At the moment Isolde took off the Sorting Hat, she could still feel the texture left by the rough fabric of the brim.
She raised her hand to hand the hat back into the professor’s hands, and when she looked up, she met the smiling gaze of a friendly little eagle, suddenly unable to help curving the corners of her mouth.
Fortunately, she hadn’t been halfway diverted to Slytherin by that hat.
Sorting Hat: 666, classic move of passing the buck.
“Yo, look at our new Ravenclaw!”
An upperclassman wearing silver-blue school robes walked over quickly, with a bronze Owl brooch pinned to the ends of her hair, and a hearty smile.
“My name is Doxin Lina, fifth year, responsible for helping you first-year newcomers adapt.”
She reached out and patted Isolde’s shoulder, her gaze sweeping over the cedar wand in her hand, her eyes lighting up:
“Cedar wood? A rare wand material, it must suit your sober energy perfectly.”
Isolde nodded quickly, her fingertips gently clutching the wand handle: “Hello, Senior, I am Isolde Winnier.”
“Winnier? Pure-blood?”
Doxin waved her hand, leading her toward the Ravenclaw long table, where a dozen new students were already seated.
“Ravenclaw focuses on brains; the Sorting Hat already acknowledged your intelligence just now, so you’re all set!”
As soon as the words fell, a girl with a high ponytail next to her immediately leaned over, her eyes sparkling.
“I am Muggle-born, but my parents are super amazing scientists back where we’re from! When I saw you being sorted just now, I was so nervous I gripped my wand tightly!”
She shook the hawthorn wand in her hand; it was a very pretty wand color.
Scientists?
That was indeed something very proud of.
Isolde was amused by her enthusiasm, and just as she was about to speak, a girl wearing round-framed glasses on the other side also softly spoke:
“I am Edice Rock, half-blood, my mother is a witch, and my father is a Muggle veterinarian.”
She pushed up her glasses, her gaze falling on Isolde’s wand, “Is the cedar wand core dragon heartstring? It has great flexibility, suitable for casting precise spells.”
“Wow, you know so much!” Senior Doxin chimed in with a smile, pointing out the empty seat beside her to Isolde.
“Sit down quickly, let me introduce the rest of the upperclassmen to you. Our Ravenclaw Common Room is up in the tower, and I’ll take you up to learn the way later.”
As soon as Isolde sat down, she heard two boys diagonally opposite whispering complaints.
“To actually sort a Winnier into Ravenclaw, I thought the Pure-blood The Handmaiden would enter Slytherin.”
“Who didn’t? I heard she stood up hard against young master Lestrange on the train! Such guts, such ambition, tsk tsk tsk…”
Another boy lowered his voice, “Fortunately, she didn’t go to Slytherin to cause trouble, otherwise that guy Lestrange would definitely look for trouble.”
Isolde raised an eyebrow, her fingertips gently tapping the tabletop.
——It seemed that her reputation had spread out in a rather unpleasant way.
Doxin looked over along her line of sight, smiling helplessly:
“Don’t mind them; people in Slytherin always feel like the whole world should revolve around them.”
“Right, when dorms are assigned later, all four of your roommates have arrived.”
She pointed to three girls with their heads down at the end of the long table: “That light golden curly-haired girl especially loves studying ancient runes.”
“The high-ponytail girl who just greeted you is Lucy Kane…”
Isolde looked over along her finger, and Lucy happened to raise her head, meeting her gaze.
She nodded gently, a faint smile appearing at the corner of her mouth.
“See you in the Common Room later, I’m going to go greet the upperclassmen of other years.”
Doxin waved her hand and turned away.
As soon as Isolde sat down, Lucy leaned over:
“When you were sorted just now, what did the Sorting Hat say about you? Although it looks unremarkable, it is actually a hat with extremely high intelligence!”
“It praised me for being obsessively addicted to studying certain things, and being very interested in researching and learning things, making me suitable for Ravenclaw.”
Isolde: “Aow…”
Supporting her chin with her hand, she put on a pensive look.
“What did it praise me for again…”
“…”
The sorting ceremony ended, and Senior Doxin held a magic lantern emitting a soft blue light, leading Isolde and her fellow Ravenclaw freshmen onto the stairs leading to the house tower.
Hogwarts’s stairs were already fickle, and the spiral staircase leading to the Ravenclaw tower was no less so.
Portraits of past outstanding elders hung on the walls, and the people in the paintings occasionally nodded gently toward them.
Walking to the end of the stairs.
Before everyone stepped forward, the eagle knocker gently turned its neck, and a voice sounded:
“What thing begins with no end, returns to formlessness, but always accompanies a person?”
Senior Doxin answered without hesitation:
“…I think it should be thought.”
As soon as the words fell, the door slowly opened wide.
The Common Room uniquely belonging to Ravenclaw was unreservedly displayed before Isolde’s eyes.
“Every time you enter the Common Room, you must answer a question, and you are no exception.”
“The boys’ dormitories are on the left staircase, and the girls’ dormitories are on the right.”
“The Rooms of the four of you are connected, oh, and those junior schoolgirls and schoolboys… Rest early, class starts early tomorrow morning.”
Doxin gave a few instructions and then turned away.
The light golden curly-haired girl who walked into the Room first chose a favorite bed, turned back upon hearing footsteps, and spoke with a smile:
“Hey, dears, can I sleep in the spot by the edge?”
She had a tiny silver star hairpin pinned to her hair, looking exceptionally lively, which Isolde hadn’t noticed before.
“Of course.”
After everyone had chosen their beds, Edice Rock, who had greeted them earlier in the Great Hall, was the only half-blood witch in the dormitory.
She had already packed up her belongings and was sitting at the desk flipping through magic notes.
She was also the girl in this dormitory, besides Isolde, who understood the magical world the most thoroughly.
There were no Pure-blood wizards, completely different from Slytherin’s uniform Pure-blood circle, which also allowed Isolde to completely let go of her concerns.
There was a bit less of the tension she felt on the train when facing the target of her conquest, Madam Bella.
The four of them simply packed their respective luggage and sat in a circle on the carpet, the magic lamp at the head of the bed emitting a soft glow, and the night outside the window deepening.
After the earlier pleasantries, the sense of unfamiliarity between each other decreased, and a bit of initial friendliness increased.
Isolde looked at the three girls around her who were gradually getting familiar with each other, pondering matters from the train in her heart.
Hesitating for a moment, she still intended to speak up to probe around.
After all, she had just come to the magical world herself, and still needed to understand the thoughts of her peers more.
By the way, she also wanted to know what kind of existence a Pure-blood Slytherin like Bellatrix Black was in the eyes of these Ravenclaw classmates.
After all, Bellatrix was her conquest target; understanding others’ views on her could help her better find the right direction to approach and avoid unnecessary trouble.
“By the way, you guys… did you notice those Slytherins during the sorting today?”
Isolde spoke feigning casualness, trying to keep her tone as natural as possible.
She originally thought that the few companions would be more or less interested in this.
But unexpectedly, as soon as her words fell, Lucy immediately frowned, her gaze still lingering on the rune book in her hand, casually chiming in:
“Didn’t pay much attention; I’ve been thinking about the courses we’re about to study all day today, previewing is essential.”
Saying that, she even handed the book in front of everyone, pointing to the rune patterns on it, and explained with shining eyes, completely throwing this topic to the winds.