Hogwarts Castle.
Professor McGonagall continued to preside over the Sorting Ceremony.
However, her mind remained fixed on Holmes, who had just been sorted into Gryffindor.
She had not expected that this young wizard, who had left a deep impression on her even before the term began, would turn out to be a true Hatstall, just like herself.
This humorous term, poking fun at the Sorting Hat, referred to a student whose Sorting took longer than a set threshold—conventionally agreed to be over five minutes—and whose personality traits suited several different Hogwarts houses, placing the Sorting Hat in a genuine dilemma.
True Hatstalls were exceedingly rare, occurring only once every fifty years or so.
In most cases, students were merely near-Hatstalls.
Like Hermione Granger right before Holmes.
Many years ago, on McGonagall’s first night here, she had drawn everyone’s gaze.
The Sorting Hat had taken fully five and a half minutes to sort her.
It had wavered primarily between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw.
In the end, it chose the former for her.
Even to this day, she herself felt Ravenclaw would have been a fine choice as well.
Especially after becoming Head of Gryffindor, whenever she faced a bunch of daring, reckless troublemakers, that feeling grew particularly strong.
Yet over all these years, the Sorting Hat had steadfastly maintained its decision, insisting that Gryffindor suited her better.
Counting the years, it had indeed been nearly fifty years since her own enrollment.
She had almost forgotten about the matter.
She had never expected Sherlock Holmes and Hermione Granger to open those long-dusty memories once more.
To think that when the Sorting Hat was choosing a house for her current colleague, Professor Flitwick, the Head of Ravenclaw, it had also hesitated for a long time.
In the end, however, the Sorting Hat had made the opposite decision from McGonagall’s, placing Professor Flitwick in Ravenclaw.
Over the years, this had inevitably become casual tea-time banter between her and Professor Flitwick.
Both had happily mused that if they had been just a little more firm or a little more hesitant in their youth, their roles might have been reversed.
Then McGonagall would be the Head of Ravenclaw today, and Professor Flitwick the Head of Gryffindor.
Thinking of this, she could not help but glance up toward the staff table.
Sensing her gaze, Professor Flitwick offered her a gentle smile.
Clearly, Sherlock and Hermione had reminded Professor Flitwick of McGonagall and himself all those years ago.
McGonagall withdrew her gaze and looked back at Sherlock, finding him engaged in conversation with the Gryffindor prefect, Percy Weasley.
She could not hear what Sherlock said, but Percy’s expression looked rather peculiar.
Percy was indeed feeling quite awkward.
After listening to Percy’s explanation of a Hatstall, Sherlock had remarked flatly, “It doesn’t sound any different…
The other explanation is actually much easier to accept.” With just one sentence, Sherlock had successfully choked Percy off.
Did this first-year know how to speak to people at all?!
Percy was a prefect!
“Hahahahaha!” The twin brothers burst out laughing.
“Brilliant work!
You’re a natural.
From today on, hang out with us!” “That’s right, Holmes!
We’ll definitely make a massive splash in front of the whole school!” Sherlock: “…” He paid no further attention to the twins and continued watching the Sorting Ceremony for the remaining first-years.
After him, a few more new students had relatively long Sortings, approaching the status of near-Hatstalls.
For instance, the round-faced boy who had recovered his lost toad, Neville Longbottom.
He tripped on his way to the stool, then sat on pins and needles for nearly five minutes before being announced for Gryffindor.
Then he bolted off while still wearing the hat.
Amidst a wave of laughter, Neville had to trot back to return the hat to Professor McGonagall.
After him came Draco Malfoy, who took immense pride in his bloodline.
The exact opposite of Neville, the hat had barely touched his head when it shrieked: “Slytherin!” Swift and decisive.
Watching Malfoy strut over to Slytherin to join his sidekicks Crabbe and Goyle, Sherlock adopted a thoughtful look.
From the current situation, whether it was himself and Hermione, or Neville and Malfoy, these were merely edge cases.
Apart from them, most others took very little time—like Hannah Abbott, the first one called, who was sorted into a house within half a minute.
Even the occasional longer ones concluded within two or three minutes.
Not to mention true Hatstalls like Sherlock, who took over five minutes, even near-Hatstalls like Hermione and Neville were few and far between.
From a scientific perspective, this conformed to the standard normal distribution curve—few at the extremes, many in the middle.
Thus, the Sorting Ceremony proceeded in an orderly manner under Professor McGonagall’s direction, until she called out a name: “Harry Potter!” The Savior undoubtedly drew the highest level of attention in the entire hall.
When Harry stepped out of the line of first-years, a collective gasp swept through the Great Hall.
Even the room’s temperature seemed to drop.
“Potter?
Did she say Potter?” “Is it *the* Harry Potter?” “That’s him!
If your eyes are sharp enough, you can even see the scar on his forehead!” “How could anyone see it from this far…” At this point, the twin brothers could not hold back any longer.
George turned to Sherlock: “Holmes, I heard you’re on good terms with Potter?” Seeing Sherlock nod, Fred quickly pressed, “Then you must know him well!
Which house do you think he’ll be sorted into?” This time, Percy did not stop the twins from asking, because he was thoroughly curious about it as well.
“The Hat will take a long time,” Sherlock answered without hesitation.
“The final result will be Gryffindor.” “Why?” Hermione finally found an opportunity to chime in, asking hurriedly.
“Yeah, why?” the Weasley twins asked in unison.
Not just them, but everyone nearby who overheard their conversation could not help turning to look at Sherlock.
If Harry Potter really came to Gryffindor, it would be a monumental cause for celebration.
But…
why?
On what basis could Sherlock make such a judgment before the Sorting?
Because of personal experience, of course.
From his own Sorting experience, the hat respected individual choice.
Based on Sherlock’s understanding of Harry, aside from Ravenclaw, the probability of Harry being sorted into the other three houses was quite high, with Gryffindor and Slytherin having a slightly higher priority than Hufflepuff.
However, Harry himself did not wish to go to Slytherin, which left Gryffindor.
After hearing Sherlock’s explanation, the young lions looked at one another in silence.
Wasn’t this a bit too far-fetched?
The Weasley twins wanted to push further, but this time Sherlock offered no more.
Seeing his closed stance, everyone could only drop the matter.
In any case, they would soon see whether this fellow was bragging or not.