Opening Feast

The opening banquet proceeded as it had last year.

After the Sorting Hat sang its awful song, the Sorting Ceremony began. First-year students wore the Sorting Hat to decide which house they should study in, and the hat would loudly proclaim the house they were best suited to attend.

Among this year's first-year students is someone Skylar knew, Daphne's younger sister, Astoria Greengrass.

Daphne came to Skylar's carriage beforehand because she needed to settle her sister on the train, and she wasted a lot of time there. That's why Luna was able to get into Skylar's carriage before she and Meredith arrived.

Astoria's appearance was somewhat similar to Daphne's, with beautiful blonde hair, but her face showed a faint paleness of weakness. Daphne had told her that the Blood Curse on her sister had been activated, so she had been weak and sickly since childhood. Skylar remembered that in the original story, she married Draco and had a child, but she did not survive the backlash of the Blood Curse and died young.

Unsurprisingly, Astoria was sorted into Slytherin by the Sorting Hat, joining the same house as her sister.

This year's Slytherin have produced quite a few promising talents. Skylar's Magic Eye has detected magical fluctuations in several freshmen that surpass those of their peers. This is usually proof of outstanding magical talent and also indicates that they have received magical training from their families before entering the school— Hestia Carrow, Flora Carrow... Skylar silently memorized these names.

Then Professor Dumbledore stood up and spoke, and the Great Hall immediately fell silent.

"Welcome!" said Dumbledore, the candlelight Winky on his beard. "Welcome back to Hogwarts! I have a few things to tell you all, one of which is very important, so I thought it best to get it out of your heads before you get too caught up in your delicious meal..."

Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued, "Our school has recently received several Dementor from Azkaban. They were sent by the Ministry of Ministry of Magic on official business, as you all probably already know, because they searched the Hogwarts Express."

"They guard every entrance to the school," Dumbledore continued. "I must make it clear that no one is allowed to leave the school without permission while they are there. No trickery, deception, or disguise will fool Dementor —not even the Invisibility Cloak." He added casually, "Dementor do not understand explanations or pleas. Therefore, I remind you all not to give them any reason to harm you. I expect the Prefect and our newly elected student Head Boy to ensure that no student has any conflict with Dementor."

This year's student Head Boy is Percy Weasley. At this moment, he puffed out his chest, looking around smugly.

The student Head Boy is Penelope Clearwater, and I heard she's now Percy's girlfriend.

To outsiders, the two seemed like a perfect match, a handsome man and a beautiful woman. However, Skylar, who knew the plot well, was not optimistic about their relationship at all. Percy was an ambitious man, Penelope, a Muggle-born wizard, could only be a love interest to him. Only a woman who could help him in his career would be his marriage partner.

Gemma Farley was not chosen for Slytherin. Skylar had already learned of this from Gemma's letter during the summer, in which Gemma expressed her disappointment.

To be honest, Gemma is indeed very outstanding and a very responsible and enthusiastic Prefect, but compared to Penelope is undoubtedly superior in academic performance, so it is well-deserved for her to become the Head Boy.

In his reply, Skylar had already offered Gemma words of comfort, but of course, Skylar 'Gemma invitation to go out. This wasn't Skylar disliked Gemma's age, but Skylar felt he already had plenty of women around him and didn't want to complicate matters of the heart.

"It is with great pleasure," Dumbledore suddenly raised his voice, and everyone perked up, "That I am delighted to welcome three new teachers to our ranks this year."

"The first is Professor Remus Professor Lupin, who readily agreed to fill the vacancy in the Defence Against the Dark Arts course." Only a handful of people applauded, and the few teachers who clapped stopped awkwardly after a few claps.

After the upheavals of the past two years, the students had little confidence in Dumbledore's ability to find Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. Professor Lupin, on the other hand, looked seriously ill and frail, and with his patched robes, he looked exactly like Professor Quirrell in his first year.

"Look at Professor Snape!" Daphne whispered.

Skylar looked toward the professors' table and saw Professor Snape staring intently at Lupin with a predatory gaze.

Clearly, due to old grudges from his youth, his opinion of Lupin has never been good. He was probably afraid that Lupin would bring Black into the school to deal with Harry, but he did it so openly that everyone would think he was just upset about failing to get the Defence Against the Dark Arts teaching position again.

Lupin's composure was quite good; faced with the terrifying silence between the stage and the audience, he made no comment, continuing to smile as he looked at the audience, showing no emotional fluctuation. Fortunately, Dumbledore came to his rescue in time, averting an awkward situation.

"As for the second teacher," Dumbledore sighed regretfully, "Our Professor Kettleburn, our Care of Magical Creatures teacher, retired at the end of last semester to enjoy his old age. However, I am pleased to announce that none other than Rubeus Hagrid will fill his position, having agreed to accept this teaching post in addition to his duties as gamekeeper."

Everyone applauded again, and this time, the applause at the Gryffindor table was particularly enthusiastic.

"As for the third teacher," Dumbledore's gaze swept casually across the Slytherin table, causing Skylar to hold his breath, a surge of tension rising within him. Could things have changed because of Lucius's expulsion from the Board of Governors last year?

"After much discussion and the efforts of the Board of Governors, Hogwarts has decided to reinstate the elective course of Alchemy for this year's third-year students. We are delighted to have the renowned Alchemist Professor Epinos Professor Burke as the instructor for this new course."

Dumbledore gestured to a white-haired man, about seventy years old, sitting in the High Table, wearing a magnificent black velvet robe. He rose to his feet and bowed to the four tables below.

This time the applause was noticeably more enthusiastic, with the loudest applause coming from the Slytherin table.

While Professor Burke's skill, achievements, and fame may not rival those of Nicolas Flamel, he was still a renowned figure in the alchemical world, especially valuable in the Britain wizarding community where alchemists were scarce. At the International Alchemy Conference more than thirty years ago, he published a research paper on the Vanishing Cabinet, making him a specialist in the field of Vanishing Cabinet and spatial magical items.

If Skylar wasn't mistaken, he was responsible for repairing the Vanishing Cabinet in Borgin and Burkes, but it hadn't been used because another Vanishing Cabinet connected to it had ended up at Hogwarts without anyone knowing.

After the banquet, back in the common lounge, Skylar was stopped by Pansy, whom he hadn't seen all summer. Pansy had grown quite a bit taller and was now a graceful young woman. Behind her were Tracey, Audrey, and several other girls, all of whom were staring at Skylar with eager eyes, making Skylar suddenly feel like he had become a piece of Tang Monk's flesh.

Pansy gave him a mischievous smile and teased, "Skylar, I heard you were pretty amazing on the train, managing to drive away the Dementor. What spell did you use?"

The Little Snakes, who were originally returning to their rooms from the rest area, slowed down and pricked up their ears to eavesdrop. Although the proud Little Snakes were unwilling to lower themselves to ask Skylar for advice, they would not let go of any information that might reveal how to defend against the Dementor.

"Actually, it's not some kind of secret magic. I used the Patronus Charm, a very obscure and profound spell that can be used to ward off Dementor," Skylar said quickly. "This is also my first time using it; I can only emit a bright light, and it can't yet form a complete Corporeal Patronus. If you want to learn, I can teach you."

Several girls nodded eagerly in agreement, and a blonde girl standing behind Daphne had her adoration for Skylar written all over her young face. This blonde girl was Daphne's younger sister, Astoria.

With Daphne's introduction, Astoria, like a little fan meeting her idol, excitedly and with shining eyes, met Skylar.

It's clear that Daphne adores her younger sister, and she unabashedly entrusts her with Skylar's care, hoping Skylar can look after her. Skylar, who already intended to cultivate a good relationship with the Greengrass Family through the two sisters and establish his initial connections, naturally agreed without hesitation.

The new semester has begun, and everyone has once again immersed themselves in their studies.

The third grade has at least two more subjects than the second grade, so the study time becomes more intensive than before.

On the first morning of the new school year, Skylar first attended Transfiguration with Hufflepuff.

Professor McGonagall demonstrated the Animagus and explained the underlying principles.

Animagus is considered the pinnacle of Transfiguration, allowing wizards to Transfiguration into animals and acquire their characteristics and abilities while retaining human consciousness. They can also revert to human form at any time without a wand. However, once transformed into an animal, they cannot use magic, so their abilities are mostly limited to infiltration, intelligence gathering, and escape.

These three uses are all based on the premise that you haven't registered as Animagus with the Ministry of Magic.

If people knew about his Transfiguration state beforehand, the practicality of these three uses would be greatly reduced, and he would also face the risk of being sent to Azkaban. Don't be fooled by Sirius Black's repeated claims of innocence and that being labeled Death Eaters was a miscarriage of justice—if someone reported him as an illegal Animagus, he would still have to go back to Azkaban.

Skylar thought this magic was rather useless—because of the complexity of the Animagus, wizards could only transform into the form of ordinary animals. This was because the souls of Magical Creatures were far more complex than those of ordinary animals, and Transfiguration Magical Creatures would trigger an unknown and terrible disaster.

As for turning into a small animal like a cat, dog, or rodent, Skylar couldn't see any practical use for it. Stray cats and dogs weren't common on the streets of Britain, and turning into a stray dog would risk being forcibly taken away by the Muggle government.

Not to mention that the types of animals Animagus can transform into are somewhat random. Although the form of transformation is often a reflection of the mind, there is no guarantee what it will ultimately become. If it becomes a stag like James Potter, it loses its only purpose of disguise. Apart from accompanying his Werewolf best friend, Skylar can't think of any other practical use for it.

You're saying Sirius Black fooled the Dementor with that? A sophisticated Occlumency could do the same.

You're saying Sirius Black used that to jump over the prison bars? Skilled Transfiguration and shrinking spells could do the same. (Provided one knows how to Wandless Magic.)

You're saying Sirius Black used this to infiltrate the heavily guarded Hogwarts? A clever disguise (referring to Human Transfiguration or Polyjuice Potion) would have been far more effective.

Moreover, the transformation form of Animagus is very likely to be the same as the caster's Patronus form. Skylar was already able to cast a complete Corporeal Patronus at home during the summer vacation, which is one of the reasons why he decided to give up Animagus.

Next was the Charms with Ravenclaw. Professor Flitwick explained how charms influence emotions and demonstrated five psychic charms: the Cheering Charm, the Sadness Charm, the Fury Charm, the Anxiety Charm, and the Fear Charm. He then assigned the students to write a paper on the relationship between charms and emotions as homework.

Harry, Harry, and his friends also had their first Divination Class. During lunch, news of Professor Trelawney's Divination that she saw "Grim" in Harry spread throughout Hogwarts. When compared to Sirius Black's escape, many people began to avoid Harry like the plague.

Ron didn't say it aloud, but he was also very wary of the Grim sign, worrying about Harry's safety while secretly reminding himself to be careful this semester. Hermione, on the other hand, thought Professor Trelawney was playing tricks, and even had a fight with Ron about it.