The Rune Mage Starting at Hogwarts

Whoever loses will go 0-2, essentially eliminating their chances of winning the final championship.

Therefore, the match between the two houses is still attracting a lot of attention. Many Gryffindors have also gone to cheer for Hufflepuff, hoping that they can deliver another crushing defeat to Slytherin and completely eliminate their hopes of winning the championship.

Harry deliberately chose this day to carry out his plan and discussed the specifics with Ritz.

The three of them planned to act after Felch and his cat left the office.

Hermione kept watch nearby and cleaned up any traces and smells they left behind after getting the items, making sure Felch and his men didn't find out.

Harry and Ron went inside wearing invisibility cloaks and searched through the drawers.

As for Ryze, he said he was keeping an eye on Snape for them and also working with everyone in the Potions classroom on the wolfsbane potion.

However, he also said that if he sensed anything ominous, he would use Aery to warn Hermione in advance. He also encouraged the three of them again, giving them more confidence in the mission.

Chapter 137: The Weasley Twins

In the evening, Ryze finished practicing at the Duel Club.

As soon as he entered the Great Hall, he saw the three dejected figures sitting around the Gryffindor table.

Of course, Harry and his friends weren't the only ones who looked dejected.

At this moment, the Slytherin students in the Great Hall were celebrating loudly, it seemed that Slytherin had won Quidditch today.

To outsiders, the Gryffindor students were simply upset about Slytherin's victory.

However, Harry and his friends were clearly more downcast.

Not only did they have to endure Slytherin's revelry, but their planned operation also didn't seem to be going very well.

Ryze walked over and sat down opposite them. "I didn't have a feeling you'd been caught by Felch, so... the map isn't in Felch's office?"

“Yeah,” Ron said glumly, poking at the potatoes on his plate. “We searched Felch’s office thoroughly, but there was no parchment at all.”

"But I did see a lot of familiar things. The drawer that said 'Confiscated Items, High Danger' was almost full of Weasley family specialties... I even saw the pile of dung bombs that were confiscated from them last year, all thanks to George and Fred!"

Hermione frowned and said, "I cleared all the footprints and smells to make sure we wouldn't be found. After hearing that Harry and the others hadn't found the map, I even used a revealing charm on Felch's locker, but unfortunately, it was still fruitless."

Harry also seemed a little listless: "Ron and I discussed it and thought it might be because the drawers were full of stuff, so Felch threw away all the old stuff... After all, that map is over ten years old, maybe it was burned as waste paper a long time ago."

Seeing the three of them looking dejected, Ryze didn't rush to deny it.

He slowly sipped a glass of juice before saying to Harry, "Felch doesn't just throw away his loot. From what I understand, he even numbers the things he confiscates."

“He would carefully preserve even George’s dung bomb, so there’s no reason for him to deliberately discard a piece of paper. After all, how much space can a piece of parchment take up?”

"Since it's not there, either Felch moved it to a more secluded place, or... it has been taken by someone else."

Rizzi's words calmed the three of them down a bit.

"Can you see where it's hiding now?" Harry looked at Rhett expectantly.

Ryze closed his eyes, adopting a thoughtful expression.

A moment later, he opened his eyes and looked at Harry again.

"In my intuition, there has always been some kind of connection between you and that Marauder's Map. Although you haven't found it yet, I can sense that you will obtain it sooner or later."

"The future?" Harry breathed a sigh of relief, then asked eagerly, "How far in the future? Next month, or before the end of this semester?"

“It might not be that short,” Rez shook his head slightly. “My feeling is that it will be at least a year from now.”

"A year later? That's too long!"

Harry seemed a little anxious.

He already knew the Marauder's Map's function; he knew it could display a map of Hogwarts and its secret passages, as well as the names of everyone in the castle, helping them to travel more safely at night.

But more importantly, it was the finest alchemical artifact that his father and godfather had painstakingly created in their youth.

It even retains a trace of their youthful will!

He really wanted to learn more about his father's youth through that map as soon as possible.

Harry then looked at Ryze pleadingly: "Ryze, since you can sense it, is there any way to shorten this time? You also want to get that map as soon as possible to study the technology on it, right?"

Ryze remained silent for a moment before continuing, "I can sense that it's actually not far from you, it just needs a trigger."

"Not far from us?" Ron looked around nervously, then whispered to Reese, "You mean, it's in this hall... on someone?"

Rizz said softly, "The images I can see are blurry, but I do see a touch of red that belongs to the lion. Perhaps it is hidden somewhere in Gryffindor or on someone."

"In Gryffindor?" Harry and Ron exclaimed in surprise.

Hermione analyzed Rhett's premonition: "If Rhett's premonition is correct, it means that in the more than ten years since Felch confiscated it, some Gryffindor student took it back from Felch... Either he is still a Gryffindor student, or he has graduated and hidden the Marauder's Map somewhere in Gryffindor."

“That’s right, that’s what I meant,” Rizz stood up and looked at Harry, whose fighting spirit had been rekindled. “Since it’s destined for you, Harry, as long as you pay attention to your surroundings, you will always find its traces.”

He waved his hand, indicating that he should return to his head table: "However, I can't enter your Gryffindor common room, so until my divination abilities can sense more, the rest is up to you to investigate. Anyway, best of luck!"

After saying that, Ryze nodded to the three of them and returned to Ravenclaw's long table.

He didn't stay in the auditorium for very long.

After quickly finishing the smoked beef and pie in front of him, Rizzi prepared to leave the castle to find today's raven quest.

However, not far from the entrance of the hall, while still walking on the castle steps, Ryze keenly noticed two furtive figures behind a huge gargoyle statue on his right.

Clearly, the other side had also heard Ryze's footsteps. They quickly dealt with something and then emerged from the shadows.

“Wow, look who this is! It’s our kind and noble Prince Black!” Fred greeted Raz with an exaggerated smile.

“However, it’s not like a prince would walk alone outside the castle on such a cold night. Would you like us to accompany you for a walk?” George followed up and greeted Ryze as well.

Ryze stopped and looked at the two twins who were almost indistinguishable by their appearance.

"Good evening, gentlemen Weasley. I am no prince, and taking walks around the castle has always been my personal hobby, just as what you are doing now is your hobby."

"However, Mr. Felch may be here soon, so you'd better speed things up."

Chapter 138: The Quartet and the Wesley Twins

"Don't mention that old mute Felch right now, he's busy and won't be here for a while."

Fred blinked, then took a step closer, his tone becoming much more friendly: "Speaking of which, we haven't formally thanked you yet, about the owl you gave to little Ronnie."

“That’s quite a majestic little fellow,” George chimed in. “Percy was a bit envious when he saw it, thinking that little Ronnie didn’t deserve such a fine owl. After all, Percy probably dreams of owning his own owl.”

“Little Ronnie has to talk to it and feed it snacks every day now, afraid that it will be wronged. Even we older brothers have never enjoyed this kind of treatment.”

Ryze replied simply, "After all, that rat only infiltrated your house to avoid my cousin, and it also caused Ron quite a bit of trauma. This gift can at least soothe his spirits."

“Indeed, after finding out about that mouse, our little Ronnie and Percy were disgusted for several days. Luckily, we've never really liked it, otherwise we probably would have suffered for a few days too,” Fred shrugged, then lowered his voice. “But your gift was really perfectly timed. The principal caught the mouse on Christmas Eve, and the next morning little Ronnie received his new owl. That's incredibly efficient.”

George also dropped his playful grin: "Perhaps it's a small matter for you, 'Prince Black,' but for the Weasley family, it's a very big deal. We have to admit, we owe you a favor in this matter."

Looking at the twins' shrewd expressions, Rizzi knew they had probably guessed the truth as well.

However, they also tacitly kept this secret until they happened to run into him today and then revealed it to him.

Rizz nodded slightly to the two of them.

“Alright, let’s leave these somewhat serious topics here,” Fred said, his expression immediately brightening again after thanking Rez.

"Speaking of which, there is indeed something we'd like to ask you about."

The twins, one on each side of Ravenclaw, said, "We've heard some really interesting rumors lately over in Ravenclaw... about a brand new board game that you invented?"

Ryze nodded: "You've heard about the idea I had for Auto Chess during my vacation?"

George asked Ravenclaws curiously, "I heard that those chess pieces require both players to arrange them in a specific formation, and then they will follow orders to fight on the board. Different pieces can even cooperate with each other?"

Fred added, “This sounds much cooler than the boring traditional wizard chess. It would be a shame if such an interesting game were limited to Ravenclaw. We think the Gryffindor common room is in dire need of something this fun and new.”

Then the twins spread their hands toward Ryze together: "We tried to modify Lee Jordan's Wizard Chess based on the information we found out, but the difficulty of that Wizard Auto Chess is much higher than we imagined. So far, we can only make those pieces play simple games, and we can't make it as interesting as rumored."

“Li keeps asking us about the progress of the modification every day. We’re getting a bit of a headache from all his questions, so we wanted to ask you what kind of magic you’ve put on those chess pieces?”

Fredton paused for a moment, then quickly added, "Of course, if this is a trade secret you're planning to use to make a fortune, then pretend we didn't ask. We know the rules of the game and will never interfere with other people's financial path."

“That’s right,” George’s tone even carried a hint of pride, “Although we often take apart those gadgets in Joko’s Comedy Shop, it’s only to satisfy our own research needs. We have our own business ethics and have never sold any of the things we made. We used them ourselves.”

Rizz looked at the two twins.

These two guys did indeed have an amazing talent for pranks and inventions. The Weasleys Magical Tricks Shop they later opened even monopolized the prank prop market in the entire British wizarding world with their own invented prank props.

Ryze then looked at the Gemini: "So, you two are interested in it too?"

"Anything that makes life at Hogwarts more interesting, we're interested in!" Fred patted his chest, his tone quite confident.

“If you really intend to turn this thing into a product, you can also ask us for help,” George added. “We can handle the sales in Gryffindor, and we also have connections in Hufflepuff… As long as the piece is as interesting as the rumors say, we can even promote it to every corner of Hogwarts!”

Seeing that the Gemini were already thinking about forming an auto chess club to make big money, Ryze had to first pour cold water on them.

“The rumors you heard in Ravenclaw are true, but they were just experiments that my cousin and his friends made in four or five days based on my ideas. They are far from being a real product.”

He briefly explained the problems with the current auto chess game, such as the need for a referee to verify the economy and population of both sides to prevent cheating, the fact that only two people can play the game, and the limited variety of pieces that makes it easy to get bored.

"Aside from enabling automatic battles and piece upgrades, the current Wizarding Auto Chess is just a very immature little thing made up based on the framework of Wizarding Chess."

Although there was some regret on the Gemini's face, Fred still keenly noticed the time mentioned in Reese's words: "Four or five days... and it was done casually, that's incredibly efficient!"

They were well aware of the difficulty of Auto Chess.

After all, they've been researching based on rumors for almost a week now, and they still can't even make the pieces fight flexibly, let alone achieve those complex combinations and the fusion and upgrading of the pieces.

The fact that Riz's cousin, who had spent ten years in Azkaban, and his friend could achieve this in just four or five days caused the two brothers, who were passionate about pranks and inventions, to gasp in astonishment.

Rizzi pointedly brought up Sirius's school days: "My cousin, along with his friends, Harry's father, and Peter Pettigrew, who had been thrown into Azkaban, were quite the big shots in school back then, in some ways just like you guys are now, energetic and eager for a challenge."

Chapter 139: Recruiting the Wesley Twins

Upon hearing the words "the quartet" and "influential figures," Fred and George's expressions subtly changed.

They exchanged a glance, showing a tacit understanding.

George spoke first, his tone more serious than before: "If what you say is true, then we really need to pay our respects to those two seniors."

“I think they would be happy to see your successors,” Ryze said, looking at the two of them. “To be honest, although I sometimes don’t understand your prank art, I know you have a talent for magical artifacts… It would be a real shame to use such talent only to make giant poop bombs.”

“So,” Rezs paused, then extended an invitation to the two, “since you’re interested in Wizarding Auto Chess, would you like to join us in completing it?”

The two were somewhat surprised to hear Reese's invitation: "If those two seniors are really as amazing as you say, how can we, with our current level, be of any help?"

“Everyone goes through a growth process,” Rez said, expressing his optimism about the two’s future. “Their advantage lies in their knowledge and experience, while your advantage lies in your growth potential and the abundant inspiration in your minds.”

"And I do need to find some dedicated testers to help test the later stages of Auto Chess."

"If you'd like to join this team, I'll introduce you to them. You can communicate through owl letters, and on weekends, you third-year students can go to Hogsmeade, where you can meet and learn from them."

"Of course, there will definitely be compensation and such, so you don't need to worry about that."

Rezston paused for a moment, then spread his hands somewhat helplessly: "To be honest, I also really want to devote more energy to the development and study of Wizarding Auto Chess, but I have a lot of things to do this semester. Snape asked us to brew the Wolfsbane Potion before the new school year, and we also need to experience the atmosphere of the Wizarding Duel Tournament at Easter, so I really need to find some helpers."

Upon hearing this, Fred and George exchanged a glance, and then they began to tease each other merrily.

“Listen to this, George,” Fred exclaimed dramatically, “our esteemed and busy Prince Black has extended an invitation to us!”

“Yes, the prince, even in his first year, has already set his sights on the crowns of potions and duels,” George chimed in, pretending to wipe his eyes. “And in all this busyness, he still manages to see us two commoners who only know how to play with dung bombs!”

Fred patted Rez on the shoulder: "In that case, to ease the burden on our prince, we'll take on this challenge. We'll find a way to make it something even Felch would want to try!"

After the three reached a consensus, they strolled along the lawn by the Black Lake, discussing ideas to further improve the Wizard's Auto Chess game.

Rizzi simply explained the rules and gameplay of Auto Chess that he remembered. George and Fred's quick minds not only immediately accepted these previously unheard-of ideas, but also quickly derived some entirely new ideas based on them.

Even the Hextech Rune system, which Ryze hadn't had a chance to mention yet, was only vaguely outlined by George when they were discussing increasing the game's randomness and fun.

It wasn't until the three of them had walked back and forth along the Black Lake twice that Ritz voluntarily ended the discussion.

“Alright, that’s enough for tonight,” Ryze said, looking at the twins who seemed eager to continue. “The ideas we’ve just mentioned are enough for you to work on for a long time. If we keep going, those features will be a bit too complicated for a newly released game.”

"I've discussed this with Sirius and Remus before. The goal is to get the first version of the regular Witcher Auto Chess during the Easter holidays. Once we've got this part done, we'll make adjustments based on the test results."

"Your job is to help select and design suitable pieces and bonds during this period, and to test them in detail."

“No problem, boss!” Fred gave an exaggerated bow, smoothly switching his address to Ridge from “Your Highness” to “Boss.”

"Since we're going to start promoting this at Hogwarts, we plan to begin with the four houses of Hogwarts. We'll select some representative and well-known figures from the history of each house as chess pieces, and once a certain number of members from a particular house are on the chessboard, we can summon the founders of that house to fight."

Ryze nodded; he trusted Gemini's judgment.

“Just don’t put the founder of the Big Poop Bomb in there and let him throw Big Poop Bombs on the chessboard,” he joked.

George shrugged with feigned regret: "That's a real shame. I was originally planning to design a set of 'Felch Nightmare' chess pieces."

The three of them passed through the castle gates. It was already nine o'clock in the evening, and curfew had begun. Naturally, there were no other students in the castle.