"Hmm?"
In the Headmaster's Office, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore was changing into his formal robes in preparation for the opening feast when he saw his deputy headmistress, Transfiguration professor, and head of Gryffindor House, Minerva McGonagall, hurry in carrying something.
"What is it?"
"Minerva, would you like a drink?"
He quickly stopped what he was doing, picked up a bottle and a glass from the desk, and prepared to pour her a glass of mead.
"No!"
"Albus, look at this!"
"This is serious!"
But McGonagall had no time for that. As she spoke, she slapped a list of first-year students and a copy of today's newspaper down on the desk in the Headmaster's Office.
"What's this...?"
Seeing that, Dumbledore instinctively put down the bottle and glass, then picked up the things she had slapped down and looked them over.
It didn't take long for him to spot something on the first-year list—especially the name someone had circled in red—and in the newspaper article.
"An eight-year-old student?"
"But..."
"Minerva, I don't understand. Why are we only finding out now?"
Once he understood why she had rushed in, Dumbledore looked up in surprise and asked, sounding a little bewildered.
They should have discovered something like this a month ago.
"I don't know either!"
"Apparently, someone in Diagon Alley saw her buying her school supplies and books a month ago. Someone even wrote to the Daily Prophet and the Ministry of Magic to ask about it. We even received a letter here at Hogwarts!"
"But!"
"For some reason, someone intercepted and suppressed the letters!"
"And only today did the Daily Prophet suddenly break the story. I rushed to check the list and only then found out!"
"I think the Daily Prophet or certain people must have interfered. They deliberately wanted to make a laughingstock