I Heard Tall Boys Were Popular with Girls

Bell looked at the hat before him, one that even a vagrant might not be willing to wear. Gritting his teeth, he placed it on his head while working Occlumency in his mind.

The moment Bell's hair touched the Sorting Hat, he heard it shout.

"Ravenclaw!"

With a sigh of relief, Bell put the Sorting Hat back on the chair and walked toward the Ravenclaw table.

After shaking hands with several seniors, Bell took his seat and quietly waited for dinner to begin. Worth mentioning was that Hermione had still gone to Gryffindor House. It seemed Bell's gift for talking people around was nowhere near good enough yet.

Bell felt rather helpless about that too. After all, his little sister was so well-behaved that everything her Gege said was right. He had simply never had the chance to practice talking people around.

After the Sorting Ceremony ended, Headmaster Dumbledore stood up. After casting a Sound Amplification Charm on himself, he spoke.

"Welcome, everyone, to Hogwarts for the start of a new school year! Before the feast begins, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"

"Thank you all!"

After Dumbledore finished his utterly nonsensical little speech, dinner finally began.

Bell had been hungry for a while. Many years ago, he had started using Magic Power to help his body digest and absorb food, thereby accelerating its evolution.

By now, it had become instinctive to him. He no longer needed to do it deliberately.

So although he had eaten a very filling lunch—Bell alone had eaten far more than Hermione and Neville combined—he was already starving again.

Dinner was lavish, though Bell did not know whether that was because it was the opening feast or whether it was like this every day.

The table was piled with steaks, fried chicken, chips, and other delicious food. It tasted fairly good, but it was far inferior to the Chinese Cuisine made by Lim of the Bell Family.

Still, being able to eat decent food in Britain meant one truly ought to be immensely grateful to the House-elves.

The atmosphere at the table was lively. While it was not as noisy as the Gryffindor table, everyone chatted happily as they ate.

Bell once again felt that his decision to join Ravenclaw had been the right one. He hated noisy environments. If he had been in Gryffindor, he would probably have wanted to flip the table by now. Those Little Lions were so excited over the arrival of "the savior, Potter" that they practically wanted to tear the roof off.

Ravenclaw's atmosphere, on the other hand, was barely within Bell's tolerance.

Watching Bell sweep through the food on the table at a speed far beyond anyone else's, the Little Wizards around him were stunned.

"Hi, I'm Michael Corner. You can call me Michael. You really can eat," exclaimed a young wizard sitting beside Bell.

After swallowing the food in his mouth, Bell politely introduced himself as well. "Hello, I'm Bell Menethil. Just call me Bell. We're at the age when we're still growing, so we need to eat more if we want to grow tall."

Michael looked at Bell, who was half a head taller than him even while seated.

"So that's the secret to growing so tall?"

"Of course," Bell said firmly. "And let me tell you a secret: tall boys are usually more popular with girls."

"!?"

The several Little Wizards around them immediately copied Bell, lowering their heads and wolfing down food.

Soon, the main course was finished, and the table was filled with desserts.

There were all kinds of ice cream, puddings, pies—everything one could want. British desserts were clearly quite good, so why could they not spare even a little of that passion for making desserts and put it into their main dishes? It was truly incomprehensible.

Finally free to chat, the first-year students introduced themselves to one another.

There were eight new Ravenclaw students this year, five boys and three girls. So unless something unexpected happened, the other four young wizards would be Bell's roommates.

"What a pity. Why do you think Harry Potter wasn't sorted into Ravenclaw? After all, a wizard who could defeat The Dark Lord must be an extremely learned wizard, even if he was a little young," Morag MacDougal said with a sigh.

She was clearly unwilling to accept that she had not been sorted into the same House as Harry. Still, since she was currently sitting at the Ravenclaw table, anyone without something wrong with their brain would not say something like, "Why wasn't I sorted into Gryffindor?"

"Maybe because Professor Dumbledore was in Gryffindor," Bell answered casually.

"What does that have to do with Professor Dumbledore?" Lisa Turpin looked at Bell curiously.

"Just a feeling. On the train, I heard some new students say that because Professor Dumbledore came from Gryffindor House, they wanted to enter Gryffindor House too."

Bell could hardly say that Dumbledore had manipulated things behind the scenes, could he? Besides, he truly did not know whether Dumbledore had told the Sorting Hat anything before the Sorting Ceremony.

The other new students nodded in agreement after hearing Bell's words. Clearly, Hermione was not the only one with such thoughts.

After dinner, Professor Dumbledore stood up again and said, "Now that everyone has eaten and drunk their fill, I have a few reminders. First, entering the Forbidden Forest is forbidden. Second, our caretaker, Mr. Filch, would like me to remind everyone that casting spells in the corridors between classes is forbidden. Third, Quidditch tryouts will be held in the second week. Finally, anyone who does not wish to suffer an accident and die a painful death should stay away from the corridor on the right side of the fourth floor."

"Now, to conclude tonight's feast, let us all sing the school song together!"

With a wave of Dumbledore's Wand, golden ribbons flew from its tip, floating in the air and twisting into the lyrics of the school song.

Bell stood with everyone else, looked at the words in the air, and began to sing: "Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hogwarts, please teach us something please... We will work hard until we turn to dust."

Perhaps it was because of the difference in cultural background? In any case, Bell found the lyrics extremely awkward. Moreover, everyone sang in their own tune, with all sorts of pitches mixed together. It was far more powerful than the Sorting Hat's noise attack. Seeing Dumbledore so moved that tears filled his eyes, Bell truly did not know how to mock it.

After singing the school song, the Little Wizards of each House returned to their respective common rooms under the prefects' guidance. Outside the Ravenclaw common room, the prefect explained to the new students how to enter.

"To enter the Ravenclaw common room, you must answer the Eagle Door Knocker's question. Just lightly knock on it like this."

As the prefect spoke, he lightly tapped the Eagle Door Knocker in the center of the common room door.

The knocker opened its mouth.

"There is a cobra in the forest, but it never bites people. Why?"