Hogwarts White Knight

The boat floated on the moonlit water, creating microwaves.

Everyone looked at the majestic castle in awe.

Composed of multiple towers and wings, this baroque medieval castle looks like the mythical giant Atlas who held up the world.

"Gawain, do you feel like there's something in the lake?"

Neville clasped his hands in front of his mouth and spoke carefully.

"Maybe there is some monster..."

Gawain shook his head, a little carelessly. He held his right hand on the side of the boat, and his fingertips seemed to be tapping some rhythm.

"Don't be stupid, this is Hogwarts, they won't be so crazy..."

Hermione raised her eyebrows and said angrily. But in the light of the torch, her knuckles looked particularly pale.

No one spoke after that.

Unknowingly, the boat had entered a long and narrow tunnel. The two sides were dark, and only after a long time could there be a faint flicker of fire.

At the end of the tunnel is an underground dock, where boats dock.

The ground was covered with tiny gravel.

"Okay, everyone, get off the boat and come to me!"

Hagrid jumped out of the boat first and shouted hello.

Gawain saw that after he left, the boat suddenly rose upwards, splashing a lot of water.

"Cough, cough, I just... have a big frame. Yes, a big frame!"

Hagrid's face hidden by his beard showed a hint of red, and he raised his big hand holding the oil lamp and said.

"Hey, the lake is too small, so it's not bad."

A somewhat sarcastic voice came from the crowd, greasy and annoying.

"who is it?"

Harry looked over there suddenly. Ron was beside him, with the same indignant look on his face.

But the man never spoke again.

"Okay, okay, everyone line up!"

Under Hagrid's command, the little wizards lined up in two rows and followed him up a winding bluestone staircase.

At the end of the stairs is a huge wooden door.

Under the light of the torch, the brown glaze looks very simple.

"Bang, bang, bang."

Hagrid stepped forward and knocked three times. After a moment, the door was pushed open from the inside, and Professor McGonagall appeared in front of everyone.

"First year, Professor McGonagall," Hagrid said.

"Thank you, Hagrid. Let me take over from here."

Professor McGonagall nodded and pursed her lips, revealing a slightly invisible arc.

She pulled the door wide open.

It was a very spacious foyer.

The ceiling is almost invisible, and it is even enough to fit the entire Gao Wen family's house inside, leaving two or three driveways.

Like Gringotts, the stone walls are surrounded by blazing torches. In front of you is a luxurious marble staircase leading straight to the upper floor.

The new students followed her along the stone floor.

The buzzing sounds of hundreds of people came from the door on the right. Students from other grades of the school must have arrived already - but Professor McGonagall took the first-year students to a small empty room at the other end of the hall.

The empty room was not big, and everyone crowded in, rubbing shoulders and gazing nervously at everything around them.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall.

"The names of the four colleges are... Please click on the paragraph for the original content."

"In a few minutes, the sorting ceremony will be held in front of all the teachers and students of the school. I suggest that you tidy up while waiting to look more energetic."

Her eyes wandered to Neville's cloak (the cloak strap was tied under his left ear) and Ron's nose, and then she walked out of the room.

"How can they accurately assign us to which house?" Harry asked Ron next to him in a low voice.

"I guess there's always a test to pass. Fred said it hurt us a lot, but I think he was joking."

No one around them spoke, and it was obvious that they were not the only ones worried.

Hermione was reciting the spell almost inaudibly, and sparks and light appeared from the top of the wand from time to time, which was frightening. Neville clutched his wand tightly, biting his lip until it almost bled.

"Gawain, what are you thinking about?"

Seemingly not used to such a tense atmosphere, Parvati poked Gawain's waist with her elbow and said.

"Huh? Oh... it should be... the New World?"

Gawain said absently, his eyes seemed to have lost focus, and he stared blankly at the dusty wall, as if there were mysterious patterns on it.

"You mean...America?"

This answer undoubtedly disappointed Parvati. She lightly stamped her foot and stopped talking.

Suddenly, several people screamed loudly.

"That is--!"

About twenty ghosts suddenly jumped out from the wall behind them. These pearly white, translucent ghosts glided across the room, whispering to each other.

"He should be forgiven, I say, and we should give him another chance—"

They seemed to be arguing about something. said a chubby little monk-like ghost.

"My good monk, haven't we given Peeves enough chances? But he's given us all terrible nicknames. You know, he's not even a ghost - I said, What are you doing here?"

A phantom in a ruffled bodysuit suddenly spots freshmen.

It is a high and stiff round collar that surrounds the neck and was popular in the th and th centuries.

Frankly speaking, some people even believed at the time that the purpose of inventing this kind of round-neck tights was to make beheading people clean and neat, without being too ugly.

Of course no one answered.

"New students!" said the chubby monk, smiling at them. "I guess you're preparing to be tested, right?"

The student was silent and nodded stiffly.

"I hope you can be sorted into Hufflepuff!" the monk said, "I used to study in that house."

"Move forward now," said a shrill voice. "The sorting ceremony is about to begin."

With a "click", the door was opened again.

It's Professor McGonagall back.

The ghosts filed through the opposite wall and disappeared.

"Now, in a single line," Professor McGonagall said to the first-year students, "follow me."

All of them followed Professor McGonagall's footsteps, walked out of the room, walked through the foyer, and entered the luxurious auditorium through a double door.

Students from other grades were already sitting around four long tables, pointing and whispering to the freshmen. The restaurant was illuminated by thousands of candles floating in mid-air above the tables.

Four long tables were set with gleaming gold plates and goblets. There is another long table on the table at the top of the restaurant. There is no doubt that it is a seat for teachers.

Professor McGonagall brought the first years over there and asked them to line up.

"A spell has been cast here to make it look like the sky outside. I read about it in Hogwarts: A History."

Hermione whispered, crossing her fingers and biting her lip.

In front of everyone, Professor McGonagall gently put down a four-legged stool, and then placed a pointed wizard hat on the stool.

The hat was patched and very worn.

But everyone in the auditorium was staring at the hat, and there was silence.

Suddenly, a wide crack opened in the edge of the hat, like a mouth - and the hat began to sing: "You may belong to Gryffindor... Please click on the paragraph to read the original content."

"Whoever's name I call now will put on his hat, sit on the stool, and wait for the branch," Professor McGonagall said.

"Hannah Abbott!"

A little girl with a rosy complexion and two golden braids stumbled out of the queue and put on her hat.

There was a moment's pause - "Hufflepuff!" cried the Hat.

"Susan Burns!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Terry Boot!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"..."

Time passed little by little, and Harry, Hermione, Neville, etc. had all sat down on the Gryffindor bench, leaving only Gawain still waiting.

"Gawain White!"

Professor McGonagall finally said his name.

Seeing that he was still in a daze, she took a few steps forward, pulled him to the chair, and put his hat on for him.

There were a few snickers from the Slytherin table, but were silenced by Professor McGonagall's glance.

But Gawain doesn't really care.

In fact, he was so lost in his thoughts that he didn't even know he had the hat on.

"Aha! Boy, did you hear that too?"

Suddenly, a small voice sounded in his head.

"Shut up! Can't you hear me!"

Gawain said with some dissatisfaction that the melody was reaching its climax, and the sonata-style Allegro made him feel his heartbeat speeding up.

"Of course I heard it, but I have a whole year, or even a century, to wait, but you don't. Well..."

The small voice continued speaking on its own.

"Let me think about it, maybe you have the deep courage to find your glory in Gryffindor? Or is your wisdom deep enough? In Ravenclaw..."

"Anyway is fine! Just Ravenclaw, let me hear it all!"

Gawain interrupted the sound almost roughly, because the melody was about to reach its climax.

He seemed to see a man wearing a fiery red robe, standing on the sand dunes, holding a long sword in one hand and a wand in the other, charging towards the numerous enemies.

The ground cracked open, revealing large cracks.

The blood-red moon hung in the sky.

"But that won't work, then - Gryffindor!"

The subtle sound suddenly became like thunder, suddenly interrupting the melody lingering in Gawain's mind, and the scene came to an abrupt end.

When he came to his senses, he was standing in front of all the students, wearing a tattered black pointed wizard hat on his head.

"Mr. White, you are welcome to Gryffindor."

Professor McGonagall patted him on the shoulder, helped him stand up, and asked him to walk towards the Gryffindor table where they were cheering.

To everyone, Gawain's sorting was just an episode, even if they never heard the Sorting Hat shouting at the top of his lungs.

Only Dumbledore was different.

He narrowed his eyes.

ps: Because some of the content in this chapter really needs to be quoted from the original text, even if the text has been processed, it is still unavoidable (unlike long dialogues that can be directly shortened), so I have included some more content to match the normal text. Chapter balance.