After a brief demonstration of Runic magic, Rhys and Daphne hurried to the Muggle Studies classroom.
Sure enough, they ran into Hermione again in the new classroom—Rhys was genuinely shocked. He couldn't understand why someone like Hermione, born into a completely Muggle family, would take Muggle Studies at Hogwarts. It was as abstract as a British student choosing to study English at a French school—purely a waste of time.
Maybe the only point was to get a perfect grade?
But Hermione didn't seem like that kind of person at all.
"Why are you here?"
Faced with Rhys's confusion, Hermione responded as if she had expected it. She told him that she wanted to see the non-magical world from the perspective of the wizarding world, to understand how wizards "studied" Muggles.
Rhys: "…"
Good thing you came a few centuries late. A few hundred years ago, wizards might have actually brought in a Muggle to "study." These days, wizards are much more restrained.
Muggle Studies was a relatively new subject. A thousand years ago, wizards didn't need to study Muggles because they lived among them. The boundary between the magical and non-magical worlds was quite blurry.
Only after the Statute of Secrecy was enacted and enforced for a while did wizards begin to feel the need to study Muggles.
Very few students were willing to attend Muggle Studies, for a very simple reason: students from Muggle-born and half-blood families didn't need this class—Hogwarts didn't have much academic pressure to begin with, and students who already understood Muggles well would only be making things harder for themselves by taking it.
As for pure-blood students, they looked down on the class, thinking Muggles weren't worth studying. As a result, even as class time approached, the number of students in the classroom hadn't reached double digits.
The professor teaching Muggle Studies was Charity Burbage.
Upon entering the classroom, she wasn't disappointed by the sparse attendance—on the contrary, she was a bit surprised: this year, the number of students enrolled in the course was actually a few more than in previous years!
Yes, in past years, Muggle Studies sometimes didn't even have five students enrolled. This year, the number nearly reached ten—a rather impressive improvement.
In high spirits, Professor Burbage enthusiastically began her lesson.
Unlike the energetic professor at the front of the room, Rhys, who had seen the airport and sat on a plane, was quite disappointed by her version of Muggle Studies. In his view, this wasn't research at all—at best, it was a shallow look at modern Muggle society.
The textbook was completely out of touch with the reality of Muggle life. It was clear that Professor Burbage had tried very hard to include up-to-date content in her curriculum, but because she herself lacked a comprehensive understanding of Muggle society, her course resembled the blind men feeling the elephant.
When the bell finally rang, Rhys couldn't help but sigh—he'd wasted another period of his time. He would've been better off sneaking into the kitchens for dessert.
This course wouldn't help him understand Muggles. To truly understand them, one probably had to live among them like a real Muggle for a while. But for Hogwarts students, that was simply unrealistic.
The Ministry of Magic had never truly taken Muggle Studies seriously. Just looking at the textbook—which was more than half a century out of date—was enough to show how perfunctory their attitude toward the subject was. But the magical world had already reached a point where it had to understand Muggles seriously...
The pace of change in the Muggle world was simply too fast—so fast it left Rhys deeply unsettled.
In front of the Muggles, the modern wizarding world could only do its best to erase its own presence, to prevent Muggles from observing it.
If wizards were to engage in direct conflict with Muggles, the outcome would be total disaster: the defiant wizards would be killed, and the survivors would be split into two groups—one enslaved by Muggles like house-elves, and the other completely betraying the magical world, serving Muggle elites and overseeing the oppressed.
And that was the optimistic scenario. The pessimistic one? The total annihilation of all wizards.
Of course, that estimate didn't include himself, Rowena, and Helga—those ancient relics. If the three of them were taken into account, both sides could at least mutually destroy each other. Rhys was confident of that.
But in the end, none of them were truly immortal. He would still grow old, Helga was already nearing the end of her life, and Rowena's mobility was limited.
In other words, the magical world was in decline, while the Muggles were thriving. If this trend continued, the future of wizards looked grim indeed.
Rhys felt that the coming decades might be the magical world's final chance. Perhaps he and his friends needed to do something.
"Food?" Daphne yawned, waving a hand in front of Rhys to snap him out of his daze.
"Yeah." Rhys replied simply.
After a morning of adjustment, he had gradually put the dream from the previous night behind him and could now face Helga's face without issue.
When he arrived at the Great Hall, it was already packed with students. Rhys noticed that Helga Hufflepuff was sitting at the staff table, chatting animatedly with several other professors. When he entered, she glanced his way and gave him a warm smile.
Rhys ignored her and walked straight to the table, grabbing a full plate of food and devouring it ravenously—he hadn't had breakfast and was absolutely starving.
After cleaning his plate, Rhys stood up, ready to leave the hall, when Helga's voice suddenly reached his ears: "Wait a moment, let's find a place to talk?"
Rhys acted like he hadn't heard anything and turned to walk out of the Great Hall.
"I'm seriously considering whether I should give a toast tonight—for a great wizard who invented a spell that can completely eliminate werewolves. That wouldn't be too much, would it?"
Rhys stopped in his tracks, took a deep breath—twice—and tried to calm his emotions.
He turned and told Daphne to head back to the common room first, that he'd catch up shortly. After giving his instructions, he left the Great Hall and found an empty classroom to wait for Helga Hufflepuff.
Less than two minutes later, the classroom door was pushed open, and Helga walked in.
"How are you? Slept well?" The smile on her face made Rhys want to draw his wand and duel her on the spot.
"Just fine! I only woke up twice in the middle of the night, that's all." Rhys's voice came through gritted teeth.
"You were a bit slow to react—only realized something was wrong the second time you entered the dream?" Helga Hufflepuff asked in a tone of mild surprise.
Rhys: "…"
"I used a Memory Charm earlier to erase the memory of the feast."
"Ah, that explains it." Helga nodded in sudden understanding. Then she asked Rhys why his mental resilience had become so weak—unable to withstand even a small disturbance?
Two questions straight to the heart left Rhys speechless.
In the end, he could only awkwardly change the subject: "The rumor that I invented the Human Restoration Spell is complete nonsense—it has nothing to do with me."
"I'm not concerned with that sort of thing anymore," Helga waved it off. She had already punished Salazar with a Baku—so as far as she was concerned, the matter was settled. As for how Rowena felt about it, that was no longer in her control.
"So where did you get that Baku?"
_______
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