Return of Salazar Slytherin

Rhys recognized the ghost of Helena Ravenclaw the moment he saw her back. Thinking of Barrow, who stood behind him, he couldn't help but sigh: pitiful, truly pitiful.

He still remembered what they were like when they attended Hogwarts.

One was a child adopted by Ravenclaw from her relatives, while Barrow was an orphaned wizard adopted by Helga Hufflepuff and later sorted into Slytherin.

Both had shown extraordinary magical talent upon entering the school. Unfortunately, neither of these promising seeds had grown into the great trees that could have sheltered the school.

If given a choice, neither Barrow nor Helena would have wanted to become ghosts.

After a wizard dies, as long as their soul remains intact, they can choose to become a ghost, lingering in the mortal world and wandering places they frequented in life. However, very few wizards would willingly make that choice.

Choosing to become a ghost meant forever losing the possibility of reincarnation. Without exception, the underworld would no longer accept their soul, and they would remain out of sync with the world of the living: unable to eat, restricted in movement, and incapable of influencing the physical world. Rather than calling them "immortal ghosts," it would be more fitting to describe them as prisoners trapped in an open-air prison or echoes of the dead lingering in the mortal realm.

Only those with unresolved regrets would choose such a fate. Ravenclaw's brilliance allowed her to find a loophole, retaining some of her magical abilities and surpassing other ghosts in her exploration of death.

Still, in a way, if these two hadn't become ghosts, Rhys wouldn't have had the chance to see them again.

For him, perhaps this was a fortunate turn of events...?

Hearing the sound of the common room door opening, Helena turned her head and saw Rhys standing in the doorway.

Rhys finally got a good look at Helena's face. Compared to the Bloody Baron, Helena seemed in much better shape. Her beauty had changed little since he last left Hogwarts, and the arrogance in her eyes was just as it had always been.

"This is the Ravenclaw common room, student of Slytherin. Why have you come here?" Helena asked coldly, her gaze fixed on Rhys. Then her lips curled into a disdainful smirk. "If you're here to inquire about the whereabouts of the diadem, you can turn around and leave."

She turned her back to him again, resuming her stance in front of the Ravenclaw statue, her thoughts a mystery. Clearly, she had no intention of spending even a second more on someone like Rhys.

As Helena said those words to Rhys, the Bloody Baron took several steps back, making sure to stay well out of Helena's line of sight. At that moment, he even entertained the thought of leaving his teacher behind and running off—after all, he had already found Helena, hadn't he?

But in the end, he didn't dare abandon Rhys here alone.

Rhys had been prepared for Helena's cold demeanor.

In fact, this was a relatively good start! Who knew what would happen if Helena's first sight had been of Barrow instead?

Rhys stepped closer, stopping in front of the Ravenclaw statue.

He squinted, carefully examining the marble sculpture. The statue was exquisitely crafted, yet it exuded an air of detachment. From below, it seemed as if "Ravenclaw" was gazing down at him, her face bearing a faint, mocking smile. Atop her head was a finely detailed marble reproduction of a circular headpiece—the diadem of Ravenclaw.

Seeing Rhys follow her, Helena's expression turned impatient.

This young wizard was utterly clueless!

If it had been the Helena of her youth, a simple flick of her wand would have left him dangling from the common room chandelier. But as she was now, there was little she could do to deal with such an obnoxious child.

Helena, her mood disrupted, decided to leave. But the voice of that young wizard drifted into her ears.

"Tsk! This statue, aside from the diadem, doesn't resemble Rowena at all."

Helena halted mid-step, turned her head, and narrowed her eyes.

"You've neither met Rowena nor touched the diadem. Hah, what do you know?"

"I have, Nana."

Helena froze, her expression stunned. "What did you call me?"

"Nana. Oh, but you're a big girl now, so perhaps I should call you Helena instead. Or wait—didn't you take on an alias? Grey? Should I call you Grey instead?"

As she listened to Rhys speak, Helena could only think the boy had lost his mind.

Absurd! Completely absurd!

"Not only have I seen and touched the diadem, but I also know it was forged from the skull of the god-king Odin."

The look in Helena's eyes shifted to one of pure disbelief. She stared at Rhys intently, her voice low and deliberate.

"Do you even know what you're saying?"

"Of course. After all, I contributed to the creation of the diadem, specifically in providing some of the materials," Rhys said casually before turning his head toward the entrance of the common room. "Hey! Barrow, how much longer are you going to stand outside?" he called out impatiently.

At last, the Bloody Baron phased through the wall and entered the room.

The moment Helena saw him, her expression changed dramatically. But before she could lash out, Rhys spoke again, completely diverting her attention.

"Allow me to reintroduce myself: I am Salazar Slytherin. You can call me Uncle Salazar like you did when you were little, or Professor Slytherin, as you did when you were older."

Helena: "?!"

A torrent of shocking revelations left her dazed. After several seconds, she finally managed to ask in a stunned voice, "You're saying you're Uncle Salazar? Do you have any proof?"

In truth, the moment the words left her mouth, she was already seventy percent convinced.

"Ah~ Our Barrow can vouch for me," Rhys replied.

Helena turned toward the Bloody Baron, who stood silently in the corner of the common room. He nodded wordlessly.

Helena felt her world spinning. A powerful sense of unreality overwhelmed her: this impossibly young boy standing before her was Uncle Salazar?

Absurd.

Incomprehensible.

And yet... somehow believable.

"Did you make a Horcrux?" she blurted out instinctively.

Rhys: "???"

"Mind your language!" Rhys snapped, visibly displeased. "Do you think so little of me as a wizard? Only the most disgraceful scoundrels use Horcruxes to seek immortality."

"I-I'm sorry."

Faced with that all-too-familiar tone, Helena instinctively apologized.

Rhys's rebuke completely derailed Helena's focus, and she temporarily forgot all about Barrow's presence. What she was now desperate to understand was why Uncle Salazar had appeared here, and more importantly...

"I need to know what happened after you took Rowena's diadem."

Rhys's words struck Helena like a thunderclap, reverberating in her ears and causing her body to tremble involuntarily.

"So you knew—"

"Rowena told me," Rhys interrupted. "Something as powerful as the diadem cannot be left unaccounted for, right?"

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