Return of Salazar Slytherin

Watching Neville’s cheerful figure gradually disappear into the distance, Rhys narrowed his eyes slightly. This boy was rather interesting.

His impression of the round-faced boy had changed somewhat. He believed that someone like Neville would one day reap rich rewards.

After lunch, Daphne and Astoria found Rhys and invited him to take a walk by the Black Lake.

“We’ve finally got some free time. How about we go to the lakeside to relax for a bit?” Daphne shook the lunchbox in her hand and extended the invitation to Rhys.

After finishing their final exams, Daphne and the others had been dragged off by Professor White to do hard labor. They had even run into a small accident midway, and only now had they truly been able to relax.

Rhys blinked. Wasn’t the best way to relax lying on the soft bed in the dormitory and taking an undisturbed afternoon nap?

Still, considering the children had worked hard all semester and hadn’t even been able to rest after their exams, Rhys decided to indulge them and grant their modest little request.

Endless lecturing would only breed resentment among students. As for harmless little pleasures, if they wanted them, he would simply give them.

Thus, a few minutes later, the trio appeared by the shore of the Black Lake.

Although it was already summer, the temperature in the Scottish Highlands still remained below twenty degrees Celsius, making the weather extremely comfortable and pleasant.

Walking along the lakeside, the slightly cool breeze brushed against his face. Even Rhys, who had not been very eager to come out, felt his mind grow refreshed.

“The four founders really picked a wonderful place back then,” Daphne remarked sincerely from the side.

Indeed. Nestled against the mountains and beside the water, with a resource-rich forest nearby, Hogwarts’ location was truly first-rate. It was no wonder the four founders had set their sights on this treasured land the very first time they saw it.

“Indeed,” Rhys replied with a smile. “I once read in some ancient texts that the Muggle lords around Hogwarts even tried to compete with the founders for the land rights back then.”

As he spoke, he picked out a few interesting anecdotes from the time the school was founded and told them to the two girls.

“I never would have imagined Hogwarts had so many stories when it was first established,” Daphne said with emotion.

In her impression, the founding of Hogwarts had always been summarized in a single thin sentence: ‘The four founders established Hogwarts in 990 A.D.’ She had never expected there to be so many stories behind it.

It was precisely these stories that made everything feel so real.

While Daphne was filled with emotion, Astoria was thinking: none of this was recorded in Hogwarts: A History, so how did Rhys know about it? Could reading correspondence between ancient wizards really reveal so many secrets?

However, she had no intention of digging deeper into the question.

Rhys led the two girls to find a shaded spot by the lakeside and sat down.

Sitting directly on the grass and feeling the breeze blowing off the lake, Rhys felt more at ease than he had in a very long time.

Thinking back carefully, in his youth he had traveled everywhere with Godric and the others, collecting spells and comprehending the mysteries of magic; in his middle years he had clashed with the Norse gods; and in his later years he had begun founding Hogwarts, teaching and nurturing students. Moments of leisure like this, carefree and unburdened, had been exceedingly rare throughout his life.

If only time could freeze at this very moment.

Rhys closed his eyes—then heard Daphne murmur softly beside him, “The fish in the Black Lake should be quite plump, right?”

Astoria and Rhys: “…”

That was a good question.

However, it seemed that neither the students nor the professors at the school ate much fish. The dishes that appeared on the dining table were usually trout or salmon and the like.

Even Hagrid mostly hunted in the Forbidden Forest and rarely fished in the Black Lake.

“Big fish aren’t necessarily tasty,” Rhys said based on his experience.

Still, he didn’t state it too absolutely, because he knew that some sea fish grew quite large yet had rich intramuscular fat, leaving a lingering fragrance with every bite.

“We’ll know once we try.” Daphne was eager to give it a shot.

She stood up, looked around, then snapped a branch from a nearby tree.

With the branch in hand, she casually took out a ribbon and turned the two into the shape of a fishing rod.

Watching Daphne bustle about, Rhys originally intended to use the Summoning Charm to pull a fish straight out of the lake, but he quickly dismissed the idea. What Daphne enjoyed was not the fish itself, but the process of fishing. He might as well let her have her fun.

Daphne ran to the lakeside to fish, while Rhys and Astoria sat beneath the shade of a nearby tree, watching her.

“Sister, she…” Astoria looked at Daphne’s back, her expression complicated.

“Let her be.” Rhys rolled his eyes. When Daphne was younger, it hadn’t been obvious, but the older she grew, the more she resembled a Gryffindor—bah, her ancestor Adrian.

“Do you have any plans for the holidays?” Astoria asked softly.

If possible, she still wanted to coax Rhys into visiting the Greengrass Manor. She knew he was an extraordinary figure. If she spent enough time around him, perhaps she might even gain insight into a domain.

Rhys lifted his head and glanced at her.

“I’ve heard the Quidditch World Cup final will be held in Britain this summer. That seems worth going to see.”

Although Rhys was not particularly interested in Quidditch, based on what he knew, it was undoubtedly one of the grandest events in the wizarding world.

Where there was such a grand occasion, there would surely be large gatherings of wizards. Events like these, similar to a great fair, were quite attractive to Rhys.

He could take the opportunity to observe the lives of wizards outside Britain.

“That’s great! Father will definitely be able to get tickets. We can go watch together!” Astoria very naturally extended the invitation to Rhys.

Rhys calmly accepted Astoria’s goodwill.

In his view, this was simply a normal way for students to show appreciation to their teacher. There was no reason for him to refuse their kindness.

However, aside from attending the World Cup, there was something else he needed to do. It was something he had wanted to accomplish for a long time, but various matters had delayed him again and again, preventing it from ever happening.

Rhys wanted to pay a visit to the Gaunt family. Not for any particular reason—just to take a look, to see what traces had been left behind by the descendants of his utterly disappointing adopted son.

“Does the Gaunt family still have any descendants? I mean the direct line,” Rhys asked Astoria.

Because pure-blood families often intermarried, each family more or less carried the blood of others.

By bloodline alone, the Gaunts certainly still existed widely, but what Rhys was asking about was their direct lineage.

____

By bloodline alone, the Gaunts certainly still existed widely, but what Rhys was asking about was their direct lineage.

“They probably do?” Astoria was not very confident. She recalled a few scattered remarks her father had once let slip and pieced them together.

“They do, but they’re about to die out. The Gaunt family… my father said there’s something wrong with their heads. By the start of this century they had already declined terribly. The last descendant of the Gaunt family should have been imprisoned in Azkaban for allegedly murdering a Muggle.”

“I see.” Rhys’s expression did not change much.

Perhaps this was the price for misusing the name of Slytherin. It was precisely this family, along with other pure-blood supremacists, that had thoroughly ruined his reputation.

“Do the Gaunts live in Hangleton?”

“I’m not sure about that.” Astoria shook her head, then asked with mild curiosity, “Are you going to look for someone from the Gaunt family?”

She remembered that Rhys did not seem to like the Gaunts very much, believing they had falsely claimed Slytherin’s name. As Slytherin’s rightful heir, he could not tolerate such desecration.

“No, just going there to take a look,” Rhys replied vaguely.

Astoria blinked, just about to ask more, when Daphne’s sudden cheer cut her off.

The girl’s crude fishing rod had now bent into a bow shape, clearly indicating she had hooked something big in the lake.

Rhys raised an eyebrow. Daphne’s luck was surprisingly good.

Fishing was a mysterious thing. Sometimes you could casually cast from the shore and get a bite immediately; other times you could prepare carefully for half a day and not even catch a single scale.

After struggling with the fish for a while, the fish finally gave in and was dragged to the shore by Daphne.

Rhys glanced at it and judged it to be about a one-foot-long trout.

Once the fish was pulled ashore, Daphne waded straight into the water, grabbed it, and ran back to Rhys to show off her achievement.

“Look, I caught a big fish!” The girl’s face was full of excitement.

“Not bad. That’s a good-sized trout. This kind of fish tastes quite decent. The texture is somewhat similar to salmon, though it can’t be eaten raw,” Rhys praised.

Daphne became even happier.

However, since the three of them were already full, they did not eat the fish Daphne had caught and instead chose to release it.

After using a spell to dry the water from her clothes, Daphne sat back down beside Rhys and began chatting with him. Naturally, the topic turned to holiday plans.

Rhys: You two really are…

While sharing his holiday plans with Daphne and Astoria, Rhys opened Daphne’s lunchbox. Inside was a spread of his favorite desserts: pudding, cream puffs, ice cream…

Amid eating, drinking, and cheerful conversation, the most relaxed and pleasant day passed just like that.

In the blink of an eye, the end-of-year ceremony arrived.

The teachers and students of Hogwarts gathered in the Great Hall to spend the final day of the school year together with the graduating seventh-years.

Looking at the seventh-year students, Rhys felt a surge of emotion. These students were about to step into the adult world, and he sincerely hoped they would have bright futures.

To put it in more official and formal terms: he hoped they would become people useful to the wizarding world.

Rhys’s gaze swept past the Gryffindor table. He noticed that Percy Weasley’s complexion looked rather poor, as if he had overexerted himself. Thinking of the potions Percy had bought in Hogsmeade, Rhys was not surprised and only wished to advise him to exercise a bit more restraint.

This year, the Hufflepuff students were unusually excited, because something unprecedented had happened—they had won the House Cup.

Originally, Hufflepuff students had never held much hope for the House Cup. Their attitude had always been notably laid-back.

But after Cedric led the Hufflepuff Quidditch team to consecutive victories over the formidable Gryffindor and Slytherin teams, everyone’s mindset suddenly changed.

They actually… might… just possibly… have a shot?

Once that thought appeared, it spread like wildfire through the hearts of the Hufflepuff students, completely beyond control.

In the days that followed, the Hufflepuff students displayed astonishing unity. In the end, they truly managed to win the House Cup!

When Dumbledore officially announced that Hufflepuff had become this year’s House Cup champion, the Great Hall erupted into a sea of joy. Even Helga at the staff table applauded enthusiastically, the corners of her mouth lifted high.

Watching the unusually delighted Helga on the stage, Rhys suddenly thought of that so-called “curse.”

So, would Helga continue as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor for another year? Rhys realized he seemed to have forgotten to ask his old friend about it.

‘I’ll ask her during the holidays,’ Rhys thought.

Amid the lively ceremony, the school year came to an end.

In just one night, the students packed their luggage and boarded the returning Hogwarts Express.

Following the flow of people and gradually squeezing out of the platform into King’s Cross Station, Rhys saw Mr. Jamison Henry Greengrass standing outside the platform, waiting for his two daughters.

The moment Daphne and Astoria saw their father, they rushed toward him at full speed.

Behind them, Harry’s eyes showed a trace of envy. Scenes like this had only ever appeared in his dreams.

Worse than seeing other classmates reunited with their families was the fact that Harry had spotted the Dursley family…

But just then, a handsome middle-aged man suddenly walked up to Harry.

“Harry, is that you?” The middle-aged man looked at Harry with a gentle smile, his eyes full of warmth.

“Yes…” Harry hesitated a little. He glanced around and, seeing Hogwarts students and their parents all over the station, with the Weasley family not far away, finally relaxed.

“You are…?”

“I’m Sirius Black.”

The moment the name was spoken, Harry’s eyes widened.

Since Christmas, he and Sirius had exchanged no fewer than a hundred letters. He had never expected Sirius to come to King’s Cross in person to see him.

At that thought, a startling possibility suddenly struck Harry, and his heart began pounding.

“So you’re here to…” Harry only got halfway before he didn’t dare continue, afraid his guess might be wrong and he would end up disappointed.

“I believe I told you before that I hoped you could come stay at my place for a while. Of course, if you can’t bear to leave your aunt, I wouldn’t—”

“Not a problem at all!” Harry cut Sirius off immediately. “How long can I stay? Uh, I mean…”

Hearing Harry’s response, Sirius smiled brightly. He told Harry that he could stay as long as he liked. However, Dumbledore had reminded him that Harry still needed to stop by the Dursleys’ for a short visit, perhaps just for a meal.

Learning that he wouldn’t have to stay long-term with the Dursleys, Harry let out a sigh of relief.

“Then let’s go back together, have a meal, and leave—how about it?” he asked in a pleading tone.

“Alright, let’s go.” Sirius took Harry’s suitcase and walked with him toward the Dursleys.