Return of Salazar Slytherin

135- The Sorting Hat: Trembling and Treading on Thin Ice

"Who knows? They are both Gryffindors." Hermione didn't have a deep impression of Harry and Ron. She only knew that they were very likely to break school rules.

The four of them separated at the door of the Great Hall and went to sit at the long table of their Houses.

After sitting down at the Slytherin table, Rhys looked towards Gryffindor and indeed did not see any trace of Harry and Ron in the crowd.

What were they doing?

As there was nothing to do, Rhys simply put his hand on his chin and thought about what might have happened to Harry and Ron, and then he saw a car passing by the window of the castle.

Rhys: "…"

He probably understood what Ron and Harry had done wrong. Hermione summed them up very well: they were too Gryffindor.

The Sorting Ceremony was not postponed due to the absence of the two young wizards.

Professor McGonagall led a group of little ones, as in previous years. Rhys saw Astoria standing at the front of the line, and behind her was a girl with messy, waist-length dirty blond hair.

The blonde girl attracted Rhys's attention because she wore some unusual jewelry and put her wand behind her ear. Her gray eyes looked dreamy and she was obviously crazy.

He had a hunch that the girl would be sorted into Ravenclaw, because - although saying this would surely make Ravenclaw furious - he felt that those crazy little wizards were in line with the Ravenclaw house temperament.

Under the chairmanship of Professor McGonagall, the sorting ceremony began.

Since her last name's 1st letter was "G" and her first name's was "A", Astoria was quickly called up.

When she saw the Sorting Hat, she was really relieved - before that, there were all kinds of opinions about the school's sorting method. The most exaggerated one was that everyone had to work together to defeat a giant monster, and then be assigned to a house based on their performance in the battle.

With strange thoughts flashing through her mind, Astoria sat down on the small square stool.

She could feel the gazes of nearly a thousand eyes, which made her nervous: in public, once the results of the division were announced, there would be no room for maneuver.

'I don't want to go to Gryffindor, I don't want to go to Hufflepuff!'

When the hat was put on her head, she remembered what Rhys had said to her.

—Recite my name silently, and your wish will come true!

Although she didn't really believe it, she still silently repeated Rhys's name several times in her heart.

At the same time, a voice rang in her ear: "Interesting little girl, your soul...wait, you just say Rhys? Do you know Lord Sal— I mean Rhys Chassala Lint?"

"Yes." Astoria was also quite surprised. She didn't expect that the Sorting Hat would actually remember Rhys's name!

The Sorting Hat just said "Oh" and then remained silent.

After hearing the name Rhys, the Sorting Hat immediately understood that Lord Slytherin had his own plan for the girl on the stool. It tried to put the trace on the little wizard of the Greengrass family in front of it according to the contract, but as soon as the contract magic was activated, the Sorting Hat felt a slight resistance, as if there was a force resisting the trace it released.

Perhaps increasing the output could force the trace to be added, but the Sorting Hat didn't dare to do so, because it sensed clearly that this was a spell cast by Lord Slytherin, the purpose of which was to prevent it from placing traces on this girl.

Now it dare not act rashly.

Astoria was confused at this time. She didn't understand why the Sorting Hat suddenly stopped talking.  

Fortunately, the Sorting Hat's silence did not last too long. After a few seconds, it opened its mouth and asked again: "Did Lor—Rhys say anything?"

Astoria: ???

What's going on?

Why does it seem like the Sorting Hat takes Rhys's opinion very seriously?

Astoria's feeling was correct, and the Sorting Hat was now afraid that it had misjudged Rhys's intentions.

'According to me, this girl should go to Slytherin!'

'But! Lord would have seen that too! So if he knew that I'll send her to Slytherin.. and still told her to 'warn' me.. Does he not want her to go to Slytherin!?'

According to its judgment, it was going to sort Astoria into Slytherin, but now that it knew that Slytherin House's founder was paying special attention to this girl, it dared not act rashly, fearing that it would accidentally ruin the masters' plans.

What the Sorting Hat didn't know was that Rhys didn't have a plan, he just wanted Astoria to go to the house she wanted.

"He said I can definitely go to any House I want to go to." Astoria wasn't very clear about what was going on, but she still told him what Rhys said truthfully.

'Hmm.. so Lord knew I would send her to Slytherin, but the little girl wanted to go else where so he respected her choice and told her to 'warn' me so I send her to her choice of House! Yes! That's it!'

"Oh, then which House do you want to go to?"

"It must be Slytherin!"

Sorting Hat: "..."

After a moment, it roared with all its strength: "Slytherin!"

The sorting ceremony continued, and no one knew the twists and turns of the sorting hat's mental journey.

Today's opening banquet was slightly different from the past.

There was always a lack of people in the teacher's seat. Snape was not there when the sorting ceremony began, and Professor McGonagall also disappeared after presiding over the sorting ceremony.

Later, Dumbledore also left the hall after announcing the start of the banquet, which caused students to talk about it.

This made Lockhart quite unhappy.

He had carefully prepared a speech for today's opening dinner and accompanied it with a set of corresponding body postures. As a result, Dumbledore did not even give him time to show his performance. After he introduced his name, he actually announced that the dinner was ready!

That action and that manuscript were all scrapped!

But just as no one knew the psychological activities of the Sorting Hat, no one noticed Professor Lockhart's dissatisfaction.

It was not until the end of the banquet that a very explosive piece of news slowly spread: Harry and Ron did not board the Hogwarts Express, they drove here in a flying car.

This caused a heated discussion, Gryffindor wizards thought this was so cool, while Slytherin students thought this serious violation of the Statute of Secrecy should be punished.

Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff students had no special opinions on this, they were either discussing what spells were cast on the flying car, or regretting that Harry and Ron missed such a sumptuous banquet respectively.

Lockhart beat his chest and stamped his feet, lamenting that he had missed an opportunity to make the headlines.

But these had nothing to do with Rhys.

He returned to the dormitory early, lay on the bed, and fell asleep.

…

Generally speaking, few young wizards would choose to go to the library to study on the first day of school - they usually haven't yet recovered from their lazy state during the holidays.

But there was one exception. On the first day of school, Miss Hermione Granger pushed open the door of the library.

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