Ancient wizards return to Hogwarts.

Les strode out of the Potions classroom at a brisk pace, heading straight for Rowena's office.

Before rushing into Rowena's office, he slammed on the brakes, stopped, and a thoughtful look flashed in his eyes.

Just barging in like this, even if he made a scene in her office and smashed her broken manor, it would not resolve his current embarrassing situation. So he had to use his brain to find a way out for himself.

In just a few seconds, countless thoughts flashed through Les's mind. Finally, after he made up his mind, he knocked on the door of Rowena's office.

"Huh? Why are you here?" After the door opened automatically, Rowena, who was renovating the mini manor in the office, felt a little strange when she saw Les, because Salazar seldom came here. He preferred to go to Helga.

Could it be about the dance? Rowena felt that she had guessed Salazar's intention. However, Salazar's next words proved that her guess was wrong.

"I need your help, Rowena." There was not even a stool in the office, so Les turned a locker into an armchair and sat down on it.

Then he told Rowena all the difficulties he had encountered in recent days.

Rowena frowned upon hearing this.

She also got a stool, sat opposite Les, and helped him analyze the situation.

Rowena and Rice were very familiar with the current scene, because they were in the same situation a thousand years ago. Whenever they encountered a problem that they could not solve, they would sit down and discuss it together and find a solution together.

When Rowena learned that Salazar came to her to solve the problem, she forgot about the Christmas ball.

"First of all, I don't think you need to worry too much about the experiments you left behind in the alchemy world. As far as I know, the trend of any infectious disease is to become less and less lethal. The reason is very simple. If the toxicity is too strong, it will not spread."

Rice nodded, then shook his head.

His potion had been designed with this aspect in mind, so it had a long incubation period.

After hearing what Les said, Rowena couldn't help smacking her lips. "What's the point of your experiment? The interval is so long that by the time you go in, the drug's properties will have changed so much that you won't even be able to recognize it."

Les sighed: Isn't it the fault of the speed of time?

"Why not just give each student a few evil-removing fruits? If you're worried, just prepare a few corresponding potions." Rowena gave her own suggestion. She thought Salazar's targeted way of developing antidotes was really funny.

Even if he cracked his magic potion and made a special medicine, would it really be effective against a plague that had mutated for hundreds of years? It would be better to improve the immunity of the contestants, or allow them to quickly remove the toxins after being infected.

Listening to Rowena's words, Les fell into deep thought.

After a moment, he had to admit that what Rowena said made sense. This made the task much easier.

"As for the development of the transformation magic you mentioned, I think it's necessary to call Helga over and study it with her." Rowena simply listened and understood that Salazar's idea was a bit too grand, and this was something that required collective wisdom. It would also be great to bring Helga in to provide some wisdom.

"Okay!" Rice naturally wouldn't object. If Dumbledore's relationship with them wasn't as close as that between the four of them, and if ancient magic wasn't his weakness, Rice would have invited Dumbledore as well.

Rowena waved her hand, and a raven appeared, which flew out of the window. Not long after, Helga came in.

Rowena briefly told her about her and Salazar's idea, and then invited her to join them in the manor to plan it in detail.

"Hmm!" After listening to Rowena's description, Helga couldn't help but get excited. With her knowledge, she naturally understood the benefits of this kind of magic to the magic world.

This is magic that can greatly increase a wizard's combat effectiveness.

After entering the manor, Rowena did not take the two people to the garden this time, but took them into her mansion.

Rowena's mansion has a total of seven floors, but to Les's surprise, except for the top floor and the lobby on the first floor, the other five floors are all sealed and inaccessible.

There wasn't even a staircase leading to the second floor in the lobby! The only way to get to the top floor was to take a device similar to a Muggle elevator.

Why did Rowena seal off the second to sixth floors? A flash of confusion flashed through Les' mind, and then he thought of an answer.

"Royna, is this where you use the time converter?" After realizing this, Les asked immediately.

"Yes." This time, Rowena was particularly frank and admitted it directly.

Anyway, she didn't continue to study time magic these days, so she felt at ease and was not afraid of Salazar and others' strict investigation.

When Les saw Rowena admit it, he didn't say anything, but just frowned slightly.

Although he opposed Rowena's research on time magic, he also admitted that Rowena was the most proficient wizard in this field. She also used the time converter in the most correct way.

The biggest taboo when using a time converter to travel through time is to let yourself in different timelines meet each other, as that would trigger an unpredictable crisis. Rowena must have completely blocked the road to the second floor for this reason.

"Follow me." Rowena led Les and Helga to an oil painting in the hall.

The content of the painting is very simple, just a spiral staircase. The moment he saw the painting, Rice had an epiphany.

Rowena didn't say much, she just pulled out her wand and poked the surface of the painting. Suddenly, the stairs in the painting began to extend continuously until they broke through the boundaries of the painting and extended outside the painting.

"Follow me." Rowena motioned to her two old friends to follow her steps, and the three of them walked up the stairs into the oil painting.

After climbing several stairs, the three of them emerged from an oil painting with a similar scenery and arrived at the second floor of the castle, which was normally inaccessible.

Unlike the magnificent lobby on the first floor, the decoration on the second floor looks more like the accommodation area above the Leaky Cauldron. Coming out of the painting, there is a winding corridor in front of you, with doors scattered on both sides of the corridor.

I don't know whether it was intentional or not, but when I came out of any door, I couldn't see the situation in other rooms, and there was only an empty corridor in front of me.

"This is the secret room I designed for using the time converter. We just need to use these rooms in order. If we don't wander around, we will never meet ourselves in other rooms." Rowena took Les and Helga into the guest room closest to the staircase painting, and then proudly showed off her ingenuity to her old friends.

"There are thirteen rooms on one floor, enough for us to use the Time Turner thirteen times. There are five floors like this."

Les and Helga were both silent: Rowena's abuse of the Time Turner was even crazier than they thought.

"The time-turner's reversal time is limited, but we can make good use of it through artificial design."

Listening to Rowena's words, Les finally understood why she was aging so quickly.

Going back in time so many times would consume several times that of an ordinary person.

However, Rowena obviously didn't care much about this "small" drawback and went straight to today's topic: the development of transformation magic.

Les did not get involved in their discussion. He simply passed on the method he got from Jack and his own insights to the two of them, and then began to prepare the evil-removing fruit potion.

Rowena and Helga, who were sitting on the side, did not bother him.

Christmas is approaching and the second stage of the competition is not far away. It is normal for Salazar to feel pressure.

He must prepare the antidote potion before the game starts.

Glancing at the thoughtful Salazar, Helga asked in a low voice, "Once his antidote is prepared, shall we distribute it to the contestants?"

Rowena shook her head. She was very disgusted with this kind of unearned gift.

She will definitely prepare a test for the contestants, and those who fail the test can forget about going to the alchemy world.

Rowena's intervention caused the second stage of the competition to be split into two parts. The contestants had to obtain the antidote potion in the first part before entering the main competition of the Alchemy World.

After chatting casually with her good friend about the competition plan, Helga also began to study the dragon transformation magic and the insights given to her by Salazar.

Time passed quickly, and the three of them spent most of December in seclusion in this mansion. Everything in the outside world was left to the puppets that transformed into their own appearances to take care of.

After traveling through time again and again, the three people's research gradually came to light.

While Rice and the other two were working hard on scientific research in the mansion, the atmosphere in Hogwarts Castle was unusually hot.

Whether it is the students of Hogwarts or students of other magic schools, their attention is drawn to the upcoming Christmas ball.

In previous years, only a few students stayed in school during Christmas. Christmas is a time for family reunions, and few students would choose to stay in school to spend it. But this year is different. Almost all students from the fourth grade and above stayed.

The young wizards were all very excited about the upcoming ball - especially the girls, who giggled and whispered in groups in the corridors, shrieking with laughter every time a boy walked by, especially one who was good-looking, and excitedly exchanged ideas about what to wear on Christmas Eve.

The boys were no exception. They looked at every witch who passed by like hunters, studying who could be their dance partner. Everyone wanted their dance partner to be the most beautiful one in the academy or even the school, but beauty meant fierce competition.

Who wouldn't want to dance with girls like Daphne, Astoria, Fleur Delacour, and Cho Chang? But you have to be self-aware.

Someone like Malfoy, who was rejected fiercely in public, is a negative example.

Daphne's "get out" really made him depressed for a long time, and in recent days he was even less interested in causing trouble for Harry.

But Daphne herself was not feeling well either. After the potions class that day, she never saw Les again. When Les Lint appeared in front of everyone, others could not see it, but she and Astoria could see clearly that he was a puppet.

After discovering the puppet's true identity, the two were nervous for a while, fearing that during this time someone would ask Rice to be his dance partner and then be accepted by the brainless and stupid puppet.

Fortunately, the two soon discovered that Rice must have arranged it in advance, and the puppets all rejected the invitations to the dance.

This made the two of them feel relieved.

As Christmas approaches, Daphne and Astoria are getting annoyed as they still haven't seen Les in person.

"Sister, do you know where he went?" Astoria and Daphne followed the puppet Les into the auditorium. Astoria felt a little irritated as she watched the puppet walking in front of them.

She has turned down many invitations these days. If the real Les comes back and chooses her sister as his dance partner, she will be in big trouble!

How could she find a partner in such a hurry? She looked down upon ordinary people, and Cedric, who was barely acceptable, had already been reserved.

Daphne was just as worried as Astoria, but when she saw that her sister was in the same situation, she suddenly felt less anxious.

"Sister, you might as well find a girl in advance and make an appointment with her, so as not to be confused when the time comes - I heard that Miss Granger hasn't decided on a dance partner yet."

"In that case, sister, why don't you go find Miss Granger?" Astoria immediately saw through her sister's bad intentions and directly retorted.

Daphne spread her hands and shrugged.

She really cared about her sister. She was very confident in her choice of dance partner for Les, and her sister would definitely not be her opponent.

At this moment, Harry and Ron from Gryffindor College, as well as Ron's sister, walked past the two of them, and a conversation floated into their ears.

"I haven't heard from Fred and George in what seems like a long time. Are they okay?"

"I don't know. Not only them, I haven't heard from Percy for a long time. I don't know what they are busy with."

"Look, the Weasley's little sister is actually quite good—" Daphne poked Astoria's shoulder and pointed at Ginny's back.

Astoria ignored her and walked straight towards the Slytherin table.

……

Rowena's mansion

"Done!" Les shook his wand and placed hundreds of small bottles on the table, together with the evil-removing fruits piled up like a mountain.

Rowena, who was standing in the corner of the room, writing and drawing on a writing board, looked up at Les and said that she would contact Dumbledore and the Ministry of Magic to insert these things into the second stage of the competition.

Les nodded and began to pack up the crucibles and other equipment used to brew potions.

At this moment, Helga also clapped her hands and shouted, "I figured out how to do that transformation magic!"

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Here’s an update, good night everyone~