Chapter 412

Unlike the students who were struggling to spend time on the train, Solim took Sylna and Draco to a Chinese restaurant in London for a nice meal - it must be noted that Chinese restaurants at this time were still very authentic and had not yet been messed up to cater to European tastes.

It was the first time Draco had eaten Chinese food—one could imagine what kind of appetite Draco would have had after more than a decade of devastation.

"Our food is shit!" Draco was still indignant as he walked down the road.

"Why do those Asians make food so good?" Draco looked at Solim, "Are you really sure they're not wizards?

Sometimes Solim also thinks that it is not a good thing that the wizarding world is too closed, of course, for those wizards and wizarding families who stand at the top, they are not closed, but the wizards of the middle and lower ranks rarely have anything to do with Muggles. Like Draco, the heir to a rather wrong family, who would lash out on the street for the taste of the food—sometimes Solim thought Draco was quite pitiful.

With lunch out of the way, Solim, after consulting with Sylna and Draco, decided to wander around the city more, which was a bit more laid-back compared to the students who had been on the train for hours. Solim even took Draco and Sylna to visit the London Zoo, as one of the oldest zoos in the world, Solim and the three of them would definitely not be able to finish in an afternoon, and in the end, if it wasn't for the matter of time, Solim forcibly dragged Draco away, and the young master, who was in contact with the Muggle world for the first time, could skip the opening dinner.

While the three of them were walking on the road from Hogsmeade to the castle, Draco was still immersed in the Muggle-built world, and the questions were thrown at Solim one after another, and he regretted taking Draco to the zoo a little.

When Solim and the others entered the castle, the train had not yet arrived, and Nightkira's carriage had not yet arrived, so they had to walk towards the main castle step by step on their own, but fortunately the levitation charm helped a lot, otherwise their chest would have been enough for them to drink a pot.

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The opening dinner has officially begun, and the freshmen have not yet arrived, but the students have already noticed that something is wrong: the most conspicuous professor is missing, and it is Professor Grapeland who sits in his place.

"Where's Hagrid?" Harry looked left and right, "The freshman should have crossed the Black Lake by this time, why hasn't Hagrid come yet?"

Harry had no one to answer his question, and even if anyone wanted to, they would have to take his attention off the other person in the professorship.

"Who's that woman?" Hermione frowned as she looked at the woman in the pink cardigan in the professorship.

"Umbridge – Dolores. Umbridge. Harry squinted, "She attended my hearing, and—"

The door to the hall opened, and a long line of frightened-looking first-year students was led into the auditorium by Professor McGonagall. Professor McGonagall held a stool with an old wizard's hat on top of it, with patches on top of each other, and a wide tear next to the frayed brim, but it looked clean and without any moldy green hair or dirt - presumably the freshmen would have learned what had happened at the opening dinner a few years ago tonight, and perhaps they would have been grateful to the seniors by then.

The buzz in the auditorium gradually subsided. First-year students line up at staff desks, facing their classmates from other grades. Professor McGonagall carefully placed the stool in front of them, then stepped back. The faces of the freshmen shone pale in the candlelight. A little boy in the middle of the line looked like he was shivering.

Harry remembered how uneasy he had been when he stood there, waiting for the mysterious test that would determine which house he belonged to. The whole school waited with bated breath. Then the crack by the brim of the hat opened like a mouth, and the Sorting Hat sang aloud:

I was a new hat a long time ago, before Hogwarts was built, and the four founders of the Noble Hall thought they would never go their separate ways. They are united by a common goal, and their aspirations are so similar: to build the best magic school in the world, so that their knowledge can be passed on and perpetuated.

......

The first time these differences came to light, they caused a small quarrel.

Each of the four founders had a college that only enrolled the teenagers they wanted.

......

Countless quarrels, countless fights, and former best friends turned against each other. Finally, one morning, the elderly Slytherin ran away. Even though the strife had subsided, he left us discouraged. Only three of the four founders remained, and from then on, the situation of the four colleges was no longer as harmonious and united as it had been imagined in the past.

......

Knowing the danger, reading the signs, the lessons of history warn us that our Hogwarts is in danger, and that enemies outside the school are eyeing us. We have to be united internally, or everything will fall apart from within. I have spoken to you bluntly, and I have sounded the alarm for you—

This year, the Sorting Hat's song was extraordinarily long, and the students who were distracted at first realized something - the Sorting Hat was giving them a warning. Combined with the comments made at the end of last semester and the various reports of the Daily Prophet this holiday - reports that slandered, or "exposed" Dumbledore's true colors, and the attitude of their own parents at home, the students were now a little horrified.

The hat was motionless again. There was applause in all directions, but everyone was a little perfunctory, for they were all busy whispering.

This is also the first time Solim sings in the Sorting Hat without "listening with his earbuds closed". The sorting ceremony for the freshmen was the biggest awkward thing in years: no one was paying attention, the students were busy exchanging opinions, and only when the people around them applauded would they glance at the freshmen who had been assigned to their houses.

"Welcome to our new students," Dumbledore said in a loud voice, his arms outstretched and a big smile on his lips, "Welcome! Welcome to our old students—welcome back! There is so much time for speeches, but not now. Let's eat it and eat it!"

Dumbledore sat down upright, tossing his long beard over his shoulders to keep them from blocking his plate—the delicacies suddenly fell from the sky, and the five long tables were suddenly filled with large pieces of beef, pies, plates of vegetables, bread, jam, and pots of pumpkin juice, groaning from overwhelm.

"I feel like I'm out of appetite. Draco looked at the food in front of him with some distress, he still had the boiled meat slices he had eaten at noon in his stomach.