Return of Salazar Slytherin

Rhys headed straight for the Great Hall, which was now completely empty. The students, full and content, had returned to their respective common rooms.

The tidy ones were washing up, the playful ones were enjoying games with friends, and the rest had already retreated to their dormitories to sleep.

Rhys descended the marble staircase into the entrance hall, then turned left and entered a side door.

Having a thorough understanding of the castle's layout, Rhys knew this was the only passage that could possibly lead to the area directly below the Great Hall. The other routes wouldn't work.

Behind the door was a stone staircase that led down to a wide, well-lit stone corridor. The walls of the corridor were decorated with paintings of food.

After noticing the theme of the artwork, Rhys immediately knew he was in the right place.

To his surprise, Rhys encountered a familiar face in the corridor.

"Eh? Neville? What are you doing here? And what happened to you?"

Rhys asked, clearly startled as he looked at Neville, who stood in the corridor drenched in what seemed like vinegar.

Neville gave Rhys a bewildered look, as though silently questioning: Shouldn't I be the one asking you that?

This was, after all, the location of the Hufflepuff common room. What was a Slytherin doing here?

"I forgot how to—" Neville started to speak but abruptly stopped mid-sentence.

He had been about to admit that he'd forgotten how to enter the Hufflepuff common room but suddenly remembered that this was a closely guarded secret of the entire house, passed down for centuries.

He couldn't let it slip!

That would indeed be utterly mortifying.

The common rooms of Gryffindor and Slytherin required a password for entry, while Ravenclaw's required answering a riddle posed by the door knocker.

Hufflepuff's method was similar but with its own unique twist: one had to correctly identify the right barrel among a set of large wooden barrels placed in a dimly lit stone alcove and tap out the correct rhythm on the bottom of the chosen barrel. Only then would the lid open, granting access to the common room.

However, unlike the other three houses, Hufflepuff's entrance was equipped with a repellent mechanism. If someone seeking entry tapped the wrong barrel or used the incorrect rhythm, another barrel would burst open, dousing the would-be intruder with vinegar.

Clearly, Neville, with his notoriously poor memory, had fallen victim to this mechanism and ended up drenched in vinegar.

Normally, Neville moved as part of a group with the friendly and tight-knit Hufflepuff students, who were well aware of his forgetfulness and always made sure to guide him. But tonight, just before the feast ended, Neville had an upset stomach and went to the restroom...

By the time he returned, the Great Hall was deserted, leaving him stranded outside the common room.

"You tapped the wrong barrel, didn't you?"

"How do you— I mean—I don't know what your saying.." Neville nearly spilled the secret but managed to stop himself just in time.

Seeing Neville's expression, Rhys easily pieced together what had happened. He even knew how to open the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room, but given the house's "traditions," he felt it wouldn't be appropriate to reveal the method to Neville.

"I know what happens when you try the wrong entry method—do you need help cleaning all this off? The smell is really strong."

"Oh, ehm, thank you!"

Neville awkwardly took a couple of steps forward, letting Rhys cast a Cleaning Charm to remove the vinegar stains from his robes.

After cleaning Neville's robes, Rhys waved his wand again, dispelling the lingering vinegar smell from the hallway.

"You see. The Cleaning Charm—one of the most practical everyday spells wizards ever invented. Before this spell existed, wizards had a whole collection of household magic. Things like 'a spell to remove dust from the floor,' 'a spell to get rid of water stains,' or 'a spell to clean grease off dishes.' Hundreds of them, all scattered and specific. Whoever condensed those into one simple Scourgify spell was a genius," Rhys said, marveling with genuine admiration.

This was the charm of magic: complex spells condensed into a few movements and incantations, allowing even those without deep knowledge of magical flow to cast them. No wonder, in the end, there wasn't a single wizard left at Hogwarts who truly understood the workings of magical currents.

"..."

Neville stood by, listening in a daze, completely bewildered as to why Rhys was waxing poetic over a Cleaning Charm.

"..So, why are you here in the first place?" Neville decided to steer the conversation back on track.

"I'm looking for the Hogwarts kitchen. I missed dinner tonight and need to find something to fill my stomach." Rhys explained his theory about the kitchen's location to Neville.

"Merlin's beard! Your intuition is spot on!"

Neville gave Rhys a thumbs-up, then led him to a painting—a massive silver bowl overflowing with fruit.

"The kitchen is right behind this painting. Here's what you need to do." Neville extended his index finger and gently tickled the pear in the silver bowl. The pear squirmed, chuckling softly, and then transformed into a large green doorknob.

"Hufflepuff students all know where the kitchen is. When we get hungry at night, we come here to grab something to eat." Neville revealed the method to enter the kitchen to Rhys. Before opening the door, however, he cautioned Rhys to keep the kitchen's location to himself.

If too many students learned about it, it would overwhelm this corridor as well as the workings of the kitchen.

"If that ever happens and the kitchen gets closed to students, it would ruin things for everyone," Neville warned.

Grasping the doorknob, Neville gave it a firm pull, opening the door to reveal a large, high-ceilinged room.

The room was as spacious as the Great Hall above it, with numerous gleaming copper pots and pans stacked against the stone walls. On the wall opposite the door, a massive brick fireplace stood proudly.

No sooner had the two entered the kitchen than a house-elf darted toward them at lightning speed, squeaking in its high-pitched voice, "Mr. Longbottom? Is it Neville Longbottom, sir?"

Neville grinned sheepishly. "I come here often with my friends to grab food—"

Before he could finish speaking, a voice echoed from the hallway outside: "Neville, are you in the kitchen? Did you forget the way in again?"

"Hahaha, and why did it took you so long to notice?"

Neville laughed heartily, his joy evident. He poked his head out from the kitchen door, calling back loudly to his friend, then ducked back into the kitchen and said to Rhys, "How long I stay stuck outside usually depends on how quickly my friends realize I'm missing. Alright, I'll head back to the common room now. If there's anything you want to eat, just tell the house-elves—they're very accommodating."

With that, Neville left the kitchen and rejoined his friends on the way back to the Hufflepuff common room.

"Damn.. the kid has really changed."

After witnessing Neville's ordeal, Rhys couldn't help but feel that Hufflepuff truly was the most fitting house for him.

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