Chapter 7: Toad, Ghost, and the Sorting Hat
As Draco and Hermione were talking, the sky outside the car window gradually darkened.
"Do you know which house you'll be sorted into?" Hermione asked him.
She didn't seem to want to get Draco's answer immediately, and continued to talk to herself, "I've asked around. I hope to be sorted into Gryffindor. Everyone says it's the best. I heard that Dumbledore himself graduated from there, but I think Ravenclaw is not too bad..."
In most cases, such long and dense conversations can only point to one reason - she is a little nervous and is trying to use words to cover up or relieve her nervousness.
Draco glanced at her. Indeed, it seemed as if the train drew closer to Hogwarts, the concentration in her eyes grew more intense.
Was it fear of the unknown? This was a side of Hermione Draco had never seen before.
He never knew that the know-it-all Miss, who had been so arrogant since the first grade, would be worried when she first entered school.
"Oh, don't worry," he began to soothe her inexplicably. "I think—you'll go to Gryffindor."
"Thank you for your kind words." She gave him a forced smile and followed his gaze out the window. Under the deep purple sky, the shadows of the mountains and trees slowed down their speed.
"We're almost there." Draco said in a firm tone, staring at the shadow outside the window.
"I think you should go change into your robes," Hermione said to him, carefully cradling the toad as it squirmed uncomfortably. "I need to give it to Neville right away, or he'll be sure to cry. See you later."
Draco nodded to her reservedly and watched her hurried figure disappear into the corridor.
Gryffindor... Hermione Granger, look at what you're saying!
Your reasons for wanting to go to Gryffindor are quite un-Gryffindor.
"That's the best."
"Dumbledore himself graduated from there."
How on earth could this be something a Gryffindor would say? Draco curled his lips, thinking, this is something a Slytherin who pursues excellence and has ambitions would say.
He opened the door of his compartment and found that Crabbe and Goyle had finished their meals and were now lying crookedly on their seats, with satisfied smiles on their chubby faces and burping one after another.
"Didn't anyone tell you there's a dinner at Hogwarts? I heard it's very sumptuous. Can you fill up your stomachs?" Draco was in a good mood and teased the two foodies with a bad intention. As expected, he saw their shocked and regretful expressions.
"No! No, no one told us there was food at Hogwarts!" Crabbe said, beating his chest and stamping his feet.
"Shouldn't I sleep at school?" Gore blinked, his face dull.
Draco looked at their desperate expressions, shook his head secretly, and began to put on his wizard robe.
When the train came to a complete stop, a huge crowd of people rushed to the door and got off to a small, dark platform. All the first-year students followed the big Hagrid and walked down a steep and narrow path.
The muddy path was not easy to walk on. The freshmen stumbled and fell, often slipping. For example, the girl walking in front of Draco was staggering, which was frightening to watch.
Hermione Granger was in a state of extreme embarrassment. She stumbled in the dark, following Neville's footsteps, but unexpectedly, the toad in his hand suddenly jumped down and landed at her feet, almost causing her to step on it.
"Livot!" Neville shouted, turning back to look for it. He looked left and right, and finally found in despair that the toad had jumped and fallen into the dark forest on both sides of the road.
"No!" Neville cried out in grief, stretched out his hand unwillingly, and watched the rebellious back of the toad disappear into the distance.
As for Hermione, in order to avoid the toad and the heartbroken and somewhat reckless Neville, she suddenly stopped moving forward, but due to the inertia of her body, she could not keep her footing and was about to fall into the slippery mud.
At this moment, someone behind her firmly grasped the collar of her clothes and pulled her center of gravity back.
She turned around in panic and saw a bit of platinum light in the heavy darkness. It was the boy she met in the aisle of the carriage - Draco.
"Thank you." She was still in shock and whispered to the boy. Her arrogant attitude was gone, and her voice was filled with embarrassment.
"Little daredevil." In the dark and cold air, amidst Neville's cries for having lost Leif, he said to her lightly, "Grab my sleeve."
Hermione hesitated, but didn't move.
Draco confirmed that the little girl in front of him was definitely the original Hermione Granger: she had almost no motor skills and was good at wrestling on flat ground; at the same time, she was too arrogant to accept help from anyone in public, or to openly admit that she was not good at anything.
——Unless you can seize her weakness of "not wanting to lose face in front of everyone" and use it to threaten her.
"Grab my sleeve," Draco repeated himself, adding lazily, "if you don't want to appear in front of the entire Hogwarts student body at the Sorting ceremony with a face full of mud."
"Thank you very much." Hermione was frightened by the horrific scene described in his words. She quickly grabbed the back of his robe sleeve and walked behind him.
I have to say, this is much more stable, Hermione thought.
This boy named Draco always seemed to be able to find the smoother and less bumpy parts of the road in the darkness, which was indeed a little easier than walking by herself - only a little.
The boy in front of her was feeling a little smug.
This scene was rare: Hermione Granger would actually pull his sleeve obediently and walk behind him like a well-behaved little pet - completely satisfying the little remaining evil taste of Draco Malfoy.
After clattering along for a while, amidst a series of complaints and endless panic, the freshmen finally reached the end of the path.
"So beautiful..." He heard Hermione sigh softly behind him.
It is indeed beautiful. This is the magnificent Hogwarts Castle before it was baptized by the Death Eaters.
The spires stand in a forest, the stars twinkle. It is peaceful, magnificent and beautiful.
Once they were on flat ground, Hermione released her grip on Draco's sleeve and whispered her thanks to him again.
"Pleasure," he said briefly.
Then, like the other freshmen who saw this scene for the first time, she rushed to the edge of the Black Lake lively and crowded together, looking out at the endless vast lake and the dreamy Hogwarts Castle with shining lights on the other side of the lake.
The freshmen were noisy and shouting in admiration.
Draco stood silently in the distance, watching all this unfold, feeling like a stranger in a different world. Returning to Hogwarts, he couldn't quite muster the same excitement he'd felt in his previous life. Instead, he could only feel a vague sense of regret welling up in his heart.
According to tradition, the freshmen had to cross the lake by boat, just like the four founders. Draco didn't rush to board the boat, but watched quietly, wanting to see who Potter would go with.
Draco had to pay attention to these details. Longbottom's constant loss of toads had been a reminder to Draco.
He remembered that in his previous life, the toad had been missing on the train, and Longbottom had been crying all the way, which was quite annoying. It was not until Hagrid found the toad while checking the empty ship before entering the gate of Hogwarts Castle.
In this life, he was tempted to help Hermione find it in advance. But it still ran away, and Longbottom continued to cry all the way, as if he could not escape the fate of being a "lost toad".
Just as Draco was thinking silently, just like in his previous life, Potter, Weasley, Hermione and Longbottom took a boat.
At the moment, it seemed as if fate would remain unchanged as long as he didn't interfere, Draco thought.
And even if he interfered, it seemed that fate would adjust accordingly, trying to put everything back in place, such as the lost toad.
Later, I must observe and see if Longbottom's toad will come back on its own.
Draco randomly chose a boat and, along with Zabini, Parkinson, and Nott, paddled across the mirror-like surface of the lake, approached the cliffs, and passed through the ivy curtain covering the cliff face, arriving at the entrance on the other side of the lake.
The freshmen continued rowing along a dark tunnel, complaining about the "too dim light." Finally, they reached a place similar to an underground dock and climbed onto a ground of gravel and pebbles.
"Where are we?" After getting off the boat, Draco approached Harry's boat, wanting to hear if Hagrid would find the toad as usual, but he heard Hermione ask anxiously first.
No one answered her. The students were all rushing to get off the boat, all a little bewildered by the dark, damp, and cold surroundings.
"We've reached the Black Lake Pier at Hogwarts," Draco whispered to her, "but we still have a little further to go."
"Oh, it's so dark and damp in here," Hermione said worriedly. "I hope it's not like this in the castle. I don't like damp and cold."
It looked like she probably wouldn't want to set foot in the Slytherin common room, Draco thought.
After waiting for a long time, he still didn't hear the sound of Hagrid finding the toad, so he had to follow the large group to climb up a tunnel in the rock, and finally arrived at a flat and wet meadow in the shadow of the castle.
"Live!" Longbottom's surprised voice came at this moment - he found the toad on the grass.
Interesting, Draco thought.
It seemed that with his intervention, things could still undergo some subtle changes. Just like in the previous life, Longbottom had indeed found the toad, but the time and place had changed.
It seems that the fate of this life is not static, and it can be slightly "shifted" due to human influence.
This was good news. If fate, despite his fanning, remained stubbornly unchanging, that would be the most terrifying thing.
That means that no matter how hard he tries, he will have to go through all the bad things in his previous life again.
Now, everything seemed to be turning around, Draco thought.
At this moment, a little light could not help but emerge in the deep and silent depths of his heart.
We can't take it lightly. We have to try again and observe more.
The toad's case was too minor; there were far greater things to influence. He had to see how much he could change the world, how far he could shift fate.
The Hogwarts entrance hall was brightly lit. The freshmen waited outside the Great Hall, listening to Professor McGonagall's rambling talk about the school's history, the four major houses, and the House Cup, before watching her leave.
Potter was standing not far in front of Draco. Beside him stood Weasley and Longbottom. "How can they sort us into the right house?" he heard Potter ask stupidly.
"I think it has to pass some kind of test. Fred said it hurt, but I think he was joking." The little brat Weasley was exaggerating again.
Almost all the first-year students were frightened by Weasley's words.
No one dared to speak actively anymore.
Draco heard Hermione mumbling something beside him, as if reciting a spell she had learned in advance. Her serious and worried face made him smile.
"Nothing to be surprised about," Draco said to her with a disapproving look on his face. "It's just a hat."
"Hat?" Hermione turned to look at him.
"A thinking, talking old hat. People call it the Sorting Hat." Draco said familiarly.
Hermione was skeptical.
Could what he said be true? She thought to herself, could he be lying?
How could an ordinary hat have thoughts and sort people into houses? Hermione wondered doubtfully.
She didn't have time to question it for long. As the students, led by Professor McGonagall, walked through a pair of double doors and entered the magnificent Great Hall, reality quickly proved that what the boy said was true.
Hermione soon spotted the patched, worn, pointed wizard's hat, looking grimy and dirty, placed on a four-legged stool at the front of the Great Hall. Unexpectedly, it opened a wide crack in front of them and sang a song to the students. It even bowed to each of the four tables, which were cheering loudly.
"Susan Bones!" Professor McGonagall began reading names from a roll of parchment.
"You're right," Hermione said to the surprisingly calm boy, "but will it really put me in the right house?"
"Hufflepuff!" the hat yelled. The table to the right was clapping and cheering.
"It's not simple. The four house founders poured their thoughts into it, all in order to select the right students for their own houses." Draco tilted his head slightly and said to the girl beside him, "It divides students into houses based on their talents and qualities."
"Seamus Finnigan!" said a sandy-haired boy, who had been sitting on the stool for almost a full minute without the hat saying anything.
"Why is he taking so long?" she asked him, a hint of worry in her tone.
"Gryffindor!" At this time, the hat made a decision.
Draco was about to answer when he heard Professor McGonagall shout from above, "Hermione Granger!"
"Go ahead," he said to her quickly. "When you put it on, think of the name of your favorite college. It will respect you."
Hermione practically ran to the stool and hurriedly put her hat on her head.
"Gryffindor!" the hat yelled. Draco watched silently as she ran to the table on the left, where she was greeted with enthusiastic applause and a welcome.
He was distracted for only a moment when he heard Professor McGonagall calling his name. Just like in his previous life, the patched, dirty old hat barely touched Draco's head before she called out "Slytherin".
Nothing unusual.
This made Draco smile with satisfaction, and he finally let go of his worries.
The hat, though tatty, had some ability, seemingly able to read human thoughts. He had already used Occlumency on himself, but it wasn't certain it would work. He thought it best to keep the memories in his head secret.
Draco walked towards the Slytherin table with ease - he had walked this route countless times in his past life - and did not ignore the voice of the red-haired kid waiting in line for sorting. He was brainwashing Potter in the Weasley way: "...Those bad wizards are all from Slytherin."
Weasley, that idiot. He didn't provoke him this time, so why was he still so prejudiced?
Now look, who is discriminating against whom?
He didn't hear what Potter said to Weasley. He only knew that when Professor McGonagall read out "Harry Potter", there was a big commotion among the students at Hogwarts.
Potter went to Gryffindor, of course, and sat across from Hermione.
As for Hermione, she seemed to be turning to look at him. Ever since the hat had said "Slytherin," she had been looking at him with a slightly surprised expression, a bit surprised.
What was she surprised about? Did she think he was going to Gryffindor? Draco glanced at her calmly. Hermione had her back to him now. She was chatting animatedly with a red-haired senior Gryffindor boy.
Harry Potter sat in a position where he could see Draco at the opposite table. He smiled shyly at Draco as a greeting.
Not bad. Potter hasn't been so swayed by Weasley that he glares at all Slytherins, Draco thought dryly.
Potter soon blended in with the Gryffindors around him. The first-year students devoured the delicious food on the table and excitedly communicated with the senior students from the same house, trying to familiarize themselves with their own house as soon as possible.
Slytherins are a bit more reserved in their approach to each other. They are unlikely to quickly engage in a lively discussion - the usual approach is a fake smile, an introduction, and a handshake.
Life in Slytherin was a brutal struggle for survival. Slytherins routinely judged each other by their surnames and the strength of their handshakes. In the future, they would rank each other by comparing their magical prowess, estimating their usefulness, much like in their past lives.
Draco exchanged pleasantries, reacquainting himself with his former Slytherin classmates. However, once no one was looking at him, Draco's smile faded. His thoughts gradually shifted to something else: sitting next to him was Slytherin's resident ghost, the Bloody Baron.
To most of his classmates at Hogwarts, the Bloody Baron was a terrifying specter, with hollow eyes, a gaunt face, and silver bloodstains on his robes. But to Draco, it was a perfect opportunity for communication.
"Greetings, Lord Baron," Draco chose his words carefully. The Bloody Baron stared at him with dull eyes and ignored him.
Marcus Flint, a fifth-year student sitting across from him, was amused by Draco's tentative look. He shrugged and decided to remind the confused young master of the Malfoy family: "Give it up, he's always like this, most of the time he's not quite sober. Even when he's sober, I've never seen him pay attention to any students."
"Lord Baron, how many consecutive years has Slytherin won the House Cup?" Draco smiled faintly at Flint and did not give up talking to the Bloody Baron.
To the Slytherins' surprise, the Barrow turned his haggard face towards Draco, his hollow eyes seemed to blink, and he croaked, "Six consecutive championships."
Flint raised an eyebrow at Draco.
Slytherin has always respected the strong, a strength not based on age but on various abilities.
Malfoy, a first-year, actually let the Bloody Baron speak right away. This was an unusual performance and impressed Flint.
For Draco, getting Flint's attention early was a pleasant surprise. Flint had always been arrogant and looked down on others; gaining the respect of a Slytherin Quidditch captain was not as simple as buying him with money or donating a few flying brooms.
Draco knew when to stop and didn't continue chatting with Barrow. He began to concentrate on dealing with a piece of steaming steak that had just been served on the table.
As for Barrow, Draco planned to take it slow.
The Bloody Baron is not a ghost who speaks so easily over and over again, and this sentence is enough to shock everyone.
Conquering Barrow was a long process. Having been reborn, Draco had patience in abundance. Only by gradually gaining Barrow's trust could he obtain the information he sought.
——What he wanted was information about the Ravenclaw Diadem.
In the month since his rebirth, Draco had pondered this for a long time, and made some assumptions based on the myriad of information and memories - was the diadem that Potter grabbed in the Room of Requirement the diadem of Ravenclaw that had disappeared for many years?
If this assumption is true, then this mysterious crown becomes something that both the Dark Lord and Potter care about.
The importance of this crown was too great for him to ignore.
Draco knew where it was, but was in no hurry to get it.
Before figuring out the situation, a Malfoy would not act rashly or recklessly, putting himself in unnecessary danger. This is also the principle that Slytherins believe in.
The diadem was strange and might contain powerful and dangerous dark magic, so it must not be touched rashly. Furthermore, it had stayed peacefully in the Room of Requirement until his seventh year, so Draco wasn't worried about it escaping somewhere else.
In order to find out whether his hypothesis was correct and what the purpose of this crown was, he had to find the right person, pry open the right mouth, and obtain more information.
The Ravenclaw diadem had been lost for a long time. He pondered for a long time and decided to start with the ghosts - which had to mention the Bloody Baron and the Grey Lady.
If anyone in the world knew anything about the long-lost diadem of Ravenclaw, it was none other than Helena, daughter of Rowena Ravenclaw.
Judging from the time, Helena might still be alive when the crown disappeared.
Draco knew that Ms. Grey's real name was Helena Ravenclaw, but she just didn't like being called that.
The easiest way was to ask Ms. Grey about the crown directly. However, Ms. Grey was very shy and hid when she saw people. If he couldn't offer something that could impress her, he would have no chance of communicating with her.
Draco thought he could only take a roundabout approach and first open up Barrow's defenses, as he had something fishy going on with Ms. Grey. Although Barrow was quiet, he wasn't shy, so there was still hope for a successful exchange.
Draco learned about the secret affair between Barrow and Ms. Grey by chance.
Barrow loved to hum in the Astronomy Tower. Draco remembered that he had passed Barrow in the Astronomy Tower on the terrible night when Dumbledore was murdered.
At that time, Barrow looked haggard, muttering a name in pain: "Helena..."
The three tallest towers at Hogwarts are Ravenclaw Tower, Astronomy Tower, and Gryffindor Tower. The common feature of these three towers is their wide view.
If a Hogwarts student has ever been to the Astronomy Tower, they will probably notice that the building they see is Ravenclaw Tower.
Ravenclaw Tower happened to be the favorite place for the ghostly Grey Lady to hang out.
During these years at Hogwarts, few people mentioned the cause of the death of the Bloody Baron and the Grey Ladies, and why they became the ghosts of Hogwarts today.
However, Draco knew that only those wizards who had not yet let go of their obsession would become Hogwarts ghosts. Over the centuries, only a handful of wizards had chosen to exist in the world as ghosts, because doing so would not bring them true happiness, but would instead lead to great pain.
It was more like a kind of imprisonment than a kind of living. As Draco followed the well-fed and well-drinking students back to the Slytherin common room downstairs, he continued to ponder in his mind - they must have a story.
What exactly happened between them?
These two ghostly ghosts are each shyer than the other and neither of them likes to speak, which makes the students of Hogwarts only have a vague understanding of their stories. No one has ever understood them in detail, comprehensively and specifically.
But Draco could make some guesses. For a long time, the Bloody Baron had looked at the Grey Lady—Helena Ravenclaw—in the Astronomy Tower with pain. It was either deep hatred or deep love.
Or perhaps, both?
Was the blood on Barrow's body his own or someone else's?
There was total silence at the bottom of the Black Lake, and the famous giant squid staggered into a deep sleep.
Lying on the four-poster bed in the Slytherin dormitory, with the sound of gentle waves hitting the window, Draco looked at the silver lanterns hanging from the ceiling and made all kinds of sleepy speculations about the relationship between the Bloody Baron, Helena Ravenclaw and the Ravenclaw Diadem, until he fell into a deep sleep.