Ancient wizards return to Hogwarts.

Witnessed by the two piles of minced meat, Bagman readily paid the gambling money that should be paid to Rice and the Weasley brothers.

With Rice present this time, Bagman naturally couldn't do any tricks to pass off fakes as real. But he never stopped trying to persuade the three to invest the money in his gambling game to earn more profits.

"You don't need to do anything, just wait for the dividends..."

Rice interrupted Bagman.

"I have no intention of participating in your investment. As for the two of them, if they want to participate, that is their freedom."

Rice knew very well that Bagman had no relationship with him and his true identity had not been revealed, so why would he be offered such a good opportunity to share the money?

Fred immediately said: "Thank you for your kindness, we don't have such an idea either."

He was a smart man, and seeing that Rice was not interested at all, he simply gave up the idea.

Bagman wanted to say something else, but Rice looked at him. His black eyes reminded him of the bottomless Black Lake in Hogwarts.

He shuddered and closed his mouth.

By the time Bagman came to his senses, Les had already led Fred and George into the shadows of the woods.

"I feel like the conditions he offered are actually pretty good? The split is pretty reasonable..."

"Then why don't you go back and look for him? I promise I can get you to him."

Les choked Fred with just one sentence.

"Mr. Bagman seems to still owe the goblins money, and the group of short-legged vampires just now came to collect the debt." Les continued.

"How could he, a dealer who runs a gambling game, lose money?" George frowned, feeling confused and puzzled.

The dealer makes money from commission, so even if we take into account the variables of him, Fred and Les, it should be difficult for Mr. Bagman to lose money.

"Is it possible that he owed the goblins a large sum of money before he held this bet?" Les felt that the goblins' visit to Bagman had nothing to do with his bet tonight.

"Doesn't that mean—"

"Has Mr. Bagman's funding chain been completely cut off?"

Fred and George immediately came to a conclusion. Thinking of this, both of them broke out in a cold sweat: if they hadn't followed Rice to stop Bagman tonight, they would have been doomed to lose everything.

The attitude of that group of goblins has made it very clear that Bagman's current financial gap is no longer something he can make up for.

With a feeling of fear, the two men returned to the camp with Rice.

"What are you doing?" Harry asked curiously.

"Check out." Fred's face was full of smiles again. Opening a prank shop has been his and George's dream since they were young, and now is the moment closest to the dream coming true.

The two groups of people present were all acquaintances, and after chatting for a few words, they simply gathered together to drink tea and have a midnight snack - the skillful Mrs. Weasley prepared super rich food for her husband and children.

"So after this job, you've saved enough money?" Les asked in a low voice.

Fred first glanced at his father and found that he was discussing what happened tonight with Bill and Charlie - Percy did not come to watch the World Cup final at all, and was said to be participating in a top-secret mission of the Ministry - Fred believed that his brother must be tracking down the flying carpet smuggling.

Seeing that his father was not focusing on him, Fred quietly told Les that he and George's funds were just a little short of enough to open a store.

"If you want to open a store in Diagon Alley, you need to prepare at least one thousand Galleons, and the minimum cannot be less than eight hundred, otherwise the capital chain will be very dangerous. We obviously can't open a store in Diagon Alley - Knockturn Alley is cheaper, but when Mom finds out, she will come and smash our store herself." Fred did a serious business analysis for Les.

The two placed a total of 42 Galleons, 15 Sickles, and 3 Knuts bets with Bagman. Bagman offered them an extremely high odds of 428 to , so afterwards they received a generous return of Galleons.

But the money was clearly not enough for the two to open a shop in Diagon Alley.

"However, the mysterious man's reappearance tonight may cause panic in the market, leading to a drop in the rent of Diagon Alley—"

"Don't dream," Fred rolled his eyes at George. "We can't pin our hopes on this kind of thing. Besides, I heard that the mysterious man was beaten away by another mysterious person. I don't think there will be any panic."

After refuting George's fantasy, Fred said, "Then we thought of Hogsmeade Village, which is obviously a good choice, but the rent in Hogsmeade is not low..."

"How much budget do you need?" Astoria, who was sitting next to Rice, interrupted and asked.

"If we want to open a shop in Hogsmeade, it will cost at least 700 Galleons—"

"I'll pay for it. Four hundred Galleons, and you only need to give me 30% of the shares." Astoria stated her conditions.

Fred's heart suddenly began to beat faster: the fair, rich, and beautiful girl took action!

The terms Astoria proposed were very fair. Although she paid nearly half of the money, she was not involved in the operation and the merchandise in the joke shop were all Fred and George's ideas, so it was reasonable for her to only take 30% of the shares.

With Astoria's investment, Fred and George could even open a store now. He had originally planned to save money with George for two years at school - their prank products were quite popular in Hogwarts, so it would be no problem to save a hundred Galleons before graduation.

Fred was immediately attracted.

He didn't really want to continue studying at Hogwarts. He and George had already passed the OWLs, so it wouldn't be a big problem if they didn't take NEWTs.

"Okay, it's a deal!" Fred and Astoria reached a verbal agreement.

"Where are you planning to open the store? Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade Village?" Daphne also joined in this interesting conversation.

Fred was a little hesitant. Originally, he was short of funds and could only think of a way to open a store in Hogsmeade. But now with the investment from Astoria, he could consider opening a store in Diagon Alley.

Compared to Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley has a higher rental cost, but the customer flow is obviously greater...

"I have an idea." George leaned sideways and whispered in Fred's ear for a while, and Fred's eyes lit up: George's idea is really good!

"Let's open it in Hogsmeade." Fred made the decision.

Astoria didn't care, she had no intention of interfering with the operation of the joke shop anyway.

"I'll pay two hundred, and you can give me 30% of the 15% shares~" Daphne also wanted to invest, so she set her sights on her sister.

"Okay." Astoria naturally had no objection.

A group of people gathered together and chatted around the campfire until late at night.

There were many people queuing up in the camp, hoping to get a portkey to go home as soon as possible, but Rice and his companions and the Weasley family were not in a hurry. They planned to camp here with their friends for a while.

The next morning, Sirius moved his tent over and placed it next to the Weasleys' tent. Cedric and Hermione also stayed here, and the group of people camped together happily.

"Look, this is how matches are used."

Early in the morning, Hermione was patiently teaching Mr. Weasley how to use matches. Sirius, who had just set up the tent, stood aside and yawned.

"Mr. Black, would you like to learn how to strike a match?" Hermione turned to Black and asked him if he wanted to learn something new.

Sirius laughed as if he had heard something very funny.

He did not take the matches from Hermione, but took out a box of antique matches from his bosom. He held the matchbox in one hand, bent a match with his thumb and pressed it on the box, then struck it with a very cool stroke, and the match was lit. [Note]

Although it was fancy and not very practical, it was a thousand times cooler than the ordinary match lighting method. Even Mr. Weasley, who was sitting in front of the fire, was stunned.

"One-handed matches are very popular with Muggle gangsters because they only require one hand to light, leaving the other hand free to hold a weapon." Sirius winked at Hermione, "And just call me Sirius. Mr. Black makes me feel like I'm already sixty years old."

Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Sirius has been playing with various Muggle items since his school days." Harry explained to Hermione.

Sirius even had a poster of a Muggle girl on his bedroom wall, which shocked Harry when he saw it. In a family that believed in pure-bloodism and wizard supremacy, Sirius was really brave to put such a thing.

Mr. Weasley took the match in one hand from Sirius with great anticipation, and as expected, he burned himself and screamed.

As the others played with the matches, an owl landed in front of Rice and offered him a copy of today's Daily Prophet.

Rice took the newspaper from the owl's mouth with great anticipation, and then spread it out impatiently. But when he saw the headline on the newspaper, he was stunned.

[The Demon King's position has changed! The mysterious man returns but is beaten and flees in embarrassment]

Rice rubbed his eyes, looked at the headline in the newspaper again, and then made sure he was not mistaken.

The second half of the sentence was a statement of fact, which I could accept, but what did the first half of the sentence mean by the change of the position of the Demon King? !

I'm a wizard, not some Dark Lord!

To be honest, Les didn't feel happy when this title was given to him. He just felt insulted.

Daphne and Astoria came over and couldn't hold back after taking a look at the headline in the newspaper.

"Lice, you seemed to say yesterday that you were trying to save the reputation of Slytherin House? How did you save it? Did you snatch the title of the Dark Lord from Voldemort?" Daphne asked Les with a blushing face, trying not to laugh.

Rice felt the blood surging in his chest and his head was buzzing.

Astoria also tried to suppress her smile and took the newspaper from Rice.

Unlike Les and her sister, she took a serious look at the newspaper report.

It was pretty much the same as what Rice had described, but what was surprising was that this reporter seemed very courageous and actually went to the top box of the stadium and filmed the battle scene that night.

The scene of more than a dozen Death Eaters exploding at Rice's move was photographed by reporters and repeatedly played in newspapers in the form of animated images. Seeing this scene, Astoria's heart moved, and she vaguely felt something.

She was actually at the scene that night and had a much better angle than this reporter.

Astoria began to carefully recall the scene she had seen. As she recalled, she felt her heartbeat getting louder and louder. The blood seemed to be constantly bombarding her eardrums. She could even hear the sound of blood rushing.

Throwing the newspaper on the table, Astoria tiptoed back to her tent. She lay down on her bed, closed her eyes and fell into a state of selflessness, with only the rushing blood in her heart.

Les and Daphne didn't notice anything strange about Astoria.

"This is a bit too much," Rice said dissatisfiedly, "How come I have become the new generation of Dark Lord in the eyes of these reporters?"

Daphne pondered for two seconds, then told Les that even Voldemort had no record of killing so many wizards in one go.

If we want to find an example in history, we have to go back a few decades, to the time of Grindelwald, when the Dark Lord once killed more than a dozen Aurors from the Ministry of Magic in one go.

Les:…

"But they are secret order monks... Well, you have a point." Les was now glad that he was calm enough and did not leave any identification. Otherwise, his peaceful life would be over.

Then he discovered an even more regrettable fact: as a result of his actions, the reputation of Slytherin House seemed to have been further strengthened with dark magic and dark wizards.

"It shouldn't be that serious, right?" After hearing Rice's worries, Daphne didn't care much: "You were already tied up by Voldemort, and your actions didn't make a deeper impression."

Les:…

"Eh? Les, did you receive today's Daily Prophet?" Hermione remembered what Les said last night, so she temporarily shifted her focus away from the matches and asked Les if the newspaper had arrived.

"No." Without any hesitation, Rice lit the newspaper in his hand and stuffed it into the stove beside him.

"Okay." Hermione didn't notice Les's little action. She shrugged her shoulders and continued to deal with Mr. Weasley.

"The road to restoring the reputation of the college is long and arduous..." Rice sighed.

It was only then that he realized something was wrong: where had Astoria gone?

Les looked around and smelled a faint smell of blood near their tent.

"Huh?" Les' expression changed, and he strode into the tent, then found Astoria lying on her bed, covered in blood.

Les was overjoyed: he was familiar with this scene, and Astoria had also found the edge of the field!

He immediately turned around and found Daphne fiddling with the fire to prepare breakfast. Les acted decisively and immediately closed the entrance to the tent and sealed it off.

When in the awakening realm, no interference is allowed.

---

Here’s an update, good night everyone~

Note: The matchstick that Sirius used to show off looked like this -

The advantage is that you can light it with one hand, which is cool. The disadvantage is that it is easy to burn your hands, and the match itself is soft.