The boat floats on the moonlit floating water, rippling microwaves.

Everyone looked at the majestic castle in obsession.

Composed of towers and wings, this baroque medieval castle resembles the mythical giant Atlas that held up the world.

"Gawain, do you feel as if there's something in the lake?"

Neville clasped his hands together in front of his mouth and said cautiously.

"Maybe there's some monster..."

Gawain shook his head, a little careless, his right hand resting on the side of the boat, his fingertips as if they were tapping to some rhythm.

"Don't be stupid, this is Hogwarts, they wouldn't be so crazy... bar..."

Hermione raised an eyebrow and said with some annoyance. But in the light of the torches, her knuckles looked unusually pale.

No one spoke after that.

Before you know it, the boat has sailed into a long, narrow tunnel. It was pitch black on both sides, and there was only a faint spark after a long time.

At the end of the tunnel, there is an underground pier where boats are docked.

The ground was covered with fine gravel.

"Alright, everyone, get off the boat and lean over to me!"

Hagrid jumped out of the boat first, shouting hello.

Gawain saw that after he left, the boat slammed upwards and splashed a large handful of water.

"Ahem, ahem, I just... The skeleton is big. Yes, the skeleton is big!"

Hagrid's face was slightly reddened by his beard, and he raised his big hand with an oil lamp.

"Hey, it's the lake that's too small, it's pretty much the same. ”

From the crowd came a somewhat sarcastic voice, oily and somewhat annoying.

"Who is it?"

Harry jerked over there, Ron beside him, looking equally indignant.

But the man never spoke again.

"Alright, alright, all in line!"

Under Hagrid's command, the young wizards lined up in two columns and followed him up a winding bluestone staircase.

At the end of the staircase, there is a large wooden door.

Under the reflection of the torches, the brown enamel looks very simple.

"Bang, bang, bang. ”

Hagrid stepped forward and knocked three times. A moment later, the door was pushed open from the inside, and Professor McGonagall appeared in front of everyone's eyes.

"First-year freshman, Professor McGonagall. Hagrid said.

"Thank you, Hagrid. I'll take care of it here. ”

Professor McGonagall nodded, pursing her lips in an invisible arc.

She opened the door wide open.

It was a very spacious foyer.

The ceiling was barely visible, and it was enough to cram the entire Gawain family's house into it, leaving two or three lanes of traffic.

Like Gringotts, the stone walls are surrounded by flaming torches. In front of you is a luxurious marble staircase that leads straight upstairs.

The freshmen followed her along the stone floor.

There was the humming of hundreds of people in the door on the right, and the rest of the school must have already arrived—but Professor McGonagall led the first-year students to a small, empty room at the other end of the hall.

The empty house was small, and everyone rushed in, huddled together side by side, nervously and carefully gazing at everything around them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," Professor McGonagall said.

"The names of the four colleges are... Please click on the paragraph to say the original content. ”

"In a few minutes, the sorting ceremony will be held in front of all the teachers and students of the school. I suggest that you tidy up while you wait, so that you can look refreshed. ”

Her gaze wandered over Neville's cloak (the strap was tied under her left ear) and Ron's nose before exiting the room.

"How can they assign us exactly which house we are going to?" Harry whispered to Ron beside him.

"I guess there's always going to be a test. Fred said it hurt us a lot, but I think he was joking. ”

No one around spoke, and it was clear that they weren't the only ones worried.

Hermione was chanting incantations barely audible, sparks and lights coming from the tip of her wand from time to time, making her feel terrifying. Neville gripped his wand so desperately that his lip was biting almost bleeding.

"Gawain, what are you thinking?"

As if he wasn't quite used to the tension, Parvati poked Gawain in the waist with his elbow and said.

"Ahh Should be... New World?"

Gawain said absent-mindedly, his eyes as if they had lost focus, and he looked at the dusty wall in a daze, as if there were mysterious patterns on it.

"You mean... America?"

Parvati was undoubtedly disappointed by this answer, and she stomped her foot lightly and stopped talking.

Suddenly, several people screamed loudly.

"That's ——!"

Twenty or so ghosts suddenly burst out of the wall behind them. These pearly white, translucent ghosts glided across the room, turning heads and ears.

"Forgive, I say, we should give him another chance-"

They seem to be arguing about something. Said a chubby little friar-looking ghost.

"My good monk, haven't we given Peeves enough chances? You know, he can't even reach the least of a ghost - I mean, what are you doing here?"

A ghost in a bodysuit with a wheeled ruffled collar suddenly discovers a freshman.

It was popular in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a high, stiff round neck around the neck.

Frankly speaking, some people even thought that the purpose of inventing this crewneck corset was to make people decapitate cleanly and not be too ugly.

Naturally, no one answered.

"Freshmen!" The chubby monk smiled at them. "I guess you're going to get tested, right?"

The student was silent and nodded stiffly.

"Hopefully you'll get a Hufflepuff!" The monk said, "I used to attend that college. ”

"Now move forward," said a shrill voice, "and the sorting ceremony is about to begin." ”

With a "click", the door opened again.

It was Professor McGonagall who had returned.

The ghosts scurried through the opposite wall and were gone.

"Now, in a row," Professor McGonagall said to the first-year students, "follow me." ”

All of them followed in Professor McGonagall's footsteps, exiting the room, through the foyer, and through a double door into the lavish Great Hall.

Students from other grades were already sitting around four long tables, pointing and whispering to the new students. Thousands of candles fluttering in the air above the table illuminate the dining room.

Four long tables are lined with glittering gold plates and goblets. At the top of the dining hall is a long table with no doubt that it belongs to the teachers.

Professor McGonagall brought the first-year students over there and lined them up.

"There are spells cast here, and it looks like the sky outside, I read about it in Hogwarts, a school history. ”

Hermione whispered, fingers crossed, biting her lip.

In front of everyone, Professor McGonagall gently lowered a four-legged stool, followed by a top wizard's hat on the stool.

The hat is patched and very worn.

But the entire auditorium was staring at the hat, silent.

Suddenly, a wide slit cracked in the brim of the hat, like a mouth—and the hat began to sing: "You may belong to Gryffindor... Please click on the paragraph to say the original content".

"Whoever I call by name now puts on his hat, sits on a stool, and waits for the Chamber," Professor McGonagall said.

"Hannah Abbott!"

A ruddy-faced little girl with two blonde braids stumbled out of the queue and put on her hat.

There was a pause for a moment - "Hufflepuff!" The hat shouted.

"Susan Pence!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Terry Bout!"

"Ravenclaw!"

“...”

Time passed, and Harry, Hermione, Neville, and the others were already seated on the side of the Gryffindor bench, leaving only Gawain waiting.

"Gawain White!"

Professor McGonagall finally pronounced his name.

Seeing that he was still in a trance, she took a few steps forward, pulled him to the chair, and put his hat back on for him.

A few snickerers rang out from the Slytherin table, but Professor McGonagall glanced at them and was silent.

But Gawain didn't really care.

In fact, he was already so immersed in his mind that he didn't even know to put on his hat.

"Ahh

Suddenly, a small voice sounded in his head.

"Shut up, can't you hear!"

Gawain said with some dissatisfaction that the melody was reaching its climax, and the sonata-style allegro made him feel his heart beat faster.

"Of course I heard, but I've had a whole year, if not a century, to wait, but you don't. Hmm..."

The subtle voice continued to speak to itself.

"Let me think about it, maybe you have the courage to find your glory in Gryffindor, or maybe your wisdom is deep enough, in Ravenclawy..."

"Whatever it takes, just Ravenclaw, let me finish listening!"

Gawain interrupted the voice almost crudely, as the melody was approaching its climax.

He seemed to see a man in a fiery red robe, standing on the top of the sand dune, sword in one hand and wand in the other, rushing towards the vast number of enemies.

The ground cracked, revealing large cracks.

There was a blood-red moon in the sky.

"But that's not going to work, then—Gryffindor!"

The subtle sound suddenly became like thunder, interrupting the melody that had been lingering in Gawain's mind, and the image came to an abrupt end.

When he came to his senses, he was standing in front of all the students, wearing a tattered black peaked wizard's hat on his head.

"Welcome to Gryffindor, Mr. White. ”

Professor McGonagall patted him on the shoulder, helped him to his feet, and made him walk towards the cheering Gryffindor table.

To everyone, Gawain's Sorting was just an episode, even if they had never heard the hoarse cries of the Sorting Hat.

Only Dumbledore was different.

His eyes narrowed.

PS: Because the content of this chapter really needs to be quoted from the original text, even if the text has been processed, it is still difficult to avoid it (unlike long dialogues that can be directly condensed), so I put some more content to balance with the normal chapter.