Welcoming new students and greeting returning ones was the purpose of Hogwarts' start-of-term feast; listening to the headmaster introduce the term's important matters, sneaking glances at newly appointed professors while applauding, and inevitably letting one's mind wander for a while,
Repeating this for seven years was how a Hogwarts student successfully graduated from Hogwarts-of course, some students needed eight years, or nine. Generally, this was because of academic difficulties, but some students were simply rather unlucky.
The house-elf responsible for decorating the Great Hall paced between the tables, striving to get every little detail right so that today's feast would go smoothly. After straightening a crooked chair, he turned his head and happened to see that newcomer named Dobby, who liked wearing several hats and strange clothes, grinning foolishly. Anger immediately welled up inside him. This Dobby was a house-elf who demanded wages, a wicked elf!
When he had heard about it from a friend, he had almost thought his ears were playing tricks on him! By rights, he should have had nothing to do with such a wicked elf-and that was precisely what he had intended. Yet when he saw that Dobby brazenly walking away from a long table with "huge-huge-huge problems," he could not help opening his mouth. Although he regretted it the moment he spoke, he still finished everything in one breath.
"Hey, you-you're just walking past like that? Move the table on your right farther back, right now, away from that blasted lamp post's base. I must tell you something terrible-thirty years ago, a lovely student tripped over a table and fell, hitting their head on a lamp post's base and suffering such serious injuries that they had to suspend their studies and recuperate at St. Mungo's for two years before coming back to school! Listen