The moment the Great Hall doors opened, the young Wizards heard the noisy clamor coming from inside.
Upon stepping into the Great Hall, they immediately saw four long tables arranged side by side, already filled with students from the four Houses.
At the head of the Great Hall was the High Table, where the Professors of the school sat. In the center was a large golden chair, the Principal’s seat, and sitting there at this moment was Albus Dumbledore, the Principal of Hogwarts.
Clarence merely glanced over the environment of the Great Hall, including the students and Professors whose gazes were drawn to his appearance; none of them caused his sweeping glance to pause.
He didn't even care about the complex gaze Dumbledore directed at him, but rather his full attention was drawn to the star-filled sky displayed by the enchanted ceiling above.
Seeing that Clarence seemed very curious about the ceiling above, Snape, after similarly glancing at it a few times, lowered his head and quietly introduced, “The ceiling is enchanted to look just like the sky outside. There's a record of it in ‘Hogwarts: A History.’ ”
“A History? I haven't actually read that book!” Clarence mumbled softly.
“If you want to read it, the library will probably have it. You can look for it then.” After Snape finished speaking, he said no more.
Because Professor McGonagall had by then retrieved a rolled-up piece of parchment and an old, patched, and very dirty pointed Wizard's hat from her seat at the High Table, and was standing at the bottom of the High Table steps.
Beside her was a high wooden stool, on which she placed the pointed Wizard's hat she held in her hand. Then, holding the rolled parchment, she coughed to signal the students to quiet down.
She didn't even need to specifically remind them, as most of the students in the Great Hall were already in a dazed state, stunned by Clarence's appearance.
Of course, a small number of students who hadn't seen Clarence were still talking, but after Professor McGonagall's deliberate cough as a reminder, the Great Hall became completely silent.
Seeing the Great Hall completely quiet, Professor McGonagall nodded in satisfaction, then unrolled the parchment in her hand and began the Sorting for the young Wizards.
Each young Wizard whose name was called would go up and sit on the high stool, then Professor McGonagall would place the dirty, old Sorting Hat on their head, and this magic hat would announce their House.
The famous characters Clarence knew from the plot were basically sorted into their destined Houses.
For example, James Potter, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, and Lily and Mia were sorted into Gryffindor.
What was surprising, or rather, what surprised the students of Slytherin, was that Sirius Black was also sorted into Gryffindor.
One must know that the Black surname, in the Great Britain magic Community, is not only extremely famous but also one of the oldest magic families, and even one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight Pure-blood families. The most important point is that traditionally, most people from this family are sorted into Slytherin.
Before Sirius was sorted into Gryffindor today, although some members of the House of Black had been sorted into the other three Houses besides Gryffindor, Sirius was the only one to be sorted into Gryffindor.
Not to mention, even among Pure-blood families, Black is quite radical in terms of bloodline theory. With strict family traditions and the concept of bloodline supremacy, the family is extremely hostile to any non-Pure-blood Wizards.
Therefore, it is imaginable how surprising it was for Sirius, a member of the House of Black, to be sorted into Gryffindor—of course, this is for those who were aware of the situation.
But for those who were close, such as Lucius Malfoy and his sister Narcissa Black, it was no longer just surprising, but rather terrifying.
Clarence didn't find this matter particularly astonishing or surprising, because based on his background, he shouldn't have known what the House of Black represented at all.
Nor would he understand what it meant for an underage male member of this family to be sorted into Gryffindor, so not knowing and not being surprised was the most normal reaction.
Another point was that he also knew the original plot, knowing that Sirius, Harry Potter's godfather, was sorted into Gryffindor when he attended Hogwarts School, so any surprise he might have felt had already passed.
Because Professor McGonagall had already called his name, Clarence didn't think further. Instead, under the intense gazes of all the students in the school, both male and female, he walked to the high stool, feeling a little unnerved.
After he sat down, Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on his head. Before Clarence could react, a voice sounded in his mind.
‘Uh, child, you actually have a library in your mind?
So, child, how much do you like reading, or perhaps you simply love knowledge?
If that's the case… perhaps I know which House to put you in!’
“Ravenclaw!” the Sorting Hat loudly announced the Sorting result without waiting for Clarence's reply.
Upon hearing this Sorting result, although students at all four long tables applauded, the most enthusiastic applause came from the students at the Ravenclaw table.
Furthermore, the students at this long table were very recognizable; it was a strong female presence!
Such enthusiastic applause let Clarence know the location of the Ravenclaw table.
When Professor McGonagall picked up the Sorting Hat and urged him to quickly go to the Ravenclaw table, Clarence jumped off the high stool, thanked the Professor, and walked towards the House table.
When he reached the House table, before he could even look for an empty seat, he was enthusiastically pulled down by several warm upperclassmen, who grabbed him with all their hands.
While touching him, they also enthusiastically introduced themselves. This posture scared Clarence so much that he couldn't possibly listen carefully to their introductions; he could only barely remember their names.
Perhaps the commotion around Clarence was too great, affecting the subsequent Sorting, so Professor McGonagall deliberately coughed again as a reminder, which indirectly saved Clarence from those soft hands.
The Sorting continued. Next in line after Clarence was Snape, and his Sorting result, naturally, was to be sorted into Slytherin without surprise.
Although Snape was a Half-blood, his mother, Eileen Prince, came from a Pure-blood family in the Great Britain magic Community. Although this family was not one of the Sacred Twenty-Eight families, it was still Pure-blood.
So, if you were to calculate carefully, Snape was merely a Half-blood, not a Wizard of Muggle origin.
Lily Evans was a true young Wizard of Muggle origin.
As for Clarence himself, since he didn't know who the parents of this body were, and couldn't know if either of them was a Wizard, he couldn't distinguish if he was Half-blood, Muggle-born, or even Pure-blood.
However, Clarence didn't care about his bloodline anyway, so whether he was Pure-blood, Half-blood, or Muggle-born didn't matter much to him.
After Snape was sorted, Clarence also applauded enthusiastically. Of course, his enthusiastic applause was purely based on their friendship.
He had applauded just as enthusiastically after Lily and Mia were sorted earlier.
Once all the newly admitted young Wizards had been sorted, Professor McGonagall put away the parchment and returned to her seat at the High Table with the Sorting Hat.
As soon as Professor McGonagall sat down, Dumbledore, as Principal, stood up, said some words of welcome, and also mentioned some prohibited items. Then he cast a spell to have the House-elves in the kitchen directly below the Great Hall transport the prepared dinner dishes to the long tables in the Great Hall.
He then loudly announced the start of the feast, and the students and Professors began to eat and drink.
Although Clarence tried his best to balance meat and vegetables, the food in Great Britain was just like that, so he could only eat whatever was available.
After eating, skipping the unbearable school song segment, the new students of the four Houses followed their respective Prefects back to their House common rooms, where they would be informed of their assigned dormitory locations and roommates.
At least, this was the procedure for Ravenclaw; whether it was the same for the other Houses was unknown.
It was only on the way from the Great Hall to the Ravenclaw common room that Clarence finally relaxed, his heart, which had been racing, settling down. This was because when he entered the Great Hall earlier, he had deliberately ignored most of his thoughts.
He was afraid that Dumbledore and some other unfamiliar Professors might detect something unusual about him.
In fact, he was worried that Dumbledore might use Legilimency to extract some secrets from his memories.
Although a figure like Dumbledore would not likely use such magic on a young Wizard, given his age, his vast life experience and knowledge alone would allow him to discern a lot from a person's expression and behavior, let alone a young Wizard whose thoughts are simpler than an adult's.
So even if Dumbledore could potentially use Legilimency on a young Wizard, there would be no need to.
Of course, that's one way to put it, but Clarence's situation was special, so he had to guard against Dumbledore's move.
To prevent such memory-prying methods, he even learned two techniques to improve memory before enrollment: the Mind Palace and the Memory Palace!
Improving memory was just a side effect; the main purpose was that these two techniques might prevent magic that pries into memories.
As for why he didn't learn Occlumency, which specifically resists Legilimency and can even create false memories?
How could such advanced magic involving the brain and memory be accessible to a young Wizard like Clarence, who had just entered the magic Community and had no reliance whatsoever!
So it wasn't that he didn't want to learn Occlumency, but rather that he simply had no opportunity to access such high-level magic knowledge!
However, the possibility of Dumbledore using Legilimency on him, no matter how small, was something Clarence had to guard against, so he could only simplify the Mind Palace and Memory Palace techniques.
He had seen these methods online in his previous life!
Earlier, in the Great Hall, he didn't dare to let his mind wander, fully maintaining these two techniques. Fortunately, after he was sorted, the Ravenclaw Female Prefects were enthusiastic enough to distract him considerably, otherwise he might not have lasted until dinner.
The first-year Wizards followed the Prefect, walking towards the west side of the Castle, and then climbed a spiral staircase until they reached the top, where they were stopped, or rather, blocked from the common room by a large door with an eagle-shaped bronze knocker.
Through the Prefect's introduction, the Wizards learned that if they wanted to enter the common room or even their own dormitories in the future, they would have to answer the question posed by the eagle-shaped bronze knocker on that door.
Otherwise, they would be locked outside, or have to wait for a student to answer the question correctly before they could enter with them.
Besides their Ravenclaw common room door requiring a question to be answered, the common room doors of the other three Houses each had a special entry method.
For example, the Gryffindor and Slytherin common rooms required the correct password to open the door, while how the Hufflepuff common room door worked was still unknown to students of the other three Houses.
Apparently, that was a secret that all Hufflepuff students had to keep, at least openly, students from the other three Houses had never claimed to have entered the Hufflepuff common room.
After the Prefect finished introducing the common room door, he didn't ask the newly admitted Wizards to try it out or anything, because there were still many things to do that night and they couldn't waste time here, otherwise these Wizards would surely be late for class tomorrow.
So the Prefect answered the knocker's question himself, successfully opened the common room door, and led the Wizards inside.
The common room had many tables, chairs, and bookshelves. In a large alcove opposite the door stood a full-body white marble statue of Rowena Ravenclaw, and a door nearby led to the dormitories above.
Additionally, there were some unique decorations and facilities.
For example, a hanging ornament rotated under the chandelier in the common room, giving it a mysterious feel.
There was also an eagle-shaped fireplace made of pure gems, where the burning flame refracted light to form an eagle about to take flight.
Furthermore, there was a private library, though small in area, its collection was no less than that of a small public library.
The Prefect introduced all of these to the Wizards one by one, and even hinted that a small portion of the books in this private library were contributed by Ravenclaw students over the years, and there were also many notes from their seniors...
The meaning was quite clear: it was to encourage the first-year Wizards, if they had the ability, to contribute some books or their own notes to this private library.
Students who could enter Ravenclaw, even if they were only first-years, might be said to have low emotional intelligence, but certainly not low intelligence. So the Wizards understood the Prefect's hint, but no one spoke up.
Afterward, the Prefect took out a list and informed the Wizards about their dormitory assignments.
For some unknown reason, the Prefect put Clarence's name last, meaning he read out the dormitory assignments for the other Wizards and let them go back to pack their luggage first, leaving only Clarence in the common room.
Only after the other Wizards had left did the Prefect tell Clarence the reason why his name hadn't been called.
It turned out that the number of first-year students in Ravenclaw this year was exactly one person over. Initially, the Prefect and the Female Prefect had discussed having the extra Wizard move into an upper-year dormitory with an empty bed.
However, upon seeing Clarence, especially his androgynous appearance and unique temperament, both the male and Female Prefects knew that their original idea had to be abandoned.
They had originally thought that to have more dormitories for next year's new students, they would have one extra new student this year live with the upper-year students.
But Clarence's appearance would cause a lot of trouble whether he lived in the boys' dormitory or the girls' dormitory. Moreover, the male and Female Prefects worried that having Clarence live in the boys' dormitory might cause even greater chaos.
But they couldn't just make him live in the girls' dormitory for that reason, no matter how pretty he looked, he was still a little boy!
So the two of them simply defaulted Clarence to be that extra student, but having him live in an upper-year student's dormitory wouldn't work either.
Upper-year students also meant they were more mature. If something really happened, not only Ravenclaw, but probably the entire Hogwarts School would be shamed!
So, they discussed simply letting Clarence live alone, but directly opening a new dormitory for that reason felt a bit inappropriate.
Besides, when new students arrived next year, wouldn't they still be assigned to Clarence's dormitory?
Therefore, the male and Female Prefects had to find a way to get him a dormitory where he could live alone. Later, during dinner, they discussed tidying up the topmost floor of the common room dormitory, which they had previously used as a storage room, and giving that small attic to Clarence alone.
This led the Female Prefect to hurriedly finish dinner and quietly leave the Great Hall, returning to the common room to summon the Hogwarts House-elves, and begin tidying up the attic on the top floor.
Since the male and Female Prefects had already made their decision and even tidied up the topmost attic, why didn't they just tell Clarence directly, instead of keeping him behind and only telling him at the end?
Mainly, the male Prefect wanted to ask Clarence what he thought; they couldn't just make a choice for him because of his appearance. Perhaps he wanted to live in a dormitory with peers?
After all, children like to play with their peers!
Secondly, it was to prevent this matter from causing resentment among the new students, which could lead to other undesirable thoughts. After all, it was a single occupancy dormitory, and if it were announced in front of all the new students, the impact would truly not be good.
Therefore, Clarence was kept until the end, and then allowed to make his own choice.
Faced with such a choice, Clarence naturally hoped to live alone. After all, although the experience points for upgrading skills in his Simplification System were obtained through simple behaviors or actions, they would seem quite strange to uninformed people.
Previously, he had been wondering how to explain his strange behavior, but now he didn't have to worry; the two enthusiastic male and Female Prefects had proactively solved this problem for him.
The male Prefect didn't say much about Clarence choosing to live alone; he simply personally led him to the small attic on the top floor.
Coincidentally, as the two of them came up, the Female Prefect was also coming out of the attic, and they ran into each other.
Clarence was not an ungrateful person for the care shown by the male and Female Prefects, so he naturally thanked them profusely.
Just as he was about to enter the attic, the male Prefect called out to him again and asked if he had mastered the counter-spell for Alohomora or the Imprisonment Charm.
Upon hearing the male Prefect's question, Clarence hadn't even reacted yet when the Female Prefect gently slapped him: "He hasn't even had a class yet, how could he know the Imprisonment Charm!"
The male Prefect realized his mistake after the Female Prefect's comment. Clarence had just enrolled and hadn't even had a single class yet. Let alone a counter-Alohomora or an Imprisonment Charm, he probably didn't know any spells at all.
Even for them, the most studious Ravenclaw students, it was the same before enrollment.
Just as he was scratching his head, thinking of other solutions, Clarence drew out his wand and demonstrated the Imprisonment Charm to the two Prefects.
Although he couldn't understand why the Prefect would ask if he had mastered these two spells, seeing the troubled look on his face, he just went ahead and showed it.
Seeing that Clarence actually knew the Imprisonment Charm and had mastered it quite proficiently, both the male and Female Prefects' eyes widened in surprise, especially the Female Prefect, who couldn't help but immediately start touching him up and down.
After his surprise, the male Prefect's face broke into a smile, and he explained why he had asked if Clarence knew those two spells.
It turned out that since this top-floor attic had previously been used as a storage room, it was naturally connected to both the boys' and girls' dormitories, meaning both dormitories shared this storage room.
But now that it was being used as Clarence's dormitory, it would be very easy for male and female students to intrude.
The girls' dormitory side wasn't a concern; it had magic preventing boys from entering, so Clarence couldn't get through. But this wouldn't stop girls from actively going up to the attic!
Not to mention the boys' side. So the male Prefect asked Clarence if he knew these two spells to have him cast a spell on his dormitory door, to prevent anyone from intruding when he was asleep or not inside.
It wasn't that the two Prefects were overthinking; it was Clarence's appearance that made them have to consider so much.
It would be fine if nothing happened, but once a situation arose, it would be a huge problem, and there would likely be no opportunity or leeway for any private, separate resolution!
