Chapter 260 The 4th Opening Banquet
The noisy students crowded outside the castle gate, led by their prefects.
They entered the auditorium one after another and sat down at the huge long tables belonging to their respective colleges.
Peeves, who wanted to come over and make trouble, was driven away by the ghosts around him.
After finding a seat and sitting down, Wright looked directly at the professor's seat, looking for Barty Crouch Jr. who was pretending to be Moody.
But unfortunately, I didn't see him at all.
Harry, who was paying close attention to the Defense Against the Dark Arts class, looked at the empty professor's seat and couldn't help asking:
"Ron, why didn't the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor show up? Is what you said true?"
Ron looked at the professor's chair and answered hesitantly, "He'll probably be late!"
"After all, he is a retiree and is probably resting somewhere now."
Hermione was not worried at all and said nonchalantly:
"Don't worry, Dumbledore will take care of it."
Just as a few people were chatting in low voices, the sorting ceremony officially began.
Professor McGonagall led a row of freshmen straight to the top of the auditorium.
The Sorting Hat, which was placed on the triangular stool, sang its song with its strange melody again:
"That was a story from a thousand years ago, and I was just compiled into it..."
……
When its singing stopped, the students in the auditorium burst into warm applause.
Professor McGonagall unrolled the parchment and began the roll call.
In the following sorting ceremony, the freshmen, all wet and shivering, sat on the stools.
Professor McGonagall put the Sorting Hat on their heads and waited for the hat to assign them to different colleges.
What is extremely strange is that after the colleges were divided!
When the freshmen stood up from the stools, their bodies felt refreshed and their clothes were dry.
After the Sorting Ceremony, Dumbledore slowly stood up, looked at the students, and said loudly:
"Welcome to Hogwarts, enjoy the food!"
After he finished speaking, he raised his right hand and waved it gently, and all kinds of delicious food appeared out of thin air on the long table.
The students, who had been hungry for a long time, saw the delicious food on the table and immediately wolfed down their dinner.
Nick, who was almost headless, floated over, looked at the food on the table, and said faintly as if to vent:
"You are very lucky today. If it weren't for us, this banquet probably wouldn't be able to be held."
Wright swallowed a piece of fried cod, squinted at the ghost who seemed to be drooling, and asked curiously:
"What happened?"
Nick, who was almost headless, shook his head that was about to fall off and explained as if to take credit:
"It's all because of Peeves. He also wants to attend the party here."
"We even held a special meeting, and in the end, based on its daily behavior, we ruled that it could not attend."
"It ran into the kitchen and made trouble on purpose, and then we teamed up to drive it out!"
"So that's how it is. No wonder Peeves dared to speak loudly to Professor McGonagall. It turns out he was holding back some anger!"
As Wright was eating the lobster and shrimp balls, he suddenly realized what was going on.
Harry saw Nick, who was almost headless, was about to leave, so he quickly came over and asked curiously:
"And what, and what, how did Peeves mess up the kitchen, and what did he do?"
Nick was about to float away to another place to continue promoting the ghosts' achievements.
He stopped floating, held his head and said casually:
"What else can it be? It's the same old thing, throwing pots and pans around."
"Throw the meals prepared by the elves into every corner of the kitchen."
"Those poor elves wouldn't know what to do with Peeves without us."
Ron also came over, holding a roasted chicken leg in each hand, and sighed with great relief:
"That's great! Without you, I would have starved to death."
Hermione stared closely at Nick, who raised his head because of Ron's praise, and asked sharply:
"You mean, Hogwarts has house-elves too?"
Seeing Hermione's attitude, Nick, who was almost headless, scratched his head in confusion and said:
"Yeah! Of course there is!"
"No wizarding home in Britain has as many house-elves as Hogwarts."
"Then why didn't I see them? Where are they?"
Hermione frowned, she had only been in the castle before and had only seen Wright calling out for Dobby.
"It's normal if you haven't seen them. They rarely leave the kitchen during the day and only come out to clean at night."
"And keep an eye on the fireplace or something!"
"Besides, as a qualified house-elf, I cannot let you know of its existence."
Hermione, who thought that house-elves were similar to cooks or butlers, quickly asked:
"Besides daytime, do they come out to work at night?"
"Do they have holidays? What are their salaries?"
"Haha...holiday...haha, salary...haha..."
Hermione's question directly made Headless Nick laugh so hard that his head almost fell off.
"My dear Miss Granger, they don't need or want anything like this."
"You mean these elves, with no pay, no holidays, and have to work day and night?"
"Isn't this slavery? This is not humane at all!"
Nick, who was almost headless, held his head with his hands, floated up, and said disdainfully:
"Humanity? They're house-elves. They like to work."
"All the treatments you mentioned are insults to them."
"That's impossible, no one likes to work!"
"They are certainly oppressed. No one would dislike a free life."
Hermione argued with Nick with her neck stiff, her eyes constantly scanning over, trying to seek support from Wright and the others.
"It's not what you think, Hermione!"
Wright denied Hermione's statement and expressed another, different point of view:
"It's not normal that a house-elf has an extremely thin body but has more magical power than an ordinary wizard."
"The reason is that the elves made a contract with the mansion itself and obtained powerful enough magic power."
"As a price, you must serve the owner of the mansion."
"Houses and house-elves are as intertwined as trees and vines."
"So, they don't serve the wizards, they serve the mansion, and the wizards are just incidental."
"But...but..."
Hermione was choked for a moment. What Wright said was completely beyond her knowledge.
"Stop overthinking it, Hermione!"
"That's good. Eat, eat, eat. If you don't eat, others will eat it all up."
Ron dug into the mashed potatoes with a spoon, his eyes slightly narrowed, and he enjoyed it very much, while also helping Hermione.
