Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts...

Chapter 62 Dumbledore, Thank You

Rice silently left the secret space under the fourth-floor corridor and returned to the academy's lounge.

Leaning back in his armchair, Rice fell into thought.

In Rice's view, most of the levels were suspiciously easy to design. If he were to design them, the destructive power could be increased dozens of times. For example, instead of using devil nets under the trapdoors, he could replace them with sharpened wooden stakes, and then plant some hallucinogenic magical plants on the inner walls of the passages. The hundreds of flying keys would actively attack anyone they saw, and the keys that could open the doors would not be mixed in, but would be carried by the level designer. The same applies to the pieces of the giant wizard chess game. What's the point of playing? Just attack any intruder you see. Why bother with rules for a thief?

Rice could easily come up with a few improvement ideas to increase the difficulty of the level guarding that mysterious item by several levels. He didn't believe that Professor Dumbledore wouldn't have thought of it.

Combined with the empty room at the end of the level, the answer becomes obvious.

Dumbledore didn't hide the item in the secret room under the fourth-floor corridor at all; he likely carried it with him at all times. And those puzzle-like challenges were more like a test Dumbledore was putting on the children. If Dumbledore actually believed these elaborate challenges could stop intruders, then Rice should seriously consider whether he had dementia.

A test for the children... a test for the children!

Rice's thoughts suddenly paused on this word.

If we follow this hypothesis, the levels in the secret space make perfect sense. And upon closer inspection, the secret space is indeed very well designed, with moderate difficulty and guaranteed safety, making it perfect for children to play with.

Dumbledore may have other motives, after all, building such a space is quite time-consuming and laborious, and Rice thinks it is most likely for fishing.

"Which child is Dumbledore trying to nurture with all this effort?" The thought had barely crossed Rice's mind when she had the answer.

The boy who survived a great calamity, the savior of the wizarding world, the rising star of Gryffindor—who could be more suitable than him?

Rice puts himself in Dumbledore's shoes and gradually dispels the fog surrounding the truth.

Dumbledore first convinced those with ulterior motives that he had hidden a treasure in the school, then designed a series of brain-teasing puzzles for this treasure—the difficulty of which was just right for first-year wizards. As for the three-headed dog at the door, its purpose was to keep the villain out, preventing him from seeing the mechanism under the trapdoor too early, thus disrupting Dumbledore's child-rearing game.

As for this villain with ulterior motives, he is most likely Mr. Quirrell.

Rice felt that given his current state and the frequency of his contact with Quirrell, he should be able to sense that something was wrong with Quirrell. Dumbledore sat at the same table with Quirrell every day, how could he not notice?

Rice doesn't believe he was kept in the dark.

Dumbledore's next move might be to guide Harry step by step to discover what he's hidden in the school, uncover Quirrell's plot, and then, when necessary, have Quirrell break through Cerberus's defenses to officially begin Harry's trial.

As for security, it's estimated that Dumbledore had already made arrangements.

The intelligence gathered at hand helped Rice to outline Dumbledore's plan.

After seeing through all of this, Rice couldn't help but sigh: You really know how to play the game! This old guy's really stuck in his ways.

"Where did I see you at the restaurant just now?" Rice sighed as the younger generation surpassed the older, when Daphne appeared in front of him with a small bag of food.

"I have something to do." Rice narrowed his eyes as he looked at Daphne, who was sitting across from him.

"What is it?"

"Keep it a secret."

"Oh, then I'll have this finger puff."

"Huh?!"

After chatting and joking around for a while, Rice gradually began to steer the conversation in the direction he wanted.

"Tell me, what's hidden behind the fourth-floor corridor?"

"I don't know, it must be something dangerous."

"I know~"

A flicker of curiosity crossed Daphne's eyes. "So you went in to explore? And you didn't even call me!"

I didn't take you on many adventures, but not all adventures are suitable for children.

Rice smiled. "That's right, since you know what I just did, can I—"

"Dream on!" Daphne quickly held out the éclairs to herself. "Tell me what's inside first!"

Rice described the three-headed dog and Daphne that he saw behind the door.

"There's a very rare three-headed dog behind the door!" Rice said, as if showing off.

Cerberus… Daphne silently pondered the news Rice had brought, then frowned: Why would Dumbledore and the school's professors keep a Cerberus in the corridor on the fourth floor of the school?

Following this line of thought, Daphne came to a conclusion: Professor Dumbledore had hidden something in the fourth-floor corridor and had a three-headed dog guard it.

Her curiosity was piqued.

"Is it only Cerberus?"

"I didn't notice. I just satisfied my curiosity and left." Rice said something that perfectly matched the image he had in Daphne's mind.

"Wait a minute, Cerberus is a very dangerous magical creature, you—" Daphne seemed to remember something, but stopped mid-sentence. In her opinion, even if there was a fire dragon behind the door, a wizard like Rice could escape unscathed.

"It's this." Rice showed the bottle of calming potion to Daphne. "Just one sip, and even a three-headed dog would fall into a deep sleep."

Daphne looked at the bottle of potion thoughtfully, wanting to ask for it directly but feeling a little embarrassed.

"Can I... I mean, is this medicine safe for human use?"

Rice glanced at her.

Daphne quickly added, "My sister often has nightmares at night. If we could use a potion to help her sleep..."

Rice shook his head: "This potion is too potent; it's difficult to control the dosage when used on a person. If you need it, I'll make Astoria a calming potion suitable for her later."

"Thank you." Daphne awkwardly shut her mouth.

Her sister certainly had the right tranquilizer, but Daphne, knowing she couldn't defeat Cerberus, just wanted to get her hands on the potion in Rhys's hand.

The girl was very eager to find out what the three-headed dog was guarding. She knew things that Rice didn't, so that Rice wouldn't look down on her, and she would definitely not be left behind on future adventures.

Rice took in Daphne's expression. He picked up the pumpkin juice on the table, took a big gulp, and used the glass to cover the slightly upturned corners of his mouth.

"Dumbledore, thank you," Rhys said, offering his heartfelt thanks to Dumbledore.

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.

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(End of this chapter)