Hogwarts Scholar System

"Stuart Ackley!"

"Ravenclaw!"

. . .

"Kevin Whitby is fucked!"

"Hufflepuff!"

As the last student was sorted, Professor McGonagall took away the sorting hat and small stool.Professor Dumbledore stood up, looked at all his classmates with a smile, and opened his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"I only have two words to say to you," he said, his rich voice echoing in the auditorium, "Eat!"

"You know, you guys are lucky, tonight's party almost came to nothing," Headless Nick said, "There was a mess in the kitchen earlier."

"Why? What's going on?" Harry mumbled, holding a large piece of steak in his mouth.

"Of course it's Peeves who's causing trouble," said Nick. "He's quarreling about that thing again. You know, he wants to go to the party. Well, that's impossible. You know his moral character. He's completely uneducated. He doesn't like eating when he sees food. He just threw things everywhere. We held a meeting of ghosts, and the fat monk advocated giving him this chance. But Bloody Barro firmly disagreed, and I think it was very wise for him to do so."

"No wonder, we just think Peeves is angry about something." Ron said gloomily. "What did he do in the kitchen?"

"Oh, it's the same old thing," Nick said with a shrug. "Making havoc and making a mess. Pots and pans were thrown everywhere and the whole kitchen was flooded with soup. The house elves were scared to death - —”

Clang.

Hermione knocked over her goblet of gin, and the pumpkin spray poured onto the tablecloth, staining the white linen with orange for several feet, but Hermione ignored it.

"There are house elves here too?" She stared at Nick in horror and asked, "In Hogwarts?"

Well, although Maple was familiar with the house elves in the kitchen, Maple had not yet taken Hermione with her.

"Of course," Nearly Headless Nick said, a little surprised by her reaction, "I believe there are not as many house elves in any house in the UK as there are here. There are more than 100."

"I haven't seen any!" said Hermione.

"Well, they rarely leave the kitchen during the day, do they?" Nick said. "They come out at night to clean up and tend to the stove and stuff. I mean, you're not supposed to see them, are you? A good The sign of a house-elf is that you don't even know he exists, right?"

Hermione glared at him.

"But do they get paid?" she asked. "Do they get vacations? Also, do they get sick leave, do they get allowances, and everything?"

"Sick leave and allowance?" Nick chuckled and said, "House elves don't need sick leave and allowance!"

Hermione looked down at the barely touched food on her plate, then placed her knife and fork on the plate and pushed it away.

"Slave labor," Hermione said, breathing very heavily, "that's what this meal is all about. Slave labor."

She refused to take another bite.

"Hermione, do you know how the house elves at Hogwarts came to be?" Maple also stopped her chopsticks and said.

"How did it come?" Hermione asked concerned.

"It was brought here by Helga Hufflepuff, one of the founders of Hogwarts. Ms. Hufflepuff is not as keen on adventurous fighting as Gryffindor, nor is she as smart and wise as Ms. Ravenclaw. She is not as ambitious as Slytherin. She is the kindest founder of Hogwarts. Not only did she take in students that the other three founders did not want to take in, but she also took in many poor homeless people. House elves." Maple said, "This is why Hufflepuff students are treated very differently from house elves than in the other three houses, and the kitchen where house elves stay happens to be in Hufflepuff's. Next to the lounge.”

"Also, Hermione, you only want to liberate the house elves. Do you know the consequences if the house elves are really liberated?" Maple said.

"After they are freed, they will definitely be much happier than the slave life they are living now!" Hermione said without thinking.

"What if the house elves regained their freedom after being liberated from their slave status. But Hermione, have you ever thought about how many wizards would be willing to hire them if hiring house elves requires wages, sick leave and allowances?" May Poole said.

"This" Hermione suddenly stopped talking, she hadn't thought about this problem yet.

"Hermione, you may not know. Of course, you don't have to worry about your excellent grades," Maple said, suddenly lowering her voice. "Not all Hogwarts students can find jobs after graduation. of."

"Is that so?" Hermione said in disbelief.

"Did you know that the wizarding world already has a Diagon Alley, so why does it still need a Knockturn Alley?" Maple made another shocking revelation.

"What?" Harry had also stumbled into Knockturn Alley once, and Hermione and the others were no longer so unfamiliar with this place.

"Knockturn Alley cannot be said to be a completely evil place. Most of the dark wizards there were not villains at the beginning." Maple said.

"You mean, those?" Hermione said in disbelief as she suddenly thought of a terrible possibility.

"Yes, most of those wizards who couldn't find jobs ended up becoming wandering wizards in Knockturn Alley, and then they were slowly contaminated and assimilated in that completely unruly place." Maple said as if she knew what Hermione was going to ask. , "Most of the wealth in the magical world is in the hands of pure-blood families, and the magical world never pays attention to economic development, or in other words, officials from the Ministry of Magic have no such concept. Most of the gold of pure-blood families is in ancient times. The treasury of the Ling Pavilion is lying there. There is no economic development and exchange. The jobs that the magic world can provide are limited and cannot satisfy all the students who graduate.

After entering the wizarding society, you can only return to the Muggle society unless you give up your identity as a wizard, hand over your wand, and are not allowed to expose news about the wizarding world.But if the use of magic was not allowed, wizards would not be able to find a job in the Muggle world.During their most precious learning years, they were learning magic that would not help them find a job in the Muggle world.

After the age of 17, it is already too late to relearn the knowledge of the Muggle world.Witches can also marry Muggles and have children, but wizards returning to the Muggle world are worse than living in Knockturn Alley.Moreover, not all unions between wizards and Muggles have a happy ending.

Think about it, the child did not tell his husband the identity of the wizard until after he received the admission letter to Hogwarts.How hard it must be to maintain a family while hiding your magic, carefully hiding your identity as a wizard, and having no job in the Muggle world! "

"The jobs for wizards are not enough. Professor Lupine had to resign from Hogwarts because of his identity as a werewolf. Once the house elves are free and placed in the same position as wizards, will any wizards provide them with job opportunities? "

"In the end, their only destination is Hogwarts. But apart from the current principal, Professor Dumbledore, how many principals are willing to pay wages to house elves? If we cannot guarantee that every principal who succeeds will be tolerant and kind, Then paying the elves may not help them, but harm them.”

"However, house elves like Dobby of the Malfoy family and Winky of the Crouch family who are in pure-blood wizarding families are indeed abused like slaves. They are the ones who need to be rescued. But the ones at Hogwarts House elves, they are doing well, it is best not to rush to change for the time being." Maple concluded.

Maple's mouth was dry as she spoke, and when she finally finished speaking, Hermione fell into deep thought.

Maple was about to pick up a piece of food, but found that the dessert after the meal was gone.

At this time, Albus Dumbledore stood up again.The buzzing voices in the hall suddenly stopped, and only the pounding of the strong wind and heavy rain could be heard.

"Okay!" Dumbledore looked at everyone with a smile and said, "Now we have all eaten and drank enough. I must ask everyone's attention again, and I have a few announcements to make."

"Mr. Filch, the caretaker, would like me to tell you that this year, several more items are prohibited in the castle. They are screaming balls, toothed flying saucers and combo boomerangs. The entire list includes approximately 430 seven items. , can be seen in Mr. Filch’s office, and interested parties can check it out.”

The corners of Dumbledore's mouth twitched a few times.

He continued: "As before, I would like to remind everyone that students are not allowed to enter the Forbidden Forest on the other side of the venue, and students below the third year of Hogsmeade are not allowed to visit."

"I would also like to inform you with great regret that the Academy Cup Quidditch Tournament will not be held this year."

"What?" Harry gasped in surprise.He turned to look at his Quidditch teammates Fred and George.They all stared at Dumbledore silently with their mouths open, as if they were too shocked to speak.

Dumbledore continued: "This is because a large event will start in October and continue throughout the school year, taking up a lot of teachers' time and energy, but I am sure that you will all get a lot of enjoyment from it. I am very I am pleased to announce that this year at Hogwarts—"

At this moment, there was a deafening thunder, and the door of the auditorium slammed open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning on a long cane and wrapped in a black traveling cloak.Everyone in the Great Hall turned to look at the stranger, and suddenly a fork-shaped lightning flashed across the ceiling, and Hermione gasped.

The lightning illuminated the man's face with vivid clarity. Harry had never seen such a face before.It looked as if it had been carved out of a piece of rotten wood by someone who had only a vague idea of ​​what a human face should look like and wasn't very good at using a carving knife.Every inch of skin on the face seemed to be scarred, the mouth was like a big crooked hole, and the place where the nose should be raised was missing.The most terrifying thing about this man is his eyes.

One of his eyes is small, black, and shiny; the other eye is large, round like a coin, and it is a vivid bright blue.The blue eye kept moving without blinking, turning up, down, left, and right, completely unrelated to the normal eye. Later, the blue eye rolled over and penetrated into the man's head. Everyone All he could see was a big white eyeball.

The stranger walked up to Dumbledore.He held out a hand, one as scarred as his face.Dumbledore shook hands with him and whispered something that Harry didn't hear clearly.He seemed to be asking the stranger something. The stranger shook his head without a smile and answered in a low voice.Dumbledore nodded and motioned for the man to take an empty seat to his right.

The stranger sat down, shook his head, and shook his long gray hair away from his face, then pulled a plate of sausages, raised it to his incomplete nose and smelled it.He took a knife from his pocket, poked the end of a sausage in, and ate it.His normal eye was focused on the sausage, but his blue eye was still moving around in its socket, looking at the auditorium and his classmates.

"Allow me to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Dumbledore broke the silence happily, "Professor Moody."

Normally, when a new teacher meets everyone, everyone will applaud and welcome him, but now, except for Dumbledore and Hagrid, no teacher or student applauded.Dumbledore and Hagrid clapped their hands several times, and found that the applause seemed lonely in the silent auditorium, so they put down their hands knowingly.Everyone else seemed stunned by Moody's strange appearance and just stared at him.

"Moody?" Harry whispered to Ron. "Mad-Eye Moody? Is that the man your father went to help this morning?"

"It must be him," Ron whispered fearfully.

"What's wrong with him?" Hermione asked in a low voice, "What's wrong with his face?"

"I don't know." Ron replied quietly, looking at Moody as if fascinated.

"Barty Crouch Jr.!" Maple had been staring at Moody since he came in, paying no attention to the conversation between Harry and them.

Moody's seemed unmoved by the lukewarm response.Ignoring the large pitcher of pumpkin juice in front of him, he reached into his traveling cloak, pulled out a curved wine bottle, and took a swig.When he raised his arms to drink, his cloak that was trailing on the floor was pulled up a few inches, and Harry saw a few inches of wooden carved prosthetic legs exposed under the table, with a claw-shaped foot underneath.

Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"As I just said," he said with a smile, looking at the many students in front of him, who were still staring blankly at Mad-Eye Moody, "in the next few months, we will be very honored to host A wonderful event that has not been held for over a century. I am delighted to report that the Triwizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts this year."

"You're kidding!" Fred Weasley shouted.

The tense atmosphere that had enveloped the auditorium since Moody entered was suddenly broken.Almost everyone laughed out loud, and Bullido also laughed softly in appreciation.

"I'm not kidding, Mr. Weasley," he said, "but since you mentioned joking, I heard a very funny joke about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun, all of whom Entered the same tavern—"

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat loudly.

"Oh, it's probably not appropriate to say this now, it's not appropriate." Dumbledore said, "Where did I just say it? Ah, by the way, the Triwizard Tournament. Some of you still don't know about this tournament. What's going on, so I hope those who know the situation will forgive me for explaining it a little bit and I'll allow their minds to wander for a while."

"The Triwizard Tournament was founded about 700 years ago as a friendly competition between the three largest wizarding schools in Europe. The three schools are: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang.

Each school selects a warrior, and then the three warriors compete in three magic projects.The Triwizard Tournament is held every five years, and the three schools take turns hosting it. Everyone agrees that this is an excellent way for young wizards from different countries to build friendships.But later, too many people died, and the Triwizard Tournament was interrupted. "

"Death count?" Hermione whispered, looking around in shock.But most of the students in the auditorium were not as nervous as she was, and many of them whispered excitedly.Harry was also eager to hear the specific details of the Triwizard Tournament. He was not interested in those who died more than 100 years ago.

"There have been several attempts to revive the Tournament over the centuries," Dumbledore continued, "but none of them have been successful. However, we at the Ministry of Magic's Department of International Magical Cooperation and Department of Magical Sports believe that another attempt The time has come. We have done a lot this summer to ensure that every warrior's life is not in danger."

"In October, the principals of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will come with their carefully selected contenders, and the selection ceremony will be held on Halloween. An impartial referee will decide which students are most qualified to compete. Triwizard Cup, win honor for your school, and personally receive a thousand Galleons bonus."

"I want to join!" said Fred Weasley in a low voice across the table, his face lighting up with excitement at the thought of the possibility of such honor and wealth.It seems that he is not the only one who fantasizes about becoming a Hogwarts warrior.At the tables in each house, some students looked at Dumbledore feverishly, while others whispered excitedly to their neighbors.But Dumbledore spoke again, and the auditorium became quiet again.

"I know you are all eager to win the Triwizard Trophy for Hogwarts," he said, "but the participating schools and the Ministry of Magic have agreed to set an age limit for this year's contenders. Only those aged 17 or over , that is to say, only students over 17 years old are allowed to register for consideration. We feel," Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, because some people made angry protests after hearing his words, the Weasley twins Suddenly became angry.

"This measure is necessary because the events of the competition are still very difficult and dangerous. No matter how many precautions we take, it is simply impossible for students below sixth and seventh grade to handle it. I will personally ensure that no one is enough." Young students deceive our impartial judges and become the champions of Hogwarts." His blue eyes flashed meaningfully as his gaze passed over the rebellious faces of Fred and George.

"Therefore, if you are under 17, I ask that you do not waste your time making an application."

"The delegation from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive in October and will spend most of the academic year with us. I know you will all behave very well while our foreign dignitaries are here. Be warm and friendly, and you will wholeheartedly support the Hogwarts Champion once he or she is chosen. Well, it's getting late, and it's important that you walk into class tomorrow morning refreshed and clear-headed. Go Go to bed! Hurry!"

Dumbledore sat down and turned to talk to Mad-Eye Moody.The dining room was filled with rattling and pinging sounds as the students stood up one after another and rushed to the two opposite doors and entered the foyer.