Chapter 541 I will embrace death like meeting an old friend
"What do you want to divine?" Athena did not respond to Godric's question immediately, but asked him a question in return.
"Wealth? Longevity? Fortune? It can't be marriage, right?" Athena made a little joke.
"I want to predict a person's life span. To put it bluntly, I want to know whether she will die in the near future." Godric said it quite bluntly.
He had thought it would be difficult for Athena to answer such a specific question, but he had not expected her to actually say that she had an instrument that could be used for this kind of divination.
She untied the hair tie she was using and handed it to Godric.
"This is a common form of divination in our area. It is popular because the process is extremely simple, even a five-year-old child can do it."
"Oh?" Les and Godric both became interested.
Feeling the gazes of the two, Athena couldn't help but feel a little excited. She knew that friendship was built through mutual help.
Now that two people have asked me for help and I have responded, wouldn't it be natural for them to lend a helping hand when I have problems in the future?
"Light this rope and turn it into ashes. While it is burning, silently recite the name of the person you are fortune-telling for. Then take a bowl of clean water and pour all the remaining ashes after the rope is burned into the water. If the ashes return to their original shape in the water, the person you are fortune-telling for will soon die." Athena told Les and Godric about this magical way of divination, and they were stunned.
"Does the rope returning to its original shape mean that I'm going to die soon?" Godric asked in an extremely puzzled tone. No wonder he was so surprised, because this statement sounded like a "placebo", like a statement used to comfort others.
"Yes." Athena nodded very affirmatively.
Les was not so surprised, because it was magic after all, anything was possible, although it did sound a little counterintuitive.
"Okay, I'll try it." Godric said, and took out a silver wine glass from the cabinet beside him.
Les filled the cup with water, while Godric silently chanted Helga's name while burning Athena's hairband to ashes.
Under the control of his magic, all the ashes were thrown into the wine glass.
The ashes fell into the water. Les and Godric took a step forward together, their eyes fixed on the changes of the ashes sinking to the bottom of the water.
Athena took in the reactions of the two people, and seeing how serious they were, she had some guesses in her mind.
The only person they both valued so much was probably their mutual best friend. In other words, they were fortune-telling for Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw.
The clever Athena figured out all the key points in just a moment, and then many thoughts came to her mind.
She felt that the opportunity before her was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a perfect chance to please the Big Four at Hogwarts, and she must seize it.
The ashes of the burnt rope slowly sank into the water, and then gathered together again under the gaze of Les and Godric, gathering together at an astonishing speed, and the surface regained its luster.
In just a few seconds, the hairband that had been burnt to ashes returned to its original appearance in the water.
Les and Godric's breathing stagnated at the same time.
"This..." Godric didn't know what to say, while Rice took the hairband out of the water cup and checked it very carefully.
However, this time the inspection was just as he had perceived, there was no tampering with the hairband, but there was a faint force of fate mixed in it.
"This is a hairband woven by the three sisters of fate themselves, so it has a certain effect of revealing the future - of course, like other divination methods, it can only see a corner of the future." Athena saw the meaning implied in Les's actions, so she took the initiative to tell the two of them the origin of the hairband, and at the same time folded a nail to prevent the two from taking their anger out on her.
Rice understood what Athena meant.
There are many ways to interpret divination and prophecy. Often, you will not realize until something happens that divination has already revealed the future. However, the interpretation of the divination scene by the divinationist is not necessarily accurate.
To give a simple and popular example, the fortune teller lifted the fog of fate and saw a yellow-green five-pointed star. She thought it was some kind of unique star, but in fact it might just be a star fruit on the table.
"Thank you for your help, I understand what you mean." Les thanked Athena calmly.
"But... my God! How could this happen?!" Godric was not as calm as Rice, because this time he really predicted Helga's death.
What's even more terrifying is that this prophecy also echoes Salazar's prediction. The two predictions complement each other, greatly increasing the authenticity of the result.
Athena thought for a moment and felt that this was a good opportunity, so she said, "You two, Olympus still has some rare treasures that can prolong life—"
"Thank you for your kindness, but we also have ways to prolong our lives." Rice declined Athena's gift. "We have something else to do, so let's end our chat today."
Athena understood the meaning of the music and stood up to say goodbye and left the principal's office.
"Salazar, we have to do something!" As soon as Athena left, Godric could no longer sit still. He stood up in a hurry and walked to Les to ask for his help.
"Go talk to Helga first." Les knew the key to the problem.
As I said: there are many ways to prolong life, but Helga needs to accept it.
Soon, there was another knock on Helga's office door.
As soon as the door closed, Godric couldn't wait to tell Helga the prophecy they had just made.
Helga remained silent for a full minute after hearing this.
"Salazar also made a similar prophecy, so...well, I was wondering if we should call Rowena over?" Finally, Godric couldn't stand the current atmosphere anymore and spoke to break the silence between the three.
"That's not necessary." Helga shook her head.
"I will embrace death like meeting an old friend." Her tone was normal, and there was nothing unusual about it.
When Les heard this, he always felt something was wrong, and then he remembered the "grand occasion" when Helga met him in Egypt.
To be honest, if it was this kind of hug, then Helga's death would have been quite lively.
Godric was a little 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 just like the rising and setting of the sun. They are the laws of the world. There is nothing to be afraid of, and there is no need to make a fuss." Helga said slowly, "Besides, I am already very old, so it is normal that I will not live long."
Rice and Godric sighed in unison.
After Godric shut up, it was Les' turn to speak. "Are you really not considering making some preparations? Rowena has experience in these matters, I also have a lot of experience, and I still have some Philosopher's Stones left."
Helga shook her head firmly.
"I've already made arrangements, so you two don't have to worry about it. There's no need to say anything more to Rowena."
Seeing how determined Helga was, Rice and Godric realized that it was useless for them to say anything.
"Well, if you change your mind, feel free to contact us. Don't be shy or embarrassed."
Helga chuckled and waved them both out.
"If there is anything else, please help me take care of Diggory. He is still young after all."
Les and Godric nodded silently and walked out of Helga's office.
The two walked towards the stairs together, without saying a word. When they reached the stairs, Les went directly downstairs, while Godric took a deep breath and climbed up.
After today, the two never mentioned the prophecy again. Everything was as usual, as if nothing had happened, and the Hogwarts campus was still peaceful.
However, the situation outside is changing rapidly.
Britain and Greece did enjoy peace because of the protection of wizards and gods. These two peaceful places, like paradise, triggered a wave of immigration. Britain once again became the center of Europe and the world after nearly a century. Greece successfully reproduced the grand occasion of 2,500 years ago.
In contrast, the situation in other regions is gradually deteriorating.
The peace treaty signed between the British Muggle government and wizards and the Greek gods brought a brief hope to everyone, but this hope soon disappeared without a trace as the invasion of evil spirits intensified.
Evil spirits appeared more and more frequently, and in some areas they even appeared in large numbers, creating a "tide of evil spirits." Even if the local wizards chose to assist the Muggle government, they still could not stabilize the situation.
But these little "disturbances" cannot cross the high walls of Hogwarts and blow away the tranquility of the campus.
What Hogwarts students need to focus on is how to become the professors' graduate students. The graduate student quotas mentioned above have been filled, so the professors have some good helpers, and the students have a few more teaching assistants.
In the midst of prosperity, time jumped to Christmas in the blink of an eye.
Les woke up early on Christmas morning, and the moment he opened his eyes, he saw a mountain of Christmas presents at the foot of his bed.
Most of the gifts were sent by magical families in the British wizarding world. They were not trying to please him, but rather it was a ceremonial greeting.
Rice stretched lazily, snapped his fingers, and the gifts flew in front of him one by one.
He threw all the things sent by the family aside and piled them up. Rice was too lazy to even open them.
He noticed that it seemed that not only wizarding families were sending Christmas presents to him, but the Muggle Prime Minister and cabinet officials also asked people to send their gifts to him.
This aroused Les' curiosity, and he wanted to know what the Muggle wanted to give him.
After unpacking the package, Rice found that the Prime Minister gave him a mechanical watch, and the cabinet civil servant gave him a fountain pen. It can be seen that both gifts are luxury goods from their side, and they are probably 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 it be that Muggles had tampered with these gifts?
Rice had read the books, so he knew the methods that Muggles liked to use - eavesdropping, positioning, and even putting bombs in gifts.
So he became interested again and took the two gifts apart into parts, but he did not find any suspicious parts inside.
"I wonder if they know that Muggle technology is ineffective within the confines of Hogwarts Castle." Les speculated about the Muggle minds with the greatest malice.
"Forget it, judging by deeds rather than hearts, no one is perfect." Rice suppressed the strange thoughts in his mind, but also decided to inform the Ministry of Magic and ask them not to bring bags of things for the Muggle government in the future.
After a simple sorting, Rice threw aside all the gifts that he was not interested in, and then began to open those that interested him.
Daphne gave him a winter robe, Astoria gave him a music box, which was made of sterling silver and had a snake carved on it, and it played music automatically when you knocked on the snake's head, Cedric gave him a doll that could help him fold his clothes, and Hermione gave him a box of sugar-free snacks - Les took a bite and felt that there was no soul in the pastry.
Athena, representing the Greek gods, also sent some good things.
She gave away a few old books that were quite old, which might be the original works of their time.
Les felt that these things should actually be given to Rowena, but he still accepted them happily because he could give these books to Rowena next Christmas.
Dumbledore's gift was very creative. He made a feather pen with the feather of the phoenix Fawkes. Rice was very happy to accept it. This gift was really good. When writing, it was warm in the hand, which was very suitable for winter.
However, Rice is not sure whether using it in summer will have any negative effects.
As a respectable man, Rice did not forget to send gifts to his friends - as for those magic families that he was not familiar with and had simply come to know him by force, he just sent them a greeting card.
He gave Daphne and Astoria a pair of boots each, prepared a beautiful notebook for Hermione, and bought Cedric a pair of wrist guards to prevent him from injuring his wrists under the pressure of excessive workload.
As for his three old friends, Rice also prepared gifts: Helga got a big box of snacks collected from all over the place, Godric got a bottle of red wine that was very famous among Muggles, and for Rowena, Rice just found a few books and gave her.
He knew Rowena very well, so when preparing a gift for her, a book would be the right choice.
Just as Rice put away the last gift, a letter floated in.
However, it is not accurate to call it a letter, because it is more like a note.
The content of the note was simple: Godric asked him to come to the principal's office.
Les shrugged his shoulders, put on his clothes and walked to the eighth floor of the castle.
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Here's the update, although it's a little late, I still wish everyone a happy Halloween!
(I'm going to write the next chapter, you guys go to sleep first. Good night!)
