When the sky was completely dark, the train also reached its terminal.
After getting off the bus, the old and new students immediately divided into two groups. Students who had already attended Hogwarts gathered to hitch a ride to the school on the other side. The freshmen were crowded, not knowing how to get to the school, until Hagrid the giant came to greet them, and the group ferry went to Hogwarts.
To be honest, when Hagrid appeared, many freshmen were taken aback by him. All I saw behind a bright beam of light was a huge black shadow slowly moving closer. The miner's lamp in his hand illuminated the huge amount of steam spewing from the train, and he looked like a towering troll emerging from a haze of clouds, with layers of shadows being dragged behind him.
Hogwarts is a medieval castle located on the edge of a towering cliff. The castle covers almost the entire hill, and the bottom of the cliff is a vast expanse of water. When they arrived, there was no moon or stars in the sky, but the whole castle was brightly lit, as if the stars had been plucked and decorated in the school.
The closer you get to Hogwarts, the more bright spots float on the water, and the warm light pours down from top to bottom, intertwined in the mist at the bottom of the castle, soft and soft. Before that, Aurora and the others seemed to be floating through the darkness.
After landing, they followed the staircase that was built from the school gate to the water surface, and gradually entered the interior of the school.
The scene inside gave all the students a feeling of stepping back in time, as if there was a kind of magic that split a complete world into two different scenes. Outside, Muggles enjoy the convenient energy brought by the third technological revolution after World War II, and more and more atomic/atomic/energy and computers are infiltrated into their lives. The wizarding world has always maintained its previous appearance, and every detail reveals a classical charm that was only available in the Victorian era or even earlier.
Everything here is so ancient, and every brick and stone is a witness to the endless history. Those wear and tear traces carved from the passage of time have deposited the obscure and delicate that is completely different from the modern society. Rock yellow is the main color of everything here, as colorful as letter paper covered with sunlight.
The witch standing on the steps was dressed in a forest-green velvet robe, and her Scottish feather-pointed hat cast a large shadow on her face. She should be very old, but she is tall and thin, her temperament and posture are very elegant, and she has a majestic aura that makes people around her dare not make mistakes. She just stood there and said nothing, and miraculously quieted the noisy freshmen.
After a brief self-introduction and the announcement of the details of the college's reward and punishment system, the witch, who called herself Professor McGonagall, brought the freshmen into the dining room. Everything was the same as what Aurora had seen in that Hogwarts, A History of the School, but far more impactful than those barren words.
After being enchanted, you can see the high roofs in the sky, hundreds of white candles floating in the air, orange flames burning on them, blooming like roses dripping freely on the white snow.
The freshmen gathered in the open space at the front of the four long, wide dining tables, facing all the professors and headmasters of Hogwarts on the steps. Professor McGonagall shook off the parchment in his hand, stood beside a stool with a shabby wizard hat as described in the book, and read out the names one by one.
"Cecilia Winston."
The Sorting Hat put on the top of the tall blue-eyed girl, and after thinking for about half a minute, announced the result happily and loudly: "Hufflepuff!"
The students at the dining table by the wall immediately cheered and welcomed their new classmates.
"Bill Weasley."
The red-haired boy also quickly got his own result: "Gryffindor!"
"I really don't know which college we'll be assigned to." Vox nervously watched the freshmen in front walk up one by one, then got his own answer and asked Aurora, "Have you thought about it? Which college?"
Compared with the nervousness of Vaux and the other students, Aurora looked much more at ease, her voice still light and calm: "I didn't think about this, but I hope I can go to a very friendly college, whether it is excellent or not. It's important, I don't have any specialties myself."
"I wish we could be in the same academy."
"I hope so."
At this moment, Professor McGonagall suddenly called Vaux's name: "Gerard Chevalier." "
Vaux closed his eyes fiercely, then grabbed his sleeves and let go, almost trotting all the way to the stool. Aurora leaned as far forward as she could, for she was short among the freshmen, and could only see what was happening above through the gaps in the crowd.
The Sorting Hat had been on top of Vox's head for about a short while, and once again it made that uplifting sound, this time its brim was happily cocked to the sides, like a pair of small wings: "Gryffindor!" "
Vaux breathed a sigh of relief and quickly sat down next to Bill Weasley to the applause of his classmates, then turned back to Aurora and smiled encouragingly.
Halfway down the list, Hufflepuff had the most students and Slytherin had the fewest students.
"Caroline Cooper."
"Hufflepuff!"
"Beverly Greenberg."
Aurora saw that the Sorting Hat gave the answer in less than ten seconds of contact with Beverly, and her voice was pulled sharply: "Slytherin! "
"Aurora Field."
Aurora squeezed out of the crowd and sat down on a wooden bench, the sorting hat placed over her head by Professor McGonagall.
"Hmm," Aurora heard a small ethereal voice squeeze into her thoughts, "this talent... Yes, there was a person at Hogwarts who had such a talent before, a student decades ago. Ha, it's really strange, you obviously don't have any blood relationship. Well... The personality is also suitable. "
"So, should we put you in the same house?" the voice asked in a long tone, "Come, let's ask, what is your greatest wish to come to Hogwarts?" "
"Wish?" Aurora was asked for a moment, and then seriously thought for a while, "Study hard, graduate successfully, and find a good job in the future." "
She swore she answered seriously.
The voice began to laugh muffled in Aurora's head before stopping for a while: "Same talent, right personality, I know where you should go." Haha, that's interesting. "
"Hufflepuff ——!" The Sorting Hat was almost jumping off Aurora's head this time, with a strange smile in her loud announcement.
When Aurora walked over to Hufflepuff, who applauded enthusiastically, she looked back and saw Vaux, who was sitting at the Gryffindor table disappointed. She waved at him and sat down next to Caroline.
Soon, each student found their classmate to spend the next seven years with, and Headmaster Albus Dumbledore stood up to announce the new teachers and other notes for the semester.
"This is a belated announcement because I think many of my classmates already knew about it last year, but it was between the new students entering the school, so I have to say it again. The old Head of Slytherin House, Mr. Horace Slughorn, has left, so since last year, Severus Snape has been the new Head of Slytherin and the official Professor of Potions from this school year. "
Just when Headmaster Dumbledore was still introducing, Aurora suddenly felt that her feet seemed to be frozen by something cold. She looked down suspiciously at the table and saw a translucent and pearl-white ghost lying on the ground grimacing at her. The ghost, with a big round head, eyes almost the size of a ping-pong ball, and sharp ears, lay motionless on the ground staring at Aurora, grinning with a cold and strange smile. And the coldness that Aurora felt soaked through the bones was from that ghost.
Because he was scratching his feet.
"Let's welcome Professor Snape."
"Ahhhhh——! Ghosts! "
Aurora couldn't care that it was the time when the audience was silent at this time, and was frightened by the ghost on the soles of her feet and jumped directly from the stool. The ensuing series was like a disaster, and Caroline and the other Hufflepuff freshmen were screaming in fear. Vaux and Beverly stood up at the same time and looked in the direction of Hufflepuff, not understanding what was going on.
However, before the farce was over, another chubby little monk-like ghost suddenly jumped out of the wall and stopped in front of the new students, and the Peeves, who rolled around under the table and laughed, lost his temper rarely: "You are too much Peeves!" How can you scare the new students when the principal speaks! "
After speaking, he turned his head and touched Aurora's hair, which was still trembling slightly in a state of panic: "Oh poor child, are you all right?" It's good that he doesn't touch it, and the touch makes Aurora shiver as if she had fallen into an ice cave.
The ghost's body temperature is too low.
"I..." Aurora clings to the wall, staring at the ghost in front of her with wide eyes. She could see through the other's translucent body that everyone was looking towards her, including Professor Snape, who had just been interrupted for the introduction.
There was a strange and dramatic contrast effect when he and Dumbledore stood together, from every touch of color on his body to the look in his eyes, almost the opposite. The thick and warm light in the hall did not seem to infect him at all, and even the silhouette of his whole person could not be warmed at all.
Snape's eyes were as dark as the robes on his body, and when he looked at people without emotion, they were like a dark river frozen below the ice on a winter night, without fluctuations and bottomlessness. Aurora suddenly felt a little trance, she seemed to have seen these eyes somewhere, but the new Slytherin headmaster in front of her was obviously much clearer and stranger than the vague memory in the depths of her mind.
"It's time for the prank to end, Peeves." After Dumbledore finished speaking, he reached out and grabbed Peeves' back collar to pick it up, shrunk his chin slightly, and looked at the frightened group of children from above the lenses with shiny blue eyes. I don't know if it's an illusion, Aurora felt that Dumbledore seemed to smile very lightly just now.
Except for Barrow the Bloody, Peeves listened to Dumbledore alone, so he obediently walked through the wall and disappeared.
"I'm sorry professor..." After Aurora slowed down, she found that some of her classmates were laughing lowly, and she immediately felt very ashamed.
"Oh, it's okay, no need to apologize. Please take a seat, kids. The headmaster gracefully held out his hand, the tiny gem on the cuff glittering in the candlelight.
Caroline patted her chest wistfully, sat down next to Aurora, and looked down from time to time. The fat monk reassured them that Peeves would not return anytime soon.
After the introduction, Aurora almost didn't listen to it at all, only heard words like "Forbidden Forest" and "Black Lake". It wasn't until the opening banquet was finally announced that Aurora's attention was aroused again by the richness and sophistication of a table that could fill the entire academy with no repetitive food.
She chose the closest dish to her, but found that the swan's eyes were actually mints - mint and sugar, two things she hated the most, merged into one, and hatred could not describe the taste.
After the banquet, they sang a school song with only words and no tune under Dumbledore's command, so anyone could sing it in their favorite tune. After that, the students of each academy were taken back to their respective residences by the prefects.
Aurora met her roommates, Caroline Cooper, who she had already met, and Cecilia Winston, who was also assigned to Hufflepuff.
Caroline's personality is quite familiar, and she and the equally lively and cheerful Cecilia quickly talked about family background from her hobbies. Because Hufflepuffs are a notoriously hodgepodge of cadets, no one here will have an opinion on whether the blood is pure or not, and as long as the personality is compatible, they can talk from dark until dawn.
The luggage had already been delivered to the accommodation, and the first thing Aurora did when she returned to the room was to free Bright from the cloth box. The little guy was held back, and when he came up, he scratched at Aurora, and the soft flesh pad slapped Aurora in the face one by one, looking super fierce.
On the other side, Vaux met Bill Weasley, who had just been sitting together during dinner. Vaux was a little surprised by his interest in the Muggle world, and Bill told him that it was because his father worked in the Ministry of Magic and Muggle-related departments, and his father loved to study Muggles.
Vaux twitched the corners of his mouth, not reminding him that although Bill's statement was unintentional, Muggles would definitely not be happy to hear it. No one likes to be studied as an object.
The lights of Hogwarts went out one by one, and the night settled deeper.