Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 539 Helga: Salazar, please don't do this, I'm scared

After the laughter subsided, Helga earnestly told her prized student that Les Lint was a very opinionated person, and her "invitation" would likely be difficult to accept.

"Unless you wrap him in stones and sand, but—ha—I advise you not to do that." Helga felt that if he chose to take action, his foolish student would definitely be taught a lesson by Salazar.

He might not even be able to beat Salazar's two handsome apprentices.

"I will try to persuade him." Cedric did not change his decision because of his teacher's words.

"Whatever you want." Helga shrugged.

If Salazar were so easily persuaded, the four of them wouldn't have ended up in such a tense situation back then.

After Cedric left the office, Helga resumed her work at her desk.

This time, after the students left, she used magic to create a magnifying glass for herself.

"This is unbelievable! My eyesight is getting worse every day. Is there some kind of magic that can improve the eyesight of the elderly? Damn it, why are these guys so stingy with parchment?! The writing is so small!"

Helga's complaints echoed through the office.

To Helga's utter surprise, at six o'clock in the evening, Cedric pushed open the office door precisely on time, with Rhys Lint standing behind him.

Helga's eyes widened in surprise.

"W-Is there something you need?" She sensed that Salazar must have come to see her by chance.

A look of confusion appeared on both Cedric's and Rice's faces.

Rice glanced at Helga, then asked, "Are you getting senile? You're the one who told me to come over at six tonight!"

Cedric nodded repeatedly. He was quite surprised that the mission had been completed so smoothly.

"Hmm...yes, but—okay, you guys help me process some orders." Helga figured Salazar was probably up to no good and was planning something sneaky!

So after much consideration, she assigned Salazar orders that didn't require precious materials.

"You can give me more complicated tasks; my skills are no worse than Diggory's."

Hearing Salazar's remarks, Helga became even more convinced of her judgment: this guy was here to cause trouble.

So she immediately replied, "Thank you for your kindness, but you should finish the task I assigned you first."

Rice shrugged and said no more.

For the next few hours, Helga waited anxiously for Salazar's "trick," but to her surprise, Salazar actually sat there and obediently made her a whole bunch of doll accessories.

Helga was completely confused: Is this really Salazar?

As the clock on the wall passed the number nine, Cedric stretched and, feeling a little thirsty, took a glass of honey water from his teacher's desk to moisten his throat.

He didn't get what he wanted, because the honey water Helga prepared was a bit too sweet. It was the clear water that Rice conjured up that quenched his thirst and relieved the cloying sweetness.

After this brief interlude, Rice said that was all for the night, and he would come back tomorrow. Then he and Cedric left Helga's office.

Helga sat alone in the chair behind his desk, his brow furrowed.

Although the scene just now was what she wanted to see, Salazar's "well-behaved" demeanor made her feel extremely unfamiliar.

"Why is he doing this?" Helga couldn't understand.

She even inspected the parts Salazar had made—they were all qualified and had no quality problems.

The following evening, Salazar and Cedric arrived as scheduled and spent another night doing hard labor for her.

The same thing happened on the third and fourth days. Sometimes, even if Cedric couldn't come, Salazar would still show up on time.

This unusual phenomenon made it impossible for Helga to fall asleep peacefully.

She took some time to talk to Rowena, but Rowena couldn't quite put her finger on it either. She simply told her that since Salazar was willing to help, why not let him do more work? That way, she wouldn't lose anything, and it would also take up some of his energy.

However, her old friend's words did not put Helga at ease; she remained tense.

Finally, one Friday night, while Cedric was out, Helga decided to ask Salazar the question that had been weighing on her mind for so long.

"Salazar, what are you doing?"

"Why?" Rice stopped what she was doing and looked at Helga, puzzled. "Isn't this because of you—"

"The way you're working so hard is really unusual!" Helga interrupted Rice. "Tell me why, or I won't be able to sleep."

"Because I'm your graduate student..."

Helga let out a loud sneer.

"Don't be ridiculous, Salazar. I should record what you're saying and play it back for you so you can hear exactly what you're saying."

Rice looked down at the half-finished part in his hand.

"If there's nothing else, I'm going to continue working. Tonight's workload is quite heavy."

Helga took a deep breath, as if she were furious.

"Salazar, please don't do this, I'm scared, what happened?!"

Rice put the half-finished parts aside and looked at Helga seriously.

After taking a closer look at her old friend's face, Rice had to admit that she looked even older.

A year in a parallel world didn't just fall from nowhere. The sword of time didn't leave many marks on him, Rowena, and Godric, but it did leave deep scars on Helga.

After returning to the normal timeline, those wounds were temporarily covered up. But the damage caused by time doesn't simply disappear; it just resurfaces at another time.

Clearly, the "wound" is now exposed, and it is turning Helga's hair white at an alarming rate, and making the wrinkles on her face more numerous and deeper.

She is aging rapidly.

The prophecy was correct.

"How have you been feeling lately?" Rice asked a question that seemed unrelated to the current topic.

"Very good," Helga said irritably. "My tongue can still taste the sweetness of food, which is the greatest blessing for me."

"Really?"

"Of course—" Helga paused, not saying the rest of his sentence.

Because she suddenly realized the details she had previously overlooked: her energy was becoming increasingly insufficient, her eyesight was deteriorating, and even her sense of taste was gradually deteriorating—Godrick had complained to her that the honey water was a bit too sweet, but she thought it was just right.

Rice saw the answer in Helga's face.

"I heard a terrible prophecy."

"A prophecy?" Helga's expression could be summed up in one sentence—

Are you kidding me?

Although she was a believer in prophecies, the current situation still struck her as absurd.

"It's like this..." Rice told Helga about his experience in the divination class.

Rice's words did not dispel Helga's doubts. She still found it hard to believe what Salazar had said.

Salazar, you've never shown any talent for divination before! Now you suddenly come out and say something like this, it's hard for me to believe it, isn't it? I do feel that my energy is not what it used to be, but Dumbledore lived to be over a hundred years old and was still alive and kicking, how come I'm going to die in your mouth?

Helga suppressed the urge to beat Salazar, repeatedly telling himself: He's doing this for my own good, he's doing this for my own good...

"Why don't you do a divination for yourself?"

"Can I have my fortune told?"

Helga's question silenced Rice, because he didn't know either.

"How about I go ask Rowena and Godric to do a fortune telling?"

Helga nodded, thinking it was definitely worth a try.

Anyway, I'll definitely use this to make fun of Salazar someday.

After Salazar left, Helga pulled out a book called "Seeing the Future Through the Fog" and then used the materials at hand to perform a tea divination for herself, just like he had done.

After quickly drinking the scalding hot tea, Helga squinted and studied the shape of the tea leaves.

"What is this thing...?" After turning around a few times and still not figuring it out, Helga lost patience, put the teacup aside, and went back to her work.

The tea leaves gathered on one side of the bottom of the cup gradually changed shape under the influence of the remaining tea, becoming something resembling a black dog.

……

Rice went to see Rowena first. Although she scoffed at Rice's claims, she still took the divination seriously.

In terms of her divination posture, her movements and steps were impeccable, just like a real diviner.

But as for the result...

"A pile of trash. According to the divination book, this image symbolizes romantic luck—do you think the four of us look like we're destined for romance?"

Rice was so angry he laughed. Four thousand-year-old trees, don't even think about it.

After leaving Rowena, Rice planned to go to the principal's office to see Godric.

Ask him to do a fortune telling, and maybe tease him a bit, to see how this "greatest principal" lives in his office.

Upon arriving on the eighth floor of the castle, he keenly sensed something, immediately concealing his presence, casting an invisibility spell on himself, and silently heading towards the principal's office.

Before he even reached the statue, he heard Godric's voice.

"Make way! I'm here to retrieve something for the great Salazar Slytherin!"

Rice: ? ? ?

A rumble—that was the sound of the statue parting the passage behind it, and Rice froze on the spot.

Dude, what's with this password? Are you mentally disturbed and planning to take me down with you?

Rice couldn't understand the point of Godric setting such a password.

Godric crossed his arms and fell into deep thought: he had tried it in a parallel world before, and the password couldn't open the principal's office, but it worked in the real world.

How strange!

Suddenly, he had a vague feeling that someone was watching him from the shadows.

Godric simply raised his hand and waved it, and a fire dragon that filled the entire corridor roared through it.

This fire dragon is imbued with Godric's magic. It will not burn anyone it encounters, but will instead provide feedback to Godric, allowing him to find the person hiding in the shadows.

The same effect can be achieved using magical energy fluctuations, but the scale is not as grand.

Godric wanted a grand display, because that would throw the hidden people off balance and make them more likely to be exposed to him.

However, the person secretly watching this time was extremely familiar with Godric, and Rice remained completely unmoved. He concealed his presence, leaned against an open window, and then climbed out.

He flipped back over after the fire dragon dissipated.

Only after confirming that no one was hiding in the corridor did Godric feel somewhat relieved.

You mustn't let anyone else hear what you just said.

He strode into the principal's office. The statue slowly rotated behind him, blocking the entrance again.

After confirming that Godric had left, Rice strolled over to the statue.

After squinting at the statue for a while, he suddenly had an idea and said, "Make way! I'm here to retrieve something for the great Godric Gryffindor!"

The statue remained motionless, and beads of sweat appeared on Rice's forehead.

Oh no, could this really be targeting me?!

"Make way! I'm here to retrieve something for the great Rowena Ravenclaw!"

This time he used a different person, and the statue slowly began to move.

Rice: ...

Godric seemed to be asking for a beating. He'd bet he could have said that same thing using Helga's name.

When Godric arrived at the principal's office upstairs, he was so startled that he almost knocked over the teacup beside him.

"You?! Salazar, who are you—?" After a brief moment of shock, he quickly regained his composure.

Then he realized a problem: How did Salazar know the password to the principal's office? Did Rowena or Helga tell him?

Recalling the fleeting feeling of being spied on in the corridor just now, Godric had a very ominous guess in his mind.

"Password?" Rice had a half-smile on his face. "Do you want me to repeat it for you? The 'come and get something' password?"

Godric's expression froze instantly.

It really is you, Salazar!

"You're something else, Godric," Salazar retorted to Godric, then asked him to confirm that this shouldn't be the password for that statue.

He felt emotionally that it was unlikely, but who knew if Gryffindor might suddenly go mad?

"Of course not, what are you thinking! This is just—uh… never mind, let's not talk about this. What did you want to see me about?" Godric wanted to explain that this was a password he had set up on a whim, but he realized that Salazar would laugh at him if he said it, so he changed the subject.

Rice didn't argue with him and simply took out the materials and asked him to do a divination.

"Okay," Godric agreed readily.

As long as we don't discuss passwords, everything is negotiable.

Under Rice's guidance, Godric completed the divination.

But when he was sweeping the ash off the animal bones, an accident happened. Godric used too much force and broke the bones.

"This...can it still be used?"

Looking at the now-messy cracks, Rice shook his head.

This divination was a complete waste.

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 be postponed for now.

(End of this chapter)