Rhys's fairly good reputation also played an important role. If Malfoy had been the one doing this, most of the students would probably have watched with the attitude of two dogs fighting each other.
Seeing that the two sides appeared ready to fight, many nearby Gryffindor students reached for their wands.
Even if it was Slytherin House clashing with students from another school, the little lions of Gryffindor would still help support their fellow Hogwarts students!
"Sit down!"
Rhys barked the order, and the Ilvermorny students obediently sat back down as though they were well-behaved pupils.
The surrounding Hogwarts students: ?
The Ilvermorny students: ???
Only after returning to their seats did they realise something was wrong.
Why had they obediently done what he said?
Naturally, it was the power of magic.
Some tried to stand again, but Rhys released more than a dozen streams of magic and pressed them down upon their shoulders, making it completely impossible for them to rise.
The Ilvermorny students were both shocked and furious. They had never imagined that before this unknown Hogwarts student, they would not even be able to stand.
Cracks appeared in their understanding of the world.
"If you can't understand English, then I'll have no choice but to search you myself with magic."
Rhys's icy voice rang in the ears of the Ilvermorny students.
"Hand over Salazar Slytherin's relic! Immediately! Right now!"
His final shout made their ears ring, leaving them dizzy and disoriented.
In his daze, one student pulled a wand from inside his robes.
Rhys did not hesitate. He pulled one hand from his sleeve and pointed his own wand at the student, causing the wand to fly directly into his grasp.
Rhys had actually recognised it the moment the student took it out, but to be safe, he still brought it closer and examined it carefully.
The Ilvermorny student immediately regained his senses after surrendering the wand in a daze. He knew perfectly well how important it was to the school, so he instantly tried to stand and demand it back from Rhys.
The other students also realised how thoroughly they had humiliated themselves and began shouting angrily.
"Shh."
Rhys extended an index finger and drew it across his lips in a motion resembling the closing of a zip.
The Ilvermorny students instantly fell silent.
To their astonishment, they discovered that they could no longer make a sound, as though their vocal cords had been removed.
If they had not genuinely provoked him, Rhys would have been too lazy to argue with these students. He could simply have sent Daphne or Astoria to administer a small punishment.
Unfortunately, these people had no sense at all.
Rhys carefully examined the wand in his hand.
The moment it entered his grasp, an overwhelming sense of familiarity washed over him.
This was a wand he had once used.
Before preparing to enter his long slumber, he had given it to the child he had adopted, the ancestor of the Gaunt family.
He did not know how the wand had fallen into the hands of Ilvermorny, a magical school that despised Slytherin House, but the process had undoubtedly involved bloodshed and violence.
Rhys casually waved the wand, and a serpentine hissing sound immediately echoed through the air.
"Snakewood, with a Basilisk horn core, thirteen inches long. Salazar Slytherin's favourite material and number. It possesses innate magic and can only be awakened through Parseltongue."
Rhys glanced at the defiant boy.
"So you're a Parselmouth?"
The boy made a few muffled noises before Rhys remembered that he had silenced him.
Just as he prepared to lift the spell and properly question the boy about Parseltongue, something unexpected happened.
"Expelliarmus!"
A spell flashing with red light shot towards him.
Rhys cast a Shield Charm with a backhanded motion and sent it flying away.
He turned towards the person who had attacked him and found Seraphina Picquery, Headmistress of Ilvermorny, pointing her wand at him.
She had risen earlier than the other headmasters that morning. The moment she entered the Great Hall, she saw her students being completely suppressed by a Hogwarts contestant, while even her school's most treasured artefact had been seized.
There was no time to blame her useless students.
Seraphina intended to use a Disarming Charm to recover Slytherin's wand first, then slowly negotiate the matter afterwards.
Yet her spell had actually failed.
Looking at Seraphina, Rhys could not help smiling.
A headmistress had taken action personally?
Excellent.
He truly had no desire to waste his time fighting children.
"Old woman, are you tired of living?" he rebuked her directly.
The moment those words echoed throughout the Great Hall, the noisy room, already thrown into confusion by Rhys's clash with the Ilvermorny students, fell completely silent.
It became as quiet as a library study room.
Seraphina herself clearly had not reacted. For a moment, she wondered whether she had misheard him.
"I've truly had enough. Shouldn't Ilvermorny's insults towards Hogwarts have limits? If this continues, you'll simply be refusing the respect you've been offered."
Rhys stared directly at the witch who had once led the Magical Congress of the United States before being recruited from retirement to serve as Headmistress of Ilvermorny.
"How many years has it been?" Seraphina's eyebrows gradually rose as her face turned ashen. "How many years has it been since anyone dared speak to me in such a tone?"
Considering that the boy before her might not even be a fraction of her age, she forcibly suppressed her anger and offered him one final opportunity to back down.
"Do you know who I am?"
"I do. You're merely the fool whom the Dark wizard Grindelwald toyed with at every turn. If Headmaster Dumbledore hadn't dealt with Grindelwald, you would have become dry bones in a grave long ago!
"Of course, I must admit that you were the Minister for Magic who worked alongside Grindelwald for the longest time."
With a smile, Rhys tore open the deepest scar in Seraphina's heart.
Rhys completely ignited her fury.
The witch would not tolerate anyone humiliating her. After being repeatedly slapped in the face before such a large audience, she completely ignored the difference in age between them and directly attacked.
Two flashes of light collided in mid-air above the Great Hall, producing a deafening explosion.
Rhys's spell tore Seraphina's magic to pieces. Supported by his overwhelming magical power, it continued forward without losing momentum and struck the tip of her wand directly.
Seraphina had no time to react.
The wand in her hand was blasted into fragments by Rhys's spell, and the shattered pieces pierced her palm, leaving it drenched in blood.
The Great Hall once again fell silent.
____
12 Chaps ahead at Patreon.com/HornyFBI