An owl flew out of the Owlery, carrying an acceptance letter and disappearing from sight.
Hopefully, the Muggle parents receiving the letters would not be too startled. The timing was also too rushed; asking them to decide whether to send their children to a magical school they had never heard of was a very risky proposition. A safer method would have been to send someone to speak with them, but that rule had been abolished after Albus became headmaster.
Pomona brought Tina to the Great Hall.
Normally, the Great Hall should have been the first stop on a tour, but Tina said she had been to Hogwarts before and was not a "new student" visiting for the first time. Besides, Pomona was interested in how other schools did things.
"Our hall is round." Tina looked at the rectangular Great Hall, where candles floated overhead. "There are four wooden statues representing the houses. After the new students line up and enter the circular hall, the teachers watch from the ring-shaped balcony above. Then the students stand in a circle against the wall. When someone's name is called, they step onto the Gordian Knot in the middle of the stone floor. The four magical statues consider whether to admit that student into their house. The crystal on the Horned Serpent's forehead glows, the Wampus cat growls, the Thunderbird flaps its wings, and the Pukwudgie raises the bow in its hand."
Pomona gave a fake smile.
It sounded like some kind of Muggle talent show. A "contestant" stepped onto the stage while the "mentors" sat with their backs turned. When a mentor thought the contestant's voice met their standards, they pressed a button and their chair turned around. If more than one mentor turned their chair, the contestant got to choose their mentor.