章節 596: Back to School
編輯: Atlas Studios
Harry opened his mouth to defend himself, thinking Sirius would never be struck down by a curse, but then remembered what had happened to Cino and Lockhart in 1912, and Lupin's inexplicable resignation at the end of term in his third year.
The Sorting Ceremony had begun, and Professor McGonagall led a long row of first years to the top of the Great Hall. She placed a stool on the ground in front of the first years and a tattered, dirty, patched wizard's hat on the stool.
The first years stared at the strange hat, as did everyone else.
For a moment, the Great Hall was silent.
Then a crack near the brim of the hat opened like a mouth, and the hat burst into song:
"It was over a thousand years ago, and I had just been woven into being,
There are four famous wizards whose names survive to this day:
The brave Gryffindor, from the barren marshes,
Ravenclaw the Fair, from the tranquil riverside,
Hufflepuff the Merciful, from the open valleys,
Slytherin, shrewd, comes from that quagmire.
"…"
The strange singing of the Sorting Hat filled the Great Hall.
Ivan's heart skipped a beat when he heard the phrase "The Big Four have all imbued me with their thoughts, and I shall henceforth choose and evaluate them!"
According to Nick Flamel, infusing one's mind and will into a magical object was quite an advanced alchemical technique, and was the bottleneck of his current alchemical studies.
As Ivan pondered this, the singing of the Sorting stopped and the Great Hall erupted in applause.
McGonagall unrolled a large scroll of parchment and read the names off it. The new students who had been read out stepped forward, picked up their Sorting Hats, sat on stools, and waited for them to make a decision.
Ivan looked at it for a moment, then looked away. Unfortunately, he was not a new student, so he had no access to the Sorting Hat. Otherwise, he would have been able to use the System Appraisal function on the hat.
Harry, on the other hand, was not as relaxed as Ivan, being constantly harassed by his fanboy Colin, who was a year below him.
About ten minutes later, the Sorting ended when a new student named Kevin Whitby was sorted into Hufflepuff.
Professor McGonagall gathered up the Sorting Hat and stool and carried them away.
Professor Dumbledore slowly rose to his feet at the teacher's table, smiling at his fellow students and opening his arms in a welcoming gesture.
"I have only two words for you," Dumbledore said loudly, his deep voice echoing through the Great Hall as he tapped his wand in midair.
"Eat!"
At Dumbledore's words, the empty plates on the table were magically filled with food.
"It's finally time!" Ron hurriedly grabbed the spoon beside him, scooped up a spoonful of mashed potato, and stuffed it into his mouth. After sitting on the train all afternoon, he was starving.
Ivan also put aside his complicated thoughts and concentrated on enjoying the feast in front of him, cutting off a juicy piece of steak and chewing it slowly.
Nearly Headless Nick floated around them, envious of their appetite, but since ghosts could not eat human food, he could only watch.
"Hey… you guys are in luck today. You should know that the feast was almost ruined," Nearly Headless Nick said sourly.
"What is it? Did something happen?" Yvonne asked, glancing sideways at the ghost and swallowing her steak.
"There was trouble in the kitchen earlier. Peeves was causing trouble and arguing about it. You know Peeves always wanted to attend!"
Nearly Headless Nick shook his head and sighed. His neck, which was covered in skin, did not seem to be very stable, and his head almost fell off, causing Ivan and the others to worry about him.
Fortunately, his head did not fall off, and after a pause, Nearly Headless Nick continued.
"You know how Peeves is, completely ill-bred and throwing food around when he sees it, and we called a meeting of ghosts to discuss the matter. The Fat Friar advocated giving him the opportunity—but the Bloody Barrow strongly disagreed, and I thought he was wise."
"No wonder Peeves caused such a scene at the front door…" Ron smacked his lips. Peeves usually did not have the guts to stand outside the Great Hall and tease them when school had just started.
"And, Nick, what did Peeves do in the kitchen?" Harry asked curiously.
"It's the same old story." Nick shrugged. "It's just mayhem, and Peeves is making a mess of everything. Pots and pans are everywhere, and the kitchen is flooded with soup.
The poor house-elves were so frightened of him that together they drove Peeves away and had to cook a new dinner, nearly delaying the feast!"
"That's too bad! Luckily Peeves got thrown out…" Ron said happily. If Peeves had gotten away with it, they'd all be starving for the night!
Clank …
As she listened to Nick's conversation with Ron, Hermione accidentally knocked over the tall golden wine glass in front of her, spilling pumpkin juice all over the tablecloth, dyeing the white linen orange and dyeing it several feet long.
Harry and Ron looked at Hermione in surprise, and Ivan turned his head, vaguely remembering something, and inwardly cursed.
"Did you just say… there are house-elves here, too?" Hermione demanded, glaring at Nick and not looking at Ivan and the others.
Nearly Headless Nick looked at Hermione strangely, wondering why she had such a big reaction, but replied truthfully and with pride, "Yes, of course."
"There are not as many house-elves in any house in Great Britain as there are here, and there are over a hundred at Hogwarts!"
"Then why don't I usually see it?" Hermione frowned; she had only seen one house-elf at Hogwarts a few years back—Dobby.
"Cough, cough…" This time, Ivan didn't wait for the nearly headless Nick to reply. He cleared his throat to attract everyone's attention and then helped explain.
"Hermione, house-elves are the best 'helper' a wizard can have. You could say they're very good at housekeeping. There are so many young wizards and witches at Hogwarts, you always need house-elves…"
"And do they get paid and holidays?" Hermione continued earnestly, not being fooled by Ivan. "And sick leave…wins, do they all have them?"
Hermione had not realised Dobby's lowly status as a house-elf when she first met him, thinking that he was no more than a butler.
However, she came into contact with Winky and Kreacher during the summer holidays, and realised that these poor creatures had it worse than slaves!
"Sick leave and allowance? Ha ha ha…" The floating ghost almost choked on its laughter, as if it had just heard the funniest news. Its ruff fell off and its head tumbled off, dangling from an inch or two of dead skin and muscle still attached to its neck.
"They don't need that, Granger!" Nick pulled his suspended head back up to his neck and reattached the ruff. "House-elves don't need sick leave or allowances!"
"So they have nothing and they have to work their asses off every day? Wouldn't that make them slaves?" Hermione huffed, turning back to Yvonne.
"Then Dobby…"
"Yes! Of course!" Yvonne interrupted with a nod. "Dobby gets paid every month, and I gave him a few days off last year!"
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