you heard of the Trojan War in ancient Greek mythology?" he suddenly asked a question that seemed unrelated to the current topic.

"Of course," Astoria nodded.

Ever since the ancient Greek gods were reincarnated, Greek mythology has become a popular subject. Almost everyone who pays attention to current events will take the time to read it, lest they suffer losses in this area in the future.

The Trojan War, which constitutes a significant portion of the story, was naturally not overlooked by Astoria.

"Then you should know about Cassandra's prophecy, right?"

"You mean..." Astoria's face showed a hint of suspicion.

"Professor Trelawney and Cassandra are the same kind of people; true prophecies are often hidden under a veil called absurdity."

Astoria's eyebrows twitched.

Really? Does Professor Trelawney know that she holds such a high place in Rice's heart?

Trusting Rice, she felt she should respect Professor Trelawney's prediction. However, having actually spent five years with Trelawney, she found it difficult to truly internalize this theoretical respect.

"Forget it, let her be. Do you think I should cast a forgetting spell on the others? So that the prophecy from just now might reach my sister's ears." Astoria decided to put everything about Professor Trelawney out of her mind to avoid causing herself too much mental strain.

"That's the way a smart person does it." Rice cast an approving glance at her.

The divination class was proceeding smoothly, and the other professors were busy teaching. Only the alchemy professor, Helga, was in her office having a meeting with her star pupil.

"Professor, this is my teaching plan based on the syllabus you provided. Would you like to take a look?" Cedric handed Helga a notebook filled with writing.

Helga opened the cover, and a huge amount of densely packed small print rushed into her eyes, making her dizzy.

"I won't look at it. I trust your abilities." Helga quickly closed the notebook, handed it back to Cedric, and rubbed her temples.

"Write the words bigger next time."

"Okay." Cedric was embarrassed: how could he have forgotten about this? But as a blessing in disguise, he now knew what gift to give his teacher for Christmas.

"You will take over the next alchemy session for me."

"Huh?" Cedric was stunned by his teacher's words.

"What's wrong? You can arrange the teaching schedule, why can't you teach the classes at the same time?"

"But……"

"There's no 'but' about it. I think you're capable enough to take on this responsibility. You just need a little more confidence." Helga rubbed his temples, his voice revealing a hint of weariness.

After returning from the parallel world line, she was as busy as a spinning top.

There were too many backlogged orders, which exhausted her.

Helga was now regretting not resigning from her Hogwarts teaching position during the holidays like Rowena had. So she decided to pass the teaching duties to Cedric; he would handle this hot potato. After all, Rowena had set a good precedent; not many students at Hogwarts were qualified to teach alchemy.

Cedric: ...

The teacher's trust left him speechless.

"Shall I start with the simplest module making?" Cedric still lacked confidence, so he tentatively asked Helga.

Helga nodded and casually pointed to the teaching plan in Cedric's arms.

"Just do it that way, you know how to do it." She said to Cedric as she began to deal with the mountain of documents piled up on the table.

"Our graduate students' classes are scheduled for Saturdays, and we have a regular meeting every Sunday morning at nine o'clock. You can also come to my office to 'study' anytime after six o'clock in the evening. Please inform Rice of this."

"Okay." Although Cedric thought Rice would most likely ignore the message, he would still faithfully deliver it to Rice.

Cedric was also puzzled by Rice becoming a graduate student. In his view, giving Rice this spot was a complete waste; Rice didn't need it at all, and what he really needed was the qualification to offer graduate programs.

Simply put, Cedric believed that Rice was no longer on the same level as them; he was someone who could stand on equal footing with the teacher, even if he might be slightly inferior.

(Helga would be very happy if she could hear what her students were thinking.)

Theoretically, their conversation should have ended there, but Cedric showed no sign of leaving.

"Is there anything else?" Helga put down the documents in her hand and looked up at her student.

"Teacher, regarding the order for the Automaton Fighter Dolls..." Cedric hesitated for a long time before finally gritting his teeth and speaking his mind, "How about we release some of them? You're working too hard, Teacher."

He glanced at the documents on the table and noticed that most of them were related to automated combat dolls. They were either new orders, new requirements for old orders, or even reports of doll malfunctions and prices for scrapping and recycling.

As the evil spirits become more active, the importance of automated combat dolls is steadily increasing. This, in turn, brings greater pressure to Helga.

Cedric felt it would be wise for the teacher to decline some orders. After all, she wasn't young anymore.

"You can never earn all the money in the world," he added, trying to make his words more convincing.

"So you think I did this for those Galleons that are useless except for their glitter?" Helga's calm voice rang out in the office.

"Uh... of course not, I just—" Cedric quickly explained.

"At the very beginning, yes." Surprisingly, Helga readily admitted it.

"Silly child, even those so-called true gods rejoice at the sight of gold and jewels, how could I possibly be an exception? Besides, there's an old saying: 'You don't know the cost of firewood and rice until you're in charge of the household,' and Hogwarts needs gold."

"Well..." Cedric didn't know what to say. Would continuing to persuade him make his teacher seem too greedy?

"But now things have changed a bit. The original automated combat dolls were just ornaments in the homes of pure-blooded nobles, more decorative than practical. But now they are being used to save lives." Helga sighed. "Each doll has the potential to save one or even more lives in the near future."

"Do you still think I can give up some of the orders?"

Cedric remained silent.

After a moment, his expression hardened: "I come here with Rice every night. He's your graduate student, and attending classes is his duty."

Helga laughed out loud.

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~

Tomorrow's update will still be at midnight.

(End of this chapter)