186- The Most Suitable House for Neville

    Rhys headed straight for the Great Hall, which was now completely empty. The students, full and content, had returned to their respective common rooms.

    The tidy ones were washing up, the playful ones were enjoying games with friends, and the rest had already retreated to their dormitories to sleep.

    Rhys descended the marble staircase into the entrance hall, then turned left and entered a side door.

    Having a thorough understanding of the castle''s layout, Rhys knew this was the only passage that could possibly lead to the area directly below the Great Hall. The other routes wouldn''t work.

    Behind the door was a stone staircase that led down to a wide, well-lit stone corridor. The walls of the corridor were decorated with paintings of food.

    After noticing the theme of the artwork, Rhys immediately knew he was in the right place.

    To his surprise, Rhys encountered a familiar face in the corridor.

    "Eh? Neville? What are you doing here? And what happened to you?"

    Rhys asked, clearly startled as he looked at Neville, who stood in the corridor drenched in what seemed like vinegar.

    Neville gave Rhys a bewildered look, as though silently questioning: Shouldn''t I be the one asking you that?

    This was, after all, the location of the Hufflepuff common room. What was a Slytherin doing here?

    "I forgot how to—" Neville started to speak but abruptly stopped mid-sentence.

    He had been about to admit that he''d forgotten how to enter the Hufflepuff common room but suddenly remembered that this was a closely guarded secret of the entire house, passed down for centuries.

    He couldn''t let it slip!

    That would indeed be utterly mortifying.

    The common rooms of Gryffindor and Slytherin required a password for entry, while Ravenclaw''s required answering a riddle posed by the door knocker.

    Hufflepuff''s method was similar but with its own unique twist: one had to correctly identify the right barrel among a set of large wooden barrels placed in a dimly lit stone alcove and tap out the correct rhythm on the bottom of the chosen barrel. Only then would the lid open, granting access to the common room.

    Neville gave Rhys a thumbs-up, then led him to a painting—a massive silver bowl overflowing with fruit.

    "The kitchen is right behind this painting. Here''s what you need to do." Neville extended his index finger and gently tickled the pear in the silver bowl. The pear squirmed, chuckling softly, and then transformed into a large green doorknob.

    "Hufflepuff students all know where the kitchen is. When we get hungry at night, we come here to grab something to eat." Neville revealed the method to enter the kitchen to Rhys. Before opening the door, however, he cautioned Rhys to keep the kitchen''s location to himself.

    If too many students learned about it, it would overwhelm this corridor as well as the workings of the kitchen.

    "If that ever happens and the kitchen gets closed to students, it would ruin things for everyone," Neville warned.

    Grasping the doorknob, Neville gave it a firm pull, opening the door to reveal a large, high-ceilinged room.

    The room was as spacious as the Great Hall above it, with numerous gleaming copper pots and pans stacked against the stone walls. On the wall opposite the door, a massive brick fireplace stood proudly.

    No sooner had the two entered the kitchen than a house-elf darted toward them at lightning speed, squeaking in its high-pitched voice, "Mr. Longbottom? Is it Neville Longbottom, sir?"

    Neville grinned sheepishly. "I come here often with my friends to grab food—"

    Before he could finish speaking, a voice echoed from the hallway outside: "Neville, are you in the kitchen? Did you forget the way in again?"

    "Hahaha, and why did it took you so long to notice?"

    Neville laughed heartily, his joy evident. He poked his head out from the kitchen door, calling back loudly to his friend, then ducked back into the kitchen and said to Rhys, "How long I stay stuck outside usually depends on how quickly my friends realize I''m missing. Alright, I''ll head back to the common room now. If there''s anything you want to eat, just tell the house-elves—they''re very accommodating."

    With that, Neville left the kitchen and rejoined his friends on the way back to the Hufflepuff common room.

    "Damn.. the kid has really changed."

    After witnessing Neville''s ordeal, Rhys couldn''t help but feel that Hufflepuff truly was the most fitting house for him.

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