Sirius: "Huh?"
Daphne: "?"
Both of them were stunned. Rhys's action was far too sudden, completely catching them off guard.
Rhys, however, remained expressionless. In his view, rather than letting Harry spiral into meaningless emotional turmoil, it was better to erase the part of his memory he shouldn't have heard.
Once Sirius's name was cleared, everything would be fine.
Sirius was momentarily dazed, but then a surge of anger welled up in his chest—Rhys! You actually dared to lay a hand on Harry!
But before he could erupt, Harry turned around. Considering Harry was still present, Sirius could only use the last bit of rationality to suppress the fury in his heart, deciding to settle things with Rhys after Harry left.
"Oh no, I forgot to bring some Butterbeer back for Ron!" Harry slapped his forehead, realizing he had forgotten to pack a bottle for Ron to try. Back at the shop, when he first tasted Butterbeer, he was amazed by the drink and had planned to take some back for Ron. But in the rush of leaving, he'd completely forgotten.
"You okay? Ron is allowed into Hogsmeade, right? He could just come buy it himself," Rhys replied, his tone full of confusion and puzzlement.
Harry froze for a second, then came to a realization—That's right! Ron's not like me, he's allowed into Hogsmeade!
"I must've had too much Butterbeer—my head's not clear. Isn't this stuff supposed to have barely any alcohol?" Harry chuckled awkwardly as he continued walking toward Hogwarts Castle.
"Maybe you just have a terrible tolerance?" Rhys quickly caught up to him, falling into step beside Harry, chatting and laughing together.
Looking at Harry's smiling face, Sirius fell into thought: Maybe Rhys's way wasn't so bad after all?
It would take a long time before he could clear his name. And during that time, Harry would likely continue to drown in the pain of believing his godfather had betrayed his parents. In that case, wouldn't it be better to temporarily erase that memory and let him live a little more happily?
Holding Sirius's leash, Daphne was also still thinking about what Rhys had just done. The more she thought about it, the more she felt Rhys had done the right thing. She decided she needed to learn from him—and practice the Forgetfulness Charm more seriously when she got back.
Speaking of the Obliviate Charm, she wondered how Lockhart was doing now. She hoped he could get used to his cell in Azkaban.
With different thoughts in their minds, the group returned to Hogwarts and then went their separate ways.
Harry headed back to the Gryffindor common room, while Rhys and Daphne made their way to the library. Sirius planned to settle down in the Shrieking Shack—for ever since running into Lupin and Hagrid at the Three Broomsticks and learning they were working together recently, Sirius had decided it was far too risky to keep mooching food off Hagrid. If he ran into Lupin again, he'd be in real trouble.
And even then, he had no idea whether his old friend would be willing to hear him out.
If Rhys had known what was troubling Sirius internally, he would've scoffed at it: He's way too familiar with that kind of situation. The last thing you should do is overestimate how reasonable your old friends will be. They won't calm down and listen until they've given you a proper beating.
Whether Sirius would get a chance to explain himself depended entirely on how much of a beating he could endure.
In that regard, Rhys had a wealth of experience.
When Rhys entered the library, he was surprised to see that Helga was there too. At that moment, she was seated directly across from Hermione, with a stack of books beside her as well.
Clearly, having a real professor sitting across from her made the young girl rather uneasy.
"May I take a look at your Transfiguration notes?"
"Of course! No problem at all!" Hermione quickly pulled a leather-bound notebook from her bag and respectfully handed it over to Helga.
Helga took the notebook, opened it, and was immediately greeted by rows of neat, elegant, and concise class notes. Her eyes quickly filled with admiration.
"These are very well-written."
"Thank you for your praise."
"Granger, you come from a Muggle family, right?"
Hermione nodded in confusion, not sure where this was going. Helga let out a sigh.
"What a pity. Why did you end up in Ravenclaw? It would've been wonderful if you were in Hufflepuff."
Hermione: ???
Listening to their conversation, Rhys couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth—This shameless old woman, don't tell me she's got her eyes on Rowena's student? Have some decency! She's Ravenclaw's student, for Merlin's sake!
Feeling a bit nervous, he tugged on Daphne's sleeve and dragged her toward a corner of the library, hoping to avoid being spotted by Hufflepuff.
Helga was clearly obsessed with taking on a student and had long thrown away any shred of shame. Rhys had to make sure Daphne and the others kept their distance from her.
Back in their day, there had been no explicit rule that a successor had to come from their own House—but who would've thought that would be necessary?
It was like some countries not bothering to write "criminals can't be president" into their constitution—nobody expected that a Founder would one day try to poach another House's student to be their successor!
Helga, where's your dignity as a grandmaster and paragon of your House?
Rhys had clearly underestimated how appealing Hermione was. In Helga's eyes, Hermione actually fit Hufflepuff's admission standards far better than Ravenclaw's.
First, the girl had no background to speak of—being from a Muggle family already ruled her out of Slytherin. Her reverence for school rules didn't mesh with Gryffindor's free-spirited style. As for Ravenclaw, while her grades looked excellent, those were achieved through relentless hard work—at her core, her spirit aligned perfectly with Hufflepuff.
So in Helga's opinion, Hermione was a student who had been sorted into the wrong House.
Faced with Professor White's strange question—though she didn't really seem to be expecting an answer—Hermione still hesitated for a moment before speaking up: "Actually, I originally wanted to be in Gryffindor."
Helga: ???
That answer truly shocked her. Wasn't Gryffindor supposed to be one of the first options you'd rule out, alongside Slytherin?
"Because back then, everyone said Gryffindor was the best House—Professor Dumbledore graduated from Gryffindor too. So at first, I really wanted to go there. But then Rhys explained the true nature of how each of the four Houses chooses its students, and I changed my mind."
"Oh?" Helga raised an eyebrow. "So Rhys was involved in this?"
"Yes." Hermione then recounted to Professor White what Rhys had told her back then about the types of students each House looks for.
"After hearing that, I thought maybe I was more suited to Ravenclaw."
Helga fell silent.
That wretched old snake ruined everything! she cursed internally. Couldn't you have used kinder words to describe Hufflepuff?!
But regretting it now was pointless. Hermione Granger was already a Ravenclaw.
All Helga could do was sigh wistfully. Fortunately, there were still promising seeds growing within Hufflepuff House.
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