Rhys quickly received a letter from Helga.
Helga didn't say much in the letter. In summary, it was just one sentence: "Wah, Salazar, save me!"
Although the situation wasn't as urgent as Helga made it sound, she had already retreated into her private classroom to isolate the curse, so it wasn't much of an exaggeration.
The minor trouble caused by the curse didn't frighten Helga. What she was worried about was implicating others or causing irreversible damage to the castle.
More importantly, by describing the situation as more serious, she could lure Slytherin over. Even if he couldn't solve the curse, he could at least help her make some puppet parts, couldn't he?
After reading the letter, Rhys naturally guessed this, but he still decided to head to Hogwarts. The reason was simple—Helga had written one line in the letter: "Only you can help me."
Since she had said that, Rhys no longer hesitated and immediately set off for Hogwarts.
This trip might mean working like a laborer for the entire summer, but Rhys didn't mind. His friend needed his help, and that was enough.
Besides, this trip would bring him an unexpected gain—Helga had granted him special permission to enter her underground chamber.
That was Helga's private classroom. Ever since Hogwarts was founded, Rhys had never been inside it and didn't even know where it was located.
This wasn't Helga's exclusive privilege. The same applied to Slytherin's own private classroom. The four of them had a tacit understanding not to inquire about each other's private classrooms, all respecting one another's privacy.
Everyone needed a bit of private space to indulge their own little hobbies. For example, Rhys raised a basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, and the others had never questioned it.
Now, in order to invite him to break the curse, Helga had granted him the right to enter her private classroom, allowing him to explore her underground chamber.
It was hard not to be tempted by that.
The Greengrass family's fireplace connected directly to Hogsmeade, so Rhys didn't have to spend much effort to reach Hogwarts.
During the summer holidays, Hogwarts would enter a closed state and would not allow students to remain on campus.
In fact, at the very beginning, Hogwarts did allow students to live in the school all year round. Back then, there was no clear concept of vacations; only at certain times would there be a three-month recess, allowing young wizards to return to their hometowns to reunite with their families or fulfill their duties as vassals—such as paying tribute or taking part in border defense.
Later, because supervision over students became much more relaxed during long holidays, these hot-blooded youths often caused trouble in the castle, and Hogwarts eventually prohibited students from staying during breaks.
But Rhys was not an ordinary student. Countless restrictions were as good as nonexistent before him. He walked straight into the campus and arrived at the Hufflepuff common room.
Following Hufflepuff's guidance, he entered Helga's private classroom.
"Impressive!" The moment he stepped into Helga's underground chamber, Rhys let out a sigh of admiration.
As expected of a legendary witch who wielded the domain of earth, the sheer size of her underground chamber felt even larger than the grounds of Hogwarts Castle itself.
Such a vast space had been compressed by her using spatial magic into an extremely small area, creating an immense difference between the inside and outside. Even Rhys couldn't help but marvel at such an extraordinary spell.
At the same time, he could also feel this space rejecting him.
Rhys silently warned himself not to provoke Helga here, or he would truly be in deep trouble.
Helga sensed his presence the moment he entered. In fact, she had personally let him in.
With a thought from her, a clay figure appeared before Rhys.
"Salazar, you've finally arrived." The clay figure's head twisted, and Helga's facial features emerged upon it. At the same time, her voice came from its mouth.
"Of course. I couldn't miss the chance to observe your private classroom," Rhys replied as he looked around Helga's underground chamber.
"This place is truly magnificent. In comparison, my private classroom is as crude as a bathroom, and Rowena's is even less worth mentioning."
"You flatter me." Being praised so directly by an old friend made Helga quite happy. It wasn't easy to earn such recognition from Salazar.
After a bit of casual conversation, Rhys noticed that Helga seemed to be in fairly good condition, so he went straight to the point and asked about the curse.
"It's much better now. You have no idea how unlucky I was before!" Helga began pouring out her grievances to Rhys, describing her experiences in detail, leaving him greatly shocked.
This curse was far too powerful. How could even Helga be affected so severely? If, as the legends said, the curse was cast by Voldemort, then this man had truly made Rhys see him in a new light.
Rhys felt that the strength of the curse was likely related to the strength of the person afflicted—growing stronger against stronger individuals. Otherwise, if it were always at the level Helga experienced, how could the previous Defense Against the Dark Arts professors have survived?
However, Rhys noticed a detail: once Helga entered her private classroom, the power of the curse weakened. That was quite interesting.
"It seems that although the curse is powerful, as long as one is protected by a domain, it won't have any effect," Rhys concluded, and encouraged Helga to activate her domain and go up to the surface to test it.
Helga found Rhys's reasoning sound, so she directly activated her domain and went up for a walk. As it turned out, she really wasn't affected at all.
"See? Problem solved. You just need to keep your domain active at all times to withstand the effects of the curse," Rhys said with a smile.
Helga: "…"
She refused.
Although it wasn't impossible for her to keep her domain active at all times, how could that be considered a real solution? Could it be that in the future, every Defense Against the Dark Arts class would have to come with a domain?
This was no different from a main road being blocked by a massive boulder, and instead of clearing the obstruction, the person in charge simply suggesting everyone take a detour.
After being rejected by Helga, Rhys also fell silent.
He actually did have another idea: have the current Defense Against the Dark Arts professor resign, then change their name and reapply for the position, to see if that could bypass the curse's restrictions.
Based on his understanding, a curse would find it difficult to possess both overwhelming power and a wide range at the same time.
A curse strong enough to affect even Helga likely had a long list of conditions in front of it, making it relatively easy to bypass.
From the currently known information, the curse required two conditions to be triggered: first, the person had to be the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor; second, that professor's tenure had to exceed one year.
Then it seemed they could bypass the curse in two ways. One was to rename the course "Defense Against the Dark Arts" to something like "Dueling Studies" or "Self-Defense Arts."
The other was to change the professor every year, or even have the professor change their name, to see if that could avoid the curse's restrictions.
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI