Chapter 380 Opening the door to the new world
"Hermione, please wait a moment!" Les called out to Hermione who was walking hurriedly, intending to have a good chat with this little girl from a Muggle family.
"What's the matter?" Hermione stopped and turned to look at Les with a puzzled look.
"I'd like to ask you about a rather special concept. Have you heard of the Internet?" Les told Hermione what he had read about the Internet in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The little girl blinked: it was the first time she met a wizard other than the Weasley family who was so interested in Muggle inventions.
"We can talk sometime." She agreed to introduce the new gadget to Les.
"That's great." Rice responded happily.
The next morning, after breakfast, Hermione came to the long table of Slytherin College.
"Do you have classes in the morning? If not, why don't we go to the library together?" Hermione came over, naturally intending to discuss the Internet with Les.
Les raised his head and gave her a strange look.
Hermione's appearance also attracted the attention of Daphne and Astoria. They were also very curious about why this brown-haired girl from Ravenclaw came here to invite Les to go to the library with him.
The two had indeed dealt with Hermione several times before, so they were not strangers, but after the start of school this year, the frequency of this guy's contact with them dropped significantly, which made the two of them become distant from her.
"Well, let's go. We don't have classes this morning." Les recalled his schedule and found that he indeed had no classes in the morning, so he accepted Hermione's invitation and planned to go to the library with her to discuss the "advanced" inventions of Muggles.
Hearing Les' answer, Daphne and Astoria looked at each other, their curiosity was completely aroused.
Rice talked to Hermione for a few words, and after confirming that the other party had time, he left the hall directly. Daphne and Astoria were a little hesitant, not sure whether they should follow to see what was going on - in fact, they would not object to Rice in the past, and this kind of change in the non-magical world should be known to more people.
When the two were hesitating, Malfoy appeared. He looked around furtively and saw that there were few people around and that Les Lint had left again, so he came over decisively.
"Hi, Daphne!" He pretended to be very natural and sat down next to Daphne.
Seeing that the person coming was Malfoy, Daphne's face suddenly darkened and she asked unhappily, "What's the matter?"
Before the holiday, Malfoy boasted to his friends that he would convince his father to buy him a Firebolt. However, he didn't expect that he managed to convince his father but failed with his mother.
Being rejected by one vote, he could no longer get the Firebolt from his parents. If he returned empty-handed, he would definitely be laughed at by his friends. More importantly, he didn't have the Firebolt, but Potter and Diggory did. There was no doubt that he would be at a disadvantage in the competition with them.
If this caused the team to lose the game, it would be a disastrous consequence. So even though Malfoy could feel Daphne's rejection of him, he still asked, "Um... I heard that you have an unused Firebolt..."
When he said this, he really had stars in his eyes.
An unused Firebolt! This is a crime! Why would Professor Flitwick do this? Giving such a great broom to someone who can't fly, leaving the world's most advanced broom to gather dust in a cold broom room, and then gradually become obsolete under the baptism of time...
Malfoy disapproved of this behavior from the bottom of his heart and thought it was such a waste.
"Impossible. I won't lend it to you." Daphne understood Malfoy's intention after hearing only the first half of the sentence.
Even if she had no prejudice against Malfoy and others, she didn't want to lend her broom to a boy. She felt disgusted just thinking about it.
"Why?" Malfoy didn't expect that he would be rejected directly. He was going to offer some benefits. "I'm not lending it for free. I'm paying for it. Daphne, for the sake of Slytherin House, you should rent me the broom. With the Firebolt, we have a greater chance of winning the Quidditch Cup, and the Quidditch Cup accounts for a high score in the competition for the House Cup. This is not just my business, it's about the honor of the house."
Daphne's eyebrows rose.
It would have been fine if she didn't mention the college, but as soon as Slytherin was mentioned, her anger grew even more intense.
Protect the honor of Slytherin House? Are you worthy of that?! The best way to protect the honor of Slytherin is for you to quit the house.
"Are you using the college to pressure me?" Daphne asked, suppressing her anger and staring into Malfoy's eyes.
Malfoy looked away, not daring to look her in the face, but his mouth was not idle: "That's not what I meant, but the absence of the Firebolt does have a great impact on the game. I think a true Slytherin with the Slytherin spirit will definitely not stand idly by at this time."
Daphne's rage grew.
"Ha! What a real Slytherin! A real Slytherin will not lend a broom to a bunch of clowns like you who don't train seriously and hope to turn the tide by borrowing a broom before the game! Listen carefully, Malfoy, you are the least qualified person to discuss the Slytherin spirit with me. If Salazar Slytherin were to be resurrected, the first person he would expel would be people like you!"
Daphne's voice was so loud that it attracted the attention of people around her, and Malfoy's face turned red at a speed visible to the naked eye.
He stood up from his seat abruptly, took two steps back, and then lowered his voice to say to Daphne angrily: "Even if Slytherin is resurrected, he has no right to expel me! If you want to expel students, you have to get through the school board first!"
After saying this, Malfoy ran away quickly, fearing that Daphne would react and catch up with him and give him a hard blow.
Daphne really wanted to give him a vicious curse, but was stopped by Astoria - it would be too conspicuous to do it in the auditorium, and he would definitely be put in solitary confinement. If his sister was really unhappy, he could punish him at another time and place.
"It's such a good deal for him." Daphne said hatefully as she watched Malfoy's departing back.
She suddenly remembered something and turned to look at her sister: "I remember that the Quidditch Seeker of Ravenclaw House was that Qiu?"
"Yes." Astoria also remembered the name her sister mentioned. She was a fourth-year Ravenclaw student and was very beautiful.
"I've made up my mind." Daphne's face showed a determined look, "I will lend the broom to Qiu Zhang for free."
Astoria raised an eyebrow but didn't object.
The broom is my sister's personal property and it is her freedom to do with it as she pleases.
As for Daphne, she felt that she would be happy to do anything that could make Malfoy feel annoyed.
In the library, Rice had already found a table and sat down with Hermione.
"I don't know much about the Internet." Hermione said straight to the point, saying that she only had a vague understanding of this new gadget. She only knew that her father's clinic would use it to receive appointment emails.
"The Internet connects computers together - it's a virtual connection. To be more specific, it's a bit like the Floo Network, except that the fireplace is replaced by a computer. Information is sent to the other end just like a person jumping into a fireplace. Conversely, the information being sent may also be hijacked in the middle..."
After Hermione said this, Rice gained a deeper understanding of the Internet.
"Through the Internet, patients can make appointments for dental visits more conveniently - of course, calling is still the main form. You should know what a phone call is, right?"
Rice nodded. Although he didn't understand the principle very well, he knew that the telephone was a device used by Muggles for long-distance communication and he could use it.
"Then how does the Internet do all this?" Rice asked in confusion. He wanted to understand the principles of the Internet and try to replicate it in Hogwarts.
Hermione shook her head. This question was too much for a fourteen-year-old girl, especially since she had spent most of her energy on learning magic in the past few years.
"Maybe it's the same principle as the telephone?" she said to Les uncertainly.
Les: “So what’s the principle of the telephone?”
Hermione: ...
She thought about it and told Les that sound is transmitted through vibration. You connect the two cups with a thin wire and then stretch the wire straight. After that, even if the two people are dozens of meters apart, they can still communicate with each other through the cups.
Les:!
He felt that Hermione had opened the door to a new world for him.
"Of course, modern telephones don't rely on these to transmit sound. Instead, they use electricity. The book I read during the holidays mentioned that it is vibrations that convert sound waves into electrical signals. The electrical signals are then transmitted through the telephone lines and finally converted back into vibrations, thus restoring the sound."
Les:…
"Sorry, could you please repeat that?" He felt like he just took a breath longer and couldn't understand what Hermione was saying.
Hermione patiently took about half an hour to explain the principle to Rice.
"Amazing!" Rice only knew that lightning could cause huge damage, but he didn't expect that it contained such magical knowledge.
How did the Muggles do it?! Why did they come up with this knowledge? Not only the use of electricity, but also the means of storing electricity. If I could store magic in a medium like the Muggles store electricity in batteries...
New ideas popped up in a string like bubbles in champagne, echoing in Rice's mind.
This is the effect of being exposed to the wisdom accumulated by Muggles for thousands of years. Any flash of light can turn into a flash of inspiration in the mind of Les, an "old antique".
Rice firmly believes that combining the wisdom of Muggles with magic may lead to infinite possibilities, which will completely subvert the wizarding world.
This is the future of the wizarding world.
Moreover, after learning about the various inventions of Muggles, Rice found a way to completely counter Muggles. A wizard who has mastered the field of "electricity" is probably the wizard who can bring the greatest suppression to Muggles in the first place - the water, fire, earth and wind that he and his old friends have are actually small scenes, and the field of electricity can really bring unimaginable blows to Muggles.
"You know so much!" Hermione's explanation opened Les' eyes, and he couldn't help but praise the knowledgeable little witch.
"It's nothing. I just flip through those public school textbooks during the summer vacation." Hermione felt a little embarrassed by Rice's direct praise.
"You actually have the energy to teach yourself some Muggle courses during the holidays?!" Les asked in astonishment.
This was the first time he had met someone who was so eager to learn. Except for Hermione, no one else in Hogwarts could do that, right? There were many young wizards from Muggle families in Hogwarts, but they would hardly ever touch the knowledge of the non-magical world because it was useless to them.
Do your knowledge of electromagnetic waves and ability to recite the periodic table help you with your OWLs? Not really. The examiner will not give you an excellent grade just because you know a lot about Muggle knowledge - unless you are taking the Muggle Studies exam. But this course is also very abstract. Any little wizard from a Muggle family who has taken this course will be very curious about what wizards actually study. The content of the Muggle Studies textbook is simply like a dream.
"Your future is limitless, you are a true Ravenclaw." Rice gave his highest praise for a Ravenclaw student.
A morning of research into Muggle science.
When lunch was almost here, Hermione couldn't help but ask Les: "Do you have no classes in the morning?"
"There was a History of Magic class, and I skipped it." Rice didn't care about Hermione's shocked look and told her that in his eyes, there was no class this morning.
"I won't attend classes that I think are worthless." Rice was instilling his "violent theory" into the little girl. At this point, he paused because he suddenly remembered something.
"Hey, you have Defense Against the Dark Arts this morning, right? Is it really okay to skip a class like this?"
He had seen Helga's timetable when he was working for her, and he remembered that she had a class with third-year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs this morning.
He had vaguely felt that something was a little strange when they were in the hall before, but he didn't realize it until Hermione asked him questions about it just now.
Rice felt that given the relationship between him and Helga, he couldn't skip classes. Hermione actually skipped Hufflepuff classes to "make up for the lessons" for herself. I guess she will be severely punished afterwards?
Hermione's expression changed immediately.
"Don't ask so many questions...it's okay." She responded hesitantly and vaguely.
The change in Hermione's expression made Rice realize that there was something wrong.
There was something wrong with this girl, she was hiding something from me. Les quickly came to a conclusion.
A small note turned into a paper bird and flew out of the library, and soon brought back the information that Rice wanted.
[Ms. Granger is not absent today. —White]
Les's eyebrows rose.
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