"Waaah... waaah..."
When Rhys came out of the dormitory, he was greeted by an extremely strange scene.
Malfoy was slumped in an armchair in the common room, quietly sobbing. His two lackeys, Crabbe and Goyle, stood behind him at a loss, unsure what to say.
They could only keep flexing their joints, looking as though they were about to step into a boxing ring at any moment.
Pansy was half-kneeling in front of him, softly comforting him.
"It's all right. Everyone understands. It wasn't your fault..."
Quite a few Slytherin students had gathered in the common room. Every one of them was trying hard not to laugh while looking at Malfoy with teasing expressions.
"It's too humiliating! That damned half-breed Veela!"
Pansy's consolation had worked. Malfoy stopped crying, but his sadness was quickly replaced by anger.
"I'm definitely telling my father! I'll make Beauxbatons expel that damned half-breed!" Malfoy said through gritted teeth.
In Malfoy's eyes, what had just happened to him was an unbearable humiliation.
As the heir of the Malfoy family, he had actually invited a half-Veela to be his dance partner?!
Fleur was certainly beautiful, but she had Veela blood in her!
Even more infuriatingly, she had actually rejected him!
After venting the strongest of his emotions, Malfoy asked Crabbe for a sheet of parchment and a quill, then began writing a letter to his father, Lucius Malfoy.
"The ancestors of the Malfoy family must be ashamed of me!"
Draco Malfoy muttered almost despairingly as he wrote his complaint.
Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle exchanged awkward looks. None of them had any idea how to respond, so they could only repeat themselves like parrots, cursing Fleur for being shameless and saying that her behaviour suited her bloodline.
'If Fleur's family were rich or influential enough, your ancestors might not actually be ashamed of you at all. They might even be delighted.'
After silently mocking the Malfoy family's values, Rhys left the Slytherin common room and went out to chat with Helga and the others.
Christmas arrived in the blink of an eye.
With the arrival of Christmas, Rhys suddenly discovered one advantage of being a tournament contestant.
He could finally openly avoid doing homework!
Yes.
In order to allow the contestants to prepare properly for the Championship, the Hogwarts professors, led by Professor McGonagall, had voluntarily exempted them from homework.
Their only assignment was to prepare for the tournament.
For Rhys, this was undoubtedly wonderful news.
Although he rarely wrote his homework personally even in the past, he was still someone who respected rules.
A situation where he could live comfortably without actually breaking any rules suited him perfectly.
Along with Christmas came heavy snow.
Snowflakes drifted down over the castle and grounds, turning the entire world white.
The house-elves in the kitchens also changed the menu, increasing the amount of stew served at meals so that everyone felt warm from head to toe after eating.
On Christmas morning, the first thing Rhys did after waking was look towards the foot of his bed.
Just like previous years, a pile of presents had been stacked there.
Seeing the small mountain of packages, a faint smile appeared on Rhys's face.
He casually threw on a light robe, sat on the edge of the bed, and began opening his presents.
The gifts were as generous as ever.
In particular, the Christmas presents from Daphne and Astoria were exquisite and expensive, leaving Rhys extremely satisfied.
Gifts always had a way of improving one's mood.
With the help of several dozen presents, Rhys began the day in an excellent mood.
People always became lazy in winter, wanting nothing more than to lie in bed and do absolutely nothing.
Rhys was no exception.
For him, simply sitting beside the fireplace in the common room and staring blankly into the flames was already the highest form of enjoyment.
And that was genuinely how he spent the entire day.
Only when the hour hand of the wall clock pointed to seven did Rhys suddenly realise that the Yule Ball would begin in another hour.
He returned to the dormitory and changed into a set of emerald-green dress robes decorated with silver serpentine patterns around the cuffs.
When he returned to the common room, he found that it had somehow become packed with people as though by magic.
Daphne and Astoria were there as well.
The two sisters wore matching dress robes, differing only slightly in the patterns and details. Their outfits looked very similar to what they had been wearing when Rhys first met them.
The moment they saw Rhys appear, both of their eyes lit up, and they hurried towards him.
Rhys heard the crisp click-clack of footsteps.
Both girls had changed into crystal high heels, and the clear sound came from the heels striking the marble floor.
Even the noise filling the common room could not completely drown it out.
"The clothes fit you well."
"The colour suits you very well."
"Thank you. Your dress robes are beautiful too." Rhys smiled at the two sisters. "And I really liked your presents."
"That's great!"
Daphne and Astoria immediately brightened.
The three of them chatted casually for a while until it was time to leave.
The Slytherin students made their way up the stairs together to the ground floor of the castle, where students from the other Houses were already crowding around.
Fleur Delacour drifted through the crowd in a silver-grey satin robe. If her striking beauty drew countless boys' eyes, then her partner attracted just as many looks from the girls.
Fleur's dance partner was Viktor Krum.
The two of them had been placed in the same group inside the alchemical world and had spent a month together, so they were at least somewhat familiar with one another. After her attempt to "ambush" Rhys failed and ended up attracting Malfoy instead, Fleur had decisively changed targets and paired up with Krum.
She had also been rather lucky. Ever since leaving the alchemical world, Krum had stayed aboard Durmstrang's ship, training in seclusion, which had allowed Fleur to get to him first.
Aside from that particularly eye-catching pair of contestants, Rhys also noticed that Hermione's partner was Cedric.
Neville followed behind them, and to Rhys's surprise, his partner was Luna.
Compared with Fleur, Luna stood out in an entirely different way.
To be perfectly honest, Rhys thought Luna looked rather like a cupcake.
"Rhys Lint, good evening."
A voice sounded from behind him.
Rhys turned and found Rowena, whom he had dragged down with him.
Rowena had also dressed up carefully for the ball.
She wore a Roman-style sky-blue robe, an olive-leaf wreath on her head, and Roman sandals on her feet. She looked as though she had stepped straight out of an ancient Roman mural.
It had to be said that Aries had left Rowena with an excellent appearance.
After greeting Rhys, Rowena fell silent. Her eyes kept wandering, and she did not dare meet his gaze.
Rhys: "..."
He suddenly felt that something was not quite right.
After staring at her for several seconds, Rhys's eyes widened.
"You're Aries!"
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12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI