Harry opened his mouth to defend himself, thinking that Sirius would not be knocked down by a curse, but remembering what happened to Chino and Lockhart in the first and second years, and Lupin's inexplicable resignation at the end of the semester in third grade, he shut his mouth again.

After a little delay, the sorting ceremony began, and Professor McGonagall led the long line of first-year freshmen to the top of the auditorium, placing a triangular stool on the ground in front of the freshmen, and placing a tattered, dirty, patched wizard's hat on the stool.

The first-year students stared at the strange hat, and the others looked at it too.

For a moment, there was silence in the auditorium.

Then a crack near the brim of the hat opened like a mouth, and the hat suddenly began to sing:

"That was more than a thousand years ago, and I was just woven into shape,

There are four famous wizards, whose names have survived to this day:

Brave Gryffindor, from a barren swamp,

Beautiful Ravenclaw, from the tranquil riverside,

Merciful Hufflepuff, from the open valley,

Shrewd Slytherin, from that quagmire.

.......”

The strange singing of the Sorting Hat resounded throughout the Great Hall.

When I heard the sentence "The Big Four have injected me with thoughts, and it is up to me to pick and evaluate from now on!" Ivan's heart moved.

According to Nick Lemay, injecting one's mind and will into magical objects is a very advanced alchemy technique, and it is also the bottleneck of his alchemy learning today.

While Ivan was thinking, the singing of the Sorting House had stopped, and the auditorium erupted in applause.

McGonagall unfolded a large roll of parchment and read the names on it, and the freshmen who were read it stepped forward in turn to pick up the Sorting Hat and sit down on the stool, waiting for the hat to make a decision.

Ivan glanced at it a few times and then withdrew his gaze, but unfortunately he was not a freshman and could not touch the Sorting Hat, otherwise he could use the function of system identification to see the reality of the hat.

Harry on the side was not as laid-back as Ivan, and was constantly harassed by his little fan brother Colin, who was a year below him, and although he was very impatient, Harry still answered a few words perfunctorily.

About a dozen minutes later, the sorting ceremony finally ended as a freshman named Kevin Whitby was sorted into Hufflepuff.

Professor McGonagall packed up the Sorting Hat and small stools and removed them.

Professor Dumbledore in the teacher's chair slowly stood up, looking at all his classmates with a smile and opening his arms in a gesture of welcome.

"I only have two words to say to you," Dumbledore's deep voice echoed through the Great Hall, and he stretched out his wand and tapped it in mid-air, speaking loudly.

"Let's eat!"

As Dumbledore's words fell, the empty plates on the long table were suddenly magically filled with all kinds of food.

"It's finally time!" Ron hurriedly grabbed the spoon that was placed on the side, scooped a spoonful of mashed potatoes and stuffed it into his mouth, and was already hungry after a whole afternoon on the train.

Ivan also let go of those complicated thoughts, and began to enjoy the meal in front of him intently, cutting a juicy piece of steak and chewing it slowly in his mouth.

Nick, who was almost headless, wandered around them, and he couldn't help but be a little greedy when he saw them feasting, but the ghost couldn't eat the food of the living, so he had to watch like this.

"Hey... You're really lucky today, you know, the dinner party in the evening almost went to waste. Nick, who was almost headless, said sourly.

"What's wrong? Did something happen? Ivan glanced at the ghost and swallowed the steak in his mouth.

"There was a mess in the kitchen earlier, Peeves was deliberately making trouble, and they were arguing over it, you know, Peeves has always wanted to attend the party!"

Nick, who was almost headless, shook his head and sighed, his neck with skin didn't look very stable, and he almost threw his head off, which made Ivan and others very worried about him.

Fortunately, his head didn't fall off in the end, and after a pause, Nick, who was almost headless, continued.

"You should know that Peeves is a virtuous person, completely uneducated, and throws food everywhere when he sees it, and we have a ghost meeting to discuss it. The Fat Friar had suggested that he be given this chance—but Barrow the Bloody firmly disagreed, and I thought he would have done so. ”

"No wonder Peeves are making a mess at the door..."Ron smacked his mouth, Peeves didn't usually have the guts to stop the door of the Great Hall and play tricks on them when school first started.

"And then, Nick, what did Peeves do in the kitchen?" Harry asked curiously.

"It's not the same old thing," Nick shrugged, "it's just wreathing, Peeves has made a mess of everything." Pots and pans were thrown everywhere, and the whole kitchen was flooded with soup.

The poor house-elves were so frightened by it that they drove Peeves away and had to make a new dinner, almost delaying the feast! ”

"That's bad! Luckily, Peeves was kicked out..."Ron said happily, if Peeves did succeed, everyone would have to starve for a night!

When...

Listening to Nick and Ron's words, Hermione knocked over the tall gins glass in front of her, pumpkin juice poured over the tablecloth, staining the white linen into an orange for several feet, but Hermione ignored it.

Harry and Ron looked at Hermione in surprise, and Ivan also turned his head, vaguely remembering something, and couldn't help but secretly scream in his heart.

"You just said... House-elves are there too? Hermione didn't look at Ivan and the others, but glared at Nick and said in a high tone.

"Right? Needless to say? Nick, who was almost headless, looked at Hermione strangely, not understanding why she had such a big reaction, but he replied truthfully, with a little pride in his words.

"There aren't as many house-elves in any house in Britain as there are here, but there are more than a hundred house-elves in Hogwarts!"

"Then why can't I see it?" Hermione frowned, she had only seen one house-elf in Hogwarts a few years ago - that was Dobby.

"Ahem..."This time, without waiting for Nick, who was almost headless, to reply, Ivan coughed lightly twice, attracting everyone's attention, and then helped explain.

"Hermione, house-elves are wizards' best "helpers", it can be said that housekeeping is all-powerful, there are so many little wizards in Hogwarts, there is always a need for some house-elves..."

"Then they get paid, do they have holidays?" Hermione was not fooled by Ivan, and continued very seriously. "And sick leave... Allowances, do they all have them? ”

When she met Dobby before, Hermione didn't realize the lowly status of the house-elves, and thought that she was similar to a housekeeper.

But after coming into contact with Twinkle and Kreacher during the summer vacation, she realized that the life of these poor little ones was even harder than that of slaves!

"Sick leave and allowances? Hahaha..."The floating ghost almost burst out of laughter as if it had heard something funny, its wheel-shaped wrinkled collar tilted, its head rolled down, and hung in the air by an inch or two of dead skin and muscles still attached to its neck.

"They don't need that, Granger!" Nick put his dangling head back to his neck and secured it again with a ruffled collar, "House-elves don't need sick days and allowances!" ”

"That means they have nothing and have to work hard every day? Isn't that slave labor? Hermione huffed, then turned to Ivan and asked.

"That Dobby..."

"Yes! Of course! Ivan nodded hurriedly and interrupted Hermione's words, "Dobby can get paid every month, and I gave him a vacation last year to give him a good rest for a few days!" ”