"I only have two words to say to you."

When the sorting ceremony was over and Professor McGonagall had finished pronouncing his last name, Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, stood up.

He looked at all his classmates with a smile, opened his arms and made a gesture of welcome, and his deep voice echoed in the auditorium.

"Let's eat!"

"yes, yes!" Ron and Harry cheered loudly with their knives and forks, and watched as the empty plates suddenly magically filled with food.

Nick, who was almost headless, watched sadly as Ron and the others put food on their plates, and as a ghost, he couldn't taste the delicacies.

"Ah, it's so much better now." Harry slurred a mouthful of mashed potatoes and slurred.

"yes, yes!" Ron nodded yes.

"You know, you're lucky, tonight's banquet almost went down." Nick, who was almost headless, said, "There was a mess in the kitchen earlier. ”

"Why? What's going on? Neville asked, with a large steak in his mouth.

"Naturally, Peeves are causing trouble."

Nick said, shaking his head, which made his head shake dangerously - he quickly pulled the wheeled ruffled collar up a little to protect his neck.

"And he quarreled over it, you know, and he wanted to go to the feast...... Alas, this is not possible at all, you know that he is a ghostly virtue, completely uneducated, and throws things everywhere when he sees food.

We had a ghost meeting, and the Fat Friar was advocating that he be given this chance, but Barrow the Bloody adamantly disagreed, and I thought he would be wise to do so. ”

Barrow the Bloody is a ghost of Slytherin House, a skinny, taciturn ghost.

His body was covered in silver blood, a sign of the horrific experience before he died.

Of all the ghosts at Hogwarts, he is the only one who can truly control Peeves.

"No wonder, we think Peeves is angry about something," Ron said curiously, "what did he do in the kitchen?" ”

"Oh, it's the same old thing." Nick shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's a big havoc, it's a mess." Pots and pans were thrown everywhere, the entire kitchen was flooded with soup, and the house-elves were scared. ”

"House-elves too?" Hermione, who was drinking pumpkin juice, suddenly asked in a loud voice, "At Hogwarts?" ”

"Needless to say," said Nick, who was almost headless, at her question, "isn't that obvious, I don't believe there are as many house-elves in any house in England as there are here, more than a hundred." ”

"But I haven't seen any of them!" Hermione said.

"Oh, they rarely leave the kitchen during the day, do they?" Nick said.

"I usually come out at night to clean and clean...... Take care of the stove or something...... I mean, you shouldn't be seeing them, are you?

The hallmark of a good house-elf is that you don't even know he exists, right? ”

Hermione's eyes widened, as if that was something terrible.

"Do they get paid?"

In desperation, she even knocked over the tall gin glass in her hand, and pumpkin juice was constantly pouring on the tablecloth. The white linen was stained orange and several feet long, but she ignored it.

She asked, "Do they have holidays?" Also, do they have sick leave, allowances, all these things? ”

Nick was amused by her words, his wheel-shaped wrinkled collar tilted, and his head almost rolled off, dangling from an inch or two of dead skin and muscles that were still attached.

"Sick leave and allowances?" He put his head back on his neck and secured it with a wheel-like ruffled collar, "House-elves don't need sick days and allowances!" ”

Clark secretly said that since the last time she saw Sparkle's tragic experience at the Quidditch World Cup, her compassionate girlish heart began to overflow, and she felt compassion and pity for the creatures like house-elves.

For some time now, she asked Clark about them every once in a while.

Especially when Harry inadvertently slipped out and let her know that there were house-elves in the Clark family's castle as well.

She took the trouble to inquire about the treatment of the Clark family's house-elves and learn about their living conditions in the wizarding world.

As a middle-class child who had grown up in Western Muggle societies and had received an equal education for all, Hermione certainly could not understand the backward slavery system of the wizarding world.

Yes, she thinks that wizards are enslaving house-elves, just as whites enslaved blacks.

So she thinks she needs to do something for the house-elves.

Of course, in Clark's opinion, Hermione's thoughts cannot be said to be wrong, after all, it reflects her good side, but her thinking is still too simple and one-sided.

Even after three years of studying at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she still liked to look at the wizarding world with the thinking and eyes of a "normal person" like a Muggle.

Like this time, after hearing that there were house-elves at Hogwarts and that they were serving them for free, Hermione looked down at the barely touched food on her plate, then put her knife and fork on the plate and pushed it away.

"Oh, spare me."

Ron said, accidentally spraying some Yorkshire pudding crumbs onto Harry.

"Slave labor," Hermione said, breathing very heavily, "that's how the meal came about. Slave labor! ”

She refused to take another bite.

Clark sighed helplessly, but that didn't stop him from putting a piece of beef in his mouth, "You starve yourself to death, and you won't get sick leave for them!" ”

"But every bite of steak we eat, every bite of food we eat is soaked in the blood and sweat of the house-elves." Hermione argued exasperatedly.

"Nope! No! No! These are just the success of their labor, but not the blood and sweat of the house-elves, and the taste of wizards is not so heavy. ”

Clarke's words made Ron nod.

Outside the castle there was a thunderclap that rattled the glass windows, and a bolt of lightning streaked across the gloomy ceiling, illuminating the golden plates in front of them.

The rest of the food on the plate was gone, and in the blink of an eye, it was filled with dessert again.

"Hermione, look at this chocolate lava cake!" Ron said, deliberately bringing fragrant pies to the two men, "raisin pudding, apple pie, and ......"

Hermione glared at him, and the gaze reminded him of Professor McGonagall, and Ron immediately retracted.

"Hermione, as a mage, you use the mind of a 'normal person' to judge the thoughts of magical creatures, which is a big taboo in the field of occultism."

Clark said faintly.

"As for house-elves, in addition to the History of Magic and the Protection of Magical Creatures, I suggest you also look through the folklore material of the Muggle world.

Perhaps from there, you can learn to look at this in a more mature, more 'magical' way. ”

His words silenced Hermione.

Rationally speaking, Hermione, who maintained absolute trust in Clark, felt that since he said so, it must have a point.

But emotionally speaking, she really can't look at this problem calmly.

Fortunately, at this point, Ginny suddenly interrupted and diverted their attention.

"Why don't you see the new teacher in Defence Against the Dark Arts class?" Ginny asked, looking at the teacher's chair not far away.

None of their Defence Against the Dark Arts teachers had stayed for more than two semesters, and Professor Lupin was by far the best of all the teachers Clark had ever experienced, but he resigned last year due to his own health.

Harry glanced back and forth at the staff desk, and there was no doubt that none of the faces were new.

"Maybe they can't find anyone!" Ron joked as he ate dessert.

Clark also glanced up at the faculty desk:

Professor Flitwick, who taught them Charms, was the dean of Ravenclaw College, and was sitting on a large pile of cushions, but his head was just above the table.

Next to him was Professor Sprout, the herbology teacher, who had put down her spoon and was talking to Professor Sinista of the Department of Astronomy.

On the other side of Professor Sinista sat the gray-faced, hooked-nosed, greasy-haired Potions teacher Snape, the head of Slytherin House.

However, apart from the Slytherin students, the students of the other three houses did not have a good image of him.

On Snape's other side was Professor McGonagall, the head of Clark's Gryffindor House.

A further seat, in the middle of the table, sat Professor Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

His flowing silver-white hair and beard glistened in the candlelight, and his sumptuous dark green robe was embroidered with stars and moons.

Professor Dumbledore's two slender fingers touched together, and his chin rested on top of his fingertips.

At this moment, he did not pay attention to his favorite sweet in front of him, but looked at the ceiling above through the half-moon shaped lens, as if he was in deep thought.

Clark also looked at the ceiling, which was enchanted and looked like the sky outside, he had never seen it so stormy.

Black and purple clouds tumbled above, and as there was another thunderclap outside, a fork of lightning streaked across the ceiling.

The weather was so bad on the first day of school, and I don't know if this is a sign of something to come.

However, no matter how bad the weather was, it seemed that Harry and their determination to become a dry rice man could not be stopped.

Soon, all the desserts in front of them were swept away, and the last remaining crumbs on the plates were gone.

By the magic, the plate was clean and shiny again, and Albus Dumbledore stood up again.

The humming of the hall suddenly stopped, and only the beating of the wind and heavy rain could be heard.

"That's it!" Dumbledore looked at everyone with a smile and said, "Now that we've all eaten and drunk, I must ask for everyone's attention again, and I have a few announcements to make. ”

He began to report the prohibition of dangerous goods every year at the beginning of the school year, but unlike previous years, many of the dangerous goods banned this year were the products of George and Fred's pranks.

However, because the business has just begun, the two of them are now only in a small-scale test market, and there is no large-scale production.

Because of this, most of their new products have not been included in that ban list.

"As before, I would like to remind everyone that the Forbidden Forest on the other side of the venue is not accessible to students, and in Hogsmeade Village, no students below the third grade are allowed to visit."

"As for Dragon Farm Park......," Dumbledore paused, "the park is still under repair......

There was a wail from the students below, and the news that students below the third grade would not be able to patronize Hogsmeade Village had not caused such a big reaction.

"I'd also like to regret to inform you that there will be no House Cup Quidditch this year." He continued.

"What?" Harry was gasped for surprise.

He turned his head to look at his Quidditch teammates, Fred and George, who both stared at Dumbledore with their mouths wide open as if they were speechless in surprise.

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. ”

It dawned on Harry and the others that the school didn't hold the House Cup Quidditch for the sake of what Clark had said.

But I'm sure you can all have a great deal of fun with it. It is my great pleasure to announce that this year at Hogwarts—"

At this moment, in a deafening thunder, the door of the auditorium was slammed open from the outside by a violent force.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning on a long cane and wrapped in a black travel cloak.

Obviously I'm just a violent intruder, but there is a domineering temperament that I should have stood here all over my body.

Everyone in the auditorium turned their heads to look at him suspiciously, and suddenly, a fork of lightning streaked across the ceiling, and some timid girls gasped.

The incandescent lightning illuminated the man's face so vividly that it was no wonder that the little girls were scared, even in Clark's opinion, this face could be considered terrifying.

It was carved out of a piece of decaying wood, and the carver had only a vague idea of what a human face should look like, and he was not very good at using a carving knife.

Every inch of skin on his face seemed to be scarred, his mouth was like a crooked gap, and the place where his nose should have bulged was gone.

And the most terrifying thing about this man is his eyes.

One of his eyes was small, black, and shiny; The other eye was large, round like a coin, and a vivid bright blue.

Not only that, but the blue eye was still moving without blinking, going up and down, left and right, completely irrelevant to that normal eye.

Later, the blue eyeball rolled and actually got into the man's head, so that everyone could only see a big white eyeball.

"Ahh Some of the little girls were so frightened that they screamed.

Hermione also frowned, leaned over and whispered, "Who is he?" ”

"Mad-Eye Moody!" Clark replied, "Alastor Moody, the best Auror Britain has ever had. ”

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