A Former Prisoner of Azkaban

The moment the Sorting Hat touched Lynn's hair,

the old, filthy hat shrieked as if electrocuted:

"SLYTHERIN!"

Lynn was completely stunned.

His hands were still holding the brim, and he had not even fully put it on his head.

He had no prejudice against Slytherin, but wasn't this a little too casual?

And could a student from a Muggle family even be sorted into Slytherin?

Looking utterly innocent, Lynn turned his head toward Professor McGonagall, who stood nearby.

The professor did not seem particularly surprised. She urged Lynn on.

"Your Sorting is over, Mr. Belloc. Please put the hat back. It is time for the next person."

Lynn had no choice but to place the Sorting Hat back on the four-legged stool, then walk toward the cheering Slytherin table.

Even after taking his seat, Lynn could not understand how the Sorting Hat had made its decision.

It had not even said a word to him, much less learned anything about what he himself thought.

So had it seen his talent for the Dark Arts?

Lynn reasoned out a possibility in his mind.

But that guess did not hold up very well. Although Slytherin produced plenty of Dark wizards, it had never been said that talent for the Dark Arts was a criterion for selecting students.

The Sorting ceremony continued. To the older students and professors, Lynn's little incident did not even count as a minor interruption.

Every year, there were students with especially pronounced personality traits who prompted the Sorting Hat to make a decision very quickly. It was not common, but neither was it rare.

At most, Professor McGonagall and Professor Foxx, who knew Lynn came from a Muggle family, were a little surprised inwardly.

It was indeed rather rare for a new student from a Muggle family to be sorted into Slytherin.

The older Slytherins around him were fairly friendly. With the attitude of making the best of things, Lynn stopped dwelling on it and quietly watched the Sorting continue.

"Ian Douglas Campbell!"

At Professor McGonagall's call, the silver-haired boy who had shared a train compartment with Lynn, carrying an umbrella on a sunny day, hurried toward the platform.

The Sorting Hat seemed to hesitate over his head for quite a while before finally placing him in Ravenclaw.

"Cho Chang!"

A little Asian girl jogged over to Professor McGonagall and hurriedly pulled the Sorting Hat onto her head.

She was the only young wizard in their year whom Lynn knew.

The first love of the savior Harry Potter, and Chinese as well.

Then there was the little brat who had shared Lynn's boat across the lake, Hubert Maclean. Just as he had said, he really was sorted into Slytherin.

When he strode to the Slytherin table with his chest puffed out, like a knight who had just been knighted by a king, he saw Lynn sitting calmly in his chair and immediately deflated.

It was like a knight discovering that knighthoods were worthless and anyone could get one.

His face reddened, and he looked somewhat exasperated, but he still maintained basic manners.

"Why did you lie to me?"

He sat opposite Lynn and demanded, glaring at him.

Lynn looked at him in confusion. "What did I lie to you about?"

"You told me both your parents were Muggles!"

"That's right. Although I'm an orphan and have never met them, they had identities and assets in normal society, so they should have been Muggles."

"Then why were you sorted into Slytherin?"

"How would I know?" Lynn spread his hands. "Does Slytherin have a rule against accepting Muggle-born wizards?"

An older Slytherin seated near them answered the question.

"No."

The older student shook his head, though his gaze at Lynn was equally full of curiosity.

"Slytherin has had new students from Muggle families before, but very, very few. You might not get even one in three years."

"So that makes me a once-in-three-years genius?" Lynn muttered.

"In a sense, that is true."

The speaker was Slytherin's prefect. When Lynn had first sat down, she had introduced herself as Betty Delisle, a girl who looked very capable.

After the Sorting ceremony ended, Headmaster Dumbledore's opening address interrupted the conversation at the Slytherin table.

"...Due to Professor Stoker's unfortunate experience last term, I accepted his resignation.

"Now, I would like to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Adrian Foxx. He is an expert in Defense Against the Dark Arts and will also be a competent professor."

Professor Foxx smiled and waved to the young wizards from the platform.

But strangely, the applause from below was sparse.

At the Slytherin table, it was nearly silent.

Lynn had just raised his hands to offer Professor Foxx some support when he saw that nearly every Slytherin around him had darkened at the mention of Professor Foxx's name. Even several professors seated on the platform seemed to have little goodwill toward him.

Professor Foxx's reputation did not seem very good.

Lynn frowned and hesitated for a moment before lowering his hands without clapping.

He planned to sound things out once the feast began.

Dumbledore did not give a long speech. After making several necessary announcements, he declared the feast open.

The instant he finished speaking, countless steaming dishes appeared out of thin air on the empty plates before Lynn. The travel-weary new students immediately found their appetites, waving their knives and forks as they began enjoying the food before them.

The Slytherins ate at an unhurried pace, vastly different from the boisterous Gryffindors on the other side.

"I thought that news was false. I never expected Professor Dumbledore to really invite him here."

An older boy sighed.

Prefect Betty was cutting up a Munich grilled sausage.

"Isn't it ironic? Having him serve as a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor—once word gets out, it will probably dominate the Daily Prophet's front page for a month."

"My father warned me that if he really came to Hogwarts, I should stay away from him whenever possible. Even if I had to pull out Professor Dumbledore's beard, I was not to provoke him."

"Excuse me..."

Lynn cautiously inserted himself into their conversation. "Does 'him' mean the new Professor Foxx? Is there... something wrong with him?"

Hubert, who was also a new student, looked at him with disdain.

"You dare interrupt our conversation when you don't know anything."

Lynn stared at him speechlessly, feeling that this little brat was asking for a beating.

"Shut up! Is that how the Maclean family teaches its children?"

Betty reprimanded Hubert sternly, then explained to Lynn and the other young wizards who did not know the details:

"Although it is not a good thing to discuss a professor behind his back, I still advise you to stay away from the new Professor Foxx.

"He was once sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban for using the Unforgivable Curses to torture and kill five wizards.

"Later, because our headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, strongly vouched for him, and because there was a turn in the case he had been convicted of, the Wizengamot overturned the original sentence two years ago and released him early."

Cough, cough, cough... Well, you know.