Ancient Wizards Return to Hogwarts.

Chapter 98 Rice's Actions

Daphne clutched the empty bottle, biting her lower lip tightly: she never imagined that she would be stopped for such a ridiculous reason!

The first person to arrive drank the antidote, which prevented later arrivals from entering even if they solved the puzzle. This is absurd!

Looking at the flames blocking her way, a bold and crazy idea popped into her head: why not just concoct a fire-resistant potion and take a gamble?

She knows how to make potions, but she lacks the raw materials and tools.

She gripped the small bottle tightly with her fingers, and then she felt something bulging on the bottle.

She picked up the bottle and found a line of words floating on it: "Where there's no way to heaven, there's a way to hell."

Daphne squinted, put the bottle back on the table, and carefully observed the ground. Then she noticed that a floor tile under the table didn't seem to be very flat.

She pressed down on a corner of the floor tile, and with a forceful lift, she pried it open, exposing what was inside: a complete set of crucibles and a packet of potion ingredients.

Daphne took them out, opened them, and immediately knew what was going on: these were all raw materials for making fire-resistant potions. She began mixing the potions right away.

The amount of potion ingredients included in the package was small, enough for her to make only one mistake at most. What was worse, this time she didn't have the potion recipe or precautions; all she could rely on was her brain and her hands. But this didn't affect Daphne's confidence at all; she even felt that the ingredients were too much.

While Daphne was concocting the potion, a treatment was underway in the castle's infirmary.

"Alright, Mr. Lint's condition has stabilized." After giving Rice a dose of his newly developed potion, Snape straightened up and told Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey, who were standing to the side, the good news.

"So when will he wake up?" Mrs. Pomfrey observed Rice's complexion and, seeing that he was indeed looking better, finally felt relieved. Now, she was only concerned about how long the little guy would stay in her hospital room.

A barely perceptible hint of embarrassment flashed across Snape's eyes: according to his design, Rhys should have been awake by now, but he was still unconscious. It seemed there was still room for improvement in his potion.

Fortunately, the ashen color on Rice's face had faded, and his stiff muscles had relaxed; his condition was improving. Rice was now practically asleep. He didn't go over to wake Rice, simply out of caution.

"Antidotes aren't a panacea, and the reasons why the young wizards at school get poisoned are all sorts of strange things." — This statement resonated with Mrs. Pomfrey — "I think we just need to wait. Lint could wake up at any time, maybe this afternoon, or maybe in a few days, at the latest a week, but we should be prepared for him to miss the final exams."

"Then we'll decide how many points to deduct from him later," Professor McGonagall said with a smile.

A smile is constant; when Professor McGonagall smiles, Snape can no longer smile.

He flicked his robe, turned and strode out of the ward: he planned to go to the castle to catch a few Gryffindor students who had violated school rules, strike first and deduct a lot of points from them.

Snape left, and Professor McGonagall gave Mrs. Pomfrey a few instructions, telling her to notify her immediately when Rice woke up, before she also left. Mrs. Pomfrey lingered in the ward for a few minutes before going to treat a new wave of students who had arrived—this time fifth-year students who had developed hysteria due to excessive pressure from preparing for the OWL exams.

Once the ward was completely empty, Rice, who was lying on the hospital bed, slowly opened his eyes. He sat up and stretched his muscles, which were a little sore from lying flat for too long.

Honestly, concocting a potion that makes you show signs of poisoning but won't actually kill you is much harder than concocting a proper potion. The latter simply requires following the potion recipe, while the former demands ample knowledge to create something original.

Rice did this for two reasons. First, to ensure the three candidates had no outside help, Dumbledore cleverly chose to use a lie to escape, since he didn't have a good excuse himself, so he had to use a drug to escape. Second, he was the one who switched the Philosopher's Stone and needed an alibi. Hospitalization would be excellent proof, and the two professors plus Madam Pomfrey could all vouch for him.

However, providing an alibi does not mean that you are actually not present.

Although the guardian challenges Dumbledore had set up were quite "intellectual," the final villain was still a bit dangerous. Rhys believed that with Daphne's strength and the items he had left her, dealing with Quirrell would be more than enough, but dealing with the guy behind Quirrell would be a bit more difficult.

I need to go and check it out myself, just in case something goes wrong.

He believed that Dumbledore was also watching Potter from the shadows, so he had to make some extra preparations.

Rice first opened the cabinet by the wall of the ward, took out a change of bedding, rolled it up, and placed it on his bed. Then he took out his wand, pointed it at the rolled-up bedding, and the bedding transformed into his likeness. This was no simple transformation; the self Rice conjured from the bedding could even breathe and take medicine, enough to fool Madam Pomfrey and the school professors.

After doing all that, Rice took out a small bottle from his pocket containing a viscous, mud-like liquid—he had previously prepared compound decoctions, which were now coming in handy.

In order to avoid revealing his identity, Rice would not only wear a hood for physical disguise, but also use compound potions to ensure absolute safety.

After rummaging through his small leather bag for a long time, Rice found a small leather pouch containing several bundles of hair, each tied with a ribbon bearing Roman numerals.

Rice selected a lock of hair marked "XXV," carefully took a single strand, and placed it into the compound potion. After adding the hair, the compound potion turned a silver-green color. He drank it down in one gulp, and Rice transformed into a young man with black hair.

"Quite good, very radiant. The decision to keep some of my hair back then was absolutely right." After finding a mirror and looking at himself, Rice showed a satisfied expression—he was using the hair he had kept when he was twenty-five.

Becoming your 25-year-old self makes many things much easier.

After casting an illusion spell on himself, Rice walked straight out of the ward and headed straight for the fourth floor of the castle.

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.

The second update is here!

The next update will be tonight.

I really don't want to go to work!!!

(End of this chapter)