A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

"Names?" The bearded Auror stopped them, looking down at the thick list.

“Harry Potter,” Harry said, glancing curiously at the list in the Auror’s hand. The handwriting was upside down, making it a little difficult to read, but he easily caught a simple fact: only two-thirds of the parchment page was ticked.

Harry looked up at the time: 10:49. This was clearly not normal.

The bearded Auror muttered to himself, "Harry Potter, P... Oh my god!" He seemed to only then realize what was happening, and looked up, staring intently at Harry.

"Brian, the train's about to leave," Sirius called out to the Auror.

The bearded Auror's gaze shifted to Sirius Black, his expression relaxing. "Black? That's right, Harry Potter is your godson." He ticked a box on the parchment. "That's fine."

"Are there still quite a few people who haven't arrived yet?" Harry asked from the side.

“Yes, some students are going to school via the fireplace,” said the bearded Auror, gesturing with his chin in the direction they had come from, and muttered, “A new initiative, huh? There are always skeptics…”

“Let’s go, Harry,” Sirius said.

Harry walked a short distance with his godfather and looked at him. "How come I didn't know about this?"

“What, you want to go to school through the fireplace too? No way, you’re the president of the boys’ council,” Sirius smiled at him, then looked thoughtful. Harry bet Sirius never imagined he would say these words himself, “—you have to set an example.”

“Like my dad?” Harry said sullenly, pulling out his badge as he reached into his pocket.

“You can choose to be like your mother, she did a great job.” Sirius grinned. “Actually, James did just as well. We all say Lily changed him, but part of it was because of the ‘student leader’.”

These words comforted Harry, and he put on the badge. Just then, he heard Hermione calling from behind. Harry turned around and saw her running towards him, followed by Crookshanks. She stopped in front of Harry, panting, "Thank goodness—we're not late."

"Traffic jam?" Harry guessed, otherwise he couldn't think of any other reason why Hermione was almost late.

“Oh, no,” Hermione gasped, realizing Sirius and Harry were staring at her, and said reluctantly, “I was recognized when I got to the station, and someone asked me for an autograph. Luckily, I didn’t let my mom and dad come in with me…”

“This is outrageous,” Harry muttered.

The train emitted a loud roar.

"The train's about to leave," Sirius urged, pointing in a direction. "Is that Ron? I see him—the one waving, in car number six."

Harry and Hermione hurried toward carriage six. He was carrying several bags and was exhausted, so he looked a little resentful when he saw Hermione carrying only Crookshanks. "I packed everything in my beaded bag," she explained, taking Hedwig's cage from her.

When they reached the carriage door, Ron helped Harry lift the suitcase onto the train and place it on the luggage rack in the next carriage. Neville and Ginny were also there. They greeted each other and walked towards the engine.

“I don’t know why, but it was easy to find an empty carriage,” Ron said.

Harry told Ron about the conversation, and Ron suddenly understood. "Oh, I see. I was wondering why no one at home reminded me—I'm a prefect. Hey, gentlemen, could you cut the lecture a bit shorter? I didn't eat breakfast this morning..."

“No problem,” Harry said immediately, “because I can’t think of anything to say.”

As required by the letter, the prefects of the four houses were to receive instructions from the male and female student council presidents respectively, but Harry and Hermione felt it was unnecessary to separate them, so they simply gathered all the prefects together.

"...The only thing worth noting is that there are four Aurors stationed at the front and rear of the vehicle, respectively. You can contact them in case of an emergency. Of course, if there really is an emergency, they might know about it before we do. The rest is just maintaining order and occasionally patrolling the corridors...that's it."

After Hermione finished speaking, she looked at Harry, who shook his head, indicating that he had nothing to say. So Hermione decisively announced the disbandment.

Back in the carriage, they talked about their experiences during the last part of summer vacation. After Bill and Fleur's wedding, Hermione went home to reunite with her parents, while Harry chose to stay at the Burrow because Black's old house was mostly empty and too boring.

“You were gone for a few days,” Ron recalled, “I think it was to deal with an inspection or something.”

“Yes,” Harry said slowly, “two Ministry of Magic staff came to register families with house-elves—there was a little mishap along the way.”

"What accident?" Neville asked curiously.

"Was it exciting?" That was Ron's question.

“Absolutely brilliant,” Harry said sternly, staring at Ron for a few seconds before recounting what had happened that day:

"To prove that Kreacher was in good condition and to get him to stay, Sirius and I racked our brains and wasted a lot of breath persuading Kreacher to change into clothes that conformed to human aesthetics and standards..."

“That’s a good thing. It shows that the Ministry of Magic is gradually implementing the legal provisions,” Hermione interjected.

“You sound just like Percy,” Ron said. Hermione looked hurt, and Ginny chuckled. Harry quickly continued his story. Thanks to his frequent correspondence with Ephias Dorge, Harry felt his storytelling skills had improved considerably, and soon, everyone in the carriage was captivated—

According to Harry, he, Sirius, and Kreacher carried out an emergency renovation of Black's old house, finding many suspicious magical objects in every nook and cranny.

“That’s why I tried so hard to cut ties with my family when I was in school,” Sirius said seriously. Harry knew that the Black family members were all a bit 'crazy' and didn’t think like normal people.

“But now I’m in complete control of this house!” Sirius said cheerfully, waving his hand. “The first thing we need to do to make a good impression on our guests is to ensure our elders get a good night’s sleep!”

But clearly, the portraits lining the hallway didn't want to sleep. They were all ancestors of the Black family, passing down their most stubborn memories before their deaths, making them extremely difficult to persuade. Harry and Sirius had to resort to some tricks.

"Bad master! Bad young master!"

Kreacher jumped around frantically, trying to stop them, but he was powerless—a flash of red light from a Stunning Charm, and the long corridor returned to silence. Harry and Sirius looked at their work with satisfaction; apart from one or two portraits with drool dripping from their mouths and wigs askew, everything else looked perfect.

"You just did an emergency cleaning?" Ron asked, dissatisfied, in the carriage.

“It’s not over yet,” Harry said. He continued.

When the staff arrived, Sirius greeted them with a smile and led them towards the living room. A sudden shadow fell over Harry; he felt he had overlooked something, so he stopped and tried to figure out what it was…

The Black family members are all crazy...

An exaggerated scream echoed in the foyer. Harry took off running, recalling the scene from his first visit to the old house. There was something on the wall beside the stairs that he remembered vividly, yet now he had become so accustomed to it that he would default to looking in that direction when going up or down the stairs.

A short wizard tumbled down the stairs, his face contorted with terror. Harry followed his gaze—and sure enough, there was a row of crumpled house-elf heads stuck to the wall paneling. Everyone present froze, their smiles fading onto Sirius's face. This gave Harry a moment to recall what his godfather had said three years earlier, with a look of disgust, when he introduced him to the family tree:

“My dear Aunt Eladora… she was the one who started the family tradition of cutting off the heads of house-elves when they get too old to carry plates…”

The train passed through a field, and Ron asked questions with great interest about the details.

"And then? Did they immediately escape and bring back a squad of Aurors a few minutes later?"

Harry rolled his eyes.

“No, Sirius and I finally convinced them, we really did.” He emphasized, seemingly to clarify that they didn’t use any spells like the Stunning Charm. “The two of them registered Kreacher’s name, and as they left, Sirius swore he would rip those heads off… I don’t know how to deal with the Permanent Adhesion Charm, maybe we’ll just have to tear down an entire wall.”

"That's a huge project."

A burst of laughter came from inside the carriage.

……

Hundreds of kilometers away at Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall, wearing square-framed glasses, was looking down at an article in "Transfiguration Today," occasionally taking out a quill to mark the mistakes.

After grading an essay, she looked up and glanced sideways at Felix and the Sorting Hat. The former was spinning the latter around in her hand, making the Sorting Hat dizzy. It couldn't help but shout, "Help him! This guy is damaging the school's most important historical artifact! What did I just see? A shameful backroom deal, the vice-principal bribing the current principal—"

Professor McGonagall raised her eyebrows in her seat.

“Poor Sorting Hat, you’re not really human after all.” Felix chuckled, facing the crack in the Sorting Hat, and said smugly, “Even if I sent over the videotapes of the Montrose Magpies’ last twelve games, it wouldn’t be a bribe, because they were just freebies, they came with the purchase of the Magic Projector… a year late, but still a freebie.”

“It has nothing to do with that.” Professor McGonagall glared at Felix, whose explanation seemed more like a cover-up. She pursed her lips and said, “Felix convinced me that if his magic could become one of the core elements of the school’s defense system, the students’ safety would be greatly improved.”

“No!” the Sorting Hat exclaimed. “That’s an authority reserved for the four founders. Even the headmasters who came after them could only make minor adjustments to what was already there.”

“That’s why I came to you,” Felix said persuasively. “The four founders may not have thought that far ahead. Why don’t you open your mind and let me have a good talk with them? What if we have a pleasant conversation?”

The Sorting Hat fell into an eerie silence for a moment.

In previous years, it would read the students' thoughts and assign them to different colleges according to their different characteristics. This was the first time it had heard of someone wanting to read its own thoughts—oh, the thoughts of the four giants who had instilled their ideas in it a thousand years ago.

The Sorting Hat asked in a strange tone, "Do you think you can be approved by all four of them at the same time?"

“I think it’s fine,” Felix said seriously. “If you don’t believe me, we can try it.”

"...But I heard that you've advanced memory magic to an unprecedented level?"

"Rumors, they're all rumors. I still have a lot of room for improvement."

The Sorting Hat fell silent again, this time for a longer period. Then it began to twist, the gap at the brim widening to its maximum. Felix seemed to feel air escaping from the gap, as if someone was about to shout. Then the Sorting Hat began to yell and scream—

"Help me! Whoever you are! Minerva McGonagall, you're the Headmistress! Dumbledore, look what you've done!"

In the gold frame on the wall that belongs to Dumbledore, Dumbledore appears to be asleep. However, Felix clearly sees that he had been watching them with great interest along with the other headmasters, and even winked mischievously—once upon a time, Felix had also shown a strong interest in the Sorting Hat in front of Dumbledore.

After all the commotion, the Sorting Hat still refused to agree and threatened not to attend this year's Sorting Ceremony, so Felix had no choice but to regretfully take the Sorting Hat off his head.

"You seem eager to speak with some of the founders, Felix?" Professor McGonagall asked sharply. "Is it because you've been under too much pressure lately?"

Felix shrugged and said casually:

"It's just a matter of indecision—especially when you have multiple options. So far, I believe we're still on the right track. But that's precisely why every choice we make in the future is all the more important."

He said lazily:

“I can understand why Babajid Akinbad is doing nothing. Six billion people and two million wizards are on the other side of the scale. Anyone would feel suffocated—” He paused thoughtfully. “Maybe I should talk to Trelawney. Every time I see her acting all eccentric, it gives me confidence in the future.”

Professor McGonagall's expression was somewhat strange. "Don't say that to her face. She hasn't been in a good mood lately."

"What's going on?" Felix asked with interest. "Oh, I know, it's about this year's new professor?"

“That’s right, Frenzel the centaur,” Professor McGonagall said. “He accepted Dumbledore’s offer to teach and officially joined the faculty this year.”

……

As evening fell, the crimson Hogwarts Express, puffing out white steam, slowly slowed down and pulled into Hogsmeade Station.

Harry and the others greeted Hagrid, but they didn't have much time to talk, as Hagrid had to look after the first-year students. They headed towards the carriage, and Hermione pulled a parchment from her pocket. "Harry, we should go ahead. One of the duties of the student council president and vice-president is to lead the students into the castle..."

They quickened their pace, passing the students one by one, and stopped in front of the first carriage. Then, the two men waited with stern eyes for the students behind them to get into the carriage.

“Almost there,” Hermione said after a while. The two entered the carriage, and Harry affectionately patted Thestral’s thin back. Thestral turned back to look at him docilely, then started walking.

The wheels churned and turned, and then the carriages behind them followed suit, forming a long procession that stretched through the black night.

Finally, the carriage stopped beside the stone steps leading to the castle's oak gates. Hermione immediately jumped down, with Harry close behind. When about half the students had come down and gathered around them, Harry and Hermione led the way into the castle.

The Great Hall was brightly lit, and when Harry and his friends entered, there were already quite a few students inside, all of whom had arrived at school via the fireplace. Harry recognized many familiar faces; some sixth and seventh-year students were sitting together at the long dining table, chatting excitedly, as if they had just finished processing the day's news clippings during summer vacation.

Harry paused, startled. "What's wrong?" Hermione whispered, stopping as well.

The students behind them were blocking the doorway and kept asking what was going on. Meanwhile, the students in the Great Hall heard the footsteps and commotion and looked over. Harry's arrival made them realize that school had started, and they slowly got up from their chairs, preparing to return to their respective house tables.

Harry walked straight toward the Hufflepuff long table.

Hermione hesitated before following him, but Harry's direction became clearer and clearer, revealing his mistake more and more clearly. "Harry, you're going the wrong way," Hermione whispered. "No," Harry said calmly, though his heart was pounding.

He sat next to Kadwalad, the Chaser of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, whose eyes were wide open, looking as if he'd seen a ghost.

Hermione realized what was happening at the last minute, and she turned around from next to Harry and sat down at the Ravenclaw table.

"Hello, Hermione." A dazed voice sounded in my ear.

“Oh, hello, Luna,” Hermione replied, glancing nervously behind her. The people behind her seemed a little confused. “Everyone—please make yourselves at home,” she said, clearing her throat. This brought everyone back to their senses, and they took their seats in twos and threes. The students who had stood up sat back down and continued their conversation.

But the expressions on everyone's faces were clearly different, a mixture of excitement and fear, along with a hint of surprise. In their minds, this was something absolutely unprecedented.

Chapter 710 School Opening