"I've been promoted."
Before Harry could sit down, Percy couldn't help but whisper, though his words seemed like merely stating a fact, his proud tone carried an unmistakable hint of boasting, "I'm now Mr. Crouch's personal assistant, and I'll be stationed at the castle from now on—"
"Wow, truly disappointing."
Ginny gathered her skirt, wearing a polite fake smile, "I thought you just conquered the galaxy—" Well, her words were not polite at all, "So, Mr. Weasley, who never comes home after getting a promotion, have you finished your thesis? The one about cauldrons—if the imported cauldrons are too thin, I bet Professor Snape would lose it."
"But... isn't that a good thing?"
Harry couldn't help but mutter, if Snape goes crazy... he might really poison Neville or himself, never mind, the old bat better keep his last bit of sanity, "Stationed at the castle? That's a thing?" Seeing Percy a bit dazed by Ginny's sarcastic remarks, Harry quickly changed the subject.
"...Always has been, didn't you know?"
Percy blinked.
"Yes, Harry, just like the head teachers from other schools."
Cedric whispered to Harry across Ginny, luckily the table was quite large, their conversation shouldn't be overheard by the professors... hopefully? Wait, was Snape's face always that dark?
But Harry didn't look in that direction, he suddenly realized why he kept running into Ludo Bagman popping up from all sorts of bizarre places, then fussing over him as if afraid he wouldn't make it to the competition, even said countless times he could help cheat—though he hasn't encountered Mr. Crouch even once.
"So, are you back to school again?"
Harry blinked, if Percy was back, he might even move back into his dorm, last year's Gryffindor graduates were more than this year's new students.
"Percy's a busy man, where's the time for classes?"
Ginny continued sarcastically, her cheeks puffed up as she held back her anger.
"What's wrong with you? Ginny, and I haven't asked you yet, you and Harry—"
Percy glared, somewhat displeased, he completely put on the tone of an elder brother, but clearly, Ginny wasn't going to buy it.
"Ha, what do you want to ask? What's it to you?"
"Ginny! That's too much..."
"A whole month, you didn't even send a letter home, Mom had to ask around to find out about you! Dad couldn't even find you at the Ministry of Magic—" Ginny asked with a cold smile, "So, when does the young master plan to grace us with his presence at home?"
This time it was Percy's turn to stammer, "Not that I'm not going home, just going home slowly, with a plan—" his voice grew quieter, "I'm very busy, Ginny, you should understand, everything is just beginning, I just returned from a trip to Little Hengton the day before yesterday, where a Polish vampire infiltrated, technically that counts as a 'person', that's a diplomatic issue..."
Ginny seemed to want to say more, but fortunately, Dumbledore sort of saved him—he carefully looked at the menu beside him, then said clearly to his plate, "Pork chop!"
At once, a pork chop appeared in the center of the plate.
The others clicked with understanding and began to imitate, ordering their favorite foods onto their plates.
"I think, it can only conjure food existing in the kitchen, so—"
Hermione bit her fork, hesitating to speak, "Don't ever order Laoganma again, William, although I don't even know what that is..."
"I know, just trying— you know, don't overthink everything, Hermione, life would be very dull that way."
William grinned, a bowl of French onion soup and bread appeared on his plate—due to the large number of people dining, with diverse nationalities, the menu's food was enough to keep the house elves in the restaurant busy today, so no free ordering was allowed.
Thus, besides the sound of clinking silverware, only the low murmurs of conversations remained in the great hall, buzzing as if there were many bees flying over the hall.
The walls of the hall were covered with shining silver frost, and the ceiling was a starry night sky, with dozens of holly and ivy wreaths strung up, glittering woodland fairies flapping their wings, flipping to and fro among the green leaves—
"It's nothing."
Harry heard Fleur and Roger Davis commenting on the appearance of the Hogwarts Great Hall. She looked at the star-spangled walls around her with a disdainful tone, "At Beauxbatons, our great hall is filled with ice sculptures during Christmas—of course, they don't melt... They're like giant diamond statues, much prettier than these ugly armors..."
The armor in the corner seemed to feel the disdainful gaze and impatiently stabbed the ground with its long halberd, clang-clang clanging.
"...Our castle is pretty much the same as Hogwarts, at least from my point of view."
Daniel Stephens's voice came from the other side, "It's not interesting... What? Oh, yes, we also divide into four houses, I was sorted into Thunderbird Academy, along with Horned Serpent, Pukwudgie, and Cheetah, just like your lions, eagles, and... snakes? However, our castle initially was just a small stone house, hidden on Mount Greylock's summit, invisible to the Muggles—"
"Sounds like a rip-off of Hogwarts—"
Ginny murmured softly, starting to poke small holes in her bread with a fork.
"I heard that Ilvermorny was indeed founded after Hogwarts—was it 1620 or 1720?"
Harry carefully recalled experiences from Magic History class, but unfortunately, it was completely blurry, everything was replaced by lovely dreams and extracurricular readings—no one really listened to Professor Binns's class, just like no one knew how he managed to make the bloody and thrilling Goblin Rebellions sound as dry as Percy's Cauldron Bottom Report.
Except for Hermione, who never slept and often raised her hand to answer questions, though after four years, Professor Binns still hadn't remembered her surname.
"But actually, Professor Cuthbert Binns is the most magical presence in this castle. He was a Magic History professor at Hogwarts before he died, and after becoming a ghost, he remained a professor—he's from the same era as Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. A truly animated... uh, animated spirit."
William was explaining the news about the second Goblin Rebellion to Hermione, a piece of history made as dry as kindling by Professor Binns but became different in William's words—
"I feel like I'm listening to a story."
Hermione blinked, knowing William's identity, and knew he was actually "half a relic", and since being exposed by Dumbledore, William no longer bothered to hide his real identity. He even let this information out to lure Voldemort, indicating he had no intention of keeping it secret—
Hermione was an exception—she found William's capture warrant, the 1891 version.
Although that warrant was withdrawn two days after its release due to "unavoidable circumstances", it left traces nonetheless. The thing that William couldn't understand was how Hermione claimed she recognized William from the rough lines on that warrant—
"Because it truly is a story."
William shredded the bread and soaked it in the soup—
"To me, it was just something that happened a few years ago. Lanlock... I can still recall how painful that goblin's charm was, probably the closest I came to death... or was it twice, around half an hour after dealing with Victor Rookwood—I was so exhausted that day, an endless barrage of green lights left me with a touch of glaucoma and aching wrists afterwards—"
"That dangerous?"
Hermione covered her mouth; the history books only briefly mentioned this period, without any record of Victor Rookwood the villain.
But the girl seemed to instinctively think William was dazzled by the enemy's Avada Kedavra... well, maintaining a righteous image seemed somewhat necessary—William hesitated for a moment but eventually did not reveal he actually used the Killing Curse so much his hand was sore.
Finally, everyone seemed to be full, so Dumbledore stood up and asked students to stand as well.
He waved his magic wand, and all the tables flew to the walls, leaving an empty space in the middle of the hall. A high stage rose slowly with Dumbledore's wand waving, sticking closely to the right wall's base, equipped with a drum set, several guitars, a lute, a cello, and a few organs.
Then, out of nowhere, eight to nine wizards rushed onto the stage, and the audience erupted in thunderous applause.
"They're the Weird Sisters—a band!"
Seeing William's expression appear somewhat bewildered, Hermione leaned over to the boy's ear and loudly explained.
The group's hair was particularly bushy, dressed in torn, tattered black robes. They picked up their instruments, and William watched them with keen interest, as the lantern on the table extinguished, and the Champions stood up, Alexander even tipping over a large section of chairs upon rising, fortunately, no other harm done—
"Shall we dance?"
William also stood up, looking at the girl whose face was slightly flushed, extending his palm with a smile.