Chapter 11 Branching

Steam trains that have been running for more than a hundred years,

Stop at the station in Hogsmeade,

This wizarding town is a little different from what Raven remembers.

I don’t know how many times it has been renovated since then.

As the only pure wizarding settlement in the UK,

This place can be considered a place full of disasters, and it is a place that often appears in history of magic textbooks.

With the formation of Muggle mega-cities in the 20th century, wizards who were mixed in Muggle society were more inclined to go to Diagon Alley in London for consumption.

After all, Floo powder is an expense. For wizards living in London, using Apparition to go to the Leaky Cauldron is a time-saving and labor-saving option.

Therefore, this wizarding trading center before the 19th century seemed to be in decline in Raven's sight that spanned a hundred years.

Under the pedestrian bridge across the railway, a tall figure held a kerosene lamp and was greeting the little wizard who got off the bus.

The figure is 12.7 feet tall,

Here is one, wearing a dark brown moleskin coat.

A little giant with messy hair and beard.

Because the height is slightly higher than the road surface of the overpass,

The giant has to bend down a little,

A little bit of funny performance slightly dispelled the uneasiness in the hearts of the little wizards.

The giant was about to greet the little wizards, with the lights in his hands raised.

Seemingly thinking of something, he put down the light again.

"I don't know why Dumbledore asked me to shout like that this year."

Muttering in his mouth, the giant put his hand into one of the pockets on his body. He had too many pockets.

After rummaging through several pockets, he took out a note and put it under the lamp. While reading the note, he shouted to the little wizards.

"Freshmen enrolling this year, please follow me, get on the boat, and hurry up."

"Hagrid! We meet again." Harry walked quickly to Hagrid and greeted him eagerly.

"Ahaha, Harry, you're here. I'm sorry, because Professor Dumbledore made some temporary arrangements and didn't have time to say hello to you first." Hagrid apologized.

As the culprit, Raven was currently explaining the sorting matters to Ron.

Wherever there is a weakness of the troll, where attacking will make the troll furious, the professors will sort the freshmen into different schools based on their performance. Those with outstanding performance will be competed by the dean of the school and accepted as disciples, and those who are idle will be divided into different schools. Hufflepuff House, cooking for Slytherin's top students and washing Professor Snape's hair every day. Every year, little wizards die at the hands of trolls, and Principal Dumbledore will collect their bodies and say "I'm sorry" to them.

Ron, this stupid boy, is already eleven years old, and he is still being tricked by George Freed all day long. As an older brother, he must help him improve his resistance so that he will not be fooled by the low-level methods of those two scourges. To be deceived.

Humming "The light of the right path shines on the earth." Raven and the two came to Harry's side, and the Black Lake arrived.

Under Hagrid's arrangement, the little wizards boarded the boats one after another, and each boat was equipped with a magic lantern.

With the lantern guiding the way forward, the boat sailed towards the Hogwarts dock.

The Hedwig Variations sounded, and when the tune gradually turned into a magnificent ensemble,

With a pointed tower top, like a huge castle from a story, Hogwarts Castle appeared in front of the little wizards.

Each of them put aside the uneasiness before the sorting and cast their expectant eyes on the campus where they will live for the next seven years.

The boat docked in the dock, and Hagrid took the little wizards along the escalator from the bottom of the mountain to the main body of the castle. Professor McGonagall was already waiting at the last staircase.

Auditorium entrance

Seeing that Professor McGonagall had something to say, Raven also put down the wand that had been ringing all the way.

"Thank you, Mr. Weasley." Professor Magminerva nodded to Raven.

After all, Gryffindor specializes in Weasley, who seems to be at least much more stable than his two brothers.

Apparently due to the two, the lying dragon and the young phoenix, the lady's expectations for Raven were surprisingly low.

After briefly introducing the four colleges and the college classification system to the freshmen, as the vice-principal, this lady still needs to arrange the classification of this group of young wizards.

So Professor McGonagall walked into the auditorium and asked these little guys to wait for the announcement at the door.

"Leifu!!" The one who broke the silence was a blond, round-faced little guy. Because he lost the toad along the way, someone kicked him in the face.

Not only was he not angry, this little chubby guy who didn't look very smart expressed his gratitude to Raven like crazy. It seemed that he liked the toad quite a bit.

After the stagnant atmosphere was broken, the little wizards started to make a fuss. After all, they were still a group of teenagers.

A thin boy with silver-blond hair walked up to Raven alone without a follower and stretched out his hand.

"Hello brother Raven, my father asked me to say hello to you on his behalf. I am Draco, Draco Malfoy."

Raven also chose to accept the goodwill of the Malfoy family, extended his hand, and also asked Ron and Harry to come over and introduce each other.

"It seems that the rumors on the train are true. Harry Potter is coming to Hogwarts. Welcome back to the wizarding world and welcome back to the pure-blood family, Potter." Draco also shook hands with Potter.

Before Harry could ask what the pure-blood family meant, Professor McGonagall came out and patted Draco's neck gently with a scroll.

Freshmen entered the auditorium one after another.

The suspended candles illuminated the entire lower part of the auditorium like daylight.

The ceiling of the auditorium reflected the night outside.

hall

Students from four colleges, wearing black velvet pointed hats, were seated at four long tables.

From left to right they are,

The house emblem is on a green background, and the representative animal is Slytherin, a snake.

The emblem of the school is on a yellow background, representing Hufflepuff, which is the badger.

The emblem of the school is on a red background, representing Gryffindor, which is the lion.

And

The emblem of the school is on a blue background, and the representative animal is Ravenclaw, the eagle.

A set of exquisite tableware was placed in front of each of them, but at this time no one paid attention to the extraordinarily sumptuous first meal of school.

Everyone was paying attention to the little wizards who walked in.

Professor McGonagall called the new students to the long table and asked them to wait for a moment while the principal explained to the little wizards the precautions for the new students.

Raven was currently observing the professor on the professor's chair, the greasy-headed Snape, riding a mount named Quirinus Quirrell, who was staring at Harry's Voldemort and the goblin-half-blood Filius with his face covered. Professor S. Flitwick...

When Raven came back to Dumbledore's speech, she only heard the words "corridor on the right hand side of the third floor".

Okay, definitely go check it out.

Then Professor McGonagall picked up the scroll, sorted it by last name, called the names of the new students, and started sorting them into different schools.

"Hannah Abbott."

"Hufflepuff." Who would let someone's last name be Abbott, unless you add a punctuation mark in front of the last name?

..........

"Hermione Granger"

"Gryffindor."

Whenever a new student is assigned to a college, the seniors and sisters at the table will greet them with cheers.

"Draco Malfoy"

"Slytherin".

This time the Sorting Hat announced Malfoy's house without even a pause.

"Ron Weasley",

The brim of the hat covered Ron's forehead, and the body of the hat wrapped his red hair.

"A Weasley, of course going there, Gryffindor!"

Raven was about to step forward, but the next name wasn't his, or even the last one.

After the first-year students were sorted, Dumbledore knocked on his cup and stood up to speak.

"This year, we have a special freshman, a second-year transfer from Beauxbatons,

The last time there were students who enrolled midway was a hundred years ago. According to the usual practice, students are divided into colleges first.

Then study at the grade corresponding to your age,

However, the final grades need to be approved by the dean.

Then please step forward, Mr. Raven Nicholas Weasley, to prepare for the sorting. "

The old hat was very panicked, because there was a person standing in front of him, and it was just a hat, it had no eyes, and it shouldn't be able to see people.

This is its inner world. In front of it is a black-haired man, wearing round sunglasses, khaki pants and a dark red vest.

His coat is a black robe,

The fabric of the robe has gray-white complex dark patterns of vine leaves.

The main body of the robe has a gold thread outlining the pattern, and the hem is a circle of gold thread outlining a large vine leaf pattern and an acorn.

The back part is a badger standing in the center of the vine leaf pattern.

This is the Hufflepuff Relic House uniform.

Hufflepuff House Relic Uniform

The old hat knows this guy,

The transfer student Dumbledore just mentioned a hundred years ago was him.

Later, he was also called the "Ancient Demon" by some groups because he monopolized ancient magic, and Hogwarts was an ancient magic base.

The old hat was also brutally murdered by him. That person, that person actually threw him into a Muggle washing machine.

And washed it maybe nine hundred times? It might be a thousand times, and the old hat can't remember it. No one wants that kind of terrible memory.

The old hat didn't know why he had such hallucinations today. He actually thought of that guy.

Thinking that he just had a memory disorder, the old hat shook the brim of his hat and tried to leave. He still remembered that there was a little wizard who was not sorted.

All he felt was that the tip of his hat was being grabbed tightly.

"I, branch, you, are sensible, shut up later, do you understand?"

The black-haired man said fiercely to the Sorting Hat.

The old hater understands, completely understands, this scourge is back!

In the Great Hall of Hogwarts, not too much time passed.

Raven is waiting for Professor McGonagall to put the Sorting Hat on him.

This time, the Sorting Hat, which also covered red hair, seemed less decisive, with a hint of inquiry.

"H...Hufflepuff?"

Raven nodded invisibly, and the old hat became relieved and fell silent. The stimulation it received was so great that it needed to isolate itself for a while.