A week after the Quidditch World Cup incident, it was once again time for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to start a new term. Students from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin sat at their respective Houses' long tables in their school uniforms, chattering away, loudly or quietly, as they discussed this and that while patiently waiting for the start-of-term feast—the grandest meal of the term—and the opening ceremony held at the beginning of every semester.
Watching the new first-years get Sorted, seeing if any of them made fools of themselves, and then tucking into a feast and enjoying the most sumptuous dinner of the term, aside from those held on major holidays, was one of the few pastimes the older students had.
It was still the same Great Hall, and it looked much as it had when little Annie first visited two years ago. But perhaps because a new term had begun—or maybe for some other reason, like Hogwarts having more funds now—it had been redecorated yet again and looked a little different from previous years.
Inside the hall, hundreds upon hundreds of candles had been lit and levitated above the tables. Together with the blazing fires in the iron braziers around the hall, they made the goblets and gold plates on the students' tables gleam, lending the whole place a splendid, opulent appearance.
From time to time, Hogwarts' white, translucent ghosts drifted between the floating candles, adding a faintly eerie and mysterious touch to the otherwise bustling, festive hall...
"Hey!"
"Hermione! Harry! Come take a look!"
In the Great Hall, Hermione Granger, now a fourth-year student at Hogwarts, and Harry Potter were watching the first-years Hagrid and Professor McGonagall had led into the hall, patiently waiting for the Sorting to begin. Just then, Ron Weasley came over with