"Oh." Quisida said, "I'm half-and-half. My mom is a wizard, but my dad isn't. When he found out I'm a wizard, dad was really excited. It was also then he found out my mom is a wizard."
"Amazing." Gareth said.
Harry turned his head and looked towards the guest of honor table.
Beside Principal Mr. Black sat Vice Principal Matilda Weasley—Harry only knew these two professors… oh, and Gladwin Moon, although he wasn't a professor, he was considered staff.
"Want to get to know these professors?" Gareth noticed Harry's gaze and chuckled, "Don't worry, you'll naturally get to know them once you start classes. However…"
He nudged Harry with his elbow and said mysteriously, "Did you see? That youngest and prettiest professor… Ah, the beauty professor with two braided pigtails… yes, she's our Herbology professor, and the head of Hufflepuff, Professor Garrick."
"Garlic?" Harry muttered.
"What?" Gareth didn't catch it.
"Nothing." Harry shrugged.
At this moment, he saw Professor Garrick raise her head and make eye contact with him. Immediately, Professor Garrick gave him a sweet and gentle smile.
For a moment, Harry felt he actually should have been sorted into Hufflepuff.
Indeed very beautiful, Professor Garrick…
"It's too late to change houses now," Gareth said with a sleazy smile, "Even if Professor Garrick is very pretty, you can't go to Hufflepuff, you'll just have to get on her good side in Herbology class."
Finally, the desserts on the table vanished.
Professor Weasley tapped her cup with a spoon, making a ding-ding-ding sound, and the hall instantly fell silent.
Principal Black stood up, cleared his throat, and said, "Oh, now that everyone is full and satisfied, I must say a few more words to everyone."
The hall immediately burst into a low murmur of complaints.
Harry also had a feeling that this principal would definitely stretch this for another half-hour.
"At the beginning of the term, I want to bring up a few points of attention." Principal Black said sternly, "First-year students take note, the woods on campus are strictly off-limits to students—some of our older class students should also remember this."
"Also, if you want to go to Hogwarts, try not to travel alone." Professor Black continued, "Furthermore, the school has the Flame of the Flying Path. First-year students can learn how to use it from the older students. As for the Flue Powder, you must bear the costs yourself."
He rambled on for another ten minutes, finally stopping when reminded by Professor Weasley.
"He can really talk, can't he?" Harry whispered to Gareth in complaint.
"You'll get used to it," Gareth also said through gritted teeth, "I heard his longest record is talking for an hour and a half…"
Harry couldn't imagine how much could be said in an hour and a half.
After the speech, Principal Black said again, "It's bedtime now. Everyone follow your class prefects back to your dormitories."
In the long tables of the four houses, class prefects from each house stood up.
"I'm the Gryffindor class prefect." A vibrant blonde girl said, "My name is Amelia Crouch. Gryffindor first-year students, please follow me."
Gryffindor students followed Miss Crouch, weaving through the noisy crowd, exiting the dining hall, and ascending the marble staircase.
Harry's legs felt like they were filled with lead again, but this time it was because he was so tired and had eaten too much.
He was so exhausted that when the corridor portraits whispered and pointed at them as they passed, Harry had no energy to be surprised.
Harry yawned continuously, dragging his heavy steps up many stairs.
At the end of the corridor hung a painting, depicting a very stout woman dressed in pink.
"Password?" she asked.
"Quid Agis." Miss Crouch replied.
The painting swayed forward to reveal a circular hole in the wall.
"What's this phrase mean?" Harry asked Gareth quietly.
Gareth replied through gritted teeth, "I don't know either."
Perhaps Miss Crouch overheard Harry's question because as he passed her, she said softly, "The password means 'How are you' in Latin."
"Thank you, Miss Crouch." Harry said.
Miss Crouch smiled at him.
She pointed the boys toward a door—at the top of a spiraling staircase—to their dormitory, then led the girls through another door.
There were six boys in total, and the dormitory had six four-poster beds draped with dark red velvet curtains.
"Today's food was really abundant." Randall said, rubbing his stomach, "I think I don't want to eat breakfast tomorrow."
"Just kidding." Gareth smirked, "I bet you'll be the one eating the most tomorrow morning! Would you believe it?"
Randall didn't respond, only chuckled loudly.
"Anyone up for a game of Gobstones?" he said again, "I think we can fit in a game before bed, don't you?"
"Gobstones?" Harry propped up his arm curiously and asked, "What's Gobstones?"
"Come on, you don't even know Gobstones?" Randall rolled his eyes.
"Harry isn't from a Pure-blood Wizard family, of course he wouldn't know what Gobstones is." Gareth defended Harry from the side.
"Alright, Gobstones is a game—generally only our age group plays it. It uses special stones, and the gameplay is similar to the Muggle marble game. The main difference being when a side loses points, those stones will shoot a foul-smelling liquid at the person who lost."
Randall said, somewhat grudgingly, "Sadly, sadly this game is quite niche in the Magic World, not cool at all!"
"It's really too late, Randall." Lawrence Davis remarked, "Look at what time it is now? Losing at Gobstones would mean having a nasty substance sprayed on your face, how will you sleep tonight?"
"You have a point." Randall yawned, "But it's just before nine, right? Isn't it a bit early to sleep?"
"A bit what?" Gareth asked.
"Come on!" Randall spread his hands, "We've finally left home, finally not having moms tell us to go to bed early. Now we can manage our own time, should we still follow rules and obediently go to bed at nine?"
Listening to Randall, everyone suddenly didn't feel like sleeping.
Except Harry, who was genuinely very sleepy.
But to fit in, Harry forced himself to stay awake, planning to listen to what these people were discussing.
However, Randall's idea was good, but he had eaten too much, so much he was sleepy.
After a few words, he drifted into dreamland.
Soon, the sound of even breathing filled the room as everyone entered dreamland.
Harry was no exception; he had a very strange dream. In the dream, he saw that blonde little girl—Miss Malfoy's surname—in his dream, the encounter with Miss Malfoy wasn't pleasant—or rather, it wasn't Miss Malfoy, but a little boy with the same surname.
He had a fight with his first meeting, because he spoke ill of the Weasley family.
However, when he woke up the next day, he had forgotten the dream.