Lounge

"Speaking of which, Hogwarts is actually recruiting students directly in the Celestial Dynasty this year, which is quite an innovation." Ernie Macmillan continued, feeling pleased with himself, unaware of Li Mu's perfunctory attitude.

"Oh."

"Is Hogwarts also famous in the Celestial Dynasty? You being able to study so far away in Britain must mean you're one of the best in the Celestial Dynasty's magical world, right?"

"Uh..."

Fortunately, the school song was only a short one.

The singing stopped abruptly, not giving Ernie Macmillan more time to ask questions, and also allowing the faculty on the stage to breathe a sigh of relief.

As Deputy Headmistress, Professor McGonagall raised her hand and, almost impatiently, loudly instructed, "It is now time for bed. Please return to your dormitories in an orderly fashion."

The hall immediately became noisy again, with the male and female Prefects of each house beginning to carry out their duties. Cedric also stood up from his seat and called out, "First-year students, please follow me."

Macmillan, Hannah Abbott, Justin Finch-Fletchley... and some other first-year students whose names Li Mu didn't know, all obediently followed behind Cedric, heading out of the dining hall.

Li Mu quickly realized that even something as small as leaving the hall fully demonstrated the different styles of each house—the Gryffindor little lions were the most impatient, rushing out in a large group and quickly blocking the hall door. The Hufflepuffs had no complaints, quietly waiting there. Then they huddled together with the Ravenclaws.

The Slytherin students were still hanging back, moving slowly and maintaining their aristocratic elegance. But Li Mu, with his sharp ears and eyes, heard someone in Slytherin sharply cursing, "These brainless, stupid lions..."

It seemed that the conflict between Slytherin and Gryffindor had indeed been around for a long time, and had little to do with Harry Potter's arrival.

At the same time, he heard a few intriguing words that vaguely drifted into his ears.

"Are you also from the Celestial Dynasty?"—It was a gentle voice.

Li Mu immediately turned his head. The speaker was nearby, a Ravenclaw student not far from them. His skill in identifying sounds was quite good, and he almost immediately found his target.

A girl with long black hair was speaking to the first-year student Hinata, smiling softly. Her smile was pure, like the girl next door in Li Mu's memory, very cute. Li Mu guessed that it was Ravenclaw's Cho Chang, or rather, Zhang Qiu, the Chinese girl who had once captivated Harry Potter in "history."

Then he heard Hinata's reply.

"Oh... N-no... I'm from Yingzhou..." For some reason, Hinata looked up at Li Mu, and when she noticed his gaze, her small face flushed red.

Then she quickly lowered her head, twirling her two index fingers in front of her chest.

"Yingzhou?" Cho Chang frowned slightly. "Are you an exchange student sent by the Yingzhou School of Magic?"

"N-no, no... I came on my own by registering through the Yingzhou Ministry of Magic Foreign Affairs Department... I... I've always loved magic..." Hinata's voice gradually became so soft that one had to concentrate to hear it clearly, and her face was now completely red with shyness.

Li Mu stared blankly at Hinata. What a shy girl, but a girl being shy is actually quite cute... After a while, he realized that staring at two girls like this was very rude, and he quickly turned his head away.

The hall door finally became clear again, and the students began to move slowly.

Outside the door, the students from each house had to part ways. The Gryffindor and Ravenclaw common rooms were in two towers of the castle, requiring them to climb stairs. The Slytherin common room was hidden at the bottom of the lake, and they had to pass through the basement.

And the Hufflepuff's route back to their dormitories was much simpler. Cedric led the new students out of the Great Hall, turned a corner, went down a flight of stairs, and then said, "We're here."

All the Hufflepuff students were crowded in a corridor. On the left side of the corridor was a heavy door, now closed, with a wooden sign hanging above it that read: "Kitchen".

Seeing these two words, Li Mu understood. They should now be on the first floor underground, and above them should be the hall they had just been in. The kitchen should be where the school's house-elves worked.

So the Hufflepuff students live under the hall, next to the kitchen, they are foodies...

"Now, new students, please watch my actions carefully." Cedric stood at the very front, carefully explaining to the first-years. In front of him—diagonally above the kitchen door, on the right side of the corridor—was a pile of unremarkable wooden barrels.

Unsuspecting people passing by would probably think that these barrels were tools used in the kitchen for brewing wine or storing wheat flour. But now, Cedric drew his wand in front of these barrels.

"Watch closely. If you pick the wrong barrel or say the wrong password, it could lead to some unfortunate events." He solemnly reminded them again, then stepped forward and tapped the body of the wooden barrel in the center of the second row with his wand, rhythmically chanting, "—Helga Hufflepuff."

Madam Helga Hufflepuff was one of the greatest wizards of over a thousand years ago, and one of the four founders of Hogwarts. Hufflepuff House was founded by her and named after her.

With each word, Cedric's wand tapped the barrel. Once the entire password was spoken, a clattering sound came from inside the barrel, and the lid swung open, revealing the inside of the barrel.

Almost all the Hufflepuff first-years saw that the bottom of the barrel on the ground had no soil, but revealed a dark passage.

Li Mu, like many of the first-years, widened his eyes. Even having read the original works of the great Rowling, he didn't know much about the Hufflepuff common room, and the scene before him was enough to make him feel novel.

"Now, let's maintain order and enter the common room one by one." Next, Cedric said, letting the first first-year in line crawl into the barrel, "No need to rush, take your time. And don't be afraid, it's very stable down there."

The first-years followed one by one, and Li Mu also crawled in behind Ernie Macmillan. The inner wall of the barrel probably had some corresponding magic added to it, making it smoother than expected. He slid down the passage to the ground in one go, feeling like he was riding a slide when he was a kid.

The passage wasn't very long. Before Li Mu could fully react, his feet were already on the ground, stepping on a patch of soft soil with a fragrance. And in front of him were soft sofas, round wooden tables, a large number of potted plants on the wooden tables, and lush green plants climbing along the walls.

He had arrived, the Hufflepuff common room.

Did everyone have a good New Year? Today I started working again, but the holiday syndrome is too severe, and I don't even want to write novels... How about a couple of tickets to support me?

(End of this chapter)