The Start of Term? It's Started!

Time flew by, and before they knew it, September had arrived. It was the start of the autumn term at schools everywhere. Today, the teachers and students of Hogwarts had boarded the Hogwarts Express at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters and returned to their school, Hogwarts Castle, ready to continue their studies and lives there for another term.

This was the Great Hall at Hogwarts. The entire school had gathered there, and the place was bustling with noise and excitement. The chandeliers hanging from the ceiling had been lit, their glow filling the hall with bright light! Today was the first day of the new school year, and the teachers and students from each House had taken their places at their respective long tables, arranged by year.

Near the front of the Great Hall, a small wooden stool had been set up. On it rested a wizard's hat that looked rather battered and worn. This was one of Hogwarts' special traditions: the Sorting Hat, which legend said every new student had to wear once before entering the school. Supposedly, it could sort students into different Houses based on their talents and character. At the moment, it was chattering away, singing something or other.

The song made Annie, seated at the High Table, purse her lips in disdain. To her, it was nothing more than a permanently enchanted mind-reading spell! It simply probed the students' thoughts and talents to sort them. Maybe it also had some storage function and a basic secondary intelligence spell? It was just choosing apprentices based on their talents, so why make such a big deal of it?

Most importantly, the song sounded awful! It wasn't music at all! It was noise! Annie hated it! She'd been putting up with it for ages, and it had been singing for so long without finishing! It just went on and on! Annie felt that once she reached her limit, she might just cast a permanent Silencing Charm on it! She'd seal that ugly mouth forever!

Meanwhile, Professor McGonagall, deputy headmistress of Hogwarts School, was standing beside the stool, busily arranging a line of smaller students. They were obviously this year's first-year students, and once the hat finished singing, they would take turns being sorted. This was very important! So Professor McGonagall kept order while quietly reminding the little ones of what they needed to know.

"Hey, Harry! You must've read the newspaper I sent you, right? That huge thing that happened in the Wizarding World recently—it was big news!" Ron leaned over from the second-year table and whispered mysteriously into Harry's ear while they waited for the Sorting Ceremony to begin.

At the beginning of last month, the Gringotts Wizarding Bank incident had sent shockwaves through the Wizarding World, both at home and abroad, and it had been the talk of the town for quite some time! For a long while, it had captured the attention of the entire British Wizarding World, with every witch and wizard following the story to some degree. According to Ron's father, Mr. Arthur Weasley, even foreign Ministries of Magic had sent official letters asking about the incident's origins, the truth behind it, and various other details.

Thanks to the incident, many things that were supposed to happen in the original story had changed. Lucius Malfoy hadn't had the time or inclination to concoct any schemes against Harry Potter, so Dobby, the House-elf who had betrayed his master, hadn't come along to cause a fuss and make trouble. As a result, Ron and Harry hadn't ended up driving a flying car to school and crashing into the Whomping Willow.

"Newspaper? What newspaper? I didn't see one. What big thing? Has Voldemort come back to life again?" Harry looked baffled. Apart from Voldemort's resurrection, he couldn't imagine anything else in the Wizarding World that would be worth paying attention to. Besides, the Sorting Hat in the middle of the hall was still loudly singing its awful song, and he could barely hear what Ron was saying.

He'd been watching the first-years in the middle of the hall with great interest. Last year, Harry had been just like them, watched by older students as he waited nervously and miserably to be sorted. Especially since someone had maliciously spread a rumor among the first-years that the Sorting Hat ate people's brains. Harry's feelings at the time had been indescribably complicated.

Now the tables had turned. Harry Potter was sitting with the second-years, watching the first-years get sorted for a change. It was a very novel experience. So he copied what the older students had done to him the year before and stared hard at the first-years. He picked out the ones who looked nervous and kept his eyes fixed on them. Once they noticed him watching, they grew even more nervous, and the more nervous they got, the more he stared. Watching their embarrassed expressions was great fun.

"You can't tell me you really don't know!" When he realized Harry genuinely had no idea, Ron exclaimed in disbelief. Was there anyone left in the Wizarding World who didn't know about it? Was Harry even a wizard? In his shock, he didn't even notice that Harry had just said the Dark Lord's name right in front of him.

Ron remembered it clearly: he'd sent Harry a copy of that day's Daily Prophet not long ago—the issue that had sold better than any other! Of course, he'd only sent it after his whole family had read it. And now Harry was saying he didn't know? Where had the paper gone? Ron had meant to keep that issue as a souvenir, but after thinking it over and over, he'd finally sent it to Harry, because Harry was his good friend and comrade. And now Harry was telling him he didn't know?!

Ron's booming voice immediately drew annoyed looks from the nearby Gryffindors. Faced with their threatening and warning glares, he gave them an embarrassed smile by way of apology, then leaned close to Harry again and lowered his voice. "Didn't I send you a copy of the Daily Prophet the other day? Where is it now? Did you not get it? That doesn't make sense!"

"The Daily Prophet? I didn't see a single newspaper over the holidays! Ron, didn't I tell you not to send anything to Uncle Vernon's house by owl? He even bought himself another double-barreled shotgun last year. He doesn't want anything from the Wizarding World in his house. He might really shoot your family's owl out of the sky!" Harry stared at him, stunned. He really hadn't received anything from the Wizarding World all summer.

Even his pet owl, Hedwig, had been kept in her cage all summer without a chance to stretch her wings! If Ron really had sent him a newspaper, Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia must have confiscated it. It looked like he'd missed out on a lot of interesting things over the holidays.

"I remember what you told me, of course. Don't worry, I actually asked my dad to send it using one of the Ministry of Magic's official owls. Even if your uncle did shoot it down, it wouldn't matter. It wasn't my owl, after all. If it died, I wouldn't care!" Ron waved a hand, completely unbothered by the fact that he'd persuaded his dad to use Ministry resources for personal reasons. It was a Ministry owl, right? If it died, so what? Ron wouldn't have to pay for it!

"Right! I almost forgot to ask—what exactly was the big thing that happened? Why are you being so mysterious about it? Did Voldemort really come back to life?" Harry remembered that before the holidays, Voldemort had been nothing more than a ghost. Had he really come back to life in the short space of a summer? He was such a troublemaker! That was the great villain Voldemort for you.

"All right, you really don't know... And don't say the Dark Lord's name in front of me again!" Hearing the unspeakable name made Ron's face tense with fear. He shook his head helplessly at Harry, then carefully glanced at Hermione, who was sitting upright beside them. He leaned close to Harry's ear again and whispered, "This is what happened...! Then..."

"That can't be right! R-robbed Gringotts Wizarding Bank? How could that happen?!" After hearing the story, Harry's eyes widened behind his glasses, his face full of disbelief. This was even more shocking than Voldemort coming back to life! He quickly turned to Hermione and asked, "How could that be possible?! Hermione! Was what Ron just said true? Were you really involved in the Gringotts incident?"

"Hmph!" Hermione snorted and turned her head away. She had no intention of responding to the two boys muttering beside her!

She knew exactly what they'd been whispering about. They must have been saying something nasty about her again!

Ever since the Gringotts Wizarding Bank incident, Hermione had grown used to the strange looks people gave her and the questions from busybodies. She was well and truly sick of it.

More importantly, some of the rumors had grown more and more ridiculous. Just listen to that! Ron had just said that Hermione had taken part in a bank robbery! The truth was that the bank's Goblins had stolen her money, wasn't it? If they wanted to know what happened, why didn't they read the newspaper themselves? Why come and ask her?

Hermione had figured it out long ago: the more she said about the incident, the more she explained, the more questions those busybodies would ask! And the more outlandish the rumors would become! So she'd learned the best way to handle it! Be cold! Ignore them! As long as she didn't respond or pay them any attention, those busybodies would eventually go away on their own! Her coldness and indifference were the best weapons against the rumors! They could talk and ask all they wanted—Hermione simply wouldn't respond! Hmph!

Hermione had actually been thinking of telling her two friends a little in advance about something exciting that was going to happen at Hogwarts this year. She'd heard it firsthand in the Headmaster's Office the previous month, and fewer than a dozen people knew about it!

But now she'd changed her mind. She absolutely wasn't going to tell those two gossip-loving idiots anything in advance—not a single detail! That was what they got for whispering about her just now!

Ron had gotten one thing right: Hermione had been one of the major participants in the Gringotts Wizarding Bank incident. She had indeed witnessed the whole thing. But she hated anyone asking her questions about it. She'd been terrified at the time! The incident had become a sore spot for her, and no one was allowed to touch it! Yet Harry and Ron had discussed it right in front of her. Their friendship was about to sink!

Still, every cloud had a silver lining. After Hermione met Annie and was given a tremendous fright, she also gained something invaluable that no one else knew about! The day after their trip to Hogwarts ended, especially after she learned that little Annie had no home and was wandering around, Hermione had insisted on inviting Annie to stay at her house for a month! During that month, Hermione learned about Annie's background and found out that she wasn't from this world. She also learned a great deal of magic from Annie—knowledge the Wizarding World didn't possess, and the sort of thing money couldn't buy!

But after Annie had stayed at Hermione's house for a month, the person who was happiest wasn't Hermione, nor was it Annie. It was Hermione's irresponsible father, Mr. Granger! He was still fretting over the huge box hidden under his bed, packed full of more than ten thousand Galleons—fretting because he was so happy!

Those coins had, of course, been given to him by Annie! She'd called them a gift for staying at their home, and he couldn't refuse them even if he wanted to! Ever since then, Mr. Granger and his wife had been trying to figure out whether it would be more profitable to exchange them for pounds at Gringotts, or melt them into gold bars and exchange them at a bank in the Muggle world. It was a big question worth investigating, and they'd been studying it for ages without reaching a decision.

"Wow! That's incredible! All right, Ron, could you tell me a bit more about it?" When Hermione ignored him, Harry awkwardly turned back to Ron and resumed asking questions.

Since Hermione neither confirmed nor denied it, the story was probably true! It was such a sensational incident, and he hadn't heard about it right away—that was a real shame! So he wanted to keep asking, to find out more of the details.

"Sure! From what I heard, this is what happened..." Ron was just about to continue when he noticed all the Gryffindor students around them suddenly get to their feet and burst into enthusiastic applause. His twin brothers were especially loud, whistling, waving, and cheering.

As it turned out, the Sorting Ceremony had begun while they were talking. Ron's sister, Ginny Weasley, had been sorted into her dream House, Gryffindor, just as she'd hoped. She was hopelessly infatuated with someone in Gryffindor and thought about him day and night! It wasn't all that surprising that she'd been sorted there. The whole Weasley family seemed to be Gryffindors. It was practically genetic.

"Harry, let's leave it for now. I'll give you the newspaper from that day when we get back to the dormitory. It's a copy I managed to sneak away when Dad and I went to the Ministry of Magic." Now that the Sorting Ceremony had started, Ron didn't want to miss a single detail. Besides, a sumptuous feast was coming up, and he didn't want to waste any more time on this conversation.

"Sure, just don't forget!" Since he could read the original newspaper from that day after the feast, Harry decided he could wait before worrying about it. He hurried to his feet and joined Ron in applauding Ginny as hard as he could.

The Sorting Ceremony continued in an orderly fashion. The four Houses—Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw—each received a different number of first-years. Once the new students had taken their seats, Professor McGonagall finally carried away the stool and the Sorting Hat. The start-of-term feast was about to begin!

At a signal, the House-elves of Hogwarts School began casting spells, and in an instant, the long tables of every House were covered with an array of delicious food! The start-of-term feast was always the most lavish meal of the year! So Ron, who came from a poor family, and Harry, who had been mistreated by his uncle's family all summer, immediately grabbed their knives and forks and began stuffing themselves.

It wasn't that the food was bad at other times. You had to understand that different kinds of meat came with different price tags and levels of quality. Today, they had beef, leg of lamb, and seafood. On an ordinary day, they were lucky to get pork chops, potatoes, and bread! The school's budget wasn't unlimited; it relied on the shareholders' generous donations. How could they serve you a free feast of meat every day? This was a school of magic, not a free lunch cafeteria for Ministry of Magic officials. What kind of treatment did you expect?

Besides, the new students had to be given a good first impression on the first day of school, didn't they? So the food was always especially lavish on that day and during holidays. It was a matter of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry's reputation, and they couldn't afford to be careless! As for ordinary days? Ahem, you ate what you got. As long as it kept you nourished and didn't let you starve, that was good enough.

As everyone dug in, some observant students noticed that something seemed a little different about the High Table today. There were the usual Hogwarts professors, but there was also a particularly noticeable little girl with golden hair. She looked familiar, too.

On closer inspection, the little girl turned out to be the very protagonist of the recent Gringotts Wizarding Bank incident—the one rumored to be the most powerful witch in the history of the Wizarding World! Supposedly, neither Headmaster Dumbledore nor the Dark Lord could beat her, and the claim seemed to have plenty of evidence to back it up.

According to an analysis of the incident's aftermath in a later issue of the Daily Prophet, the little girl's record was terrifying! In less than an hour, she'd taken down twenty or thirty Goblin employees, captured or knocked out more than a hundred Aurors and Gringotts guards, and finally killed an ancient dragon! Surely neither the Dark Lord nor Dumbledore could match a record like that? That was how people had come to their conclusions about the little girl's strength.

Quite a few students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry weren't willing to believe it. How could a little girl of only a few years be more powerful than the great Headmaster Dumbledore, whom they admired above all others? It was obviously impossible! The newspaper editors must have made it all up to attract readers. It had to be!

"Harry, pass me that leg of lamb, would you?" At the Gryffindor table, Ron still had a big lobster in his hand, and his eyes were already fixed on the roast leg of lamb beside Harry.

"Oh, sure! Here you go! Could you pass me that crab over there, too?" Harry wasn't eating any more neatly than Ron! He was busy gnawing on a large chicken leg himself.

"Thanks!"

Beside them, Hermione had been quietly discussing something with a girl. She gave the two boys a sidelong glance, then calmly and carefully shifted a little farther away from them. After giving her conversation partner an awkward smile, she acted as if she didn't know them and continued eating the food on her plate with graceful, unhurried movements.

Fortunately, bad table manners didn't cost a House points. Hermione thought that if the school rules had said anything about how to eat, Harry and Ron would have lost every one of Gryffindor's starting points today! Was there no room in their heads for the word "embarrassing"?

Surely plenty of people had noticed them by now? One of them had a leg of lamb in one hand and a lobster in the other, while the other was clutching a chicken leg and a crab, one in each hand! They were only eating dinner. Couldn't they show a little restraint and act more refined? No one was going to steal their food! Look at Ginny, the first-year sitting across from them. She probably didn't even want to admit that Ron was her brother anymore.