Chapter 9 The Sorting Ceremony

When it was getting dark, the train slowed down and finally stopped. Passengers got out of the compartments and rushed to the door. Through the window, you could see a dark and small platform. Hold a lamp and shout loudly on the platform, "First-year freshmen come here! First-year freshmen come here, don't worry about your luggage, we will send you to school for you later."

He didn't say anything funny, but the senior students snickered, deliberately imitating his accent and laughing, and the dog at the lantern bearer's feet kept barking at them.

Pomona, Lily and Snape rushed forward following the flow of people in the aisle. When she got out of the car door, the cold wind that hit her face made her shiver. She couldn't help but sneezed, causing a beautiful Boy's attention.

"Oh, damn it, you sprayed my snot all over my robe," he complained loudly, attracting so many people's attention that Pomona flushed.

"My name is Apollyon Pringle, and I'm your housemaster. This is Mr. Plutoy." The lantern bearer pointed to his dog and said to the little wizards, "You are going to be students of Hogwarts soon. Yes, but I want to remind you that there are many dangerous places in this castle. If you are caught by me, you will be deducted points or expelled at most, but if you are caught by them, you will lose your life. Now I take You go to the castle, pay attention to your steps, don't fall behind!"

"Snotlite," the gray-eyed boy yelled at Pomona as the crowd started moving again, and everyone around snickered.

"You're so rude!" Lily said to the boy. "You're a cheapskate!"

Maybe it was because Lily was so pretty, the boy snorted and ignored it. They followed Pringle, slipping and stumbling all the way down a steep path through a dense forest. After turning a corner, everyone couldn't help but gasped in surprise. At the end of the path was a dark Great lake, a majestic castle stands on the hillside on the other side of the lake. There are many spiers on the castle, and there is orange light behind every window. The castle and light reflections are beautiful on the calm lake. Mona had never seen such a magnificent building before, so she couldn't help but exclaim in amazement like everyone else.

"Everyone on board, no more than four people in each boat." Pringle said, pointing to a row of small boats on the shore, so Pomona, Lily, Snape, and a boy from nowhere shared a boat. The boat, but after getting on the boat, Pomona searched for a long time but couldn't find where the oars were.

After everyone sat down, Pringle took a boat alone, and then all the boats started to move by themselves. They silently cut across the lake, smashed the floating lights on it, and slowly sailed towards the towering sky. huge castle.

"Look down!" Pringle yelled as he passed by a curtain of ivy. Everyone lowered their heads, avoided the rock hidden behind the vines, and came to a secret entrance. They walked along a dark road. The tunnel led to the underground of the castle, and finally came to a place similar to an underground dock. At the end of a set of gravel steps, a witch in emerald green robes stood waiting for them at the gate.

"Get out of the boat, come one by one, don't fall into the water." Pringe went ashore first after landing, but he had no intention of helping.

Snape jumped onto the shore first by himself, and then supported Lily to the shore. Pomona wanted to do it by herself, but she didn't expect the boat to shake violently, and the boy behind her couldn't stand himself, and she felt that she was about to fall went to the lake.

"Grab my hand," Snape said impatiently, and Pomona grabbed him as if at straws.

His hands were not as cold as she thought, but they couldn't be called warm. After Pomona came ashore, he didn't care about the boy. In the end, Pomona looked at him very pitifully, and stretched out her hand to give him a hand.

"Thanks," said the little man humbly, with protruding teeth that looked like some kind of rodent.

"The first-year freshmen are here, Professor McGonagall." After everyone landed, Pringle led the freshmen up the stone steps. At this time, Pomona could see more clearly. To be honest, this Professor McGonagall What a beauty if not so serious.

"Thank you, Mr. Pringle." Professor McGonagall cleared his throat, and then said loudly, "Welcome to Hogwarts, I am McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor, and for the next seven years Your main time will be spent in the castle behind me. The following two disciplines are what you must abide by. Students are absolutely forbidden to enter the Black Forest. It is forbidden to wander outside the common room after the lights are turned off. Please line up in two rows. After entering the hall later, I will call someone's name and go out, then I will put the sorting hat on you, and the sorting hat will tell you which college you belong to, is there any problem?"

A boy with dark hair raised his hand.

"Please, sir."

"I heard that a Muggle girl died in the women's toilet a few years ago, and it was done by students of this school. Is it true, Professor McGonagall."

Lily tensed up all over.

"It's true that someone died, but the murderer was not a student of our school, but some kind of magical creature that sneaked into the school. As I said, the four founders set a protective spell in Hogwarts. As long as You don't have to worry about your own safety if you don't leave the dormitory and lounge at night, do you have any other questions?"

The boy raised his hand again.

"What's your name?" Professor McGonagall asked.

"James Potter."

Snape snorted coldly, seeming to scoff at the name.

"What is your question?"

"If I'm unfortunately sorted into Slytherin by the Sorting Hat, can I drop out?"

"Everyone, line up in two rows!" Professor McGonagall did not answer his question. After a period of chaos, the freshmen finally lined up. Then Professor McGonagall turned around, knocked on the door with his wand, and double opened the door It was slowly opened after a heavy sound, and after passing through a long corridor, they came to the hall, and the voices of hundreds of people could be heard behind the closed door.

"We will hold a school opening banquet in this hall later. The college is like your home in Hogwarts. You have to study with other students. The names of the four colleges are Gryffindor, Huff Puff, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, each house has its own glory, you will get extra points for your school if you perform well during school, and points will be deducted for violations, and the one with the highest score at the end of the year You will receive the College Cup, which is the highest honor. I hope that no matter which college you are assigned to, you can win glory for the college. The sorting ceremony will start in the hall behind me in a few minutes. Whoever I call will take a step forward. I suggest you tidy up yourselves."

Immediately, some young wizards anxiously arranged their attire, but some people took advantage of this time to whisper to each other.

"I bet it's definitely the first time she's led a team," James Potter said playfully to the boy who said Pomona was a snot.

"Lily, don't worry, we will all be assigned to Ravenclaw." Snape comforted Lily Evans, who forced a smile on him.

"Are you all ready?" Professor McGonagall asked. Seeing no one making a sound, he pushed open the door of the hall, and then there was clattering applause in the hall.

No words can describe the miraculous sight Pomona saw. The ancient stone-walled hall is very spacious, and four long tables are arranged in columns. At the end of each long table are four college flags hanging from the ceiling. Dragging all the way to the ground, it looks extremely luxurious.

There are hundreds of candles suspended in mid-air. The candles are covered with a vast starry sky. There is a marble staircase in front of them. A long table is placed in a row. The old man with glasses, he often appears in the pictures of the chocolate baby, he is the magician who defeated Grindelwald, Albus Dumbledore.

They walked forward with Professor McGonagall, passing the long tables on both sides. Pomona unconsciously looked at the long table of Slytherin, and finally saw Bella Black at a glance. She was staring fiercely at this She was so frightened that she didn't dare to look up.

The entire Hogwarts has a total of no more than a thousand people, which is the total number of wizards in the entire UK. Presently they were standing in front of a high platform, with a chair on it, and a dirty, old, ugly hat looking out of place on a velvet cushion.

"Now, two rows abreast," said Professor McGonagall, and then fell silent, and after another frenzy the two rows rejoined, with Pomona behind Snape and his In front is Lily.

After everyone stood up, the hall became silent again, and then the patched hat actually started singing.

"You may think that I am not amazing, but you can't judge people by their appearance. If you can find a smarter hat than me, I will eat myself."

It sang in a nonchalant manner, and the students in other colleges showed bored expressions, Pomona was also distracted, and she accidentally glanced at Pete in a hurry, he waved at her, and then said with his mouth, " come on".

Hufflepuff had the most people, and Pomona wasn't worried about herself at all, she just felt sorry for Severus Snape, he probably wouldn't be able to enter Ravenclaw as usual.

Professor McGonagall took out a piece of parchment and began to read the names. The line began to get shorter and shorter, and Pomona also met a lot of people. Among them, the boy who called her Snotluck was Sirius Blake, who was the head of the branch. Bella Black pulled out her wand when the cap assigned him to Gryffindor, and if Professor Slughorn, Head of Slytherin, hadn't stopped her, Pomona would have no doubt that she would have sent Sirius Cast a Ravada Kedavra.

"Pomona Martin."

Although she was ranked behind Snape, Pomona's surname's initials were ahead of Snape and Evans. As expected, she scored Hufflepuff.

"Where is the fat monk?" She asked a senior senior after she sat down.

"It's right there, next to Dumbledore." The senior said, pointing to a ghost exuding pearly white. "He's trying to persuade the Headmaster to invite Peeves to the banquet again."

Pomona looked at Dumbledore, and she didn't know if it was her illusion. She always felt that they were looking in her direction, but she didn't pay much attention to it, because soon Professor McGonagall began to pronounce Lily's name.

The red-haired girl took a deep breath and quickly sat down on the chair. As soon as Professor McGonagall put the Sorting Hat on her head, it shouted "Gryffindor!"

The Gryffindor table immediately erupted in joy, contrasted with Snape's unabashed disappointment.

"Severus Snape!"

Soon Professor McGonagall called his name, the Sorting Hat stayed on his head for a while, and finally shouted "Slytherin!"

Pomona was almost certain that she heard Snape's heartbroken voice, that he had not been sorted into Ravenclaw, and had also been sorted into Slytherin House, which was hostile to Gryffindor.

When the last student was assigned to Hufflepuff, Professor McGonagall rolled up the parchment, took the sorting hat away, and urgently asked Dumbledore to knock on the crystal cup and slowly stood up.

Just when Pomona thought he was going to make a tirade, he just said "Welcome to Hogwarts, all I want to say before the banquet starts is, broom, cake, cry, thank you all." And sat down After coming down, everyone began to applaud enthusiastically, and then suddenly there were a lot of delicious food on the empty long table, which seemed to mark the beginning of the banquet.

Pomona couldn't help but look towards Gryffindor and Slytherin. Lily Evans looked a little nervous, but she was still communicating with other people normally, while Snape was buried in the food on the plate, No one can see his expression.

You need a life of your own, Pomona.

She thought to herself, picking up a knife and fork and putting a piece of steak on her plate, chewing it so tasteless, that the house-elves at Hogwarts would cry if they knew what she was thinking.