Chapter 426: Rice: It Seems Like There Is Still Time to Jump Out of the Car

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

Outside the window was an endless grassland, and in the distance was a river. It was a peaceful and peaceful pastoral scene. But somehow, Les always felt a little uneasy in his heart.

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

It happened that he had nothing to do on the train, so he might as well take a good look at his heart. Les began to review his memories, trying to find the source of the abnormality.

He closed his eyes, as if he fell asleep because of sleepiness.

The memories were turned over page by page like an album, and then Les paused in front of a memory: it was a crystal ball flashing red light.

'Royna Ravenclaw...' Les found the source of the uneasiness.

Her crystal ball phone 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 by himself before he had time to read the newspaper of that day. So theoretically, Rowena should not know about this, unless Helga went to the dungeon to visit Rowena with a fresh copy of the Daily Prophet after him, but the probability of this happening is very small.

Rice knew what this meant, but he was just unwilling to touch the answer.

"Hogwarts is about to usher in a turbulent year." Rice couldn't help but sigh.

"Huh?"

"What?"

The Greengrass sisters, who were drowsy in the corner of the carriage, woke up instantly.

"In the new year, many things will happen in Hogwarts, and many new challenges will arise... Are you ready?" Rice's 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 her field. How could she not be excited when she heard from Rice that there would be a "big change" next semester?

Astoria was more stable, but she nodded confidently.

She already had the power of the domain, and now she was terribly strong!

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

He still had time to jump out of the car now.

Crash--

At this moment, the door of the compartment was pushed open, and two red-haired young men squeezed in one after another.

"Fred, George, what are you doing here?" Rice was a little curious about the purpose of the two people coming, but he still moved to the window and squeezed out a little space for them.

"Let me tell you a shocking secret--"

"Fred and I will no longer go to Hogwarts from this semester!"

The three people in the compartment raised their heads in unison 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 serious.

This is a student dropping out, he has to ask the reason. After all, he can be regarded as the founder of the school and has the obligation to improve the shortcomings of the school.

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

In theory, students can graduate from Hogwarts and make a living after taking the O.W.L.s exams, but in fact few students do this. Almost everyone will stay in Hogwarts for seven years and graduate after experiencing the baptism of N.E.W.T. Only a small number of people will choose to drop out early because of being involved in major cases, such as Hagrid and Newt. But Fred and George obviously don't belong to this category - although they are keen on playing pranks, they really don't make big mistakes but keep making small mistakes. They are the type who know what's going on.

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

"It's [suspended from school] instead of [dropping out]," Fred corrected Rice's wording first, "George and I are just temporarily not in school, for a period of time... as short as one year, as long as indefinitely."

"Oh?" Rice's eyes flashed with approval.

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

Unlike ordinary teachers, Rice has always adhered to the cognition that "students need internships." In other words, it is "unity of knowledge and action". You have to learn knowledge in school, but you have to practice how to use knowledge in society. This is also the reason why he tries to prepare experience for Daphne and others every school year.

The behavior of Fred and George stopping to experience in the middle of school is quite in line with Rice's aesthetics.

"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 have been in a state of anxiety.

According to the original plan, they were going to stay in Hogwarts for two more years, saving money and building a good reputation for their products. But the huge sum of money that came out of nowhere disrupted their plans.

They really couldn't stand the temptation of owning 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 Village. Of course, in the letter, the two specifically mentioned that if Dumbledore didn't agree, they would go back to school obediently and never tell their parents.

Even though he had a mountain of letters to reply, Dumbledore still took the time to send a reply to the two, and kept his promise not to tell the Weasleys.

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

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

Fred and George laughed.

"But if we open a store in Hogsmeade, there will be quite clear competitors." Astoria thought further and was already considering the problems and challenges that the two would face.

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

Fred and George chose to open a store in Hogsmeade, so Zonko's Joke Shop is simply unavoidable.

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

Astoria only thought about it for a moment and understood what kind of arduous challenges Fred and George would face, and these were things she had never thought of before.

"Of course." Fred's expression was still relaxed, "I know Zonko's products very well. Our stuff is more interesting. More importantly, we still have two trump cards."

"What trump cards?" Daphne asked curiously.

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

"You will know anyway." George made a face at the three of them.

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

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

She brought a whole piece of beef!

The food box was enchanted, and the temperature inside was kept just right, keeping the beef in the freshest state. The lid was opened, a burst of white steam floated, and a piece of beef with snowflake texture appeared in front of the three.

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 baking tray. He didn't bring charcoal, so it was enough to bring Daphne.

Daphne clapped her hands, and a small ball of magma was conjured up by her. 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...

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

The aroma of fat immediately came out.

"Put some onions and sprinkle some soy sauce in. Daphne, pay attention to the heat." Les covered the baking tray with beef slices while directing the two girls to help him.

The three of them were busy in the small box.

The barbecue was soon out of the oven. Under the stimulation of temperature, the fat in the meat texture was fully stimulated, making the aroma of the meat suddenly rise by several levels. The smoke from the barbecue floated out through the window under the guidance of magic, and the carriage was unexpectedly refreshing.

With such delicious food, the snacks on the cart became dispensable.

The salesperson was stunned 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, just asked the three little wizards to pay attention to safety 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 about to arrive.

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

"Have you heard the rumor?" 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, and Rice did not respond to Hermione's words.

Hermione narrowed her eyes: Rice's attitude had already explained the problem.

"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 robes.

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

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

"Hogwarts is about to hold a world-wide competition of unprecedented scale. You must perform well and don't embarrass Hogwarts." Rice's tone was completely filled with excitement.

The next year is the moment of Hogwarts's enlightenment, and he has been waiting for it for too long. The time has finally come to verify whether the seeds sown thousands of years ago are sweet.

According to the process he and Helga had discussed before, each college will 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 will be made, and each place will have a certain number of points. In the end, the rankings among the major schools will be divided according to the points. In this way, Hogwarts has a great advantage. After all, in Rice's view, it is a piece of cake for Hogwarts to sweep the top three places.

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

Daphne was as excited as Rice. 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 words were very strange. He used "you". Did he mean that he didn't plan to participate in this competition?

Regarding the competition, Rice didn't talk too much about it. He just told Daphne and Astoria that Dumbledore would explain the details at the opening banquet.

This made both of them a little absent-minded.

It wasn't just Daphne and Astoria who were absent-minded. Although theoretically this news should be kept secret, the truth can't be hidden. When the students arrived at the Hogwarts Hall, the rumor that "a super-large event will be held this year" was almost known to everyone.

This led to an extremely strange atmosphere in the first half of the opening ceremony. Everyone was in a state of distraction, and everyone was waiting for Dumbledore to stand up and break this window paper.

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

"It seems that everyone is well-informed, but before announcing that, please let us welcome our new professor, Ms. Arius, with warm applause!"

As soon as the voice fell, a gust of wind swept through the auditorium, and the students subconsciously bent over and covered their robes with their hands to prevent anything from being blown away.

When the wind died down, everyone found that there was a beautiful young woman in the teacher's seat. The woman had an Eastern European face and a pair of sharp eyes like an eagle.

Hearing the name "Arius (Aries)", Les felt something was wrong. When the wind blew, he immediately understood everything.

That woman, here she comes.

————

Update, good night everyone~