Harry Potter and the Great Old Ones

Chapter 417 The Peculiar Sorting Ceremony

Hogwarts' Great Hall was as full as ever, with four long house tables arranged to the brim. Above them was a dark ceiling without stars, just like the sky they could see through the high windows.

Candles floated above the dining table, illuminating the few silvery ghosts that adorned the auditorium and the excited faces of the students. They chatted happily, exchanging news from the summer vacation, greeting friends from other colleges loudly, and scrutinizing each other's new hairstyles and clothes.

Harry noticed once again that people would gather together and whisper to each other whenever he walked by.

He gritted his teeth, trying to act as if he hadn't seen it and didn't care, and walked over.

The opening banquet followed almost the same procedure as in previous years: first the Sorting Ceremony, and then Dumbledore's speech.

Surprisingly, a very tall person suddenly appeared among the freshmen of this year's branch school—

Silver-white hair, a tall and slender figure, a gorgeous long dress that resembled a deep blue starry sky, and an incomparably arrogant expression—

"Hathaway?" Hermione exclaimed in surprise upon seeing her. "Isn't that Hathaway Romanoff?"

"Huh?" Ron, who had been focused on the delicious chicken leg and steak, suddenly looked up and exclaimed in surprise and excitement, "It's her, it really is her!"

Ron, George, Fred, Seamus, Neville, almost all the boys in Gryffindor, and from the other three houses, almost all the boys, like meerkats on the African savanna, stood tall with their chests puffed out and heads held high, staring intently at Hathaway Romanoff, who was at the back of the freshman line—

Last semester, during the inter-school friendship event, the Hogwarts boys, whose hormones were overflowing and had nowhere to go, spontaneously organized a beauty pageant for the three schools.

Of course, the results were not made public or widely announced; they were just the ramblings of bored boys at night.

Hathaway Romanoff was naturally voted Durmstrang's most beautiful girl by the boys at Hogwarts.

Therefore, at this very moment, at the start of the new semester, how could everyone not be excited to see Durmstrang's school beauty reappear at Hogwarts?

Of course, what excited them the most was—

"Put away your love spell."

Just as Hathaway Romanoff was basking in the adoring gazes of the boys around her, enjoying the unique attention she received, Tierra's icy voice suddenly appeared in her ear.

Hathaway shuddered and silently stopped using the love charm.

That night, Tyella found Lady Roselle and her two companions, whom she had imprisoned. After listening to Lady Roselle's story, and at Lady Roselle's repeated pleas, Tyella revealed her divine form—

That vast, chaotic expanse, like a boundless ocean.

Lady Rosie had the 'Time' blessing of the great race Is, and after going mad, she sacrificed a finger to regain her sanity.

Igor Kakarov was quick-witted; before Tiera could reveal her divine form, he closed his eyes and rolled into the thicket of the Forbidden Forest, seeing nothing and thus escaping unscathed.

Only Hathaway Romanoff, so simple-minded, was told by Lady Rosie to close her eyes and not look, but she insisted on opening her eyes suddenly at the moment Tyella transformed.

—It's hard to persuade a damned fool with kind words.

Hathaway Romanov went mad.

Fortunately, Tiera was only a four-dimensional divine being, while Hathaway Romanov was just ordinary madness.

With her profound magical skills and understanding of the spiritual dimension, Tiera eventually helped Hathaway Romanoff piece together her spiritual dimension bit by bit.

Furthermore, during the process of piecing it back together, she added a bit of her own control program—which resulted in Hathaway Romanoff appearing somewhat neurotic, yet completely under Thiera's control.

Since Tiera's current tarot club is basically just an empty shell propped up by him, he also dealt cards to Hathaway Romanoff and Lady Rosie as well.

Indeed, to some extent, Tiera's ultimate goal was to influence and assimilate the entire world.

Or, to put it another way, to turn all the 'fixed factors' of this world into his 'variable factors'—this cannot be done simply through magic.

Tiera had considered simply using flesh magic to assimilate everyone into herself—

However, this approach does not transform the situation from 'fixed' to 'variable'; instead, it may trap one in the quagmire of 'fixed' conditions.

Therefore, Tierra speculated that this so-called influence might be a more subtle and elusive transmission—

For example, the spread of ideas and changes in systems.

Break the rules they originally set for themselves, the future.

It is not simply the use of violence, but rather the use of violence as a safety net and a last resort.

So after releasing Igor Kakarov, Hathaway Romanov, and Lady Rosie, Tyrell immediately suggested to Dumbledore that Hathaway Romanov transfer from Durmstrang to Hogwarts.

As Tiera's spy planted among the students—

Tyrell believed that Harry, Hermione, and Ron would certainly be able to unite the Gryffindor, Heffpact, and Ravenclaw students as well as they had in the original story during their next five years, but what about Slytherin—

Most Slytherins would certainly not be able to accept the ideas that Tyrell promotes, so it is necessary to control or stabilize them first, and then gradually wear them down in the course of history.

To put it bluntly, it means both uniting and fighting. First, we need to establish a unified ideological front, and then we can work on other things little by little.

And to put it bluntly, consider the birth rate in the Wizarding World.
Every Slytherin wizard is a valuable human resource.
After Hathaway Romanoff stopped using the love spell, the boys who had been completely infatuated with her finally looked away.

Although quite a few people were still watching her, most of them were boys—

For example, Ron had already started eating, holding a chicken leg in one hand and a steak in the other.

"Quiet down, everyone," Professor McGonagall said, pulling out a list of new students, then glancing somewhat displeased at the noisy crowd.

She coughed lightly twice, and the hall returned to its usual tranquility.

Everyone fell silent, turning their gaze to the group of freshmen who were about to undergo the Sorting Ceremony—

The main one is Hathaway Romanov.

“As you all probably know, this is Hathaway Romanoff. Miss Romanoff is an exchange student from the fifth year!” Professor McGonagall explained. “She will be participating in the Sorting Ceremony with the first-year students.”

McGonagall's words were like a depth charge, shattering the crowd that had finally quieted down a bit, and igniting a cacophony of voices once more.

"Quiet! Quiet! Quiet!" Professor McGonagall had to shout again. "I know that Hogwarts has never had a history of exchanging schools with other students. Professor Dumbledore will explain the specific reasons after the Sorting Ceremony. Please be quiet!"

(End of this chapter)