Chapter 8： Opening Ceremony

The opening banquet was going on like last year.

The sorting hat sang a bad ballad, and the sorting ceremony began. Freshmen in the first grade should put on the sorting hat to decide which college they should study in. This hat will call out the most suitable college for them.

Among the first-year freshmen this year is Schelling’s acquaintance, Daphne’s sister Astoria Greengrass. Daphne came to Schelling's carriage because she had to settle her sister on the train in advance, and it was a lot of time there, so Luna was allowed to get into Schelling's carriage before she and Meredith appeared. of.

Astoria’s face is somewhat similar to Daphne, she also has beautiful blonde hair, but her face is faintly pale-I heard Daphne said that the blood curse on her sister has been activated, so she was weak and sick since she was urinating. Schelling still remembers that in the original book she married Draco and gave birth to a child, but she did not survive the curse of blood and died young. Not surprisingly, Astoria was assigned to Slytherin by the Sorting Hat, and belongs to the same academy as her sister.

Speaking of this year’s Slytherin freshmen, there have been many good seedlings. Schelling’s Eye of Magic has seen many freshmen’s magical fluctuations beyond their peers. This is usually a testament to outstanding magical talents and also shows that they are in Before enrolling in school, he had been trained in magic by the family-Hestia Kahlo, Flora Kahlo, Frank Urquhart, Steven Vasai... Sherin silently remembered these names in heart.

Then Professor Dumbledore stood up and spoke, and the auditorium fell silent immediately.

"Welcome!" Dumbledore said, the candlelight shining on his beard, "Welcome back to Hogwarts again! I have a few things to tell you all, one of which is very important, so I think it’s best to make it clear before you enjoy a delicious meal and become confused..."

Dumbledore cleared his throat and continued: "Our school is currently ushering in a few dementors from Azkaban. They are sent by the Ministry of Magic to perform official duties. You must already know this, because they are right. The Hogwarts Express was searched."

"They are stationed at every entrance of the school," Dumbledore continued, "I must make it clear that no one is allowed to leave the school without authorization while they are there. No tricks, tricks, and disguise can deceive the dementors. -Even the invisibility cloak." He added faintly, "The dementors' nature does not understand excuses and begging for mercy. So I remind everyone here not to let them have any reason to hurt you. I hope that the prefect and us are newly elected. The chairperson of the male and female student union can ensure that no one student conflicts with the dementor."

This year's Boy Student Union Chairman is Percy Wesley. At this moment, he straightened his chest and looked around with an aura.

The chairperson of the Girls’ Student Union is Penello Krivart. I heard that she has become Percy’s girlfriend. In the eyes of outsiders, the two of them are talented and well-matched, but Schelling, who is familiar with the plot, is not optimistic about the relationship between the two of them. Percy is an ambitious person. Penello, a Muggle-born wizard, came to him. Said that he can only be the object of love, and only the woman who can assist his career will be the object of his marriage.

Slytherin’s Gemma Farley was unsuccessful, and Schelling knew from Gemma’s letter during the summer vacation that Gemma expressed her loss between the lines in the letter. To be honest, Gemma is indeed very good, and she is also a very conscientious and enthusiastic prefect, but if you want to compare with Penello, Penello is undoubtedly better in academic performance, so the president of the Girls’ Student Union fell to her. He deserves his name.

Schelling had already used words to comfort Gemma when he replied. Of course, Gemma's invitation to go out was rejected by Schelling. It's not that Schelling disliked Gemma being older than him, but that Schelling realized that there were already a lot of girls around him, so he didn't want to make the relationship more complicated.

"It's very pleasing," Dumbledore suddenly raised his voice, and everyone lifted up. "This year, I am happy to welcome three new teachers to our team."

"The first one is Professor Remus Lupin. He graciously agreed to fill the vacancy of the Defence Against the Dark Arts course." Few people applauded, and several teachers stopped in embarrassment after a few pats. After the changes in the past two years, the students did not dare to have much confidence in Dumbledore's ability to find a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. And Professor Lu Ping is also very sick, and he looks like he will fall at the sight of the wind. With the patched robe, how do you look like Professor Quirrell in the first grade.

"Look at Professor Snape!" Daphne whispered.

Schelling looked at the professor's chair and found that Professor Snape was staring at Lupin with a gaze that he wanted to choose. Obviously, his perception of Lupin has never been better due to his old hatred in his youth. He should be afraid that Lupin would introduce Black into the school to deal with Harry, but he was so unconcealed that everyone would think that he was frustrated because he failed to apply for the Defence Against the Dark Arts faculty again.

Lupin’s cultivation is not bad. Facing the horrible silence on and off the stage, he didn’t make any expressions. He still looked down at the stage with a smile on his face, and couldn’t see any mood swings. Fortunately, Dumbledore helped him out in time to avoid this embarrassment.

"As for the second teacher," Dumbledore sighed regretfully. "Our Fantastic Animal Conservation teacher, Professor Keitelburn, retired at the end of last semester, in order to have more time to enjoy his old arms. Old leg. However, I am happy to announce that it is Rubeus Hagrid who is about to fill his position. He agreed to accept this teaching position in addition to his duties as a hunting field guard."

Everyone applauded again. This time, the applause at the Gryffindor table was extremely warm.

"As for the third teacher," Dumbledore's gaze swept across the Slytherin table imperceptibly, Schelling couldn't help but held his breath, and felt nervous. It shouldn't be because Lucius was expelled from the board of directors last year. And let things change their minds, right?

"After some discussions and the hard work of the school board, Hogwarts decided to reopen the elective course of alchemy for this year's third-year students. We are very pleased to invite the famous alchemy The master of art, Professor Ibinos Bok, who will be the teacher of this new course." Dumbledore pointed his hand to a man sitting on the teacher’s bench, about seventy years old, with white hair in a luxurious black velvet robe. man. He stood up and saluted the four dining tables below.

The applause was obviously much more enthusiastic this time, and among them, the applause on the Slytherin table was the most enthusiastic.

Professor Bock’s strength, achievements, and popularity are not as good as Nicol Lemay, but he is also a well-known figure in the alchemy world, and is even more precious in the British wizarding world where alchemists are scarce. At the International Alchemy Conference more than 30 years ago, he published a research paper on the vanishing cabinet, which can be said to be a specialist in the field of vanishing cabinets and space magic items.

If Schelling guessed correctly, the vanishing cabinet in the Bojinbok store was still repaired by him. It was just that the other vanishing cabinet linked to it was living in Hogwarts without anyone knowing. Has not been activated.

After the dinner, when I returned to the common room, Xie Lin was stopped by Pansy, who hadn't seen her during the summer vacation. Pansy had grown a lot taller, and she was already a slim girl. Behind her were Tracy, Audrey, and other girls, who were constantly scanning Xie Lin with eager eyes, causing Xie Lin to suddenly have the illusion that she had become Tang Seng meat.

Pansy showed a playful smile and teased him, "Xie Lin, I heard that you are very good on the train. You can actually beat the Dementor away. What spell did you use at the time?"

The little snakes who were returning from the rest room to the room couldn’t help slowing down, pricked up their ears and listened. Although the arrogant little snakes refused to put down and ask Schelling for advice, they wouldn’t let anyone inquire about it. Information on ways to defend against dementors.

"Actually, it's not a magic that needs to be kept secret. I use the Patronus Curse. It is a very unpopular and very deep spell, which can be used to defend against dementors." Xie Lin said quickly, "I am also number one. Once used, it can only emit a little bit of light, and cannot form a complete physical patron saint. If you want to learn, I can teach you."

Several girls nodded eagerly and said okay, a little blond girl standing behind Daphne's immature face was full of admiration for Schelling. This little blond girl is Daphne's sister Astoria. Under Daphne's introduction, Astoria is like a little fan who meets her favorite idol. She is excited and shining to get acquainted with Schelling.

It can be seen that Daphne loves this sister very much, she entrusts Schelling without hesitation, hoping that Schelling can give her sister some care. Schelling had the intention to establish his initial relationship with the Greengrass family through the two sisters, and naturally he did not shy away from agreeing.

The new semester has begun, and everyone is once again engaged in intense learning.

There are at least two more subjects in the 3rd grade than in the 2nd grade, so the study time has become more compact than ever.

On the first morning of school, Xie Lin first took a transformation lesson with Hufflepuff.

Professor McGonagall demonstrated Animagus and explained the principle behind it. Animagus is hailed as the highest achievement in transfiguration. It allows a wizard to transform into an animal and obtain the characteristics of the animal while still retaining human consciousness, and can transform back into a human form at any time without a magic wand. . But after becoming an animal, you cannot use magic, so most of the time it can only be used for three purposes: lurking, spying on intelligence, and fleeing.

These three uses are still based on the premise that they have not registered with the Ministry of Magic for Animagus. If people know the state of deformation in advance, then the practicality of these three uses will be greatly reduced, and at the same time they will have to carry the risk of being sent to Azkaban. Even if Sirius kept saying that he was innocent, it was an unjust case to be regarded as a Death Eater-if someone reported him as an illegal Animagus, he would still have to go back to Azkaban and squat.

Schelling thinks this magic is very tasteless--because of the complexity of Animagus, wizards can only transform into the form of ordinary animals. That is because the soul composition of magic creatures is more complicated than that of ordinary animals. Once transformed into magic creatures, Causes a terrible disaster that is unknown. As for the small animals that become cats, dogs, and mice, Schelling really doesn't see any practical use. Wild cats and wild dogs are not common on the streets of the UK, and turning into wild dogs will risk being forcibly taken away by the Muggle government.

Not to mention that the animal species that Animagus has become has a certain degree of randomness Although the form of change is usually a portrayal of the soul, there is no guarantee as to what it will become in the end. If you become a stag like James Potter, it will lose the only camouflage meaning. In addition to accompanying the werewolf's close friends, Schelling can't think of any practical use.

You said Sirius deceived the dementors by this? The same can be done with sophisticated Occlumency.

You said Sirius got over the iron fence of the prison by this? The same can be done with brilliant transformation and shrinking techniques. (The premise is to know how to cast spells without a rod)

You said that Sirius sneaked into the heavily guarded Hogwarts? Smart disguise magic (referring to body transformation or compound decoction) works better.

What's more, there is a high probability that the shape of Animagus will be the same as the guardian deity of the caster. Schelling was able to cast a complete physical patron saint at home during the summer vacation, which also made him decide to give up Animagus. One of the reasons.

Then came the curse class with Ravenclaw. Professor Flivy explained the principle of how to use the curse to affect emotions, and demonstrated the happiness curse, sad curse, fury curse, anxiety curse and fear curse. A kind of spiritual spell, and let the students write a paper on the spell and emotions as homework.

The Harry trio also took the first divination lesson. At lunch, about Professor Trelawney’s fortune telling that she saw Harry “Grim”, the results spread throughout Hogwarts, and it was seen together with Sirius’s prison escape. Many people said that she saw Harry’s "Grim" divination. At first he was afraid of avoiding Harry. Ron didn't say anything, but he was quite avoiding ominousness in his heart. While worried about Harry's safety, he secretly reminded himself to be careful this semester. Hermione felt that Professor Trelawney was pretending to be a fool, and therefore had a fight with Ron.