Volume 5: The Burning Golden Flame Chapter 405 The Sorting Hat
Jon did not stop this time. He walked forward until he reached the wall right behind the desk, when the voice in his mind stopped him.
"It's the wall in front of you. Reach out and push it. Just give it a gentle push. You are qualified to do so."
As it said, Jon's hand touched the cold wall, and just as he put his hand on it and applied force, the whole wall began to tremble.
Immediately afterwards, the bricks on the wall in front of Jon suddenly began to split, and soon an entrance opened in front of him for people to pass through.
The candlelight in the principal's office shone into the dark secret room, and Jon saw that it was filled with broken picture frames, parchment and notes thrown everywhere, and a tattered hat in the corner, as if it had been used as a garbage dump.
When Jon first entered the secret room, his eyes were fixed on the tattered hat, a gray, patched, dusty pointed hat.
"Is it you?"
He asked.
That voice sounded in his mind again.
"Ahaha, I never thought that after all these years, I could still see a living Hogwarts student!"
The hat sounded somewhat sentimental, and Jon certainly noticed the hidden meaning in its words.
"That is to say, you have seen students from Hogwarts before, but they are all dead."
"About seven or eight years ago, that reckless young man mistakenly walked in and was swallowed alive by the giant snake. At that time, I could still vaguely sense some of the things that happened outside."
As if the hat itself didn't want to talk more about this topic, it quickly shifted the conversation to something else.
"I think even if the Hogwarts you attend is not this castle, you should have heard of my existence, right? The Sorting Hat is used to choose which college freshmen should go to."
Of course Jon couldn't fail to recognize it. He walked to the Sorting Hat, picked it up from the ground, and brushed off the dust on it.
"When I first entered school, senior students told me that Hogwarts used to have four houses, and you were the hat used to sort them. However, school tradition generally does not tell freshmen that it is such a simple matter of wearing a hat to sort them."
"Of course, it's a good tradition. After all, when the kids know that the sorting is just wearing a shabby hat like mine, instead of fighting trolls or dragons, they usually just breathe a sigh of relief and no longer think about putting me on their heads and getting their hair, which they carefully groomed last night, dirty."
The Sorting Hat seemed like it hadn't spoken to anyone for a long time. It talked a lot and hadn't stopped talking since it saw Jon.
But Jon obviously couldn't continue wasting time here. Although he had a three-hour advantage over Emil, for one person to search the entire castle, let alone three hours, even thirty hours might not be enough to search every corner of the Hogwarts Castle.
"Mr. Sorting Hat, do you want to go out with me? I am still in the middle of a competition, and this competition is about whether Hogwarts Castle will continue to belong to the Dark Lord or return to the hands of Professor Dumbledore. We can't waste time."
"Why not?" The Sorting Hat answered simply, "I've been thrown here for so long, I certainly won't refuse the opportunity to go out for some fresh air. Although I was kept in the cupboard most of the year before, there will always be a day when I will come out to sing and chat. Now I haven't talked to anyone for a long time."
Seeing that it agreed, Jon solemnly folded it up and finally stuffed it into his robe pocket.
This did not prevent the Sorting Hat from continuing to communicate with him in his mind.
After leaving the principal's office, Jon went downstairs with a clear goal in mind and began walking towards the auditorium on the first floor.
According to normal reasoning, the Triwizard Cup could not be placed so clearly and directly in the auditorium. However, as the place where students are most concentrated in the entire castle and the first place that people think of after entering the castle, Jon felt that Matthew and the others must have left some clues in the auditorium.
"What kind of competition are you holding? It can actually decide who will go to Hogwarts?"
The voice of the Sorting Hat sounded in Jon's mind.
Jon replied as he walked down the stairs.
"Before the Triwizard Tournament began, the Dark Lord and Professor Dumbledore swore a blood oath. Warriors from the two Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang participated in the competition. The winner would be the only legitimate Hogwarts and would also have the legal right to occupy the castle."
"Using the Triwizard Tournament as a bet?" The Sorting Hat's voice sounded a little strange. "Do you know that the Dark Lord has never actually gained control of the castle? He can't even stay here for more than a day, otherwise the castle will either collapse on its own or he will leave."
It was the first time Jon had heard about what would happen if Voldemort stayed in Hogwarts for a long time, but he soon asked again.
"But we also discovered that he was trying to wear away the original consciousness of the castle and impose his own consciousness on it."
"Of course he will do it, and in fact he has already succeeded. Now there is only one last step left." The Sorting Hat said as a matter of course.
Jon stopped subconsciously and frowned.
"Only one step left? What do you mean?"
The Sorting Hat seemed to know everything about Jon's question, and it answered quickly.
"I have a deep connection with this castle, and I can feel what it is doing more intuitively than anything else. It has actually been successful. The only thing missing is that the original will of the castle has not been completely worn away. So it is only one step away, which is the Triwizard Tournament you are currently participating in?"
Jon couldn't help but hold his breath. He felt like he could uncover the reason why Voldemort held the Triwizard Tournament in the first place.
"So this game will help him take complete control of the castle?"
"Of course." The Sorting Hat snapped its fingers. "Don't think that just because the Triwizard Tournament was created after the death of the Big Four, it won't have any impact on this school. Just like when this castle was first used as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, it was just an ordinary magic castle with some magic cast on it. It was far from having its own consciousness."
"For thousands of years, almost every wizard in the whole of Britain graduated from this castle. They spent a full seven years from the age of 11 to 18 here. It is equivalent to the castle witnessing their entire youth. So when students practice magic in school, the magic power that is lost is also constantly affecting the castle. The magic power of a single little wizard is of course limited and will not produce much effect at all, but over the years, changes are slowly happening with the passage of time."
"One day when this school was just founded, Peeves appeared. At first, both students and professors thought it was a ghost that accidentally wandered into Hogwarts, but it became more and more unusual and showed amazing abilities."
"Peeves?" Jon was certainly familiar with the name, knowing that it had once been one of the ghosts of Hogwarts.
"Yes, Peeves." The Sorting Hat patiently continued to tell Jon, "It's an elf that appears in front of people in the form of a ghost. You can also call it the castle elf. It is a manifestation of the consciousness of this castle. It represents the naughty and bad side of the students of this castle throughout the ages. I wonder if you have heard how much the administrators of this castle hated it and how much effort they made to expel it from the castle."
Jon shook his head.
"Well, it was actually in 1876, when the castle's administrator was still Cross Carpey. He set up an elaborate trap, using various weapons that he thought Peeves could not resist as bait, and then prepared a huge bell jar, casting various containment spells, ready to cover Peeves when he walked onto the trap."
"What's the result?"
"As a result, Peeves not only escaped easily, but also scattered broken glass all over the corridor, and even avoided a trap consisting of several machetes, crossbows, a pistol, and a small cannon. Peeves randomly fired at the windows for his own amusement, putting everyone's lives in danger. The castle was evacuated and the entire staff and students had a three-day standoff with him, which ended with Headmistress Eupraxia Moore agreeing to sign a contract that gave Peeves additional privileges."
"The privileges included allowing Peeves to swim once a week in the boys' toilet on the first floor, being given priority to throw away stale bread in the kitchen, and receiving a new hat made by a meticulous lady in Paris. From then on, no matter how annoying Peeves was, no administrator or principal ever proposed to expel him."
"Think about it, how could a normal ghost be able to do these things? That idiot Kalpe could never have thought of how he could drive the ghost out of the castle itself? Peeves is a spirit created by the magic power of the students, and it also represents the Hogwarts castle itself."
"But just a few days after the Dark Lord took over the castle, Peeves disappeared. There were many rumors at the time. Some said it angered the Dark Lord himself and was killed by him with the most powerful killing curse. Others said it was because Hogwarts was no longer the same Hogwarts, so Peeves disappeared. But in fact, the Dark Lord imprisoned it and oppressed some students in the school, causing the repressed emotions and magic to counteract the will of the castle itself, constantly erasing its abilities and existence."
Jon had already arrived at the auditorium.
"So what does this have to do with the Triwizard Tournament?"
" Don't worry, I'll get to it next. Just as the magic and emotions of the students affected the castle, around the 13th century, when this school was built less than 300 years ago, the Triwizard Tournament, a competition for exchanges between young wizards from European countries, was proposed. The competition was held every five years, and the venue was taken over by the three magic schools in turn. Such competitions were not suspended until 1792, and it has been 500 years. Do you know how many times Hogwarts has won the Triwizard Tournament in these 500 years?"
Without waiting for Jon to guess, the Sorting Hat already gave the answer.
"63 times, the school with the most championships. The mark of this competition has been deeply engraved in the castle named Hogwarts, and no one can erase it. Just like magic, will is the key to everything. It is precisely because of this that the Triwizard Tournament has a very unique meaning for this castle, especially when the students who participated in the competition in its name won the championship. And the most important thing is that the Dark Lord also made a bet with the will of this castle. He bet that the students of Hogwarts will never win this Triwizard Tournament."
Jon suddenly seemed to have thought of something, and he asked immediately.
"What if a student representing Hogwarts wins the championship?"
"Then his plan will be ruined, especially you, the student named Jon Green. The fact that you can wake me up means that this castle itself has a favorable impression of you. If you win the championship, then all the efforts made by the Dark Lord over the years will be in vain. The castle's will that was worn away by him will be restored, and you will become the new master of this castle."
Hearing this answer, Jon did not feel any surprise or excitement, but continued to ask.
"What if another representative is a Hogwarts student he taught who won the championship?"
"This is not a good thing for him. I don't know how the castle feels about that student, but as long as the championship is won in the name of Hogwarts, it will be a huge boost to the castle's will. A boost, that's the right word. But once this game is played by Hogwarts, especially the game is held in the castle and the other two schools win, not to mention that the Triwizard Tournament, which has been suspended for more than 200 years, is held again, this is a terrible consequence for the castle, because the obstacle that the castle itself is suppressing is itself. If the students of Hogwarts don't win, then it will disappear on its own and will no longer be an obstacle to the Dark Lord."
Only then did Jon finally understand!
I understand why it was Draco Malfoy who represented Hogwarts Castle in the competition, and why the person who was highly expected was Emil Lestrange!
