The Strongest Badger at Hogwarts

As Professor McGonagall slowly appeared with his head held high and a group of chick-like freshmen slowly appearing, the entire auditorium fell silent instantly.

Everyone, including the professors, looked at the freshmen with serious expressions.

The freshmen had heard countless horror stories about the Hogwarts sorting ceremony from their elders or companions long before they came to Hogwarts, and now they were stared at like this, and immediately became more panicked Yes, a few little girls were almost on the verge of crying just by looking at their expressions.

But what they didn't know was that everyone, including their parents, deliberately created such a horrible and difficult atmosphere for the Hogwarts sorting ceremony.

Scaring new students has been an unspoken rule of Hogwarts for thousands of years, and no student from Hogwarts will break this tacit understanding.

In the midst of this silence, the Sorting Hat placed on the high chair at the end of the passage suddenly began to sing:

A long time ago I still ordered new hats,

Hogwarts sea was not built at that time,

The four founders of Noble Academy,

Thought they would never part ways.

The same goal unites them,

The wishes of each other are so consistent:

To build the best magic school in the world,

Pass on their knowledge from generation to generation.

...

After the hat finished speaking, it remained motionless again.

There was applause in the auditorium, but it was also mixed with many whispers.

"It seems to be a bit off topic this year, doesn't it?"

Cedric tilted his head and whispered in Link's ear.

He and Link sit together at the front of the Hufflepuff table this year, a status symbol.

Link didn't speak immediately when he heard the words, but frowned.

The first half of the Ballad of the Sorting Hat tells the story about the four giants of Hogwarts who jointly founded the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and finally Slytherin left.

Everyone who has lived at Hogwarts is familiar with this story,

After all, "Hogwarts-A School History" can be said to be a must-read book for every Hogwarts student.

The focus is on the second half of the Sorting Hat Ballad.

The sorting hat seems to be using this to warn the students of Hogwarts, don't split up, don't let enemies outside the school have a lesson?

This is more interesting.

According to Link's understanding, the Sorting Hat would never do such a thing under normal circumstances.

So that's what Dumbledore taught it to say?

If this is the case, it can be seen from this that Dumbledore's attitude towards the defection of Slytherin House is still inclined to gentle means.

Link couldn't help but sneered.

In his opinion, Dumbledore's approach is just right and wrong.

Link couldn't believe that Dumbledore didn't know that the Slytherins didn't listen to the advice at all.

Link didn't even believe that when the Slytherins really turned against Voldemort, Dumbledore would not kill him.

When that time comes, none of the Slytherins will end well.

That being the case, why not beat the Slytherins before they turned against each other like him, so that they have no chance to really turn against them?

hypocritical!

However, what Link had to admit was that although Dumbledore's approach was a bit vicious, it sounded good when he said it out loud, as long as he misinterpreted it, it was easy to convince people.

Thinking of this, he restrained his smile, and Link said to Cedric:

"This should be Dumbledore's warning to all of us through the mouth of the Sorting Hat. He also discovered the problems in Slytherin, which happens to prove that our plan is correct."

A smile appeared on Cedric's face when he heard the words, and he nodded in satisfaction, looking very happy, just as Link expected.

While Link and Cedric were talking, the sorting ceremony had already begun, and freshmen one after another put on the sorting hat and were assigned to various colleges.

The serious atmosphere in the auditorium has long since disappeared.

The old students of each college are warmly welcoming their new students, which makes the new students a little flattered.

You must know that they thought that they would suffer a series of inhumane assessments, but they entered heaven directly the next moment.

Link and Cedric also stood up quickly, put on smiling faces and put the new students into their long table, and then the other old students entertained them.

This work is undoubtedly very hard, because compared to the other three houses, Hufflepuff always has the most new students.

This is directly related to the philosophy of the founder of Hufflepuff.

The great Ms. Hufflepuff firmly believes that it is too cruel for children to come to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Witchcraft and Wizardry with full expectations, only to return disappointed because they have no need for the house.

So under her will, Hufflepuff will never reject any little wizard who wants to join.

Slowly, that long line of freshmen has faded away.

After Professor McGonagall assigned the whereabouts of the last new student, he picked up the high chair and the sorting hat and strode away, while Dumbledore also stood up.

"Welcome our new students," Dumbledore said loudly with open arms, "welcome our old students too, welcome back! There is plenty of time for speeches, but it's not now. Eat to your heart's content!"

As soon as Dumbledore finished speaking, delicious food suddenly fell from the sky.

The five long tables were immediately filled with large pieces of beef, pies, various vegetables, bread, jams, and pots of pumpkin juice, and the long tables also groaned because they were overwhelmed.

Dumbledore came down amid admiration and applause, throwing his long beard over his shoulders so that they did not block his plate.

Not far from him, the students started to feast early, after all, almost everyone was hungry after a whole day of journey.

The freshmen were particularly excited.

It was the first time in their lives that they participated in such a unique banquet, and it was also the first time they saw such a straightforward and unaffected principal, and they were a little unresponsive for a while.

And at this time, the Hufflepuffs would smile heartily, give full play to Hufflepuff's character of unity and loyalty, and even go forward to help the freshmen introduce and grab food regardless of whether they are still hungry. The freshmen all blushed.

Of course, they don't always grab any food.

They would push dishes like pumpkin pie and pumpkin juice to Link first, and they all knew that this was Link's favorite.

It was like this until the last dessert was wiped out by the students, and when everyone was full and started chatting, Dumbledore finally stood up again.

His appearance made the auditorium instantly quiet. Although everyone was terribly sleepy after eating, they still looked at Dumbledore firmly.

"Okay, since we are digesting another extremely rich and delicious meal, I ask everyone to be quiet for a while, and listen to me as usual to talk about the precautions for the new semester." Dumbledore said with a smile, "First-year students should I know that students are not allowed to enter the forbidden forest in the hunting ground. Our senior students should also know this by now."

As soon as Dumbledore finished speaking, the students burst into laughter.

Because to be honest, as long as they are not particularly honest and timid students, there are no old students from the second grade who have not gone to the Forbidden Forest to explore.

Dumbledore was not angry when he saw this, and he continued after everyone laughed:

"Mr. Filch, the administrator, asked me, and he told me it was the 426th time, that I must remind you all that magic is not allowed in the corridors between classes, and many other rules, all listed on that long sheet. Filch's office door."

"Also, there are two changes in our teaching staff this year. I am delighted to welcome back Professor Graplan, who will be teaching you Care of Fantastic Creatures. I am also very pleased to introduce Professor Umbridge, who will be part of our Dark Arts The new professor of Defense."

There was a burst of sparse applause in the auditorium, and Cedric looked at Link with a questioning look, meaning whether this Umbridge is the so-called "pressure from the Ministry of Magic" that Link said.

Link nodded slightly upon seeing this, and didn't say much.

Dumbledore on the stage also continued:

"The selection for the House Quidditch team will be—"

Dumbledore suddenly stopped talking and looked aside questioningly.

Everyone followed his line of sight curiously, only to notice that Umbridge beside him had stood up at some point.

"Ahem!" Seeing that everyone's attention finally fell on her, Umbridge cleared his throat and said, "Thank you, Headmaster, for your warm welcome speech."

As soon as this remark came out, many people present frowned.

But it had nothing to do with the content of her words, but with the sound of her voice.

Her voice was sharp and high, a bit like a sweet girlish voice.

This was nothing at all, but the key point was that such a voice from an old woman with a weird appearance gave everyone a great sense of contrast and nausea.

Umbridge didn't care about the eyes of everyone, and continued:

"Well, I must say, it's great to be back at Hogwarts. It's such a joy to see all these lovely little faces looking at me. I'm desperate to get to know you all soon, and I'm sure we will Become very good friends."

"The Ministry of Magic has always believed that educating young wizards is a very important task. Some of the valuable talents you are born with may be fruitless if they are not cultivated and exercised under careful and meticulous guidance. Unique to the wizarding world Ancient skills must be passed down from generation to generation, or they will disappear.”

"The Hogwarts Headmasters have all innovated in their charge of running this historic school, and this is entirely due, because without progress, we will stagnate and decay. But at the same time, progress for the sake of progress This practice should never be encouraged, and we..."

Umbridge's speech never seemed to end.

Students have never been so boring since Dumbledore took charge of Hogwarts.

It was precisely because of this that just halfway through Umbridge's speech, the auditorium became noisy.

Everyone was whispering, as for the slapstick, it seemed that it would be a face to continue to stand here.

The strange thing is that Dumbledore and the professors also turned a blind eye to the poor performance of the students. Even Snape and McGonagall, who hated the troubles of the students in the past, were unmoved, and just let the auditorium become more and more serious. chaos.

Because the more chaos, the more difficult it is for Umbridge to step down.

It's a pity that Umbridge seems to have a lot of experience in this area.

She completely ignored the state of the students and continued to speak on her own.

"...because some changes are good and others, in due time, will be found to be poor decisions. At the same time some old habits will be retained, which is understandable, and some will become obsolete , then it must be discarded. Let us move forward into a new age of enlightenment, efficiency, and reason, insisting on maintaining what should be maintained and discarding what we should prohibit.”

After saying that, Umbridge sat back, and Dumbledore immediately started applauding—he was probably the only one present who listened carefully to the entire speech.

Dumbledore's applause was like a signal, and soon the auditorium was filled with sparse applause.

The students were very happy, but it had nothing to do with the content of Umbridge's speech. What everyone cared about was that everyone could go back to the dormitory to rest soon after her speech.

As for Dumbledore standing up and talking again?

This kind of thing is not in the students' worry range at all, they all know that Dumbledore will never let them down in this regard.

"This Umbridge is not to be underestimated!"

Cedric leaned against Link again and said with a smile.

Hearing this, Link nodded and said:

"You see it?"

"Of course, she just sent a gauntlet to Dumbledore." Cedric said, "And it's a very high-level gauntlet. It seems that she has a lot of experience in ZZ combat. We must deal with it carefully. .”

Seeing Cedric's serious expression, Link said with a smile:

"You don't need to be so nervous. Just one Umbridge's words are nothing special. Even, she can be our help at certain times."

"Oh?" Cedric asked in surprise, "What do you mean?"

"Don't worry, soon, you will know in a while."

After Link finished speaking, the students began to cheer - Dumbledore's speech was completely over.

Link didn't explain to Cedric, who was still full of ideas, he got up and straightened his neckline and said:

"I'll be in charge of this year's guidance for new students."

Hearing this, Cedric stopped asking, nodded and said:

"Of course, if you like."

Ernie McMillan and Hannah Abbott, the new Hufflepuff prefects, were sitting not far from Cedric, and their faces were a little perplexed.

In order for the new prefects to accumulate work experience, the new prefects are responsible for the guidance of new students, which is the practice of Hogwarts.

Ernie and Hannah believed in this kind of obvious trickery to fool people into working, so they were a little disappointed when they heard that Link was grabbing the job.

Their thoughts couldn't escape Link's eyes. Seeing this, Link shook his head with a chuckle and said:

"You guys come along, it's just learning."

As soon as this remark came out, Ernie and Hannah immediately resurrected on the spot.

Ernie jumped three feet high and shouted loudly:

"Yes! Senior!"

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