Chapter 426: Rice: It's still not too late to jump out of the car

The train was moving forward in an orderly manner. Les held his chin with one hand, staring at the scenery outside the window in a daze.

Outside the window was an endless meadow, and in the distance was a river, a peaceful and idyllic scene. But somehow, Rice always felt a little uneasy.

This bad premonition has been with him for a while, and he couldn't find the source of this uneasiness for a while.

It just so happened that he had nothing to do on the train, so he might as well examine his inner self. Rice began to review his memories, trying to find the source of the abnormality.

He closed his eyes as if he had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

He flipped through the memories page by page like a photo album, and then Rice paused in front of a memory: it was a crystal ball flashing red light.

'Rowena Ravenclaw...' Les found the source of his uneasiness.

The phone call from her crystal ball was full of weirdness. First of all, how did Rowena know that she was mistaken for the new generation of Dark Lord by the Daily Prophet in the dungeon? Aries was brought to Hogwarts before he had time to read the newspaper of that day. So theoretically, Rowena should not know about this, unless Helga went to visit Rowena in the dungeon with a fresh copy of the Daily Prophet after him, but the probability of this happening was very small.

Rice knew what this meant, but he just didn't want to touch the answer.

"Hogwarts is about to face an eventful year." Rice couldn't help but sigh.

"Ok?"

"what?"

The Greengrass sisters, who were huddled drowsily in the corner of the carriage, suddenly woke up.

"In the new year, many things will happen in Hogwarts, and many new challenges will arise...Are you ready?" Les' voice echoed in the carriage.

"Of course!" Daphne responded happily. She was just worried that the next school year would be too boring and she would have no place to improve herself. Now she heard from Rice that there would be "big changes" next semester, how could she not be excited?

Astoria was a little more steadier, but also nodded confidently.

She already possesses the power of the domain, and now she is incredibly strong!

"Is that so? That's great." Les stopped talking, but deep down he asked himself a question: Is he ready? Rowena Ravenclaw's challenge is waiting for him at Hogwarts not far away.

He still has time to jump out of the car.

wow-

Just then, the door of the box was pushed open, and two red-haired young men squeezed in one after the other.

"Fred, George, what are you doing here?" Les was a little curious about the purpose of their visit, but he still moved towards the window to make some space for them.

"I'll tell you a shocking secret—"

"Fred and I will no longer be going to Hogwarts this semester!"

The three people in the carriage raised their heads at the same time and looked at Fred and George.

"Can I know the reason? Although Hogwarts does not prohibit students from dropping out, such cases are extremely rare after all." Rice's expression became unusually serious.

This was a student dropping out, so he had to ask the reason. After all, he could be considered the founder of the school and had the obligation to improve the school's shortcomings.

Rice believes that people's observation ability has its limits. A person can tidy up and manage things in an orderly manner, but there are always blind spots in the perspective, and dirt and unbearable things will grow in the shadows. At this time, sincere advice is very precious, it can become the best cleaner to clean up the filth.

In theory, students can graduate from Hogwarts and make a living after passing the OWLs, but in reality, few students do this. Almost everyone will stay in Hogwarts for seven years and graduate after experiencing the baptism of NEWT. Only a few people will choose to drop out early because of being involved in major cases, such as Hagrid and Newt. But Fred and George obviously do not belong to this category - although they are keen on playing pranks, they really don't make big mistakes, but they make small mistakes all the time, and they are the type who know what they are doing.

This is also why Rice wants to find out why the two dropped out of school.

"It's [suspending school] rather than [dropping out]," Fred corrected Les's wording, "George and I are just temporarily not attending school for a period of time... as short as a year, as long as indefinitely."

"Oh?" Les' eyes flashed with approval.

Unlike dropping out of school, what Fred and George are doing now is quite consistent with Rice's teaching ideas.

Unlike ordinary teachers, Rice has always believed that "students need internships." In other words, it means "unity of knowledge and practice." You should learn knowledge in school, but you should also practice how to use knowledge in society. This is why he tries to prepare experience for Daphne and her classmates every school year.

Fred and George's behavior of stopping halfway through school to gain experience is quite consistent with Rice's aesthetic.

"It's the joke shop, right?" Astoria guessed why Fred and George decided to drop out of school.

"That's right!" Fred snapped his fingers. "George and I can't wait even a day!"

Ever since they raised enough money from Astoria that day, he and George had been in a state of anxiety.

According to their original plan, they were going to stay in Hogwarts for two more years, saving money and building up their reputation, but the sudden arrival of a huge sum of money disrupted their plans.

They really couldn't bear the temptation of having their own joke shop.

So they secretly sent a letter to Headmaster Dumbledore, asking him to take a year off to start a business in Hogsmeade. Of course, in the letter, they specifically mentioned that if Dumbledore disagreed, they would go back to school and never tell their parents.

Even though he had a mountain of letters to answer, Dumbledore still found time to send replies to the two of them, and kept his promise without telling the Weasleys.

After communicating with each other, Dumbledore agreed to Fred and George's application for leave of absence, and the reply letter was sent at the moment when the Hogwarts Express departed.

"That's great," Rice said with a genuine smile on his face, "I hope your business is booming."

Fred and George chuckled.

"But if we open a store in Hogsmeade Village, we will have some very clear competitors." Astoria thought further ahead and was already considering the problems and challenges that the two would face.

Indeed, Hogsmeade has had a store that has been operating for many years and specializes in prank products: Zonko's Joke Shop.

Fred and George chose to open a store in Hogsmeade, so Zonko's Joke Shop was a must-see.

It is difficult for new saplings to thrive under the shadow of a big tree. People are inertial. Why would customers who are used to going to Zonko's Joke Shop come to your store, Fred and George? Not to mention other students, even Fred and George are regular customers of this store!

Astoria only had to think about it for a moment before she realized the challenges Fred and George would face, challenges she had never thought of before.

"Of course." Fred's expression was still relaxed. "I know Zuko's products very well. Ours are more interesting. More importantly, we still have two trump cards."

"What trump card?" Daphne asked curiously.

"Keep it a secret for now." Fred kept it a secret.

"You'll know it anyway." George made a face at the three of them.

After informing Rice and the other two of the important decision they had made, Fred led George out of the box. It was already time for lunch.

Les gave Astoria a look, and the girl took out the ingredients she had prepared in advance.

She brought a whole beef!

The food box was enchanted, and the temperature inside was kept just right, keeping the beef at its freshest. When the lid was opened, a puff of white steam drifted away, and a piece of beef with snowflake texture appeared in front of the three people.

Daphne took out a bunch of fresh bread and matching jams, butter and other things.

Les took out a few bottles of iced juice and a grill pan. He didn't bring charcoal, but Daphne was enough.

Daphne clapped her hands and a small ball of magma appeared. After throwing the magma into the box under the baking tray, Daphne curled her lips: I didn't expect that the power of the domain could be used in this way...

Rice glanced at her and told her that this was also a practice, an exercise to precisely control the power of the field, and at the same time, he cut the beef into three-millimeter-thick slices. After applying some crushed black pepper and salt on the slices of meat and applying some oil, Rice spread the slices of meat on the baking tray.

The aroma of oil immediately emerged.

"Put some onions and some soy sauce in it. Daphne, please watch the heat." While Les was filling the baking tray with beef slices, he directed the two girls to help him.

The three of them were busy and having fun in the small box.

The barbecue was soon out of the oven. The temperature stimulated the fat in the meat texture, which made the aroma of the meat rise several levels. The smoke from the barbecue floated out of the window under the guidance of magic, and the car was unexpectedly fresh.

With such delicious food, the snacks on the cart become unnecessary.

The saleswoman was shocked when she opened the door of the compartment. She didn't expect that there would be students barbecuing on the train. However, the school and the Ministry of Magic did not prohibit this, so the saleswoman didn't say much, but just asked the three little wizards to be careful and not to set the car on fire.

The happy days passed in the blink of an eye, the sun gradually set, and Hogwarts was approaching.

Before arriving at the station, Hermione found them and brought them a piece of news: she heard that there would be a very mysterious big event at Hogwarts this year.

"Have you heard the rumors?" Hermione came to find Rice and the Greengrass sisters to confirm the truth of the matter. In her eyes, the three of them were all powerful people, and the information obtained from them must be the most accurate.

"Not at all." Daphne and Astoria shook their heads at the same time, while Les didn't respond to Hermione's words.

Hermione narrowed her eyes: Rice's attitude spoke volumes.

"I understand. See you at school."

She left in a hurry - the terminal was approaching and she had to hurry to change into her wizard robe.

"So what's the big deal?" Even Daphne realized that Les obviously knew something they didn't.

At this point, there was no point in hiding it any longer, so Rice briefly told the two of them about the upcoming event at Hogwarts.

"Hogwarts is about to host a worldwide competition of an unprecedented scale. You must perform well and don't embarrass Hogwarts." Rice's tone was filled with uncontrollable excitement.

The next year was the time for Hogwarts to prove its truth. He had waited too long for this. The time had finally come to test whether the seeds sown a thousand years ago were sweet or not.

According to the process he and Helga had discussed before, each college would send one or two students to represent the school in the competition and compete for the honor of the school. In the end, a world ranking would be created, and each place would have a certain number of points. In the end, the rankings among the major schools would be divided according to the points. In this way, Hogwarts had a great advantage. After all, in Rice's view, it was a piece of cake for Hogwarts to take the top three places.

He would cheer for the lovely Daphne and Astoria. Let them wash away the bad reputation of Slytherin House and promote the true "Slytherin spirit"!

Daphne was as excited as Les. She couldn't wait to show off her skills in front of young wizards from all over the world.

Astoria was keenly aware that Rice's choice of words was strange. He used "you guys". Did he mean that he didn't plan to participate in this game?

Rice didn't go into too much detail about the competition, but told Daphne and Astoria that Dumbledore would explain the details at the opening party.

This made both of them a little absent-minded.

Daphne and Astoria were not the only ones who were distracted. Although the news was supposed to be kept secret, it was inevitable. By the time the students arrived at the Hogwarts Great Hall, the rumor that "a super-large event would be held this year" was almost known to everyone.

This resulted in an extremely strange atmosphere in the first half of the opening ceremony. Everyone was in a state of being almost absent-minded, and everyone was waiting for Dumbledore to step forward and break the window paper.

After the sorting ceremony, Dumbledore stood up as expected. Everyone present shut their mouths and stared at the old headmaster with white hair and beard with expectation.

"It seems that everyone is well-informed. However, before we make the announcement, please let us welcome our new professor, Ms. Arius, with warm applause!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a gust of wind swept through the auditorium. The students subconsciously bent down and covered their robes with their hands to prevent anything from being blown away.

When the storm died down, everyone found a beautiful young woman sitting in the teacher's seat. She had an Eastern European face and a pair of eagle-like sharp eyes.

When Les heard the name "Aries", he felt something was wrong. When the wind started to blow, he suddenly understood everything.

That woman is here.

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Here’s an update, good night everyone~