Watching Neville's cheerful figure gradually disappear into the distance, Rhys narrowed his eyes slightly. This boy was rather interesting.
His impression of the round-faced boy had changed somewhat. He believed that someone like Neville would one day reap rich rewards.
After lunch, Daphne and Astoria found Rhys and invited him to take a walk by the Black Lake.
"We've finally got some free time. How about we go to the lakeside to relax for a bit?" Daphne shook the lunchbox in her hand and extended the invitation to Rhys.
After finishing their final exams, Daphne and the others had been dragged off by Professor White to do hard labor. They had even run into a small accident midway, and only now had they truly been able to relax.
Rhys blinked. Wasn't the best way to relax lying on the soft bed in the dormitory and taking an undisturbed afternoon nap?
Still, considering the children had worked hard all semester and hadn't even been able to rest after their exams, Rhys decided to indulge them and grant their modest little request.
Endless lecturing would only breed resentment among students. As for harmless little pleasures, if they wanted them, he would simply give them.
Thus, a few minutes later, the trio appeared by the shore of the Black Lake.
Although it was already summer, the temperature in the Scottish Highlands still remained below twenty degrees Celsius, making the weather extremely comfortable and pleasant.
Walking along the lakeside, the slightly cool breeze brushed against his face. Even Rhys, who had not been very eager to come out, felt his mind grow refreshed.
"The four founders really picked a wonderful place back then," Daphne remarked sincerely from the side.
Indeed. Nestled against the mountains and beside the water, with a resource-rich forest nearby, Hogwarts' location was truly first-rate. It was no wonder the four founders had set their sights on this treasured land the very first time they saw it.
"Indeed," Rhys replied with a smile. "I once read in some ancient texts that the Muggle lords around Hogwarts even tried to compete with the founders for the land rights back then."
As he spoke, he picked out a few interesting anecdotes from the time the school was founded and told them to the two girls.
"I never would have imagined Hogwarts had so many stories when it was first established," Daphne said with emotion.
In her impression, the founding of Hogwarts had always been summarized in a single thin sentence: 'The four founders established Hogwarts in 990 A.D.' She had never expected there to be so many stories behind it.
It was precisely these stories that made everything feel so real.
While Daphne was filled with emotion, Astoria was thinking: none of this was recorded in Hogwarts: A History, so how did Rhys know about it? Could reading correspondence between ancient wizards really reveal so many secrets?
However, she had no intention of digging deeper into the question.
Rhys led the two girls to find a shaded spot by the lakeside and sat down.
Sitting directly on the grass and feeling the breeze blowing off the lake, Rhys felt more at ease than he had in a very long time.
Thinking back carefully, in his youth he had traveled everywhere with Godric and the others, collecting spells and comprehending the mysteries of magic; in his middle years he had clashed with the Norse gods; and in his later years he had begun founding Hogwarts, teaching and nurturing students. Moments of leisure like this, carefree and unburdened, had been exceedingly rare throughout his life.
If only time could freeze at this very moment.
Rhys closed his eyes—then heard Daphne murmur softly beside him, "The fish in the Black Lake should be quite plump, right?"
Astoria and Rhys: "…"
That was a good question.
However, it seemed that neither the students nor the professors at the school ate much fish. The dishes that appeared on the dining table were usually trout or salmon and the like.
Even Hagrid mostly hunted in the Forbidden Forest and rarely fished in the Black Lake.
"Big fish aren't necessarily tasty," Rhys said based on his experience.
Still, he didn't state it too absolutely, because he knew that some sea fish grew quite large yet had rich intramuscular fat, leaving a lingering fragrance with every bite.
"We'll know once we try." Daphne was eager to give it a shot.
She stood up, looked around, then snapped a branch from a nearby tree.
With the branch in hand, she casually took out a ribbon and turned the two into the shape of a fishing rod.
Watching Daphne bustle about, Rhys originally intended to use the Summoning Charm to pull a fish straight out of the lake, but he quickly dismissed the idea. What Daphne enjoyed was not the fish itself, but the process of fishing. He might as well let her have her fun.
Daphne ran to the lakeside to fish, while Rhys and Astoria sat beneath the shade of a nearby tree, watching her.
"Sister, she…" Astoria looked at Daphne's back, her expression complicated.
"Let her be." Rhys rolled his eyes. When Daphne was younger, it hadn't been obvious, but the older she grew, the more she resembled a Gryffindor—bah, her ancestor Adrian.
"Do you have any plans for the holidays?" Astoria asked softly.
If possible, she still wanted to coax Rhys into visiting the Greengrass Manor. She knew he was an extraordinary figure. If she spent enough time around him, perhaps she might even gain insight into a domain.
Rhys lifted his head and glanced at her.
"I've heard the Quidditch World Cup final will be held in Britain this summer. That seems worth going to see."
Although Rhys was not particularly interested in Quidditch, based on what he knew, it was undoubtedly one of the grandest events in the wizarding world.
Where there was such a grand occasion, there would surely be large gatherings of wizards. Events like these, similar to a great fair, were quite attractive to Rhys.
He could take the opportunity to observe the lives of wizards outside Britain.
"That's great! Father will definitely be able to get tickets. We can go watch together!" Astoria very naturally extended the invitation to Rhys.
Rhys calmly accepted Astoria's goodwill.
In his view, this was simply a normal way for students to show appreciation to their teacher. There was no reason for him to refuse their kindness.
However, aside from attending the World Cup, there was something else he needed to do. It was something he had wanted to accomplish for a long time, but various matters had delayed him again and again, preventing it from ever happening.
Rhys wanted to pay a visit to the Gaunt family. Not for any particular reason—just to take a look, to see what traces had been left behind by the descendants of his utterly disappointing adopted son.
"Does the Gaunt family still have any descendants? I mean the direct line," Rhys asked Astoria.
Because pure-blood families often intermarried, each family more or less carried the blood of others.
By bloodline alone, the Gaunts certainly still existed widely, but what Rhys was asking about was their direct lineage.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI