The tranquil moon cast a faint glow upon the spires of Hogwarts. Hazy lights twinkled brightly through the Great Hall's windows under the starry sky.
Today was the start of the term. The Great Hall had been bustling since early evening, with every student happily chatting with their friends and recounting their summer holiday adventures.
Even the Professors conversed with warm smiles, making the atmosphere particularly lively beneath the enchanted floating candles.
Of course, this liveliness did not belong to Miss Lyla Hamilton.
She sat hunched in a dark corner of the staff table. She seemed desperately afraid of being noticed by any of the hundreds of students in the room.
'Connection runes can add signals for individual pairing, or they can transmit openly...' Lyla, hidden securely behind her pale mask, recited her favorite Magic Array Studies notes to alleviate her crushing stress.
"Miss Hamilton, are you settling in?"
"Ah!" Startled by the sudden greeting, Lyla's body trembled violently, and she let out a soft yelp.
Looking up slightly, she noticed Dumbledore standing right beside her chair.
"Dum... Dumbledore..." She pursed her lips nervously. "I... I'm fine."
"That's good," Dumbledore smiled and nodded. He seemed to have his own matters to attend to. After their brief greeting, he turned to converse with the other Professors.
Upon seeing Dumbledore, the students below subtly lowered their voices. It indicated that everyone still held great respect for the Headmaster of Hogwarts.
Then, Lyla noticed that the majority of the students' gazes were focused on the young man with splendid golden hair. It was Gilderoy Lockhart. As a renowned wizard and adventurer, he clearly had many devoted fans among the students.
They cast eager glances at him, and Lockhart returned their adoration with a blinding, practiced smile.
'How does Mr. Lockhart manage to face so many eyes at once without fainting?' Lyla wondered in awe.
'If it were me, my soul would have long since drifted out of my body... In fact, am I not already dissociating right now?'
'But why haven't I seen Professor Snape?' Lyla subtly scanned the staff table, surprised to find that one of the few people she actually knew was missing.
'Is he late? Or did he run away because he, like me, desperately doesn't want to work here?'
Thump.
The heavy oak doors of the Great Hall were suddenly pushed open. Lyla's body jolted, and her gaze immediately snapped toward the entrance.
She saw Hagrid's massive figure striding in. He had apparently just finished guiding the first-year students across the Black Lake.
'I'm very glad that as a Professor, I didn't have to take a boat or follow Hagrid... Ah, this isn't meant to be a criticism of Hagrid... I just really don't want to...'
Just as she was thinking this, she saw Hagrid walk directly over to her. He pulled out an empty chair with a loud, grating scrape and plopped down right beside her.
"Ha... Hagrid..." Lyla squeaked.
"Ha! Good to see you again, Miss Hamilton!" Hagrid revealed a hearty smile. He gulped down a massive goblet of mead in one breath and then sighed. "There was a small incident just now."
"What... what incident?" Lyla thought for a moment before asking cautiously.
'Asking questions should make it less awkward, right...'
"It was Harry and Ron." Hagrid shook his bushy head helplessly and took another sip of mead, his goblet having magically refilled itself. "They went somewhere and completely missed the Hogwarts Express."
"Ah... missed... the train, did they..." Lyla echoed blankly. 'I must be a terrible conversationalist... I'm mostly just repeating what others say.'
"Oh, speaking of Harry." Hagrid seemed to recall something and looked down at Lyla. "Miss Hamilton, have you met Harry?"
"Met... met him..." Lyla nodded slightly and whispered.
"It was in Knockturn Alley, wasn't it?" Hagrid pressed.
"Hmm." Lyla couldn't help but widen her eyes in horror, though Hagrid could only see the unmoving pale mask on her face.
'Did Mr. Potter tell Hagrid?'
"Ah... yes... yes, it was."
'Just appearing in Knockturn Alley shouldn't be a big deal, right?' Lyla forced a slightly awkward smile behind her mask.
"I heard from Harry that you encountered a dark wizard," Hagrid pursed his lips, his expression turning serious. "You weren't hurt, were you?"
"N-no... no..." Lyla was a little surprised. 'Is Hagrid actually concerned about me?'
"That's good." Hagrid looked around carefully and then lowered his booming voice. "Harry said that dark wizard used an Unforgivable Curse."
'Mr. Burke was indeed a bit irrational... Even Durmstrang students didn't have the habit of using the Killing Curse immediately upon meeting someone.'
"It's a good thing, Miss Hamilton, that you are a highly skilled witch," Hagrid said, smiling warmly again. He truly seemed to be quite a straightforward, honest person.
Lyla's face flushed red behind her mask at the sudden praise. "No... not really..."
"Also... thank you, Hagrid..."
Just forcing those few words out took almost all of Lyla's social strength. She felt she desperately needed to recite her Magic Array Studies notes again to recover her depleted energy.
While Lyla was silently reciting her notes, the Hogwarts opening ceremony officially began.
A stern-faced female Professor—Professor McGonagall—coughed lightly as she led the first-years through the Great Hall. Her presence slowly quieted the noisy student body.
"The Sorting Ceremony is about to begin. It's something you definitely haven't seen at Durmstrang," Hagrid said excitedly. "It's unique to Hogwarts."
Lyla was no longer surprised that Hagrid knew which academy she had previously attended. 'Dumbledore has probably told Hagrid absolutely everything about me...'
'But the Sorting Ceremony... Durmstrang indeed didn't have such a ceremony, but I remember reading that Ilvermorny in the United States has a similar one.'
'I wonder if the two academies' methods are exactly alike?'
'Hogwarts' sorting relies on a hat... Could it be this old hat?'
Lyla instinctively frowned in disgust as she looked at the dirty, torn Sorting Hat placed on the stool at the front of the hall.
'I would definitely have to wash my hair three times after putting something like that on my head...'
'It's said that the hat has been passed down for a thousand years. Does that mean it contains bacteria from a thousand years ago?!'
"What's wrong, Miss Hamilton?" Hagrid, seeing Lyla stare silently in horror, instinctively thought something had happened.
"Ah... I was just thinking about bacteria..." Lyla blurted out.
"Bacteria?"
"Nothing! Nothing!" Lyla quickly shook her head, thoroughly embarrassed. "The Sorting Ceremony... the Sorting Ceremony is about to begin..."
Hagrid looked at Lyla in mild confusion, then obligingly turned his gaze back to the front.
To be honest, Lyla already didn't much like the Hogwarts Sorting Ceremony. The stern-looking Professor would call out a name in front of everyone, and a terrified first-year student would have to walk up and sit on the chair.
'It's a very good thing Durmstrang didn't have this kind of format... otherwise, just walking up and sitting there in front of the whole school would be embarrassing enough to kill me.'
"Next, Luna Lovegood!" Professor McGonagall called out.