Chapter 15: Chapter 15: Azkaban! (Edited)
Before the astonished gaze of the new students, a score of white, translucent ghosts emerged from the walls and glided around the room, not paying much attention to the freshmen: every year there were new students and they had seen hundreds of them. But a plump monk-like ghost greeted them all anyway.
"I hope a lot of you can get into Hufflepuff!" said the fat friar: "I used to go to that house."
Someone asked him about the selection ceremony, but he walked away as if he hadn't heard the question.
Professor McGonagall also returned. The moment she walked in, Harry had the illusion that she was about to lead him to his doom. Professor McGonagall had the new students line up and led them into the Great Hall.
The Great Hall at Hogwarts was also the dining room, lavishly decorated, with the students seated around four long tables, thousands of candles floating above them, and the silverware and glasses gleaming gold. There was also a long table at the top of the dining room, where the professors sat. The new students were led to this table by Professor McGonagall, who lined them up in front of the entire school, with the rest of the staff facing them.
Professor McGonagall placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years, on the stool was a tattered, pointed hat. The hat was patched and looked dirty.
After being placed on the stool, the hat twisted, a slit in the shape of a mouth opened and the hat began to sing. Who knows what it was singing, but it wasn't the Hogwarts school song. At the end of the song, Professor McGonagall stepped forward a few paces with a parchment in her hand. The student she called on had to put on a hat and sit on a stool, to be graded by the hat.
Hearing how simple the grading was, several of the students who had been alarmed in line blushed, but no one cared about them at the time.
"Hannah Abbott!" Professor McGonagall called out the name of the first first-year student.
Hearing the name, Tom was inexplicably relieved, and watched a young woman with two blonde braids step out of the line, put on her hat, and a moment later the hat shouted, "Hufflepuff!"
The students at the Hufflepuff table clapped and cheered for her, and even the fat friar waved cheerfully.
Next, Professor McGonagall called the young wizards one by one: Susan Bones, Justin Finch, Ernie McMillan and others entered Hufflepuff, Terry Boot and Mandy Brocklehurst went to Ravenclaw, Millicent Bulstrode was the first new student to enter Slytherin and Lavender Brown became the first new student in Gryffindor....
It was Hermione's turn. She ran to the stool and hurriedly put the hat on her head.
The hat hesitated for a moment, but then shouted, "Ravenclaw!".
Relieved, Hermione stood up from the stool, gave Tom a smile, and walked over to the Ravenclaw table to be greeted by the older students.
Tom was the last to be sorted, not because he was special, but because his last name had the initial 'Y' in it, so he was last in line, and was called by Professor McGonagall only after Blaise Zabini was sorted into Slytherin.
He placed the hat on his head, which was a little big on him and slid down to hide the view.
A little voice popped in his ears, 'Well, you're a good Slytherin...'
'I'm definitely not going to Slytherin,' Tom thought to himself.
'Oh? 'But you would fit in there, Slytherin could help you rise to greatness, there's no doubt about that...' said the Sorting Hat.
'I don't think Tom, the orphan, would fit in well in that house...', Tom replied inwardly.
'It's my job to sort the young wizard into the right house for him, so...' said the Hat.
'I swear, if I get sorted into Slytherin today, my magic will rip you to shreds,' Tom said, breaking his mask of kindness, 'Use your head! What would happen to a wizard like me in Slytherin? If you don't make it easy for me, I'll make it hard for you.'
The Sorting Hat fell silent.
"Azkaban." He muttered in the softest of voices, and Professor McGonagall felt as if she had a hearing problem.
"What did you say?" asked Professor McGonagall.
"Nothing..." The Sorting Hat squirmed, finally abandoning the idea of shouting "Slytherin" or "Azkaban!".
"If you don't like Slytherin, well, then, suit yourself, Ravenclaw!" the Sorting Hat shouted.
With those words, there was a round of applause around the Ravenclaw table, as well as applause from the other houses, but more because the sorting ceremony was finally over and it was time to eat.
In addition to the applause, there were also changes to Tom's system.
First, in the character section, Tom Yodel's name was changed to [Tom Yodel (Wind)], and he became a character of the Wind attribute as a result of joining Ravenclaw.
Then the main quest came up, and he accepted a quest called [The Wind Hunt], which he decided to investigate in his dorm room at night.
'If I get assigned to Gryffindor, will the main quest be [The Fire Hunt]?', Tom thought to himself.
Relieved that everything had settled down, Tom took off his hat and ran to the Ravenclaw table. There was an empty seat next to Hermione, and as he settled into it, Professor McGonagall rolled up her parchment, picked up the Sorting Hat and left.
At that moment, Professor Dumbledore also stood up, he, like all Headmasters, had to stand up at the last moment to say a few words, but luckily, he really only spoke a little.
"Welcome everyone, welcome to the start of a new academic year at Hogwarts! Before the party begins, I'd like to say a few words. That's right: Nutcases! Whiners! Trinkets! Pinched! Thank you all!" And with those few words, he sat back down.
"Seems a bit crazy, doesn't it?" one of the Ravenclaw house seniors, sitting across from Tom, smiled.
Because of the small circle of the magical world itself, and the special atmosphere of Hogwarts, the older students here were particularly kind and welcoming to new students of their house, even Slytherin was no exception.
"Robert Hilliard." He introduced himself.
"Tom Yodel," Tom introduced himself.
"Actually, that phrase has a unique meaning," Robert said patiently, lecturing the first-year students. "Actually, it's a description of the four houses - Ravenclaw always thinks everyone else is stupid, Gryffindor thinks everyone else is a coward, Slytherin thinks those houses containing non-pureblood wizards are scum, and Hufflepuff are screwed."
The new students had strange looks on their faces.
Chapter 16: Chapter 16: Ravenclaw's passion for mathematics (Edited)
Seeing the looks on the new students' faces, Robert felt satisfied, as a Ravenclaw, he enjoyed the thrill of sharing his knowledge.
"All right, everyone, let's eat."
The plates before them were suddenly full of food: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops, lamb chops, salami, steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, pea shoots, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and even peppermint hard candy.
It was simple, roasted, smoked, marinated and fried, but it was a very rich dish in British cuisine.
Tom picked up a few pieces of roast beef, a couple of sausages and bread and ate them, while the other young wizards were evidently hungry too, and they reached for their plates with their knives and forks and took what they fancied, as if there was no end to the food, even if the plates were empty, they would be filled in the next minute.
During the first half of the meal not much was said, everyone concentrated on eating. Once everyone had filled their stomachs, the rest of the food disappeared from the plates, even if many of them were only touched once or twice. But no young wizard ever thought about where the food came from or where it was going.
The plates and forks were as clean as ever. After a while, desserts were served: ice cream of all flavors, apple pie, chocolate cupcakes, jam doughnuts, jam pudding, strawberries, jelly, rice pudding....
That's when everyone was in a chatty mood.
"There's a lot to learn, and I'm especially interested in Transfiguration. You know, turning one thing into another, it must be really hard...", Hermione said.
"You should start with something small, like turning a match into a needle or something...", said a senior student.
This was Hermione exchanging shape-shifting tips with her seniors.
But there was more talk of family background.
"My parents were muggles and I was going to Eton." Tom heard a curly-haired boy say loudly from the Hufflepuff table next to him.
The group ate, drank and chatted, bonding quickly.
Finally, as the desserts disappeared, Professor Dumbledore stood up again and everyone settled back to listen to him.
"Before you get too sleepy, I'd like to give you a few words of advice. Freshmen are reminded that the woods on campus are off-limits to students, and seniors should remember that as well. Secondly, the janitor, Mr. Filch, has also asked me to remind you not to do magic in the hallways between classes. Recruitment for all Quidditch players will take place in the second week of term, so please contact Mrs Hooch if you would like to join the House team. Finally, I must tell you that anyone who does not wish to meet with an accident and a painful death, please do not enter the third floor corridor on the right."
Dumbledore had said all he had to say, then winked and said loudly, "Before we all go to bed, let's all sing the school song!"
At those words, the other professors' smiles froze. If there was one thing Hogwarts didn't have over other schools, it was the school song and, of course, the scholarships for students were not as high as at Beauxbatons. Newt Scamander, one of Hogwarts' top students, was once pushed into the school song by a pair of Ilvermorny sisters.
The song was sung to the strange tune of:
Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts!
Teach us something, please.
Even if we are old and bald or young with dirty knees, our minds can be filled with some interesting subjects.
For now they are empty and full of air, dead fleas and a bit of fluff.
So teach us things worth knowing, make us remember what we forget, do the best you can, we'll do the rest, and learn till our brains are consumed.
The lyrics are fine, it's the soundtrack that matters,
Professor Dumbledore's choice was the Funeral March...
Judging by the reaction, the young wizards at Hogwarts did not like their school song at all, and all sang it reluctantly, except for the Weasley twins who sang it in its entirety, with Professor Dumbledore conducting for both of them, highlighting the fact that, while they were not embarrassed, it is everyone else who is.
Once the song was finished, Professor Dumbledore declared the opening banquet over and the prefects from different houses led the students to their dormitories. The prefect, Robert, who had just given a talk to the new students, stepped forward and told all the new students to follow him as he led them to the Ravenclaw common room.
Instead of rounding up the new students and pushing them through the Great Dining Hall in a hurry, like the head of Gryffindor, Percy had them gather in a line, making sure everyone was there before leaving through the less crowded exits.
The Ravenclaw students followed Robert out of the dining hall and up the marble staircase. They watched in awe as the portraits in the corridor pointed and whispered to them as they passed. The Prefect clearly knew the secret passages and shortcuts within the school, and in many cases was able to remove what appeared to be mundane panels and curtains to reveal the shortcuts behind them.
Finally, they reached one of the castle's towers and a spiral staircase appeared before them.
The staircase was so steep that it was dizzying to look back. Finally, a wooden door without a doorknob appeared before the new students. The door was a bare board with no doorknob or lock, with only an eagle apparently made of bronze.
The ring beak opened and out came a soft, musical voice: "There are 98 students, 6 more in Slytherin than Ravenclaw, how many in each house?".
Tom: "???"
I thought the eagle only asked philosophical questions, why is he so into math?
Hermione had a thoughtful expression.
Robert smiled brightly, "Getting into the Ravenclaw common room is very simple, we never use a password or anything like that, we just answer a question from the eagle on the door. If you get it right, you can get in even if you're from another house."
"That's what makes Ravenclaw think better than any of the other three houses." Said Robert seriously to the new students, "Try to answer this question, Arithmancy is also important, especially for those who want to take Arithmancy and Divination in their third year. It's a test for you, if you can't answer the question, you'll have to wait outside for someone to answer it."
"I think there are 55 in Slytherin and 43 in Ravenclaw." Tom had already calculated the answer.
"Correct," the Bronze Eagle said, and the door opened.
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