176: Chapter 174 Satisfied Wino

After finishing his speech, Dumbledore handed the Sorting Hat to Ms. Rowling, who had stood up, and sat back in his chair.

Ms. Rowling placed the camera in her hand on the wooden shelf behind her, picked up the register from the table, and, amidst the cheers of the crowd, walked with elegant steps to the side of the peeling wooden chair.

Despite her long pleas earlier, Dumbledore was still unwilling to let her see the Sorting Hat in advance.

Now that she finally had it in her hands, Ms. Rowling really wanted to take a close look at this magical talking hat from her own novels.

However, with her good upbringing, she did not act inappropriately despite the grand occasion before her.

It's okay, I'll have plenty of time once the Sorting Ceremony is over.

Restraining her gaze from drifting toward the hat, an elegant smile graced her face as her thumb flicked open the cover of the register: "Now, let me see who is the first..."

Hearing these words, the four adults standing by the stage swallowed in unison.

Their current moods were very complex.

They both hoped to be first and wanted others to go before them.

After seeing the process once and knowing what to expect, they believed the tension throughout their bodies would ease significantly.

Unfortunately, the sorting order was not theirs to decide.

"Misha!" Ms. Rowling looked up and, fully immersed in the ceremony, called out the first name in a high-pitched voice.

The seated teachers and Dumbledore clapped with more restraint.

"Oh!" The students didn't care about that; they were all jumping and hopping, clapping their hands until they were red.

Influenced by the fervent atmosphere, looking at the innocent Misha, their nerves couldn't help but tighten a bit.

"Come up quickly, lovely little lady." Ms. Rowling smiled encouragingly, waving the Sorting Hat she held in her hand.

"Don't be afraid." Toby gave Misha a gentle nudge on the back.

Clenching her small fists, Misha took small steps onto the stage and, at Ms. Rowling's signal, turned and sat on the peeling wooden chair.

Ms. Rowling raised the Sorting Hat, moving it from left to right to display it to the crowd below.

Then, she lowered it toward Misha's head, whose hands were gripping the flesh of her thighs.

This scene made the students excited.

"Choose Gryffindor!"

"Hufflepuff is the best choice!"

"He should be a Ravenclaw student!"

"She will definitely choose Slytherin!"

Misha hadn't read the harry potter novels or seen the movies, so she clearly didn't understand the significance of the four houses.

She could only wait quietly for the Sorting Hat covering her head to make a decision.

Due to her line of sight, she couldn't see the changes in the hat, but the four people opposite her saw them clearly.

Under their curious gazes, the Sorting Hat's originally smooth conical top suddenly wrinkled.

They weren't haphazard folds.

Those rising and falling creases actually formed the silhouette of a human face.

Although there were no clear features, the four of them could roughly see a mouth and two eyeless sockets.

"I... Ms. Rowling." Leon glanced at the camera placed behind Dumbledore and asked with trembling lips, "Can I... record this?"

"No problem." Ms. Rowling, who was maintaining a dignified host's posture but was actually secretly staring at the hat, snapped back to reality and said with a smile.

"Great!" Leon quickly set his suitcase flat, pulled out the handheld camera inside, and aimed the lens at the stone platform.

On the screen, the mouth-like crease of the Sorting Hat began to open and close.

"Good, good..."

"Possessing wisdom, erudition... Ravenclaw!"

"Oh!!!"

The students at the far-right long table immediately raised their hands above their heads, jumping and clapping.

"Come here! Over here!" A student who seemed to be a Ravenclaw prefect waved happily.

Ms. Rowling lifted the hat, and only then did Misha dare to stand up, jogging all the way to Toby's side: "Uncle Toby, I..."

"It's okay, everyone is very friendly."

"Yes, and we might even be sorted into the same house!" Leon said.

With the comfort from the two and the friendly smiles of the Gryffindor students, Misha's heart, which had been in her throat, relaxed quite a bit.

Dragging her small suitcase, she took a seat at the long table amidst the warm welcome of the upperclassmen.

"Next." Ms. Rowling's voice drew everyone's attention, "Suya Klaisi!"

"Good luck!" Leon high-fived him.

"Hey man, I'm a real man!"

Klaisi pumped his fist and turned to go onto the stage, looking very confident.

As it turned out, because his calves were trembling as he went up, he was tripped by the steps and almost kissed the ground with his face.

Steadying himself, he scratched his head with an awkward smile and sat on the peeling wooden chair; Ms. Rowling placed the Sorting Hat on his head at the right moment.

"Let's see, let me see..." The Sorting Hat muttered for a while, then suddenly raised its voice, "Slytherin!"

"Oh!"

As the words fell, cheers immediately erupted from the long table on the far left.

"Slytherin? Why..." Leon frowned.

Glimpsing his poor complexion, Toby, who was clapping, asked in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

"This house in the original work... never mind, that's just a novel."

Toby, who hadn't read the novel, was about to press further but was interrupted by the returning Klaisi.

"Exactly the house I like!" He smiled brightly, completely oblivious to Leon's concern.

Watching his extremely excited performance, Leon was a bit dazed.

He realized with a start that he seemed to have never truly understood what the heart of this friend of over twenty years was really like.

As Klaisi took his seat with his suitcase, Leon had no choice but to suppress the inexplicable sense of weirdness in his heart.

"Now, the next one is... Agustin Wino!" As her imaginary story plot came true and she personally participated in it, the excitement in Ms. Rowling's voice grew higher and higher.

Compared to the previous two, Wino's steps were much steadier.

He went onto the stage without incident and sat on the wooden chair.

The Sorting Hat Ms. Rowling held high slowly descended toward his head, but as soon as the hat touched Wino's hair, its voice already rang through the hall: "Slytherin!"

Toby looked quite bewildered at such a swift and decisive judgment.

Leon, holding the camera, didn't feel surprised at all.

In his few days of contact with Wino, he felt that if someone said this guy and Malfoy from the novel were fathered by the same man, no one would question it.

And the Sorting Hat, which could peer into people's hearts, could easily recognize him and naturally sorted him into Slytherin.

Even like Malfoy in the original work, the decision was made before the hat was even fully on.

Wino walked off the stage, pulled his suitcase, and sat in the seat next to Klaisi amidst the cheers.

As he chatted with the upperclassmen, a satisfied smile was on his face.

He believed that in Slytherin, where the house spirit was to use any means to achieve one's goals, he would surely find qualified companions.

"Next is—Leon!"

With the demonstrations of the previous three, his hands and feet didn't shake too much.

Handing the camera to Toby and asking him to make sure to film him looking handsome, Leon steadily sat on the wooden chair.

"Brave, full of vitality, without a doubt—Gryffindor!"

Very satisfied with his house, he came down showing his big white teeth, took the camera from Toby, and quickly went to sit in the second row of long tables on the right.

"The last one is... Olive Toby!"

Taking a deep breath, Toby went up and sat his bottom on the wooden chair.

Compared to the previous four who had immediate decisions once the hat was on, the Sorting Hat didn't make a sound for quite a while this time.

Toby was puzzled, but since he couldn't see the top of the hat, he didn't know what was happening.

Standing beside him, Ms. Rowling's eyes widened in surprise.

The Sorting Hat actually showed a pensive expression, as if it were hesitating over something.