After Professor McGonagall left, the oppressive silence in the empty room was instantly broken as the new students immediately began to chatter about the mysterious and terrifying Sorting Ceremony.
"My brother told me we have to fight a Troll!"
A red-haired boy said with conviction, his face carrying a sort of "I know the inside scoop" pride.
"What? A Troll?!" Another girl's voice carried a hint of a sob.
"I heard it's about reciting a very complex spell, and if you get it wrong, you'll be turned into a frog…"
In short, the rumors became more and more outrageous, and none of them sounded safe.
All sorts of terrifying conjectures about "fighting monsters" and "casting advanced magic" spread through the crowd.
Lynn, who overheard everything clearly from the side, felt his mouth twitch, and the idea of dropping out instantly sprouted in his mind.
'Is Hogwarts really this dangerous?'
'Trolls and Dragons? If I'd known, I wouldn't have agreed when Dumbledore came to deliver the letter!'
'And he said Hogwarts is the safest place in the world… safest my foot! ۹( ÒہÓ )۶'
He felt his small arms and legs, feeling that his future was pitch black…
Just as Lynn was seriously considering whether it was too late to sneak back to the Muggle world, Professor McGonagall returned.
She looked at this group of little sprouts, who seemed even more nervous after hearing all the terrifying rumors, her expression remaining serious.
"Now, form a single file and follow me," she commanded.
With a tragic "the hero goes and never returns" sentiment, Lynn followed the line into the Great Hall of Hogwarts.
With just one look, he was stunned.
The Great Hall was spacious beyond imagination. Students sat at four long house tables, and candles floating above the tables illuminated the entire hall in a golden splendor.
On the velvet-black ceiling, dots of starlight flickered like a real night sky.
His gaze swept toward the high table, and he immediately saw the smiling, white-bearded old man sitting in the large golden chair in the center—it was Dumbledore.
'Whoa, I didn't expect this old guy to actually be the Principal,' Lynn muttered to himself. 'I thought he was bragging before.'
Professor McGonagall led the first-years to the front of the high table and had them stand facing all the upper-year students.
She placed a four-legged stool to the side and then solemnly placed a dirty, patched, old pointed hat—which looked older than he was—on the stool.
"When I call your name, come forward and sit on the stool."
"I will place the Sorting Hat on your head, and the hat will decide which house you should enter." Professor McGonagall's voice echoed clearly throughout the Great Hall.
Lynn, like all the other first-years, looked at the tattered hat in shock.
"Just this hat? Not fighting a Troll?"
Seeing this, the older students, regardless of their house, all wore a knowing, expectant smile. (^^)
Just then, a crack at the edge of the hat suddenly opened like a mouth, and the folds in the hat's body turned into facial features resembling eyes and eyebrows.
Then, it actually began to wriggle and started to sing!
"You may not think I'm pretty…"
The song ended.
"Ahem." Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and unfurled a long roll of parchment.
"Hannah Abbott!"
A rosy-cheeked little girl with two golden braids stumbled out of the line.
The hat had barely touched her hair when it shrieked, "Hufflepuff!"
The second long table on the right immediately erupted in thunderous applause and cheers, and Hannah happily ran over to sit down.
Names were called one by one, and houses were assigned.
"Lynn!"
Lynn took a deep breath, stepped forward, and sat on the four-legged stool.
Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on his head.
A voice echoed in his mind: "Hmm… ah~ an interesting child."
"Likes fishing, but just can't catch anything… haha, what a unique hobby."
Hearing this, Lynn suddenly felt an urge to rip the hat off and stomp on it.
"How does this tattered hat even know how to expose people's flaws?!"
"Oho, what a wicked little Wizard, actually wanting to treat a weather-beaten Hat of Wisdom like that!"
"I think you should be sent to Azkaban to keep company with those Dementors!"
Although Lynn didn't know exactly what Azkaban was, he knew from the name that it definitely wasn't a good place.
His internal "greetings" to the hat became even more uncivilized. (｀д´)ゝ
"Oh! Merlin's beard! How can your inner thoughts be so… colorful!"
The hat shrieked in his mind. "Alright, alright, let's see… shrewd enough, willing to use a little trickery to achieve your goals. In a sense, you're very suited for Slytherin…"
Lynn immediately began a new round of less-than-civilized greetings in his mind and repeatedly chanted: 'I want to go to Hufflepuff! Hufflepuff! It looks comfortable there!'
"Hufflepuff? It's indeed full of loyalty and kindness, but your hidden darkness… hmm… however, your desire for comfort is quite real… such a stubborn little fellow…"
After a mental tug-of-war lasting several minutes, the Sorting Hat seemed finally defeated by Lynn's "unyielding" spirit and the continuous flow of "honeyed words" from his inner thoughts.
"Sigh—alright, alright! Since you're so insistent… A—Hufflepuff!" the Sorting Hat shouted with what seemed like its last bit of strength.
Lynn immediately took the hat off, shoved it back into Professor McGonagall's hands, and walked toward the Hufflepuff table, which was applauding warmly.
The Prefects and older students enthusiastically made room for him and patted him on the back in welcome.
When "Harry Potter" was called, a buzz of conversation filled the Great Hall. After a brief hesitation, when the Sorting Hat shouted "Gryffindor!", the cheers from the Gryffindor table nearly blew the roof off. Several red-haired twins even shouted, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"
…After the Sorting Ceremony concluded, Dumbledore stood up and began to speak with a beaming smile.
The general gist was: the new school year has begun; students are strictly forbidden from entering the Forbidden Forest; magic is not allowed in the Castle corridors; and a special emphasis—"Entering the fourth-floor corridor on the right is forbidden unless you wish to die a very painful death."
Finally, he said something nonsensical: "Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!" Then he announced, "Now—let the feast begin!"
The moment he finished speaking, the previously empty golden plates were instantly filled with various tempting foods…
As the "each-to-their-own" Hogwarts school song ended in joyful chaos, the opening feast also drew to a close.
The Hufflepuff first-years followed their Prefect toward the Common Room located underground.
After parting ways with the Slytherin group, which was also heading underground but in a different direction, they passed a still-life painting of a silver bowl of fruit and arrived at a seemingly unremarkable corner on the far right of the corridor.
Many barrels of various sizes were stacked here.
"Unlike other houses that require a password, our Hufflepuff entrance requires a bit of rhythm."
He pointed at the stack of barrels. "See that second barrel from the middle of the second row? Just tap the bottom of it to the rhythm of 'Helga Hufflepuff,' like this."
The Prefect demonstrated it himself. With the correct rhythm tapped, the lid of the barrel swiveled open silently, revealing a circular passage leading underground that was large enough for someone to crawl through.
'It really is just like a badger's burrow…' Lynn complained inwardly, but still followed everyone else and crawled inside.
The Hufflepuff Common Room was a cozy circular space with a low-domed ceiling, colorful tapestries on the walls, and many plants.
Many comfortable yellow-and-black upholstered armchairs were scattered about, and low round windows offered a view of swaying grass and the sky outside.
How can there be a sky underground?! (●__●)
As soon as they entered, a warm feeling enveloped them.
The English nights in early September were already chilly, but it was as warm as spring here.
Lynn took a deep breath, feeling that choosing Hufflepuff was indeed a wise move. The atmosphere here was exactly as he had imagined: comfortable and friendly.
Afterward, the Prefect assigned the dormitories. Lynn was placed in the same room as his three roommates.
Edgar Burns: A boy born and raised in the Wizarding World, with light brown hair and a few freckles on his face.
He had a cheerful personality and took the initiative to introduce himself to everyone.
According to him, his parents were ordinary Ministry of Magic employees, and his family was a "branch of a branch of the Burns family."
William Smith: A boy wearing glasses who looked very neat and serious.
Both of his parents were Muggles, and magic had only awakened in his generation.
He said that before receiving the Hogwarts acceptance letter, his original goal was Eton College; it was clear he had the potential to be a top student.
Ollie Thorne: A boy who seemed somewhat quiet, with dark hair and eyes.
He briefly mentioned that his mother had passed away and that his father, an ordinary company owner, initially refused to tell him the truth about magic and didn't agree to him coming to Hogwarts. Later, Headmaster Dumbledore personally went to persuade him, which changed his mind.
Good grief—between Lynn's two lives and Ollie Thorne here, they couldn't even scrape together a pair of complete parents… What was this, some kind of weird fate?
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Read my second novel: Naruto: Multiverse Adventures.