After all the students arrived at school aboard the Hogwarts Express, they took their seats in the Great Hall early.
This year's new student intake was completed early. Karn paid little attention to the new students, but he was quite interested in the Sorting Hat; Nicolas Flamel's alchemy notes stated that incorporating thoughts into an alchemical product required very advanced alchemical knowledge.
Karn could not do that yet. His memory magic was not good enough. Only when he could perfectly reproduce personalities, emotions, habits, and so on through memory magic could he attempt this advanced alchemy.
Strictly speaking, something like the Sorting Hat was already equivalent to an object-based clone, except that it possessed the thoughts of the four Founders.
Only after the Sorting ended did Dumbledore begin making announcements. This was an exceptionally special year for Hogwarts.
Standing at the front, Dumbledore said loudly, "First, let us welcome Professor Pent, whom those in their third year and above know quite well. He will once again be teaching you Defence Against Dark Magic Class this year."
After Dumbledore finished, quite a few students below applauded. They liked Karn Pent very much. His teaching style was completely different from everyone else's-free and novel-and his generosity had left an impression on many of them. Hermione's Firebolt was now almost the exclusive broom of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team.
Except for Slytherin. Most Slytherin students were not very pleased by this news, because Karn had handed twenty-one wizards from pure-blood families over to the Ministry of Magic at the Quidditch World Cup.
A few days earlier, the trials of those twenty-one wizards from pure-blood families had officially concluded. By now, they should have been transferred to Azkaban.
After Dumbledore gave the new students his usual warnings about some dangerous places at Hogwarts, the caretaker,