After signing the contract, Dumbledore stood up, shook hands with Hufflepuff, and quickly left Lupet's Dessert Shop.
Rhys leaned over to Helga and asked with a smile, "How does it feel to become a professor at Hogwarts?"
Hufflepuff gave a bitter smile—what a turn of events: from being one of the school's founders to becoming a mere employee. But this was already much better.
At least she didn't have to sneak into the school like Salazar had suggested.
Although she did have a place to stay within the school, given the choice, who would want to sneak in when they could enter openly?
"By the way, is a hundred Galleons a month considered a lot or a little?" After Dumbledore left, Hufflepuff finally thought to ask Rhys how her salary compared.
"It should be alright?" Rhys was making a lot from his shop and had made a lot from the general information he had Lupett send to the Secret Order, so he wasn't too clear either on how much an average wizard in the magical world earned monthly.
He'd heard Fred and the others complain before that their father, Arthur Weasley, who worked at the Ministry of Magic, only took home fifty Galleons a month. So Helga's one hundred Galleons plus fifty Galleons in research funds sounded quite generous, didn't it?
Of course, when Rhys saw the final clause in the contract, he couldn't help but chuckle.
"Helga, this is what you'd call hazard pay."
"Superstition," Hufflepuff replied with a roll of her eyes—she didn't believe in so-called "curses." They had already reduced the false gods of the Norse to ashes, so what was there to fear from this?
Hufflepuff couldn't be bothered to keep chatting with Rhys. She had a heavy task ahead—she needed to gain a thorough understanding of the modern magical world before the school year began.
"I need to go to the bookstore and buy some books—" As she said this, Hufflepuff froze in place.
She suddenly realized she didn't have any of the currency used by modern wizards. When signing the contract with Dumbledore earlier, she'd forgotten to ask for an advance on her salary.
Luckily, she still had her old friend Salazar to rely on.
Rhys directly gave her the books he had previously bought, then told her she could take the potion ingredients and similar items she had on her to shops in Diagon Alley or Knockturn Alley to exchange for money. He had earned his first bucket of gold in Knockturn Alley and had met the Greengrass family there.
Hufflepuff nodded and accepted her old friend's suggestion. However, her situation was worse than Rhys's back then—she hadn't brought many valuable items with her.
"I can give you some gold galleons but you are already very wealthy, if you know what I mean~ Actually, you should look at this from a different angle," Rhys cleared his throat and offered Hufflepuff a rather curious idea.
"You know, our 'relics' are quite the hot sellers in the modern magical world." Rhys winked at her. "All kinds of magical artifacts—as long as they can be tied to the four of us—can sell for sky-high prices."
"For example, if you engrave a badger's head on your goblet and artificially age it a bit, it instantly becomes a highly valuable Hufflepuff relic."
Helga: !!!
"Isn't that… a bit dishonest?" she hesitated, feeling like it was essentially faking something to deceive others.
"What's dishonest about it?" Rhys asked in confusion. "Aren't you Helga Hufflepuff herself?"
Helga nodded.
"And this goblet—didn't you actually use it?"
She nodded again.
"Then how is it fake? This is the real deal—a genuine treasure passed down from Helga Hufflepuff, one of the founders of Hogwarts!" Rhys's words gave Helga a sudden moment of clarity.
She no longer hesitated. She picked up a goblet and immediately went off to find a buyer.
Of course, the antique dealers in Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley weren't fools. A badger head alone wouldn't be enough to make them hand over real gold. But if that goblet had a magical enchantment cast by Helga—then that would be a different story.
After Salazar's bit of guidance, Helga completely shifted her perspective.
She took out three finely crafted golden goblets and tapped each of them with her wand. One by one, the goblets began to transform—
The first goblet now bore an embossed badger and eagle, with Latin inscribed on the bottom:
[A gift to my wise friend, Rowena Ravenclaw. May sweet wine lull her to sleep.]
The second goblet displayed a lion and a badger, with this Latin inscription on the base:
[A gift to my brave friend, Godric Gryffindor. May he enjoy rich beer after a glorious battle.]
As for the third goblet, Helga got a little crafty. She engraved a badger and a serpent on it, along with a blessing in Latin. But then, she scraped off both the snake carving and the inscription.
With these three goblets in hand, Hufflepuff picked an antique shop that looked appealing and walked in.
…
After parting ways with Hufflepuff, Rhys didn't leave Lupet's Dessert Shop right away—he still had an important matter to entrust to Lupet.
After this summer, he would officially be a third-year student at Hogwarts. That meant he would finally be allowed to visit Hogsmeade—provided he had a signed permission slip from his "guardian."
Although sneaking into Hogsmeade wouldn't be difficult for Rhys, as a law-abiding type, he respected school rules he had made openly and preferred to do things the proper way.
So Rhys needed to get a signed guardian consent form, and according to the background he'd created for himself, Lupet was his guardian. So he went to find Lupet.
Naturally, Lupet had no objections—so long as Rhys didn't think it would undermine his status.
A few minutes later, Rhys walked out of Lupet's Dessert Shop with a signed permission slip and a large bag of sweets. Now, he was headed to the Greengrass Manor to deal with a little tail he had left behind there.
Upon returning to Greengrass Manor, Rhys went straight to the room where Scabbers was being kept.
The sound of the door opening startled Scabbers. His beady eyes widened, and his whole furry body trembled with excitement: finally, someone had come!
He had been shut up in that tiny room all alone for days—he was going mad!
Rhys opened the cage door and lifted Scabbers out of the small enclosure.
Regaining "freedom," Scabbers was so excited he nearly wept: the cage was way too small, and being locked inside was pure torture!
He tried his best to look cute, hoping to win over this young wizard the way he had at the Weasleys'—he absolutely did not want to be caged again.
But things didn't go as he hoped.
To Rhys, who had already seen through his identity, Scabbers' behavior wasn't cute in the slightest—in fact, it was rather ..disturbing.
Just imagine: a grown man trying his hardest to act cute in front of you…
Rhys grabbed the scruff of Scabbers' neck and lifted him up, staring straight into those beady black eyes.
Scabbers shivered uncontrollably—those eyes of the young wizard were as cold as a still pond in late autumn…
_______
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