Return of Salazar Slytherin

"Go on, eat," Helga Hufflepuff said with a kind, grandmotherly smile, urging them to start like a doting elder nudging her grandchildren at the table.

"Thank you, Professor White."

"It smells amazing!"

The two completely unsuspecting girls immediately picked up their knives and forks, ready to dig in, while Rhys, sitting beside them, made no move to eat.

Instead, he smiled brightly at Helga—as if to say, I won't be touching my utensils until you tell me exactly what ingredients you used.

He knew his old friend far too well.

Helga had been fairly normal when she was young, but after stepping into middle age and honing her culinary skills to perfection, she had completely let herself go.

She loved using all kinds of bizarre and unconventional ingredients in her cooking, and then tricking others into eating them—even Rowena had fallen for it several times.

That said, while her choice of ingredients was always eccentric, Helga's principle was simple: to make delicious food. So anything she served would undoubtedly be tasty, safe, and highly nutritious. This was exactly why Rhys had brought Daphne and Astoria along.

He believed there was no harm in letting them try Helga's cooking—the only thing they needed to do was overcome their psychological barriers.

Helga saw straight through Rhys's thoughts. Unbothered, she leaned lazily against the back of her armchair and asked with a knowing smile, "Rhys, why aren't you picking up your fork?"

Daphne and Astoria both stopped what they were doing at the same time.

For some reason, a faint sense of unease rose in their hearts. Why isn't Rhys eating? These dishes look so delicious…

"Did you go to the Forbidden Forest?" Rhys answered Helga's question with another question.

Helga slowly nodded.

Rhys thought for a moment, then stabbed a piece of carrot from the salad—he was sure that at least the carrot was actually just a carrot.

Helga sighed. She understood now—until she explained every ingredient in detail, the old snake wouldn't take a single bite.

Where is the trust between people?

So what if she'd tricked them into eating some… slightly unusual ingredients a few times in the past?

But from Rhys's perspective, when it came to food, Helga's credibility wasn't much better than Rowena's. Maybe it was time for her to reflect on why her old friends had absolutely no trust in her culinary surprises.

"This is a vegetable and cheese salad. The vegetables are from my own garden—ripened with a bit of simple magic. The cheese is homemade as well, and it tastes pretty good."

Under Rhys's sharp gaze, Helga finally confessed where the milk for the cheese had come from.

"You made the cheese… with unicorn milk!?" Daphne accidentally dropped her fork onto the floor.

Unicorns were such rare and magical creatures that many wizards never even saw one in their entire lives—and now here they were, eating cheese made from unicorn milk? Also… just who exactly was Professor White, to even be able to get her hands on unicorn milk?

"I'm someone who's particularly good at communicating with magical creatures," Helga told Daphne, adding that the key to dealing with magical creatures was being bold, meticulous… and thick-skinned.

Rhys watched coldly from the side, thinking that this same principle applied perfectly well to hunting, too.

"Unicorn blood is cursed, so then…" Unlike her sister, Astoria was more concerned about food safety. She worried about the legendary curse associated with unicorns.

"Don't worry! I got their permission! There was no killing or torture involved—it was a completely willing offering. Materials gathered under these circumstances carry no curse at all," Helga reassured the Greengrass sisters.

While Helga was comforting them, a strange thought rose in Rhys's mind: If I used magic to control a unicorn and force it to "willingly" offer something… would the material still be free of the curse?

He pondered this for a moment and concluded that the real key probably lay in whether the unicorn was killed during the process or not.

"This soup is a cream of mushroom. The mushrooms are wild—I picked them in the Forbidden Forest. The cream is extracted from unicorn milk," Helga continued explaining.

Her introduction immediately made Daphne and Astoria's appetites surge. They were practically wishing they could have several more bowls.

But Rhys wasn't so easily fooled by appearances. His attention remained locked on the rather suspicious-looking plate of meat.

Judging by its color, it seemed to be some kind of seafood… but he couldn't be sure.

Especially after learning that Helga had ventured deep into the Forbidden Forest, Rhys had an even bolder guess in mind.

"As for this…" When it came to the third dish, Helga paused for a second, then told the girls, "It's the leg meat of a ..hairy, terrestrial, shell-less crab."

"Oh, I've never heard of that magical creature before!" Daphne grew even more enthusiastic. She picked up several pieces of the "crab meat" in a row, finding the crispy, pan-fried exterior absolutely delightful, while the inside was sweet, juicy, and incredibly flavorful—a rare delicacy.

Rhys knew the true nature of that "crab meat" the moment he heard the name. Sitting beside him, Astoria took a moment longer to figure it out. Once she realized, she quietly stopped touching the plate of fried meat.

"You made sure to process it properly, right?" Rhys had no problem with Acromantulas—he didn't feel the slightest disgust toward them. In his eyes, they were just little walking cuties.

But just to be safe, he had to ask if Helga had properly handled the spider's venom sac.

High temperatures alone weren't enough to neutralize Acromantula venom; it required specific potion ingredients to render it harmless.

"Of course. I only used the leg meat."

"And the rest of it?" Rhys suddenly thought of something.

"Threw it away."

Rhys: "…"

Helga Hufflepuff: "??"

Rhys raised an eyebrow—he decided he absolutely had to share this bit of information with Helga. He couldn't wait to see her reaction.

He picked up his fork and, under Astoria's shocked gaze, casually forked a piece of the "crab meat" into his mouth and chewed. Honestly… it tasted fantastic.

"Oh, by the way, Professor White," Rhys said casually near the end of the dinner, "back in your time, were there magical creatures like Acromantulas?"

"Never heard of them," Helga shook her head. But now she finally knew the name of that giant spider she'd killed.

"I see. Well, they're actually a species of magical creature bred by wizards in the past few centuries. The venom extracted from their sacs is extremely valuable—one pint sells for a hundred Galleons. And it's always in short supply."

Rhys, looking for all the world like someone sharing a fun fact, began his "kind and helpful" explanation.

The moment Helga finished listening, it felt like she'd been struck by lightning. She froze in her seat, completely stiff, and it took quite a while before she finally recovered.

"So… this venom, once it's out of the spider's body…"

"It dries out. If you want to harvest it, you have to act quickly," Rhys ruthlessly crushed Helga's last bit of wishful thinking.

Helga's mood immediately sank, and it stayed that way all the way to the end of the dinner.

Once even the last crumbs of food were gone, Helga stood up with a wine goblet in her hand.

"Before we end this wonderful dinner, allow me to propose a toast—to a great ancestor, the magnificent Salazar Slytherin! I heard from Professor Flitwick that he 'invented' the Human Restoration Charm, making it possible to completely eliminate the werewolf problem. Truly, such a person is utterly magnificent!"

Helga said this while glancing toward Rhys, catching the exact moment when the smile on his face froze stiff. Only then did she feel a deep, genuine satisfaction—the foul mood from earlier completely swept away.

Rhys: ???

"Yeah! Let us toast—to Slytherin!" Helga raised her goblet high. "To the great Slytherin!"

Daphne and Astoria didn't really understand what was going on, but the atmosphere had built up to this point, so the two followed along as well.

"To the great Slytherin! Who really, really invented that charm." Helga said once again.

Rhys: "…"

In the end, through clenched teeth, he forced out, "To the great… Slytherin!"

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