"Stuart Ackley!"

"Ravenclaw!"

。。。

"Kevin Whitby was covered!"

"Hufflepuff!"

As the last student finished sorting, Professor McGonagall removed the sorting hat and stool. Professor Dumbledore stood up, looking at all his classmates with a smile and opening his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"I have only two words to say to you," he said, and his deep voice echoed through the Great Hall, "Eat! ”

"You know, you're lucky, tonight's party almost went to waste," said the headless Nick, "and there was a mess in the kitchen earlier. ”

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

"Peeves, of course, is making trouble," said Nick, "and arguing over that, you know, he wants to go to the party." Alas, this is not possible at all, you know that he was virtuous, completely uneducated, and threw things everywhere when he saw them. We had a ghost meeting, and the Fat Friar advocated that he be given this chance. But Barrow the Bloody adamantly disagreed, and I thought he was wise to do so. ”

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

"Oh, it's the same old thing," Nick said, shrugging his shoulders, "and wreaking havoc, making a mess." Pots and pans were thrown everywhere, and the whole kitchen was flooded with soup. The house-elves were so frightened that the six gods were left without a master—"

When.

Hermione knocked over her goblet, and the pumpkin method continued to pour over the tablecloth, staining the white linen with an orange color that was several feet long, but Hermione ignored it.

"House-elves too?" She glared at Nick in horror and asked, "At Hogwarts?" ”

Well, although Maple is familiar with the house-elves in the kitchen, Maple hasn't taken Hermione with her.

"Well," said Nick, who was almost headless, a little surprised by her reaction, "I don't believe there are as many house-elves in any house in England as there are here." There are more than 100 of them. ”

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

"Oh, they rarely leave the kitchen during the day, do they?" Nick said, "Come out at night and clean up and 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 glared at him.

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

"Sick leave and allowances?" Nick giggled and said, "House-elves don't need sick days and allowances!" ”

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 how the meal came about. Slave labor. ”

She refused to eat any more.

"Hermione, do you know where the house-elves at Hogwarts came from?" Maple also stopped his chopsticks and said.

"How?" Hermione asked with concern.

"Brought by Helga Hufflepuff, one of the founders of Hogwarts, Lady Hufflepuff is not as adventurous as Gryffindor, not as intelligent as Lady Ravenclaw, and not as ambitious as Slytherin, she is the kindest of Hogwarts founders. Not only did she take in students that the other three founders were reluctant to take, but she also took in many poor homeless house-elves. "That's why Hufflepuff students are treated very differently from the other three houses, and the kitchen where the house-elves stay is right next to the Hufflepuff common room." ”

"And, Hermione, you're only thinking about liberating the house-elves, do you know what happens when the house-elves are really liberated?" Maple said.

"When they are freed, they will be much happier than they are now slaves!" Hermione said without thinking.

"If the house-elves regain their freedom after freeing themselves as slaves. But Hermione, have you ever thought about how many wizards would be willing to hire house-elves if they required pay, sick leave, and allowances? Maple said.

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

"Hermione, you probably don't know, of course, you don't have to worry about your good grades," Maple said in a suddenly low voice, "Not all Hogwarts students will find a job after graduation. ”

"Is that so?" Hermione was in disbelief.

"Did you know that there is already a Diagon Alley in the wizarding world, so why should there be an Tumbledown Alley?" Maple broke another big news.

"What?" Harry had also stumbled into Tumbledown Alley once, and Hermione was no longer so unfamiliar with the place.

"Tumbledown Alley isn't exactly a place to hide dirt, and most of the dark wizards there aren't outlaws in the first place." Maple said.

"You mean, those," Hermione said in disbelief at the sudden thought of a terrifying possibility.

"Yes, most of the wizards who couldn't find a job ended up being wandering wizards in Tumbledown Alley, and then slowly contaminated and assimilated in that completely unruly place." Maple seemed to know Hermione's next question and said, "Most of the wealth of the wizarding world is in the hands of pure-blood families, and the wizarding world has never paid attention to economic development, or the officials of the Ministry of Magic don't have this concept. The pure-blood family's gold spends most of its time lying in the vaults of Gringotts, and without economic development and exchange, the wizarding world has limited jobs to satisfy all the graduating students.

After entering the wizarding society, you can only return to Muggle society unless you give up your wizarding status, hand over your wand, and are not allowed to expose news about the wizarding world. However, if magic was not allowed, wizards would not be able to find work in the Muggle world. At their most valuable age of learning, they were learning magic that would not help them in their quest for work in the Muggle world.

And after the age of seventeen, it was too late to relearn the Muggle world. Witches can also marry Muggles, but wizards returning to the Muggle world are worse than wandering into Tumbledown. Moreover, the union of wizards and Muggles does not always have a happy ending.

Think about it, it wasn't until the child received the admission letter from Hogwarts that she told her husband about the identity of the wizard. How hard it must be to keep your magic hidden, carefully hide your wizarding identity, and have no job in the Muggle world, and then maintain this family! ”

"The wizards' jobs are not yet satisfying, and Professor Lupin has to resign from Hogwarts because of his status as a werewolf. And once the house-elves are freed and placed in the same position as the wizard, will the wizard provide them with a job offer? ”

"In the end, their only destination is Hogwarts. But apart from the current headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, how many headmasters are willing to pay the house-elves? If there is no guarantee that every succeeding headmaster will be tolerant and merciful, then paying the elves may not help them, but harm them. ”

"However, house-elves like Dobby of the Malfoy family and Twinkle of the Crouch family are indeed abused like slaves, and they are the ones who need to be rescued. But the house-elves of Hogwarts, they are doing well, so don't rush to change for the time being. Maple concluded.

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

Maple was about to eat a piece of food, only to find that the dessert after the meal was gone.

At this time, 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 we've all eaten and drunk. Once again, I must draw your attention to the fact that I would like to announce a few announcements. ”

"Mr. Filch, the janitor, wants me to tell you that this year there are a few more items that are forbidden in the castle, which are screaming balls, toothed saucers, and combo darts. The whole list of about four hundred and thirty-seven items can be seen in Mr. Filch's office, and those interested 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 the Forbidden Forest on the other side of the field is not accessible to students, and Hogsmeade Village is not allowed to be visited by students below the third grade. ”

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

"What?" Harry was gasped for surprise. He turned his head to look at his Quidditch teammates, Fred and George. They all stared at Dumbledore with their mouths wide open and silently, as if they were speechless in astonishment.

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

Just then, there was a deafening thunderclap, and the door to the auditorium slammed open.

A man stood in the doorway, leaning on a long cane and wrapped in a black travel cloak. Everyone in the auditorium turned their heads to look at the stranger, and suddenly a fork of lightning struck the ceiling, and Hermione gasped.

The lightning illuminated the man's face in stark light, a face Harry had never seen before. 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. The blue eye moved without blinking, turning up and down, left and right, completely unrelated to the normal eye, and later, the blue eye rolled and burrowed into the man's head, and everyone could only see a large white eyeball.

The stranger walked over to Dumbledore. He stretched out a hand, which was as scarred as his face. Dumbledore shook his hand and whispered something that Harry didn't hear. He seemed to be asking the stranger about something, and the stranger shook his head without a smile and replied in a low voice. Dumbledore nodded, motioning for the man to sit in an empty seat to his right.

The stranger sat down, shook his head, shook his long gray hair from his face, and pulled a plate of sausages over his mutilated nose and sniffed it. He took a knife from his pocket, poked it through one end of a sausage, and ate it. His normal eyes were staring at the sausage, but the blue eye still kept rolling around in its sockets, looking at the auditorium and his classmates.

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

Normally, when a new teacher arrives, everyone applauds, but now there is no teacher or student applauding except for Dumbledore and Hagrid. Dumbledore and Hagrid slapped their hands a few times, and when they noticed that the applause was lonely echoing in the silent Great Hall, they lowered their hands in amusement. The others seemed stunned by Moody's strange appearance and stared at him intently.

"Moody?" Harry whispered to Ron, "Mad-Eye Moody? Is that the guy your dad went to help this morning? ”

"It must be him." Ron whispered in fear.

"What's wrong with him?" Hermione lowered her voice and asked, "What's going on with his face?" ”

"I don't know." Ron replied quietly, looking at Moody in fascination.

"Barty Crouch Jr." Maple had been staring at Moody since he had entered, completely unconcerned about the conversation between Harry and them.

Moody's seemed indifferent to the lukewarm reaction. Ignoring the large jar of pumpkin juice in front of him, he reached into his travel cloak, pulled out a curved wine bottle, and took a large sip. The cloak he had dragged on the floor was pulled up a few inches as he raised his arm to drink, and Harry saw a few inches of carved wooden prosthetic legs peeking out from under the table, and a claw-shaped foot underneath.

Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"As I said," he said, smiling as he looked at the crowd of students in front of him, who were still staring blankly at Mad-Eye Moody, "in the coming months we will be honored to host a wonderful event that has not been held in more than a century." I'm pleased to report that Triwizard Tournament will be held at Hogwarts this year. ”

"You're kidding!" Fred Weasley exclaimed.

The tension that had been hanging over the auditorium since Moody's entered was shattered. Almost everyone laughed out loud, and Blído chuckled appreciatively.

"I'm not kidding, Mr. Weasley," he said, "but since you mentioned joking, I heard a funny joke about a troll, a dominatrix, and a leprechaun, all in 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 go?" Ah, by the way, Triwizard Tournament, some of you don't know what this tournament is all about, so I hope those of you who know the situation will forgive me for explaining a little here, and I'll allow their minds to wander away for a while. ”

"The Triwizard Tournament was founded about seven hundred years ago and is a kind of friendship competition between the three largest schools of magic and magic in Europe. The three schools are: Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang.

Each school selects a champion, and then three warriors compete in three magical projects. Held every five years, the Triwizard Tournament is hosted by the three schools in turn, and everyone agrees that it is a great way for young wizards from different countries to build friendships. But later, the death toll was so high that the Triwizard Tournament was interrupted. ”

"The death toll?" Hermione whispered, looking around in dismay. But most of the students in the auditorium weren't as nervous as she was, and many were excited. Harry was also anxious to hear the specifics of the Triwizard Tournament, and he wasn't interested in those who had died more than a hundred years ago.

"Over the centuries, people have tried to revive the tournament several times," Dumbledore continued, "but none of them have been successful. However, we, the Department of International Magical Cooperation and the Department of Magical Sports at the Ministry of Magic, believe that the time is ripe for another attempt. We've done a lot of work this summer to make sure every warrior doesn't put their lives in danger. ”

"In October, the principals of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will come with their carefully selected contenders, and the ceremony to select the champions will take place on Halloween. An impartial referee will decide which students are most qualified to compete for the Triumph Cup, win honours for their school, and personally receive a prize of 1,000 Galleons. ”

"I want to participate!" Fred Weasley whispered in a low voice across the table, his face lit up with excitement at the thought of the possibility of such an honor and fortune. It seems that he is not the only one who fantasizes about becoming a Hogwarts Warrior like him. At the desks in each house, the students watched Dumbledore feverishly, while others whispered excitedly to their neighbors. But Dumbledore spoke again, and the Great Hall fell silent again.

"I know you're all eager to win Triwizard trophies for Hogwarts," he said, "but the participating schools and the Ministry of Magic agree that there is an age limit for this year's contenders. Only students who are at least seventeen years old, that is, over seventeen years old, are allowed to register for consideration. We felt," Dumbledore raised his voice slightly, as some people protested angrily after hearing his words, and the Weasley twins suddenly became angry.

"This is necessary because the competition is still very difficult and dangerous, and no matter how much precautions we take, it is impossible for students below the sixth or seventh grade to deal with it. I myself will ensure that no student of sufficient age will deceive our impartial referees into becoming Hogwarts warriors. His blue eyes gleamed meaningfully as his gaze swept over Fred and George's rebellious faces,

"Therefore, if you are under the age of seventeen, I ask you not to waste your time in making your application."

"The Beauxbatons and Durmstrang delegations will arrive in October and will spend most of the school year with us. I know that you will all be warm and friendly during our foreign dignitaries here, and that you will wholeheartedly support Hogwarts Warriors once they are chosen. Well, it's not early, and it's important that you walk into class tomorrow morning feeling refreshed and clear-headed. Go to bed! Come on! ”

Dumbledore sat down and turned to talk to Moody the Mad-Eye. The cafeteria clicked and ping-pong, and the students stood up and flocked to the two open doors and into the foyer.

Book Reading House