Chapter 406: The Sorting Hat (2 in 1)

Chapter 406: The Sorting Hat (2 in 1)

Jon didn't hesitate this time, he took a step forward and kept walking until he reached the wall directly behind that desk before the voice in his head called out to him to stop.

"It's this wall in front of you, reach out and push against it, a gentle push is all you need, you are qualified to do this already."

Following its words, Jon's hand touched the cold wall, and just as he placed his hand on it, just as he pushed, the whole surface began to tremble.

Immediately afterwards the bricks on the wall in front of Jon suddenly began to split, and soon an entrance opened up before him for people to pass through.

The candlelight from the headmaster's office shone into the dark chamber and Jon saw a pile of tattered frames, tossed parchments and notes and a tattered hat in the corner as if it had been used as a dump.

As soon as Jon entered the chamber, his eyes fixed on the tattered hat, a grey, patched and dusty peaked cap.

"Is that you?"

He asked as he opened his mouth.

The voice rang in his head once more.

"Aha, I never thought I'd see a living Hogwarts student after all these years!"

The top hat voice sounded a little emotional, and Jon certainly noticed the hidden meaning in its words. This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

"You have seen Hogwarts students before, but they're all dead."

"It was about seven or eight years ago, I think, when the daring lad stumbled in by mistake and was then swallowed alive by that great serpent, and I could still vaguely sense something happening out there at the time."

As if the hat itself didn't want to talk much about the subject, it quickly moved this conversation elsewhere.

"I suppose even if the Hogwarts you went to wasn't this castle, you would have heard of my existence? The Sorting Hat, the one once used to give new students the choice to decide which house they should attend."

There was certainly no way Jon couldn't recognise it, and he walked over to the side of the Sorting Hat and picked it up off the floor while patting the dust from it.

"When I first enrolled, the upperclassmen told me about how there were once four houses at Hogwarts and you were the hat used to sort the students into them, but school tradition doesn't usually tell new students that sorting into houses is as simple as just wearing a hat."

"Of course, it's a good tradition. After all, when the little kids know that the Sorting is just about wearing a shabby hat like mine and not duelling with trolls or dragons they usually just breathe a long sigh of relief and think about how wearing me on their head will mess up their hair that was so well groomed last night."

The Sorting Hat looked like it hadn't spoken to anyone in a long time, it was a bit talkative and hadn't stopped talking since it saw Jon.

But Jon obviously couldn't continue to carry on wasting time here, although he had a good three-hour advantage over Emil at his disposal, for one person to search the entire castle, let alone three hours, even thirty, he wouldn't necessarily be able to finish searching every part of the entire Hogwarts castle.

"Would you like to come out with me, Mr Sorting Hat? I'm still in the middle of a tournament, and that tournament is about whether Hogwarts Castle will remain in the hands of that Dark Lord or return to Professor Dumbledore, and there's no time to waste."

"Why not?" The Sorting Hat replied dryly, "I've been thrown in here for so long that I certainly wouldn't turn down the chance to get some air. Although I've also been kept in a cupboard for most of the year before, there's always a day when I'll come out and sing and chat, and now I haven't spoken to anyone for a long time."

Seeing that it agreed, Jon solemnly folded it up and finally tucked it into the pocket of his robe.

"Well, that was actually back in 1876 when the caretaker of this castle was still Rancorous Carpe, who had carefully laid out traps, using various weapons that he thought the Peeves could not resist as bait, and then prepared a huge bell-shaped enchanted hood reinforced by various Containment Charms, ready to catch the Peeves when he walked up to the trap."

"And the result?"

"The result was that Peeves not only escaped easily but also sprinkled broken glass all over the corridor and even evaded a trap consisting of several scimitars, crossbows, a musket and a small cannon. The Peeves Ghost put everyone's lives in danger by randomly firing at windows for its own amusement, resulting in the evacuation of everyone from the castle and a three-day stand-off between the entire castle faculty and him, which finally ended with Headmistress Eupraxia Mole agreeing to sign a contract granting the Peeves Ghost additional privileges."

"The privileges included permission for Peeves to swim in the boys' lavatory on the ground floor once a week, priority in bringing in and throwing out any bread that wasn't fresh from the kitchen, and a new hat made by the Madame Bonhabille of Paris, and from that point on, no caretaker or headmaster ever entertained the idea of expelling Peeves, no matter how annoying it might be. "

"Just think how a normal ghost could possibly do all these things? That fool Carpe would never have thought of it, how could he drive the castle itself out of this castle? The Peeves Ghost is the spirit generated by the students' magic and also represents this Hogwarts castle itself."

"But also just after the Dark Lord took over this castle, within a few days Peeves ghost disappeared. There were many rumours at the time, some said that it had angered the Dark Lord himself and was killed by him with the most powerful killing curse, and others said that it was because Hogwarts was no longer the original Hogwarts that Peeves Ghost had disappeared. But in fact, it was the Dark Lord who imprisoned it, plus oppressed a portion of the students in this school, allowing that repressed emotion and magic to work against the 'will' of the castle itself, constantly erasing its powers and existence."

Jon had arrived at the great hall by now.

"So what does this have to do with the Triwizard Tournament?"

"Not so fast, I'll get to that next. As much as the magic and emotions of the students affected the castle, around the thirteenth century, not even three hundred years after this school was built, the Triwizard Tournament, a tournament used to bring together young wizards from all over Europe, was brought up and held every five years, with the venue being held on a rotating basis by the three magic schools. The competition was suspended only in 1792, after 500 years. Do you know how many times Hogwarts has won the Triwizard Tournament in those 500 years?"

Without waiting for Jon to guess, the Sorting Hat itself had already spoken the answer.

"Sixty-three times, the most times a school has acquired the championship. The imprint of this tournament is etched into the castle that was given the name Hogwarts itself, and no one can erase it; like magic, it is the 'will' that makes all the difference. And it is for this reason that the Triwizard Tournament has an extremely unique significance for the castle, especially once a student competing in its name has won the championship. And to top it all off, the Dark Lord has made a bet with the 'will' of this castle that a Hogwarts student will never win this Triwizard Tournament."

Jon suddenly seemed to think of something as he asked immediately afterwards.

"What if it's the student representing Hogwarts who gets the title?"

"Then his plan would be over, especially if it was you, the student named Jon Green. The fact that you were able to wake me up means that the castle itself is extremely favourable to you, and if it is you who gets the championship, then all the efforts the Dark Lord has made over the years will all be in vain, and the 'will' of the castle itself, which he has worn down, will be restored, and you will become the new master of this castle."

Hearing such a reply, Jon did not have any half-hearted surprise or any kind of excited psychological fluctuation but continued to ask.

"And what if it was another student who represented Hogwarts under his tutelage that had got the title?"

"It wouldn't be good for him either, I don't know how the castle feels about that student, but as long as the title is won in the name of Hogwarts, it would be a huge boost to the 'will' of the castle itself, a boost, yes that should be the word. But once this tournament with Hogwarts as the main venue, especially if the tournament is still played in the castle and the tournament ends with the victory of the other two schools, especially if it is a reintroduction of the Triwizard Tournament which has been discontinued for over two hundred years, this is a terrible consequence for the castle, because the obstruction that the castle has pressed down on itself by itself will simply vanish on its own if the students of Hogwarts do not win, and it will no longer be in the position to be resistance to the Dark Lord."

It was at this point that Jon finally realized!

Understood why it was Draco Malfoy who was ultimately representing Hogwarts Castle in the tournament, and why it was Emil Lestrange who was expected to win!

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