Return of Salazar Slytherin

"Ron, did you hear that?" Harry stopped and asked Ron.

"Hear what?" Ron, still absorbed in the pleasant thought of soon reaching the kitchen for a feast, didn't immediately understand.

Harry ignored him, pressing his ear against the stone wall and listening intently.

But the voice seemed to have faded away, so much so that he could only barely hear a sound but couldn't make out what it was saying.

Harry made a snap decision and ran in the direction the voice had come from.

"Harry, what are you doing?"

Ron was baffled, initially thinking Harry was hearing things due to hunger, but he had to quickly follow—Harry had the Invisibility Cloak. If they got separated and Filch caught him, he'd be in trouble.

Harry dashed down flights of stairs, raced past the entrance hall, and finally made his way to the vicinity of the second-floor bathroom.

Once there, Harry felt a bit confused. Too much time had passed, so he couldn't be sure this was where the voice had originated, only that it was the right general area.

"You really didn't hear anything?" Harry asked Ron, who was out of breath and trailing behind him, with frustration.

"I didn't hear a thing, Harry. What's going on?" Ron wiped the sweat from his forehead.

A look of confusion flashed across Harry's face. Ron's confident tone was enough to make him start doubting himself.

At that moment, Ron sniffed the air. He caught a faint whiff of food.

"Do you smell that?"

"Huh?" Ron's sudden question caught Harry off guard.

The banquet had long ended, so how could there still be the scent of food lingering?

Was Ron so hungry that he was imagining it? If it was just traces of dinner left in the air, then Ron's nose might be a little too sensitive.

"There's definitely food around here. Let me check..." Ron's nostrils flared as he sniffed around the hallway. After two laps, he finally discovered a heavy food container hidden beneath a vase stand.

"Knew it!" Ron had already shoved aside any thoughts of Harry's "voice." What could be more important than food?

He placed the container on the windowsill and opened its lid. Inside was a dish of red wine-braised veal shanks, glistening and irresistibly aromatic.

Ron's Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed hard.

The dish looked absolutely tantalizing—completely different in style from the typical English fare served at their usual meals.

"Harry, there really is food in here! And it's so refined and appetizing. This must be Merlin's blessing!"

Harry couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong.

Why was there a food container here? Its presence alone was highly suspicious.

Could it be one of Peeves's pranks?

He glanced around, scanning the seemingly ordinary hallway for anything unusual. To his surprise, he did spot something that shouldn't have been there—a wand, lying quietly in the crack between the wall and the floor.

It was easy to overlook unless you were paying close attention.

"Ron, look!" Harry gave Ron's shoulder a hard shove, forcing him to tear his gaze away from the food container.

"There's a wand over there!"

Ron raised his eyebrows in surprise. Really? Fortune truly favored him tonight! He could definitely use a new wand right now.

Ever since their flying car crashed into the Whomping Willow, Ron's wand had been broken. Though he'd wrapped it with layers of magical tape, it was clearly beyond repair and had been malfunctioning ever since.

Ron had been worrying about his wand for weeks, and now, to his astonishment, he'd stumbled across a new one right here at Hogwarts!

Seeing Ron's expression, Harry could easily guess what he was thinking.

He grabbed Ron's shoulders and shook him firmly, trying to snap him out of it.

"Think, Ron! It's late at night, in a magical castle, on an empty corridor, with a food container filled with a feast and a discarded wand just lying around. Ron, how are you not suspicious? Even I, a kid raised by Muggles, can tell something's off here!"

Harry's interruption brought Ron back to his senses—the excitement of food and finding a wand had clouded his judgment.

Thinking it over carefully, he realized it really was quite strange.

"Do you think there's something wrong with the food in this box? Like, if some greedy student ate it, they'd disappear or turn into some kind of animal!"

Harry suggested, drawing from the darker fairy tales he'd read. His chilling hypothesis sent a shiver down Ron's spine.

Ron immediately set the food container aside and took several steps back. 

But he couldn't help muttering, "It shouldn't be that bad... I mean, I haven't heard of any curses like that…"

Still, he couldn't be entirely sure.

With thousands of spells and curses in the wizarding world, who was to say there wasn't one that matched Harry's theory?

He knew his twin brothers, Fred and George, were working on some joke candies that caused bizarre effects when eaten.

It wasn't impossible that this food had been tampered with or cursed.

Then a realization struck him. "If that's the case, doesn't that mean someone's already been caught in the trap? Shouldn't we take this wand to Professor McGonagall?"

"There's no need for that. Thank you for finding my wand,"

"AAh—Who!?"

A voice suddenly came from behind them, startling both Ron and Harry. They jumped apart instinctively, wands raised—Ron even brandished both his broken wand and the one they'd found.

"Relax, it's me—Rhys," Rhys quickly said, his tone calm and reassuring, hoping to defuse the tension before anyone accidentally fired a spell.

Rhys wasn't worried about Harry and Ron's spells hurting him; his main concern was avoiding any commotion that might attract Filch. If that happened, he'd have to waste more energy dealing with it. 

Too much had happened tonight, and all he wanted now was to return to his dormitory quietly and enjoy his meal.

"Rhys, it's you! What are you doing here?" Harry breathed a sigh of relief, still shaken by the tense atmosphere from moments ago. 

"This is my wand and my food container. I made some food but suddenly got a stomachache and had to make a quick stop at the restroom. When I came back out... well, I saw you two here."

Rhys casually fabricated an explanation, delivering it with just the right amount of plausibility.

Both Harry and Ron nodded in understanding. Harry felt a vague sense of unease, as though something was off, but Rhys's story seemed reasonable enough to dismiss his doubts.

"What's with your wand?" Rhys asked as he took his wand back from Ron, noticing the tape wrapped around Ron's own wand.

Ron explained the situation, recounting how his wand had been damaged when their enchanted car crashed into the Whomping Willow.

Rhys examined Ron's wand for a moment, then gave a small nod. 

"Would you mind if I tried to fix it?"

"Go ahead—can't make it worse than it already is," Ron replied, handing his wand to Rhys without hesitation.

Rhys carefully peeled off the tape from Ron's wand, only to frown deeply.

In his opinion, was this wand even worth repairing? It would be better to replace it as soon as possible!

The damage to the outer wood was minor, but the core inside was also damaged.

Fortunately, the situation wasn't too severe—after some repairs, Ron would at least be able to make do with it for now.

With great care, Rhys adjusted the unicorn tail hair inside the wand to its proper position. He then realigned the broken parts of the wand's body and cast a Mending Charm.

The fractured pieces seamlessly fused back together, leaving the wand as good as he could make it.

"Here, it's usable for now, but I strongly recommend replacing it as soon as you can," Rhys said as he handed the wand back to Ron.

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