The Sorting?
Evening, Hogwarts Headmaster's office.
It was a spacious, beautiful circular room filled with all sorts of funny little noises. On a table with long, slender legs, there were many strange and wonderful silver objects, spinning and emitting small puffs of smoke.
The walls are covered with portraits of the former male and female principals, who are dozing off in the photos.
Some of them leaned lazily against the armchairs, while others rested against the frame of the portraits.
There was also a huge table in the room with claw-shaped legs.
On a shelf behind the table sat a tattered, wrinkled wizard's hat— the Sorting Hat.
On a tall, gilded perch behind the door stood an old, decrepit bird, which looked just like a turkey that had been plucked of half its feathers.
Behind the table, in a high-backed chair, sat a wizard with a long, hooked nose, crescent-shaped glasses, and silver-white hair and beard that Winky like a ghost.
Just then, a brown owl flew in through the window and landed on the silverware beside it. Dumbledore wiped his eyes, and the note on the owl's leg transformed into a bird, which landed in front of him and then unfolded automatically.
Dumbledore's blue eyes narrowed slightly, as if he had seen some good news. He then patted the table, and a clean parchment flew out from the side of the table. Dumbledore picked up a pen and wrote several long, thin paragraphs of text with nested circles.
Then, a dusty file folder stood up on its own, shook off the dust, took out an envelope from its body, and looked at the recipient. It was already written on it: Petunia Evans.
Dumbledore placed the letter he had written into the long-sealed envelope, and then the envelope spontaneously combusted without wind, disappearing from the spot amidst silvery flames.
"Everything is moving in a positive direction, which means Harry will be safer."
"But is it just an illusion? The new generation of Smith, Longbottom, and Potter are all gathered in one house, the Dark Wizard in Knockturn Alley keep disappearing, and the Skywalker suddenly appears? Then..." Dumbledore muttered to himself.
If Ryan knew, he would be very surprised that there was no causal relationship between these events.
However, he did not expect that Dumbledore, as the Greatest White Wizard, especially since he had reached level 6 with the philosophy of love, would act more based on emotion and intuition.
His intuition was more useful than any reasoning.
About 10 minutes later, Dumbledore smiled inexplicably and disappeared from the spot.
Today is Wednesday. Around 10 p. m. last night, the Prefect of each college notified the students of each college to get some rest.
It means that Dumbledore has something to say in the Great Hall of Hogwarts at 8 a. m. tomorrow.
At 7:40 a. m., the sleepy-eyed young wizards, according to the school's divisions, formed four neat streams and headed to the Hogwarts Great Hall.
This is the largest Great Hall has ever been since the start of the semester, with Prefect moving among the tables in their respective colleges, counting the number of people.
The Sorting Hat reappeared on the high stool in front of the High Table.
The professors were all seated in the High Table, except for one person: Snape.
It was nearly 8 o'clock when Dumbledore stood up, and the Great Hall returned to silence, with all eyes turning towards the High Table.
"Good morning! Before you have breakfast, I have something to say, which is why you all gathered here at 8 o'clock."
"Due to special circumstances, a new student will be Hogwarts the Hogwarts family today."
"We will begin the sorting process after he arrives later."
After he finished speaking, a sound like boiling water rang out at the long tables of each college, as each young wizard eagerly began to ask the most well-informed young wizard in their college.
Gryffindor are the Weasley Twins, while Ravenclaw are petite, like Kate, a first-year student.
All the students around Kate were craning their necks and straining their ears, eager to know something.
Then, the Great Hall door was slammed open.
That was Professor Snape, walking briskly, his robes billowing as he swept past like a venomous bat.
Everyone stood up involuntarily. Behind Snape's robes stood a timid, enormous little wizard dressed in a wizard's robe. Even Crabbe and Goyle looked like tiny wizards in comparison.
"No!" Harry suddenly stood up and looked in the direction of the chubby boy.
The chubby boy stood frozen in place. Snape suddenly turned around, and the chubby boy timidly started walking forward again.
The Slytherin suddenly erupted in commotion, wondering who this boy was who could be picked up and dropped off by their own headmaster and who had provoked Harry Potter's fury.
Snape noticed that the chubby boy didn't linger. He glanced at Harry, paused briefly, and then continued forward to the Sorting Hat.
"Dudley Dursley!"
Dudley walked shakily toward the Sorting Hat, wiped the cold sweat from his brow, and put on the Sorting Hat.
"Rare, rare evil, a fondness for toying with strong men! Well then, Azkaban!"
"No, no, no, that's not right, fear, doesn't want to be in the same house as Harry Potter, doesn't want to go to Ravenclaw? Then, Hufflepuff!" For some reason, the Sorting Hat made all the conversations public instead of having a normal internal dialogue with the young wizard.
What surprised all the young wizards even more was that these different evaluations came from the same person?
Harry couldn't help but cover his bottom, feeling thankful that he was too thin. Harry wondered for no reason whether Aunt Petunia was always keeping him from eating enough to protect him.
And Dudley's friends, Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, Gordon, and others, are all big guys, so...?
Vomit.
At that moment, Dumbledore suddenly stood up, strode toward the Sorting Hat, and without saying a word or putting it on, simply picked Sorting Hat up with both hands and began to communicate with it in an unknown way.
After about a minute, Dumbledore raised his head and scanned his surroundings with his light blue, penetrating eyes, and the area fell silent again.
Rumors are a terrible thing.
"I have to waste everyone's time to clarify that the first half of the Sorting Hat's assessment of Mr. Dursley was inaccurate, which made it unable to stop itself from speaking out loud."
"What follows is the true assessment, to inform you all of the real Dursley. The Sorting Hat is giving you a straightforward and accurate evaluation of him, so that you can see which statement is the most accurate."
"Now, let's eat." Dumbledore paused.
Sparse applause finally broke out at the Hufflepuff table. At Dumbledore's signal, Dudley jogged over and sat down at the Hufflepuff table. Almost all the young wizards at that table moved away from Dudley without prior arrangement.
"Harry, the Dudley you're talking about isn't just like Darth Vader (the Gian)."
"Do you have one?" Ron looked at Harry with an unprecedentedly compassionate gaze.
"Eat your food, Ron," Harry said gloomily, completely unaware of the unprecedentedly concerned look Snape was giving him from the professors Snape' table.