Chương 89: Chapter 89
The rest of the ride was spent catching up, as while they had been exchanging letters, they sometime had to be brief.
Theodore and Daphne seemed to still be unaware of Nefartari's existence, the ICW Enforcers did say it had to be kept under wraps, but in the end it truly was up to Tracey to decide who had the right to know or not.
Whether hiding it was the right decision in the end, it had nothing to do with Ethan.
Now in his Hogwarts robes, which never failed to make him feel like a kid, Ethan stepped out of the train, and looked to the front of it. That was where Hagrid had greeted them the year before. Something he would never do again.
The job had been filled it seemed however as a calm voice called out, "First Years, over here!"
Their voice was obviously magically enhanced, and it undoubtedly belonged to a man. But since they were not a half-giant like Hagrid, it was impossible to see them through the large crowd.
The mesmerizing trip on the barques was reserved to the First Years, so Ethan and his friends followed the crowd instead. They walked past the platform, and arrived onto a muddy track, where hundreds of carriages were parked.
In front of each carriage was a pair of strange looking animals. They had the body of an emaciated horse, but with no hair, and completely hairless. Their skeletal body also had two large leathery wings, a long tail that ended in a sharp spike, and a reptilian head with two large, empty white eyes. It looked like it was blind, but as Ethan looked at them, they looked back.
These were Thestrals, generally seen as bad omens in the magical world. Ethan could understand why too, they were quite unsettling to look at. But at the same time, they also had a certain grace born from their closeness to death.
"What are you looking at?"
Ethan glanced at his friends, who looked at him curiously. One more reason the flying horses of death were considered a bad omen, and even ever called horses of death, was because they were invisible to most people. Only those who had seen someone die had the ability to see them.
Theodore and Daphne were completely oblivious to it, and so was Tracey. She had come close, several times too, both with the assassins in the Market of the Sun and within Ramesses' temple, but in the end, none of them had truly died. The only one who had was Ramesses, and that had been inside Ethan's mind.
With Thestrals' status in mind, Ethan decided to keep their existence to himself as he smiled slightly and shook his head, "Nothing in particular. Let's go."
He entered the coach, not leaving them any chances to ask any more questions.
The coach was comfier than it looked, although it failed to completely hide the smell of mold. The ride was bumpy, but it was fairly short as they soon passed by a set of magnificent wrought iron gates. Flanking them were a pair of winged boar statues.
As they got out of the coach, they were no longer on a muddy road, but on a paved place. All the magical coaches had stopped here, the Thestrals watching carefully as the students walked up the steps toward the school.
This was the official entrance of Hogwarts, and so it led directly to the Great Hall. For the second years, it was a fascinating experience to be on the other side of the Sorting. They sat down at their own tables, the room no longer decorated in green and silver, as it had been when they had last left.
This was the start of a new year after all, meaning it was also the start of a new competition for the House Cup, all points set back to zero.
While the second years were eagerly seated to their respective tables, waiting for the First Years to come in and get sorted in their houses, the older students hardly shared the same excitement. Some of the third and fourth years did, but it was hard not to find a bored face among the older students.
They had been going through this for years now, so the charm of the scene had lost most of its appeal. Still, they had enough decorum to loose the bored face and put on a solemn one the moment the great doors opened, prompting the younger students to do the same.
Ethan observed the tiny first years curiously. Maybe tiny was not the best adjective, considering they were only a year younger than them, and he was sure some of them were taller than him, but in that moment, looking at them nervously trotting between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables, they did look quite small.
Being at a table, and not being subjected to the excitement of his first day in Hogwarts, Ethan got to observe the unspoken rules a bit more. Something he had not noticed the year before, not as starkly at least, was that every house had a different way to clap for their new students.
Maybe it was an unconscious thing, or a traditional that had been unconsciously passed down, but Gryffindors clapped with all their might, making as much noise as possible, cheering as well. Hufflepuffs were a little more reserved. If the Gryffindors were a raging fire, then Hufflepuffs were a welcoming hearth.
Ravenclaws were reserved and quieter, while Slytherins were slow and organized. Although they did not go as far as clapping at the exact same time, listening to his fellow Slytherins clapping did give Ethan the strange impression that they had planned it ahead of time.
Anyway, back to the first years, none of them awoke curiosity in Ethan. He did recognize a few names: Colin Creevy, Luna Lovegood and Ginevra Weasley.
But since nothing pointed at Ginny being in possession of the cursed book, or anyone else for that matter, all they got from Ethan was a mental note. They were not in the same year, nor were they in the same house, so their interactions would probably be kept to a minimum.
What Ethan was more interested in was the new Groundkeeper who would replace Hagrid. The job was harder than it seemed, because the Forbidden Forest was technically within Hogwarts grounds, and maintaining a good relationship with all the beings of the forest was no easy task.
However, as the Sorting drew close to its end with the names reaching the last few letters of the alphabet, Ethan felt someone squeezing themselves onto the seat on his left.
Ethan expected first years to be intimidated by him, so having one sit right next to him was surprising. He did not believe that it was random, so they had to know him.
But whether they were scared of his reputation, or admired him instead, it took courage to directly sit next to him, no matter the intentions.
Turning to look at the newcomer, Ethan was met with a pair of rubies. It was a girl, with long, straight hair, lustrous and of a deep black. It formed a particularly strong contrast with her snow white visage and glowing red eyes.
She was looking at him with an intense stare, straight into his eyes as she spoke in a soft voice, barely above a whisper, "Good evening. May I sit here?"
Her words were polite and reserved, but they did not match what Ethan saw in her eyes. The girl had a decent Occlumency shield in place, for someone her age anyway, but at Ethan's level, it might as well have been paper.
He was not consciously trying to look into her mind either, but she was staring straight into his eyes, and Ethan had reached a certain level of natural empathy that allowed him to passively sense the emotions of those around him, especially if they were not kept in check.
And in her eyes he saw fervour. She was excited to meet him.
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực