Chapter 460: Helga Hufflepuff

"Only one question?"

Wade looked at Dumbledore, and Slytherin did the same.

Slytherin actually wanted to ask the question himself, but if they only had one chance, he might not ask the right thing.

It would be better to see what Dumbledore chose.

After all, his own way of thinking had grown rigid, while Dumbledore, despite being his junior by many generations, possessed wisdom that was no less impressive than that of the four founders in their day.

When Dumbledore saw Wade and Slytherin looking at him, he understood that they were leaving the choice to him.

He pondered for a moment before raising his head.

"Can you tell me who you are?"

Although it seemed like an ordinary question, it was actually the one that could reveal the most information.

She could only answer one question, but as long as she revealed her identity, Dumbledore could infer many other things from it.

Ms. Paris frowned and thought for a while before finally nodding.

"I think I can tell you the answer to that question. But promise me you won't ask anything else about me. Even if you do, I won't answer."

Dumbledore, Wade, and Slytherin nodded.

Seeing this, Ms. Paris wasted no time and raised her wand again.

She lightly tapped herself with it, and her appearance rapidly began to change.

Her wizarding robes gradually turned yellow-brown, while her face transformed just as quickly.

A familiar, kindly face appeared before the three of them.

"It really is you!" Slytherin cried out excitedly.

Wade and Dumbledore, meanwhile, were completely stunned.

Wade quickly recovered and pulled an old book from one of his greatly expanded pockets.

He opened it, revealing portraits of the four founders.

Wade and Dumbledore both looked at one of the portraits, then back at Ms. Paris.

"Sss... Helga Hufflepuff..."

Dumbledore let out a disbelieving sigh.

"I thought meeting Slytherin was the most shocking thing I would ever experience in my life... I never imagined..."

Wade slowly closed the book.

"So you really are Helga Hufflepuff, founder of Hufflepuff House, one of the founders of Hogwarts, one of the four great founders."

The two men and the ghost stared at Hufflepuff, countless questions running through their minds.

But their chance to ask questions had already been used.

Without a doubt, the secret Hufflepuff could not tell them was how she had managed to survive until the present day.

Dumbledore and Wade exchanged a glance. Both had already formed a suspicion, but this was not the time to discuss it.

"Fine! Since you really are Helga, then I won't ask anything about you. Don't look at me like that. You said we could only ask one question about you. That doesn't include anything else!" Slytherin said indignantly.

Hufflepuff sighed.

"Go on, then."

"Why did I become a ghost? How did I die? Where did my body go? What exactly happened back then?"

Slytherin poured out all the questions that had troubled him for so long in one breath.

He had died without knowing how, then awakened after a thousand years of slumber as a ghost without knowing why. This had always been the greatest knot in Slytherin's heart.

"I'm sorry, Salazar. We don't know much about that either. You had already left Hogwarts by then. We only learned of your death when one of your disciples brought us the news.

"All we know is that when your disciple brought you breakfast that morning, they found you already dead. At the time, you seemed to have been conducting some kind of research.

"But strangely, after your disciples and descendants placed your remains in a coffin and prepared to hold your funeral... your body disappeared.

"And from that day onward, there was never another trace of it."

"No, that's not right... I still remember the things you said when you argued with Godric before you left! So... you really did leave that monster of yours at Hogwarts? In the Chamber of Secrets?" Hufflepuff asked, unusually angry.

"The basilisk is gone..." Slytherin replied awkwardly.

"Really?"

Slytherin then briefly explained to Hufflepuff what had happened earlier.

"It's fortunate no one was killed... What were you thinking? Were you planning to personally shut down the school you helped create?" Hufflepuff snapped.

Slytherin had no answer. In truth, he felt rather wronged himself. In his era, killing eight or ten wizards was hardly something anyone cared about.

Who could have imagined that a thousand years later, there would be a Ministry of Magic, laws, and all sorts of other things regulating everything?

In the past, deaths at a school would not have affected the school itself. But now, even if a single student died and the cause could not be determined, Hogwarts might be shut down by the Ministry of Magic.

So even if his basilisk had not been killed, it would have been useless anyway.

Hufflepuff then continued lecturing Slytherin.

Slytherin endured it for a while before finally losing patience.

"All right, all right, stop already. That brat Wade has said all of this to me more times than I can count... No matter what, I still believe pure-blood wizards tend to have greater talent! Most pure-blood students today have become this foolish because something went wrong with their bloodlines. Those idiots kept marrying close relatives and having children, so every generation became worse than the last! Otherwise..."

Wade actually thought Slytherin had a point.

If pure-blood families had not constantly intermarried to the point that every generation declined, then as long as each generation produced a few talented people and accumulated even a little more knowledge and strength, their families would have become enormous powers by now.

Wasn't the Li family, the one that had previously blasted Grindelwald's envoy out, exactly like that?

Who knew how terrifying the foundations of those great families that had developed normally over the past thousand years might be?

"All right... I won't lecture you anymore. At this point, being able to meet someone from the same era, especially an old close friend, is already an incredible stroke of luck. Besides, you've changed now, haven't you? Otherwise, you never would have accepted that child Tom," Hufflepuff said softly.

"Sigh..."

Slytherin let out a quiet sigh, casually took out a stick of incense, lit it, and inhaled deeply before falling into memories of the past.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, a streak of green light crossed the distant sky.

Then the senior landed dramatically in front of everyone.

Some colour had finally returned to her previously pale face.

After being trapped for so long, running was not enough to express her joy. Only flying could.

So she had directly used the flying spell she had secretly learned from Wade and spent quite a while soaring freely through the sky.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," the senior said, adjusting her glasses again.

"We weren't actually waiting for you. We just happened to..." Wade began.

The smile on the senior's face instantly vanished.

Ignoring Wade, she walked over to Hufflepuff, or rather, Ms. Paris.

"Do you still remember my friends? How many of them are still alive? Where did the ones who survived go? And the ones who passed away... where are they buried?"

Ms. Paris took her hand and gently patted it.

"I'll take you to see them. I know what became of most of them."

"All right..."

Thinking about how much had changed and how many people were gone, the senior's cheerful mood dimmed considerably.

She then walked over to Wade and handed him a small silver token.

"The conditions I promised you before are still valid. The workshop is yours now. I'm giving you this token as well. From now on, those people will obey only your orders..."

"Pleasure doing business." Wade happily accepted the small token.

"Business? Perhaps that's how you see it, but I'm not the same as you. Strictly speaking, I still owe you a very large favour," the senior said solemnly.

Her meaning was obvious.

If Wade ever needed something in the future, he could still come to her just as he had before.

She simply would not say it so directly.

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