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Chapter 353: Mad-Eye Moody
Chapter 353: Mad-Eye Moody
The first-year students stood in a long, excited queue at the top of the Great Hall, waiting to be sorted, while Felix felt a bit hungry.
Valen the Niffler felt the same way.
"Just a bit longer. We can make a bet on whether there will be raisin pudding on the table later. Oh, and do you eat grapes?" Felix whispered. The Niffler, sitting on his lap, stretched its neck to look at the empty tables, looking somewhat disappointed.
Especially when it used its eyes to plead, asking if it could collect a set of Hogwarts silverware, but Felix mercilessly refused.
Snape watched them with a strange expression, but the Niffler was only interested in shiny, intricate things. It kept looking at Dumbledore's suddenly appearing silver beard and then turning to look at Flitwick, who was sitting on a high, cushioned chair, its eyes never getting enough.
"...
Place me upon your head,
I've never made a wrong prediction,
I'll take a look inside your mind,
And tell you which house you belong to!"
With a loud applause, the Sorting Hat finished its annual song, and the sorting ceremony officially began. The only thing Felix found odd was that the last line of the song wasn't "They share a dream, a single wish" — he had heard it so many times in the Headmaster's office that he subconsciously thought the Sorting Hat would end with that.
"Stewart Ackerley!" Professor Mcgonagall stood to one side, unrolling a long parchment and reading the names.
A boy stepped forward, visibly trembling from head to toe. He picked up the Sorting Hat, placed it on his head, and sat down on the stool, so nervous that his eyes were nearly rolling back.
"Ravenclaw!" the Sorting Hat called out.
Stewart Ackerley took off the hat and hurried to the Ravenclaw table, where everyone clapped to welcome him.
"Malcolm Baddock!" "Slytherin!"
"Eleanor Branstone!" "Hufflepuff!"
"Owen Cauldwell!" "Hufflepuff!"
"Dennis Creevey!" "Gryffindor!"
The little Creevey boy was wearing a mole coat, clearly Hagrid's, which for a first-year student, was like a sturdy fur tent. When he was sorted into Gryffindor, he didn't even think twice and ran straight to the Gryffindor table.
While running, he excitedly shouted, sharing his experience: "Colin! I fell into the lake! The lake!"
"Sorting Hat! Leave the Sorting Hat behind!"
Professor Mcgonagall called out a couple of times, but he didn't react. In the end, she tapped her wand, and the Sorting Hat floated back to her. Felix flicked his fingers, and the mole coat flew to Hagrid, who was just about to stand up.
"Thanks, Felix", Hagrid said gruffly, shaking the coat and sending raindrops sprinkling to the ground.
On the other side, the Gryffindor students laughed good-naturedly. The new student scratched his head, looking a bit shy, and sat down next to a student who looked a lot like him. After a moment of calm, he began excitedly describing his experience, "I fell into the lake and swallowed a few gulps of water. I thought it was all over! But then something pushed me back onto the boat!"
"Awesome!" said his older brother, Colin Creevey, who was just as excited, "It must have been the giant squid, Dennis!"
Colin pointed to Harry, a few seats away, "See that boy over there? The one with black hair and glasses? That's Harry Potter. He's in all twelve photo albums I sent home, along with his friends!"
Dennis looked at Harry curiously. If it weren't for his brother's hospital stay due to indirectly seeing the Basilisk during his first year, their photo albums would have been overflowing long ago.
Thanks to his brother's photo albums, he recognized Harry at first glance. His brother continued, "I just asked him to pray for you to be sorted into Gryffindor. Guess what? It worked."
"Let me tell you about the Patronus he released in the entrance hall—it was incredibly impressive..."
People's emotions do not always connect. Harry's face flushed, and Ron teased him, "Were you praying just now?"
Harry stammered, hurriedly changing the subject. "That empty seat must be for the new professor, right?" He pointed to the teacher's table.
"Who else could it be?" Ron grumbled. "But they're late; the feast is about to start."
In fact, even as the feast was nearing its end and Harry's stomach was uncomfortably full, the empty seat at the teacher's table remained unoccupied. He had to give up on the last half of the smoked potato on his plate.
Felix transfigured a small table and chair, and Valen the Niffler sat on it, eating a piece of cut raisin pudding with a white napkin tied around her chest.
Having finished eating early, Valen was a bit bored. She sniffed the air, quickly recognizing a familiar scent.
She tugged at Felix's trouser leg, pointing in a direction. Felix's face darkened—she was so small, but he could roughly make out where she was pointing and guessed what she meant.
"Go ahead, but don't steal anything, not even the cutlery, remember?"
Valen nodded vigorously.
She made her way under the table, dodging the legs of students, and soon found her target. Climbing up the girl's trouser leg, she reached her destination.
"Ouch!" Hermione exclaimed, looking down to see a pair of bright black eyes.
"Valen?" she whispered, and Ron, Harry, and a few nearby students turned to look.
"A black duck?" Dean Thomas, who grew up in a Muggle family, asked curiously.
"I think it's a Niffler", Neville said softly.
"A what?"
"Niffler. Her name is Valen, and she belongs to Professor Hep", Hermione explained.
"A she?" Dean was surprised.
"Yep!" Hermione said happily, cradling the Niffler. "She's a little lady, isn't she?"
Ron stared at Valen. "I've always wanted one. They're famous for finding treasure. Fred and George Weasley used to put Nifflers on their Christmas wish lists when they were kids."
Fred leaned over Angelina's seat. "Don't slander us. Our wishes have changed long ago."
"Indeed", George, sitting on the other side, added. "Especially when we found out that Nifflers are better at finding money in people's pockets. That changed our minds."
"Watch your pockets, and your forks—", Fred warned.
"And your goblets", George added.
Ron covered his pocket sadly. "They're right, Harry. She's eyeing your coin!"
Valen, sitting in Hermione's lap, was staring intently at Harry. Harry held a Muggle coin in his hand, golden and glowing. It was enchanted by Professor Hep last year to monitor the number of Apparitions he performed.
According to the agreement, Harry could only Apparate outside the Room of Requirement once the golden glow filled the coin.
He was just short of completing it when he left school last year, but during the summer, he had run around with Sirius, inadvertently finishing the last bit.
At that moment, Dumbledore began to speak with a smile. He started with the usual reminders: Filch's list of forbidden items, which had grown to four hundred and thirty-seven items this year, and the prohibition against students entering the Forbidden Forest.
They were familiar with these warnings, and Harry and his friends weren't paying much attention. They were more interested in the Niffler—
"Harry, you better put that coin away, even though Professor Hep has trained her—oh my!"
Hermione stopped in surprise. Valen had painfully pulled a Galleon from her pocket, placed it on the table, and pointed at Harry's coin.
"What's she doing?" Ron asked, puzzled.
"I think", Hermione took a deep breath and said in amazement, "Harry, she wants to trade with you—"
The three of them exchanged glances, truly a peculiar Niffler. Ron chuckled, "Professor Hep's education is really... ha ha... effective, even straightening out the nature of a Niffler."
But Ron's laughter soon faded when Valen, not getting a response, pulled out another Galleon from a small pocket and placed it on top of the first one.
Harry stared in disbelief as the pile on the long table grew to three, then four Galleons. The Niffler's movements slowed, and its small pink hands trembled, showing just how reluctant it was to part with the gold. Even Dean could see how much it pained the little creature.
But the pain of parting with the Galleons was matched only by the Niffler's newfound pride. Valen pointed at the towering pile of Galleons and then at the glowing coin in Harry's hand, exuding an air of smugness that left everyone around them speechless.
Ron urged, "Don't give up, Harry. See how many Galleons it can produce. By Merlin's beard... it's richer than I am!"
At that moment, Dumbledore finally addressed a matter closely related to the students. "...I must also inform you with great regret that the House Cup Quidditch Cup will not be held this year."
"What?" Harry looked up, gasping in shock. He wasn't the only one; most of the students were stunned by the news.
"Boom!"
A bolt of lightning flashed across the ceiling, and thunder roared outside the castle, causing the windows to rattle. The Great Hall's doors burst open with a bang.
A man walked in, leaning on a long cane and wrapped in a black traveling cloak. By the light in the Great Hall, the students from the four houses saw his face and gasped in unison.
The man's face looked as if it had been carved from a piece of rotten wood by an incompetent craftsman, with every inch of skin scarred and marred. His nose was missing a chunk, and one leg was a wooden prosthetic that thumped as he walked. As he passed the tables, the young wizards on either side shrank away in fear.
Harry stared at Mad-Eye Moody's face, then glanced at the half-eaten smoked potato on his plate, feeling a bit queasy.
As they got closer, the students noticed that the most terrifying feature of this stranger was his eyes. One was perfectly normal, but the other—Valen, who was nestled in Hermione's arms, covered her face with her small hands, too frightened to look, but she didn't forget to stuff the Galleons back into her pocket.
Hermione found the situation both amusing and frustrating, but when her gaze fell on the stranger's eyes, she couldn't bring herself to laugh. It was a large, round, magical eye that swiveled in its socket, sometimes showing only the whites as it seemed to stare behind him.
He briefly shook hands with Dumbledore and took the only empty seat, ignoring the others and helping himself to the remaining food on the table. However, his blue magical eye continued to dart around, surveying the Great Hall and the students.
"Allow me to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor", Dumbledore broke the eerie silence, "Professor Moody."
In a deathly quiet hall, Dumbledore announced the existence of the Triwizard Tournament, explaining its origins and development, and how it had been discontinued due to the high number of deaths. After several centuries, the Ministry of Magic was finally ready to revive it, and this time, five schools would participate, including Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, as well as Ilvermorny and Wagadu from beyond Europe.
Many students had never heard of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons, let alone Ilvermorny and Wagadu. They listened to Dumbledore's words as if they were hearing a fairy tale.
Felix, however, was familiar with this information. He cleared his throat, and Valen immediately jumped from Hermione's arms, taking a wide detour to avoid the intimidating eye of Moody.
Moody, with a sausage in his mouth, ate quietly, his magical eye following the Niffler's movements until it climbed onto a young professor's shoulder. He let out a low, mocking chuckle.
"Little thing."
(End of Chapter)
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