Slowly sailing across what the half-giant called the Black Lake towards Hogwarts, Lux looked expressionlessly at the heiress of Greengrass who sat with him in the small boat.
The boat, which had enough space for four people only brought the two of them towards the gigantic castle in the distance, the others all sailing with either friends or acquaintances.
Yet, he had remained alone until the arrival of the heiress.
Whether it was due to his more serious demeanour, the lack of a smile on his face or the scars shown on his body, scars which he hadn’t bothered to heal, scars that existed due to the countless beatings he had taken in the past and the numerous falls on the rocks on the dangerous cliff.
Yet these didn’t matter, all that he knew was that he was now in the magical school that attracted him so deeply and he would make sure to explore the very depths of magic.
To leave his name in the history of magic, to reach the very pinnacle or simply to reach incredible fame didn’t matter to him.
Learning and mastering magic was but for a simple purpose, to explore the world and see the potential of this supernatural power.
As the castle appeared in front of their eyes, countless ‘oohh’s’ and ‘aahh’s’ resounded from all around him.
Taking in the castle from the distance, he could seemingly see the magic in the air, he could feel on his skin the various wards as he passed through them as various creatures seemingly looked at them from below the surface.
Swallowing as even when he had first encountered wards, the moment he encountered his Runic Lexicon, he hadn’t felt anything similar.
All of these feelings, the magic filling the air, felt as if the land of Hogwarts itself had been transformed into a land suitable for magical practice.
As he remained in his thoughts, taking in the surroundings and the castle itself, the small barque reached the shore as the students slowly disembarked one after another, grouping up with the half giant who held high a lantern to show the way for the new students.
“Follow me!” He bellowed as he started walking in a determined but slow pace towards the opened castle gates, the small wizards following rapidly, fearful of being left behind.
Even the endless chatter seemed to quiet down as everyone made sure to follow in the footsteps of the gamekeeper of the castle.
Passing through the gigantic gates, they walked up two flights of stairs, seemingly large enough to allow for twenty students to walk side by side and finally reached large oak doors which were heavily knocked by the half-giant.
Waiting in silence as everyone eagerly awaited what would happen next, the doors were slowly opened, allowing a professor that Lux recognized all too well, professor McGonagall, to appear in front of everyone.
“Thank you, Hagrid.
I will take it from here.” Stated the witch as the half-giant now introduced as Hagrid nodded his large head and turned around, walking deeper in the castle with deep purpose.
Turning to the new students, she started her small speech.
“Welcome to Hogwarts.
The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses.
The four houses are Hufflepuff, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin.” As she finished her words, everyone seemingly fell into deep thoughts.
For the pure bloods, they already knew which house they would join.
For those who had one or both parents as wizards, they hoped to join the same houses their parents had while those who came from a muggle heritage and didn’t study in advance had no idea what each of those houses represented. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
As she finished her words, she once more headed into the Great hall, leaving the new wizards out of the door, allowing them to meet the supernatural beings living in the castle, the Hogwarts ghosts.
It was only a few moments after she disappeared behind the large doors that the ghosts one after another made their appearance, acting as if they hadn’t noticed them despite the obvious glint in their eyes as they chatted and floated to their side, a few mischievous ghosts even going as far as passing through a few students, causing them to feel a chill.
Upon their disappearance, once again going straight through the wall, the students started to chat animatedly about the ghosts and which house they hoped to enter.
With about 500 students waiting.
The scene was especially loud.
However, there was a single subject on the lips of every student, the sorting ceremony.
Some said they had to fight a troll, others that they had to complete some exams before being sorted.
Some even brought out the idea that they had to fight for their place in the school, the ones losing getting expelled.
Yet, as Lux listened to all of their nonsense, already aware of the true testing ceremony after having read a few books on the subjects, he noticed that many of the new pureblood students seemed enthralled by the subject, some even going as far as showing fear.
Seeing this, Lux couldn’t help but frown.
‘How is it that they don’t seem to know what to expect?
It’s neither a secret nor uncommon knowledge amongst wizards of Britain from what I understand.’ He wondered as it didn’t make any sense for them to be completely oblivious to such knowledge.
Perhaps the older generation kept it hidden for jokes or something yet it was often repeated in the various history books about Hogwarts he had read.
His wonder however was bound to be unanswered as professor McGonagall, the transfiguration mistress of the school appeared once more in front of the group.
“Now, follow me in the Grand Hall.
Once there, wait for your name to be called to get sorted.” She stated as they nodded their heads with trepidation and followed her in the incredibly large hall.
Four incredibly long tables filled the entire space of the Great Hall as there were easily more than three thousands students sitting at the tables.
Looking up at the table at the very end of the hall, Lux immediately noticed the professors of the school.
Looking simply, there were over a hundred teachers sitting and staring at them as they slowly made their way to the front of the Great Hall, in front of a small stool with the sorting hat silently resting on top of it.
As the group stopped in front of the large podium, everyone’s eyes were seemingly attracted to the sorting hat, silence falling in the Great Hall as everyone waited for something to happen.
And finally, something happened as the sorting hat started singing.
Yet, he was far from expecting the song to come along with a beat.
Now that was something else, a beatboxing hat.
As the song came and went in a flash, the stern but kind professor that brought him to Diagon Alley took a large scroll as she started to name students one after another.
Looking around and trying to understand the various enchantments, his attention directly on the magical ceiling of the Great Hall, he wasn’t made to wait long as his name was soon called by professor McGonagall as she stood next to the stool.
“Lux Arden.” She called as he immediately and decisively made his way to the stool.
His attention was on the hat as he immediately placed it on his head as he sat down on the stool, his mental defences erected high as he wasn’t interested in having his memories read even slightly.
~Eum, what do we have here?
Someone who learned the mind arts?~ Started the sorting hat as its voice resounded in his mind, yet Lux could tell that it couldn’t get past his little but present defenses, its voice resounding in his mind without having access to it.
~You know, you don’t have to be so on guard against me, I only read your surface thoughts to understand what kind of person you are but since you don’t even want this, we’ll go by process of elimination.~ It decided as it talked to itself.
Seemingly not receiving an answer from Lux didn’t bother him at all.
~We can forget Hufflepuff who are the more trusting kind of people.
They wouldn’t hide their minds from me nor would they think of hiding it from me.~ It started as it went on to the second house to be eliminated.
~Gryffindors on the other hand would neither know nor care enough to protect their mind.
They would leave it open and simply deal with it then.
In the words of Godric Gryffindor, there’s no need to create solutions for problems that haven’t yet arrived.~ It continued with a slight joy in his tone from talking about one of the four founders.
~Now, between Slytherin and Ravenclaw, you have potential for both.
Salazar was known for always being ready for anything.
He had defenses for everything and even plans for failed plans.
You could never take him by surprise and you seem to have a bit of his character in you.
However, over the years, it seems that the Slytherins have become slightly bigoted which might be a problem since I don’t remember having sorted any Ardens in the past century.~ It added with a slight hum as he finished his reasoning.
~As such, Ravenclaw should be your ultimate destination.
She was known for loving to learn and considering that you learned the mind arts before even entering Hogwarts, you should fit well with the intellectuals.~ It decided before finally shouting aloud.
“Ravenclaw!”