Despite the wind and thunderstorms outside, it didn't dampen the cheerful atmosphere in the castle in the slightest, and on a triangular bench, the worn-out, patched Sorting Hat sang a lengthy ballad and began to assign their houses to the restless freshmen.

Ning An couldn't help but think of the scene when he was assigned to Slytherin, and many complicated thoughts popped up in his mind, if he didn't go to Slytherin, if he was sorted into Gryffindor, or Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, what would happen to him?

None of the students cared about the reverie of a raven, and every time a new student was assigned to his house, there would be a warm cheer on the long table in their respective house.

"Eleanor? Branston! ”

The little girl who had been named by Professor McGonagall stepped forward and brought the Sorting Hat to the top of her head, and without hesitation, the hat opened its mouth above the brim

"Hufflepuff!"

It shouted, and there was a loud cry on the Hufflepuff table, and Parney clapped his hands with a smile, as if he really was Cedric? Diggory like.

The sorting ceremony is neither long nor short, and the little wizards in line are like streams that flow into the sea, and in a short time they flow into their respective oceans

"Kevin? Whitby! ”

"Hufflepuff!"

The last person was assigned to Hufflepuff, and in addition to the shouts of welcome from the long Hufflepuff table, the students of the other houses who had been hungry and alone for a long time also cheered.

Dumbledore wore a sumptuous dark green robe embroidered with stars and moon, and his silver-white hair and beard flowed freely, just as Ning An had when he first met the old wizard four years earlier.

"I only have two words to say—" Dumbledore pressed his wand lightly against his throat, and his voice was so loud that it could be heard in every corner of the Great Hall.

"Let's eat!"

Speaking briefly as always, the wise old man really understood what the students were thinking at the moment, and the food fell as his words fell, and suddenly appeared in the white porcelain plates on the long table, Ning An swallowed his saliva, he hadn't eaten such a sumptuous meal for a long time since he became a raven.

Needless to say, things like grilled sausages, smoked meat, and pork chops were fluffy and soft, like a frozen protein cake, with a few raisins wrapped in them, and the roasted chicken was crispy and tender, and there was a small bowl of sauce on the brown wood plate, and if Pani hadn't cared about Cedric's image, he would have rolled up his sleeves and swept it away.

The freshmen prefer to serve themselves a bowl of hot, steaming creamy mushroom soup from a white clay pot, and they can choke on it in the rain and drink a bowl of warm and fresh soup, so that their bodies can be so comfortable that they want to sleep against their chairs.

Ning An could only ask Pani to serve him a little bit of each dish and put it on a small plate in front of him, and he now hated his bird appetite for not being able to eat more.

"Cedric" was busy socializing, and Parney barely had time to stuff anything into his mouth other than when he first ate half of the roast chicken at a blistering pace, because there were people around him all the time, talking about one thing or another.

People don't come to talk to a bird, but anyone who talks to Pani will notice such a good-looking raven, and it is inevitable to touch his head twice, and the corners of Pani's eyes twitched, and he noticed that the tablecloth under the claws of the Ning'an bird had been cut a small opening.

With a wry smile, he could only try to keep people away from Ning An and focus his attention on communicating with himself, the banquet was very cheerful, the ghosts were flying up and down, and the fat monk politely walked past each of the new students, exchanging greetings with them from time to time, and giving them some suggestions for the new semester.

The Slytherin ghost Bloodman Barrow looked fierce, the freshmen seemed to be afraid of him, and the old students didn't stay with him, and he seemed to like it, and he observed the dinner party with a grim face.

The faculty and staff were also very happy, Hagrid held a wine glass the size of an ordinary washbasin, and drank it as soon as he tilted his head, and the wine flowed down his thick beard, dripping down every drop, and with each drink, Professor Flitwick beside him also had a drink, and he stood on a stack of cushions that would not have reached the wine table.

Although he had not drunk as much wine as Hagrid, he had become so dizzy that he almost took the wrong glass and drank the licorice juice that Professor Sprout had cooked for himself for the banquet.

Ning An ate all the food in the small plate in front of him after a while, if it was a human form, he would probably burp loudly, but now he still wanted to have some dessert after dinner, and in the small plate not far from him, the tempting vanilla pudding seemed to beckon gently.

A leaf of green herbs was added to the snow-white and silky pudding, but Soth was about to beckon Pani to bring him a plate, but Pani spoke to him first

"We've got to go, Lord Soth—it's time for the feast to end, and the prefect has to take the freshmen to their respective dormitories."

Ning An pursed his lips dissatisfiedly, and did not refute, although he really wanted to eat that piece of pudding, but he did not forget what he was doing at Hogwarts, he didn't want to make Parney suspicious because of a little thing, but it was just that attending the banquet again made him a little excited.

The momentum subsided, Ning An jumped forward a few times, followed Pani's outstretched arm, climbed onto his shoulder, and followed him to the back of the banquet table, where there were the student council presidents and the prefects of the various houses, the two student council presidents were a man and a woman, from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw respectively, and Paney had already met on the train before.

The two of them have a decent attitude towards Cedric, as for the Slytherin prefects, they are not so lucky, almost everyone does not like them, and of course the two of them look down on the others.

After assigning the tasks and the order in which each academy left the banquet hall, it happened that the students had almost eaten, the desserts were swept away, and every plate was cleaned, and Ning An could feel the despair emanating from Pani even on his shoulders, the poor guy probably hadn't eaten enough.

"Alright—" Dumbledore got up from his seat, still holding his wand to his throat so that the sound could drown out the wind and rain howling outside the castle.

Everyone listened silently as Mr. Headmaster announced some of the dos and don'ts for the new semester, including not only Mr. Filch's list of prohibited items, but also the precautions for the Forbidden Forest and Hogsmeade Village.

The old students all showed a cliché look, and many of the freshmen didn't know why, every word that popped out of the old wizard's mouth was a new word in their ears, where is the Forbidden Forest? And what is Hogsmeade?

Many young wizards from wizarding families began to triumphantly solve the doubts of their companions who did not know why, and the Great Hall became noisy again, and Dumbledore had to cough heavily

"Ahem - and I'm sorry to inform you that we're not going to be holding a Quidditch Cup this year."

This time, there was a much louder noise than just now, and countless people let out a regretful "oh oh" almost at the same time.

They stared at Dumbledore with wide eyes in disbelief, wondering why Quidditch matches had been cancelled and what to do with their House Cup, and the Gryffindor students were particularly anxious, they had won the House Cup for three years in a row, and a big part of that came from their excellent Quidditch results.

Even many students with big brains began to wonder if it was related to the riots in the World Cup.

However, Dumbledore quickly dispelled everyone's doubts, and he smiled calmly, and continued to say to his students:

"The reason for this is that from October there will be a big event that will last for the whole school year, and I am sure you will have fun with it as well, and I am pleased to announce to you—"

"Bang-"

However, before he finished speaking, the gate of the castle was slammed open, and a man stood at the door, holding a long cane, and the wind and rain outside the castle poured in from the open gate, and the cold instantly invaded everyone's skin.

A white light streaked across the sky, illuminating the night sky as if it were day, and also illuminating the face of the man standing in the doorway.

When they saw his students, they all gasped, what kind of face it was, as if it had been carved out of wood, every inch of skin was scarred as if it had been scratched by a carving knife, the mouth was crooked and a large opening was open, but the place where the nose should be bulging was missing.

But the most frightening thing is not these, but two eyes of completely different sizes, one small like a black piece of glass, while the other is large, big and round like a bright blue coin, it flips up and down, and has nothing to do with the activity of the normal eye, and the hairs on the human body stand on end, and every new student who is swept by the magic eye unconsciously avoids his gaze and lowers his head.

"Squeak-ah-" The castle gate made a sour turning sound, and then "clang" loudly, and it closed automatically, blocking the wind and rain from the solid fortress.

But the sound of lightning and thunder still came through the transparent night sky overhead, and the man limped towards Dumbledore at the end of the Great Hall, who also hurriedly left his seat and walked some way forward to meet him.

Of course, Ning An knew who it was, and he couldn't help but let out a sneer, which was his natural reaction when he met another fake.

After returning from the Quidditch World Cup, Mr. Amos revealed that Moody had been attacked, and although everyone thought that the paranoid and suspicious mad-eyed man was frightened by a stray feral cat, rather than that someone had attacked him, Ning knew that he had been attacked this time.

Little Barty? Crouch, the loyal Death Eater, still seems to have come to Hogwarts in the guise of Moody as originally planned, but he himself carried the pot for him to release the Dark Mark in the World Cup, and I don't know how he feels.

But Ning An wanted to laugh as he watched him try to play Moody, whispered something in Dumbledore's ear, and then sat down in an empty seat, carefully sniffing the sausage in front of him.

But to be honest, this Death Eater's acting skills are much better than Pani's, at least Ning An's personal feelings.

But soon Dumbledore spoke, breaking the embarrassment that had been going on since "Moody" entered the Great Hall.

"It's my great pleasure to introduce you to our new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Moody."

In addition to the applause of Hagrid and Dumbledore in the Great Hall, the silence was terrible, and Ning An carefully observed the face of Snape, who was sitting in his seat, and found that the already dark and gloomy face became even more ugly.

Only this time he didn't seem to dare to glare at Moody viciously, as Lockhart and Lupin did when they took the place of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, and he was a little afraid of the Mad-Eyed Man.

Seeing that the atmosphere in the Great Hall was gradually cooling, Dumbledore wisely skipped the topic, cleared his throat, and continued to keep the loud incantation, and then said to his classmates:

"As I said earlier – in the next few months we will be hosting a huge event that has not been held in over a century, and I am very happy to report that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year!"

There was silence in the auditorium, but the next second there was a heated discussion, and Fred and George shouted behind the Gryffindor table, it must be a joke, right? You're kidding!

Students who didn't know about Triwizard Tournament hurriedly asked others, while those who knew about Triwizard Tournament, as well as those who knew about it before the start of school because of their family connections, all showed longing, pride, and a look of wanting to show their strength.

Pani didn't dare to show too much surprise, so he could only quietly turn his head and stare at Ning An on his shoulder with wide eyes, he was not surprised by the news, but shocked that Ning An had predicted this matter accurately.

You must know that he has been staying with Ning An all along, and he has never heard anyone reveal the news about the Triwizard Tournament to them.

But he quickly reacted that Ning An was going to participate in the Triwizard Tournament by himself, could it be because it had a lot to do with his plan?

In any case, this was first-class news for the Hogwarts students and students, and almost everyone could hardly contain their enthusiasm for the discussion, and Dumbledore had to clear his throat louder to show that he was not finished, which barely allowed the cacophony of discussion to subside.

"Triwizard Tournament was founded about 700 years ago......"

What follows is nothing more than an introduction to the history of the Triwizard Tournament, as well as some rules, and explains that Beauxbatons School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Durmstrang School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will arrive in October, and the ceremony of selecting champions will also be giant on Halloween.

Unfortunately, when Dumbledore said that students under the age of 17 were not allowed to participate, the auditorium was filled with lamentations, which was a huge blow to students who wanted to be in the limelight, but did not meet the requirements, but optimistic people like Fred and George were already thinking about concocting age enhancers.

Eventually, the opening party ended in a heated discussion among the students, and everyone talked about the Triwizard Tournament, and Parney was glad that he had a unique job as a prefect, otherwise Stabins would probably have been able to pull him up for the whole night, and they were 17 years old and able to participate in the Triwizard Tournament.

"Alright—first-year freshman, come with me, this way—"

Hufflepuff would be the first to leave the auditorium, and Parney beckoned the first-year boys to move closer to him, ready to take them back to the Hufflepuff's common room on the basement level.