Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 541 I will embrace death as if meeting an old friend.

"What do you want to divine?" Athena didn't answer Godric's question immediately, but instead asked him a question in return.

"Wealth? Lifespan? Fortune? It can't be marriage, can it?" Athena made a small joke.

"I want to predict someone's lifespan, to put it bluntly, I want to know if she will die soon," Godric said rather bluntly.

He had thought Athena would have a hard time answering such a specific question, but to his surprise, she actually said that she had the tools to perform this kind of divination.

She took off the hair tie she used to tie her hair and handed it to Godric.

"This is a common divination method in our area. It's popular because the process is extremely simple; even a five-year-old child can do it."

"Oh?" Rice and Godric both became interested.

Feeling their gazes, Athena couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement. She knew that friendship was built through such acts of mutual help and support.

Now that the two of them are asking for his help and he is responding, wouldn't it be only natural that they would lend a helping hand to him in the future?

"Burn this rope to ashes, and while it burns, silently recite the name of the person you are divining. Then take a bowl of water and pour all the remaining ashes from the burned rope into the water. If the ashes return to their original state in the water, then the person you are divining is about to die." Athena told Rais and Godric this magical method of divination, and they listened in astonishment.

"Does the rope returning to its original state mean he's about to die?" Godric asked, utterly bewildered. It's understandable why he was so surprised; the statement sounded like a placebo, something used to comfort others.

"Yes." Athena nodded very firmly.

Rice wasn't as surprised, because it was magic after all, and anything could happen, even though it did sound a bit counterintuitive.

"Alright, I'll give it a try." With that, Godric took a silver goblet from a cabinet nearby.

Rice filled the cup with water, while Godric silently chanted Helga's name as he burned Athena's hair tie to ashes.

Under his magical control, all the ashes were thrown into the wine glass.

As the ashes entered the water, Rice and Godric took a step forward simultaneously, their eyes fixed on the changes in the ashes as they sank to the bottom.

Athena took in their reactions and, seeing how serious they were, she had her own guesses.

The only person they would value so highly is probably their mutual best friend. In other words, they are performing a divination for Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw.

The clever Athena figured these points out in an instant, and then many ideas came to mind.

She felt that the opportunity before her was once in a lifetime, a perfect chance to curry favor with the four leaders of Hogwarts, and she was determined to seize it.

The ashes from the burning rope slowly sank into the water, then gathered together again under the watchful eyes of Rice and Godric, coalescing at an astonishing speed, their surfaces regaining their luster.

In just a few seconds, the hair tie, which had been burned to ashes, was restored to its original state in the water.

Rice and Godric both paused in their breathing.

"This..." Godric didn't know what to say, while Rice took the hair tie out of the water glass and examined it very carefully.

Unfortunately, just as he sensed, the examination revealed that the hair tie had not been tampered with, but it was subtly imbued with the power of fate.

"This hair tie was woven by the three sisters of fate, so it has a certain power to reveal the future—of course, like other divination methods, it can only show a corner of the future." Athena saw the meaning behind Rhys's actions, so she took the initiative to tell the two about the origin of the hair tie, and at the same time put on a nail to prevent the two from taking their anger out on her.

Rice understood Athena's meaning.

Divination and prophecy can be interpreted in many ways, and often you only realize the truth when the event occurs, discovering that the divination had already foreseen the future. However, the interpretations of the divination results by diviners are not always accurate.

To give a simple and common example, a fortune teller lifts the fog of fate and sees a yellowish-green five-pointed star. She thinks it's some kind of unique star, but it might actually just be a starfruit sitting on a table.

"Thank you for your help, I understand what you mean." Rice calmly expressed her gratitude to Athena.

"But... my God! How could this be?!" Godric was not as calm as Rice, because this time he had truly predicted Helga's death.

Even more frightening is that this prophecy echoes Salazar's prophecy. The two prophecies complement each other, greatly increasing the likelihood of the outcome being true.

Athena pondered for a moment, then decided this was a good opportunity and said, "Gentlemen, Olympus also possesses some rare treasures that can prolong life—"

"Thank you for your kindness, but we also have ways to prolong life." Rice politely declined Athena's gift. "We have some things to attend to, so let's end our conversation here."

Athena, understanding the implied meaning, immediately rose to take her leave and departed from the principal's office.

"Salazar, we have to do something!" Godric couldn't sit still as soon as Athena left. He hurriedly stood up and went to Rice to ask for his help.

"Let's go talk to Helga first." Rice knew the crux of the problem.

As I said before: there are many ways to prolong life, but Helga must accept them.

Soon, there was another knock on Helga's office door.

As soon as the door closed, Godric couldn't wait to tell Helga about the prophecy they had just made.

Helga remained silent for a full minute after hearing this.

"Salazar made a similar prophecy, so... well, I was wondering if we should call Rowena over?" Finally, Godric couldn't stand the atmosphere any longer and broke the silence between the three of them.

"There's no need," Helga shook her head.

"I will embrace death as if I were meeting an old friend." Her tone was normal, and there was nothing unusual about it.

When Rice heard this, he felt something was off, and then he remembered the "grand occasion" when he met Helga in Egypt.

To be fair, if it was this kind of hug, then Helga's death was quite lively.

Godric was somewhat anxious. He wanted to persuade Helga to take the prophecy seriously, but Helga seemed to have guessed what he wanted to say and raised her hand to signal him to shut up.

"Life and death are like the rising and setting of the sun; they are the natural order of things in the world. There's nothing to be afraid of, nor is there any need to make a fuss," Helga said slowly. "Besides, I'm already quite old, so it's normal that my lifespan is running out."

Rice and Godric both sighed.

After Godric shut his mouth, it was Rice's turn to speak.

"Aren't you really going to consider making some preparations? Rowena has experience with these things, and I also have a lot of insights. We still have some Philosopher's Stones left over."

Helga shook her head firmly.

"I've already made arrangements, so you two don't need to worry about it. As for Rowena, there's no need to say anything more to her."

Seeing how resolute Helga's will was, Rice and Godric knew that nothing they said would make a difference.

"Alright then, please contact us anytime if you change your mind. Don't be shy or hesitant."

Helga chuckled and waved for the two to leave.

"If there's anything else, please take good care of Diggory for me; he's still young."

Rice and Godric nodded silently, then walked out of Helga's office.

The two walked together toward the stairs, neither saying a word. Upon reaching the top, Rice went straight downstairs, while Godric took a deep breath and began to climb back up.

After that day, the two never mentioned the prophecy again. Everything was as usual, as if nothing had happened, and the Hogwarts campus remained peaceful.

However, the external situation changes very quickly.

Indeed, peace was enjoyed in both Britain and Greece thanks to the protection of wizards and gods. These two idyllic paradises sparked a wave of immigration, and Britain, after nearly a century, once again became the center of Europe and the world. Greece, on the other hand, successfully recreated the glory of 2,500 years ago.

In contrast, the situation in other regions is gradually deteriorating.

The peace treaty between the British Muggle government and the wizards with the Greek gods brought a brief glimmer of hope to everyone, but this hope quickly vanished due to the escalating invasion of evil spirits.

The evil spirits are appearing more and more frequently, with some areas experiencing large-scale outbreaks, creating an "evil spirit tide." Even though the local wizards chose to aid the Muggle government, they were still unable to stabilize the situation.

But these minor "turmoil" could not cross the high walls of Hogwarts and shatter the peace of the campus.

The students at Hogwarts need to focus on how to become graduate students of the professors. The aforementioned graduate student spots are all filled, giving the professors more helpful assistants and the students more teaching assistants.

Amidst all the thriving atmosphere, time flew by and it was Christmas.

Rice woke up on Christmas morning. The moment he opened his eyes, he saw a mountain of Christmas presents piled up at the foot of his bed.

Most of the gifts came from magical families in the British magical world; they weren't trying to curry favor with him, but rather it was a polite greeting.

Rice stretched lazily, snapped his fingers, and the gifts flew to him one by one.

He casually tossed aside the gifts from the family and piled them up. Rice didn't even bother to unpack them.

He noticed that it seemed that not only wizarding families were sending him Christmas gifts, but Muggle prime ministers and cabinet officials were also sending their gifts to him.

This piqued Rice's curiosity, and he wondered what the Muggles wanted to give him.

Upon opening the packages, Rice discovered that the Prime Minister had given her a mechanical watch, while the Cabinet Secretary had given her a fountain pen. Both gifts were clearly luxury items from their region, and likely custom-made.

Rice had little interest in these things.

But just as he was about to put the things back, an interesting thought occurred to him: Could Muggles have tampered with these gifts?

Rice had read the book, so he knew the methods Muggles liked to use—eavesdropping, location tracking, and even putting bombs in gifts.

So he became interested again and disassembled both gifts into parts, but found no suspicious parts inside.

"I wonder if they know that Muggle technology is ineffective within the Hogwarts Castle grounds." Rice speculated about the Muggle minds with the utmost malice.

"Forget it, let's judge by actions, not intentions; no one is perfect by intentions." Rice suppressed the strange thoughts in his mind, but decided to inform the Ministry of Magic so that they would not send anything over for the Muggle government in the future.

After a quick sorting, Rice tossed aside all the gifts he wasn't interested in and started unpacking the ones that did.

Daphne gave herself a winter robe; Astoria gave herself a music box. The box was made of sterling silver and engraved with a snake; tapping the snake's head would automatically play music; Cedric gave himself a small doll that could help him fold clothes; Hermione gave him a box of sugar-free pastries—Rice took a bite and felt that it lacked the soul of pastries.

Athena, representing the Greek gods, also sent some good things.

She gave him several old books, probably original works from their era.

Rice felt that these things should actually be given to Rowena, but he happily accepted them anyway, because he could give the books to Rowena for Christmas the following year.

Dumbledore's gift was very creative; he made a quill pen from a phoenix feather from Fawkes, which Rice happily accepted. It was a really nice gift. It's warm to hold while writing, perfect for winter.

However, Rice is unsure whether using it in the summer will have any negative effects.

As a respectable person, Rice didn't forget to send gifts to his friends—as for those magical families who weren't familiar with him and were just trying to get close to him, he would just send them a greeting card in return.

He gave Daphne and Astoria each a pair of boots, prepared a beautiful notebook for Hermione, and bought Cedric a pair of wrist braces to prevent him from injuring his wrists under the heavy workload.

As for his three old friends, Rice had also prepared gifts: Helga received a large box of snacks gathered from all over the world, Godric was a bottle of red wine that was quite famous among Muggles, and for Rowena, Rice simply gave her a few books.

He knew Rowena well, so he was sure to give her a gift; a book was the perfect choice.

Just as Rice finished putting away the last gift, a letter floated in.

However, calling it a letter is not entirely accurate, as it is more like a note.

The note was simple; Godric asked him to come to the principal's office.

Rice shrugged, put on his clothes, and headed to the eighth floor of the castle.

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.

Here's the update. It's a bit late, but I still wish everyone a Happy Halloween!

(I'm going to write the next chapter now, you guys go to sleep first. Good night!)

(End of this chapter)