Return of Salazar Slytherin

"Thank you!!!"

Ron took his wand from Rhys's hands and sincerely expressed his gratitude. 

At least now his wand appeared to be in good shape. When Ron had initially tried to repair it himself, he couldn't even restore its appearance. 

Ron picked up his wand and gave it a gentle shake. A shower of sparks shot out from the tip. 

"It's fixed!" Ron exclaimed in delight. 

Rhys: "..." 

"Not exactly fixed. You still need to be cautious when casting spells. If you use too much force, it'll break again," Rhys warned him, trying to curb Ron's excitement. In Rhys's opinion, the wand was far from truly repaired—it was merely usable for now. In actual use, it would probably overload and explode after a few spells. 

"Yeah, I'll be careful," Ron nodded repeatedly.

As for Rhys's suggestion to replace the wand when possible, Ron simply pretended not to hear—where would he get the money for a new wand? 

Rhys could tell what Ron was thinking just by his expression. He sighed inwardly: the Weasley family was a pureblood family, after all. How had they ended up in such a state? 

And as for Ron, the boy had absolutely no sense of resourcefulness—didn't he realize that sometimes, getting what you need doesn't necessarily require spending money? 

"You know, getting a wand doesn't always mean you have to pay for it," Rhys said. 

"Huh?" Ron's interest was immediately piqued. 

"The key lies in two words: 'you' and 'buy,'" Rhys said, raising two fingers. 

"The price of a wand isn't actually that high. If I remember correctly, a wand at Mr. Ollivander's shop costs about seven Galleons. Even if the price varies slightly due to the materials used, it won't stray too far from that. I'm sure your twin brothers can afford that amount."

Rhys saw Ron about to say something and quickly waved his hand to stop him. "Of course, there's no such thing as a free lunch. You can borrow the money from them. As for how to repay it... well, you can negotiate. There are plenty of ways to earn money even within the school—you could look into some of those." 

Rhys glanced at Ron and considered warning him not to take up Daphne's offers to ghostwrite homework for other students. But given Ron's academic abilities, Rhys decided it wasn't worth mentioning. 

Ron nodded thoughtfully.

However, knowing his two brothers' temperaments, he felt it was best to avoid involving them if possible. Fred and George had already left him with plenty of psychological scars. 

"And the second method?" 

"A wand doesn't necessarily have to be purchased with money. You could trade something for it," Rhys said, spreading his hands to emphasize one of humanity's oldest forms of exchange: bartering. 

"Ollivander always needs materials to craft wands. You could send him a letter and ask if you could trade magical creature materials for a new wand." 

Ron was dumbfounded. "Where am I supposed to find materials that meet Ollivander's requirements? Should I just pick them up in the Forbidden Forest?" 

"That's exactly it—picking them up in the Forbidden Forest. But you could ask Hagrid. He's got plenty of treasures there. As for how you get the materials from him, that's up to you," Rhys replied casually. 

Ron took a deep breath. 

Come to think of it, Rhys's suggestion sounded pretty feasible. Besides, dealing with Hagrid seemed far more reliable than negotiating with Fred and George. 

He needed to think carefully about whether to borrow money from his unreliable brothers or try his luck with Hagrid. 

As for borrowing money from his brothers and not paying it back… that was Fred and George's money! Ron still wanted to keep studying at Hogwarts without getting pranked to death. 

"Alright, thanks for finding my wand. It's getting late, so I'll head back now. Be careful not to get caught by Filch." After helping Ron with his wand and offering him some advice, Rhys was eager to return to the common room. 

"Wait a minute," Harry suddenly remembered something and stopped Rhys just as he was about to leave. 

"Is something wrong?" 

"When you… uh, when you were in the bathroom, did you hear any strange noises? I mean…" Harry trailed off. 

"What did you hear?" Rhys asked, looking completely baffled, his reaction identical to Ron's earlier one. 

Harry hesitated for a moment before stammering out that he had heard a voice—an evil-sounding one at that—talking about things like eating and sacrifices. 

"Doesn't sound like anything good," Rhys said, scratching his head. "But it could be portraits whispering, or maybe Peeves or some ghosts messing around." 

"So… you didn't hear anything either?" Harry asked. 

Rhys chuckled. "Hogwarts is the safest place in the wizarding world. Don't worry so much!" 

After calming Harry down, Rhys picked up his food box and walked away. 

On his way back to the common room, Rhys narrowed his eyes in thought. Things were getting more and more interesting—Harry Potter was a Parselmouth? 

The Potters had lived in Godric's Hollow for generations. For someone from such a family to naturally possess the ability to speak Parseltongue? Rhys didn't buy it. 

That left only one explanation: it had to be a result of some external influence. 

Judging by Harry's clueless expression, it was clear he hadn't deliberately learned Parseltongue as a "foreign language." Coupled with that faint, almost imperceptible aura emanating from him… this was getting far too intriguing! 

If his guess was correct, then Dumbledore was going to face quite the conundrum! 

At this moment, Rhys felt extremely fortunate that he wasn't the current headmaster of Hogwarts—any troublesome matters could be comfortably handed off to the "old guy." 

After parting ways with Rhys, Harry and Ron followed Seamus's directions to the kitchen, where they were greeted with a bounty of food. 

By the time the two emerged from the painting, each was carrying a food box identical to Rhys's. 

"I've never seen these dishes on the table before!" Ron exclaimed, feeling as though he had opened the door to a whole new world. 

"Yeah," Harry responded with a distracted nod, looking preoccupied. 

Ron didn't notice Harry's change in mood; his attention was entirely captured by the delicious offerings in his food box. 

"Something's not right." Harry suddenly stopped in his tracks, his brow furrowed as he finally grasped the unsettling feeling that had been lingering in his mind. 

"What's not right? Is it Filch?" Ron asked nervously, glancing around in alarm. 

Ron quickly added, "I really don't want to get detention." 

"It's Rhys," Harry said, turning to look at Ron. "Do you really think Rhys is the kind of person who would just drop his wand on the ground?" 

Ron's eyes widened. "Well... not really. But maybe even he has moments of carelessness?" 

"And he never directly answered my question. He didn't explicitly say that he didn't hear the voice." 

"Didn't he, though?" Ron frowned. "I'm not sure I remember clearly anymore. Honestly, I think you're overthinking this. If you ask me, you were just so hungry that you started hearing things. It's a common symptom, easily solved with a sandwich." 

Harry fell silent. 

Ron's explanation did make sense, but Harry still couldn't shake the feeling that his judgment was correct. 

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