It Turned Out to Be the World of the Books

"Hermione, don't worry. You're so outstanding, there's definitely no problem with the Sorting Ceremony!"

Seeing Hermione nervously reciting the fourteen spells in the textbook over and over after McGonagall left, Jerry sighed helplessly and comforted her in a low voice.

He knew that the so-called Sorting Ceremony had nothing to do with magic or spells. All they had to do was put on a hat, and the hat would decide which House suited them based on their personality and bloodline.

If they fit the traits of more than one House, they could even chat with Mr. Hat and choose the one they liked.

Just like in the movie, Harry fit both Gryffindor and Slytherin, but in the end he chose Gryffindor and was sorted into Gryffindor.

However, he couldn't tell Hermione any of that, since he had no way of explaining why he knew the details of the Sorting Ceremony.

"How can they accurately decide which House we belong in?"

"I suppose there has to be some kind of test. Fred said it would hurt us badly, but I think he was joking."

At that moment, the conversation between Harry and Ron on the other side also reached Jerry's ears.

He looked around and noticed that among the more than forty Little Wizards in the room, aside from some born into pure-blood families like Little Malfoy, most of them were as nervous as Hermione.

Most of them thought the same way Hermione did, believing that the upcoming Sorting Ceremony might involve testing their magic to decide where they would go.

But they weren't Hermione. Like Harry and Ron, most of the Little Wizards currently couldn't even successfully cast a single spell.

Even children like Little Malfoy, born into pure-blood Wizarding families, might have encountered magic earlier than Little Wizards born to Muggle families, but in truth, their magical ability was not much higher.

According to a short video explanation Jerry had seen on Douyin in his previous life, it seemed that a Little Wizard's magical bloodline did not stabilize until they turned eleven, and only then could they learn to cast magic.

Besides, children from Wizarding families were no different from ordinary children in terms of personality. At that age, apart from people like Hermione, very few had the interest to settle down and study all that obscure, difficult magical knowledge.

Weren't flying brooms fun? Weren't magical snacks fun? Wasn't going shopping in Diagon Alley fun?

Still, children born into Wizarding families were naturally more knowledgeable. At the very least, Little Malfoy and the others knew exactly what the Sorting Ceremony was about.

In their eyes, though, the panicked looks of those Muggle-born Little Wizards were quite a delightful sight. Why should they tell them the truth?

As for Ron and Neville, who were also born into Wizarding families, Ron had George and Fred, two brothers exceptionally good at messing with their little brother, while Neville simply had a poor memory. Even if his grandmother had mentioned it, he might not have remembered.

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

Just as the Little Wizards were all immersed in their anxiety over the Sorting Ceremony, several screams suddenly shattered the stifling atmosphere in the room.

Jerry turned toward the source of the noise.

More than twenty semi-transparent ghosts had passed through the walls. They flew around above the Little Wizards' heads, waving and greeting them.

"All right, come out. Line up and follow me. The Sorting Ceremony is about to begin!"

McGonagall appeared at the door of the small room again. The drifting ghosts then filed back through the walls and disappeared.

"This really is... quite a magical scene!"

Jerry followed McGonagall into the lavish Great Hall with the other Little Wizards. Taking in the scene before him, he could not help sighing again.

Perhaps because it was the important start-of-term feast and Sorting Ceremony, the Great Hall had been decorated with exceptional splendor.

More than ten thousand candles enchanted with the Levitation Charm floated above the hall in place of magical chandeliers, brightly illuminating the entire Great Hall.

At the four long tables packed with Little Wizards, golden plates and silver goblets glimmered beneath the candlelight.

Yet what amazed Jerry most was the ceiling of the Great Hall.

If one did not look closely, one might think the Great Hall was open to the sky, because all it took was a glance upward to see a dazzling, beautiful river of stars hanging overhead.

Stopping beneath the platform between the four House tables and the teachers' table, Jerry watched McGonagall first carry over a four-legged stool and place it on the platform.

Then she brought out a patched, worn-out, and extremely filthy hat.

"So this is the ancient Sorting Hat, as old as Hogwarts itself!"

The Sorting Hat had apparently once been an ordinary hat belonging to Godric Gryffindor, one of Hogwarts' founders. Later, the Four Founders had jointly imbued it with thought through magic, giving it the ability to select a House based on a Little Wizard's traits.

To grant independent thought and personality to lifeless matter—sometimes Jerry truly felt that the magic of the "Harry Potter" world was incredibly powerful.

Its power did not lie in possessing world-destroying force, but in how utterly idealistic it was, with no scientific basis whatsoever. It was just... truly magical!

"You may think I'm not pretty, but don't judge by appearances. If you can find a hat prettier than me, I'll eat myself."

The hat wriggled atop the stool, then split open along a wide seam like a mouth and began loudly singing its own Sorting Song.

Even more absurdly, after finishing its song and seeing the thunderous applause from the Little Wizards below, the hat stood upright like a perfect gentleman and gave them a very elegant bow.

Had anyone ever seen a hat bow to them?

Certainly not. It was Jerry's first time seeing it too. He did not seem to recall this scene appearing when he watched the movies in his previous life.

"Now, when I call your name, put on the hat, sit on the stool, and await your sorting."

McGonagall stepped forward with a parchment scroll, slowly unrolled it, and read aloud, "Hannah Abbott!"

A rosy-cheeked little girl with two golden braids stumbled out of the line.

"Ironclad Hannah!"

Watching the little girl sit on the four-legged stool with the Sorting Hat on her head, Jerry finally realized what had been bothering him all along.

This was not the world of the "Harry Potter" movies. It was the world of the "Harry Potter" books.

He remembered clearly that in the movies, Hermione Granger was the first to be sorted, while Hannah Abbott was the first in the books.

Jerry had seen the "Ironclad Hannah" meme in plenty of short videos in his previous life.

But the key was that he had only watched those movies on television in his previous life. He had never specifically sought out the original books to read.

The differences between the movies and the original books... shouldn't be too great, right?

Right?