"Hahahaha—!"
Bright, carefree laughter echoed throughout Rowena's garden, and even the corners of Rowena's lips could not help curling upward.
"This is just too hilarious! No wonder Salazar refused to tell us the full details!"
Only after laughing as though he had exhausted all the laughter of his lifetime did Godric Gryffindor finally calm down enough to begin complaining about Salazar's experience together with Rowena.
What kind of absurd situation even was this?
A man lies quietly in his coffin, yet blame falls from the sky onto his head.
Who could possibly imagine that someone would actually impersonate another person's heir?
Godric asked himself honestly: if something like this had happened to him, he would have had absolutely no way to deal with it either.
After all, by then he would already be dead and buried!
It could only be said that Salazar's luck was truly terrible.
Eh?
Could it perhaps be because Salazar had done too many immoral things in life that he ended up attracting such people?
Godric could not help having that thought.
If Rhys ever learned that Godric actually thought this way, he would absolutely stuff the Resurrection Stone ring into a toilet and flush it straight into the Black Lake.
What the hell was that supposed to mean, too many immoral deeds?
Surely Rowena had done just as many bad things as he had… probably?
"So you see, having 'heirs' isn't necessarily a good thing. Think carefully about the foundation you left behind for Gryffindor House, then consider what might happen if you actually had heirs."
Godric thought about it for a moment before replying rather uncertainly, "Hogwarts becoming packed full of little prank-loving wizards?"
"That's possible. But Hogwarts might also become a war machine."
Rowena sighed softly as she spoke.
"That's a bit extreme, isn't it…" Godric forced out an awkward smile. "I feel like Gryffindor House still has a pretty righteous atmosphere."
"Do you think Salazar would ever have imagined Slytherin House turning into what it is today before he fell into slumber?"
Rowena's rhetorical question instantly silenced Gryffindor.
After a while, the two sighed simultaneously.
Although what happened to Salazar sounded hilarious at first glance, once they thought about it carefully, both Rowena and Godric felt lingering unease.
No one would want such a thing happening to themselves.
Salazar's Slytherin House had become a stronghold for pure-blood supremacy and a breeding ground for Dark Wizards.
Could the other three truly guarantee they would avoid similar fates?
A thousand years later, Ravenclaw House's pursuit of wisdom might transform into worship of cunning schemes and deceit.
Gryffindor House's admiration for courage and bravery might evolve into obsession with war.
Hufflepuff House's kindness and tolerance might gradually twist into fanaticism and madness…
All of those possibilities could happen.
"When you get the chance, comfort Salazar a little. He can't possibly feel good about this deep down."
Rowena blinked.
Her comfort Salazar?
What a joke.
Besides, did Salazar even need comforting?
Rowena felt that he seemed rather delighted with his current life, disguising himself as a student and attending classes alongside other young wizards every day. She genuinely could not understand what exactly he was after.
In Rowena's eyes, Salazar was simply wasting time and wasting life.
If she were in Salazar's position, she would absolutely hide herself away somewhere and devote herself to conducting all sorts of strange and fascinating experiments.
As for whether or not to awaken their old friends again, that would depend entirely on the progress of her experiments.
After all, Rowena knew very clearly that the moment her old friends awoke, they would definitely interfere with her research.
Godric's thoughts wandered quickly from one topic to another.
After finishing his reminder to Rowena, his mind could not help drifting back toward the subject of heirs.
Salazar, Helga, and Rowena had all found students they favored.
That fact stirred a trace of temptation within Godric as well.
He too wanted to find some silly little wizard, just like his friends had done, and pass his magical knowledge on to them.
Watching a little fool who could only wave a wand around grow into a powerful wizard capable of standing on their own was an intoxicating feeling of accomplishment.
But speaking of heirs…
"Can't we really let that boy Dumbledore participate? He's a Gryffindor too. I think he could count as my heir."
Godric had actually begun setting his sights on Albus Dumbledore.
He genuinely felt Dumbledore could be considered his successor.
Rowena: "…"
"No. Put away that ridiculous idea." Rowena told Godric to stop fooling around. In terms of actual age, Dumbledore was far older than he was.
"And besides, the full name of the tournament is the 'Global Young Wizards Tournament.' What kind of youth is over a hundred years old? They're not some long-lived species. Having Salazar participate is already destructive enough. If Dumbledore joined too, how would the other schools even compete? Even if Hogwarts is the tournament organizer, we can't rig things that blatantly."
Rowena simply could not suppress her urge to complain and continuously mocked Godric's bizarre idea.
"If you want an heir, then properly crawl out of that ring and choose and train one yourself. Don't think I can't tell what you're really thinking. Even though Dumbledore possesses the Fire Domain, he definitely isn't your heir!"
At this point, Rowena paused briefly, then added that if Godric truly wished it, she would be willing to think of a method to create a body for him.
"I feel like you can still be saved," Rowena said.
Godric widened his eyes.
So he wasn't actually dead yet?
However, after seriously considering Rowena's "invitation," Godric ultimately refused.
"I feel like I spent my entire life drifting endlessly about. Right now, I just want to rest for a while," Godric admitted honestly. "I don't really have a strong desire to return."
"I see…" Rowena nodded. Since Godric himself had no interest, she would not force the matter.
"And besides," Godric began complaining, "if I revived, wouldn't you all immediately drag me off to do manual labor? I heard Helga's workload is enormous these days? And that she often drags Salazar off to help her work?"
"Not at all, not at all," Rowena replied verbally, though inwardly she was startled.
Looks like she absolutely could not casually wander into Helga's office anymore. If Helga caught her and dragged her into doing work too, that would be disastrous.
"As for the matter of heirs…"
Godric narrowed his eyes.
"You mentioned earlier that Salazar has chosen descendants of the Greengrass family as his students? Why does he keep fixating on that family?"
"It's like this. Previously, he even brought his student for me to see. She was a little girl named Daphne. Later, her younger sister Astoria also became his student."
Godric's brows rose.
Salazar's standards for accepting disciples truly had not changed even after a thousand years.
But when the topic of the Greengrass family arose, a certain figure surfaced in Gryffindor's mind.
A strange intuition quietly emerged within him.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI