The mastermind behind Hogwarts

Chapter 304 Sorting Ceremony

After crossing the lake by boat, Hagrid led the new students into the castle. The sight of him carrying a coffin caught the attention of the older students and professors.

Dumbledore looked thoughtfully at Moriarty, a question in his eyes: "Is Duwayne in the coffin?"

Moriarty nodded slightly, confirming Dumbledore's guess: "That's right, Duwayne is inside."

Dumbledore's lips twitched as he watched Hagrid sit back down in the professor's seat and lay the coffin flat on the ground.

Duwene seemed to be sleeping soundly, and there was no movement at all inside the coffin.

Professor McGonagall retrieved the Sorting Hat, and as she passed the Slytherin table, the hat greeted Moriarty loudly.

The hats were done the same way at the orientation ceremonies the year before last and last year, and the senior students are used to it.

Jericho said, "I know what the hat is going to say even before it opens its mouth."

The second-grade snakes all looked at him.

Jericho was quite pleased to feel the gazes from all directions.

"First sentence: Mr. Slytherin, can you tell me a joke?"

"The second sentence—Moriarty would definitely not agree, right? Then the hat would say—then let me tell you one."

"The third line—usually at this point, Professor McGonagall would walk briskly up to the freshman, holding her hat, and the hat would say—Hey, McGonagall! You really should stop and listen to the joke I've prepared; I've been preparing it for a year!"

After Jericho finished speaking, he sat there with his large belly, and the Sorting Hat's words were exactly the same as his.

An older student reminded Jericho, "Even though it's a sorting house, you should still tone it down. You don't want our house to have fewer and fewer freshmen, do you?"

However, the Sorting Hat left a deep impression on the freshmen, and when Professor McGonagall introduced the four houses, the freshmen heard "Slytherin" and associated it with the little Mr. Slytherin on the hat.

Unbeknownst to them, Slytherin had already made two impressions on the new students.

At the Ravenclaw table, Roger Davis said listlessly, "Isn't this blatant favoritism? All the freshmen have gone to Slytherin. I was hoping the house would admit more Ravenclaw freshmen so we could find Quidditch geniuses among them, but it looks like we'll have to wait until next year."

As the sorting began, three freshmen were assigned to Slytherin, and Roger slumped onto the table in frustration.

"Don't say that, Davis." Penelope saw through her classmate's thoughts: "Freshmen are assigned to their houses by the Sorting Hat; there's no such thing as favoritism. Besides, who says there aren't any talented players this year?"

"Where?"

Roger, who inherited the will of the previous Ravenclaw Quidditch captain, was groomed to be the next captain.

Upon hearing this, Roger raised his head like a puppy seeing a bone, his eyes shining.

"Me?" Penelope said to the eagles without any modesty, "I'll show you my Nimbus 1990s once training starts!"

A low growl erupted from the long table in Ragnarok, Roger's eyes widening: "Was it...was it bought for you by that Slytherin guy?"

"No way!" Penelope exclaimed, her face full of seriousness. How could she accept Moriarty's gift before the battle of love had been decided?

At that moment, Professor McGonagall called out, "Duwayne Vandro!"

No one from the new student group stepped forward.

"Duweyne Vandro?"

Still no one stepped forward, and a murmur rippled through the hall.

"Duwayne Vandro!!!" Professor McGonagall's voice was tinged with anger.

The hall was completely silent, yet no one approached the Sorting Hat. Several of the little snakes chuckled, and the Sorting Hat watched this scene with amusement.

"Oh, I see," Hat suddenly said, his voice rising in excitement. "He wants to play games with me! Isn't he? What a mischievous child."

Moriarty used magic to open the coffin, and Hagrid was startled when the coffin lid floated up. All eyes of the school's teachers and students were focused on the coffin.

However, Duwene was completely unaware and was fast asleep with Princess Sophie.

Moriarty cast another spell, and Duveen and Princess Sophie floated in the air as if lifted up by two invisible hands.

Their sleeping postures were also seen by everyone; they looked adorable, curled up into little dumplings.

Many older female students were overcome with maternal instincts, while many younger boys wanted to touch Princess Sophie's white fur.

Duwey and his white cat slowly flew over the auditorium, during which he even turned over, but the commotion below did not disturb his sleep at all.

"If this is a higher-level vampire than a pure-blooded vampire, then I can only say bring more."

Lilith laughed and said that Moriarty said she didn't see any threat in Duveen, except, of course, the ghostly figure on the train.

Moriarty placed Duveen on a chair, and before Professor McGonagall could help, the Sorting Hat bounced and landed on Duveen's head.

"You're the first person to dare sleep during my Sorting Ceremony! Let me see what's going on in your little head, no, I mean... let me see which house you'd be suited for."

Moriarty shook his head and smiled. Why did the Sorting Hat blurt out his thoughts? However, the reason he had Duveen wear the Sorting Hat in his sleep was to use the Sorting Hat's special ability to examine Duveen's brain.

From the moment he conjured up the coffin, Moriarty had it all planned out.

After all, Moriarty couldn't directly use Legilimency on Duveen, since he was still too young, even though he was a vampire.

Well, it seems that everything is under control now.

Don't forget, Moriarty has a kind of magic that allows him to connect with the Sorting Hat's mind; he can see what the Sorting Hat sees.

Moriarty looked with satisfaction at the hat's serious sorting: "Hmm, very difficult, extremely difficult."

"How so?" Moriarty asked curiously.

The hat, unfazed by Moriarty's voice, merely grumbled, "Next time you're getting into my brain, at least give me a heads-up, okay?"

Then he continued with his work: "He's a nobleman among vampires, he should go to Slytherin, right?"

The Sorting Hat actually started asking Moriarty for his opinion, but somehow the hat felt it made perfect sense.

"Aha, Salazar would never have dreamed that a vampire would attend Hogwarts," the hat said happily.

"However, Godric couldn't have imagined that he would slaughter those vampires until the blood flowed like a river."

"Oh, wait, wait," the hat exclaimed. "Vampires have courage too. He's just as suited for Gryffindor."

Moriarty found the comment sounded familiar; upon reflection, he realized it was exactly what Hat had said about him during the Sorting Ceremony!

"Hey, be a little more reliable."

"Oh, alright, let me take another look," Hat said thoughtfully. "I have to admit, this vampire possesses extremely high intelligence, Ravenclaw would suit him, but he's also very lazy, which might be related to his physiological structure and lifestyle, suggesting he'd also be suitable for Hufflepuff..."

The hat's voice grew increasingly weak. Duwene was suited for all four houses, but Duwene was destined to enter only one!

Hat frowned, then suddenly his expression changed, as if he had thought of something extraordinary!

"Physiological structure? No, let me take a closer look." The hat spoke in a voice only he could hear: "In the name of the Four Great Ones, this is an outrageously powerful Confusion Charm! He, he is actually..."

"What is he?"

Moriarty was puzzled. Ever since the hat said that Duveen was suitable for all four houses, he felt that the hat had become strange.

The Hat, always obedient to Moriarty, chose to evade the question, quickly saying, "He's fine. He'll be an excellent Slytherin student. Yes, that's right! Duwen Ventura—Slytherin!"

It's obvious that the last sentence was shouted by the Sorting Hat.

The Great Hall fell silent. Most of the little snakes had gloomy faces. A vampire had actually been assigned to Slytherin, the place that carried glory!

Vampires are indeed the nobles among vampires, but this category belongs to wizards!

The students from the other three colleges looked at each other in bewilderment before realizing that they were going to live and study with a vampire!

The Sorting Hat didn't care about any of that. It automatically jumped off Duveen's head and urged McGonagall, "Where's the next freshman? Hurry up and bring him over. You've wasted too much time on Duveen. You don't want every freshman to become a Sorting Hat disaster!"

At the same time, he thought to himself: whatever the little vampire wants to do, or whatever the vampire behind him wants to do, I'll just leave it to Moriarty.

Professor McGonagall looked at Dumbledore.

The White Wizard glanced at the young wizards of Slytherin, then at Professor Snape—and quickly looked away.

Stokes had a dark expression on his face, as if someone owed him a billion Galleons.

Finally, Dumbledore looked at Moriarty and thought it wouldn't be bad to hand Duwayne over to Moriarty, so he smiled and raised his hand to clap.

The teachers and students quickly realized that this was applause to welcome the new students to the college, and they immediately raised their hands and applauded thunderously.

Amidst applause, Duwene opened his eyes.

(End of this chapter)