Led by Hagrid, the freshmen walked along the stone-paved pavement through an open iron gate. There are no trees to obstruct it, and the view suddenly opens up, and you can clearly see the towering castle on the other side of the lake, built on the hill and brightly lit, with many corner towers and minarets!

"Wow!"

The crowd was noisy, and the freshmen, who had seen such a stunning scene for the first time in their lives, were excited.

Instead of giving the children time to admire the castle, Hagrid led them down the winding path to the lake, where there was a rudimentary wooden pier with dozens of small boats parked on it.

Hagrid shouted:

"Alright, kids, come over here."

"Remember, you can only seat four people in a boat."

At Hagrid's stern advice, the future wizards lined up and boarded the same boat as their friends on the train.

By the time Ash and the others arrived, they were the only ones left unboarded.

But luckily there are still several empty boats, so you don't have to worry about being left at the dock.

Ash led Harley aboard, put away her wand, and let the light go out, as the rest of the journey didn't need any additional lights.

Seeing that the four Ash who were walking at the end boarded the boat, Hagrid, who was riding alone in a small boat, still asked:

"Are you all on board?"

After making sure that nothing was missed, Hagrid smiled and said loudly:

"Very well, kids, let's go!"

With Hagrid's loud reminder, the ships docked at the dock began to head towards the castle across the lake.

The lake rippled around them, sparkling in the bright lights of the castle. But Harley was not in the mood to appreciate the beauty of the lake, and her eyes were drawn to the larger, more beautiful scenery - when she took the boat, the castle with its spires and turrets was completely unfolded and breathtaking!

"Will we dock there?" Hermione asked softly, gesturing to the only building in the middle of the lake.

The building was next to the castle, and she could even see the stone staircase that went up the cliff next to it.

"That's a houseboat."

Ash whispered, "There's a road to the auditorium, but we won't necessarily be able to dock there. ”

"Why?" Hallie asked, puzzled.

"Because there's more than one way to Hogwarts from here."

Ash pointed to a cliff in the right front of the houseboat, which was completely shrouded in darkness, and asked:

"What can you see?"

"A waterfall." Kassandra replied.

"Yes."

Ash nodded slightly, and continued, "There is a hidden waterway below the waterfall that leads to an underground harbor covered in ivy, from where you can also reach Hogwarts. ”

"You know a lot." Hagrid looked back in some surprise, but quickly said:

"But we won't be from the underground port, we'll dock at the houseboat."

"Why?" Harley asked curiously.

Along the way, there were so many things she had never been exposed to before, and she felt that Hogwarts should publish a copy of 100,000 Whys so that the new wizards would not be ignorant of everything here.

"Because there's an elevator installed there."

"There used to be a rough mountain road, the kind that was hard to walk, and the new students would go to the auditorium from there," Hagrid explained. But a hundred years ago, the hero Black magically transformed that road into an elevator from where he could reach the Great Hall directly, but this action narrowly led to his expulsion from Hogwarts. ”

"Why?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

Isn't that a good thing?

Hagrid shook his head and said:

"Because it undermines Hogwarts traditions, some people believe that Muggle stuff will pollute Hogwarts. Since then, new students have been admitted to the school from the houseboat, instead of going through the underground port, which has been the case since our generation. ”

Puzzled, Hallie asked:

"But if they don't like it, why can't they just change it back?"

Hagrid didn't answer, he was gathering his thoughts, thinking about how best to answer the question.

But before that, Ash whispered:

"Because they reject all change, not in any way. So when that road is changed to an elevator becomes an established fact, they will not try to change the elevator back to the original way, but will keep it on. ”

"In fact, there is much more to Hogwarts than has been altered, but no one has tried to change them back. On the one hand, the set-ups are small details that are not worth mentioning, and on the other hand, as I just said, they hate change. ”

"Even if they don't like it?" Hermione asked, confused.

Ash nodded slightly:

"Yes, even if they don't like it. All in all, most wizards are like this, they want everything around them to remain the same, preferably never change. The way Hogwarts teaches, for example, has not changed since the day it was founded. Although the textbooks are still updated, the last update was half a century ago. ”

"I don't understand." Harley muttered quietly.

It sounds like wizards are old and stubborn.

She doesn't like that, so why can't she embrace something new?

Although the magic is magical, Muggles are also technologically advanced! Why not combine the best of both worlds?

They soon arrived at the houseboat, where dozens of small boats almost filled the water.

The young wizards were led by Hagrid out of the houseboat and up the bluestone pavement to the stone staircase that winds upward.

Hagrid shouted:

"Alright, kids, be careful!"

He was the first to walk up the stone staircase, and made a dull footstep on it.

Harley looked at the staircase, which was at least a few tens of meters high, and whispered:

"I hate stairs."

After such a long staircase, she will definitely die of exhaustion!

Ash smiled and asked:

"Do you want me to carry you up?"

"No, you give me the honesty to walk up on my own! Don't always bother Ash! ”

As soon as Harley waved her hand in refusal, Kassandra angrily interrupted her and took her hand to follow the group.

Hallie was a little aggrieved:

"I didn't say yes."

"Where's Hermione?" Ash looked at the brown-haired girl who was still slightly distracted.

Hermione shook her head shyly, and while she wasn't averse to contact with Ash, it was still too intense for her.

And, it's a shame.

Everyone else walks up the stairs, and she's the only one who is being held, which is sure to be laughed at!

As Harley thought, Hagrid didn't think about the children's physical strength at all, and didn't even give them a break in between.

So by the time they walked the entire flight of stairs, most of them were already out of breath and sweating.

It was the same with Harley, who would have almost collapsed from exhaustion if it hadn't been for Kassandra holding her.

Kassandra wasn't much better, her forehead was oozing with sweat, her legs were sore, and she even felt like the world was spinning. But she gritted her teeth and forced herself to stand up straight, standing out from the crowd of freshmen who were bent over and panting.